Glenn Steuervant, a Virginia State Senator, joins the show to talk about the Democratic Redistricting process in Virginia and how they are trying to take control of the levers of power in the state through an unconstitutional redistricting process.
00:00:56.000The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:46.000So just to remind people what's going on in Virginia, they ran as affordability-focused moderates, and now they've won.
00:01:52.000They want to redistrict the state from, I believe it's six to five, Democrat-Republican right now, and they want to make it 10 to 1 in a state that is blue, but not by that big of a margin.
00:02:05.000And so you can look up their maps, and it's a bunch of snakes extending out of D.C. because they all need their chunk of Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, the big blue area.
00:02:16.000But Glenn, we wanted to have you on specifically, among other things, we just want people to be aware of how far Democrats are willing to go to pass this sort of thing.
00:02:25.000The understanding I've been given is it's essentially flagrantly unconstitutional what they are doing, the way they're going about this.
00:02:33.000They're getting the courts to sign the Supreme Court to sign off on things that are incredibly suspect, basically for the sake of pure power politics.
00:02:42.000Can you lay that out for our listeners?
00:02:45.000So five years ago, we had a referendum on the ballot to go to a nonpartisan redistricting commission to take gerrymandering out of the hands of legislators and to create this nonpartisan redistricting commission.
00:02:58.000And people can debate the pros and cons of that method, but that's what we have had for the past five years in Virginia and is in our Constitution.
00:03:07.000The Democrats brought us back in in special session right around Halloween of last year and began jamming through this amendment to the amendment, which would take gerrymandering back, give it back to the legislature for the drawing of the 11 congressional maps in Virginia.
00:03:28.000As you mentioned, we currently have a pretty evenly divided congressional delegation with six Democrats and five Republicans.
00:03:37.000That lines up pretty well with how Virginia voted in the 2024 presidential election.
00:03:42.000I think Kamala got 55 and President Trump got 45.
00:03:48.000So our current congressional maps match up with how Virginia votes in a statewide federal presidential election.
00:03:57.000They began advancing this constitutional amendment process, though, as I said, around Halloween.
00:04:04.000But the early voting in Virginia, we have some of the longest early voting of any state in the entire country.
00:04:12.000Early voting had already begun in our gubernatorial election leading up to this past November.
00:04:21.000And the Virginia Constitution requires that there be essentially two elections before a constitutional amendment can be sent to the voters as a referendum.
00:04:36.000And because Democrats had started this process after early voting had already started and a million Virginians had already voted, they didn't have the ability to assess their state house candidates based on where they stood on this amendment.
00:04:51.000So long story short, Democrats have continued to strong arm that amendment process.
00:04:56.000We filed a lawsuit and we prevailed in the trial court.
00:05:02.000The judge, trial judge, found that Democrats had violated the Constitution and several provisions of Virginia law and how they went about doing this.
00:05:12.000And of course, Democrats who are represented by the Mark Elias law firm, they appealed that to the Virginia Supreme Court.
00:05:19.000And then we just found out last Friday that the Virginia Supreme Court is taking the appeal.
00:05:24.000So they're going to address the legal arguments.
00:05:27.000But what they said is that they're not going to hear the case and decide it until after the referendum vote, which is currently scheduled for April 21st.
00:05:38.000So I want to pause there, Glenn, and just emphasize that for our listeners, that this referendum, a lower court judge has said it is illegal and it should not proceed, but they're going to let it go ahead anyway before ruling on whether it's legal or not.
00:05:54.000There's this insanity to it because you just know once, let's say it passes, which they'll do everything in their power to pass it, then the Supreme Court has this excuse.
00:06:02.000Well, we can't roll back this referendum and overturn the will of the voters.
00:06:06.000And I want to also read the text of the ballot question.
00:06:09.000This is what their Secretary of State has apparently decided as a fair ballot question to go from 6-5 to 10-1.
00:06:17.000Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.
00:06:36.000Should we pass this law to restore fairness?
00:06:41.000Well, so that was ballot language that passed the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and that our new governor, Governor Abigail Spanberger, signed.
00:06:51.000And what is timely about that is we filed a second lawsuit.
00:06:56.000So once the Virginia Supreme Court said, we're going to take up this appeal, but we're not going to decide it until after the referendum happens, which as you mentioned, is putting a lot of pressure to just accept the outcome regardless of the legal merits.
00:07:12.000But a second lawsuit was filed and they are actually in a hearing as we speak in Taswell County.
00:07:20.000One of the issues in that new lawsuit is that ballot language and that it's obviously just a total joke and not a reasonable representation of what this constitutional amendment would do.
00:07:32.000So we will see if the Supreme Court of Virginia hopefully does the right thing if they get another bite at the apple with if we're successful in this trial court again and it goes up on appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.
