Debunking the Latest Conspiratorial Smear About Charlie's Death

Summary

The Charlie Kirk Show

Episode: "Debunking the Latest Conspiratorial Smear About Charlie's Death"

Date: October 28, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Charlie Kirk Show addresses a viral conspiracy theory circulating online around the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Charlie’s close friends, co-hosts, and executive producer come together to debunk accusations aimed especially at Charlie’s chief of staff, “Mikey”, and discuss the aftermath, trauma, and online misinformation following Charlie’s high-profile assassination. Later, the discussion pivots to U.S. military activity near Venezuela and broader cultural trends regarding political violence and polarization in America.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Address and debunk conspiracy theories alleging Charlie's inner circle's involvement in his assassination, particularly targeting Mikey, his chief of staff
• Describe the actual events and emotional responses of those present at the shooting
• Discuss the effect of viral misinformation and conspiracy culture
• Transition to current events, specifically U.S.-Venezuela tensions and the psychology of American polarization

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Conspiracy Theory Smearing Mikey (Charlie’s Chief of Staff)

• Context: Viral video accuses Mikey (chief of staff) of suspicious behavior immediately after Charlie Kirk’s assassination; claims his calmness indicates guilt/involvement.
• Reality Check by Those Present: Co-hosts and producers who were at the scene recount the moment.
  • Blake Neff (co-host) provides an eyewitness account:
    • Both he and Mikey heard the gunshot, recognized there was a threat, and instinctively evacuated to avoid further danger ([02:07]).
    • Mikey was visibly distressed; his “lip was quivering,” and he was “freaking out” ([04:17]).
    • Mikey prioritized contacting Charlie’s wife, Erica, as previously instructed by Charlie ([05:14]-[06:12]).
  • Emotional Reactions: Multiple calls were made to loved ones out of fear and confusion.

Quote:
"It was clear in the moment that he was profoundly freaked out... What I'll always remember is the way his lip was quivering, which I'd never seen before."
— Blake Neff ([04:23])

Quote:
"He was like a general directing a battle... he realized he had to step up in this situation."
— Blake Neff ([06:12])

• Mikey’s Actions Under Scrutiny:

  • Accusations about Mikey using his phone for something suspicious are debunked (it was for livestream and group chat updates—standard procedure).
  • He was shell-shocked, and his actions were normal trauma response; security handled Charlie, Mikey handled communications.

• Motivations Behind the Conspiracy Culture:

  • Co-hosts share disgust at the baseless accusations and the harm they cause, wondering why people fabricate or believe such narratives ([06:47]).
  • Discussion about conspiracism as addiction: "in the same way social media stuff is addictive" ([06:54]).

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2. The Aftermath, Trauma, and Charlie’s Legacy

• First-Person Trauma:

  • Both those present and those who received news from afar were “shell shocked,” traumatized by the event.
  • “My brain fries like an egg. I can't see straight, I can't think straight.” — Andrew Colvett ([07:46])
  • Importance of sticking to protocols (Charlie’s instruction: call Erica first in the event of tragedy) ([08:38]).

• Charlie’s Character and Instructions:

  • Highlight of Charlie’s forward-thinking leadership and concern for his loved ones.
  • Colleagues describe the intense pain and character defamation they face in the wake of losing a friend and mentor ([13:06]).

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3. Why Conspiracy Theories Take Root

• Erosion of Trust:

  • Acknowledgment that justified distrust of authorities (due to events like COVID) leads some to question official narratives, but there are limits to “legitimate questions” ([14:07]).
  • Clear line drawn: "This is not one of them." — referring to the conspiracy against Mikey.

• The Moral Responsibility of Reason:

  • Quote:
    “You have a moral responsibility to think things through seriously, to use your reason. And wild theorizing is a product of people being lazy in their thinking.”
    — Blake Neff ([14:57])

• Online Harassment as a Consequence:

  • Internet-fueled speculation leads to real harassment of victims and their families ([16:37]).
  • Responsibility stressed due to the power of influence over “unwell people.”

• Mockery of Conspiracies:

  • Jokes about “big furry”, “Antifa furries”, satirizing the absurd depths of some conspiracy speculation ([17:04], [17:11]).

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4. Pivot: U.S. Military Activity in Venezuela

• Current Events Segment ([18:43] onward):
  • Reports of U.S. strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats off Venezuela; speculation about potential war.
  • Deployments: USS Gerald Ford carrier group to the Caribbean; parallels drawn to pre-invasion troop deployments in other conflicts.
  • Deep skepticism on the panel about full-scale war; alternative motives discussed (deterring drug traffickers rather than regime change).
  • Discussion of the politics of Venezuela, drug trafficking, and U.S. interests.

Quote:
"Do we end up having 2 million Venezuelans come into America as refugees? Do we end up having to run this country? ... We've basically secured the border, but now we have that big task of getting the 10, 15, 20 million people illegally here out. We have a lot of economic issues to fix."
— Blake Neff ([22:46]–[23:43])

• Trump’s Stance on Drugs:
  • Speculation that Trump is primarily focused on decimating drug trafficking, drawn to emulate harsh penalties of Asian countries ([25:26]–[27:26]).
  • Not a call for ground invasion, but targeted anti-trafficker action.

