Charlie Kirk's Suspected Killer In Custody: What Happens Next?

We're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast. It's Tom, Erika, and Josh. The LOOPcast brought to you by The Loop, America's favorite Catholic morning newsletter. I was kind of dreading doing this show. It's been a really hard past couple days, I think, for everyone at CatholicVote.

I think especially for us here on the LOOPcast. So, it was right after the show, we learned of Charlie Kirk being assassinated. And as of this morning, there's a suspect in custody, and so the plan for this show, and again, apologies.

It's just, yeah, I've been a little bit emotional, so I'm going to try my best with a lot of this stuff. We want to cover all angles, so what we know about the suspect currently in custody, about the manhunt itself. We'd like to provide somewhat of a tribute to Charlie Kirk and his work, some of his highlights, bring it up, and I think end on hopefully a positive note, you know, where do we go, how do we pick up the microphone here, and what this event really means for everyone that expresses their views publicly.

It is trying to change the culture, and I think in a very similar mission here, CatholicVote. So, first off, I'd ask, pray for the repose of the soul of Charlie, and for his family, especially his two young kids, his wife, everyone involved there. So, Spencer Cox, governor of Utah, held a great press conference this morning. I thought, I'm not going to be able to explain any better than what's going on.

Um, the suspect, Tyler Robinson, is now in custody. I am just going to share right from Spencer Cox. I think he did the best job. On the evening of September... Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We got him. On the evening of September 11th... A family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.

This information was relayed to the Utah County Sheriff's Office and scene investigators at Utah Valley University. This information was also conveyed to the FBI. Investigators reviewed additional... Video footage from UVU surveillance and identified Robinson arriving on UVU campus in a gray Dodge Challenger at approximately 8.29 a.m. on September 10th, in which he is observed on video in a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black hat with a white logo, and light-colored shoes.

When encountered in person by investigators in Washington County on September 12th, in the early morning hours, Robinson was observed in consistent clothing with those surveillance images. Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years. The family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to September 10th, and in the conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked about why they didn't like him and the viewpoints that he had.

The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate. The family member also confirmed Robinson had a gray Dodge Challenger. Investigators identified an individual as the roommate of Robinson. Investigators interviewed that roommate, who stated that his roommate, referring to Robinson, made a joke on Discord. Investigators asked if he would show them the messages on Discord. He opened it and showed several messages to investigators and allowed investigators to take photos of the screen as each message was shown by Robinson's roommate. These photos consisted of various messages, including content of messages between the phone contact name Tyler with an emoji icon and Robinson's roommate's device.

The content of these messages... Included messages affiliated with the contact Tyler, stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel. The messages also refer to engraving bullets.

And a mention of a scope and the rifle being unique. Messages from the contact, Tyler, also mentioned that he had changed outfits. I know there has been speculation as well as to the writing on those casings, those bullet casings.

And I believe we have that as well. And I will share that with you now. So, the area north of Campus Drive Road, where the suspect crossed over, you saw some of that in the video that we released last night, consists of a grassy area with trees on the edge of the UVU campus.

Investigators discovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a dark-colored towel. The rifle was determined to be a Mauser Model 98 .30-06 caliber bolt-action rifle. The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it. Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found with the rifle.

Inscriptions on a fired casing read, Notices Bulges, capital O-W-O, what's this question mark? Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read, Hey Fascist, exclamation point, Catch, exclamation point. Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols. A second, unfired casing read, Oh Bella Chow, Bella Chow, Bella Chow, Chow Chow. And a third, unfired casing read, If you read this, you are gay, LMAO. We are... Indebted to law enforcement across the state who has worked seamlessly together, local law enforcement, state law enforcement, and our federal partners with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we're grateful for everyone who worked together in such a short amount of time to find this person and to bring justice.

I want to thank the public who has been so engaged. Reviewing videos, helping us with sending in tips, and helping us get to this point. I want to thank the family members of Tyler Robinson, who did the right thing in this case, and were able to bring him into law enforcement as well.

I mean, look, when it comes to family members, there's the natural inclination to circle the wagons and defend your own. But dad did the right thing. No child of mine, I would, you know, I'm sorry. Like, you do something like this, you face justice.

Yeah. Josh, you're alluding to his father, who was a former member of law enforcement in Washington area, I believe, turned in his son when his son confessed it to him. That's what we understand now. He kept him at the house. He wouldn't let him leave. Yeah. A little extra context to the messages engraved on the casings. Very bizarre, but a lot linked to online sexual fetish communities, such as, I think, the furry community I saw. Bella Chow is like a TikTok song.

...associated with, say, the Resistance, Antifa. It's kind of a theme song. The Italian Resistance, I believe it goes back to that song. And then? The final one was a reference to a video game, Helldivers 2, where you call down bombs as a part of it. So, I saw pictures from the inside of his dorm room, looked like he had a nice laptop.

Discord also suggested to me he is a part of a lot of online gaming communities. Dark web. You know, 4chan, Reddit, that kind of thing. These are the type of messages you would see on platforms like that. So, yeah, maybe that's a little bit of context because the messages were so bizarre, but now, officially coming from Spencer Cox, we know what was engraved on those. I know it was tossed around at different points in time. He's the Utah governor. Just a reminder for folks, yeah.

Yes. Yeah, and just a great statement, too. He had a great speech after everyone did their thing. Yeah, there's the mugshot. I am so grateful. I was so grateful. We were on our meeting when the news dropped to plan the show.

