The Charlie Kirk Show - Charlie Kirk: The Real-Life, Modern-Day George Bailey

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.

00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.

00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.

00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful.

00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.

00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.

00:00:27.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.

00:00:31.000 Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.

00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA high school chapter.

00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.

00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.

00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.

00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord, use me.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

00:00:56.000 The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.

00:01:09.000 All right.

00:01:10.000 Welcome back to hour two of the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:13.000 Getting a lot of emails about Gary Milton's segment.

00:01:16.000 So that's a good sign.

00:01:18.000 We're going to keep doing that and keep injecting truth.

00:01:23.000 And hopefully to help us do that in this segment is Viva Frye. 1.00

00:01:27.000 He is a former litigator, former Canadian.

00:01:30.000 I don't know if he still counts himself as such, but Viva, welcome back to the show.

00:01:34.000 It's good to have you on again.

00:01:36.000 Thank you very much.

00:01:37.000 Yes, still Canadian, but in the process of, I say becoming American on paper, but spiritually, I think I might be long American already.

00:01:46.000 I was going to say, you're about the most American Canadian I've ever met.

00:01:50.000 Who would have Viva beat in that regard?

00:01:52.000 Oh, Wayne Gretzky?

00:01:55.000 I might start a war if I assert that Wayne Granzan.

00:01:57.000 Steven Crowder is becoming American.

00:01:58.000 He's like quasi-Canadian, right? 0.55

00:02:00.000 I think Stephen was half American, half Canadian.

00:02:02.000 And then, you know, the other natural born Canadians, you got John Cam.

00:02:07.000 And he was, I think, one of the greatest tools.

00:02:09.000 Oh, well, Jim Candy.

00:02:11.000 Yeah, that actually upsets me because I want to claim him for myself.

00:02:16.000 He had the curse of not living long enough to sully his wonderful reputation.

00:02:19.000 And then you've got the Jim Carries of the world who live long enough to, you know, Canadians might count them as one of their own, but he might have gone a little bit more.

00:02:27.000 Justin Beaver.

00:02:29.000 Oh, yeah.

00:02:30.000 They can keep him.

00:02:31.000 They can keep him.

00:02:33.000 I think he's had a redemption tour.

00:02:35.000 I don't know.

00:02:35.000 That's just what I've heard.

00:02:37.000 So, Viva, you are a former litigator.

00:02:39.000 You are very legally minded.

00:02:41.000 You and Barnes have that great show.

00:02:44.000 So I wanted to have you on this because you are also mixing it up online.

00:02:50.000 You have defended, at least from what I can tell, I actually want to hear what your real thoughts are, aspects at least of the prosecution's case.

00:02:58.000 If that is correct, which I believe it is, why do you believe aspects of the prosecution's case?

00:03:05.000 Why do you believe that Tyler's?

00:03:06.000 Prosecution's case for who?

00:03:07.000 Against Tyler Robinson.

00:03:08.000 Well, this is like we live in this world of dichotomized or false dichotomies where if you say, you know, there's certain things I believe and then everybody's immediate trope is, oh, so you believe the FBI, you believe the official narrative.

00:03:21.000 And like, I don't believe anything and I don't believe anybody except what I can, to the best of my ability, surmise, deduce, or, you know, observe myself.

00:03:30.000 So, you know, do I think that there's any better explanation for what we already have in terms of Tyler Robinson having been on the roof, allegedly with a gun?

00:03:40.000 I mean, you can always pick certain holes in certain stories and say, well, how did he get the gun down?

00:03:44.000 And it had a towel on it when it shipped.

00:03:46.000 The bottom line is you have video.

00:03:48.000 I was watching it, you know, live the day of, of people hearing the shot ring out from the roof.

00:03:53.000 They look over.

00:03:54.000 You've got footage of a man who was later identified allegedly by his parents as Tyler Robinson.

00:03:59.000 And so based on all of that, to get into the nitpicky and people say, well, a 30-odd six would never have not left an exit wound.

00:04:06.000 I'm like, you know, Martin Luther King was shot with a 30-odd six. 0.70

00:04:10.000 And then they say, oh, well, that struck him in the face and the jawbone.

00:04:12.000 And that's a hardbone.

00:04:13.000 So it doesn't go through the whole body there.

00:04:15.000 So like, then you say, okay, well, there are circumstances in which a 30-odd six would not have an exit wound, but it's not a question of blindly believing a narrative.

00:04:23.000 You just, you know, do your best based on whatever evidence is available as of now.

00:04:28.000 And, you know, the exploding lapel mic was preposterous in the first place.

00:04:32.000 I mean, almost too preposterous to even feel the need to address.

00:04:35.000 But people complicating things by saying, okay, exploding lapel, they've got a man with a detonator.

00:04:40.000 They falsely identify a number of people at first.

