October 13, 2024 • 53 mins
Nick Begich, Republican candidate for Alaska's sole U.S. House seat, guests this week on STAND. Our conversation covers various topics, including Begich's campaign, his stance on key issues, and the upcoming election. We discuss the importance of Alaska's resources, election integrity, parental rights in education, and abortion policy. Begich criticizes his opponent Mary Peltola's voting record and emphasizes the need for strong Republican representation in Congress. The interview is followed by a discussion between Kelly and Denali about abortion and related issues, offering perspectives from different generations.
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Episode Transcript
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Kelly Tshibaka (00:08):
Welcome back to Stand where we help make courage
contagious.
I'm Kelly Tshibaka, your host,Alaska's chair for the Trump
campaign, former US Senatecandidate in Alaska, and I'm
joined today by my amazingdaughter and co-host, Denali
Tshibaka.
This is your first time joiningus, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
I hope you nail it and slay it.
I think that's a word you said.
I'm not allowed to say oh mygoodness.
(00:28):
So here we go.
It's going to be a rollercoaster.
You can be one of our standoutsby joining us at standshoworg.
We take a stand for freedom,truth and government by the
people, so join us there.
You can see our social mediaand check out our YouTube
channel, where we've got all ofour amazing episodes, and today
we have got a wonderful show infront of us.
You've already heard himlaughing, because he's got
(00:51):
nothing but joy in his heart.
We have our friend and ouramazing Alaska House candidate,
Nick Begich, soon to be ourcongressman.
He is our favorite not just ourfavorite, but Alaska's favorite
in this election, running forhouse.
The election is in just a coupleweeks, the first week of
November.
If you have not planned to vote, make a plan to vote, whether
that is through an absenteeballot or going to the polls.
(01:13):
Voter turnout is so important.
The most important thing aboutthis race in particular is that
this Denali, if you didn't know,is one of the top 10 races in
congress there are.
Uh, I'm going to just pop quizyou because you are a graduate
in political science.
How many House seats are up forelection every two years.
Half of them, no, all of them.
435 seats are up and there are10 top races and Nick Begich's
(01:37):
race is one of them.
So all eyes in the nation areon this race.
Nick Begich, welcome to stand.
His website isalaskans4nickbegichcom.
Nick is spelled N-I-C-K Begich,B-E-G-I-C-H nickbegichcom.
Nick, we are so happy to haveyou here.
Welcome to the show.
Nick Begich (02:02):
Thanks.
Thanks for having me.
It's great to be back on Standwith you.
Kelly and Denali.
Welcome to the first podcast.
I'm sure we'll be first of many.
Yes, we do have a reallyimportant race, there's no doubt
about it.
I mean, there's 435 seats inthe House and Alaska only gets
one voice because we have asmall population.
Big state, small population.
So it's really important thatthe person that we have
representing Alaska in the Houseshows up for work, represents
(02:25):
all the people of Alaska andrepresents the factors of Alaska
that make us unique.
You know we're a resource state.
I think that's something thateveryone who's been in Alaska
for longer than five minutesknows and understands.
We have a lot of potential as astate and it's really important
that that single voice that wedo get in the House represents
(02:45):
to the other members, to theother 434 members, just how
important Alaska is, not justfor us but for them, for the
entire nation, for the peoplethat they represent in their
districts.
And you know that's what I wantto do on behalf of Alaskans is
represent the opportunities ofthis state so we can open it
back up and play that importantrole that we should be playing
(03:06):
in national security, energysecurity and mineral security.
Kelly Tshibaka (03:09):
You said that really well.
A lot of people in the UnitedStates what we call the lower 48
affectionately don't have agreat appreciation for the fact
that nearly all the fish theyeat in their restaurants come
from Alaska waters, that thefrontline of national security
for our country is actuallyAlaska, we are closest to Russia
and China and North Korea andthat we have to have the most
(03:31):
military defense in our countryis actually located at our
shores if we're going to havestrong defense against our
biggest adversaries.
So much of what happens inAlaska for energy security and,
I would say, energy dominance inour country actually is
dependent on what we do withAlaska and the Biden
administration and what we'dcall the Harris administration,
(03:52):
because it's not amisunderstanding or secret to
Americans anymore that Bidenreally hasn't been in charge.
The last four years the Harrisadministration has really
targeted Alaska for a shutdown,with more than 60 executive
actions and orders targetedagainst us.
So one of the challenges I thinkfor you as congressman is going
to be that one voice in a seaof 435 standing up for Alaska.
(04:15):
It's also a challenge the factthat your footprint
geographically is two and a halftimes the size of Texas and
getting to all of yourconstituents.
Meeting everyone andcampaigning is a challenge.
The last time we had you on theshow, you had another really
strongly funded and supportedRepublican in the race.
That person has since droppedout, but I wanted to toss the
question to you and say at thispoint, with only a couple of
(04:35):
weeks to go, what do you see asthe strongest challenges to your
race?
Nick Begich (04:41):
Yeah, you know, at first let me, just before I get
into the challenges in this race, let me just give all the
credit to Nancy Dahlstrom.
She chose to get out of therace and this is one of the one
of the strange things aboutranked choice voting and I think
we've all learned this over thelast couple of years is that
when you have more than oneperson on our side of the aisle,
side of the aisle, on theRepublican side of the aisle,
(05:06):
you end up eroding one another'svotes because a lot of voters
about 30%, it turns out won'trank a second choice.
So this gives us an opportunityto consolidate support,
contrast the policies on my sideof the aisle, on the Republican
side, with Mary Peltola'srecord, and what we know is that
when we have that opportunityfor a direct debate, we win
(05:27):
Because at the end of the day,we're a red state, we lean
conservative and that's whatreflects our values as Alaskans.
But there are challenges inthis race.
There's a great deal of moneythat's being poured in to our
state from outside.
We see that in the rankedchoice voting ballot initiative
scenario, where you've gotsomething close to $10 million
(05:50):
coming in from outside of Alaskatrying to tell Alaskans how we
should vote.
We're seeing the same thing inthe congressional race.
90% of the money that MaryPeltola has raised has actually
come from outside of Alaska, andhere again, you've got people
outside Alaska trying to dictateto Alaskans who they should
send to Washington DC.
(06:11):
And look, there's a substantialimbalance.
Right, more than half of mymoney is coming from in-state
and again 90 percent of hermoney is coming from
out-of-state.
She's raised close to $10million.
We'll raise probably $2 million, and so there is.
There's a major challenge whenit comes to funding campaigns.
There's also a challenge that'sexacerbated by the fact that
(06:34):
there's a funding imbalance inwho's telling the truth, and
Mary Peltola has been, and hercampaign, her allies on her
campaign, have been spinninglies about my record and
misrepresenting her record inthe Congress.
You've heard, probably at thispoint, many statements about her
saying that she was responsiblefor approval of the Willow
(06:56):
Project.
What we know is that Joe Bidenhimself, weeks after approving
that project, was asked by areporter as he, interestingly
enough, stood next to JustinTrudeau of Canada, and someone
said why did you approve Willow?
And what the president said waslook, I approved Willow because
my lawyers told me that if Ididn't approve Willow, I would
(07:18):
lose in court and then Iwouldn't be able to do what I
really wanted to do, which wasto take millions of acres of
land offline from from Alaskafor future development which is
exactly what they did.
Kelly Tshibaka (07:29):
So we got a portion like what is it?
60 percent of the WillowProject, which you know when we
do grades in our house.
That's a D Willow project, andinstead we lost all of ANWR and
all of NPRA, which is where thereal oil fields are, and if Mary
wants to take credit for that,well then that is on her.
(07:50):
We lost all of our oil futurefor a D on a small project.
Nick Begich (07:55):
You're 100 percent right.
I mean she she wants the creditfor Willow, but she doesn't
want the credit for all of theother 66 executive orders
targeting Alaska and growing.
They're not done yet.
And what I've told folks is, if, god forbid, harris become the
next president I don't believeit's going to happen, but if it
did happen, what we've seenunder Biden is just a preview of
(08:16):
what we would see under aHarris administration.
And I'll tell you look forfolks out there that are worried
about the future of the stateof Alaska.
You know it matters who weelect for president.
It also matters who we senddown to DC on our behalf,
because the entire House islooking for that one voice from
our state to understand what doAlaskans want?
Kelly Tshibaka (08:36):
What do we want to?
Nick Begich (08:37):
see for our state, and what we've seen from Mary
Peltola is a mixed record atbest.
On resource development, right,she wants to take credit for
Willow, but what she'll nevertell the public I will, but
she'll never tell the public iswhen she had an opportunity to
stand up against those executiveorders.
There was a bill that movedthrough the House Resources
(08:59):
Committee called the Alaska'sRight to Produce Act.
It wasn't a bill that shestarted, it was actually a bill
introduced by a member fromanother state for our state's
benefit.
She co-sponsored a dearcolleague letter.
She sends a dear colleagueletter out to all of her
(09:19):
colleagues on the Democrat sideof the aisle and she says look,
I want you to vote no on thebill.
So she urges people to vote noon her own co-sponsored bill and
then doesn't vote yes or noherself.
She votes present, and that'snot a record we can be proud of.
It's a record that reallyupsets the other people on her
committee and I know thisbecause I've spoken with them
(09:40):
personally and it does notrepresent the political will of
the people of our state, and sothat's another challenge that
we've seen through.
The campaign is an obfuscationof Mary Peltola's true record in
the House and that record hasbeen abysmal for Alaska.
Kelly Tshibaka (10:00):
That's right, we had a little bit of a blip in
the internet there.
So just to summarize that'sright, we had a little bit of a
blip in the Internet there.
So just to summarize, theAlaska Rights to Produce Act
Paltola co -sponsored it andthen sabotaged it in her caucus,
(10:22):
went into the Democrat caucusand wrote letters and told it's
important that we had this flipin the president's endorsement.
So before the president hadendorsed the other Republican
that was in this race, NancyDahlstrom, and then she backed
out, and then the president hasnow I mean, we call him the
president President Trump hasnow endorsed you.
We'd like to hear the storyabout how that happened.
How did you get the presidentto change his mind and come
(10:44):
around and endorse you?
Nick Begich (10:45):
Well, I'll tell you what this seat is so important
for making sure that we retainmajority control in the House,
and I think people across thecountry, including the president
, recognize just how importantthat is.
I've been a supporter ofPresident Trump since 2016.
I was proud to go to hispresidential inauguration in
2017.
I've donated to the president.
(11:06):
I've even spoken at Trumprallies in the past, so the
president and his team know thatI support him and have
supported him for some time.
I did receive a phone call fromPresident Trump, and what was
amazing about this phone callwas that it happened the same
day of that second assassinationattempt.
Same day of that secondassassination attempt.
(11:28):
He called me yes, he called meafter that attempt, late in the
day, and we had a conversationfor about 10 minutes.
And I said Mr President, you'vehad just an incredibly eventful
day.
And he said you have no idea.
And he said but we wanted toend it on a positive note and
tell you that you're and I won'tdo a great Trump here.
But he said we're going to do avery big endorsement.
It's going to be very big,you're going to love this
(11:49):
endorsement.
And and he did he delivered.
You know, we had a greatconversation, though, about the
state of Alaska, and I use thatopportunity to talk about just
how much Joe Biden and KamalaHarris, who seems to be the one
running the show right now hasactually targeted Alaska.
So we talked about those 66executive orders, and he asked
(12:11):
me specifically about the KingCove Road, about the Ambler
District Mining Road, about ANWR, about NPRA.
These were on his mind mind,and what he wanted me to tell
the state of Alaska on hisbehalf is that day one, he's
going to get to work repealingthe executive orders that have
targeted the state of Alaska.
(12:31):
That's why we need President,one of many reasons why we need
President Trump in office.
As Alaskans, he was the bestpresident our state has seen in
our lifetimes, for our state,and we need him back so that we
can open up the state andprovide the resources that our
country so desperately needs,whether that's minerals, energy
(12:54):
or, as we mentioned earlier,national security.
So these things are front andcenter for President Trump.
