Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 15, 2025


Charlie Kirk's Killer Caught, Assassin has Transgender Roommate, How the Left is Lying about it & Why Political Violence is a Massive Problem for Them


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

169.54881

Word Count

6,922

Sentence Count

126

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.600 Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.440 And Senator, as sad as this week has been, at least we do get to start with some news that is good news.
00:00:15.520 And that is that the shooter, the assassin of Charlie Kirk, has been caught.
00:00:20.080 Well, that's right. After a 33-hour manhunt, the law enforcement has apprehended Tyler Robinson.
00:00:25.460 Tyler Robinson is a 22-year-old Utah man.
00:00:29.000 He was apparently raised in a Mormon household, in a conservative household, and apparently radicalized in recent years.
00:00:36.540 He was a bright student. He had a 4.0 GPA.
00:00:40.060 He got a 34 out of 36 on the ACT.
00:00:43.020 He won a scholarship to go to college, although he didn't last even a year at college.
00:00:49.560 And apparently he had become radicalized, had been moving more and more left-wing,
00:00:54.580 and at the end of the day carried out extreme left-wing violence.
00:01:01.220 We're going to break down what we know about this murderer
00:01:03.840 and what the consequences are of this assassination that is so painful to those of us who were friends with Charlie Kirk,
00:01:15.320 those of us who were touched, the millions who were touched by Charlie Kirk.
00:01:18.260 We're going to break down what we know about this murderer,
00:01:22.280 and we're going to talk more broadly about the problem of left-wing violence, of politicized left-wing violence.
00:01:29.560 It is a serious and growing challenge in this country,
00:01:32.980 and there are an awful lot of Democrats and an awful lot of people in the media that are trying to pretend it doesn't exist.
00:01:37.820 We're going to break that down for you as well.
00:01:39.900 Yeah, it's truly just a heartbreaking story, and there's so much that we've learned,
00:01:43.820 and we're going to get all to it in a second.
00:01:45.280 I want to talk to you real quick, though, about my friends over at Berna.
00:01:48.280 You guys know I'm pro-Second Amendment.
00:01:50.160 You know that I've actually used my firearm to save my life when I was a target of a gang initiation.
00:01:55.740 But for many people that are listening or family members, you may not feel comfortable carrying a firearm.
00:02:01.800 You still need to be able to protect yourselves, and in times of danger, you're going to want to have something.
00:02:07.020 And that's where the Berna launcher comes in.
00:02:09.560 I have given these to countless family members.
00:02:11.660 It is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker.
00:02:19.380 And I'm here today with Josh Sherrard from Berna.
00:02:21.780 Josh, many of us just saw that video footage of the recent mob attack of a man and a woman in downtown Cincinnati.
00:02:28.740 Josh, many of us saw the video footage of the recent mob attack of a man and a woman in downtown Cincinnati, and it was shocking.
00:02:35.880 Can you share a little more about what happened, and could a less lethal weapon like the Berna launcher be used in a situation like this to defend yourself?
00:02:44.080 Absolutely.
00:02:44.600 Like you said, we all saw the videos.
00:02:46.360 And unfortunately, after a jazz festival, a man was attacked by a mob of individuals that just continued going and continued going.
00:02:54.040 And unfortunately, he was unable to defend himself despite other people trying to help.
00:02:58.660 This is one of those instances where clearly these people are looking for an easy target.
00:03:02.940 The trick here is to make yourself a hard target.
00:03:05.300 Have a way to defend yourself to facilitate that escape.
00:03:09.060 And that's really where Berna comes in.
00:03:10.980 You know, depending on the legality, you may or may not be able to carry a gun in this case.
00:03:14.400 So you need to have a tool to make sure you can defend yourself.
00:03:17.480 It's legal in all 50 states and make sure you can make it home safe.
00:03:20.980 And why wouldn't the victim in this case just want to pull a gun on these suspects?
00:03:24.660 It's an important question.
00:03:26.240 You know, it absolutely is.
00:03:27.780 And there's a couple reasons.
00:03:29.060 One is the legality.
00:03:30.280 Depending on where you are, you may not even be able to carry a gun.
00:03:33.120 Or maybe coming from a private event where a gun may not be illegal as well.
