The Charlie Kirk Show - Overcoming Autism with Leland Vitter

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA high school chapter.

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

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

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

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

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

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord use me.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

00:00:59.000 The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.

00:01:12.000 We're about to welcome the apostate prophet, who was a former Muslim, has converted to Christianity.

00:01:20.000 We're going to talk about that.

00:01:20.000 We have some breaking news here.

00:01:22.000 A federal judge has just dismissed indictments against Letitia James and James Comey, saying Lindsey Halligan appointment was unlawful.

00:01:31.000 So a federal judge has dismissed the indictments against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

00:01:38.000 So the finding is that the cause of it is that the U.S. attorney who brought them was an interim appointment, and they've contested that that whole process is not allowed.

00:01:49.000 So the cases were dismissed without prejudice.

00:01:52.000 That does mean they didn't actually reject the substance of the indictments themselves.

00:01:58.000 And so they actually could be rebrought if they later fill that post with a different prosecutor who wishes to bring them.

00:02:05.000 But we'll probably have more chance to discuss this in the days to come.

00:02:10.000 Yeah, this was U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Curry and basically saying that Halligan's appointment was unlawful.

00:02:21.000 And they are, you know, pundits are already ruling this as a massive rebuke of President Trump's efforts to politically target political opponents, which, by the way, is, I think, really, you know, stunning given the fact that President Trump is probably the most politically targeted politician in American history, at least modern American history.

00:02:44.000 But sure, okay, these cases can be brought again should the opportunity present itself.

00:02:49.000 We'll see.

00:02:50.000 We'll see.

00:02:51.000 Yeah, you can go throw up 145.

00:02:53.000 This is from the AP just reporting this breaking news if you want.

00:02:58.000 Ridvan is going to be joining us in a second.

00:03:00.000 Blake, but there's been a lot of news on the Muslim front.

00:03:04.000 I mean, first of all, you had Governor Greg Abbott.

00:03:08.000 We covered this last week.

00:03:09.000 He basically declared CARE and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.

00:03:18.000 And then we had this big story of the Somali.

00:03:21.000 Yeah, which isn't specifically just like, it's not so much a Muslim thing.

00:03:25.000 It's a relatively insular tribal community that we've brought in from the third world and transplanted to Minneapolis thing.

00:03:35.000 Yes.

00:03:35.000 Which, as we covered last week, we covered the story that was in City Journal from Rufo and the guest we had, crap, Ryan.

00:03:44.000 Yeah, Ryan Thorpe.

00:03:45.000 Ryan Thorpe.

00:03:46.000 Ryan Thorpe.

00:03:46.000 And it covered that there's one scam after another.

00:03:50.000 It's like a feeding frenzy on the goodwill of the kind of Scandinavian ethos of Minnesota where they had an autism scam where kids were being falsely diagnosed with autism and getting a cut of dollars that were going to sort of fake autism, culturally appropriate autism treatment centers.

00:04:08.000 They were scamming the Medicaid fund where it was for, I think, to help marginal people get housing.

00:04:16.000 And it was budgeted to have maybe cost about $3 million and it ballooned to $300 million.

00:04:22.000 And of course, we had the Feeding Our Future scam a few years ago.

00:04:24.000 And so what broke last week and what makes this continue is the Trump administration, in response to this, announced they were going to revoke the temporary protected status on Somalis.

00:04:35.000 So this is this ridiculous program that we have where, not even a program, ridiculous policy we have where we'll say, oh, this country is in turmoil.

00:04:45.000 It has a temporary problem.

00:04:47.000 And so people who are here illegally can stay in America just temporarily, temporarily, until the country's emergency has passed. 1.00

00:04:54.000 It was intended for something like, oh, your country is being hit by a hurricane right now.

00:04:59.000 We will not force you to fly back into the hurricane.

00:05:01.000 But it's become just a permanent thing.

00:05:03.000 Oh, your country is not nice.

00:05:05.000 So you temporarily can stay here until your country is nice.

00:05:08.000 So there are countries, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and of course, Somali, where they just get temporary protected status for years, decades on end. 0.79

00:05:16.000 No, they're permanent.

00:05:17.000 It's permanent.

00:05:18.000 It's permanent protected status.

00:05:20.000 And so he revoked that on them.

00:05:21.000 It looks like only a few hundred people would be affected by this, but it still matters.

00:05:26.000 It matters for sending the message that you're just not permanently immune from being deported to these countries.

00:05:32.000 And we do need to really use this.

00:05:37.000 I mean, if there's an argument for the filibuster to remove it, and again, I don't think we would have the votes even if we did.

00:05:43.000 But if say you could whip the votes and you could fix immigration, that would be the holy grail of what you would do with nuking the filibuster.

00:05:54.000 Now, guaranteed, Democrats would get power again and they would just reverse course instantly because they are into unfettered mass migration from the third world. 0.99

00:06:06.000 It's part of the market.

00:06:06.000 What you're seeing that is valuable is that the right is it's gradually getting more assertive, more confident.

