September 10, 2026 • 28 mins
One year after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Sean remembers his friend and the faith that shaped his life. Christian apologist Frank Turek, who was just feet away when the fatal shot was fired at Utah Valley University, recounts what happened that day and explains why Charlie continued engaging hostile college audiences despite the risks. Sean and Turek reflect on Charlie’s commitment to Christianity, marriage, young people, and his defining message of God, family, and country, while encouraging listeners to carry that mission forward.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks, Scott Shannon. Hour two, Sean Hannity Show, toll free.
It is 800-941-SEAN. If you want to be a part
of the program, day two, final day in Dallas for
the first ever midterm Republican convention. It's like this convergence
of anniversaries.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And it's it's it just it's sobering to.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Be very blunt with you because we all know what
happens tomorrow. And we know what happened one year ago today,
and that is when a very dear friend, a national treasure, frankly,
Charlie Kirk, was taken from us. And he just was
an amazing young man with incredible brilliance and such a
(00:46):
bright future. This is it when it unfolded, you know,
one year ago today.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And I remember.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Watching this and I remember the.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
First thing I did was was text Charlie.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And I said, I still have the text to this
day and I don't save any text. And it was,
please tell me you are okay. And obviously he was not.
I did not know how deep and abiding and how
personal his religious faith was. I didn't know, for example,
that he practiced the Sabbath and he turned off his
phones at sundown on Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Didn't know any of that.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I didn't know that he had spiritual mentors or Pastor
McCoy and Frank Turk, who's going to join us in
a minute, and that these men were very influential in
his life and very, very impactful in terms of when
he did these segments, you know, prove me wrong, which
showed enormous courage on his part because he was willing
(02:06):
to go into the lion's den, these college campuses, knowing
that he'd often be facing a hostile crowd, but he
did it anyway. You know, Frank Turk put up an
ex-post saying, And then you think of the aftermath of
all this. I think what has happened is so beyond repulsive, evil, reprehensible,
(02:29):
beyond the pale, nothing that any family that has a
loved one assassinated. Erica Kirk lost her husband that day
and had to go home to two young children knowing
that they would never see their father again and has
had to endure an entire year of nonstop insanity and
(02:50):
conspiracy theories and just frankly, you know, this level of
evil directed at her and at the organization that Charlie
and she helped build, Turning Point USA, and it just,
for what purpose? You know, the evidence that was presented
(03:10):
in this preliminary trial, and it's going to trial, is
so overwhelming and so incontrovertible. It makes absolutely no sense
that this is where we are.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Anyway, Frank Turek, sir, welcome back to the program.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Sean, great being with you again. It's a somber day.
But Charlie would want us to go on and continue
to do what we've been doing, and that is talking
about God, family, and country. Charlie was all about things
bigger than himself, Sean. And tonight we're going to be
here at Utah Valley University University, And we're going to
(03:42):
be paying another tribute to Charlie. That's, of course, where
he was murdered one year ago today. I'm sitting right
near campus right now. I'll be there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You know, the sad thing is these lunatics are going
to be there to protest, too.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, I know. I know. Well, you know, Charlie tweeted something, Sean,
back in 2016, and it went like this. He said,
you can tell a lot about someone by how they
react when someone dies, right? And if you are protesting
a memorial service for a man who was peacefully answering
(04:18):
questions on a college campus because he loved people, then
you have a very dark mark in your soul, and
you need to turn to Jesus.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well, let's talk about the personal relationship that you had
with Charlie and the impact that people like yourself had
on Charlie. and where were you that day, and explain
what you saw.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, I was 25 feet from him. We came in together,
and I was there because he wanted me to help
him answer questions on a college campus related to Christianity,
related to the culture. But to tell you the truth, Sean,
although I was twice his age, I learned more from
him than he learned from me. But what happened that day,
(05:05):
just afternoon, is when that shot rang out, I was,
as I say, 25 feet from him, and his body
immediately went limp. And I took a step toward him,
but his security team was closer. They were on him already.
And I just ran with him to the car, and
I got into the car to take him to the hospital. But, Sean,
(05:26):
he was already gone. He was absent from the body
present with the Lord. The only good news we got
that day is that he was killed instantly. He didn't
suffer at all. In fact, the surgeon later told us
if they had shot Charlie in the operating room, we
couldn't have saved him.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Wow. It says so much.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
He knew going into these environments that it was hostile.
He knew going into these environments that he was putting
his life at risk. I mean, he didn't have a
security team for no reason. but he did it anyway.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Why was it important to him?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Because he knew in order to love people, you had
to expose yourself to a certain degree. You can't wall
yourself off from people forever. In fact, on the way in, Sean,
we got video of the crowd and he showed it
to me. And I said, I saw the crowd. I
saw the buildings around it. I said, Charlie, I don't
like this place. There's too many buildings. But he shrugged
it off, Sean, because he was someone that loved people
(06:22):
and he knew he had to expose himself to some
degree to people in order to love them. And he
knew he had a security team, and this was post-Butler PA.
Of course they had the roofs, right, Sean? No, I
think the university police didn't have the roofs. And there's
going to be a report on that coming out soon,
I think.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Oh, I've heard about this from day one almost. In fact,
my understanding is that the university said they would have
that covered.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Am I wrong on that?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's the text I saw, Sean, that day from the
head of security of Charlie, that they had the roofs,
and apparently they didn't. And look, Sean, I'm just a guy, okay?
