The Revival He Always Wanted — Charlie Kirk's Memorial

Summary

THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW

Episode Summary: The Revival He Always Wanted — Charlie Kirk's Memorial
Date: September 22, 2025

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Overview

This emotionally charged episode of The Charlie Kirk Show brings together close friends, collaborators, and leaders of the conservative movement to process, remember, and honor the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk, following his historic memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The conversation delves deeply into the unprecedented scale and spirit of the event, the extraordinary impact of Charlie’s leadership, moments of unity among major political and cultural figures, and the overwhelmingly spiritual and moral dimension that defined both the man and his memorial. The show is equal parts mourning, celebration, and a rallying cry to carry forward the movement’s mission with renewed faith and unity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Scale and Spirit of Charlie’s Memorial

• Benny Johnson (02:12): Reflects on the magnitude and energy of the 100,000+ in-person attendees, including major political figures, world leaders, and celebrities. Describes it as “a revival energy” and “spiritual in nature,” surpassing even major sporting events in scale and peacefulness.
  • Quote: “It was spiritual in nature... Not a single window broken, not a single Molotov cocktail thrown, not a single fist ever thrown in anger ... Nothing but a peaceful memorial... filled with prayer, mourning, forgiveness, and a call for righteous justice.” [04:24]
• Overflow venues such as the Desert Diamond Arena were also at capacity, with hundreds of thousands more participating online—possibly billions worldwide once clips are considered (16:21).

2. Charlie Kirk’s Coalition-Building & Legacy Fulfilled

• The event uniquely served as a point of reconciliation for longstanding divides in the conservative movement.
  • Benny recounts Elon Musk embracing Charlie's widow, Erica, and publicly reconciling with Donald Trump at the memorial—“the power of Charlie, bringing together these tectonic forces that should not reconcile.” [05:57]
  • Quote (Elon Musk): “If we don't hang together, we will surely hang separately. So let us unite. I was proud to sit with my president tonight.” [08:35]

3. Profound Moments of Forgiveness: Erica Kirk’s Speech

• Erica Kirk’s public forgiveness of Charlie’s assassin becomes a defining spiritual and historical moment.
  • Quote (Erica Kirk): “I forgive him.” [27:19]
  • Andrew and others discuss the global reaction to this, the Christ-like nature of her act, and how it set the tone for the entire nation’s response—urging healing instead of vengeance.
  • Blake Neff reveals the decision-making process behind the scenes, emphasizing that Erica’s forgiveness came from deep faith and a desire not to harbor bitterness that would prevent her from seeing Charlie again [28:16].

4. Contrast in Responses: Right vs. Left

• The group emphasizes the unprecedented peacefulness and composure of the right in the wake of political violence, compared to the left’s behaviors following other incidents.
  • Benny Johnson: “We are the side of morality, strength, and composure ... They are the side of anarchy.” [72:32]
  • Don Jr. and Andrew argue that the left has created an environment that encourages such violence, citing rhetoric equating political opponents to Hitler [74:03].

5. Unparalleled Impact and Cultural Reach

• The memorial broke records for press coverage, global streaming, and real-time simultaneous viewership. Venue staff confirmed unprecedented media interest—even more than the Super Bowl [17:25].
• “This is most likely Charlie's memorial service, the single largest apostolic event in modern history.” — Benny Johnson [16:12]

6. Spiritual & Personal Transformations: Ripple Effects of Charlie’s Death

• Stories abound of people—previously unengaged, even ideological opponents—drawn to faith, activism, or community as a result of Charlie’s witness and the aftermath of his assassination (Nick Sorter shares how his own mother was personally moved to return to church) [13:27].
• The team notes a global revival in faith catalyzed by Charlie’s passing, describing the “spirit moving” in the stadium and online.

7. Calls to Continue Charlie’s Legacy

• Panelists propose making the memorial or “revival” an annual event (Benny Johnson: “Why don’t we do one every year in Charlie’s honor, like a revival style event?” [41:13]), turning personal loss into a force for positive movement and continued evangelism.
• The memorial is seen as a launching point for a new chapter: “Now it’s all the disciples’ job to take it and run with it.” —Andrew [96:25]

8. The Transformational Power of Marriage and Parenthood

• Discussion on how marriage to Erica and later fatherhood led to Charlie’s personal and professional growth, enabling him to shoulder greater burdens and unlock new levels of impact (85:35–87:20).

9. Memorable Worship and Humor

• The worship segments and the lightness brought by Don Jr.’s humor are recounted as necessary, cathartic moments amidst the grief (91:13–94:21).
• “Don used humor ... and he joked about Hillary Clinton ... The room needed a laugh.” — Benny Johnson [92:39]

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Benny Johnson, on the scale and peace of the event:
  “It was spiritual in nature... Not a single window broken... Nothing but a peaceful memorial... filled with prayer, mourning, forgiveness, and a call for righteous justice.” [04:24]

• Elon Musk, on unity:
  “If we don't hang together, we will surely hang separately. So let us unite. I was proud to sit with my president tonight.” [08:35]

• Andrew, on Erica’s forgiveness:
  “This is one of the most truly important and profound moments in American history, perhaps world history, and she had such courage to do it.” [27:38]

• Erica Kirk, forgiveness:
  “I forgive him.” [27:19]

• Blake Neff, on Erica’s motivation:
  “I have to do it because I can't let there be anything that would stand between me and seeing Charlie again if I were to die.” [29:16]

• Benny Johnson, on memorial’s impact:
  “Charlie’s memorial service [is] the single largest apostolic event in modern history.” [16:12]

• Andrew, contrasting responses:
  “There is no greater testament to the character of Charlie Kirk than that... we didn’t riot, we didn’t burn down. We worshipped. We held prayer vigils.” [68:36]

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Significant Timestamps

• 02:12–05:57 — Benny Johnson on the scale, energy, and peace of the memorial
• 05:57–09:10 — Behind-the-scenes with Elon Musk, Trump, and healing rifts
• 27:04–31:16 — Erica Kirk's speech, forgiveness, and reaction
• 34:27–36:49 — The role of Christians, justice, and government (Romans 13 discussion)
• 39:03–41:13 — Left’s attempts to minimize the event and idea to make it annual
• 72:32–74:03 — Comparison of right and left’s responses to political violence
• 85:35–87:20 — Personal growth and transformation through marriage and family
• 91:13–94:21 — Reflections on humor, worship, and closure at the memorial

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Memorable Moments

• Backstage Reconciliation: Elon Musk and Donald Trump, previously at odds, reconciling at Charlie’s memorial, seen as a direct fulfillment of Charlie’s coalition-building wishes [05:57–08:35].
• Erica Kirk’s Forgiveness: The moment Erica publicly forgave her husband’s killer, described as one of the most Christ-like and historically significant acts ever witnessed [27:19].
• Global Reach: The magnitude of the event—possibly billions exposed online, unprecedented media attention, stamped as a "revival event" and "largest apostolic gathering" [16:21].
• Cultural Power: Charlie’s reach into mainstream culture, from South Park to confronting Jimmy Kimmel, and reasserting the importance of conservatives holding and shaping culture [60:02–63:08].
• Personal Testimonies: Many, including Don Jr., recounting their own turn towards faith, church, and self-examination because of Charlie’s life and untimely death [65:27].

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Themes & Takeaways

• Redemptive Suffering: The pain of Charlie’s loss is presented as a catalyst for spiritual renewal and national revival, giving millions new purpose.
• Forgiveness as Power: Erica Kirk’s act of forgiveness redefines the nation's response to tragedy and models Christ-like strength.
• Movement Forward: The legacy is less about one man and more about empowering countless others to rise, lead, and carry forth the message of faith, purpose, and unity.
• Contrast in Values: The memorial and subsequent days highlight a dramatic difference in cultural and moral values between the right and the left.
• Call to Action: The panel calls for continued gatherings, revival-style memorials, and an urgent charge to “go 50 times harder” carrying Charlie’s mission forward.

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For listeners, this episode offers an unvarnished, inside look at a turning point—not only for the conservative movement but for the nation’s cultural and spiritual life. It’s a roadmap for grieving with hope, leading with faith, and turning tragedy into an enduring legacy.

Transcript

[Andrew]

Satan. Everybody. Welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show. On the Monday following what truly was one of the most historic events in the history of our country, Remembering Charlie Kirk building a legacy at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. I am joined by an amazing cast of friends who were all there, who all witnessed it in person. They need no introduction, but we're going to do it anyways. Our dear friend, Benny Johnson, dear friend of Charlie Kirk. Thank you, Benny. Nick Sorter, independent reporter, he was all over. I saw you so many times for such a big venue. It was amazing. Yeah, I got my steps in, I read into you. And of course Blake Neff, who played a huge role, by the way, behind the scenes in yesterday's event and what you saw unfold. But Benny, I asked you here because I knew you were going to have a lot to say and I think it's very fitting. You know what we did last week, we had this amazing all star group of people that came in and honored Charlie by guest hosting the show alongside his team. But I think it's very fitting that you have the Monday after that. Powerful, powerful memorial to his life and legacy. So, Benny, the floor is yours. Tell us what's on your heart. What are you feeling the morning after?

[Benny Johnson]

Andrew, I'm probably going to spend the rest of my life processing what I experienced yesterday. I couldn't sleep. It's like you were buzzing last night. There was so much kinetic energy in that room. It was a revival energy and helping assist and build Turning Point USA in these events over the last decade or so. The magnificence of the team here. Blake is here, obviously, but Blake is just a representation, you yourself as well, of the architecture that Charlie put forward. There is no group on earth, political or otherwise, that could have pulled off a 100,000 person in person memorial, including the vast majority of cabinet secretaries, executive offices, governorships, members of congress, senators, world leaders, richest man on earth, Elon Musk, arguably the most powerful private civilian on Earth, Elon Musk, all in attendance yesterday. It is an impossibility for nation states to be able to pull that off. Like small countries in Europe wouldn't be able to do that.

[Blake Neff]

They wouldn't get the permit to do.

[Benny Johnson]

It with the full force of the, with the full force of the Swiss government. They couldn't pull that off. What an. I just want to like take a giant step back and perhaps we have some, some imagery that the producers could play of the size of the audience, the scale of the audience. Not only were the rafters filled, not only were was the Floor filled where you don't. Wouldn't get that normally in an NFL game or an NBA game. Right. Or a professional hockey game. The field is for the players. Right. And there's just a handful of them. But also the. Behind the stage was filled. Let me explain that. These are people who are sitting. Maybe you could see it right here. These are people who are sitting that can't see the program, but they're still there to just stare at a wall. This. There's an overflow room also, that was at near capacity. Another minor league sports arena. Yes.

[Andrew]

That was at the Desert Diamond. It was the former NHL arena and it was its neighboring State Farm Stadium. And it was filled.

