On today’s program, hosted by Joseph Backholm: Erick Stakelbeck, host of The Watchman on TBN, shares the latest developments in the war between Israel and Hamas. Gordon Chang, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute
From the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Joseph Backholm. Hello and welcome to Washington Watch. I’m Joseph Backholm sitting in for Tony. My pleasure to be with you on this Friday edition of Washington Watch. Today on the program, several stories you want and need to know about federal officials arrested a high ranking official in New York for spying on behalf of the Chinese government. What damage was done and why do we keep running into Chinese spies? We’ll talk about it. Also, the Secret Service has experienced some well-documented challenges in recent weeks, but that isn’t stopping them from recruiting agents for the DEI-themed out and equal workplace summit at Disney in Orlando. Is that all as bad as it sounds? We’ll tell you about it a little later. And reports from New York that 1 million bus riders every day are refusing to pay the bus fare and it’s bankrupting the transit system. Why does so many people feel comfortable stealing from their local government even in small amounts? What does that mean for the future of our civilization if we continue to live that way? We’ll discuss that in our world view conversation with David Klausen coming up later in the program. Before we get to our headline, I want to remind you that in this election year you were invited to join us in Washington, DC from October 3rd through the 6th for our Prevote Stand Summit. This is a national gathering of spiritually active governance engaged conservatives, sage cons, and it recognizes that change must flow from spiritual renewal. Registration is now open. I ask you to join us as we pray for our nation, engage in government and culture, and stand for biblical truth. Visit PrevoteStand.org for details and to register for this important event. Now to our top story today, while international mediators continue to hammer out a new hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and the Moss, it is unclear how close a deal is to being finalized. According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, they are very close. I think based on what I’ve seen, 90% is agreed. But there are a few critical issues that remain where we need to be able to get agreement and they really go to how certain aspects of the agreement would be implemented. That was Secretary Blinken speaking to reporters during a press briefing yesterday in Haiti. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to feel differently. Hamas is not there with a deal. There’s not a deal in the making, unfortunately. That’s still hasn’t happened. They want to reconstitute their terror kingdom. And unfortunately it’s not close. But we’ll do everything we can to get them to the point where they do make a deal. That was Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday on Fox and France. So are we close or not? Joining me now to discuss it and the latest news in the Middle East is geopolitical commentator Eric Stackelbeck, who has spent nearly two decades covering the Middle East and national security issues in depth. He’s host of the Israel and Middle East focused newscast The Watchmen. And he’s the author of three bestselling books, including ISIS exposed. Eric, welcome back to Washington watch. Joseph, great to be with you. Well, it’s good to see you saw kind of those competing narratives from Secretary Blinken and what Benjamin Netanyahu had to say. Are we close or are we not? I don’t think we are. And I think that’s solely at the feet, Joseph of Hamas. Look, butchering six hostages in cold blood just last weekend. Hamas wants to see a broader war here. On one hand, look, they’ve been pressured nearly into oblivion, Joseph. The IDF has largely crushed Hamas’s capabilities. And yet, Hamas wants to live to fight another day. And that means the Iranian regime. That means his blood. That means that entire ring of fire that really surrounds Israel and all sides, getting involved to essentially fail Hamas out. So Hamas has been begging its partners in this jihad coalition over the past several months to get involved to increase their attacks against Israel. That hasn’t quite happened. It has to a degree, but not to the degree Hamas wants because Iran and his blah know that they throw their hats in the ring in a major way. And it attacks Israel in a very significant way that Israel will very likely unleash hell on them. So Hamas is in a very difficult position, but we still have, say, the Biden administration and the European Union asking essentially nothing of Hamas, Joseph, but everything from Israel. It’s all up to Israel to make concessions, not Hamas apparently, in order to get some sort of deal done. Well, this does seem like something of a zero sum game because for a long time, Israel has been told to make peace with Hamas, but Hamas does not want Israel to exist. And Israel has now adopted the same position. We’re supposed to negotiate with Hamas, but Israel has decided Hamas should no longer exist. So it’s hard to see how a negotiation comes out of that. But Eric, it’s interesting. We know the longstanding relationship between Israel and the United States. But as we saw in those clips, the positions, the statements that are coming out of those two nations are very different right now. Why do you think that is? Yeah, I think the Biden administration, number one, is facing an election right now. At least Kamala Harris, the vice president is and they see this Joseph as a distraction. Any sort of foreign policy or national security crisis abroad is a distraction for them right now. They are focused on in their words, fundamentally transforming America. So Israel, continuing to defend itself against bloodthirsty terrorists, that’s a nuisance for them. That’s why they want to see this. And Joe Biden has made this clear. Kamala Harris has made this clear. They want to see this war go away. The problem with that is if Israel agrees to a premature ceasefire, that will enable Hamas to regroup, to rearm and to carry out God forbid. More October 7 style attacks. That’s why Israel has literally stuck to its guns and saying, look, we’re not going to give up say the Philadelphia corridor. Now that’s that crucial transit point, Joseph, along the Gaza, Egypt border. And that is the main route through which Hamas has used to rearm. Israel says we need to shut that down. The Biden administration on the other hand just says, look, we want peace at any cost. Well, that’s not good for Israel and Israel, just like America should, Israel should put its own security first. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. You mentioned there that the Biden administration just wants this war to go away and on some level everyone does. But as a political matter and you indicated there that there is an election and that’s always relevant because everything is happening in a political context. But is it a good look for the Biden administration to come out and say, hey, we’re 90% of the way there. When they’re closest ally and the people most interested in and are saying, no, we’re not. Is that just communicating like just detachment in difference unawareness? Yeah. Joseph, great point. I would say daylight, right? Daylight between the United States and Israel. And we don’t want to see that because keep point here. The same radical terrorist forces that want to destroy Israel also have a bullseye on the back of America. Those enemies and America’s enemies are one in the same. It seems sometimes in DC these days they’re forgetting that. I’ll give you a great example. The day after again, six hostages, including an American citizen were butchered and cold blood by Hamas. Joe Biden’s first impulse was to criticize Benjamin Netanyahu and say Netanyahu is not doing enough to get the deal done. Instead of castigating Hamas, he’s laying the blame in many cases at the feet of Israel. And again, on one hand, the Biden administration, Joseph and service, skits of friendly policy, I’ve said it over the past few months, in that on one hand, the Biden administration is sending Israel military assistance, no doubt at the same time withholding some armed shipments as well. But on the other side, the Biden administration seems to take every opportunity again to publicly criticize Israel. And the impression that gives to our shared enemies is, hey, wait a minute, they’re not on the same page. Because vulnerability there, perhaps Israel is right for the picking. The US doesn’t quite have their back the way they used to. Maybe Israel is a softer target. So the perception of daylight between the United States and Israel is not only dangerous for Israel, it’s dangerous for America. And you state there that the enemies of Israel are the enemies of America. So it’s in our best interest to defeat them now and show strength and behave in a way that would deter future action. Now, that makes sense if you believe the enemies of Israel are also the enemies of the United States. Do you believe the Biden administration believes that? I think the Biden administration believes that they can be the shared enemies we’re discussing and we’re talking Iran, has blah, hamas, the hooties in Yemen, France and Joseph, the Biden administration believes they can be contained. Well we’re approaching the anniversary of 9/11. And I think that showed that in many cases with Islamic jihadist who are bent on literally global domination, containment doesn’t always work. The Biden administration sees, say, an Iranian nuclear program as a more local, regional problem for Israel. To answer your question, I guess the broader view, Joseph, is they know the Biden administration that Iran, hamas, etc. don’t like the United States, but they think number one that they’re contained. And number two, that again, it’s more of a regional problem. Hey, tough break for Israel. That’s your backyard. But we’re safe here. We’re separated by oceans. Well, I’ll tell you what, our own Pentagon, Joseph says that the Iranian regime is currently working on intercontinental ballistic missiles, ICBMs. Now those ICBMs aren’t for Israel, they’re not even for Europe. Therefore, the nation that Iran calls the great Satan, that’s us, the United States. And that’s not a coincidence. The ultimate goal again is America. If they were to get their grand wish and we know it’s not going to happen because we’ve read the book, but if Israel were to be wiped off the map, they’re not going to pack up their bags and go home. They’re coming here next. Their ideology demands it and they’re very open and very vocal about it. But of course, Israel is living and responding in a geopolitical environment. But ultimately Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible to the people who elected him and the citizens of Israel. What’s the position of the public in Israel in this conflict? Are they supportive of Netanyahu or not? Yeah, I think it’s split. I think there’s still very strong support for BB Joseph. No doubt. That is still there. But there is essentially a strong left-wing presence that is very opposed to BB. They were before October 7th, by the way. We had for a year before October 7th, massive anti-government protests driven by the Israeli left. So there’s still a large segment of the population. It’s very supportive of Netanyahu. But there is also substantial pocket that’s saying, look, we want new elections. We want him out. We saw major demonstrations last weekend in Tel Aviv, which is kind of the left one. Tel Aviv is a beautiful city, but it’s definitely a hub for the left and Israel. No doubt. So major demonstrations there last weekend. But BB is still standing. He’s still there. And look, I think in terms of sticking to his guns, especially on this ceasefire, he’s doing a good job. And remember, Rafa, where the six hostages were murdered last weekend, where another hostage thankfully was rescued about 10 days ago, the Biden administration, Biden and Harris. But publicly said, Israel should not go on the Rafa. They wailed and gnashed their teeth for months and tied Israel’s hands and said, don’t you dare go on the Rafa. Well, guess what? Israel went into Rafa, which is right along that Egypt