The Charlie Kirk Show - The RNC Bombshell Reporter Speaks Out with Jennifer Van Laar and Blake Masters
Aired: 2022-12-16
Duration: 35:10


=== RNC Spending Scandal (09:47) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey, everybody.
[00:00:00]  Today in the Charlie Kirk Show, Jennifer Van Law, who published the RNC story, joins us.
[00:00:04]  We talk about that.
[00:00:05]  Then Blake Masters and Tyler Boyer join me to talk about President Kirsten Cinema and more.
[00:00:11]  Email me directly, freedom at charliekirk.com, and get your tickets to AmericaFest today at amfest.com.
[00:00:18]  It is not too late to get your tickets at amfest.com.
[00:00:22]  That is amf.com.
[00:00:25]  Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr., Greg Gutfeld, Carrie Lake, and more, A-M-F-E-S-T.com.
[00:00:32]  Buckle up, everybody.
[00:00:33]  Here we go.
[00:00:34]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:00:36]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
[00:00:38]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:00:41]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:00:45]  I want to thank Charlie.
[00:00:46]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:00:47]  His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
[00:00:54]  Turning point USA.
[00:00:55]  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.
[00:01:04]  That's why we are here.
[00:01:07]  Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
[00:01:16]  It's one of my favorite emails I've received in some time.
[00:01:18]  Charlie, I'm enjoying you going through the RNC expenditures, but I shouldn't really say enjoying.
[00:01:24]  It's making me so angry.
[00:01:25]  I'm one of those donors that gave $20 here and there because I thought it would make a difference.
[00:01:30]  $100,000 on hair and makeup.
[00:01:33]  By the way, Charlie, I could tell you don't spend $100,000 on hair and makeup.
[00:01:37]  I'll take it.
[00:01:38]  And you're right.
[00:01:39]  I don't.
[00:01:41]  I can tell.
[00:01:42]  Okay, fine.
[00:01:42]  I have a face for radio.
[00:01:44]  I totally appreciate it.
[00:01:45]  And you know what?
[00:01:45]  I don't spend that on hair and makeup.
[00:01:48]  I think it's insane actually to spend, I don't know, not exactly a fan of that.
[00:01:52]  So joining us now is the person who broke the story, Jennifer Van Laar, exclusive analysis of RNC spending since 2017.
[00:02:00]  Jennifer, welcome to the program.
[00:02:01]  Thank you.
[00:02:02]  I did also did not spend $100,000 on hair and makeup, and that is why I am on the phone today.
[00:02:09]  That's okay.
[00:02:12]  I would fire everybody if they were spending $10,000 on hair and makeup for me or for anybody else.
[00:02:18]  I think it's totally insane.
[00:02:19]  So, Jennifer, I'm just going to allow you to walk us through this piece.
[00:02:23]  I think some of this is super substantive and important.
[00:02:26]  Some of it, I think, can be taken by people for their own political purposes.
[00:02:31]  Some of this is just absolutely outrageous.
[00:02:32]  You did the research.
[00:02:33]  It's all public disclosure.
[00:02:35]  Walk us through the piece.
[00:02:37]  Right.
[00:02:38]  So you're right.
[00:02:39]  It's all public information on the FEC website.
[00:02:44]  I downloaded all of their expenditures since 2017 and analyzed that.
[00:02:50]  There were multiple things that were misclassified.
[00:02:53]  So it took quite a bit of time to try to get a handle on what was being spent.
[00:02:58]  So for example, you might not be aware because it's kind of a girl thing, but there's the place called Lululemon.
[00:03:04]  Oh, I know about Lululemon.
[00:03:05]  $100.
[00:03:05]  No, no, no.
[00:03:06]  They have great, I think they call them ABC pants.
[00:03:09]  I'll be very honest.
[00:03:10]  They're terrific.
[00:03:11]  Even though they're a bunch of communists, that product is exceptional.
[00:03:15]  Yes, luxury yoga pants, and they're over $100 each.
[00:03:20]  So there was $5,000 spent at Lululemon in the third quarter of 2022.
[00:03:26]  So right now, that was classified as office expenses.
[00:03:30]  So imagine $5,000.
[00:03:32]  Buy for your office for $5,000 at Lululemon.
[00:03:35]  Yeah, but I mean, let me just take a pause here, Jennifer.
[00:03:37]  I mean, we run a pretty sizable organization here, and we have a very strict finance department where if it's not down to receipt, business purpose, it doesn't get expensed.
[00:03:49]  How is this possible?
[00:03:50]  I mean, who's approving this?
[00:03:52]  That's what I was wondering.
[00:03:53]  So I spoke to six of the national committee members and some staffers.
[00:03:57]  Do you have?
[00:03:58]  I asked, do you guys have a manual I can look at, some kind of policy and procedure thing?
