Jack Posobiec remembers Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative firebrand and cultural icon, who was killed in an act of leftist political violence. Jack and his wife, Erica, remember Charlie as a hero and hero's hero.
00:10:59.420And so we do the best we can and, and...
00:11:09.420Well, you know, the thing with Charlie, too, is I remember when even when you and I were chatting or, you know, some of the gang was chatting last night, there wasn't even a question of would we have a show today?
00:11:22.020There wasn't even a question of, you know, would Turning Point keep moving forward?
00:11:28.080There wasn't a question of that because, because that's who Charlie was.
00:11:32.040And I remember, you know, I remember we were saying, should I, should I, you know, come up and do shows?
00:11:39.920And I could hear Charlie's voice in my head.
00:11:42.120And he would always say to me, he said, because whenever I would go to him with, with a question and say, Charlie, I've got a, you know, a choice I have to make.
00:12:05.260We all had the same thought at the same time that we all know that when, when something big is going on, when something big is, is happening, Charlie Kirk would be like, let's get in there.
00:12:19.680Let's go live stream it, get it up, make sure we get the rumble live, make sure it's all going.
00:12:25.000And we've got everybody in freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com.
00:14:59.380He wanted so badly just to keep growing and be infinitely curious and getting better so he could articulate his ideas better to the next generation.
00:15:08.600So that he could go out to these campus events and be more equipped and ready no matter what the question was.
00:15:15.060And he ultimately put that same sort of energy into his family and into his marriage.
00:15:20.760And he wanted to be the best husband he could be.
00:15:22.380And he wanted to be the best father he could be.
00:15:24.580And he knew that the demands on his time were extraordinary, that they were superhuman.
00:15:28.600And so he threw himself into biohacking and how he could get the most out of his body and how he could sleep the deepest and how he could keep his energy the highest.
00:15:40.280We should actually talk about the biohacking because I actually don't think that people know that about Charlie.
00:15:47.560And he would probably appreciate if we shared it because he was actually a huge – as much of an evangelist as he was for Jesus, he was also an evangelist for biohacking.
00:15:55.580In fact, if you talk to him long enough, he would say that they're connected.
00:16:28.580He felt he could get the most out of his body if he got proper sleep.
00:16:32.400And so he was religious about how much sleep he got because he noticed that that kept him high, kept his retention high.
00:16:39.700And he did that also – and this is kind of the final point – that he did that because he knew that the demands on him were so extraordinary that if he was going to go home and be with his family and his kids,
00:17:34.480But, you know, Andrew, before we go, there is something that just broke right before we came into the segment here,
00:17:43.680and I think it would be – we'd be remiss to miss it regarding this situation that, of course, everyone's looking into.
00:17:50.040I do want to cover this, though, because it is breaking news.
00:17:52.460The FBI has released images of who they believe is a person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
00:18:04.480They put out a tip line, 1-800-CALL-FBI.
00:18:43.900If you were – even if you didn't see that person, okay, if you were at that event yesterday – and, Andrew, I certainly hope, you know, if the team's available or has footage that they haven't yet turned over to the FBI, scroll through your phone.
00:19:00.980Just see if you can find this person, these glasses, this hat, this logo anywhere in the crowd because that is – and they could throw that back up again real quick – because that is going to be a way to potentially determine if he was talking to anyone, what he was up to, what direction he went in, any of those things.
00:19:20.980So if you were there or if you just recognize him from this, please go ahead and share that out with the FBI.
00:20:47.020I'm very honored that we are now joined by someone who knew Charlie very well.
00:20:51.320It is the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
00:20:54.280Mr. Speaker, thank you so much for joining on this today.
00:20:56.860And although I just have to say for myself, and I'm sure you as well, I would much rather be talking to you about literally any other subject.
00:21:03.140Of course, Jack, you're doing a great job with an impossible assignment today.
00:21:09.260I mean, I should have wondered last night who would be in the chair today because the nation needs to hear what you're sharing and what we're all sharing.
00:21:19.420I can tell you it has changed the atmosphere of Capitol Hill.
00:21:22.460It began immediately after this event.
00:21:24.440I was I was in a high level meeting and my chief of staff burst in the door and handed me a card and said, Charlie Kirk has been shot.
00:22:12.100I don't think anyone can argue Charlie Kirk contributed more productive content, the free marketplace of ideas than anyone in his generation and arguably in several generations.
00:22:22.840I mean, he just was that kind of figure and he's irreplaceable.
00:22:27.380But I'm comforted to know, Jack, that his his legacy will continue because what he did and what he started will go on.
00:22:34.440And I hope it inspires in the hearts of everybody who followed and loved him and believed in him and prayed for him.
00:22:39.760And that same spirit that Charlie carried, you know, to not give in, to stand for freedom, stand for the truth and love the people on the other side of the argument.
00:22:50.880You know, and I was saying this, we were on last night and, you know, when you would go to these events with Charlie, he would he would actually say, if you disagree with me, come to the front of the line.
00:23:18.220He would he would try to connect with the person, find out what made them tick, find out who they were at their core and then start there.
00:23:27.020And you've never seen anyone do it like that before.
00:23:29.580Yeah, he was so talented because he had that that gift.
00:23:33.700It's a gift from from God, a gift from the Lord to be able to go to the heart of the matter and the heart of the person, because he what Charlie was motivated by, you and I both know I knew him so well.
00:23:43.860And he was a man of deep faith as I am.
00:23:46.140And we talked about this a lot, that the objective is not just when the argument, the objective is to move the heart.
00:23:59.860He could he could argue any issue better than anybody, better than most people on Capitol Hill or could ever hope to.
00:24:05.860And he could talk about public policy or issues that were pending.
00:24:09.600He was he was a master of his of his of his science in that regard, political science and all of that.
00:24:16.060But really what it was really about was not winning the temporal argument or that particular issue is about the permanent things, the eternal things, the scripture says.
