The Charlie Kirk Show - From the Archive: Charlie at SAS 2021 — "Courage is Doing the Thing That is Bigger Than Yourself"

Episode Date: June 14, 2026

Enjoy this throwback episode of Charlie's 2021 Student Action Summit speech, where he welcomes a group of like minded young people to a weekend full of encouragement, activism, and education. He inspires the next generation to live fearlessly in the face of threats from their peers, unfair treatment from professors, and a pervasive atmosphere of woke and anti-Christian lies.   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 nobelgoldinvestments.com. That is noblegoldinvestments.com. Hey everybody. Welcome to Tampa. It is awesome to be here in person and not locked down in the state that defied the lockdowns from the very beginning here in Florida. And I got to tell you, we're going to be talking about a lot of different things for the next couple days. But look around you. If you've been looking for hope. You'll see it here in Tampa, Florida, where thousands and thousands and thousands

of young people are gathering for our country and for freedom. So I had an amazing couple months. Many of you probably heard on May 8th, I got married to the most amazing person. In fact, Erica, come on out here. You want to see Erica? Give it up for Erica, everybody. So it's been a very busy couple months, you could say, you know, being back here in Tampa is incredible. In fact, I know downtown Tampa very well because this is the city where really Turning Point USA was born. Back in 2012, I was 18 years old, and I came here for the Republican National Convention. And I always dreamed of being able to host events even close to being in that size, but we had no money in our bank account, no donors, no connections, nothing at all.

So I went to the local Marriott right here across the street, and I found some guy that had too many drinks, and he gave me his badge to go into the Republican National Convention. And you might, I thought you could buy tickets to the R&C, kind of like scalpers. I was wrong. You have to have very specific credential. So I got into the Republican National Convention as an 18-year-old, never going to college, just graduating high school, and walked through with my mentor, Bill Montgomery. and I saw this guy in a cowboy hat by the name of Foster Freeze and told him this idea that we can energize and motivate and inspire the next generation of conservatives and freedom fighters across the country. And right there, he wrote us our first check for Turning Point USA

and you look around and you see what's happened all the way back here in Tampa, Florida. There's a couple things I want to talk to you guys about. I want to set the theme for this conference. We as conservatives have got to stop playing defense. I feel like we are always defending. We're always apologizing. The theme of this conference is to play offense.

We are going to get into an offensive mindset here at this conference that it is time that we stop ceding ground to the left, that we're always arguing on their terms. It is time that with a sense of urgency, we start to say, here's what we believe and why we believe it. Here's a great example of this. In the last couple of weeks, we have started to see people start to falter on this idea of reopening America. Now, I want to be very clear, as we're here with thousands and thousands of people here in this room,

lockdowns might be coming again to America. We can never allow America to be locked down again. We will never tolerate lockdowns again in our country. you see in Los Angeles, they're already reinstituting the mask mandate. And in fact, not a fan? In fact, at Turning Point USA, we're very proud to be the first and only organization to launch an effort to defend each and every one of you, to make sure you are not mandated to get a vaccine against your will on college campus. No person should ever be forced to get the vaccine. against their will. And I'm telling you, for all the parents out there, it's time to start fighting for your kids.

Because we are getting story after story after story of young people that say, Charlie, I don't want to have to take this vaccine. I'm seeing what it's doing to my family members and my friends. And yet these colleges are punishing students, putting them through a medical apartheid system, saying that if you do not get the vaccine, you're going to have to wear a mask at all times. You're going to have to live in separate dormitories. You're going to have to be separated from other people. And it's time that we realize this is not even about the vaccine. This is a freedom issue. If they can force you to get the vaccine against your will, they can force you on so many other things. All of a sudden, we have basically given up control. So I want to tell you three things that have really bothered me, and we're going to connect it with this thing about playing offense.

