Today on the Charlie Kirk Show, I give you my take on the viral conversation Tucker Carlson had with Andrew Tate, and we talk with Raheem Kassam about Ron DeSantis and the state of the 2024 race.
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00:01:15.000The center of the conservative movement will be Saturday, Sunday in West Palm Beach, Florida.
00:01:21.000President Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Dan Bongino, Steve Bannon, Josh Hawley, JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, Governor Asa Hutchinson, Mayor Suarez, and many others.
00:01:32.000But noticeably absent, we received a decline from Governor DeSantis.
00:01:37.000And here to make sense of it, it's Raheem Kassam, Raheem, who is not part of Turning Point, so maybe he can offer kind of an outsider's really kind of clear perspective here.
00:02:30.000People are never rude or churlish, especially to speakers that have been around on that circuit for years and years, as Governor DeSantis has been.
00:02:38.000And so I started to sort of think about, you know, what are the other pressures on the Florida governor at the moment that might be causing him to have to kind of park, to put it in a mild sense, snub is probably more accurate and more, you know, representative of the insult that him and his campaign are doling out here towards those grassroots activists, right?
00:03:13.000Yesterday, he was in Wisconsin doing a fundraiser with the Council on Foreign Relations, neoconservative AEI donor who used to give to Rahm Emmanuel.
00:03:24.000And he has time to go and see his donors in the Hamptons this coming week who are demanding that he explain why his campaign isn't got the momentum that they all promised it would have, especially if you give me $200 million, which people have done.
00:03:38.000And so I think this is probably coming down, like actually coming down to what the campaign would refer to in Newspeak as like scheduling clashes, right?
00:03:47.000But what it really means is crisis form.
00:03:49.000It's Crisis and Crunch talks with the donors.
00:03:52.000It's Crisis and Crunch talks about Iowa.
00:03:54.000It's Crisis and Crunch talks about why he's not making a move in the polls.
00:03:57.000And unfortunately, I think your event is getting the thin end of the wedge there.
00:04:01.000Yeah, and again, I don't want to play the victim.
00:04:03.000We have an amazing lineup here, but Raheem, I'm trying to understand the calculus of the DeSantis campaign.
00:04:11.000It's perplexing to me because you have voters that you have to win over.
00:04:16.000And by the way, we did a ton of events with Governor DeSantis last fall.
00:04:54.000But Raheem, I'm just trying to understand the calculus.
00:04:57.000And yes, we do consider it a little bit of a snub.
00:05:01.000And President Trump, his credit attending is really something.
00:05:06.000Does it show you that there's some sort of a plan that DeSantis has that we have not yet been read into, which is to kind of win the Chamber of Commerce primary first before actually speaking to donors?
00:05:19.000Because what I can say, Raheem, is what we are receiving from attendees and grassroots, hundreds of messages.
00:05:25.000People feel insulted that he is not attending this weekend.
00:05:30.000I mean, the interesting part of it is that so many people may have been coming along in part to hear from Governor DeSantis, right?
00:05:38.000Knowing that you would have, and he's been at turning point events before, knowing that you have other presidential candidates up there probably thought like, hey, yeah, this is going to be a good time for me.
00:05:50.000You know, I've read so much about what's going on in the media.
00:05:52.000I've seen him on Fox all the time talking about this, that, and the other.
00:05:55.000But I'd really like to get up close and personal and see, yeah, maybe see if he's as awkward as people say he is.
00:06:01.000Maybe see if you can disprove some of those things by meeting with him in person, rubbing shoulders, shaking hands, all of the things that go on at political conferences.
00:06:10.000And to turn your back on that, like you said, this isn't just a student summit.
00:06:15.000There are thousands upon thousands of other leading people in the movement who will be attending your event.
00:06:57.000Ted Cruz was not the one up there on the debate stage against Hillary Clinton.
00:07:00.000And thank goodness for that, quite frankly.
00:07:02.000As much as Ted Cruz is good on some issues, he would have been no way near a candidate as strong as Donald Trump on that stage against Hillary Clinton.
00:07:09.000And so you look at who he's got behind him, DeSantis, right?
