Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA Founder, Dead at 31 after Utah Campus Shooting

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Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA Founder, Dead at 31 after Utah Campus Shooting · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 2: It is my great dishonor to be the person that
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: says this and breaks this to you on television. But
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: President Donald Trump is announcing on true social the great
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  Speaker 2: and even legendary Charlie Kirk is dead. No one understood
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  Speaker 2: or had the heart of the youth in the United
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  Speaker 2: States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and
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  Speaker 2: admired by all, especially me, and now he is no
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  Speaker 2: longer with us. Malania and my sympathies go out to
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  Speaker 2: his beautiful wife, Erica and his family. Charlie, we love you.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: This is a forty seven Morning Update special edition with
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  Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: It is Thursday morning. It is nice to have you
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  Speaker 3: with us on the forty seven Morning Update. And there's
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  Speaker 3: only one thing we're going to be talking about today,
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  Speaker 3: and that is the life and the legacy of an
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  Speaker 3: incredible young man, Charlie Kirk, who have had the honor
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  Speaker 3: of knowing for over a decade. Charlie's mission field was
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  Speaker 3: college campuses. His mission field was to have grand bates.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: He understood something that many others didn't, which is the
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  Speaker 3: Left had taken hold of an entire generation of young
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  Speaker 3: people in this country and they were turning them against God.
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  Speaker 3: They were turning him against prayer. They were turning him
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  Speaker 3: against pride in this country. They were turning them away
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  Speaker 3: away from families. They were turning them away from having children.
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  Speaker 3: They were turning them away from marriage, being a husband
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  Speaker 3: or a wife, a mother or a father. And he
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  Speaker 3: decided he was going to do something about it, and
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  Speaker 3: he started an organization called Turning Point. I remember meeting
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  Speaker 3: Charlie for the very first time and we had breakfast together.
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  Speaker 3: When he was trying to start Turning Point. There was
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  Speaker 3: people like myself and Ben Shapiro and others that had
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  Speaker 3: done kind of the college campus thing and had been
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  Speaker 3: the young general of Conservatives, and he wanted to be
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  Speaker 3: that next generation. In my O Mai was he. He's
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  Speaker 3: had more of an impact on the younger generation for
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  Speaker 3: conservatives than anyone I've ever met. And I don't say
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  Speaker 3: that because he was assassinated by a cold blooded killer.
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  Speaker 3: I say that because the truth Charlie Kirk was a
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  Speaker 3: hero whose legacy will live on for I think the
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  Speaker 3: rest of my life and probably than after that. People
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  Speaker 3: are going to remember Charlie Kirk. They're going to remember
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  Speaker 3: where they were when they found out that he was shot.
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  Speaker 3: They're going to remember where they were when it was
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  Speaker 3: announced by the President United States of America on true
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  Speaker 3: social that he had died. This is so hard. I've
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  Speaker 3: been talking about this all day. I'm recording this at
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  Speaker 3: basically midnight Eastern, and I've been talking to friends and
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  Speaker 3: colleagues who know him, and all of us are so
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  Speaker 3: sad because we all knew him well. I think the
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  Speaker 3: hardest part for me is the fact that I know
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  Speaker 3: that this was a man that loved this country but
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  Speaker 3: also loved his family. He was so proud of his kids.
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  Speaker 3: He was so proud to be a dad. He loved
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  Speaker 3: being a dad. He loved celebrating what a family is.
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  Speaker 3: He loved celebrating that he was going back to traditional
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  Speaker 3: way of life with a mom and a dad and children.
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  Speaker 3: I am so sad tonight for his family, for his wife,
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  Speaker 3: who is so sweet, for his children that are going
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  Speaker 3: to grow up without their father. They're going to have
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  Speaker 3: videos for years that they can watch and they can
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  Speaker 3: be proud of him. And that may be the one
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  Speaker 3: blessing is that they so much of his life over
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  Speaker 3: the last five six seven years was put on tape.
