This week on the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, Bob Dutko and John Rush reflect on the massive memorial for Charlie Kirk, where hundreds of millions worldwide witnessed a display of faith, forgiveness, and unity in Christ. From worship filling State Farm Stadium to Erica Kirk’s public words of forgiveness, the event stood in stark contrast to the riots and destruction often associated with leftist outrage. The hosts discuss the future of Turning Point USA, Erica Kirk’s leadership, and whether a rising star will emerge to continue Charlie’s legacy.
They also cover Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial return to late night after spreading
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events, and politics through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time, she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Dutko, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
Back with another week of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast with myself, Bob Dutko, John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live, going to be back with us next week. So we’ll just make fun of him behind his back.
SPEAKER 02 :
He’s still alive. He’s just not with us.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
How are you doing? I’m good, Bob. Alive but not with us. He’s alive. He’s just not with us.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I know. And not with us kind of sounds – all right. Well, whatever.
SPEAKER 02 :
Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’ve got a few things to talk about this week, everybody.
SPEAKER 02 :
Bob, there’s never anything to talk about. We have to dig stuff up every week to try to figure this out. You know what? It’s such a slow news day.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. One of the suburbs of Detroit is putting in a new playscape.
SPEAKER 02 :
There we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
There we go. Let’s see. We’re going to talk about Charlie Kirk’s memorial. We’re going to talk about Jimmy Kimmel coming back, and he gave his tearful… mea culpa, which was not a mea culpa at all. We’ll discuss that. And then Donald Trump’s United Nations speech as well, that the press is having a meltdown over. But I’ll tell you, I loved seeing the nations of the world being told what they need to be told by somebody. But we’re going to start with Charlie Kirk’s memorial. I didn’t sit there, John, and watch the whole thing, but I got to tell you, there were some powerful takeaways for me on this. One of them was, that if you watch the beginning of this, you had Chris Tomlin, several different Christian singers, and they were just singing praise and worship songs in the State Farm Stadium. You got like 70,000 people in there, and then another 20,000 or so in overflow venues. But then there were also 100 million streams of That doesn’t mean there were 100 million sets of eyeballs. There would have been more than that because your average streamer is not watching it alone. Usually people watch with someone streaming. So really, you probably had anywhere from 200 to 500 million sets of eyeballs watching this. And to me, what they saw, first of all, is… When the liberal left is angered about something, think George Floyd, you see cities burned down and rioting and looting and people being killed and everything else. Here, you have one of the most beloved figures in conservative politics and Christianity and all of that, and he’s gunned it down so And we see all the left-wing rhetoric that fed into this. And what is the response? Hundreds of millions of people got to see not one building burned down, not one window smashed, not one fire set, not one person killed, nothing at all. A bunch of people raising their hands, closing their eyes, praising God, praying. And then, of course, to see the widow of Charlie Kirk, Erica Kirk, come out there and say, because Christ forgave us, I forgive him, that young man. who shot her husband. To me, this is powerful, John.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, very.
SPEAKER 04 :
The world got to see on display how the quote-unquote MAGA movement, who we really are at the core when something like this happens. And they got to see the gospel message, the Gospel 101 being preached. And there was even an altar call. I don’t know if you saw that, but the pastor of Charlie Kirk He gave the gospel message, explained the blood on the cross of Jesus Christ to shed for your sins, and everybody stay seated. And if you would like to accept Jesus Christ as Savior, stand up. And you saw people standing up all over that stadium, John. So I just thought it was a very, very powerful thing for hundreds of millions of people to see.
SPEAKER 02 :
Agreed. Like you, I saw a few excerpts here and there. I did not watch all of it. I had some listeners that called in Monday, of course, that watched the whole thing and just said how powerful the whole event was. I knew some folks from Denver that flew down, attended the actual ceremony, and again said it was just moving and one of the greatest things they’d ever been to. Looking back on it, is it something that I wish I would have flown down to? I don’t know, Bob. I mean, on the same token, I’ve got, you know, my own family, my own life, lots of other things going on. And not that I would not want to take time away to go do that as, you know, probably one of the largest events that we’ve seen in quite some time. But you know what? At the end of the day, it happened. The folks that were there were moved by it. Folks that have watched it are moved by it. You can still watch it. So the reality is, Bob, that movement is not going to stop. Anyway, shape or form, I did get a little news thing that was sent to me this morning from Turning Point USA whereby they feel after all of this is said and done, even with some of the attrition in some of their campus groups, that they should have a Turning Point USA in every single college campus across the U.S. when this is all said and done.
