The Charlie Kirk Show - The Threat of No Labels Nikki Haley

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today's Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:02.000 Ari Fleischer joins us as we discuss third-party Nikki Haley.

00:00:07.000 No labels, Nikki.

00:00:08.000 Watch out, everybody.

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00:00:11.000 Do you think Nikki Haley is going no labels?

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00:00:26.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:27.000 Here we go.

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00:01:26.000 So we were debating this weekend whether or not we should stream the South Carolina primary election results.

00:01:33.000 And we decided not to.

00:01:35.000 We said, ah, we kind of know how this is going to materialize.

00:01:38.000 And we were right.

00:01:40.000 It turned out to be not a very interesting night.

00:01:42.000 Donald Trump won by 20 points.

00:01:44.000 We predicted that Donald Trump would win big, and that's exactly what ended up happening.

00:01:44.000 Great.

00:01:48.000 So look, we've said for a while that this Republican primary is over.

00:01:53.000 And by all objective measurements, it is over. 0.75

00:01:56.000 So why is Nikki Haley still in the race?

00:02:00.000 Well, here is Nikki Haley Saturday evening.

00:02:03.000 Is Nikki Haley delusional?

00:02:06.000 Or does Nikki Haley have a plan? 0.87

00:02:09.000 Play cut nine.

00:02:10.000 I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run for president.

00:02:26.000 I'm a woman of my word.

00:02:33.000 So Nikki Haley's not dropping.

00:02:34.000 By the way who are these people exactly?

00:02:36.000 I mean, how many Raytheon lobbyists are there in South Carolina?

00:02:41.000 How many Boeing contractors can you get on a Saturday evening to just shrill into the sky in favor of Nikki Haley?

00:02:51.000 It is tempting to say that Nikki Haley is delusional.

00:02:55.000 It's tempting to say that Nikki Haley doesn't know what she's doing.

00:03:01.000 In fact, that is the surface level take. 0.98

00:03:04.000 The surface level take is, oh, Nikki Haley is out of touch and that she's just kind of doing this egotistical type campaign.

00:03:13.000 But it's very clear that it's more than that. 0.76

00:03:16.000 It's very clear that Nikki Haley has a plan.

00:03:20.000 What is that plan exactly?

00:03:21.000 We don't know, but there are little crumbs that are showing some pieces of evidence of what Nikki Haley might have next in store for us.

00:03:32.000 So she's not dropping out.

00:03:33.000 As of this moment, the narrative from the Haley campaign is that they're going to continue.

00:03:37.000 Now, not all of her donors are on board.

00:03:39.000 After Saturday's annihilation, the Koch network announced it's not going to keep funding Haley's campaign.

00:03:45.000 Now, let me take a pause here.

00:03:47.000 The Koch Brother Network that is largely financed by Charles Koch and his deceased brother has a lot of money tied up in the politics stuff too.

00:03:57.000 David Koch, who passed away a couple years ago, very generous man, gave a lot to hospitals and charities and concert halls, many other things.

00:04:05.000 They've spent $34 million, I believe, is the final number, on the Nikki Haley primary campaign.

00:04:12.000 I never want to hear a criticism of turning point actions, ballot chasing, get out the vote effort again.

00:04:19.000 You know, you have Eric Erickson and these people go out and they say, oh, turning point is sucking up all the resources.

00:04:24.000 Spare me the lecture when we have the Koch brothers that have now spent $34 million.

00:04:32.000 Meanwhile, DeSantis spent $130 million all to get effectively zero delegates.

00:04:39.000 So I just want to kind of put that out there because, you know, there's this media narrative: oh, you know, Turning Point is hiring all these ballot chasers.

00:04:45.000 That money could be better spent elsewhere.

00:04:47.000 First of all, no, it's the most important thing you could spend.

00:04:50.000 Secondly, why does anyone criticize the Koch brothers for spending $34 million for what?

00:04:59.000 Well, the Koch brothers have suspended their spending on Nikki Haley.

00:05:04.000 So we have to think harder.

