The Conservative Movement After 9/10: The Path Forward

00:00:03 Speaker 1: My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro American student organization in the country, fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start at turning point, you would say, college chapter. Go start at turning point, you say high school chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade, most important decision I ever made in my life. 00:00:43 Speaker 2: And I encourage you to do the same. 00:00:45 Speaker 1: Here I am Lord, Use me. Buckle up, everybody, Here we go. The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserved Gold, leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company. I recommend to my family, friends and viewers. 00:01:09 Speaker 2: Without further ado, the Great Michael Knowles. I'm so much to see you. 00:01:16 Speaker 1: How are you. 00:01:19 Speaker 2: Michael, you're always looking so dapper. Stop it, get out. 00:01:21 Speaker 3: You're gonna flattery will get you somewhere. 00:01:23 Speaker 2: It will get you. 00:01:24 Speaker 3: So I did have this thought, I said yesterday I was on the main stage, you know, so I had to have my more official Republican blue suit, red tie, you know, But I said, this is more the casual death. It is a purple I like to call it aubergine, but it is purple in fact. 00:01:39 Speaker 2: All right, so your boss said some crazy stuff last night. 00:01:44 Speaker 3: You know, I don't know who'll put together the calendar, the schedule of events. But look, I said, okay, Charlie actually did that. 00:01:50 Speaker 2: It's actually this is this is Charlie special I get Opening night is basically that's right right toward the top. 00:01:57 Speaker 3: We got Ben and we got Tucker and I looked at so here I am right in the middle. It's kind of like being in the middle of India and Pakistan, in the middle of Iran in Iraq. But it was funny too, because the point of my speech was to say, Okay, what did Charlie do. Charlie did a million things. We were just talking about this backstage. Charlie did a million things, right, He debated at the top levels, he fundraised at the top levels. He did, he organized, he campaigned, he did this, that and the other, wrote books, right, but the distinctive thing that he did was build and maintain coalitions, often thanklessly behind the scenes, mediating, negotiating, sorting things out, keeping some people out, you're too kind, keeping people in, even people in who hate each other's guts, and you know, always moving forward toward a goal. So I get up there and I say, you know, I think my thesis is going to be blessed or the peacemakers. This is Charlie's distinctive quality. We need to emulate this leoh yeah, and then and then what happens, No one agrees with me, and everyone starts to throw an elbow the whole night. 00:03:01 Speaker 2: Okay, well never mind, I'll be over the bar. Listened. The audience liked Russell Brand's prayer and his whole thing last night, right you guys, Yeah, they didn't have his high marks for you. But that's okay, that's why you're here. That's why you're here. 00:03:15 Speaker 3: I'm so glad that you had Russell come in, because you know, it opens up. Erica gives her beautiful speech then Ben just starts throwing elbows everywhere, and I said, hold on, and then you know Tucker is going to be punching back at Ben, and I said, I really need Russell to come their shirt button down to the navel. You know, I don't know, talking about some kind of hippet. It was great, it was really it was a nice palette cleanser, it really it was. 00:03:40 Speaker 2: The evening went well. But then of course the headlines were maga civil war, Maga mayhem. They were like looking for all the m words they could they could put the Daily Mail in a headline. So what do you make of that? What is this? Is this healthy? Is this destructive? Is this? 00:03:57 Speaker 3: You know? 00:03:57 Speaker 2: What do you make of it? When you think of twenty twenty six? 00:03:59 Speaker 3: So look, you know, I mean my speech last night was contrary to maybe some of the other ones, which is that I think it's very important to recognize it. There's a coalition Charlie built. And maybe you like that he invited some people. Maybe you wish he didn't invite some people in. Maybe you wish he invited people in that he excluded. I don't know, I don't really care. He built a team. This is the team. This is the army. Okay, everyone here, all of you, this massive gathering of people on the stage and more off the stage. You're on the team, okay. And so the team has a purpose, the team has a goal, and you got to move down the field and you got to win. And the losers make policy. The winners make policy, and the losers go home. So my view is, we don't want to paper over our differences. We're in a period of extreme flux right now. Obviously we're coming to the end of the Trump era. Trump has dominated, he's been the big dog for ten years. The air apparent, obviously is JD. Vans. So whenever there's a transition like that, there's going to be a big shift, and all the differences in the factions that have existed for decades are to come out, and people are going to buy for position in their view. My view is we should try to work those out in a way that is productive, that offers grace to people. That because if you take the infighting to its