The Charlie Kirk Show - A Veteran's Take on Afghanistan—In Depth with Sean Parnell

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:00.000 Today in the Charlie Kirk Show, a friend of mine running for Senate in Pennsylvania, who is a platoon infantry leader in Afghanistan, has a lot to say about the debacle that is Afghanistan.

00:00:11.000 I ask him about critical race theory in the military.

00:00:14.000 I ask him whether or not we think we could turn this thing around in just a couple election cycles and so much more.

00:00:19.000 If you have questions about Afghanistan and the strategic implications around it, this is the podcast for you with Sean Parnell.

00:00:25.000 Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.

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00:00:32.000 If you want to get involved with Turning Point USA, you could do so at tpusa.com.

00:00:37.000 And as always, email us, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:40.000 Sean Parnell is here.

00:00:41.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:42.000 Here we go.

00:00:43.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:45.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.

00:00:47.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:50.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:54.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:55.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:56.000 His spirit is love of this country.

00:00:58.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:01:03.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

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00:01:16.000 Hey, everybody.

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00:01:44.000 Hey, everybody.

00:01:44.000 Welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:47.000 With us today is a good friend and a true American running for Senate in Pennsylvania and someone who knows a lot about what's happening in Afghanistan.

00:01:56.000 Sean Parnell.

00:01:57.000 Sean, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:02:00.000 Thanks, Charlie.

00:02:01.000 I appreciate you having me.

00:02:03.000 As always, it's fantastic to be here.

00:02:05.000 Well, things are falling apart, unfortunately.

00:02:09.000 And so we wanted to get your thoughts on that.

00:02:12.000 So what's happening in Afghanistan is a humiliation and it's a disgrace. 1.00

00:02:17.000 You've been talking a lot about that.

00:02:20.000 Instead of kind of, you know, rephrasing what you've already said, why don't you just tell us first and foremost your background, how you've been able to understand this issue, and introduce yourself to our audience.

00:02:32.000 Yeah, so I served in Afghanistan as a platoon leader in charge of an infantry platoon, 40 men, all along the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2006.

00:02:44.000 And so back then, our mission was to find Osama bin Laden, was in combat for 16 months, 485 days.

00:02:54.000 And during that time, hundreds of direct fire engagements, thousands of indirect fire attacks, rocket attacks, mortar attacks on our base.

00:03:02.000 And while we didn't find Osama bin Laden, Charlie, we found and fought against what was really a global jihadist all-star team in eastern Afghanistan.

00:03:13.000 And so I know a lot about that country.

00:03:17.000 I learned a lot about that country during my time there.

00:03:20.000 And in that 16 months, 85% of my platoon was wounded in the fight, some twice.

00:03:25.000 Some of my guys were wounded three times.

00:03:28.000 And I was wounded as well.

00:03:30.000 Ended up getting medically retired as a captain on my way to major and came back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I went to grad school and started writing books for a living.

00:03:39.000 My first book was Outlaw Platoon.

00:03:41.000 That book came to the New York Times bestseller.

00:03:43.000 And now it's in 10 countries and it gave me an opportunity to give back to my country in much greater ways.

00:03:48.000 I've got a national charity that gives service dogs to veterans.

00:03:51.000 I've been advising members of Congress and the Senate for almost a decade on foreign policy and veterans issues.

00:03:57.000 I helped write the VA Accountability Act, which Trump signed at the Law of the Mission Act, which gave veterans a historic choice in where they received their health care at the VA.

00:04:05.000 And this was in the wake of the Phoenix VA waitlist scandal.

00:04:07.000 I'm sure you remember that, Charlie, where veterans were dying on secret lists.

00:04:12.000 And then in 2019, President Trump called me out randomly to run for Congress.

00:04:16.000 I didn't, at the time, I'd never met him.

00:04:18.000 I'd never talked to him, but he had given a speech in Western Pennsylvania and called me out randomly to run.

00:04:25.000 And so I turned my life upside down and jumped into politics in a sort of more direct way.

00:04:31.000 And I've been in the fight ever since, and I'm in the fight right now.

00:04:34.000 Yeah, and you're running in Pennsylvania, which is an open seat because Pat Toomey, who's been a big disappointment, is deciding to retire.

00:04:41.000 So good riddance.

00:04:42.000 And we hope we can fill that seat with someone like you.

00:04:45.000 So let's talk about Afghanistan.

00:04:47.000 Afghanistan, you've had probably one of the most nuanced and wise takes because unlike some of the neocon warmongers that pollute our party, you've said, look, it was time for us to go the way President Trump was trying to do it with wisdom and prudence, not all at once.

00:05:05.000 Walk us through the complexities of the country and walk us through what really a correct withdrawal would have looked like.

00:05:12.000 Yeah, so I want to take us back to 2006 and 2007.

00:05:17.000 In the wake of 9-11, we went into Afghanistan and in a month's time, we decimated Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

00:05:25.000 Many remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fled to Pakistan where they consolidated, reorganized, and came back at us in 2006.

00:05:35.000 I would argue that the war from a tactical standpoint on the ground was won probably in the 2007 timeframe.

00:05:43.000 Now, we hadn't found bin Laden yet, but we were getting intelligence from the front lines, Charlie, that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were unwilling to send their sons back into the fight because we were just killing so many of them and they didn't want to waste their effort against us.

