In this episode of Washington Watch, Jody Heiss fills in for Tony Perkins to discuss the important political dynamics unfolding in the United States. From the Tennessee special election that is capturing national attention as a predictor for future midterms, to the U.S. administration’s strategies on combating Venezuelan drug trafficking, the episode dives deep into pressing global and domestic issues. Joining the discussion is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper, who brings insights into the unprecedented challenges facing voters and lawmakers alike as they navigate through these turbulent times.
SPEAKER 16 :
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. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 14 :
Sarah and Andrew represent the very best of America, two young patriots who were willing to put on the uniform and risk their lives in defense of their fellow Americans. Both of them truly embody the profound words spoken by Jesus Christ in the Gospel, greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Sarah and Andrew are heroes, and we will never forget their sacrifice.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that was White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt earlier today addressing the Washington, D.C. shooting that prompted President Trump to pause the asylum decisions. Welcome to this December 1st edition of Washington Watch. Hard to believe December is already upon us, but it is. I’m honored to be your host today. I’m Jody Heiss, filling the shoes of Tony Perkins. Thank you so much for joining us. All right, coming up today, there’s a leaked Pentagon memo suggesting that the military may end its centuries-long relationship with an organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America. Well, is this going to be a positive move? Well, John Stemberger, who’s an Eagle Scout himself, is also the founder of Trail Life USA. He will be joining us shortly to discuss this. Also, Congressman Mark Harris from North Carolina will be here to break down the vetting process for asylum applicants after the Afghan immigrant allegedly killed a National Guard member in D.C., And today we want to begin with an important story coming out of Tennessee. Republicans there are looking to solidify their advantage in Congress as Tennessee voters are going to be headed to the polls tomorrow for a special election that has reliably been very conservative, solid ground. The GOP is aiming to keep control of a district that literally they’ve dominated for years, but it’s shaping up to be a little bit closer than we probably anticipated. Joining me now is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper. Casey, thank you for joining me. Let’s start with this. I know this district and the former representative well. This has historically been a strong district. What’s going on here that’s making this a little bit closer potentially than many people anticipated?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, thanks, Jody. And you’re right. It is shaping up to be a tough race for Democrats, but the whole nation’s watching it as a potential bellwether for what could happen in next year’s midterms. So Tennessee’s 7th District, as you said, is usually solid Republican territory. And Trump-backed Republican Matt Van Epps is facing off against Democrat Afton Bin, a progressive lawmaker that some say is Tennessee’s AOC. I don’t think they mean that as a compliment. Now, both sides are bringing in big money with national attention. And Trump himself is putting his name on the line for Van Epps, while former Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting Nashville for Ben. So two big names on either side.
SPEAKER 19 :
We want to see the end of the killing and the death and the suffering. And I’m sure the Ukrainian side, I know they do as well. They want peace. But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, sorry about that clip there, but as I was saying, President Trump, he said in a true social post that the Democratic candidate opposes Christians, backs gun control and open borders, and supports transgenderism, and warned voters not to underestimate the race, which, you know, Democrats are just coming off those big wins a couple weeks ago. Republicans, they’re closely watching and trying to protect their narrow majority, 219 to 213, while Democrats are aiming for an upset. Turnout could be the key here, Jody, especially since this is an off-cycle special election, which is happening tomorrow. So the result is going to have a real impact on the control of the House, Jody.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it really will. And it is, as you just said, it’s all about these special elections and off years like this is expected to be a low turnout. And therein is an opportunity that the Democrats are hoping to take advantage of. So thank you, Casey, for keeping us up to speed on that special election tomorrow. If I can switch gears with you real quickly to Ukraine, we saw a little bit of a clip there. Maybe we’ll get back to that. But there were some negotiations held in Miami yesterday, in fact, between the U.S. and Ukrainian officials. What can you tell us about those talks?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, Jody, American and Ukrainian officials held what they described as productive talks on Sunday. They’re all focused on revising that 28-point peace plan that the U.S. put forward to help end the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he expressed some cautious optimism, saying progress has been made, but there’s more work to be done.
SPEAKER 19 :
We want to see the end of the killing and the death and the suffering, and I’m sure the Ukrainian side, I know they do as well, they want peace. But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.
