The Charlie Kirk Show - Replacing Lindsey Graham, The "Conspiracy Right," and TPUSA's Newest Event

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.

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

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

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00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

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00:01:17.000 Hello.

00:01:18.000 Good afternoon to all of you on the East Coast here from the Y Refi studio.

00:01:22.000 Andrew is out today, so I'll be flying solo.

00:01:25.000 I have the Y Refi mic flag all to myself, and I'm very excited about that.

00:01:30.000 We have a very fun show today.

00:01:31.000 We'll be talking to John Doyle again.

00:01:34.000 We'll be talking to Mark Halperin about the political ramifications of Senator. Lindsey Graham's death and the struggle to replace him.

00:01:41.000 And we're going to talk to two students who were just at our chapter leadership summit about their experience, about the continued fight to further Charlie's mission to turn the tide with young people, to lead a revival, to win back America.

00:01:56.000 And we're also going to show you all a preview, which the kids at CLS just saw, for the upcoming Turning Point Men's Leadership Retreat.

00:02:04.000 It's a very interesting thing they're going for, and I think you guys are going to be excited to check it out.

00:02:09.000 But First, we talked a little bit about this yesterday, but I wanted to take more time for us to reflect on the life and the legacy of Senator Lindsey Graham, because I don't think it's controversial to say that his death shakes up the Senate, shakes up the Republican Party more than almost any other senator's loss could.

00:02:34.000 Because for Charlie, he talked about Senator Graham, or Lady Graham, as he often called him, probably more than any other senator.

00:02:44.000 Who wasn't a regular on the show as a guest.

00:02:48.000 And we know that there's a reason for that.

00:02:50.000 The reason for that is Senator Graham was a long serving but often rather frustrating Republican.

00:02:57.000 I don't think Senator Graham himself would object to the idea that he represented an earlier era for the Republican Party.

00:03:06.000 Lindsey Graham was first elected to the Senate in 2002.

00:03:10.000 And in a lot of ways, for Lindsey Graham, it was always 2002.

00:03:16.000 Senator Graham.

00:03:17.000 Championed the Iraq war, the Afghan war for the entire duration of it, and he opposed the pullout when it happened.

00:03:24.000 He supported the Libya intervention to bring down Gaddafi.

00:03:27.000 He supported strikes on Syria, regime change efforts there.

00:03:31.000 He was calling for airstrikes on Iran all the way back in 2010.

00:03:35.000 He would be very happy to see President Trump resuming strikes on Iran in these past two days, and we'll talk more about that later today.

00:03:42.000 Unsurprisingly, Senator Graham backed Ukraine to the hilt, and that's exactly why we already see conspiracy theories.

00:03:50.000 He was in Ukraine.

00:03:51.000 Just a few days ago, and there's theories maybe Russia was able to poison him, hurt him in some way, and cause his death. 1.00

00:03:58.000 I don't think that was the case, but you can see why people would believe it. 0.98

00:04:01.000 If you're a Russian and you're trying to make a list of your enemies in America, Senator Lindsey Graham might literally be number one. 1.00

00:04:09.000 He's certainly in the top three. 0.88

00:04:12.000 And it's unsurprising that in the days since Graham's death, Senator Chuck U. Schumer of the Democrats has said the best way we can honor Senator Graham is to impose new sanctions on Russia.

00:04:24.000 Let's do clip two.

00:04:25.000 Well, Mr. President, my prayers and those of my family are with Senator Graham's family, staff, and friends.

00:04:32.000 After his sudden, sudden passing yesterday, I urge Senator Thune, in honor of Lindsay, to put the sanctions, the Russian sanctions bill on the floor immediately.

00:04:43.000 It will pass overwhelmingly and help our allies in Ukraine.

00:04:49.000 Not seeing eye to eye is no reason to be blind to the way forward.

00:04:54.000 Lindsay could understand that.

00:04:57.000 Every senator ought to do the same. 0.98

00:05:00.000 That's the world that Lindsey Graham believed in.

00:05:02.000 Lindsey Graham was a believer in.

00:05:05.000 The power of the American military and American force abroad to make the world a better place.

00:05:12.000 And sometimes he was right, American force has made the world a better place.

00:05:15.000 Sometimes that's why we celebrate our victory in World War II, our intervention in Korea. 0.82

00:05:20.000 Sometimes force abroad is necessary, but we've learned a lot of hard lessons in the last 25 years.

00:05:25.000 And Charlie talked about this at length.

00:05:27.000 We've learned that America's wealth is not unlimited, and that when we launch wars abroad, we can waste that wealth and squander it.

00:05:34.000 We've learned that wars abroad can leave our country weaker.

00:05:38.000 And more divided.

00:05:39.000 And often those wars won't achieve the initial missions that they set out on.

00:05:44.000 They can leave the world worse.

00:05:45.000 The world can become more chaotic.

00:05:47.000 The intervention in Libya that Senator Graham supported is a perfect example of that. 0.92

00:05:52.000 I don't think anyone would want to rerun the way that turned out, where we have endless migrants pouring into Europe through Libya, which has become a failed state. 0.79

00:06:01.000 Lindsey Graham also has a complicated legacy on immigration. 0.85

00:06:04.000 He worked with Senator Ted Kennedy on comprehensive immigration reform, he worked with Schumer.

00:06:09.000 On comprehensive immigration reform.

00:06:11.000 He more than once supported the DREAM Act.

00:06:13.000 He supported keeping the DACA program around.

00:06:16.000 He did evolve in a better direction. 0.76

00:06:18.000 One of Lindsey Graham's last public press releases was him disagreeing with the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship decision and promising to help crack down on birth tourism.

00:06:30.000 But nevertheless, he wasn't the ideal that we would have on immigration.

00:06:35.000 And so he represented an early era of Republican, a Republican who hadn't quite gotten the memo that.

00:06:42.000 We shouldn't have as many wars and we need tougher immigration policies.

00:06:46.000 But we should emphasize this.

00:06:48.000 Graham was better than any Democrat, period. 1.00

00:06:52.000 Lindsey Graham didn't believe in getting rid of America.

00:06:55.000 Some of his policies, we think, made America weaker.

00:06:58.000 Some of his policies were unpopular, so they made it easier for the left to win.

00:07:01.000 But Graham did not believe in abolishing America.

00:07:04.000 Graham did not believe in abolishing Western civilization.

00:07:07.000 Graham did not believe in abolishing capitalism and the free market.

00:07:10.000 He was not a left wing zealot.

00:07:13.000 And so all of our criticisms of Graham have to be through that lens.

00:07:16.000 Graham could have been better, but he was still on our side.

00:07:20.000 And sometimes he showed that incredibly.

00:07:22.000 Sometimes Graham was the exact person we needed.

00:07:25.000 We saw that during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings in 2018.

00:07:30.000 If you don't remember that, you might not remember how bad it got.

00:07:32.000 It looked like we were going to lose that seat, that Democrats were going to keep it open until 2020, and then they were going to let Joe Biden fill that seat with a radical Democrat.

00:07:43.000 The person who brought a halt to that was Lindsey Graham on the Judiciary Committee.

00:07:48.000 He stopped it cold, and it was tremendous.

00:07:51.000 And we should honor him for that.

00:07:52.000 Let's show the clip, clip three.

00:07:54.000 If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us.

00:07:58.000 What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020.

00:08:05.000 You've said that, not me.

00:08:08.000 You've got nothing to apologize for.

00:08:11.000 When you see Sotomayor and Kagan, tell them that Lindsey said hello, because I voted for them.

00:08:17.000 I would never do to them what you've done to this guy.

00:08:20.000 This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics.

00:08:27.000 And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy. 1.00

00:08:33.000 Are you a gang rapist? 1.00

00:08:35.000 No. 1.00

00:08:36.000 I cannot imagine what you and your family have gone through.

00:08:40.000 Boy, y'all want power.

00:08:41.000 God, I hope you never get it.

00:08:43.000 I hope the American people can see through this sham.

00:08:46.000 To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, you're legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.

00:08:57.000 That was Graham at his best.

00:08:58.000 He was a hard worker.

00:09:00.000 He was a fighter.

00:09:01.000 He absolutely cared about getting what he believed in.

00:09:03.000 He was not this empty shell sitting on the Senate doing nothing.

00:09:07.000 He was a guy who would go out there and fight, and he could fight hard.

00:09:11.000 So, we're going to have a primary to replace Graham in the months to come.

00:09:14.000 And that's what we want.

00:09:15.000 We want a senator who can fight like Graham, but we want a senator who represents the modern conservative movement better than Graham did at the time of his death.