I believe he's going to getback in office.
I know that he's going todeliver on his promises, as he
did in his first four years, andI'll tell you he has a
deep-seated love for Alaska, andhe made mention of that several
times in our call.
Kelly Tshibaka (13:15):
Yeah, if we want to vote Alaska, we definitely
want to vote President Trump,and I appreciate hearing that
story.
It's a really great story.
It's definitely consistent withwho I know him to be.
So we're on with Nick BegichAlaskansForNickBegichcom.
We're going to take a break.
Stand by, we'll be right backwith Nick.
Denali Tshibaka (13:36):
Begich, welcome back to Stand.
You're on with Kelly and DenaliTshibaka, and our guest today
is US House candidate NickBegich.
So, Nick, as you well know,election integrity is a really
big deal to us in Alaska up here, and there's been a lot of
concerns raised with it,especially because recently the
(13:57):
Alaska Supreme Court ruled thatEric Hafner, a felon currently
incarcerated on the East Coast,never been in Alaska, never been
in Alaska and he's somehow onour ballot as one of the top
four finishers and he's aserious contender for House.
Kelly Tshibaka (14:11):
Yeah, compete against you.
He could be our next UScongressman.
Denali Tshibaka (14:14):
Yeah, so I wanted to get your thoughts on
that, on the Hafner Affair, andalso what your thoughts are on
increasing election integrity inAlaska and the rest of the
United States, should you win.
Nick Begich (14:26):
Yes, these are great questions.
First of all, I was surprisedto learn I remember the first
time that I learned a few yearsago that in fact you can run
whether you're a resident of astate or not.
For Congress it really doesn'tmatter.
And we see, because of rankedchoice voting, we see more and
(14:47):
more people from outside ofAlaska registering to run in
Alaska.
They're not residents and inthe case, as you point out, of
Eric Hafner, he's never lived inAlaska, never been to Alaska.
But there's nothingconstitutionally that prevents
somebody from doing that as longas they live in the district
before they take a seat inCongress.
So what he's doing isconstitutional.
(15:09):
It's a little odd and I thinkin most cases around the country
people see that they recognizethat that's not truly reflective
of who they are.
You know, typically people aregoing to be electing people that
are from the district thatthey're in and certainly from
the state that they'rerepresenting.
Denali Tshibaka (15:27):
But yes, so.
Nick Begich (15:29):
Eric Hafner did make the ballot, and this is one
of the strange wrinkles ofranked choice voting.
You had some folks drop off andhe received enough votes that
he became one of the top fourfinishers in the end in the
general election.
And you saw what the Democratsdid.
They took this all the way tothe Supreme Court because they
didn't want to see a secondDemocrat on the ballot, and it
(15:52):
wasn't anything to do.
It was interesting.
It wasn't about whether EricHafner was a resident of Alaska.
It wasn't about really whetherEric Hafner was a felon.
It was about for them whetherthey had a second Democrat on
the ballot.
And they acknowledged.
They acknowledged in theircourt filings for the first time
as a party that a second personfrom their party could create
(16:16):
problems for their preferredDemocrat candidate.
And so finally, we have anadmission from the Democrat
Party in Alaska.
Ranked choice voting isproblematic for them.
We know it's problematic forothers, and so that was progress
, I think.
But look, at the end of the day, they're going to have to
(16:36):
defend their record.
Mary Paltola has got to defendher record.
She has not been forthcomingabout which presidential
candidate she would like to seein the president's office in
2025.
And so Eric Hafner has, andthat's one of the interesting
things about running electionsyou get to find out who people
(16:57):
really are and what they believeand what their positions are,
and, from what I've understood,eric Hafner is a strong
supporter of Kamala Harris, andI assume that he's giving some
Democrats an alternative choice.
Kelly Tshibaka (17:08):
That's right.
She said she was open tosupporting President Trump
because obviously PresidentTrump's going to sweep the state
of Alaska and she has notcommitted to supporting Kamala
Harris.
She's since backtracked on thesupport of Trump because she got
such backlash for it.
However, I think you're rightthat when she's in DC, mary
Poltola is a far-left Democrat,but when she's in Alaska, she
(17:30):
has to play moderate to right ofcenter because that's what her
constituency is, and so we'reseeing that same flip-flopping
that's really hurting KamalaHarris right now with the base
that would otherwise support her, and I've also seen the polls
that show Eric Hafner has a lotmore support in Alaska than he
should, and I agree with youthat this jungle primary that
(17:53):
has come in with ranked choicevoting the problem is that it's
taken us away from protectedprimaries where the parties
actually got to screen and vetcandidates.
So we have these charlatansrunning that have no screening
or vetting, and we know a goodnumber of Republicans there's
been media coverage on this whowent and voted for Eric Kaffner
to put him on the ballot so thatit would weaken the Democrat
base and quite likely give you avictory, in the same way that
(18:16):
we know that there was a run onthe Senate candidate in 2022,
who was the Hollywood actress.
All of her donations were fromoutside.
She never got a penny from anAlaskan because she was here
posing as an Alaskan with a fakename and a fake Alaska address
to try and win our Senate seat,and that's what happens when you
have these jungle primaries andthis ranked choice voting.
(18:37):
That actually doesn't representAlaskans at all.
But it'll be interesting to seewhat happens with this.
As you said, this wrinkle andrank choice voting could
actually play in our favor,where Republicans have actually
gotten together on this, if youwill, and have said let's just
treat this as a normal primaryand we are consolidating the
base and choosing to drop out,and I'm really happy about the
(18:59):
choices that we made in thiscongressional race and instead
put one candidate forward, andit'll be really great to see
that the will of the people isactually reflected in the choice
of the election.
Denali Tshibaka (19:08):
But, Denali, you had another question right,
I did Absolutely so.
Speaking of Mary and how poorher representation of Alaska is,
I wanted to ask we've noticedthat she's missed approximately
40, 45 percent of the votes thatshe's supposed to show up for
in Congress.
She's sabotaged bills thatshe's put forward.
She's clearly not doing what'sbest for Alaska while she's down
(19:28):
there in the DC swamp and Iwanted to ask you how do you
plan on making up for what'sessentially two years of
representation that Alaska haslost?
We have one House seat andwe've basically lost two
critical years to pick up ourstate and turn things around for
us.
So how will you make up forthat, Should you win?
Nick Begich (19:49):
That's a great, great question, you know.
Let me just start by sayingthere was a survey that came out
this week from WalletHub, andWalletHub did a survey on the
hardest working states in thecountry and Alaska was number
two behind North Dakota.
And when you look at thenumbers more closely, you see
(20:09):
that actually Alaska is numberone in terms of hours worked per
worker, right At 41 hours aweek on average, so number one
in the country for hours worked.
And we have a representativeright now that is often not
showing up for work and thatdoesn't really represent the
hardworking people of our state.
You know, the hardest workingpeople in America are not being
(20:32):
represented by someone who'sworking hard, and so there is
going to be a lot of work to bedone to catch up.
Over the last two years and whatI've done in every opportunity
that I have I mentioned theopportunity with President Trump
to speak with him about theexecutive orders targeting
Alaska.
I've spoken with Speaker MikeJohnson, I've spoken with House
Majority Whip Tom Emmer and I'vehad conversations extensively
(20:55):
with Steve Scalise, the majorityleader in the House, about this
issue, and I've told them to aperson look, we need to not just
push back against the executiveorders.
I want President Trump torepeal these orders 100 percent.
But we have to do more, ok, andwhat we need to do is we need
to lock in Alaska's right toproduce its resources into law.
(21:18):
So there are opportunities inthe Congress.
Budget reconciliation is thefirst major opportunity for us
to find as many of thesepriorities that we can that will
have a budgetary impact.
That would pass what's calledthe Byrd Rule in the Senate, so
that we can move this throughbudget reconciliation and lock
in more tightly Alaska'ssovereign right to produce its
(21:42):
resources, and so that's thenumber one priority that I have
for Alaska, going down to DC, isto work with the Republican
conference, the Republicanmajority in the next Congress,
to lock in Alaska's ability toproduce so that that pendulum
doesn't swing so far for ourstate every time that a Democrat
gets into office and decidesthey want to turn us off.
Kelly Tshibaka (22:05):
It's a really good point.
It seems, even when it islocked into law, there's
executive orders that overturnit.
But I really like the way thatyou just captioned that we have
a hardworking state representedby a congresswoman who's hardly
working, and that is a problembecause it's not going to do us
well.
We're just going to have towork harder to make up for
what's not being done or how thegovernment overreach is
(22:28):
absolutely oppressing us up herein Alaska.
But speaking of oppression, itfeels like the young generation
feels particularly oppressedbecause they cry about it a lot,
and I know that Denali justexperienced a lot of that in
college.
Denali Tshibaka (22:42):
Oh yeah, I mean , I even went to a conservative
school, just graduated fromTexas A&M, gig'em, aggies,
gig'em.
But one of the things I reallynoticed down there, even being a
political science major, was itwas really, really difficult to
get any of the Republicansthere to say, oh yeah, I lean
right.
They were super secretive aboutit, always like, ok, well, I
mean, like I'm not for Kamala, Iguess I would vote for Trump or
(23:05):
conservative as a point ofshame.
Oh yeah, it was almost like asecret message kind of thing.
Like, oh yeah, I lean right,wink, and it was so interesting
because you know the Democratsare running around campus with
the blue hair and theBiden-Harris t-shirts and vote
Beto and all of this stuff, andI wanted to ask you is Basically
You'd be one of the youngermembers of the House.
What are your thoughts on this?
(23:27):
Why do you think the youngergeneration feels so repressed to
say I am a Republican, and howdo you think you could lead by
example to change that?
Nick Begich (23:36):
Boy, I love that question because you know
there's so much pressure putonto people through mainstream
media sources and what we'veseen and interestingly enough,
we've seen the Democrats payinfluencers, social media
influencers on TikTok andInstagram and other social media
platforms to promote theirmessages.
(23:58):
These are paid actors, paidinfluencers who are going out
into their target demographicsand presenting a message to the
youth, and it's not surprising.
But it is disappointing to seeDemocrats resort to this because
they recognize their ideas arefailed ideas, their ideas don't
(24:18):
have facts on their side andtheir ideas require deception in
order to be sold to the public.
And that's what they do.
And so they put a lot ofpressure on folks through those,
through those indirect methods,to try to influence public
opinion.
But I think what happens andI'll tell you, I've known many
(24:39):
people, many young people,friends of mine, who when I was
younger they kind of leaned leftor they identified sort of more
with the left side ofphilosophy they get their first
paycheck.
Hey, wait a minute, whathappened to all of this money
that I've made?
Oh well, it had to go to thisbucket and that bucket and this
(24:59):
tax and that tax and prettyquickly people start to lean a
little more conservative becausethey recognize that they're not
getting their money's worth.
The government's taking thatmoney and what are they doing
with it?
What benefit do they see?
And so I think when peoplegraduate and they hit the real
world and they start to have tomake tough decisions about
(25:20):
budgets and about how muchthey're going to have to work in
order to pay for the lifestylethat they were hoping to have,
those things start to get peopleshook loose of some of the
indoctrination that happens evenin a conservative university.
You went to Texas A&M, I went toBaylor down the road, I mean, I
was at a conservative schooltoo, but I could see, you know,
(25:42):
the same trend lines that you'redescribing happening even then.
So I can remember going downand visiting the campus here a
number of years ago and seeingBeto O'Rourke signs on that
campus and I was very surprisedto see it.
But yet Texas remains aRepublican state.
(26:03):
Ted Cruz is going to win thatstate again, and I think the
reason is because when weencounter real life, we get out
of the collegiate bubble and westart to have to work and build
our own families and do thosethings we recognize.
Actually, these policies on theleft don't work for regular
people.
Kelly Tshibaka (26:19):
Yeah, I think that that's right, and one of
the things we're doing isencouraging our kids to speak up
now because, as I've told them,there's a lot more people in
your classes who think the wayyou think and they don't know
how to articulate it and theydon't have the courage to.