extreme and you say, look, give me what I want or I'm taking my ball and going home, well then we lose, you know, and then the left wins, and I guess One of my very practical points in that speech is the left makes no distinction between any of those people on the stage, okay, and they will go after us all together. So we have to win. This is an insight from Charlie that you don't always get from pundits, because it's easy to have an opinion, and opinions are interesting, and especially some of the drama online is really interesting and titillating. But Charlie wanted to win, and Charlie did win, and Charlie like kept winning, and Charlie insisted upon not just having this great Trump era but getting the next guy in and building on that and building and so that even these conferences would go from a thousand people or I don't like fifty people to a thousand people, to five thousand people, to fifteen thousand people to now whatever, thirty thousand plus. It's just completely had capacity. 00:06:12 Speaker 2: We need it. 00:06:12 Speaker 4: We need a bigger convention, We need a bigger convention center. 00:06:15 Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, And so I just think you have to keep the focus on winning, not yes, sort out your differences, have your fun debate club, but really, you know, work those issues. 00:06:23 Speaker 2: But when you know, what's crazy to me is when I see like eighteen year old Charlie, you know, like on Neil Cavudo or it's like local Chicago News and he's like, you know, we've got fifteen Chaptists and he's got the Chicago accent. 00:06:34 Speaker 5: He's like, and we're going to build an institution and it's gonna be you know, se Al Capone. It blows my mind this first Neil Cavudo where he was like, we've been having tremendous success on Twitter and it's been and I'm like, this is It's like the guy was just so ahead of it. He was always driven that way and you know, so it's to your point though, it's like I want to, you know, talk about this coalition. 00:06:58 Speaker 2: We did a thing before you out on here, but you should see it again. And uh, for the folks at home, just take my word for it. So who last night appreciated the Ben Shapiro approach, hands up your glasses a little more than half the room, And who appreciated the Tucker Carlson approach half the room? It yeah, fifty to fifty. So if you wonder why Charlie constructed an opening night the way. 00:07:22 Speaker 3: He did, hey, hold on, you left one who appreciated the Michael Noles approach. 00:07:26 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the whole room. 00:07:27 Speaker 3: That's a look at that. Yeah yeah, thank you even get a whoop in there. 00:07:31 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:07:32 Speaker 2: So, but when we talk about what we are dealing with, you mentioned that this stuff had been simmering under the surface for years. I mean, you could go back to Buckley and the Birchers, and it's like some of this stuff is his old as time and it's not going to go away. 00:07:49 Speaker 3: Go back to Roosevelt and Taft. I mean, you know what I mean, you can keep going. 00:07:52 Speaker 2: But when we talk about where this goes and kind of a sifting, a settling, hopefully we come back together these you don't expect necessarily some of the fault lines to go away. 00:08:03 Speaker 3: Yes, Look, I think Ben made a very important point that I think most people would agree with, which is a political coalition has to have boundaries. Not everyone gets to come in, just like not everyone gets to come into the country, Not everyone gets to come into the coalition. So that in principle is true where a lot of the Civil War is going to take places. What they're going to say, you need to adopt my economic policy or you're not a true conservative. You need to adopt my migration policy, my foreign policy, or you're not a true conservative. That's where those battles have been taking place, going back to the fifties, into the nineties, after the Cold War, and in the two thousands and to the present. I think that's BS. And here's my proof that that's BS. The Republican Party now, I guess, supports tariffs, though some people in the coalition hate that. Previously, for most of my lifetime, the Republican Party hated tariffs. But you know what's kind of funny. The Republican Party was founded on tariffs. It's like a ram Lincoln said, give me a tariff, I'll give you the greatest country in the world. Does that mean, therefore, that we have to support tariffs at any given time or during the I don't know. The Actually Reagan kind of like tariffs too, but the Reaganites hated tariffs. Does that mean we have to hate tariffs to be a true concert No, because politics involves applying eternal principles to constantly changing circumstances. We used to be the party of foreign policy restraint and then we you know, like bomb the whole Middle East, and now we're the Party of restraint. Again, does that tell us some eternal fact about the party? I don't think so. I don't think it's hypocrisy, for instance, to change your economic views to some degree to meet new circumstances. A generation that now can afford housing, a generation that's being priced out of food. Both issues, by the way, tied to mass migration, which was cheered on by Conservatives after the Conservatives opposed it. So no, you can