SPEAKER 18 :
There it is. Even better the second time. But these talks, held in Florida, were led by Ukraine’s new chief negotiator, Restym Umarov, following the resignation of the previous team leader amid a corruption scandal. Now, Ukraine and its allies are pushing back against parts of the plan that initially seemed to favor Russia, including giving up territory and limiting the size of Ukraine’s military. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow in Moscow, and Ukraine’s President Zelensky is meeting with the French president in Paris to rally European support. Meanwhile, Russia continues its attacks across Ukraine, with at least four people killed and dozens more wounded on a missile strike in Ukraine just today, highlighting the ongoing casualties as negotiations move forward, Jody.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, Casey, before I let you go, I know I brought this up, kind of introducing some of the things we’re going to be covering in the program. But after the shooting of National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration has tightened some immigration rules. Can you kind of just tell us, Casey, how did it come to this? How did we get here?
SPEAKER 18 :
All right, well, President Trump, he said yesterday the U.S. could pause asylum admissions for an extended period, warning that it could be a long time before some nations are allowed asylum.
SPEAKER 03 :
People from different countries that are not friendly to us and countries that are out of control themselves, countries like Somalia that have virtually no government, no military, no police. All they do is go around killing each other. Then they come into our country and tell us how to run our country. We don’t want them.
SPEAKER 18 :
Those strong comments from the president come after an Afghan immigrant who was granted asylum under the Trump administration allegedly ambushed National Guard members in Washington, D.C., killing one and critically wounding another. Now, authorities say the suspect was not radicalized until after arriving in the U.S. But in response, the Trump administration has frozen processing for all asylum applications and signaled it’s time for a broader clampdown on legal immigration, Jody.
SPEAKER 09 :
Casey, as always, thank you so much for getting us kicked off and keeping us up to speed on some of the highlights that are taking place in the news. I’m sure we’ll be talking to you a little bit later, but thank you for joining me now. Thanks. All right, I want to go back to the tragic death of the U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, as Casey was just talking about. And I want to bring in Congressman Mark Harris from North Carolina and get a perspective from Capitol Hill on all of this. Congressman Harris serves on several committees, including the Judiciary Committee. He represents the 8th Congressional District of North Carolina. Congressman Harris, always an honor to have you on Washington Watch with us. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Thank you for joining me this evening.
SPEAKER 04 :
Jody, it’s great to be with you. Thank you for having me this evening.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, let’s go to all of this. Of course, the investigation into the alleged shooter is currently underway. It’s continuing. But what authorities are already beginning to uncover and make known is pretty disturbing. What do we know so far?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, obviously, these things that are being uncovered continue to point out that this man came into the United States as part of a Biden program that was basically Operation Allies Welcome. And an individual who had worked with some folks in the U.S. military and intelligence over there in Afghanistan during those days, basically was just brought in. And the reports have been that there was vetting that took place, but you have to stop and ask yourself, at what point the vetting was happening, did they ever understand that just because somebody was working with you over there in Afghanistan, that somehow they were going to be able to assimilate into American culture and be a part of the melting pot, if you will, here in the United States. We’re hearing reports, a number of reports, that he screamed out Allah Akbar in the midst of the shooting, which obviously shows the radical Muslim intent of the death that he was seeking to bring to these soldiers. So, you know, again, it’s just very tragic at all levels. But I applaud what the president is doing in basically putting a freeze right now until we can get a better grip. Because I remember just in my first month or so here in Washington being visited by some folks that were part of the State Department and learning then that there were just tens of thousands of people that were let in from Afghanistan. And we really didn’t know where they were. We didn’t know a whole lot about them. And that’s a real tragedy. This illegal immigration issue goes so much further than just our southern border.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and I think you bring up an excellent point. The vetting process has to be scrutinized and looked at. We need to make sure that we know who’s coming into this country and who they are and who’s working with us. As you said, he worked with the CIA previously. The vetting process obviously broke down with all of this. If I can, Congressman, let me shift gears with you a little bit. You introduced earlier this year a bill called the No Asylum for Criminals Act. And I’m curious, if your bill were to pass, could it have prevented this type of tragedy? And could it prevent future tragedies like this?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it could. It would depend on if this gentleman had any kind of criminal record there in Afghanistan that would have prevented him from being able to come in. What it really does is it stops anybody with a record from being able to gain asylum here in this country, and that would have been a help. I don’t know yet enough about his background, what he had. I think, you know, reports are a lot of this started… This young man was working with our folks as young as 15. He was only 15 years old when he began to be involved in the things that were happening in that war. And so, you know, I don’t know what his record was prior to that. But yes, being able to be a safety net to stop individuals that have any kind of criminal record whatsoever from getting into the United States, that would have been a help.
