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- [00:04]
Charlie Kirk
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 will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You gotta stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a Turning Point USA College chapter. Go start a Turning Point USA 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. And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am, Lord. Use me. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble gold investments@noblegold investments.com, that is noblegoldinvestments.com.
- [01:18]
Andrew
all right. Welcome to the Charlie Kirk show. It is June 2nd. I can't believe it's already June. And it's June 2nd. We are here at the Y Refi studios in Phoenix, Arizona. How are we doing, Blake?
- [01:28]
Blake
My microphone remains flagless. What's the.
- [01:31]
Andrew
I'm gonna call the folks at Y Refi, see what we can get done for you. Blake, it's time to escalate this matter. I want to get right into it. The big story last night was that President Trump and Bibi Netanyahu, prime Minister of Israel, had a very tense conversation. That story was first reported by Axios. And one of the reporters on that byline is Mark Caputo. He's joining us now. Mark, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show. It's good to have you.
- [01:59]
Mark Caputo
Oh, great to be here.
- [02:01]
Andrew
Your story yesterday in Axios caused quite the stir. The headline is, you're effing crazy. Trump fumes at Netanyahu in call on Lebanon. The subtitle is, you'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your behind, Mark. This, like I said, caused quite the stir yesterday. Tell us about your reporting and do you stand by it now?
- [02:26]
Mark Caputo
Oh, certainly. We spoke to multiple senior administration officials with knowledge of the call who we have used as sources of accurate information before. And the reason we were able to report this first is over the weekend, my colleague Barack Ravid and I had done a story about how Trump had made an amendment change to the Iran peace plan. You know, that he's hoping to strike with the government there. And during the reporting of that over the weekend, one of our sources had told us that Netanyahu wanted Lebanon to be included in the peace plan, but Trump thought it was too complicated. Then the next day, on Saturday, or better said on Sunday, the Israeli military just unleashed holy hell in Lebanon. And knowing what I know of the administration and the fact that there have been some concerns for quite some time that Netanyahu himself might not be fully committed to the peace process the way the United States was, I figured that this would greatly upset President Trump. So we began calling based on that hunch, knowing what we know. And indeed, people told us that this was the contents of the conversation. This wasn't just one person we spoke to. It was two people who are impeccably, who are impeccable sources, as well as another person who was briefed more on the call and didn't have as much knowledge of it. So all of their accounts lined up. They came in separately and that's why we ran the story.
- [04:03]
Blake
Now, Mark, we don't always get a glimpse behind the scenes of President Trump's negotiations with world leaders. We know he can be a very forward, aggressive individual. So setting the context for our viewers and listeners, is this a significant shift in how President Trump and Bibi Netanyahu have interacted in the past? Does this seem like a significant development or have they had some pretty fractious interactions like this before?
- [04:32]
Mark Caputo
They have in the past. We've reported them at the time that when Netanyahu unleashed some strikes in Syria last year, it really rankled President Trump. And there have been other times. For instance, when the Gaza peace deal was being hammered out, Trump also had some very frank conversations with him. They have a very long standing relationship. They have shared political advisors in the past. I would consider them to be sort of brothers, but brothers who sometimes fight, not quite like Cain and Abel, but can sometimes come to some pretty serious trading of words, let's say. And so this was very consistent with that relationship. So you didn't quite ask this question, but if someone would think that there's some sort of rupture between the two that would be permanent, I don't think so.
- [05:18]
Andrew
All right, so, Mark, the issue then is Lebanon. So you mentioned that they unleashed holy hell on southern Lebanon. I have two questions. It does feel reasonable to me that if Israel's getting struck for from terrorist cells that are supported by Iran out of southern Lebanon, that that should be a separate piece of the deal here. How is the administration looking at those two pieces? Now, Israel has said that they're going to continue defending themselves and there's been no change. Is that how you understand it?
- [05:48]
Mark Caputo
That's how we understand it. And let's face it, this is a complicated, dynamic chessboard where the pieces just happen to be firing at each other with advanced weaponry. And the complication in this entire matter is that Iran, certainly from the perspective of the United States, is a bad actor that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. And Hezbollah is one of its long standing proxies. And there is a belief and an understanding by Trump himself, as well as a belief in the administration, that Iran is probably stoking Hezbollah or some aspects or some factions in Iran are stoking Hezbollah to attack Israel, knowing it's going to promote or prompt this response from Netanyahu, which can then be used as an excuse to scuttle the entire peace talks. And that is part of the sort of complications of figuring out what's really happening in the Middle east and how peace can happen. Because the reality is the dysfunction is such, where there are a number of people and a number of factions and groups that just sort of want to stay in perpetual war. And that's one of the things President Trump doesn't want to engage in. However, the reality is the United States did launch these attacks initially on Iran. So we're sort of in the thick of it now.
- [07:04]
Andrew
Yeah. I mean, as we often say on the show, you can choose when to start a war, but you can't necessarily choose when to end it. But this dynamic we think of command and control in the terms of the United States, right, where we have a president, a secretary of war, and it flows down from there. What is your reporting saying or showing, Mark, on the command and control structure of the Iranian regime at this point? Is it possible there's rogue elements that are fueling this and the moderates are trying to, you know, put keep them at bay? Explain that dynamic, Mark.
- [07:37]
Mark Caputo
That's a good question as to like, who's really in charge. One of the problems that the United States is experiencing is it's become a victim of its own success. One of the reasons they launched the attack the way it was, the reason President Trump greenlit it, was to decapitate a lot of the leadership in Iran that succeeded. However, Iran was expecting this and has been war gaming this for some time. And it's formed what's called the Mosaic Doctrine. It has a diffuse power Structure that was designed to withstand a decapitating blow. So you have sort of these independent or quasi independent operators in different factions in the IRGC and in the Iranian military property. And so different groups are probably acting in different ways. Some want to have a peace deal, others don't. And those who don't necessarily want a peace deal have a much easier time making sure that there's war.
- [08:33]
Andrew
Yeah, this is super fascinating. So I just want to reiterate, I tweeted out your story yesterday, Mark. I got immediate blowback from, I would say, people that want to see the regime overthrown in Iran. I just wanna double check you stand by your reporting. You also broke the day before President Trump. Okay, 100%. You also broke the day before that President Trump was. They were getting rid of the weaponization fund. And that has proven to be accurate. So I've known you for a bit, Mark. You've reported on us, on Charlie. You've, you've always been pretty fact based and so I took it pretty seriously when you put this out there. So we'll see what happens.
- [09:18]
Mark Caputo
Mark Caputo, understand my colleague Barack Ravid has a very long and excellent track history in reporting both in the United States and in the Middle east on these matters. I felt a little more nervous about putting out what turned out to be the accurate report about Trump scrapping the weaponization fund than I did about this report about the Trump Bibi phone call. That is the report that wound up being confirmed as true. I initially had more concerns about it, whether it was true or not, but that was true. And I'm very confident that my sources here are not lying to me.
- [09:52]
Andrew
Yeah. Well, Mark, thanks for making the time. I know you're traveling. Thanks for calling in. We will watch this situation closely in any new reporting we have on. But first blush, when I saw it, Mark, I was like, oh, President Trump swearing on a phone call to a world leader doesn't strike me as extraordinarily groundbreaking, but man, oh man, did it cause a stir. So thank you, Mark. We'll talk to you soon.
