The Megyn Kelly Show - Remembering Charlie Kirk Through His Memorable Appearances on The Megyn Kelly Show Through the Years

Episode Date: September 14, 2025

Megyn Kelly looks back at more than 15 appearances Charlie Kirk made on The Megyn Kelly Show - from the Friday after Trump's victory in 2024, to his first appearance in May 2023, to their last on-air conversation in August.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. We were debating how to finish this week, and we knew we wanted to do something on Charlie Kirk. And it occurred to us, he's been such a star on this show. And for our listeners, this show may be the place you got to know and love Charlie. He's been on the show more than 15 times. I've been on his show. We've done events together, as you know, in this month. He was scheduled to come on tour with me, and I was scheduled to go to one of his college, change my mind appearances with him. There's been a lot of talk about what he stands for, what he stood for, what he, what mattered to him, what kind of a person he was, what his messaging was. There's no better way of reminding ourselves than just hearing it directly from Charlie. So we cut some highlights from a few of his 15-plus appearances, and we hope you enjoy. I enjoy listening to them and remember all that he was.

These are not even 30 years old. My God. You started this when you were 18? That's right. I feel as if I'm getting too old for this stuff, though. I'll tell you, a decade in politics, you age considerably. I can't believe I'm not 30 either. Yeah, I started when I was 18 in the suburbs of Chicago.

I had plans to go to college, and instead I took a gap year. and it's been a gap decade and a year on top of about 11 years and it's been the most amazing journey just full of blessings and beyond my wildest imagination. So yeah, 29 years old, soon to be 30 and,

but experienced a lot in the last decade. Very thankful, very blessed. You guys are everywhere. Turning Points USA, it's everywhere. You see like the Riley Gaines confrontation out in San Francisco. It's like there via Turning Point. We had on Ian Hayworth,

I think it was for a confrontation at SUNY Albany, where he got shouted down turning points. It's like you've had such an impact in ways our audience probably doesn't even realize how much of the content in today's news has effectively been brought to them because of you guys making sure these voices are heard. And is it exclusively on college campuses, Charlie? Well, it's grown beyond that. Yeah, I mean, it's been an amazing kind of thing to see the last couple years.

I mean, for example, we've, you know, a couple years ago, we started with Candace Owens on campuses, and now she's a huge force to be reckoned with. And Brandon Tatum and Anna Paulina, who's now a member of Congress, actually started with us. She got her start in kind of conservative world visiting college campuses. And now she's an incredibly dynamic congresswoman of the youngest ever Hispanic Latina to be elected. And yes, of course, the Riley Gaines situation. And so you had all started with high school and college campuses. and now it's grown to churches and parents groups

and homeschool associations and influencers. And I mean, our big mission statement at Turning Point USA is pretty simple. We want to make sure that our grandkids live in America that we can recognize. We want our grandkids to love America. We believe in a free society. We believe in the Constitution, rule of law, pretty standard stuff, stuff that shouldn't really be that controversial. I mean, I have personal views that sometimes can get people rather excited.

But as an organization, our views are center right. It's about the American founding, the declaration, free markets, private property rights. And it's really kind of grown into this force beyond my, you know, wildest imaginations that have empowered hundreds of thousands of young people and certain people, you've mentioned, such as Riley Gaines and Anna Paulina. And really, the vision over the last couple of years has turned into this movement to try and recapture a generation that it. is increasingly going in a troubling and negative direction of anti-Americanism, of anti-capitalism, we call it wokeism. We can explore that, which really is just repurposed left-wing nonsense of the 60s and 70s and put through a different lens.

And our vision is much more optimistic, much more positive, you know, talking about how you can live a flourishing and fulfilling life in this nation. and going to these campuses has been illuminating, especially for the last couple years. I've personally spoken over 120 college campuses from all across the country, from Brown to Stanford. And you learn a lot about the issues and the challenges facing a generation when you do that.

But Turning Point USA is now really the premier organization for all ages fighting for the ideas of freedom, liberty, and American exceptionalism. Yeah, you guys, and you're in the belly of the beast because you're going where the end. is at its peak, you know, these college campuses, that's where they're getting them. And a lot of these kids don't even realize there's an alternative. There are a lot of young people who don't feel this way. There's a conservative alternative point of view that's available to you. I was thinking

about you last week when that study came out showing that some huge amount of young liberals are depressed and, you know, in therapy and need help. And I was like, you know what? That's because that's what they're leaning into right now. That's what their messengers are telling them to lean into, victimhood, upset, sadness. And the conservative vision is so much more optimistic, hopeful, empowering. It didn't always used to be this way. You know, I had RFK Jr. on the show a few times now, but in his first long interview that we did back in March of 21, he was saying how grown up Kennedy, you know, the son of RFK, the grandfather, Joseph Kennedy in that family was like, no whining in this house. Get out. Winer's.

get out right like that was a tough family that raised yeah that's right you're not allowed to say that but now it's like this is sort of getting divided along party lines no that's right and to kind of piggyback on what you say on on the depression i mean it makes sense in a certain extent so you have an entire political movement that says your history sucks and it's awful so you have nothing to be thankful for that came before you your actions really won't improve your life right so that if you try to lose weight or save money none of it matters because meritocracy to doesn't actually exist. And by the way, the world's going to end in 10 years because of climate change. Yeah, I mean, I'd be depressed too. And to substitute for all that, just do as many

substances as you want. Like no matter what, you could do as much marijuana, as much psychedelic drugs and have as much free sex as possible. Do not restrain any of your impulses. Well, just from the simplest reading of psychology, that's really dumb to tell a 19 year old to do, because then they all of a sudden ask the question of, what is true, what is meaningful? Maybe I should, you know, engage self-control more than self-esteem. And so then, yes, you do create the most depressed, suicidal, alcohol-addicted, and drug-addicted generation in history. And there is a political component to it, which people don't always want to pinpoint, which is conservatives are just happier. And not every conservative is happy and not every liberal is mad or angry or depressed. But over time,