SPEAKER 04 :
They really should. And there is no doubt that the movement itself is certainly going to continue. But so let’s just remember, folks, we got to have people who are on the political spectrum, maybe the centrists and the moderates and maybe even some of the – you know, centrist Democrats or whatever, that have this caricature that’s been created in their minds of who MAGA people are, who the Trump supporters are, who the conservative Christians, you know, the religious right, who we are. And there’s this caricature created of us. And I just, John, I got to wonder how many people Watching that and watching the speakers and watching the forgiveness and watching the reaction from the people inside and then realizing there hasn’t been a single fire set anywhere, no riots, no nothing. Right. John, you’ve got to wonder how many of them are – not all of them, the hardcore liberals, nothing’s going to change their mind. But how many people may be in the center that have this image of who the left paints us to be, who Jimmy Kimmel paints us to be? How many of them are going, you know – I don’t know if I’ve been fed a bill of goods because I’m seeing with my own eyes that’s not who the Christian right is.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think the folks that are, as I always say, being on the left is – I fully believe, especially those that are fully on the left, it’s a mental illness. So to your point, those folks aren’t going to see – Anything, any way, shape or form. In fact, it’s evil against good. They’re going to do nothing but criticize even what happened. Call it a you know, it’s just it’s just fake. These guys aren’t like this all the time. You know, you’re not really seeing who the real mega folk are. I mean, that’s what the hardcore left is saying. But to your point, Bob, I do think there are some folks there, you know, that centrist or they call themselves unaffiliated and maybe they even have a little bit of a. of a bent towards the left, but they understand, you know, maybe even fiscally what things are things, you know, what’s going on in our national debt and so on. And so they’re looking at the right more and more. And to your point, I’ve got to believe that, that an event like this and what’s happened in the, the, the majority, well, not the majority, all of the response to your point, there hasn’t been a single, uh, you know, outlash from anybody on the right, any way, shape, or form in any city across the country, they’ve got to look at that and say, wait a minute, time out. This is not what’s been preached to us, you know, this entire, you know, eight years roughly, nine years now even. You know, this is not what’s been preached to us. Wait a minute, time out. To your point, maybe we have been fed a bill of goods.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, we have. And there’s a little bit more about this we want to talk about. Obviously, the future of TPUSA and what we think about that, is it going to get bigger than ever? Is this movement going to last? Or was this movement really dependent upon Charlie Kirk and Charlie Kirk only because of his skills? And so we’ll dive into that. And we’re also going to be talking later this hour about Jimmy Kimmel coming back and Donald Trump’s United Nations speech, his fiery speech that I think needed to be said. But anyway, a lot more to talk about. But we appreciate you folks supporting our sponsors to this podcast. We do SunPowerLED and, of course, Preborn. Preborn, as you know, is the main pro-life group that shows ultrasound images of unborn babies to expectant moms. And they do this in pro-life centers all across the country. And you know, when a mom sees a picture of her baby, it’s very rare that she goes through with an abortion. She usually lets her baby live. And by the way, commonly accepts Jesus Christ as Savior. So you can see why we want to show as many ultrasound images as possible. But the problem is not every pro-life center across America has an ultrasound machine in it. And the ones who do, it costs money to activate them. That’s where you folks come in. Now, a lot of you have given a pre-born already, and we very much appreciate that. I’m asking you if you’ll consider giving again. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to save one baby’s life, to stop one abortion. So pray about a number of abortions you’d be willing to stop. Take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, hey, that’s your gift to pre-born. And if you can buy an ultrasound machine, we need some of you to do that. They’re 15 grand apiece. You write it off on your taxes, and you’re saving thousands and thousands of babies’ lives. But for everybody else… Pray about a number, $28 times fill in the blank, all right? And 100% of what you give to Preborn goes to ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So here’s how you give, folks, two ways, online or on the phone. On the phone, just call 833-850-BABY, and they answer 24-7. So 833-850-BABY. Or go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn, CrawfordMediaGroup.net.com. Click on Preborn. We appreciate you giving. Support Preborn. And you know what? While you’re at CrawfordMediaGroup.net, John, they need to check out SunPowerLED and the great work that they do.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. And I know you hear Neil talk about this. I’ve mentioned this in the past too, for those of you that are interested in, you know, the red light therapy, which Neil says all the time. So to you, Bob, that, you know, it’s really a way of taking what God created and putting it literally in a device, the palm of your hand, in some cases, depending upon which device you would end up with. And I would encourage people to number one, go check out their webinars. If this is something you’re interested in, You’re not really sure. You hear us talking about it, but you’re like, yeah, guys, okay, but does it really work? Watch one of their webinars. They do these on Tuesday nights. You can go to sunpowerled.com. You can check out when the next one is. The next one coming up, of course, is 930, September 30th. And this one’s on cancer, Baker’s cyst, and knee pain. And they do these every single Tuesday night. And I would encourage you guys to go and watch one of the webinars so you can learn more about how the products actually work. And the one thing too that I just cannot stress enough for all of you listening is you’ll see all sorts of other red light therapy videos. things out there. A lot of them are nothing more than a gimmick. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that some of the devices that you can buy online, some of what you see in tanning salons and places like that, they are not one in the same. So if you’ve, you know, you’ve in your mind, you’ve said, well, I’ve been in one of those before and they didn’t do anything. Well, you most likely didn’t have anything that was even close to the experience that you would find with SunPower LE. So folks go check out the website, look at all the devices that are there. You can use Roundtable 10 and get a 10% discount. You can go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and find them there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And we appreciate you folks supporting our sponsors in this way as we right now talk about the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. Okay. This was, we both agree, very, very powerful. Donald Trump came out and gave his talk afterward and after his speech brought Erica Kirk back out and they were, you know, he was hugging her. She was hugging him as she was crying. So I don’t know how anybody can, you know, not have a softened heart to stuff like that. Although I don’t know if you watched Donald Trump’s speech, but, you know, one of the things I was telling my audience, John, is that I’m not one of those people who tries to find fault with Trump. I know a lot of people do. It’s like no matter what it is, it’s like, okay, but he’s bad about this, he’s bad about this, whatever. But I do have to admit, for all of Trump’s strengths, one of his quote-unquote weaknesses, if I was going to call it that, is he does not know how to display tenderness. I mean, he just really doesn’t. He’s pretty harsh, straightforward, direct. He doesn’t have a
