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00:01:00.000Ted Cruz, Michael Knowles, here on the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:20.000He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:01:26.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:02:05.000Senator, you do all of the representation for myself in Washington, D.C. You go to Washington and represent us, so I don't have to.
00:02:14.000Can you give us a status report of how the nation's capital, which I think is incredibly corrupt and backwards and not serving the interests of the American people, how are things going there?
00:02:58.000I mean, we're angry that there's, you know, when you see people who are attacking the very foundations of our country, who are, you know, rioting in our cities, who are burning police cars and assaulting citizens and looting and destroying small businesses and murdering police officers.
00:03:19.000And when you see them attacking, you know, you look at the issue of statues.
00:03:23.000It started out with Confederate statues.
00:03:26.000And then very quickly it moved to attacking George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, because, you know, Lincoln and Grant were such big Confederates.
00:04:00.000And they're trying to tear down the very foundations of our country.
00:04:04.000And I think there are an awful lot of us across the country who are desperate for leaders to stand up and unapologetically, proudly defend this nation, defend our Constitution, defend the Bill of Rights.
00:04:17.000And does that mean every aspect of American history is perfect?
00:04:20.000But it has been a journey towards justice and a journey towards better realizing the principles and values of equality and justice and rule of law that America was founded upon.
00:04:33.000And Senator, you're one of the few fighters that actually has done that in the last couple weeks.
00:04:37.000I have been very critical of mostly Republicans, just to be honest, of how silent and how cowardly they have been.
00:04:43.000And you have been unafraid to speak your mind.
00:05:26.000And the first thing I saw was a whole series of texts that over the night while I slept, that the Chinese communist government had sanctioned me and banned me from travel to China.
00:06:20.000In recent weeks, in the wake of the pandemic, it's suddenly become fashionable in Washington for people to notice that the Chinese government is bad.
00:06:28.000Now, I'm glad of it because there have been a lot of my colleagues, especially Democrats, but also some Republicans, who for years have been singing the praises of China and apologizing for China.
00:06:41.000And I got to say, I've been in the Senate now eight years, and I have been leading the fight for eight years.
00:06:48.000There's a reason China sanctioned me, which is that I've been leading the fight to stand up.
00:06:52.000I think the single biggest geopolitical threat facing the United States of America over the next century is China.
00:07:42.000Oh, it was, okay, look, when you're the father of a 12-year-old, nine-year-old, you see some things that are really, let's just say it's not high art.
00:08:05.000How did this dynamic duo come together?
00:08:08.000This podcast was number one in all of podcasting.
00:08:11.000Obviously, the senator is busy trying to protect our freedoms and liberties in D.C. You're in L.A. Walk us through the story of this podcast, how it came together, and also just some of the success you guys have had.
00:08:24.000So, we launched the podcast during impeachment.
00:08:27.000The senator was obviously in the impeachment trial at the Capitol all day, and then around 10 or 11 p.m., he would come on over to the studio.
00:09:29.000And so we decided the impeachment was a great time to launch this show.
00:09:33.000And I think if you show just a little bit of respect for the American people and for the audience, they will show how worthy they are of that respect.
00:09:42.000And they'll show how low an opinion I think the mainstream media gatekeepers have had of them for many years.
00:09:49.000Yeah, I mean, the activist media, which I call them, because it's truly, there's no difference between the people in the streets that are shouting and burning and looting and someone at Huffington Post that happens to have a verified Twitter account that got hired.
00:10:00.000The only difference is the person that has the verified Twitter account probably made marginally better decisions towards the senior year in college.
00:10:08.000And they got hired for BuzzFeed, and instead of throwing a brick through a window, they throw a fake article at a senator.
00:10:13.000Like that's their vehicle for social change.
00:10:16.000So I completely agree that the kind of the over-the-top model of podcasting and being able to actually communicate directly with your target audience is the way that media is going.
00:10:25.000And that's exactly why the tech companies are trying to shut us all down.
00:10:27.000And so, Senator, I want to ask you about this because I'm a conservative free market capitalist.
00:10:32.000You and I have talked about this at length.
00:10:34.000I recently was rereading the Federalist Papers, and the Founding Fathers warned us about centralized power, and they warned us about tyranny, and the greatest threat that they could think that would infringe on freedoms and liberties would be government.
