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This episode of Washington Watch, hosted by Jody Heiss, dives headfirst into global and domestic policy issues that are shaping today’s political landscape. Join us as we discuss the approaching tariff deadlines for non-compliant countries and hear Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s views on the urgency of trade deals. We also explore Israel’s latest efforts to provide aid to the Gaza Strip amidst longstanding blockades and conflicts, with insights from Ruthie Bloom on these pressing humanitarian efforts.
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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. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
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Well, good afternoon. Hope you had a fantastic weekend. Welcome to this Monday edition of Washington Watch. I am Jody Heiss, Senior Fellow here at the Family Research Council and an honor to be filling in today for Tony. Coming up on this edition of Washington Watch, time is running out for countries who have still not reached trade deals with the United States. And President Trump’s latest round of tariffs is supposed to kick in August 1st. And the administration right now is saying there will not be any extensions on tariff deadlines.
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No extensions, no more grace periods. August 1st, the tariffs are set. They’ll go into place. Customs will start collecting the money. And off we go.
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That was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick yesterday on Fox News Sunday. So I guess we’re all wondering if we’re going to see a flurry of deals take place this week. Well, I’ll be discussing all of that and more when I’m joined here in just a moment by North Carolina Congressman Mark Harris. And in other international news, Israel has now announced, in fact, yesterday, they announced that its military is going to pause operations in some areas of the Gaza Strip in order to allow for improved flow of aid into that region. And the move comes as there’s been a flurry of photos of malnourished kids that everyone’s concerned about, including the White House.
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We’ve got little kids who are clearly starving to death. Israel’s got to do more to let that aid in. And we’ve also got to wage war on Hamas so that those folks stop preventing food from coming into this territory.
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That, of course, was Vice President J.D. Vance earlier today. And I’ll be discussing the humanitarian aid situation later in the program when I’m joined by Ruthie Bloom from the Jewish News Syndicate. And also coming up on today’s program, I want to share with you an interview that Tony had over the weekend with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Fascinating discussion they had. And among the topics that was discussed was French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state. Of course, that’s something that Hamas terror groups actually want.
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If one nation can just declare another place on the earth to be a state, then I think it would be fitting if the UK would declare France to be a British colony. Why not? This was outrageous for Macron to do this, and it came at a horrible time. It basically is a reward to Hamas, and that’s one of the reasons that they became unreasonable in any talks to end the war in Gaza.
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That, of course, was Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and I just assure you, you don’t want to miss that interview. It’s fascinating. And then to close out the program today, I’ll be joined by David Claussen. We’ll be discussing the first six months of the president’s return to the White House. What were some of the notable policy successes, particularly in regard to faith, family, and freedom? And perhaps what remains yet to be done? Well, we’ll be talking about all of that. So we’ve got a lot to cover today, a lot to bring your way. If you happen to miss any portion of it, the website is TonyPerkins.com. You want to be sure to have that website handy where you can catch this and many other archive programs as well. There’s a lot of resources available there to you. All right. Yesterday, President Trump announced a trade deal with the European Union. It’s ended what’s been months of uncertainty surrounding the United States’ largest trading partner. The announcement came less than one week before the August 1st deadline when reciprocal tariffs would be imposed on countries that have not yet reached trade deals with the United States. So with the deadline fast approaching now, are we going to see a flurry of deals take place this week? Well, joining me now to discuss this is Mark Harris, who serves on three different House committees. He represents the 8th Congressional District of North Carolina. Congressman Harris, welcome back to Washington Watch. Great to see you, my friend.
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Cody, it’s great to see you, and thank you for having me this afternoon.
