The Charlie Kirk Show - September 27, 2024


2024 is Trump's Strongest Campaign Ever


Episode Stats

Length

35 minutes

Words per Minute

202.92479

Word Count

7,285

Sentence Count

502

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Francisco Gonzalez and Corey Lewandowski join me as we remember the passing of a dear friend, Adam Andrzejewski, and as we talk about where does this race stand in comparison to 2016 and how it compares to the current landscape in the 2020 election. Charlie and Francisco are joined by the man who was behind the magic in 2016 and who is now the man behind the MAGA campaign in 2020, Corey Lewandowiec, a senior advisor in hopefully recreating that magic here in the 2024 race, to talk about the similarities and differences between 2020 and 2016 and why the Trump 2020 campaign is stronger and more sophisticated than the 2016 campaign. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments, a company that specializes in gold, IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. That's where I buy all of my gold. That is Noble Gold Investing Investments. It's where you get all my gold! Go to noblegold.investments.co/TheCharlieKirkShow to get 20% off your first month with discount promo code: CHALLENGE2021 to receive 20% OFF your entire month! The CharlieKirk Show is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show! Learn more about your ad choices at noblegoldindications.co.org/thecharliekirk Show. Charlie Kirk is the President of Turning Point USA, the leading the fight for freedom, freedom, and freedom in the 21st century. Charlie Kirk, the people who are fighting for freedom everywhere. Charlie, thank you so much more than you can count on this! Charlie, Charlie, I love you, I'm Charlie, Thank you Charlie, you're a great friend, I appreciate you. I'm running the White House, I'll be back, I know you're listening to me, I've got a good time, I won't let you know what you're watching this, and I'm going to vote for you, and you're going to listen to you, you deserve it! - Thank you, Charlie Kirk. - Teddy, I can't wait to see you, bye, bye bye bye Bye Bye, bye Bye bye, Bye Bye Bye bye! - Eternally! - Jon, Kristy, - P. Jon & Andrea, - The Charlie Kervier, Cheers, Sarah, Tim, Kristian, Glynis, Joselyn, and Jon & Mauricio,


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today on The Charlie Kirk Show, Francisco Gonzalez joins us as we remember the passing of a dear friend, Adam Andrzejewski, and Corey Lewandowski as we talk about where does this race stand versus 2020 and 2016.
00:00:13.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:13.000 Here we go.
00:00:14.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:16.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:18.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:22.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:25.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:26.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:27.000 His spirit, his love of this country.
00:00:29.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:35.000 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.
00:00:44.000 That's why we are here.
00:00:48.000 Noble 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.
00:00:57.000 Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:04.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:06.000 It's where I buy all of my gold.
00:01:08.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:12.000 The man who was behind the magic in 2016 joins us now.
00:01:16.000 It is Corey Lewandowski, great American, and he is a senior advisor in hopefully recreating that magic here in the 2024 race.
00:01:24.000 Corey, great to see you.
00:01:25.000 Thanks for having me, Charlie.
00:01:26.000 So Corey, let's start here.
00:01:28.000 What is the state of the race?
00:01:30.000 It is hard to tell.
00:01:31.000 The media is not giving an accurate depiction or portrayal.
00:01:34.000 You're in the inner sanctum.
00:01:37.000 What's going on?
00:01:37.000 Where do things stand?
00:01:38.000 Look, where things stand very candidly are Donald Trump is in the greatest position he's ever been in.
00:01:43.000 When you look historically, whether it's at 2020 or the 2016 election, he's in a stronger position now in every one of the battleground states than he was four or eight years ago.
00:01:53.000 He's also in a stronger position on the national scale.
00:01:56.000 So while the national polls don't matter, what we're seeing in the battleground
00:02:00.000 states, whether you look at Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, you look at Michigan or
00:02:03.000 Arizona, we are running ahead anywhere from two to seven points from where we
00:02:08.000 were either four or eight years ago.
00:02:11.000 And what that means is, look, four years ago, we saw an enormous amount of mail
00:02:16.000 and ballots transpiring, particularly in the battleground states because
00:02:19.000 of this COVID phenomenon.
00:02:21.000 We're not seeing that.
00:02:22.000 We're seeing in the states that already had their ballots sent out, the mean is
00:02:26.000 going back to where we were in 2016.
00:02:28.000 We're not seeing as many early votes transpiring, going back to the mean of where things were in 2016.
00:02:34.000 All those things are very positive signs for this campaign.
00:02:37.000 Corey, I think that's a really smart point.
00:02:38.000 And I look back to even 2016 at this point.
00:02:42.000 There was very little infrastructure.
00:02:43.000 It was a pure movement.
00:02:45.000 Took the bad guys by surprise.
00:02:47.000 I mean, you were right then and there helping orchestrate everything.
00:02:50.000 Where this campaign is far more sophisticated.
00:02:53.000 I mean that not in a way to banish the 2016 campaign, but let's be honest, right?
00:02:57.000 That was not exactly premier sophistication.
00:03:02.000 It was President Trump and you and 10 or 12 others that gutted that out.
00:03:07.000 But there is a depth to this campaign that I think is noteworthy, and also a precision.
00:03:12.000 Corey, back in 2020, Donald Trump had to do multiple rallies in Iowa, Ohio, Florida.
