The Charlie Kirk Show - Elon Musk and the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ with Darren Beattie

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk show, Darren Beattie talks about Elon Musk's takeover.

00:00:04.000 Is it possible that Elon Musk actually has control of the whole situation in the sense where he's thought this all through?

00:00:11.000 That does the government need Elon Musk more than Elon Musk needs the government?

00:00:14.000 That's an interesting question that we entertain here and so much more.

00:00:20.000 Email us your thoughts.

00:00:20.000 It's always freedom at charliekirk.com, including a poll.

00:00:23.000 Trump or DeSantis?

00:00:24.000 I want to hear your thoughts.

00:00:26.000 Email me directly, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:28.000 We'll select some of the people that vote to our poll to win some Charlie Kirk show merchandise.

00:00:33.000 Do you want Trump or DeSantis to run in 2024?

00:00:37.000 I articulate in this episode where my loyalties lie.

00:00:40.000 However, I'm just interested.

00:00:41.000 CharlieKirk.com slash support to get behind the work we are doing.

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00:00:56.000 Support the Charlie Kirk show at charliekirk.com slash support.

00:00:59.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:01:00.000 Here we go.

00:01:16.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:01:18.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.

00:01:20.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:01:23.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:01:27.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:28.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:29.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:01:30.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

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00:02:00.000 Hello, everybody.

00:02:01.000 Welcome back.

00:02:02.000 Email us your thoughts.

00:02:02.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:02:04.000 Democrats are trying to pull the alarm.

00:02:10.000 They are realizing that one man is remaking the mold.

00:02:15.000 CNN.com, what's left of it.

00:02:20.000 They write, pay attention to what Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida.

00:02:25.000 Not a week goes by, CNN writes, without Florida's governors, Ron DeSantis, proposing or signing some bill that aggravates progressives, worries civil rights leaders.

00:02:34.000 I love that term civil rights leaders.

00:02:36.000 It's so Orwellian.

00:02:38.000 They're the opposite of civil rights leaders.

00:02:39.000 They don't protect civil rights. 0.98

00:02:40.000 They protect the criminalization of civil rights.

00:02:43.000 Yeah, civil rights leader, very worried that free speech could be a threat to civil rights.

00:02:47.000 Huh.

00:02:50.000 CNN writes, or penalizes politically correct corporations.

00:02:55.000 Is that how they're labeling it now?

00:02:57.000 Disney's a politically correct organization.

00:03:00.000 Oh, I see.

00:03:01.000 Okay.

00:03:01.000 So teaching a six-year-old about sex and transgender and puberty blockers makes you a politically correct corporation.

00:03:13.000 CNN writes, Ron DeSantis is a generational talent at seizing headlines.

00:03:19.000 This is the stuff presidential ambitions are made of.

00:03:22.000 This week it was Florida's second major election overhaul in as many years in which DeSantis created a new election police force focused on election fraud.

00:03:31.000 It would be under his control, even though he's up for reelection in November.

00:03:35.000 Wait a second.

00:03:35.000 So if DeSantis is able to put together an election police force, why doesn't every Republican do that?

00:03:43.000 We seem to be asking that question a lot with Ron DeSantis, don't we?

00:03:46.000 We ask the question of why him and not others?

00:03:49.000 Why does he have the courage and the will to do things?

00:03:51.000 And Brian Kemp from Georgia does not.

00:03:54.000 Why him?

00:03:58.000 CNN writes, but what kind of a president would Ron DeSantis be?

00:04:01.000 Heir to Trump, with the exception of former President Donald Trump, who wants his old job back, no single person has generated more major campaign inevitability than DeSantis.

00:04:10.000 But while Trump is cloistered at his private clubs and doing some rallies and fundraisers, DeSantis has turned his state position into a national platform more than any governor in recent memory.

00:04:20.000 So I get asked this question all the time: Charlie, who will you support?

00:04:23.000 Ron DeSantis or Trump?

