The Charlie Kirk Show - February 16, 2026


Marco Rubio's Epic Munich Speech


Episode Stats

Length

36 minutes

Words per Minute

168.67403

Word Count

6,106

Sentence Count

502

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

7


Summary

Learn English with Charlie Kirk. Charlie is the President of Turning Point USA, the largest pro-American student organization in the country, fighting for the future of our republic. He is also the co-host of the Charlie Kirk Show on the Fox Business Network.


Transcript

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.
00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.
00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.
00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.
00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful.
00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.
00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.
00:00:27.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.
00:00:31.000 Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.
00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA high school chapter.
00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.
00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.
00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.
00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.
00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.
00:00:45.000 Here I am.
00:00:46.000 Lord use me.
00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:49.000 Here we go.
00:00:56.000 The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000 All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:11.000 It's Monday, February 16th, 2026.
00:01:14.000 Honored to be with you, patriots, across the country today.
00:01:18.000 Massive, massively busy media weekend.
00:01:21.000 There was a lot going on.
00:01:22.000 I have family in town.
00:01:23.000 I was trying to focus, but there was just too much going on.
00:01:26.000 And I will tell you, and we're going to get to it all.
00:01:29.000 We got new Epstein revelations.
00:01:31.000 We've got updates in the Savannah Guthrie case.
00:01:36.000 We've got all kinds of things.
00:01:40.000 But the key storyline that I think we need to lead with, because it was just too good not to lead with.
00:01:46.000 It really, and it matters more.
00:01:48.000 I think it does matter.
00:01:49.000 And by the way, that's what our show is always attempting to do.
00:01:52.000 We want to focus on the civilizational stakes.
00:01:55.000 The things that matter, the cultural things that matter, the political things that matter, the civilizational things that matter.
00:02:00.000 Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference was absolutely a barn burner.
00:02:07.000 It was probably, as I said on X, the single best defense of Western civilization and an appeal to Europe to get on board with the vision that America, President Trump has put forward, that I've heard in a generation, that I think has been articulated in a generation.
00:02:26.000 Yeah, it's first of all, what it matters, this is the Munich Security Conference annual event related to defense.
00:02:33.000 And during the past few years, it's all been about Ukraine and such.
00:02:36.000 Secretary Rubio goes and he gives a speech that's basically laying out the grand vision of what the Trump administration's attitude towards Europe is.
00:02:47.000 And we'll have the clips here, but the big picture you're looking for is he's pointing out we're not hostile towards Europe.
00:02:53.000 In fact, we quite literally want to mega make Europe great again.
00:02:57.000 And so he's pointing out when we criticize NATO, it's always that we want NATO to be stronger.
00:03:02.000 We want European countries to have better militaries so they will be better allies to us.
00:03:08.000 We want to stop migration to Europe because we want European civilizations to survive just as we want our own civilization to survive.
00:03:17.000 And I think the most remarkable, and he makes these historic appeals.
00:03:19.000 He talks about World War II.
00:03:20.000 He talks about the Cold War where we stood with Europeans against tyrannical anti-civilizational forces.
00:03:28.000 And I think the most amazing thing about it is at the end of it, he got a standing ovation.
00:03:31.000 Which apparently is rare.
00:03:34.000 But I think the reason he did is because when we criticize Europe, it is because we care.
00:03:41.000 And he articulated that very well.
00:03:44.000 And he did it over and over.
00:03:45.000 He laced it throughout the speech.
00:03:47.000 But let's just get into it.
00:03:49.000 This was an amazing, amazing moment, I think.
00:03:53.000 Whether it matters in the long term, will this have the desired impact?
00:03:57.000 Who knows?
00:03:58.000 But the San Innovation was a good idea.
00:04:01.000 Let's dive right into it.
00:04:02.000 Let's do 246.
00:04:04.000 National security, which this conference is largely about, is not merely a series of technical questions.