00:24:24.920Yes. The apostle Paul said we don't focus on the temporal.
00:24:27.220We focus on the eternal. And that's what Charlie was about, because he was trying to be an ambassador for the king of kings.
00:24:33.080He was trying to be an ambassador for his savior, Jesus.
00:24:37.440And so, you know, what I love about Charlie and I said this to a big gaggle of reporters here this morning because they're following me around.
00:24:42.880They want me to just give comment at every turn about this and because they know I knew him well and loved him.
00:24:50.940But this is what I said about Charlie is I said, you know, the thing about it was he was the sharpest wit.
00:24:56.080He could argue and win any debate, but he never held it personally against the person on the other side, no matter how far to the other end of the spectrum they were.
00:25:04.440In fact, the further they were, the more compassion he had for their heart, because he he he believed that he was ultimately trying to lead people to the truth that we know, the eternal truth.
00:25:13.020Right. And so what Christ taught us is that it says in Romans 12 that you stand strong, you you you be courageous and bold and you you stand firm and you act like men, it says, which Charlie was a man's man.
00:25:25.980But do let all that you do be done in love.
00:25:30.040That's what Scripture says. And that's what Charlie was about.
00:25:32.880And he was motivated by his love for his fellow man.
00:25:35.120He didn't hate anybody. He was trying to win him over the argument because he knew that would be better for them in the long run.
00:25:40.400And that's what we appreciated about him so much.
00:25:44.160And we opened the show with that. And I said, greater love hath no man than this.
00:25:48.820He gives himself give his life for his friends.
00:25:50.780And and I'm sure speaker, I'm sure you're on Charlie's list as well, because you could always tell what Charlie what what Charlie was focusing on in the Bible, because he would he would pull a quote every morning and he would just text it to his whole list of people individually.
00:26:04.100I said, how are you doing this, Charlie? And I would see him doing it sometimes if we were together and he and it wasn't just, you know, some, you know, ephemeral thing where he's, you know, pulling it from one of those verses of the day or, you know, different things.
00:26:16.640And it was fine. But no, this was deep study. And he pulled those verses for a specific reason.
00:26:23.460And in a strange way. When I woke up this morning and I didn't get that text from Charlie.
00:26:31.820It's almost like that's when it hit me. Yeah, because he always does that every single day.
00:26:38.120But every single day and today didn't. Yeah, it leaves a big void, not just in the text chain.
00:26:46.640But in our society, there were more than twenty five hundred chapters, turning point chapters on university campuses around the country.
00:26:55.020I mean, it's just an unequaled movement that he began and grew and stewarded as a great steward, by the way, of the platform that God gave him.
00:27:05.060You know, he was faithful in the little things and then God trusted him with more and more.
00:27:09.540He had one of the biggest voices in the culture and he and he knew the responsibility that came with that.
00:27:14.340And he was very careful with it. And that's why he was so deep in the scripture and in prayer, because he wanted to make sure that he he carried that mantle well.
00:27:24.900And he did. You know, we know where he is right now. I'm absolutely convinced where he is.
00:27:29.440And he's hearing that great, that great call. Well done, good and faithful servant. Right.
00:27:35.400But the people that are behind. Mr. Speaker, we're coming up.
00:27:39.600We're coming up on a quick break here. Are you able to hang out for a couple more minutes on the other side?
00:27:46.180All right. We'll hold Speaker Johnson for just a little bit more on Charlie Kirk Memorial Show.
00:27:51.800There's a flag at half mass in front of the White House for our friend, Charlie.
00:28:04.160Folks, we're back. Jack Posobiec. This is the Charlie Kirk Memorial Show.
00:28:08.480You're looking at the Stars and Stripes half mass there.
00:28:12.340Leave us the north lawn of the White House that you're looking at.
00:28:15.240And today we are holding a memorial for Charlie.
00:31:09.960And all that is to say that, you know, there's an appropriate level of memorialization of this great life that is, you know, not suited for most.
00:31:18.380And we've got to sort that out and figure it out, and that's what we'll be doing in the next couple of days.
00:35:15.540So when you look at the revolutionary generation, they were the exact same age as Charlie and the age of the people that he's trying to reach.
00:35:25.520And even the next generation, I want to bring on Tyler Boyer here, the COO of Turning Point Action and just Charlie's right-hand man in so many things.
00:35:34.180And Tyler, as a student of history as you are, you know, had it ever occurred to you that, you know, that's the exact age Charlie was?
00:35:43.540Well, first off, Jack, I just want to say this is thank you for taking taking on the the job of standing up for Charlie's show today.
00:35:54.300He wouldn't have wanted it any other way than, you know, his partner in crime in which you've been his his his right hand guy and doing so much media on real America's voice and on radio and everything else.
00:36:07.840So thank you for that. But yeah, I mean, I look at the group, you know, that picture just came up of the four or five of us, you know, Andrew, who I think was on earlier yourself, me, Charlie, like we have some young guys like when I got got involved with Charlie, I'm eight years older than him.
00:36:25.780And I was in my mid 20s. Yeah, when I when I was getting involved with Turning Point and with Charlie and starting to take, you know, that bull by the horns.
00:36:35.820Charlie was a teenager. So, you know, we now we we feel old, you know, and we're we're on the precipice here because you me, I think Benny Johnson and Andrew are all basically the same age.
00:36:51.080And we're a little bit older than Charlie, about seven or eight years older than each of us.
00:36:55.860And but, you know, we're all under the age of 40, clearly, and have been doing this work for the last 10 to 15 years.
00:37:02.740Charlie's legacy is that he was the young guy in that group when you make the comparison to that.
00:37:09.780But he was the leader. And the thing that we've reflected on this entire time for the last 24 hours in particular is Charlie has always been a leader amongst men.
00:37:24.380And I remember meeting him again in my 20s. And he was basically just coming out of his teenage years.