people that tend to not argue with reality, people that tend to not wage war on the natural law, you're going to fit probably neater into the harmony of the cosmos than someone that is committed with evangelistic zeal and fervor that men can give birth. That would drive me mad too to try to make that work. You're never going to make that work. No matter how many pharmacological agents, no matter how many textbooks,

matter how much propaganda, you're going to end up in a state of madness. St. Augustine had a great quote where he said, if you argue with reality, welcome to hell. And a lot of young people are in hell. And I feel for them. And so when we go to these campuses, Megan, the biggest problem that we have is we can't find rooms big enough to fit all the students that want to attend our speeches. And they don't all agree with what I have to say. I mean, I have very strong opinions. And they're considered to be triggering thought crimes. But what's amazing is, okay, a couple dozen will walk out because they're so triggered. But there's a lot of kids that stay there that might, they think they disagree with what I'm saying. And they'll listen and they'll listen. And very similar to Ben Shapiro, who deserves a lot of credit for being kind of a pioneer with this. And same with Stephen Crowder. We'll invite anybody who disagrees to the front of the line and they can say whatever they want to me. And we have question and answer for 40, 45 minutes.

And what is positive, what is heartwarming to me and what gives me encouragement is that over a period of time, just an hour and a half, we can make serious inroads to all of a sudden put forward a pro reality, pro-American, rather moderate viewpoint, which is I'm not going to condemn you if we disagree. I think disagreement is what makes life fun. You mentioned RFK Jr. He's a Democrat that I hope does very well because I agree with him on some things. I certainly disagree with him on others. But he's interesting. He's provocative.

He's willing to challenge the power structures. He's not just the same regime talking points repurposed by chat GPT to try to win over, you know, some sort of swing voter. He's an independent thinker. He's a free spirit. And so I think that the conservative side has not just become the rebellious,

side, but it's honestly the more interesting side. And I think you see that in the ascendance of independent media and the collapse of corporate media. And that is the ethos we bring to our work every single day at Turning Point USA. We had Charlie on the Friday after Donald Trump won in November 24. And we spoke together about our enormous relief, but also about Charlie's role, his personal and professional role in truly helping Trump win. Watch. Charlie, congratulations. Thank you. Well, as Kamala Harris would say, we did it, Joe, but we did it, Megan.

And your speech was awesome, by the way. Thank you for your support and how amazing that was. I really believed it moved votes. And not to mention, just your podcast here, I think it held the line with sane women in this country and gave them an understanding of the stakes and gave them an understanding of really what we are up against. And so you deserve a lot of credit too, Megan, because this was really a coalition. There's so much to unpack from this election. Part of it is also how alternative media was able to crush the major propagandist networks. And you look at four years

ago during COVID, all of our alternative media was largely censored. But we won this time. Podcasts and shows like this one, Joe Rogan, my show, the All In podcast. The Left couldn't keep up with it. And President Trump, to his great credit, built a once-in-a-lifetime unity ticket, which I think the media completely underestimated from Bobby Kennedy to Tulsi Gabbard. And then finally, of course, it cannot be repeated enough. God bless Elon Musk. I mean, that guy put it all on the line. I mean, it wasn't just like he wrote a check and hoped it would get better. He lived in Pennsylvania the last 45 days of the election. He purses. He personally would host town halls across the state of Pennsylvania. He was given away a million

dollars a day to random citizens to help encourage citizen participation. And so there's a lot of people that deserve credit. We all kind of played a small role. And that's why it feels so different than 2016. 2016 was just lightning in a bottle, took him by surprise. It was a movement. This was really 30 or 40 different people that went all in that we just called the bluff of the Democrats. And we beat the most powerful thing ever to exist in the history of the world. It's pretty awesome. Praise God. Oh, it's amazing.

And you are so generous and kind to be giving me any credit when you truly deserve actual credit for getting Donald Trump elected. I mean, truly, you're one of a handful of five that really made the difference. And we need look no further than the youth vote. That wasn't the exclusive reign of your influence. But, man, when have young people come out? out for the Republican. I mean, like never, and especially in today's day and age where he's been totally demonized all over TikTok and the sources of information that they use.

But you reached billions. I mean, obviously there's not that many people voting in this election. I mean, the number of views of your videos going out onto these college campuses, you know, challenging them saying, go ahead, like, why are you voting for her? Let's walk through it. that would go viral every time we have to look at some of them because, like I said, it's just so fun right now. Here's one woman who was very much determined to believe that Donald Trump is a racist, and here's Charlie dismantling her, sought to.

You've got to give me a good reason, at least two, why you don't like Trump. He's racist. Oh, my God. Yup, boomie. Can you define what does it mean to be racist? Do you want me to look up a definition? No, no, I want you to, you said he's a racist, so you must have a definition of racism in your mind.

Tell me what that definition is. Okay, so, ooh, I'm gonna make you guys wait on this. Ooh, zero knowledge. Guys, please don't heckle. It's hatred towards another race, right? So when has he ever exhibited that? Give me clear and specific examples. You got one?

Um, well, yeah, I heard someone say he told, uh, told, told, you're getting both of us. Yes. Okay, but let me just help you out here. Uh-huh. What you think he's a racist, because the media has told you he's a racist. Because you can't give me an example off the top of your head, and even when you phone a friend of the audience.

