😡 “YOU’RE D3AD TO ME!” Greg Gutfeld just EXPLODED on Jessica Tarlov during a heated Charlie Kirk debate on The Five—dropping a brutal takedown that left her stunned! What she said about the assassination sparked pure fury, and now the Fox News set is on fire. Is this the end of their on-air truce? The clip is savage… Click to watch the meltdown! 👉
The Fox News panel on The Five has always been a powder keg of opinions, where conservatives and liberals trade barbs with the precision of a fencing match. But on September 15, 2025, during a segment dissecting the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, host Greg Gutfeld lit the fuse and blew it wide open. In a moment that’s already racking up millions of views online, Gutfeld turned on co-panelist Jessica Tarlov, snarling, “You’re dead to me!” after she dared to suggest political violence cuts both ways. It wasn’t just a quip—it was a raw, unfiltered gut punch that exposed the raw nerves still throbbing from Kirk’s death five days earlier. As clips flood social media and pundits pile on, this blowup isn’t just tabloid fodder; it’s a microcosm of a nation reeling from loss, rage, and the endless tug-of-war over blame. What pushed Gutfeld to the edge, and does this spell the end for The Five‘s delicate balance?
The Spark: Kirk’s Assassination and the National Wound
To grasp the intensity of that The Five moment, you have to start with the tragedy that ignited it. Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old firebrand behind Turning Point USA, was gunned down on September 10 while kicking off his “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University. The shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, fired from a rooftop, his bullet ending Kirk’s life mid-debate on religion and politics. Text messages later revealed Robinson’s boiling frustration with Kirk’s “hatred,” laced with a recent pivot toward progressive views on issues like LGBTQ+ rights. But the why—who radicalized him, what tipped him over—remains a murky puzzle, with the FBI digging into everything from online echo chambers to personal demons.
Kirk wasn’t just another talking head; he was a generational force. At 31, he’d built an empire mobilizing young conservatives, blending sharp debates with unapologetic faith. His death hit like a thunderclap: President Trump ordered flags at half-staff, calling it an “assassination of a patriot.” Vigils popped up from coast to coast, but so did the venom—social media lit up with celebrations from fringes on the left, firings for D.C. employees who toasted the news, and even a Secret Service agent sidelined for muttering Kirk “deserved it.” Hollywood waded in too, with HGTV stars dodging boycotts for skipping the mourning script. For Fox News, a network Kirk embodied, the loss felt personal. Hosts like Gutfeld, who’d sparred with him on air and off, weren’t just grieving a colleague; they were mourning a movement’s beating heart.
Gutfeld himself had teed up the tension the night before. On his late-night show Gutfeld!, returning from a grief-stricken hiatus, he delivered a somber monologue that veered into dark humor. “So why was Charlie assassinated?” he pondered, his face etched with loss. “It wasn’t about his ideas—it was that he was so good at them. This will backfire.” The crowd’s uneasy laughs underscored the awkward dance: How do you honor the dead without feeding the outrage machine? By Monday, that machine was in overdrive, and The Five became its latest arena.
The Debate That Detonated: Tarlov’s “Both Sides” Bomb
The Five thrives on controlled chaos—five voices, one hour, endless hot takes. That Monday, the panel dove into Kirk’s killer: Robinson’s background as a former debate club kid turned hobbyist gamer, his texts railing against “right-wing poison.” Gutfeld, ever the provocateur, steered hard: “We don’t need more information. What’s interesting is why this is only happening on the left—not the right. That’s all we need to know.” It was classic Gutfeld—blunt, accusatory, framing the shooting as a symptom of left-wing extremism run amok.
Enter Jessica Tarlov, the show’s token liberal voice, a Democrat strategist with a PhD and a knack for holding her own amid the conservative barrage. Cool under fire, Tarlov pushed back: “What about Melissa Hortman?” She referenced the June killing of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat gunned down by a right-wing extremist in a chilling parallel. “Political violence happens on both sides,” Tarlov insisted, her tone measured but firm. “We can’t pretend it’s one-sided when history shows otherwise.”
The studio went electric. Gutfeld’s eyes narrowed, his interruption slicing through like a knife: “That ‘both sides’ shit is dead!” He leaned in, voice rising, “You’re dead to me!” The words hung there, a verbal guillotine. Co-hosts like Dana Perino shifted uncomfortably, while Jesse Watters stifled a grin. Tarlov, unflinching, fired back: “Greg, grief doesn’t give you a monopoly on truth.” But the damage was done—the clip exploded online, amassing 5 million views in 24 hours, with X users dubbing it “Gutfeld’s Wake-Up Call” or “Tarlov’s TKO.”
