Mike Johnson's Integrity Problem

Hey everybody, a full conversation with Congressman Eli Crane. We get the inside scoop on Mike Johnson, what's going on in the House.

It is a very important conversation in depth. Make sure you text it to your friends and listen to it in its entirety. Become a member today at members.charliekirk.com to listen to all of our episodes advertiser free. Get involved with America's most important organization, Turning Point USA at tpusa.com. That is tpusa.com. Start a high school or college chapter today at tpusa.com. Again, become a member.

It's a way that you can support our program and get involved and ask me questions directly. Buckle up everybody. 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. 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. It's where I buy all of my gold.

Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. I am running against Jack Smith. His name is Jack Smith. You're not making anything up.

Unfortunately, it's not the same. They're going after Eli in a primary with precious resources because he is awesome and based. He's terrific. I'm going to go up and help any way I can, which actually makes me happy because I don't have to leave the state. I love Arizona.

It's the best place on the planet. So Eli, there's so much to talk about. I want to kind of just rewind the clock and we have all hour.

So don't feel rushed. Let's kind of start with how things started to unravel with the Johnson speakership. So let's just go all the way back in time from, you know, the motion to vacate.

Heaven's no longer there. Vote Carousel. Johnson, the consensus. Let's start there. Well, the first thing he did, Charlie, I actually really liked and a lot of people really like to it was the Israel supplemental, but it was paid for. He took the money from the IRS. And I think the base loved that.

I know I loved it. I actually voted for it. And so right now, many of us who didn't vote for Israel's in this last foreign aid bill are getting hammered right now from the pro-Israel community saying, oh, we don't support Israel.

And that's not the case. We support Israel. But if we're going to if we're going to, you know, be solid on fiscal conservative policies and actually offsets, yeah, offsets payfors. Right. And what that means to the American people is, is that like everything that came out of this last foreign aid bill last week up up on the hill, none of it was paid for.

It's more debt on top of everything else that they shackled the American people with on an annual basis. So the first thing you liked. I agree.

So we're kind of in the fall here. And immediately Speaker Johnson does his best punting, you know, where he says, OK, we're just going to kind of give me some time, give me some time. Yeah. And what in my this is where I actually went really hard after Johnson. I was an early critic. Then I backed off. And now I'm back as a critic.

I kind of I've kind of gone through a let's just say a journey there. I was very upset because we had the table set for a spending fight in the fall and we never got that. No, we did. And unfortunately, and Charlie, I'm not going to tell you anything that I haven't told the speaker personally. So, you know, last just last week in a phone call and in a meeting with 10 or 15 other people, I told the speaker that he has an integrity problem because he told the American people in our conference for several months that the border was the hill to die on.

And clearly that didn't happen with the last piece of leverage that we had, which was Ukrainian funding and this supplemental the supplemental bill that the Senate and Joe Biden wanted more than seemingly life itself. And so I told him that and I also told him that the base and our voters are screaming and they're begging for someone to fight for them and you're not getting it done. And so, you know, he knows he knows where I'm at. He knows where a lot of people are at. But unfortunately, Charlie, the speaker continually surrounds himself with other members of Congress. And quite frankly, a bunch of staffers that continually tell him why he can't fight, why the time isn't now.

We have to wait till we get the Senate back, the presidency back. And it's just it's it's GOP 101 failure theater. That that's what it is. And it doesn't matter.

I've seen every I've seen every argument employed on the on the new speaker and nothing seems to break through. So you say he has an integrity problem. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, well, is that well, you know, I mean, you've seen it. You've seen it. The American people have seen it. You can only tell the American people so many times, hey, this is the hill we're going to die on.

This is the hill we're going to die on. Or we're not giving any Ukrainian funding until we take care of our border and then do none of it. So we have we have the public tape of him saying that privately where you guys also strung along on those assurances.

Yeah. And and it wasn't unfortunately it wasn't just that there were other assurances that, you know, we weren't going to we weren't going to do another C.R. and then, you know, we did we did more C.R. And so I hate to say it, Charlie, but there was a time where voters used to ask me because I was part of the eight that ousted McCarthy. They would say, OK, so what have we got in return? And I used to be able to say, well, at least this speaker doesn't, you know, lie or misrepresent to us.

And I can't really say that anymore. The only thing I think I can say, Charlie, as far as a benefit to the country is the precedent has now been set, at least that if if you become speaker in January, that doesn't give you a free ride for the next two years to do whatever the hell you want. And so, you know, any speaker that now gets that gavel is on notice that if you, you know, especially at least with this group, if you make enough promises and then you don't fulfill them, if you continually sell out the American people and the timing is right, there's a good chance that there will be an effort to remove you. Let's play Cut 100. This is a minute long of Speaker Johnson lying about Ukraine and the border.

