Tucker Carlson told a story on “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Friday about how Kirk won him over after originally being “skeptical” of him.
Carlson told Vice President J.D. Vance, who guest-hosted the show on Monday, that he admired Kirk’s ability to have fond feelings for those who disagreed with him. Carlson said that Kirk’s youth and his assumption that he was preying on their mutual donor friend were off-putting, but that after a debate, they started speaking and bonding.
“I met Charlie when he was a teenager. He was connected to, funded by, a close friend of ours called Foster Friess … And so he tells me at dinner about this kid he’s met. He’s only 18 … And so he’s like, ‘You would love this guy, he’s not going to college.’ And I was like, ‘Man, I love that.’ Because I really am opposed,” Carlson said. “And I mean it … And I really thought, assumed that Charlie was just some predator and I didn’t like it at all. And of course there’s the bias against young people. I mean, Charlie’s literally the age of one of my children.”
“And I felt he’s probably just totally conventional — telling old people what they want to hear, sucking up to donors, whatever. So I meet him. I thought he was smart as hell, but I was very skeptical,” he added. “Then he calls me: ‘Would you do an event?’ Sure, I was going to be in the state anyway. So I do it … I was going to give a speech and I got there, we were backstage, he was like, ‘Well actually, let’s just do a Q and A. And I was like, ‘I don’t know, son, I don’t think you want to do that with me, because I’m kind of a jerk.”
Carlson said Kirk dismissed his concerns and pushed for a debate. Carlson said he told Kirk he disagreed with him on the economy and foreign policy that he was “hot on these topics.” Kirk again dismissed Carlson’s concerns.
“So we end up having this kind of intense thing. And I’m passionately opposed to marijuana and drugs, just having used a lot of drugs as a child. I’m very opposed to drugs,” Carlson said. “Charlie never used any drugs his whole life and he was, at the time, kind of libertarian on the subject. And I remember saying, ‘Everyone in the crowd who’s for weed, you think you’re so cool. But actually, it’s a control device designed to make you passive and accepting of the system that’s destroying you.”
“And people kind of booed me or whatever, but Charlie looked at me like, ‘Hm, I think that may be right.’ And it was that issue, it was weed of all issues … And Charlie grooved with that and that moment set off this conversation,” he added. “So I was in Arizona for something, he’s like, ‘Let’s go to lunch, let’s go to dinner.’ And we started having all these really intense conversations. I started putting him on Fox. And his views were changing. And mine were too, by the way. It’s not like I converted him.”
Carlson said Kirk was a rare young person who was willing to admit he was wrong and attributed it to his faith in Jesus.
ALP, the nicotine pouch company launched by Carlson and fellow DCNF co-founder Neil Patel, is also donating $1 million to Kirk’s family and set up a GiveSendGo website in his memory.
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