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On today’s program: Sarah Holliday, Reporter for the Washington Stand, reports on the impending partial government shutdown and the…
In this episode of Washington Watch, host Tony Perkins navigates through the complex terrain of US-Israel relations and the ongoing tumult in the Middle East. As Prime Minister Netanyahu discusses with top US officials, the episode delves into the implications of preserving Israeli sovereignty over critical territories like Judea and Samaria. Through insightful conversations with Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and experts like Dr. A.J. Nolte, the discussion stretches from the Abraham Accords to potential tribal solutions that may redefine peace efforts. Also covered is an essential victory for religious free speech in America, following a historic IRS settlement regarding the
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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.
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I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves. but none of the powers that threaten us. No one in Israel will agree to anything else because we don’t commit suicide. We want life. We cherish life for ourselves, for our neighbors.
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That was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House yesterday evening. Welcome to this July 8th edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Tony Perkins. Thanks for tuning in. President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu met last night and are scheduled to meet again this evening to discuss the path forward in Gaza. One key takeaway from last night’s meeting is the United States is standing firmly with Israel, which appears to include its right to maintain sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. We’ll talk with Congresswoman Claudia Tinney of New York, chair of the House Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus, about what this means for U.S. policy moving forward. Also ahead, Dr. A.J. Nolte from Regent University will help us unpack the shifting dynamics of a potentially new Middle East. And meanwhile, the search and rescue efforts continue in Texas.
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We’ve searched 26 river miles. Since the tragic event has started, we’ve had approximately 444 rescues, 30 recoveries. We just ask you to continue to pray for the victims, for the families, for your first responders, for everyone involved.
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That was Texas Game Warden Deputy Director of Law Enforcement, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker, earlier today. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas will join us live with an update. Now, here’s some good news on the First Amendment front, a major breakthrough and the long battle over the Johnson Amendment. The IRS has entered into a consent decree in a case brought by the National Religious Broadcasters affirming the right of churches to speak out on political issues and endorse candidates through their normal channels of communication. Now, this is a fight that we’ve been fighting for almost two decades here at the Family Research Council. And we were involved with the attorney leading this case, Mike Ferris. We’re going to talk more about this a little bit later when Congressman Mark Harris, who has actually introduced legislation to repeal the Johnson Amendment, along with former Congressman Jody Heiss, who originally championed the bill in Congress. All of that and more coming up on this edition of Washington Watch. Well, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House last night. They were not expected to meet again, but they announced they would be meeting again this evening to discuss the way forward in Gaza. With me now to talk about this, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, who serves on three House committees, including the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. She also, as I mentioned, chairs the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus. She represents the 24th Congressional District of New York. Congresswoman Tenney, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 21 :
Great to be on.
SPEAKER 12 :
Great, great breaking news from the top of your hour here. So encouraging conversations taking place yesterday, at least what we heard from it. What have you been hearing? What more can you share with us?
SPEAKER 21 :
Yeah, look, this is great news. Obviously, the president welcoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the White House with key leaders on his team, key cabinet members, but Marco Rubio and others, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Thune, everyone’s going to be talking about, you know, looking like there’s a potentially a future for peace in the Middle East, something that I don’t think anyone ever imagined could happen. But I have to say it all started from President Trump’s very novel idea of the Abraham Accords and now his really bold and decisive action in moving in to stop Iran from creating and having the power to put a nuclear weapon together to attack not just Israel, but also the United States and other perceived enemies around the world. It’s really important that we continue on this mission and continue the energy that President Trump has put behind this issue. It could be just incredibly groundbreaking to actually have a potential prosperity. Some of the things that I think that you’ve seen in the meeting, you know, of course, there was, you know, an interesting moment where President Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, I’m a little ahead of the game there. I’ve done that twice already during the open period when nominations are accepted, last year in January and again this year in December. I did add, though, in my nominations, which I filled out with the Nobel Committee in December, I added Prime Minister Netanyahu for his amazing work and also former Defense Minister Gallant for his mastermind of the whole pager and other preliminary I would call them strikes or preliminary actions taken by Israel to really make it possible for them to set up the intervention by the United States with B2s and others to eradicate the nuclear sites. But I think there’s so many things going on. That’s why I started the Judea and Samaria Caucus. and also the friends of Judea and Samaria caucus. It’s really important to recognize the truth of the Jewish homeland there, Judea and Samaria, and not to continue on this fiction with area one and area two, area three, and also make sure that President Trump continues to work with our partners on getting us to a point where we actually have a potential for peace and prosperity for the Palestinians living among the Jewish friends in a state, which by the way, they already have. You know, the Palestinians have the right to vote. They have the right to all of the freedoms that every Israeli has, except for the Palestinian Authority and their intervention and really taking the rights away from people. And I think that more and more as people see what’s really happening in Gaza, I think they recognize that the Gazans and many of them welcoming President Trump and his actions and also actually praising President Trump and many of them wanting to get out of Gaza so that they can be in a free democratic society that Israel has created, surrounded by authoritarian regimes in the region. So I see a chance for peace here, but we have to keep our foot to the gas because right now, if we slow down, I think Hamas under the auspices of the Iranian regime And other parts of the Middle East could intervene and prevent that from happening.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I think history will tell us that evil will fill a void there in the Middle East very rapidly. We’ve seen that happen before. You mentioned Judea and Samaria as you chair that caucus there on Capitol Hill. The prime minister was asked about this last night at the meeting. He was asked about the so-called two-state solution. I think post-October 7th, even Palestinians or even Arabs realized that this is not a way forward. He said the Palestinians should have all the powers of governance, but Israel would have to retain control of security over Gaza. So this is not taking territory, but ensuring security. So they’re not talking about giving up land this time. They’re talking about allowing some tribal independence, but Israel, the Israeli government would be over all of the region.
