The Charlie Kirk Show - Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington
Aired: 2023-11-21
Duration: 36:17


=== Get Your Amfest Tickets Today (02:39) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody, Brian Kilmead joins us.
[00:00:02]  His new book is really great, and we talk about Trump.
[00:00:05]  We talk about current events, statues being torn down, and how Israel is breaking the back of the Democrat Party.
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[00:02:26]  Buckle up, everybody.
[00:02:27]  Here we go.
[00:02:28]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:02:30]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
[00:02:32]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:02:35]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:02:38]  I want to thank Charlie.

=== Empowering Speakers and Patriotism (11:46) ===

[00:02:39]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:02:40]  His spirit, his love of this country.
[00:02:42]  He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
[00:02:48]  Turning point USA.
[00:02:49]  We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
[00:02:58]  That's why we are here.
[00:03:01]  Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
[00:03:09]  Joining us for the full hour, someone who I've known for quite some time, a great American and a prolific author.
[00:03:14]  And I've said he is the hardest working man in television.
[00:03:16]  I'm telling you, this guy puts in more hours in media than anybody else.
[00:03:20]  He's up at like 2 a.m. and he's great.
[00:03:22]  He's really fun to watch and listen to on radio.
[00:03:24]  Brian Kilmead, author of the new book, Teddy and Booker T, How Two American Icons Blazed a Path for Racial Equality.
[00:03:33]  Brian, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:03:35]  Joy, I appreciate you having me on.
[00:03:36]  It's going to be great.
[00:03:37]  Look at you dressed up.
[00:03:39]  You never used to wear it.
[00:03:40]  No, did you?
[00:03:41]  I just, you know, what happened?
[00:03:42]  I said, I have to look more like Brian Kilmead.
[00:03:44]  And so I...
[00:03:46]  One day I'll get the, you know, I was known for the t-shirt and the casual look and trying to move up in life, Brian.
[00:03:52]  So anyway, so glad you're taking the time.
[00:03:54]  Lots to talk about.
[00:03:55]  I want to just spend, I want to spend a serious amount of time on the book.
[00:03:58]  Tell us about your new book, Brian.
[00:04:00]  Well, I just wanted to talk about American history, and I want to move up in time from the president of freedom fighter Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
[00:04:07]  And I thought, who's next?
[00:04:08]  And I actually found a link.
[00:04:10]  You have six-year-old Teddy Roosevelt looking out of his window on Broadway as the body of Abraham Lincoln comes down Broadway and he's able to see from his grandfather's apartment.
[00:04:21]  And he would idolize Lincoln the rest of his life.
[00:04:23]  And for Frederick Douglass, he was an inspiration to Booker T. Washington at a time in which it wasn't great to be a black man in the South.
[00:04:30]  1877, they made a major compromise.
[00:04:33]  We'll pull the Union troops out of the South if you guys would let Rutherford B. Hayes become president to break this controversial electoral college.
[00:04:43]  I know where I've heard that before, but it was deadlocked in seven separate states.
[00:04:47]  And they just, Hayes had it.
[00:04:49]  We pulled it out.
[00:04:50]  The South went back to their segregationist ways, made it very tough for black men and women to make a living, to thrive.
[00:04:58]  And that's the place we pick up Booker T. Washington's life: born a slave and then fights for freedom.
[00:05:04]  And what he did, Charlie, I just think it is epitomized the American dream.
[00:05:09]  You can accomplish anything.
[00:05:10]  And he would not worry about what people said about him.
[00:05:13]  He would not worry about what people thought about the color of his skin.
[00:05:17]  He was going to achieve.
[00:05:18]  And that's what I wanted to see: how that life coincided with Teddy Roosevelt's life and to see if America could be inspired by this story and how they came together.
[00:05:28]  And it reminds me of your previous book.
[00:05:30]  And I'm sure it's a theme that you're exploring.
[00:05:32]  The previous book is the president of the Freedom Fighter, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
[00:05:36]  This one is not as talked about, though.
[00:05:38]  This one is not as kind of in the American Zeitgeist, which I know that with this book, you're attempting to do.
[00:05:44]  And also total different backgrounds, right?
[00:05:45]  Teddy Roosevelt was born into kind of an upper middle class, you could say elitist life, right?
[00:05:51]  Booker T. Washington was not.
[00:05:52]  Talk about the different biographies and how fate had them meet in the consequential early 1900s, which was the thrust of the Teddy Roosevelt presidency.
[00:06:01]  I mean, the main thing is, people listening right now, they think we're dug into this race, black, white, and Hispanic, and we're not.
[00:06:08]  And if you want to talk about a time in which there was a real difference in the color of people's skin, it was back then.
