“New York Times” chief White House correspondent Peter Baker on “Washington Week” voiced his perplexity that elected officials hold “provocateur” Charlie Kirk in such high regard.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG, ‘WASHINGTON WEEK’ HOST, ‘ATLANTIC’ EDITOR: Joining me tonight to discuss the Kirk assassination and its fallout, Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent at The New York Times, Laura Barron-Lopez is a White House correspondent for MSNBC, Susan Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and Tom Nichols is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Thank you all for joining me. Pretty bleak week, like I said. Let’s start at the beginning. Peter, and I want everybody to jump in this, let’s talk a little bit about Charlie Kirk, who he was and what role he played in the broader Republican ecosystem and the broader political ecosystem. PETER BAKER, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes. So, Charlie Kirk was a 31-year-old we call influencer, I guess, these days, provocateur would be another word, he — out there galvanizing young voters, particularly on the right, to support Trump. He actually was not originally a Trump supporter, but became one of his most — JEFFREY GOLDBERG: That’s not unusual. PETER BAKER: That’s not unusual in modern conservative politics. But at age 31, he had become, you know, a pretty significant force in young people’s politics. And he became a friend not only of Trump, but Donald Trump Jr., J.D. Vance, in particular. J.D. Vance was so moved by this event that he ripped up his schedule, flew out to Utah to personally have the casket brought home on Air Force Two to Arizona. So, even though Charlie Kirk held no office, never ran for office, had no position of power or authority in the traditional sense, he had obviously a network of people who he influenced. Now, he said a lot of things that got a lot of people riled up, right? And that was part of his style about race, about gender, about affirmative action and Islam and things like that. But he also enjoyed going to college campuses like the one he was at. Even though he knew an audience there might include people who didn’t agree with him, and he liked to mix it up. And he’s, you know, become in this last few days, I think, a symbol of the of the toxic culture that we’re in right now, politics.

Watch the full episode:
RealClearPolitics Videos