00:07:14.000Jeffro, Axiom Strategies, that whole Cruz campaign team from back in 2015, 2016.
00:07:25.000And the reason that they're spending more time fundraising rather than actually campaigning, which would involve turning up at your event, is because the consultant class want their big bucks paid out.
00:07:36.000What is the finish your thought, please?
00:07:40.000Well, look, here's the other part of this that I've been saying for months now, is that they're not running a populist campaign.
00:08:59.000So we pick up on the basis of that using my sourcing, the people I've spoken to, you'd be surprised at how many people down in Florida actually still want to, I say this as if you're on different sides, but reach out across the aisle of this Republican presidential primary and talk about what's going on and what needs to be fixed and the problems that are manifesting themselves down in Tallahassee at this current point in time.
00:09:23.000And so, yeah, it looks like at some point over the next few days, DeSantis and perhaps some key members of his team, his inner circle, are going to be in Southampton, in the Hamptons in New York, and having to explain to some quite peeved donors, like, hey, where is our money actually going?
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00:11:15.000I started listening to In Primus and now my friends at Hillsdale, and I want you to listen for free as well.
00:11:20.000You can subscribe today to listen at Primus at charlieforhillsdale.com.
00:11:40.000I think it's $9 a month, right, Raheem?
00:11:42.000That is very cheap in the grand scheme of things.
00:11:44.000The nationalpulse.com is where we break the news and we have a great new podcast called The Campaign Trail, where once a week I go through kind of the detail.
00:11:54.000And I guess this weekend I'm going to be talking a little bit more about the detail and the stupidity of skipping an event like ActCon, like a turning point event, which Governor Santis is apparently doing.
00:12:04.000You also have a charity run you want to mention, Raheem, before we dive back into the theme you had previously?
00:13:39.000And when you look at the statement that the DeSantis campaign is making ahead of this crisis summit with potential donors in the Hamptons, they say, oh, we're playing the long game.
00:13:50.000Well, let's get into the time period that's required here because there is no long game to be played, especially if Iowa is the do or die, as the DeSantis team themselves are now saying.
00:14:02.000You really have just about three months left to make your mark, about 90 days left to make your mark.
00:14:09.000By the time we reach mid-October, early November, it's going to be impossible, impossible to shift people's opinions as if they're finding it easy now, right?
00:14:22.000They're not shaving half a point off Donald Trump's numbers.
00:14:26.000You know, there may be trading points back and forth between Mike Pence and Doug Bergham and Vivek, who's catching Ron, quite frankly, and who I expect perhaps by the end of summer may even have caught him.
00:14:39.000No, I think Vivek could finish second, just so we're clear.
00:14:43.000He is on pace to be the second delegate in the convention, the second most delegates.
00:14:49.000Do not be surprised if Vivek Ramaswamy next summer convention has 10% of the delegates.
00:14:56.000Yeah, I mean, he's working so much harder.
00:15:00.000He's doing like dozens and dozens of events, especially right now in Iowa every week.
00:15:06.000And, you know, he's actually cutting through.
00:15:09.000When you listen to him talk at some of these events, some of these conference speeches, he's actually cutting through, receiving way more applause than Ron DeSantis or any of the other candidates.
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00:19:14.000We've spent a lot of time together and he's coming to our event this weekend.
00:19:18.000And so, and also Patrick Bett David has been on the Andrew Tate thing for a while.
00:19:22.000And I've never said anything critical of him.
00:19:23.000Again, I don't really have any strong opinions.
00:19:25.000If you don't know who Andrew Tate is, Andrew Tate was the most Googled man in the world last year.
00:19:30.000Pickboxer, incredibly well-built, like ridiculously muscular, super fit, was a professional kickboxer, as I mentioned, but really kind of made his name in the last couple of years, going on social media, speaking out against the kind of postmodern, secular, anti-masculine agenda that has been setting into the West.
00:19:52.000And if you're like me and you're like, who is this guy?
00:19:55.000I think it's actually worth thinking about what he has to say.
00:20:00.000And it's notable because over the span of a week last year, they deplatformed him from everything.
00:20:07.000It was the Alex Jones Donald Trump treatment.
