The Charlie Kirk Show - Charlie's Empty Chair — In His Honor, Never in His Place

Sept. 12, 2025 - The Charlie Kirk Show

02:39:01

Charlie's Empty Chair — In His Honor, Never in His Place

Charlie's chair is empty as Andrew Kolvet, Jack Posobiec, Tyler Bowyer, and Blake Neff host The Charlie Kirk Show in his honor. They share their favorite memories, moments, and tributes to their fallen friend.Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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	I talk to a lot of young people on campuses at our events on my radio show, podcast, and social media.
	Said differently, I visit college campuses so you don't have to.
	We're talking to so many voters that know it is time for change.
	They know that something is wrong.
	America's future is a series of choices.
	Our current state of slow motion national decline is a choice.
	Today is our two-year-old's birthday.
	And I look at my daughter, and that is my why.
	For those of that are parents, you know exactly what I mean.
	There is no mountain that stands tall as your faithfulness.
	There is no river that roars wide as your goodness.
	Man, Charlie, I remember when we were starting these out and...
	It was that, like that...
	You know, it was like this.
	It was like it was like your average three rows.
	It was like your average political meeting where there was like twelve people in a room, and uh, this is this is awesome.
	This in my personal opinion was the most over-the-top Trump event that I've ever covered.
	This is the number one boots on the ground operation of the country.
	We're working directly in harmony with the Trump campaign.
	It's been vetted, it's been cleared, it's been blessed, as you could see there, and we're gonna try to win this thing.
	No guarantees.
	It's what we do that matters.
	Mr. President, I can tell you this room is 100% with you and we have your back.
	God bless you.
	You really do.
	Thank you.
	As you know, we are heading on campus here momentarily at the University of South Florida, throwing it down with the students.
	It's gonna be a lot of fun.
	Uh, we are excited to continue this cultural movement that we have started at Turning Point USF.
	More high school chapters, more college chapters, and disagreement is not just welcome, it is invited.
	We want to have those tough conversations.
	That's what it's all about, and I'm sorry.
	Because you're not supposed to be involved in this.
	You're supposed to just kind of be on the...
	Vote for me every four years, give me more political power and stay out of my business.
	And what has happened is we are seeing an explosion in citizen participation.
	There is nothing else I'll ever fear.
	All of my days, your mercy follow me.
	Oh, there is nothing else I'll ever need.
	Knock on that extra door.
	Go that extra mile.
	Talk to that extra friend.
	Because throughout voting month and culminating on the 5th of November, I believe it will go down as a day that people remember.
	As a day that is written about history books.
	As the final battle from the golden escalator on down, from defeating Hillary Clinton from the nonsense of 2020, from Butler, Pennsylvania, November 5th, it all culminates, where we restore the promise that the founders gave us.
	And they said, hey, if the people want it, the people get it.
	And we the people take back America.
	God bless Arizona.
	And thank you so much.
	Thank you.
	Every day the American people demand certain accomplishments and victories.
	Disagreement is what keeps a movement alive, keeps a movement fun.
	Here in this country, we are a country of flourishing.
	We're a country of risk taking.
	We're a country of building.
	We will achieve American greatness.
	And we are just getting started.
	All my days, your mercy followed me.
	All my days, your mercy followed me.
	Welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
	This is Andrew Colvet.
	Filling in for the one and only Charlie Kirk.
	Nobody can.
	And we wanted so badly to do this show for all of you today.
	And I wanted the friends of this show and of Charlie that knew him best, the Thought Crime crew to be here in the studio to commemorate our friend, our dear brother, for this sacred and solemn moment.
	This occasion none of us ever dreamed we would have to do.
	And here we are, because Charlie would want us to be here.
	And we, of course, have left his chair open and empty because nobody will ever fill it.
	Nobody could ever hope to.
	But by all of us together, we want to honor him and we want to be more like him and we want to be inspired by him.
	And we want you in the audience to know him like we knew him.
	you.
	And to be up close and personal to the front row seat to history, to a legend, to an American icon that we got every single day.
	And I don't know why we were so fortunate and blessed to be those people, those few that got to see it so up close.
	He touched millions.
	He personally knew tens of thousands.
	And somehow we were the blessed ones that got to be close to him.
	And in the chat, we got yelled at by him.
	We got pushed to more and to be better because of Charlie and by Charlie.
	And so we have to my right Jack Basobick, Blake Neff, and Tyler Boyer.
	And myself, Andrew Colvet, the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show.
	And we are so honored to share what we know about Charlie and to do it on a day where the authorities tell us that his killer has been brought into custody.
	And I want to say personally thank you to Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, Governor Cox.
	You told us you would not stop until you got him.
	And I admit that my faith wavered at times as the hours stretched on.
	But you appeared to have the suspect in custody, and we're grateful That you have not slept, you did not rest, just like you promised.
	And you are men of your word, and we are grateful to you.
	And so with that, I just want to again welcome my friends.
	And Jack, I'm gonna start with you.
	Tell us what's on your heart right now, brother.
	We know it's like I know the seat looks empty, but it's not the seat isn't empty at all.
	Because in a way, Charlie is the only thing we're all thinking about right now.
	We can't think of anything else really.
	We can't think straight.
	And we can read and we can talk, but at the end of the day, all we're thinking about is Charlie.
	And we know that Charlie is looking down on us.
	And I know that when we all gather here, it's like he's here.
	Yeah.
	And that's and that's why no one wants to sit there because he is there.
	I um we are saying thank you's just there, and the only thing that I guess I would add is, you know, we're hearing these reports that um family members of the suspect were involved, uh, particularly the father, in bringing him to the police,
	bringing him to the authorities, and if that's true, um I just like to extend a sincere thank you and gratitude to something like that as a father.
	I I can't even imagine.
	I just I can't even imagine what that what that must be like.
	But to have done that is it just shows the ultimate goodness and the ultimate righteousness that still does exist in this country, and the fact that people are willing to step up and do the right thing, even in impossible odds, and that's the Charlie Kirk spirit.
	That's always been the Charlie Kirk spirit is to stare down impossible odds and say, I'm gonna do it anyway.
	When everybody told him he couldn't.
	And that's that's the Charlie Kirk I know that when you told him he couldn't do it, he'd say figure it out.
	Tyler, I'm sure he told you that more times than you can count.
	I uh I've just it's been really hard.
	I I mean we've we've been able to lean on each other, I think, talking a lot to one another about uh the memories and uh that's probably I think the most uh the most important thing that we can do today is share those memories I've been telling everybody that's reached out on our staff.
	I mean, we've we've hired thousands of people in turning point, uh, and it hasn't been easy.
	That's been part of the the battle on Charlie.
	It's like I'm gonna miss those right, Tyler, you know, conversations when we are sitting around.
	Uh because it's you don't really know the battles unless you've been in them.
	But there's so many people that have looked at Charlie along the way as uh as a mentor that all have different emotions and they have different stories, and I've told people write them down.
	Every single person that's reached out to me that says, I'm so sorry, Tyler's like, please just write down your memories that you had because some of these stories are so unbelievably funny, they're so unbelievable in general because um God's hand has been such a big part of Charlie's story and legacy.
	I'm so sorry.
	No, it's it's we're we're all right there.
	It we're all right there.
	And for those of us that have been close, like we've talked about uh we've seen uh heaven's hand is part of that, and that has to be that has to be uh accentuated because that's what Charlie wanted.
	We talked about that all the time with uh people who invested in attorney point, uh, all the major stakeholders that you know, a lot of people look at this as uh political dynam political dynamo, uh the dynamics of all of that, but all of this has been uh, you know, even through this tragic, this tragic week, um I believe that uh that God has been with Charlie from day one and and will continue to be.
	Uh Blake, I want to you're you're next, buddy, so get ready.
	But um I want to just comment on what you're saying because one of the last uh trips that I took with Charlie was a couple weeks ago, and we were flying all over the country, spent hours on the plane, and um I said to him Isn't it crazy like you know, we were talking about South Park, we were talking about just everything.
	Like we just kind of had a moment, and he just like, yeah, it's all God.
	Just he just instantly goes, Yeah, it's all God.
	It's all God.
	And as I was driving to the office in the studio this morning, I thought to myself, it was always God, and God has not pulled his hand away from Charlie Kirk.
	They did not pull his hand away from Turning Point, he did not pull his hand away from this country.
	It was always God that got us here.
	There were so many times, and I want the audience to know this.
	There were so many times where we felt like our backs were so against the wall that we were not gonna get through whatever it was, yeah.
	That you know, this thing happened, or you know this it was just so many things.
	It's impossible right now.
	Now's not the time to get into into the details.
	There was just so many things, and Charlie and I would feel the weight of the world when we talked to each other, and I know you felt it, and I know you felt it, and I know you felt it, and then we got through it, and it was God, and somehow we came out stronger and better, and uh with and Charlie had more influence and and our reach and our staff and everything just kept growing time and time again, and he knew that it was all God's hand.
	He knew it was all the blessing of God on him and on this organization and on the show.
	Yesterday I said I said Charlie's on assignment from God, and he always has been.
	You every time you filled in for Charlie, you said, well, Charlie's on assignment, and so now he's on assignment from God.
	He's on and he always was all right, Blake.
	It is your turn.
	And um, I I want everybody to know that probably nobody traveled with Charlie more than Blake uh in the last I'd say 18 months.
	Um except my maybe Mikey Mikey for sure.
	Mikey, but you traveled to London with him, you went to Korea with him.
	Um Blake, the floor is yours.
	Thanks.
	Uh I I feel I feel unworthy to be here.
	Uh you guys all knew him a lot longer than I did.
	Uh compared to a lot of people here.
	Charlie entered my life pretty recently.
	I remember you called me out of the blue almost exactly three years ago, uh, first week of October 22.
	And I don't want to get into the details of it, but I can say uh Charlie had a drastic impact on my life.
	He he basically gave me my life back, and I don't know how to express how grateful I am for that.
	And how just over the past three years, how much I came to admire him.
	Not just for how talented of a person he was, but but how good of a person he was and how everything he fought for was because he believed it would be good for the country and good for every single person in it.
	And I'll always think one of the you know the final things I was doing with him.
	I mentioned uh with you, Jack, yesterday.
	Yeah, the last speech he gave was in Japan to an audience Buddha's.
	No Buddhists, Shinto, no no Christians in it, or maybe a handful, but not many.
	And you know, it was about immigration, it was about other stuff, but he wanted to include I should witness to the faith, you know, regardless of where we're going.
	And we talked about how we could do that, and we put it into the speech five minutes before he went up there and he did it.
	And it was that important to him that he do that.
	It wasn't about just you know, he wasn't catering to any audience.
	This is a speech almost nobody in the US would ever see or watch, and most of the audience in Japan might not even get it, But he wanted to do it because it was important to him.
	And we gotta get that.
	Just a minute before that footage.
	When it happened, uh, you know, he he was witnessing to the gospel there at the college.
	And it w makes me it gives me some solace and some comfort to know that you were there with him on campus that day.
	And um I was just grateful to be able to call you and know that I at least had somebody that was there and that loved him and that was close and I could call you.
	And um I'm just glad you were there, man.
	It's it's not it's not good, it's not fair to you that you had to be there, but I'm glad that I'm glad that you were.
	And you and I and Charlie were texting literally moments before he went out to the crowd, and we were talking about uh arguments and finer points that he could make, and he going over you know this kind of question.
	I uh you know, we should what it was about.
	He was what are the good arguments in favor of of marriage, marriage monotheism.
	The Christian version of marriage.
	Yes.
	And it was you know, that gets back to you know one of the other core things, how much he how much he loved Erica, how much he loved their children, how much and how and you know how much he cared for them, and how it really demonstrates the power of that you know familial love because we all talked about how they made him better too.
	And isn't that the truth?
	You see, you see Charlie like pre-Erica and then Charlie post-Erica, and it's and it's it's still Charlie, but it's like more better clothes that actually fit him.
	No, we were just talking about this yesterday.
	I and he's a father, and I I no, it was like night and day difference.
	So we used to like I used to be worried about Charlie Jericho.
	And I don't just mean the fashion, I don't just mean the fashion.
	We were talking about Charlie's first.
	It's it's it's it's rough the visible boy.
	Charlie's birthday's in about a month, and we used to I used to buy him clothes on his birthday as an excuse to buy him like sneakers, because he wouldn't wear sneakers, he would only wear dress shoes.
	That's right.
	And then Erica came and then he worked, he had I was like so relieved because he would wear clothes that like he he he'd look better than anyone like a normal person.
	No, he looked better than everybody because Eric is incredibly stylish and great and it was just like he went from like the the Stone Age to like he now had this incredibly well manicured dress purpose.
	Let me let's I love this this uh vein.
	We want to tell you about Erica and we're gonna uh the before and after Erica Kirk um story is a really amazing story.
	And I didn't know.
	I was trying to make a point.
	I know you were going deep deep, emotional, listener children.
	Well uh I have been basically crying for two and a half days.
	Uh and I um I was I was just I'm remembering Charlie being uh when I first met him, it was like everything was baggy and like the suits didn't fit and like the collars were always like out like this.
	I wish they're playing those those videos now when he's younger and I was showing that I was showing Andrew a video uh an image, it was so funny because studio can we get uh uh like an OG CK shot with his own.
	I can say I'll I'll send one that's like a perfect one that's but he was before and after a shot.
	It was like a very baggy suit, and it just but you know what this is this is kind of very this isn't with a suit, but this was like No no no I gotta I've got a I got a perfect one.
	But anyways, the point is is like but his his spirit shine through so brightly it didn't matter it didn't matter.
	No, like of course that's what it was like I remember being in some of these meetings, I was like, oh my gosh, like because he would carry around the backpack.
	He had this big black backpack that is his his initials on it, he had that forever, and he had forever won one pair of shoes, dress shoes that he wore, and then these big but it didn't matter, like none of that mattered every single person that talked to him, every one of these big time donors early on, like big time.
	I mean, they had he would just just be able to break through to every single one of those people and uh it was always so special.
	It w it was his unique voice, and this is why Charlie Um would go viral on campus.
	He would never pull any punches.
	The guy would say uh it he would say the truth with a hundred percent fidelity.
	Do you know what I mean?
	It was like men and women like you know, are different.
	That you know, two two sexes, like you know, it it was never like no there's no equivocation.
	No, there was no like, well, some people feel this.
	No, it was like you know, it's wrong when people steal.
	Does it make it okay that they were poor?
	No, it's wrong, right?
	You know, and it was just he had this moral clarity that he was just blessed by God with, and he would not cut any corners with it.
	And um, and so yeah, it didn't matter the suit he was wearing, it didn't matter his fashion.
	Although I will tell you Erica made this looks much better, and I will also tell you that his friends, Don Jr., Gentry Beach, you know, they gave him like a gift card at one point, a ten thousand dollar uh like credit at uh the Trump Taylor in New York City in Manhattan to get him some proper suits.
	It was uh it was like one of these things that they were gonna be around.
	Yeah, if you're gonna hang around with us, Charlie, we need you to gotta you know you gotta look a little bit more put together.
	Yeah, it's it was I mean, it was a oh my gosh, Tyler, get this get this up.
	You have to see this is the pre pre-Erica, and then Erica came in and then looked immediately I love it.
	I mean, no, immediately better.
	I mean, I'm not I'm not even kidding, it's like we got to.
	The real miracle is that Erica went for it, you know what I mean.
	She's seeing the you know, the baggy shirt.
	No, I mean she knew, he knew.
	No, but that's that's that's female, right?
	That's the female.