00:04:43.000 And they think that that somehow suffices to cast doubt on the best evidence that exists to date, which is that Tyler Robinson shot the shot.

00:04:52.000 He had the rifle.

00:04:53.000 His parents identified him.

00:04:54.000 And then people say, well, his parents did identify him.

00:04:56.000 Well, his parents are sitting in court right now.

00:04:58.000 You'd think they'd be saying something if they wrongly identified or arrested the wrong person.

00:05:02.000 So do I believe that Tyler Robinson, based on the evidence, now took the shot?

00:05:06.000 Yes.

00:05:07.000 Do I believe the official narrative that Tyler acted alone?

00:05:10.000 Hell no.

00:05:11.000 And this is where I say like people are doing a disservice to the actual, what might be a conspiracy in the truest legal sense of more than one person working towards an outcome here that I don't believe Tyler took the shot.

00:05:22.000 I don't believe Tyler worked alone.

00:05:24.000 I believe that others, in as much as those screenshots were accurate, and I think they've been confirmed, posting in advance, they knew something was going to go down.

00:05:31.000 People on the Discord chat.

00:05:33.000 Let's remind people one of the things.

00:05:35.000 This was found by one of our own team members before the shooting actually happened.

00:05:40.000 And she logged it because it upset her so much.

00:05:42.000 And, you know, she thought it was of concern.

00:05:45.000 Let's play.

00:05:46.000 This was posted on TikTok by a transgender individual before the event.

00:05:52.000 Let's play 150.

00:06:09.000 So for those who couldn't see that, it said on screen, Charles Kirk, Mr. College Dropout, does not know what's coming tomorrow.

00:06:17.000 Be ready.

00:06:18.000 This isn't a threat.

00:06:19.000 It's a promise.

00:06:20.000 And this person is making suspicious glances to the side repeatedly.

00:06:25.000 Yeah, Viva, what do you make of this stuff?

00:06:27.000 And this was not an isolated case.

00:06:29.000 There was other instances of people appearing to have advanced knowledge.

00:06:33.000 Well, that's where I am very, very curious and very suspicious and don't believe what we're being told that, you know, Tyler Robinson acted alone or that text message, which really reads more like a script out of a movie of like Walter White from Breaking Bad, trying to save Skylar so he sets up that phone call and makes her look like she didn't know anything that was going on.

00:06:53.000 People posted in advance.

00:06:54.000 Now, whether or not it's just a coincidence, that type of coincidence, I'm less inclined to believe is a coincidence.

00:06:59.000 You know, there's these Discord chats where quite clearly people were discussing things.

00:07:03.000 Did he have other people helping him, setting up decoys, assisting in the planning or at least keeping quiet what was going to go down?

00:07:11.000 That's where I would go with what I believe to be a conspiracy that is not in line with the official narrative if the narrative is Tyler Robinson acted alone and his lover had no idea what was going on.

00:07:22.000 That being said, and I sort of I've defended some of the other actors as well.

00:07:26.000 You know, Ian Carol, I've had him on my channel a while back. 0.99

00:07:29.000 And I defend his right to say stupid things online. 0.99

00:07:33.000 And when, you know, Candace, again, defend their right to say things if they sincerely believe them. 0.99

00:07:39.000 And I can understand how people discovering these text messages, you know, the ones that are now the central point of this conspiracy that it was a hired assassination by Israel.

00:07:49.000 I can understand how people read those texts and say, holy crap, that's a coincidence that now I'm going to connect two dots on.

00:07:55.000 But like I keep trying to tell people, it's like, okay, on the one hand, that would describe a potential mensre interest.

00:08:01.000 If they want to be convinced by that, and I can certainly understand why people find them suspicious, like, okay, you've described what might be an incentive for an intention without ever having addressed how it might have actually played out in reality.

00:08:13.000 Was it an Israeli agent who took the sniper shot?

00:08:15.000 Was it Israeli Mossad agents who weaponized Tyler Robinson online?

00:08:19.000 I mean, you could get there.

00:08:21.000 And if the evidence goes there, then take it there as it might be.

00:08:25.000 But for now, other than those text messages, which shows something of a sinister inside look at donors and what they expect from the people that they give money to, nothing's for free and there's no free lunch.

00:08:36.000 It doesn't do anything to contradict or add on it to the current best evidence out there, which I appreciate they can't flesh out and get into and delve into now until the trial.

00:08:46.000 But the bottom line problem is nobody trusts the FBI.

00:08:49.000 Nobody trusts the authorities.

00:08:51.000 And people are now so conspiracy traumatized from everything that we've seen that was told was the official narrative only to learn that it's an actual concocted conspiracy.

00:09:00.000 They don't believe anything anymore to the point where you have people who don't believe that the earth is round.

00:09:04.000 And there are levels to conspiracies.