00:20:10.000From every major social media website, he was tarred and feathered, largely because he was so skilled at dominating TikTok and social media platforms, saying things you are not allowed to say.
00:20:23.000Now, there's kind of, from what my research in the last 24 hours, there's kind of two versions of Andrew Tate.
00:20:29.000There is Andrew Tate sitting down with Tucker, who's incredibly precise with his language and very mainstream in how he presents himself.
00:20:36.000And then there's TikTok Andrew Tate, who's a little bit more grandiose and braggadocious, which is fine.
00:20:44.000I mean, you're allowed kind of two different presentations of yourself as long as there's some harmony in your messaging.
00:20:50.000And so if you were to watch Tucker Carlson's interview with Andrew Tate, you're like, wow, this guy's so rational and all this.
00:20:55.000And yes, I don't think he ceases to be rational, but his TikTok persona was very provocative.
00:21:01.000And by the way, I agree with almost everything he was saying.
00:21:04.000Again, all while understanding he is under accusations of rape and running a cam girl business and all this other stuff, not stuff that I consider to be necessarily virtuous.
00:21:44.000And here's what I recommend for everybody.
00:21:46.000When you hear you're supposed to hate this person, you're supposed to hate this person, just check all of your assumptions aside, which is what, I mean, we have our group chat here, and I literally asked the team yesterday afternoon, I don't understand this Andrew Tate thing.
00:22:01.000So I said, okay, I'm going to watch the interview.
00:22:02.000And after about 30 minutes, I say, oh, now I get it.
00:22:06.000This guy's pretty smart, high IQ, son of a chess master, saying things you're not supposed to say, ridiculously fit, talking about things you're not supposed to talk about.
00:22:17.000But he was really targeted in platforms.
00:22:20.000So I just want to play one tape here, and then we'll go to Paul Manafort, which I thought was one of the most insightful comments that Andrew Tate had in his sit-down with Tucker Carlson that I encourage all of you to watch.
00:22:32.000It's worth your time because you're supposed to hate this man.
00:23:02.000And I think there's certainly a movement to ensure that there's very little resistance left inside of the number one demographic, which is required to resist oppression, which are military-age males.
00:23:13.000And they don't want those kind of people waking up with any kind of self-respect or standards or to say, no, I don't accept this.
00:23:33.000I want to point our audience to your book, Political Prisoner, by Paul Manafort.
00:23:38.000And so, Paul, I mean, I don't want to overly connect the themes here, but Andrew Tate is now facing a bunch of charges in Romania for what considered to be thought crimes.
00:23:46.000You were a political prisoner and targeted by the regime, and Donald Trump is now being targeted by the regime.
00:23:52.000Did you have just some top-line thoughts of how our judicial system has now kind of metamorphosized into a way to imprison people that hold ideas or participate in political parties that are against modern orthodoxies?
00:24:13.000I mean, depending on where you align yourself in the political spectrum, it determines what kind of political rights, real kind of constitutional rights you have.
00:24:21.000You know, my case, you know, I was on the wrong side.
00:24:24.000I was Donald Trump's campaign chairman, and they spent two and a half years trying to get me to say things that weren't true.
00:24:32.000And because I wouldn't, they violated a lot of my constitutional rights and made up crimes and put me in jail.
00:24:39.000And I never worried about it at the time because I felt like this was the United States of America.
00:24:45.000This is a country that I've been defending the values of all around the world.
00:24:52.000And in my book, you talk about, which was written a couple of years ago, I was concerned.
00:24:58.000And the reason I wrote the book, I say that, was not just to get my side of the story out, but really to warn the American people that there was a two-tier system of justice and that even everyday Americans were going to be in the crosshairs if we didn't take our government back and our country back.
00:25:13.000And unfortunately, my predictions have all seemed to come true.
00:25:19.000And to the point that they're even going after a former president and creating crimes like the DA did in New York that just don't exist on the stats and the statutes, and then citing an espionage act to deal with document production.
00:25:40.000But at the same time, you see with what's going on in Washington today with the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden, they've got a laptop with so many fair violations on it.
00:25:54.000And with me, they had to create a fact pattern using people that I had hired and legitimately were working for publicly and were registered.
