On todays Sean Hannity Show, guest host Mark Simone covers two major events: the White Houses live Rose Garden ceremony to honor Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on what would have been his 32nd birthday, and the surging New York City mayoral race. Simone frames Charlie Kirk as a champion for real debate on college campuses and highlights how the ceremony was delayed but highly anticipated by both dignitaries and supporters. The show also spotlights mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa, with Simone pushing for his win against controversial opponents and promising bold moments in the upcoming debate. With Simone's lively commentary, key guests, and Sean Hannity's signature take, listeners get behind-the-scenes insights on national honors and local elections critical issues shaping America right now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Normally, you hear me on our big flagship station, 710WOR in New York.
Sean will be back tomorrow.
We're going to talk to Curtis Flewa, who we'd like to see become the next mayor of New York.
We're not going to talk to him now.
Well, here's a problem.
It's not a problem.
It's a good problem.
Curtis Slewa has today opened his 11th campaign headquarters today in Queens.
So he told me when I called, it may take once or twice.
So we've called about 17 times.
We're going to keep trying.
And we'll get him one.
All right.
We'll get him.
We'll find him.
You know, you got three candidates now.
You got the communist socialist wacko Mom Donnie, Mom Donnie.
Let's call him Kami Donny.
It's easier.
Or as Al Sharpton called him, Mam Dammy.
You're a man.
No, that's what he called him.
I'm aware.
Thank you.
We got the communist socialist, or you got Andrew Cuomo, who was a disaster as governor, caused the crime wave with his no bail, no jail.
He closed a lot of prisons, let the prisoners out.
He redid the parole board with all these left-wing wackos that let out all the prisoners, including 46 cop killers.
He closed Indian Point.
That was 25% of our power, that nuclear plant.
I mean, I can go down the list.
Did more to screw up things.
So you got the communist, you got the bumbling, awful governor, and then you got Curtis Liwa, who we'd like to see get elected.
And we're going to talk to Curtis.
But in the interim, if you'd like, we do have a beautifully compiled montage by our illustrious engineer, Ethan, of Kami Donny.
Oh, yeah.
This is Mom Dami.
Now, he's a great talker.
You see him in these debates.
No, no, no.
He's good in the debates because he talks like this.
He talks very fast and he talks very quickly.
And when a guy talks this fast, you think he must be very smart.
Then Puomo comes down and goes, Mr. Momdani, his failed policy talks so slow.
And Curtis, this is the problem.
The race will probably be decided this Thursday night in two days.
The first mayoral debate will take place.
Mom Dani's a good debater.
Curtis is a professional debater for 35 years.
Cuomo talks very slow, and I think he's going to have a problem.
He's going to look very weak compared to these two guys.
Now, what Curtis needs to do, he's going to have to land some real knockout punches, and that could change the whole race.
I don't know if he can do it, but he's going to try.
But if you don't know this Mom Dani, take a listen to this wacko and what he sounds like.
Does that just make you uncomfortable?
Like the phrase globalize Intifada from the river to the sea?
Does that make you uncomfortable?
I know people for whom those things mean very different things.
And to me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.
I am in favor of defunding the police.
As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu.
And then it comes to making buses free and universal child care.
Increasing the top corporate tax rate of New York to match that of New Jersey.
That raises $5 billion.
And increasing income taxes on the top 1% of New Yorkers who make a million dollars or more a year by 2%.
City-run grocery stores, I've proposed a pilot program of one store in each borough.
These are five stores in total.
The total cost of this is $60 million.
Do you like capitalism?
No, I have many critiques of capitalism.
You're a proud Democratic socialist.
Do you think that is a platform that would work for other candidates running in other parts of the country?
Absolutely.
So violence is an artificial construction.
You have to be very clear what is happening here with these district attorneys.
That is violence.
Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?
I don't think that we should have billionaires because frankly, it is so much money.
We have to continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism.
But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it's BDS, right, or whether it's the end goal of seizing the means of production.
Do you condemn that phrase, globalize the Intifada?
That's not language that I use.
If we want to end the housing crisis, the solution has to be moving toward the full decommodification of housing.
We have a budget of close to $6 billion for the New York City Police Department.
And that is an astronomical figure.