Let's play Cut 100. Telling all of you, we've told the American people, border, border, border. We have to affect real policy change at the border. And that is a necessary condition to anything we do going forward. We have to take care of our border first.

That's what the American people demands. Every state in America is now a border state. Border, border, border. How can we be engaged in securing the border of foreign countries if we can't secure our own? We know the urgency in Ukraine, we're going to stand for freedom and make sure that Vladimir Putin doesn't march through Europe. It's past time to secure the border.

Listen, this is a catastrophe down here. The battle is for the border. President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill. It better begin by defending America's national security. These are dangerous people who are coming into the country. Over 300 known terrorists. How can we be engaged in securing the border of foreign countries if we can't secure our own? So what is your what is your reaction to that?

I mean, it's basically what I just got done saying, man. It's you. We have an integrity problem. That's that's a problem. You know, that's a problem as a you know, as a leader, third in line to be president when the American people gave us the house, you know, just begging that we would do something with it. It's a problem, I think, as as a man of integrity, you know, as as a as a man with faith to, you know, tell the American people that on loop for months and then not deliver on any of that. That's a problem. And the American people, we're at a point now where it's not like there's three networks that people can, you know, watch anymore. There's so many other outlets that are showing, you know, the receipts like that. And so people are on to it.

And it's going to I think it's going to be a problem. What do you think changed with him? I think personally, I think the thing that got Speaker Johnson elected in a very divisive Congress with a very slim majority was the fact that he's such a nice guy and he really is, Charlie, like he's like the one of the nicest guys that I've ever met, like I almost wish he was my neighbor.

You know what I mean? But so he hadn't pissed anybody off. And so that's how he was able to get so many votes. But the downside is, is that he doesn't have the in my opinion, he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing. Do you say that originally he was telling the truth and now he's not?

Just was there just enough staffers got in his ear? Do you think he enjoys being speaker? Honestly, I don't know if he enjoys being speaker or not. I've never had that conversation with him. But this is why I think the last time I was on your show and I talked about why I even ran for office, Charlie. It's not because I think I'm some intellectual or some congressional scholar or anything like that. I just recognize there's a lack of moral courage up in Washington, D.C. And I think a lot of the issues that we're facing, you know, though they have some complexity to them, they are pretty simplistic. And so I just think that I think he lacks the courage to do the right thing.

And I think, you know, you will know a tree by the fruit of bears. And I think he's surrounding himself with all the wrong people. I want to get deeper into that and also just talk about the series of disappointments from FISA to Ukraine and the path forward, because that is a question people have as they say, what's the point? By the way, what's your fundraising website, your campaign? We can talk about that, right?

EliForArizona.com Yes, sir. OK, let's get that on the bottom to help out Eli. So the one that bothered me the most, and I'll just kind of reiterate, the audience knows this. I was super spicy towards Johnson in the fall. New year, he reached out repeatedly. I heard. I heard. I listened. Yeah, I was like 10 out of 10. Right. Yeah. And then he reached out repeatedly.

And you're right, he's very sweet, like great table manners, like incredibly. I almost brought you a therapy dog or a punching bag. Oh, I needed it. I was so upset. Really fired up because I'll tell you why I was fired up is because I knew what was happening is that there was no spending fight in the fall. And they said, we're going to do this in January.

I said, no, you're not. You come back in January and then they punt till March. And then they say it's an election year. We can't do anything.

We get nothing done. So I just I've seen this play for 11 years. I've been doing this and I just kind of lost my temper.

So then Mike Johnson reached out repeatedly, talked to him for like 45 minutes. And I was like, OK, fine. I'm going to just grant you some grace, like maybe all this.

I'll chalk it up to just kind of being a new speaker. Right. I'm going to give you some space laid off of them until the five of them. And we were communicating by text and all that.

We still are. But I'm not in a good spot, honestly, with him. And it's like, what? Walk us through the five of us.

What is this? Honestly, it's one of my number one issues. Yeah. Because it's the U.S. Constitution. Like we don't get to choose whether we like it or not.

You have to live under the law of the land. Yeah. I mean, it's to me, it's pretty simplistic, Charlie. It's like obviously we have Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Right. And nobody's nobody made the argument on our in our on our end of this, that FISA isn't often used to protect us from people that want to do harm to us. Our argument was that you need to insert some language into end of FISA that protects American citizens when their content, you know, when they are wrapped up in, you know, when these tools are being employed against foreigners overseas, to where if our intel agencies, DOJ, et cetera, want to, you know, search and take a look at, you know, your content, they have to get a warrant to do it just as if they would if they're searching your home or your car or anything else. And the argument, Charlie, Charlie, from the other side of the aisle is, oh, well, it's going to make it way too hard for for these guys to do their job. You're going to stop. You know, you're going to stop our intel agencies from protecting the American people. And though they couldn't give us one instance where they were able to use these tools and they wouldn't have been able to get a warrant or it would have taken too long. And at the end of the day, you know, we need an overhaul of this system because do you have just like guys like Tucker Carlson and others?