00:04:24.000 Or what?

00:04:24.000 I'm a loyal guy.

00:04:25.000 If Trump runs, he has my word.

00:04:28.000 I'll be loyal to him.

00:04:30.000 But it would be very difficult for me to be against DeSantis.

00:04:33.000 It would be very difficult for me to all of a sudden attack America's greatest governor if DeSantis were to challenge Trump.

00:04:39.000 But I am curious for all of you, if you're watching this, and what are your thoughts?

00:04:46.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, DeSantis or Trump.

00:04:49.000 I will pick one of those randomly and we'll send you guys some Charlie Kirk swag to incentivize you.

00:04:56.000 Just do a poll.

00:04:57.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, email me.

00:04:59.000 Do you want DeSantis or do you want Trump in 2024?

00:05:07.000 Friend from the Midwest emailed us both.

00:05:10.000 Now, the only problem is that they're both from the same state.

00:05:15.000 So one person would have to leave Florida like Trump could get a condo in Texas.

00:05:20.000 The 12th Amendment does not allow someone from the same state to be president and vice president.

00:05:25.000 With DeSantis to win his reelection campaign, CNN writes in November before he can really start thinking about a run for the White House, but hasn't officially announced.

00:05:33.000 Look, DeSantis, I think, is going to win the Florida reelection by five to 10 points easily.

00:05:39.000 CNN asks the question: is it too early to talk about 2024?

00:05:43.000 Joe Biden's approval ratings are stubbornly underwater.

00:05:46.000 I love how CNN writes this as a news article, and they write that the approval ratings of a president are stubbornly underwater.

00:05:53.000 Really?

00:05:53.000 That writes how like an internal Democrat memo would write.

00:05:57.000 If I was a Democrat strategist, how are our approval ratings, Ron Klain and Joe Biden?

00:06:02.000 They're stubbornly underwater.

00:06:05.000 It's a really weird way to put it for a news organization.

00:06:09.000 Like maybe if you're a Democrat super PAC, the country is divided as ever, and at least one major bank is girding for a recession in the near future.

00:06:18.000 I do believe a recession is in our cards, unfortunately.

00:06:21.000 Is that crazy to think these things, disappointment, division, and the threat of a downturn, create a difficult environment for Biden's reelection?

00:06:28.000 I love how this kind of like slow self-discovery process, they're like, wait, Biden might be in trouble?

00:06:35.000 Yeah.

00:06:38.000 So CNN's finally waking up to the fact that Ron DeSantis might be a real threat.

00:06:42.000 Quote, granted, we're not yet halfway through his presidency.

00:06:46.000 But it's important to consider the alternative since you can be sure they're already plotting campaign strategies.

00:06:52.000 DeSantis turning on Disney for its opposition to a new Florida law, many consider to be anti-LGBTQ.

00:06:57.000 Can you see how CNN writes this stuff?

00:06:59.000 I mean, you wonder why CNN Plus totally collapsed.

00:07:02.000 So CNN says, quote, Ron DeSantis went after Disney for its opposition to a new Florida law that many consider it to be anti-LGBTQ.

00:07:10.000 Yeah, like weird people consider it to be anti-LGBTQ.

00:07:13.000 Perverts consider it to be anti-LGBTQ.

00:07:16.000 If you want to teach children about these highly sensitive matters, by the way, the results of our poll are coming in very quickly.

00:07:23.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, DeSantis vs. Trump.

00:07:26.000 I want to hear from everybody.

00:07:27.000 I want to hear your thoughts.

00:07:29.000 I've already told you I'm a loyal guy, so I'm telling you where I stand.

00:07:32.000 I'm just curious what people think.

00:07:33.000 It's right.

00:07:34.000 You know where I stand.

00:07:37.000 CNN writes, Ron DeSantis is the imperial governor.

00:07:41.000 Noted recently that DeSantis' rise puts him on a collision course with Trump.

