Charlie Kirk kept asking America to argue back
I knew Charlie Kirk. He was my friend, and that friendship changed my life. When he was assassinated on September 10, 2025, I did what you do when your own words fail. I went back to his.
“Charlie Kirk, in His Own Words” is the result. It gathers his social media posts, curated one by one from 2011 to the day he died, and weaves in never-before-seen photographs and testimonials from the people who loved him.
Charlie Kirk understood that when speech is controlled, power concentrates and people learn to keep their real thoughts to themselves.
I am not making a dollar from this book. All proceeds go to Carry the Torch, the nonprofit I founded in his honor. This book is a gift, my thank-you to a man who spent his life telling young people the truth.
The selections are Charlie unfiltered, saying exactly what he believed and inviting anyone who disagreed to come and say so to his face.
Freedom of speech and an invitation to debate
Free speech was one of Charlie’s clearest instincts in public life. He treated the First Amendment as a safeguard for ordinary people — especially those without power, status, or institutional cover.
He understood that when speech is protected, a country can argue, correct itself, and stay honest; when it is controlled, power concentrates and people learn to keep their real thoughts to themselves.
He also understood how censorship spreads: It rarely begins with the average person. It begins with a claimed emergency, a claimed harm, a claimed moral cause — and then the boundaries tighten.
Kirk liked the part of politics where you cannot hide — a microphone, a chair, a crowd, and a clock. Debate forced clarity: it made people define terms, defend claims, and sit with the consequences of their own logic.
Campus debates mattered to him for another reason too — universities were supposed to be places of open dialogue, and he watched that promise shrink under administrators who treated disagreement as harm. But when students still showed up, argued back, and kept listening, he saw proof that the story wasn’t finished.
His respect for debate was not limited to his own side. He wanted arguments in daylight. No censorship. No cowardice. No hiding.
The quotes that follow show what that commitment sounded like in Charlie’s own words — on free speech, censorship, disagreement, and the obligation to make your case rather than silence the other side.
RELATED: WaPo ordered to rehire anti-white radical fired over Charlie Kirk assassination comments
Free speech as birthright
5 million followers! Thank you all.
And thank you @elonmusk for liberating this critical platform.
After spending three days in England, I truly mean this with renewed importance: May we always protect free speech as one of our most sacred American birthrights.
Government limited by rights
The First Amendment was written precisely to hamstring the government!!
They work for us. They serve us. We the People, the citizens, are the sovereign. Never forget that.
Chapter by chapter
Thank you, President Trump, for acknowledging the amazing work our @TPUSA team is doing on thousands and thousands of college and high school chapters. There is a whole new generation of free speech warriors rising up, with more every passing year.
Platform censorship
Twitter censored and banned the leader of the free world from its platform.
We should never forget just how wildly absurd that really is.
Questioning is essential
When you're not allowed to question something at the risk of being banned, censored, or “cancelled” — it’s not science, it’s propaganda.
A double standard
The Packers and Eagles are scheduled to play this Friday in Brazil, where X has just been banned in a sweeping crackdown on free speech.
So let me get this straight...
The MLB took away the All-Star game from Atlanta because Georgia passed voting integrity laws.
The NCAA boycotted North Carolina because it had a law to keep mentally ill men out of girls’ bathrooms.
Thirty years ago, the NFL took the Super Bowl away from Arizona because voters didn’t vote to make MLK Day a paid holiday.
Why is the NFL bringing its road show to Brazil while the country is at war against free speech?
Young voters moved
Our Prove Me Wrong campus debate clips were seen 2.1 billion times this semester on TikTok, IG, X and YouTube.
The vast majority of those were viewed by 18-29-year-olds, and the Kamala campaign never knew how to counter.
YOUNG PEOPLE SHOWED UP FOR TRUMP
Refused to debate
This election brought the realignment we didn't see coming. It was the Biden Basement Realignment.
Does it make sense now why Democrats hid in basements? Why they refused to debate?
Run on nothing, say nothing, debate nothing, just hide and harvest.
RELATED: Randi Weingarten fought Texas to let teachers celebrate Charlie Kirk's murder. It didn't go her way.