00:03:19.000 There's no current plans, maybe to do a rally here or there, to water those plants.
00:03:23.000 It looks as if those are largely good, and we could focus on the decisive states.
00:03:27.000 Is that correct?
00:03:28.000 It is correct, Charlie, but here's the other thing.
00:03:30.000 We're on the offense, okay?
00:03:31.000 When you look at our polling data, In what has not really been a strong state like Virginia, and we're running even or ahead in both public data and the private data.
00:03:41.000 You look at the same in Minnesota states where, you know, historically, particularly with a vice presidential nominee on the Democrat side, who's from there.
00:03:48.000 And we're within the margin of error.
00:03:50.000 What it's showing is we have the opportunity to expand the map.
00:03:53.000 Yes, everyone is familiar with the seven battleground states and the two congressional districts, Maine 2 and Nebraska, that could go differently.
00:04:01.000 But the reality was we looked at these scenarios back in 16 and again in 20.
00:04:05.000 Today, unlike in 2020, we don't need to be in Florida.
00:04:09.000 We don't need to be in Iowa.
00:04:11.000 And the battle, what has historically been the battleground state of Ohio, you know, the last poll that I saw is Donald Trump has about a 14 point lead.
00:04:17.000 Now that's not to say we will take anything for granted, but that is to show the strength of the campaign that has been built and the sophistication of not just the campaign, but of the candidate who has really honed his message now and is delivering that message over the last 40 days.
00:04:33.000 And let's talk about what that message is, Corey.
00:04:35.000 It's inflation.
00:04:36.000 It's immigration.
00:04:38.000 In a crisp manner, what is the winning message?
00:04:40.000 What does your polling show the vibe of the kind of emphasis that we need to have right now?
00:04:46.000 Well, it's very simple.
00:04:47.000 You know, everybody remembers how good the economy was four years ago when he was the president of the United States, and a rising tide lifted all boats.
00:04:54.000 It didn't matter if you were rich or poor, black, white, green, orange, or blue.
00:04:58.000 It didn't matter your socioeconomic status, your religion, or your ethnicity.
00:05:01.000 Everybody benefited from a Trump administration.
00:05:04.000 And so that is what we're going to recreate.
00:05:06.000 We're going to recreate the opportunity for everyone to have more prosperity and a smaller government.
00:05:11.000 That's first and foremost, because the pocketbook issues are always what drives presidential campaigns.
00:05:16.000 And everybody knows the cost of food, the cost of fuel, the cost of home heating oil, et cetera, continues to escalate because of the policies of the Biden-Harris-Walls administration.
00:05:26.000 And you couple that with this devastating issue of illegal immigration.
00:05:31.000 Now, the government says 10 million people have crossed the border.
00:05:34.000 You and I both know it's probably closer to 20 million.
00:05:36.000 At least 100 people on the terrorist watch list have come in.
00:05:39.000 They're not coming for our beaches, Charlie.
00:05:40.000 They're coming because they want to invade our country.
00:05:43.000 We've seen that in Aurora, Colorado, specifically, where migrant gangs are taking over our communities.
00:05:49.000 And they're doing so because Kamala Harris And Joe Biden and Tim Walz have allowed it.
00:05:53.000 And now what do we see?
00:05:54.000 Kamala is finally going to make her first trip to the border because she understands that the second most important issue behind the economy is the issue of illegal immigration.
00:06:03.000 She's called the wall a vanity project.
00:06:04.000 She's been against the wall for the last three and a half years.
00:06:07.000 They've done nothing to stop this porous border on the Northern or the Southern border and people's lives are ruined because of it.
00:06:13.000 So let's go state-by-state here.
00:06:13.000 That's right.
00:06:16.000 Blake, can you help navigate these maps, please?
00:06:18.000 Yeah, sure.
00:06:21.000 There's kind of different scenarios everyone's talking about.
00:06:24.000 One we've talked a lot about here is the Nebraska winner-take-all map that's going to matter a lot.
00:06:30.000 So, that would be... which one is that?
00:06:35.000 Sorry, just looking through here.
00:06:36.000 I think 153 is the no-winner-take-all map.
00:06:41.000 So we've talked a lot about this one.
00:06:43.000 This is probably... it's the single most likely outcome, I think.
00:06:47.000 So 153, that is where we lose by one electoral vote because we lose Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.
00:06:54.000 It would be a tie with winner-take-all.
00:06:56.000 We didn't get it.
00:06:58.000 There's another one we've talked about as a possibility.
00:07:01.000 Go to the next one, 154.
00:07:03.000 That is where we could get Pennsylvania, get Georgia, get Arizona, but we'd lose because we dropped North Carolina due to unfortunate developments.
00:07:12.000 But there's more optimistic maps that we could have, so I want to bring up... let's do...
00:07:18.000 157.
00:07:19.000 So this is going to be a far more upbeat map we're looking at, but there's a prognosticator I've been looking at, and he has a map where if you take 2020's polling miss, because there were some huge misses in certain states like Wisconsin, if you just assume that that level of shy Trump voter is in effect again, and they were thinking it wouldn't be there in 2020, and it was, so maybe it'll be here in 2024 again, If you just take the current polls and imagine, oh, there's a lot of missing Trump voters again, we get a really good result.
00:07:48.000 We get Wisconsin.
