Cabinet Members Remember Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk was a great Christian man, an incredible patriot, a visionary leader, and a kind human being. He started out as the leader of a political movement, and he ended as the leader of a Christian movement, a revival, I think, through eternity, be remembered as our generations, maybe greatest evangelist.

I was in touch with Charlie just about every single day, going back many, many years. The last time heard from him was the day before he was assassinated. The most fitting description I've heard of Charlie Kirk over the course of these last several days has been the description of calling him one of one. There was only one Charlie Kirk.

I met him during the transition. I was actually quite nervous. You know, I don't get starstruck very often, but he was one that I knew about and the impact that he had. And so when I met him, he was sitting at this. He's so tall, and he was at a little small desk, and I was like, I don't think that desk quite fits you.

Big, giant, tall guy walks in, you know, full of energy, just enthusiasm and passion.

The first time I met Charlie was in July of 2021, and I did his podcast. And I think both of us approached each other with some trepidation because we came from such different, let's say, constellations of presumptions and worldviews. After that, after my first meeting with Charlie, we became fast friends.

I knew Charlie from almost the beginning of his efforts, and he said, we're gonna do something with young people that no one says can be done. No matter where the political curve was, Republicans in, Republicans out, Trump in, Trump out. Charlie was always building.

I was really struck by the massive crowds of people who would turn out to these campus events for him, to talk to him, to have the chance to see him in action. The energy was electric and palpable, and it was just so cool to be in an environment where people were gathering together, really, to celebrate free speech and to engage in that dialogue and that debate that really Charlie did uniquely, period. But also, Charlie certainly did better than anyone else.

Charlie was showing up, challenging other people to come and to debate him on ideas, to be able to engage substantively.

His mission was to exercise our First Amendment rights, celebrate and defend free speech, even if it's speech that you don't like or that you disagree with.

I'd tell Charlie, I'm too old to participate in Turning Point, and he would say, no, you're not. You're there to mentor young women. And he cared so much about everyone mentoring younger people in the next generation.

Charlie was an institution, right? And we all know who he is, and he has a meaning to people my age and older, a little bit younger.

What was key about Charlie was that he was a really good judge of character and a really good judge of people.

I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life.

The work he was doing really reminded me of Matthew chapter nine, when they say that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. But Charlie was in the vineyard every day making sure that the workers were plentiful to meet the moment.

But you saw this unique transition where he started to talk about his faith, talked about God.

Charlie did get bolder and bolder in his faith over time, frankly encouraging a lot of others, including myself, to do the same. And I had a chance to talk to him about this a little bit over the years. You look at the problems, the societal problems, the cultural problems, and trying to fix them simply at the political level won't get it done.

If you don't have faith, if you don't have a relationship with God, if you don't start a family, the true things that give you joy, you don't have anything in life.

You.

Charlie exemplified what it meant to have a personal relationship with Christ. He exemplified what it meant to live life to the fullest.

All the conversations about politics are ultimately futile if we don't know that there is a God and it's not us. When you understand that the things of the political world which are important, they all become secondary because you realize the battlefield is not of this world world. It's not a political battlefield. It's a spiritual battlefield.

Tax rates are great and limited. Government's wonderful, but if you want to affect the human heart, if you want to affect the human life, again, that's not politics. This is humanity.

Andrew Breitbart famously said, politics is downstream of culture. And if you want to add to that, maybe Charlie Kirk taught us that culture is downstream of our faith. And so, yes, culture is more important than politics. But faith is what defines what kind of culture we live in, and Charlie understood that, and he lived it.

My current belief, and I think it's the right way of looking, is I'm far more interested in what God wants of me than what I want from God.

One word to describe Charlie Kirk. I look at him and think how powerful he is. So if I could think of one word, I think it's powerful, ethical, faithful, passion.

Charlie lived with passion.

To ascribe one word for Charlie, it would be. He was a force personal.

He's a man of courage.

He was resilient in his faith. He was resilient in his conviction. He was resilient in his knowledge of the word of God, his love for the country, his knowledge of being a patriot.

Charlie was a man of honor, of character, love for God, and, of course, love for his family. And that's what I believe he'll always be known for.

Well, to Charlie, I would say on this side of eternity. Thank you for answering the call. And as a believer, I will see him again.

For many of us in this country, we'll know we'll see him again. But I want to say thank you. Thank you for what you've done for so many of our young people.

Well, first of all, I would just express enormous gratitude.

What you allowed God to unleash in our country. You were a really, really important vessel. You ran hard, and it's hard to even talk about his name in the past tense. Still, it's difficult to articulate the gratitude that we should all hold for Charlie Kirk.

Charlie would not want anyone to be silenced by that bullet that stole him from us. I feel like the message that the world is sending to Charlie Kirk right now is that his sacrifice certainly wasn't for naught.

I have the greatest respect for you, Charlie. You lived your dreams, you lived your morals, you lived your passion, you lived your objectives. You didn't hold anything back. You left nothing on the table. You brought it all. You always brought it all, and you always brought it out there, and I love you for it.

Thank you for the inspiration, Charlie. Thank you for making yourself a template, a paradigm of strength and moral courage. And you've given us an example to.

Follow, I would say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being a great American. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your faith. Thank you for being an example of how you treat and talk about your own wife, how you talk about your own kids. I think we are in need of great examples in America. And, Charlie, you have been a great example.

We know that Charlie is now in the arms and the loving embrace of Jesus Christ, who he dedicated his life to. And in that knowledge, we too, can rest in God's love.

He started a group called Turning Point. And it turns out he was the turning point. And God had a higher purpose, an even greater purpose.