The Charlie Kirk Show - February 18, 2026


The Trump Team's Secret Midterm Strategy Session


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

183.75464

Word count

7,439

Sentence count

675

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Toxicity

22

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

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

On today's show, we have a special interview with Charlie Kirk. We talk about the mid-term elections and how the economy is the key issue that will determine the outcome of the midterms. We also talk about why the economic message that resonates the most with voters is the one that gets through to them the most.

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 .
00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.
00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.
00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.
00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.
00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful.
00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.
00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.
00:00:28.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.
00:00:31.000 Go start a turning point USA college chapter, go start a turning point USA high school chapter.
00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.
00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.
00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.
00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life, and I encourage you to do the same.
00:00:45.000 Here I am.
00:00:46.000 Lord, use me.
00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:49.000 Here we go.
00:00:56.000 The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts, and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000 All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:11.000 It is February 18th, 2026.
00:01:14.000 Blake, welcome.
00:01:15.000 Howdy.
00:01:16.000 Happy morning.
00:01:17.000 Last night on Capitol Hill, the senior Trump political command briefed its core team on the midterms.
00:01:24.000 This is reporting from Mark Halperin, a frequent guest on this show.
00:01:28.000 And I am reading from an X account that he has given to all.
00:01:32.000 Some great reporting from Mark Halpern here.
00:01:34.000 I like his, he's got it here.
00:01:37.000 It was a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.
00:01:39.000 So that's where Republicans often meet.
00:01:41.000 The group was served chicken and steak.
00:01:43.000 Very Halpern detail there.
00:01:44.000 It's great how it gets the food.
00:01:47.000 It was a two hour program starting around 5 30.
00:01:50.000 This is a veteran group, not panicked or shaken, he says, just focused on the work and the task at hand.
00:01:55.000 There were about 75 to 100 people in the room.
00:01:58.000 Many cabinet members were there, including Scott Besant, Howard Lucknick.
00:02:02.000 RFK, Sean Duffy, along with their most senior aides.
00:02:08.000 The meeting was hosted by Susie Wiles, who spoke briefly.
00:02:10.000 The pollster and strategist, Tony Fabrizio, who Charlie loved, presented with about 25 slides on the data of what voters care about, the demographics, the issues, the messages that resonate, and what do not.
00:02:24.000 The economy will be the issue in the election, he said.
00:02:30.000 Messages that break through, banning stock trading for Congress.
00:02:34.000 That's a message that breaks through.
00:02:35.000 Yeah.
00:02:35.000 So, this is economic messages that get through the most, is what he's saying here.
00:02:41.000 So, yeah, banning stock trading for Congress.
00:02:43.000 I think that's a very interesting one.
00:02:46.000 Transparency on health insurance data, including pricing and claims reimbursement, lower prescription drug costs, and the Trump tax cuts.
00:02:54.000 I think this is worth hovering, though, for just a second.
00:02:58.000 Again, this is Tony Fabrizio, one of the most famed, respected pollsters in the entire world.
00:03:04.000 I guess, political scene, but especially within President Trump's.
00:03:07.000 Was this the guy?
00:03:09.000 I remember when Charlie, on election night, Charlie would be texting back and forth with like an unnamed person.
00:03:14.000 He's like, he tells me, like, we got this.
00:03:16.000 We got, like, was that Tony?
00:03:17.000 Yeah, there were a few of them on election night.
00:03:19.000 One of them was Dad, a Republican.
00:03:21.000 Another one was Tony Fabrizio.
00:03:22.000 And yeah, Charlie loved Tony.
00:03:24.000 Tony is beloved by the Trump administration, by the team, trusted deeply.
00:03:29.000 But again, let's just hover on these slides.
00:03:32.000 I really love, I do love, I do, banning stock trading for Congress is an interesting one.
00:03:37.000 I know people, I think that is underrated because I do think there's been really all the way back since the big crash in 08, over and over again, public attention goes back to how wealthy members of Congress are, how much wealthier they routinely get while they're in Congress, the fact that insider trading for a long time had no restrictions at all, it's still not that restricted.
00:04:02.000 Now, there's always like new ways that you can cash in, and people notice it.
00:04:06.000 It's like you can literally borrow a theme.
00:04:09.000 I see a theme in these issues that they list.
00:04:12.000 There is an underpinning of the populist energy in each one of these, right?
00:04:17.000 And it's coming from a conservative angle.
00:04:19.000 So the question is how can you get wins that resonate, that stick in the brain of voters?
00:04:26.000 You're also accomplishing a massive portfolio of policy agenda items that are having huge impacts actually on the economy, underlying economic.
00:04:35.000 Momentum.
00:04:36.000 But these are things that stick in the minds of normie people that are not plugged into the day in, day out of the political rigmarole.
00:04:44.000 This is what I'm saying.
00:04:45.000 Banning stock trading for Congress.
00:04:46.000 That's so interesting because it's not really a thing that makes any individual person richer.
00:04:50.000 No.
00:04:50.000 But it captures the idea of are the elites against us?
00:04:54.000 Are they just exploiting us and playing by different rules?
00:04:57.000 There is such a hunger in tackling the corruption and draining the swamp.
00:05:03.000 Now we're going to get to the Potomac story.
00:05:06.000 In the next segment.
