The Fall of Tim Walz

0:00My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam everybody. You've got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a turning point USA college chapter. Go start a turning point USA high school chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life. And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am. Lord, use me. Buckle up everybody. Here we go. The Charlie Kirk show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts,

1:02and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends and viewers. All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show hour two of our first show back in the new year. Never been so excited to see the calendar flip from 2025 to 2026, the new year. Lots to cover and we have, I think, the most important journalist from the state of Minnesota. And one of the most important journalists in the country, she did the fall of Minneapolis, which is truly important following the George Floyd riots. And she's a senior reporter from alpha news, Liz Colin from Minneapolis, Minnesota, or at least thereabouts. Liz, welcome to the Charlie Kirk show. It's good to see you again. How you guys happy new year? Good to see you as well. Thanks for having me a lot. I'm here a lot to talk about. Yeah, I mean, we we actually had reached out to you. I know Blake and you were talking about back and forth. You're in high demand lately on the Somalia fraud issue.

2:03And we did not know when we booked you that we were also going to be welcomed by the news that Tim waltz is deciding not to run for reelection. What is the story behind the story here, Liz? Yeah, you guys these last few weeks, been a bit of a whirlwind in Minnesota. You could certainly say that with news and politics, no doubt governor Tim waltz making it official. Actually, just about an hour ago here that he will not seek reelection to a third term as governor. There have been many political scandals on his watch. We've been detailing all of them, but this billion dollar fraud scheme seemed to be the last straw. In his case, nine billion dollars in all and counting. We now have multiple federal investigations going on here in Minnesota. And yeah, compared to mainstream media, I think we've been one of the very few is certainly the most prominent in the state of Minnesota criticizing the governor. We have been for several years with our exclusive reporting, but we've been showed up at that press conference today.

3:05Our photojournalist, which it's really difficult to even call it a press conference. You guys, but governor walls took no questions at all. Alpha News tried to get into the room, but we were told we were not on the list. So we could not the governor. It's been years now since they've even responded to our requests for comment on any story, but really just a bizarre situation. If any of your viewers were seeing this at all play out on X, you have walls coming off. I think quite angry. I think that's fair to say. He talked about how he was supposedly fighting fraud for his last seven years in office, which came off as a bit of a surprise to any of us paying attention, basically blaming Republicans and President Trump for all of this, referring to Nick Shirley's viral video, which got an awful lot of attention called that a right wing YouTuber. And Nick Shirley was breaking into daycares. We have that clip. Let's let let's play it real quick. Let's play 179. We've got conspiracy theorist right when YouTubers breaking into our daycares demanding access to our children.

4:12We've got the president of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongfully confiscating funds that Minnesotans rely on. It's disgusting and it's dangerous. Now, it comes to mind for me, Liz, is he can talk a big game there. He can say that yet. I feel like nothing confirms all of the theories and allegations going on in Minnesota more than the fact governor walls realizes I can't fix this in the 11 in the 10 months until the next election. I have to drop out to give us a shot in this race. That seems like the greatest confirmation of all that there's a gigantic scandal here. Yeah, I mean, I think like pretty much paying attention, it certainly seems that that way that with with what he's saying now, it's almost kind of opposite day, but we see that message it again and again from from the governor's office. But you have some interesting maneuvering happening behind the scenes. And this is something we've been monitoring for months now, even when governor walls announced in September that he would run for reelection for a third term.

5:18Many were very surprised by that with all of the baggage that that he carries in the state, but now it seems that it seems to be more and more truthful now. And this is something we were hearing months ago that Senator Amy Klobuchar will in fact be running for Minnesota governor and then you have perhaps some back room dealing going on that walls would then be appointed to her Senate seat. Because she is not up for reelection until 2031. So there would be a special election in 28, but walls would have some sort of swap out and until then this is all just sort of speculative at this point. But, but many of these Democrats, one could say that, you know, fraud has been happening on the watch of many Democrats here in Minnesota. It's been 20 years now since there was a statewide office held by a Republican in Minnesota. But they've been all very quiet. You did not see anybody really going to bat if you will for governor walls for these many weeks and months and sometimes you know that silence speaks louder than than anything else.