00:03:38.100 And then two, in order to pull a gun, you need to understand that there has to be a reasonable expectation that there's going to be death or serious bodily injury caused.
00:03:45.800 So you pull that gun too early and you're likely the one to be going to jail.
00:03:49.580 So in this case, a less lethal tool is perfect.
00:03:52.600 It can be pulled early.
00:03:54.140 It can be used early to prevent further harm because it's such a reduced amount of force.
00:03:59.580 Look, if you want to carry one, I do.
00:04:02.200 I love having this as an option.
00:04:04.060 You can get more information for you or your family members on how they can protect themselves with the Burna Launcher.
00:04:09.700 Go to BurnaByRNA.com.
00:04:13.100 That's BurnaByRNA.com.
00:04:15.940 Again, BurnaByRNA.com.
00:04:20.100 So Senator, let's talk about the incredible work by law enforcement.
00:04:23.720 And I was truly shocked by the fact that when Kash Patel was heading out to where this took place, there were people in the media criticizing him, including former high-level members in the FBI that were throwing shade, saying, well, this is abnormal for him to go out there.
00:04:41.720 This is something we're not used to.
00:04:43.660 Can't believe that he would break protocol as he described it.
00:04:46.560 I'm glad to know we have an FBI director that's willing to go out there to something like this and make sure that all resources are working.
00:04:53.600 And we caught him.
00:04:55.520 This was a major priority for the FBI.
00:04:58.240 This was a major priority for both state and local law enforcement in Utah.
00:05:03.040 And it took just over a day to catch the shooter.
00:05:06.800 The evidence we had very early on, we had the video of the shooter on the roof of the building from which he fired the shot.
00:05:14.840 We also had the video that the FBI put out publicly of the shooter jumping down off the roof and running into the woods.
00:05:23.040 Very shortly thereafter, the FBI and law enforcement recovered the rifle, recovered bullet casings with the rifle.
00:05:31.240 And if you look at the bullet casings, so each of the casings had different inscriptions on it.
00:05:38.580 So one of the inscriptions said, hey, fascist, catch.
00:05:44.540 Another one said, notice bulges, O-W-O, what's this?
00:05:51.800 Which my understanding is that's a reference to an online meme about transgenderism.
00:05:58.440 I'll confess I'm not familiar with that particular meme, but according to the press, that's what it concerns.
00:06:06.520 Another one, an engraving had up arrow, right arrow, three down arrow symbols.
00:06:14.560 Which press coverage has said is the sequence of controller moves that unleashes the 500 megaton bomb in Helldivers 2.
00:06:27.460 I play video games, but I don't play that particular video game.
00:06:30.520 And then yet another casing included lyrics from the song Bella Ciao, which was an Italian song adopted by the anti-fascist resistance during World War II.
00:06:45.360 And because I am looking at the New York Times, they're not including the one that says, if you're reading this, you're gay, LOL, which I just happen to know from reading other stories.
00:06:58.560 But it says something, the New York Times magically omitted that one from their chronicling of it.
00:07:04.480 Of course.
00:07:05.120 Look, one of the things that happened within minutes of this suspect being apprehended is Twitter started going crazy with leftists saying, oh, this guy is really a conservative.
00:07:20.240 He's a right winger, which I have to say really defies imagination.
00:07:25.620 Number one, look at the target of who he shot.
00:07:28.840 He shot Charlie Kirk, the natural the natural understanding is it's someone who deeply disagreed with what Charlie was saying and was shooting him to silence him because he didn't want people to hear the words he was saying that his family had told law enforcement that that Tyler had become enmeshed and obsessed with with hard left ideology.
00:07:54.660 That at a recent family dinner, he made reference to the fact that Charlie Kirk was coming to Utah and discussed just just just how much he hated Charlie Kirk.
00:08:04.860 All of that evidence is coming out.
00:08:09.300 I want you to listen to the governor of Utah just just describing the facts as they're rolling out.
00:08:15.440 This is the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox.
00:08:17.280 Area with trees on the edge of the UVU campus, investigators discovered a bolt action rifle wrapped in a dark colored towel.
00:08:26.460 The rifle was determined to be a Mauser model 98 30 six caliber is 30 six caliber bolt action rifle.