I think in this first year, we need to take a billion dollars out of that budget.
And I think that we need to reinvest that money into social services.
Would life be better if we just abolished private property and transformed our society into a more collective, egalitarian one?
I think it probably would be better.
Are prisons obsolete?
What purpose do they serve?
Forget the extremists.
It's simple.
No one hunts with an assault rifle.
No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer.
That's not much of a choice.
That's why you got to vote for Curtis Lee.
If you see this Mamdan, he sounds very smart to a lot of people.
He says, like, we're talking about housing.
He said, we have to end the decommodification of housing.
The commodification of housing must end.
It sounds brilliant.
I don't know what the hell it means.
I don't know.
What is that?
I don't even know what it is, but it sure sounds smart.
You do know he lives in a rent-controlled apartment.
Yeah.
So the commodification seems to be working out beautifully for him.
Yeah.
So next time you talk to a real estate broker about a house, you say, is this commodified or it's not commodified?
I don't know what it is.
And everything he's saying is impossible.
The free buses.
The mayor of New York has absolutely no authority over the buses.
They're run by the state, by the MTA.
Everything he's proposing can't do.
And you hear him on crime.
Fighting crime is racist.
Prisons are everything.
He doesn't want to arrest.
The only person he wants to arrest is Netanyahu.
He has said he will arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to New York.
I mean, it's just absolutely ridiculous.
But think of it this way.
This is a man who is saying the most important thing to him is equal rights for all.
And then he says, for the people of Palestine.
I'm like, but that's not for all.
For all is for all.
Equal rights is for every.
He doesn't give a rip about anybody else.
Yeah, I'm talking about all the bad things, but I forgot to mention he's a total anti-Semite.
He's beyond.
Total anti-Semitic.
He's an anti-Semite.
He's an anti-Christian.
He's anti-American.
Yeah.
Hates everything and everybody.
But he talks very fast and he talks all kinds of fancy words like the commodification of housing.
And it sounds like he.
And his stupid wife is praising, you know, Palestinian leaders and members of Hamas and mourning their death.
I'm like, oh, this must be a lovely household.
And like most socialists, they call him Champagne Socialists.
He lives like a king.
The family has an incredible, not even an estate, a compound of estates and a very wealthy guy.
But that's how socialism works.
They have everything, you have nothing.
And we got to stop this guy.
I think it'll happen Thursday night.
I have a feeling Curtis is ready.
He will hopefully some knockout punches in that debate.
Now, the problem is it's on Channel 4 here in New York, which is local television.
Nobody watches that anymore.
A, Curtis has to be dazzling in the debate.
And then B, you got to hope it goes viral so people see it.
See, now, why doesn't the New York Post stream that on their website?
Like, if New York Post streamed that, I would watch it.
Yeah, well, I'm sure it'll be on YouTube.
It'll stream on YouTube and other places, but you got to hope.
Nobody watches the whole debate anymore.
You got to hope there's great moments and the clips go viral.
Now, when Madani's been, or Sharpen would say, man, damny, what he does now, he talks real fast and gets into these word salads.
Not the drunken Kamala Harris word salad, but a very skillful word salad.
So it sounds like he's answering, but he doesn't.
He's agreed to do a Fox interview, Fox News.
That's the first time he's ever gone into the lion's den.
I don't know what his strategy is.
He may want them to beat him up because with his crowd, if Fox gives him a hard time, it helps him.
He'd like to get into a battle with Trump because with his voters, that would help him.
But hey, the other thing this hour, at any moment, we might cut away to the White House because Charlie Kirk is being honored today.
He's getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Today would have been his 32nd birthday.
This is going to be in the East Room of the White House.
They've decided to move it outside to the Rose Garden, and we'll bring it to you live when it happens.
Many, many people assembled out there, but there's a lot of people coming, a lot of dignitaries, a lot of famous people.
So they're a little delayed.
It was supposed to happen at 4 o'clock.
Yeah, so we'll take a break.
If it happens, we'll bring it to you here.
But it'd be a great moment today.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Make sure you follow me on Instagram, Mark Simone, NYC at Instagram, or also Twitter.
We'll be back next.
