00:00:00.000Hey everybody, finally some good news.
00:00:02.000No, actually some really, really good news.
00:00:05.000We go through how two Democrats have made a courageous pledge to save the American Republic.
00:00:11.000And if they actually do what they say they're going to do, it's going to buy this beautiful gift we've been given a little bit of time.
00:00:17.000Email us your questions, everybody, freedom at charliekirk.com.
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00:01:01.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:26.000Maybe scroll down on your iPhone in the bottom right.
00:01:28.000If you look at your service provider and you don't see those three beautiful words in a square called VPN, then your phone might as well be in the hands of a Menlo Park Master Silicon Valley elitist.
00:01:41.000A VPN is like building a wall, building security for your phone.
00:01:45.000When I switch on my ExpressVPN, which I do every day right when I wake up with my computer or phone, my IP address is masked by a secure VPN server, which makes it harder for websites to identify me.
00:01:57.000And it's harder for Big Brother, big government, and big tech to spy on you.
00:02:02.000The ExpressVPN app also encrypts my network data to protect my sensitive information from being compromised.
00:02:08.000I've used a lot of VPNs and I settled on ExpressVPN before they ever came to our program to partner.
00:02:14.000And I was so thrilled because I said, I use this all the time.
00:03:08.000Not just some average news, but some great news to share.
00:03:13.000And we are going to be one of the only programs, I think, in the entire country celebrating today.
00:03:18.000Now, I don't want to celebrate too preemptively because some people could be misleading us.
00:03:23.000Some people could be saying some things that are not true.
00:03:26.000However, anytime that we get even the smallest victory in the coming months and years, we're going to take a moment to enjoy it and to appreciate it.
00:03:40.000So right now, there is a lot of fear in the conservative movement for good reason.
00:03:48.000A lot of people are very worried that now The Democrats in total and complete control of our country with the United States House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House, are going to do everything they possibly can to fundamentally change our country.
00:04:06.000We're already seeing what Joe Biden has done in less than a week, wasting no time with transgender executive orders, with the destruction of the Keystone XL pipeline, with many other executive actions and orders, what he is trying to do with just his own power and control.
00:04:32.000However, the thing that we as conservatives should be most worried about, the things that we should be most concerned about is not just Joe Biden signing executive orders.
00:04:45.000Those are bad, but they can be undone.
00:04:48.000But instead, the dramatic changes to how our country is run, to how we do our elections, and to how we have representation in government.
00:05:05.000The major concerns that most conservatives have are the following.
00:05:12.000Joe Biden's going to try to add new states to the Union, like Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
00:05:17.000Joe Biden's going to try to eliminate the Electoral College.
00:05:22.000Joe Biden is going to try to have universal vote by mail, H.R. 1, in the United States House of Representatives.
00:05:33.000Joe Biden is going to fundamentally change the way that we do freedom of speech in this country, or freedom of speech is allowed and protected.
00:05:41.000All of these fears are understandable.
00:05:46.000And with Chuck Schumer going around saying that we win Georgia, we are going to change the world, and now a New York Liberal Democrat is running the United States Senate, with a San Francisco liberal running the United States House of Representatives, most conservatives are seeking metaphorical shelter right now.
00:06:05.000They're saying, that's it, the Republic is over, we're done.
00:06:09.000I actually have some good news to share.
00:06:12.000You see, the Founding Fathers put in provisions.
00:06:16.000They put in safeguards for liberty and freedom to make a complete and total revolution in our country very difficult.
00:07:00.000Grassroots conservatives today, at least at the very moment we're in, can take a small and brief sigh of relief.
00:07:12.000Whereas far-left-wing activists that want to fundamentally redefine the country, they got a lot of yelling, screaming, protesting, and lobbying to do.
00:07:21.000And there's a word that you're going to hear quite a lot, and that word is filibuster.
00:07:27.000I have found that a lot of people talk about the filibuster.
00:07:30.000A lot of people mention it, but very few people actually know what the filibuster is.
00:07:35.000Of course, a filibuster is a tactic, a tactic of obstruction, specifically used in the United States Senate.
