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00:01:36.000And there's so many times this past year that I hear that in my head, like something will be breaking news and like, Charlie's going to want to go live.
00:01:50.000And in this studio, he said, I'll never miss another election night not being in the studio because that happened one time and he wished he had been here.
00:01:58.000We've got a stream that we're doing before the UVU event marking one year without Charlie, a deliberate and I would say defiant act of taking back territory.
00:02:14.000Something that marked Charlie's entire political life, his activist career, where he would go into the most hard to reach places, the places that we were often unwanted the most, and he would plant his flag.
00:03:47.000You know, I was a little bit concerned about today, to be honest, mostly about myself because I was worried it was going to be, you know, hard and emotional.
00:04:12.000And I think that's why we're all here.
00:04:14.000And you're seeing, I mean, obviously, look, we see the left and we see their trends, their Kirkversary, and the insanity that they're going full mask off.
00:04:25.000They couldn't help themselves in the middle of an election, in the middle of a day like this.
00:04:31.000To, you know, just maybe shut up just one day.
00:04:33.000You know, you think that they could bite their tongue, but they can't help it because they revel in the insanity, in the evil.1.00
00:05:42.000And from the moment that I arrived on the grounds, there has been a massive line from the UCCU Center all the way down to essentially the main street lined up to the door.
00:05:52.000And they've since opened the doors about an hour ago.
00:05:56.000And since then, it's just been a nonstop flow.
00:05:58.000I mean, at one point, this line was wrapped all the way around the UCCU Center.
00:06:02.000So not really a lot of negativity taking place out here.
00:06:10.000You know, counter protesters, if you can really even call them that, more like hecklers that have, you know, thrown jabs at people in line and has tried to get them to react.
00:06:19.000But everybody here, they're all here for the same reason is to honor Charlie and not to really give in to the very few amount of protesters that have arrived.
00:06:29.000Honestly, one of the things that I've noticed today is it feels like just an overwhelming sense of just love for Charlie, with a few very notable exceptions, but it's kind of like, Screw those people.
00:06:41.000Like, why even give them any attention?
00:07:00.000However, if today is the day that the cockroaches are all coming out of their hidey holes, then I say today's the day that we go after the cockroaches.
00:07:47.000There's a place for going on offense to say, you know what?
00:07:49.000It's called, we're going to fight back.
00:07:51.000Call the Department of Treasury and they smoke out all these.
00:07:55.000Well, and also, by the way, and if anyone sees them, and we've been doing this as well, it's also the Department of State because if some of them have an immigration status where if you are a guest of this country and you are celebrating murder and assassination, then you might as well pack your bags right now.
00:08:59.000You have people driving over 24 hours from places like Michigan, from Rhode Island, all around the country, just to be here for this event today because they recognize how important it is in American history and to them and their value system personally.
00:09:14.000So that's been a very interesting and fascinating thing to see people from all over the country coming here just to basically honor Charlie Kirk's life and what he stood for.
00:09:25.000And you had mentioned Chalk, you have kids, you have You know, high schoolers, you have middle schoolers, you have adults all out here leaving flowers, chalking great, you know, positive messages, remembering Charlie, some of Charlie's favorite Bible verses, some of the messages that he really put out there the most.
00:09:42.000You're seeing those written everywhere.
00:09:44.000You're seeing people, you know, happy, obviously.
00:09:48.000They're happy to celebrate Charlie's life.
00:09:50.000They're not happy about what took place and why they have to be here.
00:09:53.000But overwhelmingly, I would say, it seems like everyone that is here, or at least 99.9% of people, Are here to support Charlie and his legacy in Turning Point USA and the future of the organization going forward.
00:10:07.000And that's kind of the vibes that I get here on the ground.
00:10:10.000Really, no negativity for the most part, other than the select few.
00:10:13.000The actual main protest is set to start at 6 15.
00:10:17.000So I imagine you'll get some stragglers later on.
00:10:21.000But for the most part, it's been nothing but great, is the best way to describe it.
00:10:40.000Right now, you've had stragglers from, like, kind of different groups, people wanting to do it themselves.
00:10:45.000The actual group that has organized the established protest, the campus organization, they actually are not set to show up until 6 15.
00:10:53.000The few that have been here have been with the, you know, UnF America tour, wanting to debate people on if Charlie was actually killed in the hospital.
00:11:56.000We were in no position in the first, like, weeks, any of the ghouls that showed themselves, the cockroaches came out to get them fired or even complain about this stuff.
00:12:06.000You know, but they probably should have been fired.
00:12:09.000Some of these people won, like, settlements against their employers or whatever.
00:12:49.000And if anyone's peaceful, and I remember saying this, we never called for anyone to be arrested.
00:12:54.000We never called for anyone to be thrown in jail or even censored, actually, because we're against that as well, as long as they're not calling for violence.
00:13:02.000And that being said, though, a lot of these Kirk Aversary posts are extremely violent.
00:13:08.000Well, listen, as John Doyle said, the highest compliment you can receive on earth is for your death to be celebrated by all its worst people.
00:13:16.000And so I do genuinely believe, you know, Charlie used to sort of marvel at the protests.
00:13:24.000That would come after him, or you know, the counter protesters at the debates and things like that.
00:13:28.000He would kind of laugh at them, and he did say time and time again, He's like, It's a signal boost, the joke's on them, they're just making me more influential, they're just boosting our signal.
00:13:40.000And it what an absolute testament to Charlie Kirk that even in death, they can't let it go.
00:13:47.000They can't, he was so he struck such fear into their hearts mentally crushed them that, yeah, the sea of red hats on college campuses, spiritually crushed.
00:14:41.000If he saw something great, he thought, how can I be like that?
00:14:44.000What can I do to improve myself to deserve that?0.97
00:14:47.000And all of these people, they're from the other end, the other reaction you can have, which is resentment to say, if that person is better than me, screw them.0.98
00:14:55.000I can smash them and tear them down to my level.0.94
00:15:10.000Well, it's like I might add, I think that it's what you guys are speaking on right now is fascinating to me because I've spoken to a lot of attendees here throughout the day, as well as the counter protesters, and all the attendees have asked the same question too is what do you see Charlie's legacy as one year later, one year after his tragic assassination?
00:15:29.000And almost every single one of them have talked about how his legacy is.
00:15:37.000And I think that is the very thing that you guys are speaking on that inadvertently scares these people and makes them react in such a negative way.
00:15:45.000It literally forces the evil out of them, and they don't even really understand why, but it is because that is what his legacy is.
00:15:52.000You know, he spoke publicly on that's what he wanted his legacy to be to be remembered for his fear of God and his love for Christ and Christ's love for us.
00:16:02.000And that's exactly, I mean, that's what I remember Charlie by.
00:16:04.000And I think the leftists also remember him by this, even if they don't want to acknowledge that's how they remember him.
00:16:10.000They want to acknowledge and say he's a fascist or he's this, this is how we remember him.
00:16:14.000They actually know what the true legacy of Charlie Kirk is.
00:16:25.000For the past year, we've seen a lot of horrific things.
00:16:29.000We've seen a lot of people that have tried to either claim Charlie as their own or they've tried to make Charlie's legacy about conspiracy, about lies and deceit and all of these things.
00:16:43.000They've tried to hijack what Charlie's legacy actually is.
00:16:47.000And what I've seen today, The outpouring of love, the you know, multiple states declaring that September 10th will be Charlie Kirk Day.
00:16:59.000That deep, deep down, when it all comes down to it on this day, 9 10, a year, 365 days after Charlie was taken from us, everything that these evil, evil, disgusting people tried to do, it didn't work.
00:17:28.000Charlie is bigger, more powerful, louder, better, even now than anything that they could throw at him, at his legacy and his mission.
00:17:40.000Taylor, what's the rest of your evening look like here?
00:17:42.000I want to let you get back to doing your actual job you're supposed to be doing.
00:17:50.000Through and then the, I believe there's a candlelight vigil afterwards on the actual site of where Charlie was killed, where people will make their way over after the event to kind of pay some additional respects to him.
00:18:01.000So I'm just going to continue to be here on the ground and front lines.
00:18:04.000You know, the coverage will continue to go up as more comes in, and we'll just continue reporting on the rest of the day and hopefully honoring Charlie by doing so.
00:19:29.000If you want to take my chair, yeah, I'm gonna switch.
00:19:30.000And I believe it's Blake, we're about 40 minutes out, about, and we'll see.
00:19:34.000Maybe there'll be a delay or something.
00:19:36.000So, but as scheduled, just if you're watching right now, we're about 40 minutes out from the formal start of the memorial that's being held tonight.
00:20:35.000The UCCU Center is just filling up quick.
00:20:37.000And it's so good to see that there are so many people here that.
00:20:40.000Want to honor Charlie and want to remember him.
