The Charlie Kirk Show - September 23, 2021


'I Wouldn't Ask the Federal Government for Permission' — Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Don Huffines


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

190.78009

Word Count

7,663

Sentence Count

718

Misogynist Sentences

4


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Don Huffines is running for governor of Texas. Charlie Kirk has known Don for years, and he believes that Texas is not being run well. And he makes the argument about the southern border and what needs to happen in Texas.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.
00:00:01.000 Today on the Charlie Kirk show, someone who's running up against Greg Abbott.
00:00:04.000 We have not endorsed anybody in this race, but I find this to be a super interesting conversation.
00:00:08.000 I've known Don Huffines for years, and he believes that Texas is not being run well.
00:00:12.000 And he makes the argument about the southern border and what needs to happen in Texas.
00:00:17.000 If you want to send us your questions, you can do so at freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:21.000 And if you want to support our program, you can do so at charliekirk.com/slash support.
00:00:25.000 Don Huffins is here.
00:00:26.000 Buckle up.
00:00:27.000 Here we go.
00:00:28.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:30.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:32.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:35.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:38.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:39.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:40.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
00:00:47.000 Turning point USA.
00:00:49.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:00:58.000 That's why we are here.
00:01:01.000 Hey, everybody.
00:01:02.000 This episode is brought to you by my friends at ExpressVPN, expressvpn.com/slash Charlie.
00:01:08.000 Secure your device, anonymize your online activity, protect your action online.
00:01:15.000 Expressvpn.com/slash Charlie.
00:01:18.000 Help our show out by also helping yourself protect yourself.
00:01:22.000 Expressvpn.com slash Charlie.
00:01:28.000 Hey, everybody.
00:01:29.000 Welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:31.000 God bless Texas.
00:01:32.000 And I know our guest completely agrees, a friend of mine who is deciding to do something rather remarkable.
00:01:39.000 Don Huffines, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:41.000 Hey, thank you, Charlie.
00:01:42.000 It's great to be here.
00:01:43.000 Now, I just want all of our listeners to know what you have now decided to embark on.
00:01:48.000 You are running for governor in Texas, and you are primarying a sitting Republican governor.
00:01:54.000 Is that right?
00:01:55.000 That is correct.
00:01:56.000 Now, in a state like Texas, the very conservative state, tell us why you decided to do this.
00:02:02.000 Well, I can tell you that I like most Republicans in the state of Texas, we are really just tired of being lied to.
00:02:11.000 We're tired of the broken and empty promises, and our border is wide open.
00:02:16.000 Locally, here in Texas, we have some of the highest property taxes in the nation, if not the highest, and they keep going up and up.
00:02:23.000 Texans are tired of renting their homes and their property from the government.
00:02:26.000 And we don't have confidence their votes aren't being stolen and they're not being properly counted.
00:02:31.000 And I can just go down the list forever.
00:02:34.000 And I've got good solutions for those issues.
00:02:38.000 I was in the state legislature.
00:02:40.000 I saw how big and deep the swamp is.
00:02:42.000 It might not be quite as wide as Washington, but it's sure just as deep.
00:02:46.000 Now, Texas has become kind of the center of a lot of political conversation in the last couple of years, especially in the last couple of months, I should say, passing a pro-life bill, a constitutional carry bill, voter integrity bill.
00:02:59.000 Talk about that and talk about how you feel about those things and where you think Texas fits into the national conversation.
00:03:07.000 Well, absolutely.
00:03:08.000 But look, let me just talk, if you don't mind a minute about our current leadership and then I'll set the table for your listeners.
00:03:14.000 I mean, a lot of people think Texas is conservative.
00:03:17.000 And maybe if you're comparing it to something like California or New York or something like that, yeah, we are conservative, but we're not near where we should be.
00:03:27.000 I mean, our governor right now is a 30-year career politician.
00:03:32.000 He's never really signed a paycheck in his life.
00:03:34.000 I'm a business guy, and I just have a different way of seeing things.
00:03:38.000 I want to make sure we solve the issues.
00:03:40.000 I don't care about a political career.
00:03:43.000 And Charlie, you don't know this, but when I was in the Texas Senate for four years, from 14 to 18, I got knocked out by a Democrat in Dallas County, serving in Dallas County.
00:03:53.000 I'm the only elected office holder in the history of the state of Texas, never took any money from the government.
00:03:58.000 No pay, pension, health care, per damn reimbursements, nothing.
00:04:02.000 And I'm going to do the same thing as governor.
00:04:04.000 I say that because it just shows the difference in who I am and who he is.
00:04:10.000 Yeah, so let's talk more about that.
00:04:13.000 You know, I follow Texas politics loosely, and some people are very angry at the governor here in Texas.
00:04:19.000 Some people are kind of just in the middle.
00:04:21.000 Kind of talk more concretely of what kind of compelled you to run in the last year, because this is a big effort.
00:04:28.000 I mean, Texas is a beast.
00:04:30.000 This is a big deal.
00:04:31.000 What really motivated you?
00:04:33.000 What crossed the line where you said, okay, Governor Abbott, this was too much.
00:04:37.000 Now I must run.
00:04:39.000 March of 20.
00:04:40.000 All right.
00:04:41.000 Tell me why.
00:04:42.000 I can tell you everybody knows what happened in March of 20.
00:04:45.000 I warned everybody when I was tweeting out what was going to happen that he was going to shut us all down.
00:04:50.000 He shredded the Constitution.
00:04:52.000 He just absolutely shredded it.
00:04:53.000 We all swore allegiance to it.
00:04:55.000 And in one day, he put 3 million Texans out of work.
00:04:58.000 3 million Texans.
00:05:00.000 That's more jobs, Charlie, than we've created in the last 12 years combined.
00:05:04.000 And it's really not even comprehensible.
00:05:06.000 It made them all dependent on the government.
00:05:09.000 These are great patriot Texans, hardworking people.
00:05:13.000 He unilaterally picked winners and losers.
00:05:15.000 Tens of thousands of businesses went out of business forever.
