Replacing Lindsey Graham, The "Conspiracy Right," and TPUSA's Newest Event

00:00:03 Speaker 1: My name is Charlie kirk I run the largest pro American student organization in the country, fighting for the future of our republic. 00:00:11 Speaker 2: My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. 00:00:14 Speaker 1: If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful. 00:00:24 Speaker 3: College is a scam, everybody. You got to stop sending your kids to college. 00:00:27 Speaker 1: You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start at turning point you would say college chapter. Go start aturning point youould say high school chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. 00:00:37 Speaker 2: Sign up and become an activist. 00:00:39 Speaker 1: I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade, most important decision I ever made in my life, and I encourage you to do the same. Here I am. 00:00:46 Speaker 3: Lord, Use me. Buckle up, everybody, Here we go. 00:00:56 Speaker 1: Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirkshaw, a company that specializes in gold rays and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments dot Com. That is Noblegoldinvestments dot Com. 00:01:17 Speaker 4: Hello, good afternoon to all of you on the East Coast. Here from the y REFI studio. Andrew is out today, so I'll be flying solo. I have the y refin Mike flag all to myself and I'm very excited about that. We have a very fun show today. We'll be talking to John Doyle again. We'll be talking to Mark Halperin about the political ramifications of Senator Lindsey Graham's death and the struggle to replace him. And we're going to talk to two students who are just at our Chapter Leadership summit about their experience about the continued fight to further Charlie's mission to turn the tide with young people to lead a revival to win back America. And we're also going to show you all a preview which the kids at CLS saw for the upcoming Turning Point Men's Leadership Retreat. It's a very interesting thing they're going for and I think you guys are going to be excited to check it out. But first, we talked a little bit about this yesterday, but I wanted to take more time for us to reflect on the life and the legacy of Senator Lindsey Graham, because I don't think it's I don't think it's controversial to say that his death shakes up the Senate, shakes up the Republican Party more than almost any other senator's loss could because for Charlie talked about Senator Graham, or Lady Graham as he often called him, probably more than any other Senator who wasn't a regular on the show as a guest. And we know that there's a reason for that. The reason for that is Senator Graham was a long serving but often rather frustrating Republican. I don't think Senator Graham himself would have to the idea that he represented an earlier era for the Republican Party. Lindsay Graham was first elected to the Senate in two thousand and two, and in a lot of ways, for Lindsey Graham, it was always two thousand and two. Senator Graham championed the Iraq War the Afghan War for the entire duration of it, and he opposed the pull out when it happened. He supported the Libya intervention to bring down Kadafi. He supported strikes on Syria regime change efforts there. He was calling for air strikes on Iran all the way back in twenty ten. He would be very happy to see President Trump resuming strikes on Iran in these past two days, and we'll talk more about that later today. Unsurprisingly, Senator Graham backed Ukraine to the hilt, and that's exactly why we already see conspiracy theories. He was in Ukraine just a few days ago, and there's theories maybe Russia was able to poison him, hurt him in some way, and cause his death. I don't think that was the case, but you can see why people would believe it. If you're a Russian and you're trying to make a list of your enemies in America, Senator Lindsay Graham might literally be number one. He's certainly in the top three. And it's unsurprising that in the days since Graham's death, Senator Chuck U. Schumer of the Democrats has said, the best way we can honor Senator Graham is to impose new sanctions on Russia. Let's do clip two. 00:04:25 Speaker 5: Well, mister President. My prayers and those of my family are with Senator Graham's family, staff, and friends after his sudden, sudden passing yesterday. I urge Senator Thune, in honor of Lindsey to put the sanctions, the Russian sanctions Bill on the floor immediately. It will pass overwhelmingly and help our allies in Ukraine. Not seeing eye to eye is no reason to be blind to the way forward. Lindsay could understand that every Senator ought to do the same. 00:05:00 Speaker 4: That's the world that Lindsey Graham believed in. Lindsay Graham was a believer in the power of the American military and American force abroad to make the world a better place. And sometimes p was right. An American force has made the world a better place. Sometimes that's why we celebrate our victory in World War II, our intervention in Korea. Sometimes force abroad is necessary. But we've learned a lot of hard lessons in the last twenty five years, and Charlie talked about this at length. We've learned that America's wealth is not unlimited, and that when we launch wars abroad, we can waste that wealth and squander it. We've learned that wars abroad can leave our country weaker and more divided, and often those wars won't achieve the initial missions that they set out on. They can leave the world worse, the world can become more chaotic. The intervention in Libya that Senator Graham supported is a perfect example of that. I don't think anyone would want to rerun the way that turned out, where we have endless migrants pouring into Europe through Libya, which has become a failed eight. Lindsey Grahm also has a complicated legacy on immigration. He worked with Senator Ted Kennedy on comprehensive immigration reform. He worked with Schumer on comprehensive immigration reform. He more than once supported the Dream Act. He supported keeping the DACA program around. He did evolve in a better direction. One of Lindsey Graham's last public public press releases was him disagreeing with the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship decision and promising to help crack down on birth tourism. But nevertheless, he wasn't the ideal that we would have on immigration, and so he represented an early era of Republican, a Republican who hadn't quite gotten the memo that we shouldn't have as many wars and we need tougher immigration policies. But we should emphasize this. Graham was better than any Democrat period. Lindsey Graham didn't believe in getting rid of America. Some of his policies we think made America weaker. Some of his policies were unpopular. They made it easier for the left to win. But Graham did not believe in abolishing America. Graham did not believe in abolishing Western civilization. Graham did not believe in abolishing capitalism in the free market. He was not a left wing zealot. And so all of our criticisms of Graham have to be through that. Lens Graham could have been better, but he was still on our side, and sometimes he showed that incredibly. Sometimes Graham was the exact person we needed. We saw that during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings in twenty eighteen. If you don't remember that, you might not remember how bad it got. It looked like we were going to lose that seat, that Democrats were going to keep it open until twenty twenty, and then they were going to let Joe Biden fill that seat with a radical Democrat. The person who brought a halt to that was Lindsay Graham on the Judiciary Committee. He stopped it cold and it was tremendous and we should honor him for that. Let's show the clip three. 00:07:54 Speaker 6: If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life. Hold this seat open, and hope you went in twenty twenty. 00:08:05 Speaker 4: You've said that, not me. 00:08:08 Speaker 6: You've got nothing to apologize for. When you see Soda Maron Kagan, tell him that Lindsay said, Oh, because I voted for them, I would never do to them what you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy. 00:08:33 Speaker 4: Are you a gang rapist? 