Not, I'm not criticizing you. Maybe the media is lying to you. Wow. Trueer words were never spoken. How many exchanges do you think you had like that on college campuses, Charlie? Oh, I mean, we had hundreds this semester. That particular video, by the way, received over 60 million views on TikTok alone. And that's just, and so we tallied it up. It was, again, billions of views. So that means that target young voters were watching our content, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 times. And so, Megan, we do these tours. I visited 25 college campuses this semester. which is the most I've ever done. And over the summer, we said, how do we make a difference? And we were doing these videos in the spring. And I came up with the idea.

I said, man, I think the election is going to be as hot as a pistol. I think there's going to be a lot of interest. Why don't we do the most tours ever? But instead of the traditional evening events, why don't we do these kind of dialogues and these exchanges to try to see if we can show the world the contrast of ideas and to see which ideas are better. And to kind of create this digital movement,

of people that want to make up their mind. And Megan, it was way more successful than I could have ever imagined. This is worth playing. At the moment, Trump announced, or that it was announced that Trump won, sought three, and Charlie's reaction.

Let's go. There it is. Everybody should remember this moment. Look, I'm going to echo Charlie from earlier. Remember where you were, when this happened, remember where you were when you realized that the unit party and all these, you know, just the establishment, you said it's time to actually participate. And look what you guys have done. And if anyone deserves to get tears in his eyes, it's Charlie. I think we all

agree. Thank Eric. No one has worked harder than the break room. No one has worked harder than Charlie for us. We got to hear some words here from you, Charlie. You put all this together, my man. Let's I am just humbled like I guess it's all got it's all got it's all got oh that is emotional to watch i share your feeling charlie i felt it that night too i i just um i was humbled and blown away because i throughout this entire thing i'm getting emotional thinking about it um and i'm sure you agree megan i said there's no way they're going they're going to let us do this that something's going happen, right? And again, call it paranoia, call it just trying to be ahead of the curve. And I'm sitting in the seat right here where I saw Trump got shot. And like, they tried to kill him and

indict him. And it's like, at every turn, I'm like, here we go. The regime is striking back, right? And it's just, you don't think you're actually going to get there because we've been programmed to just say that, like, powerful people get what they want, right? And, it's yeah he was one millimeter from this whole country just going into bedlam and what if one of these trials would have went differently right what if jack smith would have rushed his cases and this i mean like a million different things right and there you go and you hear the words that donald trump is president elect i just um again glory be to god is all i can say because i i believe there's a divine element i asked the question is god done with this land i don't think it what he is I think that the evil that of what we would seem that you've covered of this butchery of children is going to come to an end. This evil of allowing men and female sports is going to come to an end. And we were blessed to play a small role. I, in that moment, I had two of those moments like you on election night where they called it for him.

And these boys from the high school were on the other side of the camera for me. And even more than my own reaction was their reaction that really got me. where they were all, some of them did what you did, like face into the hands. Some of them did arms up. You know, it was like, it was like this with the hands behind the head. Like they were so relieved. They were, you could feel the palpable relief and just exaltation, just that they, that they weren't going to have to go on in the way that they've been going.

And we, as you know, are at a non-woke school. That is why we're there. I mean, we left, we fled a woke school and found the right. school for us. So they're not getting it over the head, but they get it from society. Even if you find a good school for your kids, they get it from society, they get it from TV, they get it from the movies they watch, they now get it from sports. You cannot avoid the negative messages that are coming down to especially young men, and they felt it acutely. And the second moment, Charlie, was something you hit on in your answer, which was that night it hit that the DOJ was dropping

its appeal in Mar-a-Lago case against Trump and dropping its J-6 case against Trump because of their policy not to prosecute a sitting president. And I was sitting on here with the National Review guys and with Maureen Callahan, all of my love. And for me, you know, having done so much on the law fair, I almost couldn't catch my breath. It was like, I can't even talk. I felt like you felt in that clip. Like, I can't talk. I need just a minute. Like, who could put in just perspective, the Herculean task it was for Trump to just get to. through that, those four cases, not to mention the civil, I mean, total and utter victory over very evil people. And I just, I want to say, when I saw this firsthand, I hope your audience

understands that every one of these charges, he had to have like a two-hour meeting with lawyers about details about it, right? You know how it is, Megan, right? The strain that it took on him physically and mentally where lawyers would come in with binders of stuff, well, the government's accusing you of this, this, this. And then after that, Megan, he has to go on a plane and go give three speeches in Iowa, right? He's got to get on a plane and go give, you know, a town hall and a podcast. And that, I think, was one of the reasons they did it because they said, if nothing else, we'll be able to weigh this man down, right? We'll be able to slow him down and mess him up. And we might be, and he was in a, he was in a courtroom back in May on a total Soviet show trial.

I want your audience to just appreciate that. I know. They locked up a candidate with the inability to campaign for weeks. I know you saw this clip. Her disgusting gross elitism and her complete out of touch nature with respect to the rest of the world, Sonny Hosten goes on the view and decides now it would be a great time to dump all over the so-called, uneducated, not non-college educated, the uneducated, which is what you are in Sunny Hosten's view, including you, Charlie Kirk, because she's conflating, right? People who didn't

go to college with people who are uneducated. We've got to look at the clip, and then I need your reaction. Well, we did not have is white women who voted about 52% for Donald Trump, uneducated white women, is my understanding. You have Latino men actually voting. more for him and you have and black men was not the story we're not the story here because they voted almost 80% for the vice president so why do you think that uneducated white women voted against their reproductive health freedoms and why do you think latino men uh voted in favor of someone that's going to deport the majority of his community like being called uneducated white women i think the economy that's what that's what the whole said but when you put people in these boxes i think

I think that's a takeaway from this, right? Okay. It's amazing. She's specifically they're referring to the women, but of course it's the non-college-educated men as well who voted for Donald Trump and the nerve of this woman to whom the country has given so much to try to dump on people who didn't go to college. Look at you. Look at your achievements.

