September 11, 2025 • 37 mins
Hour 3 of A&G features...
- Charlie Kirk's convo with Gavin Newsom...
- Highlights from Kirk's campus debates...
- Jack & Joe commentary on Kirk's murder...
- Questions about event security.
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Getty,
and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life 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 truth and freedom.
And there's never been anyone who was so respected by youth.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The news has broken that Trump is going to give
Charlie Kirk pots the after he died, the metal freedom,
which is the highest civilian honor we can give to anyone.
I think it's interesting that the New York Times today
in their opinion pieces, they got their conservative, One of
their conservatives, David French, says, if we keep this up,
(01:08):
Charlie Kirk will not be the last to die. And
assassin took aim at the American experiment itself. That's what
Trump said last night. That was an assault on our democracy.
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And then even the lefty as recline rights. Charlie Kirk
was practicing politics the right way. And basically, if we
can't have these kind of discussions, then we're doomed.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We got no shot. And there are extremists on the
left who believe merely contradicting their beliefs is reason enough
to perpetrate violence or kill somebody. Included in that group
is the Antifa types, some of the radical transgender theory people.
We've been calling out Antifa for years and years because
we've been on in Portland for years and years, which
(01:55):
is kind of the wellspring of Antifa. And I remember,
whether it was Nancy Pelosi or other commentators years ago
when Portland was torn apart by violence night after night
after night, in the wake of George Floyd saying Antifa
doesn't really exist. It's loosely a filled they're not really organized.
There's a I hope people realize it's real now. The
(02:16):
breaking news is, according to law enforcement sources, the unused
ammunition in the gun of the murderer was engraved with
various Antifa and transgender words, slogans, that sort of thing.
Where this goes, nobody's quite sure. I but the fact
that Charlie Kirk was who he was and did what
he did in the way he did, and which was
(02:38):
open hearted discussion in the light of day with people
who disagreed with him. The fact that he was branded
as a hater and perpetrating violence and justifying his killing
for that, I mean that needs to horrify everyone.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, your statement that a lot of the fringe left
thinks anybody who disagrees with them is worthy of violence,
This is not a new thought. But I think that
is partially because if you lean right, you have the
opposing view in your face your whole life every day.
You can't get away from it. If you flip on
(03:16):
our national public radio or any newscast, or watch any
movie or TV show, or go to any concert, you
have to listen to an opinion you don't agree with
the left, you can escape it pretty easily because unlessly,
if you're young, unless you're seeking out you know, Rush
Limbaugh style radio or Fox News, you're never going to
(03:38):
run into the opposing view. So it's probably a lot
more shocking to that crowd when you come across somebody
that doesn't agree with you. I'd like to think I
may be in the top five critics of Gavin Newsom
on Earth, and I will continue to be that, But
he issued a statement about the brutal assassination of Charlie
(03:59):
curR that was unequivocal and well done and I and
well done, Gavin. Here's a good example of Charlie Kirk
in the way he did what he did. Talking to
Gavin Newsom on the podcast, We'll start with one ten Michael,
go from there.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Right around i'd say twenty twenty one, we had a goal,
could we move the youth vote ten points over ten years?
Speaker 5 (04:24):
And when there was it, literally you sat down and
put that new miracle.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Together, like, can we move at ten points over ten
years ish, you know, approximate, Because our whole hypothesis was,
and we you know, we did this alongside President Trump
and his great team, was that this demographic is disproportionately
to the Democrat side. We believe Democrats were taking them
for granted. We think that your side had no message
whatsoever and an ideological monopoly. We saw some of the
(04:48):
fault lines there, and to President Trump's credit, he also
harmonized with the strategy by going on podcasting and using TikTok.
But yeah, I mean, we did it in four years,
not ten large in part thanks to you guys.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
And we'll go get to that, and I sincerely get
to that because I want, you know, I want to
stress tests as some of those fault lines as relates
to the reality of our party and where we are today.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Let's let's that's just sort of hateful conversation though that
should be uh, you know, snuffed out.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And here's where they went to add it a little
bit and clip one thirteen Michael, what's coming.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
But anyway, if I were to give you to be
and level stuff which gets us if you have to
go to war with your own party on three major things,
you've got to say we are not going to do
this illegal immigration thing anymore, which includes like are you
going to work with ICE?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We do work with us.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
So let me by the way, I want to make
sure people do this. We we have been I in
fact directly we actually put out the data. I was
actually reached out to the administration. So are you not
aware that California coordinates and cooperates with all CDCR releases
over tens?
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Explain the sanctuary state thing.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Then get the state wide sanctuary state and sections yeah,
which in the state wide framework allows us to work
as it relates to issues of criminals and coordinating the
release of criminals from our federal or from our state
prison populate prison system. We coordinate with ICE on the deportation.
(06:16):
We've done that over ten thousand times since I've been governor.
We're not denying access, no, no.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I can join Americans want mass deportations.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
It's just the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Until they don't. Well, okay, that's my humble opinion. Until
they don't. Okay, years you might be paying taxes.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
I don't buy You might well, but at the moment,
you're right, you might be right.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And then he goes on to talk about, you know,
the transgender thing with children, and another issue transgender people
in sports, boys and girls sports. Listen to me using
the language that left but that sort of rhetoric, you know,
you might be right. That's the hate speech you keep
hearing about, speaking of the whole radical gender theory thing.
(06:57):
Here's Charlie in one of his feist to your debates
on campus, in which if you're not familiar with this,
he said, if you disagree with me, you go to
the front of the line. Let's talk about these things.
One hundred Michael, he is grabbing it. Is there an
(07:21):
issue or are you okay? Michael, should we call the doctor?
How do you go to the second page? Sorry, guys,
here we go.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Norman is an adult female xx chromosomes. You tell me
what is a woman?
Speaker 7 (07:32):
I think a woman is somebody who identifies as a woman.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Got it?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So that's not a definition. That's like saying a table
is something that identifies as a table. Give me an
objective definition.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Of It's not a table is an object Well, a
table can't identify as anything.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
It doesn't have a choice. You have to give me
an objective definition of what a woman is.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
I decided right now that I wanted to identify as
a woman, I would be a woman.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Okay, okay, but that's not That doesn't answer the question.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
I know, but right now I'm a man, right so
if that happened right now? Woman thing is once once
a person makes the decision to identify as a woman.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Dot it another woman? That's a separate issue. What is
a woman?
Speaker 7 (08:04):
That's the definition?
Speaker 6 (08:06):
I know, But you have to tell me what a person.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
Who identifies themselves as a woman.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
But you have how do you know that they are
that thing?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (08:12):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I don't mean to That's fine. It was funny because
they're talking past each other a little bit there.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
But yeah, did Charlie actually not understand the guy was saying, No,
the definition is.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
When somebody says they're a woman than they are a woman, right,
which is one of his great techniques, just drawing out
the other side and having them explain the arguments.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I like that because what percentage of people agree with that?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Anyway? Yeah, here's a little more feistiness. One O. Two.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
What's your name?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
None of your business, unfortunately, but.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Okay, hello, nice to meet you, know your business?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Thank you, I appreciate it. But do you love America? Yes?