- [10:17]
Mark Caputo
Yes, sir, thank you. I hope to talk to you soon. Bye.
- [10:21]
Andrew
All right, so I want to get into this story a little bit. So we just had Mark Caputo on, who was one of the reporters that broke that story, Blake. And instantly. I mean, I put it out there because I thought it was noteworthy and I saw Mark's name on it. I know Mark to be a pretty legit reporter. He's by, by the way, just so you know, a little bit of Mark's backstory. He was working at NBC and he wasn't giving into the woke crap. He's not a Jew hater and they fired him. So he's a great intrepid old school journalist who just tell, he just gets scoops. That's his thing. He just gets scoops. There's no like, he's like Mark Halpern. Yeah. He's not trying to get the admin. He's not trying to get BB I found it very interesting and I will tell you as somebody that we talk to a lot of students. We have a lot of students on this show. We, we're going to be doing a special from our CLS event with all our students. We're going to interview a bunch of them, have them on the show and get their thoughts. Again. It's so important that this audience is in tune with what young Americans are thinking. And they're telling us at turning point when they're tabling on campus, they don't know how to defend two things. Two things. They have people come up and they challenge their ideas. They want to debate them. Those two things are Epstein and pedophiles and Israel and Iran.
- [11:35]
Blake
And those attacks are, it's one thing, it's inevitable. People are going to complain about the war with Iran. There are people who dislike it. There are people who think we shouldn't be having it. But there's another dimension of these attacks which is very crass. And they'll just say, oh, Trump is Benjamin Netanyahu's puppet. He's Bibi's puppet. And those people are often, they tie it together with the Epstein thing where they'll say, President Trump protects pedophiles.
- [12:05]
Andrew
And so when you see a story like this where it's so clearly it exposes the lie at the root that Trump is not Bibi's puppet. Bibi and Trump often are of one mind when it comes to things. And when that happens, you will see them take collective action. But there is a very serious flaw in the theory that President Trump's just getting dog walked into things. Trump, okay, so we go back to the New York Times report. Everybody's in the Situation Room. Bibi Netanyahu, which Benny Johnson said Bibi shouldn't have been in the situation. I'm actually sympathetic to that. It does seem odd that a foreign leader would be in there. But nevertheless, he was a guest of the president. So they're in there and, and they give an assessment, an intel assessment of what's going to happen if you strike Iran and guys like JD Vance are publicly on the record saying, I think this is a dumb idea. Marco Rubio said, listen, if your goal is to take out the nukes and the missiles, sure. But if your goal is to regime change, this is stupid. This is a garbage report. President Trump liked what he saw because he's always wanted to take out Iran. He's always wanted to take out Iranian nuclear capabilities. Okay, so there is a misconception that Trump is getting dog walked into something. When Trump sees intel that confirms what he wants already to do, which has already been his stated goal and purpose, then sure, he's gonna find common cause. But when it comes to the fact that Israel is not playing ball in Lebanon and he wants to see that conflict simmer down so it doesn't rock the boat with the Iranian peace negotiations, something he's very committed to, then they are at different ends of the policy. So he's going to exert his position.
- [13:48]
Blake
President Trump likes to get what he wants. Shockingly, yeah, it doesn't matter. That's why he's been president twice, in part because they almost. They said he couldn't do it. And similarly, there's a lot of things he does because people say it can't be done or other people have failed to do it. He's that kind of. He's a winner. He likes to get wins that he thinks nobody else has been able to do.
- [14:09]
Andrew
And he doesn't fall back on common misconceptions or the foreign policy establishment perception or conclusion that XYZ can't be done. He's like, I can force this through by my sheer will and my force of person.
- [14:24]
Blake
President Trump's self conception of himself is winner. He is a winner who gets wins, whether you agree or not. That is how he sees himself. That is how he wants to define his legacy. Now, like we said, some people think the Iran war is a mistake. I think starting the Iran war was a mistake on balance. But it is something President Trump chose to do. And I don't think he chose to do it because he has some guy in Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem dog walking him the whole time and calling him and saying, do this. And he's like, yes, yes, master. Which is the line that crazies are
- [14:57]
Andrew
putting on the camera. So let me just play this clip. So this is. I consider Megyn Kelly, a friend. I don't know Sean Ryan. Obviously, there's been a lot of controversy around Megan with some of her Israel commentary and other things. She's on the other side of President Trump right now. But they did a podcast where they talk about what MAGA is. And I'm playing this clip because I think they recorded this before this Axio story broke. But this is the misconception. This is the messaging that's going out there to so many people. Sat 31, it's Core Maga.
- [15:27]
Mark Caputo
Now.
- [15:27]
Mike Cavanagh
I have no idea.
- [15:29]
Unidentified Speaker 1
I think I know Trump has said
- [15:30]
Norton Rainey
from the beginning, pedophile supporting Israeli lobby.
- [15:33]
Steve Hilton
I mean, I have no idea.
- [15:35]
Unidentified Speaker 1
Need a different acronym. But Trump has said from the beginning that he defines what MAGA is. MAGA is what I say it is. He has said, and he's not wrong. It's his moniker, it's his campaign slogan. And all along he's defined what is and is not maga. And he told me personally, maga will feel the way I want them to feel. I'll tell them how to feel about this, that or the other thing, and they will. And he has been totally right on that. The problem for Trump now is that he has defined MAGA literally to those who agree with Mark Levin. If you don't agree with Mark Levin, you're not maga, which means you must be a neocon whose main issue is what's in the best interests of Israel.
- [16:21]
Andrew
So I play that clip for you to explain how deep this narrative goes within, like, the Internet circles and the dark wet. Like, if you support President Trump, they are trying to basically say, not just necessarily Megan or. But Sean seems to say it pretty directly right there, that you are a neocon, that you are a pedo protector, that you are an Israel firster or whatever sort of pejorative they're slinging at you, when the truth is probably much more closely aligned with the fact that President Trump wants what's best in the interest of America. And he has made the decision to attack Iran. He made that decision himself. Now you can disagree with it. Blake and I have been skeptical about this Iran war from the jump. I think Charlie was very skeptical about going into Iran. But Charlie also understood that we elected President Trump to make hard decisions, and he has proven not to get us into endless quagmires. Now, Iran is the greatest challenge yet, and he's trying to get out, and he wants peace, and he's going to tell everybody in his way to get the heck out. And that's what you're seeing in this Axio story. Reveal. Before he ever stepped onto a debate stage or behind a microphone, Charlie understood something important. If you want to lead, you have to learn first. Charlie believed that ideas shape character, conviction and give you courage. That's why he spent years studying the classics, the American founding and the Bible through Hillsdale College's free online courses. He's these are real college courses taught by actual Hillsdale professors. One of those courses is Great Books 101, Ancient to Medieval, where you'll study foundational authors like Homer, Augustine, Dante and Chaucer, writers who shape Western civilization and still speak to the deepest questions about human nature, virtue, courage, family and self government. The course includes Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the epic stories of Achilles and Odysseus the that have influenced the west for thousands of years. And this summer, Hillsdale College is releasing a brand new course dedicated entirely to Homer's odyssey. Great Books 101 is the perfect way to prepare before the full Odyssey course launches in July. Charlie understood that learning isn't just about gaining knowledge. It's about forming the mind and character needed to face the challenges of life with wisdom and courage. You can enroll today completely free, 100% free, just by visiting CharlieForHillsdale.com that's CharlieForHillsdale.com to start learning today. CharlieForHillsdale.com learn deeply, think clearly, lead boldly. Carry it forward with Hillsdale College. Alright, we have a very special segment. Many of you in the audience are gonna know that we had a guest, I guess about a month ago, just lit me on fire. I couldn't believe it. The teachers unions are running amok. They're basically a super PAC for the Democrat party and they're protecting child abusers. They're doing all kinds of terrible things. And the way you break the back of the teachers unions in this country is something called school choice. It's very simple and parents love it. Students thrive on it. And the Democrats and the progressives seem to hate it for some reason. But we have two amazing guests here in studio that are gonna help us unpack this and what you can do in the audience to take advantage of something that was inside the one big beautiful bill. And that is Norton Rainey, CEO of Ace Scholarships, and Natasha Harris, co founder of Colorado Christian Academy. Welcome to you both.
