The Tucker Carlson Show - Full Speech: Tucker’s Charlie Kirk Memorial & Their Best Moments on God, Christianity, and Hope

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Tucker’s Charlie Kirk Memorial & Their Best Moments on God, Christianity, and Hope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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or go to explorevolvo.com. Ladies and gentlemen, Tucker Carlson. Ah, that made me emotional. Made me emotional to see that. Susie Wiles had tears in her eyes, which you don't often see in politics, but it's real. This is the most unbelievable thing I think I've ever seen.

And I don't. whatever happens next in America, I hope it's in this direction because God is here and you can feel it. And Charlie would have loved this, not just because he loved large groups of people, but because ultimately he was a Christian evangelist. And it actually reminds me of my favorite story ever. So it's about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and Jesus shows up and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the truth about people, and they hate it, and they just go bonkers. They hate it, and they become obsessed with making him stop.

This guy's got to stop talking. We've got to shut this guy up. And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamplit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about what do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking. And there's always one guy with the bright idea, and I could just hear him say, I've got an idea. Why don't we just kill him? That'll shut him up.

That'll fix the problem. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. Everything is inverted, and the beatitudes tell it, I think, the most crisply. Everything is sort of the opposite of what you think it's going to be. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comfort. that is true and you can feel it here. The thing about Charlie's message, I've thought a lot about it and I'm trying not to be emotional because in addition to everything else, he was a

wonderful man and a decent man and one of those rare people you meet who you just groove with in conversation and have these very intense conversations that you don't stop thinking about, which is my experience with him. But the main thing about Charlie and his message, he was bringing the gospel to the country. He was doing the thing that the people in charge, hate most, which is calling for them to repent. So how is Charlie's message different? And Charlie was a political person who was deeply interested in coalition building and in getting the right people in office because he knew that vast improvements are possible politically. But he also knew that politics is not the final answer. It can't answer the deepest questions, actually.

that the only real solution is Jesus. And the reason, it's really simple. Politics at its core is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the gospel message, the message of Jesus, begins with repentance. Christianity calls upon you to change. Our core prayer, given to us by Jesus, the Lord's prayer, demands that we forgive other people, but preceding that is a request for our forgiveness.

In other words, forgive us. Our sins meditate on what we've done wrong, how we've fallen short, and then it becomes possible to forgive other people. That is a call to change our hearts from Jesus, and that is the only way, forward in this country. That is the only solution to where we all know we're going. And Charlie knew where we were going without that. And that is not a call for being politically passive? Of course

not. I stood in many stages with Charlie calling for various people to be elected, particularly Donald Trump. And I'm proud of that. It's only an acknowledgement that what Charlie was really saying is that change begins the only change that matters when we repent of our sins. We, me, a recognition that the real problem is me and how fallen I am. And that was the reason that Charlie was fearless at all times, truly fearless. To his last moment, he was unafraid, he was not defensive, and there was no hate in his heart. I know that because I've got a little hate compartment in my heart, and I would often express that to Charlie about various people, and he would always say, always say, that's a sad person, that's a broken person,

that's a person who needs help, that's a person who needs Jesus. He said that in private, because he meant it. So I guess I would just say this gathering and God's presence, God's very obvious presence in this room, the presence of Jesus, is a reminder of what we've known for 2,000 years, which is any attempt to extinguish the light, causes it to burn brighter every single time. So as we proceed into whatever comes next and clearly something's coming next,

remember this moment, remember being in a room with the Holy Spirit humming like a tuning fork, this is the way, right here, this is. the way. And that is what Charlie Kirk was saying underneath it all. Thank you. And God bless. Your faith is the most important thing. Because for those of us that are Christians, it doesn't drive you crazy. You actually see what's going on, which is that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and darkness and spirits, that there is a spiritual war here. And you're right, Tucker, I find people in this space

