00:01:01.000JD Vance here, live from my office in the White House complex, and filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I'm going to try to do my best, my dear friend, the great Charlie Kirk.
00:01:13.000The last several days have been extremely hard for our country.
00:01:17.000They've been hard for me, hard for my family, hard for the countless people in this building who knew and loved Charlie Kirk, and of course they've been hardest most of all for his darling wife Erica and their two beautiful children.
00:01:31.000The thing is, every single person in this building, we owe something to Charlie.
00:01:38.000He was a joyful warrior for our country.
00:01:42.000He devoted himself tirelessly to making our country a better place.
00:01:46.000He was a critical part of getting Donald Trump elected as president, getting me elected as vice president.
00:01:53.000and so much of our success over the last seven months is due to his efforts, his staffing, his support, and his friendship.
00:02:01.000I don't think that I'm alone in saying that Charlie was the smartest political operative I ever met.
00:02:07.000Everyone knew him as this fearless debater, this guy who would take the conservative message into hostile places and inspire younger generations to have courage.
00:02:16.000One thing that's hit a lot of those young Americans over the last week was how Charlie was there for them when others were not.
00:02:24.000When they were afraid to speak their minds, when they were afraid of what a professor would say when they were afraid that they would be shouted down by their peers, Charlie was there, showing them that they could be courageous and that they could be bold.
00:02:43.000He didn't just teach people how to speak.
00:02:45.000He didn't just teach people what to say.
00:02:47.000He didn't just teach people they could actually speak their mind on campus.
00:02:51.000They create he He created a whole social network for an entire generation of young people.
00:02:56.000I know people who met their husband, who met their wife, who met the best men at their wedding at a TPUSA event.
00:03:04.000Because as you guys all know, it's not just about speaking our mind, it's about making friends along the way and creating that support network that won an election and that staffed the current federal government.
00:03:18.000I've had friends reach out in just the last couple of days who sent me messages, screenshots that they exchanged with Charlie in the run-up to me getting selected by the president as his vice presidential running mate.
00:03:34.000And it's such an honor to have people show me that Charlie said we want JD to be the VP nominee.
00:03:42.000And I just had a conversation with the president, and I think things are actually going well.
00:03:46.000I think he's actually going to choose J.D. Vance.
00:03:49.000Do you know what it means to me that such a good guy, such a good friend, such a lion and visionary of our movement was advocating for me?
00:03:57.000So I wanted to use this show today to advocate for Charlie, to talk about him, to talk about what kind of a guy he was, talk about what kind of a man he was, what kind of a husband and father he was, and to take people, most of them from inside the administration, but some of them from without who knew Charlie best and to talk about what he meant,
00:04:16.000what he meant to them what he meant to this administration and what he meant to the conservative movement i was very honored a couple of days ago on september the 11th 2025 to fly out to utah where charlie was shot and killed to meet his wife to meet his mom and his dad his his sister all just incredible people who didn't deserve to have this happen to them And I was also honored to be able to take Charlie's remains from Utah to Arizona.
00:04:48.000It was heartbreaking and it was sad and it was terrible.
00:04:51.000But what an honor it was for me and my family to be welcomed in to the Kirk Inner Circle at their moment of grief.
00:04:58.000There are a few things that I want to talk about just from that moment.
00:05:02.000First of all, when I first met Erica, his lovely wife and such an incredibly brave soul I'm not sure if you saw her remarks after Charlie died.
00:05:11.000If you haven't, I would encourage you to go and see them because you see this raw grief and incredible courage all in the same moment and that's what we need right now.
00:05:19.000We need to grieve but we also need this courage in this moment more than we've ever needed it.
00:05:25.000She gave me a hug and she was heartbroken as of course she would be and she said that she loved him so much and I said Erica he loved you so much.
00:05:36.000He died way too young, but he died a happy man because of you, because of the family that you gave him, because of the home and the life that you guys had built together.
00:05:46.000And we sat for about an hour and we talked about Charlie.
00:05:49.000And, you know, in these moments, you don't know what to say.
00:05:52.000I'm a person who literally speaks for a living and I had no idea what to say.
00:05:56.000And I didn't try to console her because how can you console a person who just lost a loving husband and father?
00:06:37.000I think that on the great balance of things that I'm a pretty good husband.
00:06:41.000But I can never say that I was never unpleasant with my wife.
00:06:46.000I can never say that I've never raised my voice to my wife.
00:06:49.000Like most husbands, even the good ones, were sometimes imperfect.
00:06:53.000And I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father.
00:06:59.000Because of all these moments that I shared just in the last few days, the books that I've read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and kissing them and hugging them before bed, I just realized that all of these moments that I get to have, Charlie is not able to have them anymore.
00:07:16.000And Charlie's kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore.
00:07:20.000And maybe the best way that I can contribute and the best way that I can honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be.
00:07:28.000To be the kind of husband to my wife that he was to his.
00:07:32.000You know, we talked all the time about the most important thing you could do is not vulgar.
00:07:37.000vote for a particular candidate it was to become if you were a young man a husband and a father he talked about the joy that came from fatherhood the joy that came from raising a family and being part of of their growth and their development and all the incredible things that happen when you get to be a husband and father and that is the way that I'm going to honor my friend is to be the very best at that most important job that I can be.
00:08:01.000But that's not the only way that I'm going to honor Charlie and there's going to be a lot of discussion over the next two hours of this radio program about what exactly that looks like it's important and Erica asked me this to make sure that his movement the movement that Charlie started has to keep going.
00:08:18.000We have to build upon it we have to add to it we have to make sure that the next generation of young people feels confident and courageous to speak their mind and to speak the truth we're going to talk about that.
00:08:29.000We're going to talk about why do we do this of course we do this so that we can enact good public policy and take back our country we're going to talk with senior officials in the administration about what we're trying to do to honor Charlie's legacy in that way.
00:08:42.000Of course we have to make sure that the killer is brought to justice and importantly we have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin's bullet,
00:09:01.000we're going to talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity, real unity that can only come when we tell the truth, and everybody knows that they can speak their mind about the issues of the day without being cut down by a murderer's gun.
00:09:16.000We're going to talk about all of those things with friends of Charlie, with people in the administration, with people that he knew.
00:09:22.000You know, on a podcast a couple of months back, Charlie was asked about how he'd want to be remembered if he died.
00:09:27.000His answer, I want to be remembered for courage for my faith.
00:09:32.000That would be the most important thing.
00:09:35.000The most important thing is my faith, and that was Charlie.
00:09:39.000And in this dark moment for our country, I think that's the greatest lesson any of us can take from Charlie to have faith, to have faith in the Lord and to be bold in how we glorify him.
00:09:52.000To be bold in our pursuits as Charlie was in his.
00:09:56.000So that's what we're going to spend a little bit of time doing this afternoon.