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5. The Florida/Venezuela Lobby and Foreign Policy

• Political Influence of Floridians:

  • Florida’s demographics (Venezuelan and Cuban communities) shape federal priorities ([31:40]–[32:26]).
  • Domestic lobbies can swing U.S. foreign policy with specific ethnic interests.
  • Comparison to D.C. “war hawk” culture.

• Risks of Destabilizing Regimes:

  • Warn against unintended consequences (the “anarchy” problem)—might worsen drug trafficking or spark mass migration, as seen in Afghanistan/Libya ([33:43]).

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6. Broader Commentary: Polarization & Reality Bubbles

• MSNBC/TikTok Brain and Political Psychosis:
  • Example of viral video: American liberals “fleeing to Canada,” convinced of imminent fascist threat ([34:44]).
  • Hosts reflect on mutual “otherizing” and how media ecosystems create alternate realities.

Quote:
"It's MSNBC brain, or TikTok brain, whatever it is. And it's very scary."
— Alex Marlowe ([35:49])

• Violence and the Political Left:
  • Post-assassination, panel expresses having “less tolerance” for “vilifying” rhetoric from the left.
  • Contrasts with the nonviolent ethic and debate-oriented approach that Charlie promoted among conservatives ([37:14]).

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7. Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• On Being Present for the Shooting:
  “You just hear the crack... You don't know, did it come from far away? Did it come from close? Is there a mass shooter unfolding right now? So I and him both had the reaction of, let's get out of here before we are both shot.”
  — Blake Neff ([02:07])

• On Viral Accusations:
  “It's vile. It's utterly vile.”
  — Alex Marlowe ([06:47])

• On Trauma:
  “My brain fries like an egg. I can't see straight, I can't think straight.”
  — Andrew Colvett ([07:46])

• On Charlie's Leadership:
  "Charlie had given me similar instructions along the years, said, if anything ever happens to me, you call Erica. That is your... He drilled that into Mikey's brain."
  — Andrew Colvett ([08:38])

• On Misinformation:
  “What you are doing is bad and it is gross and it is a choice and it's a choice you shouldn't make.”
  — Blake Neff ([10:21])

• On American Polarization:
  "There is a certain percentage of the population that is really convinced of the most awful doomerism imaginable from the American left... They literally think that they are fighting Nazis."
  — Andrew Colvett ([33:43])

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Important Timestamps

• [02:07–08:38]: Detailed eyewitness breakdown of the assassination and Mikey's actions immediately following
• [13:06]: Discussing the impact of political assassination and subsequent character assassination
• [14:57]: Call for rationality and rejecting lazy conspiracy thinking
• [18:43–23:43]: U.S. military actions against Venezuela, potential for escalation, and administration intent
• [31:40–33:43]: Florida’s influence, risks of destabilization, and lessons from history
• [34:44–37:59]: The American culture war, left/right polarization, and realities shaped by media bubbles

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Cohesive Takeaways

• The Team’s Unified Response:
  The hosts present a strong, personal, and emotional refutation to online smears, giving inside perspectives to highlight both the trauma and the integrity of Charlie’s immediate circle.
• Reflections on Grief and Leadership:
  Charlie Kirk’s legacy—his readiness, purpose-driven life, and preparation for his team—are extolled.
• Conspiracies vs. Critical Thinking:
  The necessity of critical examination and the harm of reckless speculation are repeatedly underscored.
• Political & Cultural Segues:
  The episode fluidly shifts to issues of foreign policy and reflects broader anxieties about the splintering of American reality along media lines.

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Summary in the Tone of the Episode:
The tone is personal, urgent, and at times combative—reflecting both grief and exasperation at the state of public discourse. The panel prides itself on clarity, directness, and unapologetic conservative values, standing firmly against slander and the “sea of chaos” the right perceives in today's America.

Transcript

[A]

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. The Charlie Kirk show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, but the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends and viewers.

[B]

I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this fine show, joined by Blake Neff and Alex Marlowe. Alex Marlowe, of course, of Breitbart News, and also host to the Alex Marlowe show, which we are going to have you tell us more about Alex. But first, I want to. We gotta do a little. We gotta do a little addressing of a video that went viral this weekend. And it's a video of Charlie's chief of staff. We made the decision, we wanted to address this head on because, candidly, there's so much intrigue. And I'm gonna do a generous thing. The intrigue is because people care about Charlie. Okay? So that part I understand.

[C]

You're more generous than I'd be.

[B]

Yes, and that's fine. And I am going to give you the. The. The floor here now, Blake, because you were there and you actually interact with Mikey. You were with Mikey. You. You left the scene and then re. Connected with Mikey. So explain what the video.

