The Charlie Kirk Show - Freedom Built to Last Memorial Megastream

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

One year after Charlie was martyred doing what he loved, TPUSA returned to Orem, Utah. The CK Show team speaks to UVU students and others attending the event, while reading email testimonials from those whose lives were transformed by Charlie. Then, the memorial itself featuring tremendous speeches from Michael Knowles, Glenn Beck, Frank Turek, Mikey McCoy, and more. Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com!    Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You've got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a turning point USA college chapter. Go start a turning point you would say high school chapter.

Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life and I encourage you to do the same. Here I am. Lord, use me. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.

Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with noble gold investments at noble gold investments.com. That is noble gold investments.com. All right, welcome everybody. It is September 10th, 2026. And we are doing a stream tonight to honor Charlie because, well, if you knew anything about Charlie, Charlie was like, let's stream. Let's go. Yeah, every time. There's so many times this past year that I hear that in my head, like something will be breaking news and they're like,

Charlie's going to want to go live. Yeah, let's go live. Always was there to, he wanted to be in the thick of it. Yeah, he did. Exactly. And he always, you know, in this studio, he said, I'll never miss another election night, not being in the studio, because that happened one time and he wished he had been here.

We've got a stream that we're doing before the UVU event marking one year without Charlie. a deliberate and I would say defiant act of taking back territory. And that was something that Mark Charlie's entire political life, his activist career, where he would go into the most hard-to-reach places, the places that we were often unwanted the most. And he would plant his flag. And so that's what we're doing. And I'm proud of the team that is on the ground at UVU in Utah.

We've got Glenn Beck. Michael Knowles, Frank Turek, we've got Andrew Seifer. There's also Caleb Chilkut, who was our chapter president at the time when Charlie was murdered. And he's just done an amazing job with that chapter. And now he's on staff with Turning Point. And so we wanted to give a little bit of a lead up here. I'm going to be only in the chair for about 10, 15 minutes. And then I have other things that I have to do, but you have an all-star group of guys here.

that all love Charlie dearly, Blake, Graham, myself, Jack Posobic, and then we've also got some other friends that are going to be joining us throughout the hour. It's been a heavy day, but it's been really wonderful having friends around, too. Yeah. And you might have come, well, who came to the farther? You were in Dallas yesterday. I was in Dallas. South Carolina. So I won by Tentacal. You won, but you was. And Blake was traveling. I traveled from across the street yeah exactly he traveled from the pages of the book he was reading like is more of an interdimensional travel yeah yeah um anyways i i think you know i was a little bit concerned about today to be honest mostly about myself because i was worried it was going to be you know hard and emotional

it has been but in general it's been an outpouring of incredible amounts of support and love for charlie online and that was my one prayer today and i was my first tweet i said may charlie be honored today and i think that's why we're all here and you're seeing i mean obviously look we see we see the left and we see their trends their curcversory and the the insanity that they're going full mask off they couldn't help themselves in the middle of an election in the middle of a day like this to you know just maybe shut up just one day you know you know just maybe shut up just one day you You think that they could bite their tongue, but they can't help it because they revel in the insanity, in the evil. They are not stupid.

This is evil what is going on, specifically demonic. And I'm talking about these, and we've all seen them. And so the way you defeat that is with the good. And that's what you're describing, this good outpouring of love, of truth, of scripture, of prayer. That's what Charlie wanted. That's what he stood for. That's what he sacrificed for. So yes, and we'll see tonight.

I believe the front lines team is down there. They are tracking protests. We've got Taylor Hansen on site, and I'm told he's ready. I don't see him in the preview box here. Is he up? Is he up? Do we have him? All right.

We have Taylor. He's live from UVU. Taylor, welcome to the show, my friend. What's the word on the ground? Well, first off, thanks for having me, as always. And I'd say the best way to describe it so far is it's, it's been beautiful as of now. So I arrived on scene about four hours before the event was actually slated to start.

The doors hadn't even opened yet. And from the moment that I arrived on the grounds, there has been a massive line from the UCCU center all the way down to essentially the main street lined up to the door. And they've since opened the doors about an hour ago. And since then, it's just been a nonstop flow. I mean, at one point, this line was wrapped all the way around the UCCU center. So not really a lot of names.

negativity taking place out here pretty much nothing but positivity. You have had a few select, you know, counter processors, if you can really even call them that more like hecklers, that have, you know, thrown jabs at people in line and has tried to get them to react, but everybody here, they're all here for the same reason as to honor Charlie and not to, not to really give in to the very few amount of protesters that have arrived on. I think that's a huge point. Honestly, one of the things that I've noticed today is it feels like just an overwhelming sense of just love for Charlie with a few very notable exceptions, but it's kind of like, screw those people. Like, why even give them any attention? Do you know

what I mean? Like on a day like today, I feel a little bit both ways about it because, I mean, they deserve to be named and shamed. See, I mean, that, that, uh, I don't like, I know. They are people who always want it to be about themselves. Correct. And today is about Charlie. So, so agreed. However, if today's, the day that the cockroaches are all coming out of their hidey holes, then I say today's the day that we go after the cockroaches. How about this? You note who the cockroaches are and you do it tomorrow.

Well, I mean, some of these cases, we've got active duty military members. We've got people who are associated with universities. But I don't even care about those people. All I want to do is I want to focus on Charlie. The man deserves so much more than we could ever give him in terms of accolades and honoring. and we should be streaming, you know, 30 hours for him. I couldn't disagree more. Excuse me.

I couldn't agree. I know. I couldn't agree more that we need to do that. However, however, there is, there's a place for going on offense. No, 100%. There's a place for going on offense to say, you know what? It's called. We're going to fight back.

It's called the Department of Treasury and they smoke out all these. Well, and also, by the way, and if anyone sees them, and we've been doing this as well, it's also the Department of State because of some of them have an immigration status where if you are a guest of this country and you celebrate murder and you are celebrating murder and assassination

then you might as well pack your bags right now Taylor give us some more of the scene around there I mean so people have been lining up for hours I saw the front lines video I'm assuming you were the person on the camera of taking that shot hopefully we can get it up but

what else are you seeing hearing, you know, there's people I've seen holding up a big flag. There's people that are doing stuff with chalk on the sidewalk. Just tell us more. Give us more of the picture. Yeah, well, you have people here. You're obviously memorializing Charlie, as this is what this event is for. I mean, that's the biggest thing that is that I've taken away from today and at least seen from the attendees of this event today. I mean, you have people coming from all around the country as well. That's what I think is a really good thing that people should understand. These aren't just locals. You have people driving over 24 hours from places like Michigan, from Rhode Island, all around the

country, just to be here for this event today because they recognize how important it is in American history and to them and their value system personally. So that's been a very interesting and fascinating thing to see is people from all over the country coming here just to basically honor Charlie Kirk's life and what he stood for. And you had mentioned chalk, you have kids, you have high schoolers, you have middle schoolers, you have adults all out here, leaving flowers, chalking great, you know, positive messages remembering Charlie, some of Charlie's favorite Bible verses, some of the messages that he really put out there the most. You're seeing those written everywhere. You're seeing people, you know, happy, obviously. They're happy to be here. They're happy to celebrate

Charlie's life. They're not happy about what took place and why they have to be here. But overwhelmingly, I would say, it seems like everyone that is, here at least 99.9% of people are here to support Charlie and his legacy and Turning Point USA and the future of the organization going forward. That's kind of the vibes that I get here on the ground. I'm really no negativity for the most part other than, you know, the select few. The actual main protest is set to start at 615. So I imagine you'll get some, you know, stragglers later on, but for the most part, it's been nothing but great is the best way to describe it. And I hope it remains that way. You have a great law enforcement presence, great security presence as well.

So you're saying in about 30 minutes is when they're really scheduled to show up. Yeah, they're scheduled to show up at 615. Okay, and that's mountain time. So the, you know, right now you've had stragglers from like kind of different groups, people wanting to do it themselves. The actual group that has organized, the established protest, the campus organization, they actually are not set to show up until 615. The few that have been here have been with the, you know,

on F America tour, wanting to debate people on if Charlie was actually killed by the last. But just small track. This is that it's an Antifa Front Group. And if I've seen that, I've seen some of their posts. And it's, it's, some of the things they've been saying are very disgusting. I saw that Senator Mike Lee had actually tweeted about it. And I think there's a local, I want to expel them. I want to get, well, no, I give a shout out to, he did say expel.

them. I want to give a shout out to a local platform, if I can. The Cougar Chronicle. The Cougar Chronicle has been doing phenomenal work. They were able to get some internal text messages out, things like that, and just a huge shout out to those guys. They were there at the hearing as well. Yeah, but one of the students, happy first birthday to that area of pavement on campus. Yeah, that was just sick stuff. You know, and they should be expelled. You know, this is an interesting debate, though, because a lot of these people, you know, we had nothing to do with it. I just want to be very clear. We, we, we, we were in no position in the first, like, weeks. Any of the, the ghouls that showed themselves, the cockroaches came out to get them fired or even complain about this stuff.

You know, but they probably should have been fired. Some of these people won, like, settlements against their employers or whatever is one Washington Post reporter or whatever. It's like, I'm sorry. Okay, maybe that is your free speech, but your employer should be able to exercise their free speech as well. This is what they always say to us. Yeah, to be able to say, Hey, listen, what you did was disgusting. We didn't like it. So hit the road. Go find another place to work.

What's wrong with that? You call that accountability. Yeah. Last I remember is we dealt with the past six years was the idea of that we have freedom of speech, but not freedom of consequences. So there really is no difference here in this regard. But of course there is because it's the left.

And we have been called. You can't go after them. And if anyone's peaceful, and I remember saying this, we never called for anyone to be arrested. We never called for anyone. anyone to be thrown in jail or even censored, actually, because we're against that as well, as long as they're not calling for violence.

And that being said, though, a lot of these Kirkroversory posts, they're extremely violent. They're extremely violent. Well, listen, as John Doyle said, the highest compliment you can receive on earth is for your death to be celebrated by all its worst people. And so I do genuinely believe, you know, Charlie used to sort of marvel at the protests that would come after him or you know that the counter protesters of the debates and things like that he would kind of laugh at them and he did say time and time again he's like it's a signal boost the jokes on them they're just making me more more influential they're just they're just boosting our signal

and it what a what an absolute testament to charlie kirk that even in death they can't let it go they he was so he he struck such fear into their hearts mentally crushed them that yeah The sea of red hats on college campuses. That they cannot let it go, that they can't even find human decency in the aftermath to just shut their mouth. He is a symbol that represents everything true and right, that they know deep down is true and right.

Deep down, I truly believe that these sick people know that they're wrong. They're just mad that they could never be Charlie. They're mad that their ideas are in case. capable of creating a Charlie. Anyone who encounters so much of politics is what is your innate gut level response when you encounter something greater than you or better than you. And we talked about how Charlie had such a hunger to be mentored by other people. He loved to learn.

If he saw something great, he thought, how can I be like that? What can I do to improve myself to deserve that? And all of these people, they're from the other end, the other reaction you can have, which is resentment to say, if that person is, better than me, screw them, I can smash them and tear them down to my level. Why does Abel have the favor of God and I deserve

that favor and I should destroy Abel? And this was the first human that's Kane, the first human born with original sin. Yeah. Well, if I put my dad, I think yeah, go ahead. It's, what you guys are speaking on right now is fascinating to me because I've spoken to a lot of attendees here throughout the day

as well as the counter-protesters and all the attendees have asked the same question to is what do you see, you know, Charlie's legacy as one year later, one year after his tragic assassination. And almost every single one of them have talked about how his legacy is faith. His legacy is Christ. His legacy is the cross. And I think that is the very thing that you guys are speaking on that inadvertently scares

these people and makes them react in such a negative way. It literally forces the evil out of them. And they don't even really understand why. But it is because that is what his legacy is. You know, he spoke publicly on, that's what he wanted his legacy to be, was to be remembered for his fear of God and his love for Christ and Christ love for us. And that's exactly what I remember Charlie by.

And I think the leftists also remember him by this, even if they don't want to acknowledge, that's how they remember him. They want to acknowledge and say he's a fascist or he's this. This is how we remember him. They actually know what the true legacy of Charlie Kirk is and it terrifies them. That's at least my opinion. Yeah, that's a great point.

You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of this. For the past year, we've seen a lot of horrific things. We've seen a lot of people that have tried to either claim Charlie as their own or they've tried to make Charlie's legacy about conspiracy, about, you know, lies and deceit and all of these things. They've tried to hijack what Charlie's legacy actually is. And what I've seen today, the outpouring of love, the, you know, multiple states declaring that September 10th will be Charlie Kirk Day, to me, it shows that it didn't work. That deep, deep down, when it all comes down to it on this day, 9, 10, a year, 365 days after Charlie was taken from us, everything that these evil, evil, disgusting people tried to do, it didn't work. It will fail.

did not work. Charlie's bigger. You failed. It didn't work. God is bigger. Charlie's legacy is bigger through his faith in Jesus Christ. Everything they tried to do, it didn't work. It failed.

Charlie is bigger, more powerful, louder, better, even now. Yep. Than anything that they could throw at him, at his legacy and his mission. Taylor, what's the rest of your evening look like here? I want to let you get back to doing your actual job you're supposed to be doing. I'm just going to continue covering the event until it's through. And then I believe there's a candlelight vigil afterwards on the actual site of where Charlie was killed, where people will make their way over after the event to kind of pay some additional respects to him.

So I'm just going to continue to be here on the ground and front lines. You know, the coverage will continue to go up as more comes in. And we'll just continue reporting on the rest of the day and hopefully honoring Charlie by doing so. Amen. Amen. All right, Taylor, stay safe, my friend. Be well, and we'll talk to you soon, and we'll keep eye out for your videos as they come in. God bless you, man. Always. God bless Andrew Fla. All right. We have a lineup of some students that are present at the event that we'll want to speak to, so we'll let them cue them up here. Oh, that's cool. We can get them on. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think we'll come in one at a time, and we'll also be having another guest on. We have Sage, who's the chapter president, Sage Lloyd, Chapter. president Utah Valley University. We got Aubrey Hudson chapter president at BYU.

We've got Raf Beck events at Utah Valley University and Gabe St. who's been on the show before chapter president of University of Wyoming. And so we're going to get those guys queued up. And then I'm going to actually have to dash out, sadly. But I'm so glad. And I'm so honored to have gotten to just at least be a couple of minutes here with you guys at the top of the show. Yeah, I'm out in like, fight. minutes too. All right. It's going to be.

