Read the full transcript of conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson’s remarks during the Charlie Kirk memorial service at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, September 21, 2025.
TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, that made me emotional, made me emotional to see that. Susie Wiles had tears in her eyes, which you don’t often see in politics, but it’s real. This is the most unbelievable thing I think I’ve ever seen. And I don’t… Whatever happens next in America, I hope it’s in this direction, because God is here, and you can feel it. And Charlie would have loved this, not just because he loved large groups of people, but because ultimately he was a Christian evangelist.
A Story of Truth and Opposition
And it actually reminds me of my favorite story ever. So it’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and Jesus shows up, and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the truth about people, and they hate it. And they just go bonkers. They hate it. And they become obsessed with making him stop. “This guy’s got to stop talking. We’ve got to shut this guy up.”
And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamplit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about what do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? “We must make him stop talking.” And there’s always one guy with a bright idea, and I can just hear him say, “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we just kill him? That’ll shut him up. That’ll fix the problem.”
It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way. Everything is inverted, and the Beatitudes tell it, I think, the most crisply. Everything is sort of the opposite of what you think it’s going to be.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” That is true, and you can feel it here.
Charlie’s Gospel Message
The thing about Charlie’s message, I’ve thought a lot about it, and I’m trying not to be emotional because in addition to everything else, he was a wonderful man and a decent man and one of those rare people you meet who you just groove with in conversation and have these very intense conversations that you don’t stop thinking about, which is my experience with him.
The main thing about Charlie and his message, he was bringing the gospel to the country. He was doing the thing that the people in charge hate most, which is calling for them to repent.
So how is Charlie’s message different? And Charlie was the political person who was deeply interested in coalition building and getting the right people in office because he knew that vast improvements are possible politically, but he also knew that politics is not the final answer, it can’t answer the deepest questions, actually. That the only real solution is Jesus.
Christianity vs. Politics
And the reason, it’s really simple. Politics at its core is the process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the gospel message, the message of Jesus, begins with repentance. Christianity calls upon you to change.
Our core prayer, given to us by Jesus, the Lord’s prayer, demands that we forgive other people, but preceding that is a request for our forgiveness. In other words, “forgive us our sins,” meditate on what we’ve done wrong, how we’ve fallen short, and then it becomes possible to forgive other people. That is a call to change our hearts from Jesus, and that is the only way forward in this country. That is the only solution to where we all know we’re going. And Charlie knew where we were going without that.
That is not a call for being politically passive, of course not. I stood on many stages with Charlie calling for various people to be elected, particularly Donald Trump, and I’m proud of that. It’s only an acknowledgment that what Charlie was really saying is that change begins, the only change that matters, when we repent of our sins. We, me. A recognition that the real problem is me, and how fallen I am.
Charlie’s Fearlessness
And that was the reason that Charlie was fearless at all times, truly fearless to his last moment. He was unafraid, he was not defensive, and there was no hate in his heart. I know that because I’ve got a little hate compartment in my heart, and I would often express that to Charlie about various people, and he would always say, always say, “that’s a sad person, that’s a broken person, that’s a person who needs help, that’s a person who needs Jesus.” He said that in private, because he meant it.
God’s Light Burns Brighter
So I guess I would just say this gathering, and God’s presence, God’s very obvious presence in this room, the presence of Jesus, is a reminder of what we’ve known for 2,000 years, which is any attempt to extinguish the light causes it to burn brighter. Every single time.
So as we proceed into whatever comes next, and clearly something’s coming next, remember this moment, remember being in a room with the Holy Spirit coming like a tuning fork. This is the way. Right here. This is the way. And that is what Charlie Kirk was saying underneath it all. Thank you.
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