[C]

All right. I'm not gonna set the scene well. I'm not going to wallow in it at length, but people have. It's gone viral and people have asked us to address it. We're going to do so briefly. The video, without going way into it, is by. I can't even remember the guy's name. Someone made a video that is attacking Mikey, Charlie's friend, Charlie's chief of staff, a guy all of us know, a guy who we've seen on the show here the last few weeks. They are attacking him, claiming based on a few seconds of clips that he allegedly has, like, a nonchalant or calm reaction to Charlie's murder. And I'm just going to be blunt about this. This is a extremely disgusting attack. And I can speak to that because I was there when it happened, and I was next to Mikey when it happened. And what I can say is, again, I can't say every single thing that happened, but I want to talk about this specific, narrow thing that the shooting occurs. I am next to Mikey. Both of us hear a loud crack. We both turn, we both see Charlie, who has been shot. Both of us, I think, at about the same time, realize that that means there is a shooter who is on the scene. And, you know, you just hear the crack. So you don't know. Did it come from far away? Did it come from close? Is there a mass shooter unfolding right now? So I and him both had the reaction of, let's get out of here before we are both shot. That is not us abandoning Charlie. Charlie had a security team. They all leapt immediately into action, and they got Charlie out of there, which was what their job was to do. My job was not to get in the way and screw this up because, like, I had to be a hero. That was not my job. I remember even running past both of us, going past the, you know, the SUV that we came in on, and me thinking, should I get in that car? And then thinking, no, that's a really stupid thing to do. And then I kept going. So I was not with Mikey, or I don't remember being with him. I think I was ahead of him as we left. And then we get out, and I run for. Must have. Can't have been more than 15 or 20 seconds. And then I realized there hasn't been another shot. So the shooter has likely been detained or stopped or something. Not in immediate danger. I pause, I look around me, and I see Mikey, and I see Mikey there. And I'll never. Truthfully, I will never forget what I saw, because I've seen Mikey almost every day for the past two years. I know his personality very well. He's a very bubbly guy. He's a very happy guy almost all of the time. And I'll never forget what I saw because it was clear in the moment that he was profoundly freaked out. What I'll always remember is the way his lip was quivering, which I'd never seen before. And you very rarely see from someone that he was freaking out. And then I think he literally said to me, I might be imagining this, but I think what he Literally said was. He was looking around. And then he says, I need to call Erica. And then he takes his phone and he begins calling Erica. And I don't want to disclose how that call unfolded, but he did that. This, you know, your mind extends all of this, but that is happening within a minute of all of this occurring. I remember he calls Erica.

[A]

I.

[C]

Around the same time, I pull out my phone and I call my mom just to say, mom, there's been a shooting. You're going to see it on the news. I'm okay. You know, pray for me. I've got to go. And I remember that call, and around the time I put that phone away. And then he immediately calls his dad. He calls Rob McCoy and he says, dad, someone shot Charlie. You need to call all of your pastor friends. Charlie was hit. We need everyone to pray right now. And that's what he told him. And I guess it just. It's very disgusting for me as someone who witnessed this, who saw Mikey hugely distressed and then step up in the moment, because after that call was over, I saw Mikey, like, get total mastery of himself that he realized he had to step up in this situation. And he. From that point, he was like. He was like a general directing a battle where he was, you know, grabbing people and saying, okay, we need to get to the hospital and we need to do these things, and you guys.

[A]

Need to wait here.

[C]

I need to get in here to get information so that I can get it. To get it to Erica. And when we. When we learned he was dead, it was. He came out and he told us. And then he says. And he says, now none of you can say anything that you've heard because it is. Erica's not going to hear about this from anyone except me.

[D]

Can I ask a question? I've just been thrown into this 10 minutes ago, but there's a suggestion online that Mikey, Charlie's chief of staff, one of the most sincere people you'd ever meet, brilliant, Christian, kind. Everyone who he ever met in his entire life, couldn't hurt a fly, was part of a conspiracy to murder Charlie. That's what's going on.

[C]

It's vile. It's utterly vile.

[D]

Who would do this? What type of individual? Just to create content, do we think, or is there some. What's the ulteriority?

[C]

I don't know. I think a lot of this mindset just sort of fuels itself. It's sort of addictive in the same way a lot of social media stuff is addictive or in the way, like, honestly, something like pornography is addictive or something. Like, they get really. They almost get. They get a high off of the idea of that they're doing something that's daring or out there.

[B]

Yeah. And I want to make one other point, though, and this is actually to your point, you saw Mikey do heroic things that day. I saw Mikey do heroic things. I was not on site, but I immediately flew to Utah. We got a plane. And it's not something that I'm used to, but it was like my wife went with me. We went straight over. I knew I needed to be with Erica and the team immediately just because, you know, I just knew. But that moment when I got the news, I was so shell shocked. I was not even there. But I was immediately traumatized. My brain fries like an egg. I can't see straight, I can't think straight. All I knew is that, like, what's happening? My wife came in, she, like, hugged me. We started crying together. And I can't even remember those moments very clearly. I wasn't even there. Mikey was too soon.

[C]

Mikey's talked about that.

