The Charlie Kirk Show - August 05, 2025


The Obamagate Grand Jury Is Coming


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

167.092

Word count

5,631

Sentence count

516

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A Florida grand jury has been appointed to investigate whether or not to indict former President Barack Obama in the Russiagate scandal. Will this be a good or bad thing? Will it be a step forward or a step back?

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here live from the Bitcoin.com studio.
00:00:04.000 We discuss Russia Gate, why I don't think we should arrest Obama, even though he deserves it.
00:00:10.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com, and subscribe to our podcast.
00:00:14.000 We talk Mamdani economics and what is the greatest economic lie that college kids have coming into college.
00:00:20.000 We unpack that with a professor, Dr. Steele, from America's greatest college, Hillsdale College.
00:00:24.000 Remember, take their free online courses at Hillsdale College.
00:00:27.000 That's charlieforhillsdale.com, charlieforhillsdale.com.
00:00:30.000 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.
00:00:39.000 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, 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.
00:01:05.000 Noble 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.
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00:01:22.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.
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00:01:30.000 Breaking news: Pam Bondi has ordered a federal prosecutor, not named currently, to present evidence before a Florida grand jury to present the case regarding Russia Gate.
00:01:45.000 This is major news, everybody.
00:01:48.000 Now, let's take a step back.
00:01:49.000 Many people in the audience are very skeptical that we will ever see accountability, but this is a very positive development.
00:01:58.000 Time and time again, we've been promised accountability.
00:02:00.000 It goes all the way back.
00:02:02.000 Remember, Benghazi, we spent over a year and a half to two years on Benghazi.
00:02:06.000 Fugesi, Fugazi, Benghazi, Leghazi.
00:02:09.000 What reminds me of the Wolf of Wall Street, Fugazi, Fugazi.
00:02:15.000 We were promised justice for that.
00:02:18.000 We were promised justice for the Hillary Clinton emails.
00:02:21.000 We were promised justice for the people that lied about the Hunter Biden laptop.
00:02:27.000 We were promised justice for the crimes that happened during COVID and the lockdowns and the vaccine mandates and the mask mandates and the corruption of our sciences.
00:02:35.000 So just color me a little bit cautious here that I think immediately that we are going to get perp walks and indictments, but that is what we need.
00:02:45.000 51 intelligence officials under Joe Biden lied about the Hunter Biden laptop.
00:02:51.000 Now, Pam Bodney ordering this federal prosecutor is a good step.
00:02:57.000 Overall, we want to see less chatter, less memes, less talk on social media or TV.
00:03:06.000 We want to see more action.
00:03:08.000 If crimes did happen, investigate it, get the evidence, and be serious about it.
00:03:14.000 But hopefully, the Department of Justice also understands all the risks here.
00:03:19.000 Prosecuting a former president of Barack Obama didn't work great for the Democrats in 2024.
00:03:24.000 So would prosecuting Obama be any better?
00:03:26.000 He did win two elections.
00:03:28.000 The Florida venue is a very ambitious scheme.
00:03:32.000 They apparently want to prosecute Brennan or Obama because the Biden Department of Justice raided Mar-a-Lago six years ago after they left office.
00:03:43.000 That could be seen as catering more to a very specific grievance of the base rather than narrowly looking at the crimes that they can prove.
00:03:51.000 I would introduce some caution here about trying to indict Obama.
00:03:55.000 Of course, I think he probably deserves it.
00:03:58.000 But remember, Obama still remains very popular amongst the American people.
00:04:02.000 You could potentially create a political martyr.
00:04:04.000 Bren, on the other hand.
00:04:06.000 However, I think indicting Brennan and Comey, who are the operators here, we want this case to be ironclad.
00:04:14.000 If you indict them and this fails, it's worse than never even trying.
00:04:18.000 So this needs to be an open and shut case.
00:04:22.000 No reaches, no creativity.
