The Charlie Kirk Show - America Fest 2022’s Opening Speech

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk show, my opening speech at America Fest.

00:00:04.000 Make sure you get involved with Turning PointUSA today at tpusa.com.

00:00:09.000 I encourage you to start a high school chapter or a college chapter today.

00:00:13.000 Support our program at charliekirk.com slash support.

00:00:18.000 That is charliekirk.com slash support.

00:00:22.000 It goes to help our program at the end of the year to hire more staff and put on a better show for you.

00:00:28.000 If this show has meant something to you over the last year, if we have made you think, made you dive deeper into the things that are beautiful and matter, then please consider supporting us.

00:00:37.000 No pressure.

00:00:38.000 CharlieKirk.com slash support.

00:00:42.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:43.000 Here we go.

00:00:44.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:46.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.

00:00:48.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:51.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:55.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:56.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:57.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:01:05.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:14.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:17.000 Brought to you by Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage.

00:01:20.000 For personalized loan services, you can count on.

00:01:22.000 Go to andrewandtodd.com, the wonderfulandrewandtodd.com.

00:01:29.000 Great to see all of you.

00:01:32.000 I just want to compliment our Turning Point staff for the promotion, the marketing, the branding of this world-class event.

00:01:40.000 I mean, this is just extraordinary, isn't it?

00:01:43.000 And one of my favorite takeaways from today is to show that in Maricopa County, you can get people through lines effectively and print badges and right Maricopa County.

00:02:01.000 If you want to learn how to get 10,000 people through a line and print something with almost no problems, come to a Turning Point USA event.

00:02:09.000 That's all I got to say.

00:02:12.000 Too soon is what they're saying.

00:02:14.000 And they say it helps with healing.

00:02:18.000 Honored to be here, everybody.

00:02:20.000 And thank you guys for taking your valuable time to be here and to get recharged, re-energized, and to think deeply in the next couple of days of why we fight and why we sacrifice so much of our money and our energy and our time.

00:02:40.000 You see, we're in a very important time in our nation's history.

00:02:44.000 And we as a movement, as a conservative movement, need a vision.

00:02:48.000 Without a vision, the people perish, is what it says in the scriptures.

00:02:52.000 And I had the opportunity to travel the country and talk to lots of different people.

00:02:57.000 And we have been lacking a coherent vision of what we as conservatives believe in and what we are fighting for.

00:03:04.000 Now, we know what the bad guys are fighting for.

00:03:08.000 And a movement with no vision, we're nothing more than just a gang, just a random group of people with kind of shared ideas and shared values.

00:03:16.000 But a vision, something that we are aiming for, something as a movement that we strive for, that we work for, all of a sudden will make everything make sense again.

00:03:26.000 You see, there's so many people here that are taking the bold and courageous step to homeschool your kids.

00:03:32.000 We're our homeschool mothers and fathers here that have said in the last couple of years or in the last year, I'm going to go run for school board.

00:03:40.000 There's plenty of people here that have run for school board, people that have run for office.

00:03:44.000 Who here knocked on doors this midterm cycle for candidates?

00:03:47.000 You see, this room is the room that always goes the extra mile.

00:03:55.000 But one of the things we have to take a step back and say, well, what exactly are we fighting for?

00:03:59.000 What does success look like as a vision and as a movement?

00:04:02.000 So, the vision of our opponents and the Marxist totalitarian left is filled with venom, hatred, darkness, resentment, arrogance, and despair. 0.63

00:04:15.000 We can go at length, and you're going to hear about it from our amazing speakers about how the totalitarian left has taken over our institutions, how they're teaching our children this vile garbage of critical race theory and this woke nonsense. 0.88

00:04:30.000 We know what they want.

00:04:31.000 They want power, they want control, they want uniformity, and they want submission.

00:04:38.000 Now, this is not some sort of abstract concept.

00:04:41.000 One of the reasons why I believe that Turning Point USA is the most important organization in America is because we go to places where there are not a lot of conservatives.

00:04:51.000 At Turning Point USA, we play offense with a sense of urgency to go to places that we are in the ideological and philosophical minority.

