Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / The GOP’s Midterm Problems Are Getting Worse — And Some Are Self-Inflicted

Transcript

The GOP’s Midterm Problems Are Getting Worse — And Some Are Self-Inflicted · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is going on, everyone?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Stan,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: and this is the place for balanced takes on politics,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: military, and world events, explained clearly without the outrage.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I believe we can stay informed and stay hopeful.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, every episode wraps up with a story of courage to inspire you,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: plus a few minutes of biblical encouragement to remind us that faith Peace
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: and perspective still matter.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into this week's news.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we would start with a couple of clips from the Republican Speaker of
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: the House, Mike Johnson.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm starting with these out of an abundance of trying to be fair to
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: the Republican Party because it has not been a good week for them.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have one piece of good news for them later in the show,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: but I want to share these two clips and then share some pretty rough news for them
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: and for the upcoming midterms,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: which I think will be disastrous for the Republican Party.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Nonetheless,
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I could be wrong,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: so let me just start with what Speaker Mike Johnson is saying.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let's play it out.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: The nightmare scenario.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Heaven forbid the Democrats take control of the House.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: They will do nothing all day,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: every day,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: every hour of the day, but go after the president, his family, his cabinet.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: Donors in the party, big figures in business and industry.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you're caring about your pocketbook,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: your family's stability,
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: the stability of the markets, you have to keep Republicans in charge.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because if the Democrats do that, they go to lawfare on steroids, it will roil themselves.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: The DSA has told us what they're all about.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, the insurgent left is consuming the
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: That is the energy, the excitement, the grassroots on the left is taking over the party.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what's at stake.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Common sense versus crazy.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there is a lot there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice how fast he's talking?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds a little scared to me.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta be honest,
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: he's talking about what Congress would be doing every single day
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: and what would change.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of would like to remind him that he...
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: He, of all people, just put the House on a seven-week recess.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Seven weeks.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, according to Thomas Massey,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: it's because they didn't want to get any more out about the Epstein list or
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: the impeachment of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I don't think anybody's happy with a seven-week recess of Congress.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I would also point out that I seem to remember lots of investigations of Hunter Biden.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Him being on the board of Burisma and paintings that he had sold.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: The American people don't like corruption.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I am perfectly okay with Democrats investigating corruption.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: All of these really curious,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: suspicious business deals with people in the Trump administration
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: and even some family members of President Trump himself.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the argument that the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is making right now.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think he's reminding people of exactly what they actually do want.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: They actually do want some accountability and the rule of law followed.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I think.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now I played his best argument that I've seen him make.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me play a clip that he's probably wishing he hadn't said.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You may have heard this because this one went pretty viral.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: What we would do in the next two years is exactly what we have been doing already,
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: and that is putting the conditions in place for a strong American.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: We restored not just American energy dominance and peace through strength,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: but a vibrant economy.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: The conditions are there for this to take off, and that's why the stock market indexes are high.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's why job numbers exceed expectations.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: The Atlanta Fed says 5.1% economic growth expected in the third quarter.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: That doesn't happen.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Huh.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, can we be honest here?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: This has been one of the least productive sessions the past two years,
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  SPEAKER_02: almost in American history.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the House,
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: and the Senate as well,
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: but the House especially,
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  SPEAKER_00: has basically done almost no oversight of the executive branch.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: They have allowed President Trump and his administration
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  SPEAKER_00: to do pretty much whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean Congress,
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  SPEAKER_00: we've just been paying them to either be out of session or just
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: to rubber stamp whatever the Trump administration has wanted.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Despite on many issues from the Epstein list to even
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: the overly aggressive immigration enforcement,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: there are so many things that the Congress could have actually helped
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: the president keep it between the lines.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And probably be a little bit more popular than he actually is.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, they have done whatever the president said, whenever the president wanted it.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime they even slightly stood up to the president, the president has gone after them.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it was Thomas Massey,
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: whether it was Marjorie Taylor Greene,
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  SPEAKER_00: one of his biggest allies that he later called a traitor...
