Grand Blanc Church Mass Shooting, Pete Hegseth and the Department of War, Bad Bunny Superbowl, Charlie Kirk

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events, and politics through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time, she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:44

Well, welcome to another edition of the National Crawford Roundtable. My name is Neil Boron, host of Neil Boron Live on WDCX in Buffalo, New York. I’m one of three who host this podcast on a regular basis. Of course, Bob Duco, one of my colleagues in Detroit, Michigan. Bob is a longtime talk show host on WMUZ in Detroit. John Rush, the host of Rush to Reason in Denver, Colorado. He’s the only hope for Colorado in the future. You know, let’s just pray. Let’s pray for that.

SPEAKER 04 : 1:14

One flickering candle in all of Colorado.

SPEAKER 03 : 1:16

He’s the guy. My goodness. Anyway, we’ve got a lot to talk about today. The government shutdown. Let me just mention, as Bob often does, we record this podcast Wednesday mornings at 1030 a.m. Eastern Time. you know, when we’re talking, things could change literally during the podcast, but sometimes within a day or two, you know, things we’re discussing here have already changed or morphed into some other kind of news story. And just wanted to bring that up. But last night at midnight, allegedly the U.S. government, quote, shut down. And we’ll talk about that. Also want to touch on Pete Hegseth and some of the directives he offered to major military leaders in uh in virginia assembling a group of them in quantico virginia for a major uh discussion about the future of the u.s military will it lean woke or not and of course i think you know where that’s going but also hopefully later we’ll touch on the fact that the nfl decided that bad bunny a puerto rican rapper will be the halftime entertainment but for reasons you know that we leave us scratching our heads we’re going to talk about some of the details behind that and why they might think that was a good choice why we might think it isn’t but anyway before we get to it bob you know on the heels of charlie kirk a heightened understanding that you know there’s violence in various places church shootings uh religiously motivated shootings are becoming more common And you you had a there was a Mormon church, I believe, in your listening area that encountered a shooter just recently. And I wondered if you could kind of bring us up to speed on that.

SPEAKER 04 : 3:00

Sure. Well, this was in Grand Blanc, Michigan, which is certainly very well within the listening area. As a matter of fact, when when this shooting happened. on Sunday morning at the Mormon church, I was actually speaking at another church about 15, 20 minutes away at the very same time. And then interestingly enough, the very closest church to this Mormon church, the closest church to them, which is about two miles down the road, happens to be where I’m speaking this Sunday morning. They’re in Grand Blanc as well. But yeah, this is just a horrible tragedy. This gunman, Thomas Jacob Sanford, drives his truck into the church through the walls, pours a bunch of gasoline out there, sets the church on fire, gets out his gun and just starts shooting people, killing people. He shot 10 people, two of them died, eight of them recovering. There are two other bodies that were recovered from the fire. So ultimately he killed four people. Police get there and they kill him in a shootout. So, you know, number one, my big thing is that everybody needs to be praying for those families and the grief and the loss and everything else that they’re going through that’s horrendous. I mean, I’ve talked about Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses and some of these cults, you know, on my show before, and certainly Mormonism itself. I would argue, is a false religion. It is, okay? But to me, that’s not the focus here. The focus here is that these people need our prayer and that they are suffering immensely. And my heart just goes out to them for what they’re experiencing right now. Mormon people have always been some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I’ve said this on my own show for years. While I’m calling out the false teachings of Joseph Smith, I said, but the Mormon people, if I’m stuck on the side of the road with a car broken down, I’d almost rather have a Mormon family drive by than have the Christians, because the Mormons are going to be the first ones to stop and help. So they’re very decent people. And as a matter of fact, the church members have raised more than $150,000 for the family of the shooter in this case. But I also want to say that while the liberal left may be high-fiving each other that this shooter appears to be a quote-unquote right-wing guy, had a couple of American flags on his truck, he signed a petition, a pro-life petition for Right to Life of Michigan. He signed another petition to restrict Gretchen Whitmer during COVID and the things that she could do. And he’s posted images of him as a hunter and him wearing a Trump shirt and a Trump 2024 sign on his property. So all of that. But the truth is, I don’t see anything to suggest that this is motivated by political ideology. It appears that he had a hatred of Mormons themselves. and even referred to them as, quote, the Antichrist. And he dated a Mormon girl when he lived in Utah and had problems with her family and everything else. And so it sounds as though he, as a guy that snapped in his hatred for Mormonism, went after them for that purpose, and that this is not some example of so-called right-wing violence. It’s just not. His politics doesn’t appear to have any play in this whatsoever. But It’s a horrible tragedy, and these families are suffering immensely. And we need to show the love of Christ, the true Jesus of Scripture, to the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism. That’s kind of my take on it.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:32