6:23So I, you know, this seems to be the first shoe to drop and this swap out ideas is fascinating because I could actually see that really coming to bear here. But the question then becomes where is accountability? So you've been doing the research and the investigations here, Liz in Minnesota, who is most responsible? Obviously the buck stops with the guy at the top, but it seems like this fraud has you have to have so many people turn a blind eye to allow the fraud to go this long, this large, this widespread, who needs to be held accountable next. Yeah, I think it's a great point, Andrew. In many ways this, this fraud is almost baked into the legislation that we see passed again and again at the state capital with these NGOs, these nonprofits that are formed. I'll just highlight some some recent reporting over at Elf news within the last few months, but a transportation company paid millions of dollars over what the Minneapolis school district was, was allowing.

7:23We find that these vans are either sitting for months on end or in fact they're driving around town without any passengers in them at all a Somali owned company several Somali owned companies working for the Minneapolis school district. Well, it turns out that there is some legislation passed in 2023 under a DFL trifecta so controlled by Democrats that basically 100% 100% of the reimbursement that is submitted to the federal government. We'll go to the district and those those companies and what are the monitoring systems put in place for these so called rides and services. This is all the sudden assigned to what they consider the homeless and highly mobile population in Minneapolis. So what do we see all of a sudden there's a 40% spike in homeless kids in Minneapolis. So when you really take a look at a lot of this, the math certainly does not add up. It has not been for years, but we continue to detail those stories over at Elf news from whistleblowers who've been trying to bring this to the attention of prosecutors of authorities for such a long time.

8:28I interviewed a recently just a TSA agent who detailed her time at the airport here how she would watch millions of dollars in cash and carry on luggage be flown out of MSP on a weekly basis by a couple of us Somali men sometimes the same sometimes different. And this was also corroborated by a former HSI agent who I then interviewed who talked about how again and again they would present these cases to the US attorney's office back then and there would be no prosecution at all, no charges very similar with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar we're hearing a lot about her again as President Trump continues to bring her up but marrying her brother the fact that there are questions if she's even a US citizen. But so much of this, you know, has been reported before and not by the mainstream media, the mainstream media is very complicit in Minnesota. I know you guys know that. Know that well with, you know, perhaps the focus being more on what they do not report than what they do and the Minnesota start Tribune Minnesota's largest newspaper is run by a former commissioner of governor Tim Walls.

9:39Yeah, the start Tribune is really just been exposed as a total. It's been so great where they've been like they initially said this is over you know this is over reacting there's nothing to see here and then as it becomes real they've had a pivot to actually we've been covering this for years we've totally talked about the it's very funny to see them squirm back and forth on this. Yeah, it's it's really it shows how important your investigations have been Liz and you know you I want to I wanted you on the show to make sure you know with Nick Shirley God bless him. We're very happy for Nick's the success he's having the virality of that video and what it's really unleashed nationwide second half of this hour going to be covering Washington Somali daycare fraud and other fraud in the state of Washington. It's important but you guys at alpha news have been on this for so long and you've been so good. Howdy Blake here you know in moments like this truth really matters the truth was important to Charlie so we want to share with you a new documentary that's caught our attention not because it's political but because it refuses to shy away from the questions that so many Americans are still asking it exposes the truth.

10:52Thank you doctor Fauci is a hard hitting investigative docu thriller from award-winning filmmaker Jenner first he digs through thousands of documents sits down with scientists intelligence insiders and whistleblowers and exposes what may be one of the most significant public health cover ups of our lifetimes. This film isn't about scoring partisan political points it's about transparency accountability and the courage to follow the evidence wherever it leads if you've ever wondered what really happened behind closed doors this is something you need to see for yourself. Angel Studios was the only platform willing to release it and that's because you not Hollywood decide what gets made join the angel guild today at angel dot com slash Charlie Kirk become a member and stream thank you doctor Fauci today. We have Liz Collins standing by and it's a before we bring her in I want to play this clip of President Trump just went to just went ham on Ilhan Omar and the Somali pirates play cut 183.

11:58Somalia Somalia pilots pirates but what they are doing is instilling money from the American taxpayer and every one of them should be forced to leave this country including Ilhan Omar who's a total group and we're not going to pay it anymore we're going to have walls go pay we're not going to pay them. Waltz needs to pay Trump just I mean we can dream we can dream Liz Trump I think is echoing the sentiment of a lot of Americans that we feel where we don't understand why we had to take in hundreds of thousands of Somalians from a culture that doesn't share our values doesn't assimilate very easily or seamlessly and now we find out they're defrauding us. What what can be done and if you've investigated this as far as deportations there's a new report Liz just broke I just saw it so I don't expect you to know about it that even local Hilton hotels and Hampton ends in the Minnesota or the Minneapolis area are declining ice agents and DHS officers from getting hotel rooms because they're the assumption is they're working to deport Somalis what what can be done in that regard.

