RNC National Press Sec Kiersten Pels Joins!
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Transcript
36 segmentsWhat is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Right now, your local Toyota dealer has great deals available on some of the most reliable trucks on the market, like the off-road ready Tacoma, rugged full-sized tundra, and legendary forerunner, each with the space, tech, and features to handle it all, from the work site to the trails. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid options available, extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, meaning bigger savings at the pump without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. The Tacoma and Tundra are ranked number one and number two in resale value over all vehicles, according to Kelly Boo Book, which can mean thousands more than average right back in your pocket when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota affordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. ShopToyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Blue Books KB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places. Hammer and Nigel. Do you believe these characters are weirdos. So let's rock. My name is Nigel, Jason Hammer, right over there with a very special guest on the hotline. The National Press Secretary for the RNC is Kirsten Pels. Kirsten, welcome back to the Hammer and Nigel show in Indy. And man, it seems like, you know, anytime there's a situation where it's an assassination attempt. or an actual assassination. Everybody has the same talking points. We need to calm the rhetoric down. This feels a little different, Kirsten, after what happened on Saturday at the White House. I think you're starting to see Republicans and conservatives say, you know what, we are not in this thing together. This is a one-sided problem. Is that what we're seeing here? Absolutely correct. This is a left-wing violence problem that we have. Unfortunately, in our country, this is the third assassination attempt on... President Trump's life. And not only that, but the manifesto that was found with the shooter was repeating left-wing liberal talking points. The kind of talking points that, by the way, you would find on MSNBC or being repeated by people like Jimmy Kimmel, either mainstream left-wing individuals that have basically said the same exact things the shooter said in the manifesto. I think that highlights a deep and serious... problem for the left given how radicalized how extreme their base has become. And the RNC actually released a statement on Monday condemning all of the Democrat candidates and officials who still have yet to refuse to condemn the gunman's actions.
Since the attack, these include people like Roy Cooper, Jon Ossoff, Sherrod Brown, and then Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is best friends with Hasan Piker. We all know him as a crazy left-wing podcaster who has threatened to gut his opponents and also threatened the life of the life of Republican Senator Rick Scott. So, yes, this is a very serious problem that is occurring on the left. And those Democrat officials need to be called out because this is their problem and they're spineless. They haven't said a word. You know, you mentioned Jimmy Kimmel, late night talk show hosts. If I made a joke and I said, hey, Jill Biden has got the look of a... a widow on her face or whatever, you know, comparable joke that Jimmy Kimmel made about Melania Trump and the widow thing. I would expect to be fired. But Jimmy Kimmel doubled down on those abhorrent jokes about, like he's making jokes about Melania Trump being a widow after. Twice, I mean, this is before the third time it happened, but twice being attacked. And he doubles down on that. And I'm wondering what you think of what that says about the attitude of not only Jimmy Kimmel, but how his party thinks. Well, I think the attitude of these Democrats is one of... severe hatred and contempt towards not only President Trump, but his voters, but for Republicans and for the Republican Party in general. And this is a severe problem on the left because I think we as Republicans, us on the right, the reason that we're more open-minded these days, more able to go and talk on long format shows like Joe Rogan, for example, and we're able to engage with individuals we don't necessarily agree with. I think Democrats are increasingly narrow-minded and increasingly hostile to any views opposite to theirs, to the point where they demonize Republicans. They demonize anyone who would vote for Trump because their rhetoric has gotten increasingly inflammatory. It's escalated to the point where you really, if you just follow some of the things that these Democrats are saying, like, for example, calling him a dictator. likening him to a Nazi or to Hitler, that is very inflammatory rhetoric. You are incentivizing violence. You are creating the permission structures for violence when you utter those words. And this is something that is completely mainstream. It's a serious problem on the left. Kirsten Pels is our guest, National Press Secretary for the RNC. So Kirsten, I'm sure you've probably heard this or seen it on social media. What is your response when you hear people say, but it happens on both sides and they bring up what happened in Minnesota or they bring up some other thing? What's your response when you hear people argue it's not just the Democrats, it's both sides?