Nigeria’s future
Daniel Ogoloma (@Dcogoloma) was my debate partner at the Oxford Union, taking a stand against a large majority of the house as we took the negative position on the resolution "Trump Has Gone Too Far."
Offstage, we spoke about the future of Nigeria. He is a very talented young man and Nigeria will be lucky to have him.
Debate over censorship
Today I moderated a debate between Dave Smith and Josh Hammer on Israel. It was very fiery, fun, and mostly peaceful.
Debate is the way forward, not name-calling or censorship. At the end agreement was found between both Dave and Josh on many important things.
A chair caused ‘trauma’
The University of Arizona is offering "mental health services" because I sat in a chair and took questions for 2 hours yesterday on the campus quad.
College administrators are more worried about conservatives expressing their views on campus than they are [about] Hamas supporters who want to kill Jews.
America, circa 2023
Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from “Charlie Kirk, in His Own Words,” compiled by Christy Edwards (Post Hill Press). Reprinted by permission.
Judge Rules Tyler Robinson Will Face Trial For Assassination Of Charlie Kirk
A legal expert said that this is one of the slowest preliminary hearing schedules he has ever seen and speculated that the trial may not happen until next year and could even bleed into 2028.Inside the Charlie Kirk Israel controversy: Andrew Kolvet sets the record straight
The atrocious assassination of Charlie Kirk last September has ignited numerous conspiracy theories, some of which involve the nation of Israel. Even though Charlie was publicly very pro-Israel for years, especially in light of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, rumors that the TPUSA founder was beginning to waver on his support for the Jewish nation have led some to speculate that Israel might have been involved in his murder.
So where did Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA really fall on the issue of Israel?
On a recent episode of “Rufo and Lomez,” co-host Jonathan Keeperman sat down with executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show” and TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet, who addressed this question.
“This issue [of Israel] was probably the most difficult for Charlie to navigate in life,” says Kolvet.
He explains that for Charlie, there was one “bright line” when it came to Israel: “Jew-hate has no place in the conservative movement,” and “the scapegoating of an entire people group” is an “ancient evil” that cannot be tolerated.
However, that doesn’t mean that he was ever part of the hard-line, activist “pro-Israel” crowd who demand unconditional, unquestioning support for every Israeli policy. That’s why Charlie was sometimes “accused of being an anti-Semite,” Kolvet explains.
He notes that the “driving force” of the Trump-era conservative movement — which Charlie heavily shaped — has always been “non-interventionalism.”
“Charlie was certainly a driver of that and certainly a proponent of that. He wanted the government to focus more on domestic issues, but he also wasn't willing to go to that point and blame, you know, a small nation in the Middle East for all the world's ills,” Kolvet tells Keeperman.
This balanced stance became harder to maintain after Hamas’ October 7 attacks. Many on the right who already held non-interventionist views saw the war in Gaza as validation of their skepticism toward Israel.
“This is an instance of where our preconceived bias, confirmation bias was played into by geopolitical events,” Kolvet says.
The intense fighting reinforced the idea that U.S. ties to Israel drag America into foreign conflicts, creating a “perceived reality” that has grown since October 7 and put pressure on Charlie’s middle position. “It’s a tricky issue,” Kolvet acknowledges, “but we have to be able to say a couple things very, very clearly, I think, on our side if we’re going to keep the coalition together.”
“One, we are America first. Our interests are more important than Israel's interests. If you are an American, that has got to be a bright line in the sand,” he adds, acknowledging that there are legitimate questions about Israel spying on the U.S., the recurring “$4 billion” in annual U.S. aid to Israel, and the sharing of intelligence and technology with the Israeli military.
“I think those are all valid questions, because we have to be about our own business first and foremost. We have to be about our own priorities first and foremost,” he adds.
However, if American interests “align with Israel,” Kolvet sees that as a positive.
“I certainly don't think we should be asking that same question when it comes to Hamas, for example, right? ... There's no moral equivalency between the two,” he says. “But we also have to just be really up front that we have domestic issues that we need to get done and we need to accomplish or we're going to lose this country and the West will fall if America does not get this right.”
