In this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, I sit down with the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, to discuss the tragic loss of his good friend, Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in a helicopter crash in Arizona.
00:00:56.000The 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.
00:01:11.000And of course, I'm not even gonna, I'm not gonna tease it out.
00:01:14.000This is the vice president of the United States, folks.
00:01:16.000Um and I just want to start by saying this whole story, this whole tragedy that we've been living through, a nightmare, really.
00:01:24.000Uh, you and Usha have been just tremendous.
00:01:29.000We and people, you know, need to know.
00:01:30.000We haven't asked for some of the things that you guys have done for Erica, for us.
00:01:36.000You've been out front, you've been offering.
00:01:38.000You've been your team has been getting a hold of us, you've been calling.
00:01:42.000And uh, I think that speaks volumes about who you are and the man you are and your character.
00:01:46.000And I just I really want the audience to know that of that you're a human being, that you have like a big heart and you care about people.
00:01:54.000And uh, as somebody that's been a beneficiary of that in some of the darkest days that any of us can imagine, I just want to say, thank you, Mr. Vice President.
00:02:03.000It's good to see you guys, and obviously wish it was under slightly different circumstances, but yesterday was quite a celebration of the White House, Charlie's 32nd birthday.
00:02:11.000You know, I'm sure it's true for you guys too.
00:02:12.000It still feels not real in some some cases.
00:02:15.000I still occasionally will pick up the phone and think to myself, like, oh, I wonder what Charlie thinks about this, or I wonder if Charlie could help me with this.
00:02:22.000Uh, but but we're just gonna keep on trucking on, man.
00:02:25.000I mean, that uh tell you a little backstory about just sort of this this dignified transfer where Usha and I go out and pick up Charlie's body, pick up Erica, pick up some of you guys, and then take him back to Arizona.
00:02:36.000I mean, the background on that was I was sitting at the White House with then communications director.
00:02:40.000He has since you know taken a job in the private sector and making a lot of money, I'm sure.
00:02:43.000Taylor Budowich, who is another dear friend of Charlie's, and you know, Mikey was actually communicating with Taylor directly, and so you know, this little gruesome, but right after Charlie gets shot, Mikey's like, you know, we're at the hospital, Charlie's got a pulse, I'm sure you guys were getting the same messages.
00:02:58.000I was talking with Taylor a little bit.
00:03:00.000There was this sort of point of like optimism where it's like, oh my God, because you see the video, you think there's no way Charlie's gonna make it, but you say, Oh, you know, could this be a miraculous thing?
00:03:08.000And then of course, Marky Mikey was the one who had to make the call to Taylor, and to me, I was actually in Stephen Miller's office with Taylor, and Mikey said, you know, Charlie didn't make it, the doctors just called it.
00:03:19.000And that was obviously an incredibly hard moment.
00:03:21.000But then I was sitting with Taylor and I was like, well, you know, what what's what's you know, what do we do now?
00:03:27.000And Taylor actually had the idea of we should go out there.
00:03:32.000And I was like, that's an incredible idea.
00:03:34.000Like I'd love to go out there, see Erica.
00:03:36.000But you also wonder, like, you know, the vice president of the United States, the Secret Service detail, the media doesn't become too much of a spectacle.
00:03:43.000So I was like, reach out to Erica and like let her know.
00:03:45.000I'm not pushing, but if she wants me to come out there, uh, we'd love to be out there and be supportive.
00:03:50.000And so he did that, and she, of course, was receptive.
00:04:10.000I I I remember I'll never forget my chief of staff saying, I doubt they'll accept.
00:04:14.000I'm sure they already have another plan, but we can offer.
00:04:16.000And then, of course, you know, you guys accepted, and that led to that that day, which despite the grieving was very special to be able to be part of that grieving process with the family and with all you guys.
00:04:26.000So it was it was a you know, this whole Month has been so surreal for so many of us in so many ways.
00:04:33.000But but that day really did set the tone for us in a lot of ways.
00:04:36.000I mean, one, it's it's um you error so Usha had met um she had met um Charlie before, actually the Claremont speech that I gave that Charlie was really too.
00:04:46.000I mean, he I remember he texted me afterwards, like that's you that's your best speech I've ever given.
00:04:56.000And that may have been the first time that Usha had spent like more than five or ten minutes with Charlie.
00:05:02.000And uh, but I don't think she had ever met Erica, but that of course was the point at which Usha was able to be there for Erica, and that that's that cemented their bond that created their bond.
00:05:11.000So it was despite the sadness and the tragedy, it was it was a special day in a lot of ways, and I think set the tone for the next month, uh, which which has been us mourning Charlie, of course, thinking about Charlie, trying to keep Charlie's memory alive.
00:05:25.000And all of that, I think really, really, at least for us started on that day.
00:05:29.000Well, you have done an amazing job, and you've been an incredible friend.
00:05:33.000I think, you know, what I've realized in this process is that it's not just me grieving, it's not just Blake grieving or the team or Erica, the whole nation is grieving.
00:05:43.000And so as you've come alongside us, you've almost, I think, symbolically come alongside the entire nation.
00:05:50.000And knowing that your steady leadership and your your carrying hand is alongside Erica and us and the whole team has been, I think, a lift for the entire nation, genuinely and the world, really, because Charlie's message has we've seen has spread across the entire world.
00:06:03.000And, you know, on that note of you coming alongside us, uh, we do have a little bit of news.
00:07:19.000And one of the things I said to you and others is you know privately is I was like, we will, you know, part of keeping Charlie's memory alive is keeping the mission alive.
00:07:26.000And nobody can replace Charlie, but if we all sort of take little pieces, we can do as much as we can to ensure that Charlie's mission continues to survive long after he's gone.
00:07:37.000And part of that is these college campus tours, right?
00:07:40.000And I'm gonna do exactly what Charlie did.
00:07:41.000I'm gonna my my plan is to you know give a little speech, talk a little bit about the issues of the day, but turn most of it over to just do QA with the audience.
00:07:50.000I actually want to I want to hear from these kids.
00:07:53.000I want to do what what Charlie did because I think that engagement is something that was such a big part of Charlie's legacy.
00:07:59.000It's not just that he went and talked to people or talked about issues that he cared about, it's that he actually interacted with people and he answered questions sometimes as you know, he answered tough questions, he would answer tough questions from the left and from the right.
00:08:11.000And of course, having Erica there is very special.
00:08:14.000Uh, I I am glad that she's not doing all of them because she's obviously got a lot to deal with.
00:08:18.000She's she's grieving more than any of us are.
00:08:20.000She's taking care of two beautiful kids, but it'll be very special to have her there.
00:08:24.000And you know, I actually it it it's interesting.
00:08:27.000I mean, any of you who have known somebody who's grieving very somebody that they love very much, know that it comes in hills and valleys, right?
00:08:34.000Some days it's like the worst day imaginable.
00:08:37.000Some days you actually feel like you're doing okay.
00:08:40.000And um, I you know, Erica's been staying with us the last few days at the Naval Observatory, actually, and you you sort of see it all, right?
00:08:47.000There are days where you think she's doing pretty well.
00:08:49.000There are days where you think she's doing terribly, and that's just the process.
00:08:52.000And I hope that she continues to kind of yes, keep Charlie's mission alive, and yes, you know, do everything that you guys are doing at Turning Points USA, but I also hope that she continues to grieve a little bit and to carve out some time for her and her her family.
00:09:05.000Um, you know, a buddy of mine, I didn't mean to talk about this, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say it.
00:09:10.000But a buddy of mine, and this is what drives home how angry I get at the people celebrating Charlie's death and how really one sided it is that you have people actually celebrating the murder of a dear friend of a guy who is a leader to so many people.
00:09:23.000But I I was talking to another mutual friend, actually, uh, he was the guy sitting to my left at dinner a couple of nights ago at the vice president's residence.
00:09:30.000So I I won't I won't reveal who it was publicly, but he told me that he had called Erica about a week or so after Charlie died, and he could hear Charlie's daughter say, Where's Daddy?
00:09:41.000like six times during this very brief phone call.
00:09:45.000And I think all of us have had these moments where, yes, we love Charlie and we loved his ideas and we loved what it an important voice he was.
00:10:12.000Yeah, I mean, uh what Erica said in her speech yesterday, where you know, about uh the birthday uh wish for you know that was that was the one point where I lost it.
00:10:24.000And I think I looked around, and gosh, I mean, people have seen some of the images of who was in that crowd.
00:10:28.000I looked around at the most powerful people in the country, which means they're probably some of the most powerful people in the world, and we all kind of just lost it.
00:10:37.000And you know, it was a really powerful and moving speech by Erica.
00:10:42.000I think, you know, Dana Perino, I think we have the clip, we don't need to play it, but Dana Perino from Fox said she's one of the greatest orators of a generation, and I I she's given three speeches now.
00:10:53.000And each one is is in my top ten of speeches, uh the whole the whole way through.
00:11:02.000Uh this was I think arguably the most personal one in terms of talking about uh you know, talking about his birthday habits and stuff.
00:11:10.000It was very philosophical, like the meaning of freedom I thought it was very interesting.
00:11:13.000Really dwelled on it and you know, and it's all her, you know.
00:11:16.000I I helped her prepare for it, but she everything that was in that speech was what she wanted to say, how she said it.
00:11:21.000Yeah, and just tremendous how how well delivered it was, uh how well it communicated, and people what he meant to her and also what what Charlie meant to America.
00:11:32.000People want to know how Erica's doing.
00:11:34.000And you've touched on it because you've been she's been staying with you uh at your guys' the Naval Observatory, but she's she is so strong and clear-eyed.
00:11:42.000Uh Charlie when pr President Trump was talking about that uh story about oh, you're gonna you're gonna love it.
00:11:48.000Uh Erica, Mr. President, she's so smart, and she really is very smart, and she's so human and caring.
00:11:54.000But you touched on something else, uh, Mr. Vice President, about the this rise in sort of like the those the celebrate celebration of Charlie's murder and assassination and this rise of left-wing violence.
00:12:05.000And you said it on the show the Monday after he was assassinated, you hosted this show, and you said I well we want unity, but we also want truth.
00:12:13.000Maybe just really touch on that uh what before we hit this uh first break and what you meant by that.
00:12:18.000Yeah, I I I just meant that real unity comes from acknowledging the reality of the situation that we're in, right?
00:12:25.000Unity requires everybody being on the same page, having some common out commonality of values, and and real unity requires us to acknowledge the fact that while yes, there are crazies on both sides, we have a country of 330 million people, you're gonna be able to find crazies on either side.
00:12:40.000Political violence is just a statistical fact, it's a bigger problem on the left.
00:12:45.000And if you had, God forbid, somebody on the left who was assassinated, uh, yeah, I'm sure that you could find one person who would maybe celebrate it or one person who would be offensive.
00:12:55.000But the fact that main it became mainstream to celebrate Charlie's death, to talk about the fact that he maybe deserved to die because he had said hateful things like, you know, we don't want women playing, or we don't want men playing in women's sports.
00:13:08.000Just the the the effort to try to like justify his murder, to lie about things that he had said so so as to justify his killing, it was just really disgusting and really disgraceful.
00:13:19.000And one of the things that we just have to I I want our country to be unified again.
00:13:23.000I mean, I'm the vice president of the United States.
00:13:25.000I really do feel like I represent every single person, even the people who say disgusting things.
00:13:29.000But if we're gonna have real unity in this country, we're all going to have to acknowledge that killing people for what they think and what they believe is wrong, and right now that violent impulse is a bigger problem on the left than the right.
00:13:42.000That I asked our daughter what she would like to say to Daddy for his birthday.
00:14:06.000The team flagged that uh clip that we had at ready to go.
00:14:09.000And it's um it's it really brings it all home.
00:14:12.000And I I know you had such a close personal friendship with Charlie as do we, and um and I and I think it ties into what you were just saying, Mr. Vice President, that that we if we cannot get unanimity around the fact that killing people for their ideas is horrendous and awful and un-american and bad and has no place here.
00:15:07.000It's not most people who think that Charlie, meaning most people on the left who think that Charlie deserved to die because they said something that you know they had disagreed with or that they even found offensive.
00:15:17.000But it is a large enough and powerful enough minority.
00:15:20.000Um, you know, it's pretty well funded.
00:15:24.000There are a lot of powerful media voices behind it, and it is, I think the most significant domestic problem we have in the United States of America is this justification of violence, which then of course leads to the real thing.
00:15:37.000Yeah, and you you talked about the funding networks.
00:15:40.000We had Secretary Scott Bessant uh on the show yesterday.
00:15:43.000Treasury's taking a leading role in this.
00:15:45.000He said he he described uh Charlie's assassination as a domestic 9-11 uh of its own right.
00:15:52.000And the Treasury really got involved after 9-11 to find these funding sources that led to Al Qaeda being able to pull off that uh that horrendous attack.
00:16:01.000And so they're using some of those same systems and uh uh authorizations to go and root out the funding networks.
00:16:08.000Is there maybe anything maybe just philosophically anything you want to add to kind of what what what you maybe know what's going on there?
00:16:15.000Well, I I wouldn't even say philosophically, just a matter of practice.
00:16:18.000There there is some muscle memory that we're trying to create within the federal government.
00:16:24.000There's this idea that exists, certainly not in the administration, not at the leadership level of of the political appointees, but there is a group of federal law enforcement, what you what you might call the deep state, where they almost automatically assume that left-wing political violence is protected by the First Amendment and right wing political violence is a crime.
00:16:46.000And you sort of see just that the basic muscle memory, the basic sort of apparatus of government is very, very primed at right-wing political violence.
00:16:56.000But it's the instinct is to almost say, well, no, no, that left-wing political violence, that's actually protected by the first amendment.
00:17:02.000So no, political violence, wherever it comes from, is just not protected by the First Amendment.
00:17:06.000And because we have such a big problem with left-wing political violence violence, we have to train the investigatory and law enforcement powers of the government to focus on that particular problem.
00:17:16.000Now, I think Scott maybe has the most important part of this because a lot of this is financial, right?
00:17:20.000If a brick gets thrown through a wall in a government building, who bought the brick?
00:17:25.000Uh, if somebody shows up and is a paid protester, but then that person goes in riots and commits an act of violence, who paid for it?
00:17:31.000If you have an application that's helping people hunt down or even avoid law enforcement officers, um, if you're if you're helping immigrants avoid law illegal immigrants, avoid ice enforcement, but you're helping people actually target the law enforcement officers who are trying to enforce our immigration laws.
00:17:50.000Well, who's paying for the hosting there?
00:17:53.000There's an entire financial element of this, but we really have to retrain the entire government to focus on this left-wing violence problem.
00:17:59.000We're Doing it, it's gonna go a little bit slow more slowly than we'd like, but we are doing it.
00:18:04.000You're making a little bit of news here uh yesterday on uh X, formerly known as Twitter about this politico story, but I think it ties in because we're talking about this the celebratory nature of some, not many, maybe not most, but uh some.
00:18:18.000And it was disgusting about Charlie's assassination.
00:18:21.000There is a story, and I believe it's their the two stories are connected that came out of Politico yesterday.
00:18:26.000Blake, explain this for our audience for those who don't know.
00:18:28.000We don't need to wallow in it too much.
00:18:30.000But so Politico has a story where somehow they got their hands on something like 28,000 messages in some group chat group chat of I think 12 people that nobody's ever heard of, but they decided to just publish every single thing in this chat, whatever they found that they thought was the most salacious.
