RIP Charlie Kirk, Martyr for Free Expression

0:00Just minutes after posting yesterday's show, I was absolutely horrified to see the headlines Charlie Kirk being shot at a college campus in Utah. I regrettably saw the footage up close like many of you listening did too, I'm sure. So I tried to do what many people in my line of work would do and went straight back to my microphone to try to share my thoughts with all of you, but I just, I couldn't find the words. So I waited like many of us did to find out if he would pull through or not. And if you saw the footage that I saw, it was pretty clear right a way that he was not going to survive that.

0:37When the news hit that confirmed he had passed, my heart sank into my stomach. And I've been upset about it ever since. I didn't agree with Charlie about a lot of things outside of identity politics in the Second Amendment, but it is irrelevant whether we agreed with Charlie Kirk or not, because this man died as a martyr for free speech and should be honored accordingly. This isn't about politics. It's about common human decency, a commodity that many people seem to be lacking in today's upside-down world. If you believe that it's somehow appropriate to celebrate his murder, then I would kindly ask you to quit.

1:13Quit listening to this podcast right now because you do not belong here. I'm not sure what I've been more disgusted by in the last 24 hours, this cowardly assassination of a man that was guilty of nothing more than sharing his ideas with the world, or the people out there on TV and social media who are celebrating it. Whether it's a laughing emoticon on Facebook to a news anchor on MSNBC suggesting that Charlie somehow had it coming to the overt gleefulness that the seeming majority of people online are sharing right now. I know it's really not the majority. It just looks like that on the surface.

1:47I refuse to believe that terrible people outnumber the good ones here. But there are so many of you out there that I'm positive there are even a few of them listening to me right now. So I want to take this opportunity to speak with you imbeciles directly. If you're listening to the words coming out of my mouth right now, as one of those people who laughed or made a stupid comment online about this being a good thing, I want you to know that I personally think you are a bad person and you shouldn't be allowed to vote. And we cannot be friends either. Is that clear enough for you? While I do support your right to act like an absolute asshat and would fight to defend that with my life, I would never willingly break bread with your kind if I was aware of your state of mind.

2:27This isn't even about the political divide of right versus left in the United States, because this is so much more incredibly bigger than our petty politics. Make no mistake, this assassination was not an act of liberalism. What it should be called, I struggle to come up with that word. You could call it illiberalism, but that's just a bit too academic for me. Political nihilism? Violence for its own sake using politics as a pretext? I guess maybe political nihilism, maybe. It at least captures the idea of erasing debate itself rather than participating in it. Exactly the opposite of what real liberalism stands for.

3:01You can't cheer on somebody's murder and call yourself a liberal. And if you do, you're too far gone to have a seat at the table, I'm afraid. You don't get to be part of the national discourse at that point, because you clearly do not understand how any of this works. And if I were the king of everything, I would revoke your right to vote because you failed the test at what it means to be a good American. I shouldn't have to explain this. None of us should have to explain this to our fellow Americans in the year 2025. Yet here we are an entire ocean of murder sympathizing keyboard anarchist wannabes who would starve to death without government handouts.

3:34These Antifa idiots who believe it's logical to become fascists themselves in their asinine display of transitioning into the very monsters they thought they were fighting. That's not liberalism. That's political incest. And there it is. Wow, I found it. Political incest is a far more appropriate term for what we're witnessing on both sides of the political divide in our country. Sides that have become so withdrawn from each other that they now only practice the intercourse of political discourse with their own kind in an echo chamber orgy dome that breeds politically transmitted diseases. I'm not trying to be funny or graphic here for shock value.

4:10This is me just actually trying to rationalize the insanity that we see all around us. Thankfully, this horrible event of watching a public figure being executed in real time in front of our eyes has showed us who the real liberals are. Because not one prominent liberal figure outside of somebody on MSNBC, whose name I won't repeat here, said anything really stupid. In fact, quite the opposite. Thankfully, Gavin Newsom shared a remarkably thoughtful response. Barack Obama did too. So did Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Bill Clinton. The list goes on and good for them this should be the standard and yet we have a growing chorus of mental midgets brazenly celebrating this on social media i'm sure you've seen it and you might even know somebody personally who's acting like this do you know anybody celebrating the assassination of charlie kirk maybe you should take a screenshot of their comments and share it with their employer if you know where they work and i mean hey that's part of free speech too you know you're free to say these stupid, horrible things, and I'll support your right to say them to the death, but I'm also going to speak my truth and tell you that you're acting like a POS, and I might share your comments with your boss, so that they, in return, can speak their truth and fire your stupid ass if your comments don't align with their worldview.