	My Tanya was the same with me.
	It's it's the female.
	I I see I see the thing, and I want to polish.
	Michelangelo could see a block of marble and he would just bring the David out.
	He's like, The David's already in there, I just have to reveal it.
	I want to say it's typically not a good idea to say, I think I I uh I could change this man or something for the women watching, but you can polish it.
	They're not, yeah.
	They're not changing, not the deeper bringing it.
	No, not the deeper bringing forth.
	But and you could never change Charlie's spirit, right?
	But exactly right.
	But but what she what she did, I think, if anything, just in terms of this, is make it so that the external match the internal.
	Yeah, sure.
	And I will say as well, though, that Charlie's faith became so much stronger as soon as Erica came around, and he started vocalizing it more.
	And for those of you in the audience that don't know Erica Kirk, the woman is a lioness.
	She is fierce, she is strong, and she's obviously like distraught and hurting, um, as we all are, but um she is fierce and she is strong, and I want you to know that about her.
	That um I have seen her up close, and Tyler, you've been there as well with us.
	Um and uh she is so strong, and Charlie wanted to marry her because of how strong she was, and ultimately he knew that she could she could do this life that he was leading.
	And Charlie was already leading a crazy life when they met and when they fell in love and when they got married, and he he knew that she had the strength in her core, and she was also she is also such an incredible woman of faith.
	He knew that she could do this, and he was a hundred percent right about Erica Kirk.
	She is truly something amazing, and we all love her dearly.
	Tyler, why don't you tell the story of how uh you inadvertently connected Charlie with his wife?
	So it it's it's this is the miracle of the entire thing, which is i incredible, and I don't think we can talk about it enough.
	It's Trump, it's Erica, it's Arizona, it's turning point, it's it you couldn't script this any better.
	Can I let me tell let me just set two points?
	I told it a little bit of his own.
	Tyler, I think you've told this story a few times on the show.
	So let's like big big big big picture context here.
	Tyler pulled off the first Trump rally, the very first one in Arizona, and there's a lot of crazy details that go into it.
	But the first one, Tyler gets the credit.
	But that's but the most important part of that truly in the background is that Erica Kirk is at that rally, and we don't focus on it.
	we've talked about the rally and all that with Trump being re-elected.
	She's in the background of the main shot.
	So right behind Trump, people don't know this.
	I I we can put it up.
	There is right behind Trump on stage, first Trump rally ever.
	And again, they were expecting this to be a hundred person rally.
	They were like wanting to give uh like refreshments.
	You didn't even call it a rally, right?
	Well, so the original was Corey Lewandowski.
	Corinnevsky was like, Can you get a hundred people in a room?
	We'll provide refreshments, we'll give you money, whatever.
	And I'm like, no, no, no, we don't we don't need any of that.
	We can get lots of people there.
	And we started doing this, and it starts to go bonkers, right?
	Because uh, I'll give credit to Jake Hoffman, who is the the pre uh the president of the freedom caucus here, he's a state senator.
	He was my unpaid comms director, who was actually the guy that helped start Charlie's Instagram with me and start all the turning point, like all the turning point assets that we we have on social media now, by the way, too.
	But we started just going bonkers with all the media, and so then I started fielding calls from everywhere.
	It was crazy, everywhere.
	And one of the calls I got was from Erica.
	She's like, hey, I was Miss Arizona.
	I love Donald Trump.
	Can I be involved?
	I'm like, uh absolutely.
	So I met I met her, and I was like, we've gotta put her behind the president.
	So I had my family behind the president, my grandpa who just passed away just a few months ago, who loved Charlie, loved uh the show, everything, listen daily.
	It was my grandpa, my dad-in-law, Lauren, my wife, and Erica is up there.
	Yeah.
	So Erica, after we gotta find the picture.
	After this, I'll I'll pull it up.
	After this rally, uh, I meet with Erica, and I'm like, there's a way that we can she's she's faith-based.
	So this is the funniest part.
	She's faith-based, she's so centered on Christ.
	We've got to lean in and involve her here with because we were starting the initial talks about turning point faith or to keep you a say faith.
	And I was trying to recruit her hard to come work for us.
	And so through all that, uh, I'd introduced her to Charlie.
	I was like, I think she could be great, she could be wonderful.
	And Charlie was immediately in love.
	Absolutely love.
	And I was like, It was straight up.
	Charlie, going back, and that's where it's like the tee up with you know, the clothes, everything else.
	I was like, Charlie, I don't know.
	Like this we're this is.
	This is Miss Arizona a little more.
	He is because Arizona, so I was I was nervous.
	I'm like, I don't know if we we don't want to scare her away, right?
	Like we weren't gonna work for us, you know.
	So, but like that's great.
	Let's just let's feel out.
	And so Charlie did the right thing, he did everything perfectly as Charlie always does.
	Uh, did everything perfectly.
	I dropped him, I dropped them off.
	I dropped him off.
	He was at the office here, which he was rarely at the office because he was always on the plane, and he had set up a date to go meet her at the gym.
	Cause the that she was it was it's a it's a fancier, nicer gym that's in the North Valley.
	And I dropped the I took him over and I dropped him off there, and I was it was the whole car ride over there.
	Was pep talk.
	So, all right, this is what you gotta do.
	This is what this is what you gotta say.
	Hey, if she says this, don't do that.
	And he's like, Well, what do I do if the like this because Charlie had had uh a number of dates, but not that many people.
	He's busy, he's a busy guy, he just didn't so uh he it went immaculately, and after that they'd met again in New York where she was living at the time, and he had made a special trip just to go there.
	Yeah, he made an excuse.
	This is what Charlie would do.
	He would he would he would go somewhere and he would make an excuse that was like a formal reason to be there, but it there was always kind of like a an ulterior motive where you know but it was I I'll never like and this these are the memories I'm I'm putting out a tweet right now that's saying just write down these memories because I until this now I just forgot about that.
	Was like driving him over in in my car, just having that conversation, which was just like, and again, Andrew, I know you've had many of these, all of us have had many of these conversations one-on-one with Charlie of just like the pep talks, because you know, even though Charlie was such a a line of of a man, it takes a village, I think, of like having those conversations with one another.
	It takes a family, yeah.
	But he he would position people in places to be able to speak to him and give him like that like before he took the stage, like okay, okay, okay, okay.
	You know, but he would always it's like he would always just want that, even though you knew that he didn't need it.
	And he right, no, but you know.
	The other thing is he you'd think you had a really good idea, and you're like, no, no, and I give it to him, and be like, okay, okay.
	And then he would Always take chew the meat and spit out the bones.
	He would he was always so good at filtering out your your bad ideas without like making you feel terrible.
	Well, and that's like to that point.
	Erica became that person, like you were saying.
	Yeah, right.
	Erica became the person that would uh you know, and it was a two-way road, you know, you'd have to filter out some of Charlie's bad ideas too at times.
	And Erica is you know, has become the best at that.
	He she is the uh the go-to, and I know that um that was the most valuable thing, but to put a pen in it, that that weird situation though, which was that moment where I was sitting there with Charlie, and the Trump rally culminated, and Eric was there, and then became his wife, like the entire thing is like again, you talk about God things.
	Clearly, God has his hand had his hand um and watching over Charlie constantly.
	Well, this is the Charlie Kirk show, and I want we we've we played Sorry, we played a a um an opening, and we put together a Charlie Kirk uh which number is it, Blake?
	Do you have it?
	We put together a um just a montage of some great Charlie Kirk moments.
	Um and I think it is 443 is the number.
	Um we put together a montage uh for the audience of Charlie in his own words, and he loved this show um so much.
	He loved this show.
	And um he I remember one time when I I talked to him and I I said, Who who's your greatest hero?
	And this space, you know, obviously Donald Trump's the president, and you know, that was the obvious answer, but like no Trump, you know, like what who's who and he said Rush Limbaugh.
	Yeah, and um Charlie got to know Rush personally.
	Um I think we had basically the last big event that uh that Rush did was introducing the president.
	Yeah, the last two.
	So he never made public appearances.
	Yeah, um and he's a very private person.
	He came to uh our event at Mar-a-Lago, so we were one of the first groups to do anything with fundraisers, things like that at Mar Lago.
	People don't people don't know that we actually did it very small, but Rush had such a personal connection uh with Charlie, and this is kind of early too, before Charlie was kind of a known quantity everywhere.
	Uh really leaned in and showed up.
	Yeah, and uh Charlie actually went to Rush's house, picked him up in the car, and drove him, drove him there, and we had yeah, we we guess he lived he lived the street, yeah, in West Palm Beach, or he would live in Palm Beach.
	Um, so he but Rush was his hero, and he he listened to Rush.
	Uh Rush was so influential in just the way Charlie thought about politics.
	And and if you want to know why Charlie never lost the grassroots, he was always so into the grassroots.
	It's because you emailed him, it's because he looked at all the your emails, he looked at all the comments, he would he he could do 48 things, it seemed like at once.
	The the the most amazing multitasker I've ever seen.
	When I would be here, and we'd be on the show during breaks, even I'm gonna say it, even sometimes when interviewing people, he'd be looking at the camera and yet somehow also on his computer, switching between tabs,
	texting, emailing, reading faster than you could even like grasp what was the amount of emails he would share, like in the middle of a show segment, like right after you came out, or either like in between someone else giving an answer.
	Look at this, look at and you're like reading the last three things that he sent you.
	No, he's always two steps ahead of the show.
	And his speed was I I have no idea how he did it.
	And he's and these are and and what's crazy too is you could see it would be like, Oh, hey, I got something from the speaker of the house.
	Oh, here's the president's son, and then like he here's a guy I met walking his dog, and he needs a ballot.
	Tyler, make sure this guy gets a ballot, you know.
	Like, like it it didn't make any difference to him who we was talking to.
	But he never lost sight of the grassroots, and one of the one of the guiding lights for that, and we set up Freedom at Charlie Kirk.com.
	And please send your tributes to Charlie, your thoughts, your prayers, anything that's on your mind, uh, to freedom at Charlie Kirk.com, and I will do my best to read them.
	And Blake, you're gonna help read them, and Jack and Tyler, and we want to see what you have to say to Charlie.
	that's freedom at Charlie Kirk.com.
	And Rush always had his email dialogue with his listeners.
	And Charlie took note of that and that it kept him close to the people because this world can get very insulating.
	And it's and Charlie never let that happen.
	That's why he went to college campuses because he learned and he knew and he he saw what kids were really thinking.
	He always made such a point to stay so close to the public, even though he was so stratospherically famous.
	We couldn't take him anywhere.
	And it was really at that point of stardom and fame that we couldn't take Charlie anywhere.
	But it all started with a love of the spoken word and what Rush Limbaugh told him, and he would take lunch breaks from school just to listen to Rush Limbaugh.
	And so to have this show and to be behind the microphone was one of the greatest honors of his life, and he did not take it for granted.
	He loved it.
	And he saw it as a way to pipe the the vanguard of the current thinking on the current debates into the zeitgeist and to keep the base steady and keep the coalition together.
	So without further ado, I want to play uh the show tribute that our team put together.
	I haven't seen it yet, so I can't wait to watch it.
	This is 443.
	I want to thank my great friend Charlie Kirk.
	He's done something that is just incredible for somebody really of his age.
	You need tremendous talent to do what he's done.
	Building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, turning point USA, and I want to thank you, really Charlie.
	incredible job.
	Um I have the greatest job in the world.
	I couldn't be happier every day.
	I feel as if what I'm saying, what I'm doing is making a difference, giving people meaning.
	Charlie, you should have emotion.
	This is a moment.
	You totally reform the GOP.
	And look what you guys have done.
	I hear some words here from you, Charlie.
	You put all this together, my man.
	Let's hear it.
	I I am just humbled by God God's grace.
	It's all God.
	It's all good.
	God alone.
	Done.
	It's done.
	It's beginning.
	We did not earn this.
	This this is this is God's mercy on our country.
	Yes.
	You're on you're on the Lord's side.
	So last week we welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world.
	Most important thing that one can do, except giving your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
	Uh we, uh Erica and I and our family were celebrating the birth of our son.
	I'm just I'm finding out how honest you are, Charlie.
	And so far you're I think you're doing good.
	And I hope I'm doing good with you.
	Candace Owens, welcome back.
	Yes, good to be back on the Charlie Kirk show.
	So, Megan, there's a lot happening right now, and I recently went on the Bill Mars show.
	I want to get your reaction.
	Matt, walk us through the decades-long journey from 2015 to today on the public opinion battle.
	Michael, why are people going back to church?
	People are going back to church because the atheism ran out of steam.
	Ben, thank you for taking the time.
	I was moved by your podcast on Monday about how we must stare the evil in the face.
	Pete, you're doing a phenomenal job.
	I just want to say that from the American people that uh you don't get the credit uh that you deserve, obviously, in the mainstream media.
	We are here with Stephen K. Bannon.
	Charlie, I'm sorry.
	I never roll through this town without seeing you.
	Well, it's always the highlight.
	It's uh it's that's the advantage of being in Phoenix is that you're like one of the only shows in town, so everyone kind of just comes on by.
	I'm sick!
	People stealing my stick!
	Wait, so a campus thing I've been doing for 13 years to debate random college kids has now been so important that it gets prominent prime time placement on Comedy Central.
	I think I think the whole thing is just awesome.
	Bobby Kennedy, welcome back to the program.
	Charlie, thanks for having me.
	They canceled the president of the United States, the most powerful man of the world when it was my father.
	If they can do that to him, they can do it to anyone.
	They can't do it if we're all banded together and we're fighting one battle.
	Don Jr., everybody.
	Very special hour episode for you today.
	My wife joins us, Erica Kirk, the beautiful legendary Erica.
	I love you so much.
	I love you.
	You're my best friend.
	Welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
	Thanks, very listening, everybody.
	God bless.
	That's a great job, guys.
	Really good job.
	We miss him.
	That last shot.
	I missed my friend off stage.
	I miss my friend.
	You know, one of the things that Charlie was kind of interesting early in Charlie's career was he wasn't um he's a a prolific speaker, obviously.
	He's a genius on stage, but he wasn't really interested in you know spotlight.
	It's a really interesting piece to him was that he was it was I think that's kind of like almost like we were talking with I was talking with people on the best analogy to Charlie was that he was very much um in the come follow me spirit of of Christ.
	I think that's what the most Christ-like thing about him was that people wanted to follow him.
	Sorry, I just can't get through all this.
	Um but he didn't want spotlight, and I think that was part of his his and so when I had suggested with our events team that we do bigger things that we do consider because we have more people who want to show up and we have more kids and all that.
	It wasn't about that for him.
	It wasn't I I people watch these things and they're like we I mean we went rock star, we went full rock star on Charlie Kirk, and a lot of that is thanks to Andrew.
	I mean, without a doubt, you know, we gave we give Erica Erica 100% made a rock star.
	Uh I give you more credit for that because you you forced him to do it, and then eventually he embraced it, but it was it was he was not the he wasn't interested in that.
	But he also like wasn't your sort of like central casting character to do it.
	No, and you made him enter out on you know, embark out on a much bigger vision.
	But um but this is the point with Charlie is that he was a he was a very humble person.
	Yeah, and I I don't want that to change with like how people start to take um the memory of of Charlie because he's big.
	He wasn't interested in what the stage looked like or like who was there, what the spotlight looked like.
	He just wanted to tell the truth.
	He just wanted to tell people what was what they needed to hear.
	And uh and he was really good at that.
	Um really good at that.
	But everything else built around him for the right reasons.