00:08:33.400 The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it.
00:08:36.360 Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found with the rifle.
00:08:41.380 Inscriptions on a fired casing read notices bulges capital O-W-O.
00:08:49.640 What's this question mark?
00:08:51.520 Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read hey fascist exclamation point catch exclamation point.
00:08:59.240 Up arrow symbol right arrow and symbol and three down arrow symbols.
00:09:05.100 A second unfired casing read oh Bella Chow Bella Chow Bella Chow Chow Chow and a third unfired casing read if you read this you are gay L-M-A-O.
00:09:18.620 We are indebted to law enforcement across the state who's worked seamlessly together local law enforcement.
00:09:27.520 You go back to the last one.
00:09:29.420 You notice that you said it was admitted by the New York Times.
00:09:31.620 That tells you everything about them trying to push a narrative here.
00:09:34.500 I also think it goes back to just the the lies that were being told as you mentioned earlier that this was somehow a conservative that did this clearly it was not another way it was described and I'll read that the cover of the New York Post their headline from gosh an hour ago said quote Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin Tyler Robinson's a deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology the Utah governor continues to explain.
00:10:01.060 Well it's misinformation and disinformation because activists and leftist and Democrats in the corporate media don't want to acknowledge the obvious ideological agenda here written on the on the shell casings.
00:10:14.080 You have number one that this was about believing Charlie Kirk is a fascist that's of course the language that the Democrats have been saying over and over and over again about Charlie Kirk about Donald Trump about Republicans generally.
00:10:27.240 And you have two references and you have two references to fascist one one one the direct word hey fascist catch but then then secondly you have the Bella Chow song which which again both of those are directly saying Charlie in the view of the shooter is a fascist and then you have two that are focused on LGBT issues one being gay and the second being transgender.
00:10:49.240 And again an awful lot of the media doesn't want to acknowledge that that ideological component on on top of that we have the fact that has come out just recently which is apparently Tyler's roommate is a transgender male who is transitioning to become a female.
00:11:14.640 Yeah and and and there there are conflicting reports whether Tyler and this transgender individual were engaged in a romantic and sexual relationship or not but but you had someone who was at a minimum a roommate with someone who's transgender and may in fact have been a sexual lover of someone who's transgender.
00:11:34.640 And and and and yet the media is not acknowledging we are seeing a clear pattern a clear pattern and I got to say you look at there's some videos online of this this fellow Tyler when he was younger just a couple of years ago and he seems like a perfectly normal happy kid he doesn't seem like someone suffering from mental illness at college that looked I mean if you look at the timeline it looks like he went to college center and that's when he got radicalized.
00:12:03.640 Well maybe college he also apparently spent a lot of time on reddit and discord and 4chan and and and and online it's possible that that's that's where he was radicalized it's it's it's not clear what the source of it is.
00:12:18.040 But we do know that that that he was on discord talking back and forth about the shooting he was telling other other people on discord that that that he had left a rifle wrapped in a towel he mentioned shell casings that were engraved.
00:12:36.240 I mean that that that was part of what confirmed this is the right guy and and when law enforcement went and talked with his roommate they were able to see these messages where he described the rifle which was in fact wrapped in a towel and and and so that the ideological hatred and intolerance and I got to say the speed.
00:12:58.240 The speed with which this young man was radicalized and the speed with which this young man was radicalized and filled with homicidal hate is terrifying.
00:13:08.720 Now there is the tragic personal aspect of it that that that apparently it was his own family it was his father who who recognized him from the picture that the FBI had released and confronted him.