00:06:14.000 And one of those signs of that confidence is we're actually willing to say there are some immigrant communities who just don't seem to be adding up well for the American people. 0.99

00:06:24.000 And we don't have some moral obligation to let in an infinite number of them when they overwhelmingly go on public benefits, when they overwhelmingly are not integrating that well, and when it doesn't seem to be improving America.

00:06:38.000 And if we can't make that case for Somalis, we'll probably not be able to make it for any immigrant group anywhere on the planet, frankly. 0.99

00:06:45.000 There's another story that emerged this weekend out of South Florida.

00:06:48.000 And there's layers to this that I think we need to paint the full picture.

00:06:53.000 Let me just put it that way.

00:06:54.000 But this was an imam in Florida crying because as they were praying, somebody ate a bacon sandwich outside of the mosque.

00:07:01.000 142.

00:07:06.000 142.

00:07:07.000 the prayer ended we look up to see them taunting us in our faces with bacon.

00:07:18.000 I had to relive the whole thing again.

00:07:22.000 Now, I do just want to say taunting people while they're praying, even with bacon, is probably not the right move optically and politically.

00:07:31.000 And they are getting charged, apparently, now with hate crimes.

00:07:34.000 I don't like that.

00:07:35.000 I feel like you should be able to taunt people, frankly.

00:07:37.000 Like, a hate crime, I don't think hate crimes are a good category in general.

00:07:41.000 If it's going to exist, it should apply to things that are a crime, assault, all of that.

00:07:46.000 But I don't want us to delay on the guest anymore.

00:07:48.000 We'll go through the breaks with him.

00:07:49.000 Yeah, here we go.

00:07:50.000 We've got Ridvan Idemir, and he's also known as Apostate Prophet on both X and YouTube.

00:07:56.000 He is a great, great guy.

00:07:57.000 We've had him on the show with Charlie previously.

00:08:00.000 He was also with us at Student Action Summit in Florida.

00:08:02.000 Ridvan, welcome to the show.

00:08:04.000 Thank you, Andrew.

00:08:05.000 Thank you so much.

00:08:07.000 So, Ridvan, I mean, in broad terms, let's just set the stage here, a 30,000-foot view.

00:08:13.000 Is Islam compatible with Western civilization? 1.00

00:08:18.000 No.

00:08:18.000 And so, Charlie Kirk, when he was with us, also made this very clear.

00:08:24.000 He was one of the people who was very outspoken about this.

00:08:28.000 Just a few weeks before he was murdered, he made a very viral post in which he said that Islam is not compatible with Western values.

00:08:38.000 And he was right.

00:08:39.000 It is indeed not.

00:08:40.000 So I am an ex-Muslim, right?

00:08:41.000 I was a Muslim.

00:08:42.000 I grew up as a Muslim.

00:08:43.000 I was raised in a Western country in Germany as a Muslim, among traditional Muslims.

00:08:50.000 And we were basically taught that we are only in this country because we eventually want this country to become an Islamic country.

00:09:00.000 And so I learned and we learned and we generally learned that Islam is, that the Western nations are basically filthy and dirty and they follow wicked sick morals and satanic or evil morals that they eat, 1.00

00:09:16.000 as the Imam just pointed out, that they eat pork, which is a very, very evil thing, and that we should abstain from such things and should make every effort to make it as Islamic as possible if we live here, because there is no other excuse for us to live here. 0.96

00:09:31.000 So there are so many layers and so many aspects to this.

00:09:36.000 There is no freedom with Islam. 1.00

00:09:38.000 Islam commands the execution of people who leave Islam, like myself, for example, commands the complete silencing and punishing and execution of people who blaspheme against Islam.

00:09:50.000 It covers up women, puts them into the background of society, reduces their status brutally, far beyond what supposedly regressive conservative people would advocate for. 0.99

00:10:05.000 It is in general, so it has values of, I don't know, child marriage, of polygamy, of wife beating, of cousin marriage, of all these things that are just terrible for society.

00:10:17.000 And it is in no way compatible with Western values.

00:10:20.000 And we should all be aware of it.

00:10:21.000 We should all be aware of the dangers of it.

00:10:23.000 We should all be aware as Europe is becoming aware that when the numbers of it increase, it becomes a huge stab in the back of the society.

00:10:35.000 President Trump walked into a catch-22 when taking office.

00:10:39.000 Do nothing, and America would be staring at a ticking debt bomb, the kind of crisis that could cripple our future.

00:10:44.000 Instead, he's taken action with strong policies to slow the train and buy us some time.

00:10:48.000 But the effects of past administration spending are still working through the system and experts predict dramatic price increases and market uncertainty.

00:10:56.000 Trump is doing all he can, but no matter who's in office, protecting your retirement savings is ultimately up to you.

00:11:02.000 And that's why many Americans are turning to real assets like gold and silver.

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00:11:32.000 President Trump is fighting for America's future.

00:11:34.000 Now it's your turn to help protect yours.

00:11:38.000 Blake, you are probably one of the more articulate people I know in this talk.

00:11:42.000 I guess, you know, you mentioned the goal is to make society more Islamic.

