← Spot On with Link Lauren
Spot On with Link Lauren
Charlie Kirk's Legacy, the Dangers of Online Culture, and Trump's Upcoming Visit to the UK
00:44:22
Link Lauren remembers Charlie Kirk and his legacy. Then “The Alex Marlow Show” host, Alex Marlow joins to break down the dangers of online culture, where we go from here after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and more. Then, Link breaks down President Trump’s upcoming visit to the UK, how Prince William and Princess Catherine will hold a major role and more. Plus, Link dives into Prince Harry’s visit to Ukraine. Masa Chips: Get 25% off your first order | Use code LINK at https://MASAChips.com/LINK Beam: Visit https://shopbeam.com/LINK and use code LINK to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Pique: Get 20% off your order plus a FREE frother & glass beaker with this exclusive link: https://piquelife.com/LINK
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- [00:01]
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Link Lauren
Hey friends, welcome back to Spot on with Link. Lauren of course. Later in the show we're going to talk about President Trump's upcoming trip to the uk. We're going to break it all down. We have the whole schedule of what they're going to do with Princess Catherine, Prince William, King Charles, Camilla. We are going to get into all of it. But we are still reeling from the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Over the weekend, there were many vigils across the country. There were so many vigils. There was a famous vigil last night at the Kennedy center that millions of people tuned in to watch on the live stream. It feels like there is this revival happening across the country where people want to come together with like minded individuals who have conservative values, common sense values, who share their faith even if they don't share the exact same faith. They know what they're not right. They know and are realizing what we're up against in this country. And so it's really warmed my heart to see how millions of people, millions of people have come together. I mean, in some of these small towns they're getting thousands, tens of thousands of people. I've never seen anything like this in the Kennedy center vigil. I was so upset and bummed that I couldn't be there. I really did feel a sense of FOMO because I've been feeling a little alone watching everything and feeling a little bit down. But even watching the live stream, I felt better after watching it. It didn't have a downer feel to it. There was something uplifting about it and trying to make the best of one of the most horrific situations. And how can we take what Charlie Kirk stood for? How can we take his messages and what he espoused and run with them and use them to make the country a better place? Because the last thing Charlie Kirk would want is for us to go and Retreat and sit inside and not go out. And so people say, you know what, we're going to come gather, we're going to get together. The Kennedy center event, as far as I understood, was free. It was packed the gills. You had people in line, trying to get outside, they had overflow. And this is in Washington D.C. washington D.C. which we talk about all the time, is a deep blue area. Deep, deep, deep blue. About as deep as this background behind me. And they turned out thousands, thousands. They had to turn people away, which shows you there really is this revival happening. And then I heard from so many people over the weekend, they said, I haven't been to church in years. I haven't been to church at all. I, I want to go give it a try. I'm going to go to church and see if there's something there for me, if there's something I can glean in this moment. I actually got messages from some people saying, I don't know how to go to church. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Do you just show up? Yes. And almost every church, as far as I understand, you can just show up as the churches I belong to, you can show up, you can get to know people, and it's usually a pretty inviting congregation. And there are also churches across the country, meaning people just getting together, right? There are folks who got together in prayer at these vigils. And that to me is church in and of itself because that's people coming together for a common cause, to comfort each other, to give each other solace. And I think this Charlie Kirk situation just really hit people because President Trump's assassination attempt on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, the subsequent assassination attempt with Ryan Ruth in Florida, he was able to escape death narrowly, right? President Trump was spared, Charlie Kirk was not. And so people are reeling, saying, what is the reason, what is the message here? What is the bigger plan, right? What are we supposed to learn from him? But even Charlie Kirk's social media, right? All of these videos where he would go around a college campuses speaking to people, his social media platforms have gained millions of followers. Charlie Kirk is bigger than ever. His message is reaching more people than ever before. In fact, we have these numbers, right? The organization Turning Point USA, they've received over 32,000 inquiries in the last 48 hours to start new campus chapter. So to put that in perspective, Turning Point USA currently has about 900 official college chapters and around 1200 high school chapters with the presence of on about 3500 total campuses. So the Fact that tens of thousands of people are saying, we want to start a chapter. We want to sign up. We want to get young people involved in our values. This is a good thing. We're somehow turning a positive out of a horrific, devastating tragedy. I don't know how we're doing it, but people are coming together. And a lot of that is really being spearheaded by Erica Kirk, Charlie Kirk's wife. I don't know how she's walking around. I don't know how she's functioning. I think she really has the power coming through her. This is God working through her as a mother, showing up for her kids, showing up for the organization, and now having to show up for millions and millions of people who looked up to her husband and were disciples of her husband in a way. And so Erica Kirk, she addressed the nation the other night on Friday night. And if you follow me on social media, I did a video discussing this with some of my initial thoughts. But I want to play you a quick clip from Erica's address to the nation on Friday, and then we can talk a little bit more.
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Erica Kirk
They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God's merciful love. They should all know this. If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry to everyone listening tonight, across America, the movement my husband built will not die. It won't. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die.
