The Charlie Kirk Show - February 17, 2025


America v. Canada, Germany v. Free Speech


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

164.273

Word count

5,536

Sentence count

461

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

15

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Oh, Canada? Oh, no! A big fight breaks out between USA Hockey and Canada. America is back. And then, how much power does the President actually have? in a very insightful conversation with Professor Yu.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, this is the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:00:01.000 Oh, Canada?
00:00:02.000 Oh, no.
00:00:03.000 A big fight breaks out between USA Hockey and Canada.
00:00:06.000 America is back.
00:00:08.000 And then how much power does the president actually have, Professor Yu, in a very insightful conversation?
00:00:14.000 If you guys like to dive deep on the topics, this is a great, great, great interview with Professor Yu.
00:00:20.000 Become a member today.
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00:00:24.000 To stay engaged, that's members.charliekirk.com.
00:00:28.000 Email me, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:30.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:31.000 Here we go.
00:00:32.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:34.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:36.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:39.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:42.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:44.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:45.000 His spirit, his love of this country.
00:00:46.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:02.000 That's why we are here.
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00:01:30.000 We are back.
00:01:31.000 America is back.
00:01:33.000 It feels that way, doesn't it?
00:01:35.000 We are back having a border. 0.61
00:01:37.000 We're getting the economy roaring.
00:01:40.000 We're cutting regulation.
00:01:41.000 We're signing executive orders.
00:01:44.000 We're ending unnecessary wars.
00:01:46.000 And also, the machismo of the 1980s is back.
00:01:51.000 If you want further evidence that America is back, look no further than an extraordinary nugget of cultural news that happened over the weekend.
00:02:00.000 Over the weekend was A hockey game.
00:02:04.000 Now, it is All-Star weekend in the NHL, except instead of the All-Star game, the NHL is reviving an international competition.
00:02:12.000 They're holding a miniature four-nation tournament of NHL players from different countries.
00:02:19.000 Two of those countries, naturally, are from the United States and Canada.
00:02:23.000 The U.S. and Canada played their game over the weekend in Montreal.
00:02:27.000 Now, as you might have heard, America and Canada are having a little bit of a tiff right now.
00:02:32.000 Trump has menaced Canada with tariffs because of their subpar border security.
00:02:38.000 And he's totally bullied Justin Trudeau.
00:02:41.000 And he's talked about making Canada the 51st state, which is some master grade A trolling.
00:02:48.000 So during the game last night, Canadians booed the American national anthem.
00:02:52.000 And they didn't just boo it.
00:02:53.000 I mean, they went hard.
00:02:54.000 This is a little unseemly for Canada.
00:02:56.000 I thought Canadians were known to be nice.
00:02:59.000 Canadian nice, very pleasant.
00:03:00.000 No, no, no, no.
00:03:01.000 Not so much.
00:03:02.000 These are the Canadians booing the American national anthem.
00:03:07.000 Play cut 27. Just
00:03:52.000 for the record, do you have another example of America booing the Mexican national anthem or the Canadian national anthem when there was...
00:04:00.000 Reciprocal type of sports games at that kind of ferocity.
00:04:05.000 So you could see the American men, those American hockey players.
00:04:09.000 They said, oh yeah?
00:04:10.000 You're going to boo the American national anthem?
00:04:13.000 Now mind you, this is in Montreal.
00:04:15.000 This is their national sport.
00:04:18.000 Americans are catching up to the Canucks in this.
00:04:21.000 You could just see it on the faces of these American men.
00:04:25.000 We are not going to allow the American flag, the American national anthem be desecrated by Canada?
00:04:32.000 No, that dog is not going to hunt.
00:04:36.000 And so within the first nine seconds of the game, it took nine seconds and three fights broke out.
00:04:45.000 Now in hockey, fights are allowed.
00:04:48.000 It's part of the game.