Hopefully, we'll have Curtis and the Charlie Kirk tribute coming up on the Sean Hannity Show.
Hey, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
We're going to cut to the White House at some point.
Big ceremony today to honor Charlie Kirk.
It would have been his 32nd birthday.
He'll get the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A lot of people are there.
They've moved it outside because the sun is shining.
It looks like a beautiful day in Washington.
They'll have it at the new Rose Garden, which was just a lot of grass.
And every time they'd have 200 people stand on it, it would ruin the grass and it'd be a mess.
Some days it'd be raining and muddy.
And President Trump, if you watch the fake news, they said he paved it over.
He put the time, paved it over with cement.
No, it's the most beautiful tile.
It looks like beautiful marble.
It's really well done.
It's the type of deck they have, like they have it.
Talk about the drains.
The drains, it's surrounded by drains.
You know, if you don't know what you're doing, you put a few drains in.
If you know what you're doing, you put hundreds of drains in so it never floods.
And they're not just regular drains.
Google this.
Google Rose Garden Drains.
Take a look where the slits are in the drain.
Trump had these specially made.
They're American flags in the drain.
American flags.
They're absolutely beautiful, magnificent.
And now they can have these.
You know, you're inviting world leaders to the White House for various events.
You need it to look incredible.
You know, when he went to England with the dinner with Prince Charles, did you see what that room looked like?
It was amazing.
Made the East Room look like a 7-Eleven or something.
It was amazing.
So he's trying to do this at the White House.
He's going to add a ballroom, the most magnificent ballroom you've ever seen.
I know Democrats get all upset by this stuff, but you can't.
It's the White House.
It's got to be like a world-class place.
It can't be some municipal building.
So Linda, what's going on?
It's going to be a while, right?
I think it's going to be a minute.
I mean, Erica Kirk, Charlie's widow, only arrived at the White House at about quarter to four.
It was supposed to start at four.
So I think they'll probably be out there in the next, you know, 10 to 15 minutes.
And when they do, we will go to it.
But, you know, I just, there's no reason for us to go to it right now.
We're just watching a bunch of folks find their seats and all that good stuff.
One of the problems, if I may be frank, is normally you'd go to the White House, you meet the president, he'd show you something like, hey, look at this.
And it's a little conversation started.
The president, since he got there, has been decorating the White House with the Oval Office.
There are so many things.
He's got 400 portraits on the wall.
He's got all kinds of souvenirs, things.
He's got the Constitution.
Well, as Katie pointed out on the Wall of Fame, we have one very special.
Well, yeah, that's later.
But in the Oval Office, he starts showing you stuff on the walls.
And there's like 75 things now.
That takes an hour.
Then there's this outside.
There's that long corridor from the West Wing, from the Oval Office, and just a white wall.
You know, you always saw presidents.
Well, now he put portraits of every president on there, and he's adjusted the height of them.
So like, as it gets to him, it's a little higher on the wall.
And the final one is you think it's going to be Joe Biden.
It's an auto pen, an actual auto-pen portrait.
So that's what delays these ceremonies.
Instead of the two things they'll show you in the Oval Office, now there's 400 things before you even get there.
And it's still going to be a great day and a great tribute to Charlie Kirk.
Well deserved.
You know, what he did, you think about it, this whole idea of on the college campuses, you start debate, you hear both sides of the issue.
That's what you're supposed to get when you go to college.
That's what you're paying for your kid to have in college.
Years ago, they eliminated all of that.
They just became indoctrination camps.
So Charlie Kirk was trying to do what the colleges should have been doing.
But also what was interesting about Charlie Kirk was that when he had debate, and this is one of the things that I loved about what he did was he was like, okay, yeah, sure, prove me wrong.
Tell me where I went wrong.
Tell me where I was racist.
Tell me where I was fascist.
Tell me where I said something that wasn't true.
The problem with liberals, you know, as a rule, in my opinion, is they come into the conversation with their talking points and they don't deviate.
Those are the talking points.
Like I'm hoping Thursday, Curtis Sleewa says to, you know, Mr., I suffered my whole life.
Well, how did you suffer?
Because last time I checked, you come from money.
You live in a rent-controlled apartment.
You don't know anything about running a business.
You know, I mean, he really knows very little about very little.
