The Charlie Kirk Show - Ron DeSantis is Finally (Officially) Running for President with Andrew Kolvet

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, down to Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:02.000 Governor DeSantis is on the precipice of announcing for president.

00:00:07.000 Producer Andrew and I walk through that.

00:00:10.000 And what is the vibe that the conservative base wants right now?

00:00:14.000 Is it the ethos, the pathos, or the logos?

00:00:17.000 Email us, freedom at charliekirk.com at your thoughts.

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00:00:32.000 Support our program directly, charliekirk.com/slash support.

00:00:37.000 And as always, you can email me freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:40.000 Here we go.

00:00:40.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:41.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:43.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.

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00:00:52.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:53.000 He's an incredible guy.

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00:01:23.000 Hello, everybody, live from Nashville, Tennessee, with producer Andrew here at the TPUSA Faith Pastor Summit, the second one that we have done and the largest that we know of in the country.

00:01:33.000 If there's a larger pastor summit, then let us know.

00:01:35.000 We think it's the largest.

00:01:36.000 You guys can email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com on an incredibly important news day as Governor Ron DeSantis, America's greatest governor, in our opinion, is announcing for the presidency tonight.

00:01:46.000 But I just want to first frame all this because you have Tim Scott who announced earlier this week.

00:01:50.000 You have Ron DeSantis that announcing tonight.

00:01:52.000 Donald Trump's already announced.

00:01:53.000 Nikki Haley's been running for a while, which people really don't really talk much about her.

00:01:57.000 And you got Asa Hutchinson.

00:01:58.000 But let's just take a step back.

00:01:59.000 I think it's really important.

00:02:01.000 Is anytime you're trying to sell a product or convince a group of people, you have to know who you're communicating to.

00:02:08.000 What do they want?

00:02:09.000 It's sales 101.

00:02:10.000 See, if you go into a corporate boardroom, if you go into a sales meeting, you have to know what the audience is demanding.

00:02:18.000 You don't tell them what you think they want, right?

00:02:20.000 That's what Nikki Haley is doing.

00:02:21.000 Nikki Haley's going around the country.

00:02:23.000 She says, people want a choice, not an echo.

00:02:25.000 Okay, have you listened to the voters?

00:02:27.000 What do they really want, Nikki Haley?

00:02:29.000 And again, I think Nikki Haley's a sweet person.

00:02:29.000 What do they want?

00:02:31.000 I hope she comes on the program.

00:02:32.000 I'm not trying to pick on her.

00:02:34.000 Certainly, I'm not ideologically aligned with her on a lot of stuff.

00:02:36.000 But you take a step back as we look into tonight, which will be a very important news night.

00:02:41.000 Governor Ron DeSantis will be with Elon Musk on Twitter announcing what does the Republican Party want right now?

00:02:48.000 Does the Republican Party want a fresh face and a new name and a new generation?

00:02:52.000 Part of the Republican Party might want that.

00:02:54.000 Republican donors certainly want that, some Republican donors.

00:02:58.000 But Andrew, I think you would agree, the vibe, the energy, the spirit of the Republican base is they want an insurgent.

00:03:05.000 They want a rebel.

00:03:06.000 They want someone to say, I'm going to go against the Washington, D.C. crime syndicate, the cartel, the Uniparty in both parties.

00:03:13.000 Now, ironically, the person who used to be president is actually positioning himself as the most anti-establishment candidate, largely because of the indictments and the Durham report and just the kind of the multi-institutional avalanche of opposition that's against Trump.

00:03:29.000 You have to know what the audience wants, right?

00:03:31.000 So does the audience want someone with perfect sound bites and really beautifully curtailed messaging and the right words, you know, nice TV ads?

00:03:40.000 Or does the audience want the Republican base that you have to win over?

00:03:44.000 Do they want a street fighter?

00:03:46.000 Do they want a brawler? 0.80

00:03:47.000 Someone who's going to go after the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Justice, close the border, end the wars.

00:03:52.000 That's the spirit.

00:03:54.000 That's the vibe.

00:03:54.000 It can't always be articulated in an op-ed, but that is the energy that we receive.

00:03:59.000 Andrew, what are your thoughts on that?

00:04:00.000 I think you said something there that I think we could honestly, we could talk about for the whole hour.

00:04:05.000 They want an outsider. 0.99

00:04:07.000 It doesn't have to be a guy that's never been there before, right?

00:04:10.000 I think when we talk about fresh blood, you think, okay, DeSantis is obviously the heir apparent.

00:04:16.000 And he very well might be still the heir apparent, maybe 2028, that sort of thing.

