Remembering Charlie Kirk: Megyn Kelly Discusses His Legacy with Vivek Ramaswamy

I know it's rough on you personally, how are you processing this? I mean, we're devastated, Megan. I'm in northwest Ohio, I was traveling from my home in Columbus when we heard the news, but we are devastated. Just got off the phone with my wife. I was with Charlie here just two weeks ago here in Ohio. It actually wasn't something, you know, broadly broadcasted, but we had some one-on-one time together. Had a real heart-to-heart conversation when he was here, and even two days ago, was talking to him like I'm talking to you now. Spent a good part of the last year together, traveling the country, doing actually events like the one he was doing today, in tents, on college campuses, and it makes you think about what did he do that was so wrong that earned him this fate? It was to foster open conversations with young people who were hungry to figure out what they believed, and that's what he did. And I think more than anybody else I know, I really mean it when I say this, I think more than anybody else I know, he was committed to talking to people who disagreed with him. To do it openly, that was his ultimate sin, it turns out, in the twisted world we live in today. And, you know, God blessed him with immense gifts that rarely a person might have. And what I love about Charlie is that he was not afraid to use those gifts to do what he felt was right for his country. He knew the risks he was taking. I mean, he had two kids, they're a little younger than mine, two years apart, I think around three and one were his kids' age. And he did it, I mean, those kids are going to grow up without a great father. They were kids to a great father, a great man, a great American, and they're going to grow up without him. But he took those risks for those kids so they could grow up in a country that he believed in. Yeah, I was just talking about this. I just was talking about this the other day. It was Graham Linehan, you know, the Irish citizen who got arrested in the UK for tweets on the trans issue. And he's paid a dear price for his own outspokenness on controversial issues. And he said, not in the trite way, Vivek, but like in the way that really struck me, he said, I speak up for my daughter because she can't. And he meant more than just she's too young to really understand these issues and process them. He meant there's fear and that our young people today, they're not in a position like you are, like I am, like Charlie was, to risk professional reputation or blowback or cancellation, what have you. Or life. Yeah, but no one's factoring that in, right? Even as a politician now, you know, you must have seen your risk profile go up, but do you really think your life is on the line when you're out there talking? You know, as a public figure, I've always known, you know, it's a risk, but it never really felt like a real one. Not until not until the last year. Not until the last year. And but I think that we've taken a dark and twisted turn in the country where this has become normalized. If this if this were shocking, this would be bad enough. If this were an event, Megan, if this were utterly shocking that none of us saw this coming, that alone would be horrific enough. And yet the only thing more horrific is that actually, it's not that shocking. Charlie saw it coming. He talked about the culture of political assassination at a time where people thought he was hyperbolic for saying so. And the ultimate devastating irony was his clarity of vision that he ended up suffering the consequence of what he saw for our country. Is it that surprising when you have two assassination attempts on our current U.S. president, which in his case, thank God he didn't suffer the same fate? But I think the thing we got to understand and wrap our head around here, I mean, I think today is I mean, there's going to be a long conversation to go around how we turn around the policy, the culture, the environment in the country where we get back to the America you and I know and love, where we can talk to each other, disagree vehemently, have the space to disagree vehemently, but still do so with the confidence that we're going to do so safely and with mutual respect and dignity for human life. We're going to get back there. But, you know, today, just in this moment, I mostly just want to remember a great man who's, you know, born only so often as somebody with Charlie's talent and Charlie's gifts. And in, you know, 30 plus years, 31 years on this earth, he was able to in a shorter time than most are given, accomplish more than most do. And I just pray for his kids that they're able to grow up. I know they have a wonderful mother as well, who's one of the strongest people out there. I can only imagine what she's going through, but I hope that kids grow up. Yeah, I mean, imagine and I don't know this for for sure, Megan, but I mean, we have a lot of mutual friends and whatnot. But from what I heard and understand, they were around there today. I mean, imagine what what I mean. The kids are young. I mean, there's three in one and I feel for them, but imagine her and what position she's in now having to raise those two kids. And it wasn't just Charlie taking the risks. He knew the risks he was taking, but his family knew it. She knew it, too. And they did it together anyway because they believed in doing their part, whether you agree with them or not. They believed earnestly and in their deepest faith that they were doing their part to create that country for their kids. And today paid the price of an ultimate sacrifice that at least in Charlie's case, he didn't he didn't discount that he wasn't blind to it. He talked about it as a risk. And today, at least we should for our country, remember a great patriot who in many ways put his life on the line today, literally to speak what he saw as true and good and virtuous and right for the nation he loved. And I hope for his sake and for ours, that his kids are able to grow up in a country that moves on from this sick culture of violent retribution. But let's just say at some point we're done with it. And if it isn't now, I don't know when it'll ever be. And so people like you are. You're the answer. You you out there. This is