So I'm very curious to see a real question asked and have a real debate.
But there never is what liberals.
They have one set of talking points and that's it.
No, they're not really into debating.
And normally if you say something they don't agree with, they say, well, I think Trump's doing a good job.
They're like pit bulls all of a sudden screaming at you.
But there's a great point when someone says, I can't believe that you voted for Trump.
He's such a racist.
I always do the same thing.
He is?
Oh, my God.
I had no idea.
Can you tell me what he did?
I would never want to vote for a racist.
And then they flip out that you're asking them to support their argument.
They're not interested in supporting their argument.
They're not interested in facts.
No, but they watch MSNBC.
They got all these fake arguments they can quote to you.
So we'll take a break and then hopefully we'll bring you the Charlie Kirk ceremony and then we'll get Curtis at some point.
We hope.
Still not answering?
Well, like I said, he's at a brand new campaign headquarters.
God bless him.
It's his 11th.
Yeah.
And he's in Queens and it's just going right to voicemail.
But I will keep trying to get him because he was very, very excited to talk to you.
In fact, I think he's calling me now.
All right.
There he is.
You see, we'll get him.
We'll get Curtis on the air.
He's the guy we want to win.
So we'll talk to him.
I don't know.
We'll probably have Charlie Kirk's ceremony when we come back.
And then at some point, we'll get to Curtis on the show.
It's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
Make sure you watch Hannity every night, 9 o'clock on the Fox News channel.
And of course, check out the website, Hannity.com.
Always great stories up there, Hannity.com.
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Back in a moment.
The Sean Hannity Show will continue.
Now that we made some money for our sponsors, let's go back to making the liberals crazy.
The Handman is back on the radio right now.
Hey, it's Mark Simone here for Sean Hannity.
We're going to bring you the ceremony that will take place probably in moments, the White House, the Rose Garden, honoring Charlie Kirk.
It'll be a big event.
Barack Obama doing a lot of podcasts.
Linda, have you had him on your podcast?
I can't wait to have him on.
Where do people find your podcast?
At The Rogue Recap.
Oh, okay.
At Rogue Recap on X, at Linda Mick on X. And you can find me on the iHeart platform or wherever find podcasts or listen to.
Very good podcast.
If I were Obama, I would do it.
But instead, he goes on the WTF podcast, which stands for you can fill in the blanks.
That's Mark Maron's podcast.
Did you see the video of Obama?
He looked very weird.
Dude, he's always looked weird.
But even weirder.
He's like all curled up and he's got his knees up in his chest and his arms all folded.
And he's in the field position.
He's afraid of Michelle.
It could be what it is.
Take a listen.
Take a listen.
He's accusing Trump of everything here.
That is inherently corrupting.
And so when you now start seeing the politicization of the military deliberately, we just landed in Chicago.
When you have what looks like a deliberate end run around not just a concept, but a law that's been around for a long time, passe comitatus, that says, you know, you don't use our military on domestic soil unless there is an extraordinary emergency of some sort.
That when you see an administration suggest that ordinary street crime is an insurrection or a terrorist act or a terrorist act.
That is a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy.
We don't want kangaroo courts and trumped up charges.
That's what happens in other places that we used to scold for doing that.
We want our court system and our Justice Department and our prosecutors to be, and our FBI to be just playing things straight and looking at the facts and not meddling in politics the way we've seen later lately.
This is a great podcast, by the way, for liberals.
Because with liberals, you just got to sound very intelligent.
You sound very thoughtful and intelligent as if you're saying something brilliant.
Now, everything he's saying is a load of crap.
There's never been a case.
But can I make a point?
I just got to say something.
As somebody who takes the subway, as somebody who lives in a city, and I'm watching these testimonials from all of the cities that the president is going into with the National Guard, whether it's Chicago, whether it's Portland, whether it's Memphis, and each of these people, I saw this guy yesterday.
He goes, this is the first time I've had my children out on their bikes.
I've been able to walk the dog without being afraid of being shot.
And maybe Barack Obama and his 13 Secret Service people are not feeling the same things that the everyday person is feeling because that's not everyday crime.
That's not what these people are feeling.
Yeah, he doesn't believe in anything.