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Well, it’s our privilege. And listen, there’s a lot going on. But this Liberation Day regarding tariffs, Trump announced it, I believe, is back in April. And for many people at that point, Congressman, there were a lot of concerns. But looking now, kind of from hindsight at what’s unfolded since that announcement, what do you make of President Trump’s move in regard to these tariffs?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Jody, I think everybody had a bit of caution and concern as we stepped into this day of liberation. But President Trump certainly had a plan in place. And I think that we are seeing that plan sort of play out. And this announcement that it came earlier about the deal that was made with the EU has just left everybody somewhat in amazement. I mean, to come out of this trade deal with $750 billion that EU is going to be involved with in terms of new investments in energy and investing $600 billion in the United States additionally to that, that’s just been amazing. The fact that there’s going to be the the tariff of 15 percent on those things that are coming from Europe into the United States and opening up the door for U.S. exports at zero tariffs. All of these things have left people sort of, you know, in a state of shock to some degree. In fact, the reports I’ve been reading this afternoon, the folks in Europe are not real excited about it. But yet, have recognized that this is the best deal that they were going to be able to come up with. So I think when you cut through all of it, President Trump has really, for the first time in decades, been a president that has taken trade seriously. And not only is he taking it seriously, But he has moved forward with steps of action. And I think the American people, we’re going to see more of these that come forward, even throughout the balance of this week. We may continue to hear about more and more that will be rolled out.
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Yep, I think you’re right. It’s probably going to be a very, very active week. It’s just amazing the art of the deal combined with his business experience and just his street smart savvy politically and otherwise. It really has been remarkable, and I think… As you stated, many have sat back, once rather cautious, but now amazed at what seems to be unfolding. Okay, so President Trump last week celebrated six months in his second term. And House Republicans, yourself, on August break now, spending a lot of time in your districts talking about the successes of the last six months. At the same time, Democrats on the other side are trying to pit voters against both this administration and congressional Republicans. What do you hope is going to stick in the minds of the American people? And what are you hearing from the people in your district in regards to the direction our country is currently going?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, that’s a great question, Jody. And I’m already hearing from folks in my district, as you know, I try to stay in tune in the district as much as possible. And now that we’re back, preparing here in August for a lot of work in district, we’re already hearing from folks that are thankful for what’s been getting done. I mean, I think everybody recognizes this has almost been a record setting pace that this administration, working with the House and working with the Senate, have been able to move. I mean, we got the rescissions package through, which was very important. Before that, we were able to get the one big beautiful bill, reconciliation, done. And that really was work that was done before this Congress even got into place. Much of the work with Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise and the Whip Emmer and other committee chairs were already laying the groundwork for reconciliation. And so we were able to hit the ground running. We were able to see that pass. The Senate, of course, we sent the framework over. The Senate sent stuff back. And we simply saw that we were able to take up things that the Senate, in some ways, improved upon. In other ways, not so much. But we were able to find ground to be able to pass it. And I think that’s so important. And then there’s rescissions packages. that we passed was critically important as well. The $9 billion that pretty much took care of much of the USAID items. It was almost like a menu as you look down as Doge was identifying so much waste, fraud and abuse that was going on. And then of course, the defunding of NPR and these kinds of things, PBS, those were also critically important. I think when you ask what do we hope that Americans will remember about this first six months, it’s that it was this administration and it was this Congress that kept their taxes from going up dramatically as they would have had we not passed the one big, beautiful bill. I hope they’re going to remember what has happened at the border that President Trump promised. Promises made, promises kept. You can just list them off, I think, as folks begin to walk through them.
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Yeah, it really has. Record setting, I think, is spot on in trying to describe what this first six months has been like. You mentioned the rescissions package. I’m hearing a significant amount of talk from members of Congress, some of my former colleagues, your colleagues, that there’s probably going to be some more rescission packages in the future. Do you see that coming? And when do you think we can probably anticipate some of that rolling out?
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Well, I hope we’re going to see more rescission packages because, let’s face it, I mean, the $9 billion, I was very thankful that we were able to get that passed. But that was just a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars that Doge identified. And we as Congress need to codify and we need to make sure that we claw back that. So we’re looking at the OMB from the White House sending up further rescission packages. I’m hearing some chatter that the next one that comes up may deal with education. And I think that’s gonna be well overdue, that we see some rescission packages. The president has set a priority of dismantling the Department of Education, being able to move some things to other departments, and more than importantly, putting education back in the hands of our state and local communities, and putting the education of children back in the hands of their parents and giving parents school choice. So I think that there’s really an appetite. An appetite has been whetted, if you will, for a rescissions package that would deal with education and find ways that we’re going to be able to make some moves there as we go back into the fall.