They don't know that when theysay something, there won't be
any responses back, and so oneof the easy ways to speak up is
(26:39):
just to simply ask questions,and if you ask questions, you'll
be surprised to see that theliberal indoctrination is really
only one layer thick Well, andthe amount of people that come
up to you after and go listen.
Denali Tshibaka (26:51):
I wasn't going to say it, but I totally agree
with you.
Kelly Tshibaka (26:54):
That's right and the professors often don't have
professors and teachers oftendon't have an answer beyond what
they were trying to just drillinto people's heads, and so it
starts to unravel really quickly, which I think is a good way to
start.
Well, this has been a greatconversation with Nick Begich.
We're going to pick up on theother side of the break and talk
about really interesting policyconversations.
Policy means the things thataffect our pocketbooks, so let's
(27:17):
pick up with that.
Alaskansfornickbegichcom,you've been on stand with Kelly
and Denali Tshibaka and you canfind us at standshow.
(27:42):
com Denali’s first show.
Denali, you've been doingfantastic.
Why?
Thank you, mom?
Yeah, and we've talked a lotabout economics because you are
starting out life just havinggraduated from college.
Yep, how has bidenomicsaffected you?
I?
Denali Tshibaka (27:56):
don't like it.
I want Trump back.
Kelly Tshibaka (27:59):
Nick Begich, let's talk about the economy,
because you've got really greatpolicy positions on this.
How do we get the economy backin the four years that Trump
would be president when you'rein Congress?
Nick Begich (28:10):
There's so many things that need to be done.
Let's just go through a listOne interest rates need to come
back down.
Interest rates are far too high.
What happened was that theFederal Reserve, in attempting
to address a hot economy,decided that interest rates,
which is their old standby,would be the mechanism, the
lever that they would pull inorder to slow things down.
(28:32):
The problem is that the root ofour issues wasn't low interest
rates.
The root of our issues was thefact that the government was
spending too much money andprinting money in order to do it
, and so the Fed accommodatedthat, blew up their balance
sheet to historic levels inorder to finance this excess
(28:53):
government spending.
And all that extra moneystarted flowing through the
economy, and as the velocity ofthe economy picked up, it heated
the economy up too much.
What they needed to do wasreduce the size of their balance
sheet, reduce some of theliquidity occurring in the
economy and keep interest rateslow, and so, instead, they made
a policy mistake, and a lot ofpeople have paid for it,
(29:16):
especially young people, right?
Young people who are saving fortheir first home or who are
taking out those student loansat high interest rates, and so
this high interest rateenvironment penalizes youth far
more than it penalizes olderAmericans who've already locked
in their mortgage rates at lowrates and what we've seen is
(29:38):
that they're just not moving.
People aren't moving out oftheir homes, they're just
staying where they're at,they're locked in at a 2% rate,
saying in fact they can't affordto move.
So mortgage payments.
Here you have young people.
I've met them all over thestate.
They say, look, I've savedmoney for my down payment but
now I can't afford the housepayment because it's up 60%
(29:59):
because of these interest ratesspiral that we can't get out of
as a nation.
We've seen this in Japan.
Their currency has devalued 30percent in the last 18 months
(30:22):
because this same set ofpolicies that we're pursuing
today they pursued 20 years agoand they're paying the price now
.
And it impacts our ability tomaintain the American way of
life if we abuse the privilegeof being the world's reserve
currency.
If you go back in time and youlook, we weren't always the
world's reserve currency.
(30:42):
There was Great Britain andPortugal and France and Spain,
and these nations made the samemistakes that we're making now
when they lost their reservecurrency status.
So we have an exorbitantprivilege in having the world's
reserve currency.
If we spend more money thanwe're taking in over time we'll
(31:03):
lose that privilege and theAmerican way of life will suffer
.
Denali Tshibaka (31:08):
So I tell people go to your closet.
Nick Begich (31:10):
Go to your garage, tell me how much of that stuff
was made in America.
There's going to be a fewthings, but there's not a lot.
And the reality is the peoplein these other nations are
trading their labor and rawmaterials for our dollars.
They value our dollars quiteliterally more than they value
that labor and those materials,and so we make a trade.
(31:30):
Well, if we don't have thatability to make that trade, a
lot of the things that we enjoyin this country will not be
available to us in the future.
Kelly Tshibaka (31:39):
Yeah, that's right.
So well, speaking of so, it'smore than go ahead.
That's good.
Speaking of things spiraling,another thing we've noticed is
spiraling, according to reports,is IQ rates.
IQ rates are dropping, yes, anda lot of that comes back to our
education system.
What's your take on parentalrights and education?
It seems like this is a bigconcern across the country.
Nick Begich (32:01):
It's a huge issue and you know this is a big issue
.
In our specific campaign, MaryPeltola voted against a bill
that would ensure that parentshave some just fundamental basic
rights when raising their kids.
We trust the public schoolsystem to educate our kids, to
protect our kids and as a parentof a 12-year-old I do.
(32:23):
I put a lot of trust in theschool system to do that.
I'm not there in the classroom.
I've got things going on.
Parents all over the state.
Many of them are two-incomehouseholds.
They don't have time to watcheverything that's happening
inside that classroom.
So there's a lot of trust thatgoes in to the schools to ensure
(32:44):
that those kids are being takencare of and they're being
educated properly.
Well, this bill would simplyjust say look, as a parent, you
have the right to know what'sbeing taught in the classroom,
what pronouns are being used torefer to your child when they're
at school, what books areavailable in the school
libraries but you're paying forit.
(33:05):
And what right does the statewhen I say the state, I'm
talking about the federalgovernment or government
generally what right does thestate have to stand between you
and your child?
Kelly Tshibaka (33:22):
It's almost like turning a public school into a
prison when that happens, thatwhen they go into school you
lose all rights to them and theylose all rights to you, and I
don't think we want to turnpublic schools into prisons or
children into inmates.
Nick Begich (33:37):
Yeah, you're.
You know what You're right.
The truth of the matter is andI want to be real clear it's not
all educators, it's not mosteducators, it's a handful of
educators that are using thatprivilege, abusing the privilege
that's been given to them, totake time in a classroom that
should be dedicated to math,science, reading, writing,
accurate history.
They should be using that timefor those things, not using that
(34:00):
time to indoctrinate childrenin the latest Democrat political
fads, and that's what we'reseeing the classroom become in a
few instances, and it's not forthat purpose.
And parents need to know thatthey continue to have the right
to raise their child the waythey see fit, not the school
system.
(34:21):
And so she voted against that.
She also voted againstprotections for women's sports
in Title nine, and this was ourlate Senator Ted Stevens, one of
his priorities.
He was a big part of the reasonwhy Title IX advanced in the
Congress and was signed into law, making sure that women are
competing against other womenand not men in their sports, and
(34:45):
this is universal.
When you look at theinformation, you look at the
data, most moderates,conservatives and even Democrats
agree that protecting women andwomen's sports is really
important.
But Mary Peltola voted againstthat and it's very surprising
because when you see her ads,she talks a lot about rights and
women's rights and freedom, andyet she's taking those freedoms
(35:08):
and those rights away withthese actions.
Kelly Tshibaka (35:11):
Well, when we talk about the school context,
we're not talking about grownwomen like me, which I do have
an issue with that we're oftentalking about girls, little
girls, and you know, having hada couple of girls you're sitting
next to me, you're grown now,but I've got a little one at
home.
I'm not okay with boys and menbeing in the locker room with
her pretending to be girls.
(35:32):
That's not okay.
It's just never okay, and sothat's what we're talking about.
It's a major policy differencewith major real-life
consequences that result inmajor harm.
So, speaking of things dressedup as freedom, let's talk about
one of the major policydifferences that seems to be
really contentious, and that'sthe issue around abortion.
And there's this whole ideathat's come up.
(35:53):
It just enrages me in thepresidential and vice
presidential debate, thisconcept that Democrat leadership
has not supported abortingchildren up to the time of birth
and after they're born.
And I just want to toss thateasy softball pitch to you on
what Mary Peltola has actuallyvoted on this issue.
Nick Begich (36:13):
Yeah, you know, you saw it.
For those who watched the vicepresidential debate, I watched
it as well.
Tim Walz tried to dodge thisquestion and suggest that his
bill in Minnesota did not allowfor late day of abortion.
It does.
It does allow for that, andeven further.
(36:35):
It allows for a physician towalk away from a baby that's
born Um their position is anyabortion is a right to a
successful abortion.
Kelly Tshibaka (36:46):
So if an infant happens to be born alive, they
do not support the infant's bornalive act, which is a separate
patient on a patient table.
And they absolutely abandonedthe Hippocratic Oath of you know
first, do no harm, and theyinstead let this living person
stay there to die and walk.
Nick Begich (37:07):
And that's so, folks.
I mean that's just wrong.
I mean I think that's somethingeven for folks who believe in
abortion rights.
That's wrong.
And I mean I think that'ssomething even for folks who are
, who believe in abortion rights, that's wrong.
And most Alaskans agree.
When you look at the data, 26percent of Alaskans believe that
that's OK and the rest say no,it's not OK, right.
So the vast majority ofAlaskans, even in one of the one
(37:29):
, in one of the most pro-choicestates in America, believe that
that's wrong.
And Mary Peltola voted for that.
She voted for that.
She supports abortion all theway up until the moment of birth
.
And folks, these are humanbeings.
These are human beings.
They can live outside the womb.
This is clearly a person.
(37:50):
And for Mary Peltola to takethat radical position, you know
it flies in the face of whatfreedom really does mean.
Individual liberty goes down tothe person and in fact, we have
to protect our most vulnerablethe most, because they don't
have the ability to speak forthemselves.
But that's a human being.
And for Mary Peltola to takethat extreme position, it's just
(38:12):
.
It's out of step with wheremost Alaskans are, where where
most Americans are, but, evenmore importantly, with what's
right, what's truly right.
Kelly Tshibaka (38:22):
I think one of the ways Denali has successfully
communicated this to herfriends is actually explaining
what this means a baby who isbeing born and delivered and
coming out normal deliveryprocess and taking its first
breath that they can terminatethey would say, terminate that
life and the way that they dothis for people who have never
actually studied abortion.
(38:43):
There's two ways abortions aredone.
The one is you stick a needleinto the child's head and you
suck out its brain.
A nine-month-old baby is toolarge to do that.
The other is you dismember itlimb from limb, so you take a
little scalpel knife and thisway it would have to be much
bigger and you would cut offthis baby's limbs, shoulders and
legs and then ultimately itshead, as this thing's coming out
(39:04):
.
In order to end, the quotefetal tissue.
But this is a live person.
Denali Tshibaka (39:09):
You literally are blending babies.
When you do that, right, it'shorrible.
Kelly Tshibaka (39:13):
Decapitating and dismembering a child in order
to, in the name of having aright to a successful abortion a
right to an abortion is a rightto a successful abortion.
So, as this person is beingborn alive, you are giving these
doctors and these patients theright to dismember another
person, and that is what MaryPeltola and, to be clear, all
the Democrats in the House votedfor this last session, and so I
(39:35):
think that's a major policydifference between you and Mary
Peltola, right, mr Begich?
Nick Begich (39:40):
It's a huge policy difference and I'll tell you in
most of most of the countriesaround the world, particularly
in developed nations, thepractice you just described is
is 100 percent against the law.
Kelly Tshibaka (39:51):
It's illegal to be considered a human rights
crime.
Nick Begich (39:55):
That's right.
Kelly Tshibaka (39:55):
Yeah Well, I appreciate you being on today.
Thank you so much, Alaskans,for NickBegichcom.
Nick needs all the support thathe can get because he is up
against a fierce dark moneyoutside funding battle against
Mary Peltola and all of theoutside groups that are
supporting her, and if we wantthis person in Congress.
This is not just a cry forAlaskans, but I know that a lot
of people outside of Alaska arewatching this show.
(40:17):
Please support him.
Alaskansfornickbegichcom, thereis a very, very narrow majority
in the House At times.
This last session's been downto one person.
This could make all thedifference in the world.
