The Charlie Kirk Show - Charlie and Michael Knowles Debate Religion at AmFest

00:00:00.000 Michael Knowles joins the program, everybody.

00:00:01.000 This is what people said was the best interview from AmericaFest.

00:00:05.000 Michael Knowles decided to be a little aggressive, a little uppity, a little chippy, where he decided to poke fun at Protestants, and we held the line, I think, pretty well.

00:00:15.000 This was unscripted, not planned, where I guess we, very in a friendly way, debate Catholicism versus Protestantism?

00:00:25.000 Who won this debate?

00:00:26.000 Email me, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:28.000 I want to hear from you.

00:00:30.000 And it goes on for like 30 minutes.

00:00:32.000 So become a member, members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:35.000 That is members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:38.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:39.000 Here we go.

00:00:40.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:42.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:44.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:47.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:51.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:52.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:53.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:10.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:13.000 Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.

00:01:23.000 Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:29.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

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00:01:34.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:38.000 Michael, welcome.

00:01:40.000 It's wonderful to be with you, Charlie, and with all of you.

00:01:43.000 So, can I, before you introduce, before you do anything, it kills me to say anything sincere and nice about you, but I think I have to.

00:01:51.000 When we were setting this up, you know, your producer, Andrew, was joking with me because I said, I think the time will work this day.

00:01:57.000 He goes, Michael, you know, it's a big honor to be invited on the show.

00:01:59.000 I said, bro, you're kidding me.

00:02:01.000 But it is legitimately a great honor to be on the show right now when you, as much as just about anyone in the country, won this election for President Trump.

00:02:09.000 It's unbelievable.

00:02:12.000 It's like President Trump and then a handful of people and you're one of those people.

00:02:17.000 Thank you.

00:02:18.000 And it's the team that deserves the credit at Turning Point.

00:02:21.000 It's not me.

00:02:22.000 The team believed and we worked hard and we did something that would be called very risky, but we hired 1,500 people in a couple states and I did 25 campus stops and tours.

00:02:34.000 It's really amazing.

00:02:35.000 We have the polling to now show it of how the states and the campuses that we actually hit on the precinct level moved by an average of 15 points.

00:02:44.000 And then we had a control group of the campuses we didn't hit That only moved by one point.

00:02:49.000 And so it goes to show how Turning Point Action helped move the youth vote.

00:02:53.000 And in fact, if Kamala Harris just would have done one thing, she just had to do one thing.

00:02:58.000 She just had to get young people to vote the same way they did in 2020, and she would have won.

00:03:02.000 That's it.

00:03:03.000 If young people just would have voted the way they did in 2020, that's why all the national polling was off.

00:03:09.000 It wasn't that far off with every other age group.

00:03:12.000 It was off with young people.

00:03:14.000 That was where the modeling was off the most.

00:03:16.000 And the polling, always assuming that young people were going to vote with similar habits as they did in 2020, and it turns out we shocked the world.

00:03:28.000 The obvious that Kamala Harris is not the most exciting candidate in the world.

00:03:32.000 It turns out that when you replace the president, who is in senility, with a woman who no one has ever voted for in their entire lives, that probably she's not going to do very well.

00:03:42.000 But then the other one is the ideological aspect, that young Democrats in particular decided to go buy a lot of keffias and campaign for Islamists in the Middle East.

00:03:52.000 That is going to create an electoral problem for the Democrat establishment.

00:03:56.000 So, Michael, you do a lot of campus stuff alongside, I mean, with us and with other people.

00:04:01.000 Just what's going on with young men, campuses?

00:04:04.000 Kind of give us your thoughtful analysis, because there is a change.

00:04:07.000 There's something profound.

00:04:09.000 You've played a role.

00:04:10.000 We've played a role.

00:04:11.000 What is going on?

00:04:13.000 It's extraordinarily encouraging to go to campuses now, and when you get questions from the right, they're better questions than they used to be on the right.

00:04:23.000 On the right, it used to be kind of simple stuff.

00:04:25.000 Now it's questions about virtue.

00:04:27.000 It's questions about forming families.

00:04:30.000 You know, it's not just like cut my taxes kind of questions.

00:04:33.000 So you've got these profound questions on the right.

00:04:35.000 And then even when the libs walk up, I find this, the libs will walk up and maybe they'll heckle you, maybe they'll insult you in some way.

00:04:43.000 But I do get this sense they are sincerely trying to understand something, which I don't think was true two years ago or three years ago.

00:04:50.000 And I think it's because after this election, I was talking to very liberal friends and relatives of mine, And I said, so, you know, how are you feeling?

00:05:00.000 Happy Thanksgiving!

00:05:03.000 But my liberal friends and relatives, they were not furious.

00:05:06.000 They didn't throw the plate at the wall.

00:05:08.000 They would say, you know, I guess I just don't really get the country anymore.

00:05:13.000 I guess something was wrong with my prediction.

00:05:16.000 In part because he won the popular vote.

00:05:18.000 You can't even say it was just a white guy.

00:05:21.000 It was one in five black guys.

00:05:22.000 It was almost half of Hispanics.

00:05:23.000 It was a lot of women.

00:05:24.000 40% of women under 30. Crazy demographics.

00:05:27.000 And so I said, I don't know.

00:05:28.000 I guess we just don't know.

00:05:29.000 You saw AOC saying, which of the right-wing podcast bros should I listen to?

00:05:34.000 She's probably insecure.

00:05:35.000 Obviously Charlie Kirk's show.

00:05:36.000 And everyone was saying that.

00:05:38.000 Right after she finished watching the Michael Knowles show, she was supposed to watch the Charlie Kirk show.

00:05:43.000 And...

00:05:45.000 But she was sincere about it, or at least she wanted her followers to think she was sincere.

00:05:50.000 They realized they lost something, and they're kind of out of excuses, so they need to create a new mental model.

00:05:56.000 With young men in particular, it's a dramatic shift.

00:06:00.000 In 2018, young men were approximately 21 points, 22 points in the Democrat direction.

00:06:07.000 Now it's 13 points in the Republican direction.

00:06:10.000 What explains that movement?

00:06:11.000 Well, it turns out when you tell a group of people that you hate them for 20 years, eventually they hear you.

00:06:18.000 They say, oh, well, maybe I don't really like you all that much either.

00:06:22.000 So that's a big problem.

00:06:23.000 I mean, the Democrats, the liberals, have literally been calling men toxic for decades.

00:06:29.000 They've been saying things like, the future is female.

00:06:32.000 They, of course, flunked biology class in middle school, so they don't know.

00:06:35.000 If there is to be a future, it needs to involve both men and women.

00:06:39.000 You know, that's kind of how the future is made.

