The Incredible Vanishing Defense Secretary

Hey everybody, Dan at The Charlie Kirk Show.

Russ's vote goes through the disaster of a budget that Speaker Johnson is finalizing. And then we talk about the curious case of Lloyd Austin. Where on planet Earth did this guy go and why was he in the hospital? It's a very strange story and we go after it here on The Charlie Kirk Show. Make sure you subscribe and join Turning Point USA, TPUSA.com and also listen to our sister episode with Danica Patrick.

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Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. Joining us now is Russ Vogt. Russ, welcome to the program. I want to begin talking about your lettuce tweet. You know, we went all out on speaker Johnson. Let me read actually this headline from Mediaite.

They picked it up this morning, one of our PR agencies. I know a fraud when I see one. Charlie Kirk absolutely blessed speaker Mike Johnson over spending deal. Russ, you are kind of a spending expert. Am I being fair in my analysis? You're being very fair in noting that this is a missed opportunity on behalf of the speaker. And, you know, we put forth a number of different options that the speaker could choose.

We want him to be successful. But the reality is that even if he were to fall back on a continuing resolution, which you and I probably are not big fans of, even if he were to do that, he would be at $100 billion less than the level that he has proposed with Chuck Schumer. That I believe is malpractice. That you could do what this town finds rather easy to do continuing resolutions because the way that the debt limit works, that level, that continuing resolution level would trigger across the board cuts that would cause $100 billion less than this level agreed to by Mike Johnson. And I think that's really why this is such a bad deal. And to be clear, all of those cuts would be on non-defense.

None of them would be on defense. So there is no excuse for what they have put forward. Yeah. So walk us through your Lettuce tweet. And you're right.

I mean, ahead of Lettuce could have just said CR. And so the deal is worse than business as usual in Washington, D.C. And why is Speaker Johnson, this Christian guy who's always quoting Bible verses to us, saying this is a big win? Because I think that he is captured by his conference right now and their fear of conflict. And as a result, he can't negotiate, is unwilling to, let's not say can't, is unwilling to negotiate with Democrats in such a way that he's prepared to them say, OK, we're going to shut down the government. And that's what's necessary to be able to actually have any policy wins. If you have one side that says we're going to shut down the government, we don't get our way, and our side is never, ever willing to do that, you're never going to win. And the way we work in Washington, D.C., there's only a few different leverage points that ever matter. And so just don't tell the American people that the House Republicans are going to be trying to save the country, but they're not willing to use leverage points like the debt limit, which Kevin McCarthy gave away, or this final appropriations leverage point, which Mike Johnson is on the cusp of giving away. Just be honest with the American people and your voters and says, look, we're just scared. We are scared.

We are not going to change business as usual in the nation's capital. And I really put forward yesterday the notion that, look, I think a head of lettuce could do a better job than the negotiating team that went in with my successor, the Office of Management Budget and the leadership team on the Senate side and negotiated this deal. I mean, this is what they would have wanted. So what did you get out of it?

Nothing. And Joe Biden is praising the deal, Russ. Joe Biden says this is a huge win. In what universe are we supposed to think Joe Biden celebrating is a win for our country?

Well, I mean, that's proof of the pudding. You have Chuck Schumer saying that not a nickel was cut. But just look at the calendar, right? It's not like there's a shutdown tomorrow.

We're like two weeks out, a week and a half out of the first leverage point, the first expiration date. So you have to think through like, if the Democrats are agreeing, period, you know that they have gotten what they wanted, unless they have been on the other side of bleeding as a result of a political fight. If they're agreeing to it, you know they won. If they're agreeing it to a week and a half in advance of any deadline, you know that they couldn't have gotten a better deal when they whiteboarded it in their office. That's how bad of a deal this is.

And unfortunately, this is being pushed by Speaker Johnson as some kind of good deal that the Republican media establishment should praise and get on board with. So let's continue on this. Why is there such an aversion to shutdowns of the government?

