Learn English with Scott Bessant, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, who served under President George W. Bush and served as Vice President Joe Biden's Chief of Staff. He joins us to remember the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on his birthday.
00:00:56.000The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:11.000I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this fine show, joined, as always, by producer Blake Neff.
00:01:18.000And I'm honored to say we are also joined by Secretary Scott Bessant.
00:01:24.000Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Secretary.
00:01:27.000It is an honor to be with you, to have you join us in this beautiful room that we are in the cash room.
00:02:06.000You have not had a chance, at least on this show, to reflect on the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk.
00:02:12.000This is, of course, would have been his 32nd birthday.
00:02:15.000We are in D.C. in order because the president promised Erica that he was going to award Charlie the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his 32nd birthday.
00:02:27.000He literally moved world events in order to race back to D.C. in order in to make good on that promise to Erica.
00:02:39.000Just expound on what Charlie meant to you, your interactions with him, and what the last month has meant to you in this country.
00:02:46.000Andrew, I was actually walking out of the vice president's office when news of what happened to Charlie hit.
00:02:56.000And then the news that he had passed came after that.
00:03:01.000And what really hit me was if someone wanted to try to end the maggot movement, the America First, and the turning point USA ethos, obviously, 10 years out, Charlie was going to be carrying the torch.
00:03:23.000And if you wanted to try to end the movement, the way to do it was to assassinate Charlie.
00:03:30.000And clearly, this is what was on that person's mind.
00:03:34.000We'll see if there was a larger network involved with this.
00:03:39.000I have no reason to believe there was.
00:03:41.000I have no reason to believe there wasn't.
00:03:44.000And to me, everyone knows Charlie was a family man.
00:03:51.000But the Charlie I knew too was also an educator.
00:03:54.000And what I admired on the show was the love that he had for all of his listeners, for everyone involved in Turning Point, for his country.
00:04:05.000But what he did on the show, and that's how I got to know him.
00:04:09.000And one of the reasons I'm sitting here today is that Charlie was such an aggressive and forceful advocate for me to become Secretary of the Treasury because of the time we'd spent together.
00:04:21.000And his financial breadth and depth was incredible.
00:05:34.000You actually had, I believe it was April.
00:05:36.000Alexandra, you could fact-check me on that, but it was Financial Literacy Month.
00:05:41.000And you honored him and the show, and we brought in a bunch of TPUSA chapters from around the country, and you talked about finance.
00:05:50.000So you have shown your commitment to the same things that Charlie was committed to, of bringing in the next generation and living the American dream as you have.
00:05:58.000And maybe just speak about that and the importance of bringing this next generation into the system, into believing they can make it in America, that they don't have to be disaffected young people anymore.
00:06:14.000Charlie, when I was younger, there was someone called Norman Vincent Peel.
00:06:19.000And for those of you who don't know, President Trump went to Marble Collegiate Church in New York, and the minister was Norman Vincent Peel.
00:06:26.000And he wrote a famous book called The Power of Positive Thinking.
00:06:29.000And in a way, Charlie was the Norman Vincent Peel for your generation.
00:06:43.000And to look forward, what can you do to increase your resiliency?
00:06:49.000What can you do to increase your literacy?
00:06:51.000What can you do to make your odds better of success?
00:06:56.000And that was the movement he was creating, as you said, just to be part of the system, to get people on board with believing in the country, because we are celebrating the 250th year of the country, and we've got to get ready for the next 250.
00:07:17.000And it's going to be the same, and it's going to be different.
00:07:22.000But it's going to be driven by young people.
00:07:26.000And we have to energize our base to believe in the country because what you see now, and I'm just astounded, it's almost like they're two Americas.
00:07:40.000You look out and they're the people who are full of hate and venom.
00:07:46.000And they're at these protests, like just the protest yesterday.
00:07:52.000Yesterday, I believe, was the greatest day thus far this century.
00:07:58.000With the hostages coming home, the beginning of the peace process, which no one said could be done, and President Trump did it.
00:08:05.000But there were people out there with that venom and vile behavior.
00:08:12.000And then every Saturday, you look, and there are these collegiate football games and military flyovers and people waving the flag.
00:08:20.000And it's almost like we're in a contest for America.
00:08:24.000And Charlie was determined that good was going to win, that we were going to see the light, and it was going to be through faith and education and belief and family and country.
00:08:34.000And everything that got us here for the first 250 years is what's going to take us for the next 250 years.
00:08:40.000I'm really glad you mentioned just the love Charlie had for ordinary Americans, that he really wanted to uplift them.
00:08:48.000We're getting a lot of all the happy birthday wishes.
00:08:52.000We're just pouring in and we're getting in.
00:08:54.000Everyone's saying, Charlie, good afternoon.
