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00:01:34.000We'll be talking to Mark Halperin about the political ramifications of Senator. Lindsey Graham's death and the struggle to replace him.
00:01:41.000And we're going to talk to two students who were just at our chapter leadership summit about their experience, about the continued fight to further Charlie's mission to turn the tide with young people, to lead a revival, to win back America.
00:01:56.000And we're also going to show you all a preview, which the kids at CLS just saw, for the upcoming Turning Point Men's Leadership Retreat.
00:02:04.000It's a very interesting thing they're going for, and I think you guys are going to be excited to check it out.
00:02:09.000But First, we talked a little bit about this yesterday, but I wanted to take more time for us to reflect on the life and the legacy of Senator Lindsey Graham, because I don't think it's controversial to say that his death shakes up the Senate, shakes up the Republican Party more than almost any other senator's loss could.
00:02:34.000Because for Charlie, he talked about Senator Graham, or Lady Graham, as he often called him, probably more than any other senator.
00:02:44.000Who wasn't a regular on the show as a guest.
00:02:48.000And we know that there's a reason for that.
00:02:50.000The reason for that is Senator Graham was a long serving but often rather frustrating Republican.
00:02:57.000I don't think Senator Graham himself would object to the idea that he represented an earlier era for the Republican Party.
00:03:06.000Lindsey Graham was first elected to the Senate in 2002.
00:03:10.000And in a lot of ways, for Lindsey Graham, it was always 2002.
00:04:12.000And it's unsurprising that in the days since Graham's death, Senator Chuck U. Schumer of the Democrats has said the best way we can honor Senator Graham is to impose new sanctions on Russia.
00:04:25.000Well, Mr. President, my prayers and those of my family are with Senator Graham's family, staff, and friends.
00:04:32.000After his sudden, sudden passing yesterday, I urge Senator Thune, in honor of Lindsay, to put the sanctions, the Russian sanctions bill on the floor immediately.
00:04:43.000It will pass overwhelmingly and help our allies in Ukraine.
00:04:49.000Not seeing eye to eye is no reason to be blind to the way forward.
00:05:47.000The intervention in Libya that Senator Graham supported is a perfect example of that.0.92
00:05:52.000I don't think anyone would want to rerun the way that turned out, where we have endless migrants pouring into Europe through Libya, which has become a failed state.0.79
00:06:01.000Lindsey Graham also has a complicated legacy on immigration.0.85
00:06:04.000He worked with Senator Ted Kennedy on comprehensive immigration reform, he worked with Schumer.
00:06:11.000He more than once supported the DREAM Act.
00:06:13.000He supported keeping the DACA program around.
00:06:16.000He did evolve in a better direction.0.76
00:06:18.000One of Lindsey Graham's last public press releases was him disagreeing with the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship decision and promising to help crack down on birth tourism.
00:06:30.000But nevertheless, he wasn't the ideal that we would have on immigration.
00:06:35.000And so he represented an early era of Republican, a Republican who hadn't quite gotten the memo that.
00:06:42.000We shouldn't have as many wars and we need tougher immigration policies.
00:07:13.000And so all of our criticisms of Graham have to be through that lens.
00:07:16.000Graham could have been better, but he was still on our side.
00:07:20.000And sometimes he showed that incredibly.
00:07:22.000Sometimes Graham was the exact person we needed.
00:07:25.000We saw that during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings in 2018.
00:07:30.000If you don't remember that, you might not remember how bad it got.
00:07:32.000It looked like we were going to lose that seat, that Democrats were going to keep it open until 2020, and then they were going to let Joe Biden fill that seat with a radical Democrat.
00:07:43.000The person who brought a halt to that was Lindsey Graham on the Judiciary Committee.
00:07:48.000He stopped it cold, and it was tremendous.
00:09:15.000We want a senator who can fight like Graham, but we want a senator who represents the modern conservative movement better than Graham did at the time of his death.
00:09:25.000That's what we're going to fight for, and we should remember his best parts and we should improve upon his worst parts.
00:09:37.000They asked President Trump at the White House about the FBI investigation that is ongoing into Senator Graham's death because some people have speculated there could be some foul play.
00:09:49.000And he had something interesting to say about that.
00:09:51.000I don't want to spoil it until we get it uploaded.
00:09:55.000In the meantime, I just want to finish what we were reflecting on at the end there.
00:10:00.000So here's the details on what will be going on.
00:10:04.000There was a primary in South Carolina just a few weeks ago, and I'll be frank, we were supporting a challenger, Mark Lynch, to Senator Graham because we believe that it was possible for South Carolina voters to get a senator more aligned with their views on immigration, on military force abroad, and just more aligned with the MAGA President Trump agenda.
00:10:29.000Now, we fell short there, but that was understandable.
00:10:33.000Senator Lindsey Graham was a longtime incumbent.
00:10:36.000He had A lot of strength in the state, and that's how it was.
00:10:39.000Now, there's going to be another primary.
00:10:41.000Yesterday, it was announced that the replacement for Senator Graham is actually going to be his sister, who he helped raise after I believe their parents died, and she's going to be filling out the rest of his six month term.
00:11:11.000My brother was the most amazing person, outstanding leader, and just a genuinely good man.