00:04:20.000 But what we've seen from DeSantis, basically since the Trump indictment, right?

00:04:25.000 When he came out kind of slow on the punch, went to sort of come after Red Black. 0.97

00:04:29.000 That was a turn.

00:04:30.000 That was the beginning of kind of a lot of doubt in people's minds.

00:04:33.000 Well, 100%.

00:04:34.000 Because what he ended up doing, even though DeSantis could have assumed the outsider dissident street fighter posture, certainly his record in Florida would warrant that that would be the lane you would think he would go down.

00:04:45.000 But what he ended up doing is sort of signaling to the base, like, actually, you know what, these donors that I have.

00:04:51.000 A little bit smuggly almost.

00:04:52.000 Yeah, I mean, but yeah, and he's ironically, right?

00:04:55.000 I mean, we were critical of Trump on the show when he called the sanctimonious.

00:04:59.000 I don't like the attacks, let me be very clear.

00:05:00.000 I've said that before.

00:05:01.000 I don't think it's a path to victory.

00:05:03.000 But at the end of the day, to Trump's credit, DeSantis has sort of played into that caricature.

00:05:09.000 And Trump, once again, has this ability, this sixth sense, to sort of sniff out a weak spot in a competitor, right?

00:05:17.000 Yeah, and I just, you know, you, the Republican base.

00:05:19.000 By the way, all throughout the hour, I want to hear from you.

00:05:21.000 We do this every couple months, right, Andrew?

00:05:23.000 Where are you standing on the primary?

00:05:24.000 Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:05:26.000 Are you still pro-Trump?

00:05:27.000 Are you guys pro-DeSantis?

00:05:28.000 Because Ron DeSantis is announcing tonight.

00:05:30.000 But I travel a lot, Andrew.

00:05:32.000 You come with, we talk to these audiences.

00:05:34.000 People do not just want someone with the right policy ideas.

00:05:38.000 They don't even want someone that checks all the boxes.

00:05:41.000 More than anything else, yes, they want someone who can win.

00:05:44.000 So maybe they, but there's only one person running for the presidency that's been president before.

00:05:48.000 So it's kind of this idea that Trump can't win.

00:05:50.000 It's like he's already won the presidency. 0.92

00:05:51.000 So I think that's a silly argument.

00:05:53.000 And 2020 was a drive-by shooting of the U.S. Constitution. 0.94

00:05:56.000 So don't give me that nonsense.

00:05:58.000 That was not a fair or free election.

00:05:59.000 It just wasn't.

00:06:00.000 And Molly Hemingway's book, The Rigged, is great on it.

00:06:02.000 But the audience of the Republican base, they want someone who is willing to understand the globalist pressure against America, willing to understand that there is an insidious and nefarious campaign, and not just someone who has good policy ideas.

00:06:19.000 And this can't always be articulated in a way that, let's just say, people in the middle can understand.

00:06:25.000 Because somebody stopped me as we were traveling yesterday.

00:06:28.000 Somebody stopped me and said, Charlie, I don't understand.

00:06:30.000 Why do people still like Trump?

00:06:32.000 What is the appeal?

00:06:33.000 What is the draw?

00:06:35.000 And I say, if you feel as if every institution is rigged against you, you're going to want to have someone that also has the same enemies as you.

00:06:43.000 And that is a person that is willing to push back against it.

00:06:46.000 And yes, the indictments, I think, help Trump.

00:06:48.000 I think these investigations help Trump.

00:06:48.000 100%.

00:06:50.000 Now, will it help him in a general?

00:06:52.000 Probably not.

00:06:53.000 They're going to use that against him.

00:06:54.000 That's a strategy.

00:06:55.000 Yeah, so that is the question, right?

00:06:57.000 Does the Uniparty has the does this is a very interesting thought experiment for this hour?

00:07:02.000 Does the Unit Party understand the Republican base better than most Republican candidates?

00:07:07.000 Meaning from a consultant standpoint, meaning they know that Trump actually will get more popular with the indictments, and maybe that will hurt him in the general.

00:07:14.000 I don't know.

00:07:14.000 That's a little 3D chest, but yeah, it could be.

00:07:16.000 Or it could just be as simple as we hate Trump so much, just keep the pressure on.

00:07:20.000 I mean, I think given the timeline of some of these legal attacks against President Trump, I mean, they simply had to start them.

00:07:26.000 And I think they are trying to time them in such a way to maximize the pain on him.

00:07:31.000 But I think you said two things.

00:07:32.000 Again, you would think an outsider would be somebody besides Trump, somebody who's been president before.

