Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (1:43)

Say what you will about Turning Point usa, they put on a hell of an event very short notice. They quite the, quite the event.

Sam Stein (1:51)

It was quite, it was, it was incredibly well attended. All the Republican luminaries were there. Basically the entire cabinet was there with House and Senate leadership to Elon Musk was there actually come to think of it like weird like succession line issues potentially there with the speaker, the President and the Vice President. But that's not really worth discussing because there were a couple takeaways. One was really good, really moving and incredibly devastating speech from Erica Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow. And then the other was just a series of otherwise, in interesting, highly political, and then kind of borderline odd, if not fully odd speeches from some of the other luminaries. I want to start with the good, because it was. It was really. It was honestly a moving speech. Erica Kirk gets up there, and, Andrew, I don't know how you felt, and. And certainly this is more your turf than mine. I am Jewish. This is not like my religion. But the way she sort of steeled herself, the way that she invoked what seemed to me a deep religious underpinning to her remarks, the way she talked at one point about forgiving the man who shot and killed and assassinated her husband, left her widow and a mother of two, a single mother of two. I just. I don't. I didn't have this. I would not have the strength for that. It was an. It was an incredible moment of grace. And, you know, I think people should go and watch it.

Anish Kumar (3:29)

Yeah.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (3:29)

And I mean, as she was coming up to the podium, I mean, like, I'd been kind of watching this, thinking about whether I was going to write about this event for, you know, the newsletter tomorrow. And, like, she comes up to speak, and, like, immediately, like, in my mind, I've been like, okay, yeah, she's going to speak. She's spoken already once on this attack. But, like, as she's coming up to the podium, it really struck me. I'm like, this is like a live thing. She's, like, up there in front of all of these people. This just happened. You know, there's a reason, like, it's not that common for. For, you know, the. The immediately bereaved to speak at funerals. Like, it's all so raw and, like, she was plainly, like, so overcome with emotion. I was like, part of me was just like, get her out of there, you know, like. Like, how can you call on a person to do this? And then, like, the longer she spoke, the more my. I mean, just. Me personally, my jaw was just kind of on the floor with. I mean, it was. It was a powerful, powerful speech. And like, she. She talked a lot, and it was not. It was not particularly political.

Sam Stein (4:21)

We'll get to the politics, but, yeah, that struck me. That struck. It wasn't political. It was spiritual.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (4:27)

She. Erica Kirk has been in the public eye kind of for a long time, and she's been sort of an influencer of sorts. Not quite along the same lines as Charlie Kirk. I mean, he has had his project that was both Theological and political, obviously primarily political. That's the thing he was mostly known for. Even though he talked more and more about his faith, especially toward the last years of his life. Her project was, you know, explicitly religious all along. She's basically a Christian influencer, right? And so she's in this weird place now where she's been kind of like thrust into his role. She's the new CEO of Turning Point usa. Right? So like, that's a political thing, but that was not what she chose to talk about. You know, during this speech. She chose to talk about a lot of. A lot, you know, just her comfort in her faith. You know, in the wake of her husband's death, she took the opportunity to sort of exhort a lot of the young people in attendance, sort of along the lines of her faith, you know, exhortation to like, be, you know, to become Christian, obviously, for one thing, but also.

Sam Stein (5:29)

Stop you for a second. Let me just. Let's just listen to it.

Erica Kirk (5:33)

That man.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (5:36)

That young man.

Erica Kirk (5:41)

I forgive him.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (5:55)

It's.

Erica Kirk (6:29)

I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love. And always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.

Sam Stein (6:54)

All right, so look, I mean, look, like you said, I mean, there's the spirituality, the exertions towards faith, forgiveness. It feels like a lifetime ago. But after the Dylann roof shootings at Emmanuel Church down in Charleston, South Carolina, people might not remember this, but it was the family members of the victims who confronted Ruth in some sort of court proceeding and looked him in the eye and said, I forgive you. And we could play that too.