00:11:20.000So it looks like that his sister, that is Darlene Graham Norton, is her name, it looks like she's not planning to run in the primary that's going to be held on August 11th, less than one month from today.
00:11:34.000She'll fill out that term and then depart.
00:11:36.000And that means that it's a wide open field for the primary.
00:11:40.000I don't know everyone who's planning to run.
00:11:43.000I imagine perhaps Mark Lynch will run again, but also Nancy Mesa's talked about running.
00:11:48.000She ran in that governor's primary and was defeated.
00:11:52.000And I'm sure Turning Point Action will probably be making an endorsement in that race.
00:11:57.000I don't think they've reached one yet.
00:11:58.000I know I've talked to Tyler about this.
00:12:00.000He's very excited about, let me make sure I get it right.
00:12:03.000He's very excited about Ralph Norman, who's currently a House representative if he runs.
00:12:08.000So if he does run, maybe we'll be hearing more from him.
00:12:11.000But this is an opportunity, as we said.
00:12:13.000This is an opportunity to get a lawmaker out of South Carolina who fights as hard as Lindsey, who will get as fiery as the Lindsey Graham that we saw in that Brett Kavanaugh clip, but who is.0.98
00:12:25.000More gung ho on deportations, on securing the border, and who's less gung ho about projecting military force into every corner of planet Earth.1.00
00:12:35.000Because even if it's necessary sometimes, it's not necessary nearly as often as Lindsey Graham wanted to.
00:12:41.000But I do see that we have the clip loaded now, and I want to play it.
00:13:36.000I imagine that won't be enough to satisfy some people who are true believers on this, but I want to emphasize President Trump and Senator Graham were very close despite their disagreement on some issues.
00:14:23.000I'm sure Senator Lindsey Graham would be overjoyed to see those strikes happening.
00:14:28.000But probably the best way to unify the party around remembering Lindsey Graham, I think, is a very straightforward one they can pass the SAVE Act.
00:14:38.000Graham, whatever his flaws, was a champion of passing that bill to improve election security, to make it harder for all the various shenanigans and edge cases that make it easier for Democrats to eke out wins that they seemed unlikely to get.
00:14:53.000But you don't need to hear it from me.
00:14:55.000You can hear it from Democrats themselves.
00:14:57.000There's a clip that the team just sent me, and it's from Democrat Alyssa Slotkin.
00:15:01.000And she says, What's going to happen if the Save America Act passes?
00:15:10.000Well, this administration to rig our democracy so that it would be hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election and disenfranchise all married women in the meantime, by the way.1.00
00:15:21.000You'd have to show your birth certificate at the polls if you have a married name.
00:15:27.000If they thought, if they really thought it would disenfranchise married women, Democrats would support the SAVE Act because married women as a whole are a Republican tilting demographic.
00:15:59.000They will thank you for being in Washington if you're able to tell them we stayed in Washington to confirm the president's appointees and pass the SAVE Act.
00:16:08.000So go get that done, and you'll be honoring Lindsey Graham and you'll be improving something all conservatives want.
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00:17:37.000We're joined now by our friend John Doyle.
00:17:40.000He's the host of the John Doyle Show over at The Blaze TV.
00:17:46.000We want to talk about a few different things here.
00:17:48.000I definitely want to have you help weigh in with various events going on with Iran.
00:17:54.000But I know you, like us, were watching a lot of the events.
00:17:58.000Last week in Orem, Utah, we finally got to see all of the evidence laid out against Tyler Robinson.
00:18:05.000And certainly, Andrew and I, and all of us over here, feel the evidence against Mr. Robinson is extremely strong.
00:18:12.000But as we also predicted, there's a lot of people, you know, most of them, coming out to say, actually, all this evidence is fake, it's bogus, it's weak.
00:18:33.000And so, since you've been monitoring it a lot, I wanted to take this big picture and ask there seems to be a sort of conspiracy right subculture, if you want to call them that.
00:18:44.000And we're trying to get at psychologically.
00:18:49.000I think this is the true long COVID, to be honest with you.
00:18:52.000I think the most devastating consequence of the COVID 19 pandemic has been that it's given people permission to indulge in like any conspiracy theory that they come across.
00:19:01.000And all of the people who have spent their entire lives, spent many decades just like broadcasting conspiracy theories.
00:19:07.000They've taken a very unearned victory lap where, like, they were right one time out of 10,000 in saying that, you know, the government's probably going to abuse the COVID lockdowns to take people's rights away and transfer wealth from the elites or from the middle class rather to the elites.
00:19:22.000But now there's like this kind of like perpetual indulgence in this where it's just like, yeah, we're going to believe every conspiracy theory must be true until proven otherwise.
00:19:30.000And then when you have something like objective evidence pertaining to a criminal proceeding, they will actually just like jump to other lily pads.
00:19:36.000So they'll say that this theory must be true.
00:19:38.000And then when you disprove it, they'll say, well, It's actually this other thing and this other thing.
00:19:42.000And so clearly, this is not a person who's actually like motivated by truth.
00:19:45.000They're more motivated by like the sport of participating in this kind of stuff.
00:19:49.000And perhaps they even find it entertaining.
00:19:50.000Like these are the same people who would watch, you know, true crime documentaries or something on Netflix.
00:19:55.000And it just so happens that they've stumbled into a criminal proceeding that is actually like extremely important for the success of American patriots.