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Great. Last question for you. We’ve got just a little bit over a minute, but earlier today, the Office of Personal Management sent forth some guidance regarding protecting religious expression in the workplace. Give me your reaction to that. I’m being told that the basic bottom line, federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career. Amen to that, I say. Thank you.
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Jody, we’re seeing things happen with this administration that you and I prayed for and have worked for for a number of years. And how many times have we tried to tell people that our First Amendment freedom means that we are free to live and work in a way that is consistent with our faith? And as believers and followers of Christ, that means being faithful to live out our faith each and every day. And that includes sharing with people what it means to be a Christian. From what I understand in this ruling that came down today, it says that people are free to share their faith in the workplace, even if it’s a matter of them seeking to persuade, not in any way to be overbearing and not in a way to put people in a bad spot, but truly, from our perspective, being able to be free to share your faith.
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Congressman Mark Harris from North Carolina. He’s one of the good guys. Thank you for standing for Christ. Thank you for standing for our Constitution and the American people in your own district. God bless you. Thanks for joining us on Washington Watch. Friends, coming up, a lot’s happening in Israel right now. Ruthie Bloom will join me to break down the details of it. So stay tuned. We’ll be back in just a moment.
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The family is the oldest, most tested, and most reliable unit of society. It is divinely created and sustained, and yet there are those who are always tampering with its values and structure. That’s why we need organizations like the Family Research Council that can effectively defend and strengthen the family.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Family Research Council invites you to join our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan as we reflect upon the life of Jesus, the Word who dwelt among us. Come with us and discover the glory of the Word. Read the Gospels and witness the life-changing story of Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection. Come read how Jesus transformed the lives of common people and how those same people transformed the known world through the power of the Holy Spirit. Come with us for 10 to 15 minutes a day and read the entire New Testament before the new year. Find our Bible reading plan in daily devotionals from Tony Perkins at frc.org slash Bible. Join us in Stand on the Word.
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Good afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss. An honor to be sitting in today for Tony and glad to have you on board with us as well. All right. Yesterday, Israel announced that its military is going to pause operations in some areas of the Gaza Strip in order to allow for improved flow of aid into that region. And this move, of course, is coming as photos of malnourished kids sparked some concerns late last week. And some of those concerns were also shared in the White House, which recognized the role that Hamas has played in preventing food from reaching Gazans. But the White House is also saying that Israel also needs to do more. But will Hamas respond by pushing harder to sabotage aid efforts in order to use hungry Gazans as some sort of weapon in their war against Israel? Well, here to discuss all of this is Ruthie Bloom. She’s a columnist and senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate. She is also a former advisor at the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ruthie, coming to us live from Israel in Tel Aviv. Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us. Well, thank you so much for having me again. Well, listen, I know it’s late there. Let me just start by saying thank you for staying up late to join us. But what can you tell us about what Israel has been doing in the effort to get aid to those in the Gaza Strip?
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Okay, I will tell you, and my voice is hoarse from having to repeat this all the time and argue with people who are ignorant or ill-willed. And you are not among those people. First of all, Let me just set the record straight. There is no famine in Gaza. So in that respect, the fact that Israel is stepping up, all the food drops and flooding Gaza with food is not a good move because it’s almost like an admission as though there is famine in Gaza. The photos you mentioned at the beginning, you mentioned photos of malnourished children. Every single photo that circulated on front pages of newspapers and on the internet were children who had genetic diseases. One of these children is actually right now in Italy, thanks to Israel having taken him and his mother and brother there for medical treatment. It has nothing to do with starvation. Second, the accusation that Israel is purposely starving people is absolutely outrageous. It’s a lie. It’s a blood libel. And Hamas spread it. And unfortunately, all the people who either hate Israel or who are just sick and tired of hearing about the war are buying it hook, line, and sinker.
