STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka
One grew up in Alaska; the other grew up abroad. One is a Daughter of the American Revolution and a descendant of generations of American veterans; the other, the son of an African immigrant and a descendant of Congolese chieftains. One was a government watchdog; the other, a civil rights activist. Both had parents who were homeless for a while, and both graduated from Harvard Law School.
Like you, they have suffered devastating loss and faced overwhelming challenges. Through it all, they’ve found victory over the hardships of life simply by choosing to Stand. Join Kelly, Niki, and their inspiring guests as they move beyond simply talking about issues and challenges, to exploring how to solve and overcome them. Together, we will build a movement of everyday Americans who courageously take a stand for freedom, truth, and a country led by “We the People.”
STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka
Silence Speaks Volumes: Begich on Peltola's Failure to Address Anti-Semitism
Is outside money influencing your voice in Congress? Join us for a candid conversation with Nick Begich, the candidate for the US House seat in Alaska. Nick passionately argues why he believes he offers stronger representation for Alaskans compared to the incumbent, Mary Peltola. He sheds light on the overwhelming influence of out-of-state funds supporting Peltola, raising critical questions about her alignment with DC interests versus those of Alaskans. Nick also discusses the significant turnover in Peltola's staff, from initially moderate Alaskans to what he describes as hard-left progressives, questioning her loyalty and effectiveness in truly serving her constituents.
We dive into the importance of Alaskans having a robust and unmuted voice on the national stage, especially in light of the current president's perceived decline in physical abilities. As Nick shares his vision for empowering Alaskans and Americans to influence both national and international decisions, we underscore the critical nature of the upcoming elections. Don't miss this insightful episode to understand why Nick Begich believes he is the change Alaskans need and deserve, and the urgency of making our voices heard in the upcoming electoral battle.
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We're back on stand with Kelly Nikki Chewbacca, so happy to have with us today Nick Begich running for US House in Alaska. Nick, why are you a better candidate for this House seat than the incumbent?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Look, I mean, we talked about the values. I think we got to talk also about you know, know, who's really representing who here, right, I mean, you've got a candidate with mary peltolla who's raised around a million dollars and growing certainly it'll be well over a million, maybe a million and a half, from packs, political action committees in this election cycle alone. And to put that in perspective, there were entire races where our former member, don Don Young, didn't even raise that much from individuals, pacs or any other groups, and so she is bringing enormous amounts of money from outside of Alaska to try to tell Alaskans who to vote for. In fact, more than 90% of the money that Mary Popetola has raised in this campaign has come from outside the state.
Speaker 2:Now what's completely disingenuous is she sends out text messages and campaign communications suggesting that outside interests are going to tell Alaskans how to vote and they shouldn't listen. Well, she's right. Outside interests are trying to tell Alaskans what to do and they're telling them vote for Mary Peltola. Why would they do that? Why does DC so desperately want Mary Peltola to come back? Well, it should be obvious, because she's there to play ball with them, right, and? And there I will tell you there are 20,000 more than 20,000 registered lobbyists in DC. Now there's only 535 members of the senate in the house combined, so you're greatly outnumbered. When you're down in DC, there are there's a lobbyist around every corner. And why does it? Now? I'm not saying all lobbyists are bad. They're there to give you some information whatever, but these are the most persuasive people money can buy worldwide, because the US government is the largest single trough of cash worldwide. So these people exist for one of two reasons Either they're there to protect their business or their industry from competition, or they're there in order to get money from the government, from the taxpayer. That's really the only two purposes for 90% of the lobbyists in DC, and they are fueling her campaign. That should tell you everything that you need to know about where Mary Peltola's loyalties and interests lie and what happens.
Speaker 2:A lot of times in DC and we see it over and over again you see people who run for the right reasons, and maybe they're running on the left, maybe they're running on the right, but they really believe ideologically what they're running on at the beginning. And what occurs is they get there as a freshman and they realize, oh no, I can't, I don't have the power that I need, I don't have the ability to do what I need. And so they start to compromise, they play ball right politically in these bodies and they think, okay, it's worth it, because in 10 years and 20 years I'll be a chair, I'll be able to dictate policy, and then we'll do what's right. Well, for those who finally make it they've made so many compromises for so long they don't even recognize themselves when they get there. And this is the problem with DC and it's the problem that we have with our current representative in office. She's following that path. She's allowing outside interests to control her messaging, control her campaign and control her votes in the Congress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was really concerned about some of those early compromises, like she ran as a so-called moderate. I mean, we all knew that wasn't the case because the Democrat Party worked so hard to strong arm Al Gross off the ballot, who was their endorsed candidate for Senate the previous cycle, so they could put her on. So I knew she must be just a much more extreme political candidate. And then she was propped up with outside money last time. I remember that when you ran against her in the last cycle. But then she staffed. You'll remember this she staffed with a moderate staff in the beginning, a lot of Alaskans, a lot of people who were Republicans or moderate Republicans, and those people are nowhere to be seen now. It's a graveyard of them. I mean, we've gone through I don't even know how many staff members. It's a revolving door of staff members. She's in the top five rated of toxic work environments on the Hill and they're replaced with all these extreme liberals that are all DC insiders. I'm sure you know more of the story. Tell us what you know.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, initially she she had hired on a number of Don Young's former staff, including his chief, and had brought on staff that had previously worked for him, and so it really looked like to the public oh, here's someone who's going to be working with both sides. It's going to that's going to take these people on and it's going to she's going to split the difference and go down the middle like she ran her campaign. But over the ensuing months she turned all these people over. She replaced them, as you said, with with hard left progressives that certainly aren't from Alaska and don't represent the people of Alaska. She has one of the highest staff turnovers in the entire Congress. I think she's definitely in the top five. She may be in the top two. I think at one point she was in the top two for staff turnover.
Speaker 2:And look, a state like Alaska is complicated. It's very complicated. When you think about California or Texas, they have 40, 50 members or more from their state in the Congress. They can split up what they call the portfolio Right. So you've got maybe one person takes health care, another person takes resources, another person takes another issue or another issue, one person's on judiciary, so they have the ability to sort of divide and cover an entire portfolio. We don't have that luxury to sort of divide and cover an entire portfolio. We don't have that luxury. We have a complicated state and we have to cover all of the portfolio on behalf of the state in the Congress.
Speaker 2:So if you've got continuous turnover in your office, there is no way you can do it and it's unfortunate that she hasn't recognized that. And it's also obviously unfortunate that she's replaced the people who sort of knew where the bathrooms were, knew how to get around the hill, understood the portfolio that Don Young had been working on and got rid of them all and replaced them with, you know, sort of the stamped progressive folks. And that's not good for Alaska and I think it probably is why we've seen her voting record be what it is. I mean, she crosses the aisle occasionally for a political reason, but 90% of the time she's voting with Nancy Pelosi, 85% of the time Ilhan Omar she's voting with. And I can tell you, if there's anything that I'm certain of when it comes to Alaskan political ideology, it's that we would never hire Nancy Pelosi to be our representative. She is a San Francisco Democrat. We have nothing in common with her. She has no interest in seeing Alaska grow or develop. And yet here Mary Peltola is voting in virtually lockstep with her.
Speaker 1:That's our voting record, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you just also referenced, Nick, that she's voting about 85 percent of the time with Ilhan Omar, and I found that really concerning. Something I was going to say was it's almost like she's an extended member of the squad and one of the issues with her campaign is it's funded by some of the same people who have been funding these anti-Semitic protests that we're seeing across the country. So you look at some of the people who are funding her campaign and you look at her votes 85% of the time with Ilhan Omar, who is an avowed anti-Semite I mean clearly, with the comments and the things that she has said publicly and then she's also being funded by these anti-Semitic folks who are funding these anti-Semitic protests. What are your thoughts on that? Because that, to me, is actually very concerning, because that is not Alaska.
