The Charlie Kirk Show - America is a Country, Not An Economy

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

The MAGA immigration fix isn't just about stopping illegal crossings from Mexico. Sen. Eric Schmitt talks about his viral NatCon speech defending America's European heritage an why preserving America also requires curbing the legal flood of foreign workers through the H-1B program. Jon Levine of the Washington Free Beacon discusses Britain's war on free speech and the prospect of Bari Weiss getting to take over CBS News. Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com!    Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Charlie Kirk show, Andrew Colvette, executive producer of this fine show, in for Charlie Kirk from the Bitcoin Mobile Studio. We welcome Eric Schmidt to the show, instant reaction to the RFK hearing with ongoing in the Senate, a really explosive back and forth with the Pfizer board, also known as the Senate Finance Committee. And we're talking about institutional capture and what's going on. Also, we get the reaction to his NatCon speech, which was phenomenal. And we talk about H-1Bs. Then we go to John Levine from the Washington Free Beacon and a great reporter in our nation's capital. And we talk about the changing landscape in the news media as evidenced by Barry Weiss selling the free press, her new company to CBS and Paramount. Really fascinating discussion with John.

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Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know. We are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy.

His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job. Building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. The Charlie Kirk Show is published. proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts, and the only precious

metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers. I'm going to get right into it. We are blessed by an amazing first guest of this show, a true patriot of this country, Senator Eric Schmidt from the great state of Missouri. Senator, you and I were watching that exchange just before we took the air of Senator Kennedy or Secretary Kennedy going toe to toe to with Senator Liz Warren, like it's 2022, arguing about the COVID vaccine. And we don't have the clip just yet, but I mean, it was an amazing exchange. You and I can see us laughing on the call before it. So, you know, he throws the gauntlet down. And I think it's very central to this whole committee hearing where he says, you've taken over

$850,000 from Big Pharma. And it seems like one of the big dividing lines here, the points of argument is that we're talking about institutional capture of the medical establishment in this country. And it seems like some people still trust these people, while it seems like the vast majority of Americans have grown skeptical of what they're selling. Your take on this committee hearing, and then I want to get into your NACCON speech. Yeah, look, I think Maha is rising. And for good reason, because I think what the American people saw, particularly during COVID, the lies that were peddled by the medical establishment. by the CDC, by all these public health officials who, you know, on one hand said you

couldn't go outside, but it was okay to riot at a Black Lives Matter protest. That's okay. I mean, they lost complete credibility. And what RFK Jr. is trying to do, what the Trump administration is trying to do is restore the credibility by telling the American people the truth, giving them information, letting make their own decisions, actually run this agency, how it should be run. And he's challenging people who aren't being, you know, used to being challenged and good for him because the talking points are you know they've been out there forever but the truth is the american people were lied to let's just take the covid vaccine first of all it should have never been mandatory in my book the last line of defense how to beat the left in court

i actually note this we took the vaccine mandate case all the way the supreme court and we won it should have never been mandated but also we were lied to at first it was going to prevent um you getting COVID at all then it was you're going to prevent transmission neither one of those things were true and so i think that American people have good reason after COVID to be very skeptical of these so-called experts. And I think RFK Jr. was brought in to be a disruptor. And that's exactly what he's doing. Yeah, well said. I mean, and by the way, I'm remiss for not mentioning your book. I mean, it just came out last line of defense. You were the, you were the vanguard of our legal defense for patriots in this country that felt left out, pushed aside, marginalized, or attacked

and harassed by the Biden administration. You did such great, work there. And so, you know, by all means, please take another moment here. Last line of defense, tell the audience about it. And I love the tie-in to what we're seeing right now play out in the Senate floor. Please, the floor is yours. Well, look, COVID was an example where power doesn't necessarily corrupt, but it does reveal. And what we saw during COVID was something I could have never imagined in this country. And so when we stepped up and we brought those lawsuits, we sued on the vaccine mandate. We won. We sued 50 plus school districts in Missouri to drop their mass mandates for kids even because it wasn't effective and we were successful. We brought the Missouri versus Biden lawsuit