00:06:41.000 And so, to hear that, Hillary, when she used that slogan, she thought it was just a sweet girl power kind of line.

00:06:49.000 But men were listening too.

00:06:51.000 And women were listening too, by the way.

00:06:52.000 Women who have sons, women who have husbands, women who have brothers and fathers.

00:06:56.000 They were listening to that too.

00:06:57.000 So nasty.

00:06:58.000 There's an old line that people used to say.

00:07:00.000 They said, there will never be a war between the sexes because everyone is sleeping with the enemy.

00:07:05.000 And I don't know that that's true anymore.

00:07:07.000 I don't know.

00:07:07.000 These days it's a little more confused.

00:07:09.000 But there is some truth.

00:07:12.000 The fundamental things apply as time goes by.

00:07:15.000 A kiss is still a kiss.

00:07:16.000 A sigh is still a sigh.

00:07:18.000 I think people are recognizing that Men and women are really complementary to one another.

00:07:23.000 The era of men being buffoons and women being absolutely perfect, the Homer Simpson era, the Ray Romano era, I think that is passé.

00:07:32.000 I think it's dated.

00:07:34.000 And wherever the culture is now on these questions, it ain't that.

00:07:37.000 And on the campuses...

00:07:41.000 In particular, there's a cultural vibe shift.

00:07:45.000 Yeah.

00:07:45.000 Where, let's just take the MAGA hat.

00:07:47.000 You know, some of these folks are wearing MAGA hats.

00:07:48.000 That MAGA hat, you know this, Michael, in 2016, 2017, was like the ultimate symbol of, like, rebel energy.

00:07:56.000 And now it's still that, but it's...

00:07:59.000 It's way easier to wear that hat in public.

00:08:01.000 In fact, it's desirable and it's cool.

00:08:03.000 How did that happen?

00:08:05.000 Previously, the media could say, this is a symbol of white supremacy.

00:08:11.000 This is a symbol of violence against Tasmanian women of color.

00:08:16.000 I don't know.

00:08:17.000 Whatever is minor group.

00:08:18.000 But we know that isn't true now.

00:08:21.000 The media have lost a lot of their credibility.

00:08:22.000 The news now happens on X and a handful of other places.

00:08:25.000 And most people voted for Trump.

00:08:27.000 So we know that.

00:08:28.000 I mean, I don't mean to belabor the point of the popular vote.

00:08:32.000 As a matter of law, it doesn't matter.

00:08:33.000 But in the public consciousness, it really, really matters.

00:08:36.000 Most people want to wear that hat.

00:08:40.000 So I've had my OG MAGA hat since 16. It was the white one with the blue font.

00:08:46.000 It's great.

00:08:46.000 I brought it to Havana with me.

00:08:48.000 I snuck it out and took a picture in front of Shea Guevara in Revolution Square.

00:08:52.000 But you had to, in those days, forget about Revolution Square.

00:08:54.000 On a college campus, you'd have to sneak it out.

00:08:56.000 Oh, yeah.

00:08:57.000 And now it's just...

00:08:58.000 And now we gave out like 25,000 of them.

00:09:01.000 Yeah.

00:09:01.000 And we had kids that were mad they didn't get one.

00:09:04.000 Yes.

00:09:04.000 And these videos, and we're throwing them out.

00:09:06.000 Because it's just...

00:09:07.000 You know, in part, I think it's because of the Millennials now are old, and the Zoomers are hip and young and cool.

00:09:13.000 I find myself to be a spiritual Zoomer, but I'm a Millennial by birth.

00:09:18.000 And, you know, the Millennials were all about Obama and kind of nice liberalism, and everyone had to be at least, like, half-gay.

00:09:25.000 And, you know, it was all...

00:09:26.000 Everyone was, like, really, I don't know, just really artsy, and they listened to, like, hipster music, and they all spoke, like, vocal fry and whatever.

00:09:33.000 You know, that was the aesthetic of the Millennials.

00:09:36.000 So true.

00:09:37.000 And it's just not...

00:09:38.000 Whenever the next thing comes about, they can't be that.

00:09:41.000 That can't be cool anymore.

00:09:43.000 So if Obama was the man for the millennials, what's the opposite of Obama?

00:09:48.000 It's Trump.

00:09:49.000 The total opposite of Obama.

00:09:50.000 The exact opposite of Obama.

00:09:55.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:10:57.000 So the cultural realignment that we see is which do you ascribe to?

00:11:04.000 Does culture lead politics or is politics leading culture?

00:11:06.000 You can make the argument this year that our politics led our culture.

00:11:11.000 When you have a media mogul, reality TV star, global celebrity for 45 years as the President of the United States, I guess my question is what's the difference?

00:11:22.000 I don't think really you can ever have a neat separation of culture and politics.

00:11:28.000 But certainly not today, not with this guy.

00:11:31.000 I mean, this guy is the biggest pop culture figure of his age and the most consequential president of his age, the guy making the laws.

00:11:39.000 So there are two things that are happening.

00:11:40.000 You can think of, even without one leading the other, it's sort of like a waltz.

00:11:45.000 You don't necessarily know who's leading.

00:11:46.000 There are cultural changes that happen, the passing away of old fashions, the displeasure with some of the consequences of liberalism, you know, the Gutting of manufacturing and the stagnating economy and the mass migration and whatever, you name it.

00:12:01.000 Collapse of the family.

00:12:03.000 But also, the law is a teacher.

00:12:07.000 Galatians 3. Yes, yes.

00:12:09.000 You Catholics know the Bible, right?

00:12:10.000 We occasionally, every so often we will open up...

00:12:15.000 We have to hide it, though.

00:12:18.000 There are 66 books, by the way.

00:12:21.000 That's a good start.

00:12:22.000 The 66 are a good start.

00:12:24.000 That's the hors d'oeuvre.

00:12:29.000 We're talking about the Bible.

00:12:31.000 But even that idea that the law is a teacher, that also comes from classical philosophy.

00:12:35.000 I mean, that is something everyone knew forever until, like us, five minutes ago.

00:12:40.000 All the wisdom of the ages, both revealed and also natural, has just flown out the window.

00:12:47.000 So I think there's this great conservative consolation that Russell Kirk writes about, which is that...

00:12:52.000 Unrelated, for the record.

00:12:53.000 Unrelated, though, if only.

00:12:55.000 He's a spiritual father to you.

00:12:56.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:12:57.000 Russell Kirk observed that things are always going bad for our conservatives, and the libs are always on the move, and they're destroying things, and it's easy to destroy.

00:13:05.000 But reality does reassert itself in the end.

00:13:09.000 You're not going to beat reality.

00:13:11.000 Reality is undefeated.

