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.
00:01:14.000I can't tell you how excited I was for 2025 to come to an end.
00:01:19.000Joined as always by Blake Neff, the producer on the show, and we are honored to have the great Andy Biggs in studio here in Phoenix, Arizona.
00:01:37.000Your race for governor was truly, it's hard to put into words, actually, how important it was to Charlie that you become the next president.
00:02:23.000And, you know, I tip my hat to Charlie, and I'm working hard not just for the state, but because Charlie was a friend and he went out on a limb to support me.
00:02:35.000And so we're going to win big for Charlie.
00:02:55.000We're going to get into some Arizona specifics in just a few minutes here, but we have so much breaking news over this holiday break, this holiday weekend.
00:03:03.000Of course, the big news is that Nicholas Maduro has been deposed, the dictator of Venezuela.
00:03:09.000He is being arraigned right now in a Manhattan courthouse, federal courthouse.
00:03:15.000You know, there has been much made about the fact that Congress, you're still a sitting congressman, was kept in the dark about this.
00:03:23.000What do you think about that as a member of Congress?
00:03:26.000Well, so we're going to get briefed this week, but let's just face the facts.
00:03:30.000I have literally sat in skiffs where they've had all of Congress sitting there and walked out.
00:03:36.000And for some reason, somehow, the media is telling the world exactly what I just heard in the skiff.
00:03:52.000Was the administration justified in this case in not briefing Congress?
00:03:56.000Well, there's been no evidence that the administration has presented to justify the actions that were taken in terms of there being an imminent threat to the health, the safety, the well-being, the national security of the American people.
00:04:11.000So you've got the minority leader here, Hakeem Jeffries, saying there was no imminent threat and that Congress should have been briefed.
00:04:20.000So your response to your colleague in the House there.
00:04:22.000Well, number one, he didn't answer the question because he knows Congress should not have been pre-briefed.
00:04:29.000Number two, that's not the legal standard.
00:04:32.000He knows that's not the legal standard.
00:04:33.000He's going to try to distract because that's their mantra.
00:05:00.000You are not about foreign adventurism.
00:05:02.000And it's a question that we all sort of have to grapple with.
00:05:05.000And I thought Rubio put this very well.
00:05:08.000I'm going to play a clip here, have you respond to it, where he's talking about basically the Monroe Doctrine and Western Hemisphere domination.
00:05:43.000They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard, and us have to pay the price for it.
00:05:52.000So, I mean, I think that was a pretty good articulation, essentially, of the Monroe Doctrine.
00:05:57.000Where do we draw the line, Congressman, and where do you draw the line on when we should get involved, when we shouldn't, and how does this one sit?
00:06:05.000You know, it feels like the comparisons to Iraq and Afghanistan are not apt here.
00:06:11.000They're unfair comparisons, but we still want to be cautious, skeptical, and not give in to foreign adventurism, the neocons.
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00:11:12.000For the audience that doesn't know, Andy, tell us why you are running for governor of Arizona.
00:11:19.000So I've got a vision for the state of Arizona to restore the American dream, which has been priced out here in Arizona by this governor, the current governor, Katie Hobbs.
00:11:29.000And so she took down border protections for Pete's sakes.
00:11:35.000And so we'll restore border protection so we're the safest state in the country again.
00:11:39.000But we'll also put the American dream back out there so young people, this really gets to me, they can buy a house.
00:12:03.000She's not doing anything with our infrastructure.
00:12:05.000She's not doing anything with our education system.
00:12:07.000She's basically hermetized herself, except for some radical environmental issues where she's gone after her own state trying to stop our economic development growth.
00:12:21.000You know, a lot of the sticker shock, I mean, you know, somebody who's newer to the state has actually impressed me.
00:12:28.000Like, I've been floored at how expensive some of the just basic items, the rent, the housing market is, at least where people want to actually live, you know?
00:12:39.000And, you know, is some of that because we're just getting flooded with Californians, like, you know, myself.