00:07:45.000 His ability to mold state government around him is something Trump could only dream of and that would never work in Washington.

00:07:52.000 Maybe.

00:07:54.000 Quote, DeSantis' imperial governorship.

00:07:58.000 Where did these people get this stuff?

00:08:00.000 The imperial governorship reached new heights when the actions of Florida's legislature demonstrated how he is not only bending state government to his will, but also to his whims.

00:08:11.000 About time someone in the Republican Party does something meaningful.

00:08:17.000 In a special session, lawmakers approved new congressional maps proposed by his office that appears all but to certain to dilute the voting power of people of color.

00:08:27.000 On the same day, the legislature carried out DeSantis' threat to punish Disney for speaking out against the law he recently signed that limits certain classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

00:08:40.000 This is incredible the world they live in.

00:08:43.000 One person just emailed us their vote.

00:08:45.000 Definitely DeSantis because Trump is too polarizing, but we'll be behind 100% Trump if he's the nominee.

00:08:53.000 Why do they hate him? CNN says.

00:08:54.000 Well, here's the thing.

00:08:56.000 He's anti-mandate, anti-woke, anti-tech, anti-protest.

00:09:00.000 No, he's anti-riot, CNN.

00:09:02.000 This is what I love.

00:09:03.000 In a response to the killing of George Floyd, while other states reviewed policing policies, DeSantison called for a so-called anti-riot bill that opponents say target peaceful protesters.

00:09:14.000 Really?

00:09:15.000 If you're a peaceful protester and you're burning down a Wendy's, are you really a peaceful protester?

00:09:22.000 Anti-woke, DeSantis has been on the forefront of attacking wokeness and critical race theory, signing a new law that bans businesses and schools from teaching about white privilege.

00:09:35.000 His administration has always rejected, has recently rejected math textbooks from publishers, claiming some included elements of critical race theory and emotional social learning.

00:09:46.000 In closing, CNN writes, they say, it's easy to imagine very different uses of a massive federal apparatus if someone with such talent for the politics of division were to assume office.

00:10:00.000 Email me your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:10:03.000 DeSantis or Trump, where do you think?

00:10:05.000 In 2024.

00:10:09.000 And by the way, we don't make a habit of talking about CNN, but I'm using this because they're starting to wake up.

00:10:13.000 They're starting to say, like, wait a second, why is DeSantis so popular? 0.82

00:10:18.000 He must be a fascist. 0.83

00:10:20.000 Right. 0.80

00:10:22.000 Terry from Corona, California, DeSantis, DeSantis, DeSantis.

00:10:26.000 Bill from Florida.

00:10:28.000 I'm a big supporter of Trump, but thinks DeSantis is less controversial, more electable.

00:10:32.000 One person says here that Trump forever.

00:10:35.000 Trump forever is a big kind of one.

00:10:37.000 It's tough.

00:10:38.000 It's tight.

00:10:39.000 One person says Trump for four years, so we can get Ron DeSantis for eight.

00:10:43.000 So keep your thoughts coming in.

00:10:45.000 It's very helpful for me to kind of see where the base is at.

00:10:47.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:10:49.000 Okay, let's get to this one here all about energy.

00:10:53.000 We have all the energy stuff queued up here.

00:10:56.000 Cut 69, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calls for a halt on gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.

00:11:06.000 It's another provocation promising an immediate united response.

00:11:09.000 It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us.

00:11:13.000 Play Cut 69.

00:11:15.000 Gaspron's announcement that it is unilaterally stopping gas deliveries to certain EU member states is another provocation from the Kremlin.

00:11:26.000 But it comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us.

00:11:33.000 Yeah, I mean, look, of course they're going to try to blackmail you.

00:11:35.000 Okay, they're at war with Ukraine.

00:11:38.000 The question is, why have you allowed them to have the opportunity to blackmail you?

00:11:42.000 Because you have prioritized ideology over competency or ideology over practicality.

