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On today's program, hosted by Jody Hice: Andy Biggs, U.S. Representative for the 5th District of Arizona, previews how Congress can partner with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Department of Government Efficiency. Carrie Gress, Ethics and Public
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In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable the guys review President-Elect Trump's Cabinet picks. They also take a look at DOGE--how will this work? And what about Representative Lauren Boebert and others questioning UFO experts on underwater civilizations? They'll also talk about the governors who say they will push back against Trump's deportation plans.
On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson and Gary Bauer conclude their encouraging discussion about the outcome of the presidential election. They also discuss how the incoming administration’s policies will change the trajectory of our nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
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On today's program: Warren Davidson, U.S. Representative for the 8th District of Ohio, assesses President-elect Trump's latest Cabinet picks and responds to criticism of the president-elect's military review board. He also offers an update on the
SPEAKER 10 : 0:01
from the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
SPEAKER 09 : 0:20
We're running out of clock. December 20th is the deadline. We're still hopeful that we might be able to get that done. But if not, we'll have a temporary measure I think that would go into the first part of next year and allow us the necessary time to get this done.
SPEAKER 08 : 0:34
That was House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday on Fox News Sunday. Welcome to this Monday edition of Washington Watch. Glad you tuned in. Congress faces a ticking clock with just one month until the current temporary spending measure expires. So what's next? Well, we'll get insights from Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson in just a moment. Embrace yourself for this.
SPEAKER 15 : 0:56
Our military and the role of the military is in the Constitution for a reason, and I think we're really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can't put the genie back in the bottle.
SPEAKER 08 : 1:08
Really? That was Senator-elect Alyssa Slotkin on ABC this weekend. Her comments were about a proposed warrior board that will review the mission competency of the Pentagon's top brass. We'll discuss her comments and their implications. Dr. Adam Rasmussen will join us to break down the latest numbers from the 2024 election as they have been analyzed. Who voted? Who didn't? And what does it tell us? Plus, I'll share highlights from my weekend conversation with Real Clear Politics White House correspondent Philip Wegman about President Trump's cabinet picks.
SPEAKER 14 : 1:45
What that tells you is that it is Donald Trump fundamentally who is making these decisions and him alone. It's not an advisor. It's not any outside group. It's him.
SPEAKER 08 : 1:57
We'll talk about it. All this and more coming up on this Monday edition of Washington Watch. Well, as our nation approaches a significant transition in leadership, we're facing pressing global challenges and critical decisions in this lame duck session of Congress that's already underway. Now, this moment demands not just vigilance and observation, but it calls for unified, fervent prayer. And we believe this is a season for heightened spiritual vigilance. And that's why we've launched Operation Prayer Shield, a powerful collective prayer effort to seek God's divine protection, wisdom, and guidance for our nation, for Israel, and our allies during this pivotal time. So from now until January the 20th, we invite you to stand with us in prayer by texting SHIELD, that's S-H-I-E-L-D, to 67742. That's 67742, the word SHIELD. You'll receive weekly alerts, daily prayer points, and other resources to keep you engaged and praying during this critical time. So join us in covering our nation in prayer. Text SHIELD to 67742 today. I'm not sure how they say this with a straight face, but the left is claiming that the incoming administration's proposal to make sure the top brass in the military can lead the military in its mission is politicizing the military. Who has politicized the military? I would suggest it's the left, as they have used it as a laboratory for social experimentation. Well, joining me now to discuss this and more is Congressman Warren Davidson, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Financial Services Committee. He's also a veteran of the United States Army. He represents the 8th Congressional District of Ohio. Congressman Davidson, welcome back to the program. Always great to see you. Tony, it's always an honor. Thank you for talking with me tonight. All right. So let's start with this issue of the warrior board, the left claiming that would politicize the military. One look at the National Defense Authorization Act and how the cleanup effort has been underway by Republicans to remove the political elements would suggest to me it's not the right that's doing it, but the left.
SPEAKER 07 : 4:13
Yeah, I mean, that was part of the effort we've had, really, since Democrats took the majority. They've continued to push for, you know, kind of woke and weaponized government. And one of the kind of key woke elements, they created this three-letter acronym, DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, which are really just political officers. They created these departments in every federal agency, and they're there to politicize every department. And they're clearly doing it in the Department of Defense, you know, very aggressively pushing it out And frankly, imposing training on troops all the way through the field. So we need to extract this from our military and get them back to being strong and focused.
SPEAKER 08 : 4:51
Do you think this is a good idea that the president has put forth with what's being called a warrior board to evaluate the competency of the military's top brass?
SPEAKER 07 : 5:05
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, fundamentally, the Department of Defense has never passed an audit since they were required to pass an audit, and no one ever gets held accountable. And look, it's not like we can just say, we're done with you guys. We're closing the Department of Defense. We can't really do that, but we can hold somebody accountable for it. No one's ever gotten fired for failing the audit. And every year they're rewarded with more money and more responsibility. And so it's time. I've had a bill for years now that I introduce every session to try to say when it says whenever the Department of Defense fails an audit, 10 percent of the general officer corps is eliminated. And then there would be consequences for it. And frankly, our senior ranks are already bloated. I mean, we have one officer for every nine enlisted soldiers. When we won World War II, we had one officer for every 30 enlisted soldiers. So we're very top heavy.
SPEAKER 08 : 5:57
Now, their justification for opposing this warrior board and advancing their DEI agenda within the military says that this is the way you get diversity in our military, and diversity is what makes our military strong.
SPEAKER 07 : 6:15
Well, I think that the ability to shoot, move, and communicate lethal force is what makes our military strong. And frankly, the cohesion out of the unit comes when that is the focus. You inherently build a diverse unit because you take the most talented people at each of the skill sets required to succeed, and the unit flourishes. And I mean, you see that in all kinds of arenas. We should certainly see it in our military. And the other thing is, it's not uncommon. I mean, if you look at... George C. Marshall did this in a really big scale. And in a smaller scale, Barack Obama eliminated 200 officers when he took the White House. So not an unprecedented thing at all to go through and, you know, purge kind of some of the excesses and realign the military. And this should happen throughout government. But of all the places it should happen and most clearly aligns with the president's prerogatives, it's in his role as commander in chief.
SPEAKER 08 : 7:13
The president-elect Donald Trump has tapped Pete Hexeth as the next defense secretary. Your thoughts?
SPEAKER 07 : 7:22
I'm very excited. I've really enjoyed getting to know Pete Hegseth. And I'm sure he's overwhelmed with feedback and celebratory praise. But he's also been wrongly criticized. I mean, this guy, OK, he's a major. Usually you say, oh, we need these seasoned insiders. Well, Donald Trump tried the seasoned insiders. He tried General Mad Dog Mattis, and supposedly he was going to lead transformative change. He didn't lead anything. He was a disaster. Then he brought in, oh, the lobbyist insider, Mark Esper. Esper, more status quo, no reform. So Donald Trump now is saying, I'm going to take somebody that actually means what I'm talking about, which is we're going to get a strong and focused military. Pete Hegseth has written books about it. He's a well-educated, very successful combat veteran as an infantry officer. And I think he's the right kind of leader. We have to get him confirmed.
SPEAKER 08 : 8:14
All right. Let's turn now to the lame duck session of Congress. One of the issues front and center in this lame duck session is the funding of government. We've gone until December the 20th. It's about one month ago. What are we going to be looking at? Is it going to be another short term continuing resolution, booting it into the first of next year? We're going to see an omnibus. What do we what do we anticipate?
SPEAKER 07 : 8:39
Well, no secret. Washington, D.C. loves the status quo. They've lobbied hard for it for years and they fight to preserve it. And they're pushing for an omnibus so that, you know, you can get at least one more year of this woke and weaponized government. All the policies and priorities that the American people just rejected are reflected in the current spending plan. And so it would be a disaster for Congress to accept an omnibus. And, you know, Speaker Johnson has persuaded me convincingly that he's not going to get rolled with an omnibus, that he is going to push for a CR that goes into the president's first hundred days. And that's the fastest way to deliver on the promises Donald Trump and others that make up our Republican majority in the House and Senate made to the American people. So why would we delay that for another year? We should absolutely hit that in the first hundred days, and the best way to do that is to get a continuing resolution that goes into the first hundred days.
SPEAKER 08 : 9:36
So an omnibus that some have been discussing would be funding for the rest of the year kind of lumped together as we've seen before. You never know what's tucked away in there, but it would add additional funds to the government, whereas a CR simply extends what we currently have until the new administration can put their fingerprint on the funding priorities.
SPEAKER 07 : 10:03
Yeah, precisely. So if you did an omnibus, it would fund the government with no real reforms, plus ups, more spending. There were some negotiations that go in there, earmarks that everybody wants to get for their priorities back home. In general, it's been more money in more places on more people, and it would go all the way until September 30th. of next year. That's the fiscal year 2025 spending plan that was frankly due September 30th of this year, but it's kind of turned into the Christmas tradition that Congress, well, you got to pass this or we're going to have to stay through Christmas. If that's what it takes, fine, stay through Christmas. But the reality is we should push it out into the you know, at least early February. So you get, you know, a little bit of runway with the House and Senate. There's really no reason we couldn't have this by the end of January, though, on the president's desk with priorities that he and we promised to deliver to the American people during this campaign season.
SPEAKER 08 : 11:01
And Congressman Davidson, call me cynical, but With a lame duck session where you've got the Senate majority right now, Democrat, going out, Chuck Schumer playing the heavy hand consistently time and time again. If there were an omnibus, I can guarantee you there would be objectionable spending elements in there that the voters who just cast their votes on November 5th would be opposed to.
SPEAKER 07 : 11:30
100% there would be. And there were last time. I mean, you know, Speaker Johnson caught a lot of blowback because less than half of the Republicans in the House voted for the last omnibus. I mean, he broke it into two pieces. But not just my colleagues and I were unhappy with that. The American people were pretty unhappy with that because we funded a lot of things that we promised not to fund. And that got us through this election cycle. But we certainly shouldn't start the next one off on a bad foot by getting more of another year of the same bad policies. So we need to get it into the first 100 days so we can deliver on really what this campaign season was all about. And the American people overwhelmingly rejected this woke, weaponized government. And they want a secure border at the most basic level. Why would we continue to fund interior resettlement of people trying to enter our country illegally Why wouldn't we turn that off? Why couldn't we in the very first days deliver on President Trump's promise to stop taxing tips? Things like that ought to be in this Make America First, Make America Great Again, America First funding priorities. And we should be able to do it in the first 100 days.
SPEAKER 08 : 12:38
Congressman Warren Davidson, one minute left. Is this something that our viewers and listeners need to weigh in with with their members of Congress? Say, you know, just just give it over to President Trump. Let him shape the spending for the next year.
SPEAKER 07 : 12:52
Yeah, absolutely. No omnibus. Get this to President Trump's desk, not President Biden's. All right. One final question for you. What should we be looking for in the next three weeks? You know, President Trump's going to continue to round out his team, and you want to look for people that are going to support President Trump getting his team. I mean, he sent a message to the Senate saying, look, if you're not going to confirm Matt Gaetz, I'm going to do a recess appointment or I'm going to appoint him for a temporary basis on an interim basis for 210 days and may extend it again for 210 days. Trump's very adamant that he's going to get his team and he should have it.
SPEAKER 08 : 13:26
All right. Congressman Warren Davidson, always great to talk with you. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, Tony. All right, folks, you can stay tuned as to what's going on. Tune in each day to Washington Watch, but also get the Stand Firm app where we have alerts going out so you know what to do and when to do it. So download the Stand Firm app. Coming up, very few in the media are reporting on the Christian vote during the election, but it made a difference. We're going to talk about that next, so don't go away. More Washington Watch straight ahead.
SPEAKER 06 : 14:03
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 16 : 14:32
Let's not be discouraged. Don't lose heart. Don't lose the faith. Stand now strong because the Lord has given us the great privilege of living in a time when our choices matter, when our lives matter, when our courage matters. So let's stand together and save this great country. God bless the United States of America.
SPEAKER 01 : 14:49
the american republic has a freedom like no other it has roots in the scriptures far more than any other heritage and if we as followers of jesus and conservatives don't defend it who will
SPEAKER 02 : 15:06
Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You're naive if you think that, because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 04 : 15:27
Part of the dilemma of Christianity in our generation is that we've relied a little too much on human wisdom and human reasoning, human strength, human resource, and we've relied too little on the power of God and God's ability to open doors that we can't open and do things that we couldn't even hope to begin to do.
SPEAKER 11 : 15:45
This may not be an easy task, But we are living in a moment of challenge, but also a great opportunity. And we know always that we are not alone, that his spirit empowers us and protects us, and that he can do the unimaginable. Dobbs, after all, was never supposed to have.
SPEAKER 08 : 16:08
Father, we thank you. You have entrusted us with this moment in history, and I pray that we would be found faithful, and that as a result of our faithfulness to you, that thousands, millions would come into the kingdom as they would experience the forgiveness of sin and the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ. Amen.
SPEAKER 05 : 16:31
Are you a Christian parent looking to raise a spiritual champion in today's culture? Renowned author George Barna has written a new book, Raising Spiritual Champions. This book offers valuable insights based on extensive research conducted by George Barna, the Family Research Council, and Arizona Christian University. Learn how to help your children discern biblical truth and find compelling meaning and purpose. Don't miss out on this essential resource for parents. Order your copy today.
SPEAKER 08 : 17:04
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Be sure and join us for Operation Prayer Shield. Text SHIELD to 67742. Join us in coordinated prayer as we pray for our nation during this very vulnerable and pivotal time between now and January the 20th. So again, text the word SHIELD to 67742 and we'll connect you with thousands of Americans who are praying around this country. There has been a lot of post-election analysis on the shifts that we saw from demographic groups that have been traditional supporters of the Democratic Party, such as young adults, women, Hispanics, but little media attention has been given to the Christian vote. which my next guest says made the difference in the race for the White House. Joining me now to unpack what he and his colleagues found is Dr. Adam Rasmussen. He's a fellow at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. Dr. Rasmussen, welcome to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 03 : 18:05
Thank you, Tony. It's my pleasure to be with you.
SPEAKER 08 : 18:07
So let's before we jump into that, I want to address something else that, you know, there's a lot there was a lot of enthusiasm. I mean, we saw kind of what would be described in modern terms based upon what we've seen in recent years, a landslide shift toward Donald Trump. But the overall voter turnout was actually down from 2020 if the current numbers hold. Speak to that.
SPEAKER 03 : 18:37
Happy to do so. Yes, in 2020, it was 62%. But what we at the Cultural Research Center predicted is that it would be down. And it looks like it'll be about 55% of the total voting population came out to vote. And sadly, that trend was the same with those who identify to be Christian. So it was 55%, only one point up for Christians. 56% of those who say they are Christians came out to vote. And that's just not very good at all, Tony.
SPEAKER 08 : 19:16
Well, okay, so let's start there. Let's break down, because you've got several different subcategories of the Christian vote. There were a couple that were actually up, some were down. Let's talk first about the ones that were up.
SPEAKER 03 : 19:30
Well, one of the most exciting that I think to watch, I'll just go right for that, is the SAGECONS. And this stands for Spiritually Active Governance Engaged Conservatives. And they voted very strongly in the 2020 election. 99% voted. And we saw that again in the 2024 election. And they represent 5% of our total population in the United States. but 7% of the election population this time. And that was very exciting to see.
SPEAKER 08 : 20:08
Yeah, in fact, most of our audience, most of our viewers, listeners fall into that sage con category, spiritually active, governance engaged conservatives. So while we're on that particular subgroup, what did they point to most as helping them make their decision on how they would vote in this election?
