September 12, 2025 • 37 mins
America is bleeding out from within. In just the past few years, the U.S. has been rocked by political violence, extremist attacks, and assassinations that have pushed democracy to the brink. From right-wing radicals to left-wing extremists, the rhetoric of hate has turned deadly, fueling a surge in domestic terrorism and political assassinations. The killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah and the shocking assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband are the latest wake-up calls, and no side has clean hands. Hate has become a political strategy, amplified by social media algorithms, AI echo chambers, and corrupt politicians who profit from division and literal blood money. While the powerful get richer, ordinary Americans are left living in a democracy under threat—where both sides have stopped listening—and it has to stop.
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Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.
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Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.
Get 15% off plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at BollandBranch.com/LINCOLN.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your task will not be an easy one.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Your enemy is well trained, welly, but.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Then he is not a liberal America, and he's conservative America.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
The United States of America.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good luck, hi, folks. Today's elephant in the room. You
know what it is. It's political violence. Charlie Kirk is dead.
It was killed by an assassin of some kind. We
don't have a lot of details. Is of this recording
by a single shot. He died instantly. There's no excuse
(00:40):
for it. There's no rationalal for it. There's no reasoning
for it. There's no Charlie Kirk was a bad guy.
I got what he wanted, got what he deserved. Because
no one deserves this. The Hortman's and Minnesota didn't deserve this.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Speaker Melissava and her husband Mark were shot in hilled
early this morning in what appears to be a politically
motivated assassination. Our state lost a great leader, and I
lost the dearest of friends. Speaker Hortman was someone who
served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and
a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant,
(01:20):
a fixture, and a giant in Minnesota. She woke up
every day determined to make this state a better place.
She is irreplaceable, and we've been missed by so many.
Minnesota's thoughts and prayers are with her family, her loved ones,
her children, and her parents. My prayers also go out
(01:42):
to State Senator John Hoffman and his wife of Vett,
who are each shot multiple times. The Hofmans are out
of surgery at this time and receiving care, and we
are cautiously opt optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt.
This was an act of targeted political violence. Peaceful discourse
(02:02):
is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle our
differences with violence or at gunpoint. In the state of Minnesota,
and as recently as last week, in the most closely
divided state legislature in the country, we set down, We
worked things out, we debated, we shook hands and compromised,
(02:26):
and we served the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Together.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
We prove that it's possible, even in these politically charged times,
to find compromise and adhere to the principle's democracy and
civil discourse. We must all Minnesota and across the country
stand against all forms of political violence. At this precipice.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Moment, we're on.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
This tragic act here in Minnesota should serve as a
reminder to all of us. The democracy and the debates
in the halls of Congress, in state houses.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
In school boards.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Is a way to settle our differences peacefully and move
society to a better place. We're collaborating with all local,
state and federal agencies on a full investigation. We're committed
to keeping Minnesotans informed as a situation continues. I assure
you that those held those responsible for this will be
(03:26):
held accountable, and each and every one of us are
committed to making sure that a tragedy like this never
repeats itself in Minnesota or across this country. I'd not
like to turn it over to my public safety team
to fill you in on the specifics of this ongoing investigation.
Speaker 8 (03:44):
Thank you, Governor, and thank you everyone for being here today.
My name is Dre Evans, and I'm the Superintendent of
the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. I'm going to start
by just expressing our deepest sympathies to the communities, the family,
the friends, and everybody that cared about the individuals that
(04:05):
were gunned down today.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
No one side of the political spectrum has a monopoly
on ideologically driven violence. That agree to which Trump is
not trying to exploit this, and that Margat's trying to
exploit this and turn this into a political power play
is an obscenity to.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
My great fellow Americans. I am filled with grief and
anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a
college campus in Utah. Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all
who knew him and loved him are united in shock
and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life
(04:47):
to the cause of open debate and the country that
he loved so much, the United States of America. He
fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. He's
a martyr for true and freedom, and there has never
been anyone who was so respected by youth. Charlie was
(05:07):
also a man of deep, deep faith, and we take
comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace
with God in Heaven. Our prayers are with his wife, Erica,
the two young beloved children, and his entire family, who
he loved more than anything in the world. We ask
(05:27):
God to watch over them in this terrible hour of
heartache and pain. This is a dark moment for America.
Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested
in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young
people into the political process, which he did better than
(05:49):
anybody ever, to share his love of country, and to
spread the simple words of common sense. On campus. He
championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace. It's
a long past time for all Americans and the media
to confront the fact that violence and murder are the
(06:13):
tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day
after day, year after year, in the most hateful and
despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left
have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the
world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric
(06:36):
is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in
our country today.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
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exclusions apply. Disagree with Charlie Kirk on every conceivable approach.
I thought his philosophical approach was not particularly conservative. It
was trolling, provocative, all those things.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
We have a huge housing crisis in our country, the
likes of which we have not seen in a long
period of time. But I believe that we need to
build horizontally, not vertically. It's one of my speeches. Developers
don't like it when I say this, but it's true.
The higher the building, the more liberal the voter.
Speaker 10 (09:46):
It just is so.
Speaker 9 (09:47):
And if you are the closer to the ground you are,
the more conservative you are. We should encourage people to
spread horizontally and not vertically. Look at Denver. The higher
the high rises, has Denver become less free or more
It's become a dystopian nightmare.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
You guys know that.
Speaker 9 (10:02):
Now you might say, Charlie, it's a correlation of the causation.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Think about it.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
If you're on the thirty second floor renting, not owning.
If you're not in the weeds and in the yard
and understanding what it takes to grow food and to
maintain the land, are you to be more or less
likely to actually be a conservative? The higher the building,
Every single study shows they become more liberal over time.
It's happening in Phoenix, happened in Denver, happen Atlanta, happen
in Dallas, happened in Chicago, have everywhere, and yet few
people actually say that out loud. Good evening. I'm Charlie Kirk,
(10:27):
founder of Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, together
the largest conservative grassroots organizations in the country. Thanks to
our work, I talk to a lot of young people
on campuses at our events, on my radio show, podcast
(10:48):
and social media. Said differently, I visit college campuses so
you don't have to.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Thirty one year old guy, dad, husband, sharing two kids
with the former Miss Arizona, USA.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
The pair met in twenty eighteen, and Charlie says he
knew almost immediately that Erica was the one. Back in
twenty twenty four, Charlie said at a Turning Point USA.
Speaker 9 (11:18):
Event, knew almost immediately she and this is I met
her and we had a very very long dinner which
was very close to almost an interview, and no, you're
gonna laugh, but you should absolutely interview for your spouse.
