The Charlie Kirk Show - Charlie’s 32nd Birthday

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter.

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

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

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

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

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

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord, use me.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

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

00:01:09.000 All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:11.000 I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this fine show, joined, as always, by producer Blake Neff.

00:01:18.000 And I'm honored to say we are also joined by Secretary Scott Bessant.

00:01:24.000 Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Secretary.

00:01:27.000 It is an honor to be with you, to have you join us in this beautiful room that we are in the cash room.

00:01:32.000 Yep.

00:01:32.000 Well, gentlemen, welcome to the U.S. Treasury and welcome to the cash room.

00:01:36.000 Yeah, I mean, this is a beautiful, beautiful space that we're in.

00:01:40.000 It's historic.

00:01:42.000 Apparently, they used to hold the actual cash of the U.S. government.

00:01:46.000 We did when we had it.

00:01:48.000 Yeah.

00:01:49.000 When we had more cash than debt.

00:01:51.000 Right, but Blake was commenting that we are now $37 trillion in debt, so it's empty now.

00:01:56.000 But it's a beautiful room to do a show in, nevertheless.

00:01:59.000 Good.

00:02:00.000 And excited to have you here.

00:02:02.000 It's an honor, sir.

00:02:04.000 I just want to start at the basics.

00:02:06.000 You have not had a chance, at least on this show, to reflect on the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk.

00:02:12.000 This is, of course, would have been his 32nd birthday.

00:02:15.000 We 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.

00:02:27.000 He literally moved world events in order to race back to D.C. in order in to make good on that promise to Erica.

00:02:36.000 So the floor is yours, Mr. Secretary.

00:02:39.000 Just expound on what Charlie meant to you, your interactions with him, and what the last month has meant to you in this country.

00:02:46.000 Andrew, I was actually walking out of the vice president's office when news of what happened to Charlie hit.

00:02:56.000 And then the news that he had passed came after that.

00:03:01.000 And 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.

00:03:23.000 And if you wanted to try to end the movement, the way to do it was to assassinate Charlie.

00:03:30.000 And clearly, this is what was on that person's mind.

00:03:34.000 We'll see if there was a larger network involved with this.

00:03:39.000 I have no reason to believe there was.

00:03:41.000 I have no reason to believe there wasn't.

00:03:44.000 And to me, everyone knows Charlie was a family man.

00:03:49.000 He was a Christian.

00:03:50.000 He was a patriot.

00:03:51.000 But the Charlie I knew too was also an educator.

00:03:54.000 And 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.

00:04:05.000 But what he did on the show, and that's how I got to know him.

00:04:09.000 And 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.

00:04:21.000 And his financial breadth and depth was incredible.

00:04:26.000 He was an autodidact.

00:04:27.000 He was self-taught in finance.

00:04:30.000 And he passed that knowledge on because he saw, as I saw, that what had happened to this generation, this group of young people.

00:04:42.000 And it's been a tough time.

00:04:44.000 There was the financial crisis in 2008.

00:04:47.000 There was COVID, but he was optimistic and always talked about the future.

00:04:54.000 How do we get ahead?

00:04:55.000 How do we stay ahead?

00:04:57.000 And Charlie, like myself, believes in the system.

00:05:02.000 And if you believe the system works, which I do, which he did, you want to bring more people into the system.

00:05:08.000 And it's through education.

00:05:09.000 That's why I say he was such a great educator.

00:05:12.000 I think that's really well said.

00:05:15.000 If you boil down his mission, his mission was about his faith.

00:05:19.000 His mission was about his country and his family.

00:05:20.000 But his mission was, in a general sense, about bringing disaffected young people into the American dream.

00:05:28.000 He wanted them to buy into America, the idea of what this country is.

00:05:32.000 And you guys talked about that.

00:05:34.000 You actually had, I believe it was April.

00:05:36.000 Alexandra, you could fact-check me on that, but it was Financial Literacy Month.

00:05:41.000 And you honored him and the show, and we brought in a bunch of TPUSA chapters from around the country, and you talked about finance.

00:05:50.000 So 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.

00:05:58.000 And 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.

00:06:12.000 Well, in a way, too.

00:06:14.000 Charlie, when I was younger, there was someone called Norman Vincent Peel.

00:06:19.000 And 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.

00:06:26.000 And he wrote a famous book called The Power of Positive Thinking.

00:06:29.000 And in a way, Charlie was the Norman Vincent Peel for your generation.

00:06:34.000 And it's easy to be cynical.

00:06:36.000 It's easy to get down.

00:06:39.000 The world is a tough place.

00:06:40.000 It's moving fast, but it always has.

00:06:43.000 And to look forward, what can you do to increase your resiliency?

00:06:49.000 What can you do to increase your literacy?

00:06:51.000 What can you do to make your odds better of success?

00:06:56.000 And 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.

00:07:17.000 And it's going to be the same, and it's going to be different.

00:07:22.000 But it's going to be driven by young people.

00:07:26.000 And 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. 0.83

00:07:40.000 You look out and they're the people who are full of hate and venom.

00:07:46.000 And they're at these protests, like just the protest yesterday.

00:07:52.000 Yesterday, I believe, was the greatest day thus far this century.

00:07:58.000 With the hostages coming home, the beginning of the peace process, which no one said could be done, and President Trump did it.

00:08:05.000 But there were people out there with that venom and vile behavior.

00:08:12.000 And then every Saturday, you look, and there are these collegiate football games and military flyovers and people waving the flag.

00:08:20.000 And it's almost like we're in a contest for America.

00:08:24.000 And 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.

00:08:34.000 And everything that got us here for the first 250 years is what's going to take us for the next 250 years.

00:08:40.000 I'm really glad you mentioned just the love Charlie had for ordinary Americans, that he really wanted to uplift them.

00:08:48.000 We're getting a lot of all the happy birthday wishes.

00:08:52.000 We're just pouring in and we're getting in.

00:08:54.000 Everyone's saying, Charlie, good afternoon.

00:08:56.000 I'm starting my lunch and it's time for me to watch the show.

00:08:59.000 And already tears are in my eyes.

00:09:02.000 We have happy birthday, Charlie.

00:09:04.000 Something about the show today has me crying again.

00:09:06.000 What a beautiful soul we lost, but heaven gained.

00:09:09.000 That's from Heather.

00:09:10.000 And just so many people had this close, even if they never met Charlie, they felt a personal connection to him.

00:09:16.000 And he felt a personal connection to them as well.

00:09:19.000 He loved this country.

00:09:20.000 He really wanted to better this country, sustain this country.

00:09:26.000 Even, you know, as Erica said at the memorial, he cared so much about even trying to help people like the man who killed him, allegedly.

00:09:36.000 Yeah, and this is a very true thing about Charlie, that he was reaching out to help the types of people that ended up ending his life.

00:09:47.000 And I really don't have the heart today to dwell on that too much because it's too devastating to think about.

00:09:56.000 You know, you said something, and Charlie, and you shared a vision for Main Street in this country.

00:10:02.000 It's a vision the president shares.

00:10:03.000 It's a vision that is not.

00:10:05.000 You said, Wall Street's going to do just fine.

00:10:07.000 They're going to do fine, but we've got to get Main Street back on track.

00:10:10.000 And they have not had their turn for a while.

00:10:13.000 And I believe that really impacts the next generation specifically.

00:10:19.000 This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of YReFi.

00:10:24.000 It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.

00:10:29.000 His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come.

00:10:35.000 Now, here Charlie, in his own words, tell you about YReFi.

00:10:39.000 I'm going to tell you guys about whyReFi.com.

00:10:41.000 That is why F-Y.com.

00:10:43.000 WhyReFi is incredible.

00:10:44.000 Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion.

00:10:47.000 WhyReFi is refinancing distress or defaulted private student loans?

00:10:52.000 You can finally take control of your student loan situation with a plan that works for your monthly budget.

00:10:56.000 Go to yrefi.com.

00:10:57.000 That is whyrefi.com.

00:10:58.000 Do you have a co-borrower?

00:11:00.000 WhyReFi can get them released from the loan?

00:11:02.000 You're going to skip a payment up to 12 times without penalty.

00:11:05.000 It may not be available in all 50 states.

00:11:07.000 Go to yrefi.com.

00:11:08.000 That is yrefy.com.

00:11:11.000 Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted student loans, it can be overwhelming.

00:11:15.000 Because of private student loan debt, so many people feel stuck.

