The Charlie Kirk Show - Ask Charlie Anything 134: Fix Colleges, or Ditch Them? What is Stoicism? What Made 1776 So Remarkable?

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today on the Charlie Kirk show, an ask me anything episode where I take your questions about all sorts of different topics.

00:00:07.000 Project Veritas, the 1619 project.

00:00:11.000 We talk about stoicism.

00:00:13.000 We talk about Mark Cerilius and George Santos.

00:00:16.000 It's quite an episode.

00:00:17.000 Email me your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:20.000 Get involved with turningpointusa at tpusa.com.

00:00:24.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:28.000 Start a high school chapter or a college chapter today at tpusa.com.

00:00:34.000 Buckle up, everybody, here we go.

00:00:37.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:39.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:41.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:44.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:47.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:48.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:49.000 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.

00:00:58.000 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.

00:01:07.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:09.000 Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.

00:01:19.000 Amount of questions we're getting on the James O'Keefe thing is overwhelming.

00:01:23.000 I have mentioned this a couple times throughout the hours.

00:01:25.000 I'm going to do it again.

00:01:27.000 But email me, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:01:28.000 We're going to go through that.

00:01:29.000 I'm also going to answer some questions on stoicism.

00:01:32.000 We have a fair amount of questions on that.

00:01:34.000 And there are other questions as well.

00:01:37.000 As well as should I go to college, we will address that.

00:01:41.000 Okay, so let's get into first and foremost.

00:01:43.000 Someone said this here.

00:01:45.000 Someone said it, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:01:47.000 Charlie, I love your program.

00:01:49.000 Thank you.

00:01:50.000 And I'm going to get my kids involved with Turning Point USA.

00:01:52.000 Thank you.

00:01:54.000 And I love James O'Keefe.

00:01:55.000 I love when you have him on the show.

00:01:56.000 Have you spoken to James?

00:01:57.000 Is he okay, Brooke from Billings, Montana?

00:01:59.000 I have.

00:02:00.000 I spoke to James O'Keefe last evening.

00:02:02.000 I'm not going to divulge any private information from that call.

00:02:04.000 I can say, though, that he's going through a tough time, as you could possibly imagine.

00:02:08.000 And he needs your support.

00:02:09.000 He needs your prayers.

00:02:10.000 This is a rallying cry and should be for James O'Keefe.

00:02:14.000 James O'Keefe has been there on every tough fight.

00:02:20.000 And look, I don't want to be too speculative.

00:02:24.000 However, I do not think it is a coincidence that a lot of this activity bubbles up to the surface when James O'Keefe delivers a successful shot on target against Pfizer.

00:02:42.000 I'm not saying that Pfizer is behind it.

00:02:44.000 I'm not saying that.

00:02:46.000 It's just interesting.

00:02:47.000 It was the most successful video that Project Veritas has ever done.

00:02:53.000 Objectively said it is like 30 million views.

00:02:56.000 It was extraordinary.

00:02:58.000 It's suggested that Pfizer is now involved in gain of function research and has been.

00:03:03.000 It should result in massive congressional inquiries.

00:03:06.000 And then just days after that, all this drama with James O'Keefe.

00:03:11.000 Regardless of whether it some people are saying, well, Charlie, regardless of whether James O'Keefe is with Project Veritas or not, he has a bright future.

00:03:18.000 Of course, that is true.

00:03:21.000 But my position, and I've communicated this both publicly and privately, as someone that knows how difficult it is to build something from nothing, is absent federal crimes that were committed.

00:03:37.000 And I don't know if that happened.

00:03:39.000 And I certainly don't think so, because I've asked and I've asked, and that does not seem to be the case.

00:03:44.000 Of course, there's lines for everything, so it's not just a blank check.

00:03:48.000 But if it's true that James was cruel to people and mean to people, very subjective, but let's pretend he was, and that he was calling people names and that he was spending money to bring people to a theater production, then there should be some sort of path to restoration.

00:04:09.000 That's not a reason to kick somebody out of their own organization.

00:04:13.000 And, you know, people say, well, Charlie, there are two separate things, James O'Keeffe and Project Veritas.

00:04:19.000 I mean, come on.

00:04:21.000 It is not unheard of for a founder to be kicked out of a company that they started.

00:04:29.000 It's also not unheard of for the person to be kicked out of the company that they started and then they brought back in, like Steve Jobs.