	I was so sorry, like I'm like spinning like tears everywhere and everything else.
	It's like splash stone.
	Um but he is his his legacy is going to be what you said, Andrew, is that he was a incredibly humble person that was thrust into something that was so much bigger than all of us, so much bigger than him, but he was the perfect person for the perfect time.
	He um he always told young people be a part of something bigger than yourself, and he is the um the most iconic example of that that I think any of us can imagine.
	You know, I wasn't gonna do this, uh, but um I think the team uh was absolutely spot on.
	People want something to remember Charlie by.
	I've been getting message after message, email, comment, this huge outpouring of people saying, and and because Charlie, as as we all know, he loved t-shirts, apparel, how he was always like, get me one that says that, give me one that says that like literally the team would screen press them almost on a two-hour turn.
	And it's because it's because he understood that that is a physical real messaging platform that you can wear in the real world in the real space.
	That would be seen that would be seen billions of times in Charlie's instance.
	And he wanted so whatever the message that he wanted to send or what he was thinking about would usually be what he would wear.
	And there'd be times where he'd have you know a different one on five days a week if you watched the show, and that was all very I just wouldn't mean to say it's very deliberate.
	It was it was not like some random thing.
	No, no, no.
	He he loved his different shirts, and so please put them back on screen, guys.
	So here they are, and they are available for purchase.
	Um we're gonna as many as everybody wants.
	We don't have a made yet, so please be gracious with us.
	We're gonna get them out as fast as we can.
	Um Charlie Kirk store.com, Charlie Kirkstore.com, and I think the team did an amazing job with them.
	And um the the middle one is I am Charlie Kirk.
	I've seen so many people saying that.
	Yeah.
	And it's um it's a beautiful testament, and I love it, and I want one.
	And the other one is uh I'm just humbled by God's grace.
	And that of course was from election night, November 2024, um, when Charlie got news that Pennsylvania had been called by Fox News uh for Donald Trump and that he would be the 47th president of the United States and that right in this room, that viral video, it happened right here.
	Right in this chair.
	And Charlie put his hands up to his face, and a man who doesn't cry very often got misty-eyed, and um and he gave all the glory to God, and I love that, and I'm so glad that they picked that that that moment.
	And then the other one is um the freedom shirt, and it has the date that it happened, and that's the shirt that he was wearing.
	And uh, we put the turning point hook on that sleeve as well.
	And so if you want to honor Charlie, and obviously you want to help the show, um that that would be amazing.
	Um can I shout out you guys real quick?
	I mean, we have so many good people who work for it for Charlie, uh, his show, his his personal side.
	Uh, people don't talk about this.
	I I was careful not to talk about this because Charlie again didn't like the spotlight of it all.
	Um part of the reason why this show exists is because Charlie didn't want to do things that would cost money from turning point.
	Uh for years and years and years and years, Charlie didn't take a salary from turning point.
	Uh he paid himself.
	I know this because I I was the one that uh had to approve payrolls for at turning point for seven years.
	He paid himself like thirty thousand dollars a year, then a little bit.
	Yeah, he didn't take a wage for the first five years, and then his first wage I think was like 20 15,000 the first year, 2000.
	And I know that because mine was tiny too when I gave over it was like insane.
	And and then he the part of the show was that he was able to give back, so it cost turning point nothing for tur for Charlie to run turning point.
	Yeah, people don't know this.
	Charlie gave there was this stupid AP article, I'll never forget where they tried to give it.
	I know, but they tried to make it sound like Charlie was was somehow taking money from donors or something or fleecing the donors.
	But here's the truth.
	Charlie paid back his salary and then some back to turning point every year.
	He donated back all that.
	Go ahead, Tyler.
	I was just gonna I was just gonna say this is that he he was able to do something beyond anyone else.
	So there's I mean, there's great people that people admire a lot.
	Rush is one of those people.
	But Rush didn't build in his spare time a turning point USA, a turning point action, and and all that, right?
	Like Charlie did all that, gave it all back essentially for that, and then we have the whole point of why I'll say this is we have so many good people here at the show that that have that work here that that produce it to get truth out because again, what that Charlie was interested in wasn't spotlight, it was getting the truth out, it was doing something bigger than himself.
	And every single person that's here that that are back behind the glass right now and that are in this building that uh are across campus here at Turning Point Headquarters, um join Charlie on that vision and are part of that, and so uh yeah, with that we talked about the shirts and everything else.
	Please um support you know this this mission to continue Charlie's voice with with Charlie's show because there's so many good people here that that have done that, and I know Andrew's Erica looked at me yesterday and she said the show has to keep going and turning point has to grow even bigger, and um I hope I'm at liberty to say that I think she would want me to say that.
	Yeah, um, and so we don't know what the future holds for everything.
	Uh at least you know, with fine detail, but we know that that will happen, that we will honor that, and I know Charlie would want that to happen.
	That's the only way to honor Charlie is to to for everything to get bigger and to again again that point, which is that this is bigger than any singular person.
	Uh, but honoring Charlie's memory permanently with making turning point bigger and the mission, which is activate as many human beings as possible to do the work to do the Lord's work and to do the work to save the republic.
	So put those those shirts back up for the radio.
	Um, if you can, you can go to Charlie Kirkstore.com, Charlie Kirkstore.com.
	We have three options.
	Um the the election night shirt is a drawing of him putting his hands on his face after he found out that Trump was going to be elected the 47th president, and he said, I'm just humbled by God's grace.
	And uh that's a beautiful one.
	He is I'm Charlie Kirk, and people love that.
	Um I'm Charlie Kirk.
	I've been seeing that everywhere.
	And then we have the shirt, um, the freedom shirt that he was wearing and with the date on it and the the turning point hook also on that on that sleeve.
	I think that message in the center shirt there, I'm Charlie Kirk.
	That that speaks to what Tyler's talking about.
	It's that it's the Charlie Kirk spirit, right?
	It's I was saying this yesterday on interview, you know, people who's the next Charlie Kirk.
	Look, we well, there isn't an ex Charlie Kirk, but Charlie, if if you asked him that in public, right?
	He would say, you know, you go get a megaphone or you know, uh a chair and go to your local park and set up a folding table on camp, whatever it is, right?
	Whatever public place you can be, and and go do this too.
	And so it doesn't mean you know, it doesn't it's not about him, right?
	It's about you take that Charlie Kirk spirit and go and be the next one and go set up your chapter or go set up your thing and go be that person.
	And that I think is is the message that's now and you see this, it's around the world.
	It's completely we'll we'll talk about it later, but it's it's totally around the world.
	I mean, I'm getting messages from like I don't even want to say, but just countries that you wouldn't even believe had heard of Charlie are doing vigils for Charlie.
	I uh I actually do want to talk about that at length because one of the things that I've realized um and I I tweeted about this or posted about this last night on X. Um there was a video of a vigil that was sent to me, and I just said I've constantly had to recalibrate my internal clock because you kind of know exactly what you mean how famous Charlie is, and then like something else would kind of blow your mind and be like, Whoa, he's actually way bigger.
	And Blake, I'm sure you had a bunch of those, even in Seoul.
	You're like, whoa, people know him here.
	Um yeah, I I am realize that as much as I tried to recalibrate, I'm I'm probably two years behind, like actually how fa famous he was, like in my in my internal clock, and I in his death, um, and Trump said this beautifully actually this morning on Fox.
	Um, I don't know what clip it is, I'm sure we have it.
	We'll we'll play the yeah, that he's now he's even bigger.
	He was huge, and now he's a worldwide uh icon.
	And um before we before we get away off the topic, um I'm as I want to piggyback on Tyler and just say thank you to the staff for being here today.
	And yeah, and yeah, their hearts are broken too.
	Impossible task.
	We and all of our turning point staff right now are at home with family as we as the as is expected.
	But again, for here being part of the show and honoring Charlie.
	I mean, that's just such a hard thing to ask people to do.
	And I I can't thank you each enough.
	Everybody behind the glass, seriously.
	Thank you for being here.
	Thank you to our amazing team.
	They really are amazing.
	And Charlie loved them dearly.
	Here we are at the Charlie Kirk Show studio.
	Um I remember building this studio, and I remember designing it so Charlie would be here, and then he's decided he liked it here better.
	So we flipped everything.
	Um you had to have his Oregon duck thing over there.
	It was the the original original was a straight line.
	Yeah, it was a straight well.
	This desk actually is modular, and so you can kind of fold it uh so that the two levels fold into one another, and it was just a desk, and it was supposed to be designed so that if you had guests, it could fold out and the team could but he just liked it like this with all the tests.
	We did one of the election night streams or something, and we set up the V, and he just liked it.
	He just liked it.
	He left it.
	And he just left it that way.
	Well, I remember walking into, so the story of this complex is really interesting because we were in Chicago.
	We came over here, and we found this space because we wanted to have a building for Turning Point that was by itself.
	Yeah.
	And fast forward to, we had to go through and talk every single one of the people in this complex to sell the buildings.
	So I had to get on the phone with these guys, and luckily we had this incredible kid that was in real estate that helped.
	and we talked him into it but I remember walking through this building for the first time and this is a garage this was actually a garage so this was like a they a shop like they they had like a bunch of machines and stuff in here and they had they used to have all this equipment that was like hanging off and we just started going through just yanking stuff out or like this will be the home for Charlie the c Charlie Kirk studio.
	And I I feel bad for the audience because I'm not sitting in Charlie's seat you're seeing the the profile shot of of Tyler uh because he's looking at me when he's talking so I apologize that's that's been everything on the show that I'm always you're here I'm always looking at Charlie because that's Tyler's seat.
	I know and I kept I kept telling the studio I was like can we like get that camera Andrew Andrew's pointing out this is a this is a blocking violation for for film and TV.
	It's worth it.
	Yeah.
	So, um, but we've kind of always done it.
	So like, uh, you know, I'm going to ask, let me ask you this when radio gets back on, but I was just talking with the, we took a quick, uh, bio break as they call it in the business.
	And, um, I was asking the team, I was like, what do people want to hear right now?
	And the whole team is out there in the bays.
	And they were like, people want to hear stories about Charlie and they want to see the behind the scenes stuff.
	And so I want us to share that with him and, uh, with the audience, uh, our interactions with him.
	And I don't want to force you to start when we, we're going to be welcomed back national radio in about a minute, but that's, um, there, there are, there's that line in the Bible about Jesus where it says, you know, there, there would be the writing of endless books about all the things that Jesus did.
	And I feel like, um, not to compare Charlie to Jesus, but his life is like that, where if you compiled all the little things that he did, did for
	all the tens of thousands of people that he interacted with there would be no end of the books that we could write about his life and um that is um that is a tr it's like so true like I'm not even that's not even at like 31 years on this planet and that's not even a hyperbolic thing to say that's not me exaggerating is um a really remarkable feat.
	And so Blake I'm gonna go like we're just gonna go around the table I I was just gonna put you on the hot seat first so it wasn't me.
	So the our our team is telling us that people want to hear more personal stories that you that you wouldn't have seen um if you didn't know Charlie.
	So Blake the floor is yours.
	Tell us a story about Charlie that uh you think people would like to hear or that haven't heard yet man I'm I'm thinking of a few things uh gosh personal stuff I think one of the things that always impressed me about Charlie was his immense uh personal discipline about everything he did he had you know his day was very ordered everything he did was very ordered and he didn't deviate from that and if you you know asked him about that he'd be like well this is this is the smart thing to do why would I do something different?
	And the thing I'd always tease him about is the number of foods he ate which is about four or five yeah uh like I would joke about this and I would I'm not exaggerating the the variation of food Charlie ate was like grilled chicken avocado hot sauce like cabbage lettuce like that like salmon I guess and I think he used to have beef but I think he later like decided red meat was probably more of a bad than good doing that he said it was like a couple years ago that he just because he wanted he said he wanted to get back in fighting shape or something.
	Yeah.
	And Charlie, as long as I've known, Charlie has always been very focused on what he puts inside his body.
	Yeah.
	From day one.
	It was I remember because I've always when I was my first met Charlie, I was skinny.
	And then I got, you know, you know, dad fat.
	Less skin.
	You got your road layer.
	I got dad fat.
	I put on the pregnancy weight a few times throughout that that cycle.
	Campaign 30.
	But Charlie was always and he would always kind of yell at me, you know, and Andrew, I'm probably sure you had.
	Some of these situations like probably hasn't.
	But I've never got yelled at for what he eats.
	But he would be like because I would like pound sodas.
	And like I was like, oh, yeah.
	then it caught up with me I was like Charlie's like sin eater because I like I eat everything.
	he would eat like piles of singular foods.
	So it would be like stacks of like stacks of broccoli.
	He would order that like steamed broccoli or he would order just just meat.
	Right.
	It would just be like meat.
	And then he would just he would pound through it.
	He would eat like as we're talking, like like we didn't have time to waste as we were going.
	It would just eat later in life.
	He enjoyed.
	I think he enjoyed meals a little bit more.
	But the early was like we were going, going, going.
	He's always in the travel, ready to go.
	And he would just eat.
	I would just sit there and be like because I would order like a normal sandwich and like drink a drink.
	But he would just eat to eat.
	But it was always healthy.
	And he would always be like, you're going to eat that.
	Like he would look at me like, you're going to eat that.
	You're going to put that.
	I actually remember, I think the night I think I'm pretty sure we were all there too.
	It was the night of the RNC when he gave his speech there.
	Not the six year and 20, but the 24.
	And I think I want to correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he have like a couple of chicken wings?
	And he like made a huge deal about it.
	He had a couple and we had like a huge pile.
	It was a huge pile of stuff.
	vast pile of chicken and but it was like each as Tyler was saying like each box was a separate food and then we had a whole bunch of chicken wings that we were all just chowing down on and he goes I will allow myself to have a few well and that was like he would he would find something he liked and early on he used to say his all the time he'd be like you could build a religion around this thing.
	Have you ever heard him say that we'd build a religion around this thing around this when he found a food he liked he'd be like you can build a religion around this or that thing or whatever.
	But it's like the first time he's eating it no he wasn't getting yeah no it would be it would be like it'd be like I'd be like I mean I think it's great these chicken wings you can build a religion we know.
	I think I heard Charlie say that no short of like 500 times.
	I yeah it that when you say there's certain set phrases that were just like the Charlie phrases and you know when you say them you could just hear it in his voice because that's that's the only guy who talks that way.
	What about you, Jack?
	Do you have a fun Charlie story that you think the audience hasn't heard or would like to hear?
	Oh, man.
	You know, look, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's just private.
	So that's like, how do you steep through that?
	You know, I'll tell the story from last year, though, that I think is just kind of a funny thing.
	So Charlie worked so hard on these campus tours that people don't realize that he worked himself sick last year.
	And there were, I don't know, two, three weeks where he just, he had no voice.
	He completely lost his voice out there on the campus tours, the campaigns between everything.
	He was traveling so much and just picking up whatever germs and bugs and all the rest and obviously with his health regimen and is that he you know he did what he could but you know sometimes it just kind of doesn't work that way and I remember we had we had talked about and he was like hey Jack you know you're Pennsylvania guy we're doing this Penn State I think it's gonna be big do you want to come and I was like oh yeah you know we'll we'll see if it works out with the schedule etc.
	and and then a couple days before the event he sent or no the day before the event he sends me this text and and says jack we need to talk so like we need to talk i lost my voice so then i call him and he immediately hangs up and he texts me back and i said he said jack i can't talk i lost my voice i can only text and so he he's like i i need you up here um and and and so we we i get up to Penn
	State And the entire time we're there and I'm with him, we're spending time and he's like sending me text messages or just writing stuff on his phone.