that exposed the censorship enterprise that included the COVID misinformation or malinformation they were trying to censor. In fact, the censorship operations started on day three of the Biden administration and ironically, RFK Jr. was the first one censored. Another guy that was caught up in all that by Anthony Fauci, who we took the deposition of that you can read about in the book, was Dr. J. Badacharia, who talked about natural immunity. Foucho wanted to destroy his career, but now he's head of the NIH. So I think what's good right now is the rebels,

and I would include myself as one of those during that time, RFK Jr., many more, are now inside of the castle, and they don't like it. And there's a lot of disruption and a lot of table flipping that needs to happen. And not everybody's going to like it, and that's kind of what's going on with this hearing today

with RFK Jr., but we need it badly. Well, Senator, as you well know, when you exercise the demons, they tend to screech. So I'm watching this hearing with great intrigue and entertainment. I need my popcorn emoji somewhere nearby. Senator, I actually wanted you to come on the show with Charlie, so I'm honored that I get to be the guest host today for this, because I just have to show this image for everybody. It's too good. Here it is. It is 435, put it up. You are catching some heat here because your NACCON speech.

You have MSNBC columnist. Senator Eric Schmidt lets his extremist flag fly and race his speech at NACCON. I'll be honest, I saw a bunch of the clips from your NACCON speech, and I was standing up. I was clapping. I mean, it was just pitch perfect, Senator. And especially some of the lines that you had on the H-1B visa skis. scam, and it is a scam, and I'm going to play this clip, and I'll let you be the judge in the audience. Is this an extremist flag flying? Is it a racist speech, or is it just common sense?

Let's go ahead and play cut 428. The H-1B visa, for example, was sold as a way to keep America globally competitive. Of course, we do have an interest in attracting the truly exceptional few, the very best and the brightest in the world. But that's not how programs like H-1B have actually functioned. Instead, they've imported a vast new labor force from abroad, not to fill jobs Americans can't or won't do, but to undercut American wages, replace American workers, and transfer entire industries into the hands of foreign lobbies. We've funneled in millions of foreign nationals to take the jobs, salaries, and futures that should belong to our own children. Now, Senator, this speech, which is, by the way, it's gotten rave reviews. I've seen everybody praising it.

I mean, you're just pitch perfect on this speech. It coincides with some of this back and forth with India. Now, we know that there's about 400,000 H1B visas issued or renewed every year, and about 75% of those go to India, mainly in high tech, mainly in high-skilled white-collar jobs. And there's complete neighborhoods, by the way, just in Dallas, is in Frisco. And I went to, I had to go to a store in Frisco. And it is basically an Indian colony at this point. I mean, God bless them.

They work hard. They do good work. But that community has transformed overnight. Those jobs are no longer held by native-born Americans. Please, the floor is yours. What are you seeing in this issue? Is there motivation on Capitol Hill to address H-1Bs? Well, first of all, the reason why the left is going crazy over the speeches

is because we unapologetically proclaim that America is a great place. And we're not going to apologize for anymore. The people that built this country, we should celebrate them. is the vanguard for Western civilization. We settled a continent. We sent people to the moon. I mean, there's all these great things that we have done in this country that the left wants us to undermine and despise because they want to remake America. And the only way you do that is if you tell a different story about who we are.

And that's what CRT is all about. That's what DEI is all about. It's what this neo-Marxist, cultural Marxism agenda is all about. And they can't get there if we actually are proud of our country. and that's what the speech was and they just don't like hearing that because for a long time I think they've had a lot of people in retreat on defending America and I'm not going to do it I'm not going to back down I love this country I love America and I know that the people who watch this show listen to the show they love America too and you know what we're not going to apologize for that anymore so anyway that's on the speech as relates to the H-1B program in particular look it's not all that different than what happened with blue collar jobs the slow-moving disaster over over a period of decades, where the elites told us, in the name of free trade, not, you know, forgetting all the barriers that exist in other places, it's going to be good for you if we ship all your jobs overseas.

