00:00:55.000His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:01:04.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:48.000No, no, no, today we're going to talk about France.
00:01:52.000Something very interesting happening in France.
00:01:54.000Widespread violent protests are happening all across the country.
00:01:58.000We have some B-roll to show here of what's happening.
00:02:01.000Now, look, for the French, this is somewhat kind of built into their national culture.
00:02:05.000Look, France has revolts all the time.
00:02:07.000230 years ago, they famously beheaded their king.
00:02:11.000150 years ago, they had a communist takeover of Paris.
00:02:14.000In 1968, the country was paralyzed by far-left student protests.
00:02:18.000And a few years ago, there was even a populist yellow vest protest.
00:02:22.000So the joke goes, in France, there's a big protest going.
00:02:27.000You throw a couple Molotov cocktails, and then you go back and you go sip wine and enjoy cheese on the lawn outside of the Eiffel Tower.
00:02:35.000It's just kind of built into some of the daily weekend activity if they get angry about it.
00:02:39.000And in fact, there's a hilarious video showing that buildings on fire and a bunch of Parisians.
00:02:46.000I don't know if it was in Paris, actually, just French citizens, just kind of sitting at a diner eating and like just kind of rolling their eyes.
00:02:51.000Kind of built in to French culture, this kind of widespread protest, arson.
00:03:40.000I think some of their authors, especially Jean-Jacques Rousseau onward, leave a lot to be, a lot to be desired.
00:03:46.000He was more Genevan and more Swiss, but he definitely had some French roots.
00:03:50.000But there's a lot of lessons in French history we can derive.
00:03:53.000Example, the very people that were the Jacobins that were calling for the guillotine and the beheading of the king, Maximilian Robespierre actually was killed by the very people he was doing the revolt with.
00:04:05.000A lot of lessons that we could derive from French history.
00:04:09.000A lot of the current wokies here in America feel and act and believe in the same manner that the Jacobins did during the French Revolution.
00:04:18.000But today we're going to talk about a very specific issue that applies to America and it's going to come here very soon, which is what happens when you expand your welfare state so significantly to an unsustainable way, make promises that you cannot fulfill, spend money you do not have, open your border to a bunch of foreigners to try to pay for it.
00:04:40.000And eventually you have to make decisions that if you do not make that decision, your entire country will implode.
00:04:46.000Well, right now, Macron, who I'm not a fan of, but he's actually doing the right thing, is trying to raise the French retirement age from 62 to 64.
00:06:17.000It's not, when you do not have a free economy, when you do not have a society built on liberty, all they have to look forward to is a government check once they retire.
00:06:26.000Life is more beautiful than an entitlement state.
00:06:44.000There's nothing new and exciting that is being created.
00:06:47.000Nobody goes to France to launch a startup or try anything new.
00:06:50.000And that's what happens when you have a society where everything just revolves around retiring early and living the easiest life possible.
00:06:59.000France is decaying and the country's surrounded by memories of what used to be capable of.
00:07:03.000And look, I know a lot of people in this audience are saying, well, Charlie, what about Social Security and Medicare?
00:07:08.000I believe you've earned those and you've paid into it.
00:07:10.000The broader argument I'm making, though, is be careful designing a society with an overemphasis on entitlement-like policies.
00:07:18.000I believe that free money from the government, which I do not believe those of you in this audience that get Social Security or Medicare, is free money from the government because you've actually earned it.
00:07:27.000But in the cases where there's free money from the government, I believe that is more addictive than fentanyl and drugs.
00:07:38.000And the French are showing us that if you even try to make modest or prudent reforms to try to make sure the system can continue, then your society might literally start to burn.
00:07:51.000And the lesson in America is very clear.
00:07:53.000If you actually look at the numbers in America, no one likes talking about this.
00:07:56.000No one likes actually saying, hey, maybe we should stop this spending spree.
00:07:59.000In 1940 in America, there were 42 workers per retiree in America.
00:08:03.000Today, the ratio is a little above 3 to 1.
00:08:06.000By 2050, it's predicted that it'll be 2 to 1.
00:08:11.000And that's with hundreds of thousands of refugees and immigrants that they brought into their country to try to stabilize it.