00:10:47.000Now, there's an argument to be made that some of these private companies actually have more power than the federal government, that Google could be more powerful than certain agencies of government.
00:10:56.000Is there an argument to be made that the instruments of government should be used to maybe regulate or at least ensure fairness on some of these platforms?
00:11:05.000I know it's an uncomfortable conversation for some conservatives.
00:11:10.000Yeah, I think it is an enormous challenge, an enormous problem, and it's one that I've been, so I've chaired multiple hearings in the Senate on the issue of big tech censorship.
00:11:21.000I think big tech censorship is the single greatest threat to free speech in America, and I think it's the single greatest threat to democracy in America.
00:11:30.000And it's a complicated issue, so let's break it down into a couple of pieces.
00:11:33.000And by the way, this is something we've done on the Verdict podcast multiple times, is drilled down into the details of this because this, let's start with the problem, and then let's address the solution, because the solution you rightly raised raises some challenging questions, particularly for those of us that believe in the free market.
00:12:03.000What's different about big tech is the amalgamation of power that they have is on a scale and scope that has never been seen throughout human history.
00:12:13.000Google is more powerful than any company has been in the history of humanity.
00:12:19.000And it is ubiquitous, it is everywhere, but it is also invisible.
00:12:25.000So it's one thing, look, if you read the New York Times, you can tell they're a shrill leftist propaganda rag.
00:12:33.000The problem with social media and big tech censorship is they do it invisibly.
00:12:38.000So if they decide we don't like what Charlie Kirk is saying, and you post on social media, it can just disappear in the ether.
00:12:46.000And you have no idea when you post something on Twitter, when you post something on Facebook, you have no idea how many of the people who've said, I want to follow Charlie Kirk, I want to see what he has to say, you have no idea what percentage of those people actually see what you have to say.
00:13:00.000They can just invisibly shadow ban you.
00:13:03.000Even more insidious, they can curate your feed so that the only things you see are what they want you to see.
00:13:11.000And you're completely unaware of this.
00:13:15.000And we've got now over 70% of Americans get their news from social media, from the little computer we all carry in our pocket called our phone.
00:13:36.000They're silencing views they disagree with and they're promoting views they agree with, things like the Black Lives Matter rioters and vandals.
00:13:45.000They're promoting like crazy, and that's dangerous.
00:14:03.000But that doesn't mean there are no remedies.
00:14:05.000And so I've laid out three potential remedies that Congress can consider and the federal government can consider to respond to the blatant censorship.
00:14:14.000Number one is what's called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is Congress a couple of decades ago gave big tech a special immunity from liability, an immunity from liability nobody else enjoys.
00:14:59.000And if they're not going to be neutral public forum, there's no reason on earth they should get a special immunity from liability from Congress.
00:15:08.000Lever number two is the antitrust laws.
00:15:11.000It has long been against the law for monopolies to abuse their monopoly position.
00:15:16.000By any measure, big tech is bigger, richer, more powerful, has more power and control than ATT was when it was broken up under the monopoly laws.
00:15:25.000It's bigger and more powerful than U.S. Steel was, as they say in The Godfather, we're bigger than U.S. Steel.
00:15:33.000Well, they're way bigger than U.S. Steel, and the antitrust laws are a serious tool to treat this abuse of power.
00:15:42.000And then the third avenue sounds in breach of contract or consumer fraud and deception.
00:15:53.000When you sign up for a social media account, the implicit promise, the contract between the consumer and the social media, the big tech company, implicitly is: if you choose to follow someone, you'll see what they have to say.
00:16:08.000And if they choose to follow you, they'll see what you have to say.
00:16:13.000We now know that promise is a lie, that they are deceiving consumers, that if they disagree with your views, it doesn't matter that people say, I want to hear Charlie Kirk.
00:16:22.000It doesn't matter that people say, I want to hear the Verdict podcast.
00:16:25.000If big tech disagrees, they silence you.
00:16:28.000So there are real tools we could use to protect free speech.
00:16:32.000And given the power of big tech, I think it's really important that we use them.
00:17:53.000They're not writing a check to that think tank because they're so moved by Milton Friedman's pencil speech.
00:18:00.000They're writing that check because they're getting a piece of policy paper that can be distributed in center-right circles to almost create a paralysis amongst the conservative movement so they can create almost a super governmental structure in Silicon Valley.
