The messages were ‘very touching, in a way that I think many of us didn’t expect,’ Gutman told viewers
ABC News chief national correspondent Matt Gutman said he “deeply regrets” gushing over what he interpreted as “touching” and “intimate” confession messages Tyler Robinson sent to his transgender lover immediately after he assassinated Charlie Kirk.
Prosecutors released the text messages as they unveiled six felony charges on Tuesday against Robinson for murdering Kirk over his “political expression.” In them, the alleged assassin, whose parents described his politics as left-leaning to investigators, said he murdered Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.” But to Gutman, speaking on ABC News just moments after prosecutors released the messages, the texts painted a tragic picture of a star-crossed lover who did what he felt necessary to protect his “love” from Kirk’s conservative rhetoric.
The messages were “very touching, in a way, that I think many of us didn’t expect,” Gutman said. “A very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect’s roommate and the suspect himself, with him repeatedly calling his roommate, who is transitioning, calling him ‘my love,’ and, ‘I want to protect you, my love.'”
“The terminology he used, he was trying to protect him,” Gutman said in a follow-up segment 10 minutes later. “He kept calling him ‘my love.’ ‘My reason for doing this is to protect you.'”
Nowhere in the messages did Robinson use the word “protect” or say anything that implied that he murdered Kirk in order to protect his transgender lover as Gutman claimed several times on air Tuesday.
DISGUSTING: ABC’s Matt Gutman says he’s not sure “if we have seen an alleged murder with such specific text messages” that were “very touching, in a way, that I think many of us didn’t expect — a very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect’s roommate and the… pic.twitter.com/ulPcxoOwM3
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 16, 2025
Robinson did say he was worried about his partner in the context of turning himself into police. The alleged assassin directed his lover to delete their text exchange and ordered him not to talk to the media or the police, conduct that earned Robinson a felony count of witness tampering.
“Yesterday I tried to underscore the jarring contrast between this cold blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk—a man who dedicated his life to public dialogue—and the personal, disturbing texts read aloud by the Utah County Attorney at the press conference,” Gutman said Wednesday after his comments elicited fierce blowback. “I deeply regret that my words did not make that clear.”
Gutman’s apology made no mention of the quotes he misattributed to Robinson on Tuesday.
Gutman wasn’t the only member of the media that tried to cast Robinson in a positive light and separate him from the left after prosecutors released his messages with his transgender lover.
Talk show host Montel Williams said on CNN that Robinson was a “love-torn child” in the throes of “his first real relationship and someone who was disparaging the person he loved.”
“I don’t believe he was motivated politically,” Williams said. “I think this was motivated emotionally. I think this was an emotionally stunted person who literally, when I say it this way, just hear me, tried to defend his significant other, not trying to defend some ideology.”
MSNBC reporter Ken Dilanian said the charging documents filed against Robinson on Tuesday show he was “alienated from his family, especially his father, who he describes as a MAGA supporter.”
Nowhere in the charging documents do prosecutors allege that Robinson was “alienated from his family” as Dilanian reported. Instead, they show Robinson had an active relationship with his family despite their political disagreements.
“In one conversation before the shooting, Robinson mentioned that Charlie Kirk would be holding an event at UVU, which Robinson said was a ‘stupid venue’ for the event,” the charging document states. “Robinson accused Kirk of spreading hate.”
Prosecutors praised Robinson’s Republican family on Tuesday for the role they played in turning their son in. The state of Utah will seek the death penalty against Robinson.
ABC News didn’t return a request for comment on whether Gutman, who has been suspended twice before, will face any repercussions.
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