Number one is this idea of experts and then public health and extremism. I can't stand these terms. For example, if you want to just see a cable news segment, they say, well, we need to lock down the country because the experts on public health are very worried about extremism. Or maybe on MSNBC they say, you're very worried about extremism? Well, the experts are telling us that racism is a public health emergency. Those three terms combined together have done more to erode and deteriorate our freedoms and our liberties over the last year. And that's because we're constantly in this defensive mindset. And so we have to start saying, here's what we believe and why we believe it and what we're going to do about it.

And that's what we try to do every single day at Turning Point USA. I want everyone to raise their hands that's in college right now. How many of you have been graded down differently because of your conservative views? How many of you lost close friends? Almost every single person here. Now, if this was a liberal convention, they'd be say, what are you talking about? Our job would be easier, everybody. if we just talked about BLM incorporated systemic racism,

if we wore two masks when we walked down the street and just demanded free stuff from people at all times. Instead, our job is much harder. And what are the messages I want to convey for you tonight is something we don't talk a lot about, and that is cost. Here's the one thing that all of you are going to realize as you get involved in this fight.

By the way, everything we're talking about the next couple of days is not political. We're talking about cultural issues, and educational issues. Quite honestly, I don't really care that much about politics right now. I care whether or not our generation is going to love America. I care whether or not we are going to be having a generation that wants to protect and preserve the greatest country in the history of the world. Something that's on everyone's mind right now is the housing market. Whether you're looking to buy your first home, purchase your dream home, wondering if your current mortgage is still the

best fit for you, or you're considering using your equity to pay off other high interest debt with double-digit rates, the wait-and-see approach may actually be costing you money. That's where Andrew and Todd with Union Home Mortgage come in. These guys aren't just lenders, they're strategists. The market shifts every single day, and there are more opportunities than ever to make your mortgage work for you instead of against you. Right now, Andrew and Todd are offering a completely free mortgage review. No pressure, no obligation.

You can do it and review it and say, hey, not right now. Or they can help you. Just a professional review of your current situation to see. whether you may be able to lower your payment, improve cash flow, consolidate debt, or better leverage your home equity. Don't leave your biggest investment to chance. Go to Andrewandot.com.

That's Andrewandot.com. Or call AAA-Tri-8-1172. That's AAA-Tri-8-1-72. Get your plan in motion. Go to Andrew and Todd.com today. Which is, it's this idea of whether or not our side is going to realize, we are not going to take back this country without a significant cost.

This is something we don't like talking about. I bet if I went through the audience here, I could see people that lost their job because you're a conservative, that lost close friendships because you're a conservative, that got kicked out of fraternity or sorority because of your political beliefs. What does that mean? And by the way, it's the younger conservatives that are sacrificing a lot more than the adult conservatives, by the way.

This is why younger conservatives tend to be a lot more, let's say, intense about their beliefs. How many of you have parents that try to tell you to calm down about your beliefs? It's because they don't realize the threat. It's because they are living in a yesteryear America where the left used to try to find common ground. We are in a completely different set of circumstances where you right now realize that they don't want to have a debate. they don't want to try to hear the other side. They want to crush you. They want to kick you out of the classroom if you have a different opinion.

They want to docks your personal information. They want to train your classmates to hate you because of your skin color. And so it's time for this next young conservative generation. And this is what you're doing in such an amazing way to realize that this country is not going to be won over without a cost. So this is my super optimistic uplifting speech, that when you get motivated outside of this event, you might actually have to lose something, but you know what you're going to gain? You're all going to gain something far more than a job or a promotion. Here's the only thing I can promise you. You do not have to be somebody different in public than you are in private. You no longer have to leave your house and be somebody when you, you no longer have to put on a camouflage uniform and pretend you're not as conservative as you really are. My call for you is success out of this conference, is if every single one of you can now say publicly what you say privately. What a great country that would be to live in, wouldn't it? Where all of a sudden you could say what you say here at your job.