By the way, if they don't check the boxes, move
on and go to the next one. The dating for
dating sake is bad for you, it's bad for them,
(11:40):
it's bad for everybody. You should date with the intent
to marry.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
The two became engaged in December of twenty twenty, before
tying the knot in May twenty twenty one in a
very intimate ceremony without bridesmaids or groomsmen, and speaking on
her own marriage June thirteenth, Erica says, we.
Speaker 11 (11:57):
Figure out the dynamic of at least having a date
night at least once a month at least, but there
will be moments where he's literally about to rush out
the door and I won't see him for several days.
Kids are wreaking havoc in the kitchen, pulling things out
all over, and he just grabs me, and he's like
one minute, and we just literally stare at each other
for a minute and say like, I love you, whatever
you need to say, but you just we have that
(12:18):
one minute together to reset our hearts. And honestly, that
is something that helps recharge the bucket until you get.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
That date night.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Nobody with two little babies deserves to be shot for
their political views. The Hortmans didn't deserve to be shot
for their political views. The normalization in rhetoric that has
surrounded this era of our lives is insufficient to excuse
(12:48):
or to explain why Charlie Kirk was shot the guy
that shot Donald Trump and Butler are shot at him now.
Speaker 8 (12:56):
A CBS News investigation shows Crooks fell apart, invisible to
many people in his life.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Scott MacFarlane examined the evidence he left behind. Thomas Crooks
was just twenty years old, with no history of political
radicalization or violence. Thomas Crooks an engineering student who impressed
his teachers with big plans for his future. According to
his former professor, Patricia Thompson.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
And I thought he was a star student. He had
his head on straight and he was on a path
for success.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Did you think it can't be him?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Definitely?
Speaker 12 (13:29):
This is my audience for the persuasion speech.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
In the months before the incident, he was seemingly leading
two lives. CBS News uncovered emails showing last year Crooks
was applying to transfer to a four year engineering program
while at the same time designing a.
Speaker 13 (13:44):
Bomb freshman year twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Is that more how you remember him?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Tristan Radcliffe, who was also interviewed by investigators, says images
of Crooks from that day in July show a physical transformation.
Speaker 13 (13:57):
What I would see him from like elementary school to
what I last see him at college. He would always
have like tight denim jeans, glasses, short hair, and then
just to see him like like that, like oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
And then this was his final presentations.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Thompson, who taught Crooks in twenty twenty three, compiled that
exhaustive archive of Crooks's schoolwork searching for clues. Bit you
find it hard to open this back up, Oh yeah,
And the mystery over why he did it haunts those
close to Crooks.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Somaga red Republican from a conservative family. There are a
lot of lost boys in this country. They're responsible for
a lot of these killings, a lot of these shootings.
Many times they're motivated by the eliminationist rhetoric of the
great white replacement theory.
Speaker 14 (14:45):
Thanks Tucker, A mass shooting in Buffalo has rekindled debate
over great replacement theory or just replacement theory. The great
replacement theory has been around for a very long time
on the fringe of the Republican Party and racist circles.
In recent years, we've seen the Republican Party and its
members embrace a version of the theory that immigrants are
(15:08):
being brought here to dilute the votes of Republicans and
conservative Americans.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
What appears to them is we're replacing national born American
native born Americans to permanently transform the political landscape.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Is it really?
Speaker 5 (15:22):
They want to remake the demographics of America to ensure
that they stay in power forever.
Speaker 9 (15:28):
They can't win reelection in twenty twenty two unless they
bring in a large number of new voters to replace
the voters that are already here.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's what this is about.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
We have an invasion in this country.
Speaker 14 (15:38):
Fox News has played a major role in mainstreaming this
idea in recent years.
Speaker 15 (15:42):
Democrats who want to replace you, the American voters, with
newly amnestied citizens.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Congress is not going to act because one party is
a best interest in changing the population.
Speaker 16 (15:55):
If you use the term as an invasion, that's not
anti Hispanic it's a fact.
Speaker 9 (15:59):
I have less political power because they're importing a brand
new electorate.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Why should I sit back and take that?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Many times they're motivated by fame seeking on the internet.
If you look up at the Terrorgram collective, you'll see
that there are people who are organized online to find
these young men and convince them that the one thing
that will make their lives memorable and that will make
their names ring down through history, is to kill somebody.
It's a dark day, it's dark time. No one in
(16:31):
this country deserves to be shot for their political views,
no one. You don't have to agree with Charlie Kirk.
Dimost certainly did not to understand that what is happening
right now will accelerate. Unless we stop it from accelerating,
what is happening right now will cost more lives. We
(16:56):
will enter a cycle, as we've seen in other countries,
is that collapse. They're a democratic and civil institutions. Collapse,
be a cycle of retribution that ends him nothing but
a notion of blood. You know, I've spent the last
ten years in this fight. We've got a lot of
death threats over that time. The kids have gotten death threats,
(17:18):
my family's gotten death with my dogs. For God's sake,
when you enter the public arena in this country, you
don't deserve to have the potential for death. Now, look
the rhetoric that is being used today to condemn every Democrat,
(17:43):
every progressive, everyone who isn't a Trump supporter. Is an
obscenity for people who say that they care so much
about Charlie Kirk's death, and Charlie Kirk was an advocate
for free speech. What you're really hearing out of the right,
out of Trump in particular and his people, is shut up,
Shut up. This country has a long, two hundred and
(18:04):
forty plus year history of full contact politics. It has
been uglier in the past by a long stretch. It
has been vicious. You know what, That's how it should be.
Ideas aren't always the Marcus of Queensbury rules. People get
in discussions, disputes, they fight. But if normalization of political
(18:28):
violence has a home, the right needs to look directly
in the mirror. I'm not going to go through the long, long,
long list of folks in the Maga rite who thought
it was hilarious when Paul Pelosi was attacked by a
guy with a hammer and almost killed.
Speaker 16 (18:48):
Now, we had no terror during my administration. The only
terror we had was Nancy Pelosi, who's a crazed lunatic.
She is a lunatic. She is, It's a crazed lunatic.
What the hell was going on with her husband? Let's
not ask, let's not ask. I'll withdraw that statement. By
(19:09):
the way, She's got a wall around her house. Obviously
in that case, it didn't work very well.
Speaker 17 (19:15):
What the hell happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband? He guy
in his eighties almost got beaten to death by somebody
that fed in to Donald Trump's crazed conspiracy theories.
Speaker 15 (19:32):
A lot of Republicans have public publicly condemned the violence,
but some are actually making.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Jokes about it.