- [06:25]
Link Lauren
I'm unsure of how she even got up there and did that and had the courage and the strength to come out and face the nation and to speak directly to the people who were involved in the assassination of her husband, the father of her two young children. But I said in my video on Friday, there are millions of women and young moms and soon to be moms and grandmas all across the country who are going to see that addressed to the nation and. And realize we have to get up and fight even harder. I think there's so many women who are gonna feel galvanized going into the midterms, going into 2028, to say, you know what? We have to defeat this leftist, deranged ideology that just put a bullet through Charlie Kirk. And I hate to be graphic, but people are rising up saying, no, no, no, no, no. We can't use kid gloves anymore. We have to get out and be even more organized than ever before. And women have largely been the organizers in politics. Right. When it comes to door knocking and putting together caucuses and coalition, women are at the forefront of that. And I think Erica Kirk is gon. I think she could be the first woman president of the United States. Everyone said she could be the first lady of the United States. Why not? First female president? I think she'd be incredible. And I think the sky's the limit for her, especially in this moment of grief. I don't know how she's carrying on, but no, Erica Kirk's address to the nation was incredible. I said on Friday in my video as well. On social media, I don't think there's a man with an ounce of testosterone who watched that address to the nation and didn't feel angry as well. Right. If you're a man watching this woman who's lost her husband, the father of her children, you're going to come out of the woodwork and say I have to get involved as well and I can't just sit on the sidelines. And so I think it was one of the most incredible addresses to the nation. I think it will go down in history as one of the most consequential, as really an inflection point, a turning point, pun intended there. So, no, I think Erica Kirk's speech to the nation was amazing and the reaction online was overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there are deranged, disgusting people writing and smearing her on social media. And I pray for those people that they find peace in their souls because you have to be pretty demonic and dark to say something nasty about a woman who just lost her husband and her kids, Right. If you're. Politics are so entrenched that you can't just understand that a woman is grieving and you want to write nasty things about her on social media, you really need help. You're really dark and sick, sick person. But to go back to the vigil, I'm thinking now about the vigil they had at the Kennedy center last night. There's actually a clip where Carrie Lake got up to speak. And Carrie Lake spoke about how a lot of these colleges and higher education institutions have become indoctrination camps, right? You send your kid to college, you want them to get a degree, you go to a four year university, you, the kid comes out indoctrinated, right? They're taught to hate their country, to hate everything they've known. And we see this at these Ivy League schools as well, you know, you send your kid to Columbia, Harvard, Penn, the kids come out radicals. The kids come out total radicals. They're wearing keffiyehs, they're chanting on the quad, free Palestine. Like they basically come out radical, radicalized and hating their own country time and time again. And we've seen this film before and I put some pictures on my Instagram story last night on some of these college campuses, what we've seen the last few years. And so I've heard from so many moms and dads and grandma who say, you know what? We don't really think we want to send our kids to college anymore unless college is absolutely necessary. Why go rack up all this debt, you're four years behind. And then you're probably going to be taught by some radical leftist teacher who could be an adjunct professor, not even a full time professor. You've got some TA who's espousing and pushing their values onto you. And then there's so many moms who have younger kids who say, you know what? We're homeschooling our kids. We're homeschooling our kids because can you trust them to not have access, fully unfettered access to the Internet at school? Not really. Can you trust that the teacher is not going to try to indoctrinate or opine on them? Not really. And there's some incredible teachers out there and there are many teachers who follow and watch me. I love my teachers. I love, love, love my educators. But they will tell you there's some pretty sick educators out there. In some of these Democrat cities, you see videos coming out where the teachers are teaching the kids all about 50 different pronouns and you could be born in the wrong body. And once you put that into a little kid's head, who's so malleable, impressionable and who's a sponge, I think you got a recipe for tr. A recipe for disaster. So there are many parents who say, you know what? We're either going to homeschool or send our kids to a school where we have more control and understanding of the curriculum. Because you put your kids in class eight hours a day minimum, in front of someone you don't know that well. You don't know what they're going home and doing, don't know what they're doing on the weekends, don't know what they're searching up. And you sit your kid there and I think now people are having a conversation, these really serious conversations saying, we don't know. We don't know if we want to send our kids there. And if I had kids someday, if I have kids someday, I will really think about sending them to college. I don't know. I don't see the upside anymore. And I've spoken about trade schools and learning to, you know, to be a carpenter, electrician, a plumber. Those are. The folks are going to be making seven figures. They're going to be making seven figures in the future because a lot of this younger generation, they don't know how to screw in a light bulb. And so, you know, you have these kids who are going to college, they're graduating with debt, they have no jobs, no prospects, and they're just being indoctrinated for years in the classroom. I also think we're in a period now where there has to be more of an investigation into what's happening online, right? I'm all for people's privacy. I'm all about people's privacy. I don't want the government intervening