	And you're like right next to him.
	Yeah.
	And he's like showing it and I'm like saying it or tweeting it or whatever it is.
	And then as we're about to go, you know, we have this whole thing set up and there's thousands of kids.
	I mean, 5,000 maybe.
	Because I know we brought.
	It was insane.
	I know we brought.
	Sea of red hats.
	We brought 30,000 hats, but then we ran out and only about half of the kids had hats.
	So that's why I know.
	You would not believe the number of hats that Turning Point bought.
	still managed to run out and it was insane and that's and then and then the campus end up sh ended up shutting down the the speakers that many boxes I want to just throw out hats.
	It was so many box like the logistics of getting that many hats is actually to each campus was actually a marvel in and of itself.
	And you're you're reminding me of uh go ahead.
	I don't know if you had something you wanted to add, Tyler.
	No, I was just gonna say that the the miracle of the organization of Turning Point, uh being able to do all those things is what enabled so much of Charlie Kirk, right?
	Charlie was wanted to be enabled all the time with every little crazy idea that he had.
	I would call him Charlie Kirk Wild Goose Chases, like with stuff.
	It would just be like constant stuff, right?
	And it was just like trying to channel where those things would go.
	But the enabling of the of the staff to do the things that needed to be done, because Charlie was almost always right on these things.
	Always right on the He was annoyingly almost always right.
	Almost always right.
	And when you did when you got one that was right, you were like you would make a mental dynamic be like, eh.
	Because it was it was 99 to 1.
	But the but where he wanted to go with everything was always right.
	And he he and and he knew he had the vision, and the people who helped execute that uh deserve a ton of credit.
	Every every person, every can I I look at the the videos from the campus tours.
	Every one of our activists that is there that's volunteering to help hold microphones to you know standing in the in the gap there, especially in in such scary times as where we're at today.
	They have been such incredible warriors, and uh and that honors Charlie so much.
	Um yeah, we we have this let's go ahead and play it.
	We have just enough time.
	This is Charlie eating with chopsticks in Japan with Blake, four seventy-nine.
	Is it like a big thing?
	Yeah, of course.
	Am I doing it okay?
	Yeah, perfect.
	This is Noto.
	What a mentor.
	Why is it so gooey theme?
	It's very good.
	It's so good.
	It's very good.
	Why is it so gooey?
	Uh because it's farmented, I think.
	Right.
	That's great.
	That's very good for you guys.
	Blake, uh, I remember you he he was you and I were on a chat when this was happening or moments after it happened, and he was like, There was literally eleven dishes in this thing.
	It was amazing.
	Oh, the Japanese food.
	I mean you can't.
	Yeah, yeah.
	People don't realize like how he would just get fixated on the state.
	Yes, I would just love how he would you know, he would like interrogate me about things 'cause Charlie Charlie loved to learn things, loved to pick new things up, and yet he was also so busy all of the time.
	So he would even just he would send me on he's like, uh Blake, you have to learn all about this thing so that you can just tell me about it when I need to learn about it later.
	So I'll I'll go read, you know, a 300 page book about this so that I can just be ready when Charlie interrogates me.
	I remember once on a flight, it was like an hour, and he's just like, Blake, tell me about the Roman Empire.
	I'm like the start or the end.
	He's like, whatever you want.
	And just started going off about that.
	I also asked you about that.
	Blake is a very good resource if you want to learn about the Roman Empire.
	And he was he was very, you know, he sometimes just to he would ask Mikey, he would be like, Mikey, just ask Chad GPT to make some trivia questions, and then let's just see if Blake can get them.
	And he was very proud that you know, he's like, Okay, Blake, I'm gonna lose to you on you know, history, I'm gonna probably lose to you on geography.
	Uh, but he was very proud that he was he was competitive with me on you know biblical stuff because he was very he he loved to study the Bible, you know, book by book.
	He was really into that.
	He was very very proud of that.
	And he was right, he was he was better at b Bible trivia than I was.
	Actually, that's that's something I could share, and I'm sure we all could that you know late you know, late night, whatever it is, people would say, Well, what is Charlie like in the in you know off air?
	It he would be constantly going through books of the Bible, and then he would send you, you know, some file or a podcast or something and be like, Jack, I just did this five hour course on the book of Deuteronomy.
	You need to go through all five hours and come back to me with it.
	Yeah.
	Um and not even for the show.
	I I have a story like this actually from recent.
	We were in Aspen doing um uh an investor summit, um, and it was an amazing trip, and we we had uh a Cambridge professor who uh was actually we we played that uh the last live it was a pre-record,
	but it was like the last radio live hour, um, you know, before he started speaking at at campus and um it was with Dr. James Orr, he's an amazing Cambridge professor, and um he flew back uh w from Aspen uh and Charlie was like, What are you doing tomorrow?
	And James was like, Well, I don't fly out until Monday, and it was a Sunday.
	So Charlie was like, Well, do you want to have breakfast with us and we'll we'll do our our morning worship and then I'll pick you up and can you just like teach me all day?
	And and James was like, What you just wanna you know, you just want to do class?
	And he's like, Yeah, like I just want to do class.
	And uh so I they sat in a room and Charlie peppered him with questions.
	And you have to understand Dr. James Orr not only sees the world similarly the way we do, but he has like a photographic memory of the classical Western canon of of all the texts that make up the Western.
	He can remember almost page and verse of all of these great books and he connect them, how they relate to now and where we got this word and how it how it evolved from this and to and so Charlie was was gathering this three dimensional understanding of the the Latin and the Greek, uh and how it made up European history which gave birth to America, obviously the Western Western canon.
	But that was Charlie's idea of of a Sunday well spent, and um I remember being so jealous.
	That's a day off for sure.
	That was a day off.
	I remember being so jealous because I had to go back home, I had to catch a flight Sunday morning to get back home.
	Uh and I mean I got to be with my family and it was great, but and that's where I I should have been.
	But Charlie got to spend the day with his family and learning from one of the great minds um in uh Christendom.
	And it was a ma it was amazing.
	That was Charlie in a nutshell.
	I also the it's weird things that I remember right now.
	Charlie walking around all the time with like he'd wear shorts on planes with like his tall socks.
	Yeah, yeah.
	So he always it was the tall socks, the tall socks.
	No, he it improves circulation, Andrew.
	No, he would always tell him talk to me about this.
	He's like, it's a it's a thing for tall people, Jack.
	It's compression socks.
	You wear them, you wear them on planes, the pressure.
	He had it all like I'm not gonna rise in choice.
	No joke.
	A week ago, I was getting when I was actually flying out to uh Korea for a thing.
	I was like, Okay, I've got to see if there's something to this.
	And I just put on socks and I pulled them all the way up and I wore them that for about half the day, and then I thought this is way too annoying, and I slid them back down.
	Well he would say you're not tall enough.
	Yeah, probably but you probably did have really good circulation.
	Maybe he was right most of the time.
	I wanted to read something that Danny uh on the team, Danny's young guy, um Charlie loved Danny so much.
	And uh Danny's quiet, uh doesn't always say a whole lot, um, but when he speaks, you better listen because he's been thinking about it for a long time.
	And Danny wanted to uh he's shared this with me.
	I I hope it's okay.
	I think it is.
	He says, Charlie's story.
	Last year when I was living out here interning, I was living in the hood off of GCU campus.
	Charlie found out and and goes, Okay, you're gonna either live at my apartment or at my in-laws.
	I'm and he's like, I convinced him I would be fine, and I stayed where I was for a few months.
	He was one of the kindest people I've ever met.
	And um I love that story because uh somehow this was true about Charlie that he was balancing huge organizations, a thousand relationships, donors, friends, the show, uh politicians, other organizations.
	He he had all these plates spinning in his head all the time, and he would somehow find time to worry about my well being.
	Or are your is your wife and kids are they gonna come?
	Do you need me to set them up with something?
	Do you want me can I get them here?
	Uh are you okay?
	Do you want me to put you at this hotel?
	Like he would his brain was just always moving and spinning, and he was always thinking about other people and their well being.
	And how many stories I heard of that, Tyler?
	I mean, right?
	It's like you saw it in the organizational feats of Turning Point, how he would think about the speaker coming in and make sure they were all taken care of.
	And he had it built into the schedule that he had to go backstage to meet so and so at such a time because he wanted to just say thanks for coming.
	And it was it the intricacy of his mind and the details he was able to hold all at one time, truly amazing.
	One of the things that uh I've I just keep seeing over and over is everyone telling the stories of how they got introduced to Charlie.
	And I've had received again thousands of messages.
	I can't even respond back.
	I know Andrew feels the same.
	All of us probably feel the same.
	Jack is uh a savant at keeping up with people.
	I don't know how he does it, but I I just can't even keep up, so I'm not even gonna try.
	So I apologize.
	But everything I keep seeing over and over is Tyler, I know you were close to Charlie.
	I didn't know him personally, but I want you to know how I was introduced to Charlie.
	And nine times out of ten, you know what the answer is.
	Uh one of my kids turned me on to Charlie.
	They show me Charlie.
	And this is like and this kind of goes hand in hand a little bit with what you're talking about.
	I it's just it's always shocking to me how again the Charlie Kirk phenomenon, how he led his life, how everything just ultimately ended up, you know, in front of people.
	And for so many young people, again, and that's the mission of Turning Point.
	Turning point, we always were we're trying to get young people involved and engaged.
	But to not only see young people getting involved and engaged and loving Charlie and being interested in his content, whether it's TikToks to all the way through long form podcast, is that they were taking their parents, in most cases, old Gen Xers or baby boomers, and saying, You need to listen to this, or grandparents.
	And it's so interesting to me, and this is the legacy that that has to carry on in such a profound way, is that young people can be the spur, they can be the dynamics, they can be the activating element.
	And Charlie was right.
	No one believed this, by the way, when we started.
	There was no one.
	And Charlie would get that face, you know, when he would tell you, he'd get excited because he'd be like, I'm gonna prove you wrong.
	And he'd get that voice in his He literally took on the hardest.
	I can't the hardest job.
	It literally at the time it was unfathomable, and it was like you have chosen potentially the dumbest career mission imaginable.
	Obama era college campuses, guys.
	You don't understand.
	That is the definition of the belly of the beast.
	And where we are today is where young people are carrying on their shoulders the Charlie Kirk voice to the older generation in a lot of cases.
	And I'm so that I I never have really spent time thinking about that.
	I mean, I know it, and we're really excited about it because I do that with my parents and grandparents.
	But it's it's been so rewarding to see, and if Charlie could sit here and read all these messages that I'm receiving that are saying that exact thing, he would be ecstatic.
	And we used to send those in the chat all the time, but I actually have some breaking news.
	I don't know if I should share it or not, but I'm going to.
	It looks like the Cubs are going to be recognizing Charlie today.
	So I don't even want to tell that story.
	I I can't tell that story.
	But they they should have they are.
	They should have a it's very important to Charlie.
	And I and I he loved the Cubs.
	His grandma was a lifelong Cubs fan, and she got to see the Cubs win the World Series and then passed away, and Charlie was like, that was she lived and she lived to see like that the greatest thing as a sports fan for her.
	And that meant a lot to me.
	Because no one thought it was ever gonna happen.
	Yeah, Charlie loved the Cubs.
	Um loved the Bears too, but it was a little bit harder to be a Bears fan.
	I actually was it was hard to be a Cubs fan a lot of the time.
	Do you remember one of the last chats that we had?
	Um we were we were just you know, because on on uh by the way, that picture right there that's up on screen that was um really recent.
	A couple weeks ago, right?
	I was with him, yeah, and we went to that game.
	And uh there's a great yeah, it's a picture with the Cubs team, and then those, you know, all these haters online tried to like shame that uh player, I forget his name, but um he lives in Phoenix as well, and uh um it's the third baseman, hit a home run that day, uh, I think just for Charlie, which was like amazing.
	And uh, actually have a couple pictures from that day, so go ahead, Jack.
	I No, no, I was just gonna say on on Sundays, especially, you know, people don't realize how how big of a sports fan Charlie was.
	And on Sundays, you know, the the group chat would turn into basically whatever game he was watching.
	And just you know, I yeah, one of our last things was just you know, busting his balls about the bears.
	And the bears joking it away.
	Yeah, that's what I was saying.
	I was scrolling through.
	That's a story people would like.
	I was scrolling through and Charlie was so focused and reading.
	It was always that we'd have uh, you know, America Fest is right before Christmas, and that's when the bowl games are ramping up.
	And I think even maybe some of the playoff games were going on this last year.
	I can't remember what the schedule was, but he wanted to see what was going on.
	He was no, he was mad.
	What game was it?
	He was mad that he wouldn't be able to watch a game in real time because we would literally have we have the big stage at Amphest, and then behind it is our kind of command center or green room, and there's a table, and Charlie had a place he could sit, and he had a TV monitor set up to be showing one of these football games, and he's just sitting there like watching it during his literal two minutes of downtime before the next thing at Amfest, and he'd have his bowl with his chicken and lettuce that he was able to do.
	And his hot sauce, he'd just be sitting there with his birthday.
	Watching it really intensely, and you know I'd walk by, he's like, Blake, come here, come here.
	Come on, let's watch what let's watch a game, Blake.
	Okay, Charlie.
	I uh please put this B-roll up.
	Uh, just don't play the sound on it because I haven't reviewed it for anything.
	Uh I never shared this, but this was just from a couple weeks ago.
	Um that's me filming and Charlie and Erica, and we went out.
	That was the first time Charlie got to walk out onto Wrigley Field onto the field right there.
	It was before the game, and it was so awesome.
	And the Ivy right there.
	And uh this is Charlie, of course, looking back, give me the thumbs up.
	And um, man, we had the we had just a heck of a time getting into the stadium because there was all these security barriers, but they had arranged we that arranged it with us beforehand to let Charlie get right up close, uh, so that he could just kind of get out of get out of the the car and get on there uh onto the field.
	And this was his uh his childhood uh favorite team, the cubbies.
	He's got his cubs hat.
	I kept wanting to get him one of the new era or like the the actual field hats.
	Oh, he would never be able to do that.
	But he liked he liked his uh his little like low profile one and uh it was what he wore.
	Uh I think that's the same Cubs hat he wore at Student Action Summit um when he was doing the uh Prove Me Wrong with the the students there.
	Um and it was just so fun.
	It was so fun.
	He wanted to be there with him.
	Yeah, he wanted to be he loved that that field and that stadium.
	We had this is way back in the day, but um we had actually taken we used to we used to have our headquarters in Chicago.
	So it was it was a ways out from Chicago, and I I remember at the early time, this is like right after we had made some changes to really grow turning point USA.
	Um we did a team builder at the Cub Stadium at Wrigley Field.
	And so we Charlie and I had driven over to the the Cubs, you know, to Wrigley.
	Very difficult to to park.
	You have to like basically just park in people's garages and things like that.
	But we took all of the staff there, and it was at the time I think we have like 20 people.
	And I remember we're just there and we're sitting, and he just nonstop would be talking about to everybody how because we had staff from all over the country at the time, just different places about how great the Cubs were, how much he loved them, and you knew from that moment how much that mattered to Charlie.
	And there were a few things that were like Chicago boy things.
	I mean, he loved Chicago.
	He told me Tyler, Chicago's the greatest city on planet Earth.
	I'm never gonna leave.
	And I was really nervous, you know, when we f you you were instrumental in him falling in love with Phoenix.
	He's really uh Arizona a Chicago boy at heart.