00:05:19.000 And then the worst thing he did, Charlie, he closed our churches.
00:05:24.000 He closed our churches on the holiest week of the year, Easter.
00:05:28.000 You couldn't bury the dead properly.
00:05:30.000 You couldn't get married.
00:05:31.000 You couldn't get baptized.
00:05:32.000 And I can go on and on.
00:05:33.000 He kept a mask mandate on us for nine months.
00:05:36.000 And then people thanked him for taking it off.
00:05:38.000 That's like thanking a thief for bringing your stolen goods back.
00:05:41.000 So look, that was the catalyst to make me get in it.
00:05:44.000 I would never have done any of that.
00:05:45.000 I never will.
00:05:46.000 The Constitution doesn't give me the authority to do that.
00:05:48.000 It's not the lens I look through.
00:05:50.000 The lens I look through to be governor of Texas is simply the question, the rhetorical question, what is the proper role of government?
00:05:58.000 And I ask myself that all the time.
00:06:01.000 And I can answer it like everybody in the United States could answer it for over 100 years.
00:06:06.000 And it's always to defend our God-given liberties.
00:06:09.000 Our liberties come from God and not the government.
00:06:11.000 And that's why we have the Constitution, of course.
00:06:14.000 It was written specifically to protect those natural rights or natural rights or God-given liberties.
00:06:19.000 And another way to say that is to say that the purpose of government is to defend us from government.
00:06:26.000 And so talking about Texas in general, the issue that you kind of alluded to that has a lot of people upset is the issue of the poorest southern border and what's happening there.
00:06:38.000 The governor, amongst other Republican governors who I have criticized greatly, say that there's no power that states have to defend their own border.
00:06:46.000 Is that true?
00:06:47.000 Of course that's not true.
00:06:48.000 So what can governors do?
00:06:50.000 Well, I can tell you, we can read the Constitution.
00:06:53.000 That's all they got to do is just pick it up and read it.
00:06:56.000 No, no, states wouldn't join the union if they didn't have a right to defend themselves if they were being invaded.
00:07:03.000 I mean, it's just common sense.
00:07:05.000 I mean, if South Carolina was invaded by Spain and the federal government never came to their rescue, of course, South Carolina's got the authority to defend themselves.
00:07:14.000 And that's written in Article 1, Section 10.
00:07:16.000 You also have Article 4, Section 4 that some people point to is where the federal government's required to defend us from an invasion, but that's not the one that I'm going to rely on.
00:07:25.000 I'm going to rely on Article 1, Section 10.
00:07:27.000 So what does that say?
00:07:28.000 And so what could the governor of Texas do?
00:07:31.000 There's 10,000 Haitians on the southern border.
00:07:33.000 1.8 million people are crossing the southern border every single year on average.
00:07:37.000 How many in Texas are crossing?
00:07:39.000 Oh, thousands.
00:07:40.000 We think Border Patrol, I've been at the border three times last 90 days.
00:07:43.000 Right now, Border Patrol is saying up to 2 million unapprehended illegals will cross into Texas in a little over a 12-month period.
00:07:51.000 12 million just into Texas?
00:07:53.000 2 million.
00:07:53.000 So 2 million in 12 months just into Texas.
00:07:55.000 That's correct.
00:07:56.000 That's extraordinary.
00:07:57.000 Oh, it's a total investment.
00:07:58.000 But what power could you use?
00:07:59.000 Could you mobilize Texas Rangers?
00:08:01.000 Could you build a wall?
00:08:02.000 What could you do?
00:08:02.000 Well, of course, I'm going to build a wall.
00:08:04.000 I'm going to spend about $3.5 billion to do that.
00:08:06.000 And we've got the money to make that happen.
00:08:09.000 I'm a business guy, so I know a good trade.
00:08:10.000 That's a good trade.
00:08:12.000 That's a one-year payback for what it's going to cost us.
00:08:14.000 But the most important thing is I'm using Article 1, Section 10 to engage the entire Texas military, our National Guard, all of them, just 20,000 of them.
00:08:22.000 We have incredible assets.
00:08:24.000 We really do.
00:08:25.000 There's 25 crossings over the river.
00:08:27.000 I'm going to shut those down strategically to stop the commercial traffic, inbound commercial traffic from Mexico.
00:08:34.000 Outbound can keep going.
00:08:36.000 If you've got your proper paperwork, you can keep coming in back and forth.
00:08:39.000 But I'm going to stop the commercial traffic, and that's to put the economic pressure on Mexico so they secure their side of the river.
00:08:46.000 And they love making money like everybody.
00:08:49.000 And we're going to stop them from making money until they, look, we can never have a secure border if Mexico doesn't cooperate.
00:08:54.000 That's just, we can build all the walls we want.
00:08:57.000 Mexico must secure their side of the river.
00:09:00.000 And let me tell you, the most significant ingredient on this recipe is I'm never asking permission from the federal government to secure the Texas border.
00:09:07.000 I don't need to.
00:09:11.000 How many years have I been telling you about Relief Factor?
00:09:13.000 Quite a lot.
00:09:14.000 Truth is, I know millions of people, in fact, that over 100 million people that are struggling with some kind of pain, whether it's knee pain, back pain, joint pain, back pain, and exercise or getting older or whatever it might be.
00:09:25.000 I'm so impressed with the team at Relief Factor.
00:09:28.000 They are on a mission.
00:09:28.000 You rarely see this kind of commitment.
00:09:30.000 So go to relieffactor.com.
00:09:32.000 That's relief factor.com or call 800-500-8384.
00:09:35.000 About a dollar a day to see if you can get out of pain.
00:09:37.000 And then after that, less than a cost of a cup of coffee a day.
00:09:40.000 Relief Factor is terrific.
00:09:41.000 It's 100% drug-free.
00:09:42.000 Go to relieffactor.com.
00:09:44.000 That's relieffactor.com.
00:09:49.000 So let's just, let me pretend to be Abbott for a second.
00:09:53.000 Sure.
00:09:53.000 You'd say, I don't have that authority.
00:09:54.000 Biden is doing this wrong.