I do.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
I hate America.
Speaker 8 (09:01):
Every state in the USA should be an independent country.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What do you think of this?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Dude?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Well, I just first have to ask, since you hate
the country, do you plan.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
To leave that?
Speaker 9 (09:13):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Do you plan to go live in another country? No?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I do not.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Your faith, that idiot.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
America is the only country where even those who hate
it refuse to leave. That's how you know you live
in a great country.
Speaker 9 (09:31):
Yeah, that guy was wearing a mask. By the way,
you're an idiot. Your face is an idiot. I don't
know if that helps anything. Oh boy, man, I heard
a clip this morning.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I'm sure we've got eclipse like this, but I heard
a clip this morning where somebody uh was challenging Charlie
Kirk on the founding of the country and he went
through a list off the top of his head of
like the main tenants of the constitution. That was just
stunning in terms of memorization and doing it off the
(10:07):
top of your head in front of a hospital crowd.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
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Speaker 3 (11:27):
If it turns out to be true that there was
some pro trans extremist stuff and Antifa stuff scrawled on
the ammunition, because that's being reported right now by the
Wall Street Drimal. If that turns out to be true,
where does that take our political discussion?
Speaker 9 (11:44):
Do you think.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
How has this reacted to in the main toward Well, gosh,
the mainstream media is going to have to get dragged along.
I hope certainly it'll move toward people recognizing who is
a violent extremist, who is way outside the American tradition
(12:09):
in the way they argue their points and the way
they describe people who disagree with them. And the activist
trans crowd and the antifa crowd are violent extremists and
always have been. They're unhinged. Which is not to say
every person who identifies as transgender is unhinged, far from it,
(12:32):
but those activist types are dangerous people. I think we
have the fabulous clip with Charlie kirk you're talking about.
We can hit that next segment. Okay, we can get
to that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Also, I want to read what Mark Halprin, who is
a friend of Charlie Kirks, wrote today is really good.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We'll get to that later this hour or two.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
I guess that's kind of my question.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
What advice do you have for me as a Republican
aspiring social worker? What would conflict? I don't know, like
how to say it properly.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
I think I can help.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
The social work industry is very much about a perspective, generally,
of that people in poverty are there permanently and not
trying to break people out of poverty into the middle
class or higher levels, and that's why the Democrat Party
and social work are very intertwined. They view poverty not
as a series of choices, but as a station in
(13:30):
life that is immovable largely. Is that fair to say?
That is fair to say?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, that's the way he talked to people. He did.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
What you should do in a charitable debate is try
to state the other position, the other person's position, in
a way that they agree with, and that was one
of his techniques. You know, that's what he was doing yesterday.
He goes to a college campus. If you disagree with,
we move to the front and then we'll have a
discussion about whatever your topic is. And then somebody shot
him in the throat and killed him. But like I
(14:03):
said from the opening moments of the show, it is
the most basic, bottom level example of what self government is.
And if we can't do that, we are one hundred
percent doomed. I mean we just if we can't do
this on either side, then we're doomed.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And that those who would even contemplate or actually murder
someone for having an open discussion that they disagreed with,
they are the most evil people among us. They are
irredeemably evil and everyone should condemn that very thought, much
(14:43):
less the act.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So Mark Alpern I took in his newscast live yesterday.
It was after the news had broken, before Charlie Kirk
had died. Mark Alpern had had Charlie Kirk on his
show the day before, so I mean it had just
been hours before. He had been with Charlie Kirk and
his wife and kids. He was pretty emotional about it. Anyway,
he wrote today in his newsletter, some really good stuff,
(15:06):
and I'll read part of it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Charlie Kirk wore.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Many titles and humbly managed to make each sound plane
political strategist, public speaker, video podcaster, fundraiser, organizer, lobbyist, builder.
When I ask him his profession a few months ago,
he said he preferred the unadorned word entrepreneur, as if
he were describing a shop on Main Street that just
happened to scale across a nation and around the world.
That was part of his charm, the grand project, presented
(15:31):
with a straight face, in hard working hands, big undertakings,
explained in the tone you used to order coffee. What
mattered most in the end was his spirit. He was
not a hater, quite the opposite. I've met no one
shrewder in politics at any age, and no one better
liked in the movement. He helped shape power so often
makes people small. It did not shrink him or make
(15:51):
him arrogant. Imagine being thirty one running a one hundred
million dollar enterprise, a lord and your party citadel, friends
with the President and then the Vice president of the
United States, and a directory of leaders in business and politics,
and not becoming brittle, vane, or cruel.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
He didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He carried success the way a good waiter studiously carries
a tray, steady, attentive, and unself conscious. If you think
you don't know someone under twenty five who followed Charlie
was connecting with him vividly, you are mistaken. Mistaken. His
current ran beneath dorm rooms and group chats in church
basements and county auditoriums, through comment threads and long car
(16:30):
rides home. He believed in the old disciplines, hard work,
early mornings, no drugs, no alcohol, very little sleep. He
believed populism should be an accelerator, not a wildfire, the
spark that moves an engine, not the blaze that consumes
the forest. Uh, that's very impressive. Yeah, and it goes
on and on.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's quite long. It's quite good. Maybe I can post
that somewhere.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, the fact that he could get the president or
the vice president on the phone anytime a day he
wanted to at age thirty one and actually younger than that,
when he when he could and was still so incredibly
even even keeled and level headed and committed to his goal.
He didn't seem to have a bit of the I
(17:16):
want to be the focus of the celebrity in him.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well, we opened the show with a clip that I
don't see. We have so much. He was asked how
he wanted to be remembered, and he said, for the
courage of my faith. My faith is the most important
thing to me. And you know, go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 7 (17:33):
If you could be associated with one thing, how would
you want to be remembered.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I want to be I want to be remembered for
for courage from my faith. That would be the most
important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So again, on multiple levels, this is awful. You've got
the young dad with kids, who's a nice guy who
gets shot to death.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
That's awful.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
But on a political level, he is not going to
be place you can't replace somebody like that. He's a
once in a many generation sort of talent, and he
was taken off the stage by an assassin.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I like to think that thousands and thousands of young
people will try though. Yeah, well that's all you can do.
We get a lot more on the way. Stay with us,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
I don't know what's going to happen, other than to
tell you that this nation is in desperate need of
prayer and some kind of an intervention, because when you
can't I mean, what was Charlie doing making a speech,
engaging in rhetoric, having a debate. That's the bedrock of
(18:42):
our nation, and now you can't go out in public
and engage in speech.
Speaker 10 (18:48):
That's the opposite of violence.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Speech is the opposite.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
And so.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I don't know what's going to happen to Charlie.
