00:00:56.000Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
00:01:06.000Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at Noble Gold Investments.com.
00:02:16.000But Blake, that was the big news over the weekend.
00:02:18.000This rescue mission, we had the F 15E that was shot down in Iran.
00:02:24.000And then we got one, we got the pilot back, but the WISO, it's a new term that everybody now is aware of, which is the weapon systems operator, was not rescued or recovered immediately.
00:02:36.000And it was this harrowing, almost two day journey where we learned that this gentleman hiked up a 7,000 foot mountainous region in Iran.
00:05:36.000Weapons systems operator would have been captured.
00:05:39.000The added leverage that they would have had over President Trump and the Trump administration is we're trying to negotiate a potential peace.
00:05:46.000We're hearing rumors of a 45 day peace plan that's going back and forth.
00:05:50.000President Trump is saying, hey, you got 48 hours.
00:05:53.000He extended that to, I believe, 8 p.m. Eastern Tuesday.
00:06:00.000And it sounds like President Trump's willing to start targeting additional targets that would be more infrastructure based, bridges, power plants, this sort of thing.
00:06:47.000That's probably in the top 10 of strange Trump tweets, a highly memorable one.
00:06:51.000But he was certainly sending the message that he remains prepared to blow things up.
00:06:59.000Well, and listen, I hope, like I said, for the sake of the Iranian people in the future, that this is saber rattling, that President Trump.
00:07:25.000There were clips of him during this Easter egg roll at the White House where he's saying, Listen, I would love to take the oil, but I want to get out.
00:07:34.000The American people don't understand that, and I want to keep the American people happy.
00:07:40.000So the Iranian people, the Iranian regime, I should say, understands that there is a time limit to our patience here and the amount of.
00:07:48.000Leash that we're given the president, and there's political calculations now.
00:07:52.000So, they're basically saying we're going to hunker in, our leaders are going to continue getting killed, we're going to get all this stuff blown to smithereens, we're just going to wait it out, and there's not much you can do about it.
00:08:01.000The leverage point that President Trump has is that we have air superiority, air dominance, we're going to blow up a bunch of stuff.
00:08:09.000And in essence, their linchpin here is the Strait of Hormuz that they think that they can use that to keep leverage over the entire world.
00:08:22.000And we're not sure where it's going to work out and where it's going to end up, but hopefully saner minds will come to the fore and we'll get a peace deal.
00:08:30.000I'm not sure that, as you say all the time, Blake, you can choose when you start a war, you can't always choose when you get out of it.
00:08:38.000And the Strait of Hormuz, being this point of leverage that they have over the United States, is a huge point of leverage.
00:08:44.000It's a huge obstacle to getting this done.
00:08:47.000And the problem with the Strait of Hormuz is you can block it with relatively.
00:08:53.000Unsophisticated means, small boats that float around, drop mines, and then you lock down 20% of the world's oil trade.
00:09:01.000That's been the whole problem with the war.
00:09:02.000It's been, you know, we have to lob missiles that cost $50 million, but a lot of modern warfare is mines you can make for a few thousand dollars, drones that are the price of a Honda Civic.
00:09:15.000And a lot of it is about how quickly you can manufacture things, how quickly you can get them to the front.
00:09:21.000And so we're seeing that challenge unfold, but hopefully we're on the brink of a peace deal.
00:09:27.000That Easter is a time of making peace.
00:09:29.000So hopefully that message might even spread to the mountains of Iran.
00:09:35.000We're still working on getting Dakota Meyer to get his perspective on this rescue mission, which was truly, truly historic.
00:09:43.000I mean, again, whatever you think of this conflict, what our men and women in service in the military did here was truly, truly remarkable.
00:10:24.000He says the downed pilot was a fake cover story for a failed U.S. mission, U.S. military operation to capture Iran's primary stockpile of highly enriched 60% uranium.
00:10:36.000So, the primary stockpile is located at Istfahan, exactly where the pilot was lost.
00:10:42.000This explains why the U.S. heavily bombed the area while searching and why the C 130s were destroyed without loss of life.
00:10:49.000The C 130s were hit on the ground while the special forces attempted to secure the material.
00:10:53.000The entire operation became a massive rescue operation to extract the soldiers.
00:10:59.000Listen, I buy parts of this as at least credible logically, okay?
00:11:11.000What they were doing is the CIA was putting out disinformation intentionally to misdirect the Iranians on the ground.
00:11:19.000So they said that the pilot had already, the pilot and the weapon systems operator, because I remember there was two in the F 15, there were two crew members.
00:11:31.000Then they would bomb or strike anybody that was getting within about two miles of this gentleman who was, this colonel who was up about 7,000 feet.
00:11:53.000Another possibility is that's how the pilot went down, they might have been in danger because that plane might have been supporting the mission in some capacity.
00:12:04.000I think there's some reason to think it could be true, which is just as they say, the location.
