Latest / Salem Podcast Network / This Week on Capitol Hill - Speaker Johnson's Final Midterm Push, Israel Marks October 7th Anniversary, and SBC President Calls for Pastors to Speak Out on Critical Issues

Transcript

This Week on Capitol Hill - Speaker Johnson's Final Midterm Push, Israel Marks October 7th Anniversary, and SBC President Calls for Pastors to Speak Out on Critical Issues · Salem Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We still have challenges ahead of us. Hamas and Hezbollah
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: must be disarmed. Iran still seeks our destruction. The security
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: threats around us continue to evolve. Even in this building,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the UN is trying to demonize and isolate Israel. They
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: have turned the victim into the accused.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: That was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danan,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: speaking this week. as Israel marked three years since the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: October 7th terrorist attack. Three years later, Israel is still
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: confronting the consequences of that attack, while much of the
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: international community seems to have forgotten who started this war.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Welcome to this week on Capitol Hill, your insider's guide
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: to the story shaping Washington and the world. I'm your host,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Tony Perkins. Well, coming up, we'll talk with Carolyn Glick,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: international affairs advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. about
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: the continuing threats to Israel and the growing international effort
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: to isolate the Jewish state. And here at home, federal
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: authorities disrupted an ISIS-inspired plot to carry out a mass
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: shooting at Minnesota's Mall of America.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Federal law enforcement is standing up to their calling to
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: protect us. Here, because of their vigilance and diligence, they
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: were able to detect a threat and disrupt it. before
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: maybe 30 to 60 people.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: We'll discuss that thread and the Trump administration's continued delay
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: in reviewing the Biden-era mail-order abortion drug policy with Elizabeth Mitchell,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: White House correspondent for The Daily Signal. And what happens
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: when spiritual darkness is openly invoked in the halls of government?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: This week, a pastor in Iowa refused to remain silent
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: after a satanic invocation at a city council meeting.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Let's just reverse that curse that was just put on
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: our city. That ending with Hail City and Hail Dark God,
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: that's not welcome here.
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: Mayor, this should be done at the end.
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: It needs to be done now.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: That was a curse put on our city when he
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: said Hail Satan and Hail Dark God, and most of
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: you know that, and we need to just stop and
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: reverse it.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: We'll talk with Dr. Willie Rice, president of the Southern
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Baptist Convention, about his challenge to pastors to step up
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and speak biblical truth to the moral issues confronting our nation. Plus,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: with the midterm elections just weeks away, are voters beginning
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: to recognize the direction the growing socialist wing of the
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party wants to take America? House Speaker Mike Johnson
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: joins us with his assessment from the campaign trail. And
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: a warning from California, where a new law requiring workplace
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: training on hate speech raises serious questions about religious freedom
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: and the government's role in defining acceptable speech. All of
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: that and more straight ahead on This Week on Capitol Hill.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Today's edition of.
• 3:03
  Speaker 7: This Week on Capitol Hill is being presented by AARP.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: On Wednesday, the Justice Department, on behalf of the FDA,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: filed a court-ordered status report in Louisiana versus the FDA
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: with U.S. District Judge David Joseph. The FDA told the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: court it expects results from its new Mifeprestone safety study
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: by mid-December, but won't complete its broader review until March
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: of 2027. Importantly, March is not a deadline for implementing
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: new safeguards. It's only the deadline for completing the review.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Any decision to restore in-person dispensing requirements or restrict abortion
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: pills by mail would come afterward. That means the Biden-era
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: mail-order abortion drug policy could remain in place well into
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: next year. Joining us to discuss this and more is
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Mitchell, White House correspondent for The Daily Signal. Elizabeth,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: welcome back to This Week on Capitol Hill. Thanks for
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: joining us.
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having me back.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: So what did the FDA say in its filing and
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: why the delay until next year?
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: So what the.