[00:04:03]  Because I work for Salem that owns Red State.
[00:04:07]  I have a very strict policy that I, of what I can expense and what has to be turned in.
[00:04:13]  And they said there's no policy book that they could give me, that everything the RNC members didn't even have this detail unless they look at the FEC filings because it all goes through Ronna McDaniel's office.
[00:04:27]  Okay, so what were some, what were some of the other, let's just say, eye-opening revelations that you discovered in your research?
[00:04:36]  Right.
[00:04:36]  So the one that was the most eye-opening to me as far as the dollar amount was $17 million on donor mementos.
[00:04:45]  I mean, so their response, so the RNC's response is, well, the White House wanted this and we paid for it, which my response is, tell them hell no.
[00:04:54]  You're running the Republican Party.
[00:04:56]  I mean, you're not some sort of gift shop subsidy for visitors to the White House.
[00:05:00]  What the hell is going on here?
[00:05:02]  Right.
[00:05:02]  And why is a soul cycle expense categorized as a donor memento?
[00:05:07]  Wait, hold on.
[00:05:07]  I'm sorry.
[00:05:07]  Wait, hold on.
[00:05:08]  Okay.
[00:05:08]  Now you're really starting to get into things that I shouldn't admit I know anything about.
[00:05:14]  I don't go to Soul Cycle, nor do I have plans to, but how is that a business expense?
[00:05:18]  Soul Cycle is this kind of like strange new age like place where people kind of like ride on bikes and rise the bikes.
[00:05:28]  Yeah.
[00:05:29]  In super loud rooms.
[00:05:31]  Like, why is that an expense for the Republican Party?
[00:05:34]  Right.
[00:05:34]  And why is Orange Theory?
[00:05:36]  That one was classified as an employee benefit.
[00:05:39]  But what is Orange Theory?
[00:05:41]  Orange Theory is another exercise place.
[00:05:44]  Okay.
[00:05:45]  Then, you know, $750,000 on floral arrangements.
[00:05:49]  And so I do need to clarify: none of these expenditures within my report are for fundraising events because there's a separate category for the expenses for, because you know, Attorney Point does events.
[00:06:02]  Yeah.
[00:06:03]  How can you even have an accurate breakdown of the success of your event if you don't have all of your expenses listed?
[00:06:09]  So if these are indeed supposed to be from donor events or fundraisers, the fact that they're misclassified just shows terrible business management and no way to have any accountability of any of the event planners or anything.
[00:06:23]  I mean, okay, so let's just go to the flower.
[00:06:24]  The flower thing, I think it's the smoking gun, like the flower gate.
[00:06:28]  I mean, $750,000 in flowers since 2017, $321,000 with flowers during an election cycle.
[00:06:36]  Democrats spent $1,500 on flowers.
[00:06:39]  We spent $321,000 on flowers.
[00:06:42]  Jennifer, let's pretend we are the spokespeople for the RNC, which, by the way, in their response to your article, they conveniently didn't mention the flowers at all.
[00:06:53]  Like at all.
[00:06:54]  They just or any of the expenses, really.
[00:06:56]  Yeah, I mean, some of it they danced around, but the flowers they didn't acknowledge.
[00:07:00]  What would be the best, most reasonable argument you and I could make if we were criminal defense attorneys for the RNC to spend $321,000 on flowers?
[00:07:11]  That they were buying it for the party's funeral?
[00:07:14]  I don't know.
[00:07:15]  Okay.
[00:07:16]  That's rather, that's rather cruel, but accurate.
[00:07:18]  So, yeah, I mean, maybe they would say they're sending them to donors that passed away, of which my response is you shouldn't do that, send them a card, maybe go to the funeral, but party money shouldn't be spent on flowers.
[00:07:32]  Was this money spent on flower arrangements at the office?
[00:07:38]  It could have been.
[00:07:39]  There were multiple Washington, D.C. area florists.
[00:07:43]  There's a lot of 1-800 flowers.
[00:07:45]  So no way to really tell unless they open up the books and show everything, which I think everyone kind of wants to see at this point.
[00:07:53]  I mean, because they also had $80,000 in alcohol-related expenditures, and some of that was Drizzly, which is a delivery service for alcohol.
[00:08:01]  Why?
[00:08:02]  It doesn't say if it was going to the office or where, and a bunch of liquor stores around Capitol Hill.
[00:08:09]  So, are we paying for the staffers to drink at the office?
[00:08:15]  Yeah, I mean, it would definitely be part of the stereotype that a lot of people have about what goes on around there.
[00:08:22]  So, but then, Jennifer, the broader picture here, and your reporting is really thorough.
[00:08:28]  Like some of this here, some, you know, some people are saying, oh, they spent XYZ on private jets.
[00:08:32]  I'm going to put that one aside.
[00:08:33]  If you aren't a productive organization and you got to do things, I understand that.
