September 11, 2025 • 56 mins
Meet my friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love Verdict, the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture and comedy thrown in too.
Here’s a sample episode recapping four Thursday takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Charlie Kirk's Assassination
The tragic assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. The hosts open the hour with heartfelt reflections on the gravity of the moment, describing the national mourning and personal grief felt across the country, especially among young Americans who admired Kirk’s work in political activism and free speech advocacy.
The episode underscores the political motivations behind Kirk’s killing, framing it as a targeted act of violence stemming from ideological hatred. Travis and Sexton argue that the left’s increasingly hostile rhetoric—labeling political opponents as “Nazis” or “Hitler”—has created a dangerous climate that justifies violence in the minds of radicalized individuals. They draw parallels to previous acts of political violence, including the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and other attacks on conservative figures, asserting that these incidents reflect a broader pattern of left-wing extremism.
Confronting Evil
a compelling interview with Bill O’Reilly, who joins the program to discuss the broader implications of Kirk’s death and the rise of political violence in America. O’Reilly connects the tragedy to themes from his newly released book Confronting Evil, arguing that the nation is entering a new era of moral decay and ideological extremism.
The hosts and O’Reilly explore how permissive justice systems, progressive ideologies, and corporate media platforms have contributed to a climate where political violence is not only tolerated but, in some cases, celebrated. They cite disturbing reactions from left-wing platforms like BlueSky and mainstream outlets such as MSNBC and Slate, where commentators and writers either downplayed the assassination or implied Kirk’s rhetoric was to blame. The show plays audio from MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd, who was later fired for suggesting Kirk’s own words incited the violence against him.
Restoring the Soul of Our Nation
Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee joins the show to reflect on Kirk’s legacy, describing him as a courageous advocate for free speech and a role model for young Americans. Haggerty condemns the celebration of Kirk’s death by some on the left, including a now-terminated dean at Middle Tennessee State University, and calls for a cultural reset rooted in respect, dialogue, and moral clarity.
The hosts and guests repeatedly stress the cowardice of political violence and the importance of continuing Kirk’s mission. They draw parallels to Rush Limbaugh’s influence, noting that Kirk was a “Rush baby” who learned conservatism by listening to Limbaugh’s daily monologues. This connection underscores the generational continuity of conservative thought and the importance of cultural engagement.
Clay's Message
Clay reflects on the personal impact of Kirk’s death, especially on young Americans who saw him as a role model. Clay reads an email from a father whose son was inspired by Kirk and now struggles to process the loss. Clay responds with a message of resilience, urging young people to be braver, stronger, and more committed to defending free speech and American values in the face of rising hostility.
Charlie’s rejection of woke ideology, DEI mandates, and toxic political correctness made him a beacon for those seeking truth, patriotism, and liberty. His assassination is framed not only as a personal loss but as a cultural attack on free speech and ideological diversity.
The show closes with a solemn promise from Clay and Buck to continue Kirk’s fight, honor his legacy, and remain steadfast in their mission to defend American values. Listeners are encouraged to hug their families, stay strong, and carry the torch forward in the battle for truth and freedom.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time, how we can save the next generation.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We've got our show and the info is an antidote.
But we also have a couple of books coming out Clay.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
That's right, and you can pre order both of them
right now and be book nerds just like us.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter too.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Mine's called balls, how Trump young men in sports saved America.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And mine is manufacturing delusion, how the Left uses brainwashing,
indoctrination and propaganda against you.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Both are great reads. Welcome in. It is going to
be a hard show. It is going to be a
difficult show. I imagine that a lot of you are
like both the Buck and myself. It's hard to sleep.
May not have gotten a lot of sleep, probably have
been hopefully hugging your kids, your grandkids closer, and trying
(00:46):
to deal with the fact that we live in a
world where if you have the wrong opinion, and I
know many of you, sadly, including me, have expected things
like these. We've been talking about it, unfortunately for over
a year after President Trump took a bullet to the ear.
It's awful. We ended yesterday's show. Buck and I, if
(01:10):
you watch on video, are regularly scrolling through our phone
to make sure that we are the absolute best informed
and get you information as fast as we possibly can.
And Buck saw it first yesterday during the show, and
I could see in his face that something was very bad.
(01:31):
And unfortunately, about an hour after the show ended, Buck,
you were basically on Fox News when it happened. And
Charlie Kirk is gone, thirty one years old. He leaves
behind a young son, young daughter, very very young son
and daughter, loving wife. And they killed him because they
(01:54):
did not like his political opinions. And we're going to
talk a lot about this and have a big conversation
with all of you. But I think at its essence,
this is where words are violence leads to I think
if you have to boil it down. The left has
accepted the idea that if you or I or any
(02:14):
of us say something that they do not like, that
violence is an appropriate response. And where this event, this
assassination took place, was in many ways perfectly reflective of
the impact that Charlie Kirk has had in his life.
(02:34):
On a college campus with an open mic, where anyone
on the campus could walk up and tell him why
he was wrong, and they could debate anything under the sun.
And he had done this, and he was so profoundly
successful at it that he had particularly moved the hearts
(02:56):
and minds of many young men. And Buck, I'll toss
it to you here in a second, but let me
tell you that my two oldest boys, their entire school
today in Nashville dressed up in coats and ties in
honor of Charlie Kirk. And you went to a school
where you had to dress up sometimes, let me tell you,
these boys don't want to wear coats and ties. They
(03:18):
usually are always complaining. They're like, oh, it's a coat
and tie day, dad. The whole school wore coats and
ties in honor of Charlie Kirk. And I understand some
of you, maybe you're in your sixties, seventies, eighties, You
might not have been the target audience necessarily seeing this content.
But I would tell you, particularly if you have sons, grandsons,
(03:40):
young people in your households, they may be hurting quite
a bit and impacted by this far more than even
you might have been. So Buck, that it is just
a devastating yet sadly not unexpected to meet event.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
It's a day of mourning. For the whole country because
of what happened within the last twenty four hours. And
also it is the remembrance of nine to eleven today,
so it's a particularly hard and emotional day. It was
going to be before this horrific event happened. And now
we sit here with you and we we grieve with
(04:19):
all of you because of what happened to Charlie and
which is just horrific beyond words. I we were when
Clay saw me yesterday, I was I felt like I
was going to throw up. When we were I was
reading the initial text messages about it, and we were
on this we went into commercial break at the very
end of the show. Of course, I didn't want to
(04:40):
say anything at first, because this is there's some news
stories that you know, you just cannot get wrong, you can't,
and there's so much false information out there these days,
and so so we really wanted to be just bring
you the facts about this. And and then I was
on with Will Will Caine, who's a bit a friend
of mine now for I don't know fifteen almost fifteen
(05:01):
years and and Will texted me, he said, will you
please come on and talk about what's going on? And
I got some I got word when I was on
the air. It was very early on in the show, Clay,
but I had already been informed pretty reliably that Charlie
wasn't going to make it. But then I again, I,
you know, we're dealing with the not certain, you know.
(05:23):
You obviously I can't say that if I'm not one
hundred percent sure, but I'm thinking, and I'm you know,
it's just all the processing, the grief, the trauma that
people feel right now. We feel it with you. Clay
and I both knew and liked Charlie and had a
(05:43):
tremendous respect for what he had built and what he
had done, and in this last election playing a critical role,
especially with getting that youth vote, to start to see reality.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
And it's just one of those moments, Clay, where you
go to bed at night, to the degree you can
even sleep and it's still, you know, just doesn't feel
like this could have been what happened.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's so horrific and it's so wrong and evil on
so many levels. I feel for Charlie's family, his wife,
his two small children, his mom, his dad, everybody, all
of his family is just you know, it's I don't know,
how it's possible for them to even begin to deal
(06:34):
with something like this. Charlie was a force of nature.
Charlie was doing really incredible work and returning in a
lot of ways. I think, Clay the conversation back to
some of our core and most important founding principles. All right,
(06:55):
let's talk about let's have this debate, let's have this
exchange of ideas. And you know, I know that there's
this sense that, well, we are in mourning, and so
should we get into the politics of this right away?
Charlie was assassinated. I mean, this was a terror act.
(07:15):
This was an assassination.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
He was kilmed because of his politics. That's right, It's
impossible not to talk about politics.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
That's exactly what I want to express. Thank you. Yes,
it's this wasn't a you know, it would be It
would be tragic and horrible if he had, you know,
died because of you know, an armed robber who shot
him or something like that. That would be horrible, That
would be a terrible crime. But this was done because
of who Charlie was. We all know that. In fact,
the FBI and will continue to I am hopeful that
(07:46):
there will be an arrest while we are on the
air today. That's not going to bring Charlie back. And
I know that this is not going to be able
to comfort the grieving right now in a meaningful way,
but it will at least be the justice system beginning
to do what it is possible for the justice system
(08:07):
to do to create some accountability. I think this should
be a death penalty case or the individual involved. I
am hopeful that they will get this person. There's reporting
that they have the weapon US was a both action
rifle that is confirmed by the FBI. Watched the press
(08:28):
conference this morning. It's two hundred yards perhaps two hundred
plus yards shot. So it's somebody who had an understanding
of how they had some practice. This is not someone
who bought a gun and then the next day went
just went on a shooting spree. This is somebody who
had some ability to shoot it with accuracy. They're saying
(08:50):
they think it's right now. The person the main personal
interest is college age. We'll see. I mean they've been
a lot of you have updated on what we just mentioned.
I just retweeted.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
They have shared photos of the individual that from FBI
Salt Lake City Field Office. They have photos of the
man that they believe is responsible for the shooting. And
I just retweeted those college age as you were going to.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Write, so they have clear video college age. I will
note that there have been numerous photos of individuals of
interest shared previously, including FBI statements that we have a
This is this is where the investigative process can be
a little confusing or can create some confusion, especially in
the online ecosystem. A person of interest does not mean
we have the person. It's exactly what it sounds like.