00:11:18.000 Go to yrefi.com.

00:11:20.000 That is why.com.

00:11:23.000 Private student loan debtrelief, yrefi.com.

00:11:27.000 Charlie was a champion of the grassroots.

00:11:30.000 We never lost track of that at Turning Point.

00:11:32.000 We will never lose track of that at Turning Point or on this show.

00:11:36.000 You like to say the muscular class, the guys who shower before and after work.

00:11:41.000 Tell us about what this administration is doing to reach regular working Americans with the economic promise and prosperity that only America can offer.

00:11:50.000 Andrew, as you know, it's Main Street that got President Trump here.

00:11:55.000 Wall Street was never foreign until he won. 0.96

00:11:59.000 He 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.

00:12:13.000 But the people were with President Trump.

00:12:15.000 That'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.

00:12:22.000 You are like a superstock.

00:12:23.000 You go up on bad news because the people are with you.

00:12:27.000 And 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.

00:12:49.000 But one thing that really stuck with me was what Stephen Miller said.

00:12:55.000 They have made you immortal.

00:12:58.000 They have made you immortal.

00:13:00.000 So, you know, with the award today, Charlie, as I said, President Trump is a movement.

00:13:09.000 Charlie was a younger version of the movement and would have carried it on.

00:13:14.000 But the movement now is going to be immortal.

00:13:17.000 And I think that this generation should be inspired.

00:13:24.000 Whenever anyone asks me what they should do, I said, look, the president is setting the table for all kinds of opportunities.

00:13:32.000 We are bringing back precision manufacturing.

00:13:34.000 So there are going to be factory jobs.

00:13:37.000 We are reaching out to Main Street through small banks.

00:13:41.000 And small banks are the lenders to small business.

00:13:45.000 So young people want to start businesses.

00:13:49.000 I may not look like it in these clothes, but I'm also a very large farmer.

00:13:54.000 So small banks are the largest source of agricultural lending.

00:13:58.000 So for your listeners in rural areas, we've seen people moving away from farms.

00:14:04.000 I think farming is great business.

00:14:07.000 I got into it about 10 years ago.

00:14:09.000 So there are opportunities, and it's going to require both financial literacy and skills-based training.

00:14:17.000 We have an incredible shortage in the trades and nursing.

00:14:22.000 We probably overemphasize college degrees.

00:14:26.000 And 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.

00:14:35.000 But 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.

00:14:54.000 Well, I certainly hope you're right.

00:14:56.000 And people don't realize this about Charlie, but he was an autodidact.

00:14:59.000 He was a self-taught man when it came to economics.

00:15:03.000 And he was really into the Austrian school, Milton Friedman.

00:15:07.000 I mean, that was actually his start: learning the macroeconomic basics and then advanced learnings as well.

00:15:17.000 But he was rooted in fundamental economic ideas.

00:15:22.000 I was in awe of his knowledge.

00:15:24.000 He was like, as Benjamin Franklin was to electricity, he taught himself he was to economics.

00:15:29.000 Yeah, and he could talk it with the best of them.

00:15:32.000 And you saw that firsthand.

00:15:33.000 So we're here remembering our friend and brother, and you are as well in the audience.

00:15:37.000 Blake, you've got an email for us.

00:15:39.000 Yeah, we've been getting so many, just a wall of them during that break.

00:15:43.000 But we want to read this one we got earlier today from Jennifer.

00:15:46.000 She wrote, Happy birthday, Charlie.

00:15:48.000 Here is my gift.

00:15:49.000 Dear Charlie, my life has changed since yours was taken from you.

00:15:54.000 And now every day is bittersweet.

00:15:56.000 I have gone back to church after decades away and brought my children with me.

00:16:00.000 I'm praying for my husband.

00:16:02.000 I am sober over three weeks, thank God.

00:16:05.000 I now wear a cross around my neck proudly.

00:16:08.000 I found it amongst my old gold jewelry that I was going to have melted down into a cross as I'd never had one.

00:16:14.000 And I truly have no idea where it came from.

00:16:16.000 It's small rose gold with a Celtic feel, like me.

00:16:20.000 And I think it was a divine gift, regardless of how that may sound to some.

00:16:24.000 I know countless others have changed their lives in similar ways.

00:16:28.000 And I can't help but think that these are the best birthday gifts you could have ever hoped for.

00:16:34.000 I pray for your family, feels all your love today and every day going forward.

00:16:38.000 God bless Jen from Canada, your new sister in Christ. 0.99

00:16:42.000 And we're getting so many, so many emails like this.

00:16:42.000 Amen.

00:16:46.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:16:48.000 Keep sending them.

00:16:49.000 If we don't read them on air, we're going to read them personally, and they mean a lot to us, the team, as well.

00:16:53.000 So please rest assured about that.

00:16:56.000 I want to play a clip here that's really important because you're working on a very important piece of this.

00:17:03.000 I wish we had more time for this.

00:17:04.000 So let's just get right into it.

00:17:06.000 1:36.

00:17:07.000 And let me tell you something.

00:17:08.000 I'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.

00:17:26.000 That was the last message that he sent me before that assassin stole him from all of us.

00:17:33.000 So that is a powerful clip.

00:17:36.000 Stephen Milliers said something similar when JD hosted the show on the Monday after he was assassinated.

00:17:42.000 And 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.

00:17:57.000 Share with what you can.

00:17:58.000 I know it's an ongoing process.

00:17:59.000 So it's an ongoing process.

00:18:01.000 And 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?

00:18:21.000 Where did the money come from?

00:18:23.000 Who were the ultimate funders?

00:18:25.000 And that was on the international side.

00:18:27.000 And Andrew, I will tell you that Charlie's death is like a domestic 9-11.

00:18:32.000 That we are going to find it has alerted us to what Charlie knew, that these organizations are working within our borders.

00:18:43.000 And look, we believe people have a right to free speech.

00:18:47.000 They have a right to organize.

00:18:48.000 They have a right to protest, but they have to do it peacefully.

00:18:52.000 They cannot embrace violence.

00:18:55.000 And we have seen it.

00:18:56.000 We've seen it since the terrible day two years ago, the anti-Semitism and the bias that came out after October 7th, 2023.

00:19:08.000 And many of these organizations have been financed by nonprofits.

00:19:13.000 And it's going to stop.

00:19:15.000 And we are going to, as they always say, follow the money.

00:19:20.000 When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they're using.

00:19:29.000 After they close the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they're using to blind our police force.

00:19:36.000 How are they constructed?

00:19:38.000 Because this takes a lot of money.

00:19:41.000 It takes a lot of organization.

00:19:43.000 And we are going to do that.

00:19:45.000 We have started to compile lists, put together networks, and there's a long record here.

00:19:53.000 And we don't know how much of the support's coming in from overseas.

00:19:56.000 We don't know how much being supported by U.S. nonprofits, C3s that give money to C4s.

00:20:05.000 But this is mission critical for us now.

00:20:08.000 Just as after 9-11 and Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit, was captured.

00:20:14.000 We are operationalizing this here at Treasury, and we are going to track down who is responsible for this.

00:20:22.000 So Charlie's death has set this off, and we are determined.

00:20:28.000 We are determined not only to honor him, but to keep our country safe and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides.

00:20:36.000 That we can't, as conservatives, we can't be afraid to go out and speak.

00:20:42.000 You know, I know people are canceling speeches.

00:20:44.000 They're having to bring down the size of the rallies.

00:20:48.000 President Trump was millimeters away from death, and he was not deterred.

00:20:54.000 And we're not going to be deterred.

00:20:56.000 God bless you for that.

00:20:57.000 I wish I had more time, but that was a powerful message.

00:21:00.000 Thank you.

00:21:00.000 Secretary Scott Besson, thank you so much.

00:21:02.000 Pleasure.

00:21:05.000 Policy Genius has been a proud partner of the Charlie Kirk Show for over the past year, and they've helped countless families find affordable life insurance.

00:21:14.000 People love Policy Genius.

00:21:16.000 It's incredible.

00:21:17.000 Did you know that nearly half of American adults say they would face financial hardship within just six months if they lost their primary income earner?

00:21:25.000 It's a sobering reality, but one you can prepare for.

00:21:28.000 With Policy Genius, peace of mind is within reach.

00:21:31.000 See if you could find a 20-year, $1 million life insurance policy starting at just $276 a year.

00:21:39.000 That could mean real protection for your loved ones at a price that makes sense.

