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Episode 270-Heading into the 2024 Presidential Election. Should Trump agree to another debate? There are razor-thin margins in pre-election polling--will there be an "October Surprise" from desperate Democrats? Would it even need to be believable to hurt Trump? Would the GOP consider anything like an October surprise? In Pennsylvania, could old-school Catholics and liberal Jews help Donald Trump win that state? What about the border issue? Or radical abortion and the trans agenda? How are these affecting the candidate's campaigns?
In this episode of Washington Watch, Tony Perkins dives into the recent aviation disaster in Washington, D.C., raising questions about air safety and military-civilian coordination. With insights from former President Donald Trump and newly confirmed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the episode examines if the recent collision highlights broader flaws in airspace management. Additionally, the episode navigates the turbulent waters of political weaponization within the federal government, drawing on expert opinions from Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and others. We transition into global politics with a focus on South Korea, where President Moon Seok-yool's impeachment adds to concerns about democratic stability in the region. Senator Ted Cruz and Congresswoman Harriet Hageman provide commentary on the ongoing struggles against political weaponization. This episode is packed with expert insights and critical analysis on pressing national and international issues. Behind the scenes, the looming Super Bowl prompts discussion on the need for family-friendly entertainment standards following controversial performances in previous years. With a letter from Louisiana legislators prompting a commitment from the NFL, could this signal a shift in cultural values at major events?
SPEAKER 01 :
From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
SPEAKER 15 :
We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now. Because over the years, I've watched as things like this happen and they say, well, we're always investigating. And then the investigation three years later, they announce it. We think we have some pretty good ideas. But we'll find out how this disaster occurred and we'll ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was President Donald Trump earlier today responding to last night's tragic collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter at Washington Reagan's National Airport. Welcome to Washington Watch, and thank you for joining us. Well, this morning, the rescue effort at the crash site shifted to a recovery mission after it was confirmed there were no survivors. Now the big question is, how did this happen?
SPEAKER 18 :
We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but to back up what the President said, what I've seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was newly confirmed. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaking earlier today. We'll get an update from Congressman Troy Nels of Texas. He's the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation. And for anyone who flies frequently in and out of Washington, it's obvious there are a lot of military helicopters in the air. But have they made the skies above D.C. too crowded? We'll discuss that with retired Air Force Brigadier General John Teichert later here on Washington Watch. Meanwhile, President Trump's nominee for FBI Director Kash Patel had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. The topic of government weaponization took center stage.
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And in many ways, the worst legacy, in my opinion, of the Biden administration. was the complete politicization and weaponization of both the Department of Justice and the FBI, turning them into tools to attack the perceived enemies of the Biden White House.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was Texas Senator Ted Cruz. We'll get reaction from Congresswoman Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, a member of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. And amid ongoing news from the Middle East and the continuing war in Ukraine, there's been less focus on South Korea, where impeached President Moon Seok-yool faces charges of insurrection. Is South Korea's democracy at risk? We'll talk with Bruce Klingner, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA Deputy Division Chief for Korea. And finally, as I mentioned yesterday, there's some encouraging news regarding the content of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. Louisiana State Senator Valerie Hodges will join us later to share the details. All of that and more coming up on this Thursday edition of Washington Watch. Be sure and check out the website, TonyPerkins.com. Better yet, if you've not yet downloaded the Stand Firm app, I encourage you to go to the App Store and get the Stand Firm app so you can take Washington Watch with you wherever you go. Well, there was quite a bit of fireworks today during the confirmation hearing for three of President Trump's most, I'd say, controversial picks for key roles in his administration. Among the issues that came up during the hearing for Trump's nominee for FBI Director Kash Patel was the weaponization of the federal government, which Democrats claim is what President Trump is threatening to do. But as Republicans have rightly pointed out, weaponization is what we saw from the previous administration under Joe Biden. And President Trump has made clear that he will not be continuing a weaponized DOJ. Well, that message doesn't appear to be getting through to Democrats. Here now to discuss the issues, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman. She serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. She represents the at-large congressional district of the great state of Wyoming. Congresswoman, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always good to see you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wonderful to see you, Tony.
SPEAKER 07 :
Before we get into the confirmation hearing and the president's executive order on the weaponization of government, I want to get your reaction to the tragic crash that took place in D.C. last night.
SPEAKER 02 :
It is absolutely heartbreaking. I flew out of DCA just a couple of hours before that to head home to Wyoming. One of the observations I had was looking out the window at the Potomac and thinking how absolutely frigid cold it looked with all the ice flows in it. And to hear about that last evening as I was driving from the Denver airport, again, it's just heartbreaking. My heart goes out to those families, to the teammates, to everyone who was affected by this terrible, terrible tragedy.
SPEAKER 07 :
I am pretty confident, as we've heard from the president, Sean Duffy, former colleague of yours, this is going to be thoroughly looked at. And I think it will be, given the fact that so many members of Congress fly in and out. And we've seen it. I mean, I'm flying it out every week. And you see the aircraft. It's a very crowded airspace. So I imagine that something is going to be done there. to deal with this. Let's talk about the weaponization. Let's first start. One of the first executive orders of President Trump was dealing with the issue of the weaponization of the federal government. Talk a little bit about that and how, given the position that you had on that weaponization committee, looking at all those issues, are we going to get a handle on this quickly?
SPEAKER 02 :
I've had a front row seat to see what happens when the federal government is weaponized against political opponents. We saw it play out in a couple of different ways under the Biden-Harris administration. One of them was the manner in which they charged and prosecuted the J6 folks, going after people who might have just simply walked through the Capitol, not even knowing that there were barricades up. and overcharging them dramatically. We know that because the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of many of the people who were charged, where the Biden-Harris administration was actually using a statute that was adopted to address the Enron situation of disposing of and destroying documents and records. And they used that as a way to try to enhance the sentences of the people on January—who were involved in anything associated with January 6. Then you contrast that with what happened in Portland, what happened in Minnesota during the summer of 2020, what happened in New York City. And the reason that I say you have to contrast it is, for one group of people that were disfavored by the Biden-Harris administration, they did everything they could to destroy them. For the people such as Antifa, the people who were involved in CHOP in Seattle and those kinds of things, they not only dropped charges or didn't bring charges in the first place, many of those people they settled with and paid them tens of thousands of dollars if they were at all inconvenienced at any time while they were burning down cities and causing billions of dollars of damage. If you look at what they did to President Trump, it's so clear in the cases in New York, Florida, and D.C. that the folks aligned with Biden and Harris and the Democrats, again, were using our justice system to go after a political opponent. As an attorney, as a long-term advocate for civil rights and civil liberties and adhering to our Constitution, I was pretty shocked to see how the government was weaponized as quickly as it was. When you look at the Russia, Russia, Russia collusion hoax and what the FBI did and their involvement and what the White House knew, in fact, they knew in August of 2016, before the 2016 election, that the Steele dossier was a hoax, that it was paid for by Hillary Clinton, that there was no validity to it. Yet they use the whole-of-government approach to get FISA warrants against the Trump team, to spy on them, to continue with an investigation against President Trump for a year-and-a-half under the auspices of claiming that he was conspiring with or colluding with the country of Russia to undermine America. I mean, all of these things together give you an idea of how weaponized the federal government became under the last administration.
SPEAKER 07 :
Congresswoman, I think it's been a process, because I think back into the 80s and 90s, where, even early turn of the century, where RICO statutes, which was, they were created back in the 1970s to go after the mob and racketeering, were used against pro-lifers. So I think, you know, those things were allowed to go forward, and I think it's kind of like the camel's nose under the tent. If you don't address it, it only gets worse.
SPEAKER 02 :
That's why I refer to what President Trump is doing as accountability. People want to say, well, he's going to weaponize this against his enemies, and Dick Durbin is saying that now. No, the people who engaged in this contact need to be held accountable for the decisions that they made. And so far, no one has been held accountable. One of the things that we did a lot of work on with the Select Committee on weaponization of the federal government related to the First Amendment and the mechanism that was used by Biden and Harris and their cohorts within that administration to stop us, the conservatives and Republicans, from being able to exercise their First Amendment rights. We know that from the Twitter files and the testimony of Matt Taibbi and Michael Schellenberger, what Professor Jonathan Turley has found. All of these things, all of these mechanisms by which the government was used to suppress the First Amendment rights, not only the freedom of speech, but as you point out, freedom of religion, using the FACE Act and literally turning it on its head and taking, you know, 72-year-old grandmothers who are praying outside of an abortion clinic and trying to throw them in prison for five years, not because that woman was any kind of a threat or violating anyone's civil rights, but for the purpose of making her as an example so that no one else would dare risk objecting to and fighting back against abortion. So that's what they did.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. And that's probably the most chilling aspect of this is that it was designed, it was to shock others into silence so that they would not speak or challenge these policies. And that's what happened with the J6 folks and what they endured. But the EO, the executive order, is great. I mean, you look at it, it addresses this issue, but it's an executive order. It can be repealed by the next administration. Congress has to deal with this. Are your colleagues ready to statutorily deal with this so that the government cannot be weaponized in the future against the American citizen?
SPEAKER 02 :
So a couple of things. In some ways, we already have. So being on the Judiciary Committee, part of our jurisdiction was revising Section 702 of the FISA warrants. And so after we learned what the FBI was doing in collusion with the Hillary campaign, in going after the Trump campaign during the 2016 cycle, we made fundamental changes to Section 702 of FISA that makes it much more difficult for the FBI to be using that process, at least to be weaponized against us. So we've already started that process. And I agree with you that this is an executive order. To the extent that any of these executive orders should be turned into statutes, we are already working through that process. so that we can be introducing them. But the other thing that I think is going to happen over the next four years, Tony, is that we're going to see so much exposed. And I think it happened over the last year and a half. I think that the reason that Donald Trump won with the resounding victory that he did was that people were horrified at what had happened with our legacy institutions, with those institutions that all of us grew up revering and thinking, hey, maybe I want to go and work for the FBI. What has been exposed over the last couple of years and what will continue to be exposed, number one, will help us to draft better legislation and make sure it doesn't happen again. But the other thing we need to do is just simply enforce the Constitution as written. I have an absolute First Amendment right in speech, in press, to peaceably assemble to petition my government for redress and to exercise my religion as I see fit. And one of the things that I have done is I have introduced a bill called the First Amendment Restoration Act. It is patterned after a similar federal law that applies to states. But basically what it says is that any federal employee who under color of federal law violates someone's First Amendment rights, they can be held liable in damages. We can get injunctive relief and we can also seek attorney's fees. So that's one of the bills that I actually worked with Jonathan Turley and some of my cohorts on the bill. Judiciary Committee, that we're going directly at these things, that it will be very clear that if you violate the First Amendment and you are a federal employee, I can sue you personally. So that's the kind of legislation we're pushing forward with.
SPEAKER 07 :
Harriet, I want to help you with that. We need that. We need accountability. That is a means of accountability. We're out of time, but always great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us today. And we look forward to working with you to protect that first freedom and to get rid of the weaponization of our federal government. All right, folks, we're going to look at South Korea next. The crisis there. Don't go away.
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During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we're making an eternal impact. 2024 was a year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, D.C., Last fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC's outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with the community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God's intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel's peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government. Launching early this year in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us, and we look forward to 2025 and standing for faith, family, and freedom.
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Looking to grow closer to God in the new year? FRC's Stand on the Word spiral-bound journal is here to help. Dive deeper into scripture with thought-provoking questions, note-taking space, and context for each book and author. This second edition, covering Isaiah 2 Revelation, will guide you in tracking your journey through God's word while deepening your faith in Christ. Order now at frc.org slash store or text journal to 67742. Perfect for you and your loved ones.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you on this Thursday afternoon. The website, TonyPerkins.com, but better yet, get the Stand Firm app. And by the way, on the app, we have our first 100 Days Toolkit. That will enable you to engage in the process of helping correct some of the things that have happened in the last four years. There'll be action items. You'll have contact information for your member of Congress and your senators. You can find it, and it'll keep you up to date on what's happening. So you can get it on the app or just text the word TOOLKIT to 67742. That's TOOLKIT to 67742. All right. We're waiting for our guest. I've been tracking what's been happening in South Korea. South Korean President Eun Suk-yool shocked the world when he declared martial law in his country, a move widely condemned as an abuse of power. Now, that set off a political firestorm that has only grown more intense. Well, on Saturday, the impeached president was then indicted on charges of leading an insurrection. Now, A lot of stuff sounds very familiar, does it not? And this guy, he's kind of a conservative. And it's been the moderates, the liberals that have been opposing him in South Korea. Well, this ongoing political turmoil in South Korea has raised serious concerns about the stability of one of America's key allies. I mean, their democratic form of government is relatively new going back to the 1980s. And so it has some asking, can South Korea's democratic government And it's an important question because they're a stabilizing force there in that region of the world. All right, while we're waiting for a guest, I'm going to go to Meg Kilgannon, Senior Fellow for Education Studies here at the Family Research Council. She's been tracking a number of the confirmation hearings as we're watching these go through the process. And so I'm going to bring her in. Meg, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to see you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Great to be here, Tony.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let me continue my conversation I was having with Congresswoman Harriet Hageman regarding the – weaponization of government. Today, Kash Patel had his confirmation hearing in the Senate. This issue factored in very heavily, and Harriet made reference to this. This is what was brought up in the committee, that President Trump simply wants to weaponize government to be used against the left. How do we prevent this tit for tat, back and forth?
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. Well, I think that the problem with that analysis is that you're assuming that what happened the previous four years to former President Trump and people who had worked for him was not the weaponization of government. and that it was in fact perfectly legal behavior and something to be proud of, whereas we know that it was illegal behavior that has consequences. And so when you're enforcing consequences on people who've behaved badly, that doesn't mean you're weaponizing the government against them. It means that they are paying the price for the mistakes that were made. very grievous mistakes that have repercussions across the entirety of society. I mean, everything that was done to those folks that were serving in political power could be done to you or me.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. But does it also kind of reveal with the Democrats the – They're kind of projecting. I mean, this is what they did when they had power. So they're just assuming that Donald Trump's going to do the same thing. Republicans will do the same thing. This is what they did.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. I think you're seeing the trouble they're having sort of getting their foothold in this new paradigm since the big Republican win in November and this shock and awe campaign we're seeing from the White House and the executive branch. The Democrats are not responding, I think, very well. responding in their usual fashion, but it's not meeting the moment, right? People see through this now.
SPEAKER 07 :
So we're going to see a course correction. I mean, we've already seen the president in his executive order on January the 20th regarding the weaponization of federal government, the personnel that he is appointing. But how can the people that were targeted by the DOJ under the Biden administration and the victims of the weaponization of the federal government, how can they be made whole?
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. This age old question, where do I go to get my good name back? Right. It's it's there. These are these are crimes against people that are hard to to to really make right. And so I think maybe that is part of the reason why the other side is so focused on it. They understand on a primal level the grievous wrongs that were done, and they're probably operating out of a sense of fear that they will be held accountable for what they did.
SPEAKER 07 :
Meg, we've got our guest now to talk about South Korea. So unless you want to talk about South Korea, I'll let you.
SPEAKER 11 :
I can't wait to hear the guest.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. All right. Meg Kilgannon, thanks so much for joining us. All right. Do we have him now? Okay. All right. So we don't have it. Okay. All right. This is the joys of live programming. So we're going to see if we can get connected with him. There's some issues there with our connections. But again, let me jump back here to South Korea. When we look at the parallels, we talked about this a while back when this was first unfolding, but it's continued. And we need to be aware, especially when you look at South Korea's spiritual history and the vibrancy of the church and what's been happening over there, and then all of a sudden it just began to implode. And The conservative, progressive, liberal, whatever you want to call it, leftist, have been fighting and taking their fragile democratic government really to the edge. And so anyway, it's something I think we need to keep an eye on while we're looking at domestic issues, looking at issues in the Middle East and elsewhere. All right. We're almost out of time in this segment. And when we come back, we're going to talk about some good news. All right. You want some good news? Good news is that the NFL is responding to a group of pro-family leaders and legislators from the state of Louisiana regarding the halftime show in the upcoming Super Bowl. So we're going to be joined by state senator, Louisiana State Senator Valerie Hodges next, to share their response to this letter and a commitment. We'll see if they hold to that commitment. But nonetheless, they're listening. We could be in a moment of sea change where we see a lot of things shifting. All right, don't go away. We're back with more Washington Watch after this.
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Have you ever been to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.? Well, now you have a special reason to be there on Wednesday, February 5th. First, you can take part in the third annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. God's ways are higher than our ways. The Lord clearly reveals in Scripture any nation that genuinely worships Him is a nation with leaders willing to repent and ask forgiveness for sins. The NGPR is a unique public gathering where scores of congressional leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, join with international leaders representing more than 50 nations for one sole purpose.
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Forgive our nations against you and you alone have we sinned.