00:11:46.000 That's the justification for being in a Western society.

00:11:49.000 Why don't you lay out what does that process look like?

00:11:52.000 What happens when your country is becoming more, what does it mean for your country to become more Islamic? 0.99

00:11:58.000 So what it would mean is, so first off, the goal is to make people comply with what Islam demands of people when it comes to speaking about Islam.

00:12:10.000 So any conversation about Islam is to be overseen and led by Muslims. 1.00

00:12:16.000 If it gets too offensive, if it gets too uncomfortable, Muslims are supposed to speak up and take control of the situation or demand that it is shut down.

00:12:25.000 As they increase their numbers, society should have more and more Islamic laws put into place. 1.00

00:12:33.000 Any rules, any laws that counter Islam or that are contrary to Islam need to be eradicated, need to be changed, need to be somehow adjusted.

00:12:44.000 What it would look like in America, as it does already in Europe, is that immigration would more and more open up.

00:12:51.000 Muslims would more often, in higher numbers, come into the country, have more and more the right to vote for their own parties, establish their own systems, establish their own politicians in your parties and infiltrate them.

00:13:06.000 What it would eventually look like is that free speech, first off, that's the major target.

00:13:11.000 Free speech would be curbed, of course.

00:13:14.000 It would be cut.

00:13:14.000 It would be suppressed brutally.

00:13:16.000 So you would no longer have the right to speak about it.

00:13:19.000 You would no longer have the right to offend Islam, to speak against Islam.

00:13:22.000 The majority, the vast majority of Muslims around the world agree that nobody should have the right to speak against Islam, to criticize it.

00:13:29.000 And one of the most remarkable things about Islam I feel that I've seen is they really like the assertiveness of playing the call to prayer because the call to prayer is broadcast very loudly at 3 or 4 a.m. I believe for the pre-dawn prayers.

00:13:43.000 And so you hear this in the UK now where people say, I actually can't sleep because they've made a point of loudly broadcasting the call to prayer for everyone to hear in the neighborhood.

00:13:53.000 And that's a very visible sign that you're being taken over.

00:13:56.000 Yeah, I mean, it does feel like the whole thrust in pursuit of political power is an in-your-face full frontal attack to say, we are here and we're asserting our authority.

00:14:09.000 We're going to exploit your Western, sorry, we're getting notes here.

00:14:16.000 We're going to exploit your Western tolerance and your lack of, I think, what's in modern terms, our lack of cultural confidence in ourselves.

00:14:26.000 We are no longer a culture that asserts ourselves proudly because we don't want to be racist.

00:14:31.000 We don't want to be bigoted.

00:14:33.000 A question I would want to ask is, we do see now where a lot of people are actually converting to Islam.

00:14:40.000 We hear about people joining it in prisons.

00:14:42.000 We actually see Westerners joining it in Germany, in the UK.

00:14:47.000 What's the appeal of Islam, in your opinion?

00:14:49.000 Why would someone join it rather than leave it?

00:14:52.000 So I still think that it is very much inflated, the reality of it.

00:14:56.000 I don't think that there are actually huge numbers of people joining Islam.

00:14:59.000 I think that, so here is the thing.

00:15:02.000 Muslim nations and Muslim people generally have a big obsession with white people, with Western people.

00:15:07.000 So if a Western person comes out and says something favorably about Islam, that is very, very much amplified. 0.80

00:15:12.000 If a Western person converts to Islam, that is very much amplified. 0.99

00:15:15.000 The one place where indeed there is a huge conversion of people to Islam is prisons, which is, I'm not sure if that's a thing to brag about from the Muslim perspective.

00:15:24.000 But there is something that is indeed appealing to some people, which is that Islam is a very strong religion, right?

00:15:32.000 And I'm not saying that as something positive or as something praiseworthy, although there is some praiseworthy aspect of it, because in the West, people have become very timid and very tolerant and all that.

00:15:43.000 So while the West is very tolerant and very timid, Islam has a huge assertiveness.

00:15:49.000 It is very proud and very firm, but it is also very deeply indoctrinating and very brainwashing.

00:15:56.000 So it has strong foundations that make it very aggressive and that oppose anyone who speaks against it.

00:16:05.000 Here's the thing.

00:16:06.000 You just mentioned the calls to prayer.

00:16:09.000 The call to prayer is not just a call to prayer.

00:16:12.000 It's not just something that is played like a church bell or something.

00:16:16.000 It is a very clear message.

00:16:18.000 When it is played in a Western nation, in a Western society, in a Western neighborhood, what it says is that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

00:16:27.000 So it is a direct declaration that Islam is true and all the other religions and all the other ways of thinking around you are false.

00:16:34.000 So it is a direct assertion of superiority over everybody else.

00:16:38.000 Ridban, you were talking about the Muslim call to prayer as a public demonstration and an assertion of Islamic superiority, of theological correctness, essentially an exclusivity claim, right?

00:16:53.000 Christians get a lot of grief for the exclusivity claims about Jesus, that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

00:17:01.000 I have recently been watching YouTube videos about these missionaries in Africa.