00:13:12.000 And I think the libs, they move so far from the common sense.

00:13:16.000 Transing the kids is just the most extreme example, but there are others.

00:13:19.000 They move so far from reality...

00:13:22.000 Reality came roaring back.

00:13:24.000 And so where does that leave us now as far as the cultural landscape, what we can expect both politically and culturally?

00:13:35.000 I think we can expect an opportunity.

00:13:37.000 That's all I'm willing to say.

00:13:38.000 I'm not willing to tell you what happens in four years.

00:13:40.000 I'm not willing to tell you what happens in two years.

00:13:42.000 I mean, for goodness sakes, we have unified government right now.

00:13:45.000 We have the House, the Senate, the presidency.

00:13:46.000 We already have the Supreme Court.

00:13:48.000 The Democrats, they talked about expanding the Supreme Court, remember, before the election.

00:13:53.000 I think maybe we should take them up on that offer now.

00:13:56.000 I mean, just in a bipartisan spirit, maybe, reach across the aisle, add another 50 or 100 justices, and...

00:14:04.000 But we have a unified government right now.

00:14:06.000 That are all 38 years old.

00:14:07.000 That are all 18. Yeah.

00:14:09.000 I want 18-year-old Thomases and Alitos.

00:14:12.000 It's a bunch of Turning Point kids that are going to be on the court.

00:14:15.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:14:17.000 Love that idea.

00:14:19.000 So you've got, as someone yelled out, no excuses.

00:14:22.000 Yeah, no excuses.

00:14:23.000 But don't worry, there will be.

00:14:24.000 Spoiler alert, there will be.

00:14:25.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:14:26.000 Because you see what's happening right now in the House of Representatives.

00:14:28.000 Trying to wrangle the House Republicans is like herding cats.

00:14:32.000 So Trump has two years to really do something.

00:14:35.000 And what can he do in that time?

00:14:37.000 You can only really do a handful of things at best.

00:14:40.000 And that's without being stymied by the courts and the bureaucrats and everyone else.

00:14:43.000 And the intel agencies.

00:14:45.000 And the intel agencies and all of these, and private interests too.

00:14:48.000 So it's like you've got all of these forces working against you.

00:14:51.000 What does that mean for us in the future?

00:14:53.000 It means a slight turn of the head, an unexpected jerk of the head at the perfect angle in the perfect moment in a field in Pennsylvania gave us this chance.

00:15:03.000 And so you can rise to the occasion or don't.

00:15:07.000 But that's a pretty providential chance.

00:15:10.000 So how about you take it?

00:15:11.000 So you had the president's back throughout this entire process.

00:15:16.000 Other people waxed and waned, and that's fine.

00:15:18.000 I mean, that's their prerogative.

00:15:20.000 Why did you continue to support President Trump resolutely throughout the process?

00:15:24.000 Because you were kind of part of this, and obviously I was, this merry band of rebels.

00:15:30.000 I mean, is it that you just kind of loved being kind of the high IQ troll, or was it just kind of like, you know, it's just because, Michael, to your great credit, and you deserve credit, is after January 6th, all this, you were like, nope, I'm not going to say something bad about Trump.

00:15:44.000 Like, Michael is like super MAGA, and has always been.

00:15:49.000 Why, I mean, explain that, because you were not just early, you were there on New Day 1, January 7th, 2021. That's a great way, actually, to look at it.

00:16:00.000 But part of it is because I saw what Trump was and what he was doing and what he signified early on.

00:16:07.000 Not immediately.

00:16:09.000 When he came down the golden escalator, I had my doubts.

00:16:12.000 I had my questions, at the very least.

00:16:14.000 I wasn't sure.

00:16:15.000 You know, this guy had maybe sort of run for president in 2000. He made some noise in 2012. 2016, I said, I don't know.

00:16:15.000 Who knew?

00:16:21.000 Let's just pay attention.

00:16:23.000 Seems kind of crazy.

00:16:24.000 I'm a New Yorker.

00:16:25.000 I've been aware of Donald Trump since I was in the womb, basically.

00:16:27.000 And so I said, okay, well, let's hear him out.

00:16:29.000 And then I realized...

00:16:31.000 Every time they said he was crazy about something.

00:16:33.000 He was upsetting some orthodoxy.

00:16:35.000 This just isn't how it's done.

00:16:37.000 He's gonna go nowhere.

00:16:38.000 I noticed that he would win politically.

00:16:40.000 I noticed that his policies advanced the common good in ways that some of his predecessors were not able to do.

00:16:48.000 I realized the guy, and I don't care what you want to say.

00:16:51.000 I don't care if he's writing long dissertations every night before bed.

00:16:54.000 I don't care if he's just moving by his gut.

00:16:56.000 It's probably a little bit more the latter, though he's obviously a very intelligent and educated man as well.

00:17:01.000 I realized this guy was just getting things right.

00:17:04.000 He was offering a legitimate alternative on policies.

00:17:07.000 He was throwing out some of the desiccated nonsense that had become GOP orthodoxy.

00:17:12.000 And he just had, you mentioned high IQs and education.

00:17:17.000 Let's use a very fancy word.

00:17:18.000 The man has thumos.

00:17:20.000 The man has the Greek word for spiritedness, for the chest.

00:17:25.000 You know, this guy's got it in spades.

00:17:27.000 And then the January 6th thing, I thought, was just so convenient for not only Trump's enemies on the left, but his enemies on the right to finally throw him overboard.

00:17:36.000 And I thought it was so cynical in many ways.

00:17:37.000 And some people were legitimate.

00:17:39.000 Can I interject on that?

00:17:41.000 It was also all of you that kept on desiring the truth for January 6th.

00:17:45.000 We have won that argument, and they are running from the hills, by the way.

00:17:49.000 They're running for the hills.

00:17:51.000 How many federal agents were there?

00:17:53.000 Who planted the pipe bombs?

00:17:54.000 Did you see?

00:17:55.000 They said headlines the other day when this report came out.

00:17:57.000 I saw that.

00:17:58.000 The inspector general.

00:17:59.000 There were no FBI agents anywhere near January 6th other than the 26th informant.

00:18:06.000 Hold on.

00:18:07.000 What was that second part?

00:18:08.000 Oh, no.

00:18:09.000 There were no breaking news.

00:18:10.000 The IG report said there were 26 FBI assets there, three of whom were told to go there.

00:18:17.000 Yeah, and if you actually read the headline more carefully, they say none of them were involved in the crimes.

00:18:23.000 And so, like, wait, hold on.

00:18:23.000 Oh, wait.

00:18:24.000 But they were, like, telling them to do the crimes and, like, organizing them.

00:18:28.000 This was a fed-surrection on January the 6th, is what it was.

