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In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable, the conversation sparks around Donald Trump’s significant electoral triumph. The hosts weigh in on what this victory reveals about the current American political and cultural landscape, tapping into themes of authenticity and voter disillusionment with progressive ideologies. With engaging discussions, the team examines the shifts within the GOP and potential challenges and opportunities for evangelical Christians under a revamped Republican big tent. Additionally, they take a critical look at the role of the media, questioning the credibility and influence of traditional media outlets compared to emerging voices. Through this lens, they
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, a view of culture, current events, and politics through a biblical lens. Brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time, she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. And now here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, twice impeached, indicted four times, the target of two assassination attempts that we know of, relentlessly demonized by Democrats, liberals, progressives, and the so-called legacy media since like 2015. Donald J. Trump wins an epic earthquake-sized landslide victory over Kamala Harris that literally, I think, opens like this new fault line between the radical agenda of the far left and American voters who simply said, nope, not interested. Well, welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable. My name is Neil Boron, host of Neil Boron Live in Buffalo, New York. Still struggling with a little bit of residual laryngitis. Back again, though, with Bob Duco, host of The Bob Duco Show on WMUZ in Detroit, and John Rush, host of Rush to Reason on KLZ in Denver. Guys, in like this quasi-metaphoric way, I was thinking about this earlier. What is happening? Like, is the wicked witch of progressive ideology and wokeism literally melting before our eyes? Is that what’s happening? We’re melting. I know. What is going on?
SPEAKER 02 :
John, let me start with you. Well, I think people finally have had enough. Yes, I think you saw that last Tuesday. Bob and I talked a little bit about it. Last week, we’ll get into more of that today, of course, with you, Neil. But the reality is, yeah, I think over half of America finally said, you know what? Enough is enough is enough. We’re tired. Men especially, we’re tired of being demonized. We’re toxic. We’re everything that you can imagine. And in the left’s eyes, why do we exist at all? And the reality is not only them, but a lot of other individuals as well that feel marginalized, I think, or demonized to your point a moment ago. Neil just finally said, you know what? We may not like Donald Trump, but we’re tired of the other side.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree fully. Bob, you’ve had like a week to digest. By the way, you guys did a great job last week in my absence. I loved listening. But now that we’re looking more closely at just how mammoth this victory was, what are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I didn’t expect it to be this strong. I didn’t think that Trump would take all seven swing states. I really didn’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t think anybody did, Bob.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know. Oh, boy. But as the Democrats are doing their postmortem and trying to figure out, okay, what happened here? I think that there are some things that they need to look in the mirror and reflect that there is some pushback here. They went too far to the left. I mean, they really did. And I think that you have, first of all, with look at the economy, look at the disastrous job that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did over the last four years with the economy, inflation, energy, gas prices, the border, crime, everything else. So they didn’t have a resume to run on. So what they needed then was a really strong candidate that could overcome the poor resume with a sense of charm and optimism and such. And she just didn’t present that.
SPEAKER 04 :
She had fingerprints on the resume.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know. And, you know, and she just couldn’t. I think a combination of the sense of her not her not doing interviews and when she does, it’s cackling and it’s just. But you know what else really kind of stands out to me a little bit? And I think this is part of it. And it’s going to sound really, really strange and surreal. But for independent voters, moderate voters, swing voters, I think that they saw Donald Trump as a more. Honest, authentic, real person, and dare I even use the word, more likable than Kamala Harris. Because I think when they look at Kamala Harris, they do see a chameleon who’s like, when she speaks, they don’t know what she’s really thinking, what she really feels. All they see is whatever she tries to portray, which was usually word salads. With Trump, I think they look at him and say, you know something, I… The guy’s personality rubs me the wrong way. He’s a braggadocious guy. But you know something? He took care of us. He actually really does care about the country. And on top of that, he seems like an authentic guy that say, what you want about Trump? But if he’s thinking, you know what? That guy’s an ugly idiot. What Trump says is, you know what, that guy’s an ugly idiot. And even though he’s a bull in a china shop, I think a lot of people appreciate the fact that he’s authentic. We like authenticity. And then add to that Here’s a guy that has been branded as the second Hitler who’s so narcissistic and only cares about himself and nobody else, but he doesn’t seem like he takes himself that seriously. He allows people to mess up his hair. He’ll cook fries at McDonald’s. He’ll go ahead and ride in a garbage truck with an orange vest on. and pokes some fun at himself at the same time, and he’s got a sense of humor. And so, honestly, Neil, as surreal as it sounds, I think you had a lot of Americans, not all, but a lot of Americans kind of warm up to him and say, this does seem like kind of a regular guy who I wouldn’t mind having a beer with, yet he’s a multi-billionaire. I think there’s a relatability factor that Donald Trump was able to crack through a little bit that Kamala Harris with all of her word salad and couldn’t do.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and really quick, but jump in because you guys are probably more experts on this than I am on the spiritual aspect, because a while back we had a discussion on, you know, did God. save donald trump in other words was a divine providence that he saved donald trump and i’m gonna come back and push back and say you know was it really that or did god allow or cause him to get shot to change his demeanor which bob to your point a moment ago made a lot of the things you just said happen late stage in the campaign because without that would he have been the same
SPEAKER 03 :
You know what? I think he has been a little bit more humble after the assassination attempts than he was before. I really do. So I think there’s been a slight softening of him. And I think it’s resonated with some voters that say, I don’t know, I’m kind of warming up to him. He seems like a kind of a nicer guy than I’ve thought of him as before.
