The Charlie Kirk Show - Mission Mostly Accomplished?

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 is March 10th, 2026.

00:01:13.000 Welcome, Blake.

00:01:14.000 Howdy.

00:01:16.000 It's that time again.

00:01:17.000 Lots to get to.

00:01:18.000 We got a jam-packed show for you.

00:01:20.000 Senator John Kennedy is going to be joining us.

00:01:24.000 And then we've got a crazy story about leftists training juries to let the criminals off the hook. 0.52

00:01:31.000 Yeah, it's bad.

00:01:32.000 It's real bad.

00:01:32.000 So we want to make sure we get to that.

00:01:34.000 Then we've got Secretary of Energy Chris Wright joining us.

00:01:38.000 Lots of news about the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices.

00:01:40.000 We're going to get into it, actually, with Senator Kennedy as well.

00:01:43.000 He comes from Oil State, Louisiana.

00:01:45.000 And then we have Professor Ray from Hillsdale College going to give us a whole history of Iran and that region, what this conflict really means for that.

00:01:56.000 So lots of educating today, lots of explaining what's actually going on behind the headlines.

00:02:02.000 Because listen, there's a lot of short-term push and pull you're going to feel.

00:02:07.000 There's a lot of Twitter chatter.

00:02:10.000 There's going to be a lot of social media chatter.

00:02:12.000 There's going to be a lot of headlines.

00:02:13.000 What's really going on?

00:02:15.000 And there are some long-term impacts that are going to be felt.

00:02:18.000 I mean, I kind of liken this to, you know, we live in historic times, Blake, where you could make the argument that Reagan in the 80s gave rise to Clinton's booming economy in the 90s, right?

00:02:29.000 And so we are in that kind of an era where President Trump is doing a lot of hard things.

00:02:34.000 You don't have to agree with everything.

00:02:35.000 I'm not asking you to beat the drums of war.

00:02:38.000 I certainly am not.

00:02:39.000 But when you think about the foundations in the Middle East, from an energy security standpoint, from a geopolitical standpoint, we are living in historic times, and we have to understand where these pieces will lead, where they are going to take us in the years ahead.

00:02:56.000 So we're going to educate us, all of you, ourselves as well.

00:03:00.000 But first, we've got to get to what happened.

00:03:01.000 There was another shooting at an American consulate this time in Toronto.

00:03:06.000 Let's get the press clipping.

00:03:08.000 We're going to explain what's really going on here.

00:03:10.000 Clip 8.

00:03:11.000 At this stage, I can confirm that the RCMP is working closely with the Toronto Police Service and our international partners who will assist us in a fulsome investigation into the shooting that took place overnight early this morning at the American consulate behind us.

00:03:28.000 At this time, the INSET team has been engaged as this is a national security incident.

00:03:35.000 And we are working with Toronto Police and others to understand the motivations of those involved.

00:03:42.000 The Canadian Mountains like slamming the table.

00:03:45.000 Like, what could the motive be?

00:03:47.000 So, yeah, so this is what's so funny about Canada, right?

00:03:50.000 They won't say that it was a Muslim guy who's upset about the Iran conflict.

00:03:54.000 So he went and shot up a U.S. consulate in Toronto. 0.51

00:03:57.000 They're going to have this guy locked in a room, and he'll be like, I did it for Islam. 0.99

00:04:00.000 And they'll punch him in the face. 0.99

00:04:02.000 Stop speaking in Riddles. 0.95

00:04:03.000 Yeah, what is your motive?

00:04:05.000 We all know what this is.

00:04:06.000 Obviously, over the weekend, we saw those two young men that were inspired by ISIS propaganda to go throw IEDs at a bunch of protesters in New York.

00:04:17.000 And now we have a shooting at a U.S. consulate.

00:04:19.000 There was obviously the Austin bar nightclub shooting where a number of people were shot, few were killed.

00:04:27.000 We know what the motivation is.

00:04:29.000 So this is essentially the bargain that your leaders have made with you in the West.

00:04:33.000 They've said, don't be racist.

00:04:36.000 You've got to import the third world or you're racist and you're going to like it. 0.99

00:04:41.000 Invade you, you know, your communities. 0.82

00:04:43.000 Invade me harder, daddy.

00:04:45.000 That's the bargain.

00:04:46.000 Now, what did you get out of that? 0.96

00:04:48.000 You got approximately nothing, except now every time the Muslim community feels offended, you have to watch fellow Americans get shot up and bombs thrown at them. 0.77

00:04:59.000 So congratulations, Western man. 0.90

00:05:03.000 This is the world that you've created.

00:05:04.000 And for no particular reason.

00:05:06.000 But this is the sad truth of this new reality that we live in.

00:05:10.000 We have a bunch of Muslims all over the country now, all over the West, including Canada, England, France, Germany.

00:05:17.000 And when they get offended, they might drive their car into your parade or your Christmas festival. 0.90

00:05:22.000 They might shoot up your consulate or throw IEDs at you when you're protesting on the street.

00:05:26.000 Or they might just be your mayor in New York.

00:05:29.000 So that's the breaking news.

00:05:30.000 It's not good news, but it's unfortunately the reality that we live in.

00:05:35.000 Now, there is another angle that is also happening, and we're going to get into this with Senator Kennedy when he joins.

00:05:41.000 But President Trump told some reporters last night that the military mission is nearly complete.

00:05:50.000 Now, the markets loved this.

00:05:52.000 The Dow Jones was down all day yesterday, went shooting back up, ended the day up almost 240 points.

00:05:58.000 Oil, which had spiked almost as high as $115, $120 a barrel, is down around $90 now.

00:06:05.000 So the war is very nearly complete, is the interesting way that he put this.

00:06:13.000 So let's make sure.

00:06:14.000 He said it's very complete, but also just beginning, which I think.

00:06:18.000 And then a reporter asked him about it, and he said, in the way only Trump can.

00:06:21.000 It could be both.

00:06:22.000 Yeah, well.

00:06:22.000 It could be both.

00:06:23.000 We're very complete so far, and we're just beginning how complete are we?

00:06:27.000 In the words of Charlie, the unpredictability is the point.

00:06:30.000 But it's interesting to see the markets react to this.

00:06:33.000 Let's see here.

00:06:34.000 Cut seven.

00:06:35.000 On Iran, you called it an excursion.

00:06:37.000 You said it would be over soon.

00:06:39.000 Are you thinking this week it will be over?

00:06:41.000 Are you talking about days?

00:06:42.000 I think so.

00:06:43.000 Okay, and with respect to.

00:06:44.000 Very soon.

00:06:45.000 Look, everything they have is gone, including their leadership.

00:06:49.000 In fact, there are two levels of leadership, and even actually, as it turns out, more than that, but two levels of leadership are gone.

00:06:56.000 Most people have never even heard about the leaders that they're talking about.

00:07:00.000 So it's obviously been very, very powerful, very effective.

00:07:05.000 So, yeah, to Blake's point, I think, you know, we had Robert Barnes on yesterday, and he was basically suggesting the president could declare victory at any point he wanted at this time and use that as an off-ramp.

00:07:19.000 It seems he could possibly even declare victory while still waging the conflict.

00:07:24.000 I actually think there is a strategic brilliance to this, though, actually.

00:07:28.000 I think the president understands that the Navy has been essentially degraded to the point that it's going to take them years, if not decades, to recreate.

00:07:38.000 The military infrastructure, I think they've got about 20% of the rocket launchers, missile launchers remaining.

00:07:45.000 I'm assuming those are going to be some of the cleanup work that's going on right now.

00:07:50.000 The real question, though, is at what point, from a regime standpoint, is victory real?

00:07:57.000 You know, you got to understand.

00:07:58.000 The regime tried to assassinate President Trump a couple of times at least.

00:08:03.000 And by the way, the new leader, the son of Khomeini or whatever, his wife was killed.

00:08:08.000 His son was killed.

00:08:09.000 His aunt was killed.

00:08:10.000 His dad was killed.

00:08:11.000 No one has seen him yet.

00:08:12.000 He might be a figurehead.

00:08:16.000 The president said it's not going to be a long, drawn-out conflict.

00:08:20.000 We have to hope that's true.

00:08:21.000 I think it will be politically harmful if it is not true.

00:08:25.000 So we want to have this end quickly.

00:08:28.000 I think everyone wants it to end quickly.

00:08:31.000 But the question is, how much will they be able to achieve before they can just say, all right, we're done and go home?

00:08:38.000 But a thing that is inevitably true is it's a lot easier to start a conflict than to end it.

00:08:42.000 And to some extent, as you said, all the new Supreme Leaders' family members got killed.

00:08:47.000 What if he doesn't want it to end?

00:08:49.000 What if he says, I'm going to send suicide bombers everywhere that we can?

00:08:52.000 I wonder there's a larger question about what it's going to take to get the population to take back their country, or do we even want that? 0.90

00:08:57.000 Do we even care?

00:08:58.000 And it seems that in recent days, last two days specifically, the admin has been signaling that that's not as huge of a concern as maybe we anticipated at the beginning.

00:09:09.000 Remember, they've lost about 50 of their sort of political leaders, their top brass.

00:09:15.000 So it'll be interesting to see.

00:09:19.000 Howdy, Blake here.

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00:10:21.000 That is legacybox.com/slash Kirk.

00:10:24.000 LegacyBox.com/slash K-I-R-K. 0.98

00:10:27.000 That is legacybox.com/slash Kirk.

00:10:32.000 The brain is an amazing organ.

00:10:37.000 It starts working in a mother's womb and it doesn't stop working until you get elected to Congress. 1.00

00:10:48.000 Now, to answer your question: Even duct tape can't fix stupid. 1.00

00:10:56.000 This country was founded by geniuses, but it's being run by a bunch of idiots. 1.00

00:11:03.000 Anybody who votes for any of these bills without seeing the fine print is like a rock, only dumber. 1.00

00:11:11.000 Putting the vice president in charge of solving this problem, I don't know, it's like making El Chapo the drug czar. 0.97

00:11:20.000 God created the world, but everything else is made in China. 1.00

00:11:24.000 If the aliens landed tomorrow and said, take me to your leader, it would be embarrassing.