00:21:43.000 And it couldn't be simpler.

00:21:44.000 PolicyGenius helps you compare your options by pulling quotes from some of America's top insurers, all in one place.

00:21:51.000 With just a few clicks, you can see your coverage options, and their licensed agents will guide you through the process from start to finish.

00:21:57.000 Secure your family's future with Policy Genius.

00:22:00.000 Head to policygenius.com to compare free life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save.

00:22:07.000 That's policygenius.com, policygenius.com.

00:22:13.000 So Joe Lavorgna is the counselor to the Secretary of Treasury, Scott Besson.

00:22:19.000 So you have been on this show before.

00:22:21.000 You were on with Charlie, and we were talking about it with the Secretary that one of Charlie's passions was economics.

00:22:29.000 People 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.

00:22:38.000 He got really passionate about these macroeconomic trends.

00:22:41.000 He got really passionate about the debt and the currency valuations and things like this.

00:22:46.000 And so you are one of the guys that goes out into the media and talks about the good work that Treasury is doing.

00:22:53.000 And we were talking in the break about how this economy is doing.

00:22:57.000 Is it doing well?

00:22:59.000 Is it a mix bag?

00:23:00.000 I think it's doing mostly well.

00:23:03.000 I mean, the animal spirits are alive and well in this country.

00:23:05.000 So 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.

00:23:13.000 Sure.

00:23:13.000 Thank you very much for having me.

00:23:15.000 The data are as good as they could be.

00:23:18.000 I mean, they're actually very good, thanks to President Trump.

00:23:20.000 So in the second quarter, his first full quarter in office, we grew 3.8%.

00:23:26.000 If you take the federal side out, we actually grew 4.5%.

00:23:30.000 So the real GDP, excluding the federal government, grew at 4.5%.

00:23:35.000 And 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.

00:23:51.000 That's investment in things like AI and other technology.

00:23:54.000 So that's really what's driving the economy.

00:23:57.000 The labor market is not great.

00:23:59.000 We 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.

00:24:08.000 That's a huge number.

00:24:10.000 So the economy is doing well, thanks to President Trump.

00:24:13.000 We need to get the labor market turning higher.

00:24:15.000 Unfortunately, the shutdown is hurting a lot, actually.

00:24:19.000 And that's a factor that we're concerned about.

00:24:21.000 But the long-term outlook under President Trump is excellent.

00:24:26.000 So 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.

00:24:38.000 We'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.

00:24:49.000 And he would talk about this choice between MAGA and Mangioniism, Luigi Mangioni, the guy who shot the health care CEO.

00:24:56.000 And 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.

00:25:07.000 One of his big passions was you need to have young people be owning homes.

00:25:12.000 We've seen, I think in the 1980s, the average first-time homebuyer was about 29 years old.

00:25:17.000 That's grown to 38.

00:25:19.000 It's gone up almost four or five years just since COVID, I believe.

00:25:23.000 And he was very concerned with that.

00:25:25.000 What can we do to make it so young people are buying into the system rather than feeling hopeless and atomized?

00:25:32.000 And 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.

00:25:42.000 Charlie is exactly right.

00:25:44.000 And the Treasury Secretary recently highlighted the fact that we have a housing affordability crisis.

00:25:49.000 To 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.

00:26:00.000 That's the highest since the inflationary 70s.

00:26:03.000 When you have high inflation, you have high interest rates.

00:26:05.000 Under President Trump, he's been able to get inflation rate down substantially.

00:26:10.000 That's allowed blue-collar wages to expand and to grow quite significantly.

00:26:14.000 And also allowed interest rates to decline.

00:26:16.000 So 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%.

00:26:23.000 So that's very positive, and that will eventually pull mortgage rates down because inflation is declining.

00:26:29.000 And 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.

00:26:39.000 So mortgage rates can't come down further.

00:26:41.000 The administration is also working on things to try to expedite the permitting process, trying to lower some of the costs.

00:26:48.000 Things 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.

00:26:58.000 So Charlie was exactly right about that.

00:27:00.000 It 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.

00:27:18.000 It'll take some time, but things will turn.

00:27:20.000 Another important part will be another thing Charlie talked about a lot, the college scam, sort of deflating the scam elements of higher education.

00:27:27.000 Did you see this yesterday with the, I believe it was Santa Clara School of Law?

00:27:33.000 No.

00:27:34.000 So this is something that's unfolding right now.

00:27:36.000 One 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.

00:27:45.000 This is the super student loan.

00:27:46.000 A lot of people getting graduate degrees get it.

00:27:49.000 And they capped it at $50,000 a year.

00:27:51.000 So Santa Clara School of Law, last year their tuition was $62,000.

00:27:56.000 This year they announced a scholarship that every single person who goes to the school will get such that their tuition is now $50,000.

00:28:04.000 That's a practical example.

00:28:05.000 Practical example.

00:28:07.000 With the government, I mean, Alice Rivlin, probably not well known among many folks, old person like me knows who she is.

00:28:15.000 She was head of the Congressional Budget Office under, I believe under Clinton, and was a vice chair of the Fed.

00:28:20.000 She'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.

00:28:35.000 So that's very important and lowering costs.

00:28:38.000 So things like this are very important.

00:28:40.000 Let 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.

00:28:49.000 This 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.

00:29:04.000 How concerned are we about artificial intelligence?

00:29:08.000 You talked about this dichotomy between you had 4.5 percent real growth in the private sector, but there are struggles in the labor market.

00:29:18.000 Obviously, 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.

00:29:27.000 Is AI something that you are looking at actively?

00:29:31.000 How concerned are you about it eroding, especially those entry-level jobs?

00:29:35.000 You think financial markets, right, financial analysts on Wall Street, that's the first jobs that are getting cut.

00:29:41.000 So how worried are we about that first rung on the ladder of career building as the first jobs that are going to get cut?

00:29:48.000 We're seeing some negative trends with Gen Z employment.

00:29:51.000 Look, 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.

00:30:02.000 So I'm not worried about AI necessarily replacing jobs, although there might be some areas where there is some effect.

00:30:10.000 We need a lot of jobs in a lot of high-tech areas, certainly in a lot of high-skilled areas, trades.

00:30:17.000 tradesmen, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, all those things to build.

00:30:21.000 We need a lot of that labor we're so short of.

00:30:23.000 The 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.

00:30:33.000 But 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.

00:30:43.000 Those are jobs that you're building.

00:30:44.000 You're operating a factory.

00:30:46.000 You're getting capital coming in.

00:30:48.000 That's where the U.S. economy will thrive.

00:30:51.000 And President Trump, as a builder, knows how to create things.

00:30:54.000 The Secretary has been excellent in helping articulate and seeing that vision through.

00:30:59.000 And we've got all these new industries.

00:31:01.000 Look at the equity market.

00:31:02.000 Look at the boom we're seeing across these hyperscalers.

00:31:05.000 I mean, there's so many wonderful opportunities.

00:31:07.000 I 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.

00:31:21.000 So it makes me really optimistic.

00:31:23.000 It'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.

00:31:29.000 You 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.

00:31:44.000 That we've seen this with the railroad.

00:31:46.000 We've seen this with the automobile.

00:31:48.000 We've seen this with the dot-com boom.

00:31:50.000 So these new technologies come in.

00:31:52.000 They are disruptive, but ultimately they lead to greater productivity, which leads to additional job opportunities.

00:31:59.000 And hopefully we are able to backfill some of that with trade schools that are in higher trades.

00:32:05.000 You think of trade schools, you think of Carpenter, HVAC, that kind of thing.

00:32:10.000 But there's trade schools for these high-tech.

00:32:13.000 Maybe it's going to be trade schools for programming or robotics or automation.

00:32:17.000 That's right.

00:32:18.000 My father, he's retired mostly, but he ran the largest trade school, vocational trade school in Connecticut.

00:32:24.000 So yeah, there's tremendous amounts of opportunities that are there.

00:32:27.000 And look, in the bill that was just passed, One Big Beautiful Bill, there's full expensing for CapEx.

00:32:33.000 There's going to be full expensing for factories.

00:32:35.000 So 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.

00:32:43.000 The vice president.

00:32:44.000 I'm glad you brought that up because Charlie would talk about that a lot.

00:32:47.000 He really wanted that.

00:32:48.000 He 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.

00:32:57.000 Because 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.

00:33:03.000 Let's do it.

00:33:03.000 And that's still to come.

00:33:05.000 Yeah, and we haven't seen the impact of that, right?