[Benny Johnson]

The energy was unlike the super bowl, unlike a sporting event. It was spiritual in nature. It was so kinetic because the room was so packed and so filled. And as far as I could tell, and I know this actually, as a matter of fact, not a single window broken, not a single Molotov cocktail thrown, not a single fist ever thrown in anger. No fights, no burning buildings, no attacks on cops, no attacks on our nation. Nothing but a peaceful memorial, the largest perhaps on earth, perhaps in American history, filled with prayer, mourning, forgiveness, and a call for righteous justice. That is the difference between two ideologies, two directions for Western civilization and a profound magisterial remembrance of Charlie's legacy. It is precisely as he would have wanted it. And I want to jump just one more story in, because I was backstage, I got to see a lot of interactions. I got backstage frontstage, I was seated amongst all the cabinet secretaries. Got to see a lot. Elon Musk came by a couple times. And I just want to use Elon Musk as a. As a example of the power of Charlie's legacy. Elon Musk and Donald Trump had a bit of a falling out. Maybe you've heard of it. And that sucked, especially for guys like Charlie who were coalition builders. Charlie Kirk was thanked on stage by Donald Trump himself for bringing together RFK Jr. And MAHA movement. Donald Trump says Charlie created MAHA. I don't think Charlie ever will get the credit that he deserves for doing that. But also, Charlie Kirk brought together massive coalitions of. Well, at any Turning Point event, you can find Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson sharing the same stage. Right. Maybe not together, but they're all there, right? To give an opportunity to project their worldview. Right. Charlie was constantly doing that, constantly bridging gaps, constantly fusing together because he realized that if we don't hang together, we will surely hang separately, which is exactly what Elon Musk told me so backstage, Elon Musk embraces Erica Kirk and she's crying in his arms and they're hugging and it's really profound. This was after the speeches, this was after the program. And this is the words that Elon Musk said to, to us in this small little group with Erica Kirk. And he said, he said, like, this is why I was proud to sit with my. This is what he called Trump, my president today. He accepted Trump's invitation to go up there and he's the majority of the event. Elon Musk sent sitting there with Donald Trump chewing it up. Everyone has, can see the. Here's the photos of Elon embracing Erica and then there are photos of Elon with Trump and they seem to be having a great time. Dana White, also there. What a profound. Not only was the size and scope of this and the peacefulness of it, a profound eulogy for Charlie and his memory, but the cornerstone of it all, to unite the world's most powerful, richest private civilian with the world's most powerful public figure, Donald Trump. Charlie said in this chair right here, he hoped that it happened. There's a clip that went viral yesterday. Charlie saying, I pray, I pray that Elon Musk and Donald Trump reconcile. And they did so at Charlie's funeral in Charlie's memory, a profound and beautiful example of what Charlie constantly was doing for our movement. And he fused together the greatest schism that we've seen in the nascent Trump administration. He just fixed Trump and Elon together. We saw it live. And it's like the power of Charlie crying out. I mean, after death, crying out, and still the power of Charlie, like bringing together these tectonic forces that should not reconcile. These are two stubborn men. These are two men that don't need each other, honestly. But it's. But Elon Musk told me this. He hugs Erica Kirk. He looks to all of us and he goes, if we don't hang it together, we will surely hang separately. So let us unite. I was proud to sit with my president tonight. That's what Elon told us. That's what Elon told us backstage. And so again, just as a little behind the scenes vignette here, what you watched yesterday, what tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people saw yesterday, definitely hundreds of millions saw yesterday, was a beautiful encapsulation, eulogizing and memorial to Charlie with his energy pulsing through every bit of it.

[Andrew]

I mean, that's beautifully said. I hadn't heard that part about Elon. So I love that. And you know, I know. And Blake knows how badly Charlie wanted to see them reconcile. So many times we discussed it and Charlie, you know, he. Elon kind of flew off the handle a little bit when it first happened. And Charlie was very reserved. He didn't hop on it because he was like, I believe they're gonna come back together. And yesterday Charlie was proved correct, as he often is. And I mean, and it was funny. I tweeted about it and I said, I hope that these two men are saying to each other for Charlie. And then about two hours later, Elon Musk tweeted an image of him and Trump talking. And he said, for Charlie and a Bible verse. Yeah, Benny, you get the honor today of being seated right next to Charlie's chair. So do you, Nick, by the way, it's sort of. I mean, we added this seat location for these streams because, you know, we're just going to all pile around Charlie, which is very Charlie. But yeah, Benny, I mean, please. You were continuing and I cut you off. So, I mean, you saw it. It was powerful.

[Benny Johnson]

You ever seen Elon Musk convert to Christianity? We gonna see that. I think that Elon Musk, what do you think, Blake? Probably agnostic at best.

[Nick Sorter]

Perhaps he was openly agnostic. Actually, he would say that because he was more of a science based guy, as he would say, and he wants to see evidence and proof of things before it happens. But the amount of people in that room yesterday, I mean, like, I could feel it. I was genuinely convinced that the Holy Spirit was in the room yesterday. And I saw Elon tweet.

[Blake Neff]

As we forgive those.

[Nick Sorter]

Right? And then I ran up to you and showed you immediately. You were in the middle of talking to somebody. But I was so excited. I'm like, here, like, look at this, Andrew. I was so.

[Andrew]

Blew my mind. Blew my mind. And I think we all felt, you know, Tucker had that great line and he said the Holy Spirit was. Was. What did he say? It was humming like a tuning fork in there. And you could just. I mean, you could not help but step into that room and feel that. And I think probably, I mean, there was our production team that was running all the streams. They logged well over 100 million streams. And that was just the ones they knew about. That's not broadcast, that's not obviously clips of the memorial. That's none of that stuff. They could just log over 100 million. That number will grow. It will end up being probably close to about a quarter or a quarter of a billion when it's all said and done. But what do you think? I mean, you were kind of observing. I saw you a couple times. Blake was just kind of taking it all in. And sometimes Blake can be very kind of in your thing you're doing. And you were unusually sort of observant of the wider moment. I saw you a couple times. What was it like for you, Blake?

[Blake Neff]

You know, I think the moment I think a lot of people who are there are going to remember is actually right at the start, before any of the speakers come out. It's just right at the beginning where they had all the different signs that were color coded. And I remember they chose the signs very well. It was like one of them was the, you know, here I am, Lord, send me. Another was the, I think, well done, my good and faithful servant. Like, they had. They had a good selection of what was on the signs and everyone just holding them. The music is just the strings. There's no one singing or anything. And it goes for. Man, it felt like it was five plus minutes, everyone just sort of sitting there, like, marinating in the moment. That felt very powerful. I saw a lot of people crying. I think I teared up during it. And you had several moments of that throughout the night. It was an entire event very rich with meaning, very rich with common feeling. And I think everyone there is going to remember it the rest of their lives.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And you were going around interviewing people, Nick. What were people telling you?

[Nick Sorter]

Well, I mean, first off, what was really interesting to me were the amount of people, like, Turning Point Action. Yesterday was super busy going around registering voters. People want to get involved. These are people that didn't really pay too much attention to politics before. Maybe they did casually, but now all of a sudden, this happened. It woke a lot of people up.

[Benny Johnson]

It scared them.

[Nick Sorter]

It shook them to the core.

[Benny Johnson]

It.

[Nick Sorter]

You know, I've been speaking to my mother as well, who she's been a lifelong Democrat. Loved Obama when I was growing up, and she called me and was, like, almost in tears because she didn't know Charlie before. She didn't know anything about Charlie. And then she started seeing all the clips. She started seeing the highlights from him doing these college tours and stuff. And now she wants to get back into the church and she wants me to start going with her and such. She's like, yeah, I want to send you this. I want to send you a Bible. I'm going to. And it's just this unbelievable power that Charlie has unleashed posthumously on the world, bringing people closer to God, I would say it's in the millions upon millions of people that have now just gone to church for the first time over the past couple of weeks or have gone to church for the first time since, I think Erica said, since as.

[Andrew]

A child, you know, And I think there was this feeling, you know, in the immediate aftermath of Charlie's assassination, there was this surge, right? I could feel there was a surge. People were showing up, hundreds and hundreds of people were showing up in front of the HQ and there was vigils going on, and I kind of prayed silently. I said, lord, let this not be the end of it. I hope that this is not just a flash in the pan. And I'll tell you, there's tons of people in front of the building this morning just paying their respects. And I think this memorial and this rediscovery re exploration of Charlie's actually what he said, not what the media said about him, is going to mean that this carries on much, much longer than just these last 1112 days. I had the honor of speaking yesterday at Charlie's memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It was an honor of a lifetime. And I got to bring our team up on stage, which was also an honor. And I got a lot of great feedback from people just saying, you know, bringing the team up was a. Was a masterstroke. It was so good. And I. It just. It's exactly what Charlie would have done because Charlie loves this team. Probably spent more time on a daily basis with the team that runs the show than any other team because there were so many teams. But this was his daily routine. And feel free to chime in. Bl.

[Blake Neff]

I got. I got a message from a friend who was asking, who's this guy? And it was not a photo of me. It was a photo of Dallin on our tech team, because the profile, he had a very powerful looking chin. So congratulations.

[Andrew]

D. Good for you, buddy. Good for you.

[Benny Johnson]

Have you ever heard. Have you ever heard the most powerful leaders in the Western world all be apostles for Christ on the same stage?

[Andrew]

Thank you for. That's the big E on the eye chart.

[Benny Johnson]

Really. This is the biggest apostolic event since the times of Christ, I believe.

[Andrew]

I don't think there is some of.

[Benny Johnson]

The greatest reformation given, you know, given technology and given the number of people that can watch concurrently. Right. Christ can speak to thousands on a hillside, but there's no way to amplify, you know, there's no way to digitally amplify it worldwide, given the number of people watching in South Korea. I mean, we probably will Never get those numbers. But I think it's probably fair to say that this service was seen by billions by the time it's all said and done and gone worldwide, at least pieces of it, right? Parts, snippets, videos, and clips on social media. Billions saw it, and there wasn't a single speech that did not have Christ at the center of the speech. I believe that this. And you should contact the Guinness Book of World Records. This is most likely Charlie's memorial service, the single largest apostolic event in modern history.

[Nick Sorter]

Well, I don't know if you guys saw this. Somebody tweeted out a photo of, you know, the monitors for all the different news networks. Every single major news network in the Western world was tuned in live, not cutting to any commercials, while these big speakers were going absolutely crazy.

[Andrew]

And I will tell you, I handle press for Turning Point events historically. And so I sort of had to, on top of a number of other things that I was doing. And my team did an amazing job. Shout out to Aubrey. You did a phenomenal job. Aubrey Laich. Thank you so much for stepping up. Aubrey's just one of those people that said, I want this. I know you can't focus on this like you normally do. I want you to trust me. And I said, okay, Aubrey, it's yours. Don't mess it up. And I got so many compliments on the job she did just. Just kind of playing orchestra. She was orchestrating the choir. It was a really amazing job because there was so much press going on. But this is what we heard from the venue. Now, remember, the venue does Super Bowls. They do special events all the time. And I will tell you, they said this was more press interest from around the world, not just America, than the super bowl or any other special event they've ever been a part of. And I believe it is a very true fact to say that. That the Gospel was just proclaimed to more people in one singular event than at any other time in human history. And it makes me remember Benny, the verse where he says, jesus says, you will do even greater things than these. It's not that we are greater than Christ, Christ is king, but you will do even greater things than these. And everybody who had a hand in yesterday's event was. Was a participant in those greater things. Because, as you said, we have social media. We have this ability to spread the message so far and so wide and so quickly, so, so truly amazing to be a part of that.