How do you like the so-called uneducated now, Sonny? Yeah. And by the way, rarely do you get the answer to a question in the question. question. And her whole question is exactly why there was a rebellion against them. Listen, just because you didn't go to college doesn't mean you're stupid and it doesn't mean that you don't have wisdom. I always differentiate between knowledge and wisdom. You can go to college and get a bunch of irrelevant facts about how men can allegedly give birth or whatever they teach. I mean, it's or about North African lesbian poetry. Okay, that's fine,

I guess. Or, or, but I said this. to our team, I said working people, the muscular class, including working women in the sense of waitresses and women that work for Amazon. And there's a lot of women delivery drivers. They are so in favor of Trump, and they don't want to be called stupid or uneducated. And I've said this for so long,

and it's finally manifested, which is that it is laced into how we do our public opinion polling. And she played into it perfectly, because I've said this for a decade. And finally, I have a piece of evidence to show this more than anything else that we look at how we elect our leaders in two buckets, stupid and smart. And the stupid people are the people that don't have a certificate from Yale. And the smart people are $200,000 in debt because they went to Drake. And so the breakdown, though, is that Donald Trump, which, by the way, is just smart politics, Because there's more people that didn't go to college than did go to college.

And I know that's really hard for the Democrats to realize because everyone in their circle went to college. But the majority of the country actually does not have a four-year college diploma. The majority of the country are people that have two-year technical degrees or community college or they just went into the workforce right out of high school. And so Donald Trump gave these people a voice because they're tired of being told that they're stupid just because they didn't go into debt to go study that something that doesn't. matter to find jobs that don't exist. And these people, by the way, Megan, both men and women, we call them, as I said, the muscular class, they are the ones that kept the economy alive to great personal risk for themselves and their family during COVID. They're the ones that delivered you your Uber Eats for three months on straight, while you in the laptop

class were able to keep on doing your job by opening your laptop in the comfort of your home while the Amazon trucks were still delivered and the supply chain went uninterrupted. Those people have felt belittled. They have felt talked down to. And Donald Trump communicated with them better than any candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1988. And the final point I'll say is this,

is Sonny, you guys thought that abortion was going to be this quasi-zellate religious issue? I'm pro-life. If people in the audience aren't, that's fine. What I'm saying, though, what gives me promise, and I think we can all agree on this, is that there are other issues that should animate and drive our politics other than this very divisive one. And I was really encouraged by that, Megan, very encouraged, because the media was forcing

this as an up or down vote on a referendum, on a highly complicated, very emotional, very personal issue. And it turned out the American people were like, yeah, actually, these other. Six things matter more, and good for them. By the way, Sonny Hosten, I think, went to Notre Dame, her sons at Harvard, her daughter's at Cornell. She's married to the Ivy League, and that's why she looks down on everyone else as a bunch of stupid losers who didn't vote the right way because they're not as smart as she is. I spent many years across from Sunny Hosten on the set of Bill O'Reilly. she is not as smart as she thinks she is.

In fact, I defy you to show me one debate we ever had that she won. There isn't one. So I'm not done with the Charlie Kirk homage. We put together a little bit of you on your college tour, just so the audience can see some of the hard work you were doing. Let's play SOT One. Can you tell me her greatest accomplishment? No, I can't.

Can you tell me a single accomplishment? I cannot. I want to leave. I... What is Kamala Harris' greatest accomplishment? Can you please explain why under a Trump presidency would be more beneficial to me than a Harris presidency? I want to try to win you over as a liberal for Donald Trump. Why should I vote for Trump? There's no guesswork in this election.

We know the type of president that Trump was and that he will be. There are three things I want you to think about. want you to think about when voting for Trump. Homeownership, border war. Three objective things. When I decide, just in case, can I have a hat? You can have a hat. So which way are you leaning?

Can I get a hat? That's a good answer! How are you leaning this election? Well, after what you said, Trump? Let's go! All right, and two points on that, Charlie. So we had a bunch of kids from my son's high school here with me in studio on a left night and, you know, maybe like, whatever, 15 of them. And they were all Trump supporters.

Where there was no screening, like, we're only taking the Trump supporters, but that just happened to be how it worked out. And that third point war was a big one for all of them. They're actually really worried about this neo-con strain in the Democrat Party because they're the ones who are going to have to go fight it. And so you were tapping into exactly the right thing. And then one Another cue point. My kids are in school all day and therefore do not listen to my show every day. They listen to it here and there. And they get clips on social media. And we were talking this week about who I had coming on today. And I told him Charlie Kirk. And my son and my daughter, she's 13, he's 15, go, you know Charlie Kirk? I'm like, yes, I know Charlie Kirk. Yes. Could we meet Charlie Kirk? I'm like, I think I could arrange it at some point. But that's how young, you'd like a 13-year-old girl, She's seen your clip. She's been influenced by you. They watched you on that show.

Where do they surround you and you debate all the people? Jubilee. Jubilee. They watched you there. That was something. I mean, you're making a huge difference, not just in today's voters, but in the next up and coming ones who are going to be voting for years from now, Charlie. It's huge.

I do feel there's something divine going on. You were chosen for some reason. Well, I'm humbled. And I said this. Well, thank you, Megan. And I'd love to meet your kids. And I just, I said this on election night. God gave us grace as a nation, humbled by it.

I say praise God, just a small part, and he used what we were doing. I mean this. I had zero expectation that what we were going to do was actually going to move the dial this much. We did it out of obedience. We did it out of, hey, let's play the role. You know what it's like on a campaign, right, Megan? Oh, if we can move, you know, a couple hundred people and do your part and it all adds up. I had no idea that this thing was going to set off the way it did.

