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- [00:04]
A
My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro American student organization in the country, fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You gotta stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a Turning Point USA College chapter. Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life. And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am, Lord.
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B
Use me.
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A
Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. The Charlie Kirk show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold. But the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends and viewers.
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B
All right. Welcome to the Charlie Kirk show. It is February 18, 2026. Blake, welcome.
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C
Howdy.
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B
Happy morning. Last night on Capitol Hill, the senior Trump political command briefed its core team on the midterms. This is reporting from Mark Halpern, a frequent guest on this show. And I am reading from an X account that he has given to all. Some great reporting from Mark Halperin here.
- [01:34]
C
I like his. He's got it here. It was a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club. So that's where Republicans often meet.
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B
The group was served chicken and steak.
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C
Very Halpern detail there. Gets the food, gets the food detail.
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B
It was a two hour program starting around 5:30. This is a veteran group. Not panicked or shaken, he says, just focused on the work and the task at hand. There were about 75 to 100 people in the room. Many Cabinet members were there, including, including Scott Besant, Howard Lucknick, RFK Sean Duffy, along with their most senior aides. The meeting, not the President, was hosted. No, not the President. The meeting was hosted by Susie Wiles, who spoke briefly the pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio, who Charlie loved, presented with about 25 slides on the data of what voters care about, the demographics, the issues, the messages that resonate and what do not. The economy will be. The economy will be the issue in the election. He said messages that break through. Banning stock trading for Congress. That's a message that breaks through.
- [02:36]
C
Yeah. So this is economic messages that get through the most is what he's saying here. So, yeah, banning stock trading for Congress. I Think that's a very interesting one. Transparency on health insurance data, including pricing and claims reimbursement, lower prescription drug costs and the Trump tax cuts.
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B
I think this is worth hovering though, for just a second. Again, this is Tony Fabrizio, one of the most famed respected pollsters in the entire, I guess, political scene, but especially within President Trump's.
- [03:08]
C
Was this the guy? I remember when Charlie, on election night, Charlie would be texting back and forth with like an unnamed person. He's like, he tells me, like, we got this, we got like, is that Tony or something?
- [03:18]
B
Yeah, there was a few of them on election night. One of them was dad Republican. Another one was Tony Fabrizio. And yeah, Charlie loved Tony. Tony is beloved by the Trump administration, by the team, trusted deeply. But again, let's just hover on these slides. I really love resonating.
- [03:34]
C
I do. Banning stock trading for Congress is an interesting one. I know people, I think that is underrated because I do think there's been really all the way back since the big crash in 08, over and over again, public attention goes back to how wealthy members of Congress are, how much wealthier they routinely get while they're in Congress. The fact that insider trading for a long time had no restrictions at all. It's still not that restricted now. There's always like new ways that you can cash in and people notice it. It's like you can literally follow.
- [04:09]
B
I see a theme in these issues that they list. There is a underpinning of the populist energy in each one of these. Right. And it's coming from a conservative angle. So the question is, how can you get wins that resonate, that stick in the brain of voters? You're also accomplishing a massive portfolio of policy agenda items that are having huge impacts actually on the economy, underlying economic momentum. But these are things that stick in the minds of normie people that are not plugged into the day in, day out of the political rigor.
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D
Moral.
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B
This is what I'm saying. Banning stock trading for Congress.
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C
That's so interesting because it's not really a thing that makes any individual person richer, but it captures the idea of, are the elites against us? Are they just exploiting us and playing by different rules?
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B
There is such a hunger in tackling the corruption and draining the swamp. Now we're gonna get to the putomic story in the next segment. So that brings a whole new meaning to draining the swamp. But that's what we're getting at, is that the voters, the grassroots, they wanna see accountability, they wanna See the elites that have been getting away with it in their minds for so long be held accountable. And these are the issues. It's not gdp. It's not even according to Tony Fabrizio, stopping the invasion at the border, which is a huge accomplishment that guaranteed has more impact on your daily life than any of the things I'm going to.
- [05:36]
C
We didn't read that. He actually says, apparently Fabrizio in his presentation, he said, this is from Mark Halpern. Taking credit for closing the border does not resonate much.
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B
Which does not resonate much is a.