00:09:07.000 I don't believe that Tyler acted alone.

00:09:09.000 I don't believe that it was a lapel mic exploding because that just complicates what would have otherwise been an easier to explain assassination from the get-go.

00:09:15.000 Well, and I want to make one thing clear because I've seen even big accounts sort of misrepresent this very critical point.

00:09:22.000 The FBI is not trying this case, right?

00:09:25.000 This is not a DOJ case per se.

00:09:28.000 Yes, they flew in to assist with the immediate investigation.

00:09:32.000 Cash and Dan were there, obviously.

00:09:34.000 But this is a local prosecution to the state of Utah.

00:09:39.000 So they are leading Utah County.

00:09:41.000 There's the county attorney and then several sub-prosecutors as well.

00:09:45.000 I think there's five or six names on the charging document, for example.

00:09:49.000 That's who's actually constructed this case and is going to be prosecuting it in court.

00:09:54.000 And by the way, I'm with you, actually, Viva.

00:09:56.000 When I see that video right there, I'm like, who knew what when?

00:09:59.000 And you've got this like armed SLC queers group or whatever that immediately took down their social media. 0.82

00:10:06.000 I mean, there's it would be it would be good if we had a full investigation of it, at least.

00:10:11.000 So we could, we should at least, among other things, we should just know if they're all crazy freak shows who are marinating in violent rhetoric.

00:10:18.000 Even if he said, ha ha, I'm going to shoot Charlie Kirk and they like laughed it off and didn't believe him.

00:10:24.000 We should, or if they just said, yeah, that'd be cool.

00:10:26.000 That'd be great.

00:10:27.000 Like there's a lot of things we deserve to know, even if they aren't literal co-conspirators.

00:10:33.000 A new Hillsdale College miniseries on colonial America offers a fresh way to think about Thanksgiving.

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00:10:45.000 Our freedom, our prosperity, and our faith.

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00:12:18.000 December 18th to 21st in Phoenix, Arizona.

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00:12:30.000 All right, it is Amfest Week.

00:12:33.000 Starts Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona at the convention center.

00:12:37.000 And as you saw, there are a lot of big speakers.

00:12:40.000 JD Vance, Glenn Beck, Savannah Christley, Michael Knowles, Matt Walsh, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro.

00:12:47.000 Yeah, there's the full speaker lineup.

00:12:49.000 Of course, Erica Kirk.

00:12:51.000 It is going to be action-packed.

00:12:53.000 There are going to be so many people there.

00:12:57.000 This is a completely sold-out convention center for Amfest.

00:13:02.000 We've never seen anything like it in the history of Amfest.

00:13:05.000 So it's going to be exciting.

00:13:06.000 All the major media are going to be there.

00:13:08.000 I got to get Viva there.

00:13:09.000 If Viva, you're not coming.

00:13:10.000 We have to talk about that after the show.

00:13:12.000 Viva Fry should be doing media on site there. 1.00

00:13:16.000 But lots of stuff going on.

00:13:18.000 And of course, if you're part of members.charliekirk.com, we'll be doing members' interviews.

00:13:23.000 Those will be announced soon.

00:13:24.000 So if you want to buy a ticket now, you can't.

00:13:26.000 It's too late.

00:13:27.000 But you can watch on TPUSA and on Rumble.

00:13:30.000 Rumble is going to be streaming it.

00:13:31.000 And then also, if you want to buy tickets for next year, there is currently a discounted price because we felt so bad that we had to turn off ticketing.

00:13:39.000 So you can find all that at tpusa.com.

00:13:42.000 And anyways, so Amfest Week, get ready.

00:13:45.000 It's going to make a lot of news, I'm sure.

00:13:47.000 So Viva, let's, you know, I want to actually make one mention and then I'm going to ask you a separate question.

00:13:53.000 But, you know, a lot has been made about these text exchange that have gone back, that went back and forth between Robinson and his lover, his trans furry, gay lover, whatever.

00:14:04.000 And people say it doesn't sound right, doesn't sound right.

00:14:07.000 Well, there is a video that I want everybody to check out by Turkey Tom.

00:14:11.000 I believe you've watched it now, Viva, where, and this has been authenticated as somebody who was in the Discord chats with them and apparently spent time with them at this apartment.

00:14:22.000 And he said, 100%, this is how they talked, which is a striking finding.

00:14:27.000 We're going to go into that more probably tomorrow, the next day, depending on how today goes.

00:14:32.000 But I mean, I get the skepticism on this.

00:14:35.000 At first, it struck me too, but apparently this is how they talk, Viva.

00:14:39.000 That was not the most implausible thing to believe.

00:14:43.000 Okay, so you have a text message.

00:14:45.000 It does read, regardless of whether or not this is how they talk, people saying they were manufactured by or drafted by AI.