00:04:58.000 And guess what?

00:04:59.000 We're not always welcomed when we go to these college campuses, but we are going to win when we go to places that we are not always welcomed and we go there anyway.

00:05:08.000 And our Turning Point USA students and chapters are doing that every single day.

00:05:13.000 And so, recently, you probably saw my visit at the University of New Mexico, my mostly peaceful visit to the University of New Mexico, where they did bring out the welcoming committee of the riot squad.

00:05:25.000 And these terrorists were there at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, so bothered that our amazing Turning Point students wanted to have an event about free speech, the Constitution, and conservative ideas.

00:05:38.000 Enjoy this short clip of what we just experienced.

00:05:51.000 What do you think about the cops?

00:06:06.000 What do you think about the cops?

00:06:07.000 Cops?

00:06:08.000 You know what I say?

00:06:09.000 Americans?

00:06:10.000 Americans.

00:06:11.000 Especially the cops.

00:06:14.000 Yeah, really pleasant and joyful people.

00:06:16.000 They're a movement of happiness and uplifting positivity.

00:06:19.000 But we did not allow these terrorists that try to prevent our students to be able to go to the event, that did everything to cancel it, to win.

00:06:28.000 We made a point at Turning Point USA to continue the event, saying we don't care the cost, we don't care what it's going to take.

00:06:34.000 And we also said, hey, if you're going to act like a domestic terrorist on a college campus, then we are going to mock you relentlessly.

00:06:42.000 Enjoy this.

00:06:44.000 At how peaceful they are.

00:06:46.000 Because we want peace.

00:06:51.000 We're about solidarity and bringing peace here.

00:06:56.000 But we're here to show them that love.

00:07:07.000 This is why we're going to win.

00:07:09.000 I mean, there is no way these people long-term are going to win.

00:07:12.000 And it's going to require courage and boldness to go to places where, even though they deploy their paid activists, we're going to keep on showing up.

00:07:20.000 In fact, I think we have our turning point leaders from the University of New Mexico here somewhere.

00:07:25.000 And those are the real heroes that have to go to class every single day, that are spit on, that are called names, and they continue to fight.

00:07:37.000 So, what is our vision as conservatives?

00:07:40.000 We know their vision is one of despair and confusion, the destroying of distinctions.

00:07:47.000 One of the things the totalitarian left wants to do for our society is to destroy the distinction between God and man, between man and woman, between good and evil.

00:07:59.000 They want to blur the lines that allow us to live in a free and stable and civil society.

00:08:05.000 Because you know what?

00:08:06.000 They get a lot more powerful that way.

00:08:07.000 But our vision needs to be clear and bold.

00:08:10.000 How about this?

00:08:11.000 We want a country where our kids love America again.

00:08:17.000 We want a country where kids are taught about Jefferson and Madison and Jay.

00:08:22.000 A country where they're taught about Abraham Lincoln and the beauty of the Declaration and the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.

00:08:28.000 We want a country where kids are taught that if you judge somebody on the basis of skin, you are a racist and we should instead care about character, not the complexion of somebody's skin.

00:08:44.000 Our vision for America, it's hard to believe I even have to say this, is we want a country where kids can be kids again.

00:08:52.000 We want a country where kids are safe from groomer teachers and predators who are trying to put prescriptive pharmaceuticals into their bodies that will do irreversible damage.

00:09:06.000 We want kids to be kids again in America.

00:09:13.000 We want to live in a country where puberty is not treated like some sort of illness that needs irreversible medical surgery.

00:09:22.000 We want to live in a country where the innocence of children is preserved and protected.

00:09:28.000 We want to live in a country where we don't have to have the debate, have to have some sort of, we don't have a debate, there is no debate about pedophilia, period, end of story.

00:09:35.000 We want to live in a country where that's a non-negotiable.

00:09:41.000 Our vision is that we want to value wisdom, eternal principles, prudence, common sense, more than someone who has a PhD in North African lesbian poetry.

00:09:59.000 I believe there is more wisdom in the American plumbing community than at Harvard or Yale.

