Charlie Kirk's Incredibly Moving Memorial, the Power of Forgiveness, and Van Jones' Smear, with Michael Knowles | Ep. 1154
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 43 minutes
Words per Minute
174.1513
Summary
After attending Charlie Kirk s memorial service, Megyn Kelly reflects on the life and legacy of the late stand-up comic, Charlie Kirk. She talks about his life, his career, and the impact he had on the world.
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
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Back home today after attending Charlie Kirk's magnificent memorial service yesterday.
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An event too big for an NFL football stadium with some 200,000 people
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making their way to Arizona yesterday to honor Charlie's life and legacy.
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The nation's top political leaders, I mean, it was incredible.
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From President Trump to Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the DNI, Tulsi Gabbard,
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy.
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You had Stephen Miller, Sergio Gore, Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff.
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Like, Elon Musk was in attendance. He was steps away from me on the floor.
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Everybody. I mean, just, like, it was incredible. It was incredible.
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That's how much of a mark Charlie made, not just on our country, but on our government in particular,
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at age 31. Ask yourself what you were doing at age 31.
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When I was 31, I hadn't even gotten into television yet. I was still practicing law.
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I mean, it's amazing to me the amount that he accomplished in his 31 years, really from 18 to
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31. Charlie worked nonstop, and it was a labor of love. And he wasn't trying to get to know these
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people because he wanted access to power and to feel special. He was doing it because it was his
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life's calling. And he really, truly cared about changing this country for the better. I mean,
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I think you could accurately say about saving this country. That's why it was his life's work
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that brought him into the circles of power. And it was great to hear some of the stories of people
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who, when he was starting Turning Point and he needed that first 50,000 bucks to get things going,
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how he went to this one potential donor and pitched her and she said, come back when you have the first
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half. And two days later, he called. He had found it. He's 18. I mean, truly, if somebody, and Charlie
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didn't have any connections, he didn't come from a wealthy family. If somebody said to you at 18,
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see if you can go get, go raise $50,000 in two days, could you have done it? I couldn't have done
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it. We were just like Charlie. We didn't have any like connections to anybody in power. We didn't even
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know any like doctors or lawyers, really. Nevermind politicians or people who actually were at the
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seat of government. So Charlie somehow managed to find these names that had potentially big pockets
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and one by one called. I mean, that was one of the main takeaways I had. All these people who had been
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contacted by an, by an unafraid Charlie. He was not afraid about reaching out even when he was young
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to people he didn't know to try to ask for help building his mission. And that was part of the same
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spirit he used in reaching across the aisle to speak to people he disagreed with or who disagreed with
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him as part of his mission too. I mean, it's very clear that Charlie's death is far bigger than
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politics. His funeral is going to be remembered as, I mean, one of the most impactful spiritual events
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in American history. You won't be surprised to learn the left wasn't feeling it. I mean, I'll just tell you
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something like when I walked in the moment, I was overwhelmed. I walked in that stadium and I brought
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my two oldest children with me. They're almost 16 and 14, my oldest son and my daughter. And we walk
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into the stadium and there were so many people in the stands. Everyone was dressed in red, white,
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and blue. It was so heartening. And that's exactly what Charlie would have wanted. That was a great call
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by his team. And all these people who had watched the show or watched Charlie on this show or watched
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me on Charlie's show who, you know, knew me or whatever. The love that was outpoured just over
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me and my children was as we walked in. I couldn't believe it. I was so moved by it. People yell,
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I love you. And I yelled back, I love you. And I meant that. And I think we were all having a shared
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moment of grieving. You know, it wasn't, that wasn't about the Megyn Kelly show. That was about,
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I think, our relationship with Charlie, our coverage of Charlie. People feel grateful for
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someone who's not, frankly, just one of the assholes out there dumping all over him and totally
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willfully misunderstanding his legacy. And we were seated for the proceedings. And every time I looked
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at the crowd and I saw the 70,000 people inside that building, and then there was an overflow with
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tens of thousands more, that's what made me get near tears. Like just seeing the outpouring of
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people, like the regular folks. And I sent out a tweet about this, but it was like people who were
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like, I saw one woman with a severe limp, another guy who had a cane, elderly people, tons of young
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people, of course, but like really elderly people. It was, you know, in the nineties yesterday in
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Arizona, people who were super overweight, didn't matter, old, young, whatever. They all flocked,
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pregnant women, very pregnant. They all flocked to this event. They waited in line since two or three
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in the morning, some of them. They did not matter. They did not care about their own comfort or how,
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I mean, I complain about, oh, wow, is it a long walk? How long am I have to stand? Imagine if you're
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carrying around an extra hundred pounds. I was so impressed by those people. They knew they'd be
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physically uncomfortable. They didn't care. They wanted to go there to honor him, to pay homage to
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his life, to mourn his death, to be with their fellow Americans in shared grief and worship. We did
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that too yesterday. It was beautiful. It was much more than a memorial. It was a gathering of
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faith and reconnection with God and each other. And this was not about the radical left. This was
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about us. This was about team sanity. People of faith who believe in a loving God, who don't have
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figured out why he took Charlie from us, but understand there's a higher purpose that we're
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just too moral to fully understand right now. People who looked at Erica Kirk and felt like they
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wanted to drop to their knees. We were so floored by her strength and what she did, not the haters
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and what they said online. Forget them. This isn't about them. This is about those of us who were
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there and watched it on TV and saw clips because they cared enough to take time out of their busy
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day and watch them and felt that stirring inside that reminded us this life here is about something
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greater than us. It's about something greater than us. Joining me now for reaction is Michael Knowles.
