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Amidst socio-political negotiations, Tony explores the ongoing legal issues surrounding abortion pills, shedding light on a high-profile case with Louisiana State Senator Thomas Presley. The conversation expands to include the growing debate on education reform and school choice initiatives, emphasizing the bipartisan need for meritocracy over divisive DEI policies. In the latter part, the dialogue emphasizes the critical role of religious freedom in global human rights, with former Ambassador Sam Brownback sharing insights on international liberty. This episode navigates through structural challenges with diligence and a commitment to faith-led dialogue.
SPEAKER 02 :
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 11 :
We’re dealing with tragedy, but we need to improve safety. We need 200-plus recommendations fixed. We need people to take action. We go to East Palestine, the community gets devastated. Still nothing’s happening. We have several hundred recommendations open for aviation. Want to do something about it? Adopt the recommendation of the NTSB. You’ll save lives.
SPEAKER 06 :
That was National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman over the weekend addressing last week’s tragic collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter. Welcome to Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in to this Monday edition. Well, lawmakers in both parties indicate that Congress will play a key role in the federal response to last week’s air disaster. The Safety Board may have everyone’s attention and reforms could be on the way. We’re going to talk with Utah Congressman Burgess Owens, a member of the House Committee with oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration. Also, Elon Musk says President Trump will shutter USAID. Now, that’s the agency responsible for providing U.S. humanitarian aid abroad. And he says that because of gross inefficiency.
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I just went over the numbers twice with you in the amount of aid that actually makes it into the hands. I mean, you could almost say this is a little bit hyperbole, but there’s probably more dollars that go towards state dinners around the DC Beltway than what actually goes into rice and beans abroad. That’s the state of what’s going on with USAID.
SPEAKER 06 :
That was Congressman Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this weekend. We’re going to speak with Mark Moyer, who is the author of Masters of Corruption, How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency, about the problems within USAID and alternatives to its bloated bureaucracy. Well, late Friday, a Louisiana grand jury indicted a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills online without medical consultation and sending them through the mail. New York’s pro-abortion Governor Kathy Hochul declared that New York would not extradite the doctor to Louisiana under any circumstance.
SPEAKER 01 :
I will protect this doctor and all health care workers because this is the continued collateral damage of the overturning of Roe v. Wade that we saw at that moment and we sound the alarms about it. But sadly, this is the law right now where it’s left to individual states.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ll get details on the case and possible outcomes from the law’s author in Louisiana, State Senator Thomas Presley. Also, what does this Louisiana case coming from one of the most pro-life states in the nation reveal about the Biden era policy that’s still in effect on mailing abortion pills into pro-life states? Can the federal government call abortion a state issue while permitting abortion pills to be mailed nationwide? FRC’s Mary Sock, director of our Center for Human Dignity, joins me to discuss. And finally, this Wednesday is the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance at the Museum of the Bible here in Washington, D.C. Many participants, including Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, Michelle Bachman, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and about two dozen other members of Congress, Former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, will also be there. And he’ll actually join us later on this edition of Washington Watch to talk about Wednesday’s event. Now, the event is sold out, but you can register and join us online. So go to PrayDC.org to find out how. That’s PrayDC.org to find out how you can join us Wednesday. Well, it could take at least a year to complete a full investigation into last week’s deadly midair collision here in D.C., but investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board are hoping to have a preliminary report within 30 days. While the investigations and recovery efforts are ongoing, Democrats continue to berate President Trump over his remarks last week connecting the wokeness of the FAA to the tragic crash that took the lives of all those on board both aircrafts. But is it really a stretch to believe that DEI and other distractions took focus away from the mission at the FAA and elsewhere? Joining me now to talk about this is Congressman Burgess Owens, who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the Education and Workforce Committee. He represents the 4th Congressional District of Utah. Congressman Owens, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to see you. I’m looking forward to chatting with you, my friend. Absolutely. So there appears to be interest on both sides of the aisle to very quickly address this issue and work with the National Transportation Safety Board to come up with recommendations to make our airways safer. Is that an accurate read?
SPEAKER 12 :
Very accurate. And I’m blessed to be on a committee, the Trans-States Defense Trusting Committee, and it’s chaired by Chairman Graves, who’s actually a pilot. So this is one of those committees you’ll hear a lot about because it’s very thoughtful, very bipartisan, and it’s all about getting the right things done. So I look forward to having these conversations. And at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we will never allow this type of tragedy to happen again. And I’m excited about, again, getting to the bottom line of this for sure.