- [19:42]
Norton Rainey
Thank you.
- [19:43]
Andrew
Norton, I've known you for a while now. It's good to see you, sir. You too. All right, so I want to make sure I got my facts straight. There's something called the Education Freedom Tax Credit. Okay, Norton, I'm going to start with you. What is the Education Freedom Tax Credit? And how, how do people watching here, whether they're grandparents, parents or their students themselves, how do they take Advantage of this.
- [20:08]
Norton Rainey
Well, first of all, what an honor it is to be on the Charlie Kirk Show. It big fan of you. Thank you so much for just this flame, this light that you keep going in our country. The Education Freedom Tax Credit is truly an exciting opportunity for our country. It's actually a groundbreaking opportunity passed into law last year in the big beautiful bill, President Trump signed this. And where every single state in America has the ability now and every person in America to claim a seventeen hundred dollar federal tax credit when they donate money to a program like ACE scholarships or a scholarship granting organization. And what that now means is that Americans have the ability to give money, receive a credit so kids can go to a great private school, they can homeschool their kids and even children that are in a public school and have the ability to use this money for before and after school programs. So this is a all encompassing program that is good for America. And the reason why it's so critical to your point about the union stronghold we have in America is that we have a crisis in America. We have kids right now that are being left behind. It's a two party system, so to speak. You've got the haves and the have nots. You've got those with money and those with money, they put their kid into a private school or live in a neighborhood where a good public school exists. But if you're poor, you're oftentimes trapped in a school in a zip code that's not performing well for you. So what the Education Freedom Tax Credit will do, it will level the playing field now so that we can actually live the American dream for our children where they can be educated, they can graduate, they can go to college, the trades, the military. But most importantly, whatever they decide to do, they are educated and they have a foundation that now prepares them for life.
- [21:53]
Andrew
I totally agree. And by the way, I just want people to understand, I met Norton through Charlie. Charlie challenged Norton to grow ace because Charlie identified this problem long ago. He was ahead of the curve, naturally. And so I mean, you guys have been around for what, 26 years? 121,000 scholarships, like $400 million delivered in scholarship. So you got a proven track record. And now this eftc, this Education Freedom Tax Credit comes along. And so if I'm a parent and you guys have seized the opportunity, I think it's so great because it's so important. So if I'm a parent and I've got my kid in a failing public school, my state has opted into this, by the way, Arizona's not opting in because we have Katie Hobbs. Another reason we need to get Andy Biggs elected here. So. So the state ops in that then makes me eligible to take my kid out of a failing public school. I can the money that I pay for tuition, I then get a tax credit on. Is that how it works? Or my maybe I can't afford it, but my parents want to chip in and help my kids.
- [23:00]
Norton Rainey
Well, the way you leverage the tax credit is that you give the 1700 and then when you file your taxes the next year, that's where you receive a refund on your money when you file those taxes. Thirty states to date have opted in the program. And so that's the first thing that must happen. A governor have to say, yes, we want this program in our state. And to the credit of a couple Democratic governors, we have New York and also Colorado, where our home state, where ACE was founded. Governor Jared Polis was one of the first people to opt in this program because he saw the value in education even in a state that tends to be blue. So when the governor opts in, beginning in January 2027, what we'll start doing today is collecting donations of 1700 and then the next year when they file their taxes, they get that money back. What this will do is that we're going to go from a program that currently is serving 16,000 kids per year to hundreds of thousands of kids to unlocking possibilities for kids to go to the school of their choice to fill seats in private schools. And what we really love is competition in America. We think competition makes everyone better. And through this program now, what's going to happen is that all boats will rise, including even public schools.
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Andrew
That's the beauty of this program, by the program. I totally agree with that. Yeah, go ahead, Blake.
- [24:16]
Blake
Well, yeah, it's like a lot of these unions that we've grappled with, they hate the idea of competition because as long as they have everyone stuck going with what they have to offer, they have no expectations.
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Andrew
Monopoly.
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Blake
Yeah, it's a monopoly. And what can monopolies do? They can jack up the prices, effectively taxes their own pay. They don't need to deliver a high quality product. The pressure is very low on them. I mean, look what happened during COVID where teachers could say we demand you shut down schools.
- [24:46]
Andrew
And then they could.
- [24:46]
Blake
We don't want to go back because we feel it's unsafe or whatever. And you're going to learn through a laptop.
- [24:51]
Andrew
This is a great transition, Natasha. So you have a massive background in private school. So I have what Blake just described. During COVID the public schools where I was at were all closed down, but we were sending our kids to a Christian private school and they just got creative. They took everything outside. You know, this is early days. We didn't, you know, so they were trying to be cautious, but all the education happened outside. None of the kids wore a mask. Our kids had no idea Covid was even happening because the Christian school got creative and they, they decided locally, hey, we're going to keep learning, we're going to keep meeting in person. And it benefited and blessed my children tremendously. You have this background. You understand the power of private school, private education, Christian education. So explain that to the audience right now.
- [25:37]
Natasha Harris
Yeah, thank you for that. I think it goes back to the family, right? It goes back to the parents who knows their children most deeply. They know their strengths, their weaknesses, their hopes, their dreams. And so we, when you look at our education system and you say we live in the land of the free, but education, we don't have that choice most times, right? There's financial barriers to making that choice for our kids to be able to go to private schools or another public school that suits their kids needs. And so this really, I'm excited about it because no different than Covid, right, Where you have innovation that comes into play to really serve the child. That's what we should be doing in education. Come where they are and what their needs are and what their hopes and dreams and, and academic goals are and meet them where they're at. Right? We can do that with this freedom tax credit because we put the money back in the hands of the parents and the parents can make that decision of what school best suits their family and aligns with their value.
- [26:36]
Andrew
I love that. And gosh, I just, I can just tell you I've lived it. And Arizona, they're trying to claw back the school choice that Governor Ducey, by the way. People disagree, love Ducey, hate Ducey, whatever. Ducey is a freaking hero in my book because Arizona is leading the pack when it comes to school choice. You get a $7,500 credit every year to send your kids wherever you want. And the public teachers unions hate it. But what has happened in Arizona, you have this thriving entrepreneurial spirit around education. You know, where my kids go, they've got like a 800 person waiting list. The school was only formed a couple years ago and it's thriving. And the kids are thriving because they're doing things a different way. They're getting Back to classical education. They're inspiring, entrepreneurship, all this thing. The public schools are trapped in a hell of their own making. But then they control all this political power. And when you break the back of that, you unleash the American spirit in this way. Right, Norton? I mean, that's what we're talking about.