And then the blue-collar workers that I grew up around were then looking for jobs. And then guess what? Through mass migration, illegal immigration, they, you know, destroy the wages of those other jobs that people look for. That's kind of what's happening right now with white-collar jobs. They're kneecapping white-collar jobs by, look, I mentioned there is a need for, the exceptional few. There's no doubt about that. But here's what's really happening. We're importing a bunch of people to undercut the wages of white collar workers now. And they actually have to

train their replacements. In order to get their severance package, they have to go through the humiliating process of training their replacement who's going to get paid less. And we have plenty of people in this country who can do those jobs. I want you to complete your point. And I think what you're saying is essentially, I mean, again, so spot on. We should not import a permanent underclass in this country that undercuts blue collar wage wages but we should also not import a new elite that is taking white collar jobs both are important yeah and that's what's going down that's what's happening yeah and i and i feel like your your speech though and i've heard senator or i've heard secretary letnik um i've heard others commenting about the h1b scam and

i'm so glad to hear you do this as well because essentially what you're seeing real Americans, real patriots, defend our heroes, defend our myths, defend our national story against the woke ideology coming from, you know, wherever it's coming from. And there's lots of sources, unfortunately. So part of your speech was about defending the myths that built this country and built this country. And those are important. Just because, you know, and they're obviously, hopefully rooted in actual historical fact, obviously. But then you're also defending just basic economic principles that are so important to the future well-being, the next generation, Gen Z, which we talk to you so much on this show.

Final Thought, Senator, I know you've got to run and host something on the Hill. Yeah, no, look, that's the reality is the elites have had it their way for a long time. And part of what this movement is all about, the MAGA movement, America First, is that we're going to stand up for Americans now. We're going to renegotiate these trade deals that have been a disaster. We're going to ask Europe and make Europe actually provide for their own defense in a more meaningful way. It's a recalibration in getting back to common sense policy. If you ask most people about this stuff, they support it. The left knows it, which is why they're kind of in their death

throws right now. Yeah. Well, I think we'd sum it up like this. America is a country, not an economy. We're a country with an economy in it. We have a heritage and a culture, and it's worth defending. And we're a great people, and we're going to defend it. Thank you, Senator Eric Schmidt, for all you're doing. We'll talk to you soon. All right, partner. Take care. See you. All right. See you. This podcast was once just a dream. And by the way, thank you guys for supporting it. We really appreciate it.

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The, yeah, I think this is the right one. Let's go ahead and play cut 439. 439. Last week, you announced that the COVID-19 vaccine is no longer approved for healthy people under the age of 65. In announcing the change, you said the vaccine will be available for anyone who wants it. Now, obviously, both things cannot be true at the same moment. Will you tell America that all adults and all children over six months of age are eligible to get a COVID booster at their local pharmacy today?

Anybody can get the booster. I'm sorry? Anybody can get it. So you're saying that is now the official rule of HHS. Anybody is eligible to get a booster by just walking into the pharmacy. It's not recommended for healthy people. No, no. If you don't recommend, then the consequence of that in many states is that you can't walk into a pharmacy and get one. It means insurance companies. Don't have to cover the $200 or so cost.

So that wasn't the best part of that clip, but it's fine. They end up getting into this explosive back and forth about, you know, essentially how Liz Warren is taking nearly a million dollars from Big Pharma. and you know she's basically a Pfizer board member at this point and they go back and forth because what RFK Jr. is saying is absolutely spot on. He's not telling anybody that they can't get the COVID shot if they want to. All he's saying is that it is no longer recommended. And yeah, maybe there's a little bit of state by state issues in which I can, but here's the problem. This is not 2022. If you want to go get a COVID shot, go get a COVID shot. The United States government does not need to be supplementing that. They do not need to be substantive.

subsidizing that payment. There is no pandemic. There is no urgency. This is a absolute straw man argument. I can't stand it from Liz Warren. She's a disgusting, disgusting, disgusting senator in my humble opinion. And by the way, she's just so shrill. It's so hard to listen to her. I can't stand it. Let's go one more here. I think, I think maybe this is the one. We'll see what clip this is, 437. Are you saying that a DMRNA vaccine has never been associated with myocarditis or paracartitis in teenagers? I am simply trying to tell us.

I am simply trying to say that the people that you have put on that panel after firing the entire- You're evading the question. No, I'm asking the questions here, Mr. Kennedy. I'm asking the questions. I ask you a question. I'm asking the questions for Mr. Kennedy. on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America

who deserve so much better than your leadership. That's what this conversation is about. Senator, they deserve the truth, and that's what we're going to give them for the first time in the history of that agency. All right, so Senator Moderna is really upset that a board that oversees vaccines has been replaced because, once again, it was big pharma, institutional capture that was, you know, previously on that board. And RFK saying for the first time, we're actually going to get all this bias, all this politicization, all this money out of our medical establishment. And here's 440.

This is another good clip. But these are just fantastic. 440. Most Americans will be able to get it from their pharmacy. The question is everyone who wants it. That was your promise. I know. I never promised that I was going to recommend.

and products with which there is no indication. When you said... And I know you've taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies, Senator. Did you hold up a big sign saying that you were lying when you said that because you are the one who said you would not take them away? Now, Senator... I'm not taking them away from anybody. You want me to indicate a product for which there is no clinical data? Is that what you want?

Secretary Kennedy, you said you wouldn't, and now you did. I'm not taking them away. Everybody can get access to them. You know my favorite part? He'll probably get trolled from the left, but my favorite part is, you know, he's got this speech kind of issue with his throat. It's some nerve condition. And he's just sitting on the mic kind of breathing, like you hear him, like he's just growling at them. You know, he's just like really upset.

and I find that really enjoying. But RFK is not playing around today. Like he's not putting up with this garbage anymore because you've got like the Pfizer board questioning him why he's not endorsing their products anymore. And he's saying there's no clinical justification to recommend the COVID shot to healthy individuals under 65, which is something we've been saying. We've been thinking we've had multiple doctors on this show saying this since 2021. And yet here we are.

So, you know, where's the imperial? data, Senator Warren. You want everybody to have this COVID shot so that what, that Pfizer can keep, you know, its stock price can keep shooting up like it did during COVID? No, thank you. It's time to get transparency. It's time to get time to get institutional capture out of Washington, D.C. is delivering that. We have his back 100%. 100 extra percent. Do you ever want to turn off the news and just ignore politics? That's understandable. It's overwhelming, but here's the thing. We're citizens of a republic. The decisions made by our government affect our everyday lives, meaning each of us ought to read and understand the United States

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That's C-H-A-R-L-I-E for Hillsdale.com, Charlie for Hillsdale.com. America's greatest college, Charlie for Hillsdale.com. Without further ado, John Levine from the Washington Free Beacon. John, welcome to the show. You have been a mainstay in the media world for many, many years. I've run into you multiple times over the years. You do fantastic work. You're always at the sort of front end of where the news cycle is going. And I thought you would just be perfect for this because Barry Weiss, formerly of the New York Times, she was she was what an opinion editor at the new york times then she leaves and starts the the free press and this is making a lot of news now in media circles and i think it's worth diving into what does it

all mean because now we're hearing that that paramount cbs is buying her company for an undisclosed amount but we know it's about maybe between one and two hundred million dollars i mean it feels like she just started the free press like two days ago and she's now selling it for one to two million dollars. Tell us about, you know Barry, you like Barry. Tell us about Barry Weiss, what the mission of the free press was and why this is important in the media landscape space. Well, I mean, Barry is someone that comes out of opinion journalism. She before the New York Times, she was at the Wall Street Journal, and then she went to the Times to, I think, you know, have slightly, slightly more conservative voices there. And from what I recall, it was just a very

