The Charlie Kirk Show - Do We Still Need a Wall? and Other Questions

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, more from my conversations at University of South Florida.

00:00:03.000 We talk all about Trump and Rubio.

00:00:06.000 We talk about why college is more liberal.

00:00:08.000 A kid from Arlington Heights.

00:00:10.000 The Department of Education and Pro-Life Discussion.

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00:00:23.000 Members.CharlieKirk.com.

00:00:25.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:25.000 Here we go.

00:00:26.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:28.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:30.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:34.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:37.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:38.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:39.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:41.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:00:56.000 That's why we are here.

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00:01:25.000 How are you?

00:01:26.000 Hi, I'm good.

00:01:27.000 Good.

00:01:28.000 My name is Mackenzie.

00:01:30.000 It's so awesome to meet you.

00:01:31.000 I think you're awesome.

00:01:33.000 I just wanted to ask, since college is a scam, what should us...

00:01:40.000 What should we do if we have to go to school to get a degree?

00:01:44.000 I want to be a social worker, so I need a degree.

00:01:48.000 How can I make the best of my experience here if I'm getting scammed?

00:01:51.000 Well, you're already doing it.

00:01:51.000 I mean, look, just so everyone understands my perspective.

00:01:54.000 If you have to go to college, go to the least expensive option available and get through as quickly as possible.

00:01:59.000 But my opinion is that...

00:02:01.000 Not just my opinion, the data shows there's millions of jobs that are open that don't require a college degree.

00:02:06.000 We need more plumbers, electricians, welders.

00:02:08.000 I think we need more people that are entrepreneurs and less people just with college degrees.

00:02:13.000 But look, you're all in college.

00:02:14.000 You're all kind of part of this institution.

00:02:15.000 Just understand that half of you guys, when you graduate college, if you get a job, will get a job that doesn't require a college degree.

00:02:22.000 So half of people that go to college end up not even using the college degree.

00:02:25.000 But as a social worker, honestly, my biggest advice for you is that...

00:02:29.000 Hold on to your conservative principles even when you go into social work.

00:02:32.000 Social work is super, super left-wing, as you well know.

00:02:35.000 You're probably...

00:02:36.000 Learning it throughout.

00:02:37.000 And the reason being is this, is that when you're in social work, you are engrossed and surrounded by very sad stories, people that need help, people that need compassion.

00:02:46.000 And automatically you think, well, we need a bigger government to help those people.

00:02:49.000 Well, we as conservatives have a completely different perspective that maybe instead of big government, we need big families.

00:02:54.000 And maybe instead of the government being strengthened, we need more dads in the home. 0.98

00:02:58.000 And instead of growing the size of the state...

00:03:02.000 We need more people to go to church and to believe in the divine and respect of the individual and the dignity of every human being.

00:03:10.000 That's correct.

00:03:11.000 Jesus is Lord.

00:03:12.000 You're right.

00:03:12.000 We can share with a lot of social workers or in social work the need to help people that have less.

00:03:20.000 In fact, we as Christians are called to do that.

00:03:22.000 But we believe that...

00:03:23.000 Permanent government assistance and programs is the wrong way to do that.

00:03:26.000 Are you finding in social work it's a little bit left-leaning?

00:03:31.000 Well, I'm not there yet.

00:03:33.000 Oh, you will be.

00:03:33.000 Yeah.

00:03:35.000 But I do, you know, I want to go to social work.

00:03:38.000 I want to, like, help foster kids.

00:03:40.000 The pro-life movement is something that's really important to me.

00:03:42.000 So I want to do, like, what I can to help the foster system and, yeah, just, you know, make the future anti-abortion. 0.79

00:03:50.000 God bless you.

00:03:51.000 Thank you.

00:03:51.000 Great first question.

00:03:52.000 Thank you.

00:03:53.000 Can I get a hat?

00:03:54.000 Would you like me to sign it?

00:03:55.000 That would be awesome.

00:03:59.000 Thank you so much.

00:04:02.000 Appreciate it.

00:04:03.000 Thank you.

00:04:03.000 God bless you.

00:04:03.000 Yes.

00:04:05.000 Hey, Charlie.

00:04:06.000 During the 2016 Republican primary, when Trump got booed on stage, he famously said, that's all his donors and special interests.

00:04:13.000 And the only reason that they're not loving him was because he doesn't want their money but rather wanted to do what's best for the American people.