SPEAKER 04 :
Time will tell, but I think you’re right. By the way, you know, not only did he he won the popular vote that hasn’t been done in a long time by a Republican candidate. He wins the Electoral College, of course, not only hangs out of the Senate, but makes some gains there, probably hangs out of the House and maybe gains a seat or two in the House. Who knows how all that flushes out? But on top of it. You know, the black male vote, young voters, Hispanic voters in large numbers. You had members of the Jewish community coming over to the Trump side. I’m talking liberal Jews that have never voted Republican. Muslim Arabs. I mean, this was across the board. And the other side has to just be staring at a wall going, how did we miss this? By the way, the legacy media. told us we were all missing it, that we were the ones who were out of touch. And after a landslide victory like this, in my opinion, I would love your feedback, but in my opinion, the mainstream is actually people who voted for Donald Trump. The people that are out of touch, the fringe radical far left are the ones who voted for Kamala. I think it’s the exact opposite of what the legacy media tried to tell us during the entire Trump administration, and I’m going all the way back to 2015. So, it’s crazy. And, you know, on the issue of abortion, like that there’s no way, we’re not, remember Kamala, we’re not going back, we’ll never go back, blah, blah, blah. I don’t think it was that big a deal amongst voters this time. Not that abortion, hear me out, not that it isn’t a big deal, it’s huge. But I think that people are saying to themselves, this is my opinion, If I want, I can get an abortion in the next state over, or I know that I can get abortion pills through the mail. This isn’t like my number one issue right now. For pro-lifers, it probably always will be. But Donald Trump backed away from that thing, and I don’t think it really served much of a purpose at all in the election. And yet, it’s huge for each one of us because we can save lives.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, we really can. And I know there’s a lot of debate about how to handle abortion going forward and such and the national abortion ban debate. And I get all of that. But there’s one thing that we can all agree on. If we can save some babies lives, we need to do it. And there is a real tangible way. that we can stop women from having abortions. And you know what that is? Show them ultrasound images of their babies. Because when a mom sees a picture of her baby, that’s the first time she’s ever seen that image. She doesn’t go across the street to Planned Parenthood. She chooses life. This is why Preborn is such an important organization. They work nationwide in pro-life centers showing ultrasound images to these moms. Problem is the demand is greater than the supply. There just aren’t enough ultrasound machines out there. So you got a lot of women who are not able to see that ultrasound image of their baby. And so consequently, they choose abortion many times. That’s why we need to supply more ultrasound images by supplying them to pre-born. So here’s what we’re asking everybody in the audience to do. Be on one of two camps, either option A, buy an ultrasound machine, or option B, pay for an individual amount of ultrasound images. Option A, buying an ultrasound machine, they’re $15,000 a piece. What a great tax write-off for you for the end of this year. But listen, your forever legacy will be that you stopped thousands and thousands of abortions over the years. That’s what that $15,000 will buy. And anything you give to pre-born, 100%, every penny goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. Now, the other side, category B is, oh, I can’t buy an ultrasound machine. Okay, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images, as many as you can afford. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So pray about a number of baby’s lives you’ll save. $28 times fill in the blank, whatever that number is, That’s your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you and your family stopped. So here’s how you give. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. You can give right there. Or you can give over the phone, and they answer the phones 24-7. So call 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call, and we appreciate that. And by the way, Neil, one of the things I wanted to mention to you before to get your take on this, and John, yours as well, certainly. But with Donald Trump in his second term, okay, we remember how George W. Bush, when he was first elected, a lot of conservative Christians really warmed up to him because he seemed to be pretty conservative. But by his second term, he started sliding more to the middle. And so before you know it, he became a borderline rhino, and a lot of people were disappointed. I don’t think Donald Trump is going to go full-blown John McCain, Mitt Romney. I don’t think he’s going to do that. But I do suspect that we may have to prepare for the fact that he might not be as aggressively conservative as And he may not be as pleasing and palatable to born-again evangelical Christians and pro-lifers in his second term as he was in his first. This is part of the big tent that he’s created here in the redefining of the GOP. The Republican Party is now the inclusive party where the Hispanics, African Americans, the soccer mom women, the Arab Muslims, okay? And by the way, can I say, Gay people as well. It’s like, well, you know what? The Republican Party is the welcoming party with a big tent and open arms. And so there’s part of me that thinks that the GOP is not going to be as narrowly. evangelical Christian pro-life, that’s our predominant identity, but that it’s still going to be a prominent branch on the tree, but maybe not as big of a branch as it was before. And I could be proven wrong, but if that is the case and Donald Trump, you know, does a little bit of compromise, takes the RFK juniors and the Tulsi Gabbards and some of those people and gives them some more prominence, are evangelical Christians going to be okay with him on that? Are we going to expect him to be Franklin Graham through and through?
SPEAKER 02 :
They don’t vote anyway, so why does it matter?
SPEAKER 04 :
I was just going to say that. That’s a fair point.