00:33:07.000 Nope, not yet.

00:33:08.000 We will see it next year.

00:33:09.000 It will really be a wonderful boom.

00:33:11.000 It's going to be a big one.

00:33:12.000 And that's going to be like restaurants and small businesses, factories, manufacturing, warehouses, right?

00:33:18.000 We had the small business sentiment data today, and the numbers still look really solid thanks to President Trump.

00:33:22.000 That's great.

00:33:23.000 Okay, well, it's good news.

00:33:24.000 Good news.

00:33:26.000 We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.

00:33:29.000 And today, I want to point you to their podcast.

00:33:32.000 It's called Culture in Christianity, the Allen Jackson Podcast.

00:33:36.000 What makes it unique is Pastor Allen's biblical perspective.

00:33:39.000 He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today: gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge, Trump in the White House, issues in the church.

00:33:47.000 He doesn't just discuss the problems.

00:33:50.000 In every episode, he gives practical things we can do to make a difference.

00:33:53.000 His guests have incredible expertise and powerful testimonies.

00:33:57.000 They've been great friends.

00:33:58.000 And now you can hear from Charlie in his own words.

00:34:00.000 Each episode will make you recognize the power of your faith and how God can use your life to impact our world today.

00:34:06.000 The Culture and Christianity podcast is informative and encouraging.

00:34:10.000 You could find it on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:34:13.000 Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes.

00:34:16.000 Alan Jackson Ministries is working hard to bring biblical truth back into our culture.

00:34:21.000 You can find out more about Pastor Allen and the ministry at alanjackson.com forward slash Charlie.

00:34:29.000 So Blake, the floor is yours.

00:34:31.000 It's obviously his, it would have been his 32nd birthday, and a lot of you are sending in your birthday wishes.

00:34:37.000 Yeah, you know, it's just so many.

00:34:39.000 We've got Nicole here.

00:34:41.000 Good morning.

00:34:41.000 What a glorious day we've been blessed with.

00:34:44.000 Joby, I am remembering Charlie today on what would have been his 32nd birthday.

00:34:48.000 We attended a vigil for Charlie last night in central New York.

00:34:52.000 350 people came to praise Jesus, give testimonies, and speak about how Charlie impacted their lives.

00:35:00.000 He is a beloved young man who has done immeasurable work for this country.

00:35:04.000 Thank you, Joby or Joanna.

00:35:07.000 Harry's both there.

00:35:08.000 Harry's is nice.

00:35:08.000 Harry's, let's see.

00:35:10.000 Do you want to read that one?

00:35:11.000 I'm so very sad, but today Charlie Kirk receives the highest honor any American can receive, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

00:35:16.000 He truly earned it and deserves it.

00:35:18.000 I still wish he was here with us all.

00:35:19.000 Charlie was a warrior for the kingdom of God.

00:35:21.000 He is a martyr.

00:35:23.000 He is in heaven.

00:35:24.000 I pray for him and his entire family every night.

00:35:26.000 God bless you all at Turning Point USA.

00:35:28.000 Sincerely, Harry.

00:35:31.000 Just one after the other.

00:35:32.000 I mean, and some of these are longer.

00:35:35.000 Tim says, I'm still angry.

00:35:37.000 I knew Charlie was special.

00:35:38.000 I believe that the celebrities who are moving out of America may have been funding Antifa and other socialists.

00:35:44.000 Justice for Charlie.

00:35:46.000 We're going to find out.

00:35:46.000 That's what's so great about what Treasury is doing as well.

00:35:50.000 So I'm going to play a clip for you here, Joe.

00:35:53.000 And I have to confess, our audience is probably like, I was barely aware of the shutdown.

00:36:02.000 I mean, obviously, I follow the news.

00:36:03.000 I knew it was happening.

00:36:04.000 But, you know, outside of the D.C. area, it wasn't.

00:36:07.000 But when I came here, all of a sudden it was like, oh, I can feel the shutdown, right?

00:36:10.000 You 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.

00:36:21.000 149.

00:36:22.000 In their legislation, their counterproposal on the CR to keep the lights open, this is what they want to do.

00:36:26.000 They want to spend $24.6 million of your hard-earned dollars as a taxpayer for climate resilience in Honduras.

00:36:33.000 They want to spend $13.4 million for civic engagement in Zimbabwe.

00:36:38.000 They want to send $3.9 million for LGBTQI plus democracy grants in the Western Balkans.

00:36:45.000 They want to spend $2.9 million of your dollars for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.

00:36:52.000 And $2 million for, quote, organizing for feminist democratic principles in Africa.

00:36:58.000 So, Joe, you're the counselor to the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besant.

00:37:05.000 You know this stuff better than anybody.

00:37:07.000 You're also a famed economist.

00:37:09.000 I want people to understand that you're not just the spokesman.

00:37:12.000 You are yourself a really renowned economist.

00:37:16.000 Our people don't care about the shutdown. 0.74

00:37:19.000 They care about Charlie's birthday.

00:37:21.000 But the question is, should they?

00:37:24.000 Here's why it matters.

00:37:25.000 CEA Council Economic Advisors estimated that we could be losing $15 billion per week of lost output because of this shutdown.

00:37:34.000 That's a lot of money that adds up, obviously, cumulatively over time.

00:37:37.000 It's significant.

00:37:39.000 But 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.

00:37:49.000 If 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.

00:38:02.000 So 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.

00:38:09.000 And of course, there is an economic hit, and there's also a human toll.

00:38:13.000 This doesn't have to happen.

00:38:14.000 As I'm sure you know, there were 13 clean budget, clean continuing resolutions the Democrats passed over the past four years.

00:38:24.000 And 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.

00:38:33.000 So 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.

00:38:44.000 And the one he hasn't is this one.

00:38:46.000 So, you know, Blake, I don't know if you have any final thoughts.

00:38:50.000 We're coming up against a break on the hour, but maybe we just leave it with.

00:38:54.000 Go ahead.

00:38:55.000 Honestly, 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.

00:39:11.000 There it is.

00:39:12.000 And it's also barista's in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where I am from.

00:39:16.000 So I'm going to shout out my hometown for having good baristas.

00:39:19.000 That's amazing.

00:39:20.000 Well, Joe, thank you so much, Joe Lavorgna, counselor to the Treasury Secretary.

00:39:26.000 Please carry on the mission.

00:39:28.000 Keep thinking about Gen Z as you're doing this.

00:39:30.000 And Charlie, of course.

00:39:31.000 Thank you so much, gentlemen.

00:39:32.000 Thank you so much.

00:39:33.000 Thank you so much for joining us.

00:39:36.000 Balance in Nature would like to take a moment to honor the life and legacy of our friend Charlie Kirk.

00:39:41.000 Charlie dedicated his life to inspiring each of us to live with a greater purpose.

00:39:45.000 He wholeheartedly believed in meaningful conversations and the power of building stronger communities together.

00:39:50.000 He taught us to be engaged and responsible citizens, leaving us with values that will continue to echo through generations.

00:39:57.000 Charlie was not only a leader, he was a friend to everyone at Balance of Nature.

00:40:00.000 In 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.

00:40:09.000 Hear about it from Charlie in his own words.

00:40:11.000 Every single ingredient is a fruit or veggie plucked from the soil.

00:40:14.000 No binders, no additives, or artificial colors, no fillers.

00:40:18.000 Just whole fruits and veggies, gluten-free and vegan-friendly.

00:40:20.000 These harvested ingredients are freeze-dried into a fine powder using an advanced vacuum-cooled process to better preserve nutritional value.

00:40:28.000 Go to balanceinnature.com, use discount code Charlie.

00:40:31.000 So order online at balanceinnature.com.

00:40:32.000 Use discount code Charlie.

00:40:34.000 You have 35% off plus a free bottle of fiber and spice.

00:40:39.000 Honored to be having another cabinet-level guest on the Charlie Kirk show while we're here, Administrator of the EPA, Lee Zeldon.

00:40:48.000 Gentlemen, it's good to be with you both.

00:40:50.000 Yeah, well, it's honored.

00:40:51.000 We're honored to have you.

00:40:52.000 You 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.

00:41:10.000 He's so behind you.

00:41:12.000 It's just from top to bottom.

00:41:14.000 I never, ever heard him say anything but just wonderful things about you.

00:41:18.000 So it really is fitting that you're here on his, what would have been his 32nd birthday.