border that we discussed a minute ago. And they destroyed Hamas there and they rescued hostages. So seem to be a bad tactical piece of advice by the Biden administration. But BB stuck to his guns and he did go on the Rafa. But he’s not caving to a premature ceasefire that will leave Israel vulnerable once again. >> Yeah. When it is your life on the line and your family’s life on the line, I think you do respond differently to a call us for a ceasefire than if you are not in the neighborhood and you and your family are not on the line. And that could explain a lot of what we’re dealing with. Eric Stacklebeck, thank you so much for your time. >> Thanks, Joseph. God bless. >> Next, a former high ranking staffer in the New York governor’s office has been arrested and indicted for spying for China. Is it just the pit of the iceberg? We’ll tell you about it. Come back. >> The news reflects the world we live in, but it also shapes it. Like it or not, what we learn about the world on a daily basis impacts our thinking, our worldview, and ultimately our action. So much of today’s media is built on a shaky foundation that can send us hurling toward harmful ideas and hopeless solutions. Family Research Council created the Washington Stand to be a news outlet that speaks from a firm foundation. Bringing you news, commentary, and analysis of what’s happening in America and around the world. Washington Stand is unapologetically biblical and uncompromisingly committed to truth. Equip yourself for the world we live in with a biblical worldview found daily at the Washington Stand. Find us at WashingtonStand.com. That’s WashingtonStand.com. [MUSIC] >> Research has found that there are 59 million American adults who are a lot like you. There are millions of people around the country who are born again, deeply committed to practicing their faith, and believe the Bible is the reliable word of God. But that’s not all. They’re also engaged in our government. They’re voters. They’re more likely to be involved in their community and they’re making a difference in elections. The problem is that a lot of them feel alone too. We want to change that. FRC wants to connect these 59 million Americans to speak the truth together, no matter the cost. You want to learn more about this group and what it means to be a spiritually active, governance and gauge conservative, or if you want to find out if you are one of these sage cons yourself, join us. Go to frc.org/sagcn to learn more. That’s s-a-g-e-c-o-n. Sagecon to learn more. >> Hi, I’m Georgina, an intern here at Family Research Council, and I wanted to take a moment to tell you about FRC’s incredible internship program. This three month program is both a discipleship and a development opportunity where you get to take part in truly meaningful work and help advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and our culture. This program features hands-on professional experience here in Washington, D.C., weekly biblical worldview training, tours around the district, opportunities to meet some of the country’s most prominent policy experts, and more. The program also includes free housing, a meal stipend, and is available in spring, summer and fall. If you’re a young adult passionate about seeing biblical values championed in our country, as a current intern, I cannot recommend this program enough. For more information or to apply, please go to frc.org/intrinchips. Again, that’s frc.org/intrinchips. Apply today. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Joseph Backholm, sitting in Fort Tony today. Earlier this week, US Federal agents arrested a former high ranking staffer from the office of New York’s current and former governor. Or allegedly acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese Communist Party or Communist Spy. On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment, alleging that 41-year-old Linda Sun deceived the highest leadership of New York’s government to further the political agenda of the government of China. The indictment lays out very clearly evidence that these actions taken by Linda Sun were an absolute betrayal of the trust of two administrations in state government, lying and misleading to our administrations, breaking our ethics rules, and even forging my signature on documents. But more importantly than that, that this is a betrayal of New Yorkers and of the American people. That was New York Governor Kathy Hokle speaking to the press on Wednesday. While the news may come as a shock to many, for anyone who’s been tracking the reported activities of the CCP here in the US, it may not be. Joining me now to discuss this is Gordon Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gates Stone Institute. He’s the author of the Great US China Tech War and China is going to war. You can follow him on X under the handle at Gordon G. Chang. Gordon, welcome back to Washington. Thank you so much, Joseph. So tell us what you know about Linda Sun. Well, Linda Sun clearly was acting at the direction of the Communist Party as she tried to direct both administrations of Kathy Hokle and Andrew Plomo to do certain things, to make life difficult for Tibet, for Taiwan, to arrange meetings with Communist Party officials. The story here is that this was almost inevitable because the Democratic Party in New York has really looked to Chinese Americans as a large source of votes. And many Chinese Americans in New York have these very troubling relations with the Communist Party’s United Front work department. And so you were going to have this because this was just an accident waiting to happen. And by the way, you know, you and you look at San Francisco and Senator Feinstein’s driver, you got the same thing there. You have a Democratic Party looking to Chinese for votes and you see a lot of Communist Party flags flying over the city of San Francisco. That shows you that Chinese Americans have these relationships that need to be investigated and the Democratic Party’s in both cities. San Francisco and New York surely know what is going on. Gordon, how serious was this infiltration? How much damage was done to the state of New York or the United States