00:06:00.000 And so in 2006, 2007, we were implementing what's called a counterterror strategy.

00:06:07.000 In other words, we targeted the enemy.

00:06:09.000 And in targeting and killing the enemy, we allowed the Afghan people the time and the space to govern and secure their own people effectively.

00:06:16.000 And we were doing that really well.

00:06:18.000 And then Barack Obama was elected and we shifted very abruptly from a counterterror strategy to a counterinsurgency strategy.

00:06:27.000 And I lived this strategy shift, Charlie.

00:06:30.000 We built one of the very first combat outposts in Afghanistan.

00:06:35.000 And combat outposts were the focal point of the war in Afghanistan during counterinsurgency.

00:06:41.000 The idea that in order to pacify the country, American troops have to be living in every village.

00:06:46.000 And in order to live in every village, we have to have a combat outpost everywhere, which essentially spread our forces out extraordinarily thin all along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

00:06:54.000 When we did that, we didn't have the combat power to kill the enemy.

00:06:58.000 We were simply occupying land and we ceded the initiative back to the enemy, to the Taliban, to Al-Qaeda, to our enemies.

00:07:05.000 And in the 10 years since then, we've watched the war in Afghanistan slowly slip away as the enemy came from Pakistan, slipped by our combat outposts, and penetrated into the heart of Afghanistan to the point where we really couldn't tell the difference between friend or foe.

00:07:24.000 And so now we see ourselves after in Afghanistan, 20 years of blood and treasure, trillions spent, thousands of American dead, tens of thousands of American wounded.

00:07:36.000 And it was all thrown away because of a horrible withdrawal strategy from Joe Biden, who has been wholly disengaged from the very beginning.

00:07:50.000 And it's so for your listeners, the Trump strategy or the Trump doctrine in Afghanistan was very, very different.

00:07:58.000 And a lot of people have been saying, well, hey, President Trump wanted to draw down too.

00:08:02.000 And so he wanted this.

00:08:04.000 He owns this.

00:08:05.000 No, President Trump's strategy, he wanted to withdraw.

00:08:09.000 I also want to withdraw.

00:08:11.000 Again, we've been there 20 years.

00:08:12.000 It's absolutely time to come home.

00:08:14.000 I'm tired of American blood and treasure being spilled in that country.

00:08:19.000 But President Trump's withdrawal strategy was responsible.

00:08:23.000 It was conditions-based.

00:08:24.000 In other words, American leaders would engage with the Afghan National Army leaders for district leaders to make sure that certain conditions on the ground were met before he moved on to the next phase of the withdrawal operation.

00:08:37.000 President Trump was very engaged with regional leaders of different countries and very engaged in the geopolitics of the Middle East.

00:08:44.000 Juxtapose that with what Joe Biden's doing, Charlie.

00:08:47.000 Joe Biden hadn't talked to the prime minister of Pakistan and he's been president for seven months.

00:08:52.000 And we just found out today from Jake Sullivan in his press briefing that Joe Biden has not talked to a single world leader at all during the collapse in Afghanistan.

00:09:02.000 That is absolute dereliction of duty from the commander in chief.

00:09:06.000 And I think one of the most important points, and this can't be overstated, is that Joe Biden moved President Trump's withdrawal date from May back to September 11th for strictly political reasons.

00:09:18.000 That's important for a couple of different reasons.

00:09:20.000 Joe Biden moved our withdrawal date right into the middle of fighting season when the fighting in Afghanistan was the most intense.

00:09:29.000 And by making that announcement so public, he gave the Taliban time to go to Beijing and meet with our greatest geopolitical foe in China. 0.76

00:09:40.000 And he gave them time to consolidate and organize a counteroffensive that swept across the country in a month.

00:09:45.000 Absolute disaster.

00:09:46.000 20 years thrown away with poor policy decisions from Joe Biden.

00:09:51.000 And by the way, our senior leadership in the military, you know, totally unfocused on what a pragmatic and responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan should look like.

00:10:01.000 And we're seeing the devastating consequences of that lack of focus on the battlefield every day.

00:10:07.000 It's just an unbelievable tragedy that was totally preventable.

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00:11:13.000 Let them know I sent you.

00:11:17.000 Yeah, it's humiliating.

00:11:18.000 So, Sean, there's still tens of thousands of Americans that some estimates show that are still in Afghanistan.

00:11:24.000 What is the strategy to get these people out?

00:11:26.000 I mean, this was reckless.

00:11:28.000 And I mean, I've made the argument, again, I don't think that Joe Biden means well, that this was intentionally chaotic to try to create another refugee crisis.

00:11:37.000 There's 5 million refugees now in Afghanistan.

00:11:40.000 And the sinister, brute politics of it is the left, the collectivists in both Europe and America, refugee crises benefit them. 1.00

00:11:48.000 It helps change the demographics of a nation.

00:11:50.000 And you remember the Syrian Civil War refugee crisis.

00:11:53.000 But what is the solution then to get these people out?

00:11:56.000 I mean, are we going to have to now go reinvade?

00:11:58.000 I mean, what is listen?