[Benny Johnson]

It's hard to put. If you go to a lot of MAGA rallies and we've been to, you know, hundreds, thousands. I don't know.

[Andrew]

Safe to say we've been to some.

[Benny Johnson]

You know, how big the rallies are based on the size of the press rafter. And let me explain. The press rafter yesterday was. We were on a football field. It was 30 yards deep and the entire football field wide. That's how much space was needed to simply handle the number of cameras and on the ground, reporters. Is this correct, Colvette? I mean, you would have probably approved these dimensions.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

The size of the press rafter took up a considerable portion of the football field. It was, in order to get the amount of press in that wanted to.

[Andrew]

It was the biggest press riser anybody had ever seen. I talked to, you know, President Trump's team backstage. I talked to our physical production partners. They've never seen anything like it.

[Nick Sorter]

Well, I talked to Aubrey actually, because that's where I got my press pass from. And I saw the stack in front of her. It was like this. Of just press passes and I'm like, my God, how many? And she's like, it's in the hundreds.

[Andrew]

Oh, and we had to cut, just so everybody's aware, we had to cut a lot because we originally were going to be able to put some overflow press into the Desert diamond arena or whatever, and that ended up not being a possibility. So we could have fit even more into the back and we just, we fire marshal stuff, footprint stuff on the floor. We had to, we had to ultimately cut back. So there was some, some press that didn't even get in. But listen, we, we got in the lion's share of the press. And to God be the glory for Charlie, we pulled it off. The team didn't sleep. And again, just what a testament to Charlie's legacy, his leadership, that the team rallied the way they did. So I, you know, you were Talking.

[Benny Johnson]

About streaming 500,000 concurrents on Charlie's channel last. Last. Last night.

[Andrew]

Yeah, there was millions.

[Benny Johnson]

That's the most I've ever seen on a YouTube channel there.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

On Charlie's YouTube channel, there was 500,000 concurrents.

[Andrew]

There was a lot. I mean, it, I don't know what it was at its peak, but I just got an interesting tidbit of information that we had some partners do a geotag of how many devices were in the general vicinity, and it was nearly 300,000. It was 276,7000 devices were geotagged in that vicinity.

[Benny Johnson]

So for comparison and context there, when they geotagged, what was the most famous MAGA rally of the 2024 election, the Madison Square Garden rally. This is every MAGA star. This is Hulk Hogan and Elon and every. And Kill Tony and all of them. Right, Remember the left. The left loves comedians. Loves comedians.

[Andrew]

They love Puerto Rico joke. They love that.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah, that's right. They're totally free speech. That was 97,000.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Benny Johnson]

So that was the full geotag for that, which is seen as the penultimate Maga rally, was 97,000. So, yeah, yeah.

[Nick Sorter]

I mean, I walked outside. I was there most of the night covering, like, the growing size of the crowd. You had people there the night before. It was in the hundreds, which is still pretty good, Especially when they very specifically said, nobody's allowed to stay overnight. They said, you're not allowed to camp overnight. They're like, okay, so we're standing on the sidewalk and stay. You can't make us leave. And these people, like, two hours later, three o' clock in the morning rolls around, and all of a sudden there's tens of thousands of people standing outside. They wanted to make sure they got that spot. They wanted to make sure they were in there. And I read a post earlier today from a guy that was from Maine that came all the way over here. He got there early and ended up sitting behind the stage. And he's like, I wouldn't have it any other way. I want it to be there. He stood in line for, like, you know, hours and hours and hours, but he was overjoyed just to be able to experience it. I talked to somebody from Canada, Finland, in that line.

[Andrew]

Just interesting. Yeah, I saw a bunch of people. I mean, look at these crowd shots. Like, that's outside, by the way. That was people lining up to get in. And it was just a mass of humanity. A mass of humanity, by the way.

[Blake Neff]

A huge line of people who were camped out overnight.

[Andrew]

When I came in, Huge, huge sand. Yeah, it was absolutely massive. And it actually flowed pretty well. We filled up the arena in pretty good time. The Secret Service provided a ton of mags, which is the security scanners, to get into the venue. And so that helped because, you know, we had been a part of many Trump events during the campaign where the Biden administration was not giving us a lot of mags. They were giving us the bare minimum number of mags. So you can only move so many people through those per hour. The ingress is limited by. By mags. And I mean, you know, you can't prove it, at least I can't. But there was this feeling like they were like, we're Going to screw your event. And people are stuck out in the heat, passing out. We're out there handing. I'll never forget Palm Beach. I'll never forget that Palm beach event where Charlie went out into the parking garage because people, the line, we put the line out into the parking garage and it's massive 100% humidity, crazy heat. We put out big fans, we rushed in fans, we pallets of water. And Charlie went and shook everybody's hand and said, I'm so sorry. And it was because they screwed us on the mag. So this time we got all the mags we needed.

[Benny Johnson]

Man, it was rough. I mean, I don't know what your guys experience was entering the arena, but when you walked in the arena there was this major energy change. And we were coming over from Fox, you had done Maria Bartiromo right before me and you went, you know, it took a while to get into the arena. Big time security. Obviously you get in and you walk in and the first thing that greets you, that greeted me was like three ladies that were like sobbing in tears that all come over to like cry on my chest. And then it was like that every two feet, like every two feet took us an hour and a half to get to our chairs and people were just mourning Charlie. There was like this, there was like this kinetic. There was like this kinetic energy of. It was like Charlie. It was like Charlie was there. I don't know how it was tried.

[Blake Neff]

You could see people who were just walking onto the floor into the arena area and they were just sobbing as they walk.

[Benny Johnson]

Crying, crying uncontrollably.

[Blake Neff]

Taking it all in.

[Benny Johnson]

Yep, crying uncontrollably. However, you know, another massive shout out to Turning Point and the events team here to give what people are looking for in that time. If you don't give them a physical ability to mourn and to get it out, then that energy can, can actually go dark and can, can, can turn into something bad. So doing this was actually therapeutic for the nation. It was actually, it was so important to do it this way. It was so important for people to have the opportunity to grieve and mourn together and to get it out right. And to channel into something good.

[Andrew]

I love where you're going because I want to talk about that because Erica Kirk did something truly, truly remarkable. And so guys, ready that clip where she forgives the shooter and there's all this chatter online. I don't think I could forgive and oh, maybe it's too soon or this or that. I want to explain why. What Erica Kirk did was the epitome of courage and humility and Christ's love. And show the. I think it's 61. Go ahead and throw up. The New York Post cover. I forgive him. And that's Erica being embraced, putting her head on the chest of the President as he consoles her. This powerful moment where she said, what for many, Benny, is the unthinkable. I forgive this man who just robbed the world of a great hero and a titan of a man, our friend. But I'm very aware. I'm very well aware that, yes, he was my, you know, dear personal friend. We spent so much time together, but yet he belongs to the world. He belongs to history. And here Eric was doing this, not out of a personal relationship, you know, with her husband, but really, like, because she understands that she is an instrument for God right now. And so she dug so deep and did this beautiful thing, and it's created a lot of chatter online, and I want to get into it now. What's the clip, guys? It's 1919. Go ahead and play it. On the cross. Our savior said.

[Benny Johnson]

Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.

[Andrew]

That man, that young man.

[Benny Johnson]

I forgive him.

[Andrew]

Wow, I got chills just watching that back. I. I agree, Benny, that that was. She's given two of the most powerful speeches that I've ever heard, if not the top two. I don't know what even comes close, actually, in this moment. And that moment in particular, I tweeted at the. At the time, I said, this is one of the most truly important and profound moments in American history, perhaps world history, and she had such courage to do it. Blake, take us behind the scenes, because you were. You were kind of. You were bouncing ideas off her with the language of this speech.

[Blake Neff]

Yeah, you know, we were. I helped her in. I helped her ahead of time with the speech. And, I mean, she's incredible. She was very clear what she wanted to say throughout. Very clear thinker. Very impressed with her throughout all of this. I think all of us have been amazing.

[Benny Johnson]

And we.

[Blake Neff]

You know, we were at that key point, and it was. Going into. It was actually a bit of an open question for me, like, is she ready to do this? Is she prepared to do this? And I won't say everything that went into it. A lot of that was very private. But two things I think I can say is, first of all, it was, you know, one of us almost threw out idly. What would Charlie do? And that actually impacted her a great deal. She did, as she said up there, it is what Charlie would do. And the other thing she said ahead of it, that it impacted me so much at the time, she said, I have to do it because I can't let there be anything that would stand between me and seeing Charlie again if.

[Benny Johnson]

I were to die.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Blake Neff]

And she knew, you know, the gospel. The gospel says we must love our enemies.

[Andrew]

That is powerful.

[Blake Neff]

And that was so incredible in that moment.

[Nick Sorter]

I think that it inspired a lot of people, especially the ones that I was sitting around, because, you know, you watched that video and how gruesome and how angry it made me watching that video. And, you know, this is. This is Charlie's wife. And she was able to actually go up on stage and say in front of millions of people that she forgives him. I mean, the power that's behind that, it's something that we'll remember for a long time.

[Benny Johnson]

So backstage, Erika was leaving. It's wild to tell you the importance of this moment for Erika. And first off, I mean, I said this during the break, but I think that that speech ranks among the top three most powerful speeches ever given in modern history. Without question. Not only that, but she. She, in that moment, ceased to be Erica Kirk. She became something spiritual. She also did it standing right here before this chair.

[Andrew]

She was. It was right where you're sitting.

[Benny Johnson]

And I'm not sure I'd even call that a speech. I think I'd call that, like a wife's private eulogy that she was able to share with all of us because of how important Charlie was to the world. That was like, less of a speech and more of, like, God speaking through her. I don't. Again, I've known Erica and Charlie for a long time. I was at the wedding. We were all at their wedding. Like, I emceed their wedding. Like. Like, I. That wasn't Eric. Like, Erica's incredible. That was like something spiritual. It was God physically moving through her and speaking through her. Because humanly, you can't forgive a monster like that. Humanly, you can't do that.

[Blake Neff]

And after it happened, it was really beautiful. People brought this up right away. Let's put up pick number seven. This is a tweet Charlie did all the way back in 2014. He was. You know, to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

[Benny Johnson]

And she shared Christ. She shared Christ. That was probably the. That was the most Christ like thing that happened. A lot of people talked about Christ. The Secretary of War talked about Christ. Right. Very interesting.

[Andrew]

Don Jr talked about.