on people's privacy and what they're searching and what they're looking up. But we might need more behavioral specialists or some folks from within the government or these federal agencies, these state agencies, monitoring these online social media groups, right? It's not infringing on anyone's privacy to monitor these social media groups because they're public groups. Some of these chat rooms and these servers, because you can probably watch a kid, all right, a video ends up in their feed. This is totally normal, conservative kid like Tyler Robinson, right? Tyler Robinson, the assassin, grew up in a nice, conservative family. He veered off course because one video, maybe one video ends up in his feed. He watches that video because he watched that video. The algorithm's gonna give him some more videos like that. Suddenly, he's down a rabbit hole. Then he's looking for a community online. He joins a chat group, then he joins another chat room. And then he can watch over time, how someone gets pulled into extreme ideology and just loses touch. You pour in a little bit of, oh, when you're in your 20s, that's where mental health issues start to come in, especially for young men. You get into your early 20s, mid-20s, the issues start to creep in. And so you can see how a kid can go from normal upbringing, family, sits down for dinner every night, loves his country, his siblings, his parents. And then he just slowly descends into this madness and this craziness and sort of this deranged, woke ideology. And then you end up with a transgender furry boyfriend, girlfriend, which is basically what we're seeing, in my opinion. They Say, as far as we understand that Tyler Robinson, the assassin, was living with a transgender partner who was in the process of transitioning from male to female. But then there were also things written on the bullets, allegedly that were furry jokes and furries. Are those people who wear those costumes, the, you know, animated cartoon characters? You guys can look up what a furry is. I am not in the best position to explain what a furry is because I'm not one. But I really think you can watch this kid Tyler, who comes from an all American normal family. And they spoke about this last night at the vigil. And he goes to college. He gets full unfettered access to the Internet through high school. His parents did let him use the Internet as much as he wanted, as far as I understood, from what we've seen online. And he just gets sucked into these chat rooms and he gets sucked and pulled down these rabbit holes, and it happens all the time. And I think we need to be better at identifying some of these groups online, monitoring them, because then you can see what's going to happen. Because according to Kash Patel this morning, according to Kash Patel this morning, there was a text thread where he had written about Charlie. And then according to Kash Patel as well, the suspect had also written about taking out Charlie and another type of online environment. And then also we have this information, this just came out a few minutes ago. The DNA on the towel matched the subject, Tyler Robinson. So for all intents and purposes, Tyler Robinson is the guy, right? Tyler Robinson is the killer, as far as we know, according to the information at hand from Kash Patel. But I think we need to monitor more what these kids are consuming. Their brains are impressionable, their brains are sponges, and they're getting sucked into these rabbit holes now. And I also think, and I'm the least conspiratorial person there is, this effort to dismantle society, right? To break up what it means to be a man and a woman, right? Suddenly we have they them. Suddenly we have trans everywhere. Suddenly we have a denigration of faith and family and conservative values, right? I wouldn't be shocked if there's money going into some of these groups, right, to get in and infiltrate social media. We know there's a lot of money in social media and trying to manipulate the way young people think. And you can watch this kid get totally manipulated from normal conservative family and to now he's picking up a gun and shooting someone because of his views on common sense, right? Charlie Kirk had common sense views. He was a moderate Guy, right? He thought there were two genders. He wanted a secure border. This was not some radical, extreme person. Charlie Kirk was the moderate. Charlie Kirk was maybe like 1 inch to the right, right? He was very, very moderate and was able to sit in dialogue with people. And that's the guy they took out. That's the guy they took out. Because what he dared to say, you know, I think we have too much transgender indoctrination in this country. I think we have transgender shooters in this country. And guess what? You just proved his point. Because we were told. We were told the first few days, this has nothing to do with trans. You guys are jumping to conclusions. This has nothing to do with trans. Well, then we find out he's dating, allegedly a transgender person who's in the process of transitioning, is in. And he's also into, like, furry, online bizarre culture. So, yeah, there is something a little bit trans here. And mark my words, I've seen this film a million times before. I've seen. I lived in New York City. I went to nyu. Somehow I came out unscathed. Right? Somehow I came out with my feet planted solidly on the ground. But I bet Tyler Robinson was six months away from transitioning as well. Probably would have identified as non binary, been sort of impressed by the people around him. They would have imparted their ideas onto him. Tyler Robinson probably would have started transitioning as well. Now he might live the rest of his life in prison. Maybe he'll get the death penalty. We're not sure. But I think we just need to look more about what is happening online with these young people, because you can watch them get sucked in. Now, the last thing we have to discuss is, by the time you watch this, J.D. vance, Vice President, J.D. vance will have hosted the Charlie Kirk Show. This was his famous podcast. He had the most high profile, incredible guest. He would have listeners call in for an open dialogue, like the open dialogues he would have on these college campuses. And so, J.D. vance, this is historic, and it shows how much Charlie Kirk meant to him and how much J.D. vance and his team understand social media and. And that you have to reach these young people and make them feel comforted. And I think JD Vance is also someone who's