Missouri gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Bill Eigel discusses his bid for the Republican nomination for governor as well as the now-viral video of him wielding a flamethrower which was misconstrued by the mainstream media.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, the Missouri Republican began by listing the priorities he intends to fight for if elected governor of the state.
“Let’s start by protecting kids and families in this state,” he stated. “Whether it’s protecting children from the mutilating surgeries and barbaric practices of the transgender industries that are profiting off the destruction of these kids — we’re going to protect.”
As protectors, Eigel vowed to defend people against COVID mandates, or a potential return to them, while ensuring kids remain in school; fight against the “forcing” of people opposed to the vaccine to get one, including those who suffered the loss of their jobs as a result; and protect the rights — including the Second Amendment ones — of Missourians.
He then issued criticism of the state’s failing policies.
“Many people don’t realize that the big red state of Missouri, we as the Republicans allowed the [state] government to be bigger than it has ever been before,” he stated. “We’ve more than doubled the size of our bureaucracy and government in Jefferson City, and the tax burden that is required to maintain that status quo is stagnating Missouri [and] the reason that people are moving to places like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee.”
The state senator also expressed his vision for growth of the Show Me State.
“I believe Missouri can be a leader in the United States,” he stated, “if we can break up precisely the same kind of status quo and swamp foundations that we have in Jefferson City, [with a leader] like Donald Trump [that] has been fighting to break in Washington, DC for years in this country,” he stated.
Calling to be “bold” on such issues, the state lawmaker insisted he is running as “the alternative to the candidates who are just going to continue that status quo, that are just going to continue to reward the few, the powerful, in Jefferson City, as opposed to doing all the big red things that we keep promising voters of this state every two years.”
Regarding his opponent, Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who is also running for governor in 2024, Eigel noted that “there’s never been a tax increase that Mike Kehoe hasn’t been for.”
“He’s been one of the driving forces in driving up the cost of gas taxes in the state of Missouri. He was a proponent of increasing the gas tax, which was the largest tax increase the state has ever seen,” he stated.
“So when it comes to just fiscal policy, I think there’s a ton of difference between a guy like, as we call him, ’Tax Hike Mike,’ as opposed to someone like me, who has been fighting and passing tax cuts for as long as I’ve been in the Missouri State Senate,” he added.
Regarding Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, the other Republican candidate for governor he is running against, Eigel highlighted the many “significant policy differences” between the two.
“When it comes to our elections, I’m a guy that doesn’t trust the machines in our elections. I wanna get rid of every machine, every tabulator, every poll pad that’s being used in the conduction of our elections here in the state of Missouri,” he stated. “I believe we should go back to the hand counting of ballots that worked for Missouri and the rest of the country for more than 100 years.”
“Jay Ashcroft wants to maintain all the machines that caused the problems that started in 2020 and 2022,” he added. “He wants to maintain that status quo by having those machines run our elections.”
Another dispute Eigel has with Ashcroft’s policies is that “he’s ready to sell over 100,000 acres of Missouri farmland to overseas foreign entities, whether it’s China, whether for the World Economic Forum or to other enemies of America.”
“I don’t think we should sell one square inch of Missouri to overseas entities because I think it ought to be owned by Missourians or at least Americans,” he stated.
“And so I think those issues with the fiscal policies of Mike Kehoe being far to the left of the Republican Party and issues on election integrity and foreign ownership of ground being a real hamstring of Jay Ashcroft,” he added, “I think we’ve got a message that’s going to be very well received by the people of the state.”
The Viral “Flamethrower” Clip
Addressing the viral video of an event for the Central Committee of the Republican apparatus in St. Charles County — one of the biggest Republican counties in Missouri, Eigel described it as a “very normal thing.” despite it ultimately receiving global attention.
“As part of that small fundraiser, we raffled off not only a couple of flamethrowers but an AR15 as well, and we thought it would be neat to demonstrate the effectiveness of those flamethrowers by turning them on a pile of empty cardboard boxes.”
“Unfortunately, when videos of that surfaced, they immediately went viral around the country because there seemed to be an army of leftists that didn’t even hesitate to lie about what actually happened at that event,” he added.
According to Eigel, the matter — which ignited a political firestorm — demonstrated that “the truth never really mattered” that no books were “harmed in the making of the video” of the fundraiser.
“These are the same folks that are saying that men can get pregnant,” he stated. “So the truth never mattered to these folks and they took every opportunity to spread a lie about what this event was and what was going on.”
He also noted that subsequently he had followed up by saying that, “though there weren’t any books that were harmed in the creation of this video, if the only thing that we’re standing in between the children of this state and the woke and vulgar pornographic materials that we’re seeing show up in our schools and our public libraries in the state of Missouri was having a bonfire on the governor’s mansion – of course I would do whatever necessary to protect those kids, and light the match myself.”
“I’m of the opinion that whether we burn it, bulldoze it, or launch that material into outer space — I’m going to do whatever is required to keep that kind of vulgar pornographic material out of the hands of children in the State of Missouri,” he added.
Surprised by the widespread attention the matter received, Eigel explained that his “bold pronouncement really took a lot of the leftists that have been attacking me for the past week by surprise, and they immediately were triggered.”
“I think it triggered every leftist on the planet in a single viral tweet,” he stated, “and they’re talking about this in Paris, France, right now.”
“But I’ve always been a guy that’s gonna be very bold and aggressive about protecting kids around here,” he added.
Noting that it is “against state law to expose any child to sexually explicit material,” the state senator explained that he is “simply coming out and saying that in order to enforce the law [and] protect the kids in this state,” he is “willing to do whatever is necessary – even if it is as dramatic as setting it on fire in my front yard, or launching it into outer space.”
According to Eigel, there are many parents in Missouri, and every US state, that are “looking for precisely the kind of leader that’s going to be bold about saying that this is what we’re gonna do to protect kids.”
“That might just be absolutely infuriating to the left, but those folks are gonna continue to lie about me and attack me no matter what I’m doing,” he stated. “I’m never gonna see eye to eye with folks who are just okay with getting pornographic material into the hands of first graders and second graders — that’s not who I’m trying to reach.”
“A vast majority of the Missouri public knows that that would be something that we should have every leader in the state stand up and say that they would protect against and do whatever was necessary,” he concluded.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.