00:41:22.000 That feeling couldn't possibly be more mutual, the respect, admiration that I and so many others have had for him.

00:41:30.000 And 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.

00:41:58.000 And 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.

00:42:08.000 I'm like, wow.

00:42:09.000 And I got to say, as somebody who was in touch with Charlie a ton, I appreciated him.

00:42:15.000 But 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.

00:42:36.000 And 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.

00:42:48.000 And I mean, it was a hot day inside of Phoenix.

00:42:51.000 These are older people, but you could have filled up another stadium.

00:42:56.000 We could have filled up, I think, three, maybe four, actually, with all the people that were there.

00:43:03.000 It 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.

00:43:11.000 It'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.

00:43:20.000 They're very, they have a great team, actually, and they confirmed with us.

00:43:24.000 It was 277,000 devices.

00:43:27.000 So, I mean, you figure you got 70,000 people in that stadium.

00:43:31.000 I mean, you could have filled that up three, maybe more times.

00:43:35.000 And so it was an amazing, amazing outpouring of support.

00:43:37.000 And as you said, you know, you, I mean, we were up close to it.

00:43:42.000 And I kept telling Charlie every six months, I'd be like, I have to recalibrate just how famous you've become.

00:43:49.000 I couldn't, because I was so close to it.

00:43:52.000 And then I would see him and I would take him out.

00:43:54.000 And these moments would happen.

00:43:55.000 I'd be like, you're getting mobbed like you're a beetle.

00:43:58.000 Yeah, I remember shortly after I came into Congress and Charlie was doing an event in D.C. and we're talking about almost a decade ago.

00:44:08.000 And I walked into this venue in D.C. and there were thousands of young men and women with so much energy.

00:44:19.000 And it was just so genuine.

00:44:21.000 It was so pure.

00:44:22.000 For 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.

00:44:35.000 This guy who 32nd birthday today, I'm talking about like early to mid-20s.

00:44:42.000 He was pulling thousands of people out at an event.

00:44:46.000 Talk about this, because a lot of people that have known him a little bit longer, like yourself, saw the evolution of Charlie.

00:44:52.000 You know, he was a little bit more rough around the edges at the beginning, still the same passion and like warmth and vibrancy.

00:44:58.000 That was always a constant.

00:45:00.000 But, you know, what I mean, he got more mature.

00:45:04.000 He got softer with younger people.

00:45:06.000 He became a big brother figure.

00:45:08.000 What did you see from your vantage point?

00:45:11.000 Well, there was, he was a very good learner.

00:45:15.000 A lot of people might not realize just how much he was always trying to grow himself and become smarter, to become wiser, to study.

00:45:26.000 When 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.

00:45:42.000 He was hoping that that person stepping up to the mic was to bring out the best of him, of Charlie.

00:45:48.000 And he would learn from that and he would get better and stronger for it.

00:45:52.000 So 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.

00:46:03.000 He was just becoming so much wiser.

00:46:06.000 And so many of us in life, we just get through the day.

00:46:12.000 And 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.

00:46:27.000 And Charlie was doing that in his entire day, all day, every day.

00:46:32.000 He was absorbing everything.

00:46:34.000 And that's such a great trait.

00:46:36.000 And 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. 0.59

00:46:49.000 I so agree.

00:46:49.000 Never becoming smarter and absorbing everything you can come in contact with.

00:46:53.000 I so agree with that.

00:46:54.000 And we are on October 14th.

00:46:58.000 Obviously, Charlie's going to get the Medal of Freedom from President Trump today.

00:47:01.000 It has been moved, Blake.

00:47:03.000 It's been moved to the.

00:47:04.000 It's been moved outdoors to the Rose Garden.

00:47:06.000 I guess with the weather crowd, I believe.

00:47:08.000 Yeah, President Trump said there's so many people that want to be a part of it that we are going to now do it outside, which is great.

00:47:15.000 And since it's his 32nd birthday, a lot of people are sending in lists.

00:47:19.000 And so many of them, they're writing them to Charlie.

00:47:21.000 And of course, Charlie can still read them.

00:47:23.000 I liked this one.

00:47:24.000 Barbara, Dear Charlie, thank you for never giving up on our country and on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:47:29.000 I remember watching you on Fox and Friends for your very first interview there.

00:47:33.000 I have been following you since.

00:47:35.000 I have always been a Christian, but I didn't realize that I was faithful but not walking in my faith until you were taken from me.

00:47:42.000 Wow.

00:47:42.000 Because of you, I went back to church and took our children.

00:47:45.000 Because of you, I am a better wife, a better mother, a better person.

00:47:49.000 Your words made me realize that the only way for me was through Jesus.

00:47:52.000 Thank you for helping me to realize that my job was never to get my children into Harvard, it was to get them into heaven.

00:47:59.000 Whoa.

00:48:00.000 That was a great one, Barbara.

00:48:01.000 Bro, that is a good line.

00:48:03.000 And by the way, it's not too often that somebody's first cable news interview is memorable, is inspiring.

00:48:10.000 Like the first time you do an interview, you might be somewhat intimidated by the setting.

00:48:14.000 You're trying not to mess up.

00:48:17.000 I remember the first time I was on Fox and Friends, I probably am the only one who remembers the first time that I was on Fox and Friends.

00:48:24.000 And meanwhile, you have to see your mother and your wife now.

00:48:27.000 No, actually, I'm probably the only one who remembers that hit.

00:48:30.000 But there are so many people out there who remember the first time that Charlie was on Fox and Friends.

00:48:36.000 Like, that never happens.

00:48:38.000 Yeah.

00:48:39.000 Well, and he got to host.

00:48:40.000 Ultimately, he got to host Fox and Friends Weekend with Rachel Campos Duffy, Sean Duffy's wife and Fox News host, and Charlie Hurt.

00:48:51.000 And that is actually one of the clips that has gone viral where his daughter, Gigi, was running up to go see him.

00:48:57.000 There's just so many we've been getting.

00:48:59.000 At least we're reading a small handful of them, but I'd say we've probably had maybe 200s or so since this started.

00:49:04.000 Since the start of the show, a bunch of stuff.

00:49:07.000 Just most of them, it's just, you know, the standard.

00:49:10.000 Happy birthday, Charlie.

00:49:11.000 You will always live on in our hearts.

00:49:12.000 Keep up the good work, TPUSA.

00:49:15.000 My thoughts to Erica and her children.

00:49:16.000 That's from James.

00:49:18.000 We have just so many.

00:49:22.000 I have to click open to them and all of that.

00:49:24.000 But I took the day off today, and I'm sporting my best Charlie Ever t-shirt with glowing pride.

00:49:30.000 I just left a Catholic Mass where I lit a prayer candle for Charlie and his family.

00:49:34.000 That's from Lisa.

00:49:35.000 Thank you, Lisa.

00:49:36.000 I just love that.

00:49:37.000 The outpouring of support for Charlie.

00:49:39.000 I mean, he knew that you loved him.

00:49:43.000 I can tell you that.

00:49:44.000 He knew.

00:49:45.000 He did know.

00:49:46.000 And he loved this audience.

00:49:47.000 And he had a direct connection with you guys.

00:49:49.000 And part of the way that that happened was through these emails.

00:49:54.000 But even I think he would be blown away at all of this.

00:49:57.000 And so, God bless you guys, and thanks for honoring Charlie on his 32nd birthday.

00:50:02.000 You are the 17th administrator of the EPA.

00:50:05.000 That's right.

00:50:05.000 Is that right?

00:50:06.000 I saw that in your ex, I guess, bio.

00:50:09.000 Tell us about the EPA because Charlie was not a huge fan of the EPA.

00:50:15.000 Was it the elimination of productivity agency?

00:50:19.000 Or it was like something like job elimination, you know, that sort of vibe with Charlie.

00:50:24.000 But you have taken it, and Charlie really loved what you were doing with the EPA because yours is you have this growth mindset.

00:50:30.000 Yeah, we want clean water, we want clean air, we want the cleanest water and the cleanest air.

00:50:34.000 But there's a way that you can use this agency and leverage the tools at your disposal to really be pro-growth.

00:50:40.000 And so tell us about how you're approaching that.

00:50:43.000 So 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.

00:50:51.000 We choose both at the Trump EPA, and that's a difference.

00:50:56.000 And we come in, we inherited so many bad decisions that were made during the Biden administration.

00:51:01.000 We have basically half of the president's deregulation agenda.

00:51:06.000 Wow.