00:08:35 Speaker 7: No? 00:08:36 Speaker 6: I cannot imagine what you and your family have gone through. Boy, y'all want power. God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham. To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, you're legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics. 00:08:57 Speaker 4: That was Graham at his best. He was a hard worker, he was a fighter. He absolutely cared about getting what he believed in. He was not this empty shell sitting on the Senate doing nothing. He was a guy who would go out there and fight, and he could fight hard. So we're going to have a primary to replace Graham in the months to come, and that's what we want. We want a senator who can fight like Graham, but we want a senator who represents the modern conservative movement better than Graham did at the time of his death. That's what we're going to fight for. And we should remember his best parts and we should improve upon his worst parts. That's what we're going to do in the weeks to come. We have breaking news that just happened. I'm waiting for it to get uploaded. They asked President Trump at the White House about the FBI investigation that is ongoing into Senator Graham's death because some people have speculated there could be some foul play, and he had something interesting to say about that. I don't want to spoil it until we get it uploaded. In the meantime, I just want to finish what we were reflecting on at the end there. So here's the details on what will be going on. You may remember there was a primary in South Carolina just a few weeks ago, and I'll be frank, we were supporting a challenger, Mark Lynch, to Senator Graham because we believe that it was possible for South Carolina voters to get a senator more aligned with their views on immigration, on military force abroad, and just more aligned with the MAGA President Trump agenda. Now we fell short there, but that was understandable. Senator Lindsay Graham was a long time incumbent. He had a lot of strength in the state and that's how it was. Now there's going to be another primary. Yesterday it was announced that the replacement for Senator Graham is actually going to be his sister, who he helped raise after I believe their parents died, and she's going to be filling out the rest of his six month term. Let's play clip five. 00:10:57 Speaker 8: I want to thank the governor for selecting me to serve the remainder of Lindsay's term. It is such an honor. Lindsay has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him. My brother was the most amazing person, outstanding leader, and just a genuinely good man. 00:11:20 Speaker 4: So it looks like that his sister that is Darlene Graham Nordon is her name. It looks like she's not planning to run in the primary that's going to be held on August eleventh, less than one month from today. She'll fill out that term and then depart, and that means it's a wide open field for the primary. I don't know everyone who's planning to run. I imagine perhaps Mark Lynch will run again, but also Nancy Mace has talked about running. She ran and that Governor's primary and was defeated. Others are stepping up, and I'm sure Turning Point Action will probably be making an endorsement in that race. I don't think they've reached one yet. I know I've talked to Tay about this. He's very excited about. Let me make sure I get it right. He's very excited about Ralph Norman, who's currently a House representative if he runs. So if he does run, maybe we'll be hearing more from him. But this is an opportunity, as we said, this is an opportunity to get a lawmaker out of South Carolina who fights as hard as Lindsay, who will get as fiery as the Lindsay Graham that we saw in that Brett Kavanaugh clip. But who is more gung ho on deportations, on securing the border, and who's less gung ho about projecting military force into every corner of planet Earth? Because even if it's necessary, sometimes it's not necessary nearly as often as Lindsay Graham wanted to. But I do see that we have the clip loaded now and I want to play it. This is breaking news. Happened just a few minutes ago. President Trump was asked about the FBI investigating his death Clip twelve. 00:12:51 Speaker 9: Are you aware of why the FBI is looking to Senator Graham's death? 00:12:55 Speaker 10: Haven't gotten any updates on why they ran his home? 00:12:57 Speaker 11: Well, I don't know why because I think, you know, he had a problem. His father had a very similar problem. 00:13:03 Speaker 2: As you know. It's very unique. 00:13:06 Speaker 11: At first I heard it was Clogg donner is because he did have clog daughters. He had a problem with that he was. I wish he took better care of himself. I say, you could see, you know, you can solve that problem. But what happened is actually something that's very hard to detect. 00:13:23 Speaker 2: I don't see a lot of people there. 00:13:24 Speaker 11: I know there's all sorts of conspiracy theories. 00:13:27 Speaker 7: Going along, and I don't think the FBI. 00:13:30 Speaker 2: I think the FBI is wasting that time if they're doing that. 00:13:34 Speaker 4: So that was President Trump. I imagine that won't be enough to satisfy some people who are true believers on this. But I want to emphasize President Trump and Senator Graham were very close despite their disagreement on some issues. They played golf a lot. I think President Trump valued his input. He endorsed him for reelection despite our concerns and the concerns of others. That's how the President leaned. So if he says I don't think there's any foul play here, I think the President has a sound to read on that. I think he has a good understanding of the situation. So we turn also to how can we best honor Senator Graham, and I think the best way to unite the Republican Party. We talked about passing new sanctions on Russia. I don't know whether those are a good idea or not. We talked about the strikes on Iran. There are new ones being launched. I'm sure Senator Lindsay Graham would be overjoyed to see those strikes happening, but probably the best way, the best way to unify the party around remembering Lindsey Graham, I think is a very straightforward one. They can pass the Save Act. Graham, whatever his flaws, was a champion of passing that bill to improve election security, to make it harder for all the various shenanigans and edge cases that make it easier for Democrats to eke out wins that they seemed unlikely to get. But you don't need to hear it from me. You can hear it from Democrats themselves. There's a clip that the team just sent me, and it's from dem Alyssa Slotkin, and she says, what's going to happen if the Save America Act passes? Clip thirteen. 00:15:06 Speaker 12: The other thing that we blocked yesterday was the Save Act right at this administration to rig of our democracy so that it would be hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election and disenfranchise all married women in the meantime. By the way, and you have to show your birth certificate at the polls if you have a married name. 00:15:25 Speaker 4: You hear the usual fear mongering, Oh it's going if they thought, if they really thought it would disenfranchise married women. Democrats would support the Save Act because married women as a whole are a Republican tilting demographic. So they're making that up. But here's the true thing, Republicans. If you want to honor Lindsey Graham and improve our prospects in these coming midterms, here's an idea for the Senate. There's an August recess coming up. They're all excited to go home and meet their constituents and not be in Washington. Here's an idea delay that recess, or if you feel like it, cancel it entirely. Americans will thank you for that. They will thank you for being in Washington if you're able to tell them, we stayed in Washington to confirm the President's appointees and pass the Save Act. So go get that done, and you'll be honoring Lindsey Graham and you'll be improving something all conservatives want. 00:16:18 Speaker 13: We've all been told to eat fruits and vegetables forever, but nobody really explained why. What if I told you that plants have their own nutrition and that it might be better for you than a lot of process stuff we've added. If nutrition feels overwhelming, it helps to take a step back and zoom out. When you eat whole foods, you're getting what's called phido nutrients, natural compounds your body uses to adjust, repair, and to respond every single day stresses. 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He's host of John Doyle Show Over at the Blaze TV John, welcome to the program. 