00:20:42.000We had a little bit of dissent outside, caught a couple of protesters, but at the end of the day, that's their right to free speech, and they've been respectful of us inside.
00:20:49.000So I'm just glad that we're able to get so many people out to honor him, and it's been nothing but good vibes inside.
00:21:24.000Yeah, this whole week we've had people filtering in and out.
00:21:27.000And especially today, we've had a lot of people go to pay their respects and just kind of give a moment of silence on what happened.
00:21:33.000I've yet to visit the courtyard today just because I'm waiting until the event's over because I know what the hard spot to be, but it's been beautiful to see people come and pay their respects, especially since.
00:21:43.000A lot of what we see online is negative, but always have here on campus is support and love, and it's so good to see people come to honor Charlie.
00:22:01.000I saw a pretty long line out the door earlier.
00:22:03.000I haven't been in to see how many people are in yet, but it was filling up outside when I was there, so I'm pretty confident we'll fill it up.
00:22:09.000I think it does seat a couple thousand people, so hopefully we can get as many people in as we want.
00:22:14.000I know there are some people that want to support Charlie, so we'll fill it.
00:22:18.000I actually, I was just, I asked you and then I decided to look at it.
00:22:21.000It looks like it had as many as 8,500.
00:22:24.000So that would be an excellent crowd to have.
00:22:27.000And I think about what we said last year that one of Charlie's dreams, people would ask him, and his dream was he showed, I think it was an image of the Super Bowl.
00:23:00.000Obviously, in the immediate following Charlie's assassination, I'm sure your school saw a big uptick in students wanting to be involved with the Turning Point chapter.
00:23:10.000I would imagine today is the same, of course, having thousands of community members and students in attendance.
00:23:15.000What about in the months leading up to this, though?
00:23:17.000Did that momentum ever die off at any point, or was the increase pretty steady following the assassination?
00:23:24.000I think it's been pretty steady over this last year.
00:23:27.000We definitely saw a huge surge last September, but we've had a good pickup again in this last month since we've been promoting the memorial and the event.
00:23:34.000We've had tons of new students ask how to get involved, and it's such a good problem to have to have too many people that want to join.
00:23:40.000So it's been great being able to get everyone involved.
00:23:42.000And I think we're going to continue on with that momentum, especially after tonight, and get as many students involved as we can.
00:23:51.000And our hearts are with you, with your chapter, because as we've said, you guys deserve to be known for how you love Charlie and his mission, and not just the tragedy that happened a year ago that we commemorate today.
00:24:06.000Thank you again, Sage, for joining us.
00:24:07.000We'll be rotating in our next student here.
00:24:15.000We'll next be bringing on Aubrey Hudson.
00:24:17.000She's the chapter president at BYU.1.00
00:24:19.000We'll take a minute here while they cue her up.
00:24:23.000You guys have any thoughts about what you've seen so far today?
00:24:25.000I just love hearing from the students because, you know, I'm getting older.
00:24:30.000I know we talked about this earlier in the back, but I'm getting older and seeing the students back 10 years ago when I first started here where they are now.
00:24:40.000And now listening to these young people 20, 30 years from now, what Charlie has done, what Charlie has built, it is going.
00:24:49.000We have yet to even see even the smallest base of what Charlie has actually done and what Charlie, through God's grace, was actually able to create.
00:25:01.000And to just hear these young people, many of them only got to see Charlie via their phones, a lot of them.
00:25:08.000You know, not all of these young people even got to.
00:25:11.000To meet Charlie because there's so many of them already.
00:25:15.000The lasting impact of Charlie Kirk as these young people become adults and they become the leaders and they become the ones running things.
00:25:24.000Charlie's legacy is going to be something that's going to be a marvel.
00:25:28.000That when I'm a grandparent one day, I'll be able to say, I knew Charlie Kirk and what he started and all of these people that are, you know, turning point alums.
00:25:40.000That's something that I look forward to and that's something that really, really.
00:26:41.000While we were tabling the last couple of weeks, we've had some pretty raw and some pretty Emotional conversations with people, but also just like so much hope and so much energy from our students as well.
00:26:55.000Well, I was thinking we were talking with Sage about the surge of interest and enthusiasm in Charlie, and we're talking about what legacy he would leave.
00:27:08.000You've, I presume, seen that in your own chapter.
00:27:11.000So, why don't you tell us the freshmen in your chapter, the people who are fresh arrivals who've joined since what happened a year ago, what's their.
00:27:25.000So, I joined, well, I was the president last year, and just to give everyone the understanding of BYU's presence in Turning Point, we're not RSO'd, but we have about 850 members on our role, on our roster.
00:27:43.000And so, I think that surge obviously came after last year, but I think what Charlie meant to them was they actually, I think, found a place to come to to find their voice.
00:27:57.000And I think what Charlie gave them was confidence.
00:28:02.000And they gave them a place to not feel alone, to stand up for what they believe in when they were most likely to stay quiet.
00:28:12.000I think that he means so much to them, especially so many of them being there in the courtyard last year.
00:28:19.000I think this is a sacred day for a lot of people in this valley.
00:28:23.000And I think for the students, especially, it's a day to remember the day that.
00:28:33.000BYU is a pretty traditionally conservative campus, as I understand it, when it comes to like traditional roles and embracing marriage and motherhood and all of those things.
00:28:45.000You talk about some of those emotional conversations that you've had on campus over the past few weeks.
00:28:49.000Were all of them positive, or did you have some encounters with people who maybe didn't necessarily agree with Charlie or his message?
00:28:58.000Or maybe the better way to say it is some of the clips that went viral totally out of context?
00:29:04.000Most of the ones that I was there were positive.
00:29:08.000I mean, every time we table, we have a negative encounter.
00:29:13.000But BYU being a pretty conservative campus, I mean, it's pretty rare that we see anything crazy happen.
00:29:24.000Those clips aren't taken out of context.
00:29:26.000We do have crazy people who come and harass us all the time.
00:29:31.000But we had a lot of field reps who were flown in to come and help us for this promotion for our event, and they were pleasantly surprised at how kind BYU students are.
00:30:42.000It broke something in me when I saw Erica's post a few days ago where they took it's like their annual tradition and taking their daughter to the Cubs game.
00:30:50.000And of course, this was her first birthday being at a Cubs game without her dad.
00:30:56.000And I think that again just speaks to this was not just a podcaster or an influencer or a political commentator who ultimately was prematurely taken from this world.
00:31:10.000And now there are videos that will live on the internet, people celebrating that will live on the internet.
00:31:15.000You have to imagine, of course, as kids will grow up one day, you hope and you pray that they don't see some of the hatred and the vitriol and the negativity that their family, their father, the things I'm sure that they value and that they will grow up to believe that they've been exposed to.
00:31:30.000But it broke me when I saw Erica post that.
00:32:35.000Yeah, obviously, with of course the momentum behind Charlie and the mission that he fostered and grew and developed and was really passionate about.
00:32:44.000How do you feel like things will continue on through the midterms?
00:32:48.000We've seen the clip of Charlie when President Trump was elected as the 47th president of the United States several times on this program today and all on social media.
00:32:58.000Obviously, he cared deeply about culture and shifting the culture, but he knew in order to do that or in order to ultimately win the country, you did have to have legislative wins and policy wins.
00:33:08.000So, are you feeling confident that this momentum will carry over through the next, what, less than 60 days?
00:33:15.000At this point, to hopefully maintain some of the control that we have in the House and the Senate, I would say if I was a politician, I was hoping to get reelected within the next 60 days.
00:33:25.000I would really need to do something to show my generation, right?
00:33:28.000This next generation that's growing up and is in this vacuum for real leadership.
00:33:33.000Show us something that is really going to help chart this next course for our lives.
00:33:38.000I mean, we're in college right now, but I mean, a lot of us are working two or three jobs and we're just like, shoot, how are we going to get through the next couple of months, right?0.66
00:33:47.000Especially all the crap we hear on TV and on social media.
00:33:51.000Like, we need someone to really step up and to really take accountability and ownership for what they say and then versus what they do.0.98
00:34:24.000I mean, I'm just going to speak for Utah, but I feel like there's so many rhinos out here, just Republicans and name only.0.99
00:34:30.000Like, we need to start playing whatever and hiding behind whatever mask, right?0.90
00:34:36.000Either say and do what you say or just hold in order.
00:34:41.000I'm just going to go and vote for the other side because at least the other side, I'm like, all right, well, they're pretty awesome what they're doing.
00:34:54.000And no one is really being like, hey, let's watch out for the little guy.
00:34:57.000Everyone's kind of in it for themselves a little bit.
00:34:59.000And they're just, that's why, you know, I speak about the rhinos because I feel like they're just, they know who they are and they just want to take care of themselves.
00:35:07.000Well, Rafe, as you said, your hair's on fire a little bit.