that are not anchored to faith, anchored to Jesus. They do lose their mind. Because there is no rational or reasonable explanation for what the country is doing to itself or what we are experiencing. But if you then see and you know that there is a God and we are not him, that there is an entire dimension of angels and demons and spirits that are constantly struggling around us and that there is a supernatural dimension, as you mentioned, all of a sudden, that does then make sense. We're just here temporarily in the Christian view. There's an afterlife for us. There's the next life. Our bodies will actually resurrect. Christ our Lord will come back and rain over this earth in the thousand year millennia so we shouldn't be overly fixed at but until that

happens they're rotting we're all rotting by the way it's like just like deal with it except yes exactly like you have an expiration date yes and and and god is in charge of that so what do you do with that amen and so if you look at the biblical figures they weren't like overly interested in like you know mastering the back nine you know at the naples country club no it was do god wants us in four words love God love people. For those of us that know the truth, we know that our God is a God of order and distinction. What is the first thing that God did? In the Hebrew scriptures it says, well, and also our scripture in the original Genesis, Bereshith, which is in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth, and then he separated and he made sense. He made order out of chaos.

Our God is a God of order. And order only comes with distinctions. And distinctions are necessary. Think about all the distinctions that God set up in the first six books of Genesis that are currently under attack. The distinction between male and female. The distinction between man and nature. The distinction between the holy and the profane. The distinction between good and evil. The distinction between infant and adult. These distinctions have always been what Western civilization were built upon.

But it is Satan's goal to blur and observe. eventually destroy those distinctions, because those distinctions of which we get order, and if you do not have that order, then you have the closest thing to satanic chaos here in our country. Man! People can't see the future, period, because they're not God. They can only sort of muddle along in the half-darkness and do their best. And so as soon as you have leaders who imagine that there's a really clear line between today and three years from now, and they can see what it is.

Like, you're kind of wind up in disaster. The Ukraine war. Again, we're surrounded by examples of this. And so really what you need in a leader is good intent. And humility. And humility. Those are the two things. You want someone who, you know, imperfect as he may be,

we'll make a good faith effort to uplift his people, A, and B, you need someone who understands his limits in doing that. Like, I'm going to try. His place, too. Yeah. That there's a God. I'm not him. There's something sovereign above me.

And you're not allowed to kill people except in self-defense. Let me repeat, you are not allowed to kill people except in self-defense. And if you do, you are evil. It's really that democracy. It's really, you know, it comes in all these various justifications throughout time. But just to restate, you are not allowed to kill people except in self-defense. That's the most basic rule of them all. And if you find yourself doing that, you are evil or abetting evil on the side of evil. And if you lose that clear. And like, people, make mistakes all the time and what you think is self-defense is actually an active aggression or whatever. I mean, these are complicated scenarios as they occur, right? And you do your best to make the right decision. But if you don't go into it with the knowledge that as a human being, you are not in charge of life, you did not create it, and you were not allowed to take it except to preserve your own life, or those are the people you love, or the people you're in charge of, if you don't know that and say it and repeat it to yourself every single day, you will wind up murdering millions and millions of people. I really believe that there's such a hatred for Christianity that any part

of the population that is like remotely Christian, they inherently hate you because the real goal is to eliminate Christianity. Do you notice that they never are like enthusiastic about bringing in major parts of the population of Eastern Europe that are super Christian? Yet they're like, let's go bring in the witchcraft country. Kind of weird. Like more witchcraft, less Christianity. I don't understand how that works out. But the contempt is very simple is that they think that they are so much better than you

it is an elitist hierarchical position and that you're in annoyance that your concerns that what you're doing is just kind of stay out of the way and I know people disagree with me I think this is behind the push for legalizing marijuana I think this is the push for trying to overly medicate the society is they do not want a disagreeable citizenry

this is why they want testosterone rates to go down this is why they want to kick the military men out of the alpha men out of the military with the vaccine is because a population that asks questions and stands up to the powerful is a threat to them. So they'd much rather have you be subdued, just watch TV, not care about what's happening, and just kind of stay on your benzodiazepines or valium or marijuana and three beers a night, and then you're agreeable. But what has always made America different as a beacon of liberty is that we'd call BS on tyranny

