The status of Pete Hegseth and the open secret of why certain senators support him and other senators are undermining President Trump. Sean Parnell joins us to discuss. Charlie Kirk is on the College Campus.
00:00:42.000His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:01:33.000Pete Hegseth has honorably served his country.
00:01:36.000And Pete Hegseth right now is victim to a media smear job to try to destroy his character and try to remove him from the nomination for Secretary of Defense.
00:01:46.000Now some people say, but Charlie, he doesn't have the experience, you know, running a big organization.
00:01:51.000He's actually served in the front lines of the department that he is going to have to run.
00:01:59.000You see, we used to have a tradition in this country where the people who were in charge of our military were also involved in the front lines of combat.
00:02:08.000George Washington famously would march to the front lines against the British and would be shot at, would not be moved.
00:02:15.000Our leaders used to be hardened by actual conflict.
00:02:20.000Pete Hegseth has served his country with incredible bravery and courage.
00:02:24.000This is nothing compared to what he had to face on the front lines fighting for America.
00:02:30.000However, the media is doing their best to try and be the fourth estate.
00:02:35.000To try to remove him as Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of defense.
00:02:45.000This is Coach Tuberville praising Pete Hegseth.
00:02:48.000And we've talked about this quite some time on this program.
00:02:50.000These Republican senators need to stand up and be counted.
00:02:56.000And if you are going to oppose Pete Hegseth, then we want to know your names and your states because we'll be visiting a neighborhood near you.
00:03:04.000If you're from Arkansas, if you're from Kansas, if you're from South Dakota, if you're from Idaho, and you're against Pete Hegseth, You're going to have to defend that to your voters.
00:03:15.000You see, the American people did not vote for old bull Senate Republicans to get in the way of President Trump's mandate.
00:03:23.000Let's begin here with Coach Tuberville praising Pete Hegg said.
00:03:27.000There is a major battle happening right now on Capitol Hill, an extraordinary drama.
00:03:34.000Where they're doing everything they can, where deep state Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine President Trump and try to kill Pete Hegseth from being Secretary of Defense.
00:04:10.000And we need to build our military back because we have really degraded our military over the years because of the woke, the DEI, the critical race theory.
00:04:19.000All these things are being pushed at all of our warfighters, and they're getting out right and left.
00:04:24.000We've got to build it back, and Pete's the guy to do it, Larry.
00:04:28.000Now understand that our military has become so broken, it is no longer the finest fighting force on the planet.
00:04:34.000We commonly play that piece of tape of how sailors of the U.S. military were bragging the best part of their deployment was gay poem reading hour on these U.S. battleships.
00:04:45.000But there are forces in the U.S. Senate, some of whom want to become Secretary of Defense themselves, by the way.
00:04:52.000Who are trying to undermine and stop Pete Hegseth.
00:04:55.000Understand this, first and foremost, Pete Hegseth embraces America First foreign policy better than anybody else.
00:05:01.000He understands that we need the finest fighting force on the planet.
00:05:04.000He understands that we should not have endless, adventurous, nation-building foreign conflicts or wars.
00:05:56.000Understand what is happening here is that you have this Praetorian Guard of the U.S. Senate that is trying to stop the will of the American people.
00:06:05.000Now, this all started with the neocons of the Senate being a little nervous that Pete Hegseth philosophically might not agree with their warmongering agenda.
00:06:15.000Might ask questions, why are we sending hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine?
00:06:18.000Why are we not putting our country first?
00:06:20.000Now, they're veiling this by saying, oh, it's all about these very serious accusations against Pete Hegseth.
00:07:10.000And that's the Pete I want people to know.
00:07:13.000Here's what we must understand, is that when Matt Gaetz dropped out, the enemies of our America First agenda thought they could pick off Trump's cabinet one by one, using old Washington smear tactics.
00:07:25.000If Pete Hegseth becomes the latest pick to get knifed in the back, Bobby Kennedy be next, then Tulsi Gabbard, then Cash, we must not allow them to get away with this.
00:08:26.000Donald Trump got elected to get people and changemakers in the Pentagon like Pete Hegg said.