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: The House has just provided absolutely no check and balance for the administration.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think the American people are very happy about that.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of pieces of evidence for this.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't even have to go any further than Texas.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because Texas could be a big problem for the GOP.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not just talking about Tallarico.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this recent reporting from PBS.
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  SPEAKER_00: On just how bad this could all be for Republicans in Texas.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And even members of the House in Texas.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget they redrew all those districts really tight.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just so they could squeeze out some Democratic seats as part of Trump's move
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: to consolidate power.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Which as a reminder he did on a non-census year.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Setting a precedent and arguably...
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Really pushing the boundaries of the law on that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: But just as I said when this was happening last year and a lot of folks on
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: the middle and left were feeling some despair,
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I said then all of this might backfire on him.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sounds like that's what's potentially going to happen.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Check this out.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: We meet Mario Guerrero at the entrance to his weekend escape.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: My dad is a big hunter and his dream was always to purchase a ranch.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: A new family hunting lodge on the outskirts of Encino, Texas.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Guerrero,
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: who heads a regional builders association,
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: says federal immigration policy is holding back local businesses like his that rely
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: on immigrant labor.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: The construction industry has been terrorized with these raids that are currently happening.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: When you have fear and you can't get people to show up to job sites to do work,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: it affects the whole wheel of the economy when it comes to construction.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that this area
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right now,
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: if you're a Republican candidate,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: at least in South Texas,
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: a lot of people that I speak to,
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: which are business owners,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: if you have the stamp of a Republican on you, it doesn't look very good.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: At the ballot box,
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  SPEAKER_01: Latinos account for almost a third of the eligible electorate and 45%
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: of potential young voters in Texas.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Trump's share of the Texas Latino vote grew each time he ran,
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  SPEAKER_01: from about a third in 2016 to 55% in 2024.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Have you supported President Trump in the past?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I have.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: How many times have you voted for him?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: I voted for President Trump every time he was on the docket.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Last summer,
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  SPEAKER_01: Republicans counted on keeping their electoral gains
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  SPEAKER_01: with Hispanic voters like Guerrero as they redrew districts in an effort
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: to win more seats in Washington.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: But a recent poll from the Cook Political Report in Televisia Una Vision Found just
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: a third of Hispanic voters in the state approve of the job the president is doing.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nearly two thirds say they're less likely to back a candidate
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: who supports his deportation policy.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good afternoon, Texas.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Herrera's Congresswoman,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Republican Monica de la Cruz,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: touts the president's efforts to secure the border and backs Border Patrol.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: But on immigration enforcement...
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have spoken with leadership.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I believe that enforcement should be on the criminals and the cartels.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I've said this over and over again.
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  SPEAKER_01: That is not good enough for Guerrero.
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  SPEAKER_01: He is voting for her Democratic opponent, Bobby Pulido, this fall.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: I vote Bobby to his face.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to keep track of what you're doing and I'm going to keep track
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: of how you're voting because we're expecting for you to vote in the best interest
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: of your people and not in the best interest of your party.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Pulido is a Tejano music star who left the stage to run for office
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: and began turning quinceañeras into campaign stops.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: We feel like we are inspiring a lot of people to go vote and be engaged
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: that don't normally get engaged.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I really think people are more split ticket voters and they want to believe in the candidate.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're disillusioned with both parties, to be honest with you.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Engagement is the concern for Daniel Garza.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: He leads the Libre Initiative, a conservative group that courts Latino voters.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: His fear?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: That Latinos might stay at home as races across the country are decided by fractions
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: of a percent.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: That rightward shift that happened with the Latino community, don't take that for granted.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: We are almost transactional voters in a very real way.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: The Latino vote,
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: leaning it one way or the other, can actually define the outcomes of these races.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: The Cook poll found Texas Hispanics ranked the economy as their top concern.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we heard at this homecoming football game in Floresville, just outside San Antonio.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Can you afford day-to-day things right now?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with multiple jobs.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, that's the way a lot of Americans probably feel right now.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: We own a couple of businesses ourselves,
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: and have a full-time job,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: so it's very difficult, you know, so the affordability is
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: really real right now.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hispanic voters who spoke with us here had a favorable view
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: of their incumbent Congresswoman, Republican Monica de la Cruz.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Have I supported her in the past?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I have, yes.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: But this year, they can't.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: State mapmakers drew them and 60% of her current constituents out of the district,
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: forcing de la Cruz to introduce herself to new voters.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Both she and Lito argue that winning over Hispanic voters
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: in South Texas only happens if you win the pocketbook issues.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: I know what a stack of bills looks like on the kitchen table.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: especially in the Hispanic communities,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: we don't come from generational wealth, so we respond a lot to an economic message.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: For his part, Guerrero sees the economy and immigration as intertwined.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: He voted for a secure border and safer communities.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't expect indiscriminate immigration rates and the resulting impacts on
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: the social and business communities.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Even though Trump said on the campaign trail he wanted mass deportations,
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: you're still surprised?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, ma'am.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Very surprised.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think that the enforcement that has been placed
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: by this administration has gone way above and beyond than anybody ever expected.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a dynamic that could reverse recent Hispanic voting trends and reshuffle
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: the odds of victory up and down the ballot.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Liz Landers in Encino, Texas.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that was some great reporting there,
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: and I knew this intellectually speaking,
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: but just hearing them interview that Republican congresswoman...
