U.S. Rep Kat Cammack Talks About Charlie Kirk

Florida's District 3 Representative in the U.S. House offered a thoughtful set of reflections on recent events and TurningPoint USA Founder, Charlie Kirk. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Five passed. The hour eight is the third hour The
Morning Show with Preston's gott In Morning Friends. I'm Preston,
that is Jose. Good to be with you this morning, Tuesday,
September sixteenth, and I'm pleased to have back with US
US Congresswoman Kat Camick, Florida's third congressional district, Cat. How
are you?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning, my friend. I wish that you could see
the scene right now because I have the most adorable
one month old a sleep on me right now.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Awe And now see now I feel terrible bringing up
bad subjects.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh no, no, see, we've got to fix all the
bad stuff so that she and all of the little
youngins can grow up without dealing with this nonsense. So
they make it all worth it.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And Kat, I don't think I'm going too far to
say that the tragedy of last week impacted your daughter,
impacted my kids, impacted my grandchildren, impacted young and old
in this country in a way that we haven't seen
quite honestly since doctor Martin Luther King's assassination. Give me

(01:12):
your thoughts, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Last week obviously, I mean it translates across time. What
happened last week? Truthfully, I knew Charlie. I worked with Charlie.
Charlie was a friend, and it has been really really hard,
no doubt about it. And were minded daily, truthfully, not

(01:37):
just of you know, tribute and individuals and the things that
are happening to honor and remember him. But a good
example just yesterday I went to text my chief of staff,
who's also named Charlie, and as I typed in charlel
you know the chaar, the first name that popped up
in my phone to send the message to was Charlie Kirk,

(01:58):
and his picture popped up, and once again I found
myself rereading all of our messages. And we had just
a couple of weeks ago been talking about a bill
that we were working on and how we were going
to work to advance it. And it hits home and
the thing that is so incredible to me about his

(02:19):
legacy that of course we all know now, I mean,
it goes without saying we have a responsibility to carry
it on. We have to grow the message, grow the movement,
and do more. But the thing that really hit home
to me in the last few days is what he
built and the power of what he did in telling
the truth and if we don't move that forward and

(02:44):
keep the conversation going, then we are doing a disservice
to everything that he tried to do. And it just
goes to show the power of a single person and
what they are capable of. It wasn't just a national movement.
This is a global movement. You're seeing people across the
globe mourning his death, and you think about the organization

(03:06):
turning point. Last week was the turning point for us.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I use the word inflection point. I think that we
have reached one. And that's why you know, as I
look at for example, there are a lot of companies
that are saying, no, we're not going to employ I mean,
we were talking last hour about the Washington Post fired
somebody for their comments about Charlie Kirk, MSNBC fired somebody.
These are organizations that historically don't do that, and I

(03:35):
feel like we've seen something different. This is a different
type of cancelation. This isn't well they think differently than
I do on an issue. We're going to out them. No,
we're outing people that that celebrate the death of another
human being who engaged in civil discourse. That to me
is grounds for termination.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
And you know, I've seen I've seen some discussion we
say about these people who put these comments out there,
They make these they make these statements, and I think
a couple of years ago, heck even a couple of
weeks ago, it would have been tolerated. We don't have

(04:16):
to tolerate that anymore. Now I am a little bit
on the concern side that we are going to see
more of a censoring as a result of this. We cannot.
We cannot, because this is a it would be a
disservice to what Charlie was trying to do. He thought
for freedom of speech. If we engage in what the

(04:37):
left has done in full blown cancel culture, to the
point of shutting someone down and censoring them, that is
not what he would have wanted. But I have said repeatedly,
we don't have to tolerate these people, and these companies
that are firing these people for what they're saying, they
are not tolerating it either, And so we have to

(04:59):
honor his legacy by engaging in civil discourse, in the dialogue,
in the conversation. Now, quite frankly, they are sinners, savables
and things. And when it comes to the centers of
this discussion, in this moment in time, who are cheering
for the death of someone who they just don't agree
with politically. I don't know if you cannite with the

(05:22):
unite with those people. I mean, I think there's a
mental illness that they have that you just can't fix.
But we have to be better than what they have done.
And I think the overwhelming majority of Americans they find
what they have seen in the last couple of days reprehensible, disgusting,
and they don't want any part of it. So we

(05:43):
could be seeing the final throes of the left as
we know it.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Kat Camick with me, us congressman from Florida's third district
and kind enough to carve out a couple times a
month to talk about things, and right now we're focused
on the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. You
mentioned the Democrat Party. I think it's interesting because this
is once again showing the growing divide between old school

(06:19):
rational liberals Democrats and the new modern extremist, illiberal, violent
side of the party. What's your hunch. What are people
telling you that are Democrats? Because I know I know
you guys, you are able to talk and converse. And
maybe it's not for publication in terms of who's saying what,

(06:41):
but Kat, what are democrats on the other side of
the aisle saying to you in the wake of Charlie's killing.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I'll tell you exactly what the scene was. Yesterday we
held a vigil for Charlie inside the Capitol, inside Statuary Hall,
and there was a gathering point where we all come together,
and then we were walking into Statuary Hall. Only three
Democrats showed up. Three virtually every Republican I was there,

(07:15):
but I sat talking to two of the Democrats because
I was actually pretty appalled that Moore had not shown up.
And one is actually someone who I've worked with quite
a bit on healthcare issues, and it was Debbie Dingle
from Michigan. And I walked up to her and I said, Debbie,

(07:37):
I appreciate you being here. Thank you. And she said,
what has happened and where we are at is the
most horrible thing, and we have to It is so
important that we're here, and she said, I'm disappointed that
more aren't. And I got into an elevator about an
hour later after votes, and I'll tell you there was

(08:00):
some Democrats in the elevator, and they were making comments
that were absolutely horrible, talking about how they couldn't believe
that the you know, the the vigils, the outpouring, Who
was this guy if people really knew who he was?