00:07:43.000I think it comes from the Dutch word pirate.
00:07:46.000Not exactly sure how they connected those two together, but there's your Tuesday trivia.
00:07:54.000The filibuster is best known when one or more senators attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate on the measure.
00:08:05.000Now, if you go back to the Federalist papers, the founding fathers, some of them, including Alexander Hamilton, argued for a simple majoritarian vote to be able to pass legislation.
00:08:27.000The filibuster was really adopted in a debate that happened right around 1820 called the Missouri Compromise.
00:08:39.000It was a theoretical option, but then as America became, some would say more divided, the filibuster then became more and more used.
00:08:54.000In 1917, on a simple roll call vote in the United States Senate, cloture emerged.
00:09:18.000So, from 1917 to 1949, because of a simple vote on arming merchant vessels in the United States Senate, a requirement to end the debate was two-thirds of senators voting.
00:09:34.000And you might say, well, how long could they possibly debate?
00:09:37.000The answer is: because the way the Senate is structured, they could debate for weeks or months.
00:09:45.000In order to end that debate, it would require two-thirds of the United States Senate to vote.
00:10:00.000The filibuster is most famous for being used in the civil rights era.
00:10:12.000President Obama has called the filibuster a civil, no, I'm sorry, a Jim Crow relic.
00:10:18.000Southern Democrats attempted to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 by filibustering for 75 hours, including a 14-hour and 13-minute address by Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who Hillary Clinton, I believe, spoke at his funeral.
00:10:39.000From 1917 to 1970, the Senate took cloture, took a cloture vote about once a year.
00:10:52.000From 1970 onward, they moved it down to 60 votes, where it stayed in order to get nominations and big pieces of legislation to get anything really to move forward.
00:11:05.000And I'm going to explain in the next segment the technicalities of it because it's really important to be able to proceed and move legislation and debate, because without ending debate, you can't actually vote on legislation.
00:11:18.000So it is a barrier, if you will, a parliamentary barrier from just getting to a majority vote.
00:11:30.000Now, all of that actually changed because of a Democrat.
00:11:34.000All of the history and the precedent in the United States Senate changed because of one man, Harry Reid.
00:11:43.000Harry Reid in 2013 got a little greedy.
00:11:49.000Harry Reid wanted to confirm a couple, I think they were appellate judges.
00:11:56.000There were four of them, circuit court judges.
00:11:59.000And so then he invoked the nuclear option, saying we will go to a simple majority vote.
00:12:08.000In the next segment, I will play you the clip of Senator Mitch McConnell saying that he will regret it.
00:12:17.000And so for nominations, a simple majority vote was needed.
00:12:25.000Every new year, all you hear is new year, new me.
00:12:27.000That usually means you'll be picking up better habits or trying new things.
00:12:31.000And if you do take up a new hobby, it's even better when you have an amazing audio that will make the experience even better.
00:12:37.000That's why I recommend wireless earbuds from Raycon.
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00:13:35.000We've been going through the historical background of the filibuster.
00:13:42.000So basically, what ended up happening in 2013 is Harry Reid came out and said, I am going to get rid of the 60-vote threshold minimum in order to confirm circuit court judges.
00:14:01.000Harry Reid did this and was really met with harsh criticism and a be careful what you wish for response from men's Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.
00:14:15.000Say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you'll regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.
00:14:21.000You may regret this a lot sooner than you may think.
00:14:25.000Well, Senator Mitch McConnell was correct.
00:14:28.000In 2017, Republicans regained control of the White House and the United States Senate.
00:14:33.000And Senator Mitch McConnell did not do any dramatic rules changes, just took the precedent set by Harid for appointments.
00:14:43.000Not major pieces of legislation, but appointments.
00:14:47.000Now, every single appointment and every debate takes the removal of cloture.
00:14:54.000Now, some of you might be saying, well, Charlie, how can they do all of this constitutionally?
00:14:58.000Well, nowhere in the United States Constitution does it say how many votes you need in the United States Senate to do anything.
00:15:04.000All of this is United States Senate precedent.