00:11:34.000 All right, we have Senator John Kennedy on.

00:11:36.000 His first time on the show, so we wanted to make it special and do a brief montage of some of his greatest hits.

00:11:45.000 Senator, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:11:47.000 It's an honor to have you.

00:11:49.000 I hope you didn't mind our celebration of some of your quips and whimsies.

00:11:55.000 We love them here, and so does the country.

00:11:57.000 Welcome to the show.

00:11:58.000 Well, thank you.

00:12:00.000 I would deny everything, guys, but you have the video.

00:12:05.000 Yeah, there's no reliability here.

00:12:07.000 Thanks for having me, Andrew.

00:12:09.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:12:10.000 It's an honor to have you here, sir.

00:12:13.000 You know, there's so much to talk about.

00:12:15.000 You are the senator of an oil state, a state that's a lot of its economy revolves around refineries and shipping, and there's a lot of news right now.

00:12:25.000 So I wanted to get into that as a first step, and then we'll get into some of the DHS stuff.

00:12:30.000 What's going on in Iran?

00:12:32.000 How are you feeling about it?

00:12:33.000 How is Louisiana feeling about it?

00:12:35.000 And give us your perspective.

00:12:38.000 I don't want America to be the world's policeman.

00:12:44.000 But on occasion, we have to intervene because one of the bad guys is trying to be the world's policeman.

00:12:56.000 Here's what our intelligence showed: you would think after the curb stomping that America and Israel gave Iran back in June, that they would have learned their lesson. 0.71

00:13:09.000 They didn't.

00:13:11.000 Our intelligence showed that Iran had restarted its nuclear weapons program.

00:13:21.000 It was producing between 200 and 600 missiles a month.

00:13:30.000 Its goal was to stockpile so many drones and so many ballistic and cruise missiles that it could threaten to destroy the entire Middle East if anybody interfered with their renewed efforts to get a nuclear weapon.

00:13:53.000 That's not a world that's safe for America.

00:13:57.000 The president, in my opinion, did not start a war.

00:14:04.000 He's trying to prevent a war.

00:14:07.000 It will be a limited excursion.

00:14:11.000 So far, we've destroyed 75% of their missile launchers.

00:14:16.000 We're destroying their missile manufacturing facilities, their drone manufacturing facilities, their new efforts to get a nuclear warhead. 0.91

00:14:25.000 We're destroying all of the infrastructure for the Revolutionary Guard.

00:14:30.000 I think that will be complete, gentlemen, in the next few weeks.

00:14:36.000 And then I expect the president to withdraw.

00:14:39.000 I do not believe he will send troops.

00:14:44.000 If he sends troops, the thud you hear will be me face planning from surprise.

00:14:53.000 Please don't do that.

00:14:55.000 But I think that's a really good assessment.

00:14:58.000 And I think that, you know, when the conflict started, I felt that it had not been sold properly to the American public.

00:15:05.000 I trust the president and his instincts, and we have his back, but I did not feel that it had been sold properly.

00:15:12.000 I do feel that comments from Secretary Rubio, from JD Vance, from Secretary Hegseth have completed the picture.

00:15:21.000 And I think you've done a beautiful job there, Senator.

00:15:24.000 The question.

00:15:25.000 And Druk, if I could say this, I think you're dead on there.

00:15:31.000 Look, we both know the president.

00:15:34.000 As long as I've known him, one of his character traits is that he grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought.

00:15:43.000 He has no filter.

00:15:44.000 And sometimes that prevents him from articulating a message that is as tight or coherent as we would like.

00:15:55.000 Rubio is there to help.

00:15:59.000 Hedgeeth is there to help.

00:16:01.000 And what I just told you is what we have been told by the administration in classified and unclassified briefings.

00:16:11.000 Yeah, I think you are a great messenger.

00:16:15.000 It's one of your hallmarks.

00:16:16.000 And I think you've done a very good job of that right now.

00:16:19.000 Now, the question, though, is there's also a political calculus.

00:16:24.000 And one of the things that I've been aware of is that this could be the absolute spot-on right decision from a national security perspective, but it could have political ramifications.

00:16:34.000 I can tell you, Senator, that the Gen Zers that we're talking to on campus, our students, they're telling us that young people, they don't want this conflict.

00:16:45.000 Even those that voted for President Trump do not want this conflict.

00:16:48.000 What would your message be to Gen Zers watching and listening that are skeptical of any war?

00:16:55.000 Well, look, those are fair questions that are being asked.

00:17:00.000 People remember well Afghanistan.

00:17:05.000 People remember well Libya.

00:17:09.000 People remember well Iraq.

00:17:11.000 Those are very fair questions.

00:17:14.000 What I would tell them is the truth.

00:17:17.000 What I just said, I'm not going to repeat it.

00:17:20.000 This is a limited intervention.

00:17:25.000 It's not something we wanted.

00:17:28.000 We negotiated with the late Ayatollah, who's now as dead as Woodrow Wilson. 0.90

00:17:37.000 And I don't won't shed a tear for him.

00:17:39.000 We negotiated with him for weeks.

00:17:42.000 He said no to everything except lunch.

00:17:45.000 And it became clear that we were going to get nowhere.

00:17:49.000 I would like to see the president.

00:17:51.000 He hasn't asked me for advice.

00:17:53.000 So, you know, I'm going to offer it anyway.

00:17:57.000 I would like to see the president address the nation and say, here's why I went in, and here's when I'm coming out.

00:18:06.000 Here's what we've accomplished.

00:18:08.000 Here's my objective.

00:18:10.000 Senator, so we've been told, We played the clip before you joined that, you know, this could be nearly complete and that it's going to be short.

00:18:18.000 So now we're hearing the messaging kind of pivot.

00:18:21.000 There's a little bit of a pivot in the messaging.

00:18:23.000 What does success look like in this conflict if Khomeini's son is still the new supreme leader?

00:18:31.000 Well, here's what success looks like to me, and I don't speak for him, but I think President Trump would agree.

00:18:40.000 Success to me is Iran or the political theological leadership in Iran having four wheels down and their axle dragging. 0.85

00:18:54.000 Drone manufacturing facilities gone.

00:18:57.000 Missile manufacturing facilities gone.

00:19:00.000 New steps to obtain a nuclear warhead gone.

00:19:04.000 Iranian Navy gone.

00:19:06.000 Iranian Air Force gone.

00:19:10.000 As much infrastructure as we can find for the Revolutionary Guard gone.

00:19:15.000 And then the good people, and they are good people, of Iran who don't want these knobheads running their country any more than anybody else in the world does, will have an opportunity, perhaps, maybe, to choose their own government.

00:19:36.000 Success to me looks like a few more weeks.

00:19:40.000 I don't want to leave too soon just because of my Democratic colleagues are screaming like they're part of a prison riot.

00:19:49.000 They're not going to support anything that President Trump does.

00:19:53.000 But that's what success looks like to me.

00:19:55.000 I guess a rational concern a lot of people have is if we if we even if we do all that destruction if we come out and the regime is still in place and still Despises us.

00:20:08.000 Would we be able to go back?

00:20:11.000 I guess I would just be worried.

00:20:12.000 Is this just a bigger version of what happened last summer where we go in and we break a lot of stuff, but the fundamental problem is still there and might even hate us a lot more?

00:20:22.000 Well, I supported what we did last summer, and I support what we're doing now.

00:20:28.000 I'm not going to repeat everything I just said.

00:20:31.000 The question I think most fair-minded people have to ask themselves is: Is the world better off after we leave Iran this time, having done what I just said we were going to do, and we're doing it. 0.61

00:20:46.000 We're almost done.

00:20:47.000 Is the world better off?

00:20:49.000 And I think the answer, and are the Iranian people better off? 0.99

00:20:53.000 Have we completely solved the problem?

00:20:56.000 No, it's going to take regime change, but the people of Iran are going to have to determine that they want regime change.

00:21:04.000 Look, the new supreme leader, just like the old supreme leader, they believe that their God tells them to kill everybody who doesn't agree with them. 0.90

00:21:18.000 Not just Americans, not just Israelis, even their fellow Muslims.

00:21:26.000 I don't think any fair-minded person believes that they are not trying to obtain a nuclear weapon.

00:21:32.000 I don't think any fair-minded person believes that if they obtain a nuclear warhead and the missile technology to deliver it, they will use it.

00:21:41.000 And once they get it, I don't think any fair-minded person believes that that will not lead to nuclear proliferation.

00:21:48.000 Every country in the Middle East will obtain a nuclear weapon, so will Japan, so will South Korea, so will Australia, and then it's off to the races. 0.95

00:21:58.000 We have a chance to stop it.

00:22:01.000 Does it necessarily mean regime change?

00:22:04.000 I don't know, guys.

00:22:05.000 I hope so, but I can't predict the future.

00:22:10.000 I have to wait for it like everybody else.

00:22:13.000 Let me say it again: I don't want America to be the world's policeman, but there are times that we have to intervene to keep the bad guys from being the world's policemen, and this is one of those times.

00:22:25.000 Yeah, and I.

00:22:26.000 And let me just say, I talked about this in my book.

00:22:32.000 I don't know why this is, guys, but there's some people in this world, they're not mixed up, they're not confused, they're not sick.

00:22:40.000 It's not that their mama and daddy didn't love them enough, they're just bad people.

00:22:45.000 If I make it to heaven, I'm going to ask God why.

00:22:48.000 Some of them run countries, and if you weakness around them invites the wolves every single time, you have to be careful.

00:23:01.000 We don't want another war in the Middle East, but this limited excursion is necessary. 0.99

00:23:08.000 I think that's so well said.

