Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 11, 2025


Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA Founder, Dead at 31 after Utah Campus Shooting


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

155.68556

Word Count

1,925

Sentence Count

115

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.260 It is my great dishonor to be the person that says this and breaks this to you on television,
00:00:11.820 but President Donald Trump is announcing on True Social,
00:00:14.900 the great and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead.
00:00:17.940 No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.
00:00:23.680 He was loved and admired by all, especially me, and now he is no longer with us.
00:00:29.120 Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife, Erica, and his family.
00:00:33.760 Charlie, we love you.
00:00:35.220 This is a 47 Morning Update special edition with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:39.900 It is Thursday morning.
00:00:41.780 It is nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update,
00:00:46.400 and there's only one thing we're going to be talking about today,
00:00:48.880 and that is the life and the legacy of an incredible young man,
00:00:54.580 Charlie Kirk, who I've had the honor of knowing for over a decade.
00:00:57.520 Charlie's mission field was college campuses.
00:01:01.680 His mission field was to have grand debates.
00:01:05.540 He understood something that many others didn't,
00:01:09.500 which is the left had taken hold of an entire generation of young people in this country,
00:01:15.360 and they were turning them against God.
00:01:19.260 They were turning them against prayer.
00:01:21.100 They were turning them against pride in this country.
00:01:24.880 They were turning them away from families.
00:01:28.920 They were turning them away from having children.
00:01:31.480 They were turning them away from marriage, being a husband or a wife, a mother or a father.
00:01:38.860 And he decided he was going to do something about it,
00:01:42.560 and he started an organization called Turning Point.
00:01:45.460 I remember meeting Charlie for the very first time,
00:01:48.160 and we had breakfast together when he was trying to start Turning Point.
00:01:53.660 There was people like myself and Ben Shapiro and others that had done kind of the college campus thing
00:02:01.860 and had been the young generation of conservatives,
00:02:05.500 and he wanted to be that next generation, and my oh my was he.
00:02:10.440 He's had more of an impact on the younger generation for conservatives than anyone I've ever met.
00:02:15.960 And I don't say that because he was assassinated by a cold-blooded killer.
00:02:21.660 I say that because it's the truth.
00:02:24.080 Charlie Kirk was a hero whose legacy will live on for, I think, the rest of my life and probably then after that.
00:02:36.420 People are going to remember Charlie Kirk.
00:02:38.920 They're going to remember where they were when they found out that he was shot.
00:02:41.600 They're going to remember where they were when it was announced by the President of the United States.
00:02:45.740 America on True Social that he had died.
00:02:48.840 This is so hard.
00:02:50.180 I've been talking about this all day.
00:02:52.420 I'm recording this at basically midnight Eastern,
00:02:55.840 and I've been talking to friends and colleagues who know him,
00:03:01.340 and all of us are so sad because we all knew him well.
00:03:07.120 I think the hardest part for me is the fact that I know that this is a man that loved this country
00:03:13.040 but also loved his family.
00:03:14.660 He was so proud of his kids.
00:03:16.760 He was so proud to be a dad.
00:03:19.780 He loved being a dad.
00:03:22.300 He loved celebrating what a family is.
00:03:25.040 He loved celebrating that he was going back to traditional way of life with a mom and a dad and children.
00:03:33.820 I am so sad tonight for his family, for his wife, who is so sweet, for his children that are going to grow up without their father.
00:03:43.540 They're going to have videos for years that they can watch, and they can be proud of him,
00:03:47.920 and that may be the one blessing is that they so much of his life over the last five, six, seven years was put on tape.
00:03:54.860 I also get sad for this country because we lost someone that was so dear to us,
00:04:02.400 and I get sad that we've gone off this path so far to where the radical left,
00:04:07.920 and a part of it is a terrorist organization now, make no mistake about that,
00:04:14.180 is celebrating the killing of a man whose only crime was wanting to bring people together for a grand debate.
00:04:22.880 That's what he did wrong.
00:04:25.680 He wanted to debate the most important issues of our day,
00:04:29.580 and he wanted to sit down with people that disagreed with him,
00:04:32.720 and he wanted to have that conversation,
00:04:35.260 and that's why they killed him,
00:04:37.500 because he was so effective and so powerful by bringing facts to a conversation,
00:04:45.340 and by the way, being kind to those on the left,
00:04:48.660 those that disagreed with him.
00:04:50.080 He wanted them to come to his events.
00:04:52.060 He wanted to talk to them.
00:04:53.700 He gave them a microphone.
00:04:55.520 It's exactly what he was doing in Utah.
00:04:58.220 Trump's assassination attempt in Butler is that we were worried that they were going to do it again.
00:05:04.440 Whether I was on stage doing an event and so many others that do what Charlie does in the conservative movement,
00:05:12.620 it has become a very real thing in our minds,
00:05:17.020 and what they wanted to happen to Donald Trump and Butler
00:05:21.480 is exactly what happened in Utah to Charlie Kirk.
00:05:26.820 They wanted that video.
00:05:29.400 They wanted to put fear in the hearts and the minds of other conservative fighters,
00:05:34.000 other conservative warriors,
00:05:35.940 because they want to silence us.
00:05:38.120 I have talked to some of the most influential conservative leaders today on the phone and in text messages,
00:05:47.320 my mentors,
00:05:48.860 people that I've mentored,