00:11:52.000 You care much more about some sort of green future than using the assets and the resources at your disposal.

00:11:58.000 You're right right here.

00:12:00.000 That Europeans can trust that we can stand united and in full solidarity with member states impacted in the faces of this new challenge.

00:12:10.000 The news put U.S. natural gas futures up 3%.

00:12:13.000 European gas prices jumped 20%.

00:12:17.000 It's amazing the casualties and the consequences of declaring an all-out war on American energy.

00:12:23.000 It really is.

00:12:25.000 Declaring a war on American energy turns out not to be a very smart idea.

00:12:32.000 Have you looked at how much of Russia is inside your 401k or IRA?

00:12:36.000 Did you know my friends at PAX Financial Group have zero investments in Russia through their biblical investment strategy?

00:12:42.000 Those companies were screened out long ago because they didn't pass the treat people right test.

00:12:46.000 One of the most important tenets of the Christian faith is to love your neighbor, and this includes to love your employees.

00:12:52.000 Based on PAX's biblical responsible investment strategy, a company, domestic or international, is excluded from an investment from your portfolio if it violates our innate God-given fundamental rights.

00:13:02.000 So PAX Financial is wonderful.

00:13:04.000 They share our values.

00:13:05.000 In fact, I know people that have switched to PAX Financial from our partnership, and they speak so favorably about it.

00:13:12.000 Stop using the woke money managers.

00:13:14.000 PAX Financial is rooted in biblical wisdom.

00:13:18.000 So if you have $150,000 or more and would like to know more about biblical responsible investing at PAX Financial Group, text Charlie to number 74868.

00:13:28.000 That's Charlie at number 74868.

00:13:32.000 That's Charlie to number 74868.

00:13:35.000 So you just take out your phone, text the number 74868, and type in Charlie to get to know about PAX Biblical Responsible Investing.

00:13:45.000 Biblical responsible investing strategy, take out your phone, text Charlie to 74868.

00:13:52.000 They're about to manage some money for me.

00:13:54.000 I really think highly of PAX Financial.

00:13:56.000 Text Charlie to number 74868.

00:14:02.000 Here is the great Darren Beattie from Revolver.news.

00:14:05.000 If you are not supporting Revolver.news, you should be.

00:14:08.000 They're one of the few organizations that actually does journalism in our country.

00:14:12.000 Revolver.news.

00:14:14.000 Darren, welcome back to the program.

00:14:15.000 So great to be back.

00:14:16.000 Thanks for having me.

00:14:18.000 So, Darren, there's a lot of different stories we can address here, but I do want to talk to you about the Elon Musk story.

00:14:24.000 This is being met with enthusiasm from most base conservatives, populists, and nationalists, the MAGA types, if you will.

00:14:31.000 The establishment Republicans seem to not love it, or they're just kind of glossing their eyes over at it.

00:14:36.000 Now, help us walk us through this because Elon is not necessarily team right.

00:14:42.000 He's socially liberal on certain things, pro-China in other ways.

00:14:47.000 Also, the Neuralink stuff we're not a big fan of.

00:14:49.000 But you seem supportive of this, and I am as well.

00:14:52.000 Tell us why.

00:14:54.000 Yes, I'm incredibly supportive for the simple reason that Twitter really is, as Elon characterizes it, the global public square.

00:15:04.000 And the question of who controls information flows on the global public square and whether or not there's free speech on the global public square is an existential one.

00:15:16.000 It's existential from the point of view of the stakeholders in our regime, which I believe will do everything in their power possible to prevent this from happening.

00:15:26.000 And it's also existential for us because if we're not able to have free speech at scale, we're never going to be able to have genuine political victories.

00:15:38.000 And so I support this because even though probably a realistic and fair assessment would be the odds are stacked against Elon.

00:15:47.000 Now, he's already done an incredibly impressive job for how far he's taken it, but this is just the start.

00:15:54.000 And so, you know, he's up against a lot.