What can you just go through a brief history? We shut down the government under Trump and it actually increased our operating leverage. We shut down the government with Boehner briefly. Gingrich had a very long shutdown back in the 90s. Sometimes showing that a shutdown is something that you're not afraid of, as if it's apocalyptic nuclear war actually can get you more concessions. And what does a shutdown actually mean? And why does why is Speaker Johnson so deathly afraid of it?

Your history is absolutely correct. The shutdowns that have occurred have always been either a net positive or a win in terms of Republican Senate seats that were won or an issue being magnified in front of the American people. When you have a lapse, and that's the technical word for it, when you have a lapse in funding, the federal government doesn't shut down.

The troops are at their post. The Social Security payments continue to flow. The Medicare payments still are going out to pay for hospital bills and whatnot.

The post office continues to operate. What goes away largely is the parts of bureaucracy for a time that we generally don't like, the woke and weaponized bureaucracy. And as a result, the American people get a sense for what government would look like at a smaller level. But it's not as if this is politically apocalyptic by any means.

But there has arisen a meme, a framework, a paradigm that this is always and forever more nuclear and hurtful to Republican prospects. And as a result, the cartel, that's really my view for the unit party, because the cartel gives up price, generally a business cartel says, look, we're going to sacrifice what we could get if we were all competing with each other. In a political cartel, what they do is for stability, they guard against risk. And so they say, look, you know, we're just not going to allow the high stakes risk that is involved with a government shutdown where the eyes of the world are on us.

You know why? Because they don't want the eyes of the world to be on the reality of our border. They don't want the eyes of the world to be discussing what's going on with the Department of Justice. Because the average person who's listening to country music right now and not, you know, WMAL, is not concerned necessarily as to the stakes of what people are seeing. But when you start breaking into their normal broadcasting and saying that we have a government shutdown, partial lapse, all of a sudden they're like, man, that's a human trafficking problem. That's a huge problem that you're having, you know, pro-lifers getting squatted because they care about the sanctity of life. And that's and that's really why the cartel doesn't want these high stakes. They know that it is our chance to educate the American people and actually accomplish our policy objectives.

Yeah. So I got to ask you, every day we hit this topic, Russ, and I warn my audience, I don't try to pick topics that are demoralizing or depressing, but this is necessary. No one is doing what is necessary on the border. And Speaker Johnson secured any wins on the border in this latest capitulation to Chuck Schumer.

Zero. And he basically amounts to a white flag that he will be able to get anything done on the border in the next two weeks. Can you elaborate on that about a minute and a half for us?

I just I'm kind of speechless. I don't even have a response to that. So he's basically said, look, this is this I'm setting this up for the funding levels, but all of the policy objectives are still in play. But if the Democrats know that you're afraid of the policy objectives, they're just going to say no to your they're going to say no to all of their policy proposals. They'll just say no, we'll shut the government down. So if you're afraid on the funding, you're going to be afraid on the policy. And as a result, this is nothing more than a white flag to Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden that the House Republicans are not serious.

They are not in it to win it. And as a result, they will get nothing of substance. And important to remember, they're bragging about cuts to the IRS. That's nothing more than little pieces of candy they're throwing to the masses. It's not cuts, it's cuts in the bonus money that was given to them.

So there was this this is so smart. The bad guys, they said, OK, if we give 80 billion to the IRS, then in future negotiations, we can make it 60 billion instead of 80 billion. Therefore, they can feel as if they're winning. They can go back to their base and make it seem that way. Even though they're not actual cuts, they're not structural cuts.

They are minor adjustments in the overinflated bonus money that the Internal Revenue Service is getting. Russ, plug your organization. America renewing dot com at Russ vote. Would love for you to check out all the things that we're doing. Great. Excellent.