00:18:32.000 Right, right.

00:18:33.000 And so you saw that happen.

00:18:35.000 But then I would point to one additional moment, beyond the golden elevator, beyond January 7th.

00:18:40.000 One additional moment was the fourth time Trump was indicted over the past six months.

00:18:47.000 They tried to kick him off the ballot.

00:18:48.000 It didn't work.

00:18:49.000 They investigated him.

00:18:52.000 That didn't scare him off.

00:18:53.000 They indict him.

00:18:56.000 They indict him.

00:18:58.000 And the fourth time he walks out, what does he do?

00:19:00.000 He gives a news conference.

00:19:02.000 And this guy doesn't break a sweat.

00:19:05.000 He's strong.

00:19:07.000 He's cool.

00:19:08.000 This guy never lets them see him sweat.

00:19:12.000 And I thought, if this...

00:19:14.000 This would have broken any politician in the country.

00:19:18.000 The fact that this guy...

00:19:19.000 It looks like he just walked off the golf course.

00:19:21.000 You know, the fact that...

00:19:22.000 And he just keeps on moving.

00:19:24.000 I thought, this is a once-in-a-lifetime American political talent.

00:19:29.000 He's a complete American original.

00:19:31.000 And so, why Trump?

00:19:33.000 Why not any of the other guys?

00:19:34.000 There were other talented people who wanted to be president.

00:19:37.000 It's just him, man.

00:19:39.000 It's just his moment.

00:19:40.000 You know, he's the guy.

00:19:41.000 Narrative is a real force in human life, and the narrative right now is about him as one of the main characters.

00:19:48.000 Let's get some questions here going so Daisy can work the mic around.

00:19:52.000 I want to get to as many as we can.

00:19:55.000 Michael, as we start running the mic around, the current state of the Republican Party, why is it that Republicans are so willing to cut deals to put Joe Biden's nominees in place, but not Donald Trump's?

00:20:09.000 The state of the current Republican Party, what is that all about?

00:20:12.000 The short answer is because there is ideological diversity and hostility on the right.

00:20:16.000 So the Democrats are basically all progressives of one shade or another.

00:20:20.000 Now that Manchin's kind of done, I think they're all progressives of one shade or another.

00:20:25.000 With the Republicans, though, you legitimately have the country club set, you know, the Chamber of Commerce kind.

00:20:30.000 You've got the populists, you've got the neocons, you've got the traditionalists, you've got the libertarians.

00:20:35.000 I've heard it described that obscure political monikers are the right-wing version of gender pronouns.

00:20:40.000 We just all seem to have our own version of it.

00:20:43.000 So that's a real problem, is they all kind of hate each other.

00:20:46.000 And then the other problem is they've gotten used to being the minority partner, the junior partner in the governing apparatus.

00:20:54.000 So they want to be the court jesters in the kingdom of liberalism is basically what they do.

00:20:58.000 And they're happy to do that.

00:21:00.000 They can have a nice enough life doing that.

00:21:01.000 But I thought, good grief, you know, with this continuing resolution, I thought...

00:21:05.000 How to be a Republican congressman.

00:21:07.000 One, you get elected.

00:21:10.000 You win everything.

00:21:12.000 The people give you unified government.

00:21:14.000 Step two, you try to give Democrats everything they want.

00:21:18.000 Then step three, Elon Musk and Trump tell you that you can't do that.

00:21:22.000 And you know what step four is?

00:21:24.000 You wait to try to do it again next time.

00:21:28.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:22:31.000 Turning Point action exists because people, and you say some kind words, Michael, and a lot of people say, okay, Charlie, you guys played a role in the greatest political comeback ever.

00:22:40.000 What's next?

00:22:41.000 It would be very easy for us at Turning Point to play the establishment game.

00:22:44.000 We exist simply to, you know, help grow our majority.

00:22:47.000 Yes, of course.

00:22:48.000 No, no, no, wait.

00:22:49.000 Let's be honest.

00:22:50.000 We want the Republican Party to be as conservative as its voters.

00:22:53.000 And we're going to replace every single one of these people if you get in the way.

00:22:59.000 And again, this last CR1 is so maddening.

00:23:03.000 It was privately and treacherously negotiated for six weeks.

00:23:09.000 Without Donald Trump's knowledge.

00:23:11.000 1,500 pages with Ukrainian bio labs and censorship stuff and January 6th immunity.

00:23:16.000 You know the craziest one to me?

00:23:17.000 There were all these provisions that people didn't like, but the one that really irritated me, they were changing in the CR, they were changing the U.S. code, they were changing the term offender, like a criminal offender, to justice-involved individual.

00:23:32.000 Oh, no way.

00:23:35.000 Now, whatever you want to say about criminals...

00:23:36.000 Are you serious?

00:23:36.000 I didn't know that.

00:23:37.000 Yes.

00:23:38.000 So you actually read the bill.

00:23:39.000 I didn't read the whole thing.

00:23:40.000 I do have some better things to do in my life.

00:23:42.000 But I read a fair bit of it, and in it, it changes this term.

00:23:47.000 Whatever you want to say about criminals, the only thing that you can definitively say they are not is justice-involved individuals.

00:23:54.000 They are injustice-involved individuals.

00:23:57.000 They insisted in the U.S. Code of Changing, homelessness...

00:24:01.000 No, the homeless to persons experiencing homelessness.

00:24:06.000 This was the urgent matter that we have to get before Christmas.

00:24:12.000 It'd be one thing if we lost the election, whatever.

00:24:14.000 Guys, the American people handed us a popular vote win, and your congressional Republicans go back and decide to just stab us all in the back.

00:24:23.000 That thing's dead on arrival, but we have a lot of work to do internally in the Republican Party, If you live in South Dakota, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, we're not going to put up with this.

00:24:35.000 Okay, question over here.

00:24:37.000 Hi, my name is Benny Masariegos.

00:24:39.000 I am here from Phoenix, Arizona.

00:24:41.000 And first, I want to thank you so much, Mr. Kirk, because you are definitely an inspiration to so many people, especially myself.

00:24:49.000 I just graduated high school.

00:24:50.000 I graduated high school a couple years back, and I went to nine different high schools 11 different times.

00:24:57.000 And you are just an inspiration.

00:24:59.000 So thank you so much.

00:25:01.000 And my question, Mr. Knows, is I am a Catholic who reads the Bible and believes that there's 73 books.

00:25:07.000 I was kidding, by the way.

00:25:07.000 See, there's another one.

00:25:08.000 There's another one.

00:25:09.000 You're okay.

00:25:10.000 So my question for you is...

00:25:12.000 I love Catholics, for the record.

00:25:12.000 We love you, too.

