Tonight, we continue our coverage of the death and life and legacy of Charlie Kirk. Will go inside the manhunt to see whether or not his killers will be found and held accountable.
Rahem Cassam of the National.
Pulses here, and we'll stop in with Daniel Baldwin at the White House where they're getting constant information about how to hold the killer or killers accountable. We've also got a report from the activist community. Stefano Forte is the president of the New York Young Republican Club, and he will share how folks are trying to live the legacy of Charlie Kirk in their politics and their free speech and in their activism.
It's all on the Matt Gates Show.
Let's do this.
Shaking up Washington, d C. We're breaking the fever.
Do you haven't watch this guy on television.
It's like a machine.
He's great.
Matt Gates, as we join you tonight, we are on assignment in Washington, d C. And this is a place where Maga is indeed in mourning. As I have chatted with my friends throughout the administration, so many had the opportunity to serve President Trump on the campaign trail or
in government in some part because of Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk ran a massive organization, Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, and that became the theaer system for people who would ultimately lead precinct walks, organized for caucuses, recruit volunteers, host fundraisers, share information online, and build out the incredible magasphere of information domain warfare that allowed President Trump to prevail in the electoral contest against Kamala Harris. Charlie Kirk
was one of President Trump's closest friends and advisors. I recall frequently during the tough times of the Trump campaign during COVID, when we were concerned about whether or not gatherings would allow us to share our message, it was Charlie Kirk in the state of Arizona who held a triumphant return rally for President Trump. It was also the Turning Point organization that gave President Trump opportunities to be able to connect with young people about their prospects for
a brighter future. It was a future dimmed by the Biden administration as regulations, taxes, sanctuary policies reduced what we believed we could be in the economy, of the future. Now that future has been shaped by Charlie Kirk, even in his passing. It's been shaped by the activists he trained, by the people in government he mentored, and by a president whose side he stood by. To say how important
Charlie Kirk was to President Trump. He was one of the people the President regularly consulted about who would be his running mate, and Charlie Kirk was indeed on the side of JD. Vance who was ultimately selected. It was the Vice President on Air Force two who went and picked up Charlie Kirk's body in Utah and returned it to Arizona, where we expect there to be a really remarkable celebration of life that will go on for some time.
President Trump was at the nine to eleven and he shared his words on Charlie Charlie Kirk while awarding Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Take a listen.
Before we begin, let me express the horror and grief so many Americans at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. I felt Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people. Our prayers are with his wonderful wife, Eric and his beautiful children. Fantastic people they are. We miss him greatly. Yet I have no doubt that Charlie's voice and the courage he put into the hearts of countless people,
especially young people, will live on. I'm pleased to announce that I will soon be awarding Charlie Kirk posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The date of the ceremony will be announced, and I can only guarantee you one thing that we will have a very big crowd, very very big.
I can tell justin listening to my friend the President's voice, how sad he is about this, how much it has touched him, and the First Lady, and all who are working for the country right now in the West Wing. I will tell you this about Charlie Kirk. He and I spoke frequently about life and death. In the last several weeks. I would even seek parenting advice for him. He gave good advice on diapers and the importance of spending time with your children even before they can really
react to your presence in a fulsome way. Charlie Kirk did not fear death. We talked about the risks associated with our advocacy and our politics. Sometimes we talked about those things in the context of the outdoor rallies that Charlie would hold. I would do what I could to not hold outdoor rallies, but at times they were unavoidable in the place of the context, and I would ask Charlie whether or not he believed he would be safe at these things, and in a way that I knew
he was sincere. He told me that he knew everything would go according to God's plan with his life. He knew there were risks associated with the work he was doing. He would give his signature grin and say that he know he picked such a wonderful mother for his children that they would be okay if anything terrible happened to him. And those conversations have been running in my mind constantly
since the news of his death. Another person who Charlie Kirk helped out a great deal during the confirmation process during the transition, another friend of his in the media space previously is now our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who shared some comforting words regarding the passing of Charlie Kirk.
Life example and even death of Christ follower and American patriot Charlie Kirk. Give me hope, sheer courage, no matter the arena. Charlie, we love you. We know that you have heard the Lord's words. Well done, good and faithful servant.
Full heart, clear eyes.
Like those on nine to eleven, You will never be forgotten.