00:23:09.000 And the title of your book is just too good. 1.00

00:23:13.000 I have to mention it, How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will. 1.00

00:23:19.000 And by Senator John Kennedy. 0.99

00:23:21.000 Everybody check it out.

00:23:23.000 Senator, you did the country a great service, and I'll explain why I think that in just a second.

00:23:30.000 But you had a questioning, a line of questioning that led to a series of events at DHS.

00:23:37.000 And I'm going to play that clip for everybody, cut three.

00:23:39.000 You're testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time.

00:23:44.000 So I'm understanding.

00:23:46.000 We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt, but the president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.

00:24:04.000 Yes, sir.

00:24:05.000 We went through the legal processes, did it correctly?

00:24:09.000 Yes.

00:24:10.000 He did.

00:24:11.000 Yes.

00:24:11.000 Okay.

00:24:13.000 And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been.

00:24:19.000 Senator, obviously that interaction led to your colleague, Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, being announced as the new DHS secretary.

00:24:30.000 So I have a question.

00:24:32.000 What do you have against Senator Mullen?

00:24:35.000 Why did you put him up to this?

00:24:36.000 I was voicing him into the bureaucracy.

00:24:38.000 Yeah, he must have been a good job.

00:24:39.000 He had a good job.

00:24:40.000 Look, I hate to lose him.

00:24:42.000 Look, I accept full responsibility for that.

00:24:46.000 That was me.

00:24:47.000 Nobody put me up to it.

00:24:49.000 Nobody asked me to do it.

00:24:51.000 Nobody approved my questions.

00:24:54.000 That was me.

00:24:58.000 I have a lot of gratitude to the former secretary and her department for securing the southern border.

00:25:04.000 Actually, it was President Trump who secured the southern border.

00:25:08.000 She and her team implemented his policies.

00:25:12.000 But there are management problems at the Department of Homeland Security.

00:25:17.000 I only got to talk about two of them in the limited time I had, but there are others.

00:25:23.000 And they are distracting and were distracting from President Trump's agenda and our agenda to make this country better.

00:25:32.000 Number two, a quarter of a billion, not a million, quarter of a billion dollars to run ads in which the secretary starred. 0.80

00:25:48.000 To me, they look like political ads, quarter of a billion dollars.

00:25:53.000 And apparently they weren't bid out, and they allegedly went to friends of hers. 0.63

00:25:59.000 I consider that spending porn.

00:26:03.000 The president didn't approve it.

00:26:05.000 I'm going to call out spending porn every single time.

00:26:10.000 Doesn't matter who does it.

00:26:11.000 And you can write that down and take it home to mama.

00:26:14.000 And if somebody gets upset about that, they need to fill out a hurt feelings report because I'm going to keep doing it.

00:26:23.000 And that's all that there was to it.

00:26:25.000 It wasn't some deep, dark agenda.

00:26:28.000 It was my doing.

00:26:30.000 Some liked it.

00:26:31.000 Some didn't.

00:26:32.000 But I will tell you this.

00:26:35.000 I've seen President Trump mad before. 0.93

00:26:38.000 But this time, as I said the other day, he was mad as a murder hornet. 0.88

00:26:44.000 Yeah.

00:26:45.000 Well, interesting background that you were probably not aware of.

00:26:50.000 We spent the whole day before the announcement was made that there was going to be a change of leadership calling this out.

00:26:56.000 And why it was so important was because the Democrats have known about this stuff and they were waiting to pounce.

00:27:05.000 And if they get power after the midterms, God forbid, they were going to use this against the president.

00:27:12.000 And so you did the nation a service.

00:27:14.000 And I'll prove it to you.

00:27:15.000 Here's Jamie Raskin in the House, cut one.

00:27:17.000 An investigation into the hundreds of millions of dollars that Secretary Noam channeled to various political friends and intimates of hers so that that money can be reclaimed for the American people.

00:27:32.000 Hundreds of millions of dollars might be a joke to somebody in the Trump cabinet, but it's not a joke to the American people.

00:27:39.000 And I've been hearing rumors, Senator, that they were going to use these for impeachment, maybe impeachment of Noam, maybe impeachment of President Trump.

00:27:46.000 So you getting ahead of this did a great service to the country.

00:27:51.000 And I genuinely thank you for it.

00:27:54.000 And it's no disrespect for some of the achievements, but yeah, we'd have been hearing rumblings ourselves.

00:28:00.000 And so I think you did a really great thing and it showed a lot of courage.

00:28:03.000 So the question is, you had a hearing this morning where somebody was saying that the judges, the judicial activists that are fighting ICE and deportations are braver than our ICE agents.

00:28:16.000 And you said that that guy triggered your gag reflex.

00:28:18.000 I thought it was another brilliant line.

00:28:20.000 Tell us what success looks like at DHS deportations.

00:28:24.000 It's one of the central planks of the president's agenda.

00:28:28.000 Legal immigration is legal.

00:28:30.000 Illegal immigration is illegal. 0.99

00:28:34.000 Duh.

00:28:35.000 Our immigration laws are not some second-tier statutes that people can violate without consequence.

00:28:43.000 We need to enforce our immigration laws. 0.95

00:28:46.000 Number two, how you enforce them matters.

00:28:49.000 They have to be enforced in accordance with due process, with equal protection, in accordance with the standards set forth for reasonable suspicion in the Supreme Court case of Terry v. Ohio.

00:29:03.000 If you want to protest them, you have every right as an American.

00:29:09.000 You do not have the right to protest violently.

00:29:15.000 Violence undermines the morality of what you say your movement stands for.

00:29:24.000 Gandhi knew that.

00:29:26.000 Dr. King knew that.

00:29:27.000 Mandelan knew that. 1.00

00:29:30.000 Protesting violently is also exquisitely stupid. 1.00

00:29:35.000 You're going to get hurt. 1.00

00:29:37.000 Most cops that I know, the vast majority, will leave you alone unless you do illegal stuff.

00:29:44.000 And then if you do illegal stuff, they're going to enforce the law.

00:29:47.000 That also seems to me to be a matter of common sense.

00:29:50.000 I think Mark Wayne will bring some common sense back.

00:29:53.000 I think Mark Wayne trusts Tom Holand, who I think has done an admirable job.

00:29:59.000 I think he will be firm.

00:30:01.000 I think he will be fair.

00:30:03.000 And I think he will be confirmed by the United States Senate.

00:30:07.000 I think the president has chosen him well.

00:30:10.000 He's tough as a pine knot.

00:30:13.000 And I hope he gets confirmed quickly.

00:30:17.000 Senator, one last question for you.

00:30:18.000 And I know you got to run here.

00:30:21.000 There is some rumors of what, if any, sort of deals could be made with these blue jurisdictions, the sanctuary cities and sanctuary states, to get them to cooperate.

00:30:31.000 Some people have mentioned that we might have to offer up a pathway for DACA recipients or something, right?

00:30:41.000 These are things that are going to grade against the base, the people in this audience.

00:30:45.000 Do you feel like some sort of deal needs to be made in that way, or is that what they're going to demand?

00:30:51.000 How can we get the Democrats to even fund DHS?

00:30:55.000 There's a lot of questions here, but is there anything that you'd be willing?

00:30:59.000 I know you're not the secretary, but is there anything that you'd be willing to offer up in exchange for getting them to cooperate with ICE detainers?

00:31:06.000 I don't think there's anything we can offer up.

00:31:08.000 I wouldn't support offering them up anything.

00:31:11.000 Most of these people believe in open borders.

00:31:16.000 They believe in, they are also the ones who told us to defund the police.

00:31:22.000 We've seen that vampire movie.

00:31:23.000 We know how it turns out.

00:31:25.000 They also now want to defund ICE.

00:31:28.000 That's ultimately what this is all about.

00:31:31.000 You can't reason with people like that.

00:31:35.000 If I were king for a day, I'm not, don't aspire to be.

00:31:39.000 I would use every legal mechanism I could to withhold their money because what they're doing, refusing to enforce federal law, not changing it, they think they're smarter and more virtuous than the American people and can pick and choose among which of our laws they think are just or unjust.

00:32:00.000 I would withhold their money.

00:32:04.000 Many of these people think America was wicked when it was founded and it's more wicked today.

00:32:09.000 I don't know, not all of them, but many of them do. 0.99

00:32:15.000 They're king of the hill, top of the list, crazy.

00:32:20.000 I'm sorry. 0.69

00:32:21.000 But that's the way it is.

00:32:23.000 And I don't think anything we offer them will get them to change their minds.

00:32:28.000 It's not all my Democratic friends, but there's some of them.

00:32:32.000 Others are just scared, guys.

00:32:34.000 The Karen wing of the Democratic Party wants to defund ICE.

00:32:38.000 And the Karen wing of the Democratic Party has told all the elected officials who happen to be Democrats that if they don't do their best to defund ICE, they, the Karen wing, will punish them the rest of their natural lives.

00:32:53.000 And they're scared.

00:32:54.000 I think you're right.

00:32:55.000 The radical left-wing fringe of the Democrat Party or the progressive coalition controls the party.

00:33:01.000 And sometimes I wonder about our own side, Senator.

00:33:05.000 You know, we're talking about the Everybody Wants to Save America Act pact passed, and it seems like we can't make any progress on it.

00:33:12.000 And this audience is frustrated by that.

00:33:16.000 I'm frustrated.

00:33:16.000 Well, I think you'll see some progress soon.

00:33:19.000 I support the SAVE Act.

00:33:22.000 I'm a co-sponsor.

00:33:23.000 Here's what I think we ought to do.

00:33:26.000 I think I'm in the minority.

00:33:27.000 The short way home here is reconciliation.

00:33:33.000 If we do it through reconciliation, we only need 51 votes.

00:33:39.000 Some of my colleagues say, Kennedy, you know, that's crazy.