00:08:18.000From 1977 to 2020, in inflation-adjusted dollars, state and local government spending on public welfare in America went from $147 billion to $791 billion, a 437% increase, mostly due to the growth of Medicaid.
00:08:37.000In 1960, total welfare spending in the U.S. was about 7% of the GDP.
00:08:46.000Overall, 57% of Americans paid on net zero income tax in 2021.
00:08:53.000This was mostly due to COVID, but even in 2020, which covered pre-COVID earnings, the figure was 44%.
00:09:00.000One of the main lessons we have to kind of derive here is that we went for the cheap, easy money, sugar high solution, I put in quotes, during COVID.
00:09:10.000And you're going to start to see this happen in Western country after Western country with the banking collapses, the crypto market imploding, the lack of crisis in the American currency or the American dollar, is the cheap money, easy money overspending policies are now coming to a head.
00:09:30.000What's happening in France right now with the unrest, with the welfare state that is not just complaining, but they are demanding that these reforms do not happen can occur here very, very quickly.
00:09:44.000In the end, it's not only government and it's not welfare that creates prosperity, of course.
00:09:49.000The only thing that creates prosperity is work and productivity and the creation of value.
00:09:57.000There is no such thing as a free lunch.
00:09:59.000And the $6 trillion that we created out of thin air and put into our economy, that all of a sudden real estate prices go up and the stock market goes up and crypto goes up.
00:10:22.000Look, it is time to consider a rollover of that 401k into an IRA.
00:10:28.000The investment world is completely different in 2023, and you cannot do the same thing as last year.
00:10:33.000Woke companies are aggressively implementing ESG.
00:10:38.000Interest rates are going up and inflation is still lingering.
00:10:40.000If you have over $150,000, now is the time to move your money to a biblical responsible investing strategy with my friends at PAX Financial Group.
00:11:14.000You know, the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
00:11:18.000Now, Congress didn't do this, but during Floyd Apaloozo, which reminds me of the French protests, they remind me of each other, kind of widespread arson and nonsense.
00:11:28.000We did have a state-run religion, a state-run American political party, BLM.
00:11:33.000In a yearn for meaning, meaning, it's like Victor Frankl's man search for meaning, we decided to attach ourselves and attach our money, attach our meaning to the religion of anti-racism.
00:11:46.000This happened in June, July, and August of 2020.
00:11:49.000So many pastors in a nauseating fashion marched with BLM and talked about white fragility and all this nonsense.
00:11:56.000And a new report shows exactly how much money did the cause of BLM receive and then also the actual organization itself receive.
00:12:06.000The Federalists did some incredible reporting here from the Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life.
00:12:14.000Black Lives Matter activists executed a shocking $83 billion shakedown of American corporations.
00:12:27.000Says here, they created the database tracking contributions and pledges made to BLM movement and related causes.
00:12:33.000To date, the data spans more than 400 companies and $83 billion in pledges and contributions.
00:12:38.000Let me ask you, how many of these donations are going to charter schools to help blacks read or going to public safety efforts to make sure that black kids aren't shot by black thugs in downtown Chicago?
00:12:50.000How many of these are going to actually go rebuild the black family in Philadelphia or Atlanta?
00:12:57.000Is this money going to schools in black, you know, in Harlem, which is overwhelmingly black?
00:13:03.000Here's what we do know: the BLM organization itself, which received about $100 million that we know of, secretly bought a $6 million house in California, all in cash in the fall of 2020.
00:13:16.000Remember, these same riots resulted in 15 times more injured police officers, 19 times more arrests.
00:13:24.000And these are the people that then, in return, extort all of society and get $83 billion in return.
00:13:31.000And let me just probe something out there because for the Republican attorney generals out there and for the Republican district attorneys, as we are watching Alvin Bragg debate whether or not to indict Donald Trump, as we're watching the Fulton County do the same and the Department of Justice go after Trump, there is a question that many of you have.
00:13:49.000Well, Charlie, who on the Democrat side should we indict?
00:14:16.000All these states have charitable solicitation fraud statutes on their books.
00:14:20.000The $6 million house in Malibu, they admitted hosting parties at it.
