In this episode of Washington Watch, host Tony Perkins dives into the recent Gaza Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C. We explore the significant contributions from Middle Eastern nations towards rebuilding Gaza, contingent upon Hamas disarmament. Experts debate the feasibility of real change without addressing the root issues, while highlighting President Trump’s efforts to bolster support for his 20-point peace plan. Additionally, Casey Harper provides insights from the ground, giving us an understanding of the global and political intricacies at play.
SPEAKER 17 :
from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’m pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait have all contributed more than $7 billion toward the relief package. I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace.
SPEAKER 14 :
That was President Donald Trump earlier today at the first in-person Gaza Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C. Welcome to this February 19th edition of Washington Watch, coming to you live from the Real Life Network booth at the National Religious Broadcasters here in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m your host, Tony Perkins. Thanks so much for tuning in. Well, coming up at the first ever Gaza Board of Peace meeting, President Donald Trump says nine nations have pledged $7 billion to rebuild Gaza, but only if Hamas disarms. As Hamas works to tighten its grip on the territory, questions remain about whether it will ever give up control and whether reconstruction can truly happen without real change on the ground. Middle East expert Dr. Michael Rubin will join us in just a moment. Plus, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy will join me to discuss congressional efforts to restrict dangerous mail-order abortion drugs. Well, as tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to heat up, President Trump led the first Board of Peace meeting. The purpose of the Board of Peace is to advance the president’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza. Joining me now is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper, who is in Washington, D.C., and he’s been tracking today’s top stories. Casey, what came of today’s meeting?
SPEAKER 20 :
Yeah, Tony, I was tracking this meeting closely here in D.C., which saw leaders from the Middle East all over. In fact, representatives from 47 nations were in attendance. Now, during the meeting, President Trump announced that allies had contributed $7 billion to this Gaza reconstruction fund that’s going to be rebuilding and humanitarian aid. Now, the U.S. said that they will also make a contribution to the Board of Peace. Here’s a clip of the president.
SPEAKER 08 :
I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace. And we’ve had great support for that number. And that number is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war. That’s two weeks of fighting. It’s a very small number. It sounds like a lot, but it’s a very small number. So we’re committed to $10 billion.
SPEAKER 20 :
Now, it’ll be interesting to see where he gets that $10 billion from. Many have concerns that this is going to conflict with the United Nations. But the president pushed back on those concerns during his speech today, saying he’s also going to strengthen the United Nations. Now, the disarmament of Hamas is a key, key missing piece here. There’s a lot of congratulating today, a lot of talk of peace. But disarming Hamas is the elephant in the room right now, Tony.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I’m going to look at that elephant here in just a moment. Former Prince Andrew has been released after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in connection with his ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, this just does not seem to be going away.
SPEAKER 20 :
No, it’s a story that doesn’t end, and I think we’re going to see more to come. So, as you said, the former prince, he was arrested over allegations he sent confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein. Now, earlier this month, the police force said that it was looking into allegations that he had passed these documents to Epstein while working as a trade envoy. Now, King Charles said the authorities have his family’s full and wholehearted support and cooperation. And the former prince, he denies any wrongdoing in this regard, but he does say he regrets his friendship with Epstein. There’s a lot of that going around right now. But the former prince, he was forced to quit all official royal duties back in 2019, actually, when his ties with Epstein, because of his ties with Epstein, and he was stripped. by his older brother of his titles and honors last October as these revelations continue to come out. I think you’re absolutely right, Tony. This isn’t the last we’re seeing of this story.
SPEAKER 14 :
And I think there’s probably a lot of people that are probably glad that Jeffrey Epstein is not still alive because they can tell one side of the story. All right, Casey, thanks so much. President Trump has proposed sending National Guard troops to Atlanta. What’s going on there? What does the president hope to accomplish in Atlanta?
SPEAKER 20 :
Sure. Well, he made those comments in a speech at the White House. Now, it’s very interesting timing because the president, he cited the positive impact of the National Guard’s presence in Washington, D.C., and Memphis in regards to crime. But we saw what federal forces in Minneapolis and the controversy there. So it raises some questions about that. But in his speech, the president said, quote, we could take care of Atlanta so fast. And he said that all they have to do is call him for help. I’m not sure if he’ll be getting that phone call. He didn’t go into why he thought troops were necessary in Atlanta in great detail, though Atlanta does have above average crime rate. And this all comes as congressional Democrats and Republicans are still arguing because of the last time federal forces were sent somewhere in Minneapolis. So this is one to be watching closely.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, maybe they can take care of the traffic. Atlanta traffic is horrific. All right, Casey, thanks so much. Always great to hear from you there in D.C. I’ll be back next week. I’ll bring you a little maybe country and western souvenir from Nashville. All right, let’s find out more about this first meeting of the Board of Peace that took place at the Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. today. Joining me now to discuss this and more is former Pentagon official Dr. Michael Rubin, who is now Director of Policy Analysis at the Middle East Forum. He is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Middle Eastern countries, particularly Iran and Turkey. Dr. Rubin, welcome back. Always good to see you. Hey, thanks for having me, Tony. All right, first off, your take on today’s first meeting of the Board of Peace.
