On this episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, host Andrew Colvet fills in for the late Charlie Kirk, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week. In honor of Charlie's life and legacy, Andrew and the Thought Crime crew honor him with a special tribute.
00:04:54.000Because throughout voting month and culminating on the 5th of November, I believe it will go down as a day that people remember.
00:05:02.000As a day that is written about history books.
00:05:05.000As the final battle from the golden escalator on down, from defeating Hillary Clinton from the nonsense of 2020, from Butler, Pennsylvania, November 5th, it all culminates, where we restore the promise that the founders gave us.
00:05:20.000And they said, hey, if the people want it, the people get it.
00:06:33.000And we wanted so badly to do this show for all of you today.
00:06:41.000And I wanted the friends of this show and of Charlie that knew him best, the Thought Crime crew to be here in the studio to commemorate our friend, our dear brother, for this sacred and solemn moment.
00:06:59.000This occasion none of us ever dreamed we would have to do.
00:07:05.000And here we are, because Charlie would want us to be here.
00:07:13.000And we, of course, have left his chair open and empty because nobody will ever fill it.
00:07:59.000And somehow we were the blessed ones that got to be close to him.
00:08:04.000And in the chat, we got yelled at by him.
00:08:07.000We got pushed to more and to be better because of Charlie and by Charlie.
00:08:12.000And so we have to my right Jack Basobick, Blake Neff, and Tyler Boyer.
00:08:22.000And myself, Andrew Colvet, the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:08:26.000And we are so honored to share what we know about Charlie and to do it on a day where the authorities tell us that his killer has been brought into custody.
00:08:39.000And I want to say personally thank you to Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, Governor Cox.
00:08:47.000You told us you would not stop until you got him.
00:08:50.000And I admit that my faith wavered at times as the hours stretched on.
00:08:55.000But you appeared to have the suspect in custody, and we're grateful That you have not slept, you did not rest, just like you promised.
00:09:04.000And you are men of your word, and we are grateful to you.
00:09:08.000And so with that, I just want to again welcome my friends.
00:09:57.000And that's and that's why no one wants to sit there because he is there.
00:10:01.000I um we are saying thank you's just there, and the only thing that I guess I would add is, you know, we're hearing these reports that um family members of the suspect were involved, uh, particularly the father, in bringing him to the police,
00:10:18.000bringing him to the authorities, and if that's true, um I just like to extend a sincere thank you and gratitude to something like that as a father.
00:10:34.000I just I can't even imagine what that what that must be like.
00:10:38.000But to have done that is it just shows the ultimate goodness and the ultimate righteousness that still does exist in this country, and the fact that people are willing to step up and do the right thing, even in impossible odds, and that's the Charlie Kirk spirit.
00:11:02.000That's always been the Charlie Kirk spirit is to stare down impossible odds and say, I'm gonna do it anyway.
00:11:28.000I I mean we've we've been able to lean on each other, I think, talking a lot to one another about uh the memories and uh that's probably I think the most uh the most important thing that we can do today is share those memories I've been telling everybody that's reached out on our staff.
00:11:47.000I mean, we've we've hired thousands of people in turning point, uh, and it hasn't been easy.
00:11:54.000That's been part of the the battle on Charlie.
00:11:57.000It's like I'm gonna miss those right, Tyler, you know, conversations when we are sitting around.
00:12:04.000Uh because it's you don't really know the battles unless you've been in them.
00:12:11.000But there's so many people that have looked at Charlie along the way as uh as a mentor that all have different emotions and they have different stories, and I've told people write them down.
00:12:24.000Every single person that's reached out to me that says, I'm so sorry, Tyler's like, please just write down your memories that you had because some of these stories are so unbelievably funny, they're so unbelievable in general because um God's hand has been such a big part of Charlie's story and legacy.
00:12:54.000And for those of us that have been close, like we've talked about uh we've seen uh heaven's hand is part of that, and that has to be that has to be uh accentuated because that's what Charlie wanted.
00:13:08.000We talked about that all the time with uh people who invested in attorney point, uh, all the major stakeholders that you know, a lot of people look at this as uh political dynam political dynamo, uh the dynamics of all of that, but all of this has been uh, you know, even through this tragic, this tragic week, um I believe that uh that God has been with Charlie from day one and and will continue to be.
00:13:39.000Uh Blake, I want to you're you're next, buddy, so get ready.
00:13:43.000But um I want to just comment on what you're saying because one of the last uh trips that I took with Charlie was a couple weeks ago, and we were flying all over the country, spent hours on the plane, and um I said to him Isn't it crazy like you know, we were talking about South Park, we were talking about just everything.
00:14:05.000Like we just kind of had a moment, and he just like, yeah, it's all God.
00:14:10.000Just he just instantly goes, Yeah, it's all God.
00:14:13.000And as I was driving to the office in the studio this morning, I thought to myself, it was always God, and God has not pulled his hand away from Charlie Kirk.
00:14:24.000They did not pull his hand away from Turning Point, he did not pull his hand away from this country.
00:14:50.000Now's not the time to get into into the details.
00:14:51.000There was just so many things, and Charlie and I would feel the weight of the world when we talked to each other, and I know you felt it, and I know you felt it, and I know you felt it, and then we got through it, and it was God, and somehow we came out stronger and better, and uh with and Charlie had more influence and and our reach and our staff and everything just kept growing time and time again, and he knew that it was all God's hand.
00:15:17.000He knew it was all the blessing of God on him and on this organization and on the show.
00:15:22.000Yesterday I said I said Charlie's on assignment from God, and he always has been.
00:15:28.000You every time you filled in for Charlie, you said, well, Charlie's on assignment, and so now he's on assignment from God.
00:15:34.000He's on and he always was all right, Blake.
00:16:12.000Charlie entered my life pretty recently.
00:16:15.000I remember you called me out of the blue almost exactly three years ago, uh, first week of October 22.
00:16:23.000And I don't want to get into the details of it, but I can say uh Charlie had a drastic impact on my life.
00:16:31.000He he basically gave me my life back, and I don't know how to express how grateful I am for that.
00:16:42.000And how just over the past three years, how much I came to admire him.
00:16:52.000Not just for how talented of a person he was, but but how good of a person he was and how everything he fought for was because he believed it would be good for the country and good for every single person in it.
00:17:10.000And I'll always think one of the you know the final things I was doing with him.
00:17:17.000I mentioned uh with you, Jack, yesterday.
00:17:19.000Yeah, the last speech he gave was in Japan to an audience Buddha's.
00:17:25.000No Buddhists, Shinto, no no Christians in it, or maybe a handful, but not many.
00:17:30.000And you know, it was about immigration, it was about other stuff, but he wanted to include I should witness to the faith, you know, regardless of where we're going.
00:17:39.000And we talked about how we could do that, and we put it into the speech five minutes before he went up there and he did it.
00:17:46.000And it was that important to him that he do that.
00:17:49.000It wasn't about just you know, he wasn't catering to any audience.
00:17:53.000This is a speech almost nobody in the US would ever see or watch, and most of the audience in Japan might not even get it, But he wanted to do it because it was important to him.
00:18:09.000When it happened, uh, you know, he he was witnessing to the gospel there at the college.
00:18:16.000And it w makes me it gives me some solace and some comfort to know that you were there with him on campus that day.
00:18:27.000And um I was just grateful to be able to call you and know that I at least had somebody that was there and that loved him and that was close and I could call you.
00:18:40.000And um I'm just glad you were there, man.
00:18:45.000It's it's not it's not good, it's not fair to you that you had to be there, but I'm glad that I'm glad that you were.
00:18:54.000And you and I and Charlie were texting literally moments before he went out to the crowd, and we were talking about uh arguments and finer points that he could make, and he going over you know this kind of question.
00:19:09.000I uh you know, we should what it was about.
00:19:11.000He was what are the good arguments in favor of of marriage, marriage monotheism.
00:19:18.000And it was you know, that gets back to you know one of the other core things, how much he how much he loved Erica, how much he loved their children, how much and how and you know how much he cared for them, and how it really demonstrates the power of that you know familial love because we all talked about how they made him better too.
00:19:41.000You see, you see Charlie like pre-Erica and then Charlie post-Erica, and it's and it's it's still Charlie, but it's like more better clothes that actually fit him.
00:19:55.000No, we were just talking about this yesterday.
00:19:57.000I and he's a father, and I I no, it was like night and day difference.
00:20:02.000So we used to like I used to be worried about Charlie Jericho.
00:20:08.000And I don't just mean the fashion, I don't just mean the fashion.
00:20:11.000We were talking about Charlie's first.
00:20:13.000It's it's it's it's rough the visible boy.
00:20:15.000Charlie's birthday's in about a month, and we used to I used to buy him clothes on his birthday as an excuse to buy him like sneakers, because he wouldn't wear sneakers, he would only wear dress shoes.
00:20:27.000And then Erica came and then he worked, he had I was like so relieved because he would wear clothes that like he he he'd look better than anyone like a normal person.
00:20:35.000No, he looked better than everybody because Eric is incredibly stylish and great and it was just like he went from like the the Stone Age to like he now had this incredibly well manicured dress purpose.
00:20:47.000Let me let's I love this this uh vein.
00:20:50.000We want to tell you about Erica and we're gonna uh the before and after Erica Kirk um story is a really amazing story.
00:21:00.000I know you were going deep deep, emotional, listener children.
00:21:03.000Well uh I have been basically crying for two and a half days.
00:21:07.000Uh and I um I was I was just I'm remembering Charlie being uh when I first met him, it was like everything was baggy and like the suits didn't fit and like the collars were always like out like this.
00:21:24.000I wish they're playing those those videos now when he's younger and I was showing that I was showing Andrew a video uh an image, it was so funny because studio can we get uh uh like an OG CK shot with his own.
00:21:37.000I can say I'll I'll send one that's like a perfect one that's but he was before and after a shot.
00:21:43.000It was like a very baggy suit, and it just but you know what this is this is kind of very this isn't with a suit, but this was like No no no I gotta I've got a I got a perfect one.
00:21:55.000But anyways, the point is is like but his his spirit shine through so brightly it didn't matter it didn't matter.
00:22:01.000No, like of course that's what it was like I remember being in some of these meetings, I was like, oh my gosh, like because he would carry around the backpack.
00:22:06.000He had this big black backpack that is his his initials on it, he had that forever, and he had forever won one pair of shoes, dress shoes that he wore, and then these big but it didn't matter, like none of that mattered every single person that talked to him, every one of these big time donors early on, like big time.
00:22:25.000I mean, they had he would just just be able to break through to every single one of those people and uh it was always so special.
00:22:32.000It w it was his unique voice, and this is why Charlie Um would go viral on campus.
00:23:05.000You know, and it was just he had this moral clarity that he was just blessed by God with, and he would not cut any corners with it.
00:23:14.000And um, and so yeah, it didn't matter the suit he was wearing, it didn't matter his fashion.
00:23:18.000Although I will tell you Erica made this looks much better, and I will also tell you that his friends, Don Jr., Gentry Beach, you know, they gave him like a gift card at one point, a ten thousand dollar uh like credit at uh the Trump Taylor in New York City in Manhattan to get him some proper suits.
00:23:37.000It was uh it was like one of these things that they were gonna be around.
00:23:40.000Yeah, if you're gonna hang around with us, Charlie, we need you to gotta you know you gotta look a little bit more put together.
00:23:46.000Yeah, it's it was I mean, it was a oh my gosh, Tyler, get this get this up.
00:23:52.000You have to see this is the pre pre-Erica, and then Erica came in and then looked immediately I love it.