00:09:25.000 That's what we're going to fight for, and we should remember his best parts and we should improve upon his worst parts.

00:09:31.000 That's what we're going to do.

00:09:32.000 In the weeks to come, we have breaking news that just happened.

00:09:35.000 I'm waiting for it to get uploaded.

00:09:37.000 They asked President Trump at the White House about the FBI investigation that is ongoing into Senator Graham's death because some people have speculated there could be some foul play.

00:09:49.000 And he had something interesting to say about that.

00:09:51.000 I don't want to spoil it until we get it uploaded.

00:09:55.000 In the meantime, I just want to finish what we were reflecting on at the end there.

00:10:00.000 So here's the details on what will be going on.

00:10:03.000 You may remember.

00:10:04.000 There was a primary in South Carolina just a few weeks ago, and I'll be frank, we were supporting a challenger, Mark Lynch, to Senator Graham because we believe that it was possible for South Carolina voters to get a senator more aligned with their views on immigration, on military force abroad, and just more aligned with the MAGA President Trump agenda.

00:10:29.000 Now, we fell short there, but that was understandable.

00:10:33.000 Senator Lindsey Graham was a longtime incumbent.

00:10:36.000 He had A lot of strength in the state, and that's how it was.

00:10:39.000 Now, there's going to be another primary.

00:10:41.000 Yesterday, it was announced that the replacement for Senator Graham is actually going to be his sister, who he helped raise after I believe their parents died, and she's going to be filling out the rest of his six month term.

00:10:55.000 Let's play clip five.

00:10:57.000 I want to thank the governor for selecting me to serve the remainder of Lindsay's term.

00:11:01.000 It is such an honor.

00:11:04.000 Lindsay has always been there for me, and now.

00:11:08.000 I will be there for him.

00:11:11.000 My brother was the most amazing person, outstanding leader, and just a genuinely good man.

00:11:20.000 So it looks like that his sister, that is Darlene Graham Norton, is her name, it looks like she's not planning to run in the primary that's going to be held on August 11th, less than one month from today.

00:11:34.000 She'll fill out that term and then depart.

00:11:36.000 And that means that it's a wide open field for the primary.

00:11:40.000 I don't know everyone who's planning to run.

00:11:43.000 I imagine perhaps Mark Lynch will run again, but also Nancy Mesa's talked about running.

00:11:48.000 She ran in that governor's primary and was defeated.

00:11:51.000 Others are stepping up.

00:11:52.000 And I'm sure Turning Point Action will probably be making an endorsement in that race.

00:11:57.000 I don't think they've reached one yet.

00:11:58.000 I know I've talked to Tyler about this.

00:12:00.000 He's very excited about, let me make sure I get it right.

00:12:03.000 He's very excited about Ralph Norman, who's currently a House representative if he runs.

00:12:08.000 So if he does run, maybe we'll be hearing more from him.

00:12:11.000 But this is an opportunity, as we said.

00:12:13.000 This is an opportunity to get a lawmaker out of South Carolina who fights as hard as Lindsey, who will get as fiery as the Lindsey Graham that we saw in that Brett Kavanaugh clip, but who is. 0.98

00:12:25.000 More gung ho on deportations, on securing the border, and who's less gung ho about projecting military force into every corner of planet Earth. 1.00

00:12:35.000 Because even if it's necessary sometimes, it's not necessary nearly as often as Lindsey Graham wanted to.

00:12:41.000 But I do see that we have the clip loaded now, and I want to play it.

00:12:43.000 This is breaking news.

00:12:44.000 Happened just a few minutes ago.

00:12:46.000 President Trump was asked about the FBI investigating his death.

00:12:50.000 Clip 12.

00:12:51.000 Are you aware of why the FBI is looking into Senator Graham's death?

00:12:54.000 Have you gotten any updates on why they read his own?

00:12:57.000 Well, I don't know why, because I think.

00:12:59.000 You know, he had a problem.

00:13:01.000 His father had a very similar problem, as you know.

00:13:04.000 It's very unique.

00:13:06.000 At first I heard it was clogged arteries, because he did have clogged arteries.

00:13:10.000 He had a problem with that.

00:13:12.000 He was, I wish he took better care of himself.

00:13:16.000 I say, you can solve that problem.

00:13:19.000 But what happened is actually something that's very hard to detect.

00:13:23.000 I don't see a lot of evil there.

00:13:24.000 I know there's all sorts of conspiracy theories going along.

00:13:28.000 And I don't think the FBI, I think the FBI is wasting their time if they're doing that.

00:13:34.000 So that was President Trump.

00:13:36.000 I imagine that won't be enough to satisfy some people who are true believers on this, but I want to emphasize President Trump and Senator Graham were very close despite their disagreement on some issues.

00:13:46.000 They played golf a lot.

00:13:48.000 I think President Trump valued his input.

00:13:51.000 He endorsed him for re election despite our concerns and the concerns of others.

00:13:55.000 That's how the president leaned.

00:13:56.000 So if he says, I don't think there's any foul play here, I think the president has a sound read on that.

00:14:04.000 I think he has a good understanding of the situation.

00:14:07.000 So, we turn also to how can we best honor Senator Graham?

00:14:11.000 And I think the best way to unite the Republican Party, we talked about passing new sanctions on Russia.

00:14:18.000 I don't know whether those are a good idea or not.

00:14:20.000 We talked about the strikes on Iran.

00:14:22.000 There are new ones being launched.

00:14:23.000 I'm sure Senator Lindsey Graham would be overjoyed to see those strikes happening.

00:14:28.000 But probably the best way to unify the party around remembering Lindsey Graham, I think, is a very straightforward one they can pass the SAVE Act.

00:14:38.000 Graham, whatever his flaws, was a champion of passing that bill to improve election security, to make it harder for all the various shenanigans and edge cases that make it easier for Democrats to eke out wins that they seemed unlikely to get.

00:14:53.000 But you don't need to hear it from me.

00:14:55.000 You can hear it from Democrats themselves.

00:14:57.000 There's a clip that the team just sent me, and it's from Democrat Alyssa Slotkin.

00:15:01.000 And she says, What's going to happen if the Save America Act passes?

00:15:05.000 Clip 13.

00:15:06.000 The other thing that we blocked yesterday was the Save Act.

00:15:09.000 Right? 1.00

00:15:10.000 Well, this administration to rig our democracy so that it would be hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election and disenfranchise all married women in the meantime, by the way. 1.00

00:15:21.000 You'd have to show your birth certificate at the polls if you have a married name.

00:15:25.000 You hear the usual fear mongering.

00:15:26.000 Oh, it's going.

00:15:27.000 If they thought, if they really thought it would disenfranchise married women, Democrats would support the SAVE Act because married women as a whole are a Republican tilting demographic.

00:15:36.000 So they're making that up. 0.99

00:15:37.000 But here's the true thing.

00:15:40.000 Republicans, if you want to honor Lindsey Graham and improve our prospects in these coming midterms, here's an idea for the Senate.

00:15:47.000 There's an August recess coming up.

00:15:48.000 They're all excited to go home and meet their constituents and not be in Washington.

00:15:52.000 Here's an idea delay that recess, or if you feel like it, cancel it entirely.

00:15:57.000 Americans will thank you for that.

00:15:59.000 They will thank you for being in Washington if you're able to tell them we stayed in Washington to confirm the president's appointees and pass the SAVE Act.

00:16:08.000 So go get that done, and you'll be honoring Lindsey Graham and you'll be improving something all conservatives want.

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00:17:37.000 We're joined now by our friend John Doyle.

00:17:40.000 He's the host of the John Doyle Show over at The Blaze TV.

00:17:43.000 John, welcome to the program.

00:17:45.000 Thank you.

00:17:45.000 Glad to be back.

00:17:46.000 We want to talk about a few different things here.

00:17:48.000 I definitely want to have you help weigh in with various events going on with Iran.

00:17:54.000 But I know you, like us, were watching a lot of the events.

00:17:58.000 Last week in Orem, Utah, we finally got to see all of the evidence laid out against Tyler Robinson.

00:18:05.000 And certainly, Andrew and I, and all of us over here, feel the evidence against Mr. Robinson is extremely strong.

00:18:12.000 But as we also predicted, there's a lot of people, you know, most of them, coming out to say, actually, all this evidence is fake, it's bogus, it's weak.

00:18:23.000 This is an op job.

00:18:25.000 They will never, ever believe that Tyler Robinson did it.

00:18:28.000 And they seem very committed to going down with the ship.