We'll keep it. We've got Mikey coming in. We've got Riley. We've got a lot of people. We got a pack show. We got a pack show for you guys. So once you guys have them queued up, let us know.

But I'm going to, if you want to take my chair. Yeah, I'm going to switch. And I believe it's like we're about 40 minutes out. About. And we'll see. Maybe there'll be a delay or something. So as schedule, just if you're

watching right now, we're about 40 minutes out from the formal start of the memorial that's being which you'll be able to see it here. And so do we have, were you saying you have Sage? All righty. Let's just, let's keep them going because we want to get the chance to talk to these kids. So Sage, the chapter president at UVU.

Can you hear us? I can, yes. Excellent, excellent. Sage, I mean, floor is yours. What's the environment like up there in Orum? What are you seeing? What's, you know, you guys, you guys are a campus? and a chapter that really loved Charlie. That's why you had the honor of hosting him in the first event last year,

and you guys don't deserve to just be linked with that tragedy a year ago. You deserve to also have the chance to honor and celebrate him. So, Flores, yours. Absolutely. It's really good over here. There's good energy. We've got a ton of support. The UCCU Center is just filling up quick,

and it's so good to see that there's so many people here that want to honor Charlie and want to remember him. We had a little bit of the sun outside, got a couple of protests, but at the end of the day, that's their right to free speech, and they've been respectful of us inside. So I'm just glad that we're able to get so many people out to honor him, and it's been nothing but good vibes inside. That's tremendous. That's tremendous. And we're losing Jack here, and we're slotting and Riley. Sorry, we've got a few moving parts here, but we're so grateful you could join us. How about, I just, I feel, I wish I could make a visit there myself, and I will one day.

I have to imagine some people have been paying visits to the scene where it happened. Have you been among them? Have people been stopping there throughout the day, throughout the week? What's it look like at that location? Yeah, this whole week we've had people filtering in and out, and especially today, we've had a lot of people go to pay their respects and just kind of give a moment of silence on what happened. I've yet to visit the courtyard today just because I'm waiting until the event's over

because I know it's a hard spot to be, but it's been beautiful to see people come and pay their respects, especially since a lot of what we see online is negative, but all we've had here on campus is support and love, and it's so good to see people come to honor Charlie. It is, it is. How many people can you guys fit in that arena? Is it looking like we'll be able to fill the whole thing up, hopefully? I saw a pretty long line out the door earlier.

I haven't been in to see how many people are in yet, but it was filling up outside when I was there, so I'm pretty confident we'll fill it up. I think it does feed a couple thousand people, so hopefully we can get as many people in if we want. I know there are some people that want to support Charlie, so we'll fill it. Awesome, awesome. That's tremendous. I asked you, and then I decided to look at it.

It looks like it could have as many as 8,500. So that would be an excellent crowd to have. And I think about what we said last year that one of Charlie's dreams, people would ask him, and his dream was, you showed, I think it was an image of the Super Bowl. And he said, that's what he wanted. That's what was achieved a year ago. And to achieve it against, even if it's a smaller facility, he wanted to fill arenas with revival energy, with that love of country, love of passion,

and it shows just the tremendous legacy he left behind. I think of you guys want to ask Sage anything? Yeah. Obviously, in the immediate following Charlie's assassination, I'm sure your school saw a big uptick in students wanting to be involved with the turning point chapter. I would imagine today is the same, of course, having, you know, thousands of community members and students in attendance.

What about in the months leading up to this, though? Did that momentum ever die off at any point? Or was the increase pretty steady following the assassination? I think it's been pretty steady over this last year. We definitely saw a huge surge last September, but we've had a good pickup again in this last month. Since we've been promoting the memorial in the event, we've had tons of new students ask how to get involved. and it's such a good problem to have to have too many people that want to join. So it's been great being able to get everyone involved.

And I think we're going to continue on with that momentum, especially after tonight and get as many students involved as we can. Yeah, that's good. Well, God bless you, Sage. And our hearts are with you, with your chapter, because, as we've said, you guys deserve to, you guys deserve to be known for how you love Charlie in his mission and not just the tragedy that happened a year ago that we commemorate today.

So thank you again, Sage, for joining us. We'll be rotating in our next student here. Thank you again. Perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys. Awesome, awesome. All right. Well, next to be bringing on Aubrey Hudson. She's the chapter president at BYU. We'll take a minute here while they queue her up.

You guys have any thoughts about what you've seen so far today? I just love hearing from the students because, you know, I'm getting older. I know we talked about this earlier in the back, but I'm getting older and seeing the students back 10 years ago when I first started here where they are now and now listening to these young people 20, 30 years from now, what Charlie has done, what Charlie has built, it is going, we have, we have yet to even see even the smallest base of what Charlie has actually done and what Charlie through God's grace was actually able to create and to just hear these young people, many of them only got to see Charlie via their phones, a lot of them.

You know, not all of these young people even got to meet Charlie because there's so many of them already. The lasting impact of Charlie Kirk as these young people become adults and they become the leaders and they become the ones running things, Charlie's legacy is going to be something that's going to be a marvel that when I'm a grandparent one day, I'll be able to say, I knew Charlie Kirk and what he started and all of these people that are, you know, turning point alums. That's something that I look forward to and that's something that really, really gives me peace.

All right. We've got our next leader. We've got Aubrey Hudson, as we said, chapter president at BYU. Aubrey, thank you for coming on. Thank you guys so much for having me. Of course, of course. We just spoke with Sage, the chapter president at UVU. We're just talking about the feeling.

So how many of your chapter members from BYU do you think have made the trip across? I guess it's not that far. You're just coming up from Provo, which is right next door. But what's the feeling like in your chapter? You know, I'm actually shocked at how many of our chapter members. I'm not shocked. I'm really excited and pleasant with how many of our chapter members are SVPed. BYU has a huge presence here in Utah Valley and so we're hoping that that they all come through

but the feeling in our chapter is honestly it's pretty sacred I'm not going to lie that while we were tabling the last couple of weeks we've had some some pretty raw and some pretty emotional conversations with people but also just like so much hope and so much energy from our students as well. Yeah. Well, I was, I was thinking we were talking with Sage about the surge of interest and enthusiasm in Charlie, and we're talking about what legacy he would leave. You've, I presume, seen that in your own chapter. So why don't you tell us the freshmen in your chapter, the people who are fresh rivals who've joined since what happened a year ago, what's their image of Charlie? What does Charlie mean to them? Yeah. I, so I joined, well, I was the president

last year, and just to give everyone the understanding of BYU's presence in Turning Point, we're not RSOed, but we have about 850 members on our role, on our roster. And so I think that surge obviously came after last year, but I think what Charlie meant to them was they actually, I think, found a place, a place to come to to find their voice. And I think what Charlie gave them was confidence. And they gave them a place to not feel alone to stand up for what they believe in when they were most likely to stay quiet. I think that he means so much to them, especially so many of them being there in the courtyard last year. I think I think this is a sacred day for a lot of people in this valley. And I think for the

students especially, it's a day to remember the day that they got their own voice as well. Yeah, Aubrey, thank you for joining. BYU is a pretty traditionally conservative campus, as I understand it, when it comes to like traditional roles and embracing marriage and motherhood and all of those things. You talk about some of those emotional conversations that you've had on campus over the past few weeks. Were all of them positive, or did you have some encounters with people who maybe didn't necessarily agree with Charlie

or his message or maybe the better way to say it as some of the clips that went viral totally out of context? Most of the ones that I was there were confident or were positive. I mean, every time we table, we have a negative encounter. But BYU being a pretty conservative campus, I mean, it's a pretty rare that we see anything crazy happen. Those clips aren't taken out of context. We do have crazy people who come and harass us all the time.

But we had a lot of field reps who were flown in to come and help us for this promotion for our event. And they were pleasantly surprised at how kind BYU students are. Yeah. So we're grateful for that. Of course. Aubrey, thank you so much for John. joining us. We have a couple more we want to get to before the memorial starts.

So thank you again for joining us and obviously enjoy the memorial. We hope it's meaningful for all of your students there. Of course. Thank you guys so much for all you do. All right. And we'll bring in our next guy as soon as we can. We're still getting emails, by the way. We'll try to read some of these in the gaps

and also tomorrow I think I'll be reading a lot of them. I just got this one from David who's saying he feels genuinely sad. He wished Charlie was around to see the Chicago sports teams because Charlie was a Chicago sports fan and the Cubs

that Pete Crowe Armstrong is going to be the MVP of the National League and he's setting the world on fire and Charlie would have really loved that and he was a big Cubs fan and you know the Chicago Bears they are also a sports team we'll see we'll watch games up

we'll see it broke something in me when I saw Erica's post a few days ago where they took It's like their annual tradition and taking their daughter to the Cubs game. And of course, this was her first birthday being at a Cubs game without her dad. And I think that again just speaks to this was not just a podcaster or an influencer or a political commentator who ultimately was prematurely taken from this world. It was a husband. It was a father.

And now there's videos that will live on the internet, people celebrating that will live on the internet. people celebrating that will live on the internet. You have to imagine, of course, as kids will grow up one day. You hope and you pray that they don't see some of the hatred and the vitriol and the negativity that their family, their father, the things I'm sure that they value and that they will grow up to believe that they've been exposed to. But it broke me when I saw Erica pose that. All right.

I'm said we have Rafe. We have Rafe Beck. He's head of events for the Utah Valley chapter. Raph, this is the biggest campus chapter event that's ever been hosted in Turning Point history. So how does that feel? Stressful. I mean, I just tossed a good turning for the past couple of weeks, but other than that, great, great. Yeah, and how the spirits of your chapter feeling and the people, do we have that revival energy we want?

And sorry, that was a dumb question. But how is it feeling right now there for you? We are all energized. We are ready. And we are just like everyone that came up today was there was no one who was like, yeah, like I'm really sure. Everyone was just, let's get to work. Let's get ready. Let's go in there.

Let's knock this thing out of the park. So I'd say high, real high energy. Excellent. That's Charlie Energy. Yeah. Obviously with, of course, the momentum behind Charlie and the mission that he, you know, fostered and grew and developed and was really passionate about, how do you feel like things will continue on through the midterms? We've seen the clip of Charlie when President Trump was

elected as the 47th president of the United States several time on this program today and all on social media. Obviously, he cared deeply about culture and shifting the culture, but he knew in order to do that or in order to ultimately win the country, you did have to have legislative wins and policy wins. So are you feeling confident that this momentum will carry over through the next, what, less than 60 days at this point to hopefully maintain some of the control that we have in the House and the Senate? I would say if I was a politician, I was hoping to get reelected within the next 60 days, I would really need to do something to show my generation, right? This next generation that's growing up and is in this vacuum for real leadership,

show us something that is really going to help chart this next course for our lives. I mean, we're in college right now, but I mean, a lot of us are working two or three jobs and we're just like, shoot, how are we going to get through the next couple of months, right? Especially the crap we hear on TV and on social media. Like, we need someone to really step up and to really take accountability and ownership for what they say and then versus what they do, you know? Does that make sense? What do you think it is? Like what issues do you think are going to drive Gen Z especially to the polls in the next two months?

You mentioned affordability and I think kind of the idea of being able to obtain the American dream. You think that's probably top of the list for kids in college especially? I think so. I mean, I'm just going to speak for Utah, but I feel like there's so many rhinos out here, just Republicans in name only. like we need to like start playing whatever and hiding behind whatever mask right either say and do what you say or like just hold in order i'm just going to go and vote for the other side because at least the other side i'm like all right well everybody's about what they're doing that's pretty messed up but you know like we just need to we need to come together really and no one is really being like hey let's watch up for the little guy everyone's kind of in it for themselves a little bit

And they're just, that's why, you know, I speak about the rhinos because I feel like they're just, they know who they are, and they just want to take care of themselves. All right. Well, Rave, as you said, your hair's on fire a little bit, doing the biggest campus event in Turning Point History. We'll let you get back to making sure it's also one of the best campus events in Turning Point history. Thank you again for joining us. Hey, thank you so much. You guys have a great day.

Of course. All right, we've got one more student, and then we'll have Mikey McCoy join until where we go to the event itself. So we'll let them cue that up. Let's see if we've got another. Oh, we just got a hugs from Norway email. Nice. If they're tuning in, it's pretty late in Norway right now.

Although the sun's probably still up because it's summertime. You know, while you're looking through that, you know the thing that sticks out to me the most is, again, and we said this before we had the students call in, is over this past year we've all seen, on top of the greatest evil that occurred, a year ago today. We've seen a lot of people try to hijack what Charlie represented, try to hijack the legacy that he was leaving behind. And I loved Ray's energy there. I mean,

you could just hear it. Like, let's go. Let's do this thing. It's like real passion. Real passion. And admittedly, you know, Charlie was always the voice that calmed me down. I was always the, we got to burn this thing down. You know, we have to go attack the, you know, metaphorically speaking. to go attack the left. All right. And then now you hear that none of that worked. Today, it's all been about Charlie, his legacy, all of these students. None of that worked.

All right. Our next and our last student, he's actually not at in Utah. He is at the RNC event going on in Dallas right now. But we just had, if you guys were tuning into that, there was a great video honoring Charlie there. Gabe St. He is the head of the Turning Point chapter at University of Wyoming. Gabe, thank you for joining us. And why don't we just tell us how are people remembering Charlie in Dallas?

What was the reaction like when that video was played or when there was the tribute to Charlie last night as well? Hey, Blake. Thanks for having me. People are, they're here. They're here for Charlie. People are chatting Charlie. They're on their feet. They were cheering on for Erica. And when Pastor Lucas spoke earlier today, they were up on their feet for him to.

I think Charlie and his legacy, I think he's going to be the motivator behind these midterm elections. People remember, and people remember what we're fighting for. Are you seeing freedom shirts, Charlie T-shirts? Are you seeing the memorabilia and such?