whenever we see it. And that is what is at the heart of this movement. And they look at you as an annoyance. Do people want to be free? And that is a very difficult question to answer. In the book of Exodus and numbers, the answer is no. Is that if you fail to teach a generation the value of liberty, they actually instinctively don't want to be free. When God delivered his chosen people out of Egypt and he performed the most amazing miracles imaginable. You know, the Nile River goes red and frogs from the sky and the first born dead and the Red Sea parts and they go into the Sinai Desert. After a couple chapters, they're like, hey, we want to go back to Egypt.

We want to go back to slavery. Why? Because the food was better. Literally, we had melons, leeks, cucumbers, and meat. And they say, hey, Moses, can we go back to slavery? to Egypt. Now mind you, this is when God blew quail off course and manna from heaven and they need and wanted for

nothing, but they preferred to be slaves that were taken care of than free citizens in the desert where they had to be responsible. And that is a very important lesson for all of us, that liberty is a value that we must pass on, that we must

cherish, and part of the population will never wake up because they would rather be in Egypt. And what is in front of us in this election cycle. And what is in front of us in this culture right now is do you want to live as a free citizen? And that might be hard. That means you have to provide for your family. You might have to make tough decisions. Or do you want to just go be a Russian surf back in Egypt where they give you your little ration every month and you have no liberty and you have no freedom? That is really

what's in front of us right now. And I think we're seeing a revival begin to happen because it really is spiritual at its core where the American people are going to demand. No. We do not want to go back to Egypt. We want to live free. We know it's harder, but that is the American way. So you really feel that? I mean, I think it's important. I feel that too, but I'm not quite as articulate on this question as you are and I don't travel as much. But you see signs of that? Oh, my goodness, yes. I just want to say, I'm not predicting that Donald Trump will win in November. If we had an election, by the way, where we didn't have mail and ballots all over the place and signature verification,

I think Donald Trump would easily win in November for the record, but we don't. Tucker, when we go to college campuses, I was at Kansas State today, by the way. I will tell you, they didn't treat us very well, so you guys got to calm up and say, they were worse than Boulder in Madison, by the way.

I'm not here to talk about that. Is that true? Very liberal administration. We had an outdoor event. In the state of Kansas. Yeah, we had 2,000 kids there, and we had a permit for amplification, and it ended at one, and usually campuses let us go over one. Okay, you have 2,000 kids, not a big deal.

I was literally in Boulder this week. Administration was like, it's fine. You guys are having a good time. You know, we're not, I was in Madison, it's fine. In Manhattan, Kansas, the minute that we hit the end of our permit, they started like pulling out plugs. You've got to turn off all the mics. Never seen anything like it. It was insane.

So, for those you that are alum of Kansas State, you should contact them and stop. giving money to Kansas State. Pull your donations from Kansas State. Okay. So, no, I'm not kidding. Do not fund schools that treat conservatives this way. And by the way, you could say, why is it that C.U. Boulder, which is like

Leningrad, treated Charlie Kirk better than Kansas State. Great talking point. But when we do these events, Tucker, on campus, we cannot find rooms big enough to fit all the students that want to attend our on-campus events. Really? We cannot. We cannot, find physical spaces to fit all the students that want to come to our events. Gen Z men are the

most conservative that men have been in 50 years. 50 years. And I also see, I see young and old of people that are starting to shed their prior affiliations. Republican Democrat mean nothing. And they're starting to get down to first principles. And I mean, we do every day. Anyone watch the Charlie Kirk show, by the way. Anyone, thank you guys. It really means a lot. And I have to stay ahead of the audience. How informed the average listener and viewer is? Have you noticed this, Tucker? The depth...

I don't solicit feedback. I don't want to be embarrassed. Yeah, but they are actively correcting me. If I get a date wrong, if I get a name wrong, emailing, Charlie, you should know better than that. And I love that, because that means that the learning is a two-way street, and that I really believe, and I learned this from Dr. Larry Arne from Hillsdale College. He said, Charlie, we will not save the country.