00:07:36.000 But you also said a second thing, Charlie, in that intro.

00:07:39.000 You said knowing your audience.

00:07:41.000 Trump has proven time and time again that he knows his audience better than anybody else.

00:07:47.000 He proved this at The Apprentice.

00:07:49.000 He's proven this since the 80s.

00:07:50.000 He's proven this in the middle of the year.

00:07:51.000 He reads the room better.

00:07:52.000 And by the way, I mean, I've probably been to 150 Trump events.

00:07:56.000 Okay.

00:07:57.000 Rallies, dinners, all this.

00:07:59.000 And so I study the man, and I wrote a whole book about him, which I think we should bring back, by the way.

00:08:04.000 The MAGA Doctrine.

00:08:06.000 I was on tour with you for that book launch just before COVID.

00:08:08.000 Try got his book out literally about a week before the country showed.

00:08:12.000 The Lord wanted me to become a New York Times bestseller.

00:08:14.000 I don't know why, but the Lord wanted that.

00:08:17.000 And again, I think it's a good book if you want to understand Trump and his ideas.

00:08:20.000 We should bring that back, by the way.

00:08:22.000 I think it's actually super helpful.

00:08:23.000 We should do a two-for-one package.

00:08:25.000 We should do an updated edition of it.

00:08:27.000 Actually, I don't know if Harper Collins will be there.

00:08:28.000 Maybe Trump will do the intro.

00:08:30.000 Yeah, but so in the book, I write that there's nobody better at reading a room.

00:08:34.000 Okay, so you know a great public speaker, Tony Robbins, for example, one of America's best public speakers, right?

00:08:38.000 Obviously, Donald Trump.

00:08:40.000 People like to talk for hours and hours and hours and hours.

00:08:42.000 But what President Trump does is he kind of workshops his agenda in front of the audience.

00:08:46.000 He'll throw a little thing there, like, ooh, the audience likes that.

00:08:49.000 And you saw that with Carrie Lake when he endorsed Kerry Lake.

00:08:51.000 Remember, he does that names like, oh, wow, people like that.

00:08:54.000 We were both in the room.

00:08:54.000 And so it's this constant back and forth, this kind of feedback loop that he has with the audience.

00:09:00.000 And Trump knows where the audience is right now.

00:09:02.000 And the audience, whether you guys like it or not, because we're getting some emails right now on DeSantis, mostly Trump.

00:09:07.000 You can email us freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:09:11.000 The vibe is we don't just want an outsider.

00:09:14.000 I think that is an accurate but not complete way to summarize it.

00:09:18.000 They want someone with ferocity.

00:09:21.000 They want someone that's willing to go tear some stuff apart, not be neat, not be polite, not just have good policy ideas, but someone that's willing to shred the Leviathan.

00:09:31.000 Well, you know, they want someone with a vengeance.

00:09:33.000 100%.

00:09:33.000 Well, and here's what occurs to me in this moment.

00:09:36.000 You know, the great songwriters, the great poets, the great filmmakers of any era, they know how to say the thing that you're thinking, but you don't have words for it, right?

00:09:44.000 It's almost like Trump is the great politician-songwriter of our generation.

00:09:48.000 He knows what.

00:09:49.000 No, I'm sorry to interrupt.

00:09:50.000 So the Greeks had it right. 0.99

00:09:51.000 There's a logos, there's a pathos, and there's an ethos, right?

00:09:56.000 So logos is rationality, the spoken word.

00:10:00.000 Pathos is very much on emotion.

00:10:02.000 And then the ethos is the theme, right?

00:10:05.000 What is the character?

00:10:06.000 What is the general vibe?

00:10:08.000 Trump is one of the few candidates that is able to channel the pathos, the emotion.

00:10:13.000 Usually, Republicans are very bad at this.

00:10:15.000 And the wonkier you get, the less people feel connected to you.

00:10:20.000 Even though they say, oh, yeah, he's doing a good job.

00:10:22.000 But there is a deep emotion that goes beyond anything that you can articulate that people, an attachment they have with Trump, as if he is a symbol.

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00:11:42.000 Okay, so let's get to the what because I think we framed it nicely.

00:11:45.000 What does the audience want?

00:11:45.000 But let's just talk about it.

00:11:48.000 I have some mixed views on this.

00:11:50.000 I think part of this is brilliant.

00:11:51.000 Part of this is actually not so smart.

00:11:53.000 So tonight at 6 p.m. Eastern, Ron DeSantis will be joining a Twitter space of the world's richest man, Elon Musk, moderated by... the day with the stock prices.

