This was broadcast yesterday with guest host VP JD Vance. As you read the transcript below, please note the verbiage Vance uses. To quote Angus Young from AC-DC, “Who Made Who”
Vice President JD Vance Remembers Charlie Kirk
Published: 9/15/2025
Hey, everybody. JD Vance here live from my office in the White House complex and filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’m gonna try to do my best. My dear friend, the great Charlie Kirk. The last several days have been extremely hard for our country. They’ve been hard for me, hard for my family, hard for the countless people in this building who knew and loved Charlie Kirk. And of course, they’ve been hardest, most of all for his darling wife, Erica, and their two beautiful children. The thing is, every single person into this building, we owe something to Charlie. He was a joyful warrior for our country.
He loved America. He devoted himself tirelessly to making our country a better place. He was a critical part of getting Donald Trump elected as president, getting me elected as vice president. And so much of our success over the last seven months is due to his efforts, his staffing, his support, and his friendship. I don’t think that I’m alone in saying that Charlie was the smartest political operative I ever met. Everyone knew him as this fearless debater, this guy who would take the conservative message into hostile places and inspire younger generations to have courage. One thing that’s hit a lot of those young Americans over the last week was how Charlie was there for them when others were not, when they were afraid to speak their minds, when they were afraid of what a professor would say, when they were afraid that they would be shouted down by their peers.
Charlie was there showing them that they could be courageous and that they could be bold. Charlie was a visionary, he was a luminary. He brought together people. He didn’t just teach people how to speak, he didn’t just teach people what to say. He didn’t just teach people. They could actually speak their mind on campus. They create, he created a whole social network for an entire generation of young people. I know people who met their husband, who met their wife, who met the best men at their wedding at A-T-P-U-S-A event, because as you guys all know, it’s not just about speaking our mind, it’s about making friends along the way and creating that support network that won an election.
And its staffed the current federal government. I owe so much to Charlie. I, I’ve had friends reach out in just the last couple of days who sent me messages, screenshots that they exchange with Charlie in the runup, to me getting selected by the president as his vice presidential running mate. And it’s such an honor to have people show me that. Charlie said, we want JD to be the VP nominee. And I just had a conversation with the president, and I think things are actually going well. I think he’s actually gonna choose JD Vance. Do you know what it means to me that such a good guy, such a good friend, such a lion and visionary of our movement was advocating for me?
So I wanted to use this show today to advocate for Charlie, to talk about him, to talk about what kind of a guy he was, talk about what kind of a man he was, what kind of a husband and father he was, and to take people, most of them from inside the administration, but some of them from without, who knew Charlie best. And to talk about what he meant, what he meant to them, what he meant to this administration, and what he meant to the conservative movement. Now, I was very honored a couple of days ago on September the 11th, 2025, to fly out to Utah where Charlie was shot and killed to meet his wife, to meet his mom and his dad, his his sister. All just incredible people who didn’t deserve to have this happen to them.
And I was also honored to be able to take Charlie’s remains from Utah to Arizona. It was an amazing, amazing thing. It was heartbreaking, and it was sad, and it was terrible, but what an honor it was for me and my family to be welcomed in to the Kirk Inner Circle at their moment of grief. There are a few things that I, I wanna talk about just from that, that moment. First of all, when I first met Erica, his lovely wife, and such an incredibly brave soul, I’m not sure if you saw her remarks after Charlie died. If you haven’t, I would encourage you to go and see them because you see this raw grief and incredible courage all in the same moment. And that’s what we need right now. We need to grieve, but we also need this courage in this moment more than we’ve ever needed it.
She gave me a hug, and she was heartbroken, as of course she would be. And she said that she loved him so much, and I said, Erica, he loved you so much. He died way too young, but he died a happy man because of you, because of the family that you gave him, because of the home and the life that you guys had built together. And we sat for about an hour, and we talked about Charlie. And you know, in these moments, you don’t know what to say. I’m a person who literally speaks for a living, and I had no idea what to say, and I didn’t try to console her because how can you console a person who just lost a loving husband and father? But we just talked about Charlie. We talked about who he was.
We talked about some of our favorite stories. We talked about some of his idiosyncrasies and all the things that made Charlie Kirk, he was, and she said something to me that I will never forget, my wife was there. It was just me and my wife on, on my side, and then a lot of people from the Turning Point family, a lot of people from, from Charlie’s family. And she said to me that Charlie never raised his voice. That he never cu at her, that he was never cross or mean-spirited to her. And look, I am, I’m a husband. I’m proud of being a husband. I think that on the great balance of things, that I’m a pretty good husband, but I can ne never say that I was never unpleasant with my wife. I can never say that I’ve never raised my voice to my wife.
Like most husbands, even the good ones were sometimes imperfect. And I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband, and I needed to be a better father because of all these moments that I shared just in the last few days, the books that I’ve read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and kissing them and hugging them before bed. I, I just realized that all of these moments that I get to have Charlie is not able to have them anymore. And Charlie’s kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore. And maybe the best way that I can contribute, and the best way that I could honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be, to be the kind of husband to my wife that he was to his, you know, he talked all the time about the most important thing you could do is not vote for a particular candidate.
It was to become, if you were a young man, a husband, and a father. He talked about the joy that came from fatherhood, the joy that came from raising a family and being part of, of, of, of their growth and their development and all the incredible things that happen when you get to be a husband and father. And that is the way that I’m gonna honor my friend, is to be the very best at that most important job that I can be. But that’s not the only way that I’m gonna honor Charlie. And there’s gonna be a lot of discussion over the next two hours of this radio program about what exactly that looks like. It’s important, and Erica asked me this to make sure that his movement, the movement that Charlie started has to keep going. We have to build upon it.
We have to add to it. We have to make sure that the next generation of young people feels confident and courageous to speak their mind and to speak the truth. We’re gonna talk about that. We’re gonna talk about why do we do this? Of course, we do this so that we can enact good public policy and take back our country. We’re gonna talk with senior officials of the administration about what we’re trying to do to honor Charlie’s legacy in that way. Of course, we have to make sure that the killer is brought to justice. And importantly, we have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years. And I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet.
We’re gonna talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity, real unity that can only come when we tell the truth. And everybody knows that they can speak their mind about the issues of the day without being cut down by a murderer’s gun. We’re gonna talk about all of those things with friends of Charlie, with people in the administration, with people that he knew. You know, on a podcast a couple of months back, Charlie was asked about how he’d want to be remembered if he died. His answer, I want to be remembered for courage from my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith. And that was Charlie. And in this dark moment for our country, I think that’s the greatest lesson any of us can take from Charlie.
To have faith, to have faith in the Lord, and to be bold. And how we glorify him to be bold in our pursuits as Charlie was in his. So that’s what we’re gonna spend a little bit of time doing this afternoon, keeping this incredible show he created, going and hearing from some of the people who were so fortunate to call Charlie a friend. We’re gonna pay tribute to his courageous legacy, and we’re gonna commit to keep it forever alive. I’m looking forward to this. Joining me now is Steven Miller, white Health’s Deputy Chief of Staff, dear friend of mine, and dear friend of Charlie Kirks. And before I get into the nitty gritty of what I wanted to talk with Steven about, you know, there’s a lot of questions about the investigation, where we are in the investigation.