00:17:08.000 And they talk about the, you know, you see what's happening in Nigeria with the persecution of Christians there and these Muslim armies and these militias coming to hunt them down.

00:17:19.000 And there is a spirit of fear that goes before them.

00:17:23.000 And I don't want to make this, you know, too in the clouds or too spiritual, but it occurs to me that when Muslims begin doing the Muslim call to prayer in Western cultures five times a day, that there is a spiritual element to that.

00:17:40.000 There is like a, you know, they talk about these missionaries in Africa, they talk about this.

00:17:45.000 You could feel the spirit of fear go in front of the armies almost, in front of these militias before the persecution and the killing starts.

00:17:53.000 I believe that there is a spiritual element of this that is unleashed when you allow that type of thing into your culture.

00:17:58.000 Do you agree?

00:18:00.000 I do agree.

00:18:01.000 And it also actually goes back to how it is intended to be.

00:18:05.000 So in the beginnings of Islam, when Muhammad was around, he made it a thing to shout, Allahu Akbar, and La ilahi illallah, and so on.

00:18:16.000 So that there is no God but Allah and Allah is the greatest in front of his armies.

00:18:21.000 It was a very, very fierce battle cry, aside from simply being an invitation to prayer.

00:18:26.000 And of course, you might anticipate that there is a spiritual aspect to it, that when you invoke something like that and invoke something, to be very frank, evil, that it has wider implications.

00:18:40.000 It is also, so it has psychological impacts as well.

00:18:44.000 Think about a Muslim society that comes into a Western nation or that is in Nigeria, which has a conflict between Muslims and Christians.

00:18:55.000 So think about a group of Muslims that simply settles in an area and practices their religion privately without having any calls for anything at all. 1.00

00:19:04.000 And then think about how Muslims do it. 1.00

00:19:07.000 Muslims come into a place, establish their community, establish a mosque, a minaret, that then shouts out, there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

00:19:17.000 It is not only a declaration of superiority over others.

00:19:21.000 It is also a declaration to the Muslims who are around to say, hey, wake up, guys. 0.99

00:19:26.000 You are right.

00:19:27.000 All others are wrong and they are the enemy.

00:19:29.000 I'm very sure that despite the, so together with the psychological impact and the social impact, there is something evil going on with that as well.

00:19:40.000 So we had President Trump.

00:19:43.000 He's revoking the temporary protected status for Somalia.

00:19:48.000 But what else would we, what would your pitch be to Republicans or to President Trump, lawmakers in Washington?

00:19:56.000 Are there any actions, concrete ones you think should be on the table for our government for avoiding the Islamization of America? 1.00

00:20:04.000 Well, I think so.

00:20:06.000 When I was at the last event and spoke at Turning Point USA, I also pointed out a few things that need to be done, that should be done.

00:20:15.000 First off, the Muslim Brotherhood needs to be seriously countered and seen as a terrorist organization with all its elements and all its connections. 1.00

00:20:28.000 It is an organization that infiltrates countries, that infiltrates Western nations, that infiltrates non-Western nations.

00:20:36.000 And certain Muslim-majority nations in the Arab countries have taken large steps against the Muslim Brotherhood because they know that it is a terrorist organization that wants to subvert societies. 0.98

00:20:48.000 Another thing would be to seriously curb and shut down immigration from Muslim countries. 1.00

00:20:56.000 I know we have taken steps, but they are not enough.

00:20:59.000 Immigration from Muslim countries needs to be shut down. 1.00

00:21:01.000 It needs to be taken seriously.

00:21:03.000 We need to stop being so tolerant.

00:21:05.000 We need to stop being so weak and so meek.

00:21:09.000 And finally, another thing would be information and education about Islam, what it is, what it teaches, what it preaches, and what happens wherever Islam goes needs to spread among the common people.

00:21:25.000 Maybe, I know it is always a conflict, and it is kind of problematic when the government steps in and does something like that, but maybe it is upon us to do something about that, as Charlie also wanted us to do, and to inform everybody in America about what Islam actually teaches.

00:21:41.000 And maybe the government can help us at some point to reach more people and educate people who are in charge and educate the officers on that.

00:21:52.000 Thank you.

00:21:53.000 Thank you very much.

00:21:54.000 And yeah, Charlie cared a lot about this, especially in the last weeks and months of his life.

00:21:58.000 He went to the UK.

00:21:59.000 He saw what it was very rapidly becoming, and he knew it was only going to get more extreme.

00:22:04.000 Whenever you see this, you have to realize it's going to get a lot worse in the years to come because they're young.

00:22:09.000 They're still coming into the country. 1.00

00:22:11.000 They have more kids than us.

00:22:12.000 They can transform a society, and we can't afford to just ignore it.

00:22:16.000 Stop being so tolerant.

00:22:18.000 Thank you, Ridvan.

00:22:19.000 I love it.

00:22:19.000 We'll see you soon, my friend.

00:22:21.000 Thank you.

00:22:24.000 We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.

00:22:27.000 And today, I want to point you to their podcast.

00:22:29.000 It's called Culture in Christianity, the Alan Jackson Podcast.