00:08:32.000Do you remember Mark Milley bragging about how he would backchannel against Donald Trump with China?
00:08:39.000That he would not fulfill the orders of Donald Trump and backchannel against the needs, wants and interests of the sovereign, the President of the United States, who's a representative of the American people?
00:08:56.000Every single one of those people that were running the Pentagon were working against President Trump's agenda and the will of the American people.
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00:11:53.000Boise, I was there recently feeling more and more like Berkeley.
00:11:56.000However, the exurbs of Boise and the rest of the state, I mean, it is as red as Alabama.
00:12:01.000But this is a problem that we need to fix and that I think Turning Point Action and the Charlie Kirk Show and you guys can help fix together.
00:12:10.000It is a major problem that in very red states, people that run for office as Republicans just want power.
00:12:21.000And they're not conservatives, but they're still just people who want power.
00:12:25.000And I think this is something that Turning Point Action can help fix with, obviously, all of you in this audience.
00:12:32.000Look, it's a different ballgame if you're running in Arizona, if you're running in Georgia, if you're running in North Carolina, if you're running in Maine.
00:13:07.000If you're a Republican in a more competitive state, You should be more conservative.
00:13:13.000And so, just talking about Idaho here, I don't know how they stand on Pete Hegseth, but they're both neocons, Crapo and Rish.
00:13:21.000I don't know how they stand on Bobby Kennedy or Tulsi Gabbard, but why are they both not out leading the charge saying that we are for Pete Hegseth?
00:13:32.000This is very similar to the lessons that I learned, Andrew learned, Blake learned, and our team learned with what we did with Nebraska and winner take all.
00:13:43.000Sometimes the most maddening, difficult to navigate states in the country Are the reddest states.
00:13:52.000They're the most corrupt, the least likely to actually embrace positive change.
00:13:57.000We saw this up close and personally with all the time we spent in Nebraska.
00:14:03.000And you kind of go around the horn here.
00:14:34.000So what they'll do is they will vote trade.
00:14:39.000If you are in a competitive state, in cycle, those people are much more likely to come out and support President Trump's nominees, like Tom Tillis.
00:14:50.000Why is Tom Tillis from North Carolina willing to support Trump's nominees enthusiastically?
00:14:56.000Because he's afraid of being primaried.
00:14:59.000Why is it that the people who are most likely to oppose Donald Trump's nominees all are people that are not up for election until 2028 and 2030?
00:15:12.000It's because they're disconnected and they are distant from potential elections and the will of the people.
00:15:19.000And so what they do is anybody that might be afraid of a primary threat like Tom Tillis, anybody that might be afraid of a primary threat like Mike Rounds, anyone that might be afraid of a primary threat in cycle will grow artificially closer to President Trump And his nominees and then the old bulls who are not in cycle from very very red states will take the hits for them because they think people forget and they think that times change
00:15:50.000and they do not want to be on the wrong side of Donald Trump in a 2026 primary and you count you just do the math it becomes very obvious so what you have is this ossified seven or eight immovable Senate Republican block that is Against the president's agenda.
00:16:10.000And they're like, well, what are you going to do about it?
00:16:11.000Like, for example, we don't know where Senator Curtis from Utah stands.
00:16:22.000But imagine, I want you to imagine this, everybody.
00:16:25.000And this is why turning point action and the work we're doing is so important for the long term of changing the Republican Party for the better.
00:16:29.000Imagine if we won the presidency and we can't get our people because of Senate Republicans.
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00:17:39.000Joining us now is Sean Parnell to discuss Pete Hegseth and more.
00:17:43.000Sean, you've also served our country honorably and courageously.
00:17:47.000I'm going to kind of go out on a limb here and just say, going back, you've been victim of media smears against yourself while you were trying to seek a very important...
00:17:56.000I don't want to relitigate that for the audience because it was a very nasty thing.
00:18:18.000He's an extraordinary man with an extraordinary family.
00:18:21.000And the smears against him, these are deliberate false smears, are absolutely sickening.