- [27:33]
Blake
It's such a huge win. You think of where, if you have a child, where are they going to spend most of their, like, more hours than anywhere else in the first 18 years of their life? It's going to be in schools. And you can cede that to the state, to actors like unionized teachers that we know are ideologically left wing. We know what they love to push. And for, as you say, I think Governor Ducey has to be considered a hero because he is freeing up what is by far the most important thing that your child is going to do.
- [28:05]
Andrew
Go ahead.
- [28:05]
Norton Rainey
Oh, I was just going to say, to your point about the K12 system, a child will be in school for 10,000 hours from kindergarten through 12th grade. And when you think about that, the book Good to Great he talks about in that book, excellence actually is achieved by 10,000 hours of doing something really well. The same is true if you're in a school system for 10,000 hours and you're not being educated and you're in the wrong place. That's not good for you. You're going to have an opposite effect and that child will not do well. Depression, anxiety and suicide are greater than ever before. But the beauty is we know that there is a choice. There is a hope right now where you can do something so that every child can be educated. What Arizona has done is remarkable. What 30 plus states around the country have done already, opting in this program is awesome because that's good for children and it's good for America. It now is going to enable people to be educated and that's good economically for our country so that children are not reliant on the government for their support.
- [29:01]
Andrew
Give us a story, Norton, to bring this home of how this actually is impacting lives.
- [29:06]
Norton Rainey
Well, number one, the results are undeniable. We have so many data points about how well our kids are doing. But like you said, it really comes down to the stories of our kids and our parents and how they're being benefited by school choice. And about three months ago, the president reached out to us and said that we're going to do a feature on school choice for Black History Month. And we won a story. And so I had the honor of going to the White House with a lady named Greta Alexander, who is a mother of a beautiful girl named Miracle in Dallas, Texas. And her story is heartbreaking, and it's also remarkable. At the same time, she had an older son and he was subjected to a school that wasn't working for him. He got involved in the wrong audience and crowd and sadly, he committed suicide. He lost his life. And she said, I made a promise to make sure that my younger daughter, Miracle would be educated and that she would be in an environment that was positive and affirming for who she is. And because of ACE scholarships, her daughter Miracle was able to go to a great private school in Dallas. And she truly is a miracle. She turned her life around. She's graduating from high school this year. And when Greta stood on the stage with the president next to him and said, Mr. President, what you have done by signing this piece of legislation, the Education Freedom Tax Credit, is not just going to benefit me, it's going to benefit the hundreds of thousands of moms just like me who are looking for hope, who are looking for a school, but right now are subjected to a school that's not working for our children. So you are literally saving lives, not just academically, but also you are changing lives for people now have the ability to thrive. These stories are real. We see right now, once again, depression, anxiety and suicide greater than ever. But conversely, like you mentioned, with your kids and how they're thriving, children who are in the right environment, they smile, they're happy, and they're also optimistic about their life. And that's what we see at ACE with the more than 121,000 students who've been served and are close to 100% who graduate. These are real lives of kids who now have a chance to make it in this world. And that's a power school choice.
- [31:08]
Andrew
Our country's stronger for it. Maybe. Natasha, talk about what this means to some of these private schools, too, right? I mean, what a massive boon for them as well, right?
- [31:18]
Natasha Harris
Yeah, it's an absolute game changer. I mean, this is exponentially going to change the landscape of education in the United States, taking individual credit programs like ESAs. I know that Arizona has that program, and we have each of these individual states with these programs. But at a national level now, we're going to see the opportunity for hundreds of thousands of scholarships. So let's say that 10% of taxpayers that have a $1,700 tax liability participate. That's almost $10 billion that's going to flow into private scholarship.
- [31:52]
Andrew
Oh, my Gosh, if you realize how big this problem is and what that can mean to change the landscape of education in this country. And listen, at Turning Point, we're so focused on the next generation. You, you realize in a very innate way how young they're getting the kids in these indoctrination factories and just the dead end education. So to hear potentially $10 billion, maybe more, right? I mean, it's just the more people that take advantage of this, the more money's gonna flow into private education, classical education, hybrid education. The opportunity is immense. And you think about this kind of Trump accounts, thinking about this next generation. Some of the stuff in the big beautiful bill is truly revolutionary for our country in the best of ways. Okay, so we have to get down to it. You gotta talk, Norton. There's people in the audience that probably don't even really understand what the tax credit is, how to take advantage of it. Like the whole point of this, I want you in the audience to feel empowered with your kids education, your grandkids education, whatever that is. You have to know what you're talking about. So break it down in layman's terms. Like what's a tax credit? How do they take advantage of it? When can they take advantage of it? How to do it?
- [33:00]
Norton Rainey
Well, number one is that most families in America will qualify. The qualifying metric is 300% of your median income in your neighborhood. And that means that a lot of families who make $400,000 and less per year will qualify. So that means most Americans will have access. This is not only for certain people, it is basically for everyone. Secondly is that your state has to opt in when they opt in. That means you now have the power. So if you are a parent, encourage, encourage your governor to opt in this program. And the beginning in January 2027, you can actually make a seventeen hundred dollar gift to a program like ACE Scholarships. You can make that a one time gift. You can do multiple payments over the year to make it easier when you spread those payments out.
- [33:40]
Andrew
So it's just you max out per person, per taxpayer at 1700 though, right?
- [33:45]
Norton Rainey
That's right.
- [33:45]
Andrew
Okay, so, but I can use your feature at ACE Scholarships to do it, right?
- [33:50]
Norton Rainey
That's right.
- [33:51]
Mark Caputo
Good luck.
- [33:51]
Andrew
What's the website, what's the, what's the website that you, that they should go to?
- [33:55]
Norton Rainey
It's educationfreedomtaxcredit.org and at that point we will put you on our list and we will inform you and we will coach you how to make sure that you can take advantage of this beginning in January 2027. It is a no brainer. It's not like a traditional tax deduction for a charity. You truly do receive this money back. It cost you nothing and it means you're radically transforming America's kids will not have hope in their families. And you personally may also benefit not just financially, but also with your kids receiving money as well.
- [34:24]
Andrew
That's excellent. I mean, so your promise to this audience is that through that website, educationfreedomtaxcredit.org you make it super simple.
- [34:33]
Norton Rainey
Absolutely.
- [34:34]
Andrew
So like that person out there that hates paperwork and all that stuff, you make it.
- [34:39]
Norton Rainey
This will be a seamless process and we're so proud. We've developed a technology product which is like an HSA program that will make it a end to end product which is going to be seamless for you as a donor, a parent and a school. Also, if you're a school, sign up as well. We can serve you and take care of the administrative support. And then the other thing too, which is really important for people to understand because this is really critical, is that when you invest in education, you're investing in America, you're investing in a better country. And without education, people don't have a chance for you to level the playing field.