00:17:45 Speaker 3: Thank you glad to be back. 00:17:46 Speaker 4: We want to talk about a few different things here. I definitely want to have you help weigh in with various events going on with Iran. But I know you, like us, were watching a lot of the events last week in orum Utah. We finally got to see all of the evidence laid out against Tyler Robinson, and certainly Andrew and I and all of us over here feel the evidence against mister Robinson is extremely strong. But as we also predicted, there's a lot of people, you know, most of them coming out to say, actually, all this evidence is fake, it's bogus, it's weak, this is an op job. They will never ever believe that Tyler Robinson did it, and they seem very committed to going down with the ship on this issue. And so since you've been monitoring a lot, I wanted to take this big picture and ask there seems to be a sort of conspiracy right subculture if you want to call them that, and we're trying to get at psychologically, what do you think is motivating this? 00:18:49 Speaker 14: I think this is the true long COVID. To be honest with you, I think the most devastating consequence of the COVID nineteen pandemic has been that it's given people permission to indulge in any conspiracy theory that they come across. And all of the people who you know, have spent their entire lives, spend many decades just like broadcasting conspiracy theories, they've taken a very unearned victory lap, where like they were right one time out of ten thousand in saying that, you know, the government's probably gonna abuse the COVID lockdowns to take people's rights away and transfer wealth from the elites or from the middle class rather to the elites, and that ended up being the case. But now there's like this kind of like perpetual indulgence in this where it's just like, yeah, we're gonna believe every conspiracy theory must be true until proven otherwise, and then when you have something like objective evidence pertaining to a criminal proceeding, they will actually just like jump to other lily pads, so they'll say that this theory must be true, and then when you disprove it, they'll say, well, it's actually this other thing and this other thing, and so clearly this is not a person who's actually like motivated by truth. They're more motivated by like the sport of participating in this kind of stuff, and perhaps they even find it entertaining. 00:19:50 Speaker 3: Like these are the same people who would. 00:19:52 Speaker 14: Watch, you know, true crime documentaries or something on Netflix, and it just so happens that they've stumbled into a criminal proceeding that is actually like extremely important for the success of American patriots, and so I have very little patience for it. I think that a lot of it is quite curiously enabled and even actually promoted on social media. Whereas you remember, you know, we used to get banned for conspiracy theorizing on social media because the ultimate conclusion of the conspiracy theories were that I think the people in charge are trying to harm American citizens. That's probably bad, and so all of that would get you banned. My Twitter account was banned for years prior to Elon Musk's purchase of X because of this exact. 00:20:27 Speaker 3: Kind of you know, question asking. 00:20:29 Speaker 14: Now, curiously, not only are you allowed to ask questions, the most popular content on social media is asking these questions. 00:20:35 Speaker 3: And you notice it's because the vector of attack is different. 00:20:38 Speaker 14: Whereas the old conspiracy theorize and that used to get you banned was ultimately saying, hey, we should indict the global left who is clearly trying to work against the interests of the American public. Now, the vector of attack, when you just ask questions, is specifically against the interests of the American public and their greatest advocates. You can conspiracy theorize all you want, as long as the ultimate conclusion is do not support Donald Trump, do not vote for Republicans, do not blame the left for assassinating Charlie Kirk. 00:21:03 Speaker 4: You do that. 00:21:04 Speaker 14: You can have your conspiracy theories just so long as you don't actually blame the left. 00:21:08 Speaker 4: That's such an important point that yes, it's that this is popular, and that it specifically takes the form of people at least nominally on the right, firing on other members of the right really aggressively, constantly, NonStop. Do you think that it's a fluke that happened this way or what's what do you think is driving that impulse to attack people mostly on their own side? 00:21:32 Speaker 14: I think frankly, I mean, you know as well as I do, a lot of people who wash up into right wing politics tried to make it in other aspects of entertainment, which you could argue is just a lifelong impulse to. 00:21:42 Speaker 3: Get attention for themselves. 00:21:43 Speaker 14: And maybe they try to go work in Hollywood and they're not talented enough. 00:21:46 Speaker 3: Maybe they try to be models and they're not pretty enough. 00:21:49 Speaker 14: They wash up into right wing politics, which you know they already say politics is just Hollywood for ugly people, and that's certainly true. Where you've got this kind of like class of person who makes a living now talking about pol and they may even agree with the issues, but fundamentally, this is a person who was first driven by wanting attention, wanting fame, wanting fortune, and so then when opportunity comes knocking and it's like, hey, you can just kind of like sell out any moral principles that you may have had, but you'll get more attention and money than you've ever had before. This is a person who's going to be very quick, I think, to make that decision. And you notice now a lot of the people have been entertaining this kind of conspiracy, theorising, going against the legacy of their friend, encouraging or at least enabling looking the other way during the harassment of his widow. 00:22:31 Speaker 3: All of this has made these people. 00:22:32 Speaker 14: More money and more popular than they've ever had before, and so I think for that kind of person, it's like worth it. 00:22:37 Speaker 4: Ultimately, So, as you mentioned, this used to get cracked down on Twitter, there was a lot of censorship of this sort of thing, and I think you would agree with us. It's good that Elon Musk liberated Twitter and made it x. It's good that we have far less censorship, far more open free speech. It's almost unbelievable how much better things have become compared to twenty twenty twenty one. So we don't want to go back. We don't want to go back, yeah, to mass censorship. So then that's the challenge. How do we curb the influence of the conspiracy right subculture? How do we win people back from this without having to resort to the mechanism of actually, that idea is just banned. We're going to censor it anytime it pops up online. 00:23:20 Speaker 14: To be honest with you, I literally have no idea. I have been asking this question to close friends for months now. 00:23:26 Speaker 3: This is sort of the thing. 00:23:26 Speaker 14: It's like, you know, because the democratization of anything is going to enable the ascent of like the lower common denominators, whether it's entertainment, the political process, even the exchange of information. As you include more ideas, you know, the thinking is that the best ideas will rise to the top. It's actually not true. And again this is not an argument for censorship, because clearly we are in a better position to forward the truth and ideas than we were, you know, compared to five years ago. But the problem with that is now instead of the arrows being cast at the truth by you know, the regime, the censorship apparatus, they're being cast by like just like stupid people who are not actually with us in that pursuit of truth or rather just you know, along for the ride, because they find it entertaining and they're willing to derail the entire pursuit itself if it means it's going to be entertaining for them or tantalizing or something. So I don't actually know how you solve it. My strategy, I've just been trying to keep my head down, avoid the drama, and just speak the truth. I've noticed a lot of people kind of mirroring that strategy. But still you've got this like incessant barrage of just like lies and just nonsense coming from those kinds of people, and once the appetite develops in the audience for that kind of stuff, and other people who are maybe more on the fence, they're not necessarily trying to engage with it, but they're may be not totally committed to just speaking the truth. There's like a critical mass that I think can be reached when those kinds of people see the rewards that are to be had when you engage in that kind of like bottom of the barrel slop, you get more money, you get more attention. Those people who used to be respected, I've noticed they're indulging in it a little bit themselves. And so I don't actually know how you solve that. As the network model disappears, which used to hold people to some kind of like editorial standard, as that disappears, it's going to be very difficult to keep people on the right track. So I don't know, Actually it's a very that's a million dollar question. 00:25:09 Speaker 4: I suppose it definitely is a big challenge. But I do feel if I hope I'm not just wish casting here, we saw the events of the past week, with the evidence laid out, I do feel like we maybe have at least with Charlie and Tyler Robinson reached and passed a peak that now that there is more evidence on displayed and more people are speaking up, that at least some people are going to realize, Okay, this isn't going to pan out. They're not going to suddenly find the secret trove of evidence that blows this wide open. Am I wish casting there or are there signs that we might be reaching a turning point there? 