I was so grateful that he was taken alive, that there will be a trial, there will be a sentencing, and one, obviously for his soul, he'll have time to repent, but two, I think for the American people to go through the process of justice here in our country for this heinous assassination, that was my first reaction, was thank God he's alive.

Yeah, and I'm also not just the family member, but I saw there's over 7,000 public tips received by the FBI. That's the highest volume since the Boston Marathon bombing. So, I was encouraged, too. It seemed like a lot of people in the local community got involved, helped out the police there. I think this also kind of further confirms there was questions about the gun itself. Was this a professional hit? You know, there's all these things swirling around. A lot suggests to me that You know, an amateur rifleman could make this kind of shot, seeing he's got caught in this way.

So, you know, this is the suspect. Well, by the way, real quick on that, too, like, you know, like, so the gun control activists, you know, come up with this, but it's like, this is not like a mass shooting with a gun that can spray a bunch of people. It's a bolt-action rifle. I mean, you're, what, you're going to get rid of every, you know, basic bolt-action rifle? I mean, like. Like, it's ludicrous. You know, like, you'd have to get rid of every gun in the United States.

Like, that's just not happening. Like, so, some people can be really stupid when it comes to... Gun control stuff on this. Yeah, and also, I can't remember if I said this up top, he was a student at Utah State University on scholarship.

His dad, 27-year veteran of the Washington County Sheriff's Department. At a different school, you're saying, Utah State, because this was at Utah Valley, the shooting. Yes, he was a student at Utah State University, thank you, and his mother, Amber Robinson, works for International Support Coordination Services, a company contracted by the state of Utah to help disabled people receive care.

Family social media shows Robinson, who has... Two younger brothers enjoying vacations, sharing smiling selfies, including some celebrating the alleged killer getting into college. So, it seemed like he came from a pretty stable home. So, now we're going to be getting all these kind of... That's why I think, Erika, you're saying what's important here. I think it's actually...

Borderline essential for the country to see a public trial here, in which that we receive justice, because it's important for the common good. I think we've already really set a very slippery, dangerous slope by the celebration of Luigi Mangione and how drawn out that trial has been. We saw how many people celebrated that. Frankly, I tried my best to not, to avoid seeing people celebrate this. It is, unfortunately, impossible, which I think is a lesson in itself. Totally impossible to find.

I have seen teachers celebrate it. I have seen nurses celebrate it. These are not just anonymous accounts. These are not anonymous accounts online. Okay, so that is what kind of gets me, too, because my wife is a nurse, and when she worked at the hospital, nurses are all just, it is kind of crazy. They are very, not all of them, but dominantly, very left-wing. Even I live in a conservative area. Two-thirds of the people in my area are Republican, and all nurses speak to each other like, yeah, you know, as if they're all, like, left-wing.

So, you're talking about nurses, you're talking about people who work in city councils, you're talking about people who are teachers. These are people who are in the help others. role of life. It is not like you are going, we are not talking about like people, you go to the bank, you do not really have a relationship with that guy necessarily, like what is my life insurance policy, what is this or that, whatever. I am buying groceries from the cashier, but the people in the service part of this, like nurses, they want to help people who are hurting.

Teachers, they want to raise the next generation, and these are the ones that are popping off with words that Absolutely. Terrify you. This is what has been so terrifying, I think, down the last 48 hours, right, is that people, Charlie Kirk actually wrote this a couple months ago on his Twitter. He was like, you can tell a lot about a person, about the way they react when someone else dies, right? And I think what has been so frightening, like you, Tom, I tried to stay totally in the tribute.

Lane, with this, because it was, it did feel personal. It did feel like an attack on what we try to do here. Like, I felt like the First Amendment was assassinated. Feels like I got shot. Right, exactly. And, or my husband, right. I felt like Erika Kirk, and not that I'm suffering, like, I'm not comparing myself to what she's going through at all. No, we get it, we get it.

But it was impossible to go on even these so-called mainstream media sites that went absolutely ape. Can I say, can I swear? Is it okay to swear today? Like, they went, totally. Jack Lono! And the reason it felt so personal is because, like, Charlie Kirk, they're calling him a far-right extremist, but for what? Like, the guy literally... He's not Alec Jones. No, he's not Alec Jones. He's not Nick Fuentes. He's not far-right by any stretch. He doesn't think you should be able to, like, permanently mutilate children.

He thinks that women should be persuaded out of abortion. He thinks that we should support single mothers. He thinks that we should sit down and talk to people we disagree with, even people who spit on him and are vile to him. You go watch his videos where he's sitting on college campuses. People were horrible to him. One woman comes up and throws a water bottle at him. His security is all over her. He's like, I'm not pressing charges. I just want to talk to you.

I just want to talk. That's who this guy was, and for the mainstream media to get out there and start saying things like, He kind of brought it on himself, like, hateful words lead to hateful actions. That's saying that my mom, like, deserves to be murdered. That's saying, like, we'd be okay if you murdered Josh Mercer, or Kelsey Reinhart, or, like, Riley Gaines. Like, we're okay with that because we don't agree with them politically. Well, you know, let's talk about then for a second what you said, like, those in the media.

Now, I'm a big Minnesota Vikings fan. I cheered for Nate Burleson when he was on it. Now, he's got to put on the glasses, and he's got to act like he's smart, and he's on the morning show, CBS, and he had Kevin McCarthy on there, former Republican leader in the House, and Nate Burleson's thought on this one was, this is a moment for Kevin McCarthy's party, the Republican party, to reflect.