[00:06:13]  And then people are willing to work their way through it.
[00:06:16]  You have a guy that was born a slave, no shoes until he was nine, slept on the floor his entire youth up until he was got it, hurt his freedom.
[00:06:23]  He remembers going to the house on the plantation and having a union soldier read the Emancipation Proclamation.
[00:06:29]  When I read that in his biography, I said, I got to do something on him.
[00:06:34]  And I was able to do it.
[00:06:35]  And then I said, how do I link it up with somebody else?
[00:06:38]  And Teddy Roosevelt was all in his biography.
[00:06:40]  That's why I thought I'd do it.
[00:06:42]  And then just have a guy that got himself at 10, 11, just thirsted to learn, was stuck in the salt mines, would maneuver his way out to become an upkeep or a housekeeper for this very rich woman who saw nothing but potential in him, taught him to read and write, made his way to Hampton College, $12,400 on foot, got there.
[00:07:04]  They didn't want to let him in because he was such a mess.
[00:07:06]  He had bad clothes.
[00:07:08]  He had no shower, no money.
[00:07:11]  They finally relented when they realized how hard he worked and how he could clean up an office.
[00:07:16]  And he ends up being their best student, a professor, and then recommended to run a new college at the age of 24.
[00:07:23]  So if people think odds are stacked against him, look at this guy.
[00:07:27]  And for Teddy Roosevelt, it was like, yeah, seven generations of wealth.
[00:07:31]  How could you put these two together?
[00:07:33]  Yeah, but when one guy had, he had a horrible intestinal disease as a kid, he had asthma, his parents thought for sure he was going to die, had no formal school he had to do.
[00:07:42]  He taught at home.
[00:07:44]  For his formal school was Harvard.
[00:07:47]  And he went there where he began to excel, socialize, and overcompensated, so to speak, for all the physical ills he had.
[00:07:55]  So I thought, again, if people want to relate to a story, just because you have wealth, it doesn't mean you have, you're born on third base.
[00:08:04]  The parallels are striking.
[00:08:06]  And so the main part of the book you're focusing on is racial equality.
[00:08:09]  Teddy Roosevelt doesn't get remembered for that or the pursuit of that.
[00:08:15]  And one of the foils, I'm not sure if you get into this in the book, is obviously W.E.B. Du Bois, who had a different philosophical approach than Booker T. Washington.
[00:08:29]  But talk about, as far as here, you say, you know, in the kind of book teaser, both men abhorred the decadence and moral rot the nation and fall into, believed that improvement through careful collaboration was possible, and trust that the American ideals of individual liberty and hard work could propel the neediest towards success if only holding them back would step aside.
[00:08:48]  Talk more about in the Teddy Roosevelt presidency, what he did to try and create a more perfect union.
[00:08:56]  What he tried to do is say, and you might have heard this before, Booker T. Washington was going to be advisor.
[00:09:02]  He's like, I don't really know much about the South.
[00:09:04]  I need to know the best judges, the best postmasters, the best dockmaster.
[00:09:08]  I need to know who's going to be able to run the shipyards.
[00:09:10]  Would you be able to give me those names?
[00:09:12]  And don't worry about the, don't tell me about their nationality, the color of their skin, or their gender.
[00:09:16]  I just want the best people.
[00:09:18]  And he was a key advisor.
[00:09:19]  So this guy born a slave at nine years old is now advising the president, who would speak at a commencement address at Tuskegee.
[00:09:25]  So if America is that bad and that polarized and that racist, why was this happening?
[00:09:32]  And in the South, when people had preconceived notions because of the way they were brought up or the culture they were in, he wouldn't get mad at him.
[00:09:39]  He would just move on.
[00:09:40]  So Charlie, one of the best things I learned from this book is if you get mad at somebody, you're giving them power.
[00:09:46]  This guy would not be upset if you said the most racist thing to him.
[00:09:50]  He's like, well, I'll move on.
[00:09:52]  Who can help me?
[00:09:53]  Andrew Carnegie can help me.
[00:09:54]  Who could help me?
[00:09:56]  Rosenwald could help me.
[00:09:58]  The founder of Sears.
[00:09:59]  Who could help me?
[00:10:00]  J.P. Morgan and William McKinley, Grover Cleveland, and ultimately Teddy Roosevelt.
[00:10:05]  And for Roosevelt, he saw nothing but possibility in America.
[00:10:09]  He did just about everything, and he wasn't opposed to grinding it out.
[00:10:14]  So that's what I think he saw in Booker T. Washington.
[00:10:17]  But at the same time, his mom was from the Confederacy.
[00:10:20]  She's from the South.
[00:10:22]  Her two brothers were officers for Robert E. Lee.
