In this episode of Washington Watch, host Jody Heiss delves into the monumental strides made in the Middle East with the Israel-Hamas peace agreement. Joined by experts and correspondents, they explore the implications of the deal on international diplomacy and the quest for a lasting peace in the region. The episode also covers President Trump’s involvement and upcoming travels to solidify the peace process. Shifting to the home front, Jody covers the ongoing government shutdown, examining the political stalemates at play and their effects on the American populace. Featuring insights from congressional members and economic analysts, listeners gain a
SPEAKER 02 :
From the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 18 :
Last night, we reached a momentous breakthrough in the Middle East, something that people said was never going to be done. We ended the war in Gaza and really, on a much bigger basis, created peace. And I think it’s going to be a lasting peace.
SPEAKER 05 :
That was President Trump earlier today at the White House announcing the Israel-Hamas peace deal and his upcoming trip to Egypt and Israel. Welcome to this October 9th edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony Perkins. Thank you so much for tuning in today. All right, coming up, it is now day nine of the Schumer shutdown and government services are straining along with Americans as Democrats blocking efforts to reopen the government. And here shortly, Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde will join me with the latest on that issue. And the Trump administration is taking a harder line on drug trafficking, this time actually using military force. And the target? Well, narco-terrorists allegedly tied to Venezuela. Later in the program, Washington stand writer Yoey Suarez will join me to break all of that down. All right, Israel and Hamas, the big, big news. They have reached a crucial ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal. Obviously, this is an important issue for everyone around the world, but certainly also for President Trump and his strong approach to end this Gaza conflict. Hamas will be releasing all the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners while Israel begins a partial troop withdrawal. And joining me now is Washington Stand reporter Sarah Holliday. Sarah, let’s begin with this big, big news. What can you tell us? Let’s go with the timeline for the hostage release and some of the chances that this is going to actually be a lasting peace deal.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, Jerry. The agreement represents the first phase of President Trump’s initiative to end the two-year conflict in Gaza. Under the deal, Hamas will release all remaining Israeli hostages, with only around 20 believed to be still alive, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile, the deal also involves Israel partially withdrawing its troops. President Trump announced today that the hostages are expected to be released Monday or Tuesday. He also said he plans to travel to Egypt for a signing ceremony before addressing Israel’s Knesset.
SPEAKER 18 :
We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. And that’ll be a day of joy. I’m going to go to Egypt, where we’ll have a signing, an additional signing. We’ve already had a signing representing me, but we’re going to have an official signing.
SPEAKER 11 :
This conflict began with Hamas terrorists’ brutal 2023 attacks that killed over 1,200 Israelis and captured 251 hostages. Both sides celebrated the agreement with a truck set to enter Gaza soon. Challenges do remain, but President Trump called this a major step toward lasting peace, Jodi.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, it really is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Sarah, if I can switch gears with you now and bring you here closer to home. It is now day nine of the government shutdown. I’ve been there myself. Flights are being delayed all over the country. Staffing thin. Americans are certainly paying the price as the Senate Democrats continue to block efforts to reopen the government. What is the latest on this issue?
SPEAKER 11 :
Jodi, President Trump is saying that the ongoing government shutdown is actually an opportunity to make permanent cuts to bloated Democrat programs and realign spending with conservative priorities. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats once again, as you mentioned, blocked a Republican bill to reopen the government, prolonging the shutdown and its impact on everyday Americans. This is what Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor earlier today.
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If we fail to fund the government by the end of the day today, American service members will begin going without their paychecks starting tomorrow. That’s right, Mr. President. If Democrats can’t bring themselves to reopen the government by the end of the day, our troops, the people who protect and defend this country, will start missing their paychecks.