00:04:24.000 Because, for example, if you indict Barack Obama, which I admit he probably deserves it, he'll have the most unbelievable attorneys.
00:04:33.000 It will be the number one news story of the Trump government going after Obama.
00:04:39.000 Remember, Obama has presidential immunity too.
00:04:41.000 Now, John Brennan does not.
00:04:43.000 John Brennan does not have presidential immunity.
00:04:45.000 James Comey does not have presidential immunity.
00:04:50.000 So if we are serious about this, and I think we need to be, this unpaneling of the grand jury is major news.
00:04:57.000 It's significant.
00:04:59.000 But understand, we have to measure twice and cut once.
00:05:03.000 And from all sources and from everyone we've talked to, Brennan seems to be the chief villain of the story.
00:05:09.000 And Brennan is not a sympathetic figure.
00:05:10.000 You look at the guy.
00:05:11.000 He's got a nasty scowl face. 0.94
00:05:14.000 He's constantly lying. 0.71
00:05:15.000 He was a former communist. 0.99
00:05:17.000 He's a bad person.
00:05:19.000 Obama, I don't know if we want to take the Obama bait.
00:05:22.000 Even though he might deserve it, even if the evidence is pretty good in Obama's direction, he has presidential immunity.
00:05:28.000 You could create a massive Democrat political martyr.
00:05:31.000 But I'm open to hearing both sides of the debate on this.
00:05:35.000 But it seems as if Brennan was the hub of the conspiracy.
00:05:41.000 He was the epicenter.
00:05:43.000 Can we get that piece of tape, guys, where Brennan, Comey, and Hillary were all parroting the same lie?
00:05:48.000 He was the fulcrum point of all things Russia gate. 0.87
00:05:53.000 Now, what exactly were the crimes that were committed?
00:05:56.000 Well, we don't know the specifics, but it was likely a grand and seditious conspiracy against the American people to thwart the sovereign of an election.
00:06:07.000 This is President Donald Trump.
00:06:09.000 He called into squawkbox on this very topic, play cut 351.
00:06:13.000 The Justice Department now tapping a grand jury to look into the intelligence community's assessment of what was happening with Russia.
00:06:23.000 Is that you have nothing to do with directing the Justice Department?
00:06:28.000 I have nothing to do. 1.00
00:06:29.000 Pam is doing a great job.
00:06:31.000 I have nothing to do with it.
00:06:32.000 I will tell you this.
00:06:34.000 They deserve it.
00:06:35.000 I was happy to hear it.
00:06:36.000 I actually read it just like you did.
00:06:38.000 I have nothing to do with it.
00:06:40.000 But what they did in the election, what they did in even the last election, but it was too big to rig.
00:06:45.000 But what they did in the 2020 election is grotesque.
00:06:49.000 Now, mind you, even if President Trump did order his Attorney General to do this, that's perfectly constitutional.
00:06:54.000 It's perfectly legal.
00:06:56.000 The Attorney General acts at the behest of the President of the United States.
00:07:00.000 But I understand that you want to keep some customs and some things separate because you don't want to see this as a politically motivated thing.
00:07:06.000 So I get that.
00:07:07.000 But just so we are clear, and I get this question a lot on college campuses: oh, well, Trump orders the Attorney General.
00:07:12.000 He's allowed to.
00:07:13.000 The Attorney General works for the President of the United States.
00:07:17.000 But from all sources, Brennan seems to be the culprit.
00:07:20.000 He is the center.
00:07:23.000 He is the meeting point of the nervous system.
00:07:26.000 He's the one where documents specifically show overriding the CIA's warnings to publish smears against President Trump.
00:07:35.000 Brennan overrode all of the CIA objections, all of them, to the steel dossier being included in the new DENI assessment.
00:07:45.000 John Brennan was the offensive coordinator of Russia Gate.
00:07:49.000 He was calling the plays up from the press box.
00:07:53.000 He was the one that was choreographing and orchestrating all the movements.
00:07:57.000 He was the one calling pass, run, slant, out.
00:08:03.000 He was in charge of all of the movements.
00:08:06.000 This is a montage of James Comey, Brennan, and Hillary.
00:08:10.000 We went through this tape last week.
00:08:12.000 It's very important, working up sequentially.
00:08:15.000 But if I were to give my advice, whatever it's worth, I would go all in on John Brennan.
00:08:20.000 Unless you have Obama so stone cold dead to rights, it could potentially be a narrative distraction beyond anything that we want.
00:08:29.000 My opinion, Brennan, based on everything we know publicly available, and there will be information presented to the grand jury that we do not have made available to us.
00:08:37.000 But let's play CUT 353.
00:08:39.000 The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle.
00:08:44.000 It is a high confidence judgment of the entire intelligence community.
00:08:48.000 It was Russia in a very systematic way and tried to interfere in the election and to try to advance the prospects of Donald Trump being elected.
00:08:56.000 Donald Trump knows that the Russians helped him win in 2016.
00:09:01.000 There will always be an air of illegitimacy around the 2016 campaign.
00:09:08.000 That was John Brennan saying the Russians actively helped Donald Trump.
00:09:12.000 That was a naked lie on television.
00:09:15.000 Now remember, Tulsi mentioned whistleblowers coming out.
00:09:19.000 I bet more whistleblowers from lower ranks will come forward.
00:09:22.000 I don't necessarily think they'll go all the way up to Obama, but first build the case against Brennan.
00:09:29.000 Build the case against John Brennan.
00:09:34.000 Reliably, durably.
00:09:40.000 And then we go from there.
00:09:42.000 I think Brennan and Comey are the actual worker bees on this entire coup.
00:09:48.000 I want your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:09:50.000 Do you think we should focus on Obama, Brennan, or Comey?
00:09:53.000 We're getting lots of different.
00:09:54.000 And I'm saying Obama likely deserves it, but you got to really have had the stone cold case, dead to rights.
00:10:02.000 And if you don't, it could be worse than not even trying.
00:10:04.000 It could derail a lot of the projects we have.
00:10:06.000 Again, I don't know all the evidence, but I see definitely Brennan as the architect, the designer, the coordinator of this malevolent effort to undermine the U.S. Constitution, popular sovereignty, and President Donald Trump.
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00:11:16.000 All right, let's play a piece of tape here.
00:11:18.000 Let's go to ObamaGate here. 0.56
00:11:20.000 This is Stephen Miller, 247.
00:11:23.000 If we have a country where we can continue to have FBI careerists and CIA careerists, deep staters, who will fabricate and doctor evidence, who will create and produce fake material, fabricated material, phony information to try to go after their political enemies up to and including the president.
00:11:42.000 If we continue to create the impression and the reality that there is not a criminal, a severe criminal penalty for such conduct, it will never stop.
00:11:51.000 It will never desist.
00:11:52.000 It will keep on going forever.
00:11:54.000 And we will continue to have a country that is sabotaged endlessly by the production of fake documents, fake material, fake plots against Democratically elected officials.
00:12:05.000 We can't have that.
00:12:06.000 There must be consequences.
00:12:08.000 I think Obama is the head of the snake, but I think we have to be prudent about this.
00:12:11.000 Number one, we were very critical when we said former presidents have never been touched by the system of justice, and he definitely deserves it.
00:12:17.000 Definitely.
00:12:18.000 Obama had done sneaky stuff his entire career.
00:12:20.000 You can't trust that guy.
00:12:21.000 Everyone in the audience agrees.
00:12:23.000 But let's get Brennan first. 0.98
00:12:24.000 Let's get the Brennan Clapper Comey triad going first. 0.87
00:12:30.000 Right here, email.
00:12:31.000 It says, Charlie, I think you're right about charging Obama with the items.
00:12:34.000 He needs to be indicted for sure.
00:12:36.000 There's nothing that prevents him from being an unindicted co-conspirator.
00:12:39.000 I just think we have to be very cautious on the Obama thing.
00:12:41.000 He's already a super celebrity.
00:12:42.000 Let's start on the bottom up, guys.
00:12:44.000 Let's start on the bottom up and build that grand conspiracy.
00:12:46.000 And then if we have it, then we got Obama and we can indict him and put him in prison.
00:12:52.000 Breaking news, FBI Director Kash Patel has asked to help Texas authorities track down and arrest the Democrat lawmakers who fled the state to block a vote on redistricting.
00:13:02.000 Very important piece of information there.
00:13:04.000 Okay, let's put this up here from Alabama.
00:13:06.000 I love this.
00:13:07.000 This shows how people's information habits are amongst an Alabama gubernatorial primary.
00:13:12.000 This is a poll done by Signal.
00:13:13.000 So this shows how are potential gubernatorial voters getting their information on the conservative side?
00:13:21.000 Well, number one, no surprise is Fox News.
00:13:24.000 59% get their news from Fox News.
00:13:27.000 We love Fox.
00:13:28.000 I was able to host Fox and Friends Weekend.
00:13:29.000 Tons of friends there.
00:13:31.000 They've been phenomenal.
00:13:32.000 But number two is this program, the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:13:36.000 This is real empirical data done by Signal Research, C-Y-G-N-A-L. 1.00
00:13:41.000 It says Charlie Kirk Show or Turning Point USA is the second largest news source for, I think, all voters in Alabama.
00:13:51.000 And Blake has analyzed this.
00:13:53.000 Really good demographics across the board. 0.95
00:13:55.000 We have tons of women, both old and young. 0.95
00:13:58.000 And right there, Tucker Carlson is basically within the average of us.
00:14:02.000 So it's like Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson right there.
00:14:04.000 And the Newsmax, Daily Wire, The Blaze, Megan Kelly, Candace Owens, all great friends of mine.
00:14:10.000 Just goes to show the power of alternative media.
00:14:13.000 And it shows that what we have been able to create on this program is a viral mover of where people look at for primary information.
00:14:20.000 So someone sent that to me earlier.
00:14:21.000 I was like, Andrew, we got to show this on screen.
00:14:24.000 And right now, we're a little less popular with Catholics.
00:14:29.000 It's not a huge surprise, though it's probably a small sample size in Alabama.
00:14:33.000 I love Catholics.
00:14:34.000 We have fun debates, but I definitely love Catholics and I love Catholicism.
00:14:38.000 But it goes to show what we do on this program is different.
00:14:41.000 It is unique and it is working.
00:14:43.000 So it is the second largest and it is the largest non-ourgram is the largest non-corporate media source or non-cable driven media source.
00:14:53.000 And we call balls and strikes, as you know.
00:14:55.000 And you guys keep on tuning in.
00:14:56.000 Our podcast keeps doing well because we call it as it is here on the program and we are truth seekers.
00:15:01.000 It is the largest independent media source amongst Alabama voters.
00:15:05.000 Again, I wonder how applicable that is to other states, but you guys tune in for a reason and it means a lot.
00:15:10.000 And I want to thank you and the audience.
00:15:12.000 And we listen to you.
00:15:12.000 Literally, I'm reading these emails right now.
00:15:14.000 Obama, Brennan, all that.
00:15:17.000 I always have my laptop up for this reason because you guys can reach me immediately.
00:15:21.000 And people say, Charlie, what's your secret sauce?
00:15:24.000 I'll say, look, I learned one thing from Rush Limbaugh.
00:15:26.000 The great Rush Limbaugh always had his laptop up.
00:15:29.000 Now, it was a Mac desktop, and he was reading emails in the breaks.
00:15:33.000 I do that every break.
00:15:35.000 What is the audience feeling?
00:15:36.000 What are you guys saying?
00:15:37.000 And it's not, I mean, sometimes I think you guys send me stuff where you might be incorrect, but I want to know the vibe.
00:15:42.000 I want to know the aura.
00:15:44.000 I want to know the direction.
00:15:46.000 And I definitely want to know your feedback on the top issues.
00:15:50.000 It means a lot.
00:15:51.000 It's a phenomenal piece of data that is real empirical data that shows the success, that shows the velocity, that shows the increase of what we are able to be able to get done here on this program and at Turning Point USA.
00:15:51.000 So thank you guys.
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00:17:06.000 Joining us now is Dr. Charles Steele, director of the Hutchinson Center for Commerce and Freedom and the associate professor of economics at America's greatest college, Hillsdale College.
00:17:14.000 Dr. Steele, great to see you.
00:17:16.000 Thank you so much for taking the time.
00:17:17.000 Dr. Steele, you are also the one that did the understanding capitalism course, which is wonderful that people should check out at charlieforhillsdale.com.
00:17:26.000 Dr. Steele, I want to talk to you about Mamdani.
00:17:29.000 Let's just address one of his ideas.
00:17:32.000 Why would freezing the rent and having government-run grocery stores in New York City be a bad economic idea?
00:17:39.000 Dr. Steele.
00:17:40.000 Well, thank you very much for the kind words about Hillsdale.
00:17:44.000 We are striving to be the best college in the world, and we're going to do that.
00:17:48.000 We may be there now.
00:17:50.000 So, this is an excellent question.
00:17:52.000 I think people really need to understand what socialism is and how it works.
00:17:58.000 Really, it doesn't work, and understand the importance of capitalism and the free enterprise system.
00:18:04.000 So, you're asking about rent control.
00:18:06.000 Rent control prevents owners of properties from being able to maintain them.
00:18:13.000 It limits the amount of property that will be made available.
00:18:17.000 It stops building and it creates shortages.
00:18:20.000 That's also true of any kind of price controls that hold prices down, attempt to hold prices down.
00:18:28.000 They don't actually do that, they simply create shortages, and then the property will be allocated in some other way.
00:18:36.000 Grocery stores, government grocery stores.
00:18:39.000 I lived in the former Soviet Union, I also lived in Communist China for a short time, and I've been in other places where they have government controls on these sorts of things.
00:18:50.000 And if you like, shortages and standing in lines and not enough to eat, then government grocery stores are the way to go.
00:18:59.000 That's the quick answer.
00:19:01.000 So, Dr. Steele, let's zero in on the rent control.
00:19:04.000 It's actually so there are tens of thousands of vacant apartments in New York City right now where he is running, and they do not get improved upon, and they do not have significant upgrades because of rent control.
00:19:19.000 The cities with the most rent control in the United States, without exception, have the highest average housing prices: New York City, San Francisco, D.C.
00:19:27.000 And they've had the controls for a long period of time.
00:19:30.000 And so, speak more about this: the direct connection between rent controls and freezing the rent and housing prices increasing.
00:19:38.000 It actually hurts the very problem that they are seeking to solve.
00:19:41.000 Sure.
00:19:42.000 Why would anyone want to invest money?
00:19:45.000 Why would you want to build apartments if you're not going to be able to charge an amount that allows you to recover your costs?
00:19:52.000 And so there's the first problem.
00:19:53.000 There's no point in investing in something where there's no possible return on it.
00:19:58.000 And it's going to be important that we talk a little bit about capitalism and about profit and why that's important, why that's a valuable thing.
00:20:05.000 But just as a starting point, if you can't recover your cost, you're not going to invest something.
00:20:14.000 People will not invest in building new housing if they're simply going to take a loss on it.
00:20:21.000 And that's what the rent controls do.
00:20:23.000 It's interesting that after the Vietnam War, after the United States had left Vietnam and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam, one of the North Vietnamese finance ministers said, we managed to do to housing in Hanoi what the Americans could not do by bombing.
00:20:43.000 We destroyed it and we destroyed it with rent controls.
00:20:47.000 That's what rent controls do.
00:20:49.000 And so I know that you're a profession of economics, but it's an irresistible call, the temptist temptation of rent control.
00:20:57.000 Why is it that we're not able to shut ourselves of the political attraction to the allure of rent control despite its tragic and catastrophic failure?
00:21:10.000 So Mr. Mandani just recently met with Elizabeth Warren and Warren has endorsed him, Senator Warren, and she put it this way.
00:21:20.000 She said that we need affordability.
00:21:22.000 And what's attractive is they say, we'll hold prices down.
00:21:25.000 If we hold prices down, it's more affordable, right?
00:21:29.000 Well, actually, not so.
00:21:31.000 What you actually do is constrain supply with less supply.
00:21:35.000 It's less available.
00:21:37.000 Whatever is whatever we're commodity we're talking about, in this case, housing, will be in less supply and therefore be allocated to a number of across people, across the people attempting to get it via some other method, whether it is waiting in line, bribery, special favors, something like this.
00:21:58.000 But there will also be shortages inevitably with a system like that.
00:22:02.000 It's attractive because we say, because the politician will say, we're going to give you something for free.
00:22:08.000 We're going to give you something that's cheap.
00:22:10.000 It'll be, you know, we're affordable.
00:22:13.000 It won't be available, but boy, the price will be low.
00:22:16.000 And that's that low price is what allegedly.
00:22:19.000 No one will have it, but it will be a very low price.
00:22:22.000 Yeah.
00:22:24.000 There'll be no abundance, but it won't cost very much.
00:22:27.000 And so the political realities, it's so hard and frustrating because our job as conservatives or free market people, we have to defend a system that is not about free stuff.
00:22:38.000 It's about earned success.
00:22:39.000 It's about meritocratic ascension.
00:22:41.000 It is about investment.
00:22:43.000 It is about delayed gratification.
00:22:45.000 But the truth is that people's frustrations are real.
00:22:48.000 And so Dr. Steele, there are real economic problems in New York.
00:22:53.000 There are real economic problems in Boston.
00:22:55.000 What would a free market, capitalist, market-based solution look like? 0.98
00:23:00.000 Not the mom dotti garbage. 1.00
00:23:02.000 What would you say are two or three things that these cities can do to fix housing, cost of living, transportation?
00:23:09.000 Our population is getting crushed by the affordability crisis.
00:23:12.000 Dr. Steele, what would be one or two proven free market ways that we can address these problems?
00:23:18.000 In particular, for housing, we have various kinds of controls that, you know, zoning laws and things like this that actually people from building all sorts of restricting building codes, permitting processes, and things like this.
00:23:32.000 In California, for example, it is nearly impossible to build any kind of reasonable housing because of the regulatory systems.
00:23:40.000 New York City.
00:23:41.000 New York City, of course, is a bit of a different situation because New York is a constrained area.
00:23:48.000 If you think about Manhattan, it is largely built up, but it is very difficult to upgrade, to build anything new, and to develop, to further develop property that one owns.
00:24:03.000 This is why you have parts of New York City, which are basically just slums and have been left abandoned because nobody can afford to put anything into them to build them.
00:24:15.000 So, one of the first things I would do is get rid of the housing regulations and the building regulations and the various kinds of environmental rules, also, which don't actually help the environment but do block any kind of development.
00:24:30.000 That would be the first thing you could do, and it would make a great deal of difference.
00:24:35.000 Another thing would be to just decontrol prices.
00:24:38.000 That's a big deal.
00:24:39.000 And certainly in New York City, they have rent controls.
00:24:44.000 It's interesting.
00:24:46.000 A nice example of this.
00:24:48.000 When I was, I did my PhD at New York University, so I lived in New York City for four years.
00:24:54.000 And some of my friends who went on, finished their doctoral degrees, and went on to the World Bank and the IMF had rent-controlled apartments.
00:25:05.000 I believe they still have them.
00:25:07.000 Once you have a rent-controlled apartment, it is a slum thing to have.
00:25:13.000 And so, these are wealthy people, friends, friends of mine, nice people.
