The Ben Shapiro Show - December 19, 2025


TPUSA Speech: Truth Over Cowardice and Grifting


Episode Stats


Length

34 minutes

Words per minute

165.40382

Word count

5,632

Sentence count

376

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck delivers a keynote at Turning Point USA in response to the recent shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was a beloved husband, father, and husband-in-lawyer to Erica Kirk.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:03.000 Thank you so much.
00:00:04.000 Thank you so much.
00:00:06.000 It's obviously a massive honor to be here at Turning Point USA.
00:00:11.000 It's even more of an honor to follow Erica Kirk, a heroic figure and a true American patriot.
00:00:22.000 I really believe that the best way to judge a goodness of a man is to see the goodness of his wife and his children.
00:00:29.000 And on that measure, Charlie was unsurpassed.
00:00:32.000 Erica and her children are in all of our hearts.
00:00:37.000 And of course, this is an incredibly bittersweet moment.
00:00:40.000 It's absolutely bitter because of the murder of our friend Charlie Kirk, an irreplaceable human being.
00:00:47.000 I knew Charlie from the time he was 18 years old, and I watched him build himself into one of the most powerful exponents of conservatism in America, one of the most powerful coalition builders in American history.
00:00:59.000 But it's also sweet to see the number of people who continue to remember Charlie each and every day and to carry on his mission.
00:01:08.000 Well, today, I want to talk about the future of the country.
00:01:12.000 And the future of this country, this amazing country, relies on the future of the conservative movement.
00:01:20.000 It relies on what TPUSA defines as its core mission, freedom, free markets, and limited government.
00:01:27.000 And most of all, most of all, the future of this country relies on truth.
00:01:40.000 This country relies on truth because victory, true, real, lasting victory, cannot be achieved without truth.
00:01:50.000 Victory without truth is victory for a lie, and that is no victory at all.
00:01:55.000 And unity without truth is no unity.
00:01:58.000 It is merely solidarity and falsehood.
00:02:01.000 You see, we live in a chaotic time, in a time when lots of people are asking lots of legitimate questions about the conservative movement.
00:02:08.000 What ought we to think about the relationship between free markets and traditional virtue?
00:02:13.000 How should we craft a pragmatic foreign policy that spreads our interests and upholds our ideals?
00:02:18.000 What governmental means are appropriate to achieve political ends?
00:02:23.000 All of these questions aren't new, of course.
00:02:24.000 They've been asked for as long as human beings have been talking about politics, thousands of years.
00:02:29.000 And over the course of this conference, you'll hear a lot of opinions on a lot of these questions.
00:02:34.000 I have my own perspectives on them, of course.
00:02:37.000 You can hear them every single day on my show.
00:02:39.000 My fundamental values have been the same for 25 years.
00:02:43.000 Peace through strength on foreign policy.
00:02:45.000 Traditional values on social policy.
00:02:48.000 Free markets with regards to economics.
00:02:51.000 But today, I want to talk about something even more important.
00:02:56.000 How to discern those attempting to speak truth from frauds and grifters.
00:03:06.000 Because something is new.
00:03:08.000 An informational environment rife with both opportunity and chaos.
00:03:12.000 Opportunity, because the legacy media gatekeepers are no longer in charge of what we see and what we hear.
00:03:17.000 And chaos, because an anarchic informational environment means we actually have to be smart in how we assess the information and arguments that we hear.
00:03:27.000 Why does that matter?
00:03:28.000 Well, because today the conservative movement is in serious danger.
00:03:33.000 It is in danger, not just from a left that all too frequently excuses everything up to and including murder.
00:03:40.000 The conservative movement is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty, who offer nothing but bile and despair, who seek to undermine fundamental principles of conservatism by championing enervation and grievance.
00:03:58.000 These people are frauds and they are grifters and they do not deserve your time. 0.92
00:04:03.000 And they are something worse than that.
00:04:05.000 A danger to the only movement capable of stopping the left from wrecking the country wholesale.
00:04:10.000 So today, I want to discuss five obligations that people who speak to you on matters of importance have to you.
00:04:18.000 I want to speak to you about our duties.
00:04:22.000 Our first duty is truth.