more broadly? Well, I mean, a pure set Linda Sun was able to get the governor’s office to not meet with Taiwan representatives to give, you know, to Beton’s hard time. You know, in the scheme of things, this may not have been existential, but the problem is that there are more Linda Suns for sure. And it shows you the infiltration of the Communist Party of the political system in the U.S. and it’s just just the Democrats. The Republicans have similar problems as well. Different in nature, but certainly the Republicans are infiltrated as well. So the United States, when you look at the problem from a 30,000-foot view, you can see that our system has been thoroughly penetrated. Is this kind of thing preventable, Gordon? How do we stop this from becoming just what’s normal? First of all, we need to break the links with China. And a lot of people will think that’s extreme, but unfortunately, China uses every point of contact with the United States to subvert our society. And we need to make sure that Americans don’t have incentives to commit acts of treason or to commit acts of espionage or even maybe sabotage. So this is going to have to be a really difficult exercise for us as we break linkages that have been built over the course of decades. We are used to, I mean, most of us assume when there’s kind of espionage, if that’s the right term for this, and on some level it is, as you noted, it might be minor on the scale of what espionage can do. But we’re used to seeing this at the federal level or expect that to happen. Why is it that the Chinese government is bothering to target states? Because it wants to control all of society. Take Eric Swalwell, the Democratic congressman from California. China’s Ministry of State Security contacted him not for the first time, not when he was on the House Intelligence Committee, where of course he would be of great value to Beijing. But they contacted him when he was on the city council of Dublin City, California, which means that they groom American politicians at a very early age. Now, that’s not to say that Swalwell himself did anything wrong. We don’t know that. But the point is that Swalwell could not have been the only person that China was targeting. So there’s got to be hundreds of Swalwells across the US because China wants complete control. And as party in China demands absolute control of Chinese society. Well, they also demand absolute control of the United States as well. Yes, they have not been able to get it, but they’re certainly working hard and relentlessly toward that goal. Yeah. In Gordon to that point, these are the headlines that we are reading about, the things that we know about. What are you concerned is happening right now that we don’t know about? Well, we know about federal investigations into other New York figures, including the Commissioner of Police, which is a recent one. We know that a lot of people around Mayor Eric Adams of New York City have been investigated. So we’re going to learn a lot more. And I think this is probably going to go to members of the congressional delegation from New York as well. So there is so much to have. There’s so much that we are going to learn. And remember, there’s all of these disturbing contacts between China’s Communist, the United Front Work Department and Tim Walls, who is on the Democratic ticket. So there’s a lot here that we are going to learn, I think, in the next few months. And Gordon, in just a couple of seconds, I mean, we are almost out of time, but does this impact Tim Walls in some way because we’ve heard about that? Yeah, I hope that it does because it seems to me that when you have somebody with all of these disturbing connections, that person should not be one heartbeat away from the Oval Office. And I’m not a Democrat, I’m not a Republican, but as an independent, I think that somebody with those connections make that person ineligible. And that means the ticket that he is on, I don’t think Americans should vote for that. I mean, I hope that the Wallahar is replaces Tim Walls so that we can have a better election. I’ve got to catch you off. We are out of time, but thank you so much for being with us. Thank you, Joseph. When we come back at assassination plot against President Trump from the country of Iran, we’ll tell you about it. We’ll return. America was a bright light until the culture gave into darkness. But we won’t. We’re in a battle for the soul of our nation, between right and wrong, between truth and lies. At a time when the mainstream media is blocking Americans from truth, millions are searching for a source of trustworthy news that shines on light in the darkness. At this time of great need, FRC is lighting the way forward. For 40 years, family research council and its partners have stood together to advance and defend biblical truth in government and culture. In our flagship broadcast program Washington Munch with Tony Berkins, to our news outlet the Washington Stand, FRC is providing believers across the country with news they can trust from a biblical worldview. When you stand with FRC, you help light the way forward for America in the next generation. Go to FRC.org/give. If you’re a young adult passionate about seeing biblical values champion in our country, check out Family Research Council’s internship program. This three month program is both a discipleship and development opportunity where you get to take part in truly meaningful work and help advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and our culture. Featuring hands-on experience, biblical worldview training, free housing and more, this internship is a great opportunity for spiritual and professional development. Check out FRC.org/interchips to apply today. As a congressman, Jody Heiss witnessed firsthand how the gradual erosion of congressional integrity has crippled America’s faith in its most essential institutions. His newly released book, Sacred Trust, Election Integrity and the Will of the People, sounds the alarm on the attempts of career bureaucrats to subvert our elections and provide solutions to make every vote count. Help preserve election integrity and order sacred trust today wherever