SPEAKER 02 :
My wife will tell you that he and I are a lot alike, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
And say, I feel your pain. Now, in all honesty, there’s a positive side. There’s a double-edged sword. The negative side of this is, yeah, he doesn’t have an empathetic, soft side. He doesn’t know how to show tenderness. And a lot of people emotionally want that. But the positive side of that same sword is, John, say what you want about him. The man is authentic. The reason he doesn’t do that stuff is because it’s like, no, I’m not going to portray a character. I’m not going to do something different than what I really truly am and believe. I’m a tough-as-nails guy who doesn’t show emotion, and I’m not going to put on an act. So at a minimum – It’s authentic, and we should appreciate the authenticity, even if we do sometimes wish that he was able to show a little more tenderness at times like that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And see, for me, given the role that he has in being president of the United States, especially, and I know to your point, Bob, for some, it bothers them. Not me. I mean, I think because I can relate to him and just what he’s got going on in his life, the things that he has seen, the things that he has experienced, and not to say that he doesn’t feel, because I can understand where he’s coming from. Not that you don’t feel these things inside, but You have a role whereby you are the leader of the free world, and yeah, you’ve got to be authentic at all times, and there’s nothing worse than having that person be fake, which I don’t want. I’d rather have him be exactly the way he is, false and all, Bob, as opposed to having somebody that’s fake.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And you know what? And I can totally understand that with what he’s dealing in foreign policy right now, he doesn’t want Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping or Kim Jong-un or the mullahs in Iran. He doesn’t want any of those people to see him displaying any kind of human or emotional weakness. He wants them to see him as a steady, unshakable rock, no matter the circumstance. And we could debate all day long about whether he should be more well-rounded in that way. But Who cares? This is who he is.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I would say for those that would say he should be, I would disagree. No, in his role with what he does, no, he shouldn’t be.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. No, and look, I get that. Even though I do think it’s appropriate for him to hug her on stage. Absolutely. There’s a tornado to go visit the people and go hug some families. So absolutely do that stuff. But he doesn’t have to exude an Academy Award performance of making fake empathy facial expressions when that’s just not who he is.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, and I think for those maybe that don’t know this – His own son was very impacted by what happened with Charlie Kirk. You can’t tell me that in that way alone that there’s not even probably in the secrets of where nobody can see what he’s doing, that he doesn’t have a few moments where he’s like, geez, man, this is tough, and I’ve got a lot on my shoulders, and I’ve got my own family now that’s been affected by this. Trust me. Again, guys, I can relate. But on the same token, he has a role, to your point, Bob, whereby he has to be strong. He’s got to show strength across the board. He’s got to show strength not only for the country but for those folks, to your point, around the world. The reality is he can’t be any different than he is. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, look, I get that. And I know – I acknowledge that there are some in the audience that are going to say, yes, but showing emotion is a sign of strength or whatever. You know what?
SPEAKER 02 :
Not always.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s a completely separate – not always.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, no, no. And by the way, I would disagree with them. No, not always it isn’t. I’m sorry. No, that’s where I will disagree. No, it isn’t always that case.
SPEAKER 04 :
And so you mentioned Don Jr., of course. No, no, no, Barron.
SPEAKER 02 :
Barron was the one that really, I think, has been the most affected by this.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, absolutely. But we got to remember, Charlie Kirk actually was a very close personal friend of the Trump family.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Over the last 10 years, he became very close to them. And I know Don Jr. considered him a very close personal friend.
SPEAKER 02 :
Almost like a brother.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. And he did say that. He said he was like a brother to me. By the way, did you happen to see Don Jr.’ ‘s imitation of his dad at the memorial?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, I did not.
SPEAKER 04 :
It was actually pretty funny. And you know what? He didn’t do a bad job. Don Jr. came out there and said, look, Charlie Kirk is like – He’s like a brother to me. And I admit, he said, I’m not the kind of person to shed a tear. He said, I’m more of the kind of person to post harsh and sometimes inappropriate or insensitive memes on social media. And he says, and believe it or not, he says, I even get caught on the carpet from that guy. And he points up to his dad. And there’s Trump sitting there behind a bulletproof glass, but he’s smiling. That’s funny. And then Don Jr. says, yeah, he even comes up to me and he holds up his hands in the Donald Trump way. And he goes, Don, Don, you’re getting too crazy in the social media, Don. Can you tone it down? And everybody’s just dying laughing. Trump’s up there cracking up laughing. That’s funny. It was a pretty good invitation that he did, actually. But in other words, he’s making the joke that, hey, what does it say when Donald Trump is telling me, hey, can you tone it down? That’s funny. But it had a lot of great moments in it. So I’m curious, though, to get your take, John, on the future of Turning Point USA. Because I’ve been thinking about this. Part of me says… okay, this movement is a powerful movement and it can grow and get even bigger. And it’s the movement itself that is crucial. It’s not just Charlie Kirk is the engineer. You can get a new engineer that the train is moving. That’s what matters. But then there’s this other part of me that wonders how much of this comes down to the talent. And in a weird kind of way, I… I’ve joked around many times. I’m an Elvis fan. I remember when Elvis died. I was a teenager when Elvis died. Well, Elvis was scheduled to perform a concert that night. It’s not like, well, the Elvis concerts can go on. No, because it all centered around Elvis, and it’s like they came to see him. True. wondering about Turning Point USA. How much of this was on Charlie Kirk’s shoulders? Because I don’t think that anybody is going to be as skilled and talented and be able to engage one-on-one blind answers and questions. from people the way that Charlie Kirk did. He was in fact a master of that. So how much of the future of Turning Point USA hinges on the skills and talents that Charlie Kirk himself brought to the table versus the movement itself just trying to reach young people?