00:05:07.000 So that brings a whole new meaning to draining the swamp.
00:05:10.000 But that's what we're getting at is that the voters, the grassroots, they want to see accountability.
00:05:16.000 They want to see the elites that have been getting away with it in their minds for so long be held accountable.
00:05:22.000 And these are the issues.
00:05:23.000 It's not GDP.
00:05:25.000 It's not even, according to Tony Fabrizio, stopping the invasion at the border, which is a huge accomplishment that guaranteed has more impact on your daily life than any of the things I'm going to list.
00:05:36.000 We didn't read that.
00:05:37.000 He actually says, apparently, Fabrizio in his presentation, he said, This is from Mark Halpern.
00:05:42.000 Taking credit for closing the border does not resonate much, which is a bummer because it is an incredible accomplishment of this administration.
00:05:51.000 But if it's not resonating, it's not resonating.
00:05:54.000 You should still do it, of course, because it's good.
00:05:56.000 But check it out.
00:05:56.000 Of course.
00:05:57.000 Let's read these again.
00:05:58.000 Banning stock trading for Congress. 0.99
00:05:59.000 Get those dirty, corrupt politicians in Congress. 0.97
00:06:02.000 Transparency on health insurance. 0.99
00:06:04.000 Get big medicine.
00:06:05.000 Get big hospitals.
00:06:06.000 Get big insurance.
00:06:07.000 We want to know what we're paying for.
00:06:09.000 We want them to stop getting away with it.
00:06:12.000 Lowering prescription drug costs.
00:06:14.000 Stopping big pharma.
00:06:16.000 And the Trump tax cuts.
00:06:17.000 The Trump tax cuts will resonate because guess what?
00:06:20.000 People are already experiencing about an 11% boost in their tax returns.
00:06:25.000 Housing affordability.
00:06:26.000 This is a Charlie Kirk special.
00:06:28.000 And we're going to get into this in hour two with Secretary Scott Turner from HUD.
00:06:32.000 And we're going to talk about that.
00:06:33.000 JD Vance had a great interview with Martha McCallum yesterday.
00:06:37.000 Taking credit for closing the border does not resonate much.
00:06:41.000 To Blake's earlier point.
00:06:42.000 One last thing, and then I want us to move into this.
00:06:44.000 I really like how it's not just, oh, we need more of a domestic focus on the economy.
00:06:49.000 It's that specific bit of, This is a specific thing like banning stock trading or really honing in on prescription drug crisis that will be noticed and will produce results.
00:06:58.000 A thousand percent.
00:06:59.000 And by the way, if you think back to the campaign, it was similar, right?
00:07:03.000 No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security.
00:07:06.000 These were things that people could hang their hat on.
00:07:08.000 They could say, oh, that sounds good.
00:07:11.000 And by the way, it cuts through Normieville, it cuts through to Main Street.
00:07:14.000 Yes.
00:07:15.000 And speaking of stuff that goes back to 2024, so he goes on, he says he makes recommendations for how they should spend time in media.
00:07:21.000 And he says, spend time.
00:07:22.000 On podcasts and social media, not national news interviews.
00:07:26.000 No one's watching Meet the Press anymore.
00:07:28.000 He says paid media should go on targeted media, like that social media apps, not on broadcast.
00:07:33.000 He says Facebook is still king for voters.
00:07:37.000 Then Instagram, TikTok, and TikTok against this.
00:07:40.000 And I want to push back against the pushback.
00:07:43.000 Facebook is where normie voters live, aka older voters.
00:07:47.000 They're the ones who will reliably turn out. 0.58
00:07:50.000 Facebook exists for one reason, and it's so boomers can share anti Obama and anti Biden memes.
00:07:55.000 So there's actually data on this.
00:07:57.000 It's.
00:07:57.000 Older millennials who were the first generation to have.
00:08:01.000 Facebook, their parents, and that X are in between zone. 0.98
00:08:05.000 So it makes sense.
00:08:07.000 They're original users, but they're still the most apt to vote, right?
00:08:10.000 Yeah.
00:08:11.000 We have a minute here.
00:08:12.000 They're targeting, he typoed this, it's 36 targeted House races and seven key Senate races.
00:08:17.000 And they're Frank, Frabizio, and then James Blair gets up, the political czar, and they say historically they know it's common for the president's party to lose seats, often a lot of seats in the midterms.
00:08:27.000 They believe they'll only lose the Senate if we lose 50 House seats.
00:08:32.000 So that's kind of an optimistic take.
00:08:34.000 We're likely to keep the Senate, keep the ability to confirm Supreme Court justices, confirm appointees, unless it's a true massive bloodbath.
00:08:41.000 And I think they're aware, as long as they take the right moves, they might lose seats.
00:08:44.000 It's likely they'll lose seats, but not catastrophically.
00:08:48.000 He says, trying to argue about wages being up will not help.
00:08:51.000 Voters just have to feel it.
00:08:54.000 And then this is interesting.
00:08:55.000 Apparently, they said, since President Trump wasn't there, he says, Trump will do what he wants to do.
00:09:00.000 He will say what he wants to say.
00:09:02.000 He goes on guts and instincts.
00:09:04.000 He's not as data driven.
00:09:05.000 But everyone else, you know, they can.
00:09:07.000 Stay on their message, and they'll expect you know, Trump has good instincts.