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You can be there in the room to pray along with members of Congress, dignitaries from other nations, and Christian leaders from across the U.S. The NGPR is hosted by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Dr. Jim Garlow, founder of Well-Versed World, along with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and former Congresswoman Michelle Buchman. Right after the prayer and repentance gathering, participants will move to the World Stage Theater for a private update on important events happening in Israel. and watch a preview of the historic new documentary on the Megiddo Mosaic, the most remarkable archeological find in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is truly one of a kind opportunity to learn what's going on behind the scenes in Israel and how it could affect the whole world. Both of these Bible honoring events require tickets. Go to PrayDC.org, register today to attend in person on February 5th. As a bonus, your ticket grants you a free admission to experience the rest of the Museum of the Bible. Seating is limited for both events. Go to PrayDC.org to get tickets today.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us on this Thursday. Well, in just 10 days, the Super Bowl will be in New Orleans. And this year, there's some good news for families across the country. After concerns were raised over past halftime performances featuring explicit content, event organizers have confirmed that the Super Bowl, Super Bowl 59, their halftime show will be a family-friendly event. So will this be the year that families won't have to switch the channel when it's halftime? Could this be a pivotal point going forward for the Super Bowl? Joining me now to discuss this, Louisiana State Senator Valerie Hodges, who led Louisiana lawmakers and pro-family groups in addressing this issue to get this commitment. Senator Hodges, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you for having me, Tony. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. So it's always good to have some good news. Tell us about the response that you received to the letter.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, we got a I didn't know whether to really expect a response or not. We sent the letter on the 16th and all the press releases went out on Monday and they were very quick to respond. After that, we got a letter from Jay Cicero saying, who is the CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. And he issued a statement in response to the letter that I was very, very excited about and impressed by. And I don't know if you want to read the response, but I have it in front of me. No, go ahead and read it, Valerie. Okay, it says, he wrote, we respect and value the comments of our legislators who play a critical role in our ability to secure large events, providing an economic boost to our city and our state, Cicero said. We have shared the letter with the NFL, and we are all in agreement that this year's halftime show will be a family-friendly event befitting New Orleans' storied history hosting Super Bowls. And I was very, very pleased with that. He recognizes that the legislature does contribute greatly to this event and that we're all excited about the event being here in Louisiana and that it should be a family-friendly event. And he agreed that the NFL would do something about it. So we'll see.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I know it's a trust but verify as we look at this. But it's encouraging that they responded to it. There's recognition there's a problem. They're now on the record saying that we want to see this as well. And, of course, we also know I've been in touch with the the head of the Louisiana State Police, as well as the attorney general in Louisiana. And they are going to be watching a lot of the, whether or not laws are violated. They're also going to be addressing the issue that you and I talked about earlier in the week, and that was the issue of human trafficking, which is at its peak around such events as the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER 13 :
Correct. And I thought... the quote that was released was through the Louisiana Illuminator. And I posted the response from Mr. Cicero and the link to the article from the Louisiana Illuminator on my Facebook. It's Valerie Hodges State Senate page. And I want to ask your listeners to go to that and look at it, read the letter, read the response. And the article was really a good article. And they even referenced at the end the fact that the NFL and Roger Goodell still, They signed a contract last year with, I think, I don't remember, J.C., J.Z., that was accused of rape. And I don't know where that court case is. But these are not issues that we can any longer ignore. We've seen the issues that are going on across the nation with the... with P. Diddy, I'll just say it. And so this is not appropriate behavior, and it's certainly not appropriate behavior at one of the largest sports venues in the nation of the year. And so that's what we're hoping, that they will take the letter into account and make some changes. And that's all we're asking is family-appropriate halftime shows.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. I mean, everybody's watching a sports event, and next thing you know, you've got a script show. The good thing about this, you pointed out, when you look at everything that's happening across the country, is that you have... Corporate America is taking note of the last election. They've been taking note of the grassroots efforts pushing back against their woke DEI policies. And so I think sports is not immune from that. They've been bitten by that as well. And I think when you look at this in context... It was a great time to weigh in and ask for them to clean up their act because I think that's the moment we are in. So hopefully this will not just be for this Super Bowl, but maybe we change and raise the standard going forward.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I believe that, Tony, and it's time for our voices to be heard. And they've been, a few have spoken up, I think, even though, so many people told me, I'll never watch the halftime shows. I'm not even going to watch the Super Bowl anymore. Well, that affects their advertisers. The advertisements, the... the ads are great, that they spend a lot of money. But then when people turn off the television or they switch the channel, that's hurting their viewers, their viewership and the advertiser. So I'm hoping they take this into account. This is not a small handful of people. Everywhere I go in the last this last week, people have come up to me, gone out of their way to thank me for the letter and say because they said, thank goodness somebody is saying what we all feel. And there's And that's the thing, that when you have got 18 legislators, you have got national groups like your group, other groups, statewide groups, local groups, this is a large majority of people who are expressing the same thing. And, hopefully, they are listening, according to what Mr. Cicero said, and that they have agreed to make it family-friendly. And this is what America wants. This is who we are. We are people of dignity. And I believe we have moral values. And there are places to go if you want to see a strip show or pole dancing. But the Super Bowl is not the place to do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, let's play football. All right, Valerie Hodges, thanks for joining us. Great to see you. Good work.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good to see you, too.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, folks, coming up next, we'll discuss the latest developments following the Reagan Airport disaster last night. So stay tuned. Don't go anywhere.
SPEAKER 04 :
As President-elect Donald Trump's second inauguration approached, a powerful prayer gathering took place in Washington, D.C., drawing Christians together to intercede for our nation.
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The church does not recapture its prophetic zeal. It will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. God help us to recapture that prophetic zeal.
SPEAKER 10 :
This is not an interreligious service. We will not be praying to Allah or Buddha. We'll be praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We're talking to God, a holy, righteous, just God from a nation that desperately needs the touch of this God.
SPEAKER 09 :
We've not been a secular nation. We don't want to be a secular nation. We've been a nation built around God, and our history shows that.
SPEAKER 04 :
The well-versed and family research council led the inauguration praise and prayer convocation, urging attendees to pray for the incoming presidential administration and for the church to embody holiness and righteousness, champion biblical justice, and proclaim truth prophetically.
SPEAKER 07 :
Lord, may this not be the end, but may this be the beginning, this convocation, this gathering. And may we commit to pray and to seek you and to walk in your word and in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council here in Washington, D.C. Behind me is one of the most recognizable buildings in all the world, the U.S. Capitol. What does it stand for? Well, most people say government. But you know, the Bible talks about four institutions of government. You know what they are? And do we have a republic or a democracy? Well, what do you say? Also, what about this saying separation of church and state? Does that mean Christians shouldn't be involved in government? Guess what? We address those issues and more in our new God and Government course. I invite you to join us to see what the historical record and the Bible has to say about government. Join us for God and Government.
SPEAKER 05 :
Download the new Stand Firm app for Apple and Android phones today and join a wonderful community of fellow believers. We've created a special place for you to access news from a biblical perspective, read and listen to daily devotionals, pray for current events and more. Share the Stand Firm app with your friends, family and church members and stand firm everywhere you go.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us. Be sure and get your first 100-day toolkit. You can get it by texting TOOLKIT to 67742. Our word for today comes from Jeremiah chapter four, where Jeremiah reflects upon the prophetic message he has received. Oh my soul, my soul, I am pained in my very heart. My heart makes a noise in me. I cannot hold my peace because you have heard, oh my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried for the whole land is plundered. Suddenly my tents are plundered and my curtain in a moment. As followers of Christ, if we are following him and we are in his word, we will see the words of warning from the Lord unfolding right before our eyes. It is a burden to see and it should grieve us to see the steady drumbeat of our nation marching toward destruction because of our rejection of God and his word. Understand the reality of hell as the coming judgment for all who do not repent. We should be motivated to issue the same warnings as Jeremiah with passion. Repent and return to the Lord. To find out more about our journey through the Bible, text Bible to 67742. That's Bible to 67742. Recovery operations are underway now following last night's mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas, which killed all 67 people aboard both aircrafts. At least 28 bodies, including all three soldiers who were on the helicopter, had been recovered from the icy waters of the Potomac River near D.C. when the collision took place last night at 8.48 p.m. Eastern. Now, many right now are searching for answers in what do we know so far and what steps can be taken to prevent something like this from occurring again. Joining me now to discuss this, Congressman Troy Nels, who serves on the Judiciary Committee as well as the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where he is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Aviation. He represents the 22nd District of Texas. Congressman Nels, welcome to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thank you, Tony. Good to be with you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. So what's the latest? What do we know regarding this incident that occurred last night?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, we know that there are still recovery operations continuing. You know, you had 67 lives lost, and we need to make sure that we can account for each and every one of those individuals. We know that the NTSB, they've been on the ground within a few hours of this taking place last night. I believe they're up to almost 44 people or so from the NTSB is assisting first responders and others, but they will also be the lead investigative group in this crash. So we know that there are dive teams there. The FBI has sent their response team. There are dive teams there trying to recover the black boxes You know, there's two black boxes on that aircraft. There's the data recorder and then there's the cockpit voice recorder trying to get those two black boxes recovered. And I know that the NTSB has received what they'll call like a full package, a full ATC package, which is the air traffic controller. So all the communications prior to the crash and moments after the crash are all in the hands of the NTSB, and they'll be doing their investigation. I had a briefing with them, and Chairman Graves, he's the chairman of the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. We had a briefing with NTSB a few hours ago, and they informed us on the most current information, and it's just, you know, very, very sad. when you see what took place. And now the real question is, you know, the NTSB report, how long will it take for them to, you know, to conduct an investigation and what kind of findings will there be. But I just, I encourage the NTSB and FAA to make sure that, you know, they have accurate information. It's all factual. And then we will look at that information and see if it leads to any type of recommendation. But that's what we have up to this point.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's been nearly two decades since we've had an air disaster such as this right here in our nation's capital. I would assume, being that so many in Congress are flying that same route, each week. And the skies in D.C. have become more crowded. We're seeing a lot of military aircraft, a lot of commercial aircraft. I would think all of those things are going to be looked at by members of Congress because they want to make sure that this is, in fact, made safe again.
SPEAKER 14 :
Sure. I do it every week. I fly out of Houston, Intercontinental, and I got a direct flight right into D.C.A., so I'm very familiar. with that route. They're very familiar with that airport. And so we'll have to wait. A lot of people coming up with their own opinions as to whose fault, pointing fingers, this and that. I think that's, I want to just say, maybe a little irresponsible at this time. We have to give the NTSB an opportunity to look at everything, come up with a report. And And speaking to them earlier today, they stated they could have a preliminary report, possibly within 30 days. So I think that's a step in the right direction. I don't want to see something like this be drug out where we don't know anything for 18 months, because I don't think President Trump is going to want that. He's going to want a very thorough, deliberate investigation into this. I believe that President Trump would want to have some answers and then to try to rectify any type of issues going forward to make sure something like this never happens again.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I would imagine that he's going to be pushing for that report very, very soon. Congressman Troy Nels, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate you joining us by phone. Great to talk with you.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thank you. God bless you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. Congressman Troy Nels of Texas, 22nd District. And I want to continue this discussion on last night's tragedy that took place. As Troy was saying, he flies it. I fly it every week almost as well. Same route as I fly from my home state of Louisiana into D.C. And, you know, you can't help but see the military aircraft that's around. There's a lot of it. It's also just the slightest weather issue backs up the traffic because it is so heavy coming into Reagan National. So what do we need to be looking at here? And if you look at some of the video, it looked very odd from the helicopter that collided with the jet. Joining me now to discuss this, retired Air Force Brigadier General John Teichert. He was a former command pilot with more than 2,000 hours and 38 different aircrafts. As a distinguished military career, General Teichert retired as the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. General, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 16 :
Tony, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 07 :
So what can, I know you've been discussing this with others, your contacts. What can you tell us that you have learned so far from last night's crash?
SPEAKER 16 :
Tony, very clearly there was a breakdown in deconfliction between the airliner and the helicopter. And normally when that happens, it's due to some sort of confusion or breakdown in communication. And as these mishap investigation boards stand up, one from the NTSB, one from the Army, They're going to be gathering the information. Part of that will be collecting the full tapes of the air traffic control transmissions over the course of that flight. And then those black boxes, or flight data recorders, are going to have information about what was being discussed within both of those cockpits. And I think the breakdown and deconfliction is going to tend back to a root cause of confusion or lack of communication that those pieces of evidence will help sort to reveal.
SPEAKER 07 :
JOHN YANG What do we know about the Black Hawk helicopter? What was its mission? What was it doing?
SPEAKER 16 :
Tony, any helicopter pilot that flies within the D.C. area has special training and qualifications because it is such a congested and highly prescripted area based on national security concerns. But any helicopter that flies is either performing or training to perform one of three primary missions, distinguished visitor transport. protecting Washington, D.C., from the air or responding to a national emergency. In this particular case, the Black Hawk crew was training for one of those mission sets. And in order to train, you need to fly in the airspace in a realistic way. And that's what they were doing last night.
SPEAKER 07 :
Have you seen the video that was caught that you just see the lights? It was a clear night, as the president pointed out, that you can see. And it just appears that the helicopter just flew right into the airplane. It is.
SPEAKER 16 :
That aircraft was on a very predictable, slow and vulnerable part of its approach from the south to the north at DCA. And clearly that helicopter, for whatever reason, did not see that aircraft, was not provided deconfliction help by air traffic control. And you're right. You see a very fast vector from the left to the right that slams the helicopter into the aircraft that initiated this tragedy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Have the skies over our nation's capital become too congested?
SPEAKER 16 :
It is worth the discussion, Tony. And several legislatures have had this discussion already as the number of flights out of DCA grows. And you think about those number of flights and then all of the helicopter traffic that is only there for first response law enforcement or military purposes. But it is such a tight area of airspace because of the population and the limits based on national security that it is worth having a full discussion about whether there is too much traffic in and out of DCA and to reassess the processes, procedures and techniques of military and law enforcement aircraft to make sure that there's no unnecessary missions going on in that airspace.
SPEAKER 07 :
So, General, as you point out, the three reasons for them to be flying missions there are, We've seen an increase in the commercial air traffic because every time the FAA is reauthorized, we see more slots created for D.C. because it makes it convenient for those of us who fly into D.C., for members of Congress. But also, we live in a different time. Increasingly, the security threats to our nation's capital have increased. So is that also a part of... creating a greater need for those assets to be in the air in our nation's capital.
SPEAKER 16 :
Tony, part of the answer is yes. But we have two very capable airports in the D.C. area, one up in Maryland, BWI, one out at Dulles, that could handle some of this traffic. And we need to be careful that we're not trading in convenience and creating risk like seemingly happened last night. And, you know, the investigators First, we will preserve perishable evidence. Second, they will figure out what happened. But, most importantly, they will get to the root cause of why it happened, so that we can update procedures, policies, techniques and airspace, so that nothing like this happens again. That's their primary charge. And I think part of that assessment is going to be air traffic control and the amount of volume of traffic both at DCA and those other missions around the D.C. area.
SPEAKER 07 :
Now, I know no one wants to jump to conclusions on this because there is an investigation, and I'm sure it will be thorough. Again, I think this will be investigated very, very closely because it is in our nation's capital, and so many members of Congress are directly touched by this. But some have said, and there's certainly reason and justification to say it, that when you look at both the commercial, the FAA, and you look at the military, there's been such a misplaced focus on non-essential services. skill sets, DEI, that it could distract from the necessary training that is needed to make people proficient in their jobs. Is that justified?
SPEAKER 16 :
Tony, I have seen some of that distraction in the DOD during the last four years. And we see now a president and a secretary of defense who are insisting that we get back to a constitutionally grounded, mission-focused, merit-based system within the national security sphere. And we heard some of that from the president about air traffic controllers as well. And we think about how diversity has been elevated during the last four years to the sacrifice of unity and shared purpose. And I have seen many in the military who have lamented the fact that we have drifted away from the focus that the military is there to be lethal and ready because of all these other distractive elements. And now it is very welcome amongst the vast majority of the military members to get back to a focus on the mission and a focus back on merit-based elevation.
SPEAKER 07 :
General Teichert, it's sad that it requires a tragedy to bring us back to focus on what is essential. I mean, I can cite several recent examples going back to July of this last year, President Trump nearly then died. former President Trump, nearly assassinated because there was issues in the Secret Service. We're looking at California that's been on fire because their fire department looked at DEI as opposed to fighting fires. And now we see, and I hope it's not the case, but there's enough to point to it that that's probably a contributing factor to what happened last night.
SPEAKER 16 :
Tony, I think you're right. And I think the breakdown in law enforcement in New Orleans over New Year's is one of those same types of situations where when you focus on things other than the mission, then you're naturally going to have the opportunity cost where you are less professional, less capable and less able to handle the situations that are demanded by the mission. And we see it in a variety of areas in our country. And I really do hope, whether you take that away from this accident or not, that we recognize that institutions are there to accomplish a mission. And when you don't focus on that mission, then there are harms that will result from the distraction that is a part of those lack of focus and lack of unity.
SPEAKER 07 :
It unfortunately is the reality. It just is. General Teichert, I want to thank you for joining us and appreciate your insights on this.
SPEAKER 16 :
Thanks as always, Tony.