13:09And what are people on the ground saying you know I actually did did see that report and I was able to actually ride along with ice just a couple of months ago and this is how deep this this all runs you guys I think this story is a good example. But I accompanied them on a ride along for a news story and they talked about just the growing frustration they have with Minnesota how difficult their job is because you have so few counties in the state that cooperate with ice so instead of doing these pickups at jails and prisons in Minnesota instead they have to go out into neighborhoods where they are met by these activists and in fact the star tribune was has a live reporting feed where they go ahead and blast out where ice is going to be next so this has been going on now for months in in Minnesota but we went out. Yes, they actually are basically promoting this where ice is going to be so they can be met by activists but during our ride along we picked up a former Minnesota state employee who was being paid six figures by this by the state had worked for two different agencies and turns out was a convicted felon and was was hired anyway and now faces deportation.

14:24And that was a story that we documented for health news but but again you you see this kind of at every turn sort of this radical leftism that has taken hold in many agencies and you know I think that you know that that's a perfect example of something that has been playing out here as well. It's really interesting Minnesota used to just be this very let's say it was probably one of the best run blue states it was a desirable one and you look at the map and. We well know that people are fleeing California fleeing Illinois fleeing New York but actually there's a lot of domestic out migration out of Minnesota now people they can sense that it's going south I wanted this is a bit of a swear but I thought you might have some thought on this it just seems like every program in Minnesota very quickly can become this feeding frenzy for fraud I know you guys have a new paid leave law that just came into play they added to their own they added their own payroll tax to the state on top of what you pay for Medicare Social Security for paid leave. And you're eligible for it if you are self employed you can join into it you can get a maximum of 20 weeks of family or medical leave.

15:29And so it seems to me like this is going to obviously present people an opportunity to incorporate a self employed business declare that they're paying themselves a certain salary feels like code and then you yeah and then you go on you go on your leave for long covid or whatever your family members sick or you have any one of your four wives infinite possible claims and you can get a map. And you can get a maximum of 20 weeks of leave a year $1,400 a week is what the state will pay. So that's 28,000 a year. Am I reading this right Liz? Yeah no you're absolutely right Blake Blake and that's what I was talking about just sort of how this is baked into the legislation. In fact people are actually calling on just a forensic audit overall of the Minnesota state budget at this point. I think there are five or six federal investigations now ongoing in Minnesota and I think they will be taking a look at a lot of this. Republicans certainly have been raising alarms surrounding this new law that just went into to affect January 1st. You had governor walls in this so called I guess press conference today talking about how he's going to be back out in front of cameras tomorrow talking about how great this new law is.

16:34And there are many questions about fraud already thousands of people have been approved for this and speaking with small business owners, whether it's a covid or other mandates that were put in place on small business owners in Minnesota. They have expressed serious alarm, the Chamber of Commerce, many departments came out against, you know, passing this but but again this has been a. Democrat controlled state for such a long time you're right that tens of thousands of people have fled the state at this point. But but governor walls in the last seven years it's really hard to understate you know how how much has happened here, whether it's defunding the police a lot of these mandates on on small businesses education scores really in the tank at this point. There are thousands of businesses closing in Minnesota in addition to people moving out and we've always been known you know for for years as a welfare state you know the good people of Minnesota whether it's Lutheran social social services Catholic charities taking people in.

17:40The part certainly has been different and the evidence has pointed to that it's about a hundred thousand they say Somalis in in Minnesota you know covered cases where they will be on the stand saying this is our culture they consider themselves. Business people and this is on roll if they're saying this it's just it's totally different than anything we've seen before Liz you're quite the trooper I would get out of Minnesota if I were you but you're there you're covering it for us and I suspect we're going to get a lot of material from it. In the weeks to come thank you for very much for coming on thanks Liz thank you guys. Everybody balance of nature's whole health system supplements are the perfect resolution for the new year. If you want to get in a better place in your health journey you need to check out balance of nature and their whole health system. Bounce of nature's whole health system supplements are versatile two scoops of fiber and spice mix easily into drinks adding a warm. Aromatic depth you can also open three of your fruits supplement and mix the powder into a smoothie or sprinkle three of the veggie supplement over a savory dish.