SPEAKER 03 : 20:29
Well, they looked at things that were different than the other side. Abortion was very popular, of course. Sage cons are not going to vote in that direction. And we saw that our churches encouraged by talking about things like religious freedom, addressing poverty, crime, law, and order. And this translated, again, to the sage cons coming in, and they voted on these issues.
SPEAKER 08 : 21:02
And in terms of determining their, as I read down through some of this information, their faith, obviously very important in guiding that decision, party platforms played into their decisions as well as some of the other subcategories.
SPEAKER 03 : 21:20
Absolutely. The sage cons have a different way of looking at the way that they're going to vote because They have an above-average political attentiveness and participation, and they have that conservative political ideology and commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And party platform, not necessarily the personality or the character of a candidate is much more important to them. And, again, that's why they come out and vote in droves, 99 percent of them.
SPEAKER 08 : 21:55
Yeah, they're, of course, by definition, spiritually active, governance engaged. They're going to be there. So our big task, I think, and this is what we're focused on at Family Research Council in Washington Watch, is growing that element of the population because they also have, as we have studied, a... a greater influence on family and friends because they're plugged in, they know what's going on. Let's talk a little bit about the young adult vote, Hispanic. Those were new votes for Donald Trump. What about the younger evangelical, younger Christian? What do we know about them?
SPEAKER 03 : 22:34
Well, they aren't as involved with voting as we saw with our older voters. And And they're more moved towards voting again on being pushed more towards not liking a political candidate, perhaps, a candidate not reflecting their views. And we saw that with the younger generation as well. And unfortunately, some of our research shows that the younger they are, the more apt they are to be positive on allowing abortion under any circumstances. So, while your boomer, theologically defined born-again Christian, would say that they are not for abortion, the Gen Z, for example, the youngest among us, they were focused on the not theologically defined, many of them, a majority of them said that they were for abortion. And this is something that we really have to turn around.
SPEAKER 08 : 23:49
You know, I think, Dr. Rasmussen, but if you look at historically, and I know we don't have time to unpack that today, but younger people tend to be a little more liberal on some of these things until they get older and they start having children, they start buying houses, they become more economically conservative. But the big challenge we face is that young people are putting off marriage and childbearing, which prevents them from moving over into that more conservative ideological category. We're up against a break. We'll pick that up on the other side of the break. Also want to look further into some of these segments and also get you to unpack the reason some people didn't vote. As you just pointed out, the numbers have dropped from 2020, which is surprising, I think, to a lot of people. But why? What did people point to as the reasons? Dr. Rasmussen, my guest, we're going to continue this conversation on the other side of the break. So stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. I'm going to break down the numbers and tell you what it means. All right. More Washington Watch straight ahead.
SPEAKER 13 : 25:05
All of us are born with the desire to find truth and meaning. Where did I come from? What happens when I die? While our answers to these questions may divide us, we are united in our need for the freedom to answer life's biggest questions and make life's biggest decisions for ourselves. That's why religious freedom matters for everyone. Religious freedom matters because the powerful have long wanted to control those who are less powerful. Religious freedom matters because the freedom of those who are different is often threatened by those who believe different is dangerous. Leah Sharibu, a Christian teenager in Nigeria, remains a captive of Boko Haram for her refusal to renounce her Christian faith. Chinese pastor Wang Yi is serving a nine-year sentence for speaking publicly against the Chinese government. In Pakistan, Asif Pervez is on death row for allegedly sending a blasphemous text message. All of this because people in power decided different is dangerous. at the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council. We promote religious freedom for everyone because the only alternative is religious freedom for no one. We encourage Americans and the American government to engage and advocate for the persecuted. And they do. We work every day to bring good news to the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. We do it because that's what Jesus does. We work to give freedom to others because we ourselves have been set free.
SPEAKER 08 : 27:02
Welcome back to this Monday edition of Washington Watch. So good to have you with us. Check out the website, TonyPerkins.com. Better yet, download the Stand Firm app, and you can have Washington Watch in your pocket with a whole lot more. That's the Stand Firm app. Continuing my conversation with Dr. Adam Rasmussen from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. And the researchers over there, led by our friend and colleague, Dr. George Barna, last week released their post-election study that underscores the dominant role of faith in voter turnout and candidate choice. Dr. Rasmussen, thanks for staying with us. So I want to talk a little bit. We've got about five minutes. I want to talk just a little bit about some of the motivating issues. You touched on that in the last segment. Then we'll talk about why people didn't vote. Inflation topped. One of the issues, I mean, the economy, people are feeling this thing. I mean, Christians feel the same thing as everybody else. They got to put food on the table. You know, when we saw Kamala Harris talking about abortion every time she spoke, it was very interesting that more women voted for Joe Biden in 2020 than they did for her in 2024. What that tells me is more women were worried about putting food on the table than aborting their children. And so these pocketbook issues do matter. While abortion is a major issue for evangelicals, so is feeding their children.
SPEAKER 03 : 28:31
That's true. And what we saw is that 72% of those who came out to vote were Christians. And they have values. And as you were mentioning, the values about abortion raising families and living through this economy matter. And we saw that probably because of the platform of the Republicans and Donald Trump. Christians gave a 17 million vote advantage or cushion to Donald Trump. And because the margin between the two of them was less than that, it was insurmountable. And that is something that we really should explore.
SPEAKER 08 : 29:15
Mm-hmm. One of the issues I found very interesting, theologically identified evangelicals placed relatively higher emphasis on immigration. 40% chose it as a deciding factor in their candidate selection. Is that because of an underlying concern about law and order and understanding the breakdown of the rule of law?
SPEAKER 03 : 29:41
Oh, I think so for certain. And living here in Arizona, a border state, That's a very important topic to us, and it should be to the entire country. And as we know, that's one of the major responsibilities of the federal government, is to have safe borders. How could it not? And that was a decisive factor for certain.
SPEAKER 08 : 30:03
So as you point out about the Christian vote, I think 72% of those who voted identified as Christian. Is that becoming a big defining issue, whether you are religious, Christian, or non-religious?
SPEAKER 03 : 30:22
Well, I think this particular season, the Christian faith, as you know, Tony, is to be salt and light in our country. And right now, because we hold 72% of those who voted, that's a good thing. And Christians outnumbered those of other faiths or non-faiths five to two. But, and here's the part of statistics that's interesting, we really didn't come out to vote as much as we should have. Only 56% of self-identified Christians voted. But that's greater in percentages than the other groups. 53% of non-Christian faiths and 48% of those who have no faith.
SPEAKER 08 : 31:08
Okay, so let's break that down. We've just got a couple minutes left. Why? Why did they not vote?
SPEAKER 03 : 31:16
The others?
SPEAKER 08 : 31:17
Let's talk about the Christians, the Christians who didn't vote, those who identify as Christian. Why didn't they vote?
SPEAKER 03 : 31:22
Yes. Well, sadly, 20% of them said, I was planning on it, but I just didn't get around to it. So there were several reasons, but I mean, that was one of the highest and what a lame excuse that is. I was going to do it, but I didn't get to it. I forgot or something like that. And other reasons were I thought it might be rigged. I didn't think my vote would count. Perhaps I didn't like one of the candidates. It wasn't pleasant to me to vote. Politics is not that important to me. These are some of the reasons. people were giving. But as you and I know, Jesus Christ needs to be Lord of all of life, not just on Sunday mornings, but Mondays too, and not just the parts of life that are easy for me.
SPEAKER 08 : 32:12
Right.
SPEAKER 03 : 32:12
All of them.
SPEAKER 08 : 32:13
Well, even more so for the difficult issues, that's where we need to lean into our faith more because it provides guidance and direction for us. In your research, did you, and we just got about a minute and a half left, do churches need to give more guidance and direction? I'm not talking about endorsing candidates, but Christian citizenship, do churches need to speak more into that?
SPEAKER 03 : 32:37
Yes, I mean, the numbers weren't great. Just to bottom line it for you, Tony, we found that perhaps if there was a last-minute push, pastors and family members and churches could encourage those 32 million Christians we were calling to come out and vote, okay, and that maybe that might push another 5 million to the voting polls. And we need to be more engaged in those things.
SPEAKER 08 : 33:07
Yeah, I mean, that 20% that said, well, I just forgot, didn't have time. I mean, if the two Sundays prior to the election, their pastors had been saying, don't forget to vote. We've got voter resource. We've got a platform comparison. We've got voter guides for you. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but it should be pretty evident to you when you look at their policies and you look at what the scripture says. That could help, I think, significantly. Dr. Rasmussen, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate the work and appreciate you joining us today to tell us about it.
SPEAKER 03 : 33:39
Thank you so much, Tony.
SPEAKER 08 : 33:40
All right. And we appreciate the partnership with all the folks out there at Arizona Christian. All right. Coming up, I'll share with you my conversation with Real Clear Politics White House correspondent Philip Wegman, who joined us over the weekend for This Week on the Hill. That's next. Don't go away. More straight ahead. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins, President of the 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 do you know the Bible talks about four institutions of government? Do 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 12 : 35:00
Everything we do begins as an idea. Before there can be acts of courage, there must be the belief that some things are worth sacrificing for. Before there can be marriage, there is the idea that man should not be alone. Before there was freedom, there was the idea that individuals are created equal. It's true that all ideas have consequences, but we're less aware that all consequences are the fruit of ideas. Before there was murder, there was hate. Before there was a Holocaust, there was the belief by some people that other people are undesirable. Our beliefs determine our behavior, and our beliefs about life's biggest questions determine our worldview. Where did I come from? Who decides what is right and wrong? What happens when I die? Our answers to these questions explain why people see the world so differently. Debates about abortion are really disagreements about where life gets its value. Debates over sexuality and gender and marriage are really disagreements about whether the rules are made by us or for us. What we think of as political debates are often much more than that. They're disagreements about the purpose of our lives and the source of truth. As Christians, our goal must be to think biblically about everything. Our goal is to help you see beyond red and blue, left and right, to see the battle of ideas at the root of it all. Our goal is to equip Christians with a biblical worldview and help them advance and defend the faith in their families, communities, and the public square. Cultural renewal doesn't begin with campaigns and elections. It begins with individuals turning from lies to truth. but that won't happen if people can't recognize a lie and don't believe truth exists. We want to help you see the spiritual war behind the political war, the truth claims behind the press release, and the forest and the trees.
SPEAKER 08 : 37:06
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us on this Monday. Have you joined Operation Prayer Shield? Today, in this critical moment, we're praying for followers of Christ to be bold in this moment. If America is to be great again, we must be moral again. And Christians cannot compromise on truth. We must lead the way. If you'd like to join Operation Prayer Shield as we pray from now until January the 20th with so much going on, Join us. Text the word SHIELD to 67742. That's SHIELD to 67742. Our word for today comes from Hosea chapter 12. The Lord also brings a charge against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways. According to his deeds, he will recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb and in his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed. He wept and sought favor from him. He found him in Bethel and there he spoke to us. This passage encourages the nation to follow their forefather Jacob's example of wrestling with God for a blessing. Jacob's life was marked by tenacity. He wrestled with Esau in the womb for the position of the blessing. He wrestled with God himself, refusing to let go until he received favor and he succeeded. Jacob's persistence serves as a model of faith and determination. The text also affirms the sanctity of life in the womb. Jacob is described not as a blob of tissue, but as a person with identity and purpose even before birth. This serves as a reminder, a child in the womb is not a choice, but a sacred creation of God. To find out more about our journey through the Bible, text BIBLE to 67742. All right. President-elect Donald Trump continues to roll out his list of cabinet nominees. And as House Speaker Mike Johnson said over the weekend, he made picks, quote, who will shake up the status quo, end quote. Well, on the latest edition of This Week on the Hill, my weekend program with Speaker Johnson, I was joined by Real Clear Politics White House correspondent Philip Wegman to get a snapshot of some of the status quo shaking selections. And here's that discussion. All right, let's start with this. A 30,000-foot view of the nominations thus far, what does this tell us about a second Trump administration?
SPEAKER 14 : 39:22
What this tells us is that it's Donald Trump's transition and no one else's. For a little while there, it seemed that the incoming president was playing it kind of safe. There was a bit of bipartisan consensus behind a pick, like, say, Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. That's someone who is certainly well qualified for that position, but also a shoe in the door. And then came some of these more unconventional picks. Pete Hegseth for Department of Defense Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and then most recently, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. What that tells you is that it is Donald Trump fundamentally who is making these decisions and him alone. It's not an advisor. It's not any outside group. It's him. He's the one who won 320 electoral votes, I was told, by a former senior White House official who's in close contact with the transition. And he's the one making these decisions.
SPEAKER 08 : 40:25
It clearly looks like Donald Trump. It's much different. You see the connections with TV. He's fixated on television news. Pete Hexeth fills that block. And you see, you know, those who have been successful in business also are coming into his administration. Of course, it appears that Elon Musk is at his right hand most of the time. I want to go back, as we talk about nominations and the process as it unfolds, I want to get your read on something that took place this week with the Senate electing or selecting their leaders for the next Congress or the next session. And the president didn't weigh in. The president-elect did not weigh in. But a lot of his supporters did, including Elon Musk and some other, you know, a strong social media presence. And they wanted to elevate Rick Scott to the top. And it appears—my read on this is that the Senate leadership— really is sending a message that they're not going to be swayed by outside pressure and moving John Thune up from the number two position to the number one position.
SPEAKER 14 : 41:32
I think your read on this is correct. I think another takeaway here is that Twitter is not real life. You had folks like Elon Musk that you just mentioned, Tucker Carlson and others who are really trying to exert pressure on the rank and file of the Senate GOP conference. But that's a secret ballot. It's also a term that's going to last for some time. And these members are obviously insulated from some of the populism that's swaying, not just the House of Representatives, but also the White House. These guys are up for election every six years, not every two or four. And so while I think that what we saw from Senator Rick Scott was was a pretty valiant effort, regardless of whether or not you like his politics. It was an interesting challenge to follow. He just didn't have the votes. The reason why I think that we should still put a pin in this and watch closely is that there's sort of a bubbling frustration among the right flank, previously McConnell's right flank, now Thune's right flank, with how things are going. And certainly in Washington, D.C. right now, Republicans are of the opinion that Donald Trump has a mandate after winning the Electoral College and also the popular vote. And so the question is, when someone like Speaker Mike Johnson has shown that he is ready to move the ball down the field, are Senate Republicans also going to be team players here, not for the establishment, but for the base that wants to see big policies actually delivered, not just changes at the margin?
SPEAKER 08 : 43:13
But by design, the Senate was created to kind of be the—kind of some speed bumps there, kind of slowing the process down to reach consensus. And we're going to see that when the confirmations begin. You know, the Republicans, we've still got a seat that's outstanding, so we don't know what the total count will be. But the Republicans have the majority in the Senate. So let's talk about some of these. I want you to handicap some of these because I know you're going to be tracking them. You mentioned Marco Rubio. I think that's a no-brainer. He's going in.
SPEAKER 14 : 43:45
Yeah, your read on that is the same as mine. Rubio is someone who has done the homework when it comes to the China question. And of course, we can get into this later. But he's well liked by both Republicans and Democrats because he's seen as not necessarily overtly political when it comes to the foreign affairs question. When it comes to defense, this is someone who keeps their nose in a book and is trying to find consensus. on a common problem. Certainly, he's well-respected, not just by Republicans, but also Democrats.