00:04:35.000 Steve Jobs was kicked out and then he was brought back in.

00:04:38.000 And so the saga with O'Keeffe is this, is that I truly believe that unless there's some massive smoke and gun revelation that comes to the surface, that there needs to be a path for restoration and reinstitution for James O'Keefe to continue to run Project Veritas.

00:05:05.000 And at breaking at the time of the board meeting, there was this cease and desist letter sent to Project Veritas' board by many major donors.

00:05:12.000 I know some of those donors, and I'm not privy to say the details behind that, but I've been looped in on this.

00:05:19.000 And James O'Keefe's future with the company is in peril.

00:05:24.000 Now, I have been told by Project Veritas insiders that there's more to the story, and you're going to learn about it, and you're going to see that we're doing everything we possibly can to comply with state and federal law.

00:05:37.000 I sure hope the reason is good enough to kick somebody out of the organization that they founded.

00:05:44.000 That's a very high threshold.

00:05:45.000 It's not impossible.

00:05:46.000 And obviously, no one is above accountability.

00:05:49.000 But look, it takes a lot of energy and intensity to build an organization from scratch.

00:05:57.000 It's not easy.

00:06:00.000 I travel 300 days a year.

00:06:02.000 I did that for nine years.

00:06:05.000 Not to mention get the podcast and the radio program, speaking, deal with the press, the media, hire staff, manage staff.

00:06:10.000 I have a great team and all that.

00:06:12.000 But just knowing, because it was kind of very interesting, James was a fellow traveler in building Turning Point USA Project Veritas.

00:06:19.000 We were almost kind of in harmony, right?

00:06:24.000 And James is a very good person.

00:06:31.000 And so some of this just seems very inconsistent with the person I know that he is.

00:06:35.000 But if he's really intense, okay, fine.

00:06:37.000 I've never experienced that.

00:06:38.000 I'm sure that anybody who is a creator at that time, I know this, anyone who's a creator at the top level tends to kind of be high octane.

00:06:46.000 And, you know, producer Andrews said, you're a wild man too, Charlie.

00:06:50.000 Then he says, but your faith in your wife and your team keep you in a solid spot.

00:06:53.000 Thank you.

00:06:53.000 No, that's actually very true.

00:06:55.000 Left to my own devices, I would be Julius Caesar and it would not end well.

00:07:00.000 And so the sequence of events that's unfolding at Project Veritas, I hope ends in a place where James O'Keefe is more empowered than ever before to hold tyranny accountable, more empowered than ever before to be able to hold the worst aspects of society kennel.

00:07:19.000 My fear is that now the fabulous work that has been achieved by Project Veritas, the amazing success that they have been able to achieve is now being put in jeopardy.

00:07:38.000 That is my fear.

00:07:39.000 And that's not good for anybody.

00:07:41.000 So we're going to keep a close eye on this.

00:07:43.000 The cease and desist letter was sent to the Project Veritas board by major donors as James O'Keefe's future with the company is now in peril.

00:07:54.000 And look, people say that he was an awful person to work for, some of the employees, but he demanded excellence and he certainly got it.

00:08:02.000 Look, the old expression is if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

00:08:05.000 Everyone can improve, right?

00:08:07.000 Everyone can become a better person and all that.

00:08:09.000 That's not a reason to send him to ALBA.

00:08:13.000 Okay?

00:08:13.000 It's not a reason to put him into exile.

00:08:16.000 If you don't get the ALBA reference, it was, I think it was an island in the Mediterranean.

00:08:21.000 Blake would know.

00:08:22.000 And Napoleon was just kind of sent out into exile.

00:08:25.000 Yes, of course it's Napoleon reference.

00:08:27.000 I'm saying, though, that where the actual island was is a mystery to me.

00:08:30.000 It's actually where Napoleon did most of his Bible reading, became a much more spiritual person.

00:08:36.000 We need James O'Keefe.

00:08:38.000 The movement needs James O'Keefe.

00:08:41.000 I have not yet seen a piece of evidence that makes me believe that this is irreconcilable.

00:08:48.000 I have not seen a piece of data or heard something where I say, send him out to pasture.

00:08:55.000 And of course, those lines exist.

00:08:57.000 Trust me, those lines exist.

00:08:58.000 I have not seen it get near that.

00:09:01.000 They say, oh, financial mismanagement.