18:47Bounce of nature's whole health system supplements feature ingredients like. Facilium, husk, flax seed, cinnamon, turmeric, fenugreek, mango pineapple, wild blueberries, shiitake mushrooms, spinach, kale, cayenne pepper and more supplements include 47 ingredients of 100% whole fruits vegetable spices and fibers perfect for your daily routine. Balance of nature is an amazing amazing way to supplement your health journey to make sure you are as healthy as you can be in 2026. This new year is locked in 50% off for one year when you subscribe to the whole health system supplements is a preferred customer go to balance of nature dot com again balance of nature dot com 50% off for one year when you subscribe to the whole health system supplements as a preferred customer do it now. I'm excited to have our next guest on this Jonathan show he is an amazing journalist who is part of TPSA front lines team doing the sort of gorilla on the ground journalism that the mainstream news media refuses to.

19:54And now Jonathan has I mean, he's done amazing work for turning point for years, but he is uncovering the extent of Somali fraud in the state of Washington. Minnesota has gotten a lot of the attention, but this fraud in this tendency by specific community in specific kinds of states expands well beyond Minnesota we've heard Ohio and Jonathan is on the ground and Washington exposing it there. Welcome to the show Jonathan show front lines TPSA. Hey guys, thanks for having me. So give us the the rundown here that so this fraud is has been going on for who knows how long. And you are uncovering it and it appears that instead of like we're in Minnesota they are we've Tim Wallace is saying he's not going to run for reelection. We have a new socialist mayor of Seattle Katie Wilson who's promising to probably make things worse tell us give us the lay of the land. What's the state of things in Washington? Well, first of all credit to Nick Shirley who busted this story wide open in Minnesota.

20:59And again this morning Tim Walls finally saying he's no longer going to run for governor. Shirley's coverage had a lot to do with that. That's what also inspired though our coverage here in Washington. As soon as that story you know broken Minnesota last week independent journalist cam Hague B along with citizen journalist Kristen Magnuson and I decided we needed to start looking here. Magnuson busted an entire list identified more than 500 Somali run daycares what we did was simply process of elimination. We went through the inspection histories anything with red flags serious violations. We decided to go after and we did the dividing conquer approach so after just only four days now and nearly 40 Somali daycares from Seattle to Kent to Auburn to see tech all over South South King County. We've uncovered what appears to be possible signs of Somali daycare fraud in at least four cases.

22:00The daycare was officially registered with the state of Washington but when we knocked on the door either no one came to the door and only spoke to us through a ring camera and said no no daycare here. Never registered or the person ran us off the property saying no daycare go away. Wow. And you guys are definitely I want I want the audience to understand just how much you guys have ruffled feathers in the state of Washington throughout 144. This is NBC national NBC is posting about your guys is reporting saying that you know essentially trying to downplay who you are far right you know YouTubers independent journalist so called are now harassing local daycares because they happen to be Somali. Is that the truth you hit you heard Tim Walts saying something similar. Jonathan with you know basically calling him a conspiracy theorist and a right wing. YouTuber trying to downplay the significance of this work what what what what are you what are you doing that's getting under their cross so much Jonathan well does seem like that seems to be the playbook.

23:08Initially at least for these democratic elected officials and also the left wing corporate media it's pretty much denied dismiss and then tried to discredit. But at the end of the day we have official public documents you reference Katie Wilson the new mayor of Seattle just a few days ago we went to her inauguration and she pretty much admitted that her social media post right after the story broke where she called. All the people knocking on the doors of the Somali daycares to figure out whether actual fraud was happening she referred to them as extremist influencers and when he confronted her and I confronted her she admitted she was talking about me. So we're clearly living rent free in her head but again all joking aside the fact that a sitting official there's not only includes a mayor of Seattle this talk i'm talking about the Washington state governor. But Ferguson along with attorney general Nick Brown instead of calling for a robust investigation into the Somali daycares they're not playing defense they're pointing fingers at President Trump.