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: You forget that when they're redrawing all these lines that,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: like in her case,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: you take someone who's won re-election multiple times and people in
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: the community know them and folks like that can cruise to victory pretty easily.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you redraw someone's district drastically,
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: they have to reintroduce themselves to people,
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: not reintroduce, I guess introduce themselves to people that don't even know them.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget when I owned that little weekly newspaper in Oak Ridge.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was one council member that in my opinion was just terrible and was like
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: the wrong vote on everything and had been there for multiple terms.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in the nine years I owned this small little newspaper in Oak Ridge,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I just couldn't imagine how anyone would vote for this guy who kept up with the news
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: at all.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one year there was an election happening and I'm just talking
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: to some folks in the community.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't even think I was interviewing anyone because most people don't want
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: to really be interviewed,
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: especially in a small little local paper where people will know your name.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just talking to people kind of off the record,
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: just trying to get a feel for who they're going to vote for.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there was this sweet lady that was just like, yeah, I'm voting for council member so-and-so.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that year there might have been like three council members that were up.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, how about for the other slots?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she didn't know anybody.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, why him?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she was like, he came to my mom's funeral and introduced himself.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, that's literally it?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, yeah, yeah, that's it.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, he answered an email once, but like, I think he's a good guy.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember walking away thinking, I mean, politics is really that simple sometimes.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's someone showing up at your school or at a football game or whatever
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: and Maybe they shake your hand.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: They seem real.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And just like that, you're like, you don't keep up much.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're good.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's all you need to know.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And just hearing that congresswoman as she talks about her district being changed,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: you lose a lot of those votes like that that are guaranteed from people
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: who barely keep up but who just think you're a great person.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to know just how much trouble Republicans are in,
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this is probably why Speaker Mike Johnson's talking so fast and sounding
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: so scared.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: The president is headed to a midterm rally in Grand Island, Nebraska.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Grand Island, Nebraska.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Which, President Trump won this district in 2024.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is less than two years ago.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to a rally...
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: In a district that he won by 54 points.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: 54 points.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why does he need to go there?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that's how much they're panicking.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a little bit further evidence here.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what the markets are saying right now?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: The betting markets, which...
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I used to, like,
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: scoff at them,
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: but I remember someone telling me during the last election that one of them had said
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: that Trump would win, and I was like, I don't know, man, it's gonna be...
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: But, like,
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched these enough that these are people putting their money
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: where their mouth is.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: In North Carolina,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: which is a state that Trump won,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: the Republican running for the Senate seat there, a guy by the name of Michael...