00:07:46.000I think most fair-minded people, regardless of where you stand on it, recognize that the judicial branch exists for cases like this.
00:07:56.000If you have a legislature that is breaking the rules, not playing by the playbook, violating the Constitution and the role of law, the whole reason we have a Supreme Court is to address issues like that.
00:08:08.000And when they punt a case like this, it's very concerning.
00:08:13.000Glenn, what is the ideological balance of that Supreme Court?
00:08:18.000So in Virginia, the legislature, the General Assembly, appoints all of our judges from the Supreme Court on down.
00:08:27.000And so I think most people would look at it, not that the judges have any particular ideology, but there are four that have been appointed under Republican legislatures and three that have been appointed under Democrat legislatures.
00:09:00.000The Supreme Court has recognized that it's at least worthy of hearing the appeal, but to not hear it before the referendum doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
00:09:10.000And we just wanted to highlight this because this shows, this is how far they're willing to go.
00:09:14.000They're very much stretching the limits, breaking the limits of what their Constitution says.
00:09:18.000Meanwhile, we've seen our Republicans in Indiana with no constitutional barriers, just didn't want to do their maps, didn't feel like it, made them feel icky.
00:09:28.000These are the stakes, and they're doing this along with all the other radical bills they're doing in Virginia.
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00:10:55.000So just to kind of finalize the point on our Virginia discussion, where the Virginia Democrats are showing just how far they're willing to go and exercise their power, even with just a D plus six, Boeing has announced it's moving its defense HQ from Virginia after Governor Spamberger's election.
00:11:15.000Okay, so that's a huge loss to the local economy.
00:11:19.000Top defense contractor announces major move weeks after Dem Governor takes office.
00:11:25.000It says the company said it is moving its multi-billion dollar investment in the world's most advanced combat aircraft production facilities to St. Louis.
00:11:36.000So listen, you're going to enact anti-business tax regulatory burdens on companies.
00:12:11.000Nothing's been decided yet, but more and more likely that they will be moving to northern Indiana, which is a remarkable turn of events if that was going to happen.
00:12:22.000It's about an hour and a half drive for some people to get to the base.
00:12:27.000It would be a half hour from Soldier Field with no traffic.
00:12:31.00027 miles from Soldier Field, which is just a remarkable thing.
00:12:37.000Let's go ahead and play Mayor Brandon Johnson, the communist, talking about this.
00:14:36.000Listen, though, but this is what happens when you have an incompetent local government that can't put business first, can't put its own citizens first.
00:14:45.000They had bought land in Chicago years ago, planning to develop that land and upgrade from Soldier Field.
00:14:51.000Now, we could have lots of commentary around the fact that, you know, should local governments be supporting their local teams?
00:15:01.000Should it be this sort of, it's an intermix of private public funds.
00:15:07.000It never pays off to spend as much as these cities on what is a private for-profit endeavor in every case, except the Green Bay Packers.
00:15:17.000It's a billionaire, a mega-billionaire who owns these teams, and their values have gone up massively over time, in large parts of local government.
00:15:51.000They're passing the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed an amendment bill, Senate Bill 27, creating a framework for Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority that would enable bonding, land acquisition, and financing for a new stadium.
00:16:04.000So they're rolling out the red carpet for these.
00:16:06.000Meanwhile, Chicago's like, we want you to stay, but only so much.
00:16:13.000And by the way, we sort of resent you because you're rich and we're not going to roll out the red carpet.
00:16:17.000The problem is, yeah, you could say that it's gross, these public-private partnerships, but there's always somebody willing to take your business and they're willing to roll out the red carpet.
00:16:26.000So, listen, if you want to compete, you got to compete.
00:16:28.000This is the problem with Democrats in general, they're not willing to think business first.
00:16:33.000But above all, I think above all, it's a sign of how we can't, in cities, you just can't build anything anymore.
00:16:39.000To build a city, it's the endless legal, regulatory, environmental roadblocks.
00:16:44.000And then, if you finally do build it, it takes longer than expected.
00:16:47.000It costs two or three times more than it should.
00:17:06.000More due diligence, negotiations, and approvals are needed, but insiders are saying it's close to an inevitability that the Chicago Bears are moving to Indiana.
00:17:18.000Just take out the R and you'll get how this really is.
00:17:48.000He loved the Cubs, and he loved America, so he'd love America's game.
00:17:51.000So ESPN is nixing Sunday night baseball, and they are replacing it with Women's Sports Sundays, which will spotlight matches in the WNBA and the NWSL.
00:18:03.000I don't know what that is, but I assume it's women's softball, and I refuse to Google it.
00:18:08.000And I have a better nickname for it, which is ESPN's lowest ratings ever Sunday.
00:18:14.000It's just a fascinating turn of events that ESPN would voluntarily put itself in a position to lose money and ratings and viewers.