incredible at speaking to folks on the other side of the aisle. Right. J.D. vance is a guy who's really this intellectual who knows how to reason with people, explain difficult, scary concepts in a way that's palatable. And so I'm excited for JD Vance to host the Charlie Kirk Show. I can't wait to watch it. And by the time you see this, he will have hosted. Now, the funeral is set to take place Sunday, September 21, at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals. The capacity is about 63,000 people. So this is going to be a huge stadium full of positivity and love. President Trump is attending. I think Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he will attend. J.D. vance, I imagine, will attend. And President Trump is set to give Charlie Kirk a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I don't know if he's going to drape it over the casket. I don't know if he's going to give it to Erica Kirk. What I do know is I will be emotional watching that. It will be very tough to watch. I think it'll be tough for so many people. But it's the job of the president and the vice president to shepherd us through these hard times in these scary, tumultuous times. And I trust that they will be there in a respectful way to carry us through. There's no one I would actually trust more at the helm right now than President Trump and J.D. vance because they understand the stakes. President Trump has been shot. He's been shot at multiple times. JD Vance is a Marine. He served this country. He knew Charlie Kirk well. And so I trust them more than any other president right now to shepherd us through this moment. Well, I'm back to tell you about masa chips. The only tortilla chips I will eat because they don't break in my salsa, they don't break in my guacamole. You guys know I'm not doing Tostitos anymore. And I'm not just saying this because they're paying us. I actually love these chips. I give them out to all of my friends. All of my friends are ordering them and they're falling in love with them. Genuinely, they all love masa chips. I was at dinner last night and someone at the table said, I ordered your masa chips. I'm obsessed with them. 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- [19:12]
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- [19:45]
Link Lauren
Well, I wanted to bring in someone who knew Charlie Kirk personally. So we're going to sit down and talk to Alex Marlowe. He's the editor in chief of Breitbart. He's also the host of the Alex Marlowe Show. Thank you, Alex, for being here. I would say happy to see you, but it's not a happy occasion at all. I wanted to talk to you first off because we're learning more about the shooter's partner and how the partner was transgender and transitioning from male to female. And we were told the last few days reliably, this has nothing to do with trans. This has nothing to do with WOKE ideology, leftist ideology. What do you think the significance is of the shooter's partner being transgender and living in that environment?
- [20:21]
Alex Marlowe
Well, we don't know exactly, but I think that given the etchings on the ammunition that was used to take out my friend Charlie, I think it's very clear that this was a part of it. I don't know if this is something where the shooter was radicalized because he was just in proximity to not just trans, but really even a sort of a more perverted sub genre of that stuff with the furry stuff, which I don't know. Link, how much of that's real and how much of that's just online live action role play. But clearly he'd spent a lot of time on that in a lot of focus on it. And that's part of the indoctrination that took place. That coupled with some obvious antifa imagery there. And you've had a really potent cocktail of someone who was just going under rapid mental decline and into a violent rage.
- [21:10]
Link Lauren
No, absolutely. And then something that was mentioned last night at the Kennedy center vigil was how you send your kid off to college now and they're basically being sent to an indoctrination camp. Unless you're Careful about where you send to college. Is that something you're hearing from people as well? Because I've gotten messages from so many moms the last few days. My audience is about 85% women. A lot of them are moms. And they're like, yeah, we're rethinking letting our kids have unfettered access to the Internet where we send them to college. I mean, what are you hearing right now, the last few days?
- [21:35]
Alex Marlowe
Yeah, I'm hearing it too. And I don't know if I've seen the direct evidence that it was college that radicalized this guy. I think he was extremely online. I think that's what it was. And I think the trans killer in Minnesota was extremely online. I don't know if it was college, but I think it's a very healthy discussion because we know from millions and millions of data points, not one that ended as dramatically as this one, but we're a good Christian, conservative family member, was sent to college and came back a crazy freak. We know this happens over and over again in this country. And so maybe it takes this to start that discussion, to catalyze that discussion. And I think the same thing with the extremely online nature of things. I grew up on the Internet, but as the Internet was evolving, I'm a little bit older than you link, in my late 30s. And it's one of these things where the Internet was always a presence, but it wasn't instead of a normal life. It wasn't instead of play for children. It wasn't instead of developing your own ideology and identity outside of your online avatar in your young adulthood, you had to have both, especially being able to exist away from the Internet. Now it feels like when people say, Twitter's not real life now, it feels like the opposite for some of these people, it feels like their online Persona is the real version of themselves in their eyes.
- [22:49]
Link Lauren
And.
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Alex Marlowe
And that's darkly dangerous because it's a godless place. It's a place where people like Charlie are treated as threats instead of really interesting, reasonable people to debate and educate. And that's what I'm really afraid of here, is that this will be the first of many like this. And not even the first. It seems like there's a couple that are arguably come from the same ballpark of. Of. Of horrible ideas. And they all seem to stem from these very obscure online platforms that are. There's a lot of people on those things.