00:18:48.000And I think 10 years ago, there would have been a very different response to it.
00:18:53.000But people are starting to learn from this, and the vice president is one of the reasons why.
00:18:59.000This is far worse uh than you so what you did is instead of reacting to the story itself, you just posted what uh Jay Jones, our friend in Virginia who's running for AG as the Democrat had said, where he wanted his political opponents to die, and then when someone thought he might be kidding, he called to you know, make it clear, uh actually it wasn't a joke, I was serious.
00:19:20.000And you just pointed out quote, this is far worse than anything said in any college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia.
00:19:29.000I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.
00:19:37.000Just a little viral, Mr. Vice President.
00:19:39.000Yeah, I mean, look, I I I'll let the tweet speak for itself.
00:19:41.000I'll say a couple of additional things.
00:19:43.000First of all, a person who is very politically powerful who is about to become one of the most powerful law enforcement officers in the country, that person seriously wishing for political violence and political assassination is 1,000 times worse than what a bunch of young people, a bunch of kids say in a group chat, however offensive it might be.
00:20:05.000And if you allow yourself to be distracted by this person's incredible endorsement, disgusting endorsement of political assassination by focusing on what kids are saying in a group chat, grow up.
00:20:18.000I'm sorry, focus on the real issues, don't focus what on what kids say in group chats.
00:20:22.000But there's another angle to this that I just have to be honest about.
00:20:25.000I mean, I'm like an old guy at this point.
00:20:29.000Uh, you know, we we I I grew up in a different world, right?
00:20:32.000Where not most of what I the stupid things that I did when I was a teenager and a young adult, they're they're not on the internet.
00:20:38.000Like I'm gonna tell my kids, especially my boys, don't put things on the internet, like be careful with what you post.
00:20:45.000If you put something in a group chat, assume that some scumbag is gonna leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.
00:20:52.000But the reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys, they tell edgy, offensive jokes.
00:21:01.000And I really don't want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive stupid joke is caused to ruin their lives.
00:21:10.000And at some point, we're all gonna have to say enough of this BS.
00:21:14.000We're not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old's group chat to ruin a kid's life for the rest of time.
00:21:31.000We're not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat.
00:21:35.000And uh if if I have to be the person who carries that message forward, I'm fine with it.
00:21:38.000And by the way, if they were left-wing kids telling stupid left-wing jokes, I would also not want the their lives to be ruined because they're saying something stupid in a private group chat.
00:21:48.000Well, and you you and Charlie shared that, by the way.
00:21:50.000He he became, I mean, because he had so many young people at Turning Point that were working for him that did stupid things from time to time, and he would refuse to start you know, engaging in the pearl clutching, and especially it in this moment where we've seen you know, people celebrating Charlie's murder.
00:22:07.000Yes, and there's been zero outrage as far as I can tell from politico or others about something so vile as that.
00:22:13.000I'm still so disgusted that this is like something that we've put up with as a country.
00:22:17.000Uh Mr. Vice President, uh, final minute to you, whatever you whatever you want to expound upon.
00:22:32.000I know it's very hard uh to grieve for a friend, but also to try to carry on an impossibly large legacy.
00:22:38.000I'm here to support you guys while you're doing it.
00:22:40.000Yeah, I I I will just say that for for all of the the negativity and the hate and the people celebrating Charlie's assassination.
00:22:49.000For every one negative moment, I've had a thousand positive moments in the past month.
00:22:54.000I've had people who've come up to me who said, I went back to church because Charlie got shot.
00:22:58.000I've had people come up and say that they they they they listened to his clips for the first time.
00:23:03.000They didn't even know who he was, especially like older people who didn't know who he was before he was killed, but now they're consuming his video content and learning from it, getting back to their faith.
00:23:12.000I I just remember there there's a lot of love out there, and we should remember that for all of the hate out there, there's 10 times as much love.
00:23:20.000I think that's that's has to be our charge as we move forward and carry on Charlie's legacy.
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00:24:31.000We have James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, uh, who is really in charge of a lot of the political strategy and policy strategy across the country.
00:24:40.000And we're here live at the White House.
00:25:20.000And I I was even on calls with you during the campaign.
00:25:23.000You were so active in the campaign, putting together the the macro strategy and then on the state level.
00:25:29.000But you and Charlie had a really deep relationship, and that's why I was so glad you could join us today because a lot of people don't know that.
00:25:34.000So tell us about your relationship with Charlie.
00:25:39.000And uh what did he mean to what happened in November of 2024?
00:25:43.000Yeah, um he meant everything that happened in 2024.
00:25:47.000The way Charlie and I became close really was during the 2024 campaign where we'd had this meeting um where we presented to a few sort of key players uh on the right that ran big organizations, Charlie's being one of them.
00:26:05.000Um, and this was kind of right at the end of the primary beginning of the general election.
00:26:10.000Uh we presented, we kind of came in and we wanted, we did sort of the it was kind of a closed door kind of secret meeting, and we said, um, we want to show you our analysis of the 2020 campaign and where things um could have been done better and what the outcomes were, and then we want to walk you through what we're doing in the 2024 campaign and basically what our path to victory is, uh, not only on the strategic level but a tactical level.
00:26:36.000And uh Charlie had spent a lot of time thinking about exactly that since 2020.
00:26:41.000And you know, obviously you guys are part of it, that turning point has started to make this pivot since 2020, particularly of becoming not only a campus organizing organization um and a media organization, but an actual grassroots organizing and activation organization.
00:26:57.000And uh between Charlie and and Tyler and you guys and everybody that spent a lot of time thinking about this, and they the takeaway was they were really excited.
00:27:06.000Um they I think they were thought it was not gonna be as good as it was.
00:27:11.000They were immediately like, you know, this is amazing, all you know, full speed ahead, and sort of a partnership with the campaign was born for um, you know, it was just an opportunity.
00:27:23.000There was a change in the the rules, right?
00:27:25.000So the Federal Election Commission ruled in the late spring, um, thanks to a case brought by Mark Elias, which is ironic, that um third-party organizations, which previously sort of couldn't engage with the campaign at all, a federal campaign, could engage on canvassing door-to-door activity, sort of traditional get out the vote activity.
00:27:46.000And that is something that Turning Point had been building for a period of time with its Chase the Vote program and all these sorts of things.
00:27:52.000And it was, you know, turning into a big player in that space and had been um sort of working towards that for the election cycle.
00:27:59.000So just because of right place at the right time, thank you, Mark Elias.
00:28:04.000I promised him on Twitter, um, that we would basically become partners, where the the groups that did this uh grassroots work out in the field in the campaign would become partners under the new confines of the law.
00:28:44.000Uh we're both Christian, so it just blossomed into a personal friendship too.
00:28:48.000Um we 2024, uh Charlie and the organization was essential to what we did all over the country, not only rallying the youth, which is what it's really known for, younger voters, but just rallying voters in general and just really getting into the granular weeds of turning out voters and getting people to go to the polls, getting people to return their mail ballots, hence how you know the Chase the Vote program was sort of born.
00:29:11.000Um so we're try we're worked on that very closely.
00:29:14.000But um, you know, Charlie and I developed a personal friendship, and I said I I wrote this online, I didn't know what to say um after news of the assassination, but I wrote online, I mean, one of the things the thing that I admired about Charlie the most is uh he really inspired people around him, I think, to be better, me included.
00:29:35.000Uh my parents are mortified to see me having you know sworn on TV accidentally recently.
00:29:39.000Um never used a swear word, and uh, but he's a great father, great husband.
00:29:45.000And the biggest thing is that obviously um his testimony for Jesus, we should all uh be the way Charlie was and put our faith first.
00:29:55.000And two, to advocate to our generation for why it's great to get married and have a family.
00:30:02.000Um I I I always joke with my wife, we've been married 11 years now.
00:30:06.000I don't know what we were doing before we had kids.
00:30:08.000Um everybody should have kids, it's the most fulfilling thing in your life, and I know not everybody can or haven't fine found the right spouse.
00:30:37.000The the president he talked about Charlie's marriage a little bit in his remarks yesterday, and he mentioned uh how he you knew Charlie actually before he even got married, and then he talked about Charlie telling him he was gonna get married.
00:31:27.000Erica, your love and courage have been an inspiration To all of us, and we will always be here for you, and we're always gonna be here for your gorgeous, beautiful children.
00:31:38.000And we'll never forget what your family has sacrificed for our country.
00:31:46.000Yeah, and I can just attest from you know, I saw I I knew Charlie before Erica.
00:31:52.000I saw them when they started dating, and their their love was so I mean passionate and such an inspiration to so many people.
00:32:00.000I can tell you the turning point staff was all, you know, so obsessed with their marriage, and he inspired so many people just in turning point uh to get married and start having families.
00:32:12.000And you know, I you mentioned his faith.
00:32:16.000This made up a bunch of news yesterday.
00:32:18.000So the apparently this is the first time a cross has been inscribed.
00:32:22.000I haven't fact checked this, but this is what the internet tells me.
00:32:25.000But it has a cross on the on the back with engraved along with Charles James Kirk with the cross and his Christian faith just prominently uh placed there.
00:32:38.000I mean, Charlie worked so hard on for this country because he believed that this is a providential country, that God has his hand on this country, and he's guiding world events to support this country.
00:32:49.000And that left that gave him all the faith in the world to just leave it all out on the field.
00:32:53.000And he I'm so glad that you saw that, because you are a firsthand witness to history and what uh he did for this country 30 seconds before our break, if if you want to add to that, James.
00:33:05.000Yeah, I mean, I think Charlie just understood that um, at least in our lives, you know, politics and how we're living our lives ultimately is a reflection uh of our faith or not, and um that there's sort of an existential fight between good and evil, and he engaged in that battle on the side of good and his outlet was through politics and by being a leader.
00:33:25.000Um other people do it different ways, but he understood the really big picture, um, which is there's good and there is evil.
00:33:34.000This is Lane Schoomberger, chief investment officer and founding partner of Y ReFi.
00:33:38.000It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.
00:33:44.000His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come.
00:33:50.000Now, hear Charlie in his own words tell you about why refi.
00:33:54.000I'm gonna tell you guys about why refi.com.
00:34:42.000James Blair, uh white you're the White House deputy chief of staff, along with like Stephen Miller.
00:34:48.000There's a I don't know what how many uh deputy chief of staff there are, but it's an extremely big job.
00:34:53.000And obviously Susie Wiles is the uh chief of staff.
00:34:58.000But so t tell us how like your portfolio is it's politics, it's public it's policy.
00:35:04.000Maybe just give us a brief so each of us, I mean, the ones you mentioned, Steven and I. We we um we have different sort of portfolios that are complementary, obviously, but you know, the White House is actually a really large operation.
00:35:18.000Most people don't really uh realize that it's not just the West Wing, but it's this building that we're in, and there's another building next to it.
00:35:25.000Um I don't even know how many total employees it has, but you know, 1,500 plus, and it has components.
00:35:31.000Um, and everything in the federal government sort of um centralizes in the White House.
00:35:36.000And so we have different portfolios that sort of kind of divvies up the key offices and responsibilities, and then we all work together at the senior level to sort of coordinate those.
00:35:45.000So my big ones are politics, obviously.
00:35:48.000I oversee the president's political operation, run out of here of the White House, and obviously work very closely uh in my personal time with sort of the guys outside the RNC, different groups like that.
00:35:58.000Um I oversee our legislative affairs Office, which is the president's lobbying arm on Capitol Hill, and ultimately is the kind of final shot caller for what the administration's priorities are.
00:36:08.000Well, and that's a bigger job than probably any other previous president because, you know, obviously we have separate branches, you know, executive, legislative, judicial.
00:36:18.000But when it comes to President Trump, I mean, he is the Pied Piper of So as President Trump goes, so goes the conservative movement, which means James Blair is probably one of the most important people in Washington.
00:36:31.000I mean, genuinely, you can you don't have to say that I can say that because you are I mean, when Trump weighs in on an issue, I mean, that's when things get moving because the legislative branch is you know notoriously slow, bureaucratic, just slow off the line, and then Trump comes in, which just means you've you've been involved at some point, and we see movement.
00:36:54.000And so I want to talk about those priorities, but first uh I want to play this clip from President Trump yesterday giving Charlie some praise.
00:37:01.000I don't want to get off of this just yet.
00:37:27.000I said, you know, I'm running against 17 senators and a lot of tough people and governors, we have all these people, and he said, No, you're gonna win, sir.
00:37:57.000That that of course is the president talking about Javier Millet, who was in uh was actually in town for a bilateral meeting with with uh the president, but uh stayed for the ceremony, and actually you might have witnessed this down as well.
00:38:09.000I Charlie sent me pictures of him with Javier Millet, and they got to meet uh at I think it was at Mar-a-Lago during the transition period.
00:39:15.000He he eventually became very convinced about it.
00:39:17.000He wanted more cutting, but it was we we we educated the audience on that, how this wasn't a budget bill, right?
00:39:24.000But he ended up really loving it because he believed it was going to unleash economic prosperity and it was going to secure the border and give us give ICE the resources it needed, Tom Holman, Christino.
00:39:36.000Thinking about it through Charlie's lens, where he was always thinking about how do we keep the coalition together, how do we keep the priorities uh right sized?
00:39:44.000You know, Charlie would want to know what are the priorities moving forward from your vantage point uh for 26, 2028.
00:39:52.000Um, you know, first I'll say Charlie, and one of the reasons he liked the bill, and we all want a little more of this or that, right?
00:40:00.000But one of the things that I loved about Charlie is that he understands that politics is a game of addition, not subtraction.
00:40:07.000Um obviously I have my views, you have your views, the president has his views, but this needs to be uh a party.
00:40:16.000Um, if Republicans are being successful, it has to be a party with space for people who disagree a little bit at the margins, and that's what the process of negotiating is all about.
00:40:28.000And he said, we talked about this as soon as we got elected, and even throughout that process, how do we get this new coalition that's what Trump and Republicans into office to stick together?
00:40:39.000And the answer, I think, first and foremost that we control is do what we promise them.
00:40:43.000Just start by doing the things we promised them on the campaign trail.
00:40:53.000You know, Trump was the most str one of the most straightforward politicians of all time in terms of if he promised this thing, he will almost certainly at least attempt to do it.
00:41:03.000You know, maybe a court will get in the way.
00:41:04.000Maybe some judge will discover novel hidden meanings in the Constitution, but he will make the serious attempt for it.
00:41:13.000Well, so we we talked a lot about how Charlie helped with the election, but I thought maybe you could elaborate on um Charlie was he like he went down to Mar-a-Lago during the transition.
00:41:23.000He didn't care for DC, but he would come here often enough, try to get into the White House when he could.
00:41:28.000Uh, I know he was running around this area, running around the West Wing.
00:41:32.000Could you maybe elaborate on sort of the role he was able to play within the White House or just what his presence was like here?
00:41:37.000Yeah, I mean, he was an advisor on on personnel.
00:41:40.000I mean, you mentioned he spent a lot of time um talking Darius, particularly that he knew very well or cared deeply about talking to people and getting a feel for who they were and whether or not they were aligned, and he was really essential to that, helping make sure um that we got the right people into the right seats on the bus, um, you know, as they sort of say in business school.
00:42:01.000I mean, he had a well beyond his years wide-ranging sort of philosophical view of the world, of government, on what direction we need to go, um, what's right and wrong, and how that helps our movement.
00:42:13.000And so we would talk about that, and um, he would just help us get things done.
00:43:05.000America should be the best country in the world to live in, to get married, to work, to raise a family, and to be safe in your neighborhood.
00:43:12.000Crime is something we're talking a lot about.
00:43:15.000We must control violent crime in this country, and we're proving right now in Washington, Memphis, elsewhere, we can.
00:43:19.000It's about having the will to enforce the laws that are on the books.
00:43:22.000And we cannot be beholden to violent criminals um and and liberal politicians that want to be beholden to violent criminals, and we're not going to be anymore.
00:43:29.000It's one of the things that Charlie and the president both have really revealed over the past few years that there is this artificially constrained realm of what is possible.
00:43:39.000Oh, we we can't stop crime because you know we can only do this through that.
00:43:42.000And then you know, the president says, actually, you know, you can just stop crime, put people on the streets, and put criminals in prison.
00:43:50.000He believed in a yes, muscular, creative, offensive strategy, always moving forward.
00:43:55.000I know he shared that and probably learned part of that from the the president, but um I know that I I keep saying I I feel like I have like a Charlie GPT in my head.
00:44:03.000I just kind of like we were talking about this.
00:44:05.000And I believe that the people in this admin do as well.
00:44:08.000And and I think we all carry that spirit, and I know that you do as well, James, just because you work so closely together for over the last year, 18 months.
00:44:21.000Many of us are hopeful about the direction the country is headed.
00:44:24.000But after years of abuse and mismanagement, things could fall apart at any moment.
00:44:28.000That's why I and Americans from all walks of life have taken action to prepare for what's coming next.
00:44:34.000And that starts with having an emergency food supply.
00:44:37.000Storing food in your home is the right thing to do because we're living in crazy times, which explains why so many people are preparing.
00:44:45.000Right now, you can get ready too, with a three-month emergency food kit from my patriot supply.
00:44:50.000It comes with delicious foods like creamy stroganoff, honey wheat bread, and mushroom rice pilaf.
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00:44:58.000This food kit lasts up to twenty-five years.
00:45:01.000Who knows what our country will look like then?
00:45:03.000But when that day comes, you'll be ready.
00:45:05.000Now hear from Charlie in his own words.
00:45:07.000Just go to my Patriotsupply.com/slash K-I-R-K and join millions of Americans who are preparing today at MyPatriot Supply.com slash Kirk.
00:45:15.000That is my Patriots Supply.com slash Kirk.
00:45:20.000Hello, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:45:23.000We're broadcasting here from the Eisenhower building next to the White House.
00:45:31.000Anyway, uh we're joined by Carolyn Levitt, the White House press secretary here.
00:45:35.000And we were talking just uh during the break about uh during Trump's remarks where he was saying you know he was doing the Middle East peace deal, a very very big deal.
00:45:45.000Uh but he was thinking maybe should we push this to Friday?
00:46:31.000He was assassinated in the prime of his life for boldly speaking the truth for living his faith and relentlessly fighting for a better and stronger America.
00:46:43.000And that's why this afternoon, it's my privilege to posthumously award Charles James Kirk, our nation's highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of freedom.
00:46:57.000I'm gonna we're throwing it to you in just a second, Caroline.
00:46:59.000But I I knew that this was happening, and he was all I got all these calls from reporters like, is it gonna get moved?
00:47:06.000And and I made a call made a phone call, and they're like, No, he will not miss this.
00:47:10.000Maybe you could tell us more about this.
00:47:12.000Yeah, well, it was out all of our first instinct as well when we knew that the deal was going to be signed, and Jared Kushner and Steve Whitcoff called the president from the Middle East and said, Sir, now it's now or never, right?
00:47:24.000We need to sign this deal, we need to get these hostages out, we need this momentum, and it's crucially important, literally for peace in the Middle East.
00:47:31.000And all of us here thought, oh my gosh, we have the ceremony for Charlie on Tuesday.
00:47:37.000And the president said it was a non-negotiable for him.
00:47:40.000And I think that really speaks to how much he loved and respected Charlie.
00:47:43.000There are very few people in this world that the president would really cut a trich trip short, because there was much more we could have done.
00:47:51.000I mean, we left the White House at 5 p.m. on Sunday evening.
00:47:56.000We flew all the way to the Middle East.
00:47:58.000We landed in Israel 9 a.m. local time, so it was the middle of the night, Eastern time.
00:48:04.000The president gave that amazing speech in Jerusalem, and he met with uh Prime Minister Netanyahu, met with hostage families.
00:48:12.000We get back on the plane, fly an hour to Egypt, go to Egypt, and meet with world leaders from all over the planet and signed the Arab peace agreement and really began phase two of this peace process.
00:48:24.000And then we got right back on the plane and came home.
00:48:26.000And so we were gone for I think it was 36 total hours.
00:48:29.000When I got home at 3 30 in the morning, my husband said, I can't believe you just went all the way to Africa and back in like one day.
00:48:36.000Um, but we did it for Charlie, and I'm so glad we did, and I know the president is glad because yesterday was such a beautiful ceremony, and the way that the sun broke through the clouds and just kind of was over the rose garden.
00:49:00.000And all of a sudden, right before we start the ceremony, the sun breaks through the clouds, and it was almost like you know, God was smiling down on us.
00:49:07.000And in char even President Trump, he looks up to the sky.
00:49:10.000I saw him just stare for a while during his speech.
00:49:14.000And I think I think for a lot of us it was just it was a bittersweet moment.
00:49:18.000We all didn't want to be there for that.
00:49:20.000But the fact that President Trump literally moved world events to honor Charlie on his 30 second birthday is something I will never forget.
00:49:57.000Uh but maybe maybe just tell the audience that because I don't I'm not sure how widely known that is.
00:50:02.000I was so I mean, I'm a Gen Z MAGA conservative, right?
00:50:06.000So I grew up in the age of President Trump and in the age of Charlie Kirk.
00:50:10.000And so he was really one of the first people that got me into politics and into the conservative movement, and just watching him and and hearing his speeches throughout the country and when he was young at the time, you know.
00:50:22.000I mean, still young, I'm still young too, but he really helped, I think, kind of grow, uh helped me grow in my political philosophies.
00:50:30.000And so I inquired about a turning point USA chapter on my college campus, St. Anselm College up in Manchester, which is really a political hub for politics because of the New Hampshire primary every four years.
00:50:41.000And so that really catapulted me into my political career.
00:50:44.000And then of course, when I ran for Congress in the 2022 midterms, Charlie and Turning Point Action, you guys were the very first political action committee to endorse me.
00:50:54.000And unafraid to do it, I flew out to Arizona, I met with Tyler, I met with Charlie, and um you guys were on board.
00:51:00.000And when the mega establishment super PACs in DC were pum pummeling money into my opponents' uh bank accounts, you guys always doubled down and came through, and we won that primary, and in large part because of Charlie and Turning Point support.
00:51:13.000Yeah, well, and we're we haven't taken our eye off of New Hampshire at all.
00:51:17.000So if this doesn't work out for you at the uh White House Caroline, we might we might be uh drafting some candidates up there.
00:51:23.000But yeah, I mean you talked about you put an inquiry in.
00:51:27.000And that's been a big news story after 910 of just the it's this explosive growth that we've seen at Turning Point uh uh USA.
00:51:36.000So play uh put up a graphic one eighty-two.
00:51:41.000Uh this is um a graphic that shows we've had 350,000 new student registrations.
00:51:48.000So these is our network is now over 800,000 students across the country involved in one shape way, shape, or form, and over 130,000 inquiries for new college or high school chapters on campuses.