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, I’m being serious, guys. For the most part, all these people that would whine about some of the things, Bob, that you just stated are the same people that won’t vote for him in the first place. So it’s like, are you really an evangelical conservative in the first place? And what voice do you have at the table when you don’t even cast a ballot?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. And I hope this comes out right because I didn’t really think it through in advance. But, you know, RFK Jr., as a for instance, I mean, he’s a lifelong Democrat, pretty liberal in certain ways. And and yet he’s anti big pharma. He’s anti Vax kind of guy who’s not afraid to look at. apply some sane reasoning to our whole health policy in the United States. I was painting my son’s living room with him over the weekend. He’s got an apartment he wants to rent and we were doing some work and there was a guy there who’s a pharmacist and he was helping and we got talking about RFK Jr. and this whole thing and he said, you know what, I’m not sure I really want to be a pharmacist anymore. I said, how come? He goes, because it’s become so about big pharma. The whole industry is about making money and keeping people on medications for the rest of their life. They don’t want to create medications that get people well. They want to create medications that keep people on them because then they make money for the rest of their life. Well, it’s time that somebody pulled the rug out from under all of that. And my point in this is… as evangelical christians we might not normally fraternize with a guy like rfk jr but if he’s talking the same language we are about things like this then there’s need for cooperation on things like this we can agree to disagree on some of the other points but i think we need people like this speaking sanity into what we’re all about and i don’t care if you’re an evangelical christian or not i think the average sane american wants better health policy in the us and if rfk jr can help Good. And I think he was good for the ticket in that sense.
SPEAKER 02 :
One of the first things they should do along those lines, again, we can make a podcast out of this, would be get rid of all the drug ads that are out there. We’re only one of two countries in the world that allow drug ads on TV. So if you want to really stop some of that influence, Neil, that you and your son’s friend were talking about, You know, there’s multiple ways to do that, and that’s just the start of it. And again, you know, going back to Bob’s question, you know, what will evangelicals think, and will Trump get quote-unquote softer on some of these things? Frankly, I don’t really see that now as far as the evangelical issues go. Where will he lie? That I don’t have any answers to. But when it comes to some of these things we’re talking about right now in regards to our health and the pharmaceutical companies, you know, and big tech and so on, you know, will Donald Trump come in and do the things that he has stated in those areas? Absolutely. You know, what does he do with some of the social issues? I don’t know, guys. That’s a good question.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, I guess I’m thinking that as Christians, we have to set realistic expectations and not be unrealistic about what we expect from him, okay?
SPEAKER 02 :
So give me an example. All right. Give me one example.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Well, first of all, let me just say in a general sense, we have to recognize the difference between expecting a solidly pro-life evangelical Christian president versus a president who’s friendly to pro-life evangelical Christians. And that’s what I think we have to be comfortable with. But for example, on the on the abortion issue, okay? He’s already declared he wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban, which is a moot point anyway, because something like that wouldn’t pass Congress.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, it needs to be a state issue anyways.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right. It does need to be a state issue, and I get that. But I could see him… Here’s some areas… All right, let me give you some examples, okay? I made this prediction to my audience last week, and I’ll make it here again now, and I could be proven wrong. During Donald Trump’s first four years in office, Not one year did he issue a June 1st presidential proclamation declaring LGBT Pride Month. He didn’t do that. Now, there was a tweet that he sent out with the words LGBT Pride Month, but he didn’t make a presidential proclamation for that. I could see Donald Trump doing that now, just accepting the fact that that’s kind of woven into the fabric of America. And so I could see him doing that. Although I do see him fighting against the transgender movement, against children and minors. That’s good. But, you know, in his first term, he named Rick Grinnell openly gay as ambassador to Germany. Well, OK, fine. Germany is a very pro homosexual country. It’s kind of the San Francisco of Europe. So, OK, fine. I could see him giving somebody like Rick Grinnell even a larger role and responsibility. So I can see him making some of these decisions where Christians are going, oh my goodness, look at the bones that he’s throwing to the LGBT crowd. And he doesn’t seem to be as strong in his rhetoric for the unborn as he was in his first term. And he doesn’t have as many pro-lifers in these positions as he did before. So those are just some areas I can see him going a little soft in that. And then we have to ask ourselves, can we be okay with that? Are we going to expect him to be as pro-life as right to life and as evangelical Christian as Franklin Graham? And I just don’t think that’s realistic.
SPEAKER 04 :
I would say that you’re probably onto something to some degree, but let me say where I disagree on this. Because I think that the mandate that was handed to him said, we don’t want this extreme stuff. Why in the world do we have a month-long pride celebration when we give a single day to military veterans who gave their lives in service to our country?
