Ask Charlie Anything 35: FILL THAT SEAT! Why the GOP Must Confirm Trump’s 3rd Justice, Pelosi’s Extortion? Can Democrats Really Pack the Supreme Court If Joe Biden Wins? And More...
00:00:12.000It is time to recapture one-third of government for many generations.
00:00:16.000We go through that and so much more, including the breaking news surrounding the surprise death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
00:00:23.000Email us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com, freedom at charliekirk.com, and we go through action steps of how you can actually make an impact for the Constitution, for liberty, and for life.
00:00:35.000Please consider supporting our program at charliekirk.com/slash support.
00:00:41.000When you guys go to charliekirk.com/slash support, you help us hire more staff, cover the costs of production, and keep our program strong.
00:01:18.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:41.000Hey, Charlie, do you think Republicans should proceed and move forward to fill the vacant seat after the sudden passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
00:02:41.000And he is pleading with the president not to fill this seat and with Senate Republicans.
00:02:46.000In fact, let's hear Britt Hume on Fox News say just that, play tape.
00:02:50.000And I think that the leaders have to consider what the effect would be if we plunged at what would undoubtedly be a brutal and divisive confirmation battle into the end of this, into the middle of this, I should say.
00:03:02.000So I think that's the threshold question.
00:03:05.000The threshold question is whether to even make a nomination.
00:03:08.000Trump's instinct undoubtedly will be to go forward, you know, but whether Mitch McConnell will feel that way as the majority leader of the Senate at this stage, I think is unclear.
00:03:21.000And whether, you know, if you've got the first thing he's going to want to do is, if he decides that it's an idea worth pursuing, would be whether he would have the votes.
00:03:31.000And if you got people like Murkowski and Collins and possibly someone like Mitt Romney not prepared to go along, you might not be able to pull it off no matter what you did.
00:03:40.000So those are all things that have to be considered as to whom, if anyone, to nominate to replace this brave soul who wages such a courageous fight against cancer.
00:03:50.000So Britt Hume's argument is that this is going to tear the country apart.
00:03:57.000But that's not a reason not to do the right thing.
00:04:01.000There's another argument out there that's a more political argument.
00:04:04.000Some Republicans on Twitter are saying, well, we need to make sure that the president wins the White House and we keep the Senate.
00:04:12.000And by proceeding forward with a judicial confirmation fight in the midst of an election, we'll only further energize the Democrat base and might mean that the Republicans will lose the Senate and lose the White House.
00:04:28.000Now, while that might be true, and we'll dive into that a little bit, talking about how the Democrats are going to have renewed energy, Act Blue, the Democrat fundraising platform, has boasted that they have raised $100 million since the sudden passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg just since Friday evening, a remarkable figure, almost hard to even comprehend.
00:04:50.000Democrats across the country are saying that they will fly to the United States Senate, such as Gavin Newsom's chief of staff, the governor of California, who said, and I quote, I will fly and lay my body across the floor of the U.S. Senate to make sure that the Republicans don't confirm a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
00:05:11.000So there definitely is renewed spirit and energy on the Democrat side, something that Joe Biden has been lacking in every single poll.
00:05:19.000This will probably mean that the Democrats will have more grassroots enthusiasm in the month of October.
00:05:26.000So let's just talk, let's just take that argument at face value.
00:05:33.000Is the most important thing to always operate just to the next election?
00:05:38.000I'm the one that has said that this election is the most important election since 1860.
00:05:43.000So wouldn't it mean that I should want to make an argument that we would want to play into the benefit of getting President Trump four more years?
00:05:54.000First of all, I'm not convinced that if we did nothing on this seat, it would actually help Trump politically.
00:06:01.000I hold the view that if President Trump does not fill this seat and Republicans do not have action to confirm President Trump's appointment, it'll be the end and the death of the Republican Party as we know it.
00:06:16.000We canvassed, knocked on doors, made phone calls, we being grassroots conservatives, to give Mitch McConnell power and a check against Barack Obama, specifically in the 2014 midterm elections.