[00:10:26]  So if he's in his house and he's growing up and he's hearing his mom's perspective on America, much like you're susceptible to your parents, he heard all that.
[00:10:36]  He still said, okay, I'm going to make my own judgment.
[00:10:39]  And with Booker T. Washington, you saw him saw nothing but a great man.
[00:10:44]  You didn't see him judging by his race.
[00:10:48]  But Teddy Roosevelt was somewhat of his times.
[00:10:51]  You hear some things that showed he had blind spots.
[00:10:54]  But I just think in a time in which America is so focused on race, people needed a perspective on how far we've come.
[00:11:01]  And we're the most successful multicultural country in the history of the world.
[00:11:06]  So I want to zero in on this for a second.
[00:11:08]  The American history.
[00:11:11]  I want to make sure I get this right.
[00:11:12]  So, yeah, it was the equestrian statue that was taken down of Teddy Roosevelt on the American Museum of Natural History.
[00:11:21]  That's right.
[00:11:22]  Because they said that Teddy Roosevelt was racist or racially insensitive.
[00:11:26]  You're a historian, Brian.
[00:11:27]  What is your response to that?
[00:11:29]  He's a person of his times.
[00:11:31]  It was a statue.
[00:11:32]  I'm doing a special real quick with Ray Kelly in the history of law enforcement.
[00:11:36]  And he goes, yeah, meet me by my apartment.
[00:11:38]  I want to walk by.
[00:11:38]  Teddy Roosevelt was my idol.
[00:11:40]  We look up and it's boxed.
[00:11:41]  It's boxed up because an Indian was walking, American Indian was walking, and a black man was walking next to Teddy Roosevelt on a horse and made him look superior.
[00:11:51]  And I thought to myself, you got to be kidding me.
[00:11:52]  They took him out from the museum that is full of all of his trophies and game that he shot and the same fossils he's recovered that his parents found.
[00:12:04]  So now they have it out in North Dakota where his library is going to be.
[00:12:08]  It's an embarrassment.
[00:12:09]  I mean, this guy was not perfect when it came to race, but man, listen to what Booker T. Washington said.
[00:12:16]  The quote, besides Lincoln, no one has taken more of an interest and helped the African American, the Negro rates more than President Teddy Roosevelt.
[00:12:25]  Okay, that should have been enough to keep his statue.
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[00:13:29]  All these smug elitists in New York take down the Teddy Roosevelt statue because it makes them feel good.
[00:13:36]  But does that really warrant a cancellation in the modern era, Brian Kilmead?
[00:13:41]  And Charlie, they took Thomas Jefferson out of the city council, you know, at the city hall.
[00:13:46]  It's unbelievable is right, but they voted two weeks ago, was it three weeks ago?
[00:13:52]  They were voting on whether to take Washington out of New York.
[00:13:54]  Can you believe this?
[00:13:56]  The first White House was in New York City.
[00:13:58]  I mean, Washington thanked his, said goodbye to his troops in New York City, France's tavern.
[00:14:04]  He thanked his spies on Long Island after becoming president in New York.
[00:14:10]  And they're like, we'll get a debate on whether to take him down or not.
[00:14:13]  I mean, it's absolutely insane, but I don't know what they're going to vote on.
[00:14:16]  Columbus has too many Italians here, so I don't think they're going to do that.
[00:14:20]  But who knows what's going to happen?
[00:14:22]  So to me, it was a fever during the Trump years.

=== Reevaluating Historical Statues (04:49) ===

[00:14:26]  It was starting to come back again.
[00:14:28]  My sense is people start sobering up when people start speaking out and saying there are no perfect people, but their impact on the country is undeniable.
[00:14:37]  Unless, of course, you find out that it's not and they're working against us.
[00:14:41]  You might want to think about taking the Benedict Donald statue down if you have one.
[00:14:45]  I got it, unless you're doing a tribute to double agents.
[00:14:49]  But for the most part, we are a country that was born like every other country, every continent had slaves.
[00:14:59]  In the South, most houses, most plantations had slaves.
[00:15:03]  Nobody condones it.
[00:15:05]  But without those slave owners, we don't have a country.
[00:15:08]  So you make your choice.
[00:15:10]  I mean, if you don't like our country, travel.
[00:15:13]  And if you find a place better, stay and stop messing with our past.
[00:15:20]  I like that, Brian.
[00:15:22]  The book is very important, and it pushes back against a lot of the nonsense that is infecting our current discourse, the historic illiteracy.
[00:15:30]  Teddy and Booker T, how two American icons put a fast forward for racial equality.
[00:15:36]  So let's dive into this, that one element, Brian, which I think is important.
[00:15:40]  Everyone is born into a world that they didn't create.