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As the shutdown drags on, the U.S. travel industry is struggling as airport staff are stretched thin, leaving travelers with no choice but to cancel plans. In addition, as Thune mentioned, our military troops won’t be getting paid either. But concerning the air travel, experts are warning that delays and cancellations may only worsen over the holiday weekend, which is a direct result of Washington gridlock led by Democrat obstruction.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. Well, it certainly is a major roadblock in talks to reopen the government. And part of the roadblock, frankly, is the Democrats’ push to try to extend all the COVID-era Obamacare subsidies which in and of themselves could fund abortion as well as gender transition surgeries and so forth. So obviously this is something we oppose a great deal, and we’re going to be keeping an eye on this and reporting it. Sarah, let me throw one more at you. There was a meeting yesterday about left-wing violence that took place in the White House. What can you tell us about that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Jodi, President Trump is taking a hard stance on Antifa. He’s called them a domestic terror threat. And he’s also promised a forceful federal response. At a White House roundtable discussion yesterday, President Trump said law enforcement will be, quote, very threatening toward the far-left movement, which he says has long intimidated communities and targeted police. Joined by officials like FBI Director Kash Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Trump emphasized the need to protect law and order across the country. We can’t and we will not let mask terrorists burn our buildings, attack our law enforcement, intimidate our communities. Attorney General Pam Bondi went on to praise tech companies for removing anti-law enforcement apps. And she said the administration is using the full power of federal law enforcement to take on Antifa and its backers.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you so much, Sarah. A lot of information you’re covering, and we appreciate it a great deal. I want to go ahead now and turn our attention back to the federal government, the funding fight that’s taking place. I’d like to get a congressional perspective of it all, and joining me now to discuss this and more is Congressman Andrew Clyde. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee as well as the House Budget Committee. and he represents the 9th Congressional District of my home state of Georgia. Congressman Clyde, welcome back to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you, Jody. It’s great to be with you on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, listen, it’s always great to talk to you as well. Before we get into the government shutdown stuff, just real quickly, I wanted to get your reaction to the deal that was struck between Israel and Hamas today. It’s big news.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, I’ll tell you what, our president, Donald J. Trump, is certainly the peace president. He has been advocating for peace across the entire world in various different conflicts. And this has been a phenomenal achievement by the president right here. I think that when the hostages are released, like you said, on Monday or Tuesday, it will be an incredible victory for the president and for Israel as well. And, you know, we’ll see if Hamas actually comes through with it. I believe I hope they do. I really do, because, you know, these families need closure. They need their their their family members back. And it’ll be the first time I think that there will actually be peace in the Middle East, you know, since 1976 when Egypt and Israel signed their peace agreement.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think we’re all waiting on bated breath just on that very issue. Is Hamas going to actually hold up to this? We’ll see and continue praying to that end. Let me come back now to the federal government, the shutdown. We’re now in day nine of it all. Republicans have put forward a clean, continuing resolution, and yet the Democrats continue to vote it down. What are you seeing? What are you hearing behind the scenes there in Congress?
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, you know, as a member of the House, we have done our job. We have funded the government. And it’s up to the Senate right now to do their job. And in Georgia, we have two senators, Senator Warnock and Senator Osthoff, that have consistently voted, I think now for the seventh time, to not fund the government and therefore to allow funding to lapse. You know, they’re putting… Health care for illegal aliens above pay for our troops, you know, and that’s simply despicable. I think Chuck Schumer said it best when he said every day gets better for Democrats. But what he forgot to say is that it gets worse for the American people. But that’s exactly the way the Democrats look at it right now. And it’s just it’s disgusting to see. And as a result, I think that every American citizen needs to call their senators, their Democrat senators, and say, what in the world are you doing? All right? You’re not helping America. You’re making it worse for everyday citizens in this beautiful country.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and I think, quite frankly, he’s rather delusional, thinking that every day makes it even better for Democrats. I think he’s wrong on that issue as well. You look at the polling of Democrats, they are at all-time lows in favorability across the country, and it’s this very thing, it looks to me like, is the reason why. This is just horrible timing, though, for it all. Can’t the Democrats just pass a clean CR rather than demanding one and a half trillion more dollars, and talk about what they want after the government reopens. Isn’t that really what this is all about? Why won’t they do that?