Come again? I thought to myself, no, wait a minute now. Why is it that every single incident is an opportunity for conservatives to reflect? Huh? Democrats never have to reflect? Every single incident is an opportunity for us to completely jettison everything we believe in. Isn't that just an amazing coincidence? Like, maybe this is a time for, I don't know, The progressive left, maybe it's a time for them to reflect on what the hell they're doing, because we can see exactly what's going on.

Over the last seven or eight years, especially, we have seen the left identify Conservative views, conservative speech, as if it is violence. They say this all the time. When conservatives say stuff, it's violence. If you believe that a man cannot suddenly become a woman, and a man cannot suddenly give birth to a baby, then your speech is violence. You're attacking. You're spreading hate.

So, conservative speech is violence, but then what happens when their St. George Floyd dies? They torch cities left and right, and we're like, what are you doing? You're causing harm. People died in some of these riots, right? I mean, it was danger, bullets and fire.

But they're like, well, it's speech, you know, the speech of the wounded and all this stuff. So, when liberals do violence, it's speech. When conservatives do speech, it's violence. So, that's how you justify this guy spreading hate. So, therefore, it's justified. Let's just stop it here. When George Floyd tragically lost his life.

What happened? We had riots in the streets for two years, mostly celebrated by the left and encouraged. When Luigi Mangione shot a CEO, what happened? Well, the guy had to come into a muse evil. Charlie Kirk gets murdered in cold blood for modeling the First Amendment and an American ideal. What did we get? Prayer vigils?

Prayer vigils. Right. If conservatives acted the way liberals did, Tom. That's what I'm saying. Can we just stop pretending? Let's all just stop pretending like this is some type of equivalency. Ezra Klein getting on and saying, we need to tone down the rhetoric because there's too much political violence on both sides, as if this is somehow a both-sides-ism. It's not a both-sides thing because the tally is like, ridiculously, it's like 98 to 2. It's not. They tried to kidnap Kavanaugh. If it weren't for Donald Trump turning his head at the last second, he would be dead.

And Charlie Kirk is now dead. So, there's no equivalency. You know, some people are congratulating Bernie Sanders because he put out this video condemning all violence, and he mentioned the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. No, you don't get to do that. He mentioned the attack on Steve Scalise. Guy, that was a Bernie bro. That was a guy who was motivated by you. He was employed by Bernie's campaign. It is not enough to say political violence is not acceptable. The thing is, if you keep calling normal conservative viewpoints as hate and as violence, then the response, violence is a normal response to violence.

Exactly. You cannot only condemn political violence. You need to reject, categorically, root and branch this notion that just saying what you think. Is somehow violence. That is a pernicious evil that the left has spread like wildfire, and that's what you get in Utah. It's evil. It does.

I want to play a little bit of Charlie's Best Hits, because I think even a lot of people might not have even known Charlie Kirk, who he was before this, and you know what? Before I show all these clips, I was even shocked, because you see the celebration, and that's bad. I think we've covered that, and it's disgusting that fellow Americans are doing that, but I also have the pleasure... Well, now they're getting fired, a lot of them. Right, but as they deserve.

I'll let you get to this. Just one real quick point on that. Because now they're like saying, oh, I thought conservatives were against cancel culture, and now you're cheering on as people are getting fired for saying what they believe. Like, dude, cancel culture is when you take like a normal person that, let's say, works for United, and he posts something on his personal social page, you know, about like, hey, you know, men are men and women are women, like a political belief that's in popular debate.

Shouldn't be in women's sports, right? And then you try to get Delta to fire the person. That is a categorically different thing than saying, oh, I'm glad this guy was murdered. Who are you? How are you considering these? There's no more equivalency on this. It's baloney.

Yeah, I completely agree. I'd say, so there's that, but then what I was actually really touched by is someone who, I knew who Charlie Kirk was, I was aware of him, and he was the president and CEO of this massively influential Turning Point USA, borderline a tipping point for the Trump administration winning the election in 2024, but what really stood out was Charlie's moral character, how everyone spoke about him, and all the things that no one saw that he was doing behind the scenes, and how much he loved his wife and children.

But above all, his clearly obvious burning love for Jesus Christ. In an industry that encourages you to put that aside, to not touch cultural issues, just chase the votes, just talk about taxes, he did not. And I know he's, I saw an interesting story that he started out, if I could finish, if I could finish, he started out. As a 20-year-old, dropped out of college, wanted to make a difference, and at first, he said, I don't know if I'm going to jump into the cultural issue stuff, and as he grew up, and he became a man, and he became married, and he had kids, and he grew in his faith, he realized correctly that this is the most important issue, that spreading Jesus Christ.

Christian values and having a spiritual revival in this country is actually what's going to solve our problems, not just one more ballot initiative, not just one more thing. And so, I'd like to share a few that really touched me, and I think touched many after this event. So, this is one of the first ones. The four, and especially the qualities of love, how to love your neighbor, even if they don't agree with you. So, what is your name again? Talese. Talese, that's a beautiful question.

I'm glad you came up to ask it. So, John 8, if I'm drawing from memory correctly, best embodies both Christ's mercy and love, but also his commitment to truth. And sometimes, in the modern gospel, we overemphasize the grace, and we underemphasize the truth. And so, we are far... We're too willing to say, hey, Jesus loves everybody, but we don't get to the second part of the conversation that says Jesus doesn't want you to live in sin. So, this is, in John 8, it's best embodied, right?

Almost every Christian in this audience will be able to tell you the first part of this, which is a bunch of Sadducees and Pharisees are sitting around, standing around with rocks, and they're about to stone the prostitute woman, and Jesus comes up and says, let the first among you without sin cast the first stone, and everyone starts dropping the rocks, but what comes next shows that Christ is not just grace. He goes up to the woman who had a career in selling herself for sex, and said, sin no more.