00:14:51.000 To the extent that they're confirmed text messages, you can come to whatever conclusions you want after that.

00:14:57.000 But whether or not this is how they talk regularly, to the extent that those were authentic text messages, they show what they show, which is whether or not his lover was aware of what was going on.

00:15:08.000 You're etching bullets and it's maybe not for target practice of a sporting nature.

00:15:14.000 But when I say I don't believe the official narrative, you have to go back to a number of things here.

00:15:18.000 I put my sort of best theory as to what went down.

00:15:22.000 I want to know who was on the Discord chat in advance, what they were discussing, and whether or not there might have been some other foreign influence.

00:15:29.000 I say foreign, not foreign government, but outer influence there.

00:15:32.000 Tyler Robinson is getting radicalized right about the same time as Thomas Crooks, right about the same time as the other guy, Ryan Ruth.

00:15:41.000 You know, he's being radicalized at a politically relevant period of time, right around the same time, oddly enough, as the alleged suspect in the January 6th pipe bomber, you know, a timeframe where political violence is potentially very useful for the upcoming election.

00:15:56.000 So the timeframe of the radicalization is very interesting.

00:16:00.000 To see whether or not he was on anybody's radar beforehand, we don't yet know that and why there would not be confirmation on that can lead to suspicion.

00:16:06.000 You remember the old man, George Zinn, arrested for claiming to be the shooter the day of and then gets busted for CP on his phone.

00:16:13.000 Like, in my mind, if I'm making a plausible theory here, George Zinn was probably on some Discord chat with a bunch of young perverts, and he's an old pervert, and he's getting off doing whatever they do on those chats.

00:16:24.000 He knows what's going down.

00:16:25.000 He shows up there and thinks he's going to be some useful decoy or distraction for Tyler Robinson because they know what's going down.

00:16:31.000 That's my theory.

00:16:32.000 But, you know, it is the absence of total disclosure, the total lack of faith that anybody has, not just in the FBI per se, but in any state law enforcement.

00:16:43.000 Nobody has any faith in our institutions anymore.

00:16:46.000 And it leads people to go from, you know, healthy skepticism to just not believing it to concocting the most outlandish conspiracy theories imaginable.

00:16:55.000 But then those text messages, you can understand how they will cause people to come to those types of conclusions.

00:17:00.000 And, you know, allegedly, the rumors are Kash Patel, you know, getting mad at Tulsi Gabbard and Joe Kent for trying to look into a potential terrorist angle to this also does nothing to foment faith in the system, foment faith in the authorities.

00:17:16.000 So you can understand why people are coming to their conclusions and their conspiracy theories.

00:17:19.000 It's very much akin to the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, where you still have people today who don't believe that people died on Sandy Hook on the day of.

00:17:28.000 And it's because people are so traumatized by conspiracy that they are manufacturing the most outlandish conspiracies.

00:17:34.000 And I think it does a disservice and an injustice to the actual conspiracy, which is it seems that many people had advanced knowledge of this shooting.

00:17:41.000 And now the only attention is being placed on Tyler Robinson and or these more outlandish theories and not exploring these more plausible conspiracy theories.

00:17:49.000 Well, I think it's important to emphasize we have a responsibility to use your reason.

00:17:58.000 You truly have to shepherd how you think about things.

00:18:02.000 And that's one of the most damaging things with really outlandish things.

00:18:05.000 I mean, the Sandy Hook one is a great example where it can be addictive to really marinate in something that if you really were to write down all of the evidence straightforward and try to like make a logical syllogism out of it, it just doesn't make any sense.

00:18:20.000 And the newest one I heard over the weekend was that it was actually an electrocution and that the people around him were standing on rubber mats, so they weren't arrested.

00:18:31.000 Or if you want one that just came up, a bunch of people decided that that shooting in Australia was an IDF operation.

00:18:37.000 So I'm just instantly ran with that one.

00:18:38.000 Well, everything points back there, I guess.

00:18:42.000 30 seconds, Viva.

00:18:43.000 You know, I see the problem is, you know, there are more outlandish conspiracy theories to entertain.

00:18:48.000 There are the realistic ones.

00:18:50.000 And like with Sandy Hook and saying, you know, all crisis actors, nobody died that day, you actually distract and divert from the true tragedy, which is, you know, state authorities failed to do what they were required to do to protect those children.

00:19:03.000 And instead of discussing that, you end up having to discredit everyone who asks any questions because of the more outlandish conspiracy theories.

00:19:10.000 Viva Fry, former litigator, future American, thank you, my friend.

00:19:13.000 Good to see you.

00:19:14.000 Very much.

00:19:14.000 Godspeed.

00:19:17.000 President Trump walked into a catch-22 when taking office.

00:19:20.000 Do nothing in America would be staring at a ticking debt bomb, the kind of crisis that could cripple our future.