00:05:05.000 What's really going on here? 0.79

00:05:06.000 Why is Haley acting the way she is right now? 0.99

00:05:08.000 Even though she's our opponent right now, we know that she's a capable candidate. 0.99

00:05:13.000 She's won political office before.

00:05:15.000 She must have a plan.

00:05:18.000 Well, how does the label no labels Nikki sound?

00:05:23.000 Play cut 10, the director of no labels.

00:05:27.000 And to this program's credit, two weeks ago, we hypothesized that Nikki Haley was going to run under the no labels ticket.

00:05:39.000 Play cut 10, please.

00:05:41.000 This has been a project to essentially give Americans another choice if they're unhappy with the presumptive nominees, which, you know, it appears it's going to be Trump versus Biden right now. 0.91

00:05:52.000 Nikki Haley, she's going to remain in the race.

00:05:52.000 But we don't know.

00:05:54.000 You can't count her out completely. 0.94

00:05:57.000 And hats off to her for staying in it and for sticking with it.

00:06:00.000 But we're looking for great quality people, folks that have broad appeal to independents, Democrats, Republicans.

00:06:07.000 And yeah, I mean, Nikki Haley is somebody we'd definitely be interested in.

00:06:12.000 So what were the numbers on Saturday night?

00:06:14.000 Donald Trump received the most votes of any candidate in the history of the South Carolina primary on the Republican side.

00:06:20.000 Donald Trump won by more than 20 points in Nikki Haley's home state.

00:06:25.000 Nikki Haley only did as well as she did, by the way, because of Democrat crossover, Koch brother money trying to get Democrats out to vote.

00:06:32.000 Gavin Newsom went out on television and it's now said that she is one of the most effective spokespeople for the Biden campaign.

00:06:41.000 Exit polls show that half of Nikki Haley voters were Democrats.

00:06:46.000 So we need to understand here that this is a serious threat.

00:06:49.000 It is easy to dismiss Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. 0.54

00:06:52.000 She's not going to be the Republican nominee in Milwaukee.

00:06:56.000 When the RNC happens this summer and the candidate officially accepts the party's nomination and it's ready, set, go, and it's a race to election day and ballot chasing and voter registration, all that stuff gets kicked into high gear.

00:07:11.000 Nikki Haley will probably not even be given a speaking slot at the RNC convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

00:07:18.000 Again, the unintended blessing here is that Nikki Haley was really being considered as a vice presidential contender about a month and a half ago, and that is dead.

00:07:28.000 But what if Nikki Haley runs as no labels?

00:07:33.000 That could be a very serious threat. 0.91

00:07:36.000 Now, some background is no labels is primarily a donor project.

00:07:41.000 No labels is a chamber of commerce repurposed.

00:07:45.000 Let's just say big business.

00:07:47.000 Why can't we all get along and sing kumbaya while we pass amnesty, lower the corporate tax burden, deregulate the economy, some of those I actually support, while being indifferent to social and culture war issues, and we also need to give Ukraine unlimited amounts of money.

00:08:05.000 That is effectively what no labels is.

00:08:08.000 No labels is really neoliberals.

00:08:12.000 No labels is not no labels.

00:08:14.000 It is the neoliberal ticket.

00:08:17.000 And currently, there is a vacancy at the top of the no labels ticket. 0.85

00:08:22.000 But make no mistake, Nikki Haley running as a no labels candidate would be able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:08:31.000 It would be able to, this very well might be the new bailout strategy for Joe Biden.

00:08:40.000 RFK right now is seriously hurting the Democrats.

00:08:43.000 So how do we know this?

00:08:44.000 Mark Elias is going after Joe Biden.

00:08:46.000 They have released the hounds on RFK.

00:08:50.000 And the RFK drumbeat is only going to increase.

00:08:53.000 He's especially doing well with younger voters.

00:08:57.000 How do you bail out Joe Biden when there's going to be multiple candidates across the ballot?

00:09:02.000 Not a single third-party candidate as it stands today is going to necessarily hurt Donald Trump more than it hurts Joe Biden.

00:09:11.000 Not a single one.