00:12:46.000Some of it is that, but that's not, the demand is high.
00:12:50.000But historically, we've always met that demand and been able to keep prices rational.
00:12:55.000But what she did is this governor imposed land and water management restriction areas.
00:13:01.000So in the Phoenix metro area, in some places, you can't even build a single-family home because of her restrictions.
00:14:01.000Sorry if this is a total wildcard, but while we're talking about maybe bossing around Latin American countries, I know for the long-term growth of Phoenix, the biggest concern is always water.
00:14:10.000And I've read a lot that the best thing to do to get water for Phoenix is you build a desalination plant in Mexico and you pipe it here.
00:14:17.000And it's basically regulatory apocalypse that would prevent this from ever happening.
00:14:21.000But while it's on the table, could we get Mexico to help us with that?
00:14:26.000Actually, there is a plan to bring it up from CF Cortez, and they have some of their permits now.
00:14:34.000The question is, since Mexico is ostensibly run by cartels, and I asked the operators of this company, what are you going to do about the cartels?
00:14:42.000And they said, well, we're an Israeli company, and we're going to work with some Israeli security forces.
00:14:51.000But I'll tell you, Blake, and Andrew, what people need to understand is even Katie Hobbes' own water resources department said we have six to seven hundred million acre-feet of water underground in Arizona, but they just don't allow us to access it and treat it here and get it into the stream.
00:15:09.000By the way, that's about 300-year supply at growth levels, including industry.
00:15:15.000But it gets, again, to management and stopping the myth that she's created that we have no water.
00:15:40.000They have a lot of experience with that.
00:15:42.000They made the desert blossom, certainly.
00:15:45.000So, head to head, you know, again, I don't want to look past the primary, but you are dominating in the primary polls, which is going to continue.
00:15:53.000We're going to help make sure that that happens to the best of our ability.
00:15:59.000In a head-to-head with Katie Hobbs, they have, you know, they say the first top issue is the economy.
00:16:07.000It's considered the top issue facing the state, 34% of voters, followed by immigration, 18, threats to democracy, 11, housing affordability, 10, education, 9, and healthcare, 9.
00:16:17.000In a matchup between Hobbes and Biggs, voters who say the economy is their top issue break for Hobbes 45 to 41%.
00:16:26.000And by the way, those who find immigration to be the top issue break for Biggs, 81 to 6%.
00:17:27.000So we're holding the bag for the last four years of terribleness under Biden, basically, and the inflationary environment that was created.
00:17:34.000And I mean, listen, things are too expensive, but the way you get those prices down, or at least, you know, real earnings start to outstrip inflation, even the inflation during the Biden years, you've got to have a pro-growth candidate in office.
00:17:50.000It is boggling to me that you are the pro-growth candidate.
00:17:54.000You are obviously the candidate that is going to be expanding housing permits, expanding, decreasing the cost of doing business, making this more of a pro-growth state, pro-jobs, obviously more income, more tax base, all of those things.
00:18:09.000So she's the one that's stopping Arizona from being unleashed to its full potential.
00:18:14.000And here you go, people are, I think, taking it out on anybody with an R next to their name because we're still getting out from under the Joe Biden years.
00:19:15.000What other issues do you want our audience to know about, and how do they get behind your campaign to support you?
00:19:20.000Well, so I think it's important for them to understand that we have to use our resources in the state.
00:19:26.000So when I talk about tax policy or talk about water or land policy, all of those can be ameliorative to our current affordability issue because that's what it is.
00:19:39.000If we don't fix that, Andrew, we're not going to win this.
00:19:44.000But it's going to turn around in this first quarter, probably because of the big, beautiful bill and some new tax breaks coming in.
00:20:02.000I'm not going to veto everything that the legislature does because they also have some great ideas that need to happen that this governor's killing.
00:20:11.000But if you want to get behind my campaign, it's bigsforarizona.com.
