Madison Cawthorn and the Future of the Conservative Movement
Charlie is joined by America's youngest Congressman, Madison Cawthorn, to walk through the destructive policies of the Biden Administration—from the border crisis to the economic disaster members of our generation and beyond will be left to deal with long after the Bidens & Pelosis of the world are gone. The two also talk about the generational divide in the GOP and how our party must become one that stands up to Big Tech, fights against corporate interests, supports campaign finance reform, and puts America First once and for all. Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hey, everybody.
Welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.
I'm joined by my friend Madison Cawthorne, who has an incredible story.
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Hey, everybody, welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.
With us today, as I put on my special hat, is a courageous friend of mine and a member of Congress, the youngest ever elected member of Congress in U.S. history, Madison Cawthorne.
Madison, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
Charlie, good to be on with you, brother.
Glad we're both in the trenches of this culture war we're fighting.
Different places, but same mission.
And you are doing a great job.
And you have been under a lot of attack from the media.
And conservatives need to continue to rally behind you and what you're doing, which is why I wanted to have you on the program.
But let's start, Madison, with your recent remarks on the Second Amendment and your speech around that.
The Democrats are trying to take our guns away.
What is your message to them?
Well, the number one thing is come and take it.
People all wrapped up inside of Washington, D.C., you know, when they hear this come and take it term, they think that it's just a good fundraising tactic, trying to sound like you're talking to a Republican donor.
But out in real America, Charlie, as you will know, we actually mean that.
We value our liberties much more than we value our safety, and we will die on that sword.
So what is the bill that was proposed?
You gave a speech about that.
And talk about what the Democrats are trying to do to take our rights away.
Well, let me tell you, it's not just one bill, it's actually two.
So you had HR 8 and HR 1446 both dropped at the same time.
Now, these bills were ones that had benign names.
Charlie, as you well know, the Democrats are masters at making something sound like it's safe, sound like it's in the best interest of everyone.
But once you get down into the substance of it, you realize it only benefits the powerful.
So what these bills were named are things like increased background checks or increased sunsetting on background checks.
And so it sounds like, oh, well, of course, we need to make sure that the person we're selling this gun to isn't a felon or, you know, a foreigner, a foreigner.
And so that would make sense.
But what these bills actually do is they de facto create a gun registry.
And it also gives the FBI the ability and the jurisdiction to use bureaucracy to hold up a firearm purchase for days and days at a time.
And it could even go out to years.
So what this does is it basically makes it more difficult for us to keep our Second Amendment rights and protect our republic.
And so why is it that some Republicans are then voting for this bill?
Are they reading something we aren't?
Or are they just trying to pander to the mainstream press in Washington and in New York?
Well, Charlie, you know, when you first started this out, you started talking about how I was under attack by the mainstream press.
And it's even, I think, it's a slap in the face to the mainstream people in the United States to say mainstream media because they're anything but mainstream.
They focus on nothing but divisiveness.
But there is a sect of the Republican Party that genuinely believes that if we capitulate enough, if we bend the knee enough, then we can all come together.
But Charlie, I've got to tell you, these people are communists.
These people hate what we stand for.
They hate our Christian Judeo values.
They hate the fact that we want to have a strong nuclear family.
They hate the framework of our society and they want to destroy it.
And so these Republicans who voted in favor of giving up our Second Amendment rights, they should not be re-elected.
Yeah, I totally agree.
And, you know, the people that are in the Republican Party that think you can pander your way to victory, they're completely and totally wrong.
So, Madison, you've been in Congress for a couple of months now.
You're 25 years old.
And we have listeners that are 25, 26, 27.
And they're wondering, what is Congress like?
What are your biggest lessons?
I mean, it's, you have not exactly had a honeymoon period.
I mean, you are right in, you know, literally under attack in the Capitol and then metaphorically under attack.
Walk us through, you know, kind of what's it been like?
Charlie, it's a great question.