00:07:49.000 We get Michigan.
00:07:50.000 We get Pennsylvania.
00:07:52.000 We get back Arizona.
00:07:53.000 We flip Nevada.
00:07:54.000 We flip Georgia.
00:07:56.000 That's what would happen because right now we're polling way, way better than we did in 2020.
00:08:01.000 And that should be a sign for optimism.
00:08:04.000 2020 was really close, but the polls, it looked brutal for us.
00:08:04.000 It's easy to forget.
00:08:08.000 It looked like we were going to get destroyed.
00:08:10.000 Your reaction to all that, Corey?
00:08:12.000 Yeah, I think you're right, Lisa.
00:08:13.000 I think the easiest strategy, when I say the easiest, the most traditional strategy is North Carolina, Georgia, and you add Pennsylvania's 19 electoral votes to it, and you get us to 270.
00:08:24.000 The reality, in my opinion, is, and history proves this, depending on how Pennsylvania goes, Wisconsin traditionally goes the same way, and that's been the case over the last multiple elections.
00:08:34.000 So whether it's Donald Trump who wins them both, and you add Michigan to that in 16, or in the 2020 election, that's what's been the case here.
00:08:42.000 Now, Pennsylvania is the big white whale, right?
00:08:44.000 Donald Trump wins that and gets the 19 electoral votes.
00:08:48.000 But let's just say as an example, and I don't think it would happen, Donald Trump loses North Carolina.
00:08:52.000 We have an opportunity to take back Arizona for sure and to flip Nevada.
00:08:56.000 And you couple that with our victory in Georgia, and all of a sudden we're there.
00:09:00.000 But look, North Carolina has an enormous military population.
00:09:03.000 We've known about this for a long time, and they have been very aware of what the Biden-Harris-Walls administration has done to decimate our military.
00:09:11.000 They're familiar with the Abbey Gate disaster and the withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving billions of dollars behind.
00:09:16.000 So we have a number of paths forward here.
00:09:18.000 I believe Maine too, falls with Donald Trump.
00:09:21.000 I believe that we're still on the offense, which is a very different position than we were in, in 2016.
00:09:28.000 2016, I think it's fair to say we took them by surprise.
00:09:32.000 2020, there was no surprises.
00:09:33.000 He was in the White House.
00:09:33.000 They knew he could win.
00:09:35.000 We had this COVID scenario in front of us, and we had a, a by and large, a mainstream media who hates Donald Trump and hates his policies because he calls them out for their failures.
00:09:45.000 Now what we have in 2020 is we have a level of intensity that I haven't seen in eight years, to be very honest.
00:09:52.000 In 2020, people were afraid to be Donald Trump supporters.
00:09:55.000 Now, as I drive around this country and I travel, I see businesses that had never been supportive of Donald Trump with a giant four by eight signs.
00:10:02.000 And they're saying, this is our last best hope, because if we lose this election, there's nowhere left to go.
00:10:07.000 Corey, that's well said.
00:10:08.000 I want to encourage the audience to get involved.
00:10:10.000 Plug Trump Force 47.
00:10:13.000 Yeah, look, Trump Force 47 is our ground game.
00:10:15.000 And what Turning Point is doing and what we're doing is we're getting volunteers engaged, whether it's on knocking on doors or making phone calls.
00:10:22.000 This is where everyday Americans can go.
00:10:25.000 It's not a place that we're soliciting money from, but Trump Force 47 is the opportunity for people who want to make a difference in their country to join us, to go to our website, to sign up to make phone calls from home, to find captains in their areas.
00:10:37.000 Particularly in the battleground states and the two battleground congressional districts that we need your help in.
00:10:42.000 So if you can help us, it is going to go a long, long way.
00:10:48.000 As students begin heading back to school, I want to tell you about a great learning opportunity.
00:10:51.000 Look, I know you're part of the most informed audience in radio.
00:10:54.000 After all, you listen to my radio show.
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00:11:34.000 That is charlieforhillsdale.com.
00:11:36.000 Charlie F-O-R Hillsdale dot com.
00:11:40.000 So Corey, I'm going to ask you an important question that is, I don't, it's not difficult, but it has to be confronted head on, which is how should people vote?
00:11:48.000 I'm a, I'm a believer in early voting.
00:11:50.000 I'm not here to change someone's voting habits.
00:11:51.000 If you've been voting for election day for the last 40 years, but Corey, it is time that we celebrate early voting for people that have busy lives or might be first time voters.
00:12:01.000 It is necessary.
00:12:02.000 Corey, what is your take on this?
00:12:03.000 Charlie, my take is any way that is legal, they should be doing it.
00:12:07.000 If they have the opportunity to vote early, go vote early.
00:12:10.000 If they have the opportunity because they have gotten a ballot to vote absentee, vote absentee.
00:12:14.000 Do not wait until election day.
00:12:17.000 We cannot allow the Democrats to secure all of this massively going into election day, knowing that our people are going to show up.
00:12:24.000 So my position is go and vote early.
00:12:27.000 If you have that opportunity and you already have a ballot, Execute it.
00:12:30.000 You don't know what could happen on election day.
00:12:32.000 So take every resource available to us and go do that immediately.
00:12:37.000 Don't waste another day.
00:12:37.000 Don't wait.