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So check it out mypatriotsupply.com. For us, just riff a little bit. Where are some of the most obvious places to cut? I mean the enormity of the federal budget. Walk our audience through how much are we spending, how much are we borrowing and then we always are told oh it's just so hard to cut spending.

Where would you begin? Sure, I want to just riff off your last line which you were explaining the way they they plussed up the money on IRS. It's their version of pumping and dumping which we would use in the in the market right. They intentionally go extravagant on a program knowing they can never spend that much money. They'll spend more than they would otherwise in the IRS but it's a future pay for for when they are out of power in one of the branches. Where I would cut is the woke and weaponized bureaucracy and so for for a long time you know republicans have done I think strategically the unsound thing which is go after the entitlements that there's a lot of people around the country that have invested in them and I think that's the wrong approach and we put forward in trillions of dollars in cuts to things that are the the agencies that are weaponized against them and that they are think of the Department of Education. We're not dealing with in teaching improved math scores or teaching how to read. We're talking about culturally responsive learning.

We're talking about applied critical race theory that you are pumping into our schools and you're turning them into a cultural revolutionaries both your teachers and your students. So it's not like we just can't afford this. It's actively harmful or in our foreign aid it's not that we're going to you know have the the next version of the Marshall Plan. No we are we're funding gay pride parades in Prague.

We're funding LGBT activists in Senegal and we wonder why these organizations these agencies these nations hate our guts. It's because we pump the sewage into their in their country or housing of urban development. You know we think about this fair housing network is there to make sure everyone can buy and sell in a particular neighborhood but that's not what it does. It's it's it is a network that's anti single-family homes and neighborhoods themselves and so if you go into Arlington County where I live which is very liberal do you know one of the main topics that is unites on a bipartisan basis?

It's these single-family home neighborhood policies that are designed to to ensure that those neighborhoods are blown up with these massive apartment buildings. So I want there to be a cultural debate on the ways that the agencies the bureaucracy that is woke and weaponized is now harmed is aimed in harming the American people. It's not that we just can't afford it anymore it's just that it's actively bad and we've never had that kind of debate. That's the debate that I've wanted to have over the last year we put forward an entire budget that balances in 10 and provides the specifics along the lines of what I've articulated. So can you also just mention I know you talk about the entitlements being put aside I don't like that term but you know things that people have paid into but the COVID relief stuff how much money is there still under the COVID relief packages in DC? You know it's hard to get true numbers but there are billions of dollars in fact they've just green-lighted the states and localities continuing to use that so it's certainly something that we need to strip but the Republicans have also been using it kind of like the IRS funding as part of their their pump and dump strategy which is to say that you know if we rescind that you know we don't have to make cuts elsewhere in fact Joe Biden that's one of the things that that Mike Johnson claims that he got a small win is they got another six billion dollars of COVID funding. The Democrats are largely okay with with giving that up why because their main strategic objective which should be what we are aiming to stop is to keep all of the funding at the agencies going at either the same or an increased clip and and that's why we're so focused like a laser on making sure that our cuts are to the bureaucracy because that's what they're trying to guard at all costs.