00:08:56.000I'm starting my lunch and it's time for me to watch the show.
00:11:27.000Charlie was a champion of the grassroots.
00:11:30.000We never lost track of that at Turning Point.
00:11:32.000We will never lose track of that at Turning Point or on this show.
00:11:36.000You like to say the muscular class, the guys who shower before and after work.
00:11:41.000Tell us about what this administration is doing to reach regular working Americans with the economic promise and prosperity that only America can offer.
00:11:50.000Andrew, as you know, it's Main Street that got President Trump here.
00:11:55.000Wall Street was never foreign until he won.
00:11:59.000He always, whenever we have a lot of the business leaders in the office, he'll poke at them a little, well, you're here now, but you weren't with me in 2022 during those dark days.
00:12:13.000But the people were with President Trump.
00:12:15.000That's what the first time I went to see the president about two years ago and told him I wanted to be part of the campaign.
00:12:23.000You go up on bad news because the people are with you.
00:12:27.000And going back to when we were talking about Charlie, that the five hours of tribute to him a few weeks ago, I wasn't able to make it, but I watched it all on TV, and there were some incredible points made, eulogies, feelings, passion.
00:12:49.000But one thing that really stuck with me was what Stephen Miller said.
00:14:09.000So there are opportunities, and it's going to require both financial literacy and skills-based training.
00:14:17.000We have an incredible shortage in the trades and nursing.
00:14:22.000We probably overemphasize college degrees.
00:14:26.000And I'm sure there's this whole generation who got out who they've got a lot of student loan debt and degrees that don't work for them.
00:14:35.000But I think through President Trump's initiative, we are going to see both a Main Street comeback, a working-class comeback, and the opportunity to accumulate the real assets over the long term.
00:17:08.000I'd not share with anybody, but the last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven was he said that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence.
00:17:26.000That was the last message that he sent me before that assassin stole him from all of us.
00:17:36.000Stephen Milliers said something similar when JD hosted the show on the Monday after he was assassinated.
00:17:42.000And Treasury, I come to find out, coming to D.C., that Treasury has taken an active role in an aspect of this dismantling of the financial networks that are supporting some of these radical left violent groups.
00:18:01.000And I will tell you that after 9-11, Treasury became the driving force behind tracking down the networks of terrorist organizations, how they were financed, how could this have happened on U.S. soil with these international terrorist organizations?
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00:22:21.000You were on with Charlie, and we were talking about it with the Secretary that one of Charlie's passions was economics.
00:22:29.000People don't, I don't think, always associate Charlie with economics, but the way he got into politics was studying the Austrian school, studying Milton Friedman.
00:22:38.000He got really passionate about these macroeconomic trends.
00:22:41.000He got really passionate about the debt and the currency valuations and things like this.
00:22:46.000And so you are one of the guys that goes out into the media and talks about the good work that Treasury is doing.
00:22:53.000And we were talking in the break about how this economy is doing.
00:23:03.000I mean, the animal spirits are alive and well in this country.
00:23:05.000So maybe just start there and tell us, give us that 30,000-foot view of how you see things going, how Treasury is viewing things in this current moment.
00:23:15.000The data are as good as they could be.
00:23:18.000I mean, they're actually very good, thanks to President Trump.
00:23:20.000So in the second quarter, his first full quarter in office, we grew 3.8%.
00:23:26.000If you take the federal side out, we actually grew 4.5%.
00:23:30.000So the real GDP, excluding the federal government, grew at 4.5%.
00:23:35.000And in the third quarter, the latest estimate from the Atlanta Fed, which a lot of people look at, is at 3.8% with also a very similar profile of the growth being led by the private sector, consumers, and also capital spending, CapEx.
00:23:51.000That's investment in things like AI and other technology.
00:23:54.000So that's really what's driving the economy.
00:23:59.000We learned after the fact that the Biden job machine really didn't work very well, that we had about 2 million downward revisions over two years.
00:24:10.000So the economy is doing well, thanks to President Trump.
00:24:13.000We need to get the labor market turning higher.
00:24:15.000Unfortunately, the shutdown is hurting a lot, actually.
00:24:19.000And that's a factor that we're concerned about.
00:24:21.000But the long-term outlook under President Trump is excellent.
00:24:26.000So Charlie was very, one of the things he would talk about repeatedly over the last few months, he talked about the future of young people in America, because there's a lot of extremism among young people.
00:24:38.000We've seen polls even after Charlie's death that show a shockingly high share of especially those on the left among those under 40 support overt political violence.
00:24:49.000And he would talk about this choice between MAGA and Mangioniism, Luigi Mangioni, the guy who shot the health care CEO.