change these things. That's called being responsive. Not being responsive is what caused the Left to get completely blown out of the water in the last election, because they were so detached from reality that they thought boys could be girls and and all the rest of it. We have to be responsive, But I do think there are some non negotiables. So one non negotiable, I would say, and I think Charlie was so clear about this. If you advocate injustice, if you are cruel, if you promote a vulgar hatred on the basis of race or sex or religion, you're off the team. You know, it's that sort of stuff is wrong in itself and it's politically toxic. And I thought, I thought Charlie has done a great job of keeping that riff raff out After that, things are kind of up for grabs. So what you know, what are the what are the what are the low bar? What are the yes that's the low bar of exclusion? What are the things that we affirmatively have to believe in. I think you have to love the country. Uh, you know, you have to. You have to be like Trump and hug the American flag. Which was was that the cover of the Maga Doctrine by Charlie Kirk was that I seem to remember that when Trump hugged the flag. I love that. Some people thought it was weird or cheesy or something. No, I thought that was so genuine. This guy loves the flag. So if you're the kind of person who doesn't love the country, he wants to fundamentally transform the country, to use Obama's words, wants to burn the symbol of the country, you're off my team. 00:11:07 Speaker 2: We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries, and today I want to point you to their podcast. It's called Culture in Christianity, the Alan Jackson Podcast. What makes it unique is Pastor Allan's biblical perspective. He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today, gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge Trump, and the White House issues in the church. He doesn't just discuss the problems in every episode, he gives practical things we can do to make a difference. His guests have incredible expertise and powerful testimonies. They've been great friends and now you can hear from Charlie in his own words. 00:11:41 Speaker 1: Each episode will make you recognize the power of your faith and how God can use your life to impact our world today. The Culture in Christianity podcast is informative and encouraging. You could find it on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes. Alan Jackson Ministries is working hard to bring biblical truth back into our culture. You can find out more about Pastor Allen and the ministry at Alan Jackson dot com. 00:12:06 Speaker 3: Forward slash Charlie, Uh, what else do you You have to believe? There's a real thing as an American people, and people assimilate into that, just as Ruth assimilates into the Israelites and is in the genealogy of Christ. But there's still Israelites. Okay, there's still, uh, there's still particular nations, there's still an American people. If you don't believe that, if you think America is like just an idea or not an idea, like every idea floating and outter. If you think it's nothing, you're not on the team to me. You know, you've got to really defend the real American people. 00:12:38 Speaker 4: Yeah, so we accept there's a few, maybe a tiny number of things that you just exclude on you have ideas. We have that clash between Ben and Tucker last night. Do you believe that they have the same assumptions about those same core things or is that in conflict at all between. 00:12:54 Speaker 3: Them about about what what the core nature of a conservative part in America should be. No, they riotously disagree on a number of issues. What's kind of funny though, As I was listening to their speeches, Ben adopts a more classically liberal approach, and Tucker's response and defense also took a classically liberal approach. He said, we should judge people as individuals. There should be no restrictions on free speech. And I had this kind of funny thought, which is, I don't think I'm exactly mediating between these two guys, because if we debated those fundamental premises, they would probably agree, and I would disagree with them. 00:13:32 Speaker 2: You know, there are ways in which you'd be like, so, Pat Buchanan said Russell Kirk. 00:13:37 Speaker 3: Definitely, yeah, yeah, And so no, they riotously disagree on foreign policy, on economic policy, and they probably agree on immigration, I guess, But no, they disagree. And I think those debates are good. The debates that actually focus on real policy challenges. I think that is good and productive and healthy. Look, and both of these guys can codemned the thing that I also condemned anything that gets down to, uh, you know, injustice, hatreds animosities based on race or religion or whatever. You know, I think that that is so ugly and counterproductive that that, you know that stop. 00:14:15 Speaker 2: Stopped trying to bait me into the Catholic debate. 