00:04:20.000 He also tweeted out in 2015, Sheldon Adelson is looking to give big dollars to Rubio because he feels he can mold him into his perfect little puppet.

00:04:27.000 I agree.

00:04:29.000 In 2024, not only has Trump appointed little Marco as his Secretary of State, but has also accepted $100 million in political contributions from the widow of the very same donor who he called out in 2015. Miriam Adelson, yeah. 0.98

00:04:41.000 Miriam Adelson.

00:04:42.000 If the foundation of MAGA was to be a raw, authentic movement in the face of overwhelming establishment corruption, why did Trump accept hundreds of millions of dollars in political contributions from mega-donors?

00:04:53.000 Well, you have to finance your campaign somehow, right?

00:04:55.000 And we won.

00:04:56.000 In 2015, he financed it himself.

00:04:58.000 He was self-funded.

00:04:59.000 In the primary, he did.

00:05:00.000 You're right.

00:05:01.000 But look, you have to accept money from different coalitions of people.

00:05:04.000 Are you glad Trump won?

00:05:06.000 To some extent, yeah.

00:05:07.000 Okay.

00:05:08.000 To what extent are you not happy he won?

00:05:10.000 I think he doesn't represent the same thing that he represented in 2015. Okay.

00:05:15.000 Tell me why.

00:05:16.000 In 2015, he represented...

00:05:18.000 A political outsider.

00:05:19.000 He was not the establishment.

00:05:20.000 He was a stark contrast from the establishment.

00:05:24.000 He was opposing Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, the Bushes.

00:05:28.000 So let's, in practice, how is Trump not governing as an outsider?

00:05:31.000 He literally just like fired 300,000 people in the last month.

00:05:36.000 He got rid of USAID. He's ending the Russian-Ukrainian war.

00:05:40.000 Of course.

00:05:40.000 Border crossings are down 95%.

00:05:42.000 I mean, how is he not an outsider?

00:05:43.000 Of course he's an outsider from the previous administration, the Biden administration.

00:05:48.000 But he's not really the same Trump that he was in 2015. I think he's better.

00:05:52.000 He's better?

00:05:53.000 Yeah.

00:05:54.000 Really?

00:05:55.000 I mean, but let's go through the list.

00:05:56.000 Think about it.

00:05:57.000 I mean, in every single element...

00:05:59.000 The first term he didn't get rid of USAID. First term he didn't say he wanted to get rid of the Department of Education.

00:06:04.000 The first term he did not say we're going to have the largest deportation effort ever, of which we are doing.

00:06:08.000 I mean, we're actually seeing new and improved promises and fulfillment of the original Trump agenda.

00:06:13.000 What happened to the wall?

00:06:15.000 Well...

00:06:16.000 You mean the wall that Biden decided to deconstruct?

00:06:20.000 I think what you're talking about is border crossings, which is more important, right?

00:06:23.000 No, I'm talking about the border wall that Trump promised he would build in 2015. Right, of which he largely did in his first term, disassembled under Biden.

00:06:30.000 But the essence is border crossings, right?

00:06:32.000 Because we want a wall to stop border crossings, right?

00:06:34.000 So how many border crossings were there approximately last day of Biden's day in office?

00:06:38.000 Tell me.

00:06:38.000 No, guess.

00:06:41.000 I don't know.

00:06:41.000 You're putting me on the spot.

00:06:42.000 Yeah, 11,000, right?

00:06:44.000 No, but you're criticizing Trump, so you've got to know your stuff, right?

00:06:46.000 Sure.

00:06:46.000 11,000.

00:06:47.000 How many as of yesterday?

00:06:49.000 Tell me.

00:06:50.000 124. Wow.

00:06:52.000 So we went from 11,000 to 124. So what President Trump has done...

00:06:57.000 So obviously you care about stopping the flow of people coming into the country, right? 0.99

00:07:01.000 So President Trump has now said from 11,000 to 124, 95% decrease, almost a 98% decrease.

00:07:08.000 So he's doing...

00:07:10.000 Through executive action, the things that Biden refused to do.

00:07:13.000 But yeah, I think it's new and improved.

00:07:14.000 I think it's an exciting, amazing new administration.

00:07:17.000 But I want you to be very clear and crisp.

00:07:18.000 What are your objections to what he's doing versus 2015?

00:07:22.000 Again, I really got to hone in on he didn't promise during the campaign that he'd build the wall.

00:07:28.000 In 2024, his campaign never talked about building the wall.

00:07:30.000 No, he said the largest deportation force.

