JD Vance Honors Charlie Kirk After Assassination: Carrying Forward His Vision for America

[Applause] We're talking to so many voters that know it is time for change. They know that something is wrong. America's future is a series of choices. Our current state of slow motion national decline is a choice. Today is our 2-year-old's birthday. And I look at my daughter and that is my why. For those that are parents, you know exactly what I mean. There is no mountain that stands tall as your faithfulness. There is no river that runs wide as your goodness. [Music] Man, Charlie, uh, I I remember when we were starting these out and it was that like that, you know, it was like this. It was like it was like your average three rows. It was like your average political meeting where there was like 12 people in a room and uh, this is this is awesome. This, in my personal opinion, was the most over-the-top Trump event that I've ever covered. This is the number one boots on the ground operation in the country. We're working directly in harmony with the Trump campaign. It's been vetted. It's been cleared. It's been blessed, as you could see there. And we're going to try to win this thing. No guarantees. It's what we do that matters. Mr. President, I can tell you this room is 100% with you, and we have your back. God bless you. We really do. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] As you know, we are heading on campus here momentarily at the University of South Florida, throwing it down with the students. It's going to be a lot of fun. Uh we are excited to continue this cultural movement that we have started at Turning Point USA. More high school chapters, more college chapters. And disagreement is not just welcome, it is invited. We want to have those tough conversations. That's what it's all about. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] because you're not supposed to be involved in this. You're supposed to just kind of be on the vote for me every four years, give me more political power and stay out of my business. And what has happened is we are seeing an explosion in citizen participation. There is nothing [Music] Follow me all of my days. Your mercy follow me. [Applause] Oh, there is nothing else I'll ever need. Knock on that extra door. Go that extra mile. Talk to that extra friend. Because throughout voting month and culminating on the 5th of November, I believe it will go down as a day that people remember, as a day that is written about in history books, as the final battle from the golden escalator on down. From defeating Hillary Clinton, from the nonsense of 2020, from Butler, Pennsylvania, November 5th, it all culminates where we restore the promise that the founders gave us. and they said, "Hey, if the people want it, the people get it, and we the people take back America. God bless Arizona." And thank you so much. [Music] Every day, the American people demand certain accomplishments and victories. Disagreement is what keeps a movement alive, keeps a movement fun. Here in this country, we are a country of flourishing. We're a country of risk-taking. We're a country of building. We will achieve American greatness. And we are just getting started. All my days your mercy follow me. [Music] [Music] [Music] Every day there's a battle for your mind raging. Information coming from every angle with the will to deceive. Fear not. You found the place for truth. The voice of a generation that still has the will to believe in the greatest country in the history of the world. This is the Charlie Kirk show. Buckle up. Here we go. Hey everybody, JD Vance here live from my office in the White House complex and filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I'm going to try to do my best. My dear friend, the great Charlie Kirk. The last several days have been extremely hard for our country. They've been hard for me, hard for my family, hard for the countless people in this building who knew and love Charlie Kirk. And of course, they've been hardest most of all for his darling wife Erica and their two beautiful children. The thing is, every single person in this building, we owe something to Charlie. He was a joyful warrior for our country. He loved America. He devoted himself tirelessly to making our country a better place. He was a critical part of getting Donald Trump elected as president, getting me elected as vice president. And so much of our success over the last seven months is due to his efforts, his staffing, his support, and his friendship. I don't think that I'm alone in saying that Charlie was the smartest political operative I ever met. Everyone knew him as this fearless debater, this guy who would take the conservative message into hostile places and inspire younger generations to have courage. One thing that's hit a lot of those young Americans over the last week was how Charlie was there for them when others were not. when they were afraid to speak their minds, when they were afraid of what a professor would say, when they were afraid that they would be shouted down by their peers, Charlie was there showing them that they could be courageous and that they could be bold. Charlie was a visionary. He was a luminary. He brought together people. He didn't just teach people how to speak. He didn't just teach people what to say. He didn't just teach people they could actually speak their mind on campus. They create he created a whole social network for an entire generation of young people. I know people who met their husband, who met their wife, who met the best men at their wedding at a TPUSA event. Because as you guys all know, it's not just about speaking our mind. It's about making friends along the way and creating that support network that won an election and that staffed the current federal government. I owe so much to Charlie. I I've had friends reach out in just the last couple of days who sent me messages, screenshots that they exchanged with Charlie in the run-up to me getting selected by the president as his vice presidential running mate. And it's such an honor to have people show me that Charlie said, "We want JD to be the VP nominee." And I just had a conversation with the president and I think things are actually going well. I think he's actually going to choose JD Vance. Do you know what it means to me that such a good guy, such a good friend, such a lion and visionary of our movement was advocating for me. So, I wanted to use this show today to advocate for Charlie, to talk about him, to talk about what kind of a guy he was, to talk about what kind of a man he was, what kind of a husband and father he was, and to take people, most of them from inside the administration, but some of them from without, who knew Charlie best, and to talk about what he meant, what he meant to them, what he meant to this administration, and what he meant to the conservative movement. Now, I was very honored a couple of days ago on September the 11th, 2025 to fly out to Utah where Charlie was shot and killed, to meet his wife, to meet his mom and his dad, his his sister, all just incredible people who didn't deserve to have this happen to them. And I was also honored to be able to take Charlie's remains from Utah to Arizona. It was an amazing, amazing thing. It was heartbreaking and it was sad and it was terrible. But what an honor it was for me and my family to be welcomed in to the Kirk inner circle at their moment of grief. There are a few things that I I want to talk about just from that that moment. First of all, when I first met Erica, his lovely wife and such an incredibly brave soul. I'm not sure if you saw her remarks after Charlie died. And if you haven't, I would encourage you to go and see them because you see this raw grief and incredible courage all in the same moment. And that's what we need right now. We need to grieve, but we also need this courage in this moment more than we've ever needed it. She gave me a hug and she was heartbroken as of course she would be. And she said that she loved him so much. And I said, "Erica, he loved you so much. He died way too young, but he died a happy man because of you, because of the family that you gave him, because of the home and the life that you guys had built together. And we sat for about an hour and we talked about Charlie. And you know, in these moments, you don't know what to say. I'm a person who literally speaks for a living. And I had no idea what to say. And I didn't try to console her because how can you console a person who just lost a loving husband and father? But we just talked about Charlie. We talked about who he was. We talked about some of our favorite stories. We talked about some of his idiosyncrasies and all the things that made Charlie Kirk who he was. And she said something to me that I will never forget. My wife was there. It was just me and my wife on on my side and then a lot of people from the Turning Points family, a lot of people from from Charlie's family. And she said to me that Charlie never raised his voice, that he never cussed at her, that he was never cross or mean-spirited to her. And look, I am I'm a husband. I'm proud of being a husband. I think that on the great balance of things that I'm a pretty good husband, but I can ne never say that I was never unpleasant with my wife. I can never say that I've never raised my voice to my wife. Like most husbands, even the good ones were sometimes imperfect. And I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father. Because of all these moments that I share just in the last few days, the books that I've read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and kissing them and hugging them before bed, I I just realized that all of these moments that I get to have, Charlie is not able to have them anymore. And Charlie's kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore. And maybe the best way that I can contribute and the best way that I could honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be. To be the kind of husband to my wife that he was to his. You he talked all the time about the most important thing you could do is not vote for a particular candidate. It was to become, if you were a young man, a husband and a father. He talked about the joy that came from fatherhood, the joy that came from raising a family and being part of of of of their growth and their development and all the incredible things that happen when you get to be a husband and father. And that is the way that I'm going to honor my friend is to be the very best at that most important job that I can be. But that's not the only way that I'm going to honor Charlie. And there's going to be a lot of discussion over the next two hours of this radio program about what exactly that looks like. It's important, and Erica asked me this, to make sure that his movement, the movement that Charlie started, it has to keep going. We have to build upon it. We have to add to it. We have to make sure that the next generation of young people feels confident and courageous to speak their mind and to speak the truth. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about why do we do this? Of course, we do this so that we can enact good public policy and take back our country. We're going to talk with senior officials in the administration about what we're trying to do to honor Charlie's legacy in that way. Of course, we have to make sure that the killer is brought to justice. And importantly, we have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin's bullet. We're going to talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity. real unity that can only come when we tell the truth and everybody knows that they can speak their mind about the issues of the day without being cut down by a murderer's gun. We're going to talk about all of those things with friends of Charlie, with people in the administration, with people that he knew. You know, on a podcast a couple of months back, Charlie was asked about how he'd want to be remembered if he died. His answer, I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. that would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith and that was Charlie. And in this dark moment for our country, I think that's the greatest lesson any of us can take from Charlie. To have faith, to have faith in the Lord and to be bold and how we glorify him, to be bold in our pursuits as Charlie was in his. So, that's what we're going to spend a little bit of time doing this afternoon, keeping this incredible show he created going and hearing from some of the people who were so fortunate to call Charlie a friend. We're going to pay tribute to his courageous legacy, and we're going to commit to keep it forever alive. I'm looking forward to this. Join us. [Music] Why would he see him? Why wouldn't he see the person is in the chat before talking about war policy? So, well, time out. Just so we're clear. I'm sure you've been added to group chats with 30 or 40 people sometimes and you enter in with trust that every acronym is actually a government official. Obviously, that will not happen again. Just so we're clear, Signal was an approved chat by the Biden administration as an approved secure channel by talking. However, time out. Let me ask a question about Pete Hegath. Would you rather have a war fighter or a bureaucrat run the United States military? I would rather have somebody that doesn't have a history of alcoholism. I'd rather have somebody that I mean realistically. So, do you think Lloyd How about Mark Millie and Lloyd Austin? Were they better at running the US military than Pete Hags? I mean, I think you're going to probably start talking about how there's higher enlistment numbers. So recruitment of the military is up majorly. Thank you Pete Hegathth. He's doing a pretty good job. Number two, procurement. We're saving money. Estimates are that we'll save hundreds of billions of dollars in efficiency. War games are up. We are the amount of war games we're doing in the Southeast Pacific has increased by 30%. This is a military town here in San Diego. They have a massive increase in people wanting to join the Navy, want to join the military. That wasn't happening under Biden. The morale is actually 30 points higher now now that Pete Hgsth a war fighters war fighter is running the US military. We have a complete difference. We'll never get agree on. No, but no, not an agree. But show me then prove the evidence. What is one number that is worse? The US military now that Pete Hex's in control. The numbers that you're talking about are numbers that I actually actively do not care about because I think that we have an overly powerful military and I think too much of our money goes to the military. I know. Like tell me one thing he's done like numerically like empirically judge his performance right what what is one thing that you could say wow the Pentagon is in a worst place because of Pete heath I would say his inconsistent foreign policy where he backs on statements depending on whether or not Donald Trump has heard them or not like in the beginning we were talking about what happened with with um Ukraine and Russia like they've had disagreements already within the first like couple months of the administration what first of all the president is the commander-in-chief so he executes the running of the military. I'm just saying that there's the operational manager, right? And so when you want a military, you have rec recruitment going up, you have war games going up, you have morale going up. You have, by the way, how about this? Do you agree that physical fitness standards for men and women should be the same in the US military? Yes, Pete Hexth is to thank for that. He has brought physical fitness standards to be the same for men and women. Lloyd Austin didn't do that. Mark Millie didn't do that. Do you also agree that we should not have like transgender pronoun type policing of our military members on the front lines of combat? See, the thing is has gotten rid of all that. But I'm saying you're trying to make a contention that he's not qualified. The military is in a much better place thanks to him only after a 100 days, man. And that's the that is the weakest example of all the ones that you have at the cabinet. You didn't address Rubio. You didn't address Gnome. You didn't address Besson. You didn't address Lutnik. You didn't address Bobby Kennedy. You didn't address all these people. So, I have to continue I can continue addressing people, but every one of these departments is in a substantially and an empirically better place than it was. Okay, including the Department of Education that's been completely defunded and somebody who literally I'm so glad it's being defunded. Okay, I get I bet you are, but guess what? Most Americans aren't. And that's the reality. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Donald Trump. Okay. Yeah. Just because you have a bunch of people here saying that doesn't mean that's Let me prove it to you. Donald Trump ran on a pledge to get rid of the Department of Education. We can agree with that. Uh I No. Yes or no? Yes. Yes. He won a popular vote. The vast majority of people voted knowing that the Department of Education was going to get eliminated. If you truly believe that the vast majority of people were educated enough about the fact of Donald Trump voters aren't very smart. Now that's what we're going after. No, I'm simply just responding to what you said. What you said insult the voters. They don't know. No, a lot I know a lot of people that voted for Trump who had absolutely no idea that he was going to defund the And of course, this is just an anecdote, but I know that that this is the truth. Not everybody when they vote looks at every single little thing and every little aspect like you and I might of why we would vote for somebody like we're both political commentators. So the fine and and as a political commentator then I will I will argue more forcefully against you because now you're not just like a college kid searching for this. Has education America improved or gotten worse since the department of education was formed? It has literally been 3 months. I have absolutely no since the department of education was formed in the 70s. We we now have 50 years of evidence. Has American education gotten better since we've had a Department of Education or has it gotten worse? I personally don't think that that has to do with Department of Education. I Well, well, when you spend when you've spent over $4.5 trillion with one federal department and we have 30 schools in Chicago where a fifth grader cannot read at grade level. We have 35 schools in Baltimore where kids cannot do math or reading at grade level. We have cannot find a single school, not a single school in in downtown Detroit where by the time they graduate high school in the heavily black areas that they're proficient in reading or math. We are now like 30. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show. This is Vice President JD Vance. Joining me now is Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, dear friend of mine and dear friend of Charlie Kirks. And uh before I get into the nitty-gritty of what I wanted to talk with Stephen about, you know, there's a lot of questions about the investigation, where we are in the investigation, I want to be respectful to the FBI's process, but just know that we are on top of this and the entire administration is trying to do as much as possible to find everything that we can about what led to this, about how we got here, and of course, ultimately how an assassin took Charlie's life. I wanted to zoom out with Stephen a little bit and talk about all of the ways that we're trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream. And you know, before I I do that, Stephen, I want to do this with every guest because you're a friend of Charlie's. And one of the things I'm hoping that people get out of this is an understanding for the kind of guy that Charlie was, who he was. And so before I talk to you about what we're doing to try to prevent something like this from happening again, maybe you could just talk about why you love Charlie, what memories you have of him, something that would give our audience a sense of what he was behind the microphone. Yeah, I've known Charlie for 10 years. He was a treasured friend. And you know his this is going to sound he made he made you believe more in yourself is the best way I could put that. That's right. The he he was your biggest cheerleader. He would if I was working on a hard project, an important executive order, a major new initiative, he would give me the strength and the focus to get it done. That's right. He was everybody's um supporter, enthusiast, cheerleader, promoter. Uh he made all of us better every single day. You know, my uh the memory that I keep turning to is not a single memory. It's a period of a couple months after we won the election. And Charlie was in the campaign or the transition office every single day and from dawn till dusk volunteering his time to get into the weeds, the nitty-gritty of government. And he was so damn excited. I mean, it just it it really hurts to think about it right now. He was so excited about all of us being here. and we would be talking about every executive order, every new regulation, every new policy plan. I just it was such a thrill for me to get to spend a few months of my life because you know he came from the the nonprofit the activist world I came from the government world and in this transition to be able to work hand in hand take all of his ideas from being the leader of TPUSA spending time with college students spending time with activists and then be able to be with us at the transition to plan out the next step of our government that was an experience for which I will always be grateful and and the last thing I'll say is that to my earlier point Charlie would send me messages all the time just saying, you know, great work or here's a new idea or here's what I think will take this to the next level. And I took him all to heart and um God, I just love the man so much. He was he was our biggest supporter, Stephen, but he was also if he disagreed, he would figure out how to get us to get where he wanted us to get. Always such a big cheerleader. Absolutely right. The darkest moments in my life, it was Charlie who was on the phone saying, "Don't let him get to you. keep on fighting, keep on going. You're absolutely right. So, I want to be mindful of time here. A lot of people are very worried about how we got here in the first place. And you have the crazies on the far left who are saying, "Oh, Steven Miller and JD Vance, they're going to go after constitutionally protected speech." No, no, no. We're going to go after the NGO network that fermentss, facilitates, and engages in violence. That's not okay. Violence is not okay in our system. And we want to make it less likely that that happens. walk me through at a high level like what you and I have been working on, what the whole administration has been working on to try to make sure that we don't reward and promote this craziness. Yes. So, it's an excellent question. I've said this before and um but it bears repeating. The last message that Charlie sent me was um I think it was just the day before we lost him, which is that we need to have an organized strategy to go after the leftwing organizations that are promoting violence in this country. And I will write those words onto my heart and I will carry them out. People ask me, you know, what emotions I'm feeling right now. This is something people say. I mean, you kind of know the answer. There's incredible sadness, but there's incredible anger. And the thing about anger is that unfocused anger or blind rage is not a productive emotion. Right? But focused anger, righteous anger directed for a just cause is one of the most important agents of change in human history. Showed that. Amen. And we are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks. So, let me explain a little bit what that means. So, got 30 seconds, so be quick, Stephen. the the organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people's addresses, combining that with messaging that's designed to trigger incite violence, and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement. And with God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie's name. Thank you, Stephen. Don't go away. I'll be joined by a guest of friends just in a few seconds. See you soon. [Music] Why wouldn't he see him? Why wouldn't he see the person is in the chat before talking about war policy? So, well, time out. Just so we're clear. I'm sure you've been added to group chats with 30 or 40 people sometimes and you enter in with trust that every acronym is actually a government official. Obviously, that will not happen again. Just so we're clear, Signal was an approved chat by the Biden administration. It's an approved secure channel by talking. However, time out. Let me ask a question about Pete Hexad. Would you rather have a war fighter or a bureaucrat run the United States military? I would rather have somebody that doesn't have a history of alcoholism. I'd rather have somebody that I mean, realistically. So, do you think Lloyd How about Mark Millie and Lloyd Austin? Were they better at running the US military than Pete Haggsth? I mean, I think you're going to probably start talking about how there's higher enlistment numbers. So, recruitment in the military is up. majorly. Thank you, Pete Hexathth. He's doing a pretty good job. Number two, procurement. We're saving money. Estimates are that we'll save hundreds of billions of dollars in efficiency. War games are up. We are The amount of war games we're doing in the Southeast Pacific has increased by 30%. This is a military town here in San Diego. They have a massive increase in people wanting to join the Navy, want to join the military. That wasn't happening under Biden. The morale is actually 30 points higher now. Now now that Pete Hgsth a war fighters war fighter is running the US military. We have a complete difference. We'll never get agree on. No, but no, not an agree. But show me then prove the evidence. What is one number that is worse? The US military now that Pete Hex says in control. The numbers that you're talking about are numbers that I actually actively do not care about because I think that we have an overly powerful military and I think too much of our money goes to the military. I know. Like tell me one thing he's done like numerically like empirically judge his performance right what what is one thing that you could say wow the Pentagon is in a worst place because of Pete heath I would say his inconsistent foreign policy where he backs on statements depending on whether or not Donald Trump has heard them or not like in the beginning we were talking about what happened with with um Ukraine and Russia like they've had disagreements already within the first like couple months of the administration what first of all the president is the commander-in-chief so he executes the running of the military. I'm just saying that there has the operational manager, right? And so when you want a military, you have rec recruitment going up. You have war games going up. You have morale going up. You have, by the way, how about this? Do you agree that physical fitness standards for men and women should be the same in the US military? Yes. Pete Hexth is to thank for that. He has brought physical fitness standards to be the same for men and women. Lloyd Austin didn't do that. Mark Millie didn't do that. Do you also agree that we should not have like transgender pronoun type policing of our military members on the front lines of combat? See, the thing is has gotten rid of all that. But I'm saying you're trying to make a contention that he's not qualified. The military is in a much better place. Thanks, Tim. Only after a 100 days, man. And that's the that is the weakest example of all the ones that you have of the cabinet. You didn't address Rubio. You didn't address Gnome. You didn't address Bessant. You didn't address Lutnik. You didn't address Bobby Kennedy. You didn't address all these people. So I have to ask I can continue addressing people, but every one of these departments is in a substantially and an empirically better place than it was. Okay, including the Department of Education that's been completely defunded and somebody who literally I'm so glad it's being defunded. Okay, I get I bet you are. But guess what? Most Americans aren't. And that's the reality. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Donald Trump. Okay. Yeah. Just because you have a bunch of people here saying that doesn't mean that's Let me prove it to you. Donald Trump ran on a pledge to get rid of the Department of Education. We can agree with that. Uh I No. Yes or no? Yes. Yes. He won a popular vote. The vast majority of people voted knowing that the Department of Education was going to get eliminated. If you truly believe that the vast majority of people were educated enough about the fact of Donald Trump voters aren't very smart now. That's what we're going after. No, I'm simply just responding to what you said. What you said? Insult the voters. They don't know. No, a lot I know a lot of people that voted for Trump who had absolutely no idea that he was going to defund the And of course, this is just an anecdote, but I know that that this is the truth. Not everybody when they vote looks at every single little thing and every little aspect like you and I might of why we would vote for somebody like we're both political commentators and fine and and as a political commentator then I will I will argue more forcefully against you because now you're not just like a college kid searching for this. Has education America improved or gotten worse since the department of education was formed? It has literally been three months. I have absolutely no since the department of education was formed in the 70s. We we now have 50 years of evidence. Has American education gotten better since we've had a Department of Education or has it gotten worse? I personally don't think that that has to do with Department of Education. I Well, well, when you spend when you've spent over $4.5 trillion with one federal department and we have 30 schools in Chicago where a fifth grader cannot read at grade level. We have 35 schools in Baltimore where kids cannot do math or reading at grade level. We have cannot find a single school, not a single school in in downtown Detroit where by the time they graduate high school in the heavily black areas that they're proficient in reading or math. We are now like 30 [Music] on air and on fire for the preservation of our nation. The Charlie Kirk Show. Welcome back. This is vice president of these United States, JD Vance, your host for today's Charlie Kirk show. Joining me now, and I'm excited about this one, are a few guys who, like me, were lucky enough to call Charlie their friend. I have Taylor Budawich, the White House deputy chief of staff. Kayn Door in the middle is the White House deputy communications director, and Andrew Kulv is Charlie's longtime friend and the executive producer of this show. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for being a dear friend to Charlie. And I thought what I'd start with is, you know, we all knew Charlie the man, not just Charlie the personality or Charlie the celebrity or Charlie the guy who did debates on college campuses. I want to start with with you, Taylor. What's something that you wish people knew about Charlie that they don't if they just watched his clips on on X or YouTube or wherever? With Charlie, what you see is what you get? And I think that was true even from my first interactions with him on the 2020 presidential campaign. We'd be do always be doing these fundraisers. Don Jr., Kimberly Gilfoil, who was the Trump Victory Finance chair, would host these big fundraising events. Charlie was always the the first one to show up. Um, and we would do these team events where we make calls all day. And you'd always want Charlie on your team because the guy would get there first, make as many calls, and he was the best fundraiser that that we had. But, you know, we have the not just the privilege of being Charlie's friend, but seeing what he's built through Turning Point and it became personal to me when my sister who we're from California um and, you know, has trying to find her way politically and said, you know, I want to get involved and we have the benefit of we can go to any event, any rally, any intimate setting. Um, and I said, you know what, there's a the the young women's event that he hosts in in Dallas. and said, "How about we go to Dallas?" And one of the reasons why Charlie's events, I think, have been so successful and why this this organization has been so successful is he makes makes these events approachable to the person that hasn't done politics before, hasn't been engaged, but is curious and thinks maybe something is going wrong with the country. maybe that there's a way to get involved that's not the big rallies that that that's not you know standing in lines for a long time but just and for my sister it was for a conference room of girls listening to Taylor Swift music during breaks and uh kind of having approachable but then also talking about life talking about family talking about you know at at this event you know just relationships and starting to to build a path for young people that is both approachable but informed and and thoughtful. And so for me it was it was an ability and an opportunity for me to share with my sister something that I get to experience all the time and and I think it was something that she really appreciated and I know millions of young people are appreciating and by the looks of the signups the signups pretty good and they're going to appreciate a lot more. Yeah, we'll talk about that Andrew. So it sounds like there's been this blowout of interest in Turning Points USA and the mission. You know, one of the things I really hope is that this assassin didn't silence Charlie's movement, and I think that's the best way for us to honor him is to keep it going. You're one of the critical people at TPUSA. Tell us a little bit about Charlie, but also about what you've seen in the wake of Charlie's assassination. Yeah. Um, you know, to put things in perspective, you know, there are, I guess, currently 900 official chapters of Turning Point on campuses. And that's, you know, when you get it about 900, 920 give or take, kids graduate, you got to kind of rebuild a few chapters. That's about what you're going to get to. And we have 1,200 uh high school chapters, which was our big new initiative. And we were really proud when we the high school chapters eclipsed the college chapters because we were known as the college. And so there's about 23,000 uh high schools in America. 23 24,000. And I'll I'll never forget this. This is a really funny moment a couple weeks ago in Aspen and Charlie was like, "We are going to have a Club America, which is the high school brand on all uh all at 23,000." He didn't know the number. This is actually part of the story. We're going to have it on every high school campus in America. And his, you know, the team is going, "Oh my gosh." And Charlie goes, "We're going to have 35,000 high school chapters." And, you know, he just threw out this big like stretch goal, you know, like. And uh and you know, we're like, "Oh, Charlie." and the whole team's freaking out cuz that's a that's a huge lift. And uh and he goes, "They have to be on every every single high school campus." And then I I'm I'm sitting next to him, I look at it and I Google it and it was like there's 23,000 uh high schools in America, Charlie. He goes, "Oh, okay. 20 23,000. We're going to be on every single one." And then that, you know, the team got him eventually to say, "Okay, the the big stretch goal is 10,000." And um it was amazing because now I I tweeted out and it's it's I don't know it's like 10 million views or something. It like I think it made people feel good because we now have uh 37,000 applications to start chapters around the country. And um you know it almost brings a tear to your eye because that moment is like we all remember all the whole team we were all in a ballroom going through a presentation together and he was adamant we are going to be on every high school in America and um he's going to be proven right. That's right. Well he was in a lot of ways as you guys know the ultimate cheerleader and he saw in you things that you didn't necessarily see in yourself. He was a true friend in that way. And I I remember, you know, one one particularly difficult moment, probably the hardest moment on the campaign trail for me. We had an event in Arizona, I believe, with a bunch of faith leaders. And it was it was the one time on the entire national campaign where I gave my chief of staff a hug and apologized to him because I was just at a, you know, I hadn't seen the kids in seven days. I was particularly cranky. And I get to this event, I'm just kind of like, man, come on. We got to do this again. And Charlie comes back and he gives me a hug and he's like, you know, your kids, you know, they love you and they're going to realize eventually why this was so important to do this. And that kind of gave me this sense of, all right, my head's back in the game. And that was what Charlie was always good at, setting ridiculous objectives, but finding some way to motivate people to go after it, even though it was, you know, it seemed unattainable until you got a little Charlie Kirk pep talk. Kaylin, what was your uh what's what's the thing you miss the most about Charlie? What do you what do you what do you think is the is the most difficult part of replacing the great Charlie Kirk? Well, I think you know you mentioned him being everyone's best cheerleader and I uh the last time I saw him and I have a lot of peace in my heart because I had a very good interaction with him as we always do. Uh I was wandering the hallways of the EOB and I must have had a horrible look on my face and he literally he he jumped down the stairs. He put his hand on my shoulder and he said, "What's going on?" And I just mentioned, man, you know, my baby's 6 months old. We are going through it. We are really I'm struggling, man. And uh he sat there and he prayed for me in the halls of the EOB uh for quite a bit of time. And he didn't need to do that, right? You know, it could have been a quick check-in. Um and I asked him, I said, "Dude, how do you do it? How are you doing it? You're killing it. You're a great dad. You guys are doing an amazing job at Turning Point. I think you're doing everything you can." And he looks at me and says, "I have a great team." And I laughed and I said, 'Cool. So, are you going to donate to the Kalindor Nanny Fund after this? And he said, 'N no, that's not what I'm talking about. I have a great team. I said, 'You and JD and and everyone here in this building are part of the team. And uh I know that he would be very, you know, excited to see all the work that we have going on here in the administration, but also all the the the testimonials. I mean, like I don't know how the guy had the bandwidth. like the the sheer volume of people whose lives he touched uh that we're just now discovering is is out of control. And I think, you know, growing up, we didn't have a turning point. We didn't have a Charlie. We didn't have these kind of people in our lives who who dedicated and put in the blood, sweat, and tears to go make sure that that this was a thing that existed for people like us. And um you know the the lasting message is that and you know I've I think I've said this at Turning Point events before is that the left wins the the enemy they win when when you feel alone and when you feel like you're the only one who thinks, eats, prays, breathes, lives the way that you do. And Charlie was so great at at connecting those dots and connecting human beings. I mean our friendships are all stronger because of him with one another. But people I mean like I've never met Andrew, but I know I've talked to him through Charlie for years. Y and he was so great at doing that. So I think it's our mission to go out there and embolden young conservatives, young