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Now, I want to play a clip from this past weekend. This was former DNC chair Jamie Ricardo Harrison at the National Harbor right outside of D.C. in Maryland talking. It gives a great example of the left’s fixation on DEI and that after all that’s happened, even the election and the rejection of their agenda, they still don’t seem to get it. Play clip five.
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As you know, we are required to use the vice chair positions to gender balance our leadership team. Our rules specify that when we have a gender non-binary candidate or officer, the non-binary individual is counted as neither male nor female and the remaining six officers must be gender balanced. What do you make of that?
SPEAKER 12 :
this is why they lost and they keep it up they can continue to lose americans are tired of this uh this is a country based on merit if you wonder why all of a sudden the conversation around this even this tragedy diaz is part of it’s because they did this they’re the ones that start putting in place a policy that they’re not looking at merit at all they’re looking at everything else color skin gender things that make no difference and the minute you get into a position where you get an airplane get in a car get a taxi anything we do We want the very best to be in control of that process. So we’re getting back to that. They say the chickens come home to roost. This is what happens when you start putting everything else before true merit. And that’s why, by the way, we got rid of affirmative action, because that was also a very racist, a very demeaning ideology or process when it came down to Black Americans and their ability to think. So we’re going to get to the bottom of this. We’re going to make sure moving forward. And I’m so thankful for the fact that all this This stuff is being pulled out from the roots from our government. And we’re going to be putting the same process into our school system, teaching merit and make sure we’re holding people to the highest standards. And I’ll tell you, Americans will stand up. They will they will come to the plate and do the very best when they know that’s what the expectations are.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, Congressman Owens, you’re a professional football player. You played with the Oakland Raiders. Would DEI work on the football field?
SPEAKER 12 :
And to that point, isn’t it interesting that DEI is not put into athletics? It’s not put into sports. In sports, you expect to win. So you put the very best talent on the team. Anybody who did it, a coach who did that DEI stuff would be fired in a heartbeat. So here’s the point I’m making, Tony. They don’t mind doing this when it comes down to intellectual stuff. When it comes down to athletics, where we have to show ourselves our strength, then they don’t. So it is a true racist thing, and I’m just glad we’re pulling away from this and getting back to what really matters.
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Well, I mean, it’s known from our listeners I’m not a huge sports fan. So they’ll take this in context, but I think it’s more important than an airplane land safely than someone win a Super Bowl football game. I mean, I think when Americans get onto a plane or they get onto a train or whatever it might be, they expect it to do its very best to arrive at its destination. And the individuals directing it, driving it, flying it ought to be qualified, period.
SPEAKER 12 :
And we’re going to get back to that. The fact is we have for years gotten on these on the airplane. We say safe travels just as a way we we just say have a good trip. But we also expect to be there to land safely and not to have this conversation about whether people were the very best. And I’m hoping that’s not the case in this particular situation. We’ll find that out. But we need to. We realize across the board, our country is based on merit. That’s how we respect each other. That’s how we command respect. And we’re going to get back to that basic rule of getting that done. And I’m excited about that process.
SPEAKER 06 :
Congressman Owens, to that point, I mean, your success, sports, education. Let’s talk about a measure that you’re working on. You’re also on the Education Committee. School choice, giving parents an opportunity to give their children the best opportunities to succeed.
SPEAKER 12 :
The blessing of the last four years is that we now are one as a nation. Families across the country looked over the shoulders of their children, realized that education was not up to par. We just came out of a study that 30 percent, only 30 percent of our country’s kids are proficient in math and reading. That is unacceptable. So we’re putting together something called Education Choice for Children Act. It’s an opportunity for individuals and corporations to invest in what’s called a scholarship-granting organization. It’s a nonprofit. There’s no link to the Department of Education at all. And from that, Those who invest can actually get tax credits. And from this CGO, parents can now request funds for anything they want to, public, private, brokerial, homeschool, whatever they want. And that money comes to them to send their kids to the educational process that they want to go to. I’m excited about it. It’s truly bringing meritocracy into the process of education. And at some point, Tony, we’re going to also figure out a way to reward the best teachers in our country, to bring those who love this profession, love to teach, bring them to this industry so they can make a lot of money. And the better they are, the more they can make. And we can make sure we’re rewarding those who are doing a good job. And those who don’t want to do the teaching the right way, let’s have them find something else to do. This is one of the most important national security issues in our country’s history is our education of our children.
