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July 7, 2020 - The Charlie Kirk Show
18:54
This 24-Year-Old Is Likely Headed to Congress. Meet Madison Cawthorn
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Time Text
Meeting The Youngest Congresswoman 00:02:26
Thank you for listening to this Podcast 1 production.
Now available on Apple Podcasts, Podcast 1, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcast.
Hey, everybody.
Today on the Charlie Kirk Show, I interview a friend of mine, 24-year-old Madison Cawthorne, who's going to be the youngest member of Congress ever elected in the history of America and the youngest member of Congress since a 22-year-old was appointed in the 1780s.
He's a friend of mine.
He's a Christian.
He's a conservative.
He's a clear thinker.
He's constitutionally sound.
I interviewed him when I was subbing in. for Sebastian Gork on America First.
It was a terrific conversation.
Email me your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com.
Type in Charlie Kirk Show, hit subscribe, screenshot, and email us back, freedom at charliekirk.com.
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Buckle up.
Amazing conversation with a 24-year-old who's going to Congress to help save our country.
You will have optimism by the end of this conversation.
Here we go.
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
I want to thank Charlie.
He's an incredible guy.
His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
That's why we are here.
I am joined right now, we are joined right now, by a friend of mine, someone who shocked the world.
You see, President Trump tweeted out that he is 82 in one in primaries, and that one just happened to be the one that is with us today.
It's not because he's not a Trump supporter.
It's just because he's young.
He was not part of, let's say, the Good Old Boys Network and shocked the world.
He's 24 years old, younger than I am, and I'm 26.
He'll be the first person going to Congress that is younger than I am.
He is a Christian, a conservative, a pretty awesome guy, and he joins us right now.
Madison, welcome to America First, and welcome to Charlie Kirk Filling In.
How you doing?
Charlie, it's a great pleasure to be here, brother.
You know, I know that we are in dire times in our country.
I know that's why you started TPUSA.
That's why I started running for Congress.
So I'm really excited to kind of break into what's ailing our country.
So Madison, again, is 24 years old.
He won his primary.
Madison, tell us why you're running.
Finding Faith After Injury 00:02:38
Tell us the story of your life story.
It's absolutely incredible.
It's something that everyone should get to know.
It's a story of overcoming adversity, of being a victor, not a victim.
The floor is all yours.
Well, you know what, Charlie?
I'll tell you, I was raised in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Incredible place to grow up, pristine mountain views.
But more importantly, I was raised with an incredible family.
One that taught me conservative values, one that, you know, really kind of orchestrated my Christian faith and helped me, gave me the freedom to kind of investigate religion and my faith on my own.
But I created a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And everything was going well in my life.
You know, I was 18 years old.
I had been accepted.
I was nominated to the United States Naval Academy.
I was an athlete, signed on playing football.
Life was going great.
I really couldn't have asked for anything more until everything changed very rapidly.
I was on a road trip with one of my very best friends.
I was taking a nap in the passenger seat.
And for whatever reason, in the middle of the day, my friend just decided that it would be a better group activity.
He fell asleep behind the wheel of an SUV.
And I was in the passenger seat.
Then we ran headlong into a concrete wall in a construction zone about 70 miles an hour.
That was a my life changed in an instant and didn't have even the opportunity to fight back.
I was dead asleep.
I came very close to dying.
I had a 1% chance to live.
Spent about a year and a couple months in a hospital.
Four months of that was an ICU.
The rest was just learning how to live again.
Had a traumatic brain injury.
I had was one of the most injured people to ever live in the history of Florida.
But you know what was the worst part is that I am still confined to a wheelchair today.
It really makes going through life a lot more difficult.
And as I'm sure you can imagine, Charlie, that taught me some pretty obvious lessons.
One, it taught me perseverance.
It taught me grit.
It taught me that, you know what, the good times don't last, but neither do the bad times.
So that when you're in the good times, relish them, enjoy them, be thankful for them.
But when you're in the bad times, remember that it's not going to go on forever.
You will get through it and you can move on past it.
And so, you know, I kept my head down.
I kept my faith.
I did get to a pretty dark spot at one point.
And I'll tell you, Charlie, I made a T graph chart.
You know, on one side, there was a pros.
On the other side, there were the cons.
And, you know, if the cons of continuing to live life in a wheelchair outweighed the pros, I was going to just give up.
I wasn't going to do it.
And that was a pretty pivotal moment in my life.
And so I made that T graph.
I went all the way down.
And the pros outweighed the cons by one point.
Rising Above Political Hacks 00:13:48
And you know what?
The last thing I wrote down was that I still had the ability to make a difference because God decided to protect my mind and protect my ability to speak.
And so I knew I still had that ability.
And you know what?
So I've carried away from that the sense of duty for my fellow man.
You know, I have come from a very long military lineage.
Everyone in my family has been a Marine since the 1780s, every generation.
So I'm the first generation to let that down.
But you know what?
Thankfully, I have a different opportunity to serve in a different capacity and get to serve the people on the side of the government and try and actually make the government work for the people.
You know, Charlie, I know you and I have oftentimes gested that, you know, it's kind of a kingdom in D.C. where people are just trying to pass decrees and tell us what to do.
And so that's why I'm running.
You know, I just got engaged.
I'm planning on having children.
And I want to create a better world to give to them than the one I received.
And I don't see that we're going in that direction.
Well, Madison, we're up against a break and you're staying through the half hour here.
I want everyone to stay very closely attuned right now because you're listening to a 24-year-old who's going to be the youngest member of Congress since what, Madison?
Tell me really quick, youngest member since what, like 1780?
Since 1782, a man was appointed at 22.
So I believe I'll be able to do it.
I'll be the first, the youngest elected.
Madison is running for Congress.
He just won a surprise bid to be the Republican nominee in a county that voted for Donald Trump more so than any other county in the country.
That's right.
You heard it right.
He's 24 years old.
He will be the youngest elected member of Congress in U.S. history.
Goodbye.
Alexandria Cadillac-Cortez is the youngest member of Congress, youngest since the 1780s, where there was a 22-year-old that was allowed to sit in Congress.
But now he'll be the youngest ever if he wins.
And it's looking that way, but anything can happen.
You have to stay humble and work hard.
Madison, tell us more about yourself.
Well, you know what, Charlie?
I mean, I believe that your goals and my goals are very aligned.
We're trying to fight this culture war.
For so long, I think the Republicans have been fighting this policy battle that they wanted to do behind closed doors and committee meetings.
But you know what?
I think it's time that we raise up a new generation of patriots to fight this battle out front.
You know, the Democrats have been playing checkers while the Republicans have been stuck playing chess.
And I think it's vice versa, swap those.
I think that the Democrats have had a very long-term strategy for the last few decades.
And we're starting to see the dividends pay off for them.
And so now it's time to start fighting back.
So, Madison, listening to your commentary, you sound, and I know you, you're a friend of mine, as someone who really wants to make D.C. work different functionally, that cares about the country, that doesn't just want to be another politician.
You know, being someone who's 24 years old, you'll get and are getting a lot of attention.
Tell our audience why you're going to D.C. Why are you fighting so hard?
You went through incredible tragedy, as you mentioned previously.
But build out for us, if you get elected, what does success look like?
What are you going to be fighting for?
Well, you know what?
In that car accident, I talked about how I learned lessons of grit and perseverance, which should be expected from any trial you go through.
But one thing that I did learn that I hadn't expected to was that of empathy.
You know, I really learned what it's like to be looked over in a crowd or what it's like to feel disenfranchised and like the system doesn't work for you.
And, you know, I really started to understand why so many Americans just, they don't even worry to go out and vote because they don't think that Republican rep the they don't think that our government represents them.
And you know what?
I can't blame them.
They're right.
We have so many career politicians that are there to enrich themselves, enrich their friends, and they do not care about the average working American, the backbone of this country and the nuclear family that makes us so strong.
And so, you know, I want to go and fight for the Republican Party, but not because I want to save Republicans.
I can care less about either party.
I want to fight for the republic, small R republic, for our nation, for the very identity and soul of it, because I think we are the greatest force for creativity, for inclusiveness, and for good that the world has ever seen.
And I want to preserve that freedom.
We're the beacon of hope.
We are the light on a hill.
Amen.
Madison, you and I talk about this a lot.
We're both in our 20s.
I'm 26, you're 24.
I just have to keep on reminding our audience of that, that there's about to be a 24-year-old firebrand going to Congress, and there's good news happening in this country, and you're listening to it right here.
God bless Madison's candidacy.
Madison, you and I talk about the threat of social media tyranny and how big tech has so much power.
Can you talk a little bit about some of the issues you're going to be talking, you know, going to Congress and speaking about first and foremost, especially those that affect the next generation?
Absolutely.
You know, coming up in this new generation, I believe that what is so imperative is that we maintain our First Amendment rights.
What that is, is that we can go and we can be able to speak our mind in the town square.
I mean, we saw with the Protestant Revolution in Germany when we went and nailed the theses and the New Testament onto those doors in the town square for the people to see.
But you know what?
That has changed.
I have a video series I do on social media called The New Town Square, where we talk about issues that are affecting our country.
And I will tell you that if we lose our ability to speak conservative ideas or speak ideas, not even conservative or liberal, but ideas that other people just don't agree with, if we lose that ability to speak that in the public forum, then we will have lost our First Amendment rights and everything else will go by the wayside.
And so something I think is very imperative for us to fight, especially for this next generation, is that we fight against what I call big tech censorship.
You know, we are seeing so often right now that these big tech companies are being able to operate as if they are a platform, which gives them the First Amendment protections under the Constitution.
And so they can do just about anything they want.
The government can't intervene.
But what we're seeing is that overwhelmingly, conservatives are being censored on social media.
And it's just wrong.
It's limiting the ability for people to have free expression, to be able to challenge ideas that are asinine and wrong, and to be able to call things out for what they are.
And if we lose that, we're going to lose our freedoms very, very quickly because we'll all just be sheep who are not able to speak our minds.
And so I think one of the biggest things we need to fight back against is this big tech censorship.
You know, Charlie, I know you, I think, you know what section of the.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Yeah.
Section 230, publisher versus platform.
You're exactly right.
You're spot on here, Madison, and you're talking about something that most Republicans do not have courage to talk about.
So finish the thought.
I just wanted to commend you on that.
No, absolutely.
But I'll tell you, I think President Trump just did an executive order, which was encouraging the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC.
And you know what?
This is another problem with all of our government.
You add any three letters in the alphabet together, and it's the acronym for some ridiculous agency that tells what to do.
So, anyways, he just had an executive order which is encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to rethink the scope of Section 230.
And so, what that means is he wants us to be able to go in and tell these social media companies, hey, you can no longer start to selectively consider who you're going to censor and cover, whether we're talking about shadow bans or whether we're just outright banning people from social media.
It's limiting the American people from being able to express free thought and free expression, and it's wrong.
It is just wrong, and it's the biggest threat I think facing our generation.
I completely agree.
And if we are not able to speak, we're not able to get our thoughts out.
We have one minute before the break, Madison.
Can you quickly tell us how your race happened?
Super quick.
You were the underdog.
You won.
Tell us super quick, and then we'll be back.
Underdog, we raised $400,000.
We had a fighting chance.
We were going up against $2 million against a Trump-endorsed candidate.
And, you know, I don't think it's a referendum on Trump whatsoever.
She's a dear friend of his chief of staff.
And so that's how that happened.
But you know what?
Everyone wrote us off.
We were a 24-year-old candidate.
They didn't think we could do it.
My message is one of uniqueness.
America is unique.
We were the first nation to really put into practice something that is contrary to tribalism.
We don't say we want only people that look like us.
We don't say we all want only people that believe like us.
We are a country that wants to be a melting pot of all societies.
We want to take our ethics from the Judeo-Christian cities like ancient Jerusalem.
We want to take our form of government of making sure that everybody has a vote from studying places like ancient Greece and ancient Athens.
We also want to take our love for the rule of law and of the superior infrastructure for places like ancient Rome.
We really want to take all of these, and this is what the founders did.
This group of imperfect men banded together.
They studied all of this classic literature, which enlightened them to the point that they were then able to create a very nearly perfect document in our Declaration of Independence in 1776, and then at the end of the Constitutional Convention with the Constitution.