SPEAKER 24 :
Look, what I’m most worried about is that Donald Trump isn’t one to let a little bit of substance get in the way of a good show. And it’s all well and good to gather everyone together and talk about how much money has been raised. But the elephant in the room is whether or not Hamas will disarm. There’s been plenty of construction in Gaza in the past, but the failure of Hamas to disarm, the failure of the Palestinians in Gaza to eschew that terrorist ideology has ultimately led to that destruction repeatedly. So we need to get the disarmament of Hamas and we need to address the ideology which fuels it.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, let’s talk about that elephant in the room. That elephant is also a red line for Israel. Hamas has to disarm and has to go, according to Israel, and rightly so.
SPEAKER 24 :
Well, it’s front and center in the agreement that led to the ceasefire, to this 20-some-odd-point plan. But right out of Hamas’s playbook, right out of Iran’s playbook, is this notion that you can agree to a ceasefire and then try to change the terms. The question is whether President Obama is—I’m sorry, whether President Trump is going to let Hamas get away with this. at this point of time, whether he’s so desperate for this ribbon cutting on this development in Gaza that he’s going to let these difficult questions fall by the wayside.
SPEAKER 14 :
But Israel can’t allow this to be swept under the rug. I mean, I know that we have this close relationship with Israel and America, and the Israeli administration has been very, very careful not to offend the U.S. administration because Donald Trump has been one of the greatest partners that they’ve had. But the reality is October the 7th is still fresh in their minds. They cannot allow Hamas to stay there armed just to prepare for another attack.
SPEAKER 24 :
Right. You’re absolutely right. Israel feels that it’s walking a diplomatic tightrope, but they’re walking a diplomatic tightrope over issues that pose an existential threat. Now, President Donald Trump, of course, is also a big fan of Turkey. He’s invited Turkey to be part of this reconstruction in Gaza. And what did Turkey do over this past week? They opened a mosque in Gaza that’s named after Abdullah Azzam, who was the professor, the mentor of Osama bin Laden. It almost seems like President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey is seeing how much he can get away with because he believes that he has Donald Trump in his pocket.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and you also have Qatar, they’re members of this board of peace, and they have been a place of safe harbor for Hamas.
SPEAKER 24 :
You know, I call it the axis of Ikhwan. Ikhwan, of course, being the Arabic term for the Muslim Brotherhood. You have Turkey, you have Qatar, and increasingly you have Saudi Arabia, who are supporting these Muslim Brotherhood groups. And of course, Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot.
SPEAKER 14 :
So, Dr. Rubin, how does Iran and the current situation there factor into Gaza and the Board of Peace and how Israel is doing this delicate dance with the United States?
SPEAKER 24 :
Look, if what we talked about before was the elephant in the room, this is the hippopotamus in the room. And the fact of the matter is, throughout the region, everyone is waiting to see what happens with Iran. It seems that President Donald Trump has given the Iranians about 10 days to decide what exactly they want. Now, we’re not clear exactly what the United States is seeking to target inside iran although the american demands appear to be not only get rid of the nuclear program but get rid of the ballistic missiles get rid of all these proxies now just about two weeks ago i came back from baghdad and in baghdad where they’re trying to form a government all the pro-Iranian factions and the anti-Iranian factions were basically spinning their wheels, waiting to see what would happen with Iran, because if the Iranian government is eliminated, then Iraq is going to choose a very different sort of government. And I could imagine the same sort of dynamics are going on in the Gaza Strip. Hamas really isn’t anything without the Iranian and increasingly Turkish sponsorship. What many people in Gaza seem to want is a return to the clan base, the tribal-based leadership, which tends to be a lot more moderate and put their own constituents first.
SPEAKER 14 :
So I would think that Turkey, President Erdogan, is actually hoping that maybe the United States take out Iran so that he can have a better shot at being the leader in the region for the Islamic world.
