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In today’s episode, delve into the economic strategies under President Trump’s administration focusing on the newly imposed tariffs and their potential effects on international trade and domestic job creation. Explore the importance of the Geneva Consensus Declaration and other significant policies from a Biblical worldview perspective. Don’t miss TikTok’s deep-dive discussion on Tulsi Gabbard’s contentious nomination and what her past legislative record reveals about her current role.
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from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, good afternoon. Hope you’ve had a fantastic week. And welcome to this Friday edition of Washington Watch. I am your Friday host, Jody Heiss. I’m the Senior Vice President here at the Family Research Council and President of FRC Action. And we welcome you. Thank you for joining us today. We’ve got a lot to cover. We’ll begin. It’s been less than two weeks since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. And man, has he ever been hitting the road running at breakneck pace, more so even than his first term. He signed a slew of executive orders relating to the military, DEI initiatives, transgender surgery bans on children, and the list just simply goes on and on and on. Yesterday, he took further action on the Federal Aviation Agency, also known as the FAA. And of course, this is in response to Wednesday’s mid-air collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter. It claimed the lives of 67 people.
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To deliver accountability, President Trump swiftly signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and policy aviation safety standards.
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That was White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt earlier today. And with President Trump taking so much action, Congress might be having a hard time keeping up. Well, I’ll be joined in just a moment by Congressman Chuck Fleischman to discuss this. And there were a lot of fireworks yesterday during the confirmation hearings for three of President Trump’s pick for his administration. And there’s a lot of buzz, particularly regarding Tulsi Gabbard, the nominee for director of national intelligence, who couldn’t answer this softball question from Republican Senator James Langford regarding the infamous hacker and intel leaker Edward Snowden.
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Was he a traitor at the time when he took America’s secrets, released them in public, and then ran to China and became a Russian citizen?
SPEAKER 01 :
Senator, I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again.
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Wow. So what other issues might there be regarding former Congresswoman Gabbard? Well joining me here a little bit later in the program will be retired Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin to discuss that important issue. And President Trump is showing just how serious he is with his America First agenda. He’s using tariffs as a tool to strengthen U.S. industries and bring back jobs here to the United States. And the White House has announced today new tariffs on Canada, on Mexico, and China. In fact, those tariffs will take place tomorrow. So what could the impact be of all of that? Well, I’ll be discussing all of this with Richard Stern. He’s the director of the Center for Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation. He’ll be joining me a little bit later. And then we’ll close out today’s program with David Claussen. You’ll be joining me for our weekly Biblical Worldview segment as we try to unpack some of the highlights of the news this week from a biblical perspective. So as always, we’ve got a packed show, a lot coming your way. You don’t want to miss any of it. But if by chance you do, our website is TonyPerkins.com, and we encourage you to keep that website close by. Before we jump into it, I also want to encourage you to download FRC’s Stand Firm app. Friends, I’m telling you, this is a powerful, powerful app, and now we even have a new part of it. It refers to the first 100 days of the Trump administration. We call it the first 100 days toolkit. It comes with a number of tools that you will find extremely helpful, including what we have just added, the Trump Commitment Tracker. This is going to monitor many of the commitments that the president made during the 2024 campaign. And you’ll just want to keep track of what they’re doing or how they’re checking off. You can also, by the way, get that tracker by going to frcaction.org slash trump tracker. But I encourage you, if you don’t already have it, get the Stand Firm app. It’s easy to get. You can simply text the word TOOLKIT, that’s one word, TOOLKIT, to 67742. All right, let’s jump into our first topic for the day. As I mentioned at the top of the program, President Trump yesterday signed a memorandum requesting an immediate assessment of aviation safety. This comes on the heels of the tragic midair collision that took place over Washington, D.C. specifically Reagan National Airport, on Wednesday night. And meanwhile, Democrats seem to be furious that their president is suggesting that a focus on DEI at the administration, at the aviation administration, may have negatively affected the agency. But friends, look, when it comes to public safety, should there be any stone left unturned? Well, we want to talk about that, and joining me now for this and more is Congressman Chuck Fleischman. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee as well as the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He represents Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District. Congressman, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always good to see you, my friend.