00:04:49.000 It's actually part of the sport.
00:04:53.000 This is a minute-long montage of the whole hockey game.
00:04:57.000 Now before I get into that, not only were there three fights, it was nine seconds, you guys can see this on stage, and I just love this spirit of the Americans.
00:05:05.000 On enemy territory, the Canadians boo our national anthem.
00:05:09.000 I'm sorry, we're not going to put up with that, actually.
00:05:12.000 You see, the old way of looking at things, the old way of operating.
00:05:19.000 Is that Americans would have bent the knee and allowed our national anthem to be booed.
00:05:22.000 They would have participated.
00:05:25.000 The way of operating under Joe Biden and Barack Obama is no national pride.
00:05:31.000 We're not going to put up with it.
00:05:33.000 The American spirit of defending your nation is back.
00:05:37.000 Trump should bring these guys to the White House.
00:05:40.000 And I just love it because Canada cares far more about hockey than we do.
00:05:43.000 We embarrassed the Canadians on their home turf. 1.00
00:05:47.000 Their national sport.
00:05:49.000 The equivalent would be if there was an international football game and it was the NFL versus the Canadian Football League and they came and beat us.
00:05:58.000 Not only did we beat them by fighting them, we beat them in the actual sport, 3-1, on their home turf.
00:06:06.000 Or dare I say not turf, on their home ice.
00:06:10.000 And it just goes to show that the alpha male is ascendant in this country.
00:06:15.000 Canada...
00:06:15.000 Get out of the way.
00:06:16.000 I don't know what you think you are or what you're doing.
00:06:18.000 You guys are a small, subservient nation to the United States.
00:06:22.000 No, I don't want to take you over.
00:06:23.000 I think that's whatever, right?
00:06:24.000 Why would I want a bunch of libs and French people as part of America? 1.00
00:06:27.000 But you guys don't hold any water to the United States of America.
00:06:31.000 Not in hockey, not culturally, not economically.
00:06:35.000 Ooh, I feel so tough because I'm booing America.
00:06:38.000 Be very careful because you might just awaken a beast that humiliated you in Montreal.
00:06:44.000 Playcut 26. Another way speeds Eichel into the zone.
00:07:12.000 Flipping it through.
00:07:13.000 Scores.
00:07:15.000 Game tied.
00:07:16.000 As Team USA has answered.
00:07:20.000 And away goes Larkin.
00:07:22.000 Larkin scores!
00:07:24.000 Dylan Larkin and Team USA has the lead.
00:07:27.000 Down the ice, Larkin with the open net.
00:07:34.000 Across to Gensel, scores!
00:07:36.000 Jake Gensel's got his second.
00:07:41.000 And a clincher here for Team USA.
00:07:46.000 That's going to do it.
00:07:48.000 A hard-fought Team USA victory.
00:07:52.000 Makes me so proud to be an American.
00:07:53.000 Do you understand how hard that is to go into another country?
00:07:59.000 My only regret is I didn't even know any of this was happening.
00:08:03.000 I would have watched this.
00:08:05.000 I just would have loved to see us go and humiliate the Canucks on their own ice.
00:08:12.000 It makes you wonder.
00:08:14.000 Ten years ago, even when Biden was president, would this have happened?
00:08:17.000 And by the way, we'll have a rematch soon.
00:08:19.000 Oh, this is going to be the start of a real rivalry.
00:08:22.000 In Boston, of all places.
00:08:24.000 And I have a feeling that the Americans are going to boo the Canadian national anthem.
00:08:27.000 You guys started it.
00:08:29.000 And again, it's going to be somewhat friendly.
00:08:32.000 I don't know who these Canadians think they are, though. 1.00
00:08:34.000 What kind of national pride do they have in their nation?
00:08:38.000 I just think they've got to calm down a little bit.
00:08:41.000 We're America.
00:08:41.000 You are not.