00:07:36.000 child rapists, child sex traffickers, and predators are being deported on a daily basis.

00:07:40.000 And yes, by the way, the wall is being built.

00:07:44.000 The biggest reason the wall was ever put into question was because of federal judges that were blocking the construction of the wall.

00:07:50.000 So he had to get more creative.

00:07:51.000 You know what he's done in this term they didn't do the first term?

00:07:53.000 He's mobilized the military to actually run the southern border, and he has designated the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations with use of lethal force actions against them.

00:08:01.000 So it feels like you're trying to find complaints against him.

00:08:04.000 I I'm trying to understand where you're coming from because this Trump 2.0 is 100 times better than the first Trump term.

00:08:11.000 While we may have won this election, the fight to restore our great nation is only beginning.

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00:09:10.000 Well, it just seems like he's a different Trump than the Trump in 2015.

00:09:17.000 Okay, so, but use evidence, not emotions.

00:09:20.000 Right.

00:09:21.000 So what evidence do you have?

00:09:22.000 Not like it feels, it seems, like, what evidence do you have?

00:09:26.000 My evidence is that, my original question, he took hundreds of millions of dollars and he didn't build the wall.

00:09:33.000 But no, we've already been through that.

00:09:34.000 For example, like, the border crossings are coming at an all-time low.

00:09:37.000 I'm not talking about border crossings.

00:09:39.000 But you build a wall to prevent border crossings.

00:09:41.000 So if you can get border crossings low without a wall, then it's even...

00:09:43.000 And to establish sovereignty.

00:09:45.000 No, of course.

00:09:45.000 Look, he will build those things.

00:09:47.000 I just find it interesting.

00:09:48.000 I'm just trying to get down to the element of it.

00:09:49.000 Will he build the wall?

00:09:50.000 If courts allow him to, of course he will.

00:09:52.000 I mean, obviously.

00:09:53.000 But he has the biggest mandate that he had, that he will ever have.

00:09:56.000 And he is fulfilling it every single day.

00:09:58.000 So, did you vote for Trump?

00:10:01.000 I abstained from voting.

00:10:02.000 You abstained from voting.

00:10:02.000 Okay, well...

00:10:04.000 Well, I'll say one thing.

00:10:06.000 I hope you enjoy a better America, because even though you didn't vote for the right candidate, you're going to enjoy a better country thanks to President Donald Trump.

00:10:13.000 Thank you so much.

00:10:13.000 Thank you, Mr. Kirk.

00:10:16.000 Thank you.

00:10:17.000 Yes.

00:10:18.000 How's it going, Charlie?

00:10:18.000 Good.

00:10:18.000 How are you?

00:10:19.000 Good.

00:10:19.000 My name is Camden.

00:10:20.000 I've been a supporter for you for a long time.

00:10:23.000 And I have a quick question, or two quick questions.

00:10:26.000 The first one is, why are colleges getting so much more liberal in this generation specifically, and what can we do about that?

00:10:34.000 Well, I will say students are becoming more right-wing.

00:10:36.000 I mean, this is amazing.

00:10:37.000 By the way, Gen Z was the biggest move towards Donald Trump of any demographic and generation this last November.

00:10:45.000 So thank you guys for that.

00:10:46.000 It was a major, major move.

00:10:48.000 Would you say this campus is pretty liberal?

00:10:50.000 Yes.

00:10:51.000 Very.

00:10:52.000 Do you guys feel as if on campus that if you speak out as a conservative, you are graded differently?

00:10:58.000 Yes.

00:10:59.000 Yeah, so you guys feel as if you say at the conservative view, You'll be graded negatively.

00:11:05.000 Yes.

00:11:06.000 So tell me more about that.

00:11:07.000 I would just be curious.

00:11:08.000 I'm in an economics of women in work class, and I'm like the only one in the class.

00:11:12.000 Wait, there's an economics of women? 1.00

00:11:13.000 Yes, and it was required.

00:11:14.000 It was required.

00:11:15.000 And I'm the only pretty much conservative in the class that believes that the gender pay gap is a myth.

00:11:22.000 Obviously, it is, of course.

00:11:24.000 But they're so...

00:11:26.000 Stern on grading as if there is one.

00:11:29.000 So if I say something that's against that, then I'm graded differently.

00:11:32.000 This proves my point that college is a scam.

00:11:34.000 You should not be forced to go into debt to study things that are not true.

00:11:38.000 Again, I just, I reject the whole premise.