00:37:31.620And I just thought to myself, I was like, oh, my gosh, this guy's like an 85 year old trapped in a 20 year old body.
00:37:39.880But he was like that. He was like that Lincoln ask, you know, Ben Franklin ask, you know, the way you read it in the textbook as a wise person.
00:37:50.140That's the kind of I know everybody's listening, but listens to the show.
00:37:54.520He said that sense. He had that sense that came from somewhere else.
00:37:58.160Tyler, we're up on a hard break. Just just hold that.
00:38:01.080We'll we'll we'll bring you over because I know exactly what you're talking about.
00:38:04.700And that's what I want to do here today. I want to talk about who Charlie the person was, the Charlie that beyond the cameras and screens and tick tocks and debates and everything else, the man that Charlie was a friend, our fallen friend.
00:38:34.700Jack, we're back here. Just I would I would rather be talking about anything else today, anything else under the sun.
00:38:45.020But we're here because I know this is what Charlie would have wanted.
00:38:50.080And I know that. For once, Charlie Kirk is in the audience right now and Charlie Kirk is watching all of us.
00:38:57.800I said in the beginning of the show, I'll say it here again.
00:39:01.360I know what Charlie's message would be to everyone asking, what do I do next?
00:39:08.100What do I do next? It's very simple. Charlie would say, it's your turn now.
00:39:14.840I want to bring back on Tyler Boyer, you know, one of one of Charlie's closest closest associates.
00:39:22.100And Tyler, you know, we were we were just kind of talking about that, about how, you know, personally, as as many things that Charlie was interested in and involved in, even nonpolitical things.
00:39:33.380Andrew and I were talking about the biohacking, you know, earlier that that he was just fascinated with that and lived it theology that that he was a simple.
00:39:43.000He was he had this tenacity and this ability to make the complex simple and just in so many realms outside of the things that you see or that you know him for.
00:39:54.580That's that's just who he was, no matter what he was doing.
00:39:58.320Yeah, you know, and that's really the legacy of Turning Point USA.
00:40:01.660I mean, we talked about this all the time.
00:40:03.280And, you know, most people don't really connect the dots on this.
00:40:07.780But when we we came onto the scene and really Charlie started Turning Point USA, there were no battle tanks.
00:40:18.120And we used to talk about this this point, which is, you know, there's all these think tanks out there making things really hard to reach for the average American.
00:40:27.860A little bit overcomplicated, a little bit over convoluted, and there just weren't enough battle tanks of people going out and fighting the good fight or just as you said, is making the really smart things, the complex things simple so that the average American could understand them, that the average American would want to understand them, that they would want to engage them.
00:40:52.520And this is the whole thing is like, this is what Charlie died doing was this very issue.
00:40:58.960I mean, you listen to Charlie and you and I both know Charlie better than just about anybody.
00:41:03.600You know, Andrew, who was on earlier, and there's a number of us in our senior team at Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action.
00:41:19.380But he spoke and broke things down so simply and so easily so that everybody could really approach it.
00:41:28.500And that's what's made politics approachable.
00:41:30.760That's what I think has got so many young people through Turning Point USA involved.
00:41:36.380That's what's got so many young men being able to embrace the qualities of what the Christianity that Charlie professed.
00:41:48.320And that's what he would want everybody to know him by.
00:41:52.060But his activism as well, being a dad and being a husband, those things are not complex things.
00:42:01.480But the world is complicated and the challenges are complicated.
00:42:06.140But the application of those things is really simple.
00:42:10.020And I think that's the memorial that we'll have for Charlie forever.
00:42:13.700And I hope that my dear friend that I have known for so long, since essentially the beginning of time, I was joking with Benny Johnson earlier today that we had to convince Charlie to start his Instagram.
00:42:27.720And you wouldn't believe that knowing Charlie today of how Speaker Johnson just said he dominated all these mediums.
00:42:37.040Rush Limbaugh didn't dominate social media or have a full 501C3 or C4 and employ thousands of people.
00:44:02.020And, and I, I, I, I always got the sense.
00:44:04.460I never, never really talked to him about this directly,
00:44:07.080but I always got the sense that he wanted turning point USA to be separate from him in the sense that it would always go on
00:44:16.080because it was always about the students.
00:44:17.640It was always about the chapters and the chapters were constantly changing.
00:44:22.020And, and what, what does that look like from your perspective?
00:44:25.740Well, and we talked about that all the time, you know, having the honor of being COO of turning point USA for many years
00:44:34.960and now turning point action and, and having, you know, hired and worked with thousands and thousands of people.
00:44:43.460Uh, the greatest legacy that Charlie Kirk has is that he infused his energy, his resilience, his, uh, constant need for improvement for the conservative movement.
00:44:57.820Because when we, uh, really start engaging on many of these things, you know, the, the question was, was, wow, why doesn't the conservative movement have good enough events?
00:45:07.220Why, why aren't we attracting enough people?
00:45:19.200Why is there no 501 C for a political operation that's out there actually, you know, doing it the way that the left does it with community organizers.
00:45:26.980And we got to do a bigger and better and, and just each and every one of those things.
00:45:31.000And that's not even touching all the individual unique things on the media front, the podcast front, the, uh, you know, Tik TOK obviously is the second.
00:45:38.560The second largest voice on Tik TOK next to Donald Trump this year.
00:45:42.700And I mean, you're just talking about a monster of a human being irreplicable that desire to fight and work.
00:45:52.480And, you know, I was just talking about this as well.
00:45:56.160It's just like, we, you know, one of the quotes was, you know, don't care, keep working, don't care, work harder.
00:46:01.040Uh, you know, we talked about hating to lose, you know, how devastating the 2020 election was and how, how horrified we were to learn that there wasn't enough work being done on the political side, which, which caused turning point action to really, you know, kick into gear, you know, really following in the lead up to 2022 and following 2022 for 2024.
00:46:24.400I mean, that was the, really the first time anyone's ever done anything like we did was throwing the kitchen sink at the thing.