00:10:11.000 This one hits home.

00:10:13.000 We want to live in a country and build a country and rebuild the country where it's easy to be a parent, where it's easy to get married and have children.

00:10:23.000 If we as conservatives stand for anything, it should be to tell our young people that one of the most beautiful things you can do is to get married and have kids.

00:10:37.000 And right now, that is increasingly difficult in this confusing, chaotic time.

00:10:45.000 Young people say, well, it's just too expensive to get married and have children. 0.99

00:10:48.000 It's just too difficult.

00:10:49.000 Or I don't want to participate in the patriarchy.

00:10:53.000 What a robbery of joy.

00:10:56.000 I could say this now personally.

00:10:57.000 We welcomed the daughter into the world back in August.

00:11:00.000 Praise God.

00:11:02.000 To think that children, young people, are growing up and being told that there's something oppressive or tyrannical about the covenant between a man and a woman and having children.

00:11:13.000 Hey, we as conservatives, if there's anything that we stand for, it is to be fruitful and to multiply.

00:11:20.000 And if you look at what the left is trying to do, less children because human are a stain on the environment.

00:11:28.000 You look at every one of the things they're trying to teach, like, oh, you don't need kids.

00:11:30.000 You could be happy with, you know, video games and some sort of promotion at your corporate job.

00:11:36.000 Maybe that is for you.

00:11:37.000 But one of the reasons why our generation, it's very sad, is the most depressed, suicidal, alcohol-addicted, and drug-addicted generation in history.

00:11:47.000 Is the stuff that gives you meaning they have been told is evil.

00:11:52.000 And if there is anything our movement does, it is to tell the young people in this room and across the country, it's okay to get married and have children.

00:12:00.000 In fact, you should get married and have children.

00:12:06.000 Now, I want to take a step back and brag on the phenomenal, unprecedented, and spectacular work that Turning Point USA is doing.

00:12:18.000 Many of you know some of the work we do on college campuses, as we saw there.

00:12:23.000 In fact, I have one more video to show, which goes to show, again, one of the things, you just have to mock the left, okay?

00:12:29.000 These people make it so easy.

00:12:30.000 Joe Bob, who's one of our best, most talented contributors, he's amazing.

00:12:34.000 He goes to these college campuses and he just gets these people to open up.

00:12:38.000 This is one of my favorite, and it's at University of Texas, Austin.

00:12:42.000 I'll give you three guesses how you know his political affiliation as soon as you see a video of him.

00:12:48.000 They're only there to make money.

00:12:49.000 I mean, that's their long-term profit maker.

00:12:52.000 It's content.

00:12:53.000 So don't give them the content.

00:12:54.000 Just make fun of them.

00:12:56.000 Ruin their content.

00:12:57.000 Don't engage with it.

00:12:58.000 Come here to our campuses.

00:13:00.000 You're making a out of us with your cleverness. 1.00

00:13:03.000 It's honestly pathetic. 0.99

00:13:05.000 You think this is a real job? 0.99

00:13:06.000 I mean, we're out here getting real jobs and you're bothering us day to day.

00:13:13.000 Yeah, I mean, for real.

00:13:14.000 Like, that's the best thing you can do because you're not going to beat them in a debate.

00:13:18.000 I sure as hell can't.

00:13:20.000 You know?

00:13:21.000 Like, it's their job.

00:13:22.000 Don't talk to them.

00:13:23.000 It's not worth it.

00:13:24.000 Make fun of them.

00:13:25.000 When they show up, make fun of them.

00:13:26.000 Don't talk to them.

00:13:27.000 Make fun of them.

00:13:28.000 They're only here to create content.

00:13:31.000 Can't win and debate.

00:13:33.000 The work we do on college and high school campuses is moving the dial, but I don't think everyone understands the depth or the sophistication of what we've been able to accomplish at Turning Point USA.

00:13:43.000 First, from a big picture perspective, from a worldview perspective.

00:13:47.000 In the last five years, according to Morning Consult, in 2017, when Turning Point was just getting started, when our annual event was like the size of that seating section over there, 47% of our nation's young people self-identified with a liberal worldview.