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  Speaker 3: I also get sad for this country because we lost
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  Speaker 3: someone that was so dear to us, and I get
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  Speaker 3: sad that we've gone all off this pass so far
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  Speaker 3: to where the radical left and a part of it
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  Speaker 3: is a terrorist organization. Now, make no mistake about that.
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  Speaker 3: Is celebrating the killing of a man whose only crime
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  Speaker 3: was wanting to bring people together for a grand debate.
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  Speaker 3: That's what he did wrong. He wanted to debate the
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  Speaker 3: most important issues of our day, and he wanted to
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  Speaker 3: sit down with people that disagreed with him, and he
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  Speaker 3: wanted to have that conversation. And that's why they killed him,
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  Speaker 3: because he was so effective and so powerful by bringing
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  Speaker 3: facts to a conversation and by the way being kind
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  Speaker 3: to those on the left, those that disagreed with him.
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  Speaker 3: He wanted them to come to his events, he wanted
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  Speaker 3: to talk to them. He gave them a microphone. It's
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  Speaker 3: exactly what he was doing in Utah. Trump's assassination attempting
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  Speaker 3: Butler is that we were worried that they were going
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  Speaker 3: to do it again, whether I was on stage doing
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  Speaker 3: an event, and so many others that do what Charlie
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  Speaker 3: does in the conservative movement, it is become a very
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  Speaker 3: real thing in our minds, and what they wanted to
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  Speaker 3: happen to Donald Trump and Butler is exactly what happened
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  Speaker 3: in Utah to Charlie Kirk. They wanted that video. They
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  Speaker 3: wanted to put fear in the hearts and the minds
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  Speaker 3: of other conservative fighters, other conservative warriors, because they want
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  Speaker 3: to silence us. I have talked to some of the
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  Speaker 3: most influential conservative leaders today on the phone and in
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  Speaker 3: text messages, my mentors, people that I've mentored, and one
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  Speaker 3: thing I can assure you from all this is, yes,
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  Speaker 3: we're gonna take more precautions. Yes we're gonna do more,
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  Speaker 3: but we're not stopping. Charlie was asked recently about what
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  Speaker 3: he does and what he thinks before he goes on
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  Speaker 3: college campuses, and I want you to listen to what
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  Speaker 3: he said. It's only forty seven forty eight seconds long,
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  Speaker 3: but I want you to listen to what he says.
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  Speaker 4: Before I go to college campus. My prayer is very simple, God,
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  Speaker 4: use me for your willy because there's a plan above
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  Speaker 4: us all. God is sovereign above all, So what is
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  Speaker 4: God's plan when I go on to college campus. I
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  Speaker 4: just believe I will only tell truth. I will not compromise,
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  Speaker 4: and I'll love on the last the specific teachings of Christ.
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  Speaker 4: This go make disciples of all nations. I'm trying my
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  Speaker 4: best to do that, and I'm trying to do it
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  Speaker 4: first in this nation, because this nation impacts every other
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  Speaker 4: nation on the planet. You cannot impact the world that
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  Speaker 4: impacting America. Period. That's the way that God has designed
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  Speaker 4: the universe in this particular being that as America goes,
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  Speaker 4: the world goes. Jesus called us to love children, got
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  Speaker 4: Jesus called us to tell truth.
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  Speaker 1: God.
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  Speaker 4: Jesus called us to contest in the public square for
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  Speaker 4: his purposes. I'm far more interested in what God wants
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  Speaker 4: of me than what I want from God, and what
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  Speaker 4: God wants from me as a fighting for truth.
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  Speaker 3: That is going to be a large part of Charlie
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  Speaker 3: Kirk's legacy. The President of the United States of America
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  Speaker 3: also put out a video from the Oval Office hours
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  Speaker 3: after he announced that Charlie Kirk had gone to see
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  Speaker 3: his Lord and Savior in heaven. Donald Trump decided to
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  Speaker 3: address the nation, and I want you to hear what
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  Speaker 3: the President had to say about Charlie Kirk and his legacy.