SPEAKER 02 :
Great question. And that’s something I did talk about even last week and before the memorial. And that was before even the announcement that Erica would, you know, come behind him and take over the organization and move forward. And that was Charlie’s wishes. And by the way, I’m not saying that’s, that’s a, that’s, Probably wouldn’t have been my number one choice, but I’m not internal to the organization. I’m not Charlie Kirk. I don’t know what all of the inner workings were. I do know that when there’s high talent like him doing a lot of the things that he did, this is what it’s all going to depend on. How well he did at the leadership end of things and instilling some of those things in the people that are now left behind will tell you how well the organization does moving forward because nobody can replace him. I don’t care what anybody says. There might be some people that come along that are close. There’ll never be anybody like him. Just like Bob, no one will ever be you. No one will ever be me. That’s just the way things are. No matter how much somebody might try to imitate that, It’s never going to happen. Now, depending upon how Erica comes in, what they do leadership-wise, how they train and teach some of the folks that are now on these college campuses, and you’re right, they’re never going to be able to debate and do things the way that Charlie did. Doesn’t mean, though, that the power of the gospel… And the message there can’t still be portrayed to all of these kids on campuses. In fact, it might be a little easier for them now to do so given what’s happened. So that’s the one plus that they have that Charlie didn’t have is it might actually be easier for them to actually get that message across than it once was. So only time will tell how things go. And a lot of this is going to, I hate to say it this way, Bob, but a lot of this is going to fall on Erica’s shoulders because she is now the leader at the top. And that old saying, John Maxwell always said, everything rises and falls on leadership.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, absolutely. And so this is where we do find out what kind of organizational and structural leadership can she show, recruiting the right talent, who are the leaders in the organization right now, and can they manage this effectively? I guess what I wonder about is for all the people When you look at the millions, the hundreds of millions of views that Charlie Kirk has had in all of his videos over the years, it hasn’t been people saying, oh, Turning Point USA has – I got to watch that and see who’s debating. It’s like, no, it was all centered around I want to watch Charlie Kirk in action. It was about Charlie Kirk. And so, yeah, now – I kind of wonder, do they need to maybe have some new rising star who’s a master debater who rises up to the surface and that becomes the focal point? Or are people going to be interested enough to see, okay, well, here’s a Turning Point USA thing happening at such and such a college. And so let me tune in here and see who the TPUSA debater is here taking on the kids. So are unnamed people going to be enough to drive the views, which is where the money is coming from? Is it going to be enough to drive that?
SPEAKER 02 :
And the answer is no. Or are they going to have to have a star that rises to – There’s been some chatter, and I don’t know how true any of this is, but some of you may or may not know Milo – I’ll probably get his last name wrong – Anopolis. Am I saying that right, Bob? Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
There’s some talk that he may be somebody that could come into some of these events and do some debating and things like that, which, by the way, he’s as good of a debater probably as – probably even as good a debater as Charlie Kirk, only not as soft. He’s much harsher, of course, than what Charlie is and, of course, doesn’t have the same belief system at all that Charlie had.
SPEAKER 04 :
Evangelical Christians would be turned off by – if I remember right, I think he has kind of a – almost a gay persona about him?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, he married his boyfriend, so he is gay, yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
So, okay. So, yeah. So, that makes it difficult for the evangelical Christians, which are a big part of the Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA movement. So, it seems to me that if they do have a rising star, it’s going to have to be somebody that can appeal to evangelical Christians as well. But We got a lot more to talk about in the second half, folks. Trump’s UN speech, Jimmy Kimmel. But first, we do want to take a moment and remind you that we want you to support our sponsors like Preborn. So if you haven’t given to Preborn in a while, would you consider doing it again? You’re saving babies’ lives by paying for ultrasound images in pro-life centers. So here’s how you give. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. And the amount that you give, well, pray about a number because $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion. So how many abortions will you stop? Take $28 times fill in the blank. Maybe it’s 100 babies. Well, it’s $2,800. But either way, go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. pray about a number. And you can also give over the phone. They answer the phones 24-7, 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. And don’t forget, every penny goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead because that’s all covered by private donors. So CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn and click on SunPowerLED while you’re there, John.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely, and as I said earlier, they have a webinar every Tuesday night. It would be very advantageous for some of you that have been thinking about getting a device to actually listen in. I also should mention you can always call them, have a direct conversation, and find out exactly what device for you would be best. By the way, I don’t know what that device is. I’ve got one of their Palm devices. I use it on a regular basis. As I said before, I’ve even used it on my dog. It does work. There is healing power in this red light therapy and it’s designed in such a way that is unlike the majority of other devices that are out there. I’ve even got a doctor friend of mine, Bob, that I’ve talked to that understands all of the red light stuff. And he agrees with us and Tom a hundred percent that no, they’re not all created equal. The majority of them that are out there is more like a placebo. It’s not going to do a single thing. You’ve got to have the right intensity, the right wavelength, the right design. And by the way, folks, that all comes with a cost. You’re not going to find a device out there that does what the red light therapy from SunPowerLED for $100, for example, you’re not going to find it. If you’re finding one that cheap, it is a cheap imitation, and it’s not going to do the same thing that SunPowerLED does. So go check them out at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. It’s roundtable 10 for a 10% discount. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we do have a lot to tackle on the second half of this podcast. Jimmy Kimmel coming back, Trump’s United Nations speech. And John Rush, Rush Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Myself, Bob Dutko, The Bob Dutko Show out of Detroit. Neil Boren will be back with us next week. And we’ve got the second half coming up next.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’ll continue in the second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast with John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Myself, Bob Dutko, The Bob Dutko Show out of Detroit. Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live out of Buffalo, New York. Neil will be back with us next week. So, all right, John, first half we talked about Charlie Kirk’s memorial and the future of TPUSA. All right, Jimmy Kimmel, let’s talk about him. He’s back now. Okay. Now, we’re recording this on Wednesday morning. So last night, Tuesday night, was his first day back. And just for a little bit of background for people who maybe aren’t completely familiar, he was suspended indefinitely, ABC said. Because he blamed MAGA for producing the shooter of Charlie Kirk. He said, quote, we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. This shooter was clearly a leftist. He hated Charlie Kirk. We now know this. He was in a homosexual relationship with his transgender lover. And so Jimmy Kimmel flat out lied, and he knew that this was a lie. He gets suspended. Next Star and Sinclair, which are a couple of large ABC affiliates, they control a total of 66 stations out of about 240 total. So this is about a fourth of his audience. They pulled his show, and they have said, we’re not bringing him back. ABC did decide to bring him back. And there’s a lot to talk about regarding Jimmy Kimmel. But first, I am kind of curious, John, as a businessman, tell me your thoughts on the business decision for ABC to do this. If Nexstar and Sinclair are still leaving him off the air, that’s about a fourth of the ABC audience. I can’t imagine his shows making money if Stephen Colbert is losing 40, 50 million a year and Jimmy Kimmel had lower ratings than him. So is it the left-wing anger that hell hath no fury like liberals scorned?