We also had Charlie on the day after J.D. Vance was picked as the vice presidential candidate. They were very close and Charlie talked about the J.D. Vance he had come to know. My God, J.D. I'm thrilled that he's the pick. How about you? I couldn't be happier. Thanks, Megan, for having me. I was pushing for this for quite some time. You know, I was a early endorser of J.D.'s Senate primary when he was at, at one or two percent in the polls in Ohio and nobody thought he had a chance. And he was up against the establishment and tens of millions of dollars. And that's a story worth telling as well. I was getting very emotional watching that video because J.D. is a dear friend. And I hope your

audience understands the more you get to know J.D. Vance, the more you're going to like him. His family is extraordinary. He is a good, smart man. And I put it in that order. He is a decent person of high integrity, wonderful family. He's in it for the right reasons. There are some really important similarities that J.D. Vance has with President Trump, such as being a class traitor. It's important to remember, Megan, that when that book came out, he was so celebrated by the left-wing elite. He was the keynote speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He was on every major left-wing network of being celebrated as the guy who can explain why Donald Trump, has such a big following.

And J.D. Vance, over a series of years, made a decision to forsake that type of popularity and to go in not just a career in politics, but to get into a pattern of advocacy that led him into politics. And it is an extraordinary rise. And you said it so perfectly, Megan, only in America. And only in America is it possible where a young man, and he's older than me, but he's relatively young in the modern political dynamic can come from absolute poverty, be abused, raised by his grandmother, had all the odds stacked against him to become the nominee for

vice president of the United States for the frontrunner and former president. How did we get here? Well, I mean, we got here first and foremost through Divine Providence, and I'm sure we're going about that over the last week, just the fact that this convention is still going on in its current former fashion. But secondly, it's a testament to J.D. J. did not want this, Megan. I hope everyone understands in the audience, you know, almost everyone who was going for vice president had like war rooms and they had, you know, lobbying campaigns and they were going after this to try to buddy up to Trump for the last nine months or 10 months. When Jadies, his name was first floated to become Trump's vice president potentially in February and March, he's like, me? Like what? He's like, yeah, I love Trump, but like, what?

And this is a guy who didn't ask for it. He didn't plan for it. he's not full of that kind of naked political ambition that I find to be so disgusting and repulsive. Things just kind of come to him. And people see in him the best of the Trump movement, forgotten America, someone who lived that story and who will fight for those voters in Washington, D.C. You know, I said this before to our audience here. And I said, this isn't like said in a romantic way. But my time with him, and we were there for a few days, led me to believe that this is a beautiful man. He's a beautiful man. And I think that opening shows you what I mean.

He's thoughtful. He's soulful. He's reflective. He's introspective. And I happen to love the fact that his good character, his survival, was shaped by women. It was his mamma who got him through this, this childhood and her strength. His sister, with whom he has such a loving and dear relationship to this day, loved Lindsay. And then I love the fact that it's Amy Chua at Yale Law School, who's like one of the only non-woke, amazing, like normal professors at Yale Law School who would help him take the next step, you know, that she saw in him, this is not just the next generation of lawyer. This is a special guy whose voice needs to be heard well beyond the Yale Law School campus and the campuses of white shoe law firms in America.

She helped steer him, and she helped Usha, too, who had, you know, two federal clerkships, including, as I said, for the Supreme Court. So to me, that speaks so well of him, like that, the Republican Party, as you know, still gets demonized by the Democrats as like a bunch of just moronic, burly men, you know, toxic men who want to take away the rights to abortion. And, like, yes, J.D. is pro-life. But that is a man who respects women and whose very character was shaped by strong women. without a doubt. And I mean, it's important to understand that the men and J.D.'s life failed him. And who failed the void? As you went, you went through the list beautifully. And so look, and J.D. has a huge heart. He just, he radiates sincerity. And you know that because I mean, I'm around, look, honestly, Megan, I'm going to have to go through some sort of detox. I'm here at the R&C right now. And there are so many political creatures crawling around here. It's so disgusting. You know, there's people that's always about an, no, I mean, honestly, it's like always about an angle and I want something from you. And they just, they just ooze that sort of stench of, you know, I'm trying to game the system. With JD, it's completely different.

And it's not just me. I'm going to tell you a true story. So this is in the middle of the Veep Stakes. We have our people's convention in Detroit, Michigan. And we have nearly 10,000 people there. And I was like, hey, J.D, we're doing a straw poll for the vice presidency. If you want to try to make it, you know, I think you'll do very well. because the audience likes you.

He's like, yeah, you know, it's my 10-year wedding anniversary. He's like, that's a top priority for me. He said, but let me see what I can do. So he prioritizes the wedding anniversary. And he texts like the day before. He's like, okay, I think I can make it on Sunday. I said, great. So my team calls me and they said, hey, JD's coming.

But he's driving himself from Columbus. Like, what do you mean? He's driving himself. This is a U.S. senator, Megan, who might be the next vice president of United States or the selection for VP, literally got in a car early on a Sunday morning, drove three and a half hours to Detroit by himself, staffed himself, was so warm to all of our staff, probably on almost no sleep,

you know, took every picture, signed every book that was asked of him, gave an amazing speech, got back in the car so he could be back at dinner in Columbus, Ohio. I mean, like, that's so unheard of. Yes. There are people that come and speak at our events that are running for dog catcher, and they come with an entourage and a posse that makes, you know, most rappers. look as if they're understaffed. J.D. Vance is, you know, driving himself.

And it's just like, he's like, yeah, it's just like, I'm a regular guy. He doesn't think of himself as if he's, you know, better than you or that he's part of some sort of, you know, high society class. And I think that he adds a dynamic and an element to the Trump ticket that will grow as time goes on. People are going to deepen their understanding of what the MAGA agenda really is. And also there is a youthful dynamic, which I am so pleased. the data is screaming at us right now. Please put somebody on the ticket under the age of 50. Please put somebody on the ticket under the age of 50.