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whatley, he only has a 5.7% chance of winning.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: 5.7% chance of winning, which is an all-time low for him.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Democrat,
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Roy Cooper, who's very well known, he's a moderate, he has a 94% chance of winning.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a reason that Mike Johnson sounds absolutely terrified,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: and that's because the Republicans,
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: to use the famous words or infamous words of President Barack Obama,
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: the Republicans are heading for a shellacking,
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: which is, of course, what happened to the Democrats when Obama was the president.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: He lost the House and a bunch of other things,
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: and he said that they had taken a shellacking approach.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the Republicans are headed for the very same thing.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: It struck me as I was pulling together my notes and the news stories
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: for this episode that really there are three things that blew up
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: that Republicans thought would help them in this election.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, all three of them just completely blew up in Republicans' faces.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the first one is kind of an obvious one.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was the Epstein list.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: I even heard a podcaster talking about that some of those guys
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: who are called front row Joes who have gone like to 100 Trump rallies,
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: there were two of them that stopped supporting the president because when
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: the Epstein list,
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: which of course the president campaigned on releasing all these names,
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: But these two front row Joes that were interviewed who had gone to
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: a hundred rallies.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine traveling around to a hundred rallies.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have a favorite band.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even think of anything that I would travel to
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: a hundred different like either concerts or any of that stuff.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: These two guys had gone to a hundred different rallies,
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: but they said that when the president said about the Epstein list that it was
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: a hoax,
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: they were a little shaky,
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: but when they saw the news conference when he was asked about it,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: and he was like, why are people still talking about that?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: No one's talking about that anymore.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: They were just like, their hearts just died a little inside.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so, when that happened, those two were done.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, the Epstein list, still a big deal.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there were other things besides the Epstein list that
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: the Republicans actually thought would help in November.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now the first one, obviously, was the Iran War.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: They thought that would be over.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: They thought it would be a little excursion.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: There would be democracy in Iran after those initial strikes.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: There would be low energy prices and Probably in Trump's mind,
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: he imagined it would be like Venezuela.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we would take over some of the oil or send in some of our oil companies
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: and have all these unbelievably favorable deals.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he would reward these oil companies,
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: many of which have donated to his campaign for election in 2024.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so he thought that would be a big plus on the ledger.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, six months in, that's not the case.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Diesel prices are as high as ever,
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: and as I saw an analyst mention,
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: if you're some liberal living in a city,
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: diesel prices don't really affect you until it hits grocery prices or something like
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: that, but You know who really has to pay for a lot of diesel?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Besides truck drivers,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: which I mentioned last week,
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: and my heart does break for all the owner-operator truck drivers and
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: the farmers out there, but it's really farmers.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, every piece of equipment on a farm generally runs on diesel.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: this Iran war is hurting Republican voters even more than it's hurting Democrats,
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: at least up to this point.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the Iran war is on the list of things that blew up
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: that Republicans thought would help in November.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned the Epstein list.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: We mentioned earlier the overly aggressive immigration deportation stuff.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now I think probably 60% or more of the country,
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: maybe even 70% or 80% supported locking down the borders.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: The president has done a good job of locking down the border,
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: but as we shared in that earlier reporting from PBS,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: just the overly aggressive way that people inside the country are being deported.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know,
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: there was even a story in CNN this week about a 13-year-old boy named Angel who was
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: in a Texas courtroom, And CNN reports on the judge.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the transcript.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Judge says, would you like to request voluntary departure or should I issue a removal order?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the judge is asking a 13 year old this.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: The 13 year old says, I don't know.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then he starts crying.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: He stares ahead and says, I have no one.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have nothing.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as Senator Cory Booker shared that,
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: and he said, The cruelty and depravity of this administration know no limits.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: We must stop them.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking back to George W.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Bush back in 2000 and how he had the compassionate conservative.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are just things that even if you take the line that those who are here without
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: the proper paperwork and all should leave,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that we have treated some of these folks is very difficult,
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: if not impossible, to defend.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: And people see it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: They sense it.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't happy about it.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the president just kind of takes pride in it.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sharing a photo where...