00:10:01.000Keeping this incredible show he created going and hearing from some of the people who were so fortunate to call Charlie a friend.
00:10:08.000We're going to pay tribute to his courageous legacy, and we're going to commit to keep it forever alive.
00:10:16.000Joining me now is Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, dear friend of mine, and dear friend of Charlie Kirk's.
00:10:23.000And uh before I get into the nitty-gritty of what I wanted to talk with Stephen about, you know, there's a lot of questions about the investigation, where we are in the investigation.
00:10:31.000I want to be respectful to the FBI's process, but just know that we are on top of this, and the entire administration is trying to do as much as possible to find everything that we can about what led to this, about how we got here, and of course, ultimately how an assassin took Charlie's life.
00:10:47.000I wanted to zoom out with Stephen a little bit and talk about all of the ways that we're trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream.
00:10:59.000And you know, before I do that, Stephen, I want to do this with every guest because you're a friend of Charlie's, and one of the things I'm hoping that people get out of this is an understanding for the kind of guy that Charlie was, who he was.
00:11:09.000And so before I talk to you about what we're doing to try to prevent something like this from happening again, maybe you could just talk about why you love Charlie, what memories you have of him, something that would give our audience a sense of what he was behind the microphone.
00:11:47.000He would, if I was working on a hard project, an important executive order, a major new initiative, he would give me the strength and the focus to get it done.
00:11:57.000He was everybody's um supporter, enthusiast, cheerleader, promoter.
00:12:33.000I mean, it just it really hurts to think about it right now.
00:12:36.000He was so excited about all of us being here.
00:12:39.000And we would be talking about every executive order, every new regulation, every new policy plan.
00:12:45.000I just, it was such a thrill for me to get to spend a few months of my life, because you know, he came from the nonprofit, the activist world.
00:12:55.000And in this transition to be able to work hand in hand, take all of his ideas from being the leader of TP USA, spending time with college students, spending time with activists, and then be able to be with us in the transition to plan out the next step of our government.
00:13:09.000That was an experience for which I will always be grateful.
00:13:11.000And the last thing I'll say is that to my earlier point, Charlie would send me messages all the time, just saying, you know, great work, or here's a new idea, or here's what I think will take this to the next level.
00:13:28.000He was he was our biggest supporter, Stephen, but he Was also if he disagreed, he would figure out how to get us to get where he wanted us to go.
00:13:36.000And he was always such a big cheerleader.
00:13:49.000A lot of people are very worried about how we got here in the first place.
00:13:53.000And you have the crazies on the far left who are saying, oh, Stephen Miller and JD Vance, they're gonna go after constitutionally protected speech.
00:14:09.000Violence is not okay in our system, and we want to make it less likely that that happens.
00:14:13.000Walk me through at a high level, like what you and I have been working on, what the whole administration has been working on to try to make sure that we don't reward and promote this craziness.
00:14:25.000I said this before, and uh, but it bears repeating.
00:14:29.000The last message that Charlie sent me was um, I think it was just the day before we lost him, which is that we need to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country.
00:14:42.000And I will write those words on to my heart and I will carry them out.
00:14:47.000People ask me, you know, what emotions I'm feeling right now, and this is something people say.
00:15:12.000And we are gonna channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.
00:15:23.000So let me explain a little bit what that means.
00:15:25.000So the organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people's addresses, combining that with messaging that's designed to trigger incite violence and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence.
00:15:43.000It is a vast domestic terror movement.
00:15:45.000And with the God as my witness, we are gonna use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.
00:15:58.000It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie's name.
00:16:01.000Joining me now, and I'm excited about this one, are a few guys who, like me, were lucky enough to call Charlie their friend.
00:16:07.000I have Taylor Budowicz, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Calen Doerr in the middle is the White House Deputy Communications Director, and Andrew Colvett is Charlie's longtime friend and the executive producer of this show.
00:16:20.000Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining me.
00:16:22.000Thanks for being a dear friend to Charlie.
00:16:24.000And I thought what I'd start with is you know, we all knew Charlie the man, not just Charlie, the personality or Charlie the celebrity or Charlie, the guy who did debates on college campuses.
00:16:35.000What's something that you wish people knew about Charlie that they don't if they just watched his clips on X or YouTube or wherever?
00:16:43.000So with Charlie, what you see is what you get, and I think that was true even for my first interactions with him on uh 2020 uh presidential campaign.
00:16:52.000We'd be do always be doing these fundraisers, Don Jr., Kimberly Gilfoil, who was the Trump victory finance chair, would host these big fundraising events.
00:17:01.000Charlie was always the first one to show up.
00:17:04.000Um, and we would do these team events where we make calls all day.
00:17:08.000And you'd always want Charlie on your team because the guy would get there first, make as many calls, and he was the best fundraiser that we had.
00:17:15.000But you know, we have the not just the privilege of being Charlie's friend, but seeing what he's built through Turning Point.
00:17:23.000And it became personal to me when my sister, who uh we're from California, um, and you know, has trying to find her way politically.
00:17:33.000And said, you know, I want to get involved, and we have the benefit of we can go to any event, any rally, any intimate setting.
00:17:39.000Um, and I said, you know what, there's uh the the young women's event that he hosts in in Dallas.
00:17:47.000And one of the reasons why Charlie's events, I think have been so successful, and why this organization has been so successful, is he makes makes these events approachable to the person that hasn't done politics before, hasn't been engaged, but is curious and thinks maybe something is going wrong with the country, maybe that there's a way to get involved.
00:18:09.000That's not the big rallies that that that's not, you know, standing in lines for a long time, but just and for my sister, it was for uh conference room of girls listening to Taylor Swift music during breaks and uh kind of having an approachable, but then also talking about life,
00:18:25.000talking about family, talking about, you know, at this event, you know, just relationships, and starting to build a path for young people that is both approachable but informed and and thoughtful.
00:18:40.000And so for me, it was it was an ability and an opportunity for me to share with my sister something that I get experienced all the time.
00:18:48.000And and I think it was something that she really appreciated, and I know millions of young people are appreciating, and by the looks of the signups, the sign-up's pretty good, and they're gonna appreciate it a lot more.
00:19:00.000So it sounds like there's been this blowout of interest in turning points you say in the mission.
00:19:05.000You know, one of the things I really hope is that this assassin didn't silence Charlie's movement, and I think that's the best way for us to honor him is to keep it going.
00:19:13.000You're one of the critical people at TPUSA.
00:19:15.000Tell us a little bit about Charlie, but also about what you've seen in the wake of Charlie's assassination.
00:19:20.000Um, you know, to put things in perspective, you know, there were, I guess, currently 900 official chapters of turning point on college campuses.
00:19:31.000And that's you know, when you get you get at about 900, 920, give or take, kids graduate, you gotta kind of rebuild a few chapters.
00:19:38.000That's about what you're gonna get to.
00:19:40.000And we have 1,200 uh high school chapters, which was our big new initiative.
