The Charlie Kirk Show - Stopping the Californication of America with Congressman Mike Garcia

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, on this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, an exclusive conversation with Congressman Mike Garcia from California, who won his race by 333 votes.

00:00:08.000 A good American who is fighting to take back the house and is representing us wonderfully.

00:00:12.000 We talk about California and so much more.

00:00:14.000 Email us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:17.000 And if you'd like to support this program, go to charliekirk.com/slash support.

00:00:21.000 Congressman Mike Garcia is here.

00:00:23.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:24.000 Here we go.

00:00:26.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:27.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:29.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:33.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:36.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:37.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:38.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:40.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:00:45.000 Turning point USA.

00:00:46.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:00:55.000 That's why we are here.

00:00:59.000 Look, cancel culture is a very big problem.

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00:02:20.000 Hey, everybody, welcome to this special episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:02:23.000 I'm super thrilled to have with us today Congressman Mike Garcia, who I think is the only congressman who can say he won two hotly contested races in the year of the pandemic.

00:02:34.000 Yeah, and we were the first to have to go through the special election during COVID.

00:02:34.000 I think that's true.

00:02:38.000 And it's been a wild ride.

00:02:39.000 So thanks for having me, Charlie.

00:02:41.000 Well, congratulations.

00:02:42.000 I have been celebrating your victory many times.

00:02:44.000 The first victory you won rather convincingly to fill Katie Hill's seat.

00:02:49.000 The second victory was like 361 votes.

00:02:52.000 333 votes total.

00:02:54.000 So you just get that number framed in your office.

00:02:54.000 333.

00:02:56.000 Exactly.

00:02:57.000 We've had pens made, Army knives made with 333.

00:03:00.000 And it's awesome.

00:03:01.000 And so tell us about that race, but also tell us why you got into politics.

00:03:06.000 And I'm super interested in that.

00:03:08.000 Yeah.

00:03:08.000 So, you know, I grew up in Southern California and I didn't grow up with an interest in politics.

00:03:13.000 I was observing politics.

00:03:15.000 I was a poli-sci major, but I dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot.

00:03:19.000 And I had the opportunity to go to the Naval Academy and become a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy, flying F-18s off of aircraft carriers and went on to serve in combat operations over Iraq in 2003.

00:03:31.000 And that was my goal.

00:03:32.000 That was my dream in life.

00:03:33.000 That was what I focused on, and it was my mission.

00:03:36.000 I came off of active duty in 2009 and rotated into the business sector, working for an aerospace company at the time, and had a great career, great job, great family, wife, beautiful boys, and was really living the dream life.

00:03:50.000 And I started to see things happen in California that were obviously discouraging, but also became friction points for myself personally as a businessman, as an investor, someone who's wanting to stay in California, became harder and harder.

00:04:05.000 And then along came Katie Hill.

00:04:08.000 Yeah. 0.95

00:04:08.000 And she ran for office in our district, California's 25th district, which had been historically conservative for 20, 30 years. 0.95

00:04:16.000 You know, Buck McKean was in the seat for roughly 22 years, Steve Knight for four years.

00:04:21.000 And then this phenomenon and this wave called Katie Hill came to town and she won an election that I just couldn't believe.

00:04:28.000 And as a private citizen, as a businessman, someone with no aspirations of getting into politics, I saw that election and I just realized the day after she won her election that I needed to do something.

00:04:39.000 I needed to come off the sidelines.

00:04:41.000 We all needed to pay attention a little bit more.

00:04:43.000 And for me, it was making sure that our nation didn't become what California has become.

00:04:49.000 Yeah, seriously.

00:04:50.000 And as broken as California is and as bad as it is, it can be a lot worse if our nation started adopting some of those policies.

00:04:57.000 So when we upload someone like Katie Hill to the national scene and put her in Congress to represent us, and now with AOC and the gang, that was just a bridge too far for me.

00:05:07.000 So I decided to quit my job, run for Congress, and never held a political office in my life.

00:05:13.000 And we just outworked everyone.

00:05:15.000 We worked harder than anyone out there.

00:05:16.000 So she resigned because of whatever.

00:05:18.000 She had some unforced errors.

00:05:20.000 There you go.

00:05:21.000 That's a good way to put it.

00:05:22.000 And then you won the special election, which really kind of shocked the world a little bit, especially the margin during the virus.