00:25:48 Speaker 3: No, you're correct, I'm just a bit jaded. 00:25:50 Speaker 14: I think it has been very heartening to see a lot of people who were indulging in this stuff come out and say, look, I was fundamentally concerned about the direction of my country. I love Charlie Kirk, he was an arch patriot. I'm worried about what's going on here. And so they were viewing it from that, just asking questions, perhaps extending a bit of a undue charity to people like Candice Owens and going along this journey with them, and then ultimately they're saying, okay, wait a minute, this person was like clearly recklessly disregarding the truth and lying to me, and obviously we have this guy dead to rights. We have him at the place you said we didn't. We've got his DNA, you said we didn't. We've got confessions, you said we didn't. Clearly, insofar as I'm concerned about like an objective pursuit of truth, the trial is going to be where I'm going to get that, not like the influencer class. So a lot of people have been seeing that and even having the courage, frankly to kind of like cast stones in the direction of these people and be like, Okay, actually, no, you were lying to me, and this is not about the truth. This is you just trying to aggrandize yourself while standing on this guy's grave. That's wrong, and I don't like you anymore. I'm not going to continue to consume your content anymore. I've been very heartened to see that. I wasn't sure how much of that we were going to see, but it is good to see that people are speaking up about that, because that kind of behavior is despicable. 00:26:59 Speaker 3: To say the least. 00:27:00 Speaker 4: It sounds I guess it sounds like a challenge for people like yourself, people some of our lawmakers. It's something Charlie would talk about that sometimes you have a moral test of leadership. And you can either pass that test by standing by the truth, even if it is temporarily unpopular, even if there are financial opportunities available, if you decide the truth matters less, or you can give into this and you can embrace that. And I think I'm very hopeful that we will see in the months and years to come that more people are going to be willing to follow Charlie's example take that moral step up. So we want to talk a little bit about Iran. We've been in this on off conflict with Iran for almost half a year at this point, and it looks like we're heading on a trajectory back towards conflict. There was a new wave of strikes on the country last night, as reported on Fox Let's show Clip eight. 00:28:01 Speaker 15: Let's get started with what happened overnight as the President brings down his iron fist on Iran. The US pounded Iran for five hours last night. Sentcom says they hit military targets across six different locations, but did not say if they struck Pickaxe Mountain. That's something the President said was a potential target for a nice, big fat shot. Also, seeing reports at the IRGC carried out drone and missile strikes on US military targets in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, and a Dutch shipping firm says one of its vessels was struck off the coast of Oman. 00:28:39 Speaker 4: And so that's all unfolding. Meanwhile, President Trump, but he announced he's reinstating the naval blockade, and he initially announced he was going to have a essentially a twenty percent fee on any ship transitting through the strait, not just actually blocking the ones to Iran, but anyone else paying a fee. And he explained his reasoning on this clip six. 00:29:00 Speaker 7: Yeah, I want to be reimbursed because we're protecting a very rich portion of the world. We're spending money, and so what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection we're protecting by the countries that we're helping. 00:29:14 Speaker 4: But just a few minutes ago today President Trump updated on that there was a lot of furor over that announcement, but then he said on truth, after highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the twenty percent US reimbursement fee with trade and investment deals that various Gulf states will be making in the United States. Those investments will be massive, but at the same time extraordinarily good for them and their future. We have the largest dollar investment in the United States of any country in history. We will see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the United States at historic levels, which will create millions of high pain American jobs. Most importantly, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. So, John, you and I we've talked a little bit about this war. We just had our Chapter leadership summit and we talked to the young people and they said, wars. There's not a lot of enthusiasm with it for young people. President Trump could probably improve his popularity but ending it. But it looks like we're continuing this on and off path. So I want to ask you. You mentioned we keep facing four, we keep focusing on the priorities that matter. How should we be talking and thinking about this conflict? 00:30:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, you're absolutely right. 00:30:30 Speaker 14: You know, this is one of the things that sort of break broken containment where obviously, if you're online at all, you see that anytime anything remotely bad happens, people panic and flip out. But it doesn't usually get back to you. 00:30:40 Speaker 2: In your real life. 00:30:41 Speaker 14: The Iran war has been something that people who I know personally, who are usually a political maybe they have conservative instincts, they're very concerned about this. They're not happy about this. They're of course echoing what was repeated during Trump's twenty twenty four campaign pertaining to no new wars. 00:30:55 Speaker 3: Now we are, in fact in a new war. 00:30:57 Speaker 14: They're paying a lot more at the pump, and this is going to cause a lot of problems, I think going into midterms. So I would like to see this get wrapped up very quickly. Just speaking about it, like from a I guess right wing perspective. Donald Trump has obviously always had maybe a hawkish position on Iran. He hasn't exactly updated that policy, and I think that the way things were going globally, this is probably going to happen regardless of who took office. And Trump's approach toward Iran during twenty twenty four was actually more diplomatic. I mean, he was saying he wanted to make a deal. This was much different than his rhetoric in twenty fifteen, when he said he wanted to blow their ships out of the water. Kamala Harris's campaign was saying otherwise. You know, she was saying that I ran as our greatest enemy. They have American blood on their hands, and so it seemed to be the case that whoever got into office is probably going to be something going down with Iran. But I really hope that this wraps up quickly because we are far. 00:31:43 Speaker 3: Past our timeline. 00:31:45 Speaker 14: You know, I was trusting the plan with the timeline this is going to be over in a couple of weeks. Now we are entering into about, like you said, you know, a year of this kind of conflict. You know, we had the strikes last summer that was popping off, And so I hope that this gets wrapped up pretty quickly because I don't know how much longer I can justify this to my a political friends who I would like to see vote come November exactly. 00:32:05 Speaker 4: I think we remain hopeful and maybe I'm seizing upon something here. But even in this recent Trump statement I just read, I like that he's saying we should be reimbursed by the golf and specifically what the goal is. He's saying, we're going to try to get factories, plants, and equipment pouring back into the United States, because we've seen that these conflicts have been a way to expend American wealth abroad. We've also seen prior administrations just deliberately ship American wealth, American expertise, American factories abroad. We've said, we'll be richer and better off if these factories uproot from the US and go abroad. So I find it reassuring that even when he's talking about conflict with Iran, President Trump is thinking the goal here is make America stronger, make America build things again. Am I reading the right amount into this? We have about sixty seconds. 00:32:54 Speaker 3: Yeah, No, that's absolutely right. 00:32:55 Speaker 14: You know, his opposition too, to like the Iraq war was it was stupid because we didn't take the oil. You know, he is thinking in terms ultimately of what benefits the American public, and I trust him to handle this. What concerns me, though, is the sort of lingering trauma that like millennials and gen z have, having grown up in sort of the era of the War on Terror, where we're used to spilling our blood and treasure in the Middle East and getting nothing for it, And so I feel like that trauma response is so built in that anytime they hear there's another sand war, they're gonna assume that it's for absolutely no reason. We're just getting sucked into something that doesn't benefit us, and so it's ultimately on the administration to communicate that more transparently to the public. This is actually in your interest, This is actually benefiting you much unlike what you may be used to in terms of, you know, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. 