00:12:03.000 But yes, I do.

00:12:03.000 Okay, it's either the Louis Vuitton foreigner from France who are caught or whatever, or Elon Musk.

00:12:09.000 It's Elon Musk.

00:12:10.000 By the way, SpaceX is completely undervalued.

00:12:13.000 We don't actually know how valuable the company is.

00:12:14.000 So Elon Musk is the world's richest man.

00:12:17.000 Let's just use that as the moniker for the season of the year, okay?

00:12:20.000 The stock prices.

00:12:22.000 So, you know, Elon Musk is going to be interviewing Ron DeSantis, moderated by David Sachs, who's going to join the Rumble Board.

00:12:30.000 So that's an interesting wrinkle, right?

00:12:33.000 And so, Andrew, how should we think about this?

00:12:37.000 It's unusual.

00:12:38.000 I mean, when you announce the presidency, typically it's done at your home state in front of a friendly audience with lots of warm applause, kind of Tim Scott style, right?

00:12:47.000 With everybody holding, you know, your kind of signs.

00:12:50.000 Ron DeSantis is going a new way.

00:12:52.000 You've got to give him credit for ingenuity and for just kind of, let's just say, creativity.

00:13:00.000 To go on Twitter, he'll definitely get eyeballs.

00:13:02.000 So this is going to be watched.

00:13:04.000 This is going to be watched by tens of millions of people.

00:13:06.000 But are these the people he needs to win over in a Republican primary?

00:13:09.000 Yeah, I mean, I keep hearing people break this down one of two ways.

00:13:13.000 Trump's attack vector on this is, of course, he's doing it on Twitter because he doesn't have to interact with people, right?

00:13:19.000 And Trump is very the man of the people.

00:13:22.000 He's good at interacting.

00:13:23.000 So he's trying to draw a distinction there.

00:13:25.000 Now, people have critiqued DeSantis that he is a little bit rigid with people.

00:13:30.000 He's not as free-flowing.

00:13:32.000 He's a piece of feedback.

00:13:33.000 Yeah, and whether or not that's true or fair, I mean, you know, again, Trump just showing his sort of his instincts here.

00:13:39.000 But I will say, what I like about it is Trump has not gotten back on Twitter.

00:13:44.000 So it is open green space, right?

00:13:47.000 Whereas the thing I don't like about it is that it is sort of, it feels a bit almost like Cruz or Jeb Bush Playbook 2016, right?

00:14:00.000 In the sense that it feels like he's trying to do Trump light.

00:14:04.000 He's trying to win over the moderates and the centrists and the independents without, which is not a winning strategy for a primary, you know?

00:14:12.000 So he's trying to make a distinction.

00:14:14.000 And I do think it's a big splash. 0.97

00:14:15.000 I disagree with people who say it's kind of dumb or whatever. 0.93

00:14:17.000 This is Elon Musk. 0.90

00:14:18.000 Elon Musk has a higher favorability rating right now than any other politician in the country.

00:14:24.000 Well, and I think it's smart because if you know you're dealing from a 30-point deficit, get as many headlines as you can.

00:14:30.000 This is going to be well-watched, right?

00:14:32.000 This will be written up.

00:14:33.000 Signal amplification.

00:14:34.000 Now, the risk is what if Elon gets the headlines in that Ron DeSantis?

00:14:40.000 What if all of a sudden it becomes the Elon show and Elon starts saying some stuff?

00:14:44.000 Because Elon is very unique and has takes on stuff.

00:14:49.000 And I mean, what if Elon Stark is talking about simulation theory?

00:14:52.000 So, Governor, what is your theory on the fact we're living in the simulation?

00:14:59.000 This is literally a video game we're all living in.

00:15:01.000 That's something that Elon has talked about, by the way.

00:15:03.000 At the same time, if Governor DeSantis can navigate the Joe Rogan-esque type line of questioning, right, aliens and kind of just more abstract stuff, his points could go up huge.

00:15:14.000 However, let's get back down to what is necessary.

00:15:18.000 Again, there'll be time for Governor DeSantis to try to compete in this arena, but first impressions matter.

00:15:22.000 People remember.

00:15:23.000 For example, let me prove it to you.

00:15:25.000 You will never forget Donald Trump's announcement.

00:15:27.000 Going down that golden escalator, it is imprinted.

00:15:31.000 Yes.

00:15:31.000 Can I make a point really quick?

00:15:33.000 This is probably the most cutting critique that I've heard.

00:15:37.000 Is that Donald Trump is always the alpha.

00:15:40.000 He is always the main character in his drama.

