It is January Madness as the confirmation hearings continue and we cover them live and analyze them, including Scott Besant and his debate with Bernie Sanders, Doug Burgum and his confirmation hearing, and so much more. Today's special guest is Charlie Kirk, CEO and Founder of Turning Point USA, a youth organization that fights for freedom and freedom on campuses across the country.
00:00:00.000Hey everybody, it's on the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:00:01.000It is January Madness as the confirmations continue.
00:00:04.000We cover them live and analyze Scott Besant and his debate against Bernie Sanders, or his confirmation here against Bernie Sanders, and so much more.
00:00:13.000Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to our podcast.
00:00:17.000Open up your podcast application and type in Charlie Kirk Show.
00:00:20.000Get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.
00:00:53.000He'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.
00:01:12.000Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
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00:03:41.000And so would you commit to opposing any effort to repeal or reduce the 45x tax credit, which is not just a benefit in Nevada.
00:03:50.000It's a benefit in other states as well, including Alaska.
00:03:53.000So again, Senator, I am unfamiliar with that exact provision, but I do believe that it is important for us to mine, accumulate, and move to domestic production for rare earths and other vital minerals.
00:04:13.000So I will get back to you on that exact, my thoughts on that exact program, but on an atmospheric meta basis.
00:04:28.000President Trump has stated that he thinks that the president should have influence over the decisions of the Federal Reserve.
00:04:36.000And we discussed this in my office, and I appreciate that opportunity.
00:04:43.000Does it continue to be your view that the Federal Reserve should be independent of the president?
00:04:51.000Of course, and I actually believe that the notion that President Trump believes he should have influence, there was, I believe, a highly inaccurate Wall Street Journal article saying that he believed something to the effect that he should be in the room.
00:05:09.000President Trump is going to make his views known, as many senators did.
00:05:15.000Three senators, including two on this committee, called for, there was a jumbo rate cut in September, 50 basis points.
00:05:23.000Two of the senators on this committee called for 70.
00:05:43.000And then for the benefit of our colleagues, what you're referring to earlier, in our meeting I asked you if there were any regulations, Treasury regulations, that currently exist that you disagree with.
00:05:56.000And in response, and continuing in response right now, you're saying you're going to look into it and get back to me.
00:06:06.000I don't know if it's a regulation, but it's a policy.
00:06:09.000As we saw from the December 8th hack by some Chinese entities into the Treasury, which is very serious, that that was through a work-from-home software app.
00:06:23.000So one of the policies that I support, I intend to be in the building every day that I am in Washington, and I support a return to the office, which is against the current Treasury policy.
00:07:35.000And I just want your commitment to work with the industry, these small producers, to find right-sized regulations for the circumstances that they're in.
00:07:44.000Senator, I would welcome an opportunity to travel to your state to meet with them, whether it's at your office or elsewhere.
00:07:55.000I want to know about all of your priorities, including this one.
00:07:59.000But also to make sure that anyone who could provide any type of insight that can make me better informed, to make better decisions, that I welcome any of those opportunities for conversations and collaboration.
00:08:10.000I think that's a wonderful offer on your part, and I'm very grateful for it.
00:08:13.000I sometimes am reluctant to ask every nominee that comes before me, would you please come visit Kansas?
00:08:22.000And I would tell you, I can't imagine the...
00:08:27.000The excitement, the opportunity that people in that industry would see to have the capability of talking to somebody like you directly in a state like Kansas.
00:08:47.000In a different vein of energy production, Created with my colleague, Senator Bozeman and others, a sustainable aviation fuel caucus.
00:09:00.000Kansas and Wichita in particular is the air capital of the world.
00:09:03.000We produce many more general aviation aircraft than anybody.
00:09:07.000We manufacture with thousands of employees working in aviation and aerospace.
00:09:12.000And I want to bring together the opportunity to bring the agricultural aspects of Kansas together with the aviation aspects and pursue the development of SAF, Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
00:09:26.000I wanted to know, I guess the question would be, we need your help in pursuing opportunities.
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00:11:38.000...people owning more wealth from the bottom half of American society when these people have enormous influence over the media, when they spend huge amounts of money in both political parties to elect candidates.
00:11:50.000What Biden said last night is we're moving toward an oligarchy.
00:11:57.000Do you think that when so few people have so much wealth and so much economic and political power, that that is an oligarchic form of society?
