In this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, host Charlie Kirk sits down with the President of Turning Point USA, a political organization dedicated to fighting for freedom on college campuses across the country. In this conversation, Charlie and Turning Point's President Charlie discuss the importance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the role of the late civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. in American history. Charlie also discusses his views on whether or not Trump deserves a National Day of Recognition, and why he thinks Trump is a better choice than any other presidential candidate in the 2020 election. Charlie and Charlie also discuss why it's a mistake to idolize MLK for his character issues and why Trump should be held in such a heroic light. Charlie's thoughts on the civil rights movement and MLK's impact on American history, and his thoughts on why Donald Trump is better than anyone else on the ticket. Click here to listen to the full episode and tweet me what you think! Tweet me if you have any thoughts or opinions on MLK, MLK or MLK! or any other topic you d like to hear from Charlie on the show. Timestamps: 1:00 - Who's better? 2:30 - Is Donald Trump better than MLK? 3:15 - Is Trump a better presidential candidate? 4:20 - What is the real choice? 5: What is your opinion on Trump? 6:40 - Who is a good president? 7: What does MLK better than John McCain? 8: Why does Trump deserve a national day? 9: Who should be a national holiday? 10:00 11: Why is Donald Trump a hero? 13:15 14:30 15:35 - Why is MLK a better president than Bobby Kennedy better than JFK better than Hillary Kennedy? 16:40 17: Does MLK deserve a day of honor? 17 - What does he deserve a National Holiday? 18:40 Is Trump s place in history? 19:10 21:20 22:00 What would you think MLK s work better than Obama s greatest work? 21 & 16: What do you think of Trump s flaws? 20:00 Does Trump have a better chance of being a better than a president than JFK s? 23:00 Is there a higher standard than a better candidate than a Catholic priest?
00:00:30.000His 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.
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00:01:44.000My second question is where I really want to get into a new opinion that you may have, but I was wondering if you could first set the stage with your beliefs about that.
00:01:51.000Yeah, I mean, it was written way too broadly, and now it's being used in ways that it was never intended.
00:01:55.000We both agree that segregation based on race should be illegal, but now that it's being used, for example, to allow men and female sports as a complete over- We can all agree on that.
00:02:17.000And so it has gone way beyond its original intent, so I believe that it should have been written with more precision and probably not as long and not as wide-reaching.
00:02:25.000However, the intent was very noble and very righteous.
00:02:27.000Okay, and yes, I would agree that men have no place in women's sports.
00:02:31.000But my second part of my question would say that you've also kind of been very critical of...
00:02:37.000Of MLK and pertain to a lot of his character issues, right?
00:02:41.000And you've said that you've been trying to kind of, not rewrite, but examine MLK in a new way recently.
00:02:47.000And you also have been quoted saying that when MLK started to become idolized, that the progress of black America goes sideways.
00:02:54.000And a lot of that, from my understanding, you may correct me if I'm wrong, is due to his character and so forth.
00:03:00.000Yet, like, we stand here, and you're a proud supporter of Donald Trump, someone who is a multi-time adulterer, has been convicted in a civil court of sexual abuse, and is a perpetual liar.
00:03:10.000So my question would be, if it is a mistake to idolize MLK for his character issues, despite his groundbreaking leadership in the civil rights movement, how is Trump someone that can be held in such a heroic light?
00:03:19.000Yeah, well, first of all, MLK is one of the few people that has a national holiday.
00:03:23.000So you can agree that's a pretty high standard, right?
00:03:26.000I mean, do you think Donald Trump deserves a national holiday?
00:03:36.000He also did some things that are worthy of question and examination.
00:03:39.000That's all that I did earlier this year.
00:03:41.000But as far as the other thing, I think we all agree that we're not voting for a pastor or for a priest.
00:03:44.000We're voting for A president that has flaws but did a wonderful job when he was first president and will do a wonderful job again.
00:03:50.000And more importantly, you're voting for 5,000 people that will run your government.
00:03:54.000And the fact that Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and Bobby Kennedy are now joining the Trump team and the Trump ticket is all the more reason.
00:04:01.000And so you can have fair objections to Trump's past.
00:04:04.000It's been very eventful and very colorful.
00:04:06.000I will say, though, he was an effective president, and he has a lot of virtues as well.
00:04:10.000Courage under fire, relentless perseverance, and a heart for the American people to keep on fighting for them.
00:04:17.000And so I don't think either should be venerated, nor they should be idolized, but I do think Donald Trump should be voted for, which I think is a very important distinction.
