00:00:58.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:01:54.000Yes, it's very simple, Charlie, but it takes a little memory.
00:01:57.000So go back to 2019 and remember the very first impeachment trial against Donald Trump, the one that was actually successful in the House, but thankfully died in the Senate.
00:02:29.000Now, in the bill that is being debated right now on the Senate floor, there are golden handcuffs because it doesn't just fund Ukraine in 2024.
00:02:37.000It also funds Ukraine in 2025 and 2026.
00:02:42.000Hopefully, of course, Donald J. Trump.
00:02:44.000So if Donald Trump tries to do what he has promised on the campaign trail and stop the killing, there will be a predicate there.
00:02:51.000There will be people who say, you're not spending the money that was appropriated to Ukraine in the same way that you didn't spend the money in 2019.
00:03:00.000And I guarantee, Charlie, they will impeach him.
00:03:06.000But we know these people don't actually care.
00:03:08.000What we're doing is handing them the weapon with which they will wedge, use it against our nominee for president in 2025 if he actually wins, as all of us hope that he, as all of us hope that he will.
00:03:20.000So this is really, really important, Charlie.
00:03:22.000It shows, number one, that nobody actually knows what's in this 370-page behemoth.
00:03:28.000We got to actually read these things and debate them.
00:03:32.000Even if you want to fund Ukraine, you shouldn't be wanting to tie Donald Trump's hands two years into his administration.
00:03:40.000So, Senator, I heard you on Steve Bannon's program this morning, and I thought it was really important, which could, because our audience is so fired up on this.
00:03:47.000And we had Senator Lee on earlier, and he said, it's not a done deal that this has passed yet.
00:03:52.000I want to read off the Senate Republicans.
00:03:54.000I know they're your colleagues, but we have to be honest.
00:03:57.000Shelly Moore Capitol from West Virginia, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, John Cornyn from Texas, Joni Ernst from Iowa, Chuck Grassley from Iowa, John Kennedy from Louisiana, both representatives from Louisiana, I believe, have voted for this.
00:04:12.000Mitch McConnell, obviously from Kentucky, Jerry Moran from Kansas, Mark Wayne Mullen from Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Mitt Romney from Utah, Mike Rounds from South Dakota, Dan Sullivan from Alaska, John Thrune from South Dakota, Tom Tillis from North Carolina, Roger Wicker from Mississippi, and Todd Young from Indiana.
00:04:29.000So, Senator, what help me understand why they're doing this?
00:04:33.000It is a direct insult to the American people.
00:04:46.000Well, first, let me say, Charlie, that a lot of the people you just named are allies of Donald Trump.
00:04:50.000They're people who have endorsed Donald Trump already for president.
00:04:53.000I really don't think, Charlie, and maybe I'm being naive, that some of these people, yeah, okay, maybe Mitch, but some of these people, I don't think, realize that this legislation will lead directly to his impeachment in 2025.
00:05:05.000But I think a lot of them are just sort of, you know, unaware that what's in the bill, they've trusted leadership.
00:05:10.000I don't know what their justification for it is, but we have to kill this bill, Charlie.
00:05:14.000And I encourage everybody out there, do everything you can to send a message that we have to kill this bill.
00:05:22.000It's a plot against Republican voters, and we have to stop it.
00:05:25.000Now, if you step back, Charlie, to answer your question, look, I hate to say it, but the Ukraine thing has become an obsession among a certain species of Republican.
00:05:33.000They have convinced themselves that this is our 9-11.
00:05:39.000And they want to be Winston Churchill or Franklin Roosevelt standing in the breach and saying no to tyranny.
00:05:45.000And they've convinced themselves that this is the fight.
00:05:48.000And all of the knuckle-draggers like me in the Republican Party who think we should stop spending money to Ukraine, you know, we're just like the isolationists.
00:05:56.000We're the peacenicks of World War II who would have let Hitler march all over Europe.
00:06:03.000The comparison doesn't even make sense.
00:06:05.000But these people have really convinced themselves that they're self-righteous, Charlie, that this is a righteous moral crusade and they want to be on the right side of history.
00:06:13.000The crazy thing is, Charlie, as you know well, and I think your audience knows well, we know that the very same foreign policy wisdom of the last 30 years, it's not the wisdom of the World War II generation.
00:06:26.000It's the wisdom of never-ending war in Afghanistan, never-ending war in Iraq, lying about weapons of mass destruction, starting a war in Syria that we had no business involved in.
00:06:36.000It is the logic of perpetual warfare, not of any sort of patriotic stand.
00:06:42.000So we've got to really, I think, hammer this hard, Charlie, and try to defeat this thing.
00:06:46.000Senator, you said something that I think is really important, and it kind of plays off of this one-liner you hear a lot.
00:06:51.000Oh, they just care about invites to the cocktail parties.
00:06:54.000And the National Review people hate that when you say that.
00:06:56.000But you said that they want to be treated well at the Munich Security Conference.
00:07:04.000Are we at a place now where they really want to fly nonstop from Dolus on Lufthansa first class and be treated in chauffeur cars in Munich and get invited to parties?
00:07:15.000Is that really where the U.S. Senate stands?
00:07:18.000You have to think about this, Charlie.
00:07:21.000What these guys, Munich Security Conference, it's like the Davos of national security.
00:07:26.000It's literally, I think, five days from now, it starts.
00:07:28.000And all of these guys are going to go on their two-week recess, and they really want to sit with the NATO Secretary General and with the leaders and heads of state of Europe.
00:07:37.000And they want to say, we got your money for Ukraine.
00:07:42.000We may not have secured the southern border.
00:07:45.000We are opposed by the knuckle-draggers like JD Vance and Donald Trump of the Republican Party, but we got your money for Ukraine.
00:07:51.000And yeah, Charlie, I hate to say it, but I think the psychological motivation, man, you know, this is one of the most dangerous human impulses is when you can sit down at a table and convince yourself that you're really good and you're really righteous and that the people who disagree with you, they're not just wrong, they're bad people.
00:08:09.000I really think that's a big part of what this is all about.
00:08:12.000Yeah, and I just, it's as if they are more worried about the reception of a foreign country.
00:09:02.000I think that he's wrong on this issue.
00:09:04.000And I've tried to make this argument to him.
00:09:05.000But look, even if Mark Wayne wants to send money to Ukraine and I disagree with him, this is where I go back to this impeachment argument, Charlie, because I don't think in his heart of hearts that Mark Wayne wants to impeach Donald Trump for not sending money to Ukraine a year from now.
00:09:19.000And that's what I think we really have to make this argument is.
00:09:21.000This is not just send money to Ukraine or not.
00:09:24.000This is blow up the president of the United States of your own party preemptively.
00:09:30.000You know, George W. Bush, neocons love preemptive war.
00:09:33.000This is a preemptive war against Donald Trump to destroy his presidency before it even begins.
00:09:41.000And I just, if you look at this, the base is on fire over it.
00:09:44.000And these guys, I mean, and Senator, it's not threats.
00:09:47.000You know, if Mark Wayne is a friend of yours, it's not too late to redeem this and just be like, hey, man, like, hey, I don't think you understand what you're dealing with here.
00:10:30.000And we just have to run this clock as long as possible because the reason the clock running matters, Charlie, is it gives the American people an opportunity to wake up to this.
00:10:38.000No one was worried about this Saturday and Sunday.
00:10:41.000Everyone was focused on the Super Bowl.
00:10:43.000What we're doing right now is really standing on principle and fighting for the idea that one, you should read a bill before you pass it.
00:10:51.000And two, you shouldn't go to war against the nominee of your own party to send $61 billion to a foreign country.
00:10:57.000So I think we've got a chance of winning this debate.
00:11:00.000Obviously, a lot of people want us to fail.
00:11:01.000There are a lot of senators who want to fund $61 billion to Ukraine.
00:11:06.000But man, we've got a chance, albeit a small chance to beat this thing.
00:11:09.000And we're just going to keep on hammering, keep on debating, delay this thing as long as possible and hope that our colleagues come to their senses.
00:11:16.000Yeah, I mean, look, these red state senators, they've been warned.
00:11:19.000They will feel the wrath of the grassroots.
00:11:21.000Senator, I'm so glad we went all in on you early.
00:11:23.000You're doing an amazing job from Ohio.
00:11:25.000The people of Ohio are thrilled with you, Senator Vance.
00:11:33.000If you're looking for a reliable and clear way to have voice and text communication to any number from anywhere in the world, you need a satellite phone.
00:11:41.000And no one does it better than the satellite phone store.
00:14:05.000So, Senator, I want to emphasize that.
00:14:07.000I mean, you guys have a lot on your plate here, but the one element that isn't being covered, and Tucker Carlson's terrific interview with Vladimir Putin mentioned this, and it deserves to be looked into, is that Joe Biden via Tony Blinken, via Boris Johnson, went in and obliterated a potential peace deal that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
00:14:53.000They don't want our missiles and our military bases in Ukraine right on their borders, nor would we want China on our Mexico border, our southern border.
00:15:01.000So it's just unfortunate what's going on.
00:15:05.000They had a peace deal worked out in Istanbul, Turkey, but for some reason, Boris Johnson was sent by our administration and said, hey, don't let them get a deal.
00:15:18.000And it's just about people wanting to fight wars.
00:15:20.000And I think Joe Biden thinks the only way he can win re-election, which I think that would be impossible, I hope, that we're in two or three wars.
00:15:30.000So we couldn't fight one war right now because our stocks are so deplenished here, Charlie.
00:15:36.000You'd be shocked if you knew just how much we've depleted our own stocks.
00:15:40.000And it takes years to put those back into service.
00:15:54.000Well, first of all, I don't know if you read the New York Times article.
00:15:57.000I don't read the New York Times, but I had somebody tell me this: that they found out that a lot of the weapons that we have stored in Israel, which we do, we have millions of dollars worth of weapons stored in Israel.
00:16:08.000We're asking them to send them to Ukraine.
00:17:54.000We had last month saving babies with pre-born by providing ultrasounds.
00:17:58.000And we're doing again this year what we did last year.
00:18:00.000We're going to stand for life because remaining silent in the face of the most radically pro-death administration is not an option.
00:18:05.000As Sir Edmund Burke said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, and we're not going to do nothing.
00:18:11.000Your gift to pre-born will give a girl the truth about what's happening in her body so that she can make the right choice.
00:19:06.000We have many different conflicts unfolding here.
00:19:09.000So, Senator, I'm going to ask you to speculate for a second, but when you're speaking privately to your colleagues, what is their rationale as to why we need to keep on financing this Ukraine war?
00:19:22.000Because it is so against, first of all, the national security interests of the country, but also the poor Ukrainian people, they're on the verge of getting mowed down in the spring fighting season.
00:19:33.000They're having difficulty enlisting an army.
00:19:35.000We're losing an entire generation of Ukrainian men.
00:22:26.000Rand Paul is on the floor as we speak.
00:22:28.000I spoke a little bit earlier today about Friday, they're going to get a plane, Codell, and they're going to take over pallets of cash to Ukraine.
00:23:53.000Trump is for the American people that want the American public and the Constitution to be on the same page.
00:23:58.000And that's the reason he has got to get elected.
00:24:00.000If he doesn't, I can't imagine going through four more years of this craziness up here in Washington, D.C., because we are on the verge of losing our country.
00:24:49.000These things take time to take over a massive uniparty that hates you, a regime that is just bombarding and blitz-krieging your values on a daily basis.
00:24:58.000Tuberville, Vance, Lee, we could have Hawley as well.
00:25:05.000For years, I've been talking about our nation's public schools have been captured by progressive ideologues, especially true if you're a Christian family.
00:25:11.000For those of you worried about the best educational path for your kids and grandkids, I want to tell you about how Turning Point Academy is working with the Herzog Foundation, how you at home can also benefit from it.
00:25:20.000They have an online publication called The Lion, and also Making the Leap.
