The Charlie Kirk Show - Debunking the Hegseth Hogwash

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, it's in The Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:01.000 The status of Pete Hegseth and the open secret of why certain senators support him and other senators are undermining President Trump.

00:00:08.000 Sean Parnell joins us to discuss.

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00:00:28.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:29.000 Here we go.

00:00:30.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

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00:01:28.000 I want to begin today talking, we're going to go through a lot of topics here, Pete Hegseth.

00:01:31.000 Pete Hegseth is a great man.

00:01:33.000 Pete Hegseth has honorably served his country.

00:01:36.000 And Pete Hegseth right now is victim to a media smear job to try to destroy his character and try to remove him from the nomination for Secretary of Defense.

00:01:46.000 Now some people say, but Charlie, he doesn't have the experience, you know, running a big organization.

00:01:51.000 Hold on a second.

00:01:51.000 He's actually served in the front lines of the department that he is going to have to run.

00:01:59.000 You see, we used to have a tradition in this country where the people who were in charge of our military were also involved in the front lines of combat.

00:02:08.000 George Washington famously would march to the front lines against the British and would be shot at, would not be moved.

00:02:15.000 Our leaders used to be hardened by actual conflict.

00:02:20.000 Pete Hegseth has served his country with incredible bravery and courage.

00:02:24.000 This is nothing compared to what he had to face on the front lines fighting for America.

00:02:30.000 However, the media is doing their best to try and be the fourth estate.

00:02:35.000 To try to remove him as Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of defense.

00:02:41.000 So let's begin here.

00:02:43.000 Let's first talk about the positive.

00:02:45.000 This is Coach Tuberville praising Pete Hegseth.

00:02:48.000 And we've talked about this quite some time on this program.

00:02:50.000 These Republican senators need to stand up and be counted.

00:02:56.000 And if you are going to oppose Pete Hegseth, then we want to know your names and your states because we'll be visiting a neighborhood near you.

00:03:04.000 If you're from Arkansas, if you're from Kansas, if you're from South Dakota, if you're from Idaho, and you're against Pete Hegseth, You're going to have to defend that to your voters.

00:03:15.000 You see, the American people did not vote for old bull Senate Republicans to get in the way of President Trump's mandate.

00:03:23.000 Let's begin here with Coach Tuberville praising Pete Hegg said.

00:03:27.000 There is a major battle happening right now on Capitol Hill, an extraordinary drama.

00:03:34.000 Where they're doing everything they can, where deep state Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine President Trump and try to kill Pete Hegseth from being Secretary of Defense.

00:03:44.000 Play cut 43. Pete is a patriot.

00:03:48.000 He understands the military 20 years, but he's done other stuff too.

00:03:51.000 He's been in business, he's well-educated, well-spoken.

00:03:54.000 But what I like about him, Larry, is he's the age.

00:03:59.000 He's going in, running our military, and we need somebody close to the age of a lot of these warfighters that we have.

00:04:05.000 They can relate.

00:04:06.000 This is a different military.

00:04:08.000 This is a different time.

00:04:09.000 This is a different era.

00:04:10.000 And we need to build our military back because we have really degraded our military over the years because of the woke, the DEI, the critical race theory.

00:04:19.000 All these things are being pushed at all of our warfighters, and they're getting out right and left.

00:04:24.000 We've got to build it back, and Pete's the guy to do it, Larry.

00:04:26.000 Pete is the guy to do that.

00:04:28.000 Now understand that our military has become so broken, it is no longer the finest fighting force on the planet.

00:04:34.000 We commonly play that piece of tape of how sailors of the U.S. military were bragging the best part of their deployment was gay poem reading hour on these U.S. battleships.

00:04:45.000 But there are forces in the U.S. Senate, some of whom want to become Secretary of Defense themselves, by the way.

00:04:52.000 Who are trying to undermine and stop Pete Hegseth.

00:04:55.000 Understand this, first and foremost, Pete Hegseth embraces America First foreign policy better than anybody else.

00:05:01.000 He understands that we need the finest fighting force on the planet.

00:05:04.000 He understands that we should not have endless, adventurous, nation-building foreign conflicts or wars.

00:05:12.000 Pete Hegseth is not a neocon.

00:05:15.000 Pete Hegseth is not one of the Warmongers of days past. 0.94

00:05:22.000 Let's play cut 66. Pete Hegseth talking about the status of his nomination.