[B]

And I asked him, I was like, do you even remember the moments after he'. I can't. I can't even really remember. I know I called Erica. I know I called my wife. I know I called my dad. I can't even really remember the steps I took. I can't. But here's the last thing I want to make a point of. And Charlie, because Charlie had given me similar instructions along the years, said, if anything ever happens to me, you call Erica.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

That is your. He drilled that into Mikey's brain so that when this moment of trauma happened that he turned around and he knew he had to do it. And by the way, I just. Last thing, because this is part of the video allegations here, is that they think they're alleging that he was on the phone immediately. He was not. He was taking social videos which he would send to our group chat, which we would then put on Charlie's social. Why the event was happening so you could see, like, the crowd come in or his interactions. And we were only two questions into this event. So he was still getting it out to all the chats he needed to do, which he did at every event. He. He turns around and it was so blaringly loud. I'm told you would know this better than I. This is what I'm told. It was so blaringly loud and he was so shell shocked, he put his fingers in his ear, but his phone was still in his hand. He walks Away and he's.

[C]

And not even, not even walk I want to because people are talking about that. The way it was is we had a cordoned off area with, you know, grates so you could had controlled access. All the people, when this happens, they all get the idea we should leave before we are shot. And so there's a little narrow gap that I think people, it's not really walking. It's that everyone has to slow up to get through this little narrow choke point to get out of the area anyways.

[B]

Well, the point is he walks briskly. I don't even care if he's walking, running, whatever, because again, the most traumatic thing you could imagine had just happened to him. My brain fried. I cannot imagine what was going through your guys head. Being on the scene and seeing it and knowing again the security guys are jumping in. He turns and he, like, I'm telling you, Mikey that day turned into a general on a field marshaling the troops, going. But like for a second there, obviously he didn't know what to do. And then he clicked into gear eventually. It was amazing.

[C]

Mikey was a heroic figure on that day. And I just, I really want anyone who finds like these narratives attacking him to be remotely credible, to really, really stop and think about what you are doing because what you are doing is bad and it is gross and it is a choice and it's a choice you shouldn't make.

[B]

Hey everybody. Andrew Colvett, executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show Charlie understood that to lead, he needed to learn. Hillsdale College was ready to teach him. While busy running his company, teaching America's youth and raising a beautiful family, Charlie still found time to complete 31 Hillsdale College free online courses. He talked about it the last time he spoke on his podcast. Hillsdale's president, Dr. Larry Arn.

[A]

Hillsdale is the cutting edge and I mean it. It is America's greatest college.

[C]

You are a force of nature, Charlie Kirk.

[D]

One of these days I'm going to give you an honorary degree.

[A]

That, that would be the honor of my life. But I, I got a lot more learning yet to do. And I say this, the Hillsdale courses have changed my life.

[B]

Through Hillsdale College's free online courses, Charlie studied the Bible, the classics, the American founding, and through his relentless pursuit of truth, became not only a great American, but, but a good man. Charlie's gone, but his spirit of hard work and lifelong learning carry on. Each of us can follow his example and pick up where he left off. So learn like Charlie [e-mail]. that's charlieforhillsdale.com. alex, why don't you give us a little teaser here of the show. Tell us where people can find it, what it is, what you cover.

[D]

Thank you. Yeah, yeah. We're colleagues on the Salem Podcast Network. So wherever you get your podcast, you can get it YouTube, Rumble, Apple, Spotify, wherever you prefer. And it's a daily news show. I also do some great interviews. I think we did a deep dive with Scott Pressler last week, Andy Ngo, Senator Sheehy. It's a great place to break news, but also I give you what we're thinking about in the Breitbart newsroom every day. So we've been the leaders on the anti establishment media for the last 15 plus years and as strong as ever, as powerful as ever, and just a great place for a daily news digest. Some great conversations, really efficient. Don't waste anyone's time. We have a good time.

[B]

Well, you know, before we get to this Venezuelan topic, I do think it's interesting that you were hired by Andrew Breitbart. He was young and vibrant and full of verve and life and he was a leader. And then he died.

[D]

And by the way, no one on Twitter accused me of. Of killing him. Which is nice.

[B]

Yeah, well, I mean, if you want to chime in on that.

[D]

Completely outrageous. And it's sad that there's such a market for this content because it's completely counterproductive to our shared goals of defeating. The left is going after Mikey. It's just wild.

[B]

Well, I know, and it's funny. It occurred to me while we were talking about that it's like, you know, the political assassination and the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, but it wasn't assassination. It was the highest profile political assassination since the 60s in this country. And what's really sad is that it's followed on the footsteps of it are the attempts by some, not by all. I don't want to like overblow this, by the way. I think the amount of love and the outpouring of support for the show, for Turning Point, for Erica, for all of us that have been around us, has been tremendous. Really. Like you've seen the most beautiful part of humanity. But. But we had a political assassination. He happened to be one of my best friends, guy we spent every day with. And so the sad part is that that assassination has led to the character assassination of some of the people closest to Charlie that loved him most, that he hand selected in these roles because he trusted them. And again, I try like, and again I try and be generous, Blake, because I.

[D]

You guys have been very generous.

[B]

I do know that, like, we live in a certain era where we've learned to distrust the authorities. And by the way, a lot of these authorities have earned our distrust, whether it be Covid or whatever, and they do. Charlie was such a monumental figure, and this was such a public moment and such a tragedy that I know that essentially the world is grieving still and the movement is grieving still, and people want answers and they want to get to the bottom of it. And so I'm just trying to give grace for people. And I. And I disag. I know. I want. I want. I listen. Your voice is just important as mine. But there is, like, a combination here of understanding that people. There is the click chasers and the cloud chasers. I get that. But there are people and they message me that have legitimate questions and they have legitimate things. This is not one of them.