Speaker 18 (19:38):
Yeah, that's exactly right, Wolf, I mean, instead of this
moment of unity, what we have seen is Republicans actually
mocking paul Pelosi and the attack. In fact, Donald Trump
Junior tweeted out some really crude memes making fun of PAULA.
Pelosi and the incident that happened. And then you have
Carrie Lake, who is the Republican candidate for Arizona governor,
who had this to say at a campaign of earlier.
Speaker 12 (20:00):
Today, it is not impossible to protect our kids at school.
They act like it is Nancy Pelosi. Well, she's got
protection when she's in DC. Apparently her house doesn't have
a lot of protection.
Speaker 16 (20:11):
Our country is being destroyed. Together, we will take on
the ultra left wing liars, losers, creeps, perverse, and freaks
who are devouring the future of this state like a
swarm of locusts, and we'll stand up the crazy Nancy
Pelosi who ruined San Francisco. How's her husband doing? By
(20:38):
the way, anybody knows, I'm.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Not going to go through the list of people e g.
Mike Lee, who yesterday was all absolutely certain about everything
in this assassination, But it was when it happened to
Minnesota a few weeks before, a few months before Michael
was mocking.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
The day, a man hunt continued for an assassin who
had already killed a former house speaker and her husband
and wounded a state senator and his wife, both lawmakers democrats.
Lee tweeted a surveillance picture of the killer wearing a
mask and a phony police uniform. The Utah senator's words,
this is what happens when Marxists get their way, though,
(21:22):
with violence, politics probably doesn't matter so much. There's no
indication the suspect in this case is a Marxist. Today
that post looks like this. It's deleted from Lee's personal account.
So's this one with the same picture and an official
photo of the suspect. Lee's words nightmare on Waltz Street,
a joke about the state's governor, Tim Waltz. Minnesota US
(21:45):
Senator Tina Smith confronted Lee about the tweets.
Speaker 10 (21:48):
So I thought it was important that Senator Lee heard
from me directly about the impact of what he had
written on me and on especially on Minnesota's on the
families of the Hoffmans and the who's who you know,
these kids that lost their parents, both of their parents
in this terrible assassination. And so I was glad that
I had a chance to speak with him directly. I'm
also glad that he took those posts down. I have
(22:12):
not heard anything from him about whether he regrets doing that.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
A strange dynamic for leaders from two states otherwise sharing
a sense of loss related to the current political climate.
Speaker 10 (22:24):
I think he was honestly sort of surprised to be,
you know, confronted in this way, although as I said,
I was like, I wanted to have a conversation with him,
but he didn't. He didn't say that much other than
he heard what I was talking about.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
So remember those tweets from Lee's personal account posted the
same day this tweet from his official account. It says,
these hateful attacks have no place in Utah, Minnesota, or
anywhere in America. Please join me in condemning this senseless
violence and praying for the victims and their families, making
fun of them.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That the shooter was albously a Marxist. I'm not going
to go through Donald Trump's personal encouragement of violence and
his rhetoric over the last ten years. You can call
this up yourself. It's not a secret. It's all out there.
No side has a monopoly on it, okay, but one
(23:20):
side has a mechanism, a hate machine, as I call it.
They control a news network that tells every Republican motor
every day that immigrants and black people are coming to
murder you, that they're in an existential struggle and unless
they win and do anything possible, that they will be
(23:43):
killed and their families will be killed.
Speaker 16 (23:45):
We are living right now in a rats nest they're
killing our people in New York, in California, in every
state in the Union, because we don't have borders anymore.
Every state is now a border.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
There are African Americans still dying at the hands of
law enforcement in this country.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And so are white people. So are white people?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
What a terrible question to ask.
Speaker 16 (24:06):
So are white people?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
More white people, by the way, more white people.
Speaker 16 (24:10):
We got a lot of work to do, you know,
when they let I think the real number is fifteen
sixteen million people into our country.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
When they do that, we got a lot of work
to do.
Speaker 16 (24:20):
They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
One sign has a massive media operation on social media
every day that pumps white replacement theory, that pumps the
idea that every Democrat is a pedophile communist who wants
to kill you. Are they're pissed off people on the left? Sure?
One percent? Where there to see people on the left
(24:50):
who thought that Charlie Kirk's death was funny and fitting
and just yeah there were and fuck them, Okay, Charlie
Kirk's views are irrelevant to the fact that he was murdered.
There are a lot of messed up people in this country.
(25:11):
There are a lot of lost, sick people in this country.
Social media has a role in this that is that
is never going to be held to account. I'm gonna
be honest with you about that. Social media is never
going to hold these people to account. You know why
because the tech bros have sold out to Donald Trump
(25:32):
and there will never be any regulation.
Speaker 16 (25:34):
Maybe describe some of the great things that you're doing
with your company. I know, Mark, you're building some buildings
that are as large as Manhattan. That was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
It's pretty good.
Speaker 16 (25:46):
So I thought you'd say a few words that we
could take a couple of questions later. Maybe Mark, would
you like to say a few words about the company?
Speaker 19 (25:53):
Sure, well, I mean sorry, so I turned this on. Yeah,
all right, Well thanks for hosting us. And this is
quite a group to get together. And you know, I
think you know, all of the companies here are building
just making huge investments in the country in order to
build out data centers and infrastructure to power the next
(26:15):
wave of innovation. So it's you know, we don't often
get together as as the CEOs of the different companies,
but it's it's good to see.
Speaker 16 (26:23):
Every how much are you spending would you say over
the next few years.
Speaker 19 (26:28):
Oh gosh, I mean I think it's probably going to
be something like, I don't know, at least six hundred
billion dollars through twenty eight in the US. Yeah, no,
it's not it's significant.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
That's out loud.
Speaker 16 (26:44):
Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Great to have you, Thank you, great to have you.
Speaker 16 (26:48):
David. You know you've done a wonderful job and working
with the White House a great expert. Would you like
to say a few words.
Speaker 15 (26:56):
Thank you, mister President. It's a great honor to work
here at the White House, and so to work for you.
You really care about this industry and all Americans, and
I think you've done a tremendous amount ready to unleash
our innovators and also help build out the infrastructure of
the country. And it's doing a lot, not just for
tech companies, but for ordinary working Americans, the construction industry,
(27:18):
the trades, electricians, carpenters. There's a boom happening right now
in AI because of what President Trump has done in
terms of stimulating investment. It's going to benefit all Americans.