00:22:33.000 What makes it unique is Pastor Alan's biblical perspective.

00:22:36.000 He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today, gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge, Trump in the White House, issues in the church.

00:22:45.000 He doesn't just discuss the problems.

00:22:47.000 In every episode, he gives practical things we can do to make a difference.

00:22:51.000 His guests have incredible expertise and powerful testimonies.

00:22:54.000 They've been great friends.

00:22:55.000 And now you can hear from Charlie in his own words.

00:22:58.000 Each episode will make you recognize the power of your faith and how God can use your life to impact our world today.

00:23:04.000 The Culture and Christianity podcast is informative and encouraging.

00:23:07.000 You could find it on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:23:11.000 Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes.

00:23:13.000 Alan Jackson Ministries is working hard to bring biblical truth back into our culture.

00:23:18.000 You can find out more about Pastor Allen and the ministry at alanjackson.com forward slash Charlie.

00:23:26.000 Very excited about our next guest, Leland Vitter, author of the new book, Born Lucky, felt very, very appropriate for this week of Thanksgiving.

00:23:35.000 You can find him on X at Leland Vitter, and he is also the chief Washington anchor for News Nation.

00:23:41.000 Leland, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:23:44.000 Andrew, nice to be with you.

00:23:45.000 Yeah, you know, Leland, I was just thinking about it.

00:23:47.000 I remember, I think I first met you briefly in a Fox green room in around 2018 with Charlie.

00:23:57.000 We were all in the Fox News.

00:23:58.000 It was in the D.C. Bureau, Fox News Green Room, and you were very, very kind, very, it was, you know, and I'd seen you on TV.

00:24:06.000 I knew exactly who you were, and you were very gracious to Charlie.

00:24:09.000 And anyway, so it's great to have you on the show.

00:24:11.000 And congratulations on your new book.

00:24:14.000 Thank you.

00:24:14.000 Appreciate you being here.

00:24:15.000 Yeah, I first met Charlie back in 2015 as so many things happen in the Fox News Green Room in Washington, D.C.

00:24:23.000 So some wonderful memories.

00:24:26.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:24:26.000 Well, so Born Lucky, okay, I'll be honest with you.

00:24:30.000 I think you even say it in the description of the book.

00:24:33.000 Most of your friends and colleagues had no idea of these childhood struggles that you went through with autism being a little bit socially awkward, struggling to fit in.

00:24:42.000 But it sounds like it was even worse than what I'm describing.

00:24:46.000 And your dad is just such a hero in this book, and you are thankful for him, which is, again, why I thought it was appropriate for this week with Thanksgiving.

00:24:53.000 Tell us your story, Leland.

00:24:55.000 It's fascinating.

00:24:56.000 Sure.

00:24:57.000 Yeah, I think my wife would say that I'm still socially awkward.

00:25:00.000 I was far more awkward and difficult when I was a child.

00:25:06.000 Born Lucky is the story of what happened when I was diagnosed with what we now know to be autism at about eight years old.

00:25:14.000 My parents were told that they needed to have me evaluated, worst thing any parent can hear.

00:25:20.000 And they took me to one of those medical testing centers, sat there with the stale coffee and magazines and linoleum floors and uncomfortable furniture for a couple of hours.

00:25:29.000 They were scared.

00:25:30.000 And the woman brought me back and she said, Look, this kid's got a lot of very serious issues.

00:25:34.000 He's got behavioral issues.

00:25:35.000 So if anybody touches him in class in the lunch line, anything, he turns around and slugs them.

00:25:41.000 Sensory issues.

00:25:42.000 If I had socks on I didn't like or I had a jacket on I didn't like or something like this, I would just melt down.

00:25:49.000 And then big learning disabilities.

00:25:51.000 So an IQ test is two halves of a test, really, and the scores average together.

00:25:58.000 A learning disability is a 70 point, is a 20 point spread.

00:26:02.000 I had a 70 point spread.

00:26:03.000 They said it was the biggest spread they'd ever seen.

00:26:05.000 So from basically mentally retarded in some ways to genius in others. 1.00

00:26:09.000 And the woman said to my dad, you know, it's very difficult to understand what's going on inside his head, meaning my head.

00:26:16.000 And fact check, true.

00:26:19.000 But my parents asked, as any parent would, you know, what do we do?

00:26:24.000 And the woman said, there's not much you can do.

00:26:26.000 And my dad goes, is there anything we can do?

00:26:28.000 You know, he, the desperation is real for any parent.

00:26:31.000 And he said, or the woman said to my dad, not really.

00:26:35.000 So born lucky is the story of my dad quitting his job and trying day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute to adapt me to the world rather than the world to me.

00:26:49.000 You know, he didn't tell anybody about my diagnosis.

00:26:52.000 There was no accommodations.

00:26:54.000 There was no extra time on tests or education plans or anything like that.

00:26:58.000 Dad decided that I would need to learn how to function in the real world, as difficult as that would be.

00:27:04.000 So we wrote Born Lucky to give hope to every family of a parent, every parent of a kid having a hard time, regardless of why.