SPEAKER 24 :
I think you’re absolutely right, Tony. And you know what? What Saudi Arabia was to radicalism in the late 20th century, Turkey is to radicalism now. And Turkey, under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has an ideological agenda, which is the spread of Islamism. They supported behind the scenes the growth of the Islamic State. Erdogan not only wants to be a new Ottoman Sultan, he wants to be a caliph. And when you hear Turkish rhetoric, they say, look, we’ve always had a caliphate. It’s only really the last hundred years we haven’t. That’s an anomaly. That’s not the rule. and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is it. It’s a very, very dangerous situation. And where I tend to be consistently critical of Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, and their team is when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you’re a real estate developer, everything looks like an opportunity for real estate development. But if they don’t understand the ideology at play within the region, that it’s not all about the lack of shiny buildings or resorts, there’s something more in play, they’re fundamentally going to miss one of the big chances for stability in the region.
SPEAKER 14 :
We just have a little over a minute left, Dr. Rubin. I like your… parallel to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia really exporting a lot of radical Wahhabi Islam. But I kind of see Saudi Arabia and is more of a frat party gone bad. Erdogan is much different. I think he is more dangerous. We thought Saudi was bad. I think an empowered Turkey is even more dangerous.
SPEAKER 24 :
I think you’re absolutely right. Now, you know, I used to live in Iran. One of the things people don’t get right about Iran often is they think it’s a Shiite power, but from an Iranian perspective, they’re just an Islamic power and they’re trying to bring everyone else into play. Turkey is the same way. The last point I’ll make very quickly is Turkey’s own statistics from their own interior ministry show that since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power, the murder rate of women inside Turkey has increased 1,400 percent. And that’s because of the sense of impunity that religious conservatives have under his regime.
SPEAKER 14 :
WILLIAM BRANGHAM. Dr. Rubin, I’m always sad to say this. We’re out of time. Always enjoy talking to you. Thanks so much for joining us today. DR. ROBIN RUBIN. Thank you, Tony. And folks, more for your prayer list. The Middle East remains uncertain. We need to pray for our leaders that they would have discernment and wisdom to make the right decisions. All right, stick with us. We’re back after this. 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.
SPEAKER 21 :
At the 2026 National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance in Washington, D.C., members of Congress, state leaders, evangelical leaders, and intercessors from across the nation united as one voice in prayer.
SPEAKER 25 :
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.
SPEAKER 03 :
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 the humble, and we’re asking just now that you would help us, Lord.
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While our God is marching on.
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Glory, glory to the King.
SPEAKER 18 :
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. Freedom has a name.
SPEAKER 14 :
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 09 :
The book of Hebrews says that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Stand on the Word is Family Research Council’s journey through the living and active Word of God. Follow the plan with us. Spend 10 to 15 minutes a day reading God’s Word, and over the course of two years, discover that the Bible is one big story, a story of many words pointing to the Word, the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, because the Word is alive, and His name is Jesus. Find our Bible reading plan and daily devotionals from Tony Perkins at frc.org slash Bible. Join us as we stand on the Word.
SPEAKER 14 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your host, Tony Perkins. We’re broadcasting live from the Real Life Network booth at the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee. You may recall earlier this month, a jury in New York awarded a young woman who had been put into the gender transition pipeline $2 million for a malpractice verdict. Now, shortly thereafter, the American Medical Association began backtracking on the so-called promotion of gender affirming care when it came to surgeries. Now, I have long suggested that when the trial lawyers got a hold of this, things would happen. Well, mark your calendars. April the 5th, another case is coming. Chloe Cole, a national advocate for protecting kids from the harms of gender ideology, is going to have her day in court. And here now to discuss this and more is FRC senior fellow Walt Heyer. He shared his own story of dealing with gender dysphoria in California. His book, Embracing God’s Design, which he wrote with Dr. Jennifer Bowens, a senior fellow here as well. Walt, welcome back to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, thanks, Tony, for having me on. It’s a pleasure. So things are turning. Definitely turning.
SPEAKER 14 :
I mean, it’s like this isn’t as the House speaker likes to say, turning governments like turning an aircraft carrier. This is a speedboat. Yeah, it’s turning quickly.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it is. And I think, like you said, when the lawyers get a hold of this and it starts getting into the jury trials and the juries are making the decisions. This is when things change, because there’s a second part of that is the medical malpractice insurance goes up. Exactly. Exactly. And then the doctors, they go, wait a minute. Now it’s costing me two million a year for medical malpractice. I can’t afford it. I’ve got to stop doing it.
SPEAKER 14 :
And I’ve been talking to trial lawyers for about the last seven years, trying to get some of them to take the bait, you know, to go after this. But. ideologically, oftentimes they’re aligned with the left, but there are some Christian trial lawyers out there that, and I do believe they serve a role in our judicial system because it’s been seen, and you’ve testified to this, you and Jennifer write about it in the book, others have given testimony to it, that they have been forcing these children in this pipeline by putting guilt upon the parents and fear in the hearts of the parents.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, blackmail, emotional blackmail. Your kid’s going to commit suicide if they don’t have hormones and surgery, which is a total lie. The fact of the matter is they’re going to commit suicide more likely after having the hormones and surgery. Or kill someone else. Or kill someone else, which we’re seeing more and more of now.
