Dave Rubin on Charlie Kirk's Murder: Honoring a Friend Who Bridged Political Divides

[00:00] Now, I'm delighted to have this next

[00:02] guest back on the show following his

[00:04] soldout tour with Jordan Peterson. Dave

[00:06] Rubin, host of the Reuben Report, is

[00:08] returning to Australia this October for

[00:10] three exclusive shows in Melbourne,

[00:12] Sydney, and Brisbane. The dates are on

[00:15] the screen. Get your tickets early

[00:17] before they sell out. Dave, welcome

[00:19] back. I wish we had Brighton news to

[00:21] discuss tonight, but the loss of your

[00:24] good friend Charlie Kirk has had a

[00:27] profound impact on tens of millions in

[00:30] in America and around the world. Tell me

[00:33] how you're feeling and what you've

[00:35] learned in this past week.

[00:37] Yeah, well, Rita, it's always good to

[00:39] see you. Uh we used to do this a bit

[00:41] more often. I am excited to come to

[00:43] Australia and actually uh the thing that

[00:46] brought you and I together years ago uh

[00:49] when I was doing when we were doing a

[00:50] lot of shows together was the thing that

[00:51] brought Charlie and I together. We just

[00:53] wanted to talk about things. We wanted

[00:54] to talk about the hot button issues of

[00:57] the day and debate them. And years ago

[00:59] when Charlie and I met first in 2017, I

[01:03] was a man of the left, he was a man of

[01:04] the right. And he came up to me at an

[01:06] event we did and he said, "Hey, let's go

[01:08] on tour together. Let's talk about

[01:10] everything. Let's debate everything.

[01:11] Let's go to colleges. Let kids ask us

[01:14] whatever they want. Let's just battle it

[01:16] out the way you're supposed to battle it

[01:18] out in a free society, which which is

[01:19] with words, of course, not with bullets.

[01:22] And Charlie and I did that dozens and

[01:24] dozens of times. We were protested and

[01:26] we had fire alarms pulled and bomb

[01:27] threats and all of those things. Um, of

[01:30] course, nothing like what happened this

[01:31] week, which you're right, has now, I

[01:33] think, affected hundreds of millions of

[01:34] people all over the world. Uh, Charlie

[01:37] was a great human being. You know, you

[01:39] know, putting aside the politics for a

[01:40] second, uh Charlie was undoubtedly a

[01:44] good husband and a wonderful father and

[01:46] his wife is now a widow and his children

[01:48] will grow up without a father. He was a

[01:50] good human being who who was doing the

[01:53] thing that we're all told we should all

[01:55] do, which is talk to the other side.

[01:57] Nobody from an American context did that

[02:00] more than Charlie Kirk. That's what he

[02:01] devoted his life to. Charlie would get

[02:04] hate from both sides because he was

[02:05] always trying to find new people to talk

[02:07] to. To this day, I I still didn't agree

[02:10] with everything Charlie said, but I will

[02:13] say, and this is a great credit to his

[02:14] debate skills and his thoughtful way of

[02:16] having nuance conversations, I came a

[02:18] lot closer to Charlie's opinions over

[02:20] the years than Charlie came to mind. I

[02:22] think I did move him on a couple things,

[02:23] but he definitely brought me uh more

[02:26] within, let's say, a wide 10

[02:27] conservative movement. So it's a really

[02:29] this is a terrible time for America but

[02:32] I would say a terrible time for the

[02:33] world because you know whatever happens

[02:35] in America as you know it leaks across

[02:37] the entire world and can make it across

[02:39] an ocean uh and land in your continent

[02:41] as well and uh I just hope cooler heads

[02:45] can prevail right now because there you

[02:47] know right now we're we're sort of as a

[02:48] country we're going through a degree of

[02:50] mourning although there's a lot of

[02:51] people that are quite angry too and it

[02:53] just feels like we're kind of sitting on

[02:55] a powder keg right now if one or two

[02:57] other weird things happen. It feels like

[02:59] all bets are off. And I'm really

[03:01] devoting myself right now, my show, and

[03:03] and my upcoming tour in Australia to

[03:05] finding the people that that want to

[03:07] break bread again, that want to figure

[03:09] out, okay, hey, we're different, but we

[03:11] got to learn to live together. And that

[03:13] that's going to be my mission. I think

[03:14] it's the only way that I can honor

[03:15] Charlie appropriately.

[03:19] And I want to ask you about this notion

[03:21] that we keep hearing, including in the

[03:23] Australian media, which just

[03:25] regurgitates the MSNBC, CNN talking

[03:29] points. This notion that Charlie Kirk

[03:33] was deeply homophobic. He was hostile to

[03:37] uh the LGBT community. You are a gay

[03:41] man. You were a friend of Charlie Kirk.