[C]

Yeah, you. What I want to emphasize is, like, it is. We have a moral. You have a moral responsibility to think things through seriously, to use your reason. And a lot of really wild theorizing is a product of people being lazy in their thinking. And it's very easy to be lazy about things where, you know, maybe it's not your own. Well, being on the line, where you're not really having to commit anything. And you'll see that a lot. Where people who have normal lives and can make normal decisions in their own life will believe truly wild things about stuff that's far away from them. And I would encourage people who are buying to this truly deranged and hurtful stuff to think about that, to reasonably think. Do you really think it is remotely reasonable or plausible that Charlie's best friends, his chief of staff, the co hosts of his show, his wife, people on his. Like, people who he spent years with, conspired in a vast thing to have him assassinated for, you know, underpants gnomes, like, weird reasoning, like, there's no plausible reason for any of this. And the answer is, of course, no. None of that would make sense. And that's obvious the moment you start to think about it.

[B]

Yeah, well, and. But here's the thing. We were there. We were. At least I wasn't there the day when it happened, but I've been around everything that's happened since. And so we have seen it up close and personal, just seeing how traumatized everybody is. And we've. We've been the ones embracing in these hugs filled with tears. And everybody's grieving and everybody's shell shocked. And so you see it up close and so you don't have those suspicions. But the Internet didn't see any of it.

[C]

And I would just ask people to remember that because of this, even if they're just asking questions. There are a lot of unwell people out there who respond to this sort of thing by sending incredibly hurtful emails or showing up outside people's homes to doing incredibly gross behavior. And some of those people are probably just generally unwell. But you have to remember, unwell people are greatly influenced by the things they hear around them.

[D]

They're also running interference.

[C]

You don't want to rip people up.

[D]

They're running interference for the antifa furries too, by the way. They really are.

[B]

Well, exactly.

[D]

Are they getting paid by big furry?

[B]

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[A]

Preserve gold is my go to choice for all my precious metal needs. They are the real deal and I recommend them to my friends, family and viewers.

[B]

Get their free wealth protection guide now by texting Charlie to 50505. President Trump is fighting for America's future. Now it's your turn to help protect yours. All right, we gotta get to this. So we are. This is. You know, I would say, Blake, you are potentially the most passionate about this. I personally do not believe we're about to go to war with Venezuela. You maybe disagree, but we are bombing a lot of these boats and this is. We'll just let Kristen Welker give us the update. This is clip 62. Go ahead and play that.

[D]

The military has now launched 10 attacks, killing more than 40 people against these.

[B]

Suspected drug smuggling boats. As you just referenced. Is the United States at war with Venezuela?

[D]

Mr. Secretary, I have a big portfolio.

[A]

The Defense is not one of them. I think you'd have to have to.

[D]

Ask our great Secretary of War, Pete Hicksey.

[A]

What I can tell you is president's committed to protecting U.S. citizens from the.

[D]

Ravages of these drugs.

[B]

So now, to be fair to you, Blake, here's, here's, here's Lindsey Graham.

[D]

Can I just say quickly, it's just, I mean, how unbelievable is Scott Bessen? I mean, you could tell he's just a professor. He's such a pro at talking to idiots. This is the dumbest question I've ever heard. I have no business answering it. Let me give you a perfectly crisp answer and treat you as if you're a respectable person, which you're not. It's just such a. I love how.

[B]

She called it killing more than 40 people. No, they're called narco terrorists.

[C]

He did run on taking out drug dealers.

[B]

Well, check this out. But to give you a little crazy to the argument here, this is Lindsey Graham talking about regime change in Venezuela. Cut 78.

[C]

It is time for Maduro to go. So I hope Maduro would leave peacefully, but I don't think he's going to stay around much longer now. So, but to give some context to this because it has been building up for a while. So yes, we're doing those airstrikes on, I guess I'm.

[B]

Drug boats, international waters, alleged drug boats.

[C]

And, you know, we've, you know, I remember, you know, we've expressed some concern about that. Just in the sense you have to acknowledge if they mess that up even once and blow up innocent people, it's catastrophically bad, bad for America and, you know, bad just objectively, morally, you shouldn't kill innocent people. But we're all. There are signs we're building up to this. So this week, one of our warships, the USS Gravely, which is a guided missile destroyer, it's in Trinidad and Tobago. That is a small Caribbean island country. If you look at it on a map, it's 5 to 10 miles off the coast of Venezuela right next to it.

[B]

Throw up the map, you can see how close it is.