00:14:25.000Quote, BLM leadership has indicated the property was intended as a type of influencer house, but reportedly very little was ever filmed there.
00:14:34.000Maybe a few videos involving colors, including a video series called Patrice Tries, during which she attempts unfamiliar tasks, according to the New York magazine.
00:14:44.000So they also bought a house in Canada, if I remember correctly.
00:14:47.000Patrice Colors has this ever-growing real estate empire.
00:14:51.000And so they raise $100 million and people from red states donate to it.
00:14:58.000Why is it that Republican attorney generals are sitting and watching Donald Trump maybe be indicted, watching Steve Bannon get indicted, watching James O'Keefe have his apartment be raided?
00:15:10.000They shut down the National Rifle Association.
00:15:13.000They're using government to go after moms and dads at school boards.
00:15:17.000And we do not have Republican attorney generals or Republican district attorneys that have the backbone, the spine, or the fortitude to impanel a grand jury and say, hey, Patrice Colors, explain in front of this grand jury the charitable funds that you received from the donors of this state could be Louisiana, could be Arkansas, could be Texas, it could be Florida.
00:15:40.000And then did you actually do the intent of charitable funds?
00:15:44.000By the way, these sort of indictments are done all the time for other types of charities.
00:15:48.000There's dozens of indictments that happen every single year around it.
00:15:51.000Unfortunately, if something happens, it's happening right now with a pro-Ukrainian charity of a guy that just raised millions of dollars and he disappeared.
00:15:58.000Why is it that Republicans are afraid to do it?
00:16:00.000The answer is so simple, and it's a really bad answer.
00:16:02.000It's because they do not want to indict the black organization of the left.
00:16:06.000They don't want to be called a racist.
00:16:08.000In fact, that's a reason, that's a really bad reason to do it, but it actually should make you lean in.
00:17:24.000They do all the work and share a percentage of the cash they get you.
00:17:27.000Businesses of all types, including nonprofits and churches, can qualify, including those who took PPP loans, even if you had an increase in sales.
00:17:36.000You did the difficult thing for your employees during the virus.
00:17:39.000Let covidtaxrelief.org help you get up to $26,000 per employee.
00:18:06.000So the president has finally signed the bill, kicking and screaming.
00:18:11.000I have to say, as an aside, it was really delightful to read his statement where he said, I am pleased to sign this bill after he delayed and delayed and delayed.
00:18:19.000But now we have to hold their feet to the fire because what they've already started to say, the administration is, well, you know, we've got to be worried about the national security implications.
00:18:28.000And as I've already said publicly, there's no national security exception in the bill.
00:18:33.000The bill says you don't have to reveal who the source is, you know, like name our agents in the field.
00:18:37.000But other than that, it says declassify the information.
00:18:41.000So they're on a shot clock now, and we'll see.
00:18:44.000But I look forward to the American people being able to read what members of Congress have been able to read for literally months and years now.
00:18:51.000And so do you think there's going to be anything, you know, overly revealing?
00:18:56.000I mean, what can the public expect here?
00:18:59.000Or is it just going to kind of be a bunch of, you know, declassified, I mean, classified documents and things X'd out?
00:19:06.000I mean, kind of manage our expectations here.
00:19:09.000Well, some of that will depend on them.
00:19:11.000But listen, I think we got a preview of it with the FBI director when he went all of a sudden decided to go do these interviews.
00:19:18.000He sat down, I think it was Brett Baer a few weeks ago and said what the FBI has privately been saying for over a year, Charlie, which is that the FBI has assessed for a year plus now that this thing is from a lab.
00:19:58.000I hope they'll see the assessments from the Department of Energy.
00:20:01.000And here's the other value of it, Charlie, is that our other intelligence agencies like the CIA and others, and there's several of them who have different assessments of, you know, where did this thing come from?
00:20:11.000They don't want any of this to be made public because they don't actually want to be pushed to put their dime down.
00:20:16.000They don't want to actually have to say, here's what we think.
00:20:20.000You know, like, well, maybe on the one hand, on the other hand, we need to force them to tell the public what they know so that they will be pressed to fess up and then to keep to keep working.