00:25:14.000 My question is...

00:25:17.000 I'm actually considering creating content to try to bring Catholicism back to America, to spread the love, specifically using Bible verses.

00:25:26.000 And I know you're a Catholic, so thank you so much for that.

00:25:29.000 This is so new.

00:25:30.000 I never...

00:25:30.000 This is like...

00:25:31.000 It's shocking.

00:25:31.000 I know.

00:25:32.000 I actually paid him to be here.

00:25:34.000 I know.

00:25:35.000 He's on the Knowles payroll.

00:25:37.000 So my question to you, because you're such an inspiration to Catholicism, Mr. Knowles, what advice would you give to somebody who's trying to spread the love of the Eucharist to the world?

00:25:49.000 Okay, well, you know, that's wonderful that you're going to do that.

00:25:51.000 I think it's great.

00:25:51.000 Most of the time people say, Michael, I want to start a podcast.

00:25:53.000 What's your advice?

00:25:54.000 And my advice is don't, because too many people have them, and I think every white man under the age of 75 has one now, and it's by law or something.

00:26:02.000 But this is the first time in memory that someone has proposed some new content project where I've thought, great, you should do that.

00:26:09.000 That's really good.

00:26:10.000 And my advice is you should recite the St. Thomas Aquinas prayer that he would have before study or writing or speaking.

00:26:19.000 For God to illumine his darkened mind.

00:26:22.000 And then what you should do is pray a little bit more.

00:26:26.000 Praying is the first resort, not the last resort.

00:26:28.000 And then, this is something, Charlie, that we mackerel snappers, we get.

00:26:34.000 We don't need to...

00:26:36.000 You know, reinvent the wheel every year.

00:26:38.000 We got 2,000 years of people who are much smarter than you and I, who have thought this out, who have debated these questions.

00:26:43.000 So if you just bring that, if you convey that...

00:26:46.000 I'm trying to sell Charlie on this right now.

00:26:48.000 I know I'm answering you, but I'm really speaking to Charlie.

00:26:52.000 If you just do that, that's all you're doing.

00:26:55.000 You're just telling the story.

00:26:57.000 You're telling the greatest story ever told and you have the deposit of faith and you have the magisterium behind you as a hermeneutic of interpretation.

00:27:05.000 But just do that, you know, and do that in sincerity and do that with the best of your effort and I think it'll be wonderful.

00:27:11.000 As an evangelical who loves Catholics, I love that you're doing it, but let me just edit what you say.

00:27:16.000 Here's the but.

00:27:17.000 No, no, it's a big one.

00:27:18.000 You didn't catch it, Michael.

00:27:19.000 It's that your goal should be to bring people to Jesus, not Catholicism.

00:27:23.000 No, hold on.

00:27:25.000 What's the difference?

00:27:27.000 What's the difference?

00:27:28.000 Hold on.

00:27:31.000 Hold on.

00:27:33.000 I'm not saying that they're contradictory, but your goal should not be to bring people to a specific sect of Christianity.

00:27:41.000 It is to bring people to the cross.

00:27:43.000 You're saying to bring people to the fullness of the truth and the universal faith.

00:27:47.000 Yes, but not the maxims of every Catholic dogma.

00:27:50.000 No, I mean, for example, am I a Christian if I don't believe in Mariology?

00:27:57.000 Well, we're talking about the fullness of the truth.

00:27:59.000 Am I a Christian if I don't believe in transubstantiation?

00:28:05.000 You are a little confused, but you can have sincere faith.

00:28:11.000 No, it's fine.

00:28:12.000 I think that bringing people to Catholicism is fine, of course, great, terrific, but that is hopefully a means to the ultimate end.

00:28:20.000 You exist to bring people to Christ.

00:28:23.000 Of course.

00:28:24.000 And that is the goal.

00:28:26.000 I'm just maybe being semantically, you know...

00:28:29.000 But think about this question.

00:28:31.000 What happens when you want to bring people to our Lord?

00:28:34.000 And what happens when there are disagreements over important things?

00:28:38.000 We schism and say you guys got it wrong.

00:28:42.000 Or we do a reformation.

00:28:44.000 So we're at Christmas right now.

00:28:47.000 We're at Christmas time.

00:28:49.000 We're talking about St. Nicholas.

00:28:51.000 You know, Santa Claus.

00:28:52.000 I'm talking about Jesus.

00:28:53.000 No, but I'm talking about Santa Claus.

00:28:55.000 There's...

00:28:56.000 Before we talk about our Lord.

00:28:58.000 But, you know, there's this story...

00:29:00.000 All these characters.

00:29:01.000 It's Jesus.

00:29:01.000 It's focused on the main thing.

00:29:03.000 But there's this story about St. Nicholas, who...

00:29:05.000 I don't think it's literally true, but the legend goes that St. Nicholas, who Santa Claus is based on, shows up to the Council of Nicaea, and he smacks the Heresiarch Arias, who denied the divinity of Christ...

00:29:18.000 Smacks him in the face.

00:29:20.000 And this has led to a meme that I really like at Christmas, which is an icon of St. Nicholas, and it says, I've come here to give presents to children and to punch heretics in the face.

00:29:28.000 And I'm all out of presents.

00:29:30.000 And so, no, I don't think it really happened, and it would have been a corrective slap and all the rest.

00:29:34.000 But the serious question is, What happens when someone has a question on something really important, like, is Christ God, you know, the divinity of Christ?

00:29:44.000 There has to be an interpretive hermeneutic to figure it out.

00:29:47.000 Of course, yeah, and look, to be very clear, like nine out of ten of Catholic dogmas evangelicals hold.

00:29:53.000 Nine out of ten, right?

00:29:54.000 And that is why I believe Catholics are Christian, even though you don't give me that same sort of charity.

00:29:59.000 No, I would, I would.

00:30:00.000 No, I'm giving you a hard time.

00:30:02.000 And I mean that, again, if you are a Catholic who loves Jesus, therefore, and I know that, I believe that there are personally some fundamental issues with, like I say, Mariology, transubstantiation, which we're not going to get into, but the biggest one is the papacy.

00:30:18.000 I can't get over the idea of this Marxist who calls himself the head of your church being a representation of Christ our Lord.

00:30:26.000 I just...

00:30:27.000 And I mean that as someone who loves the Catholic impact on the world, that says it openly, and by the fruit you will know it, and you have very Marxist fruit.

00:30:37.000 But what...

00:30:38.000 I guess my sort of last question on evangelization is...

00:30:44.000 Is it your last question, Michael?

00:30:44.000 Evangelism or evangelization?

00:30:46.000 But both.

00:30:47.000 What happens when we get the next pope?

00:30:47.000 Okay.