So it's really a thrill to be part of. And
this is a really incredible group that you've assembled here,
and it's like I said, it's just a great honor
to have a foot in each one of these worlds
and being part of it.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 16 (27:41):
And Serga, you were saying a lot in the Oval office,
I figured, just somebody that likes to speak with his
really wonderful mega girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
There will never be a moment where Section two thirty
is removed from these people. They will never have accountability,
or responsibility or culpability. You know what. Else, Because Chuck
Schumer's daughter was the chief lobbyist for Facebook maybe still
I don't even know anymore, for years and every time
Facebook got into the hot seat, Chuck Schumber bailed them out.
This is a bipartisan, transpartisan issue, if you will. Where
(28:14):
a lot of the perverse incentives that lead these young
men into a position where they murder people, they've been
fed something in that algorithm over and over and over again.
Maybe they're lone wolves, but a lot of those lone
wolves seem to drink out of the same well. He
seemed to find the encouragement online to do these things.
(28:41):
It's a lot different world than we live them. During
previous assassination attempts on public figures. It's a lot of
different world that we lived in with John Hinckley trying
to kill Reagan, or or Speaky from trying to kill
Ford the kid in Butler, Pennsylvania. We still know so
(29:02):
little about that case, but I promise you when we do,
someday will learn he was deep in an internet hole,
deep in a place where social media was telling him, Yeah,
your life may be meaning Listen, here's some conspiracy theories
to feed you paranoia and hatred and fear and anger.
Here's a way you can be remembered. Your life can
mean something. We'll probably find that out about this guy too,
(29:26):
who have committed the murder in Utah. But Eve, when
you wind it back, political assassination in this country, it's
not an unknown. Sadly, we came very close in the
nineteen sixties to this country just flying apart at the seams.
John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King. The people
(29:49):
that killed throughout history have found some motivation to justify it,
found some complaint in the system to justify it. But
if you conflate hot political rhetoric and you believe that
critique and criticism of the president or those in power
has to always be in a soft voice, with a
(30:11):
polite note. You're not looking at American history at all.
You're not looking at the values of a real robust
philosophical debate in a system where the First Amendment was
the first for a reason, where freedom of speech was
first for a reason. What you're seeing from a lot
of the folks on the MAGA right is again the
(30:33):
message of shut up. We're going to say that your
criticisms of us and of Trump led to this. We're
going to say that you guys are murderers. You know,
for the party that says fuck your feelings all the time,
for the party that believes that they're the tough guys,
that they're the ones who stand in the breach of
civilizations collapse, they're awfully delicate because they don't really believe
(30:55):
in free speech. They believe in speech for themselves. And
if you think that the outcome of Charlie Kirk being
murdered is that free speech needs to be restricted in
the political debate and critique of those in power needs
to be silenced, missing the whole point. Even if Kirk,
(31:20):
you know, he used his platforms in ways that I
think we're often reprehensible, often despicable. He said things that
were loathsome. A lot of it was he's playing a
character from a lot of people I've known. I don't
know Charlie, never knew Charlie myself personally. A lot of
people that I know that knew him said in person
he was perfectly polite, a nice guy, pleasant guy, but
(31:41):
he played a role. He played a character on social
media running his organization. And that's fine. You know some
people who live that way. I don't live that way.
What you see is what you get. I am exactly
as I am all the time. If you or here
having dinner, would be the same guy. I am right
(32:02):
here talking to you right now. But this idea that
political violence will escalate, you will enter a cycle of
retribution in this country is one that no one with
the shred of civic responsibility in this country should want.
It is a fearful world in which political violence escalates.
(32:24):
I'll say this again. I've spent a decade in this fight.
I have been threatened at various degrees of seriousness, some
quite serious, some quite painful, with law enforcement being involved
and people going you know, at us hard, not pretty.
I've had people show up at my home, I've had
people threatened me in public, and then, you know what,
(32:45):
I wouldn't trade that for the world, because I torqued
it down. If I silenced myself, It's not true and
honest about the commitment that I've made personally to this
country and to the Constitution. I wish Charliekirk wasn't dead.
I wish I could still make fun of him for
being a flounder eyed motherfucker every day. I wish that
(33:10):
Charlie Kirk had not been murdered. I wish that this
country understood that the rhetoric and the violence on every
side of the political and ideological spectrum should be contained
to the ballot box, to the pages of the newspaper,
the television green rooms and shows, to the radio podcasts.
(33:33):
It has not been that way for a very long time.
There are people on the right who whenever it's a
shooter like al Paso or the Tree of Life Synagogue
or the New York grocery store, when it's a white supremacist,
white nationalist, anti semi they say, oh, that's a long wolf,
(33:55):
that's a sun god. It's totally random. What that's crazy
you would associate us with that. They don't want that
rule to run both ways, because right now there's describing
every Democrat as a violent profocateur, as a as A
as a Marxist terrorist's antifa BLM track, whatever catalog of
imaginary demon's entry they have for the day. It's a
(34:20):
hard one to do because look, Charlie Kirk is now
a murder for the right. Watch how quickly they exploit
that martyrdom. Watch how quickly they convert that into a
political strategy. Watch how quickly the rhetoric that escalated within
(34:43):
minutes of his death. And by the way, my emails
started popping them a couple of minutes after he died.
Your next, motherfucker, you did this, You caused this. Y'all
can believe that all you want. But America is a
kind of where we swing hard elbows out where our
(35:03):
fights and our politics aren't meant to be quiet, notes
Robert's Rules of Order meetings. Sometimes things are worth fighting for.
Troy Kirk would have agreed with that. His death is
a tragedy, but so are the deaths of hundreds of
other Americans every week, every year. Charbi Kirk was famous,
(35:27):
he was a friend of the president. He's a friend
of the president's family. And again from everyone I knew
who knew him personally, they always said his character he
plays on TV, he's perfectly nice in person. Again, I
didn't know the guy. But we have a choice to
make as a country. The escalation in the wake of this,
(35:49):
in the in the in the aftermath of the shooting,
it's going to get ugly. I don't feel good about it.
The fact that the president is looking now that this
is finally the distraction. I don't believe in the conspiracy theory.
I don't believe he was I don't think there's a
conspiracy here, folks. They will now try to convert on this.
(36:09):
They will now try to make this into another Oh,
the shooter was a trans ANTIFA of this and that
and the other thing. And therefore all Democrats believe that.
Therefore all progresses believe that. Therefore all liberals believe that.
Therefore all critics of the present believe that it's tragedy.
It's dark day. Pray for the Kirk family, for his
(36:32):
wife and children, and for his friends. I am we
are thanks, folks, See you next time. The Lincoln Project
Podcast is a Lincoln Project production.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
Executive produced by Whitney Hayes, Then Howe and Joey Wertner Cheney,
edited by Rightley Maine. Hey, folks, if you want to
support the Lincoln Project's work against Donald Trump, Elon Musk,
and this Maga craziness, go to action dot Lincoln Project
dot us slash l LP. You'd like to get in touch,
or have suggestions for a guest or a show topic,
or just want to say hi, Our email is podcast
(37:05):
at Lincolnproject dot us for our Maga friends.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Please no more news, Thanks so much and we'll talk
to you again next time.