And when I'm going in there, I'm going, hey, what
about the roofs? Oh, I'm sure they have them, right?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
One of the things, probably maybe the most important part
of the relationship that you had with Charlie was the
fact that he had a deep abiding faith. I mentioned
that I love debating atheists. You know, I don't have
enough faith to be an atheist. It's a great title
for a book. I wish I thought of it myself.
(07:28):
But I've debated these atheists often on radio and in person,
on TV and on my podcast. And my argument, the
last time somebody called this radio show and said they
were an atheist, within 90 seconds I had them admitting
they're not an atheist, but they're agnostic. Because Because to
be an atheist, you have to believe something can come
(07:49):
from nothing.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I don't believe that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, without a cause, they have to believe that. We,
of course, believe God always existed and brought this universe
into existence, but they believe that no one created something
out of nothing, which makes no sense at all. You
have to be anti-scientific to believe that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Well, I mean, that's the point.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
If you believe in the Big Bang Theory, okay, where
did all the energy come from? Science is bringing us
out further and further. into space, and we are discovering
more universes that we never knew existed before, and there
are universes within universes within universes, and to me, it
(08:29):
just shows the sheer majesty of God and the vastness
of His creation and unlimited power. Jesus referred to those,
you know, you have seen me and you believe, and
in the case of Thomas, he doubted, but blessed are
those that have never met me, and yet they do believe.
And I think that that's an issue of faith, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, faith is trusting in what you have good evidence
to believe is true. And there's really good evidence that
God exists from the creation of the universe, the fine-tuning
of the universe, the objective moral law that says, say,
murdering someone on campus is really wrong. It's not just
my opinion or your opinion. It's really wrong. So there
must be a standard beyond us that we're obligated to obey,
(09:14):
and that standard can only exist if God exists. Otherwise,
everything's a matter of opinion. And of course, the evidence
that Jesus rose from the dead, in fact, I'm going
to talk about that a little bit tonight here at UVU,
all that goes to show that Christianity is indeed true. Now,
does God leave enough ambiguity.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
For us to go our own way?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If he were to give us his full presence, Sean,
we wouldn't have the capacity to turn away. So he
gives us enough distance to So we can go our
own way, but he also gives us enough evidence that
if we truly want to love him, then we can.
So it's really up to us. It's almost like a
marriage proposal. God asks us to marry him. In fact,
(09:55):
you can sum up the Bible in five words. Jesus
wants to marry you. and you're the one that has
to either accept the proposal or not, but he can't
overpower you with his presence, not in this life anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, let's go through a little bit of the aspect
of the book, and, you know, because I think it's
such a It's such a great title, to be honest. And,
you know, you don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
And I really don't know, and I've talked to people
that claim to be an atheist or claim to be agnostic,
and I've talked to myself to death with some people,
(10:31):
and they just stubbornly stand on their lack of logic,
as I think logic has to be applied to all
of this. What are the best arguments you make when
you talk to people and debate people that are atheists?
Because I know you are deep into Christian apologetics and
study all of that as well.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, the first question I ask people, Sean, is this,
particularly on college campuses, I ask them, if Christianity were true,
would you become a Christian?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Now, Sean, on most occasions, people will.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Actually say no, because it's not a matter of the head,
it's a matter of the heart. They don't want it
to be true. They don't want there to be a
God because they want to be God over their own lives. See,
most people are on a happiness quest. They're not on
a truth quest. They just want to believe whatever they
think is going to make them happy. And the problem
is you can make yourself happy over the short term
(11:22):
doing a lot of fun but selfish and sinful things.
But over the long term, it's a disaster. And so
most people are looking for God like a criminal is
looking for a cop. And so I always ask that
question first. If it really were true, would you become
a Christian? If they hesitate or say no, giving them
evidence is a waste of time. But if they're open,
(11:43):
then I'll go into the evidence for God. I'll go
into the evidence for miracles. I'll go into the evidence
for Jesus rising from the dead and the evidence that
the New Testament writers told the truth.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The one thing that I wish I knew about Charlie,
because most of our relationship was based on his political activity,
political beliefs, and support of President Trump, etc., And it
wasn't until after he was assassinated that I started going
deeper and I saw these videos of him and the
(12:13):
things that he was saying about God and faith and
marriage and religion and dating that really captured my attention
and the impact that that was having on young people.
Like a relationship is not like he's looking at it
like almost like a job interview.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You're looking for a spouse. You're looking for a partner.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
And casual dating, casual sex, casual relationships, you know, should
be rejected. And he's going into college campuses and sending
a message that is the antithesis of what the culture
these kids are living in.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Oh, sure.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
It's so easy to follow your impulses, as Charlie would say.
An animal can do that. But a mature person channels
the impulses and directs themselves in in the right direction.
And Charlie was all about three things, God, family, country.
And he wanted, in that order, by the way, he
wanted people to know that there are things outside of
(13:08):
yourself that are bigger than yourself that you need to
devote yourself to. And if you do, then you will
actually make a difference, not only for time, but for eternity.