SPEAKER 21 :
Well, that’s because the Palestinian Authority has proven that they cannot govern and create a democracy. They spend all their resources and that’s billions of dollars from friends around the world. And they spend it on terrorism and they spend it. They don’t spend it on the people who are struggling and suffering in those areas, areas that, you know, one and two or A and B. And so, you know, it’s really important that. You know, the Palestinians are engaged in peace. And I think something I saw in your ticker here was something that I thought was really remarkable that I had a discussion recently with Governor Barak. He was discussing maybe taking the sheikhs of Hebron and moving them into the Abraham Accords. And joining the Abraham Accords to create a so-called another solution that way. I don’t want to say it’s a two-state solution, but joining them into the Abraham Accords. Because I think people are starting to realize that a terror regime, you know, based on evil in an ungodly kind of way is not the way forward, is not the way to peace and prosperity. And just look at Israel, the innovation system. that Israel has sustained in spite of all the odds against them and all the interventions and the problems happening from, you know, state-sponsored terror, mostly coming from Iran, but also the hatred. And I think they’re like, I think that almost they might be weary of the hatred and wanting to see a chance for prosperity and peace. And they’ve seen that other Arab nations have been working with the president and working on the Abraham Accords and his efforts trip to the Middle East a month or so ago, although a lot of people criticized him for not going to Israel, I think that was deliberate to show, I’m going to reach out to these folks in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and the Arab Emirates and show them that we want you to be part of the Abraham Accords. We want everybody involved in peace and prosperity in the Middle East. It’s not an easy task. I mean, we’ve had centuries, but you could argue decades of multiple decades of terror, where people have been indoctrinated to hate Jewish people, to hate the West, to hate Western civilization, to hate the United States, and moving them in another direction is not going to happen overnight. But let’s start doing that from governments that are willing to come to the table. And I think that’s what President Trump is is really doing is bringing these people to the table and recognizing that there is a chance for them if everyone agrees to a peaceful solution, even meeting in a controversial way, obviously, with the new Syrian president, which I think was controversial. I was a little concerned about that he’s surrounded by jihadist people. But if we can move everyone in a path to peace, maybe this is the way we do it incrementally. But again, we can never allow, as you say, Tony, that vacuum to occur where terrorism And the hatred seeps in again. So this is going to be dynamic and it’s going to require a lot of work on all sides. That’s what Judea and Samaria caucus is trying to do. We’re trying to create this like-minded people to get together, not just in the United States. We’re trying to link up our partners in Europe. and all around the world to recognize this so that it becomes a world situation, the world engaged in trying to make the Middle East, which has so much incredible history for mankind, to make it great again. And I think that’s what President Trump’s mission is.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think with Iran defanged, there’s a real possibility of seeing a resolution to this conflict that’s been there. I think it’s going to be a managed piece. But a final question. I want to get your reaction to the Likud party, the prime minister’s party, petitioning him to resign. basically exercise Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria before the Knesset summer session ends later this month. So clearly the Knesset is moving in that direction too, recognizing Israel’s right to exercise sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER 21 :
Well, there’s also legislation in the Knesset to do the same. And I think that they’re pushing him to do that. And I think it’s a good idea. And by the way, everyone who lives in Judea and Samaria who’s not Jewish, who is of Muslim or Christian faith or whatever they choose to be, can live in peace and prosperity under Israeli rule there because it’s a democratic society that believes in rights. They can access all the government resources that every other Israeli can access and still have the right to do that now without the threat of the Palestinian Authority or Gaza or Iranian-backed different proxy groups coming in to disrupt the region. So I think that that’s something that we’re hoping will happen. And we hope that we can continue to find the recognition of the historic Jewish homeland and continue to have everyone in Judea and Samaria live in peace and not have to live under this sectioned off sort of strange situation we have. And also it ends this whole fake discussion of the West Bank. the discussion about settlements that are illegal and disruptive. I’ve been to some of these so-called settlements. These are beautiful places where people are just farming and trying to make a living and work with their neighbors. And so it’s just time for all that to end. And I think this is a good move by the Knesset and the Likud party. I really think that we’re moving in the right direction.