Yeah, no, I don’t mean to leave John out of this. We’ll bring you into the conversation in a bit, John. But Bob, you’re an apologist. You spend a lot of time, especially when you’re doing public speaking, defending the Christian faith, et cetera. To reiterate what you were saying a moment ago, this doesn’t appear to be a politically motivated shooting. It’s more like an anti-Mormon thing, potentially because of his encounter with that girl that he was dating who was a Mormon. And you were telling us before the program began that apparently, You know, things didn’t go well between him and her family and all of that. That could have had something to do with it. But I’ve been noting, you know, that when people are in the media, a lot of the talking heads are saying that there’s increased violence against Christians. Number one, I agree that’s a true statement. But on the other hand… I wouldn’t consider Mormonism part of the Christian faith for the reasons you alluded to. And so really it’s not just targeted attacks, increased targeted attacks against Christians, but I would say Christians and conservatives. Would you agree?

SPEAKER 04 : 7:36

Absolutely. There certainly is. In this particular case, I think we have to caution both sides. We have to caution the left not to try to turn this into a political attack and an example of right-wing extremism because the politics don’t appear to have anything to do with this. But on the conservative side and on the Christian side, we’ve got to be careful not to say, oh, this is another example of somebody just targeting Christians and just thinking that Mormons are Christians and lumping them in with Christians to be attacked. That’s not the case either. This guy appears to – he referred to Mormonism as the Antichrist. So it doesn’t appear that he saw himself as targeting Christians. Christians in general. He saw himself targeting Mormons specifically. And so it has nothing to do with politics, but it’s also not a general attack on quote unquote Christians. It doesn’t appear to be. It appears… And by the way, I got to say too… With the right and the left, I’ve never seen any kind of anti-Mormon specifically ideology flowing through any of it. I mean, you could argue if this guy shot and targeted, we’ll say, a gay nightclub or something. or a pro-abortion center. Theoretically, we could say, okay, it might be ideologically driven there. But I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t know any born-again believers in Christ who tend to be politically conservative. who have a strong animosity toward Mormon people. We may, especially as Christian apologists, may call out the teachings of Joseph Smith and Mormonism and why they’re not really a true Christian denomination. We may do that, but I haven’t seen any kind of animosity toward Mormon people woven into the flavor of the quote-unquote Christian right at all. So I think this guy was just targeting them specifically and not quote-unquote Christians.

SPEAKER 03 : 9:34

Yeah, and for the record, Trump took Utah, almost entirely Mormon state, in 2016, 2020, and 2024. So a lot of support for Trump there. And in that sense, it doesn’t make any sense if this guy’s wearing a Trump shirt and so forth that he’d be taking the life of a Mormon or Mormon people for political reasons. We can talk more about that, but by God’s grace, we’re able to have these kinds of conversations on a regular basis here on the National Crawford Roundtable because of the support of our incredible sponsors. And I wanna draw your attention to SunPower LED. We’ve been talking about this and I’m getting more questions in my inbox on a regular basis saying, can the light God created really be used to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in our bodies? And the answer to that is yes. I mean, light has power. We derive quite a bit of vitamin D from sunlight and light makes plants grow, et cetera. And just like sound waves have power, light has power. And so what happens is certain wavelengths of red and near infrared light get deep into the human body using the technology created by SunPower LED. They excite the mitochondria in our cells, which is in many ways like recharging the batteries in an electronic device. All of a sudden, the cell wakes up, comes back to life, and starts doing what the cell was created to do. So if you have pain or need healing, you want to see wounds recover quicker, watch what light therapy can do for you. It’s unbelievable. And everything from tinnitus to back pain to ongoing headaches, light therapy is a tremendously effective way to deal with pain and swelling in the human body, and it’s a wonderful way to promote healing. And by the way, if you use the promo code ROUNDTABLE10, if you order a device, ROUNDTABLE10 will save you 10%. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on SunPowerLED, S-U-N like sun in the sky, SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And by the way, when you’re there, I encourage you to check out Preborn, another one of our major sponsors. Bob, they’ve been such a help to us here at National Crawford Roundtable.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:48