00:46:32.260And Charlie was leading from the front on that.
00:46:36.980And I could, I could tell because, you know, of course there's that election night live stream, 2022, it's me, you, Charlie, Andrew was in and out and we were doing the, uh, we were doing the, remember the batches and other batches in other batches in other batches in.
00:46:55.180And, and I remember doing the math till late in the wee hours and I can remember the moment where Charlie just turns to me, I don't even know if it was on air and he just, he just turns to me sitting there and says, Jack, we need to start doing ballots.
00:47:09.380And you could just see it in his eyes.
00:47:12.560He said, they won this thing with ballots and we need to start doing that.
00:47:16.460And I could tell you just in that moment, again, very simple that he took this whole complicated thing and he had figured it all out and he was doing the math.
00:47:24.220You could see him doing it furiously, just scribbling away and doing the math in real time, like, like, like rain man, you know?
00:47:32.160And, uh, and he said, it's all ballots.
00:47:44.620And he knew that he had you to execute it.
00:47:47.720Well, I was talking with his sweet wife who all the prayers, we need to be praying unceasingly for Erica and his two sweet babies.
00:47:58.400Um, that I just was talking, talking with her about this yesterday, the look on Charlie's face when he figured when he would figure something out.
00:48:17.200I've been in these rooms with Charlie, you know, fighting these battles and these wars.
00:48:21.400And we'd figure out the problem that existed and then try to come up with a solution and then applying the right solution and, you know, going and getting the donors to pay for it and work, work towards it.
00:50:44.540Charlie would want us to be. That's what Charlie would say. He would say, be better. Work harder. What are you doing next? What's the next fight? Take the next hill. Finish the job.
00:51:00.540Finish the job. Complete the task. Complete the mission.
00:51:09.740We have the editor of Breitbart, Alex Marlow now joining us. Alex, you knew Charlie as well as any of us, obviously. And for you, coming from Breitbart, this is now the second time you've had to go through something like this in this moment.
00:51:30.800Talk to me a little bit about the legacy of going through the legacy of Andrew, and now we have the legacy of Charlie.
00:51:38.540Thanks, Jack. You've been doing a wonderful job on this. It's a beautiful tribute so far. I guess I'm unique in this regard, that I was Andrew Breitbart's right-hand man when he passed away at 43.
00:51:50.620Different circumstances certainly wasn't an assassination while he was just trying to debate people on a campus.
00:51:58.120But a similar situation in a genuinely great man who was here and called to do great things for this country and in this life and got taken from us.
00:52:08.000And one thing that was so heartening that after Andrew passed, people understood the importance of hard work, of determination, of trying to externalize all the messages that Andrew had given us that we'd internalized.
00:52:20.680And he became the pioneer of citizen journalism. He already was, but people, not everyone stopped and thought about it until he was taken from us, until that light was extinguished.
00:52:32.860And that has got to be the exact approach, if not twofold, tenfold with what Charlie's done.
00:52:40.180Tyler was touching on something really important I've been trying to share with people, is that Charlie wasn't just a giant in talk radio and podcasting.
00:52:47.140He wasn't just a giant in activism, and he may have been the biggest at that, but he was also meeting people where they were.
00:52:54.880He was on the campuses 100 hours a semester. He was on the platforms that conservatives wouldn't even go on, things like TikTok.
00:53:02.180He was someone who was reaching people who might not get news from anywhere else.
00:53:07.000Now, I wish people got news from all over the place, but a lot of the times they were relying on Charlie.
00:53:11.420He was an international sensation. We at Breitbart today were covering how the international press is reacting to Charlie's assassination.
00:53:19.860And they've strong opinions. They've thought long and hard about this guy.
00:53:23.340And he did it all with a smile, with joy. He was always trying to run up that next hill and summit it.
00:53:30.340That spirit always inspired me as one of his peers and colleagues, and it is just infectious to be around.
00:53:36.480And my heart breaks for his family, for the whole Turning Point team, but Charlie's message was loud and clear.
00:53:43.320We need to be those happy warriors. We need to be fearless. We need to be determined.
00:53:48.220And the fight, sadly, has only just begun.
00:53:53.160You know, it's one of those things, too.
00:53:55.720And obviously, we're still getting more and more information out about the shooter who is still at large.
00:54:02.360And I know we have these photos that have come up as well.
00:54:06.560Alex, can you can you put us just give us a little bit of that taste?
00:54:11.360You know, where do you think we stand with this this manhunt?
00:54:14.900Well, it's not great. It's not great news. We're getting nothing but bad news.
00:54:18.100First of all, there were some false hope that we caught the guy right away and then the person got away.
00:54:25.000And I think that that already is a disgrace.
00:54:27.960A person like Charlie should have protection.
00:54:31.260I think we need to be very cautious going to these universities going forward.
00:54:35.520And I think that that's a shame because we need free speech now more than ever.
00:54:38.980And they're going to use this as an opportunity.
00:54:41.320They, the left, who's responsible for this, they're going to use this as a victory because they're going to see that there will be a chilling of speech because they hate free speech.
00:54:50.120They want control. They want authoritarianism.
00:54:52.660Charlie was an affront to that, and that's why he was targeted.
00:54:54.540And law enforcement needs to get the job done as soon as humanly possible.
00:54:58.540And I know our guys are in charge at a federal level.
00:55:00.960I don't know much about the local law enforcement, the state law enforcement, but it doesn't matter.
01:41:26.340I'm told we have another one of Charlie's and my close friends now joining us.
01:41:32.860Raheem Kassam from the National Pulse.
01:41:35.900Raheem, we've got about two minutes left in the break, or until the break, but I'll hold you over.
01:41:40.080You just come back to the United States.
01:41:44.020I can't imagine that you thought you'd be arriving with news like this.
01:41:49.560Yeah, Jack, and you know, what I want to say as well, firstly, for the audience, is, you know, for people like Jack, for people like Tyler, for people like Andrew, who are not just colleagues of Charlie's, but really, really close friends.