Now that's going to come with the cost. But here's what I'm also going to tell you. You are going to make friendships for a lifetime here at the Student Action Summit. You lose some friends. So what? You'll find better and real friends, not these fake liberal friends that don't want anything to do with you. It's going to come at a cost. And here's the other thing. I'm going to talk specifically to everyone kind of under the age of 35. I'm 27. Gen Zian millennials. And for the adults in the room, you're not allowed to hear this.

They didn't fight hard enough. They let this happen. Now, adults don't like hearing this. They're like, oh, no, no, we did everything we possibly could. If that's the case, why is it that the school boards have run amok the way they are? Why is it that the corporations have been run over? Why is it that all of our apparatus has been overrun by the left? So guess what?

Now it's time at a young age. I'm talking to the 16, 17, 17, and 8-year-olds in the room right now. We've got to start to take responsibility for the country early because we are being handed something that's subpar. A lot of adults have done a wonderful job. A lot of parents have done a wonderful job. But look at the country at large, though. If you would have asked somebody 15 years ago,

school boards, do you think they matter for the future of America or not? They're like, wait, the thing that kind of like they appropriate, like how many erasers they give out at class or whatever? Now school boards are the front lines for the take-back campaign of America against the radical anti-American left. And so here's my call to action for every young person out there. And this is what this event is all about. There's a lot of conservative events. You know what makes this event different? Students sit in the front at our events. Not at the back. You know what makes our event different? Is that the students are given the

preference. Because if we're honest about this, kind of the old 1980s, 1990s way of conservatism, And that's not going to save America. It's going to take the 18, 19, and 20-year-olds that know what the left is up to, that are savvy enough on digital social media, that understand the cultural war, with the energy and the creativity and the ambition and the willingness to fight against the people that so terribly wish to destroy us. So people say, well, Charlie, what does that look like? What does it look like to actually be able to fight back against these people that are doing these things and play offense?

Here's the one thing that we have to get better at. We have to stop giving them the benefit of good intentions. I can't stand when I hear when people say, Charlie, you know that we want the liberals. We want the same thing. We just have different ways of getting there. How many times have you heard that? Let me be very clear. When you want a man to be able to compete in women's sports, we don't want the same thing

and we don't have different ways of getting there. When you're okay with one million abortions every single year, we don't want the same thing and we don't have a different way of getting there. When you're okay with locking down the church and keeping abortion factories open, we don't want the same thing and we don't have different ways of getting there. When you want to put masks on children,

which is child abuse, we do not want the same thing and we don't have different ways of getting there. Instead, it's now on us to paint an optimistic and promising vision of the America we want to live in. And we don't have to overthink this. We don't have to get too policy-wankish about this. Instead, we should say, I want a country that's enjoyable to live in,

where I don't have to lock my doors at night to worry about some criminal predator walking in and harming my family. I want my children to love America again. I want to not have to doubt of whether or not a teacher that I hand my child off to is going to be teaching them anti-American propaganda. I want stuff made in America again, not in Wuhan. We want a self-sufficient America. We want to value people of all walks of life, including people that did not go to college, because we need more plumbers and electricians and police officers and people that work with their hands in this country.

You see, we as conservatives have an amazing opportunity right now, an opportunity to forecast the future and to restore it back to things that work and that are eternal. but that also means we must be willing to call right from wrong. We must be willing to sometimes pick the tougher fights. I don't know about you, but I'm always, I'm irritated at this constant retreat on how we're always taking the left's language at its own term. Let me give you a great example. I talked to a reporter recently, and she said,

Charlie, what are we going to do to solve the plague of systemic racism in our country? Now, mind you, the term that she was using as if I'm a. admitting it's a problem. So I said to her, I said, well, I don't believe in trying to solve a problem that does not exist. America is the least racist country and the history of the world of people of any background, any race, any color of any origin. In fact, only in America could someone that has so little talent with such a low IQ as LeBron James makes so much money. Now, he has basketball talent, obviously, but speaking is not his strong suit. But, you know, let me say this about LeBron, I'm so happy he's not representing Team USA and Tokyo for his sake and my sake,

because I wouldn't want him to represent a country he hates. I wouldn't wish that upon anybody. He did sell out to China. You're right. Charlie used to talk a lot about Angel Studios and what they were building. And as you know, I've been a longtime fan of it for the same reason. So I wanted to share some of my favorite films and shows on Angel, and I put them all into one easy-to-use watch list. This is content that's actually worth your time, not just noise or recycled talking.