00:15:57.000 Maybe he won't succeed.

00:15:58.000 I hope he will.

00:15:59.000 If anyone can do it, he can.

00:16:01.000 But what's important is that this is the greatest show on earth.

00:16:04.000 This is the place where the meaningful battle is taking place right now.

00:16:09.000 Because if we can liberate the global public square, the optionality increases tremendously in terms of what we can achieve politically.

00:16:17.000 And this seems to be such an unexpected development, right?

00:16:20.000 Only someone with the, I will use a nicer term, a spine, like there's other body parts I could use, of Elon could actually be able to do this.

00:16:30.000 So we as conservatives need to look, I suppose, what you're arguing, and I agree wholeheartedly, that we need to look at this in terms of power dynamics, right?

00:16:38.000 That if Elon is helpful now to the liberation of humanity from this kind of technocratic regime, then let's do it.

00:16:46.000 Let's sign him up.

00:16:47.000 Let's try to get him on our team.

00:16:49.000 Is that the way we need to look at it?

00:16:50.000 The same way the kind of left designed kind of power and allies and all this, and less about just whether or not somebody agrees with me on everything?

00:16:59.000 Yeah, I mean, I think that's looking at it from the perspective of what Elon's personal political affiliations might be versus what the policy implications would be for Twitter as a service in terms of the terms of service governing speech.

00:17:15.000 I think that's probably the least sophisticated way to look at it.

00:17:20.000 And looking at it that way is a way to ensure continued failure.

00:17:25.000 You know, I know a lot of conversation sort of it's been a trope within conservative dialogue to talk about, oh, our ideas are better.

00:17:33.000 Ideas have consequences.

00:17:36.000 The reason that the left can only win by censoring us.

00:17:40.000 And there's a lot of truth to all those things.

00:17:42.000 But then the question is: so what?

00:17:45.000 The game is not about, okay, there is no marketplace of ideas.

00:17:49.000 There's the meta game of who controls the marketplace that decides what ideas are allowed to prevail.

00:17:57.000 And that's the game that Elon's playing.

00:17:59.000 He's playing it at the very highest level, and he's shown every indication, which is a rarity among people of his station at that level of being a billionaire, to actually play for keeps and put things on the line.

00:18:11.000 Because Sai said, this is an existential threat.

00:18:15.000 This amounts to a declaration of war on our corrupt and illegitimate regime.

00:18:21.000 And he hasn't seen anything yet.

00:18:23.000 This is the battle of his life.

00:18:25.000 It's the fight of his life.

00:18:27.000 He might not even understand exactly what he's getting into.

00:18:31.000 This is Trump 2016 proportions, and he's going to see a reaction that resembles that, if not even more intense.

00:18:39.000 Do you think he can win that?

00:18:42.000 You know, that's the thing.

00:18:43.000 Like, my honest assessment is probably more likely that he'll not prevail.

00:18:50.000 But even if I were to give it, say, a 15 to 20% chance, that's a hell of a great chance.

00:18:57.000 That's an optimistic thing because if he were to win, it would actually be meaningful.

00:19:02.000 Because so many of the battles that we see now are just fake and performative, and they don't really amount to anything.

00:19:09.000 They're just fake things to get people invested, to get people to donate money, and they'll never deliver anything.

00:19:16.000 And so even if this is a 20% chance of delivering the highest stakes imaginable, I'd say that's incredibly optimistic.

00:19:25.000 So one thing I like here is that this is actually a real fight.

00:19:29.000 This actually has real stakes here, the highest imaginable.

00:19:33.000 And so, like I say, this is the greatest show on earth.

00:19:36.000 This battle taking place right now is the greatest show on earth, and its consequences will be proportionate to that description.

00:19:43.000 In some ways, he's already won part of the battle by taking Twitter away from them.

00:19:51.000 And I said this and someone pushed back, but can it really get worse?

00:19:54.000 I mean, there's no way Elon is going to make it worse than what it are.