00:09:02.000 Well, be precise with your language.

00:09:04.000 Is it financial mismanagement?

00:09:06.000 Is it abuse?

00:09:07.000 Is it neglect?

00:09:08.000 Is it embezzlement?

00:09:09.000 Mismanagement is an incredibly subjective term.

00:09:12.000 Okay, then get him in to a better process with a chief of staff, with a CFO, have him restore or repay any questionable finances or expenses, make him chairman of the board, give him a team, make him a buffer from the staff.

00:09:25.000 All this is solvable.

00:09:28.000 But potentially putting him in exile and having his future in jeopardy, unless there's something else.

00:09:33.000 Look, those lines exist.

00:09:37.000 Look, kind of at this point, you got to start giving us the proof, right?

00:09:40.000 Or restore James O'Keefe in his position.

00:09:45.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:10:46.000 I just want to have one final thought on the James O'Keefe thing.

00:10:49.000 And I understand nonprofit law pretty well.

00:10:53.000 I understand structure of organizations and people say, well, Charlie, it's not his.

00:10:56.000 He was just a board member.

00:10:59.000 Let's not fool ourselves.

00:11:00.000 He was the life source of that successful organization.

00:11:04.000 I think that my favorite word in the English language, earn, that earns you a chance not to be exiled.

00:11:12.000 All right, let's get to some questions here.

00:11:14.000 Okay, I want to make sure I get the tweet pulled up that references.

00:11:17.000 Yes, hey, Charlie, did you see Christopher Rufo's take on college?

00:11:21.000 It's obviously something I'd love to get your opinions on.

00:11:25.000 Thanks so much.

00:11:26.000 Aha, this is a great, I actually hadn't looked at the tweet till now.

00:11:29.000 Okay, the conservative don't go to college meme is a mistake, Christopher Rufo says, driven by a sense of fatalism and inferiority.

00:11:39.000 The right attitude is to quote make colleges better so we can send our children to the kind of institution they deserve.

00:11:46.000 I think Christopher Ruffo is a special person, but I think he's totally wrong here.

00:11:50.000 And smart people can disagree.

00:11:53.000 So, and I actually had this, I had a robust conversation about this with Dennis Prager and Alan Estrin from Prager University.

00:12:00.000 Dennis and I were speaking at Arizona State University together, and I'll kind of give you an update on that because that was that was really interesting and illuminating in some regards.

00:12:09.000 So, Alan and I got to talking, and Alan's a very learned man, and Dennis is beyond a learned man.

00:12:16.000 And he prompted that all three of us were talking out of nowhere.

00:12:20.000 I said, Alan, what is the solution?

00:12:21.000 He said, It's very simple, and he's very stoic, and he's very serious.

00:12:27.000 Burn it all down.

00:12:29.000 I was like, What?

00:12:30.000 I was like, I agree, obviously.

00:12:31.000 He said, You just got to burn it to a crisp.

00:12:34.000 There is no redeeming value to these institutions.

00:12:38.000 And I mean, I, it's not a shock.

00:12:41.000 I sympathize with that sentiment.

00:12:43.000 However, here's, and I'm, I do outline this in my book, The College Scam.

00:12:48.000 You guys can check it out in great detail.

00:12:50.000 What's been interesting, as a side note, to the publication of my book, I have not had a snobbish response to my book, The College Scam.

00:12:59.000 The MAGA doctrine, tons of snobbery of responding.

00:13:03.000 Campus Battleground, a ton of snobbery, time for a turning point, you know, all these like kinds of people.

00:13:07.000 Interestingly enough, the college scam was just largely ignored.

00:13:11.000 So, there's two ways to take that.

00:13:13.000 I don't want to act as if, you know, take myself too seriously, but one take is like, okay, Charlie, just keep saying the same thing over and over again, not worth our time.

00:13:20.000 The other take is that it's a hard argument to refute.

00:13:24.000 And because I did source it so comprehensively, the data is there.

00:13:28.000 It's a very, very deep book.

00:13:30.000 It is the most comprehensive indictment of the college industry that exists.

00:13:35.000 I spent a lot of time on it.

00:13:36.000 Our team was fabulous in researching it and were able to distill it together.

00:13:40.000 And so, but I do wonder, Christopher Rufo says that we should make colleges better.

00:13:47.000 How?

00:13:48.000 Where has that ever worked?

00:13:51.000 Now, building new colleges totally supports that.