00:14:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, and to quote Arthur's, the deepest prejudice in American history is anti Catholicism. But you know, we don't have to get into it. 00:14:23 Speaker 2: So so I'm gonna I'm gonna put you on the spot here just a little bit. 00:14:27 Speaker 3: You know, you've never done that. 00:14:28 Speaker 2: They only ask three or four piercing follow up questions. I'm just kidding. Yeah, I mean, listen, you exist at a company that's been at the sort of you know, with Ben obviously he's Jewish, there's been a lot turns out. I saw the yamaka myself. I did, and did you touch it? 00:14:45 Speaker 3: Though I did? 00:14:46 Speaker 2: I know better than so, you know, this is the open question. I was recently on the Ross Stautit podcast New York Times. Had a great time, really great guy. I love, good interviewer, and you know, he kept trying to get me to go into the Israel debate. And my perspective, well, who cares about that? You're on the show, tell us what is your perspective about what? You know, we're talking about coalitions. What did you do with Israel? 00:15:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, Israel has been one of the dividing lines, especially for the online right, I think less so for the broader public right, but especially for the online right, especially for the young right. And I think it's perfectly reasonable that that would come up after this massive GDZ of war, not only the realities of that war, but also the propaganda from both sides of that war that was you know, but especially anti Israel propaganda. That is a real thing. Obviously, it happens in war. So what do we do? I guess I hosted a debate on this actually yesterday on my show, which is should America continue to support Israel? And I guess you have to get even more particular than that. My position on the Gaza war was that the war had to wrap up. That you know, we have a long standing affection for Israel. Richard Nixon famously saved Israel. Israel would have been destroyed in seventy three, but he saved Israel. We have I think we have more culturally and politically in common with with Israel than with Israel's enemies, and so I think there is a there is a reason. It's not a deceit, it's not just a fraud. There is a reason that we tend to look more favorably on Israel than on some of Israel's enemies. But it can go too far. I mean, when some people say that we have a religious demand that we must, you know, support the nation's state of Israel and all things, I think that's kind of crazy. When people say that the Nation of Israel is the greatest ally that America's ever had, I don't see any evidence of that you know, it can be a good ally, but that's such an extreme statement that we must always you know, stand with Israel, that you know, we need Israel more than Israel needs Some people have said all these things. I think that's just taking the argument too far and it turns people off. Now, on the flip side of that, when people, you know, it's kind of like when people realize that feminism is wrong and they become misogynists for a period just out of their contrarian nature. You know, to recognize that the relationship with Israel is complex and there are reasons to support Israel, but there are obviously limits around. That is not to say that we need to start wearing the gefeas in marching with Greta Thunberg. Okay, it's not to say that, you know, hey, guys, I know what we can do. We can form a Christian Islamic alliance and that will lead to a period of world peace. I have about fourteen hundred years of history. I don't know how much time we have on the show today, but about fourteen hundred years history to say that's probably not going to work. And of course, the migrant crisis in Europe into a lesser degree in America is being driven in no small part by the unassimilability of Islam. So how do we deal with Israel? I thought that Trump's approach to this was quite right, which is that, look, you just want the war to end, you want to have some peace and stability in the region. And what it would be best for the American right is not to pick you know, all or nothing on Israel, but for the importance of Israel to diminish in the minds of right wing voters. It just shouldn't be the top issue. I think for most people, maybe for anybody. Uh, that would be my answer. That's a people are going to call that a moderate answer or an unsatisfying answer, because it's either we need to be chanting from the river to the sea, you know, the Arabs will be free, or we need to all put on yamaka's or something. But I don't want to do I don't want to put on a kefia. I don't want to put on a yamaka. I want to recognize long standing alliances and be prudent about it. 00:18:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's a thing Charlie would talk about that. It's just it would be a very dumb thing to destroy the Conservative coalition over our attitude towards what is ultimately a foreign country. Yeah, and just for most people, that is not what matters in your life nearly as much as the economy, whether you can have a family, whether you own a home, what our immigration policy is. And it's sort of a touch grass thing. Get get offline a little bit. 00:18:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean that the notion gosh. I mean, I have had people kind of young, very online people, but they'll come up to me in public. I'll be in a cigar shop, I'll what do you think of Israel? I don't think about Israel all that much. If I'm being totally frank about it. But if you want my really boring, dry answer, here you go. You know, here's here are the recollections of Richard Nixon. Does that work for you? 00:19:23 Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, you