Boy, they sure have. And what’s great about it too is they actually save babies’ lives. They protect them from the abortionist’s butcher knife. And here’s what happens, okay? You get women that are pregnant and they go into a pro-life center. And the pro-life center, if they’re equipped with an ultrasound machine and if they’re able to have the expense and cover the expense of running the ultrasound machine, they can show images of that unborn baby to the expected mom. And statistically, those moms choose life. They don’t go across the street to Planned Parenthood. And very often, they accept Jesus Christ as Savior too. Well, Preborn is the main pro-life group that supplies these ultrasound machines and ultrasound images all over the country. But it does take money to operate them. And that’s where you folks in the audience come in, okay? $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So pray about a number of babies’ lives you’ll save. And if you’ve given already to pre-born, please give again. 100% of everything you give goes to fund ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So take $28 times fill in the blank. Pray about a number. And then that’s your forever legacy of the baby’s lives you saved. So here’s how you give. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. Give right there. Or they answer the phones 24-7. Just call 833-850-BABY. It’s 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. Neil?

SPEAKER 03 : 13:14

Yeah, thanks, Bob. John, we didn’t ask you about the shooting. I want to give you a chance to respond in whatever way you see fit. But I also wondered if it caught your attention, like it caught mine, that this idea of raising money Donating money, raising money for the family of the shooter is a real demonstration of forgiveness. In other words, the shooter lost his life, took the lives of others. But in demonstrating forgiveness, there’s an effort to reach out and show love, which is what Erica Kirk wrote. mentioned at the memorial service for her husband, Charlie, the idea that forgiveness matters, and she forgave the shooter that allegedly took her husband’s life. So I don’t know if you caught that as well, but it seems like kindness and love

SPEAKER 01 : 14:07

can be infectious and uh your thoughts about what we witnessed just the other day yeah i talked about this a little bit earlier in the week as bob did and have the same feelings that bob has as far as the motivation of and again i don’t i don’t know the exact motivation other than mentally ill people do really weird things and would i say that he’s mentally ill yes anybody that has that much hatred towards some group of people which in this case you know he did not like mormons at evident in what he did, which to Bob’s point, that’s not the culture of the conservative right on the political sides of things. So in fact, even Christians that may not agree with that particular faith, I guess would be the way to say that. I’ve never met anybody in my entire life that wanted to go out and annihilate another group of people. And by the way, guys, even as much as I disagree with the Muslim faith, I would not go, even though they want to kill me, I’m not out to kill them. That’s the difference between what we believe in as Christians versus what they believe in. So our side of the aisle, for all of those leftists that may be out there listening to us that would say, well, see, he’s just one of you. No, not politically speaking, he’s not. Or politically speaking, he may be on our side as far as who he voted for and all of that, but his ideology and the way he looks at, in this case, the Mormon faith, no, that is not the way our side looks at things, guys. Not at all. Not even close.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:29

Appreciate your input on that. So I mentioned the government shutdown situation, which at the time of this recording is effectively happening. Never exactly sure what that looks like and what it’s going to mean. I mean, different things at different times, I’m sure. But either way, non-essential items of government activity are on hold right now. And it looks like there’s an opportunity here for the Trump administration to further cut back on excess in the workforce. And so there’s a lot of eyes on the situation right now. And you wonder, does anyone really win in the end? These kinds of things happen on a regular basis. In this particular case, it seems to me like Donald Trump and the Trump administration have the upper hand forcing the Democrats to vote against continuing resolution that would have kept the government funded for at least another seven weeks while they work out their differences on this funding bill. But I don’t know, Bob, I’m sure you must have discussed this at some point on your program. Let’s start with you. What are your thoughts about what’s happening currently?

SPEAKER 04 : 16:33

This is absolutely the Schumer shutdown. It is. And the thing is, regarding Democrats and Republicans, I know that sometimes people in the middle or that aren’t inside politics, they just look at it like, oh, you know, Republicans say this, Democrats say that. Why can’t they just get along? But here’s what we’ve got to remember. The Republicans are not trying to slash spending like actually they really do need to do. All they’re saying is we’re going to maintain the status quo that the Democrats already voted 13 times to approve in the Biden administration. It’s the Democrats who are saying, no, we want more. We want extra. We want about one and a half trillion. trillion dollars in increased spending that goes above and beyond what we’ve already agreed to in the past. And this is where the Republicans are saying, how much more of a compromise do you want? We’re willing to say we’ll keep you guys Democrat approved spending levels. We’ll keep that. OK, well, we’re just not going to add to it. What Mike Johnson and the GOP should be saying is we’re overspending already. The Biden era spending levels were too high. We need to scale those back. They’re saying we won’t even scale those back. Let’s just keep that. Democrats, nope. You know what we want? We want the Obamacare extensions, the special health care under Obamacare that included illegal aliens, that this was temporarily added during COVID. Nope. We want that to be extended as well. even though that was set to expire because COVID has expired. Nope, we want that too. So Republicans are like, hold on a minute here. We’re supposed to give you guys not only your current Biden era spending without cutting that, we’re supposed to extend to that health insurance paid by the taxpayer for illegal aliens. We’re supposed to approve additional billions of dollars in funding for DEI and climate change projects, not here in America, but in foreign countries. It’s like, give me a break. And by the way, even the New York Times took a poll asking Americans, do you agree or disagree with the stance that Democrats are taking? Two thirds to one third said Democrats are wrong. in this case. And that’s the New York Times in their poll. So I think Americans are seeing the Republicans are being very reasonable in this case. Democrats who don’t even have control are so audacious as to say, nope, this is what we expected. We’re folding our arms because I think that they think that a government shutdown will backfire on the people in charge, the Republicans like Trump, and that maybe that will turn the rudder of the ship back toward the Democrats as far as momentum goes. I think that’s what their strategy is. I don’t think it’s