00:24:56.000And he would basically say you need to give young people a stake in the economy, a sense that they have ownership of things or they'll become really politically radical.
00:25:07.000One of his big passions was you need to have young people be owning homes.
00:25:12.000We've seen, I think in the 1980s, the average first-time homebuyer was about 29 years old.
00:25:25.000What can we do to make it so young people are buying into the system rather than feeling hopeless and atomized?
00:25:32.000And I was wondering if you have any thoughts on what the Trump administration can do along that dimension to especially uplift the youngest Americans who are otherwise at risk of getting really radicalized.
00:25:44.000And the Treasury Secretary recently highlighted the fact that we have a housing affordability crisis.
00:25:49.000To Charlie's points that he was making so eloquently, one of the things you can do certainly is get inflation down because under the prior administration, inflation ran at a near 5% annual rate.
00:26:00.000That's the highest since the inflationary 70s.
00:26:03.000When you have high inflation, you have high interest rates.
00:26:05.000Under President Trump, he's been able to get inflation rate down substantially.
00:26:10.000That's allowed blue-collar wages to expand and to grow quite significantly.
00:26:14.000And also allowed interest rates to decline.
00:26:16.000So you look right now at U.S. interest rates, the 10-year yield, the benchmark borrowing rate for mortgages and for corporate borrowers is around 4%.
00:26:23.000So that's very positive, and that will eventually pull mortgage rates down because inflation is declining.
00:26:29.000And all the investment that I talked about that President Trump is getting going in the economy, that will increase the economy's ability to produce goods and services, which will further lower inflation.
00:26:39.000So mortgage rates can't come down further.
00:26:41.000The administration is also working on things to try to expedite the permitting process, trying to lower some of the costs.
00:26:48.000Things like that will help, no question, because as you said, young people need to have a skin in the game, need to have a stake in the outcome, and feel like they're not disillusioned.
00:26:58.000So Charlie was exactly right about that.
00:27:00.000It will take time to undo the policies we had under the prior administration, but we are optimistic that as the cost of living goes down and as worker wages rise, you'll get more young people being able to go into the home market and be able to buy, get affordability higher, and things will turn.
00:27:18.000It'll take some time, but things will turn.
00:27:20.000Another important part will be another thing Charlie talked about a lot, the college scam, sort of deflating the scam elements of higher education.
00:27:27.000Did you see this yesterday with the, I believe it was Santa Clara School of Law?
00:27:34.000So this is something that's unfolding right now.
00:27:36.000One of the things the Trump administration recently did is it capped the annual amount of student loans you could take in the plus loans to $50,000 a year.
00:28:07.000With the government, I mean, Alice Rivlin, probably not well known among many folks, old person like me knows who she is.
00:28:15.000She was head of the Congressional Budget Office under, I believe under Clinton, and was a vice chair of the Fed.
00:28:20.000She's certainly not a rightist in any way, shape, form, but you talked about how government with education causes all sorts of big problems and how they basically create artificial demand, to your point about what the Trump administration is doing, trying to get government out of the market.
00:28:35.000So that's very important and lowering costs.
00:28:38.000So things like this are very important.
00:28:40.000Let the private sector do its job and let the government get out of the way so that costs can fall to make education cheaper for everyone.
00:28:49.000This also comes back to your point on housing, trying to get the government out of the way, senseless regulation that doesn't allow building and things to go forward in a more productive way so that costs can be lower.
00:29:04.000How concerned are we about artificial intelligence?
00:29:08.000You talked about this dichotomy between you had 4.5 percent real growth in the private sector, but there are struggles in the labor market.
00:29:18.000Obviously, that's what I think of first when I think about young people getting skin in the game, getting on that first rung of the ladder to start building wealth and building a career.
00:29:27.000Is AI something that you are looking at actively?
00:29:31.000How concerned are you about it eroding, especially those entry-level jobs?
00:29:35.000You think financial markets, right, financial analysts on Wall Street, that's the first jobs that are getting cut.
00:29:41.000So how worried are we about that first rung on the ladder of career building as the first jobs that are going to get cut?
00:29:48.000We're seeing some negative trends with Gen Z employment.
00:29:51.000Look, all new technologies are very disruptive, but the history, the U.S. economic history is such that they ultimately get the economy growing and expanding and thriving in a much better place.
00:30:02.000So I'm not worried about AI necessarily replacing jobs, although there might be some areas where there is some effect.
00:30:10.000We need a lot of jobs in a lot of high-tech areas, certainly in a lot of high-skilled areas, trades.
00:30:17.000tradesmen, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, all those things to build.
00:30:21.000We need a lot of that labor we're so short of.
00:30:23.000The fact that the administration has secured the border and gotten rid of significant amounts of illegal workers, which are artificially depressing worker wages, is also very important.