Speaker 9 (37:13):
And look black
Your task will not be an easy one.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Your enemy is well trained, welly, but.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Then he is not a liberal America, and he's conservative America.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
The United States of America.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good luck, hi, folks. Today's elephant in the room. You
know what it is. It's political violence. Charlie Kirk is dead.
It was killed by an assassin of some kind. We
don't have a lot of details. Is of this recording
by a single shot. He died instantly. There's no excuse
(00:40):
for it. There's no rationalal for it. There's no reasoning
for it. There's no Charlie Kirk was a bad guy.
I got what he wanted, got what he deserved. Because
no one deserves this. The Hortman's and Minnesota didn't deserve this.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Speaker Melissava and her husband Mark were shot in hilled
early this morning in what appears to be a politically
motivated assassination. Our state lost a great leader, and I
lost the dearest of friends. Speaker Hortman was someone who
served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and
a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant,
(01:20):
a fixture, and a giant in Minnesota. She woke up
every day determined to make this state a better place.
She is irreplaceable, and we've been missed by so many.
Minnesota's thoughts and prayers are with her family, her loved ones,
her children, and her parents. My prayers also go out
(01:42):
to State Senator John Hoffman and his wife of Vett,
who are each shot multiple times. The Hofmans are out
of surgery at this time and receiving care, and we
are cautiously opt optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt.
This was an act of targeted political violence. Peaceful discourse
(02:02):
is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle our
differences with violence or at gunpoint. In the state of Minnesota,
and as recently as last week, in the most closely
divided state legislature in the country, we set down, We
worked things out, we debated, we shook hands and compromised,
(02:26):
and we served the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Together.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
We prove that it's possible, even in these politically charged times,
to find compromise and adhere to the principle's democracy and
civil discourse. We must all Minnesota and across the country
stand against all forms of political violence. At this precipice.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Moment, we're on.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
This tragic act here in Minnesota should serve as a
reminder to all of us. The democracy and the debates
in the halls of Congress, in state houses.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
In school boards.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Is a way to settle our differences peacefully and move
society to a better place. We're collaborating with all local,
state and federal agencies on a full investigation. We're committed
to keeping Minnesotans informed as a situation continues. I assure
you that those held those responsible for this will be
(03:26):
held accountable, and each and every one of us are
committed to making sure that a tragedy like this never
repeats itself in Minnesota or across this country. I'd not
like to turn it over to my public safety team
to fill you in on the specifics of this ongoing investigation.
Speaker 8 (03:44):
Thank you, Governor, and thank you everyone for being here today.
My name is Dre Evans, and I'm the Superintendent of
the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. I'm going to start
by just expressing our deepest sympathies to the communities, the family,
the friends, and everybody that cared about the individuals that
(04:05):
were gunned down today.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
No one side of the political spectrum has a monopoly
on ideologically driven violence. That agree to which Trump is
not trying to exploit this, and that Margat's trying to
exploit this and turn this into a political power play
is an obscenity to.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
My great fellow Americans. I am filled with grief and
anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a
college campus in Utah. Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all
who knew him and loved him are united in shock
and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life
(04:47):
to the cause of open debate and the country that
he loved so much, the United States of America. He
fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. He's
a martyr for true and freedom, and there has never
been anyone who was so respected by youth. Charlie was
(05:07):
also a man of deep, deep faith, and we take
comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace
with God in Heaven. Our prayers are with his wife, Erica,
the two young beloved children, and his entire family, who
he loved more than anything in the world. We ask
(05:27):
God to watch over them in this terrible hour of
heartache and pain. This is a dark moment for America.
Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested
in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young
people into the political process, which he did better than
(05:49):
anybody ever, to share his love of country, and to
spread the simple words of common sense. On campus. He
championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace. It's
a long past time for all Americans and the media
to confront the fact that violence and murder are the
(06:13):
tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day
after day, year after year, in the most hateful and
despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left
have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the
world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric
(06:36):
is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in
our country today.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
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exclusions apply. Disagree with Charlie Kirk on every conceivable approach.
I thought his philosophical approach was not particularly conservative. It
was trolling, provocative, all those things.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
We have a huge housing crisis in our country, the
likes of which we have not seen in a long
period of time. But I believe that we need to
build horizontally, not vertically. It's one of my speeches. Developers
don't like it when I say this, but it's true.
The higher the building, the more liberal the voter.
Speaker 10 (09:46):
It just is so.
Speaker 9 (09:47):
And if you are the closer to the ground you are,
the more conservative you are. We should encourage people to
spread horizontally and not vertically. Look at Denver. The higher
the high rises, has Denver become less free or more
It's become a dystopian nightmare.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
You guys know that.
Speaker 9 (10:02):
Now you might say, Charlie, it's a correlation of the causation.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Think about it.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
If you're on the thirty second floor renting, not owning.
If you're not in the weeds and in the yard
and understanding what it takes to grow food and to
maintain the land, are you to be more or less
likely to actually be a conservative? The higher the building,
Every single study shows they become more liberal over time.
It's happening in Phoenix, happened in Denver, happen Atlanta, happen
in Dallas, happened in Chicago, have everywhere, and yet few
people actually say that out loud. Good evening. I'm Charlie Kirk,
(10:27):
founder of Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, together
the largest conservative grassroots organizations in the country. Thanks to
our work, I talk to a lot of young people
on campuses at our events, on my radio show, podcast
(10:48):
and social media. Said differently, I visit college campuses so
you don't have to.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Thirty one year old guy, dad, husband, sharing two kids
with the former Miss Arizona, USA.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
The pair met in twenty eighteen, and Charlie says he
knew almost immediately that Erica was the one. Back in
twenty twenty four, Charlie said at a Turning Point USA.
Speaker 9 (11:18):
Event, knew almost immediately she and this is I met
her and we had a very very long dinner which
was very close to almost an interview, and no, you're
gonna laugh, but you should absolutely interview for your spouse.
By the way, if they don't check the boxes, move
on and go to the next one. The dating for
dating sake is bad for you, it's bad for them,
(11:40):
it's bad for everybody. You should date with the intent
to marry.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
The two became engaged in December of twenty twenty, before
tying the knot in May twenty twenty one in a
very intimate ceremony without bridesmaids or groomsmen, and speaking on
her own marriage June thirteenth, Erica says, we.