00:35:11.000Doing the biggest campus event in Turning Point history, we'll let you get back to making sure it's also one of the best campus events in Turning Point history.
00:35:39.000Although the sun's probably still up because it's summertime.
00:35:42.000You know, while you're looking through that, you know, the thing that sticks out to me the most is, again, and we said this before we had the students call in, is over this past year, we've all seen, on top of the greatest evil that occurred a year ago today, we've seen a lot of people try to hijack what Charlie represented, try to hijack the legacy that he was leaving behind.0.99
00:38:28.000She just posted a beautiful tribute saying, you know, until heaven.
00:38:32.000How was she received last night at the RNC?
00:38:36.000I saw, you know, just kind of the tearfulness, but it's amazing because in these clips you see her saying, you know, God bless you, always pointing back to Christ.
00:38:48.000Yeah, you know, Erica, she has so much aura when she came into the stadium last night.
00:38:54.000She, you know, everybody's acting like, Hooligans, you know, that's how these conventions are, but she's just all calm, cool, and clean all the time.
00:40:12.000The usual things, you know, again, the thing I hate, I wish that Charlie was here because the thing that I've noticed on campus is we've kind of moved outside of the concerns that you hear, hey, how am I going to afford this?
00:40:26.000A lot of young men are like, hey, how do I date a young woman here in this day and age?
00:40:31.000But also, you know, you see a lot of this, a lot of the same old Samo.
00:40:35.000There wasn't a lot of the conspiracy talk or anything like that.0.99
00:40:38.000We've moved on from what is a woman.0.79
00:40:41.000To now, a lot of these young people are, you know, what is a man?
00:40:45.000You know, there's a lot of young men that are struggling with, hey, I don't think it's fair that men have to do all this and they have to provide and they have to do blah, blah, blah, blah, A, B, and C.
00:40:57.000And, you know, going and trying to explain to them, you know, the biblical role of a husband and a father, the, you know, that you go out there and you work harder than anyone else to provide for your family.
00:42:06.000But right before I called in, I watched this video of this student who was there last year.
00:42:16.000And, you know, he said he didn't know Charlie before and that he witnessed him get shot and he only knew him for those 15 minutes and how his entire life changed.
00:42:31.000And how, you know, he said, I wish it wasn't these circumstances for why my entire life changed, but it is.
00:42:45.000You know, I told myself I'd never return to UVU, I told myself a lot of things.
00:42:50.000And I just watched that video, and for some reason, it struck a chord.
00:42:54.000You know, I just realized how many people Charlie just inspired.
00:43:02.000And like, even in death, his life is a testament.
00:43:06.000Like, there's people who their entire lives have changed.
00:43:10.000Like, even after his memorial, I remember people talking about their lives changing, going back to church, returning to their faith, marriages on the brinks of collapse, and just people forgiving.
00:43:21.000And only God, Romans 8 28, you know, only what man.
00:43:28.000Chooses for evil, can God use for good?
00:43:31.000You used to mention lives that were changed, Mikey.
00:44:00.000And pretty much on the show today, the Vice President of the United States said he was one of those people.
00:44:05.000There are human beings alive today because of Charlie's influence, because of Charlie's inspiration.
00:44:12.000And I think that's one of the greatest testaments one could have to the sort of person he is that there is a soul, there is hopefully a future believer, a future inhabitant of heaven who exists because of Charlie Kirk.
00:44:26.000Well, Mikey, you and Eliza just welcomed life into this world.
00:44:33.000That kind of exists where, on one hand, today, of course, you're dealing with life prematurely being taken and the evil and the chaos and the disorder and the immorality that surrounds that.
00:44:47.000But on the other hand, I mean, you and your beautiful bride just engaged in creation, bringing life into this world.
00:44:55.000What does it mean, Charlie's influence, for you know, when you think about your child and the future that you want him to inherit?
00:45:02.000Yeah, you know, Charlie used to say, get married young, have more children than you can afford, leave the last.
00:45:16.000And, you know, I calculated the other day from the time Charlie founded Turning Point how many days he spent working to build the organization.
00:45:28.000And as Charlie just kind of built this organization, I realized all of those 4,846 days were spent building something that can support the vision that he had.
00:46:11.000I just happened to be the lucky young person that got to be alongside him.
00:46:16.000But that's the way he was for all young people.
00:46:18.000He saw something in young people they didn't see in themselves.
00:46:22.000You know, he sacrificed his entire life to give young people purpose.
00:46:27.000And he went on these college campuses, places that everybody in the conservative movement knows we need to go to, but nobody wanted to go to.
00:46:34.000Nobody wants to go to UC Berkeley or UC Davis.
00:48:40.000You know, as I was returning, I was just kind of thinking about how suffering is actually a gift and how being here is reclaiming a territory, and how if we were to never return, essentially what we're saying is that an evil act can make a place.
00:49:02.000Evil forever, that it's claimed by evil and that we can't return.
00:49:07.000We need to return to places like this, claim it back.
00:49:16.000It certainly is not comfortable, but comfortability is not necessarily what you sign up for when you work for a mission.
00:49:23.000You know, you're signing up for something greater than yourself.
00:49:27.000And along the way, you'll find yourself in weakness and you'll find yourself in suffering, but scripture is very clear.
00:49:34.000You know, you are made strong in your suffering, and Christ is made strong in your suffering.
00:49:40.000But yeah, it's difficult to be here, but I'm looking at a line of thousands of people inside and outside, and there's a lot of people here, and they're returning as well.
00:50:41.000The people who are at this event, but also the people who are watching it online, what should they be looking at as the spiritual takeaway from this memorial?
00:50:52.000About and if they're so moved, what should they do afterwards?
00:50:55.000Yeah, you know, I'm going to share it in my speech tonight, but you know, Charlie used to talk about pretty often how politics was his day job, but politics was only the second most important thing in his life.
00:51:09.000And the first, you know, most important thing in his words was winning souls for Jesus Christ and, you know, traveling the country and being alongside Charlie and seeing how he operated.
00:51:44.000The Lord gave him a vision and gave him a mission.
00:51:46.000And he did everything at his disposal to make sure that he was able to accomplish that mission because he had faith that what the Lord called him to do was the right thing to do.
00:52:00.000Images the B roll of the chalk messages that they had that some students and supporters had inscribed, and one of them is the line we heard so often a year ago, and we still hear it now.
00:52:12.000It's well done, my good and faithful servant.
00:52:15.000And I think all of us agree, of anyone we've ever met in our own lives, perhaps of any as much as anyone who's lived in this past within living memory, Charlie deserved to hear that from his savior.
00:53:17.000Romans 8 28 is we know that God uses all, works all things for good for those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.
00:53:35.000Blake, you talked about a soul, a baby's life.
00:53:39.000Is on this earth because they're inspired by Charlie.
00:53:42.000And then he talks about how this too shall pass.
00:53:46.000You know, that's a both quote for good times and for bad times.
00:53:51.000When you're in the midst of the storm, this too shall pass.
00:53:55.000And when you're in the midst of great rejoicing and gain, that too shall pass as well.
00:54:01.000There's only one permanent thing in life, and it's the Lord and Savior that Charlie served and spent his entire life wanting to bless and honor.
00:55:22.000The show, like usual, we'll be doing our AMA, like usual.
00:55:25.000And if I can prevail upon the staff, I would like for that to go extra because I want to hear from people about what Charlie meant to them, how what he's meant to them has evolved over the past year, the legacy he's left in their lives.
00:55:39.000And I want to read more of people's emails because we've gotten so many of them, and I've probably only read about 1% of them on the air.
00:55:46.000So continue to send in any thoughts you have, anything you want, anything you want the world to hear about what Charlie meant to you because I do.
00:56:29.000Like, come on, can hardly drive a car and is listening in.
00:56:33.000And I can say, as someone who would consider myself young in the political sphere, you have very few moments in your life where you'll never forget where you were when you heard the news.
00:57:14.000It's special to be around the Turning Point family.
00:57:17.000People who have lived it and grieve it and mourn Charlie the same way, but who are as dedicated to carrying on his mission and his legacy.
00:57:27.000So thank you guys for doing what you do.
00:57:30.000And as you magically disappear, Disappear on the screen here just to go off of what she said.
00:57:35.000It's a whole new generation of young people that, you know, as an older guy in this movement now, I'll never forget September 11th, 2001, where I was.
00:57:50.000And it changed, you know, I can look back now, tomorrow will be 25 years ago, and I can look at the course of my life and see how that moment changed everything for me.
00:58:03.000And I will never forget September 10th, 2025.
00:58:07.000And I think 25 years from now, we'll see so many millions of people that their entire course of their life was changed by that.
00:58:21.000And again, like I was saying earlier before we had everybody call in, I think we have not even remotely seen the surface of Charlie's legacy and the future leaders that will emerge.