00:05:30.000 And you served a really short term and ran again.

00:05:34.000 And so 333 votes.

00:05:36.000 Kind of walk us through how you were able to win.

00:05:39.000 This was a top 10 race across the country.

00:05:41.000 It was.

00:05:41.000 Pelosi was spending a lot of money on this race.

00:05:43.000 She wanted it back.

00:05:44.000 And you won by 333 votes, which is one of the reasons why the margins for Pelosi for her speakership are so thin.

00:05:52.000 That's right.

00:05:52.000 And I actually think the Cook Political Report had your seat as like a lean Democrat, if not at best toss-up.

00:05:59.000 Right.

00:05:59.000 They changed three times in the course of four months.

00:06:03.000 It started with likely Dem, then it went to lean Dem and then to toss-up.

00:06:07.000 Then we won by nine points.

00:06:08.000 And it's like, hey, guys, we saw this coming.

00:06:10.000 Sure.

00:06:11.000 We knew the sentiment on the ground.

00:06:13.000 I don't get in any fights that I don't think I can win.

00:06:15.000 And I knew we would be able to beat Katie Hill with her resignation and everything that lined up with the special election.

00:06:21.000 That's how we ended up with a nine-point win.

00:06:23.000 That margin of victory was even bigger than I had imagined.

00:06:26.000 But we knew going into November with the presidential race on the ticket and the passion and the energy on both sides coming out in November that it was going to tighten up.

00:06:37.000 And on election night, we were down 15%.

00:06:41.000 And over the course of 30 days, while they had the counters counting for literally 30 days, we ended up up 333 votes.

00:06:50.000 And it was literally hard work.

00:06:52.000 We had the best grassroots campaign in the nation.

00:06:54.000 We had 500 volunteers who these weren't necessarily political activists.

00:06:59.000 These were folks in the community who were just tired of the nonsense and got behind the mission.

00:07:04.000 And we just made it rain longer than anyone could tread water around us.

00:07:08.000 And we made it so that our opponents wanted the election to be over.

00:07:13.000 I held them accountable in debates, extremely aggressive in debates.

00:07:16.000 Did it with class, did it with dignity and honor and respect, but it was a ruthless aggression towards our opponents.

00:07:23.000 And that is why we won.

00:07:25.000 And hopefully it'll be a little easier in the 2022.

00:07:28.000 Yeah, I know a lot of activists that got involved for the first time in your race.

00:07:32.000 Some of them go to Rob McCoy's church in Calvary Chapel, Thousand Oaks, and they were involved knocking on doors, making phone calls, and all of that helped make a difference, obviously, in your margins.

00:07:42.000 So you talk about not letting the rest of the country become California.

00:07:46.000 California, I love visiting for the scenery, the weather, some of the people.

00:07:53.000 Not all the people.

00:07:54.000 Not all the people like me, and that's fine.

00:07:56.000 But it really is a test case of how to mess up a once great state.

00:08:00.000 That's right.

00:08:01.000 You probably remember when California was the gem of the country, where it was a place of opportunity.

00:08:06.000 You cannot get a U-Haul going east.

00:08:09.000 Nope.

00:08:10.000 And that's not a metaphor or a joke.

00:08:12.000 There's a mass exodus right now.

00:08:14.000 If you're in Phoenix, they will pay you to bring a U-Haul back to L.A. They'll give you a U-Haul gift card.

00:08:19.000 That's right.

00:08:20.000 Talk about how California went wrong.

00:08:22.000 Well, it starts with people not paying attention, right?

00:08:24.000 It starts with good conservatives like us not paying attention, not only not being active in the current political scene, but not raising our kids to appreciate what's in the Constitution, to appreciate what conservative values mean in the real world.

00:08:38.000 And when we fall asleep at the wheel like that for 20, 30 years, what happens is you end up with a single party system in one of the largest states with one of the largest GDPs in the world being run by people who don't understand business.

00:08:50.000 They don't understand fiscal conservative policy, social conservative values.

00:08:54.000 And we end up with a state like ours where despite being the fifth largest GDP in the world as a state, we have the highest taxes, the highest homeless rates, some of the worst infrastructure.

00:09:08.000 We have a bunch of communities that are now bashing our own law enforcement.

00:09:13.000 We have neighborhoods in my district right now where when the winds get above 30 miles an hour, the power turns off.