00:11:59.000 This is this, I'm telling you, I am wondering why almost our entire media apparatus is almost singularly focused on the refugee crisis.

00:12:12.000 Every time I see that Chiron of what are we going to do about our refugees or how do we honor our allies? 0.91

00:12:18.000 Now, listen, we should take care, figure out a way to take care of our interpreters or people who fought for us.

00:12:26.000 But that conversation has to happen much later.

00:12:29.000 And it also doesn't mean that the United States of America should shoulder that burden alone, right?

00:12:35.000 We should be engaging with our regional allies to help us alleviate the refugee burden.

00:12:40.000 But Charlie, 10,000 Americans, and this is the situation in Afghanistan.

00:12:45.000 And I'll just put it as simply as I can.

00:12:47.000 Afghanistan has totally collapsed. 0.63

00:12:49.000 It's fallen.

00:12:50.000 There are tens of, there are 10,000 Americans, right?

00:12:54.000 Up to 10,000 Americans still trapped in Kabul and surrounded by the enemy.

00:12:59.000 And Joe Biden is missing in action, issued one statement where, by the way, he didn't blame the Taliban or condemn the Taliban at all, but blamed the Afghan people, the Afghan army almost 10 times.

00:13:14.000 The reality is, is that we're in a very complex situation right now.

00:13:18.000 I'm very, very afraid that this crisis is just beginning, that there is going to be a hostage crisis on our hands.

00:13:25.000 And I'll tell you why.

00:13:27.000 There are only a few places in Afghanistan, Charlie, where you can land an airplane and evac people. 0.98

00:13:34.000 One of those places is Bagram.

00:13:35.000 The Taliban control it now because we abandon it.

00:13:38.000 And one of the greatest strategic blunders, American foreign policy disasters of the last century.

00:13:44.000 I'm telling you, giving up Bagram airfield will be studied by U.S. military academies for the next 50 years on how not to withdraw from a country.

00:13:52.000 You have Kandahar airfield, the Taliban control it.

00:13:55.000 And so it's not as easy, you know, because Joe Biden has said, hey, we sent 2,000 troops in, 5,000.

00:14:00.000 Now we have 7,000 there.

00:14:02.000 It's not as easy as sending troops back into the country, Charlie, because we don't really have a foothold there anymore, right?

00:14:09.000 Well, it's just, it's like, wait a second.

00:14:11.000 So we have to re-invade?

00:14:12.000 I thought that was the whole point of ending the conflict. 0.85

00:14:14.000 I mean, but Sean, I got to ask this question, though, and with all possible respect for you and people that have served in the military, who are these clowns that are running the military?

00:14:23.000 Seriously, just from like a simple tactical decision, I mean, how are we supposed to take our military seriously anymore?

00:14:30.000 The military leadership.

00:14:31.000 I have lost full faith and confidence, Sean, in the leadership of the U.S. military.

00:14:36.000 I've lost a lot of confidence too, Charlie.

00:14:39.000 I watched for the last seven months, you know, Secretary of Defense Austin focused on diversity and inclusion.

00:14:47.000 Now, here's the thing.

00:14:48.000 I led one of the most diverse infantry platoons that you can imagine.

00:14:52.000 And that diversity did make us stronger, but it wasn't the diversity alone that did it.

00:14:57.000 What leftists always lose, right, in this conversation is they stop the conversation at diversity alone.

00:15:04.000 It's not diversity that makes our military exceptional.

00:15:07.000 It's the unity beyond all of that diversity.

00:15:10.000 Yeah, we're diverse.

00:15:10.000 We're from all over.

00:15:11.000 Rich next to poor, young next to old, atheists next to Christians, Democrats next to Republicans, rich next to poor.

00:15:18.000 But what makes our military exceptional is we take those differences and we put them aside and we have a collective identity and we fight together.

00:15:25.000 So when our generals are focused on critical race theory or diversity and inclusion, they're not focused on a force that is united and singularly focused on the mission.

00:15:36.000 And so we've seen generals focus on critical race theory.

00:15:40.000 We've seen generals like engaging in Twitter feuds with American citizens.

00:15:47.000 That's right.

00:15:48.000 And look at what's happening in Afghanistan.

00:15:50.000 In June, I went on Fox on Tucker Carlson's show, and I said, you could see this coming from 100 miles away that our military was focused on things that were completely disastrous with regards to a withdrawal strategy for Afghanistan with regards to how we're going to evolve our force to confront the growing threat that is China. 0.68

00:16:12.000 What are we going to do about Russia on the border with Ukraine?

00:16:14.000 I mean, there are all sorts of geopolitical threats that we face, but we're focused on pronouns and bios and critical race theory.

00:16:22.000 It honestly confounds me.

00:16:25.000 And by the way, there are lots of generals in the military right now that probably disagree with that, right?

00:16:30.000 But the few at the top, man, it's a disaster.

00:16:35.000 It's a disaster.

00:16:36.000 Yeah.

00:16:36.000 And it's just from a tactical standpoint.

00:16:38.000 I know almost nothing about military strategy, but I mean, you're dealing in a rather like fifth-century country. 0.98

00:16:44.000 Giving up airports would probably be a pretty stupid idea, right? 0.94

00:16:47.000 I mean, it's not like it's New York City, right? 0.99

00:16:51.000 Yeah.