Oh, yeah. Everybody's wearing their freedom shirts. There's TPSA students everywhere, you know, pushing the envelope on issues that matter to the youth. So it's all about Charlie here. That's tremendous. That's tremendous. obviously Erica is there or at least was there based on you know some of the the videos that I saw

on social media last night President Trump gave her a pretty special shout out how was she received you have to imagine that today I mean there were probably several milestones over the past year every waking hour actually I would imagine is the hardest hour of her life today being the one your anniversary since her husband is is no longer here on this earth she just posted a beautiful tribute saying you know until heaven how was she received last night at the rnc i saw you know just kind of the tearfulness but it's amazing because in these these clips you see her saying you know god bless you always pointing back to to christ so how was it to see her there yeah you know Erica uh she has so much or when she came into the stadium last night she uh you know everybody's acting like hooligans you know

that's how these conventions are but she's just all calm cool and clean all the time so much grace and when the president recognized her i mean the room was on their feet chanting for charlie um they they love erika um she's she's the leader she's so much aura i was like wow this is amazing aura farming erika just like charlie he had a tremendous aura gave i'd love to catch up longer. Unfortunately, we have one more. We need to get to Mikey before, I guess he has to get dragged back into the event before it starts. So thank you for joining us. I'm sorry we couldn't talk longer, but thanks for giving us that perspective from Dallas. Thanks for having me, guys. Of course. Thank you very much again. All right, let's get Mikey rotated in to talk to him

for a little bit before the event starts. And then we'll just keep going. You'll be all to watch it live right here. So it's going to be a very special show. I'm very excited to see what they have planned to put on tonight. Someone just sent they planned. All these Gen Z labels. I got to meet Gabe not too long ago. I got to debate at his campus a couple

months ago. It was a lot of fun. A lot of fun in Wyoming. Wyoming is again, it's a pretty conservative state at least. What about the campus there? Pushback. The usual things, you know,

again, the thing I hate, I wish that Charlie was here because the thing that I've noticed on campuses, We've kind of moved outside of the concerns that you hear, hey, how am I going to afford this? A lot of young men are like, hey, how do I date a young woman here in this day and age? But also, you know, you see a lot of this, a lot of the same old same old. There wasn't a lot of the conspiracy talk or anything like that. We've moved on from what is a woman to now a lot of these young people are, you know, what is a man?

you know that there's there's a lot of young men that are struggling with hey i don't think it's fair that men have to do all this and they have to provide and they have to do blah to blah to blah a b and c and you know going and trying to to explain to them you know the the biblical role of a husband and a father the the you know that you go out there and you work harder than than anyone else to provide for your family i wish i could have heard charlie be able to talk to these young men about that because he would be able to explain it a lot. All right. All right.

We have Michael McCoy. Mikey McCoy. He is there in Utah. Mikey, thank you so much for joining us. We've been seeing people post their memories of Charlie, their testimonies about Charlie. Everyone's got their own take, their own video. I have to say, Mikey, I think you did the best testament to Charlie.

Your, I guess, your article you wrote, the Charlie I knew, absolutely tremendous. I loved reading it. And thank you for joining us right now as we count down to the biggest campus event turning points ever done. I think it's worth emphasizing that. Yeah. Hey, guys. Sorry, I'm, like, pretty emotional right now. This is, like, just the bad time.

I don't really get super emotional. But right before I called it, I watched this video of this student, you know, who, who was there last year. And, you know, he said he didn't know Charlie before. And that he witnessed him get shot and he only knew him for those 15 minutes. And how his entire life changed and how, you know, he said, I wish it wasn't these circumstances for why my entire life changed, but it is. and you know it's just tough

I told myself I'd never returned to UVU I told myself a lot of things and I just watched that video and for some reason it struck a chord you know I just realized how many people Charlie just inspired and like even in death his life is a testament

like there's people who their entire lives has changed even after his memorial I remember people talking about their lives changing going back to church returning to their faith marriages on the brinks of collapse and just people forgiving

and only God Romans 828 you know only what man chooses for evil can God use for good you used to mention lives that were changed Mikey or how about lives that exist I was mentioning we were reading the emails today

we got we got one I got another one as I was describing a different one that we've had I think five emails this week where people say this is a specific child I had here is the photo of them here is their name the child

I had because I previously didn't want any Charlie changed my mind or we were only having one we decided to have another thanks to Charlie and pretty much on the show today the vice president of the United States said he was one of those people there are human beings alive today

because of Charlie's influence because of Charlie's inspiration. And I think that's one of the greatest testaments one could have to the sort of person is that there is a, there is a soul, there is a hopefully a future believer, a future inhabitant of heaven who exists because of Charlie Kirk. Well, Mikey, you and Eliza just welcomed life into this world. Can you talk about that dichotomy that kind of exists where on one hand today, of course you're, I mean, dealing with life prematurely being taken and the evil and the chaos and the disorder and the immorality that surrounds that. But on the other hand, I mean, you and your beautiful bride just engaged in creation bringing life into this world.

What does it mean Charlie's influence for, you know, when you think about your child in the future that you want him to inherit? Yeah, you know, Charlie used to say get married young. have more children than you can afford, leave a lasting legacy. And he did that because he loved young people. He wanted young people to succeed. And, you know, I calculated the other day from the time Charlie founded Turning Point, how many days he spent working to build the organization. It was 4,846 days.

And as Charlie just kind of built this organization, I realized all of those 4,846 46 days were spent building something that can support the vision that he had for young people. You know, Charlie, against a lot of the doubts of society, he didn't see young people as a problem for America's future. He saw them as a solution to America's future. You know, I started working for Charlie when I was 18 years old. He offered me a job. I didn't deserve the job. I certainly wasn't qualified for the job. But he took a chance on me, this 18-year-old kid straight out of high school, no college experience, no life experience. And that was just who he was. I just happened to be the lucky young person that got to be alongside him. But that's the way he was for all young people.

He saw something in young people they didn't see in themselves. You know, he sacrificed his entire life to give young people purpose. And he went on these college campuses, places that everybody in the conservative movement knows we need to go to, but nobody wanted to go to. Nobody wants to go to UC Berkeley or UC Davis. It's not fun. Charlie went there because he didn't want to tell young people what they wanted to hear. He told them what they ought to hear. Work hard.

Humble yourself. Sacrifice big things. Lay things on the line. Get married young. Fight for America's future. Have more children than you can afford. You know, when I look into my newborn's eyes, I just, I think about all of this. I think about how life is just a short thing and how we turn.

is what's to come. And Charlie, he understood that all the time. He understood what he had to sacrifice in order to make sure that this dream that he had for young people could become a reality. He gave everything. He died doing it. It's a powerful thing. Like I said, if you guys haven't seen it, you should go to Michael.

Mikey's ex-account. He posted a whole... quite long post. It was long, but I read every word. Yeah. I'm looking at the conclusion here. There's still an empty chair, but there are millions of people who are standing. Charlie spent his life building something that was never supposed to end with Charlie, and it didn't.

And I think that's what we are witnessing tonight is the proof that it did not end with Charlie. It will not end with this memorial to Charlie. that I'm looking ahead years decades hence will be able to look back and he'll still have that legacy and the tragic end of his life will only be actually a small part of that it'll be the part that launched the revival for so many people yeah you mentioned not wanting to you know in the immediate go back to uvU ever never set foot on that campus again but you're there today um is the feeling being different than what you'd kind of conjured up in your mind? It is different.

You know, as I was returning, I was just kind of thinking about how suffering is actually a guess and how being here is reclaiming a territory and how if we were to never return, essentially what we're saying is that an evil act can make a place evil forever, that it's claimed by evil and that we can't return. We need to return to places like this, claim it back. And, you know, it's hard. Suffering is not easy. It certainly is not comfortable, but comfortability is not necessarily what you sign up for

when you work for a mission. You know, you're signing up for something greater than yourself. And along the way, you'll find yourself in weakness and you'll find yourself in suffering, but scripture is very clear, you know, You are made strong in your suffering, and Christ is made strong in your suffering. But yeah, it's difficult to be here, but I'm looking at a line of thousands of people inside and outside. And there's a lot of people here, and they're returning as well. That's good.

We saw a cross on campus today. I understand the cross made its way into the arena. Is that true? I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure it's true. You know, it reminds me of the memorial. There was a guy that drove a cross out. He stood outside of our headquarters with this cross for hours and hours on end. It might be going to cross.

And then he brought it to the memorial. Yeah, and it's still there. You know, it's still outside of HQ to this day on the side. And there's something powerful about that. It's a symbolism that everybody around the world can see and immediately know that a sacrifice was made for a better good. Mikey, you have a sort of a preacher's talent for condensing messages that people need to hear. So people are going to be the people who are at this event, but also the people who are watching it online. What should they be looking as the spiritual takeaway from this memorial?

What should they be thinking about? And if they're so moved, what should they do afterwards? Yeah, you know, I'm kind of shared in my speech tonight. But Charlie used to talk about pretty often how politics was his day job, but politics was only the second most important thing in his life. And the first, you know, most important thing in his words was winning souls for Jesus Christ and, you know, traveling the country and being alongside Charlie and seeing how he operated, you know, there's a lot. He cared about free markets, conservative ideas, cared about the future of this country and young people. Behind all of that, Charlie cared about people's souls. He cared about Christ.

He cared about something that was greater than himself. And that's what sustained him. It was his faith. The Lord gave him a vision and gave him a mission. And he did everything at his disposal to make sure that he was able to accomplish that mission because he had faith that what the Lord called him to do was the right thing to do. Yeah, we were looking, I saw the images, the B-roll of the chalk messages that they had, that some students and supporters had inscribed. And one of them is the line we heard so often a year ago.

And we still hear it now. It's well done, my good and faithful servant. And I think all of us agree, of anyone we've ever met in our own lives, perhaps as much as anyone who's lived in this past within living memory. Charlie deserved to hear that from his savior. You know, I'll end with this. The last interview that Charlie ever gave at that restaurantology event, Blake, do you remember that that we went to before UVU? I don't because I wasn't in it, but of course I do remember the event that you were there.

There's a clip going viral that he asked, you know, what's your biggest advice that you've heard? and instead of you know quoting some great philosopher or whatever charlie went straight in on the bible and you know he said two things one that's not in the bible but counted all joy and the second thing was romans 828 and it was almost this like moment that the lord used it's almost like prophetic you know it's romans 828 is we know that god uses all that works all things for good for those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. I was talking about this before.

I don't know how anything can come, any good could come from such an unimaginable pain and suffering. But yet good has come. Blake, you talked about a soul, a baby's life, is on this earth because they're inspired by Charlie. And then he talks about how this two shall pass. You know, that that's a, both quote for good times and for bad times. when you're in the midst of the storm, this too shall pass.

And when you're in the midst of great rejoicing and gain, that too shall pass as well. There's only one permanent thing in life. And it's the Lord and Savior that Charlie served and spent his entire life wanting to bless and honor. Amen. Amen. Mikey, I know you've got a major role tonight. You honored Charlie so much at the memorial a year ago, and I know you will tremendously honor him again as you honored him on X.

I want to repeat. I'm going to repeat again. Go to Mikey's X and read it because it's an amazing testament to Charlie really gets at the legacy he's left and why he's mattered to so many people. Mikey, thank you for joining us. Thank you for calling in. Thank you for being brave. I know it's very tough and as emotional for you as it is, probably anyone besides Erica.

thank you guys I appreciate you this thank you for doing the last thing God bless you and we'll we'll see you in a few moments so thank you again Mikey and I should just let you know we'll be throwing to the event as soon as it gets started

and it's gonna go for a while so unfortunately we won't be going on the other side so you'll be seeing us here we'll be closing it out when we throw to that show but we will be here tomorrow. We'll be doing the show like usual. We'll be doing our AMA like usual.

And if I can prevail upon the staff, I would like for that to go extra because I want to hear from people about what Charlie meant to them, what he's meant to them has evolved over the past year, the legacy he's left in their lives. And I want to read more of people's emails because we've gotten so many of them and I've probably only read about 1% of them on the air.

So continue to send in any thoughts. you have anything you want, anything you want the world to hear about what Charlie meant to you, because I do, we do want to read those. And I'm just looking at these. We got, we just got one from Jacob. I'm 16. I'm from Oklahoma and I remember September 10th perfectly. I have never cried more than I did on that day.

I couldn't even stand. I deeply regret not seeing him. And at his Tulsa event or at OSU, I pray for Erica and all of you. Tell Riley hi that I am a huge fan. Thanks, Jacob. Thank you so much for that. Thanks, Jacob. It's cool to see, like, he's 16 years old.

Yeah. Like, come on, can hardly drive a car and is listening in. And I can say as someone who, you know, would consider myself young in the political sphere, you have very few moments in your life where you'll never forget where you were when you heard the news. I can think of two in my life. Of course, the first one being when President Trump was shot and. Butler, Pennsylvania. It was one of those where you don't know in the immediate if he's alive. You saw him come up with a fist in the air. But nonetheless, there was uncertainty surrounding

that when you heard the news. Same thing with Charlie. You'll never forget where you were. And Jacob just... A whole new generation. Told you have a heart out, unfortunately. But thank you for joining us during this stream. And thank you for, I mean, thank you for coming here for... I appreciate you guys. And it's special to be around the Turning Point family. You know, people who who have lived it and grieve it and mourn Charlie the same way but who are as dedicated to carrying on his mission and his legacy so thank you guys for doing so much as you magically disappear on the screen here

just to go off of what she said it's a whole new generation of young people that you know as as an older guy in this movement now I'll never forget September 11th 2001 where I was and it changed you know I can look back now tomorrow will be 25 years ago and I can look at the course of my life and and see how that moment changed everything for me and I will never forget September 10th 2025 and I think 25 years from now we'll see so many millions of people that their entire course of their life was changed by that. And again, like I was saying earlier before we had everybody call in, I think we have not even remotely seen the surface of Charlie's legacy and the future leaders that will emerge through this, the young people that will never forget. Just like when I was a young

person and September 11th happened and we never forget. I think you're seeing a very similar thing happening here. And it's been a long day. It's been a good day, but a long day. But it has been amazing to see just everyone remembering Charlie. And we've got another hard day for so many people tomorrow on September 11th, the 25th anniversary. It's a collection of. it's it's it's there's a lot of emotional energy it's a lot of I mean it's a lot of sadness

because honestly I think if you ask people like events where they remember exactly where they were and if they remember everything about that day for a lot of people might be 9-11 and then a year ago yeah yeah I agree you know uh so thankful that the you know would be assassin and butler was not successful But, yeah, you know, Riley mentioned that moment. But I'll never forget. I'll never forget where I was and not believing it, not wanting to believe it. And, you know, you see all this stuff and we do all these things.