We are learning everything we can about the ongoing manhunt as this grief continues to lay over so many of us in the MAGA movement. The authorities believe that there is a person of interest and they are sharing information regarding the physical appearance. Let's get that person of interest screen on our full screen if we can, and that's
something that certainly has drawn the attention of many. And we a wait to see whether or not that person of interest is indeed a target and whether or not our authorities have the opportunity to speak with that person. But we do know there were two other individuals who were detained at some point who have subsequently been released, and so it appears we may be in for the
long haul on this investigation. There were a number of lawmakers who are our chief Capitol Hill correspondent John Hines caught up with today who reacted to Charlie Kirk's passing Take a listen.
Charlie Kirk was a force, a tremendous and articulate spokesman for what is good and honorable. What an impact he was having on our young people. And for the coward that took his life. You know, I just there's no words to describe the disgust that I feel for that individual. But Kirk is just an amazing man. And what a loss loss to his family, friends, and the country.
He is a great man.
At thirty one years of age, he leaves an enormous legacy and retired generation that has been reintroduced to those principles of individual liberty, constitutionally limited government, and personal responsibility. It created the greatest nation in the history of the world. He advanced the cause of democracy more than anybody that I know, and paid a terrible price. We owe him an enormous.
Debt of gratitude.
As historians look back on this period, I think it will look to voices like Charlie Kirks as those who charted a better course for America.
It's a very sad day, I take it wasn't the passing. It was an assassination. It was just a flat out assassination of a man. He's got a wife, he's got kids. If you you know, he was very respectful whenever he spoke. Just a sad day.
There are a number of visuals that have been held there around the country as people who hadn't even met Charlie Kirk were grief stricken by the news of his assassination. We'll check on those vigils now.
Is with the memory of Charlie Kirk and his sacrifice for liberty and with the supreme faith in Christ our.
King, that we stand in.
The face of evil, ready to do battle for the Lord.
The vigils in remembrance of Charlie Kirk's life. The celebrations of his life will be ongoing. Matter of fact, in Florida's first congressional district in Milton, Florida, they'll be a gathering on Saturday. Folks can find out the information on my social media at former Rep.
Matt Gates.
I'll be there with my grieving friends who see the impact of Charlie and all he's done. And this also brings into focus broader questions about political violence and about death threats. Last evening, we had longtime political consultant and presidential historian Roger Stone on our program. He had this to say about the political climate of violence today.
Matt knows what this is like. You know, you have no idea what it's like to get death threats every single day, by email, by text, on social media. I don't talk about it because they don't want to generate copycats. But if you're outspoken, you're subjected to this.
Yeah, you have to becoming detail.
It silence us. If the idea is to silence us, that's not going to work.
No, it never silenced Charlie Kirk. You showed a tremendous amount of courage. Roger Stone makes a good point. There's often this tension that arises when there are terrible death threats. If you talk about those things, they didn't happen. More often, if you don't talk about them, you aren't able to activate sufficient outrage to be able to make this not acceptable. People have to be able to resolve their disputes in far more productive ways, and we have a lot to
learn about the motivations in this particular event. But I don't immediately leap to the conclusion that this is someone who just hated conservatives, because many were.
Gathered that day.
And what we know about the gun that we believe was acquired by the authorities is that this was a single.
Bolt action rifle.
This was one bullet.
This wasn't somebody who was.
Out there just spraying their outrage through some sort of high capacity magazine. We also see that this person obviously had an escape plan. The comparisons to Butler Pennsylvania seemed deeply misplaced to me, because Butler Pennsylvania, this was someone who obviously was ready to give their life in this twisted desire to see President Trump killed. Here, you did not have such a sacrificial endeavor. It was more pristine, it was more surgical. It was more precise and awful
and tragic and mind numbing all at once. But nonetheless, that is a clue that is important. And we certainly know that Charlie Kirk was someone who weighed in on a number of very important issues, and he was a powerful person, and some people want to extinguish that power, And so much of what is being discussed regarding our friend Charlie Kirk now relates to what he indeed has
done mobilizing and organizing people. But I wonder whether or not Charlie Kirk's death had something to do with the work that he did when folks weren't watching the work that he did to ensure that President Trump had all of the support necessary to make reasonable decisions that serve the American people. And look, presidents are often bombarded by people who want this or that. Oftentimes they're acting in their own pecuniary interest. But Charlie Kirk had a way
to have the president's back. He had a way to ensure that the president had the opportunity to be the very best version of himself. And we all always want that of our own selves and of those who assume
mantles of power. And when Charlie would talk to people in the press, or in Congress or the Senate, or in the cabinet, he had a way of aligning interests that we're going to be discussing tonight with his longtime friend, my longtime friend, the publisher of the National Pulse, Rahem Cassam, And it's our expectation that that'll give us an opportunity to really delve into the depth of this man and his impact on Washington, d C. It was an impact that has felt even in his passing, and there will
be a lot of time for us in the coming days and in the coming weeks to talk about where Turning Point goes, where the door knocking effort goes for the Republican Party. In a lot of ways, Turning Point USA did the work that the Republican Party traditional establishment infrastructure didn't do, wasn't built to do, couldn't do. And in that way it is an irreplaceable thing in the success strategy for the America First Movement to have a
vibrant Turning Point. I can share with you that I've spoken with a number of the senior executives at Turning Point, and while it is hard at times for them to even formulate words through the grief, they remain committed to the mission. Every single person knows that if Charlie Kirk were here to give comment on the passing of Charlie Kirk, he would say keep fighting, keep organizing, keep speaking out, and that we are not going to win the same
way the other side will. Our ideas have to be better, arguments have to be sharper, and we have to be able to convey these things with a sense of inviting and warmth and if our politics is always so off putting to people and lacks charm, then it is not a growth asset class.