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, you know, they want to try and use this leverage of government funding to eliminate all the wins of the one big, beautiful bill. And then if you look at it in the big, beautiful bill, you have a 50 billion dollar rural hospital fund. Well, you know, a lot of Republican areas are rural. And so they’re trying to to literally take away the health care of those in the rural districts as opposed to those who live in urban districts. And then you’ve got the win of defunding NPR within the within the rescission bill that they’re trying to eliminate. So it’s. It’s illegal alien and their health care over American citizens and over the armed forces and their pay. And it’s absolutely shameful that the Democrats would do this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and their proposal would fund abortion and gender transition procedures as well. I mean, there’s just a host of horrible things in here. And thanks to each of you for standing firm on this. The ball is in the course of the Democrats, whether the government’s going to be reopened or not. Final question for you, Congressman Clyde. The Congressional Budget Office, CBO, released their final monthly budget review for fiscal year 25, showing a $1.8 trillion increase budget deficit for the year. Your reaction to that?
SPEAKER 20 :
Yes, I read that, actually, being on the budget committee. It includes an additional $80 billion of interest payments over and above what we normally have paid. So it’s an absolute testimony to how… bad the Democrats have been in the prior administration. I mean, if you looked at that, you saw a massive increase of spending for the EPA, like $23 billion for the EPA in grants that went out in November and December. And if it hadn’t been for the one big, beautiful bill, which cut like $230 billion in of woke spending out of the unconstitutional Department of Education, it would have been a greater deficit than that. It’d been over $2 trillion.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. Thank you so much, Congressman Andrew Clyde from Georgia. Always great to see you, my friend. Thank you for joining us on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you, Jody. Great to be with you.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, coming up next, we’re going to talk about the deal between Israel and Hamas. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Stay tuned, find out.
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Three years ago, the Supreme Court issued its historic Dobbs decision, a ruling that overturned Roe versus Wade, which for nearly 50 years imposed abortion on demand, silencing voters and bypassing the democratic process across the country. The Dobbs decision was a huge step forward against abortion, but it didn’t outright ban it. It returned the power to the people. Now, 29 states have laws on the books protecting life. However, there’s a catch. Abortion numbers since Dobbs have actually gone up with an increase of 12% since 2020, climbing from 930,000 to over 1 million in each of the most recent years. So how can this be? The answer is simple, the abortion drug. Today, over 60% of US abortions involve abortion drugs, many of these without medical oversight. In 2021, the Biden administration quietly removed bare minimum longstanding safety protocols for the abortion drug that have existed for 20 years to protect women from life-threatening risks and ensuring informed consent. The Biden DOJ then declared that they would not enforce the Comstock Act, which prevents the mailing of anything that causes an abortion. This is not only illegal, but also dangerous. A study shows nearly 11% of women who take the abortion drug end up in the emergency room with serious complications. Unless the Trump administration reverses these reckless Biden-era policies, pro-life laws will remain largely symbolic. Without a full review and repeal of Mifepristone, unborn lives will remain in grave danger, and pregnant mothers will remain at risk. Let’s stand for life and end this mail order abortion drug pipeline. Sign the petition urging the Trump administration to take action at frc.org slash stop chemical abortion.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Family Research Council invites you to join our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan as we reflect upon the life of Jesus, the Word who dwelt among us. Come with us and discover the glory of the Word. Read the Gospels and witness the life-changing story of Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection. Come read how Jesus transformed the lives of common people and how those same people transformed the known world through the power of the Holy Spirit. Come with us for 10 to 15 minutes a day and read the entire New Testament before the new year. Find our Bible reading plan in daily devotionals from Tony Perkins at frc.org slash Bible. Join us in Stand on the Word.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good afternoon. I am Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you so much for tuning in. All right. You’ve heard the news by now. Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a deal that is going to see all the hostages that have been held in Gaza released. in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. And although the Israeli government still needs to officially approve the plan before it commences, which, by the way, is something they could do very soon, President Trump told reporters today that the remaining hostages who were held by Hamas should be released by Monday or Tuesday. A day that he says, and we all agree, is going to be a great day of joy. But what all else is remaining in all of this? And are we literally, potentially about to see the end of this war? Well, joining me now to discuss this. Live from Tel Aviv is Ruthie Bloom. She’s a columnist and senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate. She’s also a former advisor at the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ruthie, welcome back to Washington Watch. Great to see you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much, Jody. It’s great to be here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, listen, thank you. I know it’s late there. Thank you for staying up to giving us the latest of what’s happening here. Let me begin, Ruthie, just with your overall reaction to the news when you first heard it, and what are you hearing from others there in Israel?
