Politically Unstable: Honoring Charlie Kirk's legacy

Video

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

OPINION:

Charlie Kirk’s impact on American politics will never be forgotten, and in the wake of his assassination, a revival is taking place across the country.

Washington Times Commentary Editor Kelly Sadler and Young America’s Foundation president Scott Walker honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy on Politically Unstable and discuss the importance of continuing to reach out to young people on college campuses.

[SADLER] Talking to conservatives, talking to liberals, talking to students to try to bring them into the conservative movement and working jointly with Turning Point USA on these college campuses… Scott, I know that you have written several columns about Charlie Kirk’s legacy. Can you tell our viewers and listeners kind of what Charlie Kirk meant to you and meant to the movement and how your organization will be carrying on some of his work?

[WALKER] A lot of students are hurting. They’re determined. They’re not backing down. They’re not backing away. But I don’t think we can overlook the fact that for them, this is the closest many of these kids in this generation get to something like President Kennedy being shot or 9/11. This has really been devastating for them. And I think we’ve had a hunker down and really show them our love and our support as people grieve, and then together figure out how we move forward.

[SADLER] Yeah. We learned that Erika Kirk, Charlie’s wife, is taking over Turning Point USA. She’s going to be the CEO. She was unanimously confirmed by the board. And she gave a loving tribute shortly after his death, vowing that his work would continue and his legacy would continue. And I had the privilege of working with Charlie Kirk when I was at the White House organizing a millennials event. The conventional thought among Republicans at the time was that the Baby Boomer generation was what’s gonna win us elections. We’ve kind of lost these millennials until they grow up, get married, have a family, start paying taxes, and then and only then are they persuadable. But Charlie Kirk came in and said, “No, you’ve got to go out on these college campuses.” Yes, most of them are leftist havens. It is like walking into the lion’s den. But these students, the youth, are hungry for a different perspective. They want to debate, they want to engage. And many times when Charlie went out on these campuses, the very first people in line to talk to him were people who opposed his views and wanted the debate.

And he famously said, if we can’t debate and have open conversation, when the debate ends, that’s when the violence starts. And that is so true. Given your work on college campuses, I know that many conservative speakers have come and have had to have security teams around them. A lot of them have been canceled. They’ve been scheduled to speak, but because of liberal outrage and the college campuses not being able to secure their safety, they’ve canceled their appearances. Moving forward, what should college administrators do? Should they be actively working with your organization to bring more conservative speakers to college campuses and guarantee their safety, even though security costs might escalate?

And are the kids on campuses hungry for this type of debate to continue?

[WALKER] Well, they absolutely are. There’s a real hunger out there to have real debate. Two of the things we’ve seen for years with this generation, this Gen Z generation, is that they want authentic exchanges and they want fairness. And we can’t concede any territory. I think Charlie was right. But we’ve got to be mindful going forward. A phrase I used the other night when we did a Zoom conference call with students across the country, just to kind of let them know what would come next and to hear from them was, “safe but strong.” I think there’s these feelings out there that I hear from students that early on they were scared, they were grieving, they were sad, they were devastated. At the same time, they were devoted, they were dedicated, they were ready to go out and do even more. And so we need to show students, no matter who they’re involved with, no matter what the group on the conservative side, that we’re gonna make sure they’re safe, but that we can be strong again, that we can’t back down.