00:18:14.000And I have waited patiently for a competitor to rise up against these companies.
00:18:19.000And I know there's parlor and all this.
00:18:21.000It's just not, it's not even close to the same power or the same funding or the same amount of sophistication that Google and Facebook have.
00:18:30.000I mean, Google is in the fiber business, they're in the medical business, they're in it's beyond just social media.
00:18:36.000It's search engine optimization, all of it.
00:18:40.000The issue is that the antitrust laws were written for a completely different type of company, where you're actually front-facing selling a product where you could price gouge.
00:18:49.000And so what they'll do in the Sherman Antitrust Act is a lot of these tech companies will try to hide behind the idea that, well, we don't really charge anything.
00:18:56.000Well, if you can't figure out what they're charging, they're selling you, okay?
00:18:59.000They're selling you to a potential vendor and they're selling all of your data around it.
00:19:04.000And so here's my question, Senator, when it comes to this.
00:19:06.000I'm cynical because I see a lot of your Republican colleagues that are bought and paid for by the tech companies.
00:19:13.000They get huge money from lobbyists that represent Google and Facebook and these other companies.
00:19:18.000We're talking $40, $50 million a year.
00:19:20.000And by the way, Google will spend about $38 million a year on government affairs.
00:19:24.000They laugh at how little money they have to spend on how much they get back in return.
00:19:30.000Yeah, they're like, oh my goodness, it's a rounding error for them.
00:19:32.000Do you think that we can get congressional action, real congressional action on this?
00:19:36.000Or is this going to be another issue like on immigration, where you have the weak Republicans and the entire corrupt Democrat Party that just try to sell our country out?
00:19:50.000Sadly, the last piece, probably, that the Democrats are going to be prostitutes for big tech, and many of the Republicans are weak winds, weak at blowing in the wind.
00:20:35.000And, you know, by the way, anytime someone says it's not about the money, it's about the money.
00:20:40.000And listen, when it comes to conservatives or libertarians, and I love libertarians, but you get some of the folks that are getting paid a whole lot to argue, and it's an easy argument.
00:22:02.000It has no transparency, no accountability.
00:22:04.000So if I've asked repeatedly, I've asked repeatedly in writing and orally, simple questions, like I'll give an example of questions that I've asked every big tech company.
00:22:13.000In 2018, the last election cycle, how many posts from Republican candidates from office did you ban or shadow ban and throttle their coverage?
00:22:22.000How many posts from Democratic candidates from office did you ban or shadow ban and throttle their coverage?
00:23:37.000It was a very positive step in the right direction.
00:23:40.000I've been pushing three years for it to happen.
00:23:43.000One of the challenges, and you referenced this when you said the Sherman antitrust law was not written to solve this problem.
00:23:52.000One of the challenges, say, within DOJ, the Department of Justice, is you have lots of different silos that think about this problem within their narrow world.
00:24:02.000And what I've urged folks is: look, you need to think cross-dimensionally and across disciplines.
00:24:10.000That's why I've laid out multiple theories of law because this is a new challenge, this monopoly on information and news and communication.
00:24:22.000And so we had actually on the verdict podcast, one of our guests in one of the most recent shows we had was Bill Barr, the Attorney General.
00:24:53.000I'm not trying to play gotcha with him.
00:24:55.000I'm just talking and hanging out with him.
00:24:57.000We spent a lot of time talking about big tech censorship.
00:24:59.000And this was an issue that in the podcast we pressed quite a bit.
00:25:04.000But it's interesting also the comments to the podcast, like a lot of people were like, wow, Barr is really funny.
00:25:11.000And you don't see that, but he's got this wicked, sardonic, he's got a very dry sense of humor.
00:25:17.000And I think my favorite moment of the podcast, Michael knows where I'm going, is I said, look, Barr has shown real courage to charge forward for rule of law with the media coming after him like the mob with pitchforks and torches at the end of Frankenstein.
00:25:54.000And it's my favorite moment where he's, I mean, he was doubled over laughing.
00:25:58.000It was a relief, actually, to know that the AG who is looking into these issues is at least familiar with YouTube.
00:26:03.000Seems like he's familiar with a lot of these other technologies.
00:26:06.000My favorite is at one of the hearings, I think the senator that you were hosting is one of your colleagues said, Mr. Zuckerberg, can you unlock my phone?