00:14:04.000 47%.

00:14:06.000 Five years later, today, 34% of our nation's young people, a 13-point collapse.

00:14:13.000 13 points.

00:14:16.000 Now, full disclosure, more young people still identify as liberal as conservative.

00:14:21.000 Conservative increased by one point.

00:14:23.000 But look what we're up against.

00:14:25.000 The education system, digital social media.

00:14:27.000 But what we are seeing is movement in the right direction.

00:14:30.000 And it's not happening by itself.

00:14:32.000 At Turning Point USA, we are on pace to hit 1,000 high school chapters across the country, high school chapters all across the country.

00:14:40.000 And if you are a high school student out there and you are not yet involved, you have got to go to our booth in the exhibit hall and start a high school chapter.

00:14:48.000 We just launched a year and a half ago TPUSA Faith, which is an incredible, I see some of our pastors here all across the country.

00:14:58.000 We hosted an amazing pastor summit, over 400 pastors and wives at our pastor summit.

00:15:05.000 And if you ask me, one of the most important things that needs to happen in American Christianity is we need to excommunicate the demonic, anti-biblical idea of wokeism out of the American church immediately.

00:15:26.000 The chapters that we're starting on college and high school campuses, it's not just a matter of having a group on campus, but we are creating students that are having to persevere and endure criticism, backlash, slander, smear, opposition.

00:15:42.000 One of the reasons why I believe we are going to win is because our young people are tougher than the liberals.

00:15:51.000 Our opposition is fragile.

00:15:55.000 Our opposition can't hear a speaker without trying to deploy the shock troops.

00:16:00.000 Our opposition has not had to contend or fight for their beliefs.

00:16:04.000 You go talk to some of our amazing students at Turning Point USA here, what they have to go through.

00:16:09.000 And yes, we could say, oh, yeah, feel sorry for us, the persecution, the graded differently, getting kicked out of class, all of that.

00:16:15.000 But guess what?

00:16:16.000 You are seeing a conservative movement that is growing stronger the more they fight.

00:16:21.000 What gives me hope is that what we see on these campuses is a generation that understands the only way you beat the left is you never give up and you never give them an inch, period.

00:16:34.000 It doesn't matter what they call you.

00:16:36.000 It doesn't matter the names.

00:16:37.000 It doesn't matter the smear.

00:16:38.000 It doesn't matter the slander at all.

00:16:40.000 The media department at Turning Point USA reaching hundreds of millions of people at daily shows with Jack Posobiec, Drew Hernandez, Alex Clark, millions of people on Instagram and Facebook every single day, impacting culture, making persuasive content.

00:16:56.000 Not to mention the newly launched Turning Point Academy, which we're actually having the Educator Summit right now.

00:17:03.000 And if any of you want to homeschool your kids, or if you want to get your kids at a government school, you should do that yesterday and talk to us at Turning Point Academy how we can supply curriculum, training, and have you execute a rescue mission for your kid or grandkid out of the government schools and at a Turning Point Academy and say, well, Charlie, you know, what do you stand for at Turning Point Academy?

00:17:25.000 Super simple.

00:17:26.000 We believe there is a God and you are not him.

00:17:28.000 We believe in the natural law.

00:17:31.000 No CRT, no wokeism, no queer theory, no LGBTQ nonsense, no postmodernism, no post-structuralism, pro-American, pro-freedom, pro-liberty ideas and curriculum for the next generation.

00:17:45.000 Unapologetically educating the next generation around truth.

00:17:56.000 Now, I got to really brag on our team here because what you are seeing from the beauty of the stage here to the entire experience is being pulled off mainly by people in their late 20s.

00:18:10.000 This is an amazing thing.

00:18:11.000 I got to be very honest with you.

00:18:14.000 There's a lot to be critical of, the younger generation.

00:18:18.000 I get it. 0.97

00:18:18.000 But it's getting a little tired when I have to hear that, oh, you know, young people are just miserably liberal and lazy and hopeless. 0.97

00:18:27.000 Some are. 0.87

00:18:28.000 But I want you to look around these next couple of days.