00:52:00.000So and we've already doubled the number of RSOs, so registered student organizations, which I I don't know if people can fully appreciate that, but it takes a while to form uh a chapter because you gotta get a faculty advisor to sort of put their weight behind it and bless it, and then you have to go through certain steps and get approvals, and you have to form your club.
00:52:20.000You have to have a certain number of people.
00:52:23.000So we've already doubled that, which is such a testament to Charlie, and we will not rest until we have ever uh uh Club America, which is the high school brand in every single high school in America, because that's what Charlie wants.
00:52:37.000I know that because he told us um just a few weeks before it happened, but now we have that momentum we can get really get it done.
00:52:43.000Maybe talk about from your your vantage point outside of our our bubble that we're in here of what you've seen in this city of you know, the people that knew Charlie, this this rise, this flush of enthusiasm and patriotism and faith that you've seen from where you're you're at.
00:53:00.000I think the numbers you just showed and everything that you just spoke to really shows how good our God is and how he does use everything for good, even the most traumatic and and heartbreaking circumstances.
00:53:11.000And look at how many people have been inspired by Charlie's legacy.
00:53:15.000And I think you know, the videos that have been circulating of him now and all of the the speeches that he gave, people that maybe didn't listen to him when he was here on earth are now listening to him despite him being in heaven and realizing the impact that he made on our country and just the truth that he spoke.
00:53:33.000And I I've heard from you know friends of mine who are apolitical, they they follow uh politics because I'm in this job now and and they like President Trump, but they're not political people by nature.
00:53:44.000But so many of them have reached out to me and said, I'm going back and I'm watching Charlie's podcast and I'm looking at his clips and they're coming up on my feed.
00:53:52.000And you know, he's really still to this to this very second as we sit here, changing the way that people think and and the values they hold.
00:54:00.000And so you guys at Turning Point just I I encourage you, and I know that you will continue fighting on and how encouraging it is that so many young people are saying, I want to be part of this.
00:54:10.000Um, despite the the political violence we're continuing to face in our country, despite the fear and just the violence and the hatred that that unfortunately comes uh from the left.
00:54:20.000Um, you know, people want to join this movement and they want to be on the side of truth and of righteousness and of good policy, and it's great to see.
00:54:42.000That increase since 2019, and Christian music Spotify streams up 50% from 2019.
00:54:50.000All uh very encouraging trends, and I think when they run that back after a a little while, they're gonna see the Charlie effect take those numbers even higher.
00:55:00.000Hey everybody, Andrew Colvet, executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:55:04.000Charlie understood that to lead, he needed to learn.
00:55:07.000Hillsdale College was ready to teach him.
00:55:10.000While busy running his company, teaching America's youth and raising a beautiful family, Charlie still found time to complete 31 Hillsdale College free online courses.
00:55:19.000He talked about it the last time he spoke on his podcast with Hillsdale's president, Dr. Larry Arne.
00:55:23.000Hillsdale is the cutting edge, and I mean it.
00:55:27.000You are a force of nature, Charlie Kirk.
00:55:29.000One of these days, I'm gonna give you an honorary degree.
00:55:31.000That that would be the honor of my life, but I I got a lot more learning yet to do.
00:55:35.000And I say this the Hillsdale courses have changed my life.
00:55:38.000Through Hillsdale College's free online courses, Charlie studied the Bible, the classics, the American founding, and through his relentless pursuit of truth, became not only a great American, but a good man.
00:55:48.000Charlie's gone, but his spirit of hard work and lifelong learning carry on.
00:55:52.000Each of us can follow his example and pick up where he left off.
00:55:55.000So learn like Charlie did at Charlie for Hillsdale.com.
00:56:03.000I really want to hit this because I think it's another great way that you guys have honored uh Charlie and also executed on our our policy priorities.
00:56:11.000So yesterday, right around the time of the uh of the ceremony, the State Department tweeted out uh the United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
00:56:23.000The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.
00:56:30.000Here are just a few examples of aliens no longer welcome in the US.
00:56:36.000Let's throw up 199, where they had a Brazilian national charge that Charlie was the reason for a Nazi rally where they marched in homage to him and that Kirk, quote, died too late.
00:56:50.000Uh 198, an Argentine national said that Kirk devoted his entire life to spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric and deserved to burn in hell.
00:57:01.000And they had like five of these, and they were good.
00:57:05.000They're great, and you know, it's really we've talked about we Charlie believed a lot in free speech.
00:57:09.000We believe a lot in free speech, but also we have to build this norm against uh assassination culture that political assassinations are not acceptable.
00:57:18.000And also, we have the ability to control who we welcome as guests into our nation.
00:57:23.000These are not include people who celebrate assassinations.
00:57:26.000Yes, you are a vile ghoulish, nasty monster of a person, and you shouldn't be in this country.
00:57:42.000I'm so grateful to the State Department and Secretary Rubio.
00:57:45.000I'm so grateful to also Pete Heggseth, who's been looking through the ranks and uh there's been disciplinary actions and investigations launched uh uh at at uh the Secretary uh the Department of War.
00:58:18.000Yeah, this is just basic common sense, and I'm so glad we have a phenomenal Secretary of State in Marco Rubio who believes in common sense.
00:58:27.000And as he said, we've been doing this since the beginning of the administration.
00:58:30.000If you hate our country, if you are inciting violence, if you are siding with terrorists, we have revoked the visas of pro Hamas individuals in our country who are engaging in some of the campus shutdowns and locking down American universities.
00:58:43.000We are not gonna tolerate illegal behavior.
00:58:45.000We're not gonna allow you to side with assassins and terrorists.
00:58:49.000Having a visa to this country is a privilege.
00:59:30.000The people that I unfortunately have to deal with every day.
00:59:33.000You know, if a a foreign lunatic that they didn't want to like immediately give citizenship to.
00:59:37.000Yeah, it's the only people they seem to support or defend uh are usually like illegal immigrants or you know, visa holders that hate hate citizens or assassins.
00:59:46.000There is some news uh with uh a gentleman commonly known as big balls.
00:59:59.000I love how they say it here on the New York Post.
01:00:01.000But uh so anyway, as we remember, the big inspiration for the law and order surge in DC was when he was just attacked out of the blue while I believe on a date, protecting uh trying to protect her, and they mauled him, and this is just not acceptable to have happen your nation's capital.
01:00:18.000And so that really inspired let's let's you know, send in the guard to restore order, and it's had a lot of success.
01:00:24.000But anyway, breaking today, the two teenagers who were involved in that attack have been sentenced to probation.
01:00:34.000We have two, still looking for the other eight.
01:00:37.000I talked to uh Judge Janine, who's our great U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. yesterday, actually, at the Rose Garden ceremony before the president and Erica came out, and she is doing everything she possibly can to restore law and order and justice in our nation's capital.
01:00:52.000But unfortunately, like in most liberal districts around the country, she is facing roadblack roadblock after roadblock from the courts and from the judges.
01:01:02.000And so in this case, you had the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuting the two lead individuals who should be incarcerated, and you have a liberal judge saying, no, they should just be re rehabilitated when they beat somebody to a pulp.
01:01:15.000And they were in involved in this mob mentality, gang violence that we see was so prevalent in Washington, D.C. And as you pointed out, this instance was just one of many that the administration said, enough is enough.
01:01:28.000We need to do more in Washington, D.C. to make this a safe place.
01:01:31.000And so big credit to uh Judge Janine, who's literally doing all she can with the resources that she has, but we have these these far-left judges.
01:01:39.000I know the president is uh eventually gonna appoint more good judges who actually believe in law and order and following the rule of law and enforcing it.
01:01:47.000And one of the big issues in DC is these juveniles.
01:02:10.000And not only in DC and all of these liberal jurisdictions, they are blocking this administration from just pursuing basic law and order.
01:02:17.000We see it in Portland, Oregon, where there have been hundreds of nights of violent riots of illegal behavior outside of the ICE facility.
01:02:25.000The president rightfully and legally calls up the National Guard, and we have liberal judges saying, no, you can't do that.
01:02:31.000When people are literally being attacked night after night, our federal law enforcement officers.
01:02:36.000So this is a fight we are taking to every city across the country every day.
01:02:40.000We know we are doing what is right by the merits of the law, so we'll continue to fight these cases all the way up to the Supreme Court if we have to.
01:02:47.000And I love that you guys are on top of this.
01:02:48.000And it it strikes me as not disconnected from what happened to Charlie.
01:02:52.000There just seems to be this divergence, and I, you know, you there's a thousand theories of what's causing it, but there's a divergence Between the left and the right when it comes to acceptance or justification of political violence, celebrating political violence, or just law and order.
01:03:09.000People uh, you know, the conservatives, we tend to be, no, this person needs to go into prison, jail, they need to be punished, held accountable.
01:03:16.000Judge Nean's been phenomenal on that, even if they're a little bit on the younger side sometimes, right?
01:03:20.000And especially in this city, that is a lot of what we've seen happen.
01:03:24.000There was uh the former uh, I think it was Metropolitan PD chief said that the average homicide uh suspect had been arrested 11 times prior before committing uh you know the uh a murder.
01:03:36.000Murdery, every murder that happens by someone who has 11 prior offenses was a preventable murder.
01:03:43.000I and I don't know what the philosophical divergence is, but it just seems like one side is doing everything they can to s to so chaos and the other one's trying to clean up the mess.
01:03:52.000Republicans versus Democrats, left versus right, conservatives versus progressives, whatever you want to call it.
01:04:10.000And again, we see this resistance from judges.
01:04:12.000We even see it from police departments in some cities, like in Portland or in Chicago, where the Chicago PD is actually told by the Democrat mayor to stand down when a federal law enforcement agent was being rammed by vehicles.
01:04:38.000And it and it shows how these Democrats have put politics above public safety, and they are preventing local and federal law enforcement from working together.
01:05:17.000We are all about saving babies with preborn.
01:05:20.000There are 24,836 kindergartners starting school this month who would not be alive if it hadn't been for what pre-born did in 2019.
01:05:30.000When a woman considering abortion sees her baby on that ultrasound and hears that baby's heartbeat, it doubles the chance that she will choose life.
01:05:38.000140 dollars gives five mothers a free ultrasound and saves babies.
01:05:43.000280 dollars can save 10 babies, and just 28 dollars a month can save a baby a month for less than a dollar a day.
01:05:50.000A $15,000 gift will provide an ultrasound machine that will save babies' lives for years and years to come.
01:06:33.000Well, I I just want to say I'm honored that you would trust us with this interview, and uh trust me, and I know why you're doing it, because you and Charlie uh were very close, and I told you this in the break that of all of the people not named Trump or Vance, because they're just in a whole different category.
01:06:51.000I think it's safe to say that he had the most faith in your ability to operate in the the levers of government to um move uh forward, a conservative agenda in this in the Imperial Capitol known as Washington, DC.
01:07:07.000He knew that you understood at an intricate level the way government works.
01:07:11.000And so uh you you guys had your own personal very close friendship.
01:07:15.000So I I want to give you the floor and let you just kind of explain what that was like and what Charlie meant to you.
01:07:21.000It's great to be uh here at the White House on and on your show.
01:07:25.000And honestly, that's just uh uh um what a gracious thing for Charlie to say.
01:07:31.000And uh he was a huge advocate to get me back at OMB.
01:07:34.000And you know, I think one of the things that stood out to me about Chile Charlie is just the extent to which uh he was always in the fight.
01:07:44.000He was always pushing as much as as we could get.
01:07:48.000Um he was always cognizant of all of the different things that might cause you to be unsuccessful.
01:07:55.000Uh he was always pushing truth in the midst of whatever complicated, almost simplifying it from the standpoint of what's right, what's wrong, what's truth, what's false.
01:08:08.000The notion that uh this is coalition ball, we're trying to make sure that uh we're successful, we win, uh, and to have a good time about it.
01:08:17.000And honestly, I think it's something about your show that I love is just the extent to which you guys embody uh his ability to have fun talking about the issues of the day, getting the message out, and ultimately winning and attracting a whole movement of people that are gonna come along with his legacy of standing on behalf of truth, come what may.
01:08:39.000And that's something I took from yesterday, the extent to which you know Erica was articulating to the the whole movement, the turning point movement, uh, all of those new chapters, all of those um uh new activists, people who are hitting the books for the maybe the first time and rejecting what's in their liberal schools and saying I'm just gonna be a self-learner in in the mode of mode of Charlie.
01:09:03.000You know, they they now have this legacy in their heart, um, and that's exciting.
01:09:09.000Um the future is gonna pay incredible dividends as a result of that.
01:09:13.000Yeah, well, and I I think that's really well said.
01:09:18.000He, you know, people would say, Oh, you didn't graduate college, and he'd be like, that's a it's a badge of honor, first of all.
01:09:24.000Uh I think at first early on, maybe it hurt his feelings a little bit, but it's but by the time he's 25, he he wore it as a badge of honor and realized that because of that he hadn't wasted all his time, and he was so much further ahead than so many.
01:09:35.000Uh, but just to so Russ, so you know that I uh not lying to you, let's go ahead and put up image 202.
01:09:42.000This is where Charlie says on February 7th of this year, he says, people have yet to fully appreciate the significance of Russ Vote at OMB.
01:10:50.000But one of the things we did not do uh was reductions in force, and we honestly learned about it in in our years of exile, and we came into this administration and we've done uh riffs earlier in the year.
01:11:01.000Um but the Democrats have put us in a position where uh against the American people's interest, they've put us in shutdown.
01:11:09.000Um obviously there's impacts on the American people as a result, but one of the problems of government shutdown is it slows down the administration.
01:11:17.000So the administration can't do as much of what it was doing on behalf of the American people because it's in a shutdown.
01:11:24.000And we to the best of our abilities want to minimize that that slowdown in momentum.
01:11:29.000And I think the president is kind of uh doing that himself with you know solving Middle East peace uh and and all the manner of things that he spends his time in.
01:11:39.000But you know, one of the things we want to do is if there are policy opportunities to downsize the scope of the federal government, we want to use those opportunities.
01:11:48.000And if I can't do things, because you can't do everything you would normally do in a shutdown, right?
01:11:52.000You it has to be generally related to life and protecting property.
01:11:56.000Um and if I can only work on saving money then I'm gonna do everything I can to look for opportunities to downsize uh in areas where this administration has has thought this is what this is our way towards a balanced budget and I think you've seen some of that in the president's messaging.
01:12:21.000We're definitely talking thousands of people.
01:12:23.000Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots, which they've articulated is in the 4,000 number of people.
01:12:33.000But that's just a snapshot, and I think it'll get much higher.
01:12:37.000And we're going to keep those riffs rolling throughout this shutdown because we think it's important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people in getting a government that if there's an opportunity to have less bureaucracy, and think of Green New Deal programs at the Department of Energy, think the Minority Business Development Agency at Commerce that divvies up business grants on the basis of race, think environmental justice at
01:13:16.000very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy not just the funding but the bureaucracy that we now have an opportunity to do that and that's where we're gonna be looking for our our opportunities.
01:13:27.000So you're saying there's been a snapshot of 4,000 jobs cut.
01:13:33.000Is there a special but but it could grow if we could grow higher I think we'll probably end up being north of 1000.
01:13:38.000Now is there some special mechanism that allows you to do this during a government shutdown or are you simply saying hey while everything's stopped I'm going to turn my attention to this because it's a combination of both in the sense that Congress is saying we're not going to fund these programs by passing by not passing the Republican continuing resolution.
01:13:56.000So if there's no funding for these programs, then what would you have us do?
01:14:00.000Is it not to make an assumption that you don't intend to fund these in the future?
01:14:04.000And so we are then doing the normal act legal authorities that are given to us and our focus, time and attention to be able to go after and prioritize the rifts as opposed to the deregulatory agenda or any of the things that we're normally tasked with at OMB.
01:14:21.000Well, this I mean, just so you're aware, our audience, there's probably people doing, you know, high fives and jump kicks out of just pure excitement to hear you talking about this.
01:14:33.000Meanwhile, legacy media, corporate media is probably writing, you know, hit pieces about this.
01:14:42.000It's so hungry for reductions in spending.
01:14:46.000But, you know, we talk about this, the government shutdown.
01:14:49.000I'll be honest, I didn't feel it at all until I got to Washington this week.
01:14:54.000And then it wasn't until talking to staff that I would normally, you know, communicate with and saying, oh, I can't come in because I'm furloughed or whatever until the shutdown's over.
01:15:02.000Is there a concern that this will start rippling outside of the imperial capital, outside of the swamp?
01:15:08.000Because I don't I don't think Americans feel it.
01:15:10.000And that's kind of probably a good realization because there's a lot of government we just simply don't need.
01:15:16.000But is there a concern that we might start to feel it?
01:15:19.000And in which ways will average Americans across the country begin to feel it?
01:15:24.000So I think part of the catch up effect is that the people that are doing essential services are not getting paid.
01:15:30.000So you may have border patrol, you may have air traffic control, the military, obviously, although we're fixing that by getting, finding a plain budgetary twister to find a pot of money that has a similar purpose that we can pay them.
01:15:46.000And so it does have an impact on how long this can go without having severe repercussions.
01:15:51.000And we don't want air traffic control to just start staying home sick.
01:15:55.000So we want to get out of the shutdown.
01:15:58.000We want to do what's necessary to get the government open.
01:16:02.000We've put forward a very simple proposition, which is continue at current levels, and which is a CR.
01:16:09.000And they have put forward $1.5 trillion in demands.
01:16:13.000I mean, they said, all right, the entire title of the one beautiful bill has to be repealed.
01:16:17.000And then we want all manner of expansions to continue to abide in health care policy that have largely been riddled with fraud.
01:16:27.000And they said, they also want us to repeal our rescissions, which would get us us back in the public broadcasting business with with corporation for public broadcasting and they want us back in the foreign aid business so that we essentially reopen USAID.
01:16:40.000And so the the the magnitude of their demands is madness.
01:16:45.000And so we're trying to get that out to the American people and I think it will start to bite unfortunately in the days ahead.
01:16:52.000But thankfully we've we've paid for the military law enforcement and border and they'll get their paychecks.
01:16:57.000Oh okay so you did get law enforcement and border.
01:17:01.000Border is incredibly important as well because I think you know and Charlie believed this that the one you know you can argue about some of the other accomplishments are they're good or bad.
01:17:11.000It's like no the border is this historic accomplishment and what you guys got done with the big beautiful bill to augment that force first time that I believe ICE personnel has been increased the number of ICE personnel has been increased in its history was a historic important tremendous uh accomplishment that fulfilled a mandate from the American people that they they they said they wanted that in November.
01:17:34.000So the fact and they want by the way they wanted all the illegals out.
01:17:37.000I mean there's a lot of polling that shows that this is Lane Schoenberger chief investment officer and founding partner of why refi it has been an honor and a privilege to partner with turning point and for Charlie to endorse us.
01:17:51.000His endorsement means the world to us and we look forward to continuing our partnership with turning point for years to come.
01:17:57.000Now hear Charlie in his own words tell you about why refi I'm going to tell you guys about why refi.com that is why dot com.
01:18:05.000Why ReFi is incredible private student loan debt in America totals about 300 billion dollars.
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01:18:17.000Go to why refi.com that is why refi.com do you have a co-borrower why reef I can get them released from the loan.
01:18:24.000You can skip a payment up to 12 times without penalty it may not be available in all 50 states go to why refi.com that is y dot com let's face it if you have distress or default to student loans it can be overwhelming.
01:18:37.000Because of privacy loan debt so many people feel stuck go to why refi.com that is y-e f y dot com private student loan debt relief why refi.com Rest vote director of OMB one of the most important people in government that's not named Vance or Trump right now because they're in a separate category is how is how I say it.
01:19:00.000We're in the closeout phase of USAID in terms of having shifted anything that was legitimate that needed to go to state.
01:19:10.000And we're now in the business of of closing it out, making sure that nonprofits that didn't share our values don't get any money, making sure we dispense of any property.
01:19:22.000But also, I think importantly, Andrew, the extent to which we want to expose the American people, the extent of the corruption, the waste, the abuse, the horrible foreign policy that USAID was a part of.
01:19:34.000And so my instruction to our kind of small team that has been given this responsibility is we're going to put everything we out there that we possibly can.
01:19:43.000We've got all the records and we'll be mining those.
01:19:47.000We'll be bringing in individuals with a specific skill set to be able to go deep and to find out the different tentacles and connections and connect the dots between.
01:19:56.000Essentially, it was bad foreign policy and the extent to it was largely money.
01:20:02.000Maybe maybe dive into that just briefly here.
01:20:05.000I know it's a short segment, but, you know, a lot of people allege that it was an icy carve out, that there was, you know, sort of meddling in foreign affairs and foreign governments.
01:20:15.000Mike Benz has done a deep dives on dives on this data Republican.
01:20:20.000We are we are desperately testing those theories.
01:20:24.000And we know like we know, you know, a nation like Hungary will tell you USAID was actively pushing regime change in Hungary.
01:20:33.000And we know that if they even if they weren't pushing regime change in many of these countries they were doing it culturally in the extent to which they were pushing uh woke policies and gay pride events uh in in countless countries and you know so those are the types of things that we want to bring to the American people's attention not just the extent to which hey we have an inspector general of one aspect of abuse that we can then talk about but we want to just the the extent to which it was everywhere with USAID.
01:21:02.000And that's really what our goal is over the next several weeks and months but I think this will be uh you know the the final uh nail in the coffin the extent to which we put this agency out of business once and for all so just in the break I was like I asked that question and He goes, Well, it's a husk of its former self.
01:21:19.000And so I love it because you actually have a strategy here.
01:21:22.000You're going to expose this and educate the American people on what was really going on and give the American people some transparency into this.
01:21:30.000Another uh agency that you're working on closing, it sounds like the CFPB.
01:21:49.000We don't have anyone working there except our Republican uh appointees and a few careers uh that are doing statutory responsibilities while we close down the the agency.
01:22:14.000You come into OMB and our career staff, they they want to do what the president wants them to do, and uh, you know, they they're used to working for different presidents, right?
01:22:24.000This agency, all they want to do is weaponize the tools of financial laws against basically small mom and pop lenders and other small financial institutions.
01:22:38.000Townstone uh was a uh uh a lender in Chicago that they weaponized uh disparate impact to go after them and say that and there was never any complaints about lending that that was uh racially motivated or not lending, never a complaint.
01:22:55.000And they ruined this guy's uh life for seven years.
01:22:59.000And I called him up and I just said, look, we found internally that not only did they do this, but they knew they were doing it, and they deceived uh senior leadership to do it uh at the time.
01:23:29.000It's not American, it's basically communist uh gobbledygook that's laundered in through an official sounding description.
01:23:37.000Uh Russ vote, uh director of OMP, you're doing tremendous work.
01:23:40.000Uh that your nation is grateful to you.
01:23:43.000Charlie was grateful uh for everything that you're accomplishing and will accomplish, and we have just just the most uh respect we could and uh trust in your steady hand to get it done.
01:23:53.000So thank you so much for joining us and for gifting this show with a very rare interview.