01:42:13.040I would just want to express, you know, my deepest consolation to you guys.
01:42:17.360There's no way to, you know, I've lost a lot of friends in recent years.
01:42:20.880There's no way to comfort and console, especially with an incident as horrific as this.
01:42:25.700But landing back in the United States and, you know, having Wi-Fi on the plane and sort of seeing it all take place and feeling helpless to do anything.
01:42:35.740And, you know, I knew Charlie and just disbelief, right?
01:42:41.180I was texting with a friend of mine, a reporter friend of mine, while it was all happening, while, you know, in that fog of war moments immediately after.
01:42:49.060And I just said, you know, can you believe it? And he said, no. And then he replied, yes, because that's where we are.
01:42:57.380And people like you and I, we talk about this all the time, right?
01:43:00.400We talk about our safety. We talk about going to these events.
01:43:03.460People don't realize just how much it comes up, how often it comes up.
01:43:08.360Now, I hope people won't forget, you know, just how much, you know, somebody like Charlie puts themselves out there for the country, for his family, for his faith every single day.
01:43:17.080You know, just how much stress and risk and concern and worry and everything that there is.
01:43:24.680And it's very, very hard to talk about it.
01:43:30.760That's exactly right. And it's been, I think it's been a rough night for America.
01:43:35.000It's been a rough night for all of us who knew Charlie, who were close to Charlie.
01:43:41.400Raheem, tell us, tell us, you know, you always have such a good way of putting things.
01:43:47.080You know, I've got right here on my desk one of the ubiquitous Turning Point USA MAGA hats that Charlie signed.
01:43:57.260And it's and it's here and it's it's a testament to the legacy of this man that he would go on these campuses and draw thousands of people, students.
01:44:09.000And Raheem, it wasn't always like that on college campus.
01:44:12.980It certainly wasn't when Charlie started, when either of us got started.
01:44:16.800Tell us about this incredible effect that he achieved.
01:44:21.340Yeah. You know, when I when I first met Charlie, I think it was over at the old Trump Hotel in D.C.
01:44:28.300And, you know, you try and get a measure of a person as quickly as possible.
01:44:31.300And I thought to myself, you know, is this just your sort of run of the mill politico trying to carve a niche out for themselves in Washington, D.C.?
01:44:38.580Perhaps run for a seat somewhere and then, you know, sell out their principles.
01:44:42.260And Charlie couldn't have been the more polar opposite of that.
01:44:45.140Right. You could sort of tell that immediately.
01:44:47.300Everything he did was with drive and with passion and with love and with charm and with help and with respect and with faith and with heart and with principle and with courage.
01:44:55.660And, you know, I pride myself on having words, you know, knowing the best words.
01:45:01.180But I can't I can't there aren't any enough to describe, you know, when you were feeling when I would feel lazy or down and I was doing Charlie's show, you know, in the breaks, he'd just be like, yeah.
01:45:13.820So anyway, so we're going to do this. Let's talk about that.
01:45:17.300There was none of this waste of time, waste of life, kvetching at things and wringing your hands over stuff.
01:45:24.560He was just he was just such a remarkable doer.
01:45:27.420He you know what? The irony of ironies, he understood the finitude of the time we all have.
01:45:33.340And he put every second to use in a way that, frankly, embarrasses me and probably embarrasses us all.
01:45:40.980You know, to say he'll be missed is just a just a heinous understatement.
01:45:45.920You know, Jack, it's it really, truly is.
01:45:51.280I don't go in for hyperbole. You know that.
01:45:54.020I'm a very realistic person, but it really, truly is one of the one of the worst things that could have that anybody could ever, ever told me would happen is that has happened.
01:46:03.680It is. And it is it is absolutely the worst.
01:46:08.580And yet I see I suppose I see there's two tracks right now that I see happening.
01:46:14.680I see the vast majority of people are choosing to embrace the love and the light that Charlie Kirk stood for.
01:46:23.740He was he was he was always the the one who was always looking to find a positive edge, a way to put a positive spin on no matter what happened.
01:46:33.480He was he was was endlessly optimistic.
01:46:36.380And yet. And you and you have seen this outpouring across the aisle and really across the world, international leaders singing his praises, calling out political violence.
01:46:48.600And yet in the initial wake of this, we also saw horrific comments about Charlie being made from major cable networks, major figures.
01:47:02.100And although that has been tamped down on very quickly, we still see this across much of certain parts of social media, blue sky, tick tock, where people are cheering, people are celebrating.
01:47:16.480What? What? Yeah. What are we going to make of the book?
01:47:19.700Right. I mean, you wrote the book on this this narrative and this the way these people behave.
01:47:25.040And there's no there's no other way to describe it.
01:47:27.680You know, these are these are cockroaches of life.
01:47:30.160These are the scum of the earth. And I'm you know, people have been texting me the last 24 hours.
01:47:35.920Just, you know, be careful when you're out there, when you're doing things.
01:47:38.440And I just you know, I'm not going to worry about these cockroaches, quite frankly, I'm going to keep doing what Charlie would have wanted us to do,
01:47:44.300we just keep working for the for the right cause. And, you know, I'm flying out tomorrow to Indiana with Senator Jim Banks and Alex Brusewitz.
01:47:51.840And we're doing an event out there. And this you know, you're not going to stop us.
01:47:55.880You're not going to put fear into us. You're not going to cow us. We're not afraid.
01:47:58.900I've lived with this for 20 years now. You know, it's it's it's it's you put your hat into this ring.
01:48:05.660These are the these are the stakes. You asked about college campuses and I didn't I didn't get to it because I was very publicly grieving.
01:48:11.820But, you know, nobody had a bigger impact. Nobody had a bigger impact on America's youth.
01:48:17.720This is what this was about. Right. This is about jealousy. This is about envy.