00:22:52.000Obviously, we have the Maduro arraignment.
00:22:54.000We're going to have David Zere from Real America's Voice reporting live outside the courthouse in Manhattan.
00:23:02.000The UN is condemning President Trump's attack against Venezuela.
00:23:09.000Yeah, you have Somalia sort of leading the charge, which is an irony of Irones.
00:23:15.000And Liberia was getting in on the action.
00:23:17.000Pete Hegseth initiates proceedings to demote U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a retired captain, over his seditious six video telling soldiers to refuse illegal orders.
00:23:30.000But I do want to just sort of start here, Blake, at this baseline that this was an incredibly impressive precision attack where no U.S. troops were killed.
00:23:43.000We had no military equipment that was lost.
00:23:46.000One helicopter was shot, but it maintained its flyability.
00:23:52.000And it seemed to be just executed at a level that no other nation perhaps could even match.
00:23:58.000China and Russia are probably looking on going on.
00:24:00.000Yeah, I think that's the immediate most impressive thing.
00:24:04.000You can remember in 2022, Russia did their attack on Ukraine.
00:24:40.000So by comparison, successfully spearing out Maduro, it's now coming out that last night, I believe, that he had this sort of Cuban Praetorian guard.
00:25:11.000They were all trying to get access to the mineral riches that exist within Venezuela.
00:25:17.000And it's fascinating to watch the left-wing reaction to it where everybody seems to be very upset that America is going in, that Trump's being honest, that we're going to control, the oil fields that were expropriated from American oil companies back when Hugo Chavez took over, that we're going to take those back, and that we are going to share the revenues with the people of Venezuela, but Americans are going to get their recompense.
00:25:43.000But I actually, I've been thinking about this all weekend long.
00:25:47.000And the fact that we are asserting dominance in the Western hemisphere, it feels like a return to sanity from years of foreign adventurism in Iraq, Afghanistan, other places that have been catastrophic, that have been terrible for our country, terrible for our coffers, cost us blood and soil and lives.
00:26:09.000And so this, but this does feel different.
00:26:11.000People don't realize how close Venezuela, hold on, I mean, it's in the Western hemisphere.
00:26:16.000They don't realize how close it is to Miami.
00:26:18.000It's like a two-hour flight to Miami from Caracas.
00:26:21.000And, you know, if you, if Venezuela fell into control of foreign agitators like China, which China was there visiting the day it happened and the day before it happened.
00:26:33.000So it does feel like the then question is, how do you sell this to the American people when they're struggling to afford gas and groceries, right?
00:26:43.000And I mean, people do need to understand that when you control oil resources, mineral resources, energy resources within the Western hemisphere, that will ultimately make America a safer, more secure place.
00:26:55.000But the question then becomes, we are running Venezuela.
00:26:59.000That is, or at least in theory, we are.
00:27:02.000And that is going to, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow for the American first crowd.
00:27:07.000Well, again, I think right now the vibe is very good.
00:27:12.000And the vibe is very good because it was easy.
00:27:19.000Everything looks extremely smooth, especially in comparison to Russia's own failed military ops, especially compared to our failed endeavors in the Middle East.
00:28:49.000Should we just forcibly seize Greenland?
00:28:53.000I would say make sure Venezuela is actually a success before you start looking for new things to do.
00:29:00.000And we were talking during the break that after Afghanistan and after the initial Iraq takeover as well, there was a lot of arrogance that, oh, we can remake the Middle East to our will.
00:29:12.000Max Boot, I think he's still at the Washington Post, but he was this neocon guy.
00:29:16.000And you can find his essays from that period where he's saying, yeah, we could topple Syria.
00:29:35.000Remember what is truly America first and what is most America first is not getting us involved in foreign quagmires.
00:29:42.000As long as this is not a foreign quagmire, that's great.
00:29:45.000It's great if we are able to turn an extremely anti-American regime in our backyard into a pro-American regime in our backyard at minimal cost.