00:30:51.000 Can we pull you over then?

00:30:52.000 You know, what if we get, like, Pope Leo XV? Well, I will say, I mean, John Paul II was amazing.

00:30:57.000 I just think that there is a question to be asked of why is that specific process, that mechanism, given more merit than, let's just say, the local church and or the Word of God?

00:31:10.000 And you'd say, okay, interpretation, you know...

00:31:13.000 The final record.

00:31:16.000 Fine.

00:31:16.000 That's fine.

00:31:19.000 I ask the question, if you are all in on the papacy and the Vatican, no practicing Catholic can look and say, this is the best that my religion has to offer.

00:31:30.000 Charlie, you're thinking too much about it.

00:31:32.000 You've got to have the Italian spirit.

00:31:34.000 Now, the Italian spirit is when, you know, someone asks, hey, in this newspaper, the Pope said something where you say, oh, well, maybe the Papa was misinterpreted.

00:31:44.000 You know, it's no big deal.

00:31:46.000 Forget about it.

00:31:48.000 You're too Anglo to understand that.

00:31:50.000 Too Anglo.

00:31:51.000 Attitude.

00:31:52.000 I have to just...

00:31:53.000 I have to just hope, you know, oh, you know, he doesn't mean that, you know, homosexuality is bad.

00:31:58.000 You know, okay, we should just...

00:31:59.000 No, he said God can't bless him.

00:32:01.000 I know, sometimes it's confusing.

00:32:02.000 No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:32:05.000 He's been way more open on that topic.

00:32:08.000 Or the climate change thing.

00:32:09.000 Climate change.

00:32:10.000 And all this sort of stuff.

00:32:11.000 You just have to kind of hope that he's saying that we want one of the same things.

00:32:14.000 It's like my grandmother sometimes.

00:32:17.000 When one of her grandchildren says something that she doesn't like, she kind of turns down the hearing aid a little bit.

00:32:24.000 And so sometimes, you know, if you turn down the hearing aid on certain issues...

00:32:29.000 And I mean this, like, non-sarcastically, but, like, why should I care at all what that guy from Argentina has to say?

00:32:36.000 Well, because you care what your pastor has to say.

00:32:39.000 Yes, but if my pastor starts saying crazy things, I find a new pastor.

00:32:42.000 Yeah.

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00:33:43.000 So if your Pope starts saying crazy things, maybe he's not the Pope.

00:33:47.000 And, like, maybe that's a bad representation.

00:33:50.000 Well, I guess if your pastor says crazy things, you go to a new pastor, and then you have division in the church.

00:33:56.000 It used to be, in the old days, it used to be, if the pastors disagreed, they'd go to an elder or a bishop or someone, right?

00:34:02.000 Unless the bishop is corrupted, and then you're taken up higher, yeah.

00:34:05.000 And then maybe the Pope is corrupted, and we write 95 points of complaints, and...

00:34:11.000 Hammer him through a door and get back to the word.

00:34:15.000 Well, the issue is that one of the marks of the church is unity.

00:34:20.000 So you can't have constant schism.

00:34:23.000 And so I'm not disagreeing about difficulties in the prelature at all.

00:34:28.000 But there's a line from Hilaire Belloc, and he says...

00:34:32.000 He says he has to take it on faith that the Catholic Church is really what it says he is.

00:34:36.000 But for those who don't believe that, one mark of its divine institution is that no other institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.

00:34:45.000 And I think there's actually a lot of truth to that.

00:34:48.000 When one points to the corruption of individuals or bad popes or whatever, there have been plenty of them, that actually that's kind of an evidence because so many other ecclesial communities You know, they appear and then, you know, you leave this pastor.

00:35:00.000 Yeah, I just, I think that's fine, I guess.

00:35:03.000 I mean, I think that if you have the Bible as any sort of semblance of a bedrock, you're going to last.

00:35:09.000 But who canonizes the Bible?

00:35:13.000 Who canonized it?

00:35:15.000 Where did we get it from?

00:35:16.000 Our Lord didn't leave us a Bible.

00:35:17.000 He left us a church.

00:35:18.000 Well, that codified the Bible.

00:35:20.000 Sort of true.

00:35:21.000 I mean, I think our Lord, as part of Godship, God is the author of all 66 books, right?

00:35:26.000 Yeah, yeah, of course.

00:35:27.000 And we had...

00:35:27.000 Wait, oh, you slipped that in.

00:35:29.000 Hey, come on, you can't do that to me.

00:35:31.000 No, this is interesting, though.

00:35:33.000 Why is it that Catholics acknowledge divine books that Jews themselves don't think are divine?

00:35:40.000 The keepers of the Torah don't even agree with your canon.

00:35:44.000 Like the Wisdom of Ben Saraw, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, according to rabbinical teaching, those are not divinely inspired books, yet Catholics say we like those.

00:35:52.000 Why?

00:35:52.000 Yeah, well, so there are a few reasons.

00:35:55.000 One, that the Douay Reims, which is the Catholic Bible, is based on the Septuagint.

00:35:59.000 The Masoretic texts, which come later, are the ones that the Protestant Bible and the more recent Catholic Bibles are based on.

00:36:05.000 There is some discrepancy, at least in numbering of certain things.

00:36:09.000 But also, I mean, you say, well, if rabbinical Jews think one thing, why don't you think that?

00:36:13.000 And I'd say, I don't know, because we're a different religion.

00:36:15.000 No, but hold on a second.

00:36:16.000 But no, we're in the inheritors of the Torah, as referenced by people that were schooled in that.

00:36:16.000 No, no, no.

00:36:22.000 And the Tanakh.

00:36:24.000 So the Protestantism has an identical mirrored image of the Torah and the Tanakh.

00:36:28.000 And again, in traditional rabbinical teaching, they do not believe those books are divinely inspired.

00:36:34.000 I know the answer and you're not going to like it, but that's fine.

00:36:36.000 It's because in those books, it allows for a lot of the practices of the Catholic Church and gives justification for a lot of that stuff.

00:36:43.000 However, I don't want to get too deep in this.

00:36:44.000 I actually think the world is a better place because of faithful Catholics.

00:36:47.000 I've spoken out with great criticism about...

00:36:50.000 Of how evangelicals remained quiet here in Arizona on Prop 139 while the Catholic diocese was so courageous on the fight for life while evangelicals were silent.

00:36:59.000 I want a better Catholic church, and I personally would not be able to be part of an institution with the figurehead, with a worldview that is so corrupted and opposite of what I think the Bible teaches.

00:37:13.000 And I wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt.

00:37:15.000 I'd be like, no, I'm actually not part of this.

00:37:17.000 I'm leaving.