00:18:23.000Okay, listen, in fairness, the WNBA has the ratings have improved.
00:18:30.000But that is not an excuse to get rid of America's pastime.
00:18:33.000Andrew, would you rather find a dime on the sidewalk or have your local NWSL team win the championship?
00:18:41.000I would rather find a dime on the sidewalk.
00:18:43.000The answer is: I don't know if we have an NWSL team.
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00:20:17.000Without further ado, Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, joins us now.
00:20:21.000Brendan, this is a, I think if the average person watching at home, this has been a very confusing story that they've seen play out.
00:20:29.000Seems like James Talrico is getting the benefit of it.
00:20:31.000He's raising all this money off of it.
00:20:34.000So here's the allegation I want you to confirm or deny its veracity.
00:20:38.000The FCC, strong-armed CBS, said you cannot have James Talrico on the air at Colbert or else the way they summarize it, they basically just like they pull the gun and they're like, you can't have him on the air.
00:20:59.000Well, look, as soon as I found out that Talrico is beyond, I went down to the bowels of the FCC, the Media Bureau, I found the dump button, I pushed it, and I said, these are MAGA airwaves now.
00:21:11.000No, the reality is I woke up Tuesday morning and I saw on social media that the FCC had allegedly refused to air an interview.
00:21:19.000And this has been just so amazing to watch in terms of why everyday Americans have lost so much trust in the legitimacy of the legacy media.
00:21:29.000So the claim was made by a politician that the FC refused to air an interview, which simply did not happen.
00:21:36.000And then the claim was, well, it was CBS that refused to air the interview.
00:21:40.000And then CBS came out and said, no, again, that didn't happen.
00:21:43.000All we said was we provided guidance, CBS claims, to how they could do the interview on broadcast TV and comply with all appropriate regulations.
00:21:51.000But instead, you saw Colbert and Tellerico do that meme where you take a stick and poke it in your own front spokes of your bicycle fall down and claim that they have been the victims.
00:22:00.000And the reason this worked is because they knew that the predisposition of the legacy media would be that they would eat this up.
00:22:39.000This only applies to, at this point, at this point in the calendar, because we're in primary season, Dem versus Dem.
00:22:45.000So if the equal time rule is basically that James Talrico goes on, well, then Colbert has to at least extend an invitation to what's her name?
00:23:05.000You're not alleging the FCC is not telling CBS and CBS is not telling Colbert that they need to go have John Cornyn and Paxton on as equal time.
00:23:14.000It's just relevant to the Democrat primary.
00:23:18.000So if you step back, broadcast TV, broadcast radio is fundamentally different than any other form of distribution of program.
00:23:46.000Then there was a particular rule, a statute actually, that Congress passed that said if you're going to have a legally qualified candidate on the air, you have to, to your point, extend an offer to all other legally qualified candidates.
00:23:58.000Doesn't need to be the same program, doesn't need to be the same host.
00:24:00.000If for some reason Colbert doesn't want to have Crockett on, he doesn't have to do that.
00:24:04.000It's just at some point, they've got to offer a comparable time.
00:24:08.000Now, there's an exception to that rule.
00:24:10.000And the exception is if you are what's defined in the statute as a bona fide news program.
00:24:15.000If you are a bona fide news program, meaning I guess not fake news, then you don't need to comply with equal time.
00:24:22.000And the idea there was Congress was thinking about, you know, meet the press and other sort of hard-hitting journalistic shows where the hosts weren't trying to put a thumb on the scale for one particular candidate or one particular party.
00:24:33.000And over the years, the FCC issued decisions that people read as effectively having the exceptions swallow the rule, meaning anything that goes on on broadcast TV, whether it's daytime, nighttime, is itself bona fide news and doesn't have to comply.
00:24:45.000What we've told people is: no, that's not the law.
00:24:57.000And all you have to do is put a file, a filing in your public file, which broadcasters have, that said, we allowed airtime for this candidate.
00:25:04.000If there's another candidate out there, come talk to us and let's see if we can work something out.
00:25:08.000That's all they would have been required to do.
00:25:10.000Well, they are turning it into like World War III over here.
00:25:14.000You guys are the biggest, baddest bullies.
00:25:51.000508. You know who is not one of my guests tonight?
00:25:54.000That's Texas State Representative James Tallarico.
00:25:59.000He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers who called us directly that we could not have him on the broadcast.
00:26:09.000And it looks like Tallrico, to you, your point, Mr. Chairman, that he's taking advantage of this.
00:26:16.000515. FCC opening probe into the view after appearance by Tallarico.
00:26:57.000She's actually the one calling, you know, BS on all this.
00:27:01.000Again, so what is that part that they said, the FCC probe into the view?
00:27:05.000Can you explain what that was about, that allegation?
00:27:08.000There's a separate episode where the view, which is somewhat like Disney, did have Tallerico on the broadcast airwaves.