SPEAKER 14 :
So, Walt, I know you’ve been on the program before, but we always have new viewers and listeners. Your story is you came through this. You detransitioned after having been thinking the solution was to try to change your gender.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. You know, Tony, it’s so interesting because I look at this and realize I never you know, this whole thing about hormones and surgery. The fact of the matter is it never changed my gender.
SPEAKER 12 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
So the whole thing is sort of a medical fraud to begin with. Masquerading. It’s masquerading. It’s all cosmetic. So I say, you know, I never transitioned. I didn’t detransition because it never happens. Never happened.
SPEAKER 14 :
And there’s a really important point there because people don’t realize this. I have a daughter that is an ER nurse and deals with patients who come in who are masquerading as taking hormones to be the opposite sex. But you have to treat someone based upon their biological realities or else you can kill them.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Isn’t that the amazing thing? You have to treat them to their biological reality, even though they’re identifying as somebody else. You can’t play games when it comes to someone’s life.
SPEAKER 14 :
No, you can’t. But we are. We have been as a culture because the psychological and emotional damage being done has led, as you alluded to earlier, many committing suicide or living as you were trapped in a lie.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
Until the Lord released you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And so when I realized I never did become a woman, it was all fake. So I didn’t transition. It wasn’t about gender dysphoria. And when we realize these things are happening here, then what we need to understand is that when we tell these people hormones and surgery is the answer, we’re actually destroying their life. So the gender clinics only can devalue, dehumanize, and destroy what God designed. That’s all they can do.
SPEAKER 14 :
So you’ve written this book in part with Dr. Jennifer Bowens, also at FRC, a clinical psychologist that helps people come out of this. So what’s the core of the book?
SPEAKER 10 :
The core underlying issue is that you cannot change who you are and that there is a way to help people. This gives them the tools to help people try to discover why they didn’t like who they are. and get to that underlying comorbid disorder that’s dealing with it. How much of that is spiritual? A lot of it is spiritual. And we’re dealing with demons who are coming after our children. Kids who are struggling with things that happened like happened to me in my early childhood. Trauma. Trauma.
SPEAKER 14 :
Childhood trauma that is often because of sexual abuse. Yes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. A lot of sexual abuse, a lot of physical abuse, a lot of abandonment. So is a lot of that kind of a protection mechanism? I absolutely is. I think in my own life, I realized at some point in time, I really probably went through this. I was sexually abused and I there was something even as an adult, I thought I was trying to repair what had happened in my early life and thinking if I had my genitals cut off, then I wouldn’t be sexually abused again, which is that shows you the insanity. When we say these people have mental illness, I can testify to the fact that they do.
SPEAKER 14 :
But dealing with trauma, if you are locked into a one way out only, which is what many states have done by prohibiting counseling for individuals who were in the same category as you were, that had been abused, had been confused, and just looking for
SPEAKER 10 :
internal piece and the only option for them is to go through this masquerading process of gender transition yeah and it doesn’t fix them right that only makes it worse it makes it worse that’s that’s why this is such a huge medical fraud and that’s why i’m so glad these cases are finally coming to light and i think we’re starting to see the end
SPEAKER 14 :
What do you hope to see in the very near future when it comes to this?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I really hope to see more and more cases like Coley Cole and the rest of these get to court. And I think the end result is what we talked about earlier, is when the medical malpractice insurance becomes so prohibitive. The doctors are not even going to want to engage in these procedures.
SPEAKER 14 :
We’ve got 30 seconds left, Walt. Pastors need to speak to this, do they not?
SPEAKER 10 :
Pastors need to speak to this, and that’s why Jennifer and I wrote this book. This book was designed for pastors to help their congregation understand. They don’t have a trans kid. They have a child who’s been something has happened to that child. And let’s help find out what it is and get them the help they need.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, Walt Heyer, I appreciate you being out, taking this message and helping prevent other children and young people from being abused.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you, Tony.
SPEAKER 14 :
And folks, I encourage you to go to the website, tonyperkins.com, and under the resources for today’s program, you can find out more about embracing God’s design. Get a copy. Get a copy for your pastor. All right, don’t go away. We’re coming back with more Washington Watch right after this.
SPEAKER 11 :
The family is the oldest, most tested, and most reliable unit of society. It is divinely created and sustained. And yet, there are those who are always tampering with its values and structure. That’s why we need organizations like the Family Research Council that can effectively defend and strengthen the family.