Erica Kirk (7:24)

Victim's family spoke directly to Dylan Ruff over video conference. The daughter of 70 year old Ethel Lance.

Sam Stein (7:31)

You took something very precious away from me. I would never talk to her ever again.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (7:39)

I would never be able to hold her again.

Unnamed Speaker (possibly a family member or commentator) (7:43)

But I forgive you.

Erica Kirk (7:45)

Alana Simmons spoke of her grandfather, Reverend Daniel Simmons.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (7:49)

Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof and their legacies will live.

Cristiana Figueres (8:00)

In love so hate won't win.

Erica Kirk (8:04)

Tiwanza Sanders pleaded with the gunman to shoot him instead of his aunt.

Unnamed Speaker (possibly a family member or commentator) (8:08)

We welcome you Wednesday night in our Bible study with open arms. You have killed some of the most beautifulest people that I know. Towanza Sanders is my son, but Towanza was my hero. Towanza was my hero. But as we said in Bible study, we enjoyed you, but may God have mercy on you.

Sam Stein (8:41)

I don't know it takes something extraordinary internally to do something like that. I couldn't imagine. And then, like, it just the. The other thing, though, about it, and you can speak to this, is that it came in the context of other speeches that it's hard to describe sort of the. The general theme of the evening. I mean, the Post, Washington Post talked about kind of the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. Others sort of looked at the kind of overtly political elements of the speech. What stood out to you about the rest of the speeches beyond Erika Kirk?

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (9:19)

Yeah, I mean, they were sort of on a spectrum, right. I mean, there were some people, plenty of people, who were doing sort of the same thing that she was doing. I mean, like, Marco Rubio really stuck out to me insofar as, like, at the very end of his speech, he kind of just did a sort of like, evangelical preacher sort of like, gospel account of just sort of like, you know, we're all sinners, but there's this guy who came down from heaven. His name was Jesus. This is not his actual language, but, like, you know, like, basically telling the Christian gospel account in that way. And like me as a. As a former campaign reporter who has seen a lot of, like, this stuff deployed on the campaign trail, I'm kind of cynically like, all right, what's the political turn here? And then there wasn't one. Right. Like, that was actually just the end of his speech was he was just like, he wanted to make this. This sort of like, Christian gospel point, which. Which, you know, like, again, like, yeah, I'm a Christian. I found it very powerful. There were a lot of kind of like, medium, kind of like in between types, you know, a lot, Very, very frequent from J.D. vance and Pete Hegseth. And a lot of these people was like, don't worry, Charlie. We've got it from here. Very much kind of picking up the mantle and carrying on the political work. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's kind of the question's like, what's the plan? Exactly what mission are you going to be carrying forward?

Unnamed Speaker (possibly a family member or commentator) (10:41)

Right.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (10:41)

I mean, we have a lot of opinions about what JD Vance and Pete Hegseth have up to a lot. But let's get to talk about all that.

Sam Stein (10:48)

I want to get to two others. One was Tucker. I will start with Tucker. Tucker just kind of like people interpreted this as a dog whistle, and I think it was. But basically sort of like winking like it might have been the Jews. And we can listen to this. Let's hear what he says.

Tucker Carlson (11:05)

So it's about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and Jesus shows up and he starts talking about the people in power and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the, the truth about people. And they hate it. And they just go bonkers. They hate it and they become obsessed with making him stop. This guy's got to stop talking. We've got to shut this guy up. And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about, what do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking. And there's always one guy with the bright idea. And I could just hear him say.

Alastair Campbell (11:45)

I've got an idea.

Tucker Carlson (11:46)

Why don't we just kill him? That'll shut him up. That'll fix the problem.