(09:38):
It's we think this is a person we definitely need
to speak to. There have been a couple of those
people in custody. Initially there was the there was some
crazy old guy who was saying, you know, and people
thought that he did not he was right there, he
had nothing to do with the shooting, or you know,
it clearly wasn't him. So there's been a lot of
(10:00):
iterations of this already, so Clay, yes, there's video out
there of this individual. The FBI has also confirmed that
there are things written on the rifle and I believe
on the shell casings from this morning's press conference, which
is going to be it's going to tell us what
(10:22):
the we know the motivation as politics. We know this
was an assassination, we might have a more direct sense,
a more precise sense of what this maniac. And I
agree with people say when you say maniac, that makes
it sound like a person not of their right mind.
It's really just demonic. It's a demonic act to do
(10:42):
this to Charlie, to do this to Charlie's family, to
do this to the American people. And one thing I
can say to all of you, Clay totally, I know
he co signs on this. I know that he is
of the same heart and mind and this as I am.
If something like this had happened to a prominent democrat,
I also would have felt sick to my stomach. I
also would have said, what the heck is going on
in this country? This is disgusting, it is egregious, it
(11:06):
is inhuman. And yet Clay, last night I was on
I went on Blue Sky. Do you know about you?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Have you been on the Sky? I didn't go on,
but I have seen the postings. I mean, this is
not a fringe part of the left. There is malignant
glee over this assassination that is widely shared and disgusting.
But I don't want you thinking, oh, this is they're
going to try to say, oh, this is just an
(11:35):
aberrational individual. This is not reflective of ideas on the left.
There is a huge, toxic foundational core of the Democrat Party,
of the far left in this country that is celebrating
political violence and assassination of people. They don't like Blue Sky,
which I do not recommend any of you download or
(11:55):
go on, but I felt like I needed to in
advance of this show. And it's, honestly, it's so depraved.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
It is a giant echo chamber of of people congratulating
each other and and cheering for what happened yesterday. It's
the most of Paul. I mean, I honestly just nightmare stuff.
You go, you look what is wrong with these people.
Charlie never advocated violence against anybody. Charlie uh never, you know,
(12:29):
raised a hand against anyone. His whole thing was let's talk,
let's talk, and and an assassin kills him. And and
we cannot think of this as something that occurred in
a vacuum clay or or you use the word aberand
or that you know that this is something It was
(12:49):
twice they tried to kill Donald Trump. These are all
people of the same ideology. Twice they tried to kill
Donald Trump. Now we've had people shooting up uh, we
had the shooting up the church in Minneapolis because of
radical trans ideology. We have the Nashville Manifesto hidden from
us because it was a radical trans terrister. But I
(13:10):
don't know what the stated ideology this person is other
than it's someone who hates Trump, hates Charlie, is of
the left, and therefore Clay is part of this. This
just rotten. This this fetid nass psychosis that democrats think,
and they can say any You can't just run around
saying people are Nazis all the time because a lot
(13:32):
of people think that if you could go back in
time and kill Nazis, that would be a good thing.
I want to keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I went off on this last night, and I was
on with our friend Sean Hannity in the evening. That
to me is the crux of all of this. There
are consequences when you say, hey, my political opponents are Nazis.
Donald Trump is Adolph Hitler, they are fascists. They're going
to overthrow the government. There's not going to be in
(13:59):
action in twenty twenty eight, the guy who tried to
kill Trump and West Palm Beach said he was doing
it because he believed Trump was Hitler. If you truly believe,
and some of these crazy people do, if you truly
believe that Trump is Hitler, or that you're Hitler, or
that I'm Hitler, or that Charlie Kirk is Hitler, or
all of you out there who voted for Trump or Hitler,
(14:20):
then don't tell me right after you kill someone or
attempt to kill someone. We condemned political violence because it's
a lie. Political violence would be justified if we were
Adolph Hitler, and in their brain some of their crazy,
deluded followers are taking that charge and they believe it,
(14:42):
and they killed Charlie Kirk over it, I one hundred
billion percent believe, and they tried to kill Donald Trump
over it. And they would try to kill you, and
they would try to kill me, and they would try
to kill anyone that they believe is Hilarian because they
think they're a hero, and their delude did mental sphere.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
If this Charlie was we knew Charlie, but he was
also on our on our team. He was doing what
we do, meaning Clay and I and so many others.
Do you know he was doing a podcast and a
radio show and he was spreading the truth, the truth
that so they killed him. He was killed. He an
(15:22):
assassin's bullet took his life because he was speaking the truth.
And to Clay's point, the same people cheering for this,
which is which is just monstrous. And I had to
know that it was true before I could tell you.
But that is happening a lot of people, a lot
of people on the left. The psychosis of these people
(15:44):
is it is really troubling for the future of this country.
While while people on the right and people voted for
Trump are grieving and thinking about Charlie's poor wife and
his kids, and people are crying, and I'm getting text
messages from people. I can't sleep at night. All I
can think about is Charlie's wife and his kids and
what have they done to us? And then there are
democrats who are acting we can't ignore it, and we
(16:06):
won't ignore it. Well, come back, we'll talk about this more,
and we want, we'd want to take a lot of
your I know a lot of you want to weigh
in and speak to us about this. You have things
to get off your chest. You want to speak from
your heart about this, so please do call us and
let's let's all discuss this together as we always do.
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Speaker 4 (17:15):
Today, Making America Great Again isn't just one man, It's many.
The Team forty seven podcast Sunday's at noon Eastern in
the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
A lot of us processing the grief, feeling like we've
woken up in a somewhat different and darker country today
because of this terrible act, and we wanted to speak
with our friend Bill O'Reilly. You know him. He's a
best selling author, He was on Box for decades and
Bill honestly just wanted to give you an opportunity. We
(17:54):
were in shock yesterday. The news came down while we
were on the air at the very end of the show.
We didn't know, and we were all hoping that the
end result would be quite different. I wanted to You've
seen a lot in your years speaking the truth to
the people about what's going on, but this is a
particularly awful day, and I wanted to let you speak
(18:19):
to everybody about how you're feeling.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Okay, well, I'm going to tell the audience on a
Klaient book show the absolute truth. This was evil, and
that word applies not only to the assassination of mister Kirk,
but what's happening in general in this country. So, as
you guys know, on Tuesday, my brand new book Confronting
(18:43):
Evil was released, and I woke up on Wednesday to
see Putin firing missiles at Poland in an unbelievably dangerous situation,
and then a few hours later, Charlie Kirk is shot
to death in Utah. I did a lot of media
between those things and now, and one interviewer said, your
(19:07):
book is haunting. The timing of your book is haunting
because I knew that we are entering a new age
of evil. And that's a point I made on News
Nation on television last night. Nineteen thirties, the world gravitated
toward evil in an enormous way that resulted in one
(19:28):
hundred million people being killed in World War Two. Now,
thanks to the United States, we defeated evil, and there
were others who helped us, but we were the primary motivator.
We're back now in an age where evil is on
the rise, and evil is what took Charlie Kirk's life.
(19:51):
So I find myself in a very interesting position of
having written a book. You know, we start these a
year in advance, predicting that bad things were going to occur,
and then see them occur the very week my book
is released. And the message in confronting evil is the
(20:13):
reason this is happening is because many Americans and all
people all over the world are turning away. So you
turn away from evil, you're going to get more of it.
It is easier for miscreants to do their horrible deeds
now than it ever before in American history. Do you
(20:36):
guys realize that it is easier to kill a fellow
human being in the United States than ever before because
of our permissive justice system and our progressive movement that
does not want to punish criminals and indeed encourages political violence.
(21:00):
Are members of the progressive movement, and they are centered
on MSNBC and the urban newspapers who are encouraging political violence.
We saw that yesterday, just one hour after Charlie Kirk
was shot, a man named Matthew Dowd went on MSNBC
and said, you know, I might have been Kurtzbault because
of his opinions. Now he was fired because MSNBC had
(21:23):
to fire him. But is anybody surprised? Is anybody surprised
that that was said on MSNBC? No, Because we'll play
Children of Hatred.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
We'll play some of that audio for you guys out there,
because I do think it's important for you to be
aware of what was said and has been said. Bill
O'Reilly with us? Now, what advice? One of the things
obviously we're doing on the show today is a form
of collective healing and mourning because so many people have
(21:59):
been so deeply impacted, including us, including you. What should
we do because there's a lot of people out there
in your opinion, what is the constructive path going forward
in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
It's an excellent question you're asking. So, mister Kirk's death
I think is going to lead to a renaissance of
a demand for justice. That's what I believe is going
to happen. But in order for that to happen, you
have to understand what is happening in this world right now.
(22:38):
And that's why I wrote Confront of Evil. Because most
people look away, they don't understand they don't know what happened.
Every one of the fifty and miscreants profiled in Evil
My book is relevant to today, as far back as
Caligula in the Roman Empire. It's all relevant to today.
But this is so shocking, so disconcerting, so sad, the
(23:05):
assassination of a thirty one year old just exercising its
freedom of speech, with two young children and a wife,
that everybody is forced to pay attention. And now you
have to inform yourself, so you guys might know that.
Earlier this week, on the launch of Confronting Evil, I
(23:25):
made a very bold statement that the Progressives, of course attacked.
My statement was, and if you live in New York
City and you vote for Mandanni, you are committing an
act of evil. Doesn't mean you're an evil person. It
means that vote is evil because Mandanni has told you,
(23:47):
just like Hitler did in the nineteen twenties. I'm not
comparing Hitler to Mandanni, but it's the same kind of
presentation of what they believe. Mandanni has. He does not
want to imprison criminals. He will let out as many
(24:08):
as he can. Well, that is going to lead to
more murder, more rape, more assault. He's not hiding it.
There's no two sides to it. He's said it. So
you are voting for that if you pull the lever
for the man. And I'm saying to the American public,
(24:29):
you have to stop that. You can't enable these people
in Charlotte with the judge let this guy out, knowing
the man was violent, knowing he had beat up his
own sister, let him out to do what he did
to that young woman on the bus. Every American has
(24:53):
got to say, no, we're not voting to that. Judge
should be removed, the fact that she isn't removed, I
think she will be. What are you doing in North Carolina?
What are you doing? Same thing in Chicago's South Side?
Twenty years twenty years of drug gangs mowing down poor
(25:14):
black citizens, and you object to a layer of protection
offered by the federal government to stop it or at
least mitigate it. You object to that. What the deuce
is going on? So Americans have got to get as
angry as you guys as me in order to make
(25:35):
Charlie Kirk's death a legacy play. So when people die
in this violent manner, if something good can emerge, that
prevents future deaths. That is very important.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Bill, Can I ask you the I don't think you're
on blue Sky. I'm I'm I felt obligated because I
was going to talk about this because I saw people saying,
you will not believe how much vile and just disgraceful
celebration was going on on this website, which is the
(26:15):
it's like the left wing lunatic version of X because
they they can't you know, control X anymore because of Elon.
So there's this whole place you just go and and Bill,
I was going through it last night. Do you think
Democrats and it was as bad as everybody was saying,
I can. I can tell everybody it was. It's horrific.
Do you think that there is any sense from some
(26:36):
of the Democrats who matter, some of the Democrats who
have power within their party that there is something deeply
spiritually psychologically wrong with the base of their party? I mean,
do you get that sense that there's any accountability from
within their side? Or is this just going to be
(26:57):
a both sides ism? And and some people are going
to celebrated on their team and other people are going
to ignore it. How do you see that where we
are right now.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Only the mentally ill would celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
So these people who are doing that are mentally ill.
Whether they're danger to society, I don't know, but that's
the classification. One hundred percent of them fall into. There's
no excuse for that. Now. On the Democratic Party front,
(27:28):
you are seeing today a total retreat from Trumpet, Hitler,
from Maga or hubb human beings. You're seeing one hundred
percent retreat because if you are on the hill or
in a state office, you are not going to be
(27:49):
able to survive by peddling hate in the wake of
Charlie Kirk's assassination. You will not be able to survive it. Okay,
they all know that. I mean, the view today came
on and this is a very good example because everybody
knows what the view is, all right, And these are
radical left women. These are not thinkers. These are people
(28:12):
who are in business to make the other side suffer.
All of them were lamenting the death of Charlie Kirk.
Predictable Disney would not tolerate it, and they saw what
happened to Matthew Dowd at MSNBC. But was Charlie Kirk
Ever invited on the program. No, okay, No, we've talked.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
We've talked about this, Bill Well. It's one of the
things that I think Charlie did so well, Bill, And
this is something that I spend an inordinate amount of
time thinking about, is how do you cut through the
noise to make people hear arguments that are good and
sound that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.
(28:55):
Because this is one of the downsides in a huge way.
I think of the algorithmic culture or we have built.
They only feed you things that they know you already like.
So it puts people into the into the atmosphere, into
the zeitgeist, only four things that they've already experienced. This
is my old man take, Bill. I bet you'll agree
(29:16):
with this. The reason I love reading print newspapers is
because I come across stories that I otherwise would have
never seen, because the algorithm wouldn't have known that I
might be interested in that, And that hopefully opens my
mind and makes me better at analyzing arguments and stories
than I otherwise would be. How do you cut through
(29:36):
because your point there, they wouldn't have him on the
view because his arguments are too good and because some
people sitting in that audience might have said, well, wait
a minute, I've heard that this Charlie Kirk guy's a Nazi.
I've heard he's hitler. But he's actually a pretty reasonable dad.
And some of his takes I might not agree with
them all. You shouldn't necessarily agree with everything anybody says entirely.
(30:00):
Some of his takes, they might have opened the window too,
and that's what was happening on social media, and that's
why they killed him.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
The corporations Disney, Comcast, CBS are partially responsible for the
rise in hatred in this country. I'm not going to
say the rise in evil, but the rise in hatred,
which feeds right into evil, and then evil feeds into violence.
The corporations to make money allowing people like Joy Behar
(30:32):
and the others to pedal hate. Yeah, okay, they make
money from Colbert, although they say they lose money. Why
was he on for so long? That's all he did?
Now that is going to cease for a while. And
my book is a perfect example of if you want
to inform yourself about evil, if you really want to
(30:54):
know what it is, do you read this book, and
then you will know, and then hopefully you yourself will
start to combat it in your own neighborhood, in your
own family, in your own state, because that's what it
will take. A shift in the culture, the American culture.
(31:16):
You know, I'm gonna I was invited by President Trump
to Yankee Stadium tonight. There's a reason that he invited me.
This isn't a social thing. I think it's about Putin,
but I'm not quite sure. But you guys know that
I have a pretty let's say, respectful relationship with mister Trump.
(31:37):
I know I'm going to be talking about this culture
situation because he brought it up yesterday in his over
office reaction to Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to hand
him the book. I'm going to say, Listen, you cannot
look away from evil. You got to deal with Putin,
You got to deal with him. Now, you got to
(31:58):
deal with the Jihadron already. Did you already know that evil?
All right? You neutralize them, and now you have to
turn your attention to American culture to call these people out.
Enough's enough. I've had it, you guys have had it,
and Charlie Kirk is dead because of it. An evil
(32:19):
person kills him and we are looking away from evil.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's it, Bill, O'Reilly. Confronting evil is the book. Bill.
Appreciate you as always, sir, for the clarity and what
you stand for here now and always so thank you for.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Being with us, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
As we know, evil does exist in this world and
we have to do what we can to stand against
it in every way that we can. You want to
make sure that you also are able to defend yourself
when you can, how you can. And this is where
Saber comes into the picture. Sabers, pepper spray's, pepper gels,
projectile devices all made here in the un say. Look,
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(33:04):
home protection, and we have Saber non lethal here. We
have a lot of lethal stuff here too, but we
have Saber non lethal because I can trust them. Carry's
comfortable with it. You have to take your defense into
your own hands. There's just evil out there. You know it,
We know it. All of us are aware. Saber is
spelled Sabre. The website is saberradio dot com. You can
say fifteen percent when you go to that website today.
(33:25):
The Mega Bundle which has a pepper projectile launcher is
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That's sab R radio dot com or call eight four
four A two four safe eight four four eight two four.
Speaker 7 (33:44):
Safe Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that
you unite us all each day, spend time with Clay
and by find them on the free iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. There is
a press conference that is coming soon that we will
take live. We are going to be joined by Senator
Bill Haggerty here in a moment. But I wanted you
to be able to hear that last caller talking about
the impact that Charlie Kirk had had on her teenager.
And I also want to tell you, look, there's probably
a lot of you that are going to be looking
(34:20):
for something that is not serious, and I'm one of them.
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Senator Bill Haggerty with us right now, Senator, I know
you pretty well. I know you've got I think four kids,
and I bet your sons in particular have been influenced
and impacted in a significant way by Charlie Kirk like
mine have. In fact, our kids have gone to one
(35:22):
of the same schools. I don't know if you know this, Senator,
but the kids at our kids Mutual School all wore
jackets and ties, which they are not fond of doing
in honor of Charlie Kirk today basically the entire school.
What was your reaction when you saw and heard what
had happened? What should happen next?
Speaker 6 (35:42):
Well, I've known Charlie for years. I wasn't close with
Charlie to the extent you never took a vacation or
something like that. We see one another in a room,
we'd always make our way across to shake hands. How
are you doing? I was thinking the last time I
saw Charlie was at man A Lago too long ago.
But it just, you know, as a parent, it just
(36:05):
strikes deep, not only the influence on my sons, And
I tell you my sons share something with Charlie as well.
My boys are both Eagle Scouts as am I so
was Charlie was an Eagle Scout, and Charlie is a
little bit older than my sons. But you know, I
have a very parental view of young people like Charlie
who are willing to enter the fray to be the
(36:27):
man in the arena, so to speak, and just to
step up and engage and debate and basically bring out
what's best in America. That's the freedom of speech that
we have that no other nation enjoys, and to see
that curtailed in such a tragic way as heartbreaking to me.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It's just heartbreaking, claim Senator Haggerty. I appreciate you being here,
and it's a tough day for the whole country. We
were prepared to have a remembrance of nine to eleven
and then this terrible incident became something that it's just
so many of us couldn't sleep well last night thinking
(37:03):
about it, the grief that has spread across the country.
What would you say to everybody right now, especially to
a lot of I mean, you have young boys yourself,
To the parents out there who are worried about how
this is going to affect their sons and daughters who
looked up.
Speaker 6 (37:17):
To Charlie, Well, I don't think this should impact the
degree to which they look up to Charlie at all.
In fact, I think this is going to raise the
respect for Charlie and raise the attention level in a
way that is well deserved but sad at the same time.
Charlie certainly didn't aim to be a martyr, but he
(37:39):
has been pushing for a cause. It's been vitally important
to him. I think it's vitally important to our nation,
and his willingness to engage, to debate and to clarify
for young people so they could actually see the truth
and cut through the noise that you spend time, clay Buck.
You both spend time cutting through the noise in the
mainstream media, the obsuscation that takes place, the politicization that
takes play place in the media, the silencing that takes place.
(38:03):
And Charlie was a beacon when it comes to standing
up and bringing the truth to light and enabling a
real discussion about issues rather than just spin spin spin
all day long. Charlie was willing to engage, He was
willing to listen to different opinions, He was willing to
argue in public in a respectful manner. This is the
(38:25):
way our forefathers are founding fathers designed this nation to
respect and support just that type of interaction. And what
happened was an act of cowardice, first and foremost, only
a total coward of do something like that, and someone
with such a narrow mind that they think the only
way to address a difference of opinion is to shut
(38:46):
the other side down. It's a manifestation of what's gone
so deeply wrong with the whole cancel culture here in
America and anyone. And I'm sad to say it, but
there are people that are actually trying to justify this
or in some way even celebrating this. That dehumanizes not
(39:06):
only those of us that care that have heavy feelings,
it dehumanizes the person that could possibly think that way.
And we need to get back to the basics here
in America. We need to get back to fundamental respect.
And again, it's heartbreaking to see what's happening, what has happened,
I should say, with Charlie's loss, But I hope that
it will be a chance for America to wake up,
(39:27):
for our young people to wake up and say, this
young man stood for something quite important, and I think
he's going to live on in our memories for years
and decades to come.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
We're talking to Center Bill Haggerty of Tennessee. This is
happening all over the country, sadly, but it happened where
you and I happen to both live in Tennessee. A
Middle Tennessee State University dean. I know there's a lot
of different deans. A student affiliated dean celebrated the death
(39:56):
of Charlie Kirk MTSU. The college has terminated that person
and they are no longer employed by the university. But sadly,
Buck and I have been talking about this, Senator. It's
one thing to disagree politically, it's entirely a different thing
when someone is assassinated. To celebrate the assassination, which we
(40:17):
are seeing take place all over the place, including sometimes
at public universities. How do we restore the soul of
the nation. It's a big question. But I'm incredibly troubled.
Buck is too. It's indefensible the reactions we are seeing.
What should happen? What can we do to restore that soul?
Speaker 6 (40:39):
Well, the particular incident that you're describing was extraordinarily disturbing
to be and I know it was to you and
everybody else. Middle Tennessee State University is by population by
student population, the largest university in the state of Tennessee,
a population state with over seven million people. MTSU is
our largest, our largest college. And to have the I
(41:01):
think it was an assistant dean of student services or
being students make a statement that in any way, in
any manner, could be interpreted as celebrating it as showing
zero sympathy, I think is a direct quote from what
I saw and the person's communicate. What a terrible message
does that send the students that you're supposed to be
there to support and teach. If that's the type of
(41:24):
indoctrination and teaching that's going on, something is sadly failed.
And I applaud doctor Sidney McPhee and the leadership there
at MTSU for dealing with this right away. I'm friends
with most of the members of the board of the
board of directors of that university. I know that they
would abhor this sort of thing and these rogue faculty members,
(41:45):
and there's no other way to describe it. People that
are in a position of responsibility and trust with respect
to our young people, particularly the audience that Charlie was
so good at reaching and touching. For someone like that
to step up and say what they did is apparent,
and I'm thankful that MTSU acted swiftly to discharge them.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Senator Haggerty, we appreciate you making the time for sir.
God bless you and your family and children.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
Thanks for being here, God, as I always thank you
for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
That's Center. Bill Haggerty does great work for the state
of Tennessee. We'll come back. There were reports that there
might be a press conference, just to update some of you.
It now appears Buck there may not be a press conference,
So we're unsure exactly what is going to happen, but
obviously we're going to continue to update you, and if
(42:36):
it doesn't happen, then we will certainly. Sean Hannity, I'm
sure we'll be following this story on many of the
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Speaker 5 (43:48):
Want to begin to know when you're on the go.
Speaker 8 (43:51):
The Team forty seven podcast trump highlights from the week
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Find it on the Heartsradio AM or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Welcome back in Clay. Travis buck Sexton Show ALI producer
shared a email with us, and I thought that I
would share this with all of you. Clay and Buck.
I'm reaching out because my son, I won't say his name,
but know that we are talking to you, helped start
(44:25):
a Cape cod chapter of Turning Point USA a couple
of years ago. He's home today, somewhat broken, trying to
process what happened. He's only twenty years old. My son's
been inspired by Charlie Kirk since he was a little kid.
He now works for Leadership Institute spends endless hours recruiting
students at colleges all over the Northeast. I want to
(44:47):
see if there's a way that you could possibly speak
to him today. I think good therapy for him would
be to speak about Charlie Kirk. He's alone in his
room right now, trying to think of a way to
help him get inspired, lift his spirits. Anything you can
do would be greatly appreciated. So I don't want to
call this kid. I don't want to put him on
(45:08):
the talk to millions of people. But Buck, I think
you and I they can clip this and they can
share with him, and you're hearing my voice because I
think there's so many young kids out there, so many
young boys that are lost, and Charlie was for them
(45:28):
a voice to help provide salvation to them. That's why
he connected so well with young men, young boys. And
I know in my own household that just from talking
to my kids about the impact. My ninth grade son said, Dad,
we went in the locker room and the whole football
team was just crushed. My son, one of my sons.
(45:53):
Last night when I was talking to him, said, do
you think Charlie's cankids are going to grow up and
watch that video of him getting shot one day? What
do you say to that? And so what I would say,
what I told them, and what I would tell that
(46:17):
kid is you have to be tougher than you think
you are, if you have to be braver than you
think you are. And you are both, and so are
(46:43):
all of us. And I think for young kids in particular,
you may not have experienced. And I know for you, Buck,
I could see it in your eyes because this is
the first time something like this has happened since you
became a dad. Yeah, and it changes you in a
(47:05):
big way. But what I would say is everybody has
to lift up and be braver and more courageous and
stronger than you think you are. And I think when
you're a young kid, young boy, young girl, you feel
like you're fragile, and you aren't. You are so much
(47:30):
stronger than you think you are. And one of the
things with this whole toxic empathy universe is we're telling kids, hey,
you're weak, words hurt you. You need to be protected
from the real world. That guy who killed Charlie. He
(47:51):
was weak. There was an open mic right there. If
you have the best argument in the world. Charlie was
providing you a voice to step right up and tell
him why he was wrong. And instead of that, from
two hundred yards away, you took his life. For your
(48:12):
young son, for so many young people out there, and
for a lot of us that are older too, we
have to be braver. We have to be more courageous.
We have to be tougher than we even think we are.
And you cannot let people who want to silence you win, ever,
that's what they want. You have to stand up stronger
(48:33):
than you've ever been before, all of us do, Your son,
my son's, everybody's sons and daughters, and all of us
two have to be the rocks to allow them to
stand up and be strong.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Amen, Clay, Let's take let's take calls in the net,
let's come back, Let's hear from all of you. Our
lines are open. We want, we want to speak with
all of you, so please call in and if you're
getting a busy, please wait your turn. If you want
to speak to us and everyone all around the country
about what happened, we'll get into it in a few
minutes here. Thank you for being with us. All right,
(49:07):
we're closing up shops today here on Clay and Buck. Look,
it was a difficult show for all of us. I'm
sure it was difficult for you to be with us
and thinking about these things. But we're honored and appreciated
that you were with us. And it is a very
special thing that Clay and I get to do with
all of you every day. And we you know, we
(49:29):
are going to do our best to continue with the
ethos and the mission of this show which aligned in
lockstep with what Charlie wanted for this country and with
what he stood for. We have that interview where he
joined our show because of course he was a friend
of the show, friend of ours. He came on. I
was on vacation, but he was able to speak to
(49:50):
Clay about a whole range of things, something very important
to Charlie. And as we see critical now in America
to have our focus is how we are raising and
how we are encouraging and building young men up for
the next to be the next generation of male leadership
in this critical country of ours is republic that is
(50:14):
the last best guaranteur of freedom for all of us.
Here is cut nine, Charlie. We're just gonna let you
listen to what he had to say about it.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Play it so you speaking of college football, a lot
of young men are college football fans. The campaign that
was just run, if you had to point to one
group that moved most massively from plus fourteen for Biden
to plus fourteen for Trump according to at least one
Wall Street Journal poll that I saw. Why did young men,
in your mind, people that you have been reaching out
(50:44):
to aggressively move so substantially in this election.
Speaker 9 (50:48):
I'd say, I think it's because they want to be
part of a political movement that doesn't hate them. Over
the last couple of years, you started to see the
woke stuff that was really incubated in twenty twenty start
to germinate and metastic size and grow into all of
our institutions. And one of the core orthodoxies of woke
is what we call DEI is really a hatred of
(51:09):
Christian white straight men. And I hate to be that
blunt about it, but it is. It's the orthodox of it,
the orthodoxy of it, and young men, why am I
being part of this?
Speaker 6 (51:20):
Exactly?
Speaker 9 (51:20):
I want to be part of a political movement that
at least acknowledges that there is men and women and
says that it's a good thing to be a man,
and that masculinity is not inherently toxic. And I think
top of that though, go ahead, police.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah no, I was just going to say, I think
what's interesting and you may have been going there too,
is it starts with white men are the problem. But
the problem with that is eventually it has to grow
and I think black guys, Hispanic guys, Asian guys looking
around like, hey, I don't think masculinity is toxic. I
think that men and women are different. And suddenly you
can't say that and be a Democrat correct.
Speaker 9 (51:54):
And then it even grows deeper into this kind of
tyranny of political correctness, which at its is like toxic femininity,
which is that we're going to police all of your speech.
The left has become a bunch of skolds, of hall
monitors of people that do not believe in free expression
or dialogue or discourse. And you know what we've seen
(52:15):
in the last couple of years is now a backlash
of that where if there is anyone in the quote
unquote manisphere, you know you say, Joe Rogan, the Theo Vaughn.
It's not that they're conservative, but they're inherently anti left,
that they're against the kind of new left wing dogma
and doctrine that believes that there needs to be speech
(52:37):
codes that you know, this trans nonsense. And so young
men in particular kind of led the rebellion towards a
political movement, one rooted in common sense patriotism, liberty and freedom.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Clay I spoke at one of Charlie's very first events
returning point. I don't know what number it was in
the progression, but it was twenty. I think it was
twenty fifteen, so maybe early twenty sixteen. And I remember something.
He came up with me backstage, and this is our
(53:14):
first ever meeting, and I didn't know anything about him.
All I knew was that he had reached out and
he said, I love your stuff, would you please come?
And Tommy Laren was there and I was there, and
he said I love your stuff, would you please come
and speak? And I said sure, you know I was
I happened if it was in Dallas. I happened to
be in Dallas, and he saw me backstage and he
had that already. Of course that Charlie energy.
Speaker 6 (53:38):
And just.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
You know, this guy was just pulling it all together.
And he came up to me and he said, you know,
I listened to you fill in for Rush. Because this
is after I'd filled in for Rush a few times
as a guest host. You know, Charlie filled in on
my program years later when I was doing six to nine.
So now Jesse Kelly slot so Charlie filled in for me.
But he said, I listened to you for Rush, and
(54:02):
he said, you know, he was very generous. He said,
you know, you did such a great job and and
that's and basically was like, that's just so cool, Like
he was just telling that's just so cool. He filled
in for Rush, and he said, you know how I
learned conservatism. He said the one thing that he absolutely
never missed, and this is I think for a lot
of you bring things full circle. He said, I couldn't
always listen to all three hours, but I listened to
(54:24):
Rush Limbaugh's opening monologue every day, starting in you know,
junior high. Every day, he said, he would listen to Rush.
So this is so much of Charlie and what he believed.
It makes sense and you understand where it was coming from.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Well, I think that's that's a really great analogy because
what it represents is all of us have a relatively
short amount of time on this planet right We don't
know when it's going to come to an end for
any of us. And I think Charlie got that. He's
only thirty one, and Rush certainly got that. There are
tons of you listening to us right now who started
(55:07):
listening because mom and dad, Grandma and grandpa were driving
you around the car. The Rush Baby universe is large,
and we've now been doing this show for over four years,
which means you could have gone from freshman year of
high school to being a senior now, and we're gonna
be doing it for hopefully years and years to come.
But you win by winning the culture. And that's what
(55:33):
I would come back to with Charlie. You have to
go to people where they are, and he went to
them on a college campus and he said, here's an
open mic, let's debate, and the very foundation of America
is the best argument should win. And Charlie had the
(55:54):
best arguments, and he won, and he won big, and
the culture has shifted around him, and that's why they
killed him. And what we cannot allow to happen, not you, me,
not all of you out there. What we cannot allow
to happen is for his victories to go in vain.
(56:15):
We have to pick up the mantle and we have
to advance it further and further.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
And I know all of you are going to do that.
Just say Clay and I make you all a solemn promise.
We will continue what we do here. We will continue
to honor what Charlie stood for in his memory, and
we will stay in this fight because it's a fight
to make this the best country for all of us
that we possibly can, and to tell you all the truth.
And you all play a role in it, play the
(56:41):
critical part in it every day because without you, we
wouldn't be able to have any impact. So thank you
all for listening. God bless you. We're praying for all
of you. We're praying for Charlie, Charlie's family. We love
you all, and please go hug and tell your family
you love them today
Time, how we can save the next generation.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We've got our show and the info is an antidote.
But we also have a couple of books coming out Clay.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
That's right, and you can pre order both of them
right now and be book nerds just like us.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter too.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Mine's called balls, how Trump young men in sports saved America.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And mine is manufacturing delusion, how the Left uses brainwashing,
indoctrination and propaganda against you.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Both are great reads. Welcome in. It is going to
be a hard show. It is going to be a
difficult show. I imagine that a lot of you are
like both the Buck and myself. It's hard to sleep.
May not have gotten a lot of sleep, probably have
been hopefully hugging your kids, your grandkids closer, and trying
(00:46):
to deal with the fact that we live in a
world where if you have the wrong opinion, and I
know many of you, sadly, including me, have expected things
like these. We've been talking about it, unfortunately for over
a year after President Trump took a bullet to the ear.
It's awful. We ended yesterday's show. Buck and I, if
(01:10):
you watch on video, are regularly scrolling through our phone
to make sure that we are the absolute best informed
and get you information as fast as we possibly can.
And Buck saw it first yesterday during the show, and
I could see in his face that something was very bad.
(01:31):
And unfortunately, about an hour after the show ended, Buck,
you were basically on Fox News when it happened. And
Charlie Kirk is gone, thirty one years old. He leaves
behind a young son, young daughter, very very young son
and daughter, loving wife. And they killed him because they
(01:54):
did not like his political opinions. And we're going to
talk a lot about this and have a big conversation
with all of you. But I think at its essence,
this is where words are violence leads to I think
if you have to boil it down. The left has
accepted the idea that if you or I or any
(02:14):
of us say something that they do not like, that
violence is an appropriate response. And where this event, this
assassination took place, was in many ways perfectly reflective of
the impact that Charlie Kirk has had in his life.
(02:34):
On a college campus with an open mic, where anyone
on the campus could walk up and tell him why
he was wrong, and they could debate anything under the sun.
And he had done this, and he was so profoundly
successful at it that he had particularly moved the hearts
(02:56):
and minds of many young men. And Buck, I'll toss
it to you here in a second, but let me
tell you that my two oldest boys, their entire school
today in Nashville dressed up in coats and ties in
honor of Charlie Kirk. And you went to a school
where you had to dress up sometimes, let me tell you,
these boys don't want to wear coats and ties. They
(03:18):
usually are always complaining. They're like, oh, it's a coat
and tie day, dad. The whole school wore coats and
ties in honor of Charlie Kirk. And I understand some
of you, maybe you're in your sixties, seventies, eighties, You
might not have been the target audience necessarily seeing this content.
But I would tell you, particularly if you have sons, grandsons,
(03:40):
young people in your households, they may be hurting quite
a bit and impacted by this far more than even
you might have been. So Buck, that it is just
a devastating yet sadly not unexpected to meet event.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
It's a day of mourning. For the whole country because
of what happened within the last twenty four hours. And
also it is the remembrance of nine to eleven today,
so it's a particularly hard and emotional day. It was
going to be before this horrific event happened. And now
we sit here with you and we we grieve with
(04:19):
all of you because of what happened to Charlie and
which is just horrific beyond words. I we were when
Clay saw me yesterday, I was I felt like I
was going to throw up. When we were I was
reading the initial text messages about it, and we were
on this we went into commercial break at the very
end of the show. Of course, I didn't want to
(04:40):
say anything at first, because this is there's some news
stories that you know, you just cannot get wrong, you can't,
and there's so much false information out there these days,
and so so we really wanted to be just bring
you the facts about this. And and then I was
on with Will Will Caine, who's a bit a friend
of mine now for I don't know fifteen almost fifteen
(05:01):
years and and Will texted me, he said, will you
please come on and talk about what's going on? And
I got some I got word when I was on
the air. It was very early on in the show, Clay,
but I had already been informed pretty reliably that Charlie
wasn't going to make it. But then I again, I,
you know, we're dealing with the not certain, you know.
(05:23):
You obviously I can't say that if I'm not one
hundred percent sure, but I'm thinking, and I'm you know,
it's just all the processing, the grief, the trauma that
people feel right now. We feel it with you. Clay
and I both knew and liked Charlie and had a
(05:43):
tremendous respect for what he had built and what he
had done, and in this last election playing a critical role,
especially with getting that youth vote, to start to see reality.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
And it's just one of those moments, Clay, where you
go to bed at night, to the degree you can
even sleep and it's still, you know, just doesn't feel
like this could have been what happened.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It's so horrific and it's so wrong and evil on
so many levels. I feel for Charlie's family, his wife,
his two small children, his mom, his dad, everybody, all
of his family is just you know, it's I don't know,
how it's possible for them to even begin to deal
(06:34):
with something like this. Charlie was a force of nature.
Charlie was doing really incredible work and returning in a
lot of ways. I think, Clay the conversation back to
some of our core and most important founding principles. All right,
(06:55):
let's talk about let's have this debate, let's have this
exchange of ideas. And you know, I know that there's
this sense that, well, we are in mourning, and so
should we get into the politics of this right away?
Charlie was assassinated. I mean, this was a terror act.
(07:15):
This was an assassination.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
He was kilmed because of his politics. That's right, It's
impossible not to talk about politics.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
That's exactly what I want to express. Thank you. Yes,
it's this wasn't a you know, it would be It
would be tragic and horrible if he had, you know,
died because of you know, an armed robber who shot
him or something like that. That would be horrible, That
would be a terrible crime. But this was done because
of who Charlie was. We all know that. In fact,
the FBI and will continue to I am hopeful that
(07:46):
there will be an arrest while we are on the
air today. That's not going to bring Charlie back. And
I know that this is not going to be able
to comfort the grieving right now in a meaningful way,
but it will at least be the justice system beginning
to do what it is possible for the justice system
(08:07):
to do to create some accountability. I think this should
be a death penalty case or the individual involved. I
am hopeful that they will get this person. There's reporting
that they have the weapon US was a both action
rifle that is confirmed by the FBI. Watched the press
(08:28):
conference this morning. It's two hundred yards perhaps two hundred
plus yards shot. So it's somebody who had an understanding
of how they had some practice. This is not someone
who bought a gun and then the next day went
just went on a shooting spree. This is somebody who
had some ability to shoot it with accuracy. They're saying
(08:50):
they think it's right now. The person the main personal
interest is college age. We'll see. I mean they've been
a lot of you have updated on what we just mentioned.
I just retweeted.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
They have shared photos of the individual that from FBI
Salt Lake City Field Office. They have photos of the
man that they believe is responsible for the shooting. And
I just retweeted those college age as you were going to.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Write, so they have clear video college age. I will
note that there have been numerous photos of individuals of
interest shared previously, including FBI statements that we have a
This is this is where the investigative process can be
a little confusing or can create some confusion, especially in
the online ecosystem. A person of interest does not mean
we have the person. It's exactly what it sounds like.
(09:38):
It's we think this is a person we definitely need
to speak to. There have been a couple of those
people in custody. Initially there was the there was some
crazy old guy who was saying, you know, and people
thought that he did not he was right there, he
had nothing to do with the shooting, or you know,
it clearly wasn't him. So there's been a lot of
(10:00):
iterations of this already, so Clay, yes, there's video out
there of this individual. The FBI has also confirmed that
there are things written on the rifle and I believe
on the shell casings from this morning's press conference, which
is going to be it's going to tell us what
(10:22):
the we know the motivation as politics. We know this
was an assassination, we might have a more direct sense,
a more precise sense of what this maniac. And I
agree with people say when you say maniac, that makes
it sound like a person not of their right mind.
It's really just demonic. It's a demonic act to do
(10:42):
this to Charlie, to do this to Charlie's family, to
do this to the American people. And one thing I
can say to all of you, Clay totally, I know
he co signs on this. I know that he is
of the same heart and mind and this as I am.
If something like this had happened to a prominent democrat,
I also would have felt sick to my stomach. I
also would have said, what the heck is going on
in this country? This is disgusting, it is egregious, it
(11:06):
is inhuman. And yet Clay, last night I was on
I went on Blue Sky. Do you know about you?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Have you been on the Sky? I didn't go on,
but I have seen the postings. I mean, this is
not a fringe part of the left. There is malignant
glee over this assassination that is widely shared and disgusting.
