Transcript for Ask Charlie Anything 189: Will Butker Survive? How To Learn Better? Pick A Veep ASAP?

Hey everybody, the AMA asked me anything where if you are a member at members. Charlie Kirk dot com members. Charlie Kirk dot com. You get to submit your questions, Blake Neth, and I take them for you guys submitted some great ones. Really embracing the fact that I'm hosting right now along with Blake. While Charlie's way, he's going to be back on Monday. But there's some great questions here. We get into the behind the scenes of the Charlie Kirk show. What is really like how we come up with topics, how we do research, how we retain information, This is a really hands-on episode. I love doing it. If you want to be a part of this show next week, if you want to ask Charlie questions, join members. Charlie Kirk dot com. That's members. Charlie Kirk dot com. Hopefully you take us up on that and join our growing community of Charlie Kirk exclusive members. So buckle up. Here we go.

I'm joined by the esteemed The one and only Blake Neff, one of the other producers on the show. Welcome, welcome, Blake. I'm a steamed now. Yes, you are. Of course you are. Oh, man. You're also one of the hosts of Thought Crime, Thought Crime Thursdays. Sort of one of our anchors of that show. So Blake, I'm going to, you know, kick it to you. You get the first one here. So this is a, I guess from Bill, I have a question not relating to being producers, but still curious, do you think the chiefs will release Harrison Butker? I am not sure what the rules are regarding firing football players, is that something you can Fire someone for Bill.

No, I agree with you. And I think the tie to sort of turned, I think he's getting a lot of support now. And I'm telling you, organizations watch Jersey sales like a hawk. So for example, when the Dodgers signed show, Hey, Otani, to a $700 million contract, not only did they defer a lot of that until after the contract was over to help save cap space, but that's a ton of money for one team to put up for one player. Why did they do it? Well, guess what? They made about a third of that up on your one jersey sales. That's how insane it can be. Well, especially with somebody like show, hey, I mean, he's an international talent. So he's selling jerseys in Japan and Korea. So The fact that his jersey is selling his popularity as it is, and to Blake's point, he's the number one, I think female fit jersey in the NFL right now. That's going to make a ton of money for the chiefs and listen, he didn't say anything that was truly wrong. Even if you're a, put your mind set on as a left-winger for a minute, you can't actually say he did anything

Well, in Charlie actually wrote an op-ed for the blaze about this. The blaze asked Charlie to do it because Charlie put up a tweet about it. And I just texted with the team over the blaze and said, how well did this do this? I was one of our top performers. Like people are really into this story. And by the way, here's one other clue that they're not going to get rid of Harrison Butker. This is the daughter of the chief's owner, apparently. I think her name's Gracie Hunter. and she just went on Fox and defended him play cut to a seven.

Well, that's a pretty incredible clip. I mean, that is the daughter of the owner defending his Christian faith and defending a woman like her mother who stayed home to be with, you know, the kids and raise the family. I mean, it's, it's, I would say that Harrison Bakker is in no danger of getting released from the chiefs. Would you agree? Like, yeah.

So my question is, how did Blake and Andrew meet Charlie and how did they start working for T.P. Thanks for all you do. Trish. I don't work for T.P.

Yeah. I work for that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. So we actually, yeah, the show exists and there's a media company that exists outside of turning point. And that's really Simple reason why turning point USA is a 501c3. It's nonpartisan. Yeah, it's conservative conservative ideas conservative values principles philosophies But it does not endorse candidates a lot of people don't understand this turning point TP USA turning point USA Does not endorse candidates it doesn't endorse political parties It's completely unaffiliated with all that now. There is something called turning point action, which is the 501c4 which has a scorecard, which judges the way people vote in Congress and in the Senate. It endorses political candidates. It endorses presidential candidates. It's actively involved in chasing ballots. So it's a whole different thing. I met Charlie. My career took me from Hollywood. I was working with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey launching TV shows and you know, Mark Burnett does survivor and he does the voice and he does shark tank and then he did the Bible series 80, the Bible continues and they sort of said, hey, who here is Christian can help us launch these Christian things and it was Hollywood, so I was like the only one. So next thing I know I'm going around Hollywood with in the country with Mark Burnett and launching the Bible series and 80, the Bible continues and Ben Hur And then launched a PR company after that, and then somehow we got connected with Charlie, and I ended up working with PragerU and the Blaze, and turning point USA. And then from there, I went on to Charlie and I got closer to business, and we launched this podcast, and we launched the radio show. And now we simultaneously cast on Real America's voice for the first two hours, and it's been a massive, massive success. So that's how I met Charlie's through my work in Hollywood. I was connected with a lot of press. I wanted to help Charlie with his press and then it kind of became a whole thing. So Blake, how do you know Charlie?