00:06:32.000Since 2014, Mitch McConnell has overseen the United States Senate.
00:06:38.000Mitch McConnell has let us down on plenty of issues, especially pertaining to big tech, size and scope of government, immigration, and spending.
00:06:47.000However, Mitch McConnell has been brilliant on Supreme Court nominees and on judicial appointments.
00:06:53.000I give Mitch McConnell credit where it is due.
00:06:57.000Mitch McConnell has probably been one of the most tactful and effective operators when it comes to running the Senate to get judicial appointments through and confirmed.
00:07:15.000However, a lot of grassroots conservatives, not just a lot, but I think the majority of the Republican Party will revolt in disgust if this seat is not filled before the election.
00:07:29.000While there might be a couple point benefit for Democrats in money raised and volunteers and kind of just the general enthusiasm of the Democrat base, if President Trump continues to proceed and Senate Republicans confirm the pick, I think there would be a double-digit decrease for Republicans if this seat is not filled.
00:07:51.000So I don't take that argument at face value at all.
00:07:53.000I think that the argument to keep this seat filled because it's bad for Republicans politically is not true.
00:08:00.000In fact, I believe that if President Trump fills the seat and is able to get into Election Day with five solid Supreme Court justices that are constitutional conservatives, that will only continue to broaden the appeal of President Trump in Midwestern states where these are center-right states that care a lot about the future of the Supreme Court, care about issues of life, firearms, size and scope of government, borders,
00:08:54.000And if you're just worried about losing reelection, so what if you lose reelection?
00:08:59.000I would rather have a young, pro-life conservative justice than another six-year milquetoast Republican senator from a moderate Republican state like Maine.
00:09:11.000Susan Collins, you have an opportunity to go down in the history books as someone who was the deciding vote on Brett Kavanaugh and on this judicial appointment, and then maybe you lose your election.
00:09:26.000But the question is: what do we value in the conservative movement in our country?
00:09:33.000Do we value Senate majorities or do we value fighting for truth?
00:09:41.000With the ever-increasing number of makes and models of cars, it is impossible to stock all the parts you need in a traditional chain storefront.
00:09:49.000One of the reasons to repair and maintain your car is to save money that you can then use for other important things like the mortgage or food.
00:09:56.000Chain stores have different price tiers for professional mechanics and do-it-yourselfers.
00:10:00.000Rockauto.com prices are the same for everybody and are reliably low.
00:10:05.000Rockauto.com also offers the lowest prices possible rather than changing prices based on what the market will bear like airlines do.
00:10:13.000Rockauto.com is for everybody and does not require a membership or account login.
00:10:17.000Rockauto.com is a family business serving auto part customers online for 20 years.
00:10:23.000They have everything from engine control modules and brake parts and to tail lamps, everything you need.
00:10:28.000So right now, you go to rockauto.com, tell them that Charlie Kirk sent you.
00:10:45.000And so Susan Collins, if you lose your Senate seat, but you fight for a justice that very well might overturn Roe versus Wade, which is actually not a view that Susan Collins has, by the way.
00:10:55.000Susan Collins is a pro-choice senator.
00:10:57.000Nevertheless, that is a much longer-lasting legacy and a more important legacy than just getting another six years to go be a representative of the kingdom of Washington, D.C. Who cares how long you've been in the ruling class?
00:11:13.000I care about what you've done for our country.
00:11:15.000I personally have more respect and admiration for someone who fights, stands up for what is right, stands up for what is correct and right and true, and loses an election than someone who just goes and tries to always pursue political expediency.
00:11:37.000A lot of the Trump base is built on voters of faith, voters of life, and voters that value the Constitution.
00:11:49.000And one of the main reasons why we support President Trump so vocally, so publicly, is because of the courts.
00:12:00.000One of the reasons why I'm unafraid to go into churches and advocate for President Trump to win four more years is because we have Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and 200 circuit court judges.