And I think so many people forget that we're all real people and that we have real lives and that Charlie was our friend. And Charlie meant so much to all of us. And, yeah, it truly is the thing. it keeps me going in the bad times when I just want to be mad and just throw it all the way and be done with it. I hear these young people, these 16-year-olds that write in and kind of give us a reality check that they're not going to forget. And they, even though we're getting a little older and we're getting a little tired and we're getting a little weary here, there's a whole new generation of no one will ever be Charlie, but there's a whole new generation of leaders. Even if we're getting tired, you know, Charlie would not be that sympathetic. And now he'll never be sympathetic because he's with the Lord now.

He's watching. He's just like, why don't they just get the idea? Yeah, just get an IV. Yeah, come on. Just get an IV and get back to work. Yeah. We continue to get emails. We got one from Corwin.

Corvin. I'm not sure if you'd say. I wish we'd say it. I first discovered Charlie, my freshman year of high school. He was always an inspiration in my life. He helped me become more open about my beliefs. I wouldn't be the person I am today. He inspired me to start my own podcast.

and he inspired me to get into politics. Charlie may be gone, but his legacy lives on. Luke 229.32, which is, let's get it here. It is, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. Wow. Yeah, I think Charlie had that impact on all of us.

He made all of us want to be better. And, you know, Charlie was almost 10 years younger than me. And yet I looked up to Charlie. We all did. Just like everybody did. And, you know, Charlie was that person that he just, the way he lived his life, the discipline that he had, it was, I think we talked about this earlier on the show. From the outside looking in, Charlie wasn't the normal person.

Charlie's daily habits, how he lived his life. I think all of us remember how we first met Charlie because you remember the part where you go, who is this guy? Yeah, it's a little weird, you know, this guy. But it wasn't a bad weird. It was a what is it with this guy. Like there's something about this.

There's a lot of other people I've worked for. I've had a long relationship with. And I don't remember my first meeting with them. But with Charlie, I remember it. Yep. We got another email. This one says, I doubt this will be read on air. Nice try, Shannon.

Oh, we got it. Charlie was a God-fearing man. His faith in Jesus Christ made my testimony in him. It built on top of mine. I was shocked, shocked, and I sobbed basically all day a year ago. He left an impact on me that nobody else has. Thank you, Charlie Kirk, for your faith and example. You are doing wonders on the other side.

Thank you for that, Shannon. Amen. We have Megan. Charlie saved my soul. Even though I watched him for his political commentary. I realize now Charlie was leading me to Jesus in the aftermath of his death. It truly felt like the world and our country was broken and spiritually empty and the future was bleak. The events of that day led to me.

It led me to pick up the Bible to seek the truth to find understanding in suffering. In eight days, I will have read the Bible cover to cover. It sounds like that's in 365, as Erica would say. Charlie led me and my family to church where we were able to reconnect. and mend relationships. Someone I never met changed my life in ways I can never fully explain.

This horrendous tragedy truly shows that in all things God works for the good. Thank you, Charlie. I didn't even know what that was going to be before the first sentence. That was one of the greatest emails we've ever received.

It's an amazing email. Charlie would push back on one thing, though. Charlie would say that he did not save your soul. the Lord allowed Charlie to be used as a vessel for the Lord. Amen. Okay. Glad you said that.

And so Charlie would push back on that. But what a beautiful email and a beautiful testament to, again, Charlie being the light of Christ, you know, the light of Christ dwelling within us. You know why I think so many people, especially believers, felt so deeply this day a year ago. and even to this day, the tears have been renewed today, but with so many people, is because as believers, we truly believe that when we accept the Lord into our heart, that the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us,

and we saw someone that has the same Holy Spirit that we have within us, we saw that happen in real time in front of us. And we felt it. So many people feel it, And so many people have connected in such a way because Charlie was your brother in Christ. He was your family. If you were a Christian, then you know that to be true. And I truly believe that that's why so many people have been affected.

And then to the non-believers that have now found Christ through that event, they saw that the light that Charlie had, that spirit that Charlie had dwelling within him, that was, it was real. what Charlie had and Charlie's faith wasn't fiction. It wasn't make-believe it. It was real. Charlie died fighting the good fight for his faith and for the gospel. And, you know, it's a very famous thing.

You know, he's in politics so the most important thing can be done. That was always Charlie's thing. And I think that's why you see so many people so attached emotionally and so many people can't describe. it. They're like, it makes no sense for me to feel what I feel for someone that I never met. But I think that's why. Yeah, you know, that's just a redneck from Mississippi's idea on it. But it has to be, has to be the Holy Spirit that was dwelling within Charlie, that all of us as believers have that same Holy Spirit dwelling within us. And we all, we all felt it. Amen. Amen. We're just a few minutes out from moments away, I should say, from freedom. built to last

commemorating Charlie at UVU one year after the tragedy there. We're reading or reading emails from people just got one of the best ones I'd ever seen. Let's see. We've got, let's see a few more here. Someone says,

watching life, this is from Capon or Capon. We can always get, apologies in advance. You're all free to call me Balaké when you meet me in person if that ever happens. We are watching all live together. I doubt this is going to be read, but it would be awesome.

Charlie was such a mentor. He still inspires us to move forward. Oh, and it's a photo. It looks like a family is gathered to watch the event tonight. So God bless everyone in your family for tuning into this. Thank you so much. That's a good point. So many families are going to tune in tonight.

And so, again, the gospel will be shared tonight that I have no doubt another opportunity for Charlie's legacy for the gospel of the Lord to be shared. And so, again, families are going to gather around the name of Jesus will be spoken into millions of homes in just a few minutes. And again, it's just a testament to Charlie's legacy. Yeah, we've got Jackie says, I just want to thank Charlie Kirk for modeling and witnessing for me real courage to go into the lion's den and loving the people there and ultimately giving your life. We miss you. Thank you so much for that. Jackie.

We've got Decker. He says, I'm an American living abroad. I want to let you know. Charlie impacted the lives of all of us here from another country. Thank you, Charlie. We've seen that. We saw the email from someone from Norway earlier. We saw when Charlie was traveling in in Britain a year ago, all these people recognized him.

And they were asking for photos. They adored him. And when he was in Korea and Japan, they all had. admired and looked up to him. And he had such a global impact, which is so amazing because he was so focused on America for the most part. But it's that element of the gospel that that truly was a global message. The first time I met Charlie, he gathered all of us around. And this was when Charlie was more, he was always focused on building turning point, but it was safe to say that all of us were, quote unquote, bigger than he was on the internet at the time.

And he, I'll never forget, the first thing he said to us collectively is, you know, each and every one of you have the voices that can affect a generation. It's the, like one of the first things that Charlie said. It wasn't about him. And now I believe it's because of that humbleness that Charlie had that Charlie never wanted to be famous. Charlie never wanted to be known worldwide for being Charlie Kirk. That's not what he wanted. That's not what he desired.

He wanted his faith to be remembered. Alrighty. All right. I'm told they're starting. We'll see all of you tomorrow. God bless all of you. Wow. That is a lot of people, Utah.

Hi. My name is Sage, and I have the pleasure of serving as the president of the turning point chapter right here at UFU. Welcome to you. Welcome to my campus. I'm so glad to have you all here. A year ago, our lives changed forever. There are moments in life that divide everything into a before and an after. Before that day and after that day. And for so many of us in this room, especially of those in the Utah Valley University Turning Point chapter,

there will always be a before and an after. We witnessed something that none of us should have ever had to witness. We experienced fear, grief, confusion, and heartbreak in a way that changed us forever. And honestly, we had every reason to give up. We could have packed our bags. We could have stepped away. We could have decided that the cost of standing up for what we believe in was simply too high, but we did not. Because Charlie Kirk taught people that convictions are not meant to be cast aside when things get difficult. God does not give us convictions so we can hide from them when we are afraid. He gives us convictions that we can stand firm in truth

even when the world asks us to compromise. My own journey to Turning Point was probably not what most people would expect. I did not grow up in a home where we all agreed on politics, and I once held political beliefs that went very much against what I advocate for today. But I joined Turning Point USA alongside thousands of students, because Charlie Kirk was one of the first people we saw who was willing to stand up for free speech and for people on every side, to have a voice. He encouraged people to speak. He encouraged people to listen, and most importantly, he encouraged people to learn.

He was not afraid of disagreement. He believes that ideas should be challenged, that conversations needed to be had, and that people were capable of changing their minds. And somewhere along the way, Charlie's mission awakens something in the next generation. Every one of us had been changed and inspired. In our chapter, a small group of students were brought to a realization. that had never been clearer. Charlie Kirk may have been one man,

but what he built will never end with just one man. He may never pick up the microphone again, but the millions of voices he inspired will never put theirs down. His voice may have been silent, but the ideas he planted in so many hearts cannot be. And that is what I have watched happen over this last year. The last time I spoke to Erica Kirk, Turning Points, incredible CEO,

CEO who has courageously stepped up. She told our chapter, she told our chapter that Charlie New You View is special, that he chose our campus for a reason, and that there was a purpose in all of this. It took us quite a while to wrap our heads around that, but when I look out into this crowd, it's easy to see that she was absolutely right. Our chapter has grieved. We have struggled, and we have carried things that few people outside of our own experience will ever completely understand, but through all of the hardship, we are still here. Every single day, our members walk around knowing that those who stand for their beliefs can paint a target on their back, and yet they continue to show up.

They come to the meetings, they attend the events, and they put their beliefs into action. The same students who witnessed a political assassination are willing to stand up, speak out, and keep moving forward, all because of the impact one man Charlie Kirk had on their life. This chapter stands together. We stand together because we believe that fear cannot be allowed to decide who gets to speak. All of us have a choice and how we allow what happened a year ago to shape us. We can let it define us through fear, or we can let it strengthen us through courage. The Turning Point chapter at UVU has made our decision, and we chose courage.

It would have been far easier to walk away, but throughout history, those who have changed the world have rarely done so by choosing the easy path over the perilous one. Christ himself is an excellent example. He was rejected. He was mocked, and he was driven from city to city, yet still he continued. Not because the road became easier, but because truth was worth defending.

There is something we can all learn from that. Standing for what you believe in will not always be comfortable. It will not always be safe, and it will rarely make you popular, but we cannot let fear convince us that our voices do not matter because they so deeply do. Charlie believed that. The students in our chapter, like many others, are no stranger to hatred, to the threats online, the constant photos taken,

the mockery made, and the vitriol thrown in their faces. The hate is loud, but the love is louder if we choose to listen to it. Listen to the prayers offered, the encouragement given, and the support spreading across this nation. A year after that tragic day, when I look out at all the incredible turning point students, I see people who could have left but stayed. People who could have been silent but spoke up.

People who could have let fear win but refused. And this isn't just happening at UVU. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of college and high school students are stepping forward, carrying this movement into communities and campuses nationwide. And that is the greatest impact that Charlie Kirk left on these young students. Although not everyone agreed with him or held the same beliefs as him, he inspired so many people to care, to learn, to speak, to stand for something, and to never be afraid to let their convictions show.

Charlie sparked something, and over this last year, I have watched it grow within our chapter. Not through anger, not through hatred, but through conviction, through courage, through young people who have decided that their beliefs are worth standing for. So today, one year later at Utah Valley University, we remember Charlie Kirk. We mourn Charlie Kirk and we honor Charlie Kirk. And perhaps the greatest way to honor him is not to simply remember what he did, but continue what he started. So no, we did not pack up and run when things got hard.

We did not leave. We are still here and we are still standing. Because grief is not the end of this story. Love can become action. Pain that can become purpose and tragedy can become a reminder of what is worth fighting for As long as there are those willing to carry that passion forward Charlie's voice will never truly be gone Our chapter is still here. We are still speaking and we are nowhere near done and that is how his voice lives on To end my time with you all today I want to take a moment to showcase an incredible piece of art

Charlie Kirk spent much of his life on college campuses exercising his first amendment rights and encouraging all students to do the same. No matter their opinion, no matter their viewpoint, Charlie gave them the opportunity to have a voice. This piece immortalizes Charlie's mission to step forward and to pick up the Nike, not just for this generation, but for generations to come. Ladies and gentlemen, the greater the man, the greater the grief when he's taken from us. and Charlie Kirk was the greatest man I ever knew personally in all of my 64 years. Why was he so great? Well, one reason he was so great is because he majored in the most important issues in life.

Case in point. Two days before he was murdered, Charlie and I were together in Phoenix. and after we would get together during the day to discuss questions we might get on a college campus, sometimes Charlie would say, hey, after I, Eric and I put the kids down, why don't we go on a walk and we can talk some more? So that night, Monday night, we went on a walk in Scottsdale. We always had a 300-pound armed bodyguard behind us. And Charlie would drive the conversation. I'd say, Charlie, let's talk about whatever you want to talk about.

Now, keep in mind, he wanted me to mentor him, but I learned a lot more from him than he learned from me. The only thing that exceeded Charlie's intellect was his humility. He wanted to learn from anyone. Anyway, we're walking along. The first thing he wanted to talk about was the country and how he needed to get Christians to be more engaged to pretend. our rights to preach and live the gospel. I hear people saying all the time, oh, I don't get involved politically.

I just preach the gospel, to which I say, I guess you don't think the gospel is very important then. Why? Because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel. We couldn't hold this rally in Iran. We couldn't hold it in Saudi Arabia. I just got back not long ago from Egypt. You tried to do this in Egypt?

You're going to have trouble. Because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel. But Charlie would always say, Charlie would always say, politics is not our first responsibility, but it helps us to achieve our first responsibility. The second issue he wanted to talk about was the family. Why was his generation not embracing marriage and childbearing?

And he really wanted to find a way to do that. Because the family is the foundation of any civilization. The biological two-parent family is what makes a civilization. And he wanted his generation to embrace that. And he modeled that. Then the third issue we wanted to talk about was the evidence for Christianity. Does God exist? Did Jesus rise from the dead?

And we talked a lot about that that night. Now, I didn't think about this at the time. but after he was murdered I said Charlie was talking about the three institutions God created. God created government. God created the family and God created the church.

And Charlie was always interested in the big issues. He was interested in God, family, and country. And he thought that I was teaching him. No, he was teaching me. Now why was Charlie always so courageous? Why was he fearless? I think there's two major reasons he was. Number one, he knew Christianity was true.