00:26:04.000And they said because I had hired them, I was responsible for their work.
00:26:09.000And even the fair unit didn't agree with that.
00:26:14.000But when Mueller was appointed, Weissman told the Fairer Unit that they were taking over and their understanding, the Fair Unit's agreements with me were thrown out.
00:26:24.000Well, and it's just so everyone understands, it's such a loosely written statute.
00:26:27.000The intention of the law was a good intention.
00:26:30.0001930s don't want Nazis to come into our country.
00:26:33.000But if you read how it's written, as you all know, Paul, it's like any contact with any foreign official, whether money is exchanged or not, could make you and by the way, it's supposed to be a failure to register, just so we're clear.
00:26:56.000You did legitimate international business for years, and they said we hate this guy because of his proximity to Trump.
00:27:02.000Now they've ignored that precedent towards Hunter Biden, who has done clandestine, illegitimate borderline treason activity with foreign nationals.
00:27:13.000Well, I mean, the laptop shows meetings that Hunter had on behalf of Barisswa, on behalf of the Chinese, on behalf of the Russian oligarch that hired him.
00:27:22.000I mean, there actually are meetings, there are memos, there are emails.
00:27:26.000So, there's no question about what kind of activity was involved.
00:27:30.000There was like deputy involved, but they just ignored it.
00:27:33.000And this plea deal that they've agreed to, I mean, basically, what, as I understand it, the plea agreement says is that any and all other crimes are thrown out.
00:27:45.000And only the three that he's pled to, or the two that he's pled to, you know, the third one being the gun registration issue, which is not even going to be a conviction unless he violates that the plea agreement.
00:27:59.000But in that plea agreement, they cleanse him of everything else that's on the laptop.
00:28:04.000And I hope the judge takes a serious look at it because it's a serious problem.
00:28:09.000And this Justice Department is just unabashedly promoted as a fair treatment when all they have to do is look at the precedent they set with me and they'll see that it's not that it's a different tier of justice.
00:29:26.000The issues that the Trump campaign is focused, Trump legal team is focusing on relate to really the problems with the indictments.
00:29:37.000And I think the president, the American people, at least on the Republican side, they've already made their opinion known to the president about how they feel about this.
00:29:46.000Even people, American Republicans who are supporting other candidates support Donald Trump in this matter.
00:29:53.000And frankly, I think a lot of Republicans are recognizing that they have to vote for Donald Trump as well.
00:29:59.000Otherwise, the left is going to get its way with trying to establish this two-tiered system of justice.
00:30:06.000So what I think President Trump needs to do is focus on his number one job, which is getting himself re-elected or elected president of the United States.
00:30:15.000Let his lawyers do the motion practice.
00:30:16.000That's not to say he doesn't have to deal with the framework of the absurd two-tier justice system, because the American people see it.
00:30:24.000I mean, all the latest polls now, you see the FBI has credibility of 24, 25%.
00:30:31.000You know, the Justice Department's in the same place.
00:30:33.000So President Trump's defining of the two-tiered system of justice has impacted.
00:30:41.000And he doesn't, I mean, he needs to get elected so he can clean up the swamp.
00:30:54.000And I think that's disappointing the Democrats somewhat because they thought they'd have him dealing with all of the issues of obscurity of the Espionage Act and this crazy stuff they're trying to do down in Georgia.
00:31:10.000And that's the biggest advice I'd give to him, but he's already following his own advice in that regard.
00:31:16.000So just from a personal management standpoint, you could feel as if your world is falling apart and the government just tries to demoralize you.
00:32:02.000And I've always felt that the end of the day, that one way or another, I would not spend the rest of my life in jail, even though that's what they were trying to do.
00:32:12.000And thank you to President Trump for providing me a pardon because he knew I was there under the wrong, for the wrong reasons.
00:32:19.000And he also knew that I wouldn't give up hidden by lying so that the prosecutor would go easier on me.
00:32:27.000And so that's what my faith, my family, and knowing that I had done nothing wrong and believing that Donald Trump would, in the end of the day, do the right thing.
00:32:35.000Paul Manafort, author of the book Political Prisoner, thank you so much.