00:51:06.000 And we're talking about trillions of dollars of deregulation.

00:51:11.000 In one year, we will do more deregulation at the Trump EPA than entire federal governments have done across all federal agencies across entire presidencies.

00:51:22.000 Just 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.

00:51:36.000 But 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.

00:51:46.000 On the 200th day of President Trump's term in office, our next top 100 environmental accomplishments from those next 100 days.

00:51:55.000 And we're getting people back in the office.

00:51:58.000 We're right sizing the agency.

00:51:59.000 We're going through reorganization.

00:52:01.000 When I came in, there was a little over 16,000 employees.

00:52:04.000 We're going down to just over 12,000.

00:52:07.000 And that reduction, we will actually get more done.

00:52:10.000 Of course you will.

00:52:11.000 With just over 12,000 than the Biden EPA did with just over 16,000.

00:52:16.000 It's about priorities.

00:52:18.000 Well, it's also you get rid of the whiners.

00:52:20.000 You get rid of the people that are holding you back and that are actually on agenda and want to contribute to what you're doing.

00:52:26.000 And you call it the Great American Comeback Initiative.

00:52:30.000 So what is that to you?

00:52:31.000 Is that so?

00:52:32.000 President Trump often talks about pillar one: clean air, land, and water for all Americans.

00:52:37.000 It's a five-pillar agenda.

00:52:39.000 Number two is unleashing energy dominance.

00:52:42.000 Three is advancing cooperative federalism and permitting reform.

00:52:46.000 Pillar four is about making America the AI capital of the world.

00:52:49.000 And pillar five is protecting, bring back American auto jobs.

00:52:52.000 These are all part of the Trump mandate.

00:52:56.000 President Trump campaigned on delivering on all these promises, and that's what powering the Great American Company is.

00:53:01.000 That's so important.

00:53:02.000 People don't understand the EPA enough, but you can either cause a lot of damage or you can be a good friend to productive people.

00:53:14.000 Because we don't have that thought in our minds instantly when we think about the EPA.

00:53:19.000 Charlie certainly didn't, but he trusted you to do it.

00:53:22.000 And he knew that you were the right man for the job.

00:53:24.000 Did Charlie and you interact at all during the transition?

00:53:27.000 Was he encouraging you to do this?

00:53:29.000 Oh, yeah.

00:53:30.000 No doubt.

00:53:31.000 He was engaged during the transition process and he had a lot of ideas.

00:53:37.000 We 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.

00:53:50.000 But when the election came and went, Charlie didn't just disengage.

00:53:54.000 He became more engaged to make sure that the right people were coming into government, that they were focused on the priorities of this president.

00:54:03.000 They weren't going to, what we don't want to do is repeat any mistake of the past where the wrong people come in.

00:54:08.000 They're trying to sabotage the president.

00:54:10.000 Charlie, 72 hours after the election, flew to Florida.

00:54:14.000 That was Charlie's dedication.

00:54:18.000 This is the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:54:20.000 We are all about saving babies with pre-born.

00:54:23.000 There 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.

00:54:33.000 When 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.

00:54:54.000 A $15,000 gift will provide an ultrasound machine that will save babies' lives for years and years to come.

00:54:59.000 Charlie and Erica love Pre-Born.

00:55:02.000 Charlie loved it so much.

00:55:03.000 He believed in it so much.

00:55:04.000 He was a donor.

00:55:05.000 So I'll give the final word to Charlie Kirk.

00:55:07.000 Whether you want to save one baby or five or hundreds, that opportunity is just a phone call or click away.

00:55:13.000 Call 833-850-2229 or click on the pre-born banner at CharlieKirk.com.

00:55:21.000 On Charlie Kirk's 32nd birthday, we are at the cash room, the historic cash room at the Treasury Department.

00:55:27.000 We are reading your emails.

00:55:30.000 You're sending in hundreds and hundreds of happy birthday emails to Charlie.

00:55:33.000 We're trying to read some of them on the air.

00:55:36.000 And so please send them freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:55:39.000 We are joined by EPA Administrator the 17th, which is, you know, that's noteworthy, of the Lee Zeldon.

00:55:47.000 I'm going to ask you a different question, actually.

00:55:49.000 There's a lot of news about what's happening with the Virginia gubernatorial race and the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

00:55:56.000 You ran in a blue state.

00:55:59.000 What is that like?

00:56:02.000 I 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.

00:56:09.000 I mean, what are you seeing in these?

00:56:10.000 Do they have a chance?

00:56:11.000 What is your advice to them down the stretch?

00:56:14.000 So I'll have to be careful about how I answer this now that it's understanding our setting and the position of it.

00:56:21.000 I 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.

00:56:43.000 And, 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.

00:57:10.000 The 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.

00:57:31.000 Environmental justice.

00:57:32.000 They'll say, hey, there's a community that's been left behind and need help.

00:57:35.000 Okay?

00:57:36.000 Like, we all agree.

00:57:37.000 If there's a community that's been left behind and needs help, let's all help.

00:57:41.000 But 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.

00:58:03.000 In the name of climate justice, the Biden EPA gives $50 million to a group called Climate Justice Alliance.

00:58:10.000 They say the climate justice runs through a free Palestine. 0.94

00:58:14.000 There are a lot of Americans who would say that we shouldn't be spending $50 million on an activist NGO like that.

00:58:22.000 American tax dollars.

00:58:24.000 Or 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.

00:58:36.000 They will try to bankrupt people who can least afford it.

00:58:39.000 And 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.

00:58:54.000 Maybe 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.

00:59:10.000 I think that's really well said.

00:59:12.000 Confront them where they're at.

00:59:13.000 People have not heard these ideas.

00:59:14.000 Do not always assume people have heard your POV because a lot of times you'll discover that they haven't.

00:59:20.000 I 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.

00:59:26.000 Well, that's cool.

00:59:26.000 That's great.

00:59:27.000 Well, that's very enjoyable watching it.

00:59:29.000 They were in Sensitive.

00:59:30.000 Yeah, okay.

00:59:32.000 Just so many things, you know.

00:59:34.000 We have Donna.

00:59:35.000 Thank you, Charlie, for always speaking truth and being a light in the world.

00:59:39.000 Your absence is just as strong as your presence.

00:59:42.000 We love you and miss you, but we know God is pleased that you are with him now.

00:59:46.000 Thank you, Donna.

00:59:48.000 That's what so many like these.

00:59:50.000 I'm thinking of this visual of Charlie in 2020.

00:59:55.000 It was on the south lawn of the White House where the RNC was getting hosted.

01:00:01.000 And he was right in front of me for the president's acceptance, this smile.

01:00:08.000 And you all have seen this smile so often.

01:00:11.000 I mean, you saw it firsthand in 2024 when they call Pennsylvania, you know, this epic footage, this hard work paying off.

01:00:19.000 But 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.

01:00:32.000 Man, we can never forget or lose sight of that smile on his face.

01:00:37.000 Well, and that's our sacred duty here at the Charlie Kirk Show, Turning Point.

01:00:40.000 It's why we're here today, why we're honored to have you.

01:00:43.000 I know that you and Charlie were close friends, and you guys confided a lot in each other.

01:00:49.000 And so your loss is our loss.

01:00:51.000 And I know we'll see you this afternoon.

01:00:54.000 Yes, sir.

01:00:54.000 We'll be there.

01:00:55.000 Thank you for making the time.

01:00:56.000 It's great to be with you guys.

01:00:57.000 Awesome.

01:00:57.000 We're doing a little guest swap.

01:00:59.000 I see Senator Mike Lee is just getting into the room.

01:01:02.000 You know, everybody's furloughed in the Imperial Capitol.

01:01:06.000 So getting people in and out has actually been somewhat entertaining today.

01:01:10.000 But let's go ahead and see if there's any more emails here.

01:01:13.000 Blake, as he gets forward, because he's about to get here.

01:01:16.000 Let's throw up 155. 1.00

01:01:17.000 We have a Charlie tweet from all the way back in 2013.

01:01:20.000 I love Mike Lee.

01:01:21.000 155.

01:01:22.000 Throw that up. 0.81

01:01:23.000 And he said in 2016 that Mike Lee was his favorite senator.

01:01:27.000 154.

01:01:28.000 Throw up 154.

01:01:29.000 Mike Lee is my favorite senator sent on March 10th, 2016.

01:01:34.000 So I hope you didn't do anything in between those times to ruin your status atop the senator list.