SPEAKER 07 :
And folks, that's another matter of prayer. We just need to be praying that our nation would move back to operating in truth, common sense, constitution, truth, so that the mission of our government becomes its focus, its real mission is its mission. Right, out of time for today. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, I leave you once again with the encouraging words of the Apostle Paul found in Ephesians 6, where he says, when you've done everything you can do, when you've prayed, when you've prepared, and when you've taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
Join the National Crawford Roundtable as they provide an insightful analysis of President Donald Trump's policies during his first week in power. The conversation touches on border security, deportation of illegal immigrants, and the socio-political dynamics surrounding these issues. The episode balances lighter moments, like the hosts sharing their thoughts on recent NFL events, with serious political debate, offering listeners a well-rounded understanding of the intersection of faith and culture. Advertisements from sponsors provide avenues for listeners to engage with supportive health and pro-life services.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events, and politics through a biblical lens brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and buy SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
Back with another week of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast. We got the guys, of course. John Rush, Rush to Reason, Denver, Colorado. Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live, Buffalo, New York. Myself, Bob Duco. Guys, how are you? Great, Bob. Well, not so great.
SPEAKER 03 :
How you doing there, Neil? Not so great.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, me too.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's like, no, it wasn't supposed to go this way. No. Bill's Lions would have been the game of the century. It would have had unbelievable viewership. I think literally people are not going to watch because they're so tired of the Chiefs thing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, that's me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Neil, I got to ask you what I asked John before we started recording. And by the way, I never in a million years thought that the Lions would be beat by the Redskins. And that's right. I'm calling them the Redskins. They're not the commanders to me. Personally, I think that I'll bet you sometime within the next 10 years, they're called the Redskins again. I wouldn't be a bit surprised. But anyway, I just didn't think that would happen. And the same thing with the Bills. But now that it is... KC and Philly. All right. KC does have a chance for a three-peat. That's never happened in the history of the NFL.
SPEAKER 02 :
Unless it doesn't.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm with you, John. Neil, isn't there a case for going, okay, let's go ahead and at least have the Super Bowl be an historic Super Bowl? No. What's wrong with having a new dynasty and a three-peat that's never happened before? Bob, think with your brain, not your heart, bro. Seriously.
SPEAKER 03 :
Come on, man. Thank you. Thank you, Neil.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. Words I very rarely ever have to defend. Exactly. The good news is Bob does have a heart, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
He does.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, he does. Hey, look, you find your truth, I find my truth, okay? That's your truth, this is my truth, all right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Really quick, Neil, this is a true NFC guy saying this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, I know.
SPEAKER 02 :
If he was in the AFC, he wouldn't be saying this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, not at all. Not if you saw these guys on a regular basis. It's the evil empire, man. Bring them down. That's right. Thank you, Neil. For all that's good and right in the world, take them down.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'll tell you what. If Darth Vader wins two in a row, then it's like, all right, go for the three-peat. Okay, so I don't know. I like the idea of, okay, well then if it stinks because we didn't have who we wanted, then okay, let's at least have some history being made.
SPEAKER 03 :
Bob, you know what? Here's what you do. Forget about the Super Bowl. Just watch a Hallmark movie and everything. Yeah, there you go. Here we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, hey, just so you know, hate's not a family value. I'm going to get a bumper sticker. I'm going to get a coexist bumper sticker that has the Chiefs logo and the Lions logo and the Bills logo and all that kind of stuff and put it on the back of my car.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is wrong.
SPEAKER 02 :
We should, though, congratulate Crawford Corporate because they are definitely Eagle fans. So, guys, if you're listening, congratulations.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, here we go. They got a chance to win another one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, guys, why don't you trash the daylights out of the Eagles? Come on, let's go. Let's do it. I think Mr. Crawford's listening.
SPEAKER 02 :
Go ahead. You know what? If they can beat the Chiefs, I'm all in.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I'm a forever Eagles fan if they beat the Chiefs.
SPEAKER 04 :
Please do it. All right, well, I'm going out on a limb. I'm not a Chiefs fan, but because of the three-peat possibility, I'm rooting for the Chiefs. Bob, you're disappointing me. Well, those are my feelings. Don't invalidate them. Okay. Let's send him a teddy bear, John, seriously. Yeah, there we go. There we go, Neil. I want one from Vermont, okay? Actually, I need an emotional support puppy after the Lions lost, so... All right. This week we are going to know it's not going to be the sports show this week. We're going to talk about a few different things. First of all, Donald Trump's first full week in office. He's been a week and a half now and pushing two weeks. But some of the things that he's been doing so far, I mean, the arrest and deportations of illegal alien criminals. And yes, criminals. I'm also kind of curious what you guys think of Caroline Leavitt, the new press secretary. I thought she was pretty impressive. But he's rebuilding the border wall now, ending DEI and military and government, securing a trillion dollars in private investment into the U.S., reinstituting the Mexico City policy on abortion. So he has been so busy in this first week. But then we'll also get into talking about birthright citizenship. Is that unconstitutional to end that? Does the Constitution actually say that if you're born in the United States, you're automatically a citizen? End of discussion. Does it actually really say that? No, there's a caveat, and we'll debate that. And then if we get time, we'll get into some Bitcoin crypto discussions and, you know, how should Christians look at cryptocurrencies since Donald Trump has certainly gravitated to at large. Let's start with Trump's first week, though. And, Neil, if I could start with you, your thoughts. Well, I'll tell you what. Actually, tell you what I want to do. I'm going to start with you, John, instead first. Okay. Let's talk about the illegal alien criminals. And Caroline Leavitt, in talking with the media, she's like, no, they are criminals. You come here illegally, you committed a crime, okay? You're a criminal. And there is this assumption, John, that because the liberal left and the media says, no, this is a civil infraction, therefore it's not accurate to call them criminals. No, if you violate the law, if you violate federal law, then you have committed a federal crime. Just because the left tries to use the semantics of it's not really a crime. Well, yes, it is. And so I'm glad that she's reclaiming Webster's Dictionary.
SPEAKER 02 :
I wish you'd even add to that that, you know, this whole narrative over the past, gosh, guys, decade, decades, plural, where we've tried to change that into, you know, migrants or, in other words, changing the name. Undocumented. what you're talking about. And I wish there, and maybe she will, most likely will at some point, I wish she'd come out and basically say that. It's like, you know, because of you guys, the press, and a lot of the folks on the left, we have even relabeled these individuals and not really talking about what they really are and what they've really done. And the reality is we need to start calling it what it is. They're here illegally. We're all for legal immigration. Let's do it correctly. You guys know my thoughts on that. It needs a revamp. I think we need a merit-based system. Not sure that that's on the table with Trump. I hope it is. Regardless, at the end of the day, you cannot cross the border and just waltz on in.
SPEAKER 04 :
You can't. And by the way, you know, John, I played on my show here in Detroit. I played an audio clip of somebody saying in 2009 when Barack Obama was president, this somebody said – When we call them words like undocumented, OK, then we're giving justification for their coming here illegally. No, they are illegal. OK, they are illegal aliens and they cannot come into this country legally. They are illegal. And so it's like, who said that? That was Chuck Schumer. who said he went on this big rant about, stop calling them words like undocumented, okay? They are illegal aliens. They are here illegally. Bill Clinton in his 1995 State of the Union address, you can watch the video of this, he stood up calling them illegal aliens and said they are illegal aliens, and they are here illegally, and they must go because they're taking jobs away from our people here in the United States. And when he said that, You watch the video. He got a standing ovation. Both sides, Republicans and Democrats, stood up and gave him a standing ovation. This is what's happened to today's Democrat Party. This is how radical and extreme they've become. Caroline Levitt's absolutely right. And let me ask you about this. Neil, because first of all, I want to get your take on this and Caroline Levitt and, of course, the deporting of the illegals and getting back to calling them illegals. But before you do that, talk to us a little bit about SunPowerLED because we very much appreciate the sponsors to this podcast. We appreciate that. We want our listeners to support these sponsors. And with SunPowerLED, it's really a win-win because our listeners are helping themselves, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. No doubt about it. And I really think that this first week of Trump's presidency has been marked by collective sighs of relief all over the country where people are feeling like people are that somebody is finally dealing with common sense again, that we've gotten back to what makes sense. And, you know, RFK is going to be. We're recording this on Wednesday morning. He's going through his confirmation hearings and everybody's going to be going after him who can go after him. He's Trump's appointment to lead health and human services. But he's a guy that says, listen, big pharma doesn't have your best interest at heart. They're out to make money. They're a drug company. They want to keep you on drugs and keep you on drugs for the rest of your life. Right. There is a possibility that the federal government and Big Pharma in the past have kind of held hands together to make this about profit and not actually the health of the American people. Well, red light therapy from SunPower LED can actually heal you of... All kinds of problems. I mean, there's arthritis that people are dealing with. There's post-surgical injuries, migraine headaches, and we'll talk more about it later in the podcast. But the bottom line is relief is available by using the very light God himself created. Learn about it. Go to sunpowerled at crawfordmediagroup.net. Sun, S-U-N, power, L-E-D at crawfordmediagroup.net.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I can tell you from firsthand experience, this really does work. I mean, the photobiomodulation is incredible technology. And so definitely, folks, go to SunPowerLED to check it out for yourself. And another one of our sponsors of this podcast, of course, is Preborn. And Preborn has done so much to save babies' lives across this country. You know what they do? They stop abortions from happening. They do. Because Preborn has ultrasound machines in pro-life centers across the country. They're the ones who show ultrasound images of unborn babies to expectant moms. And when a mom sees a picture of her baby, she chooses life. She lets her baby live. And she usually accepts Jesus Christ as Savior. I would love to say that every single pro-life center in America has an ultrasound machine in it. Unfortunately, not all of them do, okay? The demand is higher than the supply. And that's why we're asking everybody in the audience right now, will you provide ultrasound images for these moms to see pictures of their baby? You can do this one of two ways. Option A, buy an ultrasound machine. That's right. $15,000 is what they cost. 100% of what you give goes to the ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. But $15,000, it's a nice tax write-off for you. Your forever legacy will be you're stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year after year. Now, for everybody else who says, oh, I can't afford to buy one, okay, fine. Pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion. So take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, that's the number of abortions you stop. That's your forever legacy. And 100% of what you give goes to fund ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. Please go right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn, and you can give right there. And if you want to give over the phone, they answer the phones 24-7, 833-850-BABY. Just call right now, 833-850-BABY. Mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call as we continue through this podcast. So, Neal, what is your take on the... First of all, Caroline Leavitt, the job that she's doing, but also Trump deporting the illegals. He's focusing on the criminals, those that are committing additional crimes here. But as Caroline Leavitt says, they're all criminals. You're here illegally. You committed a crime. It's just degree of crime that you committed.
SPEAKER 03 :
They all should go. Yeah, and I don't know if you saw the Selena Gomez thing, you know, bawling her eyes out about all the babies that are going to be harmed by this, the children, etc. They were rounding up gang members, thugs, criminals, people that have committed crimes in other countries who also committed a crime by coming to our country illegally. And so when I mentioned the collective sigh of relief, I just personally in my own heart felt like, wow, somebody's finally doing something about this. And there were a variety of other things that we'll talk about as the podcast goes on. But I think, you know, this common sense revolution, as they termed the new Trump presidency, is where the American people are at. And we're tired of living the way that we were living. And, you know, just one quick example. I live in a neighborhood. That's very middle class, suburban, outside Buffalo, near the University of Buffalo. Beginning to become more multicultural, but it's just kind of your average American suburb. Just down the road from me, though, they put in a group home a few years ago. And it ministers to the needs of people that have developmental disabilities. Okay. Well, you know, everybody says that's a great thing. We should have homes where you deal with people that have developmental disabilities, give them opportunities to live together, work productively. Some of them go to jobs, you know, whatever. And they walk through our neighborhood and we've gotten to know some of them. But the point is... Man, you say you're bringing one of these things into our neighborhood, and all of a sudden people show up at the town board meeting complaining like, okay, yeah, well, these things are great, but not where I live. How many people want criminals from other countries living next door to them? Because that's exactly what this illegal immigration thing, the crisis at the southern border, has fostered. And the American people didn't want it. Some polls said it was the number one issue. It outpaced the economy. And it actually propelled Trump to victory. I think people want common sense. They want the criminals to go home. And we're not talking about four-year-olds. We're talking about criminals who are part of violent drug gangs and are bringing fentanyl into our country. Get them out and keep up the good work. I'm very impressed by what's happened so far.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, John, I'm also curious to get your take on, as part of the deportations that Trump is doing, what happened with Colombia. I mean, this was really a remarkable thing to see, that the president of Colombia comes out and tries to stand up to Donald Trump, tries to play hardball with him, says, we're not letting your planes land. Trump, as you know, came out and said, all right, guess what, everybody? Colombia, you got a 25 percent tariff on all Colombian products coming into the U.S. Oh, and by the way, after one week, that goes up to 50 percent. And here's the other steps that we're taking as far as government officials rescinding visas. And we're going to look to closing the Colombian embassy in the U.S. And I mean, just starts. And by the way, this would. have such financially destroyed Colombia to have these tariffs, to not be able to export products to the U.S., it was only within a few hours that he basically went, okay, just kidding. Yeah, you can land. Then he still tried to talk tough to save face, but the bottom line is like, okay, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
One hour.
SPEAKER 04 :
You can go ahead and adopt them. Not one day.
SPEAKER 02 :
It was one hour. I was thinking it was like two or three.
SPEAKER 04 :
One hour. Wow. John, that is a display of strength on the world stage. That's the huge contrast between him and Biden.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, because all Trump had to do was rattle off a few things that we as a country could do to them. And literally, within one hour, this guy's thinking – which, by the way, smart guy at least. I mean, at least he's thinking to himself, ooh, wow. That's probably not the right play here. I guess we should probably, you know, let's reverse that and let's play ball like we need to because otherwise this could get really damaging to us.
SPEAKER 04 :
This guy is not Biden.
SPEAKER 02 :
Exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, by the way, can I clarify something just in case? Yeah. Because I don't know, when I talked about the group home in our neighborhood, I was in favor of it. Just, you know, we embrace that kind of thing. So just to be clear, and there are people that embrace that, but the average homeowner, Just listen to what happens at a town board meeting when you say that something like that is going to come into your neighborhood. All of a sudden, these people that care about all these wonderful lovey-dovey values say, not in my neighborhood, not near my property, and they change their tune. Well, most of the people that are saying, oh, yeah, the border is not a real big problem. I don't really care about that, until you find out. You've got a gang member living next door to you. all of a sudden the attitude changes and i think the american people have having seen a number of murders and other crimes committed by the people who already committed crimes to get here they're right waking up to the reality that this is a problem and it needs to be dealt with and there's breathing a sigh of relief that trump's taking care of it that's the point i was trying and really quick and i know you don't want to back up either uh but neil you brought up some some great points and i think some of that by the way a fact that people really are paying attention and
SPEAKER 02 :
One of the biggest reasons why, you know, Donald Trump is president of the United States today. We saw what happened here in Aurora just this last weekend, where, by the way, in our you guys don't see it this way because, you know, not everybody sees everything outside of a state news wise. But, you know, keep in mind here in Colorado, we had our governor. We had all sorts of other elected officials. We had folks from Aurora. We had Aurora PD, mayor, city council, a lot of the news stations here in the Denver area, basically saying all of us as conservatives talking about this apartment building taken over by this gang, the things that were going on in Aurora, the fact that this illegal activity was even going on in these really rough, let's face it, these are like the baddest of the bad gang members areas. from, you know, that area were here doing what they were doing. And we basically got poo-pooed and told, yeah, you guys are crazy. You don't know what you're talking about. They downplayed that thing so big until last Sunday. Yeah, it's a good point.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I'm curious, too. The border wall is being rebuilt now. The Trump administration put out images of panels being put back up. Gaps are being closed. Okay, fine. The Marines working on it, by the way. I know. But you know what's interesting about this, John, is that I'm wondering where the outrage from the left and from the media is. Because when Trump was trying to build the wall in his first term, all we heard was countless meltdown of cliches like we need to build bridges, not walls. That's racist. That's xenophobic. You know, whatever. We heard that repeatedly. There was just shock and outrage, which we know was a lie from them because those very same Democrats previously during Obama's term, funded border wall building. So they just acted like they were outraged by this. But now it's the very same wall being put up by the very same Donald Trump. Yet we're not seeing a bunch of shock and outrage from the liberal left over this. So whatever happened to a wall is an evil thing. Whatever happened to let's build bridges, not wall. Why are we not hearing any of these cliches right now? They're just kind of talking about other things while Trump quietly does this.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it's because they're up against the reality that the American people have seen the light. It was like they were all for telling us that Joe Biden was perfectly fit to serve as president until we all saw that he wasn't. And I just think people in America, by and large, not everyone for sure, there's some radical fringe groups that still think an open border would be a great idea. But the average American has now seen that this is real and crimes like the one John just talked about in Aurora, Colorado, are actually happening and more are going to happen. And who knows, you know, what other terrorists have walked into our country who are part of sleeper cells and who knows what's being planned. But the effort is to root these people out. And I think the vast majority of the American people see it as a common sense act. And you can't raise an argument against that. People are seeing it with their own eyes and they know it makes sense.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, absolutely. So Trump has been super busy in this first week. I mean, my goodness, the stuff that he's got done. You've got 7,300 illegals deported in just the first week alone. He's shooting for a goal right now of 1,200 to 1,500 a day. But I've got to imagine Tom Homan is like, that's too small of a number.