00:09:13.000 So if you were a neoliberal, you want to see all this money to Ukraine, you want to see the CIA remain very powerful, you want to see the FBI remain the sovereign over the country, wouldn't it make sense to draft and run Nikki Haley as a third party candidate?

00:09:31.000 Nikki Haley is not necessarily at this point running to be the RNC nominee. 0.66

00:09:35.000 She is courting Democrats.

00:09:37.000 In fact, I have some exclusive news to show you, and it's been reported, but I'm going to share some document sent to me of who is hosting her Dallas fundraisers.

00:09:47.000 Her top fundraiser in Dallas is hosted by somebody who's good friends with Nancy Pelosi and Pete Buttigieg.

00:09:53.000 That's who's hosting the fundraiser for Nikki Haley in Dallas.

00:09:57.000 Why would she be doing that? 0.99

00:09:59.000 Because maybe this is a trial run for a third party obliteration against our ascendant America first movement. 1.00

00:10:10.000 If Nikki Haley wins just a few states, then maybe no one can get to 270 electoral votes.

00:10:17.000 Something to think about.

00:10:20.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:11:22.000 Remember, it's Nikki Haley's home state.

00:11:24.000 This was supposed to be her best state.

00:11:27.000 I want to play some tape here. 0.99

00:11:29.000 This is Nikki Haley says that she's not doing this to be VP.

00:11:34.000 So then what is Nikki Haley doing this for?

00:11:37.000 Remember in 2016, they were obsessed with getting everyone to sign a pledge to back the eventual nominee.

00:11:43.000 It's very noticeable there's no obsession with making sure Nikki Haley does that.

00:11:49.000 Remember how focused they were on the pledge, It was never about making sure the GOP unify or that unity is preserved.

00:12:01.000 It was never about avoiding sabotage.

00:12:03.000 It was about keeping their factions control.

00:12:07.000 Play cut 11. 0.97

00:12:08.000 Look, the problem when people saying, why is she doing this?

00:12:11.000 Why is she doing that?

00:12:12.000 At first, they were like, she's doing this because she wants to be vice president.

00:12:16.000 I think we've pretty much settled that.

00:12:18.000 Then they're saying, well, what's her?

00:12:21.000 There is no political motivation.

00:12:23.000 If there was political motivation, I would have gotten out of this a long time ago.

00:12:27.000 By the way, have we settled it?

00:12:28.000 Have we settled the vice president thing?

00:12:31.000 Of course we've settled it.

00:12:33.000 I mean, there isn't no way.

00:12:34.000 I've said it for months.

00:12:36.000 But also looking at a political future.

00:12:36.000 It's done.

00:12:39.000 I wouldn't be doing this if I was worried about a political future.

00:12:42.000 I would have gotten out all. 0.67

00:12:44.000 Secondly, you know what's unique about her candidacy is that she's not really running against Donald Trump.

00:12:51.000 She's running, and she will give a little bit of a, you know, I was a poor Indian girl and picked on by the racists, or Donald Trump is too much drama, but she falls short of Chris Christie's type of criticism that he would level against Trump.

00:13:08.000 Now, maybe it's because she knows that the party is largely sympathetic to Trump, or maybe it's because she wants to try to not be overly hated by center-right disenfranchised Republican voters, where she can run as a no-labels ticket. 0.90

00:13:26.000 The line is always this: Nikki is going to be politically homeless.

00:13:31.000 But now we see that it's likely that Nikki might have been playing for a third-party bid this entire time. 0.90

00:13:40.000 Some people say, oh, she's on the Liz Cheney path, but maybe Nikki Haley is going to do the bidding of Liz Cheney, which is to try to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. 0.81

00:13:52.000 Nikki Haley is talking to moderates on purpose. 0.91

00:13:56.000 She's communicating to independent voters on purpose.

00:14:00.000 If you were Joe Biden or Uniparty Democrat donors who are donating to her campaign, you must be freaking out about the prospect of the Joe Biden candidacy.

00:14:10.000 RFK is pulling youth voters away.

00:14:12.000 Cornell West is pulling some black voters away.

00:14:14.000 Jill Stein is pulling some of your communists away.