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  Speaker 1: To my great fellow Americans.
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  Speaker 5: I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous
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  Speaker 5: assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah.
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  Speaker 1: Charlie inspired millions, and tonight.
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  Speaker 5: All who knew him and loved him are united in
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  Speaker 5: shock and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his
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  Speaker 5: life to the cause of open debate and the country
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  Speaker 5: that he loved so much, the United States of America.
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  Speaker 5: He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people.
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  Speaker 5: He's a martyr for truth and freedom, and there has
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  Speaker 5: never been anyone who was so respected by youth. Charlie
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  Speaker 5: was also a man of deep, deep faith, and we
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  Speaker 5: take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at
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  Speaker 5: peace with God in Heaven. Our prayers are with his wife, Erica,
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  Speaker 5: the two young, beloved children, and his entire family, who.
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  Speaker 1: He loved more than anything in the world.
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  Speaker 5: We ask God to watch over them in this terrible
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  Speaker 5: hour of heartache and pain.
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  Speaker 1: This is a dark moment for America.
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  Speaker 5: Charlie Kirk traveled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested
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  Speaker 5: in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young
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  Speaker 5: people into the political process, which he did better than
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  Speaker 5: anybody ever To share his love of country and to
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  Speaker 5: spread the simple words of common sense.
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  Speaker 1: On campuses and wide.
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  Speaker 5: He championed his ideas with courage, logic, humor, and grace.
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  Speaker 5: It's a long past time for all Americans and the
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  Speaker 5: media to confront the fact that violence and murder are
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  Speaker 5: the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,
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  Speaker 5: day after day, year after year, in the most hateful
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  Speaker 5: and despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical
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  Speaker 5: left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and
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  Speaker 5: the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of
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  Speaker 5: rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing
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  Speaker 5: in our country today, and it must stop right now.
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  Speaker 5: My administration will find each and every one of those
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  Speaker 5: who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence,
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  Speaker 5: including the organizations that fund it and support it, as
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  Speaker 5: well as those who go in after our judges, law
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  Speaker 5: enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.
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  Speaker 5: From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year,
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  Speaker 5: which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on
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  Speaker 5: ice agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive
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  Speaker 5: in the streets of New York to the shooting of
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  Speaker 5: House Majority leaders Steve Scalise and three others. Radical of
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  Speaker 5: political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken
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  Speaker 5: too many lives. Tonight, they asked all Americans to commit
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  Speaker 5: themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived
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  Speaker 5: and died, the values of free speech, citizenship, the rule
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  Speaker 5: of law, and the patriotic devotion and love of God.
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  Speaker 5: Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who
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  Speaker 5: attacked him was attacking our whole country. An assassin tried
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  Speaker 5: to silence him with a bullet, but he failed, because
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  Speaker 5: together we will ensure that his voice, his message, and
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  Speaker 5: his legacy will live on for countless generations to come. Today,
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  Speaker 5: because of this heinous act, Charlie's voice has become bigger
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  Speaker 5: and grander than ever before, and it's not even close.
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  Speaker 5: May God bless his memory, May God watch over his family,
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  Speaker 5: and may God bless the United States of America.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.
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  Speaker 3: I want to just end by saying two things. One,
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  Speaker 3: I am so sad. I am so sad for Charlie's
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  Speaker 3: family and his colleagues and his friends. I'm also incredibly angry.
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  Speaker 3: I'm angry that the left has gotten to the point
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  Speaker 3: where they're inspiring people to do this with no accountability.
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  Speaker 3: I'm angry that they have normalized this type of political violence.
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  Speaker 3: There will be more to be said about that moving forward,
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  Speaker 3: promise you. But what I'll say right now is this.
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  Speaker 3: Pray for Charlie's wife, Pray for Charlie's children, Pray for
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  Speaker 3: all of them, and I'll see you back here tomorrow.