Politically Unstable: Charlie Kirk's legacy stands strong

Video

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

OPINION:

As America continues to mourn Charlie Kirk, the impact he left grows stronger each day.

Church attendance is growing, Bibles are selling out, and a new generation of conservative thinkers are emerging.

David Engelhardt, pastor and TPUSA board member, joins Kelly Sadler on Politically Unstable to discuss how to find victory in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

[SADLER] The title of your piece, “The victory after Charlie Kirk’s killing,” it’s really hard for many of us to see any victory coming out of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. His life was taken away from him only at 32 years of age, leaving behind his wife, Erika, two young kids. He had such a bright future. So how do you find victory after his death?

[ENGELHARDT] For those who want to support, they can support TPSA to support Erika and Charlie’s movement and all of the stuff we’re doing at TPSA.com. And I was one of Charlie’s pastors. His main pastor is Rob McCoy, but I was one of the five pastors around him. That’s actually why Charlie was so, he kind of got so lit on fire in the 2020 world because he saw all these churches shutting down, and he’s like, what are you guys doing? So he surrounded himself by a bunch of rebels like myself that were fighting the system.

And then there was an incredible thing that happened, and our churches that stood up. And isn’t it always the case in Christianity that darkness comes and, you know, it’s the three days in the tomb, and then resurrection comes thereafter and everything changes. That’s axiomatically the center of Christianity. That’s what the picture of the cross is, our primary symbol, from death to life. So there’s so much to say about what is happening, and what happened with Charlie’s life. I think one of the primary things is, when we see this resurgence back to Christianity from his life, it means his life has such a significant Christian impact.

We deal with pundits and talk to pundits, politicians, all this kind of stuff. They’re not all Christians. They all say “God bless America,” but they don’t all have a genuine faith that when their absence is here, everybody’s talking about their faith. And that’s really a profound thing. And because he lived so connected to his faith and so committed to God and his Savior Jesus Christ and all of those kind of things. His absence meant, oh, my gosh, I’m missing this guy that was a voice that helped me understand Christianity and it finally was making sense and his mastery of apologetics.

I was listening to Rogan and Ian Carroll Smith last night and Ian was talking about he’d never really listened to Charlie and then he just binged hours and hours and hours. I love that because Charlie was talking about truth, virtue, beauty, God, Jesus, all of this stuff that can save America.

[SADLER] You were invited to Charlie’s Medal of Freedom Award that he was given by President Trump at the White House. Erika attended, gave some beautiful remarks. I think she’s one of the great orators of our time and of our generation, not of my generation, of a younger generation. Can you tell us what that day was like when you heard the news of his assassination and walk me through the honor that President Trump bestowed on Charlie Kirk?

[ENGELHARDT] That timeline is a handful of weeks, but my wife and I were on our 20th wedding anniversary in Rome, and I had a text from our COO that there was an emergency and within probably five minutes I was bombarded with text messages and seeing the graphic imagery and the incredible shock to your system when you see your friend bleed out in front of the world. I heard a report of a Navy SEAL operator, this is a guy who sees action. And he said, I’ve seen people die. I’ve been in war. And this is about one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen, even from the camera. And so, you know, it was so incredibly horrible and shocking and graphic. And the concussion went around the whole world. You know, we’re in Rome. I’m seeing in the papers the next day. Like, it’s everywhere.

And then, it’s a moment of darkness. It’s days of darkness and you’re kind of half crying for days and days. And I was on my mutual friend’s show, you probably know David Harris Jr., but as soon as I showed up on his show, he just started weeping as soon as my face appeared on the video. That’s how shocking it is. But then after, the aftermath and seeing the momentum, people come to Christ and churches get filled. And our church in New York City, King’s Church, New York City is up 50% in attendance. We just see such an incredible resurgence of people wanting to be connected to God, wanting to know God. And then culminating really at the White House.

You know, Kelly, it was like this moment of… it was a dark, gross, dreary Washington, D.C. day and cold and not fun. And then that day, you know, the day when it happened, I brought my sunglasses just because I was like, I wonder if it’s going to get sunny this afternoon, just had a feeling it was. By the time we got to the White House, the sun was breaking through the clouds. And even President Trump in his remark, he was like, “Look at this day. It’s the most beautiful day of all time.” You know, that whole thing was so fun that he was recognizing — we were all recognizing — there’s something divine there. There’s something really special. It feels like heaven is watching, and it was, obviously, but there’s like this breakthrough moment that’s happening, not just related to Charlie’s life, but what Charlie was standing for, which is the restoration of our United States of America and the hope of freedom and God’s ideas liberating the world from the shackles of socialism and wokeness and Marxism and all the other isms that plague our time right now. And so I was like kind of mesmerized by the beauty of it all.