SPEAKER 16 :
Jody, it’s always great to be with you. It was a privilege to serve with you, sir, in the House for several years. And now to see you at the Family Research Council, one of my favorite organizations in America. God bless you.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, God bless you as well. Always great to see you. All right, so let’s begin with this. What do you make of the actions that President Trump has taken so far, specifically as it relates to the deadly crash over D.C.? ?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, obviously, I have flown over the past 15 years in and out of Reagan National Airport. I’ve seen the airport grow. I know this area oh so well. And my heart goes out every time I watch that fateful clip of the crash between the jet and the helicopter, the loss of life. I’m devastated. There’s no question about that. But I give President Trump the highest grades. I commend him highly for making sure that all aspects of this investigation are not only transparent They’ve been swift, they’ve been honest, they’ve been responsive. The military is looking at this, the FAA is looking at this, the NTSB. He has gone out right away to the American people, having to face this tragedy very early in his tenure, in his second term, and he’s done a very good job. The American people want answers, they want air safety, so I commend him highly.
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So what do you make of the information so far that’s coming out? It seems to me, at least, that the more information that comes out, the more disturbing all of this is. Is there anything that Congress intends to do to help beef up the safety at DCA?
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s an excellent question. Obviously, the military has already taken remedial action in terms of limiting the helicopter flights. I come in and out every week. I see these helicopters of all different types. Some are flying low, some are flying higher. But they’re obviously going to have to take a look at that. So remedial measures have already been put into place. But I think Congress constitutionally, Jody, has such an important oversight role. As an appropriator, we bring people before us. We question where federal dollars are going, how they’re being spent. So that key constitutional role for Congress, oversight, is very important. There’ll be hearings in the House. There’ll be hearings in the Senate. But once again, I commend President Trump for very quickly getting on top of this. Sean Duffy, who’s done an excellent job, he was on the job less than 24 hours when this tragedy hit. They’re all working very hard. They’re abundantly honest. They want to get to the bottom of this. This is a tragedy, the first in over 15 years of this magnitude. Let’s hope and pray it never happens again.
SPEAKER 17 :
Absolutely. And you’re so right. Sean Duffy hit the road on that position in full steam ahead. If I can transition with you some, Congressman Flashman, as we all know, it’s just been breakneck speed. President Trump has hit the ground running. Your thoughts on some of his recent executive orders?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I’m very thankful. For the past four years, and I want all of our listeners to understand this, Joe Biden and the Biden administration did more damage to this country than any other administration in our lifetime. It was ineptness. You had a commander in chief who didn’t know half the things that he was doing. As a matter of fact, he would deny these to great friends of ours, like the Speaker of the House. He was a handled president from day one. This just didn’t happen later in the term. This was a disaster with a capital D for the American economy, for our foreign policy, for the entire American republic. And from the inception, Donald Trump, and I give him great credit for this, by executive order, has begun to undo the damage over the past four years. It’s going to take time. Four years of inept action, wrong policies taking us in a radical left-wing agenda, in an agenda that could not be more antithetical than people like myself and other good, strong Christians want to see for this country. We’re going to get back on moral track, on an economic track. Our friends will be our friends. Our foes will fear us again. So kudos to President Trump for starting with that executive pen, undoing the damage that Biden has done, and working towards a better place in time for our entire country.
SPEAKER 17 :
Absolutely. One of the things, Congressman Fleischman, that people have told me they’re concerned about, and I share their concern, is an executive order obviously can be erased by the next president if there’s someone opposed to it. So what are the chances that we’re going to see some of these things codified from Congress taking them up and statutorily securing these things?
SPEAKER 16 :
Jody, another excellent question. We’ve already seen a win in that regard. The Lake and Riley Act, which could not have been passed with President Biden there, he would not have signed it. We passed it in the House twice, the Senate passed it, and President Trump signed it into law. So he’s one for one. We’ve already seen that happen. Here’s the practical problem. For the next few months, we’re gonna have basically a one-seat majority in the United States House on a lot of issues. We will fill those three vacant seats. They will be filled by Republicans. But at that point in time, we’ll only have a four-seat majority in the House. We have a three-seat majority, fortunately, in the United States Senate, but it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. Now, on many of the nominees, we just saw a great nominee yesterday, Chris Wright, for energy. He broke the filibuster with 62 votes. So we’re going to get some of that done. But the reality is the margins are very slight and tight. So we’re going to have to be very tactical in the way that we do this. Our great Republican majority has… It’s not a monolith. We have moderate, center-right, and far-right folks. We all need to get together, work together, support President Trump, support our friends in the Senate, and support Speaker Mike Johnson and move our country to a better place. So, yes, can we get some legislative wins? Absolutely. But we need to go ahead and do that in the first two years. We need to work very hard to make sure that we grow in the Senate, that we keep our House majority, because for President Trump, we want a strong four years not a strong two years. In order to do that, we’ve got to keep the House and the Senate. President Trump knows this. J.D. Vance knows this. The American people know this. Conservatives have got to get together and stay together and work together, because we can never fall back into that radical left-wing lapse that we fell into for four years. It hurt our country deeply. Absolutely.