Now, imagine today how much trouble you would get in if you would go up to somebody and say, stop sinning. No, you're being too judgmental. No, no, you're actually being Christ-like. So, Jesus stood. He was 100% grace and truth, and that tension is very hard in a modern world, because we want to overemphasize grace, when in reality, Christ loves us too much to have us continue to live in sin. He wants us to try to elevate our actions to glorify God in all that we do.

I have one more that I want to show. It was caught up by our very own here, Celine. And I think just, yeah, further drives on the point here. Do you ever feel unsafe when it gets to this amount of numbers? We don't want to have to be accountable to God when this life passes, and he asks, why did you not trust in me and not fight evil? My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. That's it. If everything completely goes away, how do you want to be remembered?

I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith. I'm just flesh and bone, but more importantly, I'm a soul, and that soul is accountable to one being. What matters is your relationship with the divine, your relationship with your family, your kids, and maybe a close collection of friends, and your relationship with the truth. Christ wants us to be salt and light. Now, what are the two characteristics of salt and light?

They change the environment that they come in contact with. They do not affirm. They do not conform. They change for the... We, as Christians, are called to change the environment that we come in touch with. Before I go on a college campus, my prayer is very simple. God, use me for your will. God is sovereign above all. What is God's plan when I go on a college campus? I just believe I will only tell truth, I will not compromise, and I'll love on the lost.

The specific teachings of Christ is go make disciples of all nations. Jesus called us to love children. Jesus called us to tell truth. Jesus called us to contest in the public square for his purposes. I'm I'm far more interested in what God wants of me than what I want from God, and what God wants from me is a life fighting for truth. You are commanded to go do something productive with your life, to go give and to produce and to risk and to then go sow into other people.

That is a biblical idea that has made the world a profoundly better place. I'll share the final one. This was a kid throwing him at five. Yeah, that's the best. That's what we want. We want human flourishing. We want families.

We want to be able to come together and have these conversations, you know, and that is what people, again, this is the thing. Charlie just wanted to have those conversations. He wanted to, you know, prove me wrong. Let us discuss this together.

He was not just looking to dunk on other people, and now that little girl is not going to have a dad or run home anymore. Yeah. Just imagine the conversations. So, I mean, who are we as a people? What is it that we want to do? How is it that we're going to debate? How are we going to conduct ourselves? And it's not simply just, like, condemning political violence. Like, it's like, obviously, the very bare minimum. I mean, as, you know, Bernie Sanders did say, it is a, it's a concession that you don't think you can win over.

Yeah. The opinions of other people. I feel like we have had a situation over the last 10 years or so where the left thought they had finally won, and that they were cheated out of somehow total victory, and they are just absolutely frustrated that they are still having to have discussions over these things, and why won't we just shut up? Why won't we just submit? And, you know, like, we're given options, like, well, if we say what we believe with regards to the sexual evolution, if we think, if we say, you know, you can't transform your sex, men cannot give birth to babies, we say certain things like this, we're deplatformed from social media, we're hounded away from jobs, you know, we're told to be fired.

We're saying that what we say is violence, and then we're like, oh, then I guess we'll shut up, and then we're like, oh, no, no. Actually, silence is also violence, right? Right. So, we were given one option. It is to comply, to comply, to submit.

Yeah, I think, too, like something there that the reason why Charlie was so powerful, the reason, and I think, you know, best of the best, because there are other figures, you know, doing this work and fighting the same fight in the public square, but like Tom was saying, he had the key to it all because he had the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was a lover of Jesus Christ first. There are others doing that, but I think the reason why, and where the left underestimated or rested too early on their laurels, and why they were so enraged when Hillary lost, and when it's been slipping out of their fingers, the reason is that because they had rested, and they had said, okay, we're in power now, it's permanent, we have won, the post-war liberal order has dominated.

They stopped trying to build anything, but what we on the right were confronted with was a void where we had to persuade, right? Because we had suffered through the rhino, weak Republicans who just lay down and die for something, we got to build something. We have to make an argument, not just against trans, not just against the gay, whatever, agenda, but we actually have to put forward a vision of a flourishing human life. And that's why when J.D. Vance was nominated for vice president, I was so overjoyed because that's a guy who has what it takes to actually build a vision of human flourishing, not just be like, we're rejecting this, but we're building this.

This is what it looks like. And Charlie Kirk, too, big part of that, good friends with J.D. Vance. And Charlie embodying in himself what that flourishing looks like. It looks like a loving, committed relationship to one woman. It looks like being open to life and to prioritizing your children.

And to saying, that's the most important thing about me. And to me, what we're called to do now is, we actually have a vision. This is why the Democratic Party is falling to pieces, and they have a, what, a 33% approval rating among their own voters, because they don't have a vision. So, you're saying these look like the swipes of a dying party? Maybe. I hope so. I hope so. I think you've touched on a lot here, Eric, and I just want to accentuate something here.

I truly believe one of the most profound arguments that was made in this 21st century that has resonated with ripples across these years. Is the book by Ray Texiera and John Judas, The Emerging Democratic Majority. This book came out in 2002, and it stated, basically, look, it was called The Emerging Democratic Majority. It is just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time. It's demographics. You can't stop it, because Blacks have been reliable 90% for Democrats, right? But now, Hispanics are coming onto the scene.