[Benny Johnson]

And dank memes, which is a first. But that was the most Christlike thing that happened on stage. I think everyone will agree with that. Of course, the forgiveness of the unforgivable. Right? And Eric shared Christ, one of the largest audiences maybe ever gathered in human and did the most Christ like thing. And that, again, the most apostolic event in human history was that. And I think that, if you will allow me, a lot of people are saying, well, how dare Trump while, you know, saunter on stage afterwards and say, no, I hate my enemies. I'm gonna kill my enemies like I hate them. I want them to burn. Right? Because Trump went on and did that right? In his own way. Trump bravado and said, oh, I hate my enemies. I don't know how Erica can do that. I want to take an opportunity to just say from a Christian perspective and look at this from a biblical perspective, because what was demonstrated in both those speeches, represented by obviously Erica, but then represented by Stephen Miller, did a great job at this. Donald Trump did a great job of this. Secretary War did a great job of. This is the personification of Romans 13, Romans 13. The apostle Paul, who's very familiar with martyrdom, was there at the martyrdom of Stephen that actually brought him to Christ, writes about a properly instituted government set up by God, and that the government is there to institute safety and security for the good and moral people of the nations. That God has set up the leaders of our land in order to do that. And so God set up Trump and his administration to allow for security and family flourishing and for the prospering of good and moral people. And that God gives the sword to the leaders of our principalities in order to enact. These are the exact words, terror within evil men, to bring terror upon evil men. And that was what the Trump administration represented. That is pure Christian doctrine. That is fundamental Christian doctrine about the establishment of the government so that the good may flourish. Now, on a perfect personal level, what Erica showed was what we must do in our hearts in order to absolve ourselves and to follow in the Christlike method of forgiveness in order to ensure that we are unburdened actually by evil. Evil happens to us. We must unburden ourselves by following through with the power of Christ. Erika shows that, perfectly balanced, absolutely in perfect harmony by President Trump and his administration saying that it is now incumbent upon us, the rulers of this land, to institute justice. We do not have to forgive. We must enact justice, swift and severe justice upon evil men so that they are in terror. And that is perfectly, fundamentally harmonious in the Christian worldview.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Ally Stuckey actually said something that. And she's actually gonna be hosting the show with me tomorrow, so that's exciting. But she said there's a big contrast between Erica' forgiveness speech and Stephen Miller's destroy our enemy speech. And that was in, quote, I don't think, you know, I can't remember exactly.

[Benny Johnson]

We are the storm. Yeah, we are the storm. Did you help him write that play?

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

We are the storm.

[Andrew]

You know, but she did it in quotes. I mean, I don't think she meant any disrespect to Stephen. It was just the tone was, you know, distinct tone, was Stephen Miller, she says, exactly as it should be. It is our job to forgive, not the government's. Christians give grace. The government wields the sword. Romans 13. We turn the other cheek. The government punishes evil. And I mean, you saw that in very, very vivid detail on that stage yesterday. Because to your point, personally, that was an inexcusable evil that has been perpetrated against the world, certainly. But against Erica specifically.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And she unburdened herself. She said, I will not live with this hate. I will not live with this. This thing. In my spirit, I am. I am going to forgive as Christ forgave me, because I will not let it get in the way of me being with Charlie in heaven. And I will not let it get in the way of me running Turning Point USA and being the new leader of this movement. And I. I just commend her for that because, yes, I. Even when I heard that my flesh, I felt my flesh, like, crawling, because I didn't want her to forgive. I wanted her to, like, get that fierce look in her eyes, you know, that she has, which is just amazing, by the way. And I wanted her to look right in the camera and be like, we are going, you know, give me one of the bullets in. Because Utah still has, you know, what is it?

[Benny Johnson]

Firing.

[Andrew]

Firing squad. Give her one of the bullets and let her shoot him right in the. You know, whatever. Anyways, the point is, I wanted that. My flesh wanted that, but my spirit knew that the power you talked about, if you don't give people a way to grieve in this positive way, in a way that uplifts Jesus, then it can turn dark. And what she did is she took all of that energy and she flipped it on Satan's head and said, you are not going to win this one. We are going to choose Christ and God's love. Will be unleashed on this country.

[Benny Johnson]

Can we talk for just a moment about how this is how you begin? This is how civil wars and secretarian violence actually spirals into that failed state. You have these moments of political violence. You don't give anyone the capacity to grieve. There is no justice. There is no shooter found. No one is brought to justice. No greater terrorist network is brought down. I talked a lot with Cash Patel and Dan Bongino yesterday. I'd love to share that on the show. I know we're up against a break, but just another massive shout out to the team at Turning Point and the team at the Charlie Kirk show and Charlie's core here at giving the country an ability to grieve in a peaceful and in a productive way. Because what happened there yesterday was people saw that this isn't just pain and loss that can carve a hole in your heart and make you into a dark person. This is something that can be uplifting, actually, and can bring the movement forward and can consolidate a movement. And that's healing for a nation, 100%.

[Andrew]

Charlie, I mean, Blake knows this. Charlie preached more than anything to young people, be a part of something bigger than yourself. Do not get sucked down these dark holes on the Internet. Do not become an incel in your mom's basement or wherever. Get out, get in real life, be a part of something bigger than yourself. And what you saw was that Charlie is a man that invited people into something bigger than even himself, even in death. And you know, Benny, I'm thinking about something you were saying, and you kind of alluded to it earlier, that my brother actually flew down to and my dad, which was an amazing honor. I've never seen my dad quite like this, which will be something that I keep with me from this experience. But they made a comment that, you know, I've never been to a big event like this with a sea of people coming in and not have to. Not had to deal with the riff raff, didn't have some weird exchange with some random person. There was no negative energy. Everybody was so loving to one another. It was truly a positive experience. Even just being around strangers, A lot of people hate that, right? A lot of people hate going, I might be one of them, where you're kind of like, you go into a sporting event, you're like, okay, let's avoid that part. Nothing like that.

[Nick Sorter]

Well, I mean, that was one of the things that really ticked off the left yesterday. I was monitoring this stuff online to see this reaction to, you know, everybody worshiping and the tens of thousands of people singing and. Yeah, and that. That really pissed off the left in this country and. And they even tried to pull this stunt. I texted you about it, where they were trying. They were making it go viral, saying, oh, nope, sorry. Doors are closed now. Stadium's full.

[Andrew]

Go home text. I was inside, so I texted an image to you. I'm like, this is a live look at the stadium. People are still coming in. The whole upper bowl was. Was completely empty because they were kind of filling the stadium from bottom to top. And I was like, please get this out. I don't know if you ended up tweeting that.

[Nick Sorter]

Oh, yeah, it did. I mean, it got seen millions and millions of times and. Cause people were sharing it because they knew what was going on. The left saw these images that we were putting out, like the drone footage and the video that you just showed here of these endless lines of people, and they're like, oh, this is bad. This is really bad. Because they're in total. They're in a spiral at this point. Because a lot of people, as I said, been woken up. They have seen what the left has been doing over the past week. Celebrating the death of somebody as wholesome and good and well intentioned as Charlie Kirk that they don't know what to do at this point. So they're gonna continue trying to demonize us. They wanted this to be. They wanted to be able to show pictures of a crap ton of empty seats and say, you know, this was a failure. I guess people really didn't care that much. That was their goal. And they failed because if you looked at the arena next door too, they. That was packed as well. There's no way for them to spin it.

[Benny Johnson]

Can I. Since we're sitting here with so much of the Charlie brain trust and not enough. I mean, frankly, not enough credit goes to ever. The people who really make it all possible. Made like this Charlie Kirk moment possible. Cannot emphasize enough Blake, Andrew and the entire team here. Also, Tyler, you know, on occasion there's screen time there, but, like, just not enough credit is given to the infrastructure and architecture that makes a Charlie even possible. Right. Because there's such a huge machine behind it. Many of many were on stage, which is a beautiful thing that you did yesterday. Could I ask you guys a question? Just live here, not to put you on the spot. Why don't we do one every year in Charlie's honor, like a memorial? Like, why don't we do like a revival style event?

[Andrew]

I like that.

[Benny Johnson]

Make this like the new America Fest or make this something that is countervailing in like a spirit is more like a turning point faith event that is more like faith driven.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I've gotten a lot of people saying, you know, you guys should do tent revivals now because, you know, people are like, TPO say faith should go around and we should just start preaching. But. But I love this idea. This is much more tpos.

[Benny Johnson]

I like this single nexus point in a stadium and like to show people the magnanimity and then also just the majestic power of 100,000 people here to sing and praise and worship and to do so in a way that is positive for the nation. Something that I think a lot of church there are mega churches, but they never talk politics. Right. And they never talk about, like the direction a moral nation should go.

[Andrew]

I will tell you, I spoke and overheard some conversations, I should be more exact because with some of the worship leaders and you know, we're talking Grammy Award winning artists. These are the best of the best. And they were blown away. They'd never seen anything like it. They had never seen the spirit move like that. Honored to be with you guys on a truly historic occasion. The Monday after bidding farewell to our friend, but really saying hello and welcoming this new move of the spirit that has been unleashed on the country.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah, and we were just talking about that. So there are so many people that want to feel something, that want to like, say, this is why I meant the MAGA rally works, because people, there's power in saying we agree on these, like, core principles and we can gather together and show our power. And the right has been, of course, historically terrible at this, but Donald Trump changed that. Charlie Kirk changed that. And be very. And. And to do. To do a Charlie Kirk style memorial event that maybe goes from a Charlie Kirk memorial into more of a spiritual reawakening and revival style event. I love it in his honor to bring people together for a moral projection of, like, where the country and nation should go. Inviting our leaders to almost give sermons.

[Andrew]

Right?

[Benny Johnson]

To almost like share their faith, to make it more about that. Because that's what they all did. Naturally. I doubt that you told anyone what to say. I know you didn't. You didn't tell a single person what.

[Andrew]

To say on stage. We've never told people what to say on stage. We've never censored people. I'm sure Charlie had conversations with certain people and they go, can I really talk about this? And he would say, the floor is yours. Yes, the floor is yours. We believe in Bringing good people to events and letting them do what made them good people in the first place.

[Benny Johnson]

So you guys didn't tell a single cabinet secretary or soul what to say yesterday. And every one of them naturally shared their faith.

[Andrew]

And by the way, JD told me behind stage, so I had a perch behind stage where I could see the teleprompter and the script. And JD made this amazing comment where he said, I've talked about Jesus more in the last two weeks than I've talked about in the entire. My entire public career.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And that was ad libbed. I was looking on the screen, I was like, wow, you didn't have that in your script. It just came out. And he was like, yeah, because it's true. And it felt like I needed to say it.