00:09:56.000 This is DHS.
00:09:57.000 This is Border Patrol.
00:09:59.000 Why is that the wrong way to view what's happening on the southern border?
00:10:03.000 Well, the only thing I could say is that about that, the main thing is that he's a political windsock.
00:10:08.000 He's just going to blow in the wind, do whatever he needs to do.
00:10:11.000 He's reacting to everything our campaign's up to.
00:10:13.000 I know that, but like, why constitute, like, why does he not?
00:10:16.000 Because he doesn't have courage.
00:10:18.000 Okay.
00:10:18.000 He just flat doesn't have the courage.
00:10:20.000 He doesn't want to upset the apple card as much.
00:10:22.000 He's not willing to stand up for Texans.
00:10:24.000 The only thing I can say is he just doesn't have the political courage.
00:10:27.000 I don't know why he won't do it.
00:10:29.000 I begged him to do it.
00:10:30.000 We put out press releases for him to do it.
00:10:32.000 And they might end up having to do it.
00:10:35.000 I hope they do do it.
00:10:38.000 But I can't tell you for sure why.
00:10:39.000 So you could mobilize Texas National Guard 20,000 people and you could close the 25 river entries.
00:10:47.000 Is that legal traffic that you would close off?
00:10:49.000 Yes.
00:10:50.000 Okay.
00:10:50.000 And then what would you do to help stop the flow of illegal, you know, narco-trafficking, gun trafficking?
00:10:56.000 That would also, you would try to do that.
00:10:58.000 Well, the 20,000 troops would be up and down the river to secure it.
00:11:02.000 If we want, if Border Patrol wants to cooperate, that's fine.
00:11:05.000 And, you know, they also have the authority to solicit support from other states, from their guards.
00:11:09.000 Yes.
00:11:10.000 So if we don't have enough assets in our 20,000, I'll be soliciting support.
00:11:15.000 If we have to stand 200 yards apart, we'll make sure that no one gets across that river.
00:11:20.000 And if they do, we'll load them back up and take them back to the other side because Texas really does have the authority to enforce immigration law or we could ignore immigration law.
00:11:29.000 It seems, though, that the Republican orthodoxy has been, that's not our role.
00:11:33.000 We're not doing this.
00:11:34.000 Even Rick Perry would say that.
00:11:37.000 And Rick Perry, who is a friend of mine, and he's a nice guy, but he gave driver's licenses to illegals, in-state tuition for illegals.
00:11:47.000 Why is it?
00:11:47.000 Where did Republicans go wrong here?
00:11:49.000 Let's just kind of go back.
00:11:50.000 You're a lifelong Texan, right?
00:11:53.000 If I'm not mistaken.
00:11:54.000 Yes, I was born and raised fifth generation.
00:11:56.000 How did Texas all of a sudden get kind of ruled by Republicans that were okay with these porous open borders and a destruction of sovereignty?
00:12:04.000 I think it all, you got to remember that Texas, most Texas Republicans 15, 20 years ago were Democrat Party switchers.
00:12:11.000 Really?
00:12:12.000 Tell me more about that.
00:12:13.000 Well, Texas was a Democrat state.
00:12:14.000 Yeah, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
00:12:16.000 Yeah.
00:12:18.000 But in the last 20 years, Republicans have controlled the legislature.
00:12:21.000 We control the House, the Senate, and the governor's office for 20 years.
00:12:26.000 So theoretically, we could get any bill done we want, and the governor could get any bill done he wants.
00:12:31.000 And basically, we can pass any legislation we want, but we don't.
00:12:35.000 We very rarely get our conservative legislation done.
00:12:39.000 But I think what happened when Perry was in office and others, it was the Chamber of Commerce.
00:12:44.000 It was the big crony capitalists.
00:12:46.000 They wanted cheap labor and they didn't complain about it.
00:12:49.000 And they all thought, well, these people were going to vote for Republicans.
00:12:53.000 And they listened to that message and that rhetoric and they kept the border open.
00:12:58.000 And, you know, the federal government's never going to secure the border.
00:13:01.000 No, this is why I'm so fascinated by this and why I think it's such a perfect conversation for a theme we've been building on our show, which is willingness.
00:13:09.000 Yes.
00:13:09.000 Like, do we have the willingness to use the assets at our disposal to do what we know, to do what we know needs to be done?
00:13:17.000 Because what I am really, you know, really tired of is excuses.
00:13:22.000 And it's kind of funny.
00:13:22.000 There's your no excuses.
00:13:24.000 What's your website really quick?
00:13:25.000 Just so we can gethuffins.com.
00:13:29.000 Okay, DonHuffins.com, where I get excuses all the time.
00:13:33.000 It's spelt H-U-F-F-I-N.
00:13:34.000 H-U-F-F-I-N-E-S.
00:13:36.000 Sorry.
00:13:36.000 There you go.
00:13:37.000 That's okay.
00:13:37.000 We've got to be precise with you.
00:13:39.000 But I get excuses all the time.
00:13:40.000 All the time.
00:13:41.000 Charlie, I don't have the power to do that.
00:13:43.000 But what you're saying is not only do we have the power, we have the precedent.
00:13:47.000 This is not even a tough call that you're trying to tell me that Governor Abbott could secure the southern border now is what you're saying.
00:13:54.000 Tomorrow, today, right now.
00:13:57.000 He could have secured it seven years ago or seven days ago.
00:14:01.000 He's got the border the way he wants it.
00:14:02.000 And you say he has no courage.
00:14:05.000 I've never met him, and I'm not on, you know, kind of a mission to unseat him like you are, right?
00:14:10.000 I got other things to do.
00:14:11.000 But I'm very interested in this.
00:14:13.000 Whereas, is there a set of donors that are whispering in his ear?
00:14:16.000 Are there corporate interests?
00:14:18.000 Is there some sort of deal?
00:14:20.000 Can you just help me fill in the gaps here?
00:14:22.000 Well, I can't tell you what goes through the man's mind, of course, but I can tell you that he's never been in the legislature.