00:15:08.000The people that are fighting against changes in the filibuster are best described as institutionalists.
00:15:15.000They're people that want to protect the rights of the minority in the United States Senate.
00:15:23.000And so in order to pass a piece of legislation, like adding Washington, D.C. as a state, it takes a simple one vote more than the other party in the House of Representatives.
00:15:38.000But when it goes to the Senate, there'll be debate.
00:16:12.000If Chuck Schumer wants to do the nuclear option, he's going to need 50 votes to do that, which would be an incredibly aggressive move by him.
00:16:30.000But here's the wonderful news I have to share with you today.
00:16:34.000Senator Kirsten Sinema from Arizona and Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, if you believe them, which we have no reason not to because they have fought for the filibuster protections previously, have said, under no circumstances, we will not change our mind and we are going to keep the filibuster.
00:16:58.000The Daily Caller, I think, summarizes this the best.
00:17:04.000With Democrats retaking the Senate, they'll be able to control congressional committees, allowing them to hold hearings and issue subpoenas of their choosing.
00:17:11.000They'll have enough votes to confirm judicial nominees without Republican support.
00:17:15.000But they will likely not have enough support to pass many progressive priorities, like court packing, Green New Deal, state additions, since Senate rules allow lawmakers to filibuster most pieces of legislation, essentially allowing them to block its passage.
00:17:31.000Democrats can, however, pass certain legislation with a simple majority called budget reconciliation, which attempts legislation pertaining to taxes and broader government spending, which was used to the Tax Cut Act back in 2017.
00:17:45.000So while Democrats likely do not have the votes to enact policies like D.C. statehood, gerrymandering reforms, and still, they still theoretically could pass parental leave, infrastructure spending, coronavirus relief.
00:17:58.000So there's a lot of nonsense that would be packed, but nothing that couldn't be reversed and nothing that dramatically alters the trajectory of the nation.
00:18:09.000You want to know what would change the trajectory of the nation?
00:18:11.000New seats on the United States Supreme Court, new states being added, the abolition of the Electoral College and H.R. 1.
00:18:19.000Because Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have said, we are not going to change Senate precedent on that, Chuck Schumer is now left with now having to find 60-vote consensus on all major pieces of legislation.
00:18:47.000Pursuing truth is a huge part of who I am and what I stand for.
00:18:50.000When you look around at what's happening to our country, you can see why many people are experiencing real frustration with the news media, along with feelings of uncertainty and a lack of hope for the future.
00:18:59.000How can we know which is true and where or in whom we can place our trust?
00:19:02.000The only place I've found unwavering truth and peace is my faith in Jesus Christ.
00:19:07.000If 2020 has beaten down your spirit, I'd like to recommend a book called Reflections on the Existence of God by best-selling author Richard Simmons III.
00:19:15.000Reflections on the Existence of God is a collection of short essays that tackles the biggest questions of all.
00:19:21.000This book is well researched and easy to read.
00:19:22.000Former White House aide Wallace Henley says, quote, I've taught apologetics for many years and have read many scholars, every scholar mentioned in this book.
00:19:29.000Of all books on apologetics, Simmons is the best I've ever heard.
00:19:32.000If you want to challenge yourself to spiritual intellectual growth, then be willing to ask yourself life's toughest questions.
00:19:37.000I would challenge you right now to get your copy of Reflections on the Existence of God by Richard Simmons III.
00:19:49.000The massive changes to our country that Democrats want to see are going to hit some roadblocks.
00:19:56.000And in fact, if Senator Kirsten Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin are not pathologically lying to us, they will not be able to add seats to the United States Supreme Court, add D.C. and Puerto Rico as states, pass H.R. 1, amongst other left-wing fantasy plans to try to fundamentally change America.
00:20:21.000Senator Kirsten Sinema came out and said, quote, that she's against eliminating the filibuster and she is not open to changing her mind.
00:20:30.000Now, for those of us that spend a lot of time in Arizona, we are, let's say, familiar with Senator Kirsten Cinema.
