Join us on Washington Watch as we delve into the ongoing partial government shutdown and its implications on national security. With tensions high due to recent developments in Iran, Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper shares insights on President Trump’s stance and NATO’s challenging dynamics. The episode also features a conversation with Congressman Marlon Stutzman on the military losses of Iran and Israel’s strategic responses.
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 04 :
This is now the third longest shutdown in American history. They like making history on the other side, the wrong kind. They had the longest shutdown in history last fall, as we all know, and now they’ve got the third.
SPEAKER 17 :
That was House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier today as the nation headed into day 32 of the partial government shutdown. Welcome to this March 17th edition of Washington Watch. I’m your guest host Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you so much for joining us on this St. Patrick’s Day. We’ve got a lot coming your way today among some of the highlights as Republicans and Democrats continue to fight over funding for DHS. The war continues certainly to rage in Iran. And we’ll be discussing the latest developments there when we are joined in just a little while by Indiana Congressman Marlon Stutzman. And with Democrats withholding funding for DHS, the nation is on heightened alert. There have already been four lone wolf terror attacks this past month. And what do they all have in common? Well, we’ll discuss this later when we’re joined by Robert Spencer, who’s the director of Jihad Watch. So all that and much more is coming your way. All right, Israel says it’s killed another couple of top Iranian figures, their security chief, along with their commander of paramilitary Basaj forces. All this comes as President Trump says our NATO allies, who are not wanting to help the U.S. secure the Strait of Hormuz, are making a foolish mistake. And joining us now is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper, and we want to talk to him about the latest in all of this conflict. Casey, thanks for joining me. Hey, listen, I thought you’d be wearing a green tie today.
SPEAKER 25 :
Oh, Jody, I knew you were going to call me out. I apologize. I repent for wearing a red tie today.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, I just hope no one comes in there and peaches you while we’re in the middle of talking here.
SPEAKER 25 :
Oh, I’ve caught a few straights, Jody.
SPEAKER 17 :
Okay, I’m sure you have. All right, well, catch us up. What’s the latest that’s happening in Iran right now?
SPEAKER 25 :
Sure, Jody. So big developments in Iran overnight. Those two top military security officials were taken out in strikes overnight. That’s even more leadership that’s been decimated in Iran. And speaking of Iranian leadership, as you said, President Trump mentioned yesterday that it’s unclear whether the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Hamini, is even still alive. The administration said that he was likely wounded or disfigured. And we haven’t seen video of him addressing the people, which is raising a lot of of rumors. Now we have a clip here for President Trump earlier today at the White House.
SPEAKER 23 :
Everything is gone. Their leaders are gone. I guess one of the top person was they say a lot of people say their actual top was killed yesterday along with somebody else that who was responsible for the killing, the man that was responsible for the killing of 32,000 people over the last two weeks.
SPEAKER 25 :
Great green tie there from the president. But the president went on to say that the U.S. will leave the Iran military operation in the, quote, very near future. Now, as for what you asked about NATO, the president during those same remarks to reporters expressed a lot of frustration with NATO allies. He repeatedly said, you know, we spent billions of dollars helping NATO in Ukraine, and they didn’t come to our aid in Iran. So at least in the president’s mind, it seems that relationship is even more strange, Jody.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, well, let’s bring it a little bit closer to home, Casey, because some of this is even taking place as we speak or just shortly before we came on the air. But the Senate Democrats have delivered a counteroffer on funding the Department of Homeland Security as, of course, this partial shutdown continues now to stretch into its second month. What exactly is being proposed right now from Senate Democrats?
SPEAKER 25 :
Yeah, so we do have this new offer, as you mentioned. House Speaker Mike Johnson has already turned it down, but it was presented by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. So what is the offer? What’s the Democrat plan? Well, the reason Johnson turned it down is the Democratic plan was to partially end the partial government shutdown. They wanted to pick and choose funding some agencies, so TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, but keep ICE and Border Patrol shut down, possibly indefinitely. Now, this is coming as negotiations continue to fail over any reforms to ICE, even though the White House and Republicans have made a lot of concessions on that. Actually, it raises questions over whether Democrats want to fund ICE under any circumstances. But we have a clip here of House Speaker Mike Johnson speaking on the need to fund DHS.
SPEAKER 04 :
In just the last two weeks, we have had four jihadist attacks on American soil. Every one of those attacks… fall squarely under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security. And the Democrats don’t want to fund it. And now they’re demanding we strip funding from the very agency responsible for stopping all of that. It’s another dangerous game, a political game by Democrats that’s as foolish
SPEAKER 25 :
as it is perilous. Now, it took Democrats nearly three weeks to come up with this counteroffer that is clearly unacceptable to Republicans, as you heard Johnson say, which means the third longest government shutdown in history seems to be no closer to ending, Jody.