00:12:39.000 Fill out your ballot for Donald Trump today and send it back in.
00:12:41.000 Our movement is so big and so energized.
00:12:45.000 Shouldn't we give our people more days, not less days to go vote?
00:12:48.000 100%.
00:12:48.000 The truth is, if it was an ideal world, everyone would vote on one day.
00:12:52.000 But that's not where we are.
00:12:53.000 It's not voting day or voting week, it's voting month.
00:12:57.000 The ballots are out in multiple states right now.
00:13:00.000 North Carolina has ballots out, Pennsylvania has ballots out, Wisconsin.
00:13:03.000 So, you know, the deal is this, go and start voting.
00:13:05.000 If your ballot came to your home, what are you leaving it sitting around for
00:13:09.000 for the next 40 days to then show up?
00:13:11.000 Because it also gives you the opportunity, Charlie, that when you send your ballot back,
00:13:14.000 you can go and verify it has been returned on time.
00:13:17.000 You can verify that no one else is going to show up and vote for you.
00:13:20.000 So there's an integrity issue here.
00:13:22.000 Do I trust the U.S.
00:13:23.000 Postal Service?
00:13:24.000 Probably not.
00:13:25.000 Do I trust our own people to vote early and make sure that it's accurate?
00:13:29.000 You bet I do.
00:13:30.000 There's a good kind of heuristic that people use in outside politics just for getting things done and avoiding procrastination.
00:13:37.000 If it takes less than five minutes and you need to do it, do it now.
00:13:40.000 Just do it now.
00:13:41.000 And that should easily be how it is with any mail-in ballot.
00:13:44.000 It takes less than five minutes.
00:13:46.000 Take it out, put it in the envelope, fill it out, put it in the envelope, put on a stamp, put it in the mail.
00:13:51.000 Five minutes.
00:13:52.000 Once you have it, do it now, not later.
00:13:54.000 And we can't afford any sort of leakage or drop-off of our movement.
00:13:59.000 And Corey, you remember back in the midterms, here in our home state of Arizona, the long lines of Kerry Lake, the machine tabulator failures, we cannot possibly repeat that sort of error and that kind of a mistake.
00:14:13.000 So, Corey, the president notoriously, in closing here, is the best closer in politics.
00:14:20.000 And the last 30 days is where he just gets Tom Brady and it's fourth quarter.
00:14:25.000 Can you give us some insight, a little bit of tease?
00:14:28.000 What can we expect from President Trump from a schedule-wise, from geographic, crisscrossing the country?
00:14:34.000 What can we expect from President Trump, the Mariana Rivera of politics?
00:14:38.000 Yeah, Donald Trump has a hellacious schedule and you guys have seen what he's capable of doing in the past and what he continues to do at 78 years old.
00:14:45.000 You know, tomorrow we're in Pennsylvania.
00:14:47.000 I'm sorry, tomorrow we're in Michigan.
00:14:48.000 Today we're in New York.
00:14:49.000 Yesterday we were in North Carolina.
00:14:51.000 On Saturday we're in Wisconsin and in Alabama for the Georgia Tuscaloosa football game down there against Alabama.
00:14:58.000 Sunday we're back in some other state.
00:15:01.000 I mean, Charlie, look, if I told you if I had the schedule in front of me, you'd say there's no way one human being is going to be able to do all this.
00:15:06.000 Because there are no days off with 40 days to go.
00:15:10.000 He's going to be doing two, three, and four events a day.
00:15:13.000 And you juxtapose that with Kamala Harris, who is going to do one event and sit down with one friendly reporter who basically has given her the questions ahead of time.
00:15:20.000 And she still fumbles the interview.
00:15:22.000 So, you know, I love Donald Trump's energy.
00:15:25.000 I love his stamina.
00:15:26.000 I love the fact that he's a big game player.
00:15:28.000 He's the guy you want the ball in his hands with seconds to go and the clock running down because you know he's always going to deliver.
00:15:34.000 He has ice water running through his veins and he is so focused on this election.
00:15:37.000 He knows what's at stake for him, our country, and the world, that he's willing to do anything that is asked of him right now.
00:15:44.000 Crisscross this country, talk to every voter, and leave nothing on the table and run through the tape in 40 days from today.
00:15:49.000 Just so everyone understands, back in 2020, Corey, you were not involved at that time, the campaign ran out of money, and Donald Trump did 45 events in 25 days.
00:15:59.000 It was one of the most insane schedules, and he literally brought the entire election to a competitive place, and I think actually to victory, but that's a separate issue.
00:16:08.000 If he does anything close to that, he's going to be tough to beat.
00:16:10.000 Corey, thank you so much.
00:16:11.000 Thanks, Charlie.
00:16:12.000 TPAction.com slash 100.
00:16:14.000 Okay, want to throw a cookie poll?
00:16:17.000 I guess we could.
00:16:18.000 This is interesting stuff, right?
00:16:19.000 It's funny because we're trying to figure out there's two different cookie polls.
00:16:23.000 Yeah, there's a lot of cookie confusion.
00:16:25.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:16:26.000 So there's one in Cincinnati, and there's one in Minnesota.
00:16:30.000 So how does this work?
00:16:31.000 There are these bakeries, they come in, and they're like, hey, do you want to buy a Trump cookie or a Kamala cookie?