00:13:20.640 And and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and
00:13:50.640 the monstrosity that your son has just carried out yeah no i couldn't agree with you more and
00:13:56.300 that was one of the things that you know his father apparently worked in law enforcement
00:13:59.420 and so i'm sure he thought to himself like hey a it's the right thing to do b he's probably saving
00:14:04.120 his son's life at that point or a very good chance of it uh in a sense because he knew that if if he
00:14:08.960 if he was found by law enforcement and fought back it was going to be game over and the entire
00:14:13.640 and the entire government local state and federal was trying to find him and they were going to
00:14:18.420 find him so that says thing i think about father's love i want to go back to just you look at what
00:14:24.400 the media has admitted from this you have a guy that you know there's a good chance he had a trans
00:14:29.660 boyfriend he called charlie a fascist that is something the left has been using that word
00:14:35.340 fascist fascist fascist you've been called it i don't even know how many times online i've been
00:14:40.160 called it i don't even know how many times online every time i do tv now that's the number one thing
00:14:43.840 i see in there i'm sure you and i have been called it today yeah today bingo and it's like the number
00:14:49.600 one word now of the left we also know that he's been confirmed to be a leftist by friends and family
00:14:55.620 he's been confirmed a leftist by top officials on record including the governor he killed one of the
00:15:01.320 most iconic conservatives in the country and yet leftists are still claiming right now online that
00:15:07.220 he was right wing i mean these people have no shame they have no integrity it's misinformation
00:15:11.480 yes it's what the media does so well it is fundamentally dishonest and you know i i will
00:15:21.460 say the demonization from the left we've also seen the people on the left celebrating openly celebrating
00:15:28.640 uh this murder and and it has been really striking it's it's been disturbing how many school teachers
00:15:33.780 have been celebrating and how many employees of the u.s government have been been celebrating
00:15:40.240 and and on the left not everybody uh there are some who have shown restraint but it but
00:15:47.980 this celebration on the left is is far too commonplace and and it's deeply disturbing
00:15:53.760 you you talk about that aspect of it and i go back there has been something that's changed this time
00:16:00.000 around and i am thankful for this there does seem to be accountability for this hate for people in
00:16:04.560 different jobs we've seen i think now well over a couple dozen uh administrators teachers at public
00:16:12.040 universities and private universities that have been fired lost their jobs for celebrating the death
00:16:16.780 of charlie kirk uh we saw for example another story that went viral of an office depot individual who
00:16:21.840 refused to print charlie kirk tribute flyers and call them propaganda thank goodness they've been fired
00:16:27.860 i do think now what we are seeing is the people that used to get away with this stuff there was no
00:16:32.940 accountability now there does seem to be a level of accountability as a reaction to the horrific
00:16:39.360 elon musk's buying twitter created a forum where suddenly when people behave like this
00:16:45.340 they're exposed and and there is accountability and and ben listen i'll say there's a component of this
00:16:51.260 a clear component of this this that is political that is the ultimate form of censorship which is
00:16:56.140 which is silencing those you disagree with through you through murder and in fact something i retweeted
00:17:02.780 uh yesterday uh was was someone online said they don't kill you because you're a nazi they call you a
00:17:12.160 nazi so they can kill you yeah and and and that's the right relationship between the this rhetoric
00:17:17.900 is this rhetoric is about giving a permission structure that if trump is hitler look how many people have had
00:17:24.940 the old you know uh philosophy question if you if you could encounter baby hitler as a toddler would
00:17:31.680 you kill baby hitler and and a very substantial percentage of americans say yes i would kill baby
00:17:37.640 hitler if i had the chance um well if trump is hitler uh it it's not much of a leap to see where that
00:17:45.400 comparison is is going and and look this is a political battle but this is also a spiritual
00:17:51.580 battle because one of the things about charlie kirk is he was one of the most important evangelists
00:18:00.160 in the country and in the world and in fact he was also one of the most important christian
00:18:06.440 apologists in the world that was a very it was an integral aspect of what he did and i want to play
00:18:12.460 a couple of things on this number one i want to play charlie's pastor charlie's pastor talking about
00:18:19.000 the work charlie did preparing to be an evangelist and a christian apologist and and i found this i
00:18:26.520 don't know this pastor uh but i found this really profound what he described uh give a listen