Christians, most importantly to go out there and continue to do his work because it's exactly what he would want. He would want you to go find five people who don't believe in Jesus that day and and and give them, you know, a good a good lecturing and and and walk them through everything in a way that is respectful and is, you know, grounded in fact. And uh I don't know how we replace that, but I think the energy that I'm seeing amongst people uh is just palpable. It's it's insane. There was this incredible hope at the core of Charlie's character that you could solve so many problems just by communicating with people. Like if he wanted to introduce somebody to God, he would just go and talk to them. If he wanted to introduce them to a new idea, he would just go and talk to them. And it's what makes this particularly tragic is that he was doing the very thing that he loved, the very thing that led him to inspire so many people. And that's when they tried to cut him down at his strongest, doing the most important thing that he was doing for our country. I mean, Taylor, you mentioned his sister or your sister going to a turning points event. And the thing about Charlie, and this is again something I don't know that people fully appreciate unless you knew him particularly well, is he was such a bright guy, right? He read theology and he read political philosophy and he knew all these like crazy citations and you he knew like every Bible verse for every particular case or he knew something that was written by some 15th century political philosophy like Charlie where the hell did you get that from? He's like I just read a lot of books but he could also deal with people at the level who didn't know anything about politics who were curious who loved their country. They wanted to make it better. Taylor, talk a little bit about that about because Taylor, those of you who don't know, is the lead in our communication shop here in the White House. He knows more about talking to people than pretty much anybody in the White House, or at least that's what you're supposed to know more than any anybody else about. But like, talk about Charlie the communicator because that's one of the things that made him who he was. That I'm going to tie two things that they said together because uh Kayn's right. We didn't have a Charlie Kirk growing up. We had Barry Goldwater and Reagan. two guys that we barely were alive to to to know or overlap with. Um, the future has Charlie Kirk. And you know, before Wednesday, Charlie Kirk was a young man inspiring young people. After he was killed, he has become a titan whose inspiration will move through eternity, inspiring millions of people for decades to come. And he does it through both the understanding of biblical terms. I mean, I I I spent I'm sure like a lot of people this weekend spent my weekend scrolling through old videos of Charlie and and one really really hit me the story of um Jesus uh meeting the prostitute where he says, you know, though those without sin cast the first stone. And he Charlie points out, everyone forgets what he says next. And he says to the uh prostitute, go on sin no more. And Charlie understood both the compassion of the Bible, but the honesty and truthtelling of the Bible. That is what I think has been missing in our political discourse that you don't have to be nasty, you can be compassionate, but you should tell the truth. And so the future of the political movement is going to be informed by young people brave and courageous enough to tell the truth but compassionate enough to understand the suffering of of those around them. And that that's that's Charlie Kirk. Gentlemen, thank you so much for sharing all those stories, for sharing your time, for talking about Charlie. After the break, I'll be joined by Caroline Levit, our incredible White House press secretary. This is the Charlie Kirk show. Let's [Music] [Music] come to the front of the line. Yes. So, I have um I have a couple points that I want to talk about in illegal immigration. Um is it okay if I write if I say all of them with no interruption? Okay, cool. So, first, illegal immigrants power our economy. They're 50% of US farm workers harvesting the food on our tables and fill 70% of construction jobs in states like Texas. They pay 13 billion annually in taxes, including 2 billion to social security that they can't claim. Deporting them would slash agricultural output by 60 billion, and raise food prices by 6%. Why gut our farms and wallets when these workers fuel our prosperity? That's my first point. Second point, they strengthen our communities with lower crime rates. So in Texas, undocumented undocumented immigrants have a 26 lower percent homicide conviction rates. So which is 2.2 per 100,000 versus three for native born citizens. Nationally, immigrants are incarcerated at half the rate of native born where it's 85% versus 1.7 1%. Uh that's according to Bureau of Justice Statistics um from 2019. So, if safety is your goal, why deport people who make our streets safer? This is my third point. Uh, mass deportation tears apart American families. Over 4.4 million US citizens uh children have an undocumented parent and in Texas, one in seven kids lives in a mixed status household. Um, okay, this is my fourth point. Deportation is a fiscal nightmare. removing 11 million people would cost 315 to 400 billion, more than the entire homeland security budget and shrink our GDP by 1.7 trillion over 10 years. And um this is my last point. Our immigration system is broken, pushing people to cross illegally. Visa waits Mexicans can exceed 20 years and the asylum blockage is 1.3 million cases with hearings four to six years out. Uh, okay. You done? That's pretty much it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, without looking at the phone, look at me. What should the penalty be for breaking into America? I think there should be a system where it's more merit based. So, if this person penalty So, what is the penalty? So, what what should happen? It's a fel It's It's not a felony. It's a misdemean. That's not true. It's 8 USC 1312. You can look it up right now. It's a felony if it's done twice. If you try to That is correct. That is not correct. I Googled it, dude. to illegally go across the southern border with the well intent to come into harbor yourself into the interior of the United States to violation of 8 USC 1312 which is a felony in the federal criminal code. Now it can be enforced as a misdemeanor or it can be upwards to 5 years in prison. Now I want to know since it's a felony law on the books 8 USC 1312 what should the penalty be? Um well, in my opinion, these kinds of like um laws are not are are usually they're they're um what do you call it? They're um sorry. Usually the the the like the the sorry um wait sorry. Can I can I choke my phone real quick? I apologize. Can you can you repeat the the question? Sorry. What should the penalty be? Okay. For someone that breaks or comes into America illegally, what should the penalty be? I think there should be a a merit system where the people Okay, the penalty. All right, let's that's not the answer. It's a very simple moral and legal question. What should the penalty be if you come into America illegally? Okay. So, since it's a misdemeanor, not a felony. Misdemeanor. I just told you it's not eight. You can look up on your chat GPT. What is 8 USC? Look up. What is 8 USC 1312? No, I I know. I've already looked it up. Yes, it's a When it's your second time crossing the border illegally, then it becomes a felony. It can it can be Hello everyone, Vice President JD Vance here. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. So, I am moonlighting as a radio host today, of course, in honor of my dear friend Charlie. And uh you know, I wanted to be like Marco Rubio. I wanted an add job here as the radio host and vice president here in the West Wing here in the White House complex. But I have another person here who wears many hats and is one of the most gifted communicators I've ever seen right up there with the great Charlie Kirk. I'm glad to be joined by Carolyn Levit, our press secretary. Carolyn, so good to see you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Very kind. I appreciate you're saying that. So, let me let let why don't you kick it off and tell us a little bit. So, those who don't know who are listening or watching, you actually were involved with TPUSA very early on when you were in college. Tell me about that experience and about getting to know Charlie Kirk through that forum. Sure. Well, I'm a Gen Z conservative. So, I was really raised within the MAGA movement. And within the MAGA movement as a Gen Z conservative means you're very much a part of the Turning Point USA movement. And so, my political education was not just through the rise of President Trump, but also the rise of Charlie Kirk and watching him and listening to him. and I inquired about starting a Turning Point USA chapter on my college, St. Ansom College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where I went and where my political ambition and love of media and politics really began. And so just by watching Charlie from a distance uh was so inspiring to me as a young conservative woman and then I got to know him personally when I decided to run for Congress and he was a tremendous supporter and friend. Right. So you literally communicate for a living. You're the person that speaks to the American people and the world on behalf of the White House every single day. Did you learn anything particular about the way that Charlie Kirk communicated with people? And what I always appreciated is that though he was very smart and though you see all these clips of him owning people or of him getting the better of somebody in a debate, if you watch a full Charlie Kirk rally and all of the Q&A, and I was just talking with with Andrew about this off camera, 90% of it is Charlie being kind and being compassionate and offering moral support to people. What do you take from Charlie Kirk, the communicator? so many things just by watching him and by being around him, but I think most of all standing firm in your convictions and picking a fight, especially when you know you have the facts and the truth on your side, but doing it with a smile. And that's something Charlie did so brilli brilliantly and well. He would go to these campus reform events and he would say to the crowd, "If you disagree with me, come to the front of the line." And I find myself doing that in the briefing rooms, you know, picking on the reporters whom I know very much disagree with me and with the president. But as long as you believe in what you're saying and you have conviction in it and you have truth and the facts on your side, it makes it a lot easier to say it. And that's what Charlie did for a living. And I know he inspired me as a young voice uh for for President Trump now, like you said, behind the White House podium. And you know before every briefing I always pray um to Jesus Christ and Charlie was so outspoken with his faith and I will continue to be in honor of him but I'll also think of Charlie and just how brilliantly he was able to combat the the lies with facts and to do it with a smile. Absolutely. So, you know, I I always think of Charlie Kirk debating sometimes these kids on college campuses and how the one part of of your job that maybe would be harder if you went on college campuses is I think some of these college kids ask way better questions than the radicals do in the White House press briefing room. So, that'd be like good good preparation for you in a lot of ways. Yeah, exactly. TPOS was actually the varsity. Now, you're you're kind of the JV level uh with your opponents here. But but you do such an incredible job. And you you were of course not just the White House press secretary, you were also the main spokesperson during the Trump campaign. And you know what what made I want to ask how important Charlie was to the victory because there were so many events that we did with TPUSA where I would show up and they were incredible and the energy was off the charts. And Charlie would always tell me whenever I went to Arizona, he'd say, "Don't worry about Arizona. Worry about Michigan. Worry about Wisconsin. We've got Arizona. talk with a minute and 10 seconds remaining just about how important Charlie was to our effort to win and make Donald Trump into president of the United States. Look, the president has said it himself. The president's massive gains with young Americans across the country was in no small part because of the efforts of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA. and our team on the campaign was constantly checking in with him and keeping him apprised of what the president was doing and saying because we needed his voice to relay that to his audience which is made up of young people across the country and the president spoke at many turning point events. He went into that lion's den at the invitation of Charlie to get his message across. And Charlie was incredibly supportive of the non-traditional new media strategy that the president took. And you know, the president loved Charlie deeply. You know that, Mr. Vice President, and I know that. And I know he deeply um is hurt by this loss because um Charlie played an instrumental role in returning the president to the Oval Office. And I just love that clip from election night when Charlie realized President Trump had won and he was speechless for one of the few times in his life. There were no words, just tears. Thank you, Caroline. Up next, the great Tucker Carlson joins me. We'll be right back. [Music] ation are unnecessary administrators and paper pushers. And why is that important? Because we've not been funding teachers or education the last 30 years. We've been funding unnecessarily bureaucracy in our education the last 30 or 40 years. and President Trump goes to abolish it. Thank you for your time. I got to get to the next question. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Hello. Hi. Um my name is Ellie. Overall, just to go into my question, I I am on I am conservative. So, going into this, I was like, oh, like what what should what should I ask you about? I think overall that was going through different policies and in general, I agree. Ultimately, I think the topic of my question is how to approach politics in school and in general with dysfunction, I found that a lot of times when I talk to people who are on the other side of me, they are surprised to find out what I think and my ideas are not that crazy. It's like when you actually get into the meat of it, it's like, oh, actually, maybe it does make sense. And so, I think it's really valuable to start giving these ideas to the world. So, this is this is one of these options. But I guess my question is, is this the best way? Because when I um when I hear like for example on Reddit, they're like, "Don't approach him. Don't do this. He's just doing that. He's doing this. He's doing that. He's using all these tactics." And so I wonder if you've considered not to say that this is a bad way to go about it, but if there's maybe a slightly better way because I think what you're saying has a lot of value in this world, but it's propon like in this school specifically, it is thought of as evil and as like not like a a valid way to think. That's a UC San Diego problem, not not a Charlie Cook problem, right? No. And it's not and it's and it's not to say it's a problem of you. No, no, no. And I mean like if and I read the there was some op-ed journalists where they said, "Ignore Charlie, you know, ignore him." But what they're saying is that they are not either smart enough or they're not intellectually mature enough to have a discussion with a conservative on any issue. I have literally almost no notes. I have like a couple charts to show you if the topics come up. You guys can use AI, you guys can use Grock, you can use whatever you want. You could bring a professor. You could bring five of your top libs together. Debate me, right? Yeah. Other side. Okay. Thank you. And you guys can debate me at any