00:12:16.000So I'm going to say something rather provocative here, but it's true.
00:12:47.000I'm working every day to make sure this doesn't happen, but it's a possibility.
00:12:51.000Will you be able to live with yourself if you thought, wow, we had that 45-day window to fill the Supreme Court seat, and we didn't.
00:13:02.000We had the opportunity to make the court constitutional in nature, not revisionist or activistic in nature, for the next three decades.
00:13:13.000If Donald Trump loses, which is in the possibility of the uncertainty of 2020, wouldn't you want to act in one way that is a given?
00:13:27.000To use geometric terms, we should always lay out what is a given and what is uncertain.
00:13:34.000It's a good way to view life, and it's a really good way to rationally analyze politics, which generally becomes way too emotive in nature.
00:13:43.000It is uncertain as to whether or not Donald Trump will win the election.
00:13:47.000It is uncertain as to what the country will look like post-election.
00:13:52.000It is uncertain as to whether or not the Senate will remain in Republican hands.
00:13:56.000It is uncertain what the Democrats will do next with power.
00:14:09.000There is a fourth branch of government, which is the bureaucracies, which is unchecked, unknown, and has unlimited power.
00:14:16.000But that's a different podcast for a different time.
00:14:19.000But out of the three branches of government, if you told me that come January, I can guarantee you that that branch of government will be solidly constitutional for the next couple decades, but I don't know what will happen to the other two branches, which, by the way, have much higher turnover rates where the Supreme Court is much more inelastic.
00:14:58.000I'm saying it's worth it because when Joe Biden, in the hypothetical scenario that we have a Biden presidency, might try to do another DACA deal by executive fiat, that constitutional Supreme Court will strike him down.
00:15:13.000That when the United States Senate might try a gun-grabbing bill, the Supreme Court might strike it down.
00:15:21.000When the United States Senate tries to give amnesty to illegal aliens, that constitutional United States Supreme Court might strike it down.
00:15:28.000What you can see here is going back to Montesquieu, where we get the idea of checks and balances from, we have a permanency of certainty of constitutionalism that is now being offered to those of us that love our country.
00:15:45.000In fact, I would make the argument if we fill the seat, I actually think it improves the president's chances.
00:15:49.000But I'm not going to tell you that I am 100% certain on it because there is a potential, and I'm just putting all the possibilities on the table here, of a backlash and a boomerang where the Democrats find Barack Obama-style 2008 energy out of this moment.
00:16:05.000Where all of a sudden the Bernie Sanders people that were unactivated, the young people that were silent, come out and they vote out Trump just on the issue of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat.
00:16:19.000I think it is unlikely, but it can happen, just to kind of use game theory and game this out.
00:16:25.000I actually think that it will boost Joe Biden's numbers in New York and California, but I actually think it will boost President Trump in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
00:16:36.000But actually, none of that really matters.
00:16:40.000I have grown exhausted and I have grown weary of the argument that we must look to the next election as a reason or as a guiding principle as to whether or not we should do the right thing.
00:16:58.000Out of the three branches of government, the judicial branch, the legislative, and the executive branch, two of those branches turn over every couple years.
00:17:09.000One every two years, the other every six years, lower chamber, upper chamber, and the other every four years.
00:17:15.000The judicial branch is built into stone for a couple decades.
00:17:29.000For the 1 million abortions that happen every single year, seize it.
00:17:33.000For the gun grabbers that are licking their chops by the name of Mike Bloomberg, seize that opportunity.
00:17:39.000For the size of the fourth branch of government and the regulatory state that is coming after our first freedoms, seize it.
00:17:45.000For the tech companies that need to be reined in by justices that understand that monopolies have no place in the American marketplace, seize it.
00:17:55.000For all these reasons and more, not to mention the attempted amnesty of 15 million people and the erosion of American sovereignty, those courts mean more than ever before.
00:18:08.000So for all those reasons and more, seize the opportunity.
00:18:13.000We as conservatives need to come from the belief that we have been losing our country.
