Just a couple of months ago, Steve Deace spoke at an event at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, where Charlie Kirk regularly worshipped and collaborated on initiatives. Right before he walked on stage, Charlie leaned down and whispered a word of encouragement in his ear.

“Go hard,” he said.

Today, as we continue to wrestle with the loss of Charlie, we all need to take that advice to heart. It’s time to go hard.

But what does that look like? How do we “go hard” in a way that hits at the root of this violence and culminates in positive change?

At a recent event for Conservative Partnership Institute, Steve answered that question with three bold initiatives that we all bear the responsibility of ensuring come to fruition.

1. Punish evil

Steve beseeches all of us, but especially elected officials, to treat evil as such. Enough with leniency and delay. Either we punish evil, or we welcome it through the front door.

“The scriptures say the only reason God permits government on this Earth is to be an avenging angel, a sword of righteousness against evil,” Steve says.

“The people in this room who hold elected office and the ones who [do] not, you must punish evil. … You must!” he urges.

Failure to do so will have one outcome, he warns: “more evil.”

To the dissenters who argue that to meet evil with fitting consequences will backfire because Democrats will only return the favor, Steve has a sobering message: “They’ve already done it all! They’re all going to do it all over again. 2005 called, and it wants its talking points back. That’s not where we are right now. My friend’s body is cold to testify to that truth.”

But it’s not just Charlie’s tragic death that demands justice. There are many atrocities in this country that have yet to be addressed, Steve says. Whether it’s the deliberate invasion of illegal immigrants perpetrated by the Biden regime or the fact that the American people were lied to about Joe Biden’s mental acuity while a cabal of shadowy Democrats ran the country in his stead, justice has yet to be served on a number of iniquities.

“Who’s gone to prison for this? Who’s been referred to prosecution? Who’s been arrested?” Steve asks.

“We have to punish evil. If we don’t punish evil, there will be more evil. I promise you,” he reiterates.

2. Stop the contagion of political sadism

“We have a social contagion, and I’m not talking about trannyism. … This is actually worse. I will call it political sadism,” Steve says.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s near assassination and Charlie Kirk’s murder, the radical leftists have shown their true colors. Their brazen celebration of the attacks on people they consider their political enemies reveals just how sick and twisted they’ve become. They are reveling in “the physical suffering and debasement of people,” Steve laments.

It’s not even taboo anymore. “Now teachers, nurses, public officials, financial advisers just post this stuff under their names, and they’re proud to do it,” he says.

“It’s like a macabre carnival of ghouls fetishizing, turning the death of, I think, our best general into a kink that they cannot wait to satiate and rub in your faces and share with others.”

So what do we do? We employ one of the left’s favorite weapons: “cancel culture.”

“We have to publicly shame this out of existence. That’s the only antidote,” Steve says.

“I kind of like cancel culture when my side’s doing the canceling,” he admits.

“We have to [employ cancel culture] in return because they’re already doing all those things to us right now. This stuff has to be shunned. There should be a graveyard of lost jobs, lost careers. The social stigma to this should be overwhelming.”

3. Redden the red states

“Our red states have to be every bit as red as the blue states are blue,” Steve says.

He explains that blue states never eased up on their progressivism after Donald Trump became the president. If anything, they doubled down because “they have complete and total control of the governing infrastructure … [and] the policy-making” in their states.

So why aren’t red states doing the same?

“It needs to be inconceivable that they could propose these [liberal] policies in the places where we have total control,” Steve says, urging states like Wyoming and Idaho to become the right’s California and Massachusetts.

The attitude we need to have toward progressive voters moving into red states is this, he says: “You’re not going to move here because Google gave you a job and come here and vote communism and cultural Marxism into my state. … There’s more to life than a balance sheet, and part of that calculus needs to be the moral one.”

We need to adopt the bold stance Ronald Reagan took when he declared an arms race against the Soviet Union: “Do not launch on us, [or] we will launch on you.”

“We have to immediately establish that mutually assured destruction deterrent. We have to. If we don’t, I’m telling you right now, we’re going to bury more Charlies,” Steve says. “Well, we won’t bury any more Charlie Kirks because there’s nobody like him. The void he has left is immeasurable. But we’re going to bury more of us because they’re unbowed.”

The debate is no longer Republican versus Democrat or even conservative versus liberal. The debate is now: “Do I still get to be an American or not?”

How we respond to the death of Charlie Kirk will determine the answer to that question, Steve says.