00:04:34.000He isn't here right now, but he wanted to ask you a question.
00:04:39.000How would ideologically conservative people, and he works for the government, right, best make a difference from inside the government?
00:04:50.000We get lumped in with statist and elitist-minded people who feel they know what's best for the masses, and he feels like he gets punished for speaking out for trying to promote transparency.
00:05:09.000Well, first and foremost, he has to always act with integrity and understand that there's a lot of good people within the FBI and the Department of Defense that are being told to do bad things.
00:05:18.000So hopefully we'll have a new president in two weeks and then eventually in January that will, for example, in the DOD, it's insane that we have this DEI transgender nonsense in the military.
00:05:28.000The military should be about defeating our enemies and keeping the American people safe, not as a social experiment of all the crazy Looney Tunes ideas that we've seen.
00:05:37.000Without specific advice, I would try to have him ascend as far as he can, keep his values, and always have fidelity to the country, not the government.
00:06:42.000Now, I will admit, not everyone who's coming here illegally is like the killer of Lake and Riley, of course, but that is a very personal example of a UGA student that was just...
00:06:55.000And to be very clear, if Donald Trump was president, Lake and Riley would be alive today.
00:07:00.000That was an unnecessary killing that was completely because of open border policy.
00:07:04.000But if your first act into a country is to break a country's laws, of which illegal immigration is and the illegal people coming in the country are, then we have every right to repel them and to send them back to their country of origin.
00:07:16.000Do you think this mass deportation will negatively affect the U.S. economy?
00:07:20.000I actually think it will positively affect the US economy.
00:07:22.000I think that what it will do is, number one, you guys will have less people to compete for for housing prices.
00:07:26.000So one of the reasons why housing is going up is because in supply and demand, if you have 10 million new people, they have to live somewhere.
00:07:32.000And when you have to live somewhere, then all of a sudden you have more people going after a finite good.
00:07:38.000This is why sand is cheap and diamonds are expensive, is because when you have a surplus of something or a finite supply of something, prices will go up, or if you have a surplus, prices will go down.
00:07:47.000So I think housing prices will stabilize as part of that.
00:07:50.000There probably will be some speed bumps on the road in manual labor, but honestly what you'll see then is wages will go up, and wages will go up for American workers.
00:07:58.000And do you know specifically the population that will be benefited by this is working class voters of all races, but specifically Latino and black Americans that work with their hands, that currently are having their wages undercut by individuals that break the law, come to the southern border, and then destabilize their working wage.
00:08:17.000Well, I disagree because if you already know, illegal immigrants make up 20% of the labor force in the United States and they pay over $100 billion in taxes, but they receive almost no benefits from the taxes that they pay from.
00:08:31.000So I believe the wages won't necessarily go up.
00:08:35.000If anything, they'll probably go down because people are now fighting for more degree-based taxes.
00:08:40.000Yeah, so first of all, I don't expect you to know this, but they, of course, do receive benefits.
00:08:44.000For example, they show up at a hospital, they'll receive care.
00:08:49.000So they send their kids to local social services.
00:08:51.000Additionally, they get money from the federal government as well, food stamp assistance, Medicaid, so on and so forth, that has now been expanded to even illegal immigrants.
00:09:00.000Secondly, though, they're still here on our terms.
00:09:02.000So we just might have a difference of how a country should be constituted.
00:09:06.000One of the reasons I support Trump is that a fundamental...
00:09:08.000The premise of how a country should exist is that the citizen should be able to determine who comes in their country, and that we actually have a say in elections of whether or not it's too much, too little, not enough, or whatever it is.
00:09:24.000And I'm not saying this is just because of illegal migration, but it's partially.
00:09:27.000Everybody in this audience right now You are the first generation since George Washington to have life worse off than your parents.
00:09:36.000You're the most depressed, sick, anxious, medicated, alcohol addicted, and poor generation per capita in modern American history.
00:09:43.000And just a very simple rule, and again this ties into illegal immigration but not specifically, Is that if you are getting routinely poor year over year, you should fire your leaders and put leaders back in charge that we're actually making life better and we're getting richer and be able to own homes.
00:10:04.000The point is that those should go to Native Americans, Native American jobs, or even Native Americans too, but American-born jobs, not illegal migrant labor that cut in line and then basically said to the entire immigration system, So bad.
00:10:17.000Who here is a first-generation immigrant or a son or daughter of?
00:10:34.000Your parents that other people can just cut in line and border jump into our country and basically tell your parents, oh, sorry that you filled out all the paperwork and you waited in line.