00:04:24.000 We owe you the truth.
00:04:26.000 That means we should not mislead you.
00:04:28.000 It means we shouldn't hide the ball.
00:04:30.000 We shouldn't be deliberately obscure about what we're telling you.
00:04:33.000 We have an obligation to clarity and to honesty.
00:04:37.000 This means that we actually have to be clear in the language that we use.
00:04:41.000 We should not traffic in generality.
00:04:43.000 We should not say things like, they shot Charlie without specifying whom we mean by they.
00:04:49.000 The person who allegedly shot Charlie Kirk, and whom all the evidence points at, all of it, is a gay, trans-loving furry.
00:05:05.000 If we are going to target ideological movements, we should talk about the fact that the radical trans movement treats all those who oppose it as existential threats.
00:05:14.000 Or if we're going to talk about the Democratic Party making room for the radical trans movement and echoing its inflammatory rhetoric, well, we should talk about that.
00:05:22.000 Those are specific problems and they require specific responses.
00:05:26.000 When people say they shot Charlie, however, they are instead trafficking in vagary that results in increased hatred without proposing any effective response.
00:05:35.000 They are fostering despair and rage, and that makes things worse.
00:05:39.000 We must also be honest about what people say and do, regardless of what that means coalitionally.
00:05:45.000 It is the job of politicians to build coalitions.
00:05:48.000 It's the job of those of us who try to shape public opinion to hold politicians to account and to hold them accountable to our values.
00:05:56.000 We must not let fear of audience deter us from telling the truth.
00:06:01.000 We must not let fear of other hosts deter us from telling the truth.
00:06:05.000 So, for example, if Candace Owens decides to spend every day since the murder of Charlie Kirk, casting aspersions at TPUSA and the people who work here,
00:06:34.000 who worked with Charlie every single day...
00:06:36.000 His best friends.
00:06:37.000 To cast aspersions at Mikey McCoy and Andrew Colvin and Blake Neff and Tyler Boyer and, yes, at Erica Kirk.
00:06:43.000 And to imply or outright claim complicity in a cover-up over Charlie's murder?
00:06:48.000 To spew absolutely baseless trash implicating everyone from French intelligence to Mossad to members of TPUSA in Charlie's murder or a cover-up in that murder?
00:06:59.000 Then we, as people with a microphone, have a moral obligation to call that out by name.
00:07:05.000 Erica Kirk.
00:07:16.000 Kirk and TPUSA never, never should have put in the never, should have been put in the position to have to defend themselves against such specious and evil attacks, particularly in a time of mourning.
00:07:33.000 And the people who refuse to condemn Candace's truly vicious attacks, and some of them are speaking here, are guilty of cowardice.
00:07:41.000 Yes, cowardice.
00:07:48.000 The fact that they have said nothing while Candace has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years is just as cowardly.
00:08:01.000 Second, because we owe you the truth, we owe you the duty to speak out of principle, not personal feeling.
00:08:08.000 It should not matter whether we despise someone or whether we love someone.
00:08:13.000 The question is what they say and what they do, and whether those things are morally decent or not.
00:08:19.000 On a political level, do they foster freedom, justice, and prosperity?
00:08:23.000 On a personal level, do they treat others as they would wish to be treated?
00:08:27.000 Personal feeling is not a substitute for moral judgment.
00:08:31.000 To take again the Candace Owens situation as an example, friendship with public figures who say or do evil things is not an excuse for silence on the matter.
00:08:41.000 Politics is not the sisterhood of the traveling pants. 0.96
00:08:47.000 Politics is about principle.
00:08:49.000 And if you are willing to sacrifice basic truth and simple principle in favor of emotional solidarity, you have betrayed your fundamental duty to the American people.
00:08:59.000 Grand Canyon University, our sponsor, is an affordable, private Christian university based in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona.
00:09:04.000 It's one of the largest universities in the country.
00:09:06.000 Praised for its culture of community and impact, GCU integrates the free market system, a welcoming Christian worldview, and free and open discourse into 369 academic programs with over 300 online.
00:09:16.000 Join a nationwide community of learners, redefining online education through GCU's 100% online MBA degree program or an ethical entrepreneurship and scale your business to serve your community.