I wanna be respectful to the FBI’s process, but just know that we are on top of this and the entire administration is trying to do as much as possible to find everything that we can about what led to this, about how we got here. And of course, ultimately how an assassin took Charlie’s life. I wanted to zoom out with Steven A. Little bit and talk about all of the ways that we’re trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream. And you know, before I, I do that, Steven, I wanna do this with every guest, because you’re a friend of Charlie’s, and one of the things I’m hoping that people get out of this is an understanding for the kind of guy that Charlie was, who he was. And so before I talk to you about what we’re doing to try to prevent something like this from happening again, maybe you could just talk about why you loved Charlie, what memories you have of him.
Something that would give our audience a sense of what he was behind the microphone.
Yeah, I’ve known Charlie for 10 years. He was a treasured friend, and you know, his, this is gonna sound, he made, he made you believe more on yourself is the best way I could put that. That’s right. The he he was your biggest shield. He would, if I was working on a hard project, an important executive order, a major new initiative, he would give me the strength and the focus to get it done. That’s right. He was everybody’s supporter, enthusiast, cheerleader, promoter.
He made all of us better every single day. You know, my, the memory that I keep turning to is not a single memory. It’s a period of a couple months after we won the election and Charlie was in the campaign, or the transition office every single day. And from Don till dusk volunteering his time to get into the weeds, the nitty gritty of government. And he was so damn excited. I mean, it just, it, it really hurts to think about it right now. He was so excited about all of us being here, and we would be talking about every executive order, every new regulation, every new policy plan.
I just, it was such a thrill for me to get to spend a few months of my life. ’cause you know, he came from the, the nonprofit, the activist world. I came from the government world. And in this transition to be able to work hand in hand, take all of his ideas from being the leader of T-P-U-S-A, spending time with college students, spending time with activists, and then be able to be with us with the transition to plan out the next step of our government. That was an experience for which I’ll always be grateful. And, and the last thing I’ll say is that to my earlier point, Charlie would send me messages all the time just saying, you know, great work, or Here’s a new idea, or here’s what I think will take this to the next level. And I took ’em all to heart. And God, I just love the man so much.
He,
He was, he was our biggest supporter, Steven. But he was also, if he disagreed, he would figure out how to get us to get where he wanted us to go. And he was always such a big cheerleader. You’re absolutely right. The darkest moments of my life, it was Charlie who was on the phone saying, don’t let him get to you. Keep on fighting, keep on going. You’re absolutely right. So I wanna be mindful of time here. A lot of people are very worried about how we got here in the first place. And you have the crazies on the far left who are saying, oh, Steven Miller and JD Vance, they’re gonna go after constitutionally protected speech and no, no, we’re gonna go after the NGO network that foments facilitates and engages in violence.
That’s not okay. Violence is not okay in our system and we wanna make it less likely that that happens. Walk me through at a high level like what you and I have been working on, what the whole administration’s been working on to try to make sure that we don’t reward and promote this craziness.
Yes. So it’s an excellent question. I’ve said this before and but it bears repeating. The last message that Charlie sent me was, I think it was just the day before we lost him, which is that we need to have an organized strategy to go after the lefting organizations that are promoting violence in this country. And I will write those words onto my heart and I will carry them out. The people ask me, you know, what emotions I’m feeling right now, Mr. So people say, I mean, you kind of know the answer. There’s incredible sadness, but there’s incredible anger. And the thing about anger is that unfocused anger or blind rage is not a productive emotion. That’s right. But focused anger, righteous anger, directed for a just cause is one of the most important agents of change in human history.
Charlie showed that.
Amen. And we are gonna channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks. So let me explain a little bit what that means. So the, the organized docs and campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging that’s designed to trigger incite violence in the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement. And with the, as my witness, we are gonna use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make Americans safe again for the American people.
It will happen. And we will do it in Charlie’s name. Thank
You Steven. Joining me now, and I’m excited about this one, are a few guys who like me, we’re lucky enough to call Charlie their friend. I have Taylor Boic, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Kaylin Dore. In the middle is the White House Deputy Communications Director, and Andrew Vet is Charlie’s longtime friend and the executive producer of this show. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for being a dear friend to Charlie. And I thought what I’d start with is, you know, we all knew Charlie, the man, not just Charlie, the personality, or Charlie the celebrity, or Charlie, the guy who did debates on college campuses. I wanna start with, with you Taylor, what’s something that you wish people knew about Charlie that they don’t, if they just watch this clips on on X or YouTube or wherever.
So with Charlie, what you see is what you get. And I think that was true even from my first interactions with him on the 2020 presidential campaign. We’d be, do always be doing these fundraisers. Don Jr. Kimberly Gilfoyle, who was the Trump Victory Finance chair, would host these big fundraising events. Charlie was always the the first one to show up. And we would do these team events where we’d make calls all day, and you’d always want Charlie on your team because the guy would get there first, make as many calls. And he was the best fundraiser that that we had. But, you know, we have the, not just the privilege of being Charlie’s friend, but seeing what he’s built through Turning Point.
And it became personal to me when my sister who we’re from California and you know, is trying to find her way politically and said, you know, I want to get involved and we have the benefit of we can go to any event, any rally, any intimate setting. And I said, you know what? There’s a, the, the Young women’s event that he hosts in in Dallas. I said, how about we go to Dallas? And one of the reasons why Charlie’s events I think have been so successful and why this this organization has been so successful is he makes, makes these events approachable to the person that hasn’t done politics before, hasn’t been engaged, but is curious and thinks maybe something is going wrong with the country.
Maybe that there’s a way to get involved. That’s not the big rallies that, that that’s not, you know, standing in lines for a long time. But just, and for my sister, it was for a conference room of girls listening to Taylor Swift music during breaks and kind of having approachable, but then also talking about life, talking about family, talking about, you know, at, at this event, you know, just relationships and starting to, to build a path for young people that is both approachable but informed and and thoughtful. And so for me it was, it was an ability and an opportunity for me to share with my sister something that I get experience all the time.
And, and I think it was something that she really appreciated. And I know millions of young people are appreciating. And by the looks of the signups, the signups pretty good and they’re gonna appreciate it a lot more. Yeah, we’ll
Talk about that, Andrew. So it sounds like there’s been this blowout of interest in Turning Points USA and the mission. You know, one of the things I really hope is that this assassin didn’t silence Charlie’s movement. And I think that’s the best way for us to honor him, is to keep it going. You’re one of the critical people at T-P-U-S-A. Tell us a a little bit about Charlie, but also about what you’ve seen in the wake of Charlie’s assassination. Yeah.
You know, to put things in perspective, you know, there are, I guess currently 900 official chapters of Turning Point on college campuses. And that’s, you know, when you get, you get at about 900, 9 20 give or take kids graduate, you gotta kind of rebuild a few chapters. That’s about what you’re going to get to. And we have 1200 high school chapters, which is our big new initiative. And we were really proud when we, the high school chapters eclipse the college chapters. Yeah. ’cause we were known as the college. And so there’s about 23,000 high schools in America. 23, 20 4,000. And I’ll, I’ll never forget this, this is a really funny moment a couple weeks ago in Aspen, and Charlie was like, we are gonna have a Club America, which is the high school brain on all, all 23,000.