terrible experience. All of her colleagues kind of ganged up on her and they wouldn't talk. It was very high school type stuff. And she frequently, like she would publish stuff and then she would face online harassment from her own colleagues in public. And the Times, of course, didn't really stand up for her. They never disciplined any of the offenders. And eventually she left and started her own thing, the free press. And that was, I believe, 2022. And now two years later, it's worth $200 million, which I think is an incredible testament to what she's been able to accomplish in such a short time. And also about the gaping hole in the journalism marketplace that she identified and filled with, I think, very necessary content. And I'm not going to sit here

and say I love every single thing the free press has ever published. But it's really good stuff for the most part. And I'm not surprised at all to see Paramount willing to pay this nine figure sum. Yeah. And what they're really buying is the trust that, you know, Barry has cultivated. Now, I see some people hating on this. There's a little, you know, people are suggesting it's not worth that. Maybe it's not. But what you're, what you're buying, to your point, John, is maybe not a revenue stream. I don't know what free press revenues. I have no idea about their books. But what you're buying is that the filling in that gaping hole, right? Because you've got somebody with the pedigree of a Wall Street Journal and in New York Times. I mean, I, I, I, I I don't think I am, I don't know Barry on a personal level at all, but I did get a couple calls from her over the years, inviting Charlie to write certain things. We ended up passing on them. It wasn't the right fit. But even the fact that if you think back at the time we were in when I got those calls, it was a remarkable thing to get a call from the New York Times and invite Charlie to do sort of like a guest column or something like that. again, it was the wrong topic. It was the wrong fit. But I still noted that. I logged it. I said,

geez, you know, she's out there at this establishment press institution inviting outside voices to participate in something that, you know, the gray lady, the paper of record. That was a really big deal. And to your point, if people don't believe this is real, this kind of high school activity that happens in the newsrooms, it's very, very real. It's very, it's very real on college campuses. The few professors that we know that are conservatives, they get completely ostracized. They get put in a corner. They're not invited to social gatherings. I mean, it's really petty stuff.

But again, the big takeaway here, though, John, is that she's filling a gap with CBS. She's going to now run CBS's newsroom. How big of a deal is that? Or at least she's going to ask me. I mean, I think part of what makes, I mean, it's a huge deal. I mean, Barry, there's a lot of big, you know, media culture war divides that I'll be frank. I think Barry's on the right side of, you know, are we going to put out fake accusations about Israel committing genocide or or perpetrating a famine? This is not happening. This is not true. And every time they find some activist or some organization to insist this is happening, it turns out it's bogus, it's Qatar funded, it's whatever. And Barry's been on the front lines of ensuring that only accurate information has come out on the current war in Gaza, which I know is why a lot of people are very, very upset with her and opposed to her on the other side. And you're seeing a lot of false allegations about the free press all the time. But it's a big deal because when CBS acquires the free press and puts her

in charge of the newsroom and it gives the imprimatur of a major media organization on the work she does and it's it's going to have a tremendous impact on the landscape of media in our country and i think part of what makes the free press so valuable is the people is the subscribers i don't know how many subscribers barry has but probably in the hundreds of thousands if not more and and these are these are educated sophisticated people they're people who probably have money to spend and they're people that cbs wants to add to their broader audience no question Yeah. What do you think that says about kind of how the world has turned, John? I mean, you, like I said, you've been around the media landscape for a long time now. You've seen the different iterations, the different vibe shifts that have happened. And, you know, then you have this huge event on November 5th, 2024, President Trump wins the popular vote, wins in an electoral landslide. And you have all these media groups, whether it be CNN, their ratings are in the tank, MSNBC, similar situation. Fox News is going to. strong real america's voice the charlie kirk show we're going strong salem radio network that we're

also on going strong what is happening and what is the adjust is this the first domino to fall i mean i saw you post a funny a funny meme on twitter about you know the domino's falling and it's like senator cotton wants that op-ed about i actually forget it was something about the national guards and it caused this huge i mean maybe go back to that moment uh john of that Senator Cotton op-ed. And then you, the meme is that she now becomes president someday, which I think we're maybe getting a little ahead of ourselves. Yeah, I don't know.