00:30:33.000But like when you want to build and the president wants to reindustrialize the manufacturing base, create high-value-added, high-paying jobs, those aren't AI jobs.
00:31:02.000Look at the boom we're seeing across these hyperscalers.
00:31:05.000I mean, there's so many wonderful opportunities.
00:31:07.000I have to think that the outlook and the ability to do business and to transact in a meaningful way and not be impeded by government regulation and high taxes, those are all things that are going to create jobs for all sorts of people, all sorts of Americans.
00:31:23.000It's not to say there weren't certain areas there will be some dislocations, but President Trump knows how to create jobs and we'll get it done.
00:31:29.000You know, we had the opportunity to speak with the vice president yesterday, just briefly, and it struck me that he is extraordinarily bullish, glass half full, you could say, on AI and its ultimate impact.
00:31:44.000That we've seen this with the railroad.
00:32:18.000My father, he's retired mostly, but he ran the largest trade school, vocational trade school in Connecticut.
00:32:24.000So yeah, there's tremendous amounts of opportunities that are there.
00:32:27.000And look, in the bill that was just passed, One Big Beautiful Bill, there's full expensing for CapEx.
00:32:33.000There's going to be full expensing for factories.
00:32:35.000So all the things you talk about in terms of building that the president wants to create, those tax incentives are there, which makes the forward really, really bullish.
00:32:48.000He became a big, big believer in the One Big Beautiful bill because he saw that the CapEx, that was going to drive a ton of investment in the short term.
00:32:57.000Because private business owners, he was thinking about it from a personal standpoint, going like, well, if we can write all this off right now, let's do it.
00:33:26.000We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.
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00:36:04.000But, you know, outside of the D.C. area, it wasn't.
00:36:07.000But when I came here, all of a sudden it was like, oh, I can feel the shutdown, right?
00:36:10.000You really feel it when you're in D.C. Let's go ahead and play a cut that's going viral right now of Speaker Mike Johnson listing some of the crazy things that they want to pass in order to reopen the government, the Democrats.
00:37:39.000But because we're not getting any economic data, the Federal Reserve, which the President has accurately said rates are too high, the Fed has begun cutting interest rates.
00:37:49.000If we had data that I think might be weaker, because as I said earlier, the Biden jobs market was not very good, and we got handed in a market that was losing a lot of downward momentum, maybe the Fed should cut rates more.
00:38:02.000So not having the data because of the shutdown is a problem because you maybe not making the best policy decisions because we don't have any information.
00:38:09.000And of course, there is an economic hit, and there's also a human toll.
00:38:14.000As I'm sure you know, there were 13 clean budget, clean continuing resolutions the Democrats passed over the past four years.
00:38:24.000And if you go back and look historically, I counted no less than 15 the Republicans passed when they were the minority party in power without there being a shutdown.
00:38:33.000So in this same speech, by the way, Speaker Mike Johnson said that they went and counted all of the CRs that Chuck Schumer supported, and it was 29 out of 30 over his tenure.
00:38:55.000Honestly, I'd like to leave it with, I don't know if we have it ready to throw up, but someone ordered Charlie's Starbucks order, the Mint Majesty Tea with two honey packets, and the barista took that order and then wrote on the cup, don't lose your voice.
00:39:36.000Balance in Nature would like to take a moment to honor the life and legacy of our friend Charlie Kirk.
00:39:41.000Charlie dedicated his life to inspiring each of us to live with a greater purpose.
00:39:45.000He wholeheartedly believed in meaningful conversations and the power of building stronger communities together.
00:39:50.000He taught us to be engaged and responsible citizens, leaving us with values that will continue to echo through generations.
00:39:57.000Charlie was not only a leader, he was a friend to everyone at Balance of Nature.
00:40:00.000In his memory, Balance of Nature is committing to a culture that chooses compassion to live with purpose and to ensure that dignity has the final word.
00:40:09.000Hear about it from Charlie in his own words.
00:40:11.000Every single ingredient is a fruit or veggie plucked from the soil.
00:40:14.000No binders, no additives, or artificial colors, no fillers.
00:40:18.000Just whole fruits and veggies, gluten-free and vegan-friendly.
00:40:20.000These harvested ingredients are freeze-dried into a fine powder using an advanced vacuum-cooled process to better preserve nutritional value.
00:40:28.000Go to balanceinnature.com, use discount code Charlie.
00:40:31.000So order online at balanceinnature.com.
00:40:52.000You probably, and I, you know, I don't want to offend anybody else, but Charlie maybe said more nice things about you, Lee, than just as far as your ability to be an effective administrator of the EPA, but like an effective operator, just solid.
00:41:14.000I never, ever heard him say anything but just wonderful things about you.