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right? I mean, so that actually is kind of an extreme event, that whole pride month thing. And I think that when you watch social media, even, you know, even… regular middle-of-the-road conservatives who don’t identify as evangelical christians say this is nuts what is all this pride month stuff about so i i think it would be a mistake for him to do something like that whether he’s more tolerant of these things in smaller ways perhaps you’d probably write about that because i think we’re already seeing it he backed off the you know the pro-life thing big time with the understanding i mean he communicated this that if we got to get elected first you got to get into office to be able to govern so We’ve seen him back off already. I suppose we’ll see more of these things. I just hope to God he doesn’t jump on board with something like that because I think that itself represents the radical extreme. We don’t want the transgender stuff. We don’t want a month-long celebration for people that represent one or two or three percent of the population. It’s insane.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ll tell you what, Neil. I’m with you. I think it would be a mistake. I hope he doesn’t do that. I’m just kind of telling everybody – Let’s gear up for the possibility that he very well may, that he may look at it like, all right, I’m trying to widen the tent of the GOP and keep us from being perceived as radical extremist hate mongers. And all right, let’s not make this a hill to die on. I’ll go ahead and acquiesce in this area. I hate to say it, but I could see him doing that, and I think we have to decide, is that going to suddenly make him damaged goods for us as evangelical Christians? I don’t think it should, but I think that that’s something we’re going to have to kind of prepare for. I’ll bet he does that this June.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mentioned a little bit of this earlier. I want to shift gears here for a second. Is the legacy media death? Now, they’re not going away right now, but my point is, did what happened on Election Day help underscore the reality that people aren’t really paying that much attention to the national media anymore, what used to be called the mainstream media? Or are they paying more attention to the Tucker Carlson’s of the world, the Joe Rogan’s? Charlie Kirk, Eric Metaxas, whatever. It just seems to me that a loud statement was made. You’ve lied to us for years. And then there was the whole, Joe Biden’s totally fit to be president, right? And Trump’s the one who’s a threat to democracy when actually there was no primary to elect Kamala Harris. There was nothing democratic about that. So, I mean, we’re watching this stuff play out in real time. And I think the American people have pulled back their own cameras and said, I’m tired of being lied to and then dictated to what I’m supposed to believe as an American citizen. I don’t want this. I want to know what the rest of the world’s thinking. I want to know alternative viewpoints. I want to make my own decisions. And we’re seeing the rise of podcasters and alternative media sources and stuff. I don’t know. I was really encouraged by what I saw in the election as it relates to people, in my opinion, just repudiating the mainstream media. John, your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 02 :
I think mainstream media is dying, if not already getting ready for the funeral. I think this last election showed that while you can spend a boatload of money, and the left does, on ads, on traditional media, reality is the majority of voters, and it was just proven, don’t watch that stuff. They’re getting their… their media in other ways. Frankly, they’re listening to things like this podcast. They’re listening to, I know the left doesn’t want to admit this, but AM radio, where there’s a lot of people listening to, you know, conservative talk and figuring out really what’s going on in the news there versus just watching it at 10 o’clock at night. So I do think, Neil, that a lot of that has shifted. I, I predict that it won’t be too long in the distant future that some of those networks are going to really struggle when it comes to ad buys and so on when you start realizing that, wait a minute, the majority of people that we really want to target aren’t here anyways. They’re in other places. And frankly, I think that’ll be a big shakeup. And I predict that that’s coming.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, let me share a perspective on this, if I could, because I and I’m going to push back just a little bit. All right. I don’t think the mainstream media is dead. And I don’t I wouldn’t even say that they’re dying on the vine. But certainly they’re dead.
SPEAKER 02 :
They’re dead to the voters that voted in Donald Trump. Right. Right. I understand themselves internally. Yeah, it’s fine.
SPEAKER 03 :
But the reason I say that is because look at Joe Biden voters. Now, Media Research Center, which is a conservative media watchdog group, Media Research Center did a survey after the election of – I’m sorry. This is actually before the election. They did a survey of 2020 Joe Biden voters. All right? So the people – and asked them, first of all, where do you get your news? And the number one answer given by far was ABC, NBC, and CBS. Okay. Okay. But then they asked them, do you know these positions about Kamala Harris? And for example, did you know that Kamala Harris supported defunding the police? 71% said, I did not know that. Did you know that Kamala Harris not only supported the Green New Deal, but she was the co-sponsor of it in the Senate? 73% said, I didn’t know that. Did you know that Kamala Harris said it should not be considered a crime to illegally enter the United States? 74% said, I didn’t know that. Did you know Kamala Harris was named the number one most liberal senator in the United States Senate in 2019 before she became VP? 75% didn’t know that. Did you know she supported abolishing ICE? 77% said, I didn’t know that. Did you know she used her Twitter account to raise money to bail out violent protesters during the 2020 riots? 78% of Joe Biden voters said, I didn’t know that. And then the final two, Did you know that she called for the elimination of private health insurance? 81% said, I didn’t know that. And did you know that she said she would consider allowing death row inmates to vote? 86% of Biden voters said, I didn’t know that. And these are the people who say, look, I get my news from ABC, NBC, and CBS. So it is true that these networks do still have a decent amount of influence. And I would argue that their influence is enough to keep the race somewhat within the ballpark of close. I mean, yes, Trump won, but he won by what, maybe two, three percentage points. Okay. I would argue that a lot of these Democrats are soft Democrats, that if they had known about Kamala Harris, just like if they had known about Hunter Biden’s laptop and if they had known how radical she was, I believe there would have been a boatload of Reagan Democrats slash Trump Democrats, and his landslide would have been way bigger than it even was.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think their influence has really waned in the sense that somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of all the coverage of Kamala Harris was positive, and almost 90% of the coverage of Trump was negative, depending on which poll you look at. But either way, it didn’t work. It didn’t work. That’s the point. And that’s why I think they’ve completely lost their grip on forcing this, force-feeding the American people lies about what’s actually going on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, but that’s what kept Trump from winning 45 states, okay, instead of… I mean, I guess I’m just saying Republicans would have massive, massive… red wave blowouts much bigger than this one was. This was a game, even though he won all seven Swig states, it was still a game until the fourth quarter. It wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t for the influence that they have.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Got to move quickly here. Bob, we can’t do this kind of conversation without the support of our friends at Preborn.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s talk about that. We really can’t. And we appreciate you folks giving to Preborn. A lot of our listeners to this podcast have given to Preborn. You know what a blessing this is to be saving these babies’ lives. Maybe you gave already and you’d like to give again because we’re coming up on the end of the year and you need a nice tax write-off for yourself. Will you buy an ultrasound machine for Preborn? These are $15,000 a piece. Your forever legacy will be that you stopped thousands and thousands of abortions. Because when a mom sees a picture of her baby, that ultrasound image, she chooses life. And every penny goes to the ultrasound machine, not a penny for overhead. That’s pre-born. For the rest of you that are like, oh, I can’t afford the $15,000, will you pay for an individual number of ultrasound images? $20,000. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So pray about a number of baby’s lives you’ll save. Take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that’s your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you stopped. And same thing, 100% goes to the ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. So this is pre-born, everybody. Here’s how you give right now. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on pre-born. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born, give right there. Or you can give to a real-life person over the phone 24-7. Call right now, 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. And just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, a landslide victory for Donald Trump. What comes next? We’re going to talk about some of the transition in the second half. If your station doesn’t carry the second half, you can get the entire podcast at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. We’ll continue with the National Crawford Roundtable podcast in a moment.