[00:08:37]  I really do.
[00:08:38]  I think it might be a little high, but I'm not even going to focus on that one.
[00:08:41]  But here's another one: $150,000 on non-essential office expenses, $7,000 on candles and diffusers.
[00:08:49]  What the heck is that?
[00:08:51]  Right.
[00:08:51]  And you know, I had to look up a lot of these places because if I buy candles, it's generally Yankee candle or Bath and Body Works.
[00:08:59]  So I don't know what all of these fancy candle places are, but there is numerous just really fancy candle and diffuser places.
[00:09:08]  And I'm thinking, do people have BO there?
[00:09:10]  Do they not shower?
[00:09:11]  Like, why do you need all of this in your office?
[00:09:15]  $25,000 on Commonwealth Joe coffee, which could be very good.
[00:09:20]  But from what I've heard from people that go in and out of the RNC building, when they go into a break room, there's a Keurig and K-cups and plastic or you know, foam coffee cups.
[00:09:30]  So they're wondering where this is going.
[00:09:33]  They spent thousands, tens of thousands of dollars at REI classified as office expenses.
[00:09:40]  I don't know how you spend tens of thousands of dollars at REI.
[00:09:43]  By definition, REI is a recreational outdoors store.

=== Save A Baby's Life (02:45) ===

[00:09:47]  Right.
[00:09:48]  Right.
[00:09:50]  So do they have a climbing wall at the RNC?
[00:09:53]  I mean, I can understand where that might be necessary.
[00:09:57]  And Carhartt, I mean, are they trying to be veterman with five, six, seven thousand dollars at Carhartt?
[00:10:05]  I mean, thirty thousand dollars at a place called Roeback, which is also sporting goods exercise.
[00:10:11]  This is really important.
[00:10:12]  The RNC must be held to a higher standard, everybody, because the RNC can do things that no other organization can do.
[00:10:18]  They can coordinate donors, messaging, data, strategy, work with state parties and committees.
[00:10:24]  They are the hub.
[00:10:25]  Every dollar that goes to the RNC needs to be preciously spent.
[00:10:29]  When Carl Rove ran the RNC, he got mad when he saw any flowers and he only catered Chick-fil-A and very, very low-cost expenditure, like very just kind of reasonable expenditures.
[00:10:45]  Hey, everybody, what if I told you you could save a baby's life for $28?
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[00:11:54]  CharlieKirk.com, click on the banner and save a baby's life.
[00:12:00]  By the way, shout out to Cade, who I believe is going to the Air Force.
[00:12:04]  Is that right?
[00:12:05]  He's been terrific.
[00:12:06]  And we'll miss you, man.
[00:12:07]  So serve our country great and come on back in a little bit, maybe in a decade once you've defeated all the bad guys.
[00:12:15]  God bless.
[00:12:16]  He's been an amazing team member.
[00:12:17]  He's terrific.
[00:12:18]  I'm not going to say his last name on air.
[00:12:20]  Cade.
[00:12:21]  He's a great guy.
[00:12:22]  So 18 years old.
[00:12:24]  Not a thing we've thrown at him that he hasn't been able to handle.
[00:12:26]  He's excellent.
[00:12:27]  So maybe he's 19, 18.
[00:12:30]  He's terrific.
[00:12:31]  All right, Jennifer, let's continue here.

=== Culture Change Needed (14:36) ===

[00:12:33]  Is it accurate to say that 40% of all RNC expenditures are on fundraising expenses?
[00:12:41]  That's actually going to be in part two of my story.
[00:12:44]  So I don't want to stake out any exact numbers right now.
[00:12:47]  I'm speaking to people about the fundraising expenses and the fundraising contracts and some other insider contracts.
[00:12:55]  So are we in the ballpark?
[00:12:57]  I mean, I'm okay.
[00:12:57]  So I don't want to obviously ruin your story here, but are we in the ballpark of an extraordinary figure for fundraising expenses?
[00:13:06]  Yes, we are.
[00:13:07]  Okay, got it.
[00:13:08]  So here's part of the RNC's statement.
[00:13:11]  They say this.
[00:13:12]  A client of Harmeet Dylan decided to publish a hit piece in the middle of the night without making a serious attempt to engage with the RNC committee woman Daniel's team.
[00:13:21]  This blog post is as blatantly false as the lie she's been spreading about the RNC members are being bribed for their votes.
[00:13:27]  If critics want to misrepresent and push false narratives of the RNC spending this past cycle, they should do the math and realize it only adds up to 8.8% of the total amount the chairwoman raised.
[00:13:38]  Like, hold on a second.
[00:13:39]  So raised versus spent are two different figures because they spent, for example, at Turning Point USA, 6% of our money is on fundraising expenses.
[00:13:51]  6%.