00:18:32.000 On this issue.

00:18:33.000 And so, since you've been monitoring it a lot, I wanted to take this big picture and ask there seems to be a sort of conspiracy right subculture, if you want to call them that.

00:18:44.000 And we're trying to get at psychologically.

00:18:46.000 What do you think is motivating this?

00:18:49.000 I think this is the true long COVID, to be honest with you.

00:18:52.000 I think the most devastating consequence of the COVID 19 pandemic has been that it's given people permission to indulge in like any conspiracy theory that they come across.

00:19:01.000 And all of the people who have spent their entire lives, spent many decades just like broadcasting conspiracy theories.

00:19:07.000 They've taken a very unearned victory lap where, like, they were right one time out of 10,000 in saying that, you know, the government's probably going to abuse the COVID lockdowns to take people's rights away and transfer wealth from the elites or from the middle class rather to the elites.

00:19:21.000 And that ended up being the case.

00:19:22.000 But now there's like this kind of like perpetual indulgence in this where it's just like, yeah, we're going to believe every conspiracy theory must be true until proven otherwise.

00:19:30.000 And then when you have something like objective evidence pertaining to a criminal proceeding, they will actually just like jump to other lily pads.

00:19:36.000 So they'll say that this theory must be true.

00:19:38.000 And then when you disprove it, they'll say, well, It's actually this other thing and this other thing.

00:19:42.000 And so clearly, this is not a person who's actually like motivated by truth.

00:19:45.000 They're more motivated by like the sport of participating in this kind of stuff.

00:19:49.000 And perhaps they even find it entertaining.

00:19:50.000 Like these are the same people who would watch, you know, true crime documentaries or something on Netflix.

00:19:55.000 And it just so happens that they've stumbled into a criminal proceeding that is actually like extremely important for the success of American patriots.

00:20:01.000 And so I have very little patience for it.

00:20:04.000 I think that a lot of it is quite curiously enabled and even actually promoted on social media.

00:20:08.000 Whereas you remember, you know, we used to get banned for conspiracy theorizing on social media.

00:20:13.000 Because the ultimate conclusion of the conspiracy theories were that I think the people in charge are trying to harm American citizens.

00:20:19.000 That's probably bad.

00:20:20.000 And so all of that would get you banned.

00:20:22.000 My Twitter account was banned for years prior to Elon Musk's purchase of X because of this exact kind of question asking.

00:20:29.000 Now, curiously, not only are you allowed to ask questions, the most popular content on social media is asking these questions.

00:20:36.000 And you notice it's because the vector of attack is different.

00:20:38.000 Whereas the old conspiracy theorizing that used to get you banned was ultimately saying, hey, we should indict the global left who is clearly trying to work against the interests of the American public.

00:20:47.000 Now, the vector of attack when you just ask questions is specifically against the interests of the American public and their greatest advocates.

00:20:54.000 You can conspiracy theorize all you want as long as the ultimate conclusion is do not support Donald Trump, do not vote for Republicans, do not blame the left for assassinating Charlie Kirk.

00:21:03.000 You do that, you can have your conspiracy theories, just so long as you don't actually blame the left.

00:21:08.000 That's such an important point that, yes, it's that this is popular and that it specifically takes the form of people, at least nominally on the right, firing on other members of the right really aggressively, constantly, nonstop.

00:21:23.000 Do you think that it's a fluke that it happened this way?

00:21:25.000 Or what do you think is driving that impulse to attack people mostly on their own side?

00:21:32.000 I think, frankly, I mean, you know as well as I do, a lot of people who wash up into right wing politics tried to make it in other aspects of entertainment, which you could argue is just a lifelong impulse to get attention for themselves.

00:21:44.000 And maybe they try to go work in Hollywood and they're not talented enough.

00:21:46.000 Maybe they try to be models and they're not pretty enough. 0.97

00:21:49.000 They wash up into right wing politics, which, you know, they already say politics is just Hollywood for ugly people.

00:21:54.000 And that's certainly true, where you've got this kind of like.

00:21:57.000 Class of person who makes a living now talking about politics.

00:22:00.000 And they may even agree with the issues, but fundamentally, this is a person who was first driven by wanting attention, wanting fame, wanting fortune.

00:22:07.000 And so then when opportunity comes knocking and it's like, hey, you can just kind of like sell out any moral principles that you may have had, but you'll get more attention and money than you've ever had before.

00:22:16.000 This is a person who's going to be very quick, I think, to make that decision.

00:22:19.000 And you notice now a lot of the people have been entertaining this kind of conspiracy theorizing, going against the legacy of their friend, encouraging or at least enabling, looking the other way during the harassment of his widow.

00:22:31.000 All of this has made these people more money and more popular than they've ever had before.

00:22:35.000 And so I think for that kind of person, it's like worth it ultimately.

00:22:38.000 So, as you mentioned, this used to get cracked down on Twitter.

00:22:42.000 There was a lot of censorship of this sort of thing.

00:22:44.000 And I think you would agree with us.

00:22:46.000 It's good that Elon Musk liberated Twitter and made it X.

00:22:49.000 It's good that we have far less censorship, far more open free speech.

00:22:54.000 It's almost unbelievable how much better things have become compared to 2020, 2021.

00:23:00.000 So, we don't want to go back.

00:23:01.000 We don't want to go back to mass censorship.

00:23:04.000 So, then that's the challenge.

00:23:06.000 How do we curb the influence of the conspiracy right subculture?

00:23:12.000 How do we win people back from this without having to resort to the mechanism of actually that idea is just banned?

00:23:18.000 We're going to censor it anytime it pops up online.

00:23:20.000 To be honest with you, I literally have no idea.

00:23:23.000 I have been asking this question to close friends for months now.

00:23:26.000 This is sort of the thing.

00:23:27.000 It's like, you know, because the democratization of anything is going to enable the ascent of like the lower common denominators, whether it's entertainment, the political process, even the exchange of information.

00:23:38.000 As you include more ideas, you know, the thinking is that the best ideas will rise to the top.

00:23:43.000 That's actually not true.

00:23:44.000 And again, this is not an argument for censorship because clearly we are in a better position to forward the truth and ideas than we were, you know, compared to five years ago.

00:23:52.000 But the problem with that is now, instead of the arrows being cast at the truth by, you know, the regime, the censorship apparatus, they're being cast at us by like just like stupid people who are not actually with us in that pursuit of truth, but rather just, you know, along for the ride because they find it entertaining and they're willing to derail the entire pursuit itself if it means it's going to be entertaining.

00:24:12.000 For them, or tantalizing, or something. 0.89

00:24:13.000 So, I don't actually know how you solve it.

00:24:16.000 My strategy, I've just been trying to keep my head down, avoid the drama, and just speak the truth.

00:24:21.000 I've noticed a lot of people kind of mirroring that strategy, but still, you've got this like incessant barrage of just like lies and just nonsense coming from those kinds of people.

00:24:30.000 And once the appetite develops in the audience for that kind of stuff, and other people who are maybe more on the fence, they're not necessarily trying to engage with it, but they're maybe not totally committed to just speaking the truth.

00:24:42.000 There's like a critical mass that I think can be reached when those kinds of people see the rewards that are to be had when you engage in that kind of like bottom of the barrel slop.

00:24:49.000 You get more money, you get more attention.

00:24:51.000 Those people who used to be respected, I've noticed they're indulging in it a little bit themselves.

00:24:55.000 And so I don't actually know how you solve that as the network model disappears, which used to hold people to some kind of like editorial standard.

00:25:03.000 As that disappears, it's going to be very difficult to keep people on the right track.

00:25:06.000 So I don't know, actually.

00:25:08.000 It's a very, that's a million dollar question, I suppose.

00:25:10.000 It definitely is a big challenge.

00:25:12.000 But I do feel if, I hope I'm not just wish casting here.

00:25:16.000 We saw the events of the past week with the evidence laid out.

00:25:20.000 I do feel like we maybe have, at least with Charlie and Tyler Robinson, reached and passed a peak that now that there is more evidence on display and more people are speaking up, that at least some people are going to realize, okay, this isn't going to pan out.

00:25:38.000 They're not going to suddenly find the secret trove of evidence that blows this wide open.

00:25:43.000 Am I wish casting there, or are there signs that we might be reaching a turning point there?

00:25:48.000 No, you're correct.

00:25:49.000 I'm just a bit jaded, I think.

00:25:51.000 It has been very heartening to see a lot of people who were indulging in this stuff come out and say, Look, I was fundamentally concerned about the direction of my country.