- [35:10]
Andrew
This has been really informative, guys. I hope that you in the audience realize that you are empowered now and to bless your kids, your grandkids, in ways that you have not been able to do before. And the you get $1700 back. There's $10 billion injected into the private school ecosystem in this country. Help make it better, make it great again. We're seeing in Arizona, I'm telling you, it is a breakthrough. You can break the backs of the unions and you can ensure that the next generation has the proper education that they need. So thank you guys for coming.
- [35:42]
Norton Rainey
Thank you.
- [35:45]
Andrew
As an advocate of truth, you know that women shouldn't have to share locker rooms with men, women shouldn't have to compete against male athletes, and they shouldn't be punished for speaking the truth. But across America, that's exactly what's happening. Men are being allowed to compete in women's sports, robbing girls of scholarships, medals, titles and safety. Now, the U.S. supreme Court has heard two cases, West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. That could decide the future of women's sports nationwide. This could be a watershed moment in the fight to protect biological reality and fairness. Alliance Defending Freedom needs your voice today. Visit joinadf.com charlie that's joinadf.com charlie or text charlie to 83848. That's charlie to 83848 to add your name to their declaration and, and side with the truth and fairness. That's joinadf.com charlie or text charlie to 83848 what starts in women's sports spreads to school medicine, parental rights. This is our moment to push back. Stand with alliance, defending freedom. Stand with women. Do it today. Join ADF.com Charlie our state to the west, you might have heard of it, it's called California. They got a big election today. And listen, we're pulling out all the stops for the next governor of the great state of California. And that's Steve Hilton who joins us now. Steve, welcome back.
- [37:17]
Steve Hilton
Hey guys, great to be with you.
- [37:18]
Andrew
Yeah. Well, listen, you've got a lot going on today, so thank you for making the time. Give us the state of play. I'm seeing and I don't like it, Steve. I'm seeing polls with a certain former cabinet official of the Biden years up at the top and I don't like that at all. What is the state of play?
- [37:40]
Steve Hilton
So I think that the accurate way to say it is that we're now in a three horse race in California for two spots. We have this insane system, the top two. That means you could have two Democrats because the other two are Democrats. You've got Biden's useless former HHS secretary Javier Becerra, and you've got the billionaire climate fanatic Tom Steyer, who spent now $200 million more than that, $220 million of his trying to buy this election. Now here's what we're looking at with the polls. In the last week we've had a huge number of polls. Most of them have shown me in the top two, some of them leading, some of them second. One of them showed me actually third, one point behind Tom Steyer. And the truth is when we look at these polls, they're all telling the same story. It's getting tighter at the top because the Democrats are consolidating some of their lower. You see it right there. Katie Porter, she was on 12 or 13 points about two weeks ago. Now she's right down in single digits. So that's what's going on. The most important thing to bear in mind though is that when we look at our internal polls and some of the polls that have been out there run by campaigns, including a poll from a well respected Democrat poll, so last Friday that had me leading at 27, Becerra at 26, Stire at 22, here's the important point. It had Chad Bianco, the other Republican, at 9. And so the first point to make is that in this, if this was a regular primary as we have in most other states, then I'll have won the Republican primary by landslide in these polls. We're doubling Chad Bianco's vote in all the polls. And that's the really important point here that I want to emphasize to everyone who's listening and watching in California. We've got an amazing, actually outside of California, wants to help turn our state around because it's so important for America. We've got a really important opportunity this year. It's a golden opportunity because you can see it in the energy around Spencer Pratt's campaign in L. A. You can see it on the road when we're going up and down the state, the crowds that are coming to our events. There is real hunger for change in California this year. That's not just hyperbole. You can see it in the numbers. There's, in every poll, a majority, a clear majority, sometimes as high as 60%, say that the state is going in the wrong direction. In other words, in the general election in November, I truly believe we can win because the level of anger at what's gone on with the homelessness, the crime, the chaos, gas prices, housing costs, the taxes, the fraud, all the level of anger is off the charts. And so we really can win this year, especially because the other Democrat, these Democrat candidates are so bad, they got nothing positive to offer. They were offering no change. That won't happen unless you get me in the top two. So actually, in some ways, I think the general election is going to be easier to navigate than this primary today. The most important point, people have to bear in mind, if you're, if you're a voter in California and you're thinking, Steve looks like he's got this in most of the polls, he's in the top two. Let's try and get Chad Bianco in the top two and vote for him. That is a disastrous mistake. He's too far behind. It's not going to happen. Every vote for him or for any other candidate than me actually makes it more likely we'll get two Democrats, which is a disaster. So please take that very seriously. Make sure you vote today and for the only candidate who can realistically get in the top two, and that's me.
- [41:09]
Andrew
Yeah, and I saw you were on Laura Ingram show yesterday last evening. You called directly, or you and Laura sort of collectively called for Chad Bianco to drop out. I got nothing against Chad Bianco, per se, but, like, he's got no chance here. Okay, so have you been in contact? Is this, Is he. Is he signaling anything like the. Your weight behind? Steve, have we gotten any follow through here?
- [41:33]
Steve Hilton
No, we've tried, believe me. I mean, weeks ago, I tried. Many others have tried as well. I think we've got to the point where it's clear that he's not going to do that. So I'm really appealing directly to his supporters. And I make the same point as you. Nothing personal. I have the highest respect for the campaign he's run for the service he's given in law enforcement for many, many decades. We agree on pretty much every policy error that was very evident during the TV debates. You have a good relationship. Very. You know, it's nothing personal. It really isn't. And in fact, I've said very clearly I would love to have Chad on the team. Let's work together to save California, whatever role he would like. But that hasn't unlocked the path to a conversation, I'm afraid. And so I'm just appealing directly to Chad's supporters. And again, I want to say very clearly, I respect that. I don't want to talk you out of that, except to say this. We all want the same thing to save California. Chad does. That's why he's put himself out there this year, everyone who's supporting him. And right now, it's not about the personalities or even the policies. It's actually just about the math. It's very. I hate that that's the case with this system, but it is. And so let's not throw away this chance.
- [42:44]
Andrew
Yeah, I agree. I have to play this. I don't want to discourage anybody from voting. So if you have a ballot or if you don't and you want to go vote, go vote in California today. Go vote in person, drop your ballot off, whatever you got to do. I don't care which way you do it. Steve, I don't know if you have direct action items of how you prefer people doing this, but this story came out yesterday. I just want to get your quick. It's a quick clip. Get your reaction to it and encourage voters despite it to get out.
- [43:11]
Natasha Harris
Sat 27 vote by mail ballots were found burned inside a ballot box in Los Angeles. Check.
- [43:18]
Andrew
Just two days before the California primaries, election officials discovered the damaged ballots and
- [43:24]
Natasha Harris
they filed a report with the police department.
- [43:26]
Andrew
They say a separate voting center was also vandalized. Okay, again, I only Bring it up, because I want you to address those people in the audience, Steve, that are thinking why it doesn't matter or anything like that. Tell them. Give them the marching orders right now. Steve.