- [23:18]
Link Lauren
Well, I also think, you know, Thomas Crooks In Butler on July 13, extremely, you know, online person. You had Ryan Ruth, who seemed like an extremely online radical person. So I think we just need more of a, you know, look at what's going on in some of these online groups. And this is what I'm hearing from parents as well, because if you look at Tyler Robinson grew up in a nice conservative family. I think most of the family, if not all, supported President Trump. And then you can watch a kid gets sucked in through an algorithm or a social media platform down this rabbit hole. Suddenly he's in a chat room, suddenly he's radicalized. His whole entire life is online. Maybe he never really fit in. And it's just like, we have to monitor this more. I mean, do you think as parents, now more than ever, you just have to let. Monitor what your kids are doing on the Internet? You can't just let them roam free and.
- [23:59]
Alex Marlowe
Absolutely. And it goes into young adulthood. And this comes back to your point about college, is that maybe a person goes to college and maybe they're not even going to class, but they're online with a lot of free time, and they might not be working, or they might not have a lot of hours where they're working a job. And so they're sitting there in their dorms and their computers. Even when I was in college, which I graduated, you know, 16, 17 years ago, there were still a lot of my friends were getting sucked into things, whether it be World of Warcraft or just finding old videos of, you know, MMA fights. And they couldn't bring themselves to go to class because they would just stay up all night watching this stuff or playing games. And then they would. They would go to class maybe once, one hour a day if they had an afternoon class. And it's just not a great life. Not everyone is going to end up a murderer doing that. But it's just not a great life. And we've been very tolerant of it. And the reason why I've been tolerant of it is because it's a racket. The universities not only are huge economic engines, but they also indoctrinate people towards the left. So the left would never say anything because these universities also radicalize the people who are in the towns. They've ruined all of our cities because universities are here providing jobs and providing leftist talking points to people who then live in these communities and further radicalize people. They're a total disgrace in this country at this point. They need to be defunded from the federal government.
- [25:21]
Link Lauren
No, absolutely. And I think something you can speak to, being a friend of Charlie Kirk and knowing him so so, so much better than I did. And I wish I could have gotten to know him more. Charlie Kirk spoke to young men in this country and I think young men more than ever are feeling despondent. Maybe they feel like they're down economically, they don't know where they fit in, they don't know how they're going to have a, you know, a home, a partner, all of these things. And I think a lot of these young men, that's why they're being sucked into these online groups. Have you seen that as well? I just think there's something about young men in this country right now where much more than the women, they're feeling disenfranchised and they're much more impressionable and malleable to get pulled into these sort of freakish online forums.
- [25:58]
Alex Marlowe
Yeah, I think so. I think that if you look at the way the universities are built, they're just more designed for the way women learn, which is just a fact. We've been seeing this, how women are succeeding more at universities than men, even smart men. It's just the way they're structured. It does not favor men. And then men get out into the working world and it's harder to compete. It is entry level jobs are starting to dry up sometimes thanks to, you know, AI, which is another thing we have to worry about. The last jobs report was very troubling for this way. And I think AI is going to provide a lot of opportunity for people, but it's also going to mean that some of these lower, lower level jobs are harder to get. We don't have a great apprentice or mentorship program now in this country because everything is remote, which is one of the results of COVID Now, I'm a remote worker. I like that. I'm more comfortable. So I'm not. There's not a blanket remote work is bad sort of thing. But it's harder for younger males to find role models. And then what is the currency online? It's declarative statements. It's people who act like they know everything about the world. And it's people who are hyper confident. And a lot of that is just performative. A lot of it's not real. And so where do young men turn? There's not a lot of avenues for them to turn to. And I think Charlie was trying to reach a lot of that group and I think he was effective in it because he's not as strident, he's not as misogynistic as some of the other male voices that you might See out there. But there's something else, too, that Charlie did which was a little different, is that he was also reaching young women. And some of it was via his faith work and his wife. But he had this young women's forum where he would try to recruit powerful young female voices as well to work for Turning Point. So he was really a full spectrum guy. And that is one thing, just to speak personally for a second, that I loved about Charlie. Charlie got his start in public life writing for me at Breitbart News, the website that I run, which is incredibly popular. You've probably seen our stuff online if you haven't, but I highly recommend everyone check it out. And we were a pioneering force in online alternative news, and Charlie came to us with the story idea. And in the spirit of our founder, Andrew Breitbart, we suggested he actually do the writing and the reporting on it because he could maybe do a better job than we could. And he. The story went viral. It was everywhere. He was on Fox News. He was everywhere. And it gave him the bug to take Turning Point, which was just a kernel at the time, and turn into something really big. He takes over talk radio, he takes over activism. But link, you know this as well as anyone. He doesn't stop. He's, I'm going for TikTok now. I'm going for Instagram now. Like, he does not see a venue that wasn't worthy of his attention. And that sort of ambition is why he's so irreplaceable, but it's also why he's reaching so many people. It's like, I'm not big on TikTok. I've never tried. And it's one of those things where Charlie said, I'm gonna try and he'd get big at it. And that was so special about him.