“Don’t sentence your children and grandchildren to have to settle these disputes in unpeaceable means because we weren’t aggressive enough to defend them with the peaceable means we still have,” he pleads.

This is the fight Charlie was fighting until his last breath. That’s “why I am confident the next words he heard after that bullet ripped through his neck were, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’” he says.

We should all live our lives so that we, too, can hear these words when our time comes.

So “go hard,” Steve says.

Our future depends on it.

To hear his full speech, watch the video above.

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To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last year, caught a break this week when a New York judge dismissed one of the charges in the state case. Former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy joined “The Glenn Beck Program” on Tuesday morning to explain why.

Judge Gregory Carro dropped the terrorism charge against Mangione, concluding that there was “no evidence presented” that he broke the state’s terrorism law.

‘I just don’t think it trivialized the murder to say that it’s not a terrorism crime.’

The crime of terrorism, under New York law, is defined as an “intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination, or kidnapping.”

“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote. The judge mentioned that federal prosecutors did not charge Mangione with terrorism offenses.

However, Carro stated that there was sufficient evidence that the suspect “murdered Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution.” As such, the second-degree murder charge still stands, which carries a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison.

RELATED: Alleged manifesto of murder suspect Luigi Mangione highlights lessons learned from Unabomber: Court docs

Luigi Mangione. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“To prove terrorism, you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt an intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” McCarthy told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck. “What the judge said is, this was very narrowly targeted at the health care industry and this particular health care executive.”

“I just don’t think it trivialized the murder to say that it’s not a terrorism crime,” he continued.

McCarthy also explained why Mangione is facing second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder. He stated that in the 1990s, former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) wanted to revise the state’s capital murder statute to revive the death penalty.

RELATED: ‘Saint Luigi’? America’s moral compass couldn’t be more broken

Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

“This ultimately was not a successful effort,” McCarthy remarked. “What they did was, they took the things that you could get the death penalty for, which in New York, were only things like killing a police officer or killing a prison guard in the prison, and they made those the only murder in the first degree.”

“They were trying to clean the statute in a way that murder one would be revived as capital murder,” he continued. “And all other murder was going to be second-degree murder.”

Mangione’s case, therefore, would not qualify for first-degree murder under New York law.

McCarthy believes that if the suspect is convicted in the federal system, he will likely get the death penalty.

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A new release from law enforcement officials very much points to a political motivation for the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said that accused murderer Tyler Robinson, 22, texted his transgender roommate and told him to drop everything to look at a note he had left under his keyboard.

‘I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.’

“I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” the note read, according to charging documents.

This text chain then ensued:

Image Source: Utah County Court Document screenshot.

Image Source: Utah County Court Document screenshot.

Image Source: Utah County Court Document screenshot.

The text messages appear to have been sent while Robinson was still in the vicinity of the UVU campus, Gray stated.

RELATED: Liberals spew hatred against moment of silence for Charlie Kirk on Thursday Night Football

Gray also confirmed that Robinson had begun to date his biologically male roommate, who had begun transitioning to female.

The text messages completely undermined a liberal narrative that had developed about the possible motive of the suspect. Many had tried to frame Robinson as a right-winger due to his family connections, but the alleged texts offer evidence in his own words.

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Outrage over comments about Charlie Kirk in a video shared by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota may lead to her being stripped of her congressional committee assignments.

The video criticized the conservative response to Kirk’s death and blamed the rhetoric on the right for creating the circumstances that led to his assassination. Omar reposted the video from her account on the X social media platform, according to screenshots captured online.

‘Its [sic] dangerous, disgraceful, and beneath the United States Congress. She must be stripped of every committee assignment. No excuses.’

“Kirk was a reprehensible human being … a stochastic terrorist,” said the commentator on the video. “With his last dying words, he was spewing racist dog whistles. Charlie Kirk was Dr. Frankenstein, and his monster shot him through the neck.”

In response, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she would file a motion to punish Omar.

“Ilhan Omar has shown us exactly who she is: she defends political violence and refuses to condemn the loss of innocent lives when it doesn’t suit her agenda, even the cold-blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk,” she wrote on social media Monday.

“Its [sic] dangerous, disgraceful, and beneath the United States Congress,” Mace added. “She must be stripped of every committee assignment. No excuses.”

Omar responded to criticism related to a separate video where she criticized Kirk.

“While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone. My faith teaches me the power of peace, empathy, and compassion,” she posted on Thursday.