00:20:01.000And so I have very little patience for it.
00:20:04.000I think that a lot of it is quite curiously enabled and even actually promoted on social media.
00:20:08.000Whereas you remember, you know, we used to get banned for conspiracy theorizing on social media.
00:20:13.000Because the ultimate conclusion of the conspiracy theories were that I think the people in charge are trying to harm American citizens.
00:20:20.000And so all of that would get you banned.
00:20:22.000My Twitter account was banned for years prior to Elon Musk's purchase of X because of this exact kind of question asking.
00:20:29.000Now, curiously, not only are you allowed to ask questions, the most popular content on social media is asking these questions.
00:20:36.000And you notice it's because the vector of attack is different.
00:20:38.000Whereas the old conspiracy theorizing that used to get you banned was ultimately saying, hey, we should indict the global left who is clearly trying to work against the interests of the American public.
00:20:47.000Now, the vector of attack when you just ask questions is specifically against the interests of the American public and their greatest advocates.
00:20:54.000You can conspiracy theorize all you want as long as the ultimate conclusion is do not support Donald Trump, do not vote for Republicans, do not blame the left for assassinating Charlie Kirk.
00:21:03.000You do that, you can have your conspiracy theories, just so long as you don't actually blame the left.
00:21:08.000That's such an important point that, yes, it's that this is popular and that it specifically takes the form of people, at least nominally on the right, firing on other members of the right really aggressively, constantly, nonstop.
00:21:23.000Do you think that it's a fluke that it happened this way?
00:21:25.000Or what do you think is driving that impulse to attack people mostly on their own side?
00:21:32.000I think, frankly, I mean, you know as well as I do, a lot of people who wash up into right wing politics tried to make it in other aspects of entertainment, which you could argue is just a lifelong impulse to get attention for themselves.
00:21:44.000And maybe they try to go work in Hollywood and they're not talented enough.
00:21:46.000Maybe they try to be models and they're not pretty enough.0.97
00:21:49.000They wash up into right wing politics, which, you know, they already say politics is just Hollywood for ugly people.
00:21:54.000And that's certainly true, where you've got this kind of like.
00:21:57.000Class of person who makes a living now talking about politics.
00:22:00.000And they may even agree with the issues, but fundamentally, this is a person who was first driven by wanting attention, wanting fame, wanting fortune.
00:22:07.000And so then when opportunity comes knocking and it's like, hey, you can just kind of like sell out any moral principles that you may have had, but you'll get more attention and money than you've ever had before.
00:22:16.000This is a person who's going to be very quick, I think, to make that decision.
00:22:19.000And you notice now a lot of the people have been entertaining this kind of conspiracy theorizing, going against the legacy of their friend, encouraging or at least enabling, looking the other way during the harassment of his widow.
00:22:31.000All of this has made these people more money and more popular than they've ever had before.
00:22:35.000And so I think for that kind of person, it's like worth it ultimately.
00:22:38.000So, as you mentioned, this used to get cracked down on Twitter.
00:22:42.000There was a lot of censorship of this sort of thing.
00:23:27.000It's like, you know, because the democratization of anything is going to enable the ascent of like the lower common denominators, whether it's entertainment, the political process, even the exchange of information.
00:23:38.000As you include more ideas, you know, the thinking is that the best ideas will rise to the top.
00:23:44.000And again, this is not an argument for censorship because clearly we are in a better position to forward the truth and ideas than we were, you know, compared to five years ago.
00:23:52.000But the problem with that is now, instead of the arrows being cast at the truth by, you know, the regime, the censorship apparatus, they're being cast at us by like just like stupid people who are not actually with us in that pursuit of truth, but rather just, you know, along for the ride because they find it entertaining and they're willing to derail the entire pursuit itself if it means it's going to be entertaining.
00:24:12.000For them, or tantalizing, or something.0.89
00:24:13.000So, I don't actually know how you solve it.
00:24:16.000My strategy, I've just been trying to keep my head down, avoid the drama, and just speak the truth.
00:24:21.000I've noticed a lot of people kind of mirroring that strategy, but still, you've got this like incessant barrage of just like lies and just nonsense coming from those kinds of people.
00:24:30.000And once the appetite develops in the audience for that kind of stuff, and other people who are maybe more on the fence, they're not necessarily trying to engage with it, but they're maybe not totally committed to just speaking the truth.
00:24:42.000There's like a critical mass that I think can be reached when those kinds of people see the rewards that are to be had when you engage in that kind of like bottom of the barrel slop.
00:24:49.000You get more money, you get more attention.
00:24:51.000Those people who used to be respected, I've noticed they're indulging in it a little bit themselves.
00:24:55.000And so I don't actually know how you solve that as the network model disappears, which used to hold people to some kind of like editorial standard.
00:25:03.000As that disappears, it's going to be very difficult to keep people on the right track.
00:25:12.000But I do feel if, I hope I'm not just wish casting here.
00:25:16.000We saw the events of the past week with the evidence laid out.
00:25:20.000I do feel like we maybe have, at least with Charlie and Tyler Robinson, reached and passed a peak that now that there is more evidence on display and more people are speaking up, that at least some people are going to realize, okay, this isn't going to pan out.
00:25:38.000They're not going to suddenly find the secret trove of evidence that blows this wide open.