SPEAKER 03 : 19:21

I think honestly, I think in the past that would have worked because the legacy media had the ear of the American people. But that’s all changed. And I don’t believe that people across the board are automatically going to believe whatever Chuck Schumer says about the Republicans. John, I’ve got to get you in on this. Wondering what your thoughts are.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:40

I think this is a big backfire as far as strategy goes for the left. I think they’re thinking that when they get into the next election cycle, 2026, the midterms, that this is somehow going to help them. And look at what we did. Look at how we tried to fight to get the things that the Republicans took away from you. And I think what people will realize is, well, wait a minute, my daily life wasn’t affected one way or the other. I mean, yes, there’s going to be some of those hardcore on the left that are going to believe that and do that no matter what. But That middle-of-the-road voter, which we talk about all the time, which both parties need, by the way, to succeed. Without them, you don’t win. And I think, Neil, to your point, they don’t have the media like they once had. They don’t have the same tools in their toolbox they once had, meaning I think at the end of the day – and frankly, I think Chuck Schumer knows this, by the way. I think he realizes that this is a really stupid move on our part. But his hand is being forced, I think, by some of the people that are in charge, if you would, meaning that he’s doing this just because of what he’s being told. But I think – and I may be wrong in this, but I think deep down inside he’s thinking this is political suicide. Why are we going down this path? Because at the end of the day, this is going to do nothing but harm us.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:45

Yeah, and it becomes absurd at some point to think if it’s not working, why do you keep doing it? And if this ultimately is going to bring harm – For what reason would you continue to push the same agenda? But it’s apparently the strategy that they’re employing right now, and I don’t think it’s working. Bob, you shared that stat a moment ago that two-thirds – did you say two-thirds of the American people are against what the Democrats are trying to do here?

SPEAKER 04 : 21:09

Yeah, it’s incredible. Fox News is running a story on this. It was the – It was a New York Times Siena poll. OK, they say indicates voters would. Let’s see. They would blame both of them, of course. But when you look at the poll and ask, I want to see the exact numbers here. OK, let’s see. OK. Question in the poll. Should Democrats shut down the government? even if their demands are not met, their demands for the extra stuff. 65% said no, they should not. 27% said yes, they should. So you’ve got just about two-thirds, one-third, actually a little stronger than that, saying Democrats are basically overreaching. This is not a shut down the government to meet your demands kind of thing. And even among Democrats themselves in the poll, just Democrats, it’s only 47% to 43% of Democrats that say, go ahead and shut down the government if these demands aren’t met. Only 32% of independents say this is worthy of shutting down the government, what the Democrats are demanding. And then 5% of Republicans, whoever those people are, say that. So it appears the Republicans, the legacy media has not done a good enough job censoring airtight the facts about what the Democrats are doing from seeping out. through conservative social and alternative media, because Americans are rejecting this. So yeah, I think it backfires on the Democrats.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:45

On the heels of Doge, which cut back, of course, on the US workforce related to people in government positions, It looks as though there’s the possibility that this could also lead to additional cutbacks and that this might be a very strategic way for Republicans to further reduce the size of government. But at some point, you’ve got to realize that the people who have those jobs are voters themselves. And, John, let me throw it to you this time. If enough people lose their jobs and they happen to be swing voters or conservative voters, is there any point at which people say, I’m tired of this administration? Because some may, you know, playing footloose and fancy free with my livelihood and the security of my family. And that’s it. I’m done. Could this backfire in that sense and cost?