SPEAKER 01 :
This has been a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 04 :
more to come on this edition of the national crawford roundtable podcast my name is neil boron host of neil boron live in buffalo new york still fighting some laryngitis but back at it here today and glad to be with the guys bob duco of the bob duco show in detroit michigan of course and john rush host of rush to reason on klz in denver colorado uh lara trump said that americans broke up with the liberal democrat party on election night and i loved the picture of that it just looked so good she said it with a smile on her face it was a wonderful thing um so we’re we’re moving in a brand new direction donald trump already making some key appointments uh some key people excluded like nikki haley for one and i was surprised bob you you were kind of a big fan i think of mike pompeo but he clearly said mike pompeo will not be a part of my administration do you have any thoughts on that
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I talked about that on my show. Look, I do like Mike Pompeo. He’s a born-again evangelical Christian. He’s very open about his faith in Christ. When he ran the State Department, he used to keep an open Bible on his desk, and he would regularly have Bible studies in the State Department. And he’s the guy who declared when asked what the answer to terrorism was in the world, he said the only true answer is Jesus Christ, the hope and Savior of the world, okay? So I’m a huge fan of Mike Pompeo, all right? But I also recognize that Mike Pompeo, he made a horrible mistake when he was in part of his attacking of Donald Trump. Because when Pompeo made a – oh, what was it? It was something – it was a decision that Trump made – I’m trying to remember what it was, but it was something that he was attacked and criticized for. But he exaggerated this and said, you know, that’s not really protecting our soldiers and things like that. And it really didn’t have anything to do with protecting our soldiers, protecting our military. And it’s like, wow, why would he jump on that bandwagon and basically pull a Mike Pence and throw Trump under the bus in that way? And so I believe it was January 6th is what it was that, you know, this just isn’t protecting our our soldiers or whatever.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so this is a thing where also, Bob, there was some talk of him actually being the presidential candidate and so on. Those things don’t sit well with Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so it’s competition to him in that way is how he looks at it.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you know what? And here’s why, honestly, Neil, why I’m not holding it against Trump. The reason for this is there is something that I think that Trump learned that he’s learning now that he didn’t learn before. And that is that you actually really do have to give a lot of weight to, if I can use the word, loyalty. Right. Because there is a certain sense of I need people that I don’t have to worry about stabbing me in the back, throwing me under the bus, trashing me, writing a nasty book about me, or being fodder for MSNBC if we go south in our relationship. If we do, I need people that… I’m pretty confident aren’t going to do that. And so that’s where Trump, I think, has learned a lesson that, you know what, loyalty actually really is a legitimate virtue in presidential politics. I may not need it in the business world as much, but for perception and politics and everything else, I think I do need that more. And I think that’s the reason why he’s going to surround himself with more loyalists who are competent and not merely competent people. and not caring so much about the loyalty factor.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and I think we’re going to see that as we talk about some of the appointments or people that are rumored to be appointees of Donald Trump here. And we’re going to get into that in a second. But I wanted to ask you this because the Senate leadership is up for grabs now. Mitch McConnell says he has no plans to continue as a Senate majority leader, which opens the door for someone to fill that role. Senators John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas. both i think kind of mitch mcconnell lights and of course president trump and mitch mcconnell have not gotten along rick scott is rumored to be trump’s favorite i guess but the question is should trump get involved in trying to push the issue should he meddle at all should he lean on this and try to get rick scott to end up you know being voted in as senate majority leader Or does he stay out? Because if he loses that, then right off the bat, having this huge mandate, he’s got this glaring loss staring him in the face if he isn’t successful at pushing through Rick Scott to be the next majority leader. So what are your thoughts on that? Start with you, Bob.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think that he should exert his influence. Why not? Rick Scott is much more of a loyalist to him. He’ll be able to work with Rick Scott, I think, better. And so for that reason, I think he – yes, he uses his weight with the Senate. And he says, come on, guys. Look, bottom line, I got elected and you guys got control as well. So let’s make this work. And so I think he should exert his influence. And if it doesn’t work and it’s not Rick Scott – Then fine. I think they’re still going to work with Trump, and he’ll lick his wounds and move on with it and still work with the Senate. Yes, he should be exerting his influence. He won. He’s got a mandate, and I think he plays it in his own party too.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I’ve seen some op-eds that agree with you. I’ve seen a couple that disagree. John, what are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 02 :
This is more of a question for both of you versus – a comment. There’s also a conversation out there about having J.D. Vance lead the Senate, which has been done in the past, by the way. It’s not the first time that’s ever happened. What are your thoughts there, Bob?
SPEAKER 03 :
That wouldn’t be a bad idea. Look, I don’t mind J.D. Vance having a larger role. He said he wants to be very involved.