00:18:31.000 Introduce yourself to a Turning Point student.

00:18:34.000 Go up to one of our booths.

00:18:35.000 You will see some of the wisest, most courageous, most well-educated, the most committed citizens that you could come of any age whatsoever.

00:18:47.000 You say, Charlie, I'm looking for hope.

00:18:49.000 I'm looking for optimism.

00:18:51.000 Look around you.

00:18:53.000 Look at what's been pulled off from the thousands of high school chapters, thousands, you know, thousand high school chapters, the hundreds of college chapters that we have, from the media enterprise that we have, the Turning Point Academy, all these different things.

00:19:04.000 It is mostly and mainly led by a younger generation that knows that we do not have the luxury to give up.

00:19:13.000 That this is being led against the totalitarian Marxist left.

00:19:18.000 And so this is really the question in front of us the next couple of days.

00:19:21.000 It is the challenge of our generation.

00:19:23.000 The challenge of our generation in front of us is which direction do we want to go?

00:19:28.000 The direction of a free society, a direction where we are never going to mandate a vaccine again and someone will lose their job.

00:19:35.000 Are we going to do that?

00:19:40.000 Are we going to go in the direction that reasserts the principles of the independent judiciary and consent to the governed and separation of powers?

00:19:49.000 and the greatest political document ever written in the U.S. Constitution.

00:19:53.000 Or are we going to go in this other direction?

00:19:55.000 Here's what I do know, is that there's a fair amount of people that are disappointed and upset because of things that have happened in the last couple months.

00:20:04.000 And that's understandable.

00:20:06.000 But the test of this generation, the test of all of us, the test of our country that is unfolding in front of us, I truly believe is, are we going to give up against an opposition that is so entrenched, doing so much damage?

00:20:25.000 And I'm going to read an email I received.

00:20:27.000 And we get lots of emails on the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:20:29.000 Thank you, by the way, all of you that watch our program.

00:20:31.000 It really blesses us, truly.

00:20:33.000 Thank you.

00:20:34.000 It's a great blessing.

00:20:36.000 I'll read an email.

00:20:37.000 Charlie, and you might have saw this episode.

00:20:39.000 Charlie, I intentionally no longer vote.

00:20:42.000 I have disengaged from the system.

00:20:44.000 It's time to watch America burn.

00:20:46.000 It's been nice while it lasted. 0.98

00:20:47.000 Now, you might say, Charlie, that's a troll.

00:20:49.000 No, he's actually a donor to Turning Point USA, which is super weird, right?

00:20:53.000 It's like, why would you donate?

00:20:54.000 People are sometimes walking contradictions.

00:20:57.000 I understand that there is a temptation to give up.

00:21:02.000 Charlie, it's overwhelming.

00:21:04.000 They seem to be able to do everything they want to do whenever they want to do it.

00:21:08.000 But look at what we accomplished in just this last year.

00:21:11.000 Not politically.

00:21:14.000 No.

00:21:15.000 A year ago, we were up on stage here talking about how the fight on social media was largely helpless.

00:21:22.000 A year ago, we talked about how we were never going to get our speech back and maybe we'll have to start an alternative or whatever it is.

00:21:29.000 And one year later, yes, because of the courage of the world's richest man, but also because we created the environment where it was popular and necessary, Twitter has been purchased and liberated from the Marxist Silicon Valley left.

00:21:47.000 And let me just re-emphasize, God bless Elon Musk for what he has done by purchasing Twitter.

00:21:59.000 I was debating whether or not to come out with a do not amplify shirt.

00:22:04.000 It was a debate.

00:22:05.000 That's the only way they can win.

00:22:09.000 We are going to win in the end because the only way they've been able to have even a slight advantage against us is by suppressing us without our consent, censoring us, outright cheating.

00:22:22.000 You see, part of the moment that we are in is all of a sudden recognizing and realizing that the other side is playing for keeps.

00:22:32.000 I don't even think we've started the fight, to be perfectly honest.

00:22:34.000 I don't think we've even begun to get into the arena to start to fight.