points, but stories that go a level deeper and ask better questions. That's what stands out about Angel to me. They're willing to put out films and documentaries that don't just follow the usual script, especially when it comes to politics, culture, and the bigger conversations you and I should be having. So on my watch list, you'll find picks that lean into those topics, but there are also solid options for family or just something meaningful to watch at the end of a stressful day. If you want to check it out, go to angel.com slash Charlie and take a look at the watch list I put together. And so the question is, are we now going to be as a generation, organized and understanding of this opportunity in front of us? So here's a couple things that we have working for us. Have you realized how miserable the other side is?

Have you ever seen winners that are so angry? They won. And they're the most angry people I've ever experienced I've ever seen in my eyes. entire life. And there's something to that. It's because we as conservatives, we don't always like these fights, because this is not the most important thing to us. This is an important lesson for all of you, that this involvement in the cultural landscape has now been moved up in the priority, but never forget the ultimate priorities, which is honoring your creator, honoring God, building a family, building things that matter. Now, the reason we're all here, and that we're going to be here for a couple days is we believe that that way of life is now under attack, is that in some ways we're all, we're very similar to a Roman general by the name

of Cincinnati. That's where we get the term Cincinnati. Anyone from Cincinnati here? So Cincinnati was a farmer, went and fought in Roman wars, and then went back to the farm afterwards, not wanting anything in return. That's kind of what we have to do right now. We have to drop our life of convenience and of luxury and accessibility. Sometimes that means we're going to have to pay a price and a cost for that. But I could tell you this. They're doing everything they possibly can in every way that imaginable to try and suppress your involvement.

You see recently the Biden administration has come out and they have said that anyone that is spreading misinformation should be taken off a social media. And I say, aha, so they'll be removing Dr. Anthony Fauci from social media sometime very soon. Who, by the way, I said this to a reporter once and they just look so perplexed. Dr. Fauci should be in prison for what he did against our country

and he should be locked up for a very, very long time. There's a lot of different things that are happening that we're going to be talking about the next couple days. We're going to be talking about what you can do to push back against mandatory vaccinations, what you can do to take back your school board. But one of the other things we're going to be talking about, is this all-out assault on American history. The 1619 project are otherwise known as

critical race theory. How many of you have critical race theory happening in your schools? Raise your hand. About half the hands go up, college and high school. Now this is an opportunity for all of us because they have overplayed their hands. They have decided to embrace something that is bigoted and racist. They have decided to implement at a wide scale something that threatens the very fabric of who we are as American. So I'm very optimistic, actually, about the future of America if we can fight back against this form of racist and bigoted curriculum. So this is where all of you come in. Their most effective tool against you is calling you the R word. The thing that people fear being called the most is the fear of being called a racist.

Now, if you are a racist, then you've got work to do and you've got to go apologize to some people. But let me be clear in the media, will love it when I say this. Just because you are a white person does not mean you are a racist in America, where they are now categorizing 60 plus percent of the entire country as being racist, but they don't even realize it. You understand what they're trying to do. What they're trying to do is something that is distinctly immoral. You can either organize society as having a preference on things you can change or having a preference on things you cannot change.

You see, the problem with critical race theory is that it puts the most important thing on things you cannot change, unless you're Michael Jackson, it didn't change it very well. You can't change your skin color. It is immoral to organize people based on things they cannot change. In fact, we should say, you know what? I don't care about your skin color. I think your skin color is completely and totally irrelevant. In fact, if you keep on talking about skin color, you are a racist.