SPEAKER 17 :
Wow. We’ve got to get this thing over the finish line when we talk about four lone wolves just in the last two weeks. This is a dangerous situation. Casey Harper, as always, thank you for getting us started and giving us the headlines of what’s happening out there. I want to go now to a member of Congress and have our discussion continue regarding the Middle East. Joining us now is Congressman Marlon Stutzman. He’s a member of the Budget Committee, but he was also one of the first members of Congress to visit Syria and to meet with that country’s new president after the fall of the brutal Assad regime. Marlon represents the 3rd Congressional District of Indiana. Congressman Stutzman, always great to have you on the program, my friend. Good to see you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Jody, great to be with you. Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, you bet. All right. So first of all, President Trump has criticized U.S.-NATO’s allies over their reluctance to get involved in the war with Iran. In fact, he said that they’re making a very foolish mistake. What’s your thoughts on all of that? What’s going on with NATO?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that, Jody. I mean, it’s just hard to even understand what the European countries and the NATO allies are even thinking right now, considering that World War II is not that far in our history books. that we should all remember what happened when you have a crazy regime in charge in Germany and we have a crazy regime in charge in Iran. And of course, there’s folks that are even on our side that are saying, oh, President Trump is dragging us into a new war. No, he’s not. He’s actually concluding a war. Iran has been at war with the West. since 1979. They have killed 600 Americans at least. They have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. They were up in North Korea helping Kim Jong-un develop a nuclear weapon, so they would have had another buddy to have a crazy guy having nuclear weapons. This, you know, the Midnight Hammer operation last this summer was really the focal point as saying, look, we’re not going to allow an imminent threat to develop. People are getting all hung up over this imminent threat conversation. It’s like Iran was developing a nuclear weapon. I don’t know what else that means to people, but that is an imminent threat. And if they would have gotten a nuclear bomb, they would have leveraged the Middle East, they would have leveraged Europe, and ultimately they would have leveraged America.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, no question about that. And I think that’s well said. And while all this is going on to eliminate that threat, Israel has announced that they have eliminated a couple of top Iranian officials, their security chief, along with a paramilitary force commander. Your reaction to all of that? And that’s a pretty big loss for Iran.
SPEAKER 10 :
It really is. And I think that, again, shows the intelligence ability that Israel has. Of course, the equipment, the performance that they carry out, their young men and women that are all required to join the military in Israel shows how strong of a defense and military that they have. And before, it always used to be us running to our NATO allies. In Europe, that would have been the strong allies to go with us into battle, like after 9-11 happened. Britain was in Afghanistan and in Iraq helping us, of course, Italy and Germany and others, Canada. But in this case, I think because of the woke agenda that has creeped its way into A lot of our NATO allies’ countries, they’ve taken a back seat and don’t even want to participate. But then here you have Israel, who is under direct threat from the Iranian regime, is stepping up in such a big way. But it’s also good to see other Gulf states who now realize, and they’ve known this, the fact that Iran was not one of their friends, but Iran has now, they’re attacking Qatar, they’re attacking the UAE and Saudi Arabia and other countries outside of Israel. I mean, of course they’re attacking Israel, but here I think the world is now seeing that Iran is backed into a corner and they’re attacking what should have been even some of their friends in the region. And they’re just, they’re crazy. And I can’t tell you how much I’m impressed with Israel’s ability to perform these and carry out these strikes along with our U.S. military men and women. It’s very powerful.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, it is powerful, and it’s just stunning to watch. And yet, Congressman Stutzman, it’s unfortunate that here in the U.S. we are watching a drop in support for Israel. There’s a new national poll by NBC News, you probably have seen it, that just 32% of Americans have a positive view of Israel. and 39% have a negative view. What’s your thoughts on that and what’s happening with the attitude in the United States towards Israel?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it’s obviously concerning, Jody. You know, and I have been to Israel like you have, and a lot of our friends have been to Israel. It is not what Tucker Carlson describes it as. It is not a country where Americans would have to feel like they’re in danger. You know, the fact that Israel will drop pamphlets right now in Lebanon, they’re warning the people around those who are close to Hezbollah to move away. They’re going to come in and strike Hezbollah. They’re giving fair warning to people. We do that as well. The ship that we – the Iranian ship that we bombed, we even gave them fair warning that we are going to destroy the ship. That way, human lives could get off of the ship. And so that’s what we do in the West. We are going to destroy assets. We’re trying not to kill people. We’re actually just trying to destroy their assets that they used to kill us. And so, you know, I think that that Israel’s support has taken a hit because of the the left. You know, the Democrat Party is turning on on our relationship with Israel. In fact, I mean, when you and I served in Congress, Jody, many of the votes that we had on the House floor that unified Now, Congress was the support for our veterans and our military and then the support for Israel. And that’s changing. And a lot of folks, you know, we have one member on the Republican side that generally votes against funding for Israel, but he opposes funding for just about everybody. But we’re really seeing this anti-Semitism creeping into the Democrat Party. and into the mainstream, which we have got to combat. It’s now creeping into what some people say they’re part of the MAGA agenda, and they’re just not. The propaganda that’s being pushed from Iran and other enemies of Israel, it’s just incredible. And too many people are starting to believe it.