00:13:54.000 Supporting the ones that are already good, like Hillsdale College, yes.

00:13:59.000 But where has there been a meaningful recapturing of the institution?

00:14:05.000 Now, to Christopher Rufo's credit, and again, we're just disagreeing.

00:14:08.000 I think he's a fabulous person.

00:14:10.000 He's trying to do that at New College in Sarasota, Florida.

00:14:13.000 He's testing out this premise, and I am going to be his most enthusiastic cheerleader.

00:14:19.000 But just color me a fair more cynical in this regard: that you're talking about the same thing as saying, Well, we need to make the FBI better, we need to make the IRS better.

00:14:28.000 It's the same type of personnel, same sort of attitude, that same sort of deep state character or lack thereof that exists within a college that also exists in the inner agencies of our government.

00:14:43.000 And so, people ask me all the time, they say, Charlie, do you think I should send my kid to college?

00:14:47.000 The answer is it's kind of a lawyerly answer.

00:14:49.000 It depends, right?

00:14:50.000 But the answer is usually no.

00:14:51.000 We have way too many kids that go to college.

00:14:53.000 It's, of course, a scam.

00:14:54.000 If you go to college, you have to check the right boxes.

00:14:56.000 I talk about it in my book, but I'll just kind of conclude on this.

00:15:00.000 At Arizona State University, where 37 out of 47 of the professors signed a letter saying they don't want Dennis Prager and I to speak on campus, I was very moved at the pre-speech reception where a mother of four came up to me and she was really, really sweet.

00:15:15.000 And she said, Charlie, none of my four sons speak to me anymore.

00:15:19.000 We have five grandkids.

00:15:20.000 We're not allowed to see them.

00:15:22.000 I said, Why?

00:15:24.000 She said, Well, they went to college and we regret that.

00:15:27.000 I said, You regret sending them to college?

00:15:28.000 Oh, yeah, if we would do it again, we would never do it again.

00:15:30.000 I hear this frequently, I hear this quite often.

00:15:34.000 And they say until we change our politics and our beliefs and our views and our worldview, we're not allowed to see our grandkids.

00:15:42.000 So holding grandkids hostage for political views, yes, that comes directly from college.

00:15:47.000 That is not normal.

00:15:48.000 That is a learned sociopathic evil behavior that somehow you should disconnect from your family because you view politics differently.

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00:16:59.000 So I do mention here and there Stoicism, which needs to be taken very carefully, especially if you're a Christian.

00:17:05.000 However, if it's properly employed, I think it actually can be fabulously enriching to your life because I actually think it's consistent with Christian values, part of Stoicism.

00:17:15.000 Charlie, Mr. Kirk, today you made a comment about the Stoics.

00:17:18.000 Can you tell us about the Stoics and your opinion of them?

00:17:19.000 God bless.

00:17:20.000 So yes, there are four major Stoics.

00:17:23.000 The kind of inventor of Stoicism, if you will, is a man by the name of Epietus.

00:17:29.000 He was a slave and obviously living in slavery and then being freed, he was able to live through all different parts of life by being in slavery and by being treated terribly.

00:17:41.000 He came really kind of, he came up with a philosophy for life, an operating system, regardless of your circumstance, regardless what's happening around you, need to identify what you can control, what you are able to do in that moment, and then release everything that is outside of your control.

00:17:57.000 So there's elements there of Christianity of do not worry about today, do not worry about tomorrow, don't worry about the future, but focus on the present.

00:18:04.000 There's elements of some Eastern philosophy there.

00:18:06.000 There are three other Stoic thinkers and writers that are quite interesting.

00:18:12.000 Zeno, which we'll talk very little about.

00:18:15.000 Seneca, as well, who I believe was a counselor to a Roman emperor.

00:18:21.000 Blake would know.

00:18:22.000 But the most famous, he was a counselor to Nero.

00:18:27.000 Okay, that's notable.

00:18:29.000 Yeah, he did a great job there.

00:18:31.000 Actually, you never know.

00:18:32.000 Bad emperors sometimes can have really good counselors.

00:18:34.000 That's a good rule for life. 0.94

00:18:36.000 They're not always listened to, and sometimes their heads are chopped off.

00:18:39.000 That's right.

00:18:40.000 Yes, that's correct.

00:18:41.000 Yeah, Seneca was forced to commit suicide because he was such a wise and learned man.