00:27:13.000 Autism, ADHD, anxiety, whatever it is, Born Lucky is hope of what great parenting can do.

00:27:21.000 Yeah, and there's a crazy story in here.

00:27:24.000 He was making you do hundreds of push-ups at age seven just to so you could fight back against the bullies.

00:27:32.000 It was, there was a physical toughness component to it.

00:27:35.000 But Andrew, you know, you think about when I was a little kid, I had no friends.

00:27:39.000 Dad's line was, I thought maybe I could beat your friend.

00:27:43.000 But kids get self-esteem from one of three things: either they're good in school.

00:27:47.000 I wasn't going to be good in school.

00:27:48.000 They were going to have lots of friends.

00:27:50.000 I wasn't going to get invited to play dates or birthday parties, much less have any friends.

00:27:55.000 And then lastly, from athletics, I wasn't good at athletics.

00:27:59.000 So dad's whole desire was to try to figure out how to give me self-esteem.

00:28:04.000 And as his word, self-esteem is not given, it's earned.

00:28:08.000 So that was 200 push-ups a day, five days a week for three or four months.

00:28:12.000 And then you got something, but it was trying to get me to have pride in something and to be able to accomplish things, even if it was just something like doing push-ups.

00:28:20.000 Wow.

00:28:22.000 What age were you when you first started talking?

00:28:26.000 I was past three, so three and a half or so, was when I first started talking.

00:28:30.000 And, you know, there were a lot of other, you know, what we'd now call sort of classic autism characteristics.

00:28:35.000 I couldn't look anybody in the eye.

00:28:37.000 I obviously couldn't relate to anybody my own age and had terrible social skills.

00:28:43.000 And it was actually sort of negative social skills.

00:28:46.000 You know, some people, and I thought about this actually as we were talking more and more about the book.

00:28:50.000 Some people like Charlie had a magnetic personality that they just attracted people.

00:28:56.000 I sort of repelled them like a magnet, like the same poles of a magnet.

00:29:00.000 So my dad decided he would try to teach me the social construct and he would take me out to lunch or breakfast.

00:29:07.000 And I had a lot of free time on my hands because I didn't have any kid friends.

00:29:11.000 And when we would sit down with an adult and I'd start asking the adult questions or interrupt or whatever it is, my dad would tap his watch.

00:29:18.000 And that was my signal.

00:29:19.000 One, to stop talking, but to give me that signal without publicly humiliating me.

00:29:24.000 But two, it was a way to bookmark it.

00:29:28.000 And then after the lunch on the way home or later that day, we'd role play.

00:29:34.000 Okay, so when you interrupted to ask this lawyer, you interrupt him.

00:29:40.000 He was talking about his golf game and you interrupted whatever Mr. Miguel Tetti's profession was to ask him about something.

00:29:45.000 Why do you think that's what he wanted to talk about?

00:29:47.000 Okay, what could you have talked to him about?

00:29:49.000 And then we would role play that.

00:29:50.000 And this was sort of the very granular teachings of the social equation.

00:29:57.000 Wow.

00:29:57.000 I mean, your dad is a real hero here, Leland.

00:30:01.000 I mean, I feel like we could all relate.

00:30:03.000 What's so interesting about this to me is, I guess, I think of a lot of what we see today where reports of autism are rising.

00:30:10.000 And I feel there's also, you know, they come with the neurodivergent label for it.

00:30:16.000 And, you know, another person we guest we had a few months ago, Aaron Siberium, he's actually had a similar account where I think he was diagnosed with like pretty severe autism that he trained, you know, he was trained to deal with better.

00:30:28.000 And so he's able to have a more functional existence.

00:30:31.000 And do you think there's good lessons for that, Leland, in just that it's not like you're just locked into one state.

00:30:38.000 You can improve things and make people more adequately socialized if they have difficulties with that.

00:30:45.000 A thousand percent.

00:30:47.000 And the reason Born Lucky has exploded, and I've gotten emails from hundreds of families across the country just saying thank you for telling us we're not alone, for giving us hope, and for proving what great parenting can do and showing what great parenting can do.

00:31:03.000 And I think there is so many people who feel so helpless and so many parents who feel so hopeless that they can't make a difference.

00:31:12.000 And this is really proof that you can make an enormous difference.

00:31:15.000 And, you know, Born Lucky is not how to turn your autistic kid into a TV news anchor. 0.52

00:31:20.000 This is a story about how every kid can be more.

00:31:23.000 Born Lucky is sort of the story of how every kid can be more if a parent really digs in.

00:31:29.000 And I think about a young man who I learned about who has profound autism.

00:31:33.000 So he's in a group home.

00:31:34.000 He's about 23 years old and had big behavioral issues, you know, very angry and upset all the time and very classic autism characteristics.

00:31:44.000 But his dad read the reports of him at the rec center because every other day or so, they would go from the group home to the rec center and he loved splashing around in the pool.

00:31:56.000 So the father said to the folks who ran the group home and helped him, let's teach my son how to swim if he loves the pool.

00:32:05.000 And the expert said, oh no, you can't do that.