00:19:58.000 It's already a censorship propaganda machine.

00:20:01.000 So even if it just gets a little bit better, that prevents them from still having that part of their machinery.

00:20:09.000 So let me ask you, how do you think they're going to strike back?

00:20:11.000 I mean, the empire always does.

00:20:13.000 These people aren't just going to be like, oh, I guess we lost.

00:20:16.000 I mean, I anticipate subpoenas for Musk.

00:20:19.000 I anticipate his government contract to SpaceX to be put into jeopardy.

00:20:22.000 I anticipate electric vehicle subsidies to be put in jeopardy.

00:20:25.000 I anticipate major audits, DOJ investigations, SEC investigations, a public propaganda campaign, sexual assault allegations, Me Too allegations.

00:20:37.000 What else?

00:20:39.000 Well, you covered a lot of it, and it's really interesting there, as you point out, a great deal of Elon's success.

00:20:49.000 He's a tremendously talented person, but a great deal of his success comes from his willingness and ability to play ball with the government, to use government contracts.

00:21:00.000 SpaceX is essentially the government deciding, you know what, NASA is basically a mess at this point.

00:21:08.000 So here, Elon, we're basically allowing you to be the private NASA.

00:21:13.000 And the whole kind of the pitch of Tesla, yeah, it's cool.

00:21:17.000 It's these cars are cool and everything.

00:21:19.000 But a huge part of the pitch and the narrative was riding that wave of, okay, this is how we're going to fight climate change and everything.

00:21:26.000 So he's really been kind of sailing in the direction of the establishment.

00:21:30.000 That's been a key to his success.

00:21:32.000 And this is why it's so rare to see people like Elon actually turn against the system.

00:21:37.000 It's kind of, it's equivalent to in academia, there's something called tenure.

00:21:41.000 And if you play ball for enough time, after seven, eight years or so, they'll give you tenure and they can't fire you.

00:21:48.000 The only thing is the kind of person with such a slavish personality that they can make it seven years just being a yes man and pretending to believe what the others say, that kind of person generally is not going to rock the boat after seven years once they have tenure. 0.74

00:22:04.000 There's a similar thing at a bigger scale when it comes to what sort of person does the system allow to get to Elon's level.

00:22:11.000 And he's gotten to that level by playing ball.

00:22:14.000 And now he's totally turning against them.

00:22:16.000 And as you point out, they can sabotage Tesla.

00:22:19.000 And actually, a lot of this deal is predicated on, I would imagine, the value of Tesla shares.

00:22:25.000 So they might be able to sabotage the deal completely by going after Tesla.

00:22:31.000 European Union countries can say, oh, if you don't play ball with our interpretation of censorship and censoring hate speech, we're just going to ban Twitter.

00:22:41.000 You can have various news outlets institute a kind of a link, a domain ban on Twitter links.

00:22:49.000 So whereas now it's typical to see Twitter links embedded into stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, and so forth.

00:22:56.000 They can just say, okay, we're no longer doing that.

00:22:59.000 They can punt up the censorship level to basically having Google and Amazon try to disrupt any type of distribution.

00:23:07.000 And then if that doesn't work, we're already hearing remarks from Elizabeth Warren and others that they're willing to take aggressive government action, ironically, using Section 230 and other things to go after Elon.

00:23:21.000 So they have a lot of materials at their disposal.

00:23:24.000 And we're just talking about the somewhat above board and clean methods.

00:23:28.000 There are much dirtier methods, much darker methods that they can use as well if it comes to that.

00:23:34.000 And so, but here's here.

00:23:35.000 So I have two thoughts.

00:23:36.000 And this is so interesting.

00:23:38.000 I think that every one of those measures, he's in a double down.

00:23:41.000 Okay, you're gonna tell me I can't do AWS servers.

00:23:44.000 I'm gonna build my own servers.

00:23:45.000 And he just kind of does have the ability to do that, right?