[03:43] Can you please address that allegation?

[03:48] Yeah. Well, look, I I happen to be gay.

[03:50] It's not something that I even think

[03:52] about that often or anything else. We've

[03:53] been married for 10 years. We We have

[03:55] kids. It It is what it is. We We live a

[03:58] decent life like most people. Um and

[04:01] Charlie, look, Charlie, like millions of

[04:02] other people, he's Charlie was entitled

[04:04] to his own personal religious beliefs.

[04:07] Uh there's a video that maybe you've

[04:08] seen, Elon Musk even tweeted out in the

[04:10] last couple days where uh somebody

[04:12] started asking Charlie, you know, how

[04:13] can you welcome gays into the uh

[04:16] conservative movement? And Charlie's

[04:18] answer is so wonderfully thoughtful and

[04:20] and the perfect example of what Charlie

[04:23] was. Charlie makes a point of saying,

[04:24] "Hey, I have my own religious beliefs,

[04:26] but America is not a religious

[04:28] theocracy." Did he want America to be um

[04:32] to be restored with Judeo-Christian

[04:35] values? And did he believe that he felt

[04:37] that his personal views were um best

[04:40] explained through Christianity? Well,

[04:42] the answer to that is absolutely yes.

[04:44] But Charlie was not crusading against

[04:47] marriage equality. Charlie was welcoming

[04:49] uh gay people into the conservative

[04:52] movement. By the way, he was also doing

[04:53] that with black people and and Hispanic

[04:56] people and everyone else. I mean, all of

[04:57] the all of the commentary around this

[04:59] man is completely ridiculous. But I will

[05:01] tell you, Charlie was at my house not

[05:03] too long ago. My husband and I sat at

[05:06] weddings next to he and his wife. We

[05:08] broke bread many, many times. And again,

[05:11] people are allowed their own personal

[05:13] religious beliefs. I for one would not

[05:15] force a religious institution to do

[05:17] anything that it didn't want to do. But

[05:19] that's the difference between a

[05:20] religious belief and a secular

[05:22] institution which is the government of

[05:24] the United States. And by the way, if

[05:26] you can credit that sort of open open

[05:29] idea that Charlie was presenting there,

[05:31] you can credit him for then bringing

[05:33] that to MAGO, which then opened up

[05:35] enough so that Elon Musk and Joe Rogan

[05:38] and Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard, all

[05:40] of these ex liberals, disaffected

[05:42] liberals like myself, Rita, I think a

[05:44] little bit like you could then come and

[05:46] be part of MAGA. So, no, he has nothing.

[05:50] There was no hatred in his heart. I

[05:51] would also make a quick distinction. And

[05:53] I think it's important the idea of the

[05:55] LGBT community. People need to stop

[05:57] saying it because the L's and the G's

[05:59] and the B's have nothing to do with the

[06:00] T's.

[06:01] And and that has become a that has

[06:03] become a political ideology more than a

[06:06] more than a sexuality or or a gender

[06:08] identity.

[06:09] Yeah,

[06:10] absolutely. And uh increasingly the LGB

[06:14] want to distance themselves from the

[06:16] rest of the alphabet. That just keeps

[06:18] increasing too. But I don't I don't even

[06:20] know how many letters we're up to. Two

[06:21] spirit. Do you know what spirit?

[06:25] Oh, two spirit. Yes. You're supposed to

[06:27] start with 2 SP now, aren't you? Before

[06:30] you start the LGBT and then then you've

[06:32] got the plus at the end. So, it's

[06:34] infinite number of letters that you

[06:36] could add to that. Um, now, can I ask

[06:38] you to respond please to this clip from

[06:41] Jimmy Kimmel? The painfully unfunny

[06:44] so-called comic had this to say on his

[06:46] late night show.

[06:48] We hit some new lows over the weekend

[06:50] with the MAGA gang desperately trying to

[06:52] characterize this kid who murdered

[06:55] Charlie Kirk as anything other than one

[06:57] of them and doing everything they can to

[06:59] score political points from it.

[07:03] Dave, this kid was apparently a

[07:04] conservative, which must be news to him

[07:07] and his trans boyfriend.

[07:10] Yeah, it's wild. First off, Jimmy Kimmel

[07:12] exists as a quote unquote comedian, and

[07:14] I use air quotes there because I've

[07:16] never heard him say anything funny, but

[07:17] he exists as a political operative in

[07:19] some ways more than Charlie himself

[07:21] existed as a political operative.