Speaker 11 (11:57):
Figure out the dynamic of at least having a date
night at least once a month at least, but there
will be moments where he's literally about to rush out
the door and I won't see him for several days.
Kids are wreaking havoc in the kitchen, pulling things out
all over, and he just grabs me, and he's like
one minute, and we just literally stare at each other
for a minute and say like, I love you, whatever
you need to say, but you just we have that
(12:18):
one minute together to reset our hearts. And honestly, that
is something that helps recharge the bucket until you get.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
That date night.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Nobody with two little babies deserves to be shot for
their political views. The Hortmans didn't deserve to be shot
for their political views. The normalization in rhetoric that has
surrounded this era of our lives is insufficient to excuse
(12:48):
or to explain why Charlie Kirk was shot the guy
that shot Donald Trump and Butler are shot at him now.
Speaker 8 (12:56):
A CBS News investigation shows Crooks fell apart, invisible to
many people in his life.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Scott MacFarlane examined the evidence he left behind. Thomas Crooks
was just twenty years old, with no history of political
radicalization or violence. Thomas Crooks an engineering student who impressed
his teachers with big plans for his future. According to
his former professor, Patricia Thompson.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
And I thought he was a star student. He had
his head on straight and he was on a path
for success.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Did you think it can't be him?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Definitely?
Speaker 12 (13:29):
This is my audience for the persuasion speech.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
In the months before the incident, he was seemingly leading
two lives. CBS News uncovered emails showing last year Crooks
was applying to transfer to a four year engineering program
while at the same time designing a.
Speaker 13 (13:44):
Bomb freshman year twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Is that more how you remember him?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Tristan Radcliffe, who was also interviewed by investigators, says images
of Crooks from that day in July show a physical transformation.
Speaker 13 (13:57):
What I would see him from like elementary school to
what I last see him at college. He would always
have like tight denim jeans, glasses, short hair, and then
just to see him like like that, like oh my goodness.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
And then this was his final presentations.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Thompson, who taught Crooks in twenty twenty three, compiled that
exhaustive archive of Crooks's schoolwork searching for clues. Bit you
find it hard to open this back up, Oh yeah,
And the mystery over why he did it haunts those
close to Crooks.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Somaga red Republican from a conservative family. There are a
lot of lost boys in this country. They're responsible for
a lot of these killings, a lot of these shootings.
Many times they're motivated by the eliminationist rhetoric of the
great white replacement theory.
Speaker 14 (14:45):
Thanks Tucker, A mass shooting in Buffalo has rekindled debate
over great replacement theory or just replacement theory. The great
replacement theory has been around for a very long time
on the fringe of the Republican Party and racist circles.
In recent years, we've seen the Republican Party and its
members embrace a version of the theory that immigrants are
(15:08):
being brought here to dilute the votes of Republicans and
conservative Americans.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
What appears to them is we're replacing national born American
native born Americans to permanently transform the political landscape.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Is it really?
Speaker 5 (15:22):
They want to remake the demographics of America to ensure
that they stay in power forever.
Speaker 9 (15:28):
They can't win reelection in twenty twenty two unless they
bring in a large number of new voters to replace
the voters that are already here.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's what this is about.
Speaker 7 (15:35):
We have an invasion in this country.
Speaker 14 (15:38):
Fox News has played a major role in mainstreaming this
idea in recent years.
Speaker 15 (15:42):
Democrats who want to replace you, the American voters, with
newly amnestied citizens.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Congress is not going to act because one party is
a best interest in changing the population.
Speaker 16 (15:55):
If you use the term as an invasion, that's not
anti Hispanic it's a fact.
Speaker 9 (15:59):
I have less political power because they're importing a brand
new electorate.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Why should I sit back and take that?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Many times they're motivated by fame seeking on the internet.
If you look up at the Terrorgram collective, you'll see
that there are people who are organized online to find
these young men and convince them that the one thing
that will make their lives memorable and that will make
their names ring down through history, is to kill somebody.
It's a dark day, it's dark time. No one in
(16:31):
this country deserves to be shot for their political views,
no one. You don't have to agree with Charlie Kirk.
Dimost certainly did not to understand that what is happening
right now will accelerate. Unless we stop it from accelerating,
what is happening right now will cost more lives. We
(16:56):
will enter a cycle, as we've seen in other countries,
is that collapse. They're a democratic and civil institutions. Collapse,
be a cycle of retribution that ends him nothing but
a notion of blood. You know, I've spent the last
ten years in this fight. We've got a lot of
death threats over that time. The kids have gotten death threats,
(17:18):
my family's gotten death with my dogs. For God's sake,
when you enter the public arena in this country, you
don't deserve to have the potential for death. Now, look
the rhetoric that is being used today to condemn every Democrat,
(17:43):
every progressive, everyone who isn't a Trump supporter. Is an
obscenity for people who say that they care so much
about Charlie Kirk's death, and Charlie Kirk was an advocate
for free speech. What you're really hearing out of the right,
out of Trump in particular and his people, is shut up,
Shut up. This country has a long, two hundred and
(18:04):
forty plus year history of full contact politics. It has
been uglier in the past by a long stretch. It
has been vicious. You know what, That's how it should be.
Ideas aren't always the Marcus of Queensbury rules. People get
in discussions, disputes, they fight. But if normalization of political
(18:28):
violence has a home, the right needs to look directly
in the mirror. I'm not going to go through the long, long,
long list of folks in the Maga rite who thought
it was hilarious when Paul Pelosi was attacked by a
guy with a hammer and almost killed.
Speaker 16 (18:48):
Now, we had no terror during my administration. The only
terror we had was Nancy Pelosi, who's a crazed lunatic.
She is a lunatic. She is, It's a crazed lunatic.
What the hell was going on with her husband? Let's
not ask, let's not ask. I'll withdraw that statement. By
(19:09):
the way, She's got a wall around her house. Obviously
in that case, it didn't work very well.
Speaker 17 (19:15):
What the hell happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband? He guy
in his eighties almost got beaten to death by somebody
that fed in to Donald Trump's crazed conspiracy theories.
Speaker 15 (19:32):
A lot of Republicans have public publicly condemned the violence,
but some are actually making.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Jokes about it.
Speaker 18 (19:38):
Yeah, that's exactly right, Wolf, I mean, instead of this
moment of unity, what we have seen is Republicans actually
mocking paul Pelosi and the attack. In fact, Donald Trump
Junior tweeted out some really crude memes making fun of PAULA.
Pelosi and the incident that happened. And then you have
Carrie Lake, who is the Republican candidate for Arizona governor,
who had this to say at a campaign of earlier.