SPEAKER 08 : 44:20
Lee Zeldin, administrator of the EPA, that's another one that I think is going to sail through.
SPEAKER 14 : 44:26
Yeah, I think Zeldin, in all likelihood, won't have much trouble. That said, you're sending Zeldin to the EPA. He's not thought of as a big environmental guy. He's a lawyer. Obviously, this is a pick that the incoming president would like someone to slash red tape. There could be some trouble there, but I don't see any Republicans abandoning ship. I think you're correct.
SPEAKER 08 : 44:51
Governor Kristi Noem as the Secretary of Homeland Security, that's going to be a big department. I mean, it is a big department, but with the border issue being overseen by Homeland Security, what do you think on this one?
SPEAKER 14 : 45:04
Yeah. Kristi Noem, she had a bit of a fall from grace, certainly, when her book came out because of the revelations about some family pets. I'm not certain that we're going to see Republicans abandon ship here. DHS, while it is a vast and sprawling agency, I think that she is seen sort of as a key piece here who's going to complement Tom Homan, the border's all borders are. And then Stephen Miller, who's a deputy chief of staff for policy in the incoming administration. I think that this is one to watch, but in all likelihood, she gets through.
SPEAKER 08 : 45:42
One came coming out at the end of the week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Health and Human Services Department, one of the largest federal agencies.
SPEAKER 14 : 45:55
You want to talk about a realignment, and I'd be more curious about your thoughts on this one, because RFK Jr., he represents so much of what is new from Donald Trump because of Trump's ability to reach out to independent voters who are perhaps homeless among the two-party system. But let's not forget, RFK Jr. Yes, he's a Catholic individual, but he also supports abortion rights. Yes, he's very skeptical of pharmaceutical companies, but he's also anti-big bank, anti-big business. He's an environmentalist. This is one of these guys who sort of breaks the mold. And Democrats, I don't think many of them are going to lend their support to RFK Jr. at HHS. I'm curious to see if there will be many Republican defections. But look, trust in science and institutions is at an all-time low after COVID. Perhaps he sneaks through. Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 : 46:54
Well, I'm not going to give you my thoughts right now because I'm willing to sit down and talk with him. I have reservations, but there are many positive things that you just laid out there that I think are good and need to happen. But for me, the sanctity of human life and that moral fabric of our nation, that foundation is absolutely critical. And I'd have to have some assurances there for now. Put me in the skeptic column when it comes to RKF. All right, let's jump to one that really turned some heads this week. Actually, there were two that kind of turned heads. One almost had head spinning. And that would be the nomination or the selection of an Attorney General, Matt Gaetz. Talk about that.
SPEAKER 14 : 47:40
So we broke the news that Representative Matt Gaetz was expected to resign. It wasn't much of a scoop, though, because 15 minutes later, you had Speaker Mike Johnson, who told his conference that Gaetz had resigned effective immediately. And the reason why this is interesting is if you talk to Gaetz's allies, they'll say that in preparation over preparation for this contentious confirmation battle, he's burning the ships like Cortez. This is someone who is going all in for President Trump. If you talk to folks who are a bit more cynical, the timing here is very curious. The House Ethics Committee was preparing to release a report concerning activity of Mr. Gates in a allegedly underage girl. And by leaving Congress, that effectively stymies that effort. The committee generally does not release their reports if it involves someone who is no longer in Congress. And that was sort of the speculation that perhaps he was leaving early to avoid that accountability. I do want to note, though, that these allegations that the committee is investigating They began with a DOJ investigation, and the Department of Justice certainly didn't charge and did not convict Mr. Gates. And he's of the opinion that this is nothing more than a partisan witch hunt. So that's where things stand right now. And all of Washington, D.C. is curious to see if Gates actually makes it to the Senate for his confirmation hearing.
SPEAKER 08 : 49:18
Yeah, I've had a few conversations on the Hill regarding this, and you're correct to the timing of that. No one—the general membership does not know, because it's only the committee members of the Ethics Committee that have seen the report and know the timing of its release. And they won't see it now, because as you pointed out, once a person leaves Congress, it's no longer under the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee, so it's for most purposes dead. However, there's some that I've talked to that feel that it— You know, Democrats could leak it out. Those members of the committee could leak it out if the nomination advances. Now, there's some that have the theory that this was to kill this issue. He'll probably withdraw his name from attorney general and run for governor in Florida, which is something he's wanted to do. And he can do that in two years without any baggage related to an ethics investigation.
SPEAKER 14 : 50:12
The theories abound, but I want to zero in on the first thing that you said about this report, because I think that your sources are very well informed. This report is not supposed to come out if Gates is no longer in Congress. There are some examples where information did follow the exit process. of a member of Congress, but those are exceedingly rare, and we'd have to go back to, I think, 1990 for the last example. But what I'm hearing is that this report is a grenade, and it is only a matter of time before it leaks and it explodes. Democrats have an incentive for this information to get out there, but they don't want it to go off right now. They want to wait until it's able to inflict maximum damage. Then there are some Republicans who would rather this information get out earlier so the president-elect can either re-examine his choice or perhaps Gates can bow out. And the second scenario, which you noted, perhaps a run for Florida governor, You know, maybe that becomes the final scenario here. But one thing that I did find rather curious was that when the president-elect was at Mar-a-Lago talking to some of his supporters, he was shouting out each member of his incoming cabinet. No word, though, on the latest nomination that he had made, Representative Matt Gaetz.
SPEAKER 08 : 51:40
Well, we know what the playbook of the left is. So we saw what they did in the Supreme Court nominations and how they dropped these things right there in the middle of a hearing. So that would be a good indication or a good model to go by. All right, we've got 30 seconds left.
SPEAKER 14 : 51:55
Not a lot of time to cover this, but Pete Hexeth. Pete Hegseth, it makes the left go crazy, but this is someone who was in armed services for 20 years. He has won medals. And his nomination makes sense. If you look at his book, if you look at the Sean Ryan interview, this is someone who is absolutely on fire for reforming the Pentagon and going after sort of the woke excesses there. I think that's why Donald Trump picked him. And Hegseth will be prepared for that confirmation hearing. You don't get to be on TV every weekend if you're not quick on your feet. I think he's got a good shot.
SPEAKER 08 : 52:29
All right. Philip, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your insight. Thank you, sir. All right. That was my conversation over the weekend with Real Clear Politics White House correspondent Philip Wegman. I want to just address one issue. I've been asked over the weekend about my support for Mr. Kennedy. Will I support him? I don't know. I like his skepticism of big pharma and the bureaucratic medical complex that has been proven to mislead Americans. But I'm equally concerned about his disregard for the sanctity of human life. And his views on life have been inconsistent over the last year. I'd like to discuss the topic with him and a couple things I'd like to know. Will he apply the same standard for informed consent, fair, uncorrupt testing of drugs and research on the impact of medical interventions to the abortion industry? And will he protect the right of states to protect life by stopping the FDA from mailing dangerous abortion pills into pro-life states, which have been proven to send one out of 25 women to the hospital? These are big issues. We've got to address them. All right, folks, we're out of time. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, just keep standing.
SPEAKER 10 : 53:45
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.
According to social researcher Dr. George Barna, 72% of Christians voted in this year’s election. On today’s edition of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson and his guest, Gary Bauer, discuss Donald Trump’s historic win and how Christians stepped up to promote righteousness in the public square.
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In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable, the conversation sparks around Donald Trump’s significant electoral triumph. The hosts weigh in on what this victory reveals about the current American political and cultural landscape, tapping into themes of authenticity and voter disillusionment with progressive ideologies. With engaging discussions, the team examines the shifts within the GOP and potential challenges and opportunities for evangelical Christians under a revamped Republican big tent. Additionally, they take a critical look at the role of the media, questioning the credibility and influence of traditional media outlets compared to emerging voices. Through this lens, they explore public perception, media narratives, and their impact on democratic processes. Also featured is an important segment on Preborn's mission, emphasizing how access to ultrasounds is transforming the conversation around abortion and life choices.
SPEAKER 01 : 0:00
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 now here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 : 0:29
Well, twice impeached, indicted four times, the target of two assassination attempts that we know of, relentlessly demonized by Democrats, liberals, progressives, and the so-called legacy media since like 2015. Donald J. Trump wins an epic earthquake-sized landslide victory over Kamala Harris that literally, I think, opens like this new fault line between the radical agenda of the far left and American voters who simply said, nope, not interested. Well, welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable. My name is Neil Boron, host of Neil Boron Live in Buffalo, New York. Still struggling with a little bit of residual laryngitis. Back again, though, with Bob Duco, host of The Bob Duco Show on WMUZ in Detroit, and John Rush, host of Rush to Reason on KLZ in Denver. Guys, in like this quasi-metaphoric way, I was thinking about this earlier. What is happening? Like, is the wicked witch of progressive ideology and wokeism literally melting before our eyes? Is that what's happening? We're melting. I know. What is going on?
SPEAKER 02 : 1:29
John, let me start with you. Well, I think people finally have had enough. Yes, I think you saw that last Tuesday. Bob and I talked a little bit about it. Last week, we'll get into more of that today, of course, with you, Neil. But the reality is, yeah, I think over half of America finally said, you know what? Enough is enough is enough. We're tired. Men especially, we're tired of being demonized. We're toxic. We're everything that you can imagine. And in the left's eyes, why do we exist at all? And the reality is not only them, but a lot of other individuals as well that feel marginalized, I think, or demonized to your point a moment ago. Neil just finally said, you know what? We may not like Donald Trump, but we're tired of the other side.
SPEAKER 04 : 2:13
I agree fully. Bob, you've had like a week to digest. By the way, you guys did a great job last week in my absence. I loved listening. But now that we're looking more closely at just how mammoth this victory was, what are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 03 : 2:27
Well, I didn't expect it to be this strong. I didn't think that Trump would take all seven swing states. I really didn't.
SPEAKER 02 : 2:35
I don't think anybody did, Bob.
SPEAKER 03 : 2:37
I know. Oh, boy. But as the Democrats are doing their postmortem and trying to figure out, okay, what happened here? I think that there are some things that they need to look in the mirror and reflect that there is some pushback here. They went too far to the left. I mean, they really did. And I think that you have, first of all, with look at the economy, look at the disastrous job that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did over the last four years with the economy, inflation, energy, gas prices, the border, crime, everything else. So they didn't have a resume to run on. So what they needed then was a really strong candidate that could overcome the poor resume with a sense of charm and optimism and such. And she just didn't present that.
SPEAKER 04 : 3:27
She had fingerprints on the resume.
SPEAKER 03 : 3:29
I know. And, you know, and she just couldn't. I think a combination of the sense of her not her not doing interviews and when she does, it's cackling and it's just. But you know what else really kind of stands out to me a little bit? And I think this is part of it. And it's going to sound really, really strange and surreal. But for independent voters, moderate voters, swing voters, I think that they saw Donald Trump as a more. Honest, authentic, real person, and dare I even use the word, more likable than Kamala Harris. Because I think when they look at Kamala Harris, they do see a chameleon who's like, when she speaks, they don't know what she's really thinking, what she really feels. All they see is whatever she tries to portray, which was usually word salads. With Trump, I think they look at him and say, you know something, I... The guy's personality rubs me the wrong way. He's a braggadocious guy. But you know something? He took care of us. He actually really does care about the country. And on top of that, he seems like an authentic guy that say, what you want about Trump? But if he's thinking, you know what? That guy's an ugly idiot. What Trump says is, you know what, that guy's an ugly idiot. And even though he's a bull in a china shop, I think a lot of people appreciate the fact that he's authentic. We like authenticity. And then add to that Here's a guy that has been branded as the second Hitler who's so narcissistic and only cares about himself and nobody else, but he doesn't seem like he takes himself that seriously. He allows people to mess up his hair. He'll cook fries at McDonald's. He'll go ahead and ride in a garbage truck with an orange vest on. and pokes some fun at himself at the same time, and he's got a sense of humor. And so, honestly, Neil, as surreal as it sounds, I think you had a lot of Americans, not all, but a lot of Americans kind of warm up to him and say, this does seem like kind of a regular guy who I wouldn't mind having a beer with, yet he's a multi-billionaire. I think there's a relatability factor that Donald Trump was able to crack through a little bit that Kamala Harris with all of her word salad and couldn't do.
SPEAKER 02 : 5:50
Well, and really quick, but jump in because you guys are probably more experts on this than I am on the spiritual aspect, because a while back we had a discussion on, you know, did God. save donald trump in other words was a divine providence that he saved donald trump and i'm gonna come back and push back and say you know was it really that or did god allow or cause him to get shot to change his demeanor which bob to your point a moment ago made a lot of the things you just said happen late stage in the campaign because without that would he have been the same
SPEAKER 03 : 6:22
You know what? I think he has been a little bit more humble after the assassination attempts than he was before. I really do. So I think there's been a slight softening of him. And I think it's resonated with some voters that say, I don't know, I'm kind of warming up to him. He seems like a kind of a nicer guy than I've thought of him as before.
SPEAKER 04 : 6:50
Time will tell, but I think you're right. By the way, you know, not only did he he won the popular vote that hasn't been done in a long time by a Republican candidate. He wins the Electoral College, of course, not only hangs out of the Senate, but makes some gains there, probably hangs out of the House and maybe gains a seat or two in the House. Who knows how all that flushes out? But on top of it. You know, the black male vote, young voters, Hispanic voters in large numbers. You had members of the Jewish community coming over to the Trump side. I'm talking liberal Jews that have never voted Republican. Muslim Arabs. I mean, this was across the board. And the other side has to just be staring at a wall going, how did we miss this? By the way, the legacy media. told us we were all missing it, that we were the ones who were out of touch. And after a landslide victory like this, in my opinion, I would love your feedback, but in my opinion, the mainstream is actually people who voted for Donald Trump. The people that are out of touch, the fringe radical far left are the ones who voted for Kamala. I think it's the exact opposite of what the legacy media tried to tell us during the entire Trump administration, and I'm going all the way back to 2015. So, it's crazy. And, you know, on the issue of abortion, like that there's no way, we're not, remember Kamala, we're not going back, we'll never go back, blah, blah, blah. I don't think it was that big a deal amongst voters this time. Not that abortion, hear me out, not that it isn't a big deal, it's huge. But I think that people are saying to themselves, this is my opinion, If I want, I can get an abortion in the next state over, or I know that I can get abortion pills through the mail. This isn't like my number one issue right now. For pro-lifers, it probably always will be. But Donald Trump backed away from that thing, and I don't think it really served much of a purpose at all in the election. And yet, it's huge for each one of us because we can save lives.
SPEAKER 03 : 8:45
You know, we really can. And I know there's a lot of debate about how to handle abortion going forward and such and the national abortion ban debate. And I get all of that. But there's one thing that we can all agree on. If we can save some babies lives, we need to do it. And there is a real tangible way. that we can stop women from having abortions. And you know what that is? Show them ultrasound images of their babies. Because when a mom sees a picture of her baby, that's the first time she's ever seen that image. She doesn't go across the street to Planned Parenthood. She chooses life. This is why Preborn is such an important organization. They work nationwide in pro-life centers showing ultrasound images to these moms. Problem is the demand is greater than the supply. There just aren't enough ultrasound machines out there. So you got a lot of women who are not able to see that ultrasound image of their baby. And so consequently, they choose abortion many times. That's why we need to supply more ultrasound images by supplying them to pre-born. So here's what we're asking everybody in the audience to do. Be on one of two camps, either option A, buy an ultrasound machine, or option B, pay for an individual amount of ultrasound images. Option A, buying an ultrasound machine, they're $15,000 a piece. What a great tax write-off for you for the end of this year. But listen, your forever legacy will be that you stopped thousands and thousands of abortions over the years. That's what that $15,000 will buy. And anything you give to pre-born, 100%, every penny goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. Now, the other side, category B is, oh, I can't buy an ultrasound machine. Okay, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images, as many as you can afford. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby's life. So pray about a number of baby's lives you'll save. $28 times fill in the blank, whatever that number is, That's your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you and your family stopped. So here's how you give. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. You can give right there. Or you can give over the phone, and they answer the phones 24-7. So call 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call, and we appreciate that. And by the way, Neil, one of the things I wanted to mention to you before to get your take on this, and John, yours as well, certainly. But with Donald Trump in his second term, okay, we remember how George W. Bush, when he was first elected, a lot of conservative Christians really warmed up to him because he seemed to be pretty conservative. But by his second term, he started sliding more to the middle. And so before you know it, he became a borderline rhino, and a lot of people were disappointed. I don't think Donald Trump is going to go full-blown John McCain, Mitt Romney. I don't think he's going to do that. But I do suspect that we may have to prepare for the fact that he might not be as aggressively conservative as And he may not be as pleasing and palatable to born-again evangelical Christians and pro-lifers in his second term as he was in his first. This is part of the big tent that he's created here in the redefining of the GOP. The Republican Party is now the inclusive party where the Hispanics, African Americans, the soccer mom women, the Arab Muslims, okay? And by the way, can I say, Gay people as well. It's like, well, you know what? The Republican Party is the welcoming party with a big tent and open arms. And so there's part of me that thinks that the GOP is not going to be as narrowly. evangelical Christian pro-life, that's our predominant identity, but that it's still going to be a prominent branch on the tree, but maybe not as big of a branch as it was before. And I could be proven wrong, but if that is the case and Donald Trump, you know, does a little bit of compromise, takes the RFK juniors and the Tulsi Gabbards and some of those people and gives them some more prominence, are evangelical Christians going to be okay with him on that? Are we going to expect him to be Franklin Graham through and through?
SPEAKER 02 : 13:17
They don't vote anyway, so why does it matter?
SPEAKER 04 : 13:19
I was just going to say that. That's a fair point.
SPEAKER 02 : 13:23
I mean, I'm being serious, guys. For the most part, all these people that would whine about some of the things, Bob, that you just stated are the same people that won't vote for him in the first place. So it's like, are you really an evangelical conservative in the first place? And what voice do you have at the table when you don't even cast a ballot?
SPEAKER 04 : 13:39
Yeah. And I hope this comes out right because I didn't really think it through in advance. But, you know, RFK Jr., as a for instance, I mean, he's a lifelong Democrat, pretty liberal in certain ways. And and yet he's anti big pharma. He's anti Vax kind of guy who's not afraid to look at. apply some sane reasoning to our whole health policy in the United States. I was painting my son's living room with him over the weekend. He's got an apartment he wants to rent and we were doing some work and there was a guy there who's a pharmacist and he was helping and we got talking about RFK Jr. and this whole thing and he said, you know what, I'm not sure I really want to be a pharmacist anymore. I said, how come? He goes, because it's become so about big pharma. The whole industry is about making money and keeping people on medications for the rest of their life. They don't want to create medications that get people well. They want to create medications that keep people on them because then they make money for the rest of their life. Well, it's time that somebody pulled the rug out from under all of that. And my point in this is... as evangelical christians we might not normally fraternize with a guy like rfk jr but if he's talking the same language we are about things like this then there's need for cooperation on things like this we can agree to disagree on some of the other points but i think we need people like this speaking sanity into what we're all about and i don't care if you're an evangelical christian or not i think the average sane american wants better health policy in the us and if rfk jr can help Good. And I think he was good for the ticket in that sense.
SPEAKER 02 : 15:09
One of the first things they should do along those lines, again, we can make a podcast out of this, would be get rid of all the drug ads that are out there. We're only one of two countries in the world that allow drug ads on TV. So if you want to really stop some of that influence, Neil, that you and your son's friend were talking about, You know, there's multiple ways to do that, and that's just the start of it. And again, you know, going back to Bob's question, you know, what will evangelicals think, and will Trump get quote-unquote softer on some of these things? Frankly, I don't really see that now as far as the evangelical issues go. Where will he lie? That I don't have any answers to. But when it comes to some of these things we're talking about right now in regards to our health and the pharmaceutical companies, you know, and big tech and so on, you know, will Donald Trump come in and do the things that he has stated in those areas? Absolutely. You know, what does he do with some of the social issues? I don't know, guys. That's a good question.
SPEAKER 03 : 16:03
Well, you know, I guess I'm thinking that as Christians, we have to set realistic expectations and not be unrealistic about what we expect from him, okay?
SPEAKER 02 : 16:16
So give me an example. All right. Give me one example.
SPEAKER 03 : 16:19
Okay. Well, first of all, let me just say in a general sense, we have to recognize the difference between expecting a solidly pro-life evangelical Christian president versus a president who's friendly to pro-life evangelical Christians. And that's what I think we have to be comfortable with. But for example, on the on the abortion issue, okay? He's already declared he wouldn't sign a national abortion ban, which is a moot point anyway, because something like that wouldn't pass Congress.
SPEAKER 02 : 16:51
No, it needs to be a state issue anyways.
SPEAKER 03 : 16:53
Right, right. It does need to be a state issue, and I get that. But I could see him... Here's some areas... All right, let me give you some examples, okay? I made this prediction to my audience last week, and I'll make it here again now, and I could be proven wrong. During Donald Trump's first four years in office, Not one year did he issue a June 1st presidential proclamation declaring LGBT Pride Month. He didn't do that. Now, there was a tweet that he sent out with the words LGBT Pride Month, but he didn't make a presidential proclamation for that. I could see Donald Trump doing that now, just accepting the fact that that's kind of woven into the fabric of America. And so I could see him doing that. Although I do see him fighting against the transgender movement, against children and minors. That's good. But, you know, in his first term, he named Rick Grinnell openly gay as ambassador to Germany. Well, OK, fine. Germany is a very pro homosexual country. It's kind of the San Francisco of Europe. So, OK, fine. I could see him giving somebody like Rick Grinnell even a larger role and responsibility. So I can see him making some of these decisions where Christians are going, oh my goodness, look at the bones that he's throwing to the LGBT crowd. And he doesn't seem to be as strong in his rhetoric for the unborn as he was in his first term. And he doesn't have as many pro-lifers in these positions as he did before. So those are just some areas I can see him going a little soft in that. And then we have to ask ourselves, can we be okay with that? Are we going to expect him to be as pro-life as right to life and as evangelical Christian as Franklin Graham? And I just don't think that's realistic.
SPEAKER 04 : 18:43
I would say that you're probably onto something to some degree, but let me say where I disagree on this. Because I think that the mandate that was handed to him said, we don't want this extreme stuff. Why in the world do we have a month-long pride celebration when we give a single day to military veterans who gave their lives in service to our country?
SPEAKER 03 : 19:01
I agree.
SPEAKER 04 : 19:02
Right? I mean, so that actually is kind of an extreme event, that whole pride month thing. And I think that when you watch social media, even, you know, even... regular middle-of-the-road conservatives who don't identify as evangelical christians say this is nuts what is all this pride month stuff about so i i think it would be a mistake for him to do something like that whether he's more tolerant of these things in smaller ways perhaps you'd probably write about that because i think we're already seeing it he backed off the you know the pro-life thing big time with the understanding i mean he communicated this that if we got to get elected first you got to get into office to be able to govern so We've seen him back off already. I suppose we'll see more of these things. I just hope to God he doesn't jump on board with something like that because I think that itself represents the radical extreme. We don't want the transgender stuff. We don't want a month-long celebration for people that represent one or two or three percent of the population. It's insane.
SPEAKER 03 : 20:00
I'll tell you what, Neil. I'm with you. I think it would be a mistake. I hope he doesn't do that. I'm just kind of telling everybody – Let's gear up for the possibility that he very well may, that he may look at it like, all right, I'm trying to widen the tent of the GOP and keep us from being perceived as radical extremist hate mongers. And all right, let's not make this a hill to die on. I'll go ahead and acquiesce in this area. I hate to say it, but I could see him doing that, and I think we have to decide, is that going to suddenly make him damaged goods for us as evangelical Christians? I don't think it should, but I think that that's something we're going to have to kind of prepare for. I'll bet he does that this June.
SPEAKER 04 : 20:47
I mentioned a little bit of this earlier. I want to shift gears here for a second. Is the legacy media death? Now, they're not going away right now, but my point is, did what happened on Election Day help underscore the reality that people aren't really paying that much attention to the national media anymore, what used to be called the mainstream media? Or are they paying more attention to the Tucker Carlson's of the world, the Joe Rogan's? Charlie Kirk, Eric Metaxas, whatever. It just seems to me that a loud statement was made. You've lied to us for years. And then there was the whole, Joe Biden's totally fit to be president, right? And Trump's the one who's a threat to democracy when actually there was no primary to elect Kamala Harris. There was nothing democratic about that. So, I mean, we're watching this stuff play out in real time. And I think the American people have pulled back their own cameras and said, I'm tired of being lied to and then dictated to what I'm supposed to believe as an American citizen. I don't want this. I want to know what the rest of the world's thinking. I want to know alternative viewpoints. I want to make my own decisions. And we're seeing the rise of podcasters and alternative media sources and stuff. I don't know. I was really encouraged by what I saw in the election as it relates to people, in my opinion, just repudiating the mainstream media. John, your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 02 : 22:07
I think mainstream media is dying, if not already getting ready for the funeral. I think this last election showed that while you can spend a boatload of money, and the left does, on ads, on traditional media, reality is the majority of voters, and it was just proven, don't watch that stuff. They're getting their... their media in other ways. Frankly, they're listening to things like this podcast. They're listening to, I know the left doesn't want to admit this, but AM radio, where there's a lot of people listening to, you know, conservative talk and figuring out really what's going on in the news there versus just watching it at 10 o'clock at night. So I do think, Neil, that a lot of that has shifted. I, I predict that it won't be too long in the distant future that some of those networks are going to really struggle when it comes to ad buys and so on when you start realizing that, wait a minute, the majority of people that we really want to target aren't here anyways. They're in other places. And frankly, I think that'll be a big shakeup. And I predict that that's coming.
SPEAKER 03 : 23:07
Now, let me share a perspective on this, if I could, because I and I'm going to push back just a little bit. All right. I don't think the mainstream media is dead. And I don't I wouldn't even say that they're dying on the vine. But certainly they're dead.
SPEAKER 02 : 23:23
They're dead to the voters that voted in Donald Trump. Right. Right. I understand themselves internally. Yeah, it's fine.
SPEAKER 03 : 23:30
But the reason I say that is because look at Joe Biden voters. Now, Media Research Center, which is a conservative media watchdog group, Media Research Center did a survey after the election of – I'm sorry. This is actually before the election. They did a survey of 2020 Joe Biden voters. All right? So the people – and asked them, first of all, where do you get your news? And the number one answer given by far was ABC, NBC, and CBS. Okay. Okay. But then they asked them, do you know these positions about Kamala Harris? And for example, did you know that Kamala Harris supported defunding the police? 71% said, I did not know that. Did you know that Kamala Harris not only supported the Green New Deal, but she was the co-sponsor of it in the Senate? 73% said, I didn't know that. Did you know that Kamala Harris said it should not be considered a crime to illegally enter the United States? 74% said, I didn't know that. Did you know Kamala Harris was named the number one most liberal senator in the United States Senate in 2019 before she became VP? 75% didn't know that. Did you know she supported abolishing ICE? 77% said, I didn't know that. Did you know she used her Twitter account to raise money to bail out violent protesters during the 2020 riots? 78% of Joe Biden voters said, I didn't know that. And then the final two, Did you know that she called for the elimination of private health insurance? 81% said, I didn't know that. And did you know that she said she would consider allowing death row inmates to vote? 86% of Biden voters said, I didn't know that. And these are the people who say, look, I get my news from ABC, NBC, and CBS. So it is true that these networks do still have a decent amount of influence. And I would argue that their influence is enough to keep the race somewhat within the ballpark of close. I mean, yes, Trump won, but he won by what, maybe two, three percentage points. Okay. I would argue that a lot of these Democrats are soft Democrats, that if they had known about Kamala Harris, just like if they had known about Hunter Biden's laptop and if they had known how radical she was, I believe there would have been a boatload of Reagan Democrats slash Trump Democrats, and his landslide would have been way bigger than it even was.
SPEAKER 04 : 25:59
I think their influence has really waned in the sense that somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of all the coverage of Kamala Harris was positive, and almost 90% of the coverage of Trump was negative, depending on which poll you look at. But either way, it didn't work. It didn't work. That's the point. And that's why I think they've completely lost their grip on forcing this, force-feeding the American people lies about what's actually going on.
SPEAKER 03 : 26:22
Yeah, but that's what kept Trump from winning 45 states, okay, instead of... I mean, I guess I'm just saying Republicans would have massive, massive... red wave blowouts much bigger than this one was. This was a game, even though he won all seven Swig states, it was still a game until the fourth quarter. It wouldn't have been if it wasn't for the influence that they have.
SPEAKER 04 : 26:48
All right. Got to move quickly here. Bob, we can't do this kind of conversation without the support of our friends at Preborn.
SPEAKER 03 : 26:55
Let's talk about that. We really can't. And we appreciate you folks giving to Preborn. A lot of our listeners to this podcast have given to Preborn. You know what a blessing this is to be saving these babies' lives. Maybe you gave already and you'd like to give again because we're coming up on the end of the year and you need a nice tax write-off for yourself. Will you buy an ultrasound machine for Preborn? These are $15,000 a piece. Your forever legacy will be that you stopped thousands and thousands of abortions. Because when a mom sees a picture of her baby, that ultrasound image, she chooses life. And every penny goes to the ultrasound machine, not a penny for overhead. That's pre-born. For the rest of you that are like, oh, I can't afford the $15,000, will you pay for an individual number of ultrasound images? $20,000. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby's life. So pray about a number of baby's lives you'll save. Take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that's your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you stopped. And same thing, 100% goes to the ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. So this is pre-born, everybody. Here's how you give right now. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on pre-born. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born, give right there. Or you can give to a real-life person over the phone 24-7. Call right now, 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. And just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call.
SPEAKER 04 : 28:22
All right, a landslide victory for Donald Trump. What comes next? We're going to talk about some of the transition in the second half. If your station doesn't carry the second half, you can get the entire podcast at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. We'll continue with the National Crawford Roundtable podcast in a moment.
SPEAKER 01 : 28:37
This has been a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 04 : 28:40
more to come on this edition of the national crawford roundtable podcast my name is neil boron host of neil boron live in buffalo new york still fighting some laryngitis but back at it here today and glad to be with the guys bob duco of the bob duco show in detroit michigan of course and john rush host of rush to reason on klz in denver colorado uh lara trump said that americans broke up with the liberal democrat party on election night and i loved the picture of that it just looked so good she said it with a smile on her face it was a wonderful thing um so we're we're moving in a brand new direction donald trump already making some key appointments uh some key people excluded like nikki haley for one and i was surprised bob you you were kind of a big fan i think of mike pompeo but he clearly said mike pompeo will not be a part of my administration do you have any thoughts on that
SPEAKER 03 : 29:34
Yeah, I talked about that on my show. Look, I do like Mike Pompeo. He's a born-again evangelical Christian. He's very open about his faith in Christ. When he ran the State Department, he used to keep an open Bible on his desk, and he would regularly have Bible studies in the State Department. And he's the guy who declared when asked what the answer to terrorism was in the world, he said the only true answer is Jesus Christ, the hope and Savior of the world, okay? So I'm a huge fan of Mike Pompeo, all right? But I also recognize that Mike Pompeo, he made a horrible mistake when he was in part of his attacking of Donald Trump. Because when Pompeo made a – oh, what was it? It was something – it was a decision that Trump made – I'm trying to remember what it was, but it was something that he was attacked and criticized for. But he exaggerated this and said, you know, that's not really protecting our soldiers and things like that. And it really didn't have anything to do with protecting our soldiers, protecting our military. And it's like, wow, why would he jump on that bandwagon and basically pull a Mike Pence and throw Trump under the bus in that way? And so I believe it was January 6th is what it was that, you know, this just isn't protecting our our soldiers or whatever.
SPEAKER 02 : 31:01
And so this is a thing where also, Bob, there was some talk of him actually being the presidential candidate and so on. Those things don't sit well with Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 03 : 31:09
Right.
SPEAKER 02 : 31:10
And so it's competition to him in that way is how he looks at it.
SPEAKER 03 : 31:13
And you know what? And here's why, honestly, Neil, why I'm not holding it against Trump. The reason for this is there is something that I think that Trump learned that he's learning now that he didn't learn before. And that is that you actually really do have to give a lot of weight to, if I can use the word, loyalty. Right. Because there is a certain sense of I need people that I don't have to worry about stabbing me in the back, throwing me under the bus, trashing me, writing a nasty book about me, or being fodder for MSNBC if we go south in our relationship. If we do, I need people that... I'm pretty confident aren't going to do that. And so that's where Trump, I think, has learned a lesson that, you know what, loyalty actually really is a legitimate virtue in presidential politics. I may not need it in the business world as much, but for perception and politics and everything else, I think I do need that more. And I think that's the reason why he's going to surround himself with more loyalists who are competent and not merely competent people. and not caring so much about the loyalty factor.
SPEAKER 04 : 32:30
Yeah, and I think we're going to see that as we talk about some of the appointments or people that are rumored to be appointees of Donald Trump here. And we're going to get into that in a second. But I wanted to ask you this because the Senate leadership is up for grabs now. Mitch McConnell says he has no plans to continue as a Senate majority leader, which opens the door for someone to fill that role. Senators John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas. both i think kind of mitch mcconnell lights and of course president trump and mitch mcconnell have not gotten along rick scott is rumored to be trump's favorite i guess but the question is should trump get involved in trying to push the issue should he meddle at all should he lean on this and try to get rick scott to end up you know being voted in as senate majority leader Or does he stay out? Because if he loses that, then right off the bat, having this huge mandate, he's got this glaring loss staring him in the face if he isn't successful at pushing through Rick Scott to be the next majority leader. So what are your thoughts on that? Start with you, Bob.
SPEAKER 03 : 33:37
I think that he should exert his influence. Why not? Rick Scott is much more of a loyalist to him. He'll be able to work with Rick Scott, I think, better. And so for that reason, I think he – yes, he uses his weight with the Senate. And he says, come on, guys. Look, bottom line, I got elected and you guys got control as well. So let's make this work. And so I think he should exert his influence. And if it doesn't work and it's not Rick Scott – Then fine. I think they're still going to work with Trump, and he'll lick his wounds and move on with it and still work with the Senate. Yes, he should be exerting his influence. He won. He's got a mandate, and I think he plays it in his own party too.
SPEAKER 04 : 34:18
Yeah, I've seen some op-eds that agree with you. I've seen a couple that disagree. John, what are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 02 : 34:23
This is more of a question for both of you versus – a comment. There's also a conversation out there about having J.D. Vance lead the Senate, which has been done in the past, by the way. It's not the first time that's ever happened. What are your thoughts there, Bob?
SPEAKER 03 : 34:36
That wouldn't be a bad idea. Look, I don't mind J.D. Vance having a larger role. He said he wants to be very involved.
SPEAKER 02 : 34:45
I mean, technically, that's his role anyways, if you really want to get down to it.
SPEAKER 03 : 34:49
Yeah. I mean, look, I'm good with that. I don't mind Trump thinking and working outside the box, and that's certainly an outside-the-box way to do it. I'd be fine with that, too. But one way or another, I think Trump... has, I think he has a green light to basically say to the Senate, look, I am the guy at the top of the ticket and I am the guy that got this won for us. And this is the agenda that we're going to be pushing through. And so you need to deal with that fact. And that means I want somebody that I can work with. And I can work with Rick Scott. And if I can't, I can work with J.D. Vance. But I am not going to have another Mitch McConnell kind of situation where I'm doing battle within my own party. I refuse to do that. And I think he sticks to his guns.
SPEAKER 04 : 35:33
I agree. I never thought of it until you brought it up. But I like the idea and I like that it's out of the box. So I also nominate John Rush as national great idea guy.
SPEAKER 02 : 35:43
Yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER 03 : 35:44
I think that's a new cabinet post.
SPEAKER 02 : 35:47
Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER 03 : 35:48
You know, if I can kind of throw in here, Neil, I am kind of curious what you got. You know, I look at the appointments that he's made so far. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Okay, this seems to be smart. By the way, first female Chief of Staff in United States history. Yeah, he's such a misogynist. Elise Stefanik, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Okay, good. He's taken a hard right-wing loyalist and saying, I'm giving you an ambassadorship, all right? National Security Advisor Michael Walsh. Borders are Tom Holman. This guy's great. Okay. Tom Hummel, Mike Huckabee, ambassador to Israel. That's great. Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator. All right, fine. But here's what I'm kind of curious. Oh, CIA director, John Ratcliffe. But this new department that he's created of government efficiency, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Okay, fine. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hagseth. I'm kind of curious how this is going to play because he is a military veteran. He's run a couple of veterans organizations. And so he's got some veteran street cred. But Pete Hegseth is still kind of considered one of those Fox News talking head kind of guys. And I can see a lot of people going, wow, Secretary of Defense? I would have thought it would at least been some kind of four-star general for that. But Pete Hague's only 44 years old to be the Secretary of Defense.
SPEAKER 02 : 37:19
Keep in mind, he's written a lot of things about how woke the military has become, and a lot of that needs to change. And so do you want to put a bunch of four or five-star generals in that, frankly, are woke, that you're going to battle with, like you just talked about with the Senate? Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 : 37:32
I know, and that's why my immediate reaction here, honestly, John, was Pete Hague says, oh, boy, I don't know. He's a Fox News talking head. It sounds like this is way out of his league, but then I think, no, this goes back to what I was saying before. Get some people that are loyalists. At least he's got some veteran street cred. that he can take that with him. And so I think the media is going to have a field day with that particular pick. But ultimately, I think it probably is a smart move. But I do think he's going to have a perception hurdle to get over with this. But that's just my take.
SPEAKER 04 : 38:11
I think they're going to question everything he does. So I don't think it actually matters. And I kind of like it. I like I like the guts that it would take to actually name him to that position. By the way, you mentioned John Radcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, would be Trump's pick. I love this quote from Trump regarding John Radcliffe. He said, when 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden's laptop, there was one John Radcliffe telling the truth to the American people. don't you love that that's uh wow um these are some interesting picks though and it's interesting that you mentioned susie wiles the white house chief of staff first female chief of staff of course ever in u.s history but i i guarantee that the legacy media doesn't even pay attention to that like that that really isn't it they'll say it in passing because they have to You know, parenthetically owned, by the way, she's the first female. They're not going to celebrate it because it's a Trump pick. But anyway, and a definite, definite underscore for loyalty there. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 : 39:09
And Kristi Noem, by the way, Homeland Security Secretary. Yeah, Homeland Security. Where does Tulsi Gabbard end up, Bob?
SPEAKER 03 : 39:16
Boy, that is a good question. I don't really know. Director of Veterans Affairs, maybe? Maybe. You know, I'm not sure. But I would like – I'm hopeful that he doesn't take somebody who is a – who is not that strongly conservative, basically a Democrat who stepped over the line. I hope he doesn't take somebody like that and put them in a social position. social category like health and human services or something along those lines.
SPEAKER 02 : 39:48
She's pretty strong on all those things. That's not an issue on her end as far as that goes.
SPEAKER 03 : 39:52
She's not pro-life.
SPEAKER 02 : 39:54
Not pro-life, but everything else that we were talking about even off air a little bit earlier today, she is.
SPEAKER 03 : 40:00
All right, but you know what? Okay, this is a perfect example of what I was talking about before. In Trump's first term, his health and human services was basically from top to bottom a who's who of right-to-life officials. I mean, that's who it was. Health and human services was right in lockstep with national right-to-life. And now is he going to put in head of health and human services somebody who is soft on abortion, if not actually, quote, unquote, pro-choice? So those are some of the things I think we have to look for the possibility of. But I would think for her, director of Veterans Affairs, if I had to pick something.
SPEAKER 04 : 40:40
I don't think he's going to go off the rails on the issue of being soft on the abortion issue, but he's not made it any part of his campaign thus far. I just think we're going to see far less from him.
SPEAKER 02 : 40:52
What's weird is he hasn't appointed her. I don't think he's going backwards. To your point, Bob, her or RFK Jr. have not been appointed yet.
SPEAKER 03 : 40:57
I don't know. No, and that's kind of what I'm waiting to see. Well, like I say, though, he did create a position for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Department of Government Efficiency.
SPEAKER 02 : 41:07
And I'm guessing Vivek could be mainly the head because Elon's not going to want to divest himself of all of his earnings to actually serve in a quote-unquote cabinet position, correct?
SPEAKER 04 : 41:17
Hang on. Let's talk about some of that. But speaking of the life issue, Bob, we've got to get to the pre-born. Tell us about it.
SPEAKER 03 : 41:24
Well, this is so important. I mean, we know – We talk about pre-born all the time. And for good reason, folks. This is saving babies' lives, okay? You can save babies' lives by paying for ultrasound images. And there's two ways that you can do this. Number one, buy an ultrasound machine. We need some of you in the audience to buy an ultrasound machine. They're $15,000 a piece. Be a nice tax write-off for you at the end of this year. But your forever legacy will be that you literally stopped thousands and thousands of abortions because we don't have enough ultrasound machines, folks, in the country. Preborn is set up in pro-life centers all across the country, but there are not enough ultrasound machines. So we need some of you out there to buy them for $15,000 apiece. Will you do that? Every penny goes to the ultrasound machine, nothing for overhead, all right? For everybody else, we need you to pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby's life. So pray about a number of babies' lives that you'll save. Take $28 times, fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that's your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you stopped. So either way, whatever your gift is to pre-borns, Go ahead and give right now. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Or you can give to a real-life person over the phone, and the answer to the phone is 24-7. So call now, 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call, Neal.
SPEAKER 04 : 42:57
Yeah. And I want to ask you about, you know, the Elon Musk's and Vivek Ramaswamy's of the world, et cetera. But before I do that, just something else came to my mind quickly. We mentioned you mentioned Elise Stefanik, of course, was not a Trump loyalist originally. She was almost a little bit more of a moderate, but became a huge supporter of Donald Trump during her time in the House. So she's one example. There are others. But and there may be others down the road. She serves in the House. She's a Republican. There's a really slim majority, I think, in the House for Republicans right now. Do we put in danger losing the House in the midterms by appointing people from the House? What about those kinds of considerations? Or is she deemed to be from a sufficiently red district that it's not worried that somebody else would just step in and take her place?
SPEAKER 03 : 43:47
I believe the way this works is the governor of the state, I believe, is the one who names.
SPEAKER 02 : 43:55
No, they have to have a special election. We just did that in Colorado.
SPEAKER 03 : 43:59
But for senators, governor's name... Yeah, but it's different.
SPEAKER 02 : 44:02
Representatives, because they represent the people, there's another election. The governor has to announce how that election will work, the timing of, and so on. We just went through that with Ken Buck here in Colorado, and Greg Lopez became the interim, and then Lauren Boebert won that seat just in this last election, and that'll change out in January. But there was a special election in Colorado for Greg Lopez.
SPEAKER 03 : 44:24
Really? Is that a state election?
SPEAKER 02 : 44:26
I believe that's nationwide because of the fact that they are, again, representatives and senators are different. Yes, those are appointed by the governor. But in relation to the House of Representatives, those are done. I believe every state's the same, Bob. I know in Colorado we just did that, but I think it's the same in every state.
SPEAKER 03 : 44:44
Okay, you know, you may be right about that. I know with senators, senators are appointed all the time by governors for an interim position until the next term is up for that. But House members, okay, well, I mean, that is something to consider here. If it is a case where nationwide House members have to have a special runoff election, then, but you know, you have to assume as quote unquote right wing is the least authentic as perceived to be. This is New York's 21st congressional district. If that's a solidly conservative district, then maybe we would be safe in a runoff there. I guess that is one of the things that would matter.
SPEAKER 04 : 45:21
Yeah, it's up to Hochul to call the runoff election to fill that seat. But, you know, there was a congressman in New York, I think his name was Christopher Collins, got, you know, bounced from the House because of insider trading allegations, etc. He was actually prosecuted about the whole thing, but his seat became available. They did a runoff election, put somebody in there temporarily, and then it actually swung and I think became a Democrat candidate.
SPEAKER 02 : 45:48
stronghold so i'll double check on that maybe no there's actually an article i was just looking there's actually an article out in one of the new york um television stations news 10 whoever that is special election coming to new york's 21st congressional district
SPEAKER 04 : 46:03
Okay, there you go.
SPEAKER 02 : 46:04
Yeah. So it would be a special election. It's a special election that the governor sets the parameters of, but the people still vote on who that person will be.
SPEAKER 03 : 46:13
Yeah, actually, you know what? I'm actually, in looking this up myself, yeah, this is actually a constitutional thing. The Constitution requires that vacancies in the House have to be filled through an election. Not the Senate, but the House vacancies are required.
SPEAKER 02 : 46:29
Yeah, the House is by itself because they're representing us as people, not anyone else. senators are typically representatives of the state representatives are representative of their people in that district right so that's a little i mean that's concerning in some way yeah and i don't know enough about new york you guys are closer to that you especially neil are way closer to that than i am i don't know what that 21st district makeup is is like i don't know that well kamala only took new york by 10 percentage points at
SPEAKER 04 : 46:57
And I heard some people say that in the next few years, they think New York could ultimately become a red state. It's not there yet. And it's Democrat stronghold all over the place. But, you know, it's one of those things where all the rural areas are red and the cities are blue. It's just one of those states. And I don't know where Elise Stefanik is coming from. I'm not sure how red her district is. So. Who knows exactly how that would go, but I just see it as a potential problem because if you start grabbing people from the House and you lose the House majority, you're going to be impeached in like five minutes.
SPEAKER 03 : 47:31
By the way, just to add to this, in the Senate, the Senate doesn't have to be gubernatorial appointment. The individual states can decide themselves, and here's where we stand at this point. There are 36 states... that allow senators, Senate vacancies to be filled by the governor, 14 states require by statewide law a special election. And now Marco Rubio, if he's Secretary of State, Florida is not one of those 14 states. So this is where DeSantis would just appoint. Which is easy there. Yeah, we can feel safe with that one. But that is something I'm sure that Trump's people are telling him that, Okay. If anybody that you're going to, here's what I got.
SPEAKER 02 : 48:17
By the way, her district, I just looked up as R plus nine.