Yeah, but I there was other people trying to get Blake to work for him and I had to like elbow him off. So we won't we don't have to get into that but it's fine.

Question from Bruce who picks the podcast bumper music and where can I get the playlist? I don't know if we have Michael if he's if he's visible or not, but I think he's just in the studio.

This is maybe two in the weeds, but for radio, you can play, if it's just radio only, you can play certain types of music, more of the popular stuff that you would be with here on the radio, songs you would know. Once we started, a simulcasting on Real America's Voice and Salem News Channel, then that became a licensing issue. So yeah, Michael does a great job with that, so hat tip to Michael. If you're watching, I believe you are. Next question from Boot Bruce. We don't have to say too long on this because we've actually covered it before, but scouting America sent a couple emails of this last week. I'm an active adult volunteer and I believe it's not totally ruined and can and should be saved. That was the second question from Bruce. Blake, what do you think? Can scouting America formally boy scouts of America? Can it be saved? Is it worth sticking in there?

Yeah, I have two thoughts on this real quick. I was not a boy scout like Charlie and Blake. However, organizationally, you can see these, this happened in lots of different organizations, organizations that are not expressly conservative, tend to drift liberal over time. It's just, it's like a law of nature. But I will say, Bruce, if you're involved at a local level, you absolutely have the ability to ensure that your local troop is conservative, that it is, holds these traditional values and that upholds the the way scouting's been done for a long time. And the second thought is the only way that you get Boy Scouts back in scouting America's saved organization at a macro level is to get new leadership in and somebody that has the courage to radically about face and say listen it wasn't it wasn't broke. We didn't need to fix it. We actually broke it by trying to do this thing. So we're going back to the way it was. If you get bold leadership in there, I mean, I think it's worth praying for because I think the Boy Scouts of America truly that important to some of these formative years for young men like Charlie and Blake and turning them into the men that they've become. So I hope, you know, I'm going to hope for it. I'm going to pray for it. And so you should absolutely keep trying. But yeah, there are alternatives that are popping up whether any of those could match the level and scope that Boy Scouts reached is a big question. Another question from Beth, do either of you enjoy hosting? How do you decide who gets to host when Charlie is away? Do I like hosting? I do like hosting. I can tell you that I have about five other jobs that I also have to do during the day. So adding show prep, there is a level of show prep that you have to do when you host as opposed to produce. It's deeper. You have to, you have to know the details more intimately you have to kind of understand where you're going to go you have to map it out so you end up I think this morning I got up at five thirty and I started working on on show prep and what I wanted to do with the show today so it's a lot more work actually and you know I for those of you watching to understand what Charlie does on a daily basis I'm maybe one of the few people that has eyes on just how intense that preparation is. Charlie runs two organizations, you know, about $150 million a year. He's in charge of 500 staff, not to mention the team that we have here. So there's a lot of responsibilities on Charlie's shoulders on a daily basis and to also host a radio show, deal with donors, deal with politicians, leaders, organizations that are all Uh, sort of clamoring for his time is a truly herculine and feet that he pulls off every day and I just get a small glimpse of that when I when I host so I will say, yes, I enjoy it, but it is a lot. It's a it's a ton of work when we take it really seriously and, um, you know, thankfully Blake is also on the team and does a great job helping us prep for each show. Like, do you like being on, uh, behind the microphone?