00:24:18.000I I see I see the thing, and I want to polish.
00:24:22.000Michelangelo could see a block of marble and he would just bring the David out.
00:24:26.000He's like, The David's already in there, I just have to reveal it.
00:24:29.000I want to say it's typically not a good idea to say, I think I I uh I could change this man or something for the women watching, but you can polish it.
00:24:56.000And I will say as well, though, that Charlie's faith became so much stronger as soon as Erica came around, and he started vocalizing it more.
00:25:05.000And for those of you in the audience that don't know Erica Kirk, the woman is a lioness.
00:25:12.000She is fierce, she is strong, and she's obviously like distraught and hurting, um, as we all are, but um she is fierce and she is strong, and I want you to know that about her.
00:25:27.000That um I have seen her up close, and Tyler, you've been there as well with us.
00:25:32.000Um and uh she is so strong, and Charlie wanted to marry her because of how strong she was, and ultimately he knew that she could she could do this life that he was leading.
00:25:48.000And Charlie was already leading a crazy life when they met and when they fell in love and when they got married, and he he knew that she had the strength in her core, and she was also she is also such an incredible woman of faith.
00:26:03.000He knew that she could do this, and he was a hundred percent right about Erica Kirk.
00:26:09.000She is truly something amazing, and we all love her dearly.
00:26:13.000Tyler, why don't you tell the story of how uh you inadvertently connected Charlie with his wife?
00:26:21.000So it it's it's this is the miracle of the entire thing, which is i incredible, and I don't think we can talk about it enough.
00:26:29.000It's Trump, it's Erica, it's Arizona, it's turning point, it's it you couldn't script this any better.
00:26:37.000Can I let me tell let me just set two points?
00:27:33.000And we started doing this, and it starts to go bonkers, right?
00:27:36.000Because uh, I'll give credit to Jake Hoffman, who is the the pre uh the president of the freedom caucus here, he's a state senator.
00:27:43.000He was my unpaid comms director, who was actually the guy that helped start Charlie's Instagram with me and start all the turning point, like all the turning point assets that we we have on social media now, by the way, too.
00:27:55.000But we started just going bonkers with all the media, and so then I started fielding calls from everywhere.
00:28:14.000So I met I met her, and I was like, we've gotta put her behind the president.
00:28:17.000So I had my family behind the president, my grandpa who just passed away just a few months ago, who loved Charlie, loved uh the show, everything, listen daily.
00:28:25.000It was my grandpa, my dad-in-law, Lauren, my wife, and Erica is up there.
00:28:44.000She's faith-based, she's so centered on Christ.
00:28:48.000We've got to lean in and involve her here with because we were starting the initial talks about turning point faith or to keep you a say faith.
00:28:58.000And I was trying to recruit her hard to come work for us.
00:29:02.000And so through all that, uh, I'd introduced her to Charlie.
00:29:05.000I was like, I think she could be great, she could be wonderful.
00:29:40.000He was at the office here, which he was rarely at the office because he was always on the plane, and he had set up a date to go meet her at the gym.
00:29:48.000Cause the that she was it was it's a it's a fancier, nicer gym that's in the North Valley.
00:29:53.000And I dropped the I took him over and I dropped him off there, and I was it was the whole car ride over there.
00:30:05.000And he's like, Well, what do I do if the like this because Charlie had had uh a number of dates, but not that many people.
00:30:11.000He's busy, he's a busy guy, he just didn't so uh he it went immaculately, and after that they'd met again in New York where she was living at the time, and he had made a special trip just to go there.
00:30:26.000He would he would he would go somewhere and he would make an excuse that was like a formal reason to be there, but it there was always kind of like a an ulterior motive where you know but it was I I'll never like and this these are the memories I'm I'm putting out a tweet right now that's saying just write down these memories because I until this now I just forgot about that.
00:30:44.000Was like driving him over in in my car, just having that conversation, which was just like, and again, Andrew, I know you've had many of these, all of us have had many of these conversations one-on-one with Charlie of just like the pep talks, because you know, even though Charlie was such a a line of of a man, it takes a village, I think, of like having those conversations with one another.
00:31:08.000But he he would position people in places to be able to speak to him and give him like that like before he took the stage, like okay, okay, okay, okay.
00:31:17.000You know, but he would always it's like he would always just want that, even though you knew that he didn't need it.
00:31:42.000Erica became the person that would uh you know, and it was a two-way road, you know, you'd have to filter out some of Charlie's bad ideas too at times.
00:31:50.000And Erica is you know, has become the best at that.
00:31:56.000He she is the uh the go-to, and I know that um that was the most valuable thing, but to put a pen in it, that that weird situation though, which was that moment where I was sitting there with Charlie, and the Trump rally culminated, and Eric was there, and then became his wife, like the entire thing is like again, you talk about God things.
00:32:18.000Clearly, God has his hand had his hand um and watching over Charlie constantly.
00:32:25.000Well, this is the Charlie Kirk show, and I want we we've we played Sorry, we played a a um an opening, and we put together a Charlie Kirk uh which number is it, Blake?
00:33:00.000And um he I remember one time when I I talked to him and I I said, Who who's your greatest hero?
00:33:07.000And this space, you know, obviously Donald Trump's the president, and you know, that was the obvious answer, but like no Trump, you know, like what who's who and he said Rush Limbaugh.
00:33:16.000Yeah, and um Charlie got to know Rush personally.
00:33:20.000Um I think we had basically the last big event that uh that Rush did was introducing the president.
00:33:30.000Yeah, um and he's a very private person.
00:33:32.000He came to uh our event at Mar-a-Lago, so we were one of the first groups to do anything with fundraisers, things like that at Mar Lago.
00:33:41.000People don't people don't know that we actually did it very small, but Rush had such a personal connection uh with Charlie, and this is kind of early too, before Charlie was kind of a known quantity everywhere.
00:33:56.000Yeah, and uh Charlie actually went to Rush's house, picked him up in the car, and drove him, drove him there, and we had yeah, we we guess he lived he lived the street, yeah, in West Palm Beach, or he would live in Palm Beach.
00:34:08.000Um, so he but Rush was his hero, and he he listened to Rush.
00:34:13.000Uh Rush was so influential in just the way Charlie thought about politics.
00:34:18.000And and if you want to know why Charlie never lost the grassroots, he was always so into the grassroots.
00:34:24.000It's because you emailed him, it's because he looked at all the your emails, he looked at all the comments, he would he he could do 48 things, it seemed like at once.
00:34:33.000The the the most amazing multitasker I've ever seen.
00:34:37.000When I would be here, and we'd be on the show during breaks, even I'm gonna say it, even sometimes when interviewing people, he'd be looking at the camera and yet somehow also on his computer, switching between tabs,
00:34:54.000texting, emailing, reading faster than you could even like grasp what was the amount of emails he would share, like in the middle of a show segment, like right after you came out, or either like in between someone else giving an answer.
00:35:11.000Look at this, look at and you're like reading the last three things that he sent you.
00:35:14.000No, he's always two steps ahead of the show.
00:35:15.000And his speed was I I have no idea how he did it.
00:35:18.000And he's and these are and and what's crazy too is you could see it would be like, Oh, hey, I got something from the speaker of the house.
00:35:25.000Oh, here's the president's son, and then like he here's a guy I met walking his dog, and he needs a ballot.
00:35:32.000Tyler, make sure this guy gets a ballot, you know.
00:35:35.000Like, like it it didn't make any difference to him who we was talking to.
00:35:38.000But he never lost sight of the grassroots, and one of the one of the guiding lights for that, and we set up Freedom at Charlie Kirk.com.
00:35:45.000And please send your tributes to Charlie, your thoughts, your prayers, anything that's on your mind, uh, to freedom at Charlie Kirk.com, and I will do my best to read them.
00:35:54.000And Blake, you're gonna help read them, and Jack and Tyler, and we want to see what you have to say to Charlie.
00:36:31.000And it was really at that point of stardom and fame that we couldn't take Charlie anywhere.
00:36:37.000But it all started with a love of the spoken word and what Rush Limbaugh told him, and he would take lunch breaks from school just to listen to Rush Limbaugh.
00:36:44.000And so to have this show and to be behind the microphone was one of the greatest honors of his life, and he did not take it for granted.
00:36:54.000And he saw it as a way to pipe the the vanguard of the current thinking on the current debates into the zeitgeist and to keep the base steady and keep the coalition together.
00:37:06.000So without further ado, I want to play uh the show tribute that our team put together.
00:37:11.000I haven't seen it yet, so I can't wait to watch it.
00:39:35.000It's uh it's that's the advantage of being in Phoenix is that you're like one of the only shows in town, so everyone kind of just comes on by.
00:39:44.000Wait, so a campus thing I've been doing for 13 years to debate random college kids has now been so important that it gets prominent prime time placement on Comedy Central.
00:39:55.000I think I think the whole thing is just awesome.
00:39:58.000Bobby Kennedy, welcome back to the program.
00:40:52.000You know, one of the things that Charlie was kind of interesting early in Charlie's career was he wasn't um he's a a prolific speaker, obviously.
00:41:02.000He's a genius on stage, but he wasn't really interested in you know spotlight.
00:41:09.000It's a really interesting piece to him was that he was it was I think that's kind of like almost like we were talking with I was talking with people on the best analogy to Charlie was that he was very much um in the come follow me spirit of of Christ.
00:41:24.000I think that's what the most Christ-like thing about him was that people wanted to follow him.
00:41:29.000Sorry, I just can't get through all this.
00:41:31.000Um but he didn't want spotlight, and I think that was part of his his and so when I had suggested with our events team that we do bigger things that we do consider because we have more people who want to show up and we have more kids and all that.
00:41:50.000It wasn't I I people watch these things and they're like we I mean we went rock star, we went full rock star on Charlie Kirk, and a lot of that is thanks to Andrew.
00:41:58.000I mean, without a doubt, you know, we gave we give Erica Erica 100% made a rock star.
00:42:04.000Uh I give you more credit for that because you you forced him to do it, and then eventually he embraced it, but it was it was he was not the he wasn't interested in that.
00:42:14.000But he also like wasn't your sort of like central casting character to do it.
00:42:19.000No, and you made him enter out on you know, embark out on a much bigger vision.
00:42:26.000But um but this is the point with Charlie is that he was a he was a very humble person.
00:42:31.000Yeah, and I I don't want that to change with like how people start to take um the memory of of Charlie because he's big.
00:42:39.000He wasn't interested in what the stage looked like or like who was there, what the spotlight looked like.
00:43:04.000Um but he is his his legacy is going to be what you said, Andrew, is that he was a incredibly humble person that was thrust into something that was so much bigger than all of us, so much bigger than him, but he was the perfect person for the perfect time.
00:43:24.000He um he always told young people be a part of something bigger than yourself, and he is the um the most iconic example of that that I think any of us can imagine.
00:43:39.000You know, I wasn't gonna do this, uh, but um I think the team uh was absolutely spot on.
00:43:45.000People want something to remember Charlie by.
00:43:48.000I've been getting message after message, email, comment, this huge outpouring of people saying, and and because Charlie, as as we all know, he loved t-shirts, apparel, how he was always like, get me one that says that, give me one that says that like literally the team would screen press them almost on a two-hour turn.
00:44:12.000And it's because it's because he understood that that is a physical real messaging platform that you can wear in the real world in the real space.
00:44:24.000That would be seen that would be seen billions of times in Charlie's instance.
00:44:28.000And he wanted so whatever the message that he wanted to send or what he was thinking about would usually be what he would wear.