SPEAKER 09 :
It sure would. Let me ask you this. Speaking of bills, late last month, you and Congresswoman Mary Miller introduced a bill that would stop taxpayer funding of illegal immigrant abortions. Incredible. Yet this is yet another practice of the Biden administration. They allowed for illegal immigrants. What about the Hyde Amendment with all of this? And real quickly, less an amendment. Your thoughts on this thing and what that bill would do?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I’m very grateful to have Congresswoman Miller working along with me, and we’re co-leading on this bill. And we’ve already had 28 other co-sponsors that got on almost immediately. So I think there is definitely the interest and the effort being put into making sure that we put an end to this Biden rule that basically turned the federal government into Uber drivers for illegal aliens to be able to go across state lines to get abortions. And there’s no American taxpayer that should ever, ever have their money used to to really provide Uber transportation for folks to get abortions across state lines. And to your point, the Hyde Amendment should prevent it from the beginning. And so this is, again, a common sense approach. The president.
SPEAKER 09 :
Congressman Mark Harris of North Carolina, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Coming up, we’re going to be talking about some very important things in Venezuela. You don’t want to miss this. Stay with us. We’ll be back in a moment.
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How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture. and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week.
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SPEAKER 09 :
Happy December 1st. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you for joining us as well. All right. President Trump, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Dan Kaine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, all of them at this very moment. are gathered with some other senior administration officials in the Oval Office discussing some potential next steps in combating Venezuelan drug trafficking into the United States. And of course, this largely stems from the president’s Truth Social post over the long weekend that we had, where he just declared Venezuelan airspace to be closed. So What is the intended goal of President Trump’s policies regarding Venezuela? Well, joining me now to talk about this is retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery. He is also currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Admiral Montgomery, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, so let’s break this down. What does shutting down airspace actually entail? What does that look like?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, normally a country shuts down its own airspace by saying that we’re no longer going to provide the normal control of aircraft through there. Or sometimes you’ll shut off airspace because you’re going to do a missile test. Usually that’s airspace out in the open ocean. But what the president here did was this was signaling. He said, I’m going to shut it down. And what he really meant was, I’m going to occupy it with my forces at a time and place of my choosing. And I think that was a strong signal he was sending. He’s trying his hardest to convince Maduro, who is not the legitimate elected leader of Venezuela, to leave peacefully. or people around Maduro to encourage him aggressively to leave peacefully. And so I think he was stepping up the pressure campaign and gave them the three-day weekend to think about it.
SPEAKER 09 :
So what is this going to look like in real life? What’s it going to be like, not only for Venezuelan airspace, but for other countries wanting to come and go there? I mean, what in real life is this going to look like?
SPEAKER 05 :
So I think what’s really going to happen is we’re going to conduct airstrikes through that airspace. And when we do that, we will put out a notice to mariners saying, stay clear to everyone out of a certain area that’s much larger than the area we’re operating in. So it’s not give away our exact flight planning. But and then we will probably begin to destroy the on land, the the. factories, the storage units that are used by the narco cartels for the production and distribution of cocaine from Venezuela to the United States and Europe.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, so you kind of touched on it, but unpack this a little bit further for us, if you would, in terms of what President Trump is trying to accomplish through these actions.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is interesting. Look, President Trump did not run as the candidate who will bring you regime change. But I think what he ran was the president that will bring you a secure homeland. And to him, a secure homeland means secure borders, secure missile defense. I hope someday it means a better investment in cyber. But also part of that secure border is that we won’t allow illicit drugs in. Now, he’s focused on fentanyl. Fentanyl’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last four years. Now, fentanyl comes from precursor agents in China that are processed in Mexico and come to this country. I think that that’s a politically and militarily more touchy issue. So initially, he’s going to take care of this cocaine problem. The cocaine comes from Venezuela and Colombia. We’ve been shooting ships everywhere. coming out of Venezuela and coming out of Colombia, a total of 21 now, and destroying them. But that’s like shooting arrows instead of shooting the quiver. The quiver are the drug production facilities. And the ones in Venezuela, I imagine, are heavily targeted right now by the United States in preparation for an attack over the next few days.