[00:15:43]  It's what you do with that world that is how we measure.
[00:15:47]  It says in the Bible, Noah was a righteous man in his generation.
[00:15:51]  Not just a righteous man generally, but in his generation, comparing to the people around him, he was pretty awesome.
[00:15:57]  We should always judge people in the context and the time of which they are in.
[00:16:01]  Brian, as a historian, why are this the smugness of the current orthodoxies always applied to those 100, 200, 300 years ago?
[00:16:11]  I think it's honestly one of the most frustrating and damaging patterns that we've seen in recent years.
[00:16:18]  You know, what's crazy is I do these things.
[00:16:20]  I do these stage shows.
[00:16:21]  I got a couple coming up, one in Illinois and one in Pennsylvania.
[00:16:25]  And I talk about all the books on stage in a more unscripted fashion with some production value to it.
[00:16:32]  Because in the beginning, I thought, wouldn't it be great to be able to speak before I sign my George Washington book or the Teddy Roosevelt book, or excuse me, the Thomas Jefferson book?
[00:16:40]  And a lot of times there's no time.
[00:16:41]  You walk in, there's a crowd, and you want to sign the books and go.
[00:16:45]  And I go, when you go to give a speech, you never know if that corporation that asked you to come in is going to be involved in some scandal the next day.
[00:16:51]  And they go, who's your last keynote speaker?
[00:16:53]  Oh, it's Brian Kilmead.
[00:16:54]  Okay.
[00:16:55]  He's part of one GEM collapse, or we never know.
[00:16:58]  So we create our own events.
[00:17:00]  And in the beginning, I thought it was going to be great just to be an opportunity to sell books.
[00:17:04]  Now it's like a mission on award to win the war on history because the 1619 project was the formal first salvo, but it's been happening for quite a long time.
[00:17:14]  I mean, I'm older than you, and in 1976, I was in grade school and they launched this thing called Roots, the most successful mini-series ever, averaged 60 million a night.
[00:17:24]  It was the story of slavery and all its brutality.
[00:17:27]  Nobody was ever ducking our past.
[00:17:29]  I don't know what people are talking about.
[00:17:31]  And no one ever said, oh, segregation, not that bad.
[00:17:34]  Slavery, well, it happens.
[00:17:36]  Nobody, Republican or Democrat, especially because most of these people were Democrats.
[00:17:42]  They kept on pushing to keep it and tried to almost reinstall it in the 20th century.
[00:17:48]  Having said that, we've come a long way.
[00:17:50]  And I just thought by telling the story of two men and what they did to get where they're at, I also stumbled on a situation with Booker T. Washington where people don't like what would now be termed his conservative message.
[00:18:04]  Don't worry about where you're at.
[00:18:05]  Don't worry about society's ills.
[00:18:07]  Overcome it.
[00:18:09]  Don't become a subscriber to grievance.
[00:18:12]  And there was one joke that he relays.
[00:18:16]  In retrospect, it tells you where we were as a country.
[00:18:19]  So he has a controversial dinner at the White House.
[00:18:22]  Never before has a black man ate with a president's family, which was white.
[00:18:26]  And for some reason, back then in times, it was controversial.
[00:18:30]  So it had never been done before, causing all types of uproars and riots.
[00:18:34]  So one day he's waiting by a train in the deep south, and a white guy comes walking up to him and says, Are you Booker T. Washington?
[00:18:41]  So, yeah, he goes, You're a great man.
[00:18:43]  He says, No, Teddy Roosevelt's a great man.
[00:18:46]  He goes, I used to think so until he had you over for dinner.
[00:18:50]  That's a beautiful story.
[00:18:54]  Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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=== Rethinking American Loyalties (11:20) ===

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[00:19:52]  So Brian, I want to talk some current events here, but I want to encourage the audience too to go to Teddy and Booker T, how two American Icons blazed a path for racial equality.
[00:20:00]  You know, things are changing in real time.
[00:20:04]  Talk about how this Israel issue is breaking the left.
[00:20:06]  This has been, it's amazing, Brian.
[00:20:08]  Not the border, not the economy.
[00:20:10]  This is without a doubt one of the most provable declines of Democrat support we've seen in the modern era.
[00:20:17]  What is driving this?
[00:20:19]  Brian, what's going on?
[00:20:20]  Well, I'm going to start with the question.
[00:20:22]  You are more in touch with the next generation than anybody I know.
[00:20:26]  You go on college campuses on a regular basis.
[00:20:28]  I was totally blindsided by the anti-Semitism that rose up, the pro-Palestinian attitude, which actually takes a degree of education to have a position.
[00:20:36]  It's not like I thought George Floyd was unjustly killed.