Speaker 10 (18:56):
All I can really think about is his poor wife
and those two babies, and so I think the best
thing any of us can do right now is just
pray for his recovery and pray for their comfort, because
God help us, we're in a bad place.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Scott. I don't want to get sidetracked with this, I'll
do it after this. So that's CNN. Brian Stelter is
a guy on CNN who I often have hated, hate
the things he says against him. Yeah, absolutely hated. But
I've been talking a lot about how happy I was
(19:32):
about mainstream coverage of this mostly I mean, like, way
more than I can remember in a long time where
the mainstream media handled this I think the right way. Like, Oh,
I flipped on the ABC Evening News last night, and
they took it as seriously as they did, and without
a lot of the like prejudicial winks and nods that
(19:52):
that he had it coming or any of that sort
of stuff, and the anchors talking about, yeah, I personally
knew him and he was a great guy, and just
stuff like I just thought, this is this is fantastic.
And here's Brian Stilter. Wait on CNN. This is what
he said yesterday.
Speaker 11 (20:07):
The prayers are so all consuming right now, and bipartisan,
everyone from President Trump and Vice President j d. Vance,
the members of the cabinet to Democratic leaders like the
King Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, bi partisan condemnation of this
act of political violence. It's a reminder Breonna that in
a country like America, in a democracy. We only have
(20:27):
a democracy if we settle our disagreements with words, not
with violence. You know, for the liberals, for the anti
Trump voices, for the anti Kirk voices out there, who
feel despair, you know about the direction of the country's politics.
The way to address that is through words, not through violence.
And so whenever we see one of these appalling crimes,
it is disturbing because it cuts to the core of
(20:49):
how the American democracy functions.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
He's on dred percent right, Yeah, well done, Brian, well done,
well said, and came across this quote yesterday. This is the.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Interesting, complicated thing that nobody's ever quite understood. I just
saw Tim Tebow, former NFL player, well known, outspoken Christian,
who said evil is real and we need to recognize that.
And then there's this quote. I don't remember who gets
credit for it originally, but Satan does not have to
overpower us in order to win the war. He just
(21:22):
has to get us to adopt his way of fighting it,
which is a good quote.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Sounds C. S. Lewis ish to me. If it does,
doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Uh, if this guy turns out to be completely crazy.
But there's a chance of he could be pretty crazy,
like the guy the trial is going on this week,
the jury selection, the second guy that tried to kill
Trump with his gun in the bushes at the golf course.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
He's nuts. Yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
We all know that our rhetoric is hotter than it's
ever been. Polls show a higher percentage of people think
political violence is okay than have in my lifetime. So
how does that whole work With the rhetoric gets out
of control, we get further apart politically, and then the
(22:19):
crazies take that in somehow and act violently.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Right, That's a tough one. It remains to be seen
where this guy was on the scale of completely saying
to completely psychotic, and or if he was just and
this is absolutely a possibility, he was made evil by
his ideology radicalized radicalized in short, Yeah, yeah, I mean,
(22:49):
And it's funny people act as if that sort of
thing doesn't happen. It happens all the time. It's happened
throughout human history over and over again. Yeah, And there
is a systematic attempt on America's case campuses from K
through grad school to radicalize people in leftist ideology.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
The dude that shot the couple of the Jewish couple.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
In Washington, d C. That guy wasn't crazy. No, she
was a pro Palestinian activist, right.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And I don't think the guy who shot the United
Healthcare CEO he wasn't crazy, doesn't seem to be crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
No, he was twisted, no doubt, but he seemed to
have a grasp of reality. I'd like to know. I'd
like to see a psychological assessment of the thousands and
thousands and thousands of people who consider him a hero
and have raised money for his defense in spite of
his incoherence, his scattered ideology, and his murder of a
(23:49):
young man who and a young dad who just happened
to be you know, but then in a job at
a company.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
But then you got the guy who shot Gabby Gifford's
remember that whole story in Arizona. He thought that what
the government was pushing math on us or something. I
don't even remember what his crazy thing was. The guy
on the train the other day, that awful, awful story.
That person's completely out.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Of their mind. I don't know, I don't know, I
don't know. Yeah, there's not one phenomenon here, although the
one phenomenon. You know, if I was to jump in
and interview our discussion or intervene in our discussion, it
would be to say, Yeah, the completely psycho people, let's
talk about that another time, because that one's going to
(24:32):
be really tough. But radicalized people who are perfectly rational
yet convinced that it is justified that they commit acts
of violence. That one we can deal with, and we
need to start yesterday, or in Shapiro, go ahead, or
even if they still exist, if they don't hear the
leaders saying things like if we lose this election, it's
(24:55):
the last election we'll ever have in this country, which
is absurd, it's crazy, but both sides were saying it
leading up to the presidential election. We got to stop
saying stuff like that, So Ben Shapiro, writing about the
death of his friend Charlie Kirk, here's one thing we
do know. This all has to stop. It's an ugly
picture that we've seen before. The sixties and seventies were
(25:16):
a time of tremendous change in American history and tremendous violence.
Political assassinations became commonplace. Bombings and terror attacks were excused
by a variety of supposedly great intellectuals, and eventually America
rejected all of it. Now we're watching the same ugly
picture reappear as Jack and I were discussing earlier. The
difference is that the mechanisms by which ideas spread have
(25:40):
changed completely because of the Internet and social media. Now
I don't know that the flow chart looks anything like
it did when America said that's enough violence. We hate
it all. No, no, yeah, We're in a completely different
spot anyway, he writes, a wave of violence is building,
from the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the attempted shooting
of President Trump, from the murder of United Healthcare CEO
(26:02):
Brian Thompson to the slaying of two Israeli embassy staffers.
All of these acts of extreme violence have found support
in the dark precincts of political radicals. The temperature in
our country has been steadily rising, and it's been rising
because many people have determined that their political opponents aren't
just opponents, but enemies, threats to their very existence. That
determination by fringe actors is often reinforced in the online
(26:24):
spaces that prize virility and mirror emotional excess, and then
it breaks free from the world of the online into
real life with bloody and horrific consequences. Yes, that phenomenon
crosses the political aisle, but to pretend that the phenomenon
is distributed equally would be a mistake. The rising tide
of violence on the left has become more and more
virulent over the course of the last several years. The
(26:46):
argument that speech is violence to be met with violence,
the argument that opposition to contention amounts to a form
of genocide or erasure, the argument that political opponents are
moments away from ending our republic outright. These views all
trend toward revolutionary violence and the wave of violence, a
wave already breaking on the shore appears as though it
(27:07):
is only beginning. Has already destroyed Charlie Kirk's family and
ended his life at the age of thirty one. But
it feels like a tsunami is coming. The water's already
receded from the shoreline, and what comes next could be
far more devastating even than what we have thus seen
so far. That tsunami, if left unchecked, will wash away
this entire republic, And he mentions the heavy, heavy security
(27:31):
he's had to have speaking on college campuses, including bulletproof
vests and metal textures and the rest of it. Because
he has threatened so much.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I want to talk about security. I talked to a
security expert last night about this a little bit. So
I was saying earlier about gatekeepers, how we didn't used
to have We used to have gatekeepers in all levels
of society and we don't anymore. And I originally thought
(28:02):
that was good, but it's turned out not to be
more on that right after this word.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
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Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, they can access two way audio to confront the person,
trigger sirens, spotlights to scare them off, request rapid police
dispatch when needed, all helping to stop the intruder while
they're still outside. That is really something. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
And the thing about Simply Safe is the old systems
you know, the cops would just get alert. Somebody's alarm
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(29:05):
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Speaker 12 (29:15):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
There's Charlie Kirkup on the TV speaking at the Republican
National Convention. I was in the crowd to see part
of that. He spoke at the last three Republican National conventions.