00:05:26.000 Play cut 66. Have you had any conversations with the president-elect?

00:05:33.000 I spoke to the president-elect this morning.

00:05:38.000 He said keep going, keep fighting.

00:05:40.000 Behind you all the way.

00:05:41.000 So you're in this all the way.

00:05:43.000 Why would I back down?

00:05:44.000 I've always been a fighter.

00:05:45.000 I'm here for more fighters.

00:05:48.000 This is personal passion for me.

00:05:50.000 You're not withdrawing your name for consideration, just to be clear.

00:05:54.000 We're meeting all day with senators.

00:05:56.000 Understand what is happening here is that you have this Praetorian Guard of the U.S. Senate that is trying to stop the will of the American people.

00:06:05.000 Now, this all started with the neocons of the Senate being a little nervous that Pete Hegseth philosophically might not agree with their warmongering agenda.

00:06:15.000 Might ask questions, why are we sending hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine?

00:06:18.000 Why are we not putting our country first?

00:06:20.000 Now, they're veiling this by saying, oh, it's all about these very serious accusations against Pete Hegseth.

00:06:26.000 What serious accusations are there?

00:06:29.000 Now, one of them, they're saying, well, Pete Hegseth's own mom came out against him.

00:06:32.000 Well, that's not true.

00:06:34.000 This is Pete Hegseth's mother on Fox News, Penelope Hegseth, defending her son.

00:06:40.000 Was this on the mainstream networks?

00:06:42.000 Playcut 77. What's one thing about Pete people don't realize?

00:06:46.000 That he's got a big heart.

00:06:48.000 That he's very smart.

00:06:52.000 He's the most...

00:06:54.000 He is the most faithful patriot of this country.

00:06:57.000 He loves his country.

00:07:00.000 He's fought and almost died for his country.

00:07:04.000 He's a good dad.

00:07:07.000 He's an amazing son and father.

00:07:10.000 And that's the Pete I want people to know.

00:07:13.000 Here's what we must understand, is that when Matt Gaetz dropped out, the enemies of our America First agenda thought they could pick off Trump's cabinet one by one, using old Washington smear tactics.

00:07:25.000 If Pete Hegseth becomes the latest pick to get knifed in the back, Bobby Kennedy be next, then Tulsi Gabbard, then Cash, we must not allow them to get away with this.

00:07:36.000 This is a red line.

00:07:37.000 Pete Hegseth is a red line.

00:07:39.000 And I am tired of hearing, oh, these anonymous senators.

00:07:42.000 Okay, is it Jim Crapo?

00:07:44.000 Or Mike Crapo?

00:07:45.000 Is it Mr. Risch in Idaho?

00:07:47.000 Is it Mike Rounds?

00:07:49.000 Is it Joni Ernst?

00:07:52.000 Is it Bozeman or whatever his name is from Arkansas?

00:07:56.000 You never hear from these people unless they want to vote no on Trump's nominees or vote yes on Ukrainian money.

00:08:03.000 These guys, you never hear from them at all.

00:08:05.000 Is it Shelley Moore Capito in Mississippi?

00:08:07.000 I mean, West Virginia?

00:08:09.000 Is it Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi?

00:08:12.000 Stand up and be counted.

00:08:14.000 Tell us, who are you exactly?

00:08:16.000 Who do you represent?

00:08:17.000 Or are we going to allow just kind of just anonymous...

00:08:23.000 We know better than the voters.

00:08:26.000 Donald Trump got elected to get people and changemakers in the Pentagon like Pete Hegg said.

00:08:32.000 Do you remember Mark Milley bragging about how he would backchannel against Donald Trump with China?

00:08:39.000 That he would not fulfill the orders of Donald Trump and backchannel against the needs, wants and interests of the sovereign, the President of the United States, who's a representative of the American people?

00:08:50.000 Mr. White Rage.

00:08:51.000 How about Esper or Mad Dog Mattis?

00:08:56.000 Every single one of those people that were running the Pentagon were working against President Trump's agenda and the will of the American people.

00:09:04.000 So you really have to think.

00:09:08.000 Who's in charge of this government that is coming in?

00:09:11.000 Is it an unelected bureaucracy and old octogenarian Senate Republicans that want to keep on fighting Russia for no reason whatsoever?

00:09:20.000 Or is it the people that voted for less war?

00:09:24.000 The people voted for less war to, yes, crush our enemies, to, yes, use lethality against those that dare threaten us.