00:19:25.000 Instead, he's taken action with strong policies to slow the train and buy us some time.

00:19:30.000 But the effects of past administration spending are still working through the system, and experts predict dramatic price increases and market uncertainty.

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00:20:13.000 President Trump is fighting for America's future.

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00:20:20.000 So we got pitched this idea, and Blake and I talked about it.

00:20:24.000 We're like, man, this really sounds really cool.

00:20:26.000 It just reached out.

00:20:27.000 So, almost all of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the film It's a Wonderful Life.

00:20:31.000 One of my Christmas copers, an all-time Christmas classic.

00:20:35.000 Amazing story.

00:20:36.000 And we got pitched over the weekend by a friend of ours who said, Hey, this guy has an interesting take comparing Charlie to George Bailey, the hero of Bedford Falls, in that film.

00:20:51.000 And so, we're joined now by Titus Tekara.

00:20:54.000 He is a distinguished fellow at Hillsdale College, and he's also the executive director of the American Cinema Foundation, your big film buff.

00:21:04.000 So, I don't know where exactly you're going to go with this, but lay it out for us, Titus.

00:21:09.000 Hey, guys, thanks for having me on.

00:21:11.000 Glad to be on the show.

00:21:13.000 So, I'm a distinguished fellow at Hillsdale, and just the first couple of weeks now in December, I recorded a course on cinema and civilization for Hillsdale.

00:21:23.000 And one of the movies I was talking about was It's a Wonderful Life.

00:21:27.000 It's Christmas.

00:21:28.000 Men leadership and God and prayer, big parts of the story.

00:21:33.000 And then also for Hillsdale, I did a number of Christmas lectures in Connecticut.

00:21:38.000 I'm not sure anybody knows this, but in Connecticut, there is a replica of Monticello, Jefferson's home.

00:21:43.000 Somebody just up and built that for his centennial birthday.

00:21:46.000 And now it's Hillsdale does lectures there.

00:21:49.000 And so I talked about this movie, and you know, there were hundreds of people there.

00:21:54.000 And I thought about how do we talk about leadership in contemporary terms, not the movie from eight years ago.

00:22:00.000 And that's the guy I thought of, Charlie Kirk.

00:22:03.000 And I have to say that the audience responded very, very warmly.

00:22:06.000 And that's what made me think I should talk to you guys about this.

00:22:10.000 So the story of It's a Wonderful Life is a story of community and leadership.

00:22:19.000 George Bailey is an astonishing guy from youth.

00:22:22.000 He's a boy who saves lives.

00:22:24.000 I'm not sure how seriously people take that when they see it in the movie, but it's very important.

00:22:29.000 And then he ends up saving the community he's part of as well.

00:22:32.000 And it's not trivial.

00:22:36.000 It's a story about how America needs leaders and what's difficult about that sort of leadership.

00:22:42.000 George Bailey is not a nice guy.

00:22:45.000 George Bailey is a tough guy.

00:22:48.000 And he has much more in common with Hemingway heroes than with sentimental stories.

00:22:54.000 He grows up wanting to conquer the world, go on adventuring.

00:22:58.000 He wants to see the world by himself.

00:23:02.000 His idea of property is to buy a sturdy piece of luggage so that he can get through the world with it.

00:23:09.000 And each stamp he says on that piece of luggage will prove that he has achieved something, that he has measured himself against something much bigger than the small town in which he lives.

00:23:19.000 But then, you know, he has a sense of duty too, and he can't abandon the family business or the community.

00:23:24.000 And he ends up making his life there in Bedford Falls, you know, an idyllic small-town community, but not so idyllic that it's unrealistic about what it takes to make a community work.

00:23:37.000 The kinds of things that Jimmy Stewart, George Bailey, faces are the kinds of things we're dealing with now.

00:23:44.000 His major issue is housing.

00:23:46.000 He wants people to be able to buy a house so that they can make a family and make a life for themselves and the community.

00:23:52.000 Or else, of course, none of this lasts.

00:23:54.000 There's no future without it because owning property, first of all, for your home, your family, is the basis of self-respect and therefore the basis of self-government.

00:24:04.000 And on the other hand.

00:24:05.000 I love that comparison.

00:24:06.000 I love that comparison.

00:24:08.000 For those who don't remember in the film, the big problem is there's that banker, Potter, and he's basically trying to buy out all the housing in the community.

00:24:18.000 And the whole...

00:24:20.000 The whole thing is Potter trying to take the small portion that George Bailey's family have done through the savings and loan, this small portion of lending through the community and making self-sufficient members of the community.

00:24:32.000 Potter just wants to have them all live in the world.

00:24:35.000 He wants to take over all of the housing, and Bailey is constantly fighting to make sure everyone still owns their own home.

00:24:41.000 Which is very Charlie.

00:24:42.000 Wow, that is very Charlie.