00:26:00.000 I love Charlie Kirk.

00:26:01.000 He was an arch patriot.

00:26:02.000 I'm worried about what's going on here.

00:26:04.000 And so they were viewing it from that, just asking questions, perhaps extending a bit of undue charity to people like Candace Owens and going along this journey with them.

00:26:13.000 And then ultimately they're saying, Okay, wait a minute.

00:26:15.000 This person was like clearly recklessly disregarding the truth and lying to me.

00:26:18.000 And obviously we have this guy dead to rights.

00:26:20.000 We have him at the place you said we didn't.

00:26:22.000 We've got his DNA.

00:26:23.000 You said we didn't.

00:26:24.000 We've got confessions.

00:26:25.000 You said we didn't.

00:26:26.000 Clearly, insofar as I'm concerned about like an objective pursuit of truth, the trial is going to be where I'm going to get that, not like the influencer class.

00:26:34.000 So, a lot of people have been seeing that and even having the courage, frankly, to kind of like cast stones in the direction of these people and be like, okay, actually, no, you were lying to me.

00:26:42.000 This is not about the truth.

00:26:43.000 This is you just trying to aggrandize yourself while standing on this guy's grave.

00:26:46.000 That's wrong.

00:26:47.000 And I don't like you anymore.

00:26:48.000 I'm not going to continue to consume your content anymore.

00:26:50.000 I've been very heartened to see that.

00:26:52.000 I wasn't sure how much of that we were going to see, but it is good to see that people are speaking up about that because.

00:26:57.000 That kind of behavior is despicable to say the least.

00:27:00.000 It sounds, I guess it sounds like a challenge for people like yourself, people, some of our lawmakers.

00:27:08.000 It's something Charlie would talk about that sometimes you have a moral test of leadership, and you can either pass that test by standing by the truth, even if it is temporarily unpopular, even if there are financial opportunities available if you decide the truth matters less, or you can give into this and you can embrace that.

00:27:30.000 And I think.

00:27:31.000 I'm very hopeful that we will see in the months and years to come that more people are going to be willing to follow Charlie's example, take that moral step up.

00:27:40.000 So, we want to talk a little bit about Iran. 0.78

00:27:44.000 We've been in this on off conflict with Iran for almost half a year at this point, and it looks like we're heading on a trajectory back towards conflict.

00:27:54.000 There was a new wave of strikes on the country last night, as reported on Fox.

00:27:59.000 Let's show clip eight.

00:28:01.000 Let's get started with what happened overnight as the president brings down his iron fist on Iran.

00:28:07.000 The U.S. pounded Iran for five hours last night.

00:28:12.000 CENTCOM says they hit military targets across six different locations, but did not say if they struck Pickaxe Mountain.

00:28:19.000 That's something the president said was a potential target for a nice big fat shot.

00:28:24.000 Also seeing reports that the IRGC carried out drone and missile strikes on U.S. military targets in Bahrain.

00:28:31.000 Kuwait and Jordan, and a Dutch shipping firm says one of its vessels was struck off the coast of Oman.

00:28:39.000 And so that's all unfolding.

00:28:40.000 Meanwhile, President Trump announced he's reinstating the naval blockade, and he initially announced he was going to have essentially a 20% fee on any ship transiting through the strait, not just actually blocking the ones to Iran, but anyone else paying a fee.

00:28:57.000 And he explained his reasoning on this, clip six.

00:29:02.000 Of the world, we're spending money, and so what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection.

00:29:10.000 We're protecting by the countries that we're helping.

00:29:14.000 But just a few minutes ago today, President Trump updated on that.

00:29:18.000 There was a lot of furor over that announcement, but then he said, On truth, after highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% U.S. reimbursement fee with trade and investment deals that various Gulf states will be making in the United States.

00:29:35.000 Those investments will be massive.

00:29:37.000 But at the same time, extraordinarily good for them and their future.

00:29:40.000 We have the largest dollar investment in the United States of any country in history.

00:29:44.000 We will see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the United States at historic levels, which will create millions of high paying American jobs.

00:29:53.000 Most importantly, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

00:29:55.000 Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump.

00:30:00.000 So, John, you and I, we've talked a little bit about this war.

00:30:05.000 We just had our chapter leadership summit, and we talked to the young people, and they said, Wars, there's not a lot of enthusiasm with it for young people.

00:30:13.000 President Trump could probably improve his popularity by ending it, but it looks like we're continuing this on and off path.

00:30:19.000 So I want to ask you you mentioned we keep facing forward, we keep focusing on the priorities that matter.

00:30:25.000 How should we be talking and thinking about this conflict?

00:30:29.000 Yeah, you're absolutely right.

00:30:30.000 You know, this is one of the things that sort of break broken containment, where obviously, if you're online at all, you see that anytime anything remotely bad happens, people panic and flip out, but it doesn't usually get back to you in your real life.

00:30:41.000 The Iran war has been something that people who I know personally who are usually apolitical, maybe they have conservative instincts, they're very concerned about this.

00:30:49.000 They're not happy about this.

00:30:50.000 They're, of course, echoing what was repeated during Trump's 2024 campaign pertaining to no new wars.

00:30:55.000 Now we are, in fact, in a new war.

00:30:57.000 They're paying a lot more at the pump.

00:30:58.000 And this is going to cause a lot of problems, I think, going into midterms.

00:31:01.000 So I would like to see this get wrapped up very quickly.

00:31:04.000 Just speaking about it, like from a right wing perspective, Donald Trump has obviously always had maybe a hawkish position on Iran.

00:31:11.000 He hasn't exactly updated that policy.

00:31:13.000 And I think that the way things were going globally, this is probably going to happen regardless of who took office.

00:31:18.000 Trump's approach toward Iran during 2024 was actually more diplomatic.

00:31:21.000 I mean, he was saying he wanted to make a deal.

00:31:23.000 This was much different than his rhetoric in 2015 when he said he wanted to blow their ships out of the water.

00:31:28.000 Kamala Harris's campaign was saying otherwise.

00:31:30.000 You know, she was saying that Iran is our greatest enemy.

00:31:32.000 They have American blood on their hands.

00:31:34.000 And so it seemed to be the case that whoever got into office, there's probably going to be something going down with Iran. 0.80

00:31:40.000 But I really hope that this wraps up quickly because we are far past our timeline. 0.50

00:31:45.000 You know, I was trusting the plan with the timeline.

00:31:46.000 This is going to be over in a couple of weeks.

00:31:48.000 Now we are entering into about, like you said, you know, a year of this kind of conflict.

00:31:53.000 You know, we had the strikes last summer that was popping off.

00:31:56.000 And so I hope that this gets wrapped up pretty quickly because I don't know how much longer I can justify this to my apolitical friends who I would like to see vote come November.

00:32:04.000 Exactly.

00:32:05.000 I think we remain hopeful.

00:32:06.000 And maybe I'm seizing upon something here, but even in this recent Trump statement I just read, I like that he's saying we should be reimbursed by the Gulf.

00:32:13.000 And specifically, what the goal is, he's saying we're going to try to get factories, plants, and equipment pouring back into the United States because we've seen that these conflicts have been a way to expend American wealth abroad.

00:32:27.000 We've also seen prior administrations just deliberately ship American wealth, American expertise, American factories abroad.

00:32:34.000 We've said, Will be richer and better off if these factories uproot from the U.S. and go abroad.

00:32:40.000 So I find it reassuring that even when he's talking about conflict with Iran, President Trump is thinking the goal here is to make America stronger, make America build things again.

00:32:51.000 Am I reading the right amount into this?

00:32:52.000 We have about 60 seconds.

00:32:54.000 Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. 0.99

00:32:55.000 You know, his opposition to the Iraq war was it was stupid because we didn't take the oil. 0.69

00:32:59.000 You know, he is thinking in terms ultimately of what benefits the American public. 0.97

00:33:03.000 And I trust him to handle this. 0.90

00:33:05.000 Sort of lingering trauma that like millennials and Gen Z have, having grown up in sort of the era of the war on terror, where we're used to spilling our blood and treasure in the Middle East and getting nothing for it.

00:33:14.000 And so I feel like that trauma response is so built in that anytime they hear there's another sand war, they're going to assume that it's for absolutely no reason. 0.63

00:33:22.000 We're just getting sucked into something that doesn't benefit us.

00:33:24.000 And so it's ultimately on the administration to communicate that more transparently to the public.

00:33:28.000 This is actually in your interest.

00:33:29.000 This is actually benefiting you, much unlike what you may be used to in terms of, you know, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

00:33:36.000 I think that's exactly right.