00:09:25.000 In addition to federal grants and aid, GCU's online students received nearly $161 million in institutional scholarships in 2024.
00:09:32.000 Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University Private Christian Affordable.
00:09:35.000 Visit gcu.edu slash myoffer to see the scholarships you may qualify for.
00:09:41.000 Again, so many universities right now are bilking people.
00:09:44.000 They are just taking them for a ride.
00:09:45.000 They are teaching kids terrible values.
00:09:46.000 That is not the case at Grand Canyon University.
00:09:49.000 Go get a great degree at Grand Canyon University, private Christian and Affordable.
00:09:52.000 Visit gcu.edu slash myoffer and see the scholarships you might qualify for.
00:09:57.000 Also, getting a big variety of whole food ingredients into my diet, it's really key, especially with the constant work travel.
00:10:03.000 Our sponsor, Balance of Nature's Whole Health System, makes it simple.
00:10:06.000 Their convenient blend of fruits and veggies in easy-to-take capsules is kosher and ensures I'm getting essential nutrients every day without the hassle of prep work or meal planning.
00:10:14.000 It's an effortless way to support my wellness goals while managing that busy on-the-go lifestyle.
00:10:19.000 Balance of Nature's Whole Health System supplements are incredibly versatile, easy to work into your daily routine.
00:10:23.000 The fiber and spice supplement blends smoothly into your favorite drinks.
00:10:26.000 It adds a warm aromatic depth from its spice blend.
00:10:29.000 And if you prefer, you can even open up the fruits and veggies capsules and mix the powder directly into a smoothie or sprinkle it over your meals.
00:10:35.000 What makes these supplements special is they're packed with 47 ingredients from 100% real whole fruits, vegetables, spices, fibers, everything from psyllium husk and flaxseed to cinnamon, turmeric, mango, pineapple, wild blueberry, shiitake mushroom, spinach, kale, cayenne pepper, and so much more.
00:10:48.000 It's a simple way to give your body the nutrition it needs every single day.
00:10:52.000 I take Balance of Nature with me on the road.
00:10:54.000 It makes nutrition really easy for me.
00:10:57.000 New and existing customers can get 50% off the whole health system for life with this limited time offer.
00:11:01.000 Go to balanceofnature.com to claim the offer.
00:11:06.000 First off, I should break the omerite here and just be a little bit clear.
00:11:09.000 The notion that people in our industry are close friends, like we all take holiday breaks with each other and go to each other's kids' graduations and stuff, is generally untrue.
00:11:17.000 Some people do that, most of us don't.
00:11:19.000 We see each other at conferences and we talk on the phone and all the rest.
00:11:22.000 We're business colleagues.
00:11:24.000 But even if it were true that other public figures were our best friends, our very best friends, that does not relieve us of our duty to speak out of principle and not to cover up evil or shy away from addressing it out of friendship.
00:11:43.000 So no, Tucker Carlson, it is not an excuse to go silent on Candace's targeting of TPUSA.
00:11:56.000 Or to mirror her bull lines of questioning because you love Candace personally.
00:12:00.000 The same holds true of Megan Kelly, a person I consider a friend, characterizing Candace as a young mother and thus shying away from condemning her actions or fibing about them.
00:12:10.000 That is a non-starter.
00:12:12.000 Megan Markle is a young mother.
00:12:14.000 Ilhan Omar is a young mother.
00:12:16.000 That doesn't matter.
00:12:18.000 And when Megan said this week, quote, my goal and my job here is to try to understand, yes, where Candace is coming from on this, and says she sees no purpose in inserting herself, quote, into this on one side, that is a moral and logical absurdity.
00:12:32.000 There is only one moral side here, Erica Kirk's side.
00:12:44.000 You know, the side of the widow with two children whose husband was shot live on camera in front of all of us.
00:12:51.000 Friendship with the person accusing TPUSA of a cover-up of Charlie's murder is no excuse for cowardice.
00:13:03.000 Third, and relatedly, we have a duty to take responsibility for what we say and do.
00:13:08.000 If we hire awful people, we're responsible for that.
00:13:11.000 I have some experience there, as you might suspect.