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Congressman Chuck Fleischman, Tennessee, always good to see you, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us today on Washington Watch and for the input that you’ve been able to provide. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 16 :
Thank you. My best to Tony as well. Thank you.
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All right, friends, don’t go anywhere. When we come back, FRC’s own Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin will be joining me on a discussion. that not too many are talking about. Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence. We’ll go that way right after the break. Stay tuned.
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During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family, and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we’re making an eternal impact. 2024 was a year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, D.C. Last fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC’s outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with the community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God’s intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel’s peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government. Launching early this year in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us, and we look forward to 2025 and standing for faith, family, and freedom.
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Looking to grow closer to God in the new year? FRC’s Stand on the Word spiral-bound journal is here to help. Dive deeper into scripture with thought-provoking questions, note-taking space, and context for each book and author. This second edition, covering Isaiah 2 Revelation, will guide you in tracking your journey through God’s Word while deepening your faith in Christ. Order now at frc.org slash store or text journal to 67742. Perfect for you and your loved ones.
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Washington Watch, happy Friday to you. I hope you’re doing well. I hope you’ve had a fantastic week. I’m Jody Heiss, your Friday host here on Washington Watch. I’m honored to have you joining us as well. All right, there’s a lot of buzz taking place right now among Republicans as well as Democrats. Regarding President Trump’s nominee for the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, you would certainly expect some opposition coming from the Democrats, although she formerly was a Democrat. There may be some favor towards her, even among Democrats, but certainly among Republicans it seems to be gaining a little problem for her. It all came about specifically following her confirmation hearing yesterday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. And some in the GOP have expressed concern specifically over her hesitation to label infamous hacker and intel leaker Edward Snowden as a traitor. But her political history also seems to be very much at odds with the current administration. So just how serious are the red flags that seem to be popping up? Joining me now to discuss this is retired Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin being told he’s not quite ready. We’re trying to get him by phone. He’s traveling. He’s on the road right now. So General Boykin will be joining me hopefully here in just a few moments. While we’re waiting for him, let me let me switch over to Joshua Arnold. I’ve got a couple of questions that I want to run his way. Joshua is. All right, just being told General is back with us. So let me, Joshua, hold on for a moment. I’ll come back to you if needed. General Boykin, thanks for joining me.
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Yeah, I’m glad to be with you.
SPEAKER 17 :
Always good to be with you as well. Thank you. All right, let’s start on the topic of the hearing that took place regarding Snowden. That was a big issue. Let me begin with this exchange between Senator James Lankford and Tulsi Gabbard.
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Was he a traitor at the time when he took America’s secrets, released them in public, and then ran to China and became a Russian citizen?
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Senator, I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again.
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All right, General Boykin, how concerned should we be that she really had no answer regarding Snowden’s status as a traitor?
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I think it’s a clear signal that we need to be very cautious of her. I see that personally as a disqualifier for her. I was at the CIA meeting. I spent a two-year stint there when Aldrich Ames was found out and arrested. And I’ve got to tell you, people would admit that they had overlooked things that Aldrich Ames was doing or had said until finally he had caught up with them all, with the agency. And I think we have to use that, I think, as a red flag. that in my case I could not vote for.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, and I don’t know of anyone who understands intelligence anymore than you. You were right in the tip of the spear of that for years in your career. But when we look at Gabbard in particular, back in 2020, she sponsored a House resolution that called for the federal government to drop all charges against Edward Snowden. So what does that tell us?