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, technically, that’s his role anyways, if you really want to get down to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. I mean, look, I’m good with that. I don’t mind Trump thinking and working outside the box, and that’s certainly an outside-the-box way to do it. I’d be fine with that, too. But one way or another, I think Trump… has, I think he has a green light to basically say to the Senate, look, I am the guy at the top of the ticket and I am the guy that got this won for us. And this is the agenda that we’re going to be pushing through. And so you need to deal with that fact. And that means I want somebody that I can work with. And I can work with Rick Scott. And if I can’t, I can work with J.D. Vance. But I am not going to have another Mitch McConnell kind of situation where I’m doing battle within my own party. I refuse to do that. And I think he sticks to his guns.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree. I never thought of it until you brought it up. But I like the idea and I like that it’s out of the box. So I also nominate John Rush as national great idea guy.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think that’s a new cabinet post.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, if I can kind of throw in here, Neil, I am kind of curious what you got. You know, I look at the appointments that he’s made so far. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Okay, this seems to be smart. By the way, first female Chief of Staff in United States history. Yeah, he’s such a misogynist. Elise Stefanik, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Okay, good. He’s taken a hard right-wing loyalist and saying, I’m giving you an ambassadorship, all right? National Security Advisor Michael Walsh. Borders are Tom Holman. This guy’s great. Okay. Tom Hummel, Mike Huckabee, ambassador to Israel. That’s great. Lee Zeldin, EPA administrator. All right, fine. But here’s what I’m kind of curious. Oh, CIA director, John Ratcliffe. But this new department that he’s created of government efficiency, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Okay, fine. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hagseth. I’m kind of curious how this is going to play because he is a military veteran. He’s run a couple of veterans organizations. And so he’s got some veteran street cred. But Pete Hegseth is still kind of considered one of those Fox News talking head kind of guys. And I can see a lot of people going, wow, Secretary of Defense? I would have thought it would at least been some kind of four-star general for that. But Pete Hague’s only 44 years old to be the Secretary of Defense.
SPEAKER 02 :
Keep in mind, he’s written a lot of things about how woke the military has become, and a lot of that needs to change. And so do you want to put a bunch of four or five-star generals in that, frankly, are woke, that you’re going to battle with, like you just talked about with the Senate? Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know, and that’s why my immediate reaction here, honestly, John, was Pete Hague says, oh, boy, I don’t know. He’s a Fox News talking head. It sounds like this is way out of his league, but then I think, no, this goes back to what I was saying before. Get some people that are loyalists. At least he’s got some veteran street cred. that he can take that with him. And so I think the media is going to have a field day with that particular pick. But ultimately, I think it probably is a smart move. But I do think he’s going to have a perception hurdle to get over with this. But that’s just my take.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think they’re going to question everything he does. So I don’t think it actually matters. And I kind of like it. I like I like the guts that it would take to actually name him to that position. By the way, you mentioned John Radcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, would be Trump’s pick. I love this quote from Trump regarding John Radcliffe. He said, when 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one John Radcliffe telling the truth to the American people. don’t you love that that’s uh wow um these are some interesting picks though and it’s interesting that you mentioned susie wiles the white house chief of staff first female chief of staff of course ever in u.s history but i i guarantee that the legacy media doesn’t even pay attention to that like that that really isn’t it they’ll say it in passing because they have to You know, parenthetically owned, by the way, she’s the first female. They’re not going to celebrate it because it’s a Trump pick. But anyway, and a definite, definite underscore for loyalty there. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Kristi Noem, by the way, Homeland Security Secretary. Yeah, Homeland Security. Where does Tulsi Gabbard end up, Bob?
SPEAKER 03 :
Boy, that is a good question. I don’t really know. Director of Veterans Affairs, maybe? Maybe. You know, I’m not sure. But I would like – I’m hopeful that he doesn’t take somebody who is a – who is not that strongly conservative, basically a Democrat who stepped over the line. I hope he doesn’t take somebody like that and put them in a social position. social category like health and human services or something along those lines.
SPEAKER 02 :
She’s pretty strong on all those things. That’s not an issue on her end as far as that goes.
SPEAKER 03 :
She’s not pro-life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Not pro-life, but everything else that we were talking about even off air a little bit earlier today, she is.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, but you know what? Okay, this is a perfect example of what I was talking about before. In Trump’s first term, his health and human services was basically from top to bottom a who’s who of right-to-life officials. I mean, that’s who it was. Health and human services was right in lockstep with national right-to-life. And now is he going to put in head of health and human services somebody who is soft on abortion, if not actually, quote, unquote, pro-choice? So those are some of the things I think we have to look for the possibility of. But I would think for her, director of Veterans Affairs, if I had to pick something.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t think he’s going to go off the rails on the issue of being soft on the abortion issue, but he’s not made it any part of his campaign thus far. I just think we’re going to see far less from him.
SPEAKER 02 :
What’s weird is he hasn’t appointed her. I don’t think he’s going backwards. To your point, Bob, her or RFK Jr. have not been appointed yet.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know. No, and that’s kind of what I’m waiting to see. Well, like I say, though, he did create a position for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Department of Government Efficiency.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I’m guessing Vivek could be mainly the head because Elon’s not going to want to divest himself of all of his earnings to actually serve in a quote-unquote cabinet position, correct?
