{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-reflects-on-charlie-kirks-legacy-of-faith-family-and-freedom-during-tpusa-speech-in-auburn/", "Tuberville Reflects on Charlie Kirk\u2019s Legacy of Faith, Family, and Freedom During TPUSA Speech in Auburn", "2025-11-06", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "AUBURN \u2013 U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke to 6,000 students during Turning Point USA\u2019s (TPUSA) event in Auburn on Wednesday. During his remarks, Sen. Tuberville echoed Charlie Kirk\u2019s message encouraging young people to save this country by educating themselves, working hard, getting married, and having kids.\n\nRead excerpts from Sen. Tuberville\u2019s speech below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.\n\n\u201cI think I\u2019ve been here before. [\u2026] We\u2019re here for all of you young people who are here tonight that are in school\u2014we have got some high school people here. And thanks for coming. [\u2026] This brings tears to your eyes for what Turning Point has been through\u2014[what] Erika has been through over the past two or three months. It\u2019s been a tough time. It\u2019s been a tough time for everybody. It\u2019s been a tough time for our country. I want to thank everybody for supporting\u2014not just tonight\u2014but for supporting Turning Point USA. It is a phenomenal organization that\u2019s making incredible progress.\n\nCharlie was a good friend. One thing that he wanted to do was bring knowledge to young people. It was awesome. Talked to him several times [about this]. You know, Charlie and I met back in 2020 when I was running for Senate, and he actually helped me get elected. And he was a very positive person. Loved this country. But he really loved young people.\n\nYou know what? He and I talked a lot about education. Talk a lot about education. And that was one thing he and I had in common. That\u2019s one reason we talked a lot. And he said, \u2018Coach, we\u2019ve got to do something for the young people.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, for 40 years, I\u2019ve been around young people. I\u2019ll help you as much as possible, but you relate to them. You relate to them very well.\u2019 So, we kinda had two different paths. I was through education and coaching. And Charlie obviously was somebody that was in in [the] realm of being 30 years old and could really relate [to young people]. But I really liked what he did and he took it on himself to go out and say, \u2018You know, I want to debate young people. I want to get people in front of me and whether I convince them or not, whether I\u2019m right or wrong, I want people to hear how people are talking, how people are thinking.\u2019 We don\u2019t do enough of that in politics. We don\u2019t do enough at all.\n\nSo, Charlie and I went through a lot of interviews together. I was on his show quite a bit. Matter of fact, I think the last interview was August 25th, just a few weeks before he was assassinated. Yeah. It was a tough time for all of us. [\u2026]\n\nYou know, President Trump called me back in June or so and he said, \u2018Coach, I want you and Charlie Kirk\u2014you know each other well\u2014I want you to be on the board at the Air Force Academy. We\u2019re having problems. We\u2019re having problems with leadership. We\u2019re having problems with DEI\u2014we\u2019re just having problems. And that\u2019s one area of our country that we need leaders.\u2019 You know, Charlie was smart. He understood leaders\u2014he really understood them. And he said, [\u2026] \u2018Coach, we need leaders. We don\u2019t need followers in this institution.\u2019 He was exactly right. We made a lot of progress just in the few months that we were on it together. But now we\u2019re gonna continue to fight. We\u2019re gonna fight for what he knew was right and what I knew was right, but we got to fight for not just our Air Force Academy, but for all institutions, all higher education, all high schools.\n\nSpeaking of leaders, Charlie was supposed to be here tonight. Tonight, we had made this date\u2014he and I and the organization back in July\u2014and I was supposed to introduce him. And, so, Charlie\u2019s here with us. He\u2019s here with us in spirit. We\u2019re gonna take his legacy on, but it\u2019s gonna be hard to uphold everything that he knew because he was so smart. [\u2026]\n\nYou know, the one thing about Charlie, he was waking up millions of young people at a time. He was waking them up because he was telling the truth.\n\nAnd you know what? He lost his life for it. He lost his life because he was telling the truth. He was never afraid of it. But he knew that he was in harm\u2019s way at times, but he lost his life because he went out there for all of us and for all of you because he was telling the truth.