00:33:37.000 There is a lot of trauma, and I think that's what's driven a lot of the response to this.

00:33:41.000 That people, if you're a 20 year old voter, we talk to them.

00:33:45.000 They're born in 2006, 2007, 2008.

00:33:49.000 They have no memory of an America that wasn't mired in these wars, and it's made them very wary.

00:33:54.000 But I think if he can guide this to a successful conclusion, I like to think that they'll recover.

00:33:59.000 John Doyle, thank you for joining us.

00:34:01.000 Great as always.

00:34:02.000 We'll see you soon.

00:34:03.000 Thank you.

00:34:06.000 Gentlemen.

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00:35:31.000 We have the legendary Mark Halpern.

00:35:34.000 He's editor in chief of Two Way TV and host of Next Up on the Megyn Kelly Network.

00:35:40.000 Charlie loved hearing from him.

00:35:41.000 I love hearing from him because we can trust him to give us a lot of insights on how Washington really works.

00:35:47.000 So, Mark, we're very glad to have you with us.

00:35:51.000 And I might as well just dive right into it.

00:35:54.000 Lindsey Graham.

00:35:55.000 He has been a fixture in Washington basically my entire life.

00:36:01.000 And I described him at the top of the show, his departure.

00:36:03.000 It feels a bit like a generational changeover of the Republican Party.

00:36:10.000 Am I correct in that statement or am I wildly off base?

00:36:13.000 What do you think of that?

00:36:14.000 No, I think that's right.

00:36:15.000 First of all, I like to think of myself as knowing about America rather than knowing about Washington.

00:36:19.000 So I dabble in Washington, but my concern is more the country.

00:36:24.000 You know, there's only one member left of the class of 94.

00:36:30.000 In Congress, Roger Wicker, who's now a senator.

00:36:34.000 And that class, of course, was a bridge between the Reagan Revolution and the Tea Party and then MAGA, which is, you know, the story of the conservative movement to a large extent since Watergate can be told, I think, in those four chapters Reagan, the 94 revolution, in which Newt Gingrich led Republicans to their first half majority in eons.

00:37:02.000 Then the Tea Party and then MAGA and Trump.

00:37:06.000 And Lindsey Graham spanned that by being a member of that class of '94.

00:37:11.000 And part of why I think people are being so emotional about it in Washington and those who knew him is because he does remind them of that history, of that bridge.

00:37:27.000 And because he was relatively young and because he was kind of a spry guy and a jokester.

00:37:35.000 I think people are sort of brought up a little bit short in thinking about if he's gone, just how much time has passed in that bygone era that's so resonant for so many.

00:37:46.000 Yeah.

00:37:47.000 And so, of course, I mentioned that he's well known for being a very hawkish Republican senator.

00:37:53.000 He was well known for being one more sympathetic to immigration reform, even amnesty.

00:37:58.000 Yet, he didn't change those views too much into the Trump era.

00:38:03.000 And yet, at the same time, he was known as a senator.

00:38:05.000 Who was very close with President Trump, who had a lot of ability to influence him.

00:38:11.000 Can you describe to us how he was able to achieve that?

00:38:15.000 What were his political secrets to keeping his influence through changing times?

00:38:20.000 So, you know, the left is criticizing him as kind of the ultimate Trump lapdog and mocking him and saying, you know, he sold his soul.

00:38:32.000 And certainly to be really close friends with both John McCain and Donald Trump during this period.

00:38:38.000 Is not something too many other people could pull off.

00:38:43.000 He was fun to have around because he had a great sense of humor and because he had an active mind.

00:38:49.000 He loved to trade in gossip, which, by the way, for those of you who don't know, the president loves to trade in gossip.

00:38:55.000 Just fascinated by the real lives of real people, meaning the personal lives of people around him in his court.

00:39:03.000 And he was very media savvy, and of course, President Trump likes that.

00:39:08.000 And then, although he differed with the president on some issues, He understood how to try to square the circle.

00:39:15.000 Understood how to push the president towards where he wanted to go, but not push too hard to embarrass the president or to shame him.

00:39:25.000 And then I guess one more is he was great eyes and ears for the president on Capitol Hill.

00:39:31.000 And the president loves gossip.

00:39:32.000 He also loves political intelligence.

00:39:34.000 And Senator Graham could provide that to him.

00:39:36.000 Yeah.

00:39:37.000 And he also, it just seemed he knew those little subtle ways, or maybe even not so subtle.

00:39:41.000 I was reading just the other day after his death that.

00:39:46.000 He described his secret.

00:39:47.000 He says, if you flatter President Trump too much, he's going to be suspicious.

00:39:51.000 He's not going to go for it.

00:39:52.000 He'll have contempt for you.

00:39:53.000 But the best way to perhaps guide his favorite secret was he would just tell President Trump, here's what President Obama would do in this situation.

00:40:02.000 And he would just describe it.

00:40:04.000 And President Trump had such a deep aversion to Obama.

00:40:08.000 He really disliked him.

00:40:09.000 And that was a way to guide him in that direction.

00:40:11.000 And was that just his special talent?

00:40:14.000 He knew how to.

00:40:16.000 Tell the story, tell the little.

00:40:19.000 Yeah.

00:40:19.000 Tell the anecdote that would make someone lean the way you want them to go.

00:40:23.000 Like Trump himself, Lindsey Graham had high human intelligence.

00:40:26.000 He understood how to read people.

00:40:28.000 And part of why reporters loved him so much was because he knew what reporters needed.

00:40:32.000 He knew what reporters wanted. 0.96

00:40:33.000 You read today in the New York Times and lots of other places online on social media lots of liberal reporters love Lindsey Graham.

00:40:44.000 And not because he was a liberal.

00:40:45.000 On some issues, he was more moderate, but on other issues, like on national security stuff, quite hawkish.

00:40:50.000 But he just understood how to give people what they wanted.

00:40:53.000 And, you know, not to play an amateur psychiatrist, but if you look at someone who lost his parents when he was young, who had to struggle and then search for father figures like Joe Lieberman and John McCain and Donald Trump, he's a people pleaser.

00:41:06.000 And so he's a smart, funny people pleaser who could read people well.

00:41:10.000 And I think that explains not just how he did what he did, but why it was so effective.

00:41:15.000 So now he very abruptly is gone.

00:41:19.000 And I suppose the natural question to ask is.

00:41:22.000 What does that mean?

00:41:23.000 How is the Republican Party different?

00:41:25.000 How is the dynamic in Washington different with Lindsey Graham for now replaced by his non politician sister and soon likely to be replaced by a different Republican?

00:41:35.000 Is there any transformative effect or am I overplaying this?

00:41:38.000 No, I think there's minor transformative effects that need to play out on Capitol Hill.

00:41:43.000 He was chair of the budget committee, he was chair of a lot of subcommittees, he was a key vote and a key voice on a lot of issues.

00:41:51.000 I think the Capitol Hill reporters, as they tend to do, Are overwriting that, overemphasizing it.

00:41:56.000 I think all that will sort itself out.

00:41:58.000 And I don't think the post Graham world will be all that different in terms of the process of Capitol Hill.

00:42:03.000 I think the biggest thing is his role on Ukraine.

00:42:07.000 And not, as some have said, because the hawks have lost their biggest voice.

00:42:12.000 And perhaps this will make President Trump less supportive of Zelensky.

00:42:16.000 As I understood it before his death, the administration believed, realized that of all the people in Trump's orbit, the only one. Who could pressure President Zelensky to eventually make a deal when the time comes was Senator Graham because of his close relationship with Zelensky and his hawkish position.

00:42:35.000 At some point, we hope, maybe this won't be the way it ends, but the most likely way the war ends is President Zelensky accepts a peace and security swap for giving up land that he doesn't want to give up and that the Ukrainian constitution suggests he can.

00:42:52.000 So hold on, am I hearing this right?

00:42:55.000 I'm hearing this right.

00:42:57.000 Lindsey Graham was the chief asset for achieving peace in Ukraine, a negotiated peace in Ukraine.

00:43:03.000 With a very specific task, which was to say to his friend Zelensky, Trust me, this is the best deal you're going to get.

00:43:10.000 I care about your security like you do.

00:43:13.000 This is it.

00:43:14.000 Take the deal.

00:43:15.000 And it would require someone of his personal ties to Zelensky and credibility on security and anti Putin sentiment to sell that.

00:43:24.000 And I haven't talked to anybody about what their backup is, but he was the one who had the credibility to do that, and no one else does.

00:43:32.000 So I think that could be the biggest change and loss from his passing.