SPEAKER 02 :
Business decision.
SPEAKER 04 :
What was it?
SPEAKER 02 :
If I was them, I’d have made the same decision. I said this yesterday. This is a business decision. His contract is up at the end of December. It’s cheaper to leave him on air for the next three months, which that’s really all it is. In fact, you take some of the holidays out of it. It’s probably not even that. I don’t know exactly how many days you would actually have to worry about him and and the payroll and so on. But at the end of the day, you let his contract run out cheaper than all of the legalities that you’ll go through trying to defend your, you know, quote unquote firing of him. Cause you know, he’s going to go get attorneys and sue them. So at the end of the day, the cheapest route is to finish out his contract and call it good. And then my prediction is they will not renew his contract.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. That actually makes sense. I mean, it really does. Cheapest path to the end. Okay, okay. I mean, to be honest with you, I was thinking that because of all the liberal outrage that ABC, well, Disney, that they realized, well, hold on a minute, we’ve already alienated half of the American public with the Disney brand and with ABC. And so we’re trying to make a living and pay our bills just on the liberal half. And now if we lose half the liberal half, that becomes unsustainable for us. But you know what? You make a very fair point. If he’s only got three months left on his contract, let’s ride this thing out. And then that way we don’t have to spend millions on lawsuits.
SPEAKER 02 :
And they will have, and the bean counters know this, they will have a spike in ratings for a week or two while people look to see exactly what he says. I want to talk about some of what he did say last night, which by the way, he’s completely false and Still lying, by the way, about certain things, which I’ll talk about. But at the end of the day, Bob, I think the bean counters looked at that and said, wait a minute, we can still get some advertisers. People are going to want to be involved in this because of the spike that we’re going to have. We’ll be okay financially until the end of the year. But again, my prediction is unless something dramatic with him happens, some sort of a turnaround scenario, Huge rating increases. The other affiliates come back, which I don’t think they’re going to. They may then renew his contract. But my feeling, Bob, is that ain’t going to happen. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that’s a very good prediction. And we’ll see.
SPEAKER 02 :
In other words, for all those out there thinking this might be politically motivated, nope, this is a bean counter decision.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it is. It is. What he said last night, though, he flat out lied through his teeth. If he had just come out and said, you know something, I made a joke about the shooter to Charlie Kirk, number one, the funeral hadn’t even happened yet. This is not a time for me to be trying to seek laughs out of anything surrounding his murder. So I apologize for that. And number two, I said his murderer was a part of MAGA, and he clearly wasn’t, and I shouldn’t have said that. And so I am sorry about that. If he had done that, John, I think you and me would be like, okay, he’s still a scumbag, but at least he apologized. I’m still not interested in the show.
SPEAKER 02 :
But the guy doubled down and lied again. Well, and he goes on to feed this narrative, which, by the way, I can’t believe that he believes this. We can talk about some of this, Bob, if you want to, but this is what he said. To those who had a hand in Jimmy Kimmel’s live being suspended, Kimmel said, that’s not legal, that’s not American, it’s un-American. It was 1,000% legal for them to do whatever they wanted. He is employed by them. There’s a contract. I guarantee you there is a… There’s a clause in there that if they want to pull him for any reason because of something he said, they can definitely do so, just like Crawford could pull you and I if we say something that goes completely against Crawford Broadcasting. The reality, Bob, is they are in control and there’s nothing illegal about what they did.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know there’s not. And this is not a case either where Trump pulled him off the air. No, it is not a violation of free speech. OK, Brendan Carr, the FCC chair. Now, you can debate and argue whether or not, you know, did he did he voice too much personal opinion about this or whatever with his, you know, we could do this easy way or the hard way. But bottom line, the FCC chairman issued a warning to ABC saying you better control your people better, OK, because these are public airways and you have responsibility to them or whatever. So there’s warning language given, but it was ABC that made the decision you’re right, and there’s nothing even remotely illegal about that. So that’s just a joke. But my goodness, John.