00:18:32.520 charlie kirk is um irreplaceable charlie kirk is a once in a generation mind and soul and anointing
00:18:44.020 and heart charlie kirk was a rare combination of evangelist apologist and political strategist
00:18:51.760 one of our most recent communications he said thank you i have a ton of questions i didn't ask
00:18:57.940 for it but i have become a high profile defender of the faith i need to be the best i can i said i'd
00:19:04.800 be honored to serve for free invisibly as needed you have an anointing to steward and it's massive
00:19:11.040 proud of you and pray for you and your family daily charlie kirk and i had been communicating i was on
00:19:19.680 vacation with my wife and he was asking when we could get together for a half day he had a bunch of
00:19:24.500 questions about the christian faith that he wanted to whiteboard out and i told him it would be a great
00:19:29.020 honor of my life to try and serve him he told me that he felt like god gave him this platform and
00:19:36.120 opportunity so that he could become an evangelist and apologist to the next generation he wanted to
00:19:42.900 make it his primary message and life work to proclaim the good news of the gospel of jesus christ which is
00:19:51.080 evangelism and then defend it by answering criticisms questions and objections which is
00:19:57.700 called apologetics which means to defend the faith charlie kirk stepped into a level of spiritual warfare
00:20:04.860 that i believe moved him to the top of the enemy's hit list and to some degree contributed to his
00:20:11.380 assassination his murder and his martyrdom today and i do not use those words lightly those are entirely
00:20:16.980 accurate and fit the description of the demonic activity that we saw today charlie wanted people
00:20:24.100 to meet jesus christ and he wanted to do the best job that he could presenting the gospel of jesus christ
00:20:30.540 and as a result charlie was going to campuses and he was proclaiming jesus and he was answering questions
00:20:39.380 and he was a generational master in doing what the bible says and that is to give an answer to everyone
00:20:49.840 for the hope that you have with gentleness and respect he was a joyful happy warrior he had a great smile he was
00:21:00.540 kind to his enemies he tried to have a good time even when they were trying to give him a bad time
00:21:06.460 his impact on this generation cannot be overstated i believe it is absolutely non-hyperbolic
00:21:16.340 to say that he is the greatest conservative voice of this generation alive on planet earth one of the
00:21:24.280 last times i saw him was um backstage it was actually some months ago i believe when jd vance was in town
00:21:33.620 and charlie invited me to come meet jd in the green room and hang out with them and i walked in with a
00:21:39.040 big smile he gave me a big hug and he said uh he said i need you to be praying for me pastor i said
00:21:45.780 absolutely i pray for charlie every day my wife and i have and for his beautiful family he said uh he said
00:21:52.540 i think they're gonna try and kill me and he said if we lose i think they're gonna incarcerate me
00:21:57.680 here's a young man with a family
00:22:00.060 um who's willing to sacrifice his own life and well-being and the joy he had with a wife whom
00:22:11.000 he very much loved and children that he completely adored for the sake of selfless service and sacrifice
00:22:17.960 out of love for others charlie is was and will forever be one of the most significant men who
00:22:28.060 walked on planet earth in his generation you listen to his pastor and and there's one aspect tc that i
00:22:35.740 think is so important for people to understand about charlie charlie studied really really really hard
00:22:42.060 yeah because he felt like it was a obligation a duty to what he believed in to god um to the to
00:22:50.060 faith to understand the bible and studied the way that he did that and it wasn't just on this issue
00:22:54.900 there was a story that came out hours before this speech that he was giving this you know grand debate
00:23:00.420 at this college campus in utah he was on the phone for hours in a prep call to defend israel as well
00:23:07.620 with two people that i know one i know very well and he said he didn't feel like he was ready for
00:23:13.320 some of the new things and new attacks on israel and he wanted to whiteboard it out the same way
00:23:17.860 that he was just mentioned there with that pastor he put in the work he didn't just show up
00:23:22.960 yeah the preparation was incredibly important i mentioned uh that he was an apologist and and the
00:23:30.620 pastor there explained apologetics is is is the practice of defending the christian faith and it doesn't
00:23:36.920 mean apology in the sense of saying i'm sorry but it means it means confronting the arguments from
00:23:43.700 the skeptics from those who doubt christianity and confronting them and addressing them directly and
00:23:48.840 and there have been great uh apologists in the past people like c.s lewis maybe the greatest who ever
00:23:54.600 lived and and and i think charlie very much followed in the tradition of c.s lewis yeah i want you to