not a political ad. This is not an I'm not involved in the Ohio race. It's I've watched you. When people disagreed with you on the campaign trail, you opened your door to them. You walked over to them in friendship. You extended a hand. You wanted to hear them out. You were kind. You were loving. You were gentle. That like what a model of a vague. You know, it's so hard to do when we're so divided and we're so angry at each other over these issues, which are important. And when you are subjected to as many negative press pieces and people harassing you on the campaign trail, it's even harder to find that within you. But that's you're kind of leading by example these days. Well, you know, one of the few people we were I was able to do it with was Charlie. We traveled the entire country kind of tag teaming. We had our own style, you know, slightly different, but it was more fun that way. And we would, you know, kind of stylistic tag team around the country talking to these young, young Americans and these young patriots and many of whom disagreed with us. And he and I, I mean, we would, you know, ride a car together, take a walk together, ride a plane together. And we joke around about, you know, different interactions. And, you know, there's one case he still was one of his favorite people coming out of I forget which campus we were on. It was somewhere in Pennsylvania. And, you know, it was some girl with dyed hair who was screaming at him who still loved the interaction that he had with her. He was able to joke around about it and still care about having one country left at the end of it. And, you know, there weren't that many of us. There aren't that many of us, Megan, who are willing to do that. And I think we lost one of our greats today. And as sad as I am for Charlie, I'm even sadder for his family. And I'm sadder still for our country, that this is where we are. And I don't think that we can just, you know, say the usual pieties and then move on and behave the same way tomorrow. I think there's going to be I feel it right now. I feel there's a choice in how we react to this. And, you know, there's a side of me, most of me now that's furious, that's angry. Yeah. But I think that there's also an element in all of us that hopes that we're just done with this. We're moving on past this dark chapter in our history. We've gone we've gone like, what, a 12 and a half month period now, 12 month period where we've had two assassination attempts on a president. Now we've taken out one of the most important figures in the political youth movement, let alone in the conservative movement. Enough, we're done with this. And I do think that we would be justified, perhaps in a short term sense, in, you know, adopting the kind of rhetoric that Charlie was himself the subject of that. Who knows what the circumstances here? We don't have the facts, but you could imagine at least would motivate someone to act in a horrific way. But, you know, I think the best of what Charlie was trying to do and the best of what I hope we can do for our country aspires to more than just fighting, you know, fire with fire. I hope we can fight fire with water, which might be the harder thing to do. Yeah, well said. I mean, you talk about his what a consequential figure he became. I'm just watching my my producer text chain here, which has got all the latest news. Joe Biden has weighed in. Donald Trump has weighed in. Donald Trump has ordered the flags to half staff to in memoriam of Charlie. I mean, I don't I don't remember the last time. And here's a picture of the White House flag atop the White House at half staff. Now, by orders of the president, we'll be lowering ours momentarily. I don't remember the last time we've done that for a civilian, not a world leader. He'll do it sometimes in the wake of mass shootings. But for an individual, it's, I think, rare. Barack Obama, too, now weighing in as follows. We don't yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk. But this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie's family tonight, especially his wife, Erica, and their two young children. That's what we need. I say bravo to Barack Obama and to Joe Biden and to Donald Trump, who understand the vague in these moments. You know, there's something bigger happening. There's something really profound afoot today that's more than partisan bickering, even though we're angry, even though we want vengeance against the man who did it. Like we the good, the truly good, like in in our hearts and our souls, good Americans have to unite in standing against this sort of political violence. Even if we're going to fight about the political issues the very next day, those people who understand how vile this is and who are able to check their politics and hold hands in solidarity against this must do it. And that's why I accept those hands of friendship and we are stand with who we are. That's who we are as a people. It's who we've been. We've lost our way, but it doesn't have to stay that way. And I would never wish for a tragedy like this to be what's required to wake us up. But if a tragedy and for me, it's not just a national tragedy, it's a loss of a friend and somebody who's just personally really dear to me, let something come for the country that he fought for. And he wasn't just a civilian. He was more than that. And I think we can we can honor him and we can honor, honestly, our country, the truth of our country, as opposed to this alternative, bastardized version of it that we've suffered for this short period of our history we've been in. We can revive our true country by being a place where, yeah, look, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, yourself, myself and everyone in between can agree that we're a place where we respect life, where we respect the lives and the dignity of our fellow citizens and our neighbors, that we can disagree like hell at times. And still, ideally, we'll get together at the dinner table at the end of it and call ourselves still citizens of the greatest nation known to the history of mankind. That's who we are. That's what Charlie Kirk saw. And I hope that is what his life and now, tragically, his death can cause us to pause and remember and revive. And that's the best we can do today.