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C
Bummer because it is an incredible accomplishment of this administration. But if it's not resonating, it's not resonating. You should still do it, of course, because it's good.
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B
Of course. But check it out. Let's read these again. Banning stock trading for Congress. Get those dirty corrupt politicians and Congress. Transparency on health insurance. Get big medicine, get big hospitals, get big insurance. We want to know what we're paying for. We want them to stop getting away with with it. Lowering prescription drug costs, stopping Big Pharma. And the Trump tax cuts. The Trump tax cuts will resonate because guess what? People are already experiencing about 11% boost in their tax returns. Housing affordability. This is a Charlie Kirk special and we're going to get into this in hour two with Secretary Scott Turner from HUD. And we're going to talk about that. J.D. vance had a great interview with Martha McCallan yesterday. Taking credit for closing the border does not resonate much to Blake's earlier point.
- [06:42]
C
I really. One last thing. And then I want us to move into this. I really like how it's not just, oh, we need a more of a domestic focus on the economy. It's that specific bit of this is a specific thing like banning stock trading or really honing in, like on prescription drug prices that will be noticed and will produce results 1,000%.
- [07:00]
B
And by the way, if you think back to the campaign, it was similar, right? No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. These were things that people could hang their hat on. They could say, oh, that sounds good. And by the way, it cuts through Normieville. It cuts through to Main Street. Yes.
- [07:15]
C
And speaking of stuff that goes back to 2024. So he goes on, he says he makes recommendations for how they should spend time in media. And he says spend time on podcasts and social media, not national news interview. No one's watching Meet the Press anymore. He says paid media should go on targeted media like that, social media apps, not on broadcast he says Facebook is still king for voters.
- [07:37]
B
People, then Instagram people are pushing back against this. And I want to push back against the pushback. Facebook is where normie voters live, AKA older voters.
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C
They are the ones who will reliably turn out Facebook. Facebook exists for one reason, and it's so boomers can share anti Obama, anti Biden memes.
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B
So there's actually data on this. It's older millennials who were the first generation to have Facebook, their parents and that X or in between zone. So it makes sense. They're original users, but they're still the most apt to vote. Right?
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C
Yeah, we have a minute here. They're targeting. He typoed this. It's 36 targeted House races and seven key Senate races. And they're Frank Fabizzio. And then James Blair gets up, the political czar, and they say historically, they know it's common for the president's party to lose seats, often a lot of seats in the midterms. They believe they'll only lose the Senate if we lose 50 House seats. So that's kind of an optimistic take. We're likely to keep the Senate, keep the ability to confirm Supreme Court justices, confirm appointees, and that's a true massive bloodbath. And I think they're aware as long as they take the right moves, they might lose seats. It's likely they'll lose seats, but not catastrophically. He says trying to argue about wages being up will not help. Voters just have to feel it. And then this is interesting. Apparently they said since President Trump wasn't there, he says Trump will do what he wants to do. He will say what he wants to say. He goes on guts and instincts. He's not as data driven, but everyone else, you know, they can stay on their message and they'll expect, you know, Trump has good instincts.
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B
They talk about it as a parallel path that everybody that can stay on message, do it. Trump's gonna go with his gut. He's gonna message on instinct. He's the president, after all. He's earned the right. As America turns 250 years old this year, we want to help good ranchers take a moment to remember the people who helped build it. Not the ones in the history books, but the ones who woke up before the sun season after season without seeking any sort of applause. And those people are America's ranchers. For over 250 years, ranchers have worked tirelessly to feed America through every kind of storm. Droughts, wars, recessions, pandemics, changing markets, changing politics. But they never stop. That's the kind of legacy Good Ranchers was built on. Unlike others, Good Ranchers is a Meat Co. 100% committed to America. Not just in words, but in practice. Every cut they offer is raised on local American farms and ranches, from the pasture to the final seal on every box. Their entire packaging and fulfillment process takes place right here in America. And if you ever have questions, their customer support team is also here in America today. To top it all off, with every order placed, Good Ranchers donates a portion of its profits to various veterans organizations. So as we head into a year meant to celebrate American culture, heritage, and the people who shaped it, Good Ranchers is standing right at the heart of that story. I'm actually a Good Ranchers subscriber myself. I love it. I love how easy it is to manage my orders. I also love it that if I get busy and I can't get one of the boxes shipped to my house, I'm just not there to receive it. I can pause or move any order in just a few clicks. It it's super simple to do it. It's built around your schedule to support a company that's committed to honoring America's past, present and future. Visit goodranchers.com today. And if you subscribe to any of their boxes of 100% American meat, you'll save up to $500 a year. Plus if you use our code, Kirk, you'll get an additional $25 off your order. That's Kirk K I R K for an additional $25 off your first order. On top of the $500 you already saved this year just for subscribing for goodranchers.com American meat delivered. So we want to get to this Potomac story as the Potomac, not the Potomac, because it has just experienced the largest sewage spill in U.S. history. 240 million gallons of raw sewage flooding the Potomac in one month. This has been going on for weeks, which is just remarkable, actually, that anything this catastrophic and horrific and smelly and gross and disgusting would be allowed.