Speaker 2:That's not Alaska, it's not American either. I mean, you know, israel has been our longstanding ally in the Middle East. They are the regional counterweight to terrorism throughout the Middle East, specifically in Iran, but, of course, throughout their region. And the problem is, if you don't support Israel, their right to exist, defend their ability to defend themselves from terrorism, what message are you sending the rest of our allies Right? If we're not going to stand with our allies when they need us, what makes us think that our allies will stand with us when we need them?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And you know when you're taking money, gladly accepting cash from all corners, including people who are fueling this anti-Semitic push that we see on the hard left. It just demonstrates that you have no principles, right. I mean, she will take money from anyone who's willing to write a check. She won't denounce any of this. She hasn't denounced any of this.
Speaker 2:And look, you know words are one thing but actions are another, and if she's not willing to refund that money or to disavow those resources coming into her campaign, it's tacit acknowledgement that she's OK with it. And you know, we need we need to be clear about this. As Americans, whether you're find yourself, you know, on the Democrat side or the Republican side, or if you're like most Americans, probably somewhere in the middle Republican side, or if you're like most Americans, probably somewhere in the middle you got to recognize it Again. Going back to the first segment, we talked about those values that do not change. This is one of those values that we can't compromise on. We've got to stand strong.
Speaker 2:In the aftermath of 9-11, israel gave us tremendous intelligence. It's about where things were coming from. What we needed to do in order to fight the war on terror were coming from. What we needed to do in order to fight the war on terror, practices that we need to implement in the wake of those attacks and to abandon that ally and that strategic relationship at their most important moment of need. It's beyond the pale.
Speaker 3:Well, it is, and it's more than just being supporting, you know, anti-semites and being against Israel. It's being pro-terrorist, that's I mean. You're standing up for Hamas, you're standing up for a terrorist organization, and so to be a member in Congress, just to be an American, anybody who says I support Hamas and I support you know what they're doing. Oh my goodness, how could we possibly want somebody representing any state or any district in the country who would support a terrorist organization and a terrorist-funded?
Speaker 1:organization. You know something? People were asking me last time when you and I were campaigning together, you know about who was I going to vote for and all that and I you know we had to thread those needles because of the ranked choice voting. One of the things that I would say that's relevant to this election is, when you only have one person in the House with 435 people, you need someone who's going to get attention for Alaska, who's going to be able to take that stand and captivate the room, be able to persuade people behind closed doors, get on the media, be able to speak articulately like you're speaking with us right now and get our message out, because you only have one voice. You only have one person who can speak for us.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I'm seeing in our conversation today is the pattern of silence from Mary Poltola. She could really have these mic drop moments where she speaks. Right. She's the only Alaska Native that's ever been in Congress. She's Alaska Native female. She's got this amazing opportunity to strategically step out of her party to build bridges and speak in common sense ways for America, but she's choosing instead to do things like stir up her caucus against Alaska and against America and do things that actually hurt us, step out at strategic times that would help us, and not use her voice. And even what you're saying right now both of you is this silence on this Israel issue is extremely concerning. We have an incredible opportunity as Alaskans to have a voice in Congress instead of to be muted, and I think that's really the issue that's on the ballot for us, not just here in Alaska, but across America, is this is an election where we could have a voice In our presidential election. It seems like our president has been quite muted these last four years because he just seems to lack some physical abilities, as he's declining, and we have an opportunity to have a voice on a national stage and an international stage. We have an opportunity to have a voice in Congress with our Alaska representative. We have an opportunity to have a voice across the nation in decisions that we'll make.
Speaker 1:Nick, we want to pick up with you right after this break and talk about the path to victory. You're on. Stand with Kelly. Nikki Chewbacca, stand by. We'll be right back.