00:25:43.000Am I wish casting there, or are there signs that we might be reaching a turning point there?
00:25:51.000It has been very heartening to see a lot of people who were indulging in this stuff come out and say, Look, I was fundamentally concerned about the direction of my country.
00:26:02.000I'm worried about what's going on here.
00:26:04.000And so they were viewing it from that, just asking questions, perhaps extending a bit of undue charity to people like Candace Owens and going along this journey with them.
00:26:13.000And then ultimately they're saying, Okay, wait a minute.
00:26:15.000This person was like clearly recklessly disregarding the truth and lying to me.
00:26:18.000And obviously we have this guy dead to rights.
00:26:20.000We have him at the place you said we didn't.
00:26:26.000Clearly, insofar as I'm concerned about like an objective pursuit of truth, the trial is going to be where I'm going to get that, not like the influencer class.
00:26:34.000So, a lot of people have been seeing that and even having the courage, frankly, to kind of like cast stones in the direction of these people and be like, okay, actually, no, you were lying to me.
00:26:52.000I wasn't sure how much of that we were going to see, but it is good to see that people are speaking up about that because.
00:26:57.000That kind of behavior is despicable to say the least.
00:27:00.000It sounds, I guess it sounds like a challenge for people like yourself, people, some of our lawmakers.
00:27:08.000It's something Charlie would talk about that sometimes you have a moral test of leadership, and you can either pass that test by standing by the truth, even if it is temporarily unpopular, even if there are financial opportunities available if you decide the truth matters less, or you can give into this and you can embrace that.
00:27:31.000I'm very hopeful that we will see in the months and years to come that more people are going to be willing to follow Charlie's example, take that moral step up.
00:27:40.000So, we want to talk a little bit about Iran.0.78
00:27:44.000We've been in this on off conflict with Iran for almost half a year at this point, and it looks like we're heading on a trajectory back towards conflict.
00:27:54.000There was a new wave of strikes on the country last night, as reported on Fox.
00:28:40.000Meanwhile, President Trump announced he's reinstating the naval blockade, and he initially announced he was going to have essentially a 20% fee on any ship transiting through the strait, not just actually blocking the ones to Iran, but anyone else paying a fee.
00:28:57.000And he explained his reasoning on this, clip six.
00:29:02.000Of the world, we're spending money, and so what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection.
00:29:10.000We're protecting by the countries that we're helping.
00:29:14.000But just a few minutes ago today, President Trump updated on that.
00:29:18.000There was a lot of furor over that announcement, but then he said, On truth, after highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% U.S. reimbursement fee with trade and investment deals that various Gulf states will be making in the United States.
00:29:37.000But at the same time, extraordinarily good for them and their future.
00:29:40.000We have the largest dollar investment in the United States of any country in history.
00:29:44.000We will see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the United States at historic levels, which will create millions of high paying American jobs.
00:29:53.000Most importantly, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
00:29:55.000Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump.
00:30:00.000So, John, you and I, we've talked a little bit about this war.
00:30:05.000We just had our chapter leadership summit, and we talked to the young people, and they said, Wars, there's not a lot of enthusiasm with it for young people.
00:30:13.000President Trump could probably improve his popularity by ending it, but it looks like we're continuing this on and off path.
00:30:19.000So I want to ask you you mentioned we keep facing forward, we keep focusing on the priorities that matter.
00:30:25.000How should we be talking and thinking about this conflict?
00:30:30.000You know, this is one of the things that sort of break broken containment, where obviously, if you're online at all, you see that anytime anything remotely bad happens, people panic and flip out, but it doesn't usually get back to you in your real life.
00:30:41.000The Iran war has been something that people who I know personally who are usually apolitical, maybe they have conservative instincts, they're very concerned about this.
00:30:57.000They're paying a lot more at the pump.
00:30:58.000And this is going to cause a lot of problems, I think, going into midterms.
00:31:01.000So I would like to see this get wrapped up very quickly.
00:31:04.000Just speaking about it, like from a right wing perspective, Donald Trump has obviously always had maybe a hawkish position on Iran.
00:31:11.000He hasn't exactly updated that policy.
00:31:13.000And I think that the way things were going globally, this is probably going to happen regardless of who took office.
00:31:18.000Trump's approach toward Iran during 2024 was actually more diplomatic.
00:31:21.000I mean, he was saying he wanted to make a deal.
00:31:23.000This was much different than his rhetoric in 2015 when he said he wanted to blow their ships out of the water.
00:31:28.000Kamala Harris's campaign was saying otherwise.
00:31:30.000You know, she was saying that Iran is our greatest enemy.
00:31:32.000They have American blood on their hands.
00:31:34.000And so it seemed to be the case that whoever got into office, there's probably going to be something going down with Iran.0.80
00:31:40.000But I really hope that this wraps up quickly because we are far past our timeline.0.50
00:31:45.000You know, I was trusting the plan with the timeline.
00:31:46.000This is going to be over in a couple of weeks.
00:31:48.000Now we are entering into about, like you said, you know, a year of this kind of conflict.
00:31:53.000You know, we had the strikes last summer that was popping off.
00:31:56.000And so I hope that this gets wrapped up pretty quickly because I don't know how much longer I can justify this to my apolitical friends who I would like to see vote come November.