00:19:44.000And we were really proud when we the high school chapters eclipsed the college chapters because we were known as the college.
00:19:50.000And so there's about 23,000 uh high schools in America, 23,000, 24,000.
00:20:16.000And Charlie goes, we're gonna have 35,000 high school chapters, and you know, he just threw out this big like stretch goal, you know, like and uh and you know, we're like, oh Charlie, the whole team's freaking out because that that's a that's a huge lift.
00:20:30.000And uh and he goes, We have they have to be on every every single high school campus.
00:20:34.000And then I I'm I'm sitting next to him, I look at it and I Google it, and it's like there's 23,000 uh high schools in America, Charlie.
00:20:44.000And then that you know, the team got him eventually to say, well, okay, the the big stretch goal is 10,000.
00:20:50.000And um, it was amazing because now I I tweeted out and it's it's I don't know, it's like 10 million views or something.
00:20:56.000It like I think it made people feel good because we now have uh 37,000 applications to start chapters around the country, and um, you know, it almost brings a tear to your eye because that moment is like we all remember all the whole team, we were all in a ballroom going through a presentation together, and he was adamant we are gonna be on every high school in America, and um he's gonna be proven right.
00:21:25.000Well, he was in a lot of ways, as you guys know, the ultimate cheerleader, and he saw in you things that you didn't necessarily see in yourself.
00:21:33.000And I I remember, you know, one one particularly difficult moment, probably the hardest moment on the campaign trail for me.
00:21:40.000We had an event in Arizona, I believe with a bunch of faith leaders, and it was it was the one time on the entire national campaign where I gave my chief of staff a hug and apologized to him because I was just at a you know, I hadn't seen the kids in seven days.
00:21:56.000I was particularly cranky, and I get to this event, I'm just kind of like, man, come on, we gotta do this again.
00:22:01.000And Charlie comes back and he gives me a hug.
00:22:03.000And he's like, you know, your kids, you know, they love you, and they're gonna realize eventually why this was so important to do this.
00:22:09.000And that kind of gave me this sense of all right, my head's back in the game.
00:22:13.000And that was what Charlie was always good at setting ridiculous objectives, but finding some way to motivate people to go after it, even though it was you know, it seemed unattainable until you got a little Charlie Kirk pep talk.
00:22:25.000Caitlin, what was your uh what's what's the thing you missed the most about Charlie?
00:22:29.000What do you What do you what do you think is the is the most difficult part of replacing the great Charlie Kirk?
00:22:34.000Well, I think you know, you mentioned him being everyone's best cheerleader.
00:22:38.000And I uh the last time I saw him, I have a lot of peace in my heart because I had a very good interaction with him, as we always do.
00:22:44.000Uh I was wandering the hallways of the E.O.B. and I must have had a horrible look on my face.
00:22:50.000And he literally, he he jumped down the stairs, he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, What's going on?
00:22:56.000I just mentioned, man, you know, my baby's six months old.
00:23:32.000I said, You and JD and everyone here in this building are part of the team.
00:23:37.000And uh I know that he would be very you know excited to see all the work that we have going on here in the administration, but also all the the testimonials.
00:23:46.000I mean, like, I don't know how the guy had the bandwidth.
00:23:48.000Like the the sheer volume of people whose lives he touched uh that we're just now discovering is is out of control.
00:23:55.000And I think, you know, growing up, we didn't have a turning point.
00:23:58.000We didn't have a Charlie, we didn't have these kind of people in our lives who who dedicated and put in the blood, sweat, and tears to go make sure that that this was a thing that existed for people like us.
00:24:08.000And um, you know, the the lasting message is that, and you know, I've I've I think I've said this at Turning Point Events before is that the left wins, the the enemy they win when when you feel alone, and when you feel like you're the only one who thinks, eats, prays, breathes, lives the way that you do.
00:24:25.000And Charlie was so great at at connecting those dots and connecting human beings.
00:24:31.000I mean, our friendships are all stronger because of him with one another, but people, I mean, like I've never met Andrew, but I know I've talked to him through Charlie for years.
00:24:41.000So I think it's our mission to go out there and embolden young conservatives, young Christians most importantly, to go out there and continue to do his work because it's exactly what he would want.
00:24:50.000He would want you to go find five people who don't believe in Jesus that day and and and give them you know a good a good lecturing and then and walk them through everything in a way that is respectful and is you know grounded in fact.
00:25:02.000And uh I don't know how we replace that, but I think the energy that I'm seeing amongst people uh it is just palpable.
00:25:10.000Yeah, Caitlin, there was this incredible hope at the core of Charlie's character that you could solve so many problems just by communicating with people.
00:25:19.000Like if he wanted to introduce somebody to God, he would just go and talk to him.
00:25:23.000If he wanted to introduce them to a new idea, he would just go and talk to them.
00:25:26.000And it's what makes this particularly tragic is that he was doing the very thing that he loved, the very thing that led him to inspire so many people, and that's when they tried to cut him down at his strongest doing the most important thing that he was doing for our country.
00:25:39.000I mean, Taylor, you mentioned his sister or your sister going to a turning points event.
00:25:44.000And the thing about Charlie, and this is again something I don't know that people fully appreciate unless you know him particularly well, is he was such a bright guy, right?
00:25:52.000He read theology and he read political philosophy, and he knew all these like crazy citations and you know, he knew like every Bible verse for every particular case, or he knew something that was written by some 15th century political philosopher.
00:26:03.000He's like, Charlie, where the hell did you get that from?
00:26:05.000It's like, oh, I just read a lot of books.
00:26:07.000But he could also deal with people at the level who didn't know anything about politics, who were curious, who loved their country, they wanted to make it better.
00:26:14.000Taylor, talk a little bit about that about because Taylor, those of you who don't know, is the lead in our communication shop here in the White House.
00:26:22.000He knows more about talking to people than pretty much anybody in the White House, or at least that's what you're supposed to know more than anything anybody else about.
00:26:28.000But like, talk about Charlie the communicator, because that's one of the things that made a movie was.
00:26:33.000And in that I'm gonna tie two things that they said together, because uh Calen's right, we didn't have a Charlie Kirk.
00:26:40.000Growing up, we had Barry Goldwater and Reagan, two guys that we barely were alive to to know or or overlap with.
00:26:52.000And you know, before Wednesday, Charlie Kirk was a young man inspiring young people.
00:27:01.000After he was killed, he has become a Titan whose inspiration will move through eternity, inspiring millions of people for decades to come.
00:27:13.000And he does it through both the understanding of biblical terms.
00:27:18.000I mean, I I I spent, I'm sure, like a lot of people this weekend, spent my weekend scrolling through old videos of Charlie, and one really really hit me with the story of Jesus uh meeting the prostitute, where he says, you know, though those without sin cast the first stone.
00:27:37.000And he Charlie points out everyone forgets what he says next, and he says to the uh prostitute, go on, sin no more.