You got crime. And like I said, you're kind of the anchor of thought crime. You, you helped to determine a lot of the directions, what's that, which that show goes. And for those of you don't know, we, we stream it live on rumble on Thursday nights. And then we released it on the podcast on Saturdays. And so it's, you know, that's a show that's more conversational, having Blake on, you know, even on these AMAs makes it somehow, sometimes more fun because we can just kind of banter back and forth and I can key off something he says and vice versa. So I think that's really fun. As far as how we choose who guest hosts when Charlie's away, I mean, I'm kind of the guest host, Charlie just says, hey, you're hosting and I, you know, and then I do it. So there's that. And I was actually, it's funny enough, backstory. Before we launched into radio I was actually I don't know if auditioning is the right word, but I was auditioning I guess for a job To guest host a radio show in Los Angeles with Salem part of their morning show. They ended up going with Grant Stinchfield, so he's so I don't like him. I'm kidding. It's fine. I like him just fine. He's great So I don't know. It's something that I was a rush baby. I grew up with radio. I love radio. I love the microphone. I love the medium. And I know Charlie does too. That's why I went into it. So anyways, I hope that answers your question. Blake, do you want to take the next one?

Let me say this too because I'm often involved in those conversations. We say no to a bunch like a bunch a bunch of sponsors that come up. I would say the majority we say no to so yes Charlie believes in the products and we have a there's a whole meat and Greek get to know you process before we bring a sponsor on so rest assured they've been vetted and we do endorse them Andrew and Blake Are there certain topics some people on the team are more well versed in than others? How do you decide who takes the lead on what Brad? Blake is our resident expert on European history and the various What do you, I don't even know, calm region states districts of Germany and Mexico.

Yeah, and I would say Blake, you have a brain of a kind of almost like a lawyer. Yeah, you almost went a lot of times went to law school. But you do Blake is the guy that's on all the chats with all the like lawyers and the legal nerds and the kind of you had you're on those group chats. I'm on a lot of group chats with like influencers and reporters and that decent number of lawmakers as well. And we're trying to stay and stay in touch with a lot of those things. And I'm constantly getting pitched stories from a lot of people. So I have to kind of do preliminary investigation of if something's interesting or if it's catchy. And then I really tend to be very, I'm very hard-lined when it comes to immigration. So that's one of my pet issues, immigration and then election integrity. A lot of the COVID stuff I'll play point on. I think that's kind of a good rundown of our skillset. And again, if you want obscure random European history, you know, Blake, Blake is your guy. Blake say something random about like the Vikings or something or like the like what's something random that you've learned recently that's actually interesting.

See, Remin, Blake and his random, his random history.

Okay, this is Kim. Oh wait, you had one Blake that you wanted to get to. Hold on, let me bring this up. You can go ahead and take it if you want Blake.

Blake, where do you get your inspiration for the books you read? I mean, it's just group chats.

I learned through doing, I'm more of a kinetic learner, so I resonate with Josiah. Because of my job, oftentimes I have to write things down, so I'll research something, I'll write something, and by the way, having to summarize your learning is a great way to kind of get to the point of figuring out what you believe about them. So I would recommend that I know it's kind of like doing a book report, but I happen to have a job where that happens a lot. So I'm benefit in that way. Let's go to another question here. This is from Kim Hi there. I'm a member and I love watching the episodes without ads. My question is from being producers. Do you see messages or data on the back end that points to things looking up for the next generation or the next election? Do you see more people gravitating toward conservative media? I'll take the point on this if you want to follow up Blake. I would say Conservative media is absolutely growing. A lot of the incumbent powers in the media sphere have had massive layoffs. They've seen a decline in viewership. And by the way, the old way of consuming media, whether that be through Fox or anything on TV and there's nothing against Fox, that that way is slowly dying. I had there was one mega influencer I was talking to yesterday called it a zombie. And make no mistake when Trump is off the scene, which is going to be inevitable. You are going to see broadcast media take a huge step back. And what's happening now is that people are consuming a lot more content over YouTube, rumble, podcasting. So people tend to be multi-platform. So sometimes they'll watch the show and then they'll check out the podcast and they'll check out the podcast and they'll watch the live show and listen to it on radio. So that is happening more and more and more. And the way that even some of these platforms like YouTube and Rumble are working, they're acting more and more like TV platforms. So you can watch it on your big screen at home and just watch Rumble that way. So everything's kind of moving that way. And what that's done is it's created an opening for alternative media to essentially be get almost a par in a lot of different ways with traditional forms of media. And the traditional forms of media had gatekeepers. very positive. They didn't want to work with conservatives as much. And there was implications when it came to advertisers and brands. So it tended to have a gatekeeper effect. That's all changed. Everything's different now. And if you look at the podcast list, guess what? The top podcast, which we're honored to be on that list all the time, is mostly conservatives. And then you got like the New York Times in MPR. It's about it. And Potsay of America, which is garbage. But that is the top is conservative personalities. And so that's just the way that things are happening. And it's having an impact now with Elon Musk buying Twitter and making it turn it into X. Our ideas are now have free reign to get in most places. Now there are some corners of the media ecosystem where we're not allowed still. And I think that, but you're seeing a big change. It is growing. And there are massive opportunities in the future. So, I would say, you know, all systems go. And one last point, I'll say, TikTok. We weren't even on TikTok about six weeks ago. Charlie is now doing 10 million views a day or more. We had for quite a day with 14 million views on TikTok. Those are conservative ideas, conservative debates, confronting ideas, and guess who's consuming it? 18 to 24-year-olds. And now they come up to him on campus to say, I love your TikTok. I love what you're doing. So HatTip to Ryan on our team who really pushed for that to happen and HatTip to Congress for the terrible Pfizer vote because that's when Charlie had had enough of the censorship regime and just had screwed up. We're going to get on TikTok. I don't want to anything else censored or banned or whatever. So data behind the next generation, getting more conservative, look at TikTok, look at the alternative media landscape where we're making big strides, Salem, Real America's voice, this show, a few others. we can point to real success in that way. Do you want to comment on the behind-the-scenes metrics or data points about the next generation that you've seen?