00:12:10.000And we know the president was talking about this.
00:12:12.000We know it has been in consideration to launch a mission to get the uranium.
00:12:18.000And we have to think what would that look like?
00:12:19.000Well, it probably would involve a pretty significant outlay of equipment, special forces.
00:12:25.000You'd need big planes to get all of that thousands of pounds of material out.
00:14:07.000And we're told at least 100, but probably more, special forces personnel were on the ground for this.
00:14:15.000We have been talking about what it would take to get the uranium out of Iran, and it would look something like this.
00:14:21.000It would look like this many military assets, this many personnel, special forces, Blackhawks, C 130s, transportation planes.
00:14:30.000So, again, listen, here's what I would say.
00:14:35.000To your point, I think the official narrative is the more feasible narrative, but this is also feasible.
00:14:43.000And I don't necessarily conclude, as what is it, Finance a lot concludes that it was some massive failure of a mission.
00:14:52.000It could have very well been successful.
00:14:54.000So if you're going to plausibly put out into the world that this could have been this massive failure when they were trying to extract uranium, could have also been highly successful.
00:15:47.000But nevertheless, there's a lot to discuss.
00:15:53.000For a lot of Americans, the healthcare system is reactive.
00:15:56.000You get sick first, and then you wait for an appointment.
00:15:59.000Then insurance decides what you're allowed to have, and suddenly the medication you need is delayed or it's not available.
00:16:05.000That is where all family pharmacy is different.
00:16:08.000This is not a typical pharmacy, it's family owned.
00:16:10.000I know these guys, they're great guys.
00:16:12.000Works with licensed doctors and is built around a simple idea that's the idea that you should have the freedom to make informed choices about your own health and the ability to prepare ahead of time.
00:16:22.000So you're not reactive anymore, you're already prepared.
00:17:33.000And here's what's crazy when people know that Charlie endorsed you, when they know who's behind the other guys, your numbers swell even further.
00:17:54.000I think the people of Kentucky are ready for change.
00:17:57.000We've had a senator in this seat for over 40 years and someone that stabbed the president in the back over and over again.
00:18:05.000And the McConnell machine, they're trying to jam one of their candidates into the seat.
00:18:10.000And I think Kentuckians have had enough of that.
00:18:13.000And I think obviously that's what brought Charlie to Kentucky to endorse our campaign.
00:18:17.000I think that's why he was so passionate that we needed somebody different and a non-career politician, somebody who's an outsider.
00:18:24.000And that's the way we've been running this race.
00:18:26.000And that's the kind of senator we're going to be.
00:18:28.000But what's so fantastic is that I think we have a chance to frame the future of the Republican Party, what it's going to look like, what it's going to stand for.
00:18:41.000This seat is so symbolic in so many different ways.
00:18:43.000And I think that's what Charlie got so excited about.
00:18:46.000But I think that's the opportunity for Kentuckians and for people all over the country to get involved in this race.
00:18:51.000We got six weeks to go, and it's going to send shockwaves when we defeat the McConnell machine in Kentucky.
00:18:57.000And we send a signal around the country that MAGA is here to stay, and the America First movement is here to live on for generations.
00:19:42.000I think a lot of people don't like it.
00:19:43.000And you kind of realize what President Trump's up against.
00:19:48.000These broader political dynamics that we're seeing play out right now, whether it's the support of our troops or just this kind of it's kind of a black pill like a rooting for us to fail or something.
00:19:59.000I, you know, I'm trying to assess the nihilism that you see sometimes online.
00:20:04.000What do you make of it, uh, Nate Morris?
00:20:06.000Well, I mean, let's start with the United States Senate.
00:20:09.000We have so many senators right now that claim to be Republicans that won't stand with this president to get the Save America Act passed.
00:21:39.000And Charlie was right to point this out so many times.
00:21:42.000And all the mess over there is coming here, that same kind of thinking, if we don't get so tough.
00:21:49.000And that's why we got to have people with spines of steel that are willing to hit the machine with everything they've got when they get to Washington and stand strong, especially on immigration.
00:21:58.000Yeah, I mean, it's not even just Europe that's fallen.
00:22:01.000We were talking with Gad Sad on the show the other day, and we've got a Senate candidate running in the Michigan race who says he won't talk about, for example, Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, being taken out because there's a lot of people in his state, in Dearborn, in the area around Detroit, who are very upset about it.
00:22:22.000And I feel whatever you think of the war that's unfolding right now, it's been very revealing that we've imported a lot of people who, if the US gets in a war with a foreign power that is hostile to us, They will cheer for that foreign power.
00:23:51.000And we got to have people in the mold of President Trump that don't owe the swamp anything and are willing to fight with everything they've got.
00:23:59.000So, Nate, I think Blake and I have described the immigration invasion as the switch that, if you flip it, solves a host of ills, maybe all the ills, right?