books are sold. Welcome back to Washington, watch I’m Joseph back home, sitting in Fort Tony. And for those of you who have been wondering where Tony has been for the past month, he’s been taking so much deserved time off and he will be back in the chair on Monday when we return. Now, yesterday, Senator Chuck Grassley released a shocking FBI documents that implicate Iran in the plot to assassinate former president Donald Trump. The Iranian plot against former president Trump led the secret service to beef up their contingent of agents protecting the former president. But it unfortunately did nothing to stop the unrelated assassination attempt against him earlier this year. So what can we learn from the new documents here now to fill us in? Is real clear politics, national political correspondent Susan Crab-Tree? Susan, welcome to Washington, watch. Thanks for having me, Joseph. Well, tell us a bit about these documents that we saw from Senator Grassley about the assassination attempt from Iran. What, I should say? I just think they are incredibly explosive. If you haven’t looked at them, heros them carefully, I would suggest doing so. They’re both on my Twitter feed and I have outlined the important parts. And Senator Grassley has released him on his website. It is granular detail about how this man, this Pakistani man, 46 years old plotted an assassination attempt with the IRGC, which is the military, a very specialized military force of Iran to assassinate Donald Trump and possibly other politicians. Although if you read very carefully, it seems that the intent was against Donald Trump, but there was President Biden was mentioned as well as Nikki Haley. In these documents, it’s what it is. It’s called a proffer, an FBI proffer. It’s basically a write-up of an interrogation of this man, Asif Merchant. Then the FBI arrested the day before the Butler rally where Donald Trump was a sat, there was an assassination attempt against him that killed Cory Comparator. Now the FBI says those two events are unrelated. They don’t believe that the assassination attempt that Thomas Crook’s, the shooter, had any informed influence at this point in their investigation. And they also believe he acted alone. But these questions about Iran are raising, they raise the stakes when it comes to the security lapses on the part of the secret service because the secret service was well aware that the Iranian threat existed. That’s the only reason there was a counter sniper at that event. But prior to that Butler rally, they did not provide counter snipers to Donald Trump. They did not provide counter surveillance unit, which would have roamed around the rally, looking for people just like Thomas Crook’s. And I’m told by my secret service sources, they would have found him, especially after he raised the range finder up towards the crowd. They would have intercepted him, questioned him, and likely arrested him, and got him out of there. Along with all the explosives that were in his car, this could have been a much bigger event save for the counter sniper and the local law enforcement that took shots and took out Thomas Crook’s. It’s alarming because of the granular detail of the planning that we see in these documents from Grassley. Well, it is quite the coincidence. If in fact, it is a coincidence that an arrest was made in this plot with the Iranian government, the day before an actual assassination attempt was carried out. But after that, in the fallout of that assassination attempt, of course, there’s been a lot of criticism of the secret service the way that handled that was handled. The security was provided there in Butler, Pennsylvania. Yet, we see some other news out of the secret service that despite all of the concerns raised about them, they are in fact recruiting agents to send to Disney World to participate in an all expenses paid trip to the out and equal workplace summit, which is essentially a DEI themed workplace summit. What do we know about that? Well, I got this information on Tuesday. I believe it was Tuesday or Wednesday. I immediately put it out on Twitter. There’s so many things that have been happening in the last few weeks that it’s almost like a blur to make. It’s so much information from whistleblowers. They are outraged. The rank and file members of the Secret Service, a special agency in the uniform division officers, are outraged that there doesn’t seem to be a change in the leadership mindset when it comes to DEI and the Secret Service and their priorities right now. They’re experiencing a dire staffing shortage. I have been told there’s 650 special agents shy, needed. There is a shortage for the UN General Assembly that’s being planned for later this year. And that comes every year. So, it’s not like it’s a big surprise. But because of the campaign protective requirements and the need for greater Secret Service deployed to Donald Trump and JD Vance and Kamala Harris, they are having this shortage. And they’re actually announced last week that the military is going to be supplementing of these events and the UN General Assembly up until inauguration day. So why do we have this email coming out, it’s just infuriating this rank and file, nominating, they’re asking for nominations to go to this LGBTQ leadership event at Disney World right now when there’s such a staffing shortage. The special agent who provided this email to me that was sent agency wide said, you know, this raises huge man-paracostions. Why are we doing this in the middle of a shortage? And Susan, the timing of it really is incredible because the event is October 7th to the 10th. And that is like peak presidential election season. And you mentioned the UN General Assembly event where they are apparently 650 agents short for that. And it seems like they have a surplus of staff if they’re going to try to send them to Orlando. But in fact, they may not. We are out of time, unfortunately, Susan, a credible story. Thank you for covering it for us today. Absolutely, Joseph. Thanks for having me. When we come back, what’s the significance of a million people a day in New York riding the bus without paying the fare? We’ll tell you when we