00:24:43.000 That's actually a remarkable thing.

00:24:45.000 You can continue, Titus.

00:24:45.000 The movie clearly gets this opposition between small towns and the big city.

00:24:49.000 In the big city, everybody's a stranger and everybody is out there trying to rent.

00:24:54.000 And it's not really working out for most people or, you know, not sufficiently at any rate to have kids.

00:25:00.000 And isn't that happening all the time in big cities nowadays?

00:25:03.000 Isn't it the case that massive corporations are now in the business of buying up homes?

00:25:08.000 A lot of crazy stuff is going on.

00:25:10.000 And it's all right there.

00:25:11.000 I mean, these are the problems of the big cities.

00:25:13.000 This is the challenge of modern America as Capra sees it.

00:25:16.000 And it's better to face it than not to face it.

00:25:19.000 And he might also be right that if you want to face it, you probably need men like that to face it.

00:25:25.000 Again, it's not like the problem didn't happen before Charlie Kirk noticed that home ownership and marriage for young men is in crisis now.

00:25:35.000 It's just that not so many people talked about it.

00:25:39.000 That's the need for leaders.

00:25:41.000 Yeah.

00:25:41.000 I mean, Charlie was a, I mean, the more you talk about it, because Charlie, it's interesting.

00:25:46.000 You mentioned that George Bailey was a tough guy.

00:25:49.000 Yeah, yeah, tough, not nice.

00:25:50.000 Charlie actually was quite kind, but he also had this bluntness too.

00:25:54.000 He had a fire.

00:25:55.000 He had a spirit that was sort of indomitable.

00:25:58.000 I've seen, you know, because we have to look at the email inbox now.

00:26:00.000 He read every email.

00:26:01.000 And sometimes he could be very blunt in responding to people.

00:26:03.000 Oh, he was very blunt.

00:26:05.000 You're wrong.

00:26:06.000 You just say you're wrong.

00:26:06.000 You're wrong.

00:26:07.000 And he would argue with people.

00:26:08.000 And he, yeah, I mean, so I love this story because we are in the Christmas season.

00:26:13.000 We've got a lot going on.

00:26:14.000 We've got things in the news.

00:26:16.000 We've got terrible news over the weekend.

00:26:17.000 But we are in Christmas season.

00:26:19.000 And it's a really fascinating way to think about Charlie's life as a leader of a community that ended up, you know, you think about in death, you know, I guess the other central theme of it, as I'm thinking about this, Titus, is that, you know, the whole story revolves around what if George Bailey never existed.

00:26:41.000 And that's a, I mean, you think about when you see all this outpouring of love for Charlie at the memorial, all the things that he's accomplished, his massive legacy and imprint on the world.

00:26:50.000 Imagine if Charlie Kirk never existed.

00:26:52.000 Yeah, like that's that's the thing.

00:26:53.000 When he has that vision, there's, you know, his kids don't exist.

00:26:56.000 His brother doesn't exist anymore because he drowns and all of that.

00:26:59.000 And I think about we had that call during the AMA a few weeks ago where those people, they had a child because Charlie motivated them to do it.

00:27:09.000 Or you think of this people who say, I finally proposed to my girlfriend.

00:27:13.000 Maybe they'll have kids later who wouldn't have existed without Charlie's example.

00:27:17.000 It's really something to think about.

00:27:18.000 He left an impression and an imprint and a ripple effect that will be impossible to ever calculate.

00:27:24.000 And I think that is one of the through lines of It's a Wonderful Life.

00:27:27.000 Correct, Titus?

00:27:28.000 Yeah.

00:27:28.000 So, you know, I was just now talking to a friend of mine, a pastor from Indiana, who told me, as I think many other pastors have noticed, that week after week since Charlie was assassinated, men come to church.

00:27:42.000 He says, some of these people come back, but all of them at least stayed for a long conversation.

00:27:48.000 And I think you can see how even that makes a difference.

00:27:51.000 But he says, one of them is now a member of his church about to become.

00:27:55.000 He's in the process of joining.

00:27:57.000 And, you know, that's one soul that may be saved, which I think the business pastors are in.

00:28:03.000 There's a lot of this stuff happening throughout America, lives that are being changed.

00:28:09.000 And it's not just the life Charlie lived, but after his death too, still makes a difference.

00:28:15.000 And that I think points you to something like the power of religion, like the movies trying to tell you men like that, although they're impressive, they still need prayer.

00:28:23.000 They still need to look up to divine providence above them.

00:28:26.000 And you see that in the effect their lives have even after they pass.

00:28:31.000 And I also thought, you know, at the end of the movie, when his wife tries to call all the community together, Mary Bailey brings everybody together, tells the kids, yes, you should be praying for your dad.

00:28:42.000 And then all the community comes to help out.

00:28:46.000 That's not one like the vigils for Charlie.