00:11:40.000 But yeah, look, part of the problem is that it's taxpayer-funded.

00:11:43.000 President Trump is waging a war against the college cartel, which is amazing, saying that federal taxpayer money will not go to schools like this if they teach garbage like critical race theory, DEI, transgenderism ideology. 0.95

00:11:54.000 It's going to be a process actually unfolding that.

00:11:56.000 But yeah, the other problem is this, is that these professors have never done anything in the real world, many of them.

00:12:01.000 They have lived in their kind of circles of abstractions for their entire life.

00:12:07.000 Again, I truly believe that if you were to go, and I'm not saying everyone should not go to college, but I think it's actually something you should consider.

00:12:14.000 I think that doing a gap year, instead of just growing right into college and spending the equivalent money, like, if I could ask, are you in-state or out-of-state at this school?

00:12:23.000 In-state.

00:12:23.000 You're in-state.

00:12:24.000 What is the tuition, all-in-cost tuition room and board here?

00:12:26.000 Way too much.

00:12:27.000 Can I, $40,000, $50,000?

00:12:29.000 $7,500.

00:12:31.000 $7,500 all in?

00:12:37.000 The person at the mic.

00:12:39.000 I have Bright Futures, so it's different for me.

00:12:41.000 Okay, but you've got to give me some idea.

00:12:45.000 Around 20. With tuition, room, and board, and everything?

00:12:48.000 All in?

00:12:48.000 Okay, so it's subsidized by taxpayers, though.

00:12:51.000 But for $20,000, I think you could better spend that money, quite honestly, experiencing other cultures, getting another job, doing things outside of just the walls of this school.

00:13:02.000 That's why I'm such a critic.

00:13:05.000 I'll just be honest.

00:13:06.000 I employ a thousand people at Turning Point.

00:13:08.000 I don't care where you went to college.

00:13:10.000 Employers do not care where you went to college.

00:13:12.000 They care about, can you do the job?

00:13:14.000 And we are seeing a change in the workplace.

00:13:18.000 And college will be the last ones to adjust in this broken, outdated model, is that it's much more like sports teams, which is like, what is your skill?

00:13:25.000 What do you bring to the table?

00:13:27.000 Not like, where did you go to college or how long you were there?

00:13:29.000 We're seeing the kind of emergence of a free agent system, if you will, based on skill and merit.

00:13:35.000 So, anyway, I hope that answers your question.

00:13:36.000 Can I have one more question?

00:13:37.000 Yeah, really quick.

00:13:38.000 Okay, so I'm a Christian and I'm pro-life, right?

00:13:42.000 There's a lot of conservatives who also believe in the death penalty.

00:13:45.000 But my question is, how can you believe in the death penalty and also be pro-life?

00:13:49.000 I mean, it's a great question, but let me just...

00:13:51.000 I think it's logically contradictory.

00:13:55.000 So if I may use a young lady as a... 0.99

00:13:59.000 Let's pretend she was pregnant, okay? 1.00

00:14:01.000 And there was an unborn human being in utero.

00:14:04.000 And let's pretend he is on death row for murdering five people.

00:14:08.000 There's a difference.

00:14:09.000 That baby did nothing wrong in utero.

00:14:11.000 He used his agency to go kill five other people.

00:14:14.000 And as a Christian, the only law that is repeated in all five books of the Torah is that if you take a life, your life will be taken.

00:14:22.000 Can I counter?

00:14:23.000 Yeah, please.

00:14:24.000 So Paul killed Christians before he wrote 13 books of the Bible, so how do we...

00:14:28.000 Well, yeah, I mean, he obviously repented and gave his life to Christ and became a super amazing disciple.

00:14:35.000 I guess the question is, do we believe in the ultimate administration of justice?

00:14:39.000 And I think, of course you do.

00:14:40.000 If you take a life, your life should be taken.

00:14:42.000 But making a moral equivalency of an unborn baby that has done nothing wrong, which, by the way, we have no problem slaughtering, right? 0.83

00:14:49.000 I do.

00:14:50.000 Well, no, I'm saying as a country, right?

00:14:51.000 We over a million and a half a year.

00:14:53.000 And then we say, oh, well, this guy who burned an entire house down and killed five people.

00:14:57.000 You know, we need to feel sorry for them.

00:15:00.000 Now, this is not you, but I could turn it on its head that bleeding heart liberals will say they feel more sorry for the person on death row than for the baby in the womb that never had a chance to live.

