The Charlie Kirk Show - Who Should Lead MAGA? With Pedro Gonzalez and Rep. Kevin Kiley

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:00.000 Today in the Charlie Kirk Show, Kevin Kiley joins us, new Congressman heading.

00:00:05.000 He's actually vote number 218 to give Republicans the House majority.

00:00:09.000 And Pedro Gonzalez talks about why the leadership fights in the Republican Party are the most critical for us right now.

00:00:15.000 As always, you can email me, freedom at charliekirk.com.

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00:00:49.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:50.000 Here we go.

00:00:51.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

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00:01:02.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:03.000 He's an incredible guy.

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00:01:36.000 People are split on whether or not to give up.

00:01:39.000 I could tell you very clearly that's not going to happen here.

00:01:41.000 We haven't even started to fight on this program.

00:01:44.000 We are just getting warmed up with the movement that we want to see manifest and take power here in America.

00:01:50.000 To help us make sense of all this as one of the smartest people in the country, Pedro Gonzalez joins us now.

00:01:58.000 Pedro, welcome back to the program.

00:02:00.000 Charlie, thank you.

00:02:01.000 Pedro, let's just start with the bigger picture.

00:02:04.000 People are kind of scratching their head over the midterm election results.

00:02:08.000 How should we think about what happened a week and a half ago?

00:02:10.000 Well, you shouldn't be all doom and gloom about it.

00:02:12.000 I'm actually glad that this happened because it calls into the question the continuation of existing GOP leadership.

00:02:19.000 And honestly, I think that is the best thing that could possibly happen.

00:02:23.000 If Republicans would have emerged from the midterm elections with an electoral windfall, could you say that they earned it?

00:02:30.000 I keep asking this question.

00:02:32.000 What was the Republican promise to America?

00:02:35.000 What was its vision?

00:02:36.000 What were they telling us they were going to do?

00:02:38.000 I can't think of anything.

00:02:39.000 I can't think of a grand proposal that the Republican Party made to America.

00:02:45.000 Apart from, of course, Kevin McCarthy saying that he was going to go after Social Security and Medicare.

00:02:50.000 I don't really know what Mitch McConnell's plan was.

00:02:53.000 We do know that before midterm.

00:02:54.000 More money for Ukraine.

00:02:56.000 Right.

00:02:56.000 No, he literally said the most important thing in the world right now is the war in Ukraine.

00:03:01.000 So could you really say, oh man, shoot, Republicans, they really tried.

00:03:04.000 They didn't try.

00:03:06.000 It seems like controlled demolition.

00:03:08.000 And so again, I think we shouldn't be bummed about this.

00:03:12.000 Like you said, we haven't even begun to fight.

00:03:14.000 And right now, I think actually the most important thing, because people are asking, okay, what should the agenda be?

00:03:19.000 The agenda should be making sure that people like Kevin McCarthy and Ronnie McDaniel, who are currently facing challenges, McCarthy more so internally, actually face consequences for what they've done.

00:03:30.000 That should be the number one priority right now.

00:03:33.000 So it's leadership fights.

00:03:35.000 McConnell looks like he's going to hold on.

00:03:38.000 Where do you think that's going to end up?

00:03:41.000 Because I know the grassroots is very upset and they say, it seems like we go through this every cycle.

00:03:45.000 We're told one thing and it's underwhelming.

00:03:47.000 So where does that stand right now?

00:03:49.000 Yeah.

00:03:50.000 McConnell looks, of all the people that deserve to be held accountable, McConnell, unfortunately, looks like he's going to survive.

00:03:58.000 And you can already kind of see that he is doing things almost as if to remind people that it was a mistake to even challenge him because McConnell did face a historic challenge.

00:04:10.000 Rick Scott was the first person in something like 15 years that's actually mounted like a challenge to McConnell.

00:04:18.000 But again, it seems like he lost.

00:04:20.000 And now McConnell was talking about doing things that are bipartisan with Biden.

00:04:24.000 It's kind of like he's thumbing his nose at the people that try to take him out.

00:04:27.000 Sort of like, oh, you try to get rid of me. 0.96

00:04:29.000 Well, now we're going to do bipartisan stuff with the Democratic Party, which is obviously evil and insane.

00:04:35.000 But McCarthy is more vulnerable.

00:04:38.000 Although the media has been suggesting that McCarthy is totally unopposed, that's not really the case.