\n\nThe most important thing that Charlie had going for him in his life was his faith. I mean, there wasn\u2019t a time that went by [when] he didn\u2019t talk about his kids when I talked with him and his wife, but also his faith. He was a true evangelist. He really studied the Bible. He thought it was the ultimate source of truth. [\u2026]\n\nUnfortunately, this deranged, Leftist coward, and I\u2019m gonna call him that, he was afraid Charlie\u2019s message was becoming real. Charlie was waking up millions of people when they shot him. But the thing that happened, and I think as you see tonight, people woke up when this happened. [\u2026]\n\nThe next thing that Charlie would talk to you about was marriage. He talked to a lot of young people. If you\u2019ve ever watched his videos, now, just make sure that you look at the three things he talks about. Marriage and family are the two most important after faith. He really loved his kids. And he would often tell people he said, \u2018Listen, if you\u2019re gonna be happy in life, get married and have a family.\u2019 That\u2019s what you\u2019re here for. The person you marry [\u2026] is gonna be the biggest decision of your life. Don\u2019t waste your time just dating around. Look for that one certain person. Because that certain person is the most important decision and it\u2019s gonna make your life better and it\u2019s gonna make that person better that you\u2019re gonna marry. You\u2019re gonna have a long-lasting relationship\u2014and he preached that.\n\nIf faith is the foundation of this country, and he talked about faith a lot of the time, family is the cornerstone of that. Children should be taught to take responsibility for their lives, and be accountable. I\u2019ve said this often when I was coaching\u2014the only thing this country owes you\u2014and Charlie would tell you this also because I kinda ingrained it in him\u2014the only thing this country owes you is an opportunity.\n\nThis is the greatest country on the face of the earth, folks, the greatest country. But it doesn\u2019t offer you a job. It doesn\u2019t offer you money. It offers you an opportunity to do the best that you possibly can do. [\u2026] And once you young people get out and you start working a job, just remember this one thing.\n\n[Have a strong] work ethic and work very hard at it\u2014you want to achieve something and you wanna get better at whatever job you\u2019re doing. But as long as you\u2019re alive and you\u2019re working, also work on your personal development. Grow yourself. Grow yourself to Christ. Grow yourself to your family. Make yourself better every day. That success, if you\u2019re [focused on] trying to be successful and trying to make money and do all those things, it will hinder you. Don\u2019t worry about all that. If you worry about personal development and [\u2026] work ethic, success will find you. I promise you that. While you\u2019re in school, it\u2019s your job to better yourself. While you\u2019re working a job, it\u2019s your job to better yourself. The only person, Charlie would tell you this, the only person ultimately responsible for your success or your failure is you. Nobody else. Don\u2019t count on anybody else.\n\nYou know, these are the lessons I learned from my parents, but unfortunately, parents are few and far between nowadays. It\u2019s unfortunate. That is killing our country folks. A lot of people grow up with two parents, and I used to tell a lot of the groups I talk to this\u2014if you\u2019re born in this country, you hit the lottery because this is the best country on the face of the earth\u2014bar none, okay? If you were born in this country with two parents, you hit the lottery again, which is almost impossible. Thank you, parents. [\u2026]\n\n[Many of] the kids I coached [unfortunately had] one or no parent [in the home], and it\u2019s getting worse. We need to make that go the other direction. That was one of the things that Charlie was working on is keeping people together. Children who grew up without a father in the home are twice as likely to suffer behavioral and mental health problems. Think about that. So, to the young man who are here tonight, please step up, save our country. Kids need fathers at home. Your job is to run the household. Your job is teach knowledge and truth to your kids. We need fathers in the homes. When men fail [\u2026] to step up into the role that God has given them, our society suffers. And folks, our society is in bad, bad trouble. We don\u2019t have enough fathers and mothers that stay together to raise their kids to make this country the country that it used to be. And that\u2019s one of the keys that Charlie always pushed. We need families. We need a tight marriage. And we need kids that are gonna learn from their parents.