SPEAKER 04 :
Hang on. Let’s talk about some of that. But speaking of the life issue, Bob, we’ve got to get to the pre-born. Tell us about it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, this is so important. I mean, we know – We talk about pre-born all the time. And for good reason, folks. This is saving babies’ lives, okay? You can save babies’ lives by paying for ultrasound images. And there’s two ways that you can do this. Number one, buy an ultrasound machine. We need some of you in the audience to buy an ultrasound machine. They’re $15,000 a piece. Be a nice tax write-off for you at the end of this year. But your forever legacy will be that you literally stopped thousands and thousands of abortions because we don’t have enough ultrasound machines, folks, in the country. Preborn is set up in pro-life centers all across the country, but there are not enough ultrasound machines. So we need some of you out there to buy them for $15,000 apiece. Will you do that? Every penny goes to the ultrasound machine, nothing for overhead, all right? For everybody else, we need you to pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So pray about a number of babies’ lives that you’ll save. Take $28 times, fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, that’s your forever legacy of the amount of abortions that you stopped. So either way, whatever your gift is to pre-borns, Go ahead and give right now. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Or you can give to a real-life person over the phone, and the answer to the phone is 24-7. So call now, 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call, Neal.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. And I want to ask you about, you know, the Elon Musk’s and Vivek Ramaswamy’s of the world, et cetera. But before I do that, just something else came to my mind quickly. We mentioned you mentioned Elise Stefanik, of course, was not a Trump loyalist originally. She was almost a little bit more of a moderate, but became a huge supporter of Donald Trump during her time in the House. So she’s one example. There are others. But and there may be others down the road. She serves in the House. She’s a Republican. There’s a really slim majority, I think, in the House for Republicans right now. Do we put in danger losing the House in the midterms by appointing people from the House? What about those kinds of considerations? Or is she deemed to be from a sufficiently red district that it’s not worried that somebody else would just step in and take her place?
SPEAKER 03 :
I believe the way this works is the governor of the state, I believe, is the one who names.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, they have to have a special election. We just did that in Colorado.
SPEAKER 03 :
But for senators, governor’s name… Yeah, but it’s different.
SPEAKER 02 :
Representatives, because they represent the people, there’s another election. The governor has to announce how that election will work, the timing of, and so on. We just went through that with Ken Buck here in Colorado, and Greg Lopez became the interim, and then Lauren Boebert won that seat just in this last election, and that’ll change out in January. But there was a special election in Colorado for Greg Lopez.
SPEAKER 03 :
Really? Is that a state election?
SPEAKER 02 :
I believe that’s nationwide because of the fact that they are, again, representatives and senators are different. Yes, those are appointed by the governor. But in relation to the House of Representatives, those are done. I believe every state’s the same, Bob. I know in Colorado we just did that, but I think it’s the same in every state.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, you know, you may be right about that. I know with senators, senators are appointed all the time by governors for an interim position until the next term is up for that. But House members, okay, well, I mean, that is something to consider here. If it is a case where nationwide House members have to have a special runoff election, then, but you know, you have to assume as quote unquote right wing is the least authentic as perceived to be. This is New York’s 21st congressional district. If that’s a solidly conservative district, then maybe we would be safe in a runoff there. I guess that is one of the things that would matter.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s up to Hochul to call the runoff election to fill that seat. But, you know, there was a congressman in New York, I think his name was Christopher Collins, got, you know, bounced from the House because of insider trading allegations, etc. He was actually prosecuted about the whole thing, but his seat became available. They did a runoff election, put somebody in there temporarily, and then it actually swung and I think became a Democrat candidate.
SPEAKER 02 :
stronghold so i’ll double check on that maybe no there’s actually an article i was just looking there’s actually an article out in one of the new york um television stations news 10 whoever that is special election coming to new york’s 21st congressional district
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, there you go.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. So it would be a special election. It’s a special election that the governor sets the parameters of, but the people still vote on who that person will be.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, actually, you know what? I’m actually, in looking this up myself, yeah, this is actually a constitutional thing. The Constitution requires that vacancies in the House have to be filled through an election. Not the Senate, but the House vacancies are required.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, the House is by itself because they’re representing us as people, not anyone else. senators are typically representatives of the state representatives are representative of their people in that district right so that’s a little i mean that’s concerning in some way yeah and i don’t know enough about new york you guys are closer to that you especially neil are way closer to that than i am i don’t know what that 21st district makeup is is like i don’t know that well kamala only took new york by 10 percentage points at
SPEAKER 04 :
And I heard some people say that in the next few years, they think New York could ultimately become a red state. It’s not there yet. And it’s Democrat stronghold all over the place. But, you know, it’s one of those things where all the rural areas are red and the cities are blue. It’s just one of those states. And I don’t know where Elise Stefanik is coming from. I’m not sure how red her district is. So. Who knows exactly how that would go, but I just see it as a potential problem because if you start grabbing people from the House and you lose the House majority, you’re going to be impeached in like five minutes.
SPEAKER 03 :
By the way, just to add to this, in the Senate, the Senate doesn’t have to be gubernatorial appointment. The individual states can decide themselves, and here’s where we stand at this point. There are 36 states… that allow senators, Senate vacancies to be filled by the governor, 14 states require by statewide law a special election. And now Marco Rubio, if he’s Secretary of State, Florida is not one of those 14 states. So this is where DeSantis would just appoint. Which is easy there. Yeah, we can feel safe with that one. But that is something I’m sure that Trump’s people are telling him that, Okay. If anybody that you’re going to, here’s what I got.
SPEAKER 02 :
By the way, her district, I just looked up as R plus nine.
SPEAKER 03 :
R plus nine, okay, okay. It’s pretty safe. Yeah, I mean, I’d rather it be R plus double digits, but okay, okay. But you know what, Elise Stefanik, she really became a champion to conservatives when, remember, she’s the one who really exposed the Claudine Gay of Harvard University and these Harvard, that were unwilling to declare that it was against college policy to call for death to Israel. And she really exposed the – She’ll be good on the U.N.