[C]

It is just right next door. So it's, it's like sending troops to Kuwait before Iraq or something like that. We've also, and this is the really big one is we've deployed the USS Gerald Ford, one of our carriers with its strike group. So a full carrier strike group, the guys we normally have in the Persian Gulf off the coast of China, we've deployed that carrier group to the Caribbean. And if we're sending a carrier Strike group to the Caribbean. There's basically only one thing it could be for, which is potential military action against basically either Venezuela or Cuba. And it doesn't seem like we're about to do anything to Cuba. All of our gestures have been against Venezuela. Now, the justification for that, the Trump administration obviously has. We've labeled their government illegitimate. It is an illegitimate government. They have fake elections. They're authoritarian, bad in a million different ways. They've also argued that it's the source of a lot of the fentanyl and other drugs that come into the United States. And geopolitically, it's a regime that has cozied up to. To China, to Russia, to Iran. It has built relationships with them hostile to us, and it has a ton of oil. And, you know, Trump does like to just openly talk about seizing, you know. Yeah. So it does seem like we are moving in that direction. And I will say, you know, I don't have full access to whatever intelligence they have, but much like it was with Iran, where we talked about it, and we were very fortunate, the Iran one worked out Charlie. Charlie's position, and I think our position shared is America is a country. We need to be focused on ourselves. We have a lot of problems. We've had. We've basically secured the border, but now we have that big task of getting the 10, 15, 20 million people illegally here out. We have a lot of economic issues to fix because we were so addicted to illegal or just excessive migration.

[B]

We need robotics.

[C]

We have infrastructure issues. We have social issues. We have crime issues. We have a lot of problems. And repeatedly in the past 30 years, America has gone on foreign military ventures, and I don't know that a single one of them, in the long run, seemed like a great idea. You know, Afghanistan. Afghanistan looked great a month later, but it was a disaster 20 years later. Iraq looked super easy in the first month, turned into a big mess. Libya looked super easy the first month. We overthrew that government, and what we got was a mess afterwards. So could we overthrow Maduro? I imagine we could overthrow Maduro in 10 minutes, but what happens afterwards? Do we end up having 2 million Venezuelans come into America as refugees? Do we end up having to run this country? So I understand our administration has a lot of valuable goals, including stopping all the drug smuggling. But we have to make sure we don't sleepwalk into a war, because we think it'll be really easy, I think.

[D]

So. A few data points from me. First of all, if Lindsey Graham is popping off, that's Just cable news, content. That's punditry. That doesn't really matter. I know we always. You can't. He is a US Senator. He's got power and he hangs out in Mar a Lago a lot, but he doesn't count, I don't think. And I don't think that there's a lot of stuff that there's a lot of data points that suggest we're not anywhere close to this. First of all, why would we prioritize taking out Venezuela over the Mexican cartels if we're going to do something that dramatic in Latin America? I don't know if that would be the first pick, but you would think that we would have troops in Gitmo, Panama, Ecuador. Ecuador would love it if we were there because they have a huge gang problem, so they would love to see a big American deployment there. We're not seeing anything like that. But overall, I think the, the point that would be really interesting if we were committed to taking out Maduro, will we just pay him? Because he seems like he would probably take the bag and leave if we were really determined. That doesn't solve your problem, Blake, which is reasonable. Then do we have to rebuild Venezuela and what does that look like? That sounds like a big pain in the butt, but it does. Like there is a bag big enough to get Maduro to.

[B]

I totally agree. He would take the payday. Let's go ahead. This is. Maduro is pleading. No crazy war. No care Guerra. Cut 61. Not war. Not war, not war. Just peace. Just peace. Just peace forever. Forever. Forever. Peace forever. No crazy worm. No crazy war.

[C]

I thought that was all in English.

[B]

So, so then, then Trump is asked about this. Let's go ahead and play. Cut 80.

[C]

Why not just ask for a declaration of war?

[D]

Well, I don't think we're gonna necessarily.

[B]

Ask for a declaration of war.

[D]

I think we're just gonna kill people.

[B]

That are bringing drugs into our country. Okay.

[D]

We're gonna kill them. You know, they're gonna be like, dead.

[B]

So, okay, this is my. You were actually the one that turned me onto this clip, Alex. So this is my theory of why this is not gonna lead to full out war. Now, I'm not saying Maduro won't get displaced. Maybe it's a bag of money, maybe it's a threat, whatever. He kind of goes into exile. The. And by the way, playing in the back of my head is the fact that the opposition leader in Venezuela just dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump. So think about that as you're doing the calculus in your head. But Trump has a fixation on killing drug dealers. He goes over to Asia or Singapore and they treat drug crimes much more strictly. He goes to Japan. Japan treats drug crimes much more strictly. Right, so here's the thing. Trump wants to emulate those countries that he looks up to and believes that they treat drug dealers appropriately because he sees what's happening with fentanyl, where it kills hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last couple of years. And he wants that kind of country. He wants to say, if you're caught dealing deadly drugs to a young person, we're gonna kill you dead. We're gonna put you into prison for a lot longer. Because here's the thing. Trump believes that our, our drug, the way we prosecute drug offenses in this country is far too lenient. So he thinks, if I can just kill them in international waters, I never have to deal with them. And by the way, it sends a strong deterrent message to the narco traffickers that this is not going to be tolerated anymore. And I think they're just putting resources in the region to better be able to detect smuggling and to kill those who end up doing it. Now, the question is then raised. Alex, you brought it up. Why not focus on Mexico? I think it's a totally valid thing and I think we are in a bit of a rock and a hard place because Mexico is paying us lip service that they are getting serious about cracking down on drugs. So to invade and launch an attack in Mexico is much more politically fraught.