00:26:18.000Or Mr. Zuckerberg, the Facebook that my grandkids on, what the hell is this thing?
00:26:26.000Like, you know, you were trying, I'm half kidding, of course, when you, you know, Mark Zuckerberg testified, and, you know, you were the youngest person on the committee by half, right?
00:26:35.000And you had people, no offense to your colleagues, they didn't know what the heck they were asking Mark Zuckerberg, right?
00:26:43.000Well, there's a bit of a philosophical issue here, too, which is I think this problem that conservatives have when looking at tech is one of being a little out of date because we're arguing about this.
00:26:56.000We say, well, we don't want to stop a private company from doing whatever they want to do.
00:27:00.000There is nothing conservative about letting a handful of Silicon Valley oligarchs control the flow of information around the internet, control our public square, particularly when it's based on a fraud for the user agreements of these platforms, and it's based on receiving protection from liability in laws where they no longer deserve that protection from liability.
00:27:24.000And so you mentioned the libertarians, Senator, and I'm familiar with a lot of their literature, and I can sympathize with it.
00:27:30.000But it all comes down to they say, well, the private company is different because people can engage and interact voluntarily.
00:27:36.000And first of all, I don't sympathize with that argument anymore because you literally have Google inside of classrooms all across the country that in order to go to school and get educated, you have to use Google or use Facebook products.
00:28:03.000But what happens if a private company is infringing on natural rights and does so without you knowing, as you said, Senator, and there's no way to get them to stop doing it.
00:28:14.000And in fact, they're actually more powerful than the very government that's supposed to represent us.
00:28:18.000And this is a it's and so we have to ask ourselves the question: we are limited government people, but we're actually limited power and authoritarian and limited tyranny people.
00:28:28.000And what happens when something else is actually more tyrannical than the government?
00:28:32.000And that is a new philosophical direction that's only made possible because of artificial intelligence and technology and so on and so forth.
00:28:39.000Well, and big tech is doing this deliberately, and they're getting worse.
00:28:46.000One of the things we talked about at one of the hearings I chaired is a document that Google prepared.
00:28:52.000And it's a PowerPoint that drafted by Google.
00:29:01.000And it describes how the old model of the internet, the one when we all started on the Internet, was what they described as the laissez-faire free speech model.
00:29:10.000By the way, if you're a libertarian, you should like the laissez-faire free speech model.
00:29:14.000The second model they described, in their words, was the European-style censorship model.
00:29:22.000And they identified that big tech has made a decision to shift from laissez-faire free speech to European-style censorship.
00:29:29.000And they identified four companies: Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
00:29:34.000They actually had their symbols on that side of European-style censorship.
00:30:58.000And he studied the 2016 election: you typed in Hillary Clinton and you got positive stories.
00:31:02.000You typed in Donald Trump and you got negative stories.
00:31:04.000People tend to click on the first story, by the way.
00:31:06.000The first story is much more powerful than the second, and it goes down dramatically as you go down the order of search results.
00:31:13.000His empirical research, Dr. Epstein, concluded that in 2016, Google's manipulated search outcome shifted 2.6 million votes to the Democrats in 2016.
00:31:27.000And even though he voted for Hillary Clinton, he was horrified at these big tech gazillionaires having that power.
00:31:35.000He also testified that big tech has gotten more egregious and that in 2020 they could shift 15 million votes to the Democrats.
00:31:44.000If you care about a free election, letting a handful of billionaires in Silicon Valley behave like Colossus, silence every voice that believes in liberty and advance every voice that wants to tear down America, that is incredibly dangerous for anything like free elections.
00:32:04.000And Google just announced they are going to fund $100 million to BLM Inc.
00:32:19.000They have so much profit that they are putting a nine-figure investment into divisive, left-wing, postmodern type content on their platform.
00:32:58.000Remember that whole news cycle in January?
00:33:00.000Charlie, until you reminded me of that, I actually had forgotten that for, what was it, a week we were told we were on the verge of World War III?
00:33:09.000Are you telling me the president killed the world's biggest terrorist and General Soleimani, who was directly responsible for murdering over 603 U.S. servicemen and women?
00:33:26.000The very same general that was passed up for killing, for lack of a better term, by Barack Obama and Joe Biden's administration on multiple occasions.
00:33:51.000And, you know, we are now in a moment where we're not really sure even if we're going to have a convention, if we're sure what the political ecosystem looks like.