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: He looks over at a photographer with a staring mean face
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: and Melania looks like she's mad and mean and President Xi standing there
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: and he's just kind of like half smiling looking normal.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the president when he was arrested he wanted to just stare down that
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: the mug shot like he takes pride in just looking cruel and heartless
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't think all in all most Americans are for that kind of Cruelty.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not what people want.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: But again,
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: besides the Epstein list,
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: besides the Iran war and the price of diesel and even the price of just gas,
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: there's one other big thing and maybe you can kind of put it together.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to combine them as the third thing that blew up that Republicans thought would help.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the election lies or the election statements by the president that
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: The election had been stolen.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Remember he gave that big speech?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that also the Democrats had used lawfare against him and some of his people,
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: and people needed to be punished.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, these election statements,
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: which were supposed to help rally the base that they had been cheated,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's been a dud.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And going after lawfare that they claimed the Democrats had done, that's been a dud too.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share just a clip from a couple of Republicans.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is from the Bulwark podcast,
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: and it's Tim Miller and Amanda Carpenter, long-time Republican operatives.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they lay out how both of these two things have completely just, they felled.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Republicans went into November thinking that people would be mad about
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: a stolen election.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Worried about integrity.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: We remember that the Senate was trying to pass the SAVE Act.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I really think they hoped to find more illegal votes.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's been some things they've tried across a number of states.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the vote tallies of illegal votes cast are so small
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: that they just wouldn't affect any races.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it's just fallen apart.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really well laid out by a couple of Republicans.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Take a listen to what Tim Miller and Amanda Carpenter say about this issue of
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: the election and lawfare by Democrats and how the agenda that Trump had hoped
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: to really push and campaign on.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, he gave a primetime address on this.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: It has fallen apart.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: You remember me saying on this very podcast that Fox News wouldn't even cover
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: the primetime address the next morning on Fox and Friends.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because there were just so many, I mean, Fox has been sued.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: They had to pay $780 million.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: They just were not willing to cover the statements,
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: just the outrageous statements that the president made during
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: that primetime address.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so Trump,
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: just to rejog your all's memory,
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: remember Trump called Fox various people there like,
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: why aren't you guys covering it?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the executives at Fox News were not wanting to have
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: to do another big payout like they already had to do.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: But listen to this clip.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it is quite persuasive.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Two more things.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure every vote is counted and every rightful winner is seated.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: So this is not over yet, of course, but their plans are failing spectacularly.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to dial in on one of the things that you mentioned because it was
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: so stupid,
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: and I forget if it was when I was on vacation or if it was just
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: so stupid I didn't want to deal with it or if I was leading into vacation,
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: but the election lie speech,
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: the big speech that he gave,
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: I do think it's important to kind of step back sometimes and take their lies
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: at face value rather than just glossing over them or make fun of them, right?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the President of the United States...
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: You have a primetime address where he accused China of rigging our elections in the past.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: And that was two months ago.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: And here we are last week.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: He invites Chairman Xi to the White House and fets him,
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: compliments him,
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: says how great of a guy he is,
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: which betrays either an unbelievable weakness that the person he thinks rigged
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: the election he still wants to suck up to,
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: or that, like, his heart isn't even in the lie, you know?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is done at Trump's convenience.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this lie that they're peddling is set up for his convenience so
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: that he can deny results that he doesn't like.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to dismiss this because that lie is still active.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you saw just yesterday,
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Secretary of War,
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Pete Hexeth put out a memo saying that,
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on special notice to make sure that there is no foreign interference in
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: the election with machines.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so was he just doing that to say,
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: like, oh, I'm kind of doing something and make the boss happy?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: But they're still on this.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so they very much want this pretext so that they can go raid voting machines, potentially.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: All these scenarios are still on the table.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying they don't have the momentum and the buy-in from the public for
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: that fever pitch that we saw in like 2020.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: And they don't even have the guys to execute it, right?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, part of it is on the media side, the propaganda.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know,
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: we've talked about this a couple times the last couple weeks,
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: but like the right wing...