know what, I think we do a disservice to that debate by framing it in a binary yeah, that you either have to be four or against And it's like, well, I like them better than the other guys. Okay, you know, Charlie was raging against the Islamification of the West. I mean, I am very sympathetic that the fact that they are surrounded on all sides by people that have oftentimes a very hostile ideology towards them and want them dead. Really, but you know, there's I think if we presented more options on the menu that were you know, that we gave young people say hey, you don't have to hate these people, you don't have to be anti these people. You don't have to rage against them or scapegoat them or create in them as a boogeyman. That will you know, there's the root of all evils in the world, that there are other options on the table if we simply presented that. But I think what is happening is that you have an older generation that does think in terms of the binary, and they're not really open to that debate. And I think what's happening is you're seeing that ripped and wretched open and now we can finally have that debate and not you know, yeah, you know, I know it's all Charlie wanted. 00:20:23 Speaker 3: Actually, yes, I think in some ways, the way I think about this is it probably puts me on the outs with it. Right, I'm in a bad position right now for the online right. I'm gonn upset everybody for two reasons, in particular on these issues, because I really like Jews and I really like Indians, and the Internet tells me I have to hate Indians and Jews for some reason. I don't know. Indians have got thrown into this, but I but I really have an h one. 00:20:49 Speaker 2: I got thrown in yet. 00:20:51 Speaker 3: But I was thinking this. I'm not even joking. I was thinking this the other day when I was eating a Pastramian mustard sandwich on rye. I was thinking, you know, I really like the Jews. I say that, but I don't like once. I'm sure you've seen all of these debates, these questions. They say, are you as Zionist? And I say, well, like literally, I'm not because I don't agree with the historical or religious claims of Zionism. Because I'm a Catholic. 00:21:16 Speaker 2: I don't. 00:21:16 Speaker 3: I'm an American Catholic, like I don't. I just have a different view of religion. And so if the claim is, you know, true religion tells us that this particular nation has an eternal right to this particular plot of dust, I would just say not, I don't really buy that. I kind of take the king bald when option. But that's not really on the table right now, and. 00:21:34 Speaker 2: The Protestants in the room are really upset about you. Yeah, rights are in the Bible. That's fine. 00:21:40 Speaker 3: But so there's that. But but and then there's the historical argument. Well, you know, the Jews were here for a long time two thousand years ago, and so they should be here again. And I think, well, by that same argument, we should turn over the Black Hills to the Lakota sue. But I'm not giving them Mount Rushmore, you know, so don't we don't accept that logic in other contexts, And so I literally don't with that. But I also think the Jews. The Jewish nation came about because the British Empire, which controlled that territory, made a promise to them to give it to them, and then the United Nations voted to recognize their nation, and then on top of that, they fought a war of independence and conquest to take that area. So by like every single standard of modern nation states, Israel as a legitimate nation state. And so I say, so I support it in that way, and I have an affection for the Jews. You know, Sorry that my answer isn't terribly ideological, but I think The way to deal with this issue, especially as the fracture is the right, is to stop being so freaking ideological about it. I hate ideology. I think conservatism in many ways is an anti ideology. 00:22:44 Speaker 2: You know. 00:22:44 Speaker 3: We prefer the the real to the utopian. We prefer a present laughter to utopian bliss, you know, the limited to the unbounded. This is all all the kind of conservatism of Michael Oakshot and other other right wing thinkers. So I just think, like, yeah, let's get down to brass tacks. What's your real issue with Israel? You don't want the warre and Goza to go on. I agree, Yeah, I'm glad that wrapped up. Good job Trump, you know that was great. We have alliances with all sorts of nations in the world. They're complicated and we navigate them and yeah, okay, anything else? Can I have my PISTROMI now? Is that fine? 00:23:22 Speaker 2: We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries and today I want to point you to their podcast. It's called Culture and Christianity, The Alan Jackson Podcast. What makes it unique is Pastor Allan's biblical perspective. He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues we're facing today, gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge Trump in the White House, issues in the church. He doesn't just discuss the problems in every episode, he gives practical things we can do to make a difference. His guests have incredible expertise and powerful testimonies. They've been great friends and now you can hear from Charlie and his own words. 