(WHTM) -- Many people are shocked by the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, but a Pennsylvania-based author and journalist said they shouldn't be.

Salena Zito was just feet away from Donald Trump when he was shot last July and has written a book about it.

"I've known that young man since he was 18 years old," Zito said about Kirk. "I just happened to be watching Charlie lives when that happened, that just gutted me. It was absolutely awful. That brought me to tears."

Zito doesn't cry easily. She was a political reporter for decades, so she's seen a lot.

"I'm old enough to remember JFK," Zito said. "His brother, Bobby, Martin Luther King, but also Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. And I often wonder, was politics really at the heart of it, or is it a mental illness? I jus

See Full Page