[07:23] Charlie was out there talking to people

[07:24] and open to ideas. Jimmy is doing a show

[07:26] where he makes, I don't know, probably

[07:28] about 15 mil a year to only force one

[07:30] political ideology down the throats of

[07:33] Americans. Um, no, no. The kid came from

[07:37] what sounds like a decent two parent

[07:39] household that had some conservative

[07:41] values and then he went to college and

[07:43] apparently became radicalized there and

[07:45] then had I I suppose a trans boyfriend

[07:47] and was pushed into leftist ideology.

[07:51] So, the fact that Jimmy knows he can go

[07:53] up there and just lie to his audience. I

[07:55] mean, I would say this goes to uh what I

[07:57] know you guys are dealing with in

[07:58] Australia, which we're certainly dealing

[08:00] with here, which is a massive

[08:02] misinformation war on the populace, that

[08:05] that the people who control the strings

[08:07] of everything seem to think they can

[08:08] just lie about absolutely everything,

[08:10] tell you up is down, left is right, boy

[08:12] is girl, and get away with it. And to

[08:14] the extent that Jimmy Kimmel is still on

[08:16] TV, I suppose they can get away with it.

[08:20] Well, they started with just straight

[08:23] out fakes. They put the alleged killer

[08:26] in a in a fake Trump t-shirt and that

[08:30] circulated and people saw that and

[08:32] believed it before it was debunked. And

[08:35] and the lies continue as you've just

[08:37] heard. Now, it's not just lies. It's

[08:41] utter ugly invective. streamer Steven

[08:44] Bennell, known online as Destiny. He had

[08:48] this to say about Charlie's murder and

[08:51] the political climate in America.

[08:54] If you wanted Charlie Kirk to be alive,

[08:56] Donald Trump shouldn't have been

[08:57] president for the second term. Every

[08:58] time he's in office, this happens.

[09:00] People joked about when Biden came in,

[09:02] it was so boring. Nothing was going on.

[09:04] Seven out of 10 of the largest protests

[09:06] in American history have happened under

[09:08] Donald. And he also defended mocking

[09:12] Erica Kirk, Charlie's grieving widow.

[09:15] It's such a simple thing. If you're

[09:17] going to weaponize somebody's grief

[09:19] against the other party, well, then of

[09:20] course people have a right to fight back

[09:21] against it. I think that she has every

[09:23] right to grieve in whatever way she

[09:25] wants, but when that grief is going to

[09:26] be weaponized to do recruitment,

[09:28] political recruitment and further

[09:29] radicalization of the other side, then

[09:31] of course you not only have the ability

[09:33] to mock it, I think you have the

[09:34] obligation to mock it. It's insane.

[09:36] There you go, Dave. You have the

[09:37] obligation to mock her, a grieving widow

[09:41] who has to explain to a three-year-old

[09:43] child why her daddy is never coming

[09:46] home.

[09:48] Yeah. I mean, I would say this is

[09:49] shocking except I've seen enough clips

[09:52] of this guy endorsing violence and

[09:54] saying all sorts of crazy things for

[09:55] years that I'm not surprised at all. Uh

[09:58] there are other streamers. I think

[10:00] you've probably heard of this guy Hassan

[10:01] who's huge on Twitch who's

[10:03] literally called for violence blood in

[10:05] the street violence of capitalists who

[10:07] is still on that platform. But I would

[10:10] say broadly without making it about a

[10:12] specific person I mean we shouldn't be

[10:14] surprised by any of this. I mean the

[10:16] left in America has purged all of the

[10:20] decent liberals. It has become a radical

[10:24] party that is trying to usher in Marxist

[10:27] and communism. Marxism, communism and

[10:29] socialism. And by the way, they finally

[10:30] admit that themselves. You know, years

[10:32] ago, they started calling themselves

[10:34] Democrat socialists. They don't really

[10:36] even say the Democrat party anymore. Now

[10:37] they're outright socialists. And then

[10:39] when you combine what I know you have in

[10:41] your country too with the mar, you know,

[10:42] these Hamas marches and everything else,

[10:44] you get this crazy red green alliance.

[10:47] And and what do they have in common?

[10:48] What do the queers for Palestine have in

[10:51] common with the uh I don't know, the

[10:54] perceived oppressed Palestinians? It's

[10:56] that they would love to take out Western

[10:58] society. That's what they have in

[10:59] common. That's it. Uh so so it is not

[11:02] surprising that these people would

[11:03] either endorse violence or mock those

[11:06] who have just lost their loved ones

[11:07] because of violence. It's actually a

[11:09] fairly obvious extension of everything

[11:10] else that they tell us.

[11:14] Dave Rubin, we can't wait to see you in

[11:16] Australia next month. Thank you so much

[11:18] for your time tonight.

[11:20] Thank you, Rita.