00:04:45.000 McCarthy is actually facing an internal challenge.

00:04:48.000 He is really vulnerable and he knows it.

00:04:50.000 So he's trying to win people over.

00:04:52.000 I don't think we should allow him to.

00:04:54.000 I don't think we should compromise with McCarthy.

00:04:56.000 You cannot look at what McCarthy did in the lead up to midterm elections, undermining guys like Joe Kent in Washington and Anthony Sabatini in Florida, basically saying after we win, we're just going to continue doing the same dumb stuff that we've been doing.

00:05:09.000 In other words, he doesn't care about his voters. 0.98

00:05:11.000 He just thinks that they're dumb, wants to take their votes and their money. 0.99

00:05:14.000 I don't think we should compromise with him. 0.98

00:05:16.000 We should not save his job for him.

00:05:18.000 Ronna McDaniel, same thing. 0.58

00:05:19.000 What has she done for us? 0.93

00:05:21.000 What was Ronna McDaniel's big thing ahead of the midterm elections? 0.99

00:05:24.000 The RNC Pride Coalition, which she backpedaled on because she got blasted for rightly so, because it was ridiculous, right? 0.55

00:05:32.000 So again, I think the main thing right now should be holding the people that we can't hold accountable.

00:05:36.000 Unfortunately, Tom Emmer won his bid for WIP.

00:05:40.000 That was a huge mistake.

00:05:41.000 That was a big loss.

00:05:43.000 Emmer is not someone who's not.

00:05:45.000 Jim Banks is so much better.

00:05:46.000 Oh, my goodness.

00:05:47.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:05:48.000 But a lot of this is incumbent on us, Charlie.

00:05:50.000 It's incumbent on the base.

00:05:52.000 We can't fall asleep at the wheel.

00:05:55.000 We can't just go on autopilot.

00:05:56.000 Like this, ultimately, we are the ones who are in a position to do something about it.

00:06:01.000 We have to hold ourselves accountable.

00:06:04.000 So what does then a legislative agenda look like then, Pedro, at this point?

00:06:09.000 I mean, if these leadership challenges are unsuccessful, then what does this look like?

00:06:15.000 Just pure defense?

00:06:16.000 Should we focus more on the states?

00:06:19.000 What is the path forward in that regard?

00:06:21.000 Yeah, I think a lot of the activity, a lot of the most interesting activities actually happening in the states.

00:06:27.000 When you look at Florida, there's always interesting stuff going on there, whether it's the education bills that have been passed recently or the fact that the Florida government, I mean, this was totally missed.

00:06:37.000 But in the lead up to the midterm elections, the government of Florida responded to the Biden administration saying that we're going to send civil rights, basically civil rights people from the DOJ to make sure that your elections are not suppressing minorities.

00:06:53.000 And the Florida State Department sent a letter back to the DOJ saying no one from the federal government is inside, allowed inside of places where ballots are counted.

00:07:02.000 Kind of suggesting that if Biden tries to send federal election monitors into Florida and they try to get access to these sensitive areas, we're going to detain them.

00:07:11.000 I mean, that was the implication here, right?

00:07:14.000 And so I think the takeaway from that is states have a tremendous amount of power to safeguard, because we're all talking about, you know, ballot harvesting.

00:07:21.000 We're all talking about how do we do better next time.

00:07:24.000 A lot of this stuff happens in the states.

00:07:26.000 We don't have to wait for Congress.

00:07:27.000 Republican states have the power to do stuff like this now.

00:07:30.000 I mean, in Texas, I think Governor Abbott has a long way to go.

00:07:34.000 And a lot of what he does, unfortunately, is lip service and virtue signaling.

00:07:37.000 But you're seeing that a governor can potentially handle things like immigration on their own without help from the federal government.

00:07:42.000 Imagine if there was a coalition of Republican governors that decided to actually get serious and do something about immigration.

00:07:49.000 What if Republican governors decided to work together and deport people in their states?

00:07:53.000 All this stuff is possible.

00:07:55.000 And we don't necessarily need to wait for Congress, but I think the most important thing Congress could do, like ideally, would be to have another church committee to hold the intelligence community accountable for its abuses and meddling in our elections.

00:08:08.000 And despite that, theyorkis doesn't just deny it.

00:08:12.000 He flagrantly denies it.