00:44:36.000And there'd be times where he'd have you know a different one on five days a week if you watched the show, and that was all very I just wouldn't mean to say it's very deliberate.
00:44:43.000It was it was not like some random thing.
00:45:16.000And it's um it's a beautiful testament, and I love it, and I want one.
00:45:22.000And the other one is uh I'm just humbled by God's grace.
00:45:27.000And that of course was from election night, November 2024, um, when Charlie got news that Pennsylvania had been called by Fox News uh for Donald Trump and that he would be the 47th president of the United States and that right in this room, that viral video, it happened right here.
00:45:45.000And Charlie put his hands up to his face, and a man who doesn't cry very often got misty-eyed, and um and he gave all the glory to God, and I love that, and I'm so glad that they picked that that that moment.
00:46:01.000And then the other one is um the freedom shirt, and it has the date that it happened, and that's the shirt that he was wearing.
00:46:10.000And uh, we put the turning point hook on that sleeve as well.
00:46:15.000And so if you want to honor Charlie, and obviously you want to help the show, um that that would be amazing.
00:46:22.000Um can I shout out you guys real quick?
00:46:25.000I mean, we have so many good people who work for it for Charlie, uh, his show, his his personal side.
00:46:56.000I know this because I I was the one that uh had to approve payrolls for at turning point for seven years.
00:47:03.000He paid himself like thirty thousand dollars a year, then a little bit.
00:47:08.000Yeah, he didn't take a wage for the first five years, and then his first wage I think was like 20 15,000 the first year, 2000.
00:47:15.000And I know that because mine was tiny too when I gave over it was like insane.
00:47:18.000And and then he the part of the show was that he was able to give back, so it cost turning point nothing for tur for Charlie to run turning point.
00:48:01.000But Rush didn't build in his spare time a turning point USA, a turning point action, and and all that, right?
00:48:07.000Like Charlie did all that, gave it all back essentially for that, and then we have the whole point of why I'll say this is we have so many good people here at the show that that have that work here that that produce it to get truth out because again, what that Charlie was interested in wasn't spotlight, it was getting the truth out, it was doing something bigger than himself.
00:48:29.000And every single person that's here that that are back behind the glass right now and that are in this building that uh are across campus here at Turning Point Headquarters, um join Charlie on that vision and are part of that, and so uh yeah, with that we talked about the shirts and everything else.
00:48:46.000Please um support you know this this mission to continue Charlie's voice with with Charlie's show because there's so many good people here that that have done that, and I know Andrew's Erica looked at me yesterday and she said the show has to keep going and turning point has to grow even bigger, and um I hope I'm at liberty to say that I think she would want me to say that.
00:49:10.000Yeah, um, and so we don't know what the future holds for everything.
00:49:14.000Uh at least you know, with fine detail, but we know that that will happen, that we will honor that, and I know Charlie would want that to happen.
00:49:23.000That's the only way to honor Charlie is to to for everything to get bigger and to again again that point, which is that this is bigger than any singular person.
00:49:32.000Uh, but honoring Charlie's memory permanently with making turning point bigger and the mission, which is activate as many human beings as possible to do the work to do the Lord's work and to do the work to save the republic.
00:49:45.000So put those those shirts back up for the radio.
00:49:49.000Um, if you can, you can go to Charlie Kirkstore.com, Charlie Kirkstore.com.
00:49:56.000Um the the election night shirt is a drawing of him putting his hands on his face after he found out that Trump was going to be elected the 47th president, and he said, I'm just humbled by God's grace.
00:50:18.000And then we have the shirt, um, the freedom shirt that he was wearing and with the date on it and the the turning point hook also on that on that sleeve.
00:50:29.000I think that message in the center shirt there, I'm Charlie Kirk.
00:50:32.000That that speaks to what Tyler's talking about.
00:50:35.000It's that it's the Charlie Kirk spirit, right?
00:50:37.000It's I was saying this yesterday on interview, you know, people who's the next Charlie Kirk.
00:50:43.000Look, we well, there isn't an ex Charlie Kirk, but Charlie, if if you asked him that in public, right?
00:50:48.000He would say, you know, you go get a megaphone or you know, uh a chair and go to your local park and set up a folding table on camp, whatever it is, right?
00:51:01.000Whatever public place you can be, and and go do this too.
00:51:05.000And so it doesn't mean you know, it doesn't it's not about him, right?
00:51:09.000It's about you take that Charlie Kirk spirit and go and be the next one and go set up your chapter or go set up your thing and go be that person.
00:51:19.000And that I think is is the message that's now and you see this, it's around the world.
00:51:26.000It's completely we'll we'll talk about it later, but it's it's totally around the world.
00:51:29.000I mean, I'm getting messages from like I don't even want to say, but just countries that you wouldn't even believe had heard of Charlie are doing vigils for Charlie.
00:51:38.000I uh I actually do want to talk about that at length because one of the things that I've realized um and I I tweeted about this or posted about this last night on X. Um there was a video of a vigil that was sent to me, and I just said I've constantly had to recalibrate my internal clock because you kind of know exactly what you mean how famous Charlie is, and then like something else would kind of blow your mind and be like, Whoa, he's actually way bigger.
00:52:07.000And Blake, I'm sure you had a bunch of those, even in Seoul.
00:52:10.000You're like, whoa, people know him here.
00:52:12.000Um yeah, I I am realize that as much as I tried to recalibrate, I'm I'm probably two years behind, like actually how fa famous he was, like in my in my internal clock, and I in his death, um, and Trump said this beautifully actually this morning on Fox.
00:52:31.000Um, I don't know what clip it is, I'm sure we have it.
00:52:33.000We'll we'll play the yeah, that he's now he's even bigger.
00:52:37.000He was huge, and now he's a worldwide uh icon.
00:52:41.000And um before we before we get away off the topic, um I'm as I want to piggyback on Tyler and just say thank you to the staff for being here today.
00:52:50.000And yeah, and yeah, their hearts are broken too.
00:53:39.000This desk actually is modular, and so you can kind of fold it uh so that the two levels fold into one another, and it was just a desk, and it was supposed to be designed so that if you had guests, it could fold out and the team could but he just liked it like this with all the tests.
00:53:54.000We did one of the election night streams or something, and we set up the V, and he just liked it.
00:54:17.000And fast forward to, we had to go through and talk every single one of the people in this complex to sell the buildings.
00:54:24.000So I had to get on the phone with these guys, and luckily we had this incredible kid that was in real estate that helped.
00:54:31.000and we talked him into it but I remember walking through this building for the first time and this is a garage this was actually a garage so this was like a they a shop like they they had like a bunch of machines and stuff in here and they had they used to have all this equipment that was like hanging off and we just started going through just yanking stuff out or like this will be the home for Charlie the c Charlie Kirk studio.
00:54:51.000And I I feel bad for the audience because I'm not sitting in Charlie's seat you're seeing the the profile shot of of Tyler uh because he's looking at me when he's talking so I apologize that's that's been everything on the show that I'm always you're here I'm always looking at Charlie because that's Tyler's seat.
00:55:07.000I know and I kept I kept telling the studio I was like can we like get that camera Andrew Andrew's pointing out this is a this is a blocking violation for for film and TV.
00:55:18.000So, um, but we've kind of always done it.
00:55:21.000So like, uh, you know, I'm going to ask, let me ask you this when radio gets back on, but I was just talking with the, we took a quick, uh, bio break as they call it in the business.
00:55:29.000And, um, I was asking the team, I was like, what do people want to hear right now?
00:55:34.000And the whole team is out there in the bays.
00:55:37.000And they were like, people want to hear stories about Charlie and they want to see the behind the scenes stuff.
00:55:43.000And so I want us to share that with him and, uh, with the audience, uh, our interactions with him.
00:55:50.000And I don't want to force you to start when we, we're going to be welcomed back national radio in about a minute, but that's, um, there, there are, there's that line in the Bible about Jesus where it says, you know, there, there would be the writing of endless books about all the things that Jesus did.
00:56:08.000And I feel like, um, not to compare Charlie to Jesus, but his life is like that, where if you compiled all the little things that he did, did for
00:56:18.000all the tens of thousands of people that he interacted with there would be no end of the books that we could write about his life and um that is um that is a tr it's like so true like I'm not even that's not even at like 31 years on this planet and that's not even a hyperbolic thing to say that's not me exaggerating is um a really remarkable feat.
00:56:42.000And so Blake I'm gonna go like we're just gonna go around the table I I was just gonna put you on the hot seat first so it wasn't me.
00:56:48.000So the our our team is telling us that people want to hear more personal stories that you that you wouldn't have seen um if you didn't know Charlie.
00:56:59.000Tell us a story about Charlie that uh you think people would like to hear or that haven't heard yet man I'm I'm thinking of a few things uh gosh personal stuff I think one of the things that always impressed me about Charlie was his immense uh personal discipline about everything he did he had you know his day was very ordered everything he did was very ordered and he didn't deviate from that and if you you know asked him about that he'd be like well this is this is the smart thing to do why would I do something different?
00:57:29.000And the thing I'd always tease him about is the number of foods he ate which is about four or five yeah uh like I would joke about this and I would I'm not exaggerating the the variation of food Charlie ate was like grilled chicken avocado hot sauce like cabbage lettuce like that like salmon I guess and I think he used to have beef but I think he later like decided red meat was probably more of a bad than good doing that he said it was like a couple years ago that he just because he wanted he said he wanted to get back in fighting shape or something.
00:59:47.000vast pile of chicken and but it was like each as Tyler was saying like each box was a separate food and then we had a whole bunch of chicken wings that we were all just chowing down on and he goes I will allow myself to have a few well and that was like he would he would find something he liked and early on he used to say his all the time he'd be like you could build a religion around this thing.
01:00:08.000Have you ever heard him say that we'd build a religion around this thing around this when he found a food he liked he'd be like you can build a religion around this or that thing or whatever.
01:00:17.000But it's like the first time he's eating it no he wasn't getting yeah no it would be it would be like it'd be like I'd be like I mean I think it's great these chicken wings you can build a religion we know.
01:00:26.000I think I heard Charlie say that no short of like 500 times.
01:00:29.000I yeah it that when you say there's certain set phrases that were just like the Charlie phrases and you know when you say them you could just hear it in his voice because that's that's the only guy who talks that way.
01:00:54.000You know, look, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's just private.
01:01:01.000So that's like, how do you steep through that?
01:01:05.000You know, I'll tell the story from last year, though, that I think is just kind of a funny thing.
01:01:13.000So Charlie worked so hard on these campus tours that people don't realize that he worked himself sick last year.
01:01:23.000And there were, I don't know, two, three weeks where he just, he had no voice.
01:01:30.000He completely lost his voice out there on the campus tours, the campaigns between everything.
01:01:38.000He was traveling so much and just picking up whatever germs and bugs and all the rest and obviously with his health regimen and is that he you know he did what he could but you know sometimes it just kind of doesn't work that way and I remember we had we had talked about and he was like hey Jack you know you're Pennsylvania guy we're doing this Penn State I think it's gonna be big do you want to come and I was like oh yeah you know we'll we'll see if it works out with the schedule etc.
01:02:03.000and and then a couple days before the event he sent or no the day before the event he sends me this text and and says jack we need to talk so like we need to talk i lost my voice so then i call him and he immediately hangs up and he texts me back and i said he said jack i can't talk i lost my voice i can only text and so he he's like i i need you up here um and and and so we we i get up to Penn
01:02:32.000State And the entire time we're there and I'm with him, we're spending time and he's like sending me text messages or just writing stuff on his phone.
01:03:06.000You would not believe the number of hats that Turning Point bought.