00:14:29.000 I can tell you that he's by trade a judge and an attorney.
00:14:34.000 He was on the Supreme Court, an attorney general.
00:14:37.000 He's not a businessman.
00:14:39.000 Like I said, he doesn't see an issue and want to solve it.
00:14:44.000 He sees an issue to further his political career.
00:14:47.000 He's a career politician.
00:14:49.000 So that's probably where he's coming from.
00:14:51.000 I mean, I just want to solve the problems.
00:14:53.000 I'm not looking for a new career.
00:14:56.000 And I think it's crystal clear.
00:14:58.000 I've had a lot that we can, that the governor can enact, use the military and use the Constitution to close the border.
00:15:04.000 And look, all hell is going to break loose when that happens.
00:15:08.000 There's no doubt about that.
00:15:09.000 Well, I mean, what do you mean by that?
00:15:10.000 The federal government?
00:15:11.000 No, I think corporations are going to scream bloody murder.
00:15:13.000 We do $250 billion worth of trade with Mexico annually.
00:15:17.000 Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods pass across those bridges every day.
00:15:22.000 They're not going to come across the bridge.
00:15:24.000 You're going to hear them squeal from Canada down to New York all over.
00:15:29.000 I mean, General Motors ain't going to get their Chevys in and no more Corona beer for a while.
00:15:34.000 But I can tell you this: that border is going to be secure because Mexico is going to screen.
00:15:38.000 Now, the federal government might try to intervene.
00:15:40.000 Then what?
00:15:41.000 Well, we kind of have a good old Texas standoff.
00:15:43.000 What would that look like?
00:15:45.000 Well, we will.
00:15:47.000 Unfortunately, I think we will.
00:15:48.000 If I was Mexico, I'd be calling the State Department immediately.
00:15:52.000 And they'll either call you or issue an injunction or try to get a federal judge.
00:15:56.000 Will.
00:15:57.000 And then what?
00:15:58.000 Guess what?
00:15:59.000 We have three branches to our government.
00:16:02.000 One's the legislative and one's judicial and one's administrative and executive.
00:16:09.000 I mean, so look, I'm the executive branch that enforces the law.
00:16:13.000 Judicial just interprets the law.
00:16:15.000 So I have a right to interpret the Constitution, and I have a right to enforce it myself.
00:16:21.000 I'm not worried about the lawsuit.
00:16:23.000 I'm worried about Texans and what's best for Texas.
00:16:27.000 That border was defined with the blood of Texas patriots, and we're not giving it back to Mexico, and we're not going to let the United States keep it wide open.
00:16:36.000 It's simple as that.
00:16:37.000 I'll take the risk all day of the federal government coming down because they're going to have to use force against my force.
00:16:45.000 Really?
00:16:45.000 I mean, that's what it amounts to.
00:16:46.000 Yes.
00:16:46.000 Which I don't think they're willing.
00:16:48.000 No, look at the political ramifications of that.
00:16:51.000 Yes.
00:16:51.000 They're going to come open the border against Texas's wish.
00:16:54.000 Yes.
00:16:55.000 And which is obviously not popular and is unprecedented.
00:17:00.000 And this really kind of goes to a broader question of whether or not Republicans are willing to kind of use what we have at our disposal to save the country.
00:17:11.000 Am I right?
00:17:12.000 Of course.
00:17:13.000 What other ideas do you have with this?
00:17:14.000 Because immigration is one of them.
00:17:16.000 But there's all sorts of sovereignty issues that are happening right now, from oil and natural gas issues to the Keystone XL pipeline, which I believe we should resume construction immediately of.
00:17:26.000 I've been calling for that, and I'm going to try to continue kind of a campaign on that to vaccine mandates, to federal mask mandates.
00:17:34.000 Where else can states push back against this regime and Texas in particular and say no more?
00:17:40.000 All of it.
00:17:41.000 Tell me how.
00:17:42.000 Let's go through it.
00:17:43.000 Well, it's simply making them come down and enforce it.
00:17:47.000 So it's a good old 1832 Wooster v. Georgia, let Marshall send his army.
00:17:52.000 That's right.
00:17:53.000 Okay.
00:17:54.000 I mean, it's simple as that.
00:17:55.000 And we'll see what the political ramifications are for that.
00:17:58.000 I mean, everything, a lot of things come back down to politics.
00:18:02.000 And I think there's a lot of people that are on our side on this issue.
00:18:06.000 And a lot of Texans.
00:18:07.000 Look, when I win, I'm going to have the people behind me.
00:18:10.000 They're going to have my back.
00:18:11.000 And I'm counting on it.
00:18:13.000 So let's talk about, just, I want to get into more detail about that, though.
00:18:17.000 So you're willing to, and basically what you're saying, just, I don't want to put words in your mouth, is that this will end up in a standoff between the states and the federal government.
00:18:27.000 Well, I think the state, I think the federal government.
00:18:29.000 And I don't mean to be too dramatic about that.
00:18:30.000 Yeah, no, it very well could be that way, but I think they will negotiate.
00:18:34.000 I mean, they think there's some middle ground to be had, but on the border, there's really not.
00:18:40.000 I mean, we clearly have the authority to stop this invasion.
00:18:47.000 With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it is now impossible to stock all the parts you need in a traditional storefront.
00:18:54.000 Why endure often pointless and seemingly intimidating questioning like what's your car and wait while the counterman orders the parts on his computer, choosing the only brand his warehouse happens to carry?
00:19:04.000 One reason to repair and maintain your cars is to save money that you can then use for other important things like mortgages or food.
00:19:10.000 Why would you choose to spend 30, 50 or 100% more for the exact same auto parts?
00:19:15.000 Chain stores have different price tiers for professional mechanics and do-it-yourselfers.
00:19:19.000 Rockauto.com always offers the lowest prices possible rather than changing prices based on what the market will bear like airlines do.
00:19:26.000 Rockauto.com, they are wonderful people.
00:19:28.000 They love their country and they don't require membership or an account login.
00:19:32.000 Rockauto.com is a family business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years.