00:04:11.000 How much we spend on defense or where, how we deploy it.
00:04:15.000 These are important questions.
00:04:16.000 They are.
00:04:17.000 But they are not the fundamental one.
00:04:19.000 The fundamental question we must answer at the outset is what exactly are we defending?
00:04:26.000 Because armies do not fight for abstractions.
00:04:30.000 Armies fight for a people.
00:04:32.000 Armies fight for a nation.
00:04:34.000 Armies fight for a way of life.
00:04:37.000 And that is what we are defending.
00:04:39.000 A great civilization that has every reason to be proud of its history.
00:04:44.000 That to me is such a distillation of what I believe is what's ailing the West right now.
00:04:51.000 We have lost our pride in self.
00:04:53.000 We have lost our pride in our own culture, in our own people, in our own accomplishments.
00:04:58.000 We have been plagued by a guilt, a white guilt, a guilt of our own success.
00:05:04.000 We have believed lies that we are invaders, that we're evil colonialists.
00:05:09.000 Imperialists unironically touted colonialism during the speech.
00:05:13.000 Which is an unambiguously overall good thing on the history of the world.
00:05:19.000 It is.
00:05:20.000 I will defend colonialism.
00:05:21.000 It's not that it was perfect.
00:05:23.000 It's not that it didn't have brutality or cruelty involved.
00:05:26.000 Of course, we're talking about a people that understood that you had to use force if you were going to get what you wanted in a mean and cruel world.
00:05:34.000 So I'm not saying it was all perfect, but if you look at where especially the English colonialists have went, even in Kenya, in Africa, it's one of the most stable countries in all of Africa because it was settled by English.
00:05:46.000 Same in India, same in America.
00:05:48.000 You can look across the board, and the British colonialists had a, I would say, overwhelmingly good positive impact on the world.
00:05:57.000 I don't think we got this as a clip, so I want to read it.
00:05:59.000 This is a line that Secretary Rubio said.
00:06:03.000 For five centuries before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding.
00:06:07.000 It's been missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers, pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe.
00:06:20.000 But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, Europe, was contracting.
00:06:25.000 Europe was in ruins.
00:06:27.000 Half of it lived behind an iron curtain.
00:06:30.000 The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map for years to come.
00:06:45.000 And he basically says it's time for us to undo that managed decline.
00:06:49.000 And that's not necessarily bring back colonialism specifically, but certainly stop apologizing for it.
00:06:55.000 Stop acting like it's the worst atrocity to ever happen.
00:07:00.000 And he calls out mass migration and he calls out like demilitarization.
00:07:05.000 Yeah, the managed decline, I thought he really honed in on it.
00:07:09.000 It was very powerful.
00:07:10.000 Play a cut 253.
00:07:12.000 For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline.
00:07:21.000 We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.
00:07:29.000 And then he goes on and basically says, yeah, to renew it, he talks about rearming 257.
00:07:36.000 Asking member states of NATO to be stronger is not a threat to say, well, if you're not stronger, then we're going to, you know, it's to point out to everybody that it is a stronger alliance.
00:07:46.000 We are collectively stronger when we are individually stronger on what our capabilities we bring.
00:07:52.000 That was from a different.
00:07:53.000 Yeah, that was from after.
00:07:55.000 But the part that I think was actually the next thought in this is he goes straight into mass migration.
00:08:03.000 And I love that you saw this.
00:08:05.000 JD Vance hit it.
00:08:06.000 President Trump has been hitting it repeatedly.
00:08:09.000 And now you see Marco Rubio, 254.
00:08:12.000 Mass migration is not, was not, is some fringe concern of little consequence.
00:08:19.000 It was and continues to be a crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West.
00:08:27.000 We always say on this show that mass migration, unfettered mass migration, is the switch that, when flipped, will fix basically all the ills.
00:08:39.000 Not perfectly.
00:08:40.000 Humans are flawed.
00:08:40.000 Humans are evil.
00:08:41.000 They're going to be flawed regardless of where they come from.
00:08:44.000 But mass migration is absolutely at the core root of so many of the problems ailing the West today, and it needs to be addressed.
00:08:55.000 Candles were lit on Bondi Beach by families, by children, by people of faith to celebrate a festival of light, a festival from Bible times, one that Jesus himself celebrated.
00:09:06.000 People gathered with hope, seeking unity and comfort in tradition.