- [28:37]
Link Lauren
No, absolutely. I feel like he knew you have to meet voters where they are, and it's why he was so consequential and crucial to this last election of bringing young people over. And I feel, I've been saying the last few days on the other side of a breakdown is a breakthrough. And I feel like out of this horrific, disgusting tragedy, millions of people are now discovering Charlie Kirk. They're discovering he wasn't this far right figure he's been made out to be by the mainstream media. Very common sense guy. They're discovering his videos and they're saying, you know what? We want to come together and learn more about conservative values, faith, family, and everything in between. I mean, what has it been like for you, as someone who knew Charlie personally, seeing these vigils pop up across the country and how much he meant to all of these people. And I know he meant so much to you as well.
- [29:16]
Alex Marlowe
Yeah, it's really interesting and beautifully put about the breakthrough following the breakdown. That's a really nice quote and very comforting in times like this. You know, for me, when I'm. When I'm podcasting, I tell my audience before the show, which Kubler Ross stage of grief I'm in before I get going, so they know what to expect. I think that the first day was mostly a sadness day, a depression day, and then I think the second day was a little bit of denial with a mix of anger, and there's a lot of anger to go around. I do think federal law enforcement has to do a much better job keeping an eye on some of these forums, at a minimum, to understand what's going on in them. I think that our universities have been playing games with security for conservatives for 20 years. Back when I was on campus doing events, they were violent, and I was on an event with Charlie just over a year ago, the UC Davis campus, it was a smaller event, and Antifa was out there. They smashed in the basketball arena. I mean, you could picture the panes of glass that they might have at a college basketball arena. They smashed through it and they smashed inside. It was ultimately, he wasn't threatened imminently, but he had to walk around with security. That shouldn't be the case. And I do feel like that we need to do a better job, be it drone surveillance, bulletproof glass, whatever it is. It's the. To keep our people safe, because there is no First Amendment. If there's a very high risk, you're going to get shot in the neck when you start speaking. And so that is just, you know, enraging to me. Plus, all the online hatred is. It's not surprising, but it's still disappointing as a country, because it does make you fearful. But overall, you hit the biggest thing, which is the outpouring of support, the moments of silence at the NFL and the tributes from Major League Baseball and Formula One and on country concerts and people in Canada at country concerts, you know, chanting Charlie's name, people in the streets of London chanting Charlie's name. I mean, I knew Charlie was huge, but I don't know if I would have anticipated that. And that is a great thing and very, very positive for the future.
- [31:11]
Link Lauren
Absolutely. The last point I want to make, and I'd love for you to chime in on this. I've seen so many people talk the last few days. If this had been the left, they would be rioting, looting, burning down buildings like we saw in the wake of George Floyd. I mean, that entire summer, everything was just being destroyed in some of these cities in Tim Walls State. And the past few days, what we've seen is actually people coming together and comforting each other and going to vigils and going to church. It's the complete opposite of what you would see from the left, except they want to call us radicals and extremists. I'm sure you've sort of felt that too, in that sentiment.
- [31:43]
Alex Marlowe
Yeah, it's a terrific point. And let's take it a step further, because if you think about what's going online with this, what's going on line with this amazing grassroots effort to try to vocalize to people that if you're celebrating the public execution of a free speech activist in front of his family, where his guts were blown out on camera for the whole world to see, and you're celebrating that, and people are politely suggesting to your employer that maybe you shouldn't have a job at that company, to act as though that's some sort of massive cancel culture moment. After all we've witnessed where conservatives getting their apps thrown off of the Apple App Store, or them losing all their advertisers or Breitbart News. Our stories don't show up in Google because they don't like some stuff that we wrote 10 years ago, after all of that endurance that we've had to deal with, plus all the rioting you mentioned, all the actual violence you mentioned, and for the media to write one column inch about how we don't have a right to vocalize that you shouldn't celebrate the murder of our friend and our leader, then. It just, it boggles the mind. And I just want to remind people, whatever nonviolent action you're compelled to take in your life, if it's signing up for something, if it's donating, if it's just talking to a friend or family member who you think might be on the verge of conversion to something more godly, more conservative in their life, or if it's taking up your. Taking up your keyboard and trying to vocalize some of these values to people, whatever way you want to get involved, start now and continue it. I gotta tell you, I'm close with the folks at Turning point. They had 4,000 chapters before Charlie was assassinated. 4,000. Your audience probably heard at this point. They've got 32,000 chapter requests. People get it. And so be a part of that. Be a part of that solution. And Charlie not only won't have died in vain, he'll become a legend on the level of Martin Luther King Jr. And that's what we want.
