In this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, host Charlie Kirk is joined by Ken Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. They discuss AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona and the incredible work that went into making it possible for Turning Point USA to host such a massive event.
00:01:02.000His 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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00:02:05.000I just have to say what a remarkable couple of days.
00:02:10.000The entire Turning Point team has performed at a level of excellence that is rarely ever reached, let alone reached in politics.
00:02:21.000We do a lot at Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action.
00:02:25.000From the high school chapters that we start to our college chapters to Turning Point Academy to Blexit to all of the outreach events that we do on college campuses to our productions team to our social media team The staff at Turning Point and this incredible team of changemakers has been working their tail off all year.
00:02:52.000Then, of course, on the Turning Point Action side, from ballot chasing to voter registration to the youth outreach events to the bring your own ballot event, it's hard to even grasp the enormity of everything that Turning Point does.
00:03:08.000But on top of all of that, while most other organizations are resting for Christmas, while most other organizations are taking days off, when most organizations are taking it easy, when most other organizations would never dream of doing something just days when most other organizations would never dream of doing something just days before Christmas, what does Turning
00:03:29.000Turning Point hosts and hosted the largest multi-day event in the conservative movement's history.
00:03:51.000Can we play some of the B-roll, please, from the event?
00:03:54.000Just the logistics that go into getting the speakers to confirm, to getting them all in specific timing, to building out the stage, to making the audio-visual correctly, to the graphic design, to managing all the students, to making sure that our donors are well taken care of, to making sure that you then promote it and making sure people are there, then to the security side of it.
00:04:17.000I mean, you look at the imagery that you've seen from AmericaFest there.
00:04:22.000That's not your typical conservative event.
00:04:25.000And as quickly as it started, it ended.
00:04:27.000It is four quick days of this massive takeover of Phoenix, Arizona.
00:04:36.000This conservative takeover in Phoenix, Arizona.
00:04:40.000Not to mention just getting all of these human beings to Phoenix, and this was not a majority Arizona audience.
00:04:46.000These were people from all across the country.
00:04:49.000And when I said, who's from Arizona in our members-only lounge, I'd say that maybe 10% of people were from Arizona.
00:04:55.000They were from Idaho, they were from Kansas, they were from Iowa.
00:04:59.000Just the logistics of putting on an event like this is difficult, let alone on top of all the other things we did this last year at Turning Point.
00:05:08.000Yesterday, President Donald Trump gave the keynote at AmericaFest.
00:05:13.000President Donald Trump traveled across the country in a remarkable sign of affirmation and support, and he's just the greatest.
00:05:23.000Traveling all the way from Palm Beach to Phoenix, back to Palm Beach, to give support, to give encouragement for the ranks at Turning Point Action and the great work that we are doing.
00:05:37.000This is Cut 30, President Trump, live from AmericaFest.
00:06:17.000President Trump continued his praise of turning point action and what we did this last election cycle.
00:06:26.000And for those of you that watch the Charlie Kirk show every day, you know, we've been talking about ballot chasing, voter registration every single day.
00:06:35.000And I think it was ad libbed to we took so much incoming from so many people in In fact, there's a very favorable New York Times article out today that is worth highlighting in a second.
00:06:46.000I just, I can't say enough good stuff about President Trump.
00:06:48.000You know how many politicians that you help out and they just forget?
00:08:25.000Donald Trump just won his second term.
00:08:27.000He could just chill, forget about everyone who helped get him there, but he is on a tour to be grateful and ensure his promises will be kept.
00:08:39.000President Trump coming to Arizona was a tribute to all of you, to the great people of State 48, and a tribute to the whole nation.
00:09:47.000From what we've been through, the indictments from him being shot, to the lawfare, to the smearing, to the slandering, to the cancellations, to the censorship, and we overcame all of that.
00:09:57.000And at AmericaFest, for all of you that attended, I hope you guys had a wonderful time.
00:12:24.000We need a beachhead in Aurora, Colorado, New York City, Chicago, Illinois, to rid ourselves of this invasion.
00:12:33.000I had a great opportunity to spend time with Tom Holman this weekend.
00:12:35.000He is serious about quelling this invasion, quelling this occupation of our land.
00:12:44.000What we saw at AmericaFest was a diverse movement.
00:12:49.000People with different focuses, different with people, backgrounds.
00:12:53.000And we saw a Republican Party that is here to win.
00:12:56.000A Republican Party that is serious about governing.
00:12:59.000A Republican Party that is not going to go away.
00:13:04.000Tucker Carlson talked about the need for debate at AmericaFest.
00:13:07.000Play Cut 16. We'll have political debates going forward.