That doesn't seem possible when you're thirty one years old, man.
He was just from a building an organization standpoint, even
if you left all the politics out of it. Absolutely
(29:37):
rock star, stunning, one in a million sort of guy.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
One more quote from Ben Shapiro. It's short are our
America is a robust place of discussion and debate of
liberty and rights. But all of that must be undergirded
by basic virtue, basic decency, respect for others, and yes,
reverence for the uniqueness of an America that values speech
and deplores violence. Charlie had that reverence, and for that
he was murdered.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
So the whole gatekeepers thing it used to keep the
crazies at bay, and obviously it was a lot easier
before the Internet. Now I think it's impossible, and that's
why I think we might be doomed. I mean, like
actually doomed, Like there's just no way to fix this.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I wish I disagreed.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I remember hearing the story from some people who were
old enough to know how media used to work back
in the day, like the guy who ran started National Review,
William F. Buckley Junior, was a big enough voice in
the world of Republicans that he could keep anybody from
the John Birch Society from ending up on Meet the Press,
(30:37):
because Meet the Press would take his like lead, you
don't want them on their crazies, Okay, we won't. You
had gatekeepers that decided what was within the bounds of
conversation we should be having in this country, and you
had it at all kinds of different levels.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, and it came.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Were imperfect, absolutely, and they were imperfect enough that I
thought when the Internet came along and the gatekeeper started
to fall, like, this is fantastic, except for what has
happened is the super crazies on the outside have infiltrated everything,
often become the loudest voices. They're the ones that are
willing to shoot you for what you believe. And I
don't know how to put them back in their cages.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, exactly, as PJ O'Rourke put it so brilliantly on
our show, whose idea was it? To put every idiot
in the world in touch with every other innea world.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Right and make them feel so empowered or make them
look so powerful.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
To others, and reinforce each other over and over again.
Even though, as I was discussing earlier, there might be
one person who thinks they're twisted ugly thoughts in a
five hundred square mile area, But in a country this big,
a world that this big, that could be tens of
thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people reinforcing each
other's evil. I don't know how we bounce back from
(31:53):
a bushel full of fruit from the tree of knowledge
I really don't.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So I had an interesting discussion about security at these
kind of events with an expert that I think you'll
find troubling. I wish I had any news that wasn't
the fact that most mainstream media, as you just heard
from Brian Selter on CNN, including a lot of people
that I don't like, handled this well. Is the only
good news I got for you today. That was a
(32:21):
good sign anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
JB. Pritzker blamed Trump. That wasn't great. He sees a
bad person.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Yeah right, and fat as Trump would point out, okay,
we got more on the way.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Stay here. Yeah.
Speaker 13 (32:40):
I know that it's somewhat object of mockery to say
thoughts and prayers, but thoughts and prayers for his family
and they need it from all of us. And Jesse's right.
If they could do this, they are capable of anything.
I think that was the message. I believe that was
the message. It's really hard to radical Republicans. Yeah, you know,
(33:02):
it's like, we're not the radical type. But if you
thought that you were going to shut a movement down,
you're going to get.
Speaker 6 (33:12):
A rude awakening.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
You woke us the cup.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
So, as is often pointed out, there is a certain
truth to fact that we have jobs, so we don't
have time to go to all these protests and do
all these different things. I mean, there's a certain friendly families.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah. Part of that is just age.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
You get older, you got responsibilities and kids and jobs
and but yeah, I don't know. I don't know what
he means by woke us. The f uh fighting fire
with fires not the answer. I don't know how we
ratchet down. I don't I'm not sure it's possible. So
we'll see on the well, I want to play this.
So this this is uh, this, this sort of clip
(33:55):
is been making the rounds a lot.
Speaker 12 (33:58):
I was about Cony Yard, who way on Charlie's left.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I had gotten there.
Speaker 12 (34:03):
Probably just a few minutes before noon.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
It was.
Speaker 12 (34:06):
There were thousands of people there. Unfortunately, there was no
metal detectors. There was no I mean, there was security
by Charlie, but you know, anybody could have shown up
with whatever. Unfortunately, and I happen to kind of maneuver
my way down close on the side.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
So that sort of thing was mentioned like on every
newscast that I watched over the last since it happened
yesterday with the implication or sometimes the state that is
just stating that there needed to be more security.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
It's and I was talking to a security expert front
of mine, it's just not doable.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
I mean, can you can do it for the pres Well,
first of all, the president got shot in the head,
and it's just luck that he didn't die. With the
most expensive, best way of going about it you can
come up with, there's no way you can afford one
percent of that for every single damn pundit and lower
(35:01):
level politician or media person in the country.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
It just obviously it's just not doable, right, So the
fact that you need it is horrifying.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
But yes, but any implication that there was no metal detection,
you can't have a metal detector for every dang fair
ground that Ben Shapiro or Charlie Cook or AOC or whoever.
Maybe AOC, she's a high profile enough congress person. She
probably does have secret Service protection.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I don't know. But obviously it just can't happen. So
it's good. It's got to be a cultural fix. It's
our only hope. Now.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
My security expert friend said he noticed from watching the videos,
and we saw this with our own eyes when we
were at the conventions, I think with Ben Shapiro and
maybe actually Charlie Kirk, where.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
They got muscle around him.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
They got big guys that if there's a physical confrontation,
these big guys can you know, protect them and push
the people back. But you're not prepared for high power
rifles from six hundred feet away.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
You can't be no, no, not on a college campus
in the middle of the day, just a guy saying, hey,
let's talk about issues, which is what Charlie did. But
it goes back to the theme that there are those
who think that speech is violence, and violence should be
met with violence, and it's okay to kill Charlie Kirk,
for instance, and that is a disease we must stamp out,
(36:22):
no matter how long it takes. I mean, we just
have to, and we may not be able to, but
we have to try.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I was looking at some of the worst of social
media last night, the fringe weirdos, and realizing these are
probably Chinese bots, or Russian bots or Iranian bots. Half
of these comments aren't even real Americans.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Right, true, true, speaking of real Americans, And I wish
we had time to squeeze this in right now, but
we don't. We'll do it in an hour. Four. If you
don't get our four, you ought to subscribe to our
podcast Armstrong, you get on demand. That way you won't
miss anything. But in the aftermath of the horror forgive Me,
they interviewed a couple of college kids and if these
(37:07):
had been third graders, I would suggest they should have
been held back. Oh boy, it's amazing. It's a bit
of a lighter note. We will also get back into
the incredibly eloquent words of the governor of Utah, Governor Cox,
who delivered a humdinger. Yeah, his political star is rising.
(37:28):
To take a coarse look at it.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
If you miss a segment, Man, if you miss a segment,
get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Getty,
and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life 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 truth and freedom.
And there's never been anyone who was so respected by youth.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
The news has broken that Trump is going to give
Charlie Kirk pots the after he died, the metal freedom,
which is the highest civilian honor we can give to anyone.