00:58:37.000through this, the young people that will never forget, just like when I was a young person and September 11th happened and we never forget.
00:58:49.000I think you're seeing a very similar thing happening here.
00:59:22.000Honestly, I think if you ask people events where they remember exactly where they were and if they remember everything about that day, for a lot of people, it might be 9 11 and then a year ago.
00:59:35.000You know, so thankful that the, you know, would be assassin in Butler was not successful.
00:59:44.000But yeah, you know, Riley mentioned that moment, but I'll never forget.
00:59:50.000I'll never forget where I was and not believing it, not wanting to believe it.
00:59:55.000And, um, You know, you see all this stuff, and we do all these things.
01:00:00.000And I think so many people forget that we're all real people and that we have real lives, and that Charlie was our friend, and Charlie meant so much to all of us.
01:00:09.000And yeah, it truly is the thing that keeps me going in the bad times when I just want to be mad and just throw it all away and be done with it.
01:00:20.000I hear these young people, these 16 year olds that write in and kind of give us a reality check that they're not going to forget.
01:00:30.000And they, even though we're getting a little older and we're getting a little tired and we're getting a little weary here, there's a whole new generation of no one will ever be Charlie, but there's a whole new generation of leaders.
01:00:44.000Even if we're getting tired, you know, Charlie would not be that sympathetic.
01:00:47.000And now he'll never be sympathetic because.
01:01:12.000He inspired me to start my own podcast, and he inspired me to get into politics.
01:01:16.000Charlie may be gone, but his legacy lives on.
01:01:18.000Luke 2 29, 32, which is, let's get it here.
01:01:24.000It is, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.
01:01:35.000A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel.
01:01:57.000And, you know, Charlie was that person that he just, the way he lived his life, the discipline that he had, It was, I think we talked about this earlier on the show.
01:02:09.000From the outside looking in, Charlie wasn't the normal person.
01:02:13.000Charlie's daily habits, how he lived his life.
01:02:16.000I think all of us remember how we first met Charlie because you remember the part where you go, Who is this guy?
01:04:20.000Charlie would push back on that, but what a beautiful.
01:04:24.000Email and a beautiful testament to again Charlie being the light of Christ, you know, the light of Christ dwelling within us.
01:04:32.000You know, why I think so many people, especially believers, felt so deeply this day a year ago, and even to this day, the tears have been renewed today.
01:04:43.000But with so many people, is because as believers, we truly believe that when we accept the Lord into our heart, that the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us.
01:04:56.000We saw someone that has the same Holy Spirit that we have within us.
01:05:02.000We saw that happen in real time in front of us.
01:06:34.000We're just a few minutes out from, moments away, I should say, from Freedom Built to Last, commemorating Charlie at UVU one year after the tragedy there.
01:07:54.000And again, it's just a testament to Charlie's legacy.
01:07:58.000Yeah, we've got Jackie says, I just want to thank Charlie Kirk for modeling and witnessing for me real courage to go into the lion's den and loving the people there and ultimately giving your life.
01:08:35.000And when he was in Korea and Japan, they all admired and looked up to him.
01:08:40.000And he had such a global impact, which is so amazing because he was so focused on America for the most part.
01:08:48.000But it's that element of the gospel that truly was a global message.
01:08:53.000The first time I met Charlie, he gathered all of us around, and this was when Charlie was more, he was always focused on building Turning Point, but it was safe to say that all of us were, quote unquote, bigger than he was on the internet at the time.
01:09:08.000And he, I'll never forget the first thing he said to us collectively is, you know, each and every one of you have the voices that can affect a generation.
01:09:18.000It's like one of the first things that Charlie said.
01:10:16.000A year ago, our lives changed forever.
01:10:20.000There are moments in life that divide everything into a before and an after, before that day and after that day.
01:10:28.000And for so many of us in this room, especially of those in the Utah Valley University Turning Point chapter, there will always be a before and an after.
01:10:38.000We witnessed something that none of us should have ever had to witness.
01:10:42.000We experienced fear, grief, confusion, and heartbreak in a way that changed us forever.
01:10:48.000And honestly, we had every reason to give up.
01:11:02.000Because Charlie Kirk taught people that convictions are not meant to be cast aside when things get difficult.
01:11:08.000God does not give us convictions so we can hide from them when we are afraid.
01:11:12.000He gives us convictions so that we can stand firm in truth.
01:11:15.000Even when the world asks us to compromise.
01:11:23.000My own journey to Turning Point was probably not what most people would expect.
01:11:27.000I did not grow up in a home where we all agreed on politics, and I once held political beliefs that went very much against what I advocate for today.
01:11:35.000But I joined Turning Point USA alongside thousands of students because Charlie Kirk was one of the first people we saw who was willing to stand up for free speech and for people on every side to have a voice.
01:11:59.000He believed that ideas should be challenged, that conversations needed to be had, and that people were capable of changing their minds.
01:12:07.000And somewhere along the way, Charlie's mission awakened something in the next generation.
01:12:12.000Every one of us had been changed and inspired.
01:12:16.000In our chapter, A small group of students were brought to a realization that had never been clearer.
01:12:22.000Charlie Kirk may have been one man, but what he built will never end with just one man.
01:12:36.000He may never pick up the microphone again, but the millions of voices he inspired will never put theirs down.
01:12:43.000His voice may have been silent, but the ideas he planted in so many hearts cannot be.
01:12:49.000And that is what I have watched happen over this last year.
01:12:53.000The last time I spoke to Erica Kirk, Turning Point's incredible CEO who has courageously stepped up, she told our chapter that Charlie knew UV was special. that he chose our campus for a reason and that there was a purpose in all of this.
01:13:16.000Took us quite a while to wrap our heads around that, but when I look out into this crowd, it's easy to see that she was absolutely right.
01:13:24.000Our chapter has grieved, we have struggled, and we have carried things that few people outside of our own experience will ever completely understand, but through all of the hardship, we are still here.
01:13:36.000Every single day, our members walk around knowing that those who stand for their beliefs can paint a target on their back, and yet they continue to show up.
01:13:47.000They come to the meetings, they attend the events, and they put their beliefs into action.
01:13:54.000The same students who witnessed a political assassination are willing to stand up, speak out, and keep moving forward, all because of the impact one man, Charlie Kirk, had on their lives.
01:14:18.000Or we can let it strengthen us through courage.
01:14:21.000The Turning Point chapter at UVU has made our decision, and we chose courage.
01:14:31.000It would have been far easier to walk away, but throughout history, those who have changed the world have rarely done so by choosing the easy path over the perilous one.
01:14:40.000Christ himself is an excellent example.
01:14:42.000He was rejected, he was mocked, and he was driven from city to city, yet still he continued.
01:14:49.000Not because the road became easier, but because truth was worth defending.
01:14:54.000There is something we can all learn from that.
01:14:57.000Standing for what you believe in will not always be comfortable.
01:14:59.000It will not always be safe, and it will rarely make you popular.
01:15:02.000But we cannot let fear convince us that our voices do not matter because they so deeply do.
01:15:10.000The students in our chapter, like many others, are no stranger to hatred, to the threats online, the constant photos taken, the mockery made, and the vitriol thrown in their faces.
01:15:49.000Across the country, hundreds of thousands of college and high school students are stepping forward.
01:15:54.000Carrying this movement into communities and campuses nationwide.
01:15:58.000And that is the greatest impact that Charlie Kirk left on these young students.
01:16:07.000Although not everyone agreed with him or held the same beliefs as him, he inspired so many people to care, to learn, to speak, to stand for something, and to never be afraid to let their convictions show.
01:16:19.000Charlie sparked something, and over this last year, I have watched it grow within our chapter.
01:16:26.000Not through hatred, but through conviction, through courage, through young people who have decided that their beliefs are worth standing for.
01:16:35.000So today, one year later, at Utah Valley University, we remember Charlie Kirk.
01:16:40.000We mourn Charlie Kirk, and we honor Charlie Kirk.
01:16:44.000And perhaps the greatest way to honor him is not to simply remember what he did, but continue what he started.
01:16:51.000So no, we did not pack up and run when things got hard.
01:17:43.000To end my time with you all today, I want to take a moment to showcase an incredible piece of art.
01:17:48.000Charlie Kirk spent much of his life on college campuses exercising his First Amendment rights and encouraging all students to do the same.
01:17:55.000No matter their opinion, no matter their viewpoint, Charlie gave them the opportunity to have a voice.
01:18:03.000This piece immortalizes Charlie's mission to step forward and to pick up the mic, not just for this generation, but for generations to come.
01:18:35.000Ladies and gentlemen, the greater the man, the greater the grief when he's taken from us.
01:18:47.000And Charlie Kirk was the greatest man I ever knew personally in all of my 64 years.