00:12:05.000Well, I would note that President Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two people who I think would qualify for his oligarchs.
00:12:17.000This is not a condemnation of any one individual.
00:12:21.000I'm just asking you, would so few people have so much wealth and power?
00:12:27.000Do you think that that is an oligarchic form of society?
00:12:31.000Senator, I think it depends on the ability to move up and down the...
00:12:40.000I mean, even if you had that mobility, no matter who those individuals might be.
00:12:44.000All right, but let me ask you another question.
00:12:47.000Right now in America, we have over 22 million workers.
00:12:53.000We're making less than $15 an hour and nearly 40 million people in our country earning less than $17 an hour.
00:13:03.000Shamefully, the federal minimum wage, despite the efforts of myself and other people here, have not been raised since 2009 and remains an unbelievable $7.25 an hour.
00:13:16.000Will you work with those of us who want to raise the federal minimum wage To a living wage to take millions of Americans out of poverty.
00:13:27.000Senator, I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue.
00:13:33.000So you don't think we should change the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour?
00:13:39.000Mr. Besson, millions of working class Americans who are struggling to keep their heads above water are paying outrageously high interest rates on their credit cards.
00:13:51.000Over half the American people who take out new credit cards are being charged interest rates of over 24%.
00:13:58.000During his campaign, President-elect Trump promised that he was going to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
00:14:06.000I happen to think that that is a very good idea, and I will soon be introducing legislation to do just that.
00:14:14.000Will you, as if you are confirmed, Be supportive of what President-elect Trump said and what I want to see happen, and that is to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
00:14:27.000Senator, I think we can both agree that many credit card companies have been bad actors throughout history.
00:15:28.000We are getting closer and closer to an oligarchy.
00:15:31.000We've been saying that on this program for quite some time, but it's not the type of oligarchy that he thinks.
00:15:36.000It's an oligarchy of people that have centralized government-type control with corporate-friendly power on the outside.
00:15:44.000And we see this kind of inside-out relationship.
00:15:47.000And the difference between Bernie Sanders and Scott Besson is Bernie Sanders believes in a fixed pie theory, that just because somebody gets rich, he thinks somebody gets poor.
00:15:56.000And Bernie Sanders is grilling Scott Besson saying, should we not be able to take this wealth away?
00:16:01.000But you could always make the pie bigger.
00:16:03.000The thing about a market is markets work in that people get richer simultaneously through voluntary transaction, through the price system, through the profit motive.
00:16:12.000The ability to make and take risks in a market economy.
00:16:16.000We know what the horrors of socialism have done for so many people.
00:16:24.000We are going to kind of go through Joe Biden's farewell address last evening that he gave.
00:16:30.000Where very interestingly, if Joe Biden and the Democrats would have actually mentioned this rising fixture and consolidation of wealth, it would have been a much easier political strategy for them than whatever they ran on.
00:16:53.000And those are two very, very different things.
00:16:55.000We've had lots of stops and starts over the last...
00:16:58.000Probably two to three years on this very issue.
00:17:02.000And it's holding up construction of critical energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, transportation, doesn't matter what kind of energy, renewable energy, pipelines, whatever.
00:17:11.000So we need to make it easier to build in America.
00:17:14.000I believe that's President Trump's vision as well by modernizing and streamlining our environmental review and permitting processes.
00:17:21.000Congressman Zeldin, what opportunities do you see for EPA to be able to establish more efficient and predictable permitting processes in addition to working with all the other agencies that play a part in this vital?
00:17:36.000And Chairman Capito, that last part of your question is key for different agencies to be able to work with each other, collaborating with each other, and also for agencies to be able to collaborate with Congress on any opportunities to Congresses to pursue permitting reform as well.
00:17:52.000As far as EPA jurisdiction goes, we see a role of the EPA, for example, as it relates to environmental impact statements.
00:18:04.000Different issues where there will be opportunities for the EPA to follow its obligations under the law.
00:18:11.000There's a possibility that Congress might choose to make changes to the law on items that are under EPA jurisdiction.
00:18:19.000I would look forward to doing my part to make sure that the EPA is not holding up.
00:18:24.000Any opportunities to be able to pursue sound applications that otherwise would be and should be approved?
00:18:31.000I think a lot of times in the public domain, permitting reform means to certain people skirting the rules or breezing through environmental reviews without really taking them seriously or actually having them science-based, as we've talked a lot about today.