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, it really is incredible, and it’s alarming, as you said, to see this shift that’s taking place. I do remember well how those votes were a unifying vote across both sides of the aisle, and to see that shifting right now is very, very alarming. Thank you so much, Indiana Congressman Marlon Stutzman. Always great to see you, and thank you for joining us on Washington Watch. All right, friends, we have a petition to urge Congress to pass the Save America Act. We were hoping to get into some of that with Congressman Sussman, but if you want to protect our elections, text the word SAVE to 67742. All right, coming up, a big blow to the public health agenda. We’ll discuss it next. Stay with us.
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When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal That they’re endowed by their Creator. With certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Happy 250th. Happy 250th. Happy 250th.
SPEAKER 15 :
Happy 250th birthday, America. May God bless America. You see, America has freedom for a purpose. The question is, are we living by that purpose today? See, the founders understood we as a nation would be accountable to God for what he had granted to us. They sought freedom for a purpose, and that freedom was given to us as a nation for that same purpose, to serve God, to honor him, and to live as a people under his authority.
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At the 2026 National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance in Washington, DC, members of Congress, state leaders, evangelical leaders, and intercessors from across the nation united as one voice in prayer.
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Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this gathering. We do repent, and we ask for your continued favor and blessing over our nation, even when we don’t deserve it.
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I thank you that because of the shed blood and the glorious righteousness of your Son, Jesus Christ, a sinner such as myself can boldly approach your throne. You said that you helped to humble, and we’re asking just now that you would help us, Lord.
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We pray that you humble us, help us to follow after you with all our hearts so that we can see righteousness exalted in this nation and this nation restored to you. We know that it’s not by our power, it’s not by our might, it’s by your spirit.
SPEAKER 15 :
Freedom has a name. His name is Jesus. And freedom has a purpose. It is to honor and glorify you. We pray that we would return to that purpose. Amen.
SPEAKER 17 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, an honor today to be filling in for Tony, and thank you so much for joining us. All right, a federal judge has temporarily stopped the Trump administration’s efforts to change the childhood immunization schedule. And that, as you may know, cut down the number of vaccines that were recommended for every child. And this particular judge, who, by the way, was appointed by former President Biden, But this judge has also ordered a hold on the appointments as well as all decisions that are made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. That committee, by the way, was reconstituted under HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, and they were actually scheduled to meet next week. But that meeting now has been postponed as a result of yesterday’s ruling. And the HHS is indicating, at least, that they intend to appeal that decision. But what happens in the meantime? Well, joining us now to discuss this is Dr. Robert Malone. He’s a co-chair of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He’s also founder and president of the Malone Institute, which aims to bring back integrity to government, the biological sciences, and medicine. Dr. Malone, welcome back to Washington Watch. It’s an honor to have you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thanks, Jody. It’s interesting times. And one small nuance. I was supposed to be boarding a plane this morning to Atlanta. The judge’s decision was two days before the ACIP scheduled meeting, not next week. So this was postponed until the last minute, apparently in order to cause the maximum chaos. This is a explicitly activist judge. who has repeatedly made decisions that seem to be specifically designed to create chaos for the Trump administration, particularly in the area of immigration policy. He has been admonished by the Supreme Court—that’s a very rare thing—for his actions. He has had multiple rulings overturned, I think three over the last year. He is a midnight appointment by Biden and a very close ally of Schumer and of the Senator, I’m sorry, I can’t get beyond the image of Pocahontas from Massachusetts. So this is a explicitly activist judge with a long history of judicial activism that has acted- Well, let’s-
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, let’s talk about the childhood immunization, the specific changes that were moving forward. Talk about those. What were the changes, and what was the reason behind making the changes?