00:34:00.000Michael, you do this every single day.
00:34:02.000You listen to a lot of different people hosting for radio, and you have a good kind of understanding of the conservative base.
00:34:09.000Because it feels like in some ways, we as conservatives and the Republican Party, and I distinguish the two because those are two completely different things, we don't really have an ethos right now.
00:34:23.000What is the message that is going to get conservatives elected and the Republican Party to victory and hopefully Donald Trump re-elected?
00:34:30.000Very often what's happening right now is people are pretending that a political argument is really a scientific argument.
00:34:36.000And you've seen the exploitation of so-called science, capital S, with a trademark over the E, in the name of decisions that are patently political.
00:34:45.000And I think this new round of lockdowns, coincidentally, from people who very much would like the president not to be re-elected is good evidence of that.
00:34:53.000That's one issue here that the right, conservatives, tend to mistake the political arguments for science and science for politics.
00:35:01.000So I think we're playing a game on the left's terms.
00:35:09.000We're trying to behave responsibly, whether it's saying wear a mask in certain places or practice certain kinds of social distancing, whatever.
00:35:16.000We want to do that responsibly, but we're not able to have that conversation because on the backdrop here, if you may have forgotten this, is this presidential election?
00:35:26.000The left is playing this entirely politically.
00:35:28.000There were over 1,000 public health experts who signed a letter that said that if you protest the lockdowns, that will exacerbate the virus.
00:35:37.000And if you protest for a leftist cause, that will actually slow the spread of the virus.
00:36:14.000You know, this problem, though, is, I think what conservatives, we think that we can have a nuanced, complex, nice, rational debate here.
00:36:23.000In the age of people tearing down statues, setting cities on fire, looting buildings in the name of social justice, that is not the time that you're going to get the most nuanced, rational academic discussion.
00:36:33.000This is a campaign, and I think that unless we wake up to the fact that it's a campaign, November 3rd is going to come around, and it's going to be too late before we realize it.
00:36:42.000So, Senator, you won in 2018 against a fake Hispanic Irishman from El Paso, Robert Francis O'Rourke, who has a very bizarre fascination of taking other people's weapons away and keeping borders open.
00:36:55.000I don't want to have to psychoanalyze Robert Francis O'Rourke here on the Verdict and Charlie Kirk show partnership here, but I do want to get your opinion on Texas and electoral trends.
00:37:12.000And so can you just talk about what you're seeing on the ground?
00:37:15.000What it's going to take for the president to win.
00:37:17.000A recent poll came out that showed, I don't know if I believe this, Joe Biden up in Texas or tied in Texas or down one, something like that.
00:37:23.000I'd love to hear what your opinion is of trends nationally politically.
00:40:43.000And if we diminish that threat, if we underestimate that threat, that's how we lose the country, which means we've got to get everyone else to show up.
00:40:52.000And so Michael, to piggyback off of that, and Senator, we're so thrilled you won, I have to say.
00:40:57.000And I just, we're huge fans of yours, and we appreciate what you do for our country.
00:41:02.000And as I say that, I have equal amount of repulsion for your opponent.
00:41:07.000There's some people that are in the political system that I think are just so repugnant, and that would be Robert Francis O'Rourke.
00:41:13.000So it was a very passionate race to see to make sure that you came across the finish line.
00:41:18.000By the way, a quick aside, when Beto launched his presidential campaign, he launched it in El Paso, and the AP reported that he gave part of his announcement speech in his native tongue.
00:42:20.000You know, in the Republicans' defense, I've been very critical of Republicans in recent weeks, but in their defense, they've got everything working against them.
00:42:28.000I have often pointed out when the left complains about institutional oppression, the left controls every major institution, the mainstream media, Hollywood, big tech, higher education, lower education, administrative government.
00:42:58.000I think what Republicans are trying to do, we've talked a lot on the Verdicts podcast about the timidity of many elected Republicans on how afraid many elected Republicans are of losing their positions and losing nice blurbs in the mainstream media.
00:43:13.000So what they want to do is stand in the middle of the road.
00:43:17.000They want to try to play both sides and go wishy-washy.
00:43:21.000And the fact of the matter is, especially at a time like this, if you stand in the middle of the road, you are going to get hit by a truck.