come back. The news reflects the world we live in, but it also shapes it. Like it or not, what we learn about the world on a daily basis impacts our thinking, our worldview, and ultimately our action. So much of today’s media is built on a shaky foundation that can send us hurling toward harmful ideas and hopeless solutions. Family Research Council created the Washington Stand to be a news outlet that speaks from a firm foundation. Bringing you news, commentary, and analysis of what’s happening in America and around the world. The Washington Stand is unapologetically biblical and uncompromisingly committed to truth. To cook yourself for the world we live in with a biblical worldview found daily at the Washington Stand, find us at WashingtonStand.com. That’s WashingtonStand.com. America was a bright light until the culture gave into darkness. But we won’t. We’re in a battle for the soul of our nation, between right and wrong, between truth and lies. At a time when the mainstream media is blocking Americans from truth, millions are searching for a source of trustworthy news that shines on light in the darkness. At this time of great need, FRC is lighting the way forward. For 40 years, Family Research Council and its partners have stood together to advance and defend biblical truth in government and culture. In our flagship broadcast program, Washington launched with Tony Berkins, to our news outlet, The Washington Stand. FRC is providing believers across the country with news they can trust from a biblical worldview. When you stand with FRC, you help light the way forward for America in the next generation. Go to FRC.org/give. If you’re a young adult passionate about seeing biblical values champion in our country, check out Family Research Council’s internship program. This three month program is both a discipleship and development opportunity where you get to take part in truly meaningful work and help advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and our culture. Featuring hands-on experience, biblical worldview training, free housing and more, this internship is a great opportunity for spiritual and professional development. Check out FRC.org/interchips to apply today. Say Congressman, Jody Heiss witnessed firsthand how the gradual erosion of congressional integrity has crippled America’s faith in its most essential institutions. His newly released book, Sacred Trust, Election Integrity and the Will of the People, sounds the alarm on the attempts of career bureaucrats to subvert our elections and provide solutions to make every vote count. Help preserve election integrity and order sacred trust today wherever books are sold. Welcome back to Washington Watch, Joseph Backholm, sitting in Fort Tonya today. Quick reminder that Tony will be back in the chair with you on Monday. In a reminder, the Prevotes stand summit takes place October 3rd through the 6th in Washington DC. We’d love to have you join us. Visit Prevotes stand.org for more information. To register today, that’s Prevotes stand.org. Also, I want to encourage you to make your voice heard with Family Research Council’s 2024 election survey. If you are concerned about the direction of our nation, text the word election to 67742 to participate in that survey. Late last month, the New York Times wrote extensively on a serious problem that has plagued New York City, Washington DC, and other big cities with extensive public transportation systems. The Times reported, “On nearly half of all bus rides in the city, people now skip paying the fare.” As a result, about 1 million riders ignore the bus systems’ most basic rule every weekday. While this is obviously a serious criminal and fiscal concern for the cash-strapped big city transportation systems, what does it mean culturally that millions of people are willing to essentially steal? How did we get this way? And what does it mean for the future of our cities, of our country, and ultimately of our civilization joining me today for the weekly World View segment is David Kausen, who is the director of the Center for Public War of You at Family Research Council. David, good to see you again. Great to be with you, Joseph. Well David, I know you know something about big city transportation. I’m sure you’ve seen it in the DC metro stop going to and from the office. Why are so many people, as this report details, a million people a day in New York, that’s just one city. I’m going to use a service that they know they’re supposed to pay for and decide I’m not going to pay for it anyway because nobody’s going to make me. What’s going on? Yeah, at one level, Joseph, people know that they can do it and get away with it, so they do it. But this story is so interesting, Joseph, and just maybe kind of to set the stage. I think it’s interesting for multiple perspectives. Just the sheer scale of this. So you mentioned it’s about 1 million people a day who are not paying to ride the bus in New York City. That’s about 47.8% of the folks who ride the bus daily. So right at half, one out of every two people, this is costing the transportation authority $315 million for the year. Now it’s interesting, Joseph, some of the reporting also says it’s about 14% of people who ride the subway also evade paying the fare. It’s a little bit more tricky to avoid it in the subway. But that also costs the city $285 million. And what’s interesting, Joseph, is the numbers have surged just in the last couple of years right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Because about 25% one out of every four bus riders didn’t pay. And again, now just in the last couple of years, that skyrocketed to about one out of every two, about two million people every day in New York ride the bus. And about a million a day simply do not pay. Yeah, I think the people evading the fare at the subway are the athletes because they in fact have to jump over the turn style. And most Americans, this is a different cultural problem, don’t have the ability to leap over a turn style in a subway system. But David, more seriously, we have actually seen a lot of these same cities in recent years decriminalize theft specifically. And they’ll say, hey, we’re