Speaker 12 (20:00):
Today, it is not impossible to protect our kids at school.
They act like it is Nancy Pelosi. Well, she's got
protection when she's in DC. Apparently her house doesn't have
a lot of protection.
Speaker 16 (20:11):
Our country is being destroyed. Together, we will take on
the ultra left wing liars, losers, creeps, perverse, and freaks
who are devouring the future of this state like a
swarm of locusts, and we'll stand up the crazy Nancy
Pelosi who ruined San Francisco. How's her husband doing? By
(20:38):
the way, anybody knows, I'm.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Not going to go through the list of people e g.
Mike Lee, who yesterday was all absolutely certain about everything
in this assassination, But it was when it happened to
Minnesota a few weeks before, a few months before Michael
was mocking.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
The day, a man hunt continued for an assassin who
had already killed a former house speaker and her husband
and wounded a state senator and his wife, both lawmakers democrats.
Lee tweeted a surveillance picture of the killer wearing a
mask and a phony police uniform. The Utah senator's words,
this is what happens when Marxists get their way, though,
(21:22):
with violence, politics probably doesn't matter so much. There's no
indication the suspect in this case is a Marxist. Today
that post looks like this. It's deleted from Lee's personal account.
So's this one with the same picture and an official
photo of the suspect. Lee's words nightmare on Waltz Street,
a joke about the state's governor, Tim Waltz. Minnesota US
(21:45):
Senator Tina Smith confronted Lee about the tweets.
Speaker 10 (21:48):
So I thought it was important that Senator Lee heard
from me directly about the impact of what he had
written on me and on especially on Minnesota's on the
families of the Hoffmans and the who's who you know,
these kids that lost their parents, both of their parents
in this terrible assassination. And so I was glad that
I had a chance to speak with him directly. I'm
also glad that he took those posts down. I have
(22:12):
not heard anything from him about whether he regrets doing that.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
A strange dynamic for leaders from two states otherwise sharing
a sense of loss related to the current political climate.
Speaker 10 (22:24):
I think he was honestly sort of surprised to be,
you know, confronted in this way, although as I said,
I was like, I wanted to have a conversation with him,
but he didn't. He didn't say that much other than
he heard what I was talking about.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
So remember those tweets from Lee's personal account posted the
same day this tweet from his official account. It says,
these hateful attacks have no place in Utah, Minnesota, or
anywhere in America. Please join me in condemning this senseless
violence and praying for the victims and their families, making
fun of them.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That the shooter was albously a Marxist. I'm not going
to go through Donald Trump's personal encouragement of violence and
his rhetoric over the last ten years. You can call
this up yourself. It's not a secret. It's all out there.
No side has a monopoly on it, okay, but one
(23:20):
side has a mechanism, a hate machine, as I call it.
They control a news network that tells every Republican motor
every day that immigrants and black people are coming to
murder you, that they're in an existential struggle and unless
they win and do anything possible, that they will be
(23:43):
killed and their families will be killed.
Speaker 16 (23:45):
We are living right now in a rats nest they're
killing our people in New York, in California, in every
state in the Union, because we don't have borders anymore.
Every state is now a border.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
There are African Americans still dying at the hands of
law enforcement in this country.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And so are white people. So are white people?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
What a terrible question to ask.
Speaker 16 (24:06):
So are white people?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
More white people, by the way, more white people.
Speaker 16 (24:10):
We got a lot of work to do, you know,
when they let I think the real number is fifteen
sixteen million people into our country.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
When they do that, we got a lot of work
to do.
Speaker 16 (24:20):
They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
One sign has a massive media operation on social media
every day that pumps white replacement theory, that pumps the
idea that every Democrat is a pedophile communist who wants
to kill you. Are they're pissed off people on the left? Sure?
One percent? Where there to see people on the left
(24:50):
who thought that Charlie Kirk's death was funny and fitting
and just yeah there were and fuck them, Okay, Charlie
Kirk's views are irrelevant to the fact that he was murdered.
There are a lot of messed up people in this country.
(25:11):
There are a lot of lost, sick people in this country.
Social media has a role in this that is that
is never going to be held to account. I'm gonna
be honest with you about that. Social media is never
going to hold these people to account. You know why
because the tech bros have sold out to Donald Trump
(25:32):
and there will never be any regulation.
Speaker 16 (25:34):
Maybe describe some of the great things that you're doing
with your company. I know, Mark, you're building some buildings
that are as large as Manhattan. That was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
It's pretty good.
Speaker 16 (25:46):
So I thought you'd say a few words that we
could take a couple of questions later. Maybe Mark, would
you like to say a few words about the company?
Speaker 19 (25:53):
Sure, well, I mean sorry, so I turned this on. Yeah,
all right, Well thanks for hosting us. And this is
quite a group to get together. And you know, I
think you know, all of the companies here are building
just making huge investments in the country in order to
build out data centers and infrastructure to power the next
(26:15):
wave of innovation. So it's you know, we don't often
get together as as the CEOs of the different companies,
but it's it's good to see.
Speaker 16 (26:23):
Every how much are you spending would you say over
the next few years.
Speaker 19 (26:28):
Oh gosh, I mean I think it's probably going to
be something like, I don't know, at least six hundred
billion dollars through twenty eight in the US. Yeah, no,
it's not it's significant.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
That's out loud.
Speaker 16 (26:44):
Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Great to have you, Thank you, great to have you.
Speaker 16 (26:48):
David. You know you've done a wonderful job and working
with the White House a great expert. Would you like
to say a few words.
Speaker 15 (26:56):
Thank you, mister President. It's a great honor to work
here at the White House, and so to work for you.
You really care about this industry and all Americans, and
I think you've done a tremendous amount ready to unleash
our innovators and also help build out the infrastructure of
the country. And it's doing a lot, not just for
tech companies, but for ordinary working Americans, the construction industry,
(27:18):
the trades, electricians, carpenters. There's a boom happening right now
in AI because of what President Trump has done in
terms of stimulating investment. It's going to benefit all Americans.
So it's really a thrill to be part of. And
this is a really incredible group that you've assembled here,
and it's like I said, it's just a great honor
to have a foot in each one of these worlds
and being part of it.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 16 (27:41):
And Serga, you were saying a lot in the Oval office,
I figured, just somebody that likes to speak with his
really wonderful mega girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
There will never be a moment where Section two thirty
is removed from these people. They will never have accountability,
or responsibility or culpability. You know what. Else, Because Chuck
Schumer's daughter was the chief lobbyist for Facebook maybe still
I don't even know anymore, for years and every time
Facebook got into the hot seat, Chuck Schumber bailed them out.