- [43:43]
Steve Hilton
Yeah. Thank you. And look, there's so much wrong with the election system here. This insane sending out ballots to everybody when we know that the voter rolls are so wrong. But here's the. And these drop. The whole thing is ridiculous. But of course, we can only change it if we actually get elected. And that's why the most important message here is the President's words in 2024, make it too big to rig. That's the most important thing to bear in mind. Every single vote counts. Every single one. The other thing I'll just say is, actually, even here in California, we're seeing some progress thanks to the Trump administration and in fact, my running mate, Attorney General, which is that we've actually, because of lawsuits filed by the federal government, the cleanup of the voter rolls is really happening in California. Millions and millions of incorrect names have been removed from the voter rolls just in the last year. That's real progress. The second thing that's a big deal is that this insanity that we have in California, which is they count the votes even if they arrive up to seven days after election Day. And there's been so many reports of shenanigans around, around that people writing the date on the ballot that's actually cast after election Day and pretending it was sent in before. Well, the Supreme Court is now looking at a case. We expect a ruling, could be any day that will make that illegal. Nationwide Election day is Election Day, and that's it that I'm sure will be in effect for our general election in November in California. And so the system is getting better, but the only way to be sure we can get in a position to change it is to go vote today, if you haven't already.
- [45:23]
Andrew
Yeah. And, guys, I just thank you for that. Steve, the system's getting better. There are changes. The voter rolls have been cleaned up. Some still work to do. But these are all wind in our sails right here to get Steve over the finish line and get him in the top two. So do not lose faith. The worst thing you could do, whether you're big Pratt supporter, you were a big Steve Hilton supporter in California, is to give in denialism into doomerism. Just get out and get it done today. Get your ballot in the box, go in person, hand it off in person. Whatever it is you got to do. Tell your boss, you got to take a Long lunch, whatever. Get your ballot in today. Get behind Steve Hilton. We have to have a viable Republican candidate in the state of California. That is step one. Step two, Steve. And you know this well, we've got voter ID on the ballot in November. That's going to be more wind in our sails. The base is going to be motivated to get out, and California needs to change desperately. Steve Hilton, we got your back. Vote Steve Hilton today. Do it. Do it now. Do it for California. Do it for the country. Steve, we got your back. We're praying for a great result tonight.
- [46:25]
Steve Hilton
Thank you, guys. Appreciate it very much. Thanks.
- [46:30]
Andrew
All right, I want to get into something because I've been texting back and forth with Rich Barris, who we have on the show a lot. He's a pollster and he keeps sending me these signals. He's like, Andrew, you don't understand. They're getting more and more radical. The Democrat Party of the last generation is dead. They are beholden to the activist base and slowly are being transformed into, into DSA. Most Democrats essentially ascribe to socialism 100%. So they're not like capitalists that like to distribute the wealth? No, they're actually legitimately socialists now. So when you get blackpilled on President Trump, if you're tempted to give in denialism or doomerism, do you not understand that what we're up against is a socialist behemoth that is growing in size and they're becoming more and more radicalized? I mean, if you want to comment
- [47:25]
Blake
on that, it's a tremendous crisis because, yeah, we, we, but we lucked out in America, frankly, that the Democrat Party has always been left wing. But we dodged having this very large socialist, overtly Marxist party. The way is very common in Europe. It's very common throughout the Third World. Unfortunately, we have imported the Third world to America and we've imported Third World ideologies. And that means we have young people, the Hasan Piker, followers of this world. The AOC followers of this world. The as we're about to see, Bernie Sanders, followers of this world who actually just embrace socialism, government ownership of the means of production and abolishing private ownership of things. Abolishing private property.
- [48:09]
Andrew
Yeah. So let's just go ahead and play this. This is Bernie Sanders. This is big new idea. Millions of engagements. It's not a new idea. This is as old as Marxism itself. But nevertheless, he's presenting it as a new idea. 32. In the coming weeks, I will introduce the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. This legislation would give the public a direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America through a one time 50% tax, not on profits, but on stock. It would guarantee that the trillions potentially
- [48:49]
Mike Cavanagh
created by AI are used to improve
- [48:52]
Andrew
the lives of all of us, not simply to make the richest people on earth even richer. So, Blake, you're a scholarly man and you know the Constitution. Where in the Constitution does it sit? You can just seize the means of production.
- [49:09]
Blake
Well, so the sad thing is you could, you would just have to compensate them for it. Although that's why he's clearly framing it as a tax. If he says if I frame it as a tax, then it's not a takings the way it usually would be. If the government's going to seize your house, then they have to pay you for the house.
- [49:26]
Andrew
Things like imminent domain.
- [49:27]
Blake
Yeah, exactly, imminent domain.
- [49:27]
Andrew
They have to pay you for the
- [49:28]
Blake
house for public purpose. But if he's framing it as a tax, clearly his gambit is one, we can just take 50% of your company and it's a tax, it's not a taking. You don't have to pay them $500 billion or whatever it would be for it. And it's also, besides being a scholar of the Constitution, scholar of history, it's a very sinister thing that he's doing. Because if you want to look, it's very easy to spin this on people. Oh, AI is big, it's rich, we're taking it for the public good. But so many countries, declines begin when you, you decide to have the government take over what is a thriving private sector endeavor. Britain. Britain used to be as rich as the United States. Britain used to be the world's most powerful empire. They did it on the backs of free enterprise. They were the Silicon Valley of their day was Central England. And then they nationalized everything after World War II. They went in a very socialist direction. Britain's never been the same since they did that. And you can just say America. There's a reason America generated all these big AI companies that, however you feel about them, have been tremendously successful and innovative. And they're not coming up out of Latin America, they're not coming out of Europe. Those are countries that don't have our successful private sector.
- [50:40]
Andrew
Exactly. So America legitimately has all these advantages that are baked into the cake that we fail to understand and appreciate now and then these new wave of dsa, Democrat, socialists or whatever, which is just code for basically socialist to communist. They're somewhere on the spectrum is they are misrepresenting our history they don't appreciate the capital markets and the way they move with such ease and fluidity and how massive a boon that is to entrepreneurs, guys like Mamdani. Bernie Sanders was the forerunner of a lot of this stuff. I mean, he vacationed, he honeymooned in Russia. Okay, let's just put Bernie Sanders in a certain. And by the way, you think Russia is all this great. Listen, Russia is Putin's right about some things. Okay? That does not mean that Russia.
- [51:24]
Blake
Well, he didn't honeymoon in Russia. He honeymooned in the Soviet Union.
- [51:28]
Andrew
Fair enough. But here's. This is why it's nerve wracking to me, because you got mom, Donnie saying the same things. Bernie is Sat 33.
- [51:36]
Unidentified Speaker 2
We have to continue to elect more socialists and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism. There are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it's BDS or whether it's the end goal of seizing the means of production where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment. And what I want to say is that it is critical that in the way that we organize, the way that we set up our work and our priorities, that we do not leave any one issue for the other. That we do not meet a moment and only look at what people are ready for, but that we are doing both of these things in tandem.
- [52:16]
Blake
It's not as sexy to talk about free markets and why it's important compared to the past, even on the American right. But it's still incredibly important. Go, go look at average incomes in the United States since the Great Recession in 2008 versus how it's gone in Europe. Europe used to be pretty comparable to us in incomes. Now we're lapping them. And the reason we're lapping them is we have a more free market system. They have stagnated, we have grown. And we frankly should not abandon that. And another thing to highlight, especially with AI, you think a government that owns 50% of AI and then we might have a Democrat administration again eventually. Inevitably we will because we have elections. Everything is subordinate to leftism for the left. You think they're going to maybe demand, oh, your AI models. What sort of world do we want you to build?
- [53:02]
Andrew
How much hate speech is in?