He didn’t know the number. This is actually part of the story. We’re gonna have it on every high school campus in America. And his, you know, the team is going, oh my gosh. And Charlie goes, we’re gonna have 35,000 high school chapters. And you know, he just threw out this big like, stretch goal, you know, like, and, and you know, we’re like, oh, Charlie, and the whole team’s freaking out. ’cause that’s a, that’s a huge lift. And, and he goes, we, they have to be on every, every single high school campus. And then I, I’m, I’m sitting next to him, I look at it and I Google it and it was like, there’s 23,000 high schools in America, Charlie. He goes, oh, okay, 20, 23,000 we’re gonna be on every single one. And then the, you know, the team got him eventually to say, well, okay, the, the big stretch goal is 10,000.
And it was amazing because now I, I tweeted out and it’s, it’s, I don’t know, it’s like 10 million views or something. It, like, I think it made people feel good because we now have 37,000 applications to start chapters around the country. And, you know, it almost brings a tear to your eye because that moment is like, we all remember all the whole team, we were all in a ballroom going through a presentation together, and he was adamant, we are gonna be on every high school in America and he’s gonna be proven. Right.
That’s right. Well, he was in a lot of ways, as you guys know, the ultimate cheerleader and he saw in you things that you didn’t necessarily see in yourself. He was a true friend in that way. And I, I, I remember, you know, one, one particularly difficult moment, probably the hardest moment on the campaign trail for me, we had an event in Arizona, I believe, with a bunch of faith leaders. And it, it was, it was the one time on the entire national campaign where I gave my chief of staff a hug and apologized to him because I was just at a, you know, I hadn’t seen the kids in seven days. I was particularly cranky. And I get to this event and I’m just kinda like, man, come on, we gotta do this again. And Charlie comes back and he gives me a hug and he’s like, you know, your kids, you know, they love you and they’re gonna realize eventually why this was so important to do this.
And that kind of gave me this sense of, all right, my head’s back in the game. And that was what Charlie was always good at setting ridiculous objectives, but finding some way to motivate people to go after it, even though it was, you know, it seemed unattainable until you got a little Charlie, Kirk pep talk. Kalin, what was your, what’s, what’s the thing you missed the most about Charlie? What do you, what do you, what do you think is the, is the most difficult part of replacing the great Charlie Kirk?
Well, I think, you know, you mentioned him being everyone’s best cheerleader, and I, the last time I saw him, I have a lot of peace in my heart because I had a very good interaction with him, as we always do. I was wandering the hallways with the EOB and I must have had a horrible look on my face. And he literally, he, he jumped down the stairs, he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, what’s going on? I just mentioned, man, you know, my baby’s six months old. We are going through it. We are really, I’m struggling, man. And he sat there and he prayed for me in the halls of the EOB for quite a bit of time, and he didn’t need to do that. Right. You know, it could have been a quick check-in. And I asked him, I said, dude, how do you do it?
How are you doing it? You’re killing it. You’re a great dad. You guys are doing an amazing job at Turning Point. I think you’re doing everything you can. And he looks at me and says, I have a great team. And I laughed and I said, cool. So are you gonna donate to the Kalin do nanny fund after this? And he said, no, that’s not what I’m talking about. I have a great team. I said, you and JD and and everyone here in this building are part of the team. And I know that he would be very, you know, excited to see all the work that we have going on here in the administration, but also all the, the, the testimonials. I mean, like, I dunno how the guy had the bandwidth, like the, the sheer volume of people whose lives he touched that we’re just now discovering is, is out of control. And I think, you know, growing up, we didn’t have a Turning Point.
We didn’t have a Charlie, we didn’t have these kind of people in our lives who, who dedicated and put in the blood, sweat and tears to go make sure that, that this was a thing that existed for people like us. And, you know, the, the, the lasting message is that, and you know, I’ve, I’ve, I think I’ve said this at Turning Point events before, is that the left wins the, the enemy. They win when, when you feel alone and when you feel like you’re the only one who thinks, eats praise, breathes lives the way that you do. And Charlie was so great at, at connecting those dots and connecting human beings. I mean, our friendships are all stronger because of him with one another. But people, I mean, like, I’ve never met Andrew, but I know I’ve talked to him through Charlie For years.
Yeah. And he was so great at doing that. So I think it’s our mission to go out there and embolden young conservatives, young Christians, most importantly, to go out there and continue to do his work because it’s exactly what he would want. He would want you to go find five people who don’t believe in Jesus that day and, and, and give them, you know, a good, a good lecturing and and, and walk them through everything in a way that is respectful and is, you know, grounded in fact. And I don’t know how we replace that, but I think the energy that I’m seeing amongst people, it is just palpable. It’s, it’s insane.
Yeah. Caitlin, there was this incredible hope at the core of Charlie’s character that you could solve so many problems just by communicating with people. Like if he wanted to introduce somebody to God, he would just go and talk to ’em. If he wanted to introduce them to a new idea, he would just go and talk to them. And it’s what makes this particularly tragic is that he was doing the very thing that he loved, the very thing that led him to inspire so many people. And that’s when they tried to cut him down at his strongest, doing the most important thing that he was doing for our country. I mean, Taylor, you mentioned his sister or your sister going to a Turning Point event. And the thing about Charlie, and this is again, something I don’t know that people fully appreciate unless you knew him particularly well, is he was such a bright guy, right?
He read theology and he read political philosophy and he knew all these like, crazy citations and you know, he knew like every bible verse for every particular case. Or he knew something that was written by some 15th century political philosophy. Like, Charlie, where the hell did you get that from? He’s like, oh, I just read a lot of books. But he could also deal with people at the level who didn’t know anything about politics, who were curious, who loved their country, they wanted to make it better. Taylor, talk a little bit about that, about, ’cause Taylor, those of you don’t know is the lead in our communication shop here in the White House. He knows more about talking to people than pretty much anybody in the White House, or at least that’s what you’re supposed to know more than any anybody else about. But like, talk about Charlie, the communicator, because that’s one of the things that made a movie was,
And in that, I’m gonna tie two things that they said together, because Kaylin’s, right? We didn’t have a Charlie Kirk growing up. We had Barry Goldwater and Reagan, two guys that we barely were alive to, to, to know or, or, or overlap with. The future has Charlie Kirk. And you know, before Wednesday, Charlie Kirk was a young man, inspiring young people after he was killed. He has become a titan whose inspiration will move through eternity inspiring millions of people for decades to come. And he does it through both the understanding of biblical terms.
I mean, I, I, I spent, I’m sure like a lot of people this weekend, spent my weekend scrolling through old videos of Charlie. And, and one really, really hit me the story of Jesus meeting the prostitute where he says, you know, though those without sin cast a first stone. And he, Charlie points out, everyone forgets what he says next. And he says to the prostitute, go on sin no more. And Charlie understood both the compassion of the Bible, but the honesty and truth telling of the Bible, that is what I think has been missing in our political discourse. That you don’t have to be nasty, you can be compassionate, but you should tell the truth.
And so the future of the political movement is going to be informed by young people, brave and courageous enough to tell the truth, but compassionate enough to understand the suffering of of those around them. And that that’s, that’s Charlie Kirk.