00:23:55 Speaker 1: Each episode will make you recognize the power of your faith and how God can use your life to impact our world today. The Culture in Christianity podcast is informative and encouraging. You could find it on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes. Alan Jackson Ministries is working hard to bring biblical truth back into our culture. You can find out more about Pastor Allen and the ministry at Alan Jackson dot com. Forward slash Charlie. 00:24:24 Speaker 4: We're on a pretty tight schedule here, so I think we want to get to some questions from people and we can get hopefully two, three, four of them. 00:24:32 Speaker 6: Yep, Emma, Hi, guys, good praying for you a lot. Keep doing what you're doing. My dad was born in Tehran, Iran, and he came here in nineteen seventy seven to escape the revolution that happened. When Trump banned Muslims, he was one of the first people to say that it was a good thing for the country. And his thing was to say, why can't he Why couldn't we not ask if they're going to care love the country first over Islam. And I think that that seems to be something that people are not realizing. My dad is still a Muslim. I was saved by Jesus Christ nine years ago, and his parents were both Muslim and an atheist, and in hospice accepted Jesus Christ. So he can save any of you. I was an atheist for twenty four years and Jesus can change our life. So I think putting Jesus first is the answer. But with this stuff with immigration, we're seeing such an awful thing happen, and not everyone over there is bad. My dad's proof of that. He's come. He's a Muslim and he's assimilated, learned English and started a business. So how can we educate people on the horrors that can happen if we ignore this threat. 00:25:38 Speaker 3: I think speaking to Muslims and ex Muslims, but even current kind of moderate Muslims is a good way to do it. I'm not surprised to hear that your family left after the revolution in Iran, because if you want to hear the most trenchant critics of Iran, the people who most desperately want to just light up that country and blow up the Malas, it is Iranians who left around the revolution. It's so beautiful to hear of your conversion story. You're so right about that. You know, a friend of mine, a Jewish friend of mine, recently converted. I said, wow, what did it? Was it? He's very intelligent. I said, was it this argument or this argument this? He said, no, I had a mystical experience of Christ, So noh, that'll do it. Yeah, that'll probably do it. And and then even I spoke to it an ex Muslim who is who is also converted. And you know, I think hearing those practical stories this again, this gets back to what we were just talking about. You know, abstraction serves some purpose to clarify things, but when you really want to get down into the brass tacks of politics, which you said, practical art, you got to get into real examples. You know, talk to the real people, talk to the real people who fled Iran, talk to real Muslims and ex Muslims. 00:26:43 Speaker 2: That's going to. 00:26:43 Speaker 3: Clarify things a lot more. 00:26:45 Speaker 1: Well. 00:26:45 Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting too, is you know seeing Trump go through the UH, you know, the Saudi the tour through the Middle East, and so many of those countries are have done incredible amounts of labor and work politically, militarily, domestically to limit the reach of jihadism, of radical Islam, and so you know the fact that we are playing fast and loose with immigration from that region of the world. Here's my thing. You know, Charlie was always very clear about making it macro versus micro Islam. Yeah, on the micro level, there's good Muslims there. They're wonderful people. There will be a great neighbors that work hard, be good citizens. 00:27:25 Speaker 3: Love shwarma. Yeah, I love Pastramian, I love shwarma. Does that make me a moderate? 00:27:29 Speaker 2: You're starting to sound like Piers Morgan hurry, Yeah, which is English, by the way. But one last thing here, though, is that my point with UH importing Islam is that you might say you import ten thousand of them, you just need one that gets radicalized and then goes and drives through a market or you know, detonates a device or something like that. And my point is the more you bring in, the more you're going to have of that necessary. We have seen this now historic play out, So why play why play flat fast and loose with it at all? You know, And you said put christ first. I'm on the team of we should probably do that with immigration too. Just so yeah, I mean this. We assimilate Christians in this country very well. Why don't we just start there? 00:28:15 Speaker 3: I mean this, by the way, this goes back to the founding. John Adams wrote this to Thomas Jefferson that the principles of Christianity are the principles on which the revolution was one. John Jay writes this in the Federalist Papers. He says, a thank God for the providence that we come from a common people, with a common experience of the revolution, with a common religion. And so it's not that we you know, Washington writes this letter to the Jews. He doesn't write a letter to the she heites. I noticed, but he writes a letter to the Jews. And we do have a a They even tolerated some Catholics every now and again. Obviously we have a history of toleration, but you know, we got to be practical about it. A little bit of spice flavors the melting pot, but you don't want to pour in whatever that Somali dish that Jacob Priye tried to choke down the other day. 00:28:55 Speaker 4: Let's got another question or two here. 00:29:00 Speaker 2: Over there. Hi, Michael, my name is Brody. I'm sixteen. 