SPEAKER 06 :
And when you look at it from a school choice standpoint, many people get worked up about that, saying you’re attacking public education. No, what you’re doing is you’re allowing the best to rise to the top. But you’re also doing something else, is that you’re involving parents into the education of their children by giving them a choice and a vested interest in it.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, the great thing about this legislation, it does not touch one red cent of public educational funds. It does not touch district, local. This is something that people are investing themselves. And what it does, and we found out by six different states, that the more they have, the more merit, the more competition, the better public school systems get to be. out. It’s very much common sense. We’re a country that likes to compete, and the very best will be paid the best. So this is a very common sense legislative process. It does not take away from public school systems, but allows us as Americans to invest in our kids. The return on investment is that we’re going to have the smartest, most innovative, the most productive kids and adults in the entire world. And that’s what we should be looking at. And it doesn’t matter what zip code they live in. No one should be given a death sentence of education because they live in a certain zip code. We’re changing that in American people behind us, and we’re going to make sure we educate particularly those at-risk communities. And those who do not vote for this, they need to be voted out. Out here should be the most important thing of all things we can do. And if they don’t see a way of getting that done, they want to highlight labor unions instead, then we need to figure out how to get new people in D.C.
SPEAKER 06 :
I could not agree more, Congressman Owens. I think competition is the key to improving everything because everybody, they’re on the top of their game, or at least they try to be if they want to be in the game when they have competition. And I think without it, everybody gets lazy. And I think that’s what’s happened in our education system in the United States. I’ll give you the final word.
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This is the only place that we have not had innovation. Innovation and education should be the top of mind for all of us. We’re going to get that done through this process and bring the very best minds in our country to where they can teach our kids so we can produce the very best minds in the world. So I’m looking forward to that. I just want to congratulate all the people out there who’s given us this opportunity by bringing President Trump into this process. The last three classes in Congress. We’re going to make a big difference. We just need to make sure we’re explaining this and educating everybody as we move forward.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. We’ll be tracking it very closely. Congressman Burgess Owens, thanks so much for joining us. Always great to see you, my friend. Thank you, Tony. I appreciate it. All the best. And folks, so that you can keep up with this and be a part of the process, you need to get your first 100 days toolkit. Text the word toolkit to 67742. That’s toolkit to 67742. All right, don’t go away. We’re coming back with a lot more Washington Watch right after this.
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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, DC. 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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Welcome back to this Monday edition of Washington Watch. Great to have you with us. Well, a grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish, that’s just across the river from where I live in East Baton Rouge Parish, has issued an indictment, an arrest warrant. The grand jury has issued an indictment and the District attorney has issued an arrest warrant for a New York doctor for issuing abortion drugs to the mother of a pregnant minor. Now, notably, the mother did not travel from Louisiana to New York. Rather, she received the abortion chemicals after making an online request. They came through the mail. This is the Biden era policy that remains in place. So how can it be that a doctor in New York provided abortion access to a state where the procedure has been outlawed? And what are the implications of this case? Here to give us the details on this case, Louisiana State Senator Thomas Presley, whose bill, Senate Bill 276, made Louisiana the first state to classify abortion pills as controlled dangerous substances, which is what this case is about. Senator Presley, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 15 :
Thanks so much for having me on, Tony. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 06 :
So give us the facts of this case.
SPEAKER 15 :
Sure. So what happened in this case is that the mother of a pregnant teenager conspired with a New York doctor to obtain chemical abortion pills in the mail. They were then given to the teenager, who did not want to have an abortion, in order to induce that abortion to occur.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now, was she aware that she was being given these pills?
SPEAKER 15 :
She was aware, but she had also already planned a party to announce the gender of the baby and was very excited to have the baby, is what I’ve been told. But the mother of that teenager… worked with the New York state doctor to conspire to force the teenager to have an abortion using chemical abortion pills.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now this is, let me just stop you right there because this is very, this is very similar to the reason that you actually introduced this law, was it not?