00:13:16.000 That means that if we offer a guest for your viewing, we owe it to you to ask the kinds of questions that actually get at the truth.
00:13:22.000 If we agree with a guest, that's fine, but we should own it.
00:13:26.000 So, for example, if you host a Hitler-apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse like Nick Fuentes, you know the Nick Fuentes who said that the Vice President of the United States is a, quote, fat gay race traitor married to a jeet. 0.61
00:13:47.000 The person who said that Charlie Kirk was a, quote, retarded idiot.
00:13:51.000 The person who said, and pardon my language here, it's his quote, that he, quote, took Turning Point USA and f ⁇ ed it, and that's why it's filled with gripers.
00:13:59.000 If you have that person on your show and you proceed to glaze him, you ought to own it.
00:14:13.000 There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes, and indeed even chided Dinesh D'Souza for debating him.
00:14:20.000 He knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility.
00:14:25.000 And that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.
00:14:28.000 He built Nick Fuentes up.
00:14:29.000 And he ought to take responsibility for that, just as he ought to take responsibility for glazing pornographer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate or for mainstreaming fake historian and pseudo-Nazi apologist Daryl Cooper as America's best and most honest popular historian.
00:14:44.000 Hosts are, indeed, responsible for the guests they choose and the questions they ask those guests.
00:14:58.000 Fourth, because we have a duty to truth, we also have a duty to provide you with evidence of the claims that we make.
00:15:05.000 Emotive accusations, conspiracy theories, and just asking questions, that's lazy and stupid and misleading.
00:15:13.000 None of them are a substitute for truth.
00:15:15.000 None of them are a substitute for evidence.
00:15:18.000 So when Candace Owen says, I don't know, no, but I know, that is retarded. 1.00
00:15:24.000 and we are all more retarded for having heard it. 0.87
00:15:36.000 When Steve Bannon, for example, accuses his foreign policy opponents of loyalty to a foreign country, he's not actually making an argument based in evidence.
00:15:44.000 He's simply maligning people that he disagrees with, which is indeed par for the course from a man who was once a PR flag for Jeffrey Epstein.
00:15:54.000 Check the record.
00:15:58.000 Our duty to provide you evidence means we actually have to do much more than just ask questions.
00:16:03.000 Just asking questions is something my five-year-old does, and it's really cute when it comes from my five-year-old.
00:16:08.000 But when grown men and women spend their days just asking questions, without, you know, seeking answers, they are lying to you.
00:16:16.000 In fact, they're doing something even worse.
00:16:18.000 They are seeding distrust in the world around you, and they are enervating you in the process.
00:16:24.000 So, for example, if many speakers, including Tucker Carlson and others, get on stage here at TPUSA and claim, without proper evidence, that Jeffrey Epstein was running a Mossad rape ring being covered up by the Trump administration, they are not actually uncovering a conspiracy or effectuating a solution.
00:16:41.000 They are claiming a special provenance to information they won't let you see, which builds their power and leaves you with none.
00:16:48.000 They are also implicating in their speculation actual human beings, good human beings like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi, and yes, the President of the United States, even if they're too cowardly to say President Trump's name.
00:17:02.000 And that means you won't trust those good people in the future.
00:17:05.000 You haven't gotten smarter.
00:17:06.000 You've just been manipulated.
00:17:08.000 When forced to demonstrate their evidence, these same people will often refuse to provide it.
00:17:12.000 They'll claim ignorance.
00:17:13.000 They'll pretend they're outside the system.
00:17:16.000 And they don't have access to actual information.
00:17:18.000 You know, they're just asking questions.
00:17:20.000 But many of these same people have direct pipelines to informational sources.
00:17:24.000 So, for example, if Tucker wants answers to his questions about, say, Jeffrey Epstein, he could call the Vice President of the United States.
00:17:31.000 He's quite close with him.
00:17:32.000 But he won't, because that might undermine the empty speculation.
00:17:36.000 None of this means there aren't actual real conspiracies in the world.
00:17:40.000 Of course there are.
00:17:41.000 But actual conspiracies require actual evidence.
00:17:45.000 Yes, there was a Russian gate conspiracy and we know the names of the people involved and what they did.