00:20:42.000She labels herself as a moderate, and in some things she is, in other things, she's very radical, but she's not dumb.
00:20:50.000That is one thing I've never heard anyone say about Senator Kirsten Cinema.
00:20:54.000And by her now saying that she's supporting the filibuster, she has made herself one of the most powerful senators in Washington.
00:21:09.000So someone like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who don't really work across the aisle, who just vote straight partisan all the way through, are nowhere near as powerful now as Senator Kirsten Sinema or Senator Joe Manchin.
00:21:27.000So the filibuster, keeping the filibuster in place, getting to 60 votes, or at least the threat of it, makes every single one of Senator Cinema's wishes and demands more likely to happen.
00:21:39.000Any one of the pet projects that she wants to see implemented, whatever that might be.
00:21:45.000But let's say you're Chuck Schumer and you want to add D.C. as a state.
00:21:50.000Because Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin will not vote to abolish the rule change to get to the vote, and all Republicans will likely vote 50, Chuck Schumer attempting to do that would lose, at least at first glance, only getting 48 votes if every other Democrat voted alongside of it.
00:22:11.000Where John Tester, we're not sure where he will go, who's a Democrat senator from Montana.
00:22:19.000Democrats are going to pass increased economic social welfare programs.
00:22:25.000They're going to pass all sorts of nonsense.
00:22:28.000But the stuff that makes it where conservatives and Republicans can never compete again, it does not look like that is going to happen in the United States Senate this year or next year.
00:22:43.000That's amazing news because it feels as if we are just waiting and it's imminent that the filibuster is going to get lifted and we are going to see D.C., Puerto Rico become states, the Electoral College get eliminated, new additions to the United States Supreme Court, and next thing you know, we won't have the country that we thought we did.
00:23:01.000I'm not saying they're not going to do damage.
00:23:48.000Because if you want to jam everything through in two to four years and say whatever, what happens after that way, then every party will just rule and govern with an iron fist.
00:24:03.000Can you show me one major piece of legislation that Democrats are proposing right now that would expand freedom and liberty and preserve the American Republic?
00:24:36.000There's some great flip opportunities, including Georgia and yes, Arizona, Kirsten Cinema, amongst other states where Republicans can really compete, I think, quite well.
00:24:49.000And if Republicans don't take it back in 2022, maybe they could do it in 2024, where Democrats have a lot of seats also at risk across the Rust Belt and across the country.
00:25:02.000And so the question remains: why celebrate this news?
00:25:13.000It's phenomenal news because the things that we fear the most, if these senators are telling the truth, will not happen.
00:25:24.000And instead, what will happen is the Democrat Party is now going to fight over why they won't lift the filibuster.
00:25:33.000So now cinema and manchin will go from very powerful moderates to hated Democrats who say, you're getting in the way of our once-in-a-century progress cinema and mansion.
00:25:47.000Don't you understand how much money we spent to get the House and the Senate and you just want to pass more COVID relief?
00:26:19.000The Senate should be a place where you weigh the costs of: are we really willing to pass this major piece of legislation that might fundamentally transform the country forever?
00:26:39.000And so that's why Senator Cinema and Senator Manchin's announcement is reason for celebration.
00:26:48.000The founders made it intentionally difficult to get anything done in government.
00:26:53.000As Justice Anton and Scalia said, we must fall in love with the gridlock.
00:27:00.000Are they going to still pass through a bunch of nonsense?
00:27:36.000But Kirsten Sinema actually wants to be a U.S. Senator in Arizona.
00:27:39.000I say this as someone who will probably be campaigning in favor of somebody against her one day.
00:27:46.000She's going to be tough to beat because she'll be able to go back to Arizona and say, I'm a Democrat, but I ensured minority representation for Republicans in government.
00:27:56.000I'm a Democrat, and I made Arizona's voice more powerful in government by making me a swing vote over any personnel decisions, any piece of legislation decisions.
00:28:07.000And she would be telling the truth if she said that.
00:28:12.000The critics of our system complain it takes too long to make changes.
00:28:25.000When we controlled the House, the Senate, and the presidency back in 2016, 2018, it was frustrating that all we could get done is tax cuts.
