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Podcast Host/Commentator
The Republican leaders are in complete disarray. This Republican event over the weekend, the Turning Point USA event in Phoenix following the passing of Charlie Kirk, this was a complete disaster. You had MAGA Republicans who were out there screaming at one another saying that the Republican Party is actually dead. This influencer was attacking that influencer. You had Nicki Minaj as a surprise guest, and she referred to J.D. vance as an assassin and said that, oh, we've got an assassin JD Vance here. And then everybody was like, you're at a Charlie Kirk event and you're calling J.D. vance an assassin. Then you had Erica Kirk had this Freudian slip where she referred to somebody as, oh, your grift is just as big as Charlie's grift. I mean, gift. I mean, grit. And it got even worse from there. You had J.D. vance give a speech and he's like, we no longer apologize for being white. It's white people.
Audio Cue/Producer
Really.
Podcast Host/Commentator
I mean, what in the world? Can I just show you what went down here? So, you know, here you had, at the very beginning, you had Erica Kirk talk about this Freudian slip where she's like, yep. And just like Charlie, you. You've got all of this grift here.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Erica Kirk
Despite the devastating loss of Charlie, Charlie Kirk, my incredible husband at uvu, Caleb has persisted with the same grift. Excuse me. Gift, grit. It has been a long day. Trust me, you're not a grifter, honey. It's all good.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then the special guest from Sunday was Nicki Minaj, who referred to J.D. vance as an assassin while speaking to Erica Kirk here.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Nicki Minaj
And you have amazing role models like the assassin JD Vance, our vice president. And when I say that.
Erica Kirk
Trust me, there's nothing new under the sun that I have not heard. So you're fine. Yes, we did. I love you.
Nicki Minaj
I love you.
Erica Kirk
You have to laugh about it. Truly, I have been called every single thing. And you know what? God is so good, you let it roll right off your back. And this is what's so beautiful about this moment. Because if the Internet wants to clip it. Who cares? I love this woman. She's an amazing woman. She has a soul and a heart for the Lord.
Podcast Host/Commentator
And then Nicki Minaj continues by threatening the life of California Governor Gavin Newsom. She's at an event with Charlie Kirk's widow, and she's there and they're all applauding. And Charlie Kirk's widow, Erica Kirk, does nothing here. She doesn't call it out. Threatening. This sounds like threatening the life of California Governor Gavin Newsom. I'll let you listen to it for yourself.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Erica Kirk
Mr. Newsom.
Nicki Minaj
Dear Newscom, We don't have a problem cleaning up the scum if we have to. Please tread lightly. That's what I would say to Gabby Poo.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then you have JD Van saying that because of us, we don't have to apologize for being white anymore. I just wonder what his wife Usha and Usha's family thinks about all of this. And by the way, Vivek Ramaswamy was speaking at this event, too, and he was like, trying to be like, we're an inclusive party now. And then you've got JD Vance basically up there doing this white supremacist stuff. Here's what JD Vance says.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Narrator/Advertiser
In the United States of America, United States, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then you have Don Jr. Spending his time on the speech just attacking the Republican Party. He says the Republican Party is dead. The Republican Party doesn't exist anymore. We're now the MAGA party.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Donald Trump Jr.
The Rhinos, you see the manufactured attacks on JD myself, my father, anyone.
Audio Cue/Producer
Who.
Donald Trump Jr.
Understands that this isn't the Republican Party anymore. It's the America first party. It's the Make America Great Again party, and we are not going back.
Podcast Host/Commentator
And then more from Don Jr. Over here saying that, you know, diversity is not our strength. And he's like. And again, he's like, the real enemies right now also are the Republicans, the gop. They're the ones who have turned Minnesota into little Somalia. Like, everything is, like, racist and hateful from these. All these people do is just seed with hate.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Donald Trump Jr.
It falls on so many of the weak Republicans who just capitulated to the D.C. swamp. And we're going to put an end to that, too. Some of the loud advice and even in the Republican Party demanded we bring in tens of thousands of unvetted Afghan refugees. For years, they turned Minnesota into little Somalia. How's that working out for anyone?
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then you have maga Mike Johnson. His speech was like, if we don't win, if we don't win in these midterms, Trump's gonna get impeached. This is what MAGA Mike had to say.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
MAGA Mike Johnson
Everything, as has been said here, everything is on the line in the midterms of 2026. And we have much more to do. But if we lose the House majority, the radical left, as you've already heard, is going to impeach President Trump. They're going to create absolute chaos. We cannot let that happen.
Podcast Host/Commentator
And then you had this like weird idolizing of Charlie Kirk, like MAGA Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina l said, you know, when we gotta really focus on when we get back to Congress and we get back into town, we're gonna build a statue of Charlie Kirk in the U.S. capitol. You know, can we just get healthcare? Can you just make things more affordable? Could you give people affordable healthcare and not rip away their Affordable Care act subsidies? Can you make housing more affordable? Can, can you make sure that people can get paid with dignity and afford homes and afford their rent? Charlie Kirk statues here.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Nicki Minaj
More importantly, I want to record this and send it to him. So I need you guys to get a little vocal.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Do you think the speaker of the.
Nicki Minaj
House should put a statue of Charlie Kirk of the U.S. capitol? Because we've been having issues getting it done.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then MAGA Mike runs within and MAGA Mike's like, and we're going to do the Charlie Kirk statue at the Capitol.
MAGA Mike Johnson
We're no longer in a battle, no longer in a contrast just between Republicans and Democrats. We're in a contrast between two completely different diametrically opposite opposed worldviews. Charlie stood for that. I knew him a long time. And yes, Andy Biggs, we're going to work on that statue in the Capitol. Okay?
Podcast Host/Commentator
Charlie Kirk statute. Look, as I've said before, we've condemned political violence. What happened to Charlie Kirk was absolutely horrific. The shooter, by the way, as you know, who's on trial, comes from a Republican. MAGA families wasn't like a leftist liberal person at all. Like, these people come from MAGA families. They're gun toting gun, you know, God, fear, you know, they're like gun people who talk about, you know, their love of Mormon, Mormons with guns, whatever it was over there, it was like a religious family, you know, and this is not at all what Mormonism teaches. I want to be very clear about just a religious family that was whatever. And this is what. And this is how they attack, you know, leftist liberals.
Audio Cue/Producer
Ridiculous.
Podcast Host/Commentator
By the way. They then have a tent area at this event that recreates where Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip and you can.
Nicki Minaj
See from behind me. This is a recreation of the tent where Charlie Kirk lost his life at Utah University in September. And people are taking selfies with it.
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Podcast Host/Commentator
Then you had, you know, different people attacking each other. So you had Steve Bannon saying that Ben Shapiro is a cancer.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Steve Bannon
Shapiro is like a cancer and that cancer spreads. It's a cancer and it metastasizes. He tried to take over Breitbart and I ran him out of there. He tried to take over David Horowitz's who was his mentor? Don't ask me. Ask the guys associated with David Horowitz what he did there. He tried to take that over and mark my word, he will make a move on Turning Point because he's always been envious of Charlie Kirk.
Podcast Host/Commentator
You had Ben Shapiro attacking Candace Owens and Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson and saying that they spread conspiracies and that they're charlatans and that the MAGA movement shouldn't trust them.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Ben Shapiro
The conservative movement is also in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism. And dishonesty, who offer nothing but bile and despair, who seek to undermine fundamental principles of conservatism by championing enervation and grievance. These people are frauds and they are grifters and they do not deserve your time. And they are something worse than that, a danger to the only movement capable of stopping the left from wrecking the country wholesale.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then you have Candace Owens responding right after Ben Shapiro's speech. And she says, truly, Ben Shapiro, I don't even want to read what she says. Just. I'll let you listen to what she says.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Nicki Minaj
I'm here to let you know that I'm done with it. I am done with it. This one is so fully off of the mother effing plantation. Truly, Ben Shapiro. Fuck you and the midget horse that you rode in on.
Podcast Host/Commentator
And then Ben Shapiro says that anybody who's out there and denies what the regime is saying about the Epstein files. If you're denying what Cash, if you're, if you believe that Cash Patel is lying and Dan Begino was lying and Trump and Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche and there's something wrong with you. What's. What are you saying? Shapiro?
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Ben Shapiro
They're seeding distrust in the world around you, and they are enervating you in the process. So, for example, if many speakers, including Tucker Carlson and others, get on stage here at TPUSA and claim without proper evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was running a Mossad rape ring being covered up by the Trump administration, they are not actually uncovering a conspiracy or effectuating a solution. They are claiming a special provenance to information they won't let you see, which builds their power and leaves you with none. They are also implicating in their speculation actual human beings, which good human beings like Cash Patel and Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi and, yes, the President of the United States, even if they're too cowardly to say President Trump's name, and that means you won't trust those good people in the future. You haven't gotten smarter, you've just been manipulated. When forced to demonstrate their evidence, these same people will often refuse to provide it. They'll claim ignorance. They'll pretend they're outside the system and they don't have access to actual information. You know, they're just asking questions. But many of these same people have direct pipelines to informational sources. So, for example, if Tucker wants answers to his questions about, say, Jeffrey Epstein, he could call the Vice President of the United States. He's quite close with him, but he won't because that might undermine the empty speculation.
Podcast Host/Commentator
More from JD Vance, where JD Vance says that the only thing that our nation is truly anchored in is being a Christian nation. That's the only thing our nation is anchored in. J.D. vance, first off, who are you? J.D. vance, you've had three different, different names, okay? J.D. vance is your third identity. You grew up and said you were gay, and then you said that actually you got conversion therapy or you're not gay anymore or that you thought you were gay and you. It was mistaken. And then you said, then you said that you were, you know, this guy from Appalachia and you were representing just the hard workers of Appalachia and you were an anti Trumper and you hated Trump. You said Trump's like Hitler. That was, you know, you compared him to that, and then you're a pro Trumper, and then you've changed your name and identity along the way. You said you were gay, now you're anti gay. You know, you, you, you said you afford diversity. Now you hate diversity. Just such a phony.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Narrator/Advertiser
More than any time I can recount, people are talking about American identity and figuring out what it is that unites us. But I want to say something here. The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be a Christian nation.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then J.D. vance refers to Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett as her street, having a quote, street girl Persona, just like obvious heinous racism. Street girl Persona? What the hell are you talking about? These are such vile people.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Narrator/Advertiser
And Jasmine Crockett. Oh, Jasmine Crockett. The record speaks for itself. She wants to be a senator, though her street girl Persona is about as real as her nails. But ask.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Then JD Vance's rally call to the audience was, do we all want faster deportations anyway?
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Narrator/Advertiser
Do you want faster deportations? So go to ice.govjoin because we're building an army of patriots and we need good people who care about the country to help us secure the border and do it even faster.
Podcast Host/Commentator
More from Nicki Minaj here. And Nicki Minaj is like, you know, the. One of the important things that we should realize as black women is why are we making white women with blonde hair and blue eyes feel bad? Why? Why? Why should we make the blonde hair, blue eyes ladies feel bad if we love ourselves? What are you even talk. I don't even understand what do you? What do you mean? Who's making blonde hair, blue eyes People feel bad. What?
Audio Cue/Producer
What?
Podcast Host/Commentator
What are you talking about?
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Nicki Minaj
Why would we now need to make other people downplay their beauty so that we can feel. No, that's not how it works. I don't need someone with blonde hair and blue eyes to downplay their beauty because I know my beauty. Do you understand?
Podcast Host/Commentator
And then Donald Trump couldn't be bothered to even be at this event, so Don Jr. Had him, like, on speakerphone and this is what an adult Donald Trump sounded like.
Audio Cue/Producer
Play this clip.
Steve Bannon
Oh, I would. I want to be with you, but I'll be with you soon. And I just want to say that nobody did more for me than Charlie, and there's nobody better than Erica. And you are the greatest people on earth. We won in a landslide and we're going to continue to do it. And I just want to thank everybody you got out there. And they, they voted and they pressed doorbells and I just want to thank you all and I hope my son's doing a good job representing me. Otherwise I'll have to say, you're fired, Don. You're fired.
Podcast Host/Commentator
And then Nicki Minaj finished her whatever you even want to call this by saying, my message to young men is don't be a new scum. Don't be a new scum. Be like the dashing. She professed her love for Donald Trump.
Audio Cue/Producer
Here, play this clip.
Nicki Minaj
People with heart and soul, and they make me proud of them. Our vice president, he makes me. Well, I love both of them. They're both powerful men, smart, strong, all of that.
Podcast Host/Commentator
Just I want to mention as well that at this Turning Point event, you had the Department of Homeland Security, they were advertising job recruitment there. So you have all of that kind of radicalization that you saw, right? And then as they get the people to get all fired up and say this is a white nation and all these things, then the Department of Homeland Security's there and they go. DHS is at turning point in USA's Amfest. We're looking for American patriots willing to defend the homeland and honor the vision of America Charlie Kirk fought for. Swing by our tables to learn more than a Seth Kotler says, nothing to see here. Just a right wing, hyper nationalist government going to their party's youth event sponsored by a group with a martyred leader they've pledged to avenge. Recruiting people to join their masked police force devoted to removing Auslanders from the homeland. There you have it. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe let's get to 6 million.
Podcast Sponsor/Advertiser
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Podcast Host/Commentator
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Episode: GOP Event INSTANTLY BLOWS UP as SPEAKERS Attack EACH OTHER
Date: December 22, 2025
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
This episode unpacks the chaos and infighting at the latest Turning Point USA event in Phoenix, following the recent passing of Charlie Kirk. The hosts, in their usual sharp and comedic style, break down the bizarre moments, intra-GOP hostilities, white nationalist rhetoric, and performative outrage that punctuated the event. Central to the discussion is how MAGA figures have turned on each other, publicly aired grievances, and doubled down on extreme rhetoric and conspiracy-laden attacks—not just against Democrats and progressives, but also against moderate Republicans and their own former allies.
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Incident | |-----------|---------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:52 | Erica Kirk | “Caleb has persisted with the same grift. Excuse me. Gift, grit.” | | 03:48 | Nicki Minaj | “Dear Newscom, We don't have a problem cleaning up the scum if we have to. Please tread lightly.” | | 04:42 | JD Vance | “In the United States… you don't have to apologize for being white anymore.” | | 05:15 | Donald Trump Jr.| “This isn’t the Republican Party anymore. It's… the Make America Great Again party...” | | 07:51 | MAGA Mike Johnson | “We’re going to work on that statue in the Capitol.” | | 10:41 | Steve Bannon | “Shapiro is like a cancer and that cancer spreads.” | | 11:30 | Ben Shapiro | “These people are frauds and they are grifters and they do not deserve your time.” | | 12:13 | Candace Owens | “Truly, Ben Shapiro. Fuck you and the midget horse you rode in on.” | | 15:02 | JD Vance | “We… always will be a Christian nation.” | | 15:46 | JD Vance | “Her street girl Persona is about as real as her nails.” | | 16:20 | JD Vance | “Do you want faster deportations?... we're building an army of patriots…” | | 17:12 | Nicki Minaj | “I don't need someone with blonde hair and blue eyes to downplay their beauty because I know my beauty.” | | 17:40 | Donald Trump | “Nobody did more for me than Charlie… You are the greatest people on earth.” |
The Meiselas brothers maintain their signature comedic, incredulous tone, openly mocking the hypocrisy and self-implosion on display. The language is direct, sardonic, and often irreverent, particularly in calling out racism, extremism, and the circus-like atmosphere of the event.
This episode demonstrates the current state of the GOP: fragmented, antagonistic, and increasingly dominated by performative outrage and extremism, even among its own ranks. The episode offers biting commentary alongside extensive primary audio from the event, providing an unfiltered look at an unraveling political movement.