They were like maybe 7% of the population when I was born. Now, they're like 20%. Now, they passed Blacks, so now they're the second largest minority. That was within the last 10 years. So, they have gone from seven, so now they are 13, they are going to be 14, they are going to be 15, and they are not voting 90-10 like blacks, but they are voting like 75-25. So, these guys made this point, like, it is just a matter of time.

The Democrats are going to be basically a permanent Democratic majority, and this had an amazing effect on the parties. For Republicans, it scared the crap out of them, and they are like, whoa, we need to do something about immigration. You start to understand some of that. We are going to become extinct. They are going to completely transform this into a left-wing, socialist, European country. That is what the left has always wanted to do, and they have never been able to do it.

Now, they are going to be able to do it with demographics, right? And then the other thing… It changed the way Democrats operate, because they thought to themselves, when it comes to this country and the way our politics are, we have a constitution that's designed that, hey, careful what you ask for. You want to nuke the filibuster. Well, three years from now, four years from now, the other party might be in charge, and they might just smack it right back in your face.

So, there's always that hesitation, like, careful what you do, because you might end up paying for it. But the Democrats are like, well, what do we got to lose? In six years, we are going to have more Democrats. We are not going to lose elections anymore, and so it transformed that into like no holds barred. Look at the scoreboard, John, as Obama said. In your face, smash small politics that Barack Obama started, Joe Biden accelerated, and they are like, we are going to keep winning, and then whoops.

This fluke of a man, this Donald Trump, this showman, this, you know, he's not really a politician, he's a celebrity, and he manages to win with this archaic electoral college, and so the left is just losing their mind, like, we thought we had this in the bag. We thought we won this anymore. And so they haven't done the basics of a constitutional republic. Where they go out and try to win over their citizens. Like, we don't have to win over people.

We'll just get enough power, and we'll do our opponents. Yeah, I'd like to get into more of a spiritual component of this, but before we do that, the only way we can do this show is because of sponsors that make that happen. So, I know it's tough, but thank you, Erika. We have a sponsor today.

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All I can really think about as a young man, not much younger than Charlie, with young kids, it was, I think it's hard for a lot of people my age. I've had a lot of people calling me after this, and I really appreciate the calls, and I think a lot of people our age feel, because Charlie really represented and lived out in his life a lot of the same things that we do, too, that it was kind of like, You know, we all just died a little bit, and it was so obvious that Charlie got it.

I mean, if we had 100 Charlies... You know, being brave enough. First off, there'll never be another Charlie Kirk. I mean, his intellect, his drive, his moral character, no one will be able to replace that, unfortunately. I don't think everyone fully appreciates how hard it is to go and debate for hours and hours and hours for anyone who will listen, and not just debate, but I couldn't help but go back through these debates and see how How much grace he offered to people who just hated him, and the impact that that kind of happy warrior mentality has on the world is incredible, and to think about how many young kids he brought to Jesus into a life that would really make them fulfilled, we can't do it again.

I was of the age where campus activism was for dorks. And I say that really affectionately, and Charlie was able to create a movement that his biggest message to people was just the faith, and that it got more mainstream than I think would have been done previously, and I think at the end of the day, what Charlie wanted was So, in line with the First Amendment, what the founders would have wanted, not just what the founders would have wanted, but what Jesus would have wanted, and I think people are missing it a little bit when they just think this is a political thing.

We are clearly in a spiritual war, and Charlie knew, he said it many times, that by doing what he's doing, no matter how joyfully, that his life could be taken. Yeah. But, if you were to think about what better honor than spending your life doing what you believe in, and dying a death like your Savior, I prayed, I was just thinking every morning, of all the people I prayed to, St. Thomas More, St. Tarsisius, their lives were commanded to them, and I think of Charlie as a civic martyr.

Um, but all of the, you know, what an honor it is to, to be presented with the red crown and have the moral courage to say yes. So, you know, that's going to live on way past any of the political stuff. And it really means a lot to see the Vances go and take his casket back to hear words of prayer.

To present him with the posthumous Medal of Freedom from Trump, and I mean, I saw Trump at the 9-11 memorial, and I've never seen Trump so sad, and I think to see all the people who aren't even involved in politics, the New York Yankees, you know, the Thursday Night Football, take that moment of silence. I think everyone feels it, left, right, it doesn't matter. If you want the ability to profess your Your genuine beliefs is something guaranteed to us in America.

You just got shot a little bit, and what type of ideology could take root in someone that would cause them to shoot inside a mass full of kids to take a shot at someone like Charlie, who, you know, clearly, if you go through his footage, I just wanted to convince people and put forward a good debate. It was a good husband, a good father. I mean, when he was shot, his kids ran up to him because they were scared of the noise.

So, I think this is just so obvious. We're in a spiritual war, and the only solution to this is, oddly enough, thoughts and prayers, but the courage that comes. From knowing that what you're doing is right, listen, if that means my life is commanded for me one day, that's what it means.

Yeah, the answer is for all of us, for repentance and to cling to the gospel and to love Jesus more. And I have to say, you know, I've been around this, you know, conservative movement for... 25 years. I remember when I used to live in Washington, D.C., and this is right around 9-11, 2001 to 2004.

And I get in debates with people about stuff of, I think, more important consequence, you know? Like, look, I hate governments' bloat and size. I just assume pay less in taxes, of course. But then I start to talk to them about, like, what kind of a society is it that we want, you know? And why is it that, for example, we should recognize marriage between a man and a woman, and that we should try to help? You know, foster families, and like, you know, and I deal with these so-called conservatives, like, oh, who cares?

I don't care about gays. I don't care about that stuff. I just want to cut taxes, and I just want to, you know, all, you know, 9-11, the terrorists and stuff. I'm like, guys, you can't just give in to these people and just, you know.