Now, when he says we've never seen the military sent into an American, well, we have a million times.
Tim Walls, National Guard, COVID, lockdowns.
I don't know.
The most famous greatest example ever was John F. Kennedy sent troops, 17,000 military troops into the southern states to integrate the schools.
Remember the southern governors, Lester Maddox, George Wallace, would not let black kids go to college.
Kennedy sent the military, 17,000 troops.
But you don't have to go back that far.
If you go back five years to COVID, 2020, when they were trying to tell us all the things that they wanted to tell us about the Fauci fraud virus, they locked us down.
And you came out of your house.
They made sure to let you know.
Well, you should be locked down, I think.
Oh, listen, you know, yeah.
But you can go back two years when subway crime was at a bad, bad time, and the governor of New York sent the National Guard down into the subway, and everybody said, thank God, these same Democrats.
But now they talk very Obama-like slow and sound like they're very thoughtful.
You ever watch that MSNBC?
They try to make it look like you're watching some sort of distinguished panel.
They've all got bow ties and glasses, and they all look like they're these learned.
You research every one of these people.
They've all been in some scandal.
Mike Barnacle was in a plagiarism scandal.
The business guy Ratner was in another scandal.
He's banned from certain industries.
Al Sharpton is sitting there.
Do I have to say more?
It's the worst collection of characters, but they play a part.
Where is this Rose Garden ceremony?
This is taking a long time.
I will tell you, it's full.
Everyone is in their seats.
I just think that the president is probably taking a few moments with Erica Kirk and her family, and then he will be out.
That could take a while.
Now, there's some liberals that are do have logic cells.
They take Bill Maher.
Now, he's a left-wing liberal, obviously, but he can be very logical at times, and he can be very honest.
Listen to this.
I always say this.
You cannot ever deny success.
You just have to give your respect, even if it's not your thing.
Have the humility to give it up for enormous success on any level.
I agree.
Trump, not my choice, didn't vote for him, but somehow...
But a lot of people did.
And he's...
I can't deny the success.
I can't either.
Yeah.
And he's the president.
And he's the president.
Well, that wasn't easy for him to say.
You want to take the break first or you want to.
Okay.
We're going to bring you the Charlie Kirk Medal of Freedom ceremony in just a moment on the Sean Hannity show.
Oh, we can go to it now?
Absolutely.
Go to it.
What about the break?
We don't have to worry about the break.
We'll blow the break.
Wow.
Jesus is such an honor.
President Trump at the Rose Garden.
Please be seated.
Charlie Kirk's widow, Erica.
This is the first time we've been at the new and improved Rose Garden, and people are loving it.
They're loving it like they've not loved a lot of things.
We have the Presidential Walk of Fame, which you just saw.
And I just opened it.
We wanted to get it open for this occasion.
We were hoping we were able to get outside, and the weather allowed us to.
It was supposed to be a terrible rainy day.
I was telling Eric, and God was watching, and he didn't want that for Charlie.
He just didn't want that.
So that's really beautiful.
Couldn't be more beautiful.
Today we're here to honor and remember a fearless warrior for liberty, beloved leader who galvanized the next generation like nobody I've ever seen before, and an American patriot of the deepest conviction, the finest quality and the highest caliber, the late, great Charlie Kirk.
Five weeks ago, our nation was robbed of this extraordinary champion.
He was a champion in every way.
I got to know him so well.
He didn't like losing.
And he was able to fight people that were enemies.
And he didn't necessarily love those enemies so much.
You know, I heard, I heard he loved his enemies.
And I said, wait a minute, is that the same Charlie that I know?
I'm not sure, but I didn't want to get into it.
But it was a horrible, heinous, demonic act of murder.
He was assassinated in the prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth, for living his faith and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America.
He loved this country.
And that's why this afternoon it's my privilege to posthumously award Charles James Kirk, our nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Thank you.
As you know, only hours ago, I returned from a very historic trip to secure peace in the Middle East.
People said that couldn't be done.
Charlie felt it could be done.
Charlie felt it could be done.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
But I raced back halfway around the globe.
I was going to call Erica and say, Erica, could you maybe move it to Friday?
And I didn't have the courage to call.
But you know why I didn't call?