SPEAKER 01 :
OK, so first of all, when we first heard about the plan, that’s before it was accepted, it was accepted by Israel. But as President Trump said, we’re waiting for Hamas to give an answer. The other Arab countries and Turkey, et cetera, said yes. And President Trump was waiting for Hamas’s answer. That was two days ago. or three days ago. I’m getting confused because, as you say, it’s late at night right now. The Israeli cabinet is meeting to approve this. And Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are here. So nobody’s getting any sleep. All right. But anyway, Hamas suddenly late at night. issued a response, which basically was no, it wasn’t yes. But President Trump did a clever thing. He said, oh, Hamas accepted the deal. Now we can all meet in Sharm el-Sheikh and iron it out. I mean, Hamas’s answer was really anything but a yes. But this started the wheels in motion. And what we are knowing, what we now know is that the hostages are going to be returned. And the beauty of this deal is that unlike previous deals that were called peace deals, et cetera, in Israel and with the Palestinians, this one puts the onus on Hamas. It is saying you first free the hostages and then Israel will free prisoners. You first do this and then Israel will do that. In other words, treating Hamas like the defeated entity that it actually is. And this has been a big mistake of liberal American administrations and liberal Israeli ones, too, in the past, that negotiations with terrorists always sort of treated them as equals or as, you know, people that are like, OK, we’re making a deal. No, this time the onus is on Hamas.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, we are all prayerful and hopeful that they’re going to hold the deal and release the hostages come Monday or Tuesday. This is just phase one. Now, there are other outstanding issues that are not covered by this particular phase of the agreement. So what are some of the other needs that will be sorted out going forward?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, from Israel’s perspective, again, all the goals of the war were to have the hostages freed and to have Hamas completely disarm and ensure that Gaza is de-radicalized to the point that it no longer poses a threat to the state of Israel. So all of that is in that deal. There are other sticking points like humanitarian aid. Okay, Israel has agreed to that. They’ll continue to be a flow of humanitarian aid. But Hamas has been saying, well, about disarming, maybe we’ll just disarm our heavy weapons and not our light weapons or, you know. Listen, it’s a terrorist group, so it’s going to try any stunt that it can. The only question is, what happens if it doesn’t do something? That’s always the question in these deals, because believe me, peace is not going to come out of this. When the war is over, we’re still going to have, when I say the war is over, I mean when Israeli troops withdraw to an agreed upon line that is drawn on a map that was agreed upon between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other countries. After that, the question always is, what happens when, not if, when the terrorists violate? I’m praying that this time around, especially after the trauma of October 7th, 2023, that we are going to take every, the tiniest violation with the utmost seriousness and not be worried about what the UN says if we have to go back into Gaza and kill more terrorists.
SPEAKER 05 :
President Trump is going to be traveling, at least he’s saying so, to the Middle East in coming days. And he’s certainly been invited to speak there at the Israeli Knesset. And in fact, the Knesset was lit up, as I understand, in red, white and blue for that expected visit. How are the people of Israel feeling about President Trump right now?