00:23:49.000 He's like, oh, you're gonna say that I can't have Twitter in Germany?

00:23:52.000 I'll blast it in from Starlink, right?

00:23:55.000 I mean, there is kind of like a part to him where he's going to keep doubling down.

00:24:02.000 I mean, he's already showed that, right?

00:24:03.000 I mean, you don't 44 billion.

00:24:06.000 I think he might be looking at this as saying, if I'm going to be prevented from being allowed to get people to speak, then I might have to just rebuild the entire ecosystem.

00:24:15.000 And something tells me about him, and this is pure conjecture, though, or speculation.

00:24:19.000 I've never met him.

00:24:20.000 I know people that know him well.

00:24:21.000 We've had him on this program.

00:24:22.000 He just might keep going until they just take him off the chessboard, right?

00:24:27.000 And, but you bring up an interesting point.

00:24:29.000 And a quick answer to this, only a minute.

00:24:32.000 Is there a calculus in Elon's mind that the government needs him more than he needs the government?

00:24:38.000 For example, SpaceX is doing basically all of the work of the United States Space Force right now, from satellite technology to missions to international space mission.

00:24:48.000 Does Elon feel as if he's got the U.S. government over a barrel?

00:24:52.000 You know, that's a great observation.

00:24:55.000 And it could just be if he pulls this off, that will be a major factor that he's become too big to fail.

00:25:03.000 And he's waited long enough to show his hand and actually to turn against him.

00:25:07.000 Because if he showed inklings in this direction just five years ago, 10 years ago, they would have never let him hit the exact right now.

00:25:14.000 He's at this point and he does have some leverage.

00:25:17.000 The only question is, how existential is it to the regime to prevent free speech?

00:25:23.000 I think it actually is existential and they'll do everything in their power to prevent it.

00:25:28.000 So that's why I'd give it a 20% chance.

00:25:31.000 I could just see kind of a meeting on one side, like we have to shut up Elon.

00:25:36.000 And the other side is just some kind of the last like gasp of a patriot at the Pentagon and be like, yo, yo, guys, slow down.

00:25:43.000 You realize you go to war with him and stop the SpaceX thing.

00:25:46.000 We don't have satellites.

00:25:48.000 Like we don't have the ability to fight the Russians or the Chinese. 0.91

00:25:52.000 And you could just kind of see those debates unfolding, right?

00:25:55.000 Right.

00:25:56.000 And although I would have to say, from the point of view of the stakeholders of the regime, preventing free speech domestically is more important to them.

00:26:06.000 I agree.

00:26:06.000 No, I'm just saying, though, that they're defeating China.

00:26:09.000 I totally agree, but there will be some remnant of like, hey, are we really prepared to disentangle our whole space operation?

00:26:21.000 Hello, everybody.

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00:26:34.000 But now there's a choice.

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00:27:20.000 But you made a really interesting point that even if those kind of internal discussions were unfolding in Washington, D.C., right, with a five-star general and, you know, kind of a White House staffer and the vice president or whatever, you would have to say that they would have to rank the suppression of domestic speech to be more important than actually preventing Chinese hegemony.

00:27:40.000 Is that correct?

00:27:41.000 Absolutely.

00:27:42.000 And I think even as you see the relationship between sort of the foreign policy agenda and the domestic agenda, so much of this ostensible concern for Russian disinformation and foreign meddling, that's simply a pretext to suppress the popular will at home.

00:28:03.000 And so so much of the alleged concern for foreign policy is simply a smokescreen in order to further suppress speech and political activity at home.

00:28:14.000 So I think, and, you know, to a certain extent, I don't blame them.

00:28:18.000 Free speech is an existential threat to them.

00:28:21.000 Free speech is not compatible with the regime as it exists today.

00:28:26.000 And that really says something interesting about what media companies are at the highest level.

00:28:33.000 They don't exist really to generate profit or revenue.

00:28:37.000 They exist because of their influence.

