Real Charlie Kirk quote about Black pilot qualifications circulates online

Claim:

Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk said, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.'”

Rating:

Following the deadly capturing of Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, quotes allegedly attributed to the late conservative commentator flooded the web. 

One such quote shared on social media websites such as Instagram (archived) and Facebook (archived) was: “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.'”

The quote was appropriately attributed to Kirk. 

Kirk said those phrases during a dialog on “Thoughtcrime,” a panel dialogue section he hosted with Jack Posobiec as half of “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, on Jan. 18, 2024. In the episode, viewable on Rumble (archived), Kirk, Posobiec and their friends, Andrew Kolvet and Blake Neff, mentioned range, equity and inclusion initiatives for airline pilots. 

The full context of the quote was as follows (starting at 50:19): 

KOLVET: We’ve all been in the back of a airplane when the turbulence hits or when you are flying through a storm and you are like, “I’m so glad I saw the guy with the right stuff and the square jaw get into the cockpit before we took off. And I feel better now, thinking about that.” 

KIRK: You wanna go thought crime? I’m sorry. If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, “Boy, I hope he’s qualified.”

KOLVET: But you would not have completed that before!

KIRK: That’s not an rapid … that’s not who I’m. That’s not what I imagine. 

NEFF: It is the truth the left has created. 

KIRK: I need to be as blunt as potential because now I’m connecting two dots. Wait a second, this CEO just said that he is forcing that a white certified man isn’t gonna get the job. So I see this man, he may be a good particular person and I say, “Boy, I hope he’s not a Harvard-style affirmative-action student that … landed half of his flight-simulator trials.” 

KOLVET: Such a good level. That’s so honest. 

KIRK: It also … creates unhealthy considering patterns. I do not wanna assume that approach. And no one ought to, proper? … And by the best way, then you couple it with the FAA, air-traffic control, they received a bunch of morons and affirmative-action people. 

The matter got here up after a 2021 Axios interview with United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby speaking about range in United’s pilot training program recirculated in conservative circles following revelations of a December 2022 midflight incident in which a jet misplaced altitude shortly after departure before the crew recovered, according to GWN. 

Kirk’s feedback obtained media coverage at the time from outstanding retailers such as Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, Business Insider and NBC News. On Jan. 26, 2024, Kirk responded to criticism on conservative pundit Megyn Kelly’s podcast (at 3:00): 

The essence of that clip that was missed by virtually all people — Jordan Peterson, to his credit, actually picked up on it — which was I used to be attempting to be, you already know, very susceptible with the viewers is that DEI invitations unwholesome considering. … I used to be saying in the clip, “That’s not who I am, that’s not what I believe.” But what it does is it makes us worse variations of ourselves, Megyn. That’s the entire level of what I used to be saying is that I now look at every part through a hyper-racialized diversity-quota lens because of their large insistence to attempt to hit these ridiculous racial hiring quotas. Of course I imagine anyone of any pores and skin coloration can grow to be a certified pilot. 

Further, Kirk’s YouTube channel posted a video on June 3, 2025, that featured Kirk answering a query at an event about the assertion in query, posed by a Black attendee who requested if he felt his earlier feedback about DEI pilots have been irresponsible. 

In Kirk’s response, starting at the 40-second mark, he rejected the notion it was irresponsible and said:

When it comes to pilots or surgeons, if I see any person who is Black, as I said on the show, I’m going to hope that that particular person is certified. That’s what I said, which of course is authentic because they’re begging the query, we’re not hiring based on benefit anymore. We’re hiring based on race.

Snopes beforehand reported on a quantity of quotes attributed to Kirk, including that he once said some outstanding Black ladies did not have “brain processing power” to be taken severely, that he claimed Jewish money was ruining U.S. tradition and that he called passing the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake.”

Sources:

– YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl3UwsNZ544. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.

– YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4y4d9QV45E. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.

– YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zho8qpM382k. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.

“Charlie Kirk’s ‘Black Pilot’ Remark Sparks Fury.” Newsweek, 24 Jan. 2024, https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk-black-pilots-racism-accusations-1863546.

“How Right-Wing Influencers Turned Airplanes and Airports into Culture War Battlegrounds.” NBC News, 28 Jan. 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/web/airline-airport-united-delta-dei-migration-spirit-rcna135098.

Klee, Miles. “Conservatives Are So Scared of Diversity They’re Starting to Boycott ‘Woke’ Airlines.” Rolling Stone, 25 Jan. 2024, https://www.rollingstone.com/tradition/culture-news/conservatives-blame-diversity-dei-airlines-boycott-1234953756/.

“Right-Wing Influencers Going Full discriminatory in Anti-DEI Rants.” The Daily Beast, 25 Jan. 2024, https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-influencers-are-going-full-racist-in-anti-dei-rants/.

Shepardson, David. “US NTSB Cites United Crew Failure in Boeing 777 Altitude Loss Incident.” GWN, 10 Aug. 2023. Aerospace & Defense. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-ntsb-cites-united-crew-failure-boeing-777-altitude-loss-incident-2023-08-10/.

Shoaib, Alia. “Right-Wing Commentators Have a Theory about Plane Safety Concerns — and They Say Diversity Is to Blame.” Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/right-wing-commentators-baselessly-blame-diversity-for-plane-safety-incidents-2024-1. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.

There Is No Place For DEI in the Cockpit. rumble.com, https://rumble.com/v6fhgjs-there-is-no-place-for-dei-in-the-cockpit.html. Accessed 12 Sep. 2025.

THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 29 — DEI or DIE? DeSantis’s Bus Seat? The Drowning Gap? 2024. rumble.com, https://rumble.com/v47veqc-thoughtcrime-ep.-29-dei-or-die-desantiss-bus-seat-the-drowning-gap.html.