00:27:45.000And Charlie understood both the compassion of the Bible, but the honesty and truth telling of the Bible.
00:27:52.000That is what I think has been missing in our political discourse that you don't have to be nasty.
00:27:58.000You can be compassionate, but you should tell the truth.
00:28:01.000And so the future of the political movement is going to be informed by young people, brave and courageous enough to tell the truth, but compassionate enough to understand the suffering of those around them.
00:28:16.000Gentlemen, thank you so much for sharing all those stories, for sharing your time, for talking about Charlie.
00:28:22.000Hello, everyone, Vice President JD Vance here.
00:28:24.000Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:28:26.000So I am moonlighting as a radio host today, of course, in honor of my dear friend Charlie.
00:28:33.000And uh, you know, I wanted to be like Marco Rubio.
00:28:35.000I wanted to add an extra job here as the radio host and vice president here in the West Wing here in the White House complex.
00:28:42.000But I have another person here who wears many hats and is one of the most gifted communicators I've ever seen, right up there with the great Charlie Kirk.
00:28:50.000I'm glad to be joined by Carolyn Levitt, our press secretary.
00:29:16.000So I was really raised within the MAGA movement and within the MAGA movement as a Gen Z conservative means you're very much a part of the turning point USA movement.
00:29:26.000And so my political education was not just through the rise of President Trump, but also the rise of Charlie Kirk.
00:29:33.000And watching him and listening to him, and I inquired about starting a turning point USA chapter on my college, St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where I went and where my political ambition and love of media and politics really began.
00:29:47.000And so just by watching Charlie from a distance was so inspiring to me as a young conservative woman.
00:29:54.000And then I got to know him personally when I decided to run for Congress, and he was a tremendous supporter and friend.
00:30:00.000So you literally communicate for a living.
00:30:03.000You're the person that speaks to the American people and the world on behalf of the White House every single day.
00:30:10.000Did you learn anything particular about the way that Charlie Kirk communicated with people?
00:30:15.000And what I always appreciated is that though he was very smart, and though you see all these clips of him owning people or of him getting the better of somebody in a debate, if you watched a full Charlie Kirk rally and all of the QA, and I was just talking with Andrew about this off-camera, 90% of it is Charlie being kind and being compassionate and offering moral support to people.
00:30:39.000What do you take from Charlie Kirk, the communicator?
00:30:42.000So many things just by watching him and by being around him.
00:30:46.000But I think most of all, standing firm in your convictions and picking a fight, especially when you know you have the facts and the truth on your side, but doing it with a smile.
00:30:56.000And that's something Charlie did so brilliant brilliantly and well.
00:30:59.000He would go to these campus reform events and he would say to the crowd, if you disagree with me, come to the front of the line.
00:31:06.000And I find myself doing that in the briefing room, you know, taking on the reporters, whom I know very much disagree with me and with the president.
00:31:14.000But as long as you believe in what you're saying and you have conviction in it and you have truth and the facts on your side, it makes it a lot easier to say it.
00:31:20.000And that's what Charlie did for a living.
00:31:23.000And I know he inspired me as a young voice for President Trump now, like you said, behind the White House podium.
00:31:30.000And you know, before every briefing, I always pray um to Jesus Christ.
00:31:35.000And Charlie was so outspoken with his faith, and I will continue to be in honor of him.
00:31:40.000But I'll also think of Charlie and just how brilliantly he was able to combat the la lies with facts and to do it with a smile.
00:31:49.000So, you know, I I always think of Charlie Kirk debating sometimes these kids on college campuses, and how the one part of your job that maybe would be harder if you went on college campuses is I think some of these college kids ask way better questions than the radicals do in the White House press briefing room.
00:32:06.000So that'd be like good good preparation for you in a lot of ways.
00:32:12.000Now you're you're kind of getting the JV level uh with your opponents here, but but you do such an incredible job.
00:32:18.000And you know, you were, of course, not just the White House press secretary, you were also the main spokesperson during the Trump campaign.
00:32:26.000And, you know, what what made I want to ask how important Charlie was to the victory, because there were so many events that we did with TPUSA where I would show up and they were incredible and the energy was off the charts.
00:32:38.000And Charlie would always tell me, whenever I went to Arizona, he'd say, Don't worry about Arizona, worry about Michigan, worry about Wisconsin, we've got Arizona.
00:32:46.000Talk just about how important Charlie was to our effort to win and make Donald Trump the president of the United States.
00:32:52.000Look, the president has said it himself.
00:32:54.000The president's massive gains with young Americans across the country was in no small part because of the efforts of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA.
00:33:03.000And our team on the campaign was constantly checking in with him and keeping him apprised of what the president was doing and saying because we needed his voice to relay that to his audience, which is made up of young people across the country.
00:33:16.000And the president spoke at many turning point events.
00:33:18.000He went into that lion's den at the invitation of Charlie to get his message across.
00:33:23.000And Charlie was incredibly supportive of non-traditional new media strategy that the president took.
00:33:28.000And, you know, the president loved Charlie deeply.
00:33:32.000You know that, uh, Mr. Vice President, and I know that.
00:33:35.000And I know he deeply um is hurt by this loss because um Charlie played an instrumental role in returning the president to the Oval Office.
00:33:44.000And I just love that clip from election night when Charlie realized President Trump had won.
00:33:48.000And he was speechless for one of the few times in his life.
00:33:54.000Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show.
00:33:56.000Joining me now is my friend and a close friend of Charlie, the great Tucker Carlson.
00:34:02.000Tucker, thank you so much for being here.
00:34:04.000You know, Tucker, I think you know this, and some of you know this because I wrote about it on x.com.
00:34:10.000But when x.com was Twitter, I did an interview with uh Tucker Carlson Tonight show on Fox News, and I got a message from a guy named Charlie Kirk that said, You did a great job.
00:34:22.000I really liked what you said, and let's keep in touch.
00:34:26.000And that began the start of my friendship with Charlie Kirk.
00:34:29.000That was the first time I had ever communicated with Charlie Kirk.
00:34:35.000You talked to him about a lot of issues, and I want to talk in in part about how to honor Charlie's legacy because I think that he modeled civil discourse within the right.
00:34:45.000He accepted there were big disagreements on all these issues, but he thought we were all in the same team, and we could debate this stuff, but actually have a drink at the end of the day and recognize that we were all trying to accomplish fundamentally the good of the country.
00:34:57.000So I want to talk a little bit about that.
00:34:58.000Before I get there, just tell me about your buddy Charlie Kirk.
00:35:03.000What did people who only know him from radio or TV not appreciate about what a good guy he was?
00:35:14.000And it, you know, sometimes isn't, especially uh in public figures who throw out Bible verses they don't understand and stuff like that.
00:35:21.000But in his case, not speaking to him in particular, but in his case, um it informed every single part of his life from his marriage to the way he treated his children to the way he treated his staff to the way he approached disagreement to the way he thought of other people, which was always primarily as people first.