[00:13:52]  If I told my team to spend 25%, I could raise three times as much money.
[00:13:57]  Now, but the margin wouldn't make any sense.
[00:13:59]  And it would also not be in our best interest because we want to spend our money on programming at Turning Point USA.
[00:14:04]  I'd rather spend our money on starting chapters, hosting events, training pastors, Turning Point Academy, curriculum, all this sort of stuff, not just being a fundraising operation, right?
[00:14:14]  So what do you have to say to the RNC's statement here?
[00:14:18]  Well, I mean, first, they're also a client of Harmeet Dylan.
[00:14:23]  And I had noted that in the piece from the start that Harmeet Dylan has represented me when Katie Hill sued me and that I have endorsed Harmeet within that race.
[00:14:34]  That doesn't change the numbers.
[00:14:36]  I can't change the numbers by my support.
[00:14:40]  Well, that's exactly right.
[00:14:41]  This is such a, I'd have to defend you, Jennifer.
[00:14:43]  I think it's such a silly, slanderous, sloppy smear attack.
[00:14:46]  Like, oh, she's friends with Harmeet.
[00:14:48]  Okay, the numbers are the numbers.
[00:14:49]  Okay.
[00:14:50]  Like, are these reports legit?
[00:14:52]  Like, did you spend $700,000 on flowers?
[00:14:55]  Like, that's a very simple question.
[00:14:57]  Right.
[00:14:58]  Which they obviously don't want to answer.
[00:15:00]  She said, well, first, then it's so insulting in so many ways.
[00:15:03]  This blog post.
[00:15:06]  All right.
[00:15:06]  Yeah.
[00:15:07]  Hold on.
[00:15:07]  Wait, hold on.
[00:15:08]  You mean the person, Jennifer, who took down Katie Hill, one of the more effective journalists on the planet?
[00:15:15]  And you get smeared by the RNC.
[00:15:17]  This is so typical, honestly.
[00:15:19]  This is uniparty garbage is what this is.
[00:15:22]  Like, just own it.
[00:15:23]  Tell us why you spent $700,000 on flowers.
[00:15:26]  Right.
[00:15:27]  Tell us why you took all of your senior staff and their plus ones first class to Vegas and back and rented a private box at an NFL game for $30,000, paid for all their lodging, food, alcohol.
[00:15:42]  The alcohol sticks out to me because, I mean, we all know that people drink when you, especially if you go on a business trip, but Salem doesn't pay for our alcohol ever, ever.
[00:15:53]  Yeah, I mean, we I'm pretty hawkish about that around here.
[00:15:58]  At turning point, let's, but I mean, it's, it's the RNC, so I mean, they have a reputation uphold as far as how much they drink.
[00:16:05]  So, I mean, look, but let's just say, I'm going to just, I really want to just focus on some of the top line figures here because I mean, like, some of the stuff, you know, you have a whistleblower, right, on some of this.
[00:16:19]  They say that the Vegas trip was wasteful and all that stuff.
[00:16:22]  But, I mean, I do not understand where the spin could come from of $381,000 for furniture expenses.
[00:16:31]  I mean, this money.
[00:16:32]  And this is so important.
[00:16:33]  Like, it's one thing if you are an institution.
[00:16:37]  Let's just say if we were to go to the financials of an organization that I appreciate or I enjoy, that's like a college, like Hillsdale College.
[00:16:45]  Okay, but they're an institution.
[00:16:46]  They're not the RNC, right?
[00:16:49]  Meaning that the RNC has to act with urgency and with precision.
[00:16:54]  And they are the only organization that is allowed to share data, that's allowed to represent the party, that could coordinate with campaigns.
[00:17:01]  With this $6 million of wasteful spending that I identified just in this piece, we probably could have won the Nevada Senate seat.
[00:17:10]  And how massive would that have been?
[00:17:12]  So I'm just extremely disappointed in how this, our money is being handled by the RNC.
[00:17:17]  Look, we run a big organization.
[00:17:19]  I understand at times you got to do retreats, you got to do staff training.
[00:17:23]  There is no explanation to spend nearly a million dollars on flowers and $17 million on donor gifts that could have been spent to win us the Senate.
[00:17:34]  The end of the year is right around the corner, and it's time for you to consider a change in your investment plan.
[00:17:39]  This is Charlie Kirk, and I strongly recommend you go right now and see my friends at PAX to review your investments.
[00:17:46]  They are the one firm I know that focuses on biblical, responsible investing and does not force you to invest in companies that literally attack Christian values.
[00:17:55]  If we want religious liberty in our country, we have to stop investing in companies that are trying to suppress our freedoms.
[00:18:02]  I love PAX Financial.
[00:18:04]  They manage some of my money.
[00:18:05]  I trust them.
[00:18:06]  And that's why before the end of the year, you need to text the word Charlie to the number 74868.