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He's hosted the Michael Knowles show on the Daily Wire. Michael's in Minnesota right now,
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Minnesota, where he will be speaking at a college campus event as part of Turning Point's American
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Comeback Tour, continuing even after Charlie's passing. And I want to also tell you that Michael
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will be joining me for the Megyn Kelly Live, our fall tour. And you can find him and his Daily Wire
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pals, Ben Shapiro and Andrew Klavan in Jacksonville, Florida with yours truly on November 6th. We really
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Michael, great to have you. So you went to the memorial yesterday, yes?
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Yes, it was you, me, and a few hundred thousand of our closest friends. And Charlie's and his many
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admirers. And I'm still processing it. As you say, Megan, I mean, Erica Kirk's speech was one of the
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most powerful speeches I've ever heard in my life. And I'm sure we'll get to that. But even on the
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point of the people who came from all over the place, who were uncomfortable, who sacrificed to
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make it there, a friend of mine texts me as I'm on the plane flying into Phoenix. And he said, hey, are you
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in Phoenix for the memorial? And I said, oh, I am. Did you come into town? This is 9 p.m. the night
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before. He says, yeah, I'm at the stadium. So what do you mean you're at the stadium? He said, I'm at
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the stadium. He said, there are many people at the stadium already. I will get in. I have to be there.
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This is not someone who's just constantly consuming political news. This is not a college kid who was
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following Charlie's tour around all that closely. This is a grown man who said, I have to be at this
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memorial. I have to honor Charlie Kirk. I will camp out overnight. He said, Michael, if something's
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wrong with your hotel, you can come sleep in my car. But we are getting in. And I think that was
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the spirit all over the country. And honestly, it was reflective of the way Charlie's fans and friends
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have behaved over the past 11, 12 days. Peacefully, with a connection to God. They've been holding vigils.
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They've had the candles up, you know, the iPhone lights. They've been singing patriotic songs.
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They've been singing religious songs. It's been absolutely beautiful the way the right has handled
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itself in the wake of this massive tragedy. And that was on full display yesterday. I mean,
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the first half of the memorial was all people who knew Charlie very well talking about their memories
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of him. The second half was not even half, like basically two thirds versus one third. That was
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administration officials talking about their experiences with Charlie. And then things got
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more political, of course. But to read the write-ups in the paper today, you would think it was just Trump
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out there saying what Trump was hysterical as he always is. But you would, they ignore all of the
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beautiful heartfelt tributes by his staff, his friends, his donors, you know, all of them,
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his pastor, his spiritual advisors. No, it's like that didn't happen. It all boils down to like
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one, one aside by Trump. And, and they, they just simply don't get it. I think is the real point.
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You know, there were all of these political speeches. Yes. In the context of an event talking
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about eternity, Charlie understood that as well as anybody. Charlie was constantly talking about God,
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constantly talking about our immortal souls, our eternal purpose. But he recognized also that we
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are the political animal. We're social creatures. And so faith has to look like something. We have
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to do something here in this world. And our faith produces works and our, our face impels us to action.