00:18:19.000Well, now we have an opportunity to actually win something and not just win an election, everybody.
00:18:25.000This is winning a branch of our government.
00:18:30.000This is winning one-third of the greatest country ever to exist governments.
00:18:37.000One-third of it can now be in constitutional conservative hands.
00:18:42.000When you look at it that way, it's not even a question as to whether or not we should proceed.
00:18:49.000Good ranchers began with the standard of bringing top quality, 100% American-born, raised, and harvested meat to families across America.
00:18:57.000This vision was instilled into them from their grandparents that owned a community grocery store and believed in trust, charity, and American values.
00:19:05.000Goodranchers.com partners directly with only American ranches across the U.S. to bring highest quality meat to your door.
00:22:00.000Ed Markey, who beat Joe Kennedy in his primary in Massachusetts, said, quote, Mitch McConnell set the precedent.
00:22:06.000No Supreme Court vacancies filed in an election year.
00:22:09.000If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.
00:22:16.000So attempted unsuccessfully by FDR in 1937, FDR, who was a wannabe autocrat, only president to be elected to four terms and serve three full terms.
00:22:29.000He tried to force through parts of his New Deal that were ruled unconstitutional by the high court.
00:22:35.000Now, again, the Supreme Court was established in 1789 by Article III of the United States Constitution, which also granted Congress the power to create inferior federal courts, circuit courts, and district courts.
00:22:48.000The Judiciary Act of 1789, the act signed into law by President George Washington, specified that the court would make up six justices who would serve on the court until they died or retired.
00:23:00.000Even though the first court comprised of just six justices, Congress altered the number of Supreme Court seats from a low to five to a high of 10, six times over the years.
00:23:11.000In 1869, Congress set the number of seats to nine, where it has remained until today.
00:23:18.000As of 2017, 113 justices have served on the United States Supreme Court.
00:23:24.000So, basically, to sum all that up, while the role of the Supreme Court is established by the Constitution, its current makeup and composition and the norms by which it operates was established by Congress.
00:23:38.000Democrats who would expand the court would also have to acknowledge that they did not have the support from Ginsburg herself, who warned against court packing just this past year in 2019.
00:23:48.000Ginsburg, who they are now making the argument we must honor her wishes as if this was her seat, which it wasn't.
00:24:00.000She said, quote, nine seems to be a good number.
00:24:02.000It's been that way for a nine times, she told National Public Radio, quote, I think it's a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court.
00:24:10.000So the Democrats are trying to honor her wishes in one capacity, but dishonor her wishes in another capacity.
00:24:50.000Some have mentioned the possibility if they try to push through a nominee in a lame-duck session that you in the House could move to impeach President Trump or Attorney General Barr as a way of stalling and preventing the Senate from acting on this nomination.
00:25:08.000We have arrows in our quiver that I'm not about to discuss right now.
00:25:13.000So that's Nancy Pelosi in her own very confused way, basically saying that the Democrats might do impeachment proceedings against the president the second of this year, 45 days before an election, in the midst of highly contested House and Senate races, to impeach the president, try to prevent him from filling RBG's seat.
00:25:40.000All the while, the Democrats are now holding the American people metaphorically hostage, saying we're going to start shooting prisoners.
00:25:48.000I'm using metaphorical terms if you dare fill this seat.
00:25:52.000Their idea of shooting prisoners is packing the court.
00:26:00.000We finally found something you care about, Democrats.
00:26:04.000We finally found something that you're willing to blow the country up over.
00:26:08.000We finally found something that you're so worried that you might lose that you're willing to impeach the president again the second time in one year and also pack the courts.
00:26:26.000They'll whine, they'll scream, they'll threaten, but there's very little sting to their punch.
00:26:34.000They won't be able to pack the courts.
00:26:36.000Joe Manchin, even moderate Democrat Kirsten Sinema, will come under such incredible grassroots revolt if they get the Senate back to even get 51 votes to pack the courts.
00:28:53.000A filibuster is a rule that is not in the Constitution.