And we have grown as a movement.
We've grown in a number of demographics, but none more so than the young people who Charlie dedicated so much of his time too, and who he wanted to bring aboard this great turning point in our country. We'll be back in moments with Daniel Baldwin, Raheem Cassam and Stefano Forte.
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We wanted to bring you right to the reaction from the White House on this day to so many things that are going on from nine to eleven to the continued morning of our friend, Charlie Kirk, and we bring in for the conversation Daniel Baldwin, our chief White House correspondent.
One American News.
Daniel, Every friend of mine, every colleague at the White House remains deeply sad today. Some are telling me that even focusing on anything other than the loss of their friend is hard to do. What are you sensing from the White House as it relates to the passing of the great Charlie.
Kirk, Matt, Everyone's walking around with the dark cloud over themselves today. That's what it feels like. It feels like a nightmare. Everyone here is gutted. Everyone here works with the administration is just torn apart by what happened. It feels like a nightmare. And that's speaking personally. That's speaking to people who work for the president. One of the officials that it feels like they lost one of their own, and how could you focus on anything else at this
point in time. This is a dark, dark, dark moment for the country. And I know Charlie was a personal friend of yours, So I want to say I'm sorry for your loss, Matt. And of course we're praying for Charlie here at One American News. I know the White House is doing the same. The Vice President vote a beautiful post on X last night, and we spoke with the President today for a good couple of minutes, and his message is basically that the Turning Point family is strong.
He has a lot of love for them. Charlie was an incredible man. He had the pulse of the youth in this country unlike anyone else. And to any of the young Americans who feel like they lost their political voice, he said, to hang in there, and now is the time to be brave and let your voice be heard. So that seems to be the message from the President here today and what again, is a very dark dark hour for this country.
I've spent a lot of time speaking at Turning Point campuses. I've got friends and contacts who built Turning Point chapters and gone on to careers in and out of politics. And yes, that is a feeling that is premating from the White House throughout the country. And Daniel, you spoke to the President about his conversations with Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. What did the President have to share with you about that?
He said he had a lengthy conversation. She's just devastated, just wrecked, absolutely devastated. And it's easy to look at Charlie and say, well, he's a major influential figure in conservative politics, politics in general, someone who had a lot of people here. A lot of reporters have come up to me and said that they believed that Charlie Kirk had a presidential run in his future. Multiple people have said that to me today, So that sort of tells
you what reporters have thought about him, Matt. But at the bottom line was he is a husband, He has a father to a two beautiful young children, and that's
what this absolute savage ripped away from his family. And the President, of course, understands grief and the need to be there for people better than most, and he had a lengthy conversation with Charlie's wife and was likely there for her and heard her, and he just reiterated that message to the Turning Point family that the White House stands with them in their hour of grief, and that Charlie was a titan of a man, and that his voice will go on for decades and generations to come
in the president and this White House will help make sure of that meant.
You make such a good point about how President Trump has always approach to grief just as a human being.
We've heard the stories in.
The past when Robert Craft's wife died, he would regularly call Robert Craft and comfort him through those very difficult moments. When the Japanese leader Sinjo Abe was executed, President Trump kept in touch with his widow, just to create a human connection and to show deep empathy. President Trump knows
Erica Kirk well. He's dined with Charlie and Erica kirktt on a number of occasions at mar Lago, at Bedminster, around the country, at Charlie's turning point events, and so they have a close relationship, and I would expect that they would continue to keep in touch.
Daniel.
The other real challenge here is that so many people in the administration tasked with conducting this man hunt bringing the person or people responsible for this to justice.
They're friends of Charlie Kirk.