00:28:50.000 How many people went out of their way to show not just solidarity, but a love, a sense also of the loss, what was lost with his death, and presumably a resolve to make for a better life so that it was not all in vain.

00:29:07.000 I think that's part, maybe that's the part that we don't talk about as much.

00:29:12.000 How many people resolve themselves to do better so that everything he did and his death would not be in vain.

00:29:17.000 And that also is somehow fit for a Christmas movie because it gives you hope about the future.

00:29:23.000 We got an email here.

00:29:25.000 We got an email here from Elizabeth who says, Charlie had many similar characteristics with Jimmy Stewart.

00:29:29.000 They were both rather tall and humble.

00:29:32.000 And they were both Republicans.

00:29:33.000 Jimmy Stewart was a lifelong Republican Christian.

00:29:37.000 He used to have those slightly more.

00:29:38.000 Yeah, no, Jimmy Stewart went to Hollywood Presbyterian.

00:29:42.000 I know that because they were still talking about it years later.

00:29:44.000 And he came every week with his family.

00:29:47.000 And actually, Henrietta Mears used to run the sort of high school and college ministry at Hollywood Presbyterian. 0.71

00:29:55.000 Henrietta Mears is famous for helping bring Billy Graham to faith.

00:29:59.000 Wow.

00:29:59.000 So Hollywood Presbyterian was quite the same.

00:30:01.000 They were different in a big way.

00:30:02.000 They did not talk anything like each other.

00:30:03.000 No, Charlie didn't talk at all like Jimmy Stewart, I will say.

00:30:06.000 But yeah, they were both awful tall.

00:30:07.000 Hey, so Titus, just while we have you here, it's kind of a question out of left field, but we did lose Rob Reiner over the weekend, another American film legend as a director.

00:30:19.000 You know, minute and a half, you know, your reflections on his body of work.

00:30:24.000 Yeah, it was an impressive guy, had a great career, especially in the 80s.

00:30:29.000 But let me say one more thing about the, it's a wonderful life before we drop that.

00:30:34.000 You know, there's something about what, you know, to understand somebody like George Bailey, to understand that kind of ambitious man, it takes this counterfactual.

00:30:43.000 What if he had never lived?

00:30:46.000 And so what is the worst thing he can imagine?

00:30:49.000 And as a community, it's Pottersville.

00:30:52.000 Pottersville is now run by the greedy banker.

00:30:55.000 And what is that all about?

00:30:58.000 It's not a community.

00:30:59.000 It's a lot of people there, but there's no community.

00:31:02.000 There's no solidarity.

00:31:03.000 There's no sympathy.

00:31:04.000 There's quite a bit of cruelty and brazen indifference.

00:31:07.000 And instead of family life or home ownership or what you might call suburbia, what you get instead is a lot of gambling and some prostitution and obviously drinking.

00:31:16.000 And again, that's a lot like the America today.

00:31:19.000 There's way too much sports heroes out there trying to corrupt young men, advertising betting apps.

00:31:26.000 There's a lot of, you know, just think about horrible stuff like OnlyFans.

00:31:31.000 That's what he's afraid of.

00:31:34.000 And I think that's what we're all afraid of.

00:31:36.000 And I think that's what Charlie was afraid of and why he was trying to help young men build life for themselves, not become drug addicts or addicts to like only fans.

00:31:46.000 Yeah.

00:31:47.000 Titus, thank you very much for having on.

00:31:49.000 Everyone, watch It's a Wonderful Life this year.

00:31:51.000 Maybe spare a thought.

00:31:52.000 See if you see a similarity with Charlie there.

00:31:55.000 Thanks for coming on, Titus.

00:31:56.000 Take care.

00:32:00.000 Good conversation is about showing respect.

00:32:02.000 It's how we create a space where people are able to share their ideas and to be heard.

00:32:07.000 Charlie knew that.

00:32:09.000 TikTok has always strived to build that kind of place that thrives on respectful connection, where curiosity fuels connection and we can share what's on our minds and learn from each other.

00:32:19.000 When ideas meet respect, good things happen.

00:32:21.000 On TikTok, you can find a mechanic explaining the why behind a problem most of us wouldn't even know how to name, or a father sharing a lifetime of knowledge with his viewers.

00:32:31.000 Viewers who listen, discuss, and respond.

00:32:34.000 TikTok turns connection into community through small acts of understanding.

00:32:38.000 You can feel it in the comments in the thank you from a stranger halfway across the world.

00:32:43.000 TikTok is a place where respect opens the door for discussion, and discussion helps us build something real.

00:32:49.000 Portions of our program are sponsored in part by TikTok.

00:32:54.000 So I want to talk about this FBI plot that was just foiled.

00:33:00.000 It's a huge story.

00:33:01.000 Kind of was unfolding.