01:19:03.000Well, one reason he was so great is because he majored in the most important issues in life.
01:19:11.000Case in point, two days before he was murdered, Charlie and I were together in Phoenix.
01:19:20.000And after we would get together during the day to discuss questions we might get on a college campus, sometimes Charlie would say, Hey, after Eric and I put the kids down, why don't we go on a walk and we can talk some more?
01:19:34.000So that night, Monday night, we went on a walk in Scottsdale.
01:19:38.000We always had a 300-pound armed bodyguard behind us.
01:19:44.000And Charlie would drive the conversation.
01:19:47.000I'd say, Charlie, let's talk about whatever you want to talk about.
01:19:50.000Now, keep in mind, he wanted me to mentor him, but I learned a lot more from him than he learned from me.
01:19:59.000The only thing that exceeded Charlie's intellect was his humility.
01:20:08.000The first thing he wanted to talk about was the country and how he needed to get Christians to be more engaged to protect our rights to preach and live the gospel.
01:20:28.000I hear people saying all the time, oh, I don't get involved politically, I just preach the gospel.
01:20:32.000To which I say, I guess you don't think the gospel is very important then.
01:20:37.000Because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel.
01:20:41.000We couldn't hold this rally in Iran, we couldn't hold it in Saudi Arabia.
01:20:48.000I just got back not long ago from Egypt.
01:20:50.000You tried to do this in Egypt, you're going to have trouble because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel.
01:20:57.000But Charlie would always say, Charlie would always say, Politics is not our first responsibility, but it helps us achieve our first responsibility.
01:21:13.000The second issue he wanted to talk about was the family.
01:21:18.000Why was his generation not embracing marriage and childbearing?
01:21:24.000And he really wanted to find a way to do that because the family is the foundation of any civilization.
01:21:30.000The biological two parent family is what makes a civilization.
01:21:35.000And he wanted his generation to embrace that.
01:22:37.000I think there's two major reasons he was.
01:22:39.000Number one, he knew Christianity was true.
01:22:43.000And number two, he knew who God was.0.96
01:22:46.000How did he know Christianity was true?0.73
01:22:50.000Well, for me to communicate that, I've got to ask you guys a question, and there's probably very few people in this room that can answer it, but I'm going to ask it anyway.0.82
01:22:57.000If you can remember where you were and what you were doing November 22nd, 1963, raise your hand, hold it up high.
01:23:06.000All right, ladies and gentlemen, you see these people with their hands up?
01:26:44.000It'll take you at least two tanks of gas and a Toyota Prius to go 30 trillion miles.
01:26:51.000In fact, to go 30 trillion miles, if you could go space shuttle speed, five miles per second, it would take you over 200,000 years to go from just one star at our galaxy to another star at our galaxy, an average distance away.
01:28:59.000He allows the creatures that rebelled against him to torture and kill him so he could take their punishment upon himself, our punishment upon himself.
01:29:10.000And then when we trust in him, we're not only forgiven, we're given his righteousness.
01:29:16.000Translation, ladies and gentlemen, Charlie is not in heaven because of any good things he did.
01:29:24.000Charlie is not in heaven because he died for his Savior.
01:29:29.000Charlie is in heaven because his Savior died for Charlie Kirk.
01:29:44.000You say, what kind of God would allow an innocent man like Charlie to be murdered by someone he wanted to save?
01:29:55.000The same God who would allow himself to be murdered by the very people he wanted to save.
01:31:18.000Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us Charlie Kirk, a man who in 31 years did more for you, his family, his country than a million people do in 80 years.
01:31:34.000We pray that you now comfort Erica, her children, her team, and Charlie's parents and his sister.
01:31:43.000As they continue Charlie's legacy, may your Holy Spirit help the rest of us to emulate Charlie as Charlie emulated Christ.
01:31:53.000Most of all, we thank you for entering this evil world to save us from our own sins and to offer us forgiveness and eternal life with you and those like Charlie who have received your grace.
01:32:06.000I pray if there's anyone here who has not received your grace, the grace that Charlie was speaking about right here one year ago, that tonight they would.
01:32:17.000We ask all these things through Jesus who sacrificed himself for us.
01:32:47.000So, the idea for Turning Point USA first started locally in Chicago.
01:32:55.000What Turning Point USA is, is we're taking action, and that's the youth standing up because it's our future that's being mortgaged by Washington in every regard.
01:33:01.000I was 18, no idea what I was doing, no connections, no money.
01:33:06.000We didn't have an office, we didn't have a staff.
01:33:07.000It was just me just traveling the country doing this pure grit, pure energy.
01:33:11.000I actually thought this was possible, which was kind of crazy if you think about it.
01:33:15.000I was driven by core ideas and core principles that we should be.
01:33:18.000Thankful, not angry to live in this country.
01:34:44.000We're going to keep fighting socialism where it matters most.
01:34:47.000We're going to hire more staff, win more student body presidency races, host bigger events, convert more young minds to love, freedom, and liberty, and we are going to fight the left at every single turn.
01:34:57.000We are on the front lines of this culture war.
01:34:59.000To fight for freedom and liberty and save the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world.
01:35:05.000It was almost like the first realization that all of those hours he put in, all of the thankless efforts, all of the attacks, all the criticism, starting to pay off in this like really big, unexpected way.
01:35:18.000Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States.
01:35:24.000Everything was just coming through me from not just how hard the president worked, but how hard we worked.
01:35:28.000I mean, we traveled the country nonstop, didn't see my family.
01:36:33.000Thanks for joining the Charlie Cook Show.
01:36:35.000What matters is your relationship with the divine, your relationship with your family, your kids, and maybe a close collection of friends, and your relationship with the truth.
01:36:44.000I want to honor God and all that I do.
01:36:46.000I want to be a great husband, a great father.
01:37:15.000He taught you so much on what it means to be a man, what it means to be a husband, what it means to be a father, what it means to be a good citizen in America, what it means to die to yourself daily and to be something bigger than yourself.
01:37:26.000Taking the deep but sometimes the difficult road. Is the way that you should configure your life.
01:37:33.000Getting married and having children is a difficult but deep decision that I hope every single one of you make at some point in your life.
01:37:41.000Because for every single one of you, there are a couple thousand students that wish they could speak out like you do.
01:38:36.000of people that shower before work and shower after work, the people that get their hands dirty, the people that protect our streets, the people that built this country.
01:38:48.000You know you are part of something bigger than yourself.
01:38:51.000This movement is about the citizens versus the oligarchs.
01:38:58.000This movement is about we the people versus the ruling class.
01:39:02.000This movement is about America versus the globalists.
01:39:07.000This movement is about all of us against them.
01:39:16.000The mission didn't end with Charlie's life.
01:39:21.000It's being lived out through each and every one of you in your own way.
01:39:24.000And it's about remembering that freedom requires responsibility and truth requires courage.
01:39:33.000Comfort and Christianity sometimes come to a head.
01:39:38.000In fact, we are called to get uncomfortable as believers and Christians.
01:39:45.000Jeremiah 29, 7, demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare.
01:39:51.000And if we're serious about saving this country, we need to get back to the source of where that inheritance came from, the Word of God and our true citizenship, which is in heaven.
01:40:03.000Every single one of you need to say, God, I am willing.
01:40:42.000A man who woke up and said, Lord, use me.
01:40:45.000I got to see how somebody who is maybe equipped. But has no true power, become one of the most influential people, not just in our country, on our planet.
01:46:06.000Those are the marks of a man we all loved.
01:46:12.000Even when the world got loud around him, campaigns, presidential transitions, cameras, he kept his eye on the little guy, the intern, the chapter leader, the student who drove three hours and stood in the back.
01:46:28.000That is who he was when nobody was filming.
01:46:43.000On that last day, he started the day in prayer as we flew up from Arizona.
01:46:50.000He studied the Word of God with Frank Turek for 30 plus minutes on that flight and asked me everything, everything he could do to best know the culture of Utah and what mattered most to the students here and how he could best support them.
01:47:09.000He loved nothing more, nothing more than being on the ground interacting with the students directly.
01:47:16.000He knew God had given him a responsibility to shepherd the young, and he did not take that lightly.
01:47:25.000A common denominator between the first time I saw Charlie in 2016 at my new hire training in the basement of Chicago O'Hare and that morning of September 10th, 2025, was of him.
01:47:40.000Feasting on the Word of God, spiritually preparing himself for the day.
01:47:46.000Before the crowd fully understood what they were watching, he already knew his calling.
01:47:58.000His goal was never simply to win elections, or only to empower the young, or only to stand for truth in an argument.
01:49:01.000That was the assignment, the assignment you walked into that courtyard with to show the Utah Valley University campus kindness, to talk with students who hate you, to share the truth, and to not become cruel doing it.