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Well, listen, that’s a mystery to me as to why she would, as a member of Congress, would ask to pardon him and drop charges against him because this guy may be the all-time biggest spy against America that we have ever endured or heard of in our own ranks. And I think the fact that she wanted to let him off no penalties whatsoever for the number of people that may have actually been killed because of the information that she provided to our enemies, that he provided to our enemies. I think that Snowden should go to court and let a judge and a jury decide whether he’s guilty or not, And if he’s guilty, he’s guilty of murder, too, most likely.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, for those who may not remember, this is a guy who leaked literally over a million pages to our enemies, like Russia and China and so forth.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, it’s amazing if that doesn’t come under… We need to keep in mind that Russia has a very active… counterintelligence program in America. They have spies all over America, and you don’t have to be an Edward Snowden. You give them something that jeopardizes the life of an asset that America has recruited that’s working in the country of origin, which in that case would be Russia.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yes. Yeah, real quickly, General, and I know our time’s running out, but she’s also been accused, Gabbard has, of acting as some sort of puppet, if you will, for foreign leaders, including former Syrian dictator al-Assad. She actually met with him back in 2017, I think probably as a move against President Trump. But what are your thoughts on that type of meeting and some of her foreign relations?
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Yeah, you know, Bashar al-Assad was an evil man. And for her to go over there, especially in the first year of Trump’s administration, as far as I’m concerned, was just malfeasance, just total malfeasance for her to do that. And, you know, I would go back to you and ask you, aren’t there some statutes that prevent members of Congress from getting engaged in making policies? and I would have to speculate that that’s what she was doing or trying to. But I think that, again, this woman is not the person to handle this agency of 18 different organizations, eight of which belong to the Department of Defense, and many others belong to the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other organizations. And for her to go in and take charge of this, I think it would be a big mistake. And I think that Mr. Trump has got to understand. And he made some, listen, I’m all for it, but he made some bad choices his first time around with some of the people that he hired, particularly some of the generals that he hired. And they all wound up being, except for one, they all wound up being a real problem for him.
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General Jerry Boykin, FRC’s Executive Vice President, thank you so much for joining us on the road. Your expertise means the world. Thank you for being a part of the program today. All right, friends, coming up, tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. We’ll bring it your way right after the break.
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Have you ever been to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.? Well, now you have a special reason to be there on Wednesday, February 5th. First, you can take part in the third annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. God’s ways are higher than our ways. The Lord clearly reveals in Scripture any nation that genuinely worships Him is a nation with leaders willing to repent and ask forgiveness for sins. The NGPR is a unique public gathering where scores of congressional leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, join with international leaders representing more than 50 nations for one sole purpose.
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Forgive our nations against you and you alone have we sinned.
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You can be there in the room to pray along with members of Congress, dignitaries from other nations, and Christian leaders from across the U.S. The NGPR is hosted by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Dr. Jim Garlow, founder of Well-Versed World, along with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and former Congresswoman Michelle Buckman. Right after the prayer and repentance gathering, participants will move to the World Stage Theater for a private update on important events happening in Israel. and watch a preview of the historic new documentary on the Megiddo Mosaic, the most remarkable archeological find in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is truly one of a kind opportunity to learn what’s going on behind the scenes in Israel and how it could affect the whole world. Both of these Bible honoring events require tickets. Go to PrayDC.org, register today to attend in person on February 5th. As a bonus, your ticket grants you free admission to experience the rest of the Museum of the Bible. Seating is limited for both events. Go to PrayDC.org to get tickets today.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. I am your Friday host Jody Heiss. We welcome you aboard with us. All right. President Trump is showing really just how serious he is with his America First agenda. And specifically, he’s using tariffs as a tool to strengthen U.S. industries and bring jobs back home. His recent standoff with Colombia’s government potentially proved his strategy’s effectiveness. And now with the implementation of new tariffs on China and Mexico and Canada, that could just go on and on, having a huge stamp on effectiveness for President Trump. And by the way, those tariffs go into effect on Saturday. So to try to break all this down, joining me now is Richard Stern. He’s the director of the Center for Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation. Richard, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER 13 :
Always a pleasure. Thank you.