SPEAKER 02 :
as far as all that goes just because of what you said. The biggest thing to your guys’ point is getting somebody else in her seat that will be just as strong. Right. Evidently there’s a plan there. As we all know, Trump’s not stupid. There’s got to be some sort of a plan there or they wouldn’t have done this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, and that’s kind of what my thinking is, that they had to sit around with the advisors and say, you know, Trump, if you’re going to lose the House, let’s not risk losing the House. So they obviously internally have determined that they’re not going to risk losing that seat.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, let’s go high-speed rapid fire here. Let me throw some stuff at you guys. The Swamp Busters. Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk. Elon Musk says he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. They also say they could eliminate jobs and maybe even three-letter agencies. Yeah, no offense.
SPEAKER 02 :
I could do the same. So, yes, do I have confidence he can do that? Absolutely. It’s a matter of whether or not legally they’ll let him.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Bob, are we going to see that kind of stuff from these guys?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think they’re going to try, and I think this is going to boil down to – it’s really going to boil down to budgets. The best way to cut the deficit and certainly reduce the debt – Is when the budgets come out, the slashing, if you will, of a bunch of government programs. And we know that the Democrats and the media are going to put a sad human face on any government program that’s cut. And politically, will you have Republicans in the House that have to start reelection campaigns the day they go in because they’re only two-year cycles? Are enough of them going to have the guts to go ahead and vote for a budget that is perceived as taking food from grandma? And that’s the challenge that I think is going to be much more difficult for people to realize.
SPEAKER 02 :
$238 billion on Department of Education, by the way. Look, I get that.
SPEAKER 03 :
What about Trump dismantling the Department of Education?
SPEAKER 02 :
Which, by the way, is a third of our defense budget.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know. Now, what do you think about Trump? Trump said when he was campaigning, he would dismantle the Department of Education. And you know what? If you think about it, do we really need a Department of Education? Jimmy Carter is the one who started it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Our test scores are lower today than when it started in 78.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you know what?
SPEAKER 02 :
And is it working? No.
SPEAKER 03 :
And by the way, before Jimmy Carter, there was no Department of Education. So there’s no rule that says we have to have a Department of Education. Dismantle it, put it to the states. I totally agree.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, real quick. Borders are Tom Holman. You mentioned him earlier. In some way, I think we need to go after the public safety threats, he said, and national security threats. Are we actually going to see people loaded onto trains like like, you know, headed to Auschwitz kind of depiction with families and children crying and mass deportation of that sort? Or are they going to approach it more strategically? We got to move quick. So like maybe 45 seconds each.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t think it’s going to be, no, I don’t think it’s going to be that kind of, I think it’s going to have to be more strategically done because yes, this is something the Democrats and the media will be all over. So first things first, go after the criminals, go after the gangs, go after those who have committed crimes in this country already, the sanctuary city protectees and those people, absolutely. You kick them out and then you start going to work on the rest.
SPEAKER 02 :
And at the same time, do comprehensive immigration reform where we do a merit-based system at the same time. And this could be done congruently, I guess you could say, where you do it together at the same time. And I believe you can. Really quick, X just tweeted out, Jake Sherman, Tulsi Gabbard is in the mix to be named National Intelligence Director.
SPEAKER 03 :
Tulsi Gabbard. Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Interesting. National Intelligence Director. That would work. I’m okay with that one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Super controversial. Here we go. John, you first. Pardon Hunter Biden or not?
SPEAKER 02 :
As long as you get one in return.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. That’s interesting. Bob, your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 03 :
First of all, Joe Biden’s going to pardon Hunter. And then Donald Trump, I say, needs to pardon almost all of the January 6th people. And for the ones who have already been in prison for the last three years, commute their sentences. The average term for rape… in America is seven years. The average prison term for drug dealing is two and a half years. There’s no reason. Even the most violent of January 6 people should be getting 20, 22 years in prison. So three and a half years, that’s enough time in prison. Commute their sentences. Pardon everybody else.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. I want to ask what happens to the criminal cases. But first, tell us about Preborn. Thank God for Preborn. We have the opportunity to be personally involved in saving the lives of unborn babies.
SPEAKER 03 :
We do. And when a mom sees an ultrasound image of her baby, she chooses life. She usually accepts the Lord too. So we need to get these ultrasound images in front of the moms. Preborn is the main pro-life group that does this all across the nation in pro-life centers. Problem is we don’t have enough ultrasound machines. So there are a lot of moms that are not able to see those images of ultrasounds. That’s where you folks come in. We’re asking you to buy an ultrasound machine for $15,000. Yes, it’s a big hit. It’s a nice tax write-off for you, but your forever legacy will be that you have stopped thousands and thousands of abortions over who knows how many years. Is that worth it to you? For everybody else, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. 28 bucks is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So how many babies’ lives will you save? Take $28 times fill in the blank, That’s your forever legacy of the number of babies’ lives that you saved. And either way, 100% of what you give goes to ultrasounds, nothing for overhead. This is pre-born, everybody. So here’s how you give. Go online to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on pre-born. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on pre-born. Or give over the phone. You can talk to a real-life person 24-7. Call 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. Neil?
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, just really yes or no. Will the criminal cases against Trump continue? Because some people argue they actually got him elected. John, your thoughts? No. Okay, they’re not going to continue or they are? No, they won’t. Bob?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t think they will continue. Certainly the national cases are going away. And the New York case, we’re going to have to see what this corrupt judge does November 26th. Is he actually going to try to sentence Trump to prison or is he going to try to keep this on ice forever? until Trump’s out of the White House. That I don’t know yet.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Well, stay tuned to the National Crawford Roundtable for future podcasts. We promise one of these days we will not talk about Donald Trump. Guys, God bless you. Have a great week. Thanks for being with us. Another National Crawford Roundtable podcast in the books.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’ve been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, a view of today’s culture through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time, she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts and more. from your local Crawford Media Group station or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.