00:22:38.000 Homeschooling has nearly doubled in the last two years in America.

00:22:42.000 Nearly doubled.

00:22:45.000 You look around here.

00:22:46.000 This, by the way, congratulations, you are now part of the largest multi-day event in the history of the conservative movement.

00:22:52.000 Look around.

00:22:53.000 Well over 10,800 people.

00:22:57.000 Tickets purchased.

00:22:58.000 That's a sign that things are moving, that there's momentum.

00:23:01.000 And I'm going to close with this, which is this room is the greatest room of untapped potential the Republic has ever seen.

00:23:12.000 Yes, you are doing a lot.

00:23:14.000 You're giving money.

00:23:15.000 You're sending your prayers.

00:23:16.000 You're praying and fasting.

00:23:17.000 You're educating your kids.

00:23:19.000 I totally understand all of that.

00:23:21.000 This room can change America by deciding to change America.

00:23:26.000 The untapped potential in this room will lead to somebody who's inspired by this speech.

00:23:30.000 Similar, by the way, to kind of turning point alumni, we could call her.

00:23:34.000 She started with us, Ana Paulina, who was with us for three years and will now be a member of Congress coming into January.

00:23:41.000 Similar to Austin Smith, turning point alumni who will now be the youngest member of the Arizona legislature coming into Arizona this January.

00:23:56.000 I could go story after story after story, but my charge to you these next couple days is to be willing to be challenged.

00:24:07.000 Do not have the attitude where you say, Charlie, I'm doing a lot.

00:24:10.000 I'm doing too much.

00:24:11.000 Maybe you are, but we can all do more.

00:24:13.000 In fact, it requires us to do more.

00:24:16.000 10,800 people that decide to up their game in the next calendar year terrifies the left.

00:24:24.000 10,800 people that will then be dispersed across America.

00:24:28.000 We have all 50 states represented, by the way.

00:24:31.000 All 50 states that then go back and say, I'm going to focus on school boards.

00:24:36.000 I'm going to focus on getting rid of the groomers and our public education system.

00:24:40.000 Maybe I run a business and I'm going to double the size of my business so that I can compete against Goldman Sachs or I can compete against Coca-Cola.

00:24:47.000 Whatever it is, whatever you're called to do, do more of it.

00:24:50.000 And that is the challenge in front of us.

00:24:53.000 You see, the temptation that I believe the enemy is putting towards us is to say, my actions do not matter and we will not see victory.

00:25:04.000 If you find yourself getting into that thinking, you have to stop yourself and say, wait a second, we live in the most amazing nation ever to exist.

00:25:11.000 And I'm so tired of people saying, well, Charlie, nations come and nations fall.

00:25:15.000 But there's never been a country like America.

00:25:17.000 It's the freest nation ever to exist in the history of the world.

00:25:20.000 There's never been a constitution like our constitution.

00:25:23.000 And guess what?

00:25:26.000 You look around in this room.

00:25:27.000 Don't give me this nonsense that Americans are giving up.

00:25:30.000 That is not true.

00:25:31.000 In fact, after the developments of the last couple of months, I'm actually more convicted than ever to fight.

00:25:39.000 I am more charged up to make sure that we fight the evil entrenched in our land, to support the good guys, to put in more hours, to grow to more chapters, to get more pastors and more churches to speak out boldly.

00:25:50.000 No, no, no.

00:25:51.000 The bad guys would love nothing more than for us the next couple days to have a pity party of misery and say, feel sorry for us.

00:25:58.000 And maybe, you know, it'll work out in the future.

00:26:01.000 No, we are the masters of our own destiny.

00:26:04.000 We are the recipients of a nation that we did not build, but we inherited it.

00:26:08.000 We are going to celebrate that nation.

00:26:10.000 And the next four days, we are going to commit to a plan of action to take back our country and to create something bold and beautiful for the next generation.

00:26:20.000 God bless you guys.

00:26:21.000 Thank you so much.

00:26:25.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:26:27.000 Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:26:31.000 Thank you so much for listening and God bless.

00:26:35.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - December 30, 2022

America Fest 2022’s Opening Speech

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