SPEAKER 02 :
And really quick for everybody listening. Yeah. They made the right call in what they did, even if it was for just a week in doing what they did. They at least sent a message that, wait a minute, timeout. What he said wasn’t okay, and they’ve even said – We had some long discussions with Jimmy on what we’re doing moving forward, exactly what we’re in those discussions. Guarantee you those discussions included Jimmy. You don’t have free speech. You don’t have free reign to say whatever you want to. You still work for us.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Okay, so last night he – choking back tears. And it’s like, oh, come on, Jimmy Kimmel. But to say, it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. You went for a laugh line about the murder, okay? So what do you mean it was not your intent to make light? It wasn’t your intent to make people laugh, okay? Because that’s what you attempted to do. So it was your intention to make light of the murder. Secondly, when he said, nor was it my intention to blame any specific group, that the shooter didn’t represent anyone, okay? And he claims, that’s the point I was trying to make? No, it wasn’t. You specifically said he represents MAGA, okay? You did blame a specific group. MAGA people, you blamed them. So he blames them directly. Then he comes out and says, you know, I wasn’t trying to blame any specific group. It’s like, hey, these aren’t the droids you’re looking for. The feeble Jedi might, gaslighting, if you will, Just flat out saying, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not what I was saying. It was just misconstrued by people. What a flat out liar, John.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, absolutely. And including what I just said a moment ago. And you just go on. And what cracks me up is I had a liberal that I was texting back and forth yesterday who basically says this is how that hardcore liberal left believes Bob, basically saying that he didn’t say that MAGA thing. was the ones that this kid was actually on the side of Maggie. He really didn’t say that. Bob, you just read it. That’s exactly what he said.
SPEAKER 04 :
Those were his, and I’ll read it one more time. He said, quote, we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.
SPEAKER 02 :
Key word there, as anything other than one of them.
SPEAKER 04 :
The MAGA gang is trying to convince people that this shooter wasn’t one of them.
SPEAKER 02 :
How is that not saying he’s a part of them?
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. It was not my intention to blame any specific group, okay? Yes, it was. That was specifically the English word. You know what? We can speak English. Maybe some illegal aliens who don’t speak English can be confused by this. But, you know, words matter, and those are the words you spoke, okay? So, oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 02 :
As anything other than one of them. Key word. One of them. One of them. Them, right. The mega group. I mean, Bob, how much clearer can it be?
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. And you know what? Jimmy Kimmel, apologize and we will accept your apology. We’re not going to become fans and watch your show, but we’ll at least say, okay, you did the right thing. You apologized. You owned it. You stood up like a man. We accept that. On that, we respect you. On everything else, we don’t respect what you do and we don’t like your show, but at least that we do. But this, it’s like, come on, you’re weaselier than we thought you were before.
SPEAKER 02 :
And really quick, Bob, and I know we’re always short on time, but I do want to go back to it really quick because there’s so much misconception, even from our side, on what is free speech. And I’ve said it on my show a gazillion times. I’ll say it here. When you, as either a contractor, which he probably is, or you’re an employee, the reality is you’ve agreed to perform a service, sell your time. In the case of an employee, you’ve agreed to sell your time to that employer for X amount per hour, per week, per day, whatever it is, whatever the magic number is that you guys have come up with, you have agreed to sell that company your time, meaning they now own your time and meaning they can tell you what you’re going to wear, how you’re going to act, how you’re going to handle, interact with customers, what you’re actually going to say. And if there’s something that you do that they don’t like, they’re within their free will to let you go because you violated the agreement that you had with them and they don’t like what you’re doing. You know, Basically, they’re your customer, and they don’t like the service you’re providing, so they’re going to fire you. That’s what, Bob, I can’t get enough employees out there to realize that they’re your customer. You are really self-employed at that point, and if they don’t like the service you’re delivering, you’re not there any longer.
SPEAKER 04 :
And if you don’t like the parameters that they set for you, then you can move on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Then don’t do that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly, exactly. Tell us about SunPowerLED, though.
SPEAKER 02 :
SunPowerLED, guys, again, I can’t stress enough that there is healing power in SunPowerLED, and it’s not some miraculous thing. It’s simply taking the light that God already has created. We all know the power of the sun, by the way. All this is doing is intensifying that, getting down to the cell level, That’s why this next webinar coming up, they’re going to specifically talk about cancer on Tuesday, September 30th. And I’ve encouraged you guys to watch those webinars. But the reality is, yes, this does work. I’ve got a device. Bob does. Neil does. We all are testimonies to how well this therapy actually works. And by the way, some of you might be thinking, well, how long does this take? Not as long as you think. If you’ve got a spare 10 or 15 minutes and you can actually take one of the devices and put it on that particular part of your body that you’re really struggling with, it doesn’t take anything longer than that. You do that a couple of times a day and you will see a world of difference at the end of the day. That’s how powerful this technology actually is. And I’m going to continue to stress this. It’s different than the other technology you’ll see out there sold by a lot of other sources. including online, Amazon, and so on. It is not one and the same. Go to sunpowerled.com or go to crawfordmediagroup.net, use roundtable10, get a nice 10% discount.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And support SunPowerLED, support Preborn, you know, our other sponsor to this program.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
They save babies’ lives. They do by showing ultrasound images in pro-life centers around the country. And those moms choose life when they see a picture of their baby. But it does take money to operate these machines. That’s why we ask you folks, will you pay for a specific number of ultrasound images? $28 is the average ultrasound expense to save one baby’s life. So how many babies’ lives will you save? Take $28 times, fill in the blank, and that’s your number. And if you’ve given a pre-born already, please give again. Maybe you’ve given multiple times, give again. We want this to be part of your regular missionary budget, saving babies’ lives out of your own home. So here’s how you give. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born. You can give right there, and 100% of what you give goes to fund ultrasounds. Not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. And you can give over the phone as well by calling 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. As we continue through this podcast. All right. So your prediction, Jimmy Kimmel just doesn’t get his contract renewed this December. I think that’s a smart prediction. I’d be surprised, John, if you’re wrong about that. Hey, did you watch Donald Trump’s U.N. speech?