Gentlemen, thank you so much for sharing all those stories, for sharing your time, for talking about Charlie. Hello everyone, vice president JD Vance here. Welcome back to The Charlie Kirk Show. So I am moonlighting as a radio host today, of course, in honor of my dear friend Charlie. And you know, I wanted to be like Marco Rubio. I wanted an add an extra job here as the radio host and vice president here in the West Wing here in the White House complex. But I have another person here who wears many hats and is one of the most gifted communicators I’ve ever seen. Right up there with the great Charlie Kirk. I’m glad to be joined by Karoline Leavitt, our press secretary. Carolyn, so good to see
You. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Very kind. I appreciate your saying that.
So let me let, let, let, why don’t you kick it off and tell us a little bit so those who don’t know who are listening or watching you actually were involved with T-P-U-S-A very early on when you were in college. Tell me about that experience and about getting to know Charlie Kirk through that forum.
Sure. Well, I’m a Gen Z conservative, so I was really raised within the MAGA movement and within the MAGA movement as a Gen Z conservative means you’re very much a part of the Turning Point U s A movement. And so my political education was not just through the rise of President Trump, but also the rise of Charlie Kerr. Yeah. And watching him and listening to him. And I inquired about starting a Turning Point U s A chapter on my college St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where I went and where my political ambition and love of media and politics really began. And so just by watching Charlie from a distance was so inspiring to me as a young conservative woman.
And then I got to know him personally when I decided to run for Congress. And he was a tremendous supporter and friend. Great.
So you literally communicate for a living. You’re the person that speaks to the American people and the world on behalf of the White House every single day. Did you learn anything particular about the way that Charlie Kirk communicated with people? And what I always appreciated is that though he was very smart, and though you see all these clips of him owning people or of him getting the better of somebody in a debate, if you watch a full Charlie Kirk rally and all of the q and a and I was just talking with with Andrew about this off camera, 90% of it is Charlie being kind and being compassionate and offering moral support to people. What do you take from Charlie Kirk, the communicator?
So many things just by watching him and by being around him, but I think most of all, standing firm in your convictions and picking a fight, especially when you know you have the facts and the truth on your side, but doing it with a smile. And that’s something Charlie did so brilliant brilliantly and well, he would go to these campus reform events and he would say to the crowd, if you disagree with me, come to the front of the line. And I find myself doing that in the briefing rooms, you know, picking on the reporters who I know very much disagree with me and with the president, but as long as you believe in what you’re saying and you have conviction in it, and you have truth and the facts on your side, it makes it a lot easier to say it. And that’s what Charlie did for a living.
And I know he inspired me as a young voice for, for President Trump. Now, like you said, behind the White House podium and you know, before every briefing, I always pray to Jesus Christ. And Charlie was so outspoken with his faith, and I will continue to be in honor of him, but I’ll also think of Charlie and just how brilliantly he was able to combat the li the lies with facts and to do it with a smile.
Absolutely. So, you know, I, I always think of Charlie Kirk debating sometimes these kids on college campuses and how the one part of, of your job that maybe would be harder if you went on college campuses is I think some of these college kids ask way better questions than the radicals do in the White House press briefing room. So that’d be like good, good preparation for you in a lot of ways, not predicted. Yeah, exactly. TP os A was actually the varsity. Now you’re, you’re kind of get the JV level with your opponents here, but, but you do such an incredible job. And you, you were of course not just the White House Press Secretary, you were also the main spokesperson during the Trump campaign. And you know what, what made, I wanna ask how important Charlie was to the victory because there were so many events that we did with T-P-U-S-A where I would show up and they were incredible and the energy was off the charts.
And Charlie would always tell me whenever I went to Arizona, he’d say, don’t worry about Arizona, worry about Michigan, worry about Wisconsin. We’ve got Arizona Talk just about how important Charlie was to our effort to win and make Donald Trump the president of the United States.
Look, the president has said it himself. The president’s massive gains with young Americans across the country was in no small part because of the efforts of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point U s A and our team on the campaign was constantly checking in with him and keeping him apprised of what the president was doing and saying, because we needed his voice to relay that to his audience, which is made up of young people across the country. And the president spoke at many Turning Point events. He went into that lion’s den at the invitation of Charlie to get his message across. And Charlie was incredibly supportive of non-traditional new media strategy that the president took. And you know, the president loved Charlie deeply, you know that Mr.
Vice president and I know that and I know he deeply is hurt by this loss because Charlie played an instrumental role in returning the president to the Oval Office. And I just love that clip from election night when Charlie realized President Trump had won and he was speechless for one of the few times in his life. There were no words, just tears.
Thank you Caroline. Welcome back to The Charlie Kirk Show. Joining me now is my friend and a close friend of Charlie, the great Tucker Carlson Tucker, thank you so much for being here. You know, Tucker, I think you know this, and some of you know this because I wrote about it on x.com, but when x.com was Twitter, I did an interview with the Tucker Carlson Tonight Show on Fox News. And I got a message from a guy named Charlie Kirk that said, you did a great job. I really liked what you said and let’s keep in touch. And that began the start of my friendship with Charlie Kirk. That was the first time I had ever communicated with Charlie Kirk. So you’ve known him for a long time.
You talked to him about a lot of issues. And I wanna talk in, in, in part about how to honor Charlie’s legacy because I think that he modeled civil discourse within the right, he accepted there were big disagreements on all these issues, but he thought we were all on the same team and we could debate this stuff, but actually have a drink at the end of the day and recognize that we were all trying to accomplish fundamentally the good of the country. So I wanna talk a little bit about that before I get there. Just tell me about your buddy Charlie Kirk. What was he like? What did people who only know him from radio or TV not appreciate about what a good guy was
That his Christianity was sincere and his commitment to Jesus was totally sincere. And it, you know, sometimes isn’t, especially in public figures who throw out Bible verses they don’t understand and stuff like that. But in his case, not speaking to anyone in particular, but in his case, it informed every single part of his life from his marriage, the way he treated his children, to the way he treated his staff, to the way he approached disagreement, to the way he thought of other people, which was always primarily as people first. And that was, you know, he was much younger than I am and I met him when he was a teenager. So I mean, he’s literally the age of one of my children. So it was kind of hard to take him seriously at first.
And over the years that I knew him, you know, more than 10 years, I ended up learning from him. And I’m not just saying this ’cause he’s passed, I mean that sincerely. And the main thing that I learned from him was how to disagree with people on topics that you take very seriously and that they take very seriously without hating them or without feeling bitterness. I mean he, it wasn’t, you know, people knew what was going on behind the scenes, you know, there was a lot going on behind the scenes and it was intense and it was bitter. And you know, because the divide, particularly in foreign policy questions is very real in the Republican party, neocons versus the realist or however you wanna describe it. He was on the realist side for sure, but he was mad at the people who disagreed with him.
Yeah. He liked them as people, he agreed with them on some things. And he would always say that, you know, I agree with in private he would say that. And you know, I was involved in it because people were mad at him for having me at his conferences or for talking to me. And so we had caused to talk about it a lot up until he was assassinated. And I was so struck the whole time I would say, you know, I would use the ugly language I’m famous for in private. And he would never talk like that. He would say, well, you know, I agree with him on this, but obviously I’m on your side on that. And he just never forgot there was a person behind. Yes. The views and that inspired me and God commands that of us.