00:18:28.000And it's personal to me for the second reason, because I've been through this and I've been on the receiving end of false attacks elevated by the media for the express sole purpose of destroying you.
00:18:40.000And these allegations are very sinister because they're intended to make Republicans— Especially Republican senators, Republican elected officials, but in this case, senators say, well, boy, these allegations are pretty bad.
00:18:54.000I can't possibly defend this because my voters won't like that.
00:19:01.000And if we acknowledge that these accusations are horrifying to chill any sort of support from one's allies, then the opposite, our tactic must be the opposite.
00:19:14.000And that is to speak out vocally against it.
00:19:16.000I know what it's like to have to go through this stuff.
00:19:20.000And so when I saw Pete going through it, and by the way, Charlie, if you are a Trump person, if you are a loyal Trump person and you are a conservative, that is a danger to the radical left's agenda and a conservative who fights, this is the treatment that you get all the time.
00:19:40.000That's why I spoke up for Pete immediately, because when the left and these anonymous sources come at us with these baseless, horrifying allegations, the only thing that we're left to do is speak out on behalf of the people that we care about.
00:19:57.000And I am telling you right here, right now on this show in front of God and everybody that the allegations against this guy Are completely false.
00:20:09.000He's somebody that is a threat to the defense industrial complex and because he's a threat, he's having to endure these horrifying attacks and it stops today.
00:20:59.000The reason why, you know, another reason why this is deeply personal to me is because these smears are not only against Pete, Charlie.
00:21:06.000There are veterans, both men and women, who joined Concerned Veterans for America who wanted to make a difference in our country and help the veteran community.
00:21:14.000These smears are not just smears on Pete, but everybody that worked as part of Concerned Veterans for America.
00:21:20.000And we did a- that organization- I'm very proud of the work that we did because ultimately it led to President Trump in 2018 signing the Mission Act, which gave a veteran's choice with regards to where they got their healthcare and is largely regarded as the most substantive VA reform in multiple generations.
00:21:43.000And to attack the organization, which is essentially, if you come away from that New Yorker piece thinking that CVA was just a slush fund for drunk veterans, nothing could be further from the truth.
00:21:54.000It was a substantive policy organization that moved the ball down the field and made life better for veterans.
00:22:36.000That the states that are the most Trumpy, that are the most Republican and conservative, Idaho, South Dakota, Kansas, Mississippi, why are they the ones that are seemingly the most hesitant about giving Trump his cabinet?
00:22:54.000You know, Charlie, this is a question that I ask myself often.
00:23:00.000You know, we have very moderate senators from deep red states.
00:23:04.000It's those senators who represent deep red states that we need to be the strongest conservatives.
00:23:12.000But unfortunately, as so often happens, that is just not true.
00:24:08.000Charlie, I have heard from so many boots-on-the-ground members of our military, doesn't matter what service, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, the warfighters want Pete Hegseth.
00:24:22.000But this big PSYOP, this big information op, all of these character smears...
00:24:29.000It is for those 50-plus Republican senators inside the beltway and not for the rest of us.
00:24:35.000So if you're Pete Hegseth, you got to know, and I want him to know, that the American people, the people who elected Trump, President-elect Trump in an electoral college victory and an historic popular vote victory, those people expect Trump.
00:24:51.000And President Trump was elected with a mandate to deliver that change.
00:24:56.000And Pete Hegseth represents that change.
00:24:59.000So Republican senators who are evaluating whether or not to confirm Pete Hegseth, I mean, to me, there's no evaluation necessary.
00:25:07.000This is what the American people voted for.
00:25:10.000But I would respectfully ask them to just have a conversation with Pete.
00:25:15.000You will see very quickly that he's eminently qualified for the job.
00:25:19.000You know, don't listen to all these personal, slanderous, you know, false smears.
00:25:24.000Evaluate whether or not Pete is qualified for the job and if you have an honest conversation with the guy, you will realize very quickly that he is.
00:25:32.000Yeah, and so these Senate Republicans, for their own reasons and ones that are not totally disclosed, seem to not actually respond to voters, but to special interests or their own very weird private ideology.