SPEAKER 17 :
All right. So why does Trump see tariffs to be effective in putting America first when it comes to trade?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, obviously, as you brought out, they’ve already worked. I mean, famously, between two rounds of golf, he was able to get Columbia to actually take back the terrorist drug runners that they’ve illegally smuggled here. But, you know, beyond that, one of the important things about tariffs to keep in mind is that oftentimes it’s foreign business special interests who have controlled their legislatures, who are the ones that take advantage of these trade deals. And so oftentimes the tariffs he’s talking about strike at the heart of businesses abroad that have regulatory capture of their own government. So it’s a way, it’s a skillful way of going after entrenched powers in those countries to be able to get them to actually follow their agreements, to stop doing nefarious things and to work as good partners with us.
SPEAKER 17 :
All right. Do these tariffs actually bring back jobs to the U.S.? There’s some who say yes, some say no. Break that down for us. What do tariffs do in terms of jobs here in the U.S.? ?
SPEAKER 13 :
So the one thing to be careful of is any time that you raise a revenue to the government and don’t use it for something good, it always has a problem because obviously the more money the government has, the more it comes from the private sector. However, if you do what Trump is talking about, which is using tariff revenue to cover the deficits from cutting other taxes, income taxes, small business taxes, et cetera, that’s a massively good thing to do. In fact, if you look at numbers even from the Tax Foundation, who have been critical of the tariffs, their numbers would still tell you that if you use those revenues to cut other taxes that would stimulate the US economy, you can get a five or six to one ratio of new dollars of economic creation to dollars lost because of the tariffs directly. So that swap is a very powerful thing for the US economy.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, in our country’s history way back, tariffs virtually eliminated taxes. So that’s a powerful point. All right, what about supporters of these policies say that tariffs are necessary to correct decades, literally, of unfair trade deals. Can you kind of break that down for us? What kind of unfair trade deals and how do tariffs correct that?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, so what I’d say is there’s all this detail about trade deals, deals with violating patent law, labor standards, things like that, opening up markets. Those are things where these countries have taken advantage of us, where they’ll close their markets off to our manufacturers or just copy our products, violate our patents. So you can use tariffs, obviously, trying to negotiate to get wins there, to open up their markets, to get them to follow our IP and patent law. But there’s one other major issue. And so one of the problems is that the way that foreign governments tax systems work and the way that our tax system works is it actually subsidizes foreign production coming into the United States and actually double taxes, in many cases, U.S. production. Now, we could fix that by changing our tax system. But it’s a problem of the combination of the two. So tariffs is a very broad term, but the best way to do it is something called a border-adjusted tax system. It’s where you exclude your exports from taxation and bring all imports under the tax base. Doing that would appreciate the value of the dollar, it strengthens American’s position, and it gets rid of that imbalance where we don’t tax imports coming in, but do tax and double tax our production and certainly our production that gets exported. So using that kind of a tariff-like mechanism corrects that problem.
SPEAKER 17 :
Wow. Very well said and explainable for those of us who don’t grasp the big picture of all of these. So what about the risks? Are there potential risks in these aggressive tariffs?
SPEAKER 13 :
There certainly can be risks, but I guess the question really is, are there risks in letting policies stand? So Canada and Mexico have frankly been working to help the Chinese to flood fentanyl to the country. Mexico has famously done almost nothing to help us secure the border. They’ve actually encouraged those illegal incursions to the U.S. Canada has also been complicit in violations of our border. So the question is, Of course there are risks in negotiating in this kind of way, but what are the risks in doing nothing? What are the risks in continuing to allow them to work with the Chinese to violate our sovereignty and to flood illegal aliens and terrorists and drugs into our country? So I think those are the things that Trump is looking at when he’s making this tradeoff calculation.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, great thing. I mean, the risk is greater for doing nothing. I mean, bottom line, what you’re saying. And you think real quickly, we’ve got only about 30 seconds here real quickly, but do you think this is going to have an impact globally in putting America’s economy first?
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, absolutely. You know, truth be told, the premier of Alberta has already been working with the Trump administration. And in fact, the tariffs are going to come into place are going to be a little much later on Alberta because of it. So it shows you right there. This is a way of putting America back front and center and getting these countries the play ball.
SPEAKER 17 :
Richard Stern, Director of the Center for Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation. Thank you so much. Excellent discussion. We appreciate your input. All right, friends, coming up next, we’re going to have our Biblical Worldview segment, but I also want to encourage you, if you don’t have yet the Stand Firm app and our 100-day toolkit, get it. Toolkit. Text to 67742. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 09 :
As President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration approached, a powerful prayer gathering took place in Washington, D.C., drawing Christians together to intercede for our nation.