00:08:42.000 Get out of the way. 0.53
00:08:44.000 And not a good fight to pick if you are Canada.
00:08:49.000 We just beat you at your own game.
00:08:50.000 A game that honestly we don't really care that much about.
00:08:52.000 Look at that, those humiliated Canucks losers.
00:08:56.000 Maybe you guys should get your own people in order.
00:08:58.000 We're going to boo America.
00:09:00.000 It's only thanks to America does North America remain free as a free society.
00:09:05.000 Look, I don't want to try to pick a fight unnecessarily, but you picked the fight against us.
00:09:10.000 And by the way, enjoy your tariffs.
00:09:13.000 Canadians enjoy not having a stable economy.
00:09:16.000 I hope it's worth it.
00:09:17.000 Now, some of you might say, oh, who cares?
00:09:18.000 Just a sport?
00:09:19.000 No, it's not.
00:09:20.000 Did it just, was it who cares when we beat the Soviets on ice?
00:09:25.000 Sometimes sports are a very good mirror of the cultural temperature that we're in.
00:09:31.000 And God bless these young men.
00:09:33.000 God bless them for having that kind of spirit.
00:09:36.000 No, we're going to throw it down with you.
00:09:37.000 And yes, we're not.
00:09:38.000 We don't want violence against people, but hockey allows fight, and I kind of like it.
00:09:42.000 It's a little bit of that good old-fashioned, we're going to settle it in the public square.
00:09:49.000 And now, the only requirement is that Justin Trudeau has to duel the cabinet secretary by choice.
00:09:57.000 We choose Pete Hegseth.
00:09:58.000 Good luck, Trudeau.
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00:11:02.000 So 60 Minutes sat down with the Germans.
00:11:07.000 Boy, the Germans are making a lot of news lately.
00:11:10.000 They got all uppity and full of attitude.
00:11:13.000 Very similar to the Canadians. 0.99
00:11:14.000 I don't know who these Germans think they are. 1.00
00:11:16.000 Saying, you know, give us more money or else whatever.
00:11:20.000 Keep on subsidizing us to the tune of $100 billion.
00:11:24.000 Those Germans, they cause problems. 1.00
00:11:27.000 Almost every bad idea over the last 150 years has emanated out of Germany. 1.00
00:11:32.000 And it continues to be that way.
00:11:35.000 Germany is overcompensating, overcompensating for the evil that they offered in the 20th century. 0.80
00:11:43.000 From the fall of Rome, both world wars, communism, the Reformation.
00:11:49.000 No, not the Reformation.
00:11:50.000 Blake slid that one in there.
00:11:52.000 Nope, I'm very in favor of the Reformation, for the record. 0.63
00:11:55.000 Blake thinks the Reformation was bad.
00:11:57.000 I think it was essential.
00:11:58.000 But yes, Germans are a bunch of troublemakers. 1.00
00:12:02.000 So, Janie Vance, last week, threw it down in Munich.
00:12:09.000 He basically said, there is no free speech in Europe.
00:12:13.000 Why should we be subsidizing this failed European project?
00:12:19.000 Very simple question.
00:12:20.000 If you guys want to censor your own citizens, why should we be subsidizing it?
00:12:24.000 We've been saying for quite some time that Germany is becoming more and more like the country of East Germany.
00:12:32.000 Oh, you can't say that.
00:12:35.000 Why is it that we hold up Europe as a shining beacon of liberty?
00:12:44.000 This clip is going to shock you.
00:12:48.000 This is 60 Minutes.
00:12:50.000 These are German prosecutors who say that you could be fined or be put in prison if you insult somebody online.
00:12:57.000 If you insult them online.
00:13:01.000 Free speech is not a German value.
00:13:04.000 Totalitarianism is a German value. 0.97
00:13:07.000 And boy, are they hearkening back to the fundamental roots of despotic totalitarianism.
00:13:17.000 Listen to this and also understand.