00:43:40.000 That's so interesting.

00:43:41.000 That's why I love having you on.

00:43:43.000 You highlight those things that we don't necessarily think of otherwise.

00:43:46.000 So, Mark.

00:43:47.000 We're going to have a primary one month out from now, and it's something we very rarely see an absolutely wide open primary for a seat in a relatively secure red seat.

00:44:01.000 What's happening right now?

00:44:02.000 How are they maneuvering?

00:44:04.000 What sort of stuff is happening behind the scenes or, frankly, in front of the cameras that our viewers should know about?

00:44:09.000 Well, some people have taken themselves out who might have been picked, others are burning up the phone lines.

00:44:16.000 I was a little surprised that they chose a caretaker, Senator Graham's sister, but.

00:44:20.000 But it does make a certain amount of sense because it's an anti-establishment time, and they wanted her for the symbolism, I think, to have the job.

00:44:29.000 But my money and my eye are currently on Congressman Fry of South Carolina, someone who Donald Trump helped win, beat an incumbent who the president wanted to take out.

00:44:40.000 He's currently on the ballot to run for his House seat, but South Carolina law actually allows you to run for both at the same time.

00:44:46.000 So I suspect if he has the endorsement of both the president and the governor, and I suspect they'll endorse the same person.

00:44:54.000 That's where I'm looking.

00:44:56.000 And in a primary like this, such a short turnaround, such a short timeframe, I'd be hard to imagine that the president's normal practice of endorsing the winner wouldn't sustain.

00:45:09.000 And do you think it is just President Trump likely can, could he anoint the winner?

00:45:13.000 If he were to pick someone else, would that person instantly become the favorite?

00:45:17.000 I mean, if he picked me, no.

00:45:20.000 Whoever he picks will be the favorite, without a doubt.

00:45:22.000 And as you know, the president reverse engineers this a little bit.

00:45:26.000 He endorses after folks tell him who's going to win.

00:45:29.000 He rarely takes a risk.

00:45:31.000 In fact, in the gubernatorial primary in South Carolina a few weeks ago, the president had endorsed the lieutenant governor.

00:45:37.000 When his aides told him the polling suggested she would lose, he did what he sometimes does.

00:45:41.000 He endorsed a second candidate, Mr. Wilson, and he won the runoff.

00:45:47.000 So the president, I think, will probably pick one person who his team says if you endorse this person, they're likely to win.

00:45:56.000 I was just double checking my message, and I said, We're going to talk about Graham.

00:46:01.000 And as we know, Senator Lindsey Graham is not the only Graham.

00:46:04.000 Since we last had you on, there's been a lot of drama with another Graham, Graham Plattner, out in Maine. 0.95

00:46:11.000 Democrats, it seems like they basically are we reading this correct from the right that they looked at all of his scandals and thought, This is a loser.

00:46:19.000 We need to pull something off to force him out.

00:46:22.000 And they just made it happen?

00:46:24.000 Is that what unfolded?

00:46:26.000 It's an interesting question why en masse a critical mass of Democrats turned on him.

00:46:32.000 As you know, some Democrats never supported him, even after he won the primary.

00:46:36.000 Others opposed him until he won the primary and then got on board.

00:46:40.000 I talk to many Democrats, reasonable people who say the Nazi tattoo was enough for them.

00:46:45.000 They would never support him.

00:46:46.000 But he had the support of Senator Schumer and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, et cetera.

00:46:53.000 Why this one story, as horrible as the charges were, why that caused them all to drop, I don't know.

00:46:59.000 I did write a piece for the free press yesterday.

00:47:02.000 I'm not sure this increases their chances of winning.

00:47:05.000 I think Democrats assume that they couldn't win with Platner, but I'm not sure they can win with Adam as I look at the early jostling amongst the minor leaguers trying to replace him.

00:47:15.000 Platner brought a lot of strengths to this.

00:47:17.000 You know, he won the primary overwhelmingly.

00:47:19.000 He was roughly even in the polling.

00:47:21.000 He had energy, organization, a message, and that great voice, gravelly voice.

00:47:26.000 And I look at these other folks, I'm not sure if they auditioned to be an extra and Pippin at Bayo, New Jersey Dinner Theater, that they would necessarily get cast.

00:47:35.000 So we'll see.

00:47:36.000 I think we'll know in a few weeks after they pick the person whether they've got what it takes to beat an incumbent.

00:47:42.000 Is there, so it does seem, yeah, they basically, as you said, he won the primary overwhelmingly, and the party establishment basically said, tough shakes, we're not going to let this happen.

00:47:53.000 Do voters tend to feel burned by this?

00:47:56.000 Like, are there going to be Democrats who are just going to say, you took out our guy, I'm not voting?

00:48:02.000 Or are they more likely to say, the most important thing is getting rid of a Republican and Like, do they only have to worry about their candidate might be weaker, or do they have to worry that they have alienated their base?

00:48:14.000 From everything I've seen, it's really more the former than the latter.

00:48:18.000 I haven't seen much in talking to Democrats and listening to voters and reading other people's interviews with voters.

00:48:24.000 I don't see much evidence that people are despondent because they recognize that Platner was a vehicle.

00:48:31.000 And I did a focus group a few weeks ago, and all the people in it who were supportive of Platner didn't think he was some hero.

00:48:37.000 They just thought he was the vehicle.

00:48:39.000 Most of everybody who's running to replace him.

00:48:42.000 Agrees with him on a preponderance of issues.

00:48:44.000 They don't have his charisma.

00:48:46.000 So I would imagine the bigger problem than people saying, hey, you took out our guy, we're depressed, we're not going to vote for the Democrat.

00:48:53.000 I think the bigger problem will be, I'm not that engaged with the race anymore because we don't have the excitement of Graham Plattner.

00:48:59.000 Mark, every time you're on, I just love to ask you, you are an expert on America, as you yourself said.

00:49:04.000 So we are a few months out from the midterm election.

00:49:09.000 What's your read on the overall state of things?

00:49:12.000 If things stay as they are, regarding the economy, how people feel about the direction of the country and the president, I think, excuse me, I think it'll be a very big day for the Democrats.

00:49:24.000 Certainly take back the House, maybe take back the Senate, but that's still subject to some individual races.

00:49:29.000 Republicans have really helped themselves with redistricting.

00:49:33.000 They've really were benefited from a Supreme Court decision that allows them to coordinate how money is spent.

00:49:39.000 And so the structural things benefit Republicans, the history and the current overview macro conditions.

00:49:46.000 Benefit the Democrats.

00:49:47.000 But let's see how people feel about the economy.

00:49:50.000 Let's see where gas prices are.

00:49:51.000 The inflation numbers today were better than expected.

00:49:54.000 So let's see if the president can't nudge his approval rating up, right track, wrong track up.

00:49:59.000 Even 5% would make a big difference for the party.

00:50:03.000 Let's say, for example, if they were able to reach a deal in Iran, 30 seconds here, could that do an overnight turn?

00:50:10.000 Or is it getting to the point where it might be too late to fix that?

00:50:13.000 Yeah, it could make a big difference, but so would repelling a Martian invasion, which at this point seems just as likely as getting a deal with Iran. 0.87

00:50:20.000 Brutally honest at times. 0.99

00:50:22.000 That's why we appreciate you, Mark.

00:50:24.000 That's why Charlie appreciated you.

00:50:26.000 Check out Mark's work.

00:50:27.000 He's editor in chief of Two Way TV, like we said.

00:50:30.000 You can call in, you can ask him questions.

00:50:32.000 He's also next up on the Megan Kelly Network.

00:50:35.000 Mark, always love hearing you tell it to us.

00:50:37.000 So thank you for joining us again.

00:50:39.000 Great to see you, man.

00:50:40.000 Thank you for having me on.

00:50:41.000 My best, Andrew.

00:50:44.000 Folks, let me tell you something straight up.

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00:51:58.000 We just had our Chapter Leadership Summit in DC.

00:52:01.000 I was there.

00:52:01.000 Andrew was there.

00:52:02.000 We had some panel discussions with kids.

00:52:04.000 It was our biggest one ever.

00:52:06.000 And I just wanted to talk more about it today because I think it's very important to highlight the work that Turning Point USA is continuing to do to reach the next generation.

00:52:15.000 So, we're joined by two people who just attended that event.

00:52:19.000 We're joined by Preston Parsons.

00:52:21.000 He's the Turning Point USA chapter president at Texas Tech.

00:52:25.000 And we're also joined by Sophia Hunt, who is a Club America chapter president at Westfield High School.

