Jay Leno Calls Assassination of Charlie Kirk ‘The Death of Free Speech’

Former Tonight Show host and late-night television royalty, Jay Leno, has called the assassination of Charlie Kirk “the death of free speech.”

Leno made the comments during an interview with The Tim Conway Jr. Show on KFI 640 in Los Angeles last week.

“It’s not a random shooting. I mean, it’s the death of free speech,” Leno asserted.

Leno continued, “to think that you are so illiterate and so stupid you can’t answer verbally, and you have to shoot somebody with a gun to win the argument.”

Jay Leno on with Tim Conway Jr. Show on @KFIAM640 says the assassination of Charlie Kirk “it’s the death of free speech”. pic.twitter.com/7hCmVm1ygt

— Tim Conway Jr Show (@ConwayShow) September 11, 2025

The television icon lamented that the days of lively debates are now gone.

“But this is a political assassination of a man I didn’t necessarily agree with, but I certainly enjoyed listening to because, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’ I don’t have to agree on everything,” Leno said.

He continued, “We’re in a point in this country where if you don’t agree with everybody and everything, you take out a gun and you shoot them, and especially on a college campus?”

“I enjoy listening to the other side because that’s how I get smarter,” Leno said.

Leno appreciated that Kirk was smarter than him and wasn’t someone who “berated” those he disagreed with.

“It’s very unsettling. This one really struck me. Every time someone’s assassinated, but it’s really the death of free speech,” Leno said.

Kirk was shot while debating liberal college students at an event in Utah on Wednesday.

Tyler Robinson, 22, has been arrested and charged with capital murder.

If convicted, he will be eligible for the death penalty.