00:09:18.000 And in many of those neighborhoods, the water turns off as well because they're on electrical wells, right?

00:09:24.000 So in the suburbs of LA, it's starting to look like a suburb of Venezuela right now in many cases. 0.76

00:09:30.000 And it is a testimony of how bad things can go.

00:09:34.000 And what scares the heck out of me is when a new president like Biden comes in and says, I'm going to use California as the blueprint for my policies.

00:09:42.000 And obviously with Kamala there right next to him, she knows exactly what that means.

00:09:46.000 And Pelosi in the House knows exactly what that means.

00:09:48.000 And it's a recipe for disaster for our country.

00:09:52.000 So my mission right now is to help save California.

00:09:56.000 We will get more seats back.

00:09:57.000 I hope we can get the governor's seat back.

00:10:00.000 We need to get Newsome out of there.

00:10:01.000 So if you haven't already signed the petition in California for recall Newsome, but we'll get more seats back.

00:10:08.000 But my bigger mission right now is literally to make sure that the United States does not become what California has become.

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00:11:20.000 It's a tragedy what's happened in California.

00:11:22.000 I know so many good people that have left.

00:11:24.000 I know so many people that don't want to leave.

00:11:26.000 The quality of life is nice still.

00:11:28.000 They built their businesses.

00:11:29.000 They have their family there, but the numbers just don't make sense.

00:11:32.000 And they are starting to see the quality of life slip.

00:11:35.000 Starting to see a lot more homelessness, increases in crime, just a different set of agenda.

00:11:41.000 And California used to be a deep red state, as you well know.

00:11:44.000 And it's changed dramatically throughout the years.

00:11:48.000 And so Gavin Newsom is being recalled right now.

00:11:51.000 It looks like the signatures are trending.

00:11:53.000 I think they'll get there, yeah.

00:11:55.000 It's looking favorable.

00:11:57.000 For me, the whole point of supporting the recall was just to get him to allow our businesses to get turned back.

00:12:01.000 Pelosi's one of these guys where you've got to hit him with a stick before he starts paying attention.

00:12:05.000 And this recall is the proverbial stick over the head right now.

00:12:09.000 And he's realizing it is real and he may be recalled.

00:12:12.000 And amazingly, you know, now he's allowing our restaurants to open.

00:12:16.000 He scoffed at it first.

00:12:17.000 He did.

00:12:18.000 And he didn't realize how much anger there actually was.

00:12:21.000 And I mean, California has a history of recalling governors.

00:12:24.000 Not successfully, but at least going through the recall.

00:12:26.000 It's very, very hard to do.

00:12:28.000 But it's going to put him through a tough fight, I think.

00:12:30.000 And he's up again in 2022.

00:12:32.000 Is that right?

00:12:33.000 So he might have to survive a recall and run for resurrection.

00:12:36.000 Right.

00:12:36.000 And that's what I'm trying to make sure that our Republican Party in California needs to focus on both races.

00:12:43.000 We need to focus on being successful in 2022.

00:12:47.000 The recall efforts need to continue in earnest, and we need to get behind that.

00:12:52.000 But we really have to position ourselves better for 2022 and make sure that he can't win if that doesn't happen.

00:12:57.000 So I think priority number one has to be taking back the House of Representatives.

00:13:00.000 You totally agree.

00:13:01.000 Obviously, being in the minority is no fun.

00:13:03.000 Only by seven seats.

00:13:05.000 But it feels like it might as well be 70 seats, right?

00:13:07.000 Because the way this House is playing right now, yeah, Pelosi is, you know, in reality, with such a close ratio and close to equilibrium, a rational speaker would actually make more compromises and we would actually get to a rational legislative agenda.

00:13:24.000 That's just not happening right now.

00:13:26.000 And in some ways, that's good for us.

00:13:29.000 The left will overplay their hands.

00:13:30.000 Totally.

00:13:31.000 Pelosi is now beholden to AOC, and AOC is effectively the speaker of the House right now, running the agenda in the leadership and the country.

00:13:41.000 So I think the average American is going to look at this and go, hey, we're done with this.

00:13:44.000 This doesn't make any sense.

00:13:46.000 And I was one of the few that actually thought we were going to get the House back in this last cycle.

00:13:50.000 McCarthy and I were probably the only two that actually thought it was doable.

00:13:53.000 So I wasn't surprised by how many seats we got back.