SPEAKER 01 :
They are so enamored of President Trump that you have no idea. At Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, they had somebody dressed up like Trump. They’re just people wrapped in American flags and people screaming, Trump, Trump, Trump. Now, I want to tell you why that’s ironic. I mean, I’m thrilled with President Trump as well, but I’d just like to say what’s ironic about it. Part of the main protest, anti-government protest movement, which tried to hijack all the hostage families by turning the need to free the hostages into an anti-government protest for the past two years. These anti-government protesters tend to be on the left, if not the radical left. And to hear the leftists praising Trump to the skies and singing odes to him in order to say that Netanyahu had no role in this amazing outcome, as though Netanyahu didn’t change the face of the Middle East in the last two years.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. Ruth and Bloom, I’ll tell you, this is exciting times and times for everyone to be continuing in prayer. Again, thank you. I know it’s late there. You probably would love to go to sleep, but you’ve got a lot of plates spinning there. So get back to work and try to get a little bit of rest. But thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, again, thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, President Trump is not only working for peace in the Middle East, he’s also engaged in another war of its own, one on drugs. What are we to make of all of it? We’ll unpack it right after this break. Stay tuned.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Well, good afternoon. Again, welcome back to Washington Watch. I am Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you for joining us as well. All right. While President Trump has been striving to bring peace to the Middle East and seems to have made some enormous strides there, he’s also made it clear that there’s at least one war worth waging here, and that is the war on drugs. And the Trump administration is simply recognizing the decades-long efforts by the U.S. drug enforcement officials simply has not been enough. It’s not accomplished what it should have accomplished. So it’s been resorting, this administration, to military force to stop the narco-terrorists and particularly focusing on those coming out of Venezuela. And Democrats, not surprisingly, they’re opposed to all of this. And along with them, the Venezuelan officials, I would also say, insist that they have no part in drug trafficking. So is the Trump administration right here? Well, joining me to offer some perspective in all of this is Washington’s stand writer, Yogi Suarez, who was exiled from Cuba for his investigative reporting on topics that socialist governments simply don’t want to have covered. Yogi, welcome to Washington Watch. It’s great to have you.
SPEAKER 17 :
Thank you for the invitation. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 05 :
OK, so on Monday, we had some Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee expressed opposition to what the Trump administration is doing and literally accused the president of pushing for a regime change in Venezuela. So what do people really need to know when it comes to this whole issue that we’re watching in Venezuela?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, the first thing to understand is that Nicolás Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. He lost in a landslide in July 2024 in the presidential elections last year down there. And he is the head of a cartel, El Cartel de los Soles, who involves high-ranking officials in his regime. and involves Maduro himself. What we have to understand is that the Cartel de los Soles operates with El Tren de Aragua, which is a terrorist organization. It was named like that by President Trump, by this administration, and also works with El Cartel de Sinaloa in order to get drugs here to the U.S. that is killing this drug thousands of Americans.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. So let me ask you this. Yesterday, Senate Democrats tried and failed, but they attempted to pass a bill to stop the U.S. military from having strikes on drug boats, if you will, off the coast of Venezuela. But you, having lived in Cuba… What do you think about the position that the Democrats are putting themselves in in opposing any stoppage of these drug boats that are coming?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, it’s sad that one of the major parties here in the U.S. is aligned, in fact, with terrorist organizations. We have seen that with the Democrat base and some Democratic officials. with Hamas and Hezbollah. But now there are some of them, let’s say, are aligned with the Maduro regime, which is a terrible regime. And it’s an ideological colony of Cuba. Cuba is the head of the snake down there in South America, in Latin America in general. And in Venezuela, Chavez, Hugo Chavez first, and now Maduro, has been destroying the country for decades now. It’s very sad seeing the Venezuelan people. They don’t have medicine. They don’t have access to the basic services. There are a lot of—it’s a rich country, I mean, with so much resources. And for some reason, it has the highest inflation in the world, I think, also with the Cuban inflation. So it’s really sad what is happening. And it’s sad that a major party here in the U.S. is aligned with these kind of regimes.
