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Speaker 1: If a state office is partnering with a political activist

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Speaker 1: group to register students to vote, does that blur the

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Speaker 1: line between government outreach and political organizing. So you've got

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Speaker 1: some top Republican officials in Indy. They are deepening their

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Speaker 1: ties with the conservative activist group Turning Point USA. Secretary

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Speaker 1: of State Diego Morales he announced a voter registration partnership

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Speaker 1: with Turning Points Youth arm Club America. He could not

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Speaker 1: race to the podium fast enough. Governor Mike Brown was

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Speaker 1: going to make an announcement, and he was beat by

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Speaker 1: his own Secretary of State. With that announcement, this partnership

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Speaker 1: is going to host voter registration drives on high school

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Speaker 1: campuses and also promote the state's Hoo's Your Hall Pass

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Speaker 1: program that lets eligible teams serve as poll workers. Now,

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Speaker 1: supporters are going to say that this is encouraging young

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Speaker 1: people to participate in elections.

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Speaker 2: Sure, you got critics.

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Speaker 1: They're going to say it looks like the government picking

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Speaker 1: sides in youth political ecosystem. But what I think this

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Speaker 1: is doing is showing, for whatever reason, because they need

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Speaker 1: the voters. They want to get people encouraged because they're

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Speaker 1: polling numbers are not so hot. The Republicans, they're making

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Speaker 1: an effort to at least meet these younger voters where

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Speaker 1: they actually are and put boots on the ground for

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Speaker 1: their cause.

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Speaker 2: What I love about this is the liberals and the

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Speaker 2: Democrats are losing their mind for a lot of the

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Speaker 2: reasons that you just mentioned, taking a clearly politically affiliated

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Speaker 2: group like TPUSA and bringing them into the school systems.

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Speaker 2: But all this is is the Republicans taking a page

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Speaker 2: out of the Democrat playbook. Talk to any person who

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Speaker 2: can be intellectually honest with themselves, and I think we

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Speaker 2: can all agree that our entire education system has been

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Speaker 2: infected by liberals and their ideology or is Elon Musk

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Speaker 2: likes to call it the woke mind virus, all the

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Speaker 2: way from elementary to high school to our universities. And

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Speaker 2: that's what the Democrats have spent the last twenty or

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Speaker 2: thirty years doing. We're going to turn our education system

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Speaker 2: into this woke liberal incubator and then send all of

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Speaker 2: those children out into the real world. And then all

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, the Republicans say, hey, we can play

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Speaker 2: that game.

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Speaker 1: Too, guys, and they lose their mind.

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Speaker 2: We can play that game too, and Democrats are like,

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Speaker 2: what you do and you're not allowed.

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Speaker 1: To do that.

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Speaker 2: You're not supposed to do that. And I think what

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Speaker 2: Braun and the Republicans are doing that is so smart

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Speaker 2: here and again this is just from a political analysis standpoint.

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Speaker 2: They're using this under the guise of voter registration. Who

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Speaker 2: can possibly be against spending money that gets more people

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Speaker 2: registered to vote? When if you lay that out pretty

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Speaker 2: much all Americans are like, yes, it's a good thing

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Speaker 2: that people get registered and they go and vote. But

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Speaker 2: think about it. If I'm setting up structure and organization

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Speaker 2: to get people to register to vote, and I do

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Speaker 2: it under the TPUSA banner, what type of kid do

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Speaker 2: you think is going to approach that tent or that

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Speaker 2: booth and get themselves registered to vote. Do you think

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Speaker 2: there's going to be a lot of liberals that are like,

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Speaker 2: you know what, I wasn't registered to vote, but I'm

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Speaker 2: going to go to that TPUSA tent and that's where

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Speaker 2: I'm going to say. No, of course, it's probably going

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Speaker 2: to be kids that are predominantly have some conservative views

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Speaker 2: or at the very least have a positive image of

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Speaker 2: turning Point USA, and those are the type of people

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Speaker 2: that are going to end up registering to vote throughout

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Speaker 2: this whole problems.

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Speaker 1: You're right turning point USA and also Club America. They

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Speaker 1: do promote conservative values, although their websites don't explicitly say

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Speaker 1: that they're connected to the Republican Party. So what you've

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Speaker 1: got here, you're getting some young people registered, You're getting

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Speaker 1: them involved in elections. That's a good thing, and conservatives

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Speaker 1: have every right to bring their ideas to the mix

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Speaker 1: as well. As you have mentioned, for years, Democrats have

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Speaker 1: dominated in youth outreach, So now this is creating just

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Speaker 1: a little bit of balance. It does make sense, and

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Speaker 1: you're also strengthening the civic participation instead of just complaining

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Speaker 1: about turnout, because that's what has happened for years. Is

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Speaker 1: Republican well, we just we just don't have the youth,

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Speaker 1: We just don't have the kids. And now they're making

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Speaker 1: an effort to do that here in Indiana. Either way, though,

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Speaker 1: it does also highlight something bigger, and that's that a

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Speaker 1: lot of modern politics, it's not about just passing the

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Speaker 1: laws anymore. It's about who shapes the next generation of

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Speaker 1: voters first, and Republicans here in Indiana are reaching out

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Speaker 1: to this group to try and get those voters first.