00:14:17.000 And Joe Biden is less popular than he has been at any point in time.

00:14:21.000 Donald Trump is consolidating Republican support.

00:14:23.000 So what game, what tactic, what approach do you have?

00:14:30.000 Run the neocon.

00:14:32.000 And very similarly, where we saw that Carrie Lake was offered money not to run, what if Nikki Haley was offered a very nice life if she runs as no labels Nikki?

00:14:47.000 We're talking about board seats, book deals, consulting contracts. 1.00

00:14:52.000 She can live the life of a multi-millionaire. 1.00

00:14:55.000 All to try to take three, four, five, six, seven percent from Donald Trump.

00:15:01.000 What are your thoughts?

00:15:01.000 Do you think Nemirada is going to run as no labels?

00:15:05.000 What does she have planned? 0.93

00:15:06.000 I refuse to believe she's just going to disappear. 1.00

00:15:10.000 She's talking and acting like a saboteur.

00:15:15.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk.

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00:16:23.000 Do not wait.

00:16:28.000 Joining us now is a great man, Ari Fleischer.

00:16:31.000 Ari, thank you for taking time to join the program.

00:16:34.000 I loved your tweet.

00:16:35.000 Quote, Nikki Haley speech tonight was a no labels here.

00:16:38.000 I'm coming speech.

00:16:40.000 She said, I'm a woman of my word.

00:16:41.000 I'm not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

00:16:46.000 She's running no labels.

00:16:47.000 I bet shortly after Super Tuesday, Ari, you encouraged me to lead on this opinion.

00:16:52.000 I felt it, but you really crisply put that.

00:16:55.000 Ari Fleischer, walk us through why you believe this.

00:16:58.000 Well, I was just watching her speech, her concession speech to Donald Trump on Saturday night after the South Carolina primary.

00:17:04.000 And when you listen to her words, when you see her comfort in attacking Donald Trump, her comfort in attacking Joe Biden, married to her statement, I'm a woman of my word.

00:17:14.000 I am not quitting.

00:17:15.000 I am not giving up. 0.81

00:17:17.000 It led me to believe she's going to try to create that zone, that get the election through the center.

00:17:24.000 Now, I've got to say, Charlie, since I said that, and I said it live on Fox News that night, and I've said it on Twitter, I'm getting a lot of pushback from the Haley campaign saying that's not the case.

00:17:35.000 She's not going to do that, that she's a Republican, she's going to stay a Republican.

00:17:40.000 So I want you to know that as well.

00:17:42.000 They're saying it's not going to be the case.

00:17:45.000 But I just think this is something worth watching.

00:17:49.000 I'm not sure I believe that yet.

00:17:50.000 Yeah, Ari, I'm right there with you.

00:17:52.000 And by the way, it might not be no labels.

00:17:54.000 It might be independent, okay?

00:17:56.000 I mean, so it just might be a semantic thing.

00:17:58.000 So if the Democrats are currently, Joe Biden is currently being harmed by third-party candidates.

00:18:06.000 Now, RFK, we don't quite know who he's hurting more, but it seems as if it's hurting Joe Biden more than Trump.

00:18:12.000 That wasn't the case six months ago.

00:18:13.000 Six months ago, I had the exact opposite opinion, especially based on some of the COVID and the lockdown type stuff.

00:18:19.000 You know, Ari, you've been around politics for a while and really understand the wisdom behind here.

00:18:25.000 When was the last time we really saw third-party candidates shake up a general election?

00:18:29.000 We saw Ross Perot.

00:18:30.000 Obviously, it's the most famous one.

00:18:31.000 That's it.

00:18:32.000 Have we seen it since I can remember, basically post-1993?

00:18:36.000 No, you'd have to go back to the very early years of the 19th, of the 20th century when Teddy Roosevelt was running.

00:18:43.000 That is the last significant time.

00:18:45.000 Ross Perot did have an impact.

00:18:48.000 Now, people would argue that he hurt Clinton and Bush equally.

00:18:51.000 She certainly didn't win any electoral votes, but 2024 is just shaping up differently, Charlie.