01:54:02.000Every single one of you that have decided to be a Turning Point USA chapter leader, you have made an intentional decision that you want to live a deep life over an easy life.
01:54:14.000You are fighting for something and for ideas, and you are doing something that is bigger than you.
01:54:23.000One of the reasons why I'm so inspired by you, you are telling your peers that I am taking the more difficult road because America is worth saving more than my popularity on.
01:54:36.000You play a bigger role than you even realize because for every single one of you, there are a couple thousand students that wish they could speak out like you do.
01:54:45.000The deep, the difficult, but the right path is one that will reward you, your family, and this beautiful nation.
01:54:54.000Our movement is ascendant, it is growing.
01:54:58.000We could take back this country, but it starts with every single one of you.
01:55:17.000If you had the fortune to work with anyone that has a large following or a disproportionate influence over society, you quickly realize the majority of those individuals lose touch with society.
01:55:33.000They lose touch with those that built them, those that made them who they are.
01:55:41.000That was one thing that always set Charlie apart he had a vision back in 2012 saying, We can win the youth vote.
01:55:49.000I believe a majority, he believed a majority of young men and young women would once again one day proclaim from the housetops that Christ lives.
01:56:01.000Not that he just lives, but he works in their life and that this country will be saved because of the young at work.
01:56:09.000He believed in that when no one else believes.
01:57:02.000And by being on campus, that was his greatest ability to be among you and to know how to best serve you.
01:57:10.000But what made serving students so rewarding is that they loved what he represented to them.
01:57:22.000And when we saw the lives of these young people starting to change, and these campuses started to grow, and our followings started to grow, and we started to take over these camps, and we showed up at UVU, and there's 3,000 to 5,000 students, nearly 10% of the entire student population, there to listen to a man debate about truth and what mattered most.
01:57:47.000We knew we were onto something special.
01:57:50.000But the most special part was seeing that these students, even when Charlie wasn't there, they carried on the mission.
01:57:56.000You got to hear from Sage, who is just one brave soul of many tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of students that do this daily.
01:58:08.000And what we saw after Charlie's assassination was hundreds of thousands of students say, You will not kill the man without me going next.
01:58:25.000And today we're here to recognize 15. Brave, incredible student leaders of ours who were there last September witnessed that tragedy and did not give up.
01:58:43.000They stood up, they're here, they're still leading their group.
01:59:15.000On behalf of Turning Point USA and in coordination with the state of Utah, we're here to award each of these student leaders recognition for their courage and bravery to stand up in the face of evil and opposition, to not let Charlie's legacy die.
02:00:30.000If you'll join us for a moment of silence to remember Charlie and the impact he had on all of our lives and why we're here tonight.
02:01:25.000Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage former UVU chapter president and current Utah field representative for TPUSA, Caleb Chilcutt.
02:01:47.000One year ago, Charlie Kirk joined us at Utah Valley University and did what he had done hundreds of times before.
02:02:27.000Hundreds of thousands joined this movement, not because they were ready, but because there was work to be done and a mission worth carrying forward.
02:02:45.000Charlie had a way of making people believe that they were capable of more, and this room and all of us here today is proof of that.
02:02:55.000In the days that followed, and as the chapter president at UVU at the time, I watched this community do something that no one could have ever expected.
02:03:07.000We did not let the worst act I have ever seen become an excuse to treat our neighbors, the ones who disagreed with Charlie, and the ones who disagreed with us.
02:03:18.000As enemies to be dehumanized in return.
02:03:21.000That restraint was the hardest kind of courage there is.
02:03:33.000The choice to stay human when you have every reason not to.
02:03:39.000That rhetoric that treats political opponents as less than human, as threats to be eliminated rather than people to be persuaded, is not a harmless exaggeration.
02:03:51.000Charlie Kirk stood for the simplest of things, giving people respect.
02:03:56.000Every debate, every interview, every interaction.
02:04:01.000A year of watching this community has not moved me from this belief.
02:04:05.000If we leave this event having only mourned and not having recommitted to arguing our case without dehumanizing the people on the other side of it, we will have missed the point of standing here at all.
02:04:26.000So here's the charge, not just to the Turning Point members, but to everyone in this building.
02:04:33.000Fight for what you believe to be true.
02:04:36.000But at the same time, show the same respect that Charlie fought for.
02:04:41.000He showed up to engage in conversations, not to hide from the tough arguments.
02:04:46.000That is worth more from us today than any tribute that I could put into words.
02:04:51.000I was not raised to take this right for granted, because as you could probably tell, Based off my accent, I did not grow up here.
02:04:59.000I spent 17 years of my life living in Australia, a country where the government can and has sent police to homes of citizens if you say the wrong thing on Facebook.
02:05:17.000I know what it feels like to watch my words before they leave my mouth.
02:05:21.000The fundamental freedoms we cherish every single day simply does not exist where I grew up.
02:05:27.000When I moved to this incredible nation, I understood for the first time what it actually means to say something true and know your government cannot silence you for it.
02:05:48.000That is why Charlie loved this country the way that he did and why I love it too.
02:05:53.000Not blindly, this nation is not perfect and we have never claimed it to be perfect.
02:05:59.000He loved this country because it gave him the right and ability that no other nation on earth would have given him.
02:06:06.000The freedom to say true things loudly, to be challenged loudly, and to keep showing up.
02:06:19.000I have lived on the other side of that comparison.
02:06:21.000I do not take it for granted, and neither should any of us in this room.
02:06:26.000A year from the worst day this campus has ever seen, the fact that we are still standing here, still organizing, still recruiting, still willing to have that hard conversation in the open instead of behind a screen, that is what will save this nation.
02:06:48.000Charlie meant more to this chapter, to this university, and to this community than I think even we understood when he was here.
02:06:57.000He cared about the students in this chapter, the students who came to support the event, and even the students who showed up to argue and debate with him.
02:07:06.000Charlie cared for this community, and this community cared for him right back and continues to care for him.
02:07:12.000This proof is just how excited he was when he showed up to campus a year ago, and every single one of you who are here today.
02:07:21.000So, I would like to thank everyone for coming here tonight and honoring Charlie Kirk.
02:07:34.000As I end my time and as we come together, there's someone here who could not be with us tonight.
02:07:39.000Although I believe he would have loved to be here to show a support and respect for Charlie.
02:09:12.000I've come to the realization that there's truly no right words on this side of eternity that can relay all that I feel in my heart tonight.
02:09:22.000I'm also painfully aware that none of the words that we speak on this stage tonight can fill the seat that for the last year Charlie has left empty at home for his beloved family, nor fill the wound that a grieving country and world full of people who loved him feel.
02:09:43.000But on the one year anniversary of the day that Charlie went home to be with Jesus, I'm reminded that Charlie always found a way to communicate.
02:09:52.000He constantly strove to find the right words, and he took every opportunity to point people toward Christ.
02:10:00.000So tonight, in honor of his example and in honor of his incredible life, I'm going to try.
02:10:10.000On the one year anniversary, Sorry, guys.
02:10:17.000You know, when I was asked to share tonight, my first thought was, How has it been a year?
02:10:24.000And as I processed that, came flooding in all the memories.
02:10:29.000I remember getting ready that morning and Charlie getting ready that morning.
02:10:38.000The anticipation we all felt for the kickoff of the biggest campus tour yet.
02:10:43.000His pure joy when he saw the enormous crowd here at UVU.
02:10:47.000And then the whiplash, going from such shared joy and excitement to the most unfathomable heartbreak imaginable.
02:10:56.000As I thought about that day, God brought countless other moments to mind as I watched Charlie operate with strength that seemed only supernatural.
02:11:06.000Running on no sleep, accomplishing the seemingly impossible, pushing beyond his own discomfort in pursuit of serving his country and fellow man.
02:11:16.000Loving and living with this inexhaustible desire to see, especially the young people of this country, find hope and succeed.
02:11:25.000I had witnessed firsthand those countless hours, days, and years we spent together the answer to the question where did Charlie's strength come from?
02:11:37.000Charlie's strength was in and from Christ.
02:12:25.000Every generation has to reach out and take hold of it for themselves or it slips away.
02:12:31.000Charlie understood this in his very being.
02:12:35.000He didn't wait for somebody to hand him a podium.
02:12:37.000He set up a folding table, picked up a microphone, went campus to campus, and was willing to go toe to toe with the biggest and the worst ideas of our age.
02:12:47.000He would boldly say what he believed to be true and then invited those who would disagree with him to the front.
02:12:55.000It was the miracle of this country on display in its purest form.
02:12:59.000We don't have to fear an argument here.
02:13:01.000We don't have to silence the other side and call it virtue.
02:13:05.000We put the microphone in the open air, let the argument be made, and trust that free people engaging honestly can find their way toward truth.
02:13:15.000Charlie spent his life betting on that trust.