00:33:44.000 It'll never pass muster under the Budget Controlled Act, which is one of the parameters on your ability to do something through reconciliation.

00:33:51.000 Here's what I say.

00:33:53.000 Look, I've seen things pass muster under reconciliation and what we call the birdbath that I never thought had a chance.

00:34:03.000 And I've seen other things that I thought were slammed dunk get turned down.

00:34:09.000 If I were king for a day, I'm not, but I would go hire the best legal minds I could find for us to craft a provision around the SAVE Act that would pass muster under the Budget Control Act and would survive a birdbath.

00:34:28.000 And I would take our shot.

00:34:31.000 And I don't know why we haven't done that.

00:34:33.000 We could have done it weeks ago.

00:34:35.000 I'm not criticizing anybody, but that's just the way I would do it.

00:34:40.000 Senator John Kennedy, thank you so much, sir.

00:34:44.000 And again, your book, I want to make sure I get the title because it is a good title. 0.95

00:34:48.000 How to test negative for stupid and why Washington Never Will. 0.98

00:34:54.000 God bless you again, sir, for your questioning, your honest questioning. 0.99

00:34:58.000 I think you did the nation a tremendous service, and thank you for articulating the vision I think that you have that the president shares in Iran.

00:35:07.000 I think it's the right one.

00:35:08.000 So, God bless you.

00:35:09.000 You guys are good, man.

00:35:11.000 I listen to you all the time.

00:35:12.000 Thank you.

00:35:13.000 Thank you, sir.

00:35:13.000 God bless you.

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00:35:42.000 This is coffee that actually stands for something, and I drink it every day right here on the show.

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00:36:30.000 Well, as I'm sure a lot of you already know and remember, today is six months since what happened to Charlie.

00:36:37.000 And one of the concerns we all have is making sure that the man who killed him is convicted.

00:36:43.000 And one thing we're all becoming much more aware of is the potential for our jury system to be a weak point in making sure that criminals are held to account for what they do.

00:36:53.000 And so there was a piece yesterday in the Washington Free Beacon.

00:36:56.000 They do a lot of great work about this fact that there is a left-wing group training activists on how to undermine the jury system.

00:37:06.000 And so we have the reporter who wrote that piece, Thomas Kadanaci.

00:37:10.000 Are you there, Thomas?

00:37:12.000 I'm here.

00:37:13.000 Hey, welcome to the program.

00:37:14.000 So this group, Freedom Trainers, why don't you just tell us what they're doing, what they're telling people, and what the ramifications of this would be.

00:37:23.000 Absolutely.

00:37:24.000 Well, I really appreciate you having me on, first of all, to talk about this because I think it's such an important issue, and it's certainly something that's going under the radar.

00:37:32.000 So, also, just at the forefront, I want to say this is something that I had to do multiple double takes on because I couldn't believe what I was coming across when I was researching this.

00:37:42.000 Essentially, there's a group based in DC that it's focused on DC right now, but it could clearly be something that spreads across the country.

00:37:49.000 And perhaps it has.

00:37:51.000 But what we see is they're working in DC to undermine Trump DOJ prosecutions that are taking place in the DC attorney's office.

00:38:01.000 And so, what the group does is essentially educate members of the jury or themselves try to infiltrate juries.

00:38:10.000 And when on there, they vote, quote, in favor of their conscience, not in favor of the law.

00:38:17.000 And obviously, this has a number of ramifications.

00:38:20.000 One thing I just want to say also off the start is: you know, the DOJ itself is not really an agency that often comments on things like this.

00:38:31.000 But I thought it was very telling that after we reached out, they did want to comment and they gave a pretty forceful response to our reporting here saying that they're aware and that they're, you know, anyone who engages in this type of activism should be held accountable.

00:38:47.000 Is there a way to hold them accountable?

00:38:49.000 Because I suppose what seems like a vulnerability here is, as they point out, it basically is legal to do this, to decide, you get on a jury and just decide, I'm not going to convict for any reason whatsoever.

00:39:02.000 Now, as your piece points out, judges and lawyers will attempt to remove such people, but all their training materials here are basically how to sneak onto a jury so that you can rig the verdict, correct?

00:39:15.000 Exactly.

00:39:16.000 And so, one thing I will note is in their training materials and in their webinars, which I attended, they say that there are sort of unambiguously legal maneuvers that you can take, such as, you know, quote, educating the public in the way that they're doing, handing out flyers near courthouses.

00:39:36.000 That appears to be one of the main things they do.

00:39:38.000 They camp outside of courthouses during jury selection and try to give pamphlets to prospective jurors.

00:39:45.000 And those pamphlets, which I also obtained, will have all sorts of different legal rationales to try to help jurors vote again their conscience.

00:39:59.000 But in addition to the unambiguously legal that they say, there are the quote legal but risky.

00:40:05.000 This is where the DOJ could potentially step in.

00:40:08.000 The legal but risky are things like discussing this process with jurors before deliberations begin.

00:40:16.000 This is something that's almost certainly happening, but again, no one's been caught doing this, or publicly stating that you intend to nullify.

00:40:24.000 That's something that they, again, they say is legal but risky.

00:40:27.000 I highly doubt that people who want to thwart a DOJ prosecution are going to just come out and openly say it.

00:40:34.000 But it's that first point discussing nullification with jurors, especially in the process of giving out one of these pamphlets and, you know, quote, educating that could be a potential hurdle for them in the future.

00:40:49.000 You know what this reminds me of?

00:40:51.000 It's like, you know, those jurists on the jurors rather on the OJ Simpson trial that were just like, some of them admitted afterwards that they knew he was guilty, but they just were, it was a get back for Rodney King.

00:41:06.000 And it's, there's a lot of other cases.

00:41:09.000 If, you know, every prosecutor in a big city has seen it happen where they'll have this.

00:41:13.000 And it's a vulnerability because you need, you know, the Supreme Court actually confirmed in a case recently, you need unanimity of 12 jurors to convict in a criminal case.

00:41:23.000 And you only need one holdout of those 12 to have a hung jury.

00:41:27.000 And it's difficult to bring a trial.

00:41:29.000 It's time consuming to do a trial.

00:41:30.000 You have to start over if there is a hung jury.

00:41:33.000 And that's what they're telling people in these materials.

00:41:35.000 If you, you only need to be that one holdout and you can just say, I'm not going to convict.

00:41:38.000 I'm not convinced.

00:41:40.000 I'm voting not guilty.

00:41:42.000 And you can blow up the whole case.

00:41:44.000 And we're seeing this over and over with the grand juries.

00:41:47.000 They're not indicting cases the federal government's bringing, but you only need one of these people in the Louis G. Mangioni case.

00:41:53.000 You might only need one of these people in the Tyler Robinson case.

00:41:57.000 And it's scary because it's giving people the opportunity.

00:41:59.000 People who might have been activists before, it's giving them that sort of like quote unquote legal backing to go ahead and thwart an entire prosecution regardless of the evidence and regardless of the fact that this system, the justice system in the U.S., which we all love, is built on that idea of fairness.

00:42:20.000 And so if people try to undermine that, that could undermine the American public's confidence in the system itself.

00:42:27.000 I'll also just give you a few examples.

00:42:29.000 There was the case in DC of the sandwich man who threw a subway sandwich at a National Guard member.

00:42:37.000 And the grand jury failed to indict.

00:42:39.000 And this group in their webinars really seems to suggest that this was a case of people who are on the jury who didn't really care about the evidence.

00:42:49.000 They go through this in detail, asking the participants of their webinars about, if you were on the jury, what would your excuse be for voting against indictment in this case?

00:43:01.000 And they all kind of list their examples.

00:43:03.000 And then, you know, the trainer gets up there and says, well, you can really give whatever or no explanation for your vote.

00:43:10.000 You can just simply vote against if you agree with the guy who assaulted the member of the National Guard.

00:43:16.000 And so that's one example.

00:43:18.000 And I think that there's going to be multiple of these.

00:43:21.000 They also cite the case of, you know, there was the case of six members of Congress who, you know, put out a video saying that members of the military should, in many cases, reject and turn down orders from Trump himself.

00:43:39.000 And those six members of Congress were not indicted because a grand jury decided that there was not enough evidence in that case.

00:43:49.000 So there are these examples and they're happening.

00:43:52.000 And, you know, my personal fear when I see this stuff is that it will spread to the Tyler Robinson trial.

00:44:01.000 It will spread to Luigi Mangioni.

00:44:03.000 It will spread to a number of other trials.

00:44:05.000 You know, I'm actually an energy reporter.

00:44:07.000 And one thing I've done is report on climate cases in which states and cities accuse the biggest oil companies of causing climate change.

00:44:18.000 And these are cases where billions of dollars are at stake.

00:44:22.000 So if you get one, you know, jury that with a couple of people on there who are activists and don't really care about the law, they could actually, with their vote, you know, really damage the economy by destroying the oil companies who are probably falsely being accused of causing weather events, you know, like hurricanes.

00:44:47.000 And so I think there's really a large impact that this could have moving forward.

00:44:55.000 You got to give it to lefties.

00:44:57.000 They are very organized in being very evil.

00:45:01.000 Yeah, they constantly open up new fronts in the assault on Western civilization.

00:45:07.000 And I'll be frank, I think I don't want to softpedal this.

00:45:11.000 This is one of the things that frightens me the most.

00:45:14.000 I've been thinking about it, you know, coming up for a long time, that this is a weakness in our system because it is in the Constitution that you need a jury verdict to convict somebody of a crime.

00:45:25.000 It is something that's been around in the Anglo-legal system for a very long time.

00:45:30.000 And if you have, you know, complete polarization along political lines or along racial lines where you can't assemble 12 people to consistently convict someone on any crime that has racial valence or political valence, the country is going to fly apart.

00:45:46.000 And this has happened before.

00:45:48.000 In, I believe, Ireland, under the British, there would be terrorist attacks on like British officials and like juries would just not convict.