SPEAKER 02 :
Bob, I want to add to that, too, because there will be some folks out there that will tell you, well, you know, behind the scenes, the Biden regime, they were deporting illegal aliens as well and this, that, and the other. And the reality is I highly doubt that they're the same type of illegal aliens that were going back. And I think it's really important to shine light on the fact that Donald Trump is sending back the baddest of the bad, not just any illegal. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
There's something else that Trump, I think he deserves a lot of credit for, and of course the press isn't going to give this to him, but that's the amount of investment into the United States that he's been securing. Look, any governor of any state, one of the things a lot of people don't know about governors is that their job is to convince governors. businesses, including foreign businesses, to invest in their state. Hey, build a plant in our state. Build this in our state. Hire people in our state. That's why governors actually will go on international trips because they're salespeople. They're trying to bring business to their state, while Trump on a national level He got he's he's had now close to a trillion dollars in investments into in proposed investments now into the United States from this Japanese billionaire from the from Saudi Arabia as well. And I got it. John, you're a businessman. OK, you've owned businesses for years. You run employees for years there. To me, this is a huge thing that Donald Trump has been able to secure this because, you know what, it's not a trillion dollar infrastructure plan of taxpayer money. It's a trillion dollar tech technology infrastructure plan from private money and from other countries that are outsourcing their jobs to the United States. How in the world can that not be celebrated?
SPEAKER 02 :
It should be because it's directly opposite of what we typically see where companies will offshore and send things out of the country to get things done. And as you guys know, what that does, of course, is it drains the economy of the U.S. to a degree, and it helps out other entities just like this is in reverse. To your point, Bob, these are other entities. other countries, other entities that are now going to bring their resources, their dollars, if you would, here, invest it here. And as you guys all know, I hate to use the word trickle-down economics, but the reality is it's true. I mean, the trickle effect of them coming in here and doing whatever it is they're going to do, building plants, building this, building that, just the investment alone, you know, that ripple effect that goes out into all sorts of other industries, which, you know, we could talk a little bit about what happened even on Monday with, you know, China's AI, you know, situation, which, by the way, I think is total BS, but that's another conversation maybe for another podcast. And I think more of that will come out in the weeks ahead. But the reality is all of that type of investment and And even the brick and mortar that comes from all of that at the end of the day definitely helps out the economy. No, I know. I know.
SPEAKER 04 :
And by the way, Neil, we got just about 60 seconds left. But so real quick, because we've got a lot more to talk about this in the second half. SunPower LED. We want our listeners to enjoy all the benefits of this completely natural way of healing and getting out of pain.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, you know, what's been discovered is that light waves, if they make it inside your body, utilizing what's called near-infrared technology, near-infrared light, super high-powered LED, it can't burn your skin. It has no UV. You know, this is not like getting a sunburn. But it can penetrate your skin and get to the cell, and that light can wake up the cell to do what it was created to do, literally regenerate. reminding the mitochondria to get busy and to wake up, and it can supercharge, energize the cells to do what they were created to do. The end result is it reduces pain and swelling in your body, and as a result of that, promotes healing. So people with migraine headaches and arthritis, it's been used for individuals who've dealt with seizures over a long period of time, chronic back pain. I've used it for a variety of reasons, which I'll be talking about here on the roundtable. and it has been phenomenal. Just simply using the light God himself created to heal the human body. You can check it out by going to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Sun Power LED button. That's S-U-N, like sun in the sky. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, Sun Power LED, and find out how the light God himself created can be used to help heal your body, Bob. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
And remember, folks, Preborn as well is standing by ready to take your gift to save babies' lives. And remember, if you can pay for some of these ultrasounds, you're going to save babies' lives. Stop the moms from getting abortions, okay? We need more ultrasounds in pro-life centers across the country. So can you buy an ultrasound machine? They're $15,000 apiece. Nice tax write-off for you. And your forever legacy is thousands and thousands of abortions that would have happened aren't happening thanks to you. Okay. Year after year after year. And for everybody else, if you can't do that, can you pay for an individual number of ultrasound images? $28 saves one baby's life. That's the ultrasound expense to stop one abortion. So take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that's your forever legacy of the number of abortions that you stopped. Okay. And so, and a hundred percent of anything you give to preborn goes to ultrasounds. They have a private In private donations, pay for all of their overheads. So that means anything you give, 100% goes to the ultrasound. So here's how you give. Go right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. You can give right there. Or they answer the phones 24-7. So just call 833-850-BABY, 833-850-BABY. And you can give over the phone. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. And we're going to continue our discussion in the second half. Talk a little bit more about Trump's first week, but ending birthright citizenship as well and the controversy surrounding that. If we get time, maybe a little Bitcoin talk as well. So second half of the National Crawford Roundtable coming up next.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 04 :
Continue in the second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast with Neil Boron. Neil Boron live out of Buffalo. We didn't make it to the Super Bowl, New York. John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Bob, let's just don't talk about the Lions Duco here out of Detroit. Guys, we've been talking about Trump's first week. Let's shift it to the birthright citizenship discussion right now. And I want to give you some of my thoughts on this, first of all. We have been told by the liberal left and by much of the media and the Democrats that what Donald Trump is doing is absolutely unconstitutional. A judge has blocked this already. The Supreme Court is going to have to decide. But it's just not true that the 14th Amendment... only says anybody born in the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen. End of discussion. What it actually says is all persons are naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens. So now, what does it mean, and are subject to the jurisdiction thereof? Now, the liberal left, what they're saying is, Well, that means that if they're here in the United States, even though they may be here illegally, they're subject to our laws. That means that they're subject to our jurisdiction. And so, therefore, that means our children will automatically be citizens. That's how they're interpreting that. The conservatives are saying, no, what that means is that if you're born in another country, You still owe your allegiance and subject to the jurisdiction of your original country. OK, that's what that's referring to. So now the question is, which constitutional legal scholars are right? I would argue the conservative legal scholars are right in this. And I'll tell you why. Just some basic common sense. And I'm not even a lawyer. OK, but let's think about this logically for a moment. If this was saying any human being born on U.S. soil under any circumstances is automatically a U.S. citizen, if that's what they meant by that, what is the purpose of even saying and subject to the jurisdiction thereof? Why not just say anyone born in the United States is a citizen? End of discussion. No, this was an 1868 argument. ratifying of the 14th Amendment, and it was for the purpose of addressing slavery. Because slaves that were here, most of the slaves that were here, were children of previous slaves that were here, who were children of previous slaves that were here, and they didn't have automatic citizenship. This was a way to rectify this for the slaves to say, you know something, you are U.S. citizens, you were born here, you're U.S. citizens. Otherwise, if this applied to anybody and everybody, there'd be no reason to have a caveat in there. And I'll take it even a step further. In 1866, you had a Civil Rights Act that the 14th Amendment played off of. And that specifically said all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power. So that's what the framers of the 14th Amendment were thinking. And I can tell you right now... That if you look at the people that are born in the United States right now, children born to diplomats here in the United States, they're not U.S. citizens. And no Democrats complain about that. Nobody says, wait a minute, that's a violation of the 14th Amendment. No. If you're a diplomat and you're here because you owe allegiance to a foreign country, you are not a U.S. citizen here. And as a matter of fact, I'll take it one step further. Native Americans, the Indians, I'm sorry, the commanders in this country, do you know that the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act specifically said that if children are only made citizens through the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, And so, therefore, you're okay. You can be citizens now. What's the purpose of that if the 14th Amendment was automatically a blanket for everybody born here in the United States? Congress recognized Indians born here in this country – They don't get automatic citizenship because the 14th Amendment doesn't apply to them. And that's why that was added. And one final thing, 1872, the slaughterhouse case, it specifically decided, and this was the Supreme Court making clear that, quote, the subject to the jurisdiction thereof excludes children unmarried. of ministers, consuls, and citizens or subjects of foreign states born within the United States. So I'm telling you, Trump and his legal team is on solid ground and precedent to say you don't automatically get citizenship if your parents happen to be here illegally. All right, that's a mouthful, but now I'd kind of like to throw it around the table a little bit. John, your thoughts on birthright citizenship?
SPEAKER 02 :
Bob, I'm not a constitutional expert by any stretch of the imagination, although I think if you look back to a lot of the things that you said and even our founders and what was going on at different times in the country and the things that they were trying to solve, I highly doubt if any of them were around today, they would agree with this side that says, well, they're born here, they're automatically citizens. I just don't see that anywhere in the makeup of the country and what the design was initially, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. And, you know, Neil, this is this is something that so many people have just been told this lie that the 14th Amendment makes it crystal clear. There's no debate. If you're born on U.S. soil, then you're automatically a citizen. Well, that's just not true. But it's amazing how many people believe that myth and even constitutional lawyers on the left. are saying, yep, that's clearly what it says. But I have yet to have one of them explain to me, then why did you have the Indian Act of 1924? What was the purpose of that? Why have the 1872 ruling as well? None of these make any sense if that's what the 14th Amendment was intended to mean.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and I, you know, the bottom line is, Bob, most people have never even read the Constitution of the United States. And I think what you're referring to as prevalent in the U.S. is the idea that there's been this common understanding, albeit, excuse me, misunderstanding of what this actually applies to. And I think Donald Trump is brilliant for, you know, going after this. I mean, if he believes that this thing is not being interpreted correctly, then go after it. come out with an executive order. He's not a dummy. He's got legal people around him. And they say, you know, people are going to push back. I think immediately, like, 22 states, you know, filed lawsuits. And constitutional lawyers on the left are saying this is blatantly unconstitutional. Okay, so what happens then? Well, it gets fought out in the courts and eventually ends up at the U.S. Supreme Court. And then somebody takes a real look at what this is from a constitutional perspective and rules on it. And it's very possible that the U.S. Supreme Court, given the makeup of the court now and their adherence to the fidelity of the original document, like what was the original meaning of this, may land exactly the way that you just described and rectify the situation and help the American people understand what was actually intended when this amendment was passed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, all right. So this is not some kind of a... you know, cruel thing where we're being really unfair to the people, you know, to the dreamers, the ones that are born here from their parents. By the way, the gals on The View and my own governor here, Gretchen Whitmer, they were actually saying yesterday on The View that this is about Donald Trump targeting brown people. Oh, my word.
SPEAKER 03 :
What's his name? Al Sharpton was saying the same thing. I know. It's like, this is...
SPEAKER 04 :
It is obscene. Neil, one of the things we very much appreciate about our listeners to this podcast is they're supporting our sponsors, of course. And one of those sponsors we've been telling you about a lot is Preborn. The other is SunPower LED. We'll talk about SunPower in just a moment. Right. Remember, folks, if you give to pre-born, you're actually saving babies' lives. You really are. You're stopping abortions from happening. Because when a mom who's pregnant sees an ultrasound image of her baby, statistically, she chooses life almost all the time. Usually accepts the Lord, too. So what we want to do is show as many ultrasound images... to moms as we can. The problem is we don't have enough ultrasound machines in pro-life centers across the country. And the ones that we do have, it costs money to operate them. That's why we're asking everybody in the audience, pay for these ultrasounds. Here's the way you do it. Option A, buy an ultrasound machine. They're 15 grand a piece. And your forever legacy is you're stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year. Okay. Option B is pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 a piece is what it costs to save one baby's life through ultrasound expenses. So $28 stops one abortion. How many abortions will you stop? Take $28 times fill in the blank. And that's your gift to pre-born. Maybe you gave last year already. Will you give another gift for 2025? And 100% of anything you give to Preborn goes to fund ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. Private donations handle overheads. You don't have to worry about that, everybody. This is Preborn. So here's how you give. Go online right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Or you can give over the phone 24-7. They answer at 833-850-BABY. Call right now, 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. And we appreciate you supporting our sponsors like Preborn, like SunPower LED. And, Neil, it is amazing what this photobiomodulation technology does in helping people naturally to get out of pain.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, using light that God himself created to heal the human body. And you say, well, how could that be? Well, stop and think about this for a second. I just had a new garage door opener installed on our home, and it's good from 120 feet-ish. So when I'm not even pulled into the driveway yet, I hit the button, I watch it go up, and it's okay. That's not rocket science. But the point is there's something happening that nobody can view with the human eye. Sonic technology, ultrasonic toothbrushes, super high-frequency waves that clean your teeth – Anyone ever fell victim to a sonic boom with a military jet flying over the house? It can knock people out of bed in the middle of the night. Well, light waves can be used to excite the cell in the human body and wake it up to do what it was created to do. So red light therapy, near infrared light, Super high power through SunPower LED can be used to reduce pain and swelling in your body and promote healing. You really need to check it out. There's actually a video online of a gentleman who was blind and today is riding around on a motorcycle. They show him before and after. It's an unbelievable story. How can light therapy help heal you? You need to check it out. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on SunPower LED. Bob?
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. So let's, in our last part of the podcast here, let's shift the discussion over to Bitcoin, crypto, things like that. You know, we've talked about this a little bit last week even, but Donald Trump, of course, embracing cryptocurrency. He even has his name attached to a new Trump coin meme that's out there now. But Bitcoin does seem to be, and this digital currency does seem to be, a technological wave of the future. And so what's going to happen with this? There's a debate among Christians about whether Bitcoin is right. Should Christians even participate in this? And two of the big criticisms I've heard, and Neil, let me ask you about this first of all, from kind of a spiritual and theological perspective, I suppose. Number one, Bitcoin is used for evil purposes. We know that. A lot of people use it for money laundering and illegal activities, of course, and corruption. And we also know that it's probably the kind of technology that the Antichrist would use to get us more toward a cashless society. But at the same time, I also know that the Internet is used for evil purposes by criminals. And my best guess is that there's a lot of technology, including credit cards, that's probably going to be used by the Antichrist to usher us toward a cashless society. So to me, I don't see... Bitcoin or AI or any other types of advanced technology, I don't see these as intrinsically good or bad. I see them as being used for good or bad. So for that reason, I don't have any qualms about Christians owning cryptocurrency. And quite frankly, I own some. But your thoughts, Neil?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, police officers use guns to protect the innocent. Criminals use them to kill the innocent. And, you know, you can use a knife to cut a steak or to stab your neighbor. I mean, anything can be used for evil. Let's keep that in mind. And I'm not very... attuned to what Bitcoin technology, cryptocurrency is all about. But I do know this, Bob, everything, every technological advance in human history in some fashion will probably end up being used in some way by the Antichrist. I mean, if the Antichrist gets in a car and drives from point A to point B, you know, the round wheels that got him there. We're a development of technology at some point along the way. Electricity, facial recognition technology, fingerprinting, all of it. The bottom line is anything can be used for evil, and I think the potential's there. What I really wouldn't want to see happen is for people to go off the rails and all of a sudden assume that, like me, something they don't understand is something to fear because that means if I don't understand it, I can't wrap my brain around it. Well, this is it. This is what the Antichrist is going to use to usher in the end times and the mark of the beast, and all of us are going to go off the rails, and Christians are going to all of a sudden be pledging allegiance to Satan. That will not happen. The Holy Spirit living within the believer is the one that gives discernment. Now, could it be a part of it? Yeah, it probably could. But pay attention, because when the moment comes where this crosses the line from a potential good device or, you know, thing to an evil thing, the Holy Spirit will be sending off warning bells, and the Word of God can lead us and guide us through these things. I don't see any reason to fear it. That's all I'm saying. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
What is your take in a general sense on cryptocurrency, on Bitcoin itself, Jonathan?
SPEAKER 02 :
It's one of those developing resources, I guess you could say. And I think even Donald Trump has changed his tune on that since about 2019, 2020. And is it for everybody? No. Is it a wave of the future? And could you potentially see more digitation of other types of assets and so on? I think one of... Trump's executive orders is right along those lines. You know, what can we as a country do to maybe go in that direction? As you know, Bob, the advantages to crypto is, of course, the blockchain technology where you know exactly what's happened all along the way. There's no discrepancies. There's no wondering, you know, where did this money come from? Things along those lines. Again, that can be done in other various ways, and by the way, is being done in other ways with other types of digital things that we have as well. So to your point, no, do I see this as any kind of ushering in of the end times? No, it's a progression of technology. To your point, Neil's point, technology will always be used down the road for good or bad. it just depends on how that tool quote unquote is being used uh am i a big player in it no i own a little bit i'll play around with some just to kind of see what it does one way or the other i am not heavily invested my biggest fear still when it comes to the crypto end of things is number one which one's going to stand out and be number one when it's all said and done because that alone could could crush or cripple some of the others i just don't see down the road there being multiples of these where there is at the moment and what's going to be the leader when it's all said and done and what becomes the the trading dollar if you would when it's all said and done and will they even digitize the u.s dollar at some point and by the way if that happens i hate to say but bitcoin and some of the others probably devalue immensely when and if that happens
SPEAKER 04 :
If the U.S. dollar gets digitized?