	And and the and the Wrigley, the Cubs, yeah, everything else was was such a big part of the things that he loved.
	Um right here in his studio in Phoenix, Arizona.
	Um his seat is empty because we were honoring one of the greatest people any of us will ever meet.
	A legend, an icon, a martyr, a man who lifted up God above all, his faith in Jesus Christ was the most important thing to him.
	And then it was his family, Erica, his two beautiful kids.
	And then it was the country and turning point.
	And everything that our founders built.
	And um I'm just realizing, Jack and Tyler and Blake, that how much I've been changed by this person.
	It was funny, even while we were starting the show, and it didn't occur to me while I was doing it.
	And so I hope it didn't come off as some like fake like emulation.
	But I was sitting here going, like, hey, send so and so in.
	Hey, so it sends so and so in.
	And then like I remember that's what Charlie would do but before the show.
	Right.
	It was always like, da-da-da-da-da.
	And it's like I it's I don't think I'm gonna fully understand how much I've been affected and transformed and changed by Charlie.
	Um I don't think I'll ever fully understand it.
	Because you're not you're not purposefully doing it like Charlie.
	Oh, it was like Charlie's imprint.
	We were so saturated with so much Charlie Kirk at all times that the way I put it was like people ask you, what about this question?
	What about this question?
	Would Charlie wanted this?
	Would Charlie wanted that?
	And it's like it's like I can hear him in a way, but like not like he's speaking to me, but just it's just if you know him, you kind of know what he would say.
	Yeah, you know, you you almost know, not on like you know, certain things, but but just little basic things.
	You just well, that's what Charlie would say this.
	Well, Charlie would say this.
	Charlie would do this, and you just you just you just know you just know that that's what he would have wanted.
	And it's weird because you know, talking to everybody throughout all of this, it's you know, even having heard that Erica said that she wanted the the cameras on and wanted this up.
	I know that's exactly what Charlie would have wanted.
	That he would say, get on the stream, get the rumble up.
	It's almost like we are the large uh learn language model for Charlie Kirk because we've we've we've had so much input from this person.
	Um that's that's what a life is, right?
	When you know somebody, yeah.
	That's that's what they do, they imprint on you.
	People people didn't give Charlie enough credit uh for how funny he was.
	Charlie could be hilarious.
	Charlie was funny, but it was his own very distinct brand of it.
	It like because he was so distinctly Charlie and so rigidly Charlie Kirk, when he would kind of come in, you know, he would do that look when he goes, you know.
	Um but he would make oh man, the plane rides were the best.
	We would just get on topics, yes.
	It was it was topics, and it would almost kind of turn into the best way to describe Charlie Kirk's humor is probably Seinfeld.
	He'd love Seinfeld.
	I've been only watching Seinfeld Charlie.
	I've needed it to fall asleep the last couple nights.
	Love Seinfeld.
	But it was like kind of these weird, funny, just like situational things with personalities involved, where it's like we would kind of talk about those things, and it would be like, Well, that's just like what's this guy doing, and that's that, and like this is this isn't funny how this is connected, that's connected, and it was like kind of smart humor, but it's like that's the very in real life reality show type He was he was a good storyteller too.
	Uh and I almost feel bad that so many of the funniest ones you know you can't tell because it's it's private information, but he when he could actually tell you something, him relating it second hand was so funny.
	I'll give you a good Seinfeld moment from Charlie Kirk's life, and I'll I'll never I think about this all the time, and I don't know why it just sticks with me.
	So Charlie and I were going back and forth to LA for like every week for like a year.
	It was there's a reason for it, it was crazy, it was it was stupid, but my life got like completely uprooted, and I was going to LA every week.
	So the horrible part about this is that we had to find LAX, and LAX is like a third world country, and it just is, and like you just like and and again for people who have patience, you can probably get through LAX.
	Charlie Kirk cannot.
	And we were flying just back and forth, and so uh what one day we cut it really close on the Uber that we're going back to LAX, and you get in the loop around LAX, and it's like a horseshoe.
	And it's and if it's stopped, it's like that Uber spot where you have to.
	But you're so close to the terminal, but you're really not, yeah, yeah.
	And are you talking about just as you enter the airport?
	No, just the horseshoes.
	I just are gonna pack it.
	sometimes you can just bounce and then you can run faster than the other.
	No, then people who don't know LAX, that's a total thing where you're stuck in your Uber outside the airport, and you can see the whole string of cars, and people are getting out running in the city.
	But you can cut across the things.
	You can cut yeah, because it's a horseshoe, and in the middle they have parking and there's some pathways you can actually cut right in through.
	So anyways, the sky no LAX way too well.
	This guy was dropping us off, and you know, he wasn't communicating very well.
	And we're going through anyway, we're we're that basically scenario played out, and he's like, Oh, well it's just right up here, it's right up there.
	And we just kept going and going and going.
	He's like, and I just remember the guy had messed up and then missed.
	He cut through the middle because there's this kind of a road through the middle, and actually Messi's like, Oh, we're gonna go have to go back and do this all over again.
	And we just f flew open the doors.
	He's like, This is crazy.
	And like he just like looked at the guy, he's like, This is actually crazy.
	And we like grabbed our stuff out of the car, and we're like having to walk across the airport.
	But I I just rings in my ear the whole time because the guy was like, Oh no, it's fine.
	I I do this all the time.
	And but the interaction between Charlie and this guy and us trying to get into the airport.
	You can almost hear it the thumb, don't I don't hear it?
	Yeah, yeah.
	Um he loved this clip, by the way.
	He actually thought that Seinfeld had really profound, like deeper like uh parallels.
	He he thought it was basically thought our entire modern world could be there was a there was gonna be a Seinfeld episode that that mocked in parodied that what what we're experiencing now.
	And so he loved this ribbon clip.
	So let's just go ahead and play the ribbon clip if we have it.
	Uh I don't know what number it doesn't have a number, but it's the ribbon clip.
	You're checked in.
	Thank you.
	Here's your AIDS ribbon.
	Uh no thanks.
	You don't want to wear an AIDS ribbon?
	Uh no, no.
	But you have to wear an AIDS ribbon.
	I have to.
	Yes.
	Yeah, see, that's why I don't want to.
	But everyone wears the ribbon.
	You must wear the ribbon.
	What you are?
	You're a ribbon bully.
	Hey, you come back here!
	Come back here and put this on!
	Hey, where's your ribbon?
	Oh, I don't wear the ribbon.
	You don't wear the ribbon?
	Who do you think you are?
	Put the ribbon on.
	Hey, Cedric!
	Bob!
	This guy won't wear a ribbon.
	Who?
	Who doesn't want to wear the ribbon?
	And I'll try remember Charlie loved this because it was the parallel to the black square during George Floyd and this coercive, you have to put it up, and if you don't, you're guilty.
	And and and that was just one instant of Charlie uh using Seinfeld as uh and I'll never forget he always brings Eric Mataxis on the show.
	Uh and he'll the first thing he does when Eric Metaxis comes on and he he'll he'll make like a inside Seinfeld joke reference because Eric loves Seinfeld as well.
	Uh and it's and it's a beautiful thing.
	Man, it's just watching that clip.
	Charlie loved that clip.
	Charlie Charlie loved saying that line.
	You must wear the ribbon.
	Like, yeah.
	Oh I I'm gonna miss joking around with him so much.
	That's uh, how did you get him to wear this hat?
	This is hilarious.
	Tyler This is my greatest moment, by the way.
	Tyler got him to wear this hat, put this hat up.
	I can't believe you got I did I forgot you got him to wear that.
	Oh, yeah, this was the case.
	I feel happiest about I was able to get Charlie to do crazy things for a long time.
	Again, for for that, but we did we had these hats that said precinct lead uh precinct sheriff on them.
	Sheriff, yeah, because we're focused on recruiting for precincts, and this is how serious about it.
	And Charlie was very serious about chapters, and on our political side, we talked about precincts and getting everyone involved in the precinct level.
	And so I was like, Charlie, if you're serious about this, you gotta wear this.
	And we uh I think we were about for a thought crime episode.
	Yeah, everybody had to wear an um Charlie I think Charlie probably took that off pretty quickly, but it was great that he that he he was always a good sport, like no, he had it on, he had it on for quite a bit of the episode.
	Charlie was always a good sport, uh, actually.
	And um uh what uh South Park, like they didn't understand the South Park.
	I f we found the clip uh 477 uh uh of Rush talking about Charlie.
	I'm going to play it before this show is out because um this show is the Charlie Kirk show, and Rush Limbaugh inspired Charlie to pursue this line of work.
	There's no question about it.
	That's not me speculating.
	I know for sure that's why.
	Yep.
	And um, so I'm going to play the the Rush Limbaugh clip because they were both two men that we lost way, way too early.
	And I'm pretty sure that was the clip I just saw it.
	Um and Rush Rush saw um yeah, it's 477.
	Let's go ahead and play it.
	They brought Charlie Kirk to the golf course to meet me about a month ago.
	He was in town to set up this turning point thing.
	And they brought him to the golf course to meet me.
	It was during we're getting ready for a uh 8 45 a.m. start, and they brought him out while I was getting ready to go to the range loosen up.
	And I spoke with him for about a half hour.
	And he told me how he grew up in a home where my program was on all the time.
	He was just effusively complimentary to me, which which I of course understood and uh uh told him he's very wise, his family's very wise.
	He chuckled, he laughed.
	This is the kind of guy um that you know you can see really becoming big in politics as he gets older.
	He just has the kind that the carriage, the personality, the charisma.
	I you you may think this sounds weird, but I remember when Bill Clinton became president.
	There were all of these stories about Bill Clinton at Oxford and Bill Clinton at Yale and Bill Clinton here, and all these people that went to school with him.
	There was story after story after story where people were saying that they just knew Bill Clinton was going to be president someday in college.
	He just had that kind of ambition, and he impressed people and I'm telling you that people are saying the same things about about Charlie Kirk.
	Yeah.
	Rush saw it and Rush knew, and um Rush didn't want people to know this, and then we asked uh Catherine after he passed.
	Um she said it was okay to share that Rush was a seven-figure donor to turning point, and because he believed so much in Charlie and what he was building in the mission of Turning Point USA.
	And um I want all of you to rest assured that are wondering what's next.
	Turning point USA is not going anywhere.
	The mission that Charlie started, he always wanted it to be an institution that would outlive him.
	And we obviously wanted so much more time with him, but that was very clear that that was spoken of expressly, and um I know all of us are ready to get to work on that.
	Um we're honored by all our our partners at Real America's Voice who believed in this show.
	Um they've always been so supportive, by the way.
	Uh, they would send crews halfway around the world to have our back, Rob Sig, Parker Sig.
	We love you guys.
	You know what you mean to us, and um I've talked with both of you in the moments after and since and uh Jack, I know you uh work with them directly as well, and your show's coming up next, and we're gonna keep going for yeah, but I'm not I'm not just it'll be the Charlie Kirk should do this.
	We're just gonna continue this.
	Yeah.
	Um anyways, we love them, and um there's so many people that we should remember and thank.
	There's thousands, thousands and thousands, and we're not gonna it's this probably is not the show to do that, um, just because it's impossible and we're gonna forget too many people, but um, but uh our I just can't tell you uh how many people believed in Charlie and gave us a shot.
	And um and uh as a matter of fact, I am I'm gonna Daisy.
	Do I have my permission?
	Do you have do I have your permission to to read this?
	Alright, so this is from Daisy Phelps.
	Daisy um uh she was originally Daisy Dibley when she joined us, uh, and she got married, and now she's uh expecting her first child and we love Daisy.
	She um you we were joking, Tyler.
	You were like, my life was really hard and then you came along and then I was like, yeah, and then my life was really hard.
	You were like, I felt bad.
	I didn't want to tell you like how much easier my life got when I came around.
	And my life was really hard until Daisy Dibley came around.
	Um and now Daisy Phelps.
	100%.
	And then Blake candidly uh changed everything as well.
	Um I'm trying to make sure I got my show clock right here.
	So this is from Daisy who would do Charlie's makeup and make sure his eyebrows because he had these crazy eyebrows they like he had he had like 60 year old eyebrows at 27.
	Like they would just spark up like this and I was like Daisy make sure his eyebrows are like it it is hair.
	He had this crazy mop that would just fight you and Daisy got really good at kind of putting it all together.
	And Daisy also ran his Instagram account and so much more.
	So much she did so much around here.
	She said Charlie was a force a believer a patriot he was my friend I've had the privilege of speaking to him every day for the last four years and I can't tell you that I've ever known someone with more integrity.
	He was exactly who he said he was except better.
	There wasn't one thing that was fake or fabricated.
	He believed in what he said and he lived out what he believed he loved Jesus more than anyone the true the the truest thing about him was his belief in God.
	He was constantly researching new ways to defend the gospel and making sure we all knew them it was that important to him.
	I can still hear him say good morning sports fans coming into our studio every morning I can still hear the worship music coming out of his office.
	I and everyone in the building was watching I can still hear oh I can still hear the Cubs games he'd turn on all the TVs to make sure everyone in the building was watching.
	I can still hear his kids running to hug him during breaks.
	He's not only it he not only took a chance on me at 21 years old but he pushed me trusted me and listened to me.
	Our show was everything to us we lived and breathed the Charlie Kirk show because we believed in it.
	We still do he consistently raised the bar for everyone on our team by first raising it for himself every day.
	He saw greatness in you and he brought it out by first being great himself just being around him being in the background made you want to fight harder he was ecstatic when I told him I was pregnant.
	He made sure to ask about the baby every day.
	He wanted to see every ultrasound and when we found out it was a girl he yelled I told you my faith is completely different had I never met Charlie my career my adult life my marriage from watching the way he loved Erica everything is different had I never met him I'll never be the same and I wouldn't want to be if there was one thing to know about Charlie it's that he loved Jesus.
	He is with God he spent so much time learning about and teaching others about we just miss him.
	And I know we're all very honored to be here we're gonna keep going for another hour Jack and um at least um and I'd like to have an opportunity for people in the audience to call in and tell their stories and their how they remember Charlie so I want to do that.
	So I don't know if we're planning on doing that today.
	I think we probably should just keep going and so let's set up let's make sure the studio's ready to do that in a little bit but um go ahead there's a few people to you know and and again that are it's really important.
	this is not the show to everybody because there's so many people who are influential but there's a few people who are so dear to Charlie that I know of that just love to pieces Mike Miller who's been one of our long time board members he's like a father figure to Charlie and in fact he's one of the individuals who has been there from really day one when
	I met Charlie he was was a big time big game hunter Africa everything else a jeweler a big jeweler in Illinois from Barrington Illinois and he's so American the guy his address I think for his jewelry shop is 123 Main Street or something.
	So incre I and I've I've s I've slept at his house like this Mike's great man.
	Incredible love Charlie so much love Charlie so much but this is I mean there are people that have that were so influential our board members we have so many incredible board members but you know Doug DeGroot for example has just been there as been a a rock and a stalwart for Charlie Tom Sadeca who is going through some health things and we're praying for him every single day.
	I mean, there's just so many people, and so and those early people, especially the Chicagoans that were there who believed in Charlie.
	Uh Bill Montgomery, who was one of the first kind of in Bills and Magmatic Energy was like a tea party guy that wanted to just show Charlie to everyone, and it was many people like that who created gave the way that enabling of Charlie Kirk to be introduced to the world.
	And if you're one of those people, and I didn't name you, I'm so sorry.
	I we we I've I've David English David's there on the board, obviously, uh Rob McCoy, so many others that have been so close, all of our board members, truly, um, Jeff Webb, others that you just you took Charlie around to to expose him to the world to others.