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The church does not recapture its prophetic zeal. It will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. God help us to recapture that prophetic zeal.
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This is not an inter-religious service. We will not be praying to Allah or Buddha. We’ll be praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’re talking to God, a holy, righteous, just God from a nation that desperately needs the touch of this God.
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We’ve not been a secular nation. We don’t want to be a secular nation. We’ve been a nation built around God, and our history shows that.
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Well-versed and Family Research Council led the inauguration praise and prayer convocation, urging attendees to pray for the incoming presidential administration and for the church to embody holiness and righteousness, champion biblical justice, and proclaim truth prophetically.
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Lord, may this not be the end, but may this be the beginning, this convocation, this gathering. And may we commit to pray and to seek you and to walk in your word and in your ways. In Jesus’ name, amen. Hello, I’m Tony Perkins, President of 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.
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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 17 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your Friday host, Jody Heist. So glad, so glad to have you with us. And listen, before I get to my next guest, I just want to say it again, because this is important. It’s an important app. It’s important for all of us to be in this together. And I’m referring to the first 100 days of the Trump administration. And we have a special toolkit. A special toolkit. It’s called the First 100 Days Toolkit. Easy to remember. It’s available exclusively on FRC’s Stand Firm app. And so we encourage you to get this toolkit, get the app yourself. Look, this is going to cover all sorts of things. Tremendous tools. It’s going to help you. Help you find your member of Congress when you need them. Support key legislation. And there’s so much legislation coming and going. You need to know what are the issues coming and going that you can stay on top of. You’ll be able to get insights on the nominees that are going before these hearings that some were talking about even today. You’ll learn how to pray more effectively. There’s just so much, so much on here. and new to this toolkit is the trump commitment tracker it’s going to monitor for you many of the commitments that were made by the trump campaign during the 2024 election and you’ll be able to check them off in fact we’re checking them all for you so you can see how that’s coming so all of this is yours and it’s easy to get Simply text the word toolkit, that’s one word, text toolkit to 67742 and it’s all right there in your grasp. So I want to be sure to encourage you to do that. All right. It has been yet another busy, busy week here in Washington, D.C., and frankly, I don’t see any signs of that slowing down in the near future. We’ve had a tragic midair collision near D.C.’ ‘s Reagan Airport. That even added more to the mix, as you can well imagine. But with so much going on, it can be easy. for us to miss something or to not catch the significance of certain developments. Just the executive orders and the actions of President Trump alone can leave your head spinning as they’re happening at so rapidly a pace. So joining me now to recap some of what we saw this week and more importantly, How we can look at some of these things through the lens of Scripture is David Claussen. He’s the director here at the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council. David, always great to have you here on Fridays to put a biblical perspective of it all. Good to see you.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, great to be with you again, Jody.
SPEAKER 17 :
All right. Well, when we were together last Friday, we were still waiting at that point on news regarding the Mexico City policy. So it’s kind of happened. So tell us what President Trump decided to do with this policy and why the Mexico City policy is important.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, President Trump promised in the lead up to the inauguration that it would be kind of shock and awe, Jody, as far as dozens and actually hundreds of actions taken in the first couple of weeks. And for those of us who are social conservatives, you know, the issues of life and family and religious freedom, those are paramount. Those are issues, of course, that we think that there’s clear biblical principles. There’s a thus saith the Lord principle. And it took a couple days to get to some of these, so we’ve been tracking it. Obviously, you mentioned in your lead-in, Jody, that you can, folks can go on the Stand Firm app and actually track the commitments and how the Trump administration is doing. But since we’ve last spoken, Jody, President Trump once again reinstated the Mexico City policy and this ought to be commended by every Christian in America because what the Mexico City and like he did in 2017 it’s not just the you know Mexico City policy this is a provision that says that America’s foreign aid dollars will not go to fund organizations or programs that either perform or promote abortion Ronald Reagan was the first president to put this policy in place Subsequent Democrat presidents repealed it, and then Republican presidents put it back in place. Trump in 2017 expanded it to cover even more dollars. And what he did this time around covered, it was once again expansive. 2017, this covered $8.8 billion of funds. So this is a win, Jody. This means that billions of taxpayer dollars that are exported overseas will not go to promote or fund abortion. We ought to be grateful for that.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, that’s huge. So grateful is the word. In fact, I’m glad you reminded us, David, that Trump himself told us that the first few weeks were going to be shock and awe. What a perfect description of what it’s been. And it reminded me, I don’t think we put shock and awe on the commitment tracker. But that is a promise. He promised there would be shock and awe. So we may need to go in and add that. We’ll just go ahead and check that one off for you. But in addition to the incredible progress of reinstating the Mexico City policy, as you just described, I mean, the U.S. now has also reentered the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which we talked a little bit before. But so let’s go back on that. What is this Geneva Consensus Declaration and why is that one so important as well?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, in short, Jodi, the Geneva Consensus Declaration, this was spearheaded under the first Trump administration. My friend Valerie Huber was kind of the architect of this, working with Mike Pompeo, again, in the first Trump administration. Simply, this is a declaration that now 35 nations have joined to promote women’s health really around the world. But it particularly contains a clause that states that there is no international right to an abortion. Jody, you know, with the United Nations and all these multi-nation agreements and pacts, they’re always trying to promote divisive social policies and, you know, more developed nations trying to impose this on developing nations. And this was significant in the first Trump administration because it made it clear to the world that America does not believe that there’s a so-called right to an abortion, a right to kill your unborn child. Of course, the Biden administration, this was to be expected, repealed, made the United States withdraw from this declaration when they took office four years ago. But it shows that one of Marco Rubio’s first acts of Secretary of State was to formally put his name behind it and say the United States is once again joining this declaration which again signals i think to the world the united states is back in a powerful way for the unborn we’re not going to force abortion on developing nations that look to the united states for foreign assistance we’re not going to it’s really a cultural imperialism that the biden administration of course the obama administration forced on the world the united states is done doing that and again i think this sends a strong signal to the rest of the world, particularly developing nations that have a Catholic or an evangelical population, this is good news.
SPEAKER 17 :
It really is. And that’s not the only news on the abortion issue. I think it was Wednesday that the Pentagon rescinded the Biden era policies that facilitated abortion among members of the military. In fact, this is something policy that we hear FRC covered extensively when former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put it into place. So bring us up to speed on that issue. That’s another big one for life.
SPEAKER 12 :
Absolutely, Jody. And just just briefly, you know, after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Biden administration said that they were going to do anything and everything they could to still promote abortion. And one of the things that they did was put a policy in place at the Department of Defense that said that service. men and women, so service women, could access abortion. Now, of course, service people, you know, they don’t decide where they’re stationed, so the logic of the DoD policy was that if you’re sent to a base in a conservative state that makes it hard to get an abortion, you could request a leave, paid leave, And you could have your travel expenses reimbursed. So if you want to go get an abortion in a liberal state, you could do that and then submit your receipts to the Department of Defense and they would reimburse you. Clear violation of the Hyde Amendment. This led to Tommy Tuberville putting a hold on hundreds of promotions. So this was a huge, blatant, unconstitutional move by the Biden administration. Pete Hegseth, the new Secretary of Defense, he promised us that he was going to return the department to why the department exists, to lethality, to making sure that we can fight and win the nation’s wars. We’re not going to engage in social experimentation, things like that. policy being rescinded means once again unborn children will be have more protections and it tells us that the Defense Department under Secretary Hegseth’s leadership is serious about rooting out some of the mess that we saw during the Biden administration.