01:03:11.000still managed to run out and it was insane and that's and then and then the campus end up sh ended up shutting down the the speakers that many boxes I want to just throw out hats.
01:03:21.000It was so many box like the logistics of getting that many hats is actually to each campus was actually a marvel in and of itself.
01:03:30.000And you're you're reminding me of uh go ahead.
01:03:32.000I don't know if you had something you wanted to add, Tyler.
01:03:34.000No, I was just gonna say that the the miracle of the organization of Turning Point, uh being able to do all those things is what enabled so much of Charlie Kirk, right?
01:03:45.000Charlie was wanted to be enabled all the time with every little crazy idea that he had.
01:03:52.000I would call him Charlie Kirk Wild Goose Chases, like with stuff.
01:03:55.000It would just be like constant stuff, right?
01:03:57.000And it was just like trying to channel where those things would go.
01:04:01.000But the enabling of the of the staff to do the things that needed to be done, because Charlie was almost always right on these things.
01:04:10.000Always right on the He was annoyingly almost always right.
01:04:21.000But the but where he wanted to go with everything was always right.
01:04:25.000And he he and and he knew he had the vision, and the people who helped execute that uh deserve a ton of credit.
01:04:33.000Every every person, every can I I look at the the videos from the campus tours.
01:04:38.000Every one of our activists that is there that's volunteering to help hold microphones to you know standing in the in the gap there, especially in in such scary times as where we're at today.
01:04:50.000They have been such incredible warriors, and uh and that honors Charlie so much.
01:04:56.000Um yeah, we we have this let's go ahead and play it.
01:05:34.000Blake, uh, I remember you he he was you and I were on a chat when this was happening or moments after it happened, and he was like, There was literally eleven dishes in this thing.
01:05:48.000People don't realize like how he would just get fixated on the state.
01:05:51.000Yes, I would just love how he would you know, he would like interrogate me about things 'cause Charlie Charlie loved to learn things, loved to pick new things up, and yet he was also so busy all of the time.
01:06:02.000So he would even just he would send me on he's like, uh Blake, you have to learn all about this thing so that you can just tell me about it when I need to learn about it later.
01:06:09.000So I'll I'll go read, you know, a 300 page book about this so that I can just be ready when Charlie interrogates me.
01:06:14.000I remember once on a flight, it was like an hour, and he's just like, Blake, tell me about the Roman Empire.
01:06:27.000Blake is a very good resource if you want to learn about the Roman Empire.
01:06:30.000And he was he was very, you know, he sometimes just to he would ask Mikey, he would be like, Mikey, just ask Chad GPT to make some trivia questions, and then let's just see if Blake can get them.
01:06:38.000And he was very proud that you know, he's like, Okay, Blake, I'm gonna lose to you on you know, history, I'm gonna probably lose to you on geography.
01:06:46.000Uh, but he was very proud that he was he was competitive with me on you know biblical stuff because he was very he he loved to study the Bible, you know, book by book.
01:06:56.000And he was right, he was he was better at b Bible trivia than I was.
01:06:58.000Actually, that's that's something I could share, and I'm sure we all could that you know late you know, late night, whatever it is, people would say, Well, what is Charlie like in the in you know off air?
01:07:09.000It he would be constantly going through books of the Bible, and then he would send you, you know, some file or a podcast or something and be like, Jack, I just did this five hour course on the book of Deuteronomy.
01:07:21.000You need to go through all five hours and come back to me with it.
01:07:26.000I I have a story like this actually from recent.
01:07:29.000We were in Aspen doing um uh an investor summit, um, and it was an amazing trip, and we we had uh a Cambridge professor who uh was actually we we played that uh the last live it was a pre-record,
01:07:45.000but it was like the last radio live hour, um, you know, before he started speaking at at campus and um it was with Dr. James Orr, he's an amazing Cambridge professor, and um he flew back uh w from Aspen uh and Charlie was like, What are you doing tomorrow?
01:08:06.000And James was like, Well, I don't fly out until Monday, and it was a Sunday.
01:08:11.000So Charlie was like, Well, do you want to have breakfast with us and we'll we'll do our our morning worship and then I'll pick you up and can you just like teach me all day?
01:08:20.000And and James was like, What you just wanna you know, you just want to do class?
01:08:26.000And he's like, Yeah, like I just want to do class.
01:08:29.000And uh so I they sat in a room and Charlie peppered him with questions.
01:08:35.000And you have to understand Dr. James Orr not only sees the world similarly the way we do, but he has like a photographic memory of the classical Western canon of of all the texts that make up the Western.
01:08:48.000He can remember almost page and verse of all of these great books and he connect them, how they relate to now and where we got this word and how it how it evolved from this and to and so Charlie was was gathering this three dimensional understanding of the the Latin and the Greek, uh and how it made up European history which gave birth to America, obviously the Western Western canon.
01:09:13.000But that was Charlie's idea of of a Sunday well spent, and um I remember being so jealous.
01:10:08.000A week ago, I was getting when I was actually flying out to uh Korea for a thing.
01:10:14.000I was like, Okay, I've got to see if there's something to this.
01:10:17.000And I just put on socks and I pulled them all the way up and I wore them that for about half the day, and then I thought this is way too annoying, and I slid them back down.
01:10:24.000Well he would say you're not tall enough.
01:10:26.000Yeah, probably but you probably did have really good circulation.
01:10:32.000I wanted to read something that Danny uh on the team, Danny's young guy, um Charlie loved Danny so much.
01:10:42.000And uh Danny's quiet, uh doesn't always say a whole lot, um, but when he speaks, you better listen because he's been thinking about it for a long time.
01:10:51.000And Danny wanted to uh he's shared this with me.
01:10:58.000Last year when I was living out here interning, I was living in the hood off of GCU campus.
01:11:06.000Charlie found out and and goes, Okay, you're gonna either live at my apartment or at my in-laws.
01:11:13.000I'm and he's like, I convinced him I would be fine, and I stayed where I was for a few months.
01:11:18.000He was one of the kindest people I've ever met.
01:11:22.000And um I love that story because uh somehow this was true about Charlie that he was balancing huge organizations, a thousand relationships, donors, friends, the show, uh politicians, other organizations.
01:11:39.000He he had all these plates spinning in his head all the time, and he would somehow find time to worry about my well being.
01:11:46.000Or are your is your wife and kids are they gonna come?
01:11:49.000Do you need me to set them up with something?
01:12:06.000It's like you saw it in the organizational feats of Turning Point, how he would think about the speaker coming in and make sure they were all taken care of.
01:12:12.000And he had it built into the schedule that he had to go backstage to meet so and so at such a time because he wanted to just say thanks for coming.
01:12:19.000And it was it the intricacy of his mind and the details he was able to hold all at one time, truly amazing.
01:12:27.000One of the things that uh I've I just keep seeing over and over is everyone telling the stories of how they got introduced to Charlie.
01:12:35.000And I've had received again thousands of messages.
01:13:06.000And this is like and this kind of goes hand in hand a little bit with what you're talking about.
01:13:12.000I it's just it's always shocking to me how again the Charlie Kirk phenomenon, how he led his life, how everything just ultimately ended up, you know, in front of people.
01:13:25.000And for so many young people, again, and that's the mission of Turning Point.
01:13:29.000Turning point, we always were we're trying to get young people involved and engaged.
01:13:33.000But to not only see young people getting involved and engaged and loving Charlie and being interested in his content, whether it's TikToks to all the way through long form podcast, is that they were taking their parents, in most cases, old Gen Xers or baby boomers, and saying, You need to listen to this, or grandparents.
01:13:52.000And it's so interesting to me, and this is the legacy that that has to carry on in such a profound way, is that young people can be the spur, they can be the dynamics, they can be the activating element.
01:14:32.000That is the definition of the belly of the beast.
01:14:35.000And where we are today is where young people are carrying on their shoulders the Charlie Kirk voice to the older generation in a lot of cases.
01:14:44.000And I'm so that I I never have really spent time thinking about that.
01:14:49.000I mean, I know it, and we're really excited about it because I do that with my parents and grandparents.
01:14:52.000But it's it's been so rewarding to see, and if Charlie could sit here and read all these messages that I'm receiving that are saying that exact thing, he would be ecstatic.
01:15:03.000And we used to send those in the chat all the time, but I actually have some breaking news.
01:15:07.000I don't know if I should share it or not, but I'm going to.
01:15:09.000It looks like the Cubs are going to be recognizing Charlie today.
01:15:14.000So I don't even want to tell that story.
01:15:27.000His grandma was a lifelong Cubs fan, and she got to see the Cubs win the World Series and then passed away, and Charlie was like, that was she lived and she lived to see like that the greatest thing as a sports fan for her.
01:16:06.000I was with him, yeah, and we went to that game.
01:16:10.000And uh there's a great yeah, it's a picture with the Cubs team, and then those, you know, all these haters online tried to like shame that uh player, I forget his name, but um he lives in Phoenix as well, and uh um it's the third baseman, hit a home run that day, uh, I think just for Charlie, which was like amazing.
01:16:31.000And uh, actually have a couple pictures from that day, so go ahead, Jack.
01:16:34.000I No, no, I was just gonna say on on Sundays, especially, you know, people don't realize how how big of a sports fan Charlie was.
01:16:42.000And on Sundays, you know, the the group chat would turn into basically whatever game he was watching.
01:16:47.000And just you know, I yeah, one of our last things was just you know, busting his balls about the bears.
01:17:17.000He was mad that he wouldn't be able to watch a game in real time because we would literally have we have the big stage at Amphest, and then behind it is our kind of command center or green room, and there's a table, and Charlie had a place he could sit, and he had a TV monitor set up to be showing one of these football games, and he's just sitting there like watching it during his literal two minutes of downtime before the next thing at Amfest, and he'd have his bowl with his chicken and lettuce that he was able to do.
01:17:47.000And his hot sauce, he'd just be sitting there with his birthday.
01:17:50.000Watching it really intensely, and you know I'd walk by, he's like, Blake, come here, come here.
01:17:53.000Come on, let's watch what let's watch a game, Blake.
01:18:23.000And uh this is Charlie, of course, looking back, give me the thumbs up.
01:18:29.000And um, man, we had the we had just a heck of a time getting into the stadium because there was all these security barriers, but they had arranged we that arranged it with us beforehand to let Charlie get right up close, uh, so that he could just kind of get out of get out of the the car and get on there uh onto the field.
01:18:49.000And this was his uh his childhood uh favorite team, the cubbies.
01:18:54.000I kept wanting to get him one of the new era or like the the actual field hats.
01:18:58.000Oh, he would never be able to do that.
01:18:59.000But he liked he liked his uh his little like low profile one and uh it was what he wore.
01:19:04.000Uh I think that's the same Cubs hat he wore at Student Action Summit um when he was doing the uh Prove Me Wrong with the the students there.
01:19:19.000Yeah, he wanted to be he loved that that field and that stadium.
01:19:23.000We had this is way back in the day, but um we had actually taken we used to we used to have our headquarters in Chicago.
01:19:30.000So it was it was a ways out from Chicago, and I I remember at the early time, this is like right after we had made some changes to really grow turning point USA.
01:19:42.000Um we did a team builder at the Cub Stadium at Wrigley Field.
01:19:49.000And so we Charlie and I had driven over to the the Cubs, you know, to Wrigley.
01:19:58.000You have to like basically just park in people's garages and things like that.
01:20:02.000But we took all of the staff there, and it was at the time I think we have like 20 people.
01:20:08.000And I remember we're just there and we're sitting, and he just nonstop would be talking about to everybody how because we had staff from all over the country at the time, just different places about how great the Cubs were, how much he loved them, and you knew from that moment how much that mattered to Charlie.