00:09:32.000 But we are done nation building.

00:09:34.000 We are done subsidizing the government of Ukraine.

00:09:37.000 Tucker Carlson right now is in Russia trying to figure out how close are we actually to nuclear war?

00:09:43.000 This is a red line, everybody.

00:09:44.000 If you're from Idaho, you better call your senators.

00:09:47.000 If you're from Mississippi, call Cindy Hyde-Smith.

00:09:49.000 If you're from West Virginia, President Trump won on a referendum of less war.

00:09:54.000 And now Senate Republicans say, who cares?

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00:11:14.000 This is a red line, everybody.

00:11:15.000 This is exactly why we are doing the project Give Trump His Cabinet.

00:11:19.000 And right now, actually, I was just texting in the break, the states that we're going to go visit.

00:11:24.000 We are going to be at a state near you and maybe in a neighborhood near you.

00:11:28.000 We very well might be doing a rally in Boise.

00:11:31.000 What is it about?

00:11:32.000 Can I just talk about the great state of Idaho really quick?

00:11:35.000 I've met one of the guys there.

00:11:38.000 Nice enough guy.

00:11:39.000 Rish or Crapo.

00:11:40.000 I get him confused.

00:11:41.000 What is it about the beautiful state of Idaho?

00:11:46.000 Idaho is this freedom-loving state that, yes, has some liberal nonsense.

00:11:52.000 That is coming in.

00:11:53.000 Boise, I was there recently feeling more and more like Berkeley.

00:11:56.000 However, the exurbs of Boise and the rest of the state, I mean, it is as red as Alabama. 0.95

00:12:01.000 But this is a problem that we need to fix and that I think Turning Point Action and the Charlie Kirk Show and you guys can help fix together.

00:12:10.000 It is a major problem that in very red states, people that run for office as Republicans just want power.

00:12:21.000 And they're not conservatives, but they're still just people who want power.

00:12:25.000 And I think this is something that Turning Point Action can help fix with, obviously, all of you in this audience.

00:12:32.000 Look, it's a different ballgame if you're running in Arizona, if you're running in Georgia, if you're running in North Carolina, if you're running in Maine.

00:12:39.000 I get it.

00:12:40.000 If you're Susan Collins and you run in Maine, I hold you to a much lower standard.

00:12:45.000 I've been very consistent about this throughout the years.

00:12:47.000 Andrew would tell you.

00:12:48.000 I've never attacked Susan Collins.

00:12:50.000 Vote your state.

00:12:51.000 Vote your constituents.

00:12:53.000 Susan Collins is there for us with Kavanaugh.

00:12:55.000 She does some incredibly frustrating stuff.

00:12:59.000 But Idaho, why is it that people from Idaho that are senators vote like they're from Maine?

00:13:05.000 That is inexplicable.

00:13:07.000 If you're a Republican in a more competitive state, You should be more conservative.

00:13:13.000 And so, just talking about Idaho here, I don't know how they stand on Pete Hegseth, but they're both neocons, Crapo and Rish.

00:13:21.000 I don't know how they stand on Bobby Kennedy or Tulsi Gabbard, but why are they both not out leading the charge saying that we are for Pete Hegseth?

00:13:28.000 Coach Tuberville is.

00:13:30.000 Marsha Blackburn is.

00:13:32.000 This is very similar to the lessons that I learned, Andrew learned, Blake learned, and our team learned with what we did with Nebraska and winner take all.

00:13:43.000 Sometimes the most maddening, difficult to navigate states in the country Are the reddest states. 1.00

00:13:52.000 They're the most corrupt, the least likely to actually embrace positive change.

00:13:57.000 We saw this up close and personally with all the time we spent in Nebraska.

00:14:03.000 And you kind of go around the horn here.

00:14:05.000 You say, wait a second.

00:14:06.000 These are senators that are not necessarily from battleground states, but understand that there is a formula here.

00:14:13.000 And that's why James Lankford is exhibit A for what's wrong in Washington, D.C. Formula is this.

00:14:20.000 The young guns are going to come out in favor of Pete Hegseth, especially if they are in cycle.

00:14:28.000 This is the buried secret of the U.S. Senate.

00:14:32.000 You guys ready for this?

00:14:32.000 No one else is saying this publicly.

00:14:34.000 So what they'll do is they will vote trade.