01:48:21.680You know, Charlie Cook was targeted and assassinated because he wanted to keep deranged men out of his daughter's bathroom.
01:48:28.860He was targeted because he believed in Jesus Christ.
01:48:32.140He was targeted because he believed in freedom and free speech and free expression.
01:48:36.540He was targeted because he believed in the Constitution.
01:48:40.240He was targeted because he believed in the right to life.
01:48:42.440He was targeted because he believed in doing the right thing.
01:48:46.520And we will never stop doing the right thing.
01:48:49.440You can come for all of us. But this movement is bigger than any single one of us.
01:48:54.380And Charlie would be the first one to say so.
01:48:57.840Now we all you know, there should be monuments going up to Charlie Kirk all across the country over the next few months.
01:49:02.640That's what I will say. But I think right now we all have to be monuments to Charlie Kirk.
01:49:06.920I am. I actually got a message from a he hasn't said it publicly yet, but so I won't I won't name names, but someone most people know and he he he thinks that perhaps a national park is in order.
01:49:27.440And time it with the 250th celebration of America, Utah, perhaps Utah, Arizona, you know, wherever wherever is most appropriate, obviously work with the family on all of this.
01:49:44.240But I think that's something that would just be an incredible legacy, because not everybody knew this about Charlie, but he loved the outdoors.
01:49:51.900He loved being outside. He loved hiking.
01:49:54.360It's one of the things that he loved about Arizona.
01:49:56.560That's why he made it his home. He's not a native born son of Arizona, but it's something that he just loved so much.
01:50:03.380Loved hiking, Utah, as well, where he where he met his destiny.
01:50:10.380And there's something about naming a national park that I think is just it's it's so eternal.
01:50:17.020It's so eternal. And it's it's certainly something I'd love to see.
01:50:21.560And then obviously, in conjunction with the family and their wishes that I think I think it would certainly be appropriate.
01:50:28.380And and many of these things are appropriate. But, you know, Raheem, before we before we go down that road, we still have to deal with the matter at hand that unfortunately, we do still have a developing news situation where.
01:50:45.200We're. At the same time that all these vigils are taking place.
01:51:24.900Yeah, no, I agree with you. And to come back on another point, you know, they're building they're building a ballroom in the White House and and it will need a forever name.
01:51:35.340And they named the they named the press briefing room after after James Brady, who was shot in in Reagan's Secret Service detail.
01:51:47.120And he went on to advocate for gun control.
01:51:53.020And I think to bring a semblance of balance, if you're not going to rename the Brady press briefing room, then then have have the Charlie Kirk ballroom on the White House grounds.
01:52:03.640I think for a man who gave so much to his country and I was I was at the Reform Party conference, you know, Nigel Farage's party last week in England.
01:52:12.600And I just can't tell you the number of people that came up to me, young people who came up to me and said, oh, you know, Raheem, I think it's great.
01:52:20.520I love Real America's voice and War Room.
01:52:23.460But what I really love is Charlie Kirk.
01:53:44.280And I know, you know, I know that the Turning Point people and the people that you have working there and the people, and especially I want to say this, right?
01:53:52.900And I don't work for Turning Point doesn't mean anything to me to say this.
01:53:56.500I don't want people to go away thinking like, oh, he was fundraising off this.
01:53:59.460No, I want you to support Turning Point, Charlie's group, Charlie's family, and help them grow and help train more because we need more now.
01:54:09.660So if you're looking for something to do in this moment, go and support Charlie's endeavors, his causes, his groups, his people.
01:54:15.800Because that is what, that is what the right thing to do is in this moment, is to lift these people up.
01:54:23.600And it's what Charlie would have wanted.
01:54:26.240And his, his events, AmFest, which was his baby AmericaFest, it's, it's got to be a tribute.
01:54:34.180It's, it's just got to be, again, you know, barring, uh, in consultation with the family, but it's, it's got to be the biggest tribute to Charlie Kirk that this country has ever seen.
01:54:47.800And the biggest event where everyone, I just, I just want everyone to be there to see that we will not be scared.
01:55:38.760Something that I don't even think that we, uh, you and I being a little bit of the older cohort here, at least in terms of this, I don't even think we realize the deep affection that, that this generation had for Charlie.
01:55:54.840I, I don't even know who to compare it to.
01:55:56.840I couldn't even, I can't even think I've been trying to rack my mind to compare it to someone, but he really was an icon for the youth.
01:56:05.280Yeah, I, I mean, just undoubtedly, undoubtedly, the number, the sheer number and the fact that it resonates all across the world.
01:56:16.440We've had, you know, unfortunately failed attempts to honor him in the European Parliament.
01:56:21.660They, they wouldn't allow for it because they're scumbags.
01:56:25.480Um, but in the British Parliament today with Nigel Farage, tributes pouring in from obviously all around the world, from Brazil and from El Salvador and from Korea and you name it.
01:56:35.220There isn't a single place really on God's green earth that has been untouched.
01:56:40.220And it's, it's wild when you think about it because number one, he was so young and number two, you know, the political left, his, his philosophical enemies put so much work into trying to tamp down on his activity and to demonize him and to discredit him and to mock and humiliate him.
01:56:59.620And it was just, Jack, it was just a couple of weeks ago when he was on South Park, you know, and, and we were all sort of saying, you know, wow.
01:57:08.440I mean, that's the big, the biggest of the big leagues that you could possibly get.
01:57:13.980And I'm just going to say this by the way, that I know that I've seen this news that they have pulled the episode, but I'm just going to say it.
01:57:22.180Haven't talked to Charlie liked the episode.
01:57:31.880I mean, I can understand it's their decision, but I just, I just know that that's the way Charlie responded to it because we talked about it and he thought it was funny.
01:57:40.660Raheem, we've got to let you go because we do have to take a break and we have some folks coming up.
01:57:50.840Look, as I say, Jack today, I really don't want anybody following me or anything like that.