That is, that’s a real commandment in my opinion. And he lived it.
That’s exactly right, Tucker. He, he treated everybody with respect and because he genuinely loved people and he genuinely wanted their salvation, he wanted them to have a relationship with God. He wanted them to, to know the truth. He always treated them with respect, maybe especially when he disagreed with them. Yes. And I, I I think about this, so you talked about foreign policy. Yes. That is one of the big divides on the American right, right now. And, and the thing that Charlie seemed to understand intuitively is that the coalition that made Donald Trump, the president of the United States and JD Vance, the Vice President of the United States Exactly. It included Tucker Carlson, but also Ben Shapiro. That’s exactly right. It included people who did disagree vociferously, but agreed on 70 or 80% of issues.
And fundamentally, the question Charlie would ask is, if you’re a good faith person, if you’re trying to do right, then you are part of the Big 10. I think that’s, that’s something that we have to try to model together because Charlie’s no longer around to do it for us. And, and one way in particular, I was very touched by this, I actually texted Mark about this because you know, you very generously have put out some donation link to help support Charlie’s family and think about Yeah. You know, Erica and the kids, most importantly, they’re grieving the loss of a dear husband and father, but somebody us, we are gonna have to step in and fill the gap to provide for them in a way that Charlie no longer can’t because he was taken down by an assassin’s bullet.
You know, I saw Cher, that link was Mark Levin. Yeah. And I thought it was a really good example of how Charlie was able to bring people together from across our movement so long as we were operating in good faith. That was the question. If you were good faith, you’re on his team.
That is exactly right. And good faith is the measure. And I, you know, I just, I have to say, I think now is exactly the wrong time to appropriate the memory of someone and the, and the emotion that comes with that, the really intense emotion that all of his feel and his murder and use it for your own parochial ends. Like he stood for this. You know, and I think the reason that Charlie was able to bridge the gap, particularly in foreign policy, is because he had, for example, genuine affection for Israel, which he expressed to me in private many, many times. Like, I love Israel. Correct. I don’t think we should have another forever war regime, regime change war against Iran. And I think that made complete sense to me.
I, I sort of ag agree with that actually. And so it allowed both sides to talk to him. ’cause they felt like, this person doesn’t hate me. It doesn’t need to get existential, it’s not about disliking me or some weird bigotry. But I don’t think it’s helpful to, for people to jump in particularly foreign heads of state to say, this is what, you know, he lived for my cause or whatever. That’s disgusting. Actually don’t do that. That turns everybody off. You don’t help your own cause by doing that. And it’s also literally untrue. So I just hope that we can continue in. I’m not exaggerating the spirit that he operated in, which is one of love for other people, including people we disagree with and don’t make it, you know, as small bore as that, that doesn’t help.
Yeah. So one of the issues, Tucker, and I agree with you, that, that he would express disagreements with the administration on, there are two that that jump out is one, you know, Charlie was a hardliner on immigration. He wanted us to control our borders as much as possible. Yes. He wanted us to ramp up the deportations. I remember having conversations with Charlie where he would say, why aren’t the deportations higher? Why aren’t you doing more? And I would talk to him, but it wasn’t, Hey, I don’t understand this or I disagree with you and therefore I’m gonna blast you and assume that you’re in bad faith. It’s, I’m a free citizen. I love you guys, I supported you guys and I’m going to use my platform to try to accomplish as much good as I possibly can.
And I think that made him such an effective operator. And I would talk to Charlie, I’d say, Charlie, well look here, here are the reasons why. And, and it was, you seen Tucker, we’ve ramped up deportation numbers. We have actually, there are a lot of people who are self deporting because they don’t wanna be in the country knowing that eventually immigration enforcement will happen. But I think part of that success comes from people like Charlie applying pressure, pressure as a friend. Pressure is somebody who cares deeply about the issue. And and that’s true also. I know we have about, about 90 seconds left, but that’s true about foreign policy. Like, I remember Charlie calling me and saying, I’m really worried, and this is back in the summer when the Iran strikes were sort of first being contemplated. He said, I’m really worried this is gonna come another regime change war in the Middle East that we get trapped in.
And I said, Charlie, first of all, like have some give, have some faith here. The president of the United States is not a believer in perpetual war. He knows the mistakes of Iraq and Afghanistan. He doesn’t wanna repeat them. But Charlie was very clear that he could support Israel. And by the way, he did eventually support the strikes on the nuclear facility while simultaneously saying, no more. This can’t become a bigger thing. This can’t become a broader thing. And, and again, I think he modeled a really good way of applying pressure of disagreeing when you do disagree, but also recognizing that so long as you’re operating in good faith, we’re all part of the team. And that’s something I’m gonna try to take from Charlie’s legacy is not, not that we’re always right, not that we can’t take criticism, but that we all should try to work together.
It did worry me. ’cause I think your description is perfect. He was one of the very few who took that message and, and stood by it. I mean, right to the very end. This cannot get bigger. We don’t want another regime change war. But man, some of the people who send money to Turning Point, his donors were very tough on him. So tough on him that I could feel it. You know, I, I talked to him a lot in the last few months and he was under enormous pressure. He never bent, he never became bitter.
He kept, he kept his integrity to the very end. To the
Very end. And I just think it’s important to say that ’cause it’s true.
Absolutely. Thank you Tucker. It’s good to be with you. Joining us now is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Our great health and human services Secretary. Bobby, thank you so much for being here. And one of the things that I always took from Charlie was this idea that we needed to grow the coalition and expand the coalition. There’s probably no person in the entire administration who better exemplifies that than you. One of the leading consumer advocates, health advocates that has existed in our country. But until a few years ago, more aligned, given your name, you were a Zion of one of the, the great political families on the democratic side in American history. But now you’re one of the most important members of the administration in a Republican administration.
Maybe talk, if you would, just a little bit about Charlie’s approach to politics and how it ultimately made you one of the most important people in the federal government.
Yeah, well, Charlie Whiz, privately the primary architect of my unification with President Trump, I actually announced my endorsement of President Trump at a Turning Point rally in Arizona, which was his idea. And he was, but for people who were there, remember it, there was all these kind of fireworks and sparklers on the stage when we shook hands. And that was all Charlie’s orchestration. That was his idea. And he insisted on that. But I first met Charlie in July of 2021. I had just written a book about Anthony Fauci and he had me on his show for this very, very wide ranging interview in which he really let me talk a lot.
Which was unusual at that time ’cause I was not allowed to talk on most outlets. Sure. And I think both of us approach each other with some trepidation because we came from such different places. By the end of that interview, I felt like I’d met a spiritual soulmate. And our friendship blossomed after that. And even during the campaign when, you know, he was strongest morning President Trump, we always had a communication and outreach. And then after I made the endorsement, I saw him all the time and he helped me a lot during the transition. Yep.
As did you, as did Tucker. And, and helped a Amarillo who’s my daughter-in-law. He really kind of pushed her a lot to get the job that she has today. So, and you know, I, the thing that united us was his, his total commitment to free speech. And now it had been a theme of my campaign. I had been subject to censorship like so many other people during COVID and saw the threat that it was to our country. So that once they understood a consensus, and Charlie and I talked about this, that the, that the founders put the freedom of speech in the First Amendment ’cause they knew all the other rights depended on it.