00:09:11.000 They talk about it as a parallel path that everybody that can stay on message, do it.
00:09:15.000 Trump's gonna go with his gut, he's gonna message on instinct.
00:09:17.000 He's the president, after all, he's earned the right.
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00:11:15.000 So, we want to get to this Potomac story.
00:11:18.000 Yes, the Potomac, not the Potomac, because it has just experienced the largest sewage spill in U.S. history.
00:11:28.000 240 million gallons of raw sewage flooding the Potomac in one month.
00:11:32.000 This has been going on for weeks, which is just remarkable, actually, that anything this catastrophic and horrific and smelly and gross and disgusting would be allowed to happen.
00:11:43.000 I can't imagine.
00:11:44.000 Almost like where the third world is. 0.95
00:11:46.000 I can't imagine just a giant.
00:11:48.000 Poop smell permeating over the capital of the United States of America.
00:11:52.000 Drain the swap.
00:11:53.000 Where all the politicians and power seekers are.
00:11:56.000 It's terrible.
00:11:56.000 I know.
00:11:57.000 So here's the thing there's multiple layers to this story.
00:12:01.000 Let's start with NBC is finally covering this 464.
00:12:05.000 The river George Washington called the nation's river is tonight off limits and contaminated after a 60 year old sewage line in Maryland broke open last month, spewing more than 240 million gallons of raw waste.
00:12:19.000 Into the river, the same river that flows past the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial and used by boaters, kayakers, high school, and college rowing teams.
00:12:28.000 So you can see some of the toilet paper and the sewage up on the banks there.
00:12:32.000 Riverkeeper Dean Nell Yokes says the stench and environmental damage are staggering, with E. coli levels more than 10,000 times above EPA quality standards at the time of the spill.
00:12:44.000 I think they could fix it.
00:12:45.000 They could just take a box of like kitchen matches and you just light it and burn it for a bit and get it on fire.
00:12:50.000 Yeah, well, if you set the Potomac on fire, It would probably clean it up faster than what they're going to do here. 0.85
00:12:56.000 And they're saying this might not be fixed for nine months.
00:12:59.000 Yeah, it's just, I feel like that's probably the most emblematic thing.
00:13:03.000 It's that when you're decaying, you read like the Hoover Dam got built in like two years or something.
00:13:09.000 The Empire State Building went up in nine months, I think, less than a year.
00:13:13.000 And now.
00:13:13.000 And Chinese are building ships.
00:13:15.000 Yeah.
00:13:15.000 We can't fix a pipe for nine months.
00:13:17.000 You don't even need to go look at China.
00:13:18.000 I remember Japan once they raised an entire train line in a day.
00:13:21.000 You can watch the time lapse.
00:13:22.000 They just shut down the whole station and did it all in one night.
00:13:25.000 And now.
00:13:26.000 There's a powerful symbolism in it.
00:13:28.000 It's already been a month.
00:13:30.000 This is a six foot wide pipe.
00:13:31.000 It's quite the.
00:13:33.000 It's a huge pipe.
00:13:34.000 And I guess some rocks.
00:13:35.000 There's like a rock dam.
00:13:37.000 So they investigate it and they're like, oh, well, we have to clear this rock dam before we can cure the blockage.
00:13:41.000 But yes, six months, nine months.
00:13:44.000 And when they say it'll take nine months, that means it might take them a year, two years.
00:13:47.000 They might just say, ultimately, it's now just the sewage river.
00:13:50.000 It's the sewage river.
00:13:51.000 It's the Potomac.
00:13:53.000 And now President Trump is blaming Wes Moore for Maryland, the governor there.
00:13:57.000 And the governor is.
00:13:59.000 Blaming the feds, 465.
00:14:01.000 President Trump has blamed Maryland's Democratic governor Wes Moore for gross mismanagement, while Moore fired back saying the pipe was federally built and regulated, and the Trump EPA has been slow to respond.
00:14:13.000 The fear now the Potomac may not be safe for months.
00:14:17.000 You used to swim right here?
00:14:18.000 I've swam right here.
00:14:20.000 Would you swim in here again?
00:14:21.000 Not for a while.
00:14:23.000 D.C. Water expects to have the immediate repair job done by mid March, but overhauling the entire line could take at least nine months.
00:14:31.000 All right, so here is where it gets interesting.
00:14:35.000 DC Water's manager, David Gaddis, had a whole theory of the case.
00:14:40.000 What was wrong with the people running this system before?
00:14:44.000 Hmm.
00:14:45.000 I'll give you a couple guesses.
00:14:47.000 422.
00:14:48.000 You know, when I arrived at DC Water, this was an organization that looked very similar to our industry.
00:14:55.000 It was predominantly, you know, white male at the top, but this was a utility that's, you know, more than 70% people of color work at this utility.
00:15:04.000 The people at the top, the executives, the chiefs in that C suite, they should look like.
00:15:10.000 The employees that they serve and that they work with.
00:15:14.000 And the same thing with the community.
00:15:16.000 And so my executive team looks exactly like the community.
00:15:22.000 It looks like the employees, the staff, be it people of color, women. 0.99
00:15:27.000 Well, now they have a river filled with poop. 0.94
00:15:29.000 Yeah, so how did that work out? 0.88
00:15:31.000 Yeah, so okay, it used to be a bunch of white men running it, and they're the ones who built the pipe.