But I don't want you thinking, oh, this is they're
going to try to say, oh, this is just an
(11:35):
aberrational individual. This is not reflective of ideas on the left.
There is a huge, toxic foundational core of the Democrat Party,
of the far left in this country that is celebrating
political violence and assassination of people. They don't like Blue Sky,
which I do not recommend any of you download or
(11:55):
go on, but I felt like I needed to in
advance of this show. And it's, honestly, it's so depraved.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
It is a giant echo chamber of of people congratulating
each other and and cheering for what happened yesterday. It's
the most of Paul. I mean, I honestly just nightmare stuff.
You go, you look what is wrong with these people.
Charlie never advocated violence against anybody. Charlie uh never, you know,
(12:29):
raised a hand against anyone. His whole thing was let's talk,
let's talk, and and an assassin kills him. And and
we cannot think of this as something that occurred in
a vacuum clay or or you use the word aberand
or that you know that this is something It was
(12:49):
twice they tried to kill Donald Trump. These are all
people of the same ideology. Twice they tried to kill
Donald Trump. Now we've had people shooting up uh, we
had the shooting up the church in Minneapolis because of
radical trans ideology. We have the Nashville Manifesto hidden from
us because it was a radical trans terrister. But I
(13:10):
don't know what the stated ideology this person is other
than it's someone who hates Trump, hates Charlie, is of
the left, and therefore Clay is part of this. This
just rotten. This this fetid nass psychosis that democrats think,
and they can say any You can't just run around
saying people are Nazis all the time because a lot
(13:32):
of people think that if you could go back in
time and kill Nazis, that would be a good thing.
I want to keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I went off on this last night, and I was
on with our friend Sean Hannity in the evening. That
to me is the crux of all of this. There
are consequences when you say, hey, my political opponents are Nazis.
Donald Trump is Adolph Hitler, they are fascists. They're going
to overthrow the government. There's not going to be in
(13:59):
action in twenty twenty eight, the guy who tried to
kill Trump and West Palm Beach said he was doing
it because he believed Trump was Hitler. If you truly believe,
and some of these crazy people do, if you truly
believe that Trump is Hitler, or that you're Hitler, or
that I'm Hitler, or that Charlie Kirk is Hitler, or
all of you out there who voted for Trump or Hitler,
(14:20):
then don't tell me right after you kill someone or
attempt to kill someone. We condemned political violence because it's
a lie. Political violence would be justified if we were
Adolph Hitler, and in their brain some of their crazy,
deluded followers are taking that charge and they believe it,
(14:42):
and they killed Charlie Kirk over it, I one hundred
billion percent believe, and they tried to kill Donald Trump
over it. And they would try to kill you, and
they would try to kill me, and they would try
to kill anyone that they believe is Hilarian because they
think they're a hero, and their delude did mental sphere.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
If this Charlie was we knew Charlie, but he was
also on our on our team. He was doing what
we do, meaning Clay and I and so many others.
Do you know he was doing a podcast and a
radio show and he was spreading the truth, the truth
that so they killed him. He was killed. He an
(15:22):
assassin's bullet took his life because he was speaking the truth.
And to Clay's point, the same people cheering for this,
which is which is just monstrous. And I had to
know that it was true before I could tell you.
But that is happening a lot of people, a lot
of people on the left. The psychosis of these people
(15:44):
is it is really troubling for the future of this country.
While while people on the right and people voted for
Trump are grieving and thinking about Charlie's poor wife and
his kids, and people are crying, and I'm getting text
messages from people. I can't sleep at night. All I
can think about is Charlie's wife and his kids and
what have they done to us? And then there are
democrats who are acting we can't ignore it, and we
(16:06):
won't ignore it. Well, come back, we'll talk about this more,
and we want, we'd want to take a lot of
your I know a lot of you want to weigh
in and speak to us about this. You have things
to get off your chest. You want to speak from
your heart about this, so please do call us and
let's let's all discuss this together as we always do.
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Speaker 4 (17:15):
Today, Making America Great Again isn't just one man, It's many.
The Team forty seven podcast Sunday's at noon Eastern in
the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
A lot of us processing the grief, feeling like we've
woken up in a somewhat different and darker country today
because of this terrible act, and we wanted to speak
with our friend Bill O'Reilly. You know him. He's a
best selling author, He was on Box for decades and
Bill honestly just wanted to give you an opportunity. We
(17:54):
were in shock yesterday. The news came down while we
were on the air at the very end of the show.
We didn't know, and we were all hoping that the
end result would be quite different. I wanted to You've
seen a lot in your years speaking the truth to
the people about what's going on, but this is a
particularly awful day, and I wanted to let you speak
(18:19):
to everybody about how you're feeling.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Okay, well, I'm going to tell the audience on a
Klaient book show the absolute truth. This was evil, and
that word applies not only to the assassination of mister Kirk,
but what's happening in general in this country. So, as
you guys know, on Tuesday, my brand new book Confronting
(18:43):
Evil was released, and I woke up on Wednesday to
see Putin firing missiles at Poland in an unbelievably dangerous situation,
and then a few hours later, Charlie Kirk is shot
to death in Utah. I did a lot of media
between those things and now, and one interviewer said, your
(19:07):
book is haunting. The timing of your book is haunting
because I knew that we are entering a new age
of evil. And that's a point I made on News
Nation on television last night. Nineteen thirties, the world gravitated
toward evil in an enormous way that resulted in one
(19:28):
hundred million people being killed in World War Two. Now,
thanks to the United States, we defeated evil, and there
were others who helped us, but we were the primary motivator.
We're back now in an age where evil is on
the rise, and evil is what took Charlie Kirk's life.
(19:51):
So I find myself in a very interesting position of
having written a book. You know, we start these a
year in advance, predicting that bad things were going to occur,
and then see them occur the very week my book
is released. And the message in confronting evil is the
(20:13):
reason this is happening is because many Americans and all
people all over the world are turning away. So you
turn away from evil, you're going to get more of it.
It is easier for miscreants to do their horrible deeds
now than it ever before in American history. Do you
(20:36):
guys realize that it is easier to kill a fellow
human being in the United States than ever before because
of our permissive justice system and our progressive movement that
does not want to punish criminals and indeed encourages political violence.
(21:00):
Are members of the progressive movement, and they are centered
on MSNBC and the urban newspapers who are encouraging political violence.
We saw that yesterday, just one hour after Charlie Kirk
was shot, a man named Matthew Dowd went on MSNBC
and said, you know, I might have been Kurtzbault because
of his opinions. Now he was fired because MSNBC had
(21:23):
to fire him. But is anybody surprised? Is anybody surprised
that that was said on MSNBC? No, Because we'll play
Children of Hatred.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
We'll play some of that audio for you guys out there,
because I do think it's important for you to be
aware of what was said and has been said. Bill
O'Reilly with us? Now, what advice? One of the things
obviously we're doing on the show today is a form
of collective healing and mourning because so many people have
(21:59):
been so deeply impacted, including us, including you. What should
we do because there's a lot of people out there
in your opinion, what is the constructive path going forward
in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
It's an excellent question you're asking. So, mister Kirk's death
I think is going to lead to a renaissance of
a demand for justice. That's what I believe is going
to happen. But in order for that to happen, you
have to understand what is happening in this world right now.
(22:38):
And that's why I wrote Confront of Evil. Because most
people look away, they don't understand they don't know what happened.
Every one of the fifty and miscreants profiled in Evil
My book is relevant to today, as far back as
Caligula in the Roman Empire. It's all relevant to today.
But this is so shocking, so disconcerting, so sad, the
(23:05):
assassination of a thirty one year old just exercising its
freedom of speech, with two young children and a wife,
that everybody is forced to pay attention. And now you
have to inform yourself, so you guys might know that.
Earlier this week, on the launch of Confronting Evil, I
(23:25):
made a very bold statement that the Progressives, of course attacked.
My statement was, and if you live in New York
City and you vote for Mandanni, you are committing an
act of evil. Doesn't mean you're an evil person. It
means that vote is evil because Mandanni has told you,
(23:47):
just like Hitler did in the nineteen twenties. I'm not
comparing Hitler to Mandanni, but it's the same kind of
presentation of what they believe. Mandanni has. He does not
want to imprison criminals. He will let out as many
(24:08):
as he can. Well, that is going to lead to
more murder, more rape, more assault. He's not hiding it.
There's no two sides to it. He's said it. So
you are voting for that if you pull the lever
for the man. And I'm saying to the American public,
(24:29):
you have to stop that. You can't enable these people
in Charlotte with the judge let this guy out, knowing
the man was violent, knowing he had beat up his
own sister, let him out to do what he did
to that young woman on the bus. Every American has
(24:53):
got to say, no, we're not voting to that. Judge
should be removed, the fact that she isn't removed, I
think she will be. What are you doing in North Carolina?
What are you doing? Same thing in Chicago's South Side?
Twenty years twenty years of drug gangs mowing down poor
(25:14):
black citizens, and you object to a layer of protection
offered by the federal government to stop it or at
least mitigate it. You object to that. What the deuce
is going on? So Americans have got to get as
angry as you guys as me in order to make
(25:35):
Charlie Kirk's death a legacy play. So when people die
in this violent manner, if something good can emerge, that
prevents future deaths. That is very important.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Bill, Can I ask you the I don't think you're
on blue Sky. I'm I'm I felt obligated because I
was going to talk about this because I saw people saying,
you will not believe how much vile and just disgraceful
celebration was going on on this website, which is the
(26:15):
it's like the left wing lunatic version of X because
they they can't you know, control X anymore because of Elon.
So there's this whole place you just go and and Bill,
I was going through it last night. Do you think
Democrats and it was as bad as everybody was saying,
I can. I can tell everybody it was. It's horrific.
Do you think that there is any sense from some
(26:36):
of the Democrats who matter, some of the Democrats who
have power within their party that there is something deeply
spiritually psychologically wrong with the base of their party? I mean,
do you get that sense that there's any accountability from
within their side? Or is this just going to be
(26:57):
a both sides ism? And and some people are going
to celebrated on their team and other people are going
to ignore it. How do you see that where we
are right now.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Only the mentally ill would celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
So these people who are doing that are mentally ill.
Whether they're danger to society, I don't know, but that's
the classification. One hundred percent of them fall into. There's
no excuse for that. Now. On the Democratic Party front,
(27:28):
you are seeing today a total retreat from Trumpet, Hitler,
from Maga or hubb human beings. You're seeing one hundred
percent retreat because if you are on the hill or
in a state office, you are not going to be
(27:49):
able to survive by peddling hate in the wake of
Charlie Kirk's assassination. You will not be able to survive it. Okay,
they all know that. I mean, the view today came
on and this is a very good example because everybody
knows what the view is, all right, And these are
radical left women. These are not thinkers. These are people
(28:12):
who are in business to make the other side suffer.
All of them were lamenting the death of Charlie Kirk.
Predictable Disney would not tolerate it, and they saw what
happened to Matthew Dowd at MSNBC. But was Charlie Kirk
Ever invited on the program. No, okay, No, we've talked.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
We've talked about this, Bill Well. It's one of the
things that I think Charlie did so well, Bill, And
this is something that I spend an inordinate amount of
time thinking about, is how do you cut through the
noise to make people hear arguments that are good and
sound that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.
(28:55):
Because this is one of the downsides in a huge way.
I think of the algorithmic culture or we have built.
They only feed you things that they know you already like.
So it puts people into the into the atmosphere, into
the zeitgeist, only four things that they've already experienced. This
is my old man take, Bill. I bet you'll agree
(29:16):
with this. The reason I love reading print newspapers is
because I come across stories that I otherwise would have
never seen, because the algorithm wouldn't have known that I
might be interested in that, And that hopefully opens my
mind and makes me better at analyzing arguments and stories
than I otherwise would be. How do you cut through
(29:36):
because your point there, they wouldn't have him on the
view because his arguments are too good and because some
people sitting in that audience might have said, well, wait
a minute, I've heard that this Charlie Kirk guy's a Nazi.
I've heard he's hitler. But he's actually a pretty reasonable dad.
And some of his takes I might not agree with
them all. You shouldn't necessarily agree with everything anybody says entirely.
(30:00):
Some of his takes, they might have opened the window too,
and that's what was happening on social media, and that's
why they killed him.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
The corporations Disney, Comcast, CBS are partially responsible for the
rise in hatred in this country. I'm not going to
say the rise in evil, but the rise in hatred,
which feeds right into evil, and then evil feeds into violence.
The corporations to make money allowing people like Joy Behar
(30:32):
and the others to pedal hate. Yeah, okay, they make
money from Colbert, although they say they lose money. Why
was he on for so long? That's all he did?
Now that is going to cease for a while. And
my book is a perfect example of if you want
to inform yourself about evil, if you really want to
(30:54):
know what it is, do you read this book, and
then you will know, and then hopefully you yourself will
start to combat it in your own neighborhood, in your
own family, in your own state, because that's what it
will take. A shift in the culture, the American culture.
(31:16):
You know, I'm gonna I was invited by President Trump
to Yankee Stadium tonight. There's a reason that he invited me.
This isn't a social thing. I think it's about Putin,
but I'm not quite sure. But you guys know that
I have a pretty let's say, respectful relationship with mister Trump.
(31:37):
I know I'm going to be talking about this culture
situation because he brought it up yesterday in his over
office reaction to Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to hand
him the book. I'm going to say, Listen, you cannot
look away from evil. You got to deal with Putin,
You got to deal with him. Now, you got to
(31:58):
deal with the Jihadron already. Did you already know that evil?
All right? You neutralize them, and now you have to
turn your attention to American culture to call these people out.
Enough's enough. I've had it, you guys have had it,
and Charlie Kirk is dead because of it. An evil
(32:19):
person kills him and we are looking away from evil.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's it, Bill, O'Reilly. Confronting evil is the book. Bill.
Appreciate you as always, sir, for the clarity and what
you stand for here now and always so thank you for.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Being with us, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
As we know, evil does exist in this world and
we have to do what we can to stand against
it in every way that we can. You want to
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(33:04):
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(33:25):
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Speaker 7 (33:44):
Safe Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that
you unite us all each day, spend time with Clay
and by find them on the free iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. There is
a press conference that is coming soon that we will
take live. We are going to be joined by Senator
Bill Haggerty here in a moment. But I wanted you
to be able to hear that last caller talking about
the impact that Charlie Kirk had had on her teenager.
And I also want to tell you, look, there's probably
a lot of you that are going to be looking
(34:20):
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Senator Bill Haggerty with us right now, Senator, I know
you pretty well. I know you've got I think four kids,
and I bet your sons in particular have been influenced
and impacted in a significant way by Charlie Kirk like
mine have. In fact, our kids have gone to one
(35:22):
of the same schools. I don't know if you know this, Senator,
but the kids at our kids Mutual School all wore
jackets and ties, which they are not fond of doing
in honor of Charlie Kirk today basically the entire school.
What was your reaction when you saw and heard what
had happened? What should happen next?
Speaker 6 (35:42):
Well, I've known Charlie for years. I wasn't close with
Charlie to the extent you never took a vacation or
something like that. We see one another in a room,
we'd always make our way across to shake hands. How
are you doing? I was thinking the last time I
saw Charlie was at man A Lago too long ago.
But it just, you know, as a parent, it just
(36:05):
strikes deep, not only the influence on my sons, And
I tell you my sons share something with Charlie as well.
My boys are both Eagle Scouts as am I so
was Charlie was an Eagle Scout, and Charlie is a
little bit older than my sons. But you know, I
have a very parental view of young people like Charlie
who are willing to enter the fray to be the
(36:27):
man in the arena, so to speak, and just to
step up and engage and debate and basically bring out
what's best in America. That's the freedom of speech that
we have that no other nation enjoys, and to see
that curtailed in such a tragic way as heartbreaking to me.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It's just heartbreaking, claim Senator Haggerty. I appreciate you being here,
and it's a tough day for the whole country. We
were prepared to have a remembrance of nine to eleven
and then this terrible incident became something that it's just
so many of us couldn't sleep well last night thinking
(37:03):
about it, the grief that has spread across the country.
What would you say to everybody right now, especially to
a lot of I mean, you have young boys yourself,
To the parents out there who are worried about how
this is going to affect their sons and daughters who
looked up.
Speaker 6 (37:17):
To Charlie, Well, I don't think this should impact the
degree to which they look up to Charlie at all.
In fact, I think this is going to raise the
respect for Charlie and raise the attention level in a
way that is well deserved but sad at the same time.
Charlie certainly didn't aim to be a martyr, but he
(37:39):
has been pushing for a cause. It's been vitally important
to him. I think it's vitally important to our nation,
and his willingness to engage, to debate and to clarify
for young people so they could actually see the truth
and cut through the noise that you spend time, clay Buck.
You both spend time cutting through the noise in the
mainstream media, the obsuscation that takes place, the politicization that
takes play place in the media, the silencing that takes place.
(38:03):
And Charlie was a beacon when it comes to standing
up and bringing the truth to light and enabling a
real discussion about issues rather than just spin spin spin
all day long. Charlie was willing to engage, He was
willing to listen to different opinions, He was willing to
argue in public in a respectful manner. This is the
(38:25):
way our forefathers are founding fathers designed this nation to
respect and support just that type of interaction. And what
happened was an act of cowardice, first and foremost, only
a total coward of do something like that, and someone
with such a narrow mind that they think the only
way to address a difference of opinion is to shut
(38:46):
the other side down. It's a manifestation of what's gone
so deeply wrong with the whole cancel culture here in
America and anyone. And I'm sad to say it, but
there are people that are actually trying to justify this
or in some way even celebrating this. That dehumanizes not
(39:06):
only those of us that care that have heavy feelings,
it dehumanizes the person that could possibly think that way.
And we need to get back to the basics here
in America. We need to get back to fundamental respect.
And again, it's heartbreaking to see what's happening, what has happened,
I should say, with Charlie's loss, But I hope that
it will be a chance for America to wake up,
(39:27):
for our young people to wake up and say, this
young man stood for something quite important, and I think
he's going to live on in our memories for years
and decades to come.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
We're talking to Center Bill Haggerty of Tennessee. This is
happening all over the country, sadly, but it happened where
you and I happen to both live in Tennessee. A
Middle Tennessee State University dean. I know there's a lot
of different deans. A student affiliated dean celebrated the death
(39:56):
of Charlie Kirk MTSU. The college has terminated that person
and they are no longer employed by the university. But sadly,
Buck and I have been talking about this, Senator. It's
one thing to disagree politically, it's entirely a different thing
when someone is assassinated. To celebrate the assassination, which we
(40:17):
are seeing take place all over the place, including sometimes
at public universities. How do we restore the soul of
the nation. It's a big question. But I'm incredibly troubled.
Buck is too. It's indefensible the reactions we are seeing.
What should happen? What can we do to restore that soul?
Speaker 6 (40:39):
Well, the particular incident that you're describing was extraordinarily disturbing
to be and I know it was to you and
everybody else. Middle Tennessee State University is by population by
student population, the largest university in the state of Tennessee,
a population state with over seven million people. MTSU is
our largest, our largest college. And to have the I
(41:01):
think it was an assistant dean of student services or
being students make a statement that in any way, in
any manner, could be interpreted as celebrating it as showing
zero sympathy, I think is a direct quote from what
I saw and the person's communicate. What a terrible message
does that send the students that you're supposed to be
there to support and teach. If that's the type of
(41:24):
indoctrination and teaching that's going on, something is sadly failed.
And I applaud doctor Sidney McPhee and the leadership there
at MTSU for dealing with this right away. I'm friends
with most of the members of the board of the
board of directors of that university. I know that they
would abhor this sort of thing and these rogue faculty members,
(41:45):
and there's no other way to describe it. People that
are in a position of responsibility and trust with respect
to our young people, particularly the audience that Charlie was
so good at reaching and touching. For someone like that
to step up and say what they did is apparent,
and I'm thankful that MTSU acted swiftly to discharge them.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Senator Haggerty, we appreciate you making the time for sir.