00:17:49.000 We know Hillary Clinton and Fusion GPS and James Comey and Loretta Lynch and Adam Schiff.
00:17:53.000 We know all of those people.
00:17:55.000 Yes, there was a COVID-19 conspiracy.
00:17:57.000 We know that Anthony Fauci worked to shut down alternative solutions from people like Jay Bhattacharya.
00:18:03.000 But when people posit a conspiracy and then provide you no evidence, they are doing you a fundamental disservice, and they are making you stupider in the process.
00:18:18.000 Finally, because it is our job to make the lives of our audience better, that's really our job, is to give you more information to make your lives better.
00:18:26.000 We have a duty to propose solutions.
00:18:30.000 That's why we have to talk about our problems in order to find the solutions.
00:18:33.000 That's what politics was supposed to be about after all, finding solutions to our common problems.
00:18:38.000 If we speak endlessly about the problems we face, without ever positing a solution other than wrecking the system or centralizing power in a cult-like figure, we are not finding solutions.
00:18:50.000 We are merely making problems worse.
00:18:52.000 Just asking questions, positing vague conspiracies, raving like Alex Jones about the secret confederacies that control your life.
00:19:00.000 None of it makes your life better.
00:19:02.000 None of it.
00:19:03.000 In fact, it makes your life markedly worse.
00:19:06.000 That's because if you truly come to believe that nothing in your life is in your control, you can't even take control of your own life.
00:19:13.000 You despair of your ability to change your own circumstances, and then you fail.
00:19:18.000 And you must not fail.
00:19:27.000 Because here is the most fundamental truth of all in the United States.
00:19:30.000 For all of its problems, many of which, a huge number of which are real and serious, the United States is still the greatest country in the history of planet Earth.
00:19:48.000 We have the greatest constitution ever devised by man.
00:19:52.000 We have the greatest founding philosophy ever put to paper in the Declaration of Independence.
00:19:57.000 In this country, you can make of yourself what you will.
00:20:00.000 And if there are true obstacles standing in your way, we can all work together to remove them.
00:20:05.000 That, by the way, is the essence of conservatism, that we live in a world created by God with a logic and a rationale, that we as human beings were created in God's image, as it says in the book of Genesis, with creative capacity and the power to choose.
00:20:18.000 And that in a free country of limited government and defined powers, with property rights and equality under law, our destiny is in our hands and that we all have a duty to make the most of that historic opportunity.
00:20:32.000 Anyone, anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is lying to you and they are making your life worse in the process.
00:20:40.000 Now that lie may feel good in the moment.
00:20:44.000 It may excuse us from taking the corrective action we can take on a personal level to fix our lives.
00:20:50.000 It might give us someone else to blame for our own failures.
00:20:53.000 But in the end, the lie kills not just your future, but the country that we've been given.
00:21:00.000 So, for those of us who talk for a living, that's our job.
00:21:04.000 To discuss America's problems with truth and with evidence.
00:21:07.000 To provide possible solutions, and to encourage Americans to succeed and make great decisions.
00:21:14.000 We who speak to people on a regular basis, who have a microphone and an audience, we have duties to you.
00:21:19.000 The duty to speak the truth.
00:21:22.000 The duty to speak from principle, not personal feeling.
00:21:25.000 The duty to take responsibility for our own actions.
00:21:28.000 The duty to provide you with evidence to do more than conspiracize or just ask questions.
00:21:34.000 And the duty to posit real solutions.
00:21:36.000 And if we fail in those duties, you shouldn't listen to us.
00:21:40.000 But you have duties too.
00:21:42.000 Far more important duties.
00:21:44.000 Duties to God and to yourself and to your families.
00:21:48.000 The duty to do the best for yourself and your family and your country with the abilities that God gave you.
00:21:54.000 The duty to be grateful for this extraordinary country.
00:21:58.000 The duty to celebrate what we've all been given and to fight to preserve it.
00:22:03.000 All of that, every bit of that, begins with truth.
00:22:07.000 We owe you that quest for truth.
00:22:10.000 You owe yourselves that quest for truth.
00:22:14.000 And true victory only, only comes through truth.
00:22:18.000 Thanks so much.
00:22:18.000 Happy to take a couple questions.