01:20:25.000And there were a few things that were like Chicago boy things.
01:22:26.000And it's like it's like I can hear him in a way, but like not like he's speaking to me, but just it's just if you know him, you kind of know what he would say.
01:22:36.000Yeah, you know, you you almost know, not on like you know, certain things, but but just little basic things.
01:22:43.000You just well, that's what Charlie would say this.
01:22:45.000Charlie would do this, and you just you just you just know you just know that that's what he would have wanted.
01:22:52.000And it's weird because you know, talking to everybody throughout all of this, it's you know, even having heard that Erica said that she wanted the the cameras on and wanted this up.
01:23:05.000I know that's exactly what Charlie would have wanted.
01:23:09.000That he would say, get on the stream, get the rumble up.
01:23:13.000It's almost like we are the large uh learn language model for Charlie Kirk because we've we've we've had so much input from this person.
01:23:22.000Um that's that's what a life is, right?
01:23:36.000Charlie was funny, but it was his own very distinct brand of it.
01:23:41.000It like because he was so distinctly Charlie and so rigidly Charlie Kirk, when he would kind of come in, you know, he would do that look when he goes, you know.
01:23:51.000Um but he would make oh man, the plane rides were the best.
01:24:13.000But it was like kind of these weird, funny, just like situational things with personalities involved, where it's like we would kind of talk about those things, and it would be like, Well, that's just like what's this guy doing, and that's that, and like this is this isn't funny how this is connected, that's connected, and it was like kind of smart humor, but it's like that's the very in real life reality show type He was he was a good storyteller too.
01:24:39.000Uh and I almost feel bad that so many of the funniest ones you know you can't tell because it's it's private information, but he when he could actually tell you something, him relating it second hand was so funny.
01:24:50.000I'll give you a good Seinfeld moment from Charlie Kirk's life, and I'll I'll never I think about this all the time, and I don't know why it just sticks with me.
01:24:56.000So Charlie and I were going back and forth to LA for like every week for like a year.
01:25:02.000It was there's a reason for it, it was crazy, it was it was stupid, but my life got like completely uprooted, and I was going to LA every week.
01:25:09.000So the horrible part about this is that we had to find LAX, and LAX is like a third world country, and it just is, and like you just like and and again for people who have patience, you can probably get through LAX.
01:25:21.000And we were flying just back and forth, and so uh what one day we cut it really close on the Uber that we're going back to LAX, and you get in the loop around LAX, and it's like a horseshoe.
01:25:32.000And it's and if it's stopped, it's like that Uber spot where you have to.
01:25:35.000But you're so close to the terminal, but you're really not, yeah, yeah.
01:25:39.000And are you talking about just as you enter the airport?
01:25:45.000sometimes you can just bounce and then you can run faster than the other.
01:25:48.000No, then people who don't know LAX, that's a total thing where you're stuck in your Uber outside the airport, and you can see the whole string of cars, and people are getting out running in the city.
01:25:59.000You can cut yeah, because it's a horseshoe, and in the middle they have parking and there's some pathways you can actually cut right in through.
01:26:04.000So anyways, the sky no LAX way too well.
01:26:08.000This guy was dropping us off, and you know, he wasn't communicating very well.
01:26:12.000And we're going through anyway, we're we're that basically scenario played out, and he's like, Oh, well it's just right up here, it's right up there.
01:26:20.000And we just kept going and going and going.
01:26:22.000He's like, and I just remember the guy had messed up and then missed.
01:26:27.000He cut through the middle because there's this kind of a road through the middle, and actually Messi's like, Oh, we're gonna go have to go back and do this all over again.
01:27:00.000He actually thought that Seinfeld had really profound, like deeper like uh parallels.
01:27:07.000He he thought it was basically thought our entire modern world could be there was a there was gonna be a Seinfeld episode that that mocked in parodied that what what we're experiencing now.
01:28:02.000And I'll try remember Charlie loved this because it was the parallel to the black square during George Floyd and this coercive, you have to put it up, and if you don't, you're guilty.
01:28:13.000And and and that was just one instant of Charlie uh using Seinfeld as uh and I'll never forget he always brings Eric Mataxis on the show.
01:28:24.000Uh and he'll the first thing he does when Eric Metaxis comes on and he he'll he'll make like a inside Seinfeld joke reference because Eric loves Seinfeld as well.
01:28:33.000Uh and it's and it's a beautiful thing.
01:29:07.000I feel happiest about I was able to get Charlie to do crazy things for a long time.
01:29:11.000Again, for for that, but we did we had these hats that said precinct lead uh precinct sheriff on them.
01:29:18.000Sheriff, yeah, because we're focused on recruiting for precincts, and this is how serious about it.
01:29:21.000And Charlie was very serious about chapters, and on our political side, we talked about precincts and getting everyone involved in the precinct level.
01:29:27.000And so I was like, Charlie, if you're serious about this, you gotta wear this.
01:29:30.000And we uh I think we were about for a thought crime episode.
01:29:33.000Yeah, everybody had to wear an um Charlie I think Charlie probably took that off pretty quickly, but it was great that he that he he was always a good sport, like no, he had it on, he had it on for quite a bit of the episode.
01:29:46.000Charlie was always a good sport, uh, actually.
01:29:48.000And um uh what uh South Park, like they didn't understand the South Park.
01:29:55.000I f we found the clip uh 477 uh uh of Rush talking about Charlie.
01:30:01.000I'm going to play it before this show is out because um this show is the Charlie Kirk show, and Rush Limbaugh inspired Charlie to pursue this line of work.
01:30:36.000They brought Charlie Kirk to the golf course to meet me about a month ago.
01:30:42.000He was in town to set up this turning point thing.
01:30:45.000And they brought him to the golf course to meet me.
01:30:47.000It was during we're getting ready for a uh 8 45 a.m. start, and they brought him out while I was getting ready to go to the range loosen up.
01:30:55.000And I spoke with him for about a half hour.
01:30:58.000And he told me how he grew up in a home where my program was on all the time.
01:31:04.000He was just effusively complimentary to me, which which I of course understood and uh uh told him he's very wise, his family's very wise.
01:31:18.000This is the kind of guy um that you know you can see really becoming big in politics as he gets older.
01:31:28.000He just has the kind that the carriage, the personality, the charisma.
01:31:33.000I you you may think this sounds weird, but I remember when Bill Clinton became president.
01:31:40.000There were all of these stories about Bill Clinton at Oxford and Bill Clinton at Yale and Bill Clinton here, and all these people that went to school with him.
01:31:49.000There was story after story after story where people were saying that they just knew Bill Clinton was going to be president someday in college.
01:31:56.000He just had that kind of ambition, and he impressed people and I'm telling you that people are saying the same things about about Charlie Kirk.
01:32:10.000Rush saw it and Rush knew, and um Rush didn't want people to know this, and then we asked uh Catherine after he passed.
01:32:21.000Um she said it was okay to share that Rush was a seven-figure donor to turning point, and because he believed so much in Charlie and what he was building in the mission of Turning Point USA.
01:32:39.000And um I want all of you to rest assured that are wondering what's next.
01:32:44.000Turning point USA is not going anywhere.
01:32:47.000The mission that Charlie started, he always wanted it to be an institution that would outlive him.
01:32:54.000And we obviously wanted so much more time with him, but that was very clear that that was spoken of expressly, and um I know all of us are ready to get to work on that.
01:33:08.000Um we're honored by all our our partners at Real America's Voice who believed in this show.
01:33:13.000Um they've always been so supportive, by the way.
01:33:16.000Uh, they would send crews halfway around the world to have our back, Rob Sig, Parker Sig.
01:33:24.000You know what you mean to us, and um I've talked with both of you in the moments after and since and uh Jack, I know you uh work with them directly as well, and your show's coming up next, and we're gonna keep going for yeah, but I'm not I'm not just it'll be the Charlie Kirk should do this.
01:33:43.000Um anyways, we love them, and um there's so many people that we should remember and thank.
01:33:52.000There's thousands, thousands and thousands, and we're not gonna it's this probably is not the show to do that, um, just because it's impossible and we're gonna forget too many people, but um, but uh our I just can't tell you uh how many people believed in Charlie and gave us a shot.
01:34:11.000And um and uh as a matter of fact, I am I'm gonna Daisy.
01:34:18.000Do you have do I have your permission to to read this?
01:34:21.000Alright, so this is from Daisy Phelps.
01:34:23.000Daisy um uh she was originally Daisy Dibley when she joined us, uh, and she got married, and now she's uh expecting her first child and we love Daisy.
01:34:51.000And then Blake candidly uh changed everything as well.
01:34:55.000Um I'm trying to make sure I got my show clock right here.
01:34:59.000So this is from Daisy who would do Charlie's makeup and make sure his eyebrows because he had these crazy eyebrows they like he had he had like 60 year old eyebrows at 27.
01:35:10.000Like they would just spark up like this and I was like Daisy make sure his eyebrows are like it it is hair.
01:35:15.000He had this crazy mop that would just fight you and Daisy got really good at kind of putting it all together.
01:35:20.000And Daisy also ran his Instagram account and so much more.
01:35:25.000She said Charlie was a force a believer a patriot he was my friend I've had the privilege of speaking to him every day for the last four years and I can't tell you that I've ever known someone with more integrity.
01:35:37.000He was exactly who he said he was except better.
01:35:40.000There wasn't one thing that was fake or fabricated.
01:35:43.000He believed in what he said and he lived out what he believed he loved Jesus more than anyone the true the the truest thing about him was his belief in God.
01:35:52.000He was constantly researching new ways to defend the gospel and making sure we all knew them it was that important to him.
01:35:58.000I can still hear him say good morning sports fans coming into our studio every morning I can still hear the worship music coming out of his office.
01:36:07.000I and everyone in the building was watching I can still hear oh I can still hear the Cubs games he'd turn on all the TVs to make sure everyone in the building was watching.
01:36:16.000I can still hear his kids running to hug him during breaks.
01:36:19.000He's not only it he not only took a chance on me at 21 years old but he pushed me trusted me and listened to me.
01:36:27.000Our show was everything to us we lived and breathed the Charlie Kirk show because we believed in it.
01:36:32.000We still do he consistently raised the bar for everyone on our team by first raising it for himself every day.
01:36:39.000He saw greatness in you and he brought it out by first being great himself just being around him being in the background made you want to fight harder he was ecstatic when I told him I was pregnant.
01:36:51.000He made sure to ask about the baby every day.
01:36:54.000He wanted to see every ultrasound and when we found out it was a girl he yelled I told you my faith is completely different had I never met Charlie my career my adult life my marriage from watching the way he loved Erica everything is different had I never met him I'll never be the same and I wouldn't want to be if there was one thing to know about Charlie it's that he loved Jesus.
01:37:15.000He is with God he spent so much time learning about and teaching others about we just miss him.
01:37:22.000And I know we're all very honored to be here we're gonna keep going for another hour Jack and um at least um and I'd like to have an opportunity for people in the audience to call in and tell their stories and their how they remember Charlie so I want to do that.
01:37:40.000So I don't know if we're planning on doing that today.
01:37:42.000I think we probably should just keep going and so let's set up let's make sure the studio's ready to do that in a little bit but um go ahead there's a few people to you know and and again that are it's really important.