00:16:34.000 And they tally it up.
00:16:35.000 And they tally up who's sold more cookies.
00:16:37.000 And so the one I'm looking at right now, there's Buskin Bakery in Cincinnati, and they put a face.
00:16:42.000 They have a Kamala face cookie and a Trump face cookie.
00:16:45.000 And until 2020, they always got it right.
00:16:47.000 And then in 2020, the winner was Trump, but he did not win the election.
00:16:52.000 Just so we're clear, back in 2020 this was like the thing where people were like, Charlie, he's gonna win because of the cookie poll.
00:16:57.000 got almost all of them right, but then in 2016 they had Hillary win.
00:17:00.000 Just so we're clear, back in 2020, this was like the thing where people were like,
00:17:04.000 Charlie, he's gonna win because of the cookie poll.
00:17:07.000 And it actually was super close.
00:17:09.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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00:18:15.000 Joining us now is a good old friend of mine, known you for about 10 years, decade.
00:18:19.000 I think 12.
00:18:19.000 Isn't that crazy?
00:18:21.000 Francisco Gonzalez, CEO of Fearless Journeys and the host of the Agent Innovation podcast.
00:18:26.000 I get that right?
00:18:27.000 Agents of Innovation, yes sir.
00:18:28.000 Speaking of an agent of innovation, I'm looking at one right now.
00:18:31.000 Oh, thank you.
00:18:32.000 So, I want to head you on to commemorate Adam Andrzejewski.
00:18:36.000 We haven't talked about this on air yet.
00:18:38.000 He passed away suddenly and recently.
00:18:41.000 Who is Adam Andrzejewski?
00:18:42.000 So Adam was the president and CEO of Open the Books.
00:18:47.000 That's what he's known for, right?
00:18:49.000 They are the largest private database in the world of government records.
00:18:53.000 And, you know, you mentioned agents of innovation.
00:18:56.000 Charlie, I had Adam on my podcast about four years ago because he was an agent of innovation in this space.
00:19:03.000 I mean, if we look back at the founding of this country, Our founders were the biggest innovators in free and open
00:19:11.000 government.
00:19:12.000 And Adam wanted to continue that trend and said, you know, we live in a world now with
00:19:17.000 all the technology, right, that can make everything so accessible to us.
00:19:22.000 Why shouldn't every dime of the government be online in real time?
00:19:28.000 And he actually made over 80 percent, you know, with a lot of his efforts being spearheaded
00:19:33.000 through Open the Books, over 80 percent of all government funds in this country, local,
00:19:37.000 state, and federal are online, almost in real time.
00:19:41.000 So you can dive into those records.
00:19:43.000 So Adam was a uniquely American story and was a crusader for American transparency.
00:19:50.000 And yeah, the first time I met him, he was a Chicagoan just like me.
00:19:53.000 He said, I want the whole government checkbook to be transparent, which by the way, I think anyone running for president should adopt this.
00:19:59.000 It's just such a smart political thing.
00:20:02.000 We want every dime of federal spending online in real time.
00:20:05.000 True transparency, from if you're buying a cookie at the Department of Energy, or you're buying a missile for the Department of Defense.
00:20:13.000 And he started to open the books.
00:20:14.000 Talk about the impact that Adam had throughout his career.
00:20:18.000 Yeah, well, you know, what's really interesting, he had a huge impact on doing that.
00:20:21.000 And, you know, this wasn't somebody who... I mean, he's a conservative guy, but this is not a conservative issue.
00:20:26.000 This is, like you said, this could be an issue for anybody across the political spectrum.
00:20:31.000 And the New York Times and the U.S.
00:20:32.000 Today partnered with Adam on different transparency movements that he had, different things.
00:20:37.000 But to me, what's really great about Adam's story is he wasn't always—he had run for governor of Illinois in 2010.
00:20:43.000 As a Republican, that's almost an impossible task.
00:20:46.000 But he did it to advance this issue, this public policy issue.
00:20:50.000 So he continued to crusade on that in his own career over the next 14 years since he just passed last month.
00:20:58.000 But prior to that, Adam was an entrepreneur at heart.
00:21:01.000 He told me stories of him growing up in a small town in Illinois called Hersher, farm
00:21:07.000 town, farm community.
00:21:09.000 He said he woke up early every day, he never got a day to sleep in, he just worked his
00:21:13.000 whole life.
00:21:14.000 And it just instilled in him a work ethic.
00:21:17.000 He not only worked on the farm, he had a paper route.
00:21:19.000 He was super hard working.
00:21:20.000 Yeah.
00:21:20.000 And him and his brother, in the mid to late 90s, they started HomePages directories, which is basically, you know, we all know about those big, huge, you know, yellow books, those telephone books that would land on your doorstep.
00:21:31.000 They seem almost obsolete today.
00:21:34.000 But what Adam and his brother did is they said, you know, you don't need the huge telephone book.
00:21:39.000 What most of the business, most people do in this country are within about three to five miles of their home.
00:21:45.000 So he focused on and talked about an entrepreneur mindset.
00:21:48.000 You're not going to compete in Chicago.
00:21:50.000 Let's go and compete in the small towns that have less than 5,000 people and build these little small neighborhood directories.
00:21:56.000 And that's how they We're successful, but he also told me a story, Charlie, and every entrepreneur needs to understand this of you're not going to be successful overnight, right?