SPEAKER 09 :
This is rather unprecedented action that the president is taking. And of course, in the midst of all that, he’s taking a good bit of heat from that perspective. How effective would you say the president’s policies on Venezuela have been? How is this going so far?
SPEAKER 05 :
Look, we’re not going to stop cocaine flow in the United States by sinking individual ships, small ships. It comes in by way too many paths. I think if you’re really what he’s done is he’s saying, Maduro, you’re a narco terrorist. You run a narco terrorist state. The state supports the narcotics cartels in the production and distribution of cocaine. I’m going to remove you and hopefully install the democratically elected leadership. And they will take a more aggressive attitude towards blocking drugs coming to the United States. But in its core, this is a homeland security issue to President Trump. It’s about keeping the homeland secure from drugs. Now, look, we’d like to get fentanyl first. And honestly, fentanyl is the much bigger deal. But what he can easily get at is cocaine. And he has always he liked he disliked Maduro in his first term. And I don’t think his opinion on Maduro has changed at all.
SPEAKER 09 :
So what’s going to happen with all of this, in your opinion, is you, with your expertise, look at what’s taking place, looking at the role of Maduro there as a narco-terrorist leader, as you describe him. What’s going to happen with all of this, in your opinion?
SPEAKER 05 :
So I think we’ll conduct strikes against that narco, the production and stowage of cocaine. We’ll also strike their military assets that could impact us, their aircraft and air defense systems and their airfields. And then, you know, we’ll hope, you know, either because, you know, we encourage them or because, you know, covert operations, but then Maduro gets on a plane to, you know, Turkey or Cuba or Russia, and eventually ends up in Moscow living next door to Hafez al-Assad, the former leader of Syria, in the dictator’s row there. He is going to leave, and eventually the democratically elected government will get in there. But it gets messy. When he leaves, it’s not a guaranteed thing. And I think the president would prefer not to be involved in that part of regime change. So we’ll have to see what happens. But I suspect we attack, Maduro flees.
SPEAKER 09 :
You speak that with seemingly a good bit of confidence, and I think the way you laid it out makes all the sense in the world. So you think we are on the throes of seeing a regime change in Venezuela?
SPEAKER 05 :
Look, this has been Marco Rubio’s number one foreign policy issue for two decades. As a Cuban-American from Miami, this is a heartfelt interest to him, a real passion interest to him. So yes, I suspect that the president is following Rubio’s lead on this, and we will see these attacks. Whether we get regime change, Maduro gets a vote on that. But if he’s smart, he’s going to catch that first plane out of there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Admiral Mark Montgomery, thank you so much for joining us on Washington Watch. Fascinating information. All right, friends, on the other side of the break, the Boy Scouts of America under fire, possibly ties being broken with the U.S. military. We’ll cover the details of that right after the break. Stay with us.
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For over 4,000 years, the Jewish people have had legal, historical, and biblical ties to the land of Israel, especially the heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, which much of the world still calls the West Bank. To Israelis, Judea and Samaria is far more than a name. It’s the center of their ancestral homeland where nearly 80% of the Bible’s events took place. Abraham purchased property in Hebron, Jacob in Shechem, Joshua made an altar on Mount Ebal and led the Israelites into a covenant before God. On Mount Gerizim, overlooking Shechem, Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well about worshiping neither on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth. Judea and Samaria is nearly a quarter of Israel’s current land mass, not a small strip of land on the Jordan River, but a vital and strategic part of the nation’s identity. The October 7th massacre, launched from Gaza, shattered the illusion that giving away territory brings peace. Gaza, which was once seen as the cornerstone of a two-state solution, became a launchpad for terror. Today, only 21% of Israelis support a Palestinian state. Trust in a two-state solution has all but collapsed. The Middle East is changing. Iran’s grip is weakening. New alliances are forming. But Western countries and some U.S. officials still chase the mirage of a two-state solution. History speaks clearly. The 2005 Gaza withdrawal, backed by the U.S., led not to peace, but to a terrorist regime. Judea and Samaria are 24 times larger than Gaza, deeply woven into Israel’s geographic and spiritual fabric. To surrender them would not bring peace. It would invite conflict and existential danger. Family Research Council stands with Israel’s rightful claim to sovereignty. It’s time for America to do the same for history, for justice, and for lasting security in the Middle East.