The FBI director is close personal friends with Charlie Kirk. Pambondi and Charlie Kirk are very close. What are you learning from the White House about how the President and the team there is being kept abreast of this investigation that appears to be very hot and still ongoing.
It's hot and it's ongoing, met but their laser focused at the bottom, the bottom, like the end of the day. These are professionals, right, They're professionals, and they understand that they have a job to do, and they have a job to need to do right by Charlie and by his family, and that means bringing this killer to justice, in locating whoever that killer may be, in making sure that the punishment is appropriate for what happened. Right the presidents of they're making great progress.
And he also said.
That he had a pretty good idea about what the killer's intention was. He didn't really needed to imagine or make that much of an extrapolation understand what the killer's intention was, but he was going to keep that close to the vest. And obviously the entire country, regardless of your political affiliation, is waiting for this killer and the suspect, the person of interest to be apprehended and brought to justice,
which is appropriate. We heard the governor of Utah say that the death penalty still exists in the state of Utah on matt so that could be something as well, and just a tagging back off that point you made about the President being there for people. That's been a continued trend about his political career, especially.
Since he left office.
His comeback was kickstarted by being there in East Palestine during that train derailment. He and the Vice president. That was the first moment that they really were together in action. And when he first got back into office, Matt his first trip was to North Carolina to see the victims of Hurricane Helen, to California the victims of the wildfire.
He was down at Camp Mystic in text. So the President understands that when people are grieving sometimes the best thing you can do is just be there for them and let them known that you are there and you hear them and you're there for them. And it's quite a powerful personality trait that not many people have, but the President has proven time and time again that he does possess it and he understands people the way that
you were talking about. And I just think that's a really important point that can't be lost here, and that he is going to make sure that he is there for Charlie's family and the Turning Point family, and that's I just think he can't emphasize that point enough.
You've really outlined well the layers of grief here that exist. Again, you mentioned on our air your wife works a Turning Point, and so you have visibility here not only as our excellent journalist at the White House, but also as a husband and someone who sees the way. The Turning Board organization has inspired so many and platformed so many talents throughout the years. And there's the grief at the White House, there's the grief at the Turning Point team. There's grief
all around the chapters. And I have been contacted by people who never met Charlie Kirk, who didn't know Charlie Kirk, but who feel such a sense of sadness and loss, and they, you know, they have been so kind to me just to express their understanding that this was a
very special man doing incredible things. I would concur with all of those reporters, Daniel, that Charlie Kirk who would have been a future presidential aspirant and likely a future president of the United States, and we would have been the better for it. It's very hard to find comfort in these times, but we hope that it's part of God's plan in a positive way, and we hope that there are better days ahead for the folks at the White House who have incredible work to do, but certainly
the dark cloud you mentioned is still over them. Daniel Baldwin, any final words on your observations at the White House.
The last thing I would say, Matt is you know this, and I think you would affirm what I'm about to say. I've covered Turning Point events again, my wife works returning point. I have never met a Turning Point employee that didn't love Charlie Kirk, that didn't love him, didn't believe in him, didn't love waking up and going to work for him.
And I just think that speaks volumes about the person he was, the type of faith and excitement that he inspired, the positivity and he did things the right way, and I think that just says a lot about him as a man.
Indeed, Daniel Baldwin, our chief White House correspondent, I hope when we speak next it'll be on better terms and happier days. Appreciate you joining the programmers, thanks and coming up. I'll be joined by Receive Raheem Cassam of the National Pulse. Raheem Cassam also a very close personal friend of Charlie Kirk and someone who understands the contours of our movement and where we go next, don't go anywhere.
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Welcome back.
I'm joined now by the editor in chief, founder and Minister of Propaganda at the National Polse my good friend Rahem Cassam.
Raheem, thanks for being here.
I wish it were under different circumstances.
When you lose someone.
Who matters to you, you tend to go through the different frames in your memory of your experiences with them. And I had to scratch my head for a moment and remember where I first met Charlie Kirk and it was actually with you at the Union Pub. I think that you and I were grabbing a Guinness and Charlie wasn't. But we were younger men. In twenty seventeen, we had all of this optimism about unified Republican control of Washington after.
All of those Obama years.
There was this energy turning point was one of a installation of organizations here in Washington, but had not achieved the primacy that we've seen it achieve in the last few election cycles. And so maybe just before we get into everything that happened, reflect on how you came to know Charlie Kirk and what you've observed of the of the incredible legacy he's led.
He's left on us, Matt there and thank you for having me. You know, there aren't a lot of people in life that you come across that you feel like can inspire you kind of with a wave of their hand, right, you know, doing Charlie's show all the time, as I would seeing him at all the events, you know, he always got down to brass tacks, but he was always
incredibly kind about it and incredibly motivating about it. And you know a lot of people that come through Washington, d C. Are grifters and hustlers, and they're just sort of trying to pitch them and make a name for themselves and you know, get themselves a seat somewhere or something. And when I first met Charlie, I sort of thought, right, who's this guy?
Right?
What does he want? What is he trying to do? What's his angle? And it became abundantly clear to me very quickly that this is somebody who and you know, you know me for long enough, you know, I regard myself as a true believer. I sort of throw myself in front of as many buses as humanly possible to try and get to try and move the cause forward, right, And became abundantly clear to me that this guy was that, but to a scale that I had never seen before.
You know, was he was true to his faith. He was true to his beliefs and family, was true to you know, this belief system that actually America's best days are not behind it, America's best days are in front of it. And he set his face like flint, achieving
that day after day. I've never seen somebody, you know, perhaps barring the President, with more energy, with more stituitiveness, with more ability to go out there every single day and fight for the causes he believed in, and did it with a plumb right, did it with style, did it with verve, did it with kindness, did it welcoming. Even when I got into the most raheme type of nonsensical fights with people as I wont to do, Charlie would always somehow manage to take my side, you know,
like we have a place for you here. And that's how he was with everyone. Everybody he encountered. He would welcome them into his milieu and he would tell them, look, we have a place for you here. We can find work for you here. I agree with you on this. We may disagree on that, but hey, we will work
together to get the right things done. Reflecting on this terrorist atrocity, domestic terrorist atrocity of assassination in the last twenty four hours, you know, I sort of you know, I'm British, so we have a bit of a stiff upper lip about such things and sort of geffoor to myself, like, actually, the grand irony of Charlie being the target here is he was the person that actually wanted everyone's voices heard.
He was the one who went out there and actually encouraged people to speak their minds, whether or not they agreed with him. The fact that they would target him for something like this sort of tells you about a lack of accommodation that is now there in American politics.
That might be right, Raheem, but I don't know that it is. I don't know that this was domestic terrorism.
I really don't.
It might have been, and I don't know if Charlie was targeted because he was platforming free speech. I mean, here's what I keep coming back to, almost obsessively. One bullet on a bolt action rifle. Like if this was some person who had a gripe with free speech as a concept, they would have sprayed bullets like the Mandalay Bay shooter. If this was somebody who hated conservatives, they would have had a munition system there. They would have taken out more than one of them. Like to me,
this reads as the targeted assassination of Charlie Kirk. And I am not a position to make a judgment as to whether or not that was a foreign actor, a domestic actor, a person targeting because of his beliefs or his operational capability.
And that's what you just laid out for our audience. If you watch like.
Fox News right now, I think you're getting a lot of people saying Charlie was this great organizer of young people. And he was, and that was important. But what you just described is so rare in this town. Someone who can seek out the true believers, because we know each other by our work, by our fruit. He sought out true believers, and then he put them in places where together we were advancing the movement.
People like Donald.
Trump, jd Vance, Cash, Patel, Pam BONDI wonderful people who are working in this administration. And I think that what is being undersold about Charlie's legacy is what you just put an excellent fine point on. He wasn't just our movements a great grassroots organizer.
He was someone who, at.
A very high level knew how to align interests and make progress.
Yeah. I completely take your point. I suppose when I say domestic, I just mean it happened here right like it's we don't we don't know what the what the original impetus was behind this, And it's perfectly perfectly reasonable to suggest that there may be external line actors involved here. I mean, like you say, the way it was carried out is not necessarily what we've seen before from from domestic actors. Right.
I'm sorry, It's just such a key point that I have to I have to draw a fine point on it.
Those who are like, oh, this is just like button Butler. That is not my tick, Butler.
They caught the person, and Butler that person was spraying bullets around. You know here, this looks a lot more precise, doesn't it.
Yeah, I think it does. There are counterpoints to it. Without getting too grizzly about it, is that you know, I suppose you know, trained marksmen don't aim for the neck, you know, you don't. You don't know if you're getting a kill shot that way. But it's mo yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. And I suppose all of these things are fair game to be argued out. What I will say is this, I think we can both agree on the fact at least that somebody out there feared
him being president one day. So absolutely somebody out there feared that he would be a full fledged America first president one day. And then actually, whether you are a domestic nut job or you're a foreign actor, who is entirely reliant on having the United States in your pocket on certain things. You're a problem, and so I completely take your point. You know, we shall see.