00:22:06.000 You're going to, there's going to be, so he said for the first five or six years of their business, they didn't make any profits.
00:22:12.000 Like they just, everything went to their expenses.
00:22:14.000 Maybe the employees they had.
00:22:15.000 And he says it wasn't until about year seven or eight that they actually started turning profits.
00:22:20.000 And by year 10, they were a $20 million company.
00:22:24.000 And he says, and then they were called an overnight success.
00:22:27.000 So he said it took 10 years to get that overnight success.
00:22:29.000 You know, a little bit, you could talk about what you're doing at Turning Point, right?
00:22:34.000 I mean, the first few years, a lot of people didn't see that grind, that hard work.
00:22:37.000 And then all of a sudden, you would just appear on the scene.
00:22:39.000 And now you've got, you're reshaping everything from media to politics to everything.
00:22:43.000 So it's just incredible.
00:22:44.000 But people don't see a lot of that early work.
00:22:47.000 And I think a lot of young entrepreneurs get really frustrated, because they think things are going to be instant gratification, that they're going to have the success that Adam Andrzejewski had.
00:22:56.000 But yeah, he had great success as a business owner and translated a lot of those skills into what he did, not just politically, trying to run for governor, but into this massive transparency movement.
00:23:05.000 He was a dear friend of both of ours and a huge advocate for Turning Point USA.
00:23:11.000 And what was he like in person?
00:23:13.000 He was like a sparky guy.
00:23:15.000 Adam, just every communication I ever had with him, it was like a guy just exuded enthusiasm.
00:23:24.000 I mean, even every email I ever got from him, it was like you could feel the presence, you know?
00:23:30.000 It was so hard to believe he passed away.
00:23:32.000 Yeah, and he was a very healthy guy, 55 years old, ran marathons, so, you know, I don't know.
00:23:37.000 The heartbreaking thing is he left behind his wife and three children.
00:23:41.000 It's a very heartbreaking story, and, you know, passed away in his sleep.
00:23:46.000 It was some heart issue or something, right?
00:23:47.000 Yeah, just his heart stopped.
00:23:49.000 Yeah, and they don't know the reason why?
00:23:52.000 I don't know, yeah.
00:23:53.000 It's just tragic.
00:23:54.000 So, the legacy, what would Adam want us to continue to fight for?
00:23:59.000 Well, the sad thing is that he's not here with us physically.
00:24:02.000 I think the great thing about somebody like Adam is the legacy he's leaving.
00:24:07.000 As you mentioned, I mean, you know, Open the Books is going to continue.
00:24:11.000 I personally don't know their new leadership or what their plan is, but you know, he's built an institution there, but he's really built an idea of taking everything that the government, you know, spending, everything, You know, all the in public employees, who they are, how much money they make, why, you know, all these sorts of things, putting it online.
00:24:32.000 I think the thing is, that stuff can be online, Charlie, but nobody can use it.
00:24:37.000 So we have to be proactive.
00:24:38.000 If you're listening or watching this, wherever you're located, you know, whether if you're in a small town in Nebraska, if you're in a if you're in a big city in Illinois, like wherever you're at, Go online.
00:24:49.000 You can start going to open the books.
00:24:50.000 I just gave them a nice plug, because they have all the links there of how you can activate yourself, because if we don't hold these people accountable in our own backyard... I mean, that was Adam's biggest message.
00:25:00.000 He goes, look, we have all of our eyes on Washington, D.C., and that's important, but if we don't first focus your eyes in your own backyard and seeing what people are spending... I mean, we saw this in the You know, in the last few years, with all the parents being so motivated to go to school board meetings, you know, it's just something we hadn't seen before.
00:25:18.000 But this information is accessible to us now.
00:25:19.000 We got to hold these people accountable.
00:25:21.000 Yeah.
00:25:21.000 If you guys go right now to OpenTheBooks.com, it's remarkable how much detail.
00:25:25.000 And so basically, Francisco walked through this.
00:25:28.000 He would FOIA freedom information request every state agency and try to get the checkbook.
00:25:33.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:25:34.000 Look, somebody from there can give you all the logistics of the technology, but we have the technology, right?
00:25:40.000 I mean, everything is in the palm of our hands now.
00:25:43.000 Instead of just, you know, using it to scroll through TikTok videos, you know, maybe do something, you know, influential and impactful in your own local government.
00:25:50.000 And I mean, nobody, you know, we all, we all, We all complain about taxes, right?
00:25:55.000 We all complain about the debts, the debts that our cities, states, and federal government are running.
00:26:01.000 It all comes down to the spending.
00:26:03.000 So what are they spending and why are they spending it?
00:26:05.000 And by the way, they are, I mean, I was just, I was just in Colorado yesterday with a good friend of mine and he was telling me, he was just looking in Denver.
00:26:13.000 He's like, you know how much money they spend every time they put one cone on the street?
00:26:16.000 It's insane.
00:26:17.000 And he started just looking into it and he's like, you know, a lot of these are people who politicians are connected to companies.
00:26:23.000 What do they spend when they put a cone on this tree?
00:26:25.000 Oh, he was telling me it's like $250 an hour just to put a cone.
00:26:28.000 You know, it's just what is attributed to that cone.