00:16:51.000 So here's a couple of things.

00:16:52.000 So the premise of counterinsurgency, right?

00:16:56.000 The idea that a host nation, which means a nation can bring another nation in to host the nation to help that nation, the host nation grow and govern its own people, right?

00:17:05.000 That's the basic premise of counterinsurgency.

00:17:08.000 But Afghanistan can barely be considered a nation, right?

00:17:12.000 Let alone one that can effectively host another.

00:17:15.000 Afghanistan is tribal.

00:17:17.000 Their loyalties, I mean, it's a highly fractured society.

00:17:21.000 There are tribes in eastern Afghanistan that don't know another tribe even exists 10 miles down the road.

00:17:28.000 They're so insulated.

00:17:30.000 And so, how can you, or how can we as Americans expect for a counterinsurgency strategy to work in Afghanistan when the basic premise of that strategy is inherently flawed, right?

00:17:41.000 And you're right.

00:17:42.000 If you want to go back to a time where Jesus Christ walked the earth, add the AK-47, the pickup truck, and you've got Afghanistan. 0.98

00:17:52.000 They don't have a real economy.

00:17:54.000 They don't have running water.

00:17:56.000 They don't have paved roads.

00:17:57.000 They don't have electricity.

00:17:58.000 They have absolutely nothing.

00:18:00.000 And so the idea that we could go into Afghanistan and set up some sort of Jeffersonian democracy there was a pipe dream from the very beginning.

00:18:09.000 And disaster started in Afghanistan. 0.75

00:18:13.000 It was a slow-motion train wreck the moment we switched our mission from killing terrorists to nation building.

00:18:20.000 Yeah, and to kind of like bring in just not just a trillion dollars, but so much life lost.

00:18:28.000 So you're running for Senate to hopefully try to bring a voice to try to counterbalance this.

00:18:33.000 Just talk more broadly about U.S. foreign policy because now this sends a message to China that they could take Taiwan whenever they want.

00:18:42.000 Talk about what you'll be, if elected, you know, your Senate in Pennsylvania, what will be your position on U.S. foreign policy?

00:18:52.000 Well, I'll just put it as simply as I can: American weakness emboldens our enemies.

00:18:57.000 Now, that does not mean we need to be cavalier.

00:18:59.000 That does not mean we need to send our troops into harm's way.

00:19:02.000 In fact, I reject the 20-year-old foreign policy doctrine, and nothing has bothered me more over the last week than seeing politicians, Republican politicians as well, and talking heads trot out the old.

00:19:16.000 I mean, Afghanistan is literally collapsed after 20 years, an absolute disaster. 0.94

00:19:20.000 What do we have to show for it?

00:19:21.000 And they're already trotting out the same old tired.

00:19:26.000 Well, if we don't fight them there, we'll have to fight them there, have to fight them here. 0.70

00:19:30.000 Or what happens in Afghanistan?

00:19:32.000 Oh, it doesn't stay in Afghanistan.

00:19:36.000 You can make that argument about any country, and it's a justification for war with no timetable for withdrawal. 0.83

00:19:43.000 What happens in Africa doesn't stay in Africa.

00:19:46.000 What happens in Iraq doesn't stay in Iraq? 0.90

00:19:48.000 Have we learned nothing after our occupations of Iraq and occupations of Afghanistan? 0.78

00:19:54.000 So for me, again, my focus is keeping America strong, making sure that we can kill the enemy, right?

00:20:04.000 And being laser focused on the mission and not getting bogged down in forever wars, right?

00:20:11.000 And from a foreign policy standpoint, right now, the leaders of this country, Charlie, need to be focused on China.

00:20:17.000 Like they are the greatest geopolitical threat that we've ever faced in a decade.

00:20:21.000 Like their economy will likely eclipse ours.

00:20:24.000 Certain aspects of their military already do.

00:20:28.000 They are singularly focused on deposing the United States of America as the lone world superpower.

00:20:34.000 And we have not evolved our military from the point to where by and large we are wholly structured, right, from a bureaucratic standpoint, structured to face an asymmetric threat.

00:20:43.000 We need to be evolving our military to face a more conventional threat of China. 0.68

00:20:47.000 Right now, we're behind the power curve on that.

00:20:50.000 So, you know, when we win in Pennsylvania, we're going to be wholly focused on being strong, being powerful, projecting strength, but also recognizing that America's sons and daughters, the people that raise their right hand to volunteer to serve this country, are the most precious natural resource that we have.

00:21:11.000 And we need to make sure that when we send them into the fight, because sometimes war is unavoidable, freedom has to be defended.

00:21:19.000 I recognize that.

00:21:20.000 But when we do, come hell or high water, the mission better be clear and victory better be clear as well.

00:21:27.000 Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

00:21:30.000 So I want to talk more about just broadly about this idea of critical race theory and the military.

00:21:36.000 How deep is it?

00:21:37.000 And are the kind of lower ranks, are they being exposed to it?

00:21:41.000 Or is this just kind of an officer thing?

00:21:43.000 Talk about that because Mark Milley seems to be kind of, you know, the new kind of philosopher king in charge of the U.S. military.

00:21:51.000 How serious of a threat is this?