00:32:08.000 It's hard for him to learn and it could be upsetting to him and he could drown and on and on.

00:32:12.000 The dad goes, you know, I need to push my son to be more.

00:32:16.000 He can't.

00:32:16.000 And they taught him how to swim.

00:32:17.000 He now swims a mile and a half every morning.

00:32:19.000 He gets up every morning, gets dressed on his own, which he never did before, is excited, is happy.

00:32:25.000 Physically, he's totally changed.

00:32:26.000 His mental moods are totally changed, all because a father did not accept this is just who my kid's going to be, and I am going to help them be more.

00:32:36.000 And I think you're touching on something which is a sort of a cornerstone of what my dad taught me from the very beginning is you are not a victim.

00:32:45.000 You can control your character and you can control your work ethic, but you are not a victim.

00:32:50.000 And victimhood is addictive.

00:32:52.000 And we're seeing now, there was the Wall Street Journal article last week about they're starting to medicate three-year-olds with very serious adult drugs to try to regulate ADHD.

00:33:03.000 The New York Times out with a big story just today on the same thing that this over-prescribing, over-medicating, over-diagnosing of kids is basically just a cop-out.

00:33:17.000 It's not that kids don't need help, but it's that there's real hard work to be done and just a diagnosis and meeting that kid where they're at and just saying, you be you and you're great and let's celebrate you is not a recipe for success and born lucky is proof of that.

00:33:33.000 And I find this.

00:33:35.000 So I'm a father of three little kids, seven, five, and two.

00:33:40.000 And it's like, you know, every parent, Leland, you know, it doesn't matter if they have autism or not, has those moments when they're with their kids and they're like genuinely terrified that they're doing it wrong or that their kid has an issue or that they're going to have problems in school or problems with friends.

00:33:59.000 And so I think, you know, I'm hearing you, and, you know, as far as I know, my kids are not autistic or, you know, even if they were, though, the point is, is that you have the agency within yourself to be a better parent, to be more engaged.

00:34:14.000 I find it really, really inspiring, even as I'm thinking about some of the changes in our own family's life because there's a lot just with everything that's happened.

00:34:22.000 And so I love this story.

00:34:25.000 I would love to keep you for another segment if you can, Leland, because this is only the first part of it.

00:34:30.000 You were sort of socially awkward even through college and then into, by the way, these are your words, not mine.

00:34:39.000 And then something transformed.

00:34:42.000 You really had some massive breakthroughs.

00:34:44.000 So I want to get into that.

00:34:47.000 This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of YReFi.

00:34:52.000 It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.

00:34:57.000 His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come.

00:35:03.000 Now, here Charlie, in his own words, tell you about YReFi.

00:35:07.000 I'm going to tell you guys about whyReFi.com.

00:35:09.000 That is why FY.com.

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00:35:16.000 WhyReFi is refinancing distress or defaulted private student loans?

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00:35:28.000 WhyReFi can get them released from the loan?

00:35:31.000 You're going to skip a payment up to 12 times without penalty.

00:35:33.000 It may not be available in all 50 states.

00:35:35.000 Go to yrefi.com.

00:35:37.000 That is why FY.com.

00:35:39.000 Let's face it, if you have distress or default to student loans, it can be overwhelming.

00:35:44.000 Because of private student loan debt, so many people feel stuck.

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00:35:57.000 All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:35:58.000 Blake, we got an email.

00:35:59.000 We got an email from Jennifer in the break.

00:36:01.000 I wanted to read it.

00:36:02.000 She says, Hi, guys.

00:36:03.000 I am a current autism support teacher in a public school, 42 years old.

00:36:07.000 I was misdiagnosed in the 90s as seriously emotionally disturbed.

00:36:11.000 I found out this year.

00:36:12.000 Instead, I have autism myself and ADHD.

00:36:15.000 And she says, My philosophy is to treat 10 kids in my classroom differently from my own childhood, keep them moving, keep them having fun.

00:36:23.000 And my goal is to teach all of them to read, even the non-verbal ones.

00:36:27.000 So thank you for that, Jennifer.

00:36:28.000 Yeah, that's great.

00:36:29.000 And if anyone else has emails, send them in.

00:36:30.000 Yeah, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:36:32.000 So Leland, so you know, I think I'm probably the usual case here.

00:36:38.000 I saw you on, you know, Fox News.

00:36:39.000 You were in like the Middle East and you were, you know, at your anchor desk and the White House, the North Lawn.

00:36:46.000 But you say here in your book that you struggled with this stuff after college.

00:36:50.000 What changed?

00:36:50.000 And what was like, was there a breakthrough or was it still a gradual thing?

00:36:55.000 You know, Andrew, it's a great question.

00:36:57.000 And I think one of the reasons that Born Lucky has resonated so much with folks is because it has touched this nerve of parents having a hard time with their kids.

00:37:11.000 And, you know, my dad spent so much time teaching me and so much time working on me and giving me the tools and the discipline to really adapt and to work in the real world.

00:37:24.000 That said, I would say it's still an everyday struggle for me.