00:09:09.000 But instead of light, there was darkness, violence, fear, hatred showing itself at a time meant for prayer and rejoicing.
00:09:17.000 Times like this remind us that even with the ceasefire in Israel, Jewish people are being targeted simply because of their faith.
00:09:24.000 And times like this remind us why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews exists, to stand in the gap, providing safety and security to God's people.
00:09:33.000 The fellowship brings together Christians and Jews to be a light to suffering Jews in Israel, the former Soviet Union, or wherever the needs are greatest.
00:09:41.000 Together, we can make a real difference in the lives of those who need hope the most.
00:09:45.000 Your gift today will help provide the security that God's people so desperately need.
00:09:49.000 Visit urgentifcj.org.
00:09:51.000 That's one word, urgentifcj.org, or call now at 866-338-IFCJ.
00:09:58.000 That's 866-338-4325.
00:10:05.000 All right, I want to play one more clip from this speech because it's just so good.
00:10:11.000 285, Marco Rubio.
00:10:13.000 While we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe.
00:10:27.000 For the United States and Europe, we belong together.
00:10:31.000 We are part of one civilization, Western civilization.
00:10:36.000 We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.
00:10:56.000 And I just love that he brings the word Christian in there.
00:10:59.000 Little known fact, when they were doing the European Union and they were kind of establishing some of their foundational documents, there was a debate about whether or not to include Christianity in there, something that Dr. James Orr talks about.
00:11:11.000 They voted against that.
00:11:13.000 So I don't know what defines the West if it isn't our common Christian heritage.
00:11:19.000 Whether or not you agree, whether or not you believe there's nothing that unites the West because there's different languages, there's different cultures, different food, different culinary traditions.
00:11:29.000 What unites the West is our Christian roots.
00:11:33.000 And Marco was very clear to put that in.
00:11:36.000 So I don't believe the lies that this is my big point.
00:11:39.000 What I loved about this and why I think it stood out is because Marco articulated a rousing speech, but a celebration of our history and our accomplishments of our values.
00:11:50.000 So many people in that room have been fed a heap of lies that they're supposed to be ashamed of themselves and that we should be ashamed and we should manage our decline to let other the global south rise or whatever.
00:12:02.000 Let China rise.
00:12:03.000 No.
00:12:04.000 And it's a choice.
00:12:06.000 And I especially think it's this is a part I particularly like actually.
00:12:10.000 Rubio is, of course, Cuban heritage, Hispanic heritage.
00:12:14.000 And I like that he's affirming that because as we'll see, because we'll have clips from AOC here in just a moment, there's this popular, there's actually kind of a conflict in Latin American civilization where some of them, they really buy into this like indigenous peoples movement where like everything about it was terrible and like Europe is awful and we need to like decolonize the world.
00:12:37.000 And he's pointing out, no, like I am from Western civilization as well.
00:12:41.000 Cuba is a part of Western civilization.
00:12:42.000 He mentioned Venezuela in the speech.
00:12:44.000 Venezuela is a part of Western civilization.
00:12:46.000 It's not just Europe itself and America.
00:12:49.000 It's the places that Europeans went where they spread Christianity, where they spread European cultural norms, where they spread European languages and all of that.
00:12:59.000 And it was really nice to see him just step up and defend that all as a good thing, which it was, because would you rather have Mexico as it is or Mexico as a nation that sacrifices human beings?
00:13:10.000 Well, and AOC tries to take a swing at Secretary Rubio's address in Munich and misses 256.
00:13:19.000 You are starting to see the ascent of the right, even in places like Munich.
00:13:26.000 Marco Rubio's speech was a pure appeal to Western culture.
00:13:34.000 And that's a bad thing?
00:13:35.000 Oh, no.
00:13:36.000 It's terrible.
00:13:37.000 Oh, no.
00:13:39.000 So this is another funny one.
00:13:41.000 She basically references the actions we took in Venezuela and said, you know, we just did it because it's below the equator.
00:13:49.000 It's not below the equator.
00:13:52.000 274.
00:13:53.000 We look at what happened in Venezuela, for example.
00:13:56.000 It is not a remark on who Maduro was as a leader.
00:14:06.000 He canceled elections.
00:14:07.000 He was an anti-democratic leader.
00:14:08.000 That doesn't mean that we can kidnap a head of state and engage in acts of war just because the nation is below the equator.
00:14:18.000 And they really, yeah, it's very funny.
00:14:24.000 It's like, it's so funny that she gets wrong specifically because it goes basically as close to the equator as you can get without actually touching it.