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Family Research Council began over 40 years ago, like all great movements of God, with prayer. Today, rooted in the heart of the nation’s capital, FRC continues to champion faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
SPEAKER 23 :
FRC is one of those bright lights that helps us focus on true north. And I shudder to think, had they not been here, that it could have been worse, worse, worse.
SPEAKER 05 :
The Family Research Council is key. It’s one of a handful of groups that I think will determine whether our children live in a country that enjoyed all of the freedom and all the opportunity that we enjoyed in this great land.
SPEAKER 22 :
It’s just a wonderful parachurch organization that doesn’t seek to take the place of the church, but it seeks to assist the family and the church as we try to move forward successfully, not in a defensive mode, but in an offensive mode as we seek to live our lives according to the Holy Scriptures.
SPEAKER 01 :
FRC is not going to be whooped. You know, we’re going to fight. We’re going to take a stand. And again, we don’t retreat.
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You will never see in front of this building here in Washington, D.C., a white flag flying. We will never step back. We will never surrender. And we will never be silent. Welcome back to Washington Watch as we broadcast live from the floor of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. We’re in the Real Life Radio Network, their booth. And so we welcome you here to Nashville, Tennessee. All right. A new proposal in the Senate aims to overhaul the Food and Drug Administration to regulate products and modernize how treatments are approved. It could make products more affordable and put them into patients’ hands faster. more quickly. This push for reform comes amid a legal battle over whether the FDA should allow high-risk abortion drugs to be delivered through the mail against the laws of many pro-life states. So what will this new proposal mean for patients? What will it mean for the states? Here to tell us about it, Senator Bill Cassidy. He is chairman of the Health and Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a member of the Senate Finance Committee as well. Senator Cassidy represents my home state of Louisiana. He’s also a medical doctor. Senator Cassidy, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for joining us.
SPEAKER 16 :
Hey, Tony. Good to join you. You’re from Nashville. I’m from the inside of a car in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So modern technology, good to be with you.
SPEAKER 14 :
I would probably trade places with you. I think it’s a little warm in Baton Rouge today. All right, let’s talk about the components of your plan to overhaul the FDA.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, so we need more transparency in how the FDA does their business, and there also needs to be more consistency. We hear that it depends solely upon the reviewer you get as to whether or not the drug’s approved. And whether a drug is approved can mean the matter literally of life or death. If a family’s waiting for that cure, for the incurable disease of their child, then the sooner it gets to the market, the better for the child. Now, of course, you’ve got to be concerned about safety. You’ve got to make sure that it works. But that shouldn’t be the luck of the draw when it comes to who reviews the product. There should be some standard by which anybody bringing a product to the FDA can have predictability as to whether or not their particular product is going to be approved. We’re looking for that. Are you saying that politics are in the process? There are total politics in the process. You’ve seen some recent examples of where the professional staff have urged the approval of a drug and that approval is withheld at the last minute by a political appointee. Now, that just kills investment. If you’re going to put hundreds of millions of dollars into investing, into developing a drug, and you’ve been given green light, green light, green light, and just as you’ve made your investment, you then hit a red light that kills the project, what are you going to do? Aside from the fact that something which may be beneficial for humanity will not go to market. There’s a lot of that going on right now. We need to fix that.
SPEAKER 14 :
So that will reduce the cost, expedite the timeline, and get these key pharmaceutical elements to patients more quickly. Bottom line?