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: Podcast, Manosphere, stuff.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: They're not even talking about him anymore.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: He's not giving them a narrative.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_03: These guys need a little bit more of a narrative if you're going to try
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: to blame China for stealing the elections.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: You need something to go on.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then you bring Xi to the White House and don't say anything.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: What are you supposed to say if you're Benny Johnson about this?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, the president is... Maybe it's QAnon.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe he was really mean to him behind the scenes.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Play a 4D test and make a deal with Xi.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: You can see how people can get there.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: And people are leaving.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, as you've pointed out,
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: that you had Joe DeGeneva,
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: who was brought in to look
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: into how former administration officials were improperly investigating Trump,
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: and they were going to go after the investigators.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: Him and Cardolson quit.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: The number two at the FBI, Andrew Bailey, he resigned.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's another number two.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: Dan Bongino had already left.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: He's a big election denier.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like, one thing I'm worried about is kind of the bottom up.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like, there obviously are still some true believers in the county offices,
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_03: but they don't really have the people to execute the scale of what they would like
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: to do with the election.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean,
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: I guess we could put on the scenario that these people are leaving so
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: that they can act from the outside in.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't totally expect someone like Eagle Ed Martin to totally disappear.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: But the point is that they don't have people in positions to press the levers
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: of power that they planned.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's absolutely right.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we went from Pam Bondi to Todd Blanch and Tulsi's gone.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the people involved in that Fulton County raid,
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: which I thought was extremely dangerous.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: The Stan R. Mitchell, The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: We can't say it yet,
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: but I think we need to get comfortable with saying that
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: the whole Trump 2025 project is going down the tubes.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is failing.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: On every level,
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: if you really look at it,
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: they had a good, robust six months in getting what they wanted.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: But now if you look at his big weaponization project for the Department of Justice,
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: you mentioned the fact that Joe Jodenova,
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'll get that right someday, and Kurt Olson have left.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: They were supposed to be the ones spearheading this grand conspiracy thing
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: where they were going to get all the bad guys who went after Trump
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: and put those scalps up on the wall.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Anymore.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: There was a time where people were afraid,
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: and I think retreating to their respective corners, but this project is failing.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if the midterms go the way that the polling indicates,
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think we really need to start branding this presidency as
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: the worst one we've ever seen.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Failing by its own merits,
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: by its own design,
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: and just showing that we have rejected this authoritarian direction once and for all
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: and then really recalibrate to hold people accountable
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: and make sure it never happens again.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, like I said,
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's really well said there,
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: really well, in my opinion, explains that The effort has failed.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: The effort to hold Democrats accountable or some of these investigators.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was an article I saw the other day
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: where Democrats are literally rehiring investigators because they expect to win
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: in November.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: People who have lost their job in the FBI,
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: people who are unfairly punished for just doing their job.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to literally get rehired,
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: some of them for congressional committees as investigators,
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: because the Democrats are going to really dig into some of the deal making
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: that has been happening.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know your thoughts on the news this week.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can always drop a comment.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of news I could not squeeze in,
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: so I will probably put out a newsletter on Friday or maybe Saturday.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for the email list.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's free to You don't even have to pay to subscribe,
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: although it would be awesome if you wanted to help support the show.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you do, it's $5 per month, I should mention, but you don't have to.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would just be honored to have you join the slightly growing list every week.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime there's major breaking news or something, it's a great way to get that shared.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Another reason to do so is that next week I will be in Florida,
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: so I'm not sure that there will be a news recorded podcast episode,
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: but I have planned a special episode on a single subject,
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: a subject I have not had a chance to We'll move now to the story of courage and then
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: the faith section at the end.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: For this week's story of courage,
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take you back almost exactly 250 years to the winter of 1775.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: The American Revolution had started,
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: or what we often call the War for Independence,
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: and George Washington and the Continental Army had the British bottled up in Boston.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: There was just one pretty big problem.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: General George Washington didn't have enough heavy artillery to force the British out.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: But about 300 miles away,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: at a fort in New York,
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: the Americans had captured dozens of British cannon,
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: mortars, and other artillery pieces.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where a 25-year-old guy named Henry Knox enters the story.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Henry Knox wasn't a professional soldier.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: He was a Boston bookseller.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: But he absolutely loved military history and had basically educated himself