00:25:46.000And they seem insistent on thwarting the president's agenda and just not even ignoring, but just kind of casting aside What would be a great team of changemakers?
00:25:58.000And so, Pete right now needs to navigate this thicket.
00:26:03.000As going through this, Sean, similar things.
00:27:10.000And I know for a fact that as strong as Pete is and as strong as his wife is, you know, he's got little kids and they're watching everything that happens.
00:27:22.000And I'm telling you, my friend, they don't deserve that.
00:27:25.000And what's happening to Pete right now?
00:27:28.000His children, who are all young, will remember it for the rest of their lives.
00:27:35.000This, to me, is yet another rallying cry for Republican senators.
00:27:44.000It's not just about confirming Pete, but it's about circling our wagons around someone who is well qualified and saying to the media and their allies on Capitol Hill, the Democrats in Congress, that no, this is a line that you're not going to cross.
00:27:57.000We're not going to allow you to destroy this man and his family.
00:28:01.000We're not going to allow his family to become collateral damage for a political agenda.
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00:29:13.000So Sean, the talking points for the neocons is that, well, we need to have a strong American foreign policy, which of course you and I agree with, but there's a very important distinction here.
00:29:22.000We're not into the abstractions of building other people's pension funds or railway systems or solar panels for the Taliban.
00:29:30.000We want to kill the enemy, protect the homeland, and not be involved in multi-decade nation building.
00:29:37.000What does an America first foreign policy look like?
00:29:40.000Well, yeah, first of all, I completely agree.
00:29:44.000Listen, Charlie, I was in Afghanistan for 485 days in 2006 to 2007. My platoon took an 85% casualty rate.
00:30:18.000And when I came home, I was the rear detachment commander for my unit as a captain and was responsible for knocking on the doors to families of the fallen.
00:30:28.000It was the hardest job that I've ever had.
00:30:31.000We were in Afghanistan for over 20 years.
00:30:34.000I'm 43 years old, so about half of my life we were fighting in Afghanistan.
00:30:40.000And what do we have to show for that war?
00:30:43.000All that blood, all that treasure, all the sacrifices wasted in Afghanistan because politicians, Joe Biden and his administration, decided to surrender there in the most embarrassing way possible.
00:31:15.000Trillions of dollars spent, thousands of Americans dead, tens of thousands wounded, hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering from the invisible wounds of war, a million Iraqis dead because of that conflict, and now the very same people, both Democrats and Republicans, have got us into a quagmire in Ukraine that will likely end the same exact way unless a bold reform strategy is taken when Donald Trump gets in office in January.
00:31:44.000But an America first foreign policy means exactly that.
00:31:50.000It means, yes, we understand that war is sometimes necessary.
00:31:54.000And by the way, if America or our interests are ever threatened, I will be the first in line to fight for this country.
00:32:03.000But we should not be sending America's sons and daughters frivolously into the fight.
00:32:08.000In fact, that should be a last-ditch effort in pursuit of peace.
00:32:13.000I'm almost anti-war in almost every way because of my experiences in war.
00:32:18.000And so for me, an America First foreign policy means putting the interests of Americans actually first, maybe protecting our border instead of spending hundreds of billions in Ukraine for them to protect theirs.
00:32:33.000And Sean, in closing here, with so many threats that are emerging, the essence of so much of our foreign policy is, do you care more about the prosperity of the American people or some sort of foreign, abstract, very hard to pin down talking point?
00:32:57.000Final question, one minute remaining, Sean.
00:32:59.000Do you think the Republican Party is changing for the better in this regard, understanding that?
00:33:18.000And I think moving forward, the major question that most of us should have is like, look, best case scenario now, we've got four years of President Trump, who I think was the best president of my lifetime.
00:33:30.000And so I think our focus, and I know it's your focus as well, to get as many great America First candidates in office as humanly possible to rectify this problem.
00:33:38.000But far too many Republicans say, we've got to fight terrorists there.
00:33:43.000We've got to fight them there to keep them from here.
00:33:45.000Those are lazy stock platitudes that have done nothing but get us into one foreign policy disaster after the next.