00:21:53.000 It's a serious threat.

00:21:54.000 And look, you know, you won't hear anybody in the media talking about this in any substantive way.

00:22:00.000 But, you know, just in my time campaigning across the state, I've probably talked to 30 different both active duty National Guard veterans and say, hey, Sean, I haven't done my rifle qualification yet because we're focused on, you know, all of these sort of diversity PowerPoint briefings.

00:22:19.000 And I'm thinking, and I've heard, I've heard variations of that story from about 30 different people over the last maybe month and a half since I've been in this Senate race.

00:22:29.000 And I'm telling you, that is a real problem.

00:22:32.000 The training time that you get as a service member, right, is precious.

00:22:38.000 And during that time, you should be focused exclusively, again, on the mission and learning to function, shoot, move, and communicate together as a team.

00:22:46.000 Because when you get into the fight, the only thing that matters is the team and you're going to fight, bleed, and die together as a team.

00:22:53.000 And so if we are distracted at all, which it seems like our force is, when we talk about like, is it an officer thing?

00:23:00.000 Is it a general thing?

00:23:01.000 Well, guess what?

00:23:02.000 Leadership starts from the top and culture is set from the top and trickles down into the lower ranks.

00:23:08.000 So yes, it's a problem.

00:23:10.000 Yes, it's a national security threat.

00:23:12.000 And the longer we focus on critical race theory, the less ready we'll be as a country to face the ever-evolving threats every single day.

00:23:21.000 A lot of people ask me, Charlie, how do you know so much about American history?

00:23:25.000 The answer is not from school.

00:23:28.000 As many of you know, I did not go to formal college, which I didn't go to college at all.

00:23:32.000 So my education has been a process.

00:23:36.000 I've always been committed to learning and diving deep into ideas.

00:23:40.000 And one source of truth and knowledge has been the greatest partner in that pursuit of learning, and that is Hillsdale College.

00:23:51.000 American history and civics education, they're quite honestly at a turning point.

00:23:56.000 And the Hillsdale 1776 curriculum, they are teaching the truth.

00:24:02.000 And they have downloadable curriculum for you and your children for free at k12.hillsdale.edu.

00:24:10.000 That's k12.hillsdale.edu.

00:24:13.000 And you could take online courses.

00:24:15.000 So I, every single day, I do my best to try to schedule at least 30 minutes to an hour to take some online courses.

00:24:23.000 So I have my certificate.

00:24:25.000 I have passed the course in Constitution 101, the intro to the Constitution.

00:24:31.000 I'm about to finish the introduction to Western Philosophy.

00:24:35.000 I finished the introduction to Aristotle, how to live a good life.

00:24:38.000 And they have a new one called The Great American Story that I'm taking, and it's phenomenal.

00:24:43.000 If you say, Charlie, how do I get my kids to know history?

00:24:45.000 Literally pay them to take these courses.

00:24:47.000 It's that good.

00:24:48.000 The Great American Story.

00:24:49.000 It's charlieforhillsdale.com.

00:24:51.000 That's charlieforhillsdale.com.

00:24:53.000 Maybe you're more of a World War II fan.

00:24:57.000 They have a whole course on that called the Second World Wars.

00:24:59.000 Maybe you're a fan of Shakespeare.

00:25:01.000 They have a course on that, Hamlet and the Temptest.

00:25:04.000 Maybe you're a fan of theology.

00:25:06.000 They have a whole course on theology 101.

00:25:09.000 How about on the Greek wars, Athens and Sparta, Winston, Churchill, and statesmanship?

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00:26:23.000 And I guess a lot of people are asking, what can we possibly do about this?

00:26:26.000 If it's infected the military, you know, at some point, you know, we have an issue.

00:26:30.000 And probably part of the problem is that the officer corps and the generals, they're all college educated, right?

00:26:36.000 So they go and get these awful ideas.

00:26:38.000 And they've even like taken over the war colleges as well, which is even more scary and an issue.

00:26:44.000 So what can be done?

00:26:46.000 I mean, oversight hearings.

00:26:48.000 We had one with Millie and he seemed defiant.

00:26:50.000 He was like, you know what?

00:26:50.000 I am going to do critical race there.

00:26:53.000 Our system is our officer evaluation system is too much based on meritocracy.

00:26:59.000 In other words, let me put this into context.

00:27:01.000 Like as a battlefield commander in Afghanistan, you get almost called a battlefield update brief.

00:27:05.000 If I went on the battlefield update brief every day and I said, wait a second, our strategy is totally jacked up.

00:27:11.000 Things are totally out of control.

00:27:13.000 We're not winning here.

00:27:14.000 Well, guess what?

00:27:15.000 Guess what happens?

00:27:16.000 That my commander hears that I don't get promoted.

00:27:19.000 They bring somebody in that will tell that commander what they want to hear.

00:27:22.000 And our meritocracy, which is inherent to our promotion system in the military, lends itself to painting an overly rosy picture on the battlefield.

00:27:31.000 So everything's great to the next chain of command.

00:27:33.000 Everything's great.

00:27:34.000 All the way up to where our generals are regurgitating the same nonsense.

00:27:38.000 Everything's great.

