This is a preview of this week’s episode of â€œThe Signal Sitdown.” Watch Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with BlazeTV host and author Steve Deace on The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel. Episode premieres on Sept. 18 at 6:30 a.m. eastern time.

Last week, the conservative movement lost “the best of us.” Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10 for his conservative values and martyred for his unyielding faith in Jesus Christ, two things that made Charlie “the brightest light that we had,” says Steve Deace, a BlazeTV host and a personal friend of the Turning Point USA founder.

Deace gives a special tribute to Charlie, who I got to know at a Turning Point event and later his visits to my college campus, on this week’s episode of “The Signal Sitdown.” Deace’s response to his friend’s death is raw, searing, and real.

Charlie, Deace said, was “a true Renaissance man.”

“A lot of people that have a vast giftedness become jack-of-all-trades master-of-none types where they’re just pretty good at a lot of things,” Deace explained. But “Charlie could could be an ace broker behind the scenes of political deals and alliances” and “Charlie could be one of the great evangelists and apologists of the era at the same time.”

Their friendship had deepened in recent years as the Turning Point USA founder worked to bring the gospel to college campuses all across the country. Deace told The Daily Signal that “there was no difference from him publicly or privately.”

“I had a chance in the last few months to have a few sit-down private dinners with Charlie,” Deace continued. “He was aware of the influence and power that he had, but it was in a self-aware way. It was not in a narcissistic way.”

“What does the word ‘meek’ mean? When the Lord says, ‘The meek shall inherit the earth,’ what does that mean?” Deace asked rhetorically. “Because he didn’t say ‘weak,’ he said, ‘meek.’ Meek is power under control. In many respects, that was what we saw of Charlie Kirk.”

Because Charlie was such a bright light, “the enemy wanted to take him out,” Deace said. 

Charlie’s death has left a hole in the hearts of millions all over the world. It leaves an even larger hole in the conservative movement. 

In many ways, that “void is impossible to fill,” Deace said. “It’s going to take a movement now that picks up the pieces of what happened to him.”

To honor Charlie’s memory, it’s time for conservatives to “get more aggressive,” Deace continued.

“We need to mourn, and it’s okay to mourn,” he said. “Frankly, his legacy demands that we do. And then, when we’re done, we clean off our faces, we wipe the last bit of tears from our eyes and snot from our nose, and we get up, and we get back on offense.”

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