00:25:23.000The Herzog Foundation offers a wide range of advice and information for Christian parents to make the best education decisions for your kids.
00:25:43.000Over the weekend, an objectionable piece of legislation advanced in the U.S. Senate looks likely to pass.
00:25:52.000And joining us now is one of the leading critics of that piece of legislation and a voice of moral clarity in a very disappointing town, Senator Mike Lee.
00:26:05.000Senator, thank you for taking the time.
00:26:06.000Senator, walk us through what happened this weekend.
00:26:08.000Well, this weekend, we saw the military-industrial complex moving in full force to push through something, push through something that enjoys the support of every Democrat in the United States Senate except Bernie Sanders.
00:26:22.000And you saw 18 Republican senators join with all but one Democratic senator in order to propel that bill forward.
00:26:31.000This is a bill that spends $95 billion, and over $60 billion of that goes to Ukraine.
00:26:38.000And of the aid that it spends, there's a whole lot of it that goes about $8 billion worth to economic assistance to Ukraine that can and will be used to fund the salaries of Ukrainian bureaucrats and other government employees in Ukraine for an entire year, no less.
00:26:57.000And it will also be used as it's been used in the past when we've sent similar funds to Ukraine over the last two years to fund things like concert tickets for Ukrainians, Ukrainian clothing stores, Ukrainian welfare benefits.
00:27:23.000And it makes no sense that Republican Senate leadership is doing this against the wishes of the vast majority of Republican senators and the vast, overwhelming majority of Republican voters.
00:27:34.000This is wrong, and we're doing everything we can to stop it.
00:27:37.000Yeah, so what is the legislative schedule then, Senator?
00:27:40.000It hasn't passed yet, but it looks imminent.
00:27:44.000Okay, so the next step is we're going to be we've got one more cloture vote.
00:27:49.000There are multiple rounds of closure votes.
00:27:51.000Closure means we're bringing debate on something, bringing debate to a close on something.
00:27:58.000The first closure vote was closure on the motion to proceed.
00:28:02.000And then last night we had another closure vote on the overall bill.
00:28:08.000And then in the next round, we've got the closure bringing debate to a close on this specific amendment that carves this down to this specific bill.
00:28:18.000And each time we do that, we pass another one of these thresholds where it can't move forward unless some Republicans join with Democrats.
00:28:26.000Because remember, they only have 51 votes in the Senate.
00:28:28.000They've only got 50 without Bernie Sanders supporting it, which they don't at this point.
00:28:34.000So tonight at around 8 p.m., we think they're going to have yet another cloture vote.
00:28:40.000And we're going to try to peel off more Republicans every time we get the chance because Republicans shouldn't be voting on this.
00:28:46.000Because even if they want to support Ukraine, a lot of my colleagues who are opposed to this are okay with funding Ukraine if it's actually military funding or something that's to the strategic benefit of the United States.
00:29:00.000It's even got humanitarian funds totaling between $9 and $10 billion, some of which could end up going to fund Hamas, of all things.
00:29:09.000And so they have, I was on the Senate floor all day, literally all day on Saturday, offering up a half dozen different amendments to try to make them pandic.
00:29:19.000They objected every time saying, oh, you forfeited your chance to do this the minute Republicans rejected the fake border package that was negotiated.
00:29:43.000So the math currently is without Bernie Sanders' support that gets the remaining 50 Democrats all backing it.
00:29:50.000Then they've got 18 Republicans in the Senate who joined with the 50 Democrats to produce a vote of 68.
00:29:59.000And remember, the critical threshold that they need is 60 votes.
00:30:02.000You can't bring debate to a close and therefore can't pass most legislation, including certainly this legislation, without 60 votes.
00:30:10.000The inverse corollary of that is that 41 votes votes.
00:30:15.000If you can hold 41 votes against almost any bill, you can defeat almost any bill that way.
00:30:19.000You certainly can defeat this bill that way.
00:30:22.000What that means is if we cut in half the number of Senate Republicans, 18, as it stood last night, willing to support this bill, we can stop the bill.