Yeah, And the people who are doing that work are dealing with this compounding pressure of caring deeply about Charlie but then having to find the killer and hold them accountable.
You know Cash Betel very well.
We know that Cash is very close to Charlie. I have sent him every warm message I can, just knowing how excruciating this must be for him. What advice would you give the people in this administration task with very real things right now, who are feeling the weight of this loss.
Do as Charlie would have wanted you to do. You know what, Charlie was really amazing at and it was especially pertinent to me when I was sort of sitting in the brakes on his show, waiting to go on with him, and he'd sort of hit me with a line and say, so what do you think about this?
And I go this end he goes, yeah, great, okay, so let's do it, but let's make sure there's action on the back end of it, right, Like, we're not just here to talk, We're here to actually achieve things, and there will be a lot of people out there wringing their hands. Right now, who what do we do?
How do we bring the country together? Where's unity? I actually think you need to move with a certain level of prejudice here and say, you know, whatever has happened here, However we come to the conclusion of what's happened here, we are going to draw a very firm line under this. This cannot happen on American soil. It cannot happen to people like Charlie Kirk, It cannot happen ever. Again, you and I know we go through this all the time,
worry about our personal securities. Right, we're out there all the time. We're at speeches, we're at public events, we're in the middle of the street. You know, I remember when you were in Manhattan in the midst of the Britney Spears thing. Right, You're just in an open environment, in open forum, and anything can happen, and we have to park those things to aside. Consequences be damned. We're out there to do a job, right, And that's what
he did time and time again. He was convinced that if you actually get the young people in America to believe in a certain thing and see the right way that America had a bright future ahead of it, and somebody out there wanted that to stop.
And it is a throwback in a way to the old whistle stop approach to politics, where the train would stop in each town and the folks would come around and there'd be debate, discourse, and then onto the next town. And in Washington there's a whole industry built to get you away from that. Right do telephone town halls ensure your separation from the people. One, because that's how the lobbyists and special interests get control over you.
But two, like you know, the staff.
Of members of Congress are worried oftentimes, or the staff of prominent people like Charlie Kirk that they may be harmed.
You and I have been to dozens of rallies together.
We've organized them, we've attended them, we've been speaking at them, and there is always this tension raheem where you want to have that closeness to the audience. You want to be able them to see, you know, when your blood vessels bulge and when your eyes get all tensed up.
But at the same time there are.
These security concerns, and when I talked to Charlie about them, he was aware of them, but it was more the consequences. Be damned, I have to go do this. This is the only way to do this. I can't be riding around in a popemobile. Do you think that this event is going to change the way people are thinking about the retail whistle stop way of politics?
It already has. I mean, I've heard over the last twenty four hours so many people saying, all right, well, we're not going to do this anymore. We're not going to go there anymore. We're not going to And more important than the audience seeing us, right, is that we see them, because that's how we stop ourselves being captured
by vested interest in the city. You know, I can walk outside and throw a stone and hit about fifty lobbyists if I was right, But actually meeting ordinary people and hearing their concerns, I mean, that's what I'm here for. That's why I'm a populist. That's why I believe that, you know, in a people first approach to politics, and if that gets stopped, then actually you do have just a completely trapped politics. That's what's going on in my country.
You know, the reason that Sir Kir Starmer is out of touch with the British public isn't just because Keir Starmer is an awful human being or a globalist or whatever it is. It's because he doesn't have the ability. They've been told that they're not allowed to go out and meet with real people and hear their concerns and all of that. That's the getter wization of the people at the upper echelons of politics, and this is designed designed, this attack to cut that off.
You make an interesting point for people who will just see this news about Charlie and figure he was a right wing figure, a conservative figure. Identifying him as a populist is more accurate because that is where Charlie charts.
On the magosphere.
He is not part of the corporatized you know, invade everywhere, invite everyone side. He was for tough immigration restrictions. He was for a limited US deployment of troops and materiel all.
Around the world.
Where do you chart the movement now broadly in that Are we looking each day more and more like the Charlie Kirk version of the Republican Party or is it the kind of John Thune Paul Ryan, Mike Johnson version that seems to have the reigns of power.
More well besides, you know, besides his grossroots organizing, which, by the way, you know, you can never sing enough praises about. I remember going to see pas back in the day, and he's eclipsed to them by some measure, right, and and and and you know, Seapac was sort of once a year in d C. And what Charlie was doing was not just all across nation, but actually all around the world. Right.
Seapack is like Republican Woodstock Turning Point was like Republican Coachella.
It's probably the way we.