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Yeah, and that’s why we want to get their record straight. On the other side, Ruthie, tell us what Hamas has actually been doing to prevent aid from getting to the Gazans.
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Okay, so throughout the war, and that is, it’s going on two years. I mean, October 7th will be two years since the vile massacre that Hamas committed and atrocities and kidnapping at that time of 251 Israelis and also foreign nationals. Now, what Hamas has been doing all along is two things. One is stealing the aid and selling it at exorbitant prices to Gazans who need it. And they were selling it all along in order to have money to keep their terror machine going. But more complicated than that is that in the beginning of the war and most of the first year of the war, The UN was providing the aid, and UNRWA is in cahoots with Hamas. And we know that because not only were hostages held in homes of UNRWA employees, but at the moment, the UN, there are about something like 900 hostages trucks with food and aid rotting at the Gaza border, and the UN refuses to distribute it. Why? Because of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private enterprise of the United States and Israel that has managed to separate Hamas from the civilians of Gaza and direct the food right to those people who need it, to keep it away from Hamas. And of course the UN doesn’t want that. Certainly Hamas doesn’t want it.
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Wow. Well, you bring up some fascinating points. I was struck by a comment that Prime Minister Netanyahu made where he said Israel is now really facing an eight-front war with the eighth front being the battle for truth which you’re laying out here, is it clear to say that Hamas would be willing to at least present the appearance of Gazan starving to death in order to use that as a weapon against Israel? Isn’t that really what they’re trying to do?
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Well, of course. And notice that when did this hysteria begin? When the so-called ceasefire negotiations started. held in Qatar with an Israeli delegation, an American delegation in Qatar and Egypt trying to negotiate for a Hamas whoever they are, living it up in Doha, in Qatar, to somehow get a ceasefire to have the release of 10 out of the 20 living hostages and nine out of, excuse me, or 18 or 15 out of the 30 dead hostages. And these talks have been going on for weeks and Hamas keeps upping the ante. And one, by the way, this is also crucial, Its number two demand was that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation be kicked out of Gaza and not distribute food. Interesting, as though Hamas, in other words, if Hamas cared that there’s starvation, why would it want to eliminate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation? And why would the UN want to do it? because that’s not their aim. Their aim is to starve Gazans, or at least make it look like they’re starving, so that the international community will hop to it and start to say that Israel is being evil. Now, unfortunately, they’re successful at it. As you see, that eighth front, the, you know, and first of all, these are blood libels, like, you know, I mean… Just a few seconds left, Ruthie. I just wanted to say the Nazis would be proud of this propaganda.
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Ruthie Bloom, columnist and senior contributing editor, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you being on the tip of the spear, and particularly tonight for staying up late for us here on Washington Watch. Thank you so much. All right, friends, coming up next, I want to share a conversation that Tony had with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee over the weekend. You don’t want to miss this, so stick around. We’ll be right back in a moment.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you so much for joining us today on Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, an honor to be filling in today for Tony. All right, last Friday, Tony interviewed U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. He’s the ambassador to Israel. He was on the program this week on Capitol Hill. And I want you to see a part of this conversation right now. It’s absolutely fascinating. Here’s how Tony got that conversation started.
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Well, Ambassador, thank you. Shabbat Shalom. And let me ask you, your reaction, I saw that you had a post on Twitter giving some, well, let’s say a response to the French president as to where this two-state solution, how it might be carried out.
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You know, Tony, if Macron wants to have a secondary motion here to get a state for Palestine, I suggested that what he should do is just give a part of the French Riviera, because he never said where this nation needs to be, this Palestinian state, or when it should be. So I suggest let’s make it the French Riviera, and we can call it Frankenstein. That way, everybody’s happy and Macron gets what he wants. And also, if one nation can just declare another place on the earth to be a state, then I think it would be fitting if the UK would declare France to be a British colony. Why not? This was outrageous for Macron to do this. And it came at a horrible time. It basically is a reward to Hamas. And that’s one of the reasons that they became unreasonable in any talks to end the war in Gaza.