[00:18:11]  That's Charlie to 74868.
[00:18:13]  And someone with PAX Financial Group will connect you right away.
[00:18:16]  So take out your phone, text the word Charlie to 74868.
[00:18:22]  I trust them with my money, and I think you should trust them with your money.
[00:18:26]  That is the word Charlie to 74868.
[00:18:31]  They're a great operation.
[00:18:32]  Check them out today.
[00:18:36]  Tyler Boyer, you're one of the 168.
[00:18:39]  Charlie.
[00:18:39]  You also really were the pioneer of building turning point and doing all that.
[00:18:44]  Could you understand a university would spend $700,000 in flowers?
[00:18:48]  So I read this and because another member sent it to me last night, you know, that obviously is a big Harmeat fan and a big, you know, a big change maker.
[00:18:59]  And I read this and I said to you very quickly and I was like, hey, how much have we ever spent on private planes?
[00:19:08]  Very little.
[00:19:10]  How much have we spent on flowers?
[00:19:11]  Very little.
[00:19:12]  I mean, we raise a lot of money.
[00:19:13]  I mean, we've been very blessed at turning point.
[00:19:16]  But our fundraising expenditure is 6% of revenues.
[00:19:19]  RNC is 40%.
[00:19:21]  Yeah.
[00:19:21]  And that's true because I've sat in a budget meeting and I was like, I remember texting you that day, too.
[00:19:26]  And I was like, hey, I already know because I know the inside of what we do.
[00:19:30]  But I was like, this is crazy, right?
[00:19:33]  Like, I'm like, this is insane.
[00:19:35]  Almost 40% of your budget going out the door just for fundraising.
[00:19:38]  That's basically having an operation that you're just raising money to spend it.
[00:19:42]  Yeah.
[00:19:43]  And the private jet thing aside, if you're doing a lot of work and you're traveling and you got to, you know, have long days, there could be an argument for that.
[00:19:48]  So you put, I haven't even focused on that.
[00:19:50]  Or like a donor might come to you and say, hey, we have to, we want to provide this for you.
[00:19:54]  It's hard to slap, like, knock a gift horse in the mouth.
[00:19:56]  Or it's like, hey, I got like three events I got to do and I'm going to raise $5 million and I have to go to Malibu.
[00:20:01]  I got to go to San Francisco and Seattle.
[00:20:03]  You're not going to fly Alaskan Airlines.
[00:20:05]  It's just not going to happen.
[00:20:05]  You can't break it.
[00:20:06]  So I get that, but I do not get $64,000 in clothes.
[00:20:11]  There's a lot of things that are really concerning here.
[00:20:15]  And, you know, one of them that was brought up was the alcohol.
[00:20:18]  And it's not, and again.
[00:20:20]  I thought it was low for their reputation.
[00:20:22]  Not that, I mean, the number should be zero.
[00:20:24]  I mean, for the reputation of the RNC.
[00:20:27]  It is $80,000 over the course of just this last year and a half, two years, whatever it was.
[00:20:31]  And the average expenditure was $300.
[00:20:33]  So basically, it's buying, like the entire office booze every, and that's again.
[00:20:41]  The point is not the, even the dollar amount.
[00:20:44]  The point is a culture thing right, which is like you have to have.
[00:20:47]  The culture has to be at the R C. In my opinion and this is I brought this up with chairman chairwoman Mcdaniel too, was that I didn't.
[00:20:55]  I don't feel like the culture at the, at the R AND C, is where it could be, and I say that to you all the time about attorney, i'm constantly focused on we've got to make sure that we work together, that we we do, we you build a relationship, you build a family, but that you're operating so that donors trust that every dollar that you're spending is the most effective dollar, that you've ever spent.
[00:21:16]  17 million dollars in donor mementos that that's like mind-blowing to me.
[00:21:20]  You know we got an email today from from one of the members who's on the budget committee, saying, you look, a lot of this money was spent.
[00:21:29]  You know White House stuff, yeah.
[00:21:30]  So we read their statement, I think, and then you tell them no and you say no yeah, how about you go have the Super PACK, go pay for it, because they can do unlimited donations and they can't coordinate well, this is the point that's made in the story that Jennifer makes and I know she was on earlier but um, is that the comparison between what the RNC has spent on these things versus what the DNC has spent is is astronomically.
[00:21:51]  It's a wide gap between.
[00:21:53]  So they they increased a Senate seat in a year that should have been a red wave spend significant less.
[00:21:57]  So the DNC spent 1 500 on flowers this last year and the RNC spent three hundred and twenty one thousand dollars on flowers.
[00:22:05]  Yeah it's, it's mind mind-numbing, to be honest with you, and they had a more successful Senate cycle than we did.
[00:22:11]  I mean, I will tell you this again, I go to the RNC functions.
[00:22:15]  You know we pay for out of pocket.
[00:22:17]  We do all that um, because members of the RNC and again I want to make this very clear, the members my colleagues on the RNC are are not the enemy right, this is, these are individuals who pay out of pocket to go do these things in most cases.
[00:22:31]  But does that mean that we can't be better?
[00:22:34]  Certainly, it certainly can, and and that's why I think changing leadership every once in a while is okay, it's good, it's healthy, mixing this up, this is not a trajectory that is going to be successful for the Republican National Committee to to continue, and Michael Steele, when he was chair, Was accused of a lot of this stuff, right?
[00:22:53]  Of using the RNC for private plane travel, for black car service, for all these things.
[00:22:59]  And this stuff is happening and it just shouldn't, you know?
[00:23:02]  And so I actually think that the chairwoman should take some ownership here and say, look, you know, some of the stuff is not okay.
[00:23:11]  And we got to change it.
[00:23:12]  We got to fix it.
[00:23:13]  I would love to see that.
[00:23:14]  I don't think that's going to happen.
[00:23:16]  And so for that reason, it's really important for the grassroots to know who are your members of the RNC in your state.
[00:23:23]  Have conversations about this.
[00:23:26]  I can tell you right now, and I think, Charlie, this is what you're saying, and I'm echoing it.
[00:23:31]  As a person who has helped run an organization here that is a caretaker of donor money and is spending it effectively, there's not a lot of excuses for these things.
[00:23:42]  No, there isn't.
[00:23:43]  I mean, and when you have $7,000 on cupcakes, $7,000 on candles and diffusers, $381,000 on furniture.
[00:23:51]  But this is the last point.
[00:23:52]  Then I want to bring Blake Masters in.
[00:23:54]  A little bit longer than I planned on this, but the RNC has to be so preciously careful with their money because the RNC can't raise unlimited $750 per person.
[00:24:03]  So it maxes out top donors.
[00:24:05]  And the RNC is the hub of the data, and they can coordinate with campaigns and committees.
[00:24:11]  So by definition, every dollar needs to be tracked and hawked even more.
[00:24:15]  Even more.
[00:24:15]  Because if it's a super PAC wasting money, okay, but they can't do what only the RNC can do.
[00:24:21]  Totally.
[00:24:22]  Totally.
[00:24:22]  The RNC is the, and this is where at the end of the day, people are like, ah, whatever.
[00:24:26]  Forget the Republican Party.
[00:24:28]  The RNC is the function, if it's used correctly, is the difference maker in a lot of these races and a lot of the in our success.
[00:24:37]  And the Democrats have figured this out.
[00:24:39]  And again, if we don't take it very seriously, then you're going to end up in a scenario where we kind of currently are, which is we're not doing everything that we should be doing with donor money.
[00:24:49]  And by the way, donors right now are looking at this.
[00:24:52]  They're reading this.
[00:24:53]  They're going, I'm not going to give.
[00:24:54]  Like, even if there's a question in the emails I received from donors today, they are livid, livid with this.
[00:25:00]  40% spent on fundraising.
[00:25:01]  Okay, I want to welcome Blake Masters here, who should be going to the Senate in January.
[00:25:05]  Blake, could you have used $17 million that was otherwise spent on ornaments that people lost or threw away or discarded in your Senate race against Mark Kelly?
[00:25:14]  I would have loved $17 more million dollars, but I agree with what a lot of Tyler is saying.
[00:25:19]  I think we should all be able to agree, right, that every dollar spent is spent in the most efficacious way possible.
[00:25:28]  I think donors have questions.
[00:25:29]  I think a lot of the committee members are going to have questions.
[00:25:33]  And, you know, Rana should be up for talking about them.
[00:25:36]  I know and like Harmeet, I know and like Rana.
[00:25:39]  And I think we can all agree that no matter who's in leadership, we have to maybe do some belt tightening and we have to make sure that when donors give money, right, it goes into the field.
[00:25:51]  I'm okay with whatever strategy maximizes the amount of money that we're actually putting into field, that we're putting into campaigns.
[00:25:57]  But I think we got to be fair-minded about it.
[00:25:59]  Sometimes you guys know this, sometimes it does take money to raise money.
[00:26:03]  Shouldn't be 40%.
[00:26:04]  And so I, you know, questions, and I think we can look into that.
[00:26:08]  I mean, were they giving flowers to every swing voter in Georgia or something?
[00:26:11]  That would have been smart.
[00:26:13]  The pushback, of course, is like, you know, how much does it cost to feed 500 people when you go to the four seasons?
[00:26:20]  You know, and hey, maybe it's worth having a donor retreat at the four seasons because they don't want to go to Motel Six.
[00:26:24]  I totally agree.
[00:26:25]  I want to be open-minded.
[00:26:26]  I want to be reasonable about it.
[00:26:27]  That's not even the criticism.