00:24:00.100 listen to another exchange and and and this is between charlie and tucker carlson talking again about the
00:24:06.200 spiritual aspect of the battle that's been playing out give a listen i wonder if by continuing to lie
00:24:15.540 they aren't about everything they're driving all of us a little crazy well this is why your faith is
00:24:22.440 the most important thing because for those of us that are christians it doesn't drive you crazy
00:24:27.900 you actually see what's going on which is that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood
00:24:33.540 but against principalities and darkness and spirits that there is a spiritual war here and
00:24:40.320 you're right tucker i find people in this space that are not anchored to faith anchored to jesus
00:24:48.620 they do lose their mind because there is no rational or reasonable explanation for what the country is
00:24:57.480 doing to itself or what we are experiencing but if you then see and you know that there is a god
00:25:04.260 and we are not him that there is an entire dimension of angels and demons and spirits that are constantly
00:25:11.820 struggling around us and that there is a supernatural dimension as you mentioned all of a sudden that
00:25:18.140 doesn't make sense that does it does not make any rational sense to shut down your schools
00:25:24.120 so you can sacrifice the kids so the elderly can live that makes no sense whatsoever it makes no sense
00:25:31.500 whatsoever to keep your marijuana dispensaries open and your alcohol shops open but the church
00:25:38.540 not essential only a demonic enterprise would do such a thing only a demonic enterprise would say that
00:25:47.000 easter and pentecost are not essential but race rioting and burning down a wendy's is a central activity
00:25:53.920 and tucker you talk about this a lot for those of us that know the truth we know that our god is a god
00:26:02.520 of order and distinction what is the first thing that god did in the hebrew scriptures it says well and
00:26:08.420 also our scripture in the original genesis better sheets which is in the beginning god created the heavens
00:26:12.880 and the earth and then he separated and he made sense he made order out of chaos our god is a god of order
00:26:19.780 and order only comes with distinctions and distinctions are necessary think about all the distinctions
00:26:26.200 that god set up in the first six books of genesis that are currently under attack the distinction between
00:26:32.160 male and female the distinction between man and nature the distinction between the holy and the profane
00:26:40.240 the distinction between good and evil the distinction between infant and adult these distinctions have
00:26:49.060 always been what western civilization were built upon but it is satan's goal to blur and eventually destroy
00:26:55.840 those distinctions because those distinctions of which we get order and you do not have that order
00:27:00.820 then you have the closest thing to satanic chaos here spot on and this is where i do believe we are
00:27:07.000 turning the tide in this country where people are listening to conservatives like they never have before
00:27:12.140 in my lifetime certainly well and and this is a spiritual battle and and and part of of why i think
00:27:19.100 charlie was silenced is because he was such an unapologetic voice for christ you know nicole shanahan
00:27:24.900 who who was ran as the vice presidential nominee with rfk jr she posted something this week where she said
00:27:32.320 you have to actually be willfully full of demonic hate to cheer for that and i think that's exactly
00:27:42.660 right that it is demonic hate the people who who are filled with with jubilation that charlie kirk
00:27:51.000 was murdered that is a demonic level of hatred and it it's it is frightening
00:27:58.180 just how normalized that has become on the left and another example of that is a back and forth
00:28:06.800 exchange that i had with stephen king the the the horror author and and it started uh it started with
00:28:15.960 stephen king tweeting about charlie kirk he advocated stoning gays to death just saying so that's what
00:28:28.600 he put out there and he had millions and millions of views i have to admit that really pissed me off and
00:28:33.600 so i responded to him and i tweeted back at him i said you are a horrible evil twisted liar
00:28:42.480 yeah no he did not your party which you shamelessly shilled for sent 100 billion dollars to the ayatollah
00:28:55.220 who does routinely murder homosexuals why are you so dishonest and filled with hate now my response
00:29:05.300 there got over 13 million views and and stephen king suddenly found his his rabid hateful part
00:29:12.460 under real scrutiny and criticism and within hours stephen king deleted the tweet and apologized and
00:29:21.020 he apologized over and over and over again so in response to me stephen king said the horrible evil
00:29:27.820 twisted liar apologizes this is what i get for reading something on twitter without fact checking
00:29:34.480 won't happen again now now i responded to that and i said i appreciate that stephen king deleted the
00:29:41.700 false tweet about charlie kirk and apologized all of us on both sides of the aisle should treat each