But they never would fight. They would never push back, and that was so frustrating to witness on the social issues throughout the 1980s, throughout the 1990s, and the first years of this century. You know, the feckless, rhino Republicans, not just the McCains and Romneys that got to the top, but everyone up and down the board, they just didn't care. Like, you know, like, oh, yeah, whatever. You do that on Sunday, and you pray to Jesus, fine, but we're, like, we're, and Charlie Kirk was different.

I mean, you're right. He started out like, hey, socialism sucks, and only focusing on that stuff, and after a while, I was like, he realized, no, there's something deeper here. What is it? Who are we as a people? How do we treat each other? This is what I'm getting at. We are our brother's keeper. We should care about violence in big cities, and the words that we use.

Jesus holds us to this greatest standard. It's like, you're not just supposed to not commit adultery. You're not even supposed to think about committing adultery. You're not supposed to wish ill of another person. You're not supposed to. Physically hurt or murder somebody, you're not also supposed, Jesus, like, you're not even supposed to wish they were dead inside of you, let alone social media. So, social media is giving you this amplification of your internal thoughts, and that's a dangerous place. We got to check that, but Christ calls the heart to conversion.

You look around the world, it's not just like billionaires, the CEOs, or politicians that are a problem. Right here, this is the problem, too, in my own heart. Yeah, a lot of people are making a comparison between what happened Wednesday and 9-11. Like, waking up the next morning was 9-11. They're like, I feel the way I felt after 9-11. And I was trying to think about...

One, the shock value, absolutely. 9-11 obviously took many, many more lives than what happened Wednesday did. But I think for me, with 9-11, we knew very, very quickly, and Tom, I'm not going to go into like the tinfoil Tom stuff. No, no, it's not. But 9-11, we knew really quickly that the men who flew those planes were part of a completely different worldview. They were from a very alien culture. They were radical Islamists. But with this, it was that This was the result of a spiritual sickness here at home, and Spencer Cox, at one point in his speech, the governor of Utah, in his speech this morning, he said, one of my prayers the last 33 hours has been that it would be someone from out of state.

It would not be one of us. It would not be a guy from Utah, and that prayer didn't come true. It was one of us. It was one of our children, and I think that is what makes this. Such a sucker punch that we talk a lot. I mean, we've been covering the last two shows, we covered the stabbing and the horrific stabbing of the refugee in Charlotte. We covered last week the shooting at the school, and we talk about it a lot, but somehow with Charlie, it just...

So, yeah, this was a young man shot another young man, and what was the difference between the two of them? Well, one chose Jesus Christ, and one was totally subsumed by this spiritual sickness that infects our nation. And the only thing that can heal that is Jesus Christ. And so, yeah, I'm into the policy, like we need to change things, but first we have to preach the gospel to our nation. I mean, it's a both. It is a both. It's a both.

Because they're not unconnected, right? Yeah, like you can't divorce the two. The university campus all across the country have become little citadels of hatred. And it's not like conservatives have been blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We have been saying this for 20 years, like, stop calling speech violence. Stop justifying this kind of stuff. It will get people killed. When you speak like that, people will die. I think the biggest sign of all this is after this event, and Eric, you were talking about 9-11, and I was only three.

You just heard everyone was flying American flags. We were all united, even if just for a day, and Matt Walsh, you know, many other people are getting elevated death threats now. After this event, in which you would think the fabric of America would say, what a horrific event for every American that wants to exercise their God-given rights of free speech, and instead, we've seen it's exposed this underbelly, not even underbelly. Some of these people are amongst us posting on public Facebook profiles that they're happy about this death, or that they wish death on more people, and so there's clearly, there's just a spiritual rot.

That, like... Because really, at the end of the day, I know we keep talking about spiritual renewal, but what does that mean? It means that we need to have our houses in order. It needs to mean that we're praying harder. If what we believe in is worth it, it needs to be worth dying for. And I think maybe this was just revealed to me a little bit in this event. Obviously, it makes me so sad as a father, but what I believe in, if I really believe in it, Like, I need to be able to die for it, and there's always going to be those evil spiritual forces in the world that you could be attending mass.

You could have your kids in mass, and it could get shot up. It doesn't matter. It could happen to you anywhere. I could lose my life on the way home in a car accident. What matters most is that you have your spiritual house in order, and secondly, that you have the moral and spiritual courage to live out a life you know that is right and just in your own home. And not just that, to go out into society and have the courage to proclaim the truth when you might have to die a, um...

A social death of, hey, this person doesn't belong in this bathroom. That's the most obvious, but it could even be amongst your own friends, and them doing things that you know are wrong in your own family. Jesus came to give us the truth, and obviously paid in blood for our eternal life, but he also said that the truth would turn brother against brother, and son against father, and it's... As Christians, it's not a bug. It's a feature that we will suffer, and the only way to wrap your mind around the suffering is if you know that it's a part of a bigger plan, and that that suffering can be redemptive, and what Charlie did, I think he has no doubt.

Is redemptive, and there will be positive from it, and I hope that the impact of this death is that people will have more courage to go out and to believe in the truth. Yes, and I think the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, and Charlie is a martyr.

I think, too, you mentioned, Tom, there will never be another Charlie Kirk, and that is correct. There is no replacing him. I was trying to play the game of who could take up turning point, who could do what he did. No one can be Charlie Kirk. It'd be like shooting Rush Limbaugh in the 80s, I think Josh brought up. It's like, you just robbed us of 40 years of... Similar, maybe even more than that. But no one can be Charlie Kirk, but there is you, right?