00:29:03 Speaker 1: My mom and I wanted to know what you were doing when you were sixteen and what advice you had for someone that might want to get into politics when they're older. 00:29:10 Speaker 3: A great question. I was a political junkie as a kid, going back to when I was six actually even earlier. I remember the Bob Dole election in nineteen ninety. I was like the I was the most excited about Bob Dole winning, including Bob Dole, and so I did so. I was into that. I was doing student government, class president, all that stuff when I was sixteen. I was also smoking cigars. I started doing that at fifteen. I'm not recommending. I'm not not recommending, but I'm not Legally I'm not allowed to recommend. 00:29:38 Speaker 2: But contractually you only got one company pitch for your cigar. 00:29:42 Speaker 3: Yes, everyone else I got to say for yeah, but I was typically engaged, and I would recommend starting in those small and local ways. The great counterexample to this is, of course, our pal Charlie, who decided that he was going to be on the fast tracked to president. 00:30:00 Speaker 2: And he got involved in local campaigning in Chicago a lot. And so I totally agree with you on that. 00:30:05 Speaker 3: You've got to start a little local, And I would recommend not getting famous at sixteen. I think there's a real impulse, especially for zumers who are raised on the internet, basically weaned on TikTok. You don't want to get famous before you really formed, before you really have something to say and to do. So, I would recommend, on the one hand, get that practical experience that you can't get from books, out of student government, school board elections, maybe even a congressional helping out, interning or something. But then also read, immerse yourself in history and political philosophy, and really take the opportunity to be a kid, albeit a precocious kid, and to have a real education that's going to set you up in a much stronger way. To be than seriously involved in politics, and then you're not running for class president. Maybe you're running for president president. I know it stinks. I think we only have time for one more. 00:30:53 Speaker 2: Probably we have five minutes. 00:30:55 Speaker 4: All right, well let's get another one. Let's see how fast it goes. 00:31:00 Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Katie. 00:31:01 Speaker 7: I have the honor of serving as president of our Turning Point chapter at the University of Cincinnati. I would thank you. I would love your advice on two issues I'm seeing. First, we have a lot of students who want to get involved but are afraid and that stops them from coming to meetings. And second, we have a ton of students who want to know so much more about Christ, but they don't want to talk about that nearly as much as they want to talk about politics. So how can I best reach both of these groups? 00:31:27 Speaker 3: You guys run Turning Point. I just show up every now and again. 00:31:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, you take that. 00:31:32 Speaker 3: Showed up for you though, That's fair enough. Okay, that's fine. I would say you should embrace the fact that they are drawn to these two things and not even push against the fact that they find politics more titillating. Maybe recognize that politics has something to say about religion, and religion certainly has something to say about politics. There has been an impulse in American Christianity for a long time to try to divorce the two and to say the politics is icky and we shouldn't play with it. And you know, Christianity is something totally different. You know, Christ is incarnate in history. That's what we're about to commemorate. He'll he'll return again, by the way, in the second Coming. And he is born into an empire. And that's significant because he's born into the Roman Empire, which claims the right to tax the whole world, which is a recognition that the civil authority has jurisdiction over the whole world, which means that the passion and the crucifixion of Christ saves the whole world. Know, the historical and the political tells us something about the religious truth and vice versa. And of course Saint Paul tells us the civil authority is therefore our own good is given by God and doesn't bear the sword in vain. So I would just say, don't try to split them apart, or say you want to talk about politics, that's only talking about religion. Maybe recognize that this is an integral hol because Christ is the God not just of your church or some other church. He's the God of the whole cosmos, which means he's even the god politics. 00:33:01 Speaker 4: I think, I think we have time for one more. 00:33:03 Speaker 2: Okay, I just want to add one other point to this is that Charlie became an expert at integrating his faith into political answers. But he started by being able to give you a political answer to any political question without without bringing in politics. So he spent a long time sharpening his arguments without politics at all, and then as he got older, he started just just incorporating them. But you get really good at the logic with or without this first thing, I would say, And then you know, to Michael's point, it's like politics can be the door doorway in. But Charlie used to always say that those who drink from the streams of liberty will eventually find its source. We believe that's Christ. And so you may not know the order through which which door they're going to walk in first, and just be open, listen to the spirit, prayerfully, and you'll get there. 