00:13:56.000 What I was surprised of, frankly, is that we didn't get the House back.

00:14:01.000 And we will get it in 2022, no doubt, if not before that.

00:14:03.000 And there are a couple races, you know, Sean Parnell, you know, that I think he might run again, and they might have asked him to go.

00:14:09.000 Sean's a great guy.

00:14:10.000 And we got to get back that Highland Park, Texas seat right near North Dallas.

00:14:13.000 We've got to get that one back.

00:14:15.000 But there were some huge victories. 1.00

00:14:16.000 Michelle Steele, Young Kim, Beth Van Dyne, Marionette Miller-Meeks by six votes. 0.98

00:14:20.000 Madison Cawthorne, Maria Elvira-Salazar, Burgess Owens, Nancy Mace. 0.82

00:14:25.000 Yeah, talk about this new freshman class.

00:14:28.000 I still consider it to be part of it because it's still the same calendar year.

00:14:31.000 But obviously, you're not a freshman technically.

00:14:33.000 Yeah, I'm kind of in a no-man's land.

00:14:35.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:14:35.000 You're kind of a special electoral.

00:14:37.000 Which is great.

00:14:37.000 I love the sophomore class and this freshman class is high energy.

00:14:40.000 But it's a high energy class.

00:14:42.000 It's a high energy class with a lot of personality.

00:14:44.000 And frankly, it's what our party needs right now, right? 0.96

00:14:46.000 I think our party needs an offset to the AOCs and the Omars of the world.

00:14:51.000 And that's what some of these people say.

00:14:54.000 And we've got to be able to fight fire with fire.

00:14:56.000 And, you know, I'm not a die-in-the-wool kind of Republican guy, right?

00:15:03.000 I didn't grow up with this allegiance to any political party.

00:15:06.000 The only allegiance I had was to the flag and the Constitution.

00:15:10.000 So I don't ascribe to this theory that we have to play by Queensbury rules.

00:15:15.000 When your opposition is playing MMA-style rules against you, you have to play in that arena with us.

00:15:22.000 And we've got to be able to roll up our sleeves, be a little more aggressive than perhaps the establishment GOP wants to be.

00:15:29.000 And we've got to win.

00:15:31.000 That doesn't mean we compromise our integrity or our moral values, but we've got to be aggressive and we've got to be willing to get a little dirty to do it.

00:15:37.000 So what do you think the blueprint is to win in 2022?

00:15:40.000 And let me tell you, some people are getting a little apathetic.

00:15:43.000 Oh, you know, my vote doesn't matter and all this, but let's go.

00:15:45.000 Your race is really interesting.

00:15:47.000 You won by 333 votes, and you were down 15 percent.

00:15:51.000 And so it shows that you could still win.

00:15:53.000 And so, what's the blueprint to victory?

00:15:55.000 You know, we're only 16 months out until voting's going to start.

00:15:58.000 Yeah, we have to highlight every success that we have, and we have to put a shiny bright light on every failure that the left is bringing to the table.

00:16:06.000 And really, what you are doing in Turning Point USA does is it helps us breed the next generation so that they understand that what they've been told about conservative values is a fallacy.

00:16:17.000 And here's what the reality of conservative values does: here's why it's good for the nation.

00:16:21.000 We can't survive as a nation unless we start paying attention to things like national security, partnerships with Israel, investing in our military and our law enforcement.

00:16:32.000 So, we need to not only educate folks, but put a bright light on our opposition and go, this is why this is bad for our nation, and just have a battle rhythm and a cadence that they can't keep up with. 0.61

00:16:44.000 Yeah.

00:16:45.000 And it seems as if the Democrats, controlling everything, they are more concerned about resurrecting the bad feelings of the last election, continuing on these bitter narratives.

00:16:57.000 And so, for folks out there that want to get engaged and get involved, what's your piece of advice for them specifically about how to do that?

00:17:06.000 Well, I'd say support the local races and support the congressional races for sure.

00:17:11.000 Reach out to the local campaigns.

00:17:13.000 We won because of our grassroots campaign.

00:17:17.000 We were named campaign of the year.

00:17:19.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:17:19.000 The Washington Post, I think, but that wasn't because necessarily of our professional team.

00:17:26.000 That was because of our 500 volunteers on the ground.

00:17:29.000 And while it may feel uncomfortable at first, what we figured out was people were enjoying it.