[00:20:41]  Obviously, I'm going to protest.
[00:20:42]  I get that.
[00:20:43]  But how do these people understand the whole Palestinian cause?
[00:20:47]  Since when has that resonated anywhere in America?
[00:20:50]  It takes actually opening up a book, reading some stories, getting a perspective, watching a YouTube video to say, okay, who's wrong?
[00:20:57]  Who's right?
[00:20:58]  How did we get here?
[00:20:59]  Instead, an instinct instantly, I'm against Israel.
[00:21:02]  Really?
[00:21:02]  Where did that come from?
[00:21:03]  I am against them.
[00:21:05]  I want to cease fire.
[00:21:06]  Really?
[00:21:06]  Where did that come from?
[00:21:08]  I don't believe that October 7th was that bad or happened at all.
[00:21:12]  Where did that come from?
[00:21:13]  And then to see this Palestinian slash Hamas protest come up on the streets is absolutely insane.
[00:21:19]  What is crazy is the reaction.
[00:21:22]  So these American people who support the American Jewish community, Jews and non-Jews, but people with some logic who understand what Israel is to America and what America is to Israel, knew what side we thought we were on as a country.
[00:21:37]  And all of a sudden, that's the minority position.
[00:21:40]  And we're seeing all these uprisings everywhere.
[00:21:43]  And you see this people march to with Nazi flags in America.
[00:21:48]  I can't believe the series of events that's happened.
[00:21:50]  And to me, it's got to be organized.
[00:21:52]  How could this, I think it's the same people that are a problem with race in America and the George Floyd riots and they were upset about America, period, about police or whatever.
[00:22:04]  These are the same people who are activists for the Palestinian cause.
[00:22:08]  And I think we're in a, it's real, really disturbing.
[00:22:11]  And for Joe Biden, who evidently Democrats pride themselves on the youth vote, well, this youth vote, while we were looking somewhere else, just left him.
[00:22:20]  And he's done too.
[00:22:22]  We thought Tlaib was on the fringe.
[00:22:24]  She's mainstream next generation.
[00:22:27]  Yeah, you know, Brian, it's a bittersweet thing.
[00:22:29]  I was texting with a very good Jewish friend of mine over the weekend, and I said, hey, look at this poll.
[00:22:34]  It shows that Donald Trump is beating Joe Biden in the youth vote.
[00:22:37]  And he made a great point.
[00:22:38]  He said, well, why?
[00:22:40]  And part of it is inflation and the outreach that we're doing.
[00:22:43]  But part of it is that young people, they don't want anybody that sides with Israel.
[00:22:48]  Brian, from your 35,000-foot view, what is the main reason why younger voters, younger people are so against the state of Israel?
[00:22:58]  It has to be organized.
[00:23:00]  It has to be.
[00:23:01]  I mean, these are the same people that don't know who was in World War II.
[00:23:05]  They don't even know which side.
[00:23:06]  I mean, I'm sure if you said who's the Axis powers, who was on the Axis powers, and who was on the Allied powers, they wouldn't even know.
[00:23:13]  They wouldn't know what you're talking about.
[00:23:15]  How could they possibly go back thousands of years or at least 80 years in Israel history?
[00:23:21]  It has to be organized.
[00:23:22]  Anti-American organizations, this has got to be financed.
[00:23:26]  And I wouldn't doubt that most of these people are getting paid to do what they did.
[00:23:30]  I have a relative of mine in Tulane, and it's 45% Jewish.
[00:23:36]  They looked over, all of a sudden, all these Palestinian and Hamas flags are flying.
[00:23:41]  Where'd they come from?
[00:23:42]  The outside.
[00:23:43]  These people don't go to that school.
[00:23:46]  So I'm wondering what organization is trying to infiltrate this country.
[00:23:49]  And at the same week, Charlie, think about this.
[00:23:52]  Bin Laden letter to America gets published.
[00:23:55]  You would think it would end up in the trash bin.
[00:23:58]  Instead, it turns out we have influencers saying, oh my God, my head is blown.
[00:24:03]  I have to rethink America and my loyalties.
[00:24:06]  Your head is blown.
[00:24:08]  You're a woman.
[00:24:10]  If you lived in bin Laden's vision of America, you would not have a job.
[00:24:15]  You would not be able to leave the house.
[00:24:16]  You wouldn't be able to drive.
[00:24:17]  If you're gay, you can jump off and pick the building you'll be thrown off of.
[00:24:21]  If you're transgender, you think they're going to ask you your pronouns?
[00:24:25]  I mean, to me, there's so many confounding elements to this story, but Joe Biden ends up paying the price.
[00:24:32]  And here's why he's guilty, is because they were fomenting all this stuff.