If a government can silence its opponents, it has a license for any kind of atrocity. And you know, as soon as they realized that we were gonna put up with that, they went after freedom of the Assembly, which isn’t First Amendment with social distancing regulations. They went after freedom of religion, closing all the churches in this country. Which extraordinary, I mean it’s extraordinary that we let get away with that. And by the way, they kept the liquor stores open. It is essential businesses, they went after the Fifth Amendment. They sh shut all of our businesses. Three, 3.5 million businesses with no due process. No just compensation.
They went after the Seventh Amendment right to jury trial. Seventh Amendment says, no, no American shall be denied the right of a trial before a jury of his appears in case their controversy is exceeding $25. There’s no pandemic exception. And yet they were able to give these broad categories of industry, these, you know, these exemptions from any litigation, no matter how much they hurt you, they went up to the Fourth Amendment prohibitions against warrantless searches and seizures by making us disclose our medical information. So the entire Constitution came under attack as soon as they realized that they could go after free speech.
So talk to me just a little bit about Charlie’s influence and actually politically getting you to be the HNHS secretary, because I remember he was such a strong advocate for you. He was so proud of the president. And of you, when the president nominated you, obviously like all of our big nominees, there was a tough confirmation fight. Just talk, give, give us 50 seconds on how important he was to making you have the position and the title you have right now.
Well, you know, you know what the transition is like, you never kind of know what’s gonna happen. And he was a critical ally for me and calling President Trump. And at first, you know, when President Trump asked me whether I wanted this job, I was tentative. I didn’t know whether I wanted to handle the Medicaid and Medicare portion, which is the biggest, you know, economic BMS. Sure. And he really persuaded me that I should do it. And then he helped me not only making calls to the president himself, but telling me people that I should call operating strategically. But I
Keep, keep talking about this,
This piece of it because, you know, I think he
Was strategically brilliant and he was a good political operator in a way that I think so many people don’t realize.
Yeah. He was, I mean he was an Rio strategist and he knew exactly, he did the same thing with Amarillo as he told her, make this phone call, make this phone call, make this one first, this one second. Yep. And he knew exactly, you know, he knew the, he understood the uses of power and he understood what buttons needed to be pushed to move the ball across the goal line. So he was very good on that. But, so he was a pragmatist, but he was also one of the most idealistic people that I’ve ever met. He was, and his principal preoccupation was with conversation.
He thought conversation was the only thing that could heal our country. We have all these forces, and particularly the algorithms now in social media that are driving us apart and it’s inexorable. There seems to be nothing that could stop it. And he understood that the only thing that could bridge that gap was debate, was open debate. And that censorship was the enemy of that. And that in order to have real conversations, we had to end of vitriol. We had to stop being poisonous toward each other. We need to say what we mean without saying it mean. Yes. And he was just amazingly, he was so respectful of the people who disagreed with them.
He gave them the most respect and the greatest hearing. He wanted their voices to be heard. I, I saw on, you know, one of the network shows now that there’s this big revolt against social media because of their contribution to the polarization that ultimately led to his death, this ruling up of hatred. Ironically, I think Charlie would revolt against that. Yes. Because he hated censorship. Yes. What, what he said is the answer is conversation and dialogue. And we need to learn to do that if we’re, if our democracy is gonna survive, if we are, if we’re gonna survive, we need to talk to each other, even though all these things are telling us not to.
Yeah. So I talked to Charlie, it was either the night of or the day after our debate with Tim Walls and you know, he was excited. He told me how great I did. And obviously it’s, it’s awesome to hear from a friend who tells you that you did a great job. But he asked what I thought of Tim and I said, honestly, you know, ’cause you get in this sort of bunker mentality in the campaign, it’s us, it was them. And I was like, honestly, e even though I’m glad that I think I did well and I certainly don’t want this guy to become vice president, I actually kind liked him afterwards after 90 minutes of talking with him. And Charlie said, that’s why I do all these debates. It’s like you can disagree vehemently with somebody, but if you’re actually communicating with them, it’s, it’s really hard not to appreciate at least a little bit as a human being.
Even if you think they’re a hundred percent wrong on the issues, you can appreciate them a little bit as a human being. And that’s what Charlie was so good at. So with with all respect to you and all gratitude for, for being such a big part of his life the last couple of years. Bobby, good to see you.
You too, Mr. Vice President. Thank
You. And joining us now is a very special guest, the White House chief of staff. The person, the president of the United States calls the most powerful woman in the world. It always embarrasses her, which is why I have to say it every time I introduce her. Susie Wiles, who is such a vital role of what we do in the White House every single day. Such a vital role of the success of the 2024 campaign. Susie, I just wanna say thanks so much for joining us here to honor Charlie here. I I wanna tell you a little story. You may not be aware of this story, but, and maybe you didn’t pay attention to the social media chatter, but if I go back to probably six weeks after I had been selected by the president, I was the vice presidential nominee. We were campaigning hard and there was a weird little social media campaign to try to get Susie Wiles fired from her job.
And she was running the Trump campaign. It was more than a social media campaign. It it was, it was a full on campaign. And I remember talking, Charlie Kirk called me and he said, this thing to take down Suzy is an op, meaning it’s an operation meant to discredit us, meant to make us less effective. And the reason he thought it was so important to protect you is because he had such great respect for you. He thought you were such an incredible part of the team. You, you were sort of the person that held all the chaos together operationally in the midst of that very intense campaign. And so Charlie was thinking, as he always did, a little ahead of the curve, he was asking himself, what are the problems that are out there so I can be two or three steps ahead? And he was fighting for you, maybe even before you realized that there was this thing against you.
And, and it was never a situation where anybody ever doubted Susie Wildes. But I wonder sometimes if the reason why you had such good and strong support from the very beginning is because you had such a powerful voice in the Republican party standing with you every step of the way. So I just wanted to tell you that because it’s one of the reasons why I admire and respect you. I know Charlie loved, admired, and respected you, but I’ve told my Charlie story, maybe talk in those days of the campaign, what an important part Charlie was of our efforts and our ultimately successful efforts to install the boss in the Oval Office.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President, and thank you for doing this. Of course, I have a, I have a Charlie story that maybe hasn’t been told, at least not enough. In the 2024 campaign, the law changed, election law changed, and campaigns were finally allowed to coordinate with outside organizations. One of the biggest expenses in the campaign is canvassing the door to door activity. That it, particularly in a Donald Trump campaign, is critically important. And so we were, we were liberated. We had license to coordinate with everybody, and everybody came to the table and everybody was gonna canvas at this level with this sort of fidelity to our plan and included Charlie.
Yep. And at the end of this whole odyssey, the person that really did everything they said they were gonna do and more was Turning Point. He had an army of good people who were motivated and passionate, and they, they delivered 110%. And I don’t know that Charlie gets enough credit for that. That was a tactical assist to the campaign. We didn’t have to pay for it. We didn’t have to think about it. We didn’t have to follow up after him. It, it was an immeasurable help. And most of those canvassers were some of the same young people that, that voted for the president and convinced their families. Yeah.
So in many ways it was really a pivotal effort.