He laments the reality that the conservative base’s division over Israel has “poured into the story of Charlie.”
Ultimately, TPUSA stands for two basic principles, says Kolvet: “Reject Jew-hate,” but “be about our own business first” and then address “geopolitics and foreign policy.”
To hear more, watch the video above.
Want more from Rufo & Lomez?
To enjoy more of the news through the anthropological lens of Christopher Rufo and Lomez, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Charlie Kirk’s Murder ‘Has Turned Into Infotainment … Instead Of A Spiritual Revival’
'More people are realizing they are being lied to, not by the government or TurningPoint, but by people desperate for clicks and revenue.'Here’s What You Need To Know About The Charlie Kirk Assassination Trial, Day 5
Whether Tyler Robinson will stand trial for the assassination of Charlie Kirk won't be decided until September.Here’s What You Need To Know About The Charlie Kirk Assassination Trial, Day 4
Judge Tony Graf will make a determination as to whether this case will go to trial Friday after a review of all evidence entered.Here’s What You Need To Know About The Charlie Kirk Assassination Trial, Day 3
Tyler Robinson turning himself in to authorities and Lance Twiggs' interview with law enforcement were focal points during Wednesday's hearing.Here’s What You Need To Know About The Charlie Kirk Assassination Trial, Day 2
The court admitted video evidence showing a man alleged to be Robinson jumping off the roof with a long, rifle-like object in his hand concealed by a cloth.Texas radical charged with making terroristic threats against Erika Kirk
The widow of assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk will join Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey, and other influential conservative women in San Antonio next month for the Turning Point Women's Leadership Summit — an event geared toward "women who are ready to rise fully into the life they were created to lead and who value courage, conviction, and clarity in every season."
News of Erika Kirk's imminent arrival enraged at least one radical. Jacob Wenske, 26, allegedly threatened to murder the TPUSA CEO and bomb the event.
Wenske was arrested on Thursday and slapped with a pair of third-degree felony charges of making a terroristic threat involving public fear or serious bodily injury or public disruption. His bond has been set at $120,000.
'God’s justice is certain.'
According to the arrest warrant obtained by KSAT-TV, Wenske allegedly replied to an April social media post about the three-day TPUSA event, writing, "I know exactly where to bomb."
Wenske allegedly said in a separate post, "I can't wait to be the valet for her escort," apparently referring to Erika Kirk, who is scheduled to be a featured speaker at the event.
An email sent in January 2026 from an account that is registered to Wenske stated, "Death to Erika Kirk and every single speaker there!! America will live on without those scum on this earth. Every Christian nationalist shall perish in the bombing that will take place at every single Turning Point rally and event," said the warrant.
Leftists in the Democratic Party, the media, academia, and elsewhere have fearmongered for years about the imagined threat posed by "Christian nationalism" — a catchall term used to describe their ideological foes who also happen to be Christian in a nation almost entirely founded by Christians and where today over six in 10 adults are Christian.
James Talarico, for instance — the Democrat nominee running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat — recently claimed that "Christian nationalism is a threat to democracy" and that "when fascism comes to America, it'll be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
CNN, which has advanced similar fear narratives, released a documentary earlier this year titled "The Rise of Christian Nationalism." The hour-long agitprop not only warned of the ascendancy of "white evangelical culture" but identified Erika Kirk's murdered husband as a proponent of the movement — even though Charlie Kirk stated in 2024 that "Christian Nationalism" is "a boogeyman they've invested to silence you" and noted before his assassination that he had never described himself as a Christian nationalist.
"Turning Point USA takes all threats seriously and we work closely with law enforcement at all levels to respond to and resolve any threats," the organization said in a statement. "We are grateful to the San Antonio Police Department and the FBI for their rapid response and arrest of the individual making these threats."
TPUSA noted further that the safety of its attendees, speakers, and staff is its top priority and that all of its events "include enhanced, multi-layered security measures that are enforced by both private security and local police."
"We refuse to let threats silence us," added TPUSA.
Erika Kirk wrote the following in a Thursday post on X, "The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Psalm 37:12-15."
Kirk added, "God’s justice is certain."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
www.theblaze.com
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com