Charlie Kirk saw potential in young people that they often failed to recognize in themselves, according to the man who served as his chief of staff. Mikey McCoy made the remarks during a rare interview on The Alex Marlow Show, part of a Breitbart News series featuring people close to Kirk.
McCoy traced his relationship with Kirk back to a chance meeting when he was 18 years old. Kirk was speaking at his father’s church, an early foray into church appearances that McCoy said came as the country was emerging from the COVID-19 era — a moment when, as he put it, churches had been closed while marijuana dispensaries and strip clubs remained open. Kirk, he recalled, saw something deeply wrong with that and wanted to take a stand.
After the event, McCoy offered to drive Kirk and his then-girlfriend Erika to the airport. The trip took an hour and a half in heavy traffic. Looking back, McCoy said he is grateful for the traffic because it gave him so much time with Kirk, who spent the drive peppering him with questions: Where did you go to high school? Where are you going to college? Why are you going to college? The conversation ranged across Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and American history, with Kirk pressing him on the significance of various battles.
McCoy admitted he did not have answers to roughly 90 percent of it, and at the time considered Kirk his hero. He assumed Kirk probably thought he was an idiot. Then, just before getting out of the car at the airport, Kirk told him he did not think McCoy should go to college — he wanted him to come work for him instead.
“And I was like, wait, what?” McCoy recalled. The entire drive home, he said, he pondered how such a legend and massive man as Kirk could want him. It did not make sense to him that an 18-year-old kid who obviously did not know anything would be recruited on the spot.
That moment, McCoy said, reflected something larger about Kirk: he saw something in young people that they do not even see in themselves. Kirk saw something in McCoy that McCoy did not see in himself, and he wanted young people to be better, bigger and greater than what news networks or public sentiment suggested about them. Kirk saw a problem, McCoy explained — young people unable to afford homes, unable to get married, unable to afford children, inheriting a future where America was not what it had been for older generations. He wanted to fix that.
Kirk’s method, according to McCoy, was to show young people a better version of themselves that they did not see on their own. That translated into appearances on college campuses, where McCoy watched the crowds grow over time — five people at his tent, then ten, then 15, 20, 25.
He pointed to a specific marker: in October 2023, when Kirk was at the University of Arizona, there were about 15 to 20 people at the tent. From there, the figures exploded.
McCoy credited that growth to a moment when things finally clicked for young people. They saw Kirk’s videos, and even if liberal students did not agree with him — even if center students did not agree with him — they respected him because he showed up authentically and consistently. Kirk did not pander to young people, McCoy said. Gen Z, in his view, can sniff out when someone is pandering, speaking the lingo or trying to imitate the culture. Kirk did not do that.
Instead, McCoy said, Kirk did not tell young people what they wanted to hear — he told them what they ought to hear. It was a very different message, and young people rewarded him for it. They started showing up, listening and saying there was something about this Charlie Kirk guy.
McCoy noted that Kirk could have given up, including a decade earlier when nobody was showing up to his tables. At that point, the lack of interest might have led someone to conclude the effort was not for him. But for Kirk, it was not just a job — it was care, a genuine love, a mission. He had to show up.
For McCoy, the years spent following Kirk were a privilege. He described being under Kirk’s tutelage and simply watching him work as something powerful. The interview was part of a Breitbart series speaking with people who were close to Kirk.
The Alex Marlow Show, hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, airs coast to coast weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on Salem Radio Network stations. It also airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Salem TV news channel. Marlow’s podcast, The Alex Marlow Show Presented by Breitbart News, is released weekdays at 9 p.m. Eastern and is available on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/10/exclusive-mikey-mccoy-charlie-kirk-saw-something-in-young-people-that-we-dont-even-see-in-ourselves/