00:11:56.000I have one relating to immigration as well.
00:11:59.000Do you think through this mass deportation that Donald Trump is trying to enforce, do you think it's fair that he wants to deport back all the Venezuelan people who just came back, who just came from Venezuela?
00:12:10.000And I understand the news has made this prejudice that Venezuelans are criminals, they're killers.
00:12:47.000You have to return to your country of origin, and then we can get our own house together.
00:12:51.000Let me just kind of put this differently.
00:12:53.000We can open up our arms again once our young people, you guys, can own homes and have a life as good as your parents.
00:13:00.000Then we can start thinking about letting in all the other world's problems.
00:13:03.000Until then, we have an obligation to fulfill the mandate so that you guys can have the same life and access to the American dream that your parents had.
00:13:16.000So first off, I just want to say I'm a huge fan, been following you for a while, so I feel really privileged to be able to meet you in person.
00:13:23.000So my question relates to the politicization of educational institutions, specifically majors like art, writing, education, political science.
00:13:31.000And I think these things are really important, but I feel like the political skew of Those institutions is towards the left, and I think that's turning away a lot of really smart, talented people who could do some good things.
00:13:43.000So my question is, do you share my fear that the political capture of these institutions is turning away smart people?
00:14:29.000Not exactly something I'm that passionate about, but I think it's a beautiful thing.
00:14:32.000I mean, they're not even teaching Shakespeare in many theater classes anymore because he was a racist white male, apparently, that lived in, like, the Victorian era.
00:14:42.000Like, you cannot fundamentally understand the English language, let alone theater, if you don't study Shakespeare.
00:14:48.000And so I think what we're doing is we're slowly committing suicide against the foundational roots of our country that created this a beautiful, prosperous way.
00:15:57.000In that, you refused to answer his question to reconcile that Trump's campaign's change position on mass immigration and instead deflected that he is the lesser of two evils, which, like...
00:16:04.000No, actually, it's not how I answered it.
00:16:37.000I think that we should have a moratorium on immigration, legal and illegal, until the livelihood of everyone in this audience is on par with their parents.
00:16:57.000Let's pretend that you're even correct on it.
00:16:58.000The positives far outweigh the negatives of Donald Trump's presidency when it comes to stopping illegal immigration, greatest deportation effort in history, stopping World War III, rising wages, booming economy.
00:17:14.000Great circuit court judges, hold on, and allowing Americans, young Americans in particular, to have booming wages, a better future for them and their family, and also making sure that another 10 million people do not invade this country, and that we have sovereignty, that we have borders, and a unified American story.
00:17:31.000Is that compelling enough for you to vote for Trump?
00:17:33.000Yes, sure, but that's not my question.
00:17:35.000My question is not about Trump, it's how do you reconcile these changed positions?
00:17:38.000Will you at least acknowledge that there is a changed position?
00:18:23.000I won't need my phone because I don't have any talking points to go over.
00:18:27.000So based on your point a minute ago that basically we're the silent majority and that they're louder than us, why is it that they are louder than us and why aren't we allowed to be more vocal without feeling that we're going to be canceled or...
00:18:53.000They do not think Kamala Harris is equipped or qualified to run the country.
00:18:56.000They believe Trump was a great president.
00:18:58.000They want the economy robust and productive for all people.
00:19:00.000And so, yes, I mean, our value system and our worldview is in the predominant portion of the country.
00:19:06.000We have been taught to be terrified as conservatives because the left is willing to use political and cultural power to punish us.
00:19:13.000And this is why the victory of Donald Trump will go down if he is to win, which I hope he does, as one of the greatest political victories in American history.
00:19:21.000After everything they have done to try to silence him, from 700 years in federal prison, from multiple impeachments, from even two assassination attempts and being shot where he said, fight, fight, fight.
00:19:32.000This movement will not be silenced and will not be stopped, and it is an emergent movement against the left-wing orthodoxy and domination of our culture that we conservatives actually outnumber the left in this country.
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00:20:14.000He didn't even know the danger he was in.
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00:20:19.000Don's disappearance captured national headlines, sparking a massive search and rescue effort with hundreds of volunteers, including his own father, who was afraid he'd never see his son again.
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00:21:26.000We are quickly stumbling into World War III. Not an exaggeration.
00:21:29.000Kamala Harris is surrounding herself with neocons and warmongers, the number one of which is Liz Cheney, where she's now going on this tour where she's talking about we must defend democracy abroad.
00:21:39.000These are the architects of the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War.