00:15:11.000 For me, I think the person that, let's just, again, I think the death penalty should only be used very rarely, very sparringly, and should be done quickly.

00:15:19.000 In fact, I even think that we should bring back, you know, public executions on certain people.

00:15:23.000 No, but think about it.

00:15:24.000 I think that, and you guys should laugh, but it should be done.

00:15:28.000 No, you guys should laugh, but think about it.

00:15:30.000 Some of these crimes are so heinous against humanity that it must be done as a statement and not say that, you know, we're going to make you a sympathy.

00:15:37.000 So, for example, I think that Luigi Maggioni guy, I think he should get the death penalty.

00:15:41.000 I think that if you're going to go kill someone in the back of the head in the streets of New York and act as if I should be sympathetic because you didn't get a health care premium you didn't like, I think you should get the death penalty for that.

00:15:50.000 I think if you take a life, your life should be taken and it should be done, obviously, through a jury that appears.

00:15:54.000 So anyway, that's how I would respond to that.

00:15:55.000 It's the administration of justice and it's also, more specifically...

00:16:00.000 The life in the womb has not hurt anybody else.

00:16:02.000 The person on death penalty definitionally has hurt somebody else's life.

00:16:06.000 Thank you.

00:16:06.000 I appreciate it.

00:16:07.000 Since I don't have a lot of time, if I have more time to ask more questions, can I get you on my podcast in the future?

00:16:12.000 Maybe.

00:16:13.000 Here's my hat.

00:16:14.000 Thanks, man.

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00:17:37.000 Hey, so my name is Anderson. - Yep.

00:17:43.000 I agree with you on most things.

00:17:46.000 But I disagree, I think I disagree with you, you can correct me if I'm wrong, on kind of the Republican Party's current stance on the Department of Education.

00:17:56.000 I think that I moved here from Illinois and Chicago.

00:18:00.000 Yeah.

00:18:02.000 What part of Chicago are you from?

00:18:03.000 Arlington Heights.

00:18:04.000 Yeah, so what high school to go to?

00:18:06.000 I didn't go to high school there, but I was supposed to go to Hersey.

00:18:09.000 Okay, I went to Wheeling.

00:18:10.000 Oh, my dad lived there.

00:18:12.000 That's crazy.

00:18:12.000 Yeah, so I know the area quite well.

00:18:14.000 Did you go to middle school there?

00:18:15.000 Yeah, I went to middle school there.

00:18:16.000 I went to Thomas.

00:18:17.000 I went to MacArthur.

00:18:18.000 Oh, that's cool.

00:18:19.000 So I know your neighborhood very well.

00:18:21.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:18:23.000 And so how I've seen kind of the changes from moving down here from the north, it seems like there's this very antagonistic view with education, which I didn't have in Illinois, at least in the part that I lived in, because it was a well-off suburb.

00:18:41.000 I see the Republican Party moving far closer to getting rid of it, and I think that having a tool to keep schools responsible based on the curriculum that they're teaching is far more valuable than getting rid of it just because there's so many problems with it.

00:18:58.000 Fair argument.

00:18:59.000 Thank you.

00:19:00.000 So the Department of Education was formed in 1979. Do you think it's done a good job of improving educational standards for kids in this country?

00:19:07.000 No.

00:19:08.000 Mostly no.

00:19:09.000 But I think the proper tool of a federal government saying, hey, you have to teach truths even if that local community doesn't necessarily want to.

00:19:17.000 The example that I kind of thought of, because I was talking to someone about this, I thought of a coal mining town.

00:19:25.000 In that town, it might be the most valuable thing to teach about mining, to teach about that type of trade, versus...

00:19:32.000 If you live in New York City, you're going to be learning a lot more of markets and just overall higher education.

00:19:40.000 And I think that's unfair to the people who are born into that area, just because that area needs that economic development.

00:19:47.000 So, fair question.

00:19:48.000 So what you're saying is, from a more conservative side, probably, that a federal student at the Department of Education that actually mandates the right things from the top down.

00:19:57.000 Yes.

00:19:57.000 Sounds great.

00:19:58.000 Let me tell you why, A, that won't happen, and why, B, I think that's a bad idea.

00:20:02.000 Even though it sounds conceptually right.

00:20:05.000 A, anything that starts in D.C. with a good intention will be taken over by...

00:20:10.000 The woke tumor and the woke cancer.

00:20:12.000 It metastasizes and envelops the entire thing, even if it has a really good intent.

00:20:17.000 I'll give you a great example.

