Learn English with Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama speaks at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, who was killed by an assassin on a Utah campus on September 20, 2019. She also delivers a powerful message about the need for a healthy political discourse.
00:00:32.260My friend Charlie Kirk and I were scheduled to host an event together at the University of Minnesota on September 22nd as part of his American Comeback Tour.
00:00:41.560Twelve days before that event could take place, an assassin's bullet took Charlie's life.
00:05:03.340And, you know, with Charlie's impact, you know, he also made me a better Christian.
00:05:07.500I think the way that Charlie spoke about his faith just like impacted me more to be just super close to my faith as much as possible and to learn from him as well.
00:05:18.040There are plenty of people on TikTok and Instagram, most of whom are disreputable and should not be viewed by teenagers.
00:05:23.520What was it about him that grabbed you?
00:05:25.860I think it was mostly, I mean, just the way he lived his life.
00:05:29.280He wasn't just like some kind of talking head but like actually lived and approached people with love.
00:05:35.080Like he genuinely wanted people to be better.
00:05:38.860He was going to these campuses where people disagreed with him, people were struggling, people were miserable, and he was trying to get them to a better place.
00:05:48.080And I think that resonated with a lot of people.
00:05:50.400People say that he's the embodiment of Rush Limbaugh and Billy Graham in the same person.
00:05:56.940And that's just really inspiring for not only on a political scale but also just my faith and just Christianity as a whole.
00:06:02.160I thought he always had his facts known and set straight when he was debating so it was really nice to hear someone not just, you know, spitballing things but he'd bring the facts back with it and then he'd back up his faith with theology but then he'll also go back to like statistics and what, you know, some people would call concrete examples.
00:06:20.880It seems like the left hated him in particular.
00:06:23.880And for a while I thought this was really weird because of all the people in public life who would go around, give speeches, organize, campaign, of all of them, he was in many ways the most moderate or the most gracious, generous.
00:06:46.240I think just the way his character, the way he loved God, his family, his country, and how that shone through.
00:06:53.600There was some clip where they asked Charlie like why the universities hate having him on campus and why there's so much pushback from the university.
00:07:01.740And obviously there's a lot of reasons.
00:07:03.560But Charlie said something like the universities get these kids for four years and they know that if I talk to them for 30 seconds, I can change their whole lives.
00:07:14.420I think they saw that and I think that's why they hated him.
00:07:17.880You keep coming back to religion and specifically the way he lived his life, that he actually walked the walk.
00:07:55.960So if we don't have good students in schools, don't have good people in government, then we won't have that protection of religion.
00:08:03.700It's going to be further encroached by one of the parties.
00:08:06.320This is something I always loved about Charlie because there are plenty of dime store philosophers who will write some white paper that no one cares about, but they have their brilliant idea and everyone has to go read their book or whatever.
00:08:16.460And Charlie, weirdly, was interested at the same time in the eternal and the most nitty gritty political.
00:08:23.780So he was always preaching the gospel, always trying to get people to religion, but also focused on that house race in Missouri 5 and all focused on making sure they sign up enough voters in Arizona.
00:08:36.600And I think some people saw that as a contradiction, but I certainly do not.
00:08:41.180I agree with Charlie on that, which is, yeah, you've got your eyes on the prize.
00:08:44.340You've got your eyes on the eternal destiny, the heavenly Jerusalem.
00:08:55.080Those two things really are not supposed to be disconnected.
00:08:58.340Yeah, I think the left likes to try and tell us that we don't have the numbers, like that we just need to kind of stay hidden and, you know, do our own little thing in the corner.
00:09:07.040I know when we have club fairs, it's always, you know, the Catholics and Turning Point USA are in the farthest back corner, away from everybody.
00:09:16.040You've got to, like, realize that we have people, we have a movement.
00:09:20.100And I think Charlie was really good about, especially with the youth, getting the youth out and knowing that we have the numbers, we can do this.
00:09:27.240The Democrats still technically won young voters in 2024?
00:09:53.060He set his mic down just so that, like, he would let the other person talk.
00:09:56.320Like, it was a very inspiring way on how he was always so approachable.
00:10:01.260And he just welcomed that other diversity side and, like, kind of was able to push back against that and, like, was a really comforting guy.
00:10:09.660I feel like he really told the truth through his debate.
00:10:12.540It was very apparent that, like, he meant what he said.
00:10:16.820And that's what really stood out to, like, people.
00:10:18.400Hold on one second before we get to any more very, very important stuff.
00:10:22.380You must go to hillsdale.edu slash Knowles.
00:10:26.580You ever hear the phrase, that's unconstitutional?
00:10:29.700People toss that phrase around like confetti at a political rally.
00:10:32.920You hear it pretty much anywhere people gather to debate the issues of the day.
00:10:37.140When someone drops that phrase, do you just nod along and take their word for it?
00:10:40.500Or have you ever actually cracked open the Constitution yourself to see what all the fuss is about?
00:10:44.780I think you should, and that is one of the many reasons that I'm thrilled about Hillsdale College's brand new free online course called The Federalist.
00:10:52.880You know those Federalist papers everyone references but few have actually read?
00:10:56.340They were penned by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and don't forget John Jay
00:11:00.040to explain how our Constitution creates a government strong enough to protect our rights, yet safe enough to trust with power.
00:11:45.040So what's the feeling on campus after this happens?
00:11:48.080Obviously, Charlie was riling up all these left-wingers who didn't want to have an honest conversation, so much so that one of them murdered him.
00:11:56.000And then many other normie liberals and mainstream liberals and establishment liberals and people on TV and people in government excused it or tried to justify it or, in some cases, even celebrated it.
00:12:08.940What's the feeling among the left on campus today?
00:12:11.640Well, I can speak for the Twin Cities.
00:12:13.980So the day after President Trump was elected, we were offered mental health services, those dogs that we can pet, free food, stuff like that.
00:12:23.780In fairness, I think those students probably could use some mental health services.
00:12:37.520But everyone else on campus seemed pretty fine, pretty okay, which I guess you could say it was disheartening, but I wasn't expecting anything less, so.
00:12:47.000I mean, for Duluth, when after news that Charlie passed away, like, every two voices I heard, you know, going throughout the hallways was like, they were celebrating it.
00:12:55.920And I was just like, I mean, just how can you even do that?
00:13:01.360And it's just, Duluth needs a big change, and I'm obviously trying to get that underway, but, I mean, it's just crazy.
00:13:10.020People who just try to have civil debate are not supposed to be murdered for it on the left or on the right or in the middle or anywhere else.
00:13:20.660And at a university, which in principle endeavors to exchange ideas and arrive at the truth, that's an existential threat to the mission of the university.
00:13:30.920How could the university not take that seriously?
00:13:33.320I go to a school at a small private school, and I had politics class 9 a.m. the day after, and I was actually supposed to, the professor had asked me to make an announcement to the class about the event that was supposed to happen here and see if any of my class would want to come along.
00:13:50.180I walked in, and my professor was like, well, that's not happening, and he's a liberal professor.
00:13:57.040He kind of just had it like a, oh, well, and he talked about political violence, you know, the next day and kind of just tried to both sides the issue, and I was kind of just sitting there like, it's completely different.
00:14:16.060I guess this is why the comparison is so ridiculous.
00:14:18.580One, because the left can point to one or two examples of political violence right to left.
00:14:25.700Even that, though, let's say you get one or two where you say it's right to left.
00:14:29.380Every other example you can name in recent memory, at least going back to BLM, actually going back much further, to the 70s, to the 60s, all of the examples are from the left, and a lot of the time, they're not even categorized as political violence.
00:14:41.760There was an attack at the University of Pittsburgh a couple years ago.
00:15:57.660Now, of course, if it had been in the other direction, if someone had accused you of a hate crime, no matter how absurd, it would be a statewide news story.
00:16:06.620But a direct threat to kill you passes by.
00:16:09.380So then what's your take on campus now?
00:19:26.460But post-Charlie, people have to figure out what to do, how to keep the coalition together, where to move, what that turning point is going to be.
00:20:59.640The turning point tour continues this fall, with Charlie's friends from across the country stepping in to keep the movement moving forward.
00:21:06.360So the people like Elizabeth Kleckner, Sam Spainer, Nathan McIntyre, Teva Feit, can hear ideas that have otherwise been banished from campus.
00:21:16.800And maybe some ambitious 17-year-old watching will even feel called to dedicate himself to advancing the next great American movement.