SPEAKER 11 :
So you’ll recall the last time the ACIP met, I chaired that group, and our focus, among other things, was on the hepatitis B birth dose, a specific topic that the president had a particular interest in seeing addressed by ACIP. And we reviewed the evidence, including new evidence from the CDC itself, regarding the logic supporting childhood hepatitis B vaccination and made a decision that this was inappropriate to strongly recommend and in many states mandate birth doses of hepatitis B vaccine because the threat of hepatitis B outside of mothers who were hepatitis B positive was extremely low. And immediately after that, the president announced a directive that he wanted to see a major restructuring of the entire vaccine schedule to bring it into alignment with Western norms. OK, this isn’t radical. This isn’t an anti-vaxxer position. The president explicitly wanted to see a review and decisions that would bring the American vaccine schedule, which is the most aggressive in the world, bar none. in alignment with peer Western countries. And that effort, by the way, has not been disclosed previously, but I’m aware that it was spearheaded by Heidi Overton in the West Wing, together with Martin Kulldorff, Tracy Beth Hoag, who’s at the FDA now in the Center for Drug Evaluation Research, and others. But it was a presidential directive, And the response was well justified, rigorous, based on a structured analysis of the schedules of peer countries across the world, particularly in the West. And with that was made a decision outside of the ACIP. This was not done under ACIP structure, and it is not necessary to do so. The ACIP is a Federal Advisory Committee Act impaneled advisory group that advises the director of the CDC. The ACIP does not set policy except for one specific nuance. that the judge seems to have completely overlooked in addition to many other things, like actually asking for my CV as opposed to relying on the New York Times hit piece from four years ago. But hey, what are the details? So the judge appears to not have understood the FACA rules. And let me ask you this.
SPEAKER 17 :
We’ve only got about a minute left. What happens next? I mean, where does this go? Good question. Like I said, we’ve only got about a minute.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right now, I’ve just come off of a I’m trying to be succinct and not my skill set. I’ve just finished a major hour long conference with ACIP leadership at CDC. We are we are basically no longer to communicate with each other. We can communicate in a one-on-one basis, but we can no longer communicate as a committee. We can take no actions as a committee. The judge has not impaneled a replacement. So basically, ACIP is frozen, unable to act, unable to communicate. And the vaccine for children decisions have been rescinded, which means that, for instance, for poor children, very young infants, they’re no longer going to have access to subsidized RSV monoclonals that we approved in our first. So all of this, what this also means is there won’t be any authorization of the VFC program for new influenza vaccines, for COVID boosters, for anything, because that is the specific charter given by Congress to ACIP.
SPEAKER 17 :
We’re going to have to leave it there. Dr. Robert Malone, thank you so much, co-chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Very serious situation. All right, coming up, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and there’s certainly a lot of green in Washington, D.C. today. We’ll discuss this and more right after the break.
SPEAKER 18 :
I think all people really need to have this type of education.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I can tell you that it’s been an amazing course, period.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think this course is a reminder that a biblical worldview should really impact everything. It impacts our government from the federal to the state to the local. It should impact what we’re doing with our families and with our work.
SPEAKER 14 :
God and Government is a video-driven, Bible-based training course from Family Research Council that explores the connection between biblical principles and American government. In this six-session video series, FRC President Tony Perkins equips participants with a practical understanding of civil government from a biblical worldview.
SPEAKER 01 :
I would encourage all people to take it. I almost wish I would have took it earlier that I could have taught my kids this. I wish I had known these things when we were homeschooling because I think children and my adults now would just greatly be influenced by that information.
SPEAKER 22 :
So I’m an attorney, and for me, it gives me some direct practical knowledge of what I can do to try to impact my legal community to make better legislation, to try to encourage legislators to make choices that have a biblical worldview, which is what we really want.
SPEAKER 13 :
Any pastor would benefit from taking this course. because we are dual citizens, right? We are citizens of the kingdom of God, but we’re also citizens of this great land, and that comes with responsibility.
SPEAKER 08 :
Even as someone who has been involved in these types of issues for a while, you’re learning little bits and pieces of new stuff all the time. But it’s also approachable enough that newer people, younger people, high school, college students, they can really glean something from this. So… I would encourage everybody to take this course, whether it’s the videos, whether it’s doing it in person, bring your Bible study group through it, bring your homeschool group through it and equip yourself for these challenging days ahead.
SPEAKER 14 :
View the course at frc.org slash God and government or on the Stand Firm app.