00:18:45.000 But the most famous Stoic of all, and there were other kind of quasi-Stoic thinkers, Cicero being the one-year Roman council who wrote extensively about separation of powers and has some of the greatest writings that later inspired the American founding.

00:18:58.000 But Marcus Aurelius, and I have a bust of Marcus Aurelius in my office because I really love studying about Marcus Aurelius.

00:19:04.000 Marcus Aurelius was the last of the good emperors of Rome.

00:19:07.000 He ruled, I think, between, Blake can look it up.

00:19:10.000 It's like 200 something, far after Christ.

00:19:12.000 It was right at the end of the Pax Romana and Marcus Aurelius.

00:19:16.000 He really was about 161 AD, thank you.

00:19:19.000 And so he ruled over more land, more geography than any other ruler or leader alive at the time.

00:19:26.000 And so it's a very interesting window of if you have absolute control of the earthly realm, which is what basically a Roman emperor did.

00:19:34.000 You could have any woman you want.

00:19:35.000 You could have any person you want. 1.00

00:19:36.000 You could cut somebody's head off. 0.88

00:19:37.000 You have full, complete dictatorial control because Rome ceased to be an empire and transitioned to a republic. 0.97

00:19:43.000 What would you believe?

00:19:44.000 What would you do?

00:19:46.000 And what was so fascinating about Marcus Aurelius.

00:19:50.000 We only know this because of his private journals that later got repurposed and published as a book that we call Meditations, is that Aurelius adopted Stoic philosophy to help him become a better ruler.

00:20:04.000 And so Aurelius wrote these private journals as emperor of Rome, and they're now called meditations.

00:20:10.000 I encourage you, if you're going to read meditations, get the modern translation done by Professor Gregory Hayes, who is a professor of ancient literature or great works at the University of Virginia.

00:20:21.000 Fabulous introduction.

00:20:22.000 It's done really well.

00:20:23.000 It's very readable.

00:20:24.000 Some of the older ones in Old English, I find to be difficult to read in this translation.

00:20:28.000 He spent a ton of time to find the right synonyms in the right modern language to be able to translate it.

00:20:33.000 But the window into what would you do if you had absolute power and the answer for Aurelius was the following.

00:20:40.000 There's a couple principles of Stoicism, which is, look, happiness is not found in things, but in virtue alone.

00:20:46.000 And it's about what we value and the choices we make.

00:20:49.000 We don't control external events.

00:20:51.000 We only control our thoughts, opinions, decisions, and duties.

00:20:54.000 That word duty is a massive deal.

00:20:57.000 You should think about your death every single day.

00:20:58.000 This is something Stoicism espouses.

00:21:00.000 It's this Latin phrase called memento mori, which is you're going to die.

00:21:06.000 And so what kind of life are you living today?

00:21:09.000 Are you living a full life?

00:21:10.000 Are you living a complete life?

00:21:11.000 Are you leaning in?

00:21:13.000 Are you actually going to acknowledge that every day you get closer to your death?

00:21:17.000 It can be very, very liberating, actually.

00:21:19.000 Now, people say, Charlie, is Stoicism a religion?

00:21:22.000 It can be.

00:21:22.000 I don't encourage it to be a religion for you.

00:21:24.000 I do think, though, that a Stoic view of life, if you are a secular person, is a lot better than just being secular postmodernist.

00:21:31.000 But there are some Stoic elements that I find to be incredibly helpful, especially when I'm trying to become a better Christian, a better believer, and a better fighter for liberty and freedom.

00:21:43.000 And one of those is this idea that the toxic emotions that permeate and pervade our life, fear and anger, are the worst strategies.

00:21:55.000 And for me, that has been incredibly helpful.

00:21:57.000 So Stoicism really is an it is a belief that you have a lot more power and free will than you recognize or realize.

00:22:07.000 And that the moment that you are currently in is the most important moment because you'll never get it back.

00:22:14.000 You'll never get the past back.

00:22:16.000 You can actually not go to the future.

00:22:18.000 So you must live exactly where you are now.

00:22:20.000 For more on that, you guys should check out this guy, The Daily Stoic.

00:22:23.000 It's dailystoic.com.

00:22:25.000 I don't know his, what is his name?

00:22:27.000 He's really, really, really smart.

00:22:29.000 I enjoy his YouTube videos and his writings on it.