01:37:58.000this is not the show to everybody because there's so many people who are influential but there's a few people who are so dear to Charlie that I know of that just love to pieces Mike Miller who's been one of our long time board members he's like a father figure to Charlie and in fact he's one of the individuals who has been there from really day one when
01:38:27.000I met Charlie he was was a big time big game hunter Africa everything else a jeweler a big jeweler in Illinois from Barrington Illinois and he's so American the guy his address I think for his jewelry shop is 123 Main Street or something.
01:38:41.000So incre I and I've I've s I've slept at his house like this Mike's great man.
01:38:47.000Incredible love Charlie so much love Charlie so much but this is I mean there are people that have that were so influential our board members we have so many incredible board members but you know Doug DeGroot for example has just been there as been a a rock and a stalwart for Charlie Tom Sadeca who is going through some health things and we're praying for him every single day.
01:39:11.000I mean, there's just so many people, and so and those early people, especially the Chicagoans that were there who believed in Charlie.
01:39:20.000Uh Bill Montgomery, who was one of the first kind of in Bills and Magmatic Energy was like a tea party guy that wanted to just show Charlie to everyone, and it was many people like that who created gave the way that enabling of Charlie Kirk to be introduced to the world.
01:39:42.000And if you're one of those people, and I didn't name you, I'm so sorry.
01:39:46.000I we we I've I've David English David's there on the board, obviously, uh Rob McCoy, so many others that have been so close, all of our board members, truly, um, Jeff Webb, others that you just you took Charlie around to to expose him to the world to others.
01:40:04.000Um we're just we're just thinking about you so much today because uh you know you did this, and you you never remember and there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of people who Rebecca Dunn, Zweinberg, these people were just champions of Charlie, Ed Zieman, um so many yeah, we shouldn't start because we're gonna miss people that really but I I wanna foster freeze.
01:40:24.000Oh, Foster and he and I I guarantee you Foster is waiting right there for him when he when he came out.
01:40:30.000I remember sitting with Foster actually just right before he passed in the Trump Hotel in DC, and he scolded me, he was always scolding, you know, for you know, giving that advice that to Charlie, to me, to anyone that would listen.
01:40:52.000I just I I just also want to say thanks just in these few final moments of the live show, and again, we're gonna keep going, but um, we want to thank all the uh the Phoenix PD that has been uh stalwart and uh just from a security standpoint, cops blocking off roads, making sure our staff was safe, making sure these buildings were safe, making sure all the families felt safe going home and coming in.
01:41:19.000Um the buildings are are closed for all intents and purposes, and that's great.
01:41:23.000That's that's that's fine for right now.
01:41:25.000Um the first responders at the scene, uh, we want to thank them.
01:41:30.000Thank Charlie's personal security detail.
01:41:33.000Um you cannot imagine how um tough that was for them.
01:41:39.000And I really love those guys, and they love Charlie.
01:41:41.000You gotta believe me that if anybody loved Charlie, like and had his back and was fight the warriors by his side, it was those guys.
01:42:19.000Um, and so there's a radio audience listening all across the country.
01:42:22.000Just know that um Charlie was inspired by Rush.
01:42:25.000Rush believed in Charlie, and Charlie took this medium to the next level, um, and he was rewarded with it in ratings and the performance of the show and all of your amazing uh belief in it.
01:42:38.000And sorry, I just it's the way this thing works, man.
01:42:41.000Like uh you see somebody you haven't seen yet, you haven't grieved with yet, and it gets the motions flowing in uh in the you know, guys that I know who have lost people in the military, they say it's it's waves, yeah.
01:42:57.000It's waves, it feels like it feels like waves.
01:43:00.000And it's just and it's you know, certain certain phrases, certain people, certain faces, certain memories.
01:43:06.000Like for me, I I didn't expect a Seinfeld clip would just you know, yeah, and everybody deals with it differently.
01:43:14.000And um Charlie was not much of a crier unless you know he literally helped elect the future president and the 40 45 and 47.
01:43:26.000Um and uh, you know, just hat tip to everything He just accomplished by sheer will.
01:43:32.000And I really truly believe that without Charlie Kirk, we would not have President Trump and um Vice President Vance.
01:43:39.000And Vice President Vance, we would definitely not have him.
01:43:41.000And thank you to President Vance and to Usha, uh Vice President Vance and uh first second lady Usha um for just their just how wonderful they were with Erica yesterday through through and through.
01:43:54.000They came to Salt Lake City and they picked up Erica and they picked up Charlie and all of us and took us on Air Force Two back to Phoenix, and it was a beautiful ceremony, um, both getting on and uh getting off.
01:44:08.000And um JD came back and talked with us and he spent most of his time with Erica and I mean just class act, class act, hugged us all.
01:44:18.000He is he's genuinely I want to say this about the vice president.
01:44:22.000He's been genuinely interested in individuals, and this is the same thing with Charlie.
01:44:28.000This is the same thing with President Trump to be very point blank is very interested in individuals and his his touch, his warm touch on this of making sure that Charlie was honored the way that he deserved to be honored is never going to be forgotten.
01:44:47.000It's never gonna be forgotten by this team, it's never gonna be forgotten by the conservative movement, by obviously the entire turning point family.
01:44:55.000But that is that is such a testament to our vice president's character.
01:44:59.000Yeah, because it it would it's just as easy to say I I and keep and you gotta understand JD's hurting too.
01:45:06.000Um JD loved Charlie um as a brother and as a friend.
01:45:11.000Um they talked almost I'm like I I really mean this uh probably on text at least almost every day, if not every day.
01:46:03.000And um uh I uh just a quick programming note.
01:46:08.000We're gonna be sending our members, uh, members.charliekirk.com.
01:46:12.000We're gonna be sending you a phone number uh to call in and share your thoughts.
01:46:17.000So if you're one of the members of the show, you know who you are.
01:46:20.000You were the nearest and dearest to us um out there, and you believed in this show, and you put your money where your mouth is, and we adore you for it.
01:46:28.000And Charlie believed in his members in such an amazing way.
01:46:33.000And so if you're a member of the Charlie Kirk show, you are gonna about to get an uh an email with a phone number, and you can call in and you can share uh your thoughts and your remembrances of Charlie and what he meant to you, and we would love to hear from some of you.
01:46:47.000We'll try and fit in as many as make sense.
01:46:50.000And um how you got to know Charlie, how you discovered Charlie is incredible.
01:46:55.000Your interactions with Charlie and your interactions with the show, your interactions with Turning Point, uh, please like coming to events, whatever.
01:47:35.000Can I share one more thing that I saw that was a frequent thing that was really touching?
01:47:39.000We have of course tons of of people who've worked for us, um, tons of people who have worked with us alongside us that have helped build turning point into what it is today.
01:47:48.000Uh, but so many people, even people who you know, again, there are people who aren't always uh that don't always agree with with every single thing that comes out of turning point.
01:48:01.000I think this is really important, but their life was dramatically changed because of turning point.
01:48:10.000Um the one common theme I saw was people reaching out to me saying, Tyler, uh I've always had this unbelievable respect for Charlie and for Turning Point because it changed my life for the better.
01:48:29.000And that consistent message that Charlie gave about the family and building your family and everything else reinforced all of that.
01:48:35.000And so so many people are like almost coming back home because they're like, oh, you know, I didn't always agree with Trump or like Trump or whatever, and and or I didn't like X, Y, and Z, and now they're on they're on the team, and it was because Charlie they stuck with it and listen, they're like, Yeah, actually, you know what this is the life I want to live.
01:49:00.000Christ being the center of my life is important, what Charlie said.
01:49:02.000And so it's been really a beautiful, actually, honestly, a miraculous thing to watch as these people came back who I haven't heard from for almost 10 years, maybe, that have said, hey, this is how much this has impacted and changed my life, and you know, and some of some of these those people saying, I'm sorry, I I didn't say something before.
01:49:20.000And that was because of Charlie and what he built.
01:49:27.000I just you know, I I keep thinking about uh there's uh there's a poem that's a favorite of mine.
01:49:36.000It's from uh it's uh it's a poem during uh it was written during World War One by Lawrence Binion.
01:49:44.000It's titled uh For the Fallen, and it was about the men they lost in World War One.
01:49:49.000And think about just a few lines from it, and about and about Charlie.
01:51:28.000And the very last part as the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, as the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness to the end, to the end, they remain.
01:51:46.000So much of this in retrospect, and you don't have eyes to fully appreciate it in the moment, but where you realize that you were encountering greatness, and the moment you get the news, you realize that you were around somebody that was so incredible.
01:52:09.000And it in kind of in a weird way, like in retrospect, it all kind of makes sense that we were that we only get him for such a short time.
01:52:30.000You know, you hear these pictures, these hear these images of uh our uh descriptions of George Washington and how he's this huge man and and like especially for his time.
01:52:39.000Well, Charlie, we always joked he was a Nephilim.
01:52:41.000He is literally the only chair the only chair that we could get.
01:52:46.000I this is actually a really funny story.
01:52:47.000When we first started getting Charlie the chairs for his studio, it was like, nope, not that.
01:52:51.000It was like a it was like mattress shopping.
01:52:53.000It was like, nope, not that one, not that one.
01:53:23.000And uh he wore it out and he loved that big chair.
01:53:26.000And I have to say, like when I've sat in it in the past, like you've sat in it, it's like you're like, oh okay, I see what he was kind of, you know, it's a good chair.
01:53:32.000Um but he was larger than life and we all saw it and we all you know, he was younger than us.
01:53:40.000Everybody at this table, he was younger than us, and so we just you know, you assume that you're gonna probably go before him, and um but in retrospect, like he was so larger than life, and he packed so much into every single day, uh, that it's pretty impossible to it's impossible to to fully grasp just how much life he lived and how much he accomplished in thirty-one, uh far too short years.
01:54:24.000I consider him a dear friend, even though I never ever met him.
01:54:27.000I've listened to him for a very, very long time.
01:54:30.000I run and operate a lot in landscaping business and also host a um podcast, and what Charlie really taught me was he was always continually learning.
01:54:38.000And even with my show that it helps me you you you gotta know things.
01:54:41.000You gotta know about equipment and and and things like that.
01:54:43.000And Charlie was always learning, he's always listening to books and things like that, and his boldness to stand on the word of God and Jesus is what I've tried to do with my business and in life and even my family too.
01:54:53.000Like I I have a two and a half year old son and a kid on the way, and when I heard the news just a couple days ago, I was on the mower, I stopped and I cried.
01:55:03.000But we know that God's gonna work this together for good, and through his tragic death, guys, more people are gonna know about Jesus.
01:55:10.000And that's the one thing that we have to remember for this.
01:55:12.000And it's just I've never been he had I can consider him a friend even though I just never knew him, and I want you guys to hold on to God's word because that's what Charlie would want for us to to do us.
01:55:21.000Stand on God's word and hold on to it right now, not let the enemy just blind us from the the mission that he had set.
01:55:27.000Guys, appreciate all that you do, and uh just Charlie, just thank you and thank thank you, Lord, for just putting him on this earth for 31 years.
01:55:36.000And I think I just want to echo what you're saying.
01:55:38.000I've gotten so many notes and I've seen so many comments in social media of uh people saying their kids are coming back to church because of Charlie and because of this and what's happened.
01:55:48.000Um, that people are coming back to the Lord.
01:55:51.000And I just um Jack, it is your hour, but I'm just gonna say a quick prayer.
01:55:56.000Um I'm gonna say a quick prayer um for that.
01:56:00.000Um Heavenly Father, we ask that you would um bless Charlie's legacy right now in this moment, across the country and across the world as we mourn his his passing is far too early and too soon.
01:56:19.000We ask Holy Spirit that you would enter the hearts of millions of people across this planet, across our nation, and that you would bring people to faith in you, Jesus, saving faith in you.