And so God, family, and country, Jesus, family, and country
were what Charlie was all about.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Well, you know what?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
If everybody listening to this show adopted that same passion
and ideology and philosophy that guides them through their life,
I think I wouldn't have to worry as much about
the country as I do at times.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Look, the book is phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You and Pastor McCoy, who I've gotten to know as well,
and other influences in Charlie's life, he's so blessed to
have you guys. And I really want your book to
do well. We're putting a link on Hannity.com. It's on Amazon.com.
I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Frank Turek,
you're a national treasure. We miss Charlie. We pray for
(14:03):
Erica and the kids, and we appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, thank you, Sean. That's what I wanted to ask.
If everyone would pray for Erica, especially today.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
This is a.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Brutal day for her. And we have a new book
dedicated to Charlie that Erica wrote the foreword to. They
don't need to buy the book to read the foreword.
But have your people go to thewaronreality.com, thewaronreality.com, and just
read the two pages that Erica wrote. It is literally profound, Sean.
(14:31):
I cried when she sent it to me.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Well, we appreciate you. Charlie was a national treasure. You
are as well. And you keeping his memory alive is critical.
We really appreciate you, Frank Tarek, 800-941-SEAN is our number
if you want to be a part of the program.
You know, I brought this up earlier. It's kind of amazing.
Let's go back to the original Talafrico. This guy is
(14:58):
saying God is non-binary.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Now he's trying to back off on that.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
This guy, you know, six-gender Talafrico, we've been calling him
six-gender because this is what he said. And it wasn't
that long ago that he said it. He said it
in 2021.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Listen.
Speaker 6 (15:13):
I want us all to be aware of is that
modern science obviously recognizes that there are are many more
than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six, which honestly,
Representative Hefner surprised me too. Surprised me too, because I
am not well-versed in this issue area. I'm not a scientist.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I'm a politician, a lot worse than a scientist.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Oh, that was Tallarico then. Here's Tallarico here. And understand
what's happening here. I told you when AOC went on
a Sunday program, and said, no, no, no, that was
woke 1.0 crazy. This is a poll-driven political shift.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It is an election year conversion. It is expediency.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
And what they are really and truly doing is adopting
the strategy that for the next, what, 54 days, they
have decided they are going to lie to you and
lie to get power.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
That's what's happening.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And if you believe anything else, you're being naive because
Talafrico now claiming, oh, my math was wrong on this.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
So during the 2021 hearing, you said there are six
biological sexes.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Do you still believe that standing.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Here with me right now?
Speaker 7 (16:32):
No, I've missed the mark on some of my past statements.
I will be the first to admit it. What I
meant is that there are two sexes and then there's
a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Missed the mark. He didn't miss the mark. He said
what he thought. He said what he believed. And he's
been being called out on this repeatedly and mocked and ridiculed.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
He puts his finger in the air, realizes.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That it's not going over well, that this is going
to hurt his chances to win a Senate seat in
the great state of Texas. So now he's adopted the
strategy that he's going to lie. He has not changed
his point of view. And it's frustrating. You know, it's,
you know, I can give you another clip. You know,
(17:20):
according to the Bible, God is non-binary.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
The first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew
words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun
for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit.
God is both masculine and and feminine and everything in between.
(17:47):
God is non-binary.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
God is non-binary. Okay, well, now he's not saying the
same thing. And now again, an election year conversion, here's
what he's saying.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
2021, you said- God is both masculine and feminine and
everything in between. God is non-binary.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Do you still stand by that?
Speaker 5 (18:14):
I was being provocative with that statement.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I get that.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
What I was trying to say is that you can't
use human categories to define God. And that's not controversial theologically.
In fact, the late Charlie Kirk, the late Pope Benedict
all said the same thing.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
No, I don't recall Charlie Kirk or Pope Benedict saying it.
And he's neither the Pope or Charlie Kirk in any way, shape,
matter or form. Now, back in the day, 2023 clip.
This is not three years ago, less than three years ago,
saying protecting trans kids from invasive surgeries is is the
(18:49):
Christ of fascism.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
Listen, you saw it in the anti LGBTQ legislation, including
the bill that would have denied gender affirming health care
to trans children. And then, of course, famously, infamously, we
saw it last session with the most extreme abortion ban
in the country. All of these all these ideologies stem
(19:12):
from this this Christofascism movement, which essentially, like I said,
is is just using faith to exercise raw political, social
and economic power.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
OK, now we have another election year conversion. Now he's
saying that he opposes trans athletes playing in girls sports
if it endangers women.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Safety and fairness.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
And what about biological men competing in women's sports?
Speaker 8 (19:41):
That's a big deal here in Texas.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
And I oppose trans athletes playing in girls sports if
it endangers safety.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Or fairness.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
OK, that gives them a little wiggle room. But you
see what's happening here. The real Telefrico, he wasn't planning
on running for the U.S. Senate at the time that
he made that he expressed his true point of view.
This has now been debated ad nauseum in this country.