God bless you and your family and children.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
Thanks for being here, God, as I always thank you
for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
That's Center. Bill Haggerty does great work for the state
of Tennessee. We'll come back. There were reports that there
might be a press conference, just to update some of you.
It now appears Buck there may not be a press conference,
So we're unsure exactly what is going to happen, but
obviously we're going to continue to update you, and if
(42:36):
it doesn't happen, then we will certainly. Sean Hannity, I'm
sure we'll be following this story on many of the
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Speaker 5 (43:48):
Want to begin to know when you're on the go.
Speaker 8 (43:51):
The Team forty seven podcast trump highlights from the week
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Find it on the Heartsradio AM or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Welcome back in Clay. Travis buck Sexton Show ALI producer
shared a email with us, and I thought that I
would share this with all of you. Clay and Buck.
I'm reaching out because my son, I won't say his name,
but know that we are talking to you, helped start
(44:25):
a Cape cod chapter of Turning Point USA a couple
of years ago. He's home today, somewhat broken, trying to
process what happened. He's only twenty years old. My son's
been inspired by Charlie Kirk since he was a little kid.
He now works for Leadership Institute spends endless hours recruiting
students at colleges all over the Northeast. I want to
(44:47):
see if there's a way that you could possibly speak
to him today. I think good therapy for him would
be to speak about Charlie Kirk. He's alone in his
room right now, trying to think of a way to
help him get inspired, lift his spirits. Anything you can
do would be greatly appreciated. So I don't want to
call this kid. I don't want to put him on
(45:08):
the talk to millions of people. But Buck, I think
you and I they can clip this and they can
share with him, and you're hearing my voice because I
think there's so many young kids out there, so many
young boys that are lost, and Charlie was for them
(45:28):
a voice to help provide salvation to them. That's why
he connected so well with young men, young boys. And
I know in my own household that just from talking
to my kids about the impact. My ninth grade son said, Dad,
we went in the locker room and the whole football
team was just crushed. My son, one of my sons.
(45:53):
Last night when I was talking to him, said, do
you think Charlie's cankids are going to grow up and
watch that video of him getting shot one day? What
do you say to that? And so what I would say,
what I told them, and what I would tell that
(46:17):
kid is you have to be tougher than you think
you are, if you have to be braver than you
think you are. And you are both, and so are
(46:43):
all of us. And I think for young kids in particular,
you may not have experienced. And I know for you, Buck,
I could see it in your eyes because this is
the first time something like this has happened since you
became a dad. Yeah, and it changes you in a
(47:05):
big way. But what I would say is everybody has
to lift up and be braver and more courageous and
stronger than you think you are. And I think when
you're a young kid, young boy, young girl, you feel
like you're fragile, and you aren't. You are so much
(47:30):
stronger than you think you are. And one of the
things with this whole toxic empathy universe is we're telling kids, hey,
you're weak, words hurt you. You need to be protected
from the real world. That guy who killed Charlie. He
(47:51):
was weak. There was an open mic right there. If
you have the best argument in the world. Charlie was
providing you a voice to step right up and tell
him why he was wrong. And instead of that, from
two hundred yards away, you took his life. For your
(48:12):
young son, for so many young people out there, and
for a lot of us that are older too, we
have to be braver. We have to be more courageous.
We have to be tougher than we even think we are.
And you cannot let people who want to silence you win, ever,
that's what they want. You have to stand up stronger
(48:33):
than you've ever been before, all of us do, Your son,
my son's, everybody's sons and daughters, and all of us
two have to be the rocks to allow them to
stand up and be strong.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Amen, Clay, Let's take let's take calls in the net,
let's come back, Let's hear from all of you. Our
lines are open. We want, we want to speak with
all of you, so please call in and if you're
getting a busy, please wait your turn. If you want
to speak to us and everyone all around the country
about what happened, we'll get into it in a few
minutes here. Thank you for being with us. All right,
(49:07):
we're closing up shops today here on Clay and Buck. Look,
it was a difficult show for all of us. I'm
sure it was difficult for you to be with us
and thinking about these things. But we're honored and appreciated
that you were with us. And it is a very
special thing that Clay and I get to do with
all of you every day. And we you know, we
(49:29):
are going to do our best to continue with the
ethos and the mission of this show which aligned in
lockstep with what Charlie wanted for this country and with
what he stood for. We have that interview where he
joined our show because of course he was a friend
of the show, friend of ours. He came on. I
was on vacation, but he was able to speak to
(49:50):
Clay about a whole range of things, something very important
to Charlie. And as we see critical now in America
to have our focus is how we are raising and
how we are encouraging and building young men up for
the next to be the next generation of male leadership
in this critical country of ours is republic that is
(50:14):
the last best guaranteur of freedom for all of us.
Here is cut nine, Charlie. We're just gonna let you
listen to what he had to say about it.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Play it so you speaking of college football, a lot
of young men are college football fans. The campaign that
was just run, if you had to point to one
group that moved most massively from plus fourteen for Biden
to plus fourteen for Trump according to at least one
Wall Street Journal poll that I saw. Why did young men,
in your mind, people that you have been reaching out
(50:44):
to aggressively move so substantially in this election.
Speaker 9 (50:48):
I'd say, I think it's because they want to be
part of a political movement that doesn't hate them. Over
the last couple of years, you started to see the
woke stuff that was really incubated in twenty twenty start
to germinate and metastic size and grow into all of
our institutions. And one of the core orthodoxies of woke
is what we call DEI is really a hatred of
(51:09):
Christian white straight men. And I hate to be that
blunt about it, but it is. It's the orthodox of it,
the orthodoxy of it, and young men, why am I
being part of this?
Speaker 6 (51:20):
Exactly?
Speaker 9 (51:20):
I want to be part of a political movement that
at least acknowledges that there is men and women and
says that it's a good thing to be a man,
and that masculinity is not inherently toxic. And I think
top of that though, go ahead, police.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah no, I was just going to say, I think
what's interesting and you may have been going there too,
is it starts with white men are the problem. But
the problem with that is eventually it has to grow
and I think black guys, Hispanic guys, Asian guys looking
around like, hey, I don't think masculinity is toxic. I
think that men and women are different. And suddenly you
can't say that and be a Democrat correct.
Speaker 9 (51:54):
And then it even grows deeper into this kind of
tyranny of political correctness, which at its is like toxic femininity,
which is that we're going to police all of your speech.
The left has become a bunch of skolds, of hall
monitors of people that do not believe in free expression
or dialogue or discourse. And you know what we've seen
(52:15):
in the last couple of years is now a backlash
of that where if there is anyone in the quote
unquote manisphere, you know you say, Joe Rogan, the Theo Vaughn.
It's not that they're conservative, but they're inherently anti left,
that they're against the kind of new left wing dogma
and doctrine that believes that there needs to be speech
(52:37):
codes that you know, this trans nonsense. And so young
men in particular kind of led the rebellion towards a
political movement, one rooted in common sense patriotism, liberty and freedom.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Clay I spoke at one of Charlie's very first events
returning point. I don't know what number it was in
the progression, but it was twenty. I think it was
twenty fifteen, so maybe early twenty sixteen. And I remember something.
He came up with me backstage, and this is our
(53:14):
first ever meeting, and I didn't know anything about him.
All I knew was that he had reached out and
he said, I love your stuff, would you please come?
And Tommy Laren was there and I was there, and
he said I love your stuff, would you please come
and speak? And I said sure, you know I was
I happened if it was in Dallas. I happened to
be in Dallas, and he saw me backstage and he
had that already. Of course that Charlie energy.
Speaker 6 (53:38):
And just.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
You know, this guy was just pulling it all together.
And he came up to me and he said, you know,
I listened to you fill in for Rush. Because this
is after I'd filled in for Rush a few times
as a guest host. You know, Charlie filled in on
my program years later when I was doing six to nine.
So now Jesse Kelly slot so Charlie filled in for me.
But he said, I listened to you for Rush, and
(54:02):
he said, you know, he was very generous. He said,
you know, you did such a great job and and
that's and basically was like, that's just so cool, Like
he was just telling that's just so cool. He filled
in for Rush, and he said, you know how I
learned conservatism. He said the one thing that he absolutely
never missed, and this is I think for a lot
of you bring things full circle. He said, I couldn't
always listen to all three hours, but I listened to
(54:24):
Rush Limbaugh's opening monologue every day, starting in you know,
junior high. Every day, he said, he would listen to Rush.
So this is so much of Charlie and what he believed.
It makes sense and you understand where it was coming from.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Well, I think that's that's a really great analogy because
what it represents is all of us have a relatively
short amount of time on this planet right We don't
know when it's going to come to an end for
any of us. And I think Charlie got that. He's
only thirty one, and Rush certainly got that. There are
tons of you listening to us right now who started
(55:07):
listening because mom and dad, Grandma and grandpa were driving
you around the car. The Rush Baby universe is large,
and we've now been doing this show for over four years,
which means you could have gone from freshman year of
high school to being a senior now, and we're gonna
be doing it for hopefully years and years to come.
But you win by winning the culture. And that's what
(55:33):
I would come back to with Charlie. You have to
go to people where they are, and he went to
them on a college campus and he said, here's an
open mic, let's debate, and the very foundation of America
is the best argument should win. And Charlie had the
(55:54):
best arguments, and he won, and he won big, and
the culture has shifted around him, and that's why they
killed him. And what we cannot allow to happen, not you, me,
not all of you out there. What we cannot allow
to happen is for his victories to go in vain.
(56:15):
We have to pick up the mantle and we have
to advance it further and further.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
And I know all of you are going to do that.
Just say Clay and I make you all a solemn promise.
We will continue what we do here. We will continue
to honor what Charlie stood for in his memory, and
we will stay in this fight because it's a fight
to make this the best country for all of us
that we possibly can, and to tell you all the truth.
And you all play a role in it, play the
(56:41):
critical part in it every day because without you, we
wouldn't be able to have any impact. So thank you
all for listening. God bless you. We're praying for all
of you. We're praying for Charlie, Charlie's family. We love
you all, and please go hug and tell your family
you love them today
Host
Ben Ferguson
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