not even going to respond to reports of theft. If, for example, it’s less than $1,000. Now, the bus fare is much less than $1,000. We’re talking one or two dollars, maybe. Then we have, as the public has observed their elected officials take those steps and say, hey, these petty theft quote unquote crimes aren’t worth prosecuting, aren’t worth enforcing. Is that part of what the public is hearing that I guess it’s not that big of a deal if I just take what I want? Absolutely, Joseph. And the fare actually is $2.90. And this is not breaking the bank for early most New Yorkers. But one thing that you and I have talked about before is our law is inherently pedagogical. Our law tells people, communicates to people what is right, what is wrong, what is righteous, what is unrighteous. And in these big cities, and we’ve seen this over several years, increasingly, even though the rules are in place, the law is on the book, so to speak, it’s not in force. So what does that communicate to people? It communicates to people, this isn’t that big of a deal. What is it? It’s only $2 anyway. This can’t really impact someone’s life. Well, I think this gets to a really important principle, Joseph, that I think, especially as Christians, we want to take every thought captive to the Lord Jesus. This speaks to a Christian principle of order. Christians are people that believe in order. We believe there’s a creation order. And the opening pages of Genesis, we see that God has made an orderly world. You read the six days creation account, and this, where God is creating and putting things together, there’s order to that. There’s design to that. And then the first task that he gives the man in the garden is to name the animals. Again, you see order is an intrinsic part of a Christian worldview. But again, I think as increasingly as we get away from that basic worldview that has been so much a part of Western civilization, you go, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, you go from order to disorder and eventually go from disorder to anarchy.” And I think this does speak to where we are moving as a culture, where there’s just a flagrant disregard for the rule of law and for just a basic principle of order and respect for the authority. Yeah, to be sure, it doesn’t have to do with order, but it’s not order in the sense that the spice rack is alphabetized and everything is organized and I know how to find it, right? There’s one kind of order where it’s just organized, but what we’re talking about here is really kind of even more fundamental than that, I think. And it’s integrity. It’s the belief that it’s a respect of other people’s property. And it’s this idea that I will do the right thing even if no one makes me. And there’s some other examples that we see. We’re talking about bus fares right now, which are actually not visible to people. But one way that people have visibly noticed the erosion of social trust in America is when we go to so many of our stores. You go to a drug store and you can’t buy the order in Tanymore. You’ve got to go get a clerk to open a case with a key and then carry the deodorant to the counter for you. Then you pay for it then they give you the deodorant. That hasn’t always been that way because there was this general ability to trust the public that though they had access to items on the shelf, they wouldn’t just take them and steal them without paying for them because they understood that’s wrong. You know, do those things because I’m a decent individual and I don’t steal from people all the time. Right? That ability to trust our neighbor has clearly eroded. What does that mean for us moving forward if that trend continues, Dave? Well, it paints certainly a dark picture if that trend continues, Joseph, because you’re absolutely right. You go to some of the supermarkets here in DC and detergent to deodorant to even just basic food staples or now kind of behind locking key. What I think is also a part of the conversation though, Joseph, is really kind of a breakdown and you alluded to it earlier is the fact that a lot of these cities don’t want to practice petty fat theft. They don’t want to prosecute it. They don’t want to go after it. What’s interesting is I was reading one of the New York Times articles about this and some of the authorities who are actually in charge of enforcing the law, Joseph, said they realize this is sensitive because if you kind of go after people who are evading the fares, well, who are some of these people evading the fares? They’re minorities, they’re the poor and we don’t really want to weaponize the government. So to speak is the language they’re using against these people that are kind of they see almost in victim classes. And again, this is where it’s Christians. We need to go back to what is the purpose of government. You know, I’m a small-seek and conservative, Joseph, I think government should be small. I think it’s a problem that government has its tentacles and so many things. But again, I think it’s important for us is Christians to actually affirm the rule of law. Paul in Romans 13, this is kind of the key text for how we think about the purpose and the nature of government. A government exists to promote good and to punish evil doers. That’s Romans chapter 13 verse 4. When government stops doing that, when it stops promoting the good, when it stops going after evil doers, well, guess what? You lose deterrence and there’s actually no incentive to pursue virtue. And so I think a big part of this conversation has to do with the fact that a lot of the people in charge are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. And I think one of the things that this story helps us see is that minor offenses, quote unquote, are not really mine. minor offenses. Asginis, I think he created, and I’m pretty sure he did, the golden triangle of freedom concept. And he describes the connection between virtue, freedom, and religion. And the idea is that you cannot be free without virtue. Why can you not be free without virtue? Because if people cannot control themselves, if they are not self-controlled, they must be controlled by someone else, and that’s