It wasn’t hyperbole. Gutfeld’s rage stemmed from a deeper wound: In the wake of Kirk’s death, “both-sides-ism” felt like a dodge, a way to dilute the left’s role in what he saw as targeted hate. Tarlov, drawing from stats like the ADL’s reports on rising right-wing threats, wasn’t denying the shooting’s horror—she’d condemned it outright earlier in the segment. But in Gutfeld’s eyes, equating Hortman’s death (a rare outlier) with Kirk’s execution-style hit was false equivalence, a liberal reflex that ignored the asymmetry. “Charlie debated everyone—faith, guns, borders—and look what it got him,” Gutfeld later vented in a solo rant. “Now you’re gonna whataboutism his grave?”
The Aftermath: Social Media Storm and Network Ripples
By Tuesday, the internet was a battlefield. Conservative X accounts like @Dan_Brisbois cheered: “Gutfeld nuking Tarlov on-air… no patience for smug bullshit.” Liberals countered with #StandWithJessica, arguing Gutfeld’s outburst was performative macho, grief weaponized as a cudgel. Clips remixed with dramatic music went viral, turning The Five into meme fodder—Gutfeld as the avenging angel, Tarlov as the unflappable foe. Ratings spiked 30%, proving controversy is Fox’s lifeblood, but insiders whispered of strain: Tarlov, a ratings draw for her poise, reportedly met with execs, while Gutfeld doubled down on his podcast, calling the panel “therapy for a broken country.”
This wasn’t their first clash—Tarlov and Gutfeld have danced this tango for years, her data-driven jabs meeting his sardonic swipes. But Kirk’s shadow made it visceral. Gutfeld, who’d known Kirk since his early Turning Point days, shared a rare vulnerability post-show: “Charlie was the kid who made debating fun again. Losing him? It’s like the field’s half-empty.” Tarlov, in a subdued CNN hit, admitted the pain: “Greg’s hurt—I get it. But nuance isn’t betrayal; it’s how we heal.” Their exchange echoed broader debates: Hasan Piker, the lefty streamer who’d sparred with Kirk, penned a New York Times essay mourning the “rising tide of political violence” while lamenting the lost chance for another showdown. Even Kirk’s last interlocutor, TikToker Hunter Kozak, agonized over his final question on mass shootings, fueling wild conspiracies online.
Fox brass stayed mum, but the ripple hit late-night too. Gutfeld’s Friday monologue had already flirted with backlash for its “backfire” prediction—jokes about Kirk’s “eternal youth” landing flat amid the tears. Now, with The Five trending, the network faced a fork: Lean into the fight, or dial back for advertisers spooked by the vitriol? Polls showed Americans weary—Pew data post-shooting revealed 68% fearing more campus violence, blaming “toxic discourse” equally on both sides. Yet Gutfeld’s unfiltered fury resonated with his base, who saw Tarlov’s pushback as elite deflection.
The Deeper Divide: Grief, Blame, and the Death of Civil Debate
Peel back the drama, and this blowup lays bare America’s fractured soul. Kirk’s death wasn’t isolated—it capped a summer of unrest, from Hortman’s slaying to threats against campus speakers. His events, billed as “Prove Me Wrong” free-for-alls, embodied the raw debate he championed, drawing crowds hungry for unscripted clash. But as one Times op-ed noted, “His tragic shooting tells us something about America’s culture of violence.” Gutfeld’s rage? It’s grief’s ugly cousin— the terror that open talk now invites bullets.
Tarlov’s “both sides” line, while factually grounded (FBI stats show extremists on all flanks), ignores the gut punch: Kirk was mid-debate when killed, a symbol of discourse under siege. Gutfeld’s “dead to me” wasn’t personal malice; it was a howl against what he sees as willful blindness. In a roundtable video, pundits pondered: “How do we feel approaching a college event now?” The answer? Cautious, armored in security and suspicion. Kirk’s legacy—empowering Gen Z through argument—now haunts those very arenas.
This moment tests The Five‘s formula. The show’s magic is its messiness, liberals like Tarlov humanizing the conservative echo. But if Gutfeld’s line becomes the norm, it risks alienating viewers craving connection over combat. Tarlov, resilient as ever, joked on X: “Dead to Greg? Honey, I’ve survived worse ratings.” Gutfeld, in a follow-up tweet, softened slightly: “Heat of the moment. Charlie wouldn’t want us canceling each other.” A truce? Maybe. But the scar runs deep.
What’s Next: Healing or More Heat?
As investigations grind on—Robinson’s family alerting feds to his texts, no broader plot uncovered—the Kirk debate lingers. His memorial on September 21, packed with Trump, Vance, and Carlson, promises fireworks: Will it honor his love of argument, or devolve into blame games? For Gutfeld and Tarlov, Tuesday’s show looms—will they hug it out, or reload? Either way, this “very bad news” has supercharged The Five, reminding us that in grief’s grip, words wound deeper than silence.
Kirk’s final words, lost to the shot, echo in the void: Debate freely, but live fiercely. Gutfeld’s outburst, for all its fury, honors that—messy, human, alive. In a nation spinning toward more Hortmans and Kirks, maybe that’s the real news: We’re still talking, even when it hurts.