And now you have Biden, 81, Trump, 78, Kamala Harris, either 58 or 59, late 50s. And now J.D. Vance, 39. I mean, that is a serious contrast who can really be a communicator to 35-year-old voters who are struggling to buy a home and struggling to build a family. And so I think this was the best pick that done. Trump could make. And more than anything else, he has a decent and a good person. And that is so hard to find in American politics. Charlie was on in February 24 when he was in a serious battle with the RNC, the establishment of the GOP, leaking against Charlie and his turning point

organization. Now I've seen two separate hit pieces on you, one from Real Care Politics and one from NBC, the real clear politics one wasn't really a headpiece, but it was sort of trying to say that there's a lot of anger toward you because Rana Romney McDonald, whatever, McDaniel, has been booted as the head of the RNC. She was pushed out effectively by Trump is what we read and that the reporting is that she went down to Mara Lago to try to stop it. Instead, Trump said, you've got to go. She did go. But while there, she brought you up, tried to say he's my chief detractor. I'm paraphrasing here. But now we're seeing a couple hit pieces after she's gone on you,

suggesting you're a problem that you're causing trouble for Donald Trump. We talked about your comments on black pilots. The last time I encouraged the audience to go back and look at that more fully because Charlie explains exactly what he meant perfectly. In any event, it appears, you know, it gets resurrected now in an effort to drive, I think, a public wedge between you and the Trump's. Donald Trump Jr. comes out and says, this is bullshit. There's no wedge. We all love Charlie. Just stop it. So what's the truth? What's

the story? What's happening here? Well, first, I just got such a kick out of it. It's so coordinated because the two articles both have knives in the title. Do you see that? Yeah. It's like two separate article in real clear politics. Sharp elbow, sharper knives. NBC News. Sharp knives out. Like, okay, the knives are out for me. Got it. Thanks. Look, I mean, we made it a focus because we want to win to try to have regime change at the R&C. And I said this before, I'll say it again. This was not a personal thing. I used to get along really well with Rana.

Obviously, that relationship is no longer ongoing. And we were underwhelmed and underwhelmed repeatedly with election results. And the same way that I treat my college football coaches or my NFL football, which I love, if you're not winning games, you should no longer be in charge of the team. And so whether it be in 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, and instead of kind of acknowledging that things could be going better, we were met with defiance and we were met with double speak. And so long story short, we made it a focus to try and change the leadership of the RNC. And we did it by mentioning on our show a lot. We did it by hosting alternative programs in Las Vegas for the restoring national conference.

Summit where we brought in 75 state party chairs, national committeemen, and also county chairs to receive training and to receive grassroots type data technology, not just training, but also how to use the data technology in their local area. And the response was overwhelming. And we knew this was coming, Megan. I mean, make no mistake, you don't focus and eventually end up being successful in getting rid of an RNC chair without them running to NBC News to complain. And so I'm unfazed by it. Yeah, I'm unfazed by it. You know, there's, it's all the typical, quite honestly, like left-wing attack vectors that are repurposed by this disgruntled outgoing RNC regime. It should be illuminating for those in your audience that really want to see Joe Biden defeated

in November that the RNC kind of henchmen and their media team were more focused on trying to plant stories against me and trying to lobby NBC News and real clear politics. So two pieces in three days, like, okay, could you make it more obvious? Instead of trying to unite forces and combine forces to defeat Joe Biden in November, it is what it is. I'm unfazed by it. I mean, we played a win. What's amazing, Charlie, is that now one of the things in here is one of the knocks on you

is that you're raising all this money. Like, one of the knocks on you is that you want to raise $108 million on a get-out. the vote campaign in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin to swing the election. These are Republicans ripping you. I can see how why Democrats might not want that, but they say, citing a, quote, Republican operative in close contact with the Trump campaign, quote, I don't think Trump is fully aware of that plan. When he finds out, he's not going to be happy at all.

Because why? Because it has, quote, little guarantee of success. And because it is, quote, funded by donors who would otherwise give direct. directly to Trump's campaign, thus they predict the former president, quote, will be pissed out of his mind. Now, I've talked to you about this many times. As far as I understand, your effort is to get the people out to vote for Donald Trump, which I'm not, I'm having trouble following why he would be angry.

He wouldn't be. And that's why it's an unnamed Republican operative. It's just someone who doesn't like me or they're upset that we are having success raising money. And let the record be clear. We have over 300,000 donors at Turning Point. That's a big number. That's presidential campaign style number to have 300,000 people contribute money to you.

The R&C wishes they had that many active donors, and they wonder why they don't. One of the reasons why is we're relentless, and we put results forward, and we're transparent with how we spend our money. And so the other aspect, though, that you mention is, yes, we're going to have hundreds of full-time people in Arizona and Wisconsin chasing ballots for get out the vote. the RNC, to the best of our knowledge, will have one or two full-time people, three or four full-time people. And so we are the disruptors on the scene.

We're the new energy, Megan. We are always thought of just being a youth organization, so they kind of ignored us. And as I have grown and as the organization has grown, we realized that the RNC and the Republican Party was ossified and not innovative and not playing to win and to not have that kind of entrepreneurial approach. Again, we wouldn't have these complaints of 2022 was a blowout year and we won record seats in the House and the Senate, but the results speak for themselves. And we believe we've identified an issue, which is to try to help low propensity Republican or center-right voters be able to vote in voting month and not just try to flood the polls on Election Day, but have people vote early and to expand our ability to run up the score leading into Election Day in addition to all the other programming that we do. And so I remain close with the Trump family. I'm an enthusiastic supporter, obviously a President Trump, the opportunity to know him and defend him for well over eight years now.

These stories happen every so often, Megan. This is obviously the spiciest one that I've ever been through. It's the most direct salvo from the Republican establishment. But I say, bring it on. We're going to keep on building. They're going to keep on complaining. We're good at building at Turning Point. It's what we do.

