Tucker Carlson remembers Charlie Kirk on a special edition of “The Charlie Kirk Show” hosted by Vice President JD Vance.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. Joining me now is my friend and a close friend of Charlie, the great Tucker Carlson. Tucker, thank you so much for being here. And we have 10 minutes, Tucker. And just to give you guys at home a little behind the scenes, the producer just showed Tucker a sign that said wrap. And Tucker looked at it and said, this is expand on your point, right? So if we end up going 35 minutes, you’ll know it’s not the host’s fault. It’s Tucker Carlson’s fault. TUCKER CARLSON: We read what we want to read. VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Tucker, I think you know this, and some of you know this, because I wrote about it on X.com. But when X.com was Twitter, I did an interview with the Tucker Carlson Tonight Show on Fox News. And I got a message from a guy named Charlie Kirk that said, you did a great job. I really liked what you said. And let’s keep in touch. And that began the start of my friendship with Charlie Kirk. That was the first time I had ever communicated with Charlie Kirk. So you’ve known him for a long time. You talked to him about a lot of issues. And I want to talk in part about how to honor Charlie’s legacy, because I think that he modeled civil discourse within the right. He accepted there were big disagreements on all these issues, but he thought we were all on the same team and we could debate this stuff, but actually have a drink at the end of the day and recognize that we were all trying to accomplish fundamentally the good of the country. So I want to talk a little bit about that. Before I get there, just tell me about your buddy, Charlie Kirk. What was he like? What did people who only know him from radio or TV not appreciate about what a good guy was? TUCKER CARLSON: His Christianity was sincere and his commitment to Jesus was totally sincere. And it, you know, sometimes isn’t, especially in public figures who throw out Bible verses they don’t understand and stuff like that. But in his case, not speaking in particular, but in his case it informed every single part of his life from his marriage, the way he treated his children, to the way he treated his staff, to the way he approached disagreement, to the way he thought of other people, which was always primarily as people first. And that was, you know, he was much younger than I am and I met him when he was a teenager. So he’s literally the age of one of my children. So it was kind of hard to take him seriously at first. And over the years that I knew him, more than 10 years, I ended up learning from him. And I’m not just saying this because he’s passed. I mean that sincerely. And the main thing that I learned from him was how to disagree with people on topics that you take very seriously and that they take very seriously without hating them, without feeling bitterness. I mean he, it wasn’t, you know, people knew what was going on behind the scenes. You know, there was a lot going on behind the scenes. And it was intense. And it was bitter. And, you know, because the divide, particularly in foreign policy questions, is very real in the Republican Party. You know, it’s like the neocons versus the realists or however you want to describe it. He was on the realist side for sure. But he was never mad at the people who disagreed with him. He liked them as people. He agreed with them on some things. And he would always say that. You know, in private he would say that. And, you know, I was involved in it because people were mad at him for having me at his conferences or for talking to me. And so we had cause to talk about it a lot up until he was assassinated. And I was so struck the whole time. I would say, you know, I would use the ugly language I’m famous for in private. And he would never talk like that. He would say, well, you know, I agree with him on this, but obviously I’m on your side on that. And he just never forgot there was a person behind the views. And that inspired me. And God commands that of us. That’s a real commandment in my opinion. VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: And he lived it. That’s exactly right, Tucker. He treated everybody with respect. And because he genuinely loved people and he genuinely wanted their salvation, he wanted them to have a relationship with God, he wanted them to know the truth, he always treated them with respect, maybe especially when he disagreed with them. And I think about this. So you talked about foreign policy. That is one of the big divides on the American right right now. And the thing that Charlie seemed to understand intuitively is that the coalition that made Donald Trump the president of the United States and J.D. Vance the vice president of the United States, it included Tucker Carlson, but also Ben Shapiro. It included people who did disagree vociferously, but agreed on 70 or 80 percent of issues. And fundamentally the question Charlie would ask is, if you’re a good faith person and you’re trying to do right, then you are part of the big ten. And I think that’s something that we have to try to model together because Charlie’s no longer around to do it for us. And one way in particular, I was very touched by