[00:26:29]  I mean, I get that.
[00:26:29]  We do events at nice places and we raise money there, but it's also the question of why is it that you then spent $17 million on donor mementos?
[00:26:39]  And are you a fundraising operation or are you here to win elections?
[00:26:43]  Because they and to Tyler's point, I think, you know, everybody can agree we need a culture change.
[00:26:50]  And I think people should be interviewing Rana about this.
[00:26:52]  And I think Harmeet's job is it's incumbent on her to get out there and say, here's how I would change the culture, right?
[00:26:58]  And so I just want to make myself available and help do that because I agree with you.
[00:27:02]  This party needs to get more grassroots.
[00:27:04]  We need donors to know that their money is being well spent and we need to start winning elections.

=== Grassroots vs Donor Mementos (03:00) ===

[00:27:09]  That's just clear as day.
[00:27:11]  Yeah.
[00:27:11]  I mean, no matter what, if Rana gets re-elected as chairwoman, she's going to see a massive decrease in small dollar donations.
[00:27:18]  She will enter into a heavily bruised environment, right, Tyler?
[00:27:22]  Because people are saying, I'm not going to give any more money, period.
[00:27:25]  Yeah.
[00:27:26]  I mean, look, here's what we have to do within the Republican Party in general.
[00:27:31]  And this is at the state level.
[00:27:32]  This is at the local level, but this is also at the national level.
[00:27:36]  We have to have leadership that people can believe in and trust.
[00:27:39]  And what I loved about Blake's run here in Arizona and why it was so refreshing to have Blake as our nominee for Senate here was it was totally different, totally new face.
[00:27:50]  It wasn't the same old revolving door, same old, same old politician.
[00:27:55]  It was, you know, here's a young dad who cares about his state, who's from here.
[00:28:00]  You know, and I think there's some the genuine feel nature of that is really what's really important to the Republican Party.
[00:28:07]  I think that's smart.
[00:28:08]  So, Blake, let me just ask you: you know, what do you think are the biggest takeaways from your race that we can apply immediately towards victory in 24?
[00:28:17]  You were abandoned by the turtle.
[00:28:18]  You know, you didn't have the outside money that you needed or deserved.
[00:28:22]  Well, one, yeah, I mean, we needed more money.
[00:28:24]  You know, I worked my tail off.
[00:28:26]  We raised 11 million, I think, hard dollars.
[00:28:29]  It wasn't enough, but it was really hard.
[00:28:31]  You know, next time if I run, I'll raise more, but we need outside money.
[00:28:34]  And I needed one of two things, maybe both.
[00:28:37]  We needed either a red wave to take out an incumbent astronaut, right?
[00:28:41]  We didn't get the red wave, or I needed establishment support.
[00:28:44]  And we didn't get that from the Senate leadership fund and from Mitch McConnell.
[00:28:48]  And, you know, that I think, I think we fought hard in a tough year, but ultimately, Mark Kelly spent six or seven times the hard dollars that I spent.
[00:28:59]  And he just made me unlikable by nuking me on TV, right?
[00:29:02]  So we got to solve our fundraising problem.
[00:29:04]  We also, I knew that we were in trouble statewide as soon as I think 8 p.m. Tuesday night, election day, as soon as we saw the early voting results, right?
[00:29:12]  The Democrats get banked about 50% more votes than our models suggested.
[00:29:17]  They've perfected this art of early voting, of ballot harvesting.
[00:29:21]  And again, ballot harvesting is technically illegal in Arizona.
[00:29:25]  I think they probably still do it a lot.
[00:29:27]  We need to go right up to that line and be aggressive.
[00:29:30]  We won't do anything illegal, but we need to become the party of technology and the party of early voting.
[00:29:34]  I think we solve that and our fundraising gap will start winning elections.
[00:29:37]  Look, I'm not trying to rein on too much of the parade, but you know who was telling us those models?
[00:29:42]  It was the RNC data center.
[00:29:44]  The RNC data center was so confident.
[00:29:46]  Like, oh, don't worry, we got this thing in the bag.
[00:29:48]  I actually know all your data was wrong.
[00:29:49]  Maybe you guys should have spent more money on that than flowers that pair.
[00:29:53]  We need to be a more technological party.
[00:29:56]  This is something I'm going to help with no matter who's in leadership.
[00:29:58]  I come from tech.
[00:29:59]  We need to trounce the Democrats on tech, but we're a couple of years behind, to be honest.
[00:30:04]  Well, you're going to be the next CEO of Twitter if I have anything to say about it.

=== Winning The 2024 Race (05:00) ===

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[00:31:10]  All right, Blake, I'll start with you.
[00:31:11]  What is your take on the cinema news?
[00:31:15]  I'm not shocked, but the timing was surprising, right?
[00:31:17]  You never expect to wake up to that news.