00:27:39.000 And that's why after every year you read the report on Afghanistan that comes out in January, every year for the last 20 years, they read almost exactly the same.

00:27:49.000 Everything's great, mission's on track.

00:27:51.000 So what happens is people that get shot at every day and wounded every day that are willing to give honest assessments of the battlefield, they get out.

00:28:00.000 They're not willing to play the game.

00:28:01.000 The officers who are left are the ones that are willing to play the political games.

00:28:05.000 And that's why you end up with generals in the military who are inherently political.

00:28:09.000 And they shift as the political winds shift, right?

00:28:13.000 So General Milley now is now that Joe Biden is president and the focus is on critical race theory in the ranks.

00:28:19.000 He's reading Lenin.

00:28:20.000 He's reading Marx and he's studying white rage.

00:28:22.000 And so there are, but, you know, how many officers like him that were in his year group got out that weren't willing to play those critic, those sort of fake political games.

00:28:33.000 We need leaders like that now that aren't willing to play those games, that are willing to stand up and show courage and say, look, critical race theory is a national security threat.

00:28:42.000 You know, Mr. President, like, I get that this is where you want to focus, but our focus needs to be on the mission and this isn't part of it.

00:28:50.000 So the first time you joined our program, Sean, it was about all the issues with the 2020 election.

00:28:56.000 And on your website, parnellforsenate.com, if anyone wants to support Sean's Senate campaign, parnellforsenate.com, two L's.

00:29:03.000 You have a whole election integrity component to this.

00:29:07.000 I believe the Pennsylvania election was conducted unconstitutionally and illegally.

00:29:12.000 Can you walk through that, Sean?

00:29:14.000 Then I want you to then tell about your story with your election with Connor Lamb, and then we'll get into what we can do about it.

00:29:19.000 But I really want to focus on that.

00:29:21.000 Yeah, there's no question.

00:29:23.000 And we're talking about our Governor Wolf, Secretary of State Book Bar, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.

00:29:31.000 Governor Wolf, who is a Democrat, obviously, unilaterally changed election law 60 days out, right?

00:29:38.000 So he removed any signature verification.

00:29:42.000 He removed the postmark requirement.

00:29:44.000 He removed any semblance of a deadline.

00:29:46.000 All of those things and rules were changed at the exact same money, at the exact same moment, Mark Zuckerberg dumped millions of dollars into the state of Pennsylvania Zuckerbucks that funded drop boxes, right?

00:29:58.000 That caught us off guard.

00:30:00.000 Obviously, all of those changes were highly unconstitutional.

00:30:03.000 But prior to that, in October of 2019, I believe, in October of 2019, the Pennsylvania legislature and our Democrat governor rolled out what's called Act 77.

00:30:17.000 Now, Act 77 is Pennsylvania's no excuse absentee ballot law.

00:30:21.000 That law is unconstitutional on its face because in order to change the time, place, and manner of an election in the state of Pennsylvania, you've got to, you know, you've got to advertise in three separate newspapers for three months.

00:30:35.000 You've got to vote on a constitutional amendment in back-to-back legislative sessions.

00:30:40.000 And the most important part of changing the Constitution in Pennsylvania is it needs to be voted on in a referendum, which means it needs to go on the ballot.

00:30:47.000 None of that stuff happened, which makes Act 77 unconstitutional on its face.

00:30:52.000 Now, the reason you need a constitutional amendment for Act 77 is because the PA state constitution sets forth very clear parameters in which somebody can vote absentee, right?

00:31:03.000 Like you're either sick, military service, you're working.

00:31:07.000 Bottom line is there is no provision in the Pennsylvania Constitution that allows for no excuse mail-in ballots, and which makes Act 77 unconstitutional.

00:31:17.000 We challenged Act 77.

00:31:20.000 I think our lawsuit was substantive.

00:31:23.000 It cited 180 years of constitutional case law and 180 years of Pennsylvania Supreme Court case law to support our position.

00:31:35.000 Went all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, and we had three justices agree with our perspective in certain ways when citing Pennsylvania cases.

00:31:45.000 But Amy Coney, Barrett, and Justice Kavanaugh didn't come through for us.

00:31:49.000 Unbelievable.

00:31:50.000 But we're still in the fight for election integrity, you know, every single day.

00:31:55.000 When was that decision made by it was like March or April of 2020?

00:32:01.000 I don't understand how they can possibly say that.

00:32:04.000 It says so clearly in the Constitution that the states will select the matter of time and the way the electors are appropriated.

00:32:12.000 This was an unconstitutional election.

00:32:14.000 I mean, it's certainly certainly, there were certainly, yeah, it was.

00:32:19.000 It was absolutely the election in Pennsylvania wasn't free, wasn't fair, which is why we've been in the trenches ever since trying to work with the legislature and help reform the way our elections are conducted.

00:32:31.000 And I think we're moving in the right direction.

00:32:34.000 I'm so, I'm look, we're going to win in Pennsylvania in 2022, Charlie.

00:32:38.000 I feel real good about it.

00:32:39.000 There's a lot of reasons why I think that.

00:32:41.000 But if you look at even 2020 and yeah, all of the stuff that we just talked about was sort of disastrous.

00:32:48.000 But congressional Republicans got 85,000 more votes than congressional Democrats in Pennsylvania in 2020.