00:52:31.000 Welcome to both of you.

00:52:33.000 Thank you so much.

00:52:35.000 Yes, thanks for having us on, Blake.

00:52:37.000 All righty.

00:52:37.000 Well, Preston, I think I'll start with you because I think you're a little bit older.

00:52:40.000 So, we'll.

00:52:41.000 We'll go easy on our high schooler here.

00:52:43.000 So, just tell us what was it like being at this event, thousands of other young Turning Point chapter representatives, meeting them, interacting with them.

00:52:52.000 Just give our audience the feeling of what it's like to be at one of these Turning Point youth events.

00:52:57.000 Absolutely.

00:52:58.000 First of all, I'd just like to say nobody puts on events like Turning Point USA does.

00:53:02.000 It was a Turning Point USA event one year ago that completely changed the trajectory of my life and got me involved.

00:53:08.000 And it was my first time in Washington, D.C. at the CLS, which was also an incredible experience.

00:53:12.000 To be in DC for the America 250 celebrations around thousands of other young patriotic Americans who share the same vision.

00:53:20.000 It was an incredible experience and the vibes were awesome.

00:53:24.000 Between the Club America kids getting to go check out Mount Vernon, the college kids getting to interact with each other and the various speakers, and for instance, my group getting to run into you, Blake, down there in the lobby of the hotel, getting to chit chat with you.

00:53:36.000 But overall, it's phenomenal.

00:53:38.000 And once again, no one puts on events like Turning Point USA.

00:53:41.000 Oh, thank you so much.

00:53:42.000 Sophia, was this your first Turning Point event of any kind or what was it like for you?

00:53:47.000 So, my first Turning Point event was actually back in December of 2024.

00:53:51.000 And ever since then, I've been trying to attend every single Turning Point event.

00:53:54.000 It's been a blast.

00:53:55.000 I even had the opportunity of being one of the two high school students being selected to attend the Turning Point Gala in Mar a Lago back in December.

00:54:05.000 But it was truly an amazing experience, one of the most encouraging events that I've personally ever attended.

00:54:10.000 And it just brought together just student leaders from all across the country, and every single person is trying to make a difference in their schools and communities.

00:54:17.000 And that always sticks out to me, especially with these events.

00:54:20.000 The energy, It's just not only motivational, it's so uplifting.

00:54:26.000 And we're given real advice about leadership, growing our chapters, standing firm in our values, and just becoming better representatives of the movement.

00:54:36.000 And I always feel so inspired and just left feeling even more equipped to lead my chapter every time I go.

00:54:43.000 And we were playing some highlights yesterday.

00:54:46.000 Erica came to the event, delivered a speech just a few days after she was in Utah for the preliminary hearing.

00:54:54.000 Either of you, maybe Sophia first, what was it like to hear Erica's remarks?

00:54:58.000 What sort of messages do you have?

00:55:00.000 How's it compared to Charlie before her?

00:55:02.000 Wow.

00:55:03.000 Well, Erica's speech, it was definitely very powerful.

00:55:07.000 And especially what stood out to me was what she said about marriage and just placing God always at the center of it.

00:55:13.000 It reminded me of when I had the opportunity to have breakfast with Charlie Kirk just about one year ago from CLS. 0.75

00:55:20.000 So, Blast CLS.

00:55:21.000 One of the very first things that Charlie Kirk had asked me was not about politics, not about my chapter, and not about leadership, but it was, he said, How is your dating life?

00:55:31.000 And that really stood out to me, but it showed me how seriously.

00:55:34.000 Charlie and Erica viewed relationships and how in marriage and building your life on the right foundation and that foundation is God.

00:55:42.000 And their message was that a relationship cannot just be centered on two people or just the feelings, it's always has to be centered on God.

00:55:51.000 And we have to be willing to follow Him and serve each other and recognize that marriage does have a greater purpose.

00:55:56.000 And as a young woman that is thinking about her future, that was one of the most meaningful parts of the entire event.

00:56:04.000 Preston, how about you?

00:56:05.000 How did you feel from Erica's speech or any of the speeches that you heard?

00:56:08.000 While you were there?

00:56:09.000 Well, as always, all of the speakers that are at the Turning Point events are incredible.

00:56:13.000 They always have a really good message.

00:56:15.000 And I mean, props to Erica.

00:56:17.000 Before her speech, I got to visit with her a little bit at a private breakfast that morning, along with a bunch of other college students.

00:56:22.000 And seeing the effect that the trial had had on her over the last week, the pretrial hearings, and still her willingness to show up in DC, get up there, and deliver a fantastic speech was super motivating.

00:56:35.000 And, you know, you heard the students cheering, Erica, Erica, Erica, before she came on stage.

00:56:42.000 She is the leader of this organization.

00:56:43.000 We all believe in her.

00:56:44.000 We know that she is going to carry on Charlie's legacy as we all are.

00:56:49.000 And I thought that was really important with the theme of CLS his legacy, your voice.

00:56:55.000 And no one is doing it better than Miss Erica Kirk.

00:56:57.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:56:58.000 And I want to actually shout that out those breakfasts that some of you were able to attend with Erica in person.

00:57:05.000 I only throw it out there to say, any of you who are listening, who are getting involved in Turning Point in your high school, in your college, if you get really involved, Those are the opportunities that are out there.

00:57:17.000 We love to identify promising leaders and get them close with leaders at Turning Point, get them opportunities to meet leaders of our country.

00:57:27.000 Erica believes so strongly, Turning Point believes so strongly in uplifting the next generation of leaders.

00:57:32.000 Preston, a question for you.

00:57:34.000 I imagine you are meeting a lot of other college age young men who are highly motivated, highly driven.

00:57:42.000 What do you feel, and you can weigh in for yourself, what are the Issues and ideas that are most motivating to conservatives who are in that age range, under the age of 24 or so?

00:57:54.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:57:55.000 Of course, the biggest thing is affordability.

00:57:58.000 If I wasn't fortunate enough to be on scholarship, I wouldn't be attending college and I would have been in the military, and none of these experiences in Turning Point USA would have occurred.

00:58:06.000 And to see so many fellow Gen Z young men my age who are struggling with college debt, who are struggling with that issue, and not just college debt, Debt overall.

00:58:17.000 We cannot afford homes.

00:58:19.000 We cannot afford to get married.

00:58:21.000 And we cannot afford to have kids. 0.65

00:58:22.000 And that's one of the things I've enjoyed seeing these clip-tree surface of Charlie one year ago at SAS talking about the three M's, right?

00:58:29.000 He talked about maiden, marriage, and mating, right?

00:58:32.000 Getting young people involved to be able to have affordable homes, to be able to afford to have a family, to be able to afford to have kids.

00:58:40.000 That is by far the top issue because if we can't allow, if we can't, sorry, if we can't have those things happen, we really don't care about anything else that's going on politically.

00:58:49.000 Until those core issues are met.

00:58:51.000 So that mission is still going on.

00:58:53.000 That message is still one that I hear to be the most prominent among young men in Gen Z.

00:59:00.000 And Sophia, back to you.

00:59:02.000 You're talking to young women. 0.97

00:59:04.000 What's motivating high school age women that are going to turning point events?

00:59:08.000 Oh, wow.

00:59:09.000 Well, for me, I definitely think that the value that is heavily brought is that students realize that they're not alone, especially at these turning point events at school, especially when you hold conservative values.

00:59:21.000 It can really, like, people really realize that.

00:59:25.000 It can feel like you're the only person.

00:59:26.000 You feel alone sometimes.

00:59:27.000 The only person willing to speak up is you.

00:59:30.000 And then you come to CLS, you meet students like this from all over the country who are facing such similar challenges, but they always still choose to lead in events like this, especially at CLS.

00:59:39.000 And even talking with the girls my age, they always say that it gives them confidence.

00:59:43.000 It gives them so many friendships and just practical tools and just such a strong sense of purpose just to take back home with them and to use.

00:59:52.000 So that's wonderful.

00:59:55.000 That's wonderful.

00:59:58.000 I think it's such a point worth emphasizing that it can be.

01:00:02.000 I think a lot of our viewers, you know, they maybe live in rural areas.

01:00:05.000 They're used to being around a lot of conservatives.

01:00:08.000 If you're a young person on a college campus, we saw that shift a little bit in the 24 election where there were more young people open to it, but we know some of those have swung back and we know some schools never swung at all.

01:00:20.000 It can still be an isolating experience to be a conservative at your high school, at your college.

01:00:26.000 And we love having that opportunity to gather you guys in one spot, realize there are.