00:15:43.000 In the drama unfolding around the life of Donald Trump, he is always alpha.

00:15:47.000 He would never do an announcement of something of this magnitude, sitting and sharing that spotlight with anybody else.

00:15:54.000 So the critique of DeSantis is that you're not even holding the central spotlight for your own announcement.

00:16:02.000 I don't know.

00:16:02.000 Simultaneously, though, it's kind of brilliant because it's like, hey, I'm going to use the platform of a non-political Tony Stark figure for my political candidacy.

00:16:12.000 Look at me, elect me.

00:16:13.000 I'm able to make bridges and divide.

00:16:15.000 Absolutely.

00:16:15.000 That's the perfect counter.

00:16:16.000 I'm palatable enough to go win the states we need to win because the guy who's considered to be a hero amongst our target demo that we need to win, 25 to 40-year-old voters, is willing to interview me on my announcement.

00:16:29.000 That's pretty awesome if you think about it.

00:16:31.000 So I have a mixed opinion of it.

00:16:32.000 What is your thoughts?

00:16:33.000 Where do you guys stand on the Republican primary?

00:16:35.000 Trump, DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson, email me, freedom at charliekirk.com.

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00:17:46.000 Okay, I want to get to some tape here.

00:17:47.000 Ron DeSantis is announcing tonight.

00:17:50.000 This is important, though.

00:17:51.000 Again, Donald Trump makes people feel certain ways.

00:17:56.000 He channels the emotion.

00:17:57.000 Ron DeSantis.

00:17:59.000 Yes, that's right.

00:18:00.000 In a way that is hard to always explain, where words will not always suffice because language is not the only way human beings are able to connect.

00:18:09.000 Language is actually, according to a Harvard study, only 7% of people value language over physiology or over emotion.

00:18:19.000 We're actually a highly emotional people.

00:18:21.000 And Donald Trump knows this in a certain way, from his language choice to his body posture to just the alpha male energy that he's able to communicate.

00:18:30.000 And Ron DeSantis, I think, is going to get advice from his consultants, which is going to be win the policy debate.

00:18:37.000 Okay, there are some voters that will vote on policy, but the Republican base is much more about the ethos.

00:18:42.000 What is the story you're telling me?

00:18:44.000 What is the character of your campaign?

00:18:47.000 So let's play some ads here.

00:18:49.000 This is Casey DeSantis, who's a lovely person.

00:18:52.000 She's great.

00:18:53.000 Is Ron DeSantis' wife.

00:18:54.000 She tweeted this out kind of as a preview of Ron DeSantis' advertisement.

00:18:58.000 I'm not totally sure who's the one narrating this advertisement.

00:19:02.000 It doesn't sound like someone that has a traditional American accent.

00:19:06.000 Maybe this person isn't American, right? 0.85

00:19:07.000 Because you can be American and still have, it's almost like Australian, right? 0.98

00:19:11.000 It's almost South African Australian.

00:19:12.000 I was talking about Churchill and the wonder if that's a little bit, this sort of like, you know, it doesn't sound like Churchill, though.

00:19:19.000 So I was not Churchill, but if anyone knows who's actually, again, this is what I love about our audience, the combined wisdom of our audience solves the mysteries in like 90 seconds.

00:19:27.000 Who on earth is the one narrating this advertisement?

00:19:29.000 It doesn't sound like an American.

00:19:31.000 Maybe it is, okay?

00:19:32.000 PlayCut 78.

00:19:33.000 If you know who it is, email me freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:19:35.000 PlayCut 78.

00:19:39.000 They call it faith because in the face of darkness, you can see that brighter future.

00:19:45.000 A faith that our best days lay ahead of us.

00:19:48.000 But is it worth the fight?

00:19:51.000 Do I have the courage?

00:19:53.000 Is it worth the sacrifice?

00:19:56.000 America has been worth it every single time.

00:20:08.000 That is 100% British.

00:20:09.000 Andrew, you've spent a lot of time in London.

00:20:10.000 So have I.

00:20:11.000 I mean, again, people, Americans that haven't traveled, they conflate South African Afrikaans with Australian accent and British.

00:20:18.000 That's almost 100%.

00:20:20.000 That's 100% British.

00:20:21.000 Yeah, there was one line specifically that I think we both looked at each other like that.

00:20:26.000 That's the way he said a certain vowel is a huge difference.

00:20:29.000 But that's what's interesting.

00:20:30.000 Like when I talk about how the voters say they want an outsider, so you would naturally assume that would be DeSantis because he's never been president before and Trump has.

00:20:39.000 They don't want a foreigner. 1.00

00:20:40.000 Yeah, but here's my point.