00:24:10.000So, there was a guy named Tyler Oliveira who went down to Frisco, Texas.
00:24:38.000A once quiet farm town turned home to one of the largest and fastest growing Indian communities in America.
00:24:44.000As the Indian population exploded from less than 2% to almost 20% Indian in the last 20 years, many Texans are outraged, declaring there has been an Indian invasion.
00:25:17.000We got to start with actual fighters that are willing to make these hard stands and you expand the Overton window of what's possible.
00:25:24.000But, Nate, what do you make of this with the H 1Bs and what's happening in Frisco?
00:25:27.000Well, I think there's historical precedent for a moratorium.
00:25:30.000I mean, we remember for about a 40 year period from the 1920s to the 1960s.
00:25:35.000Happen for these the wave of immigrants that came into our country to Americanize.
00:25:40.000We got to get we got to get back there again.
00:25:42.000We've we've had so many people come into the country we know nothing about, and I've made it clear any form of immigration has got to stop until we send every illegal back.
00:25:52.000And I think a lot of folks, you know, they feel the same way, they get very animated by this issue, they see on the ground all the challenges that are happening.
00:26:02.000But I've been very clear about it all immigration stops until every illegal goes back, and I think.
00:26:16.000We're going to send you back if you try to invade us.
00:26:19.000And I believe this is a threat to our quality of life, Western life, and most importantly, our national security.
00:26:26.000I mean, we have to remember we've got a lot of people that wish to do us harm, and we certainly don't want them infiltrating our borders unnecessarily.
00:26:34.000And that's certainly what happened under Joe Biden.
00:26:38.000Again, if you send Nate Morris to D.C., the message will be heard loud and clear.
00:26:42.000Clear that this is a winning message and that people across the political spectrum, actually, even Democrats, I believe this, Nate, want this, even if they're not willing to say it out loud because it's not politically expedient or appropriate for them to do so.
00:26:54.000But deep down, they know we have a problem.
00:26:57.000We know that the country has transformed in 20 years, and even Democrats want to see that stop, in my opinion.
00:27:03.000NateMorris.com support this man, send him money, send him support, volunteer if you're in Kentucky.
00:28:35.000We had some technical difficulties earlier in the hour, but he's back.
00:28:39.000I just want to make a quick note about his service.
00:28:43.000He's a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
00:28:45.000He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Ganjgal on September 8, 2009.
00:28:52.000Meyer is the second youngest living Medal of Honor recipient.
00:28:56.000He's the third living recipient for either the Iraq war or the war in Afghanistan, and he's the first living United States Marine in 38 years to be honored.
00:29:06.000So we're very, very proud to have Dakota Meyer join the show.
00:29:09.000Dakota, welcome to the Charlie Cook Show.
00:29:18.000So I just wanted to get your perspective as somebody that has been in really fierce battle situations like this.
00:29:27.000When you're reading the headlines and the details of how they rescued this WISO, this weapons systems operator, 7,000 feet up on a mountain in a crevice and the beacon and the special forces, how incredible is this even to you?
00:29:42.000Yeah, I mean, look, first off, it's nothing more than a display of what our men and women who serve this country are truly capable of, right?
00:29:50.000I mean, they've always been capable of it.
00:29:53.000And this is also an example of our loyalty to each other, of leave no man behind and our commitment to our men and women who go and fight.
00:30:01.000But what I want to point out mostly of this is we can't overlook the fact that what happened is we have leadership who are willing to not put any politics, any policy, and not give a about anything other than what is in the best interest of an American that's trapped, that is needing our help, and they're willing to risk it all in order to go get it.
00:30:24.000It was not about, well, is it worth it?
00:30:27.000It was like, hey, we're going to throw everything at it.
00:30:29.000And that's what happens when you've got leadership like we have up there right now.
00:30:33.000When we've got a sec war who's been on the ground, who's been shot at, who understands what the battlefield's like, I mean, that is exactly what happened.
00:30:41.000And I think that, you know, as, yeah, we've got men and women who are able to go execute the impossible.
00:30:47.000They're absolutely, we have the best men and women in the world who wear the uniform.
00:30:51.000And that's what you got to see a piece of.
00:30:57.000I think the thing that stands out to me is there was a bunch of people on social media talking about how we lost all these aircraft, these C 130s, a bunch of Blackhawks got shot up.
00:31:09.000And the first thing that comes to my mind is the fact that, oh, well, Joe Biden left behind, what, $80 billion of equipment in Afghanistan, just left it there.
00:31:19.000And people are going to start criticizing the fact that these special service personnel, You know, blew up a couple C 130s to make sure they didn't fall into enemy hands.
00:31:29.000So I don't understand even the comparison here.
00:31:32.000This is what you're trained to do in these scenarios.
00:31:34.000Am I right, Dakota, to make sure that, you know, we don't leave valuable equipment and technology to fall into enemy hands?