00:27:14.000And Disney has not established that that program is a bona fide news program.
00:27:21.000We've begun an enforcement proceeding, enforcement actions into the view, because if they are not bona fide news, again, we don't think they've established that at this point, then they would needed to have offered, and frankly, they could still offer equal opportunity to the other candidates, including Jasmine Crockett.
00:27:39.000This was, yeah, look, this was a, I don't think it was a sophisticated play because you just have to understand the biases of the fake news media in order to run this.
00:27:47.000But, you know, Tallarico effectively self-streisand affected this one.
00:28:06.000This is essentially why the rule is important, Brendan, this equal time, because what you have instead, you don't have the voice of the people.
00:28:12.000You have elites at these networks that have basically put their thumb on the scale and said, we want Tyrico.
00:28:20.000We think he can beat whether it's Cornyn or Paxton.
00:28:27.000This is an elite gatekeeping in the old school model.
00:28:30.000That's the whole point of the rule was that Congress came in and said, we don't want media elites, media gatekeepers deciding the outcomes of primary or elections.
00:28:39.000We want the people of Texas to make their mind up without unlawful interference from media gatekeepers.
00:28:45.000The whole reason that the rule was in place.
00:28:47.000Now, big picture, I think that is worth asking.
00:28:49.000You say that is Congress's intent, but this does date to when there were two, three network television outlets, some radio outlets, and that's what media was.
00:29:15.000There's a lot of reasonable people that say there's such a diversity of mechanisms to get your perspectives out there that we don't need those types of regulations.
00:29:24.000One, it almost cuts the other way because there's so many ways that you can get the message out, YouTube, podcasts, streaming, social media, that if you want to use that one medium that has just a unique set of rules, that you should do it because it isn't really a constraint on you because you can go somewhere else if you don't want to abide by the broadcast regulations.
00:29:43.000I guess the second point I'd make is that if people want to do that, then they can go to Congress and they can change the law.
00:29:48.000But, you know, my job at this point is to enforce in a fair and balanced way the laws passed by Congress.
00:29:54.000And that's what we're going to be doing.
00:29:56.000Brendan, thank you for separating fact from fiction in this, I call it the Colbert hoax because it's a complete, I mean, it's been a ratings boom for him.
00:30:04.000And by the way, YouTube is 6 million views or something is what I said.
00:31:36.000The hockey team just beat, I believe, Sweden last night, I believe, and they're going on, but Blake is telling me that Blake is telling me that the Canadian team is stacked and it's going to be we're playing Slovakia.
00:31:48.000Hopefully we have the advantage over them, but if we win, and assuming Canada wins, we face them in the gold medal match, and they are being described as the greatest team ever assembled.
00:31:56.000I'm curious, though, if the, yeah, we, geez, Canada beat France 10-2.
00:32:09.000I'm sure they have players of some type.
00:32:12.000But there's a clip that's going viral, Quinn Hughes, and we wanted to play it because, you know, in the spirit of equal time that we just had with Brendan Carr from the FCC, we want to give equal time to the people that are actually honoring our country and doing it the right way.
00:33:16.000There were similar clips that went around at the Australian Open, where you get these scumbag journalists that go around and they try and get clickbait.
00:35:41.000579 that feel to represent your country like this it feels amazing i love representing the u.s i freaking love living there i love it and i'm so happy i get to represent you as a it is a great clip That is a very immortal one.
00:35:58.000That was from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
00:36:25.000I think my favorite is Brazil has a gold medal, and it's a Norwegian person who just moved to Brazil and decided to play for their Olympic team for some reason.
00:36:35.000And so they have a gold medal in Olympic skiing.
00:37:07.000And finally, to the American people, I think it's important that the American people recognize why we're here today.
00:37:12.000And the reason that we're here today is, yes, to save lives and yes, to promote peace, but this creates incredible prosperity for the American people.
00:37:22.000The countries represented here represent trillions of dollars of investment in the United States of America that would not have been possible without this president's leadership and advocacy for peace.
00:37:33.000The economies here represent millions of American jobs of people who are receiving products built in American factories and made by American workers would not be possible without a focus on peace.
00:37:45.000So, Mr. President, while I think this is great for the world, I also think it's really, really great for the United States of America.
00:37:51.000So, we're looking forward to the partnership.
00:37:56.000The executive board, which focuses on diplomacy and investments, is Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Tony Blair, the former UK Prime Minister, Mark Rowan, CEO of the Apollo Global Management, Ajai Banga, the World Bank president, Robert Gabriel Jr., U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor, and Nicolae Mledenov, a high representative for Gaza, former UN envoy.
00:38:23.000And there's a number of countries, like I said, there was 40 folks there on stage with President.
00:38:30.000Again, it seems like a move where President Trump has been largely snubbed by the international organizations.