The Charlie Kirk Show, January 05, 2026

Summary

The Charlie Kirk Show (Real America’s Voice): January 5, 2026 - Episode Summary

---

OVERVIEW

On this pivotal post-holiday episode, the Charlie Kirk Show dives into the dramatic U.S. operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, explores fallout in America and Latin America, examines implications for U.S. foreign policy and “America first” principles, analyzes the ongoing Arizona Governor's race, and breaks major stories on large-scale fraud in the American Midwest’s public sector. Hosted by Andrew and produced by Blake Neff, with heavy participation from Arizona gubernatorial candidate and Congressman Andy Biggs, this episode pulls together sharp analysis, notable interviews, and on-the-ground reporting.

---

MAIN TOPIC: U.S. Seizure of Nicolás Maduro

Key Discussion Points

• Nature of the Operation

  • U.S. forces captured dictator Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing narco-terrorism charges in New York, not as an act of war against Venezuela but as a law enforcement action targeting drug traffickers and sanctioned oil shipments.
  • Marco Rubio (Secretary of State) states: “We are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela. ... Their leader, the leader of that cartel, is now in US Custody...that's Nicolás Maduro.” [00:28]

• Legality & Oversight

  • The operation was kept secret from Congress due to fears of leaks; Rubio and Andy Biggs defend this, citing prior experiences of Congressional information leaks.
  • Andy Biggs: “Congress leaks like a sieve. And that was wise.” [07:44]
  • Skeptics, e.g., Hakeem Jeffries, question the absence of evidence of an imminent threat and the lack of Congressional oversight.

• America First/Monroe Doctrine Debate

  • The hosts and guests debate whether the intervention fits America First policies or revives interventionist doctrines (referred to as the “Don Row Doctrine” by Trump).
  • Rubio: “Not under President Trump. ...We're not going to allow the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States.” [09:46]

• Potential Consequences & Mission Creep

  • Blake Neff raises concerns about the scope and duration of U.S. involvement, warning against repeating nation-building mistakes of Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • “So far, it looks pretty straightforward...But right now, we just spirited out one guy. ...Are U.S. troops in Venezuela long term? ...Those are the ones Charlie would care about as well.” [11:53]

• Implications for Venezuela and the Region

  • The panel discusses whether U.S. control/running of Venezuela is justified, nation-building risks, the credibility of promises to promote democracy, and the likely reaction from U.S. voters.
  • Andy Biggs: “Nation building is not what we should be engaged in here. ...Maybe what we want to do is just make sure they have good elections.” [13:54]

Notable Quotes

• Blake Neff: “Most Americans don't believe in gunboat diplomacy. They don't believe that we can just go in with overwhelming military force into a poorer country...and take their oil.” [01:31]
• Andrew: “The big question is...why is running Venezuela America First?” [12:52]
• President Trump (quoted by Andrew): “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. ...We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy.” [13:10]

Critical Timestamps

• 00:25 – 05:03: Introduction, Rubio’s remarks, establishing U.S. claim that this is law enforcement, not an act of war
• 07:44: Andy Biggs comments on Congressional secrecy and leakers
• 09:46 – 13:54: Rubio and Biggs discuss Monroe Doctrine revival, legitimacy, and policy direction

---

ARIZONA GOVERNOR’S RACE: ANDY BIGGS & PROJECT 2026

Key Discussion Points

• Andy Biggs joins to discuss his candidacy, polling strength, and his “Project 2026” push to restore the American dream in Arizona.
• He blames Governor Katie Hobbs for housing sticker shock, infrastructure failures, and issues in job creation; promises to cut income and property taxes, fix water management, and end excessive environmental restrictions.
• Emphasis on border security and fighting the regulatory “Green New Scam.”

Notable Quotes

• Andy Biggs: “We’re going to win big for Charlie. ...So we’re going to make sure that we’re the safest state. ...We restore the American dream.” [06:41, 24:15]
• Blake Neff: “It’s an anti...just kind of hatred of civilization, hatred of development, hatred of project...Anti Human.” [17:49]

Critical Timestamps

• 05:48 – 08:07: Biggs discusses his gubernatorial vision and polling advantage
• 15:14 – 19:19: Details Arizona’s housing, water, job concerns & policy prescriptions

---

FRAUD, IMMIGRATION, AND THE MIDWEST CRISIS

Minnesota: Childcare & Welfare Fraud Scandal

Key Discussion Points

• Liz Collin of Alpha News unpacks Minnesota’s enormous “Somali daycare fraud” and related multi-million-dollar public sector scams.
• Tim Walz announces he will not seek reelection amid ongoing investigations, blaming Republicans and right-wing YouTubers for stirring panic.
• Systemic lack of oversight, manipulation of state programs, and media complicity implicated.

Notable Quotes

• Liz Collin: “It's hard to understate how much has happened here...thousands of people have fled the state at this point.” [75:15]
• Governor Walz (clip): “We've got conspiracy theorist right wing YouTubers breaking into our daycares demanding access to our children.” [62:09]

Critical Timestamps

• 59:50 – 68:19: Liz Collin explains the fraud revelations, Walz’s political future, and media reactions.

Washington: Somali Daycare Fraud Probe

Key Discussion Points

• Jonathan Cho (TPUSA Frontlines) reports on coordinated investigations into Somali-run daycare fraud in Washington State.
• Local officials and media stonewall, dismiss, or attack whistleblowers rather than address systemic problems.
• Similar to Minnesota, reveals a multi-state, multi-million-dollar pattern of program manipulation.

Notable Quotes

• Jonathan Cho: “Instead of calling for a robust investigation into The Somali daycares, they're now playing defense...there’s clearly a coordinated effort going on right now.” [84:52]
• Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson (to Cho & team): “Well, there’s one standing right there (referring to 'extremist influencers'). I guess so.” [85:38]

Critical Timestamps

• 80:53 – 89:09: Cho details investigative process, official pushback, and the scale of the crisis

---

WARINESS OF MISSION CREEP & "FOREIGN QUAGMIRES"

Panel Reflection

• Blake Neff and Andrew urge caution against American overreach—drawing lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan—despite the initial success and strategic arguments.
• “If we get into that, it’s harder to get out than it is to get in...as long as this is not a foreign quagmire, that’s great.” [34:34–37:23]
• Citing neocons (Lindsey Graham) quickly floating Cuba as the next target, the panel worries about expanding U.S. interventions.

---

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS & PUBLIC SENTIMENT

Massie vs. Trump & MAGA

• Congressman Thomas Massie openly opposes the Venezuela mission: “Wake up, MAGA. Venezuela is not about drugs. It’s about oil and regime change. This is not what we voted for.” [95:45]
• Audience overwhelmingly emails support for Trump’s decisive actions, eager for consequences for anti-U.S. actors.

Communication Challenge

• Panel acknowledges the difficulty of explaining to Americans—amid affordability crises—why running Venezuela serves American interests, but asserts that controlling Western Hemisphere resources ultimately benefits U.S. security.

---

OTHER MEMORABLE MOMENTS & QUICK HITS

• Fun, Lighter Exchange: Andrew confesses to “illegally” setting off New Year’s fireworks in Arizona [94:21–94:48]
• Cynical Commentary: Blake Neff, on Democrat hypocrisy—“It won’t matter if Democrats are hypocrites if this is a win for us...if this is a disaster...their hypocrisy won’t bail us out...” [41:19]
• Maduro Arraignment Live Report: David Zier reports live from the courthouse; Maduro pleads not guilty, claims to be a “prisoner of war,” requests medical aid for his wife, next hearing set for March 16th. [48:54–53:20]

---

QUOTES & MEMORABLE SEGMENTS (with timestamps)

• Marco Rubio: “We are not going to allow...the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. ...Not under President Trump.” [09:46]
• Andy Biggs: “Nation building is not what we should be engaged in here. And I don’t think that's what the president intends.” [13:54]
• Andrew (summarizing Trump): “We want to surround ourselves with energy. ...It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world.” [13:10]
• Liz Collin: “It's about 100,000, they say, Somalis in Minnesota. I’ve covered cases where they will be on the stand saying this is our culture. They consider themselves business people. ...It's totally different than anything we've seen before.” [75:15]
• Blake Neff: “What is truly America first is not getting us involved in foreign quagmires. ...Make sure this is not damaging to America.” [41:19]

---

FINAL THOUGHTS

• The episode consistently frames current foreign and domestic crises as a test of American resolve, priorities, and values—probing the edges of “America First” ideology versus strategic reality.
• Guests, hosts, and correspondents blend energetic, sometimes confrontational debate with deep skepticism of both establishment politics and media, always tying developments back to the implications for voters and grassroots activists.
• The Venezuela operation is positioned as a litmus test: a defining experiment in muscular American policy which could either vindicate or undermine the Trump doctrine as November 2026 approaches.

---

For listeners: This episode delivers a robust overview of January’s U.S.-Venezuela operation, the evolving Arizona Governor’s race, and investigative journalism exposing systemic fraud in the American Midwest and Northwest—all through the lens of “America First” and populist skepticism.

Transcript

[Blake Neff]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Andrew]

Guaranteed Human. The Charlie Kirk show starts now.

[Terrence Bates]

Is the United States now at war with Venezuela?

[Marco Rubio]

There's not a war. I mean, what's. We are at war against drug trafficking organizations is not a war against Venezuela. We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions. We have sanctioned entities. We go to court, we get a warrant, we seize those boats with oil, and that will continue. And we will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs towards the United States, that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations, including the Cartel de la Souls. Of course, their leader, the leader of that cartel is now in US Custody and facing US justice in the Southern district of New York. And that's Nicolas Maduro.

[Andrew]

Now, the big question is, what is the impact of that action? I think there are a lot of people in Venezuela outside who are celebrating.

[Jonathan Cho]

The departure of Maduro. She pointed out he was an illegitimately installed leader, dictator of Venezuela. He was involved in drug running for a number of years.

[Andrew]

He's been involved in a lot of.

[Jonathan Cho]

You know, criminal activity.

[Andrew]

And so, yes, it's good that he is no longer in charge.

[Jonathan Cho]

There's a broader concern, and that is.

[Andrew]

That we have a moral cris in this country. Most Americans don't believe in gunboat diplomacy.

[Jonathan Cho]

They don't believe that we can just.

[Andrew]

Go in with overwhelming military force into a poorer country, into a weaker country and take their oil. And we need to have a reckoning.

[Jonathan Cho]

In this country about our values.

[Andrew]

Are we still the moral pillar, the.

[Jonathan Cho]

Moral beacon to the world?

[Marco Rubio]

We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we're not going to allow is, is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand, why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They're not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard, and us have to pay the price for it. Not under President Trump.

[Andrew]

Well, you just heard my conversation with Secretary Rubio. I asked him about the administration's decision not to inform Congress ahead of this operation until President Maduro had been captured. Secretary Rubio saying this was not the kind of mission where they could have afforded to notify Congress there were concerns about leaks. He made that point.

[Liz Collin]

President Trump made that point.

[Andrew]

Was the administration justified in this case and not briefing Congress. Well, there's been no evidence that the.

[Jonathan Cho]

Administration has presented to justify the actions.

[Marco Rubio]

That were taken in terms of there.

[Andrew]

Being an imminent threat to the health.

[Jonathan Cho]

The safety, the well being, the national.

[Andrew]

Security of the American people.

[Marco Rubio]

I explained to you what our goals are and how we're going to use the leverage to make it happen. As far as what our legal authority is on the quarantine, I'm very simple. We have court orders. These are sanctioned boats and we get orders from courts to go after and seize these sanctions. So that's, I don't know. Is the court not a legal authority?

[Liz Collin]

In 2019, you wrote an op ed and you called for Maduro to be gone. You said, let's get one thing straight. There should no longer be any debate about Maduro's lack of democratic legitimate legitimacy. The Trump administration is right to put restoring Venezuelan democracy at the center of our approach to this crisis. A return to a stable democracy is in the interest of the Venezuelan people and the United States and the hemisphere. We don't know what's going to happen with regard to the civilian leadership there. Tom Cotton, which is here saying that he hopes that there are democratic elections. Isn't that what you want?

[David Zier]

Well, the rest of that article was.

[Andy Biggs]

A criticism of President Trump's early moves.

[Andrew]

To saber rattle around regime change. Is the Cuban government the Trump administration's next target? Mr. Secretary, very quickly.

[Marco Rubio]

Well, the Cuban government is a, is a huge problem. Yeah, the Cuban government is a huge problem.

[Andrew]

So is that a yes?

[Marco Rubio]

Cuba. But I don't think people fully appreciate. I think they're in a lot of trouble. Yes. I'm not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard. But I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro. His entire, like internal security force, his internal security apparatus is entirely controlled by Cubans. One of the untold stories here is how in essence you talk about colonization because I think you said, Dulcie Rodriguez mentioned that the one who sort of colonized, at least inside the regime are Cubans. It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards in terms of their internal intelligence, who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors. Those are all Cubans.

[Andrew]

Charlie Kirk, every day there's a battle for your mind. Raging information coming from every angle with the will to Deceive. Fear not. You found the place for truth. The voice of a generation that still has the will to believe in the greatest country in the history of the world. This is the Charlie Kirk Show. Buckle up. Here we go. All right. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. It's our first show of the new year. I can't tell you how excited I was for 2025 to come to an end, joined as always by Blake Neff, the producer on the show. And we are honored to have the great Andy Biggs in studio here in Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome back to the show.

[Andy Biggs]

Thanks, Andrew. Great to be with you. And, Blake, thank you for having me.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it's an honor to have you. We thought it was appropriate, you know, this. Your race for governor was truly. It's hard to put into words, actually, how important it was to Charlie that you become the next governor.

[Blake Neff]

That was his Project 2026.

[Andrew]

Project 2026 was make Andy Biggs governor of the great state of Arizona State 48. And so it just felt fitting to have you here. And, you know, I was prepping for you coming in studio. I was looking at the polling, and I was. The latest one from Emerson has you up, like, huge in the. I want to get the actual. The actual number here. Pick 152 has you at 50% within the GOP primary. So that's. I mean, this is the last independent poll that we have to go off of in this primary. So things are looking good.

[Andy Biggs]

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I tip my hat to Charlie and. And I'm working hard in, not just for the state, but because Charlie was a friend and. And he went out on a limb to support me. And so. So we're going to win big for Charlie. And the polls do look good.

[Andrew]

The polls look good. How many. You were just telling me how many independent polls have there been, you know, conducted on this race?

[Andy Biggs]

I believe it's 17. And I've led by at least 30 points in every one of those.

[Andrew]

Oh, God bless you. That's great. So we're very, very excited about that. We're going to get into some Arizona specifics in just a few minutes here. But we have so much over this holiday break, this holiday weekend. Of course, you know, the big news is that Nicolas Maduro has been deposed. The dictator of Venezuela. He is being arraigned right now in a Manhattan courthouse, federal courthouse. You know, there has been much made about the fact that Congress, you're still a sitting congressman, was kept in the dark about this. What do you think about that? As a member of Congress.

[Andy Biggs]

Well, so we're gonna get brief this week, but let's just face the facts. I have literally sat in skiffs where they've had all of Congress sitting there and walked out. And for some reason, somehow the media is telling the world exactly what I just heard in the skiff. Yeah. Congress leaks like a sieve. And that was wise.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Well, so let's play this. Clip 156.

[Liz Collin]

Was the administration justified in this case.

[Andrew]

And not briefing Congress? Well, there's been no evidence that the administration has presented to justify the actions that were taken in terms of there being an imminent threat to the health.

[Jonathan Cho]

The safety, the well being, the national.

[Andrew]

Security of the American people. So you've got the minority leader here, Hakeem Jeffries, saying there was no imminent threat and that Congress should have been briefed. So your response to your colleague in the House there?

[Andy Biggs]

Well, number one, he didn't answer the question because he knows Congress should not have been pre briefed. Number two, that's not the legal standard. He knows that's not the legal standard. He's going to try to distract because that's their mantra. Everything is bad. They didn't question when Noriega in Panama, which is the case law that we rely on. Yeah, I think he was bogus from start to finish, but that's Hakeem's way.

[Andrew]

Yeah. So there's a larger issue here because you're kind of, you're an America first guy. You are, you know, part of this larger coalition. We are not neocons. You are not about foreign adventurism. And it's a question that we all sort of have to grapple with. And, you know, I thought Rubio put this very well. I'm going to play a clip here, have you respond to it, where he's talking about basically the Monroe Doctrine and Western Hemisphere domination.

[Blake Neff]

Don Row Doctrine.

[Andrew]

Don Row Doctrine.

[Liz Collin]

New.

[Andrew]

The new. The new. Yeah, Trump did call it that. Some are calling it the Don Row doctrine. I don't know. 145.

[Marco Rubio]

We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we're not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand, why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They're not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard and us have to pay the price for it, not under President Trump.

[Andrew]

So, I mean, I think that was a pretty good articulation essentially of the Monroe Doctrine. Where do we draw the line, Congressman? And where do you draw the line on when we should get involved, when we shouldn't? And how does this one sit? You know, it feels like the comparisons to Iraq and Afghanistan are not apt here. They're unfair comparisons, but we still want to be cautious, skeptical, and not give in to foreign adventures and the neocons.

[Andy Biggs]

Yeah, right. So the first thing to remember is Maduro was indicted. This was a legal issue. And what you're going to find is that the feds now took him over legally. So the second that. That the military essentially had control of Maduro, they gave them to the law enforcement. That kind of obviates all of those other issues. The question now is, going forward, what do you do? And do you leave a vacuum there for China, which literally was meeting in Venezuela at the time to do what? To take over the oil just the way they've done, the alternate canal in Panama, the way. The way they are trying to basically take over. So. So for us, it shouldn't be viewed as a typical American adventurism type of issue. What we're doing is we're enforcing the law. From a guy who was the head of a cartel that was coming after.

[Andrew]

The U.S. yeah, I think that's well said. I mean, the reaction has been mixed. You know, Blake, you're the contrarian in the room. I mean, you know, what are your concerns and what do you have a defense of the administration's action?

[Blake Neff]

Well, the best, frankly, the best defense is that so far it's worked very well. I think that stands apart because the biggest argument against most interventions is they're unpredictable. They can have a lot of downside. And the upside isn't always as clear as it seems. So far, it looks pretty straightforward. They got Maduro out quickly. There were no casualties on our side. And ideally, they could install a friendly government in Venezuela and we're in a better situation. My concern would be right now we still don't actually run Venezuela. I know the President said we're going to run it, but right now we just spirited out one guy. So we either have to threaten them into making concessions or we're going to need more military effort there. And at that point, you're asking, okay, are U.S. troops in Venezuela long term, are they trying to control the interior of the country? How difficult is that? Those are questions that are still going to need to be answered. And those are the ones Charlie would care about as well.

[Andrew]

Yeah, exactly. And a reporter asked the main question, Congressman, here, that is, why is running Venezuela America first? President Trump was asked about this at the press conference. 136.

[John Jubilee]

Why is running a country in South America America first?

[Andrew]

Well, I think it is because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It's very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world. So that, that really does become the central question. I think the success of this is going to be determined in the coming weeks and months ahead. You know, to Blake's point, how costly is this going to be from a military standpoint, from just a cost of doing this? And will the people still in charge in Venezuela, will they cede control? Will they cooperate? Will that transition happen? Well, we don't have a great track record of that, but President Trump does not have a bad track record.

[Andy Biggs]

That's right. And I would just say that nation building is not what we should be engaged in here. And I don't think that's what the president intends. And don't forget that ostensibly pre Hugo Chavez you have Venezuela was a democratic regime. They had regular good elections. Even Chavez and Maduro nodded to elections. Right. So, so, but maybe what we want to do is just make sure they have good elections. And if they get good elections, then we can work with them.

[Andrew]

You're tempting me to go down a rabbit, rabbit hole here.

[Blake Neff]

Well, we'll go on the other side of the break. We should talk about, it's worth talking about that discussion on who should run Venezuela, because President Trump's reaction has been, it's been very Trump like I will say.

[Andrew]

Yeah, well, I mean, listen, whether we said it out loud or not, you go and depose a dictator, you got to have a hand in the transition. You have to. We'll be right back. More with Andy Biggs on the Charlie Kirk Show. All right, welcome back to the stream and to the podcast. Little exclusive here for the audience that doesn't know, Andy, tell us why you are running for governor of Arizona.

[Andy Biggs]

So I've got a vision for the state of Arizona to restore the American dream, which has been priced out here in Arizona by this governor, the current governor, Katie Hobbs. And so she took down border protections, for Pete's sakes. And so we'll restore border protection. So we're the safest state in the country again. But we'll also put the American dream back out there. So young people, this really gets to me. They can buy a house, they can afford to buy a house and we won't have sticker prices that cause shock. We're going to create jobs again. She's taken us down, Andrew, as far as job creation from the fourth highest in the country to number 47. That's the problem that we have. She's not doing anything with our infrastructure, she's not doing anything with our education system. She's basically hermitized herself except for some radical environmental issues where she's gone after this, her own state trying to stop our economic development growth.

[Andrew]

That's shocking. Actually, you know, a lot of the sticker shock. I mean, you know, somebody who's newer to the state has actually impressed me. Like I've been floored at how expensive some of the just basic items, the rent, the housing market is in at least where people want to actually live, you know.

[Andy Biggs]

Right.

[Andrew]

And you know, is some of that because we're just getting flooded with Californians like you know, myself that some of.

[Andy Biggs]

It is that, but that's not. The demand is high. But historically we've always met that demand and been able to keep prices rational. But what she did is this Governor imposed land and water management restriction areas. So in the Phoenix metro area, in some places you can't even build a single family home because of her restrictions. So prices get jacked up, transport prices. Because so much has got to be done by gas and we don't have any natural gas resources. We have to basically pipe in from California and Texas and we're at capacity right now and we've got a great jobber who wants to expand. But the mayor of Phoenix and the and the state will not let him expand. He wants to do it on his own dime, for Pete's sakes. And this would give us greater storage which help bring down gases, gas prices overall.

[Andrew]

Yeah. It just feels like to your point that a lot of this is just a regulation issue. It's a green new scam issue.

[Blake Neff]

It's an anti. It's just kind of hatred of civilization, hatred of development, hatred of project anti Human.

[Andy Biggs]

I would say it's anti.

[Blake Neff]

Sorry if this is a total wild card but while we're talking about maybe bossing around Latin American countries, I know for the long term growth of Phoenix, the biggest concern is always water. And I've read a lot that the best thing to do to get water for Phoenix is you build a desalination plant in Mexico and you pipe it here and it's basically regulatory apocalypse that would prevent this from ever happening. But while it's on the table, could we get Mexico to help us with that?

[Andy Biggs]

Actually there is a, there is a plan to bring it up from Sea of Cortez and they've got, they have some of their permits. Now the question is since Mexico's ostensibly run by cartels and I asked the operators of this company, what are you going to do about the cartels? And they said, well, we're an Israeli company and we're going to work with some Israeli security forces.

[Blake Neff]

And I said okay, that's interesting.

[Andy Biggs]

That's very interesting. But I'll tell you, Blake and Andrew, what people need to understand is even Katie Hobbs own water resources department say we have 6 to 700 million acre feet of water underground in Arizona. But they just don't allow us to access it and treat it here and get it into the, the stream that by the way that's about 300 year supply at growth levels including industry. But we, it gets again to management and, and stopping the myth that she's created that we have no water.

[Andrew]

SIA Cortez ISRAEL SECURITY FORCES this is a complicated. That's. I didn't know that.

[Andy Biggs]

I see a miniseries movies.

[Blake Neff]

It's one of the funny things. Israel's really good at making their own water.

[Andrew]

Yeah, of course they have a lot of experience with that.

[Blake Neff]

They do.

[Andrew]

They made the desert blossom. Certainly when we welcome back the full feed here in just a second. I want to get into some Arizona specific. I want to get into this polling. I mentioned it to you when you walked into the office that there is an Emerson poll. Now it's a little dated now it's November. It's the last independent poll that we have. Katie Hobbs and again, this is general. We don't want to look past the primary, but Katie Hobbs is winning on an economic head to head, which just floors me because it's obviously untrue, but this could be perception. One second. We'll be right back.

[Liz Collin]

All right.

[Andrew]

Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. Andrew Colvett with Blake Neff joined by the great Andy Biggs, the next governor of the great state of Arizona. So head to head, you know, again, I don't want to look past the primary, but you are dominating in the primary polls which it's going to continue. We're going to help make sure that that happens to the best of our ability. And but, but this was what floored me in a head to head With Katie Hobbs, they have, you know, they say the first top issue is the economy. It's considered the top issue facing the state, 34% of voters. Followed by immigration, 18, threats to democracy, 11, housing affordability, 10, education, 9 and health care, 9. In a matchup between Hobbs and Biggs, voters who say the economy is their top issue, break for Hobbes, 45 to 41%. Which, and by the way, those who find immigration be the top issue, break for Biggs, 81 to 6%. So why do you think that that is and what's the message to fix that?

[Andy Biggs]

Well, it's hard to comprehend it except for I think some people, they like on economy, they think they're in the status quo. They don't really like to see change. They aren't quite sure what, what's going to happen. And the reality is we're going to deal with income taxes. Our income taxes are pretty low, two and a half percent flat tax. We're going to reduce those significantly. As the governor, people also have a concern about property taxes. I have a plan to reduce property taxes as well. And I just think that people.

[David Zier]

They.

[Andy Biggs]

Sense that they should be doing better and they're not doing as well as they'd like. And that's a reflection that comes, that is the Republicans in charge now. And we thought it'd be better.

[Andrew]

So we're holding the bag for the last four years of terribleness under Biden basically and the inflationary environment that was created. And I mean, listen, things are too expensive, but the way you get those prices down or at least, you know, real earnings start to outstrip inflation, even the inflation during the Biden years. You got to have a pro growth candidate in office. It is boggling to me that you are the pro growth candidate. You are obviously the candidate that is going to be expanding housing permits, expanding, you know, decreasing the cost of doing business, making this more of a pro growth state, pro jobs, obviously, more income, more tax base, all of those things. She's the anti growth candidate. So she's the one that's stopping Arizona from being unleashed to its full potential. And here you go, People, people are, I think taking it out on anybody with an arneck to their name. Because we're still getting out from under the Joe Biden years.

[Andy Biggs]

Exactly right. I mean inflation under Biden was about real inflation is about 22%. 20, 22%. Trump's taken it down. Real inflation rate under him is a little over one point actually. But we got so high and people want it bent down and the reality is we've got to catch up to, to the level of inflation.

[Andrew]

You see that with the, that GDP number that came out just before Christmas, it was a 4.3% growth, which actually outstrips inflation. So real wages, real incomes are going up. This, we're on the right path. The, the, the. This ship does not turn overnight, but we are on the right path now, hopefully. I mean, Charlie was always very clear about this. We are, we're in a race against time.

[Andy Biggs]

Exactly.

[Andrew]

We have to show that these ideas work, and we have to do it quickly so the electorate starts feeling the relief in their pocketbooks. What other issues do you want our audience to know about, and how do they get behind your campaign to support you?

[Andy Biggs]

Well, so I think it's important for them to understand that we have to use our resources in the state. So when I talk about tax policy or talk about water or land policy, all of those can be ameliorative to our, our current affordability issue, because that's what it is. You know, if we don't fix that, Andrew, like, we're not gonna, we're not gonna win this. And, but it's going to turn around in the, in this first quarter, probably because of the big, beautiful bill and, and some new tax breaks coming. Yeah. So, so we're going to make sure that we're the safest state. We restore the, the American dream. But I have a vision for the state. I'm not going to veto everything that the legislature does because they also have some great ideas that need to happen that this governor's killing. But if you want to get behind my campaign, it's BigSforArizona.com BigSforArizona.com the number four. Nope. Spell it out.

[Andrew]

All right, good.

[Andy Biggs]

Spell it out.

[Andrew]

Bigs4Arizona.com let's get that up for everybody. Everybody needs to get behind this. This was Charlie's mission. 2026. Project 2026, whatever you want to call it, was Charlie's nearest and dearest passion going into 2026. And Arizona has to be a red state. It is a red state. It went for Trump by nearly six points. Turning Point action is going to have our army of ballot chasers behind you completely. And you know we have your back. Anything we can do to help, we're here for you, and we know that the state of Arizona will be in good hands and if we get Andy Biggs elected as its next governor. So God bless you, sir. Godspeed.

[Andy Biggs]

Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Blake. And, and I look forward to serving the state again here in the state.

[Andrew]

Well, we got a lot of work ahead of us this year, but it's going to be fun and we're going to be behind you and we're going to get it done. We're going to be transitioning to Maduro and Venezuela. Next segment. Don't go anywh.

[Terrence Bates]

Welcome back to this REAL America's Voice news break. I'm Terrence Bates. Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is answering to a judge in New York City right now. Today's hearing is Maduro's first court appearance after being taken into custody by U.S. officials over the weekend. Maduro and his wife are facing narco terrorism charges. Lawyers representing the former Venezuelan leader are expected to contest the legality of his arrest and are argue that he's immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state. In the meantime, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz spent part of his morning explaining the U.S. s actions to his colleagues.

[Blake Neff]

Nicolas Maduro is responsible for attacks on.

[Liz Collin]

The people of the United States for.

[Blake Neff]

Destabilizing the Western Hemisphere and illegitimately repressing the people of Venezuela.

[Andrew]

As Secretary Rubio has said, there is.

[Blake Neff]

No war against Venezuela or its people.

[Andrew]

We are not occupying a country.

[Blake Neff]

This was a law enforcement operation.

[Terrence Bates]

And in other headlines just into our newsroom, Minnesota governor and failed Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz will not seek reelection. The embattled Democrat made the announcement just a short time ago and is addressing the issue, or did address the issue, excuse me, during this news conference that you're Looking at, Democrat U.S. senator Amy Klobuchar is reportedly mulling a run for governor to replace Waltz. Republican and staunch Trump supporter Mike Lindell also in the race. Waltz's decision comes amid heightened scrutiny over the state's handling of multimillion dollar child care fraud under his administration. Waltz now trying to shift the blame to Republicans, R.A. writing, quote, the political gamesmanship that we're seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder to win. Today's announcement is a bit of a surprise after Walls confirmed that he planned to run for re election just a few months ago. And protesters are questioning the legality of Nicolas Maduro's arrest. There is precedent for this sort of action, though. You may remember Panama's Manuel Noriega was arrested and tried in similar circumstances following the 1990 US invasion of that country. That's a quick check of your headlines. I'm Terrence.

[Andrew]

Democracy lives in light. The CHARLIE KIRK show.

[Andy Biggs]

All right.

[Andrew]

Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show. It was great with Andy Biggs. We're honored to have him going to be the next governor of the great state of Arizona. But we have so much news that is Tim Walls has announced that he is not running the election.

[Blake Neff]

First governor brought down by a YouTuber.

[Andrew]

And apparently he is very upset this morning, held a press conference. We'll get some of those clips. But he didn't take any questions. The reporters are very upset that he didn't take questions. So that's happening. Obviously. We have the Maduro arraignment. We're going to have David Zier from Real America's Voice reporting live outside the courthouse in Manhattan. We have the UN Is condemning President Trump's oh no, not the UN Yeah. You have Somalia sort of leading the charge, which is an irony of ironies. And Liberia was getting in on the action. Pete Hegseth initiates proceedings to demote US Senator Mark Kelly, a retired captain, over his seditious Six video telling soldiers to refuse illegal orders. So all of that is happening and more. But I do want to just sort of start here, Blake, at the at this baseline that this was an incredibly impressive precision attack where no US Troops were killed. We had no military equipment that was lost. One helicopter was shot, but it maintained its flyability. And it seemed to be just executed at a level that no other nation perhaps could even match. China and Russia are probably looking on.

[Blake Neff]

Going, yeah, I think that's the MO that's the immediate most impressive thing you can remember. In 2022, Russia did their attack on Ukraine. They also tried to go for not really a kidnapping but a decapitation strike. They landed troops, they landed troops in Kiev. It seemed their belief was, and frankly the belief in the west also at the time was that Ukraine would collapse quickly. We apparently offered to have Zelensky flee the country. Like we thought the whole thing would collapse in a matter of days. And Russia thought that as well. And it didn't work out. And there were almost four years later, hundreds of thousands dead. And that's still ongoing. So by comparison, successfully spearing out Maduro, it's now coming out that last night I believe that he had this sort of Cuban praetorian guard.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Blake Neff]

Apparently this was 30, apparently 30 plus Cubans were killed in US capturing him.

[Andrew]

So. Yeah, so that is like the interesting part. I mean, you had Cuba, Venezuela turned into essentially a playground for all the world's worst actors. Right. China, Iran, Cuba, Russia, they were all trying to get access to the mineral riches that exist within Venezuela. And it's fascinating to watch the left wing reaction to it where everybody seems to be very upset that America is going in, that Trump's being honest, that we're going to control, we're going to the oil fields that were expropriated from American oil companies back when Hugo Chavez took over, that we're going to take those back and that we are going to share the revenues with the people of Venezuela, but Americans are going to get their recompense. So people are upset about that. But I actually, I've been thinking about this all weekend long and the fact that we are asserting dominance in the Western hemisphere, it feels like a return to sanity from years of foreign adventurism in Iraq, Afghanistan, other places that have been catastrophic, that have been terrible for our country, terrible for our coffers, cost us blood and soil and lives. And so this, but this does feel different. It's, you know, people don't realize how close Venezuela. Hold on. I mean, it's in the Western Hemisphere. They don't realize how close it is to Miami. It's like a two hour flight to Miami from Caracas. And, you know, if Venezuela fell into control of foreign agitators like China, which China was there visiting the day it happened and the day before it happened. So it does feel like the then question is, how do you sell this to the American people when they're struggling to afford gas and groceries? Right. That, that is a fair question to ask. And I mean, people do need to understand that when you control oil resources, mineral resources, energy resources within the Western Hemisphere, that will ultimately make America a safer, more secure place. But the question then becomes, we are running Venezuela. That is, or at least in theory we are. And that is going to, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow for the American first crowd.

[Blake Neff]

Well, again, I think right now the vibe is very good. And the vibe is very good because it was easy. There were no losses. They got their guy, they got out. Everything looks extremely smooth, especially in comparison to Russia's own failed military ops, especially compared to our failed endeavors in the Middle East. This is clearly better. But our endeavors in the Middle east looked better early on when we took down the Taliban, they crumbled in a matter of weeks and we took over the whole country. And then it was the following 20 years where everything went horribly wrong. And Venezuela, it's a big country. It's got 30 million people, I think 40 million people.

[Andrew]

Well, 8 million people have left.

[Blake Neff]

And so, well, we'll say unknown number of people then. A lot of people. A lot of it is rainforest, a lot of it is mountain A lot of it is urban hellscape, not well controlled. It's not a super. It's not like taking over Japan or something, where it's a pretty orderly society. It's a chaotic society. It has some of the highest murder rates in the world some years. And it will be, especially when it's super easy. Early on, you have to worry about that temptation to get more invested. Oh, if, you know, if we put 2,000 troops here, it'll be okay. If we add a few more, we can get this under control. You're going to have to resist that temptation to get too involved, either in monetary terms or in military investment terms. And so I think we'll have to watch out for that. You'll also have to make sure you don't, in my opinion, overlearn from how easy it is. So you've seen some takes. Okay, well, is Cuba next? Is Mexico next? Is Colombia next? Should we just forcibly seize Greenland? I would say make sure Venezuela is actually a success before you start looking for new things to do. And we were talking during the break that after Afghanistan and after the initial Iraq takeover as well, there was a lot of arrogance that, oh, we can remake the Middle east to our will. Max Boot, I think he's still at the Washington Post, but he was this neocon guy. And you can find his essays from that period where he's saying, yeah, we could topple Syria, we could topple Iran, we could topple Saudi Arabia. He actually goes a little mad with power about all the countries that we could take out with our unlimited military might. I would always say, calm down. Remember, what is truly America first and what is most America first is not getting us involved in foreign quagmires. As long as this is not a foreign quagmire, that's great. It's great. If we are able to turn an extremely anti American regime in our backyard into a pro American regime in our backyard at minimal cost. If it's true that this is a fragile regime, you take out the top guy and you can use your blockade to pressure them into something much more friendly, that is good. But be careful because there will people, there will be people who try to sell us on a much bigger involvement, a much more expensive intervention. And if we get into that, it's harder to get out than it is to get in. And that's where you get the potential for negative effects for America. And let's be frank, negative effects politically, if this is a big win a year from now, it helps the Trump administration, helps us in the midterms. But if this is, if this has become a conflict where US Troops are getting killed, where there's no obvious way out, then it's going to be bad.

[Andrew]

Well, to your point, this is what makes I think a lot of people nervous. You got Lindsey Graham or grabbing the clip here. You just wait for Cuba. He says Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priests and nuns. They've preyed on their own people. Their days are numbered. So now we, now we are talking big, talking big game. Lindsey Graham at it again. Neocon of neocons, licking his chops at another possible invasion. By the way, he's flanked by President Trump and Commerce Secretary Lutnick while he's saying this in a press gaggle. So that's not a good sign. But you know, and you got President Trump talking about Colombia, saying he needs to watch his backside to say it in a nice way. Columbia. So there are questions here, but certainly. And we need to, I think it's, listen, it's important to be skeptical because this stuff tends to spiral out of control. If this can be done in a clean way, this, one of the things that I'm encouraged by is the fact that you have the Venezuelan diaspora, whether that's in New York City City or Florida or Argentina, these people are taking to the streets by the tens and tens of thousands celebrating the fall of Nicolas Maduro, who was a bad guy and who stole the election, who has militarized the military, which is but against the people of Venezuela. The extreme poverty rate in Venezuela is over 50%. Their oil production has fallen off a cliff. Their inflation has been through the roof. People can't afford jobs. They're eating cats and dogs literally in the streets. And so this was a dictatorship that held onto power. And as Andy Biggs described it, he is a head of a cartel. Essentially, it's a thug based, sort of boss style Mafioso tactic to maintain control of the country of Venezuela. It's a good thing that Maduro is gone. But what's interesting here is that you have all these clips now coming out from Democrats who before were talking tough on Venezuela. But now that Maduro's gone at the hands of Trump, it's suddenly a bad thing. Right? So let's play 154. This is Democrat Chris Murphy doing exactly that.

[Liz Collin]

In 2019, you wrote an op ed and you called for Maduro to be gone. You said, let's get one thing straight. There should no longer be any debate about Maduro's lack of democratic legitimacy. The Trump administration is right to put restoring Venezuelan democracy at the center of our approach to this crisis. A return to a stable democracy is in the interest of the Venezuelan people and the United States and the hemisphere. We don't know what's going to happen with regard to the civilian leadership there. Tom Cotton, which is here saying that he hopes that there are democratic elections. Isn't that what you want?

[David Zier]

Well, the rest of that article, right.

[Andrew]

Was a criticism of President Trump's early.

[David Zier]

Moves to saber rattle around regime change.

[Andrew]

And not only that, but in Joe Biden put a $25 million bounty on Nicolas Maduro's head. So this is Joe Biden $25 million. And now you have Democrat after Democrat after Democrat. That is in a. Chuck Schumer's guilty of this. Hakeem Jeffries, Chris Murphy, many that are now going back on that saying this is bad.

[Blake Neff]

Yeah, obviously they're going to be hypocrites. There's going to be that's just inevitable with Congress. I feel people turn about. It's less interesting. We should focus, in my opinion, if it won't matter if Democrats are hypocrites, if this is a win for us because the win will overshadow whatever dumb stuff they do, and if this is a disaster for us, the fact that they were hypocrites is definitely not going to bail us out from that. So the number one focus always is make sure that this intervention is not damaging to America, make sure we achieve the America first goal. That has to be the number one focus, not winning any social media fight.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see this way, the way this plays out, certainly. Hopefully the saner voices prevail and we don't expand this too much. But again, I agree with what something Jonathan Turley actually wrote that whether we said it out loud that we were going to be running Venezuela or not, the truth was we were going to be running Venezuela. After you do a mission like this, you got to see it through and you got to make sure the transition happens, which is a big if. Just a big if. We'll be right back.

[Blake Neff]

Relentless in spirit.

[Andrew]

You're listening to the Charlie Kirk Show. All right. Private student loan debt in the U.S. totals about $300 billion. And about 45 billion of that is labeled as distressed. Why Refi refinances distressed or defaulted private student loans that others won't touch. They provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to pay. And that is the key to why refi is the best in the business. And why you need to check them out. They are going to custom tailor a solution for you. So based on your ability to pay, what's your monthly budget, what's your monthly expenses, what can you afford? They also guarantee interest rates under 6% ensuring affordability. You can even skip a payment every six months up to 12 times without penalty. Nobody else is going to do that for you. You're not calling some faceless call center. You're calling Americans that are there to help you. They're going to do a quick 3 minute rate check without any credit impact. Bad credit is accepted. You can finally get mom and dad off your private student loan. Or if you're mom and dad, you can get some relief as well. Just call 888 y refi34 or log on to yrefi.com that's yrefy.com yrefy.com may not be available in all 50 states but if it is available in your state, you're going to want to check it out because they are great patriots. They support the work of this show. They support Turning Point usa, so many other organizations that are doing patriotic service to this country. So please check out why [e-mail] today. So we're about to be joined by David Zier who's outside of the federal courthouse where Nicholas Maduro has just pleaded not guilty. Not guilty. Saying he's a decent man. I mean regardless of whether you support this intervention in Venezuela, regardless of how it plays out, Nicolas Maduro is not a decent man.

[Blake Neff]

I'm a decent man.

[Andrew]

By the way, some of my favorite parts of the videos playing over the weekend was, you know, Maduro like saying come at me now, come now coward. And, and you know, and then he gets, you know, they fast.

[Blake Neff]

Apparently they changed his clothes 10 times in a 24 hour window. Like he keeps having a different outfit time. He's spotted.

[Andrew]

Oh really? Just to kind of.

[Blake Neff]

I have no idea.

[Andrew]

It's probably some Cuban praetorian guard defense measure that they've.

[Blake Neff]

No, no, this is, this is since we got him, they keep changing his outfit apparently.

[Andrew]

Fascinating. David Zier, live from Manhattan joins us next. Just don't go anywhere.

[Blake Neff]

All right.

[Andrew]

While we get David Zier up and running, they're connecting his feed right now, I'm told. Let's just talk about this too. Nicholas Maduro was given multiple off ramps and he fafoed 135.

[Blake Neff]

Nicolas Maduro had his chance just like Iran had their chance until they didn't.

[Andrew]

And until he didn't he effed around and he found out. President Trump is deadly serious about stopping.

[Blake Neff]

The flow of gangs and violence to our country.

[John Jubilee]

Deadly serious about stopping the flow of.

[Blake Neff]

Drugs and poison to our people. Deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us, and deadly serious about reestablishing American deterrence and dominance in the Western hemisphere.

[Andrew]

This is about the safety, security, freedom and prosperity of the American people. Yeah, it is. I think the biggest challenge is going to be communicating why this is good for America. I think that's going to be, I.

[Blake Neff]

Think the America that's a challenge, although I don't. As long as it remains a clear win, that will be easier than it thinks. Like, I think we took out a guy and we did it in one night with a few special forces and we took no losses. Makes it a lot easier to make that sell. As long as that remains what has happened, especially if we follow up with a government that is friendly to the United States and we can point towards stuff, it's going to be a harder sell the more there's clear downside to it. So that's why you have to avoid getting enmeshed. You have to avoid getting US Servicemen killed. And even just the jump from zero to one is going to be very important in that regard. If this is a thing where US Soldiers have been killed, that's very different from something where there are no casualties.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I agree. I just think again, you've got this affordability crisis. You've got a base that is clamoring for us to fly, focus on domestic issues. And here we are again. But this is, this is what I'm saying is the harder message to sell is that this will have downstream positive impacts on America.

[Blake Neff]

And I would just, I would just not be too arrogant about how much the upside is. Remember, George H.W. bush won the Gulf War in February of 1991. February of 91, after the midterms, wins a gigantic war against a big enemy. Complete beat down. I think he has 85% approval or so at that time, loses and he loses, loses reelection, loses bad and he loses it thanks to a recession that itself ended in March 1991. That's how much economic stuff beats out foreign policy stuff. That that victory was just totally forgotten.

[Andrew]

Well, it was also Ross Perot stole a lot of his votes.

[Blake Neff]

Well, yeah, but Ross Perot. Why was Ross Perot stealing his votes?

[Andrew]

Yeah, well, fair enough. I mean, I'm just saying if it wasn't been head to head, you know.

[Blake Neff]

He would have lost worse. You think so, yeah, Ross Perot took, I think, more votes from Clinton, if anything.

[Andrew]

Wow. Well, we can argue that another day. But I do think. Here's. Here's. Here's my. My basic thought on this. We have to deal with Mexico. If you really want to deal with the fentanyl flowing into the country, it has to be. You have to deal with Mexico. That's where absolutely the most of it is coming from. The precursors come from China. They go into Mexico. I have a whole theory that we need to threaten Mexico with reversing the Gadsden Purchase, connecting Arizona to the Sea of Cortez, reclaiming Baja. Yes, this. If they don't, they're gonna fafo as well. But this. This is. This is way better. This is way better. Blake, don't look at me like that. This is way better because this is actually contiguous with the United states. The lower 48, we're just gonna add.

[Blake Neff]

You just want us to extort Mexico?

[Andrew]

Yeah, if they don't stop the fentanyl coming into our country.

[Blake Neff]

I read a history of Mexico a year ago. The number one moral I took from it is we should build a 1,000 foot wall around all of Mexico and keep it out and just not. No one goes in, no one goes out. It's like Escape from New York, except with a whole country.

[Andrew]

I don't know. Baja's pretty beautiful. I will. I'm open minded to just building a way bigger wall. I would invest in that.

[Blake Neff]

1,000Ft high in Game of Thrones.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I mean, so basically, you know, the point is the. So we. I guess we have. David's here. Let's bring him in really quick. David, can you hear me? David, can you hear me?

[David Zier]

Yeah, got you loud and clear.

[Andrew]

Awesome. Tell us what you're seeing in Manhattan.

[David Zier]

I got you. Well, we're outside the courthouse. Heavy security, drones, helicopters everywhere. I just walked out of the arraignment about five minutes ago. No cameras or any recording devices were allowed in there. But I did take some notes, and Maduro defiantly pled not guilty, along with his wife, Celia Flores, saying that I am an innocent man. I am a good man. And he went on a speech in Spanish. I only understood a little bit of it. He said he's a prisoner of war and he wants to be treated, I think, according to Geneva Convention and Vienna Accords, but don't quote me exactly on that. But Judge Hellestein cut him off and said there would be plenty of time for such dialogue in the future, that this was just about the arraignment and the judge asked him if he wanted to request bail. And he said I don't want to request bail at this time. And he reserves the right to do that at any point going forward. The defense did say that this was a military abduction. And also.

[Andrew]

Looks like we lost David there for a second. Let's see, can we get him back studio? We're going to keep going here.

[David Zier]

Hello, Stein. But you know the, the attorneys for Maduro were requesting also medical help for Celia Flores, who may have sustained perhaps what they say is a fracture during the arrest from a few days ago and wanted her to get some treatment. The case will reconvene in 60 days. I believe that date is March 16th. And they also discuss his right to consult with his counsel because as a foreign person, I think he has the right to consult with the consulate in Venezuela or other. And they also talked about, and the prosecution agreed, I think because we're not allowed to take money from Venezuela attorneys in the United States that the prosecution would make an exception, I believe to be able to transfer funds to pay the defense team. Celia Flores and what Nicolas Maduro said, he is the rightful president of Venezuela. A lot going on here on the ground. Lower Manhattan.

[Andrew]

Yeah. David, I'm curious if you've got any insight as to why this case was tried in Manhattan as opposed to perhaps the Southern District of Florida. Do you have any insight onto that?

[David Zier]

Well, the case, the crux of the case, and I know Florida district did participate in this under DOJ, but this goes all the way back to 2011 for the DOJ Southern District and we had other indictments and a recent conviction of top general Hugo Armando Caraval Barrios, also known as El Pollo the Chicken who worked for Hugo Chavez. This is a 15 year old Southern District indictment and he said he's been worked, that barrio has been working with the cartel since 1999 in a conspiracy. I think his sentencing is coming up next week here he pled guilty to the same charges as Maduro and he's facing life in prison. And I was thinking maybe he sang like a canary. I don't know that. But the indictments, all four indictments, including narco terrorism conspiracy alleging a 25 year partnership with FARC, the Revolutionary Armed forces in Colombia. Weapons charges, corruption and violence, kidnappings, murder and to protect trafficking ops. All those indictments he did plead not guilty to as well as Celia Flores, who also said that she was an innocent. She's innocent 100% in this case. So a lot more to come and I think maybe there will be an application to move the trial to Florida. I'm not sure if that's doable or not.

[Andrew]

Right. So it's a, it's a sort of a legacy of when the indictments against Maduro started. It sounds like probably in 2011, they were filed in the Southern District of New York. So keeping with the legality and the indictments that were previously issued, that makes sense. David Zier, thank you for the reporting on the ground in the federal courthouse where Nicolas Maduro has been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. David Zier, thanks so much.

[David Zier]

Thank you, sir.

[Andrew]

Awesome. All right, we are going to take a quick break here. We've got Liz Collin from Alpha News, and she's going to be covering Tim Walls not running for reelection as governor of Minnesota. And we're on the Somalia fraud ring that is just blowing up. People calling for all of those people, including the attorney general of Minnesota, to step down. I mean, I don't think people are satisfied yet. This is going to keep going. So we're going to cover that in depth with Liz Collins, who's I think, the best reporter in Minnesota. We have her next. Don't go anywhere.

[Terrence Bates]

Welcome back to this Real America's Voice. Welcome back to Voice News Break. I'm Terence Bates. Why not start this new year off with Total Health? There's a good chance that one of your New Year's resolutions is to either lose weight or to live a healthier lifestyle. Well, why not try something new this year so that you can actually see your resolution through my 555 challenge? Well, that may be just the thing for you.

[Jonathan Cho]

We lost weight that first week. I've gone down five notches on my belt. If you just follow the the program, it works.

[Andrew]

I mean, this is so simple and so doable. And so I just thank y'.

[David Zier]

All.

[Liz Collin]

I have no more body aches. My mind is clear. My endurance is up. My heart is just fuller.

[Andrew]

I'm able to give more and be more present. It's changed our marriage, it's changed our relationship, and it's so sustainable.

[Terrence Bates]

Let's bring in John Jubilee. He's the founder of Energized Health and the man behind the My555 challenge. Johnny J. Always good to see you. Happy New Year.

[John Jubilee]

Happy New Year.

[Terrence Bates]

So look, the reality is it is a new year. Everybody's pretty much making these New Year's resolutions. Mine typically is out the door less than 24 minutes, 24 hours after I make it. How do you sustain these New Year's resolutions, particularly when it comes to health.

[John Jubilee]

Well, Terrence, I can tell you how to do it. And the reason I can, Terrence, is because for 10 years, for 10 years, I just was like everyone else out here. I'd make my New Year's resolution. And guess what, Terrence? And it never was sustainable. It never was sustainable. I just couldn't do it. I was like everyone else 14 to 21 days in. Because it didn't work. It didn't work, Terrence, and it was not a sustainable solution. But I can tell you guys, when I found this, when I found this energized health protocol, this has been sustainable for 28 years. Now, how many of you would say 28 years now that's working if it sustained you for 28 years? So I've been the same shape and size for 28 years. Now, how many of you would like to have that story and not one medical doctor Visit, Terrence, for 28 years? Because it's really hard to make a healthy cell sick. But the great news is this really is sustainable. This can be your last New Year's resolution. Who would like to do your last New Year's resolution that you ever do? Because, guys, you know, I make it simple for you. You can lose one of these in a week. This week. By the way, you guys can come and join Chelsea and I today. Today. You can sign up today. And, Terrence, we'll spend about 45 minutes each day for the next five days. And, guys, you're going to lose this in five days.

[Terrence Bates]

And so when you look, I'm sorry to cut you off, but there are people looking at that saying, okay, looks like a big foam blob. What does that represent? Let's be clear.

[John Jubilee]

This is five pounds of fat. This is five pounds of fat. What your fat really looks like in your body. That's just five pounds of fat, by the way. So just think, if you got 20, that's four. You know, you got four of these to lose or more. But the good news is, is once you lose one in a week, you realize, well, hey, if I could do that every week, it won't take me long to achieve my goal. And then you realize each week that you're doing this, you realize, well, this is so sustainable. Of course, I could do this for the rest of my life.

[Terrence Bates]

John, let's get to the Nitty Gritty, then. Let's lose that £5 a week. How do you start?

[John Jubilee]

Yeah, guys, it's super simple. Just go log on today to my 5,5,5challenge.com. It costs you $5 to sign up. If you want to join the VIP group. It's $99. And with that, we FedEx you a medical grade scale that'll measure your hydration, your visceral fat, your metabolic age. You can get all your measurements and you get some extra one on one with Chelsea and I. So, you know, make a $99 investment for yourself, guys. It'll be the best investment you ever make in your life. But get signed up today because, guys, this the next five days. We only do these a few times a year, but no better time than the first of the year. So make an investment in yourself today and come and join us. It's themy 555 challenge calm.

[Terrence Bates]

All right. There you go. Join them today. Five bucks is the initial payment for a lifetime of health. My 555-challenge.com. the information is there at the bottom of your screen. Screen log on, get all the information you need. But more importantly, this is your opportunity to sign up and start this new year off on the right foot. Well, that's going to do it for us. As always, we appreciate you being here with us. Now let's get you back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Andrew]

All right. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show, hour two of our first show back in the new year. Never been so excited to see the the Calendar flip from 2025 to 2026, the new year, lots to cover. And we have, I think the most important journalist from the state of Minnesota and one of the most important journalists in the country. She did the fall of Minneapolis, which is truly important following the George Floyd riots. And she's a senior reporter from Alpha News, Liz Collin from Minneapolis, Minnesota, or at least thereabouts. Liz, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show. It's good to see you again.

[Liz Collin]

Hi, you guys. Happy New Year. Good to see you as well. Thanks for having me. A lot on here. A lot to talk about.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I mean, we actually had reached out to you. I know Blake, and you were talking.

[Blake Neff]

About back and forth, but you're in.

[Andrew]

High demand lately on the Somalia fraud issue and we did not know when we booked you that we were also going to be welcomed by the news that Tim Waltz is deciding not to run for reelection. What is the story behind the story here, Liz?

[Liz Collin]

Yeah, you guys, these last few weeks been a bit of a whirlwind in Minnesota. You can certainly say that with news and politics, no doubt. Governor Tim Walls making it official actually just about an hour ago here that he will not seek reelection to a third term. As governor, there have been many political scandals on his watch. We've been detailing all of them. But this billion dollar fraud scheme seemed to be the last straw in his case. $9 billion in all and counting. We now have multiple federal investigations going on here in Minnesota. And yet compared to mainstream media, I think we've been one of the very few, certainly the most prominent in the state of Minnesota criticizing the governor. We have been for several years with our exclusive reporting. But we even showed up at that press conference today, our photojournalist, which it's really difficult to even call it a press conference, you guys. But Governor Walz took no questions at all. Alpha News tried to get into the room, but we were told we were not on the list. So we could not the governor. It's been years now since they've even responded to our request for comment on any story. But really just a bizarre situation. If any of your viewers were seeing this at all play out on X, you have walls coming off, I think quite angry. I think that's fair to say. He talked about how he was supposedly fighting fraud for his last seven years in office, which came off as a bit of a surprise to any of us paying attention. Basically blaming Republicans and President Trump for all of this. Referring to Nick Shirley's viral video which got an awful lot of attention, called that a right wing YouTuber and Nick Shirley was breaking into daycares.

[Blake Neff]

We have that clip. We have that clip. Let's, let's play it real quick. Let's play 179.

[Andrew]

We've got conspiracy theorist right wing YouTubers.

[David Zier]

Breaking into our daycares demanding access to our children.

[Terrence Bates]

We've got the President of the United.

[Andrew]

States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongfully confiscating funds that Minnesotans rely on. It's disgusting and it's dangerous.

[Blake Neff]

Now what comes to mind for me, Liz, is he can talk a big game there, he can say that yet. But I feel like nothing confirms all of the theories and allegations going on in Minnesota more than the fact Governor Walls realizes I can't fix this in the 11 in the 10 months till the next election. I have to drop out to give us a shot in this race. That seems like the greatest confirmation of all that there's a gigantic scandal here.

[Liz Collin]

Correct? Yeah. I mean I think Blake Brady wasn't paying attention. It certainly seems that that way, that with, with what he almost kind of opposite day. But we see that message again and again from, from the governor's office. But you have some interesting maneuvering happening behind the scenes. And this is something we've been monitoring for months now. Even when Governor Walls announced in September that he would run for reelection for a third term, many were very surprised by that with all of the baggage that, that he carries in the state. But now it seems that it seems to be more and more truthful now. And this is something we were hearing months ago, that Senator Amy Klobuchar will in fact be running for Minnesota governor. And then you have perhaps some backroom dealing going on that Walls would then be appointed to her Senate seat because she is not up for reelection until 2031. So there would be a special election in 28, but Walls would have some sort of swap out. And until then, this is all just sort of speculative at this point. But many of these Democrats, one could say that, you know, fraud has been happening on the watch of many Democrats here in Minnesota. It's been 20 years now since there was a statewide office held by a Republican in Minnesota. But they've been all very quiet. You did not see anybody really going to bat, if you will, for Governor Walz for these many weeks and months. And sometimes, you know, that silence speaks louder than anything else.

[Andrew]

So, you know, this seems to be the first shoe to drop. And this swap out ideas is fascinating because I could, I could actually see that really coming to bear here. But the question then becomes, where is accountability? So you've been doing the research and the investigations here, Liz. In Minnesota, who is most responsible? Obviously, the buck stops with the guy at the top. But it seems like this fraud has, you have to have so many people turn a blind eye to allow the fraud to go this long, this large, this widespread. Who. Who needs to be held accountable next?

[Liz Collin]

Yeah, I think it's a great point, Andrew. In many ways this, this fraud is almost baked into the legislation that we see passed again and again at the State capitol with these NGOs, these nonprofits that are formed. I'll just highlight some some recent reporting over at Alpha News within the last few months, but a transportation company paid millions of dollars over what the Minne School district was, was allowing. We find that these vans are either sitting for months on end or in fact they're driving around town without any passengers in them at all. A Somali owned company, several Somali owned companies working for the Minneapolis School District. Well, it turns out that there is some legislation passed in 2023 under a DFL trifecta so controlled by Democrats that basically 100%, 100% of the reimbursement that is submitted to the Federal government will go to the District and those companies and what are the monitoring systems put in place for these so called rides and services? This is all of a sudden assigned to what they consider the homeless and highly mobile population in Minneapolis. So what do we see? All of a sudden there's a 40% spike in homeless kids in Minneapolis. So when you really take a look at a lot of this, the math certainly does not add up. It has not been for years. But we continue to detail those stories over at Alpha News from whistleblowers who've been trying to bring this to the attention of prosecutors of authorities for such a long time. I've interviewed recently just a TSA agent who detailed her time at the airport here, how she would watch millions of dollars in cash and carry on luggage be flown out of MSP on a weekly basis by a couple of Somali men, sometimes the same, sometimes different. And this was also corroborated by a former HSI agent who I then interviewed who talked about how again and again they would present these cases to the U.S. attorney's office back then and there would be no prosecution at all, no charges. Very similar with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. We're hearing a lot about her again as President Trump continues to bring her up, up, but marrying her brother, the fact that there are questions if she's even a US Citizen. But so much of this, you know, has been reported before and not by the mainstream media. The mainstream media is very complicit in Minnesota. I know you guys know that, know that well with, you know, perhaps the focus being more on what they do not report than, than what they do. And the, the Minnesota Star Tribune, Minnesota's largest newspaper, is run by a former commissioner of Governor Tim Walls.

[Andrew]

Yeah, the Star Tribune is really just been exposed as a total, it's been.

[Blake Neff]

So great where they've been. Like they initially said this is over. You know, this is overreacting. There's nothing to see here. And then as it becomes real, they've had to pivot to actually, we've been covering this for years. We've totally talked about the, it's very funny to see them squirm back and forth on this.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it's really, it shows how important your investigations have been, Liz and.

[Blake Neff]

I.

[Andrew]

Wanted you on the show to make sure with Nick Shirley, God bless him, we're very happy for Nick, the success he's having, the virality of that video and what it's really unleashed nationwide. Second half of this hour, we're going to be covering Washington, Somali Daycare fraud and other fraud in the state of Washington. That's important. But you guys at Alpha News have been on this for so long and you've been so good. So we want to give you your due credit there. We'll be right back with Liz Collins.

[Blake Neff]

This movement will not be silenced.

[Andrew]

You're listening to the Charlie Kirk Show. All right. Private student loan debt totals about $300 billion in the US and about 45 billion of that is labeled as defaulted or distressed. And if you are in that situation, you're going to want to reach out to the good folks@y refi.com what they do is they refinance distressed or defaulted private student loans that others simply will not touch. They provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to pay. So they're not going to give you a monthly payment that you can't afford. They're going to work with you in your specific situation to tailor a solution that allows each borrower to meet their specific needs. You will not be calling a faceless call center. Why refi can reduce your monthly payments. That's key. And guarantee guarantees, interest rates under 6% ensuring affordability and financial relief. Why refi? They do not care what your credit score is. So if you are in a really bad financial pickle and your credit has been impacted negatively because of that, they don't care. They're they will work with you. They will also offer you the a 3 minute rate check without any credit impact and you can get co borrowers off the loan. You can finally get that financial relief that you have been needing and searching for. You can even skip a payment every six months up to 12 times without penalty. Nobody else is going to do that for you. Just call 888-yrefi34 that's 888-yrefi34 or visit them at yrefi.com that's yre f y.com great patriots, great friends of this show and we absolutely support what they're doing. Think it's an important service for the country. They support Turning Point. They support the show. So check them out. Why Revi.com we have Liz Collins standing by and it's a before we bring her in, I want to play this clip of President Trump just went to just went ham on Ilhan Omar and the Somali Pirates play cut 183 Somalia Somalia Pilots Pirates. But what they are doing is they're stealing money from the American taxpayer and.

[Jonathan Cho]

Every one of them should be forced to leave this country including Ilhan Omar who's a total crook and we're not going to pay it anymore.

[Andrew]

We're going to have Waltz go pay. We're not going to pay them. Waltz needs to pay.

[Blake Neff]

Trump just, I mean, we can dream.

[Andrew]

We can dream. We'll welcome back Liz in just a second.

[John Jubilee]

All right.

[Andrew]

Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. Liz Collin from Alpha News joins us now, senior reporter there. Liz, I don't know if you heard the clip that we just played, but the Trump, I think, is echoing the sentiment of a lot of Americans that we feel where we don't understand why we had to take in hundreds of thousands of Somalians from a culture that doesn't share our values, doesn't assimilate very easily or seamlessly. And now we find out they're defrauding us. What can be done? And if you've investigated this as far as deportations, there's a new report Liz, just broke. I just saw it. So I don't expect you to know about it, that even local Hilton hotels and Hampton Inns in the Minnesota or the Minneapolis area are declining, ICE agents and DHS officers from getting hotel rooms because the assumption is they're working to deport Somalis. What can be done in that regard? And what are people on the ground saying?

[Liz Collin]

Yeah, you know, I actually did see that report and I was able to actually ride along with ICE just a couple of months ago. And this is how deep this all runs, you guys. I think this story is a good example. But I accompanied them on a ride along for a news story and they talked about just the growing frustration they have with Minnesota, how difficult their job is because you have so few counties in the state that cooperate with ice. So instead of, you know, doing these pickups at jails and prisons in Minnesota, instead they have to go out into neighborhoods where they are met by these activists. In fact, the Star Tribune was has a live reporting feed where they go ahead and blast out where ICE is going to be next. So this has been going on now for months in Minnesota.

[Andrew]

But we went out the Star Tribune.

[Liz Collin]

Yes, they actually are basically promoting this where ICE is going to be so they can be met by activists. But during our ride along, we picked up a former Minnesota state employee who was being paid six figures by the state, had worked for two different agencies and turns out was a convicted felon and was hired anyway and now faces deportation. And that was a story that we documented for Alpha News. But again, you see this kind of at every turn, sort of this radical leftism that has taken hold in Many agencies. And you know, I think that, you know that that's a perfect example of something that has been playing out here as well.

[Blake Neff]

It's really interesting. Minnesota used to just be this very, let's say it was probably one of the best run blue states. It was a desirable one. And you look at the map and, and we well know that people are fleeing California, fleeing Illinois, fleeing New York. But actually there's a lot of domestic out migration out of Minnesota now. People, they can sense that it's going south. I wanted, this is a bit of a swerve, but I thought you might have some thought on this. It just seems like every program in Minnesota very quickly can become this feeding frenzy for fraud. I know you guys have a new paid leave law that just came into play. They added to their own, they added their own payroll tax to the state on top of what you pay for Medicare, Social Security for paid leave. And you're eligible for it if you are self employed, you can join into it. You can get a maximum of 20 weeks of family or medical leave. And so it seems to me like this is going to obviously present people an opportunity to incorporate a self employed business, declare that they're paying themselves a certain salary.

[Andrew]

Feels like.

[Blake Neff]

And then you. Yeah, and then you go on, you go on your leave for long Covid or whatever, you know, your family member is sick or you have any one.

[Andrew]

Of your four wives, infinite possible claims.

[Blake Neff]

And you can get a maximum of 20 weeks of leave. A 1400 dollars a week is what the state will pay. So that's 28,000 a year. Am I reading this right, Liz?