SPEAKER 05 :
It really is stunning to watch. Now, let me ask you this. We’ll just go one step further in this whole discussion. The Trump administration has literally been building up military forces there in the Caribbean, now having deployed some 10,000 U.S. troops in the region, mostly in bases there in Puerto Rico. What do you make of the direction that the administration is going in?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, the next logical step is going inland with targeted attacks to drug objectives, targets down there in Venezuela. The last weeks, we have seen the military from here, from the U.S., destroying vessels that are transporting drugs to the Caribbean area. And let me tell you something. small towns in front of the Caribbean were fisher towns with people fishing and commerce with commerce and the drug trafficking has destroyed All these towns have put these towns in danger. And I can tell you, a lot of Venezuelan people down there, they don’t want this reality anymore. They want Maduro out because they recognize he is not the legitimate president, I repeat, He is the head of a terrorist organization that is not only harming them, but harming other countries in the Caribbean area specifically, and working with the worst cartels, even in Colombia and Mexico.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. Thank you so much, Washington stand writer, Joey Suarez. Great perspective, and we appreciate you joining us on Washington Watch. Thank you. All right. Coming up next, we are going to go from narco terrorists in Venezuela to Islamic terrorists in Nigeria and the so-called anti-fascist terrorists right here in America. So stay tuned.
SPEAKER 15 :
Family Research Council is committed to advancing faith, family, and freedom from the East Coast to the West. So FRC is going to Southern California for this year’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, October 17th and 18th at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills. Join us for this powerful gathering of Christians desiring cultural renewal and spiritual revival. The Pray, Vote, Stand Summit brings together Christian leaders, issue experts, and government officials for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action. Together, we will seek God’s guidance for our nation and engage in meaningful discussions on the intersection of faith, government, and culture. If the spiritual foundations and the cultural walls of our nation are to be rebuilt, we all have a role to play. May we each find our place on the wall as we build for biblical truth. Jennifer, it’s so exciting to be here with you today talking about our new book, Embracing God’s Design.
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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.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you so much for joining us today. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Welcome back to Washington Watch. Before we conclude the program and I bring on my next guest, I want to just remind you that next week, next week is our Pray Vote Stand Summit taking place in Chino Hills, California, October 17th and 18th. It’s not too late to register if you have not already done so. Again, this is a powerful, powerful event. Never before has there been a more critical time probably than right now for us to unite together to pray, vote, stand. You can learn more and register by going to prayvotestand.org. All right. Much needed attention was drawn to the persecution of Christians that has been taking place in Nigeria. And we thank U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who’s been making this a top priority. He’s been talking with and taking some Nigerian officials to task for the way they have seemingly ignored or even facilitated the mass, mass killing of Christians by Islamic jihadists. And while a spokesperson for Nigeria’s president has certainly pushed back against Senator Cruz, calling his statements malicious and contrived lies, many have pointed to an abundance of reporting that’s out there on the situation taking place in Nigeria. And also, we certainly have the previous administration under Joe Biden deciding that Nigeria is not a country of particular concern. There certainly now, at least, is a growing push to see that designation restored. And joining me now to discuss this is former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback. Ambassador Brownback, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to see you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, it’s great to join you, Jody, and glad to talk about this topic. It needs to be talked about. We finally got a burst of energy around Ted Cruz and of all people, Bill Mayer, raising this issue as a key one. So I’m hopeful we’re going to start to see some action taking place.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I am too. And I agree with you. It’s amazing how sometimes you have issues like this that are totally swept under the rug and ignored by the legacy media. We’ll just put it that way. But as you brought up Senator Cruz… You know, he has brought this to light and some in Nigeria are pushing back, saying that these are nothing but malicious, contrived lies and that Christians are not targeted in Nigeria. What, Ambassador, is your response to that?
SPEAKER 06 :
That sounds like a government press secretary doing what the Muslim president told her to or him to do and to say. The facts are very clear. They’ve been consistent and they’ve been growing. You’ve got a group of terrorist organizations operating in Nigeria and throughout the countries in that region, the Sahel. You’ve got weaponizing of a Fulani herdsman group, particularly the younger men in this group. They’re going in and terrorizing, killing Christian villagers to drive them out. of the region to Islamicize the area. And this is just a full-scale onslaught, slaughter, and you’re going to see a lot more of it unless their government steps in and does something, and our government should push as hard as we can to force the Nigerian government to deal with this situation.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I want to come back in just a moment to what our government can and should be doing. But as you referenced the spokesperson for the Nigerian government, he went on and said that their government is committed to ensuring that there is religious freedom. In Nigeria. And so what is your take on you brought up the Nigerian government. So what is your take on how they have been handling the persecution and literal martyrdom of thousands of Christians in that country?