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely. And time is money. And so if you’re investing and you put it up $300 million, and then all of a sudden it takes another year and another $100 million of investment, one, the cost of not having the drug available if you need it, but secondly, having to put more money to it and then delay in the income from selling it. All that adds to the overall cost when it finally comes to market. I’m a doctor, Tony. I practiced in Louisiana’s public hospital system for the uninsured. I’m very aware of how cures are desperately needed by many. And so our whole ethos at FDA is how do we get cures to people more quickly? How do we encourage people to develop them? That’s what we’re trying to encourage with our reforms.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I know you’ve been in this business a long time. We first met, I was a reporter in Baton Rouge, and you were a teaching doc there at Earl K. Long. But what you’re talking about is taking politics out of the present. Can you take politics out of Washington? I mean, that’s like taking gators out of the swamp. How do you do that?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, politics isn’t everything, right? I say the only thing with more politics than Congress is your local church. And every pastor I tell that to kind of chuckles. But that said, as much as possible, a scientific review should not have politics involved. It should be something which doesn’t benefit the people that you’re going to give the medicine to. That’s kind of an objective standard. There’s always a gray zone. Do the side effects outweigh the benefits? But even there, You can give the option to the patient on the side effects, assuming that they’re not fatal. And there are people who are desperate, and they would take a chance on a side effect that the reviewer may decide, oh, no, I’m not going to approve that. I’ll get in trouble. Well, let the family have a role in that decision-making process.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, we got about a minute, a little over a minute left, Senator Cassidy. You have called on the FDA Commissioner Marty McCary to conduct a safety review of the abortion drug Mifeprestone. This is murder by mail, as I describe it. It is abortion pills being sent through the mail without a physical interaction between a patient and doctor. And nothing else is treated like this. And this is going into like our home state of Louisiana, where these abortion drugs are illegal. What’s going on here?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, so the people on the left would like you to believe that taking these abortion drugs is no different than taking a Tylenol. You take them, and you may have a little bleeding, but then you’re OK. The reality is that when these are given, not with an in-person visit, but somebody orders them through the mail, sometimes the boyfriend or the husband, sometimes the mother, who’s then going to coerce the person who’s pregnant into taking them. And sometimes they don’t take them within the time period You’re supposed to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, but they take them at, say, week 20. You’re going to have lots of complications. We had a hearing just to point out this is not like taking the Tylenol. There should be an in-person visit to make sure the young person, the pregnant person is not being coerced and that there should be a database because if people are taking them after week 10, say week 20, you’re going to have more side effects and we should know that.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, hopefully we’ll see a movement, but so far nothing’s happened on behalf of the FDA. Senator, we’ve got to leave it there. We’re out of time. Thanks so much for joining us. Folks, stick with us. We’re back with more after this. 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 13 :
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 07 :
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 04 :
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 09 :
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 15 :
As a doctor, I think it’s essential that there be human contact before the pill is prescribed.
SPEAKER 19 :
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 04 :
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 07 :
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 13 :
Let your voice be heard. Text LIFE to 67742. Sign the petition. Tell the Trump administration to act.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Stand Firm app brings trusted Family Research Council resources together in one place. Stay informed with news articles from the Washington Stand, watch interviews from Washington Watch, explore courses produced by FRC, and find many other resources to equip you to engage culture and government from a biblical perspective. Download the Stand Firm app today by texting APP to 67742, or by searching for Stand Firm in your app store.
SPEAKER 14 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. We’re broadcasting from the Real Life Network booth here at the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee. So thanks for tuning in. Our word for today comes from Exodus chapter 32 as Moses intercedes for the people with God who was a little angry because of the golden calf. Verse 11, then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said, Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak and say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people. “‘Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” Moses appealed to God based upon, one, God’s reputation. What will the nations say? You see, God is jealous for his name. Number two, God’s promises. Remember, God, what you promised. The result, verse 14, so the Lord relented. When we call upon the name of the Lord, let’s remind him that he’s jealous of his name and of his promises. Well, earlier today, I joined a panel discussion here at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on the topic of censorship. As many in our audience may know, censorship is unfortunately something FRC has experienced more than once. In fact, we were kind of at the tip of the spear going back when all this began. And we may be at a tipping point. In fact, I think we’re beginning to see the tables turn. The moderator of our panel was a good friend of Family Research Council, Tyler O’Neill, and he joins me now to discuss this and much more. Tyler is the senior editor of the Daily Signal and the author of two books, Making Hate Pay and the Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Woke Tapas. Woke to bus. Woke to bus. Even after you went through that this morning, I still didn’t get it right. That’s the dark money cabal manipulating the federal government. Tyler, welcome back to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 06 :
Always a great pleasure to be with you, Tony.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right. So for those that didn’t have the opportunity to see our panel this morning, recap for us kind of the main takeaways that as you gathered as the moderator.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think those who couldn’t make it really missed it.
SPEAKER 14 :
They missed out. They missed out. But they’ll have to get it at 10 o’clock in the news.
SPEAKER 06 :
It was a really great panel. And that was because we had multiple different perspectives. We had Caroline Downey from National Review. We had Rob Bluey, my boss, making sure that I did a good job. We had you, of course. And then we also had Alexis Wilkins, who had quite a story of censorship herself in her own college, getting given an F for her own
SPEAKER 14 :
I got a few Fs in college, but it wasn’t censorship.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Well, you know, it’s a political, when it’s politically driven, the best grade, one of the best grades I got was a D at Hillsdale because I didn’t actually, like, I put a lot of work into something, but I didn’t grasp the key part of the assignment until it was too late. And getting a bad grade can sometimes be a really good learning experience.