5:21See how it works? You don't shoot people dead like dogs for saying things you don't like. That's third world country bullshit. Maybe you should move to the third world if that's how you like things done. I mean, if somebody doesn't like the thoughts that I'm sharing on this program, they can easily share them with Newsweek. That's always how it works for talk show hosts who work for a company. And maybe that's how it should work for these keyboard social justice warriors who have their heads so far up their asses that they think it's perfectly chill to celebrate assassinations in this country.

5:49I mean, to some degree, I guess it shouldn't be too surprising considering how Hollywood has glamorized murdering people for over a century now. Ultimately, it's nothing new under the sun. Many people have died and will continue to die for sharing their thoughts. I mean, from Socrates all the way to Martin Luther King Jr., the list goes forever. Look at what they did to Salman Rushdie for crying out loud. It should also go without saying that the best way to amplify your enemy's voice is to kill them, because now people are going to lean into what Charlie Kirk had to say. A lot more of us are going to be taking a much closer look at what he was speaking about in the days, weeks, months, and years leading up to his assassination.

6:25I know I'm going to be taking a much closer look personally and taking what he said a little bit more seriously. Look, to tell you the truth, I never paid much attention to what the guy had to say. But I've got to admit that I strongly admired his willingness and keen ability to engage with college kids on campus. I mean, just to get them to open up and talk about subjects that are often the most difficult to discuss with people of the opposite political persuasion? I'm sure you've seen the memes already floating around out there, but they're true. All Charlie Kirk tried to do was talk to you people, and you shot him for it.

6:54That's the reality of this terrible situation. And if you think it's funny, you're not a liberal. You're a terrible person. And you should be ashamed, but I guess you wouldn't be where you're at if you had any of that shame. You wouldn't know shame if it smacked you upside your pointy little head. I can't tell you how many people I've seen on Facebook over the last 24 hours with that stereotypical peace, love, and understanding, not hate, violence, and greed, buddy guy, profile backgrounds from these people who were cheering on Charlie Kirk's assassin. No, I've taken a lot of screenshots from people when it's obvious where they work, and I've got to say that I'm incredibly tempted to share this kind of information with their employers, but so far, I haven't done it, and I'm not sure if I'm going to.

7:33Mostly because I think I'm a free speech absolutist, and it just doesn't feel right to be completely honest with myself. I want to do it, my 14-year-old self is screaming at me to do it, but my soon-to-be 45-year-old ass is telling me not to. I'm sure it's not likely to really change anything, and even if it did, If you go ruining people's lives like that and getting them fired for saying stupid shit online, you just don't know what kind of collateral damage you might be causing in these people's families. Just because your mom or dad said something stupid and careless and borderline criminal doesn't mean you should go hungry, kid.

8:02No, I'm not blind to the entire situation, and I know this is extremely difficult for all of us who are paying attention and actually care about these things. I just feel it's absolutely necessary to bring awareness to the fact that celebrating this is not okay with the rest of us. I didn't know Charlie Kirk personally, but I've got a dozen or so people that have worked with him over the years who are close with Charlie. Josh Hammer here at Newsweek is one of them. He's absolutely devastated right now. Josh and Charlie were texting each other just the day before. Lee Habib, my longtime mentor.

8:29He's the VP of content at Salem Media Group, the same company that syndicated Charlie Kirk's show. This is a small world of free thinkers and loud talkers, and it's a world that I very much consider myself to be a part of. This line of work has put food on my kid's table and a roof over our heads for going on 25 years now, which is probably why this has people like me quite shaken up. Because love him or hate him, Charlie Kirk gave his life for the cause of free speech. And for that alone, September 10th, 2025 will always be a terrible, terrible day in America. That's not to mention his beautiful family that will be destroyed by this for the rest of their lives.

9:05Another point that you morons out there are celebrating, and it's wrong. And it's not too late to stop acting like an absolute jackass either. You know it's wrong, so stop doing it. If you don't have that little voice inside you telling that it's not appropriate, then again, please stop listening to this show. Because I don't want to have anything to do with people like that. And you might want to see a doctor for a mental health checkup and remove any dangerous weapons from your home. Because it seems to a lot of us out here in the real world that you are clearly a danger to yourself and the rest of us for behaving this way.

9:35I am not being hyperbolic. I'm not saying this for shock value. I'm telling you that you're behaving like a lunatic and that you shouldn't be surprised when the rest of the sane world treats you accordingly. If I'm getting through to just one person out there today who will go back and delete whatever stupid ass comments they made about Charlie Kirk, then talking about this for the entirety of today's Newsweek radio was worth it. So please, if you are that person, it's not too late to do the right thing. Delete your heartless comments and mind your own business. If you don't have anything nice to say at a time like this, it's the absolute least you could do.

10:08To the rest of you whose hearts have hardened beyond the point of no return, who refuse to act like civilized human beings when so many people are hurting, be gone with you. I don't wish you well, but I hope you find what you're looking for, because you're not going to find it here. And that's all I've got to say about that for today.