00:43:29.000The stakes are only going to increase day by day.
00:43:32.000We are now at the point where we're not just talking fighting over tax rates or something.
00:43:35.000We're fighting over George Washington being pulled down off of his pedestal in the American mind.
00:43:42.000We are fighting over our very country.
00:43:45.000Which side of that battle are you going to stand on?
00:43:56.000In a culture war, there are winners and losers.
00:43:59.000It's not a bill where you can place an amendment or you can kill it in the committee or you can say, oh, we're going to vote on it next year.
00:44:05.000It's either you have a country or you don't have a country.
00:44:08.000And I wrote a piece and I spoke to the president about this and I was so thrilled about his Mount Rushmore speech.
00:44:13.000I think it was the best speech of his entire presidency where basically he said, we need to get our kids.
00:44:23.000And the more you talk about suburban voters, I believe a lot of suburban women voters in particular are repulsed by the growing anarchy and indoctrination that's happening in our schools and the disorder and the disunity and the breakdown of the rule of law.
00:44:37.000I think that is a really winning, a phenomenally winning issue if we articulate it correctly.
00:44:41.000Where we are not going to win, though, is where certain senators, one from Indiana, all of a sudden says nice things about BLM Inc. and all of a sudden wants to get on the right side of police immunity or whatever issue that was.
00:44:55.000I think that, Michael, you've said this before, either it was at Politicon and it was a call all the way back to Phyllis Schlafly.
00:45:01.000People want a choice, not an echo right now.
00:45:04.000And the more that we are able to say, here are the dividing lines, we do believe that America is the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world.
00:45:12.000We do believe that the Constitution is the greatest political document ever written.
00:45:15.000We have a history to be proud of, that America has made mistakes, but we're not a mistake.
00:45:32.000And when we're talking about this battle for the soul of America, for American history, for all the things we cherish, my strategy is simple.
00:45:41.000And in order to win, that means you have to play offense and set the terms of engagement.
00:45:46.000I think the president is at his best when he's an offensive political player, when he actually sets the tone.
00:45:51.000And I think the winning issue here is what is America?
00:45:56.000And unfortunately, that now has to be a ballot referendum issue for probably the first time in our nation's history when you think about it.
00:46:05.000But you now have up or down the way you vote.
00:46:08.000It's going to be, I either think America's a beautiful, benevolent, generous country that's worthy of our preservation, or this is all a mistake.
00:46:17.000We should just fundamentally destroy it.
00:46:19.000And I'm really ashamed to be in this country.
00:46:21.000And I hate to put it in those very simple terms, but that's really where it is.
00:46:25.000Senator, I'll get your thoughts on that.
00:46:28.000Yeah, look, I think you are absolutely right what the stakes are in this election.
00:46:32.000And in terms of what Republicans need to do, number one, we need to stand up and fight.
00:46:38.000Stand up and fight unapologetically for America, for our founding principles, for the greatness of this nation.
00:46:46.000Hands down, the best characteristic of President Trump is that he's got a backbone, and he's willing to make decisions that most Republicans are too scared of their own shadow to make.
00:46:56.000And the last four years I've worked very, very closely with the President.
00:47:01.000And the policies that have been enacted have been enormously beneficial.
00:47:07.000Now, at the same time, we've got to engage in winning people's hearts and minds, in winning the argument.
00:47:16.000Margaret Thatcher said, first you win the argument, then you win the vote.
00:47:20.000And you know, Charlie, I will say, you and I have known each other a long time.
00:47:24.000The work you've done with Turning Point USA, I remember sitting down at tables when Turning Point USA was just kind of an idea.
00:47:32.000And frankly, it was an idea that the Republican Graybeards laughed at you and said, Oh, come on, young people, they're the white whale.
00:47:44.000And you had a vision and you had a vision of organizing and engaging.
00:47:48.000And over the years, I mean, I've spoken at probably over a dozen turning point events with young people who love liberty.
00:47:58.000Things like, all right, y'all's t-shirts, socialism sucks.
00:48:02.000Like it is if you were to pick two words right at the heart of a message, it's great.
00:48:07.000But what we've got to engage is why podcasts, why your podcasts matter, it's why what we're doing on verdict I think and believe matters.
00:48:15.000We've got to arm people with the information.
00:48:18.000The great debate between socialism and free enterprise, too many people don't know the difference between the two, don't understand.