[Benny Johnson]

Wouldn't it be neat in Charlie's honor to create like a Nexus event where you could have a place where it is appropriate? Sometimes it's not, you know, sometimes it's not appropriate or it's just. There's other things to talk about, right. We're talking about fentanyl overdoses today, we're talking about the national debt today. We're talking about autism today. Maybe that's not the appropriate time to share your faith, Right? It kind of depends on who you are. But maybe you create the Nexus event where it is appropriate actually for the leaders of our land, or would be, want to be leaders of our land to share their, to share their faith to a large arena like this. A lot of this stuff, if someone tries to do it, is very stadium, stadium, stadium with a stadium. A lot of this stuff is like poorly attended in like sunken, damp, mildew basements of dc, Right? They're like very poorly. These, these events are like not well done. And it'd be nice to do one where people can come, they can feel the spirit, they can get like that, that energy, that revival energy that everyone wants to feel, that everyone felt yesterday and then give a platform.

[Andrew]

I think it's great for leaders to come into the. We could do it on the anniversary of the memorial. Screw the assassination, you know, like 9:21 or at least the, the Sunday closest to 9:21.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah. What?

[Andrew]

And, and I think it's a beautiful idea and we, I, I think I will pursue it. And it's a, you know, like we need another event to produce around here. Like we need a hole in the head. But the, it was, it was. I mean, I agree with the idea that it, you, we gave people a platform to preach Jesus and they did. And there was a tweet I saw from Mark Driscoll, who's a local pastor around here, and he was like, these elected leaders are preaching the gospel better than the professionals.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes, yes. So one that's very encouraging for a moral nation, right? For a nation where Trump wins seven out of seven swing states. 90% of the counties in America voted for Trump. Trump wins the popular vote. We have a center right nation. We have a moral. It is still a morally good yes. People in this country, and we never get a chance to see that in our leadership reflected, ever. And even Trump himself, right, like talking through his faith. I've never seen him like that, like talking through his faith, like yesterday, like wrestling with some of the larger questions about Christianity and governance. He was doing that live on stage. What a remarkable thing to see and what a neat, what a, what a great platform to have. The question I have for you guys is, after seeing what happened yesterday, how many Americans do you think would get a ticket next time? Millions, I think. If you opened it up, I think millions of people would sign up in the first 24 hours to try and come.

[Andrew]

I will tell you that. Amfest. I'm not at liberty to share the current ticket sold number, but it's a lot. It's a lot, a lot. And we're probably gonna have to get a new venue because I don't think the Phoenix Convention center will hold the number that we've, we've got.

[Benny Johnson]

So that's 10,000.

[Andrew]

No, it's bigger. It's bigger. Well, I, I don't want to be again. I don't, I haven't discussed whether I could say it to anybody, but yeah, yeah, it's amazing. And anyways, I, I just want to thank both of you guys. I, I, it's just, it's so good to have friends here at this time. I, I say that on behalf of the Charlie Kirk show, have brothers in the fight with us here with us. Means a lot.

[Benny Johnson]

Our good friends at Angel Studios.

[Andrew]

I love Angel Studios.

[Benny Johnson]

Amazing new film this Holy Week.

[Don Jr]

Phenomenal.

[Jeff]

As I think about Charlie's life and how much of a support he was of angel, it's hard not to feel so grateful for what he did. He supported us in our darkest days and in our brightest hours as a company. Jeff and I and Charlie were doing lunch together. We asked him, we said, are you at all worried about one of these college campuses?

[Andrew]

And he just said, with so much.

[Jeff]

Peace in his eyes and so much peace in his heart, if that's how God takes me, then that's how I'm supposed to go. And I feel like that was a clear message that Charlie's life is a testimony to Jesus Christ, his Lord and savior, and his relationship with him was the most important thing that he would want the world to remember about his legacy. Man, are we grateful to have gotten to be a little connection in the multitude of connections that he made throughout his life because it was so impactful to us. Thank you, Charlie. Love you. We miss you. We're gonna continue to drive forward. The good news.

[Andrew]

There is our dear friend's empty chair, and that's the Shaquille o' Neal chair. For everybody wondering. It was probably the cheapest of the 14 chairs that Charlie tried on, but Charlie was a nephilim. I've said this before on the show. He was huge in person. Like, people would always be like, you're taller than I expected. He's like, I've heard this before. And he. We got all these fancy chairs. We tried them on. He'd be like, nope, nope, nope. So finally somebody thought, let's get the Shack chair for. For huge people. And it was probably. It was like 150 bucks at Target or something. We put it together. He was like, this is the one. This is the chair. So I can't help but laugh at it because it's just so Charlie. But anyways, we are beginning hour two on the Monday after the memorial, the historical memorial where the Holy Spirit was humming like a tuning fork at the State Farm Stadium here in Glendale, Arizona. And we are joined by Brick Suit.

[Brick Suit]

Great to be here.

[Andrew]

Honored to have you, my friend, and Cliff Maloney, who Cliff has the amazing honor of having his voice overlaid on one of the most viral Charlie Kirk clips of all time. And so I don't know if we want to start there or somewhere else, but I'm gonna play that clip at some point. Oh, you want to do it now? Yeah, let's do it. All right, so this actually. President Trump talked about this, which is amazing, and I love the clip. So let's just play. Let's play Cut five.

[Don Jr]

Fox News decides Donald Trump is President.

[Benny Johnson]

Of the United States.

[Don Jr]

We've got our republic back, folks.

[Benny Johnson]

Let's go.

[Don Jr]

There it is. Everybody should remember this moment. Look, I'm gonna. I'm gonna echo Charlie from earlier. Remember where you were when this happened. Remember where you were when you realized that the unit party and all these, you know, just the establishment. You said it's time to actually participate. And look what you guys have done.

[Blake Neff]

And if anyone Deserves to get tears in his eyes.

[Andrew]

It's Charlotte.

[Blake Neff]

Charlie, I think we all agree. I think Erica was one of the.

[Andrew]

Munions or something in the.

[Benny Johnson]

In the break room.

[Blake Neff]

No one has worked harder than Charlie.

[Don Jr]

We gotta hear some words here from you, Charlie. You put all this together, my man. Let's hear it.

[Andrew]

I. I am just humbled by God.

[Benny Johnson]

It's all. God, it's all good. God alone. Got alone.

[Andrew]

Decision desk has it.

[Benny Johnson]

Pennsylvania.

[Andrew]

It's beginning. Man. That takes me back.

[Don Jr]

Wildest experience in my life. Many of you guys know I am not the influencer type online. I'm more the organizer. Charlie was, you know, one of the. The few people in the world that could do both, right? To figure out, you know, how do I get the message out then how do I organize? This changed a lot of that for me. That moment, you know, one, it went viral as it happened. And then two, you know, Megyn Kelly did her whole show interviewing Charlie about that moment, right? So then there was another round. And then the weirdest thing, you know, to be in the tribute from the White House, that clip. And just obviously under horrific after this horrific event, you know, seeing it make another round out there. When I have people that have not talked to me in 15 years, you know, high school friends or things that are. They're not political, they don't follow anything, and they're randomly sending me a reel on Instagram, they're like, is that you? Is that your voice talking?

[Andrew]

You know, your Al Michaels moment?

[Don Jr]

And Charlie, that one thing I loved is. Is. I don't know who said that at first. It might have been you. It might have been Jack. It might have been Charlie.

[Andrew]

Jack.

[Don Jr]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But for.

[Don Jr]

For them to announce me at the turning point investor, you know, as summit, as the Al Michaels politics, I'm like, you know, I don't really have a good voice for radio or tv, and I don't have a face for tv.

[Andrew]

You do, actually. I mean, I think you proved it. The proof is in the pudding.

[Don Jr]

So going back to that night, and you guys all get this doing media. The reason I feel like I had to step in is because Erica came in the room and, you know, obviously Charlie was upset. You were all here, right? So me being the remote guy in our headquarters in Harrisburg, Penn, you know, just analyzing all the numbers. We can't have dead air, right? We all know that's the golden goose. You cannot have no one talking. And I feel like everybody's attention was on Charlie. And so I was like, well, I'm just Gonna speak here. I didn't wanna ruin the moment. And that's when I just said, remember this moment. And I felt like everybody in the room was just trying to tend to them. Cause they were having that moment. So it was beautiful.

[Andrew]

It was perfect that you stepped in. Go ahead, Benny.

[Benny Johnson]

So President Trump talked about this last night. And it was very interesting, his take on that clip, specifically because Trump's like, never seen Charlie like that. What was that? Crying.

[Andrew]

Crying like a baby crying too much.

[Benny Johnson]

What was that about? But then I understood he was crying cuz of Maga and how beautiful our victory was. Something like that. I'm paraphrasing. Perhaps we can get the exact clip. But that's the sense of what Trump was saying is that he's never seen his friend Charlie cry. He's never seen his friend Charlie emotional and breaking down because of emotion. And constantly I am asked, I'm sure you certainly, Andrew, having to fill in this chair, are asked this, how do you do it? Like, how are you still going? Because we've been basket cases. We get that all the time. Those closest to Charlie must understand something, that all of our actions, those who worked with Charlie and those who built with Charlie, all of our actions are inspired by knowing that Charlie is in heaven looking down and would judge us ever so harshly if we were blubbering weaklings right now. Charlie would never allow it. Now this is a moment that of course, Charlie's crying because he's happy. There was a moment that I lived through with Charlie where he was. He should have been crying because he was sad. And that was the 2020 election. And everybody knows what a nightmare that was. There's no reason to relitigate it now. But it was a nightmare. And it meant very bad things, obviously, for Turning Point. Clearly Turning Point was then under investigation. We all go under investigation. Charlie Kirk's social media was then about up for censorship and banning. That all's happened. We have all the documents for that. The entire weight of the federal government came after Turning Point.

[Andrew]

It has come out now that we were investigated by the FBI. The FBI was surveilling Turning Point.

[Benny Johnson]

Yep. And so that so clearly, if there was a time to cry or be depressed, it was that moment, that dark moment. Everyone felt it was all off. And in 2020, where that election, you know, collapsed right into darkness. And what did Charlie say? I know what Charlie said to me. I know what Charlie said to me. And it rings in my ears every single day when, you know, when you're like, man, this is tough. Like, getting. Getting through this. We go 50 times harder is what. This is what he said. And I'm telling you, I have said that in the mirror every single morning for the last week and a half. You go 50 times harder for Charlie. He would not want us blubbering. He would not want us crying. He would not want us fearful in this moment. He would want us to go 50 times harder to continue that mission. And I think that's why that moment of him crying and breaking down is so profound, because we never saw Charlie like that. Not even somebody who was a father figure to Charlie, which was President Trump, you know, and Trump sitting there in wonder about it on stage was really something, because everyone's processed that, and those closest to Charlie understood what the mission is now. And, Andrew, just a massive compliment to you. You have really, like, forcefully carried forward what Charlie would have wanted to have had happen right now, which is, no, we hold the side up. We. We. We stand upright as men, and we go 50 times harder.

[Brick Suit]

You know, there's something.

[Andrew]

Yeah, please.