00:15:36.000 They probably built it faster than they'll ever repair it here now.
00:15:39.000 It worked for 60 years.
00:15:41.000 Well, and then the fact that this was going for four weeks is another just damning detail.
00:15:46.000 It sort of seems to have started as a small story and then just it keeps going, and people are like, wait, that's still going?
00:15:52.000 There's still poo going in the river.
00:15:53.000 You're telling me that the river that flows by the Kennedy Center and the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial right through our nation's capital is filled with poo. 0.96
00:16:02.000 Now, admittedly, I feel obliged to point out that the Potomac actually has been polluted a long time.
00:16:07.000 So I know when I moved to D.C., you were not supposed to swim in the Potomac, and that there was like a decade long cleanup process.
00:16:14.000 And I think maybe a couple years ago, they finally said you could swim in it.
00:16:18.000 And now it's just right back into the pool.
00:16:19.000 Well, they have E. coli levels at 10,000 times higher than the pool.
00:16:22.000 Well, now you definitely can't.
00:16:23.000 But even before, you were always told not to swim in it.
00:16:26.000 Here is a general observation. 1.00
00:16:30.000 Because white men get a lot of crap. 1.00
00:16:34.000 We get. 1.00
00:16:34.000 We're the only group it's acceptable to attack us. 1.00
00:16:37.000 You can have genocidal fantasies about them.
00:16:40.000 Set the record straight, though.
00:16:41.000 White men created Western civilization. 0.99
00:16:45.000 They settled this continent.
00:16:47.000 They built the most successful, functional, prosperous, and advanced societies on planet Earth.
00:16:54.000 And if you are going to go into the C suite of a utility that runs your sewage for millions of people and you remove us arbitrarily, whether that be culturally or in this case bureaucratically, don't be surprised when your city regresses to the historical mean.
00:17:14.000 Most places on planet Earth have rivers filled with poop.
00:17:18.000 If you want to understand exactly how this works, there's a great X account.
00:17:22.000 I'm going to shout it out to everyone, and we should talk about it on Thought Crime next time we have it.
00:17:25.000 It's a Twitter account called Josie versus Josie.
00:17:28.000 That's J O Z I. 0.99
00:17:30.000 So Josie versus Josie. 0.97
00:17:32.000 And it's Johannesburg.
00:17:34.000 That's the nickname for it in South Africa.
00:17:37.000 And the only thing the account is, is it's photos of Johannesburg from 2010, 2000, 1990.
00:17:45.000 Old photos of Johannesburg, but mostly like 2009, 2010, old Google Maps photos.
00:17:49.000 So when they would just drive around and take photos.
00:17:51.000 And then today.
00:17:52.000 And that's all the account is.
00:17:55.000 All you have is Johannesburg after another 15 years of.
00:18:00.000 There's a lot of DEI.
00:18:01.000 South Africa is basically the DEI country. 0.59
00:18:04.000 It's in their laws, in their constitution at this point.
00:18:07.000 You have to have African economic empowerment, I believe they call it.
00:18:10.000 Black economic empowerment, they'll have labels like that. 0.54
00:18:13.000 And that is how they run their country.
00:18:16.000 You can see how it's turned out.
00:18:18.000 Rhodesia is another example of that.
00:18:19.000 There's beautiful pictures of Rhodesia from the 1960s and 70s.
00:18:23.000 Or go, if you want a closer to home example, go to London, like Charlie did last spring.
00:18:27.000 You'll see.
00:18:28.000 Beautiful building after beautiful building built 200 years ago, and they can barely even repair them now.
00:18:36.000 They're talking about tearing down the Palace of Westminster because it would be annoying to repair it.
00:18:41.000 They can't do that.
00:18:43.000 We should do regime change on them if they try to change it.
00:18:46.000 We can't go that far.
00:18:49.000 You know, be careful when you attack the people that uphold society, that produce in your society, that maintain it, that built it in the first place.
00:18:57.000 You might just miss them when they are gone.
00:19:00.000 And I think the Potomac story.
00:19:02.000 Is a sad, sad reminder that villainizing white people often comes with steep costs.
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00:20:31.000 We get contacted all of the time by viewers and listeners of this show.
00:20:38.000 They always want to ask about California.
00:20:40.000 They say, Can you guys save California?
00:20:42.000 And Charlie was always honest.
00:20:44.000 We're always honest.
00:20:45.000 And we say, We're focused on the core swing states Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia, places like that.
00:20:51.000 And California, if you're there, you should fight for it.
00:20:54.000 You should do everything you can.
00:20:55.000 But it's not imminently about to flip.
00:20:58.000 But there is a governor's election this year.
00:21:01.000 And California has a very interesting law.
00:21:04.000 They have.
00:21:05.000 Jungle primaries, which is regardless of party, everyone into a big pot, and the top two vote getters go to the general.
00:21:13.000 And that's how it works.
00:21:14.000 And they did this so they could get more left wing people in a lot of the country.
00:21:17.000 You'd only have two Democrats, you could get a more left wing one versus a moderate, and so on.
00:21:21.000 Yeah, they wanted a Dem versus a Dem.
00:21:22.000 But a side effect of just a big jungle primary is well, it's a blue state. 0.97
00:21:27.000 There are six Democrats at least running in the governor's race, and there's only two Republicans.
00:21:33.000 And yesterday we got this poll.
00:21:35.000 It's apparently done by Tavern Research and is an internal poll.
00:21:39.000 For the Javier Becerra campaign.
00:21:41.000 And these are top two advance.
00:21:44.000 The top two polling are Chad Bianco, 20%, Steve Hilton, 12%.
00:21:50.000 And then six Democrats.
00:21:52.000 And this is what's great.
00:21:53.000 So I called Steve yesterday.
00:21:54.000 I was like, Steve, you're in the top two.
00:21:57.000 Like, this is great.
00:21:57.000 And he goes, Oh, that's a fake poll.
00:21:59.000 And this wonderful English accent saying, Oh, that's a fake poll.
00:22:03.000 Wait till you see what comes out tomorrow.
00:22:05.000 So now we have a new poll, and I'm struggling to get the number here.
00:22:11.000 It is 450.
00:22:12.000 So put up the new one. 0.89
00:22:13.000 I think this is for Emerson.
00:22:16.000 Did a poll.
00:22:17.000 Steve Hilton's actually at 17%.
00:22:19.000 In December, he was down at 12%.
00:22:21.000 So if you go to the left side of that graph, he is now pulled ahead as the top poll receiving, most favorable of all the candidates.
00:22:31.000 This one has Swalwell.
00:22:33.000 Yeah.
00:22:34.000 Eric Swalwell as number two.
00:22:37.000 Chad Bianco, the other Republican, at number three.
00:22:41.000 But also, they're both at 14%.
00:22:42.000 So effectively tied for second.
00:22:43.000 Effectively tied for second.
00:22:45.000 Top two advance.
00:22:46.000 Porter, Steyer, Becerra, Villaragosa, and then undecided is still a huge chunk because, you know, it's early.
00:22:52.000 If we were to get it where just two Republicans are the nominees in California for the governorship, that would possibly be the funniest thing I've seen in state level politics.
00:23:03.000 It basically would be a literal coup.
00:23:05.000 We would take over the state.
00:23:07.000 Well, without further ado, one of those men, and apparently the leading candidate for the governor of the state of California.
00:23:15.000 Steve Hilton joins us now.
00:23:17.000 Steve, congratulations on these new breaking poll results.
00:23:21.000 You are at 17%.
00:23:23.000 I mean, this is a massively crowded field.
00:23:25.000 So to get to 17 is a huge accomplishment.
00:23:27.000 Welcome back to the show.
00:23:29.000 Tell us what it means.
00:23:29.000 Well, it's great to be with you guys.
00:23:31.000 Always fun.
00:23:31.000 And I really appreciate the way you laid all that out there.
00:23:34.000 Exactly right. 0.89
00:23:34.000 We've got this ridiculous top two system. 0.89
00:23:37.000 And there is a crazy scenario, as you were just mentioning, where you could get two Republicans in the top two.
00:23:44.000 That's theoretically possible.
00:23:45.000 But in practice, it's not going to happen because.
00:23:49.000 The Democrat machine is not just going to surrender California.
00:23:54.000 And right now, there's another thing that's happened, which is as well as the existing candidates that have been in the race for a while, people like, I can barely say their names without laughing, that these are the, as the president would say, they're not sending their best when you think about the Democrats.
00:24:11.000 Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, the billionaire climate fanatic Tom Steyer.
00:24:17.000 Well, on top of that, you've got another one now.
00:24:20.000 A guy called Matt Mahan.
00:24:21.000 He is the mayor of San Jose.
00:24:22.000 No one's really heard of him, but he's got big tech money behind him.
00:24:26.000 And that's going to propel him up.
00:24:29.000 He's got a lot of money.
00:24:30.000 And on the other side of it, the unions, they always get behind one candidate.
00:24:36.000 They're going to pick their puppet, as it were.
00:24:38.000 And it looks to me like they're getting behind Eric Swalwell.
00:24:41.000 So within a couple of weeks, even maybe certainly within months, you will get two very well funded Democrats moving up purely because of all the money that the government unions.
00:24:53.000 And the tech community are putting in.
00:24:55.000 So, the real risk actually is that we get two Democrats in the top two.
00:25:01.000 That's what I'm really concerned about.
00:25:03.000 And then, of course, the chance for change in California is gone.
00:25:06.000 And it has a massively negative impact on the other races in California.
00:25:11.000 If there's no Republican in the governor's race, you can forget about any of the congressional seats in California that are in play that we absolutely need to protect the House majority.
00:25:21.000 You can forget about voter ID, which is on the ballot.
00:25:24.000 I wanted to update on that, Steve, actually, because we had Calvert on the show giving us the update where we stand on that right now.
00:25:31.000 Fantastic.
00:25:32.000 It's qualified for the ballot.
00:25:33.000 We've got more than enough signatures.
00:25:35.000 It's been led by Ken, has been great on it.
00:25:38.000 A friend of mine, Carl DeMaio, has been really working hard.
00:25:40.000 I've been on the road getting signatures as well.
00:25:43.000 It's qualified for the ballot.
00:25:45.000 This is huge.
00:25:46.000 It's not just huge in its own right because it helps stop the cheating.
00:25:49.000 It actually is a big part of why I believe we can really win this year.
00:25:54.000 Because voter ID, of course, as we know, it's popular across the board, even in California, even among California Democrats, there's a majority for voter ID.
00:26:02.000 But of course, it's really popular with Republicans.
00:26:05.000 That means it's going to really help the turnout in November.
00:26:09.000 And in a midterm, as you know, that's what it's all about getting your voters out.
00:26:13.000 And so it's one of the main reasons I think we can actually win this year, truly win in November and elect me governor is voter ID being on the ballot.
00:26:23.000 Well, and listen, there is, I mean, there is probably no politician in the United States so loathed and so mocked, save for like AOC and Ilhan Omar, as Eric Swawa.
00:26:35.000 I mean, this, the fact to see his name ahead of, Katie Porter shocked me actually because, yeah, Katie Porter is got a terrible bedside manner, she's terrible to her staff, she's mean. 0.99
00:26:49.000 Uh, but you know, she's a little like Eric Swalwell.
00:26:53.000 I mean, also, we have to weigh the possibility that she may, if the race is close, simply eat Eric Swalwell.
00:27:00.000 You do not have to chime in on any of this if you don't want to, uh, Steve Hilton.
00:27:04.000 Well, I will say what I will say one thing, which is I can't decide between them.
00:27:08.000 What is my preference?
00:27:09.000 You know, Katie Porter with the endless opportunity for mashed potato jokes. 0.98
00:27:14.000 Or Eric Swalwell with the possibilities for Fang Fang jokes all over the place.
00:27:20.000 I can't decide.
00:27:21.000 There's flatulating on camera, there's Fang Fang, and now the new one is his erotic poetry.
00:27:27.000 He's given Stacey Abrams a run for her money. 1.00
00:27:30.000 He once penned a graphic sex charge college poem boasting of lovers kissing till veins imploded and exploded with blood rolled down our chins.
00:27:41.000 Ah, okay.
00:27:42.000 Formless and magnificent.
00:27:43.000 A flurry of limbs and nails.
00:27:46.000 I guess, you know.
00:27:47.000 A flurry of limbs and nails.
00:27:49.000 All of us.
00:27:50.000 Bad poetry.
00:27:52.000 He was 19, I guess.
00:27:53.000 All of us were cringe once, but it is very funny.
00:27:56.000 So, right now, I'm going to.
00:27:57.000 Okay.
00:27:58.000 I think I'm going to stick to saying my plan is for $3 gas in California because we're going to end the Democrats' climate insanity.
00:28:07.000 How about that?
00:28:07.000 That's my response to that.
00:28:09.000 Well, yeah.
00:28:10.000 What are you seeing resonating on the campaign trail?
00:28:13.000 Because we just got this.
00:28:14.000 Interesting report from Mark Halperin talking on the national level.
00:28:17.000 They want to see banning stock trading.
00:28:19.000 They want to see price transparency at hospital.
00:28:22.000 So Fabrizio's giving the president and the administration these messaging line items that will pierce the noise, right?
00:28:30.000 What's piercing the noise in California?
00:28:33.000 So we're on the road.
00:28:34.000 I mean, you can see it behind me because I'm on the road with that.
00:28:37.000 We call it the Cal Affordable Tour because it's all of these, everything is the most expensive in California than anywhere else in the country.
00:28:45.000 So, my plan is incredibly.
00:28:47.000 You've got to end the Democrat climate crusade.
00:28:49.000 So, you get $3 gas, cut electric bills.
00:28:52.000 We have the highest gas prices in the country, even though we have abundant oil reserves, higher than Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
00:28:59.000 We have the highest electric bills everywhere apart from Hawaii.
00:29:03.000 These are the concerns.
00:29:04.000 Tax is the highest in the country.
00:29:06.000 Every rent, housing, all of these things.
00:29:09.000 Charlie used to talk about, and that's one of the things that so resonates, of course, for all of us, is that simple American dream get married, raise a family.
00:29:17.000 Buy your own home, a good, decent life.
00:29:19.000 They've made that impossible in California.
00:29:21.000 It's actually those simple things $3 gas, cut your electric bills in half, your first hundred grand tax free, a home you can afford to buy.
00:29:30.000 That's really what people are responding to.
00:29:33.000 And I think that's, and the Democrats have no answer, like literally nothing to say about any of that.
00:29:39.000 And the idea that we're just going to have more of the same of this nonsense in California is just unthinkable.
00:29:44.000 So that's why I'm sure we can win.
00:29:47.000 Especially on gas, the refinery situation.
00:29:50.000 Didn't just a refinery just shut down?
00:29:52.000 My family in Nevada was telling me gas in Nevada spiked because a refinery shut down in California.
00:29:57.000 And now there's a report out of Bloomberg that gasoline starved California is turning to fuel from the Bahamas.
00:30:06.000 This just came out from Bloomberg.
00:30:08.000 Gasoline starved California is turning to fuel from the Bahamas. 0.99
00:30:12.000 California is so inept. 0.72
00:30:13.000 They need fuel from the Bahamas. 0.99
00:30:15.000 All right, Steve, here's a question for you.
00:30:19.000 Are you and Chad talking?
00:30:20.000 Are you like, what's it going to take to unite the Klans, consolidate the field? 0.81
00:30:25.000 You don't have, you can answer however you want, but it seems to me.
00:30:28.000 Look, we do.
00:30:30.000 We've got to avoid splitting the vote.
00:30:32.000 That's really important.