01:01:41.000 But welcome to the show, Senator.

01:01:42.000 Thank you.

01:01:43.000 I'm elated.

01:01:43.000 I hadn't seen those particular tweets.

01:01:45.000 I'm so honored by that.

01:01:47.000 Isn't that great?

01:01:48.000 Love Charlie.

01:01:48.000 What a good man.

01:01:49.000 I didn't even know that he tweeted those exactly.

01:01:52.000 Charlie Tweet for everything.

01:01:53.000 Yes, there is a Charlie Tweet for everything.

01:01:55.000 I knew I was his favorite, to be sure, but I didn't realize he had told the rest of the world that.

01:01:58.000 Well, so let's just start there.

01:02:00.000 Senator, you know, you were a regular and you hopefully will continue to be a regular on this show.

01:02:05.000 But, you know, you and Charlie had a close relationship.

01:02:08.000 You stayed in constant communication.

01:02:10.000 You know, Charlie was based in Arizona.

01:02:12.000 You're just in Utah, one stayed away.

01:02:14.000 Explain what this whole last month and change has meant to you.

01:02:19.000 It's his 32nd birthday today.

01:02:21.000 The floor is yours, Senator.

01:02:23.000 First of all, happy birthday, Charlie, and thanks to all of you who are keeping his legacy moving forward.

01:02:29.000 Look, the last month has been tough.

01:02:32.000 Not 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.

01:02:46.000 I'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.

01:02:57.000 But this happened almost in my backyard.

01:03:00.000 I mean, UVU is just a couple of miles from where I live.

01:03:04.000 And it's not the kind of place where that's supposed to happen.

01:03:08.000 I 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.

01:03:17.000 Be with me.

01:03:17.000 Come do the event with me.

01:03:18.000 And I was really excited about it.

01:03:20.000 I said, tell me the date, pulled up my calendar and realized the Senate would be in session.

01:03:24.000 I said, I will be there if I possibly can.

01:03:26.000 There is a chance, though, that there will be votes that have to be cast that day that I can't miss.

01:03:30.000 That turned out to be the case.

01:03:32.000 And a few hours before the event, the night before, I texted him and said, there's no chance I'm going to be able to get back for this.

01:03:38.000 He texted me that day just as he was about to get to the event, telling me how excited he was for it.

01:03:44.000 So look, a huge loss.

01:03:47.000 But 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.

01:03:59.000 This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of YReFi.

01:04:03.000 It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.

01:04:09.000 His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come.

01:04:15.000 Now, here Charlie, in his own words, tell you about YReFi.

01:04:19.000 I'm going to tell you guys about whyReFi.com.

01:04:21.000 That is YREFY.com.

01:04:23.000 WhyReFi is incredible.

01:04:24.000 Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion.

01:04:27.000 WhyReFi is refinancing distress or defaulted private student loans?

01:04:31.000 You can finally take control of your student loan situation with a plan that works for your monthly budget.

01:04:35.000 Go to YReFi.com.

01:04:37.000 That is whyrefi.com.

01:04:38.000 Do you have a co-borrower?

01:04:40.000 YReFi can get them released from the loan.

01:04:42.000 You're going to skip a payment up to 12 times that penalty.

01:04:45.000 It may not be available in all 50 states.

01:04:46.000 Go to yrefi.com.

01:04:48.000 That is why.com.

01:04:51.000 Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted student loans, it can be overwhelming.

01:04:55.000 Because of private student loan debt, so many people feel stuck.

01:04:58.000 Go to yrefi.com.

01:04:59.000 That is yrefy.com.

01:05:03.000 Private student loan debt relief, yrefi.com.

01:05:07.000 But 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.

01:05:21.000 And, you know, you see what Charlie meant to the president.

01:05:25.000 And, you know, we got a chance to spend a little time last night in so many friends.

01:05:30.000 I mean, Charlie was, we talked about this earlier.

01:05:33.000 Charlie was a man of the people.

01:05:35.000 He was always about the grassroots, always about the muscular class, sort of reviled the elite in a sense.

01:05:41.000 You know, he was a kind of a populist in that way.

01:05:44.000 But you go around this town right now, and it's like the who's who, and they all loved Charlie.

01:05:51.000 And his friendships and his network extended to so many of the most powerful people in the world right now.

01:05:57.000 And 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.

01:06:06.000 I guess just reflect on the enormity of that and what that says about the impact Charlie's had.

01:06:12.000 Well, 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.

01:06:21.000 You've got foreign heads of state recording tributes to him.

01:06:25.000 You'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.

01:06:36.000 He's brought together all kinds of people.

01:06:39.000 And 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.

01:06:49.000 And 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.

01:07:02.000 Yeah, I think we all have this Charlie GPT running in our head.

01:07:07.000 People want us to make a literal Charlie GPT.

01:07:09.000 I know.

01:07:10.000 Yeah, we're getting contacted by all these AI groups, and we're like, there's a right way to do it and the wrong way to do it.

01:07:16.000 Okay.

01:07:16.000 I hope you'll consider it, though.

01:07:18.000 You consider the amount of words that Charlie uttered as part of the public record over the last decade or so.

01:07:28.000 That's a very large volume.

01:07:31.000 What we do genuinely want is we want the ability to see everything he did say in the past, with all those hundreds, thousands of hours.

01:07:39.000 I think people would be a little creeped out if we started having a robot hologram.

01:07:43.000 What Charlie would say.

01:07:44.000 No hologram.

01:07:45.000 I wasn't even thinking of the hologram yet, but that would be a lot of fun.

01:07:48.000 You'd probably want to watermark it to make clear.

01:07:52.000 I'm not there yet, but I do appreciate your glass half full on the AI robotics kind of stuff.

01:07:58.000 In the meantime, Blake's got it in his head.

01:08:01.000 He can do it at any time.

01:08:03.000 So I want to play, or I want to show this image, Center Lee.

01:08:06.000 You and me kind of teamed up to make this story go pretty viral in your home state.

01:08:11.000 So this was published.

01:08:13.000 Go ahead and throw up image 99.

01:08:15.000 We mentioned it yesterday on the show, but I just find this shocking.

01:08:19.000 This is Bagley cartoon.

01:08:21.000 The whole head gang wanted for failure to honor their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution from dictatorial whims of a malignant clown.

01:08:29.000 And it has you, Burgess Owens.

01:08:31.000 I mean, the Republican electeds from Utah.

01:08:36.000 The thing to really emphasize there is the way he's put the red bandanas around them.

01:08:41.000 So it's like they all have this burst of red coming out of them.

01:08:44.000 Right around the neck.

01:08:44.000 Obviously, Charlie was assassinated with a gunshot to his neck area.

01:08:49.000 And I saw this and I could not believe my eyes.

01:08:53.000 And then I found out that this Pat Bagley character is a far-left lunatic.

01:08:58.000 And they celebrate him at the Salt Lake Church as one of the longest-running employed cartoonists left in America or something like that.

01:09:04.000 But he's not even in America.

01:09:06.000 He moved to Portugal.

01:09:08.000 So, anyways, I've tweeted about this, sent it to you, and I don't know if you'd seen it already or whatever.

01:09:13.000 I think maybe you had seen the edited version because they took down the hole in the head gang.

01:09:18.000 That's right.

01:09:18.000 So, I mean, how did this strike you?

01:09:20.000 What are you thinking?

01:09:21.000 What's the status of this?

01:09:22.000 Like, can we fire this guy?

01:09:24.000 Can we, I mean, there's it's just one of those things, like, in a human level, I want accountability.

01:09:29.000 I'm not saying you can't have free speech, but this is like October 7th.

01:09:34.000 It's not even a month out after Charlie's murder.

01:09:37.000 Right.

01:09:37.000 Look, we ourselves, of course, can't do anything about it in terms of what his future looks like there.

01:09:44.000 That's not up to us, not up to any government.

01:09:46.000 Their speech is protected by the First Amendment, and I'll fight to the death to make sure that they've got that.

01:09:52.000 That doesn't mean that it's a good idea.

01:09:54.000 Just because you can legally and because you're protected doesn't mean that certain things are a good idea.

01:10:00.000 And 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.

01:10:15.000 Calling people fascists, Nazis, this kind of imagery, something that they've been doing for a long time.

01:10:22.000 In fact, they did that just a couple days before Charlie Kirk spoke at UVU.

01:10:27.000 They 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.

