Charlie Kirk: “Our prison population is probably not big enough”
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From the March 1, 2023, edition of The Salem Radio Network's The Charlie Kirk Show, streamed on YouTube
CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): There is a one trillion dollar bill sitting on the sidewalk right now and Republicans are refusing to pick it up. If Republicans got harsh on crime and, I mean hard on crime, it would win over millions of swing voters. I think in the midterms, we did not do a good enough job of talking about crime largely because people were afraid of being called racist because there is this mass movement to try to open up our prisons that is also within the American right. There are lies that are out there, such as people saying, well, our prison population is too big. Well, here's a thought crime for you. Our prison population is probably not big enough.
How long do you think an average rapist spends in prison in America? I want to get my numbers right, but the last time I did this research it's between three to six years. A rapist should get life in prison, maybe even get castrated as well if you are convicted by a jury of your peers and you go through that process.
Now, look, America is becoming a profoundly dangerous country. El Salvador has been a dangerous country and they're showing that there's a way to solve it. And the left is losing their mind over this. They don't like the fact that there is a quote new mega-prison. They don't like the idea of prisons at all. But honestly, God bless El Salvador for taking a leadership role, for saying, look, we are a small, relatively poor country and our problem is really a couple thousand bad people.
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Why is this so hard for Republicans to run on? Every time a Republican runs on crime – we win. And what's interesting, in my personal opinion, and I said this during the campaign, I think President Trump missed an opportunity in the 2020 presidential election when it came to Joe Biden and crime. He attacked Joe Biden for the 1990s crime bill. I hate to say it, but the 1990s crime bill actually worked. The nineties crime bill made America a safer country. Were there problems with it? Of course, there were. But we need to have stricter laws for violent criminals, not looser laws for violent criminals.