00:22:32.000 And there's also another great book that I'm reading called Think Like a Roman Emperor.

00:22:35.000 If I piqued your curiosity on Stoicism at all, that is where to go.

00:22:40.000 Okay, let's go to another question here.

00:22:42.000 Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:22:45.000 That is freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:22:47.000 Let's go to this one here.

00:22:48.000 Charlie, do you see the recent comments from Nicole Hannah Jones?

00:22:50.000 I would love your take on them.

00:22:52.000 Thanks so much.

00:22:53.000 And I love the show.

00:22:55.000 Okay.

00:22:55.000 Well, thank you for the kind words and for subscribing.

00:22:58.000 All right, let's go to, I'm going to play both of them.

00:23:00.000 Let's play cut 10, Nicole Hannah-Jones.

00:23:02.000 The history of black Americans is so inconvenient to the narrative of America that there are, you know, powerful interests that haven't ever wanted us to grapple truthfully.

00:23:11.000 That is why DeSantis has to ban AP African American studies in Florida.

00:23:15.000 Play Cut 10.

00:23:16.000 The history of black Americans is so inconvenient to the narrative of America that there are powerful interests that haven't ever wanted us to grapple truthfully.

00:23:26.000 That's why we have Governor DeSantis banning AP African American studies.

00:23:31.000 If you acknowledge that, then you have to acknowledge that we were founded on these great ideals, but we have not lived up to them.

00:23:38.000 That's actually a little bit of a sea change.

00:23:40.000 I have to say that their pressure campaign on Miss Jones, I think, is working.

00:23:45.000 Did you hear her there?

00:23:46.000 That's a different idea.

00:23:47.000 She's changed her vocabulary.

00:23:50.000 She said we were founded on these great ideals.

00:23:52.000 She never used to say our foundational ideas were great.

00:23:56.000 So that's new.

00:23:58.000 Let's continue.

00:23:59.000 Play cut 11. 1.00

00:24:00.000 Is Nicole Hannah Jones trying to water down her message?

00:24:02.000 This one is definitely not watered down.

00:24:03.000 Play cut 11.

00:24:05.000 As you look at America, are people adjusting to thinking about being challenged by these ideas?

00:24:13.000 And are we moving in a positive direction, or do you see something that's frozen?

00:24:18.000 What I would argue is that the arc of the universe doesn't bend one way or another.

00:24:23.000 We bend it as Americans is which country do we want to be?

00:24:27.000 Do we want to be the country that begins in 1619 with the practice of slavery?

00:24:31.000 Or do we want to be the country that was conceived in 1776 with the ideas of liberty and equality?

00:24:38.000 I think that is unknown.

00:24:40.000 I think we always are seeing the tension and the fight between these two halves.

00:24:45.000 So I have several takes on this.

00:24:46.000 And I mean, who are you to decide?

00:24:47.000 We're going to decide when our history begins. 0.98

00:24:49.000 It's just so incredibly self-righteous and arrogant.

00:24:52.000 I'm going to decide our history.

00:24:54.000 History is.

00:24:55.000 History is not for your editing.

00:24:58.000 The pursuit of truth will bring you to whether what you're saying is right or incorrect.

00:25:04.000 There's no decision.

00:25:06.000 Are we going to decide?

00:25:06.000 Okay.

00:25:08.000 Okay.

00:25:09.000 So my first thought is this: the fact that pilgrims came to America with slaves is completely irrelevant because slavery was normalized in the ancient world and it still is normalized today.

00:25:25.000 Now, let me make sure my language is clear.

00:25:28.000 Just because it's irrelevant does not mean that it should be deemed morally acceptable, still evil, but it's not relevant as to why they were coming here.

00:25:37.000 Now, I'm a little bit rusty on my Mayflower Compact history, but I'm 99.9% sure that there were no slaves on the Mayflower.

00:25:46.000 You can fact-check me on that.

00:25:48.000 In fact, the Mayflower Compact does not mention slavery.

00:25:50.000 It's kind of the first social contract.

00:25:52.000 There's a ton of beautiful history behind the Mayflower Compact because they were out at sea and they weren't sure if they were going to get and be able to survive at all.

00:25:58.000 And they basically were like, are we going to be able to do this?

00:26:00.000 And if so, how are we going to govern ourselves?

00:26:02.000 Slavery and the advent of slaves coming to the mainland of America is largely a phenomenon not of the founding fathers.