01:10:37.000 A couple days later, a member of their editorial board was asked about it, and he said, oh, no, those guys are totally fascists.

01:10:44.000 And, you know, look, they're constitutionally protected, and they're right to say that, but it does create a certain atmosphere.

01:10:49.000 Now, 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.

01:11:02.000 So we have a clip we want to play.

01:11:04.000 This is from when you came on our show last March.

01:11:08.000 This March, yes.

01:11:10.000 Yeah, last March.

01:11:12.000 One of these topics came up.

01:11:13.000 Let's play clip 156.

01:11:15.000 Senator, what do you make of this rise of left-wing terrorism targeted at Tesla and Elon Musk?

01:11:21.000 My 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.

01:11:31.000 This is what domestic terrorism does.

01:11:34.000 This is what domestic terrorism looks like.

01:11:37.000 They very much want people to be in fear.

01:11:40.000 That's why they do it.

01:11:41.000 They understand that people understand that there is a risk of bodily harm or even death in these kinds of circumstances.

01:11:48.000 And that's designed to induce fear.

01:11:52.000 One 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. 1.00

01:12:06.000 I mean, I find this chilling to even hear him say those words.

01:12:09.000 Senator Lee, what is that?

01:12:11.000 How does that strike you, given what's happened?

01:12:14.000 First of all, I remember that interview now.

01:12:18.000 You play the clip.

01:12:19.000 And I remember just finding his words chilling when he made that comment, realizing he's probably right.

01:12:28.000 This is the sort of thing that happens.

01:12:31.000 So I'm glad you played that for us.

01:12:34.000 But 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.

01:12:56.000 I did not expect to see this.

01:12:58.000 Look, 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.

01:13:16.000 You 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.

01:13:28.000 This time around, people were openly celebrating it.

01:13:30.000 And they were not rejected by their own.

01:13:33.000 And 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.

01:13:50.000 That is just chilling.

01:13:51.000 It's chilling.

01:13:52.000 And 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.

01:14:08.000 Blake, do we have any emails you want to throw?

01:14:11.000 There's just so many, and so many of them are short, but they're all appreciated.

01:14:14.000 I just have this one from Jolene here.

01:14:16.000 Charlie was a gift on loan from God, a prophet in his time, God-fearing, intelligent, kind.

01:14:22.000 He impacted so, so many.

01:14:24.000 He will be missed.

01:14:26.000 That was the line about Rush, right?

01:14:28.000 A gift on loan from God.

01:14:30.000 Yeah, on loan from God.

01:14:31.000 And Charlie loved, loved Rush, got to hang out with Rush, become really close with us.

01:14:36.000 But people don't realize this.

01:14:38.000 I've said it on the show before, but if you missed it, Rush ended up becoming a seven-figure donor to Turning Point.

01:14:44.000 And the one rule was that Charlie was not able to ever say anything about it.

01:14:50.000 And then after Rush passed, his widow, Catherine, allowed Charlie to, and I think he maybe said it once or whatever.

01:14:57.000 He didn't make much out of it just to honor Rush's wishes.

01:15:00.000 But Charlie and Rush were very close.

01:15:03.000 And 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.

01:15:16.000 And 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.

01:15:27.000 And Rush said that on air about Charlie.

01:15:32.000 Like those two have a lot in common.

01:15:35.000 Those two had prescience, particularly as to political and civic matters, that very few can match.

01:15:45.000 And 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.

01:15:58.000 I'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.

01:16:09.000 And I'm also confident that those voices around Charlie, even before he started listening to Rush, were themselves influenced by Rush Limbaugh.

01:16:17.000 So it's good to have Charlie carrying on that legacy and others carrying that forward even after Charlie's gone.

01:16:23.000 A lot of people have been saying that they thought he was going to be president one day.

01:16:27.000 And I guess what we can say is he's something greater than a president, actually, which is he's a martyr.

01:16:33.000 Wow.

01:16:34.000 Yeah, 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.

01:16:46.000 It was about an hour before Erica gave her first address.

01:16:50.000 And I said that line.

01:16:51.000 I said, you know, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

01:16:55.000 And I actually had never heard Charlie say that.

01:16:59.000 It's just one of those things I had never heard him say.

01:17:03.000 But then Erica, you know, Charlie was an avid journal maker taker.

01:17:10.000 So he left a ton of journal entries, and she never looked at them.

01:17:13.000 It was obviously that would have been weird.

01:17:16.000 But when he died, she looked at some of those journals.

01:17:20.000 And she found a page and she showed it to me.

01:17:23.000 She took a picture of it, sent me a picture of it, and it said in Charlie's chicken scratch, Charlie did not have great penmanship.

01:17:30.000 That was one thing.

01:17:31.000 But it said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

01:17:35.000 And 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.

01:17:48.000 He was in tune with God.

01:17:50.000 And, 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.

01:18:03.000 All 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.

01:18:14.000 There'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.

01:18:23.000 So where are we at?

01:18:25.000 Should we care?

01:18:26.000 You know, this was the kind of story, inside the Beltway story, that Charlie would usually not care that much about.

01:18:31.000 But Joe's point was that you will start feeling this in a wider and wider concentric circles outside of the Imperial Capitol.

01:18:38.000 What's the status?

01:18:39.000 Are we going to turn the lights back on anytime soon?

01:18:42.000 Look, they'll come back on, undoubtedly, at some point.

01:18:45.000 Nobody knows exactly when.

01:18:47.000 We're in uncharted territory here because the Democrats controlling not one of the three political levers.

01:18:54.000 There are two political branches of government, the executive and legislative.

01:18:57.000 Legislative has two pieces, the Senate and the House.

01:19:01.000 Between those three pieces, the Democrats don't control the House or the Senate or the White House.

01:19:07.000 For them to issue the kinds of demands that they issued in connection with leading up to, culminating in this shutdown, is absurd.

01:19:15.000 They're not in control of any of the three branches, and yet they are not even willing to accept Biden-era spending levels.

01:19:22.000 Now, look, that was high.

01:19:23.000 I bristled in response to how generous an offer that was on our part.

01:19:27.000 I understand why we did it, but it was probably an overly generous offer.

01:19:31.000 They still wouldn't accept that.

01:19:34.000 They'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.

01:19:49.000 But it's not going to end well for them.

01:19:52.000 Not this time.

01:19:53.000 Not with this president.

01:19:54.000 He's not messing around.

01:19:56.000 And so, look, when we look at shutdowns, we ought to think of how many things have gone wrong along the way.

01:20:01.000 A lot of people will point to the fact we're supposed to pass 12 separate spending bills, each in a different category of government.

01:20:05.000 So you can't get to an all-or-nothing moment like this and the whole thing shuts down.

01:20:09.000 That's true.

01:20:10.000 Even 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.

01:20:30.000 A government that can do that to you is a government that's gotten too big, too expensive.

01:20:34.000 Well, I love that.

01:20:36.000 I 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.

01:20:45.000 And it still sucks.

01:20:47.000 And 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.

01:20:59.000 And so I mean, I think Charlie would say, hold the line, Senator, and fight for us.

01:21:05.000 Don't give in.

01:21:06.000 And 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.

01:21:16.000 We've got some legislators that need some work.

01:21:17.000 You are not one of them.

01:21:19.000 But this offense, offense, fight, fight, fight, this pushing forward a muscular Republican Party and conservative movement that Charlie so desperately wanted.

01:21:28.000 You're seeing that on display here.

01:21:30.000 Yeah, it's amazing to see the flood of love, the flood of support today.

01:21:36.000 Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy heavenly birthday is a very common one that a lot of them say.

01:21:41.000 And, you know, Charlie adored all of you, and it's great to see that they all adored Charlie.

01:21:49.000 And I just, I guess I encourage everyone to tune in.

01:21:51.000 At 4, we'll have the Medal of Freedom.

01:21:53.000 We are going to have a birthday celebration for Charlie Kirk, unlike he would have ever imagined.

01:21:59.000 It's bittersweet.

01:22:00.000 It's going to be emotional.

01:22:01.000 I hope all of you will join us.

01:22:03.000 It's now going to be in the Rose Garden.

01:22:05.000 President Trump has moved it.

01:22:06.000 So we will see you there at 4 o'clock, along with Senator Mike Lee and so many other of our friends and Charlie's dear friends.

01:22:13.000 Thank you for joining us on Charlie's 32nd birthday.

The Charlie Kirk Show - October 14, 2025

Charlie’s 32nd Birthday

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript