The Megyn Kelly Show - Remembering Charlie Kirk, with Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr., and Benny Johnson, and What We Know About the Assassin ｜ Ep 1146

00:00:00.000 Your business doesn't move in a straight line.

00:00:02.800 Some days bring growth, others bring challenges.

00:00:05.940 But what if you or a partner needs to step away?

00:00:08.820 When the unexpected happens, count on Canada Life's flexible life and health insurance

00:00:13.680 to help your business keep working, even when you can't.

00:00:17.020 Don't let life's challenges stand in the way of your success.

00:00:20.460 Protect what you've built today.

00:00:22.500 Visit canadalife.com slash business protection to learn more.

00:00:26.280 Canada Life. Insurance. Investments. Advice.

00:00:30.000 Every child deserves to splash, to laugh, to share adventures with friends, to feel like they belong.

00:00:41.600 But for some, that joy comes with a price tag that's beyond their reach.

00:00:46.100 Help the YMCA bring its transformative programs to those who can't afford them.

00:00:50.480 Because connections, cannonballs, and confidence should never be out of reach.

00:00:56.460 Donate today to your local YMCA.

00:01:00.120 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:01:13.100 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:01:16.160 We're about to be joined by one of Charlie Kirk's closest friends, Donald Trump Jr.,

00:01:21.260 for Don's first interview since Charlie's passing yesterday.

00:01:23.640 Later in the show, Tucker Carlson will be here, and so will Benny Johnson, both of whom knew Charlie well.

00:01:30.640 But first, we want to update you on the latest in the search to find his assassin,

00:01:34.960 because the news is breaking by the minute in what we know right now about motive.

00:01:39.500 Charlie Kirk's killer engraved the ammunition used to murder him with pro-transgender ideology,

00:01:46.380 according to reporting in multiple outlets, to the surprise of literally no one.

00:01:56.220 I have a lot of thoughts on this.

00:01:58.040 I have more to report to you, okay?

00:02:02.240 But I just have to pause here.

00:02:04.560 Of course, that's the first thing I thought yesterday.

00:02:06.880 I'm sure it ran through a lot of the minds of you watching this program as we did it live.

00:02:10.640 Stephen was outspoken—sorry, it's not Stephen—Charlie was outspoken on the trans issue and many issues, many issues.

00:02:18.580 But there's one particular group that's been running around killing Americans 0.58

00:02:23.640 in the name of transgender ideology lately, and it's transgender activists or individuals or those who proclaim that they are.

00:02:34.220 Doesn't mean they're all murderous.

00:02:36.240 But there's a particularly high percentage committing crimes these days.

00:02:42.320 And it is responsible and important to say so, which is what Charlie was doing.

00:02:49.160 The thought that this was a person acting to avenge some sort of trans person or objecting to Charlie's stance on the trans issue is entirely chilling to me.

00:03:07.360 Because when Charlie and I first became friends, this was an issue he wasn't even talking about that much.

00:03:12.860 But he was seeing, was resonating with some on the right, and was a growing issue.

00:03:18.740 And he told me that one of the reasons why I kept coming into his algorithm and catching his attention was because we were talking about this issue.

00:03:28.380 And his sister, who's also outspoken and a Christian, had been forwarding him, I guess, a bunch of videos she'd seen on our show.

00:03:36.980 That's what he told me.

00:03:37.880 And of course, like many on the right, it became more and more in his lens over the past few years because it's grown in the public sphere.

00:03:50.860 It's hard to avoid.

00:03:52.280 And you've got the vast majority of Americans right now ignoring it out of a sense of politeness or kindness, a misperceived sense of kindness and not saying anything about it.

00:04:06.440 And then you've got this smaller faction of us who have been jumping up and down about it.

00:04:11.100 And Charlie became one of them.

00:04:13.340 And I, of course, had become one of them and am one of them and will continue to be one of them.

00:04:19.460 And on that front to Charlie's killer, there's no such thing as a trans child.

00:04:28.600 Men cannot have babies or chest feed an infant. 0.69

00:04:33.080 A man cannot become a woman. 1.00

00:04:35.180 A woman cannot become a man. 1.00

00:04:38.160 Those are truths.

00:04:40.140 And you will hear them here relentlessly.

00:04:42.380 And it won't just be me.

00:04:43.780 It'll be many of us on the right who will not be silenced and who will make it our mission now to continue saying all the things that you thought you silenced with that bullet.

00:04:54.960 And guess what?

00:04:56.340 You can't take us all out.

00:04:58.000 If people are true to Charlie's legacy, if college students and high school students who felt inspired at all by Charlie feel the need to live up to his example, they'll say it too.

00:05:15.060 And they can't take us all out.

00:05:17.040 For speaking the truth about one of the most divisive, awful issues we've ever had infect our culture.

00:05:25.820 I would love to say the left is learning, that the media is learning, and that now, now that they see yet again that this was an issue behind a brutal assassination, a murder of one of our national gems, that they'll see the error of their ways.

00:05:47.560 That they'll start realizing they cannot keep coddling this dangerous ideology, but I know it won't be this way.

00:05:56.420 I know it's not true.

00:05:57.460 I know because I understand the media, and I know because I saw CNN after Stephen Crowder was the first to report this, what was on the cartridge, CNN and then the Wall Street Journal ultimately matched his reporting, but he broke it, Stephen Crowder.

00:06:16.440 CNN popped up a chyron on their screen and put up an article at CNN.com that said cultural phrases were engraved.

00:06:28.940 Cultural phrases were engraved on the cartridges.

00:06:32.200 Here's what the reporting actually says, that it was phrases on the cartridges expressing, quoting here, expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology.

00:06:43.720 Transgender and anti-fascist ideology.

00:06:46.440 Not cultural phrases. 0.99

00:06:47.740 And CNN fucking knows that and won't write it because it's still a sacred cow. 0.99

00:06:55.020 You can't say anything about the transgender thing because they're so unstable you might cause another one to do it. 1.00

00:07:03.600 And because they're in the protected category that cannot be criticized or you're a bigot.

00:07:09.980 How many times has that word been used against me for speaking truth on trans?

00:07:15.480 Me, Billboard Chris, Riley Gaines.

00:07:18.560 Take your pick.

00:07:19.920 Anyone on the right.

00:07:21.660 Anyone who speaks the truth about this issue and not just this issue.

00:07:25.860 Not just this issue.

00:07:27.920 The anti-fascist ideology is clearly a reference to Charlie's Trump support because that's what the left says about Trump. 0.99

00:07:35.960 He's a fascist.

00:07:37.160 His attempts to undo Joe Biden's immigration mess. 0.99

00:07:40.860 That's fascism.

00:07:42.480 Take your pick.

00:07:43.020 And the left and the media, but I repeat myself, uses these phrase about him, this phrase, as though it's not even controversial.

00:07:52.240 It's regularly thrown out there as though it's just factual.

00:07:56.820 But when it comes to actual facts about trans violence, that needs to be buried with amorphous, meaningless phrases like cultural phrases were on the ammo.

00:08:08.660 So, the Stephen Crowder reporting this morning, I pulled it up for you, was given to him, he reports, by an ATF source.

00:08:25.700 And it's an ATF or by law enforcement source, and it is an ATF document.

00:08:31.280 And it reads in part as follows.

00:08:32.940 This is clearly an ATF write-up of what they've learned so far, some of which was repeated in the FBI presser this morning, some of which was not.

00:08:40.880 On September 10th, at approximately 12, 24 p.m., conservative political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at the Utah Valley University in Utah.

00:08:50.160 Mr. Kirk was speaking at the university as part of the American Comeback Tour.

00:08:54.020 Multiple law enforcement agencies responded immediately.

00:08:56.860 The suspect fired one shot from an elevated position on a rooftop in an adjacent building on the campus, and surveillance video shows the suspect jumping off and fleeing the area on foot.

00:09:06.660 ATF and other law enforcement located an older model imported Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the campus.

00:09:18.020 All of this has been confirmed by the FBI after the fact, after Stephen's report.

00:09:23.780 Wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the campus.

00:09:26.220 The location of the firearm appears to match the suspect's route of travel.

00:09:31.180 The spent cartridge was still chambered in addition to three unspent rounds at the top Fed magazine.

00:09:38.080 All cartridges have engraved wording on them expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology.

00:09:46.980 What the exact quotes are, we don't know.

00:09:48.580 An emergency trace has been submitted to an ATF, law enforcement working leads generated by the trace.

00:09:57.220 The firearm and ammo have been taken by the FBI for DNA analysis and fingerprint impressions.

00:10:03.880 Upon completion of forensics, the firearm will be disassembled for additional importer information.

00:10:08.740 Multiple people of interest having contacted or detained because of eyewitness testimony and review of video footage have been, I guess they meant it right. 0.55

00:10:18.800 The primary suspect is yet to be identified.

00:10:21.020 ATF is assisting the investigation with multiple other federal, state, and local partners.

00:10:24.600 The case is co-led by the FBI and the Utah Bureau of Investigation, state bureau.

00:10:31.160 Now, the FBI has also just released two images of what they call a person of interest.

00:10:39.160 This just happened.

00:10:39.980 It's 12.09 Eastern on Thursday.

00:10:42.380 He is seen here with a baseball hat, sunglasses, and a shirt that appears to have an American flag on it, along with something else, though it's difficult to decipher.

00:10:52.020 Here's another image taken from a different angle.

00:10:55.480 Again, you can see he's wearing blue jeans, a dark shirt, sunglasses, and a hat.

00:11:00.920 And on the front of his shirt, there appears to be a flag with something else on it.

00:11:04.420 He appears to be white, young, male, in his early 20s.

00:11:08.460 If you have any information on this individual and law enforcement is asking for your help, you are asked to call the FBI.

00:11:16.280 At 1-800-CALL-FBI, 1-800-CALL-FBI, 1-800-225-5324.

00:11:22.880 They don't have him.

00:11:24.260 He remains at large and obviously is considered dangerous.

00:11:28.860 This morning, the FBI held a press conference and reported the following.

00:11:32.280 Investigators have obtained, quote, high-quality video of the assassin, but will not yet release that to the public.

00:11:39.180 The suspect who the FBI referred to as a man appears to be, they said, quote, of college age.

00:11:44.640 Other evidence they have collected includes a palm imprint, they said, on the gun, a forearm imprint, and, quote, a footwear impression.

00:11:55.020 Obviously, we believe that's from the ground leading to or from the college.

00:11:58.820 They also have tracked the shooter's movements from the moment he arrived on campus, thanks to all the security cameras that they have, right up to the moment he escaped.

00:12:08.920 Take a listen.

00:12:09.420 Through all that work last night, we were able to make a few breakthroughs.

00:12:14.060 We were able to track the movements of the shooter.

00:12:18.260 Starting at 1152 a.m., the subject arrived on campus, shortly away from campus.

00:12:25.980 We have tracked his movements onto the campus, through the stairwells, up to the roof, across the roof to a shooting location.

00:12:33.020 After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building, and fled off of the campus and into a neighborhood.

00:12:45.480 Our investigators have worked through those neighborhoods, contacting anybody they can with doorbell cameras, witnesses, and have thoroughly worked through those communities, trying to identify any leads.

00:13:01.740 We do have good video footage of this individual.

00:13:04.760 We are not going to release that at this time.

00:13:07.720 We are working through some technologies and some ways to identify this individual.

00:13:12.340 If we are unsuccessful, we will reach out to you as the media, and we will push that publicly to help us identify them.

00:13:18.340 But we are confident in our abilities right now, and we would like to move forward in a manner that keeps everyone safe and moves this process appropriately.

00:13:29.720 Just getting this in, and it's no surprise, per the New York Times, efforts to identify the suspect through facial recognition technology did not work.

00:13:37.760 And that's why they are now asking for the public's help to catch him.

00:13:41.220 It's amazing.

00:13:41.940 He appears young in the pictures, and that would track because virtually all of us could be caught by facial recognition.

00:13:50.520 I mean, it's quite vast, the number of pictures that they have of all of us online, not just people like me who are more familiar, but any of us.

00:14:00.200 We had somebody on who walked us through the vast abilities, the facial recognition technology.

00:14:05.920 They can get you when you're just three-quarters of a face, two-thirds of a face, one-third of a face.

00:14:11.260 So I suppose the fact that this guy's young limits the number of public pictures of him.

00:14:17.740 Again, assuming it's a him.

00:14:19.260 It looks like a him on the limited pictures that they've released.

00:14:23.940 And what they've said is that they've referred to him as he.

00:14:28.260 The New York Times also reported a short time ago, citing its law enforcement sources, that the weapon and the ammo are being traced by ATF analysts in West Virginia.

00:14:36.280 But that evidence has not yet led to a person of interest.

00:14:38.940 In short, the FBI reported literally everything that was in the Stephen Crowder ATF report except what was written on the cartridges.

00:14:48.780 And I believe we'll get to that.

00:14:50.800 There wasn't a reporter there who asked those questions because clearly no one there follows Stephen Crowder.

00:14:56.600 Because the reporters in that room probably think Stephen Crowder is not someone they should pay any attention to.

00:15:02.620 They probably think he doesn't have any credibility because they don't know anything about our side.

00:15:06.900 They don't know anything about truth.

00:15:08.060 Yesterday, when I was reporting the news that Charlie had died, and I'm seeing the reporting from just the news, John Solomon, and I'm seeing the reporting from Deseret.

00:15:18.140 And I know, I know these are right.

00:15:20.440 I trust them.

00:15:21.660 And the old mainstream news reporter in me was waiting.

00:15:26.300 I was thinking, well, the AP has to say it.

00:15:29.960 You know, the New York Times has to say it.

00:15:31.340 And then it just dawned on me in real time.

00:15:32.880 What am I doing?

00:15:34.480 I don't listen to them.

00:15:35.820 I don't go to them for my news.

00:15:37.020 I go to John Solomon.

00:15:38.400 I do go to Deseret.

00:15:39.960 I do listen to Stephen Crowder, whose experience in reporting law enforcement leaks has been impeccable, impeccable.

00:15:46.800 And he had it right.

00:15:48.360 And he's been verified now, in large part, by the FBI directly and the Wall Street Journal matching his reporting, including on the trans and Antifa or anti-fascist messaging that was on the cartridges.

00:16:01.200 More on that as we get it.

00:16:04.200 Joining me now is Donald Trump Jr.

00:16:06.520 I've been talking a lot about Riverbend Ranch lately because their steaks are amazing.

00:16:12.460 Riverbend Ranch has taken black Angus beef to a whole new level.

00:16:16.240 For the last 35 years, Riverbend Ranch has been creating a very elite Angus herd by using ultrasound to select genetically superior cattle with a focus on flavor and tenderness.

00:16:27.400 When you purchase from Riverbend Ranch, you are not only supporting the 64 cowboys and cowgirls and their families who work on that ranch, but you're also supporting over 260 other U.S. ranches and the hundreds of American families who work on them.

00:16:40.880 It is born in the U.S.A., raised in the U.S.A., and processed in the U.S.A.

00:16:44.980 It's aged to perfection for 21 days and shipped directly from the ranch to your home.

00:16:50.180 This is not your average black Angus beef.

00:16:52.880 So order from RiverbendRanch.com.

00:16:55.680 Use the promo code Megan, and that'll get you 20 bucks off your first order. 1.00

00:16:59.320 And let me know what you think.

00:17:01.360 RiverbendRanch.com, promo code Megan.

00:17:04.940 Don, thank you so much for being with us today.

00:17:07.280 Let me just ask you first for your reaction to the horrible news.

00:17:11.280 I know you've said that Charlie was like a brother to you.

00:17:15.520 He was.

00:17:17.060 I honestly have no words to describe it.

00:17:19.680 I got the call yesterday, and I was in shock.

00:17:23.420 I mean, it's the third time I've got that call in a little over a year about a close friend or a loved one almost being killed because that was when we didn't actually know what was going on yet.

00:17:34.700 And so, obviously, a lot of mix of emotions.

00:17:37.940 Then we got a report that, hey, he's getting blood.

00:17:41.000 It may be stable.

00:17:42.700 Then 20 minutes later, we got the news that he didn't make it.

00:17:46.060 And so it was a really rough day for someone who's been a very close friend, confidant, incredible warrior for the things that we all believe in for a very long period of time.

00:17:54.900 So it's been hard.

00:17:55.960 Can you talk about the beginning of your relationship and how you got to know him?

00:18:02.100 It's actually sort of funny.

00:18:03.800 And you remember these days because I was doing your show back on Fox News at the time, and a couple friends came up to me and said, hey, you got to meet this guy.

00:18:12.360 He knows so much about politics.

00:18:13.640 He wants to help out.

00:18:14.800 And I'm like, OK, give me some more information because at the time we didn't know anything.

00:18:18.440 We didn't know what was going on.

00:18:19.660 We had no idea about politics.

00:18:22.320 We didn't know what a caucus was when we got to Iowa.

00:18:24.340 It was we were clueless.

00:18:26.260 And, you know, they're like, OK, well, he's 20 years old.

00:18:28.800 And I was like, just just stop.

00:18:31.720 Just stop.

00:18:32.500 Like I go, if I need another person that doesn't know what's going on, like I can just go to the room next door.

00:18:38.020 Like there is no shortage.

00:18:40.020 There's there's no shortage of people who don't know what the hell is going on right now working on this thing.

00:18:44.780 We just had a good message.

00:18:45.680 We had people that could speak.

00:18:47.020 And they're like, no, no, no.

00:18:47.620 Trust me on this one.

00:18:48.460 You know, they're good friends.

00:18:49.560 And so I took the meeting reluctantly and I sat down with Charlie Kirk for the first time.

00:18:54.720 This must have been, I guess, end of 15.

00:18:57.360 And in five minutes, I was like, oh, my God, this kid's brilliant.

00:19:01.360 I mean, this kid himself could be president one day.

00:19:04.280 You know, I just I saw a talent, perhaps, you know, that's maybe my knack in politics, whether it was Charlie or JD or a couple of the others.

00:19:10.040 It's like, wait a second, I saw something there and I was like, just congratulations, you're on my team.

00:19:14.480 I think Turning Point had a million dollar operating budget that year.

00:19:18.380 And in the decade since, I mean, you know, pushing 200 million.

00:19:22.840 The guy was just incredible.

00:19:25.060 And from that day, I mean, he literally for the rest of the 16 campaign was basically, you know, with me every day, fundraising, speaking, getting coffee.

00:19:33.880 It didn't matter.

00:19:34.460 There was no task that was beneath him.

00:19:36.180 There was there was nothing there.

00:19:37.100 He was just an incredible guy and a true warrior.

00:19:41.180 And to watch how he's matured and had matured, you know, even since then, is nothing short of astounding.

00:19:48.880 The amount of growth that he had over the next nine years was just exponential.

00:19:53.060 I mean, I can't think of anybody else who matched it in terms of their influence, their success.

00:19:58.520 His growth as a man, as an orator, as a compelling public figure whose opinion mattered at all levels.

00:20:05.040 At all levels, he had the president of the United States listening to him down to my 14 year old daughter.

00:20:10.600 I mean, there's just not many people who can say that.

00:20:14.280 Why, Don?

00:20:15.060 What what was it about him?

00:20:17.360 You know what?

00:20:17.960 He could just relate to people.

00:20:19.160 He could take complex things and explain them simply.

00:20:22.780 He did so so kindly as well.

00:20:26.020 I mean, even, you know, even his biggest detractors.

00:20:28.720 I mean, on a daily basis, Charlie Kirk gave them a platform to debate these ideas.

00:20:34.580 He gave them his platform that he actually worked for, he created.

00:20:37.960 He let them speak and he calmly, you know, he'd push back with ideas, with words.

00:20:44.760 And, you know, I say, you know, when they talk about him being a threat and you have all these, you know, left wing, radical funded NGOs labeling him, you know, domestic terrorist and these sorts of things.

00:20:54.060 He wasn't a threat.

00:20:54.840 Charlie was the kindest person I probably knew.

00:20:56.820 I mean, Charlie was certainly the calmest, you know, in many cases, the least aggressive of all the people, you know, I know in politics.

00:21:04.720 And, you know, I mean, I guess his quote was, when discourse ends, violence begins.

00:21:10.520 That was his quote.

00:21:11.640 And they killed him for it, Megan. 1.00

00:21:13.620 They fucking killed him. 1.00

00:21:15.760 You know, he gave them a platform. 1.00

00:21:17.700 I guess the problem was, I guess his real threat wasn't anything other than he was so effective.

00:21:25.080 You know, he gave them that platform.

00:21:26.660 He'd push back with words and ideas.

00:21:29.000 And in minutes, you'd see this on a college campus, some radical giving, you know, just insane, you know, leftist talking points.

00:21:35.700 And he'd push back and, you know, they were left speechless.

00:21:39.420 Many of them, OK, they'd walk away just humbled.

00:21:41.940 And I think half of them probably became believers.

00:21:44.500 But the people who came to hear him speak, the people who, you know, went in there with an open mind, they were like, oh, oh, this is right. 0.99

00:21:54.640 The indoctrination that we've dealt with since probably kindergarten is bullshit. 0.99

00:21:59.800 The stuff that we're being force-fed by our college professors is absolute nonsense. 0.99

00:22:04.400 And, you know, I remember that.

00:22:05.240 I was doing college campus tours with him in 16.

00:22:07.740 And even me.

00:22:08.760 And, you know, I don't exactly shy away from these things.

00:22:12.280 You know, I was, wow, are we really going to go on a college campus?

00:22:15.060 Like, OK, let's see what happens.

00:22:18.200 And it was incredible.

00:22:19.340 I remember one of the early ones we did.

00:22:21.600 It was, I think it was the University of Michigan.

00:22:23.400 We get to Michigan and we get there.

00:22:24.800 And, you know, of course, the university makes it very difficult for us to get a room that would treat three times oversold.

00:22:29.760 They won't let us even have a platform.

00:22:31.860 And then they got to make sure all the radicals get in.

00:22:33.980 And I remember we're going to go on stage and the Michigan State Police pulled us aside.

00:22:37.860 They were there, not because we had them, but they were just monitoring all of it.

00:22:42.040 And they basically pulled me and Charlie aside and said, hey, guys, we can't stop you from going out there, but we can't guarantee your safety.

00:22:49.100 And we think it's a bad idea.

00:22:50.020 You should cancel. 0.96

00:22:50.720 And Charlie and I both sort of simultaneously looked at us and we're like, you know, we'd rather take an ass-kicking than give them that win and be silenced.

00:22:58.340 And we went out there and we pushed back and we had the haters and we had the protesters and we went at them kindly with words.

00:23:06.160 And you could see the entire dynamic of the room.

00:23:08.640 It went from being, you know, probably 60-40 leftist to like 90-10, 95-5 when people were like, wait a second, like let these guys have a conversation.

00:23:18.120 Let them speak.

00:23:18.740 You could see the shift in the room and Charlie did that day in and day out for nine years till yesterday when he was killed doing just that.

00:23:30.960 And he changed so many minds.

00:23:33.300 He got people to be unafraid to speak up and to speak out and to actually voice their opinion and to embrace common sense.

00:23:42.220 It's truly a loss for our country.

00:23:45.040 Have you gotten to speak with Erica or his family at all, Don?

00:23:49.460 You know what?

00:23:49.940 I haven't.

00:23:50.660 I called pretty immediately.

00:23:55.260 We were – then she – Erica actually called back when I was with Bettino.

00:24:00.080 You know, she called her back.

00:24:02.280 Somehow it didn't go through, whatever it was.

00:24:04.360 We saw the missed call but nothing and we tried calling back.

00:24:06.800 But in that time was when we found out, you know, it went from shot to stable and maybe okay to he had passed.

00:24:14.700 And so we have not yet, unfortunately.

00:24:16.860 And so, you know, we obviously sent notes and whatever, but that's not going to matter much.

00:24:22.240 What's going to matter to him in the end is going to be preserving the legacy of what he's created and not going away.

00:24:28.500 Not going to cower in a corner and die.

00:24:31.760 We just got to fight back.

00:24:32.580 That's exactly right.

00:24:34.720 I mean, I'll get to that in one second.

00:24:37.540 Let me ask you about your dad because he said he's going to speak with, I think, the family, Erica, I think, later today.

00:24:43.720 He mentioned that this morning in a 9-11 remembrance event and also announced that he's going to award Charlie the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

00:24:53.820 He also ordered the staff – the flags to go at half-staff, which is very unusual for a private citizen.

00:25:00.380 Can you talk about what Charlie meant to your dad?

00:25:02.060 A lot.

00:25:03.540 A lot.

00:25:04.360 I mean, I think, you know, Charlie single-handedly, you know, other than my father, I guess, would have been the single-handed most important player of the last election cycle and probably, frankly, 2020 as well.

00:25:17.200 I mean, you know, the gains were being made.

00:25:18.920 But, I mean, I think he single-handedly won Arizona for us, probably Wisconsin as well.

00:25:24.760 You know, moved, you know, the youth vote 20-plus points.

00:25:30.100 And, again, that's not just youth vote to 18-year-olds.

00:25:32.920 This is the 18 to 29 people who could actually vote, you know, so significantly.

00:25:38.020 I mean, especially the male.

00:25:39.080 I mean, the male vote, you know, like a 40-point swing towards common sense and American values and decency.

00:25:44.760 And, you know, what were the things that they hated Charlie for speaking about?

00:25:47.400 I mean, for, you know, loving God, your country, you know, as you pointed out in your monologue, sort of, you know, men can't be women.

00:25:55.400 I mean, this isn't exactly rocket science or anything that's all that controversial.

00:25:58.980 He was just willing to say those things that were verboten for so many people for so long.

00:26:04.460 He made it okay for them.

00:26:05.880 So, for my father, he meant a lot.

00:26:07.900 I spoke to my – I don't know for sure, but I think, you know, sort of unbeknownst to me, I think, you know, my father was calling me.

00:26:13.920 And I had just heard, you know, from Charlie's team that was on the ground when it passed.

00:26:18.240 So, I think he may have heard it directly, you know, sort of from me first.

00:26:20.840 And he called me back later on that evening and we were just, you know, talking about it and how much he meant to my father and how good a fighter he was.

00:26:29.680 My father truly recognized his genius and his excellence, his work ethic, everything.

00:26:34.140 It was amazing.

00:26:36.160 That's the thing.

00:26:36.820 It's like Charlie had a seat at the table.

00:26:38.400 He had real influence in the administration with you guys and all of it was earned.

00:26:44.440 At just 31 years old, people recognized what a savant this kid was and how special he was and his truly genius-like abilities to understand the seams in the story and to communicate with a group that had been totally ignored by most – all Republicans, Don, until Charlie came along and said, let's fight for them.

00:27:05.560 Let's – why not try to get the youth vote?

00:27:07.420 Maybe we can get it.

00:27:09.480 A hundred percent.

00:27:10.320 I mean, you know, and again, when it's coming from, you know, your peers.

00:27:13.880 You know, Charlie was of that age.

00:27:15.420 Charlie was younger than most college students when he was speaking on college campuses and started doing that when we were doing it.

00:27:21.220 You know, he recognized, Megan, that, you know, we can scream in our echo chamber as much as we want and, you know, everyone can nod along because they agree with what you're saying.

00:27:28.280 But he understood how important it was to, you know, go to the places we weren't supposed to be and have that conversation and have that discourse.

00:27:37.340 You know, he went into the lion's den more than anyone.

00:27:41.240 And again, when you're at that age, you know, it's a little bit more effective than sending, you know, an 85-year-old establishment politician who can't possibly relate, doesn't understand social media, doesn't do his own, doesn't feel the vibe of what's going on.

00:27:54.560 You know, Charlie did those things.

00:27:55.980 I was looking through photos yesterday and it was, you know, pretty heart-wrenching.

00:28:03.580 But I went back down to, you know, election day of 2016 and Charlie was in my office at Trump Tower in New York.

00:28:10.800 And, you know, he's there and it's a picture of him on my computer because I was doing radio.

00:28:15.880 I was doing TV.

00:28:17.300 He wasn't really even yet a presence, you know, in sort of that digital media.

00:28:22.340 He obviously had a social following but was just starting.

00:28:25.500 I remember, you know, screaming at some of your colleagues on Fox News back in that year and being like, put this kid on.

00:28:30.040 I'm telling you, he's really good.

00:28:31.600 I had that conversation with Sean Hampton.

00:28:33.700 I think the first time I was like, he was like, I can't, I'm not putting on a kid.

00:28:36.820 Like, what do you, what do you, I'm like, just trust me, please, for the love of God, put him on.

00:28:40.040 And he did.

00:28:41.120 And that was it.

00:28:42.240 He just, you know, went like a rocket ship from there.

00:28:44.720 And I have this picture.

00:28:45.340 He was just, he was literally sitting on my desktop with access to my Twitter account, just putting out just the tweets.

00:28:52.000 You know, mobilizing people here, whatever message was going to work in whatever place was coming.

00:28:55.800 Literally, as the time zones were shutting down, because, you know, the polls closed on the East Coast at whatever it was, 7 o'clock.

00:29:02.200 Well, now we're switching to the central time zone.

00:29:04.280 And I'm getting on radio, and I think I did 100-something radio interviews that day.

00:29:07.600 So he was manning the social feed.

00:29:09.120 And it was just, you could see just the willingness to just step into any role, any position, anywhere that he could move a needle.

00:29:15.040 He just jumped in wholeheartedly.

00:29:16.780 He was doing it this election, too, saying, I don't like what I'm seeing in Michigan.

00:29:20.640 Or he would pick the state and send out tweets, and we would all amplify them, letting people know, like, you need to get out.

00:29:26.040 Like, this one's tight.

00:29:27.260 Like, don't take anything for granted.

00:29:28.900 He fought to the last minute and obviously had great results in 24.

00:29:33.800 You know, Don, it was 14 months ago that we were talking about the attempted assassination of your father by a shooter who got on a rooftop in a place he never should have been allowed to take a shot that was fatal for one man in the audience and was almost fatal for your dad.

00:29:51.100 But what do you make of the fact that Charlie, who was as cognizant as any of us of the dangers of that day and how close your dad came to being killed in that way, wound up dying in the exact same way by a different assassin's bullet?

00:30:10.060 It's just sick.

00:30:11.360 I mean, you know, Charlie knew the threat.

00:30:14.420 I mean, I know you, I'm sure, deal with it.

00:30:16.400 I know I've dealt with it, and I've had, you know, I think it was, you know, in the first term, I was number two most threatened person, you know, according to the Secret Service in government.

00:30:26.080 You know, we deal with these things every day.

00:30:28.340 Charlie was well aware, but that was never going to stop him.

00:30:32.300 And I think his faith, I mean, he was a true believer.

00:30:35.540 You know, he believed he was being, you know, handled by God to do what was right for our country, and there was nothing that was going to stop him.

00:30:43.960 I mean, you know, he had a security detail, but there's only so much you can do.

00:30:47.500 Like I said, they almost, you know, they almost killed the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party during a presidential, you know, election and allowed that to happen.

00:30:57.020 So you can take a lot of precaution, but you can't do everything.

00:31:01.160 And I think this shows us, you know, no one's there to protect you.

00:31:04.760 No one's going to save you.

00:31:06.640 A big part of the whole conservative ethos, and certainly Charlie, you know, that individualism, you have to learn how to take care of yourself.

00:31:13.080 You have to be able to do that.

00:31:16.000 And I think his faith got him through that each and every day because he understood the threat.

00:31:20.440 He knew it.

00:31:22.040 One of the last events I did with Charlie before the election, you know, we were in Arizona, which, again, I think him and his team at Turning Point single-handedly won for us.

00:31:33.040 We were doing events all over the place, and, you know, there was, you know, we got a deranged letter about a threat to me at some event that we were doing.

00:31:41.340 It was going to be basically a, you know, BYOB.

00:31:43.540 It was bring your own ballot, not booze, although I imagine there was probably some drinking because it was, you know, a college campus event.

00:31:48.040 And I was like, you know, we're going anyway, and, you know, it turns out at the last minute, I guess they caught the guy and, you know, before the event.

00:31:55.720 But, you know, these things were a regular occurrence, you know, these kinds of threats where they're literally threatening, you know, our lives or anyone that's effective.

00:32:03.220 You know, they've shown that. 0.98

00:32:05.980 You know, this isn't the bullshit that I see. 0.99

00:32:08.200 Oh, well, it's violence from both sides. 0.99

00:32:10.320 No, it's not.

00:32:11.480 It's not violence from both sides, Megan.

00:32:12.900 It's violence coming from the left, created by the left.

00:32:17.080 When you call someone a Nazi, when you call them a fascist, when you call them a dictator and you say they're the greatest threat to democracy, you know, every one of us has been the greatest threat to democracy, depending on, you know, if they're leading the news cycle that day.

00:32:30.040 You know, each and every day, they enabled this.

00:32:34.220 They created it.

00:32:35.600 It's not both ways.

00:32:37.400 It's one way.

00:32:38.620 And if it's not them calling us those things, it's their silence, like we saw from that just young Ukrainian woman just stabbed for no reason on the bus in the Carolinas two weeks ago.

00:32:52.180 Absolute silence about it because it didn't go for the narrative.

00:32:54.660 You know, rather than talking about a 14-time repeat offender who literally slits someone's throat on a bus, sitting there on her phone, minding her business, you know, guys like Charlie, you, you know, myself, you know, we talk about these things.

00:33:08.140 We bring it up.

00:33:09.780 And that puts us in their crosshairs quite literally. 1.00

00:33:12.220 You know, I love your opening monologue about, you know, sort of the, you know, the transgender bullshit. 1.00

00:33:19.520 You know, I've been talking about it for a long time, and that's where those threats are coming from. 0.99

00:33:23.360 And you're 100% right, Megan.

00:33:25.020 Think about per capita.

00:33:26.620 I can't name, including probably like al-Qaeda and the Taliban, a group that is more violent per capita than the radical trans movement.

00:33:35.220 I mean, when you think of mass killings, when you think of this, each and every one, and I'm sure there's plenty that we don't even know about because they wouldn't release the manifesto like they didn't, you know, in Wisconsin.

00:33:46.360 Nashville.

00:33:47.440 Because you're not allowed to talk about the truth, you know, because, I mean, I'm sure it's totally normal.

00:33:51.120 I'm sure people are totally sane after jacking themselves up on hormones given to them by some, you know, rainbow-haired freak doctor because, you know, they think men can somehow magically become women.

00:34:01.100 And, you know, I'm sure it has nothing to do with that, Megan.

00:34:03.900 It can't possibly, right?

00:34:05.080 That wouldn't be convenient.

00:34:07.700 That wouldn't be nice.

00:34:10.040 But the reality is, you know, we've shown and we've seen they're not willing to be nice.

00:34:16.160 Again, the violence is only going one way.

00:34:20.840 You know, Charlie, again, probably the kindest soul I know in politics, the least radicalized.

00:34:26.880 He was just, again, effective because he was able to use his words so well.

00:34:31.300 But to the left, words are violence, as we've heard so many times, because it doesn't suit their agenda, which I don't know what it is, actually. 0.78

00:34:40.140 I mean, the irony of this is, you know, you hear the stuff that they're saying and it's like just people are – they're actually insane.

00:34:45.480 It's not like there's moderate Democrats anymore.

00:34:47.820 I'm sure there are in middle America some moderate Democrats, but they certainly have no representation in Congress or the Senate because, you know,

00:34:53.400 you need the crazy California or New York money, you know, to fund those things, and therefore they never actually get there.

00:34:58.860 So I believe there's moderate Democrat voters.

00:35:00.660 I don't believe there's any moderate Democrats anymore.

00:35:02.600 And, you know, frankly, that's evidenced by some of the craziness and the insanity that we saw coming out of MSDNC yesterday and CNN and, you know, blaming Charlie.

00:35:11.820 He's to blame for this.

00:35:12.620 I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's to blame for this. 0.95

00:35:15.380 It is truly sick.

00:35:18.900 Oh, it's everywhere.

00:35:19.880 It's still going. 0.98

00:35:21.160 I have no tolerance for what's happening on Blue Sky with these lunatics. 0.79

00:35:24.400 I am going to play one thought for you.

00:35:25.760 It's of Jen Psaki having a conversation with Senator Mark Kelly.

00:35:31.240 Here's just a bit.

00:35:33.940 But he put out a four-minute video, and I'm not going to play the video.

00:35:36.680 I don't want to play the video.

00:35:38.400 But there was a line at the end that I think is – I just wanted to raise and read.

00:35:43.180 At the end of this four-minute video, he says, for years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals.

00:35:52.920 This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.

00:35:58.980 And obviously, there's a lot of rhetoric that is problematic.

00:36:03.000 A lot of it is coming from one particular side and from one particular building.

00:36:08.380 But what can be done?

00:36:09.840 I fear when this is an escalation already in less than 24 hours of this shooting.

00:36:15.760 Yeah, I think historically presidents have looked for opportunities to bring people together.

00:36:21.600 You know, right now, we need a president that will bring the country together and not try to further, you know, divide us.

00:36:29.840 It's unbelievable, Don.

00:36:31.760 I mean, it's mind-blowing.

00:36:33.280 I mean, that they can say that with a straight face.

00:36:36.140 After vilifying everyone, after Jen Psaki, who I believe was press secretary still, when Joe Biden got before that demonic red platform and vilified over 50 percent of the country, 0.94

00:36:48.020 like, you know, these same people spewing the idea that, you know, white men are the greatest domestic terror threat. 0.72

00:36:54.740 It's like, I don't know, guys. 0.98

00:36:55.620 Like, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, you know, it's the radical trans that have killed. 1.00

00:37:01.940 It feels like they've done practically every mass shooting in America for the last few years, but we're not allowed to talk about it. 0.69

00:37:09.460 You know, it's those responses that are so tone-deaf, that are so sick, that you realize the debate with the left is over.

00:37:18.800 You know, they've lost the debate.

00:37:20.480 They're not even trying to debate anymore, so they have to basically resort to violence.

00:37:25.900 That's all they have left to get what they want, and they've historically shown that.

00:37:29.820 I mean, I've always said, I've been saying it forever, you know, we need, you know, and this is not an encouragement of violence,

00:37:36.320 but we've been playing two different games.

00:37:38.780 They have been playing hardball forever while we sit back and we play t-ball.

00:37:44.380 You know, and even so many of the Republicans on the right, you saw sort of Rand Pauls, you know,

00:37:48.720 who I like and agree with a lot of what he says, but when he was talking about, well,

00:37:53.300 maybe we should have let those drug dealers on the high-speed, you know, cigarette boat come into America and forgive them.

00:38:00.080 I was like, no, no, no, these people, fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year.

00:38:04.460 They're coming to kill our young people.

00:38:06.180 We have a funded regime that does this.

00:38:09.260 We have the intelligence.

00:38:10.880 You know, maybe if they come to America and we let them sell a little bit of their goods,

00:38:14.160 maybe, Megan, they'll come around and see it our way.

00:38:16.780 You know, was it Jen Psaki or the other press secretary? 0.71

00:38:19.900 No, no, no.

00:38:20.500 Trendelaragua only took over a few buildings in Aurora, Colorado, in Austin Tech.

00:38:24.800 It's only a few buildings.

00:38:26.040 Just let them have the buildings. 1.00

00:38:27.820 These people are nuts, Megan. 1.00

00:38:30.860 They're imbecile. 1.00

00:38:32.580 They're not serious people. 1.00

00:38:34.880 What is it?

00:38:35.600 What is that leads me to this question?

00:38:38.280 What's next?

00:38:39.540 Because there's a lot of talk about is now a moment to reach out, have a kumbaya moment with the other side,

00:38:47.940 lower the temperature, is now a moment to step over the other side and forge forward without them.

00:38:56.400 You know, just what you say, we're winning.

00:38:58.640 Just complete the victory without them.

00:39:00.800 I'd love to do the former, Megan.

00:39:01.740 I'd love to do the former.

00:39:03.820 But who is better at that or kinder in doing that than Charlie Kirk?

00:39:10.580 And they killed him.

00:39:13.540 I don't think it's possible.

00:39:14.760 Again, you know, you see it, you know, the amount of normal people who aren't even political,

00:39:22.700 who have, they've hit a breaking point.

00:39:25.760 You know, they're not having these conversations on Twitter, I'm sure. 1.00

00:39:28.160 They are sick of this crap. 1.00

00:39:31.500 You know, when my 12-year-old calls me, they killed Charlie Kirk. 1.00

00:39:35.980 He's 12 years old.

00:39:36.900 He found out before I could even call them and give them a heads up because they're seeing these things.

00:39:42.840 You know, my 16-year-old, my 18-year-old, all reaching out.

00:39:46.080 And they're like, hey, we are so sick of this stuff.

00:39:48.900 Now, maybe it's a little bit more personal to them because they know him.

00:39:52.480 They knew Charlie.

00:39:53.340 And they went through it twice with my father.

00:39:55.340 I mean, I've had to, like I said earlier, I've had to deliver, you know, sort of hard news to kids

00:40:01.900 and try to explain stuff you should not have to explain to any kid.

00:40:04.900 Three times now over the last, you know, 14 months.

00:40:10.400 That's not acceptable.

00:40:11.840 And again, you see what they're saying.

00:40:15.060 And I'm not just talking about blue sky.

00:40:16.680 And, you know, I mean, that's truly deranged.

00:40:19.000 But these are the people who were in the Biden White House on TV saying these things.

00:40:25.380 You saw the guy that got fired.

00:40:27.240 Luckily, he got fired.

00:40:27.980 I'm actually shocked.

00:40:28.660 Matthew Dowd.

00:40:29.400 Yeah, Matthew Dowd.

00:40:30.740 They'll bring him back in three weeks probably.

00:40:32.220 But, you know, they have to do the obligatory thing because even the sickos there were like,

00:40:36.180 OK, that's probably a little step too far.

00:40:38.400 I mean, they're saying these things on regular television.

00:40:41.560 So I would love for them to go back.

00:40:44.100 But I think what we have to do is we have to plow forward with our ideas, reaching out

00:40:49.580 to those who are not indoctrinated, who haven't been infected with the woke mind virus.

00:40:57.120 Get those people.

00:40:58.740 Let them watch it.

00:40:59.840 You know, I saw people saying, take down the video of what happened to Charlie.

00:41:04.120 And, you know, trust me, and as someone who spoke to him every day for a decade, it was

00:41:09.280 brutal to watch.

00:41:10.080 But I think we have to watch it.

00:41:12.160 I think we have to understand what they're capable of doing and what they will gladly do.

00:41:17.140 So, you know, it's not just Charlie.

00:41:19.120 They'd go after anyone.

00:41:20.940 They just don't know your name, maybe.

00:41:23.560 They don't know you, so they don't know where to attack.

00:41:25.860 But you think that if they'll try to take out a sitting president of the United States,

00:41:29.560 if they'll try to successfully take out Charlie Kirk, you know, if they'll stab people on buses

00:41:35.060 for no reason, like you think like they're not coming for you eventually.

00:41:40.560 It's a truly scary thought.

00:41:43.020 And we have to start thinking that way.

00:41:44.500 Don, he said the following about why he goes out there and why he approaches the

00:41:51.340 Turning Point events the way he did.

00:41:53.380 Here it is in Sot 9.

00:41:57.340 My name is Charlie Kirk, and I love America.

00:42:00.760 Because I love talking with people I disagree with.

00:42:04.580 Started an organization that's now on a thousand plus campuses to save the greatest culture and

00:42:08.580 country ever to exist.

00:42:09.500 Well, considering I've been assaulted, followed, stalked, and have things thrown at me, the greatest

00:42:17.500 protection I have is cameras.

00:42:19.180 We record all of it so that we put it on the Internet so people can see these ideas collide.

00:42:23.600 When people stop talking, that's when you get violence.

00:42:26.120 That's when civil war happens. 0.64

00:42:27.640 Because you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity.

00:42:31.060 Marriages break apart when you stop talking.

00:42:32.720 Churches fall apart.

00:42:34.040 And I think what makes this country on the verge of going to a place we don't want it

00:42:38.340 to go right now is we're afraid to go to places like this and have these conversations.

00:42:41.820 I'm not.

00:42:43.600 The cameras are what protect us, where people can see ideas collide.

00:42:47.460 And it did have me wondering, would Charlie want that video out there?

00:42:52.200 Would Charlie want to see what they resorted to to stop his ideas?

00:42:57.060 I don't know.

00:43:01.420 I don't know.

00:43:02.960 But I think so, because I think he'd want people to understand.

00:43:08.320 You know, the problem is you'd love to be able to shield it from his incredible young kids

00:43:12.080 and his wife.

00:43:14.580 But, you know, some guys clipped it and, you know, I'm sure they're playing it with glee

00:43:19.420 over on Blue Sky over and over again.

00:43:22.240 I don't even want to see those machinations.

00:43:24.020 But again, I think we have to understand where we are, that you could take a 31-year-old

00:43:31.200 who is, again, one of the kindest people I've ever met that just has conversations with people,

00:43:36.600 a father of two young, incredible children who's out there every day trying to have a

00:43:42.500 conversation.

00:43:43.200 They would assassinate him in cold blood in front of thousands while he's simply trying

00:43:49.940 to have a conversation tells you everything you need to know about the left.

00:43:55.000 And so, you know, it's brutal.

00:43:57.720 I certainly don't want my kids seeing it.

00:43:59.240 But I do think adults may have to just understand the level of where we are at and really where

00:44:06.740 the left is at.

00:44:08.480 They have to understand that so that they can react accordingly, so they can take care of

00:44:13.420 themselves, so that they can stay engaged, so they don't just show up to vote because

00:44:17.340 Trump happens to be at the top of the ballot and, you know, he's our guy.

00:44:21.760 Now, we have to have representation from top to bottom, from the president down to the dog

00:44:28.080 catcher.

00:44:28.480 I truly hope that this instance, and I think Charlie would as well, that this just red pills

00:44:34.060 even further the entire youth demographic of people who'd otherwise, you know, perhaps

00:44:42.700 be indifferent or apathetic to our election process and just understand where we are.

00:44:49.720 You know, and no pun intended, but I mean, I think we really are at a turning point.

00:44:53.440 And I think we can harness that and we can make sure that Charlie's legacy lives on by,

00:45:02.020 again, continuing this dialogue.

00:45:03.360 There's no one that can replace Charlie, I don't think.

00:45:05.580 We have to do that collectively.

00:45:08.040 We have to all be willing to be unafraid, outspoken.

00:45:12.400 We cannot let them silence us.

00:45:14.680 That's why they do this.

00:45:15.880 If they don't like what you're saying, whether it was my father, whether it was Charlie, whether

00:45:20.440 it was threats to the Supreme Court justices, if they don't like what they're getting,

00:45:23.440 you know, that's where they resort.

00:45:25.660 We have to band together.

00:45:27.300 We have to be so unified that that radical faction can't possibly continue to win elections.

00:45:34.560 And I think if we do that, that would be an incredible thing for Charlie's legacy.

00:45:38.720 And I think he'd be very proud of it.

00:45:40.420 Yeah, I completely agree.

00:45:42.360 I wonder what is going to happen at Turning Point.

00:45:46.140 You know, you're right.

00:45:46.700 You can't replace Charlie Kirk.

00:45:49.000 It was a big it is a big and important organization.

00:45:52.800 Like what what's what should happen?

00:45:55.740 What like is there anyone who could step in?

00:45:57.640 It will be a collective save by the rest of us?

00:45:59.680 Like what what do you see happening there?

00:46:02.180 Listen, there is some great talent.

00:46:04.600 Again, I think Charlie is a unique individual.

00:46:06.320 But, you know, if you would have asked in, you know, in 16, if, you know, after Trump,

00:46:11.060 who was there?

00:46:11.780 There was no bench.

00:46:12.480 It took it took the hardship of the Biden administration.

00:46:16.540 It took those four years for America to realize how fragile our democracy is, how fragile our

00:46:21.360 economy is, how the incompetence of the left that can really affect your life.

00:46:26.880 You know, it took that for people to actually truly understand and appreciate Trump.

00:46:31.380 So, you know, I hope from this tragedy, we understand all that is at stake, that we all

00:46:36.840 step up.

00:46:37.260 And I think you're right.

00:46:37.820 I think it's I think it's a collective for now until someone steps up.

00:46:42.360 I know, you know, I probably spoken at every major Turning Point event for the last decade.

00:46:47.780 I will continue to do so.

00:46:49.240 I hope people like yourself, I've seen you there a bunch.

00:46:51.820 I hope we all stay engaged and, you know, maybe there comes, you know, another light

00:46:58.960 like Charlie that can that can take the helm and do all of that. 0.51

00:47:01.720 But in the meantime, I think for the first time ever, we as a party, we do have a great

00:47:06.340 bench of talent who aren't just mainstream folks that there are guys that will do this

00:47:10.860 that have followings that are, again, unafraid, who are willing to do that, who can articulate

00:47:14.880 those things.

00:47:15.760 And I think if we all band together, you know, and none of the infighting now, I guess we'll

00:47:21.500 probably always have some infighting with sort of the Washington establishment who wants

00:47:24.360 to go back to the good old ways because there's no consequence to them.

00:47:27.420 But if the whole entirety of the America First MAGA movement bands together, you know, and

00:47:34.060 does this, I think we have an incredible future.

00:47:36.380 And I think Charlie was one of the great people who truly created and paved that path for us.

00:47:42.060 Yeah, he led by example.

00:47:44.040 It's quarter to one Thursday afternoon.

00:47:46.880 And as of this hour, we still haven't caught his killer.

00:47:50.020 You saw the update at the top of the show, the FBI put out a picture.

00:47:54.080 What do you believe, Don?

00:47:55.300 Do you think we're going to get this guy?

00:47:58.500 I sure hope so.

00:48:00.280 You know, if you've gone through sort of what I've gone through, Megan, over the last, you

00:48:04.880 know, again, eight, nine years between, you know, Russia, Russia, Russia, the assassination

00:48:08.960 of the attempts on my father, the this, I just, I wish I had more faith in our institutions.

00:48:14.800 And it's why, again, we have to be so involved so that we can actually decide the people

00:48:18.680 who put this in.

00:48:19.720 You can't just elect a president and walk away.

00:48:21.340 You need all of those other steps because there's a whole bureaucracy that needs to be

00:48:24.940 replaced.

00:48:25.380 And there's a lot of other people that have to go into those things.

00:48:27.560 So, you know, I certainly, I certainly hope so.

00:48:31.940 I do believe so many of the people in American law enforcement, they're on our side, the door

00:48:38.400 kickers, those guys, they're doing, you know, they're going to do whatever it takes.

00:48:42.400 But unfortunately for me right now, it is difficult to not be a cynic given everything

00:48:46.480 I've seen and experienced.

00:48:48.040 I sort of always use the example of Russia, Russia with me.

00:48:50.860 When they started that, I was like, I was the number two target of this whole hoax.

00:48:54.120 And even me at the time as a target that they want to jail for life or to the death penalty

00:48:59.300 is Adam Schiff had said, it's like, well, there has to be something here, guys.

00:49:03.340 You know, the FBI said it like I took a thousand selfies yesterday.

00:49:06.320 They, you know, maybe someone was in the room that was from Russia.

00:49:09.280 Like, I don't even, like, I wanted to legitimately believe.

00:49:12.720 And so, you know, I come at this as a cynic from experience, but I do think, you know, the

00:49:18.160 team as led by Keshe and Dan Bongino, I mean, these people do, they are believers.

00:49:23.540 I know there's incredible people on the ground.

00:49:25.000 So I truly, I truly hope they do.

00:49:28.760 I really want to believe, but, you know, until it happens, I'm just going to pray.

00:49:33.960 Mm-hmm.

00:49:35.700 It's the anniversary of 9-11.

00:49:38.380 After 9-11 happened, I know you guys are New Yorkers.

00:49:41.580 We, one of the things we did was we bought stock to send a message to the terrorists

00:49:45.760 that they weren't going to change anything about America for the worse, that they hadn't

00:49:49.920 shut us down, that we were still going to do all the things they hated about us.

00:49:53.960 And here we are again, right, on 9-11.

00:49:57.800 And I wonder if there's anything you think we can or should do right now to send a similar

00:50:01.500 message to the people who are taking out our people, to the, to the assassins who are trying

00:50:07.060 to take out our people in, in what your dad accurately called last night, terrorism.

00:50:13.460 Yeah.

00:50:14.060 Again, I think it's band together, be unafraid, speak your mind, and don't ever stop.

00:50:22.180 I mean, that, that's what Charlie, you know, he opened the door for us to do that.

00:50:25.920 He showed so many people the way to actually do that.

00:50:28.340 Uh, and, and I think we can do that.

00:50:30.400 And with that, I think we can win.

00:50:31.400 I, I, you know, after 9-11, obviously as a New Yorker and with, with, you know, friends

00:50:35.500 there, you know, obviously Howard Lutnick lost his entire office, our commerce secretary,

00:50:40.240 the dear friend for decades.

00:50:42.300 Uh, you know, we were there and when it happened, this, this tragedy is just so terrible.

00:50:48.220 This, the greatest terror attack on American soil, uh, since Pearl Harbor, probably by numbers

00:50:52.620 ever.

00:50:52.920 Uh, and yet in New York, this rough and tumble city, you know, the months, even the, even

00:50:58.680 the years following, I mean, there was a different mindset.

00:51:02.460 People were kinder to each other.

00:51:04.500 They were friendly.

00:51:05.880 It was like, I almost, I got back to New York.

00:51:07.760 I was, you know, right, basically right out of college.

00:51:10.060 I was like, what's, what's going on here?

00:51:11.320 I mean, it was a different vibe.

00:51:12.780 Now, again, some of that got more radicalized.

00:51:14.860 It's a little scary to think of what's going on in New York with this coming election.

00:51:17.640 Uh, but I, but I think you can, you know, turn that tragedy, uh, and, and try to get

00:51:24.380 something positive for our country.

00:51:26.540 I think that's what Charlie would have wanted.

00:51:28.080 I know that's what he was fighting for each and every day.

00:51:30.520 And again, I think if we do that, we can preserve that legacy and make sure that it

00:51:33.500 never dies.

00:51:35.380 Donald Trump Jr.

00:51:36.320 God bless you, your dad, your entire family.

00:51:38.400 Thank you so much for being here.

00:51:40.340 Thank you so much, Megan.

00:51:41.180 I really appreciate it.

00:51:42.600 Wow.

00:51:43.200 We're very lucky to have him.

00:51:44.660 Very lucky to have the Trump family willing to serve, notwithstanding the enormous risks

00:51:48.320 to all of them too.

00:51:50.120 And to those who support them and have stood side by side with them, like Charlie, we'll

00:51:54.940 be right back with Benny and Tucker.

00:51:56.940 That cookie calling your name at 3 PM.

00:51:59.960 I, I just thought I was alone in that.

00:52:01.780 It calls everybody's name.

00:52:02.980 I mean, I didn't know that, but it definitely calls my name.

00:52:05.760 I mean, yeah, loudly, uh, the midnight fridge raids.

00:52:09.400 All right.

00:52:09.700 I'm not going to lie.

00:52:10.340 I don't do that, but I do hear that cookie calling my name. 1.00

00:52:12.580 The extra slice of pizza you swore you wouldn't eat.

00:52:15.120 Okay.

00:52:15.360 That too.

00:52:15.860 I guess that's, I'm also subject to that.

00:52:18.040 If you feel like your cravings control you, it's not just willpower.

00:52:22.280 It could be your gut, your gut crying for help.

00:52:25.180 That's your gut calling your name, not the cookie.

00:52:28.220 That's why I want to tell you about just thrive probiotic and their digestive bitters.

00:52:33.480 See modern diets often lack essential bitters compounds that manage appetite hormones like

00:52:39.600 GLP one, the same hormone in those expensive weight management shots just thrives. 1.00

00:52:44.940 Digestive bitters give you the power of 12 clinically proven herbs that help your body

00:52:49.760 break down food efficiently while naturally supporting GLP one production, controlled

00:52:54.840 cravings, less bloat, steady energy, and comfortable digestion.

00:52:59.520 Try just thrive digestive bitters and just thrive probiotic today at just thrive health.com

00:53:05.720 and use code Megan for 20% off your first order.

00:53:09.120 That's just thrive health.com code Megan.

00:53:11.180 Your body is going to thank you.

00:53:16.720 Every child deserves to splash, to laugh, to share adventures with friends, to feel like

00:53:24.180 they belong.

00:53:25.460 But for some that joy comes with a price tag that's beyond their reach.

00:53:29.180 Help the YMCA bring its transformative programs to those who can't afford them, because connections,

00:53:36.660 cannonballs, and confidence should never be out of reach.

00:53:41.920 Donate today to your local YMCA.

00:53:48.580 A couple of headlines for you now before we get to our next guest.

00:53:51.720 The FBI just announcing that it is offering a reward of up to $100,000 now for information

00:53:59.320 leading to the identification and arrest of the individual, parentheses, S.

00:54:05.420 They don't know how many are responsible.

00:54:07.580 Responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk on September 10th, 2025.

00:54:11.240 Quoting here, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

00:54:14.980 Contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

00:54:18.160 1-800-CALL-FBI.

00:54:19.380 And they're asking for people to submit photos and video if they have, like, that's for you,

00:54:26.460 Utah students who are out there, at fbi.gov forward slash Utah Valley.

00:54:33.340 I'm just trying to get the exact, I'm just clicking on the link here so I can get you the

00:54:37.760 exact full.

00:54:39.400 I don't see it.

00:54:41.160 I'll get you.

00:54:43.140 I don't know.

00:54:43.500 We'll put it.

00:54:44.340 We'll put it.

00:54:44.780 But in any event, they want you to call them at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

00:54:48.260 That's the FBI with a $100,000 reward now for information leading to the identification

00:54:53.360 and arrest of the individuals responsible for Charlie's murder.

00:54:57.340 They're also revealing a picture now of the actual murder weapon recovered from the woods

00:55:04.700 on the trail that they believe the killer took when leaving the campus.

00:55:10.560 It is a bolt-action rifle that was recovered near the scene.

00:55:16.220 The picture was obtained here by the New York Post.

00:55:18.980 A bolt-action rifle, we're told, fires off one bullet at a time.

00:55:22.300 You can pull back the bolt to load the bullet into the chamber.

00:55:25.820 They are used very often by hunters.

00:55:28.800 And that seems indeed appropriate because it's exactly what was done to our friend Charlie

00:55:33.960 yesterday.

00:55:35.260 He was hunted by an assassin with his four bullets in the chamber, and it only took one

00:55:41.940 to take out one of the most important voices in America.

00:55:46.020 The videos of Charlie's murder are so disturbing and incredibly jarring.

00:55:51.420 I mean, I told you yesterday when we did our live coverage, I really do wish I hadn't seen

00:55:54.940 the one of the up-close, the up-close video.

00:55:58.340 I am, I just, it was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning.

00:56:03.900 It was the last thing I thought about last night when I went to sleep.

00:56:06.660 Unfortunately, my son saw it because he's a teenage boy and they all look up to Charlie.

00:56:11.820 And it was big news that he had been shot and killed.

00:56:15.240 And teenagers sometimes forward those things around and, you know, my son, who's normally

00:56:20.260 very stoic, you could see he was jarred by it.

00:56:24.840 Everyone's jarred by it, by his death, by the violence of it, the destruction of a human

00:56:31.240 body in such a violent way and it belonging to such an important human soul in this case.

00:56:37.300 There are reports that Charlie was wearing a bulletproof vest underneath the shirt.

00:56:41.540 It appeared that way to me as well.

00:56:44.200 And some have speculated that the bullet hit the vest and ricocheted into Charlie's neck.

00:56:50.640 But however, the specifics of it went down and I'm sure we'll have a full forensic accounting.

00:56:57.160 It was an effective shot.

00:56:58.760 Obviously, the assassin had been training for this moment to take this one shot and have

00:57:04.300 it work from 200 yards away.

00:57:05.860 Right now, one other piece of news, the State Department just putting out, oh, before I

00:57:11.920 get to that, here's the video, here's the site.

00:57:14.280 If you have pictures of YouTube, it's fbi.gov forward slash Utah Valley shooting, fbi.gov

00:57:20.280 forward slash Utah Valley shooting, or just call the FBI 1-800-CALL-FBI.

00:57:25.060 The State Department putting out the following moments ago.

00:57:28.620 This is from the Deputy Secretary of State.

00:57:31.880 In light of yesterday's horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore

00:57:36.160 that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.

00:57:41.140 I've been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light

00:57:45.060 of the event and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action.

00:57:49.700 Good for him.

00:57:51.040 Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the State

00:57:55.920 Department can protect the American people.

00:57:58.860 That's great.

00:57:59.720 That's beautiful.

00:58:00.780 They're guests in our home. 1.00

00:58:03.100 Get the fuck out if you're going to celebrate the murder of one of our most beloved citizens. 1.00

00:58:08.280 You're not allowed to stay here. 1.00

00:58:09.740 You have no right to be here.

00:58:11.720 We just now finally have a State Department that recognizes that and will do what it can

00:58:16.340 to protect us.

00:58:18.960 I've done so many turning point events with Charlie, both with him and for him and on his

00:58:25.540 campus and otherwise.

00:58:26.340 And one of the people you always see when you go to a turning point event is Benny Johnson.

00:58:31.960 He was on the show recently.

00:58:33.840 We were talking about his expose.

00:58:35.680 You may recall on Jasmine Crockett, you know, woman of the people and, you know, real soul 0.95

00:58:41.040 sister of the working class, all a bunch of bullshit exposed by Benny and his trip to her hometown, 0.99

00:58:46.860 just like he did for AOC. 0.98

00:58:48.360 He's an intrepid reporter.

00:58:50.100 He was a dear friend of Charlie's.

00:58:52.460 Benny had gotten in some sort of social media trouble, some ridiculous thing.

00:58:56.420 And, uh, I asked Charlie about it on the show last time he was on.

00:59:01.860 And he started by saying, Benny's a dear friend and I will never say anything about bad about

00:59:07.300 Benny.

00:59:08.540 So obviously he not only cared about him, he cared about protecting him and not jumping

00:59:12.500 in on any storms that would, that would lead people to dislike him.

00:59:17.500 That would besmirch him because Charlie had been the victim of it himself so many times.

00:59:23.060 Benny's my guest now.

00:59:23.920 Benny, thank you so much for being here.

00:59:25.120 I know it's a hard day for you.

00:59:26.760 Let me just get your reaction now, less than 24 hours after the news.

00:59:33.420 Well, Megan, I have not slept and I stayed up into the small hours of the morning pondering

00:59:42.320 Charlie and what he would want next.

00:59:47.060 And I have two thoughts on that.

00:59:49.480 They begin like this.

00:59:51.640 One, Charlie died as he lived.

00:59:55.120 Charlie was sharing salt and light in the darkest corners of our country and in our culture.

01:00:04.260 And it is a culture that has been overcome by darkness.

01:00:07.760 And Charlie was a beacon of light.

01:00:11.960 Charlie would want us to carry that beacon forward.

01:00:15.140 Charlie was cut down in the moments his last words were decrying violence and radicalization of the political left.

01:00:31.600 What do we do next?

01:00:38.600 What do we do next?

01:00:42.240 One, we make Charlie a martyr.

01:00:47.060 Charlie is a martyr for America.

01:00:49.980 He's a martyr for free speech.

01:00:52.800 He is a martyr for peaceful disagreement.

01:00:57.340 He is a martyr for Christendom.

01:01:00.660 And then two, we remember his life.

01:01:03.820 I got to witness up close, Megan, Charlie's miraculous life.

01:01:10.660 And there's no other way to describe it other than prophetic.

01:01:14.780 Charlie Kirk had a calling on him from a very young age.

01:01:21.700 And as I watched him grow and as I watched him mature and as I watched him gain exponential influence on our culture and on our land and be able to call up President Trump, who viewed Charlie Kirk as a son.

01:01:35.080 As a son, as a child, as someone so close to him, I knew that he would become a target.

01:01:45.120 And I believe Charlie knew this as well.

01:01:50.660 And Charlie got struck down by an assassin's bullet because of his power and because of his influence and because of something that we all well knew, those who were close to him.

01:02:05.080 Which is that Charlie Kirk would become the president of the United States one day in his life.

01:02:12.500 Yeah.

01:02:12.760 They sought to cut that life short.

01:02:18.220 And so what must we do now?

01:02:22.480 We must rise up with full hearts and remember who Charlie was and what he stood for.

01:02:33.160 Light in the darkness, truth in the face of evil, fearlessness, and most importantly, and as Charlie has said again and again and again, a desire to evangelize his faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

01:02:54.040 To a lost world that so desperately needs it and with the last note of his life stating that he wants peace and salvation for this country.

01:03:06.100 Charlie Kirk is an American martyr, a Christian soldier, dying with honor and grace and delivered up to his Lord and Savior, Megan.

01:03:18.900 And his legacy then passes on to the rest of us in our own poor and inefficient and insufficient ways to carry it forward.

01:03:29.240 God help us.

01:03:30.980 This is America's turning point.

01:03:32.320 Benny, you know the turning point people better than most and Charlie's friends and family.

01:03:42.240 What kind of contact have you had with them?

01:03:44.840 How is the inner circle doing?

01:03:47.780 Very poorly.

01:03:50.020 I mean, how do you fill a life like Charlie's?

01:03:57.880 He was a prophet.

01:03:58.640 And I'll just say it and I just don't care anymore.

01:04:03.280 I was able to witness Megan, Charlie from a very early age.

01:04:06.820 I met Charlie when he was a teenager.

01:04:08.860 I was able to watch him work and I was able to see God, not only, not only God's hand on what he was building, but also the providence of his actions.

01:04:21.660 And I experienced it and everybody who was near Charlie knew that there was a specific energy that only he had.

01:04:31.460 And sometimes as it goes with martyrs, you don't even appreciate it when it's right there in front of you.

01:04:38.880 But now looking back, you say, my goodness, God has his hand on this man.

01:04:46.020 And I will never understand why God took him from us.

01:04:50.000 I will never understand why he's gone today.

01:04:54.200 But I do understand what he wanted.

01:04:56.380 And so your question is, how are people holding up?

01:05:00.180 Well, they're holding up exactly the way that Charlie would want us to hold up because Charlie is right now smiling with that iconic and irreplaceable smile down from heaven on us.

01:05:18.500 And he is saying, buck up, don't cry, continue the work.

01:05:30.680 I've built this incredible organization in Turning Point USA.

01:05:33.840 I've begun this movement that has started the process of saving a generation of Americans.

01:05:41.380 who followed him by the tens of millions, who listened to his every word and continue that work.

01:05:51.680 And that is what Charlie has said to me so many times.

01:05:54.860 I'm sure he said it to you in private text messages.

01:05:58.820 He said it to so many hundreds of activists and people of influence, politicians and so on, that Charlie Kirk was there constantly stiffening the spine.

01:06:09.100 It's not our time to cry.

01:06:11.720 It's not our time to be sad.

01:06:13.100 He did this to me after the 2020 election.

01:06:15.860 And his entire team, OK, now we get to work.

01:06:19.320 Good, good.

01:06:20.820 So something terrible happened to us.

01:06:22.340 Good.

01:06:23.140 Now we get to work.

01:06:25.880 And that was the man who Charlie was.

01:06:29.560 Megan, I'll tell you, I have wept bitterly on my knees.

01:06:33.900 And I've done that in my own private space.

01:06:37.220 And what it will require of us moving forward is to remember that that is not who Charlie was.

01:06:46.920 He was not somebody who ever felt sorry for himself ever.

01:06:50.140 He was someone who only ever served those around him and built up.

01:06:55.140 And it's not easy to kill a martyr, Megan.

01:07:01.280 Martyrs get more powerful after their martyrdom.

01:07:04.940 And what you're seeing now today is that the world is gathering around Charlie, praying for him and his family and his beautiful wife, Erica.

01:07:15.100 He is survived by Erica and their two children.

01:07:17.620 They're gathering around Charlie and people are now looking with more intensity than ever at what was Charlie saying that got him killed.

01:07:26.780 What was Charlie doing, Megan, that got him killed?

01:07:31.980 You cut out a man's tongue. 0.97

01:07:33.860 You just you just prove that you're scared of what he's saying.

01:07:37.880 You don't silence him.

01:07:39.260 You actually make him louder.

01:07:40.220 And now today, now today we get the news that it was about his speech, that it was about his opinions, or so say the bullets that remained chambered.

01:07:54.180 The reporting out of the Wall Street Journal, originally broken by Stephen Crowder, is that the three rounds not yet fired had pro-trans, anti-fascist messages written on them.

01:08:07.200 No pictures yet released of that, though I'm sure it's coming.

01:08:10.340 And yet another piece of evidence in that, that the that Charlie's haters didn't know him at all.

01:08:20.020 We pulled just this one.

01:08:21.460 We could we could be here all day playing similar exchanges between Charlie and a trans advocate or activist or someone who said they just were trans at these events.

01:08:32.420 This is the real Charlie Kirk.

01:08:34.080 This is the actual Charlie Kirk and how he handled that issue.

01:08:37.740 Watch.

01:08:38.260 I just want to say I'm a transgender male.

01:08:42.640 What age should kids be able to get things like hormone therapy?

01:08:46.460 Because I don't know what's true, what's not.

01:08:48.700 Tell me, are you comfortable telling me your story?

01:08:50.700 I've known that since like third grade and I'm currently 19, almost 20.

01:08:57.000 I've known basically since then I didn't start going by like a different name until seventh and eighth grade.

01:09:04.140 I just don't know, like with the met, like the whole medical stuff, like what's true, what's not, what's helpful, because I've heard so many different opinions.

01:09:12.060 First of all, thank you so much for that.

01:09:13.540 And so I'm going to have an opinion that very few people will ever tell you, which is I want you to be very cautious putting drugs into your system in the pursuit of changing your body.

01:09:25.180 I instead encourage you to work on what's going on in your brain first.

01:09:30.360 I think what you need first and foremost is just a diagnosis, just someone that is going to listen to what you've gone through.

01:09:36.940 Listen to what else is going on.

01:09:38.580 My prayer for you, and again, very few people will say this, I actually want to see you be comfortable in how you were born.

01:09:45.540 Yeah.

01:09:45.840 I know that you might not feel that way, but I think that is something that you can achieve.

01:09:49.780 I think that with the right team and the right people, you don't have to wage war on your body.

01:09:55.100 You can learn to love your body.

01:09:57.920 It's absolutely beautiful and respectful in its honesty and its frankness.

01:10:03.820 Yes, that's who he was, and it appears to have gotten him killed.

01:10:08.140 What of the news, Benny, that this may have been somebody motivated by Charlie's messaging on the trans issue and on, quote, fascism, which is code for Donald Trump on the left?

01:10:22.840 Well, I want to take a moment here, Megan, and.

01:10:27.620 Give your audience a little window into what demonic activity the left has been engaging in from a corporate media level through a dark money level through an activist and terrorist level.

01:10:47.940 And the playbook is quite simple.

01:10:50.800 You demonize at a corporate media level. 0.77

01:10:53.860 You call everyone Hitler and fascist and irredeemable and deplorable.

01:11:05.400 Then you fund groups to organize against those people who you've demonized.

01:11:13.920 Then you arm them.

01:11:16.780 You ensure that they have a malicious style mindset.

01:11:20.580 This is done through tick tock and mass formation psychosis and the allowance of left wing violence and the promotion of Luigi style left wing murderous terrorism. 0.81

01:11:36.460 You lionize and venerate like the transgender shooter that just massacred children in Minneapolis. 0.94

01:11:44.300 You hot people up on pharmaceuticals and drugs to make them out of their mind. 0.97

01:11:51.260 And then. 0.97

01:11:54.660 You say you'd be a hero if you went and shot Hitler. 0.99

01:12:01.040 And that's the playbook. 0.97

01:12:03.880 And that, I believe, is what needs to be destroyed in this nation.

01:12:09.440 That is a playbook that is going to end in civil war, Megan.

01:12:16.440 It's something that is going to end horribly in secretarian violence in this country. 0.59

01:12:20.980 And the left is running that playbook.

01:12:24.300 We are not.

01:12:25.680 I hear that Joe Biden has terminal cancer.

01:12:28.040 I say prayers and blessings to his family.

01:12:30.480 I think Joe Biden wrecked the country.

01:12:32.320 I think there hasn't been a worse president in my lifetime.

01:12:34.020 But I'm not going to sit there and wish ill on him.

01:12:36.520 Never have I ever wished ill or harm on a fellow American ever, nor will I.

01:12:41.180 That is the difference between us and the animals, Megan, because they are celebrating right now.

01:12:48.480 They want more of this.

01:12:50.300 They're all targeting you.

01:12:52.200 They're targeting me.

01:12:53.880 Yes.

01:12:54.660 They're saying, who's next?

01:12:56.060 Ben Shapiro, Stephen Crowder, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly.

01:13:02.600 That's what's happening.

01:13:04.380 That's what needs to be targeted.

01:13:07.020 That is, and I will say it to its face, that is evil, demonic activity from the pit of hell.

01:13:14.580 You have lost your humanity, but it is the end stage of the dehumanization of the other, of your political enemy.

01:13:23.040 And this has been an op that has been run on this country.

01:13:25.180 And Charlie Kirk is, in part, a victim and a martyr because of that op and shame and a pox on the house and a forever curse on every media organization, including and up to just a few hours ago, Van Jones on CNN.

01:13:44.080 Again, calling Charlie Kirk a demagogue and an irredeemable racist.

01:13:48.920 And that is what Van Jones did on CNN's airwaves.

01:13:51.440 Shame upon all of them.

01:13:55.960 In fact, in just the hours after Charlie Kirk's announcement that he was shot, we didn't even know what was happening.

01:14:01.820 There were guests on MSNBC that were saying he deserved it. 0.98

01:14:04.880 These filthy demons. 0.95

01:14:06.900 That is the problem, Megan.

01:14:12.460 That's, we mentioned this in the Don Jr. interview.

01:14:15.860 I'm going to play it now.

01:14:16.740 Matthew Dowd, who's now been fired from even MSNBC because they had to, sat there across from Katie Turner and said the following in Sop 23 when Charlie was clinging to life.

01:14:27.580 I emphasize what you just emphasized.

01:14:29.040 We don't know any full details of this.

01:14:31.360 We don't know if this was the supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.

01:14:35.020 So we have no idea about this.

01:14:37.280 But following up with what was just said, he's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive, younger figures in this who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups.

01:14:50.740 And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.

01:14:58.560 And I think that's the environment we're in, that people just, you can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place.

01:15:10.120 And that's the unfortunate environment we're in.

01:15:12.960 That's crazy.

01:15:14.100 He counts himself as a Christian man.

01:15:16.440 He's constantly pushing that online.

01:15:18.540 And as Charlie was lying there dying, that's where he went, Benny.

01:15:23.680 I'll give you the last word.

01:15:26.360 They just ran this off on my family, and I know they've done the same thing to you, Megan.

01:15:30.380 The New York Times just ran a piece that said that when my family was in a life-threatening situation that included fire and bullets raining down on our home in Washington, D.C., that they weren't in enough danger for the father of this newborn child to be concerned.

01:15:50.080 That was the premise of a New York Times article on my family just a few weeks ago.

01:15:53.960 This is the mindset of these people, that we are not worthy of sympathy.

01:16:00.620 This is how they think, and it is worth internalizing that.

01:16:05.080 And whether you want to share a – can you sing kumbaya and join arms with that?

01:16:09.320 Or is that something that must be defeated?

01:16:11.240 Is that a worldview that is so despicable and so dark that you must actually ensure that it does not continue, meaning in a peaceful way, we must set about the business of defeating the evil that stole Charlie from us.

01:16:35.980 And that evil is an inhumane spiritual darkness that has overcome and washed over the left, Megan.

01:16:44.640 And you see it in so many examples, but I'll give you just one final one in conclusion.

01:16:48.960 The final one in conclusion is these are the same people that told us that when President Trump took a bullet to the head that it was a Republican who did it, that it was a Trump supporter who did it.

01:16:58.440 It's the same playbook, these people.

01:17:01.260 Or that it didn't happen at all.

01:17:02.720 That was their other –

01:17:03.220 Or that it didn't happen at all.

01:17:03.960 That's right.

01:17:04.220 And so that's what we must fight and defeat.

01:17:08.800 Benny, thank you.

01:17:11.380 Thank you, Megan.

01:17:13.580 You know, he and I are talking about the disgusting media and how they gin up these lies about people.

01:17:18.620 They have no qualms whatsoever about what it will do to your life or your safety.

01:17:22.020 I mean, in the realm of Charlie Kirk, you know, when you look at the public media figures who have been subjected to that kind of targeting, you can't think of one more well-known than Tucker Carlson.

01:17:36.860 The New York Times has literally run front page article after article on him trying to convince the world that he's a racist, which is a pernicious lie.

01:17:48.660 He was dear friends with Charlie, and he's here next.

01:17:52.180 Don't go away.

01:17:53.260 You might know the feeling of FOMO, fear of missing out.

01:17:57.280 But here is one thing you do not want to miss, protecting your future with life insurance.

01:18:02.720 For about the price of one streaming service, you can get the coverage you need with SelectQuote.

01:18:07.820 Even if this is your first time thinking about life insurance, they make it simple.

01:18:12.500 For over 40 years, SelectQuote has helped more than 2 million Americans secure more than $700 billion in coverage.

01:18:21.080 Okay, let me tell you why I'm laughing.

01:18:22.820 Because this is a life insurance ad that began with talking about your fear of FOMO.

01:18:29.320 So it's like, yeah, you are going to mow kind of the rest of eternity.

01:18:41.500 You're going to be mowing.

01:18:44.160 There's really nothing any life insurance company can do about it.

01:18:48.820 But SelectQuote has nonetheless helped millions of people who want to at least plan for the people who remain to be well looked after.

01:19:03.420 Now, that makes sense.

01:19:04.560 That makes sense to me.

01:19:05.960 This is a broker.

01:19:07.720 They're going to work for you for free.

01:19:09.840 They're going to compare policies from trusted, top-rated companies to match your health, lifestyle, and budget.

01:19:15.220 Some providers even offer same-day coverage.

01:19:17.080 That's good with no medical exam.

01:19:18.600 Even better.

01:19:19.460 And if you've got a pre-existing condition, no problem.

01:19:22.480 SelectQuote partners with companies that cover people with high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease.

01:19:26.620 Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today.

01:19:29.360 Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at SelectQuote.com slash Megan.

01:19:36.540 SelectQuote.com slash Megan.

01:19:38.460 So you do not have FOMO.

01:19:41.720 Okay.

01:19:42.400 Want to know about something positive and upbeat?

01:19:44.560 Well, I've been telling you about Firecracker Farm Hot Salt.

01:19:48.140 It's been a showstopper gift and must-have item for anyone that enjoys spicing up their food.

01:19:53.420 But what exactly is hot salt?

01:19:55.360 Well, it's sea salt infused with a blend of hot pepper that's made by a wonderful little family company.

01:20:01.200 It comes in sleek, stainless steel push grinders that feel great in hand and are really satisfying to use.

01:20:07.460 Their motto is, everything's better with hot salt.

01:20:10.460 And based on the reviews, customers are in full agreement.

01:20:13.160 So give it a try.

01:20:14.640 Go to firecracker.farm right now and use the code MK at checkout for a special discount.

01:20:21.680 That's firecracker.farm, code MK. 0.79

01:20:24.660 Get yourself some hot salt before it's all gone.

01:20:27.820 You'll thank me.

01:20:28.460 I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.

01:20:36.540 It's your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal, and cultural figures today.

01:20:44.300 You can catch The Megan Kelly Show on Triumph, a SiriusXM channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love.

01:20:52.080 Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megan Kelly.

01:20:58.980 You can stream The Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM at home or anywhere you are.

01:21:03.500 No car required.

01:21:05.200 I do it all the time.

01:21:06.060 I love the SiriusXM app.

01:21:08.840 It has ad-free music coverage of every major sport, comedy, talk, podcast, and more.

01:21:14.540 Subscribe now.

01:21:15.240 Get your first three months for free.

01:21:17.340 Go to SiriusXM.com slash MKShow to subscribe and get three months free.

01:21:23.480 That's SiriusXM.com slash MKShow and get three months free.

01:21:29.320 Offer details apply.

01:21:30.360 Joining me now, Tucker Carlson of The Tucker Carlson Show and TuckerCarlson.com.

01:21:41.440 Tucker, it's so awful.

01:21:42.820 I've been really wanting to hear your reaction to the news.

01:21:46.140 I know you were traveling yesterday.

01:21:47.900 Where are you at right now, less than 24 hours later?

01:21:51.480 Well, I mean, of course, bewildered.

01:21:53.400 You know, I got back last night and stayed up until probably like everybody, until one

01:21:59.740 in the morning, talking to people and texting people and then, you know, on X, looking at

01:22:06.220 the reaction.

01:22:07.420 And I woke up this morning and I thought to myself, you know, that's really not the way

01:22:10.960 at all to sit and marinate in the hate, which I did.

01:22:15.380 I couldn't help it.

01:22:15.980 It's like pornography or snuff videos or something.

01:22:17.920 You like, you're just like mesmerized by it.

01:22:19.340 It's like watching, you know, a tragedy over and over.

01:22:21.760 Not the violence, but just the hate.

01:22:25.220 I mean, I must have watched 15 videos of young women celebrating Charlie's death.

01:22:31.620 And my first thought was, well, you know, this is obviously some kind of, you know, manufactured

01:22:35.920 attempt to divide the country against itself.

01:22:37.940 And it's probably all fake.

01:22:39.480 And then you look and it's actually not fake.

01:22:41.740 You know, here's a teacher from an elementary school in Idaho.

01:22:44.760 And here's a yoga instructor from West Hollywood.

01:22:46.720 And these are like real people with real names.

01:22:48.120 And then you realize, boy, I mean, the depth of evil out there is really overwhelming.

01:22:54.360 Like what country, what do I know the country?

01:22:56.240 Do I know who lives here?

01:22:57.260 Like, what is this?

01:22:59.000 And I was just, I couldn't turn away.

01:23:01.820 And then I realized when I woke up this morning, that's really hurting me.

01:23:06.260 And I woke up to a group text from my wife, to our family text.

01:23:10.380 Of course, everyone knew Charlie.

01:23:11.420 He was just at our house.

01:23:12.300 And, you know, very upset, very upset for a bunch of different reasons.

01:23:17.840 And she sent Luke 6, which is like the most radical thing that anyone's ever said.

01:23:24.060 And it's like, no, no, no.

01:23:25.860 Love your enemies.

01:23:26.900 Pray for your persecutors.

01:23:28.260 When someone assaults you, don't fight back, which is impossible, of course.

01:23:33.500 I mean, no one can do that.

01:23:34.580 And it literally takes supernatural intervention for anyone to live that way, much less to feel that way.

01:23:40.840 And that's what's called for, is supernatural intervention.

01:23:44.540 I mean, you can take all kinds of steps.

01:23:46.500 We do need to restore order in the country.

01:23:48.360 And no one's kind of done that for the last 50 years.

01:23:50.800 And this is the end result of true disorder.

01:23:54.260 And by order, by the way, that doesn't mean authoritarian behavior or eliminating people's constitutional rights or races.

01:23:59.560 There's nothing like that.

01:24:00.260 I mean, order is the key to happiness and peace.

01:24:03.320 Order is what God creates out of chaos at the beginning of Genesis.

01:24:06.180 Like, order is a prerequisite for joy.

01:24:08.460 So we need order.

01:24:09.420 We don't have it.

01:24:10.280 I hope it's restored.

01:24:11.780 But much more deeply, people need to be transformed and see each other as God sees them, you know, including their enemies, as human beings who are doing bad things but are still created by God.

01:24:23.380 Like, without that worldview, then you descend into hell.

01:24:27.720 In fact, you already live there, which is where, in some sense, we live now.

01:24:30.340 And, boy, that just became clear because it happened to me.

01:24:34.320 I mean, I was sitting there fuming and despair and, like, by the way, what was this?

01:24:40.100 You know, there's always a lot going on in the backdrop.

01:24:43.300 And I don't know, of course, the answer.

01:24:47.760 But everyone's got an opinion on that.

01:24:50.040 And it really took me away from Charlie, Erica, and their children and the things that you should be meditating on and praying about.

01:24:59.020 It totally took me out of that into this place of hate.

01:25:02.560 And I don't want to go there.

01:25:05.000 So let me just say quickly about Charlie.

01:25:06.780 I've known him since he was a teenager and just an amazing person.

01:25:11.540 But the two things that stick out, he's a Christian man.

01:25:15.660 And we talked about that a lot, including, you know, just the other day.

01:25:18.400 There's a lot of pressure on public people, people who run huge, you know, $100 million a year nonprofits.

01:25:25.000 And there are a lot of pitfalls and traps.

01:25:27.540 That's why so many of them are destroyed.

01:25:29.100 And Charlie really did without, you know, betraying details.

01:25:32.180 Like, he walked the line for real.

01:25:34.600 It was the topic of many conversations between us because I've seen so many people destroyed.

01:25:38.680 You know, most people are destroyed by power.

01:25:40.680 And he wasn't.

01:25:41.640 And I just really admire that.

01:25:44.040 I mean, to his last moments, you know, in order, he cared about God, his wife, and his children, and then his country.

01:25:52.060 So, and that was totally real, completely real.

01:25:55.000 I can affirm that because I just talked to him about it so much.

01:25:58.700 And I admire that.

01:25:59.960 And he's a model, really.

01:26:01.340 I mean, he didn't have hate in his heart.

01:26:03.080 And it was funny.

01:26:03.660 And, again, it's one of the reasons I couldn't stop looking at these videos last night.

01:26:06.840 People were describing the opposite of what he was.

01:26:09.480 He was filled with hate.

01:26:10.380 No.

01:26:10.640 And if you talked to him about people who had attacked him or who were truly his enemies up to, and I think including the people who assassinated him yesterday, he would never, ever express hate, ever.

01:26:22.820 He would always turn to, you know, this person has been led astray.

01:26:26.840 This person is clearly possessed by dark forces.

01:26:29.340 This person is a perpetrator but also a victim of evil.

01:26:32.480 I mean, that really was his worldview.

01:26:33.660 That's the Christian worldview.

01:26:35.120 And he expressed that in public and especially in private.

01:26:39.360 And I think that faith, which was completely real, not the fake faith that you see on display so often, but a real one, that was the root of his courage.

01:26:48.700 And he had real courage.

01:26:50.000 He loved being with people who disagreed with him, not theoretically with them, but physically with them, you know, like close enough to smell.

01:26:58.740 He would wade right in the middle of everything.

01:27:00.600 I mean, I could tell you a million stories that I saw.

01:27:03.060 But that was absolutely real.

01:27:06.140 Like he loved people, even people who hated him.

01:27:09.600 And people he loved, he was the rare person who was willing to tell them what he thought was true.

01:27:14.360 I mean, he really believed, as a political matter, by the way, that, you know, I don't think he had animus toward anybody in no other country, but he really believed in his own country and the obligation of his government to stand behind his country.

01:27:26.160 He was truly America first in the nicest, most decent, non-ideological, but sincere way.

01:27:32.460 He was one of the only people, I mean, truly one of the only people to go to the president, whom he loved.

01:27:38.200 He loved Donald Trump, like personally as well.

01:27:41.280 And I think the president really loved him in a real way.

01:27:44.720 But he was one of the only people to go to the Oval Office and say, sir, I totally understand and think Iran's really bad. 1.00

01:27:50.380 But a war with Iran is not, you know, is something that could really hurt our country.

01:27:55.320 I mean, boy, that was an unpopular position.

01:27:57.980 He didn't need to express it.

01:28:00.240 Oh, of course.

01:28:01.120 And he did it again.

01:28:02.160 He didn't have some weird agenda.

01:28:03.700 He wasn't mad at anybody.

01:28:04.800 He was for his country and he was for doing the right and wise and difficult thing.

01:28:10.220 And he said that.

01:28:11.160 He went to the Oval Office to say that.

01:28:12.740 He took massive, massive abuse from his own donors, which is also something that you don't see people.

01:28:19.380 And he loved his donors.

01:28:20.300 It wasn't a hostile thing, but they had a different view.

01:28:22.740 A lot of them, not all, but a lot.

01:28:24.700 And they expressed it to him in a very intense way.

01:28:27.620 I know because he showed me.

01:28:29.360 And he said, look, I understand your perspective.

01:28:31.940 This is my perspective.

01:28:32.900 And we're going to do what we think is the right thing, the wise thing.

01:28:36.480 In that way, too, he was the voice of young people.

01:28:38.480 I mean, there are no young people in the country anymore supporting this war and wanting Israel to continue its bombing campaign.

01:28:45.660 That's just the truth.

01:28:46.680 Look at the polls.

01:28:47.560 And he was in touch with them.

01:28:49.580 And even where his own opinion may have differed from their opinion, he felt like he owed it to them to bring their message to the sitting president of the United States.

01:28:58.280 I mean, that's what's been snuffed out.

01:29:02.300 Well, as he has been, unfortunately.

01:29:04.680 But he was one of the very few people, very few people I have met who combined a love for everyone involved with strong views.

01:29:16.260 So, again, he was not animated by anything creepy or weird.

01:29:19.540 I mean, you knew him intimately, so you know this is true.

01:29:22.200 If you talked to him off camera, he would say, you know, I really like I love whoever I'm talking about, but I think this is wrong.

01:29:31.020 It's immoral.

01:29:31.760 It's bad for everybody involved, both sides.

01:29:34.420 And he would say that.

01:29:35.800 And he could say that because it was sincere.

01:29:38.560 It was completely sincere.

01:29:39.880 But I cannot overstate the amount of attacks he took privately over this, like absolutely for real.

01:29:47.360 And having lived in Washington most of my life and seen people run nonprofits, I've never met one who was willing – stand up is too strong.

01:29:54.500 He wasn't confrontational.

01:29:55.680 But he would just say, no, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but I think this is the right thing.

01:29:59.620 The people we represent, which is mostly young people, they believe this, and I believe it also.

01:30:05.260 It was brave but loving at the same time.

01:30:09.520 And I'm not sure he made a lot of headway, by the way.

01:30:11.340 I mean I think he made real enemies in doing that, but his view didn't change.

01:30:17.180 Anyway, he was just a wonderfully decent, loving man.

01:30:21.780 That is true.

01:30:23.600 What do you think about the actual assassination, who was potentially behind it?

01:30:30.900 Do we believe this business about – the New York Times is trying to cast doubt on what was on those cartridges and whether those messages were really there.

01:30:38.160 Not saying it didn't happen, but suggesting like be careful because it may not be true.

01:30:43.180 And even if it is true, it could be a situation where there's much more to it than that, than what was on those bullets.

01:30:50.420 Do you have any thoughts?

01:30:51.660 Not knowing what the truth is, any thoughts at the sound?

01:30:53.920 Yes, I have so many thoughts, but I got a call about an hour ago from one of the very few people I trust in Washington and really love and like a true friend who said,

01:31:06.580 I bet like everybody you're tempted to go to dark places or focus on the violence here or what was clearly a well-planned assassination and you should just take a break from that.

01:31:19.980 And this is someone who I agree with on everything.

01:31:21.680 It's not – this wasn't trying to control me, but just like out of concern for me as a person.

01:31:27.060 Like you should focus on Charlie and who he was and proceed with wisdom and restraint.

01:31:33.860 And so that's all I'm going to say.

01:31:35.380 I mean, of course, you can imagine all kinds of things and I don't think anything is necessarily implausible.

01:31:41.100 I do think that we should always – and I try to live by this – be skeptical of everything that we're presented as a pat explanation for anything.

01:31:49.520 I mean, of course, you know, there's been – there's an awful lot of deception in this world, but we shouldn't allow, you know, the potential that what we're hearing is fake to convince us that it is fake before we know that it's fake.

01:32:01.280 In other words, wait, you know, wait for the facts.

01:32:03.980 But I mean, of course, it goes without saying that I would never after, you know, 35 years of doing this ever accept the first explanation from anyone.

01:32:13.100 And I mean literally from anyone.

01:32:14.820 So – but I – you know, so we'll find out.

01:32:18.480 But clearly the way that it was done with maximum violence with a .30-06, not a .223 by the way.

01:32:27.480 I don't know guns.

01:32:28.440 What does that mean?

01:32:29.600 OK.

01:32:30.020 So the .223, the .556, the AR-15 round, the little .22 caliber high-pressure round that is, you know, thought to be the most dangerous gun in the world and weapon of war and all this stuff.

01:32:41.420 You're constantly hearing about it is, in fact, designed basically to wound under most circumstances.

01:32:48.420 The gun that murdered Charlie was what is often referred to by Chuck Schumer as a deer rifle.

01:32:54.220 But, of course, it's a much larger – it is, in fact, an old-fashioned military round.

01:32:57.840 It's a .30-06, .30 caliber, big, big round.

01:33:00.140 And that – you know, people who understand guns – I mean I guess all I'm saying without getting like sidetracked is, you know, whoever contemplated this and pulled it off and committed the murder, you know, had thought about it and was clearly – you know, I'm not saying it was – I mean I don't know who it was.

01:33:19.260 But it wasn't – clearly not some random guy who got mad yesterday morning and decided to do it.

01:33:24.140 I mean obviously.

01:33:25.040 Yeah, I agree with that.

01:33:25.640 There was great forethought in this.

01:33:28.080 So that's all we know.

01:33:30.160 Again, I think, you know, my life over – certainly over the last 10 years proves that I'm not an acceptor of the official story just because it's the official story.

01:33:40.040 By the way, the official story can be right.

01:33:42.980 You know, just because it's the official story doesn't mean it's a lie.

01:33:45.080 But it – you know, I think it's incumbent on us to come to our own – well, that's true.

01:33:50.560 And part of the problem with living to 56 is you've seen so much – and I grew up around a lot of this stuff already – that you can just get lost in it, completely lost in it, you know, because you know a lot of things over time that are – you know the truth about some things.

01:34:06.280 You don't know the truth – I don't know the truth about everything.

01:34:07.900 That's for sure.

01:34:08.380 There are many more things I'm ignorant on that I'm knowledgeable about.

01:34:11.940 However, I've seen enough and been into enough dinners where people are like, well, da-da-da-da-da, and you're thinking to yourself, you have no idea what actually happened.

01:34:19.640 You know, and you can get into a kind of mindset that's bad.

01:34:22.100 By the way, not for nothing, but on that front, Tucker's got a documentary out today on TuckerCarlson.com on 9-11 and some hard truths we weren't told.

01:34:31.600 And, of course, you're going to be called a conspiracy theorist, as people love to say.

01:34:35.480 But I will say, just this week, Catherine Herridge, who nobody's ever accused of being a conspiracy theorist, has matched some of your reporting, and she's reporting it on X.

01:34:44.740 So people should check it out.

01:34:46.360 Obviously, he's not going to hear it to promote this, but it's just another example.

01:34:49.700 So, well, look, I don't know.

01:34:52.180 There are a million things I don't know, including what was really going on on 9-11.

01:34:55.720 All we proved was that the official story was, like, completely, ridiculously false.

01:34:59.680 It doesn't mean that I have a pat explanation for it, and probably never will, and for a million other things.

01:35:05.280 But I guess what I'm saying is I think that's super important.

01:35:08.400 We need to get to the bottom of it and to a lot of other things, including the shooting at Butler, which, for some reason, we still know nothing about.

01:35:15.000 And you can't have a country where someone can try to assassinate the president, and then we never get to the bottom of it.

01:35:20.660 Like, it can't continue like that.

01:35:22.060 So we need radical transparency, just what I've been saying for years.

01:35:26.040 But I do think we also need to be mindful that we are in a form of civil war right now.

01:35:31.680 That's obvious.

01:35:33.520 Violence is a huge component of it.

01:35:35.080 You don't want it to become a bigger component of it.

01:35:36.940 And what's the answer to that?

01:35:39.160 And I've just been around a couple wars, and, like, I don't want that.

01:35:43.440 And I certainly don't want it here.

01:35:45.120 There are really no winners, and its effects last for generations, centuries, really.

01:35:49.120 And so what is the answer?

01:35:50.940 And the answer is to see one another as God sees us.

01:35:53.660 It doesn't mean to excuse inexcusable behavior.

01:35:56.640 It doesn't mean moral relativism.

01:35:58.120 It means exactly the opposite of moral relativism.

01:36:00.020 It means recognizing that we are created by a creator, all of us, no matter what our views or our appearance, all of us, and proceed with that in mind always.

01:36:09.660 It doesn't mean excusing, you know, murder or anything else or pretending that transgenderism is, like, not evil. 1.00

01:36:16.080 It's evil.

01:36:17.100 But it means remembering always that these are human beings, okay?

01:36:21.960 And that's – I just know from my experience online last – I don't go online all that much.

01:36:25.740 But, oh, my gosh.

01:36:26.580 I'm like, how did this young sort of pretty yoga instructor from West Hollywood become genocidal and become totally indifferent to the murder of my friend?

01:36:35.700 Like, how could this even be?

01:36:37.600 And, of course, that's downstream from – but it's – a lot of people have become that way, you know?

01:36:45.940 And don't become that way.

01:36:47.720 Don't become that way.

01:36:49.080 It's a dark couple of hours.

01:36:50.860 Do you worry, Tucker?

01:36:54.060 People have asked me this in the last 24 hours, and I'll ask you the question.

01:36:58.300 You know, there's not another more prominent news person than you.

01:37:02.440 And there's not one that's been attacked with the same terms they used against Charlie that have been used against me too than you.

01:37:12.120 So do you worry now because the shooter's at large, and even once they catch this guy, and I think they will catch this guy, he's not the only deranged person out there or agenda-driven.

01:37:24.860 I mean, I kind of don't want to answer the question, but if I'm being – okay, I will.

01:37:29.860 Well, yeah, I mean, I've had some things happen in the last few years that I'm never going to talk about because my family doesn't want me to.

01:37:36.900 But, like, I've had cause to think about this a lot, and I really feel like it's up to God.

01:37:44.180 I really sincerely feel that.

01:37:45.540 Now, I have a very big family.

01:37:47.060 I'm at the head of the family, so I have concerns that extend far beyond me, and that is a subject of prayer every single day, including this morning.

01:37:55.900 But I don't think that we can choose the time.

01:37:58.860 I don't.

01:37:59.380 I don't think we can extend our lives.

01:38:00.820 I really believe, and I really mean it when I say this.

01:38:03.480 I'm not just posing, that all of this is in God's hands.

01:38:07.600 So I do believe that.

01:38:08.800 It doesn't make me not take precautions or whatever.

01:38:11.900 Actually, it has maybe not take precautions, but I've been encouraged to take precautions anyway.

01:38:16.640 So I'm not actually worried.

01:38:19.760 I mean, you know, I've had a couple, several things that I consider very, very close calls, and so over the last 20 years or so, I've thought about it a lot, and I feel, you know, I just feel sad for Charlie's family.

01:38:33.660 I feel sorry for Erica in a way that's really kind of hard to express, and it's definitely not about me.

01:38:40.340 And we set up a fund for Erica and the children.

01:38:45.660 I think it's going to go online in a minute.

01:38:47.120 We put, we seeded it with a bunch of money, and I hope others will follow because I think.

01:38:52.360 Yeah, I mean, what can you do?

01:38:54.000 I mean, I don't have it.

01:38:55.300 I mean, I talk for a living.

01:38:56.540 I've written a bunch of books.

01:38:57.640 I feel like I'm more eloquent than average.

01:39:00.240 I have no, nothing wise or edifying to say.

01:39:03.760 You know, you stare in the face of a 31-year-old man assassinated, obviously, to send a message to the rest of us, and it's like, what do you say?

01:39:11.220 I have nothing to say.

01:39:12.940 I know.

01:39:13.380 That's how I felt yesterday when it was unfolding.

01:39:15.160 It was like, I wish I had some profundity to offer.

01:39:18.240 It's hard to know even where to categorize this.

01:39:21.240 It does feel like a before and after moment.

01:39:23.120 We are humbled in the face of it.

01:39:24.160 It feels like a before and after moment.

01:39:25.800 We haven't seen open season on political commentators before.

01:39:29.120 Or it does feel like it's evil incarnate, that we have to accept there's evil amongst us.

01:39:34.280 You see a bunch of Christian children shot down in their school church.

01:39:38.620 That's evil.

01:39:39.760 There's not a lot of other words for it.

01:39:42.040 But as with all these situations, in order to go forward, you have to look for the helpers.

01:39:46.560 Mr. Rogers style, you're one of them here.

01:39:49.640 J.D. Vance, an amazing post online last night talking about how much Charlie meant to him.

01:39:55.400 And this just came in as we were talking, Tucker, the New York Times reporting that

01:40:00.460 Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha, we knew that they were planning on going and

01:40:04.860 meeting with Charlie's family.

01:40:06.280 But now it comes out that they are meeting with them, okay, in Salt Lake City.

01:40:11.200 That's where Charlie's body was brought there.

01:40:13.300 And that Kirk's family and friends, as well as his casket, will then be flown on Air Force

01:40:19.140 II to Phoenix, Arizona.

01:40:21.340 This is where Charlie lived in Arizona, according to an official familiar with the matter.

01:40:25.460 Vance is retrieving Kirk's casket while paying his respects.

01:40:30.360 That's extraordinary.

01:40:32.180 It is extraordinary.

01:40:33.600 And I would say J.D. Vance is an extraordinary man.

01:40:36.820 It's not like any other politician I've ever met in a lifetime of knowing them.

01:40:40.060 So I will say that.

01:40:41.440 He talked about how he...

01:40:42.620 I don't want to describe him by saying that, but it's true.

01:40:43.880 No, but he talked about in his post last night about how he'd been on your show a couple

01:40:47.280 times and Charlie helped him and gave him some advice.

01:40:50.660 And Charlie brought him through some rooms when he hadn't even yet declared for Senate

01:40:54.540 and kind of gave him feedback on like, you know, maybe this is something you could do

01:40:57.880 that's great.

01:40:58.860 It was always there that even when he became a public figure and was thrust into the national

01:41:03.400 spotlight as VP nominee, his kids were thrown like this is a lot of attention.

01:41:08.460 Charlie was one of the first to call and repeatedly check on how they were doing.

01:41:12.400 I mean, it's just such a...

01:41:15.160 I know you knew him well.

01:41:16.500 You know, Mark Halpern, I asked you this one time you were on, had said that you and Don

01:41:19.920 Jr.

01:41:20.340 and Charlie Kirk, he described you as the board of directors, you know, to Trump.

01:41:23.840 You humbly said no, but you knew him well.

01:41:26.240 You talked to him all the time.

01:41:27.700 It's just trying to understand the void that's been left by this senseless murder is...

01:41:34.380 It feels impossible.

01:41:36.440 I agree with that.

01:41:37.660 And I...

01:41:38.100 But I do think it makes a kind of sense.

01:41:39.600 I mean, above all, Charlie represented belief in God, and that is the divide.

01:41:44.240 I'm sorry to say that.

01:41:45.180 And I'm certainly not trying to inspire religious-based conflict.

01:41:48.700 That's the...

01:41:49.360 I mean, that's...

01:41:49.960 It's a contradiction in terms.

01:41:51.760 Read Luke 6.

01:41:52.900 I mean, you know, Jesus does not endorse violence.

01:41:56.680 Honestly, even in self-defense, he says.

01:41:58.840 So, you know, people can grapple with that as they will, but that's what it says.

01:42:03.120 And so I am totally opposed to violence.

01:42:06.340 But that is the dividing line.

01:42:07.840 It's not left or right, Republican, Democrat, trans, straight, or whatever.

01:42:12.400 I mean, there's an effort to recast this as a different kind of contest between worldviews.

01:42:18.440 It's no.

01:42:19.120 The dividing line is, do you think God exists or do you think you are God?

01:42:23.500 And it's that simple.

01:42:24.780 It has always been that simple.

01:42:26.420 It will never change.

01:42:28.420 And I think our souls are at stake.

01:42:30.760 I really, really believe that.

01:42:32.000 I think Jesus is the only answer. 0.84

01:42:33.560 Sorry.

01:42:33.800 And that is, in some ways, a very triggering thing to say, which tells you right there.

01:42:38.820 Too bad.

01:42:39.380 It's true.

01:42:40.380 Yeah.

01:42:40.720 Well, it's true.

01:42:41.460 And I'm not saying that to provoke.

01:42:43.160 I'm saying that because I believe it.

01:42:45.020 And it is the only answer because you can see exactly where this goes.

01:42:48.220 And so, you know, the one religion in the world that stands up and says no and then is hated for it, like that tells you this is a spiritual war.

01:42:57.940 And that's the only way out.

01:43:00.300 And I really, I've thought a lot about this.

01:43:02.520 And the last thing I'll say, you said now they're killing commentators.

01:43:05.880 But as you know, since you're in this business, ask anyone in this business, has anyone ever tried to do this to you?

01:43:11.240 And you'll find a lot of people who will say yes.

01:43:14.100 This has been going on a while, actually.

01:43:16.380 And no one wants to talk about it.

01:43:17.680 It freaks your family out when you talk about it in public.

01:43:20.540 But the truth is, this has been, whatever this is, has been, this is not new.

01:43:26.620 And I'm just so sad.

01:43:27.600 They got one.

01:43:28.160 It's really, truly sad.

01:43:28.860 They got one, Tucker.

01:43:29.940 And that's why I say it's a before and after moment.

01:43:32.820 It's a before and after because, you know, now.

01:43:34.500 No, it's true.

01:43:35.200 Now you have to grapple with copycats.

01:43:36.820 Now you have to grapple with this as an option in the same way that Columbine crossed a line and created this new genre of violence.

01:43:44.340 This is potentially where we're at now with political dialogue, and it's so antithetical to, yes, goodness and Christianity and all of it, but also just to the First Amendment and being an American.

01:43:58.160 Yes, that's right, which is based on Christianity, by the way.

01:44:02.040 We have a First Amendment because we believe God gave us the right to decide and to say anything.

01:44:06.860 It's the only reason we have the Bill of Rights.

01:44:09.700 I don't know.

01:44:10.440 I worry about whether this is a tipping point, yeah, a turning point, yeah, sure, for the country in a negative way.

01:44:17.760 You know, this could be a descent into something – this could be the beginning of a descent into something even darker, right, as opposed to a period at the end of some terrible things that have been happening.

01:44:28.980 What do you see?

01:44:30.760 I just want to repeat.

01:44:32.060 I've gotten hundreds, of course, of texts, and, like, they're all the same.

01:44:35.440 You know, I'm so sorry.

01:44:36.500 I know you were close to him.

01:44:37.900 Be safe.

01:44:38.380 And I appreciate every single one I've responded with gratitude to every one.

01:44:43.260 But the one that stands out among the hundreds and hundreds I've received comes from my cousin Jake, who's one of the wisest people I know.

01:44:50.260 And he said, I'm not praying for your safety.

01:44:53.620 I'm praying that you would more fervently seek wisdom than ever before.

01:44:57.820 That just stuck out to me right there.

01:45:00.060 It's seek wisdom more than ever before, fervently.

01:45:06.080 That's what we need to do.

01:45:08.340 You can't protect yourself in the – I mean, you should be reasonable, of course.

01:45:12.700 I'm not saying – I'm not preaching recklessness.

01:45:15.060 But I'm saying the goal is wisdom.

01:45:18.640 Seek wisdom.

01:45:19.740 And I just, boy, you know, you go through these texts and, like, that one, that's the truth right there.

01:45:27.560 Well, that's why we called you.

01:45:30.740 Check.

01:45:33.960 I'll tell you what the one I've been –

01:45:35.400 I hope you're doing okay.

01:45:36.520 I'm doing fine.

01:45:37.300 Thank you.

01:45:37.640 I've been repeating, you know, St. Michael prayer and praying that he'll help us – help defend us against the wickedness and snares of the devil, which seem ubiquitous these days.

01:45:48.820 Tucker, all the best.

01:45:49.180 Deliver us from the evil one.

01:45:50.840 Thank you.

01:45:51.240 Yeah.

01:45:51.600 I appreciate it.

01:45:52.000 Stay well.

01:45:52.760 Obviously, stay well.

01:45:54.000 And everybody, check out Tucker's latest podcast, by the way, with Sam Altman of ChatGPT, which we didn't even get to.

01:46:01.000 But basically, there's an extraordinary exchange that you need to see.

01:46:04.880 Okay.

01:46:05.540 We've got to run because we're out of time.

01:46:07.500 But I want to thank all of you for rejoining us again today.

01:46:10.320 Don't forget, the FBI is still asking for you to call them.

01:46:13.760 If you have any information, they need your help.

01:46:16.180 They put out a $100,000 reward.

01:46:17.980 It's 1-800-CALL-FBI.

01:46:19.900 They still do not have the shooter in custody.

01:46:23.680 Say a prayer for Charlie's family and for the second family, the Vances, who are going to have a very difficult job ahead of them today.

01:46:30.480 That's a very noble and brave thing to do.

01:46:33.360 But it's going to be a tough day.

01:46:35.800 He was supposed to be at the Ground Zero 9-11 commemoration.

01:46:40.140 And before we go, all my sympathies and heart goes out to the families of the 9-11 victims.

01:46:48.260 My son and others were planting flags at their school this morning in commemoration of their loss.

01:46:56.340 And they added one extra flag, one for Charlie Kirk.

01:46:59.300 They all died for the same thing.

01:47:03.660 Standing up for American freedoms because they lived it every day.

01:47:07.160 We'll see you tomorrow.

01:47:10.120 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. 0.94

01:47:12.040 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:47:14.820 I need coffee.

01:47:23.720 Utility bill, $145.

01:47:26.260 Okay, let's check the news for traffic.

01:47:28.080 Gas, $95.

01:47:29.620 Sorry, your account has insufficient funds.

01:47:32.480 Farber Debt Solutions.

01:47:33.760 Licensed insolvency trustees.

01:47:35.760 Get the truth about debt.

01:47:36.960 Get the truth about debt.

The Megyn Kelly Show - September 11, 2025

Remembering Charlie Kirk, with Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr., and Benny Johnson, and What We Know About the Assassin ｜ Ep 1146

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript