The Charlie Kirk Show - The Incredible Vanishing Defense Secretary

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, Dan, Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:01.000 Russ Vote goes through the disaster of a budget that Speaker Johnson is finalizing.

00:00:07.000 And then we talk about the curious case of Lloyd Austin.

00:00:10.000 Where on planet Earth did this guy go and why was he in the hospital?

00:00:15.000 It's a very strange story.

00:00:17.000 And we go after it here on the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:19.000 Make sure you subscribe and join TurningPointUSA, TPUSA.com, and also listen to our sister episode with Danica Patrick.

00:00:27.000 Really great conversation.

00:00:27.000 I think you'll enjoy it.

00:00:28.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:31.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:31.000 Here we go.

00:00:32.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:34.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:36.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:40.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:43.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:44.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:45.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:47.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:00:52.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

00:00:53.000 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.

00:01:02.000 That's why we are here.

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00:01:22.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

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00:01:30.000 Joining us now is Russ Vote.

00:01:32.000 Russ, welcome to the program.

00:01:34.000 I want to begin talking about your lettuce tweet.

00:01:38.000 You know, we went all out on Speaker Johnson.

00:01:40.000 Let me read actually this headline from MediaITE.

00:01:42.000 They picked it up this morning, one of our PR agencies.

00:01:46.000 I know a fraud when I see one.

00:01:47.000 Charlie Kirk absolutely blessed Speaker Mike Johnson over spending deal.

00:01:50.000 Russ, you are kind of a spending expert.

00:01:54.000 Am I being fair in my analysis?

00:01:58.000 You're being very fair and noting that this is a missed opportunity on behalf of the speaker.

00:02:03.000 And, you know, we've put forward a number of different options that the speaker could choose.

00:02:08.000 We want him to be successful.

00:02:10.000 But the reality is that even if he were to fall back on a continuing resolution, which you and I probably are not big fans of, even if he were to do that, he would be at $100 billion less than the level that he has proposed with Chuck Schumer.

00:02:26.000 That, I believe, is malpractice.

00:02:28.000 That you could do what this town finds rather easy to do continuing resolutions because the way that the debt limit works, that level, that continuing resolution level, would trigger across the board cuts that would cause $100 billion less than this level agreed to by Mike Johnson.

00:02:49.000 And I think that's really why this is such a bad deal.

00:02:52.000 And to be clear, all of those cuts would be on non-defense.

00:02:55.000 None of them would be on defense.

00:02:57.000 So there is no excuse for what they have put forward.

00:03:00.000 Yeah, so walk us through your lettuce tweet.

00:03:02.000 And you're right.

00:03:02.000 I mean, ahead of lettuce could have just said CR.

00:03:05.000 And so the deal is worse than business as usual in Washington, D.C.

00:03:10.000 And why is Speaker Johnson, this Christian guy who's always quoting Bible verses to us, saying this is a big win?

00:03:17.000 Because I think that he is captured by his conference right now and their fear of conflict.

00:03:23.000 And as a result, he can't negotiate, is unwilling to, let's not say can't, is unwilling to negotiate with Democrats in such a way that he's prepared to them say, okay, we're going to shut down the government.

00:03:36.000 And that's what's necessary to be able to actually have any policy wins.

00:03:41.000 If you have one side that says, we're going to shut down the government, we don't get our way, and our side is never, ever willing to do that, you're never going to win.

00:03:49.000 And the way we work in Washington, D.C., there's only a few different leverage points that ever matter.

00:03:55.000 And so just don't tell the American people that the House Republicans are going to be trying to save the country, but they're not willing to use the leverage points like the debt limit, which Kevin Carthy gave away, or this final appropriations leverage point, which Mike Johnson is on the cusp of giving away.

00:04:10.000 Just be honest with the American people and your voters.

00:04:12.000 It says, look, we're just scared.

00:04:14.000 We are scared.

00:04:15.000 We are not going to change business as usual in the nation's capital.

00:04:19.000 And I really put forward yesterday the notion that, look, I think a head of lettuce could do a better job than the negotiating team that went in with my successor, the Office of Management Budget and the leadership team on the Senate side and negotiated this deal.

00:04:35.000 I mean, this is what they would have wanted.

00:04:38.000 So what did you get out of it?

00:04:39.000 Nothing.

00:04:40.000 And Joe Biden is praising the deal, Russ.

00:04:43.000 Joe Biden says this is a huge win.

00:04:45.000 In what universe are we supposed to think Joe Biden celebrating is a win for our country?

00:04:52.000 Well, I mean, that's proof of the pudding.

00:04:54.000 You have Chuck Schumer saying that not a nickel was cut, but just look at the calendar, right?

00:04:58.000 It's not like there's a shutdown tomorrow.

00:05:02.000 We're like two weeks out, a week and a half out of the first leverage point, the first expiration date.

00:05:08.000 So you have to think through, like, if the Democrats are agreeing, period, you know that they have gotten what they wanted unless they have been on the other side of bleeding as a result of a political fight.

00:05:19.000 If they're agreeing to it, you know they won.

00:05:21.000 If they're agreeing it to a week and a half in advance of any deadline, you know that they couldn't have gotten a better deal when they whiteboarded it in their office.

00:05:30.000 That's how bad of a deal this is.

00:05:32.000 And unfortunately, this is being pushed by Speaker Johnson as some kind of good deal that the Republican media establishment should praise and get on board with.

00:05:42.000 So let's continue on this.

00:05:45.000 Why is there such an aversion to shutdowns of the government?

00:05:52.000 Can you just go through a brief history?

00:05:54.000 We shut down the government under Trump, and it actually increased our operating leverage.

00:05:59.000 We shut down the government with Boehner briefly.

00:06:01.000 Gingrich had a very long shutdown back in the 90s.

00:06:04.000 Sometimes showing that a shutdown is something that you're not afraid of as if it's apocalyptic nuclear war actually can get you more concessions.

00:06:16.000 And what does a shutdown actually mean?

00:06:18.000 And why is Speaker Johnson so deathly afraid of it?

00:06:23.000 Your history is absolutely correct.

00:06:25.000 The shutdowns that have occurred have always been either a net positive or a win in terms of Republican Senate seats that were won or an issue being magnified in front of the American people.

00:06:37.000 When you have a lapse, and that's the technical word for it, when you have a lapse in funding, the federal government doesn't shut down.

00:06:44.000 The troops are at their post.

00:06:46.000 The Social Security payments continue to flow.

00:06:49.000 The Medicare payments still are going out to pay for hospital bills and whatnot.

00:06:55.000 The post office continues to operate.

00:06:59.000 What goes away largely is the parts of the bureaucracy for a time that we generally don't like, the woke and weaponized bureaucracy.

00:07:08.000 And as a result, the American people get a sense for what government would look like at a smaller level.

00:07:16.000 But it's not as if this is politically apocalyptic by any means, but there has arisen a meme, a framework, a paradigm that this is always and forever more nuclear and hurtful to Republican prospects.

00:07:33.000 And as a result, the cartel, that's really my view for the unit party, because the cartel gives up political, gives up price generally.

00:07:43.000 A business cartel says, look, we're going to sacrifice what we could get if we were all competing with each other.

00:07:49.000 In a political cartel, what they do is for stability, they guard against risk.

00:07:54.000 And so they say, Look, you know, we're just not going to allow the high-stakes risk that is involved with a government shutdown where the eyes of the world are on us.

00:08:05.000 You know why?

00:08:06.000 Because they don't want the eyes of the world to be on the reality of our border.

00:08:10.000 They don't want the eyes of the world to be discussing what's going on with the Department of Justice.

00:08:15.000 Because the average person who's listening to country music right now and not, you know, WMAL is not concerned necessarily as to the stakes of what people are seeing.

00:08:25.000 But when you start breaking into their normal broadcasting and saying we have a government shutdown, partial lapse, all of a sudden you're like, man, that's a human trafficking problem.

00:08:35.000 That's a huge problem that you're having, you know, pro-lifers getting squatted because they care about the sanctity of life.

00:08:43.000 And that's really why the cartel doesn't want these high stakes.

00:08:46.000 They know that it is our chance to educate the American people and actually accomplish our policy objectives.

00:08:53.000 Yeah, so I got to ask you: every day we hit this topic, Russ, and I warn my audience, I don't try to pick topics that are demoralizing or depressing, but this is necessary.

00:09:03.000 No one is doing what is necessary on the border.

00:09:07.000 Has Speaker Johnson secured any wins on the border in this latest capitulation to Chuck Hugh Schumer?

00:09:12.000 Zero.

00:09:13.000 And he basically amounts to a white flag that he will be able to get anything done on the board in the next two weeks.

00:09:18.000 Can you elaborate on that about a minute and a half, Russ?

00:09:21.000 I just, I'm kind of speechless.

00:09:22.000 I don't even have a response to that.

00:09:24.000 So he's basically said, look, I'm setting this up for the funding levels, but all of the policy objectives are still in play.

00:09:33.000 But if the Democrats know that you're afraid of the policy objectives, they're just going to say no to your pop, they're going to say no to all of their policy proposals.

00:09:43.000 They'll just say, no, we'll shut the government down.

00:09:45.000 So if you're afraid on the funding, you're going to be afraid on the policy.

00:09:49.000 And as a result, this is nothing more than a white flag to Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden that the House Republicans are not serious.

00:09:56.000 They are not in it to win it.

00:09:57.000 And as a result, they will get nothing of substance.

00:10:01.000 And important to remember, they're bragging about cuts to the IRS.

00:10:04.000 That's nothing more than little pieces of candy they're throwing to the masses.

00:10:10.000 It's not cuts, it's cuts in the bonus money that was given to them.

00:10:15.000 So there is this eight.

00:10:16.000 This is so smart.

00:10:17.000 The bad guys, they said, okay, if we give 80 billion to the IRS, then in future negotiations, we can make it 60 billion instead of 80 billion.

00:10:27.000 Therefore, they can feel as if they're winning.

00:10:29.000 They can go back to their base and make it seem that way, even though they're not actual cuts.

00:10:34.000 They're not structural cuts.

00:10:36.000 They are minor adjustments in the over-inflated bonus money that the Internal Revenue Service is getting.

00:10:43.000 Russ, plug your organization.

00:10:45.000 AmericaRenewing.com at Russ Vote.

00:10:47.000 Would love for you to check out all the things that we're doing.

00:10:49.000 Great.

00:10:50.000 Really, really sharp.

00:10:50.000 Excellent.

00:10:51.000 You know your stuff.

00:10:52.000 It's important.

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00:12:10.000 Russ, just riff a little bit.

00:12:12.000 Where are some of the most obvious places to cut?

00:12:15.000 I mean, the enormity of the federal budget.

00:12:17.000 Walk our audience through how much are we spending?

00:12:20.000 How much are we borrowing?

00:12:21.000 And then we always are told, oh, it's just so hard to cut spending.

00:12:24.000 Where would you begin?

00:12:26.000 Sure.

00:12:26.000 I want to just riff off your last line, which you were explaining the way they plussed up the money on IRS.

00:12:31.000 It's their version of pumping and dumping, which we would use in the market, right?

00:12:36.000 They intentionally go extravagant on a program knowing they can never spend that much money.

00:12:41.000 They'll spend more than they would otherwise in the IRS, but it's a future pay for for when they are out of power in one of the branches.

00:12:50.000 Where I would cut is the woke and weaponized bureaucracy.

00:12:54.000 And so for a long time, Republicans have done, I think, strategically the unsound thing, which is go after the entitlements that there's a lot of people around the country that have invested in them.

00:13:07.000 And I think that's the wrong approach.

00:13:09.000 And we put forward trillions of dollars in cuts to things that are the agencies that are weaponized against them.

00:13:19.000 And they are, think of the Department of Education.

00:13:21.000 We're not dealing with teaching improved math scores or teaching how to read.

00:13:26.000 We're talking about culturally responsive learning.

00:13:29.000 We're talking about applied critical race theory that you are pumping into our schools and you're turning them into a cultural revolutionaries, both your teachers and your students.

00:13:39.000 So it's not like we just can't afford this.

00:13:42.000 It's actively harmful.

00:13:44.000 Or in our foreign aid, it's not that we're going to have the next version of the Marshall Plan.

00:13:49.000 No, we're funding gay pride parades in Prague.

00:13:53.000 We're funding LGBT activists in Senegal.

00:13:56.000 And we wonder why these organizations, these nations hate our guts.

00:14:01.000 It's because we pump the sewage into their country or housing of urban development. 0.51

00:14:07.000 We think about, oh, well, this fair housing network is there to make sure everyone can buy and sell in a particular neighborhood, but that's not what it does.

00:14:16.000 It is a network that's anti-single family homes and neighborhoods themselves.

00:14:21.000 And so if you go into Arlington County where I live, which is very liberal, do you know one of the main topics that unites on a bipartisan basis?

00:14:30.000 It's these single family home neighborhood policies that are designed to ensure that those neighborhoods are blown up with these massive apartment buildings.

00:14:40.000 So I want there to be a cultural debate on the ways that the agencies, the bureaucracy that is woke and weaponized, is now harmed, is aimed in harming the American people.

00:14:52.000 It's not that we just can't afford it anymore.

00:14:54.000 It's just that it's actively bad.

00:14:57.000 And we've never had that kind of debate.

00:14:59.000 That's the debate that I've wanted to have over the last year.

00:15:02.000 We've put forward an entire budget that balances in 10 and provides the specifics along the lines of what I've articulated.

00:15:09.000 So can you also just mention, I know you talk about the entitlements being put, I don't like that term, but things that people have paid into.

00:15:20.000 But the COVID relief stuff, how much money is there still under the COVID relief packages in DC?

00:15:28.000 You know, it's hard to get true numbers, but there are billions of dollars.

00:15:32.000 In fact, they've just green lighted the states and localities continuing to use that.

00:15:38.000 So it's certainly something that we need to strip.

00:15:40.000 But the Republicans have also been using it kind of like the IRS funding as part of their pump and dump strategy, which is to say that, you know, if we rescind that, you know, we don't have to make cuts elsewhere.

00:15:52.000 In fact, Joe Biden, that's one of the things that Mike Johnson claims that he got a small win is they got another $6 billion of COVID funding.

00:16:01.000 The Democrats are largely okay with giving that up.

00:16:04.000 Why?

00:16:05.000 Because their main strategic objective, which should be what we are aiming to stop, is to keep all of the funding at the agencies going at either the same or an increased clip.

00:16:17.000 And that's why we're so focused like a laser on making sure that our cuts are to the bureaucracy because that's what they're trying to guard at all costs.

00:16:29.000 It's just the reluctance to cut spending.

00:16:32.000 We are going to enter a permanent new normal of hyperinflation.

00:16:35.000 Russ, thank you so much.

00:16:37.000 My pleasure.

00:16:37.000 Thanks, Charlie.

00:16:40.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:18:03.000 There's some breaking news regarding Ray Epps.

00:18:05.000 We're going to get to that in a second.

00:18:07.000 He pled guilty and is getting beyond a slap on the wrist.

00:18:13.000 Why?

00:18:16.000 We'll cover that in just a second, but I have to do this Lloyd Austin thing.

00:18:18.000 So Lloyd Austin goes in for elective surgery.

00:18:23.000 We don't know why.

00:18:26.000 We don't know what kind of surgery this was.

00:18:28.000 Was it gender reassignment surgery?

00:18:31.000 Was it transgender care?

00:18:33.000 We don't know.

00:18:34.000 He won't tell us.

00:18:35.000 Was it gastric bypass surgery?

00:18:38.000 Was it lap band surgery?

00:18:40.000 Was it a urinary tract infection?

00:18:42.000 But it did involve general anesthesia.

00:18:46.000 Now, I'm honored to run Turning Point USA.

00:18:50.000 When I had my wisdom teeth removed and I was going to be incommunicado for like six hours, there was a whole chain of command that we established.

00:19:01.000 I'm going to be not available.

00:19:02.000 My phone will be off.

00:19:04.000 Call Erica.

00:19:05.000 I'll be in the operating room.

00:19:07.000 I won't, you know, really be processing information.

00:19:09.000 You know this when you go under general anesthesia.

00:19:12.000 And it was this whole thing.

00:19:14.000 This guy is in charge of all the armed forces.

00:19:17.000 Now, technically, Joe Biden is the commander-in-chief, but he's the head of the Department of Defense.

00:19:21.000 He's the first phone call and then eventually a work up to Joe Biden.

00:19:25.000 So it's not just some sort of luggage thief that is in the Department of Nuclear Energy or whatever, Sam Britton or whatever, or Levine.

00:19:35.000 This guy has real power.

00:19:38.000 Real power.

00:19:40.000 So he goes in for some sort of surgery.

00:19:42.000 Won't tell us what it is.

00:19:44.000 Again, it could be augmenting breasts or some sort of crazy thing. 0.96

00:19:48.000 Who knows? 0.54

00:19:48.000 It's fashionable now in the Department of Defense. 0.54

00:19:51.000 And he, so he received it on December 22nd.

00:19:54.000 And then complications led him to being taken by ambulance to Walter Reed, National Military Medical Center's intensive care unit.

00:19:59.000 So, look, I'm going to kind of take the gloves off here because this involves national security.

00:20:03.000 And some people say, oh, you know, it's medical stuff.

00:20:05.000 Hold on, hold on.

00:20:06.000 First of all, this guy is like 65 pounds overweight.

00:20:09.000 And we said that all along.

00:20:11.000 Enough of this fat general stuff.

00:20:12.000 You're going to run the United States military.

00:20:14.000 At least look the part.

00:20:15.000 Can we get 51 up here?

00:20:17.000 This is a crying joke.

00:20:18.000 I'm not saying this guy shouldn't have any role in the military, but what is that?

00:20:22.000 What are you, a stormtrooper against COVID?

00:20:26.000 This is him in Indonesia, some sort of Darth Vader. 0.99

00:20:30.000 Again, this guy has a girth.

00:20:34.000 You would think he's carrying twins.

00:20:37.000 And I don't say this as some sort of a joke.

00:20:39.000 I say this that it actually factors in.

00:20:42.000 And look, I'm not a fan of Mad Dog Maddis for a lot of different reasons.

00:20:45.000 Say what you will.

00:20:46.000 That guy is as fit as a Marine.

00:20:49.000 Look at him.

00:20:50.000 He's like, all right, this guy runs five or six miles.

00:20:52.000 Look at RFK Jr.

00:20:54.000 We had RFK Jr. in our show.

00:20:55.000 I encourage you to listen to our podcast.

00:20:57.000 It was a great conversation.

00:20:58.000 That guy is, he's fit.

00:21:01.000 Lloyd Austin, does that look like the best and brightest that we have?

00:21:05.000 Now, we don't know why he went in for elective surgery.

00:21:07.000 Again, elective surgery.

00:21:09.000 That's a very important thing.

00:21:11.000 It's not as if, and it would be bad if, that he just kind of had a stroke out of nowhere and we didn't know and it was Christmas.

00:21:19.000 No, no, this, he planned it.

00:21:21.000 He didn't, elective surgery by definition is not necessarily life-threatening.

00:21:25.000 It might be impending.

00:21:26.000 It might be something you have to do in the next month, but he did not tell anybody.

00:21:31.000 Then he had complications in regards to his surgery around the new year and got hospitalized when he had great pain.

00:21:37.000 Austin then privately and secretly transferred authority to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, on January 2nd.

00:21:45.000 But where was Kathleen Hicks?

00:21:47.000 She was in the Caribbean.

00:21:49.000 Do any of these people work?

00:21:51.000 She's in the Caribbean.

00:21:53.000 And even Hicks herself only learned that Austin was not just in the hospital, he was in the ICU, the intensive care unit.

00:22:01.000 The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff found out about Austin's hospitalization on January 2nd.

00:22:06.000 Again, how are these people not talking every single day?

00:22:09.000 This goes to show.

00:22:10.000 I mean, if you're Vladimir Putin, by the way, Vladimir Putin, he's fit.

00:22:14.000 You say what you want.

00:22:15.000 The guy's got a good BMI.

00:22:17.000 Vladimir Putin is in shape.

00:22:18.000 He could run.

00:22:19.000 Lloyd Austin, it's a joke.

00:22:19.000 He could lift.

00:22:23.000 Lloyd Austin needs my PhD weight loss.

00:22:25.000 I mean, this guy needs to go on a low-carb, no carb almost, some sort of a restructuring life plan.

00:22:32.000 And some people say, oh, Charlie, you know, stop being so mean.

00:22:35.000 This guy's running the military, okay?

00:22:37.000 Get in shape.

00:22:39.000 Stop, stop with this.

00:22:40.000 And by the way, we had this video I reacted to the other day.

00:22:42.000 Daisy has.

00:22:43.000 This whole like fat acceptance thing is so bad for the country, especially if you're running the United States military.

00:22:50.000 Like, get over yourself.

00:22:52.000 I mean, Joe Biden is in better shape than Lloyd Austin.

00:22:54.000 Not better mental shape, but better physical shape.

00:22:58.000 So he, so apparently, the ultimate civilian authority under the Constitution was kept in dark for additional 48 hours until the afternoon of January 4th.

00:23:06.000 Praise God, our nation wasn't attacked during this period of time.

00:23:12.000 Praise God, China didn't try to take Taiwan. 0.76

00:23:14.000 I mean, this is no joke. 0.79

00:23:16.000 I mean, we should be thanking the good Lord that while this overweight lunatic getting some sort of surgery, that he won't tell us what it is, which is really weird, right? 0.76

00:23:30.000 He won't tell us.

00:23:30.000 I mean, maybe one thing is like, you know, yeah, I had elective surgery to fix a blocked artery in my heart.

00:23:36.000 I think some people say, okay, they back off.

00:23:39.000 He won't tell us what it is.

00:23:40.000 He's like doubling down on the secrecy.

00:23:42.000 Oh, no, HIPAA laws.

00:23:43.000 I don't need to tell you.

00:23:44.000 National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan alerted the president, but the Pentagon waited to announce the hospitalization until after 5 p.m. on January 5th on a Friday night news dump and a statement that clayed the secretary had resumed his duties.

00:23:57.000 Biden did not then speak with his defense chief until the evening of January 6th.

00:24:01.000 Who is running this government exactly?

00:24:04.000 I mean, that is an honest question.

00:24:05.000 You got Joe Biden, who does not know where he is.

00:24:09.000 You have the Secretary of Defense in the ICU for unknown reasons.

00:24:13.000 You got Kathleen Hicks in the Caribbean, literally in the Caribbean, where she was vacationing until January 6th.

00:24:20.000 So I have another common question.

00:24:24.000 Do these people not have daily conference calls?

00:24:26.000 I mean, we're in more communication at Turning Point USA.

00:24:29.000 I am not kidding.

00:24:30.000 Fact.

00:24:32.000 If I all of a sudden went dark in one of our group chats beyond Shabbat into mid-Sunday, into late Sunday, somebody at Turning Point USA, Andrew or Blake or Ryan, be like, where's Charlie?

00:24:48.000 He's been kind of quiet.

00:24:49.000 Somebody should call Erica.

00:24:51.000 And within 12 hours, if I had an elective surgery, we would find out.

00:24:55.000 This is so glaring on multiple levels.

00:24:58.000 Who's actually doing work at the Pentagon?

00:25:01.000 You can have a head of the Department of Defense just disappear and nobody knows?

00:25:07.000 Do they not have some sort of daily five-minute, hey, here's our threats, you know, scene lanes in China?

00:25:12.000 Oh, by the way, we're financing a proxy war in Ukraine.

00:25:15.000 Here's how that's going.

00:25:17.000 Israel is at war in case you forgot.

00:25:20.000 And American hostages are being held in Gaza in case you forgot.

00:25:26.000 That's right.

00:25:26.000 American citizens are still being held hostage by Hamas.

00:25:30.000 And you have the head of the Department of Defense go under for some elective surgery.

00:25:36.000 Most common elective surgeries, according to the trusty dusty internet, cosmetic surgeries, cleft lip repair.

00:25:44.000 No, don't think that's going to be his.

00:25:46.000 Ear tube surgery, tonsils, probably not.

00:25:51.000 Weight loss surgery.

00:25:53.000 He would be a prime candidate.

00:25:55.000 Hernia repair. 0.94

00:25:57.000 Undescended testicle surgery.

00:25:59.000 Nah.

00:26:01.000 Eye surgery for cataracts.

00:26:03.000 Spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis, or surgery for sports injuries.

00:26:08.000 Probably not.

00:26:10.000 So third in command after Lloyd is the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

00:26:14.000 The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff found out about his hospitalization on January 2nd.

00:26:18.000 But the White House, the ultimate civilian authority under the Constitution, was kept in dark for an additional 48 hours.

00:26:26.000 The same day, here is the kicker.

00:26:29.000 The U.S. military conducted an airstrike against militants in Baghdad.

00:26:35.000 So we got airstrikes and we got, I mean, this is a very, very dangerous combination.

00:26:42.000 You have three really dangerous things that are combining.

00:26:45.000 And I wish the third, and I'll get the third will be the most obvious. 1.00

00:26:49.000 You have evil people who are incredibly stupid, who are also unable to do their job. 1.00

00:27:00.000 So you have all three. 1.00

00:27:01.000 So they're trying to do bad stuff.

00:27:03.000 They're not even good at doing the bad stuff.

00:27:06.000 And they can't even do the bad stuff physically.

00:27:09.000 Tony Blinken didn't even know this.

00:27:12.000 These are laws that may have been broken.

00:27:15.000 It is so incomprehensible.

00:27:17.000 The most incomprehensible fact is that Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks did not find out her boss was hospitalized until January 4th.

00:27:24.000 And she's on some bender in Barbados or something.

00:27:27.000 We don't even know. 1.00

00:27:29.000 She's vacationing in the Caribbean doing tequila shots or whatever Kathleen Hicks is doing. 0.97

00:27:36.000 She's getting drunk till 2 a.m. 0.99

00:27:38.000 Meanwhile, she's in charge of the entire U.S. military and she had no idea.

00:27:43.000 It's like, hey, Kathleen, you're in charge.

00:27:45.000 Like, nope, sorry, doing a bar crawl in Turks and Caicos. 0.98

00:27:52.000 She's in charge of the greatest fighting force the world has never seen. 0.85

00:27:55.000 Now you learn. 0.85

00:27:56.000 Can we get a picture of Kathleen Hicks? 0.96

00:27:59.000 By the way, what island was she on? 0.96

00:28:00.000 What was she doing?

00:28:01.000 I mean, again, everyone deserves vacation.

00:28:03.000 I totally understand that.

00:28:04.000 But she was not told why.

00:28:06.000 And then she remained on vacation.

00:28:09.000 She kept on vacationing in a foreign country. 0.99

00:28:12.000 She looks like a high school principal.

00:28:13.000 No offense.

00:28:14.000 It's fine.

00:28:14.000 Great.

00:28:15.000 Does this look like the menacing force that we need against the Chinese Communist Party? 0.89

00:28:19.000 Meanwhile, she's sipping margaritas by the pool in the Bahamas.

00:28:25.000 Yeah, let's get that picture up there.

00:28:26.000 Again, fine, whatever.

00:28:28.000 Terrific.

00:28:29.000 Be nice if we knew if you were in charge.

00:28:31.000 And she kept.

00:28:32.000 That's the case.

00:28:33.000 I got to be honest.

00:28:34.000 That really is the most amazing part of the story.

00:28:37.000 So Kathleen Hicks gets a phone call.

00:28:39.000 Hey, by the way, Lloyd Austin's been in the hospital for a couple of weeks.

00:28:43.000 You're in charge.

00:28:45.000 She has to make a decision.

00:28:47.000 Do I keep vacationing or do I not?

00:28:50.000 Nah, I'm going to keep vacationing.

00:28:53.000 Is anyone running this military?

00:28:55.000 Does anybody care?

00:28:57.000 I mean, who's in charge here?

00:28:59.000 This is no longer a laughing matter.

00:29:01.000 This is an existential national security threat.

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00:30:11.000 I don't know for certain about Ray Epps.

00:30:13.000 There's something smells about it.

00:30:15.000 Something doesn't feel right.

00:30:17.000 There is no evidence to suggest that I can say right here with 100% certainty that Ray Epps is a federal agent.

00:30:24.000 I can't say that.

00:30:25.000 We don't know that.

00:30:25.000 But there's something that just smells about the whole thing.

00:30:29.000 So Ray Epps has now been sentenced to one year probation and a $500 fine.

00:30:38.000 Meanwhile, other people that have entered the Capitol and didn't touch anybody have received harsh sentences.

00:30:47.000 And Blake is getting together other examples. 0.92

00:30:50.000 The New York Times hates all white men except Ray Epps. 0.94

00:30:54.000 They wrote this article. 0.74

00:30:56.000 A Trump backer's downfall is the target of a January 6th conspiracy theory.