00:30:35.000Or we can at least stop it until the Senate has had a chance to debate it more and amend it more.
00:30:41.000Consider a single amendment right now, as it stands, Charlie.
00:30:44.000This thing has been negotiated in secret by a tiny handful of senators to the exclusion of the American people and not giving the people's elected lawmakers in the Senate the chance to debate it.
00:30:57.000This is total disenfranchisement and taking money away from them that's not theirs to spend.
00:31:02.000Yeah, and it's just the process is the insult.
00:31:04.000And so, Senator, it seems there was a CNN montage, and I don't think we have it here, but there's more and more signaling that McConnell's time might be up.
00:31:27.000This is open warfare against those who have elected him to be the leader.
00:31:32.000Now, to be clear, I did not support him when he ran for re-election as leader in the fall of 2022.
00:31:39.000I nominated and endorsed and backed and helped Rick Scott, who was the first challenger he's had since I've been here at least, and supported him.
00:31:51.000But the rest of the conference, or a lot of the rest of the conference, those not among the 11 of us who didn't vote for him, they too. are split on this bill and split overwhelmingly where the American people are split and where Republican voters are at large, which is to a margin of like two or three to one, they're against this thing.
00:32:16.000And yet here, the Republican Senate leader is doing everything he can to make a deal with the Democrats that unites the Senate Democrats, that pleases the White House, that infuriates and enrages most Republicans in the Senate and in the House, and most Republicans in America generally.
00:32:34.000And in order to pass bills that enact Democratic priorities.
00:32:38.000Charlie, I wish I could say this was the first time this had happened, or the second time it had happened, or the fourth time, or the fifth time it had happened.
00:32:46.000I've lost count of how many times this has happened, even how many times it's happened since Joe Biden has been in office.
00:32:53.000So look, this is nothing personal, nothing personal.
00:32:56.000But when you get to that point where you're helping the other team, you're scoring goals for the other team, and you're working against your own team, and you're denigrating your own team, and you're sending your allies in the media to attack those who don't agree with you with your own party as you're skewering your own party's goals.
00:33:32.000Is that somebody that you think has a likelihood potentially here?
00:33:36.000I mean, have you heard that Senator McConnell will run for leader again, or is that to be determined?
00:33:42.000Well, it's to be determined that there are many who think that he won't run again.
00:33:46.000And I certainly think that would make sense for him to not run again.
00:33:50.000But we have received no assurance on that front.
00:33:54.000And especially since we have received no assurance on that front, we have to assume, unless we're until he rules it out, that he's planning on doing it.
00:34:05.000In any event, we're at a point in time where as we're approaching an election, that may end up being the most consequential election of our lifetimes.
00:34:15.000We need for the Senate Republican Conference to be firing on all eight cylinders.
00:34:20.000We need all 51 of our senators to be represented in Senate Republican leadership and not just 18 out of 49 who, for whatever reason, want to side with the Democrats on this one.
00:34:41.000Is it true that in this package, there would be automatic impeachment if Trump terminates funding for the Ukraine war, if he were to become president, a poison pill for the next president?
00:34:56.000That's really, really overreaching, I would think, in order to say that, especially because there's well-established authority for presidents to impound certain funds, to make discretionary decisions not to release certain funds.
00:35:15.000I certainly can't imagine that would be automatically impeachable.
00:35:19.000In order to do that, we've got to win elections, enough elections around the country and House and Senate races to make that a reality.
00:35:28.000The best way we can stop that is to win elections.
00:35:30.000And the best way we can win elections is to show genuine actual contrast between Democrats and Republicans, not blurring that contrast as this bill does.
00:35:39.000Look, none of this means that you can't do things that are bipartisan.
00:35:55.000What I'm against is bipartisan and compromise in a direction that benefits only the Democrats, that accomplishes policies favored by Democrats, that unites Democratic senators and sharply divides Republican senators while cutting against everything that many of them stand for.
00:36:13.000Senator, you're doing an excellent job.
00:36:15.000We're going to do everything we can to rally the troops to hopefully we could defeat this in the Senate.