Obviously, you've got a big bullseye on your back, Charlie. Do you have faith right now and confidence that they're not reading your stuff? Yeah, they're reading everything except for a couple apps. I think they don't yet have back end access. Right. And so like telegram for a guy like they might have already figured that out for a guy like me. You know, I believe I'm a target as well. Yes. And they spy on lawmakers all the time.

I know. And so it's like in there, there were hundreds of thousands of instances where, you know, the FBI, FBI alone, you know, was admitted to spying on American citizens. And they brag about that, that that was down from a million, you know, a couple of years before. And it's just it's unbelievable that we have Republicans that won't stand up to this. And we have we know of, according to the inspector general report, two hundred and seventy thousand violations of the FISA statute in one calendar year that we know of. It's probably even greater than that because that they cover it up and they lie about it.

So get your free month of service today at Patriot Mobile dot com slash Charlie or call 972 Patriot. So Eli, with the FISA vote looming, Johnson's background is a constitutional lawyer with the Alliance Defending Freedom. He was on judiciary, right? He talks a great game with the Constitution. He previously was a FISA skeptic and was against all this FBI power and DOJ. He got a couple, what I call woo-woo shows where they kind of do a bunch of woo-woo and they bring in these Intel chiefs and a skiff with no phone, no staff and kind of a song and dance.

And all of a sudden he's like, Mr. Intel Agency. So what can you explain to me? Because Thomas Massey came on the program and effectively called Speaker Johnson a liar on all this.

What am I, what are we missing? So that's, this is what they do every single time we try and make any big moves up in Washington, D.C. You know, I've seen it on FISA. I've seen it with the speaker battle we had in January and keep in mind, I'm obviously only a freshman, but anytime you try and make big moves in Washington, D.C., they've always got this boogeyman in the back room that they bring out to try and scare you from doing anything. And in this case, they'll take members of Congress down to the skiff and they'll share with them classified stories of how FISA was used to protect Americans in this specific case. Right. And that's what they do. And then they then they then they pull you aside and, you know, and clearly I wasn't there for this meeting, but I know enough about the place to summarize and basically be like, well, you know, speaker, if if you make any changes to FISA and there are attacks on U.S. soil and, you know, it it you know, there's there's a loss of American life.

You know, basically the blood's going to be on your hands, emotional blackmail. That's the way I see it. Yeah.

And that's I think that's the way that a lot of these organization and institutions control members of Congress and, quite frankly, leadership. Did you go down to the skiff? Yeah, I did. Yeah, because I mean, I want to interrupt because Mike Johnson said none of the members went down to the skiff that are against FISA. Like, where does he come up with that? Well, I I can't I don't I can't speak to what he what he said or or what times he was talking about. But I've been down there multiple times to listen to, OK, what are what are they talking about?

The intel chiefs. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's it's always it's always this it's always the same by their. No, I'm not. And I walk in there because you're you're like an actual veteran of our military. Yeah. Not only that, Charlie, but I I've because I've worked with military intelligence before. You know, I remember one time we were in Iraq and our intel guys sent us out on a on a, you know, 18 hour mission. Your Navy SEAL, just so we're clear. Right.

The creme de la creme. So and we were going around looking for weapons caches on the Syrian Iraqi border. And all we found for 18 hours, Charlie, was trash piles. Right. And so I'm not saying that there's never any good, faulty intelligence at times. No, of course.

And you can't take it as dog. There's good. There's good intel, guys. I guarantee that.

Listen to your show. They do a great job. All I'm saying is, is that, you know, it's like at what point do we become so skeptical of these intel agencies, the FBI, et cetera, to where we try and put some checks in place to make sure they're not becoming weaponized against the American people.

So which they have. Of course. I'm still a skeptic of why FISA exists in the first place.

People say, but Charlie, people will die. Look, I don't even want to acknowledge I don't want to admit that, but I will say, OK, let's take all the guns away. You have freedom, it comes to the cost. Yeah. Right. If you have freedom, privacy protections are necessary for a free society. I know that's a radical position. I want someone to prove Wi-Fi exists in the first place.

It was a 1978 relic of the J. Edgar Hoover era of the FBI. OK, let's let's say it's necessary. Saves all these lives. Then explain to me. Let's just take that as a given. Speaker Johnson comes down and speakers rarely vote, but he decided to vote in the tally as the tiebreaker to say that you do not need a warrant to spy on Americans.

What is that all about? I did. He justify that to any members or. Yeah, I think because he could have been a hero. We could have no, we could have got the warrant requirement, which would have been a major win for the movement. No, it would have been a it would have been a huge win for the movement and the American people. I think that the you know, the excuses and the reasoning that I heard was if we do this and obviously you've got Director Wray at the same time saying, hey, there's more threats on U.S. soil than we've ever had, which I actually I actually believe because of our wide open southern border.