02:13:55.000I remember sitting there when they also told him, we strongly advise that you don't go.
02:14:00.000Just wait a while, we'll make some phone calls.
02:14:03.000Charlie waited for a couple minutes, and then he stood up and said, I'm going, and walked straight toward that tent that we all know so well.
02:14:13.000Because Charlie believed that we must never operate in fear.
02:14:18.000Evil will always try to scare you, but doing good requires sacrifices.
02:14:24.000Sometimes that sacrifice is your time, sometimes it's your comfort, sometimes it means walking onto a campus when you're afraid of what might happen.
02:14:35.000And that day, something did happen that I'll never forget.
02:14:40.000Charlie debated a student who made it clear at the beginning that he had disagreed with him politically.
02:14:45.000After about 10 minutes of back and forth and Charlie's always brilliant and articulate responses, Charlie asked him, So did I change your mind?
02:14:54.000And in a very viral moment that I'm sure many of you have seen, the student leaned into the microphone and said, Can I get one of those hats?
02:15:16.000And I'll never forget talking with Charlie about it afterwards.
02:15:19.000Because Charlie chose courage over fear, we know for a fact that one person walked away seeing the world just a little differently that day.
02:15:28.000How many others in the audience did too?
02:15:31.000John 15, 13 tells us greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for another.
02:15:38.000Charlie lived his life radically in the service of young people, believing in a future that had greater hope for them.
02:17:02.000In the last year, I've heard story after story of people walking into churches, returning to their faith, restoring marriages on the brink of collapse, leaving addictions behind, turning to Jesus.
02:17:14.000What would be an abortion becomes a baby named Charlie.
02:17:19.000Only God can take the most gruesome, unimaginable pain and somehow use it for his good and for his glory.
02:17:37.000The pain of today still remains, at times unbearable apart from Christ.
02:17:44.000I continue to carry such a burden along with the thousands of people who experienced the horror of that day in person, many of which are in this room.
02:17:53.000And for those of you who saw it unfold from afar, please know that I am praying for you for God's comfort as we ask Him that same comfort ourselves.
02:18:08.000Took Charlie from his beloved family, from his wife, from his precious children, from a movement of young people who looked to him, and from the public square that he loved so much.
02:18:23.000An assassin's bullet cannot win an argument, it can only prove that the assassin never had one.
02:18:31.000Violence is the tool of those who have run out of ideas.
02:18:49.000Violence is the tool of those who have run out of ideas.
02:18:53.000And it is the great, quiet strength of this country that we strive to fight back with better ideas.
02:19:01.000Anyone who believed ending Charlie's life would end what he stood for misunderstands how ideas live.
02:19:07.000They live in the people who heard them, they live in you.
02:19:17.000Charlie put something holy, good, and beautiful into this world that evil cannot take back out of it.
02:19:24.000And for the students here today, you are the point of this speech, so let me speak directly to you.
02:19:31.000Somewhere here tonight is a young person wondering whether your voice can really make the difference, whether you should take the risk, whether you should stand up, whether you should set up a folding table, pick up a microphone, and invite the world to agree or disagree.
02:19:50.000We must refuse to allow the horrific way that Charlie died to choke out everything that he fought for.
02:19:56.000accomplished and so courageously lived for.
02:20:00.000He believed against the cynicism of this age that young people still had something to say, that they were worth listening to and investing in.
02:20:08.000So let us honor him not merely in grief, but in resolve.
02:20:13.000Whatever quarrels divided us, let us settle them in a way that a free people should, with words, with votes, with courage, with prayer, and with a willingness to stand publicly for what we believe to be true.
02:23:43.000The reason it feels that way, the reason time seems to pass paradoxically, is that what we're perceiving is not so much the passage of time as the fact that something has changed.
02:23:56.000That's what happens when someone who matters to us dies.
02:24:01.000Because the change is shocking, in this case, unexpected, it sticks with us and it feels recent.
02:24:10.000But because the change is drastic, the way things were before feels like a distant memory.
02:24:18.000For many of us here, Charlie was a personal friend.
02:24:58.000In terms of politics, Charlie's assassination changed the landscape.
02:25:05.000There is a temptation at memorials to look only on the bright side.
02:25:09.000And there are silver linings to every storm cloud, which we will come to.
02:25:14.000But it would be a disservice, it would be dishonest not to reckon with the consequences of Charlie's assassination, not to reckon with reality.
02:25:24.000And the reality is that American politics is simply worse because Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
02:25:32.000The American right is less coherent, less unified, less serious, and less strong.
02:25:39.000The American left is more radical, more emboldened, more openly violent.
02:25:45.000The tone of political discourse is coarser.
02:25:49.000The marketplace of ideas is more dangerous.
02:25:53.000The future of our country is in greater peril.
02:25:57.000Public opinion polls in the days following Charlie's assassination showed that one in four very liberal respondents believe violence is justified to accomplish political goals.
02:26:10.000Among all liberals under the age of 45, the percentage was even higher.
02:26:16.000Both of those figures were and remain much higher, multiples higher, than the percentage of respondents on the right who would say the same thing.
02:26:26.000Yet another poll showed that nearly half of Gen Z liberals believe that violence is, quote, necessary to create social change.
02:26:36.000In the immediate aftermath of Charlie's assassination, the New York Times twice approvingly platformed a man who had personally fantasized about murdering Charlie.
02:26:46.000And who has since called for the murder of other Republicans simply for their political beliefs?
02:26:57.000The Times went on to platform that person again, multiple times in the months that followed.
02:27:03.000Many of the most prominent Democrat politicians in the country have since asked that person to join them on the campaign trail.
02:27:10.000This very morning, on the anniversary of Charlie's murder, I did an interview with a left wing news outlet during which the host took the opportunity to accuse Charlie himself of instigating political violence.
02:27:33.000Charlie consistently condemned political violence.
02:27:37.000He called for civil dialogue and peaceful politics.
02:27:41.000But the host of this program tried to argue that Charlie had indirectly promoted violence because he cited statistics and criticized Democrat policies.
02:27:56.000If you want to listen to it, it's on NPR.
02:27:58.000I wasn't going to say the name, but it's NPR.
02:28:12.000That preposterous false equivalence is but a variation on a theme that we have heard for years that conservative speech is somehow violence and that leftist violence is somehow speech.
02:28:25.000Charlie's political opponents sought to silence him because he articulated inconvenient truths, politically incorrect truths.
02:28:35.000At a time when our culture demanded lies in the name of liberation, Charlie observed that lies don't really set us free.
02:28:54.000I bring up these facts and examples not to cause further political strife, but to acknowledge the truth, to acknowledge reality, the reality of our political situation, and the reality of our place in it.
02:29:09.000Because one year later, the reality, if you're anything like me, is that you're angry.
02:30:11.000Anger is a vice when it is divorced from reason, when it is not warranted, when it leads to injustice.
02:30:19.000But anger in response to injustice, anger aimed at the restoration of justice, in proper order and intensity guided by reason, is the furthest thing from a vice.
02:30:32.000Christians have known this since the days of the church fathers that a lack of anger in the face of injustice is itself a vice.
02:30:50.000That anger should impel us to rectify those wrongs, to prosecute those who commit and threaten political violence, and to ostracize those who promote it.
02:31:01.000Those are political goods that can come from our anger.
02:31:06.000But how are we supposed to deal with that lingering feeling?
02:31:10.000That feeling that we feel, especially on a day like this.
02:31:15.000It just feels so wrong that a man as good and innocent as Charlie. could be murdered in his prime by a man as wicked as his killer to the cheers of people as vicious as his enemies.
02:31:30.000And there are many people, people who perhaps are not as strong in their faith as Charlie was, who are asking why God would allow this to happen.
02:31:41.000When I was a boy and a family member died, I met with a priest.
02:32:02.000And then he pointed to a crucifix on the wall and he said, Whatever anger you're feeling, don't blame him.
02:32:12.000Among the greatest consolations that Christians have in times of sorrow is our belief in providence, the idea that God has ordered his creation down to the minutest detail toward perfection.
02:32:26.000That not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father's will.
02:32:30.000That the hairs on our head are all numbered, and that we are more valuable than many sparrows.
02:32:36.000God actively wills the good of all, but he has endowed us with free will, which we abuse.
02:32:42.000So bad things happen, which God, in his permissive will, allows, and from which he even redeems us through the crucifixion and resurrection of his only begotten Son.
02:33:51.000Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
02:33:59.000We take it as a matter of faith that there is some purpose to the events of the world, that God takes even our evil actions and subverts them.
02:34:09.000In the grand scheme of creation for perfection.
02:34:13.000St. Thomas Aquinas observes in the first lines of the Summa Theologiae that just as an author uses words to signify things in writing, so God, who is the author of all creation, uses not only words, but things themselves, events, people, to signify things too.