I'm jumping ahead of the script. Right now she's only in charge of CBS News. Yeah, I think, look, as to what you just said, all the mainstream institutions, the ratings are in the toilet, nobody's reading them, nobody's watching them. The Washington Post, I don't even know anyone reading the Washington Post, and where they have no subscribers left. And the people who are going strong and gaining audience are Fox, Real America's voice,

Charlie Burke and these alternative spaces. And I think Barry recognized that there were a lot of people, a lot of smart people who aren't necessarily like rabid, right-wing people, but they know they're being lied to by the mainstream groups and the official media because enough has sort of percolated out on alternative media like your show and others where a lot of smart people are like, wait a minute, why is CNN still saying this? I know this is not true because I saw this video and And I know this isn't trying.

I know I'm being lied to. And there was no trust in media anymore. And there is such a hunger for trustworthy new voices. And I think that Barry just has a lot of credibility. The free press has a lot of credibility in that space. And so much of what they publish is just debunking false narratives in mainstream press. And they do it in a very tasteful way, a very thoughtful way. Like they did a story on the, they say, you know, Gaza is in famine.

And they have all these, the press, most of the mainstream media has been showing all these photos of these children who allegedly are victims of famine. But every single one of them is suffering from some muscular disease, which causes them to have, you know, an appearance that might be misconstrued as famine. And Barry took that, the free press took that narrative apart so expertly. And they do things like that that really cut through so much of the media bullshit. And it provides such a valuable service. And I'm so happy for Barry. and I'm so happy for all of the liberal tears that I have been personally and I want more of them that give me life.

They energize us, yes, they're our life source. So yeah, I mean, the free press kind of strikes me almost is like a right of center or maybe just center. I mean, I do think they do, they try and kind of go right down the middle, like almost like an NPR vibe, but it's just like right down the center. It is kind of thoughtful. it's written by educated people but that haven't lost their damn minds.

Yeah, I mean, it's not a rabid right wing or left. It really is a centrist publication. And I really think that like the real silent majority in our country is just normal people who don't want a screamer on either end. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I mean, listen, as a hardened partisan who has a very clear vision for what I want to happen in this country,

I can appreciate the fact that we need centrist's voices to sort of call balls and strikes, even, you know, speaking of which, you know, Tom Cotton is a guy that we have serious foreign policy disagreements. I mean, Tom Cotton hasn't seen a foreign conflict. He doesn't think America needs to bomb or, you know, invade. But Tom Cotton is really good on crime. He's really good on domestic crime issues. And he, by the way, he's going to be proven right and vindicated on some of the. the stuff that happened even in Trump 1.0, I think.

But so this all started, now go back. We got a minute and a half here, John. What was this op-ed that kind of started this whole domino effect with Tom Cotton? Tom Cotton op-ed was, I believe it was called Send In the Troops, and it was calling on President Trump in the first term to send in the National Guard to quell BLM rioting in American cities. And this caused, I think Barry may have already left the New York Times by this point, but it caused this. firestorm in the newsroom about this is putting black people in danger and Nicole Hannah-Jones of 1619 fame led the charge to end to um to criticize the paper publicly this public staff revolt and the times after initially defending the op-ed did a complete 180 I think there's now

an editor's note that's longer than the op-ed it's still online I urge you all to google it and they ultimately ended up like getting rid of several people in the op-ed department And not even conservatives. I forget his name, but the op-ed editor at the time had to go. He went to the economist. And Adam Rubinstein was a great guy. He was forced out. And it was this weird seminal moment, which no one even really remembers anymore.

No, it was fascinating. I mean, it was basically, it was a newsroom tantrum by a bunch of millennials and Gen Ziers that a sitting U.S. senator had the gall to write an op-ed. I mean, just amazing. Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion. About $45 billion of that is labeled as distressed. Why Refi refinances distress or defaulted private student loans that others will not touch. They provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to pay. Go to why refi.com.

