PM Show Hr 2 | Charlie Was Silenced Because His Message was So Beautiful

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Lock and load.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
The Michael Berry Show is on the air.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Swing low.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Swing low.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Sweet Sherry.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Coming for to carry me home.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Swing.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
He built Turning Point USA from a two-man startup into
an $ 85 million youth political machine. Became one of the
most listened to voices in America. A kid from Prospect Heights, Illinois.
Eagle Scout. Turned down by West Point. One semester of
community college and no degree. And he'd tell you so himself,

(01:06):
standing at a folding table in the middle of a
hostile campus, handing the microphone to the loudest 19-year-old in
the crowd. 2,000 chapters, three hours of live radio a day,
three quarters of a million downloads a day. By 2021,
he wasn't only building campus chapters. He was building Turning

(01:27):
Point Faith, taking the whole operation into the churches because
he decided the country's trouble was never really political. He
said we were in a constitutional crisis for one reason.
We were no longer a Christian nation. And every Friday night,
the phone went off until sundown Saturday. The rest of
the week belonged to the country. That day belonged to

(01:51):
his wife and his two babies. A hundred thousand people
came to his memorial. It looked less like a funeral
than a worship service. In the week after his death,
32,000 young people asked to start a chapter. Today, his
college chapters have nearly tripled. His high school clubs are
up almost 600%. And this Sunday, the movement he left

(02:13):
behind is asking Christians across America to do one thing.
Bring somebody to church. Charlie Kirk was assassinated one year
ago today.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
It was a year ago on this day, September 10th,
that Charles James Kirk, known to the world as Charlie Kirk,
was assassinated. He was not simply murdered. He was assassinated.
He was silenced. And a lot of people held out

(02:59):
hope that this would change America, that That this would
be the representation that it went too far. I did
not hold out that hope. But let me talk about
two things. Number one is who Charlie Kirk was and

(03:21):
what he represented. And then I want to talk about
our nation's reaction to that. I'll start with Charlie Kirk.
You know his biography. I don't need to tell you
that part. He was a prodigy. You know, we all,
it's funny because my kids are now 19 and 20.

(03:41):
They're at college. And so I've been for years seeing
postings on social media of friends of mine, and they
were at college with their kid and moving them in
and moving them out and graduation and first job. We
weren't there yet, but I saw a lot of those.
It's kind of a generational thing. And now we're at

(04:01):
that stage again. And I'm seeing a lot of my
friends who have their kids coming up through youth sports.
And they're posting as I posted, because their kid ran
for a 50-yard touchdown. Or their kid hit a home run.
Or their kid pitched a shutout. And you can tell
by the tone, they think they might have the next

(04:24):
great on their hands. And we all do. And it's fun.
It's fun. It's a part of life. You're so proud
your kid went three for three and scored the game-winning run.
And that's fun. It's family time. It's an artificial way
to spend family time. Because I'll tell you, I grew
up in youth sports. I raised my kids in youth sports.

(04:46):
You will spend more time with your kids taking them
to and from cheer practice, baseball practice, football practice, basketball practice,
golf lessons. You will spend more time taking your kids
to and watching your kids and taking them home, but
I mean one-on-one conversation time, around sports, typically then you
will do anything else. Now my mom's, my wife's a

(05:09):
tiger mom, so she also spends a lot of time
with the kids doing homework, always has, still talks to
them about what their assignments are, still kind of stays
on top of, hey, let's make sure we don't miss classes,
we do this, we do this. But youth sports are very, very,
very healthy. Um, I want to say what Charlie Kirk did.

(05:31):
So we talk about a prodigy because Charlie Kirk was
a true prodigy. He peaked very early. I don't want
to say peaked. He shined on a spectacular level very early,
so much so that he caught Rush Limbaugh's attention. He
was a child, a kid, I would say, at the

(05:55):
point that he was talking to National leaders in our country.
He was all the while doing what a lot. That's
why a band often a band will have as their
sophomore album, their second album. By the way, the midterm
convention is going on tonight. President Trump is speaking. It's

(06:17):
going on right now. President Trump is speaking. Charlie J.D.
Vance is speaking. I wish Charlie Kirk was speaking.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
J.D.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Vance is speaking. That is going on tonight. So I
want to make sure that you do not miss that.
It is a great opportunity to share our message. And
you may say, well, I already know the message. It's
why we as Christians go to revival. Sometimes we just

(06:45):
need to be fired up again. We just need to
nourish our energy a little. And our wood gets a
little wet, as Ted Cruz's dad, Rafael, who was a
long-term pastor, said. Sometimes your wood gets a little wet.
And sometimes it's good to rekindle that. But Charlie Kirk,

(07:06):
what made him special in my mind, was that although
he became famous at an insanely young age, you see
a band, they'll have their whole body of work leads
up to 21, 22, and they release this album, and
the whole world says they're great, and they can't reload.

(07:28):
They have nothing left in the tank because they spend,
this happened to the Beastie Boys, they spend a year
touring behind it and doing interviews and being told they're great,
but they're not creating new content. Here's what Charlie did.
While he was becoming and became famous, he was still
reading his Bible. He was still reading classical liberal economics,

(07:56):
which means Hayek, which means going back to the basics
so that he was well-grounded and he was reading his Bible.
And he continued to grow beyond at a young age,
which is hard to do. And as he's building a family,
he continued to grow as an individual intellectually and to

(08:16):
build upon those experiences. And he had to be silenced
because his message was so beautiful. We will talk about
Charlie Kirk and a lot more coming up. You've got
the Michael Berry Show.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
So.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
What made Charlie Kirk special, it's the one year anniversary
of his assassination. What made Charlie Kirk special was a
couple of things. He really kind of shot to the
forefront out of doing these. Stephen Crowder did something similar,
which has changed my mind. Sit out with a coffee
cup and a stand, changed my mind. You know, men

(08:54):
are not women. But Charlie did it at a very
high level, and that's not to criticize Crowder. I think
Crowder's bit is a brilliant bit. I think the guy
gets it. He really gets showmanship, and he's a smart guy.
And I understand others have done debates, firing line, going

(09:15):
back to Bill Buckley in the debates. But Charlie really
reveled in going to university campuses and standing there And
a lot of people think of it as a competition,
a battle. Because people would always tell me, you know,
he whipped him. They tried to beat him, but he
whipped him. I've never viewed any of this as a sport.

(09:41):
I mean, for fun I'll do. But what really matters,
that's not why Charlie Kirk was there. That's not what
his heart put on him. That's not what the Lord
put on him as to why he should be there.
He was there to engage to show young people your
anger your resentment your your half-baked views I want to

(10:07):
hear them I want to give you a chance to
express them I want to give you an audience of
your peers and a guy that you know is famous
that's why you came out here And I'm going to
attempt to dispel those. But I'm going to show you

(10:27):
the respect to listen to your views. Having a 19
and 20 year old, two kids in college, I have
come to learn, and it's humility, which is a struggle
for me, that sometimes people just want to be heard.
They don't want their problems solved. They don't want combat.

(10:53):
Sometimes they just want to be heard. Young people are
developing their minds, but they're also developing physically, hormonally. They're scared.
They're scared of the changes in the world. And they're
being fed fear, because fear sells, and fear is everywhere.

(11:15):
And when you are uncertain, fear... is very easy to
penetrate your mind, every sinew of your thoughts. And so
young people are scared. And they're on the university campus,
And they're going to class and they're trying to figure out,
you know, who am I going to be? What am

(11:35):
I going to do for a living? They're being told
there won't be any jobs left because AI is going
to replace them. They're being told Trump is killing everybody
and we're being mean and we're Nazis and the illegal
immigrants are the Jews and they're being put in concentration
camps and burned to death. And we're killing everybody around
the world. And nobody has anything except for a handful

(11:56):
of really rich old white guys. And they're being fed
this over and over and over again by people we
paid a lot of money for them to go listen to.
And we told to respect their teachers. Because let's be honest,
we can talk all we want in the abstract about
how whack job professors are. But we send our kids
to university and spend a lot of money doing it.

(12:18):
And yes, there are the trappings. There are the fraternities
and the sororities. There are the parties. There's being on campus.
There's not having to work a day job. There's all
these different things, right? There's this lifestyle, the life of Riley.
But we told them to go to these classes and
learn something. And what they're learning is polluting their minds.

(12:39):
And we've got to change that. And I think University
of Texas is making a change. I think Brandon Creighton
under Chancellor Davis, or President Davis, Texas Tech University is
making massive changes under Brandon Creighton. And I've hated him
in the past, but I think Texas A & M
is making great strides. I think the University of Houston

(13:00):
under Renu Kator is making great strides. I think universities
around the country, to varying degrees, are recognizing the winds
of change and they cannot continue to be crazy anymore.
But Charlie went to that place, and he talked to
those students as they walked out of class, as they

(13:21):
were told that people like him are basically Himmler, that
they are assassins of decency, and stealers of people's lands,
and rapers and pillagers of innocent women who just want
to have multiple abortions or strangle their three children. And
there he stood with a smile on his face and

(13:44):
a Christian disposition, not a showy disposition, not the Sadducees
on high, look at us, we are righteous. He bowed
his knee in Christian supplication and came to the campus
and to meet these students where they were. Literally where

(14:09):
they were. And he let them go first. And they
came loaded for bear.


And

(14:31):
he would sit there. He'd hold his mic down about mid-chest.
And he would listen. And then he would say, I
don't hate you.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I love you.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
I disapprove of your positions or your lifestyle. But I
love you. I pray for you. And it was disarming.
It was powerful. And it was humble. And it was beautiful.
And that's why they killed him. That's why they killed him.

(15:04):
This wasn't the death penalty as a punishment for taking
the life of another. This was becoming too powerful. He
did not have an office in that sense, a political office.
This is becoming too powerful because of who you are.
I'm not saying he was Jesus Christ, but that is Christ-like.

(15:25):
That's why he had to die.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Turn your phone off for one day. No contact, no
social media, no work. Your mental health will improve dramatically.
So every Friday night, I take a Jewish Sabbath, turn
off my phone Friday night to Saturday night. The world
cannot reach me and I get nothing from the world.
It will bless you infinitely. And I could be traveling
for five or six days, but if I at least

(15:48):
get one good Sabbath with my family, it charges all
back up.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
When he turns his phone off and it goes in
that drawer, he's all on for the family. There is
no distractions. And he finally gets to reset his brain.
He finally gets to breathe. And as a wife, there
is nothing more precious than my husband's sanity when it
comes to everything that he's dealing with in his world.

(16:12):
So I have seen it change him and impact our
family in one of the most beautiful ways.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
And it's made our family much tighter knit. And it
says very clearly in the scriptures, for six days you
shall work and the seventh day you shall rest.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
It was important enough.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
That God put it as one of the Ten Commandments
and God rested after creation. Go back to God's natural rhythm.
That is a day to go be with God and
be out of the busyness and the hurriedness and the
noise of this world.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Shortly after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I spoke at a
Turning Point event and I have for years turned down
speaking engagements. I used to give speaking engagements all over
the country and I would do my show out of
a hotel room and I made really good money. It

(17:09):
turns out organizations want a featured speaker who can draw
people to the event and I made really good money
and the reason I did it was I would tell
the kids Whatever money I make on speeches will be
play money for us. Because if daddy's gone from you,
I hate to travel. The problem is you speak for

(17:31):
30 minutes or an hour and you travel, you know,
a whole day to get there and a whole day
getting back. And I'm coordinating my show around it. And
I only have limited. It was it was just awful.
But anyway, back to the point, I. I did agree.
I've started giving speeches again since the kids are off
at college. But I did agree to give a speech

(17:56):
because it was Turning Point USA. And Ken Paxton, who
is our attorney general, is the best attorney general in
the country. And he's done a lot of things that
have meant a lot to me. He went after Meta,
which is Amazon. for the things they were doing to children.

(18:16):
He went after big pharma in a big way for
the poisonous drugs. He went after the Biden administration and
won again and again when they were trying to keep
us from closing our border. He went after Google for
unethical practices and won. He goes after these people and

(18:38):
wins and it matters. And his daughter works with Turning
Point USA. And so there were a lot of overlaps
of goodness. Charlie had just passed, and I said to
my wife, I said, hey, whatever it was, next Thursday
night I'm going to be at a speaking event. She said,
you don't do speaking events anymore. And I said, I know,

(19:00):
it's Turning Point USA. She goes, I get it. So
I did, and I finished the show, and I rushed over,
and I'm out in the hallway, waiting to be introduced
and go up on stage, and I'm peeking through the door,
and it's young people and their parents. But the young

(19:21):
people are down front, and the parents are out back.
I remember what it was. There was a crazy immigrant
woman from, like, Bolivia or something. She was a socialist communist,
and she was trying to get the school to deauthorize, unauthorize, end, terminate,

(19:44):
A turning point chapter that had begun at I think
Stratford High School, if I remember correctly. which is in
near West Houston. And I felt like And she's a
former Democrat socialist chairman. And so she was going after

(20:04):
the school to try to get them. Oh, she was
going after the teachers who agreed to be sponsors of
the program. You don't have to agree with the program
to be the sponsor. Every organization needs a sponsor to
make sure you don't do stupid stuff.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
A teacher has to be like a chaperone kind of thing.
So I felt like that was really wrongheaded. So I'm
speaking to I'm waiting to speak to the group. And
I'm noticing that the kids are inside on the front,
you know, eight or 10 or 15 rows. And their
parents are standing on the back against the wall to
be there to support them because they were kind of

(20:41):
under fire here. And so this was their gathering to say, no,
we're going to do this. And I go up and
speak and I'm looking out and I get very emotional
about things that I'm passionate about. And I'm passionate about family.
And I'm watching these parents just beaming at their kids

(21:02):
because their kids are not crazed, you know, maniacal protester kids.
They've raised these kids and the kids have stayed on
the straight and narrow path. And here are these kids
proudly standing up for goodness in our country. This is
why it's important for the left to define who and

(21:23):
what we are. Because these kids standing up for goodness
and piety and righteousness and sacrifice and patriotism has to
be defined as racism and evil because you have to
knock them off their course. You cannot let them be
the high watermark. But they are. And that's why it's

(21:44):
so important that the left try to define us. And
that's why it's so important you don't listen to them.
So I'm speaking to this group. And I'm looking out
and I'm thinking, I've always been the youngest person in
the room. I was always the young guy who people
were saying, how can we help you, young man? And

(22:05):
I realized something crazy is happening here. I'm 55. This
was last year, so I was 54. I'm 55. Charlie
was 31. a month short of 32. And these kids

(22:26):
are 16.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
17, 18.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
He's almost old enough to be their parents. He's definitely
young enough to be my son. There's a beautiful passing
of the torch here. But it doesn't have to be
such that one or the other. There's a continuity across generations,
which is really cool. A lot of people want to

(22:52):
worship Charlie Kirk for how smart he was. He was.
For how quick he was while he was debating, which
he was. For how prominent he became. For the friendships
he developed. President Trump called him to the White House
and sought his advice, which is true. But Charlie Kirk
is not Jesus Christ. He's not a god. What he did,

(23:17):
which can live on, is that he excited an entire
nation of young people. Not everyone, I didn't say that,
but a lot. He told them, it's okay to love
your country. It's okay to appreciate your parents. It's a

(23:39):
good thing. He became the counterculture of the counterculture. He became...
He became the Pied Piper for young people. And that's
so much bigger than any one individual can do. And
that's why they had to kill him. I'm not sure

(24:04):
what your question was, Mr.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Michael Berry.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
I lost the plot somewhere. You did.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
You did.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
What is conservatism? What is that now?

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Very simply, it's about protecting the best we have to
offer so our kids and grandkids can enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
It's protecting the best. It's conservatism. Interject, please.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
Well, the best as laid down in the Constitution, best
according to whom?

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Sure, exactly.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
What is objectively best? For example, so having children, which
we're not doing a good job of conserving. That's an
objective good for the species. The birth rate is plummeting.
The fertility rates are the lowest they've ever been in
American history. And the idea of having children is now
a luxury item for those.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
That can afford it. The idea of homeownership.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
So I think that's an objective good that helped build
Western society. You have your land. You're able to caretake
for it. This is my place. I'm going to steward it. Well,
homeownership is now at record lows for young people. That's
why it's such an interesting statement, my answer, Dr. Drew,
because we could spend two hours of what is the
best by what standard? way in the West of how

(25:08):
we have explored and defined the answer is those things
that are good for their own sake. And that is
an Aristotelian answer. It's awfully philosophical, but you don't have
to dwell on it too much to say that children
is good for society. Marriage is good for society. When
drug addiction goes up, that's a bad thing. You've been
a hero on that topic. Conservatism is about protecting the
best we have to offer so that young people and

(25:30):
future generations can enjoy it like we do.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
What Charlie Kirk did in only 31 years, which is
just crazy. I mean, it's absolutely crazy to think. But
what he did and what that represents will live on forever.
But the question becomes, what's the legacy? Or more importantly,

(25:55):
how are we different? How's the country different? There were
a lot of people who told me a year ago
when he was assassinated in the in the days and
weeks following, that this was a watershed moment, that America
was going to change, that the hate was going to end,
the left would be so embarrassed. They'd be ashamed. They'd

(26:17):
be guilt-ridden. And if I was in the mood to engage,
I would say, no, that's not true. You don't understand.
They are a cult. If you know anything about cults,
you can't say, to your 18-year-old daughter, honey, we love you,

(26:37):
and those people are using you sexually. They're evil. They're
doing you harm. And we're not the people who are
your problem. And no, we're not awful people. No, we're not.
They're in a cult. You've got to undo the brainwashing.

(27:03):
And I said at the time when I wanted to engage, no,
it's not going to change for those people. The very
people that cheered Charlie's assassination are glad he's gone. They're delighted.
They don't want to see the light. They don't want

(27:24):
a world of lightness. They want darkness. They don't see
it as darkness. They see it as light. It's a
very different perspective. And they don't want to be taught
the error of their ways, and they don't want any
of what you want. So the great irony is that

(27:48):
the very people who had hoped that this would bring
an awakening for the country, at least as regards the left,
would believe that because hope springs eternal if you are
a Christian. Hope springs eternal if you are a good
person who believes in goodness. The left doesn't. They didn't

(28:14):
look at this and say, you know what, you're right.
We're outside the bounds here. We're going to bring ourselves back.
It's not who and what they are. They're fanatics. They're fanatics.
They didn't end up there on accident. They didn't take
the wrong turn and here we are. It's a brainwashing process.

(28:39):
It's a programming process with propaganda over a long period
of time. Your kids go to school for many hours
a day and they're getting a lot of it. They
spend a lot of time on social media and they're
getting a lot of it. They're listening to music. They're
watching movies. They're hearing from each other. They're hearing from

(29:01):
people they respect and trust. And those people are younger
and prettier than you are. They're more powerful and more
rich and more cool. And your young people are at
an age where they want to be that guy, that girl,
that couple. And those people represent something that you cannot.
You're stable. You're stable. You're forever.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Forever.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
As much as anything can be forever. You're constant. Those
are not sexy notions when you're a young person. So
those kids were being... brainwashed. Charlie was doing his best,
and then they killed him for it. And in order
to justify killing him, they know, you have to understand,

(29:53):
that in the media environment, people know that most people
don't know what they're actually talking about. It's like if
I were to tell you that this movie is the
worst movie ever, and I know you didn't see the movie,
I could tell you things about the movie that aren't true,

(30:15):
and you would have no frame of reference to know that, right?
If I told you about a people in a country
and how they behave, And you've never been to the country.
And you don't know anyone from the country. I could
tell you things that aren't true. And as long as
I didn't stretch it too far where you'd go look

(30:35):
it up and check, I could get away with it.
And they know that. So what they did is they
went about defining who Charlie Kirk was to anyone who
didn't already know. And this is where you get these
massive splits in this country. People who studied the work
of Charlie Kirk people who understood it, people who appreciated it,

(30:58):
people who were moved by it, they'd say, that's not true.
What are you talking about? This is crazy talk. But
to the observer who didn't know, they'd say, well, why
would that person just make that up?

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Right?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Why would they just make it up? That is the
great power of the left, is they know how trusting
most people are. Because you tend to ascribe to other
people behaviors that would be consistent with yours. If you're
not a liar, cheater, or stealer, you don't assume anybody
else is. That's why your grandmother gets scammed, because she

(31:33):
can't imagine somebody would call and say that her grandbaby, you,
has been in an accident and killed a pregnant woman,
and if she doesn't send some money right now, you're
going to be sent to prison, and she better do
it right now, because she can't imagine somebody would make
up such craziness. A lie, cheat, and steal person would say,

(31:55):
wait a second, who is this? And so we have
to get hardened in our lives. We have to grow
an outer skin. But good, honest, decent people who hoped,
if nothing else, Charlie's death will be a turning point
in the USA were wrong. Because it would have been
if it was them. But it's not them. It's evil.

(32:19):
What Charlie's death represented was evil. And evil hasn't died.
There will always be evil. There will always be a devil.
But the memory of Charlie, what I didn't talk about,
is how it changed us and made us better and
stronger and braver and bolder. And that's the legacy. Ladies

(32:44):
and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and
good night.