00:32:06.000And maybe I'm seizing upon something here, but even in this recent Trump statement I just read, I like that he's saying we should be reimbursed by the Gulf.
00:32:13.000And specifically, what the goal is, he's saying we're going to try to get factories, plants, and equipment pouring back into the United States because we've seen that these conflicts have been a way to expend American wealth abroad.
00:32:27.000We've also seen prior administrations just deliberately ship American wealth, American expertise, American factories abroad.
00:32:34.000We've said, Will be richer and better off if these factories uproot from the U.S. and go abroad.
00:32:40.000So I find it reassuring that even when he's talking about conflict with Iran, President Trump is thinking the goal here is to make America stronger, make America build things again.
00:32:51.000Am I reading the right amount into this?
00:33:05.000Sort of lingering trauma that like millennials and Gen Z have, having grown up in sort of the era of the war on terror, where we're used to spilling our blood and treasure in the Middle East and getting nothing for it.
00:33:14.000And so I feel like that trauma response is so built in that anytime they hear there's another sand war, they're going to assume that it's for absolutely no reason.0.63
00:33:22.000We're just getting sucked into something that doesn't benefit us.
00:33:24.000And so it's ultimately on the administration to communicate that more transparently to the public.
00:34:41.000If you're a single conservative man in his late 30s to early 50s in Southern California, listen up.1.00
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00:36:15.000First of all, I like to think of myself as knowing about America rather than knowing about Washington.
00:36:19.000So I dabble in Washington, but my concern is more the country.
00:36:24.000You know, there's only one member left of the class of 94.
00:36:30.000In Congress, Roger Wicker, who's now a senator.
00:36:34.000And that class, of course, was a bridge between the Reagan Revolution and the Tea Party and then MAGA, which is, you know, the story of the conservative movement to a large extent since Watergate can be told, I think, in those four chapters Reagan, the 94 revolution, in which Newt Gingrich led Republicans to their first half majority in eons.
00:37:02.000Then the Tea Party and then MAGA and Trump.
00:37:06.000And Lindsey Graham spanned that by being a member of that class of '94.
00:37:11.000And part of why I think people are being so emotional about it in Washington and those who knew him is because he does remind them of that history, of that bridge.
00:37:27.000And because he was relatively young and because he was kind of a spry guy and a jokester.
00:37:35.000I think people are sort of brought up a little bit short in thinking about if he's gone, just how much time has passed in that bygone era that's so resonant for so many.
00:39:53.000But the best way to perhaps guide his favorite secret was he would just tell President Trump, here's what President Obama would do in this situation.
00:40:45.000On some issues, he was more moderate, but on other issues, like on national security stuff, quite hawkish.
00:40:50.000But he just understood how to give people what they wanted.
00:40:53.000And, you know, not to play an amateur psychiatrist, but if you look at someone who lost his parents when he was young, who had to struggle and then search for father figures like Joe Lieberman and John McCain and Donald Trump, he's a people pleaser.
00:41:06.000And so he's a smart, funny people pleaser who could read people well.
00:41:10.000And I think that explains not just how he did what he did, but why it was so effective.
00:41:23.000How is the Republican Party different?
00:41:25.000How is the dynamic in Washington different with Lindsey Graham for now replaced by his non politician sister and soon likely to be replaced by a different Republican?
00:41:35.000Is there any transformative effect or am I overplaying this?
00:41:38.000No, I think there's minor transformative effects that need to play out on Capitol Hill.
00:41:43.000He was chair of the budget committee, he was chair of a lot of subcommittees, he was a key vote and a key voice on a lot of issues.
00:41:51.000I think the Capitol Hill reporters, as they tend to do, Are overwriting that, overemphasizing it.
00:41:56.000I think all that will sort itself out.
00:41:58.000And I don't think the post Graham world will be all that different in terms of the process of Capitol Hill.
00:42:03.000I think the biggest thing is his role on Ukraine.
00:42:07.000And not, as some have said, because the hawks have lost their biggest voice.
00:42:12.000And perhaps this will make President Trump less supportive of Zelensky.
00:42:16.000As I understood it before his death, the administration believed, realized that of all the people in Trump's orbit, the only one. Who could pressure President Zelensky to eventually make a deal when the time comes was Senator Graham because of his close relationship with Zelensky and his hawkish position.
00:42:35.000At some point, we hope, maybe this won't be the way it ends, but the most likely way the war ends is President Zelensky accepts a peace and security swap for giving up land that he doesn't want to give up and that the Ukrainian constitution suggests he can.
00:43:47.000We're going to have a primary one month out from now, and it's something we very rarely see an absolutely wide open primary for a seat in a relatively secure red seat.
00:44:04.000What sort of stuff is happening behind the scenes or, frankly, in front of the cameras that our viewers should know about?
00:44:09.000Well, some people have taken themselves out who might have been picked, others are burning up the phone lines.
00:44:16.000I was a little surprised that they chose a caretaker, Senator Graham's sister, but.
00:44:20.000But it does make a certain amount of sense because it's an anti-establishment time, and they wanted her for the symbolism, I think, to have the job.
00:44:29.000But my money and my eye are currently on Congressman Fry of South Carolina, someone who Donald Trump helped win, beat an incumbent who the president wanted to take out.
00:44:40.000He's currently on the ballot to run for his House seat, but South Carolina law actually allows you to run for both at the same time.