- [33:37]
Link Lauren
No, he is going to be a legend. I think this week in general is going to be a turning point. And I say that pun intended intentionally. It's going to be a turning point and inflection point for this country. And the last thing I'll say, and I know you agree, I tell young people all the time, if you have a cell phone and a WI FI connection, there is no excuse. If you have something to say, something to add to the discourse and you have a cell phone and all of you do, get out there and say something and try to find your tribe and find your community and get involved. I know there are a lot of people who live alone. There are a lot of women who write me. They say they're living alone. They're consuming all this. You are not alone. There's a huge community of people thinking about you and supporting you. And somehow we're going to get through this and get through the grief of it. And something amazing. I just think something amazing is going to happen and something so positive. I think Erica Kirk as well, is just going to become such an even bigger leader. People keep saying, I know I said I was letting you go, but people keep saying, oh, my God, Erica would have made a great first lady of the United States. Why not? President someday, maybe. First female president. I think the sky is the limit for Erica as well. And she's going to step into her power, too.
- [34:35]
Alex Marlowe
But yeah, that was the first thing I said. I was fortunate enough to get asked to opine almost immediately after her speech. And I said that this is a major new American voice announcing herself right now. And it was one of the speeches of the century. I thought she had all the right tones. But the one thing that she got that brings us back to one of the first points we talked about, Link, is that she saw that it's evildoers who killed her husband. It's not just one guy. It's not just one lunatic. There is a satanic force in this country right now, and we need to quash it. And then we need to fill the void with God. And we can do this in a peaceful way. We could do this in a kind way to people, but we have to be fearless and we have to be. We have to be prepared for a spiritual battle that's taking place right now.
- [35:21]
Link Lauren
Absolutely. I've been saying in all my videos recently and I from working on an independent campaign as well, this country is not so much divided by Republicans and Democrats. It's divided by people who love the United States of America and those who want to destroy it. So it really is good versus evil in this country right now. And it is something people are gonna have to get off the sidelines. And I think any man watching Erica's speech, she obviously spoke to millions of women. I think any man with an ounce of testosterone or balls watching this woman who's lost her husband, the father of her kids, get up there and speak, they're gonna get in the ring too, for the midterms for 2028 and organize and fight. But thank you, Alex. I can't wait to have you back. I can't wait to come on your show and hopefully speak about more positive topics. But I do think something positive is coming out of this. So thank you.
- [36:05]
Alex Marlowe
It's great to meet you. I'm very close with your producer Kylie, who's been a great advocate of mine for a long time, and I'm grateful to her and for you for giving me the forum.
- [36:13]
Link Lauren
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- [38:09]
Link Lauren
Well, I wasn't going to discuss the royals in this episode, but so many of you wrote me over the weekend and said something positive you're looking forward to. Something positive to happen this week is that President Trump is going to visit the UK and do a state visit. This is his second state visit. This is because he has non consecutive terms and this is really going to be something historic. King Charles is pulling out all the stops. Prince William, Princess Catherine, the entire family, they're pulling out all the stops to welcome the first lady, Melania Trump and President Trump and the entire delegation to the United Kingdom to show them what they're about. Of course it's going to be big for trade. King Charles is really not allowed to be a real political figure, but his embrace of President Trump and rolling out the red carpet shows they want to do more trade with the United States. They want to have a positive relationship with the United States and they also respect the fact that President Trump respects them because if you give respect, you might get some respect back. And President Trump has always loved the queen. President Trump has spoken so many times on record about how his mother, Mary McLeod Trump, may she rest in peace, absolutely love Queen Elizabeth. My entire family, we love the royals. And I think because I didn't grow up with a big family, I grew up living with my mom predominantly. We would love following the royals because you could imagine what's it like to be in a big family with all these moving parts and all these people and the pomp and the circumstance. And so President Trump is going to be living his best life in the UK but it's going to be consequential for history. It's going to be consequential for trade and the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. Now we actually have some of the schedule, we have some of the schedule of what's going on on this trip and it really is going to be a tour de force. There's going to be so much eye candy to devour. It's going to be important. Let me read you what's going to happen. So on Tuesday, September 16, the President and the first lady, they will land in the UK where they'll be greeted by the US Ambassador and the Viscount Hood, lord in waiting, on behalf of the King. Then, where things start to get interesting. Wednesday, September 17th. Okay. The Trumps will travel to Windsor Castle, where they will be greeted by the Prince and Princess of Wales before being formally welcomed by Their Majesties. A royal salute will simultaneously be fired from the East Lawn in the Tower of London. This is going to be major. This is my Super Bowl. This is really my Super Bowl. Right? My whole life has led up to this moment. I have followed the royals every day probably since 2018. Really? 