	Um we're just we're just thinking about you so much today because uh you know you did this, and you you never remember and there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of people who Rebecca Dunn, Zweinberg, these people were just champions of Charlie, Ed Zieman, um so many yeah, we shouldn't start because we're gonna miss people that really but I I wanna foster freeze.
	Oh, Foster and he and I I guarantee you Foster is waiting right there for him when he when he came out.
	We were sharing pictures of Foster.
	I remember sitting with Foster actually just right before he passed in the Trump Hotel in DC, and he scolded me, he was always scolding, you know, for you know, giving that advice that to Charlie, to me, to anyone that would listen.
	And he loved Charlie.
	Everyone has loved Charlie so much.
	I just I I just also want to say thanks just in these few final moments of the live show, and again, we're gonna keep going, but um, we want to thank all the uh the Phoenix PD that has been uh stalwart and uh just from a security standpoint, cops blocking off roads, making sure our staff was safe, making sure these buildings were safe, making sure all the families felt safe going home and coming in.
	Um the buildings are are closed for all intents and purposes, and that's great.
	That's that's that's fine for right now.
	Um the first responders at the scene, uh, we want to thank them.
	Thank Charlie's personal security detail.
	Um you cannot imagine how um tough that was for them.
	And I really love those guys, and they love Charlie.
	You gotta believe me that if anybody loved Charlie, like and had his back and was fight the warriors by his side, it was those guys.
	Dan and Brian, guys are the best.
	Um incredible.
	I incredible.
	I can't.
	I mean, I we've known Dan from the very very beginning.
	There is not a person that loves Charlie Kirk more.
	Absolutely would have taken a bullet for Charlie.
	And the the PD at the vigils.
	Uh I know that there's just we're running out of time.
	We have 25 seconds left here before we we lose radio.
	Um Charlie loved being on radio.
	Um, and so there's a radio audience listening all across the country.
	Just know that um Charlie was inspired by Rush.
	Rush believed in Charlie, and Charlie took this medium to the next level, um, and he was rewarded with it in ratings and the performance of the show and all of your amazing uh belief in it.
	Thank you so much.
	And sorry, I just it's the way this thing works, man.
	Like uh you see somebody you haven't seen yet, you haven't grieved with yet, and it gets the motions flowing in uh in the you know, guys that I know who have lost people in the military, they say it's it's waves, yeah.
	It's waves, it feels like it feels like waves.
	That's the best way to describe it.
	And it's just and it's you know, certain certain phrases, certain people, certain faces, certain memories.
	Like for me, I I didn't expect a Seinfeld clip would just you know, yeah, and everybody deals with it differently.
	And um Charlie was not much of a crier unless you know he literally helped elect the future president and the 40 45 and 47.
	Um and uh, you know, just hat tip to everything He just accomplished by sheer will.
	And I really truly believe that without Charlie Kirk, we would not have President Trump and um Vice President Vance.
	And Vice President Vance, we would definitely not have him.
	And thank you to President Vance and to Usha, uh Vice President Vance and uh first second lady Usha um for just their just how wonderful they were with Erica yesterday through through and through.
	They came to Salt Lake City and they picked up Erica and they picked up Charlie and all of us and took us on Air Force Two back to Phoenix, and it was a beautiful ceremony, um, both getting on and uh getting off.
	And um JD came back and talked with us and he spent most of his time with Erica and I mean just class act, class act, hugged us all.
	He is he's genuinely I want to say this about the vice president.
	He's been genuinely interested in individuals, and this is the same thing with Charlie.
	This is the same thing with President Trump to be very point blank is very interested in individuals and his his touch, his warm touch on this of making sure that Charlie was honored the way that he deserved to be honored is never going to be forgotten.
	It's never gonna be forgotten by this team, it's never gonna be forgotten by the conservative movement, by obviously the entire turning point family.
	But that is that is such a testament to our vice president's character.
	Yeah, because it it would it's just as easy to say I I and keep and you gotta understand JD's hurting too.
	Um JD loved Charlie um as a brother and as a friend.
	Um they talked almost I'm like I I really mean this uh probably on text at least almost every day, if not every day.
	And JD was strong.
	He understood the moment was probably not his moment to grieve.
	He's grieving in private, and he was there and he was strong, and Usha was strong.
	And um Yeah, I just I love I love him for it.
	And um there's a lot to love about JD, but that was a really amazing um a really amazing moment.
	And uh for our uh members, and and by the way, thank you, Jack.
	This is your hour.
	Um, and you're you're graciously um letting us continue this show, and I I wouldn't have this hour if it wasn't for Charlie.
	So just doesn't mean anything.
	Just let just keep going.
	And um I appreciate that, brother.
	And um uh I uh just a quick programming note.
	We're gonna be sending our members, uh, members.charliekirk.com.
	We're gonna be sending you a phone number uh to call in and share your thoughts.
	So if you're one of the members of the show, you know who you are.
	You were the nearest and dearest to us um out there, and you believed in this show, and you put your money where your mouth is, and we adore you for it.
	And Charlie believed in his members in such an amazing way.
	And so if you're a member of the Charlie Kirk show, you are gonna about to get an uh an email with a phone number, and you can call in and you can share uh your thoughts and your remembrances of Charlie and what he meant to you, and we would love to hear from some of you.
	We'll try and fit in as many as make sense.
	And um how you got to know Charlie, how you discovered Charlie is incredible.
	Your interactions with Charlie and your interactions with the show, your interactions with Turning Point, uh, please like coming to events, whatever.
	We want to hear all of it.
	And we and please send those thoughts if you don't call in to freedom at Charlie Kirk.com.
	I'll just say that you know, and we haven't really addressed it here.
	Obviously, we you know, you know what we do, we see all the information that's coming in about the suspect.
	We've even got stuff that that hasn't been put out yet, and we just there'll be a time for that.
	And we know there'll be a time for that.
	There will be justice for Charlie Kirk, but that's that's not what we're doing right now.
	That's all I'm saying.
	Can I share one more thing that I saw that was a frequent thing that was really touching?
	We have of course tons of of people who've worked for us, um, tons of people who have worked with us alongside us that have helped build turning point into what it is today.
	Uh, but so many people, even people who you know, again, there are people who aren't always uh that don't always agree with with every single thing that comes out of turning point.
	I think this is really important, but their life was dramatically changed because of turning point.
	Um and they had met their spouses.
	Um the one common theme I saw was people reaching out to me saying, Tyler, uh I've always had this unbelievable respect for Charlie and for Turning Point because it changed my life for the better.
	I I found my spouse.
	I have my kids because of Turning Point.
	I for so many stories like that.
	And exact phrase.
	And that consistent message that Charlie gave about the family and building your family and everything else reinforced all of that.
	And so so many people are like almost coming back home because they're like, oh, you know, I didn't always agree with Trump or like Trump or whatever, and and or I didn't like X, Y, and Z, and now they're on they're on the team, and it was because Charlie they stuck with it and listen, they're like, Yeah, actually, you know what this is the life I want to live.
	My family is important.
	My my religion is important.
	Christ being the center of my life is important, what Charlie said.
	And so it's been really a beautiful, actually, honestly, a miraculous thing to watch as these people came back who I haven't heard from for almost 10 years, maybe, that have said, hey, this is how much this has impacted and changed my life, and you know, and some of some of these those people saying, I'm sorry, I I didn't say something before.
	And that was because of Charlie and what he built.
	I just you know, I I keep thinking about uh there's uh there's a poem that's a favorite of mine.
	It's from uh it's uh it's a poem during uh it was written during World War One by Lawrence Binion.
	It's titled uh For the Fallen, and it was about the men they lost in World War One.
	And think about just a few lines from it, and about and about Charlie.
	They went with songs to the battle.
	They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and a glow.
	They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted.
	They fell with their faces to the foe.
	They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
	Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
	At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
	And that's how Charlie will always be for us.
	All of us are going to grow old, all of us are going to die.
	But Charlie will forever be how he was on September 10th.
	Brave, strong out there, could be like that forever.
	The end the end of that one is well said.
	There's a couple of lines where the next line of this actually they mingle not with their laughing comrades again.
	They sit no more at familiar tables of home.
	They have no lot in our labor of the daytime.
	They sleep beyond England's foam.
	It's a British poem.
	And the very last part as the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, as the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness to the end, to the end, they remain.
	So much of this in retrospect, and you don't have eyes to fully appreciate it in the moment, but where you realize that you were encountering greatness, and the moment you get the news, you realize that you were around somebody that was so incredible.
	And it in kind of in a weird way, like in retrospect, it all kind of makes sense that we were that we only get him for such a short time.
	Yeah.
	Because he was too great for this world in so many ways.
	And um, he was a shooting star.
	He was a mythological creature.
	You know, you hear these pictures, these hear these images of uh our uh descriptions of George Washington and how he's this huge man and and like especially for his time.
	Well, Charlie, we always joked he was a Nephilim.
	He is literally the only chair the only chair that we could get.
	I this is actually a really funny story.
	When we first started getting Charlie the chairs for his studio, it was like, nope, not that.
	It was like a it was like mattress shopping.
	It was like, nope, not that one, not that one.
	Literally, this chair.
	This is a shack chair.
	Yes, from it's it's a Shaquille O'Neal.
	It's a a fairly inexpensive chair.
	Yeah.
	Just from like made for huge people like Shaquille O'Neal and um from Staples.
	Yes.
	And from Staples and he was like, Oh, this is the one.
	And he's worn it out.
	It's got like a little like you know, the the very cheap, you know, veneer on it or whatever.
	I don't know if you know what you call it.
	Like it's definitely not it's definitely not leather.
	It's like the vineyard.
	And uh he wore it out and he loved that big chair.
	And I have to say, like when I've sat in it in the past, like you've sat in it, it's like you're like, oh okay, I see what he was kind of, you know, it's a good chair.
	Um but he was larger than life and we all saw it and we all you know, he was younger than us.
	Everybody at this table, he was younger than us, and so we just you know, you assume that you're gonna probably go before him, and um but in retrospect, like he was so larger than life, and he packed so much into every single day, uh, that it's pretty impossible to it's impossible to to fully grasp just how much life he lived and how much he accomplished in thirty-one, uh far too short years.
	Um but we do have our first caller.
	Do we want to you guys ready for that?
	Um his name is Evan.
	Evan, uh the floor is yours.
	Gentlemen, it's it's an honor to just be on and talk about Charlie for a sec.
	I'll keep this quick.
	Charlie was a friend.
	I consider him a dear friend, even though I never ever met him.
	I've listened to him for a very, very long time.
	I run and operate a lot in landscaping business and also host a um podcast, and what Charlie really taught me was he was always continually learning.
	And even with my show that it helps me you you you gotta know things.
	You gotta know about equipment and and and things like that.
	And Charlie was always learning, he's always listening to books and things like that, and his boldness to stand on the word of God and Jesus is what I've tried to do with my business and in life and even my family too.
	Like I I have a two and a half year old son and a kid on the way, and when I heard the news just a couple days ago, I was on the mower, I stopped and I cried.
	It was just it's it's devastating.
	But we know that God's gonna work this together for good, and through his tragic death, guys, more people are gonna know about Jesus.
	And that's the one thing that we have to remember for this.
	And it's just I've never been he had I can consider him a friend even though I just never knew him, and I want you guys to hold on to God's word because that's what Charlie would want for us to to do us.
	Stand on God's word and hold on to it right now, not let the enemy just blind us from the the mission that he had set.
	Guys, appreciate all that you do, and uh just Charlie, just thank you and thank thank you, Lord, for just putting him on this earth for 31 years.
	Well said, Evan.
	And I think I just want to echo what you're saying.
	I've gotten so many notes and I've seen so many comments in social media of uh people saying their kids are coming back to church because of Charlie and because of this and what's happened.
	Um, that people are coming back to the Lord.
	And I just um Jack, it is your hour, but I'm just gonna say a quick prayer.
	Um I'm gonna say a quick prayer um for that.
	Um Heavenly Father, we ask that you would um bless Charlie's legacy right now in this moment, across the country and across the world as we mourn his his passing is far too early and too soon.
	We ask Holy Spirit that you would enter the hearts of millions of people across this planet, across our nation, and that you would bring people to faith in you, Jesus, saving faith in you.
	He loved you, and I know that he is getting his reward in heaven right now.
	And that's what he wanted in the beautiful eulogy that Blake helped write that all he wanted was thriving young people that went back and found their faith in you and thriving young families that made this country strong and great so that more could uh follow that same path.
	And I know Lord God that getting married and having a Family and knowing you were his greatest accomplishments on top of everything else he did.
	And so Jesus, we just bless this country and everybody that loved Charlie or that heard about him that only heard about him even from his his death, Lord, that you would make so many new believers, mint so many new members of your heavenly kingdom right now and in the days and weeks to come, Lord Jesus, we ask in your precious name.
	Amen.
	Amen.
	If you guys want, we could we could follow that up with Tyler, you know, you just put the hat back on, but we could all say together.
	Our father who I'd be name, the kingdom come, that's what be done on earth as it is in heaven.
	Give us this day or daily bread and forgive us our trespasses.
	We forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil.
	Amen.
	Charlie would have wanted people going back to church more than anything.
	More than anything.
	That more than politics or campaigns or whatever the next election was or whatever the next turning point was.
	The core the core belief was that was it.
	He was he was a true believer it in what Andrew Breitbart said.
	And we talked about this all the time.
	I actually remember visiting, we were visiting a donor, and we stood in the spot where Andrew Breitbart passed.
	Which is a kind of a I think it's in LA you've been there, right?
	Some sunset.
	Yeah, it's it's really interesting, just right outside restaurant.
	Well, it's in it's in Brentwood at least.
	I don't know if it's it's it's kind of an interesting place, but we he had always had kind of this uh infatuation with the concept, and we actually leaned into it talking about culture wars and all of that, but that culture uh is what dictates your politics, so and culture is dependent upon your faith.
	There's nothing.
	And faith's the bedrock, it's the absolute starting.
	Nothing that that impacts that so the politics that is really downstream from culture is really, and this is like kind of like I would say Andrew Breitbart next level, which was this Charlie Kirk, is that that's why I believe Charlie was so adamant about faith being so important, is that he was a true believer in that statement, but that faith was what was dictating how our politics would end up, which is absolutely correct and true.
	And so go there's nothing that could be more important right now what you can think about just tie it up and say politics is downstream from culture, culture culture is downstream from faith.
	That's right.
	And Charlie led by example and embracing faith, embracing uh his the Christ-like attributes that are necessary to impact culture in the positive way that needed to happen.
	And I think that's why you're seeing that turn of so many young people that were influenced by this, maybe starting with politics, but were walking themselves backwards and going, Oh my gosh, well, my politics is dictated by my faith.
	And and that's a a great legacy.
	That is at the the most important legacy of which Charlie himself said, which is that's all that's all he cared about was that people would know that.
	Well, I was interesting.
	I saw a clip yesterday from uh Larry O'Connor, who worked for Breitbart, uh Andrew Breitbart, and they were talking about he was talking about this memory at CPAC, and they were doing an Andrew Breitbart panel.
	And Larry put it together, he he was kind of he's like, Well, all of us worked directly with Andrew, you never knew him.
	He's like, and Charlie says I can't wait to be on this panel, you know.
	This is so amazing.
	And so he's like, I'll call you and tell you about it, like my thoughts.
	And he's like, Okay, we probably should talk because the rest of us knew Andrew.