00:13:19.000 This is what Kamala Harris would have wanted for the United States of America. 0.99
00:13:24.000 Play cut two.
00:13:25.000 Is it a crime to insult somebody in public?
00:13:29.000 Yes.
00:13:30.000 And it's a crime to insult them online as well?
00:13:33.000 Yes.
00:13:33.000 The fine could be even higher if you insult someone in the internet.
00:13:39.000 Why?
00:13:39.000 Because in the internet, it stays there.
00:13:43.000 If we are talking face-to-face, you insult me, I insult you, okay, finish.
00:13:47.000 But in the Internet, if I insult you or a politician...
00:13:50.000 That sticks around forever.
00:13:52.000 If somebody posts something that's not true, and then somebody else reposts it or likes it, are they committing a crime?
00:14:00.000 In the case of reposting, it is a crime as well, because the reader can't distinguish whether you just invented this or just reposted it.
00:14:09.000 That's the same for us.
00:14:11.000 How much tragedy and horror has been done with that accent?
00:14:14.000 I mean, every time they've been talking the last hundred years, something terrible is happening.
00:14:18.000 Oh yes, no problem.
00:14:19.000 We censor you.
00:14:21.000 Jeez.
00:14:22.000 Let me see this again.
00:14:23.000 Is posting an insult a crime?
00:14:28.000 Yeah.
00:14:29.000 Is it a crime to repost a lie?
00:14:31.000 Jawohl.
00:14:34.000 J.D. Vance responds, insulting someone is not a crime and criminalizing speech.
00:14:43.000 We should just cut off the money.
00:14:47.000 We should cut off the money.
00:14:49.000 We're not going to subsidize Europe anymore if this stuff's going to continue.
00:14:52.000 Why would we subsidize our own censorship?
00:14:54.000 Do you know the Charlie Kirk Show is censored in Germany, in the Eurozone?
00:14:58.000 Do you know you can't access the Charlie Kirk Show podcast on Apple Podcasts?
00:15:02.000 It is censored for hate speech.
00:15:04.000 I've had people try all throughout Europe.
00:15:06.000 You cannot find our program on Apple Podcasts.
00:15:09.000 In Italy?
00:15:10.000 In Germany?
00:15:11.000 So why would we subsidize countries that censor our own citizens?
00:15:18.000 And Germany is exactly what Kamala Harris would want. 1.00
00:15:20.000 This is the direction they want the United States of America to come to.
00:15:24.000 Insulting somebody is not a crime.
00:15:26.000 They also do raids over this in Germany, just to be clear.
00:15:29.000 They will raid your home.
00:15:31.000 And they call socialist parties center-left and the AFD as far-right extremists.
00:15:36.000 By the way, I'm going to be going to Berlin in May with a very special guest.
00:15:39.000 I've been invited.
00:15:41.000 Where our goal is to push the boundaries on these laws.
00:15:43.000 And if we get arrested, then that's Marco Rubio's thing to deal with.
00:15:46.000 Because if Germany's going to go gallivant around and act as if, oh, you know, give us more American money, we're going to cut off all the money. 0.61
00:15:54.000 You guys are becoming the totalitarian lunatics that we once fought.
00:16:01.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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00:17:01.000 Joining us now is Professor John Yu, law professor from UC Berkeley.
00:17:08.000 Professor, welcome to the program.
00:17:10.000 Please explain to us your opinion on what is occurring between Trump and all of these district courts and who is in the right.
00:17:18.000 Charlie, it's great to be with you.
00:17:20.000 Great to see you.
00:17:20.000 I think we hung out last in Las Vegas, and I won't tell you what we were doing there.
00:17:24.000 Yeah, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
00:17:27.000 I just know you came away a richer man than I. That's right, exactly.
00:17:31.000 And I also came away with a very strong theory of the unitary executive.
00:17:36.000 However, we will not mention those things.
00:17:39.000 Well, I'm going to drag you through it again.