That’s, that’s awesome to hear. And it’s consistent, Suzy, with this theme that I’ve been coming back to today, which is that Charlie was a brilliant order and communicator and Debater. He would go to these college campuses and give them the courage to speak, to build friendships with, with fellow conservatives and Republicans. But everybody knows that because everybody saw it. What they didn’t see necessarily is that Charlie was this very effective strategic operator at all levels of politics. And you know, one of the things that the president always talks about is that compared to really not just his campaign in 2016, but any Republican campaign for the past 40 years, we saw young voters shift in every county in every demographic.
White, black, rich, or poor young voters shifted Right. In 2024 in this very profound way. Can can you talk a little bit about what Charlie did to make that happen and why this youth movement that he really built, I mean, he was a kid when he started Turning Point to USA, how this youth movement, without any of us probably being able to prophesize or predict it, ended up helping us deliver the White House in 2024.
Well, I, I explained the tactical benefit. We never thought again about Arizona or Pennsylvania. Yep. Charlie had it. And as for the youth vote, I mean, he was, he evangelized, he was on every college campus in every part of the country. And he was broader than that. A Turning Point event was something you had to be at, had to pay attention to. I know President Trump felt that way, and I think you did too. Yep. And I struck by you had Secretary Kennedy on just a minute ago, and Charlie was instrumental very in Secretary Kennedy coming to the ticket. And you too.
Yep. That’s right. I know that. And that’s one of the things that, you know, I’m sitting in this office here in the West Wing or White House complex, and if it weren’t for Charlie Kirk, I would not be the vice President of the United States. And I think about that a lot. I thought about that a lot of the last few days. I mean, other than the president himself, Charlie was maybe the most important person in both getting us across the finish line, but actually getting me the nomination to begin with. It was his grassroots army. It was his advocacy that I think made me a credible, a credible selection for VP in the first place. And obviously the president makes the final determination, but it takes a team.
It does. And Charlie was such an incredibly important part of that team. It’s one of the reasons why I feel so indebted to him. And one of the reasons, I mean, I, I worry Susie, that he is fundamentally just an irreplaceable figure. And he is, there’s no way that we can replace Charlie. I mean, certainly not for Erica and the beautiful kids. They’re, they’re never gonna get back what the Assassin’s gun took away from them. But they, the movement has to figure out a way of continuing and continuing to build on what he built and continuing to go to college campuses and talk to young people. And, and not just that, but when we won Power, Charlie was a critical part of getting us the right people of staffing.
Absolutely. So talk a little bit about that, because other than the president of the United States, the chief of staff is probably the most important person in the transition. Picking cabinet secretaries, picking all these important staffers. Talk about why Charlie mattered so much, and not just helping us get there, but helping us succeed now that we’re here.
I think he worked in transition every day. He did in one place or another, doing one thing or another. And so very much the Trump administration has his, his imprint. My worry about Turning Point, and I couldn’t agree with you more, it has to be bigger and better and growing all the time is one of Charlie’s gifts was not talking at you, but engaging you where you were. That’s right. And it’s hard sometimes, you know, tough things are coming at you. He never shrunk from that. So whoever, I can’t say takes Charlie’s place ’cause that will be nobody. But whoever comes in to be sort of a voice of Turning Point, they need to be somebody that’s willing to engage at a level where you’re not talking to the followers, you’re talking to the people that are not, and engaging them where they are.
That’s gonna be the hardest thing, I think, to, to, to replace.
I, I really agree with that, Susie. And I’ve, I’ve talked to a lot of the Turning Point staff and what they tell me is operationally, organizationally, Charlie had built a machine. I mean, some of these people have been working with Charlie since he was literally a teenager and he trusted them. Where, where I think he is genuinely irreplaceable is, for lack of a better word, on the talent side of it, right? How do you find a person who goes into these places who takes very difficult questions, sometimes very hostile questions, and to your point is actually engaging with them is not talking at them. Now, there are all these social media clips, and I was talking about this earlier, so forgive the audience, forgive me for repeating myself, but he was not just the super viral clips of him getting the better of a person in a debate, if you sit down and watch a Charlie Kirk event at one of these universities, it is 90% him almost acting like a big brother to these kids, right?
If it’s young conservative who’s very nervous about the crowd and nervous about asking a question, Charlie steps up and says, don’t be nervous. I was nervous at one point. Just speak slowly. Get your question out. He would coach them through it. If there was a young progressive who is getting jeered by some of the people in the audience, he said, no, no, no guys, let her speak, let him speak. This is part of open debate is they get to hear from us and we get to hear from them. And I thought that was just such an incredible thing that he did. I mean, I’ve talked to a number of friends, I’ve talked to, you know, Tucker, I’ve talked to Laura Ingram, I’ve, I’ve talked to a number of people about how we can try to replace that part of it, not in the way that Charlie did it.
Charlie is irreplaceable. But we can at least have a team of people try to step into the gap and make sure that we’re carrying this message to college campus. Because if, if we don’t do that, I, I think that’s the way in which I worry about the assassin winning, is we’ve gotta carry on the mantle. We’ve gotta carry on the torch, and we’ve gotta do it by continuing the message. Continuing. That’s why I’m doing the show today is I just wanted to, you know, send a signal that we’re not gonna let Charlie’s mantle be discarded. We’re gonna keep oncarrying it. And, and one final thing that I wanted to talk about is what Charlie was so good at was marshaling political action into a policy outcome that’s or a person outcome.
Or a person outcome. And this is where I wanna talk about Bobby. And you know, so many of the really good nominees that we had, they weren’t easy to get across the finish line. And that’s no insult to our great nominees. Great people are actually always gonna be a little bit harder if it’s a, you know, a person who doesn’t make any controversy, who doesn’t say anything especially controversial, that person’s gonna be easy. It’s, but, but the president didn’t want that. He wanted to staff the administration with people who had interesting things to say, who brought unique perspectives. And that meant that we were gonna have some tough confirmation fights. Maybe talk a little bit about the role that Charlie played on the inside, on the outside, and making sure that all of these great nominations that we had actually got across the finish line in a town where we’ve got 53 GOP senators and we could only lose three for any particular nomination.
Well, I would say you and Charlie were a good tag team. We were, let’s take Bobby or Pete for example. Yep. The president really didn’t want a, you know, a homogenized cabinet. He wanted different people that were, for whatever reason, a part of a movement that we need to, we need to keep, keep. There were interest groups, there were coalitions and, and people that came to be Trump voters. We don’t have an exact number, but it was certainly more than a few. And now we have three and a half years to convert Trump voters to being Republicans. Sure. So that in 2028, we can keep the White House, the House and the Senate. That’s what Charlie helped us think through.
I’ll speak for myself. That’s what Charlie helped me think through. Yes, his expertise was with young people, but he, he, he knew so much about everything and he knew that there was this group of, of people we now call Maha that were out there looking for a home. Yes. He found Bobby and introduced Bobby into our world, and now he is the secretary of HHS. So that’s the kind of thinking that, that we saw Charlie all the time do. And I, I, I think that the movement cannot be, or he cannot be replaced by any one person. He’s got to be replaced by you, by Don Trump, by so many others that can, that, that are good communicators and can be taking as well as giving.