00:26:14.000 Yeah, there were no slaves on the Mayflower.

00:26:15.000 Thank you.

00:26:15.000 I didn't want to speak out of turn there, but I was ready to take that to the bank.

00:26:22.000 Was only a custom of the moral flaws that existed during the time.

00:26:28.000 Every single person has this in common.

00:26:34.000 Every person that hears my voice right now has the following in common: you were born into a world you did not create, you were born into circumstances that you did not choose.

00:26:47.000 Every person also has this in common: that you're then able to make a series of choices to try to improve or weaken the world that you were born into.

00:27:00.000 Both of those things are simultaneously true.

00:27:03.000 So the founding fathers were born into a world they did not choose.

00:27:07.000 They were born into a world where slavery was widespread and it was ubiquitous.

00:27:13.000 They did not choose that.

00:27:15.000 They did not invent it.

00:27:17.000 They did not defend it.

00:27:18.000 They did not perfect it.

00:27:21.000 They reluctantly and begrudgingly grew up around it.

00:27:26.000 And yet it was Benjamin Franklin who chaired the anti-slavery convention in 1775.

00:27:32.000 It was Thomas Jefferson who admonished the king of England, King George, in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence that slavery was wrong and you are to blame for bringing the sin of slavery to our shores.

00:27:44.000 It was Vermont that abolished slavery in 1777.

00:27:49.000 Nine out of 13 colonies had independently abolished slavery by the time the United States Constitution was ratified in 1787.

00:28:01.000 So every single one of them was born into a world where slavery was acceptable, it was institutionalized, it was widespread, and it was codified into the rules and the regulations and the laws and the customs.

00:28:13.000 That is the world that they entered.

00:28:16.000 And by the time that they exited and by the time that they passed away, they left a world where slavery was on the way out.

00:28:24.000 We should probably ask the question, why?

00:28:28.000 What happened in 1776?

00:28:31.000 Well, the answer is that it did not happen in an isolated circumstance or it did not happen in a bubble. 0.61

00:28:40.000 It was many decades of work, Protestant ministers, Jonathan Mayhew, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, the Black Robe Regimen, sowing the seeds of the foundation of a people that finally were ready to reject and expel a repugnant evil of slavery, of human beings owning human beings. 0.61

00:29:01.000 Why?

00:29:05.000 I just got a kick out of these emails.

00:29:06.000 Someone says, Charlie, I don't support Trump because he can't win a general election.

00:29:10.000 He has won a general election. 0.98

00:29:11.000 Okay, it's such a silly argument.

00:29:13.000 He's the only person that will be running as a Republican primary nominee that has won a general election.

00:29:21.000 And so this idea that he can't, I mean, not only is it flawed, it's just on the surface, just not, it's just not true.

00:29:29.000 And I truly believe he would have won the second time if it wasn't for all the nonsense, the shenanigans, the ballot drop boxes, the tech interference, all of that.

00:29:37.000 I fully believe it.

00:29:38.000 So I find that to be the weakest of all the arguments, to be honest.

00:29:43.000 Electability, he did win.

00:29:45.000 I mean, it would be one thing if he never actually became president.

00:29:48.000 Then we can talk about that.

00:29:49.000 He served four great years.

00:29:52.000 So you got to try this different argument out there.

00:29:54.000 I hear all the time, Charlie, he can't win.

00:29:56.000 He can't win.

00:29:58.000 Any other candidates actually was ever president before?

00:30:02.000 I didn't think so.

00:30:03.000 Email us treated him at charliekirk.com.

00:30:05.000 Let's get to another story here.

00:30:09.000 This one says, Charlie, I see the NBC news piece, blah, blah, blah.

00:30:12.000 You know, so glad you're still supporting Trump today.

00:30:14.000 Of course I am.

00:30:15.000 It's unwavering.

00:30:15.000 You see, the media, they're very tricky.

00:30:18.000 You got to know how they work. 1.00

00:30:19.000 They're always trying to find a little bit of cracks or chink, you know, just kind of like little vulnerabilities. 1.00

00:30:27.000 And none such exists. 0.97

00:30:29.000 100% behind Trump, enthusiastically so.

00:30:32.000 And people say, oh, well, Charlie, you disagree on that.

00:30:34.000 Of course, disagreement is what makes this life fun and interesting.