00:14:39.000 If you are in a competitive state, in cycle, those people are much more likely to come out and support President Trump's nominees, like Tom Tillis.

00:14:50.000 Why is Tom Tillis from North Carolina willing to support Trump's nominees enthusiastically?

00:14:56.000 Because he's afraid of being primaried.

00:14:59.000 Why is it that the people who are most likely to oppose Donald Trump's nominees all are people that are not up for election until 2028 and 2030?

00:15:10.000 It's a very easy answer.

00:15:12.000 It's because they're disconnected and they are distant from potential elections and the will of the people.

00:15:19.000 And so what they do is anybody that might be afraid of a primary threat like Tom Tillis, anybody that might be afraid of a primary threat like Mike Rounds, anyone that might be afraid of a primary threat in cycle will grow artificially closer to President Trump And his nominees and then the old bulls who are not in cycle from very very red states will take the hits for them because they think people forget and they think that times change

00:15:50.000 and they do not want to be on the wrong side of Donald Trump in a 2026 primary and you count you just do the math it becomes very obvious so what you have is this ossified seven or eight immovable Senate Republican block that is Against the president's agenda.

00:16:10.000 And they're like, well, what are you going to do about it?

00:16:11.000 Like, for example, we don't know where Senator Curtis from Utah stands.

00:16:16.000 We don't know.

00:16:17.000 Donald Trump embraced his opponent.

00:16:19.000 He's very much like Mitt Romney.

00:16:21.000 Probably not going to be on board.

00:16:22.000 But imagine, I want you to imagine this, everybody.

00:16:25.000 And this is why turning point action and the work we're doing is so important for the long term of changing the Republican Party for the better.

00:16:29.000 Imagine if we won the presidency and we can't get our people because of Senate Republicans. 0.66

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00:17:39.000 Joining us now is Sean Parnell to discuss Pete Hegseth and more.

00:17:43.000 Sean, you've also served our country honorably and courageously.

00:17:47.000 I'm going to kind of go out on a limb here and just say, going back, you've been victim of media smears against yourself while you were trying to seek a very important...

00:17:56.000 I don't want to relitigate that for the audience because it was a very nasty thing.

00:17:59.000 We had your back and we still do.

00:18:01.000 But can you kind of just give the audience the playbook that is being run against Pete Hegseth right now?

00:18:07.000 Absolutely.

00:18:08.000 And you're absolutely right.

00:18:09.000 This is very personal to me for a couple of reasons.

00:18:11.000 One, because I've known Pete for over a decade.

00:18:14.000 I know his wife.

00:18:15.000 I know his family.

00:18:16.000 I know his parents.

00:18:18.000 He's an extraordinary man with an extraordinary family.

00:18:21.000 And the smears against him, these are deliberate false smears, are absolutely sickening.

00:18:28.000 And it's personal to me for the second reason, because I've been through this and I've been on the receiving end of false attacks elevated by the media for the express sole purpose of destroying you.

00:18:40.000 And these allegations are very sinister because they're intended to make Republicans— Especially Republican senators, Republican elected officials, but in this case, senators say, well, boy, these allegations are pretty bad.

00:18:54.000 I can't possibly defend this because my voters won't like that.

00:18:57.000 But here's the thing.

00:18:59.000 The allegations are completely false.

00:19:01.000 And if we acknowledge that these accusations are horrifying to chill any sort of support from one's allies, then the opposite, our tactic must be the opposite.

00:19:14.000 And that is to speak out vocally against it.

00:19:16.000 I know what it's like to have to go through this stuff.

00:19:19.000 It's horrible.

00:19:20.000 And so when I saw Pete going through it, and by the way, Charlie, if you are a Trump person, if you are a loyal Trump person and you are a conservative, that is a danger to the radical left's agenda and a conservative who fights, this is the treatment that you get all the time.

00:19:37.000 And it absolutely has to stop.

00:19:40.000 That's why I spoke up for Pete immediately, because when the left and these anonymous sources come at us with these baseless, horrifying allegations, the only thing that we're left to do is speak out on behalf of the people that we care about.

00:19:55.000 And Pete is one of those people.

00:19:57.000 And I am telling you right here, right now on this show in front of God and everybody that the allegations against this guy Are completely false.

00:20:05.000 He's a great man.

00:20:06.000 He's a good leader.

00:20:07.000 He's a reform-minded leader.

00:20:09.000 He's somebody that is a threat to the defense industrial complex and because he's a threat, he's having to endure these horrifying attacks and it stops today.