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I am reachable at Levine, Jonathan, on X. It's Levine like Adam Levine and Jonathan, J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N. It's my full name, Jonathan. And I'm working on a lot of different stuff, investigations mostly now. for the Washington Free Beacon, do a lot of work on Democrats, do a lot of work on nonprofits and woke stuff, DEI universities, and anything that's not right. So, you know, if there's anything happening in your life, in your world, you work in government and you're listening to this and something's not the way it should be, I'm very, very available. Yes, send your scoops

to John. He's trustworthy. He does great work. So, John, I wanted to also talk to you about this because you're in media, you're in speech, your whole, I mean, you are, your institution is enshrined in the Constitution. And our friends from across the pond are having quite the little blowup. A comedian, Graham Linehan, was arrested when he gets back into the U.K. at the airport by five armed officers. And apparently this is for his anti-transgender, comments that he's made three three uh tweets in particular we can bring up first thoughts why is this such a big deal explain what's happening here john i mean he he went against the woke orthodoxies he tweeted critically of trans and he was met at the airport by five armed security guards who

proceeded to take him into custody i mean this is this is exactly what vice president vance was talking about when he went to Europe. There is a crisis of free speech and free expression out there. You know, we have a First Amendment in our country. We take that for granted. They don't have those protections in Europe. You make a tweet that the board of Twitter doesn't like in England or something, and you get arrested. And while this is happening, mind you, churches are being burned down in England and across the continent of Europe. And we never hear about it. There are grooming gangs running wild in the UK, which are only rarely ever reported on. and only a great effort, and official authorities try to obfuscate news about that coming out.

You know, you have... Well, John, John, let me pause you right there because, again, you're the media expert here. This story was, the grooming gang specifically was largely an Elon Musk enterprise to kind of popularize it, but there was reporting on that. Explain some of these brave people within the UK that have been trying to blow the whistle on this for years. will of ordinary people to report on things like grooming gangs and the church fires and a lot of other issues happening in Europe is out there. It's just the official institutions make it so, so difficult. And even just to get things like court records in the UK are so much more difficult than in the United States. They make it very, very hard to just get the fundamental piece. You know,

you can't run out with stuff you don't know, but they make it very, very hard to get official confirmation on anything. And the authorities appear to go to great lengths to defend, or at least per shield from accountability. Yeah, it's remarkable. While five armed officers are arresting a comedian for tweets. So, it's, it's, it's, England is in a very, very bad way. And it really, you know, I, I, I love the United Kingdom. I'm a huge anglophile.

Me too. It pains me to see that country subverting itself and, and turning its back on so many of its founding principles and institutions, many of which we just copied in our country. So I, I really hope they. get their act together. Yeah, so let's throw up some of the tweets in question. Let's go put in 412 right in the center there. This is from Grand Linehan. Again, he's a comedian. He's transgressive by nature, right? He says, if a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent abusive act. This is a fact. This is literally nothing wrong with what he said. Make a scene,

call the cops, and if all else fails, punch him in the balls, which is funny. Look, I mean, I can get, I can figure out why he probably got in, what part of the tweet got him in trouble. At the end of the day, it's like, are we really arresting people with five officers for that? And it just, it speaks to a question of priorities for that country. Oh, I mean, you know, it is a violent act. I don't support anyone committing violence against anybody, but like, it is a violent act to be a man in a woman face like that. Well, you know, it reminds me of something Charlie got into some hot water for it one point where he basically said, listen, where are the dads protecting their daughters? And he was saying,

hey, back in the 1950s, you would have had a line of dads blocking the bathroom or the locker room keeping people out. He wasn't calling for violence. But listen, he was saying, listen, there is a point where culture has had enough and we the people must stand up and do that. That is a uniquely American phenomenon, by the way, where we take things into our own hands. When we settled the West, we didn't have, you know, institutions there to protect us. People took their own initiative to protect their communities. And that's what we're talking about here. Final word to you, John. Again, where can people follow you? Where can they see what you're up to? First, self-defense is not violence, number one. And number two, I am reachable on X at Levine,

Jonathan, and I accept all tips and ideas that you may have from the big wide world listening to this. And I'm very available. So message me if anything's not going right in your world. Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much, John. We'll see us. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. We'll talk to you soon. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.