00:18:49.000That's not what permitting reform means.
00:18:52.000Permitting reform means make these environmental clean air, clean water rules and others and other agencies work together and work so that we are getting the right result of clean air, clean water, but we're able to move forward.
00:19:07.000Here's another West Virginia issue very quickly, and it's the Muddy Creek Restoration Project.
00:19:13.000It's 19 miles of waterways that has acid mine drainage.
00:19:18.000And West Virginia went about, in coordination with the It was the past Trump administration and it was initially championed by the Biden administration to deliver real results in cleaning up this area of our state.
00:19:35.000The Biden administration, for some reason, which we can't figure out, flip-flopped on this.
00:19:40.000And they started putting more burdensome, costly, and a much, much slower cleanup process.
00:19:46.000So you're still having your acid mine drainage while we're getting hung up here.
00:19:50.000It threatens projects like Muddy Creek and discourages other communities from pursuing similar efforts to achieve real environmental remediation and benefits.
00:20:00.000Will you commit to me, working with me in the state, to try to reverse these counterproductive changes and cut the red tape and restore this for more cost-effective, but also better environmental results?
00:20:11.000Yes, Chairman Capito, I know how much of a priority this is.
00:20:27.000Mr. Zeldin, I have something of a life experience PhD in fossil fuel pressure politics, and they'll be coming after you hard, and they'll be feeling very entitled based on their political spending toward a Trump victory.
00:20:53.000The first is that prominent voices in Trump world have been saying that it is important to traumatize EPA's workforce to drive them out.
00:21:05.000They've been saying that it's important to cut EPA's workforce by two-thirds or more, not just Washington, but the field, the entire organization.
00:21:15.000And they've been saying that it's important to destroy The professional civil service protections of EPA's workforce.
00:21:26.000How do you respond to those three threats?
00:21:29.000Senator Whitehouse, as I've stated earlier, My desire, if confirmed as EPA Administrator, is to increase productivity of the EPA. I want to be able to help lead this agency in a way that all of you on both sides of the aisle can be proud of for us to be accountable and transparent.
00:21:50.000I want maximum collaboration, not just with Congress, but internally within the EPA. I've been hugely impressed with the level of talent stepping up to serve at EPA. And that is the pressure that I am feeling at this moment is to bring out the best of EPA to make sure that we are fulfilling our mission of protecting public health and the environment.
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00:23:17.000Let's go to Senator Wyden, who I think is asking Besson a question.
00:23:21.000Let's listen in to Senator Wyden from Oregon.
00:23:28.000The one I like the best, though, is if we use President Trump's...
00:23:32.000Let's actually go to Sheldon Whitehouse asking Lee Zeldon questions.
00:23:41.000A very significant player in the fossil fuel funded climate denial armada.
00:23:51.000Successor to that Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO and a third individual called the Chief of Intelligence and Research at that same, in my view, climate denial front group.
00:24:09.000In your political work, you've taken nearly $300,000 from the oil and gas industry back to 2007. You've had large campaign support from Koch Incorporated.
00:24:21.000Which gave a total of about $60,000 when you count up all the contributions to your PACs and campaign funds.
00:24:31.000And Koch PAC gave $20,000 to your Lee PAC. In the wake of being so surrounded with so much corporate and fossil fuel influence, I want to give you two opportunities.
00:24:47.000One is to answer to me now, how is it?
00:24:51.000That you'll be able to separate yourself from the influence of these people and these interests when they come demanding things that they think they've earned politically.
00:25:02.000And I'll also turn that into a QFR so that you can...
00:25:06.000With a little bit more basis for reflection, make a more complete answer.
00:25:10.000So with that, over to you for your response, sir.
00:25:13.000Senator, I don't need any extra time for reflection on that one.
00:25:16.000There is no person who has ever provided any level of support to me or anyone else who has any special influence with me.
00:25:26.000When I was in the Army, I wore around my dog tags, the seven Army values.
00:25:29.000The acronym is leadership, loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.
00:25:35.000It is important for me to have always been able to approach this position with a clear conscience to make decisions that I can live with for my entire life.
00:25:44.000There is no dollar, large or small, that can influence the decisions that I make, who has access to me, and how I am ruling in my obligations under the law.
00:25:55.000Senator, I'm happy to enthusiastically answer that question on any day on the spot, and I would never need any extra amount of time of reflection.