And I keep going back to this because this is
now the entire Democratic Party strategy. I'm telling you they
(20:15):
will scrub the DSA website. They have no choice but
to scrub it because it's hurting them in terms of
what people view about them, period, full stop. And I
keep saying, and what is at stake here is deep
and it is profound. And that is that this radical left,
(20:38):
you know, fundamentally at its core, they want to alter
and they want to shift and they want to change
the America we know and shred the constitution doing it.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
It is bigger than one person, one man. It is
a movement.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It is a movement that is now universal in the
Democratic Party. It is the predominant view. Let's get to
our busy phones. Tommy, Louisiana, Sean Hannity Show. Tommy, welcome
to Dallas. How are you, sir?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
I'm doing fine. Thank you very well, Sean. How are
you doing? I'm sure well over in Dallas. It's hot.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
It's hot, but they have an In-N-Out burger, so I'm actually...
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Yeah, you're good then.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Am I going to be very blunt with you?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
So I go from an air-conditioned, crappy hotel room, and
it's crappy, with the worst service I've ever had in
my life.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Then I go.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
you know, into an air-conditioned radio studio, an air-conditioned podcast studio,
into an air-conditioned car that takes me to an air-conditioned arena,
and maybe I had to walk, you know, 2,000 steps yesterday,
and that was about it. So it's not like I'm
killing myself in the heat here, but it's hot.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, no, but if you work outside, it's a different story, and,
you know, you used to work outside doing roofing and
things like that, so you understand.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I love being outside, but not in 115-degree weather.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
But to get to my point, the DSA is really
the big issue with me. What I don't understand is
why they are not considered a domestic terrorist group. If
you look up the definitions of the U.S. definitions of
a domestic terrorist group, they fit all of the categories.
(22:26):
And if you go to their website and everybody knows
all of their Crazy plans of how they want to
do away with our entire government, the presidency, Congress, Pentagon, military, police, prisons, borders,
so on.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
What does that do?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
That just opens your entire country up to everybody else
in the world that has a military, even the cartel,
to come over here and select what they want and
take it. And that's what they're trying to do. So
I don't understand how that is not considered a domestic
terrorist group. And just like James Carville said, why are
(23:06):
you using the Democratic name? And if you look under
domestic terrorism, it goes under coercion. So I believe they're
using that name to fool people that are old school
Democrats or older into thinking, oh, well, I see Democrat.
They must be Democratic, which in actuality, they are nothing
(23:28):
even really like Democrats. Anyway, old school Democrats. So they're
using the names and everything to fool people, and I
just don't get why they haven't been designated a domestic
terrorist group with everything they want to do to destroy
our country, and they're yelling it out loud how they
want to do this. And somebody's got to stand up.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Well, what they're trying to do is do this at
the ballot box, and the way that they're doing it,
is they are saying that they're going to create a
cradle to grave, womb to the tomb utopia.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
That is where they're headed.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And there are people that, you know, feel the anxiety,
if you will, of life that might be drawn to
the idea that everything's going to be free. I'm just
giving you the facts here. I'm not saying it's an
argument I buy into, but It's, oh my gosh, all
my anxiety in life and I won't have to do anything.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
And if I elect them.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm even going to get free babysitting for date night
with my significant other. And I'm going to get guaranteed
government daycare. And I'm going to get government guaranteed housing,
guaranteed government job, guaranteed retirement, guaranteed vacation time, guaranteed healthy food.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I mean, it's insane.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
And if you believe it, you're buying a huge lie.
Speaker 7 (25:00):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
And they promote that they love these illegal aliens that
keep coming over here or immigrants or whatever word you
want to use. And what are they running from? They're
running from socialist countries. They're running over here to a
capitalist country, and they're telling them, come on, come on.
(25:22):
And they want to change this country into a socialist country.
And so they must think that all of these people
coming from other countries are stupid people. Because they're running
from one socialist country to what they want to promote
as another. And we're not. We are a Christian capitalist country.
That's what we've always been since day one. That's what
(25:43):
we'll always be. And that's what we've got to fight for.
And these people are terrorists. There's no doubt in my
mind with all the hate speech.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I mean, you're saying terrorists, I think, in the sense that—
Do they want to upend America as we know it?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I mean, that's what I'm trying to convey this to
people that they are offering.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
They don't want to debate over policy.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
They want to remake the country.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And in doing so, they would shred America.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
The greatest wealth-creating system ever designed by man. In the process,
they have now nominated a slate of candidates that just
outright attack everything, the foundational principles that built this country,
rejecting and even smearing and slandering our framers and our founders.
(26:39):
And America, as we know it, should be dismantled, not defended.
So in that sense, this is a referendum, biggest choice
to election you'll ever face. You know, with the American
people and the way of life that we have built,
second to none, and a referendum on freedom and liberty
(27:00):
and capitalism and free markets versus government-controlled everything. You know,
on energy, they want, a friend of mine gave me
a good word, managed scarcity.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And we want dominance.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And whether this remains the country the founders designed, that's
all on the ballot.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
That's what this is.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
This is why I'm saying it's the biggest choice election
in our lifetime, because it is. Tommy, got to run.
Appreciate you, man. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a
part of the program. Why you can't pay attention to
polling this year, and you've got to be motivated on
your own.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
You have 54 days. The stakes couldn't be higher, as
I was just discussing.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
All right, quick break. Back to our phones. 800-941-SHAWN if
you want to be a part of the program. As
we continue, we're in Dallas for the first ever midterm
Republican convention.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Tonight, day two, the final night. J.D.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Vance, Donald Trump, and a whole variety of guests. We're
on from 9 to 11 Eastern. You can set your DVR. Also,
8 to 10 local time. Quick break.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Right back from Dallas.
