The Charlie Kirk Show - May 26, 2022


What's Driving America's School Shooting Epidemic with Steve Cortes


Episode Stats


Length

34 minutes

Words per minute

188.10802

Word count

6,496

Sentence count

479

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

18

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, and Dan Patrick were all in attendance at a press conference in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday morning to honor the victims of an elementary school shooting that took place just a few miles from their offices. What did they do to respond to the tragedy?

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, we go into detail about Robert Francis O'Rourke's barnstorming the stage like a teenage activist in front of Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, and Dan Patrick while they are trying to basically give a eulogy. 0.82
00:00:10.000 It's disgusting.
00:00:12.000 And then we have Steve Cortez unpacking the tragedy in Texas as well as how does inflation play into all of this?
00:00:17.000 Email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:20.000 Support the Charlie Kirk Show at charliekirk.com/slash support and get involved with Turning PointUSA today at tpusa.com.
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00:00:39.000 Email me your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:41.000 Buckle up everybody here.
00:00:43.000 We go.
00:00:43.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:45.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:47.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:51.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:54.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:00:55.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:00:56.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
00:01:03.000 Turning point USA. 0.65
00:01:04.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:13.000 That's why we are here.
00:01:16.000 Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at AndrewandTodd.com.
00:01:25.000 This national tragedy has happened, and some lunatic emailed me.
00:01:29.000 Charlie, it's not a national tragedy. 1.00
00:01:31.000 I mean, just shut up. 1.00
00:01:32.000 It is, okay? 1.00
00:01:33.000 You had 19 elementary kids murdered in a classroom.
00:01:36.000 All right.
00:01:37.000 So, yes, it is.
00:01:38.000 That doesn't happen every day.
00:01:40.000 God forbid.
00:01:42.000 So we're kind of on the fly here.
00:01:44.000 And so the whole thesis that we had here was that Democrats are going to overly politicize this and make it all about themselves and their political agenda.
00:01:55.000 And as if right on queue, Robert Francis O'Rourke couldn't allow Governor Abbott to host a press conference on mental health and the facts related to it and barnstorms and bum, rushes the stage like an unhinged activist and starts screaming with his flailing arms, of which there's not a detectable ounce of testosterone or muscle mass on the entire being of the wannabe Hispanic Irishman. 0.86
00:02:24.000 Trust fund baby open border advocate, gun grabbing activist from El Paso Texas who, hell yes, is going to take away all your guns. 0.96
00:02:31.000 Soon to be three times failed candidate in Texas, where he can't win a Senate race, he can't win a presidential race and he's not going to win the governor's race.
00:02:40.000 And man again.
00:02:41.000 I have plenty of disagreements with Governor Abbott on a lot of things.
00:02:44.000 I don't think he acts fast enough.
00:02:45.000 I think he's been fine.
00:02:46.000 I don't think he's like Kemp, who's a total disaster.
00:02:48.000 But if you want to turn me into like a big Greg Abbott fan, congratulations.
00:02:53.000 Robert Francis O'Rourke. 0.99
00:02:54.000 You've done that, as you bum, rush the stage and make yourself look like a fool, make your entire political party look like nothing more than opportunists. 0.99
00:03:04.000 Okay, all right, let's just play it. 0.99
00:03:05.000 Excuse me, who's not to stand?
00:03:08.000 You're out of, you're out of line, and then embarrassing is right now and you're doing nothing.
00:03:16.000 No robbery to talk to a show.
00:03:20.000 This is totally predictable when you sir, you're out of line.
00:03:23.000 Sir, you're out of line.
00:03:25.000 Sir, you are out of line.
00:03:27.000 Please leave this auditorial.
00:03:34.000 If we come to a deal like this to make a political issue, I'm not quite sure what Robert Francis O'Rourke was saying, but he felt necessary to bum rush the stage, and Ted Cruz was just losing it. 0.97
00:04:00.000 And I think just kind of like the local sheriff came up and was like, You're an embarrassment. 0.88
00:04:03.000 How dare you do this?
00:04:04.000 We have not identified all the bodies.
00:04:07.000 Hasn't even been 24 hours.
00:04:09.000 And Robert Francis O'Rourke needs to turn it into a massive press conference.
00:04:12.000 And the radical left is going to reward him.
00:04:14.000 He's going to do all the press.
00:04:15.000 He's going to be on shows tonight.
00:04:17.000 Robert Francis O'Ork challenges Greg Abbott.
00:04:19.000 I'm just going to make a prediction right now.
00:04:21.000 You ready for this?
00:04:21.000 Connor, keep your eyes on all the propaganda rags.
00:04:24.000 I can't wait.
00:04:25.000 Robert Francis O'Rourke challenges Abbott to his face on failed gun policies.
00:04:31.000 Robert Francis O'Rourke goes up to Dan Patrick and Ted Cruz and shows them who's boss.
00:04:38.000 Robert Francis O'Rourke or Beto O'Rourke embodies the rage and the anger felt by millions.
00:04:44.000 So they're going to try to spin it into something that it isn't, where he's like politicizing a funeral.
00:04:51.000 What do you think about that?
00:04:55.000 It's like politicizing a funeral.
00:04:57.000 Yeah.
00:04:57.000 So Robert Francis O'Rourke said, it's on you.
00:05:00.000 The recount, which is a left-wing propaganda site, said, quote, in a striking moment, ridiculous.
00:05:06.000 Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke interrupts Greg Abbott's press conference on the Uvalde shooting.
00:05:12.000 What did I tell you at the beginning of our broadcast here that they are going to force our hand now to defend our Second Amendment rights and our ability to protect ourselves?
00:05:23.000 They're forcing our hand into this.
00:05:25.000 We wanted to depoliticize this moment.
00:05:29.000 Occupy Democrat says, quote, breaking a courageous Beto O'Rourke interrupts a press conference held by Greg Abbott and NRA Stooges, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn in the Uvalde High School Auditorium.
00:05:42.000 It's like I predicted all this before I even saw it.
00:05:44.000 It's like word for word.
00:05:46.000 And they say, retweet to thank Beto.
00:05:49.000 Now, mind you, the interruption of speakers and all that is something we're very used to on college campuses.
00:05:54.000 What happens on college campuses doesn't stay on college campuses.
00:05:57.000 This clip is going to be widely circulated because it's going to kind of become a metaphor of people that actually are interested in governing our society, like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick, who actually I thought give a very good summary of what happened, what could be done in response to it, and then just political children who bum rush the stage.
00:06:16.000 Now, look, Robert Francis O'Rourke, he could have had a press conference right outside a competing press conference, but he felt it necessary to go interrupt what was basically a quasi-funeral, a eulogy that was being given,
00:06:32.000 and also kind of like a fact and circumstance summary that was being tabulated for the people that are experiencing so much suffering in Uvalde, Texas.
00:06:48.000 I want to get to some more sound here.
00:06:49.000 Michael Moore, who has been increasingly irrelevant in recent years, decides to try to make him relevant by just opening his opening argument.
00:06:57.000 Not even 24 hours, not even everybody has been identified.
00:07:01.000 Michael Moore says we need a moratorium on all gun sales.
00:07:04.000 Play cut 81.
00:07:06.000 To nickel and dime this, I don't know if that's going to do it.
00:07:08.000 I think that we need some really drastic action here.
00:07:12.000 We need a moratorium, perhaps, on gun sales.
00:07:16.000 We need to, who will say on this network or any other network in the next few days, it's time to repeal the Second Amendment?
00:07:24.000 Oh, you can't say that.
00:07:26.000 Well, why not?
00:07:27.000 Why not?
00:07:28.000 So Michael Moore wants to make women and minorities who want to protect themselves against potential criminals more vulnerable.
00:07:35.000 The entire Second Amendment to be repealed.
00:07:37.000 Now, they've never had an understanding of what the Second Amendment is.
00:07:39.000 They've never had an appreciation for what the Second Amendment is.
00:07:44.000 Chuck Schumer kind of engages in the political circus created by the left, pleads for more gun control following the elementary school shooting in Texas.
00:07:54.000 Play Cut 80. 0.98
00:07:57.000 Please, please, please, damn it, put yourself in the shoes of these parents for once. 0.98
00:08:04.000 Maybe that thought, putting yourself in the shoes of these parents instead of in the arms of the NRA might let you wriggle free from the vice-like grip of the NRA, might free you to act on even a simple measure. 0.98
00:08:21.000 The problem in the Senate is simple: too many members on that side care more about the NRA than they do about families who grieve, victims of gun violence.
00:08:35.000 Now, what's interesting about this line of attack is how shallow it is.
00:08:40.000 Now, the National Rifle Association, interestingly, is having an event in Houston, and they're going to continue to have that event in the coming days.
00:08:46.000 That will obviously be contentious and met with lots of protests and opposition.
00:08:50.000 President Trump is going to speak.
00:08:52.000 Ted Cruz, I believe, is going to speak.
00:08:53.000 But it's not about the NRA.
00:08:55.000 I'm a big fan of the NRA.
00:08:56.000 I know they've been through some difficult times in recent years.
00:08:59.000 I know the people that run the NRA.
00:09:00.000 I think they've gotten a bad rap on a lot of different stuff.
00:09:03.000 I think they do a good job on a lot of different things, and I know they've been working through a lot of leadership challenges there.
00:09:08.000 But this idea that it's this kind of like clandestine organization and not the people behind the NRA, meaning the members, is a tactic by the left to act as if there is not widespread support for what the NRA is actually fighting for.
00:09:22.000 And I think that's a very important distinction to build out here.
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00:10:24.000 Somber day.
00:10:25.000 It's just hard to stop thinking about it.
00:10:27.000 I mean, once, you know, there's an interesting part of human psychology, which is you don't quite know to the depths of hell human beings can go.
00:10:34.000 Jordan Peterson talks about this a lot.
00:10:36.000 I'm by no means an expert at being able to articulate it like he can.
00:10:39.000 He gets a lot of heat from some people on the right for even talking about this.
00:10:42.000 But I mean, this idea of school shootings is actually somewhat of a recent phenomenon.
00:10:48.000 There was a school shooting back in the 30s or 40s that was just massive.
00:10:51.000 It was like 60 or 70 people.
00:10:54.000 I got my numbers wrong.
00:10:55.000 But for decades, there were almost no school shootings.
00:10:58.000 And then, of course, Columbine happened on April 20th, 1999.
00:11:02.000 And I don't like saying the names of the Columbine shooters.
00:11:05.000 It's just, it's just really sick.
00:11:08.000 I actually know their names.
00:11:09.000 I'm not going to say it because I just, it almost, I believe it further incentivized future people to do this.
00:11:14.000 And Columbine is famous not because of how many people died, which was tragic and terrible and awful, but it was famous kind of because it was first, is that it kind of totally took America by surprise in 1999, where in beautiful, you know, Columbine, Colorado, out of nowhere, you have these two people that come in and kill 13 and then, of course, both commit suicide.
00:11:42.000 Now, there was a ton of controversy because the police didn't intervene and they weren't allowed to intervene because of certain laws.
00:11:49.000 And that's one kind of wrinkle with what happened with here in Uvalde, which is this border patrol agent.
00:11:55.000 If he was just probably following it by the book, he had no jurisdiction as a federal agent to go in there.
00:12:00.000 But God bless him for doing it.
00:12:03.000 It's like, who cares what the book says when children are being massacred in a classroom?
00:12:07.000 The book probably says that as an armed federal border patrol agent, that's not his jurisdiction.
00:12:16.000 But he just went in as a concerned citizen with a gun and stopped the shooter.
00:12:23.000 Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough, tragically.
00:12:26.000 But you kind of look at Columbine, unfortunately, Columbine created in the sickest and most darkest way imaginable an entire genre of new activity.
00:12:37.000 And so this is something that I want to kind of express and explore with you: which is once a new level of kind of human darkness is reached, it almost becomes something that other people then kind of see as a standard that then can be met.
00:12:53.000 And the point is that Columbine began this entire dark genre of shootings in America in schools.
00:13:02.000 No one did it before that.
00:13:03.000 I mean, they were like a one-off thing or a gang shooting or this, but this idea that I am oppressed and I am so mistreated by the world that I'm not just going to take my life, but I need to go take other innocent life.
00:13:18.000 Okay, yeah, the University of Texas massacre was in 1961, which would be an exception.
00:13:23.000 And there was another one like the 30s or 40s.
00:13:25.000 And of course, there's exceptions, but Columbine started this process, the rolling process. 0.98
00:13:30.000 And it's not a good thing that I'm 1966, thank you.
00:13:35.000 But it's not a good thing that I'm able to say that Columbine, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois, Sandy Hook, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida.
00:13:44.000 It's kind of one after the other.
00:13:45.000 You kind of get used to it.
00:13:46.000 I mean, the San Bernardino shooting, which wasn't a school shooting, it was kind of an Islamic terrorist deal where a guy walks into the streets and just starts shooting everybody. 0.74
00:13:55.000 A Fort Hood shooting, which was mislabeled as workplace violence.
00:13:58.000 But this whole idea of the school is something that, from a psychological perspective, really bothers us.
00:14:05.000 And it should, because school, especially elementary schools, is a metaphor for the innocent.
00:14:13.000 And it kind of goes to how dark can a human being go?
00:14:17.000 Not only can a human being take their own life, which is terrible and tragic and happens every single day in America.
00:14:22.000 But now the new thing is that I want to go take as many other people that have done nothing wrong with me.
00:14:30.000 And that's a new level of darkness that most human beings will ruin your day.
00:14:35.000 It could ruin your week.
00:14:36.000 You can't even process that.
00:14:38.000 You're like, how can I get that you have struggles with yourself, but get to a level where to cope with that in your final levels of existence and to go even darker and to go even just even deeper than that, to go take the lives of fourth graders.
00:14:54.000 Again, that's where the Sandy Hook and this one, this particular tragedy and horrific event are very similar in that regard.
00:15:01.000 And so you look at the Columbine shooting, which was kind of the beginning of now 23 years of these sorts of events that happen almost monthly.
00:15:13.000 And here's the point, though, is that it's not about the guns.
00:15:17.000 Is that in 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, we didn't really have mass school shootings.
00:15:23.000 They were very, very rare.
00:15:25.000 But it's as if it's psychologically, once this kind of dark activity got introduced into the zeitgeist of America of mentally disturbed, isolated, anti-social youth, they're like, oh, wait, I could do that and I could become famous too.
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00:18:15.000 With us right now is the great American patriot Steve Cortez.
00:18:19.000 Steve, we plan to talk about economics.
00:18:21.000 We can talk about that, but obviously the kind of news of the day is unfortunately a tragedy in Texas.
00:18:27.000 You've made a good point, which is we protect our banks, our sporting events, and all of the things of value with armed guards and secret point entry and cameras.
00:18:35.000 But our schools, our most precious resource, our children, are very surprisingly vulnerable to evil infiltrations as we've seen in Texas.
00:18:44.000 Please expand that point.
00:18:45.000 So, Charlie, thanks for having me.
00:18:47.000 Look, the reality is that evil walks the earth, far too much of it these days, because I think in many ways we're a sick society, but that's a larger point.
00:18:54.000 The reality is because evil walks the earth, we need to guard the things that we treasure, the things that we really care about.
00:19:00.000 Unfortunately, as a society, I think we've decided that we really do treasure things like casino chips or gems in jewelry shops.
00:19:08.000 We do treasure adults who work in high rises that are extremely well guarded, yet we disregard what we should most value, and that is our children, the people that we should most cherish, the most vulnerable and innocent among us.
00:19:20.000 You know, I wrote this article.
00:19:21.000 I put up on my social media.
00:19:22.000 I wrote this article four years ago for CNN, right after the Parkland shooting.
00:19:26.000 Amazingly, CNN put it up.
00:19:28.000 I was a contributor to CNN at the time.
00:19:30.000 I did not expect they would get up.
00:19:31.000 We went back and forth, as you might imagine, quite a lot about the edits.
00:19:34.000 But the point is, I give them credit actually for putting it up.
00:19:37.000 And it really, it dawned on me.
00:19:38.000 I was still living in Chicago at that time, the day after the Parkland shooting, went into my Chicago high-rise where my office was, and I had to scan myself in three different times just to get into my building, which was guarded by a lot of security, some of it armed, cameras everywhere, armed guards, scan yourself three times to get to my office.
00:19:56.000 And it dawned on me: you know, if that kind of precaution is being taken for me and for adults who work in this office tower in Chicago, how is it possible that we don't take at least the same measures for children?
00:20:08.000 Why is there not a single entrance?
00:20:10.000 Why do they not scan themselves in or biometrically get scanned in?
00:20:13.000 Why do we not have armed security?
00:20:15.000 So I think as a society, we really need to decide what is it that we value most.
00:20:19.000 And if we truly do cherish children and we better, then let's start guarding them like it.
00:20:25.000 Let's guard them at least the way that we guard adults or chips in a casino.
00:20:30.000 So do you think there's a priority problem where our leaders rushed with great urgency to go send $40 billion to Ukraine, where we have so many problems here?
00:20:41.000 And look, I'm not saying that they could have anticipated this, but this has been a looming problem for years.
00:20:46.000 I mean, this has been something where you and I believe it's not a firearm problem, but that it's obviously a soul of an individual problem.
00:20:52.000 But also, it's okay.
00:20:54.000 Well, we know this is a problem now. 0.79
00:20:56.000 We know that this unfortunately is a sick and disgusting and sadistic, like weird, growing genre for social, anti-social teenage youth to try to go and create mass tragedy.
00:21:07.000 Wouldn't it make sense for Congress to maybe make a list of the hundred biggest problems facing America and do something to address that?
00:21:15.000 Maybe before, you know, giving all the money to Zelensky, $40 billion?
00:21:19.000 No, amen.
00:21:20.000 You know, Charlie, look, $40 billion, I would add, that we do not have.
00:21:23.000 Let's also remember that.
00:21:24.000 $40 billion that we are borrowing, making the inflationary spiral in this country even worse.
00:21:29.000 $40 billion that we are borrowing to send over to a very corrupt country.
00:21:34.000 Doesn't justify them being invaded, but to a very corrupt country to further escalate a regional battle that does not involve a U.S. national security interest.
00:21:42.000 But to your point about the perverse priorities of the permanent political class in America, it's true.
00:21:48.000 They couldn't have foreseen this tragedy, this evil that would unfold in Texas, but we know that there's been this unfortunate pattern going on for years.
00:21:55.000 And the priority has been interventionism and globalist warfighting and nation building around the world rather than fixing the systemic problems that we have here.
00:22:05.000 And, you know, also, Charlie, to your point, look, we've got to fix this sickness, this cultural and spiritual sickness in our society.
00:22:11.000 And I hope we get about that work.
00:22:13.000 But in the meantime, we know there's a vulnerability here.
00:22:16.000 We know that we have soft targets and that sick people, evil people, will seek out those soft targets.
00:22:22.000 My point is, let's not give them soft targets.
00:22:24.000 Let's harden these targets and make it difficult for any deranged person to attack our children.
00:22:31.000 So I didn't say this on air because I didn't want to speak it into existence, but I remember right when the lockdowns were beginning to end, I remember I turned to our team.
00:22:40.000 I said, there's going to be some very fanatical behavior, some, let's just say, suppressive type behavior in a way that we, it's just so off the wall.
00:22:50.000 And I don't want to kind of do the blame thing on ones because there are people that did crazy things before lockdowns and all that, obviously.
00:22:57.000 But it does beg the question: did the lockdowns and the social isolation and the over-medication of children and all of these interventions that were done to try to keep people safe, does it contribute to this?
00:23:09.000 And the numbers will pan out.
00:23:10.000 I pray that there's not more of these, but you had Buffalo last week and then you have the Waukesha a couple months ago.
00:23:15.000 I'm forgetting all of them, unfortunately.
00:23:18.000 What do you have to say?
00:23:18.000 Or what's your thought on how the lockdowns in the last couple of years very well might have created the preconditions or a foundation for some of this incredibly evil and demonic behavior to only be accelerated?
00:23:31.000 Well, you're right, Charlie, that there was a pre-existing problem, clearly.
00:23:35.000 So, it's not brand new, but it has been massively exacerbated, I do believe, yes, by the lockdowns and the psychological and societal damage that did to so many Americans, but particularly to young men, right?
00:23:45.000 So many young men were told, here, look at this screen all day and fed a steady diet of nonsense, which in many cases probably includes a lot of pornography, a lot of toxic culture at the least, through those screens, had their sports taken away.
00:24:00.000 Far too many of them, fatherless, don't have that role model in the home.
00:24:03.000 When you put all of that together, you know, look, idle young men or young men who don't believe that they have significant purpose in life can be incredibly dangerous.
00:24:12.000 You know, young men can be the most heroic figures in society.
00:24:15.000 They can also be the most dangerous.
00:24:18.000 And unfortunately, I believe that a long-term effect that we're going to deal with probably for many years, long-term effect of the lockdown, is going to be that a lot of vulnerable young men who are perhaps psychologically troubled anyway or sort of on the border of having problems or trauma were pushed into deep trauma because of what we did with the lockdown.
00:24:36.000 So the consequences are vast and far-reaching.
00:24:39.000 And I fear in this case, probably at least contributed to the sickness of this individual.
00:24:45.000 But again, number one, let's never do lockdowns again, clearly, obviously.
00:24:49.000 But number two, while we get about the work of healing the culture and building the culture of life, and I think all of us need to do that, whether it's in grand ways or in very small ways, in the meantime, Charlie, we know that our children are vulnerable.
00:25:02.000 Let's, and this is what we can do quickly.
00:25:04.000 That cultural work takes years and decades.
00:25:07.000 But what we can do quickly, what should take weeks, is to say we are going to guard our children the way we guard everything else that we value in life.
00:25:16.000 And that is just to me an imperative.
00:25:18.000 And, you know, to bring this back to that idea of $40 billion for Ukraine, the idea that we're going to guard their border, but disregard our own border.
00:25:26.000 And by the way, thank goodness, a customs and border patrol agent is one of the heroes of this terrible story in Texas, somebody who showed up apparently without backup, you know, just showed up because he's a brave citizen, wasn't on duty, showed up without backup, and thankfully prevented this tragedy from being even worse.
00:25:43.000 How about we spend $40 billion on things like hardening schools, securing schools, and making sure that that border is secure?
00:25:50.000 I mean, how about that instead of escalating the conflict that has been going on for generations in the Black Sea region, instead of inserting America into that conflict and escalating it into a global risk?
00:26:05.000 Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
00:26:06.000 That's so well articulated.
00:26:08.000 And I mean, we have a set of circumstances where the foreign almost takes a higher priority in the minds and the fascination of the American ruling class than the immediate or the domestic, whether they're just kind of bored with it or they don't, they consider it to be an annoyance.
00:26:22.000 I can't quite pinpoint it.
00:26:24.000 I'd love your thoughts on that.
00:26:25.000 Why is it that the American ruler is more fascinated with a war game far away?
00:26:30.000 I'm not saying Putin's all right. 1.00
00:26:31.000 Putin's a scumbag. 1.00
00:26:31.000 He's evil. 1.00
00:26:32.000 He's terrible. 0.99
00:26:32.000 Okay. 0.99
00:26:33.000 Right.
00:26:33.000 But there's like there's incredibly pressing concerns here on the homeland.
00:26:37.000 What is it in the psychology or the mentality of an American ruling elite where they care much more about the distant than the immediate?
00:26:46.000 It's a great question.
00:26:47.000 And my theory of this case, at least, is that when a lot of people, many of them with good intentions, when they go to Washington, D.C., because I've been very disappointed, by the way, in a lot of people who are normally, I think, sensible politicians, I'll name a couple, people like John Kennedy, the senator from Louisiana, for example, Mo Brooks, Congressman from Alabama.
00:27:04.000 These are people who normally are on our side.
00:27:06.000 They voted for this Ukraine aid.
00:27:08.000 I think the problem is a lot of them, people of good intentions, they go to Washington, D.C., and to an extent they go native to Washington.
00:27:14.000 What I mean by that is that they buy into the supposed expertise of the administrative state of Washington.
00:27:21.000 And there's nothing that that cabal, that Beltway Cabal, loves to do more than to view the world as a chessboard.
00:27:27.000 And I think there's a lot of hubris to that, right?
00:27:29.000 And because America has been the superpower of the globe for roughly a century and really the lone superpower for the last generation, you know, they've gotten a little bit intoxicated with that kind of power and they view the world as a chessboard for them to play.
00:27:44.000 And I'm talking about the administrators at the State Department in Foggy Bottom.
00:27:47.000 I'm talking also about the so-called foreign policy experts at the think tanks in Washington, D.C.
00:27:52.000 And then, of course, there's also a lot of money wrapped up in this.
00:27:55.000 So it's not just a matter of their arrogance.
00:27:57.000 It's also that it's very, very lucrative for defense contractors, for K-Street lobbyists.
00:28:02.000 So I think unfortunately, too many people when they go to Washington start to lose sight of the people who sent them to Washington, D.C. and instead want to look beyond our borders at the broader world and think that they can sort of fashion this world.
00:28:16.000 And it's really a hubris and an arrogance.
00:28:18.000 And it's incumbent on us, though, then, in these primary elections are going on right now to connect this back to politics and what we can do as regular citizens.
00:28:26.000 It's not enough to just complain.
00:28:28.000 We should do that.
00:28:29.000 We should be angry.
00:28:30.000 We should voice our opposition, but also vote and make sure my recommendation to all the patriots out there is in any primary race, ask these candidates, would you have voted for this $40 billion if you're not in office?
00:28:41.000 If you are in office, explain your vote.
00:28:43.000 Why did you?
00:28:43.000 Why didn't you?
00:28:44.000 This should be, to me, a foundational and critical differentiator among Republican candidates to decide who's truly an America first stalwart, who's truly a fighter, who's focused on the problems here at home, which again are intense.
00:28:59.000 That's exactly right.
00:29:03.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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00:30:08.000 So Steve, I want to get your thoughts on some economics that are happening right now.
00:30:11.000 I think we as conservatives tend to not believe that economics are the most important thing in dictating human behavior.
00:30:17.000 We believe that spiritual, social, family influences also are very important.
00:30:23.000 However, I want your thought on how inflation might also have unintended consequences in crime, in social isolation, in family units disintegrating.
00:30:33.000 Talk about how bad economic policy can also destroy the social fabric of a nation.
00:30:38.000 Sure.
00:30:38.000 And listen, I think that the cultural, the societal, the spiritual, and the economic are all inextricably linked.
00:30:44.000 I really do.
00:30:45.000 Not that I'm saying economics should take priority, but it's all linked.
00:30:48.000 And let me give you a concrete example of that.
00:30:50.000 Housing prices right now are absolutely out of control because of Biden's inflation.
00:30:55.000 And by the way, I would say Biden and Pelosi and Mitch McConnell's inflation, because I think all of them are basically equally complicit in the exorbitant borrowing and spending that has sent the prices of tangible physical goods soaring, whether it's a bushel of wheat, a barrel of oil, or a new home.
00:31:10.000 One of the consequences of homes being so expensive is that young families are largely priced out of that market.
00:31:17.000 So that is a deterrence to young people to get married, to have children, or if they have children, to have more children.
00:31:23.000 So there are very real cultural consequences of economics.
00:31:27.000 And regarding the economy, unfortunately, Charlie, the news is dismal.
00:31:31.000 And listen, I'm by nature an optimistic guy.
00:31:33.000 I wish I could report good news, but when it comes to the economy, it's almost all terrible.
00:31:37.000 And we have to view it, though, dispassionately.
00:31:39.000 And let me give you a couple of data points that I think are important.
00:31:42.000 Just last week, we had both Walmart and Target report earnings, and they were disasters.
00:31:46.000 Now, I'm not a fan of the management of either of those companies.
00:31:49.000 They can frankly go pound sand, but nonetheless, they are so big.
00:31:52.000 Walmart, by far, the biggest retailer, Target right there.
00:31:55.000 They are so big that it's an important read into the health of the U.S. consumer.
00:31:59.000 Both of them gave dreadful reports, and each company's stock had the largest single-day drop since 1987, since the historic crash of the 1980s.
00:32:09.000 In the case of Target, it lost 25% of its value in a single day.
00:32:13.000 Walmart CFO told us that they see a trend within their stores of people buying not gallons of milk, but half gallons.
00:32:20.000 Why?
00:32:21.000 Because they can't afford the full gallon.
00:32:22.000 So, American mothers are literally skimping on milk for their kids. 1.00
00:32:26.000 That's how much they are strained right now regarding their budgets.
00:32:29.000 So, we know that this isn't just an economic story.
00:32:32.000 We know that there's a lot of family fallout, a lot of stress and anxiety out there.
00:32:36.000 I'll tell you, I've been campaigning a lot in recent weeks, working for American First Candidates that I really support.
00:32:41.000 I know you and I, I think, sort of traded off with JD Vance in Ohio.
00:32:44.000 So, I barnstormed all of Ohio.
00:32:46.000 I've been back in my former home state of Illinois.
00:32:48.000 I've been in Georgia.
00:32:49.000 The first thing on everyone's mind, Charlie, when I meet regular Americans that I've met now thousands in these trips, the first thing on everyone's mind is inflation.
00:32:57.000 They have other concerns, to be sure: crime, public safety, immigration, a lot of things matter.
00:33:02.000 But number one on literally almost every person's mind is inflation.
00:33:06.000 And when they talk to me about it, I can sense the anguish in their voices.
00:33:10.000 I can see the concern in their eyes.
00:33:12.000 This is real.
00:33:13.000 It's tangible.
00:33:14.000 Americans are at a point now at a break point, I really would say, economically, where they can't afford the things that they need.
00:33:19.000 Forget about luxuries.
00:33:20.000 They can't afford the things that they need.
00:33:22.000 This is a created crisis.
00:33:23.000 This is what's important.
00:33:25.000 The Democrats and the complicit corporate media are trying to pass us off.
00:33:28.000 They're trying to blame it on Putin.
00:33:29.000 They're trying to say it's just bad luck of the business cycle.
00:33:32.000 Nonsense.
00:33:32.000 This is a created crisis.
00:33:34.000 Terrible policy got us here, particularly exorbitant borrowing and spending, as I mentioned, combined with an attack on American domestic energy production.
00:33:43.000 It created a confluence of factors that have resulted in massive runaway inflation.
00:33:48.000 So I think this is a foundational issue.
00:33:50.000 And we as a movement have to provide answers and an agenda to get out of this quagmire.
00:33:55.000 And if we do that effectively, I think we're going to elect the right people in the fall of 2022, which will then set the stage for electing the right president in 2024.
00:34:05.000 I hope it's Donald Trump.
00:34:06.000 But whether it is Trump or another America first fighter, that's the map out politically.
00:34:12.000 Well said.
00:34:13.000 Steve, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:34:14.000 Phenomenal wisdom and clarity as always.
00:34:16.000 Thank you so much.
00:34:17.000 Thank you, Charlie.
00:34:20.000 Thank you so much for listening, everybody.
00:34:22.000 Email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:34:24.000 Thank you so much for listening.
00:34:25.000 God bless.
00:34:28.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.
00:34:32.000 com.