00:19:37.000 Go to rockauto.com, rockauto.com for auto and body parts for hundreds of manufacturers.
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00:19:56.000 Write Charlie Kirk in there.
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00:20:08.000 So let's talk about your other issues like EPA and other people.
00:20:12.000 Yeah, just I want to actually talk more about your love of the Constitution, how this applies.
00:20:16.000 Talk about how much power states do have, not just constitutionally, but broadly, talk philosophically on how you came to this position of understanding state sovereignty.
00:20:26.000 Well, let me just rewind a second on that.
00:20:30.000 This is the most important election in the United States in 22, the governorship of Texas.
00:20:35.000 It really is.
00:20:36.000 I think history will show this could be one of the most important elections in the history of our country because this is a premeditated attack on Texas.
00:20:43.000 And, you know, the Biden administration has proposed amnesty for every illegal, every illegal in the United States of America, and with the reconciliation budgets going down in the next six weeks in Washington.
00:20:54.000 And that's going to be checkmate for Texas.
00:20:56.000 And anybody thinks there's 11 million illegals in this country is crazy.
00:21:01.000 It's more like 35 or 40 million.
00:21:02.000 There's like 3 million in the state of Texas.
00:21:04.000 So Texas will be gone.
00:21:05.000 The free world will be gone, not just the United States.
00:21:08.000 And my goal has always been not just to prove to the United States what it means to be sovereign, but to prove to the whole world what it means.
00:21:15.000 Look, the states created the federal government.
00:21:18.000 The states created it.
00:21:19.000 And I can tell you this: that we're not going to get pushed around in Texas.
00:21:23.000 It's imperative that Texas flexes its muscle to buck up all the other states.
00:21:29.000 We're the last hope, really, really and truly the last hope for freedom and liberty or economic liberty, our personal liberty, and all the liberties we've lost.
00:21:39.000 We lost so much liberty in 18 months.
00:21:41.000 And I tell everybody, it's so unprecedented and so disgusting.
00:21:46.000 And it all happened with Republicans.
00:21:48.000 Yeah, so you served in the legislature.
00:21:50.000 Yes.
00:21:50.000 Talk about how just because someone had an R in front of their name didn't mean that they were going to fight for what's right.
00:21:56.000 Oh, that's for sure.
00:21:57.000 Tell us about it.
00:21:58.000 Okay, I'll tell you.
00:21:59.000 Some of our listeners are still new to politics.
00:22:01.000 They just started to get involved.
00:22:02.000 You know, we have listeners that literally are six months into this.
00:22:06.000 Their kids started to get masked, critical race theory.
00:22:09.000 They found out our podcast.
00:22:11.000 They're learning.
00:22:12.000 So help educate our audience on that.
00:22:14.000 I certainly will.
00:22:15.000 I went to the legislature.
00:22:16.000 I was in the state legislature from 14 to 18 in the Texas Senate.
00:22:20.000 There's only 31 senators, and there was only 20 Republicans when I was there.
00:22:25.000 I got a Ph.D. in the swamp is what I got.
00:22:29.000 My biggest battle was mainly always with the rhinos, Republicans in name only.
00:22:35.000 They work so hard not to be accountable to take the hard vote.
00:22:39.000 I mean, I got cussed at and screamed at more in the Texas Senate than I've ever been in my adult life.
00:22:45.000 And they would just do everything possible to make sure they didn't have to take a hard vote, whether it was permanently security for our handguns.
00:22:53.000 I was the first senator to file that bill or getting rid of taxes.
00:22:57.000 And it's because they campaign one way and they want to govern a different way.
00:23:01.000 They really do not believe in the Constitution like I do.
00:23:05.000 And most Republicans, they believe in their political career, and they are the cancer for the Republican Party.
00:23:12.000 You see it in Washington.
00:23:13.000 You see it in Austin.
00:23:14.000 You see it across the nation.
00:23:16.000 So when you were there in Austin, you started to realize that there's a difference between conservatives and Republicans, but your voters are very conservative, but these people kind of play a game.
00:23:28.000 Can you talk about how a lot of what happened in Austin was kind of theater with a lot of these Republicans?
00:23:33.000 I certainly can.
00:23:35.000 And it really is a big hustle.
00:23:38.000 That's what it all is, unfortunately.
00:23:40.000 Not all of it.
00:23:41.000 I mean, it may be exaggerative, but a lot of it's a hustle.
00:23:45.000 And I say that in the Texas Senate, and not one bill failed in two years.
00:23:51.000 It came to the floor to vote.
00:23:53.000 All the votes are counted in the back room.
00:23:55.000 We know exactly who all the votes are, but yet, Charlie, we still have hours of debates on the floor.
00:24:02.000 Lots of show and tell.
00:24:03.000 Everybody gets all this debate going down.
00:24:06.000 It's all for show.
00:24:07.000 We already know what the votes are going to be like.
00:24:10.000 And they all think of themselves as being in this exclusive club.
00:24:15.000 They're all, and they call themselves members and they're members of the, and they're the elitists.
00:24:20.000 They're the know-it-alls.
00:24:22.000 And that's what matters to them is their fellow club members and leadership.
00:24:28.000 Yes.
00:24:28.000 And that's how they move up in the food chain in their club is by beholding to the leadership.
00:24:34.000 And so Republican governor has a lot of power over the agencies and kind of these commissions.
00:24:41.000 Texas is known for having all these appointments that you can have, including the Board of Regents, right?
00:24:46.000 And so the colleges in Texas are far from fair.
00:24:50.000 Let's not even say conservative.
00:24:52.000 They have gone way liberal.
00:24:54.000 Would you be involved in this?
00:24:56.000 Would you be interested in this kind of from a personnel standpoint?
00:24:59.000 It would be one of my top priorities, besides the other things we've talked about.
00:25:04.000 The power of the governor in Texas is I, of course, can veto every bill.
00:25:08.000 I get last call on every bill.
00:25:10.000 I get line item veto power in our budget, which is massive, $125 billion annually.
00:25:17.000 But the other thing that's so important as you just mentioned is the appointments.