00:26:03.000Well, good luck standing up to these guys because they're going to come at you.
00:27:24.000In the aviation sector, I think I sent you an article about the fact that we think increasing our manufacturing innovation to continue to have markets and sell to those markets is a good economic strategy.
00:27:40.000Senator Cantwell, as I discussed in your office, that in my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, Boeing is also the largest employer.
00:27:54.000Now I want to, this is, and believe me, I would have the same conversation with Joe Biden or Barack Obama or whoever.
00:28:04.000So I want to focus on innovation, not the tariffs.
00:28:10.000I'm worried that the tariffs are going to increase supply chain products.
00:28:16.000They're going to increase prices on our farmers.
00:28:18.000They're going to increase prices on Americans.
00:28:21.000And so I want to ask you, don't you think we are in an environment where exporting products and growing markets outside the United States is a big economic opportunity?
00:28:35.000And what are you going to do to build coalitions to help us be able to achieve opening up those markets as opposed to...
00:28:44.000Just the retaliatory tariff environment, which may raise costs on Americans and not resolve these issues.
00:30:01.000And they are attempting to export their way out of that as opposed to doing the much-needed internal rebalance.
00:30:09.000So I am with you on the need to open markets, but we cannot allow a player like this to flood our markets or to flood the world.
00:30:21.000Well, but I'm saying I believe in coalitions.
00:30:24.000We just took us to technology, NATO. I think you thought that was a good idea.
00:30:28.000The notion, though, I mean, I can get upset with my colleagues on the other aisle all the time and object, but that doesn't move me forward.
00:30:35.000And so I hope that you will look at what we're going to do to build allies.
00:30:41.000I mean, these numbers that basically are talking about just the tariff and what it would do to the price of gasoline given Canada.
00:31:41.000She is very worried that Boeing is no longer going to be able to get cheap Chinese parts to be able to build their 787 Maxes that fall out of the sky.
00:32:17.000If that article was someplace else, but the fact that the New York Times wrote that article, I found to also be remarkable admission of at least one case where there was the abuse of the Endangered Species Act relative to its intended use.
00:32:36.000Because also, I think not in light just to this public admission.
00:32:39.000But also, the West Virginia case and the Loper-Bride case, there could be legal infirmity in a lot of our federal bureaucracy's past decisions.
00:32:48.000So I appreciate your willingness to take a look at that once you're on the job.
00:32:56.000We're going to do a quick round two with some follow-ups that a few members have asked.
00:33:01.000I want to talk to you briefly about the fact that public lands represent a massive...
00:33:08.000Public asset, yet a lack of an accurate valuation is something that we don't have, and that undermines informed decision-making about their use and their management.
00:33:20.000What steps would you take if confirmed as secretary to improve the transparency in this area and ensure federal land valuations reflect their value to the American people?
00:33:31.000Well, Well, I would just say on this idea that what I'll call America's balance sheet is something that the Trump administration has quite a bit of enthusiasm in discussions with Treasury nominee Scott Besant, Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick, and even Speaker Mike Johnson called and even Speaker Mike Johnson called me a few weeks ago and said, hey, what's this American balance sheet idea?
00:33:56.000I mean, I think for our standing in the world, for us to talk nonstop about what our liabilities are...
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00:35:10.000Hundreds of millions of offshore subsurface out of leasing and then And that's viewed as a costless event.
00:35:19.000At least we could have the trade-off of say, yes, some people thought it was important to take that off the table.
00:35:25.000But what did it mean for the American people?
00:35:27.000Did we just take trillions of dollars of future revenue out of the pockets of our future generations?
00:35:33.000And so I think, again, creating a financial understanding that is where we can have an honest discussion about some of these executive actions that are happening at the end of this term, for example, would be useful for Thank you.
00:35:58.000The federal government came up with it.
00:35:59.000Congress came up with it about 50 years ago to help offset the burden states carry, states with a lot of public land, because they don't receive any property tax revenue from it, so it's supposed to offset that.
00:36:10.000In some parts of the country where there's a lot of public land, this works out okay.
00:36:16.000It's pennies on the dollar compared to what they would get if they could tax the land even at its lowest valuation and lowest rate.
00:36:22.000So I would love to talk to you about PILT reforms and making PILT generally a priority because a lot of these communities rely on it for fire, search and rescue, schools, safety, so forth.