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, I initially introduced the law because my brother in law at the time, unbeknownst to my sister, chose to grind up a misoprostol bill, place it in a drink that my sister was having, a glass of water, and tried on seven different occasions to try to kill my now two and a half year old niece, Josephine. Catherine was able to recognize what was going on, realize that when she was having a medical emergency that she could take the abortion-reversing pill, which she did, and was able to save the life of my niece.
SPEAKER 06 :
So this is, I mean, this is almost a casebook. A classic case of what you were trying to prevent with this mother getting this for a teenager. Now, this could also happen with those who traffic, you know, young people, minors in sex trafficking, and they try to cover it up by getting these abortion pills contrary to their own desires. So let’s talk about this. The grand jury issued an indictment. A rest warrant has been issued. Where does it stand now?
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, so I spoke with the DA, Tony Clayton, this morning, as well as with Attorney General Merle, about where we are. And we have, according to the Attorney General, as well as the DA, an arrest warrant has been issued for the doctor in New York. And we are awaiting New York to do its duty. under the Constitution and arrest the doctor. Based on the conversation that the governor of New York has had publicly, it does not sound like she will be willing to do that. However, if this doctor were to travel to any other state that would be willing to extradite the doctor, then Louisiana will do everything we can to extradite the doctor to the state in order for her to face the criminal charges that she
SPEAKER 06 :
is currently facing so just for the benefit of our listeners that’s a former police officer what would be happening she’s driving down the interstate in some other state maybe uh you know who knows where she might travel to for vacation she stopped for speeding they run her driver’s license and it comes back that she has a warrant for her arrest that’s outstanding in louisiana they would arrest her hold her contact louisiana officials say hey we have such and such you have an award do you want her
SPEAKER 15 :
And that’s how it works. There’s a national database that all warrants go into, and police officers are able to use that information in order to determine if a state would extradite someone that’s facing criminal charges to that state. And in Louisiana, we certainly would be interested in prosecuting this doctor, which is why the indictment was made in the first place.
SPEAKER 06 :
So, Senator Pressel, let me ask you this question. This is a… So, the FDA… removed the in-person medical consultation that had been in place for Mifeprestone for many years. And then the Department of Justice under the Biden administration said that the Comstock law does not apply to abortion pills and therefore they can be sent through the mail. Now that policy remains in place that the Biden administration enacted. So a state like Louisiana that has pro-life laws, they’re almost, I mean, they’re circumvented by this policy that’s currently in place allowing abortion pills to be mailed into the state.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, this policy needs to be changed. And in this instance, again, Tony, one of the fascinating parts is the child, the teenager that was pregnant, didn’t even have the consultation with this New York-based doctor. It was her mother that actually had the consultation and was able to get the pills. You know, it’s even worse than not having it or having a medical telemedicine consultation. There was no consultation at all that I’m aware of. But no question that the laws in the country need to be changed in order for states’ rights in the 10th Amendment to take effect on this issue. issue regarding abortion. And Louisiana is a pro-life state. There’s no question about that. And we want to have abortion illegal in this state. And the current federal policies are not allowing that to occur.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, Senator, I have a feeling this is this is not the end of this law in this case. I think this is something that could end up before the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER 15 :
I think you’re exactly right. I would be very surprised if this doesn’t end up before the Supreme Court. And I trust Attorney General Merle to use her team at the attorney general’s office to ensure that Louisiana puts on a important 10th Amendment case and in a case that that’s state rights. And we need to ensure that the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution is in effect and that the state of New York turns over this doctor who has committed a crime in Louisiana.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, Senator Pressley, I want to thank you for joining us today. And I want to thank you for your pro-life stand. You’re representing Louisiana quite well, and we’re grateful for it.
SPEAKER 15 :
Thank you, Tony. I appreciate you having me on today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely. All right, folks, we’re going to continue this conversation after the break. We’re going to talk about what President Trump needs to do to ensure that states like Louisiana, my home state, can actually have their pro-life laws. Mary Sack from FRC joins me next here on Washington Watch. Don’t go away. A lot more still ahead.
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SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us. And let me remind you, get your first 100 days toolkit to help you stay involved and be a part of the process. Text the word toolkit, that’s one word, toolkit, to 67742. All right, with President Trump’s return to the White House, many of his first administration’s previous pro-life policies are being reinstated. And to that we applaud. It’s great. He’s doing good. Democrat state officials are fighting back, even openly and proudly subverting the pro-life laws of other states that were put in place to protect their citizens from the harms of like the abortion bill. Now, you’ll recall that the Biden administration during the last four years had the FDA change so that the abortion pill no longer required any type of medical in-person medical consultation. And they also got a ruling from the Department of Justice that the Comstock Act, which prohibits abortion material from being mailed through the U.S. mail service didn’t apply to the abortion pill. That’s still in place. And that’s what we were just talking about with Senator Pressley. So how can this be? Well, here to discuss this is Mary Sock, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council. Mary, welcome back to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thanks so much for having me on.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now let me just, so we can set the context here for our viewers and listeners. What is the estimated number or percentages of abortions that now occur through the use of the abortion pill?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, at Guttmacher’s latest estimate, the percentage was about 63%. And that is up from 39% in 2017. During the COVID pandemic, that number increased to 53% of abortions. And now we’re actually up to 63%. And what’s more is that the telemedicine percentage of abortions has increased from just 4% in 2022 to now 20% of all abortions. So not just have abortions done through the use of mifepristone increased, but abortions performed through the use of mifepristone that has been prescribed via telehealth and presumably sent through the mail have increased significantly as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now, last week on the program, I was talking about how the medical complications in emergency issues have increased as well as more of these chemical drugs, chemical abortions have been undertaken. But let’s talk about this. For years, I mean, the abortion pill is not new, but it required medical consultation, in-person medical consultation. That was changed. And now the case that we just heard, it was a mother ordered this through the mail, online, got it through the mail, gave it to her daughter. Her daughter didn’t even have a medical consultation, didn’t know anything about the medical history of this child.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and we’ve seen that that doctor or that daughter had medical complications. And that’s that’s what led to this lawsuit. The rounds were put in place. Those safety requirements were put in place because Mifepristone is a dangerous drug. It sends one in 25 women to the hospital. It has a significant percentage of women. And the number increases as the gestational age of the child increases who need another surgery. who need a surgery following taking this drug to complete the abortion and prevent sepsis and potentially death. This is not Tylenol. This is a drug that harms and maims women while it kills their unborn child.
SPEAKER 06 :
So can a state, let’s take Louisiana, that was the one, that was the state we were just talking to, the state senator there, can a state of Louisiana based on what, like President Trump says, he says this is a state issue, and many in Congress are echoing that. How can this be a state issue if the FDA and the DOJ are allowing abortion pills to be sent through the mail into a pro-life state without any kind of medical consultation?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, I think one thing that we have to keep in mind here is where did this start? It started back in COVID when the ACLU sued to allow mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth because of the quote unquote emergency situation that COVID caused. And when that happened, the Biden, sorry, the Trump administration challenged that lawsuit. And the Supreme Court actually ruled on the side of the Trump administration reinstating that requirement for in-person dispensing. So if President Trump wants to say or says that abortion is a state’s rights issue, we need to hope and pray that he follows what he did during his first administration and he protects a state’s ability to protect unborn children within their state boundaries.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now, this is actually pretty simple to do. It would, number one, just have the FDA go back to requiring consultation, right?
SPEAKER 14 :
It is. And, you know, I’m actually hoping for much more. In RFK Jr.’ ‘s confirmation hearings, we heard him say that President Trump wants him to study the safety of Mifepristone. Well, that will actually be the first time in American history that that study has been conducted. We don’t have studies on Mifepristone’s impact on minors, which… was the issue in this case in Louisiana. And if RFK Jr. looks at the studies, which we have seen from other countries, he will see that this drug is not safe for women. It’s not safe for minors. And this is something that should not be prescribed at all.
SPEAKER 06 :
And the other component of this is through the mail, which is simply requiring the enforcement of the Comstock Act, right?
SPEAKER 14 :
Certainly. And we’ve seen the Trump administration is the administration of law and order. The Comstock law could not be more clear. It says that no, nothing, nothing that is meant to induce an abortion can be sent through the mail. That it is pretty impossible to read as allowing Mifepristone to be sent.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Mary Sock, thanks so much for joining us. Always great to see you.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thanks so much for having me on, Tony.
SPEAKER 06 :
So it’s pretty straightforward. And of course, we’re appealing to the Trump administration to do just that. All right, coming up, we’re going to discuss two faith-driven events taking place here in Washington, D.C. this week and how you can participate in the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. Stay tuned.
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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.