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: on artillery, engineering, and warfare simply by reading the books in his own shop.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: He'd also been involved with local militia and artillery organizations.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Henry Knox came to George Washington with a pretty crazy idea.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why not go get those guns in New York?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now that sounds simple until you understand what he was proposing.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about 59 pieces of artillery weighing somewhere around 60 tons.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: You heard that right.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: 60 tons.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Henry Knox wanted to move all of that more than 300 miles away.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Through New England in the middle of winter.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: There were no trucks, no trains, no interstate highways.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: there were frozen lakes and rivers,
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: forests, mountains, terrible roads, where there were roads at all.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: And some of these individual guns weighed thousands of pounds.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, surprisingly, George Washington basically said, go do it.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow, Henry Knox did.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: He traveled to New York,
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: gathered the artillery,
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: had heavy sledges built,
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: found teams of oxen and horses,
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: and he started moving what became known as the Noble Train of Artillery
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: toward Boston.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And almost immediately, things went wrong.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: They had trouble getting the guns across the water Sleds broke under the heavy loads.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Cannon fell through the ice and had to be recovered.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then Knox had to get this enormous load of iron over the Berkshire Mountains in
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: the dead of winter.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about that for a second.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're 25 years old.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: You've never commanded an operation like this before.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're responsible for dozens of incredibly valuable cannon that Washington desperately needs.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you're trying to move roughly 120,000 pounds of artillery across mountains
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: and frozen rivers with animals and wooden sleds.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: There were plenty of opportunities to say this isn't going to work.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, Knox kept going.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: And after weeks of fighting the weather,
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: the terrain,
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: the ice,
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: and all the logistical problems that came with moving that much weight,
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: the guns finally reached the Boston area.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then came the payoff.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: In early March of 1776,
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: George Washington's army moved heavy cannon onto Dorchester Heights,
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: overlooking Boston and the harbor.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: The British were stunned,
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: and when they saw what had happened, they suddenly had a major problem.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Americans now held the high ground with artillery capable
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: of threatening British positions and ships in the harbor.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: The British considered attacking the heights,
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: but ultimately decided Boston was no longer worth holding.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: And on March 17, 1776, British forces evacuated the city.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Henry Knox would go on to become Washington's Chief of Artillery.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: His guns would be there at some of the most important moments of the Revolution.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And after the war, Knox would become the nation's first Secretary of War.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Fort Knox would eventually be named after him.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's something especially inspiring about where his story started.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here was a 25-year-old bookseller who loved to read about artillery.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then history suddenly presented him with a problem that seemed almost impossible.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: Knox didn't have decades of experience.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: He hadn't graduated from some great military academy.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: He knew what he knew because he had taken the time to learn.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when the moment came, he had the courage to step forward and say, I think I can do this.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then, when the weather turned against him,
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: the ice broke,
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: the sleds felled,
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: and the mountains stood in his way, he just kept solving the next problem.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Until in the end,
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: 60 tons of artillery had traveled more than 300 miles through
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: a rough New England winter.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And those guns helped force one of the most powerful armies in the world out of Boston.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's Henry Knox,
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  SPEAKER_00: bookseller,
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: self-taught artilleryman, and a pretty incredible American story of courage.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it's helped inspire you.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: And now, let's close with a little faith and encouragement.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're carrying this week,
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this helps you step away from the noise for a few minutes and focus
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  SPEAKER_00: on something that matters.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we would start this week with a verse from Scripture that is just
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: an important reminder.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: The verse is, The Lord your God is with you.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: He will take great delight in you.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is from the Old Testament, from the book of Zephaniah, chapter 3, verse 17.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Such a good reminder.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God is with you.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: He will take great delight in you.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: This verse reminds me that God is chasing you as hard and fast as He can.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: We humans are quite stubborn.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to think we need help.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to think about having to repent for our sins.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: We are very stubborn and distracted people.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: But God is always chasing all of us down.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: And He is always hoping that we will turn to Him.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you haven't, I hope that's something you think about some this week.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Alright,
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: let's move to a quote from A pastor back in,
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: way a long time ago, back in the days of the Puritans.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is,
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: A Christian's falling does not have to be so blatant as to involve murder
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: or adultery.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: It can be the kind of inward falling, leaving your first love, that no one but Christ notices.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: Again, a Christian's falling does not have to be so blatant as to involve murder or adultery.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's referring to outward sin.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: It can be a kind of inward falling of leaving your first love that no one but Christ notices.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is a great quote,
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: and it's a reminder that we often do fall privately before we fall publicly.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's important that we spend some time with God,