- [11:44]
C
I can't imagine.
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B
Almost like we're the third world.
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C
I can't imagine just a giant poop smell permeating over the capital of the United States of America. Drain the swamp where all the politicians and power seekers are.
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B
I know, it's terrible. So here's the thing. There's multiple layers to this story. Let's start with NBC is finally covering this. 464.
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E
The River George Washington called the nation's river, is tonight off limits and contaminated after a 60 year old sewage line in Maryland broke open last month, spewing more than 240 million gallons of raw waste into the river. The same river that flows past the Kennedy center and the Lincoln Memorial and used by boaters, kayakers, high school and college rowing teams.
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D
So you can see some of the toilet paper and the sewage up on the banks there.
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E
This is Riverkeeper. Dean Nellokes says the stench and environmental damage are staggering, with E. Coli levels more than 10,000 times above EPA quality standards at the time of the spill.
- [12:44]
C
I think they could fix it. They could just take a box of like kitchen matches and you just light it and burn it for a bit.
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B
Yeah, well, if you set the Potomac on fire, it would probably clean it up faster than what they're going to do here. And they're saying this might not be fixed for nine months. Months.
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C
Yeah. It's just, I feel like that's, that's probably the most emblematic thing. It's that when you're decaying, you read like the Hoover Dam got built in like two years or something. The Empire State Building went up in nine months, I think less than a year.
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B
And now and Chinese are building ships and we can't fix a pipe for nine months.
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C
You don't even need to look at China. I remember Japan once, they raised an entire train line in a day. You can watch the time lapse. They just shut down the whole station. Did it all in one night. And now there's, there's a powerful symbolism in. It's already been a month. This is a, it's a six foot wide pipe. It's quite the, quite the, It's a.
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B
Huge scene and I guess some rocks.
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C
There's like a rock dam. So they investigate it like, oh, well, we have to clear this rock dam before we can cure the blockage. But yes, six months, nine months. And you know when they say it'll take nine months, that means it might take them a year, two years. They might just say, you know, ultimately it's now just the sewage river.
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B
It's the sewage river. It's the Potomac. And now President Trump is blaming Wes Moore for Maryland. The governor there, and the governor is blaming the feds. 465.
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E
President Trump has blamed Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Moore for gross mismanagement, while Moore fired back saying the pipe was federally built and regulated. And the Trump EPA has been slow to respond. The fear now the Potomac may not be safe for months. You used to swim right here.
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D
I've swam right here.
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E
Would you swim in here? Again?
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D
Not for a while.
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E
DC Water expects to have the immediate repair job done by mid March. But overhauling the entire line could take at least nine months.
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B
All right, so here is where it gets interesting. DC Waters manager David Gaddis had a whole theory of the case. What was wrong with the people running this system before? Hmm, I'll give you a couple guesses. 422.
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D
You know, when I arrived at DC Water, this was an organization that looked very similar to our, to our, our industry. It was predominantly, you know, white male at the top. But this is a utility that's, you know, more than 70% people of color work at this utility. The people at the top, the executives, the chiefs in that C suite, they should look like the employees that they, that they serve and that they work with. And the same thing with the community. And so my executive team, you know, looks exactly like the community. It looks like. It looks like the, the employees, the staff, you know, be it people of color, women.
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B
Well, now they have a river filled with poop.
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C
Yeah. So how did that work out? Yeah, so, okay, they. It used to be a bunch of white men running it, and they're the ones who built the pipe. They probably built it faster than they'll ever repair it here now. It worked for 60 years.
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B
Well, and then the fact that this was going for four weeks is another just damning detail.
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C
It's sort of. It just seems to have started as a small story and then just it keeps going and people are like, wait, there. If that's still going, there's still poo going in the river.
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B
You're telling me that the river that flows by the Kennedy center and the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial right through our nation's capital is filled with poo.
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C
Now, admittedly, I will, I feel obliged to point out that the Potomac actually has been polluted a long time. So I know when I moved to D.C. you were not supposed to swim in the Potomac. And there was like a decade long cleanup process. And I think maybe a couple years ago they finally said you could swim in it, and now it's just right back into the pool.
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B
Well, they have E. Coli levels at 10,000 times.
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C
Well, now, now you definitely can't. But even before, you were always told not to swim in it.
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B
Here's a general observation, because white men get a lot of crap. We get.
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C
We're the only group.
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B
It's like acceptable, acceptable to attack us.
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C
You have genocidal fantasies about them.
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B
Set the record straight, though. White men created Western civilization. They settled this continent. They built the most successful, functional, prosperous and advanced societies on planet Earth. And if you are going to go into the C suite of a utility that runs your sewage for millions of people and you remove us arbitrarily, whether that be culturally or in this case bureaucratically, don't be surprised when your city regresses to the historical mean. Most places on planet Earth have rivers filled with poop.
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C
If you want, if you want to understand exactly how this works, there's, there's a great X account. I'm going to shout it out to everyone and we should talk about it on Thought Crime next time we have it. It's a Twitter account called Jozie vs. Josie. That's J O Z I. So Josie vs. Josie. And it's Johannesburg, that's the nickname for it in South Africa and all. The only thing the account is is it's photos of Johannesburg from 2010, 2000, 1990, old photos of Johannesburg, but mostly like 2009, 2010 old Google Maps photos. So when they would just drive around and take photos. And then today, and that's all the account is and all you have is Johannesburg after another 15 years of. There's a lot of DEI. South Africa is basically the DEI country. It's in their laws, in their constitution. At this point you have to have African economic empowerment. I believe they call it Black economic empowerment. They'll have labels like that. And that is how they run their country. You can see how it's turned out.
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B
Rhodesia is another example of that. There's beautiful pictures of rhodesia from the 1960s and so.
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C
Or go. If you wanted a closer to home example, go to London like Charlie did last spring. You'll see beautiful building after beautiful building built 200 years ago. And they can't, they can barely even repair them now they're. They're talking about tearing down the palace of Westminster because it would be annoying to repair it.
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B
They can't do that.
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A
They, they.
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B
We should do regime change on them if they try to change, go that far. You know, be careful when you attack the people that uphold society, that produce in your society, that maintain it, that built it in the first place, you might just miss them when they are gone. And I think the Potomac story is a sad, sad reminder that villainizing white people often comes with steep costs. For a lot of Americans, the healthcare system is reactive. You get sick first and then you wait for an appointment. Then insurance decides what you're allowed to have and suddenly the medication you need is delayed or it's not available. That is where all family pharmacy is different. This is not a typical pharmacy, it's family owned. I know these guys, they're great guys. Works with licensed doctors and is built around a simple idea. That's the idea that you should have the freedom to make informed choices about your own health and the ability to prepare ahead of time so you're not reactive anymore. You're already prepared.
- [19:43]
A
You do not need insurance, you don't need to beg a doctor, just simple, fast, honest care. This is what healthcare should look like in America with you in control.
- [19:51]
B
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- [20:31]
C
We get contacted all of the time by viewers and listeners.
- [20:37]
B
Of this show about California.
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C
They always want to ask about California. They say, can you guys save California? And Charlie was always honest. We're always honest and we say we're focused on the core swing states, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia, places like that. And California, if you're there, you should fight for it, you should do everything you can. But it's not imminently about to flip. But there is a governor's election this year and California has a very interesting law. They have jungle primaries which is regardless of party, everyone into a big pot and the top two vote getters go to the general. And that's how it works. And they did this so they could get more left wing people. In a lot of the country you'd only have two Democrats. You could get a more left wing one versus a moderate and so on.
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B
Yeah, they wanted a Dem versus a Dem.
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C
But a side effect of just a big jungle primary is, well, it's a blue state. There are six Democrats at least running in the governor's race and there's only two Republicans. Yesterday we got this poll. It's apparently done by Tavern Research and is an internal poll for the Javier Becerra campaign. And These are top two advance. The top two polling are Chad Bianco, 20%, Steve Hilton, 12%. Well, and then six Democrats.
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B
And this is what's great. So I called Steve yesterday, I was like, steve, you're in the top two. Like this is great. And he goes, oh, that's a fake poll. And just, you know, his wonderful English accent saying, oh, that's a fake poll. Wait till you see what comes out tomorrow. So now we have a new poll and I'm struggling to get the number. Here it is 450. So put up the new one. I think this is for Emerson. Did a, did a poll. Steve Hilton's actually at 17%. In December, he was down at 12%. So if you go to the left side of that graph, he is now pulled ahead as the top poll poll receiving most favorable. Of all the candidates, this one has Swalwell. Yeah. Eric Swalwell as number two. Chad Bianco the other Republican at number three.
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C
But also they're both at 14. So effectively tied for.
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B
Secondly, tied for second, top two advance, Porter Steyer, Sarah Villaragosa. And then undecided is still a huge chunk because, because, you know, it's early.
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C
If we were to get, if we were to get it where just two Republicans are the nominees in California for the governorship, that would be, that would possibly be the funniest thing I've seen in state level politics. It basically would be a literal coup. We would take over the state.
- [23:07]
B
Well, without further ado, one of those men and apparently the, the leading candidate for the governor of the state of California, Steve Hilton, joins us now. Steve, congratulations on these new breaking poll results. You are at 17%. I mean, this a massively crowded field. So to get to 17 is a huge accomplishment. Welcome back to the show. Tell us what it means.
- [23:30]
F
Well, it's great to be with you guys. Always fun. And I really appreciate the way you laid all that out there. Exactly right. We've got this ridiculous top two system and there is a crazy scenario, as you were just mentioning, where you could get two Republicans in the top two. That's theoretically possible. But in practice it's not going to happen because the Democrat machine is not just going to surrender California. And right now they are. There's another thing that's happened which is as well as the existing candidates that have been in the race for a while, people like I can barely say their names without laughing that these are the, these are, as the president would say, they're not sending their best. When you think about the Democrats, Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, the billionaire climate fanatic, Tom Steyer. Well, on top of that you've got another one now, a guy called Matt Mahan. He is the mayor of San Jose. No one's really heard of him, but he's got big tech money behind him and they, that's going to propel him up. He's got a lot of money and, and the other on the other side of it, the unions, they always get behind one candidate. They're going to pick their puppet, as it were, and it looks to me like they're getting behind Eric Swalwell. So within a couple of weeks, even maybe, certainly within months, you will get two very well funded Democrats moving up purely because of all the money that the government unions and the tech communities are putting in. So the real risk actually is that we get two Democrats in the top two. That's what I'm really concerned about. And then of course, the chance for change in California is gone and it has a massively negative impact on the, on the other races in California. If there's no Republican in the governor's race, you can forget about any of the congressional seats in California that are in play that we absolutely need to protect the House majority. You can forget about voter ID which is on the ballot.
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C
I want to have an update on.
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B
That, Steve, actually, because we had Calvert on the show giving us the update. Where we stand on that right now.
- [25:31]
F
Fantastic. It's qualified for the ballot. We've got more than enough signatures. It's been led by, Ken has been great on it. A friend of mine, Carl DeMaio, has been really working hard. I've been on the road getting signatures as well. It's qualified for the ballot. This is huge. It's not just huge in its own right because it helps stop the cheating. It actually is a big part of why I believe we can really win this year because voter id, of course, as we know, it's popular across the board even in California, even among California Democrats there's a majority for voter id. But of course it's really popular with Republicans. That means it's going to really help the turnout in November and in a midterm. As you know, that's what it's all about, getting your voters out. And so it's one of the main reasons I think we can actually win this year, truly win in November and elect me governor. Is voter ID being on the ballot?
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B
Well, and listen, there is, I mean there is probably no politician in the United States so loathed and so mocked, save for like AOC and Ilhan Omar as Eric Swalwell. I mean, this the fact to see his name ahead of Katie Porter shocked me, actually, because, yeah, Katie Porter is. Got a terrible bedside manner. She's terrible to her staff. She's meant to, but, you know, she's a little like Eric Swalwell.
- [26:54]
C
Also, we have to weigh the possibility that she may, if the race is close, simply eat Eric Swalwell.
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B
You do not have to chime in on any of this if you don't want to. Steve Hilton.
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F
Well, I will say one thing, which is I can't decide between them. What is my preference? You know, Katie Porter with the endless opportunity for mashed potato jokes or Eric Swalwell with the, you know, possibilities for Fang Fang. I can't decide.
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B
There's flatulating on camera. There's Fang Fang. And now the new one is his erotic poetry. He's given Stacey Abrams a run for her money.
- [27:30]
C
It was.
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B
He once penned a graphic. I will say charge college poem boasting of lovers kissing till veins imploded and exploded with blood rolled down our chins. Okay.
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C
Formless and magnificent. A flurry of limbs and nails, I.
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B
Guess, you know, a flurry of limbs and nails.
- [27:49]
C
All of us.
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B
It's bad poetry.
- [27:51]
C
He was. He was 19. I guess all of us were cringe once. But it is very funny.
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F
So right now I'm gonna. Okay, I think I'm gonna stick to saying my plan is for $3 gas in California because we're gonna end the Democrats climate insanity. That's my response to that.
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B
Well, yeah. And what are you seeing resonating on the. On the campaign trail? Because we just got this interesting report from Mark Halperin talking on the national level. They want to see banning stock trading. They want to see price transparency at hospital. So Fabrizio is giving the president and the administration these messaging line items that will pierce the noise. Right. What's piercing the noise in California?
- [28:34]
F
So we're on the road. I mean, you can see it behind me because this is. I'm on the road with. We call it the California tour because it's all of these. Everything is the most expensive in California than anywhere else in the country. So my plan is incredibly. You got end the Democrat climate crusade. So you get $3 gas, cut electric bills in half. We have the highest gas prices in the country, even though we have abundant oil reserves higher than Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We have the highest electric bills everywhere apart from Hawaii. These are the concerns. Tax is the highest in the country. Every rent, housing, all of these things. You know, Charlie used to talk about and that's one of the things that so resonates, of course for all of us is that simple American dream. You know, get married, raise a family, buy your own home, a good decent life. They've made that impossible. In California it's actually those simple things. $3 gas, cut your electric bills in half, your first hundred grand tax free, a home you can afford to buy. That's really what people are responding to and I think that's. And the Democrats have no answer, like literally nothing to say about any of that. And the idea that we're just going to have more of the same of this nonsense in California is just unthinkable. So that's why I'm sure we can.
- [29:46]
B
Win the regulatory burden, especially on gas. The refinery situation didn't just the refinery just shut down. My family in Nevada was telling me gas in Nevada spiked because a refinery shut down in California. And now there's a report out of Bloomberg that gasoline starved California is turning to fuel from the Bahamas. This just came out from Bloomberg. Gasoline starved California is turning to fuel from the Bah. California is so inept, they need fuel from the Bahamas. Alright, Steve, here's a question for you. Are you and Chad talking? What's it gonna take to unite the Klans, consolidate the field? You can answer however you want, but it seems to me, look, we do.
- [30:30]
F
We'Ve got to avoid splitting the vote. That's really important. Otherwise we could end up with two Democrats and that's an absolute calamity. So the truth is that for, for, you know, months now, actually I've been, I've made it clear my door is open. I'm building a team to get this done. It's never actually been done like this in California. I've got a running mate for Lieutenant Governor, Gloria Romero. Michael Gates, a fantastic fighter, running with me for Attorney General. He was a, he was the city attorney in Huntington beach, worked for the Trump administration with Hamit Dylan in the Justice Department. Herb Morgan running for state Controller. We've set up Cal Doge to find the fraud. So I'm building a team already and I love Chad to be part of that. I don't see any interest on his side.
- [31:12]
B
Steve Hilton for governor. Charlie Kirkendor. Steve Hilton for governor. We're behind you 100%, my friend. Keep going. Thank you. Keep going.
- [31:19]
F
Great to see you.
- [31:22]
B
Hi folks, Andrew Colvett here. I'd like to tell you about my friends over at why Refi. You've probably been hearing me talk about why Refi? For some time. Now we are all in with these guys. If you or someone you know is struggling with private student loan debt, take my advice and give them a call. Maybe you're behind on your payments, maybe you're even in default. You don't have to live in this nightmare anymore. Why? Refi will provide you a custom payment based on your ability to pay. They tailor each loan individually. They can save you thousands of dollars and you can get your life back. We go to campuses all over America and we see student after student who's drowning in private student loan debt. Many of them don't even know how much they owe. Yrefi can help. Just go to yrefi.com that's the letter Y. Then refi.com and remember why Refi doesn't care what your credit score is. Just go to yrefi.com and tell them you your friend Andrew sent you. According to Axios, Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran. So this is a. The sources noted it would likely be a joint US Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope and more existential for the regime than The Israeli led 12 day war last June, which US eventually joined to take out Iran's underground nuclear facilities. So this, this is a huge buildup here. So we'll go through the numbers here. Trump's armada has grown to include two aircraft carriers, a dozen warships, hundreds of fighter jets, and multiple air defense systems. Some of that firepower is still on.
- [32:58]
C
The way and people have been seeing how over the last few days a lot of the logistical stuff has been because you can monitor those flights. So tankers have been flying across the ocean, this, the supply vehicles that would support a major effort. All of that is heading from Europe, from the United States. Like you get that long term buildup that would let them have sustained action against the country.
- [33:19]
B
Exactly. So more than 150 US military cargo flights have moved weapons systems and ammunitions to the Middle east just in the past 24 hours. Another 50 fighter jets, F35s, F22s and F16s headed to the region. So what they say is between the lines, the stand up with Iran has gone on so long, many Americans are likely numb to it. Maybe not. I wouldn't say the base is numb to it. The Twitterati are numb to it.
- [33:44]
C
What they're getting at, what they're getting at is this is a bigger buildup than we had last summer, than we've had at other times, and yet this is the fourth segment of the hour. It's not what we led the show with. We haven't really been talking about it. It's been in the background compared to shutdown in Washington, compared to the ICE stuff, compared to basically a lot of other issues. And there's no. I think if you were to say, if we were to. If Trump were to go on air and say we're launching a regime change war against Iran, I think a lot of people would be wondering why it's happening now. Last summer, there was actual war between Iran and Israel. All of that was going on.
- [34:19]
B
Their argument would be that there is this mass uprising and then the regime came in, crushed it. We're talking with tens of thousands of dead protesters, which is obviously horrendous, but there's horrendous things that happen all over the world. Now, the pro Iran lobby would say this is the time you could push them over the top, etc. Etc. So this is what's interesting here, the timeline. The Israeli government, which is pushing for a maximalist scenario targeting regime change as well as Iran's nuclear missile programs, is preparing for a scenario of war within days, according to two Israeli officials. Some US Sources tell Axios that the US Might need more time. Senator Lindsey Graham. This is the part what got my. Perked my ears right up. Senator Lindsey Graham said strikes could still be weeks away, but others say the timeline could be shorter. This is what it says. The boss is getting fed up. Some people around him warn against going to war with Iran, but I think there is a 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks. One Trump advisor said. And what is prompting a lot of this is that there has been attempted Iran, US Diplomatic negotiations going on, and there is no evidence of a diplomatic breakthrough of the run on the horizon. But there's more and more evidence that war is, in fact now imminent.
- [35:37]
C
Now, we should know that the President has done this a few times. We had. We had the long buildup in Venezuela. I feel like everyone thought we were going to topple that government and then instead he just yoinked out Maduro. And instead you have much. Just kind of a much friendlier relationship with essentially the same government still.