00:22:24.000 America is approaching its 250th birthday.
00:22:26.000 It should be a time of celebration.
00:22:27.000 But did you know only 41% of Gen Z say they are actually proud to be American?
00:22:32.000 Why is that number not 100%?
00:22:34.000 We need to fix that fast.
00:22:35.000 Thankfully, there's no organization better positioned to educate young people about the true history of this country than Prager U. For years, young Americans have been fed a steady diet of misinformation, taught to believe this country is racist, sexist, and bigoted.
00:22:48.000 PragerU is correcting the record.
00:22:49.000 They tell the whole story, the good and the bad, but always with accuracy and appreciation for the patriots who sacrificed everything to create the greatest country in human history.
00:22:57.000 Through powerful storytelling, engaging videos, and family-friendly resources, PragerU is reaching the next generation.
00:23:03.000 Millions of young people are finally hearing a message that inspires pride, not shame.
00:23:07.000 And here's something you need to know.
00:23:08.000 While plenty of nonprofits line up for government money, PragerU refused it, even when partnering with the White House.
00:23:14.000 They will not let the government fund their message.
00:23:15.000 That's why they rely on patriotic Americans like you.
00:23:18.000 I've worked with PragerU.
00:23:19.000 I've seen what they do.
00:23:20.000 If we're going to win the fight for the next generation, we need PragerU well-funded.
00:23:24.000 Right now, every dollar you give to PragerU will be triple matched, which means every dollar you give will have three times the impact.
00:23:30.000 Go to PragerU.com slash DW during the triple match and make your gift today.
00:23:34.000 That's PragerU.com/slash DW.
00:23:38.000 Hi, my name is Jenna.
00:23:40.000 I'm one of the co-presidents of the Turning Point Chapter at JMU.
00:23:45.000 I have a question.
00:23:46.000 How do you balance telling the truth with delivery and speaking to people who disagree with you?
00:23:51.000 So I think obviously the truth comes first.
00:23:53.000 We ought to be polite, but the truth comes first.
00:23:55.000 And if you can tell the truth in a polite way, that's the best way to do it.
00:23:58.000 But sometimes people perceive truth as impolite, and that's just the way of the world.
00:24:02.000 You know, I rather famously have said that facts don't care about your feelings.
00:24:06.000 And that happens to be true.
00:24:08.000 You know, when you engage in a conversation, I've said this to a lot of people, when you engage in a conversation, it's very important to sort of determine the end of the conversation.
00:24:15.000 If it's going to be impossible to tell somebody the truth in a productive way, you probably shouldn't engage in that kind of conversation.
00:24:20.000 And you should make that judgment ahead of time.
00:24:22.000 But truth always has to take precedence over politeness if the two come into conflict, particularly if you're talking publicly, as we all do for a living.
00:24:31.000 I'm not talking about you're talking to your kid and they bring you a macaroni painting and they're like, is it good or not?
00:24:36.000 You're like, no, this is terrible.
00:24:37.000 And you stuff it in the trash.
00:24:38.000 It is terrible.
00:24:39.000 But say that it's good.
00:24:40.000 And then later you kind of put that.
00:24:41.000 I understand.
00:24:42.000 But when we're talking about politics and policy, obviously the truth has to come first because if we can't agree on fundamental facts, there's no possibility for solutions.
00:24:57.000 Thank you for being here, Ben.
00:25:00.000 You cited during your speech truth as the most important tenet of American conservatism.
00:25:06.000 Why, therefore, did you call irrelevant the Israeli attack in 1967 on the USS Liberty, which left dozens of American servicemen dead and hundreds wounded?
00:25:22.000 So what I actually said is that if we're looking at modern Israeli-American relations, looking at an attack that happened mistakenly by multiple Navy reports, multiple Israeli reports, and all available evidence, and using that attack in order to undermine today's relations between Israel and America, that's irrelevant.
00:25:40.000 As irrelevant as it would be to cite a piece of evidence from World War II or from 1776 to define America's relations with, for example, Great Britain or Germany today.
00:25:48.000 That does not mean that the attack wasn't horrible for the Americans involved, that it wasn't bloody and terrible.
00:25:53.000 The Israeli government paid reparations to the people who were killed.