I think it's interesting that the New York Times today
in their opinion pieces, they got their conservative, One of
their conservatives, David French, says, if we keep this up,
(01:08):
Charlie Kirk will not be the last to die. And
assassin took aim at the American experiment itself. That's what
Trump said last night. That was an assault on our democracy.
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And then even the lefty as recline rights. Charlie Kirk
was practicing politics the right way. And basically, if we
can't have these kind of discussions, then we're doomed.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We got no shot. And there are extremists on the
left who believe merely contradicting their beliefs is reason enough
to perpetrate violence or kill somebody. Included in that group
is the Antifa types, some of the radical transgender theory people.
We've been calling out Antifa for years and years because
we've been on in Portland for years and years, which
(01:55):
is kind of the wellspring of Antifa. And I remember,
whether it was Nancy Pelosi or other commentators years ago
when Portland was torn apart by violence night after night
after night, in the wake of George Floyd saying Antifa
doesn't really exist. It's loosely a filled they're not really organized.
There's a I hope people realize it's real now. The
(02:16):
breaking news is, according to law enforcement sources, the unused
ammunition in the gun of the murderer was engraved with
various Antifa and transgender words, slogans, that sort of thing.
Where this goes, nobody's quite sure. I but the fact
that Charlie Kirk was who he was and did what
he did in the way he did, and which was
(02:38):
open hearted discussion in the light of day with people
who disagreed with him. The fact that he was branded
as a hater and perpetrating violence and justifying his killing
for that, I mean that needs to horrify everyone.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, your statement that a lot of the fringe left
thinks anybody who disagrees with them is worthy of violence,
This is not a new thought. But I think that
is partially because if you lean right, you have the
opposing view in your face your whole life every day.
You can't get away from it. If you flip on
(03:16):
our national public radio or any newscast, or watch any
movie or TV show, or go to any concert, you
have to listen to an opinion you don't agree with
the left, you can escape it pretty easily because unlessly,
if you're young, unless you're seeking out you know, Rush
Limbaugh style radio or Fox News, you're never going to
(03:38):
run into the opposing view. So it's probably a lot
more shocking to that crowd when you come across somebody
that doesn't agree with you. I'd like to think I
may be in the top five critics of Gavin Newsom
on Earth, and I will continue to be that, But
he issued a statement about the brutal assassination of Charlie
(03:59):
curR that was unequivocal and well done and I and
well done, Gavin. Here's a good example of Charlie Kirk
in the way he did what he did. Talking to
Gavin Newsom on the podcast, We'll start with one ten Michael,
go from there.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Right around i'd say twenty twenty one, we had a goal,
could we move the youth vote ten points over ten years?
Speaker 5 (04:24):
And when there was it, literally you sat down and
put that new miracle.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Together, like, can we move at ten points over ten
years ish, you know, approximate, Because our whole hypothesis was,
and we you know, we did this alongside President Trump
and his great team, was that this demographic is disproportionately
to the Democrat side. We believe Democrats were taking them
for granted. We think that your side had no message
whatsoever and an ideological monopoly. We saw some of the
(04:48):
fault lines there, and to President Trump's credit, he also
harmonized with the strategy by going on podcasting and using TikTok.
But yeah, I mean, we did it in four years,
not ten large in part thanks to you guys.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
And we'll go get to that, and I sincerely get
to that because I want, you know, I want to
stress tests as some of those fault lines as relates
to the reality of our party and where we are today.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Let's let's that's just sort of hateful conversation though that
should be uh, you know, snuffed out.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And here's where they went to add it a little
bit and clip one thirteen Michael, what's coming.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
But anyway, if I were to give you to be
and level stuff which gets us if you have to
go to war with your own party on three major things,
you've got to say we are not going to do
this illegal immigration thing anymore, which includes like are you
going to work with ICE?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
We do work with us.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
So let me by the way, I want to make
sure people do this. We we have been I in
fact directly we actually put out the data. I was
actually reached out to the administration. So are you not
aware that California coordinates and cooperates with all CDCR releases
over tens?
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Explain the sanctuary state thing.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Then get the state wide sanctuary state and sections yeah,
which in the state wide framework allows us to work
as it relates to issues of criminals and coordinating the
release of criminals from our federal or from our state
prison populate prison system. We coordinate with ICE on the deportation.
(06:16):
We've done that over ten thousand times since I've been governor.
We're not denying access, no, no.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I can join Americans want mass deportations.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
It's just the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Until they don't. Well, okay, that's my humble opinion. Until
they don't. Okay, years you might be paying taxes.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
I don't buy You might well, but at the moment,
you're right, you might be right.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And then he goes on to talk about, you know,
the transgender thing with children, and another issue transgender people
in sports, boys and girls sports. Listen to me using
the language that left but that sort of rhetoric, you know,
you might be right. That's the hate speech you keep
hearing about, speaking of the whole radical gender theory thing.
(06:57):
Here's Charlie in one of his feist to your debates
on campus, in which if you're not familiar with this,
he said, if you disagree with me, you go to
the front of the line. Let's talk about these things.
One hundred Michael, he is grabbing it. Is there an
(07:21):
issue or are you okay? Michael, should we call the doctor?
How do you go to the second page? Sorry, guys,
here we go.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Norman is an adult female xx chromosomes. You tell me
what is a woman?
Speaker 7 (07:32):
I think a woman is somebody who identifies as a woman.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Got it?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So that's not a definition. That's like saying a table
is something that identifies as a table. Give me an
objective definition.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Of It's not a table is an object Well, a
table can't identify as anything.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
It doesn't have a choice. You have to give me
an objective definition of what a woman is.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
I decided right now that I wanted to identify as
a woman, I would be a woman.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Okay, okay, but that's not That doesn't answer the question.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
I know, but right now I'm a man, right so
if that happened right now? Woman thing is once once
a person makes the decision to identify as a woman.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Dot it another woman? That's a separate issue. What is
a woman?
Speaker 7 (08:04):
That's the definition?
Speaker 6 (08:06):
I know, But you have to tell me what a person.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
Who identifies themselves as a woman.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
But you have how do you know that they are
that thing?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (08:12):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I don't mean to That's fine. It was funny because
they're talking past each other a little bit there.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
But yeah, did Charlie actually not understand the guy was saying, No,
the definition is.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
When somebody says they're a woman than they are a woman, right,
which is one of his great techniques, just drawing out
the other side and having them explain the arguments.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I like that because what percentage of people agree with that?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Anyway? Yeah, here's a little more feistiness. One O. Two.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
What's your name?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
None of your business, unfortunately, but.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Okay, hello, nice to meet you, know your business?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Thank you, I appreciate it. But do you love America? Yes?
I do.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
I hate America.
Speaker 8 (09:01):
Every state in the USA should be an independent country.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What do you think of this?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Dude?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Well, I just first have to ask, since you hate
the country, do you plan.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
To leave that?
Speaker 9 (09:13):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Do you plan to go live in another country? No?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I do not.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Your faith, that idiot.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
America is the only country where even those who hate
it refuse to leave. That's how you know you live
in a great country.