Alaskansfornickbegichcom, we soappreciate you having on the
show, Nick, and we wish you allthe best in this upcoming
election.
Nick Begich (40:34):
Thank you so much.
Thank you for sticking withthis podcast.
It's so important for people tounderstand the issues of the
day from a conservativeperspective and the good news is
we've got the facts on our side.
We've just got to be willing tohave the courage to take a
stand.
Get out there, tell our friends, tell our neighbors, have those
conversations with family.
Stand, get out there, tell ourfriends, tell our neighbors,
have those conversations withfamily, because, again, the
(40:55):
facts are with us and whenpeople understand the facts,
they'll find out they'reconservatives too.
Denali, great job on your firstpodcast.
Thanks for letting me be yourfirst guest.
Kelly Tshibaka (41:04):
Thank you, Nick.
Thank you, Nick.
You have a great day on thecampaign trail.
We'll be right back after thison Stand with Kelly and Denali
Tshibaka.
Denali Tshibaka (41:21):
Welcome back Standouts.
You're here with Kelly andDenali Tshibaka, where we just
finished interviewing NickBegich, our Republican candidate
for the House.
You know, one thing that Ithink is really interesting,
that is so controversial thiselection is the abortion
question, and as someone whojust graduated from college, of
course that's one of thedominant topics on campus.
Someone who just graduated fromcollege, of course that's one
(41:43):
of the dominant topics on campus, but what I think is really
fascinating is just how thepro-choice movement has spun all
of their arguments to get theyounger generation in support of
it.
But I'm noticing a lot morepeople my age are falling for it
less and less.
What are you seeing?
Well, one thing that I'venoticed is that they've started
talking about abortion as ifit's some kind of plan C, almost
(42:04):
like a contraceptive.
Yeah, like if your plan B pilldoesn't work or your condom
doesn't work or you just refuseabstinence.
Well, here's abortion.
You can just terminate yourpregnancy, like this.
And one thing I've noticed is alot of the women my age are
saying that's not how that works.
They're not looking at abortionas a contraceptive.
They're looking at it asusually like a Hail Mary, but
(42:28):
also often a path that shouldn'tactually be pursued at all,
that's interesting.
Kelly Tshibaka (42:32):
That seems like a real change in how your
generation is seeing it, andabortion and birth control and
contraceptives are not the samething.
They're very different and Ithink it's really important that
your generation isunderstanding that.
How do you feel about birthcontrol?
Denali Tshibaka (42:49):
I'm for birth control.
I think there's any number ofreasons why a person might take
it and I know you are too,despite those rumors that were
coming out during your election.
But yeah, I think thatcontraceptives in and of
themselves are totally fine, butabortion is not a contraceptive
yeah, it's a very differentchoice.
Kelly Tshibaka (43:07):
The other thing that we started to chat about in
our family is the idea ofchoice, and that choice is it's
the slogan phrase.
You know, people will kind ofplant their camps around
basically one word.
Yeah, this whole debate comesdown to one word, but I remember
when I worked in a crisispregnancy center and had these
(43:29):
conversations with vulnerablewomen in crisis pregnancies
behind closed doors.
Most of them were not in asituation where they didn't have
a choice in getting pregnant.
They'd had a choice, but theydid not feel like they had a
choice about having a baby.
(43:49):
Most of them felt like they didnot have the support.
They wanted to have a childthat's why they were at the
center, but they did not havethe support they needed to
follow through on having a child.
So they either didn't havetheir relationship support or
financial support or supportwithin their family, and so it
almost felt to them like theyactually didn't have a choice.
And we have to be really honestabout the fact that there is a
(44:11):
huge billion dollar industrythat pushes and encourages women
towards abortion because itmakes money.
Yeah, it does, and that isactually not supporting choice.
It's actually supportingabortion.
Denali Tshibaka (44:23):
Yeah.
Kelly Tshibaka (44:24):
And there are so many women who are vulnerable
behind closed doors, cryingevery day because they don't
feel like they have a choice,and society is definitely not
supporting a choice to keep achild.
Denali Tshibaka (44:35):
Yeah Well, and like, let's talk more about that
word choice because it's sonuanced.
Nowadays People try to make itseem like it's black and white.
Kelly Tshibaka (44:46):
My body, my choice, which I support when it
comes to A statement you and Iboth agree with.
I don't want the governmenttelling me what goes in my body
or what happens in my body.
Denali Tshibaka (44:50):
Right, you don't get to tell me what to do
with my body.
There's nothing inherentlywrong with that statement.
The problem is is that it doesnot apply to the abortion debate
, because when you are claimingmy body, my choice, you are
neglecting to acknowledge thefact that there is a second body
that has entered the mix, andthat is the body of the child.
It is not a cluster of cells.
Science has proven that lifebegins at conception.
(45:10):
This is true across everyspecies on this planet,
including human beings.
So when you're saying we havethe conversation, do dead things
grow?
Kelly Tshibaka (45:18):
no, they do not.
And so then we've just agreedlife begins at conception,
because those cells are growing.
So that's life.
So then, what kind of life isit?
If you leave it uninterrupted,it becomes a human.
So that's human life, exactly.
Denali Tshibaka (45:33):
And choice Again coming back to choice, why
do women get to make thedecision, but men don't have a
choice themselves?
Kelly Tshibaka (45:40):
So there's three people involved in the choice.
There is the mom, there's thebaby, who has a hard time
expressing choice when there'snot very many people who have
been born alive after abortionto let us know, like Gianna
Jessen Right, who has been onour show, to let us know what
the abortion process is actuallylike as a human being, to be
(46:00):
burned alive or dismembered, orto go through those processes
that are so inhumane.
And then you have the father.
Denali Tshibaka (46:09):
Yeah, the father, who is often ignored
until it comes to his wallet.
So the woman can decide I willnot have this child and she
doesn't have to even tell him,not even him.
Kelly Tshibaka (46:21):
But also it's time to collect child support.
Denali Tshibaka (46:22):
But also there's stories out there about
women who don't tell the fatherthat she is pregnant, and then
she has a child and she goes bythe way.
You owe me child support.
How, in what world is that fair, like you'd haven't.
Kelly Tshibaka (46:34):
So he doesn't have a choice in whether or not
you have this child, and then hedoesn't have a choice and
whether or not he has to pay forthe child which he can go to
jail if he does it right, but itjust doesn't make any sense to
me and and it's easy to makethis abstract until you think
about that could be one of yoursons or one of your brothers
exactly has a long-termrelationship with a girlfriend.
Denali Tshibaka (46:54):
Well, then, and when that happens, all of a
sudden she's the bad guy.
Kelly Tshibaka (46:58):
Well it, but you defend her when it's not her
Right In an abstract policydebate, this is her choice.
But then when it's your family,and he's on the line he gets
married and has another family,but that girlfriend is still
entitled to 18 years of childsupport under our law.
It destroys men's lives whenyou do that, that's right.
Denali Tshibaka (47:19):
And they never have a say in it.
Actually supportive of choicewhen we think about the totality
of the circumstances Exactly,it all falls on one party to
make that choice which isn't achoice, that's a unilateral
decision.
Kelly Tshibaka (47:32):
Well and again, when we think about what's
actually happening, a unilateraldecision in which she feels
like she doesn't really oftenhave a decision.
Oh, of course.
Denali Tshibaka (47:40):
Yeah, I'm not trying to make women out to be
the bad guy, just to be clear.
I understand they go through somuch with pregnancy we do like
as a whole, and it can be soterrifying and so stressful,
especially when you don't havethat support Right and I
understand that completely.
It just it angers me so much tosee because you know, I have
three brothers and I have aboyfriend and I have male
(48:01):
friends and it just I've heardstories, including in college,
from a guy I used to work withwhose girlfriend terminated his
baby and he didn't even know shewas pregnant until much later.
So when you hear stories likethat and you consider how it
could apply to people in yourlife and what that could do to
people in, your life he.
He still tears up when he talksabout it Honestly, like it
(48:21):
happened a couple years ago.
He still gets choked up andit's just like it's so hard to
see that impact on men and thatthey don't get to have a choice
and the entire industry is basedin racism and eugenics.
That started with MargaretSanger.
We know this, and she startedher abortion cry by at first
(48:43):
basing it in eugenics and whitesupremacy.
What is eugenics.
For people who don't know,eugenics is basically believing
that one race or kind of humanbeing is genetically superior to
the other.
So it's basically bringingaround Darwin's theory by human
action by human action and youterminate every other species or
race that isn't up to par withwhat you believe is superior.
(49:05):
So she was a white supremacisteugenicist in Hitler's inner
circle and she started abortionin America, originally in white
supremacy.
But her timing was off, becausethat was around the time that
civil rights started to pick upand people started to see blacks
as equal in America andtreating them more and more like
regular human beings.
And so she had to pivot and shechanged it to the feminist
(49:28):
argument, because that was alsopicking up.
Kelly Tshibaka (49:29):
And now when you look around, yeah, and sexual
freedom, right.
Sexual freedom because she alsostarted birth control and stuff
.
Denali Tshibaka (49:34):
But when you look around nowadays you see
that Planned Parenthoods are inlow-income neighborhoods where
ethnic women like me tend to endup, and that's on purpose.
You don't see abortion clinicson the bougie sides of town.
They're in the broke sides oftown because that's where the
minorities tend to reside.
It's still in their documentsto this day.
Kelly Tshibaka (49:53):
Oh, 100%, that's part of the mission.
Denali Tshibaka (49:55):
So they get money from it.
It's based in racism.
It's such a dirty, dirtyindustry that continues to
destroy people's lives on allsides.
Kelly Tshibaka (50:03):
The child's, the mother's and the father's.
So let's pivot to the hardquestion why is it okay for
advocates of the life of a childto support the life of an
unborn child, but also tosupport the death penalty?
Denali Tshibaka (50:17):
Ooh, that's a great question.
You know, I have a lot ofCatholic friends who are
pro-life and anti-death penaltybecause they argue that the
sanctity of life applies to allsides.
But here's my thing right, achild is innocent in every way.
They have committed no actsagainst humanity, they have
never harmed another person intheir life, so as far as I'm
(50:38):
concerned, they do have theright to continue living and
they have the right to be born.
However, an inmate who hastaken lives, destroyed lives,
done horrible things, they havedemonstrated that they will act
against society and harm societyas a whole when given the
option.
And so it's really just best totake justice and apply it there,
(51:01):
just best to like take justiceand apply it there.
The innocent should be allowedto live and have that right.
And the guilty, you know,depending on the crime I'm not
saying petty theft deserves adeath penalty.
But like serial killers, likethey, they've they've made their
choice about how they want tospend their life and it's not
product, it's not productive tosociety, it's harmful to society
.
And you know, you see it in thebible too.
God has actually said that inExodus if a thief enters into
(51:23):
the night and is killed, thenthe fault is not on the person
that executed them, it's alsobiblical.
Kelly Tshibaka (51:30):
So there's this concept that justice at the
hands of governing authoritiesin order to maintain a safe
society where crimes againsthumanity are not allowed because
they are punished.
If you violate civil rights andhuman rights, then you have
forfeited your own, your own,your own rights in society and
(51:53):
they have to be dealt with in ajust way, and we have different
ways of dealing with that.
whether that's life in prison ordeath penalty, different states
deal with it differently butyour rights have been suspended
your rights for freedom, yourrights to life, et cetera.
And that hasn't been applied toan unborn child who has not
done anything to deserve apenalty from the government
(52:15):
Right.
Denali Tshibaka (52:15):
It is an unnecessary penalty being
inflicted on an innocent life.
Kelly Tshibaka (52:18):
And instead the government has a right or not a
right, an obligation, to protectthat citizen.
I see what you're saying.
Yeah Well, good discussion.
I appreciate you offering aperspective, especially of a
young voter.
This will be your Firstpresidential election, your
first presidential election.
You're voting, and that's areally big deal.
Vote for Trump.
And another wonderful episodeof Stand.
(52:42):
You can become one of ourstandouts at StandShoworg.
I thought I'd throw that one toyou at StandShoworg and we
would love to have you join us,follow us and be with us on
social media.