00:35:37.000And that was, you know, he was much younger than I am, and I met him when he was a teenager.
00:35:42.000So I mean, he's literally the age of one of my children.
00:35:45.000So it's kind of hard to take him seriously at first.
00:35:49.000And over the years that I knew him, you know, more than 10 years, I ended up learning from him.
00:35:55.000And I'm not just saying this because he's past, I mean that sincerely.
00:35:57.000And the main thing that I learned from him was How to disagree with people on topics that you take very seriously and that they take very seriously without hating them or without feeling bitterness.
00:36:09.000I mean, he it wasn't, you know, people knew what was going on behind the scenes.
00:36:13.000You know, there was a lot going on behind the scenes, and it was intense.
00:36:17.000And it was bitter, and you know, because the divide, particularly on foreign policy questions, is very real in the Republican Party.
00:36:25.000The neocons versus the realists or whoever you want to describe it, he was on the realist side for sure.
00:36:30.000But he was mad at the people who disagreed with him.
00:36:32.000He liked them as people, he agreed with them on some things.
00:37:17.000He he treated everybody with respect and because he genuinely loved people and he genuinely wanted their salvation, he wanted them to have a relationship with God, he wanted them to know the truth.
00:37:27.000He always treated them with respect, maybe especially when he disagreed with them.
00:37:34.000That is one of the big divides on the American right now.
00:37:38.000And the thing that Charlie seemed to understand intuitively is that the coalition that made Donald Trump the president of the United States and J.D. Vance, the vice president of the United States, it included Tucker Carlson, but also Ben Shapiro.
00:37:53.000It included people who did disagree vociferously, but agreed on 70 or 80% of issues.
00:37:58.000And fundamentally, the question Charlie would ask is if you're a good faith person and you're trying to do right, then you are part of the big 10.
00:38:06.000And I think that's that's something that we have to try to model together because Charlie's no longer around to do it for us.
00:38:12.000And in one way in particular, I was very touched by this.
00:38:14.000I actually texted Mark about this because you know, you very generously have put out some donation link to help support Charlie's family.
00:38:22.000You know, Eric and the kids, most importantly, they're grieving the loss of a dear husband and father.
00:38:28.000But somebody, us, we're gonna have to step in and fill the gap to provide for them in a way that Charlie no longer can't because he was taken down by an assassin's bullet.
00:38:38.000You know who I saw, share that link was Mark Levin.
00:38:41.000And I thought it was a really good example of how Charlie was able to bring people together from across our movement so long as we were operating in good faith.
00:38:56.000And I, you know, I just I have to say, I think now is exactly the wrong time to appropriate the memory of someone and the and the emotion that comes with that, the really intense emotion that all of us feel at his murder, and use it for your own parochial ends.
00:39:11.000Like he stood for this, you know, and I think the reason that Charlie was able to bridge the gap, particularly in foreign policy, is because he had, for example, genuine affection for Israel, which he expressed to me in private many, many times.
00:39:43.000It's not about disliking me or some weird bigotry.
00:39:46.000Um, but I don't think it's helpful to for people to jump in, particularly foreign heads of state, to say, this is what you know, he lived for my cause or whatever.
00:39:58.000You don't help your own cause by doing that, and it's also literally untrue.
00:40:02.000So I just hope that we can continue in I'm not exaggerating, the spirit that he operated in, which is one of love for other people, including people we disagree with, and don't make it, you know, as smallbore as that.
00:40:43.000But it wasn't, hey, I don't understand this or I disagree with you, and therefore I'm going to blast you and assume that you're in bad faith.
00:40:55.000I supported you guys, and I'm going to use my platform to try to accomplish as much good as I possibly can.
00:41:02.000And I think that made him such an effective operator.
00:41:04.000And I would talk to Charlie and say, Charlie, well, look, here are the reasons why.
00:41:08.000And it was you've seen Tucker, we've ramped up deportation numbers.
00:41:12.000We have actually, there are a lot of people who are self-deporting because they don't want to be in the country knowing that eventually immigration enforcement will happen.
00:41:19.000But I think part of that success comes from people like Charlie applying pressure.
00:41:24.000Pressure as a friend, pressure as somebody who cares deeply about the issue.
00:41:28.000And that's true also, I know we have about 90 seconds left, but that's true about foreign policy.
00:41:32.000Like I remember Charlie calling me and saying, I'm really worried.
00:41:36.000And this is back in the summer when the Iran strikes were sort of first being contemplated.
00:41:42.000He said, I'm really worried this is going to become another regime change war in the Middle East that we get trapped in.
00:41:47.000And I said, Charlie, first of all, like have some gives have some faith here.
00:41:51.000The President of the United States is not a believer in perpetual war.
00:41:55.000He knows the mistakes of Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:42:13.000And I and again, I think he modeled a really good way of applying pressure of disagreeing when you do disagree, but also recognizing that so long as you're operating in good faith, we're all part of the team.
00:42:25.000And that's something I'm going to try to take from Charlie's legacy is not that we're always right, not that we can't take criticism, but that we all should try to work together.
00:42:34.000It did worry me, because I think your description is perfect.
00:42:37.000He's one of the very few who took that message and stood by it.
00:43:09.000Joining us now is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., our great health and human services secretary.
00:43:15.000Bobby, thank you so much for being here.
00:43:16.000And one of the things that I always took from Charlie was this idea that we needed to grow the coalition and expand the coalition.
00:43:23.000There's probably no person in the entire administration who better exemplifies that than you.
00:43:28.000One of the leading consumer advocates, health advocates that exist in our country, but until a few years ago, more aligned, given your name.
00:43:38.000You were a Zion of one of the great political families on the Democratic side in American history.
00:43:43.000But now you're one of the most important members of the administration in a Republican administration.
00:43:48.000Maybe talk, if you would, just a little bit about Charlie's approach to politics and how it ultimately made you uh one of the most important people in the federal government.
00:43:58.000Yeah, well, Charlie was uh probably the primary architect of my unification with President Trump.
00:44:06.000Um I actually announced my endorsement of President Trump at a turning point rally in Arizona, which was his idea.
00:44:14.000And he was for people who were there, remember it.
00:44:17.000There was all these kind of fireworks and sparklers on the stage when we shook hands, and that was all Charlie's uh uh orchestration.
00:44:28.000That was his idea, and he insisted on that.
00:44:31.000But I first met Charlie in July of 2021.
00:44:34.000I had just written a book about Anthony Fauci.
00:44:37.000And he had me on his show for this very, very wide-ranging interview on which he really let me talk a lot, which was unusual at that time because I was not allowed to talk on most outlets.
00:44:50.000And um I think both of us approach each other with some trepidation because we came from such different places.
00:44:59.000Uh by the end of that interview, I felt like I met a spiritual soulmate.