It's it's just the the reluctance to cut spending we are going to enter a permanent new normal of hyperinflation. Russ thank you so much. My pleasure thanks Charlie. Hey everybody Charlie Kirk here brand new year and a new year's resolution are here and I have one you should make join me in donating to preborn save babies by providing ultrasounds and be a hero for life this year starting today together during the sanctity of human life month we're going to save 35,000 babies to show the world that even if our government and our laws don't respect the unborn we do your gift to preborn will give a girl the truth about what's happening in her body so she can make the right choice what's better way to start this new year than to join us saving babies and $28 a month will save a baby a month all year long a $15,000 gift some of you out there might be able to do this will provide a complete ultrasound machine that will save thousands of babies for years and years to come it will also save moms from a lifetime of pain and regret so start this year right by resolving to be heroes for life call 833-850-2229 or click on the preborn banner at charliekirk.com that is the preborn banner at charliekirk.com so check it out join me in donating and make a year-end gift to help save babies i just made my gift in fact we're making another one before the end of the year check it out right now charliekirk.com click on the preborn banner there's some breaking news regarding ray epps we're gonna get to that in a second he pled guilty and is getting beyond the slap on the wrist why we'll we'll cover that in just a second but i i have to do this lloyd austin thing so lloyd austin goes in for elective surgery we don't know why we don't know what kind of surgery this was was it gender reassignment surgery was it transgender care we we don't know he won't tell us was it gastric bypass surgery was it lap band surgery was it a urinary tract infection but it did involve general anesthesia now i'm honored to run turning point usa when i had my wisdom teeth removed and i was going to be incommunicado for like six hours there was a whole chain of command that we established i'm gonna be not available my phone will be off call erica i'll be in the operating room i won't you know really be processing information you know this when you go under general anesthesia and it was this whole thing this guy is in charge of all the armed forces now technically joe biden is the commander in chief but he's the head of the department of defense he's the first phone call and then eventually a workup to to joe biden so it's not just some sort of you know luggage thief that is in the department of nuclear energy or whatever sam britain or whatever or levine this guy has real power real power so he goes in for some sort of surgery won't tell us what it is again it could be you know augmenting breasts or some sort of crazy thing who knows it's fashionable now in the department of defense and he so he received it on december 22nd and then complications led him to being taken by ambulance to walter reed national military medical centers intensive care unit so look i'm going to kind of take the gloves off here because this involves national security and some people say oh you know it's medical stuff hold on hold on first of all this guy is like 65 pounds overweight and we said that all along enough of this fat general stuff you're going to run the united states military at least look the part can we get 51 up here this is a cry and joke i'm not saying this guy shouldn't have any role in the military but what is that what are you a stormtrooper against covid this is him in indonesia some sort of darth vader again this guy has a girth you you'd think he's carrying twins and i don't say this is some sort of a joke i say this that it actually factors in and i look i'm not a fan of mad dog madas for a lot of different reasons say what you will that guy is as fit as a marine look at him he's like all right this guy runs five or six miles look at rfk jr we we had rfk jr in our show i encourage you to listen to our podcast it was a great conversation that guy is he's he's fit lloyd austin does that look like the best and brightest that we have now we don't know why he went in for elective surgery again elective surgery that's that's a very important thing it's not as if and it would be bad if that he just kind of had a stroke out of nowhere and we didn't know when it was christmas no no this he planned it he didn't elective surgery by definition is not necessarily life threatening it might be impending it might be something you have to do in the next month but he did not tell anybody then he had complications in regards to his surgery around the new year and got hospitalized when he had great pain austin then privately and secretly transferred authority to his deputy kathleen hicks on january 2nd but where was kathleen hicks she was in the caribbean do any of these people work she's in the caribbean and even hicks herself only learned that austin was not just in the hospital he was in the icu the intensive care unit the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff found out about austin's hospitalization on january 2nd again how are these people not talking every single day this goes to show i mean if you're vladimir putin by the way vladimir putin he's fit you say what you want that guy's got a good bmi vladimir putin is in shape he could run he could lift lloyd austin it's a joke lloyd austin needs my phd weight loss i mean this guy needs to go on a low carb no carb almost some sort of a restructuring life plan and some people say oh charlie you know stop being so mean this guy's running the military okay get in shape stop stop with it by the way we have this video i reacted to the other day daisy has this whole like fat acceptance thing is so bad for the country especially if you're running the united states military like get over yourself i mean joe biden is in better shape than lloyd austin not better mental shape but better physical shape so he so apparently the ultimate civilian authority under the constitution was kept in dark for additional 48 hours until the afternoon of january 4th praise god our nation wasn't attacked during this period of time praise god china didn't try to take taiwan i mean this is no joke i mean we should be thanking the good lord that while this overweight lunatic getting some sort of you know surgery that he won't tell us what it is which is really weird right he won't tell us i mean maybe one thing is like you know yeah i had elective surgery to fix a blocked artery in my heart i think some people okay they back off he won't tell us what it is he's like doubling down on the secrecy oh no hit the laws i don't need to tell you national security advisor jake sullivan alerted the president but the pentagon waited to announce the hospitalization until after 5 p.m on january 5th on a friday night news dump and a statement that clade the secretary had resumed his duties biden did not then speak with his defense chief until the evening of january 6 who is running this government exactly i mean that is an honest question joe biden who does not know where he is you have the secretary of defense in the icu for unknown reasons you got kathleen hicks in the caribbean literally in the caribbean where she was vacationing until january 6 so i i have another common question do these people not have daily conference calls i mean we're in more communication at turning point you're saying i am not kidding fact if i all of a sudden went dark in one of our group chats beyond shabat into mid sunday into late sunday somebody at turning point usa andrew or blake or ryan be like where's charlie he's been kind of quiet somebody should call erica and within 12 hours if i had an elect of surgery we would find out this this is so glaring on multiple levels who is actually doing work at the pentagon you can have a head of the department of defense just disappear and nobody knows do they not have some sort of daily five minute hey here's our threats you know sea lanes in china oh by the way we're financing a proxy war in ukraine here's how that's going israel is at war in case you forgot and american hostages are being held in gaza in case you forgot that's right american citizens are still being held hostage by hamas and you have the head of the department of defense go under for some elective surgery most common elective surgeries according to the trusty dusty internet cosmetic surgeries cleft lip repair no i don't think that's going to be his ear tube surgery tonsils probably not uh weight loss surgery he would be a prime candidate hernia repair undescended testicle surgery eye surgery for cataracts spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis or surgery for sports injuries probably not so third in command after lloyd is the chairman of the joint chief of staff the chairman of the joints chiefs of staff found out about his hospitalization on january 2nd but the white house the ultimate civilian authority under the constitution was kept in dark for an additional 48 hours the same day here is the kicker the u.s military conducted an airstrike against militants in baghdad so we got airstrikes and we got i mean this this is a very very dangerous combination you have three really dangerous things that are combining and i wish the third and i'll get the third will be the most obvious you have evil people who are incredibly stupid who are also unable to do their job so you have all three so they're trying to do bad stuff they're not even good at doing the bad stuff and they can't even do the bad stuff physically tony blinken didn't even notice these these are laws that may have been broken it is so incomprehensible the most incomprehensible fact is the deputy defense secretary kathleen hicks did not find out her boss was hospitalized until january 4th and she's on some bender in barbados or something we don't even know she's vacationing in the caribbean doing tequila shots or whatever kathleen hicks is doing she's getting drunk till 2 a.m meanwhile she's in charge of the entire u.s military and she had no idea it's like hey kathleen you're in charge like nope sorry doing a bar crawl in turks and cacos she's in charge of the greatest fighting force the world has never seen now you learn can we get a picture of kathleen hicks but by the way what island was she on what was she doing i mean again everyone deserves a vacation i totally understand that but she was not told why and then she remained on vacation she kept on vacationing in a foreign country she looks like a high school principal no offense it's fine great does this look like the menacing force that we need against the chinese communist party meanwhile she's sipping margaritas by the pool in the bahamas yeah let's get that picture up there again fine whatever terrific be nice if we knew if you were in charge and she kept that's the case i got to be honest that that that really is the most amazing part of the story so so kathleen hicks gets a phone call hey uh by the way um lloyd austin's been in the hospital for a couple of weeks uh you're in charge she has