SPEAKER 02 :
I watched portions of it and really saw the stuff that I felt was extremely strong. So, yeah, again, I didn’t watch sort of like the memorial for Charlie Kirk. I didn’t watch all of it, but watched enough to see exactly what he said in certain cases. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ll tell you what, I know the media is giving a hard time for this. No real surprise. It’s like, oh, look how he, you know, look at how he is browbeating other nations of the world. Who does he think he is or whatever? And, you know, it occurs to me, John, that we’re so used to seeing the U.S. president, whoever he is. I hate to say it, Republicans, too, but especially Democrats. get up there and they don’t act like the leader of the free world. They act like a voice in the chorus and almost embarrassed and defensive of the United States and praising other countries and such. And Donald Trump gets up there and he’s like, look, everybody calls the president of the U.S. the leader of the free world. OK, well, he’s like, well, I’m going to act like the leader of the free world, which is to say, you know what? Here’s what we need. Like, for example, he called out the United Nations for not helping negotiate these seven peace deals that he did in seven months. He said, quote, I didn’t even get a phone call from the U.N. What’s the purpose of the U.N.? He called them out. for buying energy from Russia. Said, stop doing that. We got plenty of energy to sell you. He talked about securing borders. And if you don’t secure your borders and stop this globalism stuff, then you know what? Your countries are going to go to blank, the H word. And then he ripped global warming. I said, used to be global cooling, they said. Then they changed it to global warming. Now it’s climate change. He said, this is the greatest con job of the world. If you don’t get away from the green energy scam, your countries are going to fail. He defended the tariffs, said they’re good and necessary because U.S. isn’t going to be taken advantage of anymore. And that on planet Earth, Christianity is the most persecuted religion on Earth. And I’m sitting there thinking, he’s looking these people in the eye around the world, and he’s doing what the leader of the free world is supposed to do, not try to be dictator of the world. He can’t do that. But to say, you know what? Leaders lead. And he’s saying, this is what we need to be doing on planet Earth. I thought it was a great speech.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, I think so, too. And in his really just calling green energy the scam that it really is. In fact, I always say there’s no such thing as green energy because without oil, you don’t produce any of it in the first place. So reality is it’s not green. It’s about the farthest thing from it you could ever imagine. And yeah, kudos to him for actually standing up to your point, looking these others, these other leaders in the eye and basically saying you continue to go down this path. It’ll be the downfall of your country. You know what? Those are words of wisdom they should take to heart.
SPEAKER 04 :
They really should. And talking about the windmills themselves and people trying to survive on them. And he pointed out, I love what he said to the European nations, too. He said, you guys, European nations, you have reduced your carbon footprint by 37%. But meanwhile, the Earth’s carbon footprint has raised by 54% because nations like China and such, they don’t follow those rules. And it’s not necessary anyway. And then he talked about Obama and the Paris Climate Accord. And he says, here was Obama at the time talking about we need to reduce our carbon footprint. Then he gets on Air Force One and flies out to Hawaii to go golfing. You want to talk about carbon footprints. He’s like, come on, this whole thing is a scam. I’ll tell you what, I –
SPEAKER 02 :
No, him literally calling it that, which, by the way, he is a thousand percent correct. That is exactly what it is. That is the ultra wealthy liberal rich getting richer off the backs of those that are underneath them. The underlings, if you would, Bob, at the end of the day, that all it is, is the fleecing of the average Joe in every country.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, this is not really a big deal, and Trump made jokes about it. But the escalator and the teleprompter issue, for people who don’t know, when Donald and Melania Trump at the United Nations got on the escalator to take them up, as soon as they get on the escalator, escalator shuts down. They’re like, okay. And then they had to walk up the escalator, turned into a stairwell at that point. And they had to walk up. So no real harm. All right. Then he gets out there, starts his speech. Teleprompter’s not working. Okay. So now he’s got to read out of the book. And I know that Caroline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, she’s like, we want to look into this. We want to find out why this is. The United Nations says, hey, it’s not us. The escalator, we think that somebody from Trump’s team, a videographer said, may have ran up the escalator and came down and inadvertently triggered the alarm system that will shut it down so somebody doesn’t get trapped in the gears of it or whatever. And the teleprompter, we say this is run by the White House. Well, the White House is saying… No, this is baloney. Number one, you guys are running the teleprompter at the UN. And number two, the escalator. If that’s the case, then why in the world of every escalator Trump takes everywhere in America and all over the world that’s never happened except that time at the United Nations? It does sound like somebody was trying to embarrass him and make him look bad by a couple of technical glitches. It’s not the end of the world. No big deal. Trump made light of it. He joked around about it.
SPEAKER 02 :
But- The funniest thing on the teleprompter is, you know, I think in some cases they would think, oh, gee, you know, now now he can’t function. Now he can’t really give a solid speech. The reality is he probably got more vicious not having it working than he would have had been working.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is true. I mean, Trump is getting better about that. You’re right. He worked off the book. And he still did a good job working off the book. And I’ll tell you what else is interesting, too. I don’t know if you noticed. Like I say, I watched the whole speech. One thing about Donald Trump, he’s not a smooth communicator. No, I’ll know that. All right. So, John, you and I, we’re professional communicators. So we could be given a script. And I don’t think your average person is going to be – John, you’re enough of a pro. Your average person is not going to know when you’ve gone off script.
SPEAKER 02 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
With Donald Trump, it’s very, very obvious.
SPEAKER 02 :
But really quick, the average person doesn’t know when you and I have technical difficulties because you work through those.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Exactly.
SPEAKER 02 :
You never say, oh, gee, the computer just went blank. No, you never say that on air. You just roll along like it’s working.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Exactly. And so but with Trump, it is obvious you can watch any speech that he gives and you can know exactly what was on the teleprompter and when he veered off of it. OK, fine. He veered off of it a lot. But you know what? To be addressing the nations of the world, for everybody who says, oh, Donald Trump is so reckless and he doesn’t know how to be presidential, he doesn’t know how to get – no, I mean, he did a good job. He was a little bit braggadocious, but he was braggadocious on America.