SPEAKER 14 :
I’ve learned a lot in my life. But let’s talk about the censorship from the standpoint of, you know, you brought this out, the Family Research Council. In fact, I put it out on the panel we were discussing. Most people have no clue. When I came to FRC 23 years ago, I was on MSNBC almost every week with Chris Matthews and Hardball. I mean, that’s back, Chris was a traditional liberal, all right? We didn’t agree on much, but we could have a conversation. And liberalism generally is, I mean, they have their ideology, but they’re open to conversations. We’re not dealing with liberals anymore. We’re dealing with leftist. There’s a big difference between the two.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, a very big difference. Liberals champion free speech and actually want to have an open debate. Leftists are the ones who say, what you and I believe is misinformation, hateful, bigoted. Let’s silence them because what we have is the truth. I mean, they act as though they have the truth from God.
SPEAKER 14 :
So, I mean, you had MSNBC, you had CNN, always kind of liberal, but they had dialogue. I mean, debates, debates between one side and the other. What happened?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, a lot of things. I mean, Trump kind of radicalized some on the left and made some on the right go crazy, too. But really, I think, you know, because it was building before then, we’ve seen this trend increase. They threw out the stops in 2020, but mostly it was Trump kind of broke their brains a little bit. And they, you saw this under Bush too, where they would come out and accuse Bush, you know, that these days we think about George W. Bush and we’re not exactly the biggest, we’re not that fond because he didn’t really fight for our values in the way that he needed to. And Trump, you know, I remember during the 2016 primary, I don’t remember who said it, but it was brilliant. They said Trump may not be a true believer, but for our values, he’s a tank. He fights. And he’s proven that, you know, in spades.
SPEAKER 14 :
But has there been collateral damage?
SPEAKER 06 :
It has. I mean, the left…
SPEAKER 14 :
let’s say Trump can be his own worst enemy at times, but I think in general, he’s- Let’s put him aside for a moment and just not focus on him, but this, the atmosphere that we have today when it comes to having dialogue and conversations, I mean, we’re generally talking to one another.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, unfortunately.
SPEAKER 14 :
I mean, how long can we sustain that as a country?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, the last time we were this polarized, a certain chunk of the country tried to declare their independence, and that didn’t exactly go very well.
SPEAKER 14 :
No, I live in Louisiana. We still see residue from that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and I mean, it was a grave tragedy. I feel, you know, from your roots in the South, I don’t want to be disrespectful because I do think there’s a lot of good culture rooted in the South.
SPEAKER 14 :
And good food.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, well, very good food in Louisiana. Hard not to put on weight when you go down there. But… The way the left has their stranglehold on power and the institutions today reminds me a lot of the strength that the pro-slavery Democrats had in the antebellum period. And, you know, whatever you think about the ultimate, you know, We had people like Robert E. Lee who were very upstanding moral people who fought for their dates.
SPEAKER 14 :
But I think ultimately the roots of that – That’s a good analogy because I think they felt like they could break the South.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 14 :
With that grip, but they couldn’t. What they did is they broke the union.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Well, and there were a lot of things. So like Abraham Lincoln, he originally didn’t come out to free the slaves. And that was something that I think God worked in his heart throughout the Civil War, where he realized that this was such a horrific, destructive war that God was judging the United States of America. And that second inaugural address is kind of when you get the the light switch moment where we all realize what the civil war is and lincoln you know i think he was prophetic when he delivered that message and it’s hard you know when you’re living moments so i i fear i gravely fear that we’re headed toward a civil war and i don’t want it to be that way like i would much rather have us unite and be fellow Americans again, but the ideological divisions.
SPEAKER 14 :
One thing we see happening, I think, that was not present, of course, I wasn’t there in the Civil War, but reading about it, the reality is people weren’t as mobile as they are today. What we see today is people are moving. They’re voting with their feet. I mean, like California lost two congressional seats in the last census and redistricting. I think New York lost two as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
It could have lost more.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. And so people are leaving these states. And I think that it’s going to be fueled in part by the issue of the sanctity of human life where you’ve got states. Because if a state takes a stand for the unborn, it generally has good tax policy. It has other policies that follow. Funny how that happens. It is. Well, if you align with truth, you’re aligned with truth. But what’s happening right now, something I think I mentioned this morning, where you have the FDA is essentially undermining all of these pro-life states by mailing these abortion pills into the states. We were just talking with Senator Cassidy about this. So it is undermining the states taking these strong stands for life, for family, for religious freedom. I think that could be somewhat of a safety valve. And I think what’s going to happen is people are going to want to go to places where their families are safe because they think crime is going to be lower. I think they’re going to want to go places that are more prosperous. And I think these blue states are going to shrivel up.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Well, here’s hoping. I think we’re already seeing that to some degree. The blue states are fighting to keep as much power as they can. Interesting.