00:29:18.000Therefore, we are going to put all this stuff through on a simple majority vote.
00:29:23.000And so that's where Manchin was kind of tap dancing around the state edition stuff.
00:29:28.000It's like, well, I'm not going to give you an answer on that.
00:29:29.000It's irrelevant because he doesn't support removing the filibuster.
00:29:36.000So now Democrats are now going to have to worry less about how are we going to structurally redefine America.
00:29:42.000And now they're actually going to have to govern.
00:29:44.000You see, the Democrats wanted to use this opportunity of newfound political power to not actually deliver results for the American people, but change the rules of the game.
00:29:56.000Now, you know what else is going to take?
00:30:09.000But going from 50 to 60, getting 10 Republicans to support amnesty, I guarantee you there's going to be some red states in there with a lot of backlash.
00:30:18.000You'll get the Rob Portmans and you'll get the Romneys and you'll get those types.
00:30:23.000But then once you get to 55, 56 votes, a lot of Republicans know that if they are going to be voting for amnesty, they might be signing their letters of retirement.
00:30:34.000That is a no-go zone in Republican conservative politics.
00:30:39.000But because we have a filibuster, it's going to require 60 votes to get there.
00:30:46.000So what does this mean for the legislative fights to come?
00:30:49.000This means Democrats are going to get immensely frustrated very quickly.
00:30:53.000This means Democrats who are riding high that they won in Georgia thanks to Warnock and Osoff are going to realize and be disappointed and have a sense of reality set in that they don't actually control the government like it's some form of a dictatorship.
00:31:07.000That they actually have a process they have to follow, that they have procedural votes to overcome.
00:31:11.000Now, what does that mean as a consequence?
00:31:14.000They are going to overshoot the target.
00:31:25.000I think that's a better way to word it.
00:31:30.000And then Democrats are going to go after people like Cinema and Manchin.
00:31:34.000The Radicals can't stand Cinema today.
00:31:38.000They are saying that she's preserving a Jim Crow relic.
00:31:41.000Manchin is preserving a Jim Crow relic.
00:31:45.000Well, I'll say this as a grassroots conservative Republican, that Manchin and Cinema deserve credit because even them as Democrats, if they said get rid of the filibuster, we'd be having a completely different conversation today.
00:32:02.000I'm going to say something controversial, that cinema and manchin have more of a backbone than some establishment Republican senators that I've seen recently.
00:32:10.000This takes real courage to do what Cinema and Manchin are doing.
00:32:16.000They are going to have an onslaught of pressure from people.
00:32:19.000Come on, just lift the filibuster for the D.C. Puerto Rico vote.
00:33:00.000And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that's what we should do.
00:33:14.000Well, of course, I mean, it's been a while since I've had an opportunity to dissect one of President Obama's speeches.
00:33:18.000What God-given rights to Americans are exactly being prevented by the filibuster?
00:35:19.000Let's try to fix the way we do voting in our country, specifically in Arizona and Georgia.
00:35:23.000And I want to give you an update on that in a second hour because there's pieces of legislation going through the Georgia State House and the Arizona State House that are very important to change the way we do elections in our country.
00:35:34.000Because you're all of a sudden going to wake up on a bright, sunny day in August and realize when the Senate's out of session, they didn't add new states, they didn't get rid of the Electoral College, they didn't add seats to the U.S. Supreme Court.
00:35:44.000Okay, they gave everyone $1,200 checks.
00:36:42.000Ianna Presley, they are meeting and politically plotting and scheming of how they can try and influence Kirsten Cinema.
00:36:52.000Influence the fossil fuel braber baron Joe Manchin, who's getting in the way of the Green New Deal.
00:37:00.000You better believe he's getting in the way of the Green New Deal.
00:37:03.000And Joe Manchin, who represents a state that is heavily dependent on fossil fuel development, coal and natural gas, half his state is basically connected.
00:37:13.000I'm not sure half, but I'm sure like 20 or 30% of his state is probably connected to that to fossil fuel development.