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Well, Mr. Ambassador, when you look at France—and there’s a lot of pressure on the U.K. to do likewise in calling for or recognizing a Palestinian state—we see the migration of the Muslim community, the Muslim population into Europe. Is this appeasement? Is this an effort to try to appease those growing minorities in those countries?
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I don’t know if it’s that or if it’s just the self-righteousness of people like Macron who somehow want to beat his chest and try to tell everyone that he’s so compassionate and that he wants to resolve a problem. What he does not understand is that his announcement this week compounded a problem. It made things much worse, not just in Gaza. But quite frankly, we’ve been working on some very touchy issues between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And we were not there yet. We were moving in the direction. And what he did this week blew it all off the table. We’re back to ground zero. And it’s a real setback. And honestly, it was an unforced error on the part of Macron and an unfortunate one.
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Ambassador Huckabee, before we get to Syria, I want to ask you about the Knesset voting this week on a non-binding resolution, but a statement nonetheless about declaring or recognizing the sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
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Once again, when Europe and other areas of the world decide they’re going to start telling Israel that it’s got to let Hamas stay in Gaza or that it’s going to declare unilaterally a Palestinian state, the reaction in Israel is not to surrender. The reaction in Israel is to say, okay, You want to do that? Then here’s what we’re going to do. And what happened to the Knesset this week was a message that should be understood not only in the Palestinian Authority, who were pushing some of these European nations to take this position, but it ought to be a message to the Europeans that when you go out there and you start pushing Israel to surrender, their response is going to be the same any decent country would be. It’s to bow up and say, oh, no, we’re not. We’ll just get stronger, tougher. And we’ll dig in. That’s what happened this week.
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All right, let’s move on to Syria, north of you, where Israeli and Syrian officials met in Paris for U.S.-facilitated talks aimed at de-escalating the tensions there, where Israel has been moving on behalf of Druze and Christians in the southern part of Syria that have been under attack by government forces. Give us the latest.
SPEAKER 05 :
There is, at least for now, somewhat of a ceasefire. It’s delicate and fragile. I’ll be the first to admit that. But I do think there’s been significant progress over the past three days. There were many massacres of Druze early in the week, and it was just horrible and tragic. I had a meeting with the head Druze sheikh in my office at the embassy on Tuesday. I know that it was of great concern to the Israelis because the Druze have been very supportive of Israel. They’ve been faithful citizens of Israel. And the people of Israel felt that they had a moral obligation to stand with him and not stand by and let them get massacred. But some of this incursion that was going on in the south was from jihadists. Some of it was from Bedouins. It was, frankly, a complete mess. But it has gotten better. And I think everybody now knows we’ve got to bring the temperature down and try to move toward a demilitarized Syria that would, in fact, end up normalizing relationships with Israel, which is historic. And in light of everything we’ve been through in the last week, it’s pretty amazing.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is, and I know President Trump meeting with the interim president there in Syria a couple of months ago. But we’ve seen a pattern. We’ve seen, first, the Alawites, Christians, Druze, continuing to be targeted by forces related to the government. Thirty seconds left. Are you optimistic that we can have a new Syria?
SPEAKER 05 :
I really am. And I know it may seem ridiculous in light of some of the events of the past week, but no, it can happen. The big key is the U.S. has to continue helping this new government to have economic and military and political stability. And if we do that and can keep some of these bad actors from disrupting the whole process, we can absolutely get there. And it could be as crazy as it sounds, Syria being the next member part of the Abraham Accords.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well we’ll pray to that end. Ambassador Huckabee thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that was part of Tony’s conversation with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee for his weekend program this week on Capitol Hill. By the way, you can catch the entire interview if you have FRC’s Stand Firm app. I strongly urge you, if you don’t have that app, to get it. Fascinating interview. All right, after the break, David Claussen will join me next for our belated weekly Biblical Worldview segment. So don’t go anywhere. We’ll be back right after this.