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s a historic moment.
SPEAKER 21 :
Yes, absolutely. I mean, it really is. I mean, I can’t think of a time in my lifetime, and I’ve been around a little while, where we’ve seen anything quite like this, where we’re really in a path where we think we might be able to, you know, find a way to give the Iranians actually an opportunity for a democratic society. You know, the great Persian culture, you know, was eviscerated by the mullahs in 1979 and continues, you know, to take the rights away from them. I think they’d like to be part of this whole Middle Eastern president.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think they absolutely would. Claudia Tinney, always great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us today. Congresswoman Claudia Tinney of New York. I have lots to pray about, folks. Continue to pray even tonight as the prime minister and the president meet to discuss the way forward. All right, we’re going to talk more about it on the other side of the break. Don’t go away.
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A 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 01 :
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.
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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.
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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.
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FRC is not going to be whooped. You know, we’re going to fight. We’re going to take a stand.
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And again, we don’t retreat. 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. Hello, friends, this is Tony Perkins. You know what? We just finished our 21 day family Bible challenge to the book of Matthew. And if you joined us, I pray that it has already borne fruit in your life and in your home as you place the Lord and his word at the center of your home. Now, our journey through the Bible doesn’t end here, though. The challenge was a part of our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan. And from here, we’re going to cover the rest of the New Testament. And now that we’ve finished the book of Matthew, let me ask you, would you consider joining us for the rest of the journey through the Word of God? In 10 to 15 minutes a day, you’ll see how the good news of Jesus transformed the lives of common people, people just like you and me, and how those same people transformed the known world through the power of the Holy Spirit. I invite you to continue the journey with me and discover the life enriching power of the Word of God. Visit FRC.org slash Bible for a reading plan. That’s FRC.org slash Bible to learn more. Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for tuning in. All right. I want to continue unpacking President Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And I want to bring in Dr. A.J. Nolte. Dr. Nolte is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Israel Studies at Regent University. Dr. Nolte, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to have you on the program.
SPEAKER 24 :
Tony, it’s great to be with you and it’s an honor to follow you. a pro-Israel champion, and my mom’s congresswoman, Claudia Tenney.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, Claudia’s doing a great job of working very closely with her on the Judea and the Samaria caucus. Two things I want to try to get to here in this segment. Number one is tonight, the president and the prime minister meeting again to talk about, and tonight it’s almost exclusively about the war in Gaza, how to bring this to a conclusion. What are the obstacles standing in the way of this?
SPEAKER 24 :
The single biggest obstacle standing in the way of this is Hamas. and particularly Hamas’s possession of hostages. Because the hostages are literally the only leverage Hamas has, and the desire of the Israeli people is to bring them home. And so, you know, I’ve even, I’ve been to hostages forum and met with some of their folks and their desires to get every hostage out. But they also recognize that any deal you make, Hamas has a very high likelihood of breaking. And so it’s a very difficult and challenging process And so, you know, what’s the leverage that you can get to let Hamas release all those hostages so the war can end and then hopefully find some sort of peaceful, stable solution to Gaza that’s going to prevent the next October 7th?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I mean, Israel wants Hamas gone. Hamas wants to retain power. So right there you get this conflict. I think it’s going to be very difficult to resolve. And I’m not sure. I think eventually you’re going to have to have some of the other Arab states lean in on this who have been backing and supporting Hamas. I think Qatar is going to have to weigh in. I think you’re going to have to get Saudi Arabia. I think some of these others are going to have to weigh in or it’s not going to be resolved.
SPEAKER 24 :
Absolutely right. And Qatar is key because they have been a major financial backer of Hamas. And now that Iran seems to be largely defanged, Qatar is probably Hamas’s best hope for some sort of continuance. So maybe there’s some sort of deal where they’re able to exile and have some resources in Qatar. But I don’t think that Israel is going to agree to anything that involves a continuation of Hamas’s and armed organized presence in Gaza.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right, this next one, I’m just going to say this up front. We’re probably going to have to unpack this more later because this is an in-depth conversation, but it touches into your area of expertise. Emerging from this, and I know this has been going on, I know you were over in Israel actually recently during the outbreak of the war. I was there a couple of months ago, met with some of the leaders in Hebron, and now emerging are some tribal leaders, some sheikhs, Arabs, that want to join the Abraham Accords. They want out from underneath the Palestinian Authority. The history of this land is tribal. These nation states are kind of imposed upon that post-World War I. So is that a part of the mix going forward? Finally, there’s a realization that land for peace, two-state solution, even the Arabs are realizing that’s not going to work. Is there a way forward here with these sheikhs coming forward saying, hey, let us have tribal opportunities here to lead our families and find a way to coexist peacefully with Israel?