00:08:14.000 So, Pedro, yesterday, as if they really don't care about their voters, of course, they did this after the election, right?

00:08:19.000 Because they know that actually voters would hate this.

00:08:23.000 11 Republicans voted for this gay marriage bill.

00:08:29.000 I mean, I want to read the list here because it's important for our listeners to know this.

00:08:33.000 And then, Pedro, can you walk our audience through actually what is in this bill?

00:08:36.000 Blunt from Missouri, Burr from North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia, Susan Collins from Maine, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming, Rob Portman from Ohio, Mitt Romney from Utah, Dan Sullivan from Alaska, Tom Tillis from North Carolina, Joni Ernst from Iowa, Senator Young from Indiana, and Murkowski from Alaska.

00:08:53.000 What is in this bill?

00:08:55.000 Well, the long and short of it is that it would codify same-sex marriage, but effectively destroy marriage as it is properly understood. 0.60

00:09:04.000 A union between a man and a woman.

00:09:06.000 Marriage would ultimately be whatever the states define it as, whether it's between a man and a man or a man and his horse.

00:09:13.000 I mean, this is the funny thing, right?

00:09:15.000 Is the religious right was always made fun of for basically pointing to the slippery slope and saying we're about to go sliding all the way down to the bottom of that thing.

00:09:25.000 But I mean, it's hard to argue that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy.

00:09:30.000 I mean, it's all around us, right?

00:09:31.000 We're on the precipice of the normalization of minor attracted people as a protected category.

00:09:39.000 So, I mean, the implications of this are really, really bad.

00:09:44.000 Again, if it passes, I'm not convinced that we can't ultimately do something about it in the future.

00:09:50.000 But if you look at the Republicans that are supporting it, oh, and I should add that the olive branch to the base is that we won't infringe upon your religious liberty, which is a complete joke.

00:10:01.000 It's kind of like they're creating like a little corral for people who actually are Christian and have traditional beliefs and kind of saying like, you're going to be able to play in your little space over there.

00:10:13.000 No one's going to bother you.

00:10:14.000 It's like, thank you.

00:10:15.000 That's very kind.

00:10:17.000 That worked really great with the Civil Rights Act.

00:10:19.000 Yeah, they always stay in their corner.

00:10:21.000 They never weaponize anything against you.

00:10:23.000 Pedro, as a tangent here, we're getting a lot of emails of people saying they're going to give up and they're never going to be involved or engaged again.

00:10:31.000 Can you speak to that?

00:10:32.000 Can you speak to how the enemy actually is hoping for our surrender?

00:10:36.000 In fact, the only ingredient that they're missing in their takeover of the country is us giving up.

00:10:41.000 Yeah.

00:10:42.000 No, I think that's right.

00:10:44.000 And I guess what I should say is really, if you feel like you have a stake in society, especially if you have kids, you just can't.

00:10:52.000 It's not a matter of want, right?

00:10:54.000 Like there are days when I don't want to get out of bed.

00:10:56.000 There are days when I don't want to write anything.

00:10:58.000 There are days when I want to stop trying.

00:11:00.000 But it doesn't matter what I want to do because, like I said, in particular, if you have kids, it's not a choice.

00:11:07.000 I think too often we think in terms of desires instead of duties.

00:11:13.000 That's right.

00:11:13.000 And you have a duty to continue trying.

00:11:16.000 And I'm going to continue trying because I literally don't see an alternative.

00:11:21.000 I mean, you can retreat to a cabin in the woods and that's fine.

00:11:24.000 I actually kind of respect people who will log off, stop participating in the discourse, and just, you know, go off-grid.

00:11:31.000 I respect that.

00:11:32.000 What I actually frankly dislike deeply is when people say there's no point in trying, but then continue to participate in the discussion to kind of discourage other people.

00:11:42.000 Yeah, it's this evangelistic nihilism.

00:11:44.000 It's very frustrating.

00:11:45.000 Yeah.

00:11:46.000 No, so I mean, that's my view is ultimately it's not about desire.

00:11:46.000 Yeah.

00:11:50.000 It's about duty.

00:11:51.000 And I feel like I have a duty to not give up.

00:11:54.000 And frankly, so should you.

00:11:55.000 And there's not enough talk about duty.

00:11:58.000 This nation was built by duty and actually not caring as much about your own pleasures or licentiousness or your own desires, but what is good for your children and good for other people?

00:12:08.000 That's actually a Christian way of viewing the world.

00:12:11.000 So, Pedro, then let's look at a little bit gaming this out.

00:12:14.000 You were at Donald Trump's 2024 announcement speech.

00:12:19.000 I was a little surprised to hear you were there because I know you have at times nuanced takes on Trump.

00:12:24.000 I don't mean that negatively, but you know, you're in both, you know, you see things fairly, I think.

00:12:30.000 What was your take on that?

00:12:31.000 Where do you think his place is now in the movement?

00:12:34.000 It's interesting.

00:12:36.000 His obviously, what struck a lot of people was the tone.

00:12:42.000 His critics were calling it low energy, but I think it was Trump's attempt to sound disciplined and presidential because, after all, he is gearing up for another run at the White House to be president.

00:12:51.000 So, it makes sense that he wouldn't just kind of go off the cuff and launch barbs left and right at potential rivals and things like that.

00:12:59.000 He seemed to be kind of forward-facing, but I guess the concern that I heard from people, and I heard this in a speech, was kind of did we actually get all the things that we wanted to do?

00:13:12.000 Did we actually get all those things done?

00:13:13.000 Like in his speech, he said he built the wall.

00:13:16.000 The wall is not built, you know.

00:13:18.000 And so, basically, I guess the issue is, is has Trump learned from the mistakes of the past?

00:13:24.000 And also, in terms of, above all, personnel, right?

00:13:27.000 Basically, the people that were in charge of getting things done, like building the wall, weren't very confident last time around.

00:13:34.000 And I think the setting aside all of the questions about whether or not he can actually become the nominee or whatever, because he has all these former allies who are now turning against him, setting all that stuff aside, we're assuming that he ends up back in the White House or whatever.

00:13:49.000 Have we learned from the mistakes in the past?

00:13:52.000 Because I think the challenges that he would face this time would make the challenges he faced last time seem like a picnic.

00:13:59.000 And I think that's really the question: Is Donald Trump really ready for not just doing it again, but facing far worse?

00:14:07.000 And I think we're waiting for more indicators for him to show us that he's ready for that.

00:14:13.000 I think that was the thing that was a lingering thought for me.

00:14:18.000 Let me ask you, Pedro, we only have a minute remaining, and I'm going to be direct in how I ask this.

00:14:22.000 Do you think he is the best person to continue the MAGA movement he started?

00:14:28.000 And I say that as someone who's supporting him in 2024.

00:14:31.000 Does that make sense, the question I'm asking?

00:14:32.000 Because he started this populist nationalist movement.

00:14:35.000 Is he the best to continue it in your objective analysis?

00:14:39.000 Well, I'm not going to obey the question, but I'm going to tell you that I think that right now I can't see anybody else.

00:14:44.000 I know everyone's talking about DeSantis, and if you follow me, you know that I've said nice things about him as well.

00:14:49.000 But I'm no one's cheerleader.

00:14:51.000 But basically, I think there is so much support for Trump that basically, if someone tried to challenge him and rip the MAGA banner out of his hand right now, like the same right now at this juncture in 2024, it would probably split the right and end up hurting the movement more than it helps it because it would trigger insane infighting.

00:15:10.000 So, the question of best, I'm not sure.

00:15:13.000 Does he seem to me to be the only one that could do it at this moment?

00:15:17.000 Maybe.

00:15:19.000 I can't give you a yes, Trump, or no, Trump answer because there are so many moving parts to this.

00:15:26.000 And my main concern right now is that we don't actually just engage in infighting because it's going to overshadow all these other things.

00:15:32.000 I mean, like the question of GOP leadership.

00:15:35.000 People are focused so much on Trump or DeSantis that they miss the fact that if we don't do something about this, it won't matter because you're going to have people like Kevin McCarthy and Ronnie McDaniel who are ultimately operating the machinery of the political party.

00:15:48.000 So, who's in the White House doesn't matter a whole much.

00:15:50.000 Pedro, Chronicles Magazine, great job as always.

00:15:53.000 Appreciate it.

00:15:53.000 Thanks so much.

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00:17:23.000 Honestly, I received one of the best negative questions I have ever seen.

00:17:29.000 And it's a very, very good question.

00:17:32.000 Charlie, you say we've just begun to fight, but what are we fighting for?

00:17:35.000 I honestly don't know.

00:17:37.000 Certainly not for the Republican Party as it currently stands.

00:17:40.000 You don't expect people to do that, do you?

00:17:42.000 They've spit in our faces.

00:17:43.000 I will fight for MAGA, but why in the world should we align ourselves with a party that doesn't represent our values and serve us?

00:17:49.000 It's a really good question, actually.

00:17:51.000 It comes from an honest place.

00:17:54.000 And my recommendation is now that the dust is settling and now that we're not going to be tracking polls every show here, we're going to keep on going through hopefully a series of programs in the coming weeks and months.

00:18:06.000 And I actually enjoy this even more: what does it mean to be a conservative?

00:18:11.000 What is the good, the true, and the beautiful?

00:18:14.000 What is the threat of authoritarianism and totalitarianism?

00:18:18.000 You want to know what we're fighting for?

00:18:19.000 Turn off your phone and go read the Federalist Papers.

00:18:22.000 Turn off your phone and go read The Ethics by Aristotle.

00:18:25.000 You want to know what we're fighting for?

00:18:26.000 Go read some C.S. Lewis.

00:18:29.000 You should know what you're fighting for.

00:18:30.000 The Republican Party is nothing more than a temporary political instrument to fight for ancient, beautiful ideas.

00:18:38.000 Not just ideas, but the reality of your children and a duty to them, to your nation.

00:18:43.000 And that's why we got so worked up over the midterms.

00:18:46.000 We got so worked up over the midterms because we looked at it as a moment in time to be able to use the energy of the people to fight for the things that are always true.

00:18:55.000 The laws of nature and nature is God.

00:18:57.000 Separation of powers, consent to the governed, the independent judiciary.

00:19:01.000 It's one of the reasons why we like Churchill so much.

00:19:04.000 Churchill was willing and able and wise enough to do something about it.

00:19:08.000 Okay.

00:19:09.000 We'll talk more about that as we continue on this journey together.

00:19:13.000 That tricky number 218, that tricky number 218 was reached yesterday with Kevin Kiley's call for victory.

00:19:26.000 Yesterday, the day before, whatever, I lose track of days.

00:19:29.000 And he joins us right now.

00:19:30.000 Kevin, congratulations on your victory.

00:19:32.000 You came on our program leading up to it.

00:19:34.000 How does it feel to be lucky number 218?

00:19:37.000 Thanks, Charlie.

00:19:38.000 I feel like I can credit the insanely slow ballot counting in California for that distinction.

00:19:45.000 But it feels good to be in the majority.

00:19:47.000 I can tell you that after being in the super duper minority in California.

00:19:51.000 Yeah, so walk us through that.

00:19:53.000 So, look, you ran for Congress in this newly created seat and you won and you're going to Congress for a reason.

00:20:00.000 It must be very exciting for that.

00:20:01.000 And now you get to serve in a Republican majority.

00:20:03.000 Have you ever served in a majority body as a legislature?

00:20:07.000 No, I have not.

00:20:08.000 Far from it.

00:20:09.000 Yeah.

00:20:10.000 And so what is then the mandate that you think you're going to be bringing to this Congress now that you are going to be in the majority?

00:20:17.000 Well, the mandate is accountability for the Biden administration.

00:20:19.000 It's going to fall on the House of Representatives to do that.

00:20:22.000 We still have a Democrat-controlled Senate, but the House, you know, is the body that is closest to the people.

00:20:27.000 This is the way our founders designed the system.

00:20:30.000 The House is the only body that was up for full election this cycle.

00:20:34.000 Only a third of the senators were, and the voters chose change.

00:20:38.000 They chose a change of leadership.

00:20:39.000 They chose a new majority.

00:20:41.000 And with that majority comes the full oversight powers of Congress.

00:20:45.000 That means the ability to bring in administration officials to question them.

00:20:50.000 It comes with the subpoena power, and it comes with the ability to do investigations where appropriate.

00:20:55.000 And so it's really going to be the job of the House to hold this administration accountable, which we know has not been done for the last two years.

00:21:03.000 Yeah, so some people are very wary of exactly what is going to be done.

00:21:08.000 And I tell people about the IRS agents, the Merrick Garland, all the different things that you guys are going to be overseeing.

00:21:15.000 Where do you see your kind of specialty or kind of your niche when it comes to all the looming oversight that needs to be done?

00:21:23.000 Well, I mean, it's hard to know even where to start just because there's so many things that have gone awry with this administration.

00:21:29.000 I mean, I know that several members of the conference wrote a letter to Homeland Security yesterday, to Secretary Mayorkis, sort of detailing the stonewalling that has been done over the course of the last two years in response to myriad letters requesting documents, requesting testimony that have simply been ignored.

00:21:48.000 And sort of the gist of the letter was that ends on January 3rd.

00:21:52.000 Once Republicans get the gavels, we're actually going to have some accountability.

00:21:56.000 And so please be ready to provide the requested documents and everything else right off the bat.

00:22:01.000 But I think that, you know, you just gave a perfect example with the IRS agents.

00:22:05.000 We want to know what these folks are actually up to.

00:22:07.000 We know they're not just going to be out there auditing billionaires.

00:22:10.000 There aren't that many billionaires out there to occupy a doubling of the IRS workforce.

00:22:14.000 And so I think it's going to be important in that in any number of issue areas with DOJ to be sure to get the facts about what's actually going on so that by the time the next election comes around, Americans will have full view of the facts and be able to make an informed decision about the direction of the country.

00:22:30.000 Yeah, I mean, look, I think that's right.

00:22:32.000 And I mean, you look at the overreach of Merrick Garland and of Mayorkis and the southern border as well.

00:22:39.000 You know, so by the way, there's a leadership fight happening right now in the House conference.

00:22:45.000 Where do you come down on that?

00:22:47.000 Well, I don't know how much of a fight there is.

00:22:49.000 I mean, the conference nominated Kevin McCarthy as our nominee for speaker.

00:22:53.000 And I fully expect that when this comes to the floor of the House on January 3rd, that he will be elected speaker of the House.

00:23:01.000 So there's the question of also just kind of fulfilling the mandate of our voters, right?

00:23:07.000 And so there's a lot of people, and I have a piece of tape here that I want to play about, you know, some of these looming issues of what's happening on the border and just the gross and widespread negligence of the Biden administration to not do their job.

00:23:23.000 And, you know, part of it is it's going to be more than just pressuring the Biden administration.

00:23:27.000 It's going to be using the reconciliation process and also the budgetary process to actually use some of the chips we have available.

00:23:38.000 Can you talk about that a little bit?

00:23:40.000 Well, sure.

00:23:40.000 I mean, there's any number of must-pass bills that are needed in order to keep the government running, to have a budget.

00:23:47.000 And those bills need to pass both the Senate and the House.

00:23:50.000 And so that brings with it an extraordinary amount of leverage in order to assure that the bills that are passed have the right priorities and cut back on spending, which has been absolutely out of control for the last couple of years.

00:24:03.000 Everyone knows this is what led to the enormous inflation that we have.

00:24:06.000 In fact, it was predicted by none other than Larry Summers, Barack Obama's top economic advisor, that if you spent $4 trillion, then you'd have inflation.

00:24:14.000 You don't need a Nobel Prize winning economist to tell you that, though.

00:24:17.000 It's pretty much common sense.

00:24:18.000 And yet the Pelosi-Schumer Congress decided to do it anyway.

00:24:22.000 And so Republicans now have the ability to put a stop to all of that, to say that we're not going to pass a budget that continues to increase the size of government inordinately.

00:24:31.000 And we're going to make sure that we're funding what needs to be funded and that we're going to take away funding from those things that need to be defunded.

00:24:38.000 So in closing here, Kevin, I want to talk about ballot harvesting is legal in California.

00:24:42.000 And some of the more creative pastors and churches and activists have decided to adopt this sort of ballot gathering strategy.

00:24:52.000 You won in California as a Republican.

00:24:54.000 Again, I will say this for all of our national listeners, and especially those of you listening on KRLA, the big blowtorch radio station in Los Angeles and KTIE down in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire.

00:25:06.000 If it was not for the Patriots in California, Pelosi would still be Speaker.

00:25:12.000 It's that simple.

00:25:13.000 If it was not for you, Kevin, if it was not for Michelle Steele, if it was not for Young Kim, if it was not for all the amazing people and the activists that got you guys into office and the voters that got you into office, Pelosi is still speaker.

00:25:26.000 Can you talk about the ballot harvesting issue?

00:25:28.000 How should we think about it?

00:25:29.000 And how have Republicans used it to actually catch up to some of the Democrats' momentum?

00:25:35.000 Yeah, so the irony of this is that when we first started doing this, when you had ballot drop boxes put at churches, basically utilizing the ballot harvesting laws, Gavin Newsom, Javier Becerra, Alex Padilla went berserk.

00:25:48.000 They tried to stop it.

00:25:48.000 They tried to illegally remove the boxes.

00:25:50.000 Newsom said on Twitter that Republicans were trying to lie and cheat and steal an election.

00:25:56.000 You're not allowed to say that.

00:25:58.000 Yes.

00:25:58.000 And then it went to court and the court said, nope, these are perfectly legal.

00:26:01.000 This is your own law that they're utilizing.

00:26:04.000 So I do think that we need to understand sort of what is permitted by law, even if it's a bad law, and then figure out, you know, how we can make sure that we're not unduly harmed by it.

00:26:16.000 So that, you know, by utilizing it ourselves where we can.

00:26:19.000 So the churches, what they're doing is a great example of that.

00:26:22.000 But just the whole idea that we now have a month to vote and that a lot of the votes are cast early.

00:26:27.000 In California, we're sort of very habituated to this.

00:26:29.000 It's been like it for a while.

00:26:31.000 But campaigns really need to adapt, I think, to that.

00:26:34.000 If we're in the places where those are the laws and make sure that we're not getting early votes that are coming in heavily Democrats, then it's impossible for us to catch up on election day.

00:26:44.000 And you saw in California at the risk of that.

00:26:46.000 We had bad weather on election day.

00:26:48.000 Now, who knows if that is what made the difference in a race like Scott Boz in Orange County or in other parts of the state.

00:26:54.000 But if early voting is allowed, then I'm trying to sort of encourage folks that we need to inform people of how they can vote.

00:27:01.000 I totally agree.

00:27:02.000 Yes.

00:27:04.000 In-person early voting needs to be the mass push.

00:27:07.000 I'm telling you right here in Arizona and other states, I personally have learned and regret that we did not do a month-long push for in-person early voting because these cockroaches and these criminals, what they did with the tabulators here, I'm sure, Kevin, you saw some of the news.

00:27:22.000 It's unbelievable.

00:27:23.000 48% of our voting centers went down and malfunctioned on Election Day in Republican precincts.

00:27:29.000 I actually might be contacting you in a couple months to do a hearing on that, but we'll talk about that later.

00:27:33.000 Kevin, congratulations.

00:27:34.000 Thrilled you won.

00:27:35.000 You're a great American, and it is fitting and it gives me great delight that you were number 218.

00:27:42.000 Congrats, Kevin.

00:27:43.000 See you soon.

00:27:44.000 Thanks, Charlie.

00:27:45.000 You bet.

00:27:48.000 If you want to know what the left's real plan is for your kids, just look at how they react to the wonderful company of Patriot Mobile.

00:27:56.000 I use Patriot Mobile, and you should too.

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00:28:02.000 This is because they take a portion of your bill and fund conservative causes and candidates who believe in sanctity of life, freedom of speech, the Second Amendment, and they're winning.

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00:28:50.000 Somebody says, Charlie, what is the update out of Maricopa for Abe Homeday?

00:28:54.000 Abe Homeday is running for Attorney General of Arizona.

00:28:57.000 He is down 304 votes right now.

00:29:01.000 So I don't know if these are coming from Pima.

00:29:03.000 They probably are. 0.93

00:29:04.000 A bunch of criminals down there.

00:29:06.000 But Maricopa allegedly still has thousands of ballots left and allegedly still has some box three left.

00:29:12.000 We don't know.

00:29:13.000 It is anybody's guess.

00:29:14.000 It is wide open.

00:29:16.000 It is a mess.

00:29:19.000 Charlie, in the states that allow ballot harvesting, Trump should have multiple rallies in those states and collect ballots, especially in California.

00:29:25.000 Yeah.

00:29:26.000 So here's my piece of advice for Trump in 2024.

00:29:30.000 And this was my advice back in 2020.

00:29:33.000 And Tyler Boyer, who's going to be joining us for the entire third hour, has the same piece of advice as well, which is going to a rally is not doing something.

00:29:46.000 Going to rallies are important.

00:29:48.000 There's a place for them.

00:29:49.000 But something I would have loved to have seen is every single one of these rallies.

00:29:53.000 What if we would have given clipboards to every attendee to say, here's 10 doors to go knock on, here's 10 voters in your neighborhood.

00:30:00.000 Go download this application and here's 20 people you guys can go talk to.

00:30:06.000 Rallies play a role, public displays of support, massively energizing the base.

00:30:12.000 And so in states that allow ballot harvesting, I have this amazing visual of Donald Trump doing a rally in, let's say, Nevada that allows ballot harvesting.

00:30:22.000 And I think Pennsylvania does.

00:30:24.000 It's really unclear to me if Pennsylvania allows it or not.

00:30:27.000 It's very strange.

00:30:29.000 I can't get a good answer.

00:30:30.000 I have this visual of everybody holding up their ballot at a Trump rally and just the media at once all of a sudden writing these articles saying the dangers of mail-in voting.

00:30:44.000 We're going to catch up to this.

00:30:46.000 We are going to create an aggressive ballot harvesting operation in the states where it's legal.

00:30:50.000 Now, we have time, we have these emails of people that say this is happening at Arizona State University, where entire sororities and fraternities are turning in their ballots because they claim they're all housemates.

00:31:00.000 I guarantee you that if that's investigated, there's some of these young ladies and young men that are turning in their ballots and they actually live not actually at the house.

00:31:09.000 They might live down the street.

00:31:11.000 They might live in the apartment.

00:31:12.000 So they're breaking the law if that's the case.

00:31:14.000 And no one would dare ask a question.

00:31:17.000 So here is where ballot harvesting is legal.

00:31:23.000 It's hard to believe it's legal in Florida.

00:31:25.000 That's amazing.

00:31:26.000 It's incredible.

00:31:28.000 It is legal in Pennsylvania.

00:31:30.000 It is legal in Florida.

00:31:34.000 It is legal in Iowa.

00:31:36.000 It is legal in Colorado, obviously.

00:31:40.000 It is legal in other battleground states of Maine.

00:31:44.000 There's a battleground district there.

00:31:47.000 And that's about it.

00:31:48.000 Got it.

00:31:49.000 So Florida is very limited.

00:31:52.000 And so look, where we are at right now is a situation where the vast majority of our movement has to make a choice.

00:32:05.000 Are we going to make the choice that we are going to throw up our hands and give up?

00:32:10.000 Or are we going to take what happened in the midterms as a shot of confidence, as wind at our back?

00:32:19.000 Like, okay, we won the national popular vote, but there's a lot of machinery that needs to be reassembled.

00:32:24.000 And I know what you're probably thinking: where is the Republican Party on this?

00:32:28.000 They are so far behind on this stuff, guys, I can't even put it into words, okay?

00:32:33.000 Do not count on the Republican Party to do this stuff or the GOP establishment.

00:32:37.000 It's just not going to happen.

00:32:38.000 This has to happen from the grassroots.

00:32:40.000 This has to be a precinct strategy. 0.75

00:32:42.000 This has to be a whole new approach to how we do politics altogether.

00:32:50.000 The game itself has been realigned.

00:32:53.000 The game is now get as many ballots as you possibly can in a period of time that is longer than Ramadan.

00:33:01.000 Every Trump rally in Pennsylvania, because they allow ballot harvesting.

00:33:08.000 Every rally in central Pennsylvania should have this massive box with slits at the top.

00:33:14.000 It should be MAGA, MAGA, with a couple of security guards standing there, and just encourage every person that shows up to the MAGA rally to put them in the box.

00:33:26.000 Now, you got to look at the laws.

00:33:27.000 I don't know if that's legal in Pennsylvania.

00:33:28.000 Not every state has it as open as they do in California.

00:33:33.000 So you got to find some workarounds or you have to just follow the law to the letter.

00:33:37.000 The point is, we have to use the enthusiasm that we have in our movement to maximize the votes themselves.

00:33:43.000 And just imagine, I could see a visual marching in with boxes of ballots straight into the county recorder's office, and there's nothing they could do about it.

00:33:53.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:33:54.000 Email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:33:57.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:33:59.000 God bless.

00:34:02.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - November 19, 2022

Who Should Lead MAGA? With Pedro Gonzalez and Rep. Kevin Kiley

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