24:13They're calling us harassers so again I think there's clearly a coordinated effort going on right now we have that clip Jonathan of the new she was just sworn in this morning right a couple days ago. Okay so she's just sworn in she's an act when we say she's a socialist she's actually a socialist she she's proud of this because herself she's a part of the democrat socialist of America she narrowly won her election over the incumbent there was just a you know I guess more of a traditional Democrat. Here's 166 Seattle mayor Katie Wilson calling Jonathan Cho and Cam Higby extremist influencers which is it's a bold claim 166. Everyone has a place in Seattle this is your city that means that you belong here too as you put it extremely influencers have a place in Seattle. Well I asked her she said in her speech that everybody has a place in Seattle and I said Katie you said everyone has a place in Seattle does that include it as you put it extremist influencers and she looked at you and said well there's one standing right there.

25:20And that she's calling me an extremist influencer yeah I again I triggered that post apparently and then I asked her if her administration will investigate Somali daycare fraud and she literally started pushing me away. All right so staff ushered me away. So it's all on camera we simply stood in line we just wanted to ask her basic questions but Katie Wilson and her administration afraid of questions basically yeah terrifying questions. That's amazing good for you Jonathan. I mean you know a Minnesota is getting all the attention but Washington is an absolute hotbed of extreme actual extremists on the left. They're going to ruin this that is a state that is a proud capitalist past I mean you've got Boeing you've got Starbucks you've got Microsoft Amazon. This is a proudly capitalist state and it's kind of got this people don't understand this like the Seattle area has this kind of Scandinavian heritage as well like very intrepid entrepreneurs very self sufficient people.

26:21It's getting completely annihilated from you know the I would say from progressive left but the tax base the massive inflate influx of foreigners. The traffic in Seattle is horrendous now by the way but it's just I shocked at how much fraud we've explored we've discovered already in Minnesota but how much we're about to discover in Washington state. And the question that I then have Jonathan is that instead of investigating it they're showing you away what is the reticence with actually investigating this fraud. Great question you've got to ask them and I want to be very clear you know people like me can't hate be Kristen Magnus and all the other citizen journalists who've been digging. It's because the Washington State Department of Children Youth and Families the actual agency get this that not only funds these Somali daycares but is also supposed to investigate the daycares well they're not doing their job.

27:23I mean we've reached out to DC YF numerous times now they're not returning our requests for comment I called them several times their voice mailbox is still full. So the best part of this is that DC YF also on the web page put out a statement basically advising daycares on how to respond to all the people making inquiries but there's no place at all on the website right now to make complaints about suspicious Somali daycares. That's by design yeah it does seem that way and that's exactly what the Washington State GO piece at Jim Walsh Travis Couture two state representatives now also leading the charge here trying to look into what's actually happening they've gone as you know so far to say this is essentially a kickback scheme. We've also uncovered that a lot of these Somali daycares have donated to Democratic candidates not conservative Republican candidates but Democratic candidates so it's this vicious cycle that they're alleging so again we are at the very early stages of this investigation.

28:23In fact Nick Shirley is a friend of ours we've invited him he might come here we've talked to other journalists across the country we are urging more eyes on this state. You know it's shocking and I want to get back to this this idea I mean I lived in Seattle went to the University of Washington and when I was there it was like I said proudly capitalist this was a people that knew how to run it was kind of like Minnesota where it formerly used to be this sort of well run blue state it function there was order. Kind of the old cachailles to talk about this all the time with the old Democrats at Ranch Chicago they knew how to run a city yeah they were Democrats but it was sort of like the old school version what now you're getting whether it's New York or Minnesota you've got a basically a communist running Chicago now you've got a communist. We'll just keep it what it is a socialist running with Seattle I mean this is a really scary trend that we're seeing socialist Seattle communist socialist running Chicago socialist running New York I don't know what the heck is going on Minnesota but they're basically trying to give away every single dollar that comes into the coffers and it is going to play out exactly how we know it's going to play out where rampant fraud rampant fleecing of the tax