I think it's intentional. I think they keep the border open so they could spy on us. But that being said, that being said, you still don't sacrifice our constitutional rights for operational efficiency. Hundred percent. Yes. I mean, we could have a camera in everyone's living room.

We could we could have like drones of everyone's home and we could allow law enforcement officers just to come in your home without getting any time because it would make their investigations easier. Right. Totally. But we don't because it's our our system is set up for individual rights and to be focused on, you know, protecting the individual. Yes. You cannot be free if the government sees everything you do.

One hundred percent. You cannot have liberty without privacy. And that was the breakthrough of the founders is that the European countries do not have a Fourth Amendment like we do.

And they were so grounded in classical wisdom. They said, wait a second. We need to make sure that not just can you say what you want to say and protect your stuff with firearms and against the government, but also make sure that they can't come into your home and get your private effects or journals. So he comes down and he's the tie breaking vote. Can you just inform our audience? It's very rare for speakers to vote. Yeah. So that was a statement vote.

I believe it was. And I think it was a statement vote to show, you know, the intel agencies and even our our conference that, you know, where Mike stood on this issue, which, again, was surprising because he sat on judiciary for so many years next to a congressman that is near and dear to much of Arizona, Andy Biggs. And, you know, the best.

And when you when you see that many whistleblowers come through Congress talking about, you know, just, you know, some of the abuses that are going on in our federal agencies and then don't protect American people's, you know, constitutional rights when it's right in front of you and you are the key leader, you're a swing vote that that's that's awful, man. It's just I mean, I can't I can't do that. That's what fired me up. Right.

That's what all of a sudden, like the beast was reawakened. Right. Like a kind of ceasefire was ended. Right. And so then I was like, OK, you better not screw up this Ukraine thing. Like I was like, OK, you really have insulted the base and the FISA thing. It could have been that Johnson just could have decided not to vote on the warrant requirement, which would means it would have passed. Right. And it just so happens that, you know, a certain member had the flu here from Arizona.

It's like, oh, my goodness. If she could have just been in D.C., we actually might have gotten a warrant requirement. But the FBI got what they wanted and they can spy on us relentlessly and nothing changed it. I can't remember, Charlie, but I think on that one, we'd have to go back and look. I think there were two members, one from Guam and maybe I can't remember the other place that voted that if it would, you know, if if it would have gone the wrong way, would it had we would have had to go back and read the Guam votes bind or they just show votes?

Yeah, I don't think that I don't think that they're binding some other show votes. Some so some other member told me that I think it was the FISA vote, but we'd have to go back and look. So then he had the weekend after FISA, it was the big Ukraine parade, every single television show.

We don't send money immediately to Ukraine and of Western democracy. What then happened, walk us through that week, because it was like a Saturday to Saturday. They kept you in session. And despite all the assurances, Mike Johnson then went and nuzzled up with Democrats. But he also went down to that with you went next to Donald Trump in the midst of all that. Do you think that might have weakened the resistance against Johnson, the fact that Johnson and Trump did a press conference together?

I think I think it did a little bit. I think it showed solidarity with the president. And obviously, the president has been the leader of this movement for a long time. And so even even his messaging this week against motion to vacate, I think that, you know, I think that shows, you know, where the president's at on on on Mike Johnson. And that's his right.

He can, you know, he's earned the right to he also wants legislative allies and he's trying to. For sure. I get it. I don't agree with it. But maybe if I was facing 700 years in federal prison, I'd be making similar decisions.

Yeah. I think the president just doesn't want any more chaos when they're trying to put him in jail for 700 plus years. So then can you explain then Johnson realizes he's got a conference problem. He has to go to Democrats for rules. You get some walk through the unprecedented nature of what Johnson did to make sure that Zelensky got his money. Well, I think he saw in the last Ukraine vote, I think the the majority of the Republican Party, I believe, voted against Ukraine the last time that we voted on it. And so I think he knew he was going to have a problem. And I don't know. I don't know about you, but I I fully expected capitulation on this. I've just seen the signals the entire time I did.

I thought we'd maybe get I'll tell you what I thought we were going to get. But. OK. And I've again, I've seen him surround himself with the members like like Mike McCall. Yeah, the way it kind of works is he'll bring in like, you know, 15 members of the House Freedom Caucus or adjacent members. And we'll talk to him about our concerns on FISA that are supplemental. And then the next group that comes in will be your, you know, more your war hawks, appropriator types.

And they'll tell him Dan Crenshaw, Mike McCall, Tom Cole. Yeah. So, you know, I've just seen, you know, history is always a good tell of where somebody is going to go in the future. And so I've seen the capitulation and, you know, the the move towards the Uniparty almost every single time, except for the Israel, you know, IRS bill, the very first thing he did.