00:45:56.000 And so they basically had to revoke the right to a jury trial in Ireland to make sure they could convict people of crimes.

00:46:02.000 In Britain right now, they're trying to revoke the right to a jury trial for any crime with a sentence of under three years.

00:46:09.000 They're just the general decay of their system.

00:46:12.000 And judges.

00:46:14.000 We also have judges.

00:46:15.000 Yes.

00:46:16.000 Yeah, we have judge problems.

00:46:17.000 And this is a right that has been so integral to American civilization, Western Anglo-civilization for so long. 0.97

00:46:24.000 And now we're seeing it being used to further tear it down.

00:46:28.000 Yeah, I think the left going back, I mean, it probably dates back further than that, but you see the rise of critical theory in the law schools going back to the 1980s.

00:46:38.000 They've identified our judicial system and our criminal justice system as a point of weakness for a long time that they're looking to exploit.

00:46:46.000 You know, it makes you think of the John Adams quote: you know, that our founding documents are only, you know, good for a moral and upright people, right?

00:46:57.000 They're wholly inadequate for any other.

00:47:00.000 So it makes you nervous when you see the degradation of our people that then filter into the system that we need to function correctly.

00:47:08.000 Final words here.

00:47:09.000 We got to get ready for hour two here in Secretary Chris Wright, who's coming up next.

00:47:13.000 But the floor is yours to wrap up this.

00:47:17.000 Yeah, I'll just make three quick points here.

00:47:20.000 Number one, this group, Freedom Trainers, is housed at a larger, pretty major nonprofit called Community Change.

00:47:28.000 Community Change is funded by kind of all the usual suspects, Rockefeller's, the Arabella Network, Open Society, which is George Soros's network, and then Hans Jorguese's network as well, who's another foreign billionaire influencing American politics.

00:47:48.000 Number two, they say they've already trained hundreds of thousands of people, which is a little alarming.

00:47:54.000 And number three, I will say that one of the leaders of this group, someone named Maria Steven, she was on the Colbert show recently as a sort of what he described her as a non-resistance or a non-violence resistance scholar, whatever that means.

00:48:15.000 And she talked about the dangers of ICE and how ICE officers can, again, reject orders from their higher ups in their course of doing business.

00:48:26.000 So those are kind of three points I wanted to make to kind of show people how prevalent this is right now and how really we need to start becoming more aware of this.

00:48:37.000 Those are really salient points.

00:48:39.000 So thank you for adding those.

00:48:41.000 You got to believe that there's got to be some law that these people have triggered that we can prosecute.

00:48:47.000 It's using really the historic strengths of our system against it.

00:48:53.000 Oh, it's kind of like immigration. 0.74

00:48:54.000 Yeah, kind of like our compassion or openness.

00:48:58.000 Thank you so much.

00:48:59.000 This is super fascinating, terrifying, but important for us to go through.

00:49:04.000 So thank you for making the time.

00:49:05.000 And sorry, the schedule got pushed back a little bit there.

00:49:10.000 Awesome.

00:49:10.000 Keep up the great work.

00:49:14.000 The online world moves fast and it's moving even faster these days.

00:49:17.000 That's why TikTok approaches teen safety with families in mind from the start.

00:49:22.000 Because discovery and creativity are both wonderful things, but it's important to make sure that safety comes first as well.

00:49:29.000 On TikTok, teenagers have over 50 built-in protections right from when they join.

00:49:34.000 Accounts for teens all start private by default, they're not open to the entire world.

00:49:38.000 And for those under 16, direct messages are turned off.

00:49:42.000 Only their friends can comment on their videos.

00:49:44.000 And that kind of approach matters because feeling confident and comfortable about these platforms your teenagers are on shouldn't mean digging through a bunch of menus and trying to set everything up yourself and worrying that you got it wrong.

00:49:56.000 TikTok is taking a proactive approach.

00:49:58.000 Their protections are built in from the moment those teenagers join, so that safety and peace of mind for parents is there right from the start.

00:50:06.000 All of this is to say, when safety comes first, discovery and creativity can follow without fear.

00:50:12.000 Learn more by going to tick tock.com/slash guardiansguide.

00:50:17.000 That's tick tock.com/slash guardians guide.

00:50:24.000 We should be joined shortly by Secretary Chris Wright, Department of Energy, Secretary of U.S. Secretary of Energy.

00:50:33.000 Big, big job right now because everybody's talking about oil, and I just checked it.

00:50:39.000 It is down 11% today.

00:50:42.000 It's down all over the place.

00:50:44.000 It's down.

00:50:45.000 Every single commodity is now just another cryptocurrency.

00:50:49.000 It can just swing 25% a day, you know, just because.

00:50:52.000 No, you're absolutely right.

00:50:54.000 It's it like we talk about how our brains get impacted by social media and by everything being digital.

00:51:00.000 And these things used to move like an oil tanker slowly.

00:51:04.000 They would turn slowly, but now everything's so quick.

00:51:07.000 You had a spike.

00:51:09.000 So on March, it looks like 6 at some point, it went from about $87 a barrel to $107.

00:51:19.000 Now, on some of the, I think, after hours trading, it spiked all the way up to almost $120.

00:51:24.000 But now it's been slowly coming down.

00:51:27.000 It's back at $84.73.

00:51:30.000 That is Brent crude oil per barrel.

00:51:34.000 There it is.

00:51:34.000 And it's going down.

00:51:35.000 So we're going to have Secretary Wright.

00:51:37.000 It looks like he's just getting seated.

00:51:39.000 So they're going to give me the go-ahead in just a second there.

00:51:43.000 But this is the big job right now for this administration.

00:51:49.000 There's a whole bunch of education that needs to happen.

00:51:51.000 And hopefully, Secretary Wright can walk us through how the price of oil then is translated, delayed, which a lot of people don't realize into the price of the pump.

00:52:02.000 And what we can do to bring down those costs, what we can do to get the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively blocked right now.

00:52:09.000 How do we get that opened up?

00:52:11.000 What is it going to take?

00:52:12.000 Is it insurance, insuring the tankers?

00:52:15.000 Is it working with the oil companies?

00:52:17.000 Do we just have to keep bombing the hell out of Iran until they relinquish? 1.00

00:52:22.000 All right, I'm told Secretary Chris Wright is ready.

00:52:26.000 Welcome back to the show, Secretary.

00:52:29.000 You have a huge job right now.

00:52:31.000 You're looking at Venezuela.

00:52:32.000 You're looking at Iran. 0.93

00:52:34.000 You're making a lot of phone calls.

00:52:35.000 So thank you for making the time.

00:52:37.000 Tell us.

00:52:38.000 So the price of Brent crude is at $83.44 right now.

00:52:43.000 It's coming down.

00:52:44.000 Why is it coming down and what more can we do?

00:52:47.000 Well, Andrew, thanks for having me.

00:52:49.000 I appreciate you.

00:52:50.000 Appreciate all your viewership.

00:52:52.000 So yeah, the Straits of Hormuz that most of the Middle Eastern crude flows through have been effectively closed since this conflict started.

00:53:02.000 That's what drove them up.

00:53:04.000 And of course, the biggest answer here is to end Iran's ability to attack United States bases, terrorize their neighbors, and threaten oil supplies that they've been doing for 47 years. 0.95

00:53:19.000 So right now, you know, they are uncontrolled and they have so much armaments, they're able to scare shipping traffic off.

00:53:28.000 But every day, every hour, we're degrading the Iranian nation's ability to terrorize their neighbors, threaten energy supplies, and kill American soldiers. 1.00

00:53:39.000 This has been a 47-year-long conflict.

00:53:42.000 They've always put a premium on, raised energy prices higher than they should be because Iran always had the risk of this sort of wanton projection of their power over this critical waterway. 0.86

00:53:55.000 And so why they've retreated in the short run is the United States, in consultation with a bunch of other nations that are part of the International Energy Agency, have agreed or are in the process of working an agreement to release oil out of strategic petroleum reserves to replace a fair amount of the lost crude oil coming out of the straits.

00:54:21.000 So that will keep global oil markets supplied going forward.

00:54:26.000 There are oil stores around the world.

00:54:30.000 We do have surplus oil production capacity in the world, but a lot comes out of the Strait of Hormuz.

00:54:36.000 So the price and fear factor are raising prices because of the lack of flow of energy.

00:54:41.000 But ultimately, we need to degrade Iran's military ability to do what they're doing today and what they've threatened to do and on and off done for 47 years. 0.98

00:54:52.000 So with the solution, I've heard different ideas floated out, ensuring insurance for these tankers.

00:55:00.000 I've seen potential military escorts.

00:55:04.000 Are any steps being taken on either of those two fronts?

00:55:08.000 Oh, absolutely.

00:55:09.000 Those were the first steps we announced.

00:55:11.000 I was saying the recent movement in oil prices was because of the potential release coming.

00:55:16.000 The first things we announced was the commercial insurance market for ships.

00:55:21.000 You know, rates were going up and it wasn't clear if that market was really open.

00:55:26.000 So we've offered to reinsure the insurance companies, which will allow the insurance market to open back up.

00:55:33.000 But tied together with that is people will transit the strait when they believe the risk is relatively low.

00:55:40.000 So it's physical security for the ship captains to go through.

00:55:44.000 Now, we've had a large oil tanker went through the straits 48 hours ago.

00:55:48.000 We have others that are interested to try to do that.

00:55:53.000 But, you know, that's not clear yet whether we've degraded Iran's capacity to cause trouble enough to make transit safe. 0.95

00:56:02.000 One has gone through and it worked fine.

00:56:05.000 But there's still risks there.

00:56:08.000 Every day we're degrading them.

00:56:10.000 But when we degrade them enough that it seems like a ship escort with the U.S. military is enough to ensure safe travel, that'll be a great day.

00:56:18.000 And I think that's not too far away.