29:43taxpayers and residents that are productive are going to flee the state. It was just there's there's no you mentioned this in Minnesota New York's move into Florida and other places Illinois's filling up Phoenix I can tell you that this the city's full of Chicagoans that have fled the state have you if you felt that already and just what kind of in the last couple years Jonathan and now it's going to get worse in Seattle are you seeing businesses starting to flee the state are you seeing people flee the state. Absolutely the Exodus has already begun just look at the data and the numbers downtown Seattle the commercial real estate the vacancies are at all time high you have property values starting to drop you have people now you know for example Amazon and meta they were going to expand in Seattle but instead they're they're moving to nearby Bellevue which is only 15 minutes away which is safer which is just pro police and is simply a better on city so what's happening now again. In Washington the concern is that all the patriots who were common sense have now left and there's no one left to fight and maybe it is all by design that the GOP you know continues to you know past these insane policies frustrating common sense folk and the folk were going to challenge them they're no longer here to do that so again a lot of theories happening right now but I'm seeing again the data and I'm seeing people now voting with their feet and that's what's happening in Washington.

31:10You see that in California too it's like if all the people would have just stayed and fought in California you know we probably could have one back out honestly I mean it's a bittersweet you know pill to swallow I don't think we could have won it back I do I come I mean if you if you go back to the 90s I mean people are starting to flee the state California in the 90s I mean it's we're talking millions of people over the last 25 years 30 years you should see how many votes we lost Wow, I mean, yeah, fair enough. I, you know, call me, call me, you know, conspiracy theorists if you want, but I actually, it is a problem, though, because in, you know, states like Arizona get benefited from Texas, Florida, a lot of, a lot of red states are benefiting. Jonathan Cho, I know you are midway on this investigation. Please come back when you conclude it. We want to, we want to platform it, showcase it, make sure the world knows. TPO State Frontlines. Jonathan Cho, great American. Thank you. Thanks for dropping the story this week. Take care, guys. This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of YRIFI. It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to

32:12endorse us. His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come. Now, hear Charlie in his own words, tell you about YRIFI. I want to tell you guys about YRIFI.com, that is Y-R-E-F-Y.com. YRIFI is incredible, private student loan debt in America told us about $300 billion. YRIFI is refinancing distress or defaulted private student loans. You can finally take control of your student loan situation with the plan that works for your monthly budget. Go to YRIFI.com, that is YRIFI.com, do you have a co-barrower? YRIFI can get them released from the loan. You can skip a payment up to 12 times that penalty. It may not be available in all 50 states. Go to YRIFI.com, that is Y-R-E-F-Y.com. Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted student loans, it can be overwhelming. As a private student loan debt, so many people feel stuck. Go to YRIFI.com, that is Y-R-E-F-Y.com, private student loan debt relief, YRIFI.com.

33:12In the meantime, Blake, you went up to the Great Frozen North and you survived. Yes, I did. For the break, what'd you do? I read that hitty of strength. We kept talking about it with the ad, and that was the only one I hadn't read, so I went around. Hillsdale. Is it? Yes, it's very strange. It's not exact. It's a dystopian novel, like the others in that list in 1984, but it's a lot weirder. It has King Arthur related elements that pop up halfway through. Weird. Very weird. Well, I now need to take the Hillsdale course. Exactly. You might need to read the Prelude books too. It's a little less weird if you, it's the end of a trilogy. If you're reading it as your only book in that trilogy, you've never read the first two, it's got to be one of the weirdest books you've ever read. I stayed in Phoenix, and I shot off thousands of dollars, I didn't pay for them, but we went to this house, and we got there with the kids, and they had literal fireworks with the mortar shells, you know, like five inch and seven inch.

34:12Chris, New Year's fireworks? New Year's. Yeah, New Year's. Yeah, I mean, there was other houses doing it. I think it's fairly common. I thought you were going to say like thousands of dollars worth of ammo, like you went right with it. Well, that sounds very Arizona. That would have been very cool. But we just fired them off. It was pretty fun. The kids enjoyed it, and I will tell you, I had a legitimate celebration. Is that probably the first that apparently it's very illegal in Arizona. I didn't do it. Well, I did it. You're throwing all the blame on your own children? I was, it was my child. Very suspicious. Yeah. And the house that we're at. I can neither confirm nor deny that this story I've just told is true, but it's true. And it was, but I will tell you, I had a legitimate celebration. I was so ready for 2025, 2025 to be over. It was just a terribly tragic year, and we missed Charlie, and it's time to turn the page and have a new start. It really was. So revisiting this topic, Thomas Massey, throw up at 185. He tweeted out, wake up, mag up, then his whale is not about drugs.