SPEAKER 09 :
Good afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you so much for being with us. All right. Just before the Thanksgiving long weekend, there was a leaked Department of Defense draft memo that broke news saying basically that the Pentagon is considering severing ties with its relationship with the former Boy Scouts of America. Of course, now they’re known as Scouting America. Is this a good idea? Well, here now to discuss this is John Stemberger himself, an Eagle Scout. He’s also a former Scout Master, and he’s also the primary founder and chairman emeritus of Trail Life USA. He also serves as president of Liberty Council Action. John, welcome back to Washington Watch. It’s always great to have you. Jody, it’s great to be with you again. Okay, so let’s start with Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America. How long have they been going down this woke road, if we can describe it that way?
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, so they started the first big mistake in 2013. It went into effect January 1, 2014. And that was basically that they allowed openly gay boys to express themselves politically however they wanted to in scouting. And then the next year, it was openly gay Scoutmasters. And then two years later, it was… adults, and then it was transgenders, and then it was girls. And so literally every two years, they’ve been taking a slide down. This is an organization in 2018 at the World Jamboree in West Virginia. They allowed alcohol and condoms readily available with boys and girls as young as 14 years old. Now, Jodi, I don’t know where you grew up in scouting, but that sounds like some kind of crazy group orgy to me. That doesn’t sound like a safe and secure environment to put young people into. This organization is not only not safe, it is dangerous. And parents need to pull their children out. They allow openly gay boys who are attracted to other boys to sleep with whoever they want to. They allow transgender boys, I’m sorry, transgender girls, that is a boy acting out as a girl, to be a part of the girls unit and sleep with girls. So there’s no moral codes here. They basically, in order to be politically correct and to appease the LGBT radicals, they’ve basically gone in the can on basic youth protection safety standards. And it is outrageous, and it’s the reason why the military and the Congress should no longer give its status of approval to this organization, which has become corrupt morally and otherwise.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it has to be absolutely shocking information for our viewers and listeners right now to hear you describe what you just described with what we have always had in America, the Boy Scouts, a trusted organization that has gone now for over 12 years, as you laid out for us, just an opposite direction of everything. So give me your assessment of of this leaked draft coming from the Pentagon suggesting that they may break ties with Scouting America. Is this good news?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, I think it’s a step in the right direction, because unfortunately, for the last hundred years, the Boy Scouts, by an act of Congress, has had a special status amongst every other boys organization in the world and the country, over and above everyone else. They’ve even gotten the military to give them hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars of support during their events, their national events. And so because they have just become woke, because they have just become more interested in appeasing the leftist agenda, of radicals and less interested in building men into boys, which is what the Boy Scouts are supposed to be doing, teaching those morals and values. Because they’ve abandoned that code, they’ve abandoned their own scout law, they didn’t have enough courage to fight their own morals and standards, they no longer should have this special status. So I think the military is doing exactly the right thing.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, so you, a former Eagle Scout, your history is very active with the Boy Scouts in multiple ways. But as you have described now, as you encourage others to do, it’s time to depart from the Boy Scouts, former Boy Scouts. So is there a Christian alternative? Is there a… similar club, if you will, that is teaching boys to be men and to do so from a biblical perspective. Tell us about Trail Life USA.
SPEAKER 17 :
There is, Jody. And I took, back in the day, I took both my sons out of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and put them into Trail Life USA. This is a conservative Christian scouting movement. It’s nationwide. There’s over 1,500 troops in all 50 states. Tony Perkins and I were very much involved with the battle of trying to get the Boy Scouts to stop making these changes, crazy changes back in the day. But we have this amazing movement where some of the best leaders that came out of the Boy Scouts of America, the adults are trained. This is church-based, so they know the people in the program. There’s standards and there’s codes, very strict training. It’s built on venture, character, and leadership for the boys. So this is a wonderful program. I guarantee you, your son, I mean, there’s lots of things you can do, baseball, Little League, whatever. Bible Camp, you will get more growth out of your son through Trail Life USA than any other boys program, I guarantee you, because it’s the focus on leadership and adventure and character. And everything’s built around biblical principles, but it’s not churchy and religious.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s incredible news. And so I know we have folks now want to know where can they find out more information. So why don’t you share where people can go to find out more about Trail Life USA?
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, traillifeusa.com. That’s traillifeusa.com. There’s a map there. You can see your state and your city and find out. And if you don’t see one in your area, you can start a troop. You need to find a church organization that can sponsor and anchor the organization. And this church owns and operates it. It just doesn’t give it banquet, you know, attic space and say, okay, meet at our premises. We want the church to incorporate the troop into the life of of the church for missions trips, for volunteering, whatever they need. But we really need the church actively engaged with the troop. But you can start your own troop if you find a church that’s willing to sponsor it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much, John Stemberger, Chairman Emeritus, Trail Life USA. Always great to have you on Washington Watch. Thank you for joining us. Thanks, Jody. All right, coming up, we’re going to take a look back at some of the news that developed over the weekend. We will be joined by Washington Stans Casey Harper and Mark Tapscott. They’ll be with me right on the other side of the break, so stay with us.
SPEAKER 13 :
At Family Research Council, we believe religious freedom is a fundamental human right that all governments must protect. For years, Islamist militants in Nigeria have targeted Christians and other religious minority groups with brutal violence. Since 2009, 52,000 Christians have been slaughtered. A staggering 89% of Christian martyrs in the world today are from Nigeria. The first Trump administration declared Nigeria a country of particular concern, a designation reserved for countries whose governments engage in or tolerate religious freedom violations. However, this designation of Nigeria was quickly reversed by the Biden administration. Following consistent calls from FRC President Tony Perkins and other religious leaders across the U.S., President Donald Trump has responded.
SPEAKER 20 :
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands and thousands of Christians are being killed. I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern.
SPEAKER 13 :
This is a huge step forward for the protection of Christians in Nigeria as well as religious freedom across the world. While this opens the door for the U.S. government to pressure Nigerian leaders to protect vulnerable Christians, it is only the beginning. We must continue to pray diligently, work strategically, and stand firm for the protection of religious liberty across the globe.
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SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for joining us today on Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss. An honor to be filling in for Tony today, and thank you for joining us as well. All right. Very, very, very important announcement. Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday. Remember that. Why? Well, that is an opportunity for you to double your the impact that you can have to advance God’s eternal truth in public policy and culture. Every gift that comes in here on Giving Tuesday is going to be doubled because of a limited time challenge match that we have been given. And listen, that means every $100 becomes $200. Every $1,000 becomes $2,000. No matter how small nor how big the gift, this is your opportunity to double your impact in our culture and to bring biblical truth there. I’m going to give you a phone number. I want to have you write this down or remember it and call right now to give your gift for Giving Tuesday. The number is 1-800-225-4008. Again, 1-800-225-4008. Come on board. Double your impact together. Let’s make a big impact on taking God’s truth to a culture that desperately, desperately needs it. Okay, as we enter into this last and final segment for the day, there was a survey that came out last month from the News Literacy Project that shed some light on an emerging trend among Gen Z where their trust in the news media is at historic lows. And that’s not a surprising poll by itself. Even Gallup Poll said something similar. They did a poll in October with adults and came up with similar outcomes. Lack of trust for the news media. So we have these surveys by these two I mentioned, but a host of others showing Americans have a dwindling trust. trust in institutions like the media, even government agencies like the FDA and others, agencies that once were considered sacrosanct, considered beyond even questioning. But no longer is that the case. So what’s going on here? Well, here to talk us through some of the trust issues, as we Americans have, is Casey Harper, again, and the Washington Stand Senior Congressional Analyst, Mark Tapscott. Casey, Mark, both of you gentlemen, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to have you both.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good to be here.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, so let me throw this out to both of you. What do you make of the research from Gallup and others about the News Literacy Project? Do you agree with the findings here? What’s going on? I’ll start, Casey, let me start with you.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, Jody, well, I think you put it the right way. Americans have trust issues. I mean, how many times can the same girl betray you before you start to not trust her? And the American media has betrayed us time and time again and always comes crawling back, expecting us to act like nothing’s happened, but it’s just not the case. And the numbers show that. So, for instance, in this Gallup poll, it showed that in 1970, about 70% of Americans had confidence in the media. Today, that number is at about 28%. So in the course of 50 years, we went from 70% to 28%, a 50-point drop about a point a year. And I don’t think that’s going to go up. It’s just going down. And as you mentioned, there’s no hope with the new generation of kind of recovering that trust. They are just as distrustful of the media. And I think they question the media’s relevance. Many of them you know they’re on they’re on the internet all day they’re on tick tock and so they don’t even consume media in the traditional fashions they get a lot of their news from social media and so there’s this tidal wave of transformation that’s coming to the media one because young people don’t trust it any more than their parents do and two because they consume media in a totally different way so all bets are off for the future of media trust and consumption in the future all right mark what’s your take on this do you agree with the findings as well
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I found two things in particular that really interested me. Number one, the Gen Zers who said they don’t trust the media also conceded that they don’t watch it very much, as Casey just alluded to. And yet the things that they said were the reasons why they didn’t, why they don’t trust the media are the same kinds of things that older folks like myself have been saying for years and years and years. You can’t trust the people in the media overall to be giving you the whole story. They tend to give you the narrative that they think is the one that you should hear, generally because it’ll get you to vote Democrat, I suppose. The other thing was, here we have this interesting development, Gen Z suspicion, distrust of the media. At the same time, we have this tremendous upheaval in Gen Z, especially among young Gen Z males. of a revived and growing interest in Christianity and especially in following and knowing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I think it’s not coincidental that we see these same two things happening at the same time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, very interesting thoughts there. Mark, while I’ve got you, it’s not just the media. I mean, we’re talking government institutions. The FDA recently sent out bombshell information on the vaccine trials. What was that all about? And is that type of thing what’s contributing to the lack of trust, not only with the media, but government as a whole?