00:17:34.000 They were going out.

00:17:35.000 They became part of the movement.

00:17:36.000 They took pride in it.

00:17:37.000 So I would encourage folks to actually get involved and help the campaigns directly.

00:17:42.000 If you can't help with your time, then donate as well.

00:17:45.000 And the left spends money.

00:17:47.000 Pelosi spent $15 million against me in the last race.

00:17:49.000 $15 million.

00:17:50.000 So, yeah, it's a real problem.

00:17:52.000 And in California, it's not cheap. 1.00

00:17:53.000 So we've got to keep the race going.

00:17:55.000 Yeah, it's an expensive media market, no doubt.

00:17:58.000 But taking back the House has got to be mission number one.

00:18:01.000 Absolutely.

00:18:02.000 And the Senate, whatever will happen will happen there.

00:18:04.000 It's a little bit tougher.

00:18:04.000 But the House is really good.

00:18:06.000 I mean, can you talk about how these new maps, we're adding seats in some Republican states.

00:18:10.000 We have the energy.

00:18:11.000 They look like they're going to have some retirements.

00:18:13.000 It feels like 2018 for them, and it feels like 2010 for us.

00:18:16.000 Correct.

00:18:17.000 So a lot of reasons to have hope.

00:18:19.000 And I think you said this in one of your talks at the churches down in SoCal last a couple of weeks ago.

00:18:24.000 As doom and gloom as the last couple of months has seemed to have presented us, there's a lot of reasons for hope.

00:18:30.000 And there's a lot of trends right now that are favorable to the Republican Party.

00:18:34.000 California will lose a seat.

00:18:36.000 It will likely be a Dem seat that gets cut.

00:18:40.000 So that is, again, a harbinger of how things are trending, right?

00:18:44.000 The shift from left to right is happening.

00:18:46.000 And we have so much momentum right now.

00:18:48.000 If we just stay together as a party, if we stay on message, if we stay positive but still be aggressive against our opposition, we will get these seats back.

00:18:56.000 And I think folks like me going to other districts to help some of these challengers win seats back is critical, and I'm committed to that.

00:19:04.000 We can win back a couple of the Orange County seats, too.

00:19:06.000 Absolutely.

00:19:06.000 We can win back all of them.

00:19:07.000 I think we can win back five out of five in Orange County.

00:19:10.000 A lot of these folks are fakers.

00:19:11.000 A lot of the incumbents, Dems, are fakers, right? 0.98

00:19:14.000 People like Katie Porter, fake models. 0.92

00:19:17.000 They don't understand what they're doing.

00:19:20.000 These Dems have no idea of what it means to run a business or what it means to even run a family in California. 0.85

00:19:26.000 And so we just got to pull the veil back a little bit and highlight the fact that they are, in fact, fakers.

00:19:32.000 Well, I want to thank you for what you're doing for our country and holding the line every single day in D.C.

00:19:37.000 I know it's not always easy, but The more that we see Republicans stand up and fight, you know, it really makes a difference.

00:19:45.000 It's definitely not easy.

00:19:46.000 It's a sacrifice across the board, but it's honestly the biggest honor that someone like me can have.

00:19:51.000 And I'm glad I'm there to represent the 25th District of California and hopefully make a difference for the nation.

00:19:57.000 Here's my prediction: you're going to win by more than 333 votes in 2020.

00:20:00.000 I hope so.

00:20:00.000 I don't have enough hair left to go.

00:20:02.000 Whatever map they end up drawing, right?

00:20:04.000 I hope so.

00:20:04.000 Well, that's right.

00:20:05.000 Congressman, thank you.

00:20:06.000 How can people support your campaign if they want to?

00:20:09.000 Yeah, if you go to electmikegarcia.com, you can sign up as a volunteer.

00:20:12.000 You can sign up for our newsletters and you can donate through the website as well.

00:20:16.000 Awesome.

00:20:16.000 Thank you, Charlie.

00:20:16.000 Appreciate you having the line.

00:20:17.000 Thank you.

00:20:18.000 Thank you.

00:20:20.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:20:22.000 If you'd like to get involved with Turning Point USA, go to tpusa.com.

00:20:26.000 If you'd like to email us your questions, do so at freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:20:30.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:20:32.000 God bless.

00:20:33.000 Speak to you soon.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 01, 2021

Stopping the Californication of America with Congressman Mike Garcia

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