• 4:15
  Speaker 8: FDA said, they were required by the court to give
• 4:18
  Speaker 8: an update on the status of the abortion pill safety
• 4:20
  Speaker 8: review because the public has largely been completely in the.
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: Dark about what's going on with this.
• 4:25
  Speaker 8: And so all the update said was that we cannot
• 4:28
  Speaker 8: expect the review to be done until December and the
• 4:31
  Speaker 8: public won't hear of it until March, which means that's
• 4:34
  Speaker 8: about two years after the review was started.
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: Is how long it will take us to get any information.
• 4:39
  Speaker 8: And what's really significant about this is that regulatory action
• 4:42
  Speaker 8: takes about a year to do. So that means that
• 4:45
  Speaker 8: with this March timing, we would not be able to
• 4:48
  Speaker 8: see action to restore the in-person dispensing requirement or take
• 4:53
  Speaker 8: any other action against the abortion pill likely within this administration.
• 4:56
  Speaker 8: So if there's another Democrat administration, we may never see
• 4:59
  Speaker 8: action on the abortion pill with this timeline.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Now, Elizabeth, when the Biden administration changed these procedures, these protocols,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: they didn't go through that lengthy process.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: It's a good point.
• 5:13
  Speaker 8: I think that we'd have to see exactly how they'll
• 5:15
  Speaker 8: do this here.
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: But this has.
• 5:17
  Speaker 8: Certainly been a very lengthy process for this study. The
• 5:21
  Speaker 8: data collection period took a very long time, and none
• 5:24
  Speaker 8: of us really even know how exactly they're doing this.
• 5:27
  Speaker 8: One other interesting thing in the court filing was it
• 5:30
  Speaker 8: said that They're using a certain kind of data that
• 5:33
  Speaker 8: the FDA itself has raised some concerns about. I spoke
• 5:36
  Speaker 8: to an ADF lawyer about this yesterday who said they
• 5:39
  Speaker 8: have some concerns about the methodology and also about the timing.
• 5:42
  Speaker 8: But there is some hope for those who want to
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: see action on the abortion pill, which is that Alliance
• 5:48
  Speaker 8: Defending Freedom is still suing the FDA for not having
• 5:52
  Speaker 8: the in-person dispensing requirement and the danger that causes to
• 5:55
  Speaker 8: women as their boyfriends or husbands could order it online
• 5:58
  Speaker 8: and coerce them into taking it. And it's very possible
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: the court will see, oh, this study isn't going to
• 6:03
  Speaker 8: be done for a very long time. And thus, we
• 6:06
  Speaker 8: should move forward with ADF's case and potentially restrict the
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: abortion pill from being sent through the mail.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: And of course, that's the case involving the state of Louisiana,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: which ADF is representing the state. But short of court action,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: based upon this, the mail order chemical abortion pills allowed
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: by the Biden era rules would remain in place, undermining
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: the state pro-life laws. So unless the court acts, these
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: procedures are going to stay in place for some time.
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: That's true.
• 6:38
  Speaker 8: I mean, we've heard a lot about the Trump administration
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: wanting to wait to do action on the abortion pill
• 6:42
  Speaker 8: or other abortion related matters until after the midterms, but
• 6:45
  Speaker 8: March is far after the midterms. And so I think
• 6:48
  Speaker 8: there are a lot of concerns about how quickly they
• 6:50
  Speaker 8: could move on the findings if they're not going to
• 6:53
  Speaker 8: be announcing it for such a long time.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Are you hearing anything from the White House about an
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: intent to reverse this sooner?
• 7:00
  Speaker 8: I have not heard anything to that effect. But what
• 7:04
  Speaker 8: ADF is hoping to see is a consent decree from
• 7:08
  Speaker 8: the DOJ where they kind of settle the case and
• 7:11
  Speaker 8: agree to restore the in-person dispensing requirement. That would be
• 7:14
  Speaker 8: the best case scenario to see action quickly.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:17
  Speaker 9: Agreed.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: All right. Switching topics. This week, the FBI arrested an
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: 18-year-old Somali-born American accused of planning to carry out an
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: ISIS-inspired mass shooting at the Mall of America in Minnesota.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Minnesota seems to be developing a track record of radicalization
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: of American Muslims. What do we know about this case?