00:20:18.000 We have this huge fight right now in the Department of Defense trying to get rid of all the woke stuff and the Marines and the Air Force. 1.00

00:20:24.000 If we can't keep the Marines from becoming woke, we have no chance of the Department of Education ever not becoming in that way.

00:20:31.000 And just by the actual fiber of what education is, more people on the left gravitate into that space.

00:20:37.000 Now, let me agree with you before I kind of get into the second point.

00:20:40.000 The biggest problem with education, which is why we should get rid of the Department of Education, is it's not the Department of Education.

00:20:45.000 It's the Department of Administrators.

00:20:48.000 And this is what's very important.

00:20:49.000 This is not a war on teachers.

00:20:51.000 There are 11 million people in America that are in government, that are in jobs, in government, taxpayer-funded, in education.

00:21:00.000 If you were to guess, how many would you say are teachers?

00:21:03.000 30%?

00:21:04.000 Yeah, that's almost correct.

00:21:07.000 You're right.

00:21:08.000 So about $6.7 million of the $11 million are administrators.

00:21:14.000 Most of our education money goes towards paper pushers, career counselors, people that fill in paperwork unnecessarily.

00:21:23.000 We're not even supporting the teachers on the front lines.

00:21:26.000 That's the biggest problem, is we have become an administrative-heavy education model, and what has that meant for our kids?

00:21:32.000 Since the Adventist private education, as you agree, standards have gone down, literacy has gone down, math and reading has gone down.

00:21:38.000 In fact, most kids in public education, I want you guys to think about this, in high school, have not read an entire book cover to cover.

00:21:45.000 Yeah.

00:21:46.000 Do you guys agree with that?

00:21:47.000 Yeah.

00:21:48.000 And I know that might, when parents hear that, it's so shocking.

00:21:50.000 Most kids, when they are in...

00:21:53.000 By a junior or senior in school.

00:21:55.000 They'll read snippets.

00:21:57.000 You guys know that.

00:21:57.000 They have readers, right?

00:21:58.000 You know, a chapter of this.

00:22:00.000 They have not read an entire book cover to cover.

00:22:02.000 Let me go to my second argument why I think it's a bad idea.

00:22:05.000 I don't think it's constitutional or in the role of government to get involved in the most intimate thing, which is education.

00:22:13.000 And this is why.

00:22:14.000 I think our view of education is wrong.

00:22:17.000 You guys look at education probably because you've been taught as just, hey, get here so you can get a job.

00:22:23.000 In the ideal sense, education should be about the growth of the soul and should be about the nurturing of good citizens, which is completely different than just career preparation.

00:22:33.000 The view I have of education, which is what the founders had, which only very few people have, is that you guys should be here to read really old good books, to understand ancient philosophy, to become a well-rounded citizen of what is good, true, and beautiful, and then you could do any job once you graduate.

00:22:49.000 That the hyper specialization of our education system has been dreadful.

00:22:55.000 So do you have private student loan debt?

00:22:59.000 Or do you know someone who does that you really care about?

00:23:02.000 Someone you might have had dinner recently or breakfast.

00:23:05.000 They say, I just can't get out of private student loan debt.

00:23:07.000 Now, it's different than federal student loan debt, but a lot of people have private student loans.

00:23:11.000 About $300 billion.

00:23:13.000 And in fact, if you have private student loans, you're more likely to be older.

00:23:16.000 The older you are, the more likely you are to have a private student loan.

00:23:19.000 It's before the federal government took it all over.

00:23:21.000 Why ReFi can get you out.

00:23:22.000 It's not a debt settlement company, and they work with each borrower individually, tailoring each loan to each borrower's specific situation.

00:23:29.000 Because of private student loan debt, so many Americans feel stuck and helpless, and they've even lost hope.

00:23:35.000 YReFi gives you a light at the end of the tunnel.

00:23:37.000 If your private student loan debt is keeping you up at night and ruining your life, it doesn't have to.

00:23:42.000 Just call YReFi.

00:23:43.000 Go to YReFi.com, call 888-YREFI-34, or log on to YReFi.com.

00:23:49.000 You don't have to ignore that mountain of student loan statements on your kitchen table anymore.

00:23:53.000 If you have a co-borrower, YReFi can get them released from the loan.

00:23:56.000 You can give mom or dad a break.

00:23:58.000 may not be available in all states.

00:23:59.000 So go to whyrefi.com.

00:24:01.000 That is whyrefi.com.