SPEAKER 02 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 04 :
So I suppose that could cause... Only because the U.S.
SPEAKER 02 :
dollar is backed by something where none of the other cryptos are. Right. True, but... And really quick, that's been my issue with crypto in the first place is what's it backed with? Faith. Faith in that you can now trade with these things and yes, they go up and down and there's a value difference and so on. But at the end of the day... What's it backed with? Nothing. At least a dollar is backed with U.S. assets.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Well, I mean, what's a Honus Wagner baseball card? Why is that worth millions of dollars? Because somebody's willing to pay for that. Right. And so even if it's phantom currency, if you will, as long as other people are willing to buy it and trade it, You know, it's like playing chess without a board, okay? It doesn't matter. As long as the other person is interacting with you about where the pieces are, it's actually really a game being played. But you bring up an interesting point. If the U.S. dollar were actually digitized... So I'm not I'm not sure, though, that the U.S. dollar could. And I know this is really getting inside.
SPEAKER 02 :
It already is a big way if you think about it. If anybody out there thinks that the amount of currency that we have physical dollars running around the country is anywhere close to the amount of currency that is in.
SPEAKER 04 :
is in processes in play in the economy our actual cash is way way way less than the actual money in the market yeah i mean just a couple percentage points i mean it's like two or three percent or something of actual cash right but see i know and i know this i would certainly not qualify for treasury secretary because my knowledge of this is not nearly uh as high as this plus you know last time i checked i'm not gay i'm sorry i threw that in on the side he did get a Bessette did get confirmed, though, as Treasury Secretary. But no, I'm not—this is going to sound really weird, guys, but I'm not even sure that it matters that the U.S. dollar is backed by a physical asset. And I know that sounds strange, okay? But if people are willing to give perceived value to something and buy something and trade something— So what if it's backed? Even if the dollar completely collapses, it's like, okay, well, now everybody, whoever has physical gold and physical, okay, fine. But you don't think there's going to be people out there that, as far as cryptocurrency, is like, hey, don't worry about it. You can go ahead and order these pizzas using your Bitcoin app.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, but keep in mind, and again, like you, Bob, I'm not an expert in this, but... any means, although part of what keeps the dollar as strong as it is and keeps us strong in the world market is because of our strength as a nation, our economy. Even at times when we're not doing well, we're still the best when it's all said and done. And just the sheer backing of the U.S. economy and literally all of the assets that we have as a country is still there, where in a lot of these other ones, they are not.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I got a dumb question, because I have no clue.
SPEAKER 04 :
As long as you'll accept a dumb answer. I think we're all out of our wheelhouse here a little bit, but we're talking as laymen, so yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, so there's an old lumber town north of Buffalo called North Tonawanda. And it's right along the Niagara River. But they have a crypto mining facility there. And it's some kind of an old warehouse where they put a bunch of servers on the inside and they're mining crypto. Now, okay, if you're mining gold or silver and you got huge machinery digging in the ground or drilling into rock, you can imagine it making a lot of noise. If this is... If this is just digital, in other words, it doesn't really exist. It's a concept or something. I don't even know how to describe it. Why would residents be complaining of noise? Apparently, these things are incredibly loud, these crypto mining facilities. But what are they mining? What are they mining other than... I actually...
SPEAKER 04 :
I actually do kind of know the answer to that, okay? Mining crypto actually takes a disproportionate amount of electricity to do.
SPEAKER 02 :
Correct. To run the GPUs.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. And so since it requires such a high level of electricity, you basically need electricity generating plants. And so it's like if you lived very close to a giant electrical grid, you would hear the noise and the humming and the machinery that's operating the electrical generating machinery, whatever all of that is.
SPEAKER 02 :
And the fans too, Bob, if they're not run in a water cooling situation, which only the high-end units are, you're going to hear the fans running as well.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it's basically because it takes a very, very high disproportionate amount of electricity to do the mining that's done. And that's also why some of the environmentalist kind of people complain about
SPEAKER 02 :
you know oh this is you know it's depleting our resources or whatever it's like you know but really quick you know neil to answer your question what they're doing is through code and various things they're literally trying to mine the leftover crypto that's out there because every crypto has a finite amount that's there and they're literally quote unquote mining the rest of what's out there gotcha and that's that's the simplified version of saying it bob
SPEAKER 04 :
You bet. You bet. Absolutely. So, you know what? Who knows? We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens with that. As we kind of wind down the last part of this National Crawford Roundtable podcast, just want to remind everybody, if you haven't given to Preborn yet in this new year of 2025, please consider doing it now. Just go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. You can give right there. If you can buy an ultrasound machine, please do it. They're $15,000 apiece. Nice tax write-off for you. Your forever legacy is you're stopping literally thousands and thousands of abortions, okay, year after year. And if you can't afford to do that, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. Pray. Ask the Lord to put a number on your heart. Maybe it's, you know, 10 babies' lives you save. Maybe it's 100 babies' lives you save. $28 is the cost to save one baby's life through ultrasound expense. So take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that's your life. forever legacy of the number of abortions that you stopped. So just go right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born, and don't forget, 100% of what you give goes to ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. Private donations cover overhead, so you don't have to worry about that. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Also, you can give over the phone. They answer the phones 24-7. Call 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. Support Preborn. Support SunPower LED, Neal.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I know we're short on time. I just got to throw this out there because maybe we can talk about it some other time and I'll get to SunPower in one second. But did anybody see, I think this is a Trump effect factor again, but that the charges against David Daleiden in Florida, in California were dropped. Did you see that?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no, I did not see that. That was yesterday.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, check it out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Kamala Harris is the one who originally opened up the investigation against him and then Xavier Becerra continued it on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and you were just talking about the abortion issue. David Daleiden was the one who exposed that Planned Parenthood was buying and selling body parts of aborted fetuses, babies. And he's the one that gets in trouble, not Planned Parenthood. Right, yeah. So anyway, we can talk about that another time. Incredible. So I just really want to... So focus your attention for a second. We've all probably seen in a movie or some kind of a TV show a woman who is an opera singer, sings a particular note, and the resonance and the sound of her voice and the volume all combine together to explode a champagne glass. And you're like, how in the world did she hit that note? And wow, that's powerful. Well, that's because sound waves freak out the molecules inside the glass and they start moving around and eventually the glass explodes. because sound waves make a difference. Well, so do light waves. And red and near-infrared light waves, the correct power usage can actually, you know, high-powered red light waves can penetrate the human body, get to the cells deep in the body, in joints and in places where there's swelling and inflammation, and actually promote healing in those circumstances. I mean, it's an incredible technology that you can see for yourself by going to SunPowerLED.com. Click on that when you go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Right there on our site, we've got a button. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on SunPowerLED and watch what it can do. There's testimonials of people whose lives have literally been changed by the use of what's called red light therapy or the fancy term photobiomodulation. but it's using literally the very light God himself created. No drugs, no surgery, no pharmaceuticals, just using the light God himself created to heal the human body. It's an incredible thing. Click on SunPowerLED when you go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. We appreciate you folks supporting our sponsors. We appreciate you listening to this podcast. We appreciate your five-star reviews that you give us wherever you listen. And we always appreciate you tuning in. Looking forward to next week. It's John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live out of Buffalo, New York. Myself, Bob Duco, The Bob Duco Show out of Detroit. By next week, Neil and I will have fully and completely recovered from the trauma of our lines and bills.
SPEAKER 03 :
I will never recover from them all.
SPEAKER 04 :
Folks, we appreciate you listening. Guys, great talking with you. Look forward to next week, and thanks for listening, everybody. God bless.
SPEAKER 01 :
You've been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, a view of today's culture through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices, bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more from your local Crawford Media Group station's website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.
Join us as we explore the societal divides and unprecedented events currently shaping our world. In this episode, the National Crawford Roundtable takes a closer look at Donald Trump's second ascent to the presidency, unpacking the polarizing factors that have both reinvigorated and riled the nation. Hear host Neil Boron reflect on the evolving conservative sentiment, discussing how common-sense America has rallied behind Trump’s critique of liberal progressive trends. Listeners will also find detailed discussions on recent sports outcomes, which segue into poignant critiques of ongoing political developments. The episode's rich tapestry includes an in-depth look at the Preborn organization's life-saving efforts and the innovative health solutions offered by SunPower LED. With memorably vivid anecdotes and engaging host interactions, this episode captures the National Crawford Roundtable’s commitment to dissecting the cultural pulse, all while emphasizing actions and narratives that aspire to bring transformative change. Whether discussing highly charged pardons or health breakthroughs, this episode menages to interweave diverse threads of American life into a cohesive and thought-provoking narrative.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events, and politics through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time, she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and buy SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome. Another episode of the National Crawford Roundtable. I'm your host today, John Rush from Denver, Colorado. My show is Rush to Reason. Bob Duco, Detroit, Michigan. The Bob Duco Show and Neil Boron. From Buffalo, New York, Neil Boron live. And before we get going, Bob, sorry your Lions lost. Neil, you have to beat the Chiefs.
SPEAKER 04 :
Pray we beat the Chiefs.
SPEAKER 03 :
How could this happen?
SPEAKER 04 :
I don't know.
SPEAKER 03 :
How could this happen?
SPEAKER 04 :
So disappointing. I really wanted the Lions in the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER 01 :
Sorry, Bob. I was rooting for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, man. Well, I'll tell you what, though. My Ohio State Buckeyes did win the national championship. Yes, they did. So there is that. I was born and raised.
SPEAKER 01 :
Seriously, though, Neil, you got to get your bills rolling because, you know, I mean, there isn't hardly a person in Denver unless they're a Chiefs fan that likes the Chiefs.
SPEAKER 04 :
There was a picture, somebody sent out a picture of the continental U.S., and it had a huge Bills logo over it, and it said, this is, you know, who wants the Bills to win next week? And then the only place was in Kansas City. There's a Kansas City tiny little logo over the city of Kansas City. That was it. It's like, we're all done with the Chiefs. Please, somebody beat the Chiefs.
SPEAKER 01 :
And the downside is that probably helps them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you know, who knows?
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, because they're the hated underdog that no one wants to win, and, you know, there's a motivator there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I don't know if they need motivation other than to, you know, continue paying off the referees.
SPEAKER 01 :
They have the refs on their side.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. I don't know what that's about, but, yeah, we need a change.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know what, Neil? I got to tell you, if the Bills win the Super Bowl, here's what I would love for it to be. I'd love for them to win on a last-second long field goal that's just inside the right upright position. Meanwhile... And Buffalo fans know exactly what I'm talking about. Well, really, any sports fans do. Meanwhile, 43%... Poor Scott Norwood would sit there and watch a TV going, oh, that's how it's supposed to be done. Exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
But 43% of Buffalo citizens die of heart attacks while the ball is in the air. Let's just say that.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, my word.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, this is true.
SPEAKER 01 :
That's hilarious. All right, guys, got a lot to talk about. There's no way we're going to get to most of what I've even got down here today, given everything that's happened over the last couple of days. For those of you that... I guess maybe live under a rock. Yes, Donald Trump is now president of the United States as of Monday at noon.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's unbelievable, and can I just comment that I started my program the other day saying how stunned I was that we were having this conversation, because whether you like Donald Trump or not, anybody looking back four years ago, on January 20th, 2021, it was two weeks after the January 6th events, Biden was being sworn in. Trump had already been impeached twice, not removed from office, but impeached by the House. What was coming was for indictments to assassination attempts. The entire mainstream media, the whole left progressive establishment of the world against Donald Trump. Who would have ever believed he'd be sworn into office four years later? It was stunning.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I agree, Neil. I agree. Bob, your thoughts?
SPEAKER 03 :
It really was. Well, and of course, my show starts at noon Eastern time every day. And so it's like, oh, boy, you know, the timing of the swearing in. So, of course, I just went to live feed to open up the show. But no, Neil, you're absolutely right. I mean, I know his most famous book was Art of the Deal. But if I remember right, I think Trump wrote a book back when called Art of the Comeback. For some reason, you know, maybe it was somebody else about him, but this was a remarkable political comeback. A lot of people had declared that Trump was damaged goods and it wasn't going to he had no political future left. And so for him to actually come back and to reclaim the presidency and to win strongly as he did and to be reshaping. really, not just the Republican Party, but the United States of America. Neil, like you said, whether you like Donald Trump or hate Donald Trump, either way, I don't think anyone can deny the consequential role that he has in history, even left-wing Politico. I mean, Politico is about as liberal left-wing as it gets in mainstream media, okay? Even the editor-in-chief of Politico, wrote a piece, and he hates Donald Trump, okay? But he said, you know what, there's no denying the consequential place in history that Donald Trump has earned. And he will go down in history as a larger-than-life historical figure, even though I totally agree with everything that he does and stands for and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER 04 :
So it is true. I want to make another comment about it, because I do think, obviously, Donald Trump is a unique individual, incredibly polarizing. You love him or you hate him. And he's at the center of this whole equation we're talking about right now. But also, I mean, I don't know if you guys have ever changed an electrical plug while it's hot and made the mistake of, you know, just touching the wrong thing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, that feeling.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. And then does that explode, you know, the spark? I mean, it's a major deal. You can, like, weld your screwdriver to the outlet if you're not careful, you know. Anyway. I think it's a combination of Trump plus what liberals and progressives have been trying to shove down the throat of the American people for far too long. And what you're seeing is that the heart of common sense America – it's interesting that term was used – But that that connected with with what Donald Trump was willing to stand up and fight for. And the two of them combined made it impossible to beat this guy, that he was going to come back. And then the other thing is that a lot of commentators said this is one of the greatest political comeback. OK, name a greater one. Anybody got any example of a greater political comeback? And I just think it was the convergence. of Trump's willingness to have a backbone and say what all these people feel about what's happened to our country. And they want it back. They want the borders closed. They don't want other people telling us how to raise our kids. And I think the combination of the two just made it impossible for anybody to beat him in this election.
SPEAKER 01 :
You're right, and they're tired of all of the wokeness. We'll get into some of that today. Real quick, though, Bob, and we were talking about some of this even with Neil not with us prior to coming on and doing this recording this morning, but anniversary of Roe v. Wade today, there's some questions out there as to, you know, Donald Trump, will he pardon some particular individuals involved in, you know, prayer vigil and things like that, you know, around abortion clinics and so on. And given all of that, I think it's a great segue to talk about, you know, that along with preborn at the same time.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Well, and we will talk about that in just a minute, these 21 pro-lifers and how wrongly they were targeted by the Biden-Harris administration. But you're right. Preborn is such a phenomenal organization. You know, as we are recording this on Wednesday morning, we're recording this Wednesday morning, January 22nd. It was January 22nd, 1973, that the infamous Roe v. Wade decision happened. came down. And we've had over 60 million babies aborted in this country since then. It's horrendous. You talk about a holocaust in the womb. And thankfully, Roe v. Wade was overturned in June of 2022. But you know something? Abortion and the pro-abortion crowd are still going crazy trying to convince women to get abortions. This is why pre-born is so important to everybody because pre-born saves these babies lives. They do this by showing ultrasound images of the unborn babies to those expectant moms in pro-life centers all across the country. They've been doing this for a long time. Problem is we don't have enough ultrasound machines. There's not enough ultrasound images being paid for. So not all women are able to see these ultrasound images. And when they do see that picture of their baby, they choose life. They don't go to Planned Parenthood. So what we're asking our listeners to do right now is save babies' lives by providing more ultrasound images. You can do this one of two ways. Either buy an ultrasound machine for $15,000. It's a nice tax write-off, and your forever legacy will be you are stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year. Or option B, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, save one baby's life. How many babies' lives will you save? Take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, that's your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you stopped. So will you give to Preborn right now? If you've given previously, please give again. You can go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. And every dime you give goes to ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. You can also give over the phone. They answer the phones 24-7. So call right now, 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. And just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. We appreciate you folks supporting our sponsors. We do. Neil, we have some great sponsors. I mean, SunPower LED is phenomenal as well. They have helped so many people get out of pain in a completely natural way. I know how well this works personally. I know you do too. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because you mentioned Roe v. Wade. 52 years ago was the anniversary, obviously, of that horrendous decision. Four years ago today, I was barely on the road to recovery. I had just begun recovering from about a month-long bout with COVID that took me from a blood oxygen saturation that's normally around 99 or 100 to the low 80s. And when I would get up and just move across the room, it would drop into the 70s. I mean, it was critically low. I called the rescue paramedic three times and was advised by them not to go to the hospital because I'd sit in the lobby or in the hallway. No one was going to do anything. So I was in a desperate place. I needed to be able to breathe. And for about a month, I wasn't able to breathe. Well, my son happened to mention that on the air one day, asking people to pray for me. Tom Kerber of Kerber USA, the makers of light therapy at SunPower LED, heard that and said, I've got an idea. You need to try what light therapy can do for you. And essentially, it's just taking the light God himself created that penetrates the human body, gets to the deep parts of the cell, excites the cell to do what the cell was created to do, and that's to heal the human body. And I had just begun to recover and it only took about 10 days for me to be completely back to normal. Completely back to normal. It was unreal what light therapy was able to do for me. So whether it's pain or swelling in your body or you need to promote healing in some fashion, you need to check out light therapy from SunPowerLED and you can find it at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on the SunPowerLED button and of course we'll have more to say about it in the moments ahead. John?