- [53:03]
Blake
How much hate speech do you allowed? Let's make sure these weights are. Liberalism is embedded in this system. They will do that if they get their way.
- [53:13]
Andrew
Something that's on everyone's mind right now is the housing market. Whether you're looking to buy your first home Purchase your dream home. Wondering if your current mortgage is still the best fit for you or you're considering using your equity to pay off other high interest debt with double digit rates. The wait and see approach may actually be costing you money. That's where Andrew and Todd with Union Home Mortgage come in. These guys aren't just lenders, but they're strategists. The market shifts every single day and there are more opportunities than ever to make your mortgage work for you instead of against you. Right now, Andrew and Todd are offering a completely free mortgage review. No pressure, no obligation. You can do it, review it and say, hey, not right now. Or they can help you. Just a professional review of your current situation to see whether you may be able to lower your payment, improve cash flow, consolidate debt, or better leverage your home equity. Don't leave your biggest investment to chance. Go to andrewandtodd.com that's andrewandtodd.com or call 888-8 1172. That's 888-88-1172. Get your plan in motion. Go to andrewandtod.com today, without further ado, I will introduce our guest in studio. And that's Mike Cavanagh. Welcome to the studio.
- [54:27]
Mike Cavanagh
Thank you, guys.
- [54:28]
Andrew
Yeah, so I first connected with you just like on Twitter, DM actually. And I noticed you had written a song after Charlie was assassinated. And I thought it was so beautiful. And I could tell that your heart was just so in this, like, in the right space. And your heart was to tell Charlie's story and to lift up a great man in a world that is unaccustomed to doing so. But that was my perception. Why did you write a tribute song to Charlie Kirk, Mike?
- [54:57]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, well, the day it happens, like many of us, I was a lot of emotions. Anger was one of them. And, you know, I didn't consider right away writing a song. I actually, a friend of mine had written a song about Charlie Kirk and I happened to see it on X and I commented on it. I said like, good job, good song. And then he said, your turn. And that put the idea in my head. And then I was. Everything was still very raw. I mean, I think it was only a few days after it happened, so my emotions were still very raw. And I remember picking up the guitar and, you know, thinking, all right, maybe I do have something to say. And about 10, 15 minutes of like strumming around, I remember just like saying out loud, I don't really have a song today. And. And then I said, well, that could be a Line of a song and it kind of went. Went from there. Yeah.
- [55:48]
Andrew
Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Kind of when you. You get stripped bare of, like, what you think you're supposed to say, and you just say what you actually mean and feel what's real, how you kind of end up arriving at a deeper truth. I've seen this song everywhere now on X. It's really blown up. And one of the, you know, people that have been promoting it is our friend Tommy Robinson over in the uk. You went over to the UK to sing this song live in front of, like, tens of thousands of people. What was that like?
- [56:17]
Mike Cavanagh
It's incredible. Very.
- [56:19]
Andrew
And how did you get connected with Tommy?
- [56:21]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, same thing on XX can be an amazing place. It can be a crazy place, too. But, yeah, no, he. He. He heard my music and said, mate, you got to come over and sing it. I can't really do. And. And so, yeah, we connected. And, yeah, he's like, we're doing a Charlie Kirk tribute. Love you to sing the song. And the rest is history.
- [56:39]
Blake
Yeah, it's incredible. It really speaks to just what a figure he was around the world that we saw. We saw memorials in Britain. We saw them in Serbia. We saw them in Japan and Korea, and even in groups you wouldn't expect. I remember a religious service in Charlie's honor was at a. I'm not sure what they call it, but, like a Sikh temple. They had a service in honor of.
- [57:01]
Andrew
I heard stories out of Iran, believe it or not, of, like, missionaries in Iran. These Iranian kids are getting converted. And when Charlie was killed, they were just filled with the Holy Spirit, and they went out proclaiming the gospel. They said if Charlie was courageous enough to do this, we want to be courageous like Charlie.
- [57:18]
Mike Cavanagh
I'll just say I've never seen that many people be silent before, too, during the tribute footage. I mean, it was really something. I do believe God was honored in that rally.
- [57:29]
Andrew
I know it. I know it. One of our friends said the Holy Spirit was humming like a tuning fork in that memorial. Why don't we play the song? And this is. Tell us the name and all of that.
- [57:45]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah. The name of the song is called the Voice of the Age. You can find it on itunes if you enjoy it. And it is a tribute to Charlie Kirk.
- [58:07]
Mike Cavanagh (singing)
I don't have a song today
- [58:12]
Mike Cavanagh
can't
- [58:13]
Mike Cavanagh (singing)
seem to find the right words to
- [58:15]
Andrew
say
- [58:18]
Mike Cavanagh (singing)
I remember a time when freedom would reach Now Talking to your neighbor Ain't the same. Now we lost the voice of the
- [58:46]
Mike Cavanagh
age
- [58:49]
Mike Cavanagh (singing)
Gotten down in immerse Rest rage I don't want a civil war no Only God knows what it's for though Going to say his name Jolly Kirk died a martyr not me. Now Lord bring revival to the land Christ is Lord on the lips of every woman man widow cries out I forgive you now men, let's go free. Charlie Kirk died a murder.
- [60:48]
Andrew
Yeah, that, that chorus man. Charlie Kirk died a martyr not in vain Amen Wish he was here with us but only God knows right? Yeah. That was beautiful, man. Thank you so much. We played some of the clips that you put together. Studio did a great job actually syncing it up with your lyrics, so. Good job. Studio. What has it been like writing this song and the reaction from people and you know, in a bigger question, what does Charlie sort of mean? Do you think as you've toured this song around and you've seen people's reaction?
- [61:35]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, it's a great question. Yeah. Charlie, I mean, he was obviously so gifted and intelligent and charismatic and all these things, but I really think the biggest thing about him was his courage. And I think that that's what resonates with people. It's certainly what resonated with me because I think the thing about courage is you don't. You don't need to be. Have all those gifted. You don't need to be gifted like Charlie to have courage. You can have. The ordinary person can have courage. And so to see a Christian man who had courage, the courage of his convictions, and I think that's what's what resonated with me. That's what I think resonating with other people with the song.
- [62:17]
Andrew
Yeah, he. He said he wanted to be remembered for courage, for his faith. And he always talked about courage and said the crazy good thing about courage is that you don't need to be skilled to have it. It's a choice.
- [62:31]
Mike Cavanagh
I think I ripped him off with my quote just then.
- [62:33]
Andrew
Yeah, it's fair though. I mean, he would tell that to people. It's like, okay, you don't have a degree. Okay, you don't have any special skills, at least not yet. Do you have courage? You can choose to have courage. And I think like when I first met Charlie, that was the thing that stood out to me too, was that how boldly he said things. He didn't couch things in sort of I think or I believe or you might disagree or what? Like he just said it.
- [62:59]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, I think too. Just self reflection. After the song, after Charlie died, I had realized like in my own life I hadn't shown a Whole lot of courage. And I think when he died, something did change within me. And I said, you know, because I think if more of us were courageous and speaking the truth boldly, it wouldn't have had to have happened, you know? And so I felt partly like, man, that's deep. Part of it. Yeah.