00:44:46.000So I suspect if he has the endorsement of both the president and the governor, and I suspect they'll endorse the same person.
00:44:56.000And in a primary like this, such a short turnaround, such a short timeframe, I'd be hard to imagine that the president's normal practice of endorsing the winner wouldn't sustain.
00:45:09.000And do you think it is just President Trump likely can, could he anoint the winner?
00:45:13.000If he were to pick someone else, would that person instantly become the favorite?
00:45:31.000In fact, in the gubernatorial primary in South Carolina a few weeks ago, the president had endorsed the lieutenant governor.
00:45:37.000When his aides told him the polling suggested she would lose, he did what he sometimes does.
00:45:41.000He endorsed a second candidate, Mr. Wilson, and he won the runoff.
00:45:47.000So the president, I think, will probably pick one person who his team says if you endorse this person, they're likely to win.
00:45:56.000I was just double checking my message, and I said, We're going to talk about Graham.
00:46:01.000And as we know, Senator Lindsey Graham is not the only Graham.
00:46:04.000Since we last had you on, there's been a lot of drama with another Graham, Graham Plattner, out in Maine.0.95
00:46:11.000Democrats, it seems like they basically are we reading this correct from the right that they looked at all of his scandals and thought, This is a loser.
00:46:19.000We need to pull something off to force him out.
00:46:46.000But he had the support of Senator Schumer and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, et cetera.
00:46:53.000Why this one story, as horrible as the charges were, why that caused them all to drop, I don't know.
00:46:59.000I did write a piece for the free press yesterday.
00:47:02.000I'm not sure this increases their chances of winning.
00:47:05.000I think Democrats assume that they couldn't win with Platner, but I'm not sure they can win with Adam as I look at the early jostling amongst the minor leaguers trying to replace him.
00:47:15.000Platner brought a lot of strengths to this.
00:47:17.000You know, he won the primary overwhelmingly.
00:47:21.000He had energy, organization, a message, and that great voice, gravelly voice.
00:47:26.000And I look at these other folks, I'm not sure if they auditioned to be an extra and Pippin at Bayo, New Jersey Dinner Theater, that they would necessarily get cast.
00:47:36.000I think we'll know in a few weeks after they pick the person whether they've got what it takes to beat an incumbent.
00:47:42.000Is there, so it does seem, yeah, they basically, as you said, he won the primary overwhelmingly, and the party establishment basically said, tough shakes, we're not going to let this happen.
00:47:53.000Do voters tend to feel burned by this?
00:47:56.000Like, are there going to be Democrats who are just going to say, you took out our guy, I'm not voting?
00:48:02.000Or are they more likely to say, the most important thing is getting rid of a Republican and Like, do they only have to worry about their candidate might be weaker, or do they have to worry that they have alienated their base?
00:48:14.000From everything I've seen, it's really more the former than the latter.
00:48:18.000I haven't seen much in talking to Democrats and listening to voters and reading other people's interviews with voters.
00:48:24.000I don't see much evidence that people are despondent because they recognize that Platner was a vehicle.
00:48:31.000And I did a focus group a few weeks ago, and all the people in it who were supportive of Platner didn't think he was some hero.
00:48:46.000So I would imagine the bigger problem than people saying, hey, you took out our guy, we're depressed, we're not going to vote for the Democrat.
00:48:53.000I think the bigger problem will be, I'm not that engaged with the race anymore because we don't have the excitement of Graham Plattner.
00:48:59.000Mark, every time you're on, I just love to ask you, you are an expert on America, as you yourself said.
00:49:04.000So we are a few months out from the midterm election.
00:49:09.000What's your read on the overall state of things?
00:49:12.000If things stay as they are, regarding the economy, how people feel about the direction of the country and the president, I think, excuse me, I think it'll be a very big day for the Democrats.
00:49:24.000Certainly take back the House, maybe take back the Senate, but that's still subject to some individual races.
00:49:29.000Republicans have really helped themselves with redistricting.
00:49:33.000They've really were benefited from a Supreme Court decision that allows them to coordinate how money is spent.
00:49:39.000And so the structural things benefit Republicans, the history and the current overview macro conditions.
00:49:51.000The inflation numbers today were better than expected.
00:49:54.000So let's see if the president can't nudge his approval rating up, right track, wrong track up.
00:49:59.000Even 5% would make a big difference for the party.
00:50:03.000Let's say, for example, if they were able to reach a deal in Iran, 30 seconds here, could that do an overnight turn?
00:50:10.000Or is it getting to the point where it might be too late to fix that?
00:50:13.000Yeah, it could make a big difference, but so would repelling a Martian invasion, which at this point seems just as likely as getting a deal with Iran.0.87
00:52:06.000And I just wanted to talk more about it today because I think it's very important to highlight the work that Turning Point USA is continuing to do to reach the next generation.
00:52:15.000So, we're joined by two people who just attended that event.
00:52:41.000We'll go easy on our high schooler here.
00:52:43.000So, just tell us what was it like being at this event, thousands of other young Turning Point chapter representatives, meeting them, interacting with them.
00:52:52.000Just give our audience the feeling of what it's like to be at one of these Turning Point youth events.
00:52:58.000First of all, I'd just like to say nobody puts on events like Turning Point USA does.