RELATED: Ilhan Omar mocks Trump and others for praising Charlie Kirk: ‘These people are full of s**t!’

“Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis,” she added.

Omar also appeared to reference the effort in an oblique message on social media Tuesday.

“To those claiming they’re for free speech while punishing and silencing those for exercising that right: You’re not pro-free speech,” she posted.

If the censure motion is successful, Omar would lose her seats on the House Education and Workforce Committee and the House Budget Committee.

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FBI Director Kash Patel revealed the real extent of the bureau’s investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the FBI was looking into “a lot more” than 20 people who were involved in a Discord chat with Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. This development is the latest of mounting evidence against Robinson that has been made public.

‘We’re running them all down.’

“We’re also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat,” Patel said during the hearing.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri pointed to public reports that said there were as many as 20 additional users in the Discord chat shared with Robinson. Patel confirmed that there were in fact “a lot more” who are being investigated.

RELATED: FBI unveils damning new evidence against accused Charlie Kirk assassin

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Image

“It’s a lot more than that,” Patel said. “We’re running them all down.”

Within just days, the FBI came out with evidence to suggest the probable political and ideological motive behind the assassination. Over the weekend, Robinson was confirmed to be living with his trans-identifying boyfriend, a biological man claiming to be a woman. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah also revealed the ideological messages inscribed onto ammunition found at the crime scene, including one bullet casing that read, “Hey fascist! Catch!”

Patel also confirmed Monday that DNA evidence was found on both a screwdriver located on the roof where the shooter is believed to have been and on a firearm recovered in the woods near the shooting. Both samples were a positive match to Robinson’s DNA, according to Patel.

RELATED: Alleged bomb plot near Charlie Kirk assassination lands Pakistani native and son with terrorism charges

Photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images

On Tuesday, Robinson was officially charged in connection with the assassination of Kirk at the Utah Valley University campus last week. He is facing charges of aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and felony discharge of a firearm.

Kirk, who was just 31 years old, leaves behind his wife, Erika, and their two beautiful children.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested several illegal aliens on Monday who were previously convicted of “violent and heinous” crimes, according to a press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

‘Despite vile rhetoric about our ICE law enforcement officers, they continue to risk their lives every single day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals.’

The Department of Homeland Security highlighted the arrest of five illegal immigrants: Gustavo Guzman-Galindo, Jose Rolando Aguirre-Garcia, Raul Castaneda-Parada, Luis Gilberto Rodriguez-Villalobos, and Jason Nathaniel Lewis.

Gustavo Guzman-Galindo. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Guzman-Galindo, an illegal alien from Mexico, was previously convicted of “criminal contempt, use of a child less than 17 years of age in a sexual performance, criminal sex act, and rape” in New York City, the DHS reported.

The 41-year-old was previously sentenced to seven years in prison, according to ICE.

Jose Rolando Aguirre-Garcia. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Aguirre-Garcia, also a Mexican national illegally in the U.S., was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Bexar County, Texas. ICE Houston arrested the 44-year-old on Monday, and he was previously sentenced to five years in prison.

RELATED: Exclusive: ICE rounds up violent criminal illegal aliens, including a convicted rapist

Raul Castaneda-Parada. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Castaneda-Parada, a third Mexican national illegally in the U.S, had a rap sheet in Durham County, North Carolina, for trafficking cocaine.

Luis Gilberto Rodriguez-Villalobos. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

RELATED: ‘I don’t give a s**t what people think about me’: Homan outlines Trump admin’s immigration enforcement wins

Rodriguez-Villalobos, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was convicted of second-degree rape in Hempstead, New York.

Jason Nathaniel Lewis. Image source: The Department of Homeland Security

Lewis, a Jamaican national illegally in the U.S., was convicted of murder in Bronx, New York. ICE Buffalo nabbed the 49-year-old on Monday, according to the agency. He was previously sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

“Despite vile rhetoric about our ICE law enforcement officers, they continue to risk their lives every single day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Our ICE officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them as they carry out operations to remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods. Our brave law enforcement will not be deterred from enforcing the law and getting heinous criminals out of our country.”

“ICE will continue to enforce U.S. immigration laws to ensure criminal illegal aliens are identified, arrested, and removed, safeguarding communities across the nation,” the DHS press release read.

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The NASCAR world lit up over the weekend with tributes from drivers to Charlie Kirk at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

NASCAR’s Xfinity Series Food City 300 and the Cup Series’ Bass Pro Shops Night Race in Bristol, Tennessee, saw a huge outpouring of love for Kirk following his murder earlier in the week. Kirk’s life was taken at a university event in Utah on Sept. 10, leaving his wife, Erika, and two children behind.