00:20:17.000 It makes me sick.

00:20:18.000 So somebody recently was texting me, hey, Charlie, do you think Pete can survive all of the accusations?

00:20:23.000 And I said, well, tell me what they are.

00:20:25.000 And no one can really articulate them, Sean, because it's kind of just noise.

00:20:29.000 Do you know what I mean?

00:20:30.000 This is kind of like general noise.

00:20:33.000 What even are the accusations, Sean?

00:20:35.000 He drinks.

00:20:36.000 I mean, he drank a lot one time, you know, 10 years ago when he was in his late 20s, early 30s.

00:20:41.000 Yeah, no one in the military drinks.

00:20:42.000 And that's another thing.

00:20:44.000 You know, I was at Concerned Veterans for America at the same time all of these alleged events took place.

00:20:54.000 And I'm telling you that they didn't.

00:20:56.000 I was there.

00:20:59.000 The reason why, you know, another reason why this is deeply personal to me is because these smears are not only against Pete, Charlie.

00:21:06.000 There are veterans, both men and women, who joined Concerned Veterans for America who wanted to make a difference in our country and help the veteran community.

00:21:14.000 These smears are not just smears on Pete, but everybody that worked as part of Concerned Veterans for America.

00:21:20.000 And we did a- that organization- I'm very proud of the work that we did because ultimately it led to President Trump in 2018 signing the Mission Act, which gave a veteran's choice with regards to where they got their healthcare and is largely regarded as the most substantive VA reform in multiple generations.

00:21:41.000 We got that accomplished.

00:21:43.000 And to attack the organization, which is essentially, if you come away from that New Yorker piece thinking that CVA was just a slush fund for drunk veterans, nothing could be further from the truth.

00:21:54.000 It was a substantive policy organization that moved the ball down the field and made life better for veterans.

00:22:02.000 We were very effective.

00:22:03.000 And so to smear Pete is to smear the rest of the people and service members that are part of CVA that did great, extraordinary work.

00:22:09.000 And I'm not going to allow that to happen.

00:22:12.000 Yeah, I just, again, I do this for a living.

00:22:14.000 I can't even keep up with the nonsense that they're throwing at Pete.

00:22:17.000 And I just don't care.

00:22:19.000 I know him.

00:22:20.000 He's been so good to me.

00:22:22.000 He's such a generous, sincere, patriotic person.

00:22:26.000 I just, I'm going to the mat for him in any way I possibly can.

00:22:32.000 So, Sean, help me understand this.

00:22:34.000 Why is it...

00:22:36.000 That the states that are the most Trumpy, that are the most Republican and conservative, Idaho, South Dakota, Kansas, Mississippi, why are they the ones that are seemingly the most hesitant about giving Trump his cabinet?

00:22:54.000 You know, Charlie, this is a question that I ask myself often.

00:23:00.000 You know, we have very moderate senators from deep red states.

00:23:04.000 It's those senators who represent deep red states that we need to be the strongest conservatives. 0.99

00:23:12.000 But unfortunately, as so often happens, that is just not true.

00:23:17.000 The case.

00:23:18.000 And I don't know what it is, Charlie.

00:23:21.000 I don't know if it's just that they have their own interests.

00:23:24.000 I mean, you know, I've heard whispers of, you know, other senators have interests in the military-industrial complex.

00:23:31.000 Pete Hegseth is a threat to those interests.

00:23:34.000 And because those senators have ties to those organizations, they don't want Pete because they want those organizations to be intact.

00:23:41.000 Other senators, you know, probably wanted to be Secretary of Defense themselves, so maybe that's why they oppose it.

00:23:47.000 There are any number of political reasons why a senator might oppose Pete Hegseth, but I don't think that they should.

00:23:54.000 He's a good man.

00:23:56.000 He's eminently qualified.

00:23:58.000 He's reform-minded.

00:24:00.000 He's exactly what the warfighters need and exactly what the warfighters want, by the way.

00:24:06.000 And I'm telling you, I cannot...

00:24:08.000 Charlie, I have heard from so many boots-on-the-ground members of our military, doesn't matter what service, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, the warfighters want Pete Hegseth.

00:24:22.000 But this big PSYOP, this big information op, all of these character smears...

00:24:29.000 It is for those 50-plus Republican senators inside the beltway and not for the rest of us.