SPEAKER 24 :
It reminds me a little bit of Mansour Abbas, the Islamic background leader of the Ram Party in Israel who decided that cooperating with Zionist parties to support the government was going to be best for his constituents, many of whom are sort of Bedouin in the southern deserts. And it’s a very practical, very tribal move. the significance of it is that it breaks the front in the idea that Israel will one day go away. Because if you have these sheikhs in Hebron that are trying to cut a deal with Israel, that means they’re recognizing this is a permanent reality. Let’s also remember during the Mandate period, there were two rival power centers. One was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. Unfortunately, he won the conflict. But then there were other families and groups in then Palestinian Arab society that were maybe open to sort of different solutions. So there is a history and there are some precedents for it, but it’s so new, I think we’ll have to carefully watch what happens.
SPEAKER 12 :
Is there a parallel from a governing structure of what we have here in our country when it comes to the Native American tribal lands, where they have limited, they have autonomy, but it’s limited. And is that a possible model for Israel to look at?
SPEAKER 24 :
I’d actually look at the model of the UN Pacific Trust, where there was a trustee relationship between us and the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, et cetera, for a long period of time, where there’s US citizenship. And the reason I would use that model and not necessarily the Native American model is that Native Americans are also voters in whatever state they’re in. And one of the concerns that a lot of Jewish Israelis have is to maintain the Jewish character of the state, what happens if you enfranchise all of these millions of Palestinians automatically who kind of have this history of hatred for Israel and don’t support the Jewish character of the state. And so finding something that has real political representation at the local level, where you retain the democratic character of the state, but also retain the Jewish character, that’s gonna require some finessing if you’re not gonna have a Palestinian state. I think there are models, but it’s a little complicated.
SPEAKER 12 :
But it would prevent and basically, I would think, end the discussion, the default discussion of a two-state solution forcing Israel to give up land. They would maintain sovereignty over the entire region in terms of security and governance.
SPEAKER 24 :
I think that’s a non-negotiable. I think there’s going to be security control. I think there’s going to be at least some sort of Israeli sovereignty there. And frankly, you know, looking at it from the perspective of even Christians in the land, you look at the Palestinian Authority’s charter, Article 3 says the Palestinian state will be an Islamic state and Sharia is a source of legislation. That’s not good news for Christians in the area, whatever, you know, some more prominent voices might be saying.
SPEAKER 12 :
So, Dr. Nolte, we just got about a minute left. Would you say the days are limited for the Palestinian Authority?
SPEAKER 24 :
I think unless there are immediate, substantial reforms that give Israel a lot of what it wants, I would say yes.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I think the Arab people living under that corrupt system would say, yay. Many of them, and I’ve met many of them, who work actually in Jewish businesses. In fact, the sheikhs who are in Hebron right now, because everything’s locked down, the folks don’t have jobs. They don’t have incomes because the Israeli economy is how they make a living.
SPEAKER 24 :
Even more than the PA, you’ve got to get rid of UNRWA with the multigenerational welfare and extremism of the bizarre refugee status that’s there. Where the refugee is living in Palestinian authority governance, but they can’t buy land because they’re supposed to return to 1948 Israel. That fiction has to end immediately for any kind of peace.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. The UN has actually, I mean, they’ve been peddling conflict recently. Dr. Nolte, always great to have you on the program. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 24 :
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right, folks, stick around. On the other side of the break, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas joins us. So don’t go away.
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The Center for Biblical Worldview’s all-day workshops delves into the formation of a worldview, what it is, how it’s formed, when it’s formed, what that means to them personally and their churches and communities.
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My hope for people when they come to these worldview workshops is that they will come away better equipped to engage the people and the ideas that they’re living with and around. And our goal is to give people more confidence in the gospel, in the fact that what God said to us actually is true, actually is the path to happiness and human flourishing for all of us, but also more confidence in their ability to have these conversations and help lead other people to the truth.
SPEAKER 20 :
for Bible-believing Christians to know what God’s Word says on these issues and to learn how they can apply it to their lives. And we believe that the more Christians that we equip, that’s how we’ll change the nation.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, fam, listen, Pastor Sammy here at Lighthouse Church, and I cannot tell you how equipping, how empowering, how… incredibly educating this conference has been. And so I just want to encourage anybody that either has not been part of or is thinking about hosting this event, certainly to pastors, leaders, even CEOs for that matter. This conference is lights out. Stand behind it myself. I can’t commend it enough. We’re going to be talking about this for some time to come.