00:21:42.000And you guys are the ones that are going to have to be drafted into World War III if Kamala Harris gets her way.
00:22:05.000Obviously secure the border and the Russian-Ukrainian war.
00:22:08.000And that's all just within the first couple hours.
00:22:11.000And do you think there would be any positives to a Paris administration or any negatives to a second Trump administration?
00:22:16.000I mean, the only positive of the Harris administration is people would see how bad things could get, which I hope we don't have to live through that.
00:22:22.000I hope we don't have to live through our version of the Soviet Union.
00:22:25.000And a question, because I saw you ask a similar question to a student.
00:22:49.000So, I feel like this isn't talked about enough, but with the general media becoming more and more polarized, tailoring information to push their own agendas, what other mediums can voters rely on to educate themselves?
00:23:00.000Well, of course you can watch The Charlie Kirk Show, which I think is a great source of information.
00:23:19.000One of the reasons why the country is becoming more right-wing is because the left cannot compete in the marketplace of ideas.
00:23:25.000So as we are now gravitating towards an internet consumption era, our podcasts are more popular, our social media channels are more popular, and our ideas are better.
00:23:33.000And we win when both sides are given a fair hearing.
00:23:36.000So those are just a couple of suggestions for you.
00:23:47.000So, my name is Zach, and I feel like 10 years ago when I was in elementary and middle school, I feel like I saw zero pride flags, zero, like, any LGBTQ movement, but I feel like I see so many pictures over social media that it's just all over classrooms.
00:24:00.000I know Ron DeSantis in Florida made a good idea to, like, Completely ban it.
00:24:04.000So do you think that stemmed from, like, specifically COVID? Or do you think that dates all the way back to the Obama administration?
00:24:10.000And how do you think Trump will, like, his agenda?
00:24:16.000Especially in K-12 education, primarily through minors, there should be no transgender sexual curriculum for 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds in the schools of this country, period.
00:24:38.000What we're talking about, though, is explicit sexual programming for minors that are in a place where their parents should be presenting their topics to them.
00:24:46.000And at the very least, the school should be doing something in a neutral way.
00:25:13.000Is they make you feel part of something bigger than yourself, and that you can identify.
00:25:18.000As America has become less religious, specifically as America has become less Christian, our young people need to fill that void with something, and that movement is an attachment for a lot of young people that feel as if they're socially outcast and not part of the group.
00:25:33.000And I kind of, going off on that, based on the Christian, I'm a big Christian too, Jesus is king.
00:25:39.000How do we, like, I know there's a lot of pressure, like, when people, like, where, I feel like when people were, like, across or say, oh, there's only two genders, they get, like, like, they get, I don't say expelled, but they'll, like, get suspended.
00:25:50.000But, like, when someone, like, that's also a freedom of expression.
00:26:11.000They might have that viewpoint, but they're teaching specific curriculum, and that is the violation of viewpoint neutrality of how the classroom should operate.
00:26:19.000But we must support freedom of expression.
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00:29:33.000Following that massacre, it is probably the biggest massacre in UK history, involving schools specifically, there was a ban on all handguns.
00:29:41.000Since then, there's been no school shootings in the UK, and it averages 28 firearm homicides a year.
00:29:47.000In the United States, there are 39,707 gun deaths in 2019 alone, the average of one gun-related death every 11 minutes.
00:29:55.000In 2023, there were 346 school shooting incidents in the US. So far, there have been 385 mass shootings in 2024, and a mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed.
00:30:06.000Why are you pro-Second Amendment, and can you give me your stance on that?
00:30:08.000Great, so I just want to make sure I can know where you're coming from.
00:30:11.000Do you believe owning a firearm is a right or a privilege?
00:30:25.000I believe that the right to protect yourself and your family against a tyrannical government or a home invader is an inalienable right that must be protected and that no one can take it away.
00:30:55.000So it's a little misleading to say 30,000 or even every 11 minutes.
00:30:59.000And so there's some people that say, well, it's easier to commit suicide if you have a gun in the house You and I would both agree, though, that if someone is committing suicide or the firearm, there's other underlying issues.
00:32:02.000Actually, the firearm is a technology or a tool that is actually intention neutral.
00:32:10.000So a firearm could be used for sharpshooting or it could be used for a massacre.
00:32:15.000No different than a kitchen knife can be used for a beautiful...
00:32:18.000Cook a beautiful meal or to, you know, murder somebody.
00:32:22.000So it's a piece of technology, albeit it makes killing easier, but it in itself is not inherently what you might think it is.