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, absolutely. The FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Macri, I happen to have interviewed him and I have had some dealings with him, conversations with him. He’s very, very intelligent and I think very credible scientist and medical guy. And he basically is reporting what a number of others outside of the government and the public health community have been claiming for some time now, and that’s that there are a whole variety of very negative side effects from the COVID vaccines. And the fact that Dr. Macri took the unexpected step in many respects to say and to issue as a public statement that, you know, there is evidence that 10 children died as a result of the vaccine. That’s going to open up all kinds of very important investigations and inquiries and I think probably the result in a significant tightening of the FDA’s processes.
SPEAKER 18 :
If I can just jump in here, Jody, I think this is a great example of, I think COVID really was the turning point. You’re talking about, I think you’re raising a great point of institutions losing their trust in the media, but look at the lab leak theory. I mean, when the lab leak theory was first reported, anyone who talked about it was labeled a conspiracy theorist by top mainline publications. You were called a conspiracy theorist. It wasn’t said, well, maybe this is something we can look into. You were immediately labeled and blackballed. Come to find out it’s a reputable and probably the leading theory on how we got COVID. And so that’s just one example. Another one is that if you take the vaccine, you will not be able to transmit it. There’s video of Rachel Maddow on MSNBC saying if you get the vaccine, it will stop COVID in its tracks right there. So this idea that the vaccine would stop transmission, I could go on. with other examples. But why did the media parrot all this? They were parroting the scientists and the different government institutions and medical institutions, the same ones, by the way, who say that transgenderism is totally fine and you can mutilate kids and it’s, quote, unquote, health care. The media is parroting all these experts and losing their credibility. It’s not just on health issues. I mean, there’s the Hunter Biden laptop. story which they totally botched from the intel community and others and as well as the Steele dossier. So the media has been easily fooled. They parrot the wrong people and the American people are seeing through it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, great point. And, Mark, the media literacy now was recently exposed as a Biden State Department grant recipient. I mean, there’s another one. What do we know about that group?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, what we know about that group is that it’s not what it presents itself to be. Media literacy in their vocabulary means – repeating over and over again the liberal narrative about any particular issue that happens to be in the public forum these days. This is not a new thing. We’ve been seeing for some time, for example, you’ll recall a number of nonprofits that are supposed to be nonpartisan, conducting voter registration drives in campaign years. And it just happens that the only places, the only precincts they go to do those registrations are those that are heavily Democratic, which gives you the clue as to what their intentions are. So the nonprofit world, especially the nongovernmental organizations, the NGOs, They bear a great deal of very critical examination that needs to be done and soon.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and Casey, with that, I mean, this group had some ties, do they not, with the SPLC? Yes, Southern Poverty Law.
SPEAKER 08 :
Southern Poverty Legal Center, which is one of the original far left nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, that focuses exclusively on discrediting, in their view, organizations on the right, not excluding the Family Research Council, in the most unjustified, frequently dishonest ways. And they have been exposed by a number of media outlets on the right over the years, but they continue to be functioning.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, Casey, your thoughts on that? I mean, we’ve got the SPLC and, I mean, themselves an organization that has a lot of question marks behind it. They probably likewise contribute to the lack of trust going on because of what they stand for.