00:17:41.000 There you go.
00:17:42.000 That's the answer to your question.
00:17:46.000 I think why people are shocked by what they're seeing right now is we had four years of a comatose executive.
00:17:53.000 And now we are being reminded what, as Alexander Hamilton described it in the Federalist Papers, what energy in the executive means.
00:18:02.000 The reason the founders put all the executive power into one person, the president, and doesn't really mention anyone else.
00:18:11.000 Everyone else in the executive branch is just under the Constitution, an assistant who helps the president.
00:18:16.000 The reason they did that is so that our government could act, and these are Hamilton's words, would speed, energy, decisiveness, sometimes secrecy.
00:18:26.000 Hamilton said that is the very definition of good government, is to have energy in the executive.
00:18:32.000 So right now, what you're seeing is President Trump has won a decisive electoral victory on a clear agenda to cut spending, to reduce...
00:18:42.000 The giant bureaucracy that's wasting billions and billions of our dollars.
00:18:48.000 And he's being confronted by the people who lost in the system.
00:18:52.000 And notice, they're not fighting him in Congress.
00:18:55.000 This is not an area where the president and Congress disagree.
00:18:58.000 This is because the people who are losing this political fight are trying to go to judges.
00:19:03.000 And look, there's 900 federal district judges in the country.
00:19:07.000 So these losers in the system, people receiving federal grants, People who've received government contractors, federal employees, they're cherry-picking judges like in Boston or Rhode Island, Washington State, who they know are going to be hostile to President Trump's agenda.
00:19:25.000 And they're trying to get them to say, hold on, stop what President Trump is doing.
00:19:31.000 I hope and I believe that this will mean that these cases will get accelerated to the Supreme Court, because that's the Supreme Court's ultimate job.
00:19:39.000 It's to make sure that the federal judiciary speaks with one voice.
00:19:42.000 And I think Trump's going to do a lot better at the Supreme Court than he's going to do before some retired trial judge, say, in Rhode Island or Washington state.
00:19:51.000 But ultimately what President Trump is doing is that he's bringing back energy to the executive for the benefit of the American people.
00:20:02.000 So there's so much there to unpack.
00:20:04.000 Let's start at the beginning.
00:20:05.000 You said something rather astute that seems obvious.
00:20:08.000 But is really the tension point here.
00:20:11.000 The vesting clause of Article 2 says that all power is vested within the President of the United States.
00:20:16.000 Are you trying to tell me that the FBI and the Department of Justice are not independent agencies?
00:20:21.000 Are you saying that all of the power under the executive branch is concentrated in a single human being?
00:20:28.000 Yes.
00:20:28.000 It's not just me.
00:20:29.000 Don't take my word for it.
00:20:31.000 As you said, Charlie, the constitutional text, Article 2 says, the executive power.
00:20:37.000 Of the United States is vested in the president.
00:20:40.000 And then it stops.
00:20:41.000 There's no other personnel mentioned.
00:20:44.000 Because of that, oh, then the Constitution says, and the president has, right, the responsibility to take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
00:20:52.000 He has the powers to do this and that.
00:20:54.000 But he's the only one mentioned as having those powers and those duties.
00:20:59.000 All the inferior, we call them inferior offices of the United States, they assist the president.
00:21:06.000 But I was going to say, don't take my word for it.
00:21:08.000 This is the argument that George Washington made.
00:21:10.000 This is the argument that Alexander Hamilton made.
00:21:12.000 It's even the argument that Thomas Jefferson, who was no fan of the earlier two, made.
00:21:17.000 And it's the view of the Supreme Court.
00:21:19.000 So just two years ago, there were these cases that got to the Supreme Court.
00:21:25.000 Look, Congress doesn't like this.
00:21:27.000 Congress doesn't want to have an energetic executive.
00:21:29.000 Congress often wants the executive branch to be split up, disorganized, because that increases Congress's power.