00:48:26.000And if you look at, all right, let's talk for a minute about some of the suburban voters.
00:48:31.000You're right that the angry riots, that the burning and the violence, that's scary.
00:48:38.000And the Democrats have gotten so extreme and so radical that it should be driving voters in drobes to vote Republican.
00:48:48.000Now, the countervailing side and the danger is: look, most people, and especially suburban female voters, they don't want to vote for someone they think is a scary, violent racist.
00:49:02.000They go to it over and over and over again: bigot racist, bigot racist.
00:49:06.000And the tone, if they scare people enough, that's their strategy to win.
00:49:12.000And it's something where we need to engage, and most Republicans are terrified of race.
00:49:16.000They're terrified of addressing racial issues.
00:49:19.000As you know, and I've seen some of my favorite videos of you are confronting these ignorant, angry mobs and confronting them, number one, with a smile.
00:49:31.000You're not yelling and screaming at them, but you're confronting them with facts.
00:49:35.000And the facts are: number one, the Democratic Party's history on race is utterly abominable, disgraceful, embarrassing, and they should bow their heads in shame.
00:50:13.000The sitting governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, a Democrat, had on his damn medical school yearbook page a picture of a guy dressed as a Klansman.
00:50:23.000And his first defense, by the way, the first day, which the New York Times and all the media has conveniently forgotten about, was a guy as a Klansman, a guy in blackface.
00:50:32.000He said, Yeah, I could have been one of those two.
00:50:47.000Or the second possibility is it isn't actually him, but he said, you know, for my yearbook page, captures me, medical school, and what I stand for more than anything else is some jackass in a white sheet dressed as a Klansman.
00:51:03.000And if you can't say categorically, unequivocally, I've never in my life dressed as a Klansman, that is the Democratic governor of Virginia.
00:51:11.000And so when it comes to race, we should be, look, I'm proud to defend equal right for every American, but too many Republicans don't know our facts, don't know our history, and are scared.
00:51:35.000The radical Marxists who run that organization.
00:51:38.000What they are advocating for, a Marxist overthrow of the United States government and abolishing the police departments of our country would result in more murders, more rapes, more assaults, and it would kill black lives.
00:51:51.000Those leftists are arguing for more dead African Americans, more dead Hispanics, more dead Americans.
00:51:58.000And if we're afraid of engaging and saying, look, America, we is the most extraordinary country in the history of the world.
00:52:09.000We've got to engage on that terrain of ideas.
00:52:12.000The Mount Rush War speech was fabulous.
00:52:14.000But we've got to get it out to people because, frankly, you and I both read the New York Times and the Washington Post that described it as dark and divisive.
00:52:23.000And we've got to get around the media and straight to the people.
00:52:26.000Senator, what you just articulated, if we had 54 senators that said exactly what you just said, this wouldn't even be an issue.
00:52:33.000If we had 10 senators that said what you just said, this wouldn't be an issue.
00:53:41.000I sure hope it's the former, but we're free to choose.
00:53:44.000And Michael, let me ask you a question.
00:53:46.000If listeners, if viewers want to engage and hear more about the Verdict podcast, hear more about the principles that underlie our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, hear more about the inside, about the battles in the Senate and the cloakroom and what's going on to save this country.
00:54:01.000How do they do that if you want to actually do that?
00:54:03.000Well, this is the big part, and I'm so glad you asked that question, Senator.
00:54:09.000You can go subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, YouTube, everywhere, Spotify.
00:54:14.000Until we get shut down, we're going to be in as many places as possible because the left allows their adherents, their followers, to be armed with facts, with arguments, with some clarity of vision.
00:54:25.000We are trying to offer that on the Verdict Podcast.
00:54:27.000Charlie, I know you do an excellent job, not just on this show, but through TPUS.
00:54:31.000And also leave a five-star review for us.
00:54:33.000And I would say, actually, I'd go further.
00:55:20.000What a great conversation that was with Senator Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles.
00:55:24.000If you guys want to get involved with Turning Point USA, the nation's largest conservative student organization, fighting for freedom, liberty, American exceptionalism, and protecting our country from the radical left, go to tpusa.com.
00:55:59.000It helps pay for costs associated to deliver you 12 podcasts a week, sometimes even more, at charliekirk.com/slash support and keeps us protected from leftist boycotts.