The man on trial for the assassination of 31-year-old conservative commentator Charlie Kirk allegedly talked about the fatal shooting and Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, while appearing in court this week. Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old alleged assassin, said to someone on his defense team that he thinks about the shooting “every morning” and noted Kirk was married while appearing to smile, a deaf woman and professional lip reader named Nicola Hickling claims, the New York Post reported. “I think about the shooting daily,” Robinson allegedly said. “Every morning … all the time…” “So, he had a wife,” a smiling Robinson allegedly said. NEW: Alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson said he thinks about the shooting “every day,” according to a lip-reading analysis reported on by the New York Post. The lip-reading analysis was done by deaf professional lip reader Nicola Hickling, according to the outlet. “I… pic.twitter.com/wfNsH9Y1oV — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 13, 2025 The suspect also allegedly said that he’s “smoking a lot” and “not sleeping at night.” “It’s driving me mental,” he said, according to Hickling. “Unfortunately, it’s doing my head in. I’m not good for anything.” Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Robinson was arrested in September and is facing a slew of charges related to Kirk’s murder, including aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, and obstruction of justice. Robinson has not yet entered a plea. Some on social media commented generally on Robinson’s body language and frequent smiling and smirking in court. Conservative Jack Posobiec, a close friend of Kirk’s, posted on X: “Tyler Robinson’s lawyers are begging to get the cameras out because they can’t stop their sick client from smirking and grinning in the courtroom.” Tyler Robinson’s lawyers are begging to get the cameras out because they can’t stop their sick client from smirking and grinning in the courtroom — Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) December 12, 2025 As highlighted by The Daily Wire, the Utah judge in the case, Tony Graf, Jr., ruled on Thursday that cameras will be allowed in the courtroom during the trial, though they will be located away from the table of Robinson and his legal team. Related: Why I Don’t Buy The Charlie Kirk Conspiracy Theories

In the waning days of the Obama administration, the most fun thing you could do on the website then called Twitter was debate whether something was actually something else. Is a hot dog a sandwich? Is “Die Hard” a Christmas movie? It was a blast, for a time. Then people got too into it (“PopTarts are ravioli”) and ruined the fun for the rest of us, right around the time that Trump took office, and Twitter got lame. Still, a version of this game has persisted on the right, because conservatives love nothing more than declaring clearly non-conservative things secretly conservative. I’ll admit, there was a time when I loved this game. It got me a few good tweets and at least one passable op-ed. But like the sandwich debate, it got out of hand. I don’t want to read 5,000 words on how “Eyes Wide Shut” is actually about Christianity and tax cuts. You’re embarrassing yourself. But like a reformed thief who can’t help but case every room he walks into, I can’t completely quiet the contrarian movie revisionism that lives inside me. Is “Anchorman” a commentary on Watergate? Is “Jerry Maguire” a modern retelling of King Midas? Probably not! But who cares? I’m free to think whatever I want, and the worst thing that happens is I bore my wife to death. Except today. Because today, dear reader, I’m going to bore you to death. The goal: see if we can make the case for why every Christmas movie is conservative. The criteria for film selection and judgement: vibes, and a healthy dash of the Christmas spirit. Let’s dive in.   White Christmas Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, and Danny Kaye (Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images) By far the easiest one on the list. As I wrote last year, “White Christmas” is a movie about America adjusting from World War II to the postwar boom. More broadly, the movie teaches us that it’s “okay to be okay, to be successful and happy, even — especially! — shortly after a period of national tumult.” Defeating the Nazis, getting rich, and marrying Rosemary Clooney: they really were the Greatest Generation. Verdict: More conservative than General Patton.   The Santa Clause This may or may not be the movie that launched this ridiculous exercise. In this 90s Disney classic, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), a hardworking toy salesman and loving single father, has his son taken away from him because he lets the lad believe in Santa. The enemy: his ex-wife, Laura, and her new husband, Neal, a smug psychiatrist with an admittedly cool sweater collection. Egged on by Neal, Laura weaponizes the courts and the public school system to take Charlie from Scott, all because he wants his son to believe in Santa. If you wanted, you could read the whole movie as an allegory about parental rights, belief in God, and the dangers of an overreaching state. Or you could just enjoy the killer 90s style and classic Tim Allen performance. Verdict: As conservative as Tim The Tool Man, the best Republican celebrity.   