00:33:36 Speaker 4: I think that's exactly right. There is a lot of trauma, and I think I think that's what's driven a lot of the response to this. That people If you're a twenty year old voter, we talk to them, they're born in two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. They have no memory of an America that wasn't mired in these wars, and it's made them very wary. But I think if he can guide this to a successful conclusion, I like to think that they'll recover. John an Oil, thank you for joining us. Great as always, We'll see you soon. 00:34:03 Speaker 3: Thank you. Gentlemen. 00:34:07 Speaker 13: Let's get real for a second. 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Lindsey Graham, he has been a fixture in Washington basically my entire life, and I described him at the top of the show. His departure, it feels a bit like a generational changeover of the Republican Party. Am I correct in that statement? Or am I wildly off base? So what do you think about No, I. 00:36:14 Speaker 2: Think that's right. 00:36:15 Speaker 9: First all, I like to think of myself as knowing about America rather than knowing about Washington. 00:36:19 Speaker 2: So I dabble in Washington, but. 00:36:21 Speaker 9: I really my concerns more of the country. 00:36:24 Speaker 2: You know, there's only one member. 00:36:27 Speaker 9: Left of the class of ninety four in Congress, Roger Wicker, who's now a Senator. And that class, of course, was a bridge between the Reagan Revolution and the Tea Party and then Maga, which is, you know, the story of the conservative movement to a large extent since since Watergate can be told. I think in those four chapters Reagan, the ninety four Revolution in which newke Gingrish led to a Republic against their first tast majority in in eons, then the Tea Party, and then and then Maga and Trump and Lindsey Graham. Uh spanned that by being a member of that class of ninety four. And part of why I think people are being so emotional about it in Washington and those who knew him, is because he was he does remind them of that of that history of that bridge. 00:37:26 Speaker 2: Uh and and and and. 00:37:27 Speaker 9: Because he was relatively young, and because he was kind of a spry guy and you know, a joke a jokester. I think people are sort of brought up a little bit short and thinking about if he's gone, just how much time has passed and that bygone era that's so resident for so. 00:37:45 Speaker 4: Many Yeah, and so of course I mentioned that he's well known for being a very hawkish Republican senator. He was well known for being one more sympathetic to immigration reform, even amnesty, yet he held well, he didn't change those views too much into the Trump era. And yet at the same time he was known as a senator who was very close with President Trump, who had a lot of ability to influence him. Can you describe to us how is he able to achieve that? What were his political secrets to keeping his influence through changing times? 00:38:20 Speaker 9: So, you know, the left is criticizing him as kind of the ultimate Trump lap dog and. 00:38:29 Speaker 2: Mocking him and saying, you know. 00:38:30 Speaker 9: He sold his soul and certainly to be really close friends with both John McCain and Donald Trump during this period is not something too many other people could pull off. He was fun to have around because he had a great sense of humor and because he had an active mind. He loved to trade in gossip, which, by the way, for those of you who don't know the president loves to trading gossip. Just fascinated by the real lives of real people, meaning personal lives of people around him in his court. And he was a very media savvy and of course President Trump likes that. And then although he differed with the President on some issues, he understood how to try to square the circle. He understood how to push the president towards whereas he wanted to go, but not push too hard. 00:39:20 Speaker 2: To embarrass the president or to or to shame him. 00:39:25 Speaker 9: And then and then I guess one more is he was great eyes and ears for the president on Capitol Hill. And the president loves gossip. He also loves political intelligence, and Senator Graham could provide. 00:39:36 Speaker 2: That to him. 00:39:36 Speaker 4: Yeah, and he also it just seemed he knew those little subtle ways, or maybe even not so subtle. I was reading just the other day after his death that he described his secret. He says, if you flatter President Trump too much, he's going to be suspicious. He's not going to go for it. He'll have contempt for you. But the best way to perhaps, guy, his favorite secret was he would just tell President Trump, well, here's what President Obama would do in this situation, and he would just describe it. And President Trump had such this deep aversion to Obama, he really disliked him, and that was a way to guide him in that direction. And it is that was that just his special talent. He knew how to tell the story, tell the little yeah, tell the anecdote that would make someone lean the way you want them to go. 00:40:23 Speaker 9: Like Trump himself, Lindsay Graham had high human intelligence. He understood how to read people. And part of why reporters loved him so much was because he knew he knew what reporters needed, He knew what reporters wanted. You read today in the New York Times and lots of other places online on social media, lots of you know, liberal reporters love Lindsay Graham, and not because he was a liberal. On some issues he was more moderate, but another issues, like on national security stuff. 00:40:49 Speaker 2: Quite hawkish, but he just understood how to give people what they wanted. 00:40:53 Speaker 9: And you know, not to play immature psychiatrists, but if you look at someone who lost his parents when he was young, who had to struggle and then search for father figures like Joe Lieberman and John mccainn and Donald Trump, he's a people pleaser. And so he's a smart, funny people pleaser who could read people well. And I think that explains not just how he did what he did, but why it was so effective. 00:41:15 Speaker 4: So now he very abruptly is gone. And I suppose the natural question to ask is what does that mean? How is the Republican Party different How is the dynamic in Washington different with Lindsey Graham for now replaced by his non politician sister and soon likely be replaced by a different Republican. Is there any transformative effect or am I overplaying this? 00:41:38 Speaker 7: No? 00:41:39 Speaker 9: I think there's minor transformative effects that need to play out on Capitol Hill. He was chair of the Budget Committee, he was the chair of a lot of subcommittees. 00:41:47 Speaker 2: He was a key vote and a key voice on a lot of issues. 00:41:50 Speaker 9: I think the Capitol Hill reporters, as they tend to do, are overwriting that, overemphasizing it. I think all that will sort itself out, and I don't think the post Graham world will be all that different in terms of the process of Capitol Hill. I think the biggest thing is his role on Ukraine U and not as some have said, because the Hawks have lost their biggest voice, and perhaps this will make President Trump less supportive of Zelensky. As I understood it before his death, the administration believed realized that of all the people in Trump's orbit, the only one who could pressure President Zelensky to eventually make a deal when the time comes was Senator Graham. Because of his close relationship with Zelensky and his hawkish position. At some point, we hope maybe this won't be the way it ends. But the most likely way the war ends is President Selensky accepts a peace and security swap for giving up land that he doesn't want to give up and that the Ukrainian constitutions ses he can. 00:42:53 Speaker 4: So hold on. I'm hearing this right that Lindsey Graham was the chief asset for it, chiefving peace in Ukraine, A negotiated peace in Ukraine. 00:43:03 Speaker 9: With a very specific task, which was to say to say to his friends, Zelensky trusts me, this is the best deal you're going to get. I care about your security like you do. This is it take the deal? And and and and it would require someone of his personal ties to Zelensky and credibility on security and anti Putin sentiment to sell that and and I haven't talked to anybody about what their backup is. But he was the one who had the credibility to do that, and and and no one else does. So that's I think that could be the biggest change uh and and loss from his passing. 