00:56:21.000 But somehow we need to get that energy flow into the world again.

00:56:25.000 And of course, the U.S. has a lot of levers to pull and are working this every day, every day.

00:56:30.000 So, Secretary, there's a whole piece to this where I think the average American consumer is a little uneducated about the price fluctuations, right?

00:56:41.000 So we've seen the price at the pump go up.

00:56:45.000 And I noticed that it was up even further today, even though the price of Brent has come down.

00:56:50.000 Can you just educate us on the time delay?

00:56:53.000 How does the pricing work?

00:56:55.000 Because, you know, the left will always say that the oil companies are conspiring against and using fear in the market to price gouge us and make a bunch of extra profits.

00:57:06.000 What's really going on?

00:57:07.000 No, this is just markets.

00:57:09.000 This is supply and demand.

00:57:11.000 You know, if you raise your gasoline prices up really fast before your cost of crude has gone up, your neighbor next door is going to eat your lunch by keeping his prices a little bit lower than your prices.

00:57:23.000 And gasoline is separate than crude oil.

00:57:25.000 You know, the U.S. exports gasoline.

00:57:27.000 We import gasoline.

00:57:29.000 Gasoline is traded all around the world.

00:57:31.000 It's very tied to the price of crude, but there are times where gasoline prices trade with different time lags and sometimes even different directions than crude price.

00:57:43.000 In the long run, they're very tied together, but they're separate markets.

00:57:46.000 And the market for diesel is separate and the market for jet fuel is different as well.

00:57:52.000 But Andrew, one key thing to think of here, we're going through a short-term dislocation and we are all feeling it.

00:57:59.000 The president is keenly aware, I think as everyone knows, of gasoline prices and diesel prices and costs for American consumers.

00:58:06.000 He is keenly aware.

00:58:08.000 In fact, it may seem backwards right now, but this war is in large part because of the president's concern of energy prices for American consumers over the long run.

00:58:18.000 Iran, who has been a threat to oil supplies, Iran who's driven the previous price spikes in the late 1970s, that was Iran that led to that huge price spike in the gas lines and all that. 0.98

00:58:31.000 That was Iran. 0.97

00:58:33.000 The president's seeing, boy, that same nation is arming itself massively with missiles so that they can make it so hard to attack them that no one will so they can finish building their nuclear weapons.

00:58:45.000 Imagine a nation that's so trouble-oriented to have nuclear weapons and a massive weapons arsenal, they could dictate to the world the price of energy.

00:58:56.000 And I think previous presidents were just kicking that can down the road.

00:58:59.000 Well, it didn't blow up on my watch, and that's kind of a risky thing, and they've kicked that can down the road.

00:59:06.000 This president's bold.

00:59:08.000 He thinks about American consumers, and he thinks long term.

00:59:11.000 That is not a situation the U.S. wants to go into.

00:59:15.000 They're arming themselves so hard right now in the negotiations.

00:59:18.000 They weren't indicating any willingness to not be massively armed and ultimate possessors of nuclear weapons.

00:59:26.000 And I think he rightly saw this window could close.

00:59:29.000 This window could close.

00:59:30.000 They could rain hell on our soldiers and make it very hard for us to push back on them.

00:59:35.000 And they could dictate global energy prices.

00:59:37.000 And that's not tolerable to President Trump.

00:59:39.000 Let's talk geopolitics here.

00:59:41.000 We saw what happened in Venezuela and that incredible military precision.

00:59:46.000 We're all in awe of our military, but that opened up a new supply with a cooperative country.

00:59:53.000 Have you seen the impacts of that yet?

00:59:55.000 Are we still kind of ramping up there?

00:59:57.000 Yeah, oil production is rising in Venezuela, and we're thrilled to see that so quickly.

01:00:02.000 You know, but to meaningfully add the global supply, that sort of six, 12, 18 months, it's not many years.

01:00:09.000 We'll see hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of additional production out of Venezuela before this year is over.

01:00:15.000 Very excited about that.

01:00:17.000 And of course, a huge reduction in drug running.

01:00:20.000 It was just at a summit of the Americas, and they said the murder rate has plummeted in Trinidad and Tobago because of the president's enforcement against running drugs on boats in the ocean there north of Venezuela.

01:00:31.000 So great progress in Venezuela.

01:00:33.000 Great progress.

01:00:34.000 Well, that's great to hear.

01:00:36.000 I mean, it seems like it could be the model in a place like Iran potentially if we get a leadership there that's also willing to cooperate.

01:00:44.000 I'm skeptical that we're there yet, but obviously that's the hope that this would be the last time we'd have to deal with a bad actor that's sowing terrorism throughout the region.

01:00:54.000 But I mean, could you, in theory, not see regime change and still get the ultimate result that we want, which is an end to the conflict, an end to the destruction, an end to the violence, and an end to the terrorism, and then a cooperative potential partner in that region.

01:01:11.000 Let's talk about potential positive outcomes in Iran if you don't see regime change.

01:01:17.000 Yes, look, of course, this operation was not premised on regime change.

01:01:22.000 It was premised on they're building up such a daunting supply of missiles that is shielding a nuclear program.

01:01:29.000 That's just unacceptable.

01:01:31.000 Whoever rules Iran cannot have an impenetrable mass of missiles with a nuclear weapons stockpile behind that.

01:01:40.000 So if we get a better regime, that would be great.

01:01:43.000 But as you said, we might get remnants of the existing regime, but they're so defanged in their ability to project power to support the terrorist proxy groups around the Middle East that they pivot their behavior.

01:01:57.000 How are they going to stay in power in their country if they're poorer, if they're not as much of a military power?

01:02:04.000 They better start to live a little better lives for their people.

01:02:07.000 So we have to degrade their military capacity.

01:02:10.000 That is the ultimate job of this mission.

01:02:13.000 But achieving that mission may have positive spin-off effects as well.

01:02:17.000 So we're told that China gets about 17% of its energy from Venezuela and Iran, right?

01:02:23.000 They were getting cut rate prices, black market, sanctioned oil.

01:02:28.000 Explain to the audience what this means from an energy standpoint for the CCP and Xi Jinping.

01:02:36.000 What are the felt impacts here and what are the long-term impacts?

01:02:40.000 Yeah, this is not good news for China.

01:02:42.000 Certainly, China has three discount oil suppliers, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia.

01:02:50.000 Venezuela is no longer a discount oil supplier to China.

01:02:54.000 In fact, most of Venezuela oil flies to the United States because it's cheaper to transport it here.

01:02:59.000 And it all sells at market prices.

01:03:01.000 So it's no longer cheap oil for China.

01:03:03.000 China's not happy about that.

01:03:05.000 They've lost a client state in the Western Hemisphere, as has Russia, and as has Iran.

01:03:10.000 So Venezuela is not just good for energy, it's good for geopolitics.

01:03:15.000 So we're thrilled with that development.

01:03:18.000 I'm sure China is very concerned about the same thing with Iran.

01:03:21.000 They've been getting very discounted Iranian crude.

01:03:24.000 And at the end of this, again, we don't know who's going to be leading Iran, but it will be a different Iran than going into this.

01:03:32.000 And an Iran with massively shrunken military capabilities, massively shrunken ability to terrorize American soldiers in the region, their neighbors, and global oil supplies. 0.94

01:03:43.000 So yeah, we're changing the calculus for China quite a bit with these two with these two changes in posture with these two nations.

01:03:53.000 Venezuela and Iran.

01:03:54.000 Yeah, and there was some news made that we kind of offered an olive branch, a couple days worth to Russia.

01:04:03.000 What's the logic there of allowing them to more freely trade oil?

01:04:08.000 Is it just to bring prices down or is there any concern there?

01:04:12.000 Yeah, no, so definitely not an olive branch to Russia.

01:04:15.000 This was no change in policy towards Russia.

01:04:18.000 Here's how China treats its discount oil suppliers.

01:04:22.000 You send your crude to us.

01:04:24.000 We'll unload it when we want.

01:04:26.000 We'll let it stack up in convoys, having to wait at sea for weeks or months at a time.

01:04:33.000 Because if we do that, we'll get to buy it from you even cheaper because you'll be desperate.

01:04:37.000 So there's a lot of just floating Russian oil.

01:04:40.000 It's going to be unloaded at Chinese refineries maybe 30 or 60 days from now.

01:04:45.000 But yet we have Indian refineries.

01:04:48.000 The second biggest importer of oil in the world after China is India.

01:04:52.000 So India was going to shut down some of their refineries, slow their production of gasoline and diesel, which they sell into the global market.

01:04:59.000 That pushes up prices for gasoline and diesel, even here in the United States.

01:05:04.000 So we said, hey, we're not changing our policy towards Russia, but for 30 days, go ahead and buy that Russian crude that's floating offshore.

01:05:14.000 Keep your refineries open, keep your energy production up, and absorb that oil.

01:05:18.000 So it's basically trying to replace or bring forward some of these lost barrels that aren't coming out of the straits.

01:05:25.000 It is not a change in our policy towards Russia.

01:05:27.000 There's a lot of floating Iranian crude off the oceans as well.

01:05:32.000 Now, of course, we have no change in policy for Iran as well.

01:05:35.000 But if we're short oil and we have pragmatic solutions to bring oil to market, you know, we're looking at all of those things.

01:05:42.000 That's about protecting American consumers.

01:05:44.000 Yeah, well, that's very good insight.

01:05:47.000 Thank you for that, actually.

01:05:49.000 I think that's an important distinction.

01:05:50.000 People need to understand that this has knock-on effects for even allies like India.

01:05:56.000 Last question here, Secretary.

01:05:58.000 I know your time is tight.

01:06:00.000 The next steps in this process, I mean, everybody's wondering when this is going to end.

01:06:05.000 I know you don't have a crystal ball.

01:06:07.000 When will energy prices come back down?

01:06:10.000 When will the price of gas come back down?