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And it leads us to care even for our enemies, love for our enemies, and to create a society that is
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conducive to the common good. You cannot separate the political from the religious. You can't even in
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this mortal life, separate the religious from the political. And so I thought that all of the
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administration officials did a magnificent job of this. People are attacking President Trump
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because he gets up there and he says, Charlie Kirk loved his enemies. He really cared for them and
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he wished the best for them. And I don't, this is where Charlie and I disagreed. I hate my enemies and
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I don't wish what's best for them. And people are knocking him for this. They're saying this was an
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anti-gospel message. This was anti-Christian. They just weren't listening. Maybe they don't know how to
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speak New Yorker. Maybe they don't have any sense of humor. Chesterton said the angels can fly because
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they can take themselves lightly. These people cannot. What Trump was saying was an affirmation
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of the gospel message. He was saying, Charlie did the right thing. He said, Charlie's looking down.
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He's angry at me right now. He said, you know, I'm just saying I'm a sinner here. Yes. He said,
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maybe Erica can talk to me. She can teach me how to be a better person. He was expressing that natural
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human desire in this fallen world to punish our enemies, not to will the best for them. But he
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said, no, no, the right thing to do is to, is to love your enemies and loving it. Let me play it for
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the audience. Michael, then you take it on the back. Here it is. He did not hate his opponents. He
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wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don't want the
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best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica. But now Erica can talk to me and the whole group,
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and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.
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Charlie's angry looking down. He's angry at me now.
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It's hysterical. And it's, it's an expression actually of humility, right? He's saying,
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Charlie's looking down at me. In other words, Charlie's doing the right thing,
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the thing that brings him closer to God. But me, it's, it's, it's hard for me to get past this.
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It's hard. I feel this, this anger here, but that, that's the right thing that we are to do.
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We have to love our enemies and loving our enemies is not some happy, clappy talk. It's not some little
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sentiment. Loving, loving anyone means to will the good of that person. And so to say that we,
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we forgive those who trespass against us as, as our Lord teaches us to do, even who people who commit
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the worst sins against us, to, to, uh, try to emulate Christ on the cross, who says,
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father, forgive them. They know not what they do to, to forgive them is to say, look,
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vengeance belongs to the Lord and he will repay in their foot. She'll slide in due time.
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It is not to say that the civil authority is not going to exact justice. And in fact,
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to love your enemies means that you do have to punish criminals for the protection of society,
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but also for their own good. I mean, philosophers have understood this going back at least to Plato.
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There is no contradiction between these things, but it's to say that we're not going to bear
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personal enmity and grudges. We're not going to kill people in a vigilante way as the left has been
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doing. We're not going to burn the country down. We are going to sublimate this. We're going to kiss
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it up to God. We're going to thank God for the blessings he gives us, which we don't deserve.
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And, and we are going to try to bring justice because that will be good for everyone. It's a spirit of
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charity that is the most important of the theological virtues. And you heard that beautifully
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from Erica. You heard it beautifully from everyone else. And when Trump says, I don't, I don't feel
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this way, but I'm going to, maybe I'll try to do it. It's that same humility years ago when he said,
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he was asked if he was going to have a beer on St. Paddy's day. He says, no, I don't drink.
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It's the only good thing you can say about me. Imagine if I drank, I'd be the worst.
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It's an expression to say, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner, and maybe we can look for a better way.
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Yeah. Absolutely. Right. I loved it. I thought it was very funny because frankly,
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there'd been so much uplifting talk that some of us who are more of the Trump mindset needed to hear
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somebody say what we're thinking, you know, which is I'm enraged and actually no quarter,
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none whatsoever for my enemies. I personally am much more in that, in that place, which is more of
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a political place probably than a biblical place. I don't know. Um, I looked at Erica Kirk and she was
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prediction, Megan. Yes. No, I like what you're saying. And Ali Beth Stuckey said the same.
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Yes. I mean, you know what, when, when Erica Kirk says, I forgive him, which was so absolutely
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arresting, even thinking of it again, I'm a tough guy and I don't think men should cry in public all
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that often. It really a grown men. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.
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Every man, every man was crying. It was really incredibly moving. Go ahead.
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That is true. That is true. And it's a beautiful statement. And also if the suspect is convicted,
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the state of Utah will inject him with poison until he's dead. There's no contradiction there.
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We, we, we can personally forgive people and we can also will, will the best for these people up to
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and including capital punishment. By the way, I'm reminded of the line of Dr. Johnson, a dependent
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upon it, sir. When a man is knows that he's to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind
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wonderfully. It was a, it was a recognition more broadly, Megan, I think that with all of these
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political leaders there, that we need a political order that is conducive to the common good and
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that acknowledges God and that acknowledges the difference between right and wrong. And that
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really believes in something, because if you don't like this religious kind of country, wait until
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you live in an irreligious country. I promise you it's a lot worse.
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A hundred percent. And that you mentioned the, the Erica Kirk, um, moment where first of all,
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some people were critical of the fact that she and others walked out and they had the pyrotechnics
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going. And I completely reject that because you have to understand turning point events. This was
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an homage to Charlie. Um, that's, he loved that stuff. And we all love that stuff. When we go to a
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turning point event, you walk out and they've got the pyrotechnics and they've got the smoke going,
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the dry ice smoke. And it's just so fun. And it makes the event feel big and celebratory. And
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that's what they wanted to do to make this event feel big and celebratory, not a maudlin, sad,
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tears crying, you know, good God, this terrible assassin type event. They wanted it to be a celebration
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of life, you know, which is not unusual. It's just, they did it Charlie Kirk style and turning point
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style. So to me, it made perfect sense that they did use the pyrotechnics and no one,
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no sane person was thinking that meant Erica was celebrating Charlie's death. I mean, it's just
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like only the most cynical bastards would even suggest that. But of course, you know, we're
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dealing with these leftists. So she comes out and she talks about Charlie's message and Charlie,
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like what, what he wanted to do. And I think does, I'm trying to find out for my team is,
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is SOT2, it came chronologically before SOT1, right? Because I want to play these in
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sequential order. I think it did. Let's play SOT2.
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Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the lost boys of the West.
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The young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith and no reason to live.
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The men wasting their lives on distractions and the men consumed with resentment, anger and hate.
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He wanted them to have a home with Turning Point USA. And when he went onto campus, he was looking to show them a better path
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and a better life that was right there for the taking. He wanted to show them that.
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OK, so first of all, that was such an astute observation and it's exactly right, Michael.
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I mean, he, Charlie was there on these campuses in large part to save people like Tyler Robinson,
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his killer, people who had gotten brainwashed into magical far left thinking about issues like gender and so on.
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And to tell them that there could be a Jesus envisioned something better for them, that their lives could be better,
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that they did not have to go in this downward spiral into which whatever online obsession throws you
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or a society that doesn't value young white boys can throw you
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or a university setting for too many semesters in a row can throw you.
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I, you know, I don't know what happened to Tyler Robinson because you're saying precious little,
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but obviously somehow he got put in the left wing whirlwind.
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And before you knew it, his mind had been corrupted.
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So before I get to the forgiveness, let's talk about that.
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Yes. You know, one thing that Charlie excelled at
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he excelled at many, many things, but one thing he excelled at was throwing issues into stark relief.
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Charlie's opponents would always try to muddy up the waters.
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You're seeing this now after a spate of left wing violence that's gone on for many years now,
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many, many years, but certainly we can recall the BLM riots,
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which were encouraged by the left wing authorities and which killed dozens of people
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all the way up through the murder of Christian children at the Covenant School,
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here in Minneapolis, all the way up to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
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From left wing militants, and I'm leaving out a lot of other people too.
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You know, they try to say, well, there's, it's both sides and it's unclear and there's good and bad.
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in celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk,
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and in committing the violence is totally the opposite of what Charlie Kirk did,
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which is that he went to these campuses to try to help people who openly hated him
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and to try to reach out and to, to exemplify civil dialogue
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and to try to help and establish a political order that would allow all of us to flourish.
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Charlie spoke about reason and truth and goodness, and they killed him for it.
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This is as stark a relief as you can possibly imagine.
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Charlie continues to teach these people even after he died, even through his death.
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And his widow, with unbelievable, superhuman courage,
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had the ability to get up there with great poise and elegance and, and to say that.
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how Charlie would have viewed the young man who killed him,
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how Charlie would have seen him and what Charlie would have done
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had they had a face-to-face chat at one of these rope lines that you could get on at his events.
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He absolutely would have been respectful to him, would have heard him out.
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They would have, he would have challenged his ideas in a way that was
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if that guy had only gotten online instead of gotten on a rooftop.
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Instead, he ended it with the bullet that he used to end Charlie's.
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And then Erica Kirk did the thing that stunned the world.
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I mean, if you were a Christian, you weren't totally stunned
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And I think most Christians eventually get to this piece of grief,
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And Erica is probably the most observant, faithful Christian I've known,
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even though her pain is more acute than the rest of ours.
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Oh, this brings tears to my eyes just seeing it again.
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to stand up there 11 days after he was assassinated
01:32:41.580
we disagree everybody knows we were not friends
01:33:41.680
i would have probably tried to get him on your show