00:20:42.000 Why do you use it to quote?

00:20:43.000 I mean, I'm just going to be strange.

00:20:45.000 It sounds like there's so many little signals because you and I live and breathe this stuff and we work with these people.

00:20:51.000 There's so many little signals that say, oh, donor inspired that move.

00:20:54.000 He was checking a box there, or he's taking a consultant tip there.

00:20:58.000 Or like, yeah, get the sort of transatlantic, like global, like ambiguous accented guy that they hire for VOs and the expats in London that are donated to his campaign.

00:21:09.000 I don't understand.

00:21:10.000 I mean, but again, that's what a consultant, like that would, that's what like an agent would do.

00:21:14.000 Like an agency, rather, like a marketing creative agency, they would go like they would hire a voice actor.

00:21:21.000 But they wouldn't see the political ramifications.

00:21:23.000 He's trying to win voters over in South Carolina with an Americanized British accent voicing over him entering a state.

00:21:30.000 Exactly, because here's what you do: Ron DeSantis is the tip of the spear for his campaign, right?

00:21:35.000 So he says, hey, team A, team B, we want to announce this thing.

00:21:38.000 So team B goes, hey, we've got this shop over in, you know, in Virginia that does these videos.

00:21:45.000 So that guy is probably a liberal working on the video.

00:21:48.000 And he goes, oh, this is super.

00:21:49.000 This makes it look super, you know, bold and epic, but that guy has no political acumen.

00:21:54.000 He doesn't understand that that's signaling.

00:21:56.000 But guess what?

00:21:56.000 They're lined up with that agency because donor Y is a billionaire that likes them.

00:22:02.000 We might be overanalyzing it, but I don't think we are.

00:22:05.000 This is the first official campaign video they release.

00:22:08.000 Okay.

00:22:08.000 That's supposed to be the hype.

00:22:09.000 And every time I watch it, I say, first, who is this person that doesn't?

00:22:16.000 Again, it's a missing.

00:22:17.000 At least they said America's always worth it.

00:22:18.000 No, of course, the message is terrific.

00:22:20.000 It's just a little strange to me as you're trying to voters and agencies.

00:22:25.000 You're trying to run for the American presidency, not the chairman of the World Economic Forum.

00:22:28.000 Okay, so let's play another piece of tape here.

00:22:30.000 Play Cut 65.

00:22:31.000 Just matter of fact, let's get the facts out there.

00:22:33.000 DeSantis launching with Elon Musk.

00:22:35.000 Definitely newsworthy.

00:22:36.000 PlayCut 65.

00:22:38.000 And Fox News has confirmed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his candidacy for president in a Twitter space conversation that Ron DeSantis will have with Elon Musk.

00:22:54.000 So just so we're clear, the audience so far says it's Gordon Ramsey, Prince Harry, Klaus Schwab, or Sebastian Gorka.

00:23:02.000 No, that is not Sebastian Gorka.

00:23:04.000 It's not Hungarian. 0.99

00:23:05.000 Okay, so we're going to keep trying.

00:23:08.000 All right, let's go to Golka.

00:23:10.000 That's not Gorka.

00:23:11.000 PlayCut 66.

00:23:12.000 We are swinging and missing right now in the Charlie Kirk show audience of the identification of the foreigner narrating big Ron DeSantis's ads.

00:23:18.000 PlayCut 66, Elon Musk confirms the rumors.

00:23:22.000 And someone just said, Charlie, it sounds like, why do you like Elon so much?

00:23:25.000 I have great respect for Elon.

00:23:27.000 I'm not going to back down.

00:23:28.000 I think Elon's a great man, a great entrepreneur.

00:23:30.000 Of course, we disagree on stuff.

00:23:31.000 I wish more elites were like Elon Musk.

00:23:33.000 Play Cut 66.

00:23:34.000 We'll be interviewing Ron DeSantis, and he has quite an announcement to make.

00:23:42.000 And will be the first time that something like this is happening on social media and with real-time questions and answers, not scripted.

00:23:51.000 I will say this.

00:23:52.000 I think it's positive, though, just for the general conservative movement that somebody that is, again, Ron DeSantis is a true conservative.

00:23:59.000 People say he's a globalist and all that.

00:24:00.000 I don't think that's correct at all.

00:24:02.000 But I think it's positive for what we want for the country, Andrew, right?

00:24:05.000 To have someone like Elon platforming these ideas.

00:24:08.000 I think from the broader Overton window, that's an exciting thing that will happen tonight.