00:25:57.000 If you look at the actual military record of what happened on the USS Liberty, it was clearly a mistaken and tragic attack.
00:26:03.000 The people who frequently cite the USS Liberty, however, are not talking about the specifics of the USS Liberty.
00:26:08.000 I suspect that the vast majority of people who bring this up are doing so in order to suggest that Israel deliberately attacked an American ship because Israel deliberately wants to harm America.
00:26:18.000 It's connected generally with a larger point.
00:26:20.000 I wonder if that's your point.
00:26:23.000 If the truth matters, then the Israeli government must be held accountable for that attack.
00:26:30.000 The American flag was flying on that ship.
00:26:34.000 You do not mistake an American ship for a foreign one when our flag is flying.
00:26:40.000 So, and we can spend the rest of the time talking about the specifics of the U.S. Liberty attack, or you can actually go look at the naval investigations that were done, multiple naval investigations that were done.
00:26:50.000 The reality is that people were flying mirage planes for the Israeli military at the time.
00:26:54.000 The USS Liberty was sailing in an area where it had essentially gone off-grid.
00:26:58.000 The Israeli military mistook it for an Egyptian ship.
00:27:01.000 They thought it was shelling al-Arish, which happened not to be true.
00:27:04.000 In the initial attack, the American flag was knocked down, and then the attack went on for about 90 minutes.
00:27:08.000 And then, as soon, you can hear this, by the way, on the tapes of the Israeli pilots talking to each other.
00:27:12.000 As soon as they realize that it's an American ship, they call off the attack.
00:27:15.000 They speed a ship to try and help the USS Liberty.
00:27:17.000 There have been multiple unfortunate friendly fire incidents between Allied forces, including, for example, in the Gulf War, where U.S. forces were responsible for killing about nine British troops during the Gulf War.
00:27:26.000 It's an unfortunate reality of war, but you're not answering my question, which is what is your broader agenda in asking the question?
00:27:34.000 Because I suspect that your question is not limited to your specific ire over an incident that happened in 1967.
00:27:45.000 I think we should question any foreign country's relationship with our government. 0.99
00:27:50.000 That's totally fine, but I'm just wondering why you...
00:27:54.000 Again, I'm perfectly fine with questioning any country's relationship with the United States.
00:27:59.000 But, again, I'm wondering what your motivation is in bringing up a six-decade-old attack as though it is the number one issue in assessing the relationship between Israel and the United States today.
00:28:10.000 Well, many problems persist to this day, but it's interesting that you say six-decade-old incident when there are many people in this audience who are alive for that attack as if this is irrelevant.
00:28:22.000 Well, it doesn't.
00:28:23.000 No, it's just not particularly relevant to assessing the relationship between the United States and Israel today in the same way that in 1967, there are a wide variety of countries with which the United States had different relations.
00:28:36.000 Okay, it's clearly not going to actually answer the question, so I'm happy to move to this one.
00:28:47.000 Unfortunately, this will be the last question.
00:28:51.000 Hi, my name is Natasha, and I'm a TPUSA chapter member at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
00:29:04.000 So my question is, just with the divide in the conservative movement right now, what is your suggestion as to how young people can kind of come together and bridge that divide and just, you know, bring unity right now?
00:29:17.000 So again, I think that unity has to be reliant on first principles.
00:29:21.000 No one would ask conservatives to unite with radical trans activists because that would be silly. 0.96
00:29:26.000 And so we first have to decide what are the principles that we hold in common and then actually determine who are our allies in that particular fight.
00:29:33.000 Now, again, the coalition may shift depending on the issue.
00:29:36.000 That's kind of a normal thing in politics.
00:29:38.000 Sometimes you're going to have different allies than you have with regard to other issues.
00:29:42.000 But when it comes to how young people ought to decide what they believe, that's the thing I most care about.
00:29:46.000 Because if I'm talking about the long-term friends of America, not merely the coalitions of the moment, which break and reform and reform and break constantly.
00:29:54.000 George W. Bush's coalition was obviously not Donald Trump's coalition, and Donald Trump's coalition is not going to be JD Vance's coalition.
00:30:00.000 Meaning every politician has their own coalition.
00:30:02.000 That's the nature of electoral politics.