Today you've been with Kellyand Denali Tshibaka and we've
been happy to have you on Stand.
This is where courage iscontagious, when we take a stand
for freedom, truth andgovernment by the people.
(53:04):
Join us next time onstandstandshoworg.
We'll see you then.
Welcome back to Stand where we help make courage
contagious.
I'm Kelly Tshibaka, your host,Alaska's chair for the Trump
campaign, former US Senatecandidate in Alaska, and I'm
joined today by my amazingdaughter and co-host, Denali
Tshibaka.
This is your first time joiningus, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
I hope you nail it and slay it.
I think that's a word you said.
I'm not allowed to say oh mygoodness.
(00:28):
So here we go.
It's going to be a rollercoaster.
You can be one of our standoutsby joining us at standshoworg.
We take a stand for freedom,truth and government by the
people, so join us there.
You can see our social mediaand check out our YouTube
channel, where we've got all ofour amazing episodes, and today
we have got a wonderful show infront of us.
You've already heard himlaughing, because he's got
(00:51):
nothing but joy in his heart.
We have our friend and ouramazing Alaska House candidate,
Nick Begich, soon to be ourcongressman.
He is our favorite not just ourfavorite, but Alaska's favorite
in this election, running forhouse.
The election is in just a coupleweeks, the first week of
November.
If you have not planned to vote, make a plan to vote, whether
that is through an absenteeballot or going to the polls.
(01:13):
Voter turnout is so important.
The most important thing aboutthis race in particular is that
this Denali, if you didn't know,is one of the top 10 races in
congress there are.
Uh, I'm going to just pop quizyou because you are a graduate
in political science.
How many House seats are up forelection every two years.
Half of them, no, all of them.
435 seats are up and there are10 top races and Nick Begich's
(01:37):
race is one of them.
So all eyes in the nation areon this race.
Nick Begich, welcome to stand.
His website isalaskans4nickbegichcom.
Nick is spelled N-I-C-K Begich,B-E-G-I-C-H nickbegichcom.
Nick, we are so happy to haveyou here.
Welcome to the show.
Nick Begich (02:02):
Thanks.
Thanks for having me.
It's great to be back on Standwith you.
Kelly and Denali.
Welcome to the first podcast.
I'm sure we'll be first of many.
Yes, we do have a reallyimportant race, there's no doubt
about it.
I mean, there's 435 seats inthe House and Alaska only gets
one voice because we have asmall population.
Big state, small population.
So it's really important thatthe person that we have
representing Alaska in the Houseshows up for work, represents
(02:25):
all the people of Alaska andrepresents the factors of Alaska
that make us unique.
You know we're a resource state.
I think that's something thateveryone who's been in Alaska
for longer than five minutesknows and understands.
We have a lot of potential as astate and it's really important
that that single voice that wedo get in the House represents
(02:45):
to the other members, to theother 434 members, just how
important Alaska is, not justfor us but for them, for the
entire nation, for the peoplethat they represent in their
districts.
And you know that's what I wantto do on behalf of Alaskans is
represent the opportunities ofthis state so we can open it
back up and play that importantrole that we should be playing
(03:06):
in national security, energysecurity and mineral security.
Kelly Tshibaka (03:09):
You said that really well.
A lot of people in the UnitedStates what we call the lower 48
affectionately don't have agreat appreciation for the fact
that nearly all the fish theyeat in their restaurants come
from Alaska waters, that thefrontline of national security
for our country is actuallyAlaska, we are closest to Russia
and China and North Korea andthat we have to have the most
(03:31):
military defense in our countryis actually located at our
shores if we're going to havestrong defense against our
biggest adversaries.
So much of what happens inAlaska for energy security and,
I would say, energy dominance inour country actually is
dependent on what we do withAlaska and the Biden
administration and what we'dcall the Harris administration,
(03:52):
because it's not amisunderstanding or secret to
Americans anymore that Bidenreally hasn't been in charge.
The last four years the Harrisadministration has really
targeted Alaska for a shutdown,with more than 60 executive
actions and orders targetedagainst us.
So one of the challenges I thinkfor you as congressman is going
to be that one voice in a seaof 435 standing up for Alaska.
(04:15):
It's also a challenge the factthat your footprint
geographically is two and a halftimes the size of Texas and
getting to all of yourconstituents.
Meeting everyone andcampaigning is a challenge.
The last time we had you on theshow, you had another really
strongly funded and supportedRepublican in the race.
That person has since droppedout, but I wanted to toss the
question to you and say at thispoint, with only a couple of
(04:35):
weeks to go, what do you see asthe strongest challenges to your
race?
Nick Begich (04:41):
Yeah, you know, at first let me, just before I get
into the challenges in this race, let me just give all the
credit to Nancy Dahlstrom.
She chose to get out of therace and this is one of the one
of the strange things aboutranked choice voting and I think
we've all learned this over thelast couple of years is that
when you have more than oneperson on our side of the aisle,
side of the aisle, on theRepublican side of the aisle,
(05:06):
you end up eroding one another'svotes because a lot of voters
about 30%, it turns out won'trank a second choice.
So this gives us an opportunityto consolidate support,
contrast the policies on my sideof the aisle, on the Republican
side, with Mary Peltola'srecord, and what we know is that
when we have that opportunityfor a direct debate, we win
(05:27):
Because at the end of the day,we're a red state, we lean
conservative and that's whatreflects our values as Alaskans.
But there are challenges inthis race.
There's a great deal of moneythat's being poured in to our
state from outside.
We see that in the rankedchoice voting ballot initiative
scenario, where you've gotsomething close to $10 million
(05:50):
coming in from outside of Alaskatrying to tell Alaskans how we
should vote.
We're seeing the same thing inthe congressional race.
90% of the money that MaryPeltola has raised has actually
come from outside of Alaska, andhere again, you've got people
outside Alaska trying to dictateto Alaskans who they should
send to Washington DC.
(06:11):
And look, there's a substantialimbalance.
Right, more than half of mymoney is coming from in-state
and again 90 percent of hermoney is coming from
out-of-state.
She's raised close to $10million.
We'll raise probably $2 million, and so there is.
There's a major challenge whenit comes to funding campaigns.
There's also a challenge that'sexacerbated by the fact that
(06:34):
there's a funding imbalance inwho's telling the truth, and
Mary Peltola has been, and hercampaign, her allies on her
campaign, have been spinninglies about my record and
misrepresenting her record inthe Congress.
You've heard, probably at thispoint, many statements about her
saying that she was responsiblefor approval of the Willow
(06:56):
Project.
What we know is that Joe Bidenhimself, weeks after approving
that project, was asked by areporter as he, interestingly
enough, stood next to JustinTrudeau of Canada, and someone
said why did you approve Willow?
And what the president said waslook, I approved Willow because
my lawyers told me that if Ididn't approve Willow, I would
(07:18):
lose in court and then Iwouldn't be able to do what I
really wanted to do, which wasto take millions of acres of
land offline from from Alaskafor future development which is
exactly what they did.
Kelly Tshibaka (07:29):
So we got a portion like what is it?
60 percent of the WillowProject, which you know when we
do grades in our house.
That's a D Willow project, andinstead we lost all of ANWR and
all of NPRA, which is where thereal oil fields are, and if Mary
wants to take credit for that,well then that is on her.
(07:50):
We lost all of our oil futurefor a D on a small project.
Nick Begich (07:55):
You're 100 percent right.
I mean she she wants the creditfor Willow, but she doesn't
want the credit for all of theother 66 executive orders
targeting Alaska and growing.
They're not done yet.
And what I've told folks is, if, god forbid, harris become the
next president I don't believeit's going to happen, but if it
did happen, what we've seenunder Biden is just a preview of
(08:16):
what we would see under aHarris administration.
And I'll tell you look forfolks out there that are worried
about the future of the stateof Alaska.
You know it matters who weelect for president.
It also matters who we senddown to DC on our behalf,
because the entire House islooking for that one voice from
our state to understand what doAlaskans want?
Kelly Tshibaka (08:36):
What do we want to?
Nick Begich (08:37):
see for our state, and what we've seen from Mary
Peltola is a mixed record atbest.
On resource development, right,she wants to take credit for
Willow, but what she'll nevertell the public I will, but
she'll never tell the public iswhen she had an opportunity to
stand up against those executiveorders.
There was a bill that movedthrough the House Resources
(08:59):
Committee called the Alaska'sRight to Produce Act.
It wasn't a bill that shestarted, it was actually a bill
introduced by a member fromanother state for our state's
benefit.
She co-sponsored a dearcolleague letter.
She sends a dear colleagueletter out to all of her
(09:19):
colleagues on the Democrat sideof the aisle and she says look,
I want you to vote no on thebill.
So she urges people to vote noon her own co-sponsored bill and
then doesn't vote yes or noherself.
She votes present, and that'snot a record we can be proud of.
It's a record that reallyupsets the other people on her
committee and I know thisbecause I've spoken with them
(09:40):
personally and it does notrepresent the political will of
the people of our state, and sothat's another challenge that
we've seen through.
The campaign is an obfuscationof Mary Peltola's true record in
the House and that record hasbeen abysmal for Alaska.
Kelly Tshibaka (10:00):
That's right, we had a little bit of a blip in
the internet there.
So just to summarize that'sright, we had a little bit of a
blip in the Internet there.
So just to summarize, theAlaska Rights to Produce Act
Paltola co -sponsored it andthen sabotaged it in her caucus,
(10:22):
went into the Democrat caucusand wrote letters and told it's
important that we had this flipin the president's endorsement.
So before the president hadendorsed the other Republican
that was in this race, NancyDahlstrom, and then she backed
out, and then the president hasnow I mean, we call him the
president President Trump hasnow endorsed you.
We'd like to hear the storyabout how that happened.
How did you get the presidentto change his mind and come
(10:44):
around and endorse you?
Nick Begich (10:45):
Well, I'll tell you what this seat is so important
for making sure that we retainmajority control in the House,
and I think people across thecountry, including the president
, recognize just how importantthat is.
I've been a supporter ofPresident Trump since 2016.
I was proud to go to hispresidential inauguration in
2017.
I've donated to the president.
(11:06):
I've even spoken at Trumprallies in the past, so the
president and his team know thatI support him and have
supported him for some time.
I did receive a phone call fromPresident Trump, and what was
amazing about this phone callwas that it happened the same
day of that second assassinationattempt.
Same day of that secondassassination attempt.
(11:28):
He called me yes, he called meafter that attempt, late in the
day, and we had a conversationfor about 10 minutes.
And I said Mr President, you'vehad just an incredibly eventful
day.
And he said you have no idea.
And he said but we wanted toend it on a positive note and
tell you that you're and I won'tdo a great Trump here.
But he said we're going to do avery big endorsement.
It's going to be very big,you're going to love this
(11:49):
endorsement.
And and he did he delivered.
You know, we had a greatconversation, though, about the
state of Alaska, and I use thatopportunity to talk about just
how much Joe Biden and KamalaHarris, who seems to be the one
running the show right now hasactually targeted Alaska.
So we talked about those 66executive orders, and he asked
(12:11):
me specifically about the KingCove Road, about the Ambler
District Mining Road, about ANWR, about NPRA.
These were on his mind mind,and what he wanted me to tell
the state of Alaska on hisbehalf is that day one, he's
going to get to work repealingthe executive orders that have
targeted the state of Alaska.
(12:31):
That's why we need President,one of many reasons why we need
President Trump in office.
As Alaskans, he was the bestpresident our state has seen in
our lifetimes, for our state,and we need him back so that we
can open up the state andprovide the resources that our
country so desperately needs,whether that's minerals, energy
(12:54):
or, as we mentioned earlier,national security.
So these things are front andcenter for President Trump.
I believe he's going to getback in office.
I know that he's going todeliver on his promises, as he
did in his first four years, andI'll tell you he has a
deep-seated love for Alaska, andhe made mention of that several
times in our call.
Kelly Tshibaka (13:15):
Yeah, if we want to vote Alaska, we definitely
want to vote President Trump,and I appreciate hearing that
story.