Four Christmases (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images) Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughan) are unmarried, childless partners who spend every Christmas avoiding their families. When their vacation gets cancelled, they have to split their time between all four of their divorced parents. Like “The Santa Clause,” this is a movie about how you shouldn’t get divorced (a lot of Christmas movies are about divorce being bad, by the way — Hollywood therapists must really be rolling in it this time of year). But “Four Christmases” does double duty, because it’s also a movie about how you should get married and have children and not waste your life on frivolities. Kate and Brad insist they’re happy as they are, but as the movie goes on, it becomes incredibly clear that this isn’t true. Also, Robert Duvall uses the phrase “first class ass sniffer” while drinking a Bud Heavy. Need I say more? Verdict: Four Conservatives.   It’s A Wonderful Life (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) I’ll be honest: I don’t like this movie and haven’t seen it in a long time. But it’s definitely the Christmas movie with the most think pieces behind it. Dorks on the Left and Right alike love to opine about how the Frank Capra classic is really about capitalism or industrialism or whatever. But I only remember two things about it: young George wants to have a harem when he grows up, and there’s an angel who confirms the existence of Heaven and, by extension, God. Based. Verdict: it’s conservative, you old building and loan!   Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town An average Joe puts on some muscle mass and grows a righteous beard, bags the town hottie, and defeats a scowling German fascist. It’s basically Captain America. Ironically, this is the only Rankin/Bass claymation classic that makes the conservative cut. “The Little Drummer Boy” is heretical, probably. “Frosty the Snowman” is about voodoo. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a love-yourself monstrosity that’s one glitter bomb short of a Lady Gaga musical, and also promotes Hermie, who wants to be a dentist. Pervert. Verdict: conservative, but suspicious by association.   How The Grinch Stole Christmas ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images An important corrective to the aforementioned red-nosed reindeer. In Dr. Seuss’s classic tale, a community successfully shames an outsider into conformity and accepting the magic of Christmas. (See also: every Hallmark Christmas movie). Also, since the Whos of Whoville only care about Christmas, we have to conclude that the Grinch eventually accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Dahoo Dores? More like Deo Gratias! Verdict: Conservative like a rare slice of Roast Beast.   Love, Actually You may be shocked that this one made the cut, considering it’s very fashionable every year for people to “realize” that “Love, Actually” is kind of a twisted flick, actually. The guy from the “The Walking Dead” stalks his buddy’s wife. Professor Snape cheats on Emma Thompson and then adds insult to injury by giving her the worst Joni Mitchell album ever. The British prime minister sees the American president trying to grope his secretary and responds by… groping his secretary. There are multiple lobsters in the Nativity play. There’s a whole subplot that’s just people filming a porn! It’s all kinds of nasty, and not very Christmasy. But here’s the thing: it’s British people doing all this gross stuff. The movie is actually an expose on how the English are moral degenerates. And the American president is clearly supposed to be Bill Clinton. Honestly, I’m amazed we didn’t produce this movie. Verdict: conservative enough to make Maggie Thatcher crack a smile.

As President Donald Trump mediates discussions between Russia and Ukraine, experts are largely united in assessing the negotiation as a supremely difficult diplomatic balancing act, but opinions differ on just how to handle it. “Consider the magnitude of this negotiation–a major nuclear power is at war with its southern neighbor. It is a war that Russia considers existential. And of course, it is likewise existential to the Ukrainians, who are enduring the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945,” Morgan Murphy, a former Trump White House official who is running for U.S. Senate in Alabama, told The Daily Wire. “Looking at the players and scale involved, it’s fair to say that this is the toughest negotiation for any American president since the Cuban Missile Crisis,” he added. As president, Trump is responsible for first seeing to the interests of the United States. Experts questioned by The Daily Wire agreed that the interests of the United States lie in an end to the war. But experts voiced varying opinions on the priorities that Trump should focus on in the negotiation. The price for Russia’s aggression must be steep, according to Retired Air Force General Bruce Carlson. Likewise, the price for peace cannot unduly limit Ukraine’s ability to protect itself from the potential of future attacks. “Putin is a tyrant who only understands one thing: power. Any peace deal must provide unmatched consequences for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Carlson told The Daily Wire. One of the previous frameworks of a peace deal proposed by the Trump administration included a cap on Ukraine’s military, a clause that sparked backlash from Ukraine and European officials. Carlson is sympathetic to the Ukrainian outrage. “The only acceptable caps on Ukraine’s military size would be those based on Ukraine’s own security analysis,” said Carlson. “Following an acceptable solution to ending this senseless war and Russia’s demonstration that it will adhere to the conditions of a peace agreement, economic sanctions on Russia would be lifted, and relations with America, Ukraine, and our NATO allies reset,” he added. Carrie Filipetti is the executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and an alum of the first Trump administration. She said that Russia must be penalized enough to deter future aggression, or else Europe, Ukraine, and the United States may be thrown back into another conflict soon. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships “The tenets of an ‘America First’ peace deal are clear: As America, we want to end forever wars, and that means future wars, too. The costs have to be high enough for Putin that his calculus is permanently changed to stop threatening U.S. national security interests and the sovereignty of his neighbors,” Filipetti told The Daily Wire. She also said that the penalties need to be severe enough to make China hesitate over starting a conflict over Taiwan. “Another critical issue for any deal is that Russia must no longer be able to threaten Ukrainian churches or Ukrainian children,” added Filipetti. “President Trump has been a huge fighter for hostages around the world, and Ukrainian children are being held hostage right now in Russia. And as First Lady Melania Trump has championed, we must ensure Putin returns the tens of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children who are currently in so-called ‘re-education’ camps across Russia.” Corruption in the Ukrainian government has been one of the chief hindrances to Ukraine’s war effort. Experts said the corruption should not in itself be the determining factor in the United States’ decision to aid Ukraine. “No one wants to see corruption. But war is the greatest evil in the world, and corruption is not to be unanticipated. I’m very impressed with how the Ukrainians are dealing with it,” said Carlson. Murphy pointed out that corruption has been endemic to Ukraine for many years — long before the war began. He referenced a recent article in The New York Times that alleged deep corruption within Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle. “The New York Times should pause to consider why so many scandals in Washington, D.C., over the past decade have some tie to Ukraine — from Burisma paying Hunter Biden $83,000 a month to the Clinton Foundation and uranium sales to Russia to the DNC working with Ukrainian embassy staff to dig dirt on Trump’s campaign manager. It all touches Ukraine,” said Murphy.

President Donald Trump on Friday honored members of the U.S. men’s ice hockey team who beat their Soviet rivals in what was called the “Miracle on Ice” during the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid. Trump hosted the players in the Oval Office and signed a bill to award congressional medals in the team’s honor. All were wearing white cowboy hats, and Trump briefly donned one, too. The team wore the hats during the opening ceremony of the 1980 Winter Olympics. “This was one of the biggest moments that I’ve ever seen in sports … These are the men that gave us one of the most storied athletic wins of all time,” Trump said. The event, with 13 members of the gold medal-winning team, included captain Mike Eruzione, goaltender Jim Craig and forward Buzz Schneider. The son of deceased coach Herb Brooks was also in attendance. One of the team’s members, Ken Morrow, told Trump that the “USA! USA!” chant, now common at Trump rallies, originated in Lake Placid. “That’s right! I tried to take credit for that,” Trump responded. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Captain Eruzione praised his team for not just winning against the Soviets but also in the final game versus Finland. “A lot of us take great pride in knowing that we closed the deal,” he said. The squad of U.S. college players ended the Soviets’ reign as four-time Olympic champions with a 4-3 triumph that many consider the greatest upset in the history of sport. The U.S. beat the Soviet team 4-3 in the semi-finals, winning the gold two days later against Finland. The game captivated Americans during bitter Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The American players were inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Ken Ferris)

A federal judge in California ruled on Friday that Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster must face a class action on behalf of millions of Americans for allegedly overcharging them for events at major concert venues across the country. U.S. District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles ruled that the plaintiffs met the criteria to expand their lawsuit into a class action seeking 15 years of alleged damages tied to the purchase of more than 400 million tickets. Live Nation had urged Wu to deny certifying the lawsuit as a class action. The company and attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The class covers consumers who bought tickets directly from Ticketmaster or a Live Nation affiliate for events at major venues since 2010. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Beverly Hills, California-based Live Nation was accused in the 2022 lawsuit of monopolizing ticketing services, allowing the company to charge artificially high prices in violation of antitrust law. Live Nation and Ticketmaster have denied any wrongdoing. In their opposition to class certification, Live Nation and Ticketmaster told Wu that individualized issues involving tickets sold for 1,000 venues made it impossible to hold a single trial on the plaintiffs’ allegations. Live Nation said the venues, not Ticketmaster, set fees paid by fans, often on a show-by-show basis. The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to hear a bid by Live Nation and Ticketmaster to move the lawsuit out of federal court and into private arbitration. Live Nation faces other antitrust lawsuits over its ticketing practices, including an antitrust action filed in federal court in Manhattan by the U.S. Justice Department and a group of states. The company has denied any wrongdoing in that case. (Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Matthew Lewis)