[Brick Suit]

In Charlie's last interview that he gave, it was in Utah, just Salt Lake City, an hour before he went to the campus. I think it was the last question he was asked is about one of his favorite quotes. And what I remember him saying was, this, too, shall pass. And that kind of applies to the moment we're in now, but also to that moment where you were narrating over the victory, because Charlie was saying that not only in that times of sorrow are going to pass, but to also keep you humble at the times of your greatest success. And you need to go forward from that. And because that symposium there was really about entrepreneurship, primarily in the restaurant industry, there may not have been a lot of people who are familiar with Charlie or politically involved who have seen it, but it is absolutely worth a watch. If you want to see something about how Charlie viewed his role in this organization.

[Andrew]

You just inspired something. I mean, whether it was good times or bad times, Charlie would tell me, stay humble. Stay close to Jesus. We gotta stay. Like, if we'd had this huge success, I probably have dozens of this exact text in our chat. Stay humble, stay close to Jesus. Stay humble. Stay close to Jesus. Like, you know, we thought we were, you know, after Trump won, it was all this, you know, he's like, we just need to stay humble. And you stay close to Jesus. And that is Charlie. And good or bad, and I will never, ever forget it. Amen.

[Benny Johnson]

I'm just. Please. I'm just in bewilderment. They have CNN you know, they have every major news network up. CNN is one of them on a entire wall of screens here in the studio. And it says, erica Kirk forgives assassin. Says her husband wanted to save young men. Just like the one who took his life. That is the Chiron on cnn. We boys, we are living through a moment.

[Andrew]

Well, this. This is what Erica and I have joked because we both. You know, I think it started with Erica and Charlie. They would say this to each other, and then somehow it. It filtered out, and Charlie and I would start saying it to each other and just be like, this is not normal. You know, when Charlie got on South Park, I was just like, this is not normal, man. Like, what's happening? You're just like a campus activist, dude. You know, that is now larger than life. I don't know how that happened. This is not normal. And, you know, Erica and I have had more than one chuckle, like, through the tears. You know, we just look, you know, there was a Dexter to Charlie.

[Benny Johnson]

I go, this is amazing. And he's like, is it a good thing?

[Brick Suit]

They nailed it. They nailed his hair, too. His hair was perfect. His hair was perfect on South Carolina.

[Benny Johnson]

This is cultural. I mean, people, this is cultural power. You know, it's a cultural power that you've always fought for, that there's always been a core, back before Turning Point even owned a building on this campus when they were renting. Like, Charlie. When it was like 10, seven people here, like, Charlie was talking about, but talk about how this important culture is. That's because he loved Andrew Breitbart. Andrew Breitbart would constantly tell Charlie in particular, but all of us, that politics is downstream of culture.

[Andrew]

Well, so you know what's crazy about this, And I've said this before. Andrew Breitbart died in 2012. Charlie was so. Charlie had never met Andrew, but he was so. He followed him, and he was so inspired when he died that he started Turning Point usa.

[Benny Johnson]

Is that really the nexus point?

[Andrew]

That's the nexus point.

[Benny Johnson]

Wow.

[Andrew]

And he told Larry o' Connor this because there was a CPAC panel with Matt Boyle and Larry o' Connor and I think Alex Marlowe, all of which worked for Andrew Breitbart. And so Larry was kind of like, why are you here, Charlie? And Charlie's like, I can't wait to tell you about it. Like, call me and I'll tell you. And Charlie said to Larry, I followed him so closely, and when he died, I was devastated, and I knew that I had to start something. And so that is Those little seeds that get planted in these moments. And so you can draw a direct line between Andrew Breitbart's death, the beginning of Turning Point, and now with Charlie's death, you have to ask yourself how many are going to be inspired to rise up and to push back against the darkness and against the lies and save this country and spread the gospel? I think it's going to be. I think the harvest from Charlie's death is going to be multitudes, magnitudes larger than what we saw with Andrew Breitbart. And I just don't see how there's any. I mean, there's just not an option where that's not true. But for what it's worth, Charlie loved Andrew Breitbart. He always talked about culture. And you, Benny Johnson, you played a central role in this Kimmel. And we can wait for radio, but I was so proud of you. And I know there was some consternation about Brendan Carr and should the government be directly involved? I think there's. I had a tweet on it. You, I think, retweeted it. Benny, thank you so much. But the point is that this is cultural power because we're finally saying this is not anti free speech. By the way, Jimmy Kimmel is not a victim, he's a liar. And he tried to pin this assassination on maga, which is a vile thing to do. And by the way, when you are on a network, you get extraordinary benefits, taxpayer funded benefits and privileges to uphold the public good. Lying to the public about who committed this atrocity is not in the public good. And so ultimately this is the consumers and the affiliates and the network using their free speech to say no. And you played a central role in building that energy. And so hat tip to you, Benny Johnson.

[Benny Johnson]

Well, this is exactly what Charlie would have wanted. I mean, I tell people this and the easiest way to explain it is Charlie took Cartman and made him his Twitter profile photo. Charlie loved being able to reach into culture and affect it because he understood that core Breitbart tenet, now doing now with Jimmy Kimmel, it's the exact same thing. What we are doing is holding accountable, flexing cultural power in a place where we had none. I mean, it's again inconceivable for us to think that Cartman would become Charlie Kirk for those of us who've known him for a while.

[Brick Suit]

Not on my bingo card.

[Benny Johnson]

That is incredible. That's power.

[Andrew]

That's.

[Benny Johnson]

It's power. Something we should embrace. And that's what Charlie did. Many people Are like, oh, Charlie owned. Now they got him. No, Charlie loved it and embraced it.

[Andrew]

I called Servatives. I called on Paramount to put the episode back up, and a bunch of people wrote it up.

[Benny Johnson]

Conservatives should love this fight with Kimmel. We can talk about it next. Like, they should love this fight with Kimmel. You should embrace it. You should enjoy the melee.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Instead of being, I totally agree.

[Benny Johnson]

Totally incomplete weaklings and babies and doing what they always do, which is like, treat me nice, pet me like a dog. I'll be your little doggie.

[Andrew]

Rule me harder.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah, that's right.

[Andrew]

We're having a great time here. Remembering our friend, our brother, an American legend. I pinch myself often knowing that this person I spent so much time with now belongs to history. He's not ours. He's not anybody's. I mean, save Erica's and the children, but he is. He will live in it for eternity in the hearts and minds and the memories of humanity on earth. I'm not talking about his spirit. I'm talking about his message. His memory will. It will not be snuffed out. I mean, I saw this. The White House posted. I think it was like, it was Lincoln and MLK and, you know, JFK and Charlie. And I just. I remember just thinking, how on earth is this real? How on earth.

[Don Jr]

Yeah, let me echo real quick what the vice President said. You guys talked about it in the previous hour, but, you know, him going off the cuff and saying he's talked more about Jesus in the last two weeks than he has in his entire time in public life. That's me, right? I never talk about my faith. You know, this is something. I mean, Charlie would text me certain things, you know, some of the Bible verses, different things from time to time. I am a Christian, but. And appreciated what you said. A degenerate loser. I loved you leading with that line. Because, you know, I've had my moments. You know, I've had cancel culture come after me. I've had different things happen. Charlie always stood by me. Loyalty, very rare in politics.

[Benny Johnson]

Oh, yeah.

[Don Jr]

But I agree with what J.D. vance said. I mean, I've talked more about my faith. I've thought about my relationship with Christ more in the past 12 days than I probably have in the last decade.

[Andrew]

God bless you.

[Don Jr]

And I, you know, I don't. I'm not coming out.

[Andrew]

Just say yes, baby. Just say yes. Just say yes.

[Don Jr]

And to be in that room yesterday, I think for all of us, you know, especially me as somebody who, you know, traveling all the time, struggle to get to church as an excuse. I'll put it out there. But to. To be in that room for the worship and the fellowship, it was such highs and lows of emotion. You know, seeing Charlie with all the, you know, the different banners that they had up, the different videos, but then to join so many people in worshiping from all over the country, I mean, that was probably the wildest part to me is you had people coming in. I mean, and here's. Here's. This is something that's weird for us to say. There were so many people we didn't know. Right. That is what hit me, because when you go to any of our events, Even if there's 20,000 people at America Fest, right, You know, so many people.

[Andrew]

We've.

[Don Jr]

We've worked, we've interacted with so many activists. I didn't know so many of the people that were there yesterday. You would run into these random folks, and they were. They were. They didn't have a hotel room.

[Andrew]

They would.

[Don Jr]

Drove six hours and just stay overnight and no plans.

[Andrew]

It was amazing. Everybody felt like a family, though. And, Brick, you. You are a keen observer of kind of that confluence between the online and the irl, right?

[Benny Johnson]

You.

[Andrew]

You are. I see you. You are monitoring everything online, but yet you are a person that puts yourself in these real moments, and you're always at these events. Tell us about that. What. What. What did you see? Did. Did. Did real life match online? Did it. I mean, what. What were people saying? What were people thinking from your perspective?

[Brick Suit]

Well, I can say that this. This event, you know, sometimes I call myself a meme in real life. You know, when I've got the Brick suit on and I'm wearing that, that's good. I'm a meme in real life. And that was really kind of the origin of how I started that. That's what I was trying to do. But I went there the night before just to check it out. Nick in the first hour, talked about how many people were there and they wanted to be there for Charlie. And this event was unlike any other event that I've been to, unlike Trump rallies, unlike the Madison Square Garden rally, unlike Coachella, unlike even Tulsa, where I camped out on the sidewalk with a bunch of other people for four days before. It was completely unlike that one thing. That was not there was any protesters.

[Andrew]

And inside, even I couldn't believe that.

[Brick Suit]

Inside, not one person had to stand up. Not a heckle. It wasn't outside people wanted to get in.

[Benny Johnson]

And.

[Brick Suit]

As I was inside, it wasn't just the Building that was filling up. People's hearts were filling up too.

[Andrew]

Well, that's what I was gonna say. So here you have Cliff and I thank you for your. Just that, the candor, Cliff, and the vulnerability. And I think so many people were feeling that. Did you see that? Did you see that online? People saying like, I am so moved by this moment that I'm going to. I'm looking at my faith all over. Did you hear people talking about that? Did you see it online?

[Brick Suit]

I saw it online and I saw it beside me and I saw it behind me and I saw it in front of me. It was everywhere you looked in that.

[Andrew]

Stadium, Praise God, everywhere. It's amazing. You know, there is not. I mean, I've heard people say this a lot, but we didn't. We didn't riot, we didn't burn down. We worshiped. We held prayer vigils. And there is no greater testament to the character of Charlie Kirk than that, that one fact, and I'm so proud of it. You know, I want our country to be united. I think we need to confront the truth first and we need to be honest about something. Benny, we are not the same. These two sides are not the same. And there's a huge gulf between them and I want to get into it.

[Benny Johnson]

I agree.