Other than that, I've seen this capitulation every single time. That's what I that's what I expected. That's what I told my voters to expect.

And that's what ended up happening. Eli for Arizona dot com. A lot more to unpack on that because he went to Democrats for rules and rules changes.

And he defied Republican voters, which ties into Eli's viral, Eli's viral, viral encrypt and better Republicans. Debt it keeps you tossing and turning at night. You can't get away from it. But the truth is, the system is designed to trap you in debt, insanely high interest rate credit cards and loans make it nearly impossible to pay off your debt. There's a new way out of the debt trap, pivotal debt solutions. Pivotal debt solutions isn't like the old school debt relief companies that string your debt out for years. They have new aggressive strategies that can end your debt faster and easier than you thought possible. With pivotal debt solutions, you can cut or even eliminate interest. Find programs to write off your balances so you owe less. Stop these threatening phone calls and without bankruptcy and without a loan. Bottom line is they find every solution possible to end your debt permanently. Before you do anything, contact Pivotal Debt Solutions first to talk to them for free. Find out how fast they can get you out of debt. Visit ZapMyDebt.com.

That is ZapMyDebt.com, ZapMyDebt.com. So just to kind of finish the let's just say the timeline and then I want to get into solutions and sending better Republicans is that this was force fed on the American people, despite the unpopularity in the Republican Party. And D.C. operates on agreement, not disagreement. It is a divided Congress, but it actually isn't that divided on the main priorities of the regime.

No, you're right. And that's why we talk about the Uniparty all the time. It's a it's a very real thing. And on the biggest votes, especially when it comes down to spending and often foreign wars and things like that, the Uniparty Republicans and Democrats often move in lockstep to accomplish, you know, the agenda of the Uniparty.

And it's it's a very real thing. And, you know, it really only the D.C. only has really two moves, Charlie. And that's they either try and co-opt new members or they get rid of you. So what do you mean by co-opt?

What do you mean by that? Oh, I mean, they'll do anything they can. You know, they'll do anything they can to get you on the team.

That's what they call it. We need you on the team, Charlie. You know, they might find out that for you, Charlie, you know, you you want to be on judiciary.

You want to be on a certain committee or you want you have, you know, dreams of being in leadership. Well, hey, Charlie, we'll help you do that. But we need you. We need you on these votes.

We need you to show loyalty. You know, maybe it's something else. Maybe maybe you have a different vice, you know, that you know, that they know needs itching.

And they'll they'll help accommodate that, too. But once they realize that you're not going to be on the team, there's only one other move and that's to get rid of you. And I'm glad to be on that list, Charlie. You know what I mean?

It's an honor to be on that list. And do you think blackmail is something they use? Oh, I'm sure. I mean, it's the most powerful it's the most powerful country in the history of the world.

Of course, we're not immune to the same techniques that have been used since the beginning of time. So the the Ukraine vote was a huge disappointment. It is also do these members really feel as if they don't care about their voters that much because 85 percent of Republican voters don't want this? I can't really figure it out, Charlie, if it's a combination of, hey, they just really want to be on the team and maybe they have aspirations of, you know, higher political office one day and they don't want to piss off the powers that be, or if they're still stuck in the time frame that you and I grew up in where, you know, we grew up watching Rambo and, you know, you know, Rocky and all these movies where the Russians were the bad guys. You know, they haven't they haven't really evolved and gotten out of that that mentality. I can't really figure it out. And I think there is a disdain for the American populace and what they actually want.

And so I think it's a combination, depending on the member you're talking about. I want to play a piece of tape here. That went viral. It is cut.

Ninety nine. Eli Crane takes a flamethrower on this piece of garbage bill. And let's just let let's let Eli speak for himself. Play cut. They don't expect us to win every fight. They know that we're outnumbered up here.

But here's the deal. They do expect us to fight. And that is something that this party has refused to do time and time again.

And it's one of the most frustrating things to be a part of is to be it. We know what the Democrats are going to do. They're going to destroy the country. They're driving us off the cliff at 95 miles per hour.

Well, guess what? Our solution, the Republican Party, we're going to dial that down to 90 miles per hour. But we're still driving this thing off the cliff. Just we're backing it down a couple degrees.

And it's pathetic. If you want to help us start paying attention. And please quit sending politicians up here who come to your town, who come to your Lincoln Reagan Day dinner talking about fiscal responsibility, border security, and then they vote on this crap repeatedly. You can help us.

Quit sending them up here. I think things are starting to change. You had Ana Paulina next to you there, who's terrific. She's one of the good ones.

A great Turning Point alumni. Yeah. But there's not enough numbers yet. No, there's not.