00:31:42.000Yeah, I mean, look, you don't see anybody out there who's ever been shot at that's sitting here saying, why did we do this, right?
00:31:52.000A lot of people say a lot of things and let them talk from their perspective, but it's almost like trying to explain to my kids why they shouldn't run across the road sometimes.
00:32:02.000It's really, you just can't expect them to understand and to be able to comprehend when they've never done it or they've never seen the consequences of it.
00:32:08.000But look, they can all have their opinion because there's men and women who are out there who are willing to go do the nation's bidding so that they can have that freedom of speech.
00:32:15.000But again, like I would tell you what I think it does is I think it sends a message.
00:32:20.000I think it sends a message to our men and women who are out there fighting that, hey, we've got leadership there right now who aren't going to negotiate and who are not going to sit back and tolerate or even risk the fact of you getting caught or even say, hey, look, it's not worth fighting over you for.
00:32:35.000So, you know, I think it sends a message across the men and women who are putting their life on the line that we have leadership that's going to do whatever it takes to get you back whenever you're in that situation.
00:32:45.000I'm curious your perspective, Dakota, somebody who's been fighting in this sort of like next gen of wars, right?
00:32:54.000And you hear this echoed from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as well, because he's of a similar generation.
00:32:59.000These are men and women that have fought largely in the Middle East, thousands of miles away.
00:33:07.000And this dynamic that you sometimes see play out on social media where people feel uncomfortable with the idea of doing this again, this war in Iran, boots on the ground.
00:33:19.000You know, I know it's probably got to be an internal conflict, but you know, you've put your life on the line.
00:33:24.000You sacrificed greatly for this country.
00:33:27.000What do you make of the Iran war or conflict or excursion, however you want to describe it?
00:33:32.000Yeah, I mean, look, I think it's a best case scenario right now.
00:33:35.000I mean, look, it doesn't, I haven't seen any troops on the ground.
00:33:37.000I mean, you know, we're able to go in and we've got, look, the best thing that we need is we need people who, what you want fighting a war is people who don't want war, right?
00:33:46.000And that's what you have up there is a leadership right now who are going to do whatever it takes to win.
00:34:57.000I think a generally positive and reassuring thing about the events of this past weekend is I know we've had.
00:35:06.000A lot of concern about the overall state of the U.S. armed forces.
00:35:10.000And I think it's a good confirmation that we're still able to do very cool and very effective and very lethal stuff.
00:35:20.000And it's good confirmation of that, whatever else we're concerned about the conflict.
00:35:24.000I think that's my big takeaway from this weekend the U.S. military is still a very formidable force, especially in those specialist operations.
00:35:37.000I mean, everybody's been concerned about like, like exactly.
00:35:40.000I think it's a great point that Blake made right.
00:35:42.000I mean, everybody's been concerned about, you know, the state of our military and things like that.
00:35:46.000And I think over the last few months uh, we can say that our military is just fine.
00:35:50.000Uh, we're still the most lethal force on the face of the planet and if you are an enemy of the United States Of America or the American people uh, you're not not safe anywhere, especially with this type of leadership who's willing to do whatever it takes to put America first.
00:36:03.000And you know, and I think, as a service member, I think morale's high.
00:36:06.000I mean, I think that morale is high right now across the board.
00:36:09.000I mean, you've got, you've got marines sitting on a ship out there and look A group of Marines to come in there.
00:36:18.000And so, you know, I think that it's good.
00:36:51.000For more than 12 years, they've stood with Americans who believe freedom is worth fighting for, funding the Christian conservative movement when others stayed silent.
00:37:00.000And here's the deal you don't have to give up quality or service when you switch to Patriot Mobile.
00:37:04.000They deliver premium, priority access on all three major U.S. networks.
00:37:08.000So, you'll get the same or better coverage than you have today.
00:37:57.000Hearing directly from the students, it's super, super important to understand where the country's at, where our young people are at, where we're obviously going to go in the future.
00:38:04.000So without further ado, Charlie Klontz, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:40:09.000But even amongst Trump supporters, students that voted for Trump in 2024, what's the vibe about Iran?
00:40:16.000A lot of people are falling victim to blackpilling, quite frankly.
00:40:19.000I've noticed this, especially with the people who flirt with the alt right type things, a little bit farther right than what is conventional.
00:40:27.000But a lot of people are very afraid of a repeat of Iraq, a repeat of the forever wars.
00:40:33.000And while that is reasonable, I also think that the people that we have in charge are much more competent than before.
00:40:39.000So I think that while there are a lot of people really concerned about a prolonged conflict, I think in the same manner of Venezuela, People are a fan of the leadership being taken out, but also are greatly afraid of something prolonged and something that could really be damaging for everybody.
00:41:17.000I'm trying to get inside the head of a young person who only grew up with those wars ongoing but doesn't remember 9 11 or the launching of those wars.
00:41:26.000Just what's the attitude that people bring towards military conflict?
00:41:30.000Do they have certain assumptions that go into it?
00:41:34.000I would say there's general distrust of American foreign policy, especially in the Middle East.
00:41:40.000While a lot of those people were generally very happy, including myself, with how Venezuela went and very happy initially with how Iran's gone, they are generally skeptical of they've had a government that's led them on, that's drained us for billions or trillions of dollars at this point in the Middle East.
00:41:58.000And there's a lot of weariness when it comes to overseas conflicts.
00:42:03.000I mean, this dates back to Vietnam and farther.
00:42:07.000So, but just so you say distrust, is it just when you guys were in middle school, high school, you just remember these conflicts sort of being this background drag, this background problem?
00:42:36.000So, try and get inside the mind of maybe some of the other.
00:42:39.000Chapter members or just conservatives on campus, does their patriotism hinge on their support or lack thereof for this Iran conflict?
00:42:48.000Meaning, if they don't support it, they just feel they're just black pilling, they hate America, they want to see it all burn, or they just don't care anymore, they're throwing up, they're opting out.
00:43:44.000I've heard a couple flirt with the idea.
00:43:46.000I think for the most part, I would say 75, 80, 90% of our members are still content with their decision to vote for Trump, as is myself as a Pennsylvania voter.
00:43:57.000But, you know, there's people who say, oh, Camilla would have been better, you know, somewhat jokingly, but sometimes from these alt right people, they're very serious.
00:44:06.000And I just, there's no way that they're nuts.
00:45:45.000We're monitoring the press conference.
00:45:48.000President Trump seems to be describing the rescue mission right now.
00:45:52.000He did say that we could take out Iran in one night, which might be tomorrow night, which is a heck of a thing to say.
00:46:00.000We want Iran to be functional should a new leadership come into place, and we want to look out for the Iranian people.
00:46:06.000So, a little bit of note of caution, but President Trump, he's exerting his leverage as he sees fit right now.
00:46:13.000We want to continue the conversation with Charlie Klontz, Clemson University, TPUSA chapter president, proud school in the ACC.
00:46:21.000All right, so if we're getting into this foreign policy debate, which I've said often is the most controversial, divisive issue within the coalition that won President Trump the White House in 2024.
00:47:03.000I think whether some people have, they're shifting.
00:47:07.000Opinions in terms of how our relationship should be with them, but people are, especially the young generation, are totally done with them as an ally.
00:47:16.000They are frustrated with APAC, they're frustrated with many of them, feel like we've been drugged into a war now with Iran because of Israel.
00:47:25.000And while you can debate the truth of that, that's certainly the opinion within anybody who's under the age of 30, really.
00:47:33.000That's the consensus, basically, is what you're saying, right or wrong, whether you agree or dis, but but in that's.
00:47:40.000Within the turning point chapter, outside of the turning point chapter?
00:47:44.000When you say done with Israel, do you just mean reexamining them as an ally?
00:47:52.000What are kids saying specifically about that?
00:47:54.000I think that a lot of people feel that we aren't being treated properly by the Israeli government, specifically Netanyahu.
00:48:02.000But that's leading a lot of people to question whether we should have a relationship with Israel at all.
00:48:07.000Do you feel that that, how often is that boiling over into, Let's just say anti Semitism or kind of the brain worm.
00:48:17.000I certainly see it where people make everything about Israel or they start getting obsessed with the finance class, the various tropes that come with sort of being obsessed with the Jews all of the time.
00:48:31.000Well, people are frustrated with neocons within the movement, people like Bill Kristol, Lindsey Graham.
00:48:39.000And people are frustrated with them and they feel that that has somewhat poisoned the movement to a degree.
00:48:45.000And While that kind of reflects more poorly, especially amongst the young people who are kind of out on that neocon foreign policy, a lot of people have, you know, there's a way to go about it without being, you know, anti Semitic.
00:49:00.000I don't think that, but there are certainly, obviously, you know, your alt right people of the world who will always make it about, you know, what they call like global Judaism or whatever you want to call it.
00:49:12.000But I think there's a way to examine our relationship with Israel without it being about every Jewish person or, you know, or even just Jews as a whole.
00:50:00.000I don't know if you saw, but at the Student Action Summit in 2025 in Florida, we had a whole roundtable discussion, Charlie and I, about listening to students' views on Israel.
00:50:12.000And things they were sympathetic to were that they share intel with us, that we share a common adversary in radical Islam, and Islam is conquering Western civilization or has a desire to do so.
00:50:24.000And so I think there's an important sort of middle lane here that we could.
00:50:28.000Capture where you sort of say, Hey, let's reassess.
00:50:30.000Should we fund Israel, you know, to the tune of four billion dollars on an annuity every year?
00:50:34.000Uh, what's how do we assess the relationship as to in terms of how they're an ally?
00:51:14.000I think foreign aid as a whole needs to be reexamined.
00:51:17.000But Israel being a large beneficiary, especially big name beneficiary of foreign aid, I think a lot of people are done with that, especially when you consider how their foreign aid is structured.
00:51:28.000They can kind of spend it however they want as opposed to other benefits or beneficiaries of foreign aid.
00:51:35.000But I was supposed to be on that student panel with Charlie at Student Action Summit.
00:52:11.000They don't want nation building abroad.
00:52:13.000I think they're sick of foreign entanglements, foreign wars.
00:52:16.000And Iran, you know, whether or not it was the right geopolitical national security decision or not, it certainly comes with a lot of political risk here at home.
00:52:26.000And I think most pronounced is going to be with young people, especially going into the midterms.
00:52:31.000And so that's my next question for you, Charlie.
00:52:33.000In the midterms, do you feel there's an enthusiasm to get out and vote?
00:52:38.000I mean, South Carolina might be different because you have Paul Dans, you have Lynch.
00:52:42.000As alternatives to Lindsey Graham, but are you sensing that there's an enthusiasm to be civically engaged ahead of the midterms?
00:52:49.000It's difficult to say as a whole, but I think people are pretty thrilled on the state level about getting out there.
00:52:54.000But there are also people who are worried about the state of everything, the state of Iran.
00:53:00.000I live next to a gas station, I look back and see the gas price every day.
00:53:04.000So there are definitely those concerns.
00:53:07.000Well, I think on the state level, South Carolina does well.
00:53:09.000I think there are definitely reasons to be a little bit alarmed nationally, but I think the more recent polling looks better, which is always a good sign.
00:53:59.000He didn't chase a diploma or a title, he chased truth.
00:54:03.000Through Hillsdale College's free online courses, he studied the great works of the classics, the principles of the American founding, and the life changing truths of the Bible.
00:54:11.000Those ideas didn't just inform him, they shaped his character, strengthened his convictions, and prepared him for the challenges ahead.
00:54:18.000One of the courses he took was the Genesis story, taught by Hillsdale professor Dr. Justin Jackson.
00:54:24.000This free online course explores the relationship between God and man, what happens when that relationship is broken, and the path toward reconciliation.
00:54:32.000It's a real college course, rigorous, thoughtful, and accessible to anyone willing to learn.
00:54:37.000You can take the very same course completely free.
00:54:40.000Grow stronger in your faith, gain clarity about humanity and your place in the world, prepare yourself for a life with courage and conviction.
00:54:48.000Visit charlieforhillsdale.com to enroll today.
00:55:03.000You and I were cracking up over text because I just felt like you got yourself embroiled in one of those classic Charlie controversies where you said something like pretty based and then you got featured on The View.
00:55:38.000If you're not encouraging your children to grow up and have the courage to get married and have kids, more kids than they can afford before they think they're ready, it is high time to start.
00:55:48.000It is these choices, like deleting our dating apps and quitting birth control pills and saying I do at the altar, that ultimately trickle down into the political policies that we will see save our country.
00:56:06.000Well, Andrew, as you can see, that was a clip taken from CPAC, which happened a little over a week ago now.
00:56:11.000And I was asked to speak on a panel with four people total, all women, about the importance of the family as the center of American society.
00:56:18.000It's hardly a new topic or particularly a controversial one in the conservative movement, especially as you know, with Charlie refocusing conservatism really on that foundation of faith and family over these past few years for young people.
00:56:31.000That was the last answer that I gave on a 30 minute panel to the last question asking me to give a message to the audience of advice for how to save American culture.
00:56:41.000If you've ever been to CPAC, you'll probably know that the average age in the audience is a little bit older than myself.
00:56:46.000So I was speaking to people my parents' age and saying, Hey, you need to tell your adult children the real way we're going to save our country is to have the courage to fall in love and get married.
00:56:54.000I had no idea this was going to be such a controversy across our country.
00:56:58.000I certainly never thought The View would be picking it up for an entire segment.
00:57:02.000But a week ago today, logged on after receiving a DM from a reporter asking me to comment on what The View had to say and learned the ladies of the left are so deeply offended by the idea of having children.
00:57:15.000If you remotely suggest this, good luck to you.
00:57:18.000You'll be smeared all over national television.
00:57:21.000Yeah, well, they said that you were wrapping up a woman's worth into her ovaries, which, you know, is a take.
00:58:15.000Anna Navarro is probably like, please don't procreate.
00:58:20.000If you're like that, we're not suggesting you should procreate.
00:58:24.000What do you take about this whole thing?
00:58:26.000Because it kind of gives way to a larger discussion about a woman's role in society, right?
00:58:33.000Now, I would think that you do a podcast, but that gives you a lot of leeway and flexibility with your schedule to be basically a stay at home mom who does work, obviously, but explain this dynamic.
00:58:45.000For people at home that don't understand the controversy.
00:58:48.000Yeah, well, first, I'll just address some of those comments right there because every time I hear this clip replayed over and over, the more frustrated I get.
00:58:56.000First of all, obviously, never said a woman's only worth is wrapped up in our reproductive system.
00:59:01.000But I do think that we treat women and pregnancy, the most beautiful thing that women get to experience, the only time that humanity is invited into creating new life right alongside God.
00:59:13.000We treat this as something like a disability or something that's going to destroy the rest of your life, it's going to maybe kill you.
00:59:19.000That's certainly how it's presented on TikTok to the women of my generation instead of what it really is.
00:59:26.000Like, nothing would make me happier having experienced pregnancy, childbirth, and raising my daughter through her first year of life this last year.
00:59:33.000Nothing would make me happier than seeing more women encouraged to embrace this joy, this purpose, and fulfillment that is unlike anything else that humanity really has to offer.
00:59:42.000It's not a disability, it's a superpower.
00:59:45.000That said, I think it's been funny this last week to see how many people are upset with me for what I had to say from various angles.
00:59:51.000For some, I'm this extreme trad wife that's barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
00:59:56.000And how dare I tell working women that you do?
01:00:30.000Well, anyway, so for some, it's really this like you're an extreme trad wife and you're saying women are never allowed to work.
01:00:37.000And then on the other flip side of things, people look at me and say, oh my gosh, this woman is a secret, covert feminist because she has a full time job.
01:00:44.000And yet now she's also telling people to have children.
01:00:47.000How dare she say that people can balance both?
01:00:50.000And nobody ultimately will be happy with this.
01:00:52.000But I really do think that we are underselling women's capacity for greatness.
01:00:57.000So much in the modern discourse about motherhood.
01:01:03.000And there will be sacrifices that have to be made along the way to prioritize your family, which of course is the most important thing, far more important to your life than a paycheck.
01:01:12.000But to tell women that it's impossible for them when they're facing pregnancy in their life to graduate from college or to start their own business or to be a successful attorney or politician or doctor, that's just not true objectively.
01:01:24.000And I think we should be speaking life into this next generation of women.
01:01:28.000The same way that Charlie spoke so much life into my family and my husband and I, that it takes a great team to raise a beautiful family, but it's possible and it's worthy for saving society for the next generation.
01:01:39.000Not just, yeah, not just possible, but literally the future will only belong to the people who show up for it.
01:01:46.000And I just find it bizarre that you've encountered this sort of hostility.
01:01:50.000And you try to get inside the head of the ladies at the Viewer, wherever, and you ask, what do they envision society looking like in 50 years or 100 years or 1,000 years if they're going to have this attitude that motherhood and parenting and families are this optional lifestyle accessory that apparently most people don't need to go for?
01:02:54.000I also have an amazingly blessed career.
01:02:56.000Our podcast is doing great, but my kids matter way more than how many social media followers that I have.
01:03:01.000And I would also tell young ladies, you can always go back to your career later, that there is a window where you primarily should pursue marriage and having children.
01:03:33.000So maybe we should solve the loneliness epidemic by encouraging young ladies to get married and have children.
01:03:38.000It's good for them, it's good for America, and it's good for our future.
01:03:42.000Yeah, and this is what I want to get into, Isabel.
01:03:45.000It's kind of why I reference your particular career.
01:03:47.000I do think there are some careers that lend themselves well to still being a mom and not, but when we kind of imagine the average, let's say middle management in a cubicle, like that's really hard to still be raising your kids.
01:03:59.000And when we look at the life cycle of a mom, you graduate, you're not married, you're not married yet, right?
01:04:07.000You're probably looking for a career, you start a career, but then you have a family, right?
01:04:13.000And it's so short when you start having families.
01:04:15.000I mean, I've got three little kids that the window, and I can already tell from my eight year old daughter that it's like it's such a short window when they're really little and really reliant on you and when they need you around all the time.
01:04:26.000And I just think, listen, if it's a five year gap, if it's a 10 year gap, what could be more important and valuable than a mom devoting her life to raising her children and her husband's children?
01:04:40.000I want to get into that because this seems to be where all of this goes to work life balance.
01:04:46.000There's a certain wing of the conservative movement that's like, listen, if you're not encouraging women to stay at home and raise their children, you're not conservative at all.
01:04:56.000I had kind of a back and forth with Lisa Booth, actually, from Fox News, where I guess she doesn't have kids.
01:05:02.000And she was saying that that POV is turning off women in the conservative movement.
01:05:06.000So, how do we strike a balance here that actually resembles pragmatism, the truth, lived experience?
01:05:12.000I think that's an important nuance to your question about turning off or turning on women in the Conservative movement, because truly in 2026, it is so, so important for us to be strategic in how we are messaging to young women.