00:24:04.000 Let me get to the Constitution, and I'd love to get your response.

00:24:09.000 Constitutionally, I think we have made too many exceptions of the government should do this, the government should do that.

00:24:16.000 If we look at Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, it enumerates 17 things that government can do.

00:24:23.000 Education federally is not one of them.

00:24:26.000 And it doesn't even do it well.

00:24:27.000 And I think it's led to this bloat of federal agencies that shouldn't exist.

00:24:31.000 And so finally, let's go back to that coal miner example.

00:24:34.000 That's a really good example in one way.

00:24:36.000 But at the other way, we should not impose on certain communities what values they should learn or not learn.

00:24:43.000 And usually what happens is we know it's left-wing ideology that then gets imposed on local Christian communities or conservative communities that might have a different view.

00:24:52.000 So what is your opinion on all that?

00:24:54.000 I think that...

00:24:56.000 I feel like at this point, there's so many different...

00:25:00.000 I feel like there's so many different government programs that don't adhere to the Constitution, at least not in a literal sense.

00:25:08.000 Like, I'm not saying they're constitutionally illegal, but...

00:25:11.000 I would say they almost are.

00:25:12.000 Yeah, that is definitely an argument.

00:25:15.000 But I do think that there is certain educational standards that need to be upheld.

00:25:20.000 I just don't know the proper way to do that.

00:25:22.000 Great.

00:25:22.000 So my suggestion is we don't have to think too deeply about it.

00:25:26.000 We already know what that looks like, which is that the states should run the education as they see fit, and the federal government should remove.

00:25:33.000 Because we know, back in the 50s, 60s, or 70s, we had much higher literacy rates, much better math scores.

00:25:39.000 We've gone down.

00:25:40.000 We're like 26 now in education.

00:25:42.000 Yet we're spending $250 billion a year on the federal Department of Education, mostly on administrative paperwork.

00:25:48.000 So I think we need to empower more families.

00:25:50.000 And the final thing I'll say is school choice allowing parents to be able to send their – and by the way, Florida has one of the most robust school choice programs in the country.

00:25:59.000 And it works because competition education is a good thing.

00:26:03.000 Final point.

00:26:04.000 Yeah.

00:26:04.000 I know.

00:26:05.000 My sister actually works at a Montessori school. 0.92

00:26:08.000 And so I'm very on board with like school choice.

00:26:11.000 Um...

00:26:13.000 But I think the first-party governmental schools, in my opinion, should have a certain level of standard, just because I moved from Illinois to here.

00:26:22.000 District 214. Yeah.

00:26:23.000 And it wasn't a perfect school district, so I had my fair share of issues there.

00:26:28.000 It's very well-funded at Thomas.

00:26:29.000 It's very well-funded, yes.

00:26:30.000 And let me just kind of, you know, and then we'll go to the next question.

00:26:34.000 It's well-funded for a reason because of very, very high taxes.

00:26:37.000 Not great.

00:26:37.000 I know the area well.

00:26:38.000 But last point is the type of top-down...

00:26:42.000 You know, involvement you want should happen on the state level.

00:26:45.000 It should happen in Tallahassee, not in Washington, D.C. Let's get D.C. out of our education.

00:26:49.000 Thank you so much.

00:26:50.000 Appreciate it.

00:26:50.000 Want a hat?

00:26:51.000 Great.

00:26:51.000 Thank you.

00:26:52.000 Next question.

00:26:53.000 Disagreements, if anyone's there.

00:26:57.000 These are the meta Ray-Bans from Mr. Zuckerberg.

00:27:03.000 So enjoy.

00:27:06.000 All right.

00:27:07.000 Yes, sir.

00:27:09.000 Hey, how you doing, Charlie?

00:27:10.000 Big fan.

00:27:10.000 Thank you.

00:27:11.000 I was going to say, in terms of the right to abortion, I understand.

00:27:16.000 I'm not going to argue against your clump of cells, baby's clump of cells.

00:27:21.000 I wanted to say how I spent all day, these people are sitting outside the hospital, inside the hospital, arguing that these babies should be born.

00:27:30.000 And then we have the technology today to determine if a baby's going to be born with a terrible condition, with Down syndrome or something else bad.

00:27:40.000 These people will spend so much time arguing for the baby not to be born.

00:27:42.000 When it is born and these families are subject to these conditions, these people do nothing to help the baby postnatal at all.

00:27:49.000 And it's like, what do they get out of making sure that these babies are born with such a terrible condition?