00:24:14.000 I think there will be millions of young people that are tuning in that have a negative view of Republicans that might have a better descriptive understanding of our worldview and what we're trying to accomplish.

00:24:26.000 For that, I think it's terrific.

00:24:28.000 I think that's excellent that there is a platform for our ideas to get out into the zeitgeist, into the place where otherwise, because there will be tens of millions of people that see whatever ends up happening.

00:24:41.000 Oh, there's going to be all kinds of look-y-lose and people just curious about what this could mean.

00:24:45.000 Oh, and the memes are.

00:24:46.000 And I think that is, I mean, I give A-plus as far as this rollout strategy, just to that alone, that aspect of it.

00:24:54.000 I think, you know, it's still an opening that Trump's going to seize on as far as Trump saying that he doesn't interact well with people.

00:25:02.000 He's not a gregarious guy.

00:25:04.000 There's all these memes going around the internet with his head bobbing back and forth and these interactions, whatever.

00:25:09.000 All right.

00:25:10.000 You and I both agree that's not our favorite aspect of the attack vectors against DeSantis.

00:25:17.000 I think DeSantis is a genuinely good man.

00:25:19.000 I think he's a great conservative, great governor.

00:25:21.000 The question is, is his particular brand, is this strategy going to resonate with the primary voters?

00:25:27.000 I'm very skeptical about that.

00:25:29.000 Here's my final, again, if you were to say, Charlie, what's your piece of advice?

00:25:32.000 Again, privately, I'll say this to DeSantis and publicly, right?

00:25:35.000 And I say this as someone who's endorsed Trump.

00:25:37.000 This is not a policy debate.

00:25:41.000 This is not a policy debate.

00:25:43.000 This is not about wonkery.

00:25:45.000 This is not about amendments to bills.

00:25:48.000 This is not even about legislation.

00:25:50.000 This is a brawl.

00:25:53.000 This is who is going to be able to take back our country from a uniparty that is relentlessly suffocating our republic. 1.00

00:26:02.000 Andrew, final thought?

00:26:03.000 Yeah, what you just said, I think it's important.

00:26:07.000 I think, again, I go into the strategy side of this, and it's almost like his policies have almost, he's come out with these very conservative policies in Florida, just made all kinds of headlines.

00:26:19.000 Excellent.

00:26:20.000 Yes, but it's almost like the consultants, the advisors are going like, hey, listen, we're going to own this conservative base grassroots space over here, but on our messaging, on a tonal, on this rollout, we're going to try and appeal to this non-Trump side of the party, if you will, the non-mAGA base. 0.76

00:26:35.000 And I think it's coming off convoluted.

00:26:40.000 Andrew, you think this is a pattern with Ron DeSantis?

00:26:44.000 What do you mean by that?

00:26:45.000 Again, you brought it up at the beginning of the show.

00:26:49.000 I thought it was really smart that we want an outsider.

00:26:53.000 Trump seems to have the sixth sense for knowing what we want, even more than we do.

00:26:57.000 And I've been public about this.

00:27:00.000 I had my skepticisms about Trump.

00:27:02.000 Could the base get behind him again like we did in 2016, 2020?

00:27:06.000 I have been completely, completely confirmed since basically the indictment that Trump is going to run away with this thing.

00:27:14.000 I personally really like DeSantis.

00:27:16.000 I know you're personal friends with DeSantis.

00:27:18.000 I like I've known Ron for years.

00:27:19.000 And he's a legit conservative.

00:27:21.000 Let me be very clear.

00:27:22.000 He's not a liberal.

00:27:23.000 It's not fair to say.

00:27:24.000 And he's been very good to Turning Point USA throughout the years.

00:27:26.000 He would speak at your events when nobody even knew who you were.

00:27:29.000 And also with our student body president stuff.

00:27:31.000 I mean, he's fabulous.

00:27:32.000 Yeah, and he's a real guy.

00:27:33.000 And I love that about Ron.

00:27:34.000 But when I say this is becoming a trend, again, the problem is that Ron has a lot of money that's gotten excited about him and come around him and all these consultants.

00:27:45.000 And I think you're starting to see that in some of these signals.

00:27:47.000 And one of the signals I want to bring up is when he signed the legislation in Israel about further combating anti-Semitism.

00:27:59.000 But he did it in Israel.

00:28:00.000 And I saw a bunch of chatter on the underwebs and we're pro-Israel.

00:28:05.000 We also think anti-Semitism is disgusting. 0.98

00:28:09.000 I think it's from the pit of hell. 0.98

00:28:10.000 I really do.