00:32:28.000Now let me just finish the point, though, is that we as enthusiasts for the Second Amendment acknowledge that in a free society, people are going to do bad things and dumb things.
00:33:04.000But in a culture that believes that owning a firearm is a right, not a privilege, our goal should be about limiting the suffering, but acknowledging that you're not going to get rid of it completely.
00:33:13.000It's a different viewpoint than the European model.
00:33:16.000The final point I'll say is, why do you think we believe it's a right?
00:33:20.000It's because we believe that, God forbid, if the government ever becomes tyrannical, we need an ability to defend ourselves against a tyrannical government.
00:33:43.000Anyways, so back then, the average, like an experienced shooter on a musket could fire three shots a minute.
00:33:50.000All right, on average, it took 30 seconds to fire one shot.
00:33:54.000Modern day AR-15s, traditionally, you know, if it's a stock model, holds about 30 rounds in a magazine.
00:34:00.000Now, you can customize that and make it carry more, sure, but the staggering statistic is that these AR-15s can empty this 30-round magazine in five seconds is the possibilities.
00:34:11.000The question is, what was the founders' intent when they put the Second Amendment?
00:34:16.000For example, to play out, and I'm not trying to pick on you, but for example, you say the founders only thought that, okay, must get Second Amendment.
00:34:25.000Did they only think First Amendment, parchment and paper, not Twitter?
00:34:33.000If the Second Amendment was only intended to cover muskets, is the First Amendment only intended to cover letter writing, not talk on the internet?
00:34:46.000Meaning these principles transcend technology.
00:34:49.000And that's where we come from, is that you have a First Amendment right whether you're speaking freely on a message board or if you're just talking like the founding fathers would.
00:34:57.000You have a Second Amendment right whether it's a musket or whether it's an AR-15.
00:35:01.000Because the principle and the truth that undergirds it, and I'll let you in in a second, is transcendent above the technology.
00:35:07.000So, I'm going to use your logic a little bit.
00:35:10.000When the Constitution was written, slaves existed in the United States, and that was amended and added to the Constitution when we freed the slaves.
00:35:17.000Same with women, we gave them the right to vote.
00:35:57.000And this is where leftists and conservatives would disagree.
00:36:00.000We think human nature is consistent over time, whereas leftists think that you're a creature of your environment and human nature changes based on the nuances and the complexities around you.
00:36:09.000So, for example, we believe that the right to be able to petition your government and speak is something that is eternal and should never change.
00:36:21.000So there's two parts of the First Amendment, the Free Expression Clause and the Establishment Clause.
00:36:25.000So it is, you basically have the right to petition your government for grievances or redresses, and the government shall not create basically state-run religion or the free exercise thereof.
00:36:35.000That is the original wording of the First Amendment.
00:36:37.000So can I ask you how, you know, if the government cannot create a national or state-run religion, when we have justices like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is making calls based off his Catholic beliefs, how is that not a violation of separation of church and state?
00:36:52.000Well, so again, so first of all, separation of church and state is not in the First Amendment.
00:36:57.000So that's actually a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1803 to the Danbury Baptist Convention assuring the Baptists that the government would not come after them.
00:37:05.000So you're insinuating that that is the subtext of it.
00:37:09.000However, the Warren Court resurrected that letter and said it separation of church and state.
00:37:13.000However, you would agree that we can never have separation of conscience or morality of state, right?
00:37:20.000For example, you have somebody who's an office holder.
00:37:22.000The values that undergird them are going to be reflected in their decisions, of course.
00:37:27.000So that's what's happening with Clarence Thomas.
00:37:29.000No different than Joe Biden's Catholic values are what's representing his open border policy.
00:37:34.000Yes, and speaking on the overturn of Roe v.
00:37:37.000Wade, when Clarence Thomas did, he voted in favor to overturn that.
00:37:41.000Sure, you can use that argument there.
00:37:43.000But when it comes to him calling for the court to re-evaluate same-sex marriage and things like that, contraception rights, can you tell me what kind of economic impact...
00:38:55.000So, in terms of her being the Vice President, I'm willing to be critical of Kamala Harris, by the way.
00:39:01.000I think that there's not a lot of incredible policies that she's put into place.
00:39:06.000I know that Donald Trump has been able to call into the House and turn down some bills involving the border.
00:39:12.000But I will say why I want to vote for Harris for President.
00:39:15.000Because she has promised things like the child tax credit.
00:39:18.000It seems like, to me, she's trying to do things in order to support these young mothers that are being forced into this scenario to give birth to children that they can't either support or they weren't ready for or they don't want.