[Andrew]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Benny Johnson]

I have a great follow up for that. To continue our conversation. So Charlie Kirk is a generational leader and voice for our side. Let's just call it the right. He was stolen from us and in on air execution done by a political enemy of our side, the left. A transgender antifa radicalized sociopath, porn addicted furry. This is who took Charlie from us. Let's just state the facts. Okay, so who's the aggrieved party here? Who's the party that had something horrible hat? Well, the right, we lost a generational leader, generational voice, and a future president, obviously. So. So we are the aggrieved party. The left killed Charlie. Someone of the left killed Charlie.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

Now let's look at the behavior of the right and the left in the 11 days since Charlie's assassination. The right has prayed and mourned and gone to church and. And executed one of the single most uplifting events in American history, possibly the single largest apostolic event in human history. Yesterday. Now that's our ledger. Let's look at the left. In the seconds after Charlie Kirk's assassination, a Democrat voter, his name's George Zinn, shouted that he was the shooter in order to let the actual shooter escape. Now, he's been Charged with a felony for this. He also had a. A ton of child pornography on his phone. So sick deals are charged with that. Okay, so whatever the hell that was, that's like the first act of the left, all right, was to try and assist in Charlie's assassin. Okay. In getting away. Then the. In the next 12 hours, a fox News truck has a bomb placed on it by two Democrat voters and donors. And the bomb is lit. Thank God it didn't blow up. But that, that's a story that got buried because there was so much news.

[Andrew]

I didn't even hear that.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes, this, this happened in Utah.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Benny Johnson]

So Fox News affiliate since then we've had four or five different charges of assault for people, destroying, desecrating, or attacking people at Charlie Kirk memorials. Right out here in one, right outside. That's right. You've had thousands of leftists, maybe tens of thousands, get fired from their jobs for celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination. Jimmy Kimmel is one of them. Others MSNBC contributors are among those numbers. You've had Brett Kavanaugh's would be assassin come out as trans RFK Junior bomb. Bomb threat at RFK Junior's house in Washington D.C. and you've had just grotesque commentary from the left, effectively either lying about Charlie Kirk's assassination or. Or refusing to vote against it in Congress with 58 members of the Democrat Party refusing to disavow political violence. So that has been their response to an assassination from their side. And so I am calling the law from space the largest BS on this despicable narrative that it is a both sides problem. Polling doesn't show that. No data shows that. And the reaction to this event shows definitively and demonstrably for all time that it is not a both sides problem. And it hasn't been for a very long time, if ever. We are the side of morality, strength and compunction and composure in a moment like this, and civility. And they are the side of anarchy. And so let this be an opportunity to display the differences and to own, to own them.

[Andrew]

I've seen some people.

[Benny Johnson]

Godliness versus godlessness.

[Andrew]

I totally agree. Civilization versus chaos and anarchy. And I would also say this. I've seen some people because I've seen the left killed Charlie or whatever, and they'll go the left question mark. Excuse me, it was some deranged kid out of Utah. No, I think you're making a point now. I am very clear. That speech, you know, for example, Bernie Sanders supporter shoots Steve Scalise. I did not blame Bernie for that. It's not what I'm saying, but I am saying that, yes, I put the onus of the culpability, obviously on the shooter. But to your point, this is not a both sides issue. There's some. You talk about. No stats support it. They keep pointing to some ADL study. But like that is. That is the most grotesque presentation of data that is known to man. I mean, it's completely garbage.

[Don Jr]

But they created this environment. Right. I will blame the left for creating environment. When you tell people that Trump is Hitler continuously.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Don Jr]

And then you tell people that Charlie Kirk helped get Hitler elected to the presidency of the United States.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Then what can't you justify?

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah. And then Charlie's the next Hitler. Right. That's what they said.

[Andrew]

Exactly.

[Don Jr]

So they do get some blame.

[Andrew]

They Hitler Youth. I can't tell you how many times Turning Point's been called Hitler Youth. I just want to append it with just one thought, though, that is fascinating. It strikes me that Charlie Kirk's legacy and the harvest, spiritually and both in our country that we are seeing from this around the world, has been so extraordinarily huge. It strikes me how little I've thought of the shooter.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes.

[Andrew]

How small a character he is in this saga.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah. Larry Arn's commentary yesterday was really something on that.

[Andrew]

I didn't hear it. I was. I was working. What did he say?

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

So Larry Arn said he's the president of Hillsdale College. For those who don't know, this audience should know. But for those who are unaffiliated, uninitiated.

[Benny Johnson]

To this, he said that what threatens evil are good and moral people that have being. And Charlie had being. And an assassin has no being. They must take the being of someone else, the energy of someone else, and that the assassin. The assassin. Those with being, when they are assassinated, grow stronger and the assassin dies. And obviously, my team. I know that we can get the actual exact quote here. I think it's worth actually saying it. Or perhaps there's the clip of Larry Arns saying it. His comments were only like two minutes long. It was a profound point. It was a beautiful point. Alex. Danny, like, it was a beautiful point. And said, you know, spoken in a very subtle and soft and somber way. You know, Larry Arns is very philosophical individual, but it was. It was a wonderful way to say that. To your point.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

He has no being.

[Andrew]

This does not negate this whole conversation that we were having before about how important it is that we get to the root of this problem. And when you. We Must reject the premise that this is both sides. Correct. Yes, both sides do have some fringy characters. I'm not gonna say that's not true. I think we'll all admit it. But in just proportion to each side's size, it is far larger on the left. I think everybody knows that intuitively. I think what we're seeing based on the reaction. All you have to do is look at the difference between what happened after George Floyd and what happened after Charlie Kirk. Yes, that's right. That's all you have to. I mean, you cannot show me a statistic that will convince me. I. I don't care how doctored up it is. I don't care what the ADL puts it out 20 times. This is the proof. Your eyes have seen the truth, that we are not reacting that way because we know Jesus. We know that we will be held accountable upon our death for the evil things that we do unless we confess and we repent. And secondly, we are on the side of civilization building, creating. And you know, the anarchists, they're nihilists. They don't care about those things. We're trying to build a country for our children to inherit that will be safe and beautiful and good. And so if we would have taken this energy and turned it into an anarchy moment, into a revenge moment, that would have spelled doom for our nation and our nation, our side, loves this nation. And that full circle is why what Erica Kirk did on that stage last night was so profoundly important. And why I tweeted in the moment that that is one of the most profound and important moments in American history. Because it means America has a chance. It means that the gospel will continue to go forth. It means that we have given license to the Holy Spirit to fill more hearts and minds. We have chosen and said yes to Jesus.

[Don Jr]

And you could hear a pin drop when she said those words and announced that she was going to forgive this radical, unhinged man the 10 seconds before it. In my head, I didn't know the speech. You know, I didn't know of the speech beforehand or what was going to happen. But in my head, I was thinking, there's no way. Like when you, when you started to see her kind of drift in that direction in the speech, that she was going to forgive this person. But it was like the whole room kind of came to a realization as she was building up to it. And we all. I mean, at least, you know, the people around me, we were. There's no way she's gonna say this. This is. This is 11 days ago.

[Andrew]

This is.

[Don Jr]

Just had her world taken from her and Charlie. And when she said the words, you guys remember the applause, like, the applause, it wasn't just. It wasn't just. It was like almost in shock. People were applauding and it was very.

[Brick Suit]

So much applause that made it on the graphic. The translation up there. She's got her words and says.

[Andrew]

Applause. I actually have that image. It was amazing. The team has it. I sent it in the chat, actually, because I noticed the same thing. It is, yeah, the. I think it's pick seven or 65. It's 65. Show the actual image and underneath it says. Applause. That man, that young man, I forgive him. And what she said before that, by the way, Benny. And I know because you've been in the foxhole with us along so many of these years, that is exactly the type of young man that we have pulled, like, out of this nihilism over the years. And these men would come into, instead of getting buried in some Internet rabbit hole where they just want to burn it all down and, you know, never contribute to anything positive, they would come in to Turning Point and realize they had a place in the movement, that the movement gets stronger when you join it. And they would find friends and they would find meaning and purpose. Be a part of something bigger than yourself. And when she let in with that, I just. I was so struck because I was like, yes, this is. These are these young men that have been so villainized. She spoke directly to them and she said, you do not have to be, you know, you do not have to cower at the prospect of life. You do not have to cower that our elites have robbed this generation of so much wealth and opportunity. And for the incumbent older generation, you have agency. Be a part of something bigger than yourself. I just keep thinking of that refrain in my heart, because that was the through line, because we are going to miss some and there will be some men that are left on the sideline, but God, I pray we can get so many of them, especially after this moment.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah. You know, Andrew, that you were a father and this was something that Charlie, upon my wedding, was constantly texting, when are you going to become a dad? When you're going to become a dad. When are you going to become a father? And the reason why he was constantly texting me that is because nothing will drive purpose more in your life as a young man than holding your newborn child. If you want us to witness an actual miracle in life and it can only be witnessed by you, the Amazing thing about fatherhood and about parenthood is that only you see the miracle. There's some miracles that are seen by all. Wow, look at all this bread on this hillside. There was no bread here. Jesus prayed, now there's a bunch of bread. That's cool. Look at all these fish. Like, that's a miracle everyone saw. As a parent, you, like, hold your newborn child and it's a special miracle that God gives just you and your wife. Just you. Right. Not even the people in the hospital share with it really, because they've seen it a million times. No, it's this like moment the whole world closes in and every father knows what I'm talking about here. And Charlie was constantly driving toward that and constantly delivering for more fathers, more men to fall in love, get married, have children, seize their American dream and Christ center their life. When you talk about like the destructive nihilism of eternal online. Eternal online rabbit holes and gaming and just the nihilist feedback loop. Right. Of terminally online, you know what breaks you of that? Like a little kid, like a baby that wants to play with you. Like your son or daughter that wants to see you and says, dad, dad. And grabs your phone and pulls it down and says, like, pay attention to me like my 8 month old did this morning.

[Andrew]

Right. I noticed you were a few minutes late this week and you can't.

[Benny Johnson]

That's exactly, that's exactly right. I'll send your producers. Actually, maybe you can pop it up. I'll send your producers, Andrew, I'll send it to you and you pour it along. Exactly what I was doing this morning. I'll show you. And it's what Charlie wants for all men. What Charlie wants for all young men is this. Oh, you're gonna love this. There you go. Here you go. This is what I was doing. This is what I was doing this morning before the show, sitting there with my son in the grass with my coffee and just like living life. And the point is that that's the key to unlocking your purpose in life. There you go. There it is.

[Andrew]

Is that your coffee mug in the front?

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah, it's in the hotel room. You know, just at our hotel. And so I just like, you know, let my wife sleep in and I took my son out and I just let him crawl around. He's just crawling now. And you. And that is like such an. It's. God gave it right. It's God's design. But Charlie understood this so pre naturally that that was the way to unlock. Unlock in men. Purpose and meaning. And fulfillment in life.

[Andrew]

You know, that's weird. Okay, so I'm sure you had the.

[Benny Johnson]

Same effect on you. You have three beautiful children.