‘I look up to his heroism when it comes to standing for God …’

Following the national anthem on Saturday, not only was there a flyover, but at the same time, a remembrance of Kirk appeared on the big screen over the racetrack. That was far from being the only tribute to Kirk, though, as at least seven drivers let their support be known.

This included race winner Christopher Bell — driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 car — who dedicated his victory to Kirk.

“This week’s obviously been a very tough week, and, you know, there’s a lot on our mind, and this one’s for Charlie,” he said.

Tributes also poured in from from all the current drivers of Richard Childress Racing. Decals dedicated to Kirk were placed on Jesse Love’s Xfinity No. 2 car, Austin Hill’s Xfinity No. 21, Kyle Busch’s Cup No. 8, and Austin Dillon’s Cup No. 3.

Dillon was asked about his tribute and did not mince words when speaking about the “tragic incident.”

“I look up to his heroism when it comes to standing for God and I love some of his teachings of the Bible,” Dillon explained. “His ability to debate without really attacking someone. I thought that it’s just a very sad day; all I know it makes me want to get into the Bible more and learn more about Jesus and try and spread the word whenever I can.”

RELATED: Radio host makes insane complaint about Charlie Kirk tributes at NFL games — but actual players disagree

Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

With the entire team making tributes to Kirk, owner Richard Childress was not shy about commenting on the event and provided some of the kindest remarks heard from the sports world in reference to Kirk’s death.

“Charlie loved this country; he loved God,” Childress told Fox News‘ Laura Ingraham.

Calling the assassination a “senseless, senseless murder,” the team owner referred to Kirk as a “friend and a great American patriot.”

When Ingraham asked if he ever imagined something like Kirk’s death would happen in the United States, Childress remarked, “Some of the crazy stuff that you hear that these people come up with, I can’t believe it. … We’ve got the greatest country on Earth. If you’ve ever been to other countries, especially communist countries, you’ll understand what you have.”

RELATED: Beloved race car driver dies after mid-race catastrophe has officials tearing his car apart

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Jeremy Clements’ Xfinity No. 51 car from Jeremy Clements Racing also put a photo of Kirk on his car with the caption “RIP Charlie Kirk.”

Austin Green’s Xfinity No. 32 car for Jordan Anderson Racing also paid tribute to Kirk, simply writing his name next to the American flag above the rear driver-side window.

The outpouring of love by the drivers is by far the biggest showing of support for Kirk in any of the major sports to date.

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As news continues to break about Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer — who was believed to be living with a transgender woman at the time of the assassination — even more important news about Charlie’s life’s work is breaking.

Because more important than the suspect is Charlie’s legacy — which will never be silenced.

“A lion has been awakened in our country. I’ve never seen anything like this. And there’s evidence of the impact of this lion that’s been awakened,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“The social media accounts that are associated with Charlie Kirk and his wife, Erika Kirk, and Turning Point USA saw increases of epic proportions over the past four days,” she explains.

Charlie’s Instagram, Erika’s Instagram, their Facebook accounts, Turning Point USA’s accounts across the social media platforms — all of them have cumulatively gained at least 23.3 million followers as of two days ago.

“That’s not even the most up-to-date numbers in the last couple of hours. On Instagram, Charlie Kirk’s account gained 5 million followers. He now has a total of 12.2 million. 12.2 million. That’s almost tripling,” Wheeler says, shocked.

“Tell me, are you not getting the chills?” she asks, before noting that even on TikTok, “The Charlie Kirk Show” gained 2 million followers for a total of 9.3 million.

“These numbers are astronomical,” she says.

And the producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Andrew Kolvet, has even better news.

“I wanted to share a … report from TPUSA. The organization has received over 32,000 inquiries in the last 48-hours to start new campus chapters. To put that in perspective, TPUSA currently has 900 official college chapters and around 1,200 high school chapters, with a presence on 3,500 total,” Kolvet wrote in a post on X.

“Charlie’s vision to have a Club America chapter (our high school brand) in every high school in America (around 23,000) will come true much much faster than he could have ever possibly imagined. Truly incredible,” he added.

“I am not sure that there has ever been a moment in our nation where more people felt like Jesus Christ is calling you now,” Wheeler says. “If you’ve ever thought about going to church, do it now. Go to mass, walk in, cross yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to Christ, and he will.”

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