00:14:30.000 I also love, she's just a classic example.
00:14:32.000 So many politicians do that.
00:14:34.000 As soon as she mentions like maduro.
00:14:37.000 Maduro.
00:14:38.000 Maduro.
00:14:38.000 Venezuela.
00:14:39.000 You just got to lace that in.
00:14:41.000 Just uses a normal American accent for everything else.
00:14:43.000 If you can understand what the heck she means here, please send us an email, freedom at charliekirk.com, 286.
00:14:50.000 I think what we identify is that in a rules-based order, hypocrisy is vulnerability.
00:14:58.000 And so I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West we'd look the other way for inconvenient populations to act out these paradoxes.
00:15:17.000 Don't you just, this is getting way ahead of things, but wouldn't it just be amazing to see like Rubio versus AOC on like a VP debate stage?
00:15:24.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:15:26.000 Let her run for president.
00:15:26.000 I would see her go either.
00:15:28.000 Yeah, like presidential dumber for having listened to this.
00:15:31.000 Just imagine, imagine, you know, obviously they're both kind of representatives of a certain subgroup and then just one of them just an unabashed defender of Western civilization and the other just doing it.
00:15:43.000 You should feel terrible about yourself and just be invaded.
00:15:46.000 Invade us harder, Daddy.
00:15:47.000 That's like the contrast.
00:15:48.000 Even I think on X, I think she was like got mad because he made a reference to the different cultural strands going into America.
00:15:55.000 New Amsterdam was Dutch and there were French fur traders.
00:15:57.000 And he's like, and the cowboy goes back to Spanish culture, which it did.
00:16:01.000 And she's like, tell the Mexicans that.
00:16:03.000 It's like, oh, my God.
00:16:04.000 Where do you think they got the horse from?
00:16:06.000 Again, email us your thoughts.
00:16:08.000 What the heck she means.
00:16:09.000 281.
00:16:10.000 Should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move?
00:16:18.000 You know, I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is a, of course, a very long-standing policy of the United States.
00:16:38.000 And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point.
00:16:45.000 And we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.
00:16:58.000 If you're stressed about getting out of debt, it's go time.
00:17:02.000 Seriously, this is one of those moments where timing actually matters.
00:17:06.000 Done with debt is one of the best I've seen at navigating debt relief.
00:17:09.000 2025 was a record year.
00:17:11.000 They enrolled over $102 million in debt for our listeners and others.
00:17:16.000 Here's why I'm telling you about this now, though.
00:17:18.000 According to the Federal Reserve's latest survey, many banks have tightened their standards.
00:17:23.000 Right now, maybe the best window to negotiate settlements before lenders tighten further.
00:17:28.000 Done with debt tracks credit card and loan company behavior.
00:17:31.000 This is what they know.
00:17:32.000 They're experienced at knowing who is negotiating and when and what it takes to get you the biggest reduction possible.
00:17:40.000 And whether you're carrying $10,000 or $500,000 in debt, this is probably the best chance you'll get all year.
00:17:46.000 Done with Debt are legendary negotiators when you go head-to-head with your credit card and loan companies.
00:17:51.000 They have one goal to drastically reduce or eliminate your debt altogether.
00:17:55.000 Most clients see more money in their pocket month one.
00:17:58.000 Do not wait for the lenders to tighten up their policies.
00:18:00.000 Here's what you need to do: schedule a free consultation.
00:18:03.000 There's no pressure and it only takes a few minutes.
00:18:05.000 Share who you owe and they'll tell you if this is the moment you could see a major reduction in your debt.
00:18:10.000 Imagine waking up without that weight on your shoulders and doing it without taking out another loan or filing for bankruptcy.
00:18:16.000 Done with debt helps you through the debt relief process so you keep more of your paycheck every month.
00:18:21.000 Go to donewithdebt.com right now.
00:18:23.000 That's donewithdebt.com.
00:18:28.000 All right, without further ado, Mike Lee, Senator Mike Lee, the great senator out of the state of Utah, at a state that really struggles sometimes electing politicians, mandated it hit a gold mine with Senator Mike Lee.
00:18:42.000 Senator, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:18:44.000 Honored to have you.
00:18:45.000 Thanks so much.
00:18:45.000 It's an honor to be with you, as always.
00:18:47.000 Well, Senator, you have been leading the charge on the Save Act, and you published an article kind of on X explaining why we need the Save America Act.
00:19:01.000 And then I'm going to play you some clips of some of the detractors and what they're saying.