SPEAKER 06 :
The church does not recapture its prophetic zeal. It will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. God help us to recapture that prophetic zeal.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
SPEAKER 13 :
We’ve not been a secular nation. We don’t want to be a secular nation. We’ve been a nation built around God, and our history shows that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well-versed and Family Research Council led the inauguration praise and prayer convocation, urging attendees to pray for the incoming presidential administration and for the church to embody holiness and righteousness, champion biblical justice, and proclaim truth prophetically.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 thing, 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 09 :
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 06 :
This is Washington Watch. I’m Tony Perkins, your host. Good to have you with us. All right. Another busy week here in D.C. And there are a number of gatherings that are going to draw international participants. And I want to focus on two of them. And as I’ve shared over the past couple of weeks, this Wednesday is the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, which will bring together faith leaders, members of Congress, international guests for the purpose of repenting. Yes, you heard me correct, repenting, repenting for our sins as a nation and seeking God’s mercy and guidance for America. And starting this evening, the International Religious Freedom Summit will convene global advocates to address the growing threats to religious freedom. And joining me now to talk about these important events is former U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, who is now co-chair of the IRF Summit. Ambassador, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to see you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Always good to see you, Tony. I hope you’ve been doing well.
SPEAKER 06 :
I am doing well. I’m anticipating this week. I think it’s going to be a significant week with focus on obviously what you’re doing, religious freedom, something that’s near and dear to my heart. as well as exercising that Wednesday at the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, which Pastor Jim Garlow and I first organized back in 2023. And you’re going to be a part of that. And this is something I remember you and I have a conversation back after 9-11. You were a senator. And we talked about the need for repentance, not something that’s heard very often in this city. Why is that important at this moment in America’s history?
SPEAKER 19 :
If you don’t own it, you really can’t get cured from it, Tony. I think, and you look at Lincoln as kind of our best example in this. He called for repentance of the nation for its sins, that we’ve been blessed as a country, but yet we’ve gone astray and we’ve done wrong things. And we need to repent and own it and ask forgiveness from a loving God for it before we can be forgiven. I mean, On my own personal sins, God doesn’t just say, okay, Sam, they’re forgiven. He makes me own them. He makes me say, okay, I did this. It was wrong. I shouldn’t have done this. I am sorrowful for this sin. Would you forgive me? And he will. And he’s good to forgive. But it’s the same process really for us as a nation. We need to own it, ask for forgiveness for it from God before we really can move forward.
SPEAKER 06 :
And scripture instructs us to do that individually, collectively, as a nation. And if we’re truly going to exercise religious freedom, which is something you and I have spent a lot of time defending, we’ve got to truly exercise it and feel free to do so. And I know the word repentance and that causes some people to bristle a little bit because it does become personal. But it is so important. So I appreciate you being a part of the Wednesday event. And folks, you can be a part of it, too. It is sold out. However, you can join us online. Go to PrayDC.org and register and you can find out. How? So let me turn now to defending religious freedom as a former ambassador for international religious freedom. And during the time that I served on the you serve commission, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Let’s talk about the International Religious Freedom Summit that you are hosting this week. Talk about the the motivation. Why? What do you hope to accomplish with this?
SPEAKER 19 :
I hope to accomplish a relaunch of the human rights project around the world. Tony, human rights have been in decline, substantial decline globally over the last 20 years. And I think it’s because we both don’t get the basics right. And one of the real basics of this is religious freedom. I call it the freedom of freedoms. You get this one right, you’ll get more freedoms. across the board but instead what you’ve got is these totalitarian states and increasingly democracies persecuting people of faith particularly of minority faith so you don’t have this basic freedom and that causes all of your freedoms to decline That’s why I think this is so critical. And the Trump administration has a great opportunity to relaunch the global human rights project around getting this cornerstone human right correct, which is that religious freedom is for everybody. It’s everywhere. It’s all the time. It doesn’t matter if you’re a majority or a minority faith. You are entitled to it as a dignified human being.
SPEAKER 06 :
Ambassador, studies revolving around religious freedom show that it not only is the hinge on which the other freedoms turn, but it also points to the fact that you have greater economic opportunity, you have greater social stability. It is really kind of a foundation for a healthy society, is it not?