00:24:35.000 So if you're Pete Hegseth, you got to know, and I want him to know, that the American people, the people who elected Trump, President-elect Trump in an electoral college victory and an historic popular vote victory, those people expect Trump.

00:24:51.000 Change.

00:24:51.000 And President Trump was elected with a mandate to deliver that change.

00:24:56.000 And Pete Hegseth represents that change.

00:24:59.000 So Republican senators who are evaluating whether or not to confirm Pete Hegseth, I mean, to me, there's no evaluation necessary.

00:25:07.000 This is what the American people voted for.

00:25:10.000 But I would respectfully ask them to just have a conversation with Pete.

00:25:15.000 You will see very quickly that he's eminently qualified for the job.

00:25:19.000 You know, don't listen to all these personal, slanderous, you know, false smears.

00:25:24.000 Evaluate whether or not Pete is qualified for the job and if you have an honest conversation with the guy, you will realize very quickly that he is.

00:25:32.000 Yeah, and so these Senate Republicans, for their own reasons and ones that are not totally disclosed, seem to not actually respond to voters, but to special interests or their own very weird private ideology.

00:25:46.000 And they seem insistent on thwarting the president's agenda and just not even ignoring, but just kind of casting aside What would be a great team of changemakers?

00:25:58.000 And so, Pete right now needs to navigate this thicket.

00:26:03.000 As going through this, Sean, similar things.

00:26:06.000 What is this like?

00:26:08.000 Personally, I mean, you're not sleeping.

00:26:10.000 Your phone is lighting up all the time.

00:26:12.000 Can you just give us a little bit of detail of what it's like to be on the receiving end of a nonstop media propaganda blitzkrieg?

00:26:20.000 Thank you for asking that question.

00:26:22.000 Because Attacks like this affect more than just the person who is on the receiving end of them.

00:26:31.000 I can tell you with certainty that, you know, I have five children.

00:26:36.000 This affected them in a very deep and profound way.

00:26:39.000 You know, they weren't on the ballot, but they sure as heck knew exactly what was going on.

00:26:44.000 They were exposed to false things that they should have never been exposed to.

00:26:49.000 My family, extended family, my friends, they were all dragged into this.

00:26:54.000 All, you know, because of false media smears.

00:26:59.000 You know, in this case, we're talking about a Pennsylvania Senate race back in 2022.

00:27:02.000 Don't want to go too deep into that.

00:27:04.000 But the point is, this deeply affects...

00:27:09.000 You know, people's family.

00:27:10.000 And I know for a fact that as strong as Pete is and as strong as his wife is, you know, he's got little kids and they're watching everything that happens.

00:27:22.000 And I'm telling you, my friend, they don't deserve that.

00:27:25.000 And what's happening to Pete right now?

00:27:28.000 His children, who are all young, will remember it for the rest of their lives.

00:27:35.000 This, to me, is yet another rallying cry for Republican senators.

00:27:39.000 Don't run from this fight.

00:27:42.000 Lean into it.

00:27:44.000 It's not just about confirming Pete, but it's about circling our wagons around someone who is well qualified and saying to the media and their allies on Capitol Hill, the Democrats in Congress, that no, this is a line that you're not going to cross.

00:27:57.000 We're not going to allow you to destroy this man and his family.

00:28:01.000 We're not going to allow his family to become collateral damage for a political agenda.

00:28:05.000 Dig in, fight back.

00:28:06.000 That's what the American people expect of you.

00:28:11.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:29:13.000 So Sean, the talking points for the neocons is that, well, we need to have a strong American foreign policy, which of course you and I agree with, but there's a very important distinction here.

00:29:22.000 We're not into the abstractions of building other people's pension funds or railway systems or solar panels for the Taliban. 0.51

00:29:30.000 We want to kill the enemy, protect the homeland, and not be involved in multi-decade nation building.

00:29:37.000 What does an America first foreign policy look like?

00:29:40.000 Well, yeah, first of all, I completely agree.

00:29:44.000 Listen, Charlie, I was in Afghanistan for 485 days in 2006 to 2007. My platoon took an 85% casualty rate.

00:29:54.000 Some of my men were wounded twice.

00:29:56.000 One guy was wounded three times.

00:29:57.000 I was wounded myself.

00:29:59.000 This was the longest combat deployment in global war on terror history.

00:30:04.000 I have seen, and first of all, I fought the enemies of this country up close and personal.