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: either through devotionals, reading scripture, prayer, meditating on the Word.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: You don't do those things, you start to slip.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: And again, a private falling usually ends up in a public falling.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to jump over to the New Testament, read a couple of verses.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: The verses read, God has united you with Christ Jesus.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: For our benefit,
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: God made Him,
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: being obviously meaning Christ Jesus,
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: so for our benefit, God made Him to be wisdom itself.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Christ made us right with God.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as the scriptures say, if you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great verse.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's from 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and that's verses 30 and 31.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'll read those two verses one more time because I know that's a lot,
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: especially if you're driving or maybe on a treadmill or at work or shopping
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: for groceries.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: The verses are, God has united you with Christ Jesus.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: For our benefit, God made him to be wisdom itself.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Christ made us right with God.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: He made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as the scriptures say, if you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to follow that up with a quote that just happens to kind of align with that.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is from a famous pastor in the 1900s, A.W.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tozer, wrote several books.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, The only sin Jesus ever had was ours.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: The only righteousness we can ever have is His.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's kind of a twist of words.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: So again, the only sin Jesus ever had was ours.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: The only righteousness we can ever have is His.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: You guys may have heard the verse about filthy rags,
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: but it says in the Old Testament,
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: in the book of Isaiah,
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: that all of us have become like one who is unclean,
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's from Isaiah chapter 64.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: But we so often like to think that, well, we're good people or we do good things.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: But scripture is very clear.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can't work for your salvation.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do good things.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just go to church, be a part of religion.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can't in any way earn it.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you read scripture, it is very clear that there is only one way.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: That way is to put your trust in Jesus.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: That you have to believe that He is the Son of God, who died for your sins and rose again.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have to choose to follow Him.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a gift from God.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: You receive it by trusting Jesus, not by earning it through being good enough.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: And along that lines, I want to just end with two final little quick things here.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: First one is a verse from the book of John.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's the words of Jesus himself, and he says, You are my friends if you do what I command.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you are my friends if you do what I command.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then one final just small thing.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a quote from a pastor I saw.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: It says,
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: either your faith will separate you from the world or the world will separate you
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: from your faith.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope these words have helped you some.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you have become a new creation, a new birth through Jesus.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't, you should check out the Bible some this week.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Read it as a skeptic.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: See if it speaks to you.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you are already a Christian,
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not in church, make sure you find a good Bible-believing church.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Find a good group of believers to grow with, build a relationship with.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: As it says in the Old Testament, it's important we have community.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a verse in Ecclesiastes that says,
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated,
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Three or even better for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: So find you a good church.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: Find you some good friends.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: If it's nonsense, you'll figure that out.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if it really is the Word of God, that changes everything.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to open the book and see for yourself.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: If it starts to speak to you,
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: or if you're someone who used to go to church but no longer does,
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: make sure you find a good local church.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: One that believes that the Bible is the Word of God,
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: that Scripture is true, trustworthy, and without error.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: Find the people that you need to surround yourself with to get through life
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: because life is hard and scripture is clear that we should go through it
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: with community and that community should include people who believe in
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: a higher power.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: And one last thing,
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: if you're a veteran struggling with PTSD,
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: depression,
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: or thoughts of suicide, please use the resources I've linked in the episode notes.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: You've made it through hard things before.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try to fight this one alone.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: We need you here.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: Your life matters.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me this week.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: As you head into the coming days, try to be a little kinder, online and out in the world.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that most Americans are good people, even if they vote differently than you do.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: And keep working on yourself, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: Try to be a little better this week than you were last week.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be perfect, just keep moving forward.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: When the news gets discouraging, and you know it will, Don't give up on this country.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm betting when you finish this podcast you're going to hear a lot
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: of angry rhetoric either in your neighborhood or maybe from your news source.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: But remember these truths.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: Division weakens us.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: Unity strengthens us.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: So be careful what you feed your mind and your spirit.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a person of faith Spend some time in your Bible this week,
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: and if you're not, maybe pick one up and give it a try.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: Finally,
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: if you'd like to support what I'm doing here,
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: or check out any of my books, you'll find links in the episode notes.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time,
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: stay hopeful,
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: stay humble, and keep working to be the light in your corner of the world.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.