02:34:34.000We can't avoid suffering in this world, but we take it as a matter of faith that our suffering is not pointless.
02:34:41.000We take it as a matter of faith that things ultimately make sense, that history is intelligible.
02:34:48.000We take solace in the belief that the world is understandable, even if we don't always understand it.
02:34:56.000One of those little winks of providence stood out to me just this week in the lead-up to this anniversary.
02:35:04.000Charlie was best known as a political figure, but all of his friends will tell you, some of them have told you tonight, that what mattered most to Charlie was religion.
02:37:44.000But as I was trying to make sense of it all, because the anniversary hit a lot of us harder than I think we expected that it would.
02:37:51.000When I was trying to make sense of it all and understand what the assassination means in history, in God's time, It occurred to me that Charlie's last name literally means church.
02:38:42.000No, there's an old Latin expression, nomen est omen.
02:38:47.000It's a simple one, but for those of you who didn't study Latin, it means the name is a sign.
02:38:53.000And these little coincidences, these little winks of providence, they are a consolation as we grieve, as we wonder at disturbing events.
02:39:02.000They are a reminder of God's sovereignty.
02:39:05.000That God authors history and God knows his own, so even death loses its sting and the grave loses its victory.
02:39:22.000In addition to his legacy of faith, Charlie leaves a more tangible temporal legacy as well, most closely in the form of his heroic wife and his beloved children.
02:39:37.000In the form of his countless friends, in the form of his organization, TPUSA, which carries on his work and mission, and not least of all, in all of you whom Charlie inspired and for whose benefit he risked his life.
02:39:53.000He's sorely missed, and we owe it to him to carry on his work in the particular ways that God ordains for us, as Charlie did, and as each and every one of you here tonight is already doing.
02:41:41.000And as we were praying earlier today, somebody was praying, and I'm listening to them, and they're praying for safety, and they're praying for the Spirit to attend.
02:41:52.000And all I could hear in my head was, Let's go celebrate this man's life.
02:42:13.000Because in the last year, a year ago, we were all in the same place.
02:42:20.000How many of us said, I am Charlie Kirk?
02:42:29.000Some of us said it in a stadium filled with 50,000 people.
02:42:33.000Some of us said it alone in a car with the radio on.
02:42:39.000With tears in our eyes, we had to pull the car over and say, I am Charlie Kirk.
02:42:46.000And that didn't mean that we were going to start a podcast or a movement.
02:42:49.000It didn't mean that we were going to change the face of America or politics or the world.
02:42:54.000What it meant was that you would dedicate your life to learning and living and loving and speaking the truth when and where it needs to be spoken.
02:48:45.000There's more bloodlust for ideological enemies than there was a year ago.
02:48:50.000There's more open acceptance of death as a reasonable end for a political enemy, or somebody you disagree with, or a CEO of a healthcare company, or innocent children at the hands of their own mother.
02:49:21.000And I do not speak about this often, but suddenly people that many of us thought were friends, people we shared the stage with, people we defended, people we sat next to at dinner, arrived at a completely different conclusion.
02:50:55.000A young Christian is killed on an American campus for speaking with college students, for daring them to think, and within months, the loudest voices that are claiming to be on his side are talking about nothing else except how bad Jews are.0.95
02:51:34.000It's actually the oldest trick on earth.
02:51:37.000Because the enemy that we all face, each and every one of us, the enemy of your soul, has never been after a party or a politician or a position in government or a country.
02:53:52.000When our God showed up, he spoke to an old childless man in the desert, and he gave him a name and one that will be known for generations, Abraham.
02:54:04.000He lets another man wrestle with him all night long, then blesses him and gives him a name, Jacob.
02:54:11.000He takes murderers and liars and criminals and cowards and tax collectors and calls them each by name into his glory, into his love.
02:54:23.000And then, when he finally settled the whole account, because some of us really screw up our lives, he didn't send his son to die for the collective.0.82
02:54:34.000He didn't send his son to die for a movement.
02:54:38.000He sent his son to die for you and me, individually, one at a time.
02:55:17.000Every collectivist system ever built has got to get rid of that God.
02:55:24.000They've got to get rid of that God because he's not a rival power.
02:55:33.000They have to get rid of that God because as long as you have any part of you that believes that your God is the God of the individual, that he knows your name, That's a piece of you that the state, the power can never, ever take.
02:56:46.000When you look at Charlie and you see him like the rest of the world that just doesn't even know him, they just see him.
02:56:57.000He's known for a folding table on campus talking to one person at a time, listening to somebody who came there to humiliate him.
02:57:11.000Treating that kid like a man that he knows was made in the image of God.
02:57:18.000Wow, that sounds like what Christ did.
02:57:20.000Speaking, listening, reaching out to the one, and then the next, and then the next, knowing that he could do whatever he could do.
02:57:30.000He could love you, he could embrace you, he could speak kind words to you while speaking truth, knowing that a lot of these people are going to go away and hate him.
02:57:43.000He was doing the retail work of individual human beings one on one.
02:57:49.000And there is nothing more dangerous to any system that needs you to be a category.
02:58:11.000I was talking to him last week and I said, What do people need to hear?
02:58:17.000What do people in the hallway say about Charlie now?
02:58:20.000A year later, what are students saying?
02:58:26.000He had a lot to say, but my son told me one story about a 19 year old girl who walked past their table last week and looked at them and said, Oh, ow, ow, my throat hurts, and then made gurgling sounds.
03:00:56.000Here's why you will lose that exchange in the room.
03:01:01.000Nobody's gonna cheer for you with that answer.
03:01:05.000But you just might win in her head, in the dark, in the quiet of the night, at 2 a.m., when she sees your kindness and that response, that's when people change their lives, not in a room with everybody arguing.
03:01:57.000When a culture loses its women, that culture dies every time.0.99
03:02:05.000When women become monsters, when women become men, that culture is in trouble.0.97
03:02:26.000I want to explain something to all young women that you may not understand, and I speak from experience because I'm a guy and I know the effect of women and the effect women have had on my life.0.93
03:03:15.000I will stand up in the hallway when the standard is being measured against us and it is high.
03:03:23.000But if you don't hold that standard, guys are gonna sink to the lowest level you could possibly imagine.
03:03:40.000And maybe this is something that guys don't want to say, or maybe you don't want to hear, but we want to look up to the women in our lives.
03:04:01.000So, to the women in the room, I got to tell you, I think you've been handed the most insulting definition of strength in American history.0.96
03:04:10.000Strength as an attitude, a comeback.1.00
03:04:18.000Never letting a man see that you wanted more than he offered.0.71
03:04:23.000That's the lie that has put so many women in our culture right now in a corner with armor and swords, and they're like, the world's against me.
03:05:16.000I'm thinking of my wife right now.0.99
03:05:18.000She's unbelievably hard to impress.0.69
03:05:25.000But she is unbelievably easy to love.1.00
03:05:40.000So, women, please, do culture a society.0.63
03:05:48.000Refuse to be impressed by the lesser version of the guy you know he can be.0.78
03:05:56.000By the way, now, let me flip the table on you, brothers.
03:06:08.000Look what our society has done to our men.
03:06:12.000We have young men that cannot launch, 26 years old in the basement, 300 hours into a game, terrified of a job interview, but more terrified of asking a girl out for a date.
03:07:30.000A girl out for a date, and you show up at her house, put some frickin' pants on and a nice shirt.1.00
03:07:40.000Don't show, girls, I'm telling you right now, if a guy shows up at your door in cargo shorts, just say this I'm sorry, is that the same t shirt you were wearing earlier while you were playing your video games in your basement and then close the door?0.96
03:07:58.000I guarantee he'll go put some pants on and he won't show up like that anymore.
03:08:03.000Don't you get dressed up for him if he's not going to dress up for you.
03:08:55.000When Christ's own version was walking into the temple, walking towards the cross, and telling Peter to put the sword away, look at the pattern.
03:10:12.000And it takes both male and female to build, both to fight, both to love, both to nurture, both to protect, both to raise up the next generation who will be better than I was, better than you are.
03:13:37.000Believe me, get to it while you're young.
03:13:43.000You're also most likely told that God should be a nice private hobby, uninvolved, standing off to one side, no opinion on how you spend your Tuesdays.
03:14:33.000These lies are told you by decent, tired people who, at one point in their life, were told the same thing, believed it, and never checked, and they're now saying it to you.
03:14:45.000There is a line that I'm sure you've heard Hard times create strong men.
03:16:48.000But if it wasn't for the hard times that I created myself because I was a weak man, and then I met a great, strong woman, I wouldn't be here today.0.99
03:18:39.000And you will approach them and you will find out.0.76
03:18:43.000And when you were as weak and as low and as broken as I was, you will say, I don't care if it takes me drinking chicken blood, I want to live like that.