	And um Charlie said that I was so inspired by Andrew Breitbart that I created turning point.
	Yeah, and Larry realized that he started turning point in 2012.
	Yeah, the year that it happened, and he realized that that Charlie in many ways is the blossom of the seed planted by the death of Andrew Breitbart, and so when you think about how that can keep going forward, and I know Charlie would want that.
	Um that that we would have many such stories like that, not just turning point or whatever.
	And it's really an Interesting point to make for those that study modern conservatism.
	There aren't very many people.
	I mean, let's if you if you had to pick the top three, it would probably be and again, we're setting Charlie aside, but Andrew Breitbart, Donald Trump, and the the third being Rush Limbaugh.
	And when you look at that and you start to go, wait, what's the connection between all three of those men?
	It's really you look at that, you go, Charlie Kirk.
	And Charlie was a again, Enigma.
	He was he had a personality that was unlike anything else.
	But he was the continuation.
	He picked the batana for all three of those men in different ways.
	Mm-hmm.
	And carried the entire conservative movement on his back and created something.
	Again, that the culmination of that.
	Yeah, what is the representation of Charlie?
	And people are like, Well, what can we do to you know keep Charlie?
	You have it.
	It's turning point USA.
	It's turning point.
	The the entire ecosystem.
	He he did it.
	Yeah.
	He was he was able to do all the things.
	I I all of the things.
	All the things.
	I promised we would we would mention this.
	And before we go to the next caller, um I saw some people saying that, you know, they thought I was trying to brush it off.
	I just I wanted to give the vigils a moment because the and I wanted because I knew we were up on the clock before.
	It's unbelievable.
	And they're worldwide.
	Um South Africa, I've seen Australia, Australia, New Zealand.
	Huge one in Australia.
	I got a video from Sid Sydney this morning.
	Someone sent me Sweden, Sweden, all across Europe.
	I just got one from uh Hungarians, I'm sure.
	And and then all across the country.
	And I and there's like there's like little ones popping up, you know, like just hey, this is the one in our town.
	If you want to come, just come on.
	I just someone's sending me Westchester PA, and you know, I hear there's um I hear there's gonna be a uh I think I hear this they're trying to put together one, not like an official one, but like at the at the White House at Lafayette Square Park, there's just some local people trying to get a permit, and it's that spirit of individuals becoming activated and coming together around one core concept,
	principle, value.
	That's what Charlie Kirk stood for.
	That's what he was all about.
	He lived his entire life trying to inspire a turning point in this country, and and he's done it.
	He I I've I take so much solace in a couple of things.
	He got to see young men and the youth vote win a president.
	Yes, he got to see it, and he got to do it, and he got to see he got to see the decline in church start going back up.
	He got to see that it bounced, and he got to see just before that MBC poll that said that young men want to get married and have babies as their top priorities.
	Yep.
	And I can't tell you how much that means to me that he got to see the fruit of his work because so many people don't they don't get to see what they've accomplished, and he actually got to see it.
	And all of you that came out to the campus events, all of you that came out to our turning point events, all of you that subscribed to this the show that gave him like one of the biggest shows and reaches and platforms in the entire country day in and day out.
	And we had millions of people listening to Charlie every day, every day, every day.
	We tried our best to estimate it in the w way of modern um analytics with fast channels versus radio versus podcasts.
	And when you then you take clips, it was basically impossible to measure, but even just in the fall going up to the election, it was 15 billion views of Charlie Kirk content just in just ahead of the election.
	Um and every day there was between two and three million people that tuned into this show to Charlot the Charlie Kirk show or listen to the Podcast or um and that's just the live show.
	That's not even counting clips.
	So that was podcast radio, and it was truly truly a feat for anybody.
	But the fact that he was able, like we said, Tyler, to be like a Rush Limbaugh, to be like an Andrew Breitbart, and to be He brought all that together.
	He brought all that together in one of it human that took and and by the way, and I want to give a shout out to all of his assistant staff and his chief of staff, Mikey, who made his day today possible.
	Um they were really amazing.
	Uh we're gonna get to another caller.
	Um this one is Anthony.
	Anthony, the floor is yours, my friend.
	Uh tell us about Charlie and well, first my condolences to you and everybody.
	Um so Charlie and I, I've been listening to the show since it probably started, and I've been a member for a while and everything, and then but the one time that it stood out to me, and this might have been the funniest disagreement was probably at the end of July, early August.
	It was the weekend before you had to go on Fox and Friends, and he put out the question to everybody in the first hour.
	Does baseball need a salary cap?
	And he knows that I work in the industry and it's on the college side of athletics.
	And I he we talked about the political top question I sent in to him, and then he goes, All right, you can give me your I need I need to know.
	You're the professional.
	I go, I already emailed you my answer in the first hour.
	He goes, I know I'm not letting you go until you tell me.
	And I said, Well, I believe I'm on the fence.
	And he literally starts laughing and goes, You can't be on the fence about this.
	You have to be on my side.
	And I'm like, and then and I'm like literally sitting there and I'm like, he's yelling at me.
	He's yelling at me because the guy in the industry won't side with him.
	And I'll be honest, I always wanted a salary cap until I did more research.
	And then he's like, Well, you have to f and Blake, you can relate to this.
	You've got to find me that research and send it.
	So I said, All right, I will look for it.
	I sent it to him next Saturday morning when he's live on Aaron Fox.
	The following week he goes, I got your emails, I haven't read them yet.
	But he goes, but it was the funniest to see his facial expression.
	Just so light up because he's like Anthony.
	I I just want you're reminding me of of a very unique detail of Charlie Kirk that uh probably unless you emailed in the show, you didn't know.
	He would argue with the emails.
	And he would get into these.
	He would get into these during the show.
	During the show, he's sitting there hosting the show, going, Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show press send, and then he'd be like, you know, they didn't keep the show going.
	But he would he was uh arguing with people as we went he could be talking like giving a monologue and writing a separate argument to an email.
	Well, we would all be debating too.
	So he would your emails that you would you would make, he would drop into the chat and it would be like rolling a grenade into the chat.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Or sometimes you know he'd be like, what do we think?
	And he'd be like, Well, this person just agrees with me.
	And we would take sides with all of you.
	So like there would we would have all of that, and and and truly, and this is the one grassroots part because one of our our our culture point that we have at Turning Point is grassroots humility.
	And this is the really interesting part, and and again, Andrew deserves a ton of credit for this because they framed the entire show, the Charlie Kirk show here around your feedback, your commentary, your conversations, individual, every individual in America that talked to Charlie or would email in or would DM had a voice.
	And and again, that that's just that's not most people that do this.
	And it helped with the work because it helped frame Charlie's opinions about things.
	It helped frame from a grassroots perspective how we think about things at that turning point.
	Uh we think about issues, issues that would be covered on Charlie's show every single day that everybody listened to.
	Everybody at the White House would listen to you.
	And I mean I Twitter would change because we uh the the three like between Jack and Charlie alone, them dropping something changes the whole direction on Twitter anyways.
	And then Benny, yeah, Benny Johnson.
	Um it's throw this up.
	I just want to start I I I don't know all the details about this.
	Um, but there is a prayer vigil planned in Washington, DC on Sunday, September 14th.
	So this Sunday at 6 p.m. location to be Announced soon.
	Um I think I may have just accidentally said it.
	Oh, whoops.
	Uh well, I if you did, I you know that's some some I I I wasn't giving the full confirmation on that.
	Sunday, there I mean who knows, uh, but it'll be at 6 p.m. uh in Washington DC, and I think it's a beautiful way to honor Charlie.
	Uh Charlie um candidly didn't love Washington, DC, didn't love going to Washington, DC.
	I mean he was but he would stomach it because he loved his country and he would go there, and um and so I I mean I think it's a fitting tribute.
	Can I can I just say if if you are at Washington DC or if you're in any other blue area and you're going to one of these vigils and protesters come up or something like that, just I'm not gonna say you know, don't get into it, but just we're not there for that.
	We're just we're really not there for that.
	Charlie Charlie was his message was peace.
	I mean, yeah, Charlie um he was a master swordsman, but his sword was the word and the logos and um debating, and he didn't believe in in peace per se, he believed in verbal combat and he believed in um intellectual and ideological combat and he believed that we were in a uh war of ideas and a spiritual battle,
	and um so w uh, I'm not here to give you some rosy, you know, prescription about the state of the world.
	We're in a battle um not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and um obviously close yeah understanding of the state of the world a couple of years ago.
	Yeah.
	But like Charlie ultimately believed in the promise of America and um the fact that um our institutions will hold.
	Um I guess uh speaker Johnson will be at that one along with Anna Paulina Luna.
	Um and um you know, more details coming about that.
	Which is very fitting because Anna is, you know, by her own admission, is our is the turning point congresswoman.
	She uh you know, to tell this fun story again.
	I know some people have heard it, but Anna was thinking about going to med school, and she had engaged with us online.
	Um we had I found her.
	We saw that she was saying some smart things on Instagram, and we actually reached out to her, invited her to a young women's leadership summit, and she came and she was like, Hey, um I'm applying to med school.
	And she was a again, an Air Force veteran, everything else.
	And that one experience of her being there at Young Young Women's Leadership Summit, which by the way, that was young women's leadership summit was the brainchild of Charlie.
	We started that many many years ago.
	He knew that was important, uh, wanted to do that, but it culminated.
	It started at a tiny little thing in Illinois, and then we moved to the airport.
	We were at the airport, uh, you know, kind of a three-star hotel at the high in D D FW.
	At DFW tidy.
	It was like inside, it's like literally inside the airport.
	So you don't even leave the airport when you show up.
	And it grew and grew and grew.
	But Anna showed up there and we convinced her to not go to medical school to quit, basically moved to Arizona and start touring and learning how the the ropes of of how to debate on campus.
	And to do that, that was like the Charlie Kirk model.
	And by the way, APL, she is so fierce in Charlie's defense since all this.
	I've been texting with her.
	Um she has been the person.
	She's so great.
	And um I just love it.
	Um she's part of the legacy too.
	She left she left here wanting to run for Congress, wanted to change the country.
	She's she's she's doing just that, and she's a tremendous friend and ally, and she's been incredible for the last few days here.
	Yeah, we're gonna take another caller.
	Caleb, you are on Caleb and Michelle.
	How are you, my friends?
	My friend, Andrew.
	Well you know how we are, but um it's such a privilege and an honor to that that Charlie called me his friend and in, you know, like even though we were occasional acquaintances.
	And I loved how he every time we would meet, he would treat us like family, you know.
	And I have uh what I wanted to talk about is maybe just a couple stories about how he elevated those around him.
	And I know it's been said before that that was the kind of person he was.
	He wanted everyone to be their best.
	And um, but you know, we we and Michelle's already emailed you guys the story of how we first met in 2020.
	And you know, we he introduced us to people.
	We you I think you were there, Andrew.
	We come back and he says, these are my 2020 friends, because we met you know, met him in 2020 just after the election at the headquarters.
	And it was what was so cool that every time afterwards we would go to an event that Charlie was speaking at, and he did this like at least twice to me.
	He's like, Oh, hey, Caleb, I'm out in the crowd.
	I'm just sitting out in the crowd.
	He says, Oh, there's Caleb and Michelle.
	I should tell you the story about how we met in in Arizona.
	You know, and he remembered you when he saw you again and and welcomed you in.
	And I Michelle and I are just we're so happy that you know, three weeks ago he he was in Myrtle Beach, and and you know, we were in North Carolina now, and we're like, we could drive, we could go to that, and we you know, um So we we went to see him and saw you there.
	Charlie and saw you there, Caleb.
	Yep, saw you there.
	And it was so cool because Charlie invited us backstage.
	Um, or you know, Mikey did, and he brought us into the green room, and there's Alex McFarland, and Charlie introduces us, you know, Caleb Michelle, you know, my my super fans, these are guys are Charlie Kirk show super fan.
	And um, and he he said, you know, Charlie Charlie said to me said, you know, Caleb just sends me the you know the best feedback.
	I love reading his emails.
	Um you know, he always talked about how he loved Michelle's emails.
	She's always so encouraging to him.
	And and then he he says, So Caleb, what's on your mind?
	He just puts me on the spot, you know, like you know, I'm not the guest speaker or anything.
	What's in your mind?
	I throw out a couple ideas, and he says, uh, you know, he says, I'll let you choose.
	You know, here's a couple ideas.
	What do you want to talk about?
	And he's like, Oh, that's a great topic.
	Hey, Alex, you and Caleb, you guys should debate this topic.
	And then he just puts us on the spot and he facilitated, you know, he kind of moderated, he jumps in on my side, you know, gives a good point here from the Bible, because it was a it was a you know uh a biblical uh discussion.
	And um by the way, Caleb, I want to give you credit because Charlie threw the the through through it to you to make a point.
	Uh remember backstage with McFarland, and you crushed it, man.
	He you crushed it.
	And I remember looking at I walked away with Charlie and I said, Caleb did well, and he goes, Oh yeah, he's been paying attention.
	Um I want to throw up another image here.
	Um this is from some friends here, a memorial rally, tribute ride.
	Um in Lynchfield Park, uh here in Arizona.
	Uh arrive at 5 p.m., ride at 5 30.
	Um and uh speakers to be announced, candlelight vigil at 7 30.
	Uh this is just what's happening.
	People want a way to help.
	And I uh I think it's I think it's incredible um that so much of this is happening so organically.
	Um nobody's planning this.
	Nobody's like there's no like organization by the way, doing like the DC one.
	It's just like people in DC that love Charlie.
	Charlie would have loved this.
	And it's just happen people are grabbing the bull by the horns and they're doing this because they loved him.
	But but Charlie would also say, he'd say, Okay, but don't stop there.
	Of course.
	He would say, Don't stop there, do not stop there.
	Thank you, but do not stop there.
	Um speaking of which, this is like I had my team coming to me going, like, how can I help?
	Like, can I make a montage?
	Uh uh can I make a tribute video?
	And I'm like, sure.
	I haven't seen this one either.
	Let's go ahead and play.
	This is from Noah on our team, and I haven't seen it.
	Um so 419, and thank you, Noah.
	This is why your faith is the most important thing.
	You are commanded to go do something productive with your life.
	You are not commanded to go sit idly by and just receive.
	You are commanded to go give and to produce and to risk to then go so into other people.
	That is a Biblical idea that has made the world a profoundly better place.
	We must put God first in everything that we do.
	We are nothing here but just for a short instant.
	Short little glimpse.
	We act not out of outcome, but we act out of obedience.
	Everybody, this was not Earn.
	You guys were a vessel.
	We were a vessel.
	Psalm 107-1.
	I'll give thanks to the Lord for He is good for his steadfast love endures forever.
	I have to say this without getting emotional, but I'm very proud of my husband.
	You are so intentional with your faith, and you are so intentional with just how you are as a father and a husband.
	Becoming a father has made me first of all understand that what I'm fighting for is beyond even yourself.
	We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and darkness and spirits.
	Because at its core, what we are fighting is a spiritual battle.
	And if you're here and you don't believe in God, okay, fine, I'll pray for you.
	And I hope you find Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because it will change your life.
	How do you want to be remembered?
	I want to be remembered for courage for my faith.
	That would be the most important thing.
	The most important thing is my faith in my life.
	Wow, good job, Noah.
	Great job, Noah.
	That was great.
	Um was pretty new to the team, and uh you captured it, brother.
	Um we got a note here uh from a John.
	He said, Charlie sat down with me after my dad died.
	Um he says, Hey, Thought Crime crew.
