The Charlie Kirk Show - Ask Charlie Anything 50: Trump Acquitted...Again. America's Founding and the Great Leap Forward, Obama's Disastrous Iran Strategy Revisited and More Aired: 2021-02-15 Duration: 34:41 [00:00:00] Hey everybody, Trump is acquitted. [00:00:02] What should you do if you're juggling between homeschooling your kids and sending them to public school? [00:00:08] We dive deeper into the founding of America and what are you supposed to make about Iran? [00:00:11] We actually do a little bit of America's history with Iran. [00:00:14] I think you're going to enjoy it. [00:00:15] If you want to support this program, go to charliekirk.com/slash support. [00:00:19] Email us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com. [00:00:22] And if you want to get involved with Turning Point USA, I highly encourage it. [00:00:25] If you're a high school or college student, go to tpusa.com. [00:00:29] That's tpusa.com. [00:00:30] Just a shout out to all of our amazing high school students. [00:00:33] God bless you guys, tpusa.com. [00:00:36] It's Monday. [00:00:37] We've been asking anything. [00:00:38] Buckle up, everybody. [00:00:39] Here we go. [00:00:40] Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. [00:00:42] Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. [00:00:44] I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. [00:00:47] Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. [00:00:50] I want to thank Charlie. [00:00:52] He's an incredible guy. [00:00:53] His spirit, his love of this country. [00:00:54] He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created. [00:01:00] Turning point USA. [00:01:01] 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. [00:01:10] That's why we are here. [00:01:13] When running a business, HR issues can kill you. [00:01:15] Wrongful termination suits, minimum wage requirements, labor regulations, and more. 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[00:02:02] Go to Bambi.com/slash Kirk right now to schedule your free HR audit. [00:02:06] That's bambi.com slash Kirk. [00:02:08] Spell bam to the BEE.com slash Kirk. [00:02:13] Hey, everybody, happy Monday. [00:02:14] We are traveling and crisscrossing the country. [00:02:18] We are back at it, but we wanted to make sure we gave you an episode this Monday morning, an Ask Me Anything episode where I take your questions that you have emailed me, freedom at charliekirk.com, freedom at charliekirk.com. [00:02:30] So I want to first get to the impeachment vote that has happened over the weekend, and we are covering it probably first more than any other show. [00:02:40] President Trump has been acquitted by the United States Senate with a 57 to 43 final vote. [00:02:49] Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, a Republican, voted guilty. [00:02:53] Ben Sasse voted guilty. [00:02:55] Mitt Romney voted guilty. [00:02:56] Lisa Murkowski voted guilty. [00:02:58] Mitch McConnell, not guilty. [00:03:00] Joe Manchin, Democrat, guilty. [00:03:02] Pat Casey from Pennsylvania, Democrat, guilty. [00:03:06] Cassidy, guilty, Collins as well. [00:03:08] And Richard Burr, who is a Republican, also voted guilty. [00:03:12] So that is, it looks like eight or nine Republicans that decided to go out of their way and to say that President Trump did indeed commit an act of insurrection on January the 6th at the speech that he gave at the ellipse. [00:03:25] Now, this is stunning, to be perfectly honest, that this many Republicans are now making the decision that President Trump and his legacy is one that is worthy of criminal conviction. [00:03:44] I think that David Schoen and the President Trump's defense team did quite well. [00:03:49] President Trump has been acquitted, despite what the activist media might tell you. [00:03:54] The headlines are already being published. [00:03:57] President Trump narrowly survives impeachment vote. [00:04:01] The defectors from the Republican Party were, again, Richard Burr, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sass, and Pat Toomey. [00:04:11] That is, seven Republicans, I correct myself, seven Republicans that voted to not just impeach, but to convict private citizen former President Trump. [00:04:21] And I'm sure there will be a lot of interviews in the coming days and a lot of glowing press articles about Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney and Ben Sass and Pat Toomey, some of whom are retiring and others seem to be completely immune to any sort of check and balance from the voters. [00:04:37] What's amazing, though, is that these Republicans did not realize that the basis for this impeachment