And God willing, will be successful coming into November. I mean, I've seen it up close and personal and behind the scenes, and it's an amazing operation. It's incredibly sophisticated, professional, well done. And there's a reason, I mean, you've earned every dollar and a bit of attention that you've gotten. And just last month, Charlie and I had an incredible conversation about what it means to be a good man, about the value of disagreement and about listening and talking. You and I are both supporters of Israel and have defended. Israel since the beginning of this conflict and spoken out about the anti-Semitism that has erupted

on these college campuses many, many, many, many times. And something's happening, though, with this whole debate that is really bothering me. And I wonder if you're feeling it too. So, I mean, I genuinely believe you'd be hard pressed to find somebody in the public eye who's been as outspoken a defender of not every move Israel's taken in the war, but of Israel's right to defend itself and of the just backward awfulness that we've been seeing on college campuses and the backlash against American Jews, then yours truly. I mean, I have been at the pointy end of the spear on this, and I completely agree with that. And it was all heartfelt, and it remains heartfelt.

Yes. However, however, my contention here is that some in the pro-Israel camp are so knee-jerk about calling you anti-Semitic or getting deeply offended if you say anything that doesn't align with their narrative, that it undermines their own cause. And I have to tell you, I find it very irritating because I do feel like some of us have earned the right to have some credibility on the subject of Israel and don't want to be called those names when we have some mild pushback on some of the overreaches, whether it's, you know, whether they're winning or losing the propaganda war right now, and my contention is they've begun to lose it. And I realize it's propaganda coming at us

from Hamas, but their numbers have turned here in America. They've turned, not so much with Republicans, a little bit with Republicans, but completely with the Democrat Party and with independence. They have shifted mightily from at least double digits highs to single digit lows now when it comes to approval. And also with respect to you and I speculated about this at the turning point event, whether the possibility of Jeffrey Epstein possibly being a Mossad agent or asset or affiliated with, that's been turned around on me too to you must be anti-Semitic. What the hell? That's such bullshit. The same people who say you can criticize Israel. That's fine. we won't call you anti-Semitic if you criticize Israel,

turn around immediately and say, you're anti-Semitic for even raising that. I completely reject that. And I've raised this as a pushback against my friends on that particular strain of the aisle to watch it because you don't want to alienate people who are openly your friends by going nuts in your crackdowns

on mild pushback on anything related to Israel. Now you take it. I'm so glad you. brought this up and i would second that megan i think i have a bulletproof resume showing my defense of israel both on campus on social media to great you know let's just say mockery and scorn at times where i because i believe it right i believe in the scriptural land rights given to israel i believe in fulfillment of prophecy and again i'm not a theologian but i'm a christian my life was changed in Israel, the spiritual energy is so amazing there. I want them to win.

I've said that repeatedly. And however, Megan, you're hitting on something very potent and important. Now, let me first say, I don't want to judge an entire group because there's been many people in the per Israel world that have been very sweet, very kind, very nuanced, very Charlie. You know, you're with us. You don't have to agree all the time. However, and I will say this, the behavior by a lot, both privately and publicly are pushing people like you and me away. Not like we're going to be pro Hamas, not like we're going to, but we're like, honestly, the way you are treating me is so repulsive. I have text messages, Megan, calling me an anti-Semite. I am learning biblical Hebrew and writing a book

on the Shabbat. I honor the Shabbat, literally the Jewish Sabbath. I visit Israel and fight for it. There's another article out in the Times of Israel today. I could read it on air. I was just reading before I got on. Charlie, what are you doing? Like, why? Why are you? What am I doing? I'm sorry. Like, let's just take a step back here. Like, I'm an American citizen. Yes, I want Israel to win. Yes, I'm a Christian. But like the sum of the mess. And you saw, and you've seen I've been treated, Megan, by some, not all, by some. No, it's very irritating. It's, it's. It's been so unfair. They were coming after you, after a turning point for among other things. Then you had Dave Smith there. Dave Smith is allowed to criticize Israel. You had both sides. The Israeli side. You're not allowed to, though. No, you're not allowed to. It's even worse than that. Again, I just want to repeat for the fifth time, I love Israel.

I want Israel to win. But my moral character is now being put into question, Megan. Not my decisions, not like, hey, are you doing this? Is it smart or is it dumb? But no, I am a bad person if I do this. And it's a, I could go. I mean, you saw it, Megan. It was trending on Twitter, thousands of tweets and text messages.

And if I were to be charitable and generous, I will say, the people that are attacking me are in a hyper paranoid state because they're at war and war tends to make things black and white and you're a hammer looking for a nail. So I'm trying to be charitable, Megan. Literally, I'm trying to cut as much slack as I can, right? Like, okay, what would it be like if all of a sudden I'm starting to see a pattern of behavior similar to what my grandparents saw in 1930s Germany online? How would I behave? So that's like my charitable kind of overcompensation spirit. At the same, time, I'm like, but you're, it's, it's not defensible to be dumb, right? Yeah. And it's offensive. It's offensive to those of us who have been out there defending them in many instances against critics on our own side. And now you have a couple of comments like, well, what about this? Well, has it gone on too long? Like, is it time to wrap it up. And the thing about Epstein is just so bizarre. I don't know who he was an agent for. It might have been Israel or an asset or it might have been nobody, but we're allowed to speculate about that. It's like there's some rule. You can't go there

when it comes to Israel. Well, you and I believe that we're Americans and Americans first, period. End of story. We are citizens of this nation, okay? And Israel, we have funded, we have supported, and they're up against a sea of Islamic totalitarianism, and we should be cheering for them, right? Because they're up against barbarians and monsters, and we want them to win. However, However, here is Megan Kelly and Charlie Kirk combined probably 30 million social media followers, like pretty, right? And you and I have been holding this down and you, you probably get the negative, oh, you're just shilling for Israel, whatever. I'm like, okay, I'm going to do what's right regardless of the feedback, right? But then all of a sudden, like, I host a person that I moderate the debate of, mind you, right?