00:19:05.000 But let's start there.
00:19:06.000 Why do we need the Save America Act?
00:19:08.000 We need the Save America Act in a nutshell because an existing federal law, the National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA, sometimes known as the Motor Voter Law, passed in 1993, allows people to register to vote in almost every state simply by going to a DMV, filling out a form, checking a box saying, yes, I'd like to register to vote, and then signing their name, saying, yes, I'm eligible to vote,
00:19:35.000 meaning I'm a citizen and am otherwise legally allowed to vote.
00:19:40.000 And a couple of decades after this law was enacted, in a little-known ruling, the state of Arizona versus Intertribal Council, the Supreme Court interpreted that same law as saying that states may not,
00:19:55.000 under the NVRA, concluding that the states had been preempted from even inquiring into the possibility of the need to verify citizenship on the part of somebody who had applied to register to vote using an NVRA form.
00:20:10.000 In other words, states may not ask for proof of citizenship in that context.
00:20:16.000 Well, even since that ruling a few years ago, even since that ruling, a lot of other things have gotten worse that have made that problem really compound in the order of magnitude of a problem that it creates.
00:20:31.000 Remember, in the four-year period between 2021 to 2025, we had 10 or 15 million people cross our borders unlawfully.
00:20:42.000 We've now got in excess of somewhere in the range of about 30 million non-citizens residing in this country.
00:20:49.000 We've got a trend over the last 25 years of more and more states issuing driver's licenses to non-citizens.
00:20:55.000 Nearly every state does that.
00:20:56.000 About 19 states issue driver's licenses even to people who are known illegal immigrants.
00:21:04.000 And so all of this means that it's more easy than ever and more likely than ever that somebody could go and apply for a driver's license, whether they mean to or not.
00:21:12.000 They can check that box, sign their name at the bottom of the form, and presto, they are now registered voters in the United States.
00:21:20.000 So the Save America Act was introduced to close that loophole, a loophole created by existing federal law.
00:21:27.000 And, you know, look, the validity, the vitality of our constitutional republic depends on the security of our elections.
00:21:37.000 Our elections cannot be secure as long as we've got that gaping loophole in there.
00:21:41.000 We've got to close it.
00:21:42.000 Yeah.
00:21:42.000 And you say here in your write-up here, you know, it's basic common sense, completely agree.
00:21:49.000 You say we require documentation proving our identity and eligibility to board planes, buy alcohol, receive welfare, cash checks, buy firearms, buy hunting and fishing licenses, pick up tickets, and participate in many political activities.
00:22:02.000 You know, it is just this wild thing where we have this carve-out that seems to defy all common sense and all logic.
00:22:10.000 This is a 2024 clip from Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, where she sent out 30,000 mailers to illegals telling them to register to vote.
00:22:20.000 It's a true story.
00:22:21.000 245.
00:22:22.000 In 2022, your office sent out mailers to 30,000 non-citizens inviting them to register to vote.
00:22:29.000 They, of course, are not eligible to register to vote.
00:22:32.000 That same year, your office used Colorado's ballot tracking system to send messages to specific Coloradans encouraging them to vote when, in fact, they had already voted.
00:22:41.000 Yeah, that seems like a foolproof system that they have over there.
00:22:45.000 And then this is a colleague of yours in the Senate, sir.
00:22:48.000 It's Alex Padilla.
00:22:51.000 And he says he has some harsh words for your Save Act here, 283.
00:22:55.000 Absolutely nonsensical.
00:22:56.000 I mean, to insist on bringing your birth certificate or a passport.
00:23:01.000 A lot of Americans don't even have a passport because not everybody travels internationally.
00:23:06.000 It's the equivalent of a show-me-your papers law to be able to exercise your fundamental constitutional right to vote.
00:23:15.000 Senator Mike Lee, your response to your colleague in the Senate there, show me your papers.
00:23:20.000 That's paranoid fantasy.
00:23:22.000 And that's the sort of rage baiting that we've got to resist like the plague in this country.
00:23:28.000 He's absolutely wrong.
00:23:29.000 He couldn't be any more mistaken.
00:23:31.000 First of all, insofar as he's applying it, you've got to show up with your birth certificate or a passport at the time of voting.
00:23:37.000 That's not true.
00:23:38.000 You do have to prove citizenship at the time of voter registration.
00:23:41.000 Remember, the Save America Act requires two things.
00:23:44.000 Document your citizenship at the time you register to vote.