SPEAKER 01 :
Appreciate that, Neil. Okay, guys, before we get going here, let's talk about even prior to inauguration, literally, as I think Donald Trump was on his way, Joe Biden is pardoning additional individuals in his own family. Keep in mind, he had pardoned Fauci, Liz Cheney, and some others that were on the J6 committee earlier. And then, of course, he pardoned some of his own family members i mean right my point with all of this is there's going to be some people will get into the j6 prisoners and hostages that trump has pardoned which by the way he's going to get criticized for by the same people that think it's okay for biden to do what he did
SPEAKER 03 :
I know.
SPEAKER 01 :
Bob, I'll throw it to you first.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. You know what? It is amazing. First of all, we've got to remember something about the J6 pardons and commutations because most of the mainstream press is not telling you the full story here. OK, every single one of them. It's right and appropriate to commute sentences and pardon them. The people that had their sentences commuted were the most violent of the violent people on January 6th. And by the way, they deserve to go to jail because these are the ones that actually assaulted police officers. Now, they didn't kill anybody. They didn't shoot anybody. They didn't point a gun at anybody. They didn't set a single fire. OK, but if you push or knock down a police officer, I believe that you should go to prison. However, I don't believe that you should get three times what your average rapist in America gets because your average rapist gets seven years and many rapists get only one or two years. So it's not right to give these people. 18-year, 20-year, 22-year sentences, that's disproportionate punishment. Your average drug dealer gets 2.4 years in America. You don't deserve five to 10 times what a drug dealer gets when you assault a police officer. You deserve jail, but not that much. So that's why Trump was right to commute their sentences. The overwhelming majority of everybody else there did not lay a finger on anybody, okay? They didn't touch anybody. They engaged in zero violence. The overwhelming majority, those 1,200 or so people, walked into the Capitol without laying a finger on a person, all right? So for that, yes, I say pardon those people. And for the ones who engaged in actual violence, non-lethal violence, still wrong, still punishable, they've been in prison three or four years already. That's plenty of time, time to let him out of prison.
SPEAKER 01 :
Agreed. And again, for all of you listening, we've talked about some of these things in depth in the past. And my whole point with this is we've got Biden, in my opinion, you talk about Fauci, number one, being pardoned, and you talk about the crimes against humanity and the things that he literally did in deceiving the president at that time and others and literally deceiving the American public and profiting off of all of that. I mean, the reality, Bob, is If there's anybody that should be behind bars, it ought to be that guy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, incredible. I know. And by the way, can I just say regarding Joe Biden and his last minute pardons, does anybody remember back in December of 2020, after Joe Biden was pretty much, you know, going to be the new president and Donald Trump was on his way out, you had ABC and NBC and CBS and CNN and all of them, Washington Post and many others, they were interviewing Democrats talking about what if, Donald Trump tries to do preemptive pardons to the people in his inner circle, including his own family. And you had Democrats and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and everybody else. That would be so horrible. That's the kind of thing that he would do. Even Joe Biden himself on CNN was asked about this and said, yeah, that's something you won't see happening in my administration. All right. Well, guess what? Trump didn't do what the left and the media and the Democrats were accusing him of planning on doing. Joe Biden actually really did do that in real life. And all the press and the Democrats can focus on is Donald Trump letting people out of prison that have already spent three or four years in prison for something that in any other world would be maybe a 30 day sentence, possibly six months.
SPEAKER 01 :
Neil, your thoughts on this?
SPEAKER 04 :
OK, just on that one point, the current law in the District of Columbia is that a misdemeanor offense for assaulting a police officer is up to six months in jail, period. Now, serious offense like where you cause bodily harm, 10 years maximum. But you're talking about 18 and 20 year sentences.
SPEAKER 01 :
And one of those guys had double life sentences, by the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, okay. So, I mean, the point is excessive sentencing of these individuals and selective prosecution going after these people as, you know, political prisoners, basically, simply because they disagreed with what the Biden administration was all about and what was happening in D.C. at the time and, you know, what they thought was happening with regard to the election. Anyway, the point is, pardons are appropriate for virtually all of them. I agree completely. commuting sentences for those that participated in violent crime. But there needs to be some kind of distinction. And, Bob, I do think that there's going to be criticism of Trump regarding this simply because, well, you know, one of the things and it will get to the his executive orders later. But, you know, he showed great respect for members of the military who lost their jobs as a result of not taking the covid vaccine. And there was like an honor associated with that. And when the first time I heard it, I was like, wow. he's going to really curry some favor with military families for taking care of these individuals. I was thrilled to hear it. But on the other hand, it leaves open the question. I'm not saying he's doing this on purpose, but it leaves open the question. Does he disrespect law enforcement? I don't think he does, but I do think he's going to get pushback and criticism for it. Either way, I do think because of all that's happened with these pardons, I mean, what if Joe Biden, seriously, what if he had said, I want to pardon all registered Democrats personally, for any crimes he may have committed in the past or in the future. Like, can he do that? How far can you go with this pardon thing? And I do think all of this is going to cause some careful reflection on how these things are carried out in the future and if there's any limitation whatsoever that can be put on them. I don't think there is, but I do think it's raising questions on both sides of the political aisle watching all of this unfold. However, I think Trump was completely justified in handling this J6 thing the way that he did given the unjust attack on these individuals and the sentencing that followed. I think something needed to be done and I'm in favor of it.
SPEAKER 01 :
By the way, I agree with that. Again, anybody that's followed us on either any of our programs or on this particular podcast, the roundtable here, you guys know our feelings on all of that and what we would have done on that particular day and the fact that we didn't condone any of this behavior And I've said numerous times, guys, had I been there that day and any of that would have started to happen, would I have gotten absorbed in all of that and entered the Capitol? No, I'll just be straight up honest. No, I would not have done that. I think it was a very black mark on the conservatives in the country and those folks that did that. I wish they hadn't. And I know they probably would disagree with me and we could probably have a debate. on that with some of those individuals, and I understand where they're coming from, you know, and I understand their plight that day, but I think there's better ways to handle things, and that's how I would have looked at it on that particular day. But given all of that, do I think Donald Trump is correct in what he's doing? Absolutely. Now, the question, though, Bob, isn't this where we kind of started talking about, you know, pre-born just a few minutes ago, is there some other folks that most likely need a pardon as well? And, you know, is Donald Trump sliding them? Is he waiting for the right timing of things, what are your thoughts there when it comes to some additional pardons that probably need to be coming out of this administration? Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
I definitely have a strong thought about that. And by the way, let me just say before I even get to the pro-lifers, because that's a very important part of this, too. One of the things that Trump is being hammered for by the left also regarding J6 is that he is dismissing the cases of pardoning and dismissing the cases of about 450 people from January 6th who have not even been brought to trial yet. All right. Just dismissing those cases and through pardons of them. One of those examples, and I've talked about this on the podcast before, one of those examples is that 67-year-old pastor. You had a 67-year-old pastor and his medical doctor wife. These are senior citizens. They were on January 6th in the peaceful Trump rally watching him speak. Then they walked with the crowd peacefully down to the Capitol for the already pre-approved, pre-permitted peaceful protest outside the Capitol. And so they walked down there. Once they got down there, the rioting was over. The Capitol doors were open. Police had moved the barricades and people were walking into the Capitol, moseying on in, even chatting with police. And so this pastor and his wife thought they were allowed to walk in the Capitol, right? So they did. They walked in the Capitol. All right. They were even the surveillance camera shows them speaking to police. OK, they're just thinking they're fine. Twelve minutes inside. Twelve minutes. Another police officer came out, says, hey, everybody needs to leave. The pastor and his wife said, oh, OK. And they turned around and left. That's it. That's it. Well, Joe Biden's Department of Justice spent three and a half years hunting this pastor down, finally found him several months ago. and had him and his wife arrested by the FBI. The FBI showed up at their house at 6 a.m., got him out of bed pounding on the door. When the pastor answered the door, he had several guns pointed at his head. As they got the wife out of bed, they not only handcuffed both of them, they leg shackled both of them and made them do a perp walk down their driveway, down the sidewalk, a couple of houses away to a waiting van they had to get into. humiliated in front of their neighbors. This is a 67-year-old pastor and his medical doctor wife. That's how the Department of Justice, the weaponization of the government, treated these people. And him and his wife are still awaiting trial. So that's one of the examples of Donald Trump saying, no, they are not going to trial. They are pardoned. So I got to make sure and let people know just how radical the Biden administration has been on this. To the pro-lifers, You have 21 pro-lifers who have been arrested by Joe Biden's FBI, okay, and put on trial and sent to prison, including a 75-year-old grandmother that got two years in prison. Why? Because outside of an abortion clinic door in an office building, they were sitting in the hallway. Now, in all fairness, they were trespassing because they were inside the bubble zone. Okay, fine. They didn't lay a finger on anybody. They were sitting on the floor praying and singing praise songs, all right? And Joe Biden's Department of Justice decided to charge him with Federal Face Act violations and had them put on trial and thrown in prison. Those people need to be pardoned, absolutely, especially when pro-abortion people got away with committing all kinds of crimes, like protesting outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices, you know? But anyway, we're- Firebombing pro-life clinics. I know, I know. And so I'm speculating that Trump is maybe waiting until today, Wednesday, the Roe v. Wade anniversary, or maybe Friday, the big March for Life rally, to make a big announcement of this. I'd be very shocked if he lets this weekend come and go and completely forgets about them. I can't imagine that.
SPEAKER 01 :
Neil, really quick before we finish up this half, talk to us again about SunPowerLED, if you would.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, SunPower LED offers what's called light therapy, and all of you have seen the opera singer that can sing a particular note and explode a champagne glass. That's because she hits a certain note at the right time, sustains the resonance, and it causes the... atoms inside that glass to start moving around and doing things that they hadn't been doing previously and all of a sudden the glass explodes well using the right wavelength of light you can get cells in the human body to wake up and start doing what they were created to do and that is to heal the human body the human body is an incredible thing and the mitochondria and the cells are kind of like the brain of the cell and they provide energy and they wake up that cell to do what it's created to do well using certain wavelengths of red and near infrared light Penetrating into the human body through SunPower LED's photobiomodulation device, you literally can excite the cell to wake up and heal your body, reduce pain and swelling. So things like arthritis, shoulder pain, knee pain, migraines. It's unbelievable how much damage inflammation in the body can cause, and this goes right after it. So we're not talking about big pharma. We're not talking about surgery. We're talking about using the very light God himself created. to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in the body. And if you don't believe me, you need to check it out for yourself. Go to SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Sun, that's S-U-N, like sun in the sky. SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net and investigate. Check it out for yourself and see what photobiomodulation light therapy can do for you.
SPEAKER 01 :
And then, of course, Bob, that leads into pre-born, which again, you know, great, great sponsor of ours. Both of them are pre-born, although really fitting into what we're talking about today in regards to some of the what should be pardons and things along those lines. And folks can help literally save not only babies' lives, but the family of that baby as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. I mean, when you pay for ultrasound images to pre-born, you know what you're doing? You really are saving babies' lives. And you're bringing those moms to the Lord, too, because they see an ultrasound image of their baby, they choose life, and usually they end up accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, too. Pre-born shows these ultrasound images to these expectant moms all over the country in pro-life centers. The problem is the demand is higher than the supply. So... We need more ultrasound machines. We need more ultrasound images being paid for. That's why we're asking everybody right now, will you do one of two things? Either A, buy an ultrasound machine, or B, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. If you choose A, buy an ultrasound machine, they're 15 grand apiece. Great tax write-off for you. And your forever legacy is you're stopping thousands and thousands of abortions with that ultrasound machine. Option B is you're paying for individual numbers of them. individual cost to save one baby's life through ultrasound images. Take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that's your forever legacy. And 100% of anything you give to Preborn goes to fund the ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. So pray about a number and give to Preborn now. Here's what you do. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. 100% of what you give goes to fund ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. They also answer the phones 24-7. You can give over the phone right now, 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call, John.
SPEAKER 01 :
Again, guys, appreciate it. We've got a lot more to cover today for those of you listening. Number one, appreciate what you do each week in listening to us. We get lots of feedback on it. We get lots of ratings, by the way, on the podcast itself, five-star reviews and so on, which we greatly, greatly appreciate. Appreciate it, and I know I say it a lot when I'm hosting, but if you guys have any topics you would like to see us cover, you're always more than welcome to send an email out to any one of us, and we'll do our best to try to put those topics in. We've got a lot more to cover. We're going to do some more inauguration recaps, some of the executive orders that Trump... has already done might get into a few things more including Trump demanding an apology from the bishop by the way who asked him to have mercy on LGBTQ plus people and migrants so folks we'll get into some of that here in the second half of the National Crawford Roundtable you've been listening to myself Bob Duco Neil Boron we'll be right back second half of the National Crawford Roundtable is next this is a Crawford Media Group production Welcome back. Second half, National Crawford Roundtable. I'm your host, John Rush from Denver, Colorado. My show, Rush to Reason, Bob Duco, Detroit, Michigan, The Bob Duco Show, and Neil Boron from Buffalo, New York, The Neil Boron Live. Okay, so our Neil Boron Live show. So guys, as I kind of went through that last little segment there as we went into the break, Trump demanding an apology from the bishop. And if anybody hasn't seen that little clip on what that particular bishop did during that prayer service, number one, And, you know, I know we're not supposed to point fingers and do things along those lines, but this, in my opinion, is not what should have happened in that particular setting. This particular lady is completely out of line. Is she doing God's work? No, she's doing her own work. I mean, I could go into a tirade of things that are really wrong in what this particular bishop did. But, you know, Bob, since you watched it, Neil, you can go second. But, Bob, since you watched it like I did, what are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, man, it makes my eye twitch. It made me cringe. I know. Her name is Marianne Edgar Booty. She's the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She's a liberal left-wing Trump hater. By the way, she was on ABC News back in 2020 telling them, quote, we need to replace President Trump. OK, so she is an anti-Trumper. Right. And this is supposed to be The National Prayer Service, okay, for a new president, it's supposed to be focused on that. And there's President Trump and Melania and J.D. Vance and Usha, the four of them sitting in the front row of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. And what does she decide to do from up there at the lectern? She decides to look down at Trump and start lecturing him with political talking points in ways that— He's not able to stand up and go, hey, wait a minute, let me rebut what you're saying. Let me give you equal time. No, he just sat there. Him and J.D. Vance looked at each other, and then Trump just shook his head, rolled his eyes, and was like, you've got to be kidding me, okay? But no, she looks down and says, let me make one final plea, Mr. President. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared right now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democrat, Republican, and independent families, some of whom fear for their lives. Then she goes to immigration. The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and that you will help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands and find compassion and welcome here. And it's like, oh, come on. So, you know what? Is she going to lock her door tonight? All right. Or is she is she going to try to keep people out of her house that are not invited to come in? OK, this is just so absurd. The Vatican is surrounded by a 40 foot wall all the way around it. OK, to to keep it anyway. Trump responded. He posted, quote, And you know something? He's absolutely right. That is inappropriate either way. If a conservative Republican bishop was standing there at the National Cathedral, National Prayer Service, and chose to slam some Democrat president with a bunch of right-wing talking points, I think all three of us, John, would say that's inappropriate. So where's the left's criticism here?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. Wrong place, wrong time. Neil, your thoughts. And again, I mean, to Bob's point, Neil, this is supposed to be a startup for the presidency. Let's kick things off in the right directions. Let's have this prayer service. And it's supposed to be, you know, more of a, you know, solemn. Let's pray for the president as he enters into his term, et cetera, et cetera. And she decides to go into a preaching tirade against immigration, basically.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, you know, I served in pastoral ministry for eight years, and occasionally I got invited to go speak at someone else's church or at some kind of an event. And I was always sensitive when I went there to make sure that I was in keeping with the spirit of what was happening in that place at that moment. You know, I'll give an example. If a prosperity teacher goes into a church that doesn't believe in prosperity theology, maybe they should just stick to the gospel. That would be like the right thing to do. Or, you know, somebody that's real pro charismatic gifts versus somebody who comes from a more conservative, Baptistic kind of background. And there's mutual respect in those cases that these are issues that people can agree to disagree upon. When you start talking about political talking points and people are standing up in a pulpit and using opportunities to throw their political talking points at somebody who's just been elected president, when the focus is supposed to be on calling on God to intervene and to help us to lead the country in a way that would bring prosperity, pleasure to him etc i just think it's the wrong place we have freedom of speech in this country she has every right to say whatever she believes you know in in in whatever way she feels is right but i think she was completely wrong in doing it here at this time and donald trump is right to respond you know in the way that he did uh in proper time but you know it wasn't the right place wasn't the right time it was just it was ill-advised and wrong
SPEAKER 01 :
Guys, they should have, instead of having her, whoever planned this whole thing, instead of her, they should have replaced her with the young black pastor that actually prayed in the middle of the inauguration. That guy, man alive, awesome.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'll tell you what, that Lorenzo Sewell, by the way, he pastors 180 Church here in Detroit. And he actually caught a lot of heat. I've interviewed him on my show before. He caught a lot of heat because Donald Trump, during the campaign, when he was reaching out to black communities, Trump wanted to reach out to the black communities in Detroit. And 180 Church is in the heart of the inner city of Detroit. And so Trump said, hey, can I can I come in and join a forum there where we have a lot of leaders and people in the community get together? And can I come there and I'll be happy to take questions and let me just talk? And he's like, sure. And he agreed to host it at his church. Oh, he got hammered large. He told me on my show after because I had him on the show after this happened. He's like, I can't believe the hate that I received from so many. But he also received a lot of good compliments, too. So, you know.