SPEAKER 17 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you so much. Hope you’re having a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day. Earlier today, President Trump and Vice President Vance welcomed to the White House Ireland’s Prime Minister, Taoiseach Michelle Martin. And this took place, of course, on St. Patrick’s Day. And I know I was teasing Casey a little bit earlier, but it’s true. When many people think of St. Patrick’s Day, they think of wearing green and getting pinched in Irish pubs or drinking green beer or whatever it may be. But that’s not what St. Patrick’s Day is all about. And joining me now to discuss this and more is Sam McCarthy. He’s a writer at the Washington Stand, and he is joining us from Ireland. Sam is also a contributing editor at the American Spectator. Sam, welcome back to Washington Watch. It’s great to have you, and thank you so much for staying up late. I know you’re probably ready for bed now.
SPEAKER 26 :
Yeah, thanks very much for having me on, Jody. It’s really good to get the opportunity to talk to you again.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, let’s talk about the prime minister of Ireland, the visit today at the White House. How significant is this that he’s able to meet with the president and vice president today on St. Patrick’s Day?
SPEAKER 26 :
Yeah, well, I mean, this has kind of been happening to some extent for a number of years. You know, the U.S. has always had a fairly close relationship with Ireland. You have some of the Irish were among our founding stock who fought in the American Revolutionary War, helped establish the United States, and helped define the United States over the course of generations. You had a lot of Irish come in in the 19th century who helped build and establish a lot, expand a lot. So we’ve always had a very close relationship. Um, in recent years under Trump, at least, uh, President Trump has taken a bit of a more critical approach to Europe, uh, particularly regarding some of their policies, um, like mass migration and stuff. Uh, some of their policies regarding censoring or policing speech, hate speech laws, et cetera, which Ireland has in place, hate speech laws, and Ireland has enacted mass immigration policies, both legal and illegal, essentially. And so President Trump and Vice President Vance have taken a bit of a critical approach to policies like that. And so I think that in fostering the relationship with some of these European leaders, President Trump wants to ensure that they’re also looking out for the interests of their own people.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, tell us a little bit about St. Patrick. I think this is a story that many people overlook or just outrightly are not aware of. What is the significance of his legacy of spreading the gospel across Ireland and beyond?
SPEAKER 26 :
Yeah, so just without going into gross detail, which I could, Patrick was sold into slavery as a young man and was sold as a slave in Ireland, where he grew to really love the people. He was led back to what was at the time Roman Britain. by God, who gave him visions, leading him back to his home, where he trained to become a priest. He was consecrated a bishop, and he returned to Ireland. where he preached the gospel. One of the really unique things about St. Patrick and his ministry is that he’s a very unique position of having essentially over the course of his own lifetime not only introduces Christianity to this people who were at the time a pretty brutal people. Some of the Irish history, pre-Christian Irish history is very dark at times. you have over the course of his own lifetime, essentially not just introduces Christianity, but sees the entire nation, the entire people embrace Christianity and sees Christianity become the dominant force in society. That’s almost unheard of in the lives of almost any other apostle or missionary that you can name, you know, throughout history. So it’s a very unique position.
SPEAKER 17 :
And we actually have a free resource that goes into what you’re talking about. For those of you who’d like to have a resource from FRC on the life, the ministry of St. Patrick, simply text the word Patrick to 67742, and we’ll be happy to… give you a link, and you can get this yourself and share it with others. It’s a free resource. We want to pass it on to you. All right, Sam, before I let you go, you know, it’s a great history that Ireland has with Christianity and the gospel. It seems to me, though, that Ireland has drifted quite far away, as have so many other nations from their Christian roots. Is that true? What’s the spiritual climate in Ireland today?
SPEAKER 26 :
Yeah, it’s certainly true. It’s largely being pushed by the political class over here, promote a lot of secularist ideologies, abortion, the LGBT agenda. They’ve all become very much the rule of the land. Both were actually put in place by referendum. Same-sex marriage was legalized by a referendum in 2015 and abortion later on in 2018. So these left-wing policies have kind of taken their place And have sort of, you know, Ireland sort of abandoned a lot of its identity, you know, a lot of its Christian identity, a lot of its roots, a number of nations have. uh, in order to embrace kind of a, a post global, uh, sort of European pan European identity, uh, which isn’t Irish Ireland. Is it a, it’s the Irish nation. It should be proud of the Irish should be proud of their, their Christian roots. A lot of them are very many of them are, I know a lot of them, um, very proud of their Christian roots. Um, Instead of embracing this sort of globalist pan-European identity that you see in the European Union. And they try to force that identity onto other nations. Like you look at Poland or Hungary, where you have a lot of Christian principles still in place. They’re trying to be suppressed by the European Union.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, there’s certainly a lot that we can all learn from St. Patrick, and I want to thank you so much, Washington Stan writer Sam McCarthy. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for staying up late. Always great to see you. God bless you, and keep the torch ablaze, my friend. All right, coming up, recent ISIS-inspired attacks in the U.S. have us all on heightened alert. We’ll discuss it more when we come back after the break.