00:31:01.000 Prosecutors recommended six months behind bars for Epps.

00:31:06.000 So Ray Epps, who we have on tape, this is a fact, saying that we should go into the Capitol, go into the Capitol.

00:31:15.000 We have him saying that.

00:31:18.000 We have him in a text message.

00:31:20.000 I want to make sure I get my facts right, but we have him in a text message saying something of the sort to a family member that I am responsible for this.

00:31:29.000 Something of that variety.

00:31:31.000 I want to make sure we get our facts 100% crisp here.

00:31:36.000 And he got a less punishment than Owen Schroer, InfoWars host, who never entered the Capitol and got solitary confinement in a federal prison.

00:31:49.000 Right now, Siaka Masakwai, an amazing black patriot who poked his head inside of the Capitol for 10 seconds and walked out, is facing years in prison.

00:32:01.000 This is cut 57 of Ray Epps, play cut 57.

00:32:06.000 Yeah, well, just saying, come on, we're far beyond that.

00:32:10.000 If you're not far beyond that, oh, yeah, you know that.

00:32:13.000 I know.

00:32:14.000 In fact, tomorrow, I don't even like to say it because I'll be arrested.

00:32:18.000 Well, let's not say it.

00:32:19.000 We need to go.

00:32:20.000 I'll say it.

00:32:21.000 All right.

00:32:21.000 We need to go in to the Capitol.

00:32:26.000 So he says it the night before on January 5th.

00:32:28.000 We need to go into the Capitol.

00:32:29.000 Now, amazingly, some of the people then respond to him by saying Fed, Fed, Fed.

00:32:35.000 And ironically and tragically, the very same people that said Fed, Fed, Fed actually ended up going into the Capitol and are now serving federal prison.

00:32:42.000 Ray Epps told people the night before to enter the Capitol.

00:32:45.000 He told people the day of to enter the Capitol.

00:32:48.000 He was in town to see Trump speak.

00:32:50.000 He says, but he wasn't at the speech.

00:32:52.000 He told people vaguely to leave certain weapons behind before we quote go in to avoid getting shot.

00:32:58.000 He was initially pushing one of the most, he was initially pushed as one of the most wanted figures on January 6th, and then he was removed from the website.

00:33:06.000 Was he a Fed?

00:33:07.000 We can't say either way, period.

00:33:09.000 We can't.

00:33:10.000 We're not going to say positively or negatively.

00:33:12.000 We don't know.

00:33:13.000 We don't know.

00:33:15.000 But the idea that this is just a baseless conspiracy theory is a lie.

00:33:19.000 And now this slap on the wrist sentencing only is fuel to the fire of such foundational speculation.

00:33:30.000 They're pushing an actual lie about January 6th that this was an insurrection by Trump.

00:33:37.000 He is one of the only people that we have on camera and the only person that I know off the top of my head explicitly saying the night before that we need to enter the Capitol.

00:33:49.000 So they're trying to put Donald Trump in prison for incitement.

00:33:53.000 What about the guy that didn't even attend the speech that was almost acting like a field general?

00:33:59.000 This feels and senses, we sense it's almost like a cover-up.

00:34:05.000 That if they did nothing, it would be too obvious.

00:34:10.000 But if he pled and the right arrangements were made, Ray Epps could get no prison time, one year probation, and a $500 fine.

00:34:24.000 So the most immediate, important question is: will every other January 6th defendant that is now facing the same sort of trials be treated similarly?

00:34:35.000 If they plead, will they be treated the way Ray Epps was treated?

00:34:41.000 Probably not.

00:34:43.000 Because what we have Ray Epps doing on camera is far more suspicious and borderline incriminating than what some of these other people have been sentenced for.

00:34:55.000 Trespassing, interfering with an official proceeding.

00:35:00.000 Ray Epps is charged with a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct.

00:35:03.000 In a vacuum, that's not an undercharge.

00:35:05.000 That's what everyone on JSEX who didn't literally assault an officer should have gotten.

00:35:09.000 But instead, only Epps gets it nearly three years later.

00:35:13.000 This thing smells.

00:35:14.000 It smells, it smells, it smells.

00:35:18.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:35:19.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:35:22.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:35:24.000 God bless.

00:35:27.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - January 09, 2024

The Incredible Vanishing Defense Secretary

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