2,387 videos 1,376,944,188 views US Joined Aug 30, 2018
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk on Los Angeles Fires: When Government Prioritizes DEI Over Basic Necessities Like Working Fire Hydrants
Charlie Kirk examines the apocalyptic fires devastating Los Angeles, where one-party Democratic rule has left fire hydrants without water and environmental policies have prevented brush cleanup for years. Kirk reveals he personally knows six people who lost their homes, including a team member whose house is completely gone. Joined by author Peachy Keenan, who grew up in Pacific Palisades and now faces evacuation in Pasadena, they discuss how the city spent money on trips to Ghana and sent firefighting supplies to Ukraine while defunding the fire department by $20 million. With water absent from fire hydrants in one of the most expensive ZIP codes in America, Kirk argues this disaster was entirely preventable if California had focused on basic government functions instead of abstract priorities.
Charlie Kirk opens with a stark warning about what happens when government loses focus on basic necessities. When a government prioritizes diversity, equity, inclusion, LGBTQ pet projects, and gets captured by environmentalists, it can't do fundamental things like ensuring fire hydrants work during fires or cleaning up brush to prevent cities from burning. What is happening in California right now is apocalyptic.
Kirk reveals the personal toll: he now knows six people personally—homes he has visited—that are now completely gone. One team member, Stacy, lost her house entirely and had to evacuate her family, possibly leaving a pet behind. Another major donor, who has the interior of one of Turning Point USA's buildings named after her, lost her entire house. Another friend in the Palisades lost everything. This represents some of the worst fires California has ever seen.
Peachy Keenan Reports from Ground Zero
Peachy Keenan, native Los Angeles resident and author of "Domestic Extremist," joins from the midst of the fires. She grew up in Pacific Palisades Village and the Palisades Riviera and now lives in the Pasadena and Altadena area, meaning she's being hit from both sides. Everyone she knows is under evacuation. Two of her husband's cousins in the Palisades Village lost their houses, burned to the ground. Their children's schools burned to the ground. Palisades High School is gone. Gladstones and all the iconic restaurants she grew up visiting in the Palisades are gone.
The fires have now consumed the neighborhoods where her mother lived in Malibu. Her own house is still standing, but several friends just found out their homes in Altadena are gone. These aren't celebrity homes or millionaire estates—these are families that have been there for 30 to 40 years.
Keenan describes the chaos of evacuation night. Her son, a student at Hillsdale College home for Christmas break, helped carry their belongings to the car while they got the younger kids out. The local Altadena Hardware store, a famous family business where both her sons have worked, burned to the ground. Her son had been working there the night before, selling emergency supplies to people preparing for the fires.
Complete Government Failure Across All Levels
Walking through her neighborhood along Lake Avenue, Keenan describes standing in front of homes burnt to the foundation. It's absolutely apocalyptic. The entire neighborhood above New York Avenue, a main east-west thoroughfare dividing Altadena and Pasadena, is completely engulfed.
Kirk doesn't hesitate to address the political reality: this is one-party rule. The state government is controlled by Democrats, the county government is controlled by Democrats, the city government is controlled by Democrats. They were unprepared. For years, warnings were issued that there would be a major fire breakout, that environmentalists were preventing brush cleanup, and that the city was spending money on the wrong priorities—like sending charter flights to Ghana. The mayor of Los Angeles is literally in Ghana right now, having taken a charter flight there.
The city sent extra firefighting supplies to Ukraine. Mayor Karen Bass defunded the Los Angeles Fire Department by approximately $20 million. The city can't even clean up homeless encampments, and every year it's the homeless camps in the mountains that start the fires. Keenan recalls that three or four years ago, Bel Air burned down near the 405 and Getty Center because of a homeless encampment.