00:18:56.000 It is a fair statement, even if you love Donald Trump, it is a fair statement that a lot of America doesn't want either Trump or Biden on the ballot.

00:19:05.000 Does that create for the first time in a century a zone up the middle for somebody to take advantage of?

00:19:11.000 And could that somebody be Nikki Haley, who did in North Carolina, for example, win independent voters by 19 percentage points?

00:19:18.000 Does this create a, I don't want Trump, I don't want Biden, I want somebody else.

00:19:22.000 Could it be Nikki?

00:19:24.000 That remains to be tested, but we're never going to know if somebody doesn't step into that void.

00:19:30.000 And if you're the candidate who thinks you can create that candidacy down the middle this time, you won't know until you actually get in the ring and try.

00:19:38.000 And then I don't think you're even going to know until October whether it has any prospect of being successful.

00:19:43.000 What I do know is this cycle is different because both candidates are widely unpopular with the broader electorate.

00:19:51.000 And that's what took me to Nikki Haley.

00:19:53.000 And I don't say that advocating for it.

00:19:56.000 I'm saying it as an analyst, when I watch politics and I see what's going on, watched her speech, it sure sounded like it.

00:20:02.000 No, your commentary is excellent.

00:20:03.000 And that's why I took what you said seriously.

00:20:05.000 You know, because I think things that sometimes, you know, people think are wacky, but I'm like, wow, Ari sees it too.

00:20:11.000 I was like, that must really be persuasive to me.

00:20:14.000 And so I want to game this out.

00:20:17.000 The other thing is, I mean, let's pretend Nikki is telling the truth and her camp says we're not doing this.

00:20:23.000 Does she really think she's going to be the nominee?

00:20:25.000 Does she think that is she running as an insurance package that Donald Trump might have such lawfare difficulties ahead of the convention that all of a sudden the party's going to say, let's now nominate Nikki Haley?

00:20:38.000 Is that her rationale?

00:20:40.000 I think her team is very realistic about her prospect of winning a Republican nomination.

00:20:44.000 I think they look at it and they know how to count delegates.

00:20:47.000 They know what states are possible states for Super Tuesday.

00:20:50.000 I think they're very realistic about her chances of winning now.

00:20:54.000 I think what's keeping Nikki in there from a personal point of view, being the candidate with skin in the game, is I think she just genuinely believes she owes it to the country that if Donald Trump is going to lose in November, Republicans need a second choice.

00:21:08.000 And that second choice should be her.

00:21:10.000 I think that's what's motivating her.

00:21:12.000 I think her view is Trump can't win.

00:21:16.000 I disagree with that.

00:21:17.000 I think Trump can win.

00:21:18.000 But she thinks Trump can't.

00:21:20.000 So therefore, to save America and to beat Biden, she's going to hang in there to the very end.

00:21:26.000 And I don't know what the very end is defined by her to be in case other Republicans start to come to that realization.

00:21:33.000 Will that play out between Super Tuesday, where I think she's going to lose everywhere, and the Republican convention in July?

00:21:42.000 That's why politicians linger.

00:21:44.000 It's just that chance that something will happen.

00:21:46.000 Yeah, and I want to be clear.

00:21:48.000 I'm not a huge fan of Nikki Haley, obviously, especially currently.

00:21:51.000 I think she's dividing the party unnecessarily.

00:21:53.000 I've known Nikki for a while.

00:21:55.000 She's smart.

00:21:56.000 She's a smart person.

00:21:58.000 And so she, and she's not overly ideological.

00:22:01.000 And I mean this, like RFK, for example, really deeply believes, and I think Nikki Haley's deep beliefs, but RFK will happily run for an office to try to win an argument.

00:22:11.000 I don't think Nikki is that way.

00:22:13.000 Would you agree with that?

00:22:14.000 I think that there's some sort of plan.

00:22:17.000 I don't know what that is, but it's not necessarily to try to convince the electorate about something or trying to get her name out.

00:22:25.000 She obviously has really good name ID.

00:22:27.000 She's very, very ambitious. 0.99

00:22:29.000 She's very calculating.

00:22:31.000 Being around her, she is very, very smart and thinks things through in multiple sequences.

00:22:38.000 So with that being said, Ari, I think it plays into this.

00:22:41.000 And the way she keeps talking about her campaign, she's not messaging the Republican primary voters either.

00:22:49.000 She's talking more.

00:22:50.000 Can you talk about that as a communication expert?

00:22:52.000 She's not trying to win over the faithful.

00:22:55.000 That's why, again, listening to her on the stump and listening to her in her concession speech.

00:22:59.000 She's not saying that we need a conservative, pro-life fight to close the border.

00:23:05.000 She talks about the border, but her major remarks about why Trump and Biden are bad.

00:23:11.000 That's what's compelling her, and that's what's driving her now.

00:23:14.000 So it's not a Republican, I'm going to win primary ideological argument she's making.

00:23:20.000 So I think she's got just a couple paths in the future.

00:23:23.000 One is she's making a massive mistake, and she should pull out now and endorse Donald Trump.

00:23:28.000 That's one school of thought.

00:23:29.000 Second, she's lingering because she really does in her heart believe that Trump can't win.

00:23:35.000 So somebody needs to save the Republic from Joe Biden.

00:23:39.000 And the third is no labels, that she can win if she runs, makes that decision to run an independent candidacy down the middle because she's gambling on Trump and Biden both being so unpopular.

00:23:52.000 All of those three are guided by pragmatism.

00:23:55.000 These are not, she's not the RFK candidate that you say is running the argument.

00:23:55.000 Yes.

00:23:59.000 It's not overly ideological.

00:24:01.000 It's as if there's a calculation.

00:24:02.000 Yes.

00:24:03.000 I think that's really smart.

00:24:04.000 And those are the three calculations.

00:24:06.000 I don't see any other calculations than those three.

00:24:08.000 She's making a mistake. 0.93

00:24:10.000 She thinks that she can actually get the nomination because people conclude Trump can't win, or she's no labels.

00:24:18.000 No other possibilities exist.

00:24:19.000 So a provocative idea, one of our listeners here emailed us, Charlie, I'm all in for Trump.

00:24:24.000 I think that Trump should put Nikki in his cabinet sooner rather than later to quell the third-party no labels threat.

00:24:31.000 Is there any wisdom to that, Ari?

00:24:33.000 Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, that's not bad.

00:24:35.000 I don't think that being in a cabinet, though, is a real inducement to her.

00:24:38.000 She's already been in the cabinet.

00:24:39.000 She was the United Nations ambassador.

00:24:41.000 I'd be shocked if he would make her the vice presidential nominee alongside of him, because after everything she's done and said, even though people are quick to forgive in politics, I don't think Donald Trump wants a vice president who he's got to look over his shoulder for.

00:24:55.000 Correct.

00:24:56.000 So I think Trump's going to pick a loyalist for vice presidential candidate.

00:25:00.000 So I don't think there's anything Donald Trump can offer her.

00:25:02.000 And I don't think there's anything she wants.

00:25:04.000 I think if I had to guess, her real motivation is either number two or number three.

00:25:10.000 She really does think the party will benefit from having an insurance policy just in case people come to the conclusion Trump can't win or she'll go no labels.

00:25:18.000 And given the pushback I'm getting from her people about no labels, I just let others decide.

00:25:24.000 Is it credible or not?

00:25:26.000 She's pushing back.

00:25:27.000 So, Ari, not necessarily shifting gears, but on the same kind of genre about heading into November 2024, just from a objective kind of how historians will, actual historians, not these crazy historians now, will look at the last year.

00:25:41.000 What do you make of Donald Trump's ability to consolidate support in the Republican primary, given the indictments, given the law fare?

00:25:48.000 It's remarkable.

00:25:49.000 It's objectively remarkable.

00:25:51.000 Well, number one, he had less support in 2016 and consolidated the party.

00:25:56.000 In 2016, he was winning primaries with 35% of the vote.

00:25:59.000 Now he's winning primaries with 60% of the vote.

00:26:02.000 So yes, 40% is not for Trump, but that's a smaller number than in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton.

00:26:09.000 So he's doing the job of a nominee of a primary candidate.

00:26:14.000 He's winning by sufficiently big margins.

00:26:17.000 I do worry the party is split.

00:26:19.000 There are many people, particularly in suburbs and who are college educated who used to be Republicans, who are no longer Republicans.

00:26:26.000 It's a real problem, Charlie.

00:26:27.000 It is wonderful that the Republican economy is expanding into blue-collar areas, into lower-income areas, increasingly with black and Hispanic communities.

00:26:36.000 Fantastic development.

00:26:38.000 And I attribute a lot of that to Donald Trump.

00:26:40.000 But why do we have to lose the suburbs at the same time?

00:26:43.000 Why can't we make these gains and keep the suburbs?

00:26:46.000 So yeah, there is a split issue in the party that we've got to keep our eye on.

00:26:50.000 It's going to have an impact and already has in previous years about losing Senate races, what we should have won.

00:26:56.000 So don't fool yourself.

00:26:57.000 The party is split.

00:26:59.000 What will unite the party more than anything else is not Donald Trump.

00:27:02.000 It's Joe Biden.

00:27:04.000 We're heading into a cycle, Charlie, in which a lot of Democrats who can't stand Biden will vote for Biden because they can't stand Trump.

00:27:11.000 There are a lot of Republicans or used to be Republicans who can't stand Trump, but they can't stand Biden even worse or countenance the idea of an 85-year-old president.

00:27:20.000 So they're going to vote for Trump.

00:27:22.000 That's the type of cycle we're heading into where you've got the Trump base, but then the group he needs to get over the middle is going to be an anti-Biden group, not a pro-Trump group.

00:27:32.000 By the way, it factors into why Nikki Haley as no labels would be a threat to Trump because she appeals almost exclusively to college-educated voters.

00:27:44.000 And college-educated suburban voters like Nikki a lot. 1.00

00:27:47.000 She doesn't do very well.

00:27:48.000 And you saw this in the map of South Carolina.

00:27:50.000 Anything that is rural or expert, she just gets obliterated.

00:27:53.000 But Columbia, Charleston, sorry, do you have a quick thought on that?

00:27:57.000 Well, yeah, because those are the college-educated suburban voters who are now becoming Democrats.

00:28:01.000 Yes, no, that's not.

00:28:02.000 So she appeals to them.

00:28:03.000 She also takes away from Biden.

00:28:08.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:29:10.000 Ari hasn't said anything I disagree with.

00:29:12.000 He's right.

00:29:12.000 The party is split.

00:29:14.000 And for every positive we've seen of winning working class, blue-collar, Hispanic, and black voters, we're struggling with college-educated suburban voters.

00:29:22.000 We're struggling.

00:29:23.000 It's a real problem.

00:29:24.000 By the way, this is why Colorado is no longer a battleground state.

00:29:26.000 Colorado is the second most college-educated state in the country, not to mention their mail-in ballot nonsense.

00:29:31.000 Arizona is a similar challenge.

00:29:33.000 A lot of college-educated voters that are not resonating with the Republican Party.

00:29:40.000 We could change that.

00:29:41.000 So, Ari, how does one change that?

00:29:44.000 Where do we see some evidence?

00:29:46.000 Let's just not, let's not look too far in the distance.

00:29:49.000 From now to November, what can change that?

00:29:52.000 I think the most important thing to change that is for President Trump to learn one of the lessons of his first term.

00:29:57.000 When he counter punches as hard as he does sometimes, he ends up hitting himself.

00:30:04.000 If President Trump could make the case, make the fight, but do so in a tough, strident way he does, that's his personality, but not go too far.

00:30:13.000 That's a big part of it.

00:30:14.000 The president has gone so far in some cases, particularly suburban, college-educated women, just say, how can anybody talk like that?

00:30:22.000 How can he be so disparaging of people?

00:30:25.000 He often says things, the worst things about women.

00:30:28.000 So a lot of it is just show a little more respect.

00:30:33.000 Don't attack the way you do.

00:30:36.000 For example, after the New Hampshire primary, when he made fun of Nikki Haley's dress, why?

00:30:42.000 What was the political advantage in that?

00:30:45.000 So there are things that are reasonable that President Trump can do that I wish he would.

00:30:51.000 Now, Ari, I think they can be won over.

00:30:53.000 I think that there is still, because of the failure of Biden, I think that there's a reset.

00:30:58.000 And I just want to emphasize, you know, recently I had a lunch with four women from Scottsdale, Arizona.

00:31:05.000 And, you know, I don't always know who's who or whatever.

00:31:08.000 And I, you know, all conservative.

00:31:10.000 And they're talking about the border and they're talking about crime.

00:31:12.000 They're talking about all this.

00:31:13.000 And three out of four liked Trump.

00:31:14.000 And the one woman agreed with everything I said.

00:31:17.000 She's like, I can't vote for Trump.

00:31:19.000 And I said, but come on, the border.

00:31:22.000 And in Flay, she was like ranting.

00:31:23.000 You would think that she was going to become like, you know, the czar of closing the border, right?

00:31:28.000 And she's like, I just can't do it.

00:31:30.000 And so, all right, Ari, riff on that.

00:31:33.000 And who could be a potential VP to help bring some of these?

00:31:38.000 Because what I'm getting at is these are natural Republican voters.

00:31:42.000 These are not Trotskyites, okay?

00:31:43.000 These are not Marxists.

00:31:45.000 Ari Fleischer.

00:31:46.000 Well, first, the reasons people vote are based on policy and personality.

00:31:51.000 If your view is policy, you can be won over.

00:31:53.000 If your view is on personality, you can't.

00:31:55.000 He just said the person's not qualified.

00:31:57.000 And this is where President Trump has pushed too many people out of the Republican Party because he can go too far.

00:32:03.000 On policy, he can win a lot of people back.

00:32:07.000 As for the vice presidency, Charlie, no one will make a difference.

00:32:12.000 It doesn't matter who Joe Biden's vice president is.

00:32:15.000 I guess it kind of does because he's so old, it does become relevant.

00:32:19.000 We should all fear if Kamala Harris becomes president.

00:32:21.000 But history shows that the thing about a vice presidency is people will vote against you if you pick the wrong vice president, Sarah Palin for John McCain, for example.

00:32:32.000 There is no history and there hasn't been for probably half a century of the vice presidential candidate delivering votes to the president.

00:32:40.000 In the modern communications era, where people hear the messages of the president across the country, it's no longer regional.

00:32:47.000 There's no longer void of communications the way there was in the early part of the 20th century where there was just radio and newspaper.

00:32:55.000 People now vote based on who the president is.

00:32:58.000 This is going to be a vote for or against Biden, for or against Trump.

00:33:02.000 As many people as there are who I like who could become really good vice presidential nominees, and I think Elise Stefanik is the most likely, congresswoman from New York State.

00:33:11.000 She's not going to deliver any votes to Donald Trump.

00:33:14.000 Trump will deliver votes to Trump. 1.00

00:33:16.000 Trump will scare people off of Trump.

00:33:19.000 It's all about the people at the top.

00:33:21.000 The vice president hasn't really made a difference in half a century.

00:33:24.000 Ari, do you have a book or something you want to plug just for our audience?

00:33:28.000 Well, thank you.

00:33:30.000 My last book came out last summer was about how lousy the media is.

00:33:34.000 It's called Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias, Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong and Just Doesn't Care. 1.00

00:33:40.000 And that really animates me, Charlie.

00:33:42.000 The press is out to lunch and out of touch.

00:33:46.000 And they've become activists for the Democratic Party.

00:33:48.000 And I was happy to blow the whistle and show example after example how the mainstream media is just nothing we can rely on anymore.

00:33:56.000 Great work.

00:33:56.000 Ari, thank you so much.

00:33:57.000 Come on again soon.

00:33:58.000 Thank you.

00:33:59.000 Thanks, Charlie.

00:34:00.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:34:01.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:34:04.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:34:05.000 God bless.

00:34:08.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 26, 2024

The Threat of No Labels Nikki Haley

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