00:45:04.000And our friendship was comed after that, and even during the campaign when, you know, he was um strong disporting President Trump.
00:45:13.000He We always had a communication and outreach.
00:45:16.000And then after I made the endorsement, I saw him all the time.
00:45:20.000And he helped me a lot during the transition.
00:45:39.000So you know, I the thing that united us was his total commitment to free speech.
00:45:46.000And now it had been a theme of my campaign.
00:45:49.000I had been subject to censorship like so many other people during COVID and saw the threat that it was to our country, so that once they understood they could censor us.
00:46:00.000And Charlie and I talked about this that the founders put the freedom of speech in the First Amendment, because they knew all the other rights depended on it.
00:46:11.000If a government can silence its opponents, it has a license for any kind of atrocity.
00:46:17.000And, you know, as soon as they realized that we were going to put up with that, they went after freedom of assembly, which isn't the first amendment with social distancing regulations.
00:46:26.000They went after freedom of religion, closing all the churches in this country, which is extraordinary.
00:46:32.000I mean, it's extraordinary that we let get away with that.
00:46:35.000And by the way, they kept the liquor stores open as essential businesses.
00:46:41.000They went after the Fifth Amendment, they shut all of our businesses, 3.5 million businesses with no due process, no just compensation.
00:46:51.000They went after the Seventh Amendment right to jury trial.
00:46:55.000Seventh Amendment says no American shall be denied the right of a trial before a jury of his peers.
00:47:01.000In case there are controversies exceeding $25, there's no pandemic exception.
00:47:06.000And yet they were able to give these broad categories of industry these, you know, these exemptions from any litigation, no matter how much they hurt you.
00:47:16.000They went after the Fourth Amendment uh prohibitions against warmless searches and seizures by making us disclose our medical information.
00:47:25.000So the entire Constitution came under attack as soon as they realized that they could go after free speech.
00:47:31.000So talk to me just a little bit about Charlie's influence and actually politically getting you to be the HS secretary, because I remember he was such a strong advocate for you.
00:47:41.000He was so proud of the president and of you when the president nominated you.
00:47:45.000Obviously, like all of our big nominees, there was a tough confirmation fight.
00:47:49.000Just talk, give give us 50 seconds on how important he was to making you have the position and the title you have right now.
00:47:56.000Well, you know, uh, you know what the transition is like.
00:47:59.000You never kind of know what's gonna happen.
00:48:02.000And he was a critical ally for me in calling President Trump.
00:48:06.000And at first, you know, when President Trump asked me whether I wanted this job, I was tentative.
00:48:11.000I didn't know whether I wanted to handle the Medicaid and Medicare portion, which is the biggest, you know, economic BMF.
00:48:18.000And he really persuaded me that I should do it.
00:48:22.000And then he helped me not only making calls to the president himself, but telling me people that I should call operating strategically, but I'm keep talking about this piece of it.
00:48:36.000He was strategically brilliant, and he was a good political operator in a way that I think so many people don't realize.
00:48:42.000Yeah, he was uh I mean he was an empresario strategist.
00:48:49.000And he knew exactly, he did the same thing with Amarillas.
00:48:52.000He told her, make this phone call, make this phone call, make this one first, this one second.
00:50:09.000I I saw on, you know, one of the networks just now that there's this big revolt against the social media because of their contribution to the polarization that ultimately led to his death, this broughting up of hatred.
00:50:24.000Ironically, I think Charlie would revolt against that.
00:50:54.000And obviously it's it's awesome to hear from a friend who tells you that you did a great job, but he asked what I thought of Tim.
00:51:00.000And I said, honestly, you know, because you get in this sort of bunker mentality in the campaign, it's us as them.
00:51:05.000And I was like, honestly, even though I'm glad that I think I did well, and I certainly don't want this guy to become vice president.
00:51:12.000I actually kind of liked him afterwards after 90 minutes of talking with him, and Charlie said, that's why I do all these debates.
00:51:19.000It's like you can disagree vehemently with somebody, but if you're actually communicating with them, it's it's really hard not to appreciate at least a little bit as a human being.
00:51:29.000Even if you think they're 100% wrong on the issues, you can appreciate them a little bit as a human being, and that's what Charlie was so good at.
00:51:36.000So uh with all respect to you and all gratitude for being such a big part of his life the last couple of years.
00:51:47.000And joining us now is a very special guest, the White House chief of staff, the person the president of the United States calls the most powerful woman in the world.
00:51:55.000It always embarrasses her, which is why I have to say it every time I introduce her.
00:51:59.000Uh Susie Wiles, who is such a vital role of what we do in the White House every single day, such a vital role of the success of the 2024 campaign.
00:52:07.000Susie, I just want to say thanks so much for joining us here to honor Charlie here.
00:52:38.000And I remember talking, Charlie Kirk called me and he said, This thing to take down Susie is an op, meaning it's an operation meant to discredit us, meant to make us less effective.
00:52:48.000And the reason he thought it was so important to protect you is because he had such great respect for you.
00:52:53.000He thought you were such an incredible part of the team.
00:52:55.000You you were sort of the person that held all the chaos together operationally in the midst of that very intense campaign.
00:53:02.000And so Charlie was thinking, as he always did, a little ahead of the curve.
00:53:07.000He was asking himself, what are the problems that are out there so I can be two or three steps ahead.
00:53:12.000And he was fighting for you, maybe even before you realized that there was this thing against you.
00:53:18.000And it was never a situation where anybody ever doubted Susie Wiles, but I wonder sometimes if the reason why you had such good and strong support from the very beginning is because you had such a powerful voice in the Republican Party, standing with you every step of the way.
00:53:34.000So I just wanted to tell you that because it's one of the reasons why I admire and respect you.
00:53:38.000I know Charlie loved, admired, and respected you, but I've told my Charlie story.
00:53:42.000Maybe talk in those days of the campaign, what an important part Charlie was of our efforts and our ultimately successful efforts to install the boss in the Oval Office.
00:53:53.000Thank you, Mr. Vice President, and thank you for doing this.
00:54:21.000We had license to coordinate with everybody, and everybody came to the table, and everybody was going to canvas at this level with this sort of fidelity to our plan.
00:55:18.000And it's consistent, Susie, with this theme that I've been coming back to today, which is that Charlie was a brilliant order and communicator and debater.
00:55:26.000He would go to these college campuses and give them the courage to speak to build friendships with with fellow conservatives and Republicans.
00:55:34.000But everybody knows that because everybody saw it.
00:55:36.000What they didn't see necessarily is that Charlie was this very effective strategic operator at all levels of politics.
00:55:44.000And you know, one of the things that the president always talks about is that compared to really not just his campaign in 2016, but any Republican campaign for the past 40 years, we saw young voters shift in every county, in every demographic, white, black, rich or poor, young voters shifted right in 2024 in this very profound way.