to make a decision do i keep vacationing or do i not nah i'm gonna keep vacationing nah i'm gonna keep vacationing is anyone running this military does anybody care i mean who's in charge here it's this is no longer a laughing matter this is an existential national security threat hey everybody charlie kirk here are you tired of not getting a good night's sleep well my friend mike lindell has created the perfect solution he didn't just stop at the pillow he also created the giza dream bed sheets made from the world's best cotton called giza these sheets are ultra soft and breathable yet extremely durable and for now a limited time you can get 50 off the giza dream sheets with prices starting as low as 29.98 these sheets come up in a variety of sizes and colors and have a 60-day money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty take advantage of this amazing offer go to my pillow.com and click on the radio podcast square and use promo code kirk at checkout you can also find deep discounts on all my pillow products including the my pillow 2.0 mattress topper and my pillow towel set that's my pillow.com promo code kirk i love my pillow and i surely hope you guys check it out don't wait any longer to get the best sleep of your life call 800-875-0425 or go to my pillow.com use promo code kirk support mike lindell my good friend and great american patriot remember the sale won't last forever go to my pillow.com promo code kirk i don't know for certain about ray epps there's something smells about it something doesn't feel right there is no evidence to suggest that i can say right here with 100 certainty that ray epps is a federal agent i can't say that we don't know that but there's something that just smells about the whole thing so ray epps has now been sentenced to one year probation and a 500 dollar fine meanwhile other people that have entered the capital and didn't touch anybody have received harsh sentences and blake is getting together other examples the new york times hates all white men except ray epps they wrote this article a new a trump backers downfall is the target of a january 6 conspiracy theory prosecutors recommended six months behind bars for epps so ray epps who we have on tape this is a fact saying that we should go into the capital go into the capital we have him saying that we have him in a text message i want to make sure i get my facts right but we have him in a text message saying something of something of the sort to a family member that i am responsible for this something of that variety i want to make sure we get our facts 100 crisp here and he got a less punishment than owen schwoyer infowars host who never entered the capital and got solitary confinement in a federal prison right now siaka masakai an amazing black patriot who poked his head inside of the capital for 10 seconds and walked out is facing years in prison this is cut 57 of ray epps play cut 57 we need we we need we need to go i'll say it all right we need to go in to the capital so he says it the night before on january 5th we need to go into the capital now amazingly some of the people then respond to him by saying fed fed fed and ironically and tragically the very same people that said fed fed fed actually ended up going into the capital and are now serving federal prison ray epps told people the night before to enter the capital he told people the day of to enter the capital he was in town to see trump speak he says but he wasn't at the speech he told people vaguely to leave certain weapons behind before we quote go in to avoid getting shot he was initially pushing one of the most he was initially pushed as one of the most wanted figures on january 6 and then he was removed from the website was he a fed we can't say either way period we can't we're not going to say positively or negatively we don't know we don't know but the idea that this is just a baseless conspiracy theory is a lie and now this slap on the wrist sentencing only is fuel to the fire of such foundational speculation they're pushing an actual lie about january 6 that this was an insurrection by trump he is one of the only people that we have on camera and the only person that i know off the top my head explicitly saying the night before that we need to enter the capital so they're trying to put donald trump in prison for incitement what about the guy that didn't even attend the speech that was almost acting like a field general this feels and senses we sense it's almost like a cover-up that if they did nothing it would be too obvious but if he pled and the right arrangements were made ray epps could get no prison time one year probation and a 500 fine so the most immediate important question is will every other january 6 defendant that is now facing the same sort of trials be treated similarly if they plead will they be treated the way ray epps was treated probably not because what we have ray epps doing on camera is far more suspicious and borderline incriminating than what some of these other people have been sentenced for trespassing interfering with an official proceeding ray epps is charged with a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct in a vacuum that's not an undercharge what everyone in jsex who didn't literally assault an officer should have gotten but instead only epps gets it nearly three years later this thing smells it smells it smells it smells thanks so much for listening everybody email us as always freedom at charliekirk.com thanks so much for listening god bless for more on many of these stories and news you can trust go to charliekirk.com