Sam Stein (11:53)

So, yeah, I mean, it was, I don't know, kind of bordered on a little bit of, of a wink, wink to me. So that was weird. But the real weird one was, well, there's. We'll get to Trump later. The real weird one was Stephen Miller. Okay, I'm just gonna read some lines from Stephen Miller. The first one, I don't want to laugh at it, but it was, it was because it's dark. But he goes. I'm reminded of a famous expression, the storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength. The warrior whispers back, I am the storm. So I, I didn't, I never heard this. Had you heard this one before? This, this famous expression? Yeah, it's not famous. It's. It's apparently a 2015 meme, an Internet meme that some people have wrongly said originates with Genghis Khan. Also, I don't think he got it right. It's not the storm whispers to the warrior, it's the fate whispers to the warrior. But whatever Stephen went for it. He then goes on from there. He says the army that. He says an army has arisen. Those trying to incite violence against us. What do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are hatred. We are the ones who lift up humanity. You have no idea. The dragon you have awakened. These are bridge quotes, but it was like, it was a little scary, honestly.

Alastair Campbell (13:15)

I'm Alastair Campbell from the Rest is Politics.

Anish Kumar (13:17)

Anish Kumar here from pod.

Cristiana Figueres (13:18)

Save the uk and Cristiana Figueres from outrage and optimism.

Alastair Campbell (13:22)

Rising inequality, conflict, climate disaster is very hard to find reasons to be hopeful about the future.

Anish Kumar (13:27)

That's why we're teaming up this September during the 80th General assembly of the.

Cristiana Figueres (13:31)

United nations, along with political currency pod, Save the World the Week Junior, and more.

Anish Kumar (13:37)

We'll discuss the stories that give us hope and answer the question, how does hope turn into action?

Alastair Campbell (13:42)

Look out for the Be Hope takeover this September.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (13:45)

Stephen Miller. Look there. There has been a. An enormous outpouring of energy, just energy on the right in the wake of. Of Charlie Kirk's assassination. Some of it, some small subset of it has been, like, positive energy in some respect. I mean, like. Like, again, we were just talking about Erica Kirk. Like, there's like, a transcendence to that. Stephen Miller has more so than, like, anybody else in all of America, like, come right out of the gate after this assassination with a plan. He's like, I'm gonna take this energy and I'm going to channel it into this political project that I have that's all about destroying the left. And I think that's what we saw today, right?

Sam Stein (14:22)

I mean, like, it's his life's work and he's, you know, going for it, basically.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (14:26)

Yeah, absolutely. And. And look, we've. We've written about this stuff, we've talked about some of this stuff. He has said some really alarming and unnerving stuff. Stuff just in the last couple of days about what they're planning and everything, but, like, something about him doing it in this moment at this funeral service, him couching it in this explicitly religious language. I mean, at one point he says, you know, when Charlie Kirk was shot, the angels wept, but those tears have become a fire inside of us. And, you know, like. Like explicitly saying that, like, we are on the side of the angels. And then you just mentioned it a minute ago. You know, the. Our foes are these. Are these nothings, they're these vacancies, these emptinesses, this sort of grasping. Again, like, not. Not to continue to talk in religious terms, but, like, this is how, you know, Christians talk about the concept of evil and the concept of sin is that it's not like a substance, it's like a. It's like a. An absence, it's a lack. It's a falling short.

Sam Stein (15:19)

Say, like, and beyond. Beyond the darkness of the. Of the speech itself. Like, he needs, like, he needs an editor. Akini's an editor. Some of this stuff is just over the top and mixed metaphors everywhere. Oh, yeah, and the tears and the. Come on.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (15:33)

Yeah, yeah. As. As we're on our way to the camps, we'll be like, Steven, you know, that was.

Sam Stein (15:37)

It's a mixed metaphor. I'M kidding, Steven.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (15:42)

I'm, I'm kidding. And I shouldn't be because, like, again, like, it's, it's all very serious. Like, the good stuff and the bad stuff is all really serious here.