00:23:49.000 And then thereafter, having registered to vote, once you've done so on the day of voting, at the moment you vote, you're supposed to show up at the polling place with some sort of government-issued ID.
00:24:04.000 Not the full documentation of your citizenship, but just some sort of government-issued photo ID to prove that you are who you say you are, to prove that you are the same person listed on that voter registration that you previously registered for.
00:24:18.000 This is not that hard.
00:24:19.000 And as far as this being a fundamental right, yeah, it is.
00:24:22.000 That is a fundamental incident of citizenship, of citizenship.
00:24:26.000 And citizenship and the vote that comes with it means less when we allow people who are not citizens to vote.
00:24:34.000 And that's a real problem.
00:24:35.000 Insofar as suggesting that constitutionally protected right, like the right to vote, cannot ever be accompanied by documentation requirements.
00:24:45.000 That's nonsense.
00:24:46.000 We do it all the time.
00:24:48.000 You know, you're also constitutionally protected in your right to own, possess, and guest purchase a firearm.
00:24:55.000 And yet, if anyone who's ever purchased a firearm from a licensed firearms dealer knows that you've got to fill out forms, you've got to provide documentation showing who you are, and you've got to wait while they process that.
00:25:08.000 So this is absolute nonsense.
00:25:11.000 Look, our objective here, Andrew, is to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.
00:25:17.000 The Save America Act accomplishes both of those purposes.
00:25:20.000 The Democrats want only one of them, and that's a problem.
00:25:24.000 So then the question then becomes, Senator, how do we get this over the finish line?
00:25:29.000 The House has passed the Save Act.
00:25:32.000 I know it's gone back to the House for different amendments, but Thune has now become a co-signer of the bill.
00:25:39.000 You've got this filibuster issue.
00:25:41.000 You have been advocating for nuking the zombie filibuster.
00:25:45.000 What does that mean?
00:25:47.000 Is that still what you're pursuing?
00:25:49.000 And what would it entail?
00:25:50.000 Yeah.
00:25:51.000 So this zombie filibuster is the name that I have administered, that I've given to the process by which filibustering very often happens these days.
00:26:01.000 A filibuster refers to the long-standing Senate tradition and principle backed up by Senate rules that protects open-ended, theoretically unlimited debate, subject to certain exceptions.
00:26:15.000 But from the very beginning of the Republic, since the Constitution was ratified and the Senate first began its operations in the late 1700s, there have always been, there's always been an understanding that you've got to speak to filibuster.
00:26:35.000 Over the last few decades, we've gotten lazy.
00:26:37.000 We've gotten weak.
00:26:38.000 Some of these muscles have atrophied due to non-use of those muscles.
00:26:42.000 And we've gotten accustomed to the idea that you can filibuster without actually going to the Senate chamber and standing up, seeking recognition, obtaining recognition, standing up and speaking.
00:26:54.000 That's what it's supposed to entail.
00:26:56.000 So what we mean when we say it's time to bitch the zombie filibuster is just enforce existing Senate rules, make senators speak if they want to filibuster, and when they exhaust themselves either physically or under the Senate rules to speak, then we call the question and the question is called at a simple majority vote.
00:27:17.000 They shouldn't get the chance every single time to just say, well, I don't like this and you don't have 60 votes to achieve closure without me.
00:27:27.000 Voter is a vote under Rule 22 of the Senate that allows you to force debate to a close, even if a subset, a minority of senators want to continue speaking.
00:27:37.000 You can force debate to a close if you could get to 60 votes.
00:27:41.000 But that doesn't mean it's the only way to pass a bill.
00:27:43.000 Sometimes you can get there through exhaustion.
00:27:45.000 And that's what I'm advocating here.
00:27:47.000 That's the way we're going to pass the Save America Act.
00:27:50.000 Do you feel any momentum with Leader Thune that he would be willing?
00:27:54.000 You say here on your Twitter, you said Senate Rule 19, enforce the talking fellows buster by inter alia.
00:28:02.000 Do you feel like he's going to do this?
00:28:04.000 Is he on board?
00:28:05.000 Is there any momentum?
00:28:07.000 Okay, I'll never speak for a colleague, but I will say this.
00:28:12.000 I have aggressively made the case to Leader Thune and to my colleagues about the need to do this.
00:28:18.000 And I'll say that he's got it under advisement.
00:28:20.000 I've had extensive conversations with President Trump as well.
00:28:23.000 He loves the idea, and I believe he's having conversations with Leader Thune as well.
00:28:27.000 So I'll within the sound of my voice.