00:30:33.000 Otherwise, we could end up with two Democrats, and that's an absolute calamity.
00:30:36.000 So the truth is that for months now, actually, I've been, I've made it clear my door is open.
00:30:42.000 I'm building a team to get this done.
00:30:44.000 It's never actually been done like this in California.
00:30:46.000 I've got a running mate for Lieutenant Governor Gloria Romero. 1.00
00:30:50.000 Michael Gates, a fantastic fighter, running with me for Attorney General.
00:30:54.000 He was a, He was the city attorney in Huntington Beach, worked for the Trump administration with Hamid Dillon in the Justice Department.
00:31:00.000 Herb Morgan running for state controller.
00:31:02.000 We've set up Cal Doge to find the fraud.
00:31:05.000 So I'm building a team already.
00:31:06.000 And I'd love Chad to be part of that.
00:31:09.000 I don't see any interest on his side.
00:31:11.000 Steve Hilton for governor, Charlie Kirkendorf, Steve Hilton for governor.
00:31:15.000 We're behind you 100%, my friend.
00:31:17.000 Keep going.
00:31:18.000 Keep going.
00:31:18.000 Thank you, man.
00:31:19.000 Great to see you.
00:31:22.000 Hi, folks.
00:31:23.000 Andrew Colvett here.
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00:32:20.000 According to Axios, Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran.
00:32:25.000 So, this is a.
00:32:27.000 The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S. Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope and more existential for the regime than the Israeli led 12 day war last June, which U.S. eventually joined to take out Iran's underground nuclear facilities.
00:32:42.000 So, this is a huge buildup here.
00:32:45.000 So, we'll go through the numbers here.
00:32:47.000 Trump's armada has grown to include two aircraft carriers, a dozen warships, Hundreds of fighter jets and multiple air defense systems.
00:32:56.000 Some of that firepower is still on the way.
00:32:58.000 And people have been seeing how, over the last few days, a lot of the logistical stuff has been because you can monitor those flights.
00:33:04.000 So, tankers have been flying across the ocean.
00:33:07.000 The supply vehicles that would support a major effort, all of that is heading from Europe, from the United States.
00:33:13.000 Like, you get that long term buildup that would let them have sustained action against the country.
00:33:19.000 Yeah, exactly.
00:33:20.000 So, more than 150 U.S. military cargo flights have moved weapon systems and ammunition to the Middle East.
00:33:25.000 Just in the past 24 hours, another 50 fighter jets, F 35s, F 22s, and F 16s headed to the region.
00:33:32.000 So, what they say is between the lines, the standoff with Iran has gone on so long, many Americans are likely numb to it.
00:33:40.000 Maybe, maybe not.
00:33:40.000 I wouldn't say the base is numb to it.
00:33:43.000 The Twitterati are not going to be numb to it.
00:33:45.000 What they're getting at is this is a bigger buildup than we had last summer, than we've had at other times.
00:33:50.000 And yet, this is the fourth segment of the hour.
00:33:53.000 It's not what we led the show with.
00:33:54.000 We haven't really been talking about it.
00:33:56.000 It's been in the background compared to.
00:33:59.000 Shut down in Washington compared to the ICE stuff, compared to basically a lot of other issues.
00:34:04.000 And there's no, I think if you were to say, if we were to, if Trump were to go on air and say, we're launching a regime change war against Iran, I think a lot of people would be wondering why it's happening now.
00:34:14.000 Last summer, there was actual war between Iran and Israel.
00:34:18.000 So that was going on.
00:34:19.000 Their argument would be that there is this mass uprising and then the regime came in, crushed it.
00:34:24.000 We're talking about tens of thousands of dead protesters, which is obviously horrendous, but there's horrendous things that happen all over the world.
00:34:31.000 Now, the Pro Iran lobby would say this is the time you could push them over the top, etc. etc.
00:34:37.000 So, this is what's interesting here the timeline.
00:34:40.000 The Israeli government, which is pushing for a maximalist scenario targeting regime change as well as Iran's nuclear missile programs, is preparing for a scenario of war within days, according to two Israeli officials.
00:34:52.000 Some U.S. sources tell Axios that the U.S. might need more time.
00:34:55.000 Senator Lindsey Graham, this is the part where it got my ears right up.
00:35:00.000 Senator Lindsey Graham said strikes could still be weeks away, but others say the timeline could be shorter.
00:35:06.000 This is what it says The boss is getting fed up.
00:35:09.000 Some people around him warn against going to war with Iran, but I think there is a 90% chance we see Connecticut. 0.97
00:35:15.000 Action in the next few weeks, one Trump advisor said.
00:35:19.000 And what is prompting a lot of this is that there has been attempted Iran U.S. diplomatic negotiations going on, and there is no evidence of a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran on the horizon.
00:35:32.000 But there's more and more evidence that war is, in fact, now imminent.
00:35:36.000 We should know that the president has done this a few times.
00:35:39.000 We had the long buildup in Venezuela.
00:35:42.000 I feel like everyone thought we were going to topple that government.
00:35:45.000 And then instead, he just yoinked out Maduro.
00:35:47.000 And instead, you have just kind of a much friendlier relationship with essentially the same government still.
00:35:53.000 Yeah, and all reports from Venezuela, to be fair, you even have former General Petraeus, retired General Petraeus, praising Trump's handling of Venezuela, which is interesting.