Instead, we should talk about things that matter, things that last, such as people's spirit, their soul, their character, their actions, whether or not they're producing goodness into the world. This is the fight in front of all of us. And so the next couple days, here is my challenge for you, not just to meet new people, not just to hear from the most amazing speakers in the movement. Let me just take a little side note. Tomorrow evening, I will put up tomorrow's afternoon agenda. up against any conservative agenda in the country.

We have, Congressman Madison Cawthorne, we have Greg Gutfeld, Donald Trump Jr., Senator Ted Cruz, Kaylee McEnany, and to close it all out, Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. So it's not just about hearing from these amazing speakers, but it's also every single one of you have to realize the greatest trick

that the left has ever pulled on you, is to make you feel like your individual action does not matter. It doesn't matter if I speak out in class against my professor. It doesn't matter if I start a turning point group. It doesn't matter if I run for student body president. You've got to cut out the cynicism. I can't stand cynicism. I'm sure all of you have people that are cynical around you.

There are three types of people right now in America. There are you guys who are the courageous ones that are stepping up and actually doing something about it. There are the cynical people who are always like, It doesn't matter. None of our actual action makes any difference. Then there's the third type of people. The third type of people are the people that are too weak to do what they know is the right thing to do. The people that are always afraid, they're afraid of their own shadow.

Charlie, I might lose my job. You know what, you might. That's right. Is the country worth it? Courage is doing the right thing when you don't know how it's going to end up. Courage is doing the thing that is moral and that is bigger than yourself. And by the way, I'm not asking anyone to storm Normandy Beach. I'm not asking anyone to do something that generations before us have willingly done

so that we can be here in this convention center. All I'm telling you is to be the same person in private as you are in public. Be the same person in public as you are in private. All I'm asking is for you is to say, you know what? I'm going to put the cost aside. And I am going to stand up against the micro-tirons and the people that, try to do everything they can to infringe on our way of life. If you could go back in time and buy oil before the world relied on it, would you?

Of course you would. Anybody would. So why aren't you buying silver right now? The people who recognized oil early didn't just make money. They got ahead of one of the biggest economic shifts in history. And today, a similar opportunity is unfolding with silver. Silver is more than a precious metal. It's a critical resource used in solar panels, electric vehicles,

defense systems, AI infrastructure, and the massive data centers powering that digital world. While demand keeps growing, it's still affordable enough that the average American can start accumulating it right now. That's why investors are turning to silver to protect against inflation and to own one of the world's most important strategic resources. Don't be the person who looks back in 10 years and says, I saw it coming. I just didn't act. Visit nobelgoldinvestments.com slash kirk and learn how easy it is to own physical silver that's noble gold investments dot com slash kirk own the metal the future depends on let me tell you about micro tyrant super quick a micro tyrant is a term that we came up on our podcasts and thank you guys for listening to

our podcast and subscribing we deeply appreciate that a micro tyrant is the type of person at Starbucks, who has way too much power that no one voted for, that never ran for office, that will start screaming at you because you have your mask one millimeter below your nose. I'll tell you a story about a micro-tirant where I went into a Starbucks in California, and there was like this ridiculous, arbitrary line, and I reached her to get a straw, and she just comes up and she said, sir, you are contributing to the spread of the killer coronavirus. literally because I went three inches and I said there I said no one voted for you okay like no you have way too much power right and there is there's a there's a deep truth of this by the way

the more laws the more rules the more sociopathic people you need to enforce those rules and laws and we usually call those people TSA agents but now you know we have all sorts of different there's some good people that work for the TSA I have a TSA story I could go through as well where there's this woman without a mask looking at her phone I want I try to by the way, you guys should all play this game alongside of me. It's a lot of fun. It's how far can you get to the airport without them telling you to put on a mask? All of you guys, it's really fun.

It's really fun. Has anyone actually boarded a plane before? I've heard stories of this. That's awesome. And so try to go as far as you can before they make you try to put on a mask. So we were playing this game with our team, and one of them broke through. And this woman without a mascot playing like Tetris or whatever they do, right? Pass by.

and she then puts her mask back on. She's like, put your mask on or else. I'm going to have you arrested. I'm like, okay, first of all, you have way too much power. Like this whole thing, like, that might be a real badge, but you're not deputized in the name of the law. Like, you don't have handcuffs. Like, you know, maybe you have to like pat me down or something.