And number two, he knew who God was. How did he know Christianity was true? Well, for me to communicate that, I've got to ask you guys a question. And there's probably very few people in this room that can answer it, but I'm going to ask it anyway. If you can remember where you were and what you were doing, November 22nd, 1963, raise your hand, hold it up high. All right, ladies and gentlemen, you see these people with their hands up? These people are very old.

November 22nd, 1963 is the day President Kennedy was shot, and those you who are old enough can't forget it. Where were you? 25 years ago tomorrow when the second plane hit the tower. Can you remember where you were and what you were doing? Yeah, you can. Why, it was a dramatic, emotional, unforgettable event. Where were you when you heard President Trump was shot? You can remember it.

Why? Dramatic, emotional, unforgettable event. Where were you when Charlie Kirk was shot? Some of you were right here. I was 25 feet from him. Not only do I remember it, I can't forget it if I wanted to forget it. The first person I think of when I wake up in the morning is Charlie. The last person I think of before I wrestle myself to sleep is Charlie.

Some people call that PTSD. It's not a disorder. It's normal. It should be that way. Charlie was a great man and a great friend. Thankfully, the killer did not end Charlie. The killer just changed Charlie's address. He's absent from the body but present with the Lord.

You say, Frank, what does this have to do with Christianity? Because the Jews living in the first century also witnessed an emotional, dramatic, unforgettable event. It was called the resurrection. Why would Jews invent a resurrected Jesus that got them kicked out of the synagogue and then beaten, tortured, and killed? Newsflash, they wouldn't. This is why Charlie Kirk, nine days before he was murdered, tweeted, The resurrection really happened. Christianity is true. No one's going to invent in the first century this unbelievable event and then go die for a lie.

alive. So as Erica recently said, that's why Charlie was so secure and so confident because his foundation was secure. It was in Christ. He also knew who God really was. And sometimes we think God is an old man on a cloud up in the sky. No, what do the scriptures say about God? Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God. Psalm 103 verse 11 says God's love to those that fear him exceeds the height of the heavens above the earth. How high are the heavens above the earth? Well, ladies and gentlemen, just in our galaxy, there are billions of stars. They're separated on average by about 30 trillion minds.

How far is 30 trillion miles? Far. It'll take you at least two tanks of gas and a Toyota Prius to go 30 trillion miles. In fact, to go 30 trillion miles, if you could go space shuttle speed, five miles per second, it would take you over 200,000 years to go from just one star at our galaxy to another star at our galaxy, and another star at our galaxy, and it would take you over 200,000 years to go from just one star at our galaxy, and average distance away. That's just in our galaxy. How many stars are there in the entire universe? Conservative estimate. The number of stars in the entire universe are about equivalent to the number of grains of sand on all the beaches, on all the earth, times 100,000. And to go from

just one star to another star going five miles a second will take you over 200,000 years. The heavens are awesome. And they're supposed to communicate to us what God is like. It's supposed to communicate God's attributes to us. God's love exceeds the height of the heavens above the earth. From our perspective, that's infinite. But here's our problem. It also communicates God's justice, that his justice is as high as the heavens are above the earth. And this is why none of us can stand before a holy God unless someone intervenes. Because if you want justice, and there are people on college campuses we go to all the time that are screaming they want justice, be careful, you might just get it. Does anyone in here want justice from an infinitely just God?

If I got justice, if Charlie got justice, if any of us got justice, we'd all be toast. Because we've all been unjust in our lives. So what's the solution to it? Since God's love exceeds the height of the heavens above the earth, God adds humanity to his deity. He comes to earth. He allows the creatures that rebelled against him to torture and kill him so he could take their punishment upon himself

our punishment upon himself. And then when we trust in him, we're not only forgiven, we're given his righteousness. Translation, ladies and gentlemen, Charlie is not in heaven because of any good things he did. Charlie is not in heaven

because he died for his Savior. Charlie is in heaven because his Savior died for Charlie Kirk. You say, what kind of God would allow an innocent, man like Charlie to be murdered by someone he wanted to save. The same God who would allow himself to be murdered by the very people he wanted to save. Yeah, Charlie's a modern day martyr. He wanted to save the killer and everybody on this campus one year ago today. And God himself allowed us to torture him

because he wanted to save us. That's the kind of God Charlie served. That's the kind of God that created and sustains this entire vast universe. And it's the kind of God that has virtually infinite love because we're all made in his image. So Charlie, as you know, wanted to be remembered for his courage and his faith in Jesus.

mission accomplished my friend before we show a tribute to charlie's life can we pray let's pray heavenly father thank you for giving us charlie kirk a man who in 31 years did more for you his family his country than a million people do in 80 years we pray that you now comfort erika her children, her team, and Charlie's parents and his sister as they continue Charlie's legacy. May your Holy Spirit help the rest of us to emulate Charlie as Charlie emulated Christ.

Most of all, we thank you for entering this evil world to save us from our own sins and to offer us forgiveness in eternal life with you and those like Charlie who have received your grace. I pray if there's anyone here who has not received your grace, the grace that Charlie was speaking about right here one year ago, that tonight they would. We ask all these things through Jesus who sacrificed himself for us.

Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, you want to contribute to something bigger than yourself? Here's how you do it. Yeah. I feel like every story starts that way. I know. Oh, I was rich in character, you know? No, I know. Okay, so let's, okay, so fine. So the idea for Turning Point USA first started locally in Chicago. What Turning Point USA is we're taking action, and that's the youth standing up,

because it's our future that's being mortgaged by Washington in every regard. I was 18, no idea what I was doing, no connections, no money. We didn't have an office, we didn't have a staff. It was just me just traveling the country doing this pure grit, pure energy. I actually thought this was possible, which was kind of crazy if you think about it. I was driven by core ideas and core principles that we should be thankful, not angry, to live in this country. Would you agree? We should be thankful.

We should be kissing the ground and say, we are the luckiest human beings ever to exist that we are able to live in this country. At this time, America is the greatest country ever to exist, period, bar none, is the greatest country ever to exist, right? Charlie is the only one that layer upon layer, precept upon precept, he built it. It was almost shocking because it was exponential growth. And I will never forget it was in the spring of 2024. And he goes out to this campus, 1,500 students show up. And Charlie's texting me, he's like, there's so many kids here. It's huge.

Like, this is amazing. You gotta go back in time and realize there was like 10 kids that would show up before. Maybe none. All of a sudden, in the middle of this tabling, they just organically start singing the National Anthem. I'll never forget what he said. He said, something's happening. You can feel it. Something's happening.

Young people realize you may be able to manipulate and trick, you know, my grandma or my grandpa, but you're not going to trick me. We are going to ramp up and do even more. We're going to push the boundaries. We're going to keep fighting socialism where it matters most. We're going to hire more staff, win more student body presidency races, host bigger events, convert more young minds to love freedom and liberty, and we are going to fight the left at every single term. We are in the front lines of this culture war to fight for freedom and liberty and save the

greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world. It was almost like the first realization that all of those hours he put in, all of the thankless efforts, all of the attacks. all the criticism starting to pay off in this, like, really big, unexpected way. Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States. Everything was just coming through me from not just how hard the president worked, but how hard we worked. I mean, we traveled the country nonstop, didn't see my family, did events in every corner.

The president was facing 700 years in federal prison. They tried to take his business empire away from him. And then, of course, he got shot and nearly shot again at the golf course. There was this kind of feeling as like, is this possible? Are we going to do this? Just overwhelmed in that moment. Still, it still really hasn't set in, to be honest. You put all this together, my man.

Let's hear it. I am just humbled by God's great. I have to say this without getting emotional, but I'm very proud of my husband. And I know many of you are, too. You have worked so hard. And I know a lot of you have seen, obviously, his video is on TikTok and all the stuff he does on campus. But no one gets to see him from my angle except for myself and our children. For young people out there, if you want to find meaning, find something worth taking responsibility for.

I'm grateful for you. Thanks for joining the Charlie Cripp. What matters is your relationship with the divine, your relationship with your family, your kids, and maybe a close collection of friends, and your relationship with the truth. I want to honor God and all that I do. I want to be a great husband, a great father. I want to serve this country. I want to try to continue to lead this movement and to speak truth and to never lie. to stop thinking about yourself all the time

and said think about what you should do to help other people and to defend this country above yourself. You still live in the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world. There is still so much to be hopeful and to be thankful for. And we have agency.

He taught you so much and what it means to be a man, what it means to be a husband, what it means to be a father, what it means to be a good citizen in America, what it means to die to yourself daily and to be something bigger than yourself. Taking the deep, but sometimes the difficult road is the way that you should configure your life.

Getting married and having children is a difficult but deep decision that I hope every single one of you make at some point in your life. Because for every single one of you, there are a couple thousand students that wish they could speak out like you do. And courage is a choice. What can I do to save the country? You answer that question every single day. because you are doing the work to save this beautiful republic. You are doing something that is bigger than you. So when people ask you, what is Turning Point even doing a lot?

And we have not stopped. And I cannot thank you enough for making sure that my husband's life does not become a footnote and a history book. We are no longer going to accept comfortable losing. We are no longer going to accept excuses from our elected officials. We have more combined political power than they have ever allowed us to believe. We are the party of people that shower before work and shower after work. The people that get their hands dirty. The people that protect our streets.

The people that built this country. You know you are part of something bigger than yourself. This movement is about the citizens. versus the oligarchs. This movement is about we the people versus the ruling class. This movement is about America versus the globalist. This movement is about all of us against them. The mission didn't end with Charlie's life.

It's being lived out through each and every one of you in your own way. And it's about remembering that freedom requires responsibility and truth requires courage. Pumfort and Christianity sometimes come to a head. In fact, we are called to get uncomfortable as believers and Christians. Should we care about our country?

Jeremiah 297 demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare. And if we're serious about saving this country, we need to get back to the source of where that inheritance came from. the word of God and our true citizenship, which is in heaven. Every single one of you need to say, God, I am willing.

Use me. Use me for your purposes. Liberty is God's idea, not man's idea. Tell me, God, what to do. Here I am. Send me. Charlie's mission wasn't just about the conversation on campus. It wasn't just about SaaS.

It wasn't just about the coalition building and politicking. That was all the... The how. But the why for Charlie, the why was he trusted his savior. I got to see it over a decade. A man who woke up and said, Lord use me. I got to see how somebody who is maybe equipped, but has no true power, become one of the most influential people, not just in our country, on our planet.

Charlie was always rooted in faith. I've said this 100 times over. early was easy to follow because I knew who he followed. What young people especially are screaming at is they say, give me a structure that I can live my life by. And especially with young men, more challenging of them, more saying, you know what? Honestly, I'm not going to talk down to you.

Stop being a boy and become a man. You want to learn what that means? Come to church and I'll tell you what it means to become a man. Because we have the greatest story ever told. If everything completely goes away, how do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered for courage for my faith.

That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life. Welcome to the stage, Andrew Seifer. I'm humbled to see all of you here. My name is Andrew Seifer. I'm the chief field officer for Turning Point USA. I've spent 10 years with this organization and with Charlie Kirk.

I was standing 10 feet to his left. when he was assassinated. A short walk from this building. Today marks one year. Steps from these doors is the ground where evil unfolded. We did not come back to rehearse a crime scene. We came back because Charlie Kirk represented the best of us. He was a husband.

A father. A God-fearing man who never stopped leading by example. Successful? Yes. But that is the least important true thing about him tonight. He loved this country unmistakably. And he loved a student standing in front of him, like these students here, more than he did winning the viral classroom.

clip. So why do we gather here in this arena, on this day, on this campus? Why? Because this is where they tried to end him. And because this is where we refuse to let the last word be a gunshot. Charlie was not my boss. Charlie was my brother. Friendship is proximity, timing, energy. friendship comes and goes. Brotherhood is different. Brotherhood is loyalty. Brotherhood is duty. Brotherhood is a collection of shared trials.

Anyone fortunate enough to stand close to him learned this, his word did not move. His loyalty did not expire when you became inconvenient. He would not badmouth his own people. He would not gossip about a staffer to sound clever in a room. Those are management attributes. Those are not management attributes. Those are the marks of a man we all loved.

Even when the world got loud around him, campaigns, presidential transitions, cameras, he kept his eye on the little guy, the intern, the chance, chapter leader, the student who drove three hours and stood in the back. That is who he was when nobody was filming. That is who he was to me. Every single day, even his last. On that last day, he started the day in prayer as we flew up from Arizona. He studied the Word of God with Frank Turrick for 30 plus minutes on that flight and asked me everything.

everything he could do to best know the culture of Utah and what mattered most of the students here and how he could best support them. He loved nothing more, nothing more than being on the ground interacting with the students directly. He knew God had given him a responsibility to shepherd the young,

and he did not take that lightly. A common denominator between the first time I saw Charlie in 2016 at my new higher training, in the basement of Chicago O'Hare. And that morning of September 10th, 2025, was of him feasting on the Word of God, spiritually preparing himself for the day. Before the crowd fully understood what they were watching,

he already knew his calling. His goal was never simply to win elections, or only to empower to young, or only to stand for truth and an argument. Yes, those things mattered to him. That they were not the center. The center was always, always to be a true disciple of Christ. He demonstrated it that very morning when he said to me via text,

Andrew, I'm not here to pick a fight. I am here to show them kindness. That was the assignment. The assignment he walked into that courtyard with. to show the Utah Valley University campus kindness. To talk with students who hate you to share the truth and to not become cruel doing it. Soon thereafter, a shot rang out followed by darkness. I will not decorate in detail.

I remember scanning the crowd. and the last person I looked at to my right was Charlie and I knew I knew he was immediately gone in that darkness a hymn came to mind

they say hymns are prayers of the heart what came to me was I need thee every hour and it goes like this I need thee every hour most gracious Lord no tender voice like thine can peace afford it i need thee oh i need thee every hour i need thee oh bless me now my savior i come to thee that was my prayer not a strategy not a statement

but just a man ten feet away with nothing left to hold but a desperate plea from the heart Charlie's assassination did not put our faith to death. It woke it up. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but are true. We cannot see Charlie in that courtyard anymore. We can still see the legacy he built. We can still see the millions of students and Americans inspired by him. We can still see the country.

He refused to quit on. Charlie lived as if the unseen things of faith were already true. That young people would still stand for Christ. That kindness could outlast the mob. That this nation was worth one more hard conversation. We can live that way too. We must live that way. Then work toward a better tomorrow.