00:25:21.000 The governor is going to make thousands of appointments.
00:25:23.000 It's an incredible amount of appointments in Texas.
00:25:25.000 It really is, like 1,000 a year.
00:25:28.000 What are some of these jobs that they're going to do?
00:25:30.000 Well, the most important ones you just mentioned is our universities, our state-supported universities.
00:25:35.000 It could be colleges or universities.
00:25:37.000 And there's dozens and dozens of them.
00:25:40.000 Is this why Texas governors raise money so effectively?
00:25:43.000 There's a theory behind that, right?
00:25:44.000 Because there's, I mean, I'm not trying to make a joke out of it.
00:25:48.000 It's just giving you a thousand appointments a year.
00:25:51.000 Yes.
00:25:51.000 I mean, even if just every single one of those people give you $1,000, you raise a million dollars a year.
00:25:55.000 Yeah, they don't even have to give that much.
00:25:57.000 No, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's a remarkable thing.
00:25:59.000 No, it really is.
00:26:00.000 Yeah, they'll give more than that, actually.
00:26:01.000 You give a lot more than that to get on the board of regents, spend something.
00:26:03.000 Which university do you have?
00:26:04.000 Yeah, and I'm not implying there's pay to play or that there's any of that.
00:26:08.000 I mean, but there is.
00:26:09.000 Okay, that's for you.
00:26:11.000 I'm just saying, just from a way that politics works, that's a lot of appointments.
00:26:17.000 That's a lot of appointments.
00:26:19.000 It is.
00:26:19.000 And some are paid, some aren't.
00:26:22.000 But they all have prestige in some way, which is what people want.
00:26:24.000 Yeah.
00:26:25.000 Of course.
00:26:25.000 But let's just talk about the board of regents, for instance.
00:26:28.000 Our university is overrun with socialists and Marxists.
00:26:31.000 There's everyone, almost everyone without exception.
00:26:34.000 And they have been for years.
00:26:35.000 The Marxists have done a very good job of taking over our education system across the nation.
00:26:40.000 Texas is no exception.
00:26:41.000 And our seminaries and our politics and media too, of course.
00:26:45.000 But right now, the Board of Regents said I would get to a point, run all the universities.
00:26:51.000 Of course, they hire all the faculty and the administration.
00:26:54.000 And I'm going to make sure that those people are in power and running these universities out.
00:26:59.000 We get them out and really put real patriots in their place.
00:27:04.000 And that way, because here's what the chain reaction is, as you know, the universities teach these new teachers.
00:27:11.000 Yes, that's right.
00:27:12.000 And they teach in all the faculty.
00:27:14.000 They're now going into government schools.
00:27:16.000 And now they're all brainwashing universities into socialism and Marxism.
00:27:20.000 And then they go to the high schools to teach it and spread that poison.
00:27:25.000 And all of our government school systems now has been polluted by socialists because of the universities.
00:27:30.000 So we have to, where we need to start changing the culture of Texas is at our universities.
00:27:36.000 I totally agree.
00:27:37.000 But this is all tied together, isn't it?
00:27:38.000 So you mentioned something early on that caught my attention.
00:27:42.000 So I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago that is neck and neck with Texas in one thing, property tax.
00:27:48.000 It's New Jersey, suburbs of Chicago, and Texas with some of the highest property taxes in the country.
00:27:54.000 For our national listeners right now, give an idea of how high the property taxes are in Texas.
00:27:59.000 Well, most major metropolitan areas of Texas, which is where three-quarters of the citizens live, it's about 2.4% of appraised value.
00:28:08.000 Of appraised value.
00:28:09.000 So it's as much as your mortgage.
00:28:11.000 It's extraordinary.
00:28:12.000 How did it ever get to be that way?
00:28:15.000 Well, it's just you have a lot of rhinos run in Austin, and they just love to spend money.
00:28:20.000 And local and local governments do.
00:28:22.000 So that there's no income tax, corporate or personal, in Texas.
00:28:25.000 Correct.
00:28:26.000 We have a business tax that's a little complicated, but it's about three-quarters of one point on your revenues.
00:28:33.000 So we do have that business tax, but no income tax to speak up for personal.
00:28:38.000 God, I thought it was zero on corporate, so that's good to be correct.
00:28:41.000 I must have been thinking of Florida, which is, I think, zeros across the board.
00:28:44.000 But so, but property tax is the main funder of the Austin budget.
00:28:49.000 Is that right?
00:28:50.000 No, it would be sales tax.
00:28:51.000 So you have a, how high is your sales tax?
00:28:53.000 Eight and a quarter total.
00:28:55.000 Is that too high for you?
00:28:56.000 No, no, because I've got my plan to eliminate property tax is going to go up a little bit.
00:29:00.000 Okay.
00:29:00.000 So talk about how you said here, people are tired of renting their homes from the government.
00:29:06.000 Correct.
00:29:07.000 Sure, I mean, absolutely.
00:29:09.000 I like to point out to most people, if you think about this and your listeners, that you really never own your own home.
00:29:16.000 You never own your own real estate.
00:29:18.000 Any real estate, office buildings, land, ranches, farms, whatever, all across the nation, you're renting it from the government.
00:29:25.000 The rents just varies which state you're in and which area you're in in that state.
00:29:30.000 But they have a first lien on it.
00:29:32.000 They can foreclose on it if you don't pay it.
00:29:34.000 And you really don't have a say in what that rent's going to be.
00:29:36.000 It just goes up and up in Texas with inflation.
00:29:39.000 It's going up 10% more a year.
00:29:41.000 There's properties out there.
00:29:42.000 They'll go up 100%, 200% in value.
00:29:45.000 So your taxes go up that much a year.
00:29:48.000 So this is not just about the money we're going to save.
00:29:51.000 It's about our economic liberty.
00:29:53.000 Yes.
00:29:54.000 I mean, property, owning real property is fundamental to who we are as Americans.
00:29:59.000 Tell me why.
00:30:00.000 Because this, it's about having ownership and wealth.
00:30:06.000 It's about being free and independent and not being a slave to the government.