2012, if I go back and think about it. But I followed the royals every day since 2018. And now to be following President Trump and covering him, this is really incredible. I can't wait to watch this. I'll be getting up at 2am to cover everything, to see what's happening, because that's what we do here in the United States with the time zone change. This is going to be big. Okay? This is my Roman Empire, as the kids say on social media, seeing all of this. And I know the women. We're going to have to break down what First Lady Melania Trump is wearing. Okay? We're going to have to break down every outfit, every stitch, every heel, every moment of what First Lady Melania Trump is wearing in the UK we're all going to be so, so, so excited to see the looks, to see what Catherine is weari oh, my God. So, no, it's gonna be incredible. I'm obviously being a little cheeky right now, to use the British terminology, but, yeah, no, the trip is going to be incredible, right? They're gonna be at Windsor Castle. There's gonna be carriage rides and processions and this beautiful banquet and this beautiful state dinner where the king, King Charles will get up to speak, and then President Trump will get up to speak. And who knows, you know, some other folks might get up there to speak and want to say a few words as well. I think it's gonna be fun. I think they're gonna have a good time. Charles and Camilla are the consummate hosts. They have a relationship with President Trump. I heard last night, someone told me, I think King Charles, when he was Prince Charles, went to Mar a Lago to have tea with President Trump in 1988. Right. These people Go way back. They love each other, they revere each other. And so I couldn't be more excited. The first lady, Melania Trump, is set to host an event, some type of event with the Scouts at Frogmore Gardens. I think Frogmore Gardens with Princess Catherine. So seeing the first lady, Melania Trump, with Catherine, the Princess of Wales, these two women who are on the world stage under a microscope, come together to do something good and positive. It's going to be incredible. Now, some folks have written me, they say, do you think Meghan Markle will be making an appearance? These are obviously folks who don't follow the royals so closely. Meghan Markle will not be making an appearance. Okay, Meghan Markle, she might make an appearance at Soho House in Hollywood this weekend, right? She might make an appearance in Montecito at the Farmer's Market. It. She won't be here. Okay? I don't want to see Meghan Markle here. I shudder to think about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry coming back. I think Prince Harry will have a bit of fomo. I think Meghan Markle will try to upstage in some way what is going on. And Prince Harry is now becoming more desperate for press. He goes to have tea with his father. Of course, that gets out to the media. Then he goes to Ukraine to pay his respects. He's now decided he's going to be this real international man who knows how to solve crises, and he's gonna get involved in Ukraine. You know, the Ukraine war has been going on since February of 2022. It's nice. Prince Harry has realized there's a war in Ukraine, and he goes and he does a photo op. But as many of my royal friends know, the Sidley twins and Dan Wootton and so many know, these folks are royal disaster tourists. They're wannabe royals, but they're disaster tourists, right? They go around after the fires, the Palisades fire. They were traipsing through people's front yards and they lost everything. They had cameras following them and tmz, allegedly. So they're disaster tourists. I'm not shocked that Prince Harry went to Ukraine because he's desperate for a new grift and some new attention. And maybe Prince Harry thinks he can't even have peace with his family. Maybe he's going to try to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. That's what Prince Harry is trying to do. Maybe Prince Harry is like, you know what? I'm actually, actually a fool, but let me go try to broker peace between Putin and Zelensky let me go see how that goes down. But the world will be watching. The world will be watching President Trump, the first lady, Melania Trump and the royals. I can't wait to see what other members of the senior members of the royal family who attends this banquet, who, who attends the carriage procession. So it's just going to be incredible. We have more and more information which we'll get into on Wednesday because they'll actually have been there. But I just am so, so, so happy that they're doing this state visit. I think it's going to be great for the world to see. I think it's something positive this week. I think President Trump will be living his best life because of the pageantry and the fun and the red carpets. And I believe they're going to be flyovers and salutes. It's going to be incredible. And we'll be covering all of it here on Spot on with Link Lauren. I'll be covering it on all of my social media. If you follow me on Instagram at I am Link. If you follow me on X at it's Link Lauren. On TikTok, it's Link Lauren. So be sure to follow on all platforms because I will be following the minutiae of this trip as I've done with every big royal event since 2018. I don't know about you, but after I travel, my skin is dry. That's when Peak's Radiant Skin Duo came to the rescue. This doctor recommended duo, trusted by experts like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Will Cole supports whole body wellness from the inside out. Sun Goddess Matcha provides steady, calm energy throughout the day. Packed with L theanine for focus and EGCG antioxidants, it supports skin clarity and gut health. BT fountain electrolytes hydrate like nothing else and help lock moisture in, making skin look amazing. And Peak ensures all ingredients are free from heavy metals, pesticides and mold. If you need more hydration, then give Peak a try. Get 20% off plus a free frother and glass beaker here peaklife.com link Again, that's peaklife.com link well, my friends, thanks for tuning in to Spot on with Link Lauren. We love all of you. I'm sending love to all of you. Like I said earlier in the episode, I know there are some of you who live alone by yourselves. Maybe you're just feeling alone, maybe you're feeling down. Maybe the house is quiet. My house was quiet over the weekend as well and it had me just feeling like there was a little bit of a cloud over everything. But one thing I know about us, we are going to get through. We have the resolve. We can get through anything and we're going to be here to discuss it. All we can do is talk through and watch what unfolds. So I love all of you. Kiss your loved ones. We will be back on Wednesday. Breaking down President Trump's trip to the UK and of course what we know about the shooter Tyler Robinson and what's unfolding with that investigation. So I will see you guys on the next one. Bye.
- [46:20]
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- [46:50]
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