00:30:08.000 We killed over 350 enemy fighters, didn't hurt a single civilian in the process.

00:30:14.000 I've been on the receiving end of enemy fire.

00:30:16.000 I know the cost of war.

00:30:18.000 And when I came home, I was the rear detachment commander for my unit as a captain and was responsible for knocking on the doors to families of the fallen.

00:30:28.000 It was the hardest job that I've ever had.

00:30:31.000 We were in Afghanistan for over 20 years.

00:30:34.000 I'm 43 years old, so about half of my life we were fighting in Afghanistan.

00:30:40.000 And what do we have to show for that war?

00:30:43.000 All that blood, all that treasure, all the sacrifices wasted in Afghanistan because politicians, Joe Biden and his administration, decided to surrender there in the most embarrassing way possible.

00:31:00.000 And you look at Afghanistan.

00:31:02.000 Iraq is no different. 0.97

00:31:03.000 We left Iraq.

00:31:04.000 We created a void.

00:31:06.000 ISIS filled that void.

00:31:07.000 They rampaged across the Middle East, leaving bodies in their wake in every country along the way. 0.65

00:31:13.000 What do we have to show for that?

00:31:15.000 Trillions of dollars spent, thousands of Americans dead, tens of thousands wounded, hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering from the invisible wounds of war, a million Iraqis dead because of that conflict, and now the very same people, both Democrats and Republicans, have got us into a quagmire in Ukraine that will likely end the same exact way unless a bold reform strategy is taken when Donald Trump gets in office in January.

00:31:44.000 But an America first foreign policy means exactly that.

00:31:48.000 It means putting this country first.

00:31:50.000 It means, yes, we understand that war is sometimes necessary.

00:31:54.000 And by the way, if America or our interests are ever threatened, I will be the first in line to fight for this country.

00:32:03.000 But we should not be sending America's sons and daughters frivolously into the fight.

00:32:08.000 In fact, that should be a last-ditch effort in pursuit of peace.

00:32:13.000 I'm almost anti-war in almost every way because of my experiences in war.

00:32:18.000 And so for me, an America First foreign policy means putting the interests of Americans actually first, maybe protecting our border instead of spending hundreds of billions in Ukraine for them to protect theirs.

00:32:31.000 I love that.

00:32:33.000 And Sean, in closing here, with so many threats that are emerging, the essence of so much of our foreign policy is, do you care more about the prosperity of the American people or some sort of foreign, abstract, very hard to pin down talking point?

00:32:57.000 Final question, one minute remaining, Sean.

00:32:59.000 Do you think the Republican Party is changing for the better in this regard, understanding that?

00:33:03.000 I think Trump and Trump allies are.

00:33:07.000 I am not sure the Republican Party is there yet.

00:33:09.000 Although I will also say this, this is President Trump's Republican Party.

00:33:13.000 This is an America First Party.

00:33:15.000 This is exactly where the base is.

00:33:18.000 And I think moving forward, the major question that most of us should have is like, look, best case scenario now, we've got four years of President Trump, who I think was the best president of my lifetime.

00:33:28.000 What then?

00:33:30.000 And so I think our focus, and I know it's your focus as well, to get as many great America First candidates in office as humanly possible to rectify this problem.

00:33:38.000 But far too many Republicans say, we've got to fight terrorists there.

00:33:43.000 We've got to fight them there to keep them from here. 1.00

00:33:45.000 Those are lazy stock platitudes that have done nothing but get us into one foreign policy disaster after the next.

00:33:52.000 I'm so glad you said that.

00:33:53.000 And by the way, whenever you ask them, well, what does that mean?

00:33:55.000 It's one platitude.

00:33:59.000 It's just that doesn't make any sense.

00:34:01.000 Okay, Sean, thank you so much.

00:34:03.000 Plug your program 20 seconds here, Sean.

00:34:04.000 Plug whatever you want.

00:34:06.000 Yeah, I'm on Battleground Live.

00:34:07.000 It airs Monday through Friday at 5 p.m.

00:34:09.000 on Rumble.

00:34:10.000 Go follow me there.

00:34:11.000 I'm also on Twitter at Sean Parnell USA. But as always, Charlie, thank you for having me and giving me this platform.

00:34:16.000 You're the best, Sean.

00:34:17.000 Talk to you soon.

00:34:18.000 Thank you.

00:34:19.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:34:20.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:34:22.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - December 04, 2024

Debunking the Hegseth Hogwash

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