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The culture is kind of squeezing in on us as God’s people, forcing those of us with biblical views to change those views or to suppress those views. It’s forcing us to engage with issues that we’ve never had to engage with. And so what this teaches us is what those issues are, what the Bible says about those issues, and then how we can critically engage our culture on these things in a way that is committed to biblical principle.
SPEAKER 02 :
Visit frc.org slash worldview for more information.
SPEAKER 12 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in. Let me encourage you to download the Stand Firm app so that you can take Washington Watch with you no matter where you go. You also have access to the Washington Stand, our news and commentary from a biblical perspective. And also you get my daily devotional, Stand on the Word. All that can be found on the Stand Firm app. All right. Today marks day five of the search and rescue efforts in central Texas, where the growing death toll from the devastating flooding has reached over 100. Hundreds of volunteers, as well as federal and state teams, have been arriving to help with one of the largest rescue operations in Texas history. President Trump is scheduled. He said he’s going to visit on Friday, depending on the situation. situation on the ground because a presidential visit certainly creates a lot of activity, and he doesn’t want to be a distraction. We are supposed to be joined by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, but I know he’s actually out there on sites. We may have trouble connecting with him. While we’re waiting for him, I want to bring in Mark Tapscott. Mark is with the Washington Stand. He’s our Senior Congressional Analyst. Mark, thanks for joining us today. I know the whole nation has been watching this situation in Texas. I think in particular, we were talking about children and the number of lives that have been lost. This is something that’s not only, as we talked about yesterday, shaken Texas, but this has really gotten the attention of the entire country.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, it absolutely has. And speaking as someone whose family is from Texas, with Texas roots, it really is, it’s just such a difficult thing to watch day after day and thinking about these little girls that have been lost. It’s a tough situation.
SPEAKER 12 :
Let me – I think we’re getting a connection with Dan here in just a moment. But one of the issues that critics have been trying to bring up is that Trump cuts have had an impact upon the weather service.
SPEAKER 09 :
That has had zero impact on this. And it’s typical of the left. You have a situation like this. You can almost predict to the moment when they will start finding alleged – ways that the Trump administration has contributed to whatever the problem might be. I think there’s a great contrast to be studied between the response of the federal authorities this time compared to the response of federal authorities two years ago in North Carolina.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, true. All right. I think we have Dan now by phone. Mark, thanks for standing by there. All right. We’re going to go to the phone line where we have Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas. Lieutenant Governor Patrick, thanks for taking a moment to join us.
SPEAKER 10 :
You bet. Sorry, I couldn’t link up through the Zoom. Forgive me. I’m on the phone today.
SPEAKER 12 :
No problems. I know you’ve been quite busy. And I’ll just say this because, you know, we’ve known each other for a number of years. And I know as a believer, a follower of Christ, you have a heart of compassion. In fact, yesterday you were going to be joining us, but you were there on site at the Mystic Campground. And you’ve been ministering to the families and those who have— are facing this tragedy personally. Give us the latest there from on the ground there in Texas.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, Tony, first of all, new numbers today. We now have, and these numbers change literally every few minutes before at the end of the interview it can change. So we have 109 confirmed that are deceased. From the 26 girls At Camp Mystic, we now have identified all or found all but five. And there’s still the camp counselor teenager missing. So that list is shrinking to bring closure to families, but there’s still more to find. Then you have all of the people who came for this big 4th of July celebration who And you don’t know everyone’s there. You know, you could say, we’ll go to the offices to see who checked in to buy the trailers. Well, the offices are gone. They were washed away. But slowly but surely, we’ve been gathering names because people call in and say, I know they were going to the fire show. Today, we’ve added 161 in total that are missing names. And these are new names we’re getting in. We put out a call if someone is missing that you think may have gone there. Because, look, we don’t know unless someone calls us and tells us they’re missing. And so now that we’re on Wednesday, some people have started to call the hotline. And we had about 700 calls. And we’re duplicates, triplicates, and some were not involved in it. We’re down to 161 calls. And that includes the 30 or 40 we had yesterday. So in essence, we’ve added quite a few to the missing list. Again, they may not have been there, but someone who knows them, a friend, a coworker, they’re missing them. They don’t know where they are. They think they may have been there. So a huge number missing has gone up. So 109 missing. deceased and 161 now we’re still looking for.
SPEAKER 12 :
And at this point, it’s been mostly a recovery operation. I mean, this far into it, have we found anyone alive?