00:29:48.260 other with respect and decency even if we disagree on politics charlie did that every day and i admired
00:29:56.040 him for it now i want to address something here ben because back and forth in the debates on this
00:30:00.960 there is a question particularly among conservatives how should we respond to this left-wing hate
00:30:06.880 and and it is broken into two categories there are some that are saying we've got to respond and
00:30:12.540 fight them full force and go after them and there are others who are saying well both sides are too
00:30:18.920 overheated and it is pejoratively characterized as both sides ism in in the debate yeah and and i think
00:30:26.380 the truth is is somewhere in the middle and and let me explain what it means and maybe this will
00:30:32.200 tick off both sides when i say this but look there are clearly standards that should apply
00:30:39.140 to everyone number one political violence is always always wrong whether you agree with a person or
00:30:46.620 disagree with their politics someone being murdered for what they are saying for their speech for their
00:30:53.540 political views is wrong yep that should be accepted on both and every side number two
00:30:59.960 as a matter of decency all of us should endeavor to treat each other with respect and human dignity
00:31:08.380 that's a standard i try to hold myself to uh and it's a standard everyone should so when you say that
00:31:14.620 when stephen king i didn't like his vile comment but when he deleted it and apologized i wanted to say
00:31:20.400 okay i appreciate that you deleted it and apologized i wanted to give some modicum of grace you know in
00:31:25.800 part i think charlie would have accepted that apology uh he wouldn't necessarily have believed that
00:31:30.880 stephen king has suddenly reformed and and and has turned from his wicked ways yeah but but allowing
00:31:36.780 someone to say okay i'm sorry i was wrong that has value but but here's where the both sides ism
00:31:44.920 is flat out wrong there's some and you see this like your old employer cnn loves to do this
00:31:50.560 well there's there's bad rhetoric on both sides and there's violence on both sides this is just a
00:31:56.220 problem in the world yeah well no this is a problem that is particularly acute and prevalent
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00:32:34.540 i go back to this how many i mean we watched one of our own be assassinated did any cities get
00:32:42.720 burned down no no there are any police officers that were attacked no was there any assaults on
00:32:48.720 people because they were angry no and yet they're mad i love this headline from the daily beast which
00:32:55.380 if you don't know what that is it's a hardcore liberal uh propaganda machine that has an incredible
00:33:00.140 amount of influence on the left their headline yesterday 10 0 5 a.m keyboard warriors grieving
00:33:07.680 this week's assassination of self-anointed champion of quote-unquote free speech charlie kirk
00:33:13.060 have launched an online campaign to get anyone who criticizes him fired from their jobs their sub
00:33:22.000 headline is free speech crazed maga karens go full cancel culture on kirk critics no let's
00:33:30.120 be clear about the people we are exposing it's people they weren't criticizing charlie kirk they
00:33:35.720 were they were celebrating the assassination of charlie kirk and our major positions of power at
00:33:41.960 universities and other jobs or things like we mentioned earlier where they refused to put up
00:33:47.720 to print out a piece of paper for goodness sakes yeah but ben let me make two distinctions that are
00:33:52.600 important because it's easy to get these confused number one let's talk free speech
00:33:56.280 yes in the united states the first amendment gives you the right to speech to speak and and not to be
00:34:03.640 criminally prosecuted for so you can say the most horrible hateful things you had you do have a first
00:34:09.080 amendment right to say unbelievably horrible hateful things you can say that you are celebrating the
00:34:15.300 murder of charlie kirk or anyone else and the first amendment will protect your ability to do so which
00:34:19.480 means the government cannot come prosecute you and put you in jail for saying that the first amendment
00:34:26.200 does not mean that you are immune from the consequences of your speech and if you say things that are horrible
00:34:33.960 and hateful it is not uncommon for someone to be terminated so for example um at a university
00:34:42.280 if a student goes and decides to dress in a white robe as a klansman and burn a cross
00:34:50.040 and and say that we should murder african-american students i guarantee you that student will be
00:34:57.560 expelled from school now you can't prosecute him he has a first amendment right to do that so that is
00:35:01.640 not a criminal offense to do that correct but the university should absolutely expel him
00:35:07.240 because of just how noxious those views are the same is true here when you have teachers that that
00:35:15.160 that are are celebrating cold-blooded murder yeah there are consequences for that but that that's a