01:00:31.000 Thousands, really millions of people like you out there.

01:00:34.000 And a lot of them just need, they just need to be given the courage to stand up and speak up for themselves.

01:00:42.000 Is there anything else that you really want to communicate to those who've never been to a turning point event?

01:00:47.000 What they should understand about it?

01:00:48.000 Oh, wow.

01:00:49.000 Absolutely.

01:00:50.000 Well, I thought it was completely refreshing, always.

01:00:52.000 And you don't have to spend the entire time defending why you believe what you believe at these events.

01:00:57.000 And I feel like that's a big thing that we do within our school systems and within our communities.

01:01:02.000 You can go deeper and talk about these things.

01:01:04.000 And those beliefs that you have, and you can put them into action, especially with students at Turning Point.

01:01:09.000 And I met students with completely different backgrounds and experiences everywhere I walked, and we were all just so connected by our love for God, our love for our country, and Charlie, and just the desire to make a difference.

01:01:21.000 So, Turning Point events, you never want to miss them.

01:01:25.000 Preston, how about you?

01:01:26.000 Yeah, I'd just like to echo what Sophia said and what you said, Blake.

01:01:30.000 Often, when you're on your college campus, you're on your high school campus, you can feel like you're alone in this fight.

01:01:35.000 But when you go to these events and you're around thousands of other patriotic young Americans, you remember what this fight really is about, that you're not alone in this, and that despite what public belief is, we are actually the majority, and Gen Z is turning radically conservative in a very positive way.

01:01:52.000 So it's super motivating to be around other people like that, and it's really encouraging.

01:01:56.000 Like Sophia said, don't miss a Turning Point USA event.

01:01:58.000 So after Erica's speech, we made an announcement for a brand new Turning Point event that we hope to add to our.

01:02:07.000 Rotation of annual events.

01:02:09.000 And I will say, they played this one so close to the chest, it was new for me when I saw the trailer as it went on.

01:02:16.000 And so, what this event is, it is Invictus, the Men's Leadership Summit.

01:02:21.000 You women don't get your own exclusive leadership summit now.

01:02:24.000 Now we have a women's and a men's one, and we had this trailer for it. 1.00

01:02:28.000 So, let's play clip 14.

01:02:35.000 Liberty is not man's idea, it is God's idea.

01:02:40.000 We are in a spiritual war, everybody, that is beyond just the material that we are seeing.

01:02:45.000 Young boys and young men are looking for something to connect to that gives them purpose, that says it's okay to be a man.

01:03:00.000 We believe in strong, alpha, godly, high T, high achieving, confident, well armed, and disruptive men are the hope, not the problem in America.

01:03:14.000 And at Turning Point USA, not only do we celebrate masculinity, we believe that masculinity is the answer to so many of our problems in this country.

01:03:24.000 The stakes are high.

01:03:26.000 We have only begun to fight.

01:03:32.000 I love everything about this.

01:03:34.000 You can see how Charlie was so aware.

01:03:37.000 You need different techniques to appeal to men.

01:03:39.000 So, for example, we look at that October 9th through 11th this year, this fall, Southern California.

01:03:45.000 Where's the location?

01:03:46.000 I can't tell you.

01:03:48.000 It's a secret.

01:03:49.000 How do you go to this?

01:03:50.000 You can't just sign up.

01:03:51.000 You actually, you've got to go.

01:03:52.000 You can scan.

01:03:54.000 Do we have that QR code?

01:03:55.000 Throw that up if we have it.

01:03:56.000 But if we don't, you can go to TPUSAMensummit.com.

01:04:01.000 That is TPUSAMensummit.com for more information.

01:04:05.000 This is for men aged 18 to 26, and you can register, you can apply, but that doesn't mean you get to go.

01:04:11.000 They're going to be reviewing applications, interviewing the people who want to go, and the deadline is August 31st.

01:04:18.000 So we want to be shouting this out now.

01:04:20.000 This is not a thing you arrive at last minute.

01:04:23.000 Another thing that's impressive about this they announced there's going to be speakers and participants at this event.

01:04:29.000 You will have heard of them, but we're not announcing them in advance because there are some people who want to be able to provide advice and guidance with less publicity.

01:04:38.000 Maybe people.

01:04:39.000 In the business world, I don't know.

01:04:40.000 Like I said, they're playing this close to the chest, but this is going to be a new event for young men.

01:04:46.000 We want to uplift young men.

01:04:48.000 Preston, you're one of those young men.

01:04:50.000 If you're applying, what kind of things are you hoping to see at a men's leadership summit?

01:04:54.000 Blake, I am so excited for this event.

01:04:57.000 I mean, you heard the cheers coming from the crowd, and this was announced after Erica came up.

01:05:01.000 And no offense, Sophia, you know, the young women, you've had your summits, you've had your chance, but it's finally time for the young men to have this happen.

01:05:08.000 And I think they're playing into it very well.

01:05:10.000 They're playing into what we appreciate and what we need.

01:05:13.000 You know, it's very hard for young men who are 18 to 26 to, you know, sit in a conference room for 10 hours and listen to some mundane speeches for hours on end.

01:05:23.000 You know, we love being in the outdoors.

01:05:24.000 We love going to the gun range.

01:05:26.000 We love being mentored.

01:05:27.000 You love having that discipleship.

01:05:29.000 And we love being around whether it's business leaders or these, you know, influential men in the conservative sphere.

01:05:37.000 You know, that's what we strive for.

01:05:38.000 And my generation of young men specifically has been victimized so much from the COVID, you know, Pandemic all the way through that, young men have faced the most criticism and backlash out of anybody.

01:05:52.000 So, to see some attention put on this and to see the opportunity for us to be around those people and get that mentorship is so exciting because we're going to be able to, you know, be around a lake, we're going to be able to go hike, we're going to be able to, you know, be at a gun range, and it's going to be an amazing experience.

01:06:09.000 I'm very excited to see the direction of this.

01:06:12.000 Awesome.

01:06:12.000 And yeah, that's true.

01:06:14.000 They did mention there's going to be a more outdoor, hands on component, stuff that appeals to young men because Charlie did.

01:06:20.000 He cared so much about this.

01:06:23.000 He cared about, he knew young men, they get blamed for everything.

01:06:26.000 They're told they're a problem if they're straight, if they're male, often, especially young white men, that's always okay to discriminate against them.

01:06:34.000 And these are the guys who have to assert themselves, reclaim America.

01:06:39.000 And I'm so glad that Turning Point is having an event to directly cultivate those young men who are going to change the future.

01:06:45.000 Sophia, I don't want you feeling left out.

01:06:47.000 So if you have a few seconds here, just what sort of men do we need to be raising these days?

01:06:54.000 Ones that live biblically, and I truly believe that masculinity has been on a decline.

01:07:00.000 But Turning Point is doing a great job of pouring in biblical values into young men now.

01:07:06.000 I mean, I met so many at Chapter Leadership Summit just this past weekend, and it is not fading away, especially in the conservative realm.

01:07:15.000 Exactly.

01:07:16.000 So, like I said, deadline to apply August 31st, and there's selectivity for this event.

01:07:22.000 So, you can go there and And apply, and then you'll get to find out where you'll be going in Southern California.

01:07:29.000 I don't know where it's going to be.

01:07:30.000 You'll get to encounter those speakers.

01:07:32.000 I don't know yet who they're going to be.

01:07:34.000 And I will say, we've always been rotating what our signs are.

01:07:37.000 So I'm already nagging the team.

01:07:39.000 We need to get that advertising sign up behind that chair so that we can market it the same way we market Women's Leadership Summit.

01:07:46.000 I'm so excited for this.

01:07:49.000 And I just want to say thank you to both of you, Preston and Sophia.

01:07:55.000 The Chapter Leadership Summit.

01:07:56.000 Thank you for being part of Turning Point's mission.

01:07:59.000 And we look forward to everything that we're going to be able to build in the months and years to come.

01:08:05.000 So thank you, both of you guys, for joining us.

01:08:08.000 Thank you so much.

01:08:09.000 Absolutely.

01:08:10.000 Thanks, Blake.

01:08:11.000 All righty.

01:08:12.000 So, all of you young men, 18 to 26, or parents, if you have a son who's in that age range, a nephew, a cousin, anyone, tell them about Invictus, the Men's Leadership Summit.

01:08:22.000 Tell them to get their application in.

01:08:23.000 They're not going to want to miss it.

01:08:29.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - July 14, 2026

Replacing Lindsey Graham, The "Conspiracy Right," and TPUSA's Newest Event

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