Were all around the world. And the reason that so many people are pouring out and support in London, in Brussels, in Brazil, and El Salvador in Korea, all across because Charlie permeated the whole world, right, not just the andosphere, not just the Western world, the entire world in doing what he wants to do and and and spreading those beliefs and those messages, and I, you know, we My problem is I love a lot of things that this administration is doing, okay, but there are a lot of
things where I can see, especially on anti trust stuff and things at DJ and whatever that actually they are ending up rolling over to big corporate America or doing deals.
Well, there are people who are working against President and Trump stated goals and objectives which we dealt with the first time. And it's way less acute now but still present.
But it's still there. And that is another one of the reasons that somebody or whatever wanted Charlie off the map here because he would always drag us back to first principles. He would always make sure and not in a harsh way either. He did it with kindness and he did it and he looked in your eye and he said, listen, I know where you're coming from, but this is where we are and this is why we're there. And immediately that dissipated everything. Now we don't have that.
But you know, I took a walk around the National Mall this morning and I looked around at the flags at half miles and I thought to myself, man, there needs to be monuments to Charlie Kirk all around the country, but actually we all need to be monuments to Charlie Kirk.
No, it's a great point.
And as I was mourning just with my wife, you know, she said, Matt, He's created, you know, tens of thousands more Charlie Kirks through his work. And it's not often a thirty one year old gets to see their life's work done. I mean, when you were organizing Brexit, you had to tap into the angst of young people. But when I was growing up as a conservative in this country, if you were young and conservative, you just kept your mouth.
Shut about it.
And you're the Republican Party just wanted young people to not vote. And Charlie, though he died and was taken from us at too young of an age, his life's work was done.
He turned it.
The young people went from predominantly liberal to now this under thirty Cohort is one of the major contributing factors to President Trump's coalition. Is that durable beyond Charlie's life.
I think Charlie's work in shores that is durable. I do think he created tens of thousands of Charlie Cook's and I do think, you know, firstly, without him, I would never be able to sit here and say anything like that about anybody else. I mean, I think you and I can both admit that we didn't have that.
No, that's not us.
Yeah, right, and so now okay, look, we're also in the morning, it's fresh and whatever. But it is our job to look down the pike here and go okay, now the next leaders have to step up, right, It's next man up and that will happen.
And that's what Charlie would encourage. Final question for you, what are you going to be following at the National Pulse out of this story, whether it's the investigation, the direction of the movement, how Turning Point is nurtured to its future in the absence of its founder and leader. What can folks find at the National polse dot com.
But my immediate concern is obviously for his family and his colleagues, right, and if people are looking for something they can do out there. I have no stake in Turning Point. I'm not involved in that group. But I think what people can do out there, at the bare minimum is fund that group, support that group, help them through this trauma that they're going through, and get engaged and involved with that. When they do their annual Freedom
America Fest in Descent in Arizona. Everybody should feel like they have to attend and flood the zone and be there and get involved and be a part of that.
So you know, if there can be some thing that comes out of all of this, it is taking that, you know, there's already a thirteen thousand strong, massive event, and putting that on speed boosters, right, putting that really in the limelight, and saying, not only is this going to be a commemoration of his life, but it will be us all going there and making sure that none of this it's certainly his death was in vain.
Well, thank you so much for coming by. Thank you for your friendship. I know how much Charlie valued your role in the movement. At times when he was doing that operating work, you know, he'd say, get this information to Raheem, He'll know what to.
Do with it.
So you know it was he saw this tremendous skill in what you do to get the truth out to people. And we'll continue to do that here one American News. I know you will at the National Pulse. Raheem, the founder, editor in chief the National Pulse, thanks for being with us, Thank you man, and coming up, we'll be joined by Stefano Forte of the New York Republican Club. He'll give us perspective as to how activists around the country are reflecting on this news and what their plans are ahead.
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We're back tonight with a perspective across the activist ecosystem in the Republican Party and on the right. And we're joined now by Stefano Forte, who is the president of the New York On Republican Club A Stefano. So many of the young people who have come into politics in you know, the last half decade have done so with some inspiration or encouragement or interaction with the Turning Point organization.
How are folks at the New York and Republican Club reacting to this news about Charlie Kirk.
First off, Matt, thank you for having me on. Our club is absolutely reeling. Charlie Kirk was an inspiration for so many within my organization. Many of us learned to love Charlie Kirk through these devices, to love the conservative movement through Charlie Kirk's message, and many of us are
just absolutely shattered, and we're saying what comes next? And I think the answer to that comes when they tried to gun down our President, Donald J. Trump, when he came back up with a fist in the air and he said, fight, fight, fight, And that is what we intend to do. We are all Charlie Kirk. Now, each and every one of us needs to go out there and needs to spread that message that Charlie had. It's
a sad day in America. Flags are being flown at half mast everywhere, and members of the New York and Republican Club are absolutely reeling.