00:56:08.000Can you talk a little bit about what Charlie did to make that happen and why this youth movement that he really built, I mean, he was a kid when he started Turning Points USA, how this youth movement, without any of us probably being able to prophesize or predict it, ended up helping us deliver the White House in 2024.
00:56:28.000Well, I I explained the tactical benefit.
00:56:30.000Um we never thought again about Arizona or Pennsylvania.
00:56:36.000And as for the youth vote, I mean, he was he evangelized.
00:56:40.000He was on every college campus in every part of the country, and he was broader than that.
00:56:45.000A turning point event was something you had to be at, had to pay attention to.
00:56:53.000And I struck by you had Secretary Kennedy on uh just a minute ago, and Charlie was instrumental, very in Secretary Kennedy coming to the ticket, and you too.
00:57:07.000And that's one of the things that, you know, I'm sitting in this office here in the West Wing or White House complex, and if it weren't for Charlie Kirk, I would not be the vice president of the United States.
00:57:21.000I thought about that a lot of the last few days.
00:57:23.000I mean, other than the president himself, Charlie was maybe the most important person in both getting us across the finish line, but actually getting me the nomination to begin with.
00:57:33.000It was his grassroots army, it was his advocacy that I think made me a critical, a credible selection for VP in the first place.
00:57:40.000And obviously, the president makes the final determination, but it takes a team.
00:57:45.000And Charlie was such an incredibly important part of that team.
00:57:48.000It's one of the reasons why I feel so indebted to him.
00:57:51.000And one of the reasons, I mean, I I worry, Susie, that he is fundamentally just an irreplaceable figure.
00:57:58.000There's no way that we can replace Charlie.
00:58:01.000certainly not for Erica and the beautiful kids they're never going to get back what the assassin's gun took away from them but But they the movement has to figure out a way of continuing and continuing to build on what he built and continuing to go to college campuses and talk to young people.
00:58:20.000And and not just that, but when we won power, Charlie was a critical part of getting us the right people of staff.
00:58:30.000Because other than the president of the United States, the chief of staff is probably the most important person in the transition, picking cabinet secretaries, picking all these important staffers.
00:58:38.000Talk about why Charlie mattered so much and not just helping us get there, but helping us succeed now that we're here.
00:58:45.000I think he worked in transition every day.
00:58:48.000In one place or another, doing one thing or another.
00:58:51.000And so very much the Trump administration has his imprint.
00:58:56.000My worry about turning point, and I couldn't agree with you more.
00:58:59.000It has to be bigger and better and growing all the time, is one of Charlie's gifts was not talking at you, but engaging you where you were.
00:59:15.000So whoever, I can't say takes Charlie's place because that will be nobody.
00:59:20.000But whoever comes in to be sort of a voice of turning point, they need to be somebody that's willing to engage at a level where you're not talking to the followers.
00:59:29.000You're talking to the people that are not and engaging them where they are.
00:59:33.000That's going to be the hardest thing, I think, to replace.
00:59:38.000And I've I've talked to a lot of the turning point staff.
00:59:41.000And what they tell me is operationally, organizationally, Charlie had built a machine.
00:59:46.000I mean, some of these people have been working with Charlie since he was literally a teenager, and he trusted them.
00:59:51.000Where I think he is genuinely irreplaceable is for lack of a better word, on the talent side of it, right?
00:59:57.000How do you find a person who goes into these places who takes very difficult questions, sometimes very hostile questions, and to your point is actually engaging with them, is not talking at them.
01:00:08.000Now there are all these social media clips, and I was talking about this earlier, so forgive the audience, forgive me for repeating myself.
01:00:14.000But he was not just the super viral clips of him getting the better of a person in a debate.
01:00:22.000If you sit down and watch a Charlie Kirk event at one of these universities, it is 90% him almost acting like a big brother to these kids.
01:00:30.000If it's a young conservative who's very nervous about the crowd and nervous about asking a question, Charlie steps up and says, Don't be nervous.
01:00:42.000If there was a young progressive who is getting jeered by some of the people in the audience, he said, no, no, no, guys, let her speak, let him speak.
01:00:50.000This is part of open debate, is they get to hear from us, and we get to hear from them.
01:00:54.000And I thought that was just such an incredible thing that he did.
01:00:57.000I mean, I've talked to a number of friends, I've talked to, you know, Tucker, I've talked to Laura Ingram, I've talked to a number of people about how we can try to replace that part of it.
01:01:10.000Charlie is irreplaceable, but we can at least have a team of people try to step into the gap and make sure that we're carrying this message to college campus because if we don't do that, I think that's the way in which I worry about the assassin winning.
01:01:25.000Is we've got to carry on the mantle, we've got to carry on the torch, and we've got to do it by continuing the message, continuing.
01:01:52.000And this is where I want to talk about Bobby.
01:01:54.000And you know, so many of the really good nominees that we had, they weren't easy to get across the finish line.
01:01:59.000And that's no insult to our great nominees.
01:02:02.000Great people are actually always going to be a little bit harder.
01:02:04.000If it's a you know a person who doesn't make any controversy, who doesn't say anything especially controversial, that person's gonna be easy.
01:02:11.000It's but the president didn't want that.
01:02:13.000He wanted to staff the administration with people who had interesting things to say, who brought unique perspectives, and that meant that we were gonna have some tough confirmation fights.
01:02:22.000Maybe talk a little bit about the role that Charlie played on the inside, on the outside, and making sure that all of these great nominations that we had actually got across the finish line in a town where we've got 53 GOP senators and we could only lose three for any particular nomination.
01:02:41.000Well, I would say you and Charlie were a good tag team.
01:02:43.000We were let's take Bobby or Pete, for example.
01:02:47.000The president really didn't want uh, you know, a homogenized cabinet.
01:02:51.000He wanted different people that were for whatever reason a part of a movement that we need to we need to keep keep.
01:02:59.000There were interest groups, there were coalitions and and people that came to be Trump voters.
01:03:05.000Um we don't have an exact number, but it was certainly more than a few.
01:03:10.000And now we have three and a half years to convert Trump voters to being Republicans So that in 2028, we can keep the White House, the House, and the Senate.
01:03:20.000That's what Charlie helped us think through.
01:03:22.000I'll speak for myself, that's what Charlie helped me think through.
01:03:26.000Yes, his expertise was with young people, but he he knew so much about everything.
01:03:32.000And he knew that there was this group of people we now call Maha that were out there looking for a home.
01:03:38.000He found Bobby and introduced Bobby into our world.
01:03:46.000So that's the kind of thinking that we saw Charlie all the time do.
01:03:52.000And I I think that the movement cannot be, or he cannot be replaced by any one person.
01:03:58.000He's got to be replaced by you, by Don Trump, by so many others that can that are good communicators and can be taking as well as giving.
01:04:10.000You heard it from the White House Chief of Staff.
01:04:11.000It's up to all of us, including those in the audience to keep on the legacy of Charlie Kirk.