[00:24:37]  It's just like the cancel culture.
[00:24:39]  Hollywood starts it, and then they start blowing themselves up with the bazooka they let go.
[00:24:46]  And that's the same thing.
[00:24:47]  He can't figure it out.
[00:24:48]  He's actually doing the right thing by supporting Israel.
[00:24:51]  And it's blowing up in his face because the country has been taken over and needs to be taken back.
[00:24:59]  At least the next generation does.
[00:25:01]  The Osama bin Laden thing is really unbelievable.
[00:25:03]  And it shows the power of TikTok and this new digital media.
[00:25:07]  And also a generation that does not know 9-11.
[00:25:12]  Again, from the scriptures, there's that beautiful verse that says, and then rose a king of Egypt who did not know Joseph.
[00:25:17]  There's a generation that does not know 9-11.
[00:25:20]  Brian, your reaction, you covered 9-11 as it was happening.
[00:25:23]  You lived in New York as a New Yorker.
[00:25:25]  And aftermath, just now seeing a generation 22 years later embracing Osama bin Laden.
[00:25:31]  I thought Megan Kelly's take on that was really strong.
[00:25:34]  A lot of other people online have been talking openly and candidly about how parents have not been doing their job.
[00:25:40]  This is a wake-up call for a lot of people, Republican or Democrat.
[00:25:44]  Yeah, I just don't know anybody in my life that has to educate their kids on it.
[00:25:50]  It was just part of what they grew up on.
[00:25:53]  I mean, 9-11, my kids were in like second, sixth, and seventh grade.
[00:25:58]  You'd have to tell them what was going on.
[00:26:01]  So they knew.
[00:26:02]  I'm not sure if it's in the curriculum or not, but let's look at this.
[00:26:07]  This guy attacks our country, looks at us as the great Satan, does everything he can to kill as many Americans as possible.
[00:26:14]  For 20 years, somebody in your neighborhood went to fight in your name and came back, maybe not the same person, and you never thought to ask them, what were they doing?
[00:26:23]  What were they fighting for?
[00:26:25]  What's this Islamic extremism?
[00:26:28]  So I'm dumbfounded by the idiocy and the ignorance, which was exponentially accelerated by the pandemic, which gave all these other 18 to 22 year olds another reason not to educate themselves, but to live on Twitter, to live on Twitter and to live on TikTok.
[00:26:47]  I just think that this is a wake-up call for everybody.
[00:26:50]  Just like the pandemic was a wake-up call for parents.
[00:26:54]  Now it's a wake-up call for the country.
[00:26:56]  Those kids of yours are protesting against fundamental American values and they're with the other side.
[00:27:04]  Not only are they not subscribing, they're with the other side.
[00:27:07]  And Charlie, they got a terrible product.
[00:27:10]  Nobody wants, who wants to be an Islamic extremist?
[00:27:13]  Who wants to give up rights every single day?
[00:27:16]  Take a vow of poverty.
[00:27:18]  Do not have a job that's fulfilling.
[00:27:20]  Live your whole life to blow up your neighbor.
[00:27:23]  Read some of this stuff.
[00:27:25]  It's a terrible letter.
[00:27:26]  I mean, you would think we used to have a generation that would be susceptible to perpetual spring break.
[00:27:32]  I spent too much time on the beach.
[00:27:34]  I didn't study.
[00:27:35]  You know, I hung out with my friends.
[00:27:36]  I failed out of school.
[00:27:38]  Now I went to school.
[00:27:39]  I came back.
[00:27:39]  I hate the country.
[00:27:41]  What happened?
[00:27:42]  Well, that's a really smart point.
[00:27:44]  I mean, there was definitely, you know, radicalism in the 60s and 70s.
[00:27:48]  And then for a couple decades, this is so smart, Brian, that the number one criticism to young people is, oh, they don't work hard.
[00:27:55]  They do too much dope.
[00:27:56]  You know, they're, you know, into the indulgence.
[00:27:59]  Now it's like, wait a second, like, can you go back to doing weed and like staying up till 3 a.m.?
[00:28:03]  I kind of, I actually prefer like a super lethargic, you know, sorry, I got, you know, had a fun time in Cabo than, oh, I don't know, flying the modern-day Nazi flag.
[00:28:15]  It's actually, that's a super smart point.
[00:28:17]  Yeah, I just don't know what they're offering.
[00:28:19]  I mean, we have a better product in every way, shape, or form.
[00:28:23]  And you know what they should do, Charlie?
[00:28:25]  We should make them just say, listen, are you a pro-Hamas?
[00:28:28]  Yeah, I really like what they represent.
[00:28:29]  They're oppressed.
[00:28:30]  Okay, great.