Even when the status quo gives us very little to celebrate. That is not optimism. That is faith with its sleeves rolled up. No job is too big. No job is too small. And that is how he built it. And that is how we must keep building it. They killed a voice.

They did not stop the work. Freedom is built to last. And so is the man who taught a generation how to build it. Charlie ran a good race. And we are all still here on the field. We are charged to take it from here. For freedom, for truth, for our dear friend, Charlie Kirk. Thank you.

You that have decided to be a Turning Point USA chapter leader, you have made an intentional decision that you want to live a deep life over an easy life. You are fighting for something and for. for ideas and you are doing something that is bigger than you. The reasons why I'm so inspired by you, you are telling your peers that I am taking the more difficult road because America is worth saving more than my popularity on campus. You play a bigger role than you even realize,

because for every single one of you, there are a couple thousand students that wish they could speak out like you do. The deep, the difficult, But the right path is one that will reward you, your family, and this beautiful nation. Our movement is ascendance. It is growing. We could take back this country, but it starts with every single one of you. Charlie was different from the rest.

If you had the fortune to work with anyone that has a large following or a disproportionate influence over society, you quickly realize, the majority of those individuals, you know the majority of those individuals, individuals, they lose touch with society. They lose touch with those that built them, those that made them who they are. That was one thing that we set Charlie apart, is that he had a vision back in 2012 saying, we can win the youth vote. I believe a majority, he believed a majority of young men and young woman, would once again, one day proclaim from the house tops that Christ lives.

Not that he just lives, but he works in their life and that this country will be saved because of the young at work. He believed in that, but when no one else believes, and he never stopped believing. Some of his final requests with me, when we'd go from campus to campus to campus, we'd say, Andrew, I need more time with the students. I need to make sure how do I interact with them more. his favorite thing was to be in and among the students. It was his favorite pastime.

I don't know too many adults to say, I love being on a college campus getting yelled at by 18-year-olds, but he did. Because it was his way of touching grass with society and making sure that he represented you. Not that he represented the oligarchs in D.C. Or those on X or social media. He wanted to represent

you. And by being on campus, that was his greatest ability to be among you and to know how to best serve you. But what made serving students so rewarding is that they loved what he represented to them. And when we saw the lives and of these young people starting to change and these campuses started to grow and our following started to start to grow and we started take over these camps and we showed up at UVU and there's 3 to 5,000 students, nearly 10% of the entire student population, there to listen to a man debate about truth. And what mattered most? We knew we were onto something special. But the most special part was seeing that these students, even when Charlie wasn't there, they carried on the mission. You got to hear from Sage, who was just one brave soul of many,

tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of students that do this daily. show up on their campus daily. And what we saw after Charlie's assassination was hundreds of thousands of students say, you will not kill the man without me going next. And today we're here to recognize 15 brave, incredible student leaders of ours who were there last September, witness that tragedy, and

did not give up. They stood up. They're here. They're still leading their group. Give it up for them. On behalf of Turning Point USA and in coordination with the state of Utah, we're here to award each of these student leaders recognition for their courage and bravery to stand up in the face of evil and opposition to not let Charlie's legacy die. If you'll join us for a moment of silence and the impact you had on all of our lives and why we're here tonight. Thank you all. Ladies, please welcome to the stage, former UVU chapter president and current Utah field representative for TPSA, Caleb Chilker. One year ago, Charlie Kirk joined us at Utah Valley University and did what he had done

hundreds of times before. He was here to speak. He was here to debate. He was here to challenge. He was here to evangelize. What none of us knew then was just how much that day and Charlie himself would ask us afterwards. In the years since, I have watched his impact become impossible to miss. People in this room and all over the globe stepped into roles they never once expected to hold.

Students became chapter leaders, many rows to defend America. Hundreds of thousands joined this movement, not because they were ready, but because they was work to be done and a mission worth carrying forward. Charlie had a way of making people believe that they were capable of more, and this room and all of us here today is proof of that. In the days that followed, and as the chapter president at UVU at the time, I watched this community

do something that no one could have ever expected. We did not riot. We did not retreat into silence. We did not let the worst act I have ever seen become an excuse to treat our neighbors, the ones who disagreed with Charlie and the ones who disagreed with us as enemies to be dehumanized in return. That restraint was the hardest kind of courage there is. The choice to stay human when you have every reason not to.

That rhetoric that treats political opponents as less than human as threats to be eliminated rather than people to be persuaded is not a harmless exaggeration. Charlie Kirk stood for the simplest of things, giving people respect. Every debate, every interview, every interaction. A year of watching this community has not moved me from this belief. If we leave this event having only mourned and not having recommitted to arguing our case without dehumanizing the people on the other side of it, we will have missed the point of standing here at all. So here's the charge, not just the charge, not just the case,

not just to the turning point members, but to everyone in this building. Disagree as hard as you want. Fight for what you believe to be true, but at the same time, show the same respect that Charlie fought for. He showed up to engage in conversations not to hide from the tough arguments. That is worth more from us today than any tribute that I could put into words. I was not raised to take this right for granted, because as you could probably tell,

we tell, based off my accent, I did not grow up here. I spent 17 years of my life living in Australia, a country where the government can and has, sent police to homes of citizens if you say the wrong thing on Facebook. I know what it feels like to watch my words before they leave my mouth. The fundamental freedoms we cherish every single day simply does not exist where I grew up. When I moved to this incredible nation. I understood for the first time what it actually means to say something true and know your government cannot silence you for it. That is why Charlie loved this country the way that he did and why I love it too. Not blindly, this nation is not perfect and we have never claimed it to be perfect. He loved this country because it gave him the right an ability that no

other nation on earth would have given him. The freedom to say true things loud. to be challenged loudly and to keep showing up. I have lived on the other side of that comparison. I do not take it for granted, another should any of us in this room. A year from the worst day this campus has ever seen, the fact that we are still standing here, still organizing, still recruiting, still willing to have that hard conversation in the open instead of behind a screen, that is what will save this nation.

Charlie meant more to this chapter, to this university, and to this community than I think even we understood when he was here. He cared about UVU. He cared about the students in this chapter, the students who came to support the event, and even the students who showed up to argue and debate with him. Charlie cared for this community, and this community cared for him right back and continues to care for him. This proof is just how excited he was when he showed up to campus a year ago. and every single one of you who are here today. So I would like to thank everyone for coming here tonight and honoring Charlie Kirk.

As I end my time and as we come together, there's someone here who could not be with us tonight. Although I believe he would have loved to be here to show us support and respect for Charlie, the same way we all did and do. Chandler Hendry, thank you for your voice and the inspiration for so many of us here. We would like to play a quick video

to show our respect. I am a nobody, but he inspired me to become a somebody. Charlie was someone I looked up to. A quote of his says this, I'm far more interested in what God wants of me than what I want from God. What God wants from me is a life of fighting for truth. Faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior,

a family-centered life. A seeker of truth. finding your purpose and living it so that you could change the world around you. This is the message he preached and lived for, and this is the message I will choose to carry on. Please welcome to the stage, Mikey McCoy. Good evening, everybody. I've come to the realization that there's truly no right words on this side of eternity that can relay all that I feel in my heart tonight.

I'm also painfully aware that none of the words that we speak on this stage tonight can fill the seat that for the last year Charlie has left empty at home for his beloved family, nor fill the wound that a grieving country and world full of people who loved him feel. I will not pretend otherwise. But on the one year anniversary of the day that Charlie went home to be with Jesus, I'm reminded that Charlie always found a way to community. He constantly strove to find the right words, and he took every opportunity to point people toward Christ. So tonight, in honor of his example and in honor of his incredible life, I'm going to try. On the one-year anniversary, sorry, you know, when I was asked to share tonight, my first thought was, how has it been a year? And as I processed that came flooding in all the memories. I remember getting ready that morning and Charlie getting ready that morning.

I vividly remember him so excited. The anticipation we all felt for the kickoff of the biggest campus tour yet, his peer joy when he saw the enormous crowd here at UVU, and then the whiplash, going from such shared joy and excited, to the most unfathomable heartbreak imaginable. As I thought about that day, God brought countless other moments to mind

as I watched Charlie operate with strength that seemed only supernatural, running on no sleep, accomplishing the seemingly impossible, pushing beyond his own discomfort in pursuit of serving his country and fellow man, loving and living with this inexhaustible desire to see especially the young people of this country

find hope and succeed. I had witnessed firsthand those countless hours, days, and years we spent together the answer to the question, where did Charlie's strength come from? Charlie's strength was in and from Christ. 2 Corinthians 12-9. 2 Corinthians 12-9, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. This was the gasoline on the fire of Charlie's passion that emboldened him to walk onto campuses across this nation and contend for truth. You know, Charlie understood that while freedom is the ability to make choices, liberty is doing what is right. He would often say that liberty is not man's idea. It's God's idea.

Freedom is not merely a possession. It's a responsibility. It has to be kept. Every generation has to reach out and take hold of it for themselves or it slips away. Charlie understood this in his very being. He didn't wait for somebody to hand him a podium. He set up a folding table, picked up a microphone, went campus to campus, and was willing to go toe to toe to with the biggest and the worst ideas of our age. He would boldly say what he believed to be true and then invited those who would disagree with him to the front of the line. It was the miracle of this country on display in its purest form.

We don't have to fear an argument here. We don't have to silence the other side and call it virtue. We put the microphone in the open air, let the argument be made, and trust that free people engaging honestly can find their way toward truth. Charlie spent his life betting on that trust. He bet on you. There's one story that I remember, and it's one story. one of my favorite memories. Charlie was scheduled to speak at the University of North Texas

Denton, where there had been serious security concerns. A death threat was made on Yikyak and several others on other social media platforms. Security and PD told Charlie, we're not comfortable with you going out there. Charlie said, there's thousands of students waiting for me out there. I'm going to go. I remember sitting there when they also told him, we strongly advise that you don't go, just wait a while, we'll make some phone calls. Charlie waited for a couple minutes, and then he stood up and said, I'm going, and walked straight toward that tent that we all know so well. Because Charlie believed that we must never operate in fear. Evil will always try to scare you, but doing good requires sacrifices. Sometimes that sacrifices your time. Sometimes it's your

comfort. Sometimes it means walking onto a campus when you're afraid of what might happen. And that day, something did happen that I'll never forget. Charlie debated a student who made it clear at the beginning that he had disagreed with him politically. After about 10 minutes of back and forth, Charlie's always brilliant and articulate responses, Charlie asked him, so did I change your mind? And in a very viral moment that I'm sure many of you have seen, the student leaned into the microphone and said, can I get one of those hats? I'll never forget that. And I'll never forget talking with Charlie about it afterwards. Because Charlie chose courage over fear, we know for a fact that one person walked away seeing the world just a little differently that day.

How many others in the audience did too? John 1513 tells us, greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for another. Charlie lived his life radically in the of young people, believing in a future that had greater hope for them. And he was murdered for doing it. There is something else about Charlie's final moments that I've thought about many times. Charlie was murdered when he was only on his second question. The event had just begun. The last and final question that Charlie was ever able to fully answer was about his faith. Charlie once said that although his day job was politics, politics was only the second most important thing. The first and the most important thing, in his words, was winning souls for Jesus Christ.

His second job made sure politics that we were able to preserve a country where we were free to do that first thing. But you know, Charlie cared deeply about conservative ideas, free markets, the future of this country. he cared about young people finding purpose getting married young, affording homes, having more children than they could afford. But above all of that, I need you to understand this. Charlie cared about your soul. In the last year, I've heard story after story of people walking into churches, returning to their faith, restoring marriages on the brink of collapse,

leaving addictions behind, turning to Jesus. What would be an abortion becomes a baby name. Charlie. Only God can take the most gruesome, unimaginable pain and somehow use it for his good and for his glory. The pain of today still remains, at times unbearable apart from Christ. I continue to carry such a burden along with the thousands of people who experienced the horror of that day in person, many of which are in this room. And for those of you who saw a it unfold from afar, please know that I am praying for you for God's comfort as we ask him that same comfort ourselves. An evil act took Charlie from his beloved family, from his wife,

from his precious children, from a movement of young people who looked to him and from the public square that he loved so much. But I want you to hear this today. An assassin's bullet cannot win an argument. It can only prove that the assassin never had one. Violence is the tool of those who have run out of ideas. Violence is the tool of those who have run out of ideas, and it is the great quiet, cut strength of this country that we strive to fight back with better ideas. Anyone who believed ending Charlie's life would end what he stood for misunderstands how ideas live. They live in the people who heard them. They live in you. Charlie put something holy, good, and beautiful into this world that evil cannot take back out of it. And for the students here today, you are the point of this

speech. So let me speak directly to you. Somewhere here tonight is a young person, wondering whether your voice can really make the difference, whether you should take the risk, whether you should stand up, whether you should set up a folding table, pick up a microphone, and invite the world to agree or disagree. I hope you do it. We must refuse to allow the horrific way that Charlie died to choke out everything that he fought for, accomplished, and so courageously lived for. He believed against the cynicism of this age that young people still had something to say, that they were worth listening to and investing in.

So let us honor him not merely in grief, but in resolve. Whatever quarrels divided us, let us settle them in a way that a free people should. With words, with votes, with courage, with prayer, and with a willingness to stand publicly for what we believe to be true. It won't take, thank you. It will not be an easy road, but it will be a fulfilling road. It will cost you. but in it you will find true purpose. Just like Charlie, just like Erica, people may hate you.

They will certainly misrepresent you. People will lie about you. Ignore the noise. Just pray for them. Matthew 511. Blessed are you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you? Do not operate in fear. look to Christ. Stand firm in something greater than yourselves. Pursue what is eternal. When I look into

the eyes of my newborn son, I'm reminded every day that there is life after death. There's beauty through suffering. The death is not the end. There is an eternity. Never underestimate what God can do through one life wholly surrendered to him. God bless Charlie. God bless his beloved family and his beloved wife, his precious children, God bless Turning Point USA, and God bless the brave students standing up across this nation on college campuses to contend for truth. Thank you all. In his 31 years, then most people could accomplish in many lifetimes. His most public accomplishments were political. His most important were religious. He wanted to be remembered for his faith. He wanted to help as many souls to heaven as he could. If you want to honor Charlie, go

to church. Read the Bible. Pray. And do it right now. It's a strong country. It's a great country. The bones are there. The muscle is still there. We can do it. We have to want to do it. We have to be committed to doing it. And I think in part we have to do it to honor our friend. It's very kind. Thank you very much. Thank you all of you for being here. Thank you very much. It's a great privilege to be here with all of you tonight. to remember our friend. The anniversary of Charlie's assassination snuck up on a lot of us, certainly snuck up on me. It's that strange sensation that often happens when a loved one dies. On the one hand, it feels like barely a day or two have passed. On the other hand, it feels like an eternity.