00:25:19.000 But boy, you don't want to get rid of your, you don't want to get rid of those things.
00:25:23.000 No, in LA, in LA, that's exactly right.
00:25:28.000 That's right.
00:25:28.000 Once you have them, it's a luxury item that you do not want to get rid of.
00:25:32.000 And in LA, you get a rent-controlled apartment.
00:25:35.000 Some of these people are making two, three, four, five hundred thousand dollars a year in a rent-controlled apartment.
00:25:40.000 And they just, you know, they say, oh, you know, we're not giving that up.
00:25:43.000 Let's play a piece of tape here.
00:25:45.000 Let's go.
00:25:46.000 I want you to respond to the democratic message of government-run grocery stores.
00:25:51.000 319.
00:25:52.000 When someone stands up and says, I will lead this city by making it more affordable.
00:26:00.000 And here are my plans, real plans, plans to deliver on child care, plans to deliver on housing, plans to deliver.
00:26:08.000 We're going to experiment.
00:26:08.000 We're going to try things on groceries.
00:26:11.000 That is the democratic message.
00:26:15.000 That is the democratic message.
00:26:17.000 And this sounds like Marxist ideology.
00:26:20.000 And the grocery store thing.
00:26:22.000 So let's say that there are city-run groceries.
00:26:24.000 What would the result of that be?
00:26:26.000 I know you touched on it earlier, but let's go deeper.
00:26:28.000 Well, it's interesting that Elizabeth Warren says we're going to want to run experiments.
00:26:34.000 These experiments have been run in the Soviet Union and other communist countries.
00:26:39.000 And they're not going to get a different result here when they try this.
00:26:44.000 What are the results of a government-run grocery store?
00:26:46.000 First of all, low quality, poor service, and shortages.
00:26:52.000 And you get that because, first of all, this is a really important point.
00:26:57.000 Under capitalism, it's important to make a profit.
00:27:01.000 That's what keeps you in business.
00:27:02.000 If you don't make a profit, then you're taking losses and your operations are shut down.
00:27:07.000 But what's a profit?
00:27:08.000 What does that mean?
00:27:10.000 What it means is you're taking resources, inputs, and you're creating something that was more valuable to consumers than you started with.
00:27:19.000 And the difference is profit.
00:27:22.000 And that's a good thing.
00:27:24.000 That's a sign that you have created value.
00:27:26.000 Yes.
00:27:27.000 You have an incentive to hold costs down and to provide quality.
00:27:31.000 Now, under a socialist system or a government system, there's no incentive to control costs.
00:27:37.000 And in a government supermarket, government grocery store, no incentive, no price signal that's going to, you don't have a profit and loss signal.
00:27:46.000 So no incentive to, no incentive to keep costs down.
00:27:52.000 But at the same time, quality doesn't matter because it's a government store.
00:27:56.000 They don't need to earn a profit.
00:27:57.000 So they just do whatever is convenient for the people working there or managing.
00:28:03.000 Thus you get under a socialist system, poor quality.
00:28:07.000 and shortages.
00:28:08.000 And that's what a government grocery store system would give you.
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00:28:50.000 Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted private student loans, there's no better place to go than whyReFi.
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00:29:09.000 Dr. Steele continues with us from America's greatest college, the greatest college in the world, Hillsdale College.
00:29:14.000 Dr. Steele, I cut you off.
00:29:15.000 Please continue on government-run grocery stores.
00:29:18.000 You were mentioning Venezuela, sir.
00:29:19.000 Dr. Steele from Hillsdale College.
00:29:21.000 Yes, Venezuela.
00:29:22.000 Hugo Chavez, the communist who became dictator of Venezuela, imposed price controls on groceries and everything in supermarkets.
00:29:35.000 Shortages necessarily develop then because if you can't cover the cost of the goods, they're not going to be on the shelves.
00:29:42.000 He then used that when the shortages emerged as an excuse to nationalize the grocery stores, take them over.
00:29:50.000 And it was really a plan that he had just simply to nationalize things, simply by saying that the supermarkets, the grocery stores were not doing their job.