first and foremost was unconstitutional. [00:04:47] The prosecution tampered with evidence, changing tweets, misinterpreting intent of evidence such as Calvary versus Calvary. [00:04:58] The Republican Party is now going to go through a very consequential moment. [00:05:06] A moment that will determine not just the future of the conservative movement, but with it, the future of the country. [00:05:14] So it's a good thing that President Trump was acquitted. [00:05:17] You might think that President Trump acted irresponsibly. [00:05:20] That's fine. [00:05:21] You might think that President Trump shouldn't have told people to go to the Capitol when he said he was going with them. [00:05:26] I think that's a fair argument. [00:05:28] I've made that point here on this podcast. [00:05:29] I think that is something that he should not have done. [00:05:32] But to then say that he committed a crime of inciting an insurrection is one of the most reckless and irresponsible legal theories and legal charges we have ever seen in the history of our country, let alone the United States Congress. [00:05:49] So where does this leave the Republican Party? [00:05:51] President Trump is only stronger. [00:05:54] You might hate Donald Trump. [00:05:56] You might say, I wish he would have gotten convicted. [00:05:58] This only leaves him with a stronger base, more emboldened, acquitted, and no more constitutional measures that can be used against him. [00:06:11] The highest threshold given to the United States Congress is impeachment. [00:06:15] It's never been used before against a private citizen. [00:06:18] They held this trial without the presence of John Roberts, even there. [00:06:23] It was Democrat Senator Pat Leahy, who, interestingly enough, as the judge also voted in the trial for guilty as part of the jury, probably the first time in American history that we have had a proceeding ever where the judge is both a subject, a witness, and also a juror. [00:06:43] It's never happened before. [00:06:44] That alone should have just been reasoned to call a timeout on this entire exercise in this process. [00:06:52] But as far as congressional impeachment goes, it's over. [00:06:56] It's finished. [00:06:56] President Trump's defense team did a very good job. [00:07:00] They did a great job of challenging the prosecution, the House managers. [00:07:03] They did a very good job of pushing back against the phony, baseless narrative that President Trump was somehow guilty of incitement. [00:07:11] They mentioned the violations of the Sixth Amendment, the confrontation clause, about how President Trump's defense team was not even allowed to see all the evidence put before them. [00:07:21] In fact, let's play just a little clip here of David Schoen and President Trump's defense team challenging the claims made by the prosecution, the House impeachment managers. [00:07:32] Play tape. [00:07:33] Our Constitution and any basic sense of fairness require that every legal process with significant consequences for a person's life, including impeachment, requires due process under the law, which includes fact-finding and the establishment of a legitimate evidentiary record with an appropriate foundation. [00:07:57] Even last year's impeachment followed committee hearings and months of examination and investigation by the House. [00:08:04] Here, President Trump and his counsel were given no opportunity to review evidence or question its propriety. [00:08:13] The rush to judgment for a snap impeachment in this case was just one example of the denial of due process. [00:08:22] Another, perhaps even more vitally significant example was the denial of any opportunity ever to test the integrity of the evidence offered against Donald J. Trump in a proceeding seeking to bar him from ever holding public office again and that seeks to disenfranchise some 75 million voters, American voters. [00:08:48] On Wednesday this week, countless news outlets repeated the Democrat talking point about the power of never-before-seen footage. [00:09:00] Let me ask you this. [00:09:02] Why was this footage never seen before? [00:09:05] Shouldn't the subject of an impeachment trial, this impeachment trial, President Trump, have the right to see the so-called new evidence against him? [00:09:13] More importantly, the riot and the attack on this very building was a major event that shocked and impacted all Americans. [00:09:22] Shouldn't the American people have seen this footage as soon as it was available? [00:09:27] For what possible reason did the House managers withhold it from the American people and President Trump's lawyers? [00:09:33] For political gain? [00:09:35] How did they get it? [00:09:37] How were they the ones releasing it? [00:09:40] It is evidence in hundreds of pending criminal cases against the rioters. [00:09:44] Why was it not released through law enforcement or the Department of Justice? [00:09:48] Is it the result of a rushed snap impeachment for political gain without due process? [00:09:55] So that's just a little soundbite, a little bit, to show how effective President Trump's defense team was. [00:10:02] But this was close. [00:10:03] This was within 10 votes, 57 to 43. [00:10:07] Now, in order to convict a president, you need 66 votes. [00:10:10] So I know some of you are thinking, well, Charlie, he lost. [00:10:13] Well, he didn't get a majority of votes. [00:10:17] A majority of senators thought he should be convicted, but the constitutional threshold requires 66 votes, two-thirds of the chamber in order to convict. [00:10:29] And so a very important question is what does Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sass, Pat Toomey, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Richard Burr, these Republican senators, what do they think the Republican Party should become? [00:10:43] Where do they think of the tens of millions of new voters that have now been brought into the ranks thanks to President Trump, the people that have now put them back into office? [00:10:53] And make no mistake, Pat Toomey is only a United States senator thanks to Donald Trump. [00:10:59] Pat Toomey was down in all the polls in 2016. [00:11:02] Pat Toomey's retiring in 2022, which will be a very contentious Senate race. [00:11:07] Pat Toomey was failing in his 2016 race until Donald Trump brought him across the finish line alongside of him. [00:11:15] Donald Trump bringing in hundreds of thousands of new voters across central Pennsylvania, people that were traditional Democrats, and Pat Toomey was the beneficiary of that. [00:11:24] But now he thanks him by saying, I want to convict you as being guilty of inciting an insurrection. [00:11:33] Let me be very clear. [00:11:34] You can say that Donald Trump was irresponsible. [00:11:36] I think that's debatable. [00:11:38] I think that that is a worthy conversation. [00:11:41] But to say that he had incitement for using the F word, no, not the four-letter F-word, the other F-word, fight. [00:11:49] The F-word that so many Democrats and Republicans use daily. [00:11:55] The metaphor of we will fight for Obamacare. [00:11:58] We will fight against Obamacare. [00:11:59] We will fight for abortion. [00:12:00] We will fight to repeal abortion is one of the most overused words in politics. [00:12:06] If that is now the threshold to criminalize a political opponent, then the First Amendment is dead. [00:12:14] And that's what really was on trial here: whether or not the First Amendment still exists. [00:12:19] Some of these senators, I'm sure, are just voting because they were moved by some of the emotional footage. [00:12:24] That is not the way our justice system is supposed to work. [00:12:27] Unfortunately, far too often, it does work that way. [00:12:29] If you're able to have an emotional plea to a jury, sometimes the jury will go alongside you. [00:12:33] However, it's supposed to be based in reason, logic, facts, data, evidence. [00:12:43] Some of the video footage that was shown was an incredibly emotional narrative, but it doesn't connect to President Trump, former President Trump. [00:12:52] Former President Trump says you should go to the Capitol peacefully and patriotically. [00:12:58] The threshold of incitement based on all prior case law shows that you must be specific about imminent danger. [00:13:06] The timeline showed very clearly that the barricades were being broken while President Trump was taking the stage or before he even took the stage at 1249 Eastern. [00:13:16] The people who broke into the Capitol, the people who assaulted police officers, the people that stole congressional documents or laptops, they will be held criminally accountable. [00:13:31] But to then expand the threshold that anyone who makes a remark at a speech before acts of criminality occur would basically say, we want to put the First Amendment through the shredder. [00:13:45] And that's what's so disappointing about Richard Burr and Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney and Ben Sass and Pat Toomey. [00:13:53] They don't like Donald Trump. [00:13:55] That's fine. [00:13:57] This is not about a vote of whether or not you like Donald Trump. [00:14:00] You see, these senators allowed their own personal bias to impact themselves as jurors. [00:14:07] They will be paraded around by the New York Times, the New Yorkers, CNN, as the brave Republicans who stood up to the Trumpified Republican Party. [00:14:15] It has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with process, everything to do about the rights of the accused, the Sixth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the right to representation, the right to not have your evidence tampered with like the House managers did. [00:14:28] That's what this is about. [00:14:30] And what I find to be increasingly concerning is how these Republicans believe that they can build a long-term, broad-based coalition and a party based on the Chamber of Commerce policies and acting as if the last four years did not exist. [00:14:50] And so the final vote has come through, 57 to 43, with Murkowski, Romney, Sass, Toomey, Cassidy, Collins, and Burr voting to convict. [00:15:02] But as we mentioned, it takes 66 votes in the United States Senate, and President Donald Trump is acquitted again. [00:15:12] In our fast-paced world, it's tough to make reading a priority. [00:15:15] At least it used to be. [00:15:17] Use what I use to digest big ideas quickly at thinker.org/slash Charlie, T-H-I-N-K-R.org. [00:15:24] They summarize the key ideas from new and noteworthy nonfiction, giving you access to an entire library of great books in bite-sized form. [00:15:31] Read or listen to hundreds of titles in a matter of minutes, from old classics like Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, to the recent bestsellers like Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life. [00:15:41] When I'm going for walks or when I'm riding on the bike, I always pop open thinker.org, T-H-I-N-K-R.org, and I just try to learn something new every day. [00:15:50] That's something we talk about here a lot on this Charlie Kirk show. [00:15:53] So make sure you guys do it. [00:15:54] So if you want to challenge your preconceptions, expand your horizons, and become a better thinker, then go to thinker.org/slash Charlie. [00:16:02] That's T-H-I-N-K-R.org to start a free trial today. [00:16:06] That's thinker.org, T-H-I-N-K-R.org slash Charlie. [00:16:12] Let's get to the next question here: that you guys have emailed me, freedom at charliekirk.com. [00:16:16] And you guys know the way it works. [00:16:17] If I select your question, then you win a signed copy of the MAGA doctrine, the twice-acquitted president. [00:16:23] Hey, Charlie, thanks for everything you do. [00:16:25] I have a seven-year-old in public school in a center-left-leaning district. [00:16:28] So far, they haven't done anything too crazy. [00:16:30] They've been doing in-person learning most of the year. [00:16:33] And although the superintendent loves to send out emails about, quote, anti-racism, I don't think they've introduced CRT to the curriculum yet. [00:16:40] My husband and I both work, so homeschooling would be a challenge. [00:16:43] And private school would be a significant financial burden, especially when my son starts kindergarten in two years. [00:16:48] If our district was renaming schools or pulling down statues, I pulled my kids out in a heartbeat. [00:16:53] But right now, the decision is not so clear. [00:16:55] I know you're a proponent of homeschooling, but I've heard you encourage parents to get involved with the school board. [00:17:00] Are these goals mutually exclusive? [00:17:02] If faced with the choice, do you think it's better to stay in the fight and try to influence the direction of the district or look for alternative options? [00:17:08] Thanks again, Alexis from Colorado. [00:17:09] What's up, Isabella? [00:17:10] Thank you, Alexis. [00:17:11] You win a signed copy because you emailed us, freedom at charliekirk.com. [00:17:15] No, they are not mutually exclusive. [00:17:16] I believe that if a parent is able to do it and you're able to be in a financial position to do it, you should homeschool your children. [00:17:22] I have said if the conservative movement and the Christian movement is serious about pushing back against many of these influences that we complain about and that we have spotted and identified as being corrosive to our republic, then we have to double the homeschooling population in the next couple of years. [00:17:38] We have to double it. [00:17:39] However, we also need to get much more involved in school board races. [00:17:41] So you should be able to do both. [00:17:43] I understand that homeschooling is very, very difficult for many parents. [00:17:46] In fact, homeschooling is something that is a full-time job. [00:17:50] Beyond being a parent, beyond bringing in a wage, it's a full-time job just to be able to educate your children. [00:17:56] If you have the opportunity to do it, I highly encourage you. [00:17:58] It's easier than ever. [00:17:59] There's curriculum that is offered. [00:18:01] There are many organizations through Hillsdale College and many other entities that make education from home something that is not just easier, but it's more effective than ever before. [00:18:14] So to answer your question, I think that every single person that is homeschooling their kids should also get involved in the local school board. [00:18:21] You're still paying local tax dollars. [00:18:23] You should still be engaged and get involved, run for school board positions, push back against critical race theory anytime it is taught, and understand that what is happening in our public school system, you might say, oh, it doesn't impact my kid because my kid is not there. [00:18:36] That is not true. [00:18:38] It impacts your society. [00:18:40] It impacts your community. [00:18:41] It impacts your state. [00:18:42] And it impacts your country. [00:18:44] Whatever your local school district is teaching is what the kids will soon be believing, and they'll be acting on it. [00:18:52] So it is imperative more than ever before that every single person listening to this podcast gets engaged and gets involved, focuses on school board races, shows up to school board meetings, asks the correct questions at these meetings, pushes back against the teaching of critical race theory, argues that there must be patriotic education similar to the 1776 Commission, not the 1619 project. [00:19:19] Understanding that America is the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world. [00:19:24] You see, the way that it is taught in public school is that America is not that great. [00:19:30] And if we were in charge, we'd be able to build something even better. [00:19:33] When in reality, every day I walk outside my door and when I go into do our podcast on our radio show every day, it is amazing to me that there is not bedlam in the streets. [00:19:45] It's not total and complete chaos. [00:19:47] The fact we have it as good as we have it here with free speech rights and rights to private property and entrepreneurship and a vibrant and flourishing American middle class is remarkable. [00:19:59] And the question we should be asking our young people is why? [00:20:04] And even more importantly, what is a country? [00:20:06] Is a country just a bunch of ideas multiculturally mixed together? [00:20:12] Maybe. [00:20:13] Is a country just borders? [00:20:15] Well, that's where a country ends and when a country begins. [00:20:18] No, more importantly, a country is an exercise in civil government with a combined language, culture, and history. [00:20:29] That is a country. [00:20:31] And if we fail as Americans to communicate what a country actually is and why this country is so different than any other country that's ever existed in the history of the world, then it will cease to exist. [00:20:43] You see, in the Declaration of Independence, where God is mentioned four different times, we must look at that document as a legal brief. [00:20:50] It was submitted to the King of England as almost a very professional complaint, specific complaint against tyrannical rule. [00:21:02] You have to understand when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they signed it in what city? [00:21:08] Philadelphia. [00:21:09] Now, Philadelphia is a sea city. [00:21:12] It's right on the Atlantic Ocean. [00:21:14] Remember, Great Britain, or the British Empire at the time, had an amazing naval power. [00:21:21] So the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing. [00:21:22] They were signing a document that was our birth certificate that could have been their death certificate. [00:21:29] And they signed it well knowing that on this coastal city, the British Navy could have showed up and killed them all. [00:21:39] A writ for their arrest was issued the moment that document was publicized. [00:21:46] They pledged in the Declaration our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. [00:21:51] What does that mean? [00:21:52] They pledged everything. [00:21:54] They left nothing to spare. [00:21:57] And that document is so brilliant, written by Thomas Jefferson. [00:22:01] In fact, the original draft of the Declaration is also worth noting because Thomas Jefferson blamed King George for bringing slaves to the United States and actually was an anti-slavery document. [00:22:11] They won't teach your kids that in school. [00:22:14] But the document is brilliant because it acknowledges the laws of nature and nature's God. [00:22:18] And I quote, it's a document based on a vertical order of being. [00:22:26] That our rights come from God, that our existence is granted by a creator. [00:22:31] It also understands that you will live under some form of laws inevitably. [00:22:35] And we want those form of laws to recognize natural rights. [00:22:40] The Declaration and the reason why Western civilization basically was created after America is because it was written universally. [00:22:50] When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. [00:23:03] A decent respect to the opinions of, and it goes on. [00:23:06] What's so amazing is that it's a universal sentence. [00:23:08] This has been applied to freedom fighters all across the world. [00:23:11] This document has inspired people outside of the United States Constitution. [00:23:16] Now, the groundwork before the Declaration was written was done by the Black Robe Regiment. [00:23:21] It was done by Jonathan Edwards. [00:23:22] It was done by Whitfield. [00:23:23] It was done by activist pastors. [00:23:25] It continued by saying, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. [00:23:33] Let's stop. [00:23:34] Where does this list come from? [00:23:36] Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [00:23:37] John Locke. [00:23:38] If you don't know John Locke, you cannot understand the American founding. [00:23:42] Thomas Jefferson basically copy-pasted John Locke into the Declaration. [00:23:47] John Locke, the great Scottish Enlightenment thinker, wrote extensively on tolerance, was one of the three social contract theorists, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke. [00:23:56] Important to know all three of them and what they believe. [00:23:58] We've gone into depth in Rousseau, into depth in Hobbes. [00:24:01] We've done a little bit on Locke. [00:24:02] I'm going to do a little bit more in the coming episodes. [00:24:05] That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, meaning all people, not just the patriarchy, but all people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. [00:24:17] Whoa. [00:24:18] This is the great leap forward. [00:24:20] You understand the magic, the melody, the harmony that is within this document. [00:24:27] Our children are being deprived of understanding the beauty of the language here. [00:24:34] Let me read this again: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among all people, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. [00:24:42] That's the great leap forward. [00:24:44] That without our agreement, there is no government. [00:24:49] That's what makes America different. [00:24:51] That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is then the right of the people to alter or abolish and institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect safety and happiness. [00:25:07] What does that mean? [00:25:08] It means that you, King George, have ignored us for a decade. [00:25:12] You've ignored our protests. [00:25:14] You've ignored our letters. [00:25:15] You've ignored our speeches. [00:25:16] You've ignored the small little quarrels and conflicts that we've gotten into. [00:25:20] Remember, Lexington and Concord came before the signing of the Declaration. [00:25:25] Lexington and Concord is famously described as the beginning of the Revolutionary War. [00:25:31] That Lexington Concord was called the shot heard around the world. [00:25:35] And so there was kind of a little moment where maybe the founding fathers would back off. [00:25:39] The King of England was stunned when he read this, but he wasn't surprised to see the trajectory because it was reaching a boiling point. [00:25:46] But what led the founding fathers to do this? [00:25:49] What led the founding fathers to want to take that great leap forward? [00:25:54] Well, of the 56 men who signed the Declaration, a great majority, in fact, some historians would argue all identified themselves as Christian, and all but one were Protestants. [00:26:04] Four were either present or former ministers. [00:26:08] And a number of the signers were sons of clergy. [00:26:10] And at least half of them had studied divinity at various universities. [00:26:14] And the denominations run as follows: 32 designers, over half were Episcopalians, 13 were Congregationalists, 12 were Presbyterians, and two were Quakers, two Unitarians, and one Roman Catholic. [00:26:26] They were inspired by their faith. [00:26:29] The laws in nature and nature is God. [00:26:32] So I kind of went on a little bit of a sidebar there as far as the specifics of the founding. [00:26:37] But to answer your question, Alexis, if what I just went through is not being taught to your kids, if you have a kid in college that can't recite what I just said in some form or fashion, they have been given a grave disservice. [00:26:55] And it's never too late to course correct. [00:26:57] The knowledge is out there. [00:26:58] We go through it in this program, and I encourage you to send this to your kids and your grandkids to go through in great detail. [00:27:03] And if you're a young person listening to this, that's awesome. [00:27:05] We have tons of college kids and high school kids that listen to this as well. [00:27:08] So, Alexis, thank you so much for answering the question. [00:27:10] God bless you. [00:27:14] Look, a lot of you guys have had Mike Lindell's back. [00:27:17] I know a lot of you guys want to continue to have his back. [00:27:19] And the amazing company that you guys are supporting is MyPillow. [00:27:23] The inventor and CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, is fighting very, very hard. [00:27:27] And a lot of you guys say, I want to reward courage. [00:27:30] If you go to mypillow.com and use the promo code Kirk, you guys can basically get this amazing pillow that they sent me. [00:27:36] You guys can get Giza dream seats. [00:27:38] You guys can get toppers, robes, you name it. [00:27:40] If you want to support the good guys, support people with courage, I know a lot of you guys do, mypillow.com, promo code Kirk. [00:27:47] Remember, all my pillow products come with a 60-day money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty. [00:27:53] And you can get the Giza dream seats. [00:27:54] You can get the whole thing. [00:27:55] Go to mypillow.com, promo code Kirk, mypillow.com, promo code Kirk. [00:28:03] Hello, Charlie. [00:28:04] My husband and I love listening to your podcast. [00:28:06] We are parents of four college-age adults. [00:28:08] Great. [00:28:08] I have two questions. [00:28:09] The first is about Obama. [00:28:11] Why did he and his cohort support Iran as they did? [00:28:13] It makes no sense to us. [00:28:14] Iran has never been a friend to us or our interests. [00:28:16] Secondly, is there a way we can show our support to President Trump and his family? [00:28:20] Does he have an email you know of? [00:28:21] It breaks our heart to see the things they're going through. [00:28:23] We'd like to encourage the entire family. [00:28:24] Thank you, Charlie. [00:28:25] You are a blessing. [00:28:26] Stan and Jacqueline Hoag from Alabama. [00:28:28] Well, first of all, with Obama. [00:28:30] Iran is a theocratic, medieval, evil dictatorship. [00:28:35] However, America and the Central Intelligence Agency did play a role in the creation of this evil, theocratic, medieval dictatorship. [00:28:44] I can go into length at this. [00:28:45] I did a podcast about this boy almost a year and a half ago, back in June of 2019. [00:28:51] I did an entire podcast on just Iran and the mistakes that America made towards Masogdeh and working with the British equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency, overthrowing a democratically elected leader, reinstituting the Shah, and then complete bedlam happened after the Islamic Revolution. [00:29:10] However, with that being said, that does not excuse what Iran stands for and the terrorism that they fund. [00:29:17] So, Barack Obama, in the most innocent way that I can portray his relationship with Iran, believes that Iran is the victim, that Iran actually wants to be Western, that Iran was always suffering because of the Central Intelligence Agency, and it's up to us to go fix it by lifting sanctions, giving them a bunch of money. [00:29:37] That's a bunch of rubbish, just so we're clear. [00:29:39] Barack Obama and John Kerry and Joe Biden and the whole group of foreign policy apparatchiks that ran the Obama White House foreign policy portfolio kowtowed to Iran for a variety of other reasons. [00:29:52] Number one, it's a great way to stick it to Israel. [00:29:55] Both Hezbollah and Hamas are funded heavily by Iran. [00:29:59] Number two, Iran does a very good job of pandering to specific left-wing interests around the globe. [00:30:07] Iran allies themselves with anything that stands against America. [00:30:12] What does Elon Omar, AOC, and Iran have in common? [00:30:16] They all think America is a terrible country. [00:30:19] They're able to agree on a lot, despite the fact that Iran launches homosexuals off the roofs of buildings, despite the fact that Iran executes political dissidents, despite the fact that Iran has little to no respect of first freedoms or political freedom. [00:30:35] And so, to answer your question, Obama always thought of himself, and I'm doing this in the most fair way imaginable. [00:30:41] I think there's another narrative that I can get into, but it's more on speculation, still on some facts. [00:30:47] I can touch on that a little bit, which is the most fair argument is that Obama saw America as the oppressor and Iran as the oppressed. [00:30:57] He saw Israel as the oppressor in the region and Iran as the oppressed. [00:31:01] And he saw himself through the Iran nuclear deal and some of the other nonsense that was negotiated internationally to try and even the scales. [00:31:10] We know this does not work. [00:31:12] We had Iran exactly where we wanted them 60 days ago, crippling sanctions. [00:31:17] They were coming to the negotiating table. [00:31:19] And let me be very clear. [00:31:20] The Persian people, which is the ethnic base of Iran, were never believers in the Islamic theocratic totalitarian form of government. [00:31:32] The Persian Empire did have Islamic components within it, but they were never an Islamic empire. [00:31:39] Persia was always secular in nature. [00:31:42] Persia had Zoroastrianism. [00:31:44] I always mispronounce that, but that's a belief in the fire god and basically sun worship. [00:31:49] It's still very big in Iran. [00:31:50] Millions of people follow it. [00:31:51] They had Islam, and they tolerated, even at times, Jewish sects under the Persian Empire. [00:31:57] And so Persia, which is the ancestral roots of what is now called Iran, does not actually even have multi-hundred-year history, shared history of being under an Islamic theocratic dictatorship. [00:32:12] Whereas the history of Saudi Arabia absolutely does. [00:32:15] The house of Saud going back many, many hundreds of years. [00:32:19] Same with Jordan. [00:32:19] The king of Jordan can point his lineage going, I think, about 17 generations or 18 generations back to Muhammad himself. [00:32:26] That's hotly debated. [00:32:28] But Iran is different than even some of these other Middle East actors because they are Shia. [00:32:33] Shia only represents about 15 to 17 percent of all Muslims around the world. [00:32:39] Shia and Sunni. [00:32:40] The main difference is between really what happened when Muhammad died and what did he tell you to do. [00:32:45] But they hate each other. [00:32:46] Sunnis and Shias have hated each other for quite some time. [00:32:49] And Iran is the predominant Shia country on the planet. [00:32:54] So what is the correct approach to Iran? [00:32:57] Do not give them billions of dollars in sanction relief. [00:32:59] Treat them what they are, which is a failed American experiment in foreign policy that eventually the people of Iran are going to have to rise up against the theocratic totalitarian maniacs that run Iran, take power back, and through their own reform, hopefully get back to the values that used to govern Persia, which was a much more decent society than what Iran has become. [00:33:22] And by the way, Persians are some of the most entrepreneurial, enterprising, forward-thinking, and incredible business people you'll ever come across. [00:33:33] There's a lot of potential in Iran, a lot. [00:33:35] And the young people of Iran are not going to put up with the Ayatollah. [00:33:38] They're not going to put up with Akhadi Mijad. [00:33:40] They're not going to put up with all of this 14th century garbage that has dominated the society of Iran. [00:33:49] The people are being oppressed, and they're not being oppressed by the West. [00:33:52] They're being oppressed by the theocratic maniacs that run the Republic of Iran. [00:33:58] To finish the question, Stan and Jacqueline, there is no email I know of to support President Trump, but you post on social media, you tell your friends to do the same. [00:34:07] I'm just going to tell you, I think you're going to see President Trump very, very soon. [00:34:11] I think you're going to see him do some media, maybe some public events. [00:34:15] So stay tuned for that. [00:34:16] Everyone, thank you guys for emailing us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com. [00:34:19] We are moving crisscrossing the country, but we want to make sure that you guys had your ask me anything episode today, and we made good on that promise. [00:34:27] So if you guys want to support us, go to charliekirk.com slash support. [00:34:31] If you want to get involved at Turning Point USA, go to tpusa.com. [00:34:34] That's tpusa.com. [00:34:36] Get engaged, get involved. [00:34:37] You're a high school or college student, get involved now at tpusa.com.