01:04:16.000Shortly after Usha and I left Charlie's family and Charlie's remains in Arizona, I wrote a story in the Nation magazine about my dear friend Charlie Kirk.
01:04:28.000Now, The Nation isn't a fringe blog, it's a well-funded, well-respected magazine whose publishing history goes back to the American Civil War.
01:04:39.000George Soros's Open Society Foundation funds this magazine, as does the Ford Foundation and many other wealthy titans of the American Progressive Movement.
01:04:50.000The writer accuses Charlie of saying, and I quote, black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously.
01:04:59.000But if you go and watch the clip, the very clip she links to, you realize he never said anything like that.
01:06:10.000But I was struck not just by the dishonesty of this smear, but by the glee over a young husband's and young father's death.
01:06:19.000Quote, she says, he was an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist.
01:06:28.000The nation wrote, who often rapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct.
01:06:38.000He had children, as do many vile people.
01:06:41.000That's what they said he had children, as do many vile people.
01:06:46.000Now, hours before this smear was published, my wife and I had the honor of escorting Charlie's body back to his home in Arizona.
01:06:55.000We took his wife, Erica, we love you, his parents, his sister, and a few of his best friends with us.
01:07:03.000And as they offloaded Charlie's casket from Air Force II, I worried that Erica would collapse with grief.
01:07:11.000Now I'm a very lucky husband to a very wonderful wife, but I have never been prouder of my wife than that moment as she held Erica and Erica's very darkest hour.
01:07:22.000And I thought of Erica as I read that disgusting attack on Charlie.
01:07:27.000He had children, as do many vile People.
01:07:36.000Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
01:07:45.000And I asked Usha what Erica had said to her earlier in the day in a private moment, and I asked Erica's permission to share this.
01:07:54.000My wife told me, she asked me for advice.
01:08:01.000Erica asked me for advice on how she should tell her children that their father had been murdered.
01:08:08.000She asked my wife how to tell her beautiful kids that their father and my dear very dear friend is no longer with us.
01:08:19.000And as she was doing it, there were people dancing on that father's grave.
01:08:25.000Now I have heard many calls in the last few days for unity and for healing in the wake of Charlie's assassination.
01:08:33.000You have no idea how desperately I want that, how gratified I was when Democratic friends and even former Senate colleagues reached out to offer their condolences to me.
01:08:46.000And I know there are so many like them all across our great country.
01:08:52.000i am desperate to wrap my arms around them as we all unite to condemn political violence and the ideas that cause it psalm 133 tells us behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity It is like the precious ointment upon the head.
01:09:14.000Oh, how badly have I craved that precious ointment in recent days, and I believe we can have it.
01:09:21.000But first, first we must tell the truth.
01:09:28.000For what was he, if not a man who told the truth in every place in every environment.
01:09:35.000Now the most important truth Charlie told is this that long ago a man, begotten, not made, came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
01:09:50.000For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day.
01:09:58.000Charlie believed, as I do, that all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle.
01:10:08.000I really do believe that we can come together in this country.
01:10:16.000But unity, real unity, can be found only after climbing the mountain of truth.
01:10:23.000And there are difficult truths we must confront in our country.
01:10:28.000One truth is that 24% of self-described, quote, very liberals believe it is acceptable to be happy about the death of a political opponent, while only 3% of self-described very conservatives agree.
01:10:47.000Another truth is that 26% of young liberals believe political violence is sometimes justified, and only 7% of young conservatives say the same, again, too high a number.
01:11:01.000In a country of 330 million people, you can of course find one person of a given political persuasion justifying this or that or almost anything.
01:11:21.000If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told.
01:11:30.000That problem has terrible consequences.
01:11:34.000The leader of our party, Donald J. Trump, escaped an assassin's bullet by less than an inch.
01:11:40.000Our House Majority Lever, Stephen Scalice, came within seconds of death by an assassin himself.
01:11:47.000And now the most influential conservative activist in generations, our friend Charlie, has been murdered.
01:11:55.000This violence, it doesn't come from nowhere.
01:11:59.000Now any Political movement, violent or not violent, is a collection of forces.
01:12:03.000It's like a pyramid that stacks on top, one support on top of the other.
01:12:09.000That pyramid's got a foundation of donors, of activists, of journalists, now of social media influencers, and of course of politicians.
01:12:18.000Not every member of that pyramid would commit a murder.
01:12:21.000In fact, over 99%, I'm sure would not.
01:12:24.000But by celebrating that murder, apologizing for it, and emphasizing not Charlie's innocence, but the fact that he said things some didn't like, even to the point of lying about what he actually said, many of these people are creating an environment where things like this are inevitably going to happen.
01:12:43.000A couple of months ago, I had land a fundraiser in Southern California, and since you know we'd be out there anyways, my wife and I decided to take our kids to Disneyland one weekend.
01:12:53.000We had fun, and to be clear, most of the guests said very nice things, or they just left us alone.
01:12:58.000But there was a loud and very cool minority that would shout at my children, who are eight, five, and three whenever they got the opportunity.
01:13:07.000You should disown your dad, you little s one middle-aged woman yelled at my five-year-old.
01:13:13.000Tell the Secret Service to protect the Constitution, not your father, screamed another.
01:13:22.000And while our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left.
01:13:34.000After Charlie died, one of his friends and one of our senior White House staffers had left-leaning operatives in his neighborhood passing out leaflets telling people what he looked like and where he lived, encouraging neighbors to harass him or God forbid to do worse.
01:13:52.000While he was mourning, his dead friend, he and his wife had to worry about the political terrorists drawing a big target on the home he shares with his young children.
01:14:12.000We can thank God that most Democrats don't share these attitudes, and I do, while acknowledging that something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe, a minority but a growing and powerful minority on the far left.
01:14:30.000There is no unity with people who scream at children over their parents' politics.
01:14:35.000There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder.
01:14:41.000There is no unity with someone who harasses an innocent family the day after the father of that family lost a dear friend.
01:14:49.000There is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk's assassination.
01:14:54.000And there is no unity with the people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers who argue that Charlie Kirk, a loving husband and father, deserved a shot to the neck because he spoke words with which they disagree.
01:15:12.000Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups who funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie's death, do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment?
01:15:24.000They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer, and how do they reward us?
01:15:31.000By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.
01:15:37.000I am desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the actions and the ideas that killed my friend.
01:15:44.000I want it so badly that I will tell you a difficult truth.
01:15:49.000We can only have it with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable, and when we work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country.
01:16:03.000Now our government, you heard me talk to Stephen Miller about this, will be working very hard to do exactly that in the months to come.
01:16:11.000We're not always going to get it right.
01:16:13.000We will sometimes move more slowly than you would like.
01:16:15.000We will sometimes move more slowly than I want us to.
01:16:19.000But I promise you that we will explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don't like what they say.