00:21:35.000 So what Congress has tried to do has been to prevent the president from firing people in the executive branch.
00:21:41.000 And one of those cases got to the Supreme Court two years ago in a case called Seelah Law, and the Supreme Court said no.
00:21:48.000 Just like Hamilton said, just like Washington said, just like Jefferson said, and Abraham Lincoln said, the president is the top.
00:21:54.000 All the powers you sent, Charlie, is concentrated in that one person.
00:21:59.000 And so to be able to make sure the entire executive branch follows his agenda, he must be able to fire anyone with any authority in the executive branch because they only just get it from him under the Constitution.
00:22:11.000 So do you believe it is constitutional for a random district court judge in the northern Mariana Islands or wherever to have veto power over the activity of a president?
00:22:24.000 No, I don't.
00:22:25.000 And that's another issue that's going to require the Supreme Court to intervene and stop this.
00:22:30.000 So a district judge, I often say, a district judge is the king or queen of his courtroom.
00:22:37.000 A plaintiff comes in and sues the government and says, the government owes me money, or the government shouldn't be doing this to me.
00:22:43.000 And the trial judge can say, okay, government, stop.
00:22:47.000 What a trial judge I don't think can do is then say, Not only do I say this individual plaintiff who's shown up in my court wins, I don't think a district judge then can turn around and say, and the government must stop nationwide.
00:23:00.000 I'm going to issue, and we call them, universal injunctions that stop the entire government, not just the territory of my court.
00:23:10.000 And so, Justice Clarence Thomas has said there was a case a few years ago.
00:23:13.000 You might remember the initial travel ban back in 2017. The Supreme Court eventually agreed with President Trump.
00:23:20.000 That's exactly what happened back then.
00:23:21.000 There were these trial judges in Hawaii, Washington State, not as far as the Mariana Islands, but almost as far, Charlie.
00:23:28.000 So you had this case where those district judges stopped the travel ban.
00:23:32.000 Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed with Trump and overruled all those district judges.
00:23:37.000 And Justice Clarence Thomas made the same point you did, Charlie.
00:23:40.000 He said, how is it that a single trial judge from anywhere in the country can bring the whole government to a halt?
00:23:47.000 So he said the Supreme Court is going to have to take that issue up and stop it.
00:23:51.000 And I think they're going to do that now.
00:23:53.000 So I suppose the declarative decision needs to be made around what does Article 2 say and mean.
00:24:02.000 Here's my question.
00:24:03.000 Has this not already been reconciled in previous administrations?
00:24:06.000 I mean, I know that you guys did this under the Bush administration.
00:24:10.000 Why does it need to go back up to the U.S. Supreme Court, is my question.
00:24:14.000 I mean, we are now on our 47th president.
00:24:18.000 Haven't we fully worked out with precedent that the president is in charge of Article 2, or does this need to, again, be elevated?
00:24:26.000 That's what I'm trying to understand, is that this seems to be a pretty settled topic, or at least it should be.
00:24:32.000 I agree, Charles.
00:24:33.000 If you were doing...
00:24:34.000 If people were doing what you were doing, reading the text of the Constitution, thinking about how its structure worked, they would come to the right conclusion.
00:24:41.000 All of this, I think, was caused by Watergate.
00:24:45.000 Until Watergate and President Nixon's resignation, not impeachment, but his resignation.
00:24:52.000 This is what presidents did.
00:24:53.000 This is what courts and judges recognized.
00:24:57.000 But after Watergate, Congress passed a series of laws to try...
00:25:03.000 To tie down the presidency.
00:25:05.000 And one way to understand the larger picture of what President Trump is doing, he's trying to free the presidency for the benefit of all future presidents.
00:25:13.000 And I think to the benefit of the country from what I think were these unconstitutional efforts by Congress to limit the presidency.
00:25:21.000 So take, for example, what's going on right now.