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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 09 :
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?
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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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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 03 :
You’re tuned in to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us. I’m Jody Heiss, Senior Fellow here at Family Research Council, and an honor to be filling in today for Tony. Before I get to my final guest of the day, I want to encourage you, if you’ve not already done so, I want to encourage you to sign a petition that we have calling on the Trump administration to restore and strengthen FDA safety standards for the abortion drug Mifepristone. We want the Department of Justice to enforce a federal law. And we need the Trump administration to take some immediate action, some decisive action, to put an end to Biden-era policies that have allowed dangerous abortion drugs like this to be trafficked across state lines. And your voice can be heard. You can help us be a loud voice in this regard. And if you’ve not already joined and signed the petition, I encourage you simply to text the word LIFE, L-I-F-E, text LIFE to 67742 and sign that petition. And in advance, thank you so much for doing so. All right. Capitol Hill is certainly a little bit quieter this week as members of the House of Representatives are away on their August district work period. And President Trump, we just talked about a little earlier, he’s just completed his first six months. Back in the Oval Office and obviously while out on District Work Month, House Republicans are spending time during these next five weeks touting the policy successes of the Trump administration and the Republican Congress. But looking back, what are we to make of the first six months when it comes specifically to issues of faith, family and freedom? Well, joining me today to discuss this is David Claussen. He’s the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council. He’s also author of the new book, Life After Roe, Equipping Christians in the Fight for Life Today. David, welcome back to Washington Watch. I know we were not able to talk this last Friday, but I’m so glad you were able to work it into your schedule today. Thanks for joining us.
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Joy to be with you, Jody. Thanks again for having me.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s always, always a privilege. All right, let me just start with this. From your perspective, what have been maybe the most significant pro-life victories during this first six months of the Trump administration?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, Jody, what a six months it has been. If you think about everything that’s happened since January 20th, when President Trump took the oath of office there in the capital Rotunda, whether it’s issues related to the border, trade deals, mediating peace between India and Pakistan or Rwanda and the Democratic Congo Republic, there has been a lot. And you specifically asked me about the life issue because some of the issues I just named, those are the issues that get most of the headlines. Trade has been in the news even today. Of course, border and the immigration. But there are some issues that we as Christians particularly care about because we believe they are creation order issues. Genesis 1 and 2 issues. And of course, life is one of those. And I got to be honest with you, Jody, I’m incredibly pleased how President Trump has governed on this issue. And if I may, if you just think about the alternative reality, if you remember Joe Biden, when he launched his very misguided campaign, short-lived campaign for a second term, He officially launched that campaign under a massive banner that said Restore Roe. He put abortion front and center of his campaign. And of course, Kamala Harris, when she took over the reins and ran that campaign, she did so as well. But here are just a couple of things I wrote down right before I came on the program of what President Trump has done on the life issue. Four days after taking the oath of office on January 24th, he put out an executive order titled Enforcing the Hyde Amendment, just making it very clear that taxpayer dollars cannot be used to promote or fund abortion. He revoked several Biden era executive orders, including a really bad one from August of 2022 that had basically said Biden had directed his Justice Department and other departments to look at abortion as health care. That was their response to the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. President Trump made it very clear, though, that abortion was not going to be seen as health care in the United States. Of course, he restored the Mexico City policy. That means billions of dollars of America’s foreign aid cannot go to promote or fund abortion. Marco Rubio, in one of his first acts as Secretary