(08:21):
And that just I'm telling you there is something broken
with the regressive left. They are not progressive, they are
the regressive left. And there's something that is mentally broken
with these people where they think that it's okay to
cheer for the death of a political opponent who didn't

(08:42):
do anything wrong. He literally was telling the truth and
engaging in the debate that we all claim to support
right and for them, they don't want the debate. They
just want you to shut up. That's what it is.
And because he spoke out, because he was effective, they
wanted to silence him. I don't know where we went

(09:03):
wrong where people in this country can justify this type
of political violence. It's never okay on any side. But
the fact that you have sitting members of Congress who
say these discussing things is horrible. The people who have
made a horrible comments, Yeah, your employer should know what
you're about, and I think you should be held accountable
for that. When I had many and many death threats

(09:24):
against me. Their employers were absolutely finding out what they
were doing, and many people lost their jobs as a result.
I think it's that personal responsibility that has been lost
in this country and the fact that behind a keyboard
you feel emboldened to say whatever the heck you want.
I think that we have people now who are saying, no, no,
we're going to call you on it. Because the right

(09:44):
we've always played nice, and I think that we've hit
that moment where we're not going to play nice anymore.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Congresswoman, it almost seems insensitive to say, Okay, what does
Congress do next? Because this is such a unique time,
So how do you proceed with the business of running
the country and not allowing what happened to Charlie to

(10:13):
do anything but galvanize and inspire.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
So a couple of things on that one. Again, as
more is uncovered, we know that he had a roommate
romantic relationship with an individual who was trans Once again,
you're seeing where someone who has been on the hormone therapies,

(10:40):
who has been in that space, has been a part
of a massive, horrible situation. Just like we've seen shooters
in the last couple of months who have identified as
trans we're now seeing the dark side of it, and
we have been fighting in Congress to actually one protect

(11:01):
minors so that people can't do the experimental surgeries and
the drugs on them. Certainly taxpayers shouldn't be funding it
and so making it one prohibiting it. But then two,
also you have the graduate medical education where these major
hospitals they it's a source of funding for them. So

(11:22):
we're cutting off funding. That is the first thing. The
second thing is and you and I were just talking
a little bit in the break about how there could
be more in this effort that should be uncovered. I
absolutely think so no one gets radicalized to this point
without anyone knowing. And I talked about this on the

(11:45):
media last week. We have an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, yes,
but people turn towards social media, and in this case,
this kid was on discord and so we're looking into
what was said, knew and where there were cracks. Right.
It also speaks to the fact that there is a

(12:06):
security problem. Myself and you know this, fifty three credible
death threats over the last couple of months. We've been
getting some very ominous phone calls here in the last
twenty four hours. I think this is the wake up call.
And I've heard my colleagues say it before. It's well
established that we believe that one of us has to

(12:27):
get shot and killed before there would be action taken
to protect members and their families. You look at Charlie Kirk.
He leaves behind a young wife, two very very young children.
We have to do better in terms of the realities
of where we are most members at this point, no
open air events. Security is tightening up, But in the

(12:50):
last twenty four hours, I've been getting calls from people
saying constituents saying we don't want more security around members,
and it's a little bit of a chilling effect. The
situational ethics that people subscribe to now is very concerning,
particularly for my colleagues on the left, where they're like, well,

(13:10):
in this case, it was a Republican who was shot
and killed, so it's okay that we don't have an
outrageous response, but when it happens to the other side,
it's a totally different ballgame.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Oh yeah, we need it.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Blows my mind. So right now Congress is looking at
those three big things right, the cracks in the communication,
the trans issue where miners have been basically experimented on,
which I think years from how people will look back
and say, what in the heck were people doing? How
did they allow that to happen? And then of course

(13:46):
I think it's going to radically change how government operates.
I think you're going to see a much tighter security
structure around members, their families, their staff, their teams. It's
shaken everybody to their core, to the point where a
lot of members saying, you know what I'm done. You
have staff members who are saying, you know what I
signed up to help people and think they're thinking whether

(14:08):
or not they should be in public service or not.
We have to do better as a society. Charlie was
a builder. He wasn't a wrecker. We all need to
be builders in our own way in supporting our community
and getting back out there and fighting for our community,
for our republic. This is this is the turning point.
This is the turning point.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Maybe take all of the things that Charlie espoused that
are legislative in nature, things that Congress ought to be
doing or thinking. That's so many millions of young people
and now not just young people people are hearing about.
How about we take advantage of this and bundle into
one big, beautiful Wait no, let's call it something else

(14:53):
and call it the Charlie Kirk Bill, and let's put
some sweeping legislation together. Bundle it. And because kids are
going to identify with whatever that legislation is, because it's
stuff Charlie talked about. I think there's I think there's
something you can do.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
I think that's a great ideas, that's a beautiful idea.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Charlie Kirk is a hero. And uh and I'm grateful
that he was a friend of yours.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Kat.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
That makes my heart happy. Stand By Cat camick Us,
congresswoman from Florida's third District, my guest here on the
Morning Show.