CNN’s Abby Phillip reminded her conservative guests Tuesday that “the internet is not real life” after they claimed that “the left” in general was celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death online.After the conservative podcaster was fatally shot in Utah last week, multiple right-wing figures, including President Donald Trump, have blamed “the left” for the killing. Authorities have not revealed a clear motive for 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson, though prosecutors released text messages in which Robinson allegedly said he had “enough” of Kirk’s “hatred.” Robinson’s mother told investigators that her son had turned politically left in the last year, a stark difference from his father’s MAGA views.On Tuesday’s episode of CNN NewsNight, The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman claimed that Kirk’s killing was “representative of a large part of the left.”Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University.JOSH EDELSON via Getty ImagesShe argued, “Look at the reaction we have seen from the left, they are cheering, they are celebrating his death. You have outlets saying Charlie Kirk shouldn’t have died, but he said some pretty hateful things, as if they’re on some moral high ground to say that.” Phillip pressed Lyman on whether she had seen any mainstream Democrats celebrating Kirk’s death. Lyman replied she “saw it on Twitter,” referencing a Democratic state senator whose name she couldn’t remember.She was possibly thinking of California State Sen. Scott Wiener, who received backlash for calling Kirk “a vile bigot,” but also stated that he “did not deserve to die.”Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die.Also Charlie Kirk was a vile bigot who did immeasurable harm to so many people by normalizing dehumanization.Yes, having debates on college campuses is a good thing. But dehumanizing people — & persuading others to do so — is horrific.— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) September 15, 2025“It does not need to be a mainstream top-dog Democrat, the majority of the comments online from the left have been celebratory or cheering on political murder,” Lyman argued, before going on to say, “a million likes on a tweet is a lot of people.”“There’s like 7 billion people on social media today,” guest Neera Tanden, president of Democratic think tank the Center for American Progress, responded amid cross-talk. “About half the people on social media are not even real people,” Phillip said.She added, “The internet is not real life.” Conservative commentator Scott Jennings asked the panel if they acknowledged “that there have been thousands upon thousands of people, ordinary people who have taken to social media to celebrate” Kirk’s death. Phillip expressed skepticism at that number, then added, “I do think that we have to distinguish between random people in the world and something that is a dominant issue.”She suggested that there have always been some individuals who cheer on violence, but they’re getting too much attention in the internet era.“Do you believe that in those political assassinations in the ’60s and the ‘70s, in the ’80s, assassination attempts, that there were no Americans who cheered that on?” she asked.“The question is whether or not we need to place that at the very center of our political world right now and categorize half the people in the country according to those random people that we now just happen to see because of the internet.”