00:30:11.000 I mean, I can go all the way down that trail if you want me to.
00:30:14.000 And I mean, if people really think about it.
00:30:16.000 Please do.
00:30:17.000 Okay.
00:30:18.000 Do you own your own wages?
00:30:20.000 Do you own your own labor?
00:30:22.000 You don't.
00:30:23.000 The government owns your labor.
00:30:25.000 The government tells you how much you can charge for the minimum price you can charge for your labor.
00:30:31.000 And the government tells you how much of your labor you've charged for you can keep, what wages you can keep.
00:30:37.000 And now the government really owns all of your property.
00:30:40.000 They own your real estate.
00:30:41.000 You own your own home.
00:30:42.000 You never can own it.
00:30:44.000 They tell you what school to go to.
00:30:45.000 They tell you what government tells you what curriculum to study.
00:30:48.000 Government tells you hires the government teachers.
00:30:52.000 So I can go on down the list, but we are under a lot more control than we think by the government.
00:30:59.000 And is that really what we want?
00:31:01.000 This is something that we can get done in Texas.
00:31:05.000 And my team tells me this.
00:31:07.000 They say, you know, hey, Huffins, every state's got property tax.
00:31:11.000 And they said, you know, we looked it up.
00:31:13.000 Almost every country's got property tax.
00:31:16.000 And I say, yes, finally, Texas is going to get its swagger back.
00:31:21.000 So you want to get rid of it completely.
00:31:22.000 Completely.
00:31:23.000 I'm going to phase it out.
00:31:26.000 When's the last time you think you had American meat?
00:31:28.000 Chances are it's been way too long.
00:31:30.000 Did you know that over 80% of the grass-fed beef sold in the United States is imported from overseas?
00:31:34.000 My friends, the Good Ranchers, have traveled the country on a mission to help the American family by working together with local farms and ranches shipping straight to your doctor.
00:31:42.000 Goodranchers.com delivers American craft beef better than organic chicken.
00:31:47.000 Look, most of your beef is from overseas, and they lie to you about it the way they label it.
00:31:51.000 It's deceiving.
00:31:52.000 You need meat straight from America.
00:31:54.000 Look, when we use Good Ranchers, there's a box that delivers to us.
00:31:57.000 And I'm telling you, we fight over it.
00:31:59.000 Producer Connor, he has barbecues like you wouldn't believe.
00:32:01.000 In fact, we have to keep on telling good ranchers, send us more meat.
00:32:04.000 Why?
00:32:05.000 Well, it's because it is the good stuff.
00:32:06.000 So go to goodranchers.com to buy now or subscribe today and save 20% on each box of mouthwatering meats.
00:32:13.000 Go to goodranchers.com/slash Charlie or use code Charlie at checkout.
00:32:17.000 That's $20 off and free.
00:32:18.000 That's goodranchers.com slash Charlie.
00:32:20.000 Know where your meat comes from with goodranchers.com.
00:32:26.000 So does the property tax fund local schools and stuff?
00:32:29.000 It does.
00:32:30.000 Half of it.
00:32:31.000 Some of the stuff.
00:32:31.000 So you have to figure that out.
00:32:33.000 We have it all figured out.
00:32:34.000 This is not a whimsical decision.
00:32:36.000 It's been a priority of the Republican Party for years.
00:32:39.000 This is a very bad tax.
00:32:41.000 And we've got it all worked out.
00:32:43.000 It's a numbers.
00:32:44.000 It's all about the math.
00:32:45.000 And I'm a number of people.
00:32:45.000 So you prefer a transaction tax, basically.
00:32:48.000 Yes.
00:32:49.000 So we'll move some of it over to sales tax.
00:32:51.000 But the most important thing is to get rid of it is not to spend all of our money.
00:32:55.000 Let me just give you a quick example.
00:32:57.000 Our overall state revenues go up at about seven to eight percent annually.
00:33:04.000 And if you cap states, the increase in state government spending, say at 2%, now you can take that difference, 6%, and buy down property tax.
00:33:13.000 And that's like $7 to $8 billion a year.
00:33:17.000 And over time, that buys it all down.
00:33:20.000 And so it's very doable.
00:33:21.000 And also, the important part of my plan is that we're going to have a constitutional amendment.
00:33:26.000 So that means every voter in Texas will get a chance to weigh in on it and vote, whether they want the plan or not when I get it up.
00:33:34.000 Sure, it'll be very popular.
00:33:35.000 So I want to finish this conversation and we can go wherever it leads us.
00:33:41.000 Where the willingness question, where I am really, quite honestly moved by you wanting to run for this office because you are saying you are willing to spend your own money.
00:33:55.000 You're a businessman.
00:33:56.000 Talk about your career and business really quick.
00:33:58.000 Well, I've been in commercial real estate since I graduated from Austin in 81, and it's been very good to me.
00:34:05.000 I love it.
00:34:06.000 And I'm putting a lot of money in this campaign and obviously don't need a career.
00:34:11.000 So you weren't a career politician.
00:34:13.000 You weren't a bureaucrat.
00:34:14.000 No.
00:34:14.000 You created wealth.
00:34:15.000 Right.
00:34:16.000 And it hired a lot of people.
00:34:17.000 So, but I want to use you as an example, though, because you're willing.
00:34:21.000 And that's my big word, which is the will, right?
00:34:24.000 Which is will conservatives be willing to sacrifice something?
00:34:28.000 And you say, you know what?
00:34:30.000 I'm upset at these certain things and I'm going to do something about it.
00:34:33.000 Can you talk about that from kind of more of a kind of whatever, a spiritual level, a philosophical level of kind of how you got to the place where you say, you know what?
00:34:43.000 I could be in, you know, Key West, you know, reading novels and drinking pina coladas, or I could be in Aspen, you know, complaining about systemic racism, whatever rich people do nowadays, right?
00:34:58.000 Not all of them, but you know what I mean.
00:35:00.000 But yeah, you know what?
00:35:01.000 I want to go wake up at 6 a.m. and challenge an incumbent governor to save the country.
00:35:08.000 That's really moving to me.