00:36:37.000Senator Daines mentioned a very specific challenge with the Endangered Species Act, but as governor, you know that one of the best ways to head off those complexes is to prevent species from ever being listed by recovering them through proactive, voluntary conservation at the state level.
00:36:57.000Senator Tillis and nine of his Republican colleagues and I have a highly bipartisan bill called the Recovering America's Wildlife Act that helps states do exactly that.
00:37:11.000North Dakota's former Game and Fish director, Terry Steinwand, was one of the architects of that legislation.
00:37:19.000It's got strong support from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for many of the conservation groups that you mentioned in your exchange with Senator Justice.
00:37:29.000Does that sound like the kind of approach that you could work with Senator Tillis and I on?
00:37:40.000Again, super sound principle there, which is to do the work to keep it off of any kind of federal designation, working collaboratively with the states.
00:37:49.000I had the pleasure of working with our Game and Fish Commissioner, Terry Steinwan, for six of my eight years as governor.
00:37:57.000He had almost a 40-year career in wildlife management.
00:38:00.000It's people like that that I know and respect across all the states.
00:38:07.000I mean, the people that work in Game and Fish at the state level that are working on these things, I just I haven't met somebody from the federal level.
00:38:19.000A couple of thoughts I want to make here, the first of which is that the pace at which the Senate is operating here is remarkable.
00:38:26.000And the Democrats seem to lack a little bit of spunk.
00:38:30.000I mean, they're going through the motions, but this is not the type of resistance that we saw in 2017. It is very clear that President Trump has a mandate.
00:38:46.000And it is a confirmation blitzkrieg that is ongoing right now.
00:38:51.000This is a very powerful indicator, harbinger, a canary in the coal mine for the type of pace that this administration is going to operate with.
00:39:02.000It is conceivable that we're going to have a Treasury Secretary in a week.
00:39:05.000We're going to have Pete Hegseth as DOD Secretary in a week.
00:39:08.000We're going to have an Attorney General in a week.
00:39:09.000That is way ahead of schedule than what we saw in 2017. Far ahead of where we were.
00:39:15.000Let's listen live in of Scott Besant, who is answering questions from some Senate Democrat.
00:39:25.000I think I'm right, maybe not in the exact numbers, but in order of magnitude, I believe Iran was down to 100,000 barrels of oil exports when President Trump left office.
00:39:38.000I believe that they are now exporting in excess of approximately 1.7 million.
00:39:44.000So through sanctions policy, I believe that we can, again, as I like to say, make Iran poor again.
00:39:54.000Not the Iranian people, the Iranian government.
00:39:59.000And then at the same time, have our domestic producers push that up with the highest energy standards in the world.
00:40:08.000We're the best stewards of the land, and I agree.
00:40:12.000And what we've also seen, as you mentioned, with Iran increasing the sales, we're selling it to China.
00:40:17.000China is buying at a discount, so they're getting cheap energy.
00:40:22.000Iran is getting tanker loads of cash back, essentially, and they're using that money for terrorism.
00:40:28.000So in terms of our own national security.
00:40:29.000I have one last question in my time remaining, and this has to do with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that we passed in 2017. If that were to expire, we're talking about a massive tax hike of over $4 trillion.
00:40:42.000What would that kind of a tax hike mean for small businesses, for job creators, as well as our global competitiveness, if all of a sudden we put the heavy, wet blanket of a $4 trillion tax increase on our nation?
00:40:55.000Senator, I think it would be devastating, especially for small businesses.
00:41:00.000One of the things that, as someone who came from a very small town, I lived in New York with a very big town and came back to a small town.
00:41:10.000I believe Wall Street has done great the past few years and that Main Street has suffered.
00:41:32.000This is very important what Scott Besson is saying.
00:41:35.000He's talking about another blue-collar boom.
00:41:37.000Wall Street has done extraordinarily well.
00:41:39.000Homeownership is out of grasp for most Americans.
00:41:41.000The average home went from about $75,000 a year income that you could afford to now over $140,000 a year it requires to own a home in this country.
00:41:50.000And we have seen it more and more out of grasp in these last couple of years.
00:41:55.000It is time for a muscular class renaissance for a everyday American golden era.
00:42:01.000Look, we've been demoralized for years.
00:42:03.000This is very similar to watching a football game, and there's like this big interception that just galvanized the team and sparks a change in momentum.