00:25:22.000 President Trump is finding, thanks to this Doge Committee led by Elon Musk, billions of dollars of excess spending, wasteful spending.
00:25:31.000 Hundreds, if not thousands of employees who are not doing anything useful for the country.
00:25:36.000 President Trump is trying to go back to earlier presidents and their tradition of saying, look, I don't have to waste money.
00:25:43.000 What I should do is run the government efficiently.
00:25:45.000 I should try to save money and give it back to the Treasury.
00:25:48.000 Whereas Congress is saying no.
00:25:50.000 Congress passed a law right after Nixon resigned, saying no.
00:25:53.000 You have to spend every single dollar, even if it's wasteful.
00:25:57.000 You have to hire every single employee we tell you to.
00:26:00.000 That law, it's called the Impoundment Control Act, has never been examined by the Supreme Court.
00:26:05.000 I think the Impoundment Act is where we must plant a flag. 0.95
00:26:08.000 Think about it.
00:26:09.000 If the executive branch can fulfill the duties for less money, why do they need to spend all the money that Congress appropriates?
00:26:16.000 And I guess this begs the question, do we have equal branches or subservient branches?
00:26:21.000 If the executive is a subservient branch, then fine, you have to spend whatever Congress says.
00:26:25.000 But if it's an equal branch...
00:26:27.000 Then the tension is not just healthy, but it's necessary, isn't it, Professor?
00:26:31.000 Yeah, that's a great point, Charlie.
00:26:32.000 And that really returns us to how the founders thought the separation of powers would work.
00:26:36.000 They wanted a healthy tension between the president and Congress.
00:26:39.000 They expected the president and Congress to fight.
00:26:42.000 And so, yeah, Congress could try to appropriate all this money to the president, but the president could say, here's a great example.
00:26:47.000 What if Congress had built this bridge for $100 million and President Trump says the engineers say he could build it for $50 million?
00:26:54.000 Does Trump really have to waste another $50 million?
00:26:57.000 Does Trump have to burn $50 million in cash on the ground to live up to Congress's mandate?
00:27:04.000 That's the constitutional question that's going to get forward.
00:27:06.000 But let me point out something, Charlie.
00:27:08.000 Which I think people are missing, which is this is not really a fight about the separation of powers because our Congress right now agrees with President Trump.
00:27:17.000 Congress is not doing anything to stop President Trump.
00:27:20.000 In fact, right, the Congress is the same party as President Trump.
00:27:23.000 There is no real conflict between the Congress and President.
00:27:26.000 That's why all these weak parties, the ones that are losing in the system, the Democrats, the progressives, they're going to court.
00:27:34.000 That's their last stand.
00:27:36.000 But actually, I would say the separation of powers is working right now.
00:27:38.000 The president and Congress agree that it's time to cut wasteful spending and close down agencies that aren't doing any good for the country.
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00:28:47.000 So, Professor, why can't President Trump just right now say, To 50,000 employees, you're fired.
00:28:55.000 Why does he have to do this administrative leave thing?
00:28:57.000 And is the fact that he can't do what he wishes with the employees of the executive branch, is it constitutional?
00:29:06.000 It's just like the question you were asking last segment.
00:29:10.000 If you look at the Constitution, if you read its text, and you just think about the structure it sets up, you would think that the president could fire everyone in the executive branch because...
00:29:22.000 All of them are supposed to be his assistants.
00:29:24.000 They're all supposed to be helping him carry out the law to protect the country, carry out foreign affairs, and so on.
00:29:33.000 If you look at the Constitution, it's interesting.
00:29:35.000 It actually doesn't say anywhere the president has the power to order people to do anything.
00:29:39.000 And so we've always thought from the very beginning, from George Washington on, that presidents must have the ability to fire anyone in the executive branch because that's the only way to get them to follow his orders.
00:29:51.000 It's either you carry out my view on how to interpret the Constitution or how to prosecute these cases, or you're relieved of duty.