00:41:18.000So it really is fitting that you're here on his, what would have been his 32nd birthday.
00:41:22.000That feeling couldn't possibly be more mutual, the respect, admiration that I and so many others have had for him.
00:41:30.000And I shared a thought with both of you when we were together last night about what's happened over the course of the last month, coming across these parents who had no idea how much their sons and daughters were greatly looking up to Charlie and paying attention, tuning into this podcast every day, listening to all of those videos over TikTok and learning so much from him and getting inspired by Charlie.
00:41:58.000And what's happened over the last month, not only have these parents had this epiphany as to what was going on with their sons and daughters, but now those parents have been watching all these videos.
00:42:09.000And I got to say, as somebody who was in touch with Charlie a ton, I appreciated him.
00:42:15.000But like when you saw the response following his death, not just from across this country, but around the world, I didn't spend any time thinking about this, you know, a possibility that we might lose Charlie so soon and that you'd have that kind of a turnout on his passing.
00:42:36.000And I remember driving into the stadium and seeing so many people who were walking the other way because the stadium was full, the overflow was full.
00:42:48.000And I mean, it was a hot day inside of Phoenix.
00:42:51.000These are older people, but you could have filled up another stadium.
00:42:56.000We could have filled up, I think, three, maybe four, actually, with all the people that were there.
00:43:03.000It was funny because our tech partners, apparently, this is very standard at a stadium like this where they monitor how many devices are in and around the stadium.
00:43:11.000It's not some like conspiracy or whatever, but they, the, you know, the State Farm Arena or stadium rather, it, you know, hosts Super Bowls and things like that.
00:43:20.000They're very, they have a great team, actually, and they confirmed with us.
00:44:22.000For people who are talking about Charlie, as if this was some explosion over the course of the last few months or the last couple of years, you could go back a decade earlier.
00:44:35.000This guy who 32nd birthday today, I'm talking about like early to mid-20s.
00:44:42.000He was pulling thousands of people out at an event.
00:44:46.000Talk about this, because a lot of people that have known him a little bit longer, like yourself, saw the evolution of Charlie.
00:44:52.000You know, he was a little bit more rough around the edges at the beginning, still the same passion and like warmth and vibrancy.
00:45:08.000What did you see from your vantage point?
00:45:11.000Well, there was, he was a very good learner.
00:45:15.000A lot of people might not realize just how much he was always trying to grow himself and become smarter, to become wiser, to study.
00:45:26.000When he was having this event at a school where he was challenging people to come up to talk about topics where they disagree, he wasn't just trying to bring out the best of that person who was stepping up to the mic.
00:45:42.000He was hoping that that person stepping up to the mic was to bring out the best of him, of Charlie.
00:45:48.000And he would learn from that and he would get better and stronger for it.
00:45:52.000So if you had to point to one thing that would have happened over the course of that decade that we were just talking about, is that he was absorbing so much knowledge.
00:46:06.000And so many of us in life, we just get through the day.
00:46:12.000And we have a job, we have a family, we have a routine, and we don't really take a moment to just take it in, to reflect, to be able to pray, to grow.
00:46:27.000And Charlie was doing that in his entire day, all day, every day.
00:46:36.000And what will happen is by the time you're in your early 30s, you're going to be wiser than most people who are senior citizens who have just kind of dragged themselves through life.
00:50:09.000Tell us about the EPA because Charlie was not a huge fan of the EPA.
00:50:15.000Was it the elimination of productivity agency?
00:50:19.000Or it was like something like job elimination, you know, that sort of vibe with Charlie.
00:50:24.000But you have taken it, and Charlie really loved what you were doing with the EPA because yours is you have this growth mindset.
00:50:30.000Yeah, we want clean water, we want clean air, we want the cleanest water and the cleanest air.
00:50:34.000But there's a way that you can use this agency and leverage the tools at your disposal to really be pro-growth.
00:50:40.000And so tell us about how you're approaching that.
00:50:43.000So one of the biggest differences between conservatives and liberals is that we believe it's not a binary choice between protecting the environment and growing the economy.
00:50:51.000We choose both at the Trump EPA, and that's a difference.
00:50:56.000And we come in, we inherited so many bad decisions that were made during the Biden administration.
00:51:01.000We have basically half of the president's deregulation agenda.
00:51:06.000And we're talking about trillions of dollars of deregulation.
00:51:11.000In one year, we will do more deregulation at the Trump EPA than entire federal governments have done across all federal agencies across entire presidencies.
00:51:22.000Just one of the proposed deregulations alone, the proposed rescission of the 2009 Obama endangerment finding, if finalized, is the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.