SPEAKER 03 : 48:20
R plus nine, okay, okay. It's pretty safe. Yeah, I mean, I'd rather it be R plus double digits, but okay, okay. But you know what, Elise Stefanik, she really became a champion to conservatives when, remember, she's the one who really exposed the Claudine Gay of Harvard University and these Harvard, that were unwilling to declare that it was against college policy to call for death to Israel. And she really exposed the – She'll be good on the U.N.
SPEAKER 02 : 48:54
as far as all that goes just because of what you said. The biggest thing to your guys' point is getting somebody else in her seat that will be just as strong. Right. Evidently there's a plan there. As we all know, Trump's not stupid. There's got to be some sort of a plan there or they wouldn't have done this.
SPEAKER 03 : 49:11
Right, and that's kind of what my thinking is, that they had to sit around with the advisors and say, you know, Trump, if you're going to lose the House, let's not risk losing the House. So they obviously internally have determined that they're not going to risk losing that seat.
SPEAKER 04 : 49:26
All right, let's go high-speed rapid fire here. Let me throw some stuff at you guys. The Swamp Busters. Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk. Elon Musk says he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. They also say they could eliminate jobs and maybe even three-letter agencies. Yeah, no offense.
SPEAKER 02 : 49:45
I could do the same. So, yes, do I have confidence he can do that? Absolutely. It's a matter of whether or not legally they'll let him.
SPEAKER 04 : 49:52
Yeah. Bob, are we going to see that kind of stuff from these guys?
SPEAKER 03 : 49:55
I think they're going to try, and I think this is going to boil down to – it's really going to boil down to budgets. The best way to cut the deficit and certainly reduce the debt – Is when the budgets come out, the slashing, if you will, of a bunch of government programs. And we know that the Democrats and the media are going to put a sad human face on any government program that's cut. And politically, will you have Republicans in the House that have to start reelection campaigns the day they go in because they're only two-year cycles? Are enough of them going to have the guts to go ahead and vote for a budget that is perceived as taking food from grandma? And that's the challenge that I think is going to be much more difficult for people to realize.
SPEAKER 02 : 50:40
$238 billion on Department of Education, by the way. Look, I get that.
SPEAKER 03 : 50:43
What about Trump dismantling the Department of Education?
SPEAKER 02 : 50:46
Which, by the way, is a third of our defense budget.
SPEAKER 03 : 50:48
I know. Now, what do you think about Trump? Trump said when he was campaigning, he would dismantle the Department of Education. And you know what? If you think about it, do we really need a Department of Education? Jimmy Carter is the one who started it.
SPEAKER 02 : 50:59
Our test scores are lower today than when it started in 78.
SPEAKER 03 : 51:02
And you know what?
SPEAKER 02 : 51:03
And is it working? No.
SPEAKER 03 : 51:04
And by the way, before Jimmy Carter, there was no Department of Education. So there's no rule that says we have to have a Department of Education. Dismantle it, put it to the states. I totally agree.
SPEAKER 02 : 51:14
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 : 51:15
All right, real quick. Borders are Tom Holman. You mentioned him earlier. In some way, I think we need to go after the public safety threats, he said, and national security threats. Are we actually going to see people loaded onto trains like like, you know, headed to Auschwitz kind of depiction with families and children crying and mass deportation of that sort? Or are they going to approach it more strategically? We got to move quick. So like maybe 45 seconds each.
SPEAKER 03 : 51:41
I don't think it's going to be, no, I don't think it's going to be that kind of, I think it's going to have to be more strategically done because yes, this is something the Democrats and the media will be all over. So first things first, go after the criminals, go after the gangs, go after those who have committed crimes in this country already, the sanctuary city protectees and those people, absolutely. You kick them out and then you start going to work on the rest.
SPEAKER 02 : 52:05
And at the same time, do comprehensive immigration reform where we do a merit-based system at the same time. And this could be done congruently, I guess you could say, where you do it together at the same time. And I believe you can. Really quick, X just tweeted out, Jake Sherman, Tulsi Gabbard is in the mix to be named National Intelligence Director.
SPEAKER 03 : 52:25
Tulsi Gabbard. Okay.
SPEAKER 02 : 52:27
Interesting. National Intelligence Director. That would work. I'm okay with that one.
SPEAKER 03 : 52:31
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 : 52:32
Super controversial. Here we go. John, you first. Pardon Hunter Biden or not?
SPEAKER 02 : 52:39
As long as you get one in return.
SPEAKER 04 : 52:40
Okay. That's interesting. Bob, your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 03 : 52:47
First of all, Joe Biden's going to pardon Hunter. And then Donald Trump, I say, needs to pardon almost all of the January 6th people. And for the ones who have already been in prison for the last three years, commute their sentences. The average term for rape... in America is seven years. The average prison term for drug dealing is two and a half years. There's no reason. Even the most violent of January 6 people should be getting 20, 22 years in prison. So three and a half years, that's enough time in prison. Commute their sentences. Pardon everybody else.
SPEAKER 04 : 53:22
All right. I want to ask what happens to the criminal cases. But first, tell us about Preborn. Thank God for Preborn. We have the opportunity to be personally involved in saving the lives of unborn babies.
SPEAKER 03 : 53:32
We do. And when a mom sees an ultrasound image of her baby, she chooses life. She usually accepts the Lord too. So we need to get these ultrasound images in front of the moms. Preborn is the main pro-life group that does this all across the nation in pro-life centers. Problem is we don't have enough ultrasound machines. So there are a lot of moms that are not able to see those images of ultrasounds. That's where you folks come in. We're asking you to buy an ultrasound machine for $15,000. Yes, it's a big hit. It's a nice tax write-off for you, but your forever legacy will be that you have stopped thousands and thousands of abortions over who knows how many years. Is that worth it to you? For everybody else, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. 28 bucks is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby's life. So how many babies' lives will you save? Take $28 times fill in the blank, That's your forever legacy of the number of babies' lives that you saved. And either way, 100% of what you give goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. This is pre-born, everybody. So here's how you give. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on pre-born. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born. Or give over the phone. You can talk to a real-life person 24-7. Call 833-850-BABY. That's 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. Neil?
SPEAKER 04 : 54:55
All right, just really yes or no. Will the criminal cases against Trump continue? Because some people argue they actually got him elected. John, your thoughts? No. Okay, they're not going to continue or they are? No, they won't. Bob?
SPEAKER 03 : 55:09
I don't think they will continue. Certainly the national cases are going away. And the New York case, we're going to have to see what this corrupt judge does November 26th. Is he actually going to try to sentence Trump to prison or is he going to try to keep this on ice forever? until Trump's out of the White House. That I don't know yet.
SPEAKER 04 : 55:25
All right. Well, stay tuned to the National Crawford Roundtable for future podcasts. We promise one of these days we will not talk about Donald Trump. Guys, God bless you. Have a great week. Thanks for being with us. Another National Crawford Roundtable podcast in the books.
SPEAKER 01 : 55:39
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. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts and more. from your local Crawford Media Group station 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.
Richard Beattie talks with Susan Dekker about Medicare. They discuss the sign up and renewal deadlines (October 15 to December 7). Susan Dekker is a broker specializing in Medicare and is based in Centennial, Colorado.
?On today's program: Pete Ricketts, U.S. Senator for Nebraska, reacts to the current list of names to be nominated for posts in the second Trump administration and celebrates his state's pro-life victories. Greg Lopez, U.S. Representative for
SPEAKER 02 : 0:00
from the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
SPEAKER 15 : 0:20
I think in the first hundred days of the agenda, the first hundred days of the new Congress beginning in early January, we'll be able to take the field and start putting points on the board early. And then we will develop the agenda as the time goes forward. And we will make President Trump, and I believe this next Congress, the most consequential of the modern era.
SPEAKER 05 : 0:38
That was House Speaker Mike Johnson. We'll hear more from our conversation over the weekend about his plans for the first 100 days of the 119th Congress. Welcome to Washington Watch. I'm your host, Tony Perkins. Let me start by expressing my gratitude to the men and women who have donned the uniforms of our nation's military. Thank you for your service on this Veterans Day. Thank you for keeping the sacred flame of liberty alive. Well, today, in honor of Veterans Day, we'll be speaking with Texas Congressman Keith Self, a retired Army colonel. Congressman Self also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. So we're going to discuss both Veterans Day and the global geopolitical impact of the election of Donald Trump. On the topic of the first 100 days, President-elect Trump is already making key appointments, including New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, for a role at the United Nations as the ambassador. Now, that will open up a House leadership position. And this week, the House and Senate are both scheduled to select their leaders for the next Congress. Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts will join us to talk about what lies ahead in the Senate and share insights into the secret sauce that led to the success of Nebraska's Life Amendment last week. We'll also be examining the significant shift among some key voting blocs, especially Hispanic voters from Democrat to Republican. What's driving this change? We'll discuss it with newly elected Congressman Greg Lopez of Colorado. Today, Family Research Council is announcing Operation Prayer Shield, a 10-week prayer initiative for our nation as we enter a very critical time. It requires our collective prayer for God's divine protection and guidance for the incoming administration. From now until January 20th, we will prepare for the transition of leadership in our country as we, during this period, will face some, I think, some global challenges. And we also will be in the midst of a lame duck session of Congress starting tomorrow. So we believe that this season calls for a heightened spiritual vigilance, discernment, and unity. So I invite you to join us. And to do so, just text the word SHIELD, S-H-I-E-L-D, SHIELD to 67742. That's 67742, SHIELD. And you'll have access to daily prayer points, scripture, and a weekly live prayer conference call. Again, text SHIELD to 67742 and join us in praying for our nation at this critical juncture. All right, with Election Day in the rearview mirror, Republicans are looking ahead and charting a path forward for a GOP-led federal government. And on the minds of many is who President-elect Donald Trump will select for key roles in his new cabinet.
SPEAKER 04 : 3:22
I expect the president to make bold decisions. He has to come up with actually a 1,200 different appointees who get confirmed by the United States Senate. And I can tell you there are lots and lots of very qualified individuals who are going to be considered for cabinet posts and other posts in government. And the Senate is ready to take a look at each and every one of them.
SPEAKER 05 : 3:43
That was Wyoming Senator John Barrasso yesterday on Meet the Press. Already some announcements have been made, as I mentioned, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Hoban as the border czar, and some other appointments. So what do these appointments so far tell us about the incoming cabinet and what might they signal to the rest of the nation today? and to the world for that matter. Joining me now to discuss this, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, who serves on three Senate committees, including the Committee on Foreign Relations. Senator Ricketts, welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to see you. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on again. First of all, Senator, congratulations on winning your election to the United States Senate. Thank you very much. It was a team effort. Well, and you did it quite handedly. Let me ask you, first off, your thoughts on the appointments that President-elect Donald Trump has made thus far.
SPEAKER 07 : 4:46
Yeah, so far, they've been absolutely fantastic with regard to what President Trump is doing. And I think not only is he picking really quality people that will do a great job of fighting for us, but it also demonstrates that his administration is going to be ready to hit the ground running when they come in. And that's really important because, you know, we're only guaranteed two years here. So we've got to move very, very fast to get his agenda done.
SPEAKER 05 : 5:10
So this afternoon, it was announced that former Congressman Lee Zeldin will be leading the EPA. You know, as a state, former governor of your state, I'm sure that that's an entity that you want to see operate within the bounds of its constitutional authority and kind of maybe clip its wings a little bit.
SPEAKER 07 : 5:32
You're absolutely correct there, Tony. You know, I sit on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees the EPA. So I've seen firsthand how they have really been stretching beyond the bounds of the law what they are trying to do. Their tailpipe emissions, for example, require two thirds of all electric or all cars being sold in 2032 to be electric vehicles. And that is driving up costs for Americans. If you look just in general, the 5,000 regulations the Biden-Harris administration put in is adding $3,300 to the cost of every American household. We've got to unravel this. And that's why I'm looking forward to having Lee Zeldin there. He's going to be a great choice. We've got to get him confirmed quickly so we can start undoing the damage that the Biden-Harris administration has done over these last four years. The amount of overregulation is just burdening American households. It's jamming a big government socialist agenda down our throats, and we've got to put an end to it.
SPEAKER 05 : 6:24
Senator Ricketts, walk our viewers and listeners through that confirmation process, not just for former Congressman Zeldin, but just in general. How's that going to unfold?
SPEAKER 07 : 6:36
Yeah, so what will happen is with President Trump's nominees, they will go in front of the respective committees that they are – that have the oversight. And so there will be an opportunity for the candidate to be able to talk about what – They hope to do. There will also be questions from both Republicans and Democrats to that person. And then the committee will vote on that person to – we have to have majority votes to get them out of committee. The good news is with Republicans in charge of the Senate, we will have majorities in all those committees to be able to get that person put to the floor. And this is, again, where with the Republicans in charge of the Senate, we'll be able to move very quickly on – President Trump's nominees to get them confirmed as quickly as possible. You know, this is critical that we have those nominees, we get them done early. And it's also one of the things where, you know, if you look at Chuck Schumer, he didn't really have us there very often. I think we were only in session about, scheduled to be in session about 29 weeks this year out of the 52 weeks out of a year. So what I've encouraged all the leader candidates is that, hey, we got to work hard. You know, most Americans work Monday through Friday. You know, we ought to be thinking about the same sort of thing to be able to make sure we get President Trump's agenda done.
SPEAKER 05 : 7:47
Now, because of a rule change a number of years back, it only requires 50 votes on the Senate, 51 votes on the Senate floor to move these nominees forward. So with 53, 54 Republicans, depending on how everything shakes out, that shouldn't be a problem.
SPEAKER 07 : 8:05
Well, and that's one of the things that we've got to move forward on those judge candidates that you point out. So that's going to be a key thing to move along as well. There is just a general process issue that all these candidates have to go through to take time, which is why it's so important we get started as quickly as possible.
SPEAKER 05 : 8:21
Let me move to your home state of Nebraska. And as I do so, I want to point to the two initiatives that were on the ballot, two constitutional amendments, one to enshrine abortion into the Constitution. That failed. There was a provision to protect life. That did succeed in large part because of your leadership. And I just want to I want to point that out to our viewers and listeners that even as a as a senator focused on the federal issues in Washington, you leaned in very heavily in the state of Nebraska personally to help fund the effort as well as to to speak into it and use your resources. your leadership. We saw in the 10 states that had these on the ballot, those states that had leaders that would lean in and lead, the life position prevailed. And I just want to say thank you for that.
SPEAKER 07 : 9:15
Well, thank you, Tony. I appreciate it. And certainly this is one that my mom also invested very heavily in, Marlene Ricketts. And it's always a team effort, right? You always you only get it done because of that. But I do think you're right when you look at what Ron DeSantis did in Florida or Dusty Johnson did in South Dakota. We also had my governor involved. We did a fly around the state in the last few days before the election. And we had Senator Deb Fischer on there. We had Adrian Smith and Mike Flood, two of our congressmen. So I think having publicly elected officials involved in this was one of the key steps. Two other key steps that we had were, one, that we had the pro-life work groups all working together. And so that took time to get the coalition working. But everybody just everybody pitched in and did a great job. Again, it's a team effort. That was obviously very critical. And then one of the key things is we offered an alternative by giving people something to vote for. We saw what happened in Ohio where a red state voted to put this really, really radical pro-abortion language in their constitution that guarantees the fundamental right to abortion. What we did is really focus on, hey, let's take that off the table by giving people something to vote for. And so we can contrast that with our initiative, which took our current state law and proposed to put that in the Constitution versus just telling people to vote no against a really, really bad one. And that was ultimately very successful where we got enough votes to block theirs out and ultimately kept them under 50 percent so that they couldn't get theirs in the Constitution. So that was very good. And then finally, I just want to give a shout out. You know, it's always a team effort. But we had six young student athletes from the University of Nebraska who stepped up and did some commercials for us. Very courageous, very principled, just wonderful Christian women. And it takes a lot of courage, especially at that age, to step up and say, hey, I'm going to call this out for what it is. And it was their commercial was just so impactful. I just got to give a shout out to, you know, we had a softball player, Jordy Ball, that was there. We had a volleyball player, Rebecca Alec, was there. So we had lots of great people who stepped up. But, you know, those young athletes, those young student athletes were really tremendously instrumental in helping us get the message out.