00:28:11.000 But the thing was, doing it in Israel, I thought was an interesting signal when you've got like Boca Raton in your backyard.

00:28:18.000 So again, when we start, that's why I think you see us kind of really chiming it, going like, wait, hold on.

00:28:24.000 Why is there this Americanized, softened British thing in the voice over your announcement video?

00:28:30.000 I just think, again, I just think it shows that it's hard to build a team that is cohesive, especially out of the gate, right?

00:28:38.000 I mean, Trump, by the way, if we're going to be critical, I mean, Trump, the one area of critique against Trump, especially in term one, was the fact that some of the personnel choices were ho-hum, right?

00:28:48.000 Were puzzling.

00:28:49.000 Puzzling.

00:28:50.000 To use the Russian.

00:28:51.000 So, I mean, listen, it's hard to build a team that's ready and prepped from the jump to run for president and not skid your knees a couple times.

00:28:59.000 So the question is going to be: are the voters willing to sort of like look past some of these mistakes?

00:29:05.000 I think no mistake was bigger than the Trump indictment under Alvin Bragg, and he should have come out real strong and said, listen, politics aside, you don't come for a former president.

00:29:14.000 You don't come for a sitting president with this novel legal nonsense.

00:29:18.000 This is bigger than the presidential race.

00:29:20.000 This is about America, the Republic.

00:29:22.000 I will fight this with everything I have.

00:29:23.000 It doesn't matter the name attached to it.

00:29:25.000 I'm going to fight this.

00:29:26.000 If you would have said something like that, the base would have been like, oh, he's still our guy.

00:29:29.000 Nothing to see here.

00:29:30.000 Yeah.

00:29:30.000 There's another element here, though, which is the Republican base is the equivalent of kind of a scorned lover.

00:29:37.000 We have been lied to so much.

00:29:39.000 That's a good point.

00:29:39.000 Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, the turtle, Lady Graham.

00:29:43.000 I mean, Boehner, you know, yeah, who's a total drunk.

00:29:46.000 And how many times have we heard a nice platitude and seen a good rollout and a beautifully produced video to see them sell out our country and not fight for us?

00:29:56.000 And then all of a sudden we have a contrast of Trump that didn't just say the right things, but blew up the system and did what he said he was going to do.

00:30:04.000 And this is something I try to tell candidates all the time, which is that our base is incredibly skeptical of you.

00:30:12.000 You have to earn.

00:30:13.000 It's my favorite language in my favorite word in the English language is earn.

00:30:17.000 Have you earned their trust?

00:30:18.000 Can you say it in an English accent?

00:30:23.000 America is.

00:30:24.000 No, no, no, hold on.

00:30:25.000 But this is the thing.

00:30:26.000 I mean, when we talk about patterns, look at what also some of the sort of neocon neoliberal sort of just he was, he touched on a few of those trigger words, those trigger ideas for us in the base with everything that's going on in Ukraine.

00:30:43.000 And so I'm just saying, like, if you're going, you know, listen, if you're going to pick a path and say, I'm going to try and get the, I believe that it's 51% of the base voters that are going to vote in this primary are not Trump people.

00:30:54.000 He might get 49, but I'm going to get 51.

00:30:56.000 If that's your lane, that's what you're going to go for.

00:30:58.000 I guess that's a strategy.

00:30:59.000 But what I think the read is, is that the same people that loved and love Ron DeSantis were basically very, they were Trump skeptics, but they loved Trump, right?

00:31:10.000 So I just think it's a weird strategy, and we'll see how it plays out.

00:31:14.000 The conservative base is scorned for good reason.

00:31:18.000 We've been lied to.

00:31:19.000 We've been deceived.

00:31:20.000 We've been gaslit.

00:31:22.000 We have been manipulated.

00:31:24.000 We've been turned against one another.

00:31:26.000 We have been underwhelmed.

00:31:28.000 And Trump is the standard because for a decade of, I've been in this for 11 years, and I have more people that have betrayed us and let us down than people that have fulfilled the mandate.

00:31:37.000 And they go soft, and they go soft, and they go vanilla, and they go to DC, and they change their language.

00:31:42.000 You're like, wow, Paul Ryan, you were supposed to be the guy, and now you're just basically controlled opposition.

00:31:47.000 And DeSantis has to know that.

00:31:49.000 He has to know the audience he's trying to win over.

00:31:53.000 And we'll see if that happens tonight on the Twitter space.

00:31:58.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:32:00.000 Email us your thoughts as always: freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:32:04.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

00:32:08.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk dot com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - May 24, 2023

Ron DeSantis is Finally (Officially) Running for President with Andrew Kolvet

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