SPEAKER 10 :
The last person to my knowledge, and there’s a lot of moving parts, so I want to be to my knowledge, the last person we found alive was on either Friday or Saturday, and I think it may have been actually Friday. I spoke with some of the families yesterday who were still missing loved ones, and one of them texted me today because I gave these families my cell number. I said, just call me. If you have any issues, have any questions, have any problems, you want the latest information. So I did have one of the families I met with yesterday who did text me earlier and say that they did find of their loved one. But there’s still, again, a number missing from the camp and a big number missing from around. And so when people ask that question… Dan, I hate to cut you off.
SPEAKER 12 :
We’re up against a break. Hold on for just a moment. We’ll be right back. Sure.
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Family Research Council is committed to advancing faith, family, and freedom from the East Coast to the West. So FRC is going to Southern California for this year’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, October 17th and 18th at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills. Join us for this powerful gathering of Christians desiring cultural renewal and spiritual revival. The Pray, Vote, Stand Summit brings together Christian leaders, issue experts, and government officials for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action. Together, we will seek God’s guidance for our nation and engage in meaningful discussions on the intersection of faith, government, and culture. If the spiritual foundations and the cultural walls of our nation are to be rebuilt, we all have a role to play. May we each find our place on the wall as we build for biblical truth. Register now at PrayVoteStand.org. That’s PrayVoteStand.org.
SPEAKER 17 :
Jennifer, it’s so exciting to be here with you today talking about our new book, Embracing God’s Design. Who is actually going to benefit from reading this book in your view?
SPEAKER 04 :
There are so many different audiences that can benefit. The first one are counselors themselves, because we have some material in there where we really address the gender dysphoria diagnosis and what is wrong with it. We have information for people who are wanting to go back to embracing God’s design for their life.
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This is really magical to have the therapist and the individual who suffered come together and write about why this is happening and why we’re seeing this.
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And we brought all of that experience to the table. We want to see people walking in the fullness of who God has called them to be and not a false identity.
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Order today at embracethedesign.com.
SPEAKER 19 :
How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right, I’m Tony Perkins, and this is Washington Watch, and we have Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas on the line with us. Governor, thanks for sticking with us through the break. But you’re an old radio man, so you know when those breaks come, you’ve got to go. I understand. But before I let you go, I did want to ask one more question, because this really has, I know it’s, I’ve talked to several folks in Texas, it’s really shaken a lot of the folks in Texas, but it’s really gripped the nation. Yes. How can we be praying for those families and for the first responders there in Texas that continue to do this work?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, Tony, first, what you just said is very interesting. I made this comment to someone earlier today that, you know, we’ve had many storms in Texas. And after the bridge, the media, the mass media moves on to whatever is next. You know, we had the storms in North Carolina. We’ve had tornadoes that go through. We’ve had all of those kinds of disasters in America. Every summer we have them. And pretty much it’s a two-day story of people gone. I think what is different in this one is the young girls, the little angels who are now in heaven, but the little angels who have been lost, those 26 campers, from 8 to 15 or so, and the teenage teller and the story there. And trying to find them, and for the first days, is there another alive? And now we’ve got to reunite the families. You know, I met with some yesterday, as I mentioned to you, that And, you know, the lady said to me, she said, I just need to find my granddaughter. I just need to find her. I need to know what happened to her. And so I think that has the fierceness of the storm. And now, I mean, if these other 161 that are missing, if there turned out to be fatalities, and hopefully some will fill up, they’ve just gone someplace else and doing something. But this will be bigger than the hurricane we’ve had. I think that’s part of it, Tony. And how you can pray, you have to, you know, yesterday, I just told them a long time ago, my pastor said, when you go into a situation like this, just be there, just hug them. I know the listeners can’t be there and hug them, but in their prayers, they can hug them. In their prayers, they can be there with them so that the people know the country is with them. It really matters that, you know, I said to each one of them, I said, I’ll never, because they all gave me their names, I gave my cell, I got their cell, that I’ll never forget by name and by photograph because these people are just shattered. And then all of the people who are lost that were there can’t be again. We don’t know as much, but I think that’s why. And so the prayers, and for these rescue teams, Tony, boy, this is a hard job. Yes, it is. Think about your job going through the muck and the mud and the heat and everything with it, and you’re walking miles and miles and miles And your success is that you found the deceased body. That’s your success. Yeah. Because you’re trying to bring closure for a family. But imagine the toll when you have success, because that is success. We’re trying to recover everybody. And the governor said today, and I’ve said before, we’re not going to stop until we find everyone. And so the prayers are for everyone. Just give us strength and courage and and grace during this time, there are lots of questions that are being asked and I don’t know how much time we have