00:27:54.000 So I want to make sure I'm understanding the question.

00:27:56.000 Are you criticizing pro-lifers for making sure that the babies are born?

00:28:01.000 Yeah, just be more specific.

00:28:02.000 More anti-abortion more than pro-life.

00:28:07.000 a mom have a baby that is going to be born in such a terrible state and then no one you know these people that the pro-lifers that want the baby to be born Do nothing postnatal to help the babies.

00:28:19.000 Okay, so there's a couple things wrong with your statement.

00:28:21.000 The first of which, let's talk about the moral issue, which is why should a baby with Down syndrome have less human rights than you and I? I think Down syndrome is a bad example.

00:28:32.000 But you did use Down syndrome.

00:28:33.000 I know, I did say that.

00:28:35.000 That's fine, so let's back up.

00:28:37.000 Let's say a blood test says that a kid has a congenital heart failure.

00:28:41.000 Fair enough?

00:28:42.000 Now, according to the New York Times and many other studies, that's only about half true.

00:28:46.000 Meaning, like, many people in this audience, I'm sure there's somebody here, probably had a mom that got a test that said you were going to have a congenital heart failure.

00:28:54.000 It turned out not to be true.

00:28:55.000 So those tests are not nearly as accurate as you might think.

00:28:58.000 Let's even pretend that they are accurate.

00:28:59.000 Okay, let me grant you that premise.

00:29:01.000 Why should then that human not be given equal human rights, even if they get a terminal diagnosis?

00:29:08.000 No, they should.

00:29:10.000 I'm not arguing they shouldn't have human rights.

00:29:12.000 I'm saying that if they...

00:29:13.000 What is the first human right?

00:29:15.000 Right to live, right to freedom.

00:29:18.000 I understand that.

00:29:19.000 I'm saying when they are, when the tests are more conclusive, then these families suffer.

00:29:25.000 They suffer with these children that they have that only get to live to 15 and they're in pain their entire life.

00:29:31.000 So that's an interesting moral argument that I want to try to flush out.

00:29:35.000 By what standard it is okay?

00:29:37.000 To do something wrong that involves another suffering of another to alleviate suffering for yourself.

00:29:41.000 To basically outsource your suffering to somebody else saying, I'm going to eliminate you because I might have a tough time.

00:29:49.000 Why is that morally okay?

00:29:50.000 I'm not saying it's morally okay.

00:29:52.000 It's your life too.

00:29:53.000 It's your child.

00:29:55.000 No, it is a moral question.

00:29:57.000 So I just want you to help me understand that.

00:29:59.000 Okay.

00:29:59.000 So what do you want me to answer?

00:30:01.000 Help me understand why it would be morally defensible and okay to eliminate a life if that life might make my life harder.

00:30:09.000 Well, it'd be hard on the life itself.

00:30:12.000 Obviously, it's their decision, but they might not be in a state to make that decision.

00:30:16.000 Everyone deserves to live.

00:30:18.000 I'm not saying they shouldn't.

00:30:19.000 I agree.

00:30:20.000 Every human life deserves the right to be born.

00:30:22.000 I agree with you.

00:30:24.000 Let me get to the second part of your argument, which is...

00:30:27.000 A criticism of the pro-life movement.

00:30:29.000 I would encourage you to immerse yourself more into the comprehensive work that pro-lifers do beyond just birth canal.

00:30:37.000 It is a common talking point of a lot of people, not you, but on the left, that will say, oh, you're just pro-birth, not pro-life.

00:30:43.000 If you just go to a local church and you'll ask, hey, it's not just the pro-life ministry.

00:30:48.000 There's family adoption ministries.

00:30:49.000 They will give diaper care, daycare, the whole nuts and bolts of actually helping a baby develop into a full human being.

00:31:00.000 And so I would just kind of challenge that premise a little bit because it sounds cruel.

00:31:07.000 Oh, you just want the baby born.

00:31:08.000 You're not going to assist it for the rest of the life.

00:31:10.000 But I think we agree.

00:31:11.000 I think we both agree in human dignity, right?

00:31:14.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:15.000 All right.

00:31:16.000 Well, thank you.

00:31:16.000 I know about that.

00:31:17.000 Thank you so much.

00:31:18.000 Okay.

00:31:18.000 Have a great day.

00:31:19.000 Thank you.

00:31:19.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:31:21.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:31:23.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - March 12, 2025

Do We Still Need a Wall? and Other Questions

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