This is a bipartisan, transpartisan issue, if you will. Where
(28:14):
a lot of the perverse incentives that lead these young
men into a position where they murder people, they've been
fed something in that algorithm over and over and over again.
Maybe they're lone wolves, but a lot of those lone
wolves seem to drink out of the same well. He
seemed to find the encouragement online to do these things.
(28:41):
It's a lot different world than we live them. During
previous assassination attempts on public figures. It's a lot of
different world that we lived in with John Hinckley trying
to kill Reagan, or or Speaky from trying to kill
Ford the kid in Butler, Pennsylvania. We still know so
(29:02):
little about that case, but I promise you when we do,
someday will learn he was deep in an internet hole,
deep in a place where social media was telling him, Yeah,
your life may be meaning Listen, here's some conspiracy theories
to feed you paranoia and hatred and fear and anger.
Here's a way you can be remembered. Your life can
mean something. We'll probably find that out about this guy too,
(29:26):
who have committed the murder in Utah. But Eve, when
you wind it back, political assassination in this country, it's
not an unknown. Sadly, we came very close in the
nineteen sixties to this country just flying apart at the seams.
John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King. The people
(29:49):
that killed throughout history have found some motivation to justify it,
found some complaint in the system to justify it. But
if you conflate hot political rhetoric and you believe that
critique and criticism of the president or those in power
has to always be in a soft voice, with a
(30:11):
polite note. You're not looking at American history at all.
You're not looking at the values of a real robust
philosophical debate in a system where the First Amendment was
the first for a reason, where freedom of speech was
first for a reason. What you're seeing from a lot
of the folks on the MAGA right is again the
(30:33):
message of shut up. We're going to say that your
criticisms of us and of Trump led to this. We're
going to say that you guys are murderers. You know,
for the party that says fuck your feelings all the time,
for the party that believes that they're the tough guys,
that they're the ones who stand in the breach of
civilizations collapse, they're awfully delicate because they don't really believe
(30:55):
in free speech. They believe in speech for themselves. And
if you think that the outcome of Charlie Kirk being
murdered is that free speech needs to be restricted in
the political debate and critique of those in power needs
to be silenced, missing the whole point. Even if Kirk,
(31:20):
you know, he used his platforms in ways that I
think we're often reprehensible, often despicable. He said things that
were loathsome. A lot of it was he's playing a
character from a lot of people I've known. I don't
know Charlie, never knew Charlie myself personally. A lot of
people that I know that knew him said in person
he was perfectly polite, a nice guy, pleasant guy, but
(31:41):
he played a role. He played a character on social
media running his organization. And that's fine. You know some
people who live that way. I don't live that way.
What you see is what you get. I am exactly
as I am all the time. If you or here
having dinner, would be the same guy. I am right
(32:02):
here talking to you right now. But this idea that
political violence will escalate, you will enter a cycle of
retribution in this country is one that no one with
the shred of civic responsibility in this country should want.
It is a fearful world in which political violence escalates.
(32:24):
I'll say this again. I've spent a decade in this fight.
I have been threatened at various degrees of seriousness, some
quite serious, some quite painful, with law enforcement being involved
and people going you know, at us hard, not pretty.
I've had people show up at my home, I've had
people threatened me in public, and then, you know what,
(32:45):
I wouldn't trade that for the world, because I torqued
it down. If I silenced myself, It's not true and
honest about the commitment that I've made personally to this
country and to the Constitution. I wish Charliekirk wasn't dead.
I wish I could still make fun of him for
being a flounder eyed motherfucker every day. I wish that
(33:10):
Charlie Kirk had not been murdered. I wish that this
country understood that the rhetoric and the violence on every
side of the political and ideological spectrum should be contained
to the ballot box, to the pages of the newspaper,
the television green rooms and shows, to the radio podcasts.
(33:33):
It has not been that way for a very long time.
There are people on the right who whenever it's a
shooter like al Paso or the Tree of Life Synagogue
or the New York grocery store, when it's a white supremacist,
white nationalist, anti semi they say, oh, that's a long wolf,
(33:55):
that's a sun god. It's totally random. What that's crazy
you would associate us with that. They don't want that
rule to run both ways, because right now there's describing
every Democrat as a violent profocateur, as a as A
as a Marxist terrorist's antifa BLM track, whatever catalog of
imaginary demon's entry they have for the day. It's a
(34:20):
hard one to do because look, Charlie Kirk is now
a murder for the right. Watch how quickly they exploit
that martyrdom. Watch how quickly they convert that into a
political strategy. Watch how quickly the rhetoric that escalated within
(34:43):
minutes of his death. And by the way, my emails
started popping them a couple of minutes after he died.
Your next, motherfucker, you did this, You caused this. Y'all
can believe that all you want. But America is a
kind of where we swing hard elbows out where our
(35:03):
fights and our politics aren't meant to be quiet, notes
Robert's Rules of Order meetings. Sometimes things are worth fighting for.
Troy Kirk would have agreed with that. His death is
a tragedy, but so are the deaths of hundreds of
other Americans every week, every year. Charbi Kirk was famous,
(35:27):
he was a friend of the president. He's a friend
of the president's family. And again from everyone I knew
who knew him personally, they always said his character he
plays on TV, he's perfectly nice in person. Again, I
didn't know the guy. But we have a choice to
make as a country. The escalation in the wake of this,
(35:49):
in the in the in the aftermath of the shooting,
it's going to get ugly. I don't feel good about it.
The fact that the president is looking now that this
is finally the distraction. I don't believe in the conspiracy theory.
I don't believe he was I don't think there's a
conspiracy here, folks. They will now try to convert on this.
(36:09):
They will now try to make this into another Oh,
the shooter was a trans ANTIFA of this and that
and the other thing. And therefore all Democrats believe that.
Therefore all progresses believe that. Therefore all liberals believe that.
Therefore all critics of the present believe that it's tragedy.
It's dark day. Pray for the Kirk family, for his
(36:32):
wife and children, and for his friends. I am we
are thanks, folks, See you next time. The Lincoln Project
Podcast is a Lincoln Project production.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
Executive produced by Whitney Hayes, Then Howe and Joey Wertner Cheney,
edited by Rightley Maine. Hey, folks, if you want to
support the Lincoln Project's work against Donald Trump, Elon Musk,
and this Maga craziness, go to action dot Lincoln Project
dot us slash l LP. You'd like to get in touch,
or have suggestions for a guest or a show topic,
or just want to say hi, Our email is podcast
(37:05):
at Lincolnproject dot us for our Maga friends.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Please no more news, Thanks so much and we'll talk
to you again next time.
Speaker 9 (37:13):
And look black
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