01:57:56.580I want you all to take this moment in the break to go to turning point and say a prayer, especially for Charlie's family, especially for the people around him and donate to that group so they can rebuild from what is, you know, a horrific loss.
01:58:11.280And Jack, you as well, you know, my number, anything you guys need in this time, I'm here for you.
02:03:16.060But that's the thing I've been thinking a lot about, Jack, is we got to watch Charlie grow over these years.
02:03:24.060And it was something that was so inspiring, meaning when he was 18 and started Turning Point and for maybe till he was like, I don't know, 23 or 24, he was like a young buck.
02:03:34.840And he was like he was energetic and he was doing lots of things.
02:03:37.880And he was he had a sort of feel of him that was like contagious.
02:03:42.000You know, everyone wanted to kind of get near him.
02:03:43.960But you were like, this guy's almost like a college kid.
02:03:46.580And then he grew and then he was a builder of an organization.
02:03:50.140And then suddenly he was this mature leader.
02:03:54.060I think his wife played a role and then having kids played a role.
02:03:57.160And by the time I mean, I can't even say it.
02:04:00.420By the time he's gone, he was this extraordinary presence as a builder, as a charismatic person, as a father, as a Christian and as a communicator.
02:04:12.540And to see that he like lived his life.
02:04:22.940You know, you have some things that go well and some things that don't.
02:04:25.160He had this kind of gradual success that has been extraordinary to see.
02:04:30.040And as he got bigger and better, more successful, what he somehow did was he really honed in on other people.
02:04:39.600I was at the White House today and I had someone tell me who was not a big name or anything, not somebody, you know, or anybody, you know.
02:04:45.500And she said he was so good at making you feel special.
02:04:49.840And I have had a privilege of knowing John Paul II and Mother Teresa and, you know, the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
02:04:58.080One of the gifts that people have that are truly special is that they make the other person feel valuable, valued.
02:05:07.580And when you heard Charlie in some of the clips talking about everyone's made in the image and likeness of God, if you really believe that, then sunsets and mountains are extraordinary, a part of God's creation.
02:05:20.300But any person, and you see this on Charlie with these crazy lefties that would talk to him, he just loved it.
02:09:04.920You know, I don't want to I don't want to lead too much into it.
02:09:08.100But after it happened, I talked to some other members of the team and several of us did say we we experienced some sort of unsettling feeling.
02:09:18.000I think for me, it was that it was in this amphitheater, which really emphasized like the size of the crowd.
02:09:24.220But also it emphasized, you know, the buildings in the background.
02:09:28.180And actually, for the first few minutes, you know, before Charlie walked out, I remember I was scanning.
02:09:33.420I was just looking around idly like, oh, where would someone be if something happened?
02:11:07.240The security got him immediately, got him into the car immediately, got him out immediately.
02:11:11.720They could not have done their job on that front any better.
02:11:14.560And then at that point, it was, you know, what do we do?
02:11:20.080And I know on my end, I think the first thing I did was I sent a message to I opened telegram and I went to our turning point thing and I said, lockdown turning point.
02:11:32.200And I imagine they'd already seen it, too.
02:11:51.820And then from there, I met up with some other members of the team.
02:11:56.040We got to the hospital within, I'd say, about 25 minutes or so.
02:12:01.860And the rest of the day unfolded from there.
02:12:06.760You know, Blake, you, you know, as a producer for Charlie, you worked so closely with him every single day and directly on, you know, so much of the content that.
02:12:20.360That's we all got to experience and enjoy as as the beneficiaries of this work.
02:12:28.680I mean, what's what's running through your mind now in terms of.
02:12:39.140It's painful to say, but he is he is irreplaceable and people would ask about this and I would say Charlie is not he's not just a show host.
02:12:48.140And that was what stood out about him.
02:13:10.500He was in every part of it because he cared about all of it so much.
02:13:14.220You know, the world of politics is so it's full of a lot of people who are in it for, you know, they care a bit about, you know, the issues, but they also care about themselves, about getting famous, about getting rich, about resolving some grievance.
02:13:29.760But Charlie, every single day, he was going all out for the things he cared about the most, which was how does he make America better?
02:13:35.440And also that he was a man of, you know, deep Christian faith and he wanted to advance Christianity.
02:13:43.100He wanted a spiritual revival in America.
02:13:45.440And what, truthfully, what I kept thinking of after the news broke was just before this tour happened, Charlie did a quick visit to Korea and Japan.
02:14:31.280You know, he was saying, you guys have to save your country and you're going to need to believe in something transcendent, something eternal.
02:14:37.280And for me, that is my faith in Jesus Christ.
02:14:40.640And so the last speech Charlie gave, he was witnessing to Christianity, to an audience overwhelmingly of non-Christians.
02:14:49.460And then the last question he answered before, you know, the one he was answering when the shooting happened, he was talking about his Christian faith with, it was, you know, Mormonism versus Protestantism.
02:15:01.080But he was witnessing to the gospel there.
02:15:03.060And I know that if Charlie, you know, if Charlie had to go the way he did, he would have wanted it to be while he was witnessing to Christ in that way.
02:15:18.820That's obviously, anyone who spent five minutes with Charlie would know that it's not politics that is his driving force.
02:15:27.520It's that because he would he'd find a way to switch it to that or once he got to know that you were into it, he would send you, you know, hey, Jack, here's this this five hour course that I'm doing on the book of Genesis.
02:16:03.100Charlie Charlie died a martyr for the two things he cared about most.
02:16:07.220He cared about the Christian religion and he cared about, you know, the freedoms, the Constitution of the United States.
02:16:13.360He's a martyr to Christianity and he's a martyr to the freedom of speech that he so earnestly believed in the power of, you know, going out, engaging with people.
02:16:24.260And it wasn't that he had to own every single lib is that, you know, he would always say one of the lines he would do when he was arguing with someone on campus is, you know, we don't have agreement, but we have clarity.