SPEAKER 18 :
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I think Mark put it well when he said something to the effect of that this is a tangled web of groups. And the more you look into it, you know, I live here in D.C. I’ve lived here for a while now. I know a lot of journalists, a lot of people in different nonprofits. They move around. And you realize it’s a pipeline from liberal universities to NGOs, to the government, to media. They spread out and then They move around, but it’s all the same people with all the same indoctrination from the same liberal schools, the same humanist, secularist worldview that they’re pushing on the nation, pretty much anti-gun, anti-religious liberty, anti-conservatism, anti-white, really. Colonialism is their main filter through which they view history. So there’s a lot of common themes in their ideology. They go to a lot of the same schools, and then they take over these NGOs. They take over the media. And so it’s a lot of the same people as interchangeable parts, but the more you look into it, Jody, we could spend this whole program making the connections, as Mark has so aptly done, between grant funding, going from one place to another, and I think that is really where Americans’ eyes were opened when President Trump unveiled what was going with USAID and how so much of the money was being used in ways that were really alarming. But that’s been the name of the game in the liberal nonprofit world for a long time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s yet another great example, USA. All right. So, Mark, let’s go back. I think we’ve got to land the plane on this with how can our audience discern what is, in fact, a good news source and what is not? I’ll start with you, Mark.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, being an old school journalist myself, the first thing you should always look for is critical comments from both sides of any particular issue. There’s no issue in this town of Washington, D.C., where there are not at least two honest fact-based legitimate opposing views and if a journalist is not going to take the time and do the work to find those two opposing views and thus give their reader a fuller picture of what what is involved you probably should not be reading them and trusting them. And that’s frankly old school journalism like I just described in many respects is a dying breed.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep, good, good thoughts. So Casey, let me kick that back to you. And any suggestions that you would throw out here, put on the table for good, reliable, trustworthy news?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, Mark, I’m a little offended you didn’t say it, but the Washington Stand is the leading source of the most reputable news. I knew you would say it, Casey. In the country, I think we have great commentary and great news content. Everyone can find us online. Sign up for our newsletter. We also have the outstanding podcast. We’re launching a news brief podcast. We have more than enough content for your daily needs. But I don’t expect you to only read us. You read us first, obviously. But then, you know, you can check others through your second source. One thing that I think about is, you know, one of the gifts of the Spirit is the discerning of spirits. And in the days to come, as we’re in the last days now, it’s not enough to just have a political filter as you look at world events, as you look at Israel, as you look at AI and the growing technology. You can’t just have a political filter. You have to have a biblical and even a Holy Spirit filter that when you look at things, you see it through the lens of Scripture, and you even have the prompting of the Holy Spirit inside of you to say, you know, that’s not from the Lord. Oh, I see this. This is… We’re getting to the point now, Jody, where when you read the headlines, you’re starting to feel like you’re reading the book of Revelation, is one way to put it. But it’s the gift of discerning of spirits. You feel something’s off about something. And more of a practical tip, as I toss it back to you, a key to discerning of spirits is to know what is someone’s motive and worldview when they’re speaking to you. Is there a motive to bring you over their side and how do they see the world? A liberal who doesn’t believe in God, who believes that rights don’t come from God but they come from government, who believes that American history is mostly viewed through the lens of oppression and colonialism and that our whole founding was based on injustice and we’re inherently racist from our founding up until this day and we’re basically irredeemable until all white people are pulled out of power. That’s not an exaggeration to say all that. you know you’re just not going to get a lot of life out of reading something like that so there’s a lot of ways to think about it but you got to have that holy spirit and biblical filter as you look at what’s going on in the world today jody extremely well said from both of you i have to add one little comment here this harper fella he may be a young whippersnapper but he’s pretty sharp i think we ought to keep him around
SPEAKER 09 :
I agree. Both of you. Listen, just 15 seconds. Mark, let me ask you. There’s a big meeting going on right now in the Oval Office, Venezuela. Any leaks? What’s coming out of that? Have you heard?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, not specifically, but I’ve heard an awful lot. I’ve talked to a bunch of folks today, again, about what is President Trump going to say about Obamacare. And I think we’re going to hear later this week.
SPEAKER 09 :
We will be keeping a pulse on it. I’m sure you will be too, both of you. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us always. And I encourage all of you, check out the Washington stand. We’ll see you tomorrow here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 16 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council. To support our efforts to advance faith, family, and freedom, please text GIVE to 67742. That’s GIVE to 67742. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information, please visit TonyPerkins.com.