00:28:56.000Thomas Jefferson argued that the U.S. Senate should be a majoritarian body, meaning that 51 votes should be enough to move the Senate forward.
00:29:04.000The filibuster is actually, what did Barack Obama call the filibuster?
00:29:36.000One of the reasons why Mitch McConnell is able to remain in power as majority leader is he actually understands the Senate rules.
00:29:42.000And so the Senate rules are voted on in the beginning parts of every new session, right?
00:29:47.000So after every midterm election, the Senate votes on rules.
00:29:50.000One of the rules being that it should take 60 votes to pass massive spending bills and to confirm judges.
00:29:59.000Senator Harry Reid, senator from Nevada, who recently retired, was the Senate majority leader when Barack Obama was president until Mitch McConnell won back the Senate in 2014.
00:30:11.000Senator Harry Reed tried to get a couple circuit court judges confirmed under President Barack Obama, said, we're getting rid of the 60-vote threshold and we are going to break the filibuster.
00:30:44.000And so because of this, Mitch McConnell looks to Harry Reid and says, you broke the filibuster for a judge.
00:30:53.000I'll break the filibuster for a judge.
00:30:55.000That's why Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were both confirmed without 60 votes.
00:31:00.000That's why over 200 circuit court judges have been confirmed without 60 votes.
00:31:05.000So when you hear the filibuster being thrown around, it means that Chuck Schumer is going to remove the 60-vote threshold to be able to pass things like Medicare for all, massive spending bills, and very complex pieces of legislation.
00:31:21.000This was all started, the filibuster was, in 1959, when the Senate was anticipating more civil rights legislation.
00:31:30.000The Senate, under the leadership of Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson, soon to be president of the United States, restored the cloture threshold to two-thirds of those voting.
00:31:41.000So, if this is all very confusing to you, I completely get it.
00:31:45.000Here's the essence of it: that the Democrats are threatening that if they win back the Senate, so if they're able to win Arizona, win Montana, win Colorado, North Carolina, and win back the United States Senate, that they will break apart the filibuster.
00:32:06.000And if they also win back the White House, it'll take only 50 votes.
00:32:10.000If they do not win back the White House, it will take 51 votes.
00:32:13.000Because going back to your U.S. Constitution course, the vice president breaks the tie in the time that the U.S. Senate comes to a tie, the vice president breaks the tie.
00:32:25.000So, putting that all together, the Democrats are trying to extort the American people.
00:32:32.000All the while we are seeing calls for riots.
00:32:34.000All the while, we are seeing Mitch McConnell having protests outside of his home.
00:32:40.000They're already mobilizing more demonstrations outside of Senator Lindsey Graham's home.
00:33:33.000The one I want to focus on the most, though, is Senator Mitt Romney.
00:33:37.000If everyone listening to this podcast right now went to Mitt Romney's Senate website and emailed him every single day and said, Senator Romney, I supported you in 2012.
00:33:51.000Why would you not confirm Trump's pick?
00:33:56.000Believe it or not, Senator Mitt Romney, of whom I have criticized publicly, who I have criticized with a lot of careful words.
00:34:22.000I put politics so far aside when it comes to Supreme Court picks because I love my country and I know how significant the U.S. Supreme Court is.
00:34:32.000But everyone listening to this right now should contact one of those senators, specifically Mitt Romney, and say, we implore you to confirm this justice, whomever it might be, because I know the president's list and I've gone through the list and they're all terrific.
00:35:21.000The Democrats' operating position is this: this is their negotiation.
00:35:26.000If you confirm a justice, when we get power back, we're going to pack the courts.
00:35:31.000We're going to impeach the president while you're doing it, possibly not being dismissed by Nancy Pelosi, being called for by certain liberal activists.
00:35:37.000We're going to storm the halls of the Senate.
00:35:39.000And many people, as we profiled in a previous episode, we're going to burn down America.
00:36:23.000We're going to profile your insanity in the streets.