SPEAKER 15 :
We have state leaders that want to keep the deadly drugs out of their states. Maybe if these abortion pills were coming by boat, the administration would change its tactics. It’s time to respect the rights of the states, and it’s time to end death by mail.
SPEAKER 21 :
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, alongside Senator Lindsey Graham, led a press conference on Capitol Hill, urging the Trump administration to end the Biden-era policies that have allowed dangerous abortion drugs to be shipped across state lines. They were joined by state attorneys general, pro-life advocates and multiple Republican congressmen.
SPEAKER 05 :
There are more abortions today in the United States than when Roe versus Wade was the law of the land. And why is that? It’s because of the chemical abortion drug, Mifeprestone. Nearly 70% of the abortions that are committed in the United States today are committed because of Mifeprestone.
SPEAKER 06 :
The federal government is allowing a chemical abortion pill to be sent through the mail that wipes out every state unborn protection law in the land.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s harder to ship alcohol in this country than it is to ship the abortion pill.
SPEAKER 12 :
And that should never be the case. This is a drug that takes the life of every child. So there is always a death that’s involved in this drug, but is also incredibly dangerous for the mom as well. We think that we should require a doctor to be able to get access to this drug.
SPEAKER 24 :
As a doctor, I think it’s essential that there be human contact before the pill is prescribed.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s not about a national abortion ban. It’s about validating Dobbs and preventing other states from nullifying the legislative policy choices that have been made by our states and facilitating the illegal, unethical, and dangerous drug trafficking of abortion pills into our states without any medical oversight whatsoever.
SPEAKER 06 :
We can simply fix this if we have the courage to do it. So what are all of us telling the administration? You’ve been a great pro-life president, Mr. President. It’s now time to deal with this issue.
SPEAKER 05 :
We want to protect life, and we want to give voice to the American people and their right to protect life state by state, city by city, and yes, here in the United States Congress. That’s what this fight is about.
SPEAKER 21 :
Let your voice be heard. Text LIFE to 67742. Sign the petition. Tell the Trump administration to act.
SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 17 :
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heist filling in today for Tony, and thank you as well for joining us. All right, once again, before we go into our final segment, we just talked about it briefly, but I want to again remind you of this incredibly wonderful resource that we have, and it’s yours free, on the life of St. Patrick, a life transformed. You can have it for free simply by texting the word Patrick. to 67742. You’ll find a fascinating story, an individual who went from being a slave to being a flaming, flaming witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ all across Ireland and beyond. It’s yours. Text PATRICK to 67742. Okay, we’ve heard it from House Speaker Mike Johnson a little bit earlier in the program, and others are talking about it like crazy. So far this month, we’ve seen four terrorist attacks right here on U.S. soil. And although authorities have not directly linked those attacks to the war in Iran— There is certainly one connection that seems pretty clear, and that is the ties that the alleged attackers have with Islam. For example, during the attack at Old Dominion University in Virginia, the gunman yelled, Allah Akbar, and he had also previously admitted to providing material support to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. The individual who attacked the synagogue in Michigan was the brother of a commander with the Shia Islamic terror group Hezbollah. And the man who killed two and wounded 14 in a bar in Austin, Texas, was wearing clothes that had the words, Property of Allah. And then we had the… two men who tried to detonate explosive devices at a protest outside New York City’s mayor’s residence, they were avowed supporters of the Islamic State. So are these ties to Islam merely a coincidence? Or do they possibly highlight the dangers of Islamic extremism or radicalism or fundamentalism? Well, joining us now to discuss this is Robert Spencer. He’s the director of Jihad Watch and a Shulman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He’s the author of 32 books. including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades, and also The Truth About Muhammad. He has also led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, for U.S. Central Command, and others. Robert, welcome to Washington Watch. Great to have you with us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you. Great to be here, Jody.