00:30:04.000 What I'm more concerned about is the trajectory of how people think and what people think.
00:30:09.000 And so before determining how to unify with others, you should first decide what are the things that are important to you, what are your fundamental values, and then you should find people who agree with those fundamental values because the problem is if you don't, then when push comes to shove, things come apart pretty quickly.
00:30:26.000 Take one more.
00:30:30.000 Hi, Ben.
00:30:31.000 Big fan of yours and stuff.
00:30:33.000 And I'm currently a college sophomore.
00:30:37.000 And my university just started a chapter and it got approved.
00:30:43.000 So just for your advice, how can we spread conservatism on campus and any hate or anything like that?
00:30:53.000 Just combat that.
00:30:55.000 And what would your be words of encouragement?
00:30:58.000 I mean, my words of encouragement are, look at Charlie Kirk.
00:31:02.000 Right?
00:31:02.000 That's the word of encouragement.
00:31:03.000 Charlie was your age when he started doing this.
00:31:06.000 Again, I referenced earlier that I met Charlie when he was 18 years old.
00:31:08.000 It was actually at David Horwood's Freedom Center conference, and Charlie was going around trying to meet donors.
00:31:13.000 And I saw this really nerdy, tall, gangly kid walking around trying to meet people, and I started introducing Charlie to a few of his sort of original donors.
00:31:21.000 And by the way, in the first conversation with Charlie, I've said this before, but it's true.
00:31:25.000 Charlie walked away and I turned to my friend Jeremy Boring.
00:31:27.000 I said, that dude's gonna be the head of the RNC one day. 0.75
00:31:29.000 Because Charlie was just that much of a go-getter and it turns out that he was a lot bigger than that.
00:31:33.000 I think that everyone has the potential to do that.
00:31:35.000 Not everybody has the same exact skill set, and you have to find the skill set that best suits you.
00:31:39.000 Maybe you're great at debate.
00:31:40.000 Charlie was great at debate.
00:31:41.000 Actually, what's fascinating about Charlie is that Charlie made himself great at debate.
00:31:45.000 I knew Charlie when he wasn't great at debate and then I knew Charlie when he was great at debate.
00:31:48.000 He actually cultivated a skill set.
00:31:49.000 It was really impressive and cool to watch him do that.
00:31:51.000 That's something you can do too.
00:31:53.000 So again, if Charlie can do that, a raw kid, out of high school, no college degree, and build the most powerful conservative organization in America, then you can do it too, because that's what America is all about.
00:32:05.000 You're an American, go do it.
00:32:06.000 Thank you so much.
00:32:15.000 What was it like, Merlin, to be alone with God?
00:32:24.000 Is that who you think I was alone with?
00:32:30.000 Martin, I knew your father.
00:32:32.000 I am yet convinced that he was not of this world.
00:32:38.000 All men know of the great Taliesin.
00:32:41.000 Who am I, father?
00:32:42.000 That the gods should war for my soul.
00:32:45.000 Princess Garris, savior of our people.
00:32:51.000 I know what the bull got offered you.
00:32:54.000 I was offered the same.
00:32:55.000 And there is a new pirate work in the world.
00:32:59.000 I've seen it.
00:33:01.000 A god who sacrifices what he loves for us.
00:33:04.000 We are each given only one life, singer.
00:33:07.000 No.
00:33:08.000 We're given another.
00:33:12.000 I learned of Yezu the Christ, and I have become his follower.
00:33:16.000 He's waiting on a miracle, and I think you can give him one.
00:33:19.000 Trust in Yezu. 0.87
00:33:21.000 He is the only hope for men like us.
00:33:23.000 Fate of Britain never rests in the hands of the Great Light.
00:33:26.000 Great Light, Great Darkness.
00:33:29.000 Such things mattered to me then.
00:33:32.000 What matters to you now, Mistress of Lies?
00:33:35.000 You, nephew.
00:33:40.000 The sword of a high king.
00:33:44.000 How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield?
00:33:52.000 Still clinging to the promises of a god who has abandoned you.
00:33:55.000 I cannot take up that sword again.
00:33:58.000 You know what you must do.
00:34:01.000 Great life, forgive me.