00:30:01.000 So he created the shortages.
00:30:03.000 Then he confiscated the property, became, as some might say, appropriating the means of production, which is something, of course, that Zohan Mamdani has called for.
00:30:16.000 And then you have a socialist system and you have chronic shortages.
00:30:21.000 The consequences for Venezuela were studded growth, malnutrition in children that cannot be corrected, permanent damage to children from starvation and from famine.
00:30:32.000 That's what socialism does.
00:30:34.000 And that's the result that you get in any time, anytime you use that kind of a system.
00:30:39.000 Hopefully it wouldn't be so bad if they pulled something like this in New York City because we still have a free enterprise system elsewhere.
00:30:48.000 But it's a dangerous thing.
00:30:49.000 And people need to understand how destructive socialism is.
00:30:53.000 And it really is destructive.
00:30:54.000 So, Professor, you are a phenomenal teacher.
00:30:56.000 Dr. Arne has entrusted you with a course at Hillsdale College.
00:30:59.000 Two minutes remaining.
00:31:00.000 What would you say is the greatest economic myth or stumbling block that you have to deprogram or confront of students that you come at Hillsdale College?
00:31:10.000 Something that they believe that is not true, that you have to correct early on.
00:31:14.000 Dr. Steele.
00:31:15.000 I will tell you, yes, two things.
00:31:18.000 Number one, people have a tendency to think in terms of class warfare.
00:31:22.000 Even conservatives and Christians will sometimes think this, that necessarily there's conflict between capital and labor.
00:31:31.000 Capital and labor are actually inputs, and workers and people who employ them actually are engaged in mutually beneficial exchange.
00:31:39.000 And getting the idea of class conflict out of people's heads can be very difficult.
00:31:43.000 Maybe even a bigger point, although with Hillsdale students, they catch on quickly.
00:31:48.000 Profit.
00:31:49.000 Profit is a great thing.
00:31:51.000 Profit is an incentive to serve your fellow man, provide goods and services that people want and need and are willing to pay for, and to do it at a cost that cost effectively.
00:32:03.000 So you avoid waste.
00:32:05.000 A system like the Soviet system is incredibly wasteful and generated goods and services that people didn't want. 0.94
00:32:12.000 If you want to have a society that is productive, if people are going to have productive and rewarding lives and flourish, if we want to protect the environment, if we want a free and peaceful society, we need capitalism.
00:32:26.000 Socialism promises those things that it actually brings authoritarianism, tyranny.
00:32:32.000 It divides people into the leaders and the serfs who must follow. 0.55
00:32:36.000 And it's a destruction, tyranny, and poverty result.
00:32:40.000 So people need to understand the importance of capitalism and why it works.
00:32:45.000 Dr. Steele, you're welcome back anytime.
00:32:46.000 We need to talk more about capitalism.
00:32:48.000 We need to talk more about markets.
00:32:50.000 We need to talk more about what makes the economy tick.
00:32:55.000 And it's private property.
00:32:57.000 It is profits.
00:32:59.000 It is production.
00:33:00.000 Dr. Steele from the greatest college in the world, Hillsdale College.
00:33:03.000 Thank you so much.
00:33:04.000 Thank you so much.
00:33:05.000 I appreciate it.
00:33:06.000 Terrific conversation.
00:33:07.000 We got to have him back on.
00:33:08.000 So important.
00:33:09.000 We can't lose sight of that.
00:33:10.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:33:13.000 Very interesting.
00:33:13.000 New Gallup poll shows Bobby Kennedy is the administration's most popular administration figure.
00:33:19.000 We've been saying that on this program.
00:33:21.000 We said that RFK and the Maha movement is the most coherent movement that has sustained throughout MAGA.
00:33:29.000 Very interesting.
00:33:29.000 I just saw that on CNN.
00:33:31.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:33:32.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:33:35.000 Thanks so much for listening and God bless.
00:33:38.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.