00:20:33.000Like, for instance, we need to know was this part of a bioweapons program?
00:20:36.000Even if it was for Balapoli, I think it was, was it part of a bioweapons program?
00:20:40.000See, now that's a different question, and we need to know that.
00:20:42.000So I think there's going to be great value in this if the administration will follow the law.
00:20:48.000So, Senator, this week was kind of TikTok week on Capitol Hill.
00:20:53.000And this is an issue that you've been leading on.
00:20:55.000And it seems as if Congress and the kind of board CIFUS CIFIS, right?
00:21:03.000I want to make sure I pronounce that correctly, has to make a decision whether or not to ban TikTok completely, restrict access in the app store, or demand that TikTok offloads its data through something called Project Texas to an American-based tech company.
00:21:32.000And how are you thinking about it personally?
00:21:35.000I think we now know everything that we need to know, Charlie.
00:21:38.000I think that the TikTok CEO's testimony confirmed this yesterday, which is that this is a company that's tremendously influenced by the Chinese Communist Party.
00:21:47.000I mean, there's just no doubt about it.
00:21:48.000When he said that, yes, the CCP does have access.
00:21:52.000He couldn't guarantee Americans that Adam was safe.
00:21:54.000When he couldn't even say that his own remarks hadn't been written or influenced in part by CCP officials, I mean, there you go.
00:22:03.000I've had whistleblowers come to me from within the company who said that Americans' personal information is absolutely being accessed by people in China.
00:22:10.000We know that TikTok is tracking journalists and every American should be concerned about this.
00:22:15.000If you've got that on your phone, just know it's tracking your vocation.
00:22:19.000It's tracking your keystrokes, which means it can read what you're typing.
00:22:22.000It's tracking your contact list, your phone list.
00:22:45.000We should put this on the floor and vote on it.
00:22:47.000Do you think there's an appetite to do that?
00:22:49.000It's a strange thing, Senator, because we're seeing Democrats that actually seem to be supportive of it.
00:22:56.000Now, my cynical interpretation is that this seems to be pushed by Google and Facebook because they see TikTok now as an emerging competitor in kind of the video market.
00:23:09.000I know for a fact that a lot of the Google lobbyists are actually the ones pushing this against TikTok.
00:23:15.000And I guess it makes strange bedfellows because, you know, I'm no fan of the CCP, but I think profit is driving them, not patriotism.
00:23:22.000But Senator, do you think there's an appetite from Democrats to ban this?
00:23:39.000And that's why you heard Democrats in the last few weeks change their tune.
00:23:43.000And by the way, the corporate media, if you turned on CNN this week, which I recommend people never ever do, but if you happen to accidentally be in an airport and have to watch it, for example, you would have heard a CNN host literally reading TikTok press release talking points, but as if they were fact.
00:24:13.000We have to pass a comprehensive privacy bill.
00:24:16.000And to your point, the people who want a quote-unquote comprehensive privacy bill are Google and Facebook because they'll write the rules, they'll benefit from it, and then everybody else, smaller competitors, will all be shut out.
00:24:27.000So my view on this is ban TikTok, send a message to big tech that we are not afraid to act.
00:24:34.000Send a message to China that they don't get this back door into our lives and this digital fentanyl into our kids' heads because that's what they're trying to do.
00:24:51.000I just want people to know that this TikTok being kind of a front and center issue is not all of a sudden because Congress has found a zeal to hold the CCP accountable.
00:25:01.000It's a lot of American tech companies that are pushing this because TikTok is a competitor to them, which by the way, more power to them because I'm not a fan, obviously.
00:25:09.000Do you think this Project Texas is a good compromise at all, Senator?
00:25:12.000Because we're getting some emails about that.
00:25:14.000Can you tell our audience what it is and why you don't think that's a good idea?
00:25:45.000And the problem is that wherever you store it, Texas, Missouri, Alaska, wherever, the real question is, can you put a firewall between Beijing and the data?
00:25:58.000And what I have been told over and over by whistleblowers within the company, by those who work on Project Texas, is the answer to that is no.
00:26:04.000It's not designed to silo that data off from employees of the company.
00:26:10.000It's just designed to protect it from, like, say, cyber attack from the outside.
00:27:06.000Do you disagree with FBI Director Ray and NSA Director Nicosone when they said that the CCP could have the capability to manipulate data and send it to the United States?
00:27:25.000So, Senator, what would you have to say to just the counter argument on this topic that there might be some hesitancy to have the government just ban a company outright?
00:27:33.000And I personally actually share a little bit of that hesitancy.
00:27:36.000What are your thoughts on how should we think about that?
00:27:41.000I think the key here is that TikTok is unique in the sense that it is heavily influenced by and de facto controlled by a foreign adversary, China.
00:27:51.000That's different than we just don't like this company.
00:27:55.000We don't like it being owned by a foreign government.
00:27:57.000You might have First Amendment, you would certainly have First Amendment issues if the argument was, well, we don't like what's on the platform.
00:28:05.000It is the national security concern that is the key thing for banning it here.
00:28:09.000And this is why, Charlie, we successfully banned it.
00:28:11.000I say we was my bill that banned it on all federal government devices and federal contractors too, just a few months ago because of the national security concerns.
00:28:20.000So, you know, with Google and Facebook, to take a different example, there, you know, the right solution there is competition, break them up, and stop them from illegally tracking Americans without their consent, right?
00:28:32.000The problem is, if you tried to do that with TikTok, they just wouldn't ignore it.
00:28:36.000They wouldn't obey our laws because ultimately they're going to answer to their Chinese parent company.
00:29:05.000It's interesting because I definitely sympathize with this idea of CCP, awful, evil, modern-day Nazis, digital fentanyl.
00:29:17.000But I'm a little bit hesitant in one regard because giving the government a lot of power post-9-11, because we were very concerned about radical Islamic fundamentalists, understandably concerned, ended up creating an infrastructure that then could be used against conservatives.
00:29:38.000I hope you've learned our lesson that sometimes a bipartisan, prudent action against a foreign actor can set a precedent to then be used against a conservative company.
00:30:04.000Are they going to be able to use that as an excuse?
00:30:06.000I mean, that might be a little bit of a guess too far, but do they have an investor or do they have a group of investors that could be tied in a thicket of bureaucracy for quote-unquote foreign influence?
00:30:33.000I'm just, I'm so, let's just say, moved by the lessons of how the same people that post-9-11 told us, need all these FISA courts, Patriot Act, all these different types of measures.
00:30:53.000And then January 6th, they say that now the new terrorists are conservatives.
00:30:59.000What I'm getting at is it seems the playbook that the Democrats have used is expand the government, get the precedent, get emergency powers to be able to have a bipartisan move against a foreign instrument, keep all of that infrastructure and that precedent in place to then do it against a conservative organization.
00:31:22.000And that's a legitimate concern because if the Republican, if the Democrats had their way, if the regime had their way, they would ban Twitter tomorrow, banning a company.
00:31:35.000Now, you might say, well, you know, Twitter is an American company.
00:31:38.000Well, their owner is South African, boring.
00:32:12.000And I just wonder if there is a censorship agenda.
00:32:16.000That's always what they've wanted, isn't it?
00:32:18.000They dream and they have a lust for shutting up and silencing people they disagree with.
00:32:23.000So I have to just wonder: is there a better way than flat out banning it and setting a precedent for Democrat pro censorship forces and voices to be able to come after the companies that we believe are necessary to a free society, like Rumble, Twitter, Real America's Voice, that are totally American companies?
00:32:48.000Someone says, here, Charlie, I sympathize with you as they say the CCP indoctrinating our children, but your caution is smart.
00:33:12.000Yeah, I'm that same way, just like my initial gut was spy on the Islamic terrorists and get the Patriot Act, and then it's used against us.
00:33:21.000I wish I didn't have to live in a point of time where I'm so suspicious, but boy, it seems like there's always a deeper agenda, isn't there?
00:33:33.000But the very same government power that could be used in a proper way can then be abused and set a precedent in an improper way.
00:33:42.000And so are we willing to kind of go that far to say that a company should be banned for whatever excuse that they have or they give by an act of Congress?