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: This is an interesting case.
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: I think this, you pointed out, is not the first
• 7:43
  Speaker 8: time that there have been terrorism ties involved. to this
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: community in Minnesota. And there have been a variety of
• 7:51
  Speaker 8: dangers at this Mall of America. And so this is
• 7:54
  Speaker 8: another shocking case, very concerning to see these ISIS ties
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: in this community.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Did the Department of Justice, did they indicate how close
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: this plot came to being carried out by this young man?
• 8:07
  Speaker 8: It's a good question. The FBI said that They were
• 8:13
  Speaker 8: on this. They were able to catch it before it
• 8:16
  Speaker 8: got to a certain point.
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: He was charged.
• 8:18
  Speaker 8: This man was charged with one count of knowingly receiving
• 8:21
  Speaker 8: a firearm and ammunition to be used in an act
• 8:24
  Speaker 8: of terrorism.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: And so, yeah, very serious case here.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Now, reports say that the suspect was already known to
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the FBI, that they had been tracking him and watching him.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, how expansive... of an effort to do we
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: see with the FBI tracking various cases like this?
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: I'm very grateful.
• 8:46
  Speaker 8: I think we all are that the FBI has this
• 8:47
  Speaker 8: capability that they were aware of this person.
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: And this shows us that it's likely.
• 8:52
  Speaker 8: They're aware of other people like this who are plotting
• 8:55
  Speaker 8: such things that they're going to shut it down before
• 8:57
  Speaker 8: it happens.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: And so we're very grateful to have the FBI on
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: this case.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Now it's been fairly quiet with Congress, you know, out,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: both the House and the Senate, as they're on the
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: campaign trail, we're approaching those midterm elections. What are you
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: anticipating for a lame duck session of Congress? What are
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: you watching?
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: That's a great question.
• 9:18
  Speaker 8: I think that what a lot of conservatives are looking
• 9:20
  Speaker 8: for is, will something be done on reconciliation, the Save
• 9:24
  Speaker 8: America Act? There's still some people have hope that there
• 9:26
  Speaker 8: could be another reconciliation package passed that includes the Save
• 9:30
  Speaker 8: America Act. But Of course, the margins are very tight.
• 9:32
  Speaker 8: A lot of issues have been faced before, and so
• 9:34
  Speaker 8: it's up in the air. Another thing, returning to the
• 9:37
  Speaker 8: pro-life topic, is that, of course, we know that funding
• 9:40
  Speaker 8: for Planned Parenthood was restored on July 4th, and that pro-lifers, including,
• 9:45
  Speaker 8: I think, Speaker Johnson has talked about, he still would
• 9:47
  Speaker 8: like to find a way to defund Planned Parenthood. And
• 9:50
  Speaker 8: so hopefully that will be on the agenda in the
• 9:51
  Speaker 8: lame duck session as well.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I think most likely that comes in the form of
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: a reconciliation bill as well. They've had a hard press
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: to get a standalone bill through. through the House and
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: then through the Senate. We've got about 45 seconds left.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Any indication of what the White House is looking for
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: in a lame duck session?
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that they have also priorities.
• 10:15
  Speaker 8: I wrote a story about this a few weeks ago,
• 10:17
  Speaker 8: but They want to see action on a crypto bill
• 10:20
  Speaker 8: as well.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: They want to see, they're prioritizing that Russia, the Russia.
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: Sanctions bill was something that was really important to them.
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: And so there's really a lot of things.