[Andrew]

I have three beautiful children, beautiful wife. I'm so blessed. I will say this is. I felt this way iconic, to be honest, when they were showing the footage of the last event, like those last moments as he was driving up to the last event, it's like. It's hard personally for me to think about that, but I. Blake and I were exchanging texts with Charlie about, say, like 25, 30 minutes before it happened, and we were talking about, you know, because he was in. He was in Utah. We were predicting that there was going to be some questions about maybe monogamy versus polygamy. And I looked at that again, that text exchange, and Blake likes to call it, you know, really advanced societal technology, monogamy. And we were putting all these talking points, and Charles like, yes, good, good, good. And it's interesting because what you're talking about is there is this thing where you love one woman and she loves you, and you're faithful to each other, and you build this family and this legacy and how that unleashes this energy that is so positive in a man, because now you have to. It's like, you know, men are like trucks. They'll squirrely until you put a load on that in the back, right? And then they drive straight as an arrow. And it's like when you give them a family and kids, we become like trucks with a load in the back. And we have to drive straight as an arrow because we got. We got precious cargo. And we're going to take care of our kids, we're going to take care of our families. We're going to work hard at our jobs. We're going to try and earn more money. We're going to try and have more of an impact. We're going to try and make sure that the world our kids inherit is beautiful and good and safe. And that is a powerful, powerful force to unleash.

[Benny Johnson]

You're the perfect person to answer this question because you're going to. I know you're going to ring it like a bell. We knew Charlie way back when, right? There was a time when Charlie was just like a meme, right? And it was like, you know, he was building and everyone was just making fun of him and everyone dogging on Charlie, right? Yeah, there was a. You know, everyone, like those of us who have been around long enough knew Charlie in the. In the early build before Erica and my wife and I Talked about this. And I want you to answer this because you were so close to him. There was a flip that switched in that man. Let Charlie's life be an example there when he met Erica. And I knew Charlie before Erica. Right. A lot of people, you know, some people did around here. And. And there was a. When Charlie was a single man. Okay. Now that he was some kind of like, you know, degenerate or anything, but, like, when Charlie was a single man, he was a different person wholly and completely than when he was a husband and had children. Well, to come home to. There was a. There was a. A nuclear fusion metamorphosis. Yes. That happened. And we all saw this hockey stick that happened to his career, his life. And there's this lie that it's like having kids and getting married will. Oh, it'll SAP your energy, bro. You'll have no more alpha energy and, you know, you just gotta let it rip. Nah, dude. Look at Charlie as an example. But every father actually knows. I know you know this, Colvette. I certainly have experienced this. When you have wives and children actually.

[Andrew]

Accelerates your life 100%.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I will answer your question, but I think you did a pretty good job. We're talking about what Erica's impact was on Charlie.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And it couldn't have been more dramatic. I mean, he went from, like, baggy suit dude with everything. Nothing fit right. And he was.

[Benny Johnson]

Bad haircut.

[Andrew]

Bad haircut.

[Benny Johnson]

Finally got a haircut that worked.

[Andrew]

And all of a sudden. And I.

[Benny Johnson]

Working out.

[Andrew]

I love.

[Brick Suit]

Who said he's wearing Walmart jeans from, like, Goodwill.

[Andrew]

Oh, yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

Who said that? That line came out?

[Andrew]

No, who was that? Was that Tyler that said that? That might have been.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah, he started working out.

[Andrew]

Yeah, he started working out. He got really into. You know, he got really into, like, biohacking, getting the most out of his body. Because the time management skills that it took to run Charlie's life was dramatic. And I wish I could bring up all of his. The assistants, we called him force multipliers to advance every next stop to make sure there was a car, there was a hotel, there was travel arrangements, that there was people to greet the security. Everything was. Had to be so exacting just to get him from point A to point B to point C to point D in a given day. Sometimes it was amazing. And, you know, people would ask for interviews with Charlie and I'd be like, I don't know how we fit anything else into this time. And I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude. Anyways, that. That whole metamorphosis where he became. Where he grew shoulders broad enough to show to, you know, handle the burden of his Just his time and his energy on him, he realized it was a great burden. And it all went back to Erica, because Erica was the vault, the safe place, the refuge. And he knew, and he just loved going home to her. She talked about that in her speech. She was never the nagging wife. She never gave him a hard time about being gone or on the road, and he couldn't wait to get home. And I always told Erica, while Charlie was alive, and I told her again, since his passing, you were the real mvp. And I know this because. And you saw it with the athleisure wear, when he would go out to the campus all of a sudden. And I remember there was this episode on pbd. I think it was Adam on pbd, one of the hosts. And he was like, charlie Kirk's got that Riz. He's got that Riz. And we had this exchange where Charlie was like, what is Riz? So Charlie believed in changing culture, but Charlie did not often participate in it, but he really wanted it. You know, this is why with the south park thing, where he was like, you were like, you know, you're on South Park. He's like, is this good?

[Nick Sorter]

Yeah, this is good.

[Benny Johnson]

Great. Lean in.

[Andrew]

Any ounce of Riz goes straight to Erica Kirk. She gave him and to becoming a.

[Benny Johnson]

Father and becoming a father and how. And Charlie would just be proud that that is a part of his legacy, encouraging fatherhood.

[Don Jr]

I love that she said in her speech, you know, that she wanted him to want to come home and that she supported the fact. I mean, the guy, I don't think people understand. I know we talk about his schedule and, you know, you're managing a lot of it, obviously, with the show, but it's like, think about what you have to do to run an organization. Like Turning Point. You're talking hundreds of days on the road to raise money, right? Nobody ever wants to talk about that, because it's like, oh, raising money. It's good. You got to raise the money. How do you guys hire thousands of people? How do you have thousands of college, high school, faith, all of these chapters? It's tons of money. And so I just tell everybody, you know, it's not just the time on the road, raising the money. Then the guy decides he's going to do a show five days a week, and I'm like, are you kidding me? Then you have the idea that he's going and speaking. He's doing, you know, other media. He's doing college events.

[Andrew]

You're doing candidates and doing the candidate events. And this is, by the way, where he goes, what is Riz? Yeah, he goes, what is Riz? What is Riz? And I say, like, swagger. And Blake has to go k Riz. Muh.

[Don Jr]

One of my favorite. I don't know if it was a lefty or somebody on the right. Somebody. Somebody posted a video that was like, pretty much they were saying that Charlie was hot, like in some of these albums. And I'm watching these, and a couple people sent it to me, and it's just like, wait, is he like they were saying, and they're showing, like these videos, you know, him playing basketball or whatever. And you could definitely see the Riz post, Erica. So we do have to give her.

[Blake Neff]

Credit for all that.

[Andrew]

It was. Guys, I want to end with really the major theme of yesterday, and that was the Holy Spirit and Jesus. So I'm gonna go around the table. Rapid fire. If you had to sum up just the proclamation of the gospel, the presentation of it, from tucker to Don Jr. To VP Vance to Erica. Just give me, like, sum it up. Sum it up for you. Britt, go first.

[Brick Suit]

All the speeches were so powerful, and I was trying from my vantage point to film them from the crowd as best I could. And then when Jack was up there and he's holding up the rosary Catholic, I had to put down the camera.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Brick Suit]

Because I had to start. I couldn't just film anymore.

[Andrew]

I love that.

[Brick Suit]

I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to stand up, I wanted to applaud. And that for me personally, I think that was the one that was stands out the most. There were a lot. And Erica's forgiveness actually is of course, the top moment. But other than that, Jack.

[Andrew]

Yeah, good.

[Benny Johnson]

I mean, okay, can we just say. Everyone say like I've already said, Erica is one of the all top time, three most powerful speeches ever given. So if you're asking me something beyond that, then I've got to say Don Jr. Yeah. Don Jr. Did something that no one else did. He used humor. I really like humor. Big time. Relax, Don.

[Don Jr]

You got to take it easy and relax.

[Benny Johnson]

And he joked about Hillary Clinton. Well, there's joked about Kamala Harris that.

[Andrew]

Panned to Trump up in the press box.

[Benny Johnson]

And Dana White's up there. Dana White's up there going like this. It was amazing. And Don. Don used humor, I think in a moment that only Don could pull off. And I'm a big fan of using humor and memes, and I wasn't sure I didn't find it. You know, I thought yesterday was a day to just memorialize my friend in my own way and use it for Christ and not for laughs. And so that, you know, you only get three minutes, so you just got to do that. Don did it. Don went there and joked about Kamala and Hillary. They'll never know what it's like to be president. How. What was the setup of the joke? It was hysterical. You know, it's just like, Kamala and Hillary will never know what it's like to be president. It's, like, amazing. It was amazing. The room needed a laugh. Actually needed sort of like an uproarious laugh.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Benny Johnson]

And so. And so, like, I'm so glad that Don went there and then also Don Jr. Of all people, to share his faith in Christ. Talk about something you have never heard before and may never hear again.

[Andrew]

I will tell you, backstage, it was like, don, did you just talk about Jesus? He's like, I know, man.

[Benny Johnson]

What? Like, I had jokes. I had jokes written yesterday that I wanted to use that I thought were inappropriate. Like. Like, for instance, you know, Jimmy Kimmel's show deserved to be canceled because it gets less viewers than Chris Christie's only fans. That's a joke that I wanted to use yesterday, but I didn't because it would have been totally and wholly inappropriate. I wanted to say that the whole of the federal government is represented here. And what I mean by that is Marco Rubio's here today, and that Marco Rubio actually has a brand new position to fill, and that's Jimmy Kimmel's show.

[Andrew]

Well, I'm gonna. That's really funny, but we didn't do that, right?

[Benny Johnson]

We decided not to do that.

[Andrew]

Don was the perfect Don palate cleanser. I want to play a little bit of the worship because actually, one of the things about. I don't get into worship all the time. Ever since this happened, I just. Every time a worship song comes on, I'm just caught up in it. Let's play Cut.

[Benny Johnson]

I know it's nothing else.

[Andrew]

So I.

[Benny Johnson]

Throw up my head. Praise you again.

[Don Jr]

Can I share two things? There were. There were two very vivid moments for me. One was walking in, and the worship was starting. You know, I got there at that time, and I have been pretty good about holding things back, you know, over the last two weeks. Everybody grieves differently. You know, I'm Irish, so we like to bury things and not, not, not deal with them. That was the first moment where I, you know, I really started to hit me, you know, make it real. And then obviously, I just lost it. When Erica came out, I mean, when she came out, it was. I don't want to say it was closure, but it was just. It was full circle that not only is this real, but all of the fear and everything that I worried about with Charlie being gone with all of you, with Turning Point, with the movement, she just reassured me that we're going to be okay. And have her be that strong, both standing here and at the event, it just filled me with emotion, but it also just reassured me we're headed in the right direction.

[Andrew]

To extend an analogy, I started last week if. If Charlie's death was like the death of Jesus, and we were the disciples and we were scattered and we were afraid. Erica's speech on that Friday was like Pentecost. And it filled us all with courage. And the memorial yesterday was almost like the start of the book of Acts. And now it's all the disciples job to take it and run with it. Benny Johnson. Brick suit. Cliff Maloney. Thank you, guys. What a blessing today has been. We'll talk to you, Sam.

[Benny Johnson]

It.