00:51:36.000But while we're doing that, I'll tell you the best announcements that we put out on the 100th day of President Trump's term in office, our top 100 environmental accomplishments from those first 100 days.
00:51:46.000On the 200th day of President Trump's term in office, our next top 100 environmental accomplishments from those next 100 days.
00:51:55.000And we're getting people back in the office.
00:53:31.000He was engaged during the transition process and he had a lot of ideas.
00:53:37.000We were very much in contact over the campaign and the different ways to be able to make sure that President Trump was elected and he had a Republican Congress to work with him to implement that agenda.
00:53:50.000But when the election came and went, Charlie didn't just disengage.
00:53:54.000He became more engaged to make sure that the right people were coming into government, that they were focused on the priorities of this president.
00:54:03.000They weren't going to, what we don't want to do is repeat any mistake of the past where the wrong people come in.
00:54:08.000They're trying to sabotage the president.
00:54:10.000Charlie, 72 hours after the election, flew to Florida.
00:54:20.000We are all about saving babies with pre-born.
00:54:23.000There are 24,836 kindergartners starting school this month who would not be alive if it hadn't been for what pre-born did in 2019.
00:54:33.000When a woman considering abortion sees her baby on that ultrasound and hears that baby's heartbeat, it doubles the chance that she will choose life.
00:54:42.000$140 gives five mothers a free ultrasound and saves babies.
00:54:46.000$280 can save 10 babies, and just $28 a month can save a baby a month for less than a dollar a day.
00:54:54.000A $15,000 gift will provide an ultrasound machine that will save babies' lives for years and years to come.
00:56:02.000I hope maybe with the Charlie effect and some of the things that you guys are doing in the Trump administration, they're going to have some wind at their back.
00:56:11.000What is your advice to them down the stretch?
00:56:14.000So I'll have to be careful about how I answer this now that it's understanding our setting and the position of it.
00:56:21.000I think it's so important for conservatives to get out of our comfort zone and not just speak to the people who agree with us all the time, but to go to places where maybe no one in that community has voted for us in the past or agrees with us and engage with them directly.
00:56:43.000And, you know, something that obviously Charlie confronted head-on, especially when he was on these college campuses, and I've been experiencing this at the EPA, is that there are terms, words used in the environmental space that the left is used for organizing that get particular definitions that might sound good on paper, but but in reality is not what you think you're getting.
00:57:10.000The terms like environmental justice, climate justice, climate change, they get a definition, and you might think that you are supportive of the concept, but actually the congressional Democrats who are pushing those terms aren't doing exactly what that definition says.
00:57:37.000If there's a community that's been left behind and needs help, let's all help.
00:57:41.000But actually, what they're using the term environmental justice for is to get tens of billions of dollars appropriated for their left-wing activist NGO friends, their well-connected former Biden and Obama officials and Democratic donors, so that they can just eat at the taxpayer till and just waste away money with reduced agency oversight.
00:58:03.000In the name of climate justice, the Biden EPA gives $50 million to a group called Climate Justice Alliance.
00:58:10.000They say the climate justice runs through a free Palestine.
00:58:14.000There are a lot of Americans who would say that we shouldn't be spending $50 million on an activist NGO like that.
00:58:24.000Or in climate change, you have people who they'll build support with their definition, but then they'll try to get these policies across to have more control over the lives of more of the citizenry.
00:58:36.000They will try to bankrupt people who can least afford it.
00:58:39.000And I just think it's really important that we as conservatives are reminded to take advantage of all these opportunities to get out of our comfort zone, talk to people who maybe haven't supported us or understood us in the past.
00:58:54.000Maybe meet them where they are and talk to them about these important issues because they're getting fed what I would say are lies that are deceptive on purpose, and it results in abuse of power and people getting taken for granted.
00:59:14.000Do not always assume people have heard your POV because a lot of times you'll discover that they haven't.
00:59:20.000I don't know, Blake, if you've got anything top of mind or any emails we want to share, but someone's holding a pool party during the Metal of Fairy.
00:59:50.000I'm thinking of this visual of Charlie in 2020.
00:59:55.000It was on the south lawn of the White House where the RNC was getting hosted.
01:00:01.000And he was right in front of me for the president's acceptance, this smile.
01:00:08.000And you all have seen this smile so often.
01:00:11.000I mean, you saw it firsthand in 2024 when they call Pennsylvania, you know, this epic footage, this hard work paying off.
01:00:19.000But man, that smile, it was someone who is just showing you so much joy and passion for the cause, for this country, for the future, and hope.
01:00:32.000Man, we can never forget or lose sight of that smile on his face.
01:00:37.000Well, and that's our sacred duty here at the Charlie Kirk Show, Turning Point.
01:00:40.000It's why we're here today, why we're honored to have you.