By the way, Hillsdale is America's greatest college, and we all agree. It really is. He said, we will not save the country until we get the citizenry to want to prioritize learning because you cannot have liberty without learning. And I don't mean liberty, like public school learning.

I mean, hey, instead of watching the ninth NFL football game that weekend, turn it off and listen to an audience. audiobook. Read the Gulag Archipelago. Read 1984. Read Brave New World. Go deeper. That, that is, the regime hates an informed population. They hate that you guys know what's going on. They despise when you know history. Is it ecclesiastes? I think it is. By Solomon? By what? By what? Ecclesiastes, the book. Yes, correct. Yeah. You know, sort of like, one of the two books written by Solomon. Yeah. Like, what is all this? The first line was, this is all meaningless.

Exactly. That's exactly. exactly right. What a depressing book. It literally opens up like it's like a suicidal 17 year old god. It totally is. Like meaningless, meaningless, all that is meaningless. It's like, ecclesiastic one. And you're like, what is this is... You've probably read it like 10 times and understand it's a deeper meeting.

It actually gets better because he says with God there actually is meaning. No, that's right. And I it's... I've read it precisely one time sitting alone. And in the context, Solomon had all the women he wanted, all the trappings, all the splendor, and he's like, it's all meaningless. But that is kind of the... That is exactly. That is exactly. That is the one thing that I, not that I have all the women and all the money or whatever, but like,

you do reach an age in life, you're like, okay, you know, I've achieved all my dumb little goals that I set out for myself, and they're all very small bore, because they always are, and like, okay, like, what, is that, was that worth it? Was the prize worth winning? Did that bring me, you know, joy and fulfillment and, like, knowledge of, you know, eternal life? No. And so I do think that is a, that is very, that's almost universal, um, among, um, among middle-aged men who run, by and large, the U.S. government. And so it's a very natural temptation to be like, you know, what can I achieve? I try to read the Bible every day. I can't stand reading a digital Bible unless I absolutely have to. I like reading from a physical Bible.

No distractions, no pings, no dings, no phone calls, no tweets, no telegrams. And yeah, that's the other thing, which is we want to get back to first principles and you want hope, we must put God first in everything that we do and understand that we are nothing here but just for a short instant, a short little glimpse, and we act not out of outcome, but we act out of obedience. What I am doing right now to try to help Trump win and try to do all these things, I have no idea if we'll be successful. So why do you do it, Charlie? It could be rigged. It could be all this. Happy to go into that. I do it because I love. love God and we're called by Jesus to love him in everything that we do with our heart and our soul

and our strength and our mind. And God cares deeply about the type of society that we live in. And it's not God's heart anywhere for us to live in tyranny. Jeremiah 297, demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare. Psalm 9710. But those of you who love God hate evil, we are called to go into the public square and to contest for those who cannot fight for themselves to fight for liberty. And liberty is God's idea, not man's idea. And what we are seeing culminate, I think, is a crescendo of a multi-decade spiritual battle, which is now currently manifested in the political.

And we do it not because, you know, we hope Trump is going to win. We do it to honor a God that loves us. Why are so many young people going back to church? Let's talk about something promising. It is happening. It's happening in record numbers. God is moving. That's why. I mean, I would, if you'd ask me that, three years ago, I would have said it's because the promise of the modern West, the post-war West, God died and we dropped

the atom bomb on Hiroshima, obviously, because we assumed God-like powers. We have the power of life and death over the planet, over humanity itself. And so that was literally the moment when the West stopped believing in God and things began to fall apart. Not defending Imperial Japan. It's just a fact. Rather, that's my interpretation. effects. But anyway, this has been happening for a long time, and the prizes that we award to the winners in our society are mostly not worth having. It's just material wealth, which is not the source of happiness as anyone who's ever gotten rich, including me. I've been rich and poor. You know, it's better than being in debt, which is bad, but it doesn't make you happy. Of course