• 10:30
  Speaker 8: That the Senate has not yet moved on, the House
• 10:32
  Speaker 8: has moved on that they'd like to see passed. So
• 10:34
  Speaker 8: I expect it to be a pretty busy time since
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: we haven't seen much from Congress lately.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: All right, Elizabeth Mitchell, thanks so much for joining us.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Have a great weekend.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 10:42
  Speaker 8: You too.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: All right, folks, after the break, Carolyn Glick, International Affairs
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, joins me as
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: we connect the present turmoil in the Middle East to
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: October 7th, 2023. That's next.
• 11:00
  Speaker 10: As prices keep rising, Social Security is even more important
• 11:04
  Speaker 10: to older Americans.
• 11:06
  Speaker 11: I counted on it to pay for groceries and prescriptions.
• 11:09
  Speaker 11: Everything costs more now.
• 11:10
  Speaker 10: AARP is fighting to protect the Social Security Americans earn
• 11:14
  Speaker 10: through a lifetime of hard work.
• 11:16
  Speaker 12: I've paid into Social Security since I was a teenager.
• 11:20
  Speaker 12: It isn't a handout.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: I earned it.
• 11:23
  Speaker 10: Join us to stand up for Social Security. Visit AARP.org
• 11:27
  Speaker 10: slash Social Security Voter.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Paid for by AARP. Welcome back to This Week on
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Capitol Hill. Memorial events were held across Israel this week
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: as the nation marked three years since the Hamas terrorist
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: attack that murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: The deadliest day in the history of the modern state
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: of Israel. The conflicts and tensions in the region did
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: not begin on October 7th, but that terrorist attack set
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: in motion a chain of events that continues to reshape
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: the Middle East and reverberate around the world. Joining us
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: now to discuss this is Carolyn Glick. She's the International
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel. Carolyn, welcome
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: to This Week on Capitol Hill. Thank you for joining us.
• 12:16
  Speaker 9: It's a pleasure to be with you, Tony. Thanks for
• 12:18
  Speaker 9: having me.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Before we turn to what took place this week on
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: the memorials to the October 7th, I want to ask
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: you this question. Three years later, has the world lost
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: sight of the atrocities Hamas committed when starting this war?
• 12:37
  Speaker 9: I think some of the world has lost sight of them,
• 12:40
  Speaker 9: and I think some of the world celebrated them on
• 12:43
  Speaker 9: October 7th and following it. And both the... The ignoring
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: of what happened on October 7th by many and the
• 12:52
  Speaker 9: celebration of October 7th by many has really caused a
• 12:57
  Speaker 9: real transformation of the climate, I would say, in the
• 13:01
  Speaker 9: Western world towards Israel and Jews. And so I think
• 13:06
  Speaker 9: that that's certainly the case.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: So how was the reaction in Israel this week to
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: the third anniversary of October 7th as the memorials were
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: held across the state, the country?
• 13:21
  Speaker 9: October 7th is, of course, a devastating day in Israeli history.
• 13:25
  Speaker 9: And so it was yet another memorial day to put
• 13:29
  Speaker 9: on our calendar. And it was marked as such with
• 13:33
  Speaker 9: ceremonies both for the fallen soldiers who have been killed
• 13:37
  Speaker 9: fighting this war, nearly 1,000, and to the civilians, 880
• 13:44
  Speaker 9: civilians who were butchered that day. So we had both
• 13:50
  Speaker 9: of those ceremonies and obviously assemblies and schools and everything else.
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: And so, yes, it's a very personal day because this
• 14:00
  Speaker 9: war has touched every household in Israel today. It's the
• 14:04
  Speaker 9: hardest war, the longest war we've ever fought. And we're
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: still in it. It's much quieter now along the fronts,
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: but we're on the verge of victory along all of them.
• 14:16
  Speaker 9: But we're still working at it. It's a work in progress.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: So did this week serve as a reminder of what's
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: at stake for the Israeli people?