SPEAKER 02 :
He always is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Here’s what we’ve accomplished in this country. Here’s why America is the greatest nation. And he pointed out, and this is true, we have more coal, oil, and gas in America than any other nation on earth. Why in the world are you buying it from Russia? We’ll gladly sell it to you. Quit helping Russia fuel and fund the Ukrainian war.
SPEAKER 02 :
The one thing I wish he would have said is, you know, while everybody around the world is touting green energy and you got to do this and you got to do that, you got to build these windmills, these solar panels and so on, and yet China’s putting a coal plant in every week.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know.
SPEAKER 02 :
I wish he would have said that.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know what? I do too. That’s a good point. He did say that China doesn’t follow these carbon emission rules or whatever, but he didn’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
But he could have easily added what I just said into that. I agree. By the way, that’s the truth. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s exactly what they’re doing.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. That’s right. Regarding Trump, though, and his speech and the way that he talked to the nations, I think is great. I do want to, in our last couple of minutes, get your take real quick on the Ukraine thing. It looks like Donald Trump is telling Putin, OK, fine, doesn’t look like I can work with you. I’m going to go join arms with Zelensky at this point. And now Trump is even saying maybe Ukraine could keep all of their land. I know his critics are going to say, oh, here’s Trump vacillating from one side to the other side. No, it’s called negotiation. He’s putting leverage on Putin saying, hey, you know what? Guess what? You really want me to completely align myself with Zelensky now? You’re going to lose in this. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, no. This is for those of you that don’t know how to negotiate. This is he is the master negotiator, Bob. And this is how you negotiate when you can’t get one side to move. Basically, you go to them and say, you know what? All these things we’ve talked about, the deals we’ve had on the table. Guess what? They’re now gone. We’re going to start over from square one. And oh, by the way, I might side more with your adversary than what I was once before to just poke you in the eye. So the reality is, if you’re not willing to move, guess what? You’re going to have something to pay for when it’s all said and done. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 :
So he’s not vacillating. He’s getting stronger is what he’s doing.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know what? I could not agree with you more. And this is the way the weak thing would have been to keep on running to Putin and begging him to try to get involved. This is, in essence, Donald Trump is doing what Ronald Reagan did with Mikhail Gorbachev. In Reykjavik, and that’s where he gets up and, well, I’m out of here, and gets up and walks out of there, and people are like, oh, how can you do that? But you know this as a salesman, too, and sales sometimes is called the takeaway. He’s doing a little bit of a takeaway with Vladimir Putin. He’s like, okay, let’s see. Here we were. We were getting close to a deal where you could have actually got some of the Ukraine’s land. Yeah, exactly. You could have got some of Ukraine’s land. I was willing to go with that. And you could have stopped the killing. And we could have come up with a way to make you look like you came out of this with a victory. And you’re going all or nothing. Okay, then fine. Let’s go nothing then. Let’s just go nothing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
The sale just ended.
SPEAKER 02 :
The sale just ended. And I’ve been in those situations before where you’ve been trying to negotiate with somebody on a sale per se, Bob, to where you kind of get close to the end. You think you’ve got a deal done and all of a sudden the other person decides, yeah, no, I don’t I don’t want to do that any longer. You know what? Then naturally you just come back and say, guess what? Then the deal’s off the table. We’re going to go back to square one. And guess what? All the deals that I’ve been giving you, they’re no longer in existence.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let’s let Trump do what Trump knows how to do, and this is what he knows how to do. We only got a few seconds left. Tell us real quick about SunPower LED.
SPEAKER 02 :
A lot of these salons and places where they tout red light therapy, unless you’re going to an actual solid wellness doctor that understands the real therapy behind red light, you’re not going to find that in most of these other places. And by the way, if you go to some of these wellness places and spend the money that they have on their red light therapy, you can buy your own device, by the way, over time for a lot less money and own it for the rest of your life. And I mean that sincerely. Check out their next webinar coming up on September 30th. It’s on cancer, Baker’s cyst, and knee pain. And let me tell you what, folks, this does work. I know it sounds too good to be true. It’s not. If you look at the technology behind it and how it actually works going down to the cell level, it does in fact work. Check it out, sunpowerled.com. Go to crawfordmediagroup.net as well. Don’t forget to use roundtable10 to get your 10% discount.
SPEAKER 04 :
It does work, folks, I can tell you. And I’ll tell you what, showing ultrasound images of unborn babies to expectant moms, that works to stop that mom from getting an abortion. And that’s why we ask you folks to support pre-born and pay for these ultrasound images, okay? Now, if you can afford it, buy an ultrasound machine. They’re 15 grand a piece, nice tax write-off for you. We need some of you to buy machines to get placed in a pro-life center, and then you’re saving thousands of babies’ lives, folks, year after year. For everybody else that can’t do that, We’re asking you to give to pre-born, maybe give again, to save individual babies’ lives. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion. So pray about a number of abortions you’ll stop. Take $28 times fill in the blank, and then that’s your legacy of the baby’s lives that you save. So go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born to give right there. Don’t forget, everything you give goes to fund ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn, or just call them 24-7 at 833-850-BABY. It’s 833-850-BABY. Mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. We appreciate you folks listening to this podcast. John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Myself, Bob Dutko, The Bob Dutko Show out of Detroit. Neil Boron will be back with us next week as well. Have a great night, everybody. Have a great week and look forward to seeing you next week. John, look forward to talking to you too. Appreciate it. You bet.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’ve been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, a view of today’s culture through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices, bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more from your local Crawford Media Group stations website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.