always the government. So if you want civil freedom, if you want the right to make your own decisions, you have to be trusted to be able to make good decisions. And of course, you can’t be virtuous unless you have religion. And the freedom of religion in flourishing religious societies require freedom, right? So it’s this kind of cycle, all of the three legs of a same stool, they all depend upon each other. And Americans have been the beneficiaries of generally virtuous societies for a long time, where we could have the expectation that my neighbor wasn’t going to steal something that wasn’t locked down. Now I have good friends from South Africa, and that is a culture that is a very low trust society, and they describe it as like constitutional. Almost every house there has actually been homing-vated. All of the residential neighborhoods have fences and barbed wire around them because they understand that their neighbors, there are always people roaming the streets looking for ways to break into homes. When they go to a coffee shop, they don’t just get up and go to the bathroom. They pack up everything they have, and they take them with them because if they walk to the coffee counter to pick up their coffee, to return to their table, someone will have spotted their purse, left undetected, grabbed it, and run out. And that’s the expectation in a low trust society. And so I think it’s suicidal in so many ways to just pretend that these small things aren’t big things. And in large part, I think we do that because we don’t really have a sense of how much worse it can be when a society is just not virtuous. No, I think you’re right, Joseph. And also to connect this to what we’ve been tracking here at FRC with the lower and lower incidences of biblical worldview, going back to that triangle, which you just mentioned, which are key points of that triangle’s religion. This goes back to the founding. The different quotes about the structure that we have is not meant for anybody but a religious people. But our colleague, George Barna, a decade ago, it was 12-10% of our fellow Americans had a biblical worldview, meaning that their behaviors and their beliefs were largely concurrent what you find in God’s revealed truth. A couple years ago, when we did a national survey, that number dropped down to 6%. And I think earlier this year, George has revised those numbers and said it’s actually about 4% of Americans have what you would again call a consistent biblical worldview. And so you talk about that low trust society. Well, it’s correlated. I think I don’t think the fact that we’re increasingly headed in that direction, I think it goes along with this idea that over the last 10, 15, 20 years, the incidence of a worldview, people have a biblical worldview, has increasingly decreased. It’s getting really, really low. The trajectory is not encouraging. Yeah. And another point about that, there’s been a lot of criticism of cultural Christianity lately in recent years. Cultural Christianity is not salvific. Having generally Christian laws and value systems doesn’t get anyone to heaven. But we’re beginning to see the difference between cultural Christianity and cultural paganism. And if you adapt the idea that the individual is the greatest good and the individual’s happiness is the highest need, why on earth? I need it. The bus system has more money than I do. Walgreens has more money than I do, so they can afford it. And I can make that decision that I need it more than they do. Therefore, I should have the right to take it. When of course, cultural Christianity and the idea that we just don’t steal from each other because stealing is wrong. And that’s the end of the discussion. That ultimately does. And for all of the criticism that cultural Christianity has taken. I think stories like this help us see that cultural Christianity is far superior to the alternatives that secularism is offering. Joseph, I think what you’re hitting on here is really important because I think the loss of cultural Christianity, it’s good for the church because now there’s no longer an incentive for people to claim a Christian identity. And there was actually no biblical repentance or faith in their life. So it’s good for the church because a lot of people have no incentive to fay a Christian identity. But it’s bad for the culture. It’s bad for the country. For precisely the reasons you just outlined in probably then some. And so again, last couple of years, I’ve heard people say this is a great thing that cultural Christianity is in retreat and maybe in some way for the church. But for the broader culture, I think we’re about to see. It’s not as good as we thought it was going to be. But not when you have marauding gangs of thieves walking down your street who feel like they’re unrestrained because their job is to just live authentically. David, in about 30 seconds, how do we fix this? Yeah, one of the things that we’re trying to do here at FRC Joseph is to again, go back to the word. That’s one of the reasons we have a daily Bible reading plan. It’s one of the reasons the Center for Biblical World View exists because if you take God out of the equation, if you take biblical Christianity out of the equation, I don’t see a solution that we can do in our own strength, our own power. We need revival, Joseph, at the end of the day to turn this thing around. That’s exactly right. If we want to be free and we want to be free, we must be virtuous. And we cannot be virtuous on our own. That’s what the power of the Holy Spirit does in redeeming our hearts. But we ultimately do want peer pressure. We want cultural pressure for people to do the right thing, not cultural pressure for them to do the wrong thing. So if that’s possible to create, we want to do that. David Klausen, thanks so much for your time in it. Thank you, Joseph. God bless. Friends, we thank you for joining us on this Friday edition of Washington Watch. It’s been a pleasure to be with you. Have a great weekend. Love God. Love your family. Well, see you Monday until then. Fear God and nothing else. 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 TonyBurgons.com. [MUSIC] [Music]