01:00:43.000I know that you and Charlie were close friends, and you guys confided a lot in each other.
01:02:32.000Not only did they take away a dear friend of mine, a dear friend of the American people, but they took away a leader, a husband, a father, somebody who had immense potential and destiny.
01:02:46.000I'm absolutely convinced he would have been president of the United States probably within a decade or so, which at Charlie's age still would have made him an exceptionally young president.
01:02:57.000But this happened almost in my backyard.
01:03:00.000I mean, UVU is just a couple of miles from where I live.
01:03:04.000And it's not the kind of place where that's supposed to happen.
01:03:08.000I remember just a few weeks earlier, Charlie called me one day right after he had scheduled that particular visit and said, Mike, I want you there.
01:03:47.000But it's up to the rest of us, those of us who knew him and had such admiration for him, to keep his message moving forward, to make sure that his words echo throughout the ages.
01:03:59.000This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of YReFi.
01:04:03.000It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.
01:04:09.000His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come.
01:04:15.000Now, here Charlie, in his own words, tell you about YReFi.
01:04:19.000I'm going to tell you guys about whyReFi.com.
01:05:07.000But today we're kind of honoring what President Trump raced back from the Middle East to do, which is to honor Charlie with the highest civilian honor that our country can bestow on somebody, the Medal of Freedom and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
01:05:21.000And, you know, you see what Charlie meant to the president.
01:05:25.000And, you know, we got a chance to spend a little time last night in so many friends.
01:05:30.000I mean, Charlie was, we talked about this earlier.
01:05:35.000He was always about the grassroots, always about the muscular class, sort of reviled the elite in a sense.
01:05:41.000You know, he was a kind of a populist in that way.
01:05:44.000But you go around this town right now, and it's like the who's who, and they all loved Charlie.
01:05:51.000And his friendships and his network extended to so many of the most powerful people in the world right now.
01:05:57.000And you're seeing that on full display with the President of the United States after brokering a peace deal in Israel, Gaza, flying back, racing back for this.
01:06:06.000I guess just reflect on the enormity of that and what that says about the impact Charlie's had.
01:06:12.000Well, it's a huge thing, and it's one of countless data points that we can identify since September 10th of where the entire world has reacted.
01:06:21.000You've got foreign heads of state recording tributes to him.
01:06:25.000You've got the President of the United States flying to Arizona the following week for that beautiful memorial service where the president himself and many members of his senior team also spoke.
01:06:36.000He's brought together all kinds of people.
01:06:39.000And I think that's one of the reasons why I'm optimistic that his legacy will be a lasting one, in part because he's got such a great team of people who knew him really, really well.
01:06:49.000And you know because you remember, because you were there for a lot of these speeches, and you're going to be able to recall with an accurate degree of detail which Charlie Kirk message fits the moment.
01:07:02.000Yeah, I think we all have this Charlie GPT running in our head.
01:07:07.000People want us to make a literal Charlie GPT.
01:08:21.000The whole head gang wanted for failure to honor their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution from dictatorial whims of a malignant clown.
01:09:37.000Look, we ourselves, of course, can't do anything about it in terms of what his future looks like there.
01:09:44.000That's not up to us, not up to any government.
01:09:46.000Their speech is protected by the First Amendment, and I'll fight to the death to make sure that they've got that.
01:09:52.000That doesn't mean that it's a good idea.
01:09:54.000Just because you can legally and because you're protected doesn't mean that certain things are a good idea.
01:10:00.000And publishing something like this, which I regard as just the next iteration in a long series of inflammatory statements and inflammatory images like this one, they don't contribute to a good environment.
01:10:15.000Calling people fascists, Nazis, this kind of imagery, something that they've been doing for a long time.
01:10:22.000In fact, they did that just a couple days before Charlie Kirk spoke at UVU.
01:10:27.000They referred to me and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, basically as Nazis saying that we were bringing about the Vichy regime of the United States or words of that effect.
01:10:37.000A couple days later, a member of their editorial board was asked about it, and he said, oh, no, those guys are totally fascists.
01:10:44.000And, you know, look, they're constitutionally protected, and they're right to say that, but it does create a certain atmosphere.
01:10:49.000Now, this, a few weeks after that assassination occurs, with the red bandanas around the neck, with the hole in the head comment, that's really, really pushing it.
01:11:15.000Senator, what do you make of this rise of left-wing terrorism targeted at Tesla and Elon Musk?
01:11:21.000My fear, Senator, and I hope I'm wrong, and let's stay in prayer that I'm wrong, that someone is going to get shot the same way that Steve Scalise got shot and, God forbid, killed.
01:11:52.000One of the worst things about what happened to Charlie is just how prophetic he was about raising the alarm about the rise of left-wing terrorism and Maggianism.
