Join us for a deep dive into the complex weave of emotional and societal reactions following a significant tragedy. Listen as our speakers reflect on the overwhelming outpouring of emotions and the power of faith amidst despair. Discover the contrast between genuine grief and the often harsh landscapes of social media, where public opinion can be a mix of empathy and enmity.
Davis on 660 AM, The Answer. Not only George Jones’ birthday, but Jerry Beckley of the fine band America. Can’t think of a better act to play as we remember Charlie Kirk, a band called America, the country he loved, horse with no name. And our buddy Mike is here. Mike, first of all, I trust you’ve heard just in the last few minutes, President Trump goes on Fox & Friends, sits down on the couch, exchanges pleasantries, and says, oh, by the way, we have a suspect in custody.
SPEAKER 04 :
Move over, Bill Malugan. Fox News Channel has a new breaking news reporter. His name is Donald Trump. I mean, my goodness, this is wild that he sat there and almost casually just shared with the hosts on the curvy couch…
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ve got 20, 25 seconds, and here’s just a moment ago, and then we’ll talk about this amazing moment in which he’s not just our source for inspiration, our source for good government, he’s also now your main breaking source for news.
SPEAKER 01 :
A father got involved, namely his father. And said, we’ve got to go in. And they say, I understand it. And again, subject to change. But, you know, the facts are the facts. We have the person that we think is the person we’re looking for. But they drove into the police headquarters and he’s there now. Wow. Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I mean, you had to know that there were family members who saw the image, that knew who he was. I kept thinking this person has a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a neighbor, a co-worker. And so I just felt in my heart they were going to get him. Me too.
SPEAKER 03 :
But they’re so grainy, you don’t even really see his face. No, they weren’t grainy. If I saw a picture of you, or Lisa, or God forbid, it’s a friend or relative of mine, and that’s probably a bad example, but somebody I know well, I’d be like, uh, isn’t that Frank?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you’d know that person with the images that came out. Of course. You know, so now we’re going to find out, I hope, what the twisted motivation is. You know, I woke up in despair today. Well, I don’t know.
SPEAKER 03 :
We know it well.
SPEAKER 04 :
Probably. Probably. But let’s wait and find out. Let’s be a little bit responsible and see what it is.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s okay. I will be irresponsible and reckless and roll out here with the bold pronouncement that the guy killed Charlie because he hates Charlie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, no, of course, I understand that, clearly. But, you know, look, they’re going to analyze every aspect of this freak’s life. And I have to say, I got a couple of takeaways. I woke up this morning, probably like many people, and just was hoping this was a bad dream, that I can’t believe we woke up to this and it’s going to start all over again, and here we go to realize that this good and decent man was just slaughtered in front of thousands of young people. But there’s a couple of takeaways. First of all, the positive news. I was talking to, I’ll share who it is, my boss, Phil Boyce, who’s a deeply spiritual guy. And I don’t want to bore the audience with company issues, but boy, are there company issues. I mean, not too often that one of our colleagues gets killed. You know, it’s not too often that one of our team members, you know, Charlie was a friend and he was also a big part of Salem’s family. And, you know, there’s a lot that goes into what happens now and how does this work and who does the show. I know that sounds crass probably because we’re grieving now. And so we’ve got the personal side of it. We have the, you know, we’ve got the pragmatic side of it. So this is a company.
SPEAKER 03 :
The show must go on. What do we do?
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s time to fill. There are things to do. There’s a show that has to be filled, and what do you do, and everything. And so Phil is dealing with this up to his eyeballs, and I pray for him. I pray for Dave Santrella, who I interviewed on the show this week, who talked about, you know, he was tremendous. I mean, because we cannot… We cannot let evil win here. And I said to Phil, I said, I feel just a little despondent today. I’m just down. I said, I can’t believe this poor woman has to bury her husband. And the parents, you know, Charlie’s mom and dad never get brought up enough on this. I mean, he’s an only child, and his parents are having to bury their son. So all of this and the little children and all that, and Phil said, yeah, but you know something? God is still on the throne, and Charlie is standing next to him right now. And boy, did that help me. I just needed that, and it was like oxygen, and I was starved for that kind of oxygen. And that’s the part of Charlie, incidentally, that we’re not giving enough credit to, or I’m not anyway, and we need to. He never missed an opportunity to talk about the redemption of life everlasting. He never failed to talk about his role as a God-fearing Christian. He talked about the joy of Jesus Christ every chance. In fact, Mark, it was one of the last things he said before he was killed. He was talking about being a Christian. And Jesus and love and light, and that’s so important. That’s the legacy, a huge part of Charlie’s legacy. Now let’s talk about the bad side of it. Mark, have you spent much time on social media?