35:15It's about oil and regime change. This is not what we voted for. And to that, Blake, your, your response is, I think it's very funny that Trump comes out and basically says he's like, we did this to take the oil. We're taking all the oil from Venezuela, and then everyone's pointing and saying, don't be tricked. This is about oil. Well, I mean, I do think that there, there is a little bit of this going on. I mean, I'll be honest, I think there's a little bit of, we have the legal precursor with drugs and narcotrafficking, and we have the indictments and he's an illegitimate person that's, you know, but this is about kind of, I would say this is about two things. I'm going to say one that is provable, one that is a bit conspiratorial. One that's provable. This is about the messy business of empire. And people don't like to hear it, but America, yeah, we're not an empire and sort of a classical Roman sense, but we are an economic behemoth and we are a hegemon. And there are threats to the hegemony, right? There is the bricks nations.

36:16There's Iran, Russia, China that are working to forge inroads in the Western hemisphere, gain access to mental rights, gain access to friendly dictators that will allow them to use their countries as play things. And you've got, by the way, people, people don't understand how insidious the Cuban intelligence arm is really they, they, they have massive presence in the United States, but also throughout South America. It's their one export. Well, let's not, let's not go to, it's their one export. It's their one export. Okay. They're insidious. What have they done? All right. Just hear me out. All these countries that have a presence that are not friendly to the United States in Venezuela. And here we have an opportunity to depose a dictator. You have legal ability to do it and there is a larger hemispheric rationale economically to do it. Okay. Secondly, and this is where I'm going to get your real eye rolls more so than the Cubans. There is a story and I would be remiss if I didn't bring it up that suggests that Trump

37:20is because you've got these voting systems with the origin stories in Venezuela. Yes. This is going on on the internet. So if you don't want to hear it, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe, you know, that's fine. That's your, you're, I'm not saying I endorse it. I'm just saying people are saying many people are saying smart, mad, and dominion have origin stories. It, or at least one of them does in Venezuela and the ideas that President Trump is doing this actually is some sort of 3D chess move to find out the truth about the 2020 election. Good luck. You, smart, mad, smart, mad, I don't, I hope that's not the case because I don't think if an American troop gets killed and it turns out that they did this, I would go after dominion. I think that would be a catastrophic error. Listen, it's smart, mad, apparently. Anyways, so the point is that is a one of the theory circulating is that there are, you know, Emerald Robinson, I think, was a one of the people that has reported on this, just saying House and Habit did a whole thing on it.

38:22I saw it was going around. People need to be aware. That would be bad. I don't think that they're going to, you know, state this publicly, but I do think that, you know, President Trump starts posting on true social about the 2020 election right after Maduro gets captured. What I think is most interesting, well, he always posts about the 2020 election. I think what's most interesting to me is that is the take that they told Trump, President Trump that we're doing this for oil and the math doesn't quite work out in that way. Like Venezuela has a lot of oil, but it's not very good oil. It's not as profitable to extract as America's own oil and also since we're a net energy exporter, we don't necessarily love way lower oil prices. It's more complicated, but that they told President Trump this to kind of sell him on it because he does like that more mercenary attitude. He like, you know, with Ukraine, where they're saying, okay, support Ukraine, but then we'll get this rare earth's deal. You get this more straightforward thing out of it or how he's always said we should have taken it racks oil. They almost need to sell him on any foreign intervention by saying, oh, yeah, and we

39:25can take the oil too. And then he gets more. You did see that. Well, they're doing it for the reasons you state of keep out China or boxing Cuba or spread democracy or what have you. We got an email from Mike. See, apparently Danny's telling me all that your emails are pro Trump anti-massy. So great. It says great job, Andrew and Blake, please with Trump's actions in Venezuela long overdue, tired of the years of talk from weak politicians, executing a fake war on drugs, the cartels and the third world thugs behind it. Let this be a lesson to Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba. And I do think there is a point here, you know, and you saw Marco Rubio said it. Well, for those of you in the world that still want to mess around with America and you think that Trump's just a man of talk and press conference, that's not it. He is a man of action and there will be consequences. I still want to make sure that this plays out the right way. We don't get overextended that the transition can happen to a friendlier government to the United States. We have an actual real thriving Venezuela. That would be great if and if there's a lot, there's a lot between now and then it's, it's good.

40:25If it goes well, it's bad if it goes badly. I know.