00:29:55.000If it's true that this is a fragile regime, you take out the top guy and you can use your blockade to pressure them into something much more friendly, that is good.
00:30:05.000But be careful because there will be people who try to sell us on a much bigger involvement, a much more expensive intervention.
00:30:14.000And if we get into that, it's harder to get out than it is to get in.
00:30:18.000And that's where you get the potential for negative effects for America.
00:30:21.000And let's be frank, negative effects politically.
00:30:24.000If this is a big win a year from now, it helps the Trump administration, helps us in the midterms.
00:30:28.000But if this has become a conflict where U.S. troops are getting killed, where there's no obvious way out, then it's going to be bad.
00:30:38.000Well, to your point, this is what makes, I think, a lot of people nervous.
00:31:11.000But, you know, and you got President Trump talking about Colombia saying he needs to watch his backside to say it in a nice way to President Colombia.
00:31:19.000So there are questions here, but certainly, and we need to, I think it's, listen, it's important to be skeptical because this stuff tends to spiral out of control.
00:31:31.000If this can be done in a clean way, one of the things that I'm encouraged by is the fact that you have the Venezuelan diaspora, whether that's in New York City or Florida or Argentina.
00:31:43.000These people are taking to the streets by the tens and tens of thousands celebrating the fall of Nicolas Maduro, who was a bad guy and who stole the election, who has militarized the military, but against the people of Venezuela.
00:31:58.000The extreme poverty rate in Venezuela is over 50%.
00:32:02.000Their oil production has fallen off a cliff.
00:32:05.000Their inflation has been through the roof.
00:32:08.000They're eating cats and dogs literally in the street.
00:32:10.000And so this was a dictatorship that held on to power.
00:32:15.000And as Andy Biggs described it, he is a head of a cartel, essentially.
00:32:20.000It's a thug-based sort of boss-style mafioso tactic to maintain control of the country of Venezuela.
00:32:31.000It's a good thing that Maduro is gone.
00:32:33.000But what's interesting here is that you have all these clips now coming out from Democrats who before were talking tough on Venezuela, but now that Maduro is gone at the hands of Trump, it's suddenly a bad thing, right?
00:33:45.000And now you have Democrat after Democrat after Democrat that is, and Chuck Schumer's guilty of this, Hakeem Jeffries, Chris Murphy, many that are now going back on that saying this is bad.
00:33:56.000Yeah, obviously they're going to be hypocrites.
00:33:59.000That's just inevitable with Congress, I feel.
00:34:04.000We should focus, in my opinion, it won't matter if Democrats are hypocrites, if this is a win for us, because the win will overshadow whatever dumb stuff they do.
00:34:13.000And if this is a disaster for us, the fact that they were hypocrites is definitely not going to bail us out from that.
00:34:18.000So the number one focus always is make sure that this intervention is not damaging to America.
00:34:26.000Make sure we achieve the America First Goal.
00:34:28.000That has to be the number one focus, not winning any social media fight.
00:34:33.000It'll be interesting to see the way this plays out, certainly.
00:34:36.000Hopefully the saner voices prevail and we don't expand this too much.
00:34:43.000But again, I think I agree with what something Jonathan Turley actually wrote, that whether we said it out loud that we were going to be running Venezuela or not, the truth was we were going to be running Venezuela.
00:34:53.000After you do a mission like this, you got to see it through and you got to make sure the transition happens, which is a big if, which is a big if.
00:34:59.000So we're about to be joined by David Zere, who's outside of the federal courthouse where Nicholas Maduro has just pleaded not guilty, not guilty, saying he's a decent man.
00:35:10.000I mean, regardless of whether you support this intervention in Venezuela, regardless of how it plays out, Nicolas Maduro is not a decent man.
00:36:44.000I think the biggest challenge is going to be communicating why this is good for America.
00:36:49.000I think that's going to be, I think the America first.