00:28:29.000 Reach out to your senators.
00:28:30.000 Encourage them to pass this.
00:28:31.000 Tell them it matters.
00:28:33.000 And if not, if not us, who?
00:28:35.000 If not now, when?
00:28:36.000 This thing matters.
00:28:37.000 If we want to hold on to these majorities in 2026, we've got to act.
00:28:41.000 We've got to show our voters our own base.
00:28:43.000 We're willing to stand up for them.
00:28:44.000 This is important to them.
00:28:45.000 It's important to the Republican Party.
00:28:47.000 Most of all, it's important to the Republic.
00:28:49.000 Well, and by the way, Senator, President Trump truthed out that we will have voter ID in the midterms, whether Congress passes this bill or not.
00:28:58.000 I'm not exactly sure what he means by that.
00:29:00.000 I'm assuming some sort of executive order.
00:29:02.000 But President Trump is taking this very seriously, and hopefully your senator is as well.
00:29:08.000 And Senator Mike Lee, I totally appreciate that.
00:29:11.000 Blow up their phones, melt the phones.
00:29:13.000 This is the time to act.
00:29:14.000 We need to pass the Save Act.
00:29:16.000 Senator, God bless you.
00:29:17.000 Thank you for coming on.
00:29:18.000 Thank you for making the time.
00:29:19.000 We'll talk to you again soon.
00:29:21.000 Thank you.
00:29:24.000 Hi, folks.
00:29:24.000 Andrew Colvett here.
00:29:26.000 I'd like to tell you about my friends over at YReFi.
00:29:29.000 You've probably been hearing me talk about YReFi for some time now.
00:29:32.000 We are all in with these guys.
00:29:34.000 If you or someone you know is struggling with private student loan debt, take my advice and give them a call.
00:29:40.000 Maybe you're behind on your payments.
00:29:42.000 Maybe you're even in default.
00:29:44.000 You don't have to live in this nightmare anymore.
00:29:47.000 WhyReFi will provide you a custom payment based on your ability to pay.
00:29:51.000 They tailor each loan individually.
00:29:54.000 They can save you thousands of dollars and you can get your life back.
00:29:58.000 We go to campuses all over America and we see student after student who's drowning in private student loan debt.
00:30:04.000 Many of them don't even know how much they owe.
00:30:06.000 WhyReFi can help.
00:30:08.000 Just go to YReFi.com.
00:30:10.000 That's the letter why, then refi.com.
00:30:13.000 And remember, YReFi doesn't care what your credit score is.
00:30:16.000 Just go to YReFi.com and tell them your friend Andrew sent you.
00:30:23.000 Okay, so I got to hit this one.
00:30:24.000 This is kind of a little fun one.
00:30:25.000 On top of all the news, we got Jeremy Carl coming up next hour.
00:30:28.000 We told you about him yesterday.
00:30:30.000 So don't miss that.
00:30:31.000 That interview is going to be amazing.
00:30:34.000 But Obama apparently confirmed that there's aliens.
00:30:38.000 Or did he?
00:30:39.000 Or did he?
00:30:40.000 Sure thing, Andrew.
00:30:41.000 This is.
00:30:42.000 Are aliens real?
00:30:44.000 Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:30:46.000 We want to see, pull up the email.
00:30:47.000 I want to see what people are responding.
00:30:50.000 Okay.
00:30:50.000 And did you think that Obama was saying this or not?
00:30:52.000 272.
00:30:53.000 Are aliens real?
00:30:56.000 They're real, but I haven't seen them.
00:30:58.000 And they're not being kept in Area 51.
00:31:03.000 There's no underground facility unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.
00:31:13.000 Okay, Blake, what do you think he was saying?
00:31:15.000 It sounds exactly like it was like a speed round of questions.
00:31:18.000 And so they asked him if aliens are real.
00:31:19.000 And he said, yeah, I think they're real, but I don't have secret info about them.
00:31:24.000 I think is what he was saying.
00:31:26.000 I am young.
00:31:27.000 I am the supplement of all.
00:31:30.000 Okay.
00:31:31.000 I mean, I guess the alternative is he kept the secret, you know, non-stop over a nearly 20-year period.
00:31:39.000 And then he's like, yeah, I'm just going to admit they're real on this podcast.
00:31:42.000 Why not?
00:31:43.000 Okay.
00:31:44.000 Everyone else kept the conspiracy secret.
00:31:45.000 I mean, he did just go, are they real?
00:31:47.000 Yes, but he hasn't seen them.
00:31:50.000 Well, it's so great because Obama truly is this avatar of a type of person who was so predominant in America in the early 2000s, kind of this.
00:32:01.000 It's funny because I want to say like white nerd, and he's not white, but he kind of spiritually.
00:32:05.000 Yeah, and he's very spiritually like those people where they would, you know, they'll run the numbers and they'll say, well, actually, I mean, there's trillions and quadrillions of stars and planets.
00:32:13.000 So the odds that there's no aliens anywhere in the universe.
00:32:16.000 All right, he responded.
00:32:18.000 So this goes mega viral over the weekend.
00:32:21.000 You've got Epstein names getting released.