01:06:13.000 What's your message to the American people?

01:06:15.000 So American people is, you know, God bless the American troops.

01:06:20.000 God bless President Trump's leadership.

01:06:23.000 The military progress has been tremendous.

01:06:25.000 We are massively degrading their ability, destroying their missile launchers, their missiles themselves, and their fabrication, their factories that build missiles, that build drones, that build all these weapons.

01:06:38.000 We're just degrading their ability to rain terror on their own citizens, on the American soldiers, and on the nations in that region.

01:06:46.000 And at the end of this, we want to remove Iran's ability, not just to threaten the military destruction they've done, but also their ability to threaten the flow of energy. 0.98

01:06:57.000 Ultimately, President Trump is doing this to lower the long-term cost of energy because the biggest threat to the flow of energy around the world is Iran, and Iran is going to be defanged. 0.54

01:07:08.000 So this is short-term pain, long-term gain.

01:07:12.000 Secretary Chris Wright at the Department of Energy, I just want people to understand.

01:07:17.000 He runs the Department of Energy, but he has more energy than just about anybody I've encountered in recent memory, besides maybe President Trump.

01:07:27.000 President Trump might have more energy, but you are an active, creative, energetic force at the Department of Energy.

01:07:35.000 So thank you for making the time.

01:07:36.000 And I just, I think you are one of the more fascinating.

01:07:41.000 There's so many in the admin.

01:07:43.000 We're blessed to have such a great administration, but you are truly a remarkable, remarkable leader of that department.

01:07:49.000 So thank you, sir.

01:07:50.000 We appreciate you taking the time and coming on with us today.

01:07:53.000 Thanks so much, Andrew.

01:07:54.000 And yeah, President Trump is indeed tireless.

01:07:56.000 I can't quite keep up with him, but I'm doing everything I can to be as close as possible to his work ethic and his energy level.

01:08:04.000 But yeah, he is a freak of nature.

01:08:07.000 But thank you, Andrew.

01:08:08.000 He is.

01:08:08.000 And you're doing a great job.

01:08:09.000 So keep up the great work.

01:08:10.000 I'm sure you'll get those that price the pump back down soon enough.

01:08:15.000 So God bless you.

01:08:16.000 We'll talk with you soon.

01:08:16.000 Thank you again.

01:08:17.000 Thanks so much.

01:08:21.000 As America turns 250, we want to help Good Ranchers take a moment to remember the people who built it.

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01:09:42.000 All right.

01:09:43.000 I'm excited about our next guest, Dr. Paul Ray.

01:09:45.000 He's a professor of history at Hillsdale College.

01:09:48.000 He's the chair of the Charles O. Lee and Louise Kay Lee Western Heritage Center.

01:09:54.000 He's also the director for the Center of Military History and Strategy.

01:09:59.000 Ooh, that sounds fun.

01:10:00.000 So we want to talk to Dr. Paul Ray.

01:10:02.000 Welcome to the show, Doctor.

01:10:03.000 It's great to have you back.

01:10:04.000 You are a very accomplished gentleman.

01:10:07.000 Thank you.

01:10:08.000 And it's good to be back.

01:10:10.000 It's great to have you.

01:10:11.000 We want to talk about Iran.

01:10:13.000 And again, we're approaching this as an educational segment.

01:10:17.000 We want people to understand Iran better.

01:10:18.000 So what do people need to know about the people in the history of Iran better?

01:10:23.000 Well, the first thing to understand is the Iranians are an ancient nation, very much aware of themselves as a nation.

01:10:34.000 If you look at the Arab world, if you leave aside Egypt, none of the countries in the Arab world are really countries in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

01:10:45.000 The Egyptians have always been on their own, and they have a very powerful understanding of who they are.

01:10:52.000 The rest of the Arabs are part of Islam, and there's no Syria, there's no Iraq, that's a European creation. 1.00

01:11:03.000 But Iran is a nation.

01:11:07.000 And when Islam came to Iran, when they were conquered by the Arabs, they didn't switch their language. 0.69

01:11:14.000 They didn't go over to the language of the Quran.

01:11:17.000 They retained Persian.

01:11:18.000 So there was a kind of cultural resistance built on a pride in their nation.

01:11:27.000 That's extremely important for understanding them.

01:11:30.000 Now, if you look at recent history in that part of the world, I mean, look, they were a great empire in the 6th century BC.

01:11:39.000 It is Iran that was responsible for the Xerxes invasion of Greece.

01:11:45.000 If you look at the recent history of Iran, it's not been entirely positive.

01:11:51.000 It was a kind of plaything in the 19th century.

01:11:55.000 The oil in the south, the British exploited that. 0.98

01:12:03.000 Very little of the money went to the Iranian people.

01:12:06.000 And one consequence of this is the Khajar dynasty was overthrown by a general who then became Shah. 0.86

01:12:16.000 And it's the Shah's father, the father of the Shah that we knew 50 years ago.

01:12:22.000 The Pahlavi family took over.

01:12:26.000 And his goal was to restore the Iranian nation, to restore Persia to its strength.

01:12:37.000 And to do that, he had to get the Russians out. 0.99

01:12:40.000 They were threatening in the north and the English out of the south. 0.99

01:12:44.000 And he tried to play with the Germans during World War II as a way of getting rid of the English and the Russians. 0.76

01:12:53.000 And the English and Russians joined together and booted him and put his 16-year-old son, the Shah that we once knew, in power. 0.93

01:13:04.000 Now, these two people, the two Pahlavi Shahs, had a kind of goal for Iran.

01:13:12.000 Their model was Mustafa Kemal of the Ottoman Empire and then of Turkey, the man who came to be called Ataturk.

01:13:21.000 And what they wanted to do is to bring Iran into the 20th century. 1.00

01:13:26.000 So they were major modernizers.

01:13:30.000 Ataturk succeeded in this.

01:13:34.000 And he was able to succeed in this because after World War I, the allies that had won that war, the British, the French, the Italians, and so forth, the Greeks, wanted to split up Anatolia among them.

01:13:49.000 And he was sent.

01:13:50.000 He had been the hero of the Battle of Gallipoli fighting against the British.

01:13:55.000 He was sent by the Sultan to disarm the population of Anatolia, and he did the opposite.

01:14:03.000 He turned them into an army.

01:14:05.000 He defeated the Greeks, drove them out. 1.00

01:14:09.000 The Italians, the French, and the British withdrew, and he created modern Turkey. 0.88

01:14:15.000 So he was a hero.

01:14:17.000 And as a hero, he was able to get away with a great deal.

01:14:23.000 And what did he try to do?

01:14:24.000 Well, he tried to push Islam into the private sector to create a secular state. 0.96

01:14:31.000 He abolished the caliphate, which went all the way back to the time when Muhammad died.

01:14:37.000 When they set up radio stations, right in the beginning, half of the radio announcers in the 1920s were women, half of them men.

01:14:47.000 Took a long time for Barbara Walters to become an announcer in the United States. 0.99

01:14:51.000 Think of that difference.

01:14:52.000 In 1950, there were more women teaching at Turkish universities than in American universities.

01:14:59.000 More women chairing departments in universities than in American universities. 1.00

01:15:05.000 Same thing was true for Egypt.

01:15:08.000 So there was a kind of modernizing movement that swept the Islamic world, Egypt as well as Iran.

01:15:19.000 But the Pahlavis weren't heroes. 1.00

01:15:22.000 They didn't have the advantages he had, and they ran into trouble both from the British and the Russians, as I explained, but also from the mullahs, who did not want Turkey to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century.

01:15:39.000 Iran.

01:15:39.000 Iran, right, yeah.

01:15:41.000 Yeah.

01:15:42.000 Iran, you're actually right.

01:15:44.000 So what happens in the 50s and 60s is that the younger of the two Shahs achieves some success by using the Americans to get the British out. 0.96

01:15:59.000 And arrangements are worked out so that a great deal of the proceeds from the oil that came from Iran ended up in the hands of the government.

01:16:09.000 What did they do?

01:16:11.000 They built roads.

01:16:12.000 They built schools.

01:16:14.000 They built hospitals.

01:16:18.000 They sent large numbers of Iranian students abroad to study.

01:16:24.000 At the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there were 50,000 Iranian students studying in the United States.

01:16:34.000 And they were buying a great deal for Iran.

01:16:37.000 There were 50,000 Americans living in Tehran, mostly businessmen, selling them weapons and everything you could imagine.

01:16:49.000 This attempt to get them rapidly moving into the 20th century upset people.

01:16:55.000 A lot of the students who went to the United States were radicalized and came back wanting to throw out the Shah.

01:17:04.000 A fair number of them were communists.

01:17:07.000 Then there were the rural people who were devout and the mullahs. 0.70

01:17:14.000 One of the things that the younger Shah did was called the Green Revolution.

01:17:19.000 He took land away from the great landowners, including the mullahs, and he distributed it among the peasants of Iran. 0.54

01:17:30.000 So what builds up gradually is a kind of explosion.

01:17:37.000 There are two parties to this explosion.

01:17:40.000 On the one hand, there's the religious party led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, who was a man of cunning, ruthlessness, and eloquence.

01:17:53.000 On the other hand, there was a mass of people with no particular direction and no particular leader.

01:18:01.000 The people from the leading families in Tehran, the younger people, and the ones who had studied in the United States.

01:18:10.000 The consequence is when the crisis came in 1979, Khomeini managed to fool the urban population, this modernizing population, into thinking that they could live with him perfectly well.

01:18:27.000 The revolution takes place.

01:18:28.000 The Shaw is pushed out.

01:18:31.000 He was a dying man at that time, dying of cancer.

01:18:35.000 And Khomeini then edges out the urban population.

01:18:41.000 And he establishes something like a totalitarian regime.

01:18:46.000 The other day I gave a talk here at Hillsdale College on this.