00:30:40.000 I don't expect to agree with anybody 100% of the time.

00:30:43.000 But as far as the commitment to America, what he has done and will do, I mean, it's not even a question.

00:30:49.000 The debate is over at that point.

00:30:51.000 Let's go to, boy, we got a lot.

00:30:53.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:30:56.000 There were some here that we already addressed that he gets us stuff.

00:30:59.000 I think we did a comprehensive job on that.

00:31:02.000 So, okay, this one here, Charlie, what do you think of the Twitter hearings?

00:31:06.000 Let's play here, Cut 92, Ana Paulina Luna.

00:31:11.000 Have you communicated with government officials ever on a platform called JIRA?

00:31:15.000 Yes or no?

00:31:16.000 Real quick answer.

00:31:17.000 We're on the clock.

00:31:17.000 To the best of my recollection.

00:31:19.000 Great.

00:31:19.000 Not to your recollection?

00:31:21.000 If you did in the event communicate, who would have had access to this platform?

00:31:25.000 That's the nature of my confusion.

00:31:27.000 Okay.

00:31:28.000 Did you ever speak to government officials on JIRA regarding taking down social media posts?

00:31:32.000 Again, not to the best of my recollection.

00:31:35.000 Not to the best of my recollection.

00:31:36.000 These guys are so slippery.

00:31:38.000 Yo, Roth.

00:31:41.000 We know we have emails that show that Yoel Roth and Twitter had regular planned meetings with Twitter.

00:31:51.000 I mean, with the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the intelligence agencies.

00:31:56.000 We know this.

00:31:57.000 Not to the best of my recollection.

00:32:00.000 That's probably not true.

00:32:02.000 There's got to be another way to get these people to extract the truth there and just memory loss.

00:32:06.000 Remember James Comey?

00:32:07.000 How many times did James Comey say I could not remember?

00:32:09.000 I think it was 100 times, 80 times.

00:32:12.000 We could look it up.

00:32:13.000 James Comey, when he was asked very direct questions when Republicans still controlled Congress, back when Republicans controlled Congress, now obviously we do now.

00:32:23.000 I don't remember.

00:32:24.000 I do not recall.

00:32:25.000 I don't remember.

00:32:26.000 I do not recall.

00:32:28.000 You can't be held accountable for lying to Congress if you just don't remember.

00:32:35.000 Now, if there's evidence to show that you actually do remember and you're lying about not remembering, but they've convinced themselves of that.

00:32:44.000 They're like, well, I'm not lying.

00:32:45.000 And as George Costanza would say, it's not a lie if you believe it.

00:32:52.000 I'm going to go to one more piece of tape here.

00:32:53.000 We got to get some questions about George Santos.

00:32:56.000 He's a perplexing fella.

00:32:57.000 I got to tell you, I really struggle to figure this guy out.

00:33:00.000 I really do.

00:33:01.000 Let's play Cut 109.

00:33:03.000 It's not the first time in history that I've been told to shut up and go to the back of the room, especially by people who come from a privileged background.

00:33:11.000 And it's not going to be the last.

00:33:12.000 And I'm never going to shut up and go to the back of the room.

00:33:14.000 And I think it's reprehensible that the senator would say such a thing to me in the demeaning way he said, but it wasn't very Mormon of him.

00:33:20.000 That's what I can tell you.

00:33:22.000 Yeah, look, I'll be very honest.

00:33:24.000 He's talking about his interaction with Mitt Romney.

00:33:26.000 I'm not one to like defend Mitt Romney.

00:33:28.000 Probably should sit this out, Mr. Santos, if that's really your name. 0.98

00:33:32.000 Not very Mormon of him. 1.00

00:33:34.000 Ooh, yeah, what a zinger. 1.00

00:33:35.000 Yeah, like, okay, how about you get your biography sorted out?

00:33:39.000 And also, from a privileged background, don't like it at all, actually.

00:33:44.000 How about you tell us, can you clear up one or two of the biographical details?

00:33:48.000 By the way, I don't think you should resign, but maybe you should just keep your mouth shut for like a month or two months or three months, four months, or the rest of your term.

00:33:58.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:33:59.000 Email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:34:03.000 Thank you so much for listening, and God bless.

00:34:08.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 13, 2023

Ask Charlie Anything 134: Fix Colleges, or Ditch Them? What is Stoicism? What Made 1776 So Remarkable?

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