00:35:21.560 distinction i'll point out also the the president of the oxford union who debated charlie kirk and is
00:35:28.600 this vicious leftist he put out a tweet celebrating uh let's effing go he said when charlie kirk was
00:35:37.160 shot this is a guy who literally had one-on-one debated against charlie kirk and he is the incoming
00:35:42.920 president of the oxford union which pretentiously describes itself as the world's greatest debating
00:35:48.280 society um look in my view this individual ought to be expelled from oxford for the same reason you
00:35:57.240 would expel him if he were a klansman burning a cross and saying let's murder black students now
00:36:03.560 the united kingdom does not have the same first amendment that applies to it the way the united
00:36:08.440 states does so actually in in england if he said that he might well be criminally prosecuted
00:36:13.640 i don't agree with criminally prosecuting speech but but the first amendment does not give you a get
00:36:20.120 out of jail free pass look i promise you anyone any one of you in your jobs if you go in and tell your
00:36:26.840 boss go screw yourself yeah you're gonna get fired you will get fired you have a first amount right to
00:36:31.680 say so yeah but but he also has a right to terminate you but let me say secondly on this both sides ism
00:36:37.720 the media really wants to say gosh political violence it's a problem that just occurs everywhere
00:36:42.920 no right now it is it is heavily concentrated on the left and the left has normalized political
00:36:50.360 violence we saw two separate assassination attempts of donald trump we saw this tragically successful
00:36:57.720 assassination of charlie kirk over and over we saw for a year antifa and black lives matter riots and i
00:37:04.120 want to read you some polling results that were done last year um and people were asked would it be
00:37:12.840 justified to murder elon musk and would it be justified to murder donald trump and those who
00:37:21.320 were self-described left of center 50.2 percent said it would be justified to murder elon musk and 56
00:37:33.640 said it would be justified to murder donald trump that is and and and by the way the right of center
00:37:39.640 numbers were 14.3 percent and 20.3 percent so i wish all those numbers were zero but this is a
00:37:47.400 problem on the left this is a problem when you define your opponent as hitler nazi evil fascist
00:37:56.040 that is a permission structure to then say violence is an appropriate response and and we need to to see
00:38:03.480 democrats having the courage to say enough is enough look bill maher did did a great job where he's in
00:38:10.840 his monologue he said let's be clear donald trump is not hitler stop saying that stop saying it exactly
00:38:16.600 well and and i think now they're realizing that using the words fascist and hitler and these types
00:38:21.720 of things has desensitized people and and and advocated uh and allowed for this type of violence to
00:38:27.560 become reality where the big question people are asking is what's next uh i i do want to say one
00:38:34.600 thing that i think i've found incredibly comforting is seeing how many young people are at colleges this
00:38:42.920 weekend over college football we're putting up signs saying that they are charlie kirk the number of
00:38:48.360 people that are following him now on instagram exploded by i i'm i'm not i don't think i'm wrong i think
00:38:53.160 it's millions of people now who are but then i think it is likely that more people have listened
00:38:59.000 to charlie kirk speak in the last week than did in the entirety of his life yeah and that's the silver
00:39:07.400 lining his christian testimony has become so powerful i will say his wife erica the speech she gave this
00:39:14.920 week reduced me to tears it was beautiful god's anointing was upon her as she did that and and a lot
00:39:22.120 of people who had never clicked on and watched charlie kirk say anything this week did so and
00:39:26.920 said hey who is this guy that that touched so many people i think a lot of people chose to open their
00:39:32.680 bible and start reading their bible a lot of people chose to go to church that is a great thing that is
00:39:37.400 something i hope and believe we're going to see a lot more of and and let me say in in subsequent
00:39:41.720 podcasts we're going to talk about what what's coming next and here's one of the most important things
00:39:47.560 that that i am urging the president the department of justice the fbi to do which is follow the money
00:39:53.960 follow the money of everyone that is pushing this left leftist hatred that is pushing this violence
00:39:59.480 there is real money that is going into these riots on campus that is going into funding antifa that is
00:40:04.760 going into funding black lives matter and we need to this is not just one isolated lunatic in utah we
00:40:11.560 need to follow the money behind the radicalization that is leading to people being so twisted and
00:40:17.800 engaging in these horrific acts of violence amen to that don't forget we do the show uh monday
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00:40:33.640 back here uh on wednesday morning this is an i heart podcast guaranteed human