The numbers aren't there yet. And it's ironic because that that bill, that piece of paper I was holding up, that was the last omni. And now the Uniparty is hitting me and running commercials against me for voting against that omni because in an omni, Charlie, that was just a one pager of all the bad stuff in it. But in an omni, there were over a thousand pages about this thick, filled with a bunch of nonsense, pork, special interests, spending way overspending, spending money on other people's borders, not our own.

And then in there, of course, there's a couple of things in there. You know, they'll sprinkle something in there for the Border Patrol, sprinkle something in there for the military. And that's how they get you. So if you vote against if you vote against you, boom, Charlie Kirk doesn't care about Border Patrol.

Yes. And that's and and that's why I said start paying attention, because if you don't pay attention, it's so easy for the the swamp to gaslight voters just by all they have to do. Charlie has raised three, four or five million dollars, run a bunch of commercials or radio ads in your district.

And then the the mom or the dad who's so busy with kids and life, that's all they see. And so when they go to the ballot box, they say, oh, Eli Crane, Eli Crane doesn't care about the border. That's right. So let's get to kind of the solution of how we fix it. But I do need to ask you the pointed question.

Our audience is just bring it, bring it. Are you going to support motion to vacate a Speaker Johnson? Right. So I did say I did send you the article last week.

I guess I got ambushed as I was walking off the floor. I saw a press gaggle about 40 reporters and I said, I'm open to it. It would be. Yeah, right here. Right. It would be really hard.

And what I meant by that, it'd be really hard for me to save Speaker Johnson with my vote if Marjorie Taylor Green triggers this motion to vacate. But I will go into it. I will tell you this.

I don't think the timing is really good. And I'm happy to walk through. I'm sympathetic with I'm happy to walk through that with with your audience, because can you please because our audience is like Storm the Bastille. Of course.

Take out the of course. And keep in mind, I was I was one of only eight people in the history of Congress, in the history of this country to do that. And so I hope I have a little bit of credibility when I talk to your audience about it. First of all, number one, I think the motion fails because Democrats are going to save Speaker Johnson. Not only have they said that in interviews, I've heard it. I've heard it personally up on the Hill. And Charlie, why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't they say that?

They're getting everything they want. Did you hear Chuck Schumer talking about Speaker Johnson? Did you hear Chuck Schumer talking about? Oh, my God. Go. We get that. Go look that clip. Give us a little bit.

What was that? Oh, it's just so great. I mean, just singing, singing Johnson's praises about how great he is. We're going to find a bipartisan champion doing the doing the right thing. And so, first of all, the Democrats, I believe, will save him. But let's let's say that doesn't happen. Let's say we get surprised, OK?

I think there's a much higher chance if if we if we pull the trigger on this, that we we actually end up with the worst speaker than then then Speaker Johnson. And you you're laughing and people say, how could it get? I knew you were going to say that.

I know they're going to say that. But here's the deal. The thing is, because you guys don't have eyes on the ground, you don't have you don't watch the conference, you don't see the people in there. It's hard for you to even imagine how it could get any worse.

I'll tell you how it could get worse. If you got a speaker in there that was voted the same exact way, led the exact same way, but was vindictive, now it's a different ballgame. And you see guys like me getting kicked off all my committees.

You see guys like getting kicked out of the conference. I would say that, sorry to interrupt, but Mike Johnson, he kind of forgives easily, it seems. No, he's a he's a very gracious man.

And I told a reporter this the last week. He's very gracious. He listens to people, even when they're abrasive and attacking him. I will say that he's one of the.

You know, most gracious people I've ever met. But that's how that's how it could get worse. Somebody that votes exactly the same way leads in the exact unit party way, but starts kicking conservatives off all their committees. And if you like oversight, if you think oversight's important, if you like seeing, you know, me railing on Secretary Mayorkas or, you know, somebody going after, you know, Dr. Fauci, a lot of that could go away if you have a vindictive. That's how Boehner and Paul Ryan governed Boehner more than Ryan Ryan even more than and the other thing I'll say on that, Charlie, I think there's really only one person that maybe this audience in and the MAGA America first movement would get behind and that, you know, that's probably Jim Jordan that could get elected. That's electable.

That's even in the universe of who, you know, who we would find acceptable. And the the appropriators and the war hawks that kept Jim Jordan from being speaker last time are still there. And so let's say first of all, I think this motion. I don't think I think it fails if even if it even if it passes, I think there's a chance that we get a worse speaker than we have now. And I would say the last thing, if if we were to do this, those of us that are being targeted by the old speaker now are being targeted by the new speaker and all the other organizations.

And so I think you lose some of your best or you stand a better chance of losing some of your best fighters in the process for a failed motion. So I and Trump is opposed to it. So, yeah, that's my case.

You're let's let's kind of gear in on one of those elements, which I agree you're up against right now a primary challenge. Yeah. What prompted that?

Because you you were like the darling of CLF previously in twenty two. Yeah. Because, you know, the flip O'Halloran seat. Yeah. Right.