00:35:09.000 Can you just help me understand that?
00:35:13.000 Well, I can, and I can't, because it's hard to explain.
00:35:17.000 But the reason I want you to is because you might motivate others to do dramatic, like bold and heroic things.
00:35:22.000 That's why.
00:35:22.000 I would say this: and I say this in my talks, there's always been an internal flame burning in me ever since I was a teenager.
00:35:32.000 And I call it the flame of liberty.
00:35:34.000 And when I read, and when I was 17, I clearly remember it reading some books by Murray Rothbard and others on classic liberalism.
00:35:43.000 And I said, Yeah, I've got to get out and do something.
00:35:47.000 And I really, and it's always been in me.
00:35:49.000 Sometimes it burns brighter and hotter than others.
00:35:53.000 But I think that's in a lot of people.
00:35:55.000 And once people feed that flame, they got to scratch that itch to speak, I guess.
00:36:02.000 And so I'm not going to go to my grave without fighting with everything I've got to save the United States and save Texas.
00:36:10.000 And so for someone that's listening right now in North Dakota or in Maine or Washington or Idaho, what's your message to them?
00:36:19.000 Because obviously you want to see this kind of action happen in other places, right?
00:36:22.000 You want people that might have some form of success.
00:36:25.000 They say, man, what do I do?
00:36:27.000 Well, you've answered that question.
00:36:28.000 You're not actually waking up every single day wondering, what do I do?
00:36:31.000 You've kind of figured that out.
00:36:33.000 Now it's a question of let's get that done.
00:36:35.000 Right.
00:36:36.000 Well, what they can, you're asking me what they could do.
00:36:38.000 Well, yeah, just like wisdom for them and just like, hey, let's get off the couch.
00:36:41.000 Let's get into the arena, you know, from your own personal experience.
00:36:45.000 Like, come on in.
00:36:46.000 The water's fine.
00:36:47.000 Let's do this.
00:36:47.000 Absolutely.
00:36:49.000 I would say that as C.S. Lewis basically says, courage is the tip of the spear for all virtues.
00:36:57.000 It is.
00:36:58.000 And you have to have courage.
00:37:00.000 And we have to have a virtuous society for that matter.
00:37:03.000 But courage is everything.
00:37:05.000 And you just got to get up and get after it every day.
00:37:09.000 And only a fighter wins a fight.
00:37:12.000 And if you're not fighting, you can never win the fight.
00:37:16.000 And you got to figure out, why do I want to win the fight?
00:37:18.000 What am I doing this for?
00:37:21.000 And you're doing it because you don't want to live in the horrors of socialistic tyranny.
00:37:27.000 You don't want to be told what to do by the government.
00:37:30.000 The horrors are unimaginable.
00:37:33.000 And it's always not about you, but it could be about your neighbor.
00:37:36.000 It could be about your friends and what can happen to us and what's going to happen to us.
00:37:43.000 I just say this: evil's on the move.
00:37:45.000 It really is.
00:37:46.000 It's out of the trenches.
00:37:48.000 Evil never sleeps, never gives up, never shows mercy.
00:37:52.000 And it's a constant battle we have always to defeat evil.
00:37:55.000 And socialism is evil.
00:37:57.000 It always leads to communism and tyranny.
00:37:59.000 And when we have enablers of it and our own Republican Party that enable it, that is really sinful.
00:38:07.000 It's a restriction of the human spirit.
00:38:10.000 Anyone who mentions C.S. Lewis makes me very happy.
00:38:14.000 And as George S. Patton says, moral courage is the most necessary yet absent characteristic in men.
00:38:21.000 And Aristotle said, without courage, there are no other virtues.
00:38:24.000 Say the website again for everyone.
00:38:26.000 DonHuffins.com.
00:38:28.000 And in 45 seconds, give us the last and final sales pitch.
00:38:33.000 Oh, I appreciate that.
00:38:34.000 How do I make it fast?
00:38:36.000 I would just say that, look, I'm going to prove not only to the United States or to the socialists in New York and San Francisco what it means to be sovereign.
00:38:46.000 I'm going to prove it to the whole world.
00:38:48.000 Texas is going to be sovereign.
00:38:50.000 And I want to encourage everybody, our greatest days are coming.
00:38:53.000 Our time is now.
00:38:54.000 But remember, if you believe in liberty, our personal liberty, our economic liberty, there's no cavalry coming over the hill.
00:39:02.000 We are the 911 call.
00:39:04.000 We are the rescue squad.
00:39:06.000 And we're going to make it happen.
00:39:08.000 Our greatest days are coming.
00:39:09.000 It's donhuffines.com.
00:39:11.000 2Fs.
00:39:12.000 Yes.
00:39:12.000 H-U-F-F-I-N-E-S.
00:39:14.000 I have to make sure I'm staying right.
00:39:16.000 And everybody, thank you for listening.
00:39:18.000 Check out the Charlie Kirk Show podcast and hit subscribe.
00:39:20.000 Don Huffins, you got a big task ahead of you, but it looks like you got some momentum.
00:39:26.000 Yeah, we got tremendous.
00:39:27.000 The campaign is on fire.
00:39:28.000 Thank you, Charlie.
00:39:29.000 Remember, leadership, no excuses.
00:39:31.000 I'm the actual Republicans actually going to do something on this deal.
00:39:34.000 Very good.
00:39:35.000 And I was inspired by what you said.
00:39:37.000 And honestly, I learned a lot.
00:39:39.000 20,000 Texas National Guard to the southern border.
00:39:42.000 It's a question of the will.
00:39:44.000 And that's the question ahead of Texas.
00:39:46.000 Thank you, Don.
00:39:47.000 I enjoyed this.
00:39:48.000 Thank you, John.
00:39:49.000 You bet.
00:39:49.000 God bless.
00:39:50.000 Thanks.
00:39:53.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:39:54.000 Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:39:57.000 And if you want to support our program, you can do so at charliekirk.com slash support.
00:40:01.000 Thank you so much for listening, everybody.
00:40:03.000 God bless.
00:40:06.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.