SPEAKER 01 :
Awesome. Neil, real quick, SunPower LED. And as we watch the Trump administration, we haven't gotten to the point where we've got, you know, RFK Jr. confirmed. Not sure how that's all going to go, although there's been a big push, you know, at least in his campaign. And I think you're going to see them follow through on this where it's, you know, make money. america healthy again you're going to see some reforms on certain things when it comes to health care in and of itself i think you're going to see personally this is my prediction a push for some you know quote unquote alternative things you know out of the box thinking where you know big pharma you know big insurance is not dictating what gets done and this is where sun power led comes in
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and, you know, thank God that there are alternatives to big pharma. I mean, I think people have a lot of distrust for, you know, an industry that can create drugs that keep you dependent upon them. And I don't mean in an addictive way. I simply mean that, you know, when you're only managing disease and not curing disease, you've got a real problem on your hands because people are going to get sicker and sicker and sicker. And, you know, what's weird is that in our country, people are living longer than ever before, but they're not healthier. than ever before. And that's a huge problem. The reality is we got to do something about it. And there's a ton of distrust for Big Pharma. They believe that Big Pharma is pushing medications upon them in order to make money, not heal people's bodies. Well, guess what? At the same time, Big Pharma is doing everything they possibly can to squelch any other all natural remedies that don't involve using their medications. light therapy is something you really need to look at red light therapy using near red infrared light and near infrared light to help heal the human body by exciting the mitochondria in the cell waking it up and causing the cell to do what it was created to do and that's to heal our body you can see a reduction in pain and swelling and inflammation and the promotion of healing in your body using light therapy from sun power led i said a moment ago earlier in the podcast It helped heal my lungs after COVID. I was headed for the hospital and ventilation, and I believe God used light therapy to help reduce the swelling in my lungs and to return me to normal so I could breathe again. You need to check it out. Go to SunPowerLED. Click on that button at CrawfordMediaGroup.net and learn what red light therapy can do for you. SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net.
SPEAKER 01 :
And Bob, if it wasn't for the sponsors like SunPower and Preborn, we wouldn't do this each week.
SPEAKER 03 :
We sure wouldn't. And so many of our listeners have given to Preborn over the years. And we really appreciate that. We do. Preborn is the main pro-life group that shows ultrasound images in pro-life centers across the country. And moms choose life when they see a picture of that baby. They don't go across the street to Planned Parenthood. And so we're asking you right now in the audience, if you have not given to pre-born yet, will you please do that now? If you have given to pre-born, would you consider giving again? Maybe make it your 2025 contribution to save babies' lives. You can give one of two ways. Either buy an ultrasound machine or pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. If you buy an ultrasound machine, they're $15,000 apiece. Nice tax write-off for you. Your forever legacy is you're stopping thousands and thousands of abortions. Year after year. How great is that? If you want to pay for an individual number of ultrasound images, $28 is the amount to save one baby's life. That's, I mean, think about it. $28 saves a baby's life. Take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that's the amount of abortions that you actually really stop. Okay. And everything you give to Preborn, 100%, goes to fund ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. So would you give right now? Just go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Or you're like, well, I want to give over the phone. I want to talk to a real-life person. Okay, they answer the phones 24-7. You can call right now, 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call, John.
SPEAKER 01 :
I appreciate that, Bob. Okay, let's talk about some of the executive orders and the highlights of, of course, one of the first things Donald Trump did, I went through some of these on my program yesterday, was go back and reverse a lot of the things that the Biden administration did, even all the way up until almost literally a couple of weeks prior to, you know, Donald Trump taking over office as President of the United States. So reversing a lot of those things, of course, one of the things he did right off the bat was, you know, get us out of the Paris Climate Accord, which is nothing more than a fleecing of the United States of America, while other countries can get by and do, you know, China and others can do pretty much whatever they want to do. It literally is a fleecing of our country and frankly doesn't exist unless we're a part of it. So it'll be interesting to see how that, you know, what happens moving forward along those lines. But then on top of that, guys, he's really going in and just obliterating all of the DEI wokeness that's inside of the federal government. Those folks that are even in those particular departments, if you've got a department inside of the federal government and you've got a DEI department as of 5 o'clock tonight, those people are no longer going to be working. They're on paid leave. And then they've got instructions as to how are we going to get rid of these individuals moving forward. So I want a plan of attack as to how we're going to technically fire these people in these particular departments moving forward. So guys, I mean, Bob, those two things alone are huge.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, they really are. I mean, it is a new day in America. DEI, this diversity, equity, inclusion nonsense, this kind of discrimination that's not based on merit. It's a cancer, Bob. And by the way, there's a lot of corporations that have been coming in line and realizing, maybe this isn't a smart thing to do. They reversed all of that.
SPEAKER 01 :
They know it's not best for their business.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know. It's not. It's a poor business model. It's discriminatory. It's divisive in America.
SPEAKER 01 :
And it lowers the quality of your product at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. And you know something else? It's not fair for minorities, and I'll tell you why. Because, look, if I were a black man, I'm a white guy, so okay, I get it. But if I were a black man... and I achieved some high-level position in some company, I would want everybody looking at me to assume that I earned that on my merit and that I really am the best person for that job. I wouldn't want to be walking under a shadow of suspicion of, is that guy a DEI hire? So he's not really the best. He's got the right skin color or the right sexuality or the right gender or whatever. Right. No. You know what? I love what Don Jr. said one time about his dad. He said, you know something? When he looks at people, he doesn't see black or white or male or female or gay or straight. You know what he sees? He sees green. OK, how do we make people financially better? How do we make that's what he sees? And it's an absolutely right way to look at it. Who's the best for the job?
SPEAKER 01 :
I don't care if you're male, female, which, by the way, in his inauguration speech, you know, Bobby, he basically said that he said, you know, we're going to get rid of all of this DEI woke nonsense. We're going to be colorblind moving forward and merit based.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. And it's how it should be.
SPEAKER 01 :
So I'll let you comment on that as well. I mean, for me, you know, that's a lot of the reason. Personally, I think that's a lot of the reason why even folks that didn't like Donald Trump voted for Donald Trump because they're tired of seeing all of that around them in the workplace.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree 100%. And by the way, we started today talking about the NFL and that the Buffalo Bills are still in it with a chance to win it. But the reason I'm bringing it up is they played the Baltimore Ravens last weekend. And Lamar Jackson is an absolutely phenomenal quarterback. He's unbelievable. It's astounding what that guy can do. The reason he's the starter on the team is because he's the best quarterback on the team. And who knows, maybe in the NFL he might win his third MVP this year. Personally, I think Josh Allen deserves it, but either way, he's a phenomenal quarterback. New England Patriots, Drake May is the starter. He's white. Why? Because they think he's the best player. Jacoby Bursette is black. He's the backup. Jacoby's a great quarterback. At times he's started in the past, but either way... It's merit-based decision-making. I think this is amazing because all of this happened on Martin Luther King Day, right? When Martin Luther King said himself that we ought to be more concerned with the content of somebody's character than the color of their skin. It's time to do away with this baloney that has to do with DEI and pushing people into positions that they're not really qualified for just so we can meet racial quotas and whatever. Let's get back to merit-based learning, merit-based promotions in the workplace, in education, etc. And I think that the American people largely will embrace that. And the other thing is it sets a high bar for everyone. Hey, if you want to be the head of the company, then be the best at what you do. Work hard, and there's a possibility you can advance. And I just think that the American people are so ready for it. By the way, when Donald Trump said this week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life, we will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. I was like, hallelujah.
SPEAKER 01 :
It was unbelievable. Amen. Amen. No, Bob, when I heard that, I mean, again, those were things that was just like, hallelujah, it's about time we get somebody with some common sense back in charge and stop going down this whole woke nonsense path. And to your point, Bob, and again, I'm an employer. I know a lot about what... You were talking about even with Donald Trump. By the way, I look at people very much the same way he does. At the end of the day, how can I lift you up so that you working for me can lift me up? I mean, at the end of the day, it's all about if you make money, I make money, and that's how I look at it. And to your point, Bob, when we lower that standard and we allow people to have certain jobs just based upon something about their skin color or something about their age or something about their gender, The reality is we are taking away their ability to excel and exceed and get better in this life. And by the way, for all of you Christians that are listening to me, that is anti-Christian because that is not what God wants for us.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right. Well, think about, I mean, does this sound familiar? Okay. There is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek. Okay.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, we're all one in Christ Jesus. Okay. So it is consistent, not that Donald Trump is invoking that, of course, but it is a consistent thing to say, no, this is not about... As Christians, we're either in Christ or we're not, okay? There's no differing value according to skin color, male, female, anything like that. And in the business world, that's how it ought to be too. Look, if I were a minority, I wouldn't want people to be looking at me wondering.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, Bob, really, no offense. As a white male our age, you are.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, actually, that is true. That is true. OK, but I mean, the discrimination that does that, it is true that if you are a white, straight male, then there is a kind of, you know, you're at the back of the line as far as advantages and things like that that you can get in government. I mean, somebody out there try to get a small business, an SBA loan, OK, as a white, straight male. It is way more difficult.
SPEAKER 01 :
But absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
So it shouldn't be that way. But I'm just saying just for the sake of minorities, don't make them be looked at with a sense of suspicion. You know, if I go see a doctor and this is a black woman who's a doctor, OK, I want to completely trust that I've got the best doctor. I don't want to sit there and think, OK, well, is she like 19th best? But, you know, she's got the right gender and the right skin color. No, that's not right. So this is a good thing for. By the way, can I just say that Trump has also ordered what they're calling the one flag policy? Yeah. which is U.S. federal offices and embassies around the world. They're not allowed to fly the pride flags. They're not allowed to fly Black Lives Matter flags. It's the American flag, period. The only exceptions to that are in certain embassies, if there's prisoners of war or something like that, you can fly the POW flag, missing in action flag, wrongful detainee flag. But other than that, none of these political message flags anymore.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, on top of that too, guys, and Neil, I mean, this, you know, the left would probably say is the wrong track for Donald Trump, but he also put a hiring freeze on any new federal worker. What he really is looking at is, okay, all of you that have agencies, and he's already even said this, he's even said this to corporate America, you guys need to figure out a way to lower your overall costs. Those of you that are in the federal sides of things, how do we lower costs to help out the taxpayer? Those of you that are in the corporate end of things, How do we lower costs so we can help out consumers at the end of the day? And by the way, everything that we just talked about, you know, that Bob just mentioned, Neil, and you said as well, all DEI does, which also no one ever talks about, is add costs. You've got to cost for each one of those individuals that are handling those programs, that are administering it. I mean, not only are we lowering costs. the quality in the case of a lot of companies, including the federal and state governments, but the reality is there's an additional cost to that as well. You take all of that away, and I don't know if anybody's even done any math on how much that saves the country, but Neil, it's got to be a huge number when you look at how many people are involved in that particular end of things.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and on top of that, has any DEI mandate ever changed a human heart? Meaning, if you've got racism in your heart, if you've got discrimination in your heart, has any heart been changed as a result of this?
SPEAKER 01 :
It probably makes it worse, Neil. I agree.
SPEAKER 04 :
I was going to say, it hardens hearts. It hardens hearts. Exactly. Exactly. And the law didn't do anything except cause us to desire sin. That's what the Word of God says. God handed down his perfect law, but it accomplished what it was supposed to, to prove that we can't handle this on our own. We needed Jesus to come and fix us. And so when you start shoving mandates in people's faces, it hardens hearts. And I think that the bottom line is people have grown in the United States of America to realize that racism is wrong and that we need to honor all people regardless of skin color. Does that mean there's no racism? No, it's still there. But let's work on this by pursuing love. Let's work on this by pursuing what's right and promoting people on the basis of their merit and their accomplishment, not the color of their skin. How many people have been denied opportunities, by the way? Isn't that reverse racism? Denied opportunities because they had the wrong color skin?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, too many.
SPEAKER 04 :
I'm sorry. We would love to promote you, and you've been here 25 years, and this guy's only been here three and a half years. But he's black and you're white, so we need to promote him.
SPEAKER 01 :
No, guys, I have, and I'm sure you guys have as well, I have interviewed individuals over the years that can give you stories of being inside of government or police forces or fire departments or just corporate America that were passed over for the very things Neil said. that you just said. Bob, I'm sure you've interviewed some of those individuals as well. I've got personal testimonies from callers talking about that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, I know. Absolutely, that's the case. So what I'm really hopeful, though, is that this will not just be a temporary four-year blip, but that Americans will see through the course of these four years the misguided nature of all of this DEI wokeism, discriminating against people because they're not the right color or sexuality or things like that. A meritocracy. If we can actually have America start recognizing the value of meritocracy, then we can compete better against... The Chinese. You really think over in Russia and in China and some of these other places that they're doing the DEI hires? No, of course they're not. It's like, who is the best and what is in the best interest of our country? That's how everybody else looks at it. Why in the world are we acting like it's controversial for Trump to do that?
SPEAKER 01 :
All right, before we start to kind of wind things down, one question, Neil, I'll start with you. If Donald Trump continues on the track that he's on, and granted, he's always going to have opposition. That's not going to change. It's going to continue to be there. As he continues to have this opposition, but continues to forge forward in some of the things that we are talking about, A, what do the midterms look like? B, what does 2028 look like?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, obviously, I think he learned a lesson. I hope he learned a lesson from his first term in office because he lost the House in the first midterm that happened during his first presidency. And he's got to be careful about that. And I don't think that he ought to be pandering to people falsely. I think he ought to be doing what's right for the American people, and he'll retain both the House and the Senate. But this is a crucial time, and I think he needs to make good on all of his campaign promises. He came out Came out of the gate strong. But, you know, there was a lot of minority voters, Hispanics, blacks that voted for him. He needs to keep them in mind in policies that he's putting forward and where he goes with his administration and move strongly towards taking care of these people that elected him. Because if he does, he'll keep the House. He doesn't want to lose it. It would cost him dearly for his presidency and where he goes next after that if he loses the House or the Senate.
SPEAKER 01 :
Bob, I'll look at you to follow up on that. And then we've also got pre-born and we've only got about a minute or so. So sorry, limited time, but give your thoughts as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, we do have to remember, I mean, it is common. The normal thing is midterms, the Congress, House or Senate end up flipping to the non-White House party. That is common. So if that happens in 2026, That is what is considered normal. So if Republicans retain the House and Senate, that will actually be historic that Trump was able to do that. So it's an uphill battle to make that happen. And you're right. Preborn is just a phenomenal organization. And we're asking everybody right now, if you haven't given to Preborn yet, please do it now. Maybe this is your 2025 contribution. We need some of you to buy ultrasound machines. They're $15,000 a piece. Great tax write-off for you. Your forever legacy is you're stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year, okay? Now, for everybody else that can't afford to buy an ultrasound machine, will you pay for individual ultrasound images? $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, save one baby's life, okay? So how many babies' lives will you save? Take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, that's your forever legacy. If you've given to preborn already, would you consider giving again? Here's how you give. Go online right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. Every dime you give goes to ultrasounds. Nothing for overhead. And you can call over the phone, 833-850-BABY, and they answer 24-7. 833-850-BABY. Call right now. Please give and support our sponsors.
SPEAKER 01 :
Perfect. And, Neil, sorry, I've got one minute. SunPowerLED, talk about them if you would, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, real quick, right now in my program and Neil Boron Live, we've got a sponsor, SunPowerLED. And the current ad that's running right now is for a gentleman who had had a stroke. Coming out of that, he survived it, thank God, but his speech was severely affected. He thought he was speaking normally, but other people couldn't understand him. Didn't know what to do. That lasted for a really long time until eventually he got connected to red light therapy, photobiomodulation, using the light God himself created to reduce pain and swelling, promote healing in our body. With the use of what SunPowerLED offers, his speech has returned fully. In fact, he's the one talking in the commercial telling us about how well it works. Listen, if you want to reduce pain or swelling in your body and promote healing, you need to find out what... photobiomodulation or red light therapy can do for you. Check it out at SunPowerLED by clicking on CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Just go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, SunPowerLED.
SPEAKER 01 :
Guys, thanks so much. That's going to do it for the National Crawford Roundtable. Myself, Neil Boron, Bob Duco. Guys, thanks so much for listening today. This has been the National Crawford Roundtable.