SPEAKER 17 :
Okay, I know you’ve written a ton. I mean, 32 books is impressive alone, but you’ve written a lot about Islam, and it would certainly take a long time to list even just the titles of the books that you’ve authored. But if you could just kind of share with us some of the points you’ve made as we discuss this topic. Let’s start with the four attacks that I mentioned a few moments ago. When you hear about the details of these attacks— What do you say to those who don’t want to point out the Islam connections?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it seems as if they’re in denial, because these four attacks come after 49,000 jihad terror attacks around the world since 9-11. Now, people like to say, oh, every religion has extremists. But Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, you don’t see people who hold to those religions carrying out terror attacks at all, much less 49,000 of them in 25 years. And so that also follows 1400 years of a violent history that I actually detail in one book that I wrote a few years back called The History of Jihad. And so people who assume that Islam is a religion just like every other. They ignore all that. They also ignore the fact that Islam does have a developed doctrine and theology and legal system mandating warfare against unbelievers. No other religion has anything like that.
SPEAKER 17 :
Wow. All right, so you are the director of Jihad Watch. You’ve got a number of books, as I’ve already said, and you’ve written extensively about jihad. So let’s go there. Can you unpack for us what exactly that is?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, this is very important, Jody. Thank you for the question, because people don’t realize jihad means struggle. And there are a lot of struggles in Arabic, just like there are in English. You know, you can have a great struggle between civilizations, but also struggle to lose weight or quit smoking or something like that. And it’s the same thing in Arabic. But the primary meaning of jihad in Islamic theology and law is warfare against non-Muslims to establish Islamic law over them. And Islamic law denies basic rights to non-Muslims. It mandates a second-class status that denies the freedom of speech, denies equality of rights to women, discriminates against non-Muslims in all kinds of ways. As a matter of fact, to this day, Christians in Pakistan are colloquially in the country known as sweepers because all the kinds of jobs they get are things like sweeping the streets because they’re not allowed to hold authority over Muslims. That’s part of Islamic law. They can only hold the most menial jobs in society. Part of the mandate of Islamic law for Christians and others is humiliation so that they will realize the cost of rejecting Islam.
SPEAKER 17 :
So can you unpack for us, to help us better understand, the difference between Islamic terrorists and Muslims in general? I mean, are we talking a difference? In other words, are Islamic terrorists, are they radical or extreme Muslims, or is there a difference in the two?
SPEAKER 07 :
The Islamic terrorists are the mainstream Muslims who are doing what the Quran says and following Muhammad’s example. The Muslims who are peaceful do not have a theology or a sect or a school of law that supports their not waging jihad. As a matter of fact, the Quran actually criticizes Muslims who stay at home and don’t end up risking their lives and their possessions by fighting jihad for the sake of Allah. And it’s very clear that Allah favors those who go and take up the weapons of war and fight in order to spread his domains. And so there are a lot of peaceful Muslims. There’s no doubt about that, but there’s no peaceful form of Islam. And this is what confuses many people. They say, well, my friend Ahmed, he’s a gentle soul. He would never hurt anybody. And so therefore Islam is peaceful. That doesn’t follow. Unfortunately, there are violent teachings and supremacist teachings of Islam that Islamic jihadis can and do point to, to make recruits among peaceful Muslims, or at least to keep the peaceful Muslims off balance and afraid to speak up because they’re the ones who are not the good Muslims by the lights of the Quran. And that’s why we don’t see massive Muslim opposition to jihad violence.
SPEAKER 17 :
So is what you’re saying then is that Islam at its purest form, if I can put it that way, is not a religion of peace?
SPEAKER 07 :
Islam is not a religion of peace, Jody. That’s absolutely right. Every major sect, Sunni and Shia, and then also the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, every last major group of Muslims of Islam, every different form of Islam, with the exception of some tiny groups, They all teach warfare against unbelievers and the necessity to subjugate them as second class under the rule of Islamic law.
SPEAKER 17 :
Interesting. All right, I want to play a clip of some remarks that House Speaker Mike Johnson made regarding Islamic or Sharia law during his interview on this week on Capitol Hill. Play clip one for me, please.
SPEAKER 04 :
In their worldview and their belief, you kill the infidel. I mean, that is not consistent with the U.S. Constitution. The frame of our Constitution were, by and large, biblical Christians, and they understood our understanding of religious freedom is that everyone gets to believe and worship however they choose, and we jealously guard that. Radical Islam is the opposite, right? They wipe you out. And so those things are in conflict, and it would be foolish for us not to acknowledge that.
SPEAKER 17 :
All right, so is the speaker on the right track here?