So when I came here, I knew it was going to be dysfunctional, but I figured that the press always played it up.
They made it seem like it was more partisan than it truly is.
But Charlie, this place is absolutely broken.
When I tell you that these people are communists, I genuinely believe it.
And this sounds like some talking point from our parents' generation, but it is absolutely a fact.
The people in Washington, D.C. right now worship at the altar of power, and they are willing to do and say anything to be able to hold on to it and to be able to expand ever so, kind of like that great comic book villain, the blob that just encapsulated everything.
That is what the Democrats and even a lot of people on the establishment on both sides are trying to do inside of Washington, D.C.
And so as I'm starting to go through Washington, as I'm starting to find my way throughout the halls here, I realize very quickly that true Americans, true patriots are a rare breed here in Washington.
And so this is the reason why I am so passionate about trying to get other young Republicans, other young conservatives who aren't here for power or for money, but they're here to do the right thing.
So I'm trying to get them here to Washington because I need reinforcements.
The entire fate of our country is on the line.
And you and I are going to be working on that quite a lot moving forward.
And we'll have some big announcements on that.
You know, I want to tell everyone a story, Madison.
I first met you at our Southeast Regional Conference just about a year ago.
In fact, it was a little, yeah, it was like March 1st.
I remember it so vividly.
It was in Charleston, South Carolina.
I think you made a special trip to come down there, if I'm not mistaken.
You met with me.
You asked for my endorsement.
I didn't give you my endorsement because for multiple reasons, but you and I talked about that privately.
There were a lot of forces at play, let's put it that way, that prevented me from doing what my gut instinct was.
You won anyway.
And you won.
And I remember the day you won, June 24th.
Is that right, more or less?
That is correct.
June 23rd.
23rd.
I remember it because we hosted Trump that day in Phoenix.
And so you won in a surprise fashion as a 24-year-old, right?
24 years old, and you had no shot whatsoever.
Everyone said there's no way he's going to get the primary.
And you got into the runoff and then you won the primary.
Then you won your general election and they did everything they could to try to say you had a close race, but you won by like 12 points or eight to 10 points.
It was pretty convincing, if I'm not mistaken.
And that's a pretty awesome story because Madison, you pushed the boundaries.
You believed in yourself as a young person.
Talk about that.
Talk about the odds you've had to overcome.
And then also just walk us through some more of the detail of the difficulty of being in Washington, D.C., dealing with Pelosi and her allies.
Well, it's hard to call them allies.
I would almost actually call them goons.
And this is really the actual reason I came to Washington, D.C.
It's because looking from the outside perspective, you realize that things are broken in Washington.
You realize that the amount of debt we are carrying as a country is unsustainable.
You realize that the way our culture is going is something that's unsustainable and will destroy the fabric of our republic.
And as I'm sitting on the sidelines, you know, at 23 years old, 24 years old, I'm thinking to myself, wow, do I really want to raise a child in this environment?
I'm getting married here on April 3rd.
Very excited about that.
And the fact that my fiancé actually picked the date, April 3rd, is very, very interesting.
So that is actually the date, the anniversary of my car accident when I was 18 years old, seven years ago, that left me in a wheelchair.
Now, I had been nominated to go to the United States Naval Academy.
We were working on getting the final application process done there.
I had a full-ride scholarship to NC State.
You know, I was living the American dream, everything that I could ever want.
I had a charmed life.
And then I step into a car over spring break, and little did I know, that'd be the last step I ever took.
And I wake up in a hospital.
And then from that moment on, the odds are against me.
But obviously, you get into a dark period when you lose the ability to speak.
You can't walk.
You're having cognitive functions, problems.
But then I will never forget one time I had a very tough conversation with my father.
And he basically was saying, Son, you either need to give up or you need to decide to live life in spite of this.
And so that was a really hard conversation for my dad and I to have.
And I sat in my room for hours and hours making that decision.
But then I finally decided that I was willing to live out my God-given purpose and it was to make a difference on this earth.
And so then I throw my name into this hat to run for Congress because, like I said, I don't want to have raise another generation in this kind of culture.
And as we're going about this, you know, we face nothing but unbeatable odds.
Charlie, you know, actually, when you were at your student action summit down in Florida, you had Tucker Carlson.
You both did a sit-down interview.
And it was great.
The very end, you say, Hey, Tucker, you know, we've got a minute and a half left.
What is your final words?
And, you know, it said, hey, get married, have lots of kids.
And so, Charlie, you and I are both engaged.
We're both working on that.
But we are also, you know, Tucker also said that we need to work very, very hard to make sure that go for that job that you're not necessarily qualified for.
Go for that job that people might actually say, Are you actually ready for this?
And then just blow it out of the water.
And, you know, Charlie, I'm sure this is the exact same reason why you started the Turning Point USA.
It's because you realize that if we don't put a flag on the ground and say, here at this moment in the year 2021, we made the difference that changed the country for the rest of time.
Then we realized that, you know, not since the Magna Carta have we had any version of freedom that has come anywhere close to what our country's had.
And so if we give up our rights, if we give up our country and we say, hey, the odds are just too hard for me to actually make a difference, then this chance at freedom that the people of the world actually have, it's particularly the people of the United States have, will be gone for another 500 years or who knows how long.
And so this is the time, no matter what kind of difficulty you're facing, no matter what kind of odds you're facing, know that if you trust God with your plan and you are willing to work your tail off, then you can accomplish anything.
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So, Madison, let's talk pragmatically and action steps.
People ask all the time, what can I do?
What are the steps forward?
Let's walk through that, Madison.
What are the steps that people can take?
What's an action plan for people right now?
One, I want you to get some Red Bull, a monster, or some rain, something, because you're going to need to give up a lot of sleep.
Or bang energy.
That's what people say, right?
Or bang energy.
You know what?
That guy's a heck of a guy.
So I recommend bang.
Jack awaken is a real character.
I'll tell you what.
He is indeed.
Well, a true American patriot.
But I'll tell you, you're going to want to get some energy drinks or a coffee or something because you're going to need to put in two, maybe even three times the amount of hours that your friends are putting in to be able to make something substantively happen at this stage in our lives without having an immense amount of financial resources at your disposal.
The only kind of equity you can give is sweat equity.
So let's say that you're 18 years old.
You can't actually run for Congress.
You might be able to be in your state house depending on what state you're in.
But a very real action step that you can take is you can get involved at a local level on some form of a campaign.
And the best way to win a campaign is to go knock on somebody's door and say, hey, I'm supporting this candidate because he is a true patriot, somebody that actually believes in our Constitution and believes in our founding values.
That can go against the entire media narrative that the mainstream press is trying to push, that all Republicans are either racist, sexist, or xenophobic, or that they are just these evil, uneducated people, because there's nothing further from the truth.
The overwhelming majority of Americans are good-hearted people who want to see nothing but a better country be handed off to the next generation.
And so the best way to be able to defeat this mainstream media narrative that Republicans are vile and evil is to go out and show people what a Republican truly is.
You know, talking about, we talked about that student action summit.
You know, when I went there, it was so, so interesting to see, you know, this is back this past summer.
It was so interesting, actually, it was December, so interesting to see how many people there were of different ethnicities, different orientations, of just a full gambit of Americans represented who were true conservatives.
And the reason why it was so motivating and why the media wanted to paint it as just as something that didn't even happen is because it went completely against their narrative.
So the best way to make a difference inside of our world in your country today is to go out and very respectfully make your voice heard.
You don't need to be some bombastic jerk, but you can go out and you can have a principled and pragmatic argument to why conservative politics are the best and also why conservative politics are the exact opposite of what the mainstream media narrative is as painted in them.
And taking those action steps and making your voice heard will change everything.
I love that.
So a lot of people are wondering what kind of candidates should they support.
Madison, you've kind of looked under the hood.