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Speaker 2: And you know, it's so amazing what Charlie Kirk did

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Speaker 2: and TPUSDA did because you just talked about it. You

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Speaker 2: talked about how Conservatism Republicans have struggled for decades to

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Speaker 2: get that youth vote, and that was really kind of

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Speaker 2: the first time we saw any conservative affiliated group really

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Speaker 2: move the needle with youth for that at all. It

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Speaker 2: was really TPUSA in the twenty twenty four election that

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Speaker 2: was a massive driver that. And to be honest, it

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Speaker 2: was the decades worth of work that Charlie Kirk did

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Speaker 2: in advance of the twenty twenty four election building this

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Speaker 2: entire network, all the visits to the college campuses he did,

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Speaker 2: and building this organization out. And again I go back

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Speaker 2: to the Democrats on this. It is so funny because

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Speaker 2: they hate politics in schools, but only when it's not

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Speaker 2: their politics. That's the only time they hate politics and schools.

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Speaker 2: I remember during the General Assembly last year, there was

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Speaker 2: that vote that was passed that was going to make

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Speaker 2: school board elections partisan. Before then, you didn't have to

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Speaker 2: declare Republican, Democrat or independent if you were running for

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Speaker 2: school board. Will they passed it last year, and now

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Speaker 2: you do, and Democrats lost their minds. We shouldn't be

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Speaker 2: bringing politics into schools. Oh really, you've brought your politics

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Speaker 2: into our entire education system for the last thirty or

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Speaker 2: forty years. But now that this is happening with TPUSA again,

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Speaker 2: you don't like it because it's not your politics.

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Speaker 1: Another thing that is happening with Turning Point USA is

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Speaker 1: that Donald Trump has appointed Erica Kirk to the US

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Speaker 1: Air Force Academy Board of Visitors. This is an advisory

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Speaker 1: panel and it oversees the academy's morale, discipline, academics, final answers,

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Speaker 1: and some other issues. And supporters are going to say

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Speaker 1: that this is about honoring Charlie Kirk's legacy, continuing his work.

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Speaker 1: You've got critics who are going to say this looks

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Speaker 1: a lot like political loyalty translating into a government point

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Speaker 1: t position. The issue that I have with this is

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Speaker 1: that part of this board that oversees the finances, they

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Speaker 1: send reports directly to the Secretary of Defense Pete hag Seth.

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Speaker 1: So it's a very powerful oversight role and it is

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Speaker 1: tied to one of the most important military institutions in

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Speaker 1: the United States. And while honoring Charlie Kirk is nice,

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Speaker 1: it does bring up some questions about her resume.

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to fill this position. Look, I'm not

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Speaker 2: going to defend Trump on this appointment. I can't imagine

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Speaker 2: any logical argument that could say Erica Kirk deserves to

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Speaker 2: be on this Air Force board. Trump caught a lot

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Speaker 2: of flak for Democrats as it related to the Kennedy

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Speaker 2: Center board. He puts some people on there that looked

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Speaker 2: like they weren't qualified on paper, but Trump knew that

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Speaker 2: they would just vote the way he wants them to

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Speaker 2: do and do the things he wants them to do.

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Speaker 2: And I'm sure he feels the same way with Erica Kirk.

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Speaker 2: And again, so hypocritical we just talked about with education,

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Speaker 2: So hypocritical for Democrats to come out here and say, no,

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Speaker 2: you can't do that, that person's unqualified. These boards have

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Speaker 2: always been nothing but political appointees. You put people on

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Speaker 2: these boards that are going to do what the president

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Speaker 2: wants to do, regardless of their qualification. So I'm not

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Speaker 2: going to defend Trump for these appointments. But I'm also

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Speaker 2: not going to let the Democrats get away with trying

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Speaker 2: to attract tack Trump on this because this is just

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Speaker 2: the way Washington politics have been played for a long

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Speaker 2: long time.

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Speaker 1: Well, it does show you that whichever political coalition happens

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Speaker 1: to be in power at the moment, they're going to

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Speaker 1: have the oversight and the power and these big, high

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Speaker 1: profile positions, and that's a lot of power. And it

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Speaker 1: just shows you that more and more parts of American institutions,

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Speaker 1: like universities and agencies and now military academies, they're becoming

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Speaker 1: extensions of the country's political culture wars. This is just

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Speaker 1: another area that is being tapped into the culture war.

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Speaker 1: Our military, the academy