01:12:06.000I mean, I find this chilling to even hear him say those words.
01:12:34.000But one of the most troubling things that has happened since Charlie's death has been the extent to which there are people all over America, people in responsible positions, leftists, who openly celebrated, openly applauded what happened, wishing on death for more conservatives.
01:12:58.000Look, you think back other times when other prominent national figures, whether office holders or otherwise, have been assassinated, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, just to name a few.
01:13:16.000You did have, sure, a couple of crazies here or there would say something stupid, but they were immediately dismissed as not being responsible members of society.
01:13:28.000This time around, people were openly celebrating it.
01:13:30.000And they were not rejected by their own.
01:13:33.000And that harkens back to this poll, the NPR PBS Marist poll that came out about two weeks ago, I believe it was August 1st, saying that 55% of leftists in America believe that it's morally acceptable to murder the current president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
01:13:52.000And by the way, there was an economist YouGov poll conducted a few days after the assassination that found 30% of 18 to 39-year-old self-described progressives or liberals said that political violence was justified to achieve political ends.
01:14:08.000Blake, do we have any emails you want to throw?
01:14:11.000There's just so many, and so many of them are short, but they're all appreciated.
01:14:14.000I just have this one from Jolene here.
01:14:16.000Charlie was a gift on loan from God, a prophet in his time, God-fearing, intelligent, kind.
01:15:03.000And Rush believed in Charlie and actually mentioned on his radio broadcast after meeting Charlie, and I believe it was in like 2017 originally when he met Charlie or maybe 16.
01:15:16.000And he said he related the interaction to how people would talk about President Bill Clinton and how you could just even, even back in his college days, you could see that this guy could be president.
01:15:27.000And Rush said that on air about Charlie.
01:15:35.000Those two had prescience, particularly as to political and civic matters, that very few can match.
01:15:45.000And it's impossible for me to think about the rise of Charlie's career and his rise to prominence generally without thinking that in so many ways he was a protege of Rush.
01:15:58.000I'm quite certain, in fact, I think I recall Charlie saying that he was an average Rush listener long before Charlie Kirk's name became prominent.
01:16:09.000And I'm also confident that those voices around Charlie, even before he started listening to Rush, were themselves influenced by Rush Limbaugh.
01:16:17.000So it's good to have Charlie carrying on that legacy and others carrying that forward even after Charlie's gone.
01:16:23.000A lot of people have been saying that they thought he was going to be president one day.
01:16:27.000And I guess what we can say is he's something greater than a president, actually, which is he's a martyr.
01:16:34.000Yeah, I mean, in his legacy, you know, it's funny because on my first interview that I did after Charlie's assassination, it was actually with Laura Ingram.
01:16:46.000It was about an hour before Erica gave her first address.
01:17:31.000But it said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
01:17:35.000And my heart about dropped out of my chest because, you know, just, again, the little, Charlie was incredibly in tune, I think, with the Holy Spirit.
01:17:50.000And, you know, he just, he could, he had a sense for where things were going and where things, you know, and I think there's these little Easter eggs, these god winks all over his life when you have eyes to see it.
01:18:03.000All right, so Senator Mike Lee, I was telling this to Joe Lavorgna in the first hour, that we are in a government shutdown, and yet you're still here.
01:18:14.000There's some other employees here, but it is funny because a lot of the employees that we would normally interact with to get into buildings or get at security checks or whatever, they're furloughed.
01:19:34.000They're so accustomed to getting their wave, the mainstream news media covering for them, and Republicans getting attacked every time something like this happens, regardless of who did what, that they think that they're immune from the laws of physics and mathematics.
01:19:49.000But it's not going to end well for them.
01:20:10.000Even long before we get to that, something else has broken down by the time we can get into this posture where the federal government gets so big, so expensive, with such a long arm reaching into so many aspects of your lives, that the mere threat of not having the whole thing funded all at once can cause widespread panic.
01:20:30.000A government that can do that to you is a government that's gotten too big, too expensive.
01:20:36.000I feel like that's the best place where we can leave this conversation because Charlie's first big popular slogan that ever went viral was, big gov sucks.
01:20:47.000And Charlie wanted a limited government that was strong enough to affect the people's will that they voted for, but that was small enough that it didn't impede our freedoms.
01:20:59.000And so I mean, I think Charlie would say, hold the line, Senator, and fight for us.
01:21:06.000And I think that's the fighting spirit in some ways that has fully saturated, it seems, the highest levers of power, at least within the admin.
01:21:16.000We've got some legislators that need some work.
01:21:19.000But this offense, offense, fight, fight, fight, this pushing forward a muscular Republican Party and conservative movement that Charlie so desperately wanted.