Are all Republicans the same?
Very far from it, Charlie.
Very far from it.
So tell us more.
Walk us through that.
Yeah.
So, you know what?
There are two versions of Republicans.
Now, they all have the exact same talking points.
So it's very hard to be able to distinguish them from one another.
But there are conservatives who have courageous.
And there are conservatives who just give lip service and it's because what they said what needed to be said to get elected.
And they like seeing their name in the newspaper every now and then.
They like signing their name as the honorable Madison Conqueror.
But then there are people who come up to Washington, D.C., people like Matt Gates, Jim Jordan, myself, guys like you, Charlie, people who actually go and are willing to take the arrows in the back from people on our own side and from the mainstream media narrative that will paint you as something completely opposite of what you are.
And there are people who are willing to lose friends because they realize that their personal safety and their personal level of comfort is completely subsidiary to the exact paramount goal of making this country a better place and advancing the kingdom of the Lord.
I think that's exactly right.
So, Madison, this is a difficult moment for a lot of people because it feels like everything is falling apart.
Can you give us some good news?
What gives you hope right now?
What gives you optimism in this moment?
Well, Charlie, you know, I think you've seen it in the news just as much as I have of how many Republicans are starting to wake up and realize just what we just talked about is that not all Republicans are built the same.
And I genuinely believe that we're going to see that this new generation of conservatives coming up that is truly based on American first principles.
People who are not going to bend the knee down to the major corporate donors.
They're not going to bend the knee to globalists who say, oh, well, this is the hip thing to do.
No, they're going to say, you know what?
To hell with everybody else.
I am here to represent my constituents and the people of this country.
And I'm here to give them the best, safest, and most prosperous future I possibly can.
And I think those are going to be young, courageous people who are not going to back down to the mob because I'll tell you, people's spines seem to wither over time.
And the longer people are in Washington, D.C., the easier it is for them to cave to the mob.
So Madison, talk about the influence of money and politics.
Have you seen how corporate donors have been able to influence the legislative process?
It's a major problem, Charlie.
So, you know, this is something that you and I have actually talked about, something I'm kicking around a good bit.
And Matt Gates actually does this himself.
He doesn't take any money from federally recognized lobbies.
And you know what?
I'm even considering that same tactic because I realize that these major corporate donors are going out and they're what everyone calls the special interest groups.
They are people who don't really care what side gets their points across, whether it's Democrat or Republican.
They just want a little change to the tax code so they can make a little bit more money in Southeast Asia.
They just want a little bit of a change to the immigration policy so they can have cheaper labor.
And these people do all of this because they're worshiping at the altar of the dollar, not at the altar of what's best for the American people.
Madison, I want to encourage you to try and do that.
And people will support you if you do it.
Matt Gates is raising a ton of money.
I know you will too.
So keep building that out because it looks like we have a unit party in DC that is funded primarily through these corporate interests.
And you and I have been talking since the first time I met you.
I was on this thing.
And to hear you confirm it is depressing, but it's also, you know, satisfying in the sense that my thesis was right.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, you know what?
When you realize that George Bush and Michelle Obama are a part of the exact same party, this unit party that you're talking about, it's absolutely terrifying.
You realize that people just use these political talking points to stir up their base and their donors so they can get elected.
But in the end, they're either in it for their own interests or for corporate interests who are paying them and giving them this golden parachute.
Yeah, that's correct.
So I want to just finish here, Madison, on two topics.
The first is big tech.
And then the other one that they're trying to pass is immigration reform, right?
Which I say no amnesty under any circumstances whatsoever.
Talk about big tech.
Where do you think we are with the fight with big tech?
Big tech is a terrifying power.
You know, it is the fact that Facebook has the ability to control access of 2 billion people to this new public square.
They have at the switch of a button the ability to turn off and to turn on our First Amendment rights.
And this is something that no one corporation should have.
And, you know, I think Teddy Roosevelt did a really good job when he was president of being able to do some trust busting.