00:36:26.000We're going to publicize your calls for insurrection, like the people that were calling for the burning down of America.
00:36:34.000We will calmly and factually and deliberately refute the nonsense from the mainstream press, the activist media, and the Senate judiciary Democrats.
00:37:50.000The American people won't put up with it.
00:37:53.000Manchin, cinema, some of these more moderate Democrats, not going to happen.
00:37:58.000And a lot of what Joe Biden is going to try to do, he's going to try to do by fiat.
00:38:03.000And with a Supreme Court that's constitutional in nature, a lot of those things can be overturned.
00:38:08.000And I lived through the Obama response.
00:38:12.000The minute Joe Biden takes office, there will be a movement to hold Joe Biden accountable that will make the resist Democrat movement in 2016 and the Tea Party movement in 2010 look like nothing.
00:38:27.000Because the Trump base, which is bigger and stronger than it ever has been in conservative politics for a base for a president, we're not going to go away in January.
00:39:05.000In a year where I didn't think we'd shut down our country, in a year I didn't think that critical race theory would be taught in our churches.
00:39:11.000In a year that I didn't think that looting would be glamorized as a normal activity, or a year where I didn't think that the American people wouldn't want to hold China accountable for an epidemiological Pearl Harbor, I'm done playing in uncertainties.
00:39:24.000I'm now trying to get back to the roots of what I know can happen.
00:39:28.000And what I know is this, that reclaiming one-third of our government away from the Warren Court or the Burger Court to very liberal courts that resulted in some of the worst left-wing precedent, including Roe versus Wade, now we can have the Kavanaugh Alito Thomas Gorsuch court.
00:39:50.000In a year of unpredictability, of uncertainty, let's deal in givens.
00:39:58.000Let's deal in things that transcend elections, that are multi-generational in nature.
00:40:04.000And that is why Senate Republicans hold the line for grassroots conservatives listening to this.
00:40:10.000This is the most important fight that we can be in right now.
00:40:14.000Equally as important is our election, but get the justice seat filled.
00:40:19.000Contact those senators I mentioned, Romney in particular.
00:40:44.000A new app called Thinker has solved that problem by summarizing the key ideas from new and noteworthy nonfiction, giving you access to an entire library of great books in bite-sized form.
00:40:54.000Read or listen to hundreds of titles in a matter of minutes, including old classics like Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, to recent bestsellers like Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life.
00:41:04.000If you want to challenge your preconceptions, expand your horizons and become a better thinker, go to thinker.org/slash Charlie.
00:42:48.000So, therefore, the House would be a 26 to 23 split, not 27.
00:42:54.000There was one change there, with Trump winning.
00:42:57.000So, if we tie, it doesn't matter that Pelosi is Speaker of the House, the House would break the tie.
00:43:03.000However, Pelosi does have one trick up her sleeve.
00:43:08.000Pelosi has one thing she can do, which is a legitimate threat.
00:43:13.000Now, the one little weapon that Pelosi has, regardless of whether or not we have a 269, 269 tie, is that according to the Constitution, the House of Representatives must certify the Electoral College outcome before it is made official.
00:43:31.000It's a little known wrinkle in the U.S. Constitution.
00:43:35.000So it is conceivable that Nancy Pelosi could refuse to certify the election results.
00:43:43.000I think it's unlikely, but it is possible.
00:43:49.000If no candidate receives a majority in the election, meaning a majority of electoral votes, for president or vice president, that election is determined via a contingency procedure established by the 12th Amendment.
00:44:01.000In such a situation, the House chooses one of the three presidential electoral vote winners as the president, while the Senate chooses one of the top two vice presidential electoral vote winners as the vice president.
00:44:12.000So the House picks the Senate, the Senate picks the vice president.
00:44:16.000In the unlikely event that the House picks the president and the Senate picks the vice president, then you would also have the Senate vote all as one state together.
00:44:27.000And so it is conceivable that you could have a Trump-Harris administration.
00:44:31.000I think that Kamala Harris would be asked to resign.