00:37:28.000 And in Born Lucky, I equate growing up with autism and having autism to a little bit like being an alcoholic.

00:37:33.000 It's something you have to work at every single day.

00:37:36.000 And just a couple of months ago, I was at a golf club with my father-in-law.

00:37:42.000 We just finished a great round of golf.

00:37:43.000 We'd played with a couple other guys.

00:37:45.000 And I was running late and stuffing my golf bag into my travel bag.

00:37:50.000 We were in the sort of cart area and I'm down on my hands and knees trying to get this in.

00:37:55.000 And one of the classic characteristics of autism is that you become just totally task focused, right?

00:38:01.000 And I was really focused on getting the golf bag into the travel bag.

00:38:06.000 And this older gentleman walks over and he goes, Hi, Leland.

00:38:10.000 And it was actually somebody we had just played golf with.

00:38:12.000 I totally ignored him.

00:38:15.000 And my dad, I could hear my dad's voice, right?

00:38:20.000 He had taught me, stop what you're doing, be able to sort of break out of that task focus, get up, shake hands, say hello, talk for a few minutes, whatever it is.

00:38:29.000 And I couldn't do it.

00:38:30.000 I could hear the voice of my dad, like, Lucky, you need to stop.

00:38:32.000 You need to say hello to this gentleman.

00:38:35.000 You need to get up.

00:38:36.000 And I just couldn't do it.

00:38:38.000 And, you know, he eventually just walked off.

00:38:40.000 I was so rude to him.

00:38:42.000 And I thought, you know, God bless it.

00:38:44.000 I cannot believe.

00:38:44.000 I'm like eight years old again.

00:38:46.000 I'm 43 years old.

00:38:47.000 I'm married and I'm like just an eight-year-old, just, you know, being me.

00:38:52.000 And I found his phone number and I sent him a note.

00:38:55.000 I just said, I want to apologize to you, sir.

00:38:56.000 I was just so rude to you.

00:38:58.000 And I really feel terrible about that.

00:39:01.000 And I'm sorry.

00:39:02.000 What I didn't follow up with was, oh, by the way, I have autism, right?

00:39:07.000 And say, sort of use it as an excuse.

00:39:09.000 So remember, you know, in Born Lucky, I tell you why my dad never told me that I had autism, never told teachers or therapists or family members.

00:39:17.000 He and my mom struggled alone and felt alone for so long because they didn't want me to be defined by a diagnosis.

00:39:24.000 And that's the lesson of Born Lucky.

00:39:26.000 You don't have to be defined by a diagnosis.

00:39:28.000 Nobody does.

00:39:29.000 But if you let yourself be defined, if you use it as an excuse, it will always, always be there.

00:39:36.000 And I think it's one of the reasons it was on the New York Times bestseller list.

00:39:38.000 It's one of the reasons now that Amazon picked it for its Black Friday books because that message of hope and power is really resonating with folks.

00:39:47.000 Well, I just, every parent has that moment where you go, is my kid weird?

00:39:51.000 And then, and there is a temptation to just be like, well, this is just the way he is or she is.

00:39:57.000 And, you know, we were talking about that in the break is that one of our fears of modern, you know, psychology or modern diagnoses or medicine is that our tendency is to just placate the child and pander to the child as opposed to challenge the child to get better, to improve.

00:40:13.000 I mean, right, Black, you were telling your story.

00:40:15.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:40:17.000 As I've aged, I've so much appreciated how you can change how you are, you know, by developing new habits.

00:40:24.000 And especially as adults, I think we underrate how much that can happen with children.

00:40:27.000 Children are not, they are not fixed.

00:40:30.000 They are constantly becoming.

00:40:32.000 And you can influence what they become.

00:40:33.000 Yeah.

00:40:34.000 Leland, tell everybody how they can get the book.

00:40:36.000 30 seconds.

00:40:37.000 The floor is yours.

00:40:39.000 Oh, thank you.

00:40:40.000 Born Lucky, it's on sale right now on Amazon.

00:40:42.000 They picked it out as one of their Black Friday books.

00:40:46.000 So 25% off on Amazon.

00:40:48.000 Everybody knows how to get on Amazon, but we'll tweet the links out as well.

00:40:51.000 And then for all the more information on it, it's just bornlucky.com.

00:40:55.000 I'm on social media at Leland that are just been so honored by so many who have come on this Born Lucky journey of hope with us.

00:41:03.000 Yeah.

00:41:03.000 Well, congratulations on the book.

00:41:05.000 I just, it's perfect for Thanksgiving.

00:41:07.000 I am grateful for your dad's influence in your life and the fact that he quit his job to pour into you and to help you become the man that you are.

00:41:15.000 And just congratulations on all the success, both in professionally and with this book, Leland.

00:41:20.000 It's really important this week as we're grateful for the good things and for family.

00:41:24.000 Thank you, sir.

00:41:25.000 Thanks, Andrew.

00:41:26.000 All right.

00:41:27.000 We will see you guys tomorrow.

The Charlie Kirk Show - November 25, 2025

Overcoming Autism with Leland Vitter

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