Speaker 9 (09:31):
Yeah, that guy was wearing a mask. By the way,
you're an idiot. Your face is an idiot. I don't
know if that helps anything. Oh boy, man, I heard
a clip this morning.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I'm sure we've got eclipse like this, but I heard
a clip this morning where somebody uh was challenging Charlie
Kirk on the founding of the country and he went
through a list off the top of his head of
like the main tenants of the constitution. That was just
stunning in terms of memorization and doing it off the
(10:07):
top of your head in front of a hospital crowd.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
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That's webroot dot com slash armstrong one more time, webroot
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Speaker 3 (11:27):
If it turns out to be true that there was
some pro trans extremist stuff and Antifa stuff scrawled on
the ammunition, because that's being reported right now by the
Wall Street Drimal. If that turns out to be true,
where does that take our political discussion?
Speaker 9 (11:44):
Do you think.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
How has this reacted to in the main toward Well, gosh,
the mainstream media is going to have to get dragged along.
I hope certainly it'll move toward people recognizing who is
a violent extremist, who is way outside the American tradition
(12:09):
in the way they argue their points and the way
they describe people who disagree with them. And the activist
trans crowd and the antifa crowd are violent extremists and
always have been. They're unhinged. Which is not to say
every person who identifies as transgender is unhinged, far from it,
(12:32):
but those activist types are dangerous people. I think we
have the fabulous clip with Charlie kirk you're talking about.
We can hit that next segment. Okay, we can get
to that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Also, I want to read what Mark Halprin, who is
a friend of Charlie Kirks, wrote today is really good.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We'll get to that later this hour or two.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
I guess that's kind of my question.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
What advice do you have for me as a Republican
aspiring social worker? What would conflict? I don't know, like
how to say it properly.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
I think I can help.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
The social work industry is very much about a perspective, generally,
of that people in poverty are there permanently and not
trying to break people out of poverty into the middle
class or higher levels, and that's why the Democrat Party
and social work are very intertwined. They view poverty not
as a series of choices, but as a station in
(13:30):
life that is immovable largely. Is that fair to say?
That is fair to say?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, that's the way he talked to people. He did.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
What you should do in a charitable debate is try
to state the other position, the other person's position, in
a way that they agree with, and that was one
of his techniques. You know, that's what he was doing yesterday.
He goes to a college campus. If you disagree with,
we move to the front and then we'll have a
discussion about whatever your topic is. And then somebody shot
him in the throat and killed him. But like I
(14:03):
said from the opening moments of the show, it is
the most basic, bottom level example of what self government is.
And if we can't do that, we are one hundred
percent doomed. I mean we just if we can't do
this on either side, then we're doomed.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And that those who would even contemplate or actually murder
someone for having an open discussion that they disagreed with,
they are the most evil people among us. They are
irredeemably evil and everyone should condemn that very thought, much
(14:43):
less the act.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So Mark Alpern I took in his newscast live yesterday.
It was after the news had broken, before Charlie Kirk
had died. Mark Alpern had had Charlie Kirk on his
show the day before, so I mean it had just
been hours before. He had been with Charlie Kirk and
his wife and kids. He was pretty emotional about it. Anyway,
he wrote today in his newsletter, some really good stuff,
(15:06):
and I'll read part of it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Charlie Kirk wore.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Many titles and humbly managed to make each sound plane
political strategist, public speaker, video podcaster, fundraiser, organizer, lobbyist, builder.
When I ask him his profession a few months ago,
he said he preferred the unadorned word entrepreneur, as if
he were describing a shop on Main Street that just
happened to scale across a nation and around the world.
That was part of his charm, the grand project, presented
(15:31):
with a straight face, in hard working hands, big undertakings,
explained in the tone you used to order coffee. What
mattered most in the end was his spirit. He was
not a hater, quite the opposite. I've met no one
shrewder in politics at any age, and no one better
liked in the movement. He helped shape power so often
makes people small. It did not shrink him or make
(15:51):
him arrogant. Imagine being thirty one running a one hundred
million dollar enterprise, a lord and your party citadel, friends
with the President and then the Vice president of the
United States, and a directory of leaders in business and politics,
and not becoming brittle, vane, or cruel.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
He didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He carried success the way a good waiter studiously carries
a tray, steady, attentive, and unself conscious. If you think
you don't know someone under twenty five who followed Charlie
was connecting with him vividly, you are mistaken. Mistaken. His
current ran beneath dorm rooms and group chats in church
basements and county auditoriums, through comment threads and long car
(16:30):
rides home. He believed in the old disciplines, hard work,
early mornings, no drugs, no alcohol, very little sleep. He
believed populism should be an accelerator, not a wildfire, the
spark that moves an engine, not the blaze that consumes
the forest. Uh, that's very impressive. Yeah, and it goes
on and on.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's quite long. It's quite good. Maybe I can post
that somewhere.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, the fact that he could get the president or
the vice president on the phone anytime a day he
wanted to at age thirty one and actually younger than that,
when he when he could and was still so incredibly
even even keeled and level headed and committed to his goal.
He didn't seem to have a bit of the I
(17:16):
want to be the focus of the celebrity in him.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well, we opened the show with a clip that I
don't see. We have so much. He was asked how
he wanted to be remembered, and he said, for the
courage of my faith. My faith is the most important
thing to me. And you know, go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 7 (17:33):
If you could be associated with one thing, how would
you want to be remembered.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I want to be I want to be remembered for
for courage from my faith. That would be the most
important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So again, on multiple levels, this is awful. You've got
the young dad with kids, who's a nice guy who
gets shot to death.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
That's awful.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
But on a political level, he is not going to
be place you can't replace somebody like that. He's a
once in a many generation sort of talent, and he
was taken off the stage by an assassin.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I like to think that thousands and thousands of young
people will try though. Yeah, well that's all you can do.
We get a lot more on the way. Stay with us,
Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
I don't know what's going to happen, other than to
tell you that this nation is in desperate need of
prayer and some kind of an intervention, because when you
can't I mean, what was Charlie doing making a speech,
engaging in rhetoric, having a debate. That's the bedrock of
(18:42):
our nation, and now you can't go out in public
and engage in speech.
Speaker 10 (18:48):
That's the opposite of violence.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Speech is the opposite.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
And so.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I don't know what's going to happen to Charlie.
Speaker 10 (18:56):
All I can really think about is his poor wife
and those two babies, and so I think the best
thing any of us can do right now is just
pray for his recovery and pray for their comfort, because
God help us, we're in a bad place.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Scott. I don't want to get sidetracked with this, I'll
do it after this. So that's CNN. Brian Stelter is
a guy on CNN who I often have hated, hate
the things he says against him. Yeah, absolutely hated. But
I've been talking a lot about how happy I was
(19:32):
about mainstream coverage of this mostly I mean, like, way
more than I can remember in a long time where
the mainstream media handled this I think the right way. Like, Oh,
I flipped on the ABC Evening News last night, and
they took it as seriously as they did, and without
a lot of the like prejudicial winks and nods that
(19:52):
that he had it coming or any of that sort
of stuff, and the anchors talking about, yeah, I personally
knew him and he was a great guy, and just
stuff like I just thought, this is this is fantastic.