Like, you got to just screaming. And that kind of goes to this point, though, is that when we do not fight on the little things, all of a sudden you have this voluminous style of laws and rules and regulations of then whoever's in charge gets to deem who they're going to enforce against it. You see, I'm not a big rule person. I like tightly written rules that everyone can understand, maybe 10 or 12, and that's it. Instead, we have this incredibly complex structure where then whoever is in charge gets to decide

who they get to go and punish and who they get to go after. So I'm not really sure I got on that topic, but nevertheless. So this is a pretty amazing thing that we have here. today at Turning Point USA. And I want to say this as well. Thank you to our event staff at Turning Point USA for putting this on. And thank you for everyone who helps make this possible.

So I'm going to close with this, which is, if you right now are uncertain about what you need to do and how you're going to involved, you're going to get that answer solved the next couple days. But also, you know how lucky we are to be alive in a time like this, where this entire entire. American experiment, our home, this beautiful gift that we have been given, is now at a moment where it could shatter into a million pieces. So we have been handed something that's about to fall apart. Our generation, the millennial generation Z generation, can be known as the generation

that surprised and shocked the world, that rose up in record numbers and was the generation that fixed the problems of generations prior. And I could tell you this. The amazing thing about all of you that are involved in high school and college, you know what it's going to take for you to get there. You know all of a sudden what you're dealing against. And guess what? We're the cheerful warriors that are willing to endure and persevere past that.

But I start to see hope when I see gatherings like this. I see hope when I show up to school board meetings and hundreds of parents are there contesting against critical race theory and demanding that it's hard. removed from its textbooks. I get hope when I see how many people are realizing what's really at stake here. This is not about politics, everybody. This is simply about our nation and our country and our home. I love the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Go Tampa Bay. They won the Super Bowl. Let me tell you, though, that this is uniquely different than watching an NFL football game. Watching an NFL football game is by definition a spectator sport. You know what?

makes this different, every single one of you can be involved in this and should be involved in this. That here's the test, and you can take the test this evening. You need to write down how much you've suffered over the last year, and if isn't a lot, you're not doing enough to save the country. It's that simple. How much damage have you incurred to try to save the Republic? Now, when I meet some of these amazing young Turning Point USA students, they say, you know what? I got kicked out of my school because I wasn't going to take the vaccine, but they forced it. I said, well, I'd say, huge sacrifice, and that is contesting for truth. But guess what? Every single one of you are leaders here, all thousands and thousands and thousands of you. And you look around, Turning Point USA is a

glitch in the matrix of what the left is trying to do in our country. They would love nothing more to have all of you be obedient and afraid and silent and be at home. But you know what's actually going to be our salvation. And I'm going to turn this thing around when thousands and thousands of charismatic and energetic young leaders like you, all of a sudden start to chart the path forward in a way that is going to be one of hope and freedom and of a better tomorrow. When I started this at 18 years old, nine years ago in this city, I couldn't have dreamt.

In my wildest imagination, we'd be filling up auditoriums like this in our Young Women's Leadership Summit and all these amazing things that have happened throughout our history. We're going to hit 1,000 high school chapters very soon. But the real thanks, goes to every single one of you. And as long as we are courage, we have courageous, and we are focused on what that America is and what it stands for,

I could tell you this, that the left is nervous, that conservatives are going to rise up in record numbers. The left is nervous that every single one of you are going to start to take ownership for our nation, for our country, and our home. And by the end of this conference, I want every single one of you to make a commitment to do something in your local communities,

on your college campuses, in your high school environment, because it's our country now, everybody. It's no longer cheering from afar. It's time for our generation to start to rise up and take back America for freedom. God bless you guys. Thanks so much. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust,

go to charliecirk.com.