00:26:31.000 So if you think there's no incentive for that construction company that's being paid by the government to pick up that cone, right?
00:26:38.000 They can now bill the government.
00:26:39.000 And that's, who's the government?
00:26:40.000 We're the government, right?
00:26:42.000 And this is just a small thing.
00:26:44.000 And no one ever audits this or has questions about it?
00:26:47.000 So we've got to do it.
00:26:48.000 Adam did the work.
00:26:49.000 His group did the work to put this stuff online.
00:26:52.000 We've got to now actually go online and hold our government accountable.
00:26:55.000 And continue the transparency revolution.
00:26:57.000 Yes.
00:26:58.000 And you can do it all the way down to your local school board, to your mayor, and again,
00:27:03.000 you cannot possibly cut spending if you don't know what you're spending money on.
00:27:09.000 And Adam Angielski was the most unappreciated transparency warrior on a very limited budget
00:27:16.000 and a very thankless task.
00:27:18.000 He did this for like 15 years.
00:27:21.000 Every state agency, every local municipality.
00:27:24.000 You could check it out at OpenTheBooks.com.
00:27:26.000 It's just Yeoman's work that...
00:27:28.000 It's funny, I wanted to have Adam on the show a couple months ago, it didn't work and obviously
00:27:32.000 It's like, you look at this website, you're like, geez, this is incredibly difficult work to put together, where he FOIAs it, he puts it together, and then these people realize.
00:27:42.000 And he was the one that actually revealed a lot of the Anthony Fauci grants, too.
00:27:46.000 Yeah, well, he was actually on my podcast in the middle of 2020.
00:27:49.000 And he went off for a few minutes on just how, I mean, he actually called the COVID lockdowns of 2020, perhaps the the worst public policy decision in over a century.
00:28:01.000 And, you know, so I think, Yeah, the amount of money that was spent, but the biggest thing is where was the money going, right?
00:28:08.000 Because we all had this, like, a lot of people had this idea that, well, you know, we got it, the government shut us down, so, you know, we're owed money, right?
00:28:16.000 And so they kind of, I think some people kind of gave our government, you know, overlords some benefit of the doubt on how much money they were spending for this brief period.
00:28:25.000 But then if you look at where all this money ended up going, It had nothing to do with with people's jobs or, or even anything to do with the health crisis of COVID.
00:28:36.000 And so that's the type of stuff that that's again, if you have the transparency movement, and it's all online, we can find it.
00:28:42.000 So hold people accountable.
00:28:44.000 Well, Adam Andrzejewski will be missed very much so.
00:28:44.000 That's right.
00:28:48.000 He will be, but hopefully we will continue his legacy.
00:28:50.000 Yeah, and one of these days we will put it in a presidential platform and into policy to make every dime of federal spending online in real time.
00:28:59.000 How amazing would that be, guys, if every time the federal government has to spend money, they have to upload it so that you, the taxpayer, can see it?
00:29:06.000 Because it's our money.
00:29:07.000 We should be able to see what every agency is spending in real time on everything.
00:29:11.000 There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to do that.
00:29:13.000 And that's how you then effectuate public consensus to cut spending.
00:29:17.000 Yeah, and not only is there no reason to do that, watch out for the people who don't want to do that, right?
00:29:21.000 Why not?
00:29:24.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here as we gear up for another important election year.
00:29:27.000 Remember that we vote every day with our dollar.
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00:30:23.000 Tell us about your book.
00:30:25.000 Charlie, my book is called The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste.
00:30:29.000 And really, it's about how to build an entrepreneur mindset.
00:30:31.000 You know, you mentioned before my podcast called the Agents of Innovation, which Adam Andrzejewski was on the podcast, and there's a chapter on Adam in the book.
00:30:40.000 So really, what I did is after I hit about 100 episodes, I've been doing this podcast, you know, now about eight or nine years, you know, one or two episodes a month, just interviewing entrepreneurs about their story.
00:30:49.000 I really, I'm really interested in their journey.
00:30:52.000 It's like the journey of Charlie Kirk, right?
00:30:56.000 Where did you come from?
00:30:57.000 What were all the challenges?
00:30:59.000 What were all the ups and downs?
00:31:01.000 So a lot of times when we meet a successful entrepreneur, we meet them at their point of success.
00:31:05.000 We don't realize, like Adam said, after 10 years, he was an overnight success, right?
00:31:09.000 So what I did is after I hit 100 episodes, I wanted to actually Kind of celebrate the first hundred episodes by writing a book and I brought together, I literally reviewed all the episodes and I said, what are the kind of ten common characteristics of the entrepreneur?
00:31:26.000 Well, entrepreneurs are problem solvers, they're lifelong learners, they're doers, right?
00:31:30.000 I mean, it's important to be a dreamer, it's more important to be a doer, right?
00:31:33.000 You've got to be a doer.
00:31:35.000 There are people who are also formed by experiences.
00:31:37.000 Some of those experiences could be work ethic.
00:31:39.000 Some of them could be travel experiences.
00:31:41.000 You know, but if you think about nowadays, you know, we talk a lot about you don't necessarily need a college education, right?
00:31:47.000 You didn't need one to do what you're doing.
00:31:49.000 And yet, but you do need to have formative experiences of some kind because you just don't, you know, work ethic doesn't just show up.