00:53:02.000It was a Turning Point USA event one year ago that completely changed the trajectory of my life and got me involved.
00:53:08.000And it was my first time in Washington, D.C. at the CLS, which was also an incredible experience.
00:53:12.000To be in DC for the America 250 celebrations around thousands of other young patriotic Americans who share the same vision.
00:53:20.000It was an incredible experience and the vibes were awesome.
00:53:24.000Between the Club America kids getting to go check out Mount Vernon, the college kids getting to interact with each other and the various speakers, and for instance, my group getting to run into you, Blake, down there in the lobby of the hotel, getting to chit chat with you.
00:53:55.000I even had the opportunity of being one of the two high school students being selected to attend the Turning Point Gala in Mar a Lago back in December.
00:54:05.000But it was truly an amazing experience, one of the most encouraging events that I've personally ever attended.
00:54:10.000And it just brought together just student leaders from all across the country, and every single person is trying to make a difference in their schools and communities.
00:54:17.000And that always sticks out to me, especially with these events.
00:54:20.000The energy, It's just not only motivational, it's so uplifting.
00:54:26.000And we're given real advice about leadership, growing our chapters, standing firm in our values, and just becoming better representatives of the movement.
00:54:36.000And I always feel so inspired and just left feeling even more equipped to lead my chapter every time I go.
00:54:43.000And we were playing some highlights yesterday.
00:54:46.000Erica came to the event, delivered a speech just a few days after she was in Utah for the preliminary hearing.
00:54:54.000Either of you, maybe Sophia first, what was it like to hear Erica's remarks?
00:55:21.000One of the very first things that Charlie Kirk had asked me was not about politics, not about my chapter, and not about leadership, but it was, he said, How is your dating life?
00:55:31.000And that really stood out to me, but it showed me how seriously.
00:55:34.000Charlie and Erica viewed relationships and how in marriage and building your life on the right foundation and that foundation is God.
00:55:42.000And their message was that a relationship cannot just be centered on two people or just the feelings, it's always has to be centered on God.
00:55:51.000And we have to be willing to follow Him and serve each other and recognize that marriage does have a greater purpose.
00:55:56.000And as a young woman that is thinking about her future, that was one of the most meaningful parts of the entire event.
00:56:17.000Before her speech, I got to visit with her a little bit at a private breakfast that morning, along with a bunch of other college students.
00:56:22.000And seeing the effect that the trial had had on her over the last week, the pretrial hearings, and still her willingness to show up in DC, get up there, and deliver a fantastic speech was super motivating.
00:56:35.000And, you know, you heard the students cheering, Erica, Erica, Erica, before she came on stage.
00:56:42.000She is the leader of this organization.
00:56:58.000And I want to actually shout that out those breakfasts that some of you were able to attend with Erica in person.
00:57:05.000I only throw it out there to say, any of you who are listening, who are getting involved in Turning Point in your high school, in your college, if you get really involved, Those are the opportunities that are out there.
00:57:17.000We love to identify promising leaders and get them close with leaders at Turning Point, get them opportunities to meet leaders of our country.
00:57:27.000Erica believes so strongly, Turning Point believes so strongly in uplifting the next generation of leaders.
00:57:34.000I imagine you are meeting a lot of other college age young men who are highly motivated, highly driven.
00:57:42.000What do you feel, and you can weigh in for yourself, what are the Issues and ideas that are most motivating to conservatives who are in that age range, under the age of 24 or so?
00:57:55.000Of course, the biggest thing is affordability.
00:57:58.000If I wasn't fortunate enough to be on scholarship, I wouldn't be attending college and I would have been in the military, and none of these experiences in Turning Point USA would have occurred.
00:58:06.000And to see so many fellow Gen Z young men my age who are struggling with college debt, who are struggling with that issue, and not just college debt, Debt overall.
00:58:21.000And we cannot afford to have kids.0.65
00:58:22.000And that's one of the things I've enjoyed seeing these clip-tree surface of Charlie one year ago at SAS talking about the three M's, right?
00:58:29.000He talked about maiden, marriage, and mating, right?
00:58:32.000Getting young people involved to be able to have affordable homes, to be able to afford to have a family, to be able to afford to have kids.
00:58:40.000That is by far the top issue because if we can't allow, if we can't, sorry, if we can't have those things happen, we really don't care about anything else that's going on politically.
00:59:09.000Well, for me, I definitely think that the value that is heavily brought is that students realize that they're not alone, especially at these turning point events at school, especially when you hold conservative values.
00:59:21.000It can really, like, people really realize that.
00:59:25.000It can feel like you're the only person.
00:59:27.000The only person willing to speak up is you.
00:59:30.000And then you come to CLS, you meet students like this from all over the country who are facing such similar challenges, but they always still choose to lead in events like this, especially at CLS.
00:59:39.000And even talking with the girls my age, they always say that it gives them confidence.
00:59:43.000It gives them so many friendships and just practical tools and just such a strong sense of purpose just to take back home with them and to use.
00:59:58.000I think it's such a point worth emphasizing that it can be.
01:00:02.000I think a lot of our viewers, you know, they maybe live in rural areas.
01:00:05.000They're used to being around a lot of conservatives.
01:00:08.000If you're a young person on a college campus, we saw that shift a little bit in the 24 election where there were more young people open to it, but we know some of those have swung back and we know some schools never swung at all.