The other point here, as Catholics, we believe you are called to be a saint. There is a mission that you have. You were born for this moment. There's something only Josh Mercer can do. There's something only Tom Pagasic can do.

You have to be the most you. The glory of God is man fully alive. He's you fully alive. You don't have to be Charlie Kirk. There won't be another one, but there is hope in America because we know that God is even now raising up more saints among us, and that we are all called to be part of that mission. And precisely because he said yes, because Charlie said yes over these last 10-15 years.

It has been amazing to see, because courage is contagious. I wish we had a man as bold as Charlie Kirk when I was in the 90s. Like I said, I'm talking, come on, guys, what's going on? And they're all just like, oh, who cares? Like the businessman in the 50s who's like, you know, turns his eyes, pornography spreading, and adultery, and divorce, and all these, you know, it's like. I remember talking to my friend about the series Mad Men. He goes, I hate it.

And I'm like, why is it that you hated Mad Men? It was well done, very great writing. And he's like, because I hate the decay of Western civilization. I mean, that's what this was all about. It cataloged it in so many ways. I'm like, yes, I know. It's like watching a train wreck. Like, to me, I couldn't keep my eyes off it. And I'm just watching it. I'm like, no. I just wish there was someone who was like, stop. What are you doing?

Because we didn't have men like Charlie Kirk then saying, stop, what are you doing? This is disastrous for our country. Divorce, abortion, pornography, adultery, all these sins are terrible. We want human We are flourishing. We want people to be better. We want families to be stronger. Not everything is going to be perfect, but get rid of some of these ills that divide us. Yes. So, Charlie was taken from us way too soon. He could have given us another four or five decades of insight and brilliance.

He could have been elected President of the United States. But the fact of the matter is, This will not be in vain. We all need to have that much more courage and to step up to the plate and honor him that way, and he will be up there in heaven praying along with us.

Yeah, and I don't think it's a coincidence. One of his shows towards the end was talking about how That the Virgin Mary was the antidote to toxic femininity, and that some people in his circles didn't have enough love for the Virgin Mary as she is this solution.

Yeah, I think, I don't know if it's all this, just one moment, too, that almost makes me feel a little ashamed, is here's Charlie Kirk. Who didn't go to college, and is on college campuses, and part of his thing was like, hey, if you actually want to, you need to grow up. Like, if you want to have a good life. And you want to be happier, and you want to have satisfaction and purpose. Maybe you shouldn't be drinking until 2 a.m., hooking up with a stranger, and then wasting the next day.

Maybe you should be hanging out with people with virtue, and then going to mass the next day, or going to church the next day. That is verbatim something he said on a college campus to rabbit. I mean, we all know what cultures on major college campuses are like. I can't even imagine.

Like, how much he was made fun of for that, how much he was ridiculed for that. But then, also, at the same time, how many people heard that message and were just taken aback by the boldness of just saying something so obviously true, but just in such a hostile environment? No one else was saying it. No one else was saying it, and it almost makes me ashamed. Like, all the times that I didn't say anything or went along with the crowd when I knew something was wrong, and I just didn't want to suffer a little bit of social...

Like, again, this is... There will never be another Charlie Kirk, and it just... Yeah, I think it just... Like, he just got it. I just love watching his evolution. He just understood it. It is not about votes. It's not about, I just have you for now until whatever. It's, I actually wanted eternal happiness to you. And maybe that's something that I want to, you know, take away and take, you know, into our careers here of like, um. Offering people an off-ramp, being very obvious and apparent about my love for people when I critique, or when I have to offer hard news.

It didn't doubt me. That's why it's hysterical to watch all the cherry-picking of going through old clips and trying to paint him as a member of the KKK, or some insane caricature, which obviously led towards his death. Let's not pretend like this did not contribute. It did. And that's evil, and that's why I think the mainstream news shares part of this.

If you go through all of his stuff, he's been live for hours and hours and hours again. What was the main message he took away? As soon as we stop having conversations, as soon as we stop having debates, as soon as we stop being face-to-face, what happens? A civil war happens, because we no longer see each other as humans. Right.

I see way too much of that, and I think the people doing disgusting celebrations of this are missing that, and what a great reminder, and honestly, you know, I have no doubt that Charlie knows where he was going, but what I really appreciate at the bottom is leaving that impact for me and other young men, too, who I think also led through that period of time where They also were like, ah, you know, this culture is too big and massive for me to make an impact.

You know, if I say this, I'm just going to be embarrassed, and nothing's going to change. And, you know, what a legacy we have here now, like truly like the blood of Charlie. Like, hopefully that just encourages. I've seen like a lot of tributes of young high school kids wearing suits and coats, like coats and ties today as a tribute. I just, I think his impact is not fully understood, and I didn't even really fully understand it until now I'm going back through the tape.

So, the coalition that he built, the influence on the youth, it really is incredible and just a true testament to the moral courage and grace that I think was flowing through Charlie. And, you know, Josh, it's funny. I was talking to Kelsey about, you know, okay, solution, how do we live our lives going forward now? What's the solution? You were in Poland, and that family you were talking about.

The Ulma family, yeah. The Ulma family. At the end of the day, that actually is the solution to the problems that we have, because we can't control evil, we can't control the fact that there's going to be always people. Kelsey also said that the devil can take your body, and he often does, but only you can give away your soul.