00:13:12.000You know, you've got your ideas, I've got my ideas, we can debate them.
00:13:16.000But I honestly don't think ever again in my lifetime will the richest people in the country be able to point a finger in your face and say, your position is too immoral to discuss, and if you keep talking, we're going to put you in jail.
00:14:08.000We had Faith Night, our Turning Point Academy team.
00:14:12.000What we have built at Turning Point is a comprehensive one-stop shop of a machine, is a movement to be able to hold our leaders accountable, to take more terrain, to take more ground.
00:14:22.000We saw that all on display at AmericaFest.
00:14:25.000And I'm just so thankful for what the team has been able to accomplish.
00:14:29.000Ben Shapiro had some very nice things to say about AmericaFest.
00:18:02.000So, General Paxton, first and foremost, let's talk about your speech at AmericaFest.
00:18:09.000What was your message to the great Patriots at AmericaFest?
00:18:12.000I think part of it was just that our work's not done.
00:18:15.000We have issues that we need to resolve that are significantly important.
00:18:19.000And some of those issues that I talked about are dealing with the justice system and the injustice that had been done by the FBI and Department of Justice.
00:18:31.000And fundamentally, if we don't deal with our election issues, election integrity issues, we might win this election because it was so overwhelmingly won.
00:18:40.000But there'll be other elections that are close.
00:18:42.000And if we don't resolve the mail-in ballot issues and some of the other issues we have, which I know we have because I deal with them in Texas.
00:18:49.000We used to prosecute, you know, we had like a thousand prosecutions going before that power was struck down, which we're going to get back.
00:18:56.000So I know that these are issues that maybe don't seem important now, but they are going to be important in the future, and the time to get them fixed is now.
00:19:04.000So the audience loved you, and you were kind of teased in your speech a little bit that you might primary Senator John Cornyn.
00:19:19.000I gave a few minutes, and the very first question was about John Cornyn.
00:19:22.000Look, I've known John Cornyn for a long time.
00:19:25.000He started out as a Supreme Court Justice, actually a district judge, Supreme Court Justice, AG of Texas, and then a senator.
00:19:32.000And I just don't think he's accomplished the things we need to accomplish.
00:19:36.000And I don't think he's actually gone left on some issues that were pretty important.
00:19:41.000He actually created judicially in our state what's called Robin Hood, which is a wealth redistribution system of school finance that has hurt our schools and made them mediocre, which is why it's so important we have school choice now.
00:19:54.000But he was a creator of that, and he did it by judicial fiat.
00:19:57.000It should have been done legislatively if it was ever going to be done at all.
00:20:38.000Jorge Avila Torres kidnapped and murdered an eight-year-old, Laura Hobbs, and nine-year-old Crystal Tobias, two girls in his neighborhood who were out riding their bicycles together.
00:20:49.000He sexually assaulted both of them before stabbing them to death.
00:20:54.000Before being caught, Avila Torres joined the Marines and strangled a fellow soldier who was only caught when he tried to murder a fourth woman who miraculously survived and identified him.
00:21:04.000So today, 37 out of 40 death row inmates in the federal system have been given clemency by Joe Biden.
00:21:10.000Your reaction, Attorney General Paxton?
00:21:13.000Look, I think he's given more commutations than anybody ever.
00:21:16.000I think it's up to 1,500 total, and it's for all kinds of things that you're talking about.
00:21:20.000None of this is surprising to me, given his record over the last four years on everything, whether it's the economy, whether it's our border, whether it's international relations, it's all been bad decisions.
00:21:30.000I can't think of one good decision or one good thing he's done for America.
00:21:34.000This is a constitutional power in Article 2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
00:21:38.000So he does have the power to pardon for past crimes, federal crimes, not state crimes.
00:21:45.000And he has the ability to commutate sentences so that they're basically ending their sentences.
00:21:49.000As bad as this is, that is a constitutional power, and it does not surprise me that Joe Biden is making poor decisions.
00:21:57.000So let's now speak about Texas and kind of your workload going into the next year.
00:22:02.000Now that we have a favorable Department of Justice, what cases, specific cases that you've been working on, do you think can finally maybe get the government's help, that you guys can settle?
00:22:15.000The way that Democrats operate, they have a sue-and-settle strategy.
00:22:19.000You know this, General Paxton, where they will sue the federal government in a jurisdiction, and then they'll almost force a settlement from a federal government that they also control.
00:22:29.000Now, we would never do something that outrageous.
00:22:32.000However, I'm sure there are cases where you were fighting the Biden administration tooth and nail that you then could get, let's say, reasonable settlements.
00:22:55.000We had a DACA lawsuit, which related to immigration issues and President Obama allowing people to come into the country that weren't legally allowed to be here and then almost giving them amnesty.