[00:31:20]  I sort of think that Schumer and Cinema either have or will make a deal and that they will box out a Democrat like Ruben Gallego from running, and Schumer will support cinema.
[00:31:31]  That to me is still the most plausible thing because I don't think they want to throw away a Senate seat.
[00:31:37]  And if you get Gallego in there, I mean, I'm hoping Gallego challenges cinema and we have a three-way Senate race and we'll win that Senate race.
[00:31:43]  Republicans, you know, maybe I'll run for that.
[00:31:45]  I don't know, but I think the Republican candidate would win that Senate race in 2024.
[00:31:50]  But cinema is also pretty smart.
[00:31:52]  I don't think she wants to run in a three-way race.
[00:31:55]  And I agree with Tyler.
[00:31:56]  Maybe she's just going to run for president, vacate the Senate seat, run for president, settle for vice president.
[00:32:00]  Tyler, that's equally plausible.
[00:32:02]  I mean, there is some like really house of cards-y stuff that's going around DC that they're expecting Kamala to step down and that Kamala will get replaced by somebody else in anticipation that Biden, who's the who's the president, is respected enough where it's his decision whether or not he wants to run again.
[00:32:22]  And every conversation is he doesn't want to run again, but nobody wants Kamala to run.
[00:32:27]  And she would automatically be put in the best position.
[00:32:29]  So the Democrat establishment is saying, we got to figure out a solution here because the country has not been benefited by your leadership.
[00:32:38]  So you're going to step down.
[00:32:39]  We're going to honor you.
[00:32:40]  You're going to step down.
[00:32:41]  We're going to replace you with someone else.
[00:32:43]  And hey, Kamala, if you want to run for president because Biden decides not to, that's fine.
[00:32:46]  But we want someone else to have the benefit of the vice presidency.
[00:32:50]  And if it was a three-way race, Blake, in a strange way, it would actually de-emphasize Maricopa County and it would actually overly emphasize Yava Pie and some of the rules, wouldn't it?
[00:33:01]  Not that Maricopa wouldn't matter, but I mean, Gallego and Cinema theoretically would be battling for downtown Phoenix, Chandler, and Mesa.
[00:33:11]  It would become Maricopa County would become blue, cinema ring, and then the red ring around, right?
[00:33:19]  And then you run up the score.
[00:33:21]  And we would win and we would win.
[00:33:22]  And then you just, and you're right.
[00:33:23]  The rurals would become much more important.
[00:33:25]  And in a presidential year, the rurals show up in greater numbers than they do in midterms, especially if Trump is on the ballot.
[00:33:31]  Yeah.
[00:33:31]  I mean, cinema, I just don't believe.
[00:33:34]  I'm like, I'm with Blake.
[00:33:35]  I think cinema is a pretty smart lady.
[00:33:38]  I know her.
[00:33:39]  I've met her many times.
[00:33:41]  I've watched her closely for a long time.
[00:33:43]  She's too smart to want to run in a three-way race.
[00:33:46]  She's just too smart.
[00:33:47]  It's too risky.
[00:33:48]  Or she wants to run for president of the United States.
[00:33:50]  Yeah.
[00:33:50]  I think that's more likely.
[00:33:51]  Or vice president.
[00:33:52]  I think they look at her as the Obama in a skirt.
[00:33:56]  Look, I got to tell you, when she was going straight to camera saying, I think a lot of Americans don't fit in a political box, some consultant is really helping her there because she's reading the room really well.
[00:34:06]  I think that's right.
[00:34:06]  And if cinema does want to run in a three-way race, it must mean she's lined up ungodly amounts of sort of centrist billionaire money like Bloomberg or Howard Schultz or whatever.
[00:34:18]  I think Americans don't feel like they fit in a political box right now, but the opportunity that we have is to rebuild the Republican Party, right?
[00:34:25]  Become the party of the working class, the party of the middle class, the party of the family.
[00:34:29]  For so long, the Republican Party has not been that.
[00:34:32]  For maybe just as long, the Democratic Party has not been that, right?
[00:34:35]  So I think it's there for the taking.
[00:34:37]  I know that's the work that you're interested in doing.
[00:34:38]  That's the work I'm interested in doing.
[00:34:40]  The question is, can we get it done?
[00:34:41]  I don't think the Democrats are even trying.
[00:34:43]  And I'm pretty optimistic about our chances.
[00:34:45]  So we just have to stay in the fight and make it happen.
[00:34:47]  I think we can have a great 2024.
[00:34:49]  Blake, we're excited to see you at AmericaFest.
[00:34:51]  Thanks, man.
[00:34:52]  Appreciate it.
[00:34:53]  See you soon.
[00:34:56]  Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
[00:34:57]  Email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:35:01]  Thank you so much for listening, and God bless.
[00:35:06]  For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk dot com.