[Liz Collin]

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right, Blake. And that's what I was talking about just sort of how this is baked into the legislation. In fact, people are actually calling on just a forensic audit overall of the Minnesota state budget at this point. I think there are five or six federal investigations now ongoing in Minnesota and I think they will be taking a look at a lot of this. Republicans certainly have been raising alarms surrounding this new law that just went into effect January 1st. You had Governor Walz in this, you know, so called, I guess, press conference today talking about how he's going to be back out in front of cameras tomorrow talking about how great this new law is and there are many questions about fraud already. Thousands of people have been approved for this. And speaking with small business owners, whether it's Covid or other mandates that were put in place on small business owners, governors in Minnesota, they have expressed serious alarm. The Chamber of Commerce, many departments came out against, you know, passing this. But, but again, this has been a, you know, a Democrat controlled state for such a long time. You're right. That tens of thousands of people have fled the state at this point. But, but Governor Walz, in the last seven years, it's really hard to understate, you know, how much has happened here, whether whether it's defunding the police, a lot of these mandates on small businesses. Education scores really in the tank at this point. Thousands of businesses closing in Minnesota in addition to people moving out. And we've always been known for years as a welfare state. The good people of Minnesota, whether it's Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities taking people in. But the Somali part certainly has been different and the evidence has pointed to that. It's about 100,000, they say Somalis in Minnesota. I've covered cases where they will be on the stand saying this is our culture. They consider themselves business people and this is under oath. They're saying this. It's totally different than anything we've seen before.

[Blake Neff]

Liz, you're quite the trooper. I would get up of Minnesota if I were you. But you're there, you're covering it for us and I suspect we're going to get a lot of material from it in the weeks to come. Thank you for very much for coming on.

[Andrew]

Thanks, Liz.

[Liz Collin]

Thank you.

[Terrence Bates]

Welcome back to this Real america's Voice news break. I'm Terrence Bates. Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife just wrapped up their first court appearance in New York. They, of course, were taken into custody by U.S. officials over the weekend. They're now facing narco terrorism charges. Real America's Voice correspondent and host of Breaking Point, David Zier joining us live outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. David, run through what happened in court today.

[David Zier]

I attended the arraignment inside the Patrick Moynihan U.S. district Court. Here, Nicholas Maduro escorted into the room in shackles, orange jail slippers and a black correction shirt, sitting two seats away from his wife, separated by the defense team. He was flanked to, I believe his right by Julian Assange lawyer Barry Pollock, who also defended Marty Tankleff, who was let out of jail due to new evidence after being accused of murdering his parents years ago. And Celia Flores along with Nicholas Maduro were both wearing headphones for translation. They both pled not guilty to all four of the indictments, including narco terrorism, cocaine importation, conspiracy, weapons charges, corruption and violence. And they they pled guilty. And Nicolas Maduro went on a little bit of a speech saying he should be treated, I believe he said in Spanish, Geneva and Vienna accords. He should be treated as such. He was kidnapped and he's a prisoner of war. And Judge Hellestein cut him off and said there'll be time for that in the future here. But this was an incredible day here in lower Manhattan and Maduro's defense lawyer said he was militarily abducted. It was a military abduction. They also discussed his right to consult with his consulate. And the prosecution agreed with that and also how to take money to his defense lawyers as money from Venezuela cannot change hands out of the country. So the prosecution agreed to that as well. Historic day in lower Manhattan.

[Terrence Bates]

Absolutely. A lot going on, going on and a lot still to unpack. David Zier reporting for us in lower Manhattan outside the federal courthouse there. We'll of course, have more coverage of this story throughout the day here on Real America's Voice.

[Blake Neff]

On air and on fire for the.

[Andrew]

People, preservation of our nation, the CHARLIE KIRK SHOW all right. Welcome back to THE CHARLIE Kirk show. I'm excited to have our next guest on. It's Jonathan Cho. He is amazing journalist who is part of TPUSA Frontlines team doing the sort of guerrilla on the ground journalism that the mainstream news media refuses to. And now Jonathan has I mean, he's done amazing work for Turning Point for years, but he is uncovering the extent of Somali fraud in the state of Washington. So Minnesota has gotten a lot of the attention, but this fraud and this tendency by specific community in specific kinds of states expands well beyond Minnesota. We've heard Ohio and Jonathan's on the ground in Washington exposing it there. Welcome to the show. Jonathan cho, Frontlines tpusa.

[Jonathan Cho]

Hey, guys, thanks for having me.

[Andrew]

Yeah, man, you. So give us the rundown here. This fraud has been going on for who knows how long and you are uncovering it. And it appears that instead of like we're in Minnesota, they are we've Tim Wallace is saying he's not going to run for reelection. We have a new socialist mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson, who's promising to probably make things worse. Tell us, give us the lay of the land, what's the state of things in Washington?

[Jonathan Cho]

Well, first of all, credit to Nick Shirley, who busted this story wide open in Minnesota. And again, this Tim Walls finally saying he's no longer going to run for governor. Shirley's coverage had a lot to do with that. That's what also inspired, though, our coverage here in Washington. As soon as that story, you know, broke in Minnesota last week, independent journalist Cam higby along with citizen journalist Kristen Magnuson and I decided we needed to start looking here. Magnuson busted an entire list, identified more than 500 Somali run daycares. What we did was simply process of elimination. We went through the inspection histories, anything with red flags, serious violations, we decided to go after and we did a divide and conquer approach. So after just only four days now, and nearly 40 Somali daycares from Seattle to Kent to Auburn to SeaTac, all over South King county, we've uncovered what appears to be possible signs of Somali daycare fraud. In at least four cases, the daycare was officially registered with the state of Washington. But when we knocked on the door, either no one came to the door and only spoke to us through a ring camera and said, no, no daycare here. Never registered, or the person ran us off the property saying, no daycare. Go away.

[Andrew]

Wow. And you guys are definitely, I want, I want the audience to understand just how, how much you guys have ruffled feathers in the state of Washington. Throw up 144. This is NBC national. NBC is posting about your guys reporting, saying that, you know, essentially trying to downplay who you are far right, you know, YouTubers, independent journalists, so called, are now harassing local daycares because they happen to be Somali. Is that the truth you heard, heard Tim Waltz saying something similar, Jonathan, with, you know, basically calling him a conspiracy theorist and a right wing YouTuber, trying to downplay the significance of this work. What, what, what are you, what are you doing that's getting under their cross so much, Jonathan?

[Jonathan Cho]

Well, it does seem like that seems to be the playbook initially, at least for these Democratic elected officials and also the left wing corporate media. It's pretty much denied dismiss and, and then try to discredit. But at the end of the day, we have official public documents. You referenced Katie Wilson, the new mayor of Seattle. Just a few days ago we went to her inauguration and she pretty much admitted that her social media post right after this story broke, where she called, you know, all the people knocking on the doors of these Somali daycares to figure out whether or not actual fraud was happening. She referred to them as extremist influencers. And when Higby confronted her and I confronted her, she admitted she was talking about me. So we're clearly living rent free in her head. But again, all joking aside, the fact that a sitting official, this not only includes the mayor of Seattle, I'm talking about the Washington state Governor, Bob Ferguson, along with Attorney General Nick Brown. Instead of calling for a robust investigation into The Somali daycares, they're now playing defense. They're pointing fingers at President Trump. They're calling us harassers. So again, I think there's clearly a coordinated effort going on right now.

[Andrew]

We have that clip, Jonathan, of the New. She was just sworn in this morning, right.

[Jonathan Cho]

A couple days ago, Katie Wilson.

[Andrew]

Okay, so just sworn in. She's an act. When we say she's a socialist, she's actually a socialist. She's proud of this. She calls herself, she's a part of the Democrat Socialists of America. She narrowly won her election over the incumbent there. It was just a, you know, I guess more of a traditional Democrat. Here's 166. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson calling Jonathan Cho and Cam Higby extremist influencers. Which is, It's a bold claim, 166.

[Blake Neff]

That everyone has a place in Seattle.

[Liz Collin]

This is your city. That means that you belong here.

[Blake Neff]

Do, as you put it, extremist with influencers have a place in Seattle.

[Andrew]

Well, he's right here, so I guess so.

[Liz Collin]

Who, John?

[Blake Neff]

Well, I asked for, she, she said in her speech that everybody has a place in Seattle. And I, I said, Katie, you said.

[John Jubilee]

Everyone has a place in Seattle.

[Blake Neff]

Does that include, as you put it, extremist influencers?

[Andrew]

And she looked at you and she.

[Blake Neff]

Said, well, there's one standing right there. I guess so.

[Jonathan Cho]

And she's calling me an extremist influencer. I again, I triggered that post apparently.

[John Jubilee]

And then I asked her if her administration will investigate Somali daycare fraud.

[Blake Neff]

And she literally started pushing me away. All right, so staff ushered me away.

[Jonathan Cho]

So it's all on camera.

[Andrew]

We simply stood in line.

[Jonathan Cho]

We just wanted to ask her basic questions. But Katie Wilson and her administration. Afraid of questions, basically, yeah.

[Andrew]

Terrified of questions, yeah.

[Blake Neff]

That's amazing.

[Andrew]

Good for you, Jonathan. I mean, you know, Minnesota is getting all the attention, but Washington is an absolute hotbed of extreme actual extremists on the left. They're going to ruin that. That is a state that is a proud capitalist past. I mean, you've got Boeing, you've got Starbucks, you've got Microsoft, Amazon. There's Amazon. This is a proudly capitalist state. And it's kind of got this, people don't understand this. Like the Seattle area has this kind of Scandinavian heritage as well. Like very intrepid entrepreneurs, very self sufficient people. It's getting completely annihilated from, you know, I would say from progressive left. But the tax base, the massive influx of foreigners, the traffic in Seattle is horrendous. Now, by the way. But it's just I'm shocked at how much fraud we've explored, we've discovered already in Minnesota, but how much we're about to discover in Washington state. And the question that I then have, Jonathan, is that instead of, of investigating it, they're shooing you away. What is the reticence with actually investigating this fraud?

[Jonathan Cho]

Great question. You've got to ask them. And I want to be very clear. You know, people like me, Cam Higby, Kristen Magnuson and all the other citizen journalists who've been digging, it's because the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families, the actual agency, get this, that not only funds these Somali daycare, but is also supposed to investigate the daycares. Well, they're not doing their job. I mean, we've reached out to DCYF numerous times now. They're not returning our requests for comment. I called them several times. Their voicemail box is still full. So the best part of this is that DCYF also on its webpage put out a statement basically advising daycares on how to respond to all the people making inquiries. But there's no place at all on the website right now to make complaints about suspicious Somali daycares. I think the Washington State geo. Yeah, it does seem that way. And that's exactly what the Washington State GOP said. Jim Walsh, Travis Couture, two state representatives now also leading the charge here, trying to look into what's actually happening. They've gone, as you know, so far to say this is essentially a kickback scheme. We've also uncovered that a lot of these Somali daycare have donated to Democratic candidates. Not conservative Republican candidates, but Democratic candidates. So it's this vicious cycle that they're alleging. So again, we are at the very early stages of this investigation. In fact, Nick Shirley is a friend of ours. We've invited him, he might come here. We've talked to other journalists across the country. We are urging more eyes on this state.

[Andrew]

You know, it's shocking and I want to get back to the, this, this idea. I mean, I lived in Seattle, I went to University of Washington and when I was there it was like I said, proudly capitalist. This was a people that knew how to run. It was kind of like Minnesota, where it formerly used to be this sort of well run blue state. It functioned, there was order, kind of. The old Charlie used to talk about this all the time with the, the old Democrats that ran Chicago. They knew how to run a city. Yeah, they were Democrats, but it was sort of like the Old school version. Now you're getting, whether it's New York or Minnesota, you've got a, basically a communist running Chicago. Now you've got a communist. We'll just keep it what it is, a socialist running Seattle. I mean, this is a really scary trend that we're seeing. Socialist Seattle, communist socialists running Chicago, socialists running New York. I don't know what the heck is going on in Minnesota, but they're basically trying to give away every single dollar that comes into the coffers. And it is going to play out exactly how we know it's going to play out, where rampant fraud, rampant fleecing of the tax taxpayers and residents that are productive are going to flee the state. It's just there's, there's no. You, you mentioned this in Minnesota. New York's moving to Florida and other places. Illinois's filling up Phoenix. I can tell you that this, this city's full of Chicagoans that have fled the state. Have you, have you felt that already? And just kind of in the last couple of years, Jonathan, and now it's going to get worse. In Seattle. Are you seeing businesses starting to flee the state? Are you seeing people flee the state?

[Jonathan Cho]

Absolutely. The exodus has already begun. Just look at the data and the numbers. Downtown Seattle, the commercial real estate, the vacancies are at an all time high. You have property values starting to drop. You have people now, you know, for example, Amazon and Meta, they were going to expand in Seattle, but instead they're moving to nearby Bellevue, which is only 15 minutes away, which is safer, which is pro police and is simply a better run city. So what's happening now again in Washington? The concern is that all the patriots who were common sense have now left and there's no one left to fight. And maybe it is all by design that the GOP continues to pass these insane policies, frustrating common sense folk. And the folk who are gonna challenge them, they're no longer here to do that. So again, a lot of theories happening right now, but I'm seeing again, the data and I'm seeing people now voting with their feet. And that's what's happening in Washington.

[Andrew]

Yeah, and you saw that, you see that in California too. It's like if all the people would have just stayed and fought in California, you know, we probably could have won back Cal. Honestly, I mean, it's a bittersweet, you know, pill to swallow.

[Blake Neff]

I don't think we could have won it back.

[Andrew]

Oh, I do, I do. I come. I mean, if you, if you go back to the 90s, I mean, people were starting to flee the state, California in the 90s. I mean, we're talking millions of people over the last 25 years, 30 years.

[Blake Neff]

You should see how many votes we lost.

[Andrew]

Well, I mean, yeah, fair enough. I mean, you know, call me, call me a, you know, conspiracy theorist if you want, but I actually, it is a problem, though, because, and then, you know, states like Arizona get benefited from Texas, Florida. A lot of, a lot of red states are benefiting. Jonathan Cho, I know you are midway on this investigation. Please come back when you conclude it. We want to, we want to platform it, showcase it, make sure the world knows TPSA frontlines. Jonathan Cho, great American.

[Liz Collin]

Thank you.

[Jonathan Cho]

Thanks. We're dropping the story this week. Take care, guys.

[Andrew]

All right. We'll be right back. News flash, Democrats, America is a republic, not a democracy. Fact check.

[David Zier]

True.

[Andrew]

All right. Welcome back, Blake, you, we're going to get into, we're going to talk Thomas Massie in the next segment, but before we get there, because he's very against this Venezuela thing and I'm curious what the audience thinks. [e-mail] what are your thoughts on Trump's actions in venezuela? [e-mail], really want to hear from you on that. But in the meantime, Blake, you went up to the great frozen north and you survived.

[Blake Neff]

Yes, I did.

[Andrew]

For the break. What'd you do? I read that hideous Strang in America.

[Blake Neff]

Yeah, we kept, we kept talking about it with the ad, and that was the only one I hadn't read. So I went and read it.

[Andrew]

Hillsdale. It's a very weird book of the North. Is it?

[Blake Neff]

Yes, it's very strange. It's, it's not exact. It's, it's a dystopian novel like the others in that list, you know, 1984, brave new one, but it's a lot weirder. It has King Arthur related elements that pop up halfway through.

[Andrew]

Weird.

[Andy Biggs]

Very weird.

[Andrew]

Well, I now need to take the Hillsdale course.

[Blake Neff]

Exactly.

[Andrew]

We might also need, you might need.

[Blake Neff]

To read the Prelude books, too. It's a little less weird if you. It's the end of a trilogy. If you're reading it as your only book in that trilogy, you haven't read the first two. It's got to be one of the.

[Andrew]

Weirdest books you've ever read. I stayed in Phoenix and I shot off thousands of dollars. I didn't pay for them. But we went to this house and we got there with the kids and they had literal fireworks with the mortar Shells, you know, like 5 inch and 7 inch.

[Blake Neff]

Chris. New Year's fireworks.

[Andrew]

New Year's. Okay. Yeah, New Year's. Yeah. I mean, there was other houses doing it. I think it's fairly common.

[Blake Neff]

I thought you're gonna say, like, thousands of dollars worth of ammo, like you went rifle shooting. That sounds very Arizona.

[Andrew]

That would have been very cool, but we just fired them off. It was pretty fun. The kids enjoyed it. And I. I will tell you, I had a legitimate celebration. Is that probably the first that. Apparently it's very illegal in Arizona. I didn't do it. Well, I did it.

[Blake Neff]

You're throwing all the blame on your own children.

[Andrew]

It was my children.

[Blake Neff]

Very suspicious.

[Andy Biggs]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And the house that we're at, I can neither confirm nor deny that this story I've just told is true. But it's true. But I will tell you, I had a legitimate celebration. I was so ready for 2025. 2025 to be over. It was just a terribly tragic year, and we missed Charlie, and it's time to turn the page and have a new start. It really was. Final segment of the first show. Back begins in two seconds. All right, welcome back. So revisiting this topic, Thomas Massie, throw up at 185. He tweeted out, wake up, Maga. Venezuela is not about drugs. It's about oil and regime change. This is not what we voted for. And to that, Blake, your. Your response is.

[Blake Neff]

I think it's very funny that Trump comes out and basically says. He's like, we. We did this to take the oil. We're taking all the oil from Venezuela. And then everyone's pointing and saying, don't be tricked. This is about oil.

[Andrew]

Well, I mean, I do think that there. There is a little bit of this going on. I mean, I'll be. I'll be honest. I think there's a little bit of. We have the legal precursor with drugs and narco trafficking, and. And we have the indictments, and he's an illegitimate person. That's. You know, but this is about kind of. I would say this is about two things I'm gonna say one that is provable, one that is a bit conspiratorial. One that's provable. This is about the messy business of empire, and people don't like to hear it. But America, yeah, we're not an empire in sort of a classical Roman sense, but we are an economic behemoth, and we are a hegemon. And there are threats, threats to the hegemony. Right. There is the brics nations, there's Iran, Russia, China that are working to forge inroads in the Western Hemisphere, gain access to mineral rights, gain access to friendly dictators that will allow them to use their countries as playthings. And you've got, by the way, people, people don't understand how insidious the Cuban intelligence arm is, really. They, they, they have, have massive presence in the United States, but also throughout South America. It's their one.

[Blake Neff]

Let's not go too.

[Andrew]

It's their one export.

[Blake Neff]

What's their. Okay, they're insidious. What have they done?

[Andrew]

All right, just hear me out. So you've got all these, you've got all of these countries that have a presence that are not friendly to the United States in Venezuela. And here we have an opportunity to depose a dictator. You have legal ability to do it and there is a larger hemispheric rationale economically to do it. Okay, okay. Secondly, and this is where I'm gonna get your real eye rolls, more so than the Cubans. There is a story, and I would be remiss if I didn't bring it up, that suggests that Trump is. Because you've got these voting systems with the origin stories in Venezuela. Yes. This is going on on the Internet. So if you don't wanna hear it, maybe that's fine. I'm not saying I endorse it, I'm just saying people are saying, many people are saying Smartmatic and Dominion have origin stories, or at least one of them does in Venezuela. And the idea is that President Trump is doing this actually is some sort of 3D chess move to find out the truth about the 2020 election.

[Andy Biggs]

Good luck.

[Andrew]

You Smartmatic. Smartmatic. I don't. I'll be blunt.

[Blake Neff]

I hope that's not the case because I don't think if an American troop gets killed and it turns out that.

[Andrew]

They did this, I would.

[Blake Neff]

To go after Dominion. I think that would be a catastrophic error.

[Andrew]

Listen, listen, it's smartmatic, apparently. Anyways, so the point is that is a. One of the theories circulating is that there are, you know, Emerald Robinson, I think was one of the people that has reported on this just saying house inhabit. Did a whole thing on it. I saw it, it's going around. People need to be aware.

[Blake Neff]

That would be bad.

[Andrew]

I don't think that they're going to, you know, state this publicly, but I do think that, you know, President Trump starts posting on truth social media about the 2020 election right after Maduro.

[Blake Neff]

What I think is most interesting. Well, he always posts about the 2020 election. I think what's most interesting to me is that is the take that they told Trump, President Trump, that we're doing this for oil. And the math doesn't quite work out in that way. Like, Venezuela has a lot of oil, but it's not very good oil. It's not as profitable to extract as America's own oil. And also, since we're a net energy exporter, we don't necessarily love way lower oil prices. It's more complicated. But that they told President Trump this to kind of sell him on it because he does like that more mercenary attitude. He like, you know, with Ukraine where they're saying, okay, support Ukraine, but then we'll get this rare Earths deal. You get this more straightforward thing out of it. Or how he's always said we should have taken Iraq's oil. They almost need to sell him on any foreign intervention by saying, oh, yeah, and we can take the oil, too. And then he gets more about it. You did see that while they're all. They're doing it for the reasons you still state of keep out China or box in Cuba or spread democracy or. Or what have you.

[Andrew]

We got an email from Mike C. Apparently Danny's telling me all that your emails are pro Trump, anti Massey. So great. It says, great job. Andrew and Blake pleased with Trump's actions in Venezuela. Long overdue. Tired of the years of talk from weak politicians executing a fake war on drugs, the cartels and the third world thugs behind it. Let this be a lesson to Mexico, Colombia and Cuba. And I do think there is a point here, you know, and you saw Marco Rubio said it. Well, for those of you in the world that still want to mess around with America and you think that Trump's just a man of talk and press conference, that's not it. He is a man of action and there will be consequences. I still want to make sure that this plays out the right way. We don't get overextended, that the transition can happen to a friendlier government, to the United States. We can have an actual, real thriving Venezuela. That would be great if. And if. There's a lot. There's a lot between now and it's been boring.

[Blake Neff]

It's. It's good if it goes well. It's bad if it goes badly.

[Andrew]

I know. Well, winners win, losers lose. Great first show back. More to come tomorrow on the Charlie Kirk show right here in Real America's Voice streaming podcast everywhere else. We'll see you tomorrow.

[Blake Neff]

This is an Iheart podcast. Guaranteed human.