Has anyone else felt that? The reason it feels that way, the reason time seems to pass paradoxically. is that what we're perceiving is not so much the passage of time as the fact that something has changed. That's what happens when someone who matters to us dies. Because the change is shocking, in this case, unexpected, it sticks with us and it feels recent. But because the change is drastic, the way things were before feels like a distant memory. For many of us here, Charlie was a personal friend, and he had a lot of friends. He had a lot of friends in this room and all around the world. But for all of us here, here and for so many at home and around the country and around the world,

Charlie was a beloved political figure. He was the most important and effective political activist of our generation. And so, because he was political, he mattered to all of us. we all share that strange sense of time. It feels like he was killed ages ago. It feels like it was just yesterday. In terms of politics, Charlie's assassination changed the landscape. There is a temptation at memorials to look only on the bright side.

And there are silver linings to every storm cloud, which we will come to. But it would be a disservice. It would be dishonest, not to reckon with the consequences of Charlie's assassination, not to reckon with reality. And the reality is that American politics is simply worse because Charlie Kirk was assassinated. The American right is less coherent, less unified, less serious, and less strong. The American left is more radical, more emboldened, more openly violent. The tone of political discourse is coarser. The marketplace of ideas is more dangerous.

The future of our country is in greater peril. Public opinion polls in the days following Charlie's assassination showed that one in four very liberal respondents believe violence is justified to accomplish political goals. Among all liberals under the age of 45, the percentage was even higher. Both of those figures were and remain much higher, multiples higher, than the percentage of respondents on the right, who would say the same thing. Yet another poll showed that nearly half of Gen Z liberals believe that violence is, quote, necessary to create social change.

In the immediate aftermath of Charlie's assassination, the New York Times twice, approvingly, platformed a man who had personally fantasized about murderers. Charlie and who has since called for the murder of other Republicans simply for their political beliefs. It's disgraceful. It's disgraceful. The times went on to platform that person again, multiple times in the months that followed. Many of the most prominent Democrat politicians in the country have since asked that person to join them on the campaign trail. This very morning, on the anniversary of Charlie's murder, I did an interview with a left-wing news outlet during which the host took the opportunity to accuse Charlie himself of instigating political violence. Can you imagine that?

The claim, people are laughing. Of course you're laughing. The claim is absurd, of course. Charlie consistently condemned political violence. He called for civil dialogue and peaceful politics. But the host of this program tried to argue that Charlie had indirectly promoted violence because he cited statistics and criticized Democrat policies. I kid you not.

If you want to listen to it, it's on NPR. I wasn't going to say the name, but it's NPR. That preposterous, false equivalence is but a variation on a theme that we have heard for years, that conservative speech is somehow violence and that leftist violence is somehow speech. Charlie's political opponents sought to silence him because he articulated inconvenient truths, politically incorrect truths.

At a time when our culture demanded lies in the name of liberation, Charlie observed that lies don't really set us free. The truth is what sets us free. I bring up these facts and examples not to call further political strife, but to acknowledge the truth, to acknowledge reality, the reality of our political situation, and the reality of our place in it. Because one year later, the reality, if you're anything like me, is that you're angry. I'm angry, I'm real angry. I'm angry

at the injustice to Charlie, the injustice to his wonderful wife, Erica, and to their children, the injustice to his political movement and the injustice to our country. I'm angry that many of our countrymen celebrated and continued to celebrate his assassination. I'm angry that many of our elite institutions continue to embrace those who celebrate his assassination. I'm angry and so are many of you and you should be. People are very confused about anger. Anger is a vice when it is divorced from reason. from reason, when it is not warranted, when it leads to injustice. But anger in response to injustice,

anger aimed at the restoration of justice, in proper order and intensity guided by reason, is the furthest thing from a vice. It is a virtue. Christians have known this since the days of the church fathers, that a lack of anger in the face of injustice is itself a vice. That anger should impel us to rectify those wrongs, to prosecute those who commit and threaten political violence, and to ostracize those who promote it. Those are political goods that can come from our anger. But how are we supposed to deal with that lingering feeling?

That feeling that we feel especially on a day like this. It just feels so wrong that a man as good and innocent as Charlie could be murdered in his prime by a man as wicked as his killer to the cheers of people as vicious as his enemies. And there are many people, people who perhaps are not as strong in their faith as Charlie was, who are asking why God would allow this to happen. When I was a boy and a family member died, I met with a priest. I was an atheist at the time. I didn't really want to meet with the priest, but my grandmother asked me too, so I humored her.

As I was talking to the priest, he looked at me and he said, you're angry. I said, yeah, I am. And then he pointed to a crucifix on the wall, and he said, whatever anger you're feeling, don't blame him. Among the greatest consolations that Christians have in times of sorrow is our belief in providence, the idea that God has ordered his creation down to the minutest detail toward perfection. that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our father's will, that the hairs on our head are all numbered, and that we are more valuable than many sparrows.

God actively wills the good of all, but he has endowed us with free will, which we abuse, so bad things happen, which God in his permissive will allows, and from which he even redeems us through the crucifixion and resurrection of his only begotten son. That's what we believe. That's how we make sense of the problem of pain. It's a mystery, and it's a difficult mystery.

If you're having trouble accepting it, you're in good company. No less a man than Job had a little trouble with that lesson, too. Do you remember what God said to Job? He said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you and you shall declare to me where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? We take it as a matter of faith

that there is some purpose to the events of the world, that God takes even our evil actions and subverts them in the grand scheme of creation for perfection. St. Thomas Aquinas observes in the first lines of the Summa Theologia that just as an author uses words to signify things in writing, so God, who is the author of all creation, uses not only words but things themselves, events, people, to signify things too.

We can't avoid suffering in this world, but we take it as a matter of faith that our suffering is not pointless. We take it as a matter of faith that things ultimately make sense, that history is intelligible. We take solace in the belief that the world is understandable, even if we don't always understand it. One of those little winks of Providence stood out to me just this week in the lead-up to this anniversary. Charlie was best known as a political figure, but all of his friends will tell you, some of them have told you tonight,

that what mattered most to Charlie was religion. He had a capacious mind and will. He excelled at lots of different things. He didn't let any of them fall through the cracks. I don't text people back. You don't remember to respond to an email. Charlie was doing a billion things at once, and he did them all extraordinarily well. The first time I ever met Charlie in person was a very long time ago,

and it was about 4 o'clock in the morning in a TV news green room. I was half asleep in the chair. Charlie was bouncing off the walls, as was his want. He was talking about roughly a billion subjects in rapid succession. I was kind of mumbling and reshally, yeah, Charlie, all right, yeah. He could do all of those things. But what Charlie cared most about was faith. Above all his political accomplishments, his faith is what he said he wanted to be remembered for.

That's what he wanted his legacy to be. And one of the strange facts of his assassination is that it became clear immediately that that was his legacy. It was the one silver lining. I saw it. Many of you saw it too. I was at church the following Sunday. And I go to a pretty traditional church, suits and ties, veils for the ladies. The week after Charlie was killed, I saw a bunch of people in the pews wearing sweatpants and t-shirts.

I have never been happier to see sweatpants and t-shirts at church. They should buy suits and ties for next week. But for that week it was good. Because what it meant, of course, was that they had not been to church. For a long time, at least some of them maybe ever. They had not been to church and they were showing up. They were newcomers and they were there because Charlie had inspired them to do it. That legacy showed up in the statistics.

A month after Charlie's assassination, Bible sales jumped by 36%. Charlie's wish turned out to be prophetic. His most enduring legacy was his faith. And then it's a good legacy to have. But that little wink of Providence, that's what hit me this week. It probably occurred to many of you sooner. I'm probably just a little bit slow. But as I was trying to make sense of it all,

because the anniversary hit a lot of us harder than I think we expected that it would. When I was trying to make sense of it all and understand what the assassination means in history, in God's time, it occurred to me that Charlie's last name literally means church. Had that occurred to any of you? Did I, you know, he told me that at some point, I'm sure, and I just forgot it. It means church. That's what Kirk means. And Charlie, by the way, means free man.

And you look at that and you say, that was good, good job, you know, that. I should have caught that one. That, okay. Of course that was going to be his legacy. It didn't seem that way to a lot of us, not because he wasn't a very faithful guy, but because he was so big in politics. You see, that'll be his legacy. No.

No, there's an old Latin expression, Nomen est omen. For those of you, it's a simple one, but for those of you who didn't study Latin, it means the name is a sign. And these little coincidences, these little winks of providence, they are a consolation as we grieve, as we wonder at disturbing events. There are a reminder of God's sovereignty that God authors history and God knows his own. So even death loses its sting and the grave loses its vizabeth. victory. In addition to his legacy of faith, Charlie leaves a more tangible temporal legacy as well, most closely in the form of his heroic wife and his beloved children. In the form of his countless friends, in the form of his organization, TPSA, which carries on his work and mission,

and not least of all, in all of you whom Charlie inspired and for whose benefit he risked his life. Charlie was a great man. He's sorely missed, and we owe it to him to carry on his work in the particular ways that God ordains for us, as Charlie did, and as each and every one of you here tonight is already doing. God bless you all. God bless TPSA. God bless Erica, the kids, and the whole family, and God rest, Charlie Kirk. Thank you. Somewhere in this crowd, there is maybe he's seven, maybe he's 15. I saw that speech. Yeah.

Somewhere in this crowd is the next George Washington that will feel it right now. I am so overwhelmed with the people that I have met from your organization and the people who are coming. You're raising the next generation. You are, you and your organization really responsible for what I think will be the next great generation. Do you realize the impact you're having on the country? It's an honor to be here. And as we were praying earlier today, somebody was praying, and I'm listening to them,

and they're praying for safety, and they're praying for the spirit to attend. And all I could hear in my head was, let's go celebrate this man's life. I want to talk about you. I want to talk about the last year. year. Because in the last year, a year ago, we were all in the same place. How many of us said, I am Charlie Kirk? Some of us said it in a stadium filled with 50,000 people. Some of us said it

alone in a car with a radio on. With tears in our eyes, we had to pull the car over and say, I am Charlie Kirk. And that didn't mean that we were going to start a podcast or a movement. it didn't mean that we were going to change the face of America or politics or the world. What it meant was that you would dedicate your life to learning and living and loving and speaking the truth when and where it needs to be spoken. So many of us, so many of us made a promise a year ago. Some even made a promise that they would be the guy under the white tent someday. take Charlie's table.

Well, it's been a year. It's checkup time. What have you accomplished in a year? How have you changed in a year? What is the organization accomplished this last 12 months? But more importantly, I want you to ask yourself, how is my soul? How is my soul?

How is my mind? Am I better informed? Am I enriched? Am I better educated? Am I more loving? Am I more tolerant? How are the conversations around your table? The killer that martyred Charlie, bizarrely thought he was killing hate. In his sad, twisted mind, he believed that hate could somehow or another extinguish what he thought was hate. he saw himself as a hero in a broken world but in reality

it was he that was broken and the hero was the one he shot his path was violence and he thought the end would be death he didn't know that death is not the end not for Charlie not for anybody who loved God like Charlie loved God

because every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Jesus Christ was crucified in the cruelest of ways. The action. But his resurrection was the equal and opposite reaction. It was the triumph over death. So play this out with me for a second. Play this out. Charlie was murdered.

That was the action. Where's the equal and opposite reaction? You. You are the equal and opposite reaction. You are the life after his death. Make no mistake. Charlie knew. Charlie knew.

He knew something like this could happen. He did it because he loved God. He loved his country. He loved you enough to continue to do it because he believed the truth mattered enough to keep going and damn the consequences. I'm going to continue to go. And what happened after that tragic day a year ago, it wasn't politics. It had nothing to do with politics. I have been doing this for a very long time and I have never seen anything like what happened.

A year from tomorrow. What happened not just here, but all over the world. I saw kids standing in line to be baptized. I saw people go back to church. I saw people buy a suit because they didn't have a suit and they thought, I've got to go to church and I want to dress up. Roommates that had never said the word God before suddenly were saying it out loud. Bibles sold out.

Bibles sold out. This whole movement crossed the oceans in hours. That's not political. That's the Almighty God. I want you to remember what happened. Not the tragedy, the beauty, the hope, the arrival of God. I want you to remember that, sear that into your soul, because people will try to talk you out of it. At some point, they'll say, They'll say none of that happened. It was real.

I saw it. You saw it. And I gotta tell you, it was not set up by anybody in this room. There were no committees putting that together. No committee could have done it. Only God could have done it. And it was awesome. But let me talk to you again about the equal and opposite reaction.

Just as we were getting our sea legs, the other side, darkness stepped up. Equal and opposite. and opposite reaction. So now, after it swept the world, it was evil's turn to step to the plate. And he gave it his best shot. Honestly, I thought the shock of Charlie's murder would make us all step back and reconsider what we were doing to one another. But the opposite happened. There's more bloodlust for ideological enemies than there was a year ago. There's more open, accept. of death as a reasonable end for a political enemy or somebody you disagree with or a CEO of a health care company or innocent children at the hands of their own mother. It's a death cult.

And I do not speak about this often, but suddenly people that many of us thought were friends. People we shared the stage with, people we defended, people we sat next to it, dinner arrived at a completely different conclusion and it was someplace dark. Suddenly good was being labeled evil and then evil was being labeled good and we have it happened so fast within two weeks. Within two weeks everything changed. You barely had time to think. People were asking me what is happening?

I don't know. I don't know what was happening. Suddenly the people that were closest to Charlie, even his young widow, were under suspicion. And then strangely, the most bizarre thing, and I just want you to follow this logically with me, help me out. Somehow or another, this all turned in to a fight about the Jews. Ow, my head hurts. I want you to think about how odd this is, because I spent some time noodling this one.

Think how odd this is. A young Christian is killed on an American campus for speaking with college students, for daring them to think, and within months the loudest voices that are claiming to be on his side are talking about nothing else except how bad Jews are. Wait, what? This took me a while to figure it out, because there's got to be an answer to that. lunacy, how do you connect that puzzle together? Let me help you because it's actually logical.