\n\nSo, we\u2019ve talked a little bit about truth. In the few more minutes I have here, here\u2019s a few hard truths that Charlie and I kinda got together as we were talking about doing shows. [\u2026] But here\u2019s a few truths. And I\u2019m gonna tell you the truth, and they\u2019re not fun to listen to.\n\nOur country\u2019s dead broke folks. I used to be a football coach. Now they call me a \u2018politician\u2019 and I\u2019m embarrassed. We are, as of last Tuesday, we\u2019re $38 trillion dollars in debt. $38 trillion. Do you know how much a trillion dollars is? A trillion dollars is $100 dollar bills stacked three feet high from here to Atlanta, Georgia. That\u2019s a lot of money and we\u2019re 38 of them in debt. You know who owes that bill? You do. You owe that bill because it\u2019s gonna be your next generation that\u2019s gonna have to take care of it. And folks, that ain\u2019t fake money. That is real-life American money. You know, I\u2019m not an economics professor, but I\u2019ve learned one or two things about budgets in my lifetime. You know, the U.S. government brings in $5 trillion dollars a year. That\u2019s how much tax money that comes to Washington, D.C.\u2014$5 trillion. We spend $7 trillion dollars a year in Washington, D.C. Now I\u2019m not real good at math, but I know that doesn\u2019t equal out very well, okay? If we bring in $5 trillion and we spend $7 [trillion], that means $2 trillion dollars of your money that you\u2019re gonna have to make up one day. That\u2019s unsustainable. We can\u2019t keep that up.\n\nI used to own a small business and [\u2026] if you spend money like that, you\u2019re either gonna go to jail or you\u2019re gonna go bankrupt. Well, we\u2019re bankrupt. Some people go to jail too, by the way. You know, if we keep this up, I want you to think about this. If you keep this up, I\u2019m talking to the young people now, [\u2026] taxes are gonna be so high, you\u2019re gonna have to pay 70-80% percent of your paycheck just to pay off our national debt. That\u2019s gonna leave you 20% or 30% to raise a family. It\u2019s impossible to do it. That\u2019s the reason we have to get control of our debt. It\u2019s impossible that we continue this pathway. You know what it\u2019s called? It\u2019s called socialism. We\u2019re turning into a socialist country. But you know what? That\u2019s the Democrats\u2019 plan. Charlie would tell you that.\n\nYou saw what happened last night\u2014we elected a mayor in New York City that is a pronounced and known socialist. I never thought I\u2019d see it happen. But we\u2019re spending more and more money. And you know what? It\u2019s because the Democrats wanna spend it. We\u2019re trying to cut back on the money. We\u2019re trying to help you young people sustain a budget for the future. But the Democrats couldn\u2019t care less. They wanna spend more and more money. I just don\u2019t understand it. I don\u2019t know whether they hate this country or they despise the Constitution, but they are running it into the ground. We cannot continue to do it. Here\u2019s what\u2019s happening. They want free health care. They want free housing. They want food stamps for everybody. Folks, to Democrats, [the] American dream [is] \u2018oppressive.\u2019 [\u2026] I heard Charlie talk about this many times. They\u2019d rather see the American dream replaced by American dependence on big government. We can\u2019t do it. [\u2026]\n\nWe have to put America first, which brings me to the second hard truth that Charlie talked about. [\u2026] We are kind people\u2014America [offers] assistance to everybody. We send billions of dollars to all these other countries. But folks, we cannot allow open borders in this country like we\u2019ve had the last four years. You know, our friend Charlie died with the word \u2018freedom\u2019 written right here on his chest. Freedom for this country. He understood that the freedoms we have in this country are under attack every day. And that\u2019s the reason he was wearing that shirt. Under the Biden administration, tens of millions of people crossed our border illegally. We all knew it. We were trying to stop it, but we had no power. Thank God President Trump is trying to clean it up. But unfortunately, it\u2019s gonna take a while and it\u2019s gonna take a lot of money, and we\u2019re still spending billions of dollars to clean this mess up that belong to you, your generation.