00:32:23.000 You've got the Munich Security Conference.
00:32:25.000 There's all these feuds and this somehow pierces everything.
00:32:31.000 It becomes like a massive story.
00:32:32.000 He says, I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it's gotten attention, let me clarify.
00:32:38.000 Statistically, the universe is so vast that this is what you're saying.
00:32:41.000 I told you.
00:32:42.000 The universe is so vast that the odds are good that there's life out there.
00:32:47.000 But distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we've been visited by aliens is low.
00:32:51.000 And I say no evidence during, saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.
00:32:57.000 Really?
00:32:58.000 Let me be clear.
00:32:59.000 Let me be clear.
00:33:00.000 Yeah, that's the truth of it.
00:33:02.000 We're going to hear it.
00:33:03.000 I'm going to go to the bathroom.
00:33:04.000 We're going to hear about this for ages.
00:33:07.000 I'll have to learn this video.
00:33:09.000 Mask off.
00:33:10.000 It's like they managed to have these sweeping conspiracies of silence that suck in hundreds, thousands, if not millions of people.
00:33:19.000 And then it's just blown open because he just gets loose during a podcast episode.
00:33:24.000 I'm pretty skeptical.
00:33:25.000 Let's see what the emails say.
00:33:28.000 Yeah, Lisa.
00:33:30.000 Lisa says she believes that people are seeing angels and demons.
00:33:33.000 That's a take others have said.
00:33:34.000 I think Tucker's talked about that posture.
00:33:38.000 Elizabeth says, no.
00:33:39.000 I loved E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
00:33:41.000 No, there are not aliens.
00:33:43.000 They do make for really great science fiction movies.
00:33:45.000 Jennifer says, if there are aliens, they are not what we see depicted in Star Wars.
00:33:50.000 I believe that the Bible said God created man in his image.
00:33:53.000 So say we have super smart, powerful aliens would go against that.
00:33:58.000 Sue.
00:33:59.000 You know, that gets there's some fun Christian sci-fi out there that will dwell on the question, like, okay, if aliens exist, would we have to evangelize them?
00:34:07.000 Or would God have to also do an incarnation for them?
00:34:11.000 You know what's interesting is that C.S. Lewis wrestled with this.
00:34:14.000 Yeah, I've been reading the space trilogy.
00:34:16.000 So I read that hideous strength over Christmas.
00:34:18.000 Now I'm reading Paralandra.
00:34:19.000 I want to recommend that to everyone watching.
00:34:21.000 It's a very interesting book.
00:34:23.000 Paralandra, the plot is it's before, it's pre-space flight sci-fi, so we don't know anything about the planet.
00:34:29.000 So it takes place on Venus, which we could not actually visit, it turns out.
00:34:33.000 But he has Venus as a habitable planet, and the main character basically intervenes on the planet at the moment where like each planet kind of has its own creations by God.
00:34:45.000 And so he arrives on the planet and it's newer.
00:34:47.000 It's a younger planet than Earth.
00:34:48.000 And so he basically arrives in its version of the Garden of Eden right when Satan shows up to try to make its version of Eve fall and he has to like intervene it.
00:34:58.000 It's a crazy book and it's not long.
00:35:00.000 It's under 200 pages.
00:35:01.000 So I'll tell everyone to check that book out.
00:35:03.000 What's it called again?
00:35:03.000 Paralandra.
00:35:04.000 And it's written by C.S. Lewis.
00:35:06.000 No, I didn't really.
00:35:06.000 In the space trilogy.
00:35:07.000 Sue says aliens are real.
00:35:09.000 They're called Dema Rats.
00:35:11.000 You know, with the rats.
00:35:12.000 But they come from the depths of hell.
00:35:14.000 I had to say that.
00:35:14.000 Carlos says, no, absolutely not.
00:35:18.000 Interesting.
00:35:18.000 I'm surprised to see so many people say that aliens aren't real.
00:35:22.000 I actually am.
00:35:24.000 In the vast expanse that is space.
00:35:27.000 And by the way, as a Christian, I don't feel like that challenges my faith at all, actually, because God is the ultimate creator.
00:35:33.000 He's infinitely creative.
00:35:36.000 And I don't think that that would make us less special.
00:35:39.000 I think that's basically where C.S. Lewis sort of ultimately lands.
00:35:43.000 So I admittedly, I'm led by it.
00:35:48.000 It's very interesting.
00:35:49.000 The space trilogy, kind of the core concept is, what if there was life on every other planet, but Earth was the only one that fell?
00:35:55.000 And so we had to have the incarnation to save us.
00:35:57.000 Everyone else did not sin.
00:35:59.000 It's some very interesting stuff.
00:36:00.000 And the idea of strength is very good as well.
00:36:02.000 Mariah says demons are among us.
00:36:05.000 They can appear as anything, aliens and demons.
00:36:08.000 She's just connecting.
00:36:10.000 Listen, there's a lot of people that think that sort of thing.