It was the number one flip seat in the country. Yes. And I think Kevin put money into your. He did.

Right. He did. And you know what? And I and I asked him to. So I could flip a Democrat seat. And you did. And I don't feel bad about that because Kevin clearly didn't buy my vote. Nobody bought my vote. But like I said, if if you if you end up fighting on, you know, too many fronts, I think you end up not only do you lose the motion to vacate vote, but then there's a good chance that you lose some of your best fighters in the process. And so that's my that that's my case.

Am I still open to it? I am because I don't have higher political aspirations and I didn't think that this was going to be a long I didn't think I was going to be a career politician anyway. But, you know, we still got work to do. And so the the D.C. machine grinds on regardless of the will of the people.

I want to talk about how we actually fix this and the most helpful things. And that's the most reinforcements. Right. Yeah. But that means primaries. Yeah, it will. And you'll mean primary. It's probably too late.

But boy, if it's not it's not it's not too late. OK. I want to.

Can you comment on that? Yes. OK. Yes. Please. I want to get into that. Email us freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com.

It's Eli for Arizona dot com. If you are despondent, he's going to lay out a path forward. He's one of the fighters. He's one of the good guys.

I agree to everything you said that the timing just might not be right. And again, you can't go against Trump on this stuff. Trump is the leader of the party. That is more important than anything else.

If you lose the presidency, I think the civilization is over. Herzog Foundation is amazing. You've got to check it out right now. Stanley M Herzog Foundation. For years, I've been talking about how our nation's public schools have been captured by progressive ideologues, teaching things that directly contradict the values of millions of American families. For those of you worried about the best educational path for your kids and grandkids, I'm pleased to announce our new partnership with Turning Point Academy, the Herzog Foundation. From their online publication, The Lion, to the new podcast, Making the Leap, the Herzog Foundation offers a wide range of advice and information for Christian parents to make the best education decisions for your children. Go to Herzogfoundation.com. That is Herzogfoundation.com. Portions of the Charlie Kirk show are brought to you in part by the Stanley M Herzog Foundation. They are the trusted source on American K through 12 education.

Go to Herzogfoundation.com. So let's lay the path forward, cast the vision. You said it's not too late for the primaries. No, it's not like there's still a lot of primaries going on right now.

I'm actually I just started jumping into several of these fights, and that's actually pretty unusual on Capitol Hill. There's a war right now between conservatives and the Uniparty, two of the big races that we're playing in the House Freedom Caucus is heavily invested in the Tony Gonzalez race down in Texas. Mike Johnson was just there helping Tony.

Yes, he was. And and, you know, so I endorsed, you know, Tony's opponent. That's a race that your listeners can help you. You guys can help out the gentleman that's running against Tony Gonzalez, I believe his name is Herrera. And one of the other races that were many of us are investing in is against Timmons in South Carolina. Adam Morgan is the we heard about this one. He's the chairman of the House State House Freedom Caucus.

That's another race that we're investing in. And there's others there's others across the country. Bob Good needs help in Virginia. He's the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. He's being primaried.

You know, those are those are a couple for you right there. You know, I think Andy Ogles down in Tennessee could use some help as well. I know that they're gunning for him and he was he was with us in the speaker fight back in January. He's a very smart representative and he's also on the board of the House Freedom Caucus. So those are those are some guys that you can you can help out.

I don't know that Andy has a tough primary challenge, but I know he's going to need help in the general. So not only can not only can you help us try and flip some seats, but you can also make sure some of the fighters come back next year. Some of the more moderate oligarchs in the Republican Party say you're the problem because you want to engage. Of course. Of course they do. They don't want to be challenged.

They don't want the status quo to be threatened. And that's exactly what I said I was going to do when I came in. Charlie, I said, hey, and that's what I said on that clip. Please quit sending these people help us defeat these people. And the thing is, Charlie, I can separate the personal from the political lot. Some of these people I actually like, but this isn't a popularity contest.

This is like, hey, are we going to save this country or not? And you've shown you've shown your colors. You've shown that you're part of the swamp. You're part of the Uniparty. And I don't care if you like me or not.

I don't care if you think that I'm the problem. We're going to try and save this country because I have kids and everybody that watches your show does. And they want to see the next generations get to have the same amount of freedom and opportunity that we did. And clearly the trajectory is not headed in that direction.

It's pretty awful, actually. And I will say, though, that the amount of members that are sympathetic, it's increasing. The Ukraine aid votes are better than I even thought they would be.

The FISA votes were not there yet. But Eli, we're a couple of primaries. You guys are. And you guys are effective. The people that listen to this show, Steve Bannon's War Room, Jack Posobick, you guys are so powerful. And I hear about it in the conference meetings. I've almost seen fistfights in the conference meetings, Charlie, because your audiences are blowing these guys up when they sell you out.