These two documents, our founding documents and the Bill of Rights, have formed a country which has been the greatest force for good the world has ever known aside from Christianity.
I believe that if we allow what two centuries of brave men and women have fought and died for to quietly slip into the night because of this radical leftist agenda, which by no means, I say it's radical, but then it makes it sound like it's a fringe element of the left.
It no longer is.
It is a well-funded, well-thought-out, and well-represented group that is starting to start a Marxist revolution to undo all of the good that the United States of America has been accomplishing for the last two years.
I genuinely believe that America is so special.
It is so unique.
I believe that God's great providence came down and enabled this group of imperfect men, like I said, to create a nearly perfect nation, which was the very first nation, mind you, aside from Haiti, to actually fight a bloody war to free men that were not themselves.
We are the first.
We fought the Civil War to end the act of slavery, and we really led the way on that front.
We're also one of the very first nations in all of history to fight a revolution that did not seek to empower the men that fought it, but rather to empower the everyday man.
And that's what we've been getting away from in our country.
We see this in the forum.
I know I've said it time and time again, with these career politicians that do not represent the people in both ways.
We have to start electing people in both parties.
There are political hacks, and they are supported by a lot of other politicians who are elected but don't want to do the dirty deeds and they don't want to fight.
And then we have all these cowards who are propping up these immoral leaders who are doing wrong for our country.
And so it's time for us to fight, Charlie.
That's why you started TPUSA, and that's why I'm running for Congress.
Yes, you know what?
To all of the listeners over in Western North Carolina, the 17 westernmost counties, I'm fighting to be your weapon in Washington, D.C. You know, I'm looking forward to being your representative.
If you want to get behind the campaign financially, you can donate on madisoncawthorn.com.
But there's also a contact button.
And I believe this is what really made the difference, Charlie, in making sure that we were able to beat all this outside D.C. influencer money and big name endorsements.
And that was the volunteers.
We had one of the most sophisticated and motivated ground games I think I've ever seen in a campaign, maybe that this nation's ever seen in all of history.
And I believe that's what really turned out our votes and did great.
So if any of you want to get involved, please join us.
Join us here in Western North Carolina.
But also to all of you all over the country, if you want to get involved in this cause, the cause for conservatism, this movement that has been boiling and is now reaching a boiling point, I encourage you to make your voice heard.
Step up and fight.
No longer be the silent majority.
Rather be the people, the moral majority who stands up for what's right in our country.
I think that's what's needed.
And I think patriots need to rise up.
Really quick, Madison.
I know you got a dash.
You're going to be younger than Alexandria Casio-Cortez.
She says we're a racist, bigoted, backward country.
She wants to make everyone a nation of victims.
You, if anyone, could play into that victim card.
What is your message there?
My message is that if you choose the ideology of victimhood, if you want to sit back and say, oh, you know what?
I can't be successful because of that group or because of that person, then that is cowardly.
That is not taking the life that you have been given.
And believe me, I'm so frustrated almost every time I look out, whether it's on social media, I look out into the world.
Charlie, as we've talked about already, you know, my spinal cord was taken from me.
My ability to have a lot of the physical freedoms I used to enjoy was taken from me.
And so when I see people not using their bodies to their fullest extent, not enjoying life as much as they can, it frustrates me.
But you know, I see that same problem with people in their everyday lives.
You know, they don't use the God-given freedoms that they've been given by our creator, and they also don't use the freedoms that have been fought for and men and women have died for over two centuries to give them the freedom to make their voices heard in our country.
And so if you buy into that victimhood mentality, you and I are not on that same page.
We need to be victors.
We need to rise up over whatever we face in this country.
You're talking to someone who cannot walk, will be the youngest member of Congress.
All right, Madison, you're a good man.
MadisonCawthorne.com.
Everyone, thanks so much for listening.
You guys can email me, freedom at charliekirk.com, get involved.
Turning pointusa tpusa.com.
Type in Charlie Kirk show, hit subscribe, give us a five-star review screenshot or email us back, freedom at charliekirk.com.
Madison, God bless you, and thanks, everybody, for listening.
Strength and arm, Charlie.
Bye.
Thanks, man.
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