of State, rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration declaring that there is no international right to abortion. Of course, President Trump pardoned 23 pro-lifers who had been thrown in jail by the Biden administration. President Trump, in the first week of his administration, released a statement of administrative policy support for the Born Alive Abortion Survivor Act. legislation that Republicans have been trying to get through Congress for many years, which would, again, just provide protections to babies who survive botched abortions. And lastly, Jody, I’ll just mention the use of the bully pulpit. Obviously, whenever the president speaks, he commands an international audience. And he called in just days after his inauguration to the March for Life, expressing support. And then J.D. Vance appeared in person in his first public remarks since becoming vice president, supported the March for Life and just made it very clear where he stood. So overall, you asked me specifically on the life issue. I think social conservatives have a lot to be thankful for.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow, it’s amazing. You know, there’s just so much water under the bridge in the first six months. And some of those things, I mean, while you’re mentioning them, I’m saying, oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember that. But when you put it like you did one after another after another, it’s just, it really is remarkable. But it’s not just… The life issue, this president, this administration has been pretty active on religious liberty in general in a lot of practical ways. Can you break down some of those things for us?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, the first thing that comes to my mind, Jody, is his establishment of the Religious Liberty Commission, which is a commission that specifically exists to advise the White House Faith Office and then the Office of Domestic Policy. And this is a significant commission, and the folks that he has put on the commission are those who are well-versed in First Amendment advocacy. Kristen Wagner, friend of FRC and of the program, president and general counsel of ADF, Alliance Defending Freedom. She serves on that commission. And so this is a serious commission that has the ear of the president and those of his closest advisors. Other things on the religious liberty front, President Trump has instructed his attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice to make sure that they are defending the First Amendment rights of churches. Obviously, this is very significant. Other things that come to my mind, Jody, would be, as you know, the conversation about religious liberty often kind of intersects with the discussion about SOGI, so those contested categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. And under the Biden administration, of course, even before that, the Obama administration, it seemed that whenever those claims of sexual orientation, gender identity, came into conflict with religious liberty, that religious liberty was always supposed to take the back seat, even though that’s spelled out in our First Amendment. President Trump on these issues has been also really helpful. Within just a couple of weeks, obviously, his executive order defining sex, saying that there’s only two sexes, male and female, That’s what he mentioned in his inaugural address. He then put that into an executive order. Another executive order, Jody, that I think is really important is keeping men, biological males, out of female sports. He has also, again, leveraged the bully pulpit. of the presidency enforcing the University of Pennsylvania, for example, to apologize to all those female athletes whose spots were taken by Leah Thomas, the biological male who set all sorts of records in women’s sports. Another executive order that is really significant is against the mutilation of minor children, gender-confused children, and making sure that hospitals and health care providers that provide these so-called gender transition procedures, and of course this would include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and actual physical surgeries, that they can’t get a dime of federal funding if they allow minor children to be basically castrated and mutilated. So again, President Trump has just been really clear. He’s revoked executive orders from the Biden administration on, again, so-called gender-affirming care. He’s supported the creation of a private right to action for actual detransitioners to sue the hospitals that did these surgeries. So again, a detransitioner is someone who identified as transgender and actually got a surgery, maybe a double mastectomy or something like that, and then realizes they made a horrible mistake and wants to identify with their God-given sex. And President Trump is in favor of allowing those individuals to actually sue the surgeons who mutilated their bodies. And so on the front of religious liberty, on sanity with gender, President Trump has been a leader.