SPEAKER 05 : 11:31
Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's always a team effort, but every team has a leader. And I just, again, want to underscore because we've seen in the last couple of years, we've seen a lot of Republicans back away from this issue. But every time they've embraced it because it comes from within, and you have a record on this as you were a governor for two terms there in Nebraska. When you believe in this, you don't have a difficult time talking about it. And as a result, people will follow. That's what leaders do. And so I appreciate you recognizing the others are part of the team. But I want it to be – we need more leaders, elected leaders who are not backing away from these issues. And I hope as we move into this new Congress, as we have new members coming in, new senators, new members of Congress, that – we will continue to embrace these moral and social issues, which are really the foundation for a nation to be great.
SPEAKER 07 : 12:29
Yeah, absolutely. Our founders certainly recognized that we get to keep our republic if we have our religious values, that that was fundamental to the functioning of our republic. And that without them, we wouldn't have that moral compass with which to guide us. So and certainly they meant for us to bring those to the public square. So I think it is important that we just continue to talk about these issues. We've got to win more hearts and minds. We've got a lot of work to do in the pro-life movement.
SPEAKER 05 : 12:56
Well, Senator, again, grateful for your leadership. And thanks so much for joining us today. Look forward to seeing you again real soon.
SPEAKER 07 : 13:04
Great. Thanks very much for having me on.
SPEAKER 05 : 13:06
Absolutely. Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska. And again, it's so encouraging when we have our leaders who will step forward and lead on these issues. And this is a part of our prayer as we move into this new Congress, because there's been some stepping away from these fundamental core issues. And we've got to embrace them. And we need good leaders, especially counselors that are a part of the president's cabinet, So join us in praying. Text the word SHIELD, Operation Prayer Shield. Text SHIELD to 67742 and join us in this effort. All right, coming up, Democrats are still trying to figure out how they lost as badly as they did on Election Day. And they have pushed away segments of voters that historically they had in their corner, including Hispanics. We're going to talk with a new congressman after this.
SPEAKER 08 : 14:02
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 14 : 14:31
Let's not be discouraged. Don't lose heart. Don't lose the faith. Stand now strong because the Lord has given us the great privilege of living in a time when our choices matter, when our lives matter, when our courage matters. So let's stand together and save this great country. God bless the United States of America.
SPEAKER 13 : 14:48
the american republic has a freedom like no other it has roots in the scriptures far more than any other heritage and if we as followers of jesus and conservatives don't defend it who will
SPEAKER 10 : 15:05
Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You're naive if you think that, because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 16 : 15:27
Part of the dilemma of Christianity in our generation is that we've relied a little too much on human wisdom and human reasoning, human strength, human resource, and we've relied too little on the power of God and God's ability to open doors that we can't open and do things that we couldn't even hope to begin to do.
SPEAKER 11 : 15:45
This may not be an easy task, But we are living in a moment of challenge, but also a great opportunity. And we know always that we are not alone, that His Spirit empowers us and protects us, and that He can do the unimaginable. Dobbs, after all, was never supposed to have.
SPEAKER 05 : 16:07
Father, we thank you. You have entrusted us with this moment in history, and I pray that we would be found faithful, and that as a result of our faithfulness to you, that thousands, millions would come into the kingdom as they would experience the forgiveness of sin and the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ. Amen.
SPEAKER 09 : 16:30
Are you a Christian parent looking to raise a spiritual champion in today's culture? Renowned author George Barna has written a new book, Raising Spiritual Champions. This book offers valuable insights based on extensive research conducted by George Barna, the Family Research Council, and Arizona Christian University. Learn how to help your children discern biblical truth and find compelling meaning and purpose. Don't miss out on this essential resource for parents. Order your copy today.
SPEAKER 05 : 17:03
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us. Let me again invite you to join us in the prayer effort over the next 10 weeks. Operation Prayer Shield as we pray for the transition of power from one administration to the next. But also pray for incoming President Donald Trump that he would be surrounded by godly and wise counselors. To join us in this effort, simply text the word SHIELD to 67742. That's SHIELD to 67742. Well, Election Day 2024 held many surprises, and among them was how Hispanic voters came out in force. Not for Democrats, like they have in the past, but for the GOP. When the dust settled, there was a 14-point swing in Trump's share of Hispanic voters, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research. Some 46% of self-identified Hispanic voters picked Trump, up from 32% in the 2020 election. what's driving this and what could this mean going forward? Here now to discuss this, Congressman Greg Lopez. He serves on the House Budget Committee as well as the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, represents the 4th Congressional District of Colorado. And he is a new member of Congress, just recently elected. Congressman Lopez, welcome to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 01 : 18:23
Tony, welcome. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be on your show.
SPEAKER 05 : 18:27
So you are serving the remainder of former Representative Ken Buck's term as he stepped down in March. You won a special election in June. You weren't planning to run in November. However, you ended up replacing Lauren Boebert, who won Colorado's fourth congressional district last Tuesday.
SPEAKER 01 : 18:50
Actually, you know, Lauren will be coming in and taking over on the 119th Congress. I will be stepping aside at the end of this year. So Lauren Boebert will be the congressional representative for Colorado's Congressional District 4. I chose not to seek election in November. But, you know, I've been out there working hard, you know, talking to people in the district. And I'm so excited about what happened in the election, specifically with the Hispanic vote.
SPEAKER 05 : 19:18
Well, let's talk about that Hispanic vote. What drove this shift?
SPEAKER 01 : 19:25
I tell you, you know, for the last several years, I've been out here in Colorado talking to political pundits and talking to the communities. And what I realized, you know, I ran for governor out here in Colorado. And when I was traveling the state, you know, I noticed that the Democrat Party was totally ignoring the values of the Hispanic community, the values of faith. the values of family, the values of community and hardworking individuals. You know, they truly were destroying and tearing the fabric of our values. They were being disrespectful with all the issues that they were doing to attack our families, to undermine our children. And I think the Hispanic vote finally decided, you know what, we're sick and tired of being invisible. We sometimes believe that our vote doesn't matter. And the Democrat Party always believed that we would always hold on to that mantra that the Republicans are for the rich and the Democrats are for the poor. And they forgot that our community is thriving. We are becoming an economic influence. We have political power now. And so we decided that we need to find someone that will put people over politics. Too many politicians put politics over people. And the Hispanic community truly believes that government should always put people over politics. And I think that's what you saw in this historic realignment of the Hispanic vote going to the Republican Party.
SPEAKER 05 : 20:49
So, Congressman, let me ask you this question. When you look at this shift, pretty significant shift, that where does the concern about law and order factor into that decision to back a party that wants to enforce the law at the border?
SPEAKER 01 : 21:08
But the Hispanic community, we're strong in community. We want our children to have a safe street just like everybody else. And we as Americans do not want the border open. I'm here to tell you, Tony, that Hispanic Americans want the border closed. We want people to follow the law. We want them to get here legally, just like most Hispanics did. We don't appreciate them cutting in line. We don't appreciate the government saying, you can come and we'll deal with it later. And I think the border itself was another disrespect to the Hispanic community to say, look, we came here the right way. We've worked hard. We've tried to build and integrate into our communities. And now you're bringing in people that are just coming in very quickly. They're getting all the benefits that a citizen gets. It's really hard to tell the difference now between the benefits of a United States citizen and the benefits of a legal alien. And so the Hispanic community said, enough. We're going to go with President Trump. He was closing down the border. He was making our community secure. It's time to go back.
SPEAKER 05 : 22:16
Congressman Lopez, as you pointed out, the Hispanic community very strong on family. How do those issues factor into the shift from the party that made abortion until birth their top policy priority? How does that factor in?
SPEAKER 01 : 22:33
Look, it factors in a lot because, you know, when they try to tell our children that God makes mistakes, that a Hispanic boy, if he wants to be a girl, we can just call him a girl or vice versa. You know, when I talk to Hispanic community and I'm bilingual and I let them know that this is what they're teaching in schools, they get very upset because we are strong believers in our Lord Jesus. We're strong believers in what the Bible teaches us. And when the Democrat Party is trying to throw that out the window and trying to confuse our children, we don't appreciate that. When they try to undermine the definition of marriage, you know, we also do not appreciate what they're doing. When it comes to abortion, you know, we believe that every life is precious and every child is a gift. And when they tell us that it's It's healthcare, right? It's women's healthcare. We want them to realize that, you know what, it's killing babies. That's the truth. That's really what it is. And so the Hispanic community is very strong. The Catholic Church in Colorado came against the initiative to bring abortion into the Constitution. Unfortunately, it passed here in Colorado, but there's a lot of people here that are working against it into the future. But this is what really has shifted within the mindset of the Hispanic community is they realize they're not teaching biblical values. They're not talking about our faith and our family. They're talking about everything else.
SPEAKER 05 : 23:58
Congressman Lopez, final question, 30 seconds. Is this alignment? Could it be permanent?
SPEAKER 01 : 24:04
But if the Republican Party does the right thing, look, for too long, the Republican Party has been ignoring the Hispanic vote because they always believed that it was going to go Democrat. Here we want the Republican Party has an opportunity to reach out into the Hispanic community. And that's why I'm calling on President Trump to put a Hispanic person on his cabinet, a Hispanic man, a Hispanic woman onto the cabinet, because we helped them get there. It's important for him to recognize that and allow us to be a part of the solution.
SPEAKER 05 : 24:36
Well, Congressman Lopez, I want to thank you for being a part of our program today and speaking into this issue. Very important. Appreciate your insight and input. Look forward to talking to you real soon.
SPEAKER 01 : 24:49
You have a blessed day.
SPEAKER 05 : 24:50
You too. All right, folks, don't go away when we come back. I'm going to share with you my conversation I had with House Speaker Mike Johnson over the weekend. That's next.
SPEAKER 17 : 25:04
All of us are born with the desire to find truth and meaning. Where did I come from? What happens when I die? While our answers to these questions may divide us, we are united in our need for the freedom to answer life's biggest questions and make life's biggest decisions for ourselves. That's why religious freedom matters for everyone. Religious freedom matters because the powerful have long wanted to control those who are less powerful. Religious freedom matters because the freedom of those who are different is often threatened by those who believe different is dangerous. Leah Sharibu, a Christian teenager in Nigeria, remains a captive of Boko Haram for her refusal to renounce her Christian faith. Chinese pastor Wang Yi is serving a nine-year sentence for speaking publicly against the Chinese government. In Pakistan, Asif Pervez is on death row for allegedly sending a blasphemous text message. All of this because people in power decided different is dangerous. at the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council. We promote religious freedom for everyone because the only alternative is religious freedom for no one. We encourage Americans and the American government to engage and advocate for the persecuted. And they do. We work every day to bring good news to the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. We do it because that's what Jesus does. We work to give freedom to others because we ourselves have been set free.
SPEAKER 05 : 27:03
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us on this Monday. All right. Following last week's decisive win by now President-elect Donald Trump, I spoke with House Speaker Mike Johnson on our weekend program this week on The Hill. We dove into what the first 100 days of a unified government will look like. We also talked about the next two months of the transition period from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. Could the nation be at risk? Could our allies in the Middle East be at risk? Here's our conversation. Mr. Speaker, you sent a letter to your colleagues this week, and in this you outlined the priorities in the new Congress based upon that mandate that you made reference to, secure borders, promote investment and opportunity through the tax code, energy dominance, reduce regulations, expand school choice, and end the woke agenda. What does that look like?
SPEAKER 15 : 28:01
Well, we have very detailed plans. In that letter, I summarized how I've been explaining this on the campaign trail for the last year, and that is with a simple football metaphor. In Louisiana, as you know, we explain everything in football and hurricane metaphors, and to me, that makes it easy to understand. Look, in the football metaphor, what you have to do to win the game is put points on the board. So back up further, how do you put points on the board? You have well-prepared players to take the field, and you have a well-designed playbook. And so we've, of course, known that formula for a long time. So for the last year, we've been working methodically behind the scenes to develop and design that playbook. And it is well-designed and well-thought. A lot of work and hours have gone into this. And so now, in the metaphor, President Trump will be the newly sworn head coach when he takes over as the president. And we will go in. I'll be the quarterback. And we'll sit down, look at that playbook. And we'll run out and execute those plays with precision. So In the playbook, among the menu of options, and we'll be working, of course, with our Senate Republican colleagues, they're all dialed in on this as well. In that is the list of priorities that the American people care so much about, that we know intuitively, but that they also told us with their voices and their votes over the last year. We got to secure the border on day one, and we will. There'll be an executive order to do that, followed by legislation that will seal and secure the border. And then we deal with the fallout of the madness that has ensued over the last four years with regard to all of that. And then we'll turn to, as you said, I mentioned the tax code. Remember the tax cuts of the Trump administration, the first administration will expire this year unless we extend them. And so we've got to do that. And we have a lot of work to fine tune and ensure that we have the right conditions in the economy to spur on a pro-growth economy. And that's what's desperately needed right now to turn the economy around. So the other part of that you referenced is, that I said in my letter, is the regulatory reform. Energy policy is key to this. All these things work together To ensure the formula to move forward. So the bottom line is, I think in the first hundred days of the agenda, the first hundred days of the new Congress beginning in early January, we'll be able to take the field and start putting points on the board early. And then we will develop the agenda as the time goes forward. And we will make President Trump, and I believe this next Congress, the most consequential of the modern era.
SPEAKER 05 : 30:16
Well, if I can continue that metaphor, Mr. Speaker, this gives the Republicans the ball, allows them onto the field. But I think you even note in your letter, the game is far from won. This is just an opportunity to get on the field and win the game. And that's one of the things I've been communicating to, especially to Christians across the country. You know, this election saves our freedom. so that we can use that freedom to preserve it for the next generation. So far from being resolved, this is when we roll up our sleeves and go to work. And I think your constituents, I think the conservatives across the country that helped create this majority need to know that the work is just beginning.
SPEAKER 15 : 31:04
Well, absolutely. I think that's very well said. I mean, we have made it to the big game, and now we have to play the game for very important quarters, four years of the next administration. And you've got to leave it on the field in every single play. I mean, you have to have precision in what you do, and you have to have players who are prepared to do what it takes to get it done. I think we have those ingredients in place, and now we have to do it. I I've had so many friends over the last couple of days since the election congratulate us and say, oh, boy, do you finally get to get a nap? And I just laugh and I say, a nap? Are you kidding? Now the hard work really begins. So we're ready for that. We're all counting on a very aggressive work agenda. I've told all the members, the incumbents who are reelected and the new persons coming in. Get ready. Tell your spouses now this is not going to be leisure time. We have so much to do, and in relative terms, a small amount of time to do it. So we'll be hard at work already.