	I look back fondly on the time I spent with Charlie from my time as a student at GCU to working for NFP and then chase the vote.
	Charlie inspired me and was my hero.
	I specifically remember when Charlie came to GCU in 2022, he was informed that my dad had died.
	He personally spent time with me backstage before his event, and that has stuck with me forever.
	Charlie was an incredible man and made me the man I am today, sending love and prayers, John.
	Now is now he's working for President Trump in DC.
	Um and we have Sarah.
	Sarah, you're you're on with the crew.
	Um what's on your mind?
	Hi.
	Um, I am holding back tears.
	It's been a rough couple of days, as I'm sure you all know.
	Um I just wanted to say um to all the people listening and um all of you folks who are continuing this movement.
	Thank you, especially to Charlie.
	Um, I really believe he has been the turning point of our nation for um, I guess what those words are worth.
	And I'm grateful to him.
	I'm grateful to his words.
	I'm grateful to how he held himself and was able to hold conversations with people.
	And I do think that um in this tragedy, I'm hoping that it really is the turning point of our nation, and that we can um move forward as a nation in a way that Charlie would be super proud of.
	Beautiful, Sarah.
	Well said, thank you.
	And um I think we're all praying that um that the reach and the impact that Charlie has.
	Um, I don't think any of us have any idea just how big it is.
	And that's what I'm realizing.
	I feel like Tyler, you and me specifically, and kind of what we had to do the last couple days.
	I think we're a little insulated from it, and I'm I feel like I'm just starting to see it.
	Yeah.
	Um, of what I've been kind of ignoring and the calls I haven't been taking and the text I haven't been responding to.
	Uh, but that's probably just the tip of the iceberg of how huge uh his impact is.
	I don't think we have any idea.
	I like I woke up this morning realizing that.
	Um, yeah, just because of the people like the the layers of people talking to people who talk to people, who talk to people who are kind of coming back, and uh people have been so good to all of our team.
	Like, you know, people were worried about the safety of our team.
	Um, and so you know, Phoenix PD and Mesa PD have been incredible.
	Um, I know that Scott Stell PD and everyone else.
	I there's been so many people impacted by this.
	By the way, aren't even seeing anything.
	And when we we landed in Phoenix yesterday, there was a huge crowd.
	Hundreds.
	Like gathered outside of the airport.
	And as we drove away in the procession, there was people lining the streets, like American flags and MAGA hats, probably half of them that Charlie threw to them.
	And um and when we got to our final destination, again, there was a huge crowd gathered waiting for for us and for him.
	And it was really, really amazing.
	And it and it was just kind of a little insight.
	And I had Blake, I joke with you because we couldn't take him anywhere.
	In life, we couldn't take him anywhere.
	Like he would get absolutely mobbed.
	Can I get a selfie?
	Can I get a selfie?
	I mean, it didn't matter if you were in Seoul.
	It was unbelievable.
	Yeah, just in Seoul in Japan, just the number of people, or it you know, even we realized it when we went to Cambridge and Oxford last spring, the the number of people who would recognize him all over the place.
	Yeah, and I I took him to a like a very private place in California.
	And I was like, Don't worry, we'll be we'll be left alone.
	Because we had business to attend.
	We had a real like pretty important call, like discussion we were having.
	We needed to work out some details and some planning, and I was like, Don't worry, we'll be fine.
	It was like, no, it was not.
	It was like people would come like candidly, they were a bit rude, but I looked at him and I because you know, we're obviously having a private discussion, and they were like, Can I oh my gosh, can we get a selfie?
	And as he was driving away after, I mean, there was like very private place.
	There was still about I would guesstimate about 30 people in the course of about 40 minutes, like, and we were trying to to hide.
	And uh, and then as he's driving away, these two kids were like rode their bikes after him, and they were 14, 14, 15 years old, and they're like, Is that Charlie Kirk?
	I was like, Can we get a selfie before he leaves?
	And I was like, you know, it's like Charlie, you know, and Mikey was in the car with him as they were driving away, and of course he's like, I I um I I got him to stop and he was and I I asked him in the middle of it, and I said, Are you okay with this?
	He's like, honestly, it's just I've accepted it.
	This is life, and I just I want like I know that I can make somebody's day by doing it.
	It's fine, you know.
	Always always say yes to every photo.
	The one funny Yes, he would always say that.
	So always say yes to every photo, even if he was in the biggest hurry.
	The one funny moment that I have that's like that was the opposite of that with Charlie, and I don't know why this memory sticks with me, but it was it was during that whole time when he lost his voice, and and we were trying to get his voice back.
	So it was like me, Charlie, and Mikey, and we were just the way the travel route, we were just driving through like Central Florida where it gets kind of rural, and we we had this idea to get him like a humidifier with like medicated humidifier, but we couldn't figure out where to get one, and Charlie wanted a specific one.
	And then we were just driving down the street and Charlie goes, Well, there's Walgreens.
	Let's just let's just go to the Walgreens.
	And you know how he is when he like when he wants something and he wants something specific.
	So we're like, Are you coming in?
	And we just we just went to Walgreens and we're just like walking around, and it was just so surreal because like nobody came up for it's like the one time among all these times where it was just like the most normal, simple and of course we couldn't find the one he wanted, and we had to get it very Seinfeld, you know, kind of thing, and then we just go check out and it's like in the middle of all this craziness, it's just a random trip to Walgreens trying to find something for my buddy because his throat hurts.
	You know what's funny, actually now thinking of thinking about that.
	You inspired this.
	I remember when he was in Seoul just like a week ago, two weeks ago, whatever it was, and he he went out and explored the city.
	He got up early and explored the city, and I remember going, alone?
	Are you like and he was like, Yes, alone, LOL, like it's safe here, like it's clear, like that actually meant a lot to him.
	And I'm so glad now that he got to do this thing that he hadn't been able to do in so long and just go explore a city by himself.
	He hadn't been by himself for so long.
	He hadn't like and he loved it.
	He kept sending us pictures in our chat and like videos.
	And you were there, right?
	With I mean, we weren't I mean you did do some exploring with the zone, and then later we were in this old town neighborhood, and he's like, All right, Blake, just tell me about Korea, and I'm just babbling.
	This is the this is the palace where they do the Confucian examinations.
	He loved it.
	And of course, it was also a trillion degrees out, so we were all in you know, nice clothes because we had to go to the thing later, and it was swamp and I was dying, but it was it was so much fun.
	But we have that's that's such a oh that's such a good point though, Andrew.
	I mean, the thing that I think most people don't realize, especially in these these la last years that Charlie was with us, was that he was never alone.
	I mean, the weight and pressure of having to be that celebrity, like that's a lot, it's a lot to do, and and that has an impact on most people.
	And the one thing I think that was really astonishing about Charlie is he didn't change as a person at all.
	He didn't he by the way, he wasn't like the party animal either.
	Like, so a lot of people get in this role, and they they you I don't know, you see him at clubs, you see him drinking, you see them partying or like enjoying all this stuff.
	Charlie would go home at like the first instant that was socially acceptable for the programming, like at America Fest.
	Maybe the program didn't get over until 7 30.
	He would go straight home back to the hotel as soon as he could after meeting with donors or supporters.
	Yep, he would do like he would do a circuit of like four stops, five stops, meet with donors, and then he goes straight back to be with Erica.
	Like immediately.
	And he but his personality never changed, his his demeanor never never changed.
	Uh I mean his busyness level was never different.
	He was always busy in different ways throughout his career, uh, throughout the time that that as he grew, but the the thing that was always really difficult that I was always really worried about him was that you're never having that you know reprieve from the public eye, or being able to go out and just do normal things.
	And the one thing I really appreciate about Erica and you guys actually specifically that here with Andrew and Blake, because you guys spent a lot when he did have alone time, it was with you, and so it was like the as that that was as alone as he got with Mikey.
	Um, and he he got to do some normal things in that way, right?
	Which was like going to get to the Cubs game.
	He was always just the kid from Chicago, and wanting to be always and wanting to eat the restaurant.
	I was like, I'll always remember again, just after we had a long day of doing something extraordinarily exhausting, and I feel like it was like 10 p.m.
	And you you guys know this.
	Like Charlie loved to just go sit down and break bread and eat.
	But by his by the way, his the way he would order was hilarious.
	He'd sit down, we'd be at a restaurant, and be like, you know, four or five of us gathered around, he and he would take them in, you go, uh give us some of this, some of this, some of this, some of this, some of this.
	Uh get these out for a shareable plates.
	You guys are gonna love this, you're gonna love this.
	You're uh trust me.
	And then it would go, uh, and can I get some hot sauce and olive oil and some salt and pepper, please?
	Thank you.
	Yeah, it was like he would order like a crazy person, like 15 items, and then so you're just like, I guess I'll just eat what Charlie's having, and the the table would be filled, and he'd be like, get some more of this.
	You're gonna you're gonna love that.
	No, eat some more of that.
	And then everybody's around eating, talking, you know, again, kind of decompressing from whatever the crazy was that we were you're going through, whether it was the the travel or the event or the donor meeting or whoever, or whatever you're doing, the show, the speech, the I mean, uh the rally, the uh activist event.
	That was the consistent thing is that you if you got that opportunity to sit down and then you talk, and then you what it wasn't just talking about nonsense, it was usually talking about big ideas and having the conversation similar to like what we have on Thought Crime.
	So, like if you you as an individual out in the world, and I don't know if you agree with that.
	Thought crime was probably the the closest uh visual video videoed version of what it was like to kind of like hang out with Charlie.
	We used to used to joke about it because it was just it was like our group chat on camera.
	That's right, yeah.
	And that's what it was like to sit down with Charlie, like in a in a scenario where it's like you're sitting there talking about there's these things going on, these topics, and like everybody's going around the horn, just like you know, talking about it, debating it, and you know, he was like, Well, isn't that interesting?
	Or like you know, you get into the and ideas would spark and he'd do that smile, and he would think of it.
	My favorite, I was just uh sharing with Daisy that my favorite segments in Thought Crime were so uncomfortable.
	Yes, that was the point.
	Yeah, just like Charlie's like entire knowledge of pop culture froze when he was 17.
	Yeah, like what what char like Charlie you you don't you mean you don't know what a bonus hole is, Charlie.
	Or just just whatever whatever the means when we explain Riz.
	No, no, I'm not gonna get into it.
	I just mean like what whatever whatever the thing was that was going around, he'd be like, Is that good?
	Yes.
	No.
	Okay.
	Yeah, is this good?
	Yeah, he just wanted the binary.
	Like is it a good thing or a bad thing?
	Remember the JD Vance memes?
	Yes.
	When the JD Vance memes came out, he's like, are they making fun of JD?
	Kind of.
	But in a good way.
	Is it good?
	Charlie Charlie Charlie didn't necessarily speak meme fluently or natively, but he understood the power of them.
	Um I have a story I just want to share.
	He loved him.
	He loved it.
	Yeah, he loved them.
	Um I have a story I want to share from Emma on our team.
	Um she said the night after the election, Charlie wrapped the stream and came out to the bullpen and sat and ate his dinner with the team and told us stories about the behind the scenes work he was doing that nobody knew about for like two hours.
	It was one of my favorite CK memories of all time.
	He told us how much we can trust JD as vice president and the work he did to get him to that spot.
	It's really beautiful.
	Char Charlie had the the thing that makes me the saddest about Charlie's passing and that he was ripped away from us so abrasively is that that man had a had probably a library of books to write about the things that he knew that have gone to rest with him.
	Things that he saw that are really interesting for politics, because again, piggybacking on that.
	You sat down with Charlie.
	He could tell you about things that nobody knows.
	I mean, there's things that we know.
	There's memories that I have that I can tell you, and I I d uh when the time is right at some point.
	I hope that I can share some of these stories that that they come out.
	Andrew has a gazillion of them.
	Blake, since you've been traveling.
	Jack knows these things because he lives this lifestyle every day.
	But that's what I mean.
	I'm sad that we'll never hear.
	I don't want like we we can't you know what I mean?
	I just can't I can't process it.
	Because I would people were like sharing text messages, and I was going back and look at because look at some of the ones that I have, and I was like, Can't share that, can't share that, can't share that.
	Where do you even begin?
	No, I know the Riz one is funny.
	Like, we should probably put that up.
	That's how I brought up the memes because he put the Riz one talk about the Riz one up.
	This is funny.
	This is like perfect Charlie.
	Um so I always like to like hound Charlie a little bit, and I I it looks like I was uh making fun of uh the cough drop thing because the the c and by the way, that was the one thing that Zinn cough drops, right?
	The South Park, yeah, people thought it was Zinn when he was on campus and he would pop the cough drops in.
	So this welcome to the inside chat, guys.
	This is about as close up as you can get.
	And um, and I I would be like, actually, Charlie, I love the c makes you look really cool.
	Like when you're like popping, you got this kind of like nonchalant look when you're just popping the cough drop.
	And Daisy says, Everyone thinks his cough drops are Zinned.
	And I was like, nicotine cough drops, and Charlie, ha ha ha ha ha.
	And I go, Charlie's Riz secret for the record, it's a great Riz crutch, makes you look nonchalant, plus the athleisure wear versus the suit.
	Charlie goes, What is Riz?
	And I go, like swagger, and Blake has to go, ca Riz Ma.
	No, but no question mark, right?
	What is Riz?
	What is Riz?
	What is it?
	Is it good?
	It's probably because he was hosting a show or something.
	Yeah.
	That was always his follow-up though.
	Is it good?
	Is it good?
	Is this good?
	We have one more caller I want to get to, and that is Julie.
	Um, Julie, hopefully you're still with us.
	Uh the floor is yours.
	Yes.
	Can you hear me?
	Yes.
	Yes.
	Um, yes, I'm Julie.
	This is me letting Charlie inspire me to be more joyful, bold, and brave.
	I'm calling instead of emailing calling the scariest thing in the world.
	So I I learned about Charlie after he followed uh Steve Bannon on Rav.
	Um I listened to his podcast every morning on my on my watch.
	I love thought crimes and the glimpse it gives you into the secret world of men.
	I was glued to the rumble late night election coverage.
	Um I was blessed to see Charlie interact with college students at uh normal Illinois when we were here this spring.
	I was so afraid to go because I thought there's no mute button because I'm kinda like banned, like on the the cold open stop, stop stop.
	I can't take anymore.
	And but I didn't need it because Charlie was just fantastic, and then lastly, I'm most thankful for Charlie for introducing me to Jack Hibbs and the Relic Network and reinpicking my face.
	Thank you.
	Beautiful.
	Well well said, Julie.
	Thank you uh for calling in for sharing that Julie.
	And sharing that.
	And you uh your bravery was rewarded.
	And by the way, I want to say this, like people describe Charlie as fearless.
	He wasn't fearless.
	He was courageous.
	He looked fear right in the eye and he overcame it again and again and again.
	And I can tell you how many moments I spent with Charlie in this behind the scenes and the quiet before he walked out on stage or before he had to tackle something or a setback, bad news.
	And Charlie just looked at the fear right in the eye and he knew there was no way but through.
	And he just was so courageous and he just did it.
	And he always won.
	He always won.
	He won and he kept he kept like coming back and he was stronger and fiercer.
	And and frankly, I think I said this to Erica yesterday.
	I said.
	Probably for the last two years, I knew Charlie actually was fearless.
	Um, because he'd overcome so much.
	He was an absolutely fearless individual.
	I mean, since the day I met him.
	But the times where I had the greatest fear of people, and there's lots of people to fear in politics.
	And I had I had this privilege of getting to know what President Trump would label as bad hombres.

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