SPEAKER 03 :
Of course. And I’m going to continue to and not to doom scroll or just to immerse myself in the muck or anything, but just to kind of put my thumb on the pulse. It’s kind of what we do on how the country is navigating this, reacting to it. So there are uplifting reactions and there are disgusting reactions. Are you shocked by how many disgusting reactions there are? Yeah. Are you surprised? Okay, I’m not really shocked for the following reason. You’re not shocked? No, because number one, let’s say if I asked you a week ago, hey, Mike, is it a fallen world? Do we have a country full of lunatics? Is social media a cesspool for dysfunction? You’d have said yes. You thought it was that bad? You think it’s that bad? Here’s the other reason why I’m not shocked. Things like this are going to be magnified. The percentage of… Magnified? Yes. Social media magnifies the worst amongst… Wait a minute.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wait a minute. No, no, no.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here’s what I mean. You could probably spend an hour on Twitter and find half the things on there, people celebrating the fact that Charlie is dead. I don’t for a minute believe that half of America is that sick. If it’s 7%, that’s too much, but it’ll get magnified.
SPEAKER 04 :
Magnified and seem far larger than it is. You’re making a big mistake here. Let me tell you something, my friend, and I love you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m downplaying it. I love you. That’s a horrible percentage.
SPEAKER 04 :
You are downplaying it. This is not just a handful of people on Twitter. Mark, these are teachers. These are therapists.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know, I know, I know.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is a secret service agent. These are people in the mainstream, Mark. The rot is real and it is… It is way worse than I thought it was. This is not, I don’t think this is just, and I know what you’re saying.
SPEAKER 03 :
But I just think maybe my expectation was different. If you’d asked me a week ago, what percentage of America is that sick, that twisted, that perverse, I don’t know what number I’d have had, but I’d say about the percentage that we’re going to see if something like this happens. So no, I’m not particularly surprised.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m stunned. Again, I’m stunned at the occupations of all these people. And a very interesting process is playing out.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
Now our side, as it were, they’re calling all of them out and they’re all getting fired. They’re all losing their jobs left and right. And there’s actually websites now dedicated to showcasing the people who are celebrating and reveling in Charlie’s assassination. And they’re being doxxed. They’re being doxxed. No, no, no, no. Well, I’m just telling you.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no, no, nothing. No, no, no, nothing. We can’t condone that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Condone what? Identifying people that are celebrating somebody’s murder?
SPEAKER 03 :
When I say doxing, I didn’t say home address.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m talking about their occupation. I’m talking about who they are, what they are, outing what they do. I’m not talking about their home phone.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s what doxing is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, no, it’s not. Doxing is identifying somebody, saying this is where they work. This is who they are. This is a mental health professional. This is a suicide hotline supervisor. This is a nurse. This is a nurse. I know. This is a secret service agent. These are people that we are supposed to trust. These are people who give care. These are people who are supposed to know better. And absolutely, this is way worse than I thought it was. We have got a real problem in this country.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is massive. And you know where it comes from. Okay, let’s examine. Root causes is common, I might say. When you have a culture that, I mean, again, the same premise. A week ago, if I had said, hey, Mike, let’s talk about the degree to which there are people walking around. How many people are walking around saying Trump is Hitler? How many people are walking around saying that conservatives are trying to destroy the country and that democracy is at risk? Countless numbers of people. It’s the daily drumbeat of the modern media culture. It’s the daily drumbeat of the Hollywood culture. So it should come as no surprise that X percent of people are going to hear it, believe it, do disgusting things like celebrate this, or maybe even do disgusting things like kill a guy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look down the list. In fact, you can look at history of all the times that people on the left, Democrats, have been victims. Even Joe Biden. Look, when Joe Biden, when it was revealed that he had cancer, how many people do you say, oh, I hope he dies tomorrow? Oh, I’m hoping he dies. Oh, I want him to die. When Gabby Giffords was shot, how many people said, oh, good for the shooter, good for them? How many times have you heard our side revel in the misfortune, the violence addressed to their people. Never. Never, Mark. Never. There is something profoundly spiritually broken right now in this country, and I am in no mood to play nice and say, well, it’s just a couple of people, and oh, Twitter brings out the worst in people. No, no, no, no. But the worst of people is there.