\n\nWe\u2019re a country of legal immigrants. We\u2019re all immigrants or have ancestors that were immigrants. If you want to come in here, we want you here. But come here the right way. But I wanna say this. If you come here and chant \u2018death to America,\u2019 you refuse to go by our laws, you burn our flag and have no intentions of assimilating and doing things that we do in the culture of the United States of America\u2014take your butt home.\n\nOur next [\u2026] hard truth that Charlie and I used to talk about was identity politics. You know, the past few years, racism has been allowed to fester in this country\u2014it\u2019s called DEI. DEI is just discrimination under a different name, okay? I\u2019m for merit. When I went into Jordan-Hare Stadium, if I didn\u2019t play the best people that worked the hardest that could perform as a team and win games, I\u2019d get fired. But today, in this country, in this country, we\u2019re allowing DEI to overtake our institutions, our agencies, and it\u2019s absolutely ruining our country. It cannot continue to happen. When I had players, I had black, I had white, I had red, I had Catholics, Protestants, rich, poor, middle class, it didn\u2019t make any difference. But you know what? They played their tail off. Because they played as a team. They played and they knew if somebody made a mistake and somebody got on them from the other team, somebody [on their team] had their back. Folks, that\u2019s what we got here. Somebody did something to one of our players, Charlie Kirk, we gotta have his back. We gotta have his back.\n\nAnd as I wrap up here, I gotta bring this up. You know, some people [\u2026] might not like this. Folks, men are men and women are women. [applause] Thank you. I\u2019ve had bills on the floor in the United States Senate that says \u2018No more men in women sports,\u2019 and the Democrats all have voted them down. God gave us a clear understanding. He created men and women with different strengths and different weaknesses. He never wanted them to be confrontational. He wouldn\u2019t have wanted this. He wouldn\u2019t want men in women sports. [\u2026] My first grandchild, Rosie Grace, is eight months old. And I\u2019ll be damned if she\u2019s gonna take a shower with a man when she\u2019s in sports.\n\nAnd one of the last things I want to talk about before we get on with the big program here is\u2014look at this culture war we\u2019re in. If you don\u2019t think we have a war going on, look at Europe, folks. Europe is gone. It\u2019s over. They\u2019ve allowed immigration in their country, and these people aren\u2019t assimilating. They\u2019ve opened their borders to millions of people. And we want, you know, we want immigration, but it needs to be legal here. But over there, they\u2019ve absolutely opened their borders. They call it \u2018globalism.\u2019 Crime is going through the roof. Their culture is at risk. And it\u2019s something different than these people have ever seen.\n\nThe other thing is in Africa [\u2026]\u2014Charlie and I talked about this quite often. 100,000 Christians have been slaughtered and 18,000 churches have been burned in Africa and Nigeria. 67,000 Christians have been murdered since 2000 by Radical Islamists. So, the bottom line is that Christianity is under attack. And we gotta stop it. Here\u2019s the deal. You have to understand\u2014the Mainstream Media, Hollywood, Liberal Elites\u2014we know where they\u2019re at. They hate Christianity. [\u2026]\n\nAnd that\u2019s the reason we have to fight for our faith and fight for Christ. It\u2019s going to be your generation\u2014and I\u2019m telling you as a so-called \u2018politician.\u2019 Politicians aren\u2019t gonna help you. It\u2019s gonna be your generation that\u2019s gonna get this mess straightened out.\n\nCharlie worked with a lot of people to move the ball down the field to get this going. Look at all these people in here. This is going to continue. We need to follow Charlie\u2019s example by pursuing knowledge in this country, make yourself smarter, do things on your own, personal development, engage in thorough debate, debate those people that disagree with you peacefully.\n\nWe\u2019re in a fight, folks. We\u2019re in a fight for our lives. I\u2019m gonna fight. I want you to fight. We\u2019re counting on you. All of you, educate yourself, work hard, get married, and have kids. If you do that, your generation will save this world, will save this country. We\u2019re counting on you. Do the best you can.\n\nBut again, we\u2019re behind you, we\u2019re for you. [This is the] greatest country ever. War Eagle.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-reflects-on-charlie-kirks-legacy-of-faith-family-and-freedom-during-tpusa-speech-in-auburn/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.501173410564661, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}