SPEAKER 19 :
It really is, Tony. And we’ve just got to fight for it. And then as we get in a greater and greater, bigger and bigger conflict with China, it becomes clear polar opposites of how the two nations view religious freedom. China views it as an existential threat, and they are at war with every faith that operates there. The United States views it as a foundational freedom around which you build the other freedoms. And I think it really shows the world, OK, these two key polar differences determine which way the world’s going to move in the future. Are we going to move towards more freedom? Are we going to move towards more tyranny?
SPEAKER 06 :
So, Ambassador, a final question for you on this. What is the what are the biggest threats to religious freedom today, both both here and abroad?
SPEAKER 19 :
I think there’s a number of them, unfortunately, but I think communism, just by its very nature and its atheism, is a piece of it. I think the lack of respect for people of faith is another one in more democratic societies. You’ve got oftentimes a majority view, and sometimes in Western countries, it’s a secular majority view that says that they don’t want to tolerate these traditional values that they aren’t in stream with the current culture. And that creates a series of problems for people who are religious, who simply want to peacefully follow the dictates of their faith and his tradition. And in a in a faith that’s In many cases, thousands of years old. And there’s also all sorts of variables. At the root of it, Tony, is really that faith is a conscience to people in a society. It’s a conscience to a government. It’s a conscience to a public. And often the public just doesn’t want to have their conscience pricked that way. But it’s essential if you’re going to have a free, open society and really if you’re going to progress as a nation.
SPEAKER 06 :
So Ambassador, how can folks find out more about the conference going on this week?
SPEAKER 19 :
They can go on our website, irfsummit.org. They can see some of our plenary sessions on there. They can sign up. And I hope they will grow. They will join this growing movement, global movement for religious freedom. Because we’ve got to guarantee this right. We lose this right, you’re going to lose it all.
SPEAKER 06 :
I agree 100%. I look forward to being with you there this week at the summit.
SPEAKER 19 :
Thanks, Tony. Look forward to seeing you.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, Ambassador. Thanks for joining us. So go to the website, TonyPerkins.com, and find out more about the summit. And you can also, again, go to DCPray.org to find out more about the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. All right, as we talked about at the top of the program, the Agency for International Development, USAID, is facing major scrutiny with growing concerns about waste and inefficiency. Originally intended to provide humanitarian aid and promote democracy, USAID critics argue, has become a bloated agency that mismanages taxpayer dollars and even funds groups that work against the U.S. And it funds the left’s priorities, not American priorities. Joining me now to unpack this, Dr. Mark Moyer. He previously served at USAID as the director of the Office of Civilian Military Cooperation. He is now chair of the military history at Hillsdale College. He’s the author of the book, Masters of Corruption. Dr. Moyer, welcome to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 16 :
Hey, great to be with you, Tony.
SPEAKER 06 :
So critics argue that USAID has become bloated and inefficient, and there’s word that Trump wants to shut it down. Does your research back that up?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes, certainly my experience during the first Trump administration shows that. It is a big, unwieldy bureaucracy. And foreign aid was originally supposed to be a largely temporary measure after World War II. And the plan was we would phase it out. And we did phase it out in Europe, but it’s become perpetual in much of the world. And a lot of it simply is unnecessary or wasteful. And there are people in the agency, including me, who thought there is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. And when we tried to report that, we became targets and the bureaucracy has sought to protect itself and put its own interests first. And that’s why I think you’re seeing these drastic measures that have been taken in the last week where they put 60 senior staff on PAID ADMINISTRATIVELY, WHICH IS ALMOST UNPRECEDENTED. I DON’T KNOW OF ANOTHER CASE. AND THEN OVER THE WEEKEND, THEY HAD TO FORCE OUT THE HEAD OF SECURITY, WHO TRIED TO KEEP THEM FROM GETTING RECORDS. AND JUST AS OF TODAY, IT LOOKS LIKE THE STATE DEPARTMENT IS GOING TO BE TAKING THIS AGENCY OVER.
SPEAKER 06 :
So, Mark, from both your research and your insider information, having served in their Is there a legitimate purpose for USAID still today? I mean, I know you talked about the history of it. It should have been phased out. But does it still have a legitimate role to play?