00:33:55 Speaker 1: Yep. 00:33:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, two minutes we have two minutestes. 00:33:58 Speaker 2: Fast question be real quick. 00:34:00 Speaker 8: Hi guys, my name is Jamie. I'm from the state of California. I don't know if I should be two old of that, but beautiful state. It is a beautiful state. My family and I were so blessed to be here last year in this room. Actually we saw the great back and forth, the friendly banter that Michael, you and Charlie had last year about Catholicism and Christianity, and that brings me to I came with my family, Like I said, I have my eleven year old and my thirteen year old here. They were here last year as well, and my question for you is they've My thirteen year old will be going into high school next year. We've prayed on it a lot. Unfortunately it's it's kind of out of our scope right now to put him in a private high school. So he will be going into a public school next year. He's been in private school from kindergarten through eighth grade. So I wanted to ask the three you really words of encouragement, words of wisdom that you can give to just not just my son. We actually brought five kids with us, ranging from seven year olds at thirteen. Now we're talking, so would love to hear what you guys have for them. 00:35:01 Speaker 3: Thank you. First, how many kids did you say? 00:35:03 Speaker 8: Five? 00:35:04 Speaker 2: Five? 00:35:04 Speaker 3: So Mormon, Catholic, or Orthodox Jews. 00:35:09 Speaker 8: We're actually here with three families. The four it's me and my husband and my eleven year old and thirteen year old are here for the second time. We actually brought two other families with us this year that we're so excited just to really hear of what Charlie left and I saw, I will say this in this room, the words of wisdom with Charlie I'm gonna get I saw at firsthand the impact that Charlie had on these kids. Yeah, my eleven year old came up to be the night that he was shot and he put his head in my lap when Erica was speaking, and he's like, why did this happen? So I just want to say that we missed Charlie so much and I got to meet Daisy. Thank you so much for what you've done. So anyway, I didn't expect to cry, but we just it's happy. We know Charlie's here, we feel his presence. But anything you guys can give us on closing out, especially to these this young youth that really is looking for some words of wisdom. 00:36:08 Speaker 3: Well, I would say on the very practical school point, you know, happily you've given your kid a great formation, you know, and even like with William F. Buckley Junior, great American Conservative, he was homeschooled through eighth grade. You know, he had that and then he went to whatever other school. And so you really that's the formation that period right up until the teenage years. If you've done such a great job of making that really solid that I think you can have reasonable confidence that the teachers won't screw it up too much in the public school. But you have to keep an eye I would say, you have to keep a real eye on it. The reason homeschooling spiked during COVID is because kids went home, they looked at what their teachers. The parents looked at what the teachers were telling the kids over the computer screen, and they yanked their kids out of schools because they said, this is insane and it's poisoning. So you have to be very responsive to that. It sounds though from your story about Charlie, obviously all of us are you know, this is a big one. This is the last event that you or really directly left us that dawned on me yesterday was coming in here, and you know his pictures all over and you know, yeah, this is a this is a particular America. It's always growing, it's always big, it's always spirit filled, and this one in particular. So we're all kind of uh working through that a little bit and uh, you know, living that. The fact that your kid would have that reaction to this event tells you he he's in a good spot. I think he's going to be all right now. 00:37:27 Speaker 4: We still have a lot of of course, if they want encouragement on the other practical things. There's a lot of videos of Charlie arguing with liberals and and I guess because people like that. To close on a pedantic religious point, are would they be allowed to pray for Charlie's intercession on their behalf or is that not allowed unless he's. 00:37:45 Speaker 3: Not formally canonized yet? Although there was a bishop who I forget which bishop it was, who said that Charlie was almost certainly a martyr, a marder for the faith though though he's not the pope, And I guess we'll have to save the pope debate for the next the next one. 00:38:00 Speaker 2: Everybody Michael Knowles. 00:38:01 Speaker 3: Thank you, everybody, thanks so much. 00:38:03 Speaker 1: Thank you. 00:38:09 Speaker 3: For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to Charliekirk dot com