Sam Stein (15:48)

You can't help a kid. You got it? That's how you get through.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (15:51)

I know, I know, but, like, this guy's really powerful, you know, like, this is the policy guy for Donald Trump. And we'll talk about Donald Trump in a minute. But, like, even Donald Trump, he hits some of these same themes, but it's in, like, a very kind of goofy and like, the way that he does things, you know, and like, and like, he, he's the guy who's like, gonna, like, shake his fist and rant and rave and then get distracted by, like, you know, hanging new curtains in the Oval Office. Yeah, but, like, Stephen Miller is, like, determined to use this moment to inaugurate a never before, like a, a, A crackdown on his political opponents, the likes of which we've never seen. And, like, we should talk about, like, these things are totally intention. Right? I mean, like, like, there's, there's like two ways forward from this moment, like, for the political right. And they, you could basically say Stephen Miller is like the mascot for one side here and Erica Kirk is carrying the banner for the other side. Like, like, how do you respond to this provocation? Do you respond in a spirit of sort of like, forgiveness, where you are literally, like, praying for the soul of the person who did this? I mean, like, we, we. We kind of glossed over that. That's insane. Like, I, I could not believe that she did that. And like, yes, it's happened before. Like, yes, it's like, I, I couldn't believe it when they did it. In the wake of the, in the wake of the Charleston shooting, either. Like, that is an unbelievable transition.

Sam Stein (17:07)

I couldn't do it, but I, but I guess I'm not pushback, but I think, like, it doesn't seem to me that there's much tension here, to be honest. Like, yes, Erica Kirk is saying this, and we'll see what happens. But, like, pretty much every other speaker either skirted the idea or was, you know, and I'm not every speaker, I should say the people who, like, really, really, really, like, have the power were very clear that they want to go for it. And that brings us to Trump. And I just think it's worth. Let's go back to Charleston for a second because again, history is a good guide here. Obama went down to Charleston after The shooting. And he spoke at the church. Not at the church. He spoke at the memorial for the.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (17:48)

Church, I should say.

Sam Stein (17:50)

And he used the idea of those family members saying they forgave Dylann Roof as sort of an illustration of grace that everyone should strive for. And he sort of used a speech built around what it means to be driven by grace in a moment of incredible grief and challenge. And then, of course, he's saying quite famously, amazing grace. Donald Trump did not do that. I mean, that. And it's not in Donald Trump. No one expected Donald Trump to do that, of course, because Donald Trump's not like that. It's a different person. And people can say, well, you know, Bomb was, you know, hyper partisan and, and, you know, he, he divided the country, whatever. But in these moments, he said Trayvon Martin once, that got people very mad. But in these moments, this is not what Obama, Obama was very conciliatory and tried to bring people together. Donald Trump in his speech said this.

Unnamed Speaker (possibly a family member or commentator) (18:47)

He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry, I am sorry, Erica. But now Erica can talk to me and the whole. And maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.

Sam Stein (19:09)

So, look, I mean, he's, like you said, he says it with like this kind of tongue in cheek. Ha, ha, ha, ha ha. I'm going for an applause line. But he says it enough that at this point, no one should consider this a joke. It's how he feels like this is what he is. He wants to go for it. There's a body of evidence to suggest he has no desire to bring the country together in this moment. It's not, he's not even pretending to try.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (19:29)

And especially when, when you just like, look at the way that Donald Trump always delivers speeches. I mean, this is. His constant cadence is like y, whatever you have on the prompter. And then he will do it in this unbelievable monotone. It's like the most phone didn't thing you've ever seen. And then he'll break off of that to tell you how he really feels about this, that or the other things that was this here. Right. I mean, it's like that's, that's the one thing he said.

Sam Stein (19:53)

I'm going to actually have my ID come out now.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (19:56)

Yeah, 100%.

Sam Stein (19:57)

So that's, that's Trump. And I think, you know, so while I do, while I was incredibly moving to see Erica Kirk say what she said. And honestly, it's been really difficult to watch this entire thing play out over the past 10 days. You feel horrible for the family. And you. You can tell even in these moments where you see these reactions that you might not even, you know, might find a little bit off putting from the right, you can tell it's from a place where they're, like, deeply hurt. Right. But then you have someone like Trump and Stephen Miller who are like, we're just gonna go for it. And we don't care about bringing the country together. We care about defeating lefties. And that's a scary thought, and it's scary to see it come out in an event that is otherwise meant to memorialize someone and to, in theory, pursue the type of unity and forgiveness that he. That his own wife says he embodied.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (20:54)

These are the people who are wielding the power, and they have a plan to do that. Right. And I don't think anybody should expect, you know, we're all going to wake up tomorrow morning and they'll have called off the dogs of this project. I mean, all the other news that's come out this weekend of them just explicitly going after political opponents in a bunch of different ways. Right.