01:00:20.000It can still be an isolating experience to be a conservative at your high school, at your college.
01:00:26.000And we love having that opportunity to gather you guys in one spot, realize there are.
01:00:31.000Thousands, really millions of people like you out there.
01:00:34.000And a lot of them just need, they just need to be given the courage to stand up and speak up for themselves.
01:00:42.000Is there anything else that you really want to communicate to those who've never been to a turning point event?
01:00:50.000Well, I thought it was completely refreshing, always.
01:00:52.000And you don't have to spend the entire time defending why you believe what you believe at these events.
01:00:57.000And I feel like that's a big thing that we do within our school systems and within our communities.
01:01:02.000You can go deeper and talk about these things.
01:01:04.000And those beliefs that you have, and you can put them into action, especially with students at Turning Point.
01:01:09.000And I met students with completely different backgrounds and experiences everywhere I walked, and we were all just so connected by our love for God, our love for our country, and Charlie, and just the desire to make a difference.
01:01:21.000So, Turning Point events, you never want to miss them.
01:01:26.000Yeah, I'd just like to echo what Sophia said and what you said, Blake.
01:01:30.000Often, when you're on your college campus, you're on your high school campus, you can feel like you're alone in this fight.
01:01:35.000But when you go to these events and you're around thousands of other patriotic young Americans, you remember what this fight really is about, that you're not alone in this, and that despite what public belief is, we are actually the majority, and Gen Z is turning radically conservative in a very positive way.
01:01:52.000So it's super motivating to be around other people like that, and it's really encouraging.
01:01:56.000Like Sophia said, don't miss a Turning Point USA event.
01:01:58.000So after Erica's speech, we made an announcement for a brand new Turning Point event that we hope to add to our.
01:02:35.000Liberty is not man's idea, it is God's idea.
01:02:40.000We are in a spiritual war, everybody, that is beyond just the material that we are seeing.
01:02:45.000Young boys and young men are looking for something to connect to that gives them purpose, that says it's okay to be a man.
01:03:00.000We believe in strong, alpha, godly, high T, high achieving, confident, well armed, and disruptive men are the hope, not the problem in America.
01:03:14.000And at Turning Point USA, not only do we celebrate masculinity, we believe that masculinity is the answer to so many of our problems in this country.
01:03:56.000But if we don't, you can go to TPUSAMensummit.com.
01:04:01.000That is TPUSAMensummit.com for more information.
01:04:05.000This is for men aged 18 to 26, and you can register, you can apply, but that doesn't mean you get to go.
01:04:11.000They're going to be reviewing applications, interviewing the people who want to go, and the deadline is August 31st.
01:04:18.000So we want to be shouting this out now.
01:04:20.000This is not a thing you arrive at last minute.
01:04:23.000Another thing that's impressive about this they announced there's going to be speakers and participants at this event.
01:04:29.000You will have heard of them, but we're not announcing them in advance because there are some people who want to be able to provide advice and guidance with less publicity.
01:04:48.000Preston, you're one of those young men.
01:04:50.000If you're applying, what kind of things are you hoping to see at a men's leadership summit?
01:04:54.000Blake, I am so excited for this event.
01:04:57.000I mean, you heard the cheers coming from the crowd, and this was announced after Erica came up.
01:05:01.000And no offense, Sophia, you know, the young women, you've had your summits, you've had your chance, but it's finally time for the young men to have this happen.
01:05:08.000And I think they're playing into it very well.
01:05:10.000They're playing into what we appreciate and what we need.
01:05:13.000You know, it's very hard for young men who are 18 to 26 to, you know, sit in a conference room for 10 hours and listen to some mundane speeches for hours on end.
01:05:23.000You know, we love being in the outdoors.
01:05:38.000And my generation of young men specifically has been victimized so much from the COVID, you know, Pandemic all the way through that, young men have faced the most criticism and backlash out of anybody.
01:05:52.000So, to see some attention put on this and to see the opportunity for us to be around those people and get that mentorship is so exciting because we're going to be able to, you know, be around a lake, we're going to be able to go hike, we're going to be able to, you know, be at a gun range, and it's going to be an amazing experience.
01:06:09.000I'm very excited to see the direction of this.
01:06:23.000He cared about, he knew young men, they get blamed for everything.
01:06:26.000They're told they're a problem if they're straight, if they're male, often, especially young white men, that's always okay to discriminate against them.
01:06:34.000And these are the guys who have to assert themselves, reclaim America.
01:06:39.000And I'm so glad that Turning Point is having an event to directly cultivate those young men who are going to change the future.
01:06:45.000Sophia, I don't want you feeling left out.
01:06:47.000So if you have a few seconds here, just what sort of men do we need to be raising these days?
01:06:54.000Ones that live biblically, and I truly believe that masculinity has been on a decline.
01:07:00.000But Turning Point is doing a great job of pouring in biblical values into young men now.
01:07:06.000I mean, I met so many at Chapter Leadership Summit just this past weekend, and it is not fading away, especially in the conservative realm.
01:08:12.000So, all of you young men, 18 to 26, or parents, if you have a son who's in that age range, a nephew, a cousin, anyone, tell them about Invictus, the Men's Leadership Summit.
01:08:22.000Tell them to get their application in.