not. Not being in crisis makes you happy. Of course, that's right. Not being in debt, not having a mortgage. That's all good. But like, how much French toast can you eat? Like, seriously, you know, how many hours can you sit and bat? It's like not that exciting, actually. So I would have told you three years ago, you said, why are people returning to church? Why is Christianity resurgent? I would say because they found Western materialism

fundamentally unsatisfying and they're looking for something more. I'd no longer think that. I think what you're seeing is a supernatural phenomenon. I think you're seeing the Spirit of God moving among people. I can't believe I'm saying this. You're an Episcopalian? I know I was. What is wrong with you?

I left when it became Wiccan, but, That's how I was raised. You're talking like a Pentecost? No, I'm, I don't know what I am, but I just, I try to describe things as honestly as I can. Clearly, we've seen evil move among us. Correct. We see it all the time, all the time. It's not rational, it's not political, no one's getting rich from it.

The point is destruction. That's the point. Why would you give fentanyl to addicts? Why would you invite 500,000 Haitians here with no job? COVID shot. The COVID shot. It's only to destroy. So we all know that.

That's evil. That's what evil looks like. But evil has a. counterbalance which is actually more powerful and it's called good it's the spirit of god and you are seeing that and i am seeing it in i mean all the time and it's what keeps me from being despondent and i see it as you see everything through other people and i've lived in a secular world my whole life and certainly in the news business for 35 years i've only known secular people there are no religious people in the news business none maybe in the editing room or something but they don't talk and i now know people

personally really well who were like, yeah, I was like praying the other day or was reading the Bible or I think I believe in Jesus. What? Use the J word? And I'm seeing that everywhere. And so that leads me to believe this is not organic. This is supernatural. People don't say that. They're not moved to that except by God's power moving them. You don't have eyes to see or ears to hear unless God gives them to you. So I think that. How has God been at work in your life? I don't know. I'm so focused on my inherent shittiness

and it's sometimes hard to see it. That's why you're a good Christian. I don't know. The first rule of Christianity is understand you are... Well, I definitely marinated that. Totally depraved. I'm definitely aware of that. Total depravity is the beginning.

You know you need Jesus if you stay in total depravity. Because I always tell the kids who work for me, the one person I don't trust is me, because I know him so well. No, I think I'm just so aware of it. I mean, I think one of the ways that people change when they start thinking about God is your timeline gets longer and you realize that this is just a snapshot in eternity and it's not the end and it wasn't the beginning when you were born. Like this is a lot bigger. You start thinking about what happens after you die. It's not the end.

And you start seeing the world in those terms. Death is not the worst thing. you know, you can live in hell on earth by being trapped by lies. And that's a choice that all of us make every day. Am I going to participate in the lie or not? And it's not that hard to say, no, I'm not. And it's incredibly, I hate the word, but it's true, empowering to decide that to the extent I remember, I'm not going to lie. And we're also prone to lying, me included.

Like they just like, come out, lies all this are lying, we're lying. You know, we're just like that way. But if you try, be like, no, no, I'm going to tell the truth. And the small things and the big things. No, I think the fish was only 13 inches. It was not a 19 inch trout. I'm just going to be honest. I think it was 13 inches.

I'm a trout fisherman. If you just get in the habit of doing that, you find yourself filled with this crazy power from outside you, which is by definition supernatural power. And you become stronger. The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. I really believe that I've experienced that. The spoken truth.

The spoken truth. That's the logos. In the beginning was what? The logos. The word, which is the word logos. Yeah. Which is the spoken. And the word was.

And the word was flesh. Yeah. And the word was God and God became flesh. Yeah. Everything you're saying is inherently spiritual. You think there's a spiritual dynamic to all of this. And can you talk just briefly? I know we're running out of time.