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: I don't think that at home anybody needed a reminder
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: of what's at stake for the Israeli people, because while
• 14:34
  Speaker 9: we saw in your first question you asked me about
• 14:36
  Speaker 9: the way that it's changed so much around the world,
• 14:40
  Speaker 9: in Israel, everybody saw what happened on October 7th, and
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: everybody understands the stakes. And so the vast majority of
• 14:50
  Speaker 9: Israelis understand that we just need to keep going and
• 14:55
  Speaker 9: secure victory and annihilate Hamas. and take care of Iran,
• 15:01
  Speaker 9: work to overthrow that regime, and continue to fight with
• 15:06
  Speaker 9: the goal of defeating Hezbollah, and now working with the
• 15:10
  Speaker 9: government of Lebanon, in fact, to try to ensure that
• 15:14
  Speaker 9: Hezbollah is just destroyed completely in Lebanon, and so on
• 15:18
  Speaker 9: and so forth across all of the different fronts in
• 15:20
  Speaker 9: this war. So I think, you know, there's a very
• 15:25
  Speaker 9: clear understanding among Israelis that we've had extraordinary achievements in
• 15:30
  Speaker 9: the last three years in fighting and winning this war,
• 15:34
  Speaker 9: but that there's still work that we have to do.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: I've been to Israel, I think, five or six times
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: since October the 7th. I've spent a lot of time
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: in Judea and Samaria, what the international community calls the
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: West Bank. That has not gotten a lot of attention
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: until Israel began to take preparations to try to prevent
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: another terrorist attack coming from that portion of the country.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: And now you have the international community seeking to isolate
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: even the UK, boycotting products coming out of Judea and Samaria.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Have people forgotten that? what started this war, that it
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: was Hamas that has brought about the turmoil that we
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: see today and Israel having to defend itself?
• 16:23
  Speaker 9: I think what we saw since October 7th in places
• 16:26
  Speaker 9: like in England, places like European states, and unfortunately in
• 16:30
  Speaker 9: far too many places in the United States as well,
• 16:33
  Speaker 9: is that October 7th was exhilarating for far too many people.
• 16:39
  Speaker 9: That is that they they viewed what Hamas did that
• 16:43
  Speaker 9: day as a sign that it was going to be
• 16:45
  Speaker 9: possible to annihilate the Jewish state and perhaps the Jewish people.
• 16:51
  Speaker 9: And so it empowered anti-Semites to stand up and be
• 16:55
  Speaker 9: counted around the world. I mean, you had people rioting
• 16:59
  Speaker 9: in Sydney, Australia on October 8th, outside of the Sydney
• 17:03
  Speaker 9: Opera House, calling out Jews to the gas station. annihilate
• 17:07
  Speaker 9: Israel and this you know Israel was still reeling we
• 17:09
  Speaker 9: still hadn't we still hadn't ended the invasion in Israel
• 17:13
  Speaker 9: it took about 36 hours to end it so you
• 17:16
  Speaker 9: know this was the kind of thing that was engendered
• 17:18
  Speaker 9: you had 50 organizations at Harvard University of students attacking
• 17:23
  Speaker 9: Israel on October 7th so we you know we saw
• 17:26
  Speaker 9: this inundation of the networks with apparently pre-planned assaults by
• 17:32
  Speaker 9: bots run by Iran and other countries, Qatar, Turkey have certainly,
• 17:38
  Speaker 9: if they weren't there on October 7th, they joined in
• 17:40
  Speaker 9: very quickly thereafter, just propagating anti-Semitic lies and disseminating anti-Semitism
• 17:51
  Speaker 9: all over the web. And so, you know, that's part
• 17:54
  Speaker 9: of it. And then it just fell apparently on fertile
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: ground because so many people on the left and in
• 18:02
  Speaker 9: the United States and then later among some of the
• 18:05
  Speaker 9: people on the right or purport to be on the
• 18:08
  Speaker 9: right as well, you saw this dissemination and embrace of
• 18:12
  Speaker 9: Jew hatred in a way that we hadn't seen in
• 18:15
  Speaker 9: recent decades in the West, in the United States in particular,
• 18:19
  Speaker 9: but throughout the West we haven't seen this kind of
• 18:21
  Speaker 9: level of things. So the sanctions, I mean, we feel
• 18:24