SPEAKER 03 :
The rot is real. And so what does, was it Molly Hemingway’s husband, Ben Domenech? No, that’s not Molly Hemingway’s husband. Megan McCain’s husband. Megan McCain’s husband. I think it was Ben, or maybe it was Molly, one of these ladies’ fine husbands. What does Molly’s husband do? That’s Mark Hemingway, and he’s a writer and a columnist. Then maybe he’s the guy. I’m getting my famous husband. Strong conservative women. Said there needs to be accountability for the source of this rhetoric and for the people who are fomenting this kind of hatred. And then so I would ask you, okay, what does that look like? What is accountability for these purveyors of hate? Well, like I said, one by one, a lot of them are getting fired.
SPEAKER 04 :
One by one, they’re getting shamed publicly. Matthew down. Look what happened to him. Exactly. But here’s what I can’t wrap my brain around. All right, if you don’t like Charlie Kirk, you disagree with him on whatever, you’re Antifa to the core, whatever you feel, whatever your mindset is, and you’re thinking, well, good, glad they took him out. Would you say it publicly? Would you post it on Instagram? Would you admit it out loud? See, that’s the part.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s what I can’t get out of my head. What a spectacular point you’ve just made. Because even if it’s 2% or 12% or 36% or 4% of people who harbor these horrible views, they believe on any given day that the landscape of America, there’ll be enough accepting of that view that they’re willing to post it broadly.
SPEAKER 04 :
They feel safe enough to post it and say it publicly. They think the climate allows them to do this. And again, Mark, we’re not talking about a random art teacher in Berkeley, a U.S. Secret Service agent, a nurse, a doctor, a teacher. These are people in response. So my point is the fact that you just said it, and your point is a great one, that they think they’re comfortable enough to be emboldened enough to say, I’m going to wear my evil on my sleeve. I’m going to say this out loud, and I don’t give a damn. And now they’re paying a heavy price. So, look, I think we need a cleansing. We need a revival. We need a spiritual revival. It’s been announced that President Trump is going to attend the funeral. We intend to go as well. We’ll be bringing the show, we hope, to Phoenix, where Charlie will be laid to rest next weekend. I think we’ll be broadcasting from there Thursday, maybe Friday. I think we’re going to have a lot of Salem folks who are going to attend. Can you imagine?
SPEAKER 03 :
Does this hit you five, six, seven times a day? We’re sitting here talking about the Charlie Kirk funeral. The Charlie Kirk funeral? What? We shouldn’t be saying those words in a sentence in the English language. And when you go out there, when you’re sitting there, when you’re around this, it’s like, I can’t believe I’m here. What am I doing here? Why is a casket being brought off a plane? Why? Why?
SPEAKER 04 :
And why did that little girl who ran across the stage at Fox News two weeks ago… Daddy, daddy, and that big grin on his face. Look, martyr is the right word. A lot of people are saying Martin Luther King comparisons. He was martyred for his beliefs, and there’s no other way. Well, God bless that we got the guy. Apparently the suspect is in custody. Death penalty. Death penalty.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 03 :
And we’ll look for more from Justice Correspondent Donald Trump as he files more reports.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then he’s doing the weather. He’s going to do weather tonight.
SPEAKER 03 :
He’s going to have sports. He’s going to have picks. Well, look at what was at the Yankees game last night.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re all cheering him at the Yankees game.
SPEAKER 03 :
USA. For 9-11. Yes. In 30 seconds. I don’t ferment. I get the occasional texter who said, boy, 9-11 kind of got lost in yesterday. Not to me it didn’t. I mean, I know there’s only so much oxygen, only so much air time, and obviously there’s a pressing, huge, manhunt, mystery, grieving moment, but I was very, very front of mind. Those names, a story that you were there for right there in the city. We have not forgotten.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, we cannot forget. We will never forget. All right, love you. I’ll see you in South Carolina. We’ve got a big event there tomorrow night, so I’ll be in the upstate on Monday, so I’ll talk to you from my beloved Greenville, South Carolina.
SPEAKER 03 :
Excellent. Safe travels and be safe. I always say be safe, but I really mean it, man. I really, really mean it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Back at you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Back at you. That’s Mike Gallagher ready to go. 10 o’clock as soon as we are done right here on 660 AM The Answer.