Thanks, Scott Shannon. Hour two, Sean Hannity Show, toll free.
It is 800-941-SEAN. If you want to be a part
of the program, day two, final day in Dallas for
the first ever midterm Republican convention. It's like this convergence
of anniversaries.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And it's it's it just it's sobering to.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Be very blunt with you because we all know what
happens tomorrow. And we know what happened one year ago today,
and that is when a very dear friend, a national treasure, frankly,
Charlie Kirk, was taken from us. And he just was
an amazing young man with incredible brilliance and such a
(00:46):
bright future. This is it when it unfolded, you know,
one year ago today.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And I remember.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Watching this and I remember the.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
First thing I did was was text Charlie.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And I said, I still have the text to this
day and I don't save any text. And it was,
please tell me you are okay. And obviously he was not.
I did not know how deep and abiding and how
personal his religious faith was. I didn't know, for example,
that he practiced the Sabbath and he turned off his
phones at sundown on Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Didn't know any of that.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I didn't know that he had spiritual mentors or Pastor
McCoy and Frank Turk, who's going to join us in
a minute, and that these men were very influential in
his life and very, very impactful in terms of when
he did these segments, you know, prove me wrong, which
showed enormous courage on his part because he was willing
(02:06):
to go into the lion's den, these college campuses, knowing
that he'd often be facing a hostile crowd, but he
did it anyway. You know, Frank Turk put up an
ex-post saying, And then you think of the aftermath of
all this. I think what has happened is so beyond repulsive, evil, reprehensible,
(02:29):
beyond the pale, nothing that any family that has a
loved one assassinated. Erica Kirk lost her husband that day
and had to go home to two young children knowing
that they would never see their father again and has
had to endure an entire year of nonstop insanity and
(02:50):
conspiracy theories and just frankly, you know, this level of
evil directed at her and at the organization that Charlie
and she helped build, Turning Point USA, and it just,
for what purpose? You know, the evidence that was presented
(03:10):
in this preliminary trial, and it's going to trial, is
so overwhelming and so incontrovertible. It makes absolutely no sense
that this is where we are.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Anyway, Frank Turek, sir, welcome back to the program.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Sean, great being with you again. It's a somber day.
But Charlie would want us to go on and continue
to do what we've been doing, and that is talking
about God, family, and country. Charlie was all about things
bigger than himself, Sean. And tonight we're going to be
here at Utah Valley University University, And we're going to
(03:42):
be paying another tribute to Charlie. That's, of course, where
he was murdered one year ago today. I'm sitting right
near campus right now. I'll be there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You know, the sad thing is these lunatics are going
to be there to protest, too.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, I know. I know. Well, you know, Charlie tweeted something, Sean,
back in 2016, and it went like this. He said,
you can tell a lot about someone by how they
react when someone dies, right? And if you are protesting
a memorial service for a man who was peacefully answering
(04:18):
questions on a college campus because he loved people, then
you have a very dark mark in your soul, and
you need to turn to Jesus.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well, let's talk about the personal relationship that you had
with Charlie and the impact that people like yourself had
on Charlie. and where were you that day, and explain
what you saw.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, I was 25 feet from him. We came in together,
and I was there because he wanted me to help
him answer questions on a college campus related to Christianity,
related to the culture. But to tell you the truth, Sean,
although I was twice his age, I learned more from
him than he learned from me. But what happened that day,
(05:05):
just afternoon, is when that shot rang out, I was,
as I say, 25 feet from him, and his body
immediately went limp. And I took a step toward him,
but his security team was closer. They were on him already.
And I just ran with him to the car, and
I got into the car to take him to the hospital. But, Sean,
(05:26):
he was already gone. He was absent from the body
present with the Lord. The only good news we got
that day is that he was killed instantly. He didn't
suffer at all. In fact, the surgeon later told us
if they had shot Charlie in the operating room, we
couldn't have saved him.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Wow. It says so much.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
He knew going into these environments that it was hostile.
He knew going into these environments that he was putting
his life at risk. I mean, he didn't have a
security team for no reason. but he did it anyway.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Why was it important to him?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Because he knew in order to love people, you had
to expose yourself to a certain degree. You can't wall
yourself off from people forever. In fact, on the way in, Sean,
we got video of the crowd and he showed it
to me. And I said, I saw the crowd. I
saw the buildings around it. I said, Charlie, I don't
like this place. There's too many buildings. But he shrugged
it off, Sean, because he was someone that loved people
(06:22):
and he knew he had to expose himself to some
degree to people in order to love them. And he
knew he had a security team, and this was post-Butler PA.
Of course they had the roofs, right, Sean? No, I
think the university police didn't have the roofs. And there's
going to be a report on that coming out soon,
I think.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Oh, I've heard about this from day one almost. In fact,
my understanding is that the university said they would have
that covered.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Am I wrong on that?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's the text I saw, Sean, that day from the
head of security of Charlie, that they had the roofs,
and apparently they didn't. And look, Sean, I'm just a guy, okay?