- [35:54]
F
Yeah.
- [35:54]
B
And all reports from Venezuela, to be fair, you even have former General Petraeus, retired General Petraeus, praising Trump's handling of Venezuela, which is interesting. And all reports indicate that it's going well. Now there's gonna be bumps along the road. There's no doubt in a country that large and that's been that chaotic for that long, there's gonna be bumps along the road. But that is one scenario that seems to be going well and that was ahead of a snake operation. Right? You, you take out Maduro, you provide a, an olive branch to the rest of the government. Seems to go, well, maybe he could pursue a similar.
- [36:24]
C
Maybe I would be skeptical of that. Now, as, as they always say, like who, who runs around. It's as they would say, you know. SEAN hannity, VOICE like the mullahs in Iran, the mullah it is. You have the ayatollah, but the ayatollahs and a really old guy who's a cleric.
- [36:38]
F
He's.
- [36:39]
C
It's not a cult of personality around one guy.
- [36:41]
B
It is a guy who loves to tweet.
- [36:43]
C
It is a theocratic regime. I mean, they, they're strong enough that they had military forces who could crush a large uprising in the country.
- [36:50]
B
You would.
- [36:51]
C
And also, it's a much more, I think, ideologically hostile regime. I mean, it's a regime itself, is religious extremists. It's not even just kind of communist. It is full bore apocalyptic types.
- [37:03]
B
Probably the most aggressive from a messaging standpoint, regime in the world against the American Communist.
- [37:07]
C
Exactly. And so I don't think it's the sort of thing where you could helicopter out one guy and they'd be much friendlier. And I think it is the sort of thing where if you were going to go in, you would have to overthrow the government and install a new one. And at that point, you're risking more U.S. troops. It's a more expensive operation, no matter what happens. And we were just talking at the top that the goal is to pivot towards domestic stuff, message on the economy, message on drug prices. I think it would be difficult to mix that with this sort of war unless President Trump was highly confident it could be a rapid, decisive operation with no permanent US Footage.
- [37:48]
B
But do you remember what Trump said during the 12 day war? He said, we could have taken the ayatollah out. We had his location, we could have done it. He opted not to then. So it's an interesting thing to keep in the back of your mind that he, we have the capability certainly to do it from a military standpoint. The question is, would that be part of this?
- [38:07]
C
You can see how they may have even been selling the president on this, that for, for example, a lot of people, us included, were very concerned last summer this would escalate into a quagmire. And instead they said, no, we can do one strike. They won't detect it, There will be no losses, and it'll succeed. And they did that with the strikes. Similar thing in Venezuela. I think a lot of people would have said this is a very risky operation where a lot of soldiers could be killed. And instead, total success, no U.S. losses. And we took them all out. And they were completely humiliating for the regime such that they basically had to submit to us because they're worried we could blow them all to smithereens with no losses. So you can sort of see how the people who are most concerned that an intervention would become a quagmire have. We should just say it. They have been incorrect. And the people who've said we can do this easily with no losses have been correct several times. Then, yeah, I have to offer that caveat, that if you do that over and over, eventually you do get unlucky and you. You only have to get unlucky once and we're in another five, ten year mess.
- [39:11]
B
So the Ayatollah, I was just looking at his Twitter feed, you know, and you gotta imagine this is playing into President Trump's psychology here because you don't threaten America when President Trump is president and basically get away with it. Americans say, come negotiate with us about your nuclear energy. And the result, by the way, nuclear energy, eh? It's not just energy you guys want. We know better. And the result would be that you won't have that energy. There is no need to negotiate. But if a negotiation were to take place, predetermining its outcome is misguided and stupid approach. That's Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini.
- [39:48]
C
We have another one.
- [39:49]
B
Yeah, go ahead.
- [39:50]
C
Well, we have another tweet473 where he says the President keeps saying they have the strongest military force in the world. The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again, which then. They really love to broadcast these. Every Arab war or every Middle Eastern war is like threatened, total annihilation of our enemies.
- [40:13]
B
Die. One last thing. Iran has tried to kill President Trump. That's going on in the back of his head, too. Don't forget that.
- [40:25]
C
For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.