this. I actually texted Mark about this because you very generously have put out some donation link to help support Charlie’s family. And think about it. Erica and the kids, most importantly, they’re grieving the loss of a dear husband and father. But some of us, we’re going to have to step in and fill the gap to provide for them in a way that Charlie no longer can’t because he was taken down by an assassin’s bullet. You know who I saw share that link? It was Mark Levin. And I thought it was a really good example of how Charlie was able to bring people together from across our movement so long as we were operating in good faith. That was the question. If you were good faith, you’re on his team. TUCKER CARLSON: That is exactly right. Good faith is the measure. And I have to say, I think now is exactly the wrong time to appropriate the memory of someone and the emotion that comes with that, the really intense emotion that all of us feel in his murder, and use it for your own parochial ends. Like, he stood for this. And I think the reason that Charlie was able to bridge the gap, particularly in foreign policy, is because he had, for example, genuine affection for Israel, which he expressed to me in private many, many times. Like, I love Israel. I don’t think we should have another forever war, regime change war against Iran. And I think that made complete sense to me. I sort of agree with that, actually. And so it allowed both sides to talk to him because they felt like this person doesn’t hate me. It doesn’t need to get existential. It’s not about disliking me or some weird bigotry. But I don’t think it’s helpful for people to jump in, particularly foreign heads of state, to say this is what he lived for, my cause, or whatever. That’s disgusting, actually. Don’t do that. That turns everybody off. You don’t help your own cause by doing that. And it’s also literally untrue. So I just hope that we can continue in, I’m not exaggerating, the spirit that he operated in, which is one of love for other people, including people we disagree with, and don’t make it as small bore as that. That doesn’t help. VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Yeah, so one of the issues, Tucker, and I agree with you, that he would express disagreements with the administration on, there are two that jump out. One, Charlie was a hardliner on immigration. He wanted us to control our borders as much as possible. He wanted us to ramp up the deportations. I remember having conversations with Charlie where he would say, why aren’t the deportations higher? Why aren’t you doing more? And I would talk to him. But it wasn’t, hey, I don’t understand this, or I disagree with you, and therefore I’m going to blast you and assume that you’re in bad faith. It’s, I’m a free citizen. I love you guys. I supported you guys. And I’m going to use my platform to try to accomplish as much good as I possibly can. And I think that made him such an effective operator. And I would talk to Charlie. I’d say, Charlie, well, look, here are the reasons why, and as you’ve seen, Tucker, we’ve ramped up deportation numbers. We have actually, there are a lot of people who are self-deporting because they don’t want to be in a country knowing that eventually immigration enforcement will happen. But I think part of that success comes from people like Charlie applying pressure. Pressure as a friend. Pressure as somebody who cares deeply about the issue. And that’s true also, I know we have about 90 seconds left, but that’s true about foreign policy. Like, I remember Charlie calling me and saying, I’m really worried. And this was back in the summer when the Iran strikes were sort of first being contemplated. He said, I’m really worried this is going to become another regime change war in the Middle East that we get trapped in. And I said, Charlie, first of all, like, have some faith here. The President of the United States is not a believer in perpetual war. He knows the mistakes of Iraq and Afghanistan. He doesn’t want to repeat them. But Charlie was very clear that he could support Israel. And by the way, he did eventually support the strikes on the nuclear facility while simultaneously saying, no more. This can’t become a bigger thing. This can’t become a broader thing. And again, I think he modeled a really good way of applying pressure, of disagreeing when you do disagree, but also recognizing that so long as you’re operating in good faith, we’re all part of the team. And that’s something I’m going to try to take from Charlie’s legacy is, not that we’re always right, not that we can’t take criticism, but that we all should try to work together. TUCKER CARLSON: It did worry me, because I think your description is perfect. He was one of the very few who took that message and stood by it, I mean, right to the very end. This cannot get bigger. We don’t want another regime change war. But man, some of the people who send money to Turning Point, his donors, were very tough on him. So tough on him that I could feel it. You know, I talked to him a lot in the last few months, and he was under enormous pressure. He never bent. He never became bitter. He kept his integrity to the very end. To the very end. And I just think it’s important to say that, because it’s true.

RealClearPolitics Videos