SPEAKER 03 :
And this might be a really unfair question for you in light of all that you just unpacked for us. But is there any one or two of these type issues that stand out in your mind that you believe could have a lasting cultural and or legal impact in our country?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, several of these things actually, Jody. So of course, if you rule by executive order, that can be rescinded by executive order. But there are some things that are getting put in place that would outlast even a democratic administration. So you and I have had conversations on the Johnson Amendment. and of course this right now the IRS is before our court in Texas they’ve entered a consent judgment basically saying that they will no longer go after churches that want to endorse political candidates again the so-called Johnson Amendment named after then Senator Johnson, who wanted to go after nonprofit organizations that didn’t support his candidacy. That’s something that’s been weaponized against churches for decades now. It’s been used kind of as a mechanism to silence churches. Once the judge signs this consent judgment, This will be something that, Jody, will have long-term effects because it can’t be overturned by a future Democratic administration. And then just very briefly, the Supreme Court, in large part driven by three Donald Trump appointments to the Supreme Court and Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, they’ve produced unbelievable wins for social conservatives. Of course, you and I have talked about these at length, Jody, but the Scrimeti case, affirming Tennessee’s law that minor children, that you can have that state law that protects minor children from these surgeries that we’ve talked about. Obviously the Mahmoud decision from Maryland, where the Supreme Court said that parents could actually have rights over their children, that you can’t force this crazy LGBT indoctrination on children as young as pre-kindergarten. Another case would be the Paxton case. Again, driven by Donald Trump’s appointments to that court. that says that, yeah, pornography distributors, that vile filth, actually need to take steps to protect minor children. And then the Medina case, you and I have talked about that, where South Carolina is allowed to make sure that Planned Parenthood doesn’t participate in the Medicaid program there in the state. So all of these are, this is Supreme Court precedent now, again, in large part driven by the president’s phenomenal appointments to the nation’s highest court.
SPEAKER 03 :
And those things certainly will have a lasting impact, no doubt about that. And, you know, again, while you’re going through these things, David, my mind is just swirling. It’s unbelievable how much has been accomplished in six months. So I guess where do you see this going from here? I mean, what do you hope to see? What do you anticipate to see from this administration, say, in the next six months? One thing that comes to my mind is chemical abortion. I mean, we’ve got a petition right now about that. Do you think that’s going to be addressed? What do you anticipate over the next six months?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, well, Jody, that’s my prayer as well. This is an issue that I talk about in my book that you mentioned, Life After Roe. I view chemical abortion as really kind of an existential threat to the pro-life movement. Folks who pay attention to this program know that we talk about it all the time. But that two pill abortion regimen that was initially approved by the Clinton administration in the waning days of that administration back in 2000, chemical abortion now makes up 63% of abortion in this country. And it doesn’t even matter if you live in a really conservative state that has really strong pro-life laws. Chemical abortion pills can be mailed from New York or California or Illinois because right now the federal government is not enforcing federal laws that prohibit that. And so, Jodi, I would love to see the Trump administration to enforce federal law to prohibit the mailing of these horrifying drugs that not only kill unborn children, but they’re dangerous for women. EPP study this spring showed that actually 10.93% of women who take these pills have an adverse health effect. These are horrible, horrible pills. So I’d love to see the Trump administration to enforce that federal law, get the Justice Department involved, even when it comes to the FDA. The Southern Baptist Convention a couple of weeks ago passed a resolution that I had the privilege of co-authoring calling for the FDA to revoke the approval for mifepristone, which is the first pill in the chemical abortion regimen. These are dangerous pills. They were approved back in 2000 under a very rushed haphazard process. And this would protect a lot of women and, of course, unborn babies in this country. And so that’s a huge issue. And then very quickly, Jodi, I will say judges. The Trump administration, as of now, has only seen four of their judicial nominations confirmed, one circuit-level nominee and three district-level. There are 48 current vacancies on the federal bench. President Trump knows better than most people that judges can really thwart your agenda. And so I would love to see a lot more energy, President Trump working with, obviously, the Senate to confirm some of his many qualified nominees, because that will be something that outlives this presidency, those people in those positions who hold those lifetime tenures.
SPEAKER 03 :
It really is a window of opportunity, I believe, that God has given us as a country. And this is a moment in history, not only that politics is engaged, but this is a moment where the body of Christ the faith community must step out must step up must be engaged in prayer in action this is a moment god has given us and it at the heart it’s a spiritual issue and we’ve got to keep all these in mind from that perspective David Claussen, Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council. As always, my friends, great to have you. And thanks for just etching out some time for us today, seeing that we couldn’t connect this past Friday. Great to have you. Thank you. God bless. God bless you as well. All right, friends, that wraps up another edition of Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us today. It’s been an honor to sit in for Tony. And we’ll be back on Washington Watch with you tomorrow. Stay tuned in.
SPEAKER 17 :
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.