I want to talk about that. We have ten seconds. It's because our audience needs to hear that they reach a critical impact. Stay right there.

OK, Eli Crane, can you finish that? Compliment our audience here, because they need that. You guys are more powerful than you think. I've literally seen almost fistfights break out in our conference, which is not something that you would respect when everybody's trying to be a hoity-toity gentleman. But yeah, it happens because when these guys go home after a vote like Ukraine and you guys blow them up on social media, you guys blow them up in town halls. I honestly think it's one of the reasons that there's people that are retiring, Charlie, early. They're tired of dealing with it. They're tired of going up to Washington. I hate these voters.

Yeah, I hate these voters that don't like it when I sell them out up in Washington, D.C. But you guys are effective. And I know that you guys don't feel that way.

Sometimes I struggle in not feeling that way, Charlie. But I just wanted to let you guys know that, you know, members, we we hear members talk about, you know, they're feeling blown up because the impression that some people in the audience have, I don't, is that they don't listen. They don't care.

No matter how much I contact, it's just kind of never received you. You're right. But they are human beings just like you and me. And none of no, no, no humans like being hated.

No humans like being called a sellout and a traitor. And that's what these guys routinely get called because, let's be honest, that's what they're really doing. And so keep it up, guys. Keep the pressure up.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease. And we are so close. You guys look at the numbers. Is that the Ukraine vote?

And we are 20, 30 seats away from having a majority of the conference in our favor. And we're going to we are going to grind out the warmongers. We'll say if you want to go have endless war, join the Democrat Party. And by the way, that'll that'll create their own problems, by the way, because the Democrat base is not on board for this stuff.

No, you're right. And but eighty five percent of our voters agree with us. So I guess you've touched on this, Eli, I'm going to repeat the question in a different way. The S is the question different way, which is how do we then get voters will more in alignment with the representatives? Because I would be depressed if the voters will was like, OK, we're 10 percent of the party. We are the vast, vast majority of the party.

We just don't have that reflected or mirrored in our membership. Yeah, I think that I think that it starts with education. And that's why I love the fact that people actually watch these shows, because this is where this is where you guys get the real down and dirty on what's going on and not some little scripted, you know, only, you know, you know, donor sponsor approved talking points. And so that's a big part of it.

So keep the pressure up. And, you know, you guys you guys don't have to throw in, you know, your life savings. But if you can throw in like 10 or 15 bucks on these race I talked about with, you know, Timmons in South Carolina and then Tony Gonzalez down in Texas, you know, it does go a long way and it means a lot because these guys, the swamp and the unit party, they they count on the massive donors double maxing to them and giving them like, you know, like sixty six hundred dollars or whatever, whatever it is. But when we come out in force and we throw 10, 15 bucks in each, we were able to keep up with that because we actually have the. And I talked about low information voters. You know, when you you have a big audience, Charlie, but every district has seven hundred fifty thousand people.

So of the seven hundred fifty thousand people in my district, how many of them do you think are listening to Steve Bannon, Charlie, five of ten to fifteen thousand generously? And so these guys, because they and this is why it's so important that we we don't have to match them dollar per dollar, but we have to keep it close so that they can't completely overwhelm us and to be with with the text messages, the radio ads, the TV ads, et cetera. And we just have to be able to keep up with them.

Yeah. And it's important to remember that they will outspend us right. They will have more institutional power. But the will of the voters are with us when it's. And I got to compliment our base. Our base is smart. They're asking the right questions. They're seeing the sellouts for what they are. And they're demanding better because they're seeing their beloved country be abused on a daily basis.

Yeah. And just because you don't live in the state of a good rep does it. I was opening mail yesterday, Charlie, and several people were writing me from all over the country saying, thank you. Thank you for being strong. You can support strong candidates even though they don't live in your state. It's at the same country because my vote still on FISA counts the same as you know that the guy that's selling you out in your own state.

Absolutely. Eli for Arizona dot com. When is your race?

My primary is the last week of July. So let's go through the towns. If you live in Prescott, if you live in Payson, if you like staff, oh, it's part of Flagstaff.

You got Coconino County. That's right. That's right.

So that's not as friendly. But Casa Grande, Casa Grande, right? Yep.

So you guys are in that kind of outer part, a little bit of Pinal, a little bit of Yavapai. Yep. We're going to be out there.

Great folks out there. We want to run up the score. We want to make sure that we send a message back to the unit party that this is money wasted. It'll be good to my race is special because I was the only freshman that got in on all of these fights.

So what the message that it will send to the unit party with other freshmen is you can be a freshman, come into these fights and come back. All right. We're going to make sure Eli is successful. Eli for Arizona dot com. Eli, come back any time and we'll be doing some events together. Thanks so much for listening. Everybody email us is always freedom at Charlie Kirk dot com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to Charlie Kirk dot com.