00:43:40 Speaker 4: That's so interesting that that's why I love having you on you You highlight those things that we don't necessarily think of otherwise. So, Mark, we're going to have a primary one month out from now, and it's something we very rarely see, an absolutely wide open primary for a seat in a relatively secure red seat. What's happening right now, how are they maneuvering. What sort of stuff is happening behind the scenes or frankly in front of the cameras that our viewers should know about. 00:44:09 Speaker 9: Well, some people have taken themselves out who might have been picked. Others are burning up the phone lines. I was a little surprised that they chose a caretaker Senator Graham's sister, but it does make a certain amount of sense because it's an anti establishment time and they wanted her for the symbolism. 00:44:28 Speaker 2: I think to have the job. 00:44:29 Speaker 9: But my money and my eye are currently on Congressman Fry of South Carolina, someone who Donald Trump helped win beat an incumbent who the President wanted to take out. He's currently on the ballot to run for his House seat. But South Carolina law actually allows you to run for both at the same time, So I suspect if he has the endorsement of both the President and the governor, and I suspect they'll endorse the same person. 00:44:54 Speaker 2: That's where I'm looking. 00:44:55 Speaker 9: And in a primary like this, such a short turnaround, such a short time frame, I'm hard to imagine that the President's normal practice of endorsing the winner wouldn't wouldn't sustain And do you. 00:45:09 Speaker 4: Think it is just President Trump? Likely can could he anoint the winner if you were to pick someone else, with that person instantly become the favorite. 00:45:16 Speaker 9: I mean if he picked me, if he picked me, no, whoever he picks will be the favorite without a doubt. And as you know, the president reverse engineers is a little bit. He endorses after folks tell him who's going to win. He rarely takes a risk. In fact, in the gubernatorial primary in South Carolina a few weeks ago, the President had endorsed lieutenant governor. When his aides told him the polling suggested that she would lose, he did what he sometimes does. He endorsed the second candidate, mister Wilson, and and he won the He won the runoff. So the President, I think we'll probably pick one person who his team says, if he adors this person, they're. 00:45:55 Speaker 2: Likely to win. 00:45:56 Speaker 4: Yeah, I was just checking, double checking my message, and I said, we're going to talk about Graham. And as we know, Senator Lindsay, Graham is not the only Graham. Since we last had you on, there's been a lot of drama with another Graham Platner out in Maine. Democrats it seems like they basically are we reading this correct from the right, that they looked at all of his scandals and thought this is a loser. We need to pull something off to force him out, and they just made it happen. Is is that what unfolded? 00:46:26 Speaker 9: It's an interesting question why en mass a critical mass of Democrats turned on him. As you know, some Democrats never supported him even after he won the primary. Others opposed him until he won the primary and then got on board. You know, I talked to many Democrats, the reasonable people who say the nats Nazi tattoo was enough for them. They would never support him, but he had the supportive Senator Schumer and and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, et cetera. Why this one story, as horrible as the charges were, why that caused them all to drop? 00:46:58 Speaker 2: I don't know. 00:46:59 Speaker 9: I did write a pece for the Free Press yesterday. I'm not sure this increases their chances of winning. I think Democrats assume that they couldn't win with Platnir, but I'm not sure they can win with Adam. As I look at the early jostling amongst the minor leaguers trying to replace him. Platter brought a lot of strengths to this. You know, he won the primary overwhelmingly. He was roughly even in the polling. He had an energy organization, a message, and that great voice, gravelly voice. And I look at these other folks, I'm not sure if they auditioned to be an extra and Pippin at Bayo, New Jersey Dinner Theater, that they would necessarily get cast. 00:47:35 Speaker 2: So we'll see. I think we'll know in a few weeks. 00:47:38 Speaker 9: After they picked the person whether they've got what it takes to beat an incumbent. 00:47:42 Speaker 11: Is there? 00:47:43 Speaker 4: So it does seem yeah, they basically, as you said, he won the primary overwhelmingly, and the party establishment basically said tough shakes were not going to let this happen. Do voters tend do voters tend to feel burned by this? 00:47:56 Speaker 2: Like? 00:47:57 Speaker 4: Are there going to be Democrats who are just going to say you took out our guy, I'm not voting, Or are they more likely to say the most important thing is getting rid of a Republican and like, do they only have to worry about their candidate might be weaker, or do they have to worry that they have alienated their base. 00:48:14 Speaker 9: From everything I've seen, it's really more of the former than the latter. I haven't seen much in talking to Democrats and listening to voters and reading other people's interviews with voters, I don't see much evidence that people are despondent because they've recognized that Plantner was a vehicle. And I did a focus group a few weeks ago, and all the people in it who were supportive of Platner. 00:48:35 Speaker 2: Didn't think he was some hero. They just thought he was the vehicle. 00:48:39 Speaker 9: Most of everybody who's running to replace him agrees with him on a preponderance of issues. 00:48:44 Speaker 2: They don't have his charisma. 00:48:46 Speaker 9: So I would imagine the bigger problem than people saying, hey, you took out our guy, We're depressed, We're not going to vote for the Democrat. 00:48:53 Speaker 2: I think the bigger. 00:48:53 Speaker 9: Problem will be at I'm not that engaged with the race anymore, because we don't have the excitement of Graham Platner. 00:49:00 Speaker 4: Every time you're on. I just love to ask you. You are an expert on America, as you yourself said, So we are a few months out from the midterm election. What's your read on the overall state of things? 00:49:12 Speaker 9: If things stay as they are regarding the economy, how people feel about the direction of the country and the president. I think, excuse me, I think it'll be a very big day for the Democrats. Certainly take back the House, maybe take back the Senate, but that's still subject to some individual races. Republicans have really helped themselves with redistricting. They've really were benefited from a Supreme Court decision that allows them to coordinate how money is spent, and so the structural things benefit Republicans. The history and the current overview macro conditions benefit the Democrats. But let's see how people feel about the economy. Let's see where gas prices are. The inflation numbers today were better than expected, So let's see if the president can't not know Nudge's approval rating OP of right track, wrong track op would make a big difference for the party. 00:50:03 Speaker 4: If let's say, for example, if they were able to reach a deal in Iran thirty seconds here? Could that do an overnight turner? Is it getting to the point where it might be too late to fix that? 00:50:13 Speaker 9: Yeah, we could make a big difference, but so would repelling a Martian invasion, which at this point seems just as likely as getting a deal with IRN. 00:50:20 Speaker 4: Brutally honest at times. That's that's why we appreciate you, Mark, That's why Charlie appreciated you. Check out Mark's work. He's editor in chief of two Way TV. Like we said, you can call in, you can ask him questions. He's also next up on the Megan Kelly Network. Mark, always love hearing you tell it to us, so thank you for joining us again. 00:50:39 Speaker 9: Great to see it, man, Thank you for having me on my best Andrew. 00:50:44 Speaker 13: Folks, let me tell you something straight up. I'm extremely picky about what I put in my body in what companies we support. Here, Blackout Coffee checks every single box. 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Your coffee shows up fresh on schedule and you never run out. 00:51:52 Speaker 1: That's Blackoutcoffee dot com slash Charlie. Check it out promo code Charlie. 00:51:58 Speaker 4: We just had our chapter leadership something in DC. I was there, Andrew was there. We had some panel discussions with kids. It was our biggest one ever, and I just wanted to talk more about it today because I think it's very important to highlight the work that Turning Point USA is continuing to do to reach the next generation. So we're joined by two people who just attended that event. Were joined by Preston Parsons, he's the Turning Point USA Chapter president at Texas Tech. And we're also joined by Sophia Hunt, who is a Club America chapter president at Westfield High School. Welcome to both of you. 00:52:33 Speaker 10: Thank you so much, Yes, thanks for having us on Blake. 