How Charlie Kirk Became A Voice Of Conservative Youth

Fresh Air

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🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination on Sept. 10, NYT reporter Robert Draper talks with Terry Gross about the conservative activist's rise and legacy. Draper profiled Kirk earlier this year and stayed in touch up to the day before his death. We also discuss right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes, a rival of Kirk’s with a large following.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you have a question that no one in your life can help with?
0:03.2	Something that makes the people around you go, yikes, what a weird question.
0:07.0	Well, Freak, here on How to Do Everything, we want to help you out.
0:10.4	Each week, we get fantastic experts to answer your questions.
0:14.0	People like U.S. Poet Laureate Adelimone, bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, and rapper Rick Ross.
0:19.7	Season two, just launched to go listen to How to Do Everything from NPR.
0:24.2	This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross.
0:26.8	The tragic assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk seems to have divided America
0:32.6	even more. President Donald Trump and some members of his administration started blaming the, quote, radical left before anything was even known about the killer's motivation.
0:43.0	Democrats and Republicans have grown more worried about their own security, but many Americans who didn't follow Kirk or closely follow politics may not have known much about him until he was murdered. My guest Robert Draper profiled
0:56.8	Charlie Kirk earlier this year in the New York Times Magazine. Draper covers the political dynamics of the
1:02.7	right wing. He's also profiled the right wing extremist Nick Fuentes, who was a rival of Kirk's,
1:08.6	with a large following of young white men, and Laura Lumer, a self-appointed Trump enforcer,
1:14.2	who goes after people who she sees as disloyal to Trump, trying and sometimes succeeding in getting them fired or leaving office.
1:22.5	Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 and grew it into what Draper describes as the preeminent
1:29.2	conservative youth organization. Kirk was so close with Trump that after Kirk's death,
1:35.0	Trump wrote on X, I love you, brother. We're going to talk about how Kirk became such a powerful
1:40.6	figure on the right and what he stood for. Robert Draper, welcome back to fresh air.
1:45.9	I've learned a lot from your writing. I want to start with, before we get to more about Charlie
1:51.4	Kirk himself, what do you think have been some of the most significant reactions to the assassination
1:57.6	coming from President Trump and within his administration.
2:02.4	Sure. Terry, thanks for having me on. I think among the most significant reactions from President Trump
	...

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