00:28:39.000 Yeah, their propaganda instruments.

00:28:41.000 Their influence at that level will always exceed the value of whatever kind of revenue comes in in monetary terms.

00:28:48.000 So even though the price tag of Twitter is $44 billion, the question of who controls information flow in the global public square is vastly more important.

00:28:58.000 It's a $100 trillion question, right?

00:29:00.000 It really is.

00:29:00.000 Absolutely.

00:29:01.000 That's the $100 trillion question, which is...

00:29:04.000 Absolutely.

00:29:04.000 And so, but so let me ask you, Elon has been a creation of the left.

00:29:08.000 If it wasn't for the electric vehicle push, I don't know if his net worth would have exploded the way it did.

00:29:15.000 Is there any credence, you think, to the theory that he has been steadily and patiently building this influence and power where he becomes virtually uncancelable, where he has almost, he's also can look him in the eyes like, you really want to do this, guys?

00:29:29.000 I mean, we control the space program.

00:29:31.000 Is there any thoughts that do you think he's an engineer?

00:29:33.000 He's very rational, right?

00:29:35.000 So do you think in his mind he's thought through if this, then what?

00:29:38.000 If they try to do this, then what?

00:29:40.000 I mean, is there anything to the argument that Elon's cards outweigh the regimes?

00:29:47.000 I think it's a situation where if anyone can pull it off, it's Elon.

00:29:52.000 I think just given the magnitude of what he's up against, he's still the underdog in this fight, and we should correctly understand him to be the underdog.

00:30:01.000 There's probably somewhat of an analogy to be made to the 2016 election where another intrepid billionaire stepped out into the arena, played the highest stakes game against the coordinated opposition of every powerful institution in the Western world, and he won the election in the same way that Elon now looks like at least he's going to win Twitter, but that's only the start.

00:30:27.000 Winning the election is only the start.

00:30:29.000 It doesn't presuppose actual authority over the executive branch.

00:30:33.000 Similarly, this is just the start of the battle for Elon in terms of his war against the Z. 0.99

00:30:38.000 Well, and so, but what if, and this is where the only difference in the analogy is, is that what if now this inspires at least five other billionaires to have solidarity with Elon, right?

00:30:48.000 What if all of a sudden this creates kind of the dissident billionaire?

00:30:51.000 Five to ten billionaires come alongside, they could do a lot of damage.

00:30:55.000 That could make a big difference, right?

00:30:57.000 Absolutely.

00:30:58.000 And it almost goes to show instead of all the money that's spent on campaigns, what if we just took an election cycle, pooled it into a SPAC and said, okay, we're going to take over one media company per election cycle.

00:31:11.000 We might be in a better position than we are now, frankly.

00:31:14.000 That would be rational, smart, and it would only make the greatest show on earth more interesting.

00:31:22.000 Revolver.news, Darren Beattie, his IQ is immeasurably high.

00:31:27.000 He thinks about these things very deeply.

00:31:29.000 And he was calling for Elon to do this before it was actually in the mainstream.

00:31:34.000 If you go back, he was calling for this.

00:31:36.000 And maybe it made a difference.

00:31:38.000 It's really interesting.

00:31:39.000 Revolver.news.

00:31:40.000 I am more optimistic now for the West than I was two weeks ago.

00:31:45.000 And that's where I'm at because of this.

00:31:47.000 But I agree, he's up against the big forces.

00:31:49.000 Darren, thank you so much.

00:31:50.000 God bless you, man.

00:31:51.000 Thank you.

00:31:52.000 Thank you so much for listening, everybody.

00:31:53.000 Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:31:56.000 And get involved with TurningPointUSA at tpusa.com or get involved in our young women's leadership summit, tpusa.com/slash ywls.

00:32:04.000 Thank you so much for listening.

00:32:05.000 God bless.

00:32:09.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - April 28, 2022

Elon Musk and the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ with Darren Beattie

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