00:32:54.000 There's a path.

00:32:56.000 And then we had our judicial elections in 2021 and we had two ballot questions on there, referendums that would curb Governor Wolf's unilateral authority to declare emergencies in Pennsylvania.

00:33:07.000 Republicans won those ballot questions by 139,000 votes.

00:33:12.000 So this state is trending more and more Republican every year.

00:33:17.000 And in 2022, you know, first of all, we're going to work harder than anybody else in the race.

00:33:22.000 There's no question about that, Charlie.

00:33:24.000 But I do think that there are going to be hundreds of thousands of independents that maybe voted for Joe Biden thinking he would be a moderate unifier that maybe didn't pay attention until late, or maybe they voted early.

00:33:36.000 I think they're going to come back our way.

00:33:38.000 And I just am so optimistic about it.

00:33:41.000 And I'm psyched.

00:33:44.000 Did you know that if you shop at Nike, they turn around and give your hard-earned dollars to pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and the Population Council?

00:33:52.000 Sinister folks, by the way.

00:33:54.000 Did you know that Airbnb gave $500,000 to the Marxist BLM incorporated organization?

00:34:01.000 Your first vote is at the ballot box, but that isn't enough to defend our traditional Judeo-Christian values.

00:34:09.000 Left-wing corporations are subverting our nation and our republic by taking money from conservative customers and giving it to radical organizations that support abortion, gun control, and critical race theory.

00:34:22.000 You have another vote, a second vote at the checkout line, which is why there's a massively important organization called Second Vote that comes in.

00:34:31.000 I know them very well.

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00:34:36.000 And the courageous people at Second Vote are exposing corporations for how they spend your money.

00:34:41.000 So check out secondvote.com today.

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00:34:52.000 Their work is arduous, complex, and exhaustive, and it doesn't happen for free.

00:34:58.000 So please support their work so we can defend our future from the woke Marxist mob.

00:35:05.000 So here's what I want you to do.

00:35:06.000 Do what I did.

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00:35:13.000 It's $50 a year.

00:35:14.000 I know it costs something, but they have to be able to pay for their research.

00:35:19.000 And the black family, who are amazing people, by the way, have underwritten this effort for quite some time.

00:35:26.000 But if you use the promo code Charlie, you get 50% off.

00:35:28.000 That's $25 a year, everybody.

00:35:30.000 Okay.

00:35:31.000 That's literally $2 a month.

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00:35:45.000 So join me.

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00:35:51.000 Maybe it's like, hey, I don't know if the car I'm buying, are they donating to Planned Parenthood?

00:35:57.000 What about all these companies?

00:35:58.000 Secondvote.com has every company ranked.

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00:36:10.000 Yeah, and it's a winnable race.

00:36:12.000 Pat Toomey showed us that.

00:36:13.000 And I think this is going to be a wave election year.

00:36:15.000 I really do.

00:36:16.000 And we got to get behind good young candidates like you, like JD Vance, and many others that are rising up and are thinking about, hey, you know, I want to talk about, you know, real solutions for our country.

00:36:27.000 Sean, talk a little bit about that, the generational divide.

00:36:30.000 I don't know how old you are, but you know, obviously younger than some of the Septuagarians in Congress. 1.00

00:36:38.000 Talk about kind of how the generational perspective you'll bring, which would be a fresh young voice to the Senate where it's so desperately needed.

00:36:45.000 Yeah.

00:36:46.000 Well, I just turned 40.

00:36:47.000 I just turned 40 in July.

00:36:49.000 And so, and that gives when you're, when you talk about being in Afghanistan for 20 years, we've been in Afghanistan for half of my life.

00:36:56.000 Just, you know, so this, when I say it's time to go, it comes from that place where I've only all of my adult life, we've been in Afghanistan and it was.

00:37:05.000 So, you know, I think, I think that this country desperately needs more leaders, fewer career politicians.

00:37:13.000 And I say to people all the time, my intent is not to go to Washington for a career for 50 plus years.

00:37:20.000 I think that's a real problem on the Republican and Democrat side.

00:37:23.000 Our founders never intended for people to be career politicians.

00:37:27.000 Maybe one, maybe two terms, do everything I can to shrink the size and scope of the federal government because I believe that there's a direct correlation between a small federal government and more freedom in your life.

00:37:38.000 And what I mean by freedom is your ability.

00:37:40.000 I don't care what your political ideology is or where you come from, how much money you make.

00:37:46.000 I want you to be able to chart your own path, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

00:37:50.000 And the more freedom that you have in your life to do that, the better.

00:37:53.000 And then once I accomplish that mission, I'm probably going to buy a nice big farm in Western Pennsylvania and never talk to anybody again.

00:37:58.000 So I like that.

00:38:01.000 There's a, you know, George Washington was the head of something called the Society of Cincinnatus, which is where we name Cincinnati after.

00:38:09.000 And Cincinnatus was a Roman general who went and fought the war against the invaders and then went back to his farm afterwards.

00:38:16.000 So people who want to do that are right.

00:38:18.000 And George Washington did the same thing.

00:38:20.000 He was basically the American Cincinnati.

00:38:23.000 So I'm going through your website here, parnellforsenate.com, supporting law enforcement, the American dream, strengthening our military.