SPEAKER 14 :
And they want the federal government repeatedly to bail them out.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that is the real danger because we saw that happen during COVID with the CARES Act, with the other legislation that was passed. And I fear that the Republicans don’t always have the stomach to not go along.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, not just the Republicans, but we need voters. Voters need to realize you might live in a red state that is just a great place to live. But it’s the blue states that are going to determine if you’re paying for what they’re doing because of the national elections. I mean, just like right now, the House Speaker, who’s from Louisiana, a very close friend, zero margins in the Republican caucus. And so this next election, I mean, one or two seats either way is going to determine who controls. So if you’ve got these blue states that are cheating, that’s why we need to have the SAVE Act passed so that we have elections that are, We know they’re genuine and true, but it matters. So everybody needs to be registered. They need to be voting because they may think their state’s on the right track and they may be on the right track. But other states, they’ve got to weigh in on this.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we’ve seen… Wake up call after wake up call where deep red states, deep red areas, you know, the school board is still woke. Like we cannot afford to sit back and assume that because you’re represented by a Republican, everything’s going to be hunky dory.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, Tyler, we’re going to run out of time here. Let’s talk about, all right, you got the Daily Signal. That’s what you, you run the Daily Signal there. You’re, you’re writing every day, putting information, great information out. We’ve got the Washington Stand and we compliment one another and often switch and run each other’s commentaries and such. I want to go back to what we were talking about earlier about the media conversations and Frankly, I wish we could go to one place. I wish it was when I was a kid, Walter Conkrate. That was who we, you know, we turned to. He had three stations. And so you just, that’s all you had. There’s a plethora of information out there now. But this is so people can have trustworthy sources. The Daily Signal, I get it every day on my computer, every morning. I wake up to your messages. Morning Bell. That’s right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 14 :
Because it’s a trustworthy source, and people look to the stand for that biblical perspective as well. So while I wish we could all have a national conversation, and maybe one day we’ll get back to it, These entities like the Daily Signal and the Washington Stand are important in this moment to be able to communicate truth to people who need to have accurate information to act upon.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. No, I mean I couldn’t agree more. I think the – there are great developments in the media right now where the White House – is open to alternative outlets like the daily signal my colleague yeah i have her on my weekend there yeah um but you know at the same time yeah the bifurcation of conservative media is unfortunately an issue but we’ve even got some problems in conservative media yeah yeah well i mean you talk about conservative organizations i think of the fact that some of the groups that generally agree with our perspective on some things are nonetheless hiring openly transgender people and keeping them on and like kowtowing to that insanity, even at the same time as we’re finally seeing a wake up calls in the medical establishment with the, you know, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons taking a stand that Even the American Medical Association is at least tipping their hat to.
SPEAKER 14 :
I don’t trust them. You shouldn’t. I see the turning point in the media, and I mentioned this this morning, was the issue of the redefinition of marriage. When that turned and you had a lot of – because I remember one time I went to CNN and I spoke to a group of their staff at a lunch meeting. And it was Anderson Cooper invited me to come. I used to be on his show all the time. Can you believe that? Yeah. And so I went, and they wanted me to come up and just talk for lunch, have lunch with his staff and talk about it. And this was at the height of the debate over marriage, and he had – I think his executive producer was married to a man or something. And – It was at that point that they could not defend. You cannot defend that. And so what you have to do, this is where the leftists come in. You just shut down the other side. So you don’t have conversations. And that’s where I think we really began to see the divide in our country was over that fundamental issue of God’s design for marriage.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and we’re seeing now, thankfully, your campaign to overturn Obergefell. I think there’s a group called Mass Resistance, which has- They’ve been resisting for a long time. Yeah, they have. They have an interesting strategy of getting legislatures to adopt their stance, saying like, you should overturn, telling the Supreme Court, we think you should overturn. I mean, Obergefell, if you look at the decision, It’s all essentially just a pay on to equality and dignity. It’s these words that don’t mean anything.
SPEAKER 14 :
Just like Roe v. Wade.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
Not much different, built on the sand of judicial ideology that is not rooted in transcendent truth, moral law or anything.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I think it’s also important. We’re talking about the well-being of kids and the change in marriage. It’s not just redefining it, getting rid of the man-woman definition. It’s also getting rid of the for-life definition. It’s all this no-fault divorce. And it’s very hard to, when you’re down this road, to say it must remain with two people. If
SPEAKER 14 :
You’re redefining it as anything. Once you depart from that, there’s no telling where you end up. Tyler, we’re out of time. Great to see you. Thanks so much for stopping in today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
SPEAKER 14 :
And folks, I want to thank you for joining us as well. Check out the website, TonyPerkins.com. Until next time, I leave you with the encouraging words of the Apostle Paul when he says, when you’ve prayed, when you’ve prepared and taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
SPEAKER 17 :
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.