It's a really great story.
It's definitely consistent withwho I know him to be.
So we're on with Nick BegichAlaskansForNickBegichcom.
We're going to take a break.
Stand by, we'll be right backwith Nick.
Denali Tshibaka (13:36):
Begich, welcome back to Stand.
You're on with Kelly and DenaliTshibaka, and our guest today
is US House candidate NickBegich.
So, Nick, as you well know,election integrity is a really
big deal to us in Alaska up here, and there's been a lot of
concerns raised with it,especially because recently the
(13:57):
Alaska Supreme Court ruled thatEric Hafner, a felon currently
incarcerated on the East Coast,never been in Alaska, never been
in Alaska and he's somehow onour ballot as one of the top
four finishers and he's aserious contender for House.
Kelly Tshibaka (14:11):
Yeah, compete against you.
He could be our next UScongressman.
Denali Tshibaka (14:14):
Yeah, so I wanted to get your thoughts on
that, on the Hafner Affair, andalso what your thoughts are on
increasing election integrity inAlaska and the rest of the
United States, should you win.
Nick Begich (14:26):
Yes, these are great questions.
First of all, I was surprisedto learn I remember the first
time that I learned a few yearsago that in fact you can run
whether you're a resident of astate or not.
For Congress it really doesn'tmatter.
And we see, because of rankedchoice voting, we see more and
(14:47):
more people from outside ofAlaska registering to run in
Alaska.
They're not residents and inthe case, as you point out, of
Eric Hafner, he's never lived inAlaska, never been to Alaska.
But there's nothingconstitutionally that prevents
somebody from doing that as longas they live in the district
before they take a seat inCongress.
So what he's doing isconstitutional.
(15:09):
It's a little odd and I thinkin most cases around the country
people see that they recognizethat that's not truly reflective
of who they are.
You know, typically people aregoing to be electing people that
are from the district thatthey're in and certainly from
the state that they'rerepresenting.
Denali Tshibaka (15:27):
But yes, so.
Nick Begich (15:29):
Eric Hafner did make the ballot, and this is one
of the strange wrinkles ofranked choice voting.
You had some folks drop off andhe received enough votes that
he became one of the top fourfinishers in the end in the
general election.
And you saw what the Democratsdid.
They took this all the way tothe Supreme Court because they
didn't want to see a secondDemocrat on the ballot, and it
(15:52):
wasn't anything to do.
It was interesting.
It wasn't about whether EricHafner was a resident of Alaska.
It wasn't about really whetherEric Hafner was a felon.
It was about for them whetherthey had a second Democrat on
the ballot.
And they acknowledged.
They acknowledged in theircourt filings for the first time
as a party that a second personfrom their party could create
(16:16):
problems for their preferredDemocrat candidate.
And so finally, we have anadmission from the Democrat
Party in Alaska.
Ranked choice voting isproblematic for them.
We know it's problematic forothers, and so that was progress
, I think.
But look, at the end of the day, they're going to have to
(16:36):
defend their record.
Mary Paltola has got to defendher record.
She has not been forthcomingabout which presidential
candidate she would like to seein the president's office in
2025.
And so Eric Hafner has, andthat's one of the interesting
things about running electionsyou get to find out who people
(16:57):
really are and what they believeand what their positions are,
and, from what I've understood,eric Hafner is a strong
supporter of Kamala Harris, andI assume that he's giving some
Democrats an alternative choice.
Kelly Tshibaka (17:08):
That's right.
She said she was open tosupporting President Trump
because obviously PresidentTrump's going to sweep the state
of Alaska and she has notcommitted to supporting Kamala
Harris.
She's since backtracked on thesupport of Trump because she got
such backlash for it.
However, I think you're rightthat when she's in DC, mary
Poltola is a far-left Democrat,but when she's in Alaska, she
(17:30):
has to play moderate to right ofcenter because that's what her
constituency is, and so we'reseeing that same flip-flopping
that's really hurting KamalaHarris right now with the base
that would otherwise support her, and I've also seen the polls
that show Eric Hafner has a lotmore support in Alaska than he
should, and I agree with youthat this jungle primary that
(17:53):
has come in with ranked choicevoting the problem is that it's
taken us away from protectedprimaries where the parties
actually got to screen and vetcandidates.
So we have these charlatansrunning that have no screening
or vetting, and we know a goodnumber of Republicans there's
been media coverage on this whowent and voted for Eric Kaffner
to put him on the ballot so thatit would weaken the Democrat
base and quite likely give you avictory, in the same way that
(18:16):
we know that there was a run onthe Senate candidate in 2022,
who was the Hollywood actress.
All of her donations were fromoutside.
She never got a penny from anAlaskan because she was here
posing as an Alaskan with a fakename and a fake Alaska address
to try and win our Senate seat,and that's what happens when you
have these jungle primaries andthis ranked choice voting.
(18:37):
That actually doesn't representAlaskans at all.
But it'll be interesting to seewhat happens with this.
As you said, this wrinkle andrank choice voting could
actually play in our favor,where Republicans have actually
gotten together on this, if youwill, and have said let's just
treat this as a normal primaryand we are consolidating the
base and choosing to drop out,and I'm really happy about the
(18:59):
choices that we made in thiscongressional race and instead
put one candidate forward, andit'll be really great to see
that the will of the people isactually reflected in the choice
of the election.
Denali Tshibaka (19:08):
But, Denali, you had another question right,
I did Absolutely so.
Speaking of Mary and how poorher representation of Alaska is,
I wanted to ask we've noticedthat she's missed approximately
40, 45 percent of the votes thatshe's supposed to show up for
in Congress.
She's sabotaged bills thatshe's put forward.
She's clearly not doing what'sbest for Alaska while she's down
(19:28):
there in the DC swamp and Iwanted to ask you how do you
plan on making up for what'sessentially two years of
representation that Alaska haslost?
We have one House seat andwe've basically lost two
critical years to pick up ourstate and turn things around for
us.
So how will you make up forthat, Should you win?
Nick Begich (19:49):
That's a great, great question, you know.
Let me just start by sayingthere was a survey that came out
this week from WalletHub, andWalletHub did a survey on the
hardest working states in thecountry and Alaska was number
two behind North Dakota.
And when you look at thenumbers more closely, you see
(20:09):
that actually Alaska is numberone in terms of hours worked per
worker, right At 41 hours aweek on average, so number one
in the country for hours worked.
And we have a representativeright now that is often not
showing up for work and thatdoesn't really represent the
hardworking people of our state.
You know, the hardest workingpeople in America are not being
(20:32):
represented by someone who'sworking hard, and so there is
going to be a lot of work to bedone to catch up.
Over the last two years and whatI've done in every opportunity
that I have I mentioned theopportunity with President Trump
to speak with him about theexecutive orders targeting
Alaska.
I've spoken with Speaker MikeJohnson, I've spoken with House
Majority Whip Tom Emmer and I'vehad conversations extensively
(20:55):
with Steve Scalise, the majorityleader in the House, about this
issue, and I've told them to aperson look, we need to not just
push back against the executiveorders.
I want President Trump torepeal these orders 100 percent.
But we have to do more, ok, andwhat we need to do is we need
to lock in Alaska's right toproduce its resources into law.
(21:18):
So there are opportunities inthe Congress.
Budget reconciliation is thefirst major opportunity for us
to find as many of thesepriorities that we can that will
have a budgetary impact.
That would pass what's calledthe Byrd Rule in the Senate, so
that we can move this throughbudget reconciliation and lock
in more tightly Alaska'ssovereign right to produce its
(21:42):
resources, and so that's thenumber one priority that I have
for Alaska, going down to DC, isto work with the Republican
conference, the Republicanmajority in the next Congress,
to lock in Alaska's ability toproduce so that that pendulum
doesn't swing so far for ourstate every time that a Democrat
gets into office and decidesthey want to turn us off.
Kelly Tshibaka (22:05):
It's a really good point.
It seems, even when it islocked into law, there's
executive orders that overturnit.
But I really like the way thatyou just captioned that we have
a hardworking state representedby a congresswoman who's hardly
working, and that is a problembecause it's not going to do us
well.
We're just going to have towork harder to make up for
what's not being done or how thegovernment overreach is
(22:28):
absolutely oppressing us up herein Alaska.
But speaking of oppression, itfeels like the young generation
feels particularly oppressedbecause they cry about it a lot,
and I know that Denali justexperienced a lot of that in
college.
Denali Tshibaka (22:42):
Oh yeah, I mean , I even went to a conservative
school, just graduated fromTexas A&M, gig'em, aggies,
gig'em.
But one of the things I reallynoticed down there, even being a
political science major, was itwas really, really difficult to
get any of the Republicansthere to say, oh yeah, I lean
right.
They were super secretive aboutit, always like, ok, well, I
mean, like I'm not for Kamala, Iguess I would vote for Trump or
(23:05):
conservative as a point ofshame.
Oh yeah, it was almost like asecret message kind of thing.
Like, oh yeah, I lean right,wink, and it was so interesting
because you know the Democratsare running around campus with
the blue hair and theBiden-Harris t-shirts and vote
Beto and all of this stuff, andI wanted to ask you is Basically
You'd be one of the youngermembers of the House.
What are your thoughts on this?
(23:27):
Why do you think the youngergeneration feels so repressed to
say I am a Republican, and howdo you think you could lead by
example to change that?
Nick Begich (23:36):
Boy, I love that question because you know
there's so much pressure putonto people through mainstream
media sources and what we'veseen and interestingly enough,
we've seen the Democrats payinfluencers, social media
influencers on TikTok andInstagram and other social media
platforms to promote theirmessages.
(23:58):
These are paid actors, paidinfluencers who are going out
into their target demographicsand presenting a message to the
youth, and it's not surprising.
But it is disappointing to seeDemocrats resort to this because
they recognize their ideas arefailed ideas, their ideas don't
(24:18):
have facts on their side andtheir ideas require deception in
order to be sold to the public.
And that's what they do.
And so they put a lot ofpressure on folks through those,
through those indirect methods,to try to influence public
opinion.
But I think what happens andI'll tell you, I've known many
(24:39):
people, many young people,friends of mine, who when I was
younger they kind of leaned leftor they identified sort of more
with the left side ofphilosophy they get their first
paycheck.
Hey, wait a minute, whathappened to all of this money
that I've made?
Oh well, it had to go to thisbucket and that bucket and this
(24:59):
tax and that tax and prettyquickly people start to lean a
little more conservative becausethey recognize that they're not
getting their money's worth.
The government's taking thatmoney and what are they doing
with it?
What benefit do they see?
And so I think when peoplegraduate and they hit the real
world and they start to have tomake tough decisions about
(25:20):
budgets and about how muchthey're going to have to work in
order to pay for the lifestylethat they were hoping to have,
those things start to get peopleshook loose of some of the
indoctrination that happens evenin a conservative university.
You went to Texas A&M, I went toBaylor down the road, I mean, I
was at a conservative schooltoo, but I could see, you know,
(25:42):
the same trend lines that you'redescribing happening even then.
So I can remember going downand visiting the campus here a
number of years ago and seeingBeto O'Rourke signs on that
campus and I was very surprisedto see it.
But yet Texas remains aRepublican state.
(26:03):
Ted Cruz is going to win thatstate again, and I think the
reason is because when weencounter real life, we get out
of the collegiate bubble and westart to have to work and build
our own families and do thosethings we recognize.
Actually, these policies on theleft don't work for regular
people.
Kelly Tshibaka (26:19):
Yeah, I think that that's right, and one of
the things we're doing isencouraging our kids to speak up
now because, as I've told them,there's a lot more people in
your classes who think the wayyou think and they don't know
how to articulate it and theydon't have the courage to.
They don't know that when theysay something, there won't be
any responses back, and so oneof the easy ways to speak up is
(26:39):
just to simply ask questions,and if you ask questions, you'll
be surprised to see that theliberal indoctrination is really
only one layer thick Well, andthe amount of people that come
up to you after and go listen.
Denali Tshibaka (26:51):
I wasn't going to say it, but I totally agree
with you.