[00:28:31]  Because there's some openings.
[00:28:33]  And I can tell you exactly where they are.
[00:28:35]  And we can provide the transportation.
[00:28:37]  I think you should live that life.
[00:28:39]  Why are we leaving you here stuck with our horrible Westerners who maybe want to go on vacation or work a second job in order to make ends meet or have a family and want to treat women equally?
[00:28:52]  So you don't want to be stuck in that tornado of indulgence.
[00:28:56]  So we're going to send you over to Hamas.
[00:28:58]  Let's talk about it.
[00:28:59]  I mean, we got the son of Hamas's founder on.
[00:29:02]  I have one regularly.
[00:29:04]  And he just talks about these people being brainwashed from day one.
[00:29:09]  And that's in Hamas's world.
[00:29:13]  I don't know how they did it in America.
[00:29:16]  How do they do it to America?
[00:29:19]  It is partially because of our institutions.
[00:29:21]  And there's a lot of Muslim Brotherhood money, which I know you've been following, Brian.
[00:29:25]  A lot of Brotherhood money has been flowing into these institutions.
[00:29:28]  But also, you know, do not underestimate the contempt and the resentment that left-wing ideology has for America.
[00:29:35]  They will partner with any organization, the Chinese Communist Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, as long as they say they hate the West.
[00:29:44]  All right, everybody, the holidays and big family feasts are upon us.
[00:29:48]  But in D.C., there's no bigger turkey than Senate Bill 1339.
[00:29:52]  It's still being pushed by that radical rascal, Bernie Sanders.
[00:29:55]  Bad guy.
[00:29:56]  I don't say that lightly.
[00:29:57]  He is a bad person.
[00:29:58]  I'll tell you, he's a Marxist.
[00:30:00]  Senate Bill 1339 is Bernie's latest attempt to sneak in a backdoor takeover of more of our health care.
[00:30:05]  He falsely claims it will lower prescription drug prices.
[00:30:08]  But S1339 will actually just do the opposite.
[00:30:11]  It'll handcuff pharmacy benefit managers who are currently saving millions of dollars on an average of $1,040 a year.
[00:30:17]  Bernie is hoping that despite thousands of your fellow Americans already going to lowermydrugprices.com to stand up against S1339, you'll be too busy making holiday plans or getting ready for a year-end vacation to stop him from a power grab on your healthcare.
[00:30:31]  So here's what's happening: the Marxist, the commie, he's trying to put this bill in.

=== Stop the Healthcare Power Grab (05:41) ===

[00:30:36]  Listen very carefully.
[00:30:38]  I'm urging you to keep up the pressure against passage of S1339 by going to lowermydrugprices.com.
[00:30:44]  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste says if you don't want a socialized system that takes away your personal health care choices, increases costs, and makes you wait longer to see the doctor, go today to lower mydrugprices.com to stop the Senate from passing the Sanders bill.
[00:30:58]  Remember, we have momentum, but we need your help today.
[00:31:00]  The Charlie Kirk show brought to you in part by Council for Citizens Against Government Waste.
[00:31:04]  Again, it's Senate Bill 1339.
[00:31:06]  We must stop it, lower mydrugprices.com.
[00:31:11]  Brian, I always ask this question of a guest that does a research piece.
[00:31:14]  When you decided to write the book Teddy and Booker T, what piece of information or story did you discover or learn that you're like, wow, I did not know that before, that is the most noteworthy to you.
[00:31:27]  Let me see.
[00:31:28]  That's a great question.
[00:31:30]  I would say this.
[00:31:32]  I would say when Booker T. Washington, I would say overall, there were two things that happened.
[00:31:38]  You're a positive thinking guy, right?
[00:31:40]  You're someone who sets goals.
[00:31:42]  Always.
[00:31:42]  And I think that I'm reading Booker T. Washington and I'm listening to what he wants to accomplish and how he did it.
[00:31:49]  It's the precursor to Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, think of the precursor to Norman Vincent Peale and Anthony Robbins today.
[00:31:56]  He did not know how to read and he was 10 years old.
[00:31:59]  They wrote one in eight on the bro lap sack he had to fill with salt in the salt mines.
[00:32:04]  He's like, what is that?
[00:32:04]  He goes, those are numbers.
[00:32:06]  What are numbers?
[00:32:07]  That guy ends up being the most educated guy in the country.
[00:32:11]  who starts his own university.
[00:32:13]  And also, when you really want something, even without the social safety net, things will happen.
[00:32:19]  And Booker T. Washington time and time again would dream about getting an education where his mom would saw the patch and got him a dictionary.
[00:32:27]  Couldn't believe how lucky he was.
[00:32:29]  Then he hears his friends complaining about a woman, Mrs. Ruffner, who's so hard she's impossible to work for.
[00:32:35]  I'm quitting that job.
[00:32:36]  I'm going back to the salt mines.
[00:32:38]  He needed out of the salt mines.
[00:32:40]  He hears it.
[00:32:41]  This woman ends up changing his life.
[00:32:43]  She just wanted things done right.
[00:32:45]  And then he ends up using Mrs. Ruffner to propel him to Hampton, where he gets another mentor that sees nothing but potential in him, recommends him to Tuskegee, General Armstrong.
[00:32:55]  And I believe in re-looking at his life and Teddy Roosevelt's life, they willed themselves to reaching their goal, reaching their potential.
[00:33:05]  And I think you can learn something from what they did.
[00:33:08]  Just because we know them, it doesn't mean if you want to own a flower shop or your own gym or you want to be president of the United States.
[00:33:16]  If you want something bad enough, it can happen.
[00:33:19]  And that's really, I can only say that in America, because we are still the land of opportunity, not the land of outcomes.
[00:33:28]  Just give me an opportunity.
[00:33:29]  That's all these two said to each other.
[00:33:32]  You give an opportunity.
[00:33:33]  I'm going to give other people an opportunity, but I am not going to rig the game.
[00:33:37]  I think in America, we're trying to rig the game and make excuses when you don't win the championship, get the medal, get the job, or win the race.
[00:33:48]  Dream, believe, work, achieve.
[00:33:50]  So the book is really important.
[00:33:53]  And I want you guys to check it out.
[00:33:55]  Teddy and Booker T, How Two American Icons Blazed a Path for Racial Equality.
[00:33:59]  I'm going to ask you an unfair question here, Brian, but studying Teddy Roosevelt in particular, who in America today reminds you closest to Teddy Roosevelt?
[00:34:08]  It's Trump.
[00:34:09]  And just like Andrew Jackson, too.
[00:34:10]  He's a little Trump.
[00:34:12]  Trump is a little Andrew Jackson, a little Teddy Roosevelt.
[00:34:15]  And the things they write about Roosevelt, for example, Mark Twain never liked Teddy Roosevelt.
[00:34:19]  They thought he was all shove.
[00:34:20]  They're like, what is this guy who's always bringing attention to himself?
[00:34:23]  And what happened in New York?
[00:34:25]  He was busting up everything, turning the tables over, not subscribing to the power structure.
[00:34:31]  They had to get rid of him.
[00:34:32]  So they kicked him to vice president.
[00:34:34]  He ends up being president of the United States.
[00:34:36]  And when he was in the military, they once said, this guy is ridiculous.
[00:34:40]  He keeps saying we want war.
[00:34:41]  No, we've got to defend ourselves.
[00:34:43]  He's crazy.
[00:34:44]  Ends up being a war hero and coming back.
[00:34:46]  So his whole life, people thought he was a little bit crazy, and they could not believe it to a degree.
[00:34:52]  They didn't think he was worthy of the presidency.
[00:34:54]  He ends up really defining the presidency and being this incredible leader because he was so unorthodox.
[00:35:01]  Jackson was the same way.
[00:35:03]  And I think that that's what you get with Trump.
[00:35:06]  I'm not putting him in the same category.
[00:35:08]  One never reached his 60th birthday and the other 77 with a businessman.
[00:35:14]  But I would say as disruptors, as focused, and as unstoppable, they're both unstoppable forces.
[00:35:26]  You weren't going to deny Roosevelt.
[00:35:28]  And I think we see what's going on right now.
[00:35:31]  Trump is queued up to, right now, got his favorite to win the presidency back again.
[00:35:38]  The comeback kid.
[00:35:39]  That's right.
[00:35:40]  And unlike Teddy Roosevelt, I don't think he's going to run in the Bull Moose Party.
[00:35:43]  But I agree.
[00:35:45]  There's, you know, Teddy Roosevelt and Trump are both class traitors.
[00:35:48]  They were both supposed to be part of the ruling class, and they went kind of down to go fight for the working man.
[00:35:52]  Brian, excellent analysis.
[00:35:54]  Thank you so much.
[00:35:54]  You're a great friend, Teddy and Booker T. How Two American Icons Blaze the Trap to Racial Equality.
[00:35:59]  Check it out.
[00:35:59]  Brian, thank you so much.
[00:36:01]  Thank you, Joe.
[00:36:01]  I appreciate it.
[00:36:02]  Thank you.
[00:36:03]  Thanks so much for listening.
[00:36:04]  Everybody, email us as always freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:36:07]  Thanks so much for listening.
[00:36:08]  God bless.
[00:36:13]  For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.