[D]

Alex, you know who's a real villain here? John Bolton. John Bolton was tasked with the Venezuela policy in the first Trump administration and he totally blew it. So if he could have just done his job instead of just collecting data to write tell all books. Trying to sabotage Trump. Yeah, exactly. Scrolling away in his journal, he sat there with his cookie dough.

[B]

We never talk about this.

[D]

I gotta say that Maduro, I think, went to the same ToastMasters school as AOC. It felt like the same cadence for the speech. No, but overall, it's just. Do you believe Trump's peace through strength approach is credible? Where he does these sporadic bombings, he picks targets. Where it's sort of like an 8020 he's gonna have approval of. Well, do you really mind if he bombs a few drug dealers and most people are not going to, and trying to kind of get people on that footing. That's how he's always operated. For me, he's been fully credible on this because we now have five years of foreign policy for him, and he's hit it out of the park every time. But I understand if you're just really focused solely on we got to keep America out of foreign entanglements, you should be concerned every time. That's a valid voice. But so far he's batting 1,000 on these moves, and. And so he's got a lot of leeway with me personally.

[B]

Yeah, I tend to agree. Obviously, I do not want a ground invasion in Venezuela. Okay. But There are about 48 different options between boots on the ground, ground invasion, and Maduro no longer being in power in a really important country, actually, and a country that has forced a lot of immigration into states like Florida and New York. I mean, there's a ton of Venezuelans in there. And not only that, but regionally, you.

[C]

Have to think about the flip side of it, which is, are we going to war because there's just 2 million Venezuelans in Florida and they're a lobby group.

[B]

No, no, no. I'm just saying we don't have to go to war in order for something good to come out of this, but namely, killing drug traffickers is probably, you know, like you said, probably an 8020 issue. Okay. But obviously we are anti foreign entanglements. I just want to say that. Anti foreign entanglements. But this is our hemisphere. This is the Charlie Kirk show. We are all about saving babies with Preborn. There are 24,836 kindergarteners starting school this month who would not be alive if it hadn't been for what Preborn did in 2019. That's how many babies were saved that year because of gifts of ultrasounds from people just like you in this audience. When a woman considering abortion sees her baby on that ultrasound and hears that baby's heartbeat and it doubles. Let me repeat. It doubles the chance that she will choose life. $140 gives five mothers a free ultrasound and saves babies. $280 can save 10 babies. And just $28 a month can save a baby a month for less than a dollar a day. A $15,000 gift will provide an ultrasound machine that will save babies lives for years and years to come. Charlie and Erica love baby preborn. Charlie loved it so much. He believed in it so much, he was a donor. Whether you want to save one baby or five or hundreds, it's just a phone call or a click away. Join me now saving babies. Call 833-850-2229 or click on the preborn banner at charliekirk.com today. So I'll actually address what you're saying. I do not want to necessarily force regime change. I am. I tend to be on your side of this. I wanna focus on America. But I'm also getting inside the psychology of President Trump, where he hates drugs. Right? He hates drugs. And he wants to stop them. And I believe that they have credible evidence to understand that there's a large amount that are actually coming through Venezuela, whether they're being trafficked up through Cuba or something, as a go between, as a way station. But just Trump wants to get rid of this scourge in the Western hemisphere. Now Lindsey Graham's gonna poke him and prod him and push him forward, and I think he's gonna show restraint. And I think that's what the message that we have to be sending both online and on shows like this is like, please, we do not want another foreign entanglement. But I do believe there's about 40 different options here before we get to something that we would. We would be like, you know, that would ruin his batting average, so to speak. Alex?

[D]

Yeah. I wanted to hear Blake flesh out his point about the Florida lobby, because I think that's interesting and you keep an eye on that stuff.

[B]

That is interesting.

[C]

Well, it is worth remembering that we have a very, very Floridian government. The State Department is. We've got Marco Rubio's Floridian. President Trump's a Floridian. There's a lot of people in the admin. We practically have a second White House in Mar a Lago. There's just. And Florida's our most successful kind of large Republican state. So we've just got a ton of big Florida personalities. And that sort of. That shapes a lot of our policies because Florida has a large number of Venezuelans in it. It also has a lot of Cubans, Cuban Americans, who similarly just have this. They care a lot about what goes on in Cuba. They care a lot about what goes on in Venezuela.

[B]

There's a lot of South Americans in general. Florida, it's just Colombians, Ecuadorians, and it's great.