00:33:02.000 There was a press conference as we started the show here.

00:33:05.000 But essentially, what we know is that the FBI has foiled a New Year's Eve terror plot, and they found that the alleged is in Southern California, and it's by far-left radicals.

00:33:19.000 They say a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front or TILF, an extremist group motivated by pro-Palestine, anti-law enforcement, and anti-government ideology, allegedly planning coordinated IED, improvised explosive devices, bombing attacks on New Year's Eve at different locations across Los Angeles.

00:33:38.000 That's an interesting name.

00:33:40.000 Turtle Island Liberation Front.

00:33:42.000 That's a name.

00:33:43.000 Turtle Island is a name often used by pro-American Indian activists because apparently it's one of the names, I guess, that a American Indian tribe used for kind of it's a little debated, but like America or the world or whatever.

00:34:01.000 And so some people believe that, you know, really radicals, they'll, it's common in Canada, so they won't want to call it.

00:34:07.000 So they're basically calling pro-Turtle Island.

00:34:08.000 They're pro-Indigenous people.

00:34:10.000 Pro-Indigenous, but pro-Indigenous.

00:34:11.000 So who is indigenous, you know, to Carthage?

00:34:15.000 This is a question I always want to throw to these people.

00:34:17.000 Like, who is indigenous to England?

00:34:20.000 Well, it was the Vikings invaded and then they held it for a while.

00:34:24.000 Who's indigenous to America?

00:34:25.000 You don't want to dig into the history of who lived in which place to America.

00:34:29.000 I'm just saying, like, to the pro-Indigenous crowd that gets so radicalized by this stuff that they think all land is stolen.

00:34:35.000 All land has been conquered.

00:34:37.000 Let's put up clip.

00:34:39.000 What do we have here?

00:34:40.000 157.

00:34:41.000 157.

00:34:41.000 Let's put that one up.

00:34:42.000 So this is evidence released by the Justice Department.

00:34:47.000 We can see some signs they have.

00:34:49.000 Death to ICE, Death to America, long live Turtle Island and Palestine. 1.00

00:34:54.000 It looks like it's saying Erica is fascist. 0.95

00:34:56.000 I don't think that actually is what it says.

00:34:57.000 I think it's America is fascist and it's blurred a bit.

00:35:00.000 Well, it's with a C. 0.59

00:35:01.000 They have an American catastrophe.

00:35:03.000 Fascism comes to America.

00:35:05.000 So lots of stuff.

00:35:06.000 And they say that they must have been tracking these guys because it sounds like what happened was they went out into the Mojave Desert to make their explosives, they're saying.

00:35:16.000 And then the FBI swooped in on them right now.

00:35:19.000 A very sophisticated left-wing group is behind this.

00:35:24.000 And they are saying that the executive order that President Trump signed after Charlie's assassination to label some of these far-left groups as domestic terrorists and to uncover their funding mechanisms has directly contributed to the FBI being able to foil this plot.

00:35:39.000 So that's a huge piece of this story is that, you know, you start looking, you know, we just were talking about what happened if Charlie's life had never existed.

00:35:51.000 Well, I know it comes in death, which is terrible and tragic, but the reason this got elevated so much, and I'll reiterate, I think I've told this story on the show before, is that the last text message he sent to Stephen Miller was, we have to root out these funding networks for the far-left extremists.

00:36:07.000 And we have more stuff.

00:36:08.000 So they say a radical offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front.

00:36:12.000 Let's put up that sequence of images from that group's Instagram page because these groups just have Instagrams.

00:36:19.000 Peaceful protests will never be enough.

00:36:23.000 There are no morals for us to appeal to.

00:36:27.000 No sense of justice or what's right.

00:36:29.000 We cannot vote ourselves out of a mass colonizer occupation. 0.90

00:36:33.000 Well, if you can't vote yourself out, how do you get out?

00:36:35.000 And let's go to the third one.

00:36:37.000 We are against fascist colonizers.

00:36:40.000 Yeah, they plan to bomb five-plus locations in L.A., Orange County on New Year's Eve, explicitly called it a terrorist act, follow-up attacks targeting ICE agents, vehicles with pipe bombs to take some of the mountains, scare the rest.

00:36:52.000 You know, as you saw the Death to America signage, et cetera.

00:36:56.000 So the media will probably bury this because it's not the narrative.

00:37:00.000 Remember, political violence only comes from the right, according to them, even though all evidence that we have in recent memory is all left-wing political violence.

00:37:08.000 But they will probably bury this.

00:37:09.000 It's a nothing burger.

00:37:11.000 Good work to the men and women at the FBI.

00:37:14.000 And to the extent that President Trump's executive order contributed to foiling this, God bless all the men and women there.

The Charlie Kirk Show - December 16, 2025

Charlie Kirk: The Real-Life, Modern-Day George Bailey

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