It is not a coincidence. It is not a detour. It's actually the oldest trick on earth because the enemy that we all face each and every one of us, the enemy of your soul, has never been after a party or a politician. or a position in government or a country. It's never been about any of that.

We are not at war with flesh and bone. The common enemy, our common enemy, the enemy of all mankind, is gunning, not for you. He is gunning for a very specific God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the first God, the only God. Now why? Why would this be a war on God? On that specific God? What makes that God so intolerable? What has made him so intolerable for 4,000 years? It's simple. And everything we debate today, everything that is bothering us that we fight over, it all boils down to this one thing. Our God is a God that deals with each of us one at a time.

He does not deal with the collective. And everything that everyone is debating right now is the collective. You have a different opinion? No, you don't have that opinion. You're over here with us, the collective. No, you want to be that? You can't be that. You have to be this over here.

You disagree with my politics? You can't do that. You must join us here or you're an enemy. That's the collective. Marxism. It's the collective. Our God is the God of the individual. He speaks to one old childless man. When our God showed up, he spoke to an old childless man in the desert. And he gave him a name and one that will be known for generations, Abraham. He lets another man wrestle with him all night long, then blesses him and gives him a name, Jacob. He takes murderers and liars and criminals and cowards and tax collectors and calls them each by name into his glory, into his love. And then, when he finally settled the whole account because some of us really screw up our lives, He didn't send his son to die for the collective.

He didn't send his son to die for a movement. He sent his son to die for you and me, individually one at a time. Jesus Christ came for you by name. Every collectivist system ever built has got to get rid of that God. they've got to get rid of that God because he's not a rival power they have to get rid of that God because as long as you have any part of you

that believes that your God is the God of the individual that he knows your name that's a piece of you that the state the power can never ever take that's why that's why Christ was killed. That's why martyrs are killed. That's why Charlie Kirk was killed. Charlie's message was of the one God. And it was not hate. If you ever heard him for five minutes, you know that. It wasn't hate.

It was love. And it was the pure love of Christ, which, by the way, is not soft. It's not sentimental. And believe me, the love of Christ will absolutely tell you when you're wrong. Stick with me on this for one more minute. What was Charlie most known for? When you look at Charlie and you see him like the rest of the world that just doesn't even know him, they just see him. He's known for a folding table on campus talking to one person at a time, listening to somebody who came there to humiliate him, treating that kid like a man that he knows was made in the image of God. Wow, that sounds like what Christ did.

Speaking, listening, reaching out to the one, and then the next, and then the next, knowing that he could do whatever he could do, he could love you, he could embrace you, he could speak kind words to you while speaking truth, knowing that a lot of these people are going to be. go away and hate him. He was doing the retail work of individual human beings one-on-one, and there is nothing more dangerous to any system that needs you to be a category. My son goes to this university. I was talking to him last week and I said, what do people need to hear? What do people in the hallway say about Charlie now?

A year later, what are students saying? He had a lot to say, but my son told me one story about a 19-year-old girl who walked past their table last week and looked at them and said, oh, ow, my throat hurts and then made gurgling sounds. That's a 19-year-old girl. That's somebody's daughter. That is somebody somewhere along the line. Someone taught her that cruelty is a personality. And it's a fine one.

If you're vicious enough to the right people, it becomes a virtue. And your many, many friends will laugh. I wondered what Charlie would say. And Charlie would say she's not a monster, Glenn. She's a casualty. Somebody fed her that hate and it will cost her far more than it will ever cost us. When something like that happens to you, and it will, if it hasn't happened yet, it will. What you need is not a comeback.

Do not try to win that argument. A comeback is what they want. a comeback to get you riled up and it makes the fight on her level and then the whole room and the whole world gets to watch if that happens to you do this

start with this his name was Charlie Kirk he was 31 he had a he had a wife and two babies and you know what if he were here he wouldn't fire back at you

he would have talked to you for about an hour and my guess is in that hour he would have ended up really liking you and there's a pretty good shot in that hour you would have ended up really liking him then go to lunch here's why

you will lose that exchange in the room nobody's going to cheer for you with that answer but you just might win in her head in the dark in the quiet of the night at 2 a.m. When she sees your kindness and that response, that's when people change their lives. Not in a room with everybody arguing. Win them with kindness and grace. I'm going to give you a warning as I'm here talking about this 19-year-old girl.

I am very concerned about. a few things and I want to start with women and I don't I this is not an accusation this is a warning okay when a culture loses its women that culture dies every time when when women become monsters when women become men that culture is in trouble I want to I want to explain something to all young women that you may not understand and I speak from experience because I'm a guy and I know the effect of women and the effect women have had on my life. Women are not responsible for men. You're welcome.

Here's what you are responsible for. You set a standard. You set a standard for guys and every guy in this room knows that. Every guy knows that. You set us, I got to tell you, I will lift the heaviest box. I will work my brains out. I will sober up. I'll provide.

I will stand up in the hallway when the standard is being measured against us and it is high. But if you don't hold that standard, guys are going to sink to the lowest level you could possibly imagine. And maybe this is something that guys don't want to say or maybe you don't want to hear, but we want to look up to the women in our lives. We want to. We need you to call us up. That's not a burden. That's more of a confession about guys. We need you. So to the women in the room, I've got to tell you, I think you've been handed the most insulting definition of strength in American history. Strength as an attitude, a comeback. I don't need anybody. Never being surprised by anything. Never letting a man see that you wanted more than he offered.

That's the lie that has put so many women in our culture right now in a corner with armor and swords and they're like, oh, the world's against me, the world hates me. No, no, no, no. No, consider perhaps the world doesn't hate you. Perhaps the world loves you. Perhaps you might be tired with all that armor in fighting. Perhaps you need to put that armor down, and the only true armor you need is the full armor of God. The strongest women I have ever known are not the loudest.

They're just the ones with a high standard that nobody could talk them out of. They were unbelievable. I say we're, I'm thinking my wife right now. She's unbelievably hard to impress, but she is unbelievably easy to love. So, women, please, do culture a society, refuse to be impressed by the lesser version of the guy you know he can be. By the way, now, let me flip the table on you, brothers. Look what our society has done to our men. We have young men that cannot launch 26 years old in the basement, 300 hours into a game.

Terrified of a job interview, but more terrified of asking a girl out for a date. That's not right. We need children. Get together. Get married. Have sex. Have lots of it. Really, guys, it's not this hard.

By the way, by the way, by the way, by the way, when you ask a girl out to dinner, ask her to her face. Wait, wait, wait. Was that the girls doing that? Girl, you didn't cheer all you want. I thought that was the guys for a second. like, I'm not done with you. When you ask a girl out for a date and you show up at her house, put some freaking pants on and a nice shirt. Don't show, girls, I'm telling you right now, if a guy shows up at your door in cargo shorts,

just say this, I'm sorry, is that the same t-shirt you were wearing earlier while you were playing your video games in your basement and then close the door? I guarantee he'll go put some pants on and he won't show up like that anymore. Don't you get dressed up for him if he's not going to dress up for you. You are owed more than that. You deserve more than that. And guys, so do you. So do you. You are amazing people.

Start enjoying that. Start expressing that. Start looking at each other that way and going, And this is unbelievable how great this is. Don't let the society drag you down. Don't. We now have men who will say anything online, but nothing at the Thanksgiving table. We have men who have never in their lives done a hard thing on purpose.

Men who have somehow gotten the idea that fighting for right means posting. It's not. when Christ's own version was walking into the temple, walking towards the cross, and telling Peter to put the sword away. Look at the pattern. Go to church. Pick up your cross and carry it.

And no violence. It's that easy. You were made on purpose. You were made for a purpose. And that's not a construct. I'm sorry. I'm saying that at a universe. That's not a stupid construct. That's the truth. You were made exactly the way you were supposed to be made. You have everything. No one can stop you. No one can stop you if you know who you are. You know who directs your steps. You ask for forgiveness. You're kind, you're gracious. Who's going to stop you? No one can stop you. No that's your power.

And it takes both male and female to build, both to fight, both to love, both to nurture, both to protect, both to raise up the next generation, who will be better than I was, better than you are. That's our goal. Your goal, if you don't like the world, have children and raise better children. They will change the world. I'm just going to do it anyway. I met your, and I, I, I met your, and I, I, I say this sincerely. I met your president of your university today. And I have to tell you, I said to him, boy, I don't envy you in your job. Because no matter which way you decided, you're hated by one side or the other.

He was so gracious and kind. But let me speak about universities in general. You come to these places and you are told that you can sign for a hundred $120,000 at 18. An amount of money, no bank is going to give you for a car or for a house or the greatest business idea. They're not going to do it. But you can loan it to what? Do gender studies?

Okay. Let's just do the arithmetic on this one. Because nobody in this building will do the arithmetic with you. How much does that pay? Just show me the starting salary. Show me the interest in 20 years. in 20 years. You're not buying a degree. That's a mortgage on a house that you haven't seen and will never ever live in and one that you may not have needed in the first place.

Do the math. Forced, don't take the money because you can get it. Man, you want to go find yourself? Go find yourself at a Taco Bell. Do that for $35. dollars. Don't spend a hundred and twenty thousand to find yourself here because I got news for you. I went to Yale and I took Christology. You want to find God? You're not going to find him in Yale. You want to find yourself? You're not going to find him here. You're not going to find yourself here. While you're here, you're also probably told that family is something you can get to later. After the career, after the apartment, after you found yourself. As if family, you're also, wasn't central to finding yourself and and honestly honestly this is the

craziest thing and I can say this because I've lived it that what they're telling you is the ability to have the energy and carry a toddler on your hip that that's gonna last forever you're always gonna have the energy to do that no you won't no you won't believe me get to it while you're young You're also most likely told that God should be a nice private hobby, uninvolved, standing off to one side. No opinion on how you spend your Tuesdays. That's Sunday stuff. And you're also told it's all their fault. I don't even know who they are, but it's their fault for whatever that might be.

And they have all the power. And you can't fight against them. You can't change anything. You can't better your own life without some other group of people. And none of it is your fault, and none of it is your responsibility. You're smarter than that. You know this already. All of that is a lie.

And who tells you this, they're not villains twisting their mustache. That's not who's telling you that. These lies are told you by decent, tired people who at one point in their life were told the same thing, believed it, and never checked. checked and they're now saying it to you. There is a line that I'm sure you've heard. Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. We're in hard times. I don't know if you noticed it. We're in incredibly hard times. Let's go back to the math. Who created that? Oh! Not

strong men weak men weak men and now we have a society full of weak men preaching to you that it was the strong men that created the bad times no it doesn't work that way it really doesn't work that way it's weak men and weak men are telling you that and they want you to be weak men too I'm telling you it was the weak men who broke it and it It is the strong man, it is the strong woman that will build a much brighter tomorrow. It's you. You are living the hard times.

Hard times makes that's you. You're the strong man, you're the strong woman. What will you create? Good times. Hard times made us. And I relish that. Look, I'm a, this is something somebody here in Utah very often. I'm an alcoholic Mormon.

You do that crazy math. You'll be up all night. If it wasn't for all those hard times that I created for myself and all the whining, oh, nobody loves me, I'm so, nobody will give me a break. Oh, God, shut up the younger me. Oh, pathetic. But if it wasn't for the hard times that you're going to,

that I created myself because I was a weak man. And then I met a great, strong woman. I wouldn't be here today. It was the hard times that made me. Enjoy the hard times. Embrace the hard times. Use the hard times to forge you into steel that will never bend and never break.

You know, we're really, we serve God the best when we just live as proof to the things that we believe. That is the best way to convert somebody to your cause, to your faith, or whatever. Just live what you claim to believe. And when you do that, and it's true, there is so much joy in that. And that's how people change. They see your joy. You never have to pass out a brochure.

You'll never stand at a table again. If you live the joy that the truth gives you when you live it, people are going to say, what the hell is wrong with them? And then they'll watch you some more, and they'll be like, I don't know, they're all kind of happy. I'm not really happy. What the hell is wrong with them? and you will approach them and you will find out.

And when you were as weak and as low and as broken as I was, you will say, I don't care if it takes me drinking chicken blood. I want to live like that. I want to be happy. I want to love people. I want to be full of joy. The strongest argument you will ever make about what works is just by living it. Nobody can argue with joy.

So, I want to leave you with a mission, if I may. I want you to tell the truth. In every way, that boy shows up with cargo shorts on a date and you're all dressed up, tell him the truth. I want you to stand and tell the truth out loud with your name on it, but I want you to tell it lovingly. Oh, you're wearing cargo shorts. them without compromise, without flinching, and say it to their face. Don't post it. That's what Charlie

called us to do. This is what God is calling us to do. This is what God has been calling man to do since Abraham. Do the hard thing on purpose and with purpose before life makes you do it. Get knowledge. Get skills. Get the job. Get out of debt. Get in shape. Get marriage. Get in shape. Get have children build take every individually in every individual seriously push back the darkness and stay close to God the God of that one man in the desert the personal one the one you can wrestle with the one who knows your name the one who gives you your name and that's it It's no more complex than that.

That's all you have to do. God, I wish I would have heard me say this when I was 18 because I love you. But, sir, I'm happily married. Look, we can joke. And I said, that's it. It's no more complicated than that. This sucks. That's a hard list to do.

That's a hard list to do. And it will take everything that you have. It'll take all you got. But I'm promising you, it will give you more than you ever can dream. I'm inviting you to join us. To join the happy people. To join the people who are just searching for truth, and we get it wrong from time to time.

But when we do, we go, ha ha, that one's on me. Sorry about that. Find the work. Find the joy in the work. the power of joy. God right now is he's just standing in a field and he's looking at the benches where you're sitting and he's not asking if you're qualified. He's never asked anybody if they were qualified before. He's talked to a shepherd, a stutterer, a teenager, a prostitute, and a fisherman, quite frankly, that could not keep his mouth shut. He's not looking for qualified.

He's looking for you by name And he's just looking back Going Come on, this is going to be great Are you coming? Come on. That's what God's saying to you. You've heard this all night

On the ice coffee hour. Graham asked him Charlie, how do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered for the courage of my faith Charlie, mission accomplished. That is how we remember you.

That's how Charlie wanted to be remembered. I want you to ask yourself tonight and every day, how do you want to be remembered and live it, live it, and live it in joy. God bless.