[C]

They've given us a lot of support. But it does mean that it can shape our outlook that they might really fixate on this particular issue that is less compelling to the rest of the country. And it can just. It can just be what they marinate in, the same way that people in D.C. you get a lot of our war hawk people because they just marinate in a pro intervention, kind of pro military, industrial complex environment that makes them more inclined towards thinking, oh, yeah, we can solve our problems in the Middle east by dropping these bombs, by overthrowing this government. And I think you have a good point that, yeah, Trump really despises the drug dealers. He sees this Venezuelan government as linked to that, and if he can remove it, he can mitigate the problem. But I will remind everyone that nothing causes more drug smuggling to happen than pure anarchy. We overthrew the Taliban, which had a little bit, which basically blew up all of the opium and heroin coming out of Afghanistan. We took out Gaddafi, and then Libya became this endless supply of migrants sailing into Europe. It remains to this day. So if you pulverize the Venezuelan government, do you just end up where there's anarchy in Venezuela? So even more drugs are coming out of there. Maybe you cause even more Venezuelans to flee the country, and then they end up in all these different places.

[B]

I want to keep building this out. Probably tomorrow with you, Alex and Blake. There is something happening to the American psyche where we are seeing a bifurcation of what reality looks like for either side. And I think it just depends on what algorithm you find yourself on. And we saw this with what happened with Charlie, right? It's like there is a certain percentage of the population that is really convinced of the most awful doomerism imaginable from the American left. They see it on msnbc, cnn, then it goes into Reddit, and then it goes into these discord chats, and they literally think that they are fighting Nazis. And there was a video that went viral over the weekend about an American liberal who's fleeing to Canada. And this thing goes on for like, five minutes. This clip is just incredible, and it just shows. It's this window into the psyche of the left that they really think that Trump is Hitler. They really think that they're fighting fascism. Play cut 54.

[E]

We are just literally minutes away from the border to Canada as we flee.

[C]

The US.

[E]

Who would have thought at age 60 that this would be our day and our plan and our actions? We just feel so scrutinized and so silenced and so being portrayed as enemies within and being portrayed as domestic terrorists. He hit the ground running in January, the day he was inaugurated.

[B]

So what's striking to me about this clip, right, is you remember that famous Joe Biden speech, Alex, where the red in the background, he's talking about MAGA extremists, and the number one threat to America is these white supremacists. So we were villainized and otherized and told that we were the existential threat to our country, but yet this guy Thinks that it's our side that's doing it to him.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

What do you make of this?

[D]

Yeah, it's MSNBC brain, or TikTok brain, whatever it is. And it's very scary. I had this conversation after Trump won with a friend of mine in the neighborhood who's Indian American and works in the arts. And he was really concerned after Trump won that he wasn't gonna be able to go downtown because he might get rounded up by ice. And that was his thought. The guy pays a ton in taxes, has a clean criminal record and is Indian. And there's no evidence of Trump browning up any American citizens who are law abiding. I mean, he's not doing that at all. He's going after the bad guys who are criminals. And then I thought about that a lot after Charlie was shot about how that guy was telling me, I'm the problem, the guys I support are the problem, were the ones who were taking out the innocents. And then you watch Charlie get gunned down for what he believed, what he stood for. And so I have no tolerance for these people. I hope he enjoys Canada. I don't need him here. He can stay if he wants, but I don't care. I don't think about these people a lot until you hear the TikTok clips. But in a post Charlie Kirk assassination world, we have a lot less tolerance. This type of language and the disparaging of our country when it's the left that has this violent streak and they're the ones who are taking out our field generals.

[B]

I totally agree with that, by the way. I mean, in a post Charlie world, and by the way, every poll indicates that the left is the party, the side that is embracing violence. Our side, actually. I'm so proud of this and I give Charlie so much credit for this that the youngest conservatives, self described conservatives, are basically the most peaceful group.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

They are the least likely to justify political violence to achieve a political end. And that is a lot of credit to Charlie who advocated and modeled open debate and dialogue and free speech. And so our side is saying, hey, we want to win the old fashioned way. We want to win in the marketplace of ideas. And it's the left that's actually continuing to otherize in this fascist, not watch blackmail bigots. Totally. It's totally blackmail. And by the way, he gets to the end of the clip and he goes, well, I'm just going to be here for two or three weeks and we'll. So he's like, no courage of his conviction. It's called a vacation. You're not playing anything you TikTok clip. I'll just leave it at that. I was going to say something nasty. Blake, what's your take on this? Man?

[C]

It's just people, they really want to, like, they almost want to live in more interesting times than they do, which is surprising because we live in pretty interesting times as is. And frankly, it's weird to say pretty entertaining, like whatever else you want to say. So Donald Trump is incredibly funny. A lot of our politics is very wacky and entertaining, but they want to be like hyper persecuted individuals.

[B]

I have a whole theory that like, basically the entire left wants to act like they're marching in Selma, you know, like they have one model in their head for how this works and that's it.

[C]

And like those women who dress up in those handmade outfits, like, they really.

[D]

They'Re like, oh, it's a fetish. It's a total fetish. Like, this is how they amuse themselves. They pretend like things are cosplaying is.

[C]

Like, look at Mamdani, you know, coming in and just saying like, oh, yeah, after 9, 11, you know, we were just this incredibly persecuted group.

[B]

I know, it's. It's all made up. It's all. It was Charlie's decision. Say it's like, whose line is it anywhere where the points are made up and the rules don't matter. And that's what we're dealing with.

[D]

It must be so annoying in person. They must have totally unfulfilling lives.

[B]

I think that's probably true.

[D]

For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.

[B]

Com.