Kelly Tshibaka (26:54):
That's right and the professors often don't have
professors and teachers oftendon't have an answer beyond what
they were trying to just drillinto people's heads, and so it
starts to unravel really quickly, which I think is a good way to
start.
Well, this has been a greatconversation with Nick Begich.
We're going to pick up on theother side of the break and talk
about really interesting policyconversations.
Policy means the things thataffect our pocketbooks, so let's
(27:17):
pick up with that.
Alaskansfornickbegichcom,you've been on stand with Kelly
and Denali Tshibaka and you canfind us at standshow.
(27:42):
com Denali’s first show.
Denali, you've been doingfantastic.
Why?
Thank you, mom?
Yeah, and we've talked a lotabout economics because you are
starting out life just havinggraduated from college.
Yep, how has bidenomicsaffected you?
I?
Denali Tshibaka (27:56):
don't like it.
I want Trump back.
Kelly Tshibaka (27:59):
Nick Begich, let's talk about the economy,
because you've got really greatpolicy positions on this.
How do we get the economy backin the four years that Trump
would be president when you'rein Congress?
Nick Begich (28:10):
There's so many things that need to be done.
Let's just go through a listOne interest rates need to come
back down.
Interest rates are far too high.
What happened was that theFederal Reserve, in attempting
to address a hot economy,decided that interest rates,
which is their old standby,would be the mechanism, the
lever that they would pull inorder to slow things down.
(28:32):
The problem is that the root ofour issues wasn't low interest
rates.
The root of our issues was thefact that the government was
spending too much money andprinting money in order to do it
, and so the Fed accommodatedthat, blew up their balance
sheet to historic levels inorder to finance this excess
(28:53):
government spending.
And all that extra moneystarted flowing through the
economy, and as the velocity ofthe economy picked up, it heated
the economy up too much.
What they needed to do wasreduce the size of their balance
sheet, reduce some of theliquidity occurring in the
economy and keep interest rateslow, and so, instead, they made
a policy mistake, and a lot ofpeople have paid for it,
(29:16):
especially young people, right?
Young people who are saving fortheir first home or who are
taking out those student loansat high interest rates, and so
this high interest rateenvironment penalizes youth far
more than it penalizes olderAmericans who've already locked
in their mortgage rates at lowrates and what we've seen is
(29:38):
that they're just not moving.
People aren't moving out oftheir homes, they're just
staying where they're at,they're locked in at a 2% rate,
saying in fact they can't affordto move.
So mortgage payments.
Here you have young people.
I've met them all over thestate.
They say, look, I've savedmoney for my down payment but
now I can't afford the housepayment because it's up 60%
(29:59):
because of these interest ratesspiral that we can't get out of
as a nation.
We've seen this in Japan.
Their currency has devalued 30percent in the last 18 months
(30:22):
because this same set ofpolicies that we're pursuing
today they pursued 20 years agoand they're paying the price now
.
And it impacts our ability tomaintain the American way of
life if we abuse the privilegeof being the world's reserve
currency.
If you go back in time and youlook, we weren't always the
world's reserve currency.
(30:42):
There was Great Britain andPortugal and France and Spain,
and these nations made the samemistakes that we're making now
when they lost their reservecurrency status.
So we have an exorbitantprivilege in having the world's
reserve currency.
If we spend more money thanwe're taking in over time we'll
(31:03):
lose that privilege and theAmerican way of life will suffer
.
Denali Tshibaka (31:08):
So I tell people go to your closet.
Nick Begich (31:10):
Go to your garage, tell me how much of that stuff
was made in America.
There's going to be a fewthings, but there's not a lot.
And the reality is the peoplein these other nations are
trading their labor and rawmaterials for our dollars.
They value our dollars quiteliterally more than they value
that labor and those materials,and so we make a trade.
(31:30):
Well, if we don't have thatability to make that trade, a
lot of the things that we enjoyin this country will not be
available to us in the future.
Kelly Tshibaka (31:39):
Yeah, that's right.
So well, speaking of so, it'smore than go ahead.
That's good.
Speaking of things spiraling,another thing we've noticed is
spiraling, according to reports,is IQ rates.
IQ rates are dropping, yes, anda lot of that comes back to our
education system.
What's your take on parentalrights and education?
It seems like this is a bigconcern across the country.
Nick Begich (32:01):
It's a huge issue and you know this is a big issue
.
In our specific campaign, MaryPeltola voted against a bill
that would ensure that parentshave some just fundamental basic
rights when raising their kids.
We trust the public schoolsystem to educate our kids, to
protect our kids and as a parentof a 12-year-old I do.
(32:23):
I put a lot of trust in theschool system to do that.
I'm not there in the classroom.
I've got things going on.
Parents all over the state.
Many of them are two-incomehouseholds.
They don't have time to watcheverything that's happening
inside that classroom.
So there's a lot of trust thatgoes in to the schools to ensure
(32:44):
that those kids are being takencare of and they're being
educated properly.
Well, this bill would simplyjust say look, as a parent, you
have the right to know what'sbeing taught in the classroom,
what pronouns are being used torefer to your child when they're
at school, what books areavailable in the school
libraries but you're paying forit.
(33:05):
And what right does the statewhen I say the state, I'm
talking about the federalgovernment or government
generally what right does thestate have to stand between you
and your child?
Kelly Tshibaka (33:22):
It's almost like turning a public school into a
prison when that happens, thatwhen they go into school you
lose all rights to them and theylose all rights to you, and I
don't think we want to turnpublic schools into prisons or
children into inmates.
Nick Begich (33:37):
Yeah, you're.
You know what You're right.
The truth of the matter is andI want to be real clear it's not
all educators, it's not mosteducators, it's a handful of
educators that are using thatprivilege, abusing the privilege
that's been given to them, totake time in a classroom that
should be dedicated to math,science, reading, writing,
accurate history.
They should be using that timefor those things, not using that
(34:00):
time to indoctrinate childrenin the latest Democrat political
fads, and that's what we'reseeing the classroom become in a
few instances, and it's not forthat purpose.
And parents need to know thatthey continue to have the right
to raise their child the waythey see fit, not the school
system.
(34:21):
And so she voted against that.
She also voted againstprotections for women's sports
in Title nine, and this was ourlate Senator Ted Stevens, one of
his priorities.
He was a big part of the reasonwhy Title IX advanced in the
Congress and was signed into law, making sure that women are
competing against other womenand not men in their sports, and
(34:45):
this is universal.
When you look at theinformation, you look at the
data, most moderates,conservatives and even Democrats
agree that protecting women andwomen's sports is really
important.
But Mary Peltola voted againstthat and it's very surprising
because when you see her ads,she talks a lot about rights and
women's rights and freedom, andyet she's taking those freedoms
(35:08):
and those rights away withthese actions.
Kelly Tshibaka (35:11):
Well, when we talk about the school context,
we're not talking about grownwomen like me, which I do have
an issue with that we're oftentalking about girls, little
girls, and you know, having hada couple of girls you're sitting
next to me, you're grown now,but I've got a little one at
home.
I'm not okay with boys and menbeing in the locker room with
her pretending to be girls.
(35:32):
That's not okay.
It's just never okay, and sothat's what we're talking about.
It's a major policy differencewith major real-life
consequences that result inmajor harm.
So, speaking of things dressedup as freedom, let's talk about
one of the major policydifferences that seems to be
really contentious, and that'sthe issue around abortion.
And there's this whole ideathat's come up.
(35:53):
It just enrages me in thepresidential and vice
presidential debate, thisconcept that Democrat leadership
has not supported abortingchildren up to the time of birth
and after they're born.
And I just want to toss thateasy softball pitch to you on
what Mary Peltola has actuallyvoted on this issue.
Nick Begich (36:13):
Yeah, you know, you saw it.
For those who watched the vicepresidential debate, I watched
it as well.
Tim Walz tried to dodge thisquestion and suggest that his
bill in Minnesota did not allowfor late day of abortion.
It does.
It does allow for that, andeven further.
(36:35):
It allows for a physician towalk away from a baby that's
born Um their position is anyabortion is a right to a
successful abortion.
Kelly Tshibaka (36:46):
So if an infant happens to be born alive, they
do not support the infant's bornalive act, which is a separate
patient on a patient table.
And they absolutely abandonedthe Hippocratic Oath of you know
first, do no harm, and theyinstead let this living person
stay there to die and walk.
Nick Begich (37:07):
And that's so, folks.
I mean that's just wrong.
I mean I think that's somethingeven for folks who believe in
abortion rights.
That's wrong.
And I mean I think that'ssomething even for folks who are
, who believe in abortion rights, that's wrong.
And most Alaskans agree.
When you look at the data, 26percent of Alaskans believe that
that's OK and the rest say no,it's not OK, right.
So the vast majority ofAlaskans, even in one of the one
(37:29):
, in one of the most pro-choicestates in America, believe that
that's wrong.
And Mary Peltola voted for that.
She voted for that.
She supports abortion all theway up until the moment of birth
.
And folks, these are humanbeings.
These are human beings.
They can live outside the womb.
This is clearly a person.
(37:50):
And for Mary Peltola to takethat radical position, you know
it flies in the face of whatfreedom really does mean.
Individual liberty goes down tothe person and in fact, we have
to protect our most vulnerablethe most, because they don't
have the ability to speak forthemselves.
But that's a human being.
And for Mary Peltola to takethat extreme position, it's just
(38:12):
.
It's out of step with wheremost Alaskans are, where where
most Americans are, but, evenmore importantly, with what's
right, what's truly right.
Kelly Tshibaka (38:22):
I think one of the ways Denali has successfully
communicated this to herfriends is actually explaining
what this means a baby who isbeing born and delivered and
coming out normal deliveryprocess and taking its first
breath that they can terminatethey would say, terminate that
life and the way that they dothis for people who have never
actually studied abortion.
(38:43):
There's two ways abortions aredone.
The one is you stick a needleinto the child's head and you
suck out its brain.
A nine-month-old baby is toolarge to do that.
The other is you dismember itlimb from limb, so you take a
little scalpel knife and thisway it would have to be much
bigger and you would cut offthis baby's limbs, shoulders and
legs and then ultimately itshead, as this thing's coming out
(39:04):
.
In order to end, the quotefetal tissue.
But this is a live person.
Denali Tshibaka (39:09):
You literally are blending babies.
When you do that, right, it'shorrible.
Kelly Tshibaka (39:13):
Decapitating and dismembering a child in order
to, in the name of having aright to a successful abortion a
right to an abortion is a rightto a successful abortion.
So, as this person is beingborn alive, you are giving these
doctors and these patients theright to dismember another
person, and that is what MaryPeltola and, to be clear, all
the Democrats in the House votedfor this last session, and so I
(39:35):
think that's a major policydifference between you and Mary
Peltola, right, mr Begich?
Nick Begich (39:40):
It's a huge policy difference and I'll tell you in
most of most of the countriesaround the world, particularly
in developed nations, thepractice you just described is
is 100 percent against the law.
Kelly Tshibaka (39:51):
It's illegal to be considered a human rights
crime.
Nick Begich (39:55):
That's right.
Kelly Tshibaka (39:55):
Yeah Well, I appreciate you being on today.
Thank you so much, Alaskans,for NickBegichcom.
Nick needs all the support thathe can get because he is up
against a fierce dark moneyoutside funding battle against
Mary Peltola and all of theoutside groups that are
supporting her, and if we wantthis person in Congress.
This is not just a cry forAlaskans, but I know that a lot
of people outside of Alaska arewatching this show.
(40:17):
Please support him.
Alaskansfornickbegichcom, thereis a very, very narrow majority
in the House At times.
This last session's been downto one person.
This could make all thedifference in the world.
Alaskansfornickbegichcom, we soappreciate you having on the
show, Nick, and we wish you allthe best in this upcoming
election.
Nick Begich (40:34):
Thank you so much.
Thank you for sticking withthis podcast.
It's so important for people tounderstand the issues of the
day from a conservativeperspective and the good news is
we've got the facts on our side.