SPEAKER 01 : 23:33

okay why i don’t think so and the reason i say that is because there are some conservatives that work inside government don’t get me wrong i’ve met some of them and so i’m not saying that there might not be a little bit of what you just said going on neil but by and large the majority of government workers are on the left-hand side of the aisle and i’ve no i know this because i’ve I’ve met them, I’ve been around them, and I think, Bob, you would probably agree. Neal, I don’t know how many folks inside government you have met over the years, but the reality is I have not met too many that are on the right side of the aisle. They pretty much get bought into, you know, this is the thing that’s feeding me, and we need more funding, and the Democrats do a better job of that than anybody, so the reality is I’m going to stick my vote on the left. Again, I may be wrong and it may be an 80-20 rule in that way, but honestly, I don’t know that it’s even that low. In other words, I think it’s more like 90-10 when it’s all said and done, the amount of liberals in government versus conservatives. And Bob, I’ll get your opinion on that. But again, I don’t think that’s a big factor in this case because most of the government workers are liberals.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:35

Yeah, we got about a minute, Bob.

SPEAKER 04 : 24:38

I would tend to agree. I don’t think I’d go as hard as 90-10, but I do believe that there’s way more liberalism out there. And even those that are so-called conservative Republicans, especially in the House, they got to get elected every year. So as soon as they get reelected, their reelection campaign starts immediately because every two years they’re up for reelection again. And I do believe that there is a fear that they have of if you scale back expenses in any way, if we try to govern within our means financially, then their political opponents, the Democrats, are going to go, look at you taking food away from children and all the kind of dishonest claims that they do. And so I think a lot of Republicans are just afraid of that. So they have no choice but to say, let’s just keep running up the credit card debt, running up the credit card debt, and I’ll be retired once this thing explodes. So I hate to say it, but I think that’s a lot of what happens here. How do you convince Americans that you can’t keep running up credit card debt and raising the debt ceiling and not realize that someday this is going to hurt. We’re paying a trillion dollars a year in interest. It’s insane.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:41

All right. And like literally 10 seconds for each of you. But do the Republicans work to push a continuing resolution through, try to get those votes to temporarily fund the government or let this ride out for the very reasons we just described that it would cost the Democrats? John, 10 seconds.

SPEAKER 01 : 25:56

Let it ride out. Let it cost the Democrats. All right, Bob, your thoughts?

SPEAKER 04 : 26:00

I agree there. It’s an opportunity to reduce the size of government. And then when you start replacing government spending, don’t do it as much.

SPEAKER 03 : 26:06

Well, that’s why many are saying that Trump and the Trump administration have the upper hand right now. Interesting thoughts there. Hey, I want to thank SunPowerLED for making this podcast possible. It’s incredible when you think about it that the very light God created can be used to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in our bodies. Skepticism that grows regarding big pharma and their attempt to keep us on medication for the rest of our lives, not only getting on meds, but then staying on meds and taking additional meds to deal with the meds we’re already taking. With all the side effects, et cetera, I think people are no longer buying that bill and they want to be healthy. Americans want to get better and get healthy. Well, light therapy is an amazing way to help accomplish that. Caleb was a guy that stuck a pickaxe in his severed ankle tendon, was told he wasn’t going to walk for six to eight months, and was literally walking in four weeks. How’s that possible? with the help of light therapy, which reduced much of the pain and swelling, promoted healing, and allowed him to walk freely. I want to encourage you to check it out at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Sun Power LED. Bob, CrawfordMediaGroup.net is also where you’ll find Preborn.

SPEAKER 04 : 27:16

That’s right, and Preborn is the pro-life group that shows ultrasound images of unborn babies in pro-life centers all across the country, okay? It’s up to us to fund Preborn so they can show these ultrasound images because it takes money to do that. So it’s this simple, folks. You can save babies’ lives by giving to Preborn. And if you’ve given already, please give again. Give as often as you can because this is about stopping abortions. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, okay? How many abortions will you stop? Pray about it. Take $28 times fill in the blank. Whatever that number is, that’s your gift to pre-born. And hey, some of you out there, if you can afford it, we need you to buy ultrasound machines. They’re 15 grand a piece. Nice tax write-off for you. But you get to save thousands and thousands of babies’ lives. Everybody else, $28 times fill in the blank. Pray about a number. And don’t forget, 100% of what you give to pre-born goes to ultrasounds. Not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So here’s how you give. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Or you can give over the phone 24-7. Just call 833-850-BABY. It’s 833-850-BABY. Neil?

SPEAKER 03 : 28:24

Thank you, Bob. The second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is coming up next. Don’t go away.

SPEAKER 02 : 28:29

You’ve been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of today’s culture through a biblical lens brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices. Bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more from your local Crawford Media Group stations website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.