Well, this is just, it's not true. It's completely lopsided. Of course, there are crazy people on all sides, and sometimes you have acts of violence, of course, on people that claim to be maybe of the right as well. But when you look at the targeted attacks directed at this administration, you look at the sheer number of times, someone has attempted to. shoot President Trump or made threats to him or his Republican supporters. And you look at the rhetoric of the Democrat officials. You look at the way that they speak about Republicans. You look at things how they basically say that they, President Trump needs to be stopped. Someone has to stop him. Someone has to do something. Someone has to take that step. You are incentivizing people out there, leftist individuals, who maybe they have a screw loose, maybe they have a predilection to violence, but you're essentially going to be activating those individuals to actually go and take that next step and commit acts of violence. And then after an act of violence occurs, you'll have every single Republican calling it out and saying that on all sides, Republicans are pretty good at calling out and condemning violence. The left, however, remains largely silent. It's really disturbing. If it's someone on the left, someone who targets President Trump, they don't say a word. And I think that's by design. I think that's just very revealing about the way that Democrats view political violence. And I know we have polling to suggest, actually, that you are way more likely. I don't remember the exact number, but you're way more likely to support political violence if you were on the left. That is a... fact, it is a statistic that we have, and it is just a deeply unfortunate truth that we have now in our politics. So, Kirsten, what do the folks inside the walls at the RNC, or maybe the casual conservative Republican voter that's listening to our show right now? What can they do to fight back? Now, you don't want to do the same thing that these lunatics are doing. You don't fight fire with fire here. You don't go on social media and threaten harm to a Democrat. But also... I'm tired of letting all this stuff go. So what's the proper strategy? What can be done for conservative voters to fight back and put an end of this crap? So what we're doing at the R&C is we're holding Democrats' feet to the fire. We're holding these Democrat candidates and officials publicly accountable, and we're going to make sure that they answer for these actions that are occurring on the left. I think as voters, as Republicans, the number one thing you can do, and I know this may sound like a very simple answer, but.
It is to go and vote. It is to participate in our democratic process. It is to convince others to vote with you. It is to convince all of your friends to vote Republican and to remind them that even if they don't agree with every single thing President Trump has done, that look at the alternative. Look at who these Democrats are. Look at what they believe in. Look at how extreme they are. This is why this midterm cycle is so important. We cannot allow these Democrats to get back into power because if they do, this kind of left-wing extremism will only be incentivized. It will only be encouraged. And these Democrats are running on a campaign of revenge. Their only goal is to impeach and to obstruct. And they don't have any... goal other than that. And I think that their very extreme left-wing base needs to be stopped. And in order to do that, we have to make sure that Republicans maintain power in our country. And the best way to do that is to participate in the systems that enable us to elect Republicans and keep them in office. Kirsten, last thing here before we let you go. You mentioned you had seen some polling that shows that, you know, this could backfire a little bit for the Democrats. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Like, is there a large faction of voters on the left who are not this radical, crazy, you know, rooting for Iran, hoping Trump gets assassinated type of Democrat, more of a Bill Maher type, dare I say, Bill Clinton type that feels like the party has passed them by? Well, yes, I think those people exist. And I think that in 2024, a lot of them actually came over and voted for Republicans, some of them for the first time, because they saw the alternatives. They saw that the left wing of the Democrat Party is unfortunately in control of that party. There is a very noisy, very extreme base on the Democrat side that has... totally captured that party. So yes, there are people that are more moderate in the middle, people that could be reasoned with, but those people do not control the Democrat Party. Unless you have prominent Democrat officials who are willing to stand up to their own extremists and call them out, there's going to be no change. And so those people really have no choice but to vote for the side of common sense and to vote for the Republican officials, Republican candidates that are running in their elections across the country if they want people that actually believe in our system, in our democracy, that don't want to kill members of the opposite party. I think that should be a bare minimum. But yes, I think a lot of those voters can be reached because I think at the end of the day, when you look at the dividing line between really people that just want to live their lives and they want policies that help them and their families, and then you have left-wing ideologues who are driven to violence, I think the vast majority of people want nothing to do with those people.
She is the RNC National Press Secretary Kirsten Pells. Kirsten, we appreciate your time. We'd love to have you back. And thank you for joining us here in Indy. Thank you for having me. What is Toyota affordability? It's buying smart. Right now, your local Toyota dealer has great deals available on some of the most reliable trucks on the market, like the off-road ready Tacoma, rugged full-sized tundra, and legendary forerunner, each with the space, tech, and features to handle it all, from the work site to the trails. It means driving for less, with efficient hybrid options available. extending your overall driving range and delivering great MPGs, meaning bigger savings at the pump without sacrificing power. And it means trading for more. The Tacoma and Tundra are ranked number one and number two in resale value over all vehicles, according to Kelly Boo Book, which can mean thousands more than average right back in your pocket when it's time to trade in. That's Toyota affordability. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. Shop Toyota.com or your local dealer for deals and details. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2026 model year. For more information, visit Kelly Blue Books KB.com. Toyota brand average resale value is 53% versus the average vehicle at 45%. Toyota, let's go places.