Amen. The devil cannot touch your soul, only you can give that away. Amen. That's right. And for anyone with any historical knowledge understands that to be the truth of how many people just... seemingly randomly died or just the the the tragic result of horrific evil throughout history um but the ones we remember are the ones that kept their souls um well and again i you know again it's just like the the you know not everyone is called to be like charlie and and go to a college university and and debate people for three hours You know, or do radio talk shows for three hours.

I mean, we do it here for one hour, three times a week. And then I change diapers. It's crazy, but all of us. We have a responsibility to give us a response to the joy that is within us, as St. Peter says, and that just maybe means you're not going out there looking for a fight or smack people around or screaming in their face, but God does want you to be a witness, and that will involve being ostracized from time to time, but the fact is we do need that courage because Evil can spread, but just a little courage, and the other people get that courage.

The fact is, we saw when Donald Trump, he was almost murdered, Donald Trump, but then he succeeds, and he gets elected, and then people start feeling like they can say things again. And it has been a wonderful thing. And so, courage is so important. And the other thing, of course, I would just say, in addition to courage, you talk about the spiritual stuff. You know, I can't help but think this is one of my favorite quotes, St. Moses the Black. He said, you fast, but Satan does not eat.

You labor fervently. But Satan never sleeps. The only dimension with which you can outperform Satan is by acquiring humility, for Satan has no humility. Charlie Kirk had courage, and he had humility. And I can tell you, I've been around a lot of politicos in my time. Humility is in short supply. Kelsey's got it. Brian Birch has it. Charlie Kirk had it in spades.

Yeah, maybe Brian can put in a good word to Pope Leo. Honestly, I think I'd really appreciate hearing from him on this specifically, honestly, as another American. But, yeah, I got my little Vatican American pin on today. Yeah. Shout out, Brian. Good one.

Well, I want to give you some good news, okay? Now, this doesn't sound like it's good news at first, okay? It's just typical, Josh. It is, okay? All right. This 40-year-old man at the University of Nebraska was sitting in a lawn chair, acting kind of pompous, with a bunch of signs that said, you deserve, Charlie deserved it, Charlie deserved it. That's not good news. That's horrible. It's reprehensible behavior. What's the good news?

A bunch of these college bros picked this guy up on the lawn chair and threw him in the water fountain. Why is this good news? You know what's good news? Honor culture is good. You know, if someone does something absolutely morally abhorrent and dishonorable, you know what? This was pretty tame. Throw them in the water. You know, a good slap across the face. You know, I don't call for violence, but like, that honestly, honor culture, that is a good thing. Wake up a little bit.

I also want to put this out here, too. I think it's disturbing to a lot of people, especially in media, that a new precedent has been set, because Charlie Kirk didn't have any political power. Yes, he was very influential. Charlie Kirk wasn't the President of the United States.

There's a precedent of people shooting at the President of the United States, and terrible, but a reality. You hold political power, that's part of it. There's a new precedent that's just been set, that if you're a political commentator, or a journalist, or someone in the public eye, that shots... Shots are now taken at you. I can't remember of any high-profile examples of this. I'm sure maybe there are. That being said, I strongly encourage the United States government, and I do have faith in the Trump administration and Spencer Cox, to Forcefully enact justice in this situation and to make public all the details of this investigation for the common good.

We have a tremendous problem with assassination culture as we currently see it with the Luigi Mangione thing, and then also this. And if we do not handle this in a way that actually enacts justice for the common good, we're going to continue to see this problem, and that should terrify every American. So, I think it's... Not just the trial. We need the President of the United States and his administration to put the screws on organizations that are promoting this kind of stuff.

The Southern Poverty Law Center declared Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA on their hate map, akin to the KKK. Now, the KKK would go around and commit violence. Turning point action. I mean, Charlie Kirk would go to campuses and talk to them about politics, about Jesus, no violence at all, but the Southern Poverty Law Center tried to, did, equated what Charlie Kirk did with violence, just like they did with Family Research Council.

When a crazy man walked in, I remember, I've told this to Tom McCluskey, he was working there at Family Research Council that day. I remember when I visited the Family Research Council, and I'm like, why do they have a security guard here? I mean, there's a little bit of crime in Chinatown, but I mean, come on. Like, really? It's because the Family Research Council was out there talking about the importance of marriage, talking about these issues, that they thought, you know what, somebody someday might pop off.

And I'm like, come on. But they did. A man came in and shot their guard. Can you imagine if that guard hadn't been there? It could have been a bloodbath. My friend, our friend, Tom McCluskey, could have died. He was there. So, this is important. This does matter. I think the Southern Poverty Law Center needs to be removed from their tax-exempt status. I think we need to look into what they're doing, and hey, maybe they need to, you know, if there's laws to be prosecuted, they're fomenting violence.

But, yeah, not just the trial is what I am saying it needs to be. We need more thorough investigations to go on what is going on about our politics, about the way some of these organizations, some of the funding of stuff, we need to look into it. Now, another good news story, Sophia.

From the shooting victim in Minneapolis at the Innocent Station. Praise God, she is no longer in critical condition. We still need to pray for her. She's still got recovery, but that is fantastic news. It's the kind of news we need to hear today. Amen. Amen to that. Any final thoughts?

I think it is time to pray. Yeah, I think it is time to pray. But if you want to help us out, reviews, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, go over and subscribe on YouTube. We just put them on addition to the deep. We have got a lot of good new content coming there very soon.

But yeah, definitely, again, pray for the repose of the soul. Charlie Kirk, pray for his wife and two kids. I am going to call a little bit of an audible. I am going to end in St. Michael prayer.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen. St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the ruins of souls. Amen. Amen. St. Thomas Morris, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. And we will see you on the next episode next week. Have a great weekend, guys. Peace.