01:18:49.000 And I woke up in the morning and I asked myself, I wonder if there are commissars in the Revolutionary Guard and in the Iranian Army.

01:18:59.000 That is to say, political officers.

01:19:03.000 In Russia, this was the people from the party who watched over the military guys, watched over all of the officers.

01:19:13.000 And I went to AI, that source of great wisdom.

01:19:16.000 And on this occasion, it really was a source of wisdom because it provided very good detail on this.

01:19:22.000 And yes, there are commissars in the Iranian army.

01:19:26.000 So this is a regime of surveillance in which the Guardians are surveilled also by mullahs who serve as political officers.

01:19:39.000 They can arrest any one of the officers of the military officers.

01:19:43.000 They can reverse any decision that a military officer makes.

01:19:48.000 This is quite a well-disciplined, well-organized regime.

01:19:56.000 If you knew Charlie Kirk, you knew this.

01:19:59.000 He was a connector.

01:20:00.000 Charlie believed in finding good people and connecting them with other good people that he cared about.

01:20:05.000 When someone truly took care of him, Charlie would never hesitate to recommend them.

01:20:09.000 Andrew Del Rey and Todd Avakin were two of those people.

01:20:12.000 They personally helped Charlie and Erica with their mortgage needs, and Charlie trusted them completely.

01:20:16.000 Whether it was a home buyer trying to qualify or someone needing to consolidate debt or see if they could get a lower rate in payments, these were the guys Charlie sent people to.

01:20:25.000 And right now, timing matters.

01:20:27.000 The market has shifted and rates have come down.

01:20:30.000 There's more inventory.

01:20:31.000 Bidding wars have cooled and buyers finally have more control.

01:20:34.000 But that window won't stay open forever.

01:20:36.000 As rates come down, competition will return.

01:20:39.000 That's why being prepared now is so important.

01:20:41.000 Andrew and Todd at Union Home Mortgage bring over 40 years of combined experience and guide you through the process clearly.

01:20:47.000 No pressure, no guesswork.

01:20:49.000 These are the people Charlie trusted, and they're the people you can count on.

01:20:53.000 Reach out today to get approved for mortgage financing with Andrew and Todd at andrewandtodd.com or call 888888 1172.

01:21:01.000 With 40 years of experience, they really are the experts and they make it easy because they keep everything in-house.

01:21:06.000 Call 888-888-1172 or go to andrewandtodd.com.

01:21:10.000 That is AndrewandTodd.com.

01:21:14.000 As Blake mentioned earlier, it is the six-month anniversary of us.

01:21:19.000 I don't call it an anniversary.

01:21:20.000 It's a six-month mark of losing Charlie.

01:21:23.000 And the team has a tribute video in honor of the great Charlie Kirk, our friend.

01:21:29.000 We wanted to play it for you.

01:21:31.000 Play Cut 10.

01:21:32.000 This is why your faith is the most important thing.

01:21:36.000 You are commanded to go do something productive with your life.

01:21:40.000 You are not commanded to go sit idly by and just receive.

01:21:43.000 You are commanded to go give and to produce and to risk to then go sow into other people. 0.99

01:21:50.000 That is a biblical idea that has made the world a profoundly better place.

01:21:56.000 We must put God first in everything that we do.

01:21:59.000 We are nothing here, but just for a short instant, short little glimpse.

01:22:04.000 We act not out of outcome, but we act out of obedience.

01:22:08.000 Everybody, this was not earned.

01:22:10.000 You guys were a vessel.

01:22:12.000 We were a vessel.

01:22:13.000 Psalm 107.1.

01:22:14.000 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

01:22:19.000 I have to say this without getting emotional, but I'm very proud of my husband.

01:22:22.000 You are so intentional with your faith, and you are so intentional with just how you are as a father and a husband.

01:22:29.000 Becoming a father has made me, first of all, understand that what I'm fighting for is beyond even yourself.

01:22:35.000 We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and darkness and spirits.

01:22:40.000 Because at its core, what we are fighting is a spiritual battle.

01:22:43.000 And if you're here and you don't believe in God, okay, fine, I'll pray for you.

01:22:48.000 And I hope you find Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because it will change your life.

01:22:56.000 How do you want to be remembered?

01:22:59.000 I want to be remembered for courage for my faith.

01:23:03.000 That would be the most important thing.

01:23:05.000 most important thing is my faith in my life.

01:23:12.000 We miss you, Charlie.

01:23:16.000 Six months.

01:23:17.000 Doesn't feel real.

01:23:18.000 Still.

01:23:19.000 Six months almost exactly.

01:23:21.000 Yeah.

01:23:22.000 Lost him on September 10th, and it is March 10th.

01:23:25.000 So here's to you, Charlie.

01:23:27.000 And we had to play it.

01:23:32.000 This is his show.

01:23:33.000 It will always be his show.

01:23:35.000 So, Blake, any thoughts?

01:23:41.000 You know, it's Erica said that if Charlie was given the choice to undo what happened and come back, he wouldn't, she thought, because of what was unleashed by it.

01:23:54.000 I like to.

01:23:55.000 I've gone a couple times in the last week or so where we have one of the buildings here on the campus.

01:24:02.000 Just all of the mail packages gifts we've received or that people have left outside the campus, which we still encourage people to come.

01:24:12.000 We still see people there.

01:24:13.000 So if you're passing through Phoenix, stop by.

01:24:16.000 We love to see people make a visit.

01:24:20.000 But I look at that and we still get the emails as well, people talking about they started going to church because of Charlie.

01:24:27.000 They kept going to church because of Charlie.

01:24:29.000 Some of them, we even get ones where they say, I'm not really sure if I believe God exists, but I'm still going because Charlie said to.

01:24:35.000 And we want to encourage that.

01:24:37.000 Leave your heart open.

01:24:39.000 And we've seen so many cases of that.

01:24:43.000 And I think Charlie would even say, if it would help one other person come to Christ, my martyrdom, it would be worth it.

01:24:51.000 And we're not seeing, it's not one person, it's hundreds, thousands, maybe around the world, hundreds, millions.

01:24:58.000 Because it truly did have a global impact.

01:25:02.000 And it's also true that because of what happened to him, we never have to see Charlie lose his fastball.

01:25:11.000 We never have to see Charlie get old, become tired.

01:25:16.000 He's always as he was.

01:25:19.000 I would have loved him.

01:25:20.000 He's that brave young hero going out onto the campuses, speaking to young people, reaching young people.

01:25:26.000 And we'll always have that example.

01:25:29.000 Even Dr. Ray, I know you're hanging in there.

01:25:34.000 Maybe a little pivot on the six-month mark of losing Charlie.

01:25:38.000 You're a historian.

01:25:41.000 What did Charlie's contribution and what happened?

01:25:43.000 What did it mean historically?

01:25:45.000 In the whole scheme of things, what does it mean to you?

01:25:49.000 Well, he started something and he was sufficiently a force that I don't think it's simply going to stop.

01:26:03.000 I mean, you're continuing his show.

01:26:06.000 I was on his show when he was still with us back in July and August a couple times.

01:26:13.000 And I was struck by his energy, his sincerity, his open-mindedness.

01:26:22.000 He was interested in listening as well as in talking.

01:26:29.000 But the other thing is he was a young man who moved a great many people.

01:26:36.000 And I don't think that's going to stop.

01:26:38.000 And obviously, you don't think it's going to stop, or you wouldn't be continuing the Charlie Kirk show.

01:26:47.000 Correct.

01:26:48.000 Yeah, and he enjoyed his conversations with you, Doctor.

01:26:52.000 I know that.

01:26:53.000 And you bring a wealth.

01:26:55.000 I literally was sitting here the whole time.

01:26:58.000 Just You provided context to the Middle East that I was not aware of between the Turks and the Egyptians and the Iranians.

01:27:07.000 And he loved learning.

01:27:09.000 He loved, that's why he loved Hillsdale.

01:27:12.000 You know, he called it the beacon of the north, America's greatest university college.

01:27:17.000 And you guys are continuing that on, and we're continuing to work with you guys, and we're continuing to work with Dr. Arne.

01:27:23.000 And we just really appreciate your perspective.

01:27:26.000 I know this was a pivot that I didn't prepare you for, Doctor, but you've handled it brilliantly.

01:27:31.000 And it's a credit to Hillsdale College that you are part of their faculty.

01:27:38.000 And you guys can all learn from the great professors at Hillsdale.

01:27:42.000 Go to Charlie for Hillsdale.

01:27:44.000 It's not why we had Dr. Ray on.

01:27:46.000 We wanted to learn about the history of the region, but check it out because Hillsdale is one of these institutions that makes America so special.

01:27:54.000 It preserves, it's like salt, that you preserve these great ideas for another generation.

01:28:01.000 So check it out, Charlie for Hillsdale.

01:28:03.000 Final word to you, Professor Ray.

01:28:06.000 Okay.

01:28:06.000 I'll tell you a story.

01:28:08.000 I spent some years in Turkey, 84 to 86, and I went back there in 2002, met a group of Turkish journalists, one Iranian journalist, with them.

01:28:20.000 And at that time, there were pro-American demonstrations at soccer games by just people doing it, chanting in favor of America.

01:28:31.000 And I thought maybe this is the time the revolution is going to go under.

01:28:36.000 And I asked the Iranian journalist, and he said, no, the people who handle security in Iran were graduate students in Eastern Europe in the communist period.

01:28:50.000 They know how to handle a crowd.

01:28:52.000 And then he added, What they don't know how to handle is their own children.

01:28:58.000 There will be a counter-revolution in Iran, he said, but it's going to take some time.

01:29:03.000 Well, some time has passed, but maybe not enough time.

01:29:07.000 We will see in the next few weeks.

01:29:11.000 Dr. Ray, Professor Ray, thank you so much for your time.

01:29:14.000 Pleasure to be with you again.

01:29:19.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - March 10, 2026

Mission Mostly Accomplished?

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