00:31:56.000 You got to actually build it over time.
00:31:59.000 Incredible.
00:31:59.000 I started asking a lot of my Podcast guest over time what their first job was I was shocked that so many of them like Adam had a paper route That was just a common thing.
00:32:08.000 They found time in the morning before school to earn a few bucks.
00:32:12.000 That's the kind of thing that you know Being an entrepreneur is not something that most people can do but most people can build an entrepreneur mindset and And why I call this the American dream is a terrible thing
00:32:25.000 to waste.
00:32:26.000 It's because right now, Charlie, you and I both know a lot of people are down on the American dream.
00:32:30.000 Big time.
00:32:31.000 Especially young people.
00:32:33.000 There's a lot of excuses, I think, but there's also a lot of, you know,
00:32:38.000 there's a lot of challenges in today's economy.
00:32:42.000 There's inflation, right?
00:32:44.000 Whether you want to thank Joe Biden for that or whoever you want to thank for that, there's a lot of issues.
00:32:48.000 AI is on the horizon.
00:32:50.000 I mean, it's becoming more of our life every day.
00:32:53.000 Is that taking away jobs, right?
00:32:54.000 So a lot of young people see a lot of opportunities being lost that maybe they think their parents or grandparents had more opportunities.
00:33:01.000 What I say, though, is let's recognize the challenges.
00:33:04.000 Let's work in the public policy realm to fix some of those challenges, right?
00:33:08.000 But let's not forget that in this country, if you want to succeed, you can.
00:33:14.000 And there are opportunities everywhere.
00:33:15.000 Why do you think 11 million people have come across the border?
00:33:18.000 Because they see opportunities everywhere here.
00:33:20.000 I mean, immigrants walk into this country.
00:33:22.000 And they see opportunities everywhere, just like the entrepreneur sees opportunities where other people don't.
00:33:26.000 Immigrants see opportunities where maybe, you know, us here that have been born and raised in the United States don't see as many.
00:33:31.000 Maybe we see them being lost.
00:33:33.000 So I say that you can achieve the American Dream.
00:33:36.000 You can find those opportunities by building the entrepreneur mindset.
00:33:39.000 What would you say is a unique characteristic that entrepreneurs have that people wouldn't always think of immediately?
00:33:45.000 That people wouldn't always think of immediately?
00:33:47.000 The lifelong learner one's interesting.
00:33:49.000 Yeah, I think lifelong learning.
00:33:50.000 One of the things that I really found with entrepreneurs, especially a lot of people on my podcast, because you're in the middle of a conversation.
00:34:01.000 How many times in the middle of an interview has somebody just mentioned a book that has been impactful to them?
00:34:06.000 Or mention an author or something like that.
00:34:09.000 And it's not even just reading a book.
00:34:10.000 It could also be, you know, I mean, why do people in business go to conferences, right?
00:34:15.000 I think one of the biggest things is building a network.
00:34:18.000 Yeah.
00:34:19.000 Everything is not, it's not just about what you know, it's who you know.
00:34:22.000 And entrepreneurs are always the kind of people that are building relationships.
00:34:26.000 And so I think that those are kind of the, you know, the types of things.
00:34:30.000 I'm going to be having actually a new book come out in a few months, which will be volume two.
00:34:33.000 Oh, so the next 100 episodes or yeah?
00:34:35.000 Well, actually, so I couldn't tell all the hundred stories in one book, so I have about 45 stories in this book.
00:34:43.000 I continue that in volume two, but in volume two I come up with ten new characteristics that are focused on the heart.
00:34:49.000 And you also travel a lot.
00:34:50.000 I get your emails.
00:34:51.000 Yeah.
00:34:51.000 You're always somewhere, and you've been in nine countries this year, right?
00:34:54.000 Nine countries this year.
00:34:55.000 This is still the greatest place on the planet.
00:34:57.000 This is, every time I travel, I think I've been to 34 countries now.
00:35:00.000 That's a big number.
00:35:01.000 It's a big number.
00:35:02.000 Not quite Dennis Prager.
00:35:04.000 You know Dennis is at 129.
00:35:04.000 Oh wow.
00:35:05.000 Isn't that crazy?
00:35:06.000 Yeah.
00:35:06.000 No, there's people that are closing in on all of them, right?
00:35:09.000 So, the one thing that you find, first of all, I think that travel is so, I encourage it because it's so formative to who I am.
00:35:16.000 I totally agree.
00:35:18.000 It forces you to get out of your house.
00:35:20.000 Yeah, and even if you just travel to another state, right?
00:35:22.000 For sure.
00:35:22.000 Some people never leave their own state, they never leave.
00:35:25.000 But I think what's important about even leaving the country, first of all, you find that there's a universal nature to human beings, what they care about.
00:35:34.000 But also, every time you leave the United States, it makes you appreciate this place more.
00:35:39.000 Really do.
00:35:39.000 Gotta run.
00:35:40.000 Francisco Gonzalez, put up the book one more time.
00:35:42.000 Thank you, Charlie.
00:35:42.000 The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste.
00:35:44.000 Purchase it.
00:35:45.000 Francisco's a great man.
00:35:46.000 And Adam, we miss you.
00:35:48.000 We will continue your legacy.
00:35:49.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:35:50.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:35:52.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.