left, but very quickly, when I went to the, you tell me how much time to give me the count. When I went to camp yesterday, um, mystic and, and I, and I got a tour with the family. So it was owned by a mom and dad, um, probably in their seventies. And then there are adult children running it. This camp was built 1926. It’s legendary in Texas, grandmothers and mothers and daughters and granddaughters. It’s, It’s like a passage of life. And so I had Edward take me around, and he was the one trying to save all the lives, Tony. And the water went from his ankle to his knee to his hip to his neck in a blur. And as that water rushed in, 30 feet of water, it bounced off the canyon wall and ricocheted back, creating an undertow. And he’s trying to get the girls out, and the next thing he knows, they’re all floating around. or jammed into the trees 100 yards away and hanging on desperately for life. And the water receded at some point, and they were able to get down and try to take them up to this building. It was built in 1939. It’s 86 years old. It looked like it couldn’t survive the storm, and they went into the upper room. They went into the second floor where they thought they’d be safe, and then the water came back again, and it started rising to the second floor, hundreds of them there. And they started singing Christian songs, and they started praying. And that water stopped at that second floor. And I said to Edward, who was, you know, shattered of the 28 they lost counting as dead, shattered. And I said, but Edward, you saved over 500. There were 750 people in that camp, about 500 and some campers, the rest staff. And I said, but you saved over 500. But the pain is the 26. He’s focused on the 26, and the family’s focused on those. So miracles did happen. And I’m always careful to say that, Tony, because I don’t know what the miracle for my child. But a lot of things happened, and we don’t understand what happened on this time to trust God, not question God. But amazing things happened. Young men, the rescuer, the 26-year-old you’ve heard about, they told him it was amazing. He got down on the ground and kneeled on his knee, eye to eye with these 8-year-olds and 12-year-olds and talked to them at their level to get in that helicopter because they didn’t know what it was all about. They had been standing, shivering in the cold, actually, standing in the mud without shoes, getting in line to get on these helicopters. And so he got down with them and comforted them. You know, he was an angel sent there, comforted them to take their fears away. And so there are tragic, tragic stories. If these last missing numbers are right, there’s going to be somewhere near 200 that have lost their life when they’re found. but there were 15 other camps, Tony, 15 other children, and they were all accounted for. Not one was lost. And there will be stories of heroism and inspiration, and people stand on the rock of their faith in times like this. I do. This is hard for me. I’ve been through a lot of these situations. So we stand on the rock of our faith. We put our trust in Jesus, and that will get everyone through. And so the prayers of your listeners… Just pray for, you know, don’t stop praying in a week.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Give us 30 days. Give us 30 days of prayers, because this is going to go on much longer than that. But give us 30 days that we can to bring the families who have lost loved ones and the people who should have found them and how hard that is, and the entire community that’s gone through and will go through. I told one person, whatever July 4th, 100 years from now, there will be a moment of silence for this day.
SPEAKER 12 :
Governor Patrick, we will do that. We’ll be praying for the next 30 days. And I want to encourage you. I just want to thank you for joining us and encourage you in your role, the ministry that you do to folks and your compassion and your kindness. And thanks for joining us today.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you, Tony.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Texas, and I would encourage you to continue to pray for those families and those first responders. As a former first responder, and I’ve got kids that are first responders, unless you’ve been there, you don’t understand the impact this has on them as well as they do their job. All right. Moving along. Yesterday, some good news. The Trump administration’s IRS took a very welcome step toward preventing the weaponization of the Johnson Amendment. Now, this is something we’ve talked about for years. This is an IRS provision put in place by Lyndon B. Johnson when he was in the Senate that basically muzzled churches from being able to speak about Election issues. Well, they entered into, the IRS entered into a consent decree over a case that was filed. We helped work with the religious broadcasters. Mike Farris was handling the case. And yesterday they signed this consent decree. Joining me now. Very quickly, two individuals who have been working on this, Jody Heiss, the Friday host here on Washington Watch, introduced this legislation in Congress when he was a member of Congress. And we have Mark Harris, congressman from North Carolina, who has the legislation at present in Congress to take this legislation. stick away from the IRS, allowing pastors and churches to speak freely. Mark, Jody, thanks so much for joining us. Mark, I know you have to run here in just a moment because you’ve got a speaking engagement. That had to be encouraging news to hear that the IRS has agreed that they’re not going to use the Johnson Amendment against churches and pastors.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, it really was, Tony. It’s great to be with you today. And certainly our prayers go out. And as I was listening in your prior segment to Lieutenant Governor Patrick, man, what a champion he has been and watching him throughout this week has been incredible. I know they’re exhausted and all of the prayers of the nation are right there with them in this time. And I love that he asked us to pray for the next 30 days. But yes, this is an opportunity that I feel like has come along. It certainly was encouraging too, because really a lot of things that were in this consent judgment process where the very things that are in the bill that we introduced called the Free Speech Fairness Act that I know Jody had worked on previously and Speaker Johnson and Leader Scalise had also helped carry the water on this bill. But as I read the report, it was so encouraging because really the things that they put in this consent judgment are the very things that we said in this bill that would no longer cause the IRS to be able to place this cloud over the pulpits of America, and the pastors would be free to speak. And when they are carrying on their normal course of events, which include preaching a sermon, it is not a crime to speak, even endorsing a political candidate. And how grateful I was for those that stepped up and filed the lawsuit. And then yesterday, this settlement was made, the consent judgment was entered, and I’m encouraged, my friend.