I thought about your club when I got this news, because more than any other activist organization in the Young Republican ecosystem, you guys get out there in the streets, You hold rallies, press conferences. You stand outside of Gracie Mansion. You are not an indoor version of Republican activists. You
are the outdoor version of Republican activists. And just maybe give my viewers a sense of what you encounter out there and how noxious and caustic people can be when others are just exercising their free speech.
Yeah, our club is not a indoor country club. Our club is one that gets to the streets, knocks on doors, changes voters' minds. This is truly a club that was inspired by Charlie Kirk turning point in their message. When we go out onto the streets, ninety nine percent of our interactions are great. People want an alternative here in New York. They're begging for an alternative here in New York.
We've won seats here in New York. But then every once in a while you get the radical left lunatics, and at the end of the day, many of these people are criminal in nature and violent, as we saw in the case of Charlie Kirk. It's absolutely disgusting and we intend on hitting the streets tomorrow. We are going to be having a vigil for Charlie at Madison Square Park at seven o'clock. It's all over the club social media.
We just posted about it, and we want to go out there and we want to spread this message that we are all Charlie Kirk.
Now.
We are not backing down, We are not afraid. We are here to fight.
There is a fighting spirit that emerges from conservatives that are in captive blue cities, and I saw that in Charlie. Charlie was a guy who grew up outside of Chicago. He always hoped that he could save Chicago, save Illinois. That state, you know, really went the wrong direction pretty fast.
And so Charlie.
Went in, like many, found a fruitful opportunity in the Sun Belt to grow his organization and to expand his politics. But I do think there's a resilience that comes from being a conservative in a place like Chicago or New York or Los Angeles that maybe isn't present if you're out in the Bible Belt or in the Sun Belt. Tell my audience a little bit about what that takes of a person to be a Republican or a conservative in a major metro area.
Look, we're New Yorkers.
We're not backing down. This is our home. It takes a lot to be a conservative here in New York. But you know what, we're pushing this state more and more to the right. If you look at the gains that President Trump had in this state, they were overwhelming swings to the right. We helped host a rally for him in the Bronx, where I believe it was about thirty percent swing towards the right. We were all there
at Madison Square Garden. We called it the Battle of Madison Square Garden because we were holding the crowds back, bringing them in and it was an amazing time. And look, we do not want to leave New York. We want to save New York City. We have a mayor on the wake of nine to eleven. This city is about to elect a radical socialist Islamist in this city. It is incredibly dangerous what is happening here. And I got to tell you, Charlie was a very, very big inspiration
for this club. I went to America Fest and one of the first speakers I ever saw at America Fest was Congressman Matt Gates and it inspired me. There were speakers there and I said, I want to go back and I want to get involved. And we had the New York Young Republican Club to go back to and build and grow. We're up to two two thousand members of this club. We're going strong. We keep electing more and more candidates, and Charlie is a really big reason
for that. And he helped us show that grit and that fighting attitude when he would go on these college campuses. That's enemy territory. We are behind enemy lines. We are the Navy Seals, we're the Marines of this Republican movement, and we are ready to knock on doors and keep winning, even in a blue city like New York.
Well, it heartens me in our discussion that the folks who are often at the tip of the spear in the New York and Republican Club continue to wear the armor of God and where that is a badge of honor. Stefano Forte, please give my condolences to all of your tremendous activists and know that help's going to be on the way. We're going to get through this and the best days are still ahead.
We appreciate you being with us.
Thank you, Matt, I appreciate it.
And we'll be right back with some closing thoughts in just a moment and stay right here on One American News.
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Ever, if everything completely goes away, how do you want to be remembered? If I die, everything just goes away? How would you if you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered.
Be I want to be remembered for courage from my faith.
That would be the most important thing.
Most important thing is my faith in my life.
It's not often people get asked the question how they'd like to be remembered so close in proximity to the time in which they must be remembered. But indeed, we remember Charlie Kirk. We will continue to remember him, and our coverage of the murder, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and the ongoing manhunt to hold the killer or killers accountable will continue here on One American News. That's all the time we have for this program tonight. We'll be
back tomorrow, nine Eastern, six Pacific. Make sure to sign up for the OA and Live app if you haven't already, and follow me on social media at Matt Gates.
You can email us to Matt Gates Show at O A n N dot com. Stay right here. Fine Point with Chanelle Rihanna is up next.
Let's go get them