We've just got to be willing tohave the courage to take a
stand.
Get out there, tell our friends, tell our neighbors, have those
conversations with family.
Stand, get out there, tell ourfriends, tell our neighbors,
have those conversations withfamily, because, again, the
(40:55):
facts are with us and whenpeople understand the facts,
they'll find out they'reconservatives too.
Denali, great job on your firstpodcast.
Thanks for letting me be yourfirst guest.
Kelly Tshibaka (41:04):
Thank you, Nick.
Thank you, Nick.
You have a great day on thecampaign trail.
We'll be right back after thison Stand with Kelly and Denali
Tshibaka.
Denali Tshibaka (41:21):
Welcome back Standouts.
You're here with Kelly andDenali Tshibaka, where we just
finished interviewing NickBegich, our Republican candidate
for the House.
You know, one thing that Ithink is really interesting,
that is so controversial thiselection is the abortion
question, and as someone whojust graduated from college, of
course that's one of thedominant topics on campus.
Someone who just graduated fromcollege, of course that's one
(41:43):
of the dominant topics on campus, but what I think is really
fascinating is just how thepro-choice movement has spun all
of their arguments to get theyounger generation in support of
it.
But I'm noticing a lot morepeople my age are falling for it
less and less.
What are you seeing?
Well, one thing that I'venoticed is that they've started
talking about abortion as ifit's some kind of plan C, almost
(42:04):
like a contraceptive.
Yeah, like if your plan B pilldoesn't work or your condom
doesn't work or you just refuseabstinence.
Well, here's abortion.
You can just terminate yourpregnancy, like this.
And one thing I've noticed is alot of the women my age are
saying that's not how that works.
They're not looking at abortionas a contraceptive.
They're looking at it asusually like a Hail Mary, but
(42:28):
also often a path that shouldn'tactually be pursued at all,
that's interesting.
Kelly Tshibaka (42:32):
That seems like a real change in how your
generation is seeing it, andabortion and birth control and
contraceptives are not the samething.
They're very different and Ithink it's really important that
your generation isunderstanding that.
How do you feel about birthcontrol?
Denali Tshibaka (42:49):
I'm for birth control.
I think there's any number ofreasons why a person might take
it and I know you are too,despite those rumors that were
coming out during your election.
But yeah, I think thatcontraceptives in and of
themselves are totally fine, butabortion is not a contraceptive
yeah, it's a very differentchoice.
Kelly Tshibaka (43:07):
The other thing that we started to chat about in
our family is the idea ofchoice, and that choice is it's
the slogan phrase.
You know, people will kind ofplant their camps around
basically one word.
Yeah, this whole debate comesdown to one word, but I remember
when I worked in a crisispregnancy center and had these
(43:29):
conversations with vulnerablewomen in crisis pregnancies
behind closed doors.
Most of them were not in asituation where they didn't have
a choice in getting pregnant.
They'd had a choice, but theydid not feel like they had a
choice about having a baby.
(43:49):
Most of them felt like they didnot have the support.
They wanted to have a childthat's why they were at the
center, but they did not havethe support they needed to
follow through on having a child.
So they either didn't havetheir relationship support or
financial support or supportwithin their family, and so it
almost felt to them like theyactually didn't have a choice.
And we have to be really honestabout the fact that there is a
(44:11):
huge billion dollar industrythat pushes and encourages women
towards abortion because itmakes money.
Yeah, it does, and that isactually not supporting choice.
It's actually supportingabortion.
Denali Tshibaka (44:23):
Yeah.
Kelly Tshibaka (44:24):
And there are so many women who are vulnerable
behind closed doors, cryingevery day because they don't
feel like they have a choice,and society is definitely not
supporting a choice to keep achild.
Denali Tshibaka (44:35):
Yeah Well, and like, let's talk more about that
word choice because it's sonuanced.
Nowadays People try to make itseem like it's black and white.
Kelly Tshibaka (44:46):
My body, my choice, which I support when it
comes to A statement you and Iboth agree with.
I don't want the governmenttelling me what goes in my body
or what happens in my body.
Denali Tshibaka (44:50):
Right, you don't get to tell me what to do
with my body.
There's nothing inherentlywrong with that statement.
The problem is is that it doesnot apply to the abortion debate
, because when you are claimingmy body, my choice, you are
neglecting to acknowledge thefact that there is a second body
that has entered the mix, andthat is the body of the child.
It is not a cluster of cells.
Science has proven that lifebegins at conception.
(45:10):
This is true across everyspecies on this planet,
including human beings.
So when you're saying we havethe conversation, do dead things
grow?
Kelly Tshibaka (45:18):
no, they do not.
And so then we've just agreedlife begins at conception,
because those cells are growing.
So that's life.
So then, what kind of life isit?
If you leave it uninterrupted,it becomes a human.
So that's human life, exactly.
Denali Tshibaka (45:33):
And choice Again coming back to choice, why
do women get to make thedecision, but men don't have a
choice themselves?
Kelly Tshibaka (45:40):
So there's three people involved in the choice.
There is the mom, there's thebaby, who has a hard time
expressing choice when there'snot very many people who have
been born alive after abortionto let us know, like Gianna
Jessen Right, who has been onour show, to let us know what
the abortion process is actuallylike as a human being, to be
(46:00):
burned alive or dismembered, orto go through those processes
that are so inhumane.
And then you have the father.
Denali Tshibaka (46:09):
Yeah, the father, who is often ignored
until it comes to his wallet.
So the woman can decide I willnot have this child and she
doesn't have to even tell him,not even him.
Kelly Tshibaka (46:21):
But also it's time to collect child support.
Denali Tshibaka (46:22):
But also there's stories out there about
women who don't tell the fatherthat she is pregnant, and then
she has a child and she goes bythe way.
You owe me child support.
How, in what world is that fair, like you'd haven't.
Kelly Tshibaka (46:34):
So he doesn't have a choice in whether or not
you have this child, and then hedoesn't have a choice and
whether or not he has to pay forthe child which he can go to
jail if he does it right, but itjust doesn't make any sense to
me and and it's easy to makethis abstract until you think
about that could be one of yoursons or one of your brothers
exactly has a long-termrelationship with a girlfriend.
Denali Tshibaka (46:54):
Well, then, and when that happens, all of a
sudden she's the bad guy.
Kelly Tshibaka (46:58):
Well it, but you defend her when it's not her
Right In an abstract policydebate, this is her choice.
But then when it's your family,and he's on the line he gets
married and has another family,but that girlfriend is still
entitled to 18 years of childsupport under our law.
It destroys men's lives whenyou do that, that's right.
Denali Tshibaka (47:19):
And they never have a say in it.
Actually supportive of choicewhen we think about the totality
of the circumstances Exactly,it all falls on one party to
make that choice which isn't achoice, that's a unilateral
decision.
Kelly Tshibaka (47:32):
Well and again, when we think about what's
actually happening, a unilateraldecision in which she feels
like she doesn't really oftenhave a decision.
Oh, of course.
Denali Tshibaka (47:40):
Yeah, I'm not trying to make women out to be
the bad guy, just to be clear.
I understand they go through somuch with pregnancy we do like
as a whole, and it can be soterrifying and so stressful,
especially when you don't havethat support Right and I
understand that completely.
It just it angers me so much tosee because you know, I have
three brothers and I have aboyfriend and I have male
(48:01):
friends and it just I've heardstories, including in college,
from a guy I used to work withwhose girlfriend terminated his
baby and he didn't even know shewas pregnant until much later.
So when you hear stories likethat and you consider how it
could apply to people in yourlife and what that could do to
people in, your life he.
He still tears up when he talksabout it Honestly, like it
(48:21):
happened a couple years ago.
He still gets choked up andit's just like it's so hard to
see that impact on men and thatthey don't get to have a choice
and the entire industry is basedin racism and eugenics.
That started with MargaretSanger.
We know this, and she startedher abortion cry by at first
(48:43):
basing it in eugenics and whitesupremacy.
What is eugenics.
For people who don't know,eugenics is basically believing
that one race or kind of humanbeing is genetically superior to
the other.
So it's basically bringingaround Darwin's theory by human
action by human action and youterminate every other species or
race that isn't up to par withwhat you believe is superior.
(49:05):
So she was a white supremacisteugenicist in Hitler's inner
circle and she started abortionin America, originally in white
supremacy.
But her timing was off, becausethat was around the time that
civil rights started to pick upand people started to see blacks
as equal in America andtreating them more and more like
regular human beings.
And so she had to pivot and shechanged it to the feminist
(49:28):
argument, because that was alsopicking up.
Kelly Tshibaka (49:29):
And now when you look around, yeah, and sexual
freedom, right.
Sexual freedom because she alsostarted birth control and stuff
.
Denali Tshibaka (49:34):
But when you look around nowadays you see
that Planned Parenthoods are inlow-income neighborhoods where
ethnic women like me tend to endup, and that's on purpose.
You don't see abortion clinicson the bougie sides of town.
They're in the broke sides oftown because that's where the
minorities tend to reside.
It's still in their documentsto this day.
Kelly Tshibaka (49:53):
Oh, 100%, that's part of the mission.
Denali Tshibaka (49:55):
So they get money from it.
It's based in racism.
It's such a dirty, dirtyindustry that continues to
destroy people's lives on allsides.
Kelly Tshibaka (50:03):
The child's, the mother's and the father's.
So let's pivot to the hardquestion why is it okay for
advocates of the life of a childto support the life of an
unborn child, but also tosupport the death penalty?
Denali Tshibaka (50:17):
Ooh, that's a great question.
You know, I have a lot ofCatholic friends who are
pro-life and anti-death penaltybecause they argue that the
sanctity of life applies to allsides.
But here's my thing right, achild is innocent in every way.
They have committed no actsagainst humanity, they have
never harmed another person intheir life, so as far as I'm
(50:38):
concerned, they do have theright to continue living and
they have the right to be born.
However, an inmate who hastaken lives, destroyed lives,
done horrible things, they havedemonstrated that they will act
against society and harm societyas a whole when given the
option.
And so it's really just best totake justice and apply it there,
(51:01):
just best to like take justiceand apply it there.
The innocent should be allowedto live and have that right.
And the guilty, you know,depending on the crime I'm not
saying petty theft deserves adeath penalty.
But like serial killers, likethey, they've they've made their
choice about how they want tospend their life and it's not
product, it's not productive tosociety, it's harmful to society
.
And you know, you see it in thebible too.
God has actually said that inExodus if a thief enters into
(51:23):
the night and is killed, thenthe fault is not on the person
that executed them, it's alsobiblical.
Kelly Tshibaka (51:30):
So there's this concept that justice at the
hands of governing authoritiesin order to maintain a safe
society where crimes againsthumanity are not allowed because
they are punished.
If you violate civil rights andhuman rights, then you have
forfeited your own, your own,your own rights in society and
(51:53):
they have to be dealt with in ajust way, and we have different
ways of dealing with that.
whether that's life in prison ordeath penalty, different states
deal with it differently butyour rights have been suspended
your rights for freedom, yourrights to life, et cetera.
And that hasn't been applied toan unborn child who has not
done anything to deserve apenalty from the government
(52:15):
Right.
Denali Tshibaka (52:15):
It is an unnecessary penalty being
inflicted on an innocent life.
Kelly Tshibaka (52:18):
And instead the government has a right or not a
right, an obligation, to protectthat citizen.
I see what you're saying.
Yeah Well, good discussion.
I appreciate you offering aperspective, especially of a
young voter.
This will be your Firstpresidential election, your
first presidential election.
You're voting, and that's areally big deal.
Vote for Trump.
And another wonderful episodeof Stand.
(52:42):
You can become one of ourstandouts at StandShoworg.
I thought I'd throw that one toyou at StandShoworg and we
would love to have you join us,follow us and be with us on
social media.
Today you've been with Kellyand Denali Tshibaka and we've
been happy to have you on Stand.
This is where courage iscontagious, when we take a stand
for freedom, truth andgovernment by the people.
(53:04):
Join us next time onstandstandshoworg.
We'll see you then.
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