You heard it from the White House chief of staff. It’s up to all of us, including those in the audience, to keep on the legacy of Charlie Kirk. Shortly after Usha and I left Charlie’s family and Charlie’s remains in Arizona, I read a story in the Nation Magazine about my dear friend Charlie Kirk. Now the nation isn’t a fringe blog. It’s a well-funded, well-respected magazine whose publishing history goes back to the American Civil War. George Soros Open Society Foundation funds this magazine, as does the Ford Foundation and many other wealthy titans of the American progressive movement.
The writer accuses Charlie of saying, and I quote, black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. But if you go and watch the clip, the very clip she links to you realize, he never said anything like that. He never uttered those words. He made an argument against affirmative action as a policy. He criticized a specific Supreme Court justice as an individual. He never said anything about black women as a group. He made an argument for judging people of all races and backgrounds by their own individual merits. The very evidence she provides this hack of a rider shows that she lied about a dead man, and yet she wrote it.
An esteemed magazine published it, it made it through the editors, and of course, liberal billionaires rewarded that attack. Now of course, even if Charlie had uttered those words, it wouldn’t mean that he deserved his fate, but consider the level of propaganda at work. Charlie was gunned down in broad daylight and well-funded institutions. Of the left lied about what he said, so was to justify his murder. This is soulless and evil. But I was struck not just by the dishonesty of the smear, but by the glee over a young husband’s and young father’s death quote.
She says he was an unrepentant, racist, trans phobe, homophobe and misogynist. The nation wrote who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct. He had children, as do many vile people. That’s what they said. He had children as do many vile people. Now, hours before this smear was published, my wife and I had the honor of escorting Charlie’s body back to his home in Arizona. We took his wife Erica, we love you, his parents, his sister, and a few of his best friends with us.
And as they all floated Charlie’s casket from Air Force two, I worried that Erica would collapse with grief. Now I’m a very lucky husband to a very wonderful wife, but I have never been prouder of my wife at that moment as she held Erica in Erica’s very darkest hour. And I thought of Erica as I read that disgusting attack on Charlie. He had children, as do many vile people. That’s what they said about him. I said, the Lord’s Prayer, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And I asked Usha what Erica had said to her earlier in the day, in a private moment. And I asked Erica’s permission to share this. My wife told me, she asked me for advice. Erica asked me for advice on how she should tell her children that their father had been murdered. She asked my wife how to tell her beautiful kids that their father and my dear, very dear friend is no longer with us. And as she was doing it, there were people dancing on that father’s grave.
Now, I have heard many calls in the last few days for unity and for healing in the wake of Charlie’s assassination. You have no idea how desperately I want that how gratified I was when Democratic friends and even former Senate colleagues reached out to offer their condolences to me. I’m so thankful, and I know there are so many like them all across our great country. I am desperate to wrap my arms around them as we all unite to condemn political violence and the ideas that cause it. Psalm 1 33 tells us, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment upon the head. Oh, how badly have I craved that precious ointment in recent days? And I believe we can have it, but first, first we must tell the truth. It’s the only way to honor Charlie for what was he, if not a man who told the truth in every place, in every environment. Now, the most important truth Charlie told is this, that long ago a man begotten, not made, came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered death and was barred and rose again on the third day. Charlie believed, as I do that all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle, I really do believe that we can come together in this country. I believe we must, but unity, real unity can be found only after climbing the mountain of truth. And there are difficult truths we must confront in our country. One truth is that 24% of self-described quote, very liberals believe it is acceptable to be happy about the death of a political opponent.
While only 3% of self-described very conservatives agree, 3% is too many. Of course, another truth is that 26% of young liberals believe political violence is sometimes justified and only 7% of young conservatives say the same again, too high a number in a country of 330 million people, you can of course find one person of a given political persuasion justifying this or that, or almost anything. But the data is clear. People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a both sides problem.
If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth, we must be told that problem has terrible consequences. The leader of our party, Donald J. Trump, escaped an assassin’s bullet by less than an inch. Our house majority leavers Stephen Scalise came within seconds of death by an assassin himself. And now the most influential conservative activist in generations, our friend Charlie, has been murdered this violence, it doesn’t come from nowhere. Now, any political movement, violent or not violent is a collection of forces.
It’s like a pyramid that stacks on top one support on top of the other. That pyramid’s got a foundation of donors, of activists, of journalists now of social media influencers and of course of politicians. Not every member of that pyramid would commit a murder. In fact, over 99% I’m sure would not. But by celebrating that murder, apologizing for it, and emphasizing not Charlie’s innocence, but the fact that he said things some didn’t like, even to the point of lying about what he actually said. Many of these people are creating an environment where things like this are inevitably going to happen.
A couple of months ago, I headlined a fundraiser in Southern California and since, you know, we’d be out there anyways, my wife and I decided to take our kids to Disneyland one weekend. We had fun. And to be clear, most of the guests said very nice things or they just left us alone. But there was a loud and very cool minority that would shout at my children who were eight, five, and three whenever they got the opportunity, you should disown your dad. You little one middle aged woman yelled at my 5-year-old, tell the secret service to protect the Constitution. Not your father screamed another. Are these women violent? Probably not. Are they deranged? Certainly. And while our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left.
After Charlie died, one of his friends and one of our senior White House staffers had left-leaning operatives in his neighborhood, passing out leaflets, telling people what he looked like and where he lived, encouraging neighbors to harass him or God forbid to do worse. While he was mourning his dead friend, he and his wife had to worry about the political terrorists drawing a big target on the home he shares with his young children. Are these people violent? I hope not, but are they guilty of encouraging violence? You damn well, better believe it. We can thank God that most Democrats don’t share these attitudes, and I do.
While acknowledging that something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe, a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left, there is no unity with people who scream at children over their parents’ politics. There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder. There is no unity with someone who harasses an innocent family. The day after the father of that family lost a dear friend. There is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And there is no unity with the people who fund these articles who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers who argue that Charlie Kirk, a loving husband and father, deserved a shot to the neck because he spoke words with which they disagree.
Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups who funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie’s death? Do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer, and how do they reward us By setting fire to the house, built by the American family over 250 years. I’m desperate for our country to be united in condemnation of the action and the ideas that killed my friend. I want it so badly that I will tell you a difficult truth. We can only have it with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable.
And when we work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country, now our government, you heard me talk to Steven Miller about this, will be working very hard to do exactly that in the months to come. We’re not always gonna get it right. We will sometimes move more slowly than you would like. We will sometimes move more slowly than I want us to, but I promise you that we will explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say. But you have a rule too. Civil society, Charlie understood this well, is not just something that flows from the government, it flows from each and every one of us.
It flows from all of us. So when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out in hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination. Get involved. Get involved. Get involved. It’s the best way to honor Charlie’s legacy. Start a chapter of T-P-U-S-A or get involved in the one that already exists. If you’re older, volunteer for your local party. Write an op-ed in your local paper, run for office. I can’t promise you this is gonna be easy. I can’t promise you that all of us will avoid Charlie’s fate. I can’t promise you that I will avoid Charlie’s fate, but the way to honor him is to shine the light of truth like a torch in the very darkest places.
Go do it. We owe it to our friend to ensure that his killer is not just prosecuted but punished. And the worst punishment is not the death penalty, but the knowledge that Charlie’s mission continues after he’s gone. St. Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians to put on the full armor of God. Let all of us put on that armor and commit ourselves to that cause for which Charlie gave his life to rebuild a United States of America and to do it by telling the truth.