SPEAKER 02 :
You've been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of today's culture through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more from your local Crawford Media Group stations website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.
Join Roger Marsh in an enlightening conversation with Gary Bauer on Family Talk, as they unpack the current political climate following the Inauguration Day of 2025. Amidst a new presidential term and changing policies, the dialogue flows around maintaining Christian principles while engaging in today's societal debates. Reflecting on the previous administration, they analyze how political decisions affect cultural values and discuss the necessary involvement of faith communities in shaping moral standards.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, hello, everyone. I'm James Dobson, and you're listening to Family Talk, a listener-supported ministry. In fact, thank you so much for being part of that support for James Dobson Family Institute.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Roger Marsh, and today here on the program, a very, very special installment of Family Talk. Today is Inauguration Day 2025, and who better than to join me in studio to have a conversation about what we're anticipating with a brand new presidential administration than Gary Bauer. Gary is our Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute and And he knows, he's been around Washington a little bit. He knows a little bit about what happens on Capitol Hill. Gary, Happy New Year and welcome back to the broadcast.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you, Roger. It's an exciting day in Washington, D.C. You know, this is one of the little things that happens every four years here. We inaugurate a president, but this year seems particularly profound. And it's also historic, as you know, because we're inaugurating a president who was Wow, wow. We've already made some history today. Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I love the fact that we do have this history. It does seem like the Trump administration is now going into its third term because the last four years were somewhat tumultuous. I think first and foremost, we are giving glory to God, not because we here at the JDFI were backing any particular candidate, but I know the work that you did and Dr. Dobson did and we did with our Countdown to Decision 2024 program. The whole name of the game there was to encourage people to vote biblically, if you're a Christian, especially to vote for your biblical values. But secondly, to get Christians who typically sit on their hands to get engaged. And I think we saw a huge turnout of people who ordinarily don't engage get engaged.
SPEAKER 02 :
You're absolutely right, Roger. This is something that's been dear to the heart of Dr. Dobbs in his entire career. He and I, over the years, over the decades, have been complaining about Christians not being good Christian citizens. It seems like for about 100 years we've been complaining about that. But in fact, in recent years, and particularly in this last election, there has been a more encouraging turnout. of men and women that believe the Bible and believe that our liberty comes from God, not from government. And they made a difference. And, of course, it needs to be mentioned. You know this, Roger, but I know a lot of Christians are still confused about it. We hear over and over again from people that say, look, I'm just going to go to church on Sunday. I'm going to worship God. I'm going to leave all that noise outside of the church. It has nothing to do with me. Well, that's really flawed thinking. This is a country whose founders believed that it could only exist, it could only survive if the population were moral people. Everything they built was was based on that idea. It's also a country that has sent more missionaries around the world to bring the good news about our Savior Jesus Christ than any country in the history of the world. So America is deeply intertwined with our Christian faith. So that means today on Inauguration Day, the battle really begins in a very profound way. And one of the things we want to do at JDFI is keep people informed and let them know when they're going to need to weigh in on legislation that's pending or something that the president is or isn't doing as we deal with these great issues that will determine the future of our country.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you know, it's interesting, Gary, because I appreciate the position that you have with us here at the JDFI as the senior vice president of public policy, because a lot of people don't realize. They think, well, that's politics and those are laws and that's not my lane, if you will. And realizing that as Christians, that's absolutely something that we should be concerned with. The policy decisions that are made by an administration have huge ramifications in the culture. And then this year, we also launched, brought in Dr. Owen Strand as our senior director of the Dobson Culture Center to help us understand the policies, kind of set the agenda for what the administration is going to do. And then the cultural impact causes us as believers to head back to Scripture and say, wait, is this forcing me to compromise my values or not? Maybe one of the black eyes, if you will, of the Biden administration has been the fact that they have sought so aggressively to to seek out ways to basically undermine biblical and traditional values that, beyond the fact that they're an offense to God, but they really do bring havoc in society. Talk about, from your vantage point, what we've seen over the past four years and why Donald Trump being in the White House means we're going to see a shift in those policies.
SPEAKER 02 :
It's a great question, Roger. And I think all of us here at JDFI, we get a little nervous. Maybe that's not the right word, but we don't want to come across as being political partisans or tied to one political party or whatever. But there is a certain reality in American political life and public life right now. And one of the ways we've addressed this is to look at the platforms of the two parties. And nobody in the Democrat Party is going to disagree with what I'm getting ready to say. The Democrat Party platform is all in on abortion on demand, to give you just one example. And it's all in on the political demands of the LGBTQ community or special interest group, however you want to refer to it. And because of that, the Biden years have been four years where our religious liberty, our rights of conscience, have been under constant attack. It's not just that the president promoted abortion and promoted LGBTQ issues. President Biden did that at the expense of our right to not be involved in those things. That's good. So, in fact, right now we're part of a lawsuit against the outgoing Biden administration over regulations they issued to try to make Christian ministries and Christian businesses – violate our conscience by promoting abortion or paying for abortions or promoting LGBTQ issues or being implicated in the whole transgender movement and all that's going on with that that threatens our children. All that ends, all those things that were coming out of Washington, all that ends today on Inauguration Day.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. You know, Gary, you brought up an excellent point in the fact that there are a lot of people who don't see the interrelativity, if you will, the interconnectivity of the things that the previous administration, the outgoing one, thank the Lord that we've survived four years of that. But isn't that a testament to the great American system that we have here, Gary Bauer? I mean, let's face it. There are a lot of people every four years who say, I'm so glad that person's not president anymore. Other people who say, thank the Lord they are. But the system still works. I mean, it really does. It's a testament to the Constitution and to God's hand of providence on our nation that even a fascist dictatorial type and maybe fascist is a bit too strong. But the Biden administration really did have those tendencies in terms of saying, look, we're going to push abortion rights. We're going to push transgender ideologies at the expense of religious liberty. I mean, if it weren't a zero sum game like that. There's no way you can do one without the other, and yet they keep saying, no, no, no, everybody can be accepted. Everybody's welcome. But as you duly noted, that's a place where Christians have to stand in the gap and say, wait a minute, not only is that not morally right, it's also unconstitutional.
SPEAKER 02 :
That's a great summary, Roger. You know, to stay on the LGBTQ part of this, and I don't know if any new letters have been added since our show began, it seems to be a growing phenomena. But early on in that movement, the appeal that it made to the American public and, quite frankly, to Christians was – look, we know you don't agree with us, but we're not asking you to marry somebody of the same sex. We're not asking you to have an abortion. We're just saying, let us live our lives the way we want to. If we love someone, who are you to question our love? And that was a very effective argument. And I think, quite frankly, there's a lot of evidence that particularly younger Christians believe Found it persuasive and said, well, yeah, why are you being so mean-spirited and not letting those people have the same rights that we do? Well, now that that movement got traction, the LGBTQ movement got traction, it was no longer a live and let live movement. It was an iron fist movement. You will participate and bake cakes for our weddings. Right, right. And all the rest of it, you will not preach about this in your churches or we will sue you for denying us our constitutional rights. So it's been very, I think, instructive to see the live and let live argument really doesn't play out. And there's no society that's neutral. Right. Every society will have a set of things that it admires, that it looks up to, that it wants to teach its children to follow and to be committed to. And it will have a series of things, of ideas and ways of living that that society will say, no, don't do that. That is not right. That is wrong. Somebody always wins in a society. in our society over these sorts of things. And thank God for JDFI, and thank God for Dr. Dobson's voice over the decades, because we have said that the things to look up to here in America are faith, family, and freedom. That's what the country was built on, and that's what we remain committed to following and to defending.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, today here on Inauguration Day, Gary Bauer is with us here in studio on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh, and we're talking about what this new administration, we used to call President Trump President 45, now he's also President 47, which is kind of interesting, hasn't happened in this country in well over 100 years. But as I was just thinking, Gary, of the image as Donald Trump placing his hand, left hand on the Bible, right hand in the air to take the oath of office, I could hear the border closing. You know, I could hear the gates, the doors shutting up. And not only that, but I could hear Homeland Security under the capable direction of former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem coming in and saying, OK, we're shutting things down now. That open border issue, I think that's a hand that the Democrat Party horribly overplayed in the election as kind of downplaying the fact that, well, it's really not that important to American families. And yet the open border has put so many families at risk. So many communities are being overwhelmed. We think about right even here in Colorado, you know, I mean, the gang activity moving into taking over apartment complexes and things of that nature. A lot of Christians are going to say, but Gary, you know what, though? It's not right. People are coming here. And they need a place to flee their homeland and they need a safe place to land. Why is it good and godly for us to close the borders and have not keep people out necessarily, but have a better way of filtering those who come in?
SPEAKER 02 :
Roger, you're absolutely right. This is another one of those issues that there's been division in the church about. Although when you do polling on it, Americans overwhelmingly are against what they watched the last four years. And that goes for men and women of faith, men and women who are in church every Sunday. Just their common sense told them you can't have 8, 10, 12 million people walk into America without having a profound impact on the country. And now some of it might be a positive impact, but a lot of it is a very negative impact. If a good person can walk across the border and now go wherever they want and never leave, even if a court demands that they leave, well, then what would stop a bad person from walking across the border?
SPEAKER 01 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 02 :
Or a terrorist from walking across the border. And in fact, we know that that has happened. And the reason we know it is that American citizens – The people that our government has the first responsibility to defend and protect have been raped and killed and robbed. That's unacceptable. There's nothing Christian about that. I will often hear someone, usually a progressive, self-identified progressive in the church, who thinks that the argument is over if that person simply says, Jesus loves migrants. Well, Jesus loves all human beings. He sent his son to die for our salvation as the perfect lamb. The fact that Jesus loves men and women that he created does not in any way settle the argument about what a nation's border policy should be. Jesus loves taxpayers. Jesus loves American citizens. So you've got to bring a more— well-thought-out moral mindset to deal with these sorts of issues.
SPEAKER 01 :
I remember one theologian one night, the guy was trying to do the open border thing with him, and his response was, well, do you lock your door before you go to bed?
SPEAKER 02 :
Exactly right, yes.
SPEAKER 01 :
I mean, of course we do. So that's the thing, and last time I checked too, heaven does have a gate and does have a narrow way in, and there is a way that people can get in, but there's also... provisions for keeping people out. That's a godly principle.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, there's a half million children we shouldn't forget about. That's the number of children during the Biden years that crossed our border, many of them unaccompanied by an adult. And those children were given to other adults in the United States that claimed they were a relative or claimed that they were somebody that there had been a prearrangement made with the family in the home country. child comes from to take care of that child. And we found out in the closing months of the Biden administration that we were no longer able to locate the great majority of those children. There is absolutely no doubt that some of those children are being abused. They've been trafficked. Others are no doubt working in sweatshop factories as illegal minor workers for businesses that are off the grid. So this is a human tragedy. No country can legitimately allow something like that to happen, and yet that's exactly what happened over the last four years. And I know that the Trump administration – has said all during the transition period, they're going to do everything they can to find those children and rescue them wherever they are. That is something that Jesus would be smiling about.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. Well, we're smiling about it here at Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk in the JDFI. Gary Bauer is our Senior Vice President of Public Policy. He's the host of the Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom podcast and a regular contributor, of course. to the Family Talk program. And today here on Inauguration Day, Gary, also having served in the Reagan White House for many years, and also you served President Trump in a capacity. I didn't want to make you a cabinet member or anything like that at that point if it wasn't more to give you that promotion. But you served the last couple of years of his first term working in an area that I know a lot of people think is kind of an anomaly. Donald Trump and religious liberty, especially as it pertains to Christians, And yet he's got to look at all his foreign policy decisions. Look at the Christians that he's picked to cabinet posts and ambassadorships and things of that nature. It's a very exciting time for Americans, again, to see men and women of faith put in these positions.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Well, it's an old saying in Washington that personnel is policy. A president brings six, seven, 8,000 people with him to all these posts. There are Christians everywhere. all over the Trump administration. There wasn't his first term. You mentioned the assignment I had. It was not a paid assignment, but he nominated me to be one of the nine members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. And our job was to look at every nation in the world and rate them on whether they were allowing the citizens of their country to enjoy the most fundamental right that all human beings should have, which is to seek God and worship God as they see fit. And President Trump was very committed to that issue, remains committed to it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Did I read this correctly, Gary? There's a new faith office that's going to be coming in as part of the Trump 47 administration? Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, there is going to be a faith office. Now, he had an office in the administration in his first term, and it was very effective. But it still had to deal with bureaucracy and so forth, like all these departments and commissions and agencies do. This faith office is going to report directly to the president. And there's going to be an individual in each government cabinet agency that is part of that faith office and will represent it in each of those agencies around Washington, D.C. For years, Donald Trump has had a faith advisory board— He had that in his first term, and Dr. Dobson is a member of that faith advisory board, continues to be a member of it today. And it will this time report directly to the president, this faith office. So I think it's another example of how seriously Donald Trump is committed to religious liberty. One other thing on this, Roger, that I think a lot of Christians forget – Religious liberty right now at the Supreme Court is in a stronger position than it's been in in 50 years. And the reason for that is that in his first term, Donald Trump had three Supreme Court vacancies that he was able to fill. And that gave us, depending on the issue, somewhere between a five or six vote margin. majority on the Supreme Court in defense of religious liberty. We don't know what's going to happen in the next four years. I believe there could be another vacancy of another one of the liberal justices. And if that happens, I have no doubt that Donald Trump will appoint somebody that is committed to the First Amendment. and its guarantee of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, what we call the first freedoms that are part of our Constitution.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it's an exciting time. It's an exciting day, Inauguration Day 2025. We've been having this conversation with Gary Bauer, who's the Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, former Undersecretary of Education, and served on the advisory board for the—I always get the lettering wrong—the
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it's USURF is the alphabet name, but it's U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom. And by the way, Roger, the most persecuted group in the world, we found at the commission, and this won't surprise anybody, are followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 01 :
It's come to that point. So this is the world we live in. For such a time as this, we are very hopeful and anticipating that the next four years are going to be years of not necessarily just easy-feasy for Christians, but rather to see the biblical worldview carried out from the highest level of government here in the United States. Gary, thank you for handicapping that with us. Would you take the final moments of our time together and just offer a prayer for the incoming administration, for our nation, and also for maybe believers who are kind of scratching their heads saying, wait a minute, why would God put this man? As our president, how is that a good thing from God, if you would be so kind?
SPEAKER 02 :
Of course, Roger. Well, Father God, we just thank you for the incredible blessing we received when you allowed us to be born or to immigrate legally to the United States of America. Of all the places in the world that someone could be born in, to be born here is an unbelievable blessing. This is a nation built on the idea that liberty comes from you. You weren't surprised by the fact that we were born in America. You knew exactly where we were going to be born. And so because of this gift you gave us, Father God, we have an obligation to preserve it, to take care of it, to protect it. Otherwise, we would be ingrates. Nobody would want to abuse or ignore a wonderful gift given to them. And you've given us this gift to be citizens in the United States. So thank you for that blessing. Give us the courage as Christian citizens to speak up for our faith and to stand for faith, family, and freedom. And Father God, for some who still don't understand why Christians voted by massive margins for Donald Trump, help them to have the wisdom to know that the Bible is full of stories of heroes and heroines, often unlikely and fallen men and women. who you used for your purposes in ways that helped the world of the time they lived in. Father God, we pray for your protection on President Trump and the members of his administration, that you would keep them safe. We would pray, Father, that all those in the administration, followers of Jesus Christ, would be strengthened in their faith, but also members of the administration that may not yet understand you and your message of salvation to us that may be during their time of public service. This will be when they find Jesus and being even better in the jobs that they've given us. Father God, finally, we ask that this great country that has done so many good things, we're a flawed nation, as all nations are, but we pray, Father, that you would continue to help America follow your will to make us a nation that, in fact, is a shining city on a hill. Father God, we know that America can't be great again until it's godly again. We ask these things in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. Gary Bauer, thank you so much for helping us to get the proper spiritual perspective on Inauguration Day 2025 here on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. Gary, it's always a pleasure to be with you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Always great to be with you, Roger.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you've been listening to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, featuring an insightful conversation about Inauguration Day 2025 with our own Gary Bauer, our Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Policy Center. Now, if you missed any portion of today's historic broadcast, or if you'd like to share it with others, go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash Family Talk, or you can also access this audio through the Family Talk app. And speaking of apps, you can now follow JDFI on the Bible app, the YouVersion Bible app, which is utilized by millions of people worldwide. You can join the nearly 100,000 people who have subscribed to three-day devotional plans with practical biblical insights to strengthen marriages and equip others. parents. For example, you can get started with one of these popular plans, Dr. Dobson's three-day marriage plan for improving communication skills or finding true love in your marriage. You'll also benefit from Dr. Dobson's three-day parenting plan for a mother's impact on her children and opting for effective discipline. You can follow JDFI when you access the YouVersion Bible app, and you'll find that information in Google Play or the App Store. Well, I'm Roger Marsh, thanking you so much for listening to the broadcast today. Be sure to join us again next time for another edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