00:52:36 Speaker 4: All righty, well, Preston, I think I'll start with you because I think you're a little bit older, so we'll go easy on our high school er here. So just tell us what was it like being at this event thousands of other young Turning Point Chapter representatives, meeting them, interacting with them. Just give our audience the feeling of what it's like to be at one of these Turning Point youth events. 00:52:57 Speaker 10: Absolutely. 00:52:58 Speaker 16: First of all, I'd just like to say nobody puts on events like Turning Point USA does. It was a Turning Point USA event one year ago that completely changed the trajectory of my life and got me involved. 00:53:07 Speaker 10: And it was my first time in Washington, d C. 00:53:10 Speaker 16: At the CLS, which was also an incredible experience to be in DC for the America two fifty celebrations around thousands of other young patriotic Americans who share the same vision. It was an incredible experience and the vibes were awesome between the Club America kids getting to go check out Mount Vernon, the college kids getting interact with each other in the various speakers, and for instance, my group getting to run into you Blake, you know, down there in the lobby of the hotel, getting a chitchat with you. But overall it's phenomenal and once again, no one puts on events like Turning Point USA. 00:53:41 Speaker 4: Oh thank you so much, Sophia. Was this your first Turning Point event of any kind or what was it like for you? 00:53:47 Speaker 17: So my first Turning Point event was actually back in December of twenty twenty four, and ever since then, I've been trying to attend every single Turning Point event. It's been a blast. I even had the opportunity of being one of the two high school students being selected to attend the Turning Point gala in mar A Lago back in December. But it was truly an amazing experience. 00:54:06 Speaker 10: One of the most. 00:54:07 Speaker 17: Encouraging events that I've personally ever attended, and it just brought together just student leaders role across the country and every single person is trying to make a difference in their schools and communities, and that always sticks out to me, especially with these events. The energy, it's just not only motivational, it's so uplifting, and we're given real advice about like leadership, like growing our chapters, standing from in our values, and just becoming better representatives of the movement. And I always feel so inspired and just left feeling even more equipped to lead my chapter every. 00:54:42 Speaker 2: Time I go. 00:54:43 Speaker 4: And we were playing some highlights yesterday. Erica came to the event delivered a speech just a few days after she was in Utah for the preliminary hearing. Either of you, maybe Sophia first, What was it like to hear Erica's remarks? What sort of messages do you have? How is it compared to Charlie before her Wow? 00:55:03 Speaker 17: Well, Erica's speech, it was definitely it was very powerful, and especially what stood out to me was what she said about marriage and just placing God always at the center of it. It reminded me of when I had the opportunity to have breakfast with Charlie Kirk just about one year ago from CLS so Blast CLS. One of the very first things that Charlie Kirk had asked me was not about politics, not about my chapter, and not about leadership, but it was he said, how is your dating life? And that really stood out to me, But it showed me how seriously Charlie and Erica viewed relationships and how in marriage and building your life on the right foundation, and that foundation is God. And their message was that a relationship cannot just be centered on two people or just the feelings. It's always has to be centered on God, and we have to be willing to follow Him and serve each other and recognize that marriage does have a greater purpose. And as a young woman that is thinking about her future, that the one of the most meaningful parts of the entire event. 00:56:04 Speaker 4: Preston, how about you? How did you feel from Erica's speech or any of the speeches that you heard while you were there? 00:56:09 Speaker 16: Well, as always, all of the speakers that at the turning point events are incredible. They always have a really good message. And I mean props to Erica. Before her speech, I got to visit with her a little bit at a private breakfast that morning along with a bunch of other college students, and seeing the effect that the trial had had on her over the last week, the pre trial hearings, and still her willingness to show up in DC, get up there and deliver a fantastic speech was super motivating. And you know you heard the students cheering Erica, Erica, Erica before she came on stage. 00:56:41 Speaker 10: She is the leader of this organization. We all believe in her. 00:56:44 Speaker 16: We know that she is going to carry on Charlie's legacy as we all are. And I thought that was really important with the theme of cls his legacy your voice, and no one is doing it better than miss Erica Kirk. 00:56:57 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. And I want to actually, I want to shout that out that those breakfasts that some of you were able to attend with Erica in person. I only throw it out out there to say, any of you who are listening, who are getting involved in Turning Point in your high school, in your college, if you get really involved, those are the opportunities that are out there. We love to identify promising leaders and get them close with leaders at Turning point, get them opportunities to meet leaders of our country. We Erica believe so strongly Turning Point, believe so strongly in uplifting the next generation of leaders. Preston a question for you. I imagine you were meeting a lot of other college age young men who are highly motivated, highly driven. But what do you feel and you can weigh in for yourself, what are the issues and ideas that are most motivating to conservatives who are in that age rage under the age of twenty four or so. 00:57:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:57:54 Speaker 10: Absolutely, of course the biggest thing is affordability. 00:57:58 Speaker 16: If I wasn't fortunate enough to be on scholarship, I wouldn't be attending college, and I would have been in the military, and none of these experiences in Turning Point USA would have occurred. 00:58:06 Speaker 10: And to see so many fellow. 00:58:09 Speaker 16: Gen Z young men my age who are struggling with college that who are struggling with that issue, and not just college debt, but debt overall. We cannot afford homes, we cannot afford to get married, and we cannot afford to have kids. And that's one of the things I've enjoyed is seeing these cliptory surface of Charlie one year ago at SAZ talking about the three m's right, he talked about maiden marriage and maiden right, getting you know, young people involved, to be able to have affordable homes, to be able to afford to have a family, to be able to have kids. That is by far the top issue because if we can't allow, if we can't sorry, if we can't have those things happen, we really don't care about anything else that's going on politically until those core issues are met. So that mission is still going on. That message is still one that I hear the most to be the most prominent among young men in. 00:58:59 Speaker 4: Gen Z and Sophia. Back to you, what you're talking to young women? What's motivating high school age women when that are going to turning point events? 00:59:08 Speaker 17: Oh wow, Well, well for me, I definitely think that the value that is like heavily brought is that students realize that they're not alone, especially at these turning point events at school, especially when you hold conservative values, it can really really like people really realize that it can feel like you're the only person. You feel alone, sometimes the only person willing to speak up is you. And then you come to cls, you meet students like this from all over the country who are facing such similar challenges, but they always still choose to lead and events like this, especially at cls and even talking with the girls my age, they always say that it gives them confidence, It gives them so many friendships and just practical tools and just such a strong sense of purpose just to take back home with them and to use. 00:59:52 Speaker 4: So that's wonderful. That's wonderful, I do. I think that's such a point worth fasizing that it can be. I think a lot of our viewers, you know, they maybe live in rural areas, they're used to being around a lot of conservatives if you're a young person on a college campus. We saw that shift a little bit in the twenty four election where there were more young people open to it, but we know some of those have swung back, and we know some schools never swung at all. It can still be an isolating experience to be a conservative at your high school, at your college, and we love having that opportunity to gather you guys in one spot. Realize there are thousands, if really millions of people like you out there, and a lot of them just need they just need to be given the courage to stand up and speak up for themselves. Is there anything else that you really want to communicate to those who've never been to a Turning Point event what they should understand about it? 01:00:48 Speaker 1: Oh? 01:00:48 Speaker 10: Wow, absolutely? 