No Water in the Fire Hydrants
Perhaps the most shocking revelation: there is no water in the fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades, one of the most expensive ZIP codes in the world. Rick Caruso, who ran for mayor of Los Angeles and lives in Brentwood, confirmed this. His daughter in the Palisades lost her home. Caruso stated on camera that there was no water coming out of the fire hydrants, calling it absolute mismanagement by the city—not the firefighters' fault, but the city's fault. He pointed out that the mayor is out of the country while the city burns, and there are no resources to put out fires. The First Responders and firefighters trying to battle the blazes have nothing to work with. It looks like a third world country.
In Pacific Palisades, an entry-level starting home costs three to four million dollars. Residents pay enormous property taxes but can't send their kids to local schools, and now the fire department doesn't have water. What exactly are people paying for?
Years of Warnings Ignored
This disaster has been building for years. There were the Thousand Oaks fires in 2020 and similar fires in 2018. This is not the first time California has seen fires of this magnitude. The technical nature of prevention is straightforward: clean up the brush. But the environmental lobby is so strong that the state won't allow it. They don't want to hurt some endangered chaparral bush or endangered lizard. You can't do anything that might harm the nesting ground squirrel, but you can endanger millions of people's lives, their children, and their businesses.
California gets torrential rainstorms once a year, with billions of tons of water coming down into the city. All of that water goes right into the ocean. People constantly wonder why the state doesn't build big reservoirs to capture the water, to have locally stored water so neighbors could fight their own fires in the Palisades and Malibu. Malibu has burned down about ten times in Keenan's lifetime, and they've never once organized proper water storage. California lives next to an ocean, but somehow the water God provides in rain never makes it to the fires.
The Human Toll Continues to Mount
Kirk shares another image that just came through: another friend's home, just gone, eliminated and obliterated. He has many friends in the Palisades where Turning Point USA does events and has significant support. The devastation is total.
The question turns to federal intervention. What can the federal government do? President Trump takes office in 12 days. Has FEMA been called? Why hasn't the National Guard been deployed? Even if they're not experts at fighting fires, they could provide logistical support. Keenan notes darkly that maybe FEMA would help this area because these are Biden voters—they don't help Trump voters, so they probably won't help her house.
Historic Neighborhoods Destroyed
Standing at Lake Avenue, the main north-south thoroughfare in Pasadena and Altadena, Keenan describes the scene. The road is completely blocked off. Behind her stands the beautiful old Westminster Presbyterian Church, surrounded by black smoke. All the homes along Lake Avenue and all the businesses are going up in flames.
She knows a family with ten children whose husband and father recently died of cancer. They live up the street in a beautiful old home—the only memory all the children have of their father. She has no idea what the fate of that home is, only that the family is safe. Another family at her children's school had their house spared, but their neighbors' home is gone.
Fire trucks from all over the state are finally arriving. Just blocks ahead, the intersection of Woodbury and New York is consumed by black smoke billowing from beautiful old homes. These aren't billionaires' estates or celebrity mansions. These are 120-year-old Craftsman homes where families have lived for decades. It's a real nightmare.
Insurance and Cost of Living Crisis
Questions arise about reports that many fire insurance cancellation letters and notices were recently sent out. Keenan has no direct insight but knows that California makes it very difficult to get homeowners insurance. Earthquake insurance is so exorbitant that most people don't even bother with it, and homeowners insurance is already extremely expensive in a state where the cost of living is crushing. If policies were indeed being cancelled en masse before these fires, that would be grounds for major lawsuits.
Will the Church Survive?
As the conversation closes, Kirk asks whether Westminster Presbyterian Church, visible behind Keenan, will be consumed by the fire. The neighborhood behind it appears to be in danger, with smoke just blocks north. Keenan believes the church, built of stone and standing since around 1910, will probably be okay. But up the street, the dry cleaner her family uses is gone. The local hardware store and all the family businesses that have been cornerstones of this community for decades are destroyed.
Despite the political differences—it's largely a liberal area—these are good people, and the shock is total. Kirk closes by saying he'll be praying for everyone affected, acknowledging just how terrible the situation is.