00:38:31.000 What strikes me, Sean, is I read your website word for word.

00:38:35.000 And if this, if I would have read your website, I want everyone to do this.

00:38:38.000 You go to parnellsenatefor.com.com.

00:38:41.000 10 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to tell if you're a Republican or Democrat.

00:38:45.000 But now it's clear you're a Republican.

00:38:47.000 Talk about how those parties have changed.

00:38:49.000 You read this website.

00:38:50.000 It's pretty simple stuff.

00:38:51.000 It's like, you know, pre-existing conditions need to be protected, you know, fighting for the unborn in the Supreme Court.

00:38:57.000 You wouldn't be able to tell 10 years ago.

00:38:58.000 Like, you know, this is a Republican or Democrat.

00:39:00.000 You might be able to tell a little bit, but now it's so clear that you're a Republican.

00:39:05.000 Talk about that and how you've seen these parties changed, one into a radical, you know, angry and ugly party and one that really stands for the country.

00:39:14.000 Yeah.

00:39:16.000 Yeah, this is really remarkable to me, by the way, because I come from a sort of union, old school Democrat, Western Allegheny Democrat, Allegheny County, Western Pennsylvania Democrat family and pro-life, pro-gun, hardworking, blue-collar.

00:39:35.000 They don't recognize their party anymore, Charlie.

00:39:39.000 If you would have told them that four years ago, if you'd have told them four years ago that, hey, you know, the Democrat Party is going to be the party of defunding the police and introducing critical race theory into our military, they would have laughed at you because it was so absurd.

00:39:57.000 And that just the Democrat Party, I don't even, that's why I don't attack Democrats in Pennsylvania.

00:40:03.000 There are so many Reagan Democrats, pro-life, pro-gun that voted for Trump, too.

00:40:09.000 Exactly, exactly.

00:40:11.000 And that's the funny thing about it because I got Republicans in my family too.

00:40:15.000 But the Democrats in my family, again, old school Western Pennsylvania Democrats were more pro-Trump than the Republicans in my family, you know?

00:40:24.000 And so that's why when I campaign and I talk on the trail, it's never about Democrats.

00:40:32.000 It's always about the radical left or the new Democrat Party that is the party of critical race theory, defunding the police, open borders, high crime.

00:40:42.000 I mean, you name it.

00:40:44.000 The new Democrat Party is just a disaster for this country.

00:40:49.000 I mean, just utterly disaster.

00:40:51.000 Like, look at their anti-cop rhetoric, for example, in the state of Pennsylvania has caused a skyrocket, skyrocketing in crime in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

00:41:02.000 And it can be directly tied to the defund the police, anti-police rhetoric.

00:41:09.000 And it's, they're just, they're just devastating.

00:41:13.000 They're just devastating to this country.

00:41:15.000 Well, I agree.

00:41:16.000 And it's the other side has just become so unrecognizable.

00:41:19.000 And I think it's wise to say the radical left and the Democrat Party has gone the other direction.

00:41:25.000 Sean, we have one or two minutes remaining.

00:41:27.000 Just kind of give your closing argument of the sense of urgency going into 2022.

00:41:31.000 I'm afraid we don't have many elections left to save this country.

00:41:34.000 Kind of just give from your perspective, you know, the sense of urgency that we have to operate with.

00:41:39.000 Look, everything depends on 2022.

00:41:43.000 You're absolutely right.

00:41:44.000 That's why the motto of our campaign is win Pennsylvania, save America.

00:41:49.000 It's really simple.

00:41:51.000 The radical left, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, they're laser focused on the state of Pennsylvania because they know that there's no pathway to the majority in the United States Senate unless they flip this seat.

00:42:04.000 Well, this is an open seat.

00:42:06.000 It's been in Republicans' hands for 62 years.

00:42:09.000 And my promise to the people of Pennsylvania is to be a warrior for the state, to always do what's best on behalf of the people.

00:42:17.000 Of course, that means engaging with the radical left and not being afraid to lock horns with them, but it also means standing up to our own party when they're wrong.

00:42:25.000 This country desperately, desperately needs more leaders and fewer politicians, and leadership is what I do.

00:42:33.000 So if you are looking for a campaign to help, please go to parnellforsenate.com and contribute to the cause because I liken campaign dollars to bullets and a gun in combat.

00:42:47.000 If you run out, if you run out of bullets in combat, you're surrounded by the enemy, you're dead.

00:42:51.000 You run out of campaign dollars on the campaign trail, not good either.

00:42:55.000 So we need your help.

00:42:56.000 Please get in the fight with us.

00:42:58.000 And thank you for having me, Charlie.

00:43:01.000 I appreciate it.

00:43:01.000 You bet.

00:43:02.000 Keep up the great work, Sean.

00:43:03.000 ParnellForsenate.com.

00:43:04.000 Thanks so much, man.

00:43:05.000 Thanks, man.

00:43:09.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:43:10.000 Email us your questions freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:43:12.000 And if you want to support our program, you can do so at charliekirk.com/slash support.

00:43:17.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:43:18.000 God bless.

00:43:21.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - August 19, 2021

A Veteran's Take on Afghanistan—In Depth with Sean Parnell

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