00:36:02.000 And all reports indicate that it's going well.
00:36:05.000 Now, there's going to be bumps along the road.
00:36:05.000 Mm hmm.
00:36:07.000 There's no doubt.
00:36:08.000 In a country that large and that's been that chaotic for that long, there's going to be bumps along the road.
00:36:12.000 But that is one scenario that seems to be going well.
00:36:14.000 And that was ahead of a snake operation, right?
00:36:17.000 You take out Maduro, you provide an olive branch to the rest of the government.
00:36:22.000 Seems to go well.
00:36:23.000 Maybe he could pursue a similar path.
00:36:25.000 I would be skeptical of that.
00:36:26.000 Now, as they always say, who runs Iran?
00:36:29.000 As they would say, Sean Hannity's voice, the mullahs in Iran. 0.94
00:36:33.000 The mullahs.
00:36:33.000 It is.
00:36:34.000 You have the Ayatollah, but the Ayatollah's a really old guy who's a cleric. 0.52
00:36:38.000 He's.
00:36:39.000 It's not a cult of personality around one guy.
00:36:41.000 It is a guy who loves to tweet.
00:36:43.000 It is a theocratic regime.
00:36:44.000 I mean, they're strong enough that they had military forces who could crush a large uprising in the country.
00:36:50.000 You would, and also, it's a much more, I think, ideologically hostile regime.
00:36:55.000 I mean, it's religious extremists.
00:36:58.000 It's not even just kind of communists, it is full-blown apocalyptic types.
00:37:03.000 Probably the most aggressive, from a messaging standpoint, regime in the world against the American people.
00:37:07.000 Exactly.
00:37:09.000 Think it's the sort of thing where you could helicopter out one guy and they'd be much friendlier.
00:37:14.000 I think it is the sort of thing where if you were going to go in, you would have to overthrow the government and install a new one.
00:37:20.000 And at that point, you're risking more U.S. troops.
00:37:24.000 It's a more expensive operation no matter what happens.
00:37:28.000 And we were just talking at the top that the goal is to pivot towards domestic stuff, message on the economy, message on drug prices.
00:37:38.000 I think it would be difficult to mix that with this sort of war unless.
00:37:42.000 President Trump was highly confident it could be a rapid, decisive operation with no permanent U.S. football.
00:37:48.000 Do you remember what Trump said during the 12 day war?
00:37:50.000 He said, We could have taken the Ayatollah out. 0.66
00:37:53.000 We had his location.
00:37:54.000 We could have done it.
00:37:55.000 He opted not to then.
00:37:57.000 So it's an interesting thing to keep in the back of your mind that we have the capability, certainly, to do it from a military standpoint.
00:38:05.000 The question is, would that be part of this?
00:38:06.000 You can see how they may have even been selling the president on this that, for example, a lot of people, us included, were very concerned last summer.
00:38:14.000 This would escalate into a quagmire.
00:38:16.000 And instead, they said, no, we can do one strike.
00:38:18.000 They won't detect it.
00:38:19.000 There will be no losses and it'll succeed.
00:38:21.000 And they did that with the strikes.
00:38:23.000 Similar thing in Venezuela.
00:38:24.000 I think a lot of people would have said, this is a very risky operation where a lot of soldiers could be killed.
00:38:29.000 And instead, total success, no U.S. losses.
00:38:33.000 And we took them all out and they were completely humiliating for the regime such that they basically had to submit to us because they're worried we could blow them all to smithereens with no losses.
00:38:43.000 So you can sort of see how.
00:38:45.000 The people who are most concerned that an intervention would become a quagmire have, we should just say it, they have been incorrect.
00:38:53.000 And the people who've said we can do this easily with no losses have been correct several times.
00:39:00.000 Then, yeah, I have to offer that caveat that if you do that over and over, eventually you do get unlucky.
00:39:06.000 And you only have to get unlucky once, and we're in another five, 10 year mess.
00:39:10.000 So, the Ayatollah, I was just looking at his Twitter feed, you know, and you got to imagine this is playing into President Trump's psychology here because you don't threaten America when President Trump is president and basically get away with it.
00:39:25.000 Americans say, come negotiate with us about your nuclear energy, and the result, by the way, nuclear energy, it's not just energy you guys want.
00:39:33.000 We know better.
00:39:35.000 And the result would be that you won't have that energy.
00:39:37.000 There is no need to negotiate. 1.00
00:39:39.000 But if a negotiation were to take place, predetermining its outcome is a misguided and stupid approach. 0.99
00:39:45.000 That's Ayatollah Khomeini. 0.99
00:39:47.000 Khomeini.
00:39:48.000 We have another one.
00:39:49.000 Yeah.
00:39:50.000 Go ahead.
00:39:50.000 Well, we have another tweet, 473, where he says, The president keeps saying they have the strongest military force in the world.
00:39:58.000 The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again.
00:40:05.000 Yeah.
00:40:05.000 Man, they really love to broadcast these.
00:40:07.000 Every Arab war or every Middle Eastern war is like threatened total annihilation of our enemies. 0.98
00:40:13.000 Die. 0.99
00:40:13.000 One last thing Iran has tried to kill President Trump. 0.99
00:40:18.000 That's going on in the back of his head, too. 0.92
00:40:20.000 Don't forget that.
00:40:25.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.