00:37:17.000 But today, you're part of the United States, but the head of the United States is one of the worst presidents we ever had.

00:37:21.000 But you don't leave the country.

00:37:23.000 I don't take religious orders from Joe Biden.

00:37:26.000 No, but you take political orders, or you at least follow the law.

00:37:29.000 Not really.

00:37:29.000 I mean, I follow the law, but I certainly don't have political orders from Joe Biden.

00:37:31.000 No, I guess it would mean...

00:37:33.000 No, that's not true either.

00:37:34.000 We all broke laws we didn't like during COVID. All of us did.

00:37:37.000 That's not true at all, actually.

00:37:38.000 We opened our churches, and some of you guys lied about your vaccination status.

00:37:43.000 Like, that's not true at all.

00:37:44.000 No, nobody lied about their accident.

00:37:45.000 No, no, hold on a second.

00:37:46.000 Like, no, like, we all rebel against corrupt institutions we don't like.

00:37:50.000 But an unjust law is no law at all.

00:37:52.000 Okay, an unjust pope is not a pope.

00:37:54.000 Yeah, but what's on, there's nothing unjust about the pope talking about, like, climate change.

00:37:59.000 You just don't pay attention to it.

00:38:01.000 Okay, so you pick and choose what?

00:38:03.000 It's like a buffet line?

00:38:04.000 No.

00:38:05.000 I like what he says about this, but not about that.

00:38:07.000 But yes, he is the inheritor of St. Peter.

00:38:09.000 No, no.

00:38:10.000 The papal authority is that he speaks infallibly when speaking ex cathedra on faith and morals.

00:38:14.000 He doesn't talk about climate change at all.

00:38:16.000 So the Pope can say things that are crazy.

00:38:17.000 Yeah, so if this is perfect, then why have one?

00:38:20.000 If what he says is not...

00:38:22.000 In order to speak infallibly ex-cathedra on faith and rules.

00:38:23.000 Okay, so that has not happened since, what, Vatican II? No, it's a little bit...

00:38:27.000 When was the last time the popes spoke ex-cathedra?

00:38:29.000 Vatican II was part of the match.

00:38:30.000 When was the last time?

00:38:31.000 Like 50, 60 years?

00:38:32.000 The last, probably, ex-cathedra infallible teachings from a pope were probably Pope Pius IX, you know, like 150 years ago.

00:38:39.000 Okay, so then, therefore, there really is no functional use for a pope for 150 years.

00:38:44.000 No, no.

00:38:44.000 He's the leader of the church.

00:38:47.000 Exactly.

00:38:48.000 Your figurehead, your top leader, is not good.

00:38:53.000 No, I don't know.

00:38:54.000 Well, none is good but God, I guess.

00:38:58.000 Well, no, I would say Pope John Paul II was objectively a good person.

00:39:02.000 You would say none is good but God.

00:39:04.000 That's what our Lord tells us.

00:39:05.000 Well, of course, yeah, we all fall short of the glory of God.

00:39:07.000 Yeah, so there you are.

00:39:08.000 I think that there is a, I mean, Catholic moral teaching will tell you that there are gradations of sin.

00:39:12.000 Yeah.

00:39:13.000 I'm using your own morality and I agree with it, right?

00:39:16.000 Pope John Paul II is totally different than Ted Kaczynski.

00:39:20.000 Yeah, but I don't know.

00:39:20.000 What sin are you accusing Pope Francis?

00:39:22.000 I can't believe I'm defending Pope Francis.

00:39:25.000 How about the sin of heresy of the Word of God?

00:39:29.000 What heresy?

00:39:31.000 Okay, without getting into the specific things that he said, but in the Latin, the climate change stuff is insane, way too relaxed on the homosexuality stuff.

00:39:41.000 He says God can't bless sin.

00:39:43.000 He called gay marriage a machination of the father of lies that seems to deceive and confuse the children of God.

00:39:49.000 If I had the full body of work in front of me, his teachings on communism are insane.

00:39:54.000 He comes from liberation theology.

00:39:55.000 He says he's not a communist.

00:39:57.000 He said it.

00:39:57.000 No, no.

00:39:58.000 He said he's not a communist.

00:39:59.000 Okay.

00:40:00.000 So does Obama.

00:40:02.000 So Michael, let me say this.

00:40:04.000 If I had every quote here, which of course I don't, you would be able to defend them that he said?

00:40:08.000 I would at least be able to make the point that he's not speaking infallibly, I think.

00:40:13.000 But I wouldn't defend every report.

00:40:15.000 We'll get to the next question.

00:40:16.000 Hi, my name's Athena.

00:40:24.000 I'm actually coming from New Jersey, so thank you for having me.

00:40:28.000 So my question, a little bit unrelated to what you guys were just talking about.

00:40:32.000 You're not talking about Blessed Pius IX? No, shockingly not.

00:40:38.000 Okay, so recently Trump was given Person of the Year.

00:40:42.000 It's really been given to pretty much every president that's ever been voted in, just kind of the most important person.

00:40:49.000 So I noticed when I was reading the media on it that on the right, you had, you know, Trump gets person of the year, and then you start looking at the past, and you had Democratic presidents, and the headlines were so sweet.

00:41:02.000 It was, you know, an honor was bestowed unto them.

00:41:05.000 And then when Trump won, there was this magazine, I think called Metro, and in the headline it said, Trump joined exclusive club that Hitler and Stalin enjoyed.

00:41:17.000 No, come on.

00:41:18.000 I did not see that.

00:41:19.000 I swear on my life.

00:41:20.000 And I posted a video on this on my TikTok, and it went viral because people had no idea.

00:41:25.000 So my question to you guys is, what do you think Trump should or shouldn't do about the issue of this defamation all in the media?

00:41:33.000 Because it's slander, pretty much.

00:41:35.000 And you can see the imbalance when you look.

00:41:37.000 So I guess if you were Trump, would you do anything?

00:41:40.000 If so, what would that be?

00:41:41.000 He's already collected 15 million dollars from it.

00:41:44.000 How much more can the man make?

00:41:47.000 I'm reading this right here.

00:41:48.000 This is metro.co.uk.

00:41:51.000 Unbelievable.

00:41:52.000 Wow.

00:41:53.000 I don't think you could sue on it because I guess it's technically true, right?

00:41:58.000 I guess that's true.

00:41:58.000 Technically, yeah.

00:42:00.000 That's incredible.

00:42:01.000 When George Stephanopoulos and ABC lie about Trump, he should sue them for everything they're worth, and that was so delightful.

00:42:07.000 But when we're just talking about the usual smears, it seems to me that Trump has that briefing room now.

00:42:14.000 And so Trump has this amazing opportunity to reset the relationship between the citizen and the government.