And I give equal time to Josh Hammer, equal time to a pro-Israel advocate. And my moral character is being put into question. And so I just, I think it's a hyper paranoid, like we're just going to try to, we're going to just stamp out everything type of practice. But it goes to the point where, if, for example, if I have less ability sometimes online to criticize the Israeli government about backlash than actual Israelis do. And that's really, really weird. Isn't it, Megan? That's not right.

I saw a clip of you online. I don't even know the podcast. Forgive me. You'll tell us what it is. But I loved it so much. I wanted you to say it here and expand on it. Here it is. Watch. Women want to be able, they want to be taken care of. I know this is like super provocative. But like deep down, they want a man to be able to provide for them financially. Should a man pay on the first day? A hundred percent. Like what kind of a wist beta male is splitting the check? Like, who are you? It's like, I'm just sorry. It's so much. I would go into debt and like scrub dishes before a woman paid for it. I split the check quite a lot.

So I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend you. You guys are great. That's incomprehensible to me. To me, I thought it was a great financial decision. Okay, so from your prism, I totally get that. And like, you have a really good financial discipline. I'm sorry.

Like, I would be so humiliated. If I, I'm more. No, no, I mean, I find that to be like the greatest beta male, like, Like humiliation. To save money? No, no. To like the idea is that a woman that you're trying to court. Now, if it's like a friend thing or as a first date, you don't even know if she's like the quality is worth.

I'm sorry. By the way, that money you save is not worth the honor that you compromise. It is such a big deal. It's a massive deal. I love everything you said. Please explain what was happening there and who that was. Well, so first of all, those were, those are two great guys. I don't remember their names.

Unfortunately, it's from the iced coffee hour podcast, so at least I got their show right. They were really sweet. They came to Phoenix. They brought their mobile studio. They're up and coming in the podcast world, which I have a soft spot for, as I'm sure you do, Megan. They were really great, right? And they were, so they asked this question. And he was just so terribly wrong on this.

And what was so interesting, I have multiple takes on this. The first of which is that the comments I got, the video went super, viral right it got tens of millions of views the comments from the women were so overwhelming yes thank you we need more of this why don't men do this anymore then from the men it's like charlie is wrong like women aren't worth it now let me just say hold on let me just take a whole recalibration now there were some men that agreed but overwhelmingly the women were the ones that were driving this video which is unique because that's not always the case for charlie kirk videos usually it's the opposite but it's good listen a man

Man needs to demonstrate leadership and the capacity to provide early on. That doesn't mean that you end up have to have that role when you up having a marriage. But from the outset, what it means to be a man is to take directive, to be leadership, to have the protector of the family. And not to mention, the young lady that is there, deep down, she wants to show that when all the crap hits the fan, the man can take care of her. and that he will do the alpha move, and that he's not going to split the check.

And there's also a, I didn't mention this in the video, so I'll say this here, Megan. It filters out in gratitude. It filters out the character of the person you are courting. I was shocked. I learned this, that so many men came in me and he said, Charlie, when I pay for a lot of the first dates, the women never say thank you.

I said, ah, yet another good reason to pay on the first date because you learn as much about her as she is learning about you. And I ask a group of women, a hundred women. I said, appealing or unappealing, attractive or unattractive, the man on the first date pays the check without you even knowing and goes to the maid or de-enhanced their credit card while he goes to the bathroom. They said, it's beyond a turnout. I said, so for men, you're talking about a way that you could advantage yourself.

Now, they say, well, what if the date didn't go well? Still does not matter. What if you think that it will never go anywhere? Still does not matter. You have to have a role to play. And on a date, the woman is there to be courted by you. That is the way this works, right? You are the one that is hosting.

You are the one that is hospitable. And I think a breakdown of that has been so destructive. But to complete the point, so many of the men that pay for it, they find out a lot about the women. So I could go endlessly about this, Megan. But I think I learned about that this was happening, by the way, in this podcast. Afterwards, I said, are you telling me that men aren't paying for everything on the first date? They said, oh, yeah, all the time that we're splitting it. I say, no wonder why male-female relations have fallen down so much.

We need men to be men again. We need to raise our sons to be men of honor, of character and leadership, to look after the women in their lives, to say that women are not just beautiful, but they're honorable and they're sacred, and that we provide for our wives and that we honor our mothers and that we protect our sisters. That's the men that we want to raise in our country, and we've gotten away from that. I'm going to miss doing that listening and talking with Charlie. It was, you know, just on a professional note, if you saw a show where Charlie Kirk was booked, you know, if he was the guest, you never had

to do much as the anchor, you know, just kind of needed to know the general topics because you knew it was not going to be a heavy lift. Charlie would make it easy on you. It was such a dynamic, dazzling guest. He would always bring something new to the table, right? Like, sometimes it's interesting just to hear somebody say, which you already know, but say it in their own way, but Charlie would bring more. He'd always done his own homework and had different angles to the story or facts that you didn't know. And that's tough to do with me on my news stories because I do study and I have a great team. But he always had something. Or just a different take on it that you weren't expecting. And that would surprise and enlighten you. And that's one of the things I've

been feeling all week. Just so sad for me and my audience and all of the audiences that love Charlie that that's gone now. God, I'm going to miss him so much professionally in that way. He's not replaceable. He is irreplaceable at Turning Point here on this show, on his show, and as a national figure. And obviously, the most irreplaceable at home with Erica and his children. I know you're all praying for his family. I am too. God bless you and we'll see you Monday.