fragmentation, you know, you look at somebody like Don Laman, right? Don, Don Laman existed within a CNN box, and that was the reason his reason for being a known person, a known commodity, and then he gets removed from CNN, fired from CNN, and then starts an ex show. I have seen a few people making fun of the metrics there. So I don't think it would be a huge leap for me to say it's not been a huge success. He's struggling to find traction in that way. And that's really what this new marketplace of media, this fragmentation is creating is people that are worth watching and worth listening to. Their ideas are resonating. They find success and they find it pretty quickly. They grow pretty quickly. If you're an untowned hack that needs a built-in audience and hide behind a network It's not going to go so well for you. I think one of the more interesting points is like, you look at like Chris Cuomo on News Nation. He's, you know, all of a sudden you're hearing a lot about him because he's going after COVID. I think it's, I think it's fascinating to see what happens to a lot of these people that you assume are absolute hacks. And I'm not saying Chris Cuomo isn't an absolute hack. But he's, he's finding kind of a middle ground Blake that's, you know, he wouldn't have done if he was stuck behind a news desk at CNN.

OK. I think we're going to get to two more questions before we have to go here. I'll start with this one. I love when Charlie hosts the show and I listen to all three hours daily plus that crimes. Well, thank you so much. Freedom night in America, et cetera. So Charlie and your team are part of my daily routine. That's wonderful to hear. However, I just wanted to say I also love when Andrew hosts. Well, that is very nice to hear. He is always so grateful and is constantly saying how thankful he is for the audience and to get to spend time with us on the show. I am extremely thankful for this audience. This audience is made the life I get to live possible. And I think we have the best audience in the movement and there's literally millions of you. And that blows my mind almost every day. I appreciate his positive attitude and want to say thank you to him. Well, thank you. And to Blake when he hosts while I love watching Charlie, Charlie, please don't take this the wrong way. I do enjoy getting different perspectives when he is away. Well, that's great. Blake, isn't that nice to hear? I think that's nice to hear. I just like that it's when they get to me.

Yeah, Blake is our resident contrarian, but honestly, I love that too because Blake challenges some of our ideas and makes them better. And sometimes we come out hot with a take and he's like, ah, what about this? And then we end up finding a more creative way through a problem that the country's facing or it's in the news. and it's elevated, uh, I think even more by that. Um, okay. Next question from McCell. Wouldn't it be beneficial for Trump to name his vice president now, so at least someone can be out campaigning while he is stuck in these frivolous trials, McCell? What do you think, Blake? Or is it Michael?

Yeah. You stole my line. Yeah, that that was going to be my one counterpoint is you basically have Doug Bergham and Kristino and, uh, Leastafana and JD Vance and Vivek. All these guys vying for that spot, Dr. Ben Carson. Um, and they're all out working really hard. And if you pick a Veep, they won't have that incentive. And right now they're all just sort of this chorus of voices that are supporting you. So that's my angle. Thanks so much for listening everybody. Talk to you soon.