And when I'm going in there, I'm going, hey, what
about the roofs? Oh, I'm sure they have them, right?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
One of the things, probably maybe the most important part
of the relationship that you had with Charlie was the
fact that he had a deep abiding faith. I mentioned
that I love debating atheists. You know, I don't have
enough faith to be an atheist. It's a great title
for a book. I wish I thought of it myself.
(07:28):
But I've debated these atheists often on radio and in person,
on TV and on my podcast. And my argument, the
last time somebody called this radio show and said they
were an atheist, within 90 seconds I had them admitting
they're not an atheist, but they're agnostic. Because Because to
be an atheist, you have to believe something can come
(07:49):
from nothing.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I don't believe that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, without a cause, they have to believe that. We,
of course, believe God always existed and brought this universe
into existence, but they believe that no one created something
out of nothing, which makes no sense at all. You
have to be anti-scientific to believe that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Well, I mean, that's the point.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
If you believe in the Big Bang Theory, okay, where
did all the energy come from? Science is bringing us
out further and further. into space, and we are discovering
more universes that we never knew existed before, and there
are universes within universes within universes, and to me, it
(08:29):
just shows the sheer majesty of God and the vastness
of His creation and unlimited power. Jesus referred to those,
you know, you have seen me and you believe, and
in the case of Thomas, he doubted, but blessed are
those that have never met me, and yet they do believe.
And I think that that's an issue of faith, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Well, faith is trusting in what you have good evidence
to believe is true. And there's really good evidence that
God exists from the creation of the universe, the fine-tuning
of the universe, the objective moral law that says, say,
murdering someone on campus is really wrong. It's not just
my opinion or your opinion. It's really wrong. So there
must be a standard beyond us that we're obligated to obey,
(09:14):
and that standard can only exist if God exists. Otherwise,
everything's a matter of opinion. And of course, the evidence
that Jesus rose from the dead, in fact, I'm going
to talk about that a little bit tonight here at UVU,
all that goes to show that Christianity is indeed true. Now,
does God leave enough ambiguity.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
For us to go our own way?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
If he were to give us his full presence, Sean,
we wouldn't have the capacity to turn away. So he
gives us enough distance to So we can go our
own way, but he also gives us enough evidence that
if we truly want to love him, then we can.
So it's really up to us. It's almost like a
marriage proposal. God asks us to marry him. In fact,
(09:55):
you can sum up the Bible in five words. Jesus
wants to marry you. and you're the one that has
to either accept the proposal or not, but he can't
overpower you with his presence, not in this life anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, let's go through a little bit of the aspect
of the book, and, you know, because I think it's
such a It's such a great title, to be honest. And,
you know, you don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
And I really don't know, and I've talked to people
that claim to be an atheist or claim to be agnostic,
and I've talked to myself to death with some people,
(10:31):
and they just stubbornly stand on their lack of logic,
as I think logic has to be applied to all
of this. What are the best arguments you make when
you talk to people and debate people that are atheists?
Because I know you are deep into Christian apologetics and
study all of that as well.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, the first question I ask people, Sean, is this,
particularly on college campuses, I ask them, if Christianity were true,
would you become a Christian?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Now, Sean, on most occasions, people will.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Actually say no, because it's not a matter of the head,
it's a matter of the heart. They don't want it
to be true. They don't want there to be a
God because they want to be God over their own lives. See,
most people are on a happiness quest. They're not on
a truth quest. They just want to believe whatever they
think is going to make them happy. And the problem
is you can make yourself happy over the short term
(11:22):
doing a lot of fun but selfish and sinful things.
But over the long term, it's a disaster. And so
most people are looking for God like a criminal is
looking for a cop. And so I always ask that
question first. If it really were true, would you become
a Christian? If they hesitate or say no, giving them
evidence is a waste of time. But if they're open,
(11:43):
then I'll go into the evidence for God. I'll go
into the evidence for miracles. I'll go into the evidence
for Jesus rising from the dead and the evidence that
the New Testament writers told the truth.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The one thing that I wish I knew about Charlie,
because most of our relationship was based on his political activity,
political beliefs, and support of President Trump, etc., And it
wasn't until after he was assassinated that I started going
deeper and I saw these videos of him and the
(12:13):
things that he was saying about God and faith and
marriage and religion and dating that really captured my attention
and the impact that that was having on young people.
Like a relationship is not like he's looking at it
like almost like a job interview.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You're looking for a spouse. You're looking for a partner.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
And casual dating, casual sex, casual relationships, you know, should
be rejected. And he's going into college campuses and sending
a message that is the antithesis of what the culture
these kids are living in.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Oh, sure.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
It's so easy to follow your impulses, as Charlie would say.
An animal can do that. But a mature person channels
the impulses and directs themselves in in the right direction.
And Charlie was all about three things, God, family, country.
And he wanted, in that order, by the way, he
wanted people to know that there are things outside of
(13:08):
yourself that are bigger than yourself that you need to
devote yourself to. And if you do, then you will
actually make a difference, not only for time, but for eternity.
And so God, family, and country, Jesus, family, and country
were what Charlie was all about.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Well, you know what?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
If everybody listening to this show adopted that same passion
and ideology and philosophy that guides them through their life,
I think I wouldn't have to worry as much about
the country as I do at times.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Look, the book is phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You and Pastor McCoy, who I've gotten to know as well,
and other influences in Charlie's life, he's so blessed to
have you guys. And I really want your book to
do well. We're putting a link on Hannity.com. It's on Amazon.com.