SPEAKER 07 :
He’s on the right track. There’s just one thing. He said, you kill the infidel. That is absolutely true. That’s said four times in the Quran. Kill them wherever you find them. And one of those four says very clearly, kill the polytheists wherever you find them. And you’ve got to understand that in the Islamic scheme of things, Christians and pretty much everybody who’s not Muslim is a polytheist. But there’s also the other… possibility that the non-Muslims submit to the rule of Islamic law and are subjugated. And that is acceptable. That is one of the options for the so-called people of the book, which is primarily Jews and Christians in Islam. And so it’s not just a universal mandate to kill them all. They can either be killed or converted to Islam or subjugated under the hegemony of Islamic law. But there is no possibility in Islamic law for non-Muslims and Muslims to live together as equals in a secular society. And this is what most people assume. It’s going to be just fine to bring a lot of Muslims over here. But with the rising Muslim population, you’re also going to have a rising population of people who believe they have a command from the only God to impose Islamic law over this country by violence if necessary and by stealth.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, this is extremely informative, I’m sure, to many of our viewers and listeners. And, you know, the reality is not many Westerners know much about what’s in the Quran, their Islamic holy book, so to speak, because few have actually read it. But you’ve mentioned it now several times. What other things are in the Quran that people need to know about?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Christians in particular should know that the Quran in chapter nine, verse 30, it says that those who believe that Jesus is the son of God are under the curse of Allah. And this is something that renders them unbelievers chapter 5, verse 17, and also 72, they say unbelievers are those who say that Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary. So in other words, they are denying the divinity of Christ, denying that he is the son of God, that denies the crucifixion, denies the redemption. And so when Muslims come and say, we respect Jesus, they’re talking about the Islamic Jesus, who is a prophet of Islam, who teaches that Muhammad is going to come. But that’s not the Jesus whom Christians worship.
SPEAKER 17 :
So when we’re talking about some of the things that you’re talking about and just pulling back the curtain, so to speak, so they can really be seen what is behind Islam and the Quran and so forth, why is it that they seem to get a pass among so many nations, including many right here in the U.S.? ?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you know, the left in the U.S. decided long ago that the Islamic groups were right. Islamic groups connected to the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. have been saying for decades that to talk about Islam’s violent supremacist aspects is racist and bigoted and Islamophobic. Now, that’s a lot of nonsense. It’s not racist and bigoted and Nazi-phobic to criticize Nazism. And that’s another violent supremacist ideology. And Islam is the same way. But the left completely bought into that. So did many on the right as well. And many people to this day have been conditioned to think, well, I can’t talk about jihad violence. I can’t talk about Sharia oppression of women and non-Muslims because that would be Islamophobic.
SPEAKER 17 :
Okay, so you mentioned Islamophobic. What do you say to those who say to you and to others who share your views, they accuse you of being Islamophobic?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I would say that the facts are what they are. The Quran says what I have just quoted. It says many other things as well that should be deeply disturbing to non-Muslims who it calls the most vile of created beings in chapter 98, verse 6. So this is not just something that I am making up or exaggerating. This is something that unfortunately Islamic jihadis around the world, like the four who carried out the jihad attacks in the U.S. over the last two weeks, they confirm it every day. And the facts are there for anybody who is willing to see them, that Islam has a 1400 year history of violence and supremacism. It teaches violence and supremacism today. And then we see Muslims behaving in a violent and supremacist manner. So the evidence is all there. for anybody who wishes to see it. I think that, respectfully, those who do not wish to see it are in denial for various reasons. Maybe they think they can get Muslims to join their political coalition in the United States and get their votes. Or maybe they’re afraid that they’ll be targeted by Islamic jihadis if they speak out about these things. Or maybe they just are afraid of being called racist and bigoted by leftists. Whatever it is, it’s denial, and reality is always preferable.
SPEAKER 17 :
All right, unfortunately, only about a minute left, but we are a country that gives religious freedom, and yet Sharia law and so much of the tenets of Islam are incompatible with the Constitution, yay or nay.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, absolutely, Jodi. And that’s the thing. Religious freedom is not some kind of a license or get out of jail free card to break all the other laws and ignore everything else that makes our society free. And so we have to recover a real sense of what religious freedom actually is. and say you’re perfectly free to live as Muslims here and practice your religion. You’re just not free to wage jihad. You’re not free to oppress women. You’re not free to do the other aspects of Islamic law that contradict U.S. constitutional laws.
SPEAKER 17 :
And real quickly, where can people get more info on Jihad Watch?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, jihadwatch.org is updated many times daily with news about Islamic jihad activity in the United States and elsewhere. And I have all those books that are at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and if there are any bookstores out there still, they have them too.
SPEAKER 17 :
Thank you so much, Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch. Appreciate you joining us on Washington Watch. That’s all we have for today. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you, and we’ll look forward to be with you again tomorrow right here on Washington Watch. Have a good evening.
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.