SPEAKER 05 : 32:00
So let's talk about the lame duck session of Congress that begins next week. Now, obviously, it doesn't look as dangerous as it once looked like because I think this incoming administration has a mandate, so I don't think Chuck Schumer is going to have a whole lot of room to fool around with. So, number one, what does the lame duck look like? And then number two, this transitional period of two and a half months, we are in a very volatile time internationally. I mean, the world's on fire. Is the risk great during this time?
SPEAKER 15 : 32:34
The risk is great. We're in a heightened threat environment. We have been for some time because of the lack of leadership from the White House. In fact, it was worse than a lack of leadership. It was the projection of weakness on the world stage. And as we've discussed so many times, that is what has inspired and put forward the aggression by our enemies. And so they are watching this. I think they're Our enemies are very concerned and frightened, frankly, that President Trump beat Kamala Harris. I think they wanted more weakness in the White House, and they're going to get the opposite. So you look at that, and you wonder what effect that has over the next couple of months. Look, I believe and hope and pray, of course, that our adversaries see this as a time where they need to be in retreat and not aggressing further, because they know that under the new commander-in-chief, a new sheriff's in town, and we're not going to put up with that. We're going to project peace through strength again.
SPEAKER 05 : 33:26
That was my conversation with House Speaker Mike Johnson during our weekend program this week on The Hill. But right now you're tuned in to Washington Watch. And after the break, I'll be joined by Texas Congressman Keith Self to talk about the importance of Veterans Day as well as the global geopolitical impact of Donald Trump's election. That's next. Don't go away. More Washington Watch straight ahead.
SPEAKER 03 : 34:01
Jesus said in John 15, these things I've spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. In 2024, in these divided and uncertain times, how can this be possible? By abiding in him through his word. At Family Research Council, we want to help you do that, which is the reason for the Stand on the Word Bible reading plan. In just 10 to 15 minutes each day, you will have read the entire Bible in just two years. But more importantly, you will be abiding in him daily. Find our Bible reading plan at frc.org slash Bible. And join Tony Perkins each weekday for a 10-minute devotional inspired by the daily reading and designed to encourage you on this journey through the Bible. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. And remember, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
SPEAKER 12 : 34:59
Everything we do begins as an idea. Before there can be acts of courage, there must be the belief that some things are worth sacrificing for. Before there can be marriage, there is the idea that man should not be alone. Before there was freedom, there was the idea that individuals are created equal. It's true that all ideas have consequences, but we're less aware that all consequences are the fruit of ideas. Before there was murder, there was hate. Before there was a Holocaust, there was the belief by some people that other people are undesirable. Our beliefs determine our behavior, and our beliefs about life's biggest questions determine our worldview. Where did I come from? Who decides what is right and wrong? What happens when I die? Our answers to these questions explain why people see the world so differently. Debates about abortion are really disagreements about where life gets its value. Debates over sexuality and gender and marriage are really disagreements about whether the rules are made by us or for us. What we think of as political debates are often much more than that. They're disagreements about the purpose of our lives and the source of truth. As Christians, our goal must be to think biblically about everything. Our goal is to help you see beyond red and blue, left and right, to see the battle of ideas at the root of it all. Our goal is to equip Christians with a biblical worldview and help them advance and defend the faith in their families, communities, and the public square. Cultural renewal doesn't begin with campaigns and elections. It begins with individuals turning from lies to truth. But that won't happen if people can't recognize a lie and don't believe truth exists. We want to help you see the spiritual war behind the political war, the truth claims behind the press release, and the forest and the trees.
SPEAKER 05 : 37:02
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Again, as we celebrate Veterans Day, I want to thank all of our veterans for their service to our country. I had the privilege of Saturday night being at an event sponsored by Lighthouse Baptist Church in Holland, Michigan. Pastor Bart Spencer. It was a great event honoring veterans. I was a keynote speaker at this banquet with hundreds of veterans, including about a half dozen World War II veterans. Amazing. It was a great night. And one of the original Rosie the Riveters, you might have to Google that to remember what that was, but one of the women who worked in the plants taking the place of men, she is 99 years old. It was a great, great night. So, again, to all those men and women who have donned the uniform of our military, thank you. Thank you for keeping the sacred flame of liberty alive. Our word for today comes from Amos chapter 8, verse 11. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. You know what? If you don't, if you won't hear, eventually you can't hear. There is a danger in ignoring the word of the Lord. America has been saturated with the gospel and the truth of God's word, but increasingly over the last 60 years, we've refused to hear pushing it out of our public discourse and dialogue. There comes a point that God will say to a nation, have it your way. Recall in 1 Samuel chapter 3, the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation. Why was it rare? They had a priest, they had religion, but Eli did not listen and respond to the word of the Lord. If we want to hear the Lord speak, we must listen with open hearts and willing spirits. Let's make it a priority to seek his voice in our lives daily so we never experience a famine of his word. To find out more about our journey through the Bible, text Bible to 67742. That's Bible to 67742. The state of Qatar announced Saturday that it was hitting the pause button on its efforts to mediate between Israel and Hamas due to the lack of willingness and seriousness of the two parties. Meanwhile, Israel faces a deadline this Wednesday imposed by the Biden administration that says that if they do not increase the amount of humanitarian aid going into Gaza, they could lose military financing from the U.S., With more than two months before the new administration steps into the White House, how might the situation continue to unfold in the Middle East and elsewhere? And how might the new administration approach it differently? Joining me now to discuss this and more, Congressman Keith Self, who served our country for 25 years before retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel. During his service, he deployed to Grenada. Bosnia, Afghanistan, Qatar for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today is a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. He represents the 3rd Congressional District of Texas. Congressman Self, welcome back to the program.
SPEAKER 06 : 40:13
Great to be here, Tony. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 : 40:15
First of all, happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service to our nation.
SPEAKER 06 : 40:21
Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 : 40:23
Let me—before we jump into the political, the geopolitical, let's talk about this day, that we recognize veterans. Why is it important that we pause and we take that opportunity, this opportunity, to thank those who have donned the uniform and served our nation?
SPEAKER 06 : 40:46
Because we want to speak English, not German, Japanese or Chinese. Yeah, the perfect perspective of family in my district. Friday, I spoke at a veterans event. A family came up to me afterwards, and they said, it's good to know you're a veteran. We thought you were just a congressman. That's a perfect perspective. Our veterans deserve respect and honor, and today's the day to give it to them.
SPEAKER 05 : 41:13
Well, those that put on uniform deserve respect, even when they have it on. And a lot of that is driven by the policies that an administration puts in place. Do you see, and I know this is a rhetorical question, but do you see a change coming in terms of the way we treat our nation's military?
SPEAKER 06 : 41:34
Oh, that's not a rhetorical question at all, Tony. It will change because we have recruiting problems. People are demoralized in the military. Our chaplains don't have the support they needed. In fact, they were punished for acts of conscience during COVID period, which we have tried to correct. A change is coming. And we must return our military to the lethal force that we need to back up our diplomacy, our deterrence around the world. Change is coming, Tony.
SPEAKER 05 : 42:03
So we have, in this lame duck session of Congress, we will be passing, and that starts tomorrow, we will have the National Defense Authorization Act. Do you see that taking on any new twist or turn given the election results?
SPEAKER 06 : 42:20
I don't know about this year, because I'm very concerned about the lame duck session that you talk about, because people who do not support President Trump, people who resigned, didn't win their election, didn't win their primary, they have no skin in the game anymore. And they will want to spend a lot of money. They will want to continue the Pelosi-Schumer policies. I am very concerned about this, Tony. We have got to go back and take a strong stand so that we don't tie the hands of President Trump when he takes office.
SPEAKER 05 : 42:52
So do you think there are some within the ranks of Republicans who are not coming back that might join with Democrats to do that?
SPEAKER 06 : 42:59
Absolutely, absolutely. I believe that that is entirely possible. That's why the conservative forces in Congress must be very strong to say that, listen, the people have spoken, that the election was a dynamic mandate, geographically Gender, ethnically, it was a mandate across the board, and we have got to respond that way. We've now got to produce. The voters have spoken. Now it's up to Congress to produce.
SPEAKER 05 : 43:36
Also this week, as Congress returns tomorrow, there will be the leadership elections for the 119th Congress. Do you see much of a shift there, or do you think we're going to see the same team leading forward?
SPEAKER 06 : 43:51
Well, of course, Elise Stefanik has been nominated as the U.N. ambassador, so she is already with that race. Other than that, I think we'll see pretty much the same. I believe there's a race for the policy chair in the conference. But I think pretty much we will see the faces will remain the same, with the exception of Elise Stefanik.
SPEAKER 05 : 44:15
She's got a pretty significant post. She's number four in the leadership string. Who is stepping forward to pursue that position?
SPEAKER 06 : 44:23
Well, there have been a couple. Lisa McLean, Kat Kamek. I think that Barry Moore is considering it. So there will be probably several that will run for that position. They've only got two days to line up support. So it's going to be a fast campaign for them.
SPEAKER 05 : 44:39
Well, those are the good kind of campaigns because the pain doesn't last very long. You get it over with. Let's turn back, Congressman Self, to the Middle East. An Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Israel is more optimistic about its chances for a hostage deal with Donald Trump in the White House. Do you anticipate movement there soon?
SPEAKER 06 : 45:03
Yeah, I believe it's happening already. Qatar expelling Hamas leadership is the first step. I think that people are going to start preparing for a Trump presidency, and I think they're going to start weighing their options even now and making moves so that they will not be behind the eight ball when President Trump takes office. We've seen it in several areas. Hamas, the day after the election, said, well, maybe we better call an end to this pretty quick.
SPEAKER 05 : 45:34
And I did pick up on that. I saw that one of the was unidentified leader in Hamas saying, yes, we want to bring this to resolution. I think that's a positive development. What do you see happening in Ukraine with that situation there?
SPEAKER 06 : 45:52
It depends on who the president nominates as the Secretary of Defense. I believe that President Trump will want to end it quickly. I believe that he will get the two parties to the negotiating table fairly quickly. And I think what you're going to see on the sidelines is the NATO response to President Trump. That will be an interesting sideline to the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. But I believe we will get to negotiations very fast.
SPEAKER 05 : 46:22
Do you have a favorite that you would like to see in the Secretary of Defense, having obviously a vested interest in the Department of Defense?
SPEAKER 06 : 46:33
All I want is a man that will reestablish the credibility of the United States around the world, the ability to back up, deter our adversaries, to back up a strong State Department who will do the diplomacy knowing that they have a strong, capable, lethal military standing behind them should it be necessary.
SPEAKER 05 : 46:57
Congressman Self, you know, the Biden administration, they know the clock is ticking. And do you see the possibility of the Biden administration trying to tie the hands of the Trump administration by pushing for some type of, you know, half-baked deal in the Middle East before time runs out?
SPEAKER 06 : 47:21
No, I don't see that because the Biden administration have been surrogates, almost surrogates for the Iranian regime, which exports terror around the world. They've been allowing Iran to get away with murder, literally. They have allowed both Russia and Iran to sell their oil. to gather their reserves to execute their nefarious means. And so, no, I don't see the Biden administration making a deal in the Middle East. Now, if they put more obstacles in the way of Israel, as you have suggested earlier, if they cut off support to Israel, that is a very serious move. And I recommend they do not do that. They do not want to take that step. That would not be in the interest of the United States of America.
SPEAKER 05 : 48:06
Well, we're coming down to that deadline. I think the if I'm and I think the the 13th may be the deadline. Oh, no. Actually, they wrote the letter on October 13th. I think the deadline is actually this Wednesday in which they said they've got to prove that they're doing more in terms of humanitarian support. What action might Congress be able to take? to speak publicly about this if the Biden administration does cut off the aid to Israel.
SPEAKER 06 : 48:38
I think as soon as we get back, people are going to be coalescing around an action because we need to be vocal now. We don't need to wait to be reactive. We need to be vocal now, once we get back into session, to coalesce around an idea of telling the Biden administration that's not what the law says, that's not what we have approved, allocated, and we do not want that to happen, and we don't recommend that executive action against the will of Congress. which has supplied those weapon systems, those supplies, those material to Israel.
SPEAKER 05 : 49:12
So, Keith, what else do our listeners, our viewers need? What else do they need to be watching over the next few weeks in this lame duck session of Congress? What are you watching for? So what should we be watching for?
SPEAKER 06 : 49:26
You need to be watching for the spending levels. The omnibus or too many buses, that's what I really recommend you pay attention to. What is the spending level? Because I know that people are going to want to tie President Trump's hands by blowout spending and the omnibus bill, which will tie his hands for a long time. We want to get back to fiscal responsibility. He's already got some of his excellent nominees saying we're going to have to cut spending. We're going to have to reduce the workforce. But if they tie his hands with a huge omnibus, that will be detrimental to our interests. Watch that carefully, Tony.
SPEAKER 05 : 50:03
All right. We definitely will. And speaking of money, I want to we've got a couple of minutes left. As I mentioned, you serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee. Well, earlier this month, it was announced that the committee would be launching a full scale investigation into the claim by VA leaders that they needed three billion dollars. That's with a B, $3 billion immediately to close a budget gap or vets would lose their benefits at the start of fiscal year 2025. Instead, the VA reportedly has a surplus of $5.1 billion from 2024. What's going on here?
SPEAKER 06 : 50:40
I'm not sure anybody knows, Tony. That is a great question. Basically, the VA leadership, the VA leadership lied to Congress. That is clear. So when we get back, and we've already started to peel back the onion through the committee and through the leadership of the VA, but when we get back, that will be one of the principal actions of the VA committee to try to find out exactly what happened. Why was that so wrong? Because an old saying, it's hard to be that wrong without intention.
SPEAKER 05 : 51:14
Well, I think we've seen a lot of that in this administration, this outgoing administration, where they have been way off on a number of issues. And you have to wonder if, in fact, it was intentional.
SPEAKER 06 : 51:30
Yeah, absolutely. I have no doubt it was intentional, because they asked for $15 billion originally, if you remember. We supplied the $3 billion. We had not done the $12 billion. And all of a sudden, they come back with this surplus. So again, this requires a lot of investigation, and it's already started.
SPEAKER 05 : 51:50
Are you optimistic, speaking of dollars and cents, are you optimistic that under the Trump administration that we're going to get federal spending under control?
SPEAKER 06 : 52:03
Only if we are able to do the things that Elon Musk is talking about, that some of his other nominees are talking about, if we can cut the federal workforce, if we can go back to the mission as indicated by the Constitution, directed by the Constitution, I am. But frankly, our track record is not very good on this, Tony. So regardless, and frankly, when you think back to the last time that the Republicans held the House, the Senate and the presidency, their record was not good.
SPEAKER 05 : 52:32
No.
SPEAKER 06 : 52:32
So that is something we must correct this time because the people that they we have to produce, Tony, we've got to do it now.
SPEAKER 05 : 52:41
Yeah, you're right. The Republicans record on this is just as bad oftentimes as the Democrats. Congressman Keith Self, always great to have you on the program. Thanks for taking time to join us today. Thank you, Tony. And, folks, all of those are reasons why we need to be praying. So I invite you to join us in the 10-week prayer initiative, Operation Prayer Shield, that we just announced today to pray for the incoming administration, the outgoing administration, this window in between that our nation would be protected, our friends and allies as well. This is a time for a lot of prayer. Well, a lot of foolishness could take place. Lame duck session of Congress. We need to be praying for the president that he gets the right team together, godly men and women that will provide godly counsel. Text the word SHIELD to 67742 and join us. All right, that's all we have time for today. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul, who says you've done everything you can do when you've prayed, prepared, and taken your stand.
SPEAKER 02 : 53:43
By all means, keep standing. 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.