Because I heard today was Charlie's birthday.
And I said, you know, now we, that was a definite.
And I said, we're going to have to forget about some of those very big, very rich countries that expected me to be there.
And I can tell you, based on the length of that flight, I wouldn't want to go back tomorrow.
But I would not have missed this moment for anything in the world.
Nothing.
And it's a very important time for our country.
And our country is doing so well.
It's never done better.
We are a country with almost now $18 trillion of investment coming in.
Nobody's ever seen anything like that.
Previous administration had less than a trillion for four years.
We have more than 18, it'll be much more than 20 by the time the year.
More than $20 trillion.
There's never been a country in the world that had anything like that.
What's happened to our country is incredible in a short period of time.
Charlie was a big person for, sir, could we close up those borders, please, a little bit?
You know, they're really leaking badly.
I said, Charlie, I haven't gotten there yet.
But, you know, it came out last four months.
Literally nobody was allowed into our country.
And the only people that were allowed in were people that came in legally.
The borders are absolutely stone cold closed.
And they reported 0, 0, 0, and 0.
So that's pretty good.
But he was a big believer.
He wanted people in the country more than I did, frankly.
He wanted them to come in legally.
And he got his wish.
October 14th is Charlie's birthday, and he should have been turning 32 years old.
I tell you, I never, when I first met him, he was like 22.
And I said, boy, he's awfully young, but I thought he was older than that.
You know, he looked a little bit older than his age.
That's okay.
You know, that's not good when you're old, but when you're young, it's great.
He had the best of all things, but he was special.
But instead, Charlie is attaining a far more important milestone.
We're entering his name forever into the eternal roster of true American heroes.
He's a true American hero, an amazing person, way, way beyond his years.
And I'm honored to be joined by a woman who has endured unspeakable hardship with unbelievable strength, and that's Charlie's widow, Erica.
And I just want to thank you, Erica.
He loved you so much.
I was with him.
Please.
Thank you, darling.
Thank you.
I was with him before I met Erica, and he told me he was going to get married.
He said, you won't believe how beautiful she is.
I said, well, then now that I meet her, he's right.
But then he also said, and you know what?
She's like the smartest person I know.
See, they do go together on occasion.
Not often.
Not often.
But on occasion they go together.
But he was in love with you.
He was deeply in love with you.
It's great.
Erica, your love and courage have been an inspiration to all of us.
And we will always be here for you.
And we're always going to be here for your gorgeous, beautiful children.
And we'll never forget what your family has sacrificed for our country.
Man loved our country.
When things were going badly for our country, he was so, as you know, angry.
He would get angry because he said it doesn't have to be that way.
We're also pleased to be joined by an incredible group of Charlie's friends, very powerful friends, actually, and some not so powerful, and they're actually better people.
Okay, I know the less powerful ones.
I have to tell you that, all of you power guys down here.
The best ones in the group are the ones that are less successful, but that happens too.
Now, they're all great, and they're here.
And let's start with Erica's father.
Where is Erica's father?
Where are you?
Where are you, Dad?
Oh, look at him.
Wow.
I want to get a hat like that, too.
I like that.
Hey, stations along the Sean Heading Network.
We're not going to take the break.
We're going to continue to bring you this ceremony.
Howie, you're nice to see you again.
Thanks as well to Vice President J.D. Vance, who's been fantastic.
J.D., thank you very much.
Great.
Doing a great job.
Did a great job on Sunday with George Slapadopoulos.
I thought put him away pretty good.
Second lady, who's a phenomenal woman, Usha Vance.
Thank you very much, Usha.
Thank you very much.
Great woman.
President of Argentina.
He wanted to be here.
Argentina's a serious flight, right?
And he's become a superstar, and he's doing amazing things.
He's a MAGA person, but it's make Argentina great again.
That's what he does, right?
And I want you to stand, please.
Javier, Javier Millet.
Doing a great job.
Thank you very much.
Many members of my cabinet are here, just about all of them here.
I won't go into every single one of them, but I'll announce a few of the people that have really turned this country around and helped me.
Incredible people.
Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
Where is Mike?
Mike, what a job you're doing, Mike.
What a job you're doing.
And I watched you this morning and you're in there trying to say, look, just let the country open.
Everything will be fine.
We're dealing with some radical left lunatics.
And I just wish Charlie was here to fight us.
I think the fight would have been over already.
He would have had a march on the Capitol by people whose average age is about 21, because there's nobody that had that relationship with young people, right, Mike?
So thank you, Mike, for being here.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Steve, thank you very much.
A brave guy and a friend.
House Majority Whip, another terrific man, Tom Emmer.
Thank you, Tom.
Senate Majority Whip, John Barasso.
John, thank you very much.
All these senators, I'm going to get in trouble.
I'm not going to read all their names.
I'll be reading all day.
We'll be talking about Charlie in about 45 minutes from now.
We can't do that.
So all of the senators, there's so many of you.
Thank you very much.
I do want to thank Senator Thun for doing a terrific job.
He's really been leading properly.
Do you agree, Mike?
The team of the two of these guys have been fantastic.
So to Senator Thune, I want to thank you very much.
Incredible job.
Watched him this morning, and he was out there pounding them this morning on television, too.
And John Barrasso, thank you for the work you've done, and congratulations on your success.
But I want to thank you all and all of the Congress people that are here.
I see we have our Attorney General here, and you are doing a fantastic job.
Thank you very much, Pam.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
We have everybody.
Wow, that's incredible.
Okay, I'm not going to do any more.
I'm going to be here too long, but I just want to thank you have given him such support, but he always gave you such support.
That's why you're here.
And very unusual.
Charles James Kirk was a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation.
He was truly an amazing figure.
In growing leaps and bounds, he knew that the fight to preserve our heritage is waged not only on the battlefield and in the halls of power, of which we have tremendous power here, including the head of a place called WAR.
We call it now war.
We had defense.
We had our secretary of defense.
Now we have a secretary of war.
And somehow I think it's more emblematic, and hopefully we'll never have to use war, but the fact that we're ready is very good.
Peace through strength is very important.
But also in the hearts of our nation's youth, that's where Charlie rode strongest.
At age 18, that insight inspired Charlie to found the organization that ultimately touched the lives of millions and millions of people and so many young people that nobody's ever seen anything like it, frankly.
Turning Point USA.
It's amazing.
And it's actually bigger now.
It's become bigger in the last few weeks than Charlie ever thought.
I think his end vision in many years from now would have been just a fraction of what it turned out to be in a couple of weeks.
It's amazing.
With hard work and joyful spirit and endless enthusiasm and determination.
And he did have great enthusiasm.
You know, I always say you need enthusiasm to be successful.
He had great enthusiasm.
Charlie grew turning point into the largest conservative youth organization in the entire country.
He forged a personal bond with countless young conservatives.
He fought for free speech, religious liberty, strong borders, and a very strong and proud America.
In everything he did, he put America first.
He really put America first.
And ultimately, Charlie became more than a leader of an important organization.
He became the leader of historic movements all over the country.
There were movements, individual movements, one movement, but it was historic.
Everything he did was historic.
And a true evangelist for the cause of freedom and the word of Almighty God.
God was very important to Charlie.
He would say, you know, if you don't have religion, you're not going to have a strong country.
It's true.
He was so wise beyond his years.
You know, I talk to him sometimes.
I'd say, this guy is like a young guy.
He was really a wise man.
From the time Charlie worked on my presidential campaign in 2016, he was there right from the beginning.
He liked me.
I don't know.
I have no idea why.
What the hell was he thinking?
He said, you're going to win, sir.
I said, you know, I'm running against 17 senators and a lot of tough people and governors.
We have all these people.
And he said, no, you're going to win, sir.
He said, not going to be close.
And he made it happen.
He helped make it happen.
I'll tell you that.
Without him, who knows what would be.
Maybe you'd have Kamala standing here today.
That would not be good.
I will tell you, Javi, you don't know who Kamala is.
Promise.
It would not be good.
You agree with that, Howard?
He also mobilized countless citizens to go vote.
It's called Go Vote.
Very simple.
And with his help in 2024, we won more young people than any Republican by far in the history of our country.
And we won the popular vote.
We won the states, all seven of them.
Remember, they said, oh, well, if Trump could win four, that would be nice.