Sam Stein (21:13)

I should do a video later on the DOJ weekend that was just finish.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (21:18)

In theory. Bill's writing about that for tomorrow, so everyone can read about it in theory and morning shots.

Sam Stein (21:22)

Right.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (21:23)

But, yeah, let me just say one thing, which is that, like, yes, these are the guys who wield the power, but I do not think it would be quite correct to just like, wave off the Erica Kirk thing. Right. I mean, like, this is.

Sam Stein (21:35)

Okay.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (21:36)

It cuts against so much of what we have been hearing out of the. Out of the political right. I mean, it even kind of cuts against her own. Like, not cuts against is not quite the right word, but, like, you know, she spoke a few days ago, like, like two days after the, the killing or something like that, and. And, you know, sounded a much more strident kind of political note. Right. I mean, in terms of, like, echoing the rhetoric of sort of Stephen Miller and these guys about kind of, like, the corporate responsibility of. I don't want to put words in her mouth. I might be overstating that a little in my recollection, but, like, there was enough of that there, that the contrast was really striking to me. And I just think, like, look, she's a person who has inherited this unbelievably large public mantle from Charlie Kirk, who was like a giant figure on the contemporary right, especially online, especially among young people. And, like, she's going to carry on his political work in some respects. And it just seemed like it would not have been, like, a surprise for her to get up and, like, speak in that exact same vein. Like, who. Who in. In all of America could you fault for doing that less than her in this moment? Right? Like, some guy just shot her husband, like, left her kids fatherless, left her a widow less than two weeks ago. That just happened. And, like, she talked about, like, being at the morgue and having to, like, you know, identify his corpse and, like, just. Just unbelievable stuff. And then for her to, like, go from that to, like, having to, like, physically steel herself to say, and I forgive him, because that's what my faith calls for me to do. It's what Charlie would have wanted me to do. And, like, we should all pray for him. And you can't respond to hate with hate. You have to respond with love. That's the gospel. I mean, that is not like. That's not something to just sort of, like, be like, okay, Erica, you don't wield the real power. You know what I mean?

Sam Stein (23:27)

Like, she's saying that.

Unnamed Political Commentator (possibly Bill or a co-host) (23:28)

But no, no, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not responding. I'm not, like, scolding you. I'm just. I'm, like, talking about my own kind of like, I just couldn't believe that. And I. Like you said, you said it right at the beginning. It was a real moment of grace, and I'm very grateful to her that she could somehow do that.

Sam Stein (23:45)

All right, buddy. Appreciate you watching this. Appreciate you doing this. To those who are watching us. Appreciate that, too. We do appreciate the viewership and the subscription. So, hey, subscribe to the feed. We'll talk to you later. Okay? Later, bud.

Alastair Campbell (23:59)

I'm Alastair Campbell from the Rest Is Politics.

Anish Kumar (24:01)

Anish Kumar here from POD Safe the.

Cristiana Figueres (24:03)

Uk and Cristiana Figueres from outrage and optimism.

Alastair Campbell (24:06)

Rising inequality, conflict, climate disaster. It's very hard to find reasons to be hopeful about the future.

Anish Kumar (24:11)

That's why we're teaming up this September during the 80th General assembly of the United nations.

Cristiana Figueres (24:16)

Along with Political Currency Pod Save the World, the Week 2 Junior, and more.

Anish Kumar (24:21)

We'll discuss the stories that give us hope and answer the question, how does hope turn into action?

Alastair Campbell (24:26)

Look out for the B Hope takeover this September.