And here's Brian Stilter. Wait on CNN. This is what
he said yesterday.
Speaker 11 (20:07):
The prayers are so all consuming right now, and bipartisan,
everyone from President Trump and Vice President j d. Vance,
the members of the cabinet to Democratic leaders like the
King Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, bi partisan condemnation of this
act of political violence. It's a reminder Breonna that in
a country like America, in a democracy. We only have
(20:27):
a democracy if we settle our disagreements with words, not
with violence. You know, for the liberals, for the anti
Trump voices, for the anti Kirk voices out there, who
feel despair, you know about the direction of the country's politics.
The way to address that is through words, not through violence.
And so whenever we see one of these appalling crimes,
it is disturbing because it cuts to the core of
(20:49):
how the American democracy functions.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
He's on dred percent right, Yeah, well done, Brian, well done,
well said, and came across this quote yesterday. This is the.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Interesting, complicated thing that nobody's ever quite understood. I just
saw Tim Tebow, former NFL player, well known, outspoken Christian,
who said evil is real and we need to recognize that.
And then there's this quote. I don't remember who gets
credit for it originally, but Satan does not have to
overpower us in order to win the war. He just
(21:22):
has to get us to adopt his way of fighting it,
which is a good quote.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Sounds C. S. Lewis ish to me. If it does,
doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Uh, if this guy turns out to be completely crazy.
But there's a chance of he could be pretty crazy,
like the guy the trial is going on this week,
the jury selection, the second guy that tried to kill
Trump with his gun in the bushes at the golf course.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
He's nuts. Yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
We all know that our rhetoric is hotter than it's
ever been. Polls show a higher percentage of people think
political violence is okay than have in my lifetime. So
how does that whole work With the rhetoric gets out
of control, we get further apart politically, and then the
(22:19):
crazies take that in somehow and act violently.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Right, That's a tough one. It remains to be seen
where this guy was on the scale of completely saying
to completely psychotic, and or if he was just and
this is absolutely a possibility, he was made evil by
his ideology radicalized radicalized in short, Yeah, yeah, I mean,
(22:49):
And it's funny people act as if that sort of
thing doesn't happen. It happens all the time. It's happened
throughout human history over and over again. Yeah, And there
is a systematic attempt on America's case campuses from K
through grad school to radicalize people in leftist ideology.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
The dude that shot the couple of the Jewish couple.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
In Washington, d C. That guy wasn't crazy. No, she
was a pro Palestinian activist, right.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And I don't think the guy who shot the United
Healthcare CEO he wasn't crazy, doesn't seem to be crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
No, he was twisted, no doubt, but he seemed to
have a grasp of reality. I'd like to know. I'd
like to see a psychological assessment of the thousands and
thousands and thousands of people who consider him a hero
and have raised money for his defense in spite of
his incoherence, his scattered ideology, and his murder of a
(23:49):
young man who and a young dad who just happened
to be you know, but then in a job at
a company.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
But then you got the guy who shot Gabby Gifford's
remember that whole story in Arizona. He thought that what
the government was pushing math on us or something. I
don't even remember what his crazy thing was. The guy
on the train the other day, that awful, awful story.
That person's completely out.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Of their mind. I don't know, I don't know, I
don't know. Yeah, there's not one phenomenon here, although the
one phenomenon. You know, if I was to jump in
and interview our discussion or intervene in our discussion, it
would be to say, Yeah, the completely psycho people, let's
talk about that another time, because that one's going to
(24:32):
be really tough. But radicalized people who are perfectly rational
yet convinced that it is justified that they commit acts
of violence. That one we can deal with, and we
need to start yesterday, or in Shapiro, go ahead, or
even if they still exist, if they don't hear the
leaders saying things like if we lose this election, it's
(24:55):
the last election we'll ever have in this country, which
is absurd, it's crazy, but both sides were saying it
leading up to the presidential election. We got to stop
saying stuff like that, So Ben Shapiro, writing about the
death of his friend Charlie Kirk, here's one thing we
do know. This all has to stop. It's an ugly
picture that we've seen before. The sixties and seventies were
(25:16):
a time of tremendous change in American history and tremendous violence.
Political assassinations became commonplace. Bombings and terror attacks were excused
by a variety of supposedly great intellectuals, and eventually America
rejected all of it. Now we're watching the same ugly
picture reappear as Jack and I were discussing earlier. The
difference is that the mechanisms by which ideas spread have
(25:40):
changed completely because of the Internet and social media. Now
I don't know that the flow chart looks anything like
it did when America said that's enough violence. We hate
it all. No, no, yeah, We're in a completely different
spot anyway, he writes, a wave of violence is building,
from the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the attempted shooting
of President Trump, from the murder of United Healthcare CEO
(26:02):
Brian Thompson to the slaying of two Israeli embassy staffers.
All of these acts of extreme violence have found support
in the dark precincts of political radicals. The temperature in
our country has been steadily rising, and it's been rising
because many people have determined that their political opponents aren't
just opponents, but enemies, threats to their very existence. That
determination by fringe actors is often reinforced in the online
(26:24):
spaces that prize virility and mirror emotional excess, and then
it breaks free from the world of the online into
real life with bloody and horrific consequences. Yes, that phenomenon
crosses the political aisle, but to pretend that the phenomenon
is distributed equally would be a mistake. The rising tide
of violence on the left has become more and more
virulent over the course of the last several years. The
(26:46):
argument that speech is violence to be met with violence,
the argument that opposition to contention amounts to a form
of genocide or erasure, the argument that political opponents are
moments away from ending our republic outright. These views all
trend toward revolutionary violence and the wave of violence, a
wave already breaking on the shore appears as though it
(27:07):
is only beginning. Has already destroyed Charlie Kirk's family and
ended his life at the age of thirty one. But
it feels like a tsunami is coming. The water's already
receded from the shoreline, and what comes next could be
far more devastating even than what we have thus seen
so far. That tsunami, if left unchecked, will wash away
this entire republic, And he mentions the heavy, heavy security
(27:31):
he's had to have speaking on college campuses, including bulletproof
vests and metal textures and the rest of it. Because
he has threatened so much.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I want to talk about security. I talked to a
security expert last night about this a little bit. So
I was saying earlier about gatekeepers, how we didn't used
to have We used to have gatekeepers in all levels
of society and we don't anymore. And I originally thought
(28:02):
that was good, but it's turned out not to be
more on that right after this word.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
From our friends at Simply Save Home Security. The revolutionary
thing about simply Safe, well, there are several things, but
unlike old security systems that like go off after your
feeling of safety is shattered and your windows are smashed,
simply simply Safe is designed to be proactive. They use
smart AI powered cameras to identify threats lurking outside your
home and immediately alert simply Safe professional monitoring agents.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah, they can access two way audio to confront the person,
trigger sirens, spotlights to scare them off, request rapid police
dispatch when needed, all helping to stop the intruder while
they're still outside. That is really something. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
And the thing about Simply Safe is the old systems
you know, the cops would just get alert. Somebody's alarm
went off. The chances are nine out of ten it
was a mistake. Right. But with simply Safe, they say, hey,
there's a guy who looks like this breaking into the
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(29:05):
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Speaker 12 (29:15):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
There's Charlie Kirkup on the TV speaking at the Republican
National Convention. I was in the crowd to see part
of that. He spoke at the last three Republican National conventions.