SPEAKER 06 :
Either their response has been complicit with what’s taking place, they’re okay with it and they’re turning the blind eye the other way, or they’re feckless and they won’t do anything about it that’s going to upset some of their political base. I don’t know. Either way, you’ve got the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian now is in Nigeria. And you’ve got this robust growing church in southern and central Nigeria that some of the most dynamic Christians in the world facing the most aggressive Islamic radical militants in the north and in that center belt. And this is a historic clash. And it’s spreading throughout this region. And we’re going to start to feel a lot more ramifications of this as these governments in the region either topple, as some of them have, get more bought into the Chinese-Russian model, as some of them are taking place. This is going to be a huge problem for us. I’ve got an article coming out soon about this could be a 500 million person caliphate. throughout that middle area of Africa if we don’t get busy and start addressing this situation.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. Yeah, when you look at it from that perspective, you realize this is a huge, huge issue. So let me ask you that. How important is it for Nigeria to be designated as a country of particular concern?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, it’s important because it can possibly get the government to do something. But we can’t stop there. We’re going to need to sanction them off of this unless they will actually step up and enforce their laws and ensure religious freedom for everybody. The last time the president of Nigeria was in the United States and met with President Trump in his first term, President Trump said, hey, you got to start protecting the Christians. And he went back and sent his military into the regions where they were getting attacked. and the persecution reduced substantially. That can happen again. Or, Jody, we need to start looking at ways that we can arm the Christians so that they can at least fairly fight back. And that’s a conclusion I’ve been very hesitant to get to, but it may be the only response we can have.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. Okay, so you mentioned sanctions. What other steps, final question here, do you think the U.S. should be doing? Certainly designating them as a country of particular concern, sanctions. What more specific actions by our government would you like to see here?
SPEAKER 06 :
I think we need to go into the region. You’ve got this entire, as I say, this Sahel region. There’s a number of weak governments in the region. I think we need to start cooperating with the ones that will cooperate with us and recognize that the Chinese and the Russians are all over this place already. We’ve got to start getting in there and start getting engaged, or we’re going to have a much bigger problem on our hand that’s going to be much harder to deal with. We need to be more engaged overall, economically, security-wise, and certainly with religious freedom in this region.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you so much, Ambassador Sam Brownback, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. We deeply appreciate the work you have done and very grateful for you joining us today on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 06 :
Happy to do it, Jody. God bless you all.
SPEAKER 05 :
God bless you as well, my friend. By the way, let me just say we here at FRC, we have a related resource on this. If you’d like to find out more, you can go to FRC.org slash Nigeria CPC. And we’ll also include a link to that at TonyPerkins.com. So be sure to check that out. All right. To close out the program for today, there’s one more news item that I want to bring your attention to. And that is yesterday at the White House was a roundtable regarding the Antifa movement, which President Trump last month designated as a domestic terrorist organization. Joining me now to discuss this is Cully Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and manager of their national security law program. Cully, welcome to Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER 08 :
Jody, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. So let’s just jump right into the roundtable meeting that took place yesterday. Who was there and what do you think came out of it all?
SPEAKER 08 :
So it was really an extraordinary event, and I hope people watch it, because you had a lot of these sort of new age bloggers and sort of new age journalists, many of whom have been criticized or attacked or actually violently attacked by Antifa. You have people like Andy Ngo, who many of you know about, who was brutalized by Antifa thugs in Portland, Oregon years ago, beaten within an inch of his life. You have others who are in Seattle and other cities where Antifa reigns. And it was interesting because one gal even said, you know, I had a really bad case of TDS, Trump derangement syndrome. And she admitted to the president, to his face, that she was really an anti-Trumper. Then she started… embedding herself as a clandestine journalist with Antifa and started writing about it and realized that they are the problem, not him. And so it was an extraordinary day. And this puts a lie, Jody, to this idea that Antifa is only an idea. That is some amorphous, ambivalent, sort of cloud-based nothing group. And they’re real people, really funded by dark money groups. And the Treasury Secretary is going to get to the bottom of that. The Homeland Security Secretary is going to get to the bottom of this. So I think this is just the beginning of the unraveling of this Marxist terrorist organization.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I hope you’re right. I was actually in a meeting just yesterday with Andy Ngo, and hearing him talk was just shocking. It just underscores everything you’re saying. Now, you are among others who are actually calling for the designation of Antifa to be a domestic terror organization. You started, but would you unpack that a little bit more for us? Why do you think so? Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. So let’s let’s be clear. Designating them as a domestic terror organization is helpful in the sense that what it does is it focuses the government and the government’s vast resources and the joint terrorism task forces spread around the country. to go after Antifa and Antifa adjacent organizations. But domestic terrorism is defined in federal statute, but it is not a standalone crime. I know I was a federal and local prosecutor. It is not a standalone crime like murder or rape or robbery. And so you can’t be convicted of domestic terrorism. It’s not a crime. But I know a little bit about terrorism because I was a deputy assistant defense secretary in charge of terrorist policy in the Bush administration. So I’ve been around Al Qaeda and other folks, including the 9-11 hijacker types that orchestrated the 9-11 attacks at Guantanamo. And so The similarities between the two are really interesting. They used end-to-end encrypted communications. They have very complex financing mechanisms that are hidden from public view. And so I think the fact that they’re designating them as a domestic terrorism really focuses the government’s resources on them finally. So I think that’s the big thing, big takeaway.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, the left, I think it’s fair to say, would describe Antifa’s efforts as against neo-Nazis, white supremacy and so forth. But in reality, is it fair to say that they go far beyond that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, they can call it anything they want. They can call it a toadstool or an upside down tree for all I care. The fact is that actions speak louder than words. And when you see where Antifa thugs and apparatchiks are carrying out their mayhem and destruction and assaults, it’s against law and order. It’s against federal officers. It’s against the enforcement of federal immigration law. It’s against police. And so what I would say is they’re really against civil society and capitalism and the law and order. So, you know, I wrote a book many years ago, Jody, called Rogue Prosecutors, How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities. And I talk about Angela Davis’s book, Are Prisons Obsolete? And that comes out of the prison abolitionist movement. These Antifa thugs are against law and order. They’re against the capitalist society. And so they’re going to go after, attack, and foment violence on the instrumentalities of a civil society. So I don’t think they’re going after right-wing or right-wing extremists. And there are extremists on both sides. But on the left, they’re fully financed. fully resourced. I mean, I thought the president was great when he talks about how all these yard signs and all these things that they’re using to arm themselves at these protests, they’re all from the same place. So this is paid for, organized anarchy. And so I think the government’s right to go after them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. So let’s go there. And in the meeting I was in yesterday, this this was one of the major issues. And you just referenced the president’s executive order last month calling for the funding sources behind Antifa to be investigated and disrupted and so forth. So what do we know about the funding behind Antifa?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I don’t think we know as much as we should. And the reason we don’t is because they’re clandestine about it. If this was a red, white and blue personification of the First Amendment, freedom of speech and the freedom of free association, we’d all be for it. But that is exactly what it’s not. This is clandestine, end-to-end encrypted, multi-layered funding that is designed to be impenetrable. And so you need Scott Besant and the terrorist financing division at Treasury. You need the resources that DOD and the agency and the FBI have at their disposal. Now that the designation has happened, that unlocks a lot of those tools. to really get to the bottom of this. So whether they run it through routers throughout the world and drop it into bank accounts in the Cayman Islands or somewhere, and then they use Bitcoin or some other thing that’s harder to trace, we’ll get to the bottom of it. It’s just going to be a lot harder. It’s not like following the money in a bank robbery or identity theft. They’re very sophisticated, and they do it for a reason. They don’t want to be caught.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you so, so much, Kelly Stimson, Senior Legal Fellow at Heritage Foundation. A fascinating conversation and one that we need to get to the bottom of. Thank you for joining us on Washington Watch. All right, friends, that wraps up this edition of Washington Watch. Hope you have a fantastic evening and we’ll see you yet again tomorrow right here.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