SPEAKER 16 :
I think parts of it can be very useful. For example, if there’s humanitarian disaster overseas and other countries can’t deal with it, those are things sometimes we might want to contribute to. When we’re negotiating deals with other countries, for example, if we want better trade deals or we want them to stop illegal immigration, sometimes we may want to offer them various foreign aids. FOREIGN AID AS AN INCENTIVE, AND A LOT OF THESE COUNTRIES ARE POORLY GOVERNED, WHICH IS WHY THEY STILL NEED AID. I THINK THERE’S SOME THINGS WE CAN DO IN TERMS OF TRAINING AND EDUCATION TO HELP THEM OUT, BUT MUCH ELSE OF WHAT THE AGENCY DOES IS NOT HELPFUL AND IS, IN FACT, OFTEN COUNTERPRODUCTIVE. I MEAN, WE’VE SEEN THEY’VE SPENT HUGE AMOUNTS. on DEI, on dubious climate change initiatives, advancing radical LGBT policies. And so I think those sorts of things we will see getting cut and eviscerated here in the very near future.
SPEAKER 06 :
So if you were to put a percentage on it, Mark, what percentage would you say falls into the category of bloated bureaucracy that we need to get rid of?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, that’s hard to say because one of the problems with USAID is they are masters at hiding the money. Just very recently, it’s been reported that $100 billion in aid to Ukraine seems to be missing. Zelensky’s saying he never received it. And so there’s a huge amount of mystery surrounding all of this. I mean, that was one of the shocking things I found there. Three years into the Trump administration, we were still finding out about programs that had been hidden by the career staff. So it’s very hard to get a handle on this. I’d say probably at least 50 percent of it could go away. But again, I think now that finally the administration is getting its hands on its records have a better idea of where the money is being spent. I should add to one of the biggest problems they have is massive overpayments to contractors. And so there in itself you can see a lot of savings.
SPEAKER 06 :
So, Mark, is the solution, as you mentioned today, that this is now under the purview of the State Department under Secretary Rubio, is that the answer or is there other alternatives here? Is it privatization? What do we do here?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, my sense is, for now, certainly the preferable alternative is to put it under state where it’s more closely controlled and you have strong leadership under Secretary Rubio. I think you may see parts of it parceled off to other agencies that are more relevant. I think going forward, that’s probably where things are going to stand. I think there are some valuable pieces, so I don’t think you just – get rid of it uh entirely but the part of why you have it under state is that it really is an instrument of u.s foreign policy and sometimes especially under democrats it has become uh tries to be its own thing and so secretary rubio has made very clear that aid is part of the foreign policy apparatus and so it does make sense to have it in the state department but
SPEAKER 06 :
But did the USAID administrator, were they totally separate from the State Department? Or is there some connection there with the Secretary of State previously?
SPEAKER 16 :
They have been an independent agency. Now, the State Department does have a say over where the money gets spent. But we saw, and I saw certainly when I was there, even in the first Trump administration, it was very difficult to get the career bureaucracy to go along with what the administration, the State Department wanted to do. So this way, I think you’ll eliminate any sort of disparities between what aid and state are doing. And you certainly see that overseas, too, where you’ll have a State Department and USAID people trying to go in different directions because they don’t report to the same people.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now, Marcus, maybe beyond your area of expertise, but does this require congressional action just to kind of eliminate or absorb one agency into another?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, so I’m not an expert on congressional relations, but it certainly seems that Congress is going to have to go along with some of this. Now, the Republicans, I think, can probably muster the votes. That was a problem in the first Trump administration. They couldn’t get enough people on the Republican side. But it remains to be seen. There may be some in Congress who are not sure this is the right way to go, but I think we’ll find that out in the next… few days, if not weeks.
SPEAKER 06 :
I certainly think that I think you’ll get Democrat support to some degree for reforms, because once I think all this waste and abuse is made public and I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of this now that the president’s focused on Elon Musk, I think you’ll move some Democrats in that direction. Dr. Mark Moyer, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your insights on this important topic.
SPEAKER 16 :
Great. Great talking to you, Tony. All right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, we will see. And my prediction is that as more and more of this government waste is exposed, and as Mark was saying, there’s still legitimate purpose for some of it, but it needs to be managed more efficiently and effectively and not through bloated bureaucracy. But this is why you need your 100-day toolkit. So text the word toolkit to 67742 so that you can be involved. All right, we’re out of time for today, folks. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, I leave you with the encouraging words the Apostle Paul found in Ephesians 6, where he says, when you’ve done everything you can do, when you’ve prayed, when you’ve prepared, when you’ve taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