time. I I I fail to understand why. Well, actually, I know the reason. Speech is not a left-wing value. And they do not believe in freedom of speech. They believe in totalitarian control. There are exceptions to that. So, if they have a problem, I I think this is one of the best ways, not the best way. I literally could not be more open to disagreement. I say if you disagree, you go to the front of the line. Yeah. And I mean, how often do you as conservatives get a chance to challenge liberals on campus, right? And being welcomed ever. Absolutely. Almost never. Definitely because speech is not a leftwing value. No. But to say that I mean with all of that being said, that is very true. But ultimately what happens here is I see a lot of like the ideas just being like bubbled against. And so like when I talk to my friends, they're not their ideas aren't changed from these conversations. And so I wonder if there's just a You would be surprised. I'm sorry to interrupt. What we what happens here gets seen hundreds of millions of times on social media. Absolutely. The crowds are growing. And so look, some people are going to remain close-minded. They're not going to, you know, have their horizons open. But that's on them, right? They have to actually want to pursue the truth and not just have their own worldview confirmed. And then I guess that's where I I disagree because I think fundamentally there is truth within anything and I believe that maybe I would ask you like to say or to see that like you have a big role in this. You have a big fan base and a big media base that you can make you are making incredible change and to take it one just one step further would be really trying to push the narrative against this being like a place where people are just like debating. It's it's more than that. What would you like to see? I no I guess maybe it's more of a question. I guess I don't know mo like moving forward like trying to m maybe um to see that like instead of using these really fast tactics and to really like try to bring it down. Not to say someone is No. No. I not to say that they're No, I I disagree with all that. That's fine. Yeah. I I mean you're thinking way too much about libs on Reddit. I care about normal people. So No. I And No, but the I mean you did bring up Reddit. I'm sorry. You're like No, I guess that's true. No. And I guess these people are not well socially adjusted, right? I talked to the 90% of the American people that actually want to make something of their life and you know have kids and no and I I couldn't agree more with that like stance. I guess maybe stepping away from Reddit, it's to me the people on this campus, this is a school I go to and almost everyone I'm surrounded with has a completely different view from me and I'd love Not everybody. No. No. And this is like but this like the people here to find them it feels like you're h like sipping through a needle in a hay stack. You want a hat? Sure. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Next question. Disagreements come to the front of the line. Yes. So, I have um I have a couple points that I want to talk about in illegal immigration. Um is it okay if I write if I say all of them with no interruption? Okay, cool. So, first, illegal immigrants power our economy. They're 50% of US farm workers harvesting the food on our tables and fill 70% of construction jobs in states like Texas. They pay 13 billion annually in taxes including 2 billion to social security that they can't claim. Deporting them would slash agriculture output by 60 billion and raise food prices by 6%. Why gut our farms and wallets when these workers fuel our prosperity? That's my first point. Second point, they strengthen our communities with lower crime rates. So in Texas, undocumented undocumented immigrants have a 26 lower percent homicide conviction rates. So which is 2.2 per 100,000 versus three for native born citizens. Nationally, immigrants are incarcerated at half the rate of native born where it's 85% versus 1.7 1%. Uh that's according to Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2019. So, if safety is your goal, why deport people who make our streets safer? This is my third point. Uh, mass deportation tears apart American families. Over 4.4 million US citizens uh children have an undocumented parent and in Texas, one in seven kids lives in a mixed status household. Um, okay, this is my fourth point. Deportation is a fiscal nightmare. removing 11 million people would cost 315 to 400 billion more than the entire homeland security budget and shrink our GDP by 1.7 trillion over 10 years and um this is my last point our immigration system is broken pushing people to cross illegally visa waits Mexicans can exceed 20 years and the asylum blockage is 1.3 million cases with hearings four to six years out Okay, you done? That's pretty much it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, without looking at the phone, look at me. What should the penalty be for breaking into America? I think there should be a system where it's more merit- based. So, if this person penalty, so what is the penalty? So, what what should happen? It's a f It's It's not a penalty. It's a mis that's not true. It's 8 USC 1312. You can look it up right now. It's a felony if it's done twice. If you try to go That is correct. That is not correct. I Googled it, dude. to illegally go across the southern border with the well intent to come into harbor yourself into the interior of the United States to violation of 8 USC 1312 which is a felony in the federal criminal code. Now it can be enforced as a misdemeanor or it can be upwards to 5 years in prison. Now I want to know since it's a felony law on the books 8 USC 1312 what should the penalty be? Um well, in my opinion, these kinds of like um laws are not are are usually they're they're um what do you call it? They're um sorry. Usually the the the like the the sorry um wait, sorry. Can I can I choke my phone real quick? I apologize. Can you can you repeat the the question? Sorry. What should the penalty be? Penalty be for someone that breaks or comes into America illegally, what should the penalty be? I think there should be a a merit system where the people Okay, the penalty All right, let's that's not the answer. It's a very simple moral and legal question. What should the penalty be if you come into America illegally? Okay. So, since it's a misdemeanor, not a felony, misdemeanor. I just told you it's not eight. You can look up on your chat GPT. What is 8 USC? Look up what is 8 USC 1312. No, I I know. I've already looked it up. Yes, it's which is when it's your second time crossing the border illegally, then it becomes a felony. It can it can be [Music] [Music] Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. Joining me now is my friend and a close friend of Charlie, the great Tucker Carlson. Tucker, thank you so much for being here. And we have 10 minutes, Tucker. And just to give you guys for at home a little behind the scenes, the producer just showed Tucker a sign that said rap. And Tucker looked at it and said, "This is expand on your point." Right? So if we end up going 35 minutes, you'll know it's not the host's fault, it's Tucker Carlson's fault. We read what we want to read. But I had, you know, Tucker, I think you know this, and some of you know this because I wrote about it on X.com. But when x.com was Twitter, I did an interview with the Tucker Carlson Tonight Show on Fox News and I got a message from a guy named Charlie Kirk that said, "You did a great job. I really liked what you said and let's keep in touch." And that began the start of my friendship with Charlie Kirk. That was the first time I had ever communicated with Charlie Kirk. So, you've known him for a long time. You talked to him about a lot of issues and I want to talk in in in part about how to honor Charlie's legacy because I think that he modeled civil discourse within the right. He accepted there were big disagreements on all these issues but he thought we were all on the same team and we could debate this stuff but act