How your spiritual journey has deepened in the last couple of years. I know you've been reading the Bible even more as an Episcopalian that seems to be quite an accomplishment. Reading the Bible even more. I didn't read the Bible at all before. I'm being. I'm being generous. Yeah, I mean, I haven't had much of a spiritual journey. I'm such a flawed person that I don't even want to be associated with Christianity,

because I don't want to discredit it. But I mean that. That means you're a true Christian. I don't know. I don't want to be called that. But I'm very superstitious on that point. No, I'm a really flawed person, obviously. But, yeah, I mean, there's, I think I will say this, there is a,

Christian revival underway in the United States, a low-key Christian revival. I see it all around me. It's not the kind of tent revival that you imagine from, you know, 1923. It's something else. It's a different manifestation of the same thing. And I see it everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean, in the conversations that I have with people I'm talking to, where people who've lived totally secular lives, as I have, I've lived a very secular life, are all of a sudden referring to God or, some power beyond themselves in a way that would have been really striking five years ago. No one I knew. I mean, you're from a different world, a world that's much more in touch with the spiritual,

with the transcendent, but I'm not. I mean, I'm from a world that's in touch with, like, what is happening today. That's it. I've never heard people talk like that, ever. And now, practically, everyone I know is talking like that. What is that? And that's a sign to me that, yes, the spiritual realm is obvious to people who had never thought about it before. What I'm seeing is that people are asking the question, why are they doing this?

And the spiritual is the only explanation. Of course. Because it defies reason. What did God say? He said, it's not good for man to be alone. Exactly. But he wasn't alone. He had God.

What he was saying is that it's not good for man to be without a woman. Of course. So it's not enough for man just to have God. And some people don't like this teaching, but it's true. Adam had God. He had a relationship with God. If you look at almost every third world country where men don't feel that they are able to have economic prosperity or any romantic future, you get either revolution, gang violence, or complete disconnect. Or suicide.

Or suicide, which is what we have, right? So it's the most suicidal generation in history. Now, I don't want to paint like a totally negative picture because there is one really good trend, and it's not because of baby boomers. And it's not because of our leaders. I guess that. Well, no, it's men, young men are going back to church. That is legit. That's happening because, honestly, it's the only thing that they can find.

It's a life raft in this just tsunami of chaos and disorder. So I get asked all the time, well, why are they going to the Catholic Church? Why are they going to Orthodox Church more than the evangelical church? And I'm evangelical. I'll say, well, first of all, they want something that has lasted. They want something that is ancient and that is beautiful. Some that has stood the test of time. Something that's not going to change.

something that's all of a sudden knock and all of a sudden just flip around and have some sort of you know transgender story hour they are so that's a really positive trend

in the midst of all this so that's my great hope is the spiritual hope that the young men that are lost and if any young man is listening to this right now like stop

watching porn stop you know smoking weed stop drinking endlessly find yourself back to church that will reorient your life and do what the church tells you to do right find a woman

marry her provide, have more kids than you can afford. That's my advice for young men. Don't play the victim. Even though you legitimately can play the victim card on everything we've said, the mindset of a victim is parasitic to your soul. Are you hopeful? Of course I'm hopeful.

I'm hopeful, and first, of course, in Jesus Christ, because for those that know Christ, we know how this story ends, and we know that there's a creator and there's a divine perfector to all of this. Everybody, it's more than just getting a reverse mortgage on your home. it's more than buying relief factor it's about getting into the arena and what does that mean it means if you are actively not being criticized canceled smeared or slandered you are a spectator not a participant we will save this country when all of us are participants in this fight that means that you guys can sign up and take vacation time and come to arizona to go chase ballots for Donald Trump we will

put you to work. This means you guys can write letters to swing voters in key states pleading for them to make the right decision. This means educating your kids, homeschooling your kids and taking them out of government schools. This means that you're going to feed your kids and grandkids healthy food and not that highly processed garbage that is currently being put down by the big ag companies. This means you're going to learn every single week and prioritize it. This means you are going to be an active citizen and as we said it earlier, an active, informed, thoughtful, deep, and faithful citizen is the greatest threat to a tyrannical regime.

And in that, Tucker, I have hope. Amen. Charlie Kirk, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.