SPEAKER 17 :
They’re rooting out the mess and reinstating the purpose of the military. Just keep focused on what our job is to do. If I can shift gears on you, David, President Trump made news on Monday by signing the first of its kind, an order related to protecting minor children from transgender procedures. Tell us about that one. That’s another big, huge win.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, it really is. And Jodi, you know, this is the worldview segment. We like to end the show at Washington Watch at the end of the week, thinking about all these issues through a biblical worldview. You know, the biblical worldview could not be more clear about our embodiment as male and female. And one of the things that we’ve seen over the last several years with these revolutionary gender ideologs is pushing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, irreversible surgeries on minor children. FRC’s been involved with this on the state level with the SAFE Act, which we’ve now seen in a couple dozen states. But what the president did is he put out this executive order. The title is Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation. And I just love that, Jody, because the president is calling it for what it is. This is not so-called gender-affirming care, the phrase, the euphemism that the left uses. This is not gender-affirming care. This is chemical and surgical mutilation. And what a refreshing… A breath of fresh air it is that the administration is actually using language, not hiding behind euphemisms, calling these things out for what they are. And there’s teeth behind it, Jody. The executive order goes on to say that any institution that receives government research grants, which is a lot of state-level universities around the country, any institution that receives research grants from the federal government must immediately desist from engaging in these types of surgeries. It even went out of the way, Jodi, to talk about the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, WPATH. That says that WPATH, which again, the federal government under the Biden administration had relied on for guidance. It says WPATH has just been promoting junk science and that the federal government will no longer look to this activist organization for any meaningful guidance when it comes to health. And so again, this is a big win. Policy matters. Worldview matters. And this is just a great example that I think Christians around this country should be grateful. Common sense has returned to the Oval Office.
SPEAKER 17 :
And common sense is rooted in transcendent truth, as we talked about around the table at FRC this week. It’s rooted in biblical reality. That’s where common sense comes from. I don’t know if you saw this. This is literally hot off the press. Right before we came on the program, we had yet another executive order signed. I don’t know if you were made aware of this right before we came on or not, but the new executive order for federal employees to remove pronouns from email signatures. Yet another step towards doing away with all this DEI stuff that’s just been taken over. Before we go, our time’s clicking away, so I want to keep running here. As quickly as we can, David. But we’ve been talking, in fact, on the show today about probably three of the most controversial picks for various roles in Trump’s administration. I was speaking earlier right before you with General Boykin about Tulsi Gabbard. Of course, she’s the nominee for the director of national intelligence. But there’s so much that can be said about her. That mostly is not being dealt with. So do you have anything you can add to us about maybe her voting record while she was a congresswoman or whatever? Have you been following Tulsi Gabbard?
SPEAKER 12 :
I did, Jodi, and I was told we were going to briefly look at her career, so I actually just simply pulled up the FRC scorecard. So, you know, one of the ways the Family Research Council holds members of Congress accountable is that we will score votes that they take, and we will take a position. And if you vote with us, give it a thumbs up. If you vote against us, you know, thumbs down. Tulsi Gabbard, this is interesting, I did not know this, has a 2% lifetime voting record when it comes to the Family Research Council. which needless to say, Jodi, that’s not good. And of course, we are a pro-life, pro-family organization. Those are the types of votes that we’re scoring. I’m sure we could have a debate on what kind of effect that would have on your ability to be in the position that she’s been appointed for. But it does speak to your worldview. This is someone, again, Jodi and I have the voting record in front of me. This is someone who voted against The Born Alive Survivor Protection Act. This is someone who’s voted against the Pain Capable Act. So just votes I know you took as a member of Congress of various protections for life. She voted against a piece of legislation that would have codified this idea that you can’t give tax dollars forward for abortion. This is someone who voted against a piece of legislation that would have disapproved of the transgender military policy. That would probably have been under the Obama administration. So this is not someone that has historically been a friend to social conservatives, and I think it’s okay to acknowledge that.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, and you mentioned worldview in all of that. That is stunning, 2% scorecard for their first seat. That is pretty eye-opening. But there’s also reports of Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And I mean, is she a Hindu? Certainly Modi in India is Hindu. Does she have a particular faith that she claims?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, she’s the first Hindu to serve in Congress, Jodi, and I think I would just, I know we’re running out of time, so I would advise folks to go to the Christian Post. They have a really interesting article by a Christian pastor who was detained in India, and he talks about Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to Hindu nationalism. I think that’s interesting. I think it’s worth making sure that’s part of the national conversation because, of course, worldview matters.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, worldview matters, and people can be of whatever faith they are. If they’re elected, they’re elected, and that’s fine. But worldview matters, and I’ll say that one more time where people can see that article.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, you can go to thechristianpost.com, and there’s, again, a pastor who has a really eye-opening article that I think is worth reading as we watch the confirmation hearings.
SPEAKER 17 :
David Claussen from the Center for Biblical Worldview here at FRC. Always great to have you on Fridays. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for joining us. All right, friends, that wraps up another week. Hope you likewise have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you next week right here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 02 :
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