01:56:33.000He loved you, and I know that he is getting his reward in heaven right now.
01:56:38.000And that's what he wanted in the beautiful eulogy that Blake helped write that all he wanted was thriving young people that went back and found their faith in you and thriving young families that made this country strong and great so that more could uh follow that same path.
01:56:56.000And I know Lord God that getting married and having a Family and knowing you were his greatest accomplishments on top of everything else he did.
01:57:04.000And so Jesus, we just bless this country and everybody that loved Charlie or that heard about him that only heard about him even from his his death, Lord, that you would make so many new believers, mint so many new members of your heavenly kingdom right now and in the days and weeks to come, Lord Jesus, we ask in your precious name.
01:58:38.000Yeah, it's it's really interesting, just right outside restaurant.
01:58:41.000Well, it's in it's in Brentwood at least.
01:58:43.000I don't know if it's it's it's kind of an interesting place, but we he had always had kind of this uh infatuation with the concept, and we actually leaned into it talking about culture wars and all of that, but that culture uh is what dictates your politics, so and culture is dependent upon your faith.
01:59:02.000And faith's the bedrock, it's the absolute starting.
01:59:05.000Nothing that that impacts that so the politics that is really downstream from culture is really, and this is like kind of like I would say Andrew Breitbart next level, which was this Charlie Kirk, is that that's why I believe Charlie was so adamant about faith being so important, is that he was a true believer in that statement, but that faith was what was dictating how our politics would end up, which is absolutely correct and true.
01:59:30.000And so go there's nothing that could be more important right now what you can think about just tie it up and say politics is downstream from culture, culture culture is downstream from faith.
01:59:42.000And Charlie led by example and embracing faith, embracing uh his the Christ-like attributes that are necessary to impact culture in the positive way that needed to happen.
01:59:59.000And I think that's why you're seeing that turn of so many young people that were influenced by this, maybe starting with politics, but were walking themselves backwards and going, Oh my gosh, well, my politics is dictated by my faith.
02:00:18.000That is at the the most important legacy of which Charlie himself said, which is that's all that's all he cared about was that people would know that.
02:00:25.000I saw a clip yesterday from uh Larry O'Connor, who worked for Breitbart, uh Andrew Breitbart, and they were talking about he was talking about this memory at CPAC, and they were doing an Andrew Breitbart panel.
02:00:38.000And Larry put it together, he he was kind of he's like, Well, all of us worked directly with Andrew, you never knew him.
02:00:44.000He's like, and Charlie says I can't wait to be on this panel, you know.
02:00:48.000And so he's like, I'll call you and tell you about it, like my thoughts.
02:00:52.000And he's like, Okay, we probably should talk because the rest of us knew Andrew.
02:00:54.000And um Charlie said that I was so inspired by Andrew Breitbart that I created turning point.
02:01:02.000Yeah, and Larry realized that he started turning point in 2012.
02:01:06.000Yeah, the year that it happened, and he realized that that Charlie in many ways is the blossom of the seed planted by the death of Andrew Breitbart, and so when you think about how that can keep going forward, and I know Charlie would want that.
02:01:23.000Um that that we would have many such stories like that, not just turning point or whatever.
02:01:29.000And it's really an Interesting point to make for those that study modern conservatism.
02:01:39.000I mean, let's if you if you had to pick the top three, it would probably be and again, we're setting Charlie aside, but Andrew Breitbart, Donald Trump, and the the third being Rush Limbaugh.
02:01:56.000And when you look at that and you start to go, wait, what's the connection between all three of those men?
02:02:03.000It's really you look at that, you go, Charlie Kirk.
02:03:36.000I just someone's sending me Westchester PA, and you know, I hear there's um I hear there's gonna be a uh I think I hear this they're trying to put together one, not like an official one, but like at the at the White House at Lafayette Square Park, there's just some local people trying to get a permit, and it's that spirit of individuals becoming activated and coming together around one core concept,
02:04:12.000He lived his entire life trying to inspire a turning point in this country, and and he's done it.
02:04:19.000He I I've I take so much solace in a couple of things.
02:04:24.000He got to see young men and the youth vote win a president.
02:04:31.000Yes, he got to see it, and he got to do it, and he got to see he got to see the decline in church start going back up.
02:04:41.000He got to see that it bounced, and he got to see just before that MBC poll that said that young men want to get married and have babies as their top priorities.
02:04:54.000And I can't tell you how much that means to me that he got to see the fruit of his work because so many people don't they don't get to see what they've accomplished, and he actually got to see it.
02:05:08.000And all of you that came out to the campus events, all of you that came out to our turning point events, all of you that subscribed to this the show that gave him like one of the biggest shows and reaches and platforms in the entire country day in and day out.
02:05:24.000And we had millions of people listening to Charlie every day, every day, every day.
02:05:29.000We tried our best to estimate it in the w way of modern um analytics with fast channels versus radio versus podcasts.
02:05:38.000And when you then you take clips, it was basically impossible to measure, but even just in the fall going up to the election, it was 15 billion views of Charlie Kirk content just in just ahead of the election.
02:05:52.000Um and every day there was between two and three million people that tuned into this show to Charlot the Charlie Kirk show or listen to the Podcast or um and that's just the live show.
02:06:04.000So that was podcast radio, and it was truly truly a feat for anybody.
02:06:09.000But the fact that he was able, like we said, Tyler, to be like a Rush Limbaugh, to be like an Andrew Breitbart, and to be He brought all that together.
02:06:16.000He brought all that together in one of it human that took and and by the way, and I want to give a shout out to all of his assistant staff and his chief of staff, Mikey, who made his day today possible.
02:06:37.000Anthony, the floor is yours, my friend.
02:06:39.000Uh tell us about Charlie and well, first my condolences to you and everybody.
02:06:44.000Um so Charlie and I, I've been listening to the show since it probably started, and I've been a member for a while and everything, and then but the one time that it stood out to me, and this might have been the funniest disagreement was probably at the end of July, early August.
02:07:00.000It was the weekend before you had to go on Fox and Friends, and he put out the question to everybody in the first hour.
02:07:08.000And he knows that I work in the industry and it's on the college side of athletics.
02:07:14.000And I he we talked about the political top question I sent in to him, and then he goes, All right, you can give me your I need I need to know.
02:07:39.000And I'm like, and then and I'm like literally sitting there and I'm like, he's yelling at me.
02:07:45.000He's yelling at me because the guy in the industry won't side with him.
02:07:49.000And I'll be honest, I always wanted a salary cap until I did more research.
02:07:53.000And then he's like, Well, you have to f and Blake, you can relate to this.
02:07:57.000You've got to find me that research and send it.
02:07:58.000So I said, All right, I will look for it.
02:08:00.000I sent it to him next Saturday morning when he's live on Aaron Fox.
02:08:03.000The following week he goes, I got your emails, I haven't read them yet.
02:08:06.000But he goes, but it was the funniest to see his facial expression.
02:08:10.000Just so light up because he's like Anthony.
02:08:13.000I I just want you're reminding me of of a very unique detail of Charlie Kirk that uh probably unless you emailed in the show, you didn't know.
02:08:24.000He would get into these during the show.
02:08:27.000During the show, he's sitting there hosting the show, going, Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show press send, and then he'd be like, you know, they didn't keep the show going.
02:08:34.000But he would he was uh arguing with people as we went he could be talking like giving a monologue and writing a separate argument to an email.
02:08:56.000Or sometimes you know he'd be like, what do we think?
02:08:58.000And he'd be like, Well, this person just agrees with me.
02:09:02.000And we would take sides with all of you.
02:09:04.000So like there would we would have all of that, and and and truly, and this is the one grassroots part because one of our our our culture point that we have at Turning Point is grassroots humility.
02:09:16.000And this is the really interesting part, and and again, Andrew deserves a ton of credit for this because they framed the entire show, the Charlie Kirk show here around your feedback, your commentary, your conversations, individual, every individual in America that talked to Charlie or would email in or would DM had a voice.
02:09:39.000And and again, that that's just that's not most people that do this.
02:09:43.000And it helped with the work because it helped frame Charlie's opinions about things.
02:09:49.000It helped frame from a grassroots perspective how we think about things at that turning point.
02:09:55.000Uh we think about issues, issues that would be covered on Charlie's show every single day that everybody listened to.
02:10:00.000Everybody at the White House would listen to you.
02:10:02.000And I mean I Twitter would change because we uh the the three like between Jack and Charlie alone, them dropping something changes the whole direction on Twitter anyways.
02:10:35.000Uh well, I if you did, I you know that's some some I I I wasn't giving the full confirmation on that.
02:10:42.000Sunday, there I mean who knows, uh, but it'll be at 6 p.m. uh in Washington DC, and I think it's a beautiful way to honor Charlie.
02:10:50.000Uh Charlie um candidly didn't love Washington, DC, didn't love going to Washington, DC.
02:10:55.000I mean he was but he would stomach it because he loved his country and he would go there, and um and so I I mean I think it's a fitting tribute.
02:11:07.000Can I can I just say if if you are at Washington DC or if you're in any other blue area and you're going to one of these vigils and protesters come up or something like that, just I'm not gonna say you know, don't get into it, but just we're not there for that.
02:11:26.000We're just we're really not there for that.
02:11:28.000Charlie Charlie was his message was peace.
02:11:31.000I mean, yeah, Charlie um he was a master swordsman, but his sword was the word and the logos and um debating, and he didn't believe in in peace per se, he believed in verbal combat and he believed in um intellectual and ideological combat and he believed that we were in a uh war of ideas and a spiritual battle,
02:11:56.000and um so w uh, I'm not here to give you some rosy, you know, prescription about the state of the world.
02:12:05.000We're in a battle um not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and um obviously close yeah understanding of the state of the world a couple of years ago.
02:12:58.000We saw that she was saying some smart things on Instagram, and we actually reached out to her, invited her to a young women's leadership summit, and she came and she was like, Hey, um I'm applying to med school.
02:13:13.000And she was a again, an Air Force veteran, everything else.
02:13:17.000And that one experience of her being there at Young Young Women's Leadership Summit, which by the way, that was young women's leadership summit was the brainchild of Charlie.
02:13:49.000But Anna showed up there and we convinced her to not go to medical school to quit, basically moved to Arizona and start touring and learning how the the ropes of of how to debate on campus.
02:14:03.000And to do that, that was like the Charlie Kirk model.
02:14:06.000And by the way, APL, she is so fierce in Charlie's defense since all this.
02:14:41.000Well you know how we are, but um it's such a privilege and an honor to that that Charlie called me his friend and in, you know, like even though we were occasional acquaintances.
02:14:58.000And I loved how he every time we would meet, he would treat us like family, you know.
02:15:07.000And I have uh what I wanted to talk about is maybe just a couple stories about how he elevated those around him.
02:15:15.000And I know it's been said before that that was the kind of person he was.
02:15:22.000And um, but you know, we we and Michelle's already emailed you guys the story of how we first met in 2020.
02:15:30.000And you know, we he introduced us to people.
02:15:34.000We you I think you were there, Andrew.
02:15:36.000We come back and he says, these are my 2020 friends, because we met you know, met him in 2020 just after the election at the headquarters.
02:15:42.000And it was what was so cool that every time afterwards we would go to an event that Charlie was speaking at, and he did this like at least twice to me.
02:15:52.000He's like, Oh, hey, Caleb, I'm out in the crowd.
02:15:57.000He says, Oh, there's Caleb and Michelle.
02:15:59.000I should tell you the story about how we met in in Arizona.
02:16:02.000You know, and he remembered you when he saw you again and and welcomed you in.