00:30:00.000 So what happened is, again, the same story as with empowerment, the same story as with the president's powers.
00:30:07.000 Congress has tried to shield as many people as it can from being fired by the president because Congress, over the years, has wanted to expand its own control over the administrative state.
00:30:19.000 Now, here, President Trump, you know, we're reading right now about this controversy with the prosecutors in New York City.
00:30:25.000 You're reading about President Trump firing people at the National Labor Relations Board and other agencies like the CFPB could go on and on, right?
00:30:34.000 The president is making a decision.
00:30:35.000 These people are not helpful to him to carry out the laws, to carry out his constitutional duties.
00:30:41.000 All these people are going to court, even as we speak, to say that they can't be fired because Congress gave them some kind of lifetime, not like they gave them tenure.
00:30:49.000 Now, this time, again, President Trump's not fighting with the current Congress right now, which is all in favor of this.
00:30:56.000 And here, President Trump is actually going to be playing on the home court because the Supreme Court has made clear in a series of decisions over the last 10 years that, yes, the president's a chief executive.
00:31:09.000 He carries out the law.
00:31:11.000 Everyone who carries out the law must be accountable to the president and is subject to being fired.
00:31:16.000 So I think President Trump's going to win these cases, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be slowed down, again, by all these people who are losing, rushing to court.
00:31:25.000 One last point, the CFPB. The CFPB is not even funded by Congress, not controlled by the president directly.
00:31:33.000 It's like its own branch of government.
00:31:35.000 Part of this is going to be a realignment.
00:31:39.000 Constitutionally, is it not?
00:31:41.000 This is what the progressive mission was, is exactly what you pointed out.
00:31:44.000 They wanted to create a world where every agency was independent.
00:31:49.000 And then they would hand over power to all these professionals, they thought, who would be immune and accountable.
00:31:58.000 To anyone in politics.
00:31:59.000 So the poster boy for the progressive vision of government would be Dr. Anthony Fauci.
00:32:04.000 All power over everything we did in life for two years was up to Anthony Fauci.
00:32:09.000 He couldn't be fired.
00:32:10.000 He couldn't be controlled by any president.
00:32:13.000 That's the progressive vision of government.
00:32:15.000 I agree with you.
00:32:16.000 you.
00:32:17.000 If President Trump succeeds and the court upholds what he's doing, you're going to see the return of government to the control of people who are accountable to us, people that we elect the president and Congress, rather than this huge mass of unaccountable, unresponsible bureaucrats. rather than this huge mass of unaccountable, unresponsible bureaucrats.
00:32:35.000 Professor, finally, the New York Times even agrees that Trump might have a case on birthright What case might that be?
00:32:43.000 So the argument is, the 14th Amendment says you're a citizen if you're born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
00:32:51.000 That phrase, what does subject to the jurisdiction thereof mean?
00:32:54.000 Does that mean that your parents have to be citizens too?
00:32:57.000 Or traditionally, as the Supreme Court has said, does it apply to narrow category, including Indians and diplomats and so on?
00:33:05.000 I'm not sure.
00:33:06.000 On this one, I'm not sure President Trump is going to win.
00:33:09.000 I have a hard time seeing Chief Justice Roberts, who's kind of becoming more and more moderate over the years, agreeing with President Trump.
00:33:17.000 But President Trump has every right, as the head of the executive branch, to interpret the Constitution.
00:33:22.000 And push a case to the Supreme Court and try to persuade the Supreme Court to change its mind.
00:33:27.000 He's doing nothing more than that.
00:33:29.000 And that's well within his constitutional powers, too.
00:33:32.000 Professor Yu, thank you so much.
00:33:33.000 Hope to see you soon.
00:33:34.000 And excellent commentary.
00:33:36.000 Thank you.
00:33:36.000 Thanks for having me back, Charlie.
00:33:38.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:33:39.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.