And I think that we do need to see the Facebook corporation, Google, some of these other big tech giants be busted up to where it's not such a hegemony these people have over even our First Amendment rights.
And so, you know, Greg Stuby and I are both championing a bill, which is all about Section 230 reform.
Greg Stuby is an incredible patriot.
He rides a horse all the time.
He's jacked, dresses really well.
And he has three children.
He is trying to give them a better future.
But he realizes that if these big tech corporations are able to have these Section 230 protections, and now, Charlie, if you'll give me a moment, I want to unpack that because we hear this all the time, Section 230, Section 230.
But very rarely does the common normal American actually know what that means.
So what goes on in Section 230 is that it states that a lot of these big tech social media corporations, if you give them the ability to get up off the ground, are exempt from having any civil lawsuits filed against them for limiting somebody's First Amendment rights.
And so what our bill would do is it would just change a very small couple sentences within Section 230 that would actually make a fix to that where we can allow, if you believe that your First Amendment rights have been limited and that your ability for either political protest or just to speak your mind on religious matters or your right to assemble has been limited by big tech, then you can actually go out and sue them in a civil court.
And this would then hold them accountable to the American people rather than us being at their becking call and being enslaved to the big tech corporations.
And I love that.
And so now let's go to immigration.
What are they trying to do with immigration?
And because there's some Republican senators that are trying to get, you know, an amnesty deal done.
What are your thoughts on all that?
Well, let me talk to you about this very frankly.
So one, you know, if you are truly so afraid of COVID-19 that you will not allow our public schools to be open, then you should lock down the freaking border.
That should be, but that should be option number one is exactly what we should do.
But also, you know, looking far past COVID-19 to even something that I think is more dangerous to our culture is letting mass immigration happen inside of the United States of America.
Now, what's going on while you see some of these Republican senators thinking about allowing this amnesty to happen is because what Democrats have done is a masterful move on their part because they know that Republicans are the champions of the blue-collar workers, specifically of the farmers across the Midwest and even in my district.
And so what we have going on is that they are tying immigration and amnesty to the farm bill, which is something that gets passed every single year, which allows us to not have to offshore our farming and our agriculture production in this country.
It's a good bill, but then now they're starting to tie, it has in the past been a good bill, but now they're starting to tie amnesty.
And what this is, it gives a walk down path that will say, hey, you know what?
If you pass this bill, then that means that you're in favor of farmers.
But again, it sounds very benign, like we were talking about in the beginning.
What it does, once you read down into the text, is it gives legal immigration status and even citizenship in the end of all to 11 to 22 million illegal immigrants in our country.
So that is saying exactly what the Democrats, this is exactly a playbook, number one from the Democrats.
It says, hey, you come here, you break the law.
Then not only will we give you a stimulus check, but we will give you a citizenship.
And we will then also, we will give you, we will give you, we'll send your children to college.
We'll give you health care.
And so what the problem is, is that this is the exact same thing they're doing with the Second Amendment rights.
They're asking the United States of America's population, our citizenry, to trust that illegal immigrants and criminals will obey the law before we will.
And so I want to encourage all Republicans out there.
We have got to stand against amnesty.
Our very culture and our very fabric of our republic depend on it.
I think you're exactly right.
Well, Madison, I want to compliment you on your courage.
Continue to hold the line.
We have your back.
And congratulations on your upcoming marriage.
We'll both have that to celebrate very, very soon.
And just look, remember, for every one person that is accusing, you know, and coming after and all these crazy things and they're saying bad things, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people that are supporting you.
And so let me just tell you that there are so many people behind you.
It's very, it's very wonderful to hear.
I know that at Turning Point USA, we really value you and also here on the Charlie Kirk show.
So we have your back and keep it up.
Good talking, Charlie.
Have a good week, brother.
See you, Madison.
Thanks.
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
Email us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com.
If you want to get involved with Turning Point USA, go to tpusa.com.
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
God bless.
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