  Speaker 9: that what's happening with the condemnations of Israelis Israel's self-defense
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: measures in Judea and Samaria and other activities where 600,000
• 18:37
  Speaker 9: Israelis live is that they just want to keep up
• 18:42
  Speaker 9: the drumbeat of demonization. There isn't a lot to go
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: on in Gaza. And so they're shifting over to Judea
• 18:48
  Speaker 9: and Samaria because we're taking action to prevent the slaughter
• 18:52
  Speaker 9: emanating from the Palestinian cities and villages in Judea and
• 18:56
  Speaker 9: Samaria and And so they see that as a way
• 18:59
  Speaker 9: to demonize Israel still further. And it's sort of a shift,
• 19:02
  Speaker 9: but to keep the narrative of criminalization and demonization of
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: the Jewish state going.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Carolyn, we just have about a minute left. Some of
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: this is very subtle, this anti-Semitism, like the Nobel Peace
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Prize committee awarding Naveh Pillai. You know, there are some
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: very concerned about her statements, what she has done when
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: it comes to Israel and the Jewish people.
• 19:28
  Speaker 9: Navi Pillay is a bigot. She may have done some
• 19:32
  Speaker 9: good things for South Africa and in other areas, but
• 19:39
  Speaker 9: she's been an outspoken hater of Israel. She's been running
• 19:43
  Speaker 9: this propaganda campaign against Israel from the UN Human Rights
• 19:47
  Speaker 9: Commission since she took over as commissioner about 15 years ago.
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: years ago, and then later as a rapporteur, alleging that
• 19:55
  Speaker 9: Israel committed genocide and any number of war crimes. These
• 19:58
  Speaker 9: are pure fabrications, but the goal is much larger here.
• 20:02
  Speaker 9: And I think we should take October 7th, see what's
• 20:04
  Speaker 9: happened to our societies in the past three years in
• 20:08
  Speaker 9: the West. And then understand that this operation isn't just
• 20:12
  Speaker 9: against the Jews. It's against freedom. It's against sovereignty. It's
• 20:16
  Speaker 9: against the nation state system. And it's against the United
• 20:19
  Speaker 9: States of America as well.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Folks, stick with us. We're
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: back with more of This Week on Capitol Hill after this.
• 20:31
  Speaker 10: As prices keep rising, Social Security is even more important
• 20:35
  Speaker 10: to older Americans.
• 20:36
  Speaker 11: I counted on it to pay for groceries and prescriptions.
• 20:39
  Speaker 11: Everything costs more now.
• 20:41
  Speaker 10: AARP is fighting to protect the Social Security Americans earn
• 20:45
  Speaker 10: through a lifetime of hard work.
• 20:47
  Speaker 12: I've paid into Social Security since I was a teenager.
• 20:50
  Speaker 12: It isn't a handout. I earned it.
• 20:53
  Speaker 10: Join us to stand up for Social Security. Visit aarp.org
• 20:58
  Speaker 10: slash socialsecurityvoter. Paid for by AARP.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to This Week on Capitol Hill. I'm your host,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Tony Perkins. We often hear that pastors should stay out
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: of politics, and certainly the church should never become the
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: arm of a political party. But there is a problem
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: with the idea that pastors can simply avoid political issues.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Many of the most consequential public policy debates are rooted
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: in moral questions. Abortion asks when human life deserves protection.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Immigration involves questions of law. compassion, justice, and our responsibility
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: to the stranger. Education raises questions about parental authority and
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: who shapes the values of our children. Economic policy involves stewardship, work, debt, fairness,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: and care for the poor. War and foreign policy confronts
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: us with questions of justice, self-defense, and the protection of
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: innocent life. Public policy is rarely morally neutral. Laws inevitably
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: reflect judