Steve Bannon, Andrew Kolvet, Tyler Bowyer, Jack Posobiec, and others remember Charlie— the husband, father, believer, patriot, voice, and friend he was as the nation grieves America's greatest Christian martyr.Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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| I'm here in Utah with Andrew Colvet, Charlie Kirk's partner, and particularly on the content side. | |
| First off, can you get us up to date? | |
| How's everything doing? | |
| How's everybody holding together? | |
| You know, I think as good as could be expected, as well as could be expected. | |
| You know, yesterday was a day that, you know, none of us ever wanted to live through or experience, and it was a horror and a nightmare. | |
| Um, you know, at the same time I didn't, you know, I got when when the team told me that um you guys wanted me on the show this morning. | |
| I candidly didn't want to do it, but um I knew Charlie would want me to be here. | |
| And I could hear his voice in my head being like, you know, toughen up, you know, better figure it out. | |
| You can handle this. | |
| And um and so yeah, I mean, we're gonna, you know, just just like before, we're gonna do things that uh push us and we're comfortable with, but um that he would want us to do. | |
| So um and um, you know, we're gonna take his spirit on and keep fighting and keep pushing and um yeah, but um it's still raw, you know. | |
| It's it's a organization that's uh changed the direction of the country in American politics, but it's a very young organization with young people. | |
| I mean, Charlie was young, and then and the thing about Charlie, he was a happy warrior, right? | |
| No matter how intense it was always uh how how is the organization doing? | |
| You you have so many young people there, right? | |
| It's I mean Charlie started this thing when he was what, eighteen, nineteen, eighteen, nineteen years old. | |
| How's the overall team doing? | |
| You know, um I think the everybody's still in shock. | |
| Um I think um, you know, we we held a prayer vigil at the HQ last night. | |
| Uh it was beautiful. | |
| There was outpourings of support from across the country. | |
| Um vigils popped up in random places, and that was amazing to see. | |
| And I think all over the world. | |
| All over the world. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Um huge, spontaneous. | |
| Self-organizing. | |
| And um as Charlie would love. | |
| Right. | |
| I mean, that was his whole thing. | |
| Yeah. | |
| And um Yeah, I mean, listen, a lot of uh the senior leadership came straight here immediately. | |
| Um there's a few senior leadership that are still in Phoenix. | |
| And um listen, we're one of Charlie's I mean, absolute cries of his heart, and something I heard him say repeatedly was that we're building an institution that's gonna live beyond me. | |
| And he said that over and over and over again. | |
| Obviously, he is re uh irreplaceable and one of one. | |
| Um but I know that's what he'd want. | |
| And um already the outpouring of support from donors and supporters and friends um that want to keep the mission going and they want um Charlie's uh legacy, part of that legacy to be that it doesn't end with him. | |
| And um I think that's something that we are very committed to. | |
| And um there's you know, it's just a lot to there's a lot to still just process. | |
| He picked you guys for a reason. | |
| I mean, you've got uh you and Tyler and the senior team, uh, you know, he was building an institution. | |
| That would live, you know, because Stacey. | |
| Charlie, I told Charlie all the time he was a future president of the United States at some point in time he was going to go into elective politics, right? | |
| Therefore he would the institution would survive him as he went on and did other, you know, either ran for governor of Arizona or ran for the US Senate uh or you know, was picked as a vice presidential candidate, right? | |
| So the in s he was building an institution the entire time, knowing that his future wasn't always gonna be turning point. | |
| He would turning point would stand on its own at some point in time. | |
| Yeah, I mean that's true. | |
| Um obviously we uh anticipated um Charlie being with Turning Point a lot longer and sort of always being there, whether it was emeritus, you know, uh or not. | |
| But um, you know, I I know um what you're saying is true, you know. | |
| Uh my my wife um just this morning before I left to come here said the same thing. | |
| It's like God has put you guys in this position for such a time as this and for a purpose and a reason, and he knew what he was doing, and I believed that. | |
| And um, you know, uh I think right now we still have some mourning and grieving, obviously, to do. | |
| And um, but yeah, I mean Charlie the the if if we wanted to disgrace the legacy of Charlie Kirk, it would be not carrying on his mission. | |
| And that is not an option. | |
| No, he was a fighter. | |
| I mean, his life ended right there when he's doing what he loved to do, right? | |
| Debate. | |
| Let's play. | |
| Can we play? | |
| I want to play President Trump's remarks about Charlie at the beginning of the Pentagon commemoration for 9-11. | |
| Can we go and play that? | |
| And I want to get I want to get the feedback from Andrew. | |
| Before we begin, let me express the horror and grief. | |
| So many Americans at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk have felt. | |
| Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty, and an inspiration to millions and millions of people. | |
| Our prayers are with his wonderful wife Eric and his beautiful children. | |
| Fantastic people they are. | |
| We miss him greatly, yet I have no doubt that Charlie's voice and the courage he put into the hearts of countless people, especially young people, will live on. | |
| I'm pleased to announce that I will soon be awarding Charlie Kirk posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom. | |
| The date of the ceremony will be announced and I can only guarantee you one thing that we will have a very big crowd. | |
| Very, very big. | |
| So Charlie posthumously awarded by the president the Medal of Freedom. | |
| That's a pretty powerful statement by the president of the United States. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Um, um I'm reminded of so many conversations where I would ask Charlie, well, you know, what did the president say? | |
| You know, what is and and uh so many times his answer is like, you you know, people just understand. | |
| Like we're actually friends. | |
| Like we're good friends. | |
| And he loved him. | |
| And I know Trump loved Charlie. | |
| And um it wasn't transactional. | |
| And Steve, you know this. | |
| Um Charlie was loyal to a fault. | |
| And um, you know, I'd see the people on online uh, you know, criticizing if they if Trump did something they disagreed with and and Charlie wasn't loud enough, you know, against it. | |
| And people just didn't understand Charlie was loyal. | |
| He was fundamentally good and decent. | |
| And anybody who knew him intimately knew that he was overly loyal, overly generous, overly decent, impatient. | |
| Um, and so many people that um, you know, uh maybe didn't treat him the way they should have. | |
| Charlie would never return like for like, and he really saw his role as keeping the coalition together that Trump built in 2024 and that turning point played a huge role and Charlie played a huge role, and you played a huge role, Steve. | |
| And uh keeping that coalition together um because he didn't see this as a a four-year win. | |
| He saw it as as a generational win as a 60-year win that he wanted to build upon for the sake of his kids and uh this country. | |
| And um, you know, uh I think um I can hear it in the president's voice this morning um that uh he lost a friend as we all did, and um I think it's a great honor. | |
| I know Charlie is honored and his wife is honored, Erica, and it's well deserved. | |
| Charlie a man, particularly people that may have not had a chance to go to the turning point events or C Trying. | |
| What always impressed me the most was not simply the hard work or the pressures under because he was dealing at the highest level and build this organization. | |
| I call him the happy warrior. | |
| He was never down, totally up, no matter what the circums was, circumstances was, he'd always say, We'll figure it out, right? | |
| These very complex events, and then of course the ground game, which you guys delivered Arizona and Pennsylvania, right? | |
| Besides helping in Georgia and Michigan and Wisconsin, two states that put Trump over the top. | |
| Talk to us about uh Charlie the man, particularly as this positive energy that was always out there because obviously the the left-wing media is uh you know accusing Charlie or hate speech and being divisive, he was anything really but divisive. | |
| No, I mean for people who really know I mean the clips that go viral, it's just the internet doing the internet, what the internet does, you know, where it gets you know lively. | |
| And Charlie understood that dynamic. | |
| I mean, he but as he got older, these campus debates especially turned into big brother teaching. | |
| Yeah, and and 90% of the interactions. | |
| If you go back and look, it 90% of the interactions, he was so soft and gentle and patient with these people. | |
| And the people that really understood what you're trying to teach. | |
| Yes, he would be yes, exactly. | |
| He became such more much more of a big brother figure, um, or role model figure. | |
| And um, you know, Charlie, some of my my favorite moments with Charlie was just flying on planes late at night, you know, across the country, darting all over the place during the campaign or whatever, and um, you know, the weight of the world really was on his shoulders, and here we are joking at you know, 35,000 feet um and having just a blast, and um the the Charlie was funny, he was really funny, and he never you know that's not part of what people think about Charlie. | |
| He was hilarious. | |
| Um, and he was he had this uncle uncanny ability, Steve, to think about others like more. | |
| I and I told my wife this last night. | |
| I said he thought about me and like my travel or my family or how he could make my life better, or if he could help me out in some way or get me a hotel more than I thought about me. | |
| And he would be like, Hey, does you just is your wife, you know, is she set up? | |
| Did you do you do you need us to do something for her? | |
| Like, let me know. | |
| And he would just constantly do that. | |
| And I would be thinking, this guy has his schedule so tightly backed, like a Tetris, you know, board. | |
| And yet somehow he made space in his brain to worry about me. | |
| And I knew that he was doing that for literally hundreds of people almost every day. | |
| And uh, I don't know how he did it. | |
| Um, but it's truly remarkable. | |
| Let's talk about let's talk about that together. | |
| The content and and uh and the building organization, and particularly something he focused on ballot chasing a ground game, given the experiences we had. | |
| The last weekend of his life, he spent with Mina Kim uh in the and the folks in Korea, that tremendous conference. | |
| You guys have done tremendous work there with Grace Chung and um Tyler too. | |
| And Tyler by Zoom. | |
| Yeah, okay. | |
| Um the let's bring in title Bory. | |
| We'll give this a second. | |
| Tyler Boyer joins us now. | |
| Uh Charlie's um head of kind of the political operation. | |
| Uh Tyler, your memories uh of Charlie, particularly the upbeat nature and the positive energy he put in everything. | |
| Yes, Steve, thank you for having us. | |
| And and I, you know, I I just echo everything that Andrew said is we have been in just a constant state of of mourning here. | |
| But as we're going through all this, what you said is that him being a happy warrior was the front face for what Charlie Kirk is and what continues on. | |
| And you know, we're out fighting a battle every single day, and this is part of that battle. | |
| Uh that I know everybody's waking up to this morning, and you know, they've yeah, like a lot like me, probably didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but you're going through and you're looking at the legacy of Charlie Kirk and who he is, and the man that that he led the organization with, | |
| and you know, you start to just to break down what the next steps are here, and there's a lot of emotions that I think a lot of people are feeling right now. | |
| And you know, there's a sense of patriotism. | |
| I think that comes in moments like these, and that's that's a good thing. | |
| That's that's a that's a great thing. | |
| I I'm telling people right now, the anger, those feelings that you're feeling uh must turn to activism, turn into activism. | |
| Uh that's what Charlie would want. | |
| And you know, being a person like me or Andrew, who's has had like a front row seat to the Charlie Kirk show, you know, in a bigger sense, not the say a little S on big S from the capitalization of the show. | |
| But being around Charlie and seeing how he operates and uh building things every single day. | |
| And I don't think people realize every single day the plan of waking up is what are we building next? | |
| What are we doing next? | |
| What is the next step? | |
| What is what is the country need uh to essentially survive? | |
| And and that's why it's just you know, it's been such a pleasure, uh, such an honor of a lifetime to be able to be part of that. | |
| Uh, because without many of those things, we wouldn't be where we are today in the movement. | |
| And and I I know you know you feel that way, and but it wasn't a mistake by any means that we are we are where we are with with young people with the party with everything. | |
| So he was building an institution. | |
| He had you were putting up amazing amount of content every day. | |
| Tyler is one of the key architects of Trump's victory in 24 with the ground game and ballot chasing, which as a learning organization, you learned yourself the importance of that in the Carrie Lake race. | |
| And you know, I remember Charlie saying in Tyler, that'll never happen again, right? | |
| And and and it it manifested itself in the victory in 2020. | |
| Okay. | |
| And look, Charlie Kirk was assassinated in cold blood. | |
| Charlie Kirk was executed. | |
| Uh we're gonna get to the bottom of that, right? | |
| And you know, that'll be dealt with when it's gotta be dealt with. | |
| But the work of Charlie Kirk, particularly the three things of building the institution, which was so powerful, really telling everybody I can change with this institution, the arc of uh uh where young people's perception of politics and engagement in politics and volunteering in politics, and therefore the arc of the nation, which he did. | |
| This is what 2024 was. | |
| You two guys are the two key guys. | |
| You on the content side, more or less, and Tyler on the political side. | |
| And what I always impressed me about you guys and Charlie, you he created a learning institution. | |
| I remember coming on the show the all-night in the weeb hours of the morning, Carrie Lake, this this county's coming in, this district's coming in. | |
| And and I remember Tyler and Charlie and you guys afterwards, okay. | |
| We've learned a lesson here, and it's never gonna happen again. | |
| And we will build an organization to the fact that Tyler and look, if it was not been for turning point, your guys' focus on getting the kids up, or particularly ballot chasing low propensity, low information voters, President Trump would not be in the White House right now. | |
| There's uh I uh I totally agree. | |
| We were we were la laughing yesterday, like that uh Charlie would have been upset that we weren't streaming last night. | |
| Um Charlie Charlie would have wanted us to do it. | |
| And that's partly why I'm here this morning. | |
| Um, you know, I couldn't help but think, and I hope this isn't you know too bold of me to say, but watching the second tower uh commemoration. | |
| I feel like you know, America just lost a third tower of a man uh yesterday. | |
| And um we're gonna miss him. | |
| But um, but we built an institution, he built an institution um designed to set stand the test of time and to be able to ride out these uh these waves and the different iterations of our political environment and the different generations to come behind. | |
| And so um, and I do, I can just tell you there is the outpouring of love and support, blowing me away some of the text I'm getting. | |
| And so, yeah, those three prongs. | |
| I mean, he he did build a learning institution. | |
| We were taking education into the universities that the universities weren't doing. | |
| And there was such a hunger and a thirst on these campuses from these kids to see that that that that combat of of ideas and the back and forth, and to hear people say something unapologetic about what they believed and they stood by it and they could defend it. | |
| And um and that piece, Steve. | |
| I mean, we there's a uh a polster, Mitchell Brown is one of the Trump pulsar signal. | |
| He did a a uh a poll after the election, and basically if you extrapolate it out, it was 16 or 17 million young people were more likely to vote for Trump um across the country because of the content that Charlie Kirk made on these college campuses. | |
| Uh President Trump awarded posthumously Charlie Kirk the presidential medal of freedom, which is the highest civilian honor uh that one could get. | |
| He's also announced he was going to give one to Rudy Giuliani the mayor, as we see in the New York shots is in the front row there as America's mayor. | |
| Tyler, um I remember uh when I say learning institutions, you got Charlie led an institution. | |
| You guys didn't kid yourselves. | |
| I remember coming on the show, uh but you guys were in the studio and I would come on and literally in the Carrie Lake thing, we're going, remember is this precinct, you know. | |
| And you guys after that really changed everything by coming up with this ballot chasing initiative. | |
| And this ballot chasing initiative is hard work, and it's not the type of work you think young people are gonna be that excited about. | |
| But you guys, tell Tyle Tyler, tell us about that because the reason we're here today with a House and a Senate and the presidency is because the work of Charlie's vision of Charlie Kirk in the work of the team around him, sir. | |
| Yeah, and and you're exactly right, Steve. | |
| And you know this is we've buckled in and and got again an introspection into the world of politics, the R and C what the Republican establishment wasn't doing uh on behalf of the American people. | |
| And decided made it made a a decision. | |
| Charlie made a decision to do that work. | |
| And it's not easy work, it's big work, and we knew we had the people to do the work. | |
| And so we felt and Charlie had always felt this way, it's felt like there was a mantle that that needed to be carried by him with his influence, especially with young men in this last election to get that work done, and and that's all of the conversations we had moving forward. | |
| And so you look at, you know, the the most recent conversation I had with Charlie was you know this last week of being dramatically concerned about the direction of of where the Republican Party's going, about you know, conservatives, uh lifting up conservatives, | |
| making sure that we have enough young people that feel like they have the backing to run to run for he's constantly focused on who from the who in the bench were we building, just like we were focused on every single day, you know, getting things done by 9 a.m. | |
| Uh, you know, having a full agenda of things that we're gonna move the needle. | |
| The big question was is who's going to be the next man up to to fill the need and fill the void, and then how are we going to help those people make sure that they get elected? | |
| And those are the two very simple things when we talk about ballot chasing that that Charlie and his legacy will carry on. | |
| We will carry it on as so many people within our within our sphere with our ecosystem are uh hopefully yesterday waking up and realizing they have to get more involved, they have to do more, they have to help chase ballots, they have to help get out the vote, | |
| they have to run for office, they have to step up because life is is fragile, it's short, and this country is hanging by a thread at times, and we are very lucky this last election, we were able to uh bring all of that together and and work with the team from the content side to the turning point USA side, | |
| building the the funnel for the bench, and then working on the political side to actually put bodies on the ground that we need. | |
| And again, we're looking ahead to 2026 and 2028. | |
| You know, and I said this to some of our team yesterday is there's there's nothing that we can do more to honor Charlie than to see this thing through. | |
| It cannot lose steam, it cannot lose any kind of gas whatsoever. | |
| We have a war to fight, we have a fight. | |
| Charlie Kirk Charlie Kirk would want to finish what we started, right? | |
| That was about but I'll start with Andrew, then I want to bring you in Tyler. | |
| When I looked at Charlie, I said, this guy's tapped into something, and what it was Was a deep spirituality and a focus on young men. | |
| He realized that young men were were were lost. | |
| Tell me about this. | |
| Oh, I mean you know, uh, we saw it in the social media metrics. | |
| Um, we saw it in the crowds. | |
| Um, we saw it and just, you know, he couldn't walk down a street, and I kept telling this because you know, after the fall of 2025 and into the spring, we had to kind of recalibrate because he was so so so famous. | |
| Like 24. | |
| 24, fall 24, spring of 20. | |
| Yeah. | |
| And it was like, you know, he was always pretty well known. | |
| Um, you know, even when I first started working with him, like, you know, eight years ago, you know, he'd get fist bumps in the airport and stuff like that from random people. | |
| But then like, I mean, it went so nuclear. | |
| Um, and it would always be these young, young guys. | |
| Charlie, can I get a selfie? | |
| Can I get a self? | |
| I mean, and they would mob him, they would mob him. | |
| It didn't matter if he was walking on the street of Manhattan or in Seoul, South Korea, or uh London, England, or you know, Montana, or anybody anywhere in between. | |
| It was it was incredible. | |
| I have a story for you that you probably enjoy, Steve. | |
| He was hanging out with some Fox uh personalities, on-air fox personalities, and they were at this bar and they were kind of you know, uh talking. | |
| They wanted to talk about some some things. | |
| And I won't say the names, because that would be Charlie wouldn't want these were people that you would you would know. | |
| These are people that the public would know. | |
| Of course, like very well-known people within conservative movement. | |
| Right. | |
| And they're at this bar because that's the only place nearby. | |
| Just imagine. | |
| I think I'm gonna love this story. | |
| Yeah. | |
| And you gotta understand, um, you know, Charlie Charlie, you know, had a good relationship with Fox, especially at the end, but there was times where it wasn't, you know, where he wasn't hanging out, like for three years when he was banned because of your guy's work on stolen election and all that, but what does it matter now? | |
| I mean, it was you know, it was after after Tucker. | |
| There was, but anyways, they they ended up embracing, and it was it was uh it was good, it was good. | |
| Anyways, I I I want to be I want to be gracious in this time. | |
| It was good. | |
| Anyway, so part of that getting good time, they're at they're talking about they're talking at this bar. | |
| And it's in a small town. | |
| I mean, you can imagine Fox is on every television in this town. | |
| And um, and there was a series of about 50 to 75 people, I'm told, over the course of about an hour, and they all came up for selfies with Charlie. | |
| And on about 20 of those occasions, they asked these very famous Fox hosts if they could take the selfie with Charlie. | |
| They could take the picture. | |
| Right. | |
| Can you work the camera for him again? | |
| And so, yeah, I mean, like that was that that was what Charlie's life had become, and he told me he's like, I've just I've um I've come to grips with it. | |
| I've accepted this as my new reality, and uh, but the the amount of love just that he organically got. | |
| Look at look at we'll play later today in the afternoon show. | |
| Mean the great meeting of Kim, Grace and Mo go over to Korea. | |
| And Charlie, I mean, there's thousands of people at this thing, and Charlie's like such a known personality, right? | |
| It's just it's incredible. | |
| It's it's it's global, it's not just the United States, it's so global. | |
| Uh Tyler, uh Tyler, talk to me about the focus on men. | |
| Why did you choose? | |
| Why did Charlie Kirk particularly focus on young men and made the point continually that they're adrift, that something's happened different uh now in our country that's never happened before. | |
| That young men are kind of adrift, and and we turning point in the senior leadership need to focus on that. | |
| Well, well, Steve, remember I met I met Charlie when he was basically a teenager, and you're not too long after that. | |
| And uh, you know, Andrew and I are uh the exact same age, and we have a very similar family, so we married and kids and everything else. | |
| And I think one of the pleasures of getting that front row seat with Charlie is being able to see Charlie uh grow into a husband and a father. | |
| And for us being a little bit older than him, I'm sorry. | |
| It was always extremely gratifying to watch him become the man he he wanted to be that he saw for himself. | |
| Uh that he advocated for from day one, even as a young guy. | |
| That he wanted to be that honorable uh vision of a father and a husband for Erica that he is and you know that many people know this story, but you know, Erica I I met Erica hosting the very first Trump rally ever. | |
| We we'd organized it in 2015 in July of 2015, and it was a Phoenix, and it was what started the whole Trump Trump rally phenomenon. | |
| It was the first big one in Phoenix. | |
| But maybe people don't realize behind Trump speaking, was my family, and Erica was right behind the president. | |
| And she I wanted to hire her. | |
| Charlie had different plans for that. | |
| He uh he met Erica and was like, oh my gosh, I have to marry this girl. | |
| And he did. | |
| And her world is collapsing, you know, because of this this circumstance. | |
| But he wanted to be a father and a husband and a father first. | |
| And so when you talk about young men and that influence over young men, every single decision that has been made for year many years, you know, I would say pretty close to the beginning of turning point has been centered around this being a good husband and a good father figure and how we can influence young men. | |
| And when you have that as your as your mission first, as your voice first, you attract young men. | |
| And it wasn't popular to be that, you know, 10 years ago when when you know, 11 years ago when I met Charlie. | |
| Uh and now it is popular. | |
| You we see it everywhere and everything that we do. | |
| Young men admire Charlie Kirk for the husband and dad that he is. | |
| And I think that that's the most important thing that I want people to know. | |
| He was such a great example that all of us then knew him the best, and that we we gotta watch him operate because there was never a decision that was made that didn't go through that lens, and that's so important for people to know. | |
| And it's such an example, and that's why young men are coming around because they're figuring out that that's the way. | |
| There's nothing better than having kids, there's nothing better than being used, but there's nothing better than putting your family first. | |
| So I'm so sorry. | |
| Like so. | |
| No, it's great. | |
| How did Charlie how did Sheri Clerk do that? | |
| How did he make himself into the man that he wanted to be? | |
| Well, I gotta say, um, Erica gets a lot of credit for that. | |
| When Erica came around, I mean Charlie knew what his North Star was, but then when Erica came around, it was like just focused him like a laser. | |
| And um, if anybody who knows Erica knows she's like legitimately one of the most amazing people you're ever gonna meet. | |
| And this is why Charlie continue to focus on marriage and particularly getting married young and starting a family and family formation. | |
| Well, but he was in very Charlie fashion to tell a story, you know. | |
| Tyler, you know, he's like, he basically told Erica, you know, I have some bad news and some good news. | |
| Uh the bad news is, you know, I'm not gonna hire you at turning point. | |
| The good news is like I want to date you. | |
| And they went on, they went on dates and obviously ended up getting married. | |
| And um, and that was very Charlie because he was, you know, one thing I can tell you is from 18 to 31, Charlie packed more life into his those short days than most humans will pack into a hundred. | |
| And he lived his life so full. | |
| And he, you know, I was just reflecting on what Tyler was just saying about young men and your question, you know. | |
| I got off topic, I apologize. | |
| But your question about young men, and you had this this NBC poll that came out just a couple days ago, and Charlie was so excited about it because he said he said, Listen, we got a lot of work to do with the women. | |
| He's like, but we've done some great work with young men. | |
| Like they know it, they want to have uh talk about married. | |
| Because uh the number one thing of young men is they wanna they want to have children. | |
| Yeah, and and Charlie, Charlie, I mean, we preached it so I mean, and by the way, that's this is this is existing in a world full of other voices, even some on the right that say, well, you know, you know, don't get married, it's not worth it. | |
| The the marriage laws are XYZ and Charlie's P POV was like, let's let's make them sacred again. | |
| Let's restore this institution because it's God's design, and he said that over and over again. | |
| God's design is beautiful. | |
| God's design is amazing. | |
| Let's pour into it. | |
| Let's lean into God's design. | |
| And um, and I can just tell you with the outpouring of all the letters and the notes, and I've been showing you here that my team is sending me from all the vigils that these pictures of these notes and handwritten notes with tears, right stains on them, and um, you know, they keep saying, like, you led me back to faith in God, you led me back, you restored my faith. | |
| And um Charlie wanted to be remembered for his faith. | |
| And so I'm just so proud of that. | |
| And Steve, with your permission, I wanted to I wanted to read um something that's gonna be going up on our uh turning point socials very soon. | |
| Um our team put their heads together and wrote this and says, and you're gonna see this on the website soon, but I figured I'd give it to you here first, Steve. | |
| Um every one of us at turning point is crushed and devastated by the hateful murder of our founder and guiding light, Charlie Kirk. | |
| All of us have lost a leader, a mentor, and a friend. | |
| Above all, our hearts are with Erica and their two children. | |
| Charlie was the ideal husband and the perfect father. | |
| Above all else, we ask you to pray for the Kirks after the incomprehensible loss that they have suffered. | |
| More than anyone, Charlie believed in the power of argument and good faith debate to find the truth and guide people towards, if not agreement, at least mutual understanding. | |
| Charlie was no stranger to threats. | |
| He received hundreds throughout his life, and really it was almost daily. | |
| Um, but he will always he always prioritized reaching as many young Americans as possible over his own personal safety. | |
| Now Charlie has become America's greatest martyr to the freedom of speech he so adored. | |
| In his 31 years, Charlie lived more than any of us will live in a hundred. | |
| He had an overwhelming passion for life and a deep belief in his power as an individual to make a difference. | |
| With the spirit of a pioneer, Charlie launched turning point out of his parents' garage as an 18-year-old with no money, no name recognition, and only a dream. | |
| His energy and drive were awe-inspiring, without equal, and deeply infectious. | |
| Charlie refused to squander a single day of his life. | |
| And that's so true. | |
| He was a natural builder and problem solver who loved to challenge and saw every setback as a chance to learn, grow, pray and try again. | |
| He was fundamentally decent, always eager to make new friends and allies and to support and defend the ones he already had made. | |
| His values were timeless American ones. | |
| Honesty, forthrightness, duty, loyalty, and fair play. | |
| And I'm almost done. | |
| No, it's fantastic. | |
| Keep going. | |
| Charlie loved America, its people, its constitution, its freedom, and the limitless good of all of all of them have done for the entire world. | |
| But above all, Charlie lived every day with an overflowing love of the Christ he knew he would one day get to see. | |
| When asked, Charlie said that above all, he wished to be remembered for his faith. | |
| Far more than any political victory, Charlie wanted to see a spiritual revival among America's youth. | |
| He wanted a nation of happy, thriving families who loved God and each other. | |
| And at his final public speech, just days before his murder, Charlie witnessed to Jesus Christ to an audience of non-believers. | |
| Even in his very last moments, Charlie was professing the gospel. | |
| He ran his way race well all the way to the end. | |
| Now he goes to his heavenly reward. | |
| Although Charlie is gone, his legacy will endure. | |
| He shall not grow old. | |
| Age shall not weary him. | |
| For all time, he will remain the brave young man who inspired tens of millions of Americans to better themselves and take action to better America. | |
| All of us will miss Charlie. | |
| None of us will ever forget him. | |
| Fantastic. | |
| Tyler, uh comments, observations. | |
| Beautiful. | |
| Yeah, it's the one of the most beautiful things that the team has put together is is that and it's it's important for people uh to know that that work, his focus on again, | |
| what we were talking about young men, uh rebuilding the home is the fundamental to uh having a faith-centered life, and you know, his belief that culture uh downstream from cultures is how you get your politics. | |
| And so we talked about that. | |
| We train all of our staff to that every single day. | |
| And and that is what the culmination of what the the full Charlie Kirk perspective was, and it was and the beautiful part about this last election in 2024 was people saw it was undeniable that everyone on the left could see it. | |
| Forget the right that you know we sometimes think we see these things, but the left saw it, and they were so they were so scared of that because the left could never uh embrace any of these values. | |
| They they're not interested in any of these values, and that's why these conservative principles that you know we have worked with so many young people at all different ages, you know, everything from high school, college, you know, colleges are bread and butter, which is the heartbeat of turning point USA, | |
| where we started, and you know, pulling Charlie Kirk pulling out a uh uh folding table on campus, a uh card table on campus and handing out flyers that he printed himself uh out of a small office and in Illinois in the shadows of the Obama re-elect campaign. | |
| People don't understand this was all born from the shadows of the Obama re-elect campaign, uh heading to 2012, where you had a Chicago boy in the shadows of the Obama re-elect campaign that was out of uh the Chicago metro area working as a as a a true uh small versus large uh battle. | |
| I mean, one kid, all of this, millions of voices, tens of millions of voices now have come out of it over the last decade uh plus. | |
| And it's really been such an honor to see how that work is culminated and and the fruit that it's bore and it will continue to bear. | |
| Um, and and that's the that's the mission that we have to be on at this point, which is we have to carry the baton of what Charlie's vision was because it's it's irrep, it's not replicable, uh, but millions of people can uh can stand in the pocket, | |
| can uh can be uh a a version that version of American that Charlie hoped to influence uh because that was not the path that we were on uh in in 2011, 2012, and and Charlie stepped in as a as a teenager to give America a voice again, to give conservatives a voice again. | |
| And uh just like Andrew had said, he's go always, you know, there was always that question of uh I can't really envision you know, an old man Charlie Kirk, and for many of us, it was envisioning him as president of the United States for that reason. | |
| And he is now going to live on forever in all of forever and eternity as that young man who did that work, who engaged in that work, uh, who changed so many lives, who dramatically changed the trajectory of where America was heading. | |
| And I don't think anyone can ever you know fully comprehend what that what that will do, what that will what that will bear over the course of the next decades. | |
| Uh but we'll see it and we know, and again, we'll be able to have those conversations and and remember him for that. | |
| You've you've never had uh uh uh someone of that age. | |
| And remember, Charlie did not have a college degree. | |
| Charlie did this as a teenager. | |
| And And you have to go back to the revolutionary generation, Hamilton, Jefferson, people like that in that youth, right? | |
| To see somebody at that age do it. | |
| Um, I know you guys got so much to do, and I appreciate taking that, but I want to finish what with one just observations um from both you, and I'll start with uh with uh you, Andrew. | |
| People don't realize the bravery and cur courage is the most important of all virtues, as we know because upon courage, all other virtues rest. | |
| People do not understand the pressure, the tension and the threats against Charlie Kirk that he just goes, I'm not gonna stop this work. | |
| I mean he was assassinated in the very moment of what he did, what really changed the arc of this country personal engagement in in an upbeat mode, but but digging in on debate and and free speech and the sharing of ideas and changing minds. | |
| But talk to me about he constantly, you guys, he was under uh threats and he and he would not back off. | |
| He did not, and that's what we have to understand here. | |
| We cannot uh back off, we can't flinch. | |
| Your thoughts. | |
| I mean, I hate to be the guy, but I begged him to do less. | |
| I was, you know, worried about his energy level. | |
| I was worried about his his uh his health. | |
| And um I begged him to, you know, maybe we don't need to do uh a fall tour this way. | |
| Maybe we could put glass up. | |
| I mean, we've talked about all this stuff, and he just you know how Charlie was. | |
| He was just like, no, I'm not gonna do that. | |
| You know, like, you know, I want to be close to everybody, you know. | |
| And um, you know, and and our security team is legitimately top notch for anybody wondering. | |
| They they worked so long and extensively with local PD and advancing all of these stops. | |
| I mean, we have like an army of these guys. | |
| Yeah, and he did want to do that. | |
| But he, you know, and I in some ways, you know, he died with his boots on and with the microphone in his hand, doing what he loved most to do. | |
| And I want people to understand Charlie loved this like format, this moment with these students. | |
| He learned so much. | |
| He would always say that I learned so much. | |
| He loved it. | |
| He and and he died doing what he loved, and I know that because I saw it firsthand. | |
| I was the I was the voice in his ear going like, maybe we shouldn't try no, he's like, I love this. | |
| You don't understand. | |
| Um caps and engagement. | |
| He loved it. | |
| Tyler, your closing thoughts and observations, sir. | |
| What Andrew just said is exactly right. | |
| This is this was the work the man loved. | |
| Uh there is nothing that was going to stop Charlie Kirk from doing the work that he loved to do. | |
| Doing the work that was uh very directly what was needed to be done to to put this country on the right track. | |
| Uh that debt of gratitude that we all have that have been around Charlie, that have worked with Charlie uh in in the trenches that have uh been in the battles. | |
| I mean, we've seen I I've been with Charlie. | |
| You've we've seen it, we've told these stories before where we've been attacked by Antifa. | |
| Uh in in places we've been uh uh you know spit on and and hit and stuff has been thrown at us. | |
| We've seen it all from early days to to where we are today. | |
| And he's just become more loved, and as we know, as he's become more loved, is that there's the the crazy people and the the radicals that that are very uncomfortable with how that popularity is ascended. | |
| And again, the best thing that we can do is teach others to fearlessly do the work, the brave work that has to be done in order for this country to survive, for the constitutional republic to be defended. | |
| Uh there was no there was no pathway for a Trump revival without Charlie Kirk. | |
| There was no pathway for a Trump revival without uh all of the energy that you see in these images of particularly young men, but young people in general coming around, turning around. | |
| Uh that pride that Charlie had that we had shifted in many of these states well more than double digits to the right. | |
| Young people. | |
| I mean, in some of these places, we're talking 30, 40 points. | |
| And we should have to this is generational change that will never stop or be forgotten. | |
| And so that's the best way we can honor Charlie's to risk honor and respect his work, how he went about his work, and then do our best to do pieces of it to to replicate it. | |
| And I know that that's what all of our people are thinking about today. | |
| Uh as we wake up and we think about Charlie and his legacy. | |
| And I know, Steve, I just want to say this. | |
| I know he how much he loved and adored you. | |
| Um as a as a guy that was in the foxhole with him constantly. | |
| And you know, we talked about that loyalty. | |
| That was that was felt both ways with you. | |
| And and I know I just want to say on behalf of the entire turning point family, and for for myself, is I I can't thank you enough for being that great friend to Charlie through the thick and vent. | |
| Because that's what that's what you know enabled Charlie to become Charlie and to do the work that he did. | |
| Yeah, um, I uh I echo that, and I know I know because I saw what he said about you behind closed doors, Steve, how much he loved you. | |
| And uh, no, I mean that. | |
| Um he did, he really did cared about you a lot and respected you a lot, and um never said him say a side word sideways word, you know. | |
| And um I uh I just wanted to say one thing, and I I don't think it's worth giving them uh the time of day, frankly. | |
| Um, but you see, I I want I just wanted to echo something I saw Matt Walsh actually write online because there's there's people celebrating this, and I think it's really disgusting, and they don't really deserve the time of day. | |
| But Matt had a great take, and that he's like, you know, when I die, I hope my enemies are uh are happy because that meant that like I was effective and they knew it. | |
| Yeah, and so Charlie was fighting against ideological enemies against this country, against God, against goodness, against righteousness. | |
| And I will say this what is sown in righteousness will bear righteous fruit. | |
| And Charlie, and you're hearing it from two guys and three guys really that knew him intimately and well and saw him day in and day out, saw him in the tough moments where the chips were down. | |
| He was fundamentally good, and he was decent and he was kind and he loved God and he was anchored, and he honored his friends. | |
| And what what he did behind closed doors is the same thing he did with his friends, whether it be you know Tucker Carlson or Megan Kelly or Steve Bannon or some you know kid that he randomly met at some chapter, it was who he was, and he was the exact same person he lived his values out, and that's why I say what is sown and righteousness will bear bear righteous fruit. | |
| You cannot you cannot snuff out what is sown and righteousness, and um I truly believe that. | |
| And um anybody in the that can hear the sound of my voice, like take faith because like God is our refuge, God is was Charlie's strength. | |
| Charlie is with God right now, he is with Jesus, and I believe that with all my heart. | |
| I've gotten like some these pastors and prophetic voices calling me saying that the craziest things happened right when uh Charlie's life was taken from us. | |
| And I believe it that um that God is going to bring about his vision and his goodness um and his plan from this terrible tragedy, and I believe it with all my heart. | |
| And I last thing, Steve. | |
| Sure. | |
| Charlie was not a revolutionary. | |
| It's funny because I helped him with this book, The Right Wing Revolution. | |
| And that was that was actually a counter-revolutionary book. | |
| It it was like, hey, we love peace and we love our country, we love America. | |
| We don't want to see um, we don't want to see blood in the streets. | |
| We don't want to see uh violence. | |
| And I just want to say that for all I love the righteous anger that I'm seeing from our friends. | |
| Don't get me wrong. | |
| I love it and I share it. | |
| And I want whoever did this to be brought to justice swiftly and uh firmly. | |
| But Charlie wants a country for his kids to thrive in and grow in. | |
| And I would just say it's okay to be radicalized. | |
| It's not okay for that to go in the wrong direction. | |
| Remember what Charlie would want. | |
| He won he loved our founders, he loved this country. | |
| Um please um direct what you're feeling towards saving America, not ripping it apart. | |
| Well, let's do that because Charlie, it's it's on your shoulders and the team at turning point to finish what uh he started. | |
| So what's the uh what's your social media? | |
| Um Twitter is uh ex. | |
| It's uh Andrew Kay say. | |
| Um I'm mostly there as a tack dog for Charlie. | |
| Um, but I did leave a note um as best I could yesterday, moments after what happened. | |
| Um we're gonna we're gonna probably be doing the show after you today with with Jack Casova. | |
| He's gonna remote. | |
| I'll probably chime in a bit. | |
| And um uh we're gonna I know Jack's got a whole plan and um and uh turning point USA. | |
| We're gonna toss you guys like we always toss. | |
| Tyler, uh closing thoughts and where do people track you guys, because now it's upon the team at turning point, like I said, to finish uh to finish what Charlie started. | |
| Yeah, uh Steve. | |
| The best way, just like uh Andrew said, the best way to get involved is is the spirit of Charlie Kirk, which is not the you know misdirected animosity and anger way. | |
| It's the way that Charlie Bell, I mean, the the beautiful part about what Charlie did that's different from everyone else, and I just had this conversation with others is we've had legends pass who have done so much good for this this world. | |
| Uh guys like Rush Limbaugh and so many others that we've seen in the in the past. | |
| The difference is that Charlie built something and led the way of this is what you do in order to help save the country in the way that Charlie would save it. | |
| All the programs that we do through Turney Point USA, high school college and our faith, TP USA Faith, uh getting involved with that, or you know, beyond that into politics and the elections is winning elections, winning the argument, winning the debate within the public space. | |
| That's what Charlie did. | |
| That's his entire legacy, this is entire life, is get involved, become part of something in your community. | |
| Don't stand by and become so cynical that you don't think this thing, these things can change. | |
| The cynics all sat along the sidelines and said that Trump can never win again. | |
| And we knew better than that. | |
| We knew that if we could get everybody involved, Charlie knew that if we could get everybody involved doing these things that you could win. | |
| So getting involved at Turning Point Action, we would welcome everybody with open arms. | |
| We have swing states to win, we have places to establish so that uh Charlie's kids and our kids can all uh live in the in the America that the the constitutional republic that we once knew and we we know can be uh that we know that the the left is the radical left is working against. | |
| And so getting involved at TPAction.com. | |
| Uh just click the links to get involved. | |
| We would love nothing more than for millions of Americans to march to the beat of Charlie's drum for the rest of their lives. | |
| Uh that's that's the way. | |
| So thank you, Steve. | |
| Amen. | |
| Uh we will toss to you guys at at noon. | |
| Tyre Tyler Boyer, uh TP, uh Turning Point Action, and of course Andrew Colvet, the uh kind of the uh tack dog a little bit, the the the exec executive producer of the show and uh spokesman for turning point. | |
| That's good. | |
| That was my that was my two of the two of the tough job. | |
| Two of the toughest homebrees I've ever met, and uh uh Charlie left this in good hands. | |
| So let's go ahead. | |
| We got we got Charlie Kirk last weekend of his life. | |
| What did Charlie Kirk do? | |
| Charlie Kirk went to Korea to spread the uh to spread the gospel of conservatism and also our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, uh the great Mina Kim. | |
| Let's go ahead and see it. | |
| Oh, you're should be up in the trends. | |
| We're gonna do a Korean way of prayer for you. | |
| It's called a uh praying out loud pray. | |
| We would want to do that to you and bless you today. | |
| Let's pray. | |
| God, I pray. | |
| Oh, we'll see how it's sing with me. | |
| How great is our God Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your warrior to Korea. | |
| I lift up Charlie, the leader you raised up in America to wake up next generation. | |
| May he remember Korea in every step he takes, and may you protect him, Lord. | |
| And be with him so that he may fully carry out the mission you have entrusted to him. | |
| And Lord, I thank you for making this gathering possible. | |
| And I give all the glory to you, Lord. | |
| I pray all this name in the name of Jesus. | |
| Amen. | |
| Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. | |
| I'm Jack Pasovic here, live in Washington, DC. | |
| And today, I'm sitting in a chair that I never wanted to sit in. | |
| I'm sitting in a chair that I never hoped to be in, that I don't want to be in, but I'm gonna be here. | |
| Because I know that's where Charlie would want me to be today. | |
| And I'm not just here as I don't know. | |
| MAGA Pasobic or fellow conservative firebrand to the world, you know. | |
| Charlie Kirk was conservative firebrand, hero, cultural icon. | |
| But to me, he was my friend. | |
| And it's been the honor of my life to be standing shoulder to shoulder with him in this great fight. | |
| And so it's with a very heavy heart that I sit in this chair on this show that he built on the platform that he poured his soul into. | |
| Because Charlie is no longer with us. | |
| He was taken from us in an act of left-wing political violence, of terrorism, assassinated. | |
| Yet even in his final moments, Charlie was doing what he always did, standing tall, speaking boldly, proclaiming the truth without fear. | |
| Greater love hath no man than this. | |
| That a man lay down his life for his friends. | |
| Charlie Kirk isn't just an American martyr. | |
| And I've got right here. | |
| One of those hats. | |
| Charlie signed right there. | |
| I'm never going to let it go. | |
| I'm always going to keep it right here with me. | |
| Because Charlie's always going to be here with me, with you, with all of us. | |
| And he's watching us all right now. | |
| And what is Charlie saying? | |
| It's your turn. | |
| It's your turn. | |
| Lock in, Patriots. | |
| Charlie's faith in Christ Jesus was not just a private belief, it was the foundation of his entire life. | |
| The courage that he had to go into the battle that he went into every day on every campus was the courage straight from heaven. | |
| It was the Lord's. | |
| He spoke with the conviction because he believed the truth of Scripture, and he was unshakable. | |
| And he gave of himself tirelessly. | |
| He loved his family, his friends, and this country that he knew God had blessed in a very special way. | |
| So today, we're not just going to remember the man who founded Turning Point USA or hosted this show or owned the Libs. | |
| We're remembering the son, the husband, the father, the friend, the mentor, and the warrior who never wavered. | |
| Charlie Kirk died with his boots on and a microphone in his hand, proclaiming the truth on campus, his eyes fixed on eternity. | |
| He'll be forever 31. | |
| So as we begin this memorial podcast, let us not only mourn his loss, Erica's loss, their children's loss. | |
| Let's also commit ourselves to carrying forward his mission. | |
| Because the mission of Charlie Kirk, the mission of Turning Point USA goes on, and it will never stop. | |
| Charlie wouldn't want us to retreat. | |
| No, the word was not in his vocabulary. | |
| He would want us to fight with truth, with faith, with love for this nation, and for each other. | |
| They couldn't debate him, so they shot him. | |
| That's what happened. | |
| And everybody needs to understand that. | |
| What was his crime? | |
| Talking. | |
| And that was too much for you. | |
| Charlie Kirk Memorial Show. | |
| Got our hats right here. | |
| And if you were ever anyone who happened to have a hat that was thrown out by Charlie Kirk or signed by Charlie Kirk, I'm asking, I'm actually gonna say something right now that you know, kind of outside of memorial, but I'm just gonna say because I think it needs to be said, if you have one of those hats that's signed by Charlie Kirk, do us all a favor. | |
| Don't put it on eBay, don't be that person. | |
| Just just that's not what Charlie was about. | |
| Charlie was never about that. | |
| He was never about trying to uh trying to turn this into something that was personal because it wasn't about him, it was about the country, it was about students, it was about young men, young women connecting, and it was about winning. | |
| It was never about playing these games. | |
| It just it just wasn't about and uh as a guy who knew Charlie, it was not about that. | |
| Guys, do we have did I see Andrew there? | |
| Okay, so working on uh I want to get one of the guests on, but I'd love to play now some of the I think we have some visuals, these visuals, vigils that have been popping up overnight and completely organic, completely not planned at all, all across the country, the South, the North, the East, the West, they're everywhere. | |
| They're praying Rosaries in Scottsdale, where Charlie and Erica lived. | |
| They're spontaneously doing this, you know. | |
| Charlie Kirk spent his entire career trying to inspire a turning point in America. | |
| Spent his entire career trying to inspire a turning point in America, and he's done it. | |
| America now has a turning point, and that was Charlie's gift to all of us. | |
| Charlie's gift of his time, his energy, his courage, and ultimately his life. | |
| Got my good friend and Charlie's good friend, Andrew Colvet. | |
| You guys know him, producer Andrew. | |
| We get him on here. | |
| Andrew, uh, how are you holding up, man? | |
| Hey, Jack. | |
| Um, just want to say thank you, first of all, for um uh hosting today. | |
| I know it's not easy for you either, and um, I mean, I'm holding up as well as you can imagine. | |
| You know, I was hosting this show yesterday for Charlie so that he could go to the campus stop in uh in Utah. | |
| And um, you know, you just don't you know you're never prepared for something like this, obviously, and um, you know, but uh I know he um he would want me and he would want you and all of us to to keep going. | |
| I know he'd want me to do this, and so um we do the best we can and um and uh well you know the thing with the thing with Charlie too is I remember when even when you and I were chatting, or or you know, some of the gang was chatting last night. | |
| There wasn't even a question of would we have a show today? | |
| There wasn't even a question of, you know, would would would turning point keep moving forward. | |
| There wasn't a question of that because that's who Charlie was. | |
| And I remember, you know, I remember we were saying, should I should I, you know, come up and do shows? | |
| Should I fly out there? | |
| What, you know, what do you think? | |
| And I could hear Charlie's voice in my head. | |
| And he would always say to me, he said, because whenever I would go to him with with a question and say, Charlie, I've got a you know, a choice I have to make. | |
| Do I need to, you know, gut check? | |
| What do you think? | |
| Do this or do that? | |
| He'd say, do everything. | |
| Do everything. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Do it all. | |
| Say, keep going, do it all, do everything, be everywhere. | |
| That was Charlie. | |
| I think he was secretly mad we weren't streaming last night, you know. | |
| Um I 100%, we all had the same thought at the same time that we all know that when something big is going on, when something uh big is is happening. | |
| Charlie Kirk would be like, let's get in there, let's go live stream it, get it up, make sure we get the rumble live, make sure it's all going. | |
| We got everybody in freedom of Charlie Kirk.com, Freedom of Charlie Kirk.com. | |
| Make sure you're all signed up, subscribe to the podcast. | |
| And that's that was Charlie, right? | |
| Because he just wanted to gather people together. | |
| And I think I I actually think that's that's sort of Charlie's mission, or or maybe it was his great skill in life, that he was a gatherer of people, or of course, to use the biblical phrase, a fisher of men. | |
| Charlie Kirk truly was a fisher of men. | |
| And I actually hadn't even thought about it that way until just this minute. | |
| But that's exactly what he was that he had that ability to go out into a crowd of strangers. | |
| And he could he could get everyone together, and he could turn them into followers and he could activate them, you know, politically, and he could get he could motivate people. | |
| And that that is not something that you can learn. | |
| That that is a talent that was given to him from God. | |
| And now he's on another assignment for God. | |
| And we don't know and we can't really understand that, but that's what it is. | |
| That's what it is. | |
| You know what? | |
| My my one pushback, Jack, is that um I watched Charlie Kirk be terrible at a bunch of things. | |
| And he learned how to be good. | |
| He he learned how to be good at them by sheer force of will. | |
| He refused to not be good at things that he needed to be good at. | |
| And he learned a lot of that stuff. | |
| Yes, he was blessed by God with this just this engine, this motor that you couldn't hold back. | |
| He was blessed by God with just uh a spirit that you couldn't keep down. | |
| Um, he was a happy warrior. | |
| He would genuinely was a happy warrior. | |
| And um he loved this country, he loved his family, and he loved God. | |
| And um all of those things were true. | |
| And that drove him to be the absolute best he could be. | |
| It drove him to study the ancient texts. | |
| It drove him to study political philosophy and read the important books and the great books. | |
| And it drove him to like, I mean, I have a story. | |
| We were coming back from Aspen with Dr. James Orr from Cambridge, um, who's become a good friend. | |
| And um, we spent the whole plane ride and then and then uh talking about what James knew picking his brain, and then Charlie looked at him and he said, Hey, what are you doing tomorrow? | |
| Can you spend the entire day with me on a Sunday? | |
| And I'm just gonna ask you questions. | |
| And so Cambridge professor sitting there teaching, coaching Charlie for an entire Sunday. | |
| That was his idea of a good time. | |
| And um, and it was that was Charlie. | |
| He wanted so badly just to keep growing and be infinitely curious and getting better so he could articulate his ideas better to the next generation so that he could go out to these campus events and be more equipped and ready, uh, no matter what the question was. | |
| And um, and he ultimately put that same sort of energy into his family and into his marriage, and he wanted to be the best husband He could be, and he wanted to be the best father he could be. | |
| And he knew that the demands on his time were extraordinary, that they were superhuman. | |
| And so he threw himself into biohacking and how he could get the most out of his body and how he could sleep the deepest and how he could keep his energy the highest. | |
| And then he would spend his.gov | |
| slash Utah Valley shooting. | |
| And so you can you can see this individual seems to be college age, um, thin, you know, I'd say rail thin, average height, uh, glasses, again, a hat, you know, clearly someone who has some kind of patriotic lettering or or logo. | |
| So clearly someone who was attempting to blend in with the crowd who was there. | |
| Um, they have not told us whether or not this is the shooter. | |
| But here's what I'm gonna say. | |
| If you were, even if you didn't see that person, okay, if you were at that event yesterday, and and Andrew, I certainly hope, you know, if the team's available or has footage that they haven't yet turned over to the FBI, scroll through your phone, scroll through your videos, | |
| go frame by frame, just see if you can find this person, these glasses, this hat, uh, this logo anywhere in the crowd, because that is, and they could throw that back up again real quick, because that is going to be a way to potentially determine if he was talking to anyone, what he was up to, what direction he went in, any of those things. | |
| So if you were there, or if you just recognize him from this, please go ahead and share that out with the FBI. | |
| Um, you know, we'll cover that as we can. | |
| Obviously, there's been a lot of questions as going on as to what happens, and I don't want to turn this into huge speculation about that. | |
| I want to make this about Charlie, but at the same time, if there are official updates, we're gonna share them as we can. | |
| Uh Andrew, do you wanna do you want to take us out? | |
| Yeah, I mean, um, I hope they get this guy or guys. | |
| Um, if it was coordinated, if it was sophisticated and well funded, as some of the rumors that I'm hearing are, I hope they get them all. | |
| From root to STEM, I hope they get them all. | |
| And I hope righteous justice is visited upon whoever was behind us. | |
| Um, very honored that we are now joined by someone who knew Charlie very well. | |
| It is the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. | |
| Mr. Speaker, thank you so much for joining on this today. | |
| And although I I just have to say for myself, and I'm sure you as well, I would much rather be talking to you about literally any other subject. | |
| Of course, uh, Jack, you're doing a great job with an impossible assignment today. | |
| I mean, I I should have wondered last night who would be in the chair today, because the the nation needs to hear what you're sharing and what we're all sharing. | |
| Um, I can tell you it has changed the atmosphere of Capitol Hill. | |
| It began immediately after this event. | |
| Uh, I was I was in a high level meeting, and my chief of staff burst in the door and handed me a card and said, Charlie Kirk has been shot. | |
| And I stopped. | |
| And I mean, we had, you know, these are like heads of state, and we all just paused and I told them what was on the card. | |
| And it's it's it still seems unbelievable to me. | |
| I mean, we're all kind of in shock here. | |
| Um, Charlie was a singular voice, as you know. | |
| I mean, this show is about him, it's a tribute to him. | |
| He deserves it. | |
| He deserves so much more because there's there are few people who had such an effect on the country and on his generation. | |
| I did all the you know, media shows last night. | |
| I was on I think on CNN. | |
| I said, you know, he we talk a lot about the free marketplace of ideas. | |
| And I think it is undeniable. | |
| I don't think anyone can argue. | |
| Charlie Kirk contributed more productive content, the free marketplace of ideas than anyone in his generation, and arguably in several generations. | |
| I mean, he just was that kind of figure, and he's irreplaceable. | |
| But I'm comforted to know, Jack, that his his legacy will continue because what he did and what he started will go on. | |
| And I hope it inspires in the hearts of everybody who followed and loved him and believed in him and prayed for him. | |
| Um, that same spirit that Charlie carried, you know, to not give in, to stand for freedom, stand for the truth, and love the people on the other side of the argument. | |
| And that's what he represented. | |
| You know, I and I was saying this we were on last night, and and you know, when you would go to these events with Charlie, he would act, he would actually say, if you disagree with me, come to the front of the line. | |
| I don't want you to, I don't want you to ride in the back of the bus. | |
| Come to the very front of the line. | |
| Let's have it out, let's talk. | |
| And he had this ability to kind of get past the argument, the the politics of it, and see if there was a way, this was this was his move, right? | |
| His his skill. | |
| He would he would try to connect with the person, find out what made them tick, find out who they were at their core, and then start there. | |
| And you've never seen anyone do it like that before. | |
| No, he was so talented because he had that gift. | |
| It's a gift from God, a gift from the Lord, to be able to go to the heart of the matter and the heart of the person. | |
| Because he, what Charlie was motivated by, you and I both know, I knew him so well. | |
| And he was a man of deep faith as I am, and we've talked about this a lot. | |
| That the objective is not just to win the argument, the objective is to move the heart, right? | |
| And and what Charlie was about was trying to advance the permanent things. | |
| He was a master in the temporal things, right? | |
| He could he could argue any issue better than anybody, better than most people on Capitol Hill or could ever hope to. | |
| Uh, and he he could talk about public policy or issues that were pending. | |
| He would, he was a master of his of his uh of his science in that regard, political science and all of that. | |
| Um, but really what it was really about was not winning the temporal argument or that particular issue. | |
| It was about the permanent things, the eternal things, the scripture says. | |
| The apostle Paul said, we don't focus on the temporal, we focus on the eternal. | |
| And that's what Charlie was about, because he was trying to be an ambassador for the king of kings. | |
| He was trying to be an ambassador for his savior, Jesus. | |
| And he modeled that. | |
| And so, you know, what I love about Charlie, and I said this to a big gaggle of reporters here this morning, because they're following me around. | |
| They want me to just give comment at every turn about this, and because they know I knew him well and loved him, and we, you know, it's moved us so much. | |
| But this is what I said about Charlie as I said, you know, the thing about it was he was the sharpest wit. | |
| He could argue and win any debate, but he never held it personally against the person on the other side, no matter how far to the other end of the spectrum they were. | |
| In fact, the further they were, the more compassion he had For their heart, because he he he believed that he was ultimately trying to lead people to the truth that we know, the eternal truth, right? | |
| And so what Christ taught us is that it says in Romans 12 that you stand strong, you you uh you be courageous and bold and you you stand firm uh and you act like men, it says, which Charlie was a man's man. | |
| But do let all that you do be done in love. | |
| That's what scripture says. | |
| And that's what Charlie was about. | |
| And he was motivated by his love for his fellow man. | |
| He didn't hate anybody. | |
| He was trying to win him over to the argument because he knew that would be better for them in the long run. | |
| And that's what we appreciated about him so much. | |
| And we opened the show with that. | |
| And uh, I said, Greater love hath no man than this. | |
| He gives himself give his life for his friends. | |
| And I'm sure, Speaker, I'm sure you're on Charlie's list as well, because you could always tell what Charlie, what Charlie was focusing on in the Bible, because he would he would pull a quote every morning and he would just text it to his whole list of people individually. | |
| I said, How are you doing this, Charlie? | |
| And I would see him doing it sometimes if we were together. | |
| And he, and and it wasn't just, you know, some you know, ephemeral thing, or he's you know, pulling it from one of those verses of the day or or you know, different things. | |
| And it was fine, but no, this was deep study. | |
| And he pulled those verses for a specific reason. | |
| And in a strange way, when I woke up this morning and I didn't get that text from Charlie, it's almost like that's when it hit me. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Because he he always does that every single day. | |
| That's true, but every single day. | |
| And today he didn't. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Um, it leaves a big void, not just in the text chain, but in in our society. | |
| Uh there, what are the more than 2,500 chapters, turning point chapters on university campuses around the country. | |
| I mean, it's uh uh just an unequaled movement that he began and grew and and stewarded uh as a great steward, by the way, of the platform that God gave him. | |
| You know, he was faithful in the little things, and then God trusted him with more and more. | |
| He had one of the biggest voices in the culture, and he and he knew the responsibility that came with that, and he was very careful with it. | |
| And um, that's why he was so deep in the scripture and uh and and in prayer, because he wanted to make sure that he he carried that mantle well and he did, you know. | |
| We know where he is right now. | |
| I'm absolutely convinced where he is, and he's hearing that great uh that great call, well done, good and faithful servant. | |
| Speaker Johnson, President Trump earlier today at the 9-11 memorial, of course, today is is 9-11. | |
| It it certainly feels like 9-11 again. | |
| Um, that he announced that Charlie will be at some upcoming uh date posthumously awarded the presidential medal of freedom. | |
| Uh, do you know anything about that or potential other uh memorials that uh around DC that maybe up with the Capitol that are being discussed? | |
| Yeah, there's a lot being discussed. | |
| Um it's interesting. | |
| I talked to President at length uh yesterday, probably about an hour before this event took place, and I have not spoken to him since. | |
| And so my we've been, he was busy all last night, and I was in this morning. | |
| I'm gonna call him here shortly. | |
| But I I know that the president was felt very close to Charlie. | |
| He was like family, as you know, um, in the Trump family. | |
| And and we all shared that same uh so many people, so many members of Congress, Republican members in the house, for certain, all of my closest friends here, they all felt a close connection to Charlie because he made everybody feel that way. | |
| And because of that, there's so there's there's just sort of uh this big movement now that that members are just um one after the other are coming up with ideas on how to memorialize him and how to have an appropriate um you know remembrance. | |
| And there are lots of ideas or different resolutions. | |
| Uh, that some of them were begun to be filed uh in the record, you know, last yesterday evening, uh shortly after all this took place. | |
| So um we've got to sort all that out. | |
| I'm gonna have a collection, a stack of ideas of things of how to do this and we'll we'll figure it out. | |
| But we want to do something certainly that is appropriate for his stature and what he meant to the country, what he meant to the conservative movement, what he meant to our party. | |
| Um, but it does, it really does transcend party because Charlie, in so many ways represented the best of America, like all of us, right? | |
| He obviously was on our team. | |
| He was a he was the one of the principal conservative voices in the culture. | |
| But even larger than that, he represented the best of America. | |
| And you know, he he Charlie believed in and tried to advance and share with the next generation the principles of freedom. | |
| He he believed and he understood that the foundation of all this is our Judeo-Christian heritage, the the great tradition that we have that began 250 years ago when we boldly proclaimed the self-evident truth that our rights come from God, not the government, and that God made us in his image. | |
| And we owe a responsibility to him. | |
| I mean, Charlie understood what made America different and exceptional and the greatest nation in the history of the world. | |
| And he was so passionate about making sure the next generation understood that. | |
| Even the people that didn't agree with him. | |
| Um, that was his drive. | |
| And so he represents so much. | |
| And I all that is to say that I, you know, there's an appropriate level of memorialization of this great life that is, you know, not suited for most. | |
| And uh, we got to sort that out and figure it out. | |
| And that's what we'll be doing in the next couple of days. | |
| Uh I think that's absolutely right. | |
| I think that's absolutely appropriate. | |
| And I've also been privy to some of the ideas and and memorial ideas and perhaps naming ideas of of you know, maybe a park or something that uh you know tied with the 250th, people have been kicking around that that because Charlie loved the outdoors. | |
| That's something that actually people don't, you know, you see him on campus, you see him on camera, but you know, every single minute he could get in the sun, he was a big believer, you know, big Maha guy, and always believed in the power being outside and believed in our country. | |
| You know, this this past weekend, he he went to Korea, which uh I believe Korea, Japan wound up being his last tour. | |
| And and that was the first time he'd been to that part of the world. | |
| And he just loved America so much and traveled to, I remember he used to used to tell me he was so uh so proud that he'd visited every state twice. | |
| He said, I got every state twice, Jack. | |
| You have all 50 yet, you know. | |
| And and that's so he and I were always ribbing each other. | |
| And that's that's the uh I think that's what I'm you know, in many ways, I'll miss that the most. | |
| Just the little debates and the camaraderie that you that you have with him. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I understand you obviously have quite a lot on your plate as well today. | |
| Um, just is there any other message that you wanted to give for the folks that are watching before he take off? | |
| Well, I'll just say this. | |
| I mean, because you touched on it there, he traveled to all 50 states more than once. | |
| Um, he was a singular figure in history because I heard uh yesterday some people comparing Charlie in a way, his his stature, his intelligence, his character, his demeanor, his integrity to that of the founding fathers. | |
| I mean, he kind of had that spirit about him, right? | |
| As we know. | |
| And what's interesting about Charlie as opposed to our our forefathers is that he had the the ability of of technology of modern transportation means he could take the voice everywhere, and he did. | |
| I mean, he used every platform available. | |
| I mean, radio, podcast, everywhere, television, he was ubiquitous. | |
| Um, and and he used the again, the platform that God gave him to the greatest extent possible. | |
| In fact, he was a pioneer in that regard. | |
| I mean, you know, people said, well, he aspired to be like um Rush Limbaugh. | |
| He went further than Rush in many ways because he because he mastered all these other mediums, right? | |
| And he did more than the founders could have ever imagined to advance the principles that they set in place. | |
| And it is very appropriate on the eve of our 250th birthday as a nation, the greatest nation in the history of the world, that we had a figure like this for such a short time, and he left such a tremendous legacy for the next chapter of American history that we're all gonna forge together. | |
| And I hope we do it in the spirit that Charlie left us with, not timidly, but boldly, but in love. | |
| And that is his his greatest, um, his greatest contribution. | |
| So, Jack, thanks. | |
| You're doing an extraordinary job on an impossible assignment. | |
| Appreciate you, brother. | |
| We'll see you soon. | |
| Speaker Johnson, thank you so much for your time. | |
| Thank you so much for your kind words today for Charlie and his family. | |
| You know, uh just piggybacking on what he said there, the founding fathers, they they certainly used new media their time as well. | |
| The printing press is uh indelibly and inextricably linked to the founding generation. | |
| So the new media of the time, Thomas Payne, comma sense, that was the new media that was going viral. | |
| And uh, I just wanted to read something just very quickly before I bring our next guest on. | |
| People were talking about the the ages of the revolutionary generation, and uh one thing that I don't think people realize. | |
| So Charlie, Charlie's 31. | |
| When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, 1776, he was 33 years old. | |
| John Hancock was 39 when he signed it, Patrick Henry, 40, John Adams, 40. | |
| James Munro, 18 Years old, Alexander Hamilton, 21 years old. | |
| James Madison, 25 years old, and Edward Rutledge and Thomas Hayward, 29 years old. | |
| And Washington was 44. | |
| Ben Franklin, of course, was the old man of the group. | |
| He was 70. | |
| So when you look at the revolutionary generation, they were the exact same age as Charlie, and the age of the people that he's trying to reach, and even the next generation of that. | |
| I want to bring on Tyler Boyer here, the COO, Turning Point Action, and just Charlie's right-hand man and so many things. | |
| And Tyler, as a student of history, as you are, you know, I had it ever occurred to you that you know that's that's the exact age Charlie was. | |
| Well, first off, Jack, I just want to say this is thank you for taking taking on the job of standing up for Charlie's show today. | |
| He wouldn't have wanted it any other way than you know, his partner in crime, in which you've been his is his right hand guy and doing so much of media on real America's voice and on radio and everything else. | |
| So thank you for that. | |
| But yeah, I mean, I look at the group, you know, that picture just came up of the four or five of us, you know, Andrew, who I think was on earlier, yourself, uh, me, Charlie, like we have some young guys. | |
| Like when I got got involved with Charlie, I'm eight years older than him, and I was in my mid-20s, yeah, when I when I was getting involved with Turning Point and with Charlie, and starting to take, you know, that bull by the horns. | |
| Charlie was a teenager. | |
| So, you know, we now we I we feel old, you know, and we're we're on the precipice here, because you, me, I think Benny Johnson and Andrew are all basically the same age, and we're a little bit older than Charlie, about seven or eight years older than him, each of us. | |
| And but you know, we're all under the age of 40, clearly, and have been doing this work for the last 10 to 15 years. | |
| Charlie's legacy is that he was the young guy in that group when you make the comparison to that, but he was the leader. | |
| And uh the thing that we've reflected on this entire time, uh, for the last 24 hours in particular, is uh Charlie has always been uh uh a leader amongst men. | |
| I remember meeting him uh again in my 20s, and he was basically just coming out of his teenage years. | |
| And I just thought to myself, I was like, oh my gosh, this guy's like an 85-year-old trapped in a in a 20-year-old. | |
| He's an old soul. | |
| He always was but he was like that, he was like that Lincoln-esque, you know, Ben Franklin-esque, you know, the way that you read it in the textbook as a wise person. | |
| That's the kind of and I know everybody's listening, but listens to the show. | |
| He's had that sense. | |
| He had that sense that came from somewhere else for once. | |
| Charlie Kirk is in the audience right now, and Charlie Kirk is watching all of us. | |
| I said in the beginning of the show, I'll say it here again. | |
| I know what Charlie's message would be to everyone asking, what do I do next? | |
| What do I do next? | |
| It's very simple. | |
| Charlie would say, it's your turn now. | |
| Want to uh bring back on Tyler Boyer, you know, one of one of Charlie's closest, uh closest associates. | |
| And and Tyler, you know, we were we were just kind of talking about that, about how, you know, personally, as as many things that Charlie was interested in and involved in, even non-political things. | |
| We Andrew and I were talking about the biohacking, uh, you know, earlier, that that he was just fascinated with that and lived it. | |
| Uh, theology that that he was a simple, he he was he had uh this tenacity and this ability to make the complex simple. | |
| And and just in in so many realms outside of the things that you see or or that you know him for, that's that's just who he was, no matter what he was doing. | |
| Yeah, you know, and that's really the legacy of turning point USA. | |
| I mean, we talked about this all the time. | |
| Uh, you know, most people don't really connect the dots on this, but when we we came onto the scene and really Charlie started Turning Point USA, there were no battle tanks. | |
| It was all think tanks, and we used to talk about this point, which is you know, there's all these think tanks out there making things really hard to reach for the average American, uh, a little bit overcomplicated, a little bit over convoluted. | |
| Uh, and there just weren't enough battle tanks of people going out and fighting the good fight, or just as you said, is making the really smart things, the complex things simple, so that the average American could understand them, uh, that the average American would want to understand them, that they would want to engage them. | |
| This is the whole thing is like this is what Charlie died doing was this very issue. | |
| I mean, you listen to Charlie, and you and I both know Charlie better than just about anybody, you know, Andrew who was on earlier, and there's a number of us and our senior team at Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action. | |
| But people knew Charlie is a genius. | |
| You met Charlie, you talked to him. | |
| He was an absolute genius of a man, but he spoke and broke things down so simply and so easily, so that everybody could really uh approach it. | |
| And that's what's made politics approachable. | |
| That's what's I think has got so many young people through Turning Point USA involved. | |
| It's what's gotten so many young men being able to embrace uh the qualities of what the the Christianity that Charlie professed, and that's what he would want everybody to know him by. | |
| But his activism as well, uh being a dad and being a uh a husband, uh those things are not complex things, but the world is complicated and the challenges are complicated, but the application of those things is really simple. | |
| And I think that's the memorial that we'll have for Charlie forever, and that I hope that my my dear friend that I have known for so long, uh since essentially the beginning of time, I was joking with Benny Johnson earlier today that we had to convince Charlie to start his Instagram. | |
| And you wouldn't believe that knowing Charlie today of how you know Speaker Johnson just said he he you know dominated all these mediums, you know, Rush Limbaugh didn't dominate social media or have a full 501c3 or a C4 and employ thousands of people. | |
| The man did everything. | |
| He did it all, but he made it so simple for everyone to approach and be able to engage with. | |
| And uh I will greatly, greatly miss him for that. | |
| Cause there's not this there's no one that that is like Charlie. | |
| There's no one, it's it's not likely we'll ever encounter someone that's able to do all those things. | |
| No, and and I agree with you that there was something timeless, but also outside of time about Charlie. | |
| There was just he he just didn't seem to be of this era. | |
| And I'm not even sure what era he belonged in. | |
| He just the way he fit in the world, but also was different from anyone else that you would meet. | |
| I mean, it's it's it's just God knew what he was doing when he made Charlie. | |
| God gave him assignment, and now God's got him on another assignment, and that's how it is. | |
| And he's up there with Rush now. | |
| And well, Tyler, let me let me ask you this though. | |
| You know, Charlie, obviously, he's been building turning point USA, building turning point action all of these years. | |
| Um he built these institutions to last. | |
| And and I I always got the sense, I never really talked to him about this directly, but I always got the sense that he wanted turning point USA to be separate from him in the sense that it would always go on because it was always about the students. | |
| It was always about the chapters, and the chapters were constantly changing. | |
| And and yeah, what what does that look like from your perspective? | |
| Well, and we talked about that all the time, you know, uh having the honor of being COO of Turning Point USA for many years and now turning point action and having you know hired and worked with thousands and thousands of people, | |
| uh the greatest legacy that Charlie Kirk has is that he infused his energy, his resilience, his uh constant need for improvement for the conservative movement because when we uh really start engaging on many of these things you know the the question was was wow why doesn't the conservative movement have good enough events why why aren't we attracting enough people we got to do a bigger and better why did why did why is there no one that has a real legitimate field pro program and | |
| that supports young people we got to do it bigger and better why is there no 501c4 a political operation that's out there actually yeah doing it the way that the left does it with community organizers and we got to do it bigger and better and and just each and every one of those things and that's not even touching all the individual unique things on the media front the podcast front the uh you know tiktok obviously is the second largest voice on tiktok next to donald trump this year and | |
| i mean you're just talking about a monster of a a human being irreplicable that desire to fight and work and you know i was just talking about this as well it's just like we you know one of the quotes was you know don't care keep working go don't care work harder uh you know we talked about hating to lose you know how devastating the 2020 election was and how how horrified we were to learn that there wasn't | |
| enough work being done on the political side which which caused turning point action to really you know kick into gear you know really following in the lead up to 2022 and following 2022 for 2024 i mean that was the really the first time anyone's ever done anything like we did it was throwing the kitchen sink at the thing and charlie was leading from the front on that and there's just no one else and i could i could tell because you know of course there's that election night | |
| live stream 2022 it's me you charlie andrew was in and out and we were doing the uh we were doing remember the batches and other batches in another batches in other batches in other batches in and i remember doing the math till late in the wee hours and and i can remember the moment where charlie just turns to me i don't even know if it was on air and he just he just turns to me sitting there and says jack we need to start doing ballots and you could just see it in his eyes | |
| he said they won this thing with ballots and we need to start doing that and i could tell just in that moment again very simple that he took this whole complicated thing and he had figured it all out and he was doing the math you could see him doing it furiously just scribbling away and doing the math in in real time like like like rain man you know and uh and he said it's all ballots and so we need to chase ballots and i could tell in that movement everything that was going to happen in that moment everything that would happen between | |
| then and 2024 and that's exactly what happened and he knew that he had you to execute it well i was talking with his sweet wife who all the prayers we need to be praying unceasingly for erica and his two sweet babies um that i just was talking talking with her about this yesterday the look on charlie's face when he figured when he would figure something out he kind of gave you that yeah oh look | |
| and i'd seen that a million times because i've been in these rooms oops sorry about that i've been in these rooms with charlie you know fighting these battles and these wars and we'd figure out the problem that existed and then try to come up with the solution and then applying the right solution and you know going and getting the donors to pay for it and work work towards it and then we build it and then we do the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing and it never stopped lock in | |
| patriots lock in that's how charlie would want us to be that's what Charlie would that's what Charlie would say he would say be better. | |
| Work harder what are you doing next what's the next fight take the next hill finish the job finish the job complete the task complete the mission with the editor Breitbart Alex Marlowe now joining us. | |
| Alex you you knew Charlie as well as as any of us obviously and uh for you coming from Breitbart um this is now the second time uh you've had to go through something Like this in this in this moment. | |
| Um, talk to me a little bit about uh the legacy of of going through the legacy of Andrew, and now we have the legacy of Charlie. | |
| Thanks, Jack. | |
| And you're doing a wonderful job on this. | |
| It's beautiful tribute so far. | |
| Um, I I guess I'm unique in this regard that I was Andrew Breitbart's right hand man when he passed away at 43. | |
| Different circumstances, certainly wasn't an assassination while he was just trying to debate people on a campus. | |
| But a similar situation in a genuinely great man who is here and called to do great things for this country and in this life, and got taken from us. | |
| And one thing that was so heartening that after Andrew passed, people understood the importance of hard work of determination of trying to externalize all the messages that Andrew had given us that we'd internalized. | |
| And he became the pioneer of citizen journalism. | |
| He already was, but people not everyone stopped and thought about it until he was taken from us, until that light was extinguished. | |
| And that has got to be the exact approach, if not twofold, tenfold with with what Charlie's done. | |
| Tyler was touching on something really important that I've been trying to share with people is that Charlie wasn't just a giant in talk radio and podcasting. | |
| Uh, he wasn't just a giant in activism. | |
| And he may have been the biggest at that, but he was also meeting people where they were. | |
| He was on the campuses a hundred hours a semester. | |
| He was on the platforms that conservatives wouldn't even go on, things like TikTok. | |
| He was someone who was reaching people who might not get news from anywhere else. | |
| Now I wish people got news from all over the place. | |
| But a lot of the times they were relying on Charlie. | |
| He was an international sensation. | |
| We at Breitbart today were covering how the international press is reacting to Charlie's assassination. | |
| And they've strong opinions. | |
| They've thought long and hard about this guy. | |
| And he did it all with a smile with joy. | |
| He was always trying to run up that next hill and summit it. | |
| That spirit always inspired me as one of his peers and colleagues. | |
| And it is just infectious to be around. | |
| And my heart breaks for his family for the whole turning point team. | |
| But Charlie's message was loud and clear. | |
| We need to be those happy warriors who we need to be fearless. | |
| We need to be determined. | |
| And the fight, sadly, is only just begun. | |
| You know, it's it's it's one of those things too. | |
| And obviously, we're still getting more and more information out about the shooter who is still at large. | |
| And um, I know we have these photos that have come up as well. | |
| Alex, can you can you put us just give us a little bit of that taste? | |
| Um, you know, where do you think we stand with this uh this manhunt? | |
| Well, it's not great. | |
| It's not great news. | |
| We're getting nothing but bad news. | |
| First of all, there were some uh false hope that we had caught the guy right away, and then the person got away. | |
| And um, I think that that already is a disgrace. | |
| Um, a person like Charlie should have protection. | |
| I think we need to be very cautious going to these universities going forward. | |
| And I think that that's a shame because we need free speech now more than ever. | |
| And they're going to use this as an opportunity. | |
| They, the left, who's responsible for this. | |
| Uh, they're going to use this as a victory because they're going to see that there will be a chilling of speech because they hate free speech. | |
| They want control, they want authoritarianism. | |
| Charlie was an affront to that, and that's why he was targeted. | |
| And law enforcement needs to get the job done as soon as humanly possible. | |
| And I know our guys are in charge at a federal level. | |
| I don't know much about the local uh law enforcement, the state law enforcement, but it doesn't matter. | |
| We need to demand answers. | |
| We need to demand accountability right away, and we must be better. | |
| I'll tell you, I was just reading a lot about Butler recently and how we still don't have answers from Butler. | |
| That's a warning to people. | |
| I was on campus with Charlie Kirk over a year ago at UC Davis. | |
| They're smashing windows, they're trying to break into the building. | |
| Antifa's present. | |
| It is very dangerous to be a conservative right now. | |
| And I'll tell you, Jack, my audience right now, we feel hunted. | |
| We feel hunted down right now. | |
| And that is not a good thing. | |
| And we're just showing some of these images that are now coming in from all over the country last night. | |
| Spontaneous vigils, prayer services, rosaries, people coming out and putting up pictures of Charlie. | |
| I don't even know how he gets something like that printed so quickly. | |
| And the candles going up everywhere. | |
| And it's all organic. | |
| This is this is nothing that um that was directly from the organization, even the turning point's own headquarters, which you're showing there. | |
| Uh, they held a vigil last night uh that was completely spontaneous and organic, which is exactly what Charlie would have wanted. | |
| People becoming activated, people doing things on their own, stepping up, taking agency. | |
| That's that's what he always wanted. | |
| And I remember him saying this. | |
| He would say, I would if I can just get people to step up and start doing things, then we win. | |
| If we just get people motivated, we will win. | |
| And I said it before, Charlie spent his entire life trying to inspire a national turning point. | |
| And he's accomplished that. | |
| He has now done so. | |
| Alex Marlowe, what do you make of the uh uh of the this where it's it really is just uh the a very positive outpouring. | |
| We're seeing it from around the world. | |
| We're seeing it from uh members of you know, across the aisle, uh, liberals, Democrats, people saying, you know what? | |
| I think even the New York Times, Ezra Klein, they said politic uh uh Charlie Charlie did politics the way it should be done, with with moxie, with smarts, with boldness, but never with anger. | |
| Yeah, pretty remarkable contrast to the initial reactions from the JB Pritzkers of the world and the MSNBCs of the world who are suggesting maybe Charlie brought this on himself. | |
| The New York Times was very intentional today when they put in his obituary, they called him a provocateur. | |
| That word is on purpose. | |
| They believe he provoked his own assassination. | |
| And that's disgusting. | |
| But you did start seeing some people start getting a hold of themselves and start understanding as Ezra Klein flagged on his own, not the paper itself, but and as well as some of these leaders all around the world who are saying this is not the humanity we want. | |
| And this is a spiritual fight we're in, Jack. | |
| And Charlie knew this. | |
| He wasn't just an evangelist for conservatism and for a constitution. | |
| He was an evangelist for Christ. | |
| He was evangelist for Judeo-Christian values. | |
| Charlie stood for that. | |
| And people around the world who observe him know that he was as fluent in biblical matters as he was in political matters. | |
| And this is the spiritual battle that we need. | |
| And people who might not agree with his politics need to understand that Charlie did do things the right way. | |
| He did things with debate. | |
| He did things with nonviolence. | |
| He did things with just trying to meet people where they were and convinced them, trying to get them to change their minds if he disagreed and happily accepting them if they didn't. | |
| That's what he stood for. | |
| That's who he was. | |
| And I think smart people always knew that. | |
| Maybe today they're finally starting to admit it. | |
| Yeah, and I remember being on campus with them or being at wherever we were. | |
| And, you know, he would always say, if you disagree, come right to the front. | |
| If you disagree, come right up here. | |
| Let's have it out. | |
| Let's have that conversation. | |
| But you you can watch the, I don't know, hundreds of hours of videotape of Charlie on these campuses. | |
| You'll never once see him raise a hand in anger. | |
| You know, he's he's he's he's got conviction, of course. | |
| He's got boldness, absolutely, when you're when you're debating, you're going to, but he he doesn't get angry, he doesn't get physical. | |
| There's no, there's never been a violent bone in his body. | |
| I've never seen that in private. | |
| I've never seen, I've never known him to be like that. | |
| And it it it really does just sum it all up. | |
| They they couldn't debate him, so they did this. | |
| And that's exactly right. | |
| And do you think do you think this will be a turning point against we've seen a wave of left-wing violence, we've seen a wave of political violence and uh anti-Christian violence that's going on just this month. | |
| Do you think that it will wind down or are we gonna see more? | |
| I I run very pessimistic in this regard. | |
| And I think some of those initial reactions we saw from people in the left-wing commentary at uh make me think that maybe it won't be. | |
| And I've seen some of the reactions on Blue Sky and TikTok. | |
| But if you look around the world, there are so many bright spots. | |
| We are tracking today, conservatives in Spain, uh in Latin America, in Brazil, in El Salvador, uh the the all over the world that they're in Argentina. | |
| We're seeing even the Mexican president, Claudia Scheinbaum condemning it. | |
| So many people are out there saying this is not the way forward for the human race. | |
| And it does give me some hope. | |
| There is a layer of hope, but there is a deep spiritual problem that we have in this country. | |
| There is a yearning for God in so many American households that is absent right now. | |
| And it's the absence of God that provided this in people's lives. | |
| It's a demonic impulse that we're witnessing day after day in this country. | |
| And people need to confront it. | |
| They need to confront it though on a micro level. | |
| It's communities, it's families. | |
| And until we fully address that, then I'm gonna be in fear that this will continue to some degree or another. | |
| No, and and I've seen it all. | |
| I've seen every single piece of it. | |
| People are sending me stuff like crazy phone, you know, blew up yesterday. | |
| I was on air when this happened. | |
| And I've seen the comments, the TikToks, and there's no other word for it than demonic, the way people are cheering, celebrating. | |
| Uh a man whose life was cut down in his absolute prime when he was just getting to the top of the mountain. | |
| I I think he was just there, and he had other mountains yet to climb, and we all knew that he did. | |
| And he wanted us to be along there with him. | |
| And and these these monsters want to celebrate it. | |
| And you see it all across Blue Sky. | |
| You see it across TikTok. | |
| You can find tweet after tweet, you know, sort of the big names have kind of you know realized they have to be careful now. | |
| But I've said this for a year now at this point that there will be more manionis. | |
| And the cult of Luigi, the fandom of Luigi was there because now that they have lost political power, they are now choosing physical kinetic power. | |
| And it was Chairman Mao himself who said political power grows from the barrel of a gun. | |
| Uh Alex, I know you gotta run. | |
| And uh, where can people go to follow on everything you guys are putting up? | |
| Uh, the Alex Marlowe show have a long tribute to Charlie uh today on my podcast. | |
| And I uh can't thank you enough, Jack, for having me and including me in this and Real American's Voice, wonderful job over there. | |
| Um, and uh we're gonna honor Charlie at Bright Bart News all day, every day. | |
| We're putting up dozens and dozens and dozens of pieces of content about Charlie. | |
| He got his start writing for us, it's something we're deeply proud of, and we'll always be a part of that in history. | |
| Charlie was my friend. | |
| I was spoke with him virtually every day, was on his program once a week. | |
| He was a good man, and people need to understand that. | |
| If you're motivated to get involved right now, know that he wasn't just a conservative warrior, he was a good person, a genuinely good person. | |
| He was that guy. | |
| Absolutely was Alex. | |
| Thank you for being here today. | |
| Thank you for being a part of this. | |
| Um, President Trump has just put out a new uh statement. | |
| Um, he's been talking to reporters, he brought up Charlie. | |
| I want to play that now. | |
| You know, replace Joe. | |
| I don't know, as well as I do. | |
| He was a unique man. | |
| But uh the best we can. | |
| Anything on the investigation or anything on the latest that you've heard from the FBI or Cashell? | |
| They've reported to me so far. | |
| Pretty much what you see in the news is what it is. | |
| Uh they have a virtual manhunt out there. | |
| So we'll see what happens. | |
| We hope we get him. | |
| Sir, thank you. | |
| Thank you, Mr. President. | |
| So that's President Trump, a virtual manhunt. | |
| I hope we get him. | |
| I want to go now to Harrison Field's uh press team of the White House. | |
| Harrison, thank you so much for joining us and being here today. | |
| Uh it's good to be here. | |
| Jack, uh, wish it was better circumstances, but it's good to see you. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Uh, can you tell us just, you know, beyond the the politics of this, Charlie had so many friends in the White House. | |
| Can can you tell me what the mood is like in there or how how it's been in the last 12 hours or so? | |
| Well, uh, I recently departed, so I'm actually back in the private sector, but I've been talking to my friends back at the White House. | |
| Um, they're just all devastated. | |
| There are no words, right? | |
| Uh and first and foremost, our prayers, our thoughts, everything in our bodies is going towards Erica and the kids. | |
| We can't fathom it. | |
| I am a young father myself, recently married, kind of following that Charlie Kirk uh motto get married, have babies. | |
| This is what it's all about. | |
| Um, you're at a loss for words. | |
| There is just no making sense of the unsensible tragedy that took our friend's life. | |
| And even if you didn't get to know him, you felt like you did know him. | |
| I was talking to friends from all over the country, and they're at a loss. | |
| They don't understand how something like this could happen. | |
| They got my friends engaged in politics after years of me trying to convince people to become conservatives. | |
| All they needed was one Charlie Kirk video, and here they were voting for the president. | |
| That's the type of impact that he had. | |
| And his legacy will be a lot of things, but one thing, and I know you guys have been talking about it. | |
| His legacy as a man of faith, as a Christian, as a lover of Jesus will be of paramount importance. | |
| I mean, this is a man uh that when he saw my pin, it's right here on my lapel right here. | |
| It has a cross over the United States flag. | |
| He pointed it out to me. | |
| He noticed it. | |
| And I kind of joked with him. | |
| I said, it's my Christian nationalist pin. | |
| And he got a chuckle out of it. | |
| Um, because we cannot be afraid to be Christians in this country. | |
| And, you know, just minutes before he passed, we knew that he was professing his faith once again. | |
| And I heard Kaylee Mackinetty mentioned this quote, and I think it's beautiful. | |
| It's not about left or right, just remember above and up. | |
| And we know that uh our brother Charlie is in the arms of Jesus Christ and the angels up there. | |
| And as a Christian, that gives you some level of comfort when you're just grasping for something to make sense of it all. | |
| No, and and martyrs, martyrs, uh, absolutely go straight in. | |
| Uh, you know, Harrison, we got about a a minute here until the break, but you know, it's it's it's something that Charlie always led with, and he was so unapologetic about his faith. | |
| And I think that's something that to Gen Z really was able to connect with them at a time when so many people are asking what's going on. | |
| It felt like you know, through COVID, everything was collapsing, and then here comes Charlie. | |
| It's God, it's the Bible, it's Jesus, and he's there serving it to you right on campus. | |
| Yeah, we talk about all the time. | |
| We have a loneliness epidemic between our younger population. | |
| Charlie was able to influence them in a way to introduce them to God. | |
| With God in your life, you can't be lonely. | |
| You are so fulsome and wholesome in your life. | |
| So he's been able to evangelize in many ways to to people. | |
| You know, you became a Christian and a conservative just from listening to him. | |
| That's the type of impact he has. | |
| You look throughout history, there's not many people that have been able to do that. | |
| You look at the Graham family, you look at people like you know, MLK or you know, other prominent people in our country that have had such a platform, the president of the United States, such a palpable uh platform, uh, one that doesn't die um with them, but really lives on. | |
| Um, but the reality is, you know, again, as Christians, we know that he's very much alive in heaven. | |
| Uh, a place where he prayed and and and wished and knew he probably would end up one day. | |
| Uh by no means do we think it would be at 31 years young. | |
| Uh, but again, our hearts and our thoughts and prayers are with his family right now. | |
| This is a live shot, a camera that we have up at the turning point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, where a makeshift memorial has been set up where people are just coming in. | |
| Uh, these aren't people who work for TPUSA. | |
| Uh, these are some of the people who uh who work there have come out, but this is really just people coming by, well-wishers, fans, friends in many cases. | |
| Charlie, of course, lived in Phoenix, his family still lives in the Phoenix area in Scottsdale, and people are just coming by, watching this in real time, as people are putting his memorial together for Charlie at the work that he did and the campus of Turning Point USA. | |
| Uh, I've visited many times, I've been there many times, been there with Charlie many times, and it's it's his life's work. | |
| You you are looking physically at these buildings at Charlie's life's work. | |
| They would not exist without Charlie Kirk. | |
| Turning point USA would not exist without Charlie without Charlie Kirk. | |
| Without turning point action, who knows? | |
| Maybe you don't have a president Donald Trump, a vice president JD Vance, and the vice president had put up an incredible um 1,000-word eulogy to Charlie last night. | |
| And you could tell you you could just tell from the way it was written that JD wrote it himself. | |
| Uh, that he had been so close with Charlie all the way back to 2017. | |
| And uh so uh what we're we are also told right now is that um the vice president Vance will be uh of course he was not at the 9-11 memorial because he is on his way, | |
| he's en route to Salt Lake City, where he can be with Erica and the family as they work through the arrangements and the preparations for for saying goodbye to Charlie. | |
| And that's something that we're all going through. | |
| It's something we'll all have to go through for everyone in our life. | |
| Saying goodbye. | |
| And last night, um, Fox News.com reached out to me and asked if I would like to write something for Charlie that they would publish on their opinion side. | |
| And so I did, and that is up now. | |
| You can guys can go read it. | |
| Charlie Kirk died as he lived, bold, unashamed, and anchored in faith. | |
| And you can go check it out. | |
| I said on September 10th, America lost a warrior and family lost a father. | |
| Charlie Kirk was my brother. | |
| He was a man who stood tall with his feet firmly planted and a microphone in his hand. | |
| He was taken from us at Utah Valley University while proclaiming truth. | |
| He did not flinch, he did not waver, he did not run, he died as he lived, bold, steadfast, and unashamed of the gospel and the truth. | |
| When America needed a hero, God sent us Charlie Kirk. | |
| And there's something about Charlie that no matter how big Charlie got, and I I was with him and I knew him as he went from being well known to an international celebrity. | |
| And it didn't matter because he was always kind, he was always generous to everyone, super generous with his time, and he could make a nobody feel like a somebody. | |
| because he would listen to every single person, whether it was an event or just on the street who wanted to talk to him. | |
| There's someone I know who's been in this fight for a long time and continues to fight and serve this country at the highest levels, but beyond all that, a great friend of Charlie Kirk's. | |
| Darren Beattie joins us now from the U.S. State Department. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Darren, I Jack. | |
| I don't even know where to start with any of this, but tell us tell us what your thoughts are. | |
| Tell us where you're at today. | |
| Well, as you know, we we had a chance to see each other not too long ago, and we're discussing oh well, come on and do Charlie's show, do the show here. | |
| And so ordinarily, you know, it would be a situation where I'd say, it's so great to be back, but it's really um the circumstances that occasion my appearance here are terrible. | |
| Um, just like everyone else in the country, I'm really heartbroken. | |
| It's there's no words to really capture the magnitude of what happened and the magnitude of the loss. | |
| Um, you know, there's one sense in which, you know, as the president said, Charlie among his other attributes was a man of fearlessness, and that kind of courage is contagious and will live beyond him as one of the many aspects of his legacy. | |
| Um, but there's another sense in which I think he's just irreplaceable. | |
| He is probably, I would say without question, the best youth political organizer in America's history. | |
| And I think people who don't understand sort of the history of how all this developed may not understand the magnitude of what he accomplished. | |
| That's just one of the things, but to create what he created, have these political events with young people engaged, which are more than political events, like like with Trump's rallies, these were rock concerts, and he was a rock star. | |
| And that's something that so many people desperately wanted to achieve for so long and couldn't do it. | |
| And it took someone of unique character, unique capabilities, like Charlie. | |
| And so, you know, they're just a handful of people in the world who are not replaceable. | |
| And he was one of them. | |
| And when we look across this at the situation. | |
| How many times did I did I or you come on the show with Charlie? | |
| And we talked about this violence that had started creeping up in our society, probably with the first Trump campaign and throughout the first Trump administration, which you were serving in, leading up, of course, to Butler. | |
| And now this. | |
| And in a way, Charlie saw it coming. | |
| And he knew. | |
| He knew going out there, the threat that he was under. | |
| I talked to him about it. | |
| Everyone talked to him about it. | |
| And he did it anyway. | |
| He did it anyway. | |
| And yet we are in this situation, Darren, in our country where we're in we're in very dire straits because there are so many people who ref who refuse to condemn it. | |
| There are so many people who celebrate it. | |
| And I really hope that better angels of our nature can prevail in this country. | |
| But I worry that perhaps someone else wants to be the next Luigi or whoever this person is. | |
| I believe the FBI, by the way, I'll just announce because it's uh because it is just breaking, that the FBI has two pieces of information. | |
| The FBI has announced a 100,000 reward for information regarding the shooter. | |
| It's number one. | |
| Number two, uh, this was something that I had actually heard about last night, but uh I wasn't able to uh to say it publicly yet. | |
| And that um JD Vance will meet with Charlie Kirk's wife Erica and their two children in Salt Lake City today. | |
| And following that JD is gonna be giving Charlie one last ride on Air Force Two, and he will be flying him back to Arizona to his home state. | |
| So that's that's the updates that we have today. | |
| Darren, where where do we go at a time like this? | |
| It's it's simply a tragedy, and I think it'll take a long time for us to recover as a country if we can at all. | |
| I think right now, you know, just want to focus on love and positivity, which you know, Charlie was a warrior, he was also a happy warrior. | |
| He was somebody full of love for his fellow citizens for his country, and I think that's really part of the legacy that we should we should remember today. | |
| Um yeah, I think in time I trust, of course, the president and the appropriate authorities to deal with this in the manner in which it is appropriate. | |
| No, I think that's right. | |
| And and of course, we've heard President Trump and and others, Darren. | |
| You've spoken out so forcefully in the past and and are now working in your capacity regarding the ideas of censorship, the ideas of silencing speech. | |
| Isn't political assassination just the final step of censorship? | |
| Isn't that entirely the point? | |
| Yes. | |
| I mean, it's it's the it's the ultimate um, it's the ultimate silencing, but it doesn't achieve its intended effect because it really just it will make us all all louder, more forceful, more committed to the cause that Charlie fought for so bravely and so effectively. | |
| And yeah, I think it's appropriate to say don't want to get into too much of the you know the personal history, but the first time I really had the chance to engage with Charlie was a very long time ago when I was a speech writer for President Trump, and we're doing an event with him, and um it was an event on free speech in college campuses. | |
| This was all the way back in 2018. | |
| And he'd been around for a while since then. | |
| So it's just such at such a young age to achieve so much and be so committed to all of these critical fights for our nation's history. | |
| Um is really just a remarkable thing. | |
| And uh, you know, it's sure it's been pointed out, but there's something appropriate, but also very poignant and adds to the tragedy is that you know he's wearing a shirt called freedom when his life was taken away, and you know, he was for freedom to the very end. | |
| That's exactly right. | |
| Charlie Kirk was a martyr of of many causes, interlinked causes, but first and foremost, freedom of speech, the bedrock upon which the American experiment was built. | |
| Right. | |
| The idea that we have this freedom and we will use this freedom, and Charlie would want us to continue using this freedom, and that's why we're doing the show. | |
| And that's why when I reached out to them last night and I said, If you guys need any help, let me know. | |
| And they said they they want to keep the keep doing the show, because that's what Charlie would have wanted, because Charlie, and by the way, Charlie would I know for a fact that Charlie would be saying, Jack, don't talk about me the whole time. | |
| Talk about what's what's going on, talk about the news, get into things, what's what's happening? | |
| And you know, Charlie used to he would he would take Saturdays off and he would use Saturdays to sort of stand still and be there with his family. | |
| And so I only think it's appropriate that we take one day and stand still for Charlie. | |
| Final minute to you, Darren B. Amen to that. | |
| And I can s only reiterate this was uh irreplaceable individual, a great family man, our hearts go out to his family. | |
| Obviously, a profound loss for the family, but also profound loss for us for the movement, for the country. | |
| Um, and the only consolation we can take is that the courage and the fight and the legacy will live on. | |
| So I very much commend you for doing this today, Jack, because I know it's not easy. | |
| What can I say then? | |
| We know Charlie would do it for us. | |
| So Amen. | |
| It's rough, but when you stand with the man, you stand with him. | |
| It means so much to know how beloved Charlie was to this country, what a hero that he was and is such an icon, and you know having been along for the ride to see how he went from where he started to where he is now, | |
| or to have achieved this level of success and become this beloved figure. | |
| It's it's impossible, but it you know, it's it just I never saw him that way. | |
| Because to me, he's just my buddy, to me, he's my friend. | |
| And I'm always just kind of wondering what what the next what's the next fight, Charlie? | |
| Where are we going next? | |
| What's the next hill we're gonna take? | |
| Where are we gonna plant the next flag? | |
| And so today we're taking a day to step back from all of that, and we're talking to some of Charlie's closest friends and associates all about the man Charlie was the way that he lived, and the reason that he stood head and shoulders above all of us. | |
| Mike Benz joins us now, Mike. | |
| I mean, it's it's horrific that we have to be here in such circumstances. | |
| But in in a way For me, and I think for a lot of us, we weren't we weren't surprised because we saw the trajectory of the way our country was going. | |
| And it was only a matter of time before another act of senseless hate-filled violence came after one of us. | |
| And of course they went after Charlie. | |
| Yeah. | |
| Mike, do you do you think that this is going to turn the temperature up? | |
| Is it going to turn it down? | |
| What's your sense? | |
| I don't know. | |
| I think it. | |
| I think it has to be. | |
| You can't forget this. | |
| That was the most graphic, horrifying video. | |
| I or anyone I could ever imagine could see in their life. | |
| It was in broad daylight. | |
| Thousands of people watching, mid-sentence. | |
| Shot in the jugular vein. | |
| And this was our child prodigy. | |
| We would not be here without Charlie. | |
| I would not be here without Charlie on so many levels. | |
| Charlie was our bridge to the young. | |
| Charlie made it okay to believe in this for people whose minds were growing and developing. | |
| When I was in college, I was afraid just be friends with anybody who considered themselves conservative. | |
| I hid away from the label because there was no institution. | |
| There was college Republicans, which sucked and nobody wanted to be a part of. | |
| What he did with Turning Point is he built really the first mega institution and probably the most important one, the pipeline of people, networks, of community, of solidarity, of And I can't do something like that. | |
| I used to joke with people about when people would say, oh, Ben's, you know, you work so hard. | |
| Like uh, and I would say, well, there's someone who works harder than me, actually. | |
| How would you like to be Charlie Kirk? | |
| He has to do all of this, and then he has to manage teams of thousands of people. | |
| He has to bridge divides from all of the different splintered factions of MAGA so that they have one unified vision. | |
| He has to be the peacemaker, the diplomat, the communicator, the long-term strategic planner. | |
| Every room he walked in, he looked like he would be president one day. | |
| You see him next to presence. | |
| He looks like he's going to be president. | |
| And all of this responsibility was on the shoulders of a kid. | |
| Of a kid. | |
| He was 17 years old, 16 years old when he started all this. | |
| Start turning point at what, 18 years old. | |
| And all of that weight and responsibility. | |
| And he never lost. | |
| I never saw him lose a debate. | |
| I never saw him lose his composure. | |
| He had a unique and probably the perfect skill set for something that is very, very rare in somebody under 60, let alone somebody in this movement, which is in many ways motivated by passion, and to some extent the kind of chaos of newness and reform. | |
| But Charlie was the steady hand. | |
| Even in that moment, it's completely surreal. | |
| Mike, I couldn't agree more. | |
| And I'm shaking up about this as anybody. | |
| And I don't even think I slept last night, honestly. | |
| And been up with my wife, and she barely slept. | |
| And we're just praying, talking. | |
| And I know though that because I can hear Charlie's voice in my ear. | |
| He would say, keep fighting. | |
| Keep up the fight. | |
| Keep going. | |
| Finish the mission. | |
| Complete the task. | |
| Work harder. | |
| He'd actually and uh he'd be he'd be saying, What do you think? | |
| You guys think you get a day off? | |
| No. | |
| No, we don't take days off. | |
| No, we don't. | |
| I want to show um very quickly, since we are covering the breaking news, we do have a new image that's been released by the FBI. | |
| And so that's the original image right there. | |
| And then let's show the new image that's been released, this clearer image that uh is zoomed in, the tighter, clearer image. | |
| All right, if we don't have it, we don't have it. | |
| But those are the images that were released earlier. | |
| We're trying to get a sense of this. | |
| Uh right now, okay. | |
| Here's the new image that's been released. | |
| Mike, as you look at the situation, what do you make of the fact that the shooter is still at large? | |
| Possibly. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I know that this is the most wanted person on earth. | |
| I have faith in Cash Tell Dan Bangino, Pam Bondi. | |
| To make sure this killer is brought to justice. | |
| And I want the slowest, most painful, most gruesome, most public execution of this man possible. | |
| I want to be able to do that. | |
| Look, I I'm emotionally, I I know exactly where you're coming from. | |
| And obviously, cross our T's dot our I's but look, I get it. | |
| Something has to give. | |
| A line was crossed yesterday that we can't go back from. | |
| We can't go back from the we can never turn back into the America that we were before we lost Charlie Kirk. | |
| But we can still move forward to become something good because that's what Charlie stood for. | |
| But make no mistake. | |
| We were robbed yesterday. | |
| Erica Kirk was robbed yesterday. | |
| Charlie's children were robbed yesterday. | |
| And there is now a debt. |