00:36:51.000It's a challenge, although I don't, as long as it remains a clear win, that will be easier than it thinks.
00:36:58.000Like, I think we took out a guy and we did it in one night with a few special forces and we took no losses makes it a lot easier to make that sell as long as that remains what has happened, especially if we follow up with a government that is friendly to the United States and we can point towards stuff.
00:37:15.000It's going to be a harder sell the more there's clear downside to it.
00:37:19.000So that's why you have to avoid getting enmeshed.
00:37:21.000You have to avoid getting U.S. servicemen killed.
00:37:23.000And even just the jump from zero to one is going to be very important in that regard.
00:37:28.000If this is a thing where U.S. soldiers have been killed, that's very different from something where there are no casualties.
00:39:02.000I have a whole theory that we need to threaten Mexico with reversing the Gadsden purchase, connecting Arizona to the Sea of Cortez, reclaiming Baja.
00:39:12.000Yes, if they don't, they're going to FAFO as well.
00:40:02.000Tell us what you're seeing in Manhattan.
00:40:04.000Well, we're outside the courthouse, heavy security, drones, helicopters everywhere.
00:40:08.000I just walked out of the arraignment about five minutes ago.
00:40:12.000No cameras or any recording devices were allowed in there, but I did take some notes and Maduro defiantly pled not guilty along with his wife, Celia Flores, saying that I am an innocent man.
00:40:40.000But Judge Hellestine cut him off and said there would be plenty of time for such dialogue in the future, that this was just about the arraignment.
00:40:48.000And the judge asked him if he wanted to request bail.
00:40:51.000And he said, I don't want to request bail at this time.
00:40:55.000And he reserves the right to do that at any point going forward.
00:40:59.000The defense did say that this was a military abduction.
00:41:04.000And also, they didn't look that healthy.
00:41:07.000The judge didn't sound that healthy either.
00:41:09.000You know, it's a 92-year-old Bill Clinton appointee Hellerstein.
00:41:13.000But, you know, the attorneys for Maduro were requesting also medical help for Celia Flores, who may have sustained perhaps what they say is a fracture during the arrest from a few days ago and wanted her to get some treatment.
00:41:37.000And they also discuss his right to consult with his counsel because as a foreign person, I think he has the right to consult with the consulate in Venezuela or other.
00:41:48.000And they also talked about, and the prosecution agreed, I think because we're not allowed to take money from Venezuela attorneys in the United States, that the prosecution would make an exception, I believe, to be able to transfer funds to pay the defense team, Basilia Flores, and what Nicholas Maduro said he is, the rightful president of Venezuela.
00:42:11.000A lot going on here on the ground, lower Manhattan.
00:42:14.000Yeah, David, I'm curious if you've got any insight as to why this case was tried in Manhattan as opposed to perhaps the Southern District of Florida.
00:42:25.000Well, the case, the crux of the case, and I know Florida District did participate in this under DOJ, but this goes all the way back to 2011 for the DOJ Southern District.
00:42:37.000And we had other indictments and a recent conviction of top general Hugo Armando Caraval Barrios, also known as El Pollo, the chicken, who worked for Hugo Chavez.
00:42:50.000This is a 15-year-old Southern District indictment.
00:42:53.000And he said he's been working that Barrio has been working with the cartel since 1999 in a conspiracy.
00:42:59.000I think his sentencing is coming up next week here.
00:43:02.000He pled guilty to the same charges as Maduro, and he's facing life in prison.
00:43:08.000And I was thinking maybe he sang like a canary.
00:43:12.000But the indictments, all four indictments, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, alleging a 25-year partnership with FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Colombia, weapons charges, corruption and violence, kidnappings, murder, and to protect trafficking ops.
00:43:28.000All those indictments, he did plead not guilty to, as well as Celia Flores, who also said that she was an innocent.
00:44:03.000David Zeir, thank you for the reporting on the ground in the federal courthouse where Nicholas Maduro has been arraigned and pleaded not guilty.