That doesn't seem possible when you're thirty one years old, man.
He was just from a building an organization standpoint, even
if you left all the politics out of it. Absolutely
(29:37):
rock star, stunning, one in a million sort of guy.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
One more quote from Ben Shapiro. It's short are our
America is a robust place of discussion and debate of
liberty and rights. But all of that must be undergirded
by basic virtue, basic decency, respect for others, and yes,
reverence for the uniqueness of an America that values speech
and deplores violence. Charlie had that reverence, and for that
he was murdered.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
So the whole gatekeepers thing it used to keep the
crazies at bay, and obviously it was a lot easier
before the Internet. Now I think it's impossible, and that's
why I think we might be doomed. I mean, like
actually doomed, Like there's just no way to fix this.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I wish I disagreed.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
I remember hearing the story from some people who were
old enough to know how media used to work back
in the day, like the guy who ran started National Review,
William F. Buckley Junior, was a big enough voice in
the world of Republicans that he could keep anybody from
the John Birch Society from ending up on Meet the Press,
(30:37):
because Meet the Press would take his like lead, you
don't want them on their crazies, Okay, we won't. You
had gatekeepers that decided what was within the bounds of
conversation we should be having in this country, and you
had it at all kinds of different levels.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, and it came.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Were imperfect, absolutely, and they were imperfect enough that I
thought when the Internet came along and the gatekeeper started
to fall, like, this is fantastic, except for what has
happened is the super crazies on the outside have infiltrated everything,
often become the loudest voices. They're the ones that are
willing to shoot you for what you believe. And I
don't know how to put them back in their cages.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, exactly, as PJ O'Rourke put it so brilliantly on
our show, whose idea was it? To put every idiot
in the world in touch with every other innea world.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Right and make them feel so empowered or make them
look so powerful.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
To others, and reinforce each other over and over again.
Even though, as I was discussing earlier, there might be
one person who thinks they're twisted ugly thoughts in a
five hundred square mile area, But in a country this big,
a world that this big, that could be tens of
thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people reinforcing each
other's evil. I don't know how we bounce back from
(31:53):
a bushel full of fruit from the tree of knowledge
I really don't.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So I had an interesting discussion about security at these
kind of events with an expert that I think you'll
find troubling. I wish I had any news that wasn't
the fact that most mainstream media, as you just heard
from Brian Selter on CNN, including a lot of people
that I don't like, handled this well. Is the only
good news I got for you today. That was a
(32:21):
good sign anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
JB. Pritzker blamed Trump. That wasn't great. He sees a
bad person.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Yeah right, and fat as Trump would point out, okay,
we got more on the way.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Stay here. Yeah.
Speaker 13 (32:40):
I know that it's somewhat object of mockery to say
thoughts and prayers, but thoughts and prayers for his family
and they need it from all of us. And Jesse's right.
If they could do this, they are capable of anything.
I think that was the message. I believe that was
the message. It's really hard to radical Republicans. Yeah, you know,
(33:02):
it's like, we're not the radical type. But if you
thought that you were going to shut a movement down,
you're going to get.
Speaker 6 (33:12):
A rude awakening.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
You woke us the cup.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
So, as is often pointed out, there is a certain
truth to fact that we have jobs, so we don't
have time to go to all these protests and do
all these different things. I mean, there's a certain friendly families.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah. Part of that is just age.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
You get older, you got responsibilities and kids and jobs
and but yeah, I don't know. I don't know what
he means by woke us. The f uh fighting fire
with fires not the answer. I don't know how we
ratchet down. I don't I'm not sure it's possible. So
we'll see on the well, I want to play this.
So this this is uh, this, this sort of clip
(33:55):
is been making the rounds a lot.
Speaker 12 (33:58):
I was about Cony Yard, who way on Charlie's left.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I had gotten there.
Speaker 12 (34:03):
Probably just a few minutes before noon.
Speaker 9 (34:05):
It was.
Speaker 12 (34:06):
There were thousands of people there. Unfortunately, there was no
metal detectors. There was no I mean, there was security
by Charlie, but you know, anybody could have shown up
with whatever. Unfortunately, and I happen to kind of maneuver
my way down close on the side.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
So that sort of thing was mentioned like on every
newscast that I watched over the last since it happened
yesterday with the implication or sometimes the state that is
just stating that there needed to be more security.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
It's and I was talking to a security expert front
of mine, it's just not doable.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
I mean, can you can do it for the pres Well,
first of all, the president got shot in the head,
and it's just luck that he didn't die. With the
most expensive, best way of going about it you can
come up with, there's no way you can afford one
percent of that for every single damn pundit and lower
(35:01):
level politician or media person in the country.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
It just obviously it's just not doable, right, So the
fact that you need it is horrifying.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
But yes, but any implication that there was no metal detection,
you can't have a metal detector for every dang fair
ground that Ben Shapiro or Charlie Cook or AOC or whoever.
Maybe AOC, she's a high profile enough congress person. She
probably does have secret Service protection.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I don't know. But obviously it just can't happen. So
it's good. It's got to be a cultural fix. It's
our only hope. Now.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
My security expert friend said he noticed from watching the videos,
and we saw this with our own eyes when we
were at the conventions, I think with Ben Shapiro and
maybe actually Charlie Kirk, where.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
They got muscle around him.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
They got big guys that if there's a physical confrontation,
these big guys can you know, protect them and push
the people back. But you're not prepared for high power
rifles from six hundred feet away.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
You can't be no, no, not on a college campus
in the middle of the day, just a guy saying, hey,
let's talk about issues, which is what Charlie did. But
it goes back to the theme that there are those
who think that speech is violence, and violence should be
met with violence, and it's okay to kill Charlie Kirk,
for instance, and that is a disease we must stamp out,
(36:22):
no matter how long it takes. I mean, we just
have to, and we may not be able to, but
we have to try.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
I was looking at some of the worst of social
media last night, the fringe weirdos, and realizing these are
probably Chinese bots, or Russian bots or Iranian bots. Half
of these comments aren't even real Americans.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Right, true, true, speaking of real Americans, And I wish
we had time to squeeze this in right now, but
we don't. We'll do it in an hour. Four. If you
don't get our four, you ought to subscribe to our
podcast Armstrong, you get on demand. That way you won't
miss anything. But in the aftermath of the horror forgive Me,
they interviewed a couple of college kids and if these
(37:07):
had been third graders, I would suggest they should have
been held back. Oh boy, it's amazing. It's a bit
of a lighter note. We will also get back into
the incredibly eloquent words of the governor of Utah, Governor Cox,
who delivered a humdinger. Yeah, his political star is rising.
(37:28):
To take a coarse look at it.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
If you miss a segment, Man, if you miss a segment,
get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Armstrong and Getty
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