00:23:05.000And then we also had sued over Obamacare.
00:23:07.000Well, in those two cases, President Trump switched sides, despite the fact that he had some staff saying don't do it.
00:23:14.000That's what we're hoping on some of these hundred cases.
00:23:16.000We've got immigration cases, we have transgender issue cases, men and women's sports.
00:23:21.000As a matter of fact, we sued the NCAA yesterday for that particular issue.
00:23:25.000And so I'm very hopeful that we can work with the Trump administration to settle these in a way that we stop these bad policies that were initiated by the Biden administration illegally.
00:23:36.000What can we expect from a legal standpoint on the border?
00:23:39.000I know you've just been in the court nonstop on this kind of litigation.
00:23:44.000Give us some of the ideas of what you expect from this administration.
00:23:47.000Well, one, you know, catch and release is over.
00:23:51.000Now Border Patrol, if you'll remember, Joe Biden on day one, it wasn't like a week into it.
00:23:58.000Said he wasn't going to deport anybody, which was designed to send a message to the cartels that they could start just bringing people to the Border Patrol instead of having to hide.
00:24:17.000And Joe Biden, we at least stopped him from selling off assets.
00:24:21.000But he never actually started building the wall.
00:24:23.000So we were trying to preserve assets for the future.
00:24:25.000I think you're going to see some of these other illegal immigration laws enforced just like they were four years ago.
00:24:32.000If you'll remember under Trump, the numbers dropped to the lowest level we'd ever seen.
00:24:36.000And under Biden, we've got the highest number we've ever seen.
00:24:38.000So it's going to be a complete reversal, including deporting people that are here illegally, especially the criminals.
00:24:43.000Can you give me an update on your big tech lawsuits?
00:24:46.000I haven't asked you about this for a while.
00:24:48.000And could a favorable federal government coming in with a talented solicitor general help you with some of these cases?
00:24:57.000Oh, absolutely, because we can cooperate, which I think is, you know, these are issues that affect both the federal government and the state government.
00:25:03.000We just settled one with Meta Facebook for stealing people's facial identity and their voice.
00:25:10.000And we settled for $1.4 billion, which was the largest single settlement between a state and a company in history of the country.
00:25:17.000We have three lawsuits going against Google.
00:25:20.000We already settled two, but we got three really big ones.
00:25:22.000One's an antitrust lawsuit based on the fact that they control the ad market on the internet, about 97% of it.
00:25:28.000And then we have other lawsuits for them illegally tracking and censoring people.
00:25:33.000And so we have a lot of lawsuits, and I know the federal government actually copied one of our antitrust lawsuits.
00:25:39.000They've been in litigation over the last month, and so I'm hopeful as they work that out to see how that goes.
00:25:45.000But I'm very hopeful with the Trump administration that we'll be able to work on these issues together.
00:25:50.000Any other cases and things that the audience should be aware of, Attorney General Paxton?
00:25:55.000Because you guys have been in the trenches, and I think we're going to have some breakthrough coming soon.
00:25:59.000Yeah, I mean, yesterday, right before the national championship for volleyball, we sued the NCAA over promoting men and women's sports.
00:26:09.000We argued that under Texas' deceptive trade practice that they don't have the right to offer up to consumers this idea that this is women's sports and yet sneak men into that, not even telling us.
00:26:20.000And so we have a lawsuit trying to enjoin them from allowing men in women's sports.
00:26:25.000And also, there's a penalty for it, $10,000 per violation.
00:26:30.000So we're trying to collect damages and stop the NCAA from lying.
00:26:34.000If they're going to do this, they have to at least tell the truth, but they're going to at least be accountable for the lies that they've already told.
00:26:41.000Ken, I wish I was there to say hello, but do another business.
00:26:52.000Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:26:55.000So I want to remind you guys about becoming a member.
00:26:57.000members.charliekirk.com When we're back to established and regular order, which we've done a better job, when you guys become a member, you guys can literally be on the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:27:10.000If you want to come on the Charlie Kirk Show, members are on the program.
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00:30:46.000We always dedicate the last segment that we do live to the great and legendary Rush Limbaugh.
00:30:55.000And we do that in a way with that clip as the start and then Rush's favorite Christmas song.
00:31:04.000As we look back at this last year, a time to be grateful, to be filled with gratitude and Rush Limbaugh always talked about his love of Manheim Steamroller.
00:31:18.000Manheim Steamroller, one of the greats.
00:31:23.000This was one of Rush's favorite songs.
00:31:25.000We are playing it over with some of the highlights of 2024 and soak it in and say a prayer to God.