- [63:25]
Andrew
So that's really. I mean, that's quite a thing you just said. Yeah. That's an encouragement, I guess, to me and to Blake, to all of us, to everybody watching, listening. If more of us were courageous, you know, people like Charlie wouldn't have to live in fear that some crazy person, you know, could do something.
- [63:50]
Blake
If all of us were courageous, I don't think the entire world couldn't stop.
- [63:56]
Andrew
Yeah.
- [63:56]
Blake
The gospel, the movement.
- [64:00]
Andrew
We just got a live studio performance from Mike Cavanaugh, who just wrote a beautiful, beautiful tribute song to Charlie Kirk. Mike, how long have you been by the way? It's called the voice of the H. I want to make sure everybody has the name. Go to itunes, buy it today. We want to chart. Want to go off the charts and support Mike as he's just telling the truth, which is a rarity in the artistry world these days, it seems. How long you been playing music and what's your background? And tell us a little bit about yourself.
- [64:29]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, I've been playing music my whole life. My parents started me on the piano when I was five. Where are you from? I'm from Boston, Massachusetts. Originally living in North Carolina now. But yeah, started early. I like most young boys, I was more interested in basketball than I was in piano when I was younger. But when I was older, I started to get into it more and started writing my own stuff. And so I've been doing it for a long time.
- [64:53]
Andrew
Is that your full time gig and like, are you kind of mix and match or trying to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Right. So we need to support Mike so that he can do this full time and write more beautiful music like this. So, you know, politics, especially for an artist, it can be tricky. Obviously, when you put your name to something like this with Charlie, there are ramifications. Right. Especially in music because, you know, you've seen it with the America 250, all the artists dropping out. We should get you to go sing a song. Honestly, that's not a terrible idea. Should sing the song at America 250. We'll put a word in. But I mean, you know, explain that. That dynamic. Like, you know, we put on concerts at turning point. It's hard. Like, a lot of artists are scared of that. What's it like for you?
- [65:44]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, sort of around the time I wrote this song is in a four or five month period. There is really the. When I started experimenting, putting my toe in the water and writing songs that were about the issues of the day more specifically. And it's been sort of like this polarization of some people are just like, that's great. And then the war. Some of the worst hate you can imagine, as you guys, I'm sure understand. But yeah, I think like, you know, that Charlie helped push me into that because what I realized is like, nobody cares if you're just. I mean, as a Christian, like, I sing about sin. I sing, I use the word sin. I use the word. And everyone's kind of like, that's great. Good for you. Once you start naming the actual sins of the age, that's when you know, it pricks everybody. But in order for the Holy Spirit to convict a person, they can't just be understand that there's sin in general. You have to understand what the sin is in order to turn and be. And be saved. So I, I kind of like, that just kind of clicked with me somewhat recently. God kind of showed that to me. And, and so. But like all of these issues are wrapped up in politics, but they're also all just biblical issues. They're not. There's not this separate category of politics and this other category is like God's stuff, like God's. All truth is God's truth. God cares about all these things and, and we should be talking about that. And that's what you guys do every day.
- [67:16]
Blake
I'm glad you said that because that actually it's so similar to what Charlie would talk about that you can't separate the two because everything relates to the gospel. Everything relates to questions of sin and moral righteousness. And also I think getting back to courage, that's what made Charlie such an icon. He was, he was an icon to young people. Even though he was routinely going on campuses, going on TikTok, going on X and saying, here's all these things I know all of you love to do, all of them are bad. You should stop doing them. You should just get married. You should have kids.
- [67:50]
Andrew
Yeah. No premarital sex, no drugs, no, you know, no debauchery. Like, we call it licentiousness. Our founders called it licentiousness. He named it.
- [67:58]
Blake
He preached a gospel against this time. And yet he was loved by millions of people who, many of them didn't necessarily follow him. Many of them, if they did very imperfectly so. But they recognized how tremendous he was and that he 100% lived what he preached and believed.
- [68:15]
Andrew
We are temples of the Holy Spirit and we are designed to recognize truth when we hear it, it resonates in our spirit.
- [68:23]
Mike Cavanagh
And music is very powerful for that purpose.
- [68:25]
Andrew
Yeah, it's been used for powerfully for the wrong end so much. And I just, when I get to heaven, God willing, I'm going to ask the Lord why music has been so bastardized and corrupted and used for such. I mean, I think it's because it is so powerful and the enemy of goodness understands the power of music. So when somebody chooses to use that art form in a powerful way to sing truth, to speak truth, it's incredibly powerful. And I think that's ultimately why some of the memorial people remember it. It was exposing millions of people to actual worship and to like prostrated worship.
- [69:10]
Mike Cavanagh
It was amazing. Yeah, that event was incredible.
- [69:13]
Andrew
Did you watch it live?
- [69:14]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, I did.
- [69:15]
Andrew
I mean, being in the room. Yeah. And there's some B roll of. Was profound because, you know, we all go to, not we all, but those of us who go to church on Sundays and we worship. Like sometimes your head's in and sometime sometimes you're not. And in this moment, it was like we were all so gutted and so traumatized by what had just happened. So to be in that room, like the Lord had our full attention and it really, truly was a powerful, powerful moment.
- [69:46]
Mike Cavanagh
To see so many prominent people in government, other places get up in the mic and proclaim the gospel was I never thought I would see even like five or six years ago, I never would have thought I'd see something like that, but it was incredible.
- [69:57]
Andrew
And you could see that they were moved by the Holy Spirit as well. Like, I've told this story before, but you know, J.D. vance, I'm backstage, I'm watching his speech because they had it, you know, it's on the teleprompters. And he ad libbed the best line out of his speech, which he said, I've talked about Jesus Christ more in the last two weeks than I have in my entire political career, public life. And that wasn't on the script. He just, it came to him and he proclaimed Jesus name loudly and without shame or embarrassment. And that was powerful. It was powerful for our nation. And one of the reasons I love having you here is because there's been some debate about whether the revival's been blunted or if it's been hijacked. And I say no. Because I believe what God has unleashed, man cannot stop, and you are living proof of that, and that this song is gaining traction and gaining attention from guys like Tommy Robinson in the UK and real America's voice is now getting behind what you're doing as well. And we want this thing to chart. So if you want to see God's revival continue, if you want to see Charlie's legacy continue to spread and become more and more important, back this song. Back Mike Kavanaugh and the truth that he's singing in it. Go to itunes. Pick it up. The voice of the age. I love that title, by the way.
- [71:08]
Mike Cavanagh
Thanks, man. It took a while to come up with.
- [71:11]
Andrew
It's so apropos for Charlie.
- [71:13]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, I think so.
- [71:14]
Andrew
Final 30 seconds to you, Mike. What do you want people to take away from this, and what's your encouragement for them?
- [71:21]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah, I mean, as much as I want to honor Charlie in the song, I want to honor our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, above all. And so I would just want to say, if you don't know the Lord, repent of your sins and believe in him, and you can have eternal salvation, because that really is the message, and that is what the truth of everything that Charlie spoke, the truth all pointed to was going toward that, and that was. I know what he wanted the most, and that's what I want the most as well.
- [71:49]
Andrew
Yeah. It's not necessarily popular to say, but it's the most powerful thing you can say. Repent and be saved. Turn to Jesus. Thank you, Mike.
- [71:57]
Mike Cavanagh
Yeah. Thank you, guys.
- [72:03]
Blake
For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.