I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Frank Turek,
you're a national treasure. We miss Charlie. We pray for
(14:03):
Erica and the kids, and we appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, thank you, Sean. That's what I wanted to ask.
If everyone would pray for Erica, especially today.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
This is a.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Brutal day for her. And we have a new book
dedicated to Charlie that Erica wrote the foreword to. They
don't need to buy the book to read the foreword.
But have your people go to thewaronreality.com, thewaronreality.com, and just
read the two pages that Erica wrote. It is literally profound, Sean.
(14:31):
I cried when she sent it to me.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Well, we appreciate you. Charlie was a national treasure. You
are as well. And you keeping his memory alive is critical.
We really appreciate you, Frank Tarek, 800-941-SEAN is our number
if you want to be a part of the program.
You know, I brought this up earlier. It's kind of amazing.
Let's go back to the original Talafrico. This guy is
(14:58):
saying God is non-binary.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Now he's trying to back off on that.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
This guy, you know, six-gender Talafrico, we've been calling him
six-gender because this is what he said. And it wasn't
that long ago that he said it. He said it
in 2021.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Listen.
Speaker 6 (15:13):
I want us all to be aware of is that
modern science obviously recognizes that there are are many more
than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six, which honestly,
Representative Hefner surprised me too. Surprised me too, because I
am not well-versed in this issue area. I'm not a scientist.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I'm a politician, a lot worse than a scientist.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Oh, that was Tallarico then. Here's Tallarico here. And understand
what's happening here. I told you when AOC went on
a Sunday program, and said, no, no, no, that was
woke 1.0 crazy. This is a poll-driven political shift.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It is an election year conversion. It is expediency.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
And what they are really and truly doing is adopting
the strategy that for the next, what, 54 days, they
have decided they are going to lie to you and
lie to get power.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
That's what's happening.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And if you believe anything else, you're being naive because
Talafrico now claiming, oh, my math was wrong on this.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
So during the 2021 hearing, you said there are six
biological sexes.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Do you still believe that standing.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Here with me right now?
Speaker 7 (16:32):
No, I've missed the mark on some of my past statements.
I will be the first to admit it. What I
meant is that there are two sexes and then there's
a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Missed the mark. He didn't miss the mark. He said
what he thought. He said what he believed. And he's
been being called out on this repeatedly and mocked and ridiculed.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
He puts his finger in the air, realizes.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That it's not going over well, that this is going
to hurt his chances to win a Senate seat in
the great state of Texas. So now he's adopted the
strategy that he's going to lie. He has not changed
his point of view. And it's frustrating. You know, it's,
you know, I can give you another clip. You know,
(17:20):
according to the Bible, God is non-binary.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
The first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew
words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun
for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit.
God is both masculine and and feminine and everything in between.
(17:47):
God is non-binary.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
God is non-binary. Okay, well, now he's not saying the
same thing. And now again, an election year conversion, here's
what he's saying.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
2021, you said- God is both masculine and feminine and
everything in between. God is non-binary.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Do you still stand by that?
Speaker 5 (18:14):
I was being provocative with that statement.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I get that.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
What I was trying to say is that you can't
use human categories to define God. And that's not controversial theologically.
In fact, the late Charlie Kirk, the late Pope Benedict
all said the same thing.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
No, I don't recall Charlie Kirk or Pope Benedict saying it.
And he's neither the Pope or Charlie Kirk in any way, shape,
matter or form. Now, back in the day, 2023 clip.
This is not three years ago, less than three years ago,
saying protecting trans kids from invasive surgeries is is the
(18:49):
Christ of fascism.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
Listen, you saw it in the anti LGBTQ legislation, including
the bill that would have denied gender affirming health care
to trans children. And then, of course, famously, infamously, we
saw it last session with the most extreme abortion ban
in the country. All of these all these ideologies stem
(19:12):
from this this Christofascism movement, which essentially, like I said,
is is just using faith to exercise raw political, social
and economic power.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
OK, now we have another election year conversion. Now he's
saying that he opposes trans athletes playing in girls sports
if it endangers women.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Safety and fairness.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
And what about biological men competing in women's sports?
Speaker 8 (19:41):
That's a big deal here in Texas.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
And I oppose trans athletes playing in girls sports if
it endangers safety.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Or fairness.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
OK, that gives them a little wiggle room. But you
see what's happening here. The real Telefrico, he wasn't planning
on running for the U.S. Senate at the time that
he made that he expressed his true point of view.
This has now been debated ad nauseum in this country.
And I keep going back to this because this is
now the entire Democratic Party strategy. I'm telling you they
(20:15):
will scrub the DSA website. They have no choice but
to scrub it because it's hurting them in terms of
what people view about them, period, full stop. And I
keep saying, and what is at stake here is deep
and it is profound. And that is that this radical left,
(20:38):
you know, fundamentally at its core, they want to alter
and they want to shift and they want to change
the America we know and shred the constitution doing it.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
It is bigger than one person, one man. It is
a movement.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It is a movement that is now universal in the
Democratic Party. It is the predominant view. Let's get to
our busy phones. Tommy, Louisiana, Sean Hannity Show. Tommy, welcome
to Dallas. How are you, sir?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
I'm doing fine. Thank you very well, Sean. How are
you doing? I'm sure well over in Dallas. It's hot.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
It's hot, but they have an In-N-Out burger, so I'm actually...