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, it’s something that affects you, something you’ve been speaking on for quite some time. Before I let you go, final question for you, Mark, is how do you think pastors are going to respond to this?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I hope pastors respond by recognizing that this is a victory. It’s a victory that pastors need to understand that we can no longer be intimidated. We can no longer allow the IRS to somehow bully us into telling us what we can say and cannot say. Now, I want to caution. Our work’s not done. It’s critically important that this Free Speech Fairness Act get passed by this Congress. And we’re going to continue to work on it because this consent judgment only mentions houses of worship. And our bill talks about nonprofits. And so we want all of our C3s to be free And we don’t want the IRS to be able to hold us hostage with some kind of threat of losing our C3 status by giving up our freedom of speech. So I just hope pastors recognize what an opportunity this is, take advantage of the opportunity to understand that we’ve been free to speak all along. And now the court of the IRS is agreeing. We certainly want to make sure this becomes law so that a change in administration sometime in the many years ahead, wouldn’t be able to reverse the decision that’s been made now.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, we certainly need to use this newly recognized freedom that’s been there all along. Mark, I know you got to go. Thanks so much for joining us. Jody, I want to bring you in here. Jody, this is in part why you ran for Congress.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, there’s no question about it. As a pastor, we had a couple of battles that took on national focus, one with the ACLU involving the Ten Commandments and the other with the IRS involving the Johnson Amendment. And I was honored to be one of the original 33 pastors that challenged this IRS code and Yeah, this is the issue that drove me to Congress. In fact, twice while I was there, we got a repeal of the Johnson Amendment passed in the House. Unfortunately, both times it failed in the Senate. But I’m so grateful for Congressman Mark Harris for carrying the water now. to continue pushing forward for a repeal of the Johnson Amendment. This is government censorship of what can and cannot be said in churches. And if you do pass some nebulous line, then the government can come in, take away tax-exempt status, and even some criminal behavior can come behind that. So this is a – it’s about time that the IRS recognized that the criminal laws of churches. Right.
SPEAKER 12 :
I mean, we, the Family Research Council, we’ve been involved with Alliance Defending Freedom for probably 15, 16 years on this. And I know you were a part of the original group of pastors. We actually recruited to preach these sermons and challenge the IRS to come after them. Of course, they never did that because they knew this would never stand up in court. And I think this is a part of the consent decree is that the IRS knew they couldn’t win this case. But it’s the… The finality is needed here, I think, as Mark said, to remove it completely from the books. I do think in talking with Mike Ferris, and he’s going to come on later in the week probably and talk about this, that this consent decree will be binding upon future administrations. It’s not the same as an executive order order. So it’ll be a little more difficult for this to be resurrected in the future. But nonetheless, as Mark did point out, this is only pastors and churches, and this would allow them to be free to speak to these issues, including candidates. But it stops, of course, and I agree with this, it stops with expenditures that would somehow support candidates. And that’s not what pastors are looking for anyway.
SPEAKER 14 :
That’s right. And there needs to be some proper boundaries in place. But when the church is speaking to the church community, they have a right to speak what they believe and to speak biblical truth into what’s happening to our culture and candidates who support biblical principles. And the church’s mission is to be salt and light and take that message beyond the walls of the church. So I’m really just thrilled to death. It’s been a joyful day here in our home celebrating this decision. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, you know, you and I were texting early this morning. I was actually – when you were texting me, I was on the elliptical. And so I was trying to text on the elliptical. But, you know, oftentimes the fruit of our labor is harvested by others. And you were early on in working this ground, tilling the ground, planning the ideas, speaking to this, championing the issue on Capitol Hill, and then – You have a right to rejoice in the fruit being picked. The National Religious Broadcaster’s Mike Farris coming in, doing some of this hard work and lifting. But you were there at the beginning, and we appreciate you, Jody.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit. God gets the ultimate credit. I just feel like one of the ten lepers coming back to the Lord and saying thank you for this great day and this great victory.
SPEAKER 12 :
Amen. Jody Heiss, thanks for joining us today. All right, folks, thank you for joining us as well. And do continue to pray for the folks in Texas. All right. And with that, I leave you with the encouraging words the Apostle Paul found in Ephesians 6, where he says, when you’ve done everything you can do, when you’ve prayed, prepared, and taken your stand, by all means, keep standing. Thank you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.