02:16:34.460And he was always looking for that he believes that when you debate, you learn more about the other person, you understand what motivates them.
02:16:43.040And that's a deeply humanizing thing about another person.
02:16:46.480And I think it's so powerfully symbolic of what we are against that it was while he was doing that, that some, this pain would strike him down like that.
02:16:59.040I know you've got some logistics to run to.
02:17:00.800We're headed up to break here, but I'll see you soon, man.
02:17:04.360I just want to let you know, I'll be there.
02:17:27.180Human Events Daily, Charlie Kirk Memorial Show, Washington, D.C.
02:17:31.560And when I look at the tributes coming out, by the way, I have to, something I haven't mentioned, the sports tributes.
02:17:40.740Charlie was an incredible sports fan and Yankee Stadium put him up something completely outside of politics, but it didn't matter because Charlie was bigger than politics.
02:18:06.620Since he was young, but since he was a little boy.
02:18:11.520And you're starting to see even now athletes.
02:18:15.240Some people are sending me tweets and messages that are coming in where there were so many people in the sports world, in the corporate world, in the tech world, who were great fans of Charlie.
02:18:29.280And yet, because of the circumstances of the situation our country is in, they previously were not able to publicly voice that support because of what we've been living through in this country.
02:18:45.400And that's the saddest part of all, because everything that Charlie Kirk did to get us out of the situation we were in is what led them to do this.
02:18:59.380They couldn't debate him, so they shot him.
02:19:05.840I want to bring Libby Emmons on now, editor-in-chief of the Post Millennial and a good friend of Charlie, as well as the editor of Human Events.
02:19:19.700I'm finding this to be a difficult time.
02:19:21.460I'm sure that it's much more difficult for the people who are close to Charlie, an unforgettable presence.
02:19:27.900And certainly, this is a loss the world will not soon forget.
02:19:31.960I think it's really interesting in telling what you're talking about with the sports figures who have come out and given their sadness and shared that grief with the world now that Charlie has passed.
02:19:43.860And you said something very interesting, which is that a lot of people did not feel that they were able to do that previously.
02:19:50.220And I think that that attitude, that attitude that we are cowed, that we will not speak out the truth, that we will hide what we really feel and really think, that we will let our blue-haired cousins or our HR departments or anybody else tell us what we can and cannot say, what we can and cannot think.
02:20:13.900That comes to an end, that comes to an end now, because there is absolutely no good reason when you look back on it, when you look back over the past 10 years or so, there's absolutely no good reason that we shouldn't all have been speaking up and speaking the truth and being honest and direct and forthright this entire time.
02:20:33.320And if there's anything that we move forward with in terms of something to take from this, it is to speak out, it is to be honest, it is to be direct and forthright with a smile on your face.
02:20:52.000It is to share the word of God in your actions and in your deeds and to do that unflinchingly, just unflinchingly, no more bowing, no more keeping silent because you're afraid of your friends.
02:21:06.300Absolutely, that comes to an end right now.
02:21:09.040If we all just speak up together, if we all have that courage, then they can't take us.
02:21:14.320Then there's nothing that can be done to silence us because we would be too loud.
02:21:19.520As loud as a turning point event, frankly, because those things get really loud.
02:22:14.920Everybody was touched by Charlie, whether they had met him or not or just been to an event or had seen his clips and seen what he was capable of and seen what he had done.
02:22:27.780And there was, when I, when I talked to our, you know, columnist chat and I said, you know, we're going to need a column on Charlie and everyone wanted to write it.
02:22:38.780Literally everyone wanted to write it, you know.
02:22:41.220And so we gathered, Kenny Cody and I, the opinion editor, we gathered together everybody's thoughts and put that together.
02:22:47.120And you can read that on humanevents.com.
02:22:50.040Um, it's something that I think is definitely worth, uh, taking the time to look at.
02:22:56.240And, um, you know, I certainly hope that it's something that, that Charlie would, would like himself, ideally, you know, that's, that's who it's for.
02:23:06.080Well, and, and Charlie has just always been such a supporter of the post-millennial, millennial of human events, uh, really integral, a story that we haven't really even told to, you know, taking those platforms to the next level.
02:23:23.900Just so much that he did behind the scenes to encourage new media, building institutions, taking things to the next level, even stuff that he didn't need his name on, didn't want his name on, didn't, because he wasn't about that.
02:23:37.420He didn't need his name on everything.
02:23:40.020He just wanted people to be doing well.
02:23:43.560And I think that that was sort of, I mean, just one of his many, many incredible talents that he wanted, he truly lived for others and not himself.
02:23:59.760And that story of, of Charlie's hand in the post-millennial and human events and bringing those two properties together and then boosting them and boosting them.
02:24:10.000And, uh, I'm, uh, I'm forever grateful to Charlie for that and, um, you know, for, uh, making it so that we can have this platform and that all of my staff who are wonderful people are able to, um, speak out and are able to write the truth.
02:24:29.180And literally everyone on staff at post-millennial had something positive to say.
02:24:33.740All of the editors and writers came together and shared their thoughts.
02:24:37.380And these were all, these were all personal memories, you know?
02:24:41.120I mean, this isn't just like Charlie Kirk is a great figure and I've seen him from afar.
02:24:45.920This was Charlie Kirk is someone who touched my life personally.
02:24:49.700And, um, I, I was very moved by what everyone had to say for that.
02:24:54.880And thinking back on the times that, um, I, I was on Charlie's show a couple of times.
02:24:59.680I shared the stage with him once or twice and every single time I was honored to be part of the thing that he was doing, quite frankly, because it always felt like something that was urgent and integral and really important for the future of this country that he loved, that I love, that we all love so much.
02:25:18.560And when I think back on, you know, those times, he always was so generous with himself, with his intelligence.
02:25:26.560Uh, he was always direct and just so, just so open and, um, you know, willing to share what he had with everybody.
02:25:34.880Always willing to share the spotlight too.