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Yeah, you're good then.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Am I going to be very blunt with you?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
So I go from an air-conditioned, crappy hotel room, and
it's crappy, with the worst service I've ever had in
my life.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Then I go.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
you know, into an air-conditioned radio studio, an air-conditioned podcast studio,
into an air-conditioned car that takes me to an air-conditioned arena,
and maybe I had to walk, you know, 2,000 steps yesterday,
and that was about it. So it's not like I'm
killing myself in the heat here, but it's hot.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, no, but if you work outside, it's a different story, and,
you know, you used to work outside doing roofing and
things like that, so you understand.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I love being outside, but not in 115-degree weather.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
But to get to my point, the DSA is really
the big issue with me. What I don't understand is
why they are not considered a domestic terrorist group. If
you look up the definitions of the U.S. definitions of
a domestic terrorist group, they fit all of the categories.
(22:26):
And if you go to their website and everybody knows
all of their Crazy plans of how they want to
do away with our entire government, the presidency, Congress, Pentagon, military, police, prisons, borders,
so on.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
What does that do?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
That just opens your entire country up to everybody else
in the world that has a military, even the cartel,
to come over here and select what they want and
take it. And that's what they're trying to do. So
I don't understand how that is not considered a domestic
terrorist group. And just like James Carville said, why are
(23:06):
you using the Democratic name? And if you look under
domestic terrorism, it goes under coercion. So I believe they're
using that name to fool people that are old school
Democrats or older into thinking, oh, well, I see Democrat.
They must be Democratic, which in actuality, they are nothing
(23:28):
even really like Democrats. Anyway, old school Democrats. So they're
using the names and everything to fool people, and I
just don't get why they haven't been designated a domestic
terrorist group with everything they want to do to destroy
our country, and they're yelling it out loud how they
want to do this. And somebody's got to stand up.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Well, what they're trying to do is do this at
the ballot box, and the way that they're doing it,
is they are saying that they're going to create a
cradle to grave, womb to the tomb utopia.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
That is where they're headed.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And there are people that, you know, feel the anxiety,
if you will, of life that might be drawn to
the idea that everything's going to be free. I'm just
giving you the facts here. I'm not saying it's an
argument I buy into, but It's, oh my gosh, all
my anxiety in life and I won't have to do anything.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
And if I elect them.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm even going to get free babysitting for date night
with my significant other. And I'm going to get guaranteed
government daycare. And I'm going to get government guaranteed housing,
guaranteed government job, guaranteed retirement, guaranteed vacation time, guaranteed healthy food.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I mean, it's insane.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
And if you believe it, you're buying a huge lie.
Speaker 7 (25:00):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
And they promote that they love these illegal aliens that
keep coming over here or immigrants or whatever word you
want to use. And what are they running from? They're
running from socialist countries. They're running over here to a
capitalist country, and they're telling them, come on, come on.
(25:22):
And they want to change this country into a socialist country.
And so they must think that all of these people
coming from other countries are stupid people. Because they're running
from one socialist country to what they want to promote
as another. And we're not. We are a Christian capitalist country.
That's what we've always been since day one. That's what
(25:43):
we'll always be. And that's what we've got to fight for.
And these people are terrorists. There's no doubt in my
mind with all the hate speech.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I mean, you're saying terrorists, I think, in the sense that—
Do they want to upend America as we know it?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I mean, that's what I'm trying to convey this to
people that they are offering.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
They don't want to debate over policy.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
They want to remake the country.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And in doing so, they would shred America.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
The greatest wealth-creating system ever designed by man. In the process,
they have now nominated a slate of candidates that just
outright attack everything, the foundational principles that built this country,
rejecting and even smearing and slandering our framers and our founders.
(26:39):
And America, as we know it, should be dismantled, not defended.
So in that sense, this is a referendum, biggest choice
to election you'll ever face. You know, with the American
people and the way of life that we have built,
second to none, and a referendum on freedom and liberty
(27:00):
and capitalism and free markets versus government-controlled everything. You know,
on energy, they want, a friend of mine gave me
a good word, managed scarcity.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And we want dominance.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And whether this remains the country the founders designed, that's
all on the ballot.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
That's what this is.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
This is why I'm saying it's the biggest choice election
in our lifetime, because it is. Tommy, got to run.
Appreciate you, man. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a
part of the program. Why you can't pay attention to
polling this year, and you've got to be motivated on
your own.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
You have 54 days. The stakes couldn't be higher, as
I was just discussing.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
All right, quick break. Back to our phones. 800-941-SHAWN if
you want to be a part of the program. As
we continue, we're in Dallas for the first ever midterm
Republican convention.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Tonight, day two, the final night. J.D.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Vance, Donald Trump, and a whole variety of guests. We're
on from 9 to 11 Eastern. You can set your DVR. Also,
8 to 10 local time. Quick break.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Right back from Dallas.
The Sean Hannity Show News
Host
Sean Hannity
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