01:00:50 Speaker 2: Well. 01:00:50 Speaker 17: I thought it was completely refreshing always, and you don't have to spend the entire time defending why you believe what you believe at these events, And I feel like that's a big thing that we do within our school systems and within our communities. You can go deeper and talk about these things and those beliefs that you have, and you can put them into action, especially with students at Turning Point. And I met students with completely different backgrounds and experiences everywhere I walked, and we were all just so connected by our love for God, our love for our country and Charlie, and just the desire to make a difference. So Turning Point events you never want to miss them. 01:01:25 Speaker 4: Preston, how about you? 01:01:26 Speaker 16: Yeah, I'd just like to echo what Sophia said and what you said, Blake. Often, when you're on your college campus, you're on your high school campus, you can feel like you're alone in this fight. But when you go to these events and you around thousands of other patriotic young Americans. You remember what this fight really is about. That you're not alone in this and that despite what public belief is, we are actually the majority. And gen Z is turning radically conservative in a very positive way. So it's super motivating to be around other people like that, and it's really encouraging. Like Sophia said, don't miss a Turning Point USA event. 01:01:58 Speaker 4: So Erica's speech, we made an announcement for a brand new Turning Point event that we hope to add to our rotation of annual events. And I will say they played this one so close to the chest. It was new for me when I saw the trailer as it went on. And so what this event is it is invictis the men's Leadership Summit. You women don't get your own exclusive leadership some now now we have women and men's one and we had this trailer for it. So let's play clip fourteen. 01:02:35 Speaker 1: Liberty is not man's idea, it is God's idea. We are in a spiritual war. Everybody that is beyond just the material that we are seeing. Young boys and young men are looking for something to connect to that gives them purpose, that says it's okay to be a man. 01:03:00 Speaker 3: We believe in strong. 01:03:01 Speaker 1: Alpha, godly, high tea, high achieving, confident, well. 01:03:07 Speaker 3: Armed, and disruptive. Men are the quote, not the problem. 01:03:12 Speaker 1: In America and at Ourny Point USA, not only do we celebrate masculinity, we believe that masculinity is the answer to so many. 01:03:21 Speaker 3: Of our problems in this culture. 01:03:24 Speaker 1: The stakes are high. 01:03:26 Speaker 2: We have only begun to fight. 01:03:32 Speaker 4: I love everything about this. You can see how Charlie was so aware. You need different techniques to appeal to men. So, for example, we look at that October ninth through eleventh this year, this fall, southern California. Where's the location? I can't tell you. It's a secret. How do you go to this? You can't just sign up? You actually you've got to go. You can scan. Do we have that QR code? Throw that up if we have it, but if we don't. You can go to TPUSA Men's Summit dot com. That is TPUSA Men's Summit dot com for more information. This is for men aged eighteen to twenty six and you can register. You can apply, but that doesn't mean you get to go. They're going to be reviewing applications interviewing the people who want to go, and the deadline is August thirty first, so we want to be shouting this out now. This is not a thing you arrive at last minute. Another thing that's impressive about this they announced there's going to be speakers and participants at this event. You will have heard of them, but we're not announcing them in advance because there are some people who want to be able to provide advice and guidance with less publicity, maybe people in the business world. I don't know. Like I said, they're playing this close to the chest, but this is going to be a new event for young men. We want to uplift young men. Preston, you're one of those young men. If if you're applying, what kind of things are you hoping to see at a men's leadership summit? 01:04:54 Speaker 16: Blake, I am so excited for this event. I mean, you heard the cheers coming from the crowd and this was a Now staffter Erica came up and no offense. Sofia, you know, the young women, you've had your summits, you've had your chance, but it's finally time for the young men to have this happen. And I think they're playing into it very well. They're playing into what we appreciate and what we need. You know, it's very hard for young men who are eighteen to twenty six to you know, sit in a conference room for ten hours and listen to some mundane speeches for hours on end. You know, we love being in the outdoors. We love going to the gun range, we love being mentoring, love having that discipleship, and we love being around whether it's business leaders or the these you know, influential men in the conservative sphere. You know that that's what we strive for. And my generation of young men specifically has been victimized so much from the COVID you know, pandemic all the way through that. Young men have faced the most criticism and backlash out of anybody. So to see some attention put on this and to see the opportunity for us to be around those people and get that mentorship is so exciting. Because we're going to be able to, you know, be around a lake, We're gonna be able to go hike, We're going to be able to you know, be at a gun range, and it's going to be an amazing experience. 01:06:09 Speaker 10: I'm very excited to see the direction of. 01:06:11 Speaker 4: This awesome, And yeah, that's true. They did mention there's going to be more outdoor, hands on component stuff that appeals to young men, because Charlie did. He cared so much about this, he cared about he knew young men they get blamed for everything. They're told they're a problem if they're straight, if they're male, often especially young white men, that's always okay to discriminate against them. And these are the guys who have to assert themselves, reclaim America. And I'm so glad that Turning Point is having an event to directly cultivate those young men who are going to change the future. Sophia, I don't want you feeling left out. So if you have a few seconds here, just what sort of what sort of men do we need to be raising these days? 01:06:54 Speaker 17: Ones that live biblically. Matt and I truly believe that masculinity has been on a decline. But Turning Point is doing a great job of pouring in Biblical values into young men. 01:07:06 Speaker 2: Now. 01:07:06 Speaker 17: I mean, I met so many at Chapter Leadership Summit just this past weekend, and it is not feeding away, especially in the conservative realm. 01:07:14 Speaker 4: So exactly, exactly, so like I said, deadline to apply August thirty first, and this is this is there's selectivity for this event. So you can go there and and apply, and then you'll get to find out where you'll be going in southern California. I don't know where it's going to be. You'll get to encounter those speakers. I don't know yet who they're going to be. And I will say, we've always been rotating what our signs are, so I'm already nagging the team we need to get that advertising sign up behind that chair so that we can market it the same way we market Women's Leadership Summit. I'm so excited for this, and I just want to say thank you to both of you, Preston and Sophia. Thank you for being a part of the Chapter Leadership Summit. Thanks for being part of Turning Points mission. And we look forward to everything that we're going to be able to build in the months and years to come. So thank you both of you guys for joining us. 01:08:08 Speaker 10: Thank you so much. Absolutely, Thanks Blake. 01:08:11 Speaker 4: Alrighty, so all of you young men eighteen to twenty six are parents, if you have a son who's in that age range, nephew, a cousin anyone. Tell them about Invictus the Men's Leadership Summit, Tell them to get their application in. They're not going to want to miss it. 01:08:29 Speaker 16: For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to Charliekirk dot com