01:05:24.000Young men of my generation have been incredibly privileged to have the voices of Charlie Kirk.
01:05:29.000And I'm thinking of other men like Brandon Tatum and Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles, Jordan Peterson, people who have been feeding into masculinity and reviving God given manhood for the last several years really, a decade or so in culture.
01:05:41.000Women have yet to really have that upswing.
01:05:44.000And you're watching the cultural attack on womanhood.
01:05:47.000Gets so much stronger and so much louder than it ever was calling masculinity toxic.
01:05:51.000For us, it's erasing womanhood altogether, calling you a birthing person, trying to outsource pregnancy to birth robots they're currently making in China, making new babies in petri dishes, in laboratories, in startup companies in San Francisco, and everything else.
01:06:07.000I mean, just the most dystopian stuff you've ever heard of, ironically, from the same people who often scream at you about the handmaid's tail as a conservative.
01:06:14.000And so I think there's this confusion among young women in society.
01:06:17.000What is my life supposed to look like?
01:06:19.000Supposed to embrace the new wave of this girl boss thing where the only thing that matters is my career.
01:06:25.000And I'm essentially mocked and ridiculed if I even want to get married or have kids.
01:06:30.000Or is there a different path that I may take where either I can choose to be a stay at home mom or I can work as a mom?
01:06:36.000But either way, my family is the more central part of my identity.
01:06:40.000My faith in my family will ultimately matter so much more than my computer screen and my cubicle.
01:06:46.000If the right can learn how to message effectively in that regard, I think we have nothing but opportunity.
01:06:51.000To connect with young women who, of course, instinctually want to commit their life to a beautiful man who loves them and lays his life down for them for the rest of their lives in marriage, and of course wants to bring new life into the world.
01:07:03.000We have a natural motherhood instinct that society is trying to get us to ignore.
01:07:08.000And you saw it on full display with The View last week, essentially saying if you even want kids, that's the wrong decision, and you're only putting women back into a box of their ovaries in the past.
01:07:19.000Yeah, and I just want to revisit this idea.
01:07:21.000And I'd love Blake's POV as somebody that's kind of not in this cycle yet, in the season of his life yet.
01:07:26.000But I'm telling you, there is something.
01:07:40.000I just, again, whether it's five years or 10 years, this season of a woman and a mother's life, where if they can find a way for her to stay home and be with the kids full time, I just, I really.
01:07:55.000It's not going to happen for everybody, whether finances preclude it, whether, you know, what other situations, but to have it as an ideal, I think is a beautiful thing.
01:08:03.000And you're somebody that, like I said, you have a, if you can get a situation where you can kind of work from home and you can make that work and be full time with your kids still, I think that's great too.
01:08:13.000There's not a one size fits all, but I do think lifting up an ideal is really, I think it's so precious because that clip Charlie said, it's, Beautiful, it's God given, it's an amazing thing for this season where they're so reliant on you, and it's the formative years where so much of their the rest of their life is going to be shaped.
01:08:31.000I have zero problem lifting that up as the ideal because I think that your kids will be blessed, your marriage will be blessed.
01:08:39.000I think the mother will be blessed, and you can always go back to work, you can always go back to your career.
01:08:43.000If you are able and blessed like you to have a career where you can kind of have find a fusion of the two, I think that's amazing too.
01:08:50.000But, anyways, I maybe I'm as a man, I'm mansplaining, but that's how I feel about it, honestly.
01:08:56.000I don't know, Blake, if that resonated at all or not, but.
01:09:02.000I think in the end, it's a question of values.
01:09:06.000We talk a lot about how to encourage families, and I think the focus often ends up just, oh, try to throw them money for more accessible daycare or something.
01:09:18.000And what you really need to do is you need to win the fight on values.
01:09:21.000You need to sell the narrative that having children is a core part of.
01:09:28.000Certainly, married life and ideally almost everyone's life.
01:09:32.000And it's just something you do because that is what is valuable to society, for civilization, and for your own flourishing.
01:09:41.000And we just have to sell that at all times.
01:09:42.000And once you make that a core thing that you do and it's not just a lifestyle choice, that is what drives it to happen the most.
01:09:50.000And we've seen it fade away so much because we've just turned it into an accessory, a lifestyle choice.
01:09:56.000Because if it's just a choice, it's one a lot of people won't make because it's annoying or difficult, it's inexpensive.
01:10:06.000Yeah, I would just add that we are missing so much purpose in our lives right now, especially as a generation.
01:10:11.000And in the midst of trying to ask, who am I and what am I doing here?
01:10:14.000We're also facing the greatest mental health crisis the world has ever seen.
01:10:18.000Married moms under 35 years old are three times happier than their unmarried childless counterparts.
01:10:26.000And there's something to that because it's a reason to jump out of bed in the morning and to realize our lives are not supposed to be just about ourselves in this.