00:42:20.000 He has another amazing opportunity to reset the relationship between the people and the media.

00:42:26.000 And so I think if I'm looking at that press room seating chart right now, I'm looking at MSNBC certainly should not be there.

00:42:33.000 CNN should not be up by the front row.

00:42:36.000 Should the New York Times be there?

00:42:37.000 I don't think Metro UK has a seat.

00:42:39.000 But, you know, even just those three.

00:42:42.000 In this past election, the New York Times and the Washington Post admitted that they do not have influence, that they have waning influence.

00:42:49.000 They called it a podcast election.

00:42:51.000 So I think, okay, kick them out.

00:42:53.000 Also, they lie, so they're not credible.

00:42:55.000 Maybe give this one rotating seat for the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post or whatever.

00:43:01.000 But why would we reward those people who lie?

00:43:03.000 You and I should do the White House press.

00:43:05.000 I've been saying this for years.

00:43:06.000 Thank you.

00:43:11.000 No, kick them all out.

00:43:12.000 Why even give them a seat?

00:43:14.000 Seriously, no more CNN. You guys can watch it on TV like we did.

00:43:19.000 Okay, Daisy, last question.

00:43:21.000 Okay, this is funny.

00:43:22.000 My name's also Athena.

00:43:24.000 I'm a senior from South Carolina.

00:43:26.000 Two Athenas?

00:43:27.000 What are the chances of that?

00:43:27.000 Yeah, that's crazy.

00:43:28.000 I've never met anyone.

00:43:31.000 Okay, so I'm Athena from South Carolina.

00:43:32.000 I'm a senior this year, and I want to go to college for political science, and I want to be a political commentator.

00:43:38.000 And I was wondering if you have any advice for me And I really admire what both of y'all do, and I really feel called to that, and I want to minister the gospel through that, and I want to just reach people, and I want to share the truth as a woman, as a Christian, as a Republican, and I just wondered if you have any advice.

00:43:55.000 What do you think my advice is?

00:43:58.000 Well, I know that.

00:44:00.000 I agree with you on some things, but also I was talking to my parents about it and they feel similarly to you.

00:44:08.000 But my dad was saying that if God wants me to do that and go get an education, he'll provide the money that I need to do that.

00:44:15.000 And I really feel like I want to be...

00:44:17.000 I know that, for example, Ben Shapiro went to a university and he got a higher education.

00:44:22.000 And I know that that's the case for some people.

00:44:24.000 They're supposed to do that and some people they're not.

00:44:25.000 And I personally want to do that.

00:44:27.000 That's obviously a knock against college, though, that Ben Shapiro went to college, right?

00:44:31.000 That's a huge...

00:44:33.000 Yeah, I'm just saying, like, I know some people, like, that's what God is calling them to do, and I really feel like that's what I'm supposed to do.

00:44:40.000 And I feel like, because I want to know what I'm talking about, and I want to make sure that I'm fully educated.

00:44:44.000 Well, if you want to know what you're talking about, don't go to college.

00:44:46.000 No, you know, I broadly agree with Charlie.

00:44:50.000 I think it's a complete waste of time.

00:44:52.000 However, I am pro-college in the right circumstance.

00:44:56.000 Some people today, they complain about college.

00:44:58.000 They say, college no longer teaches you anything useful.

00:45:01.000 Now, the point of a university is emphatically not to teach you anything useful.

00:45:06.000 That's what trade school's for.

00:45:07.000 That's what apprenticeships are for.

00:45:08.000 That's what working on a job is for.

00:45:09.000 The purpose of a university education is to teach you things that are useless.

00:45:14.000 The problem with our current university education is it doesn't do that.

00:45:18.000 It actually doesn't teach you philosophy and literature and history.

00:45:20.000 So all of that can be really, really good.

00:45:23.000 I mean, look, the Charlie Kirks of the world are like one in a zillion.

00:45:26.000 There's no flattery.

00:45:28.000 I reject it though.

00:45:30.000 It's like, just work hard and study a lot.

00:45:32.000 I don't understand what college does for you.

00:45:34.000 How many people are as interested in reading great books on their own?

00:45:37.000 I have one thing that people don't have.

00:45:39.000 I have drive.

00:45:40.000 I totally acknowledge it.

00:45:41.000 I'm not any smarter than the average person.

00:45:43.000 No, seriously.

00:45:44.000 If you want to be good, you can be good.

00:45:47.000 So decide to do it.

00:45:48.000 And what does college do for you?

00:45:50.000 I want someone to tell me what's so important about college, unless you want to be like a lawyer or whatever.

00:45:55.000 It's an unnecessary institution.

00:45:57.000 I think, especially for most people, but even for people who are really driven and really ambitious, it can provide.

00:46:03.000 In the circumstances in which you have really good teachers who really know the subject.

00:46:07.000 Yeah, like Hillsdale.

00:46:08.000 Like a Hillsdale.

00:46:09.000 Hillsdale is a great example.

00:46:11.000 It's like Hillsdale, Ave Maria, Franciscan.

00:46:12.000 Like 20,000 kids a year go to those schools.

00:46:14.000 Liberty is a big school.

00:46:16.000 Okay, 100,000 kids a year.

00:46:18.000 But I broadly agree.

00:46:20.000 I just think if you're going to do it, I'm totally with Charlie on this.

00:46:24.000 I wouldn't go there to get some degree in journalism or something.

00:46:27.000 I think that's a complete waste of time.

00:46:28.000 But you could get a degree in history or philosophy or something to at least point you in the right direction to educate yourself.

00:46:35.000 My next bit of advice is don't become famous too early.

00:46:38.000 I know everyone really wants to, especially when they're starting out.

00:46:41.000 But don't, because you probably don't know what you think yet.

00:46:44.000 And then the third bit of advice is, I'd work out your own routine.

00:46:47.000 It's like when a comedian starts.

00:46:49.000 Comedians start out by doing other people's routines, and so they're doing an impression of someone else.

00:46:53.000 That's great, and it gives you your chops, but you have to figure out what your contribution is.

00:46:59.000 I mean, truly, every human being on planet Earth has a podcast, so for you to break through the noise of that, you have to be offering something that's a little bit different.

00:47:08.000 And I bet you could.

00:47:10.000 You know, there's no question about it.

00:47:11.000 But you need to really delve into yourself before you put yourself out there.

00:47:17.000 Thank you so much, Athena.

00:47:18.000 Thank you.

00:47:19.000 Everybody, give it up for Michael Knowles one more time.

00:47:21.000 Thank you.

00:47:21.000 Thank you, everybody.

00:47:26.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:47:27.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - January 02, 2025

Charlie and Michael Knowles Debate Religion at AmFest

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