02:16:08.000And I Michelle and I are just we're so happy that you know, three weeks ago he he was in Myrtle Beach, and and you know, we were in North Carolina now, and we're like, we could drive, we could go to that, and we you know, um So we we went to see him and saw you there.
02:16:27.000And it was so cool because Charlie invited us backstage.
02:16:31.000Um, or you know, Mikey did, and he brought us into the green room, and there's Alex McFarland, and Charlie introduces us, you know, Caleb Michelle, you know, my my super fans, these are guys are Charlie Kirk show super fan.
02:16:44.000And um, and he he said, you know, Charlie Charlie said to me said, you know, Caleb just sends me the you know the best feedback.
02:17:13.000And he's like, Oh, that's a great topic.
02:17:15.000Hey, Alex, you and Caleb, you guys should debate this topic.
02:17:18.000And then he just puts us on the spot and he facilitated, you know, he kind of moderated, he jumps in on my side, you know, gives a good point here from the Bible, because it was a it was a you know uh a biblical uh discussion.
02:17:30.000And um by the way, Caleb, I want to give you credit because Charlie threw the the through through it to you to make a point.
02:17:38.000Uh remember backstage with McFarland, and you crushed it, man.
02:22:31.000I'm grateful to how he held himself and was able to hold conversations with people.
02:22:38.000And I do think that um in this tragedy, I'm hoping that it really is the turning point of our nation, and that we can um move forward as a nation in a way that Charlie would be super proud of.
02:23:33.000I like I woke up this morning realizing that.
02:23:36.000Um, yeah, just because of the people like the the layers of people talking to people who talk to people, who talk to people who are kind of coming back, and uh people have been so good to all of our team.
02:23:48.000Like, you know, people were worried about the safety of our team.
02:23:51.000Um, and so you know, Phoenix PD and Mesa PD have been incredible.
02:23:56.000Um, I know that Scott Stell PD and everyone else.
02:24:00.000I there's been so many people impacted by this.
02:24:05.000By the way, aren't even seeing anything.
02:24:07.000And when we we landed in Phoenix yesterday, there was a huge crowd.
02:24:14.000And as we drove away in the procession, there was people lining the streets, like American flags and MAGA hats, probably half of them that Charlie threw to them.
02:24:25.000And um and when we got to our final destination, again, there was a huge crowd gathered waiting for for us and for him.
02:24:52.000Yeah, just in Seoul in Japan, just the number of people, or it you know, even we realized it when we went to Cambridge and Oxford last spring, the the number of people who would recognize him all over the place.
02:25:04.000Yeah, and I I took him to a like a very private place in California.
02:25:11.000And I was like, Don't worry, we'll be we'll be left alone.
02:25:23.000It was like people would come like candidly, they were a bit rude, but I looked at him and I because you know, we're obviously having a private discussion, and they were like, Can I oh my gosh, can we get a selfie?
02:25:32.000And as he was driving away after, I mean, there was like very private place.
02:25:36.000There was still about I would guesstimate about 30 people in the course of about 40 minutes, like, and we were trying to to hide.
02:25:43.000And uh, and then as he's driving away, these two kids were like rode their bikes after him, and they were 14, 14, 15 years old, and they're like, Is that Charlie Kirk?
02:25:51.000I was like, Can we get a selfie before he leaves?
02:25:53.000And I was like, you know, it's like Charlie, you know, and Mikey was in the car with him as they were driving away, and of course he's like, I I um I I got him to stop and he was and I I asked him in the middle of it, and I said, Are you okay with this?
02:26:06.000He's like, honestly, it's just I've accepted it.
02:26:10.000This is life, and I just I want like I know that I can make somebody's day by doing it.
02:26:17.000The one funny Yes, he would always say that.
02:26:19.000So always say yes to every photo, even if he was in the biggest hurry.
02:26:22.000The one funny moment that I have that's like that was the opposite of that with Charlie, and I don't know why this memory sticks with me, but it was it was during that whole time when he lost his voice, and and we were trying to get his voice back.
02:26:34.000So it was like me, Charlie, and Mikey, and we were just the way the travel route, we were just driving through like Central Florida where it gets kind of rural, and we we had this idea to get him like a humidifier with like medicated humidifier, but we couldn't figure out where to get one, and Charlie wanted a specific one.
02:26:54.000And then we were just driving down the street and Charlie goes, Well, there's Walgreens.
02:26:57.000Let's just let's just go to the Walgreens.
02:26:59.000And you know how he is when he like when he wants something and he wants something specific.
02:27:05.000And we just we just went to Walgreens and we're just like walking around, and it was just so surreal because like nobody came up for it's like the one time among all these times where it was just like the most normal, simple and of course we couldn't find the one he wanted, and we had to get it very Seinfeld, you know, kind of thing, and then we just go check out and it's like in the middle of all this craziness, it's just a random trip to Walgreens trying to find something for my buddy because his throat hurts.
02:27:35.000You know what's funny, actually now thinking of thinking about that.
02:28:13.000With I mean, we weren't I mean you did do some exploring with the zone, and then later we were in this old town neighborhood, and he's like, All right, Blake, just tell me about Korea, and I'm just babbling.
02:28:23.000This is the this is the palace where they do the Confucian examinations.
02:28:28.000And of course, it was also a trillion degrees out, so we were all in you know, nice clothes because we had to go to the thing later, and it was swamp and I was dying, but it was it was so much fun.
02:28:38.000But we have that's that's such a oh that's such a good point though, Andrew.
02:28:42.000I mean, the thing that I think most people don't realize, especially in these these la last years that Charlie was with us, was that he was never alone.
02:28:51.000I mean, the weight and pressure of having to be that celebrity, like that's a lot, it's a lot to do, and and that has an impact on most people.
02:29:00.000And the one thing I think that was really astonishing about Charlie is he didn't change as a person at all.
02:29:06.000He didn't he by the way, he wasn't like the party animal either.
02:29:09.000Like, so a lot of people get in this role, and they they you I don't know, you see him at clubs, you see him drinking, you see them partying or like enjoying all this stuff.
02:29:18.000Charlie would go home at like the first instant that was socially acceptable for the programming, like at America Fest.
02:29:25.000Maybe the program didn't get over until 7 30.
02:29:27.000He would go straight home back to the hotel as soon as he could after meeting with donors or supporters.
02:29:33.000Yep, he would do like he would do a circuit of like four stops, five stops, meet with donors, and then he goes straight back to be with Erica.
02:29:42.000And he but his personality never changed, his his demeanor never never changed.
02:29:49.000Uh I mean his busyness level was never different.
02:29:52.000He was always busy in different ways throughout his career, uh, throughout the time that that as he grew, but the the thing that was always really difficult that I was always really worried about him was that you're never having that you know reprieve from the public eye, or being able to go out and just do normal things.
02:30:10.000And the one thing I really appreciate about Erica and you guys actually specifically that here with Andrew and Blake, because you guys spent a lot when he did have alone time, it was with you, and so it was like the as that that was as alone as he got with Mikey.
02:30:26.000Um, and he he got to do some normal things in that way, right?
02:30:31.000Which was like going to get to the Cubs game.
02:30:34.000He was always just the kid from Chicago, and wanting to be always and wanting to eat the restaurant.
02:30:38.000I was like, I'll always remember again, just after we had a long day of doing something extraordinarily exhausting, and I feel like it was like 10 p.m.
02:30:47.000Like Charlie loved to just go sit down and break bread and eat.
02:30:51.000But by his by the way, his the way he would order was hilarious.
02:30:54.000He'd sit down, we'd be at a restaurant, and be like, you know, four or five of us gathered around, he and he would take them in, you go, uh give us some of this, some of this, some of this, some of this, some of this.
02:31:02.000Uh get these out for a shareable plates.
02:31:04.000You guys are gonna love this, you're gonna love this.
02:31:12.000Yeah, it was like he would order like a crazy person, like 15 items, and then so you're just like, I guess I'll just eat what Charlie's having, and the the table would be filled, and he'd be like, get some more of this.
02:31:25.000And then everybody's around eating, talking, you know, again, kind of decompressing from whatever the crazy was that we were you're going through, whether it was the the travel or the event or the donor meeting or whoever, or whatever you're doing, the show, the speech, the I mean, uh the rally, the uh activist event.
02:31:45.000That was the consistent thing is that you if you got that opportunity to sit down and then you talk, and then you what it wasn't just talking about nonsense, it was usually talking about big ideas and having the conversation similar to like what we have on Thought Crime.
02:32:00.000So, like if you you as an individual out in the world, and I don't know if you agree with that.
02:32:04.000Thought crime was probably the the closest uh visual video videoed version of what it was like to kind of like hang out with Charlie.
02:32:16.000We used to used to joke about it because it was just it was like our group chat on camera.
02:32:23.000And that's what it was like to sit down with Charlie, like in a in a scenario where it's like you're sitting there talking about there's these things going on, these topics, and like everybody's going around the horn, just like you know, talking about it, debating it, and you know, he was like, Well, isn't that interesting?
02:32:38.000Or like you know, you get into the and ideas would spark and he'd do that smile, and he would think of it.
02:32:44.000My favorite, I was just uh sharing with Daisy that my favorite segments in Thought Crime were so uncomfortable.
02:33:47.000Um I have a story I want to share from Emma on our team.
02:33:50.000Um she said the night after the election, Charlie wrapped the stream and came out to the bullpen and sat and ate his dinner with the team and told us stories about the behind the scenes work he was doing that nobody knew about for like two hours.
02:34:05.000It was one of my favorite CK memories of all time.
02:34:08.000He told us how much we can trust JD as vice president and the work he did to get him to that spot.
02:34:17.000Char Charlie had the the thing that makes me the saddest about Charlie's passing and that he was ripped away from us so abrasively is that that man had a had probably a library of books to write about the things that he knew that have gone to rest with him.
02:34:37.000Things that he saw that are really interesting for politics, because again, piggybacking on that.
02:35:12.000Because I would people were like sharing text messages, and I was going back and look at because look at some of the ones that I have, and I was like, Can't share that, can't share that, can't share that.
02:35:31.000Um so I always like to like hound Charlie a little bit, and I I it looks like I was uh making fun of uh the cough drop thing because the the c and by the way, that was the one thing that Zinn cough drops, right?
02:35:45.000The South Park, yeah, people thought it was Zinn when he was on campus and he would pop the cough drops in.
02:35:50.000So this welcome to the inside chat, guys.
02:35:52.000This is about as close up as you can get.
02:35:55.000And um, and I I would be like, actually, Charlie, I love the c makes you look really cool.
02:35:59.000Like when you're like popping, you got this kind of like nonchalant look when you're just popping the cough drop.
02:36:04.000And Daisy says, Everyone thinks his cough drops are Zinned.
02:36:07.000And I was like, nicotine cough drops, and Charlie, ha ha ha ha ha.
02:36:11.000And I go, Charlie's Riz secret for the record, it's a great Riz crutch, makes you look nonchalant, plus the athleisure wear versus the suit.
02:37:25.000And but I didn't need it because Charlie was just fantastic, and then lastly, I'm most thankful for Charlie for introducing me to Jack Hibbs and the Relic Network and reinpicking my face.
02:37:52.000He looked fear right in the eye and he overcame it again and again and again.
02:37:56.000And I can tell you how many moments I spent with Charlie in this behind the scenes and the quiet before he walked out on stage or before he had to tackle something or a setback, bad news.
02:38:09.000And Charlie just looked at the fear right in the eye and he knew there was no way but through.
02:38:13.000And he just was so courageous and he just did it.