00:05:50.400 and one thing I can assure you from all this is,
00:05:53.900 yes,
00:05:54.060 we're going to take more precautions.
00:05:56.140 Yes,
00:05:56.340 we're going to do more,
00:05:57.260 but we're not stopping.
00:06:00.200 Charlie was asked recently
00:06:02.140 about what he does
00:06:05.260 and what he thinks before he goes on college campuses,
00:06:08.460 and I want you to listen to what he said.
00:06:11.480 It's only 47,
00:06:12.880 48 seconds long,
00:06:14.260 but I want you to listen to what he says.
00:06:17.600 Before I go on a college campus,
00:06:19.140 my prayer is very simple.
00:06:20.280 God,
00:06:20.560 use me for your will.
00:06:21.760 Amen.
00:06:22.040 Because there's a plan above us all.
00:06:23.500 God is sovereign above all.
00:06:24.860 So,
00:06:25.240 what is God's plan when I go on a college campus?
00:06:27.060 I just believe I will only tell truth,
00:06:29.120 I will not compromise,
00:06:30.580 and I'll love on the lost.
00:06:31.920 The specific teachings of Christ is go make disciples of all nations.
00:06:34.680 I'm trying my best to do that,
00:06:36.140 and I'm trying to do it first in this nation,
00:06:38.000 because this nation impacts every other nation on the planet.
00:06:40.800 You cannot impact the world without impacting America.
00:06:43.060 Period.
00:06:43.260 That's the way that God has designed the universe in this particular being,
00:06:47.360 that as America goes,
00:06:48.760 the world goes.
00:06:49.440 Jesus called us to love children.
00:06:51.120 Jesus called us to tell truth.
00:06:52.680 Jesus called us to contest in the public square for his purposes.
00:06:57.520 I'm far more interested in what God wants of me than what I want from God.
00:07:02.520 And what God wants from me is a life fighting for truth.
00:07:05.540 That is going to be a large part of Charlie Kirk's legacy.
00:07:10.880 The president of the United States of America,
00:07:12.800 also put out a video from the Oval Office.
00:07:16.220 Hours after he announced that Charlie Kirk had gone to see his Lord and Savior in heaven,
00:07:23.160 Donald Trump decided to address the nation.
00:07:26.160 And I want you to hear what the president had to say about Charlie Kirk and his legacy.
00:07:30.680 To my great fellow Americans, I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah.
00:07:41.480 Charlie inspired millions.
00:07:43.580 And tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.
00:07:49.920 Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much,
00:07:57.660 the United States of America.
00:07:59.260 He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people.
00:08:04.360 He's a martyr for truth and freedom.
00:08:06.900 And there's never been anyone who was so respected by youth.
00:08:11.520 Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith.
00:08:15.240 And we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in heaven.
00:08:21.540 Our prayers are with his wife, Erica, the two young, beloved children,
00:08:27.400 and his entire family who he loved more than anything in the world.
00:08:32.020 We ask God to watch over them in this terrible hour of heartache and pain.
00:08:36.940 This is a dark moment for America.
00:08:41.100 Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate.
00:08:48.600 His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever,
00:08:56.400 to share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense.
00:09:02.260 On campuses nationwide, he championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace.
00:09:09.580 It's long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder
00:09:16.720 are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year,
00:09:24.660 in the most hateful and despicable way possible.
00:09:27.860 For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis
00:09:35.140 and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals.
00:09:39.420 This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today,
00:09:47.220 and it must stop right now.
00:09:50.080 My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity
00:09:56.620 and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,
00:10:02.480 as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials,
00:10:07.780 and everyone else who brings order to our country.
00:10:11.860 From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year,
00:10:15.480 which killed a husband and father to the attacks on ICE agents,
00:10:19.920 to the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York,
00:10:24.700 to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others,
00:10:30.140 radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.
00:10:36.960 Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died,
00:10:43.820 the values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God.
00:10:52.960 Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country.
00:10:59.840 An assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed,
00:11:04.080 because together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy
00:11:08.700 will live on for countless generations to come.
00:11:12.200 Today, because of this heinous act, Charlie's voice has become bigger and grander than ever before,
00:11:20.800 and it's not even close.
00:11:22.920 May God bless his memory, may God watch over his family,
00:11:27.040 and may God bless the United States of America.
00:11:30.580 Thank you.
00:11:31.840 I want to just end by saying two things.
00:11:35.320 One, I am so sad.
00:11:37.720 I am so sad for Charlie's family and his colleagues and his friends.
00:11:44.120 I'm also incredibly angry.
00:11:46.480 I'm angry that the left has gotten to the point where they're inspiring people to do this with no accountability.
00:11:53.700 I'm angry that they have normalized this type of political violence.
00:11:59.320 There will be more to be said about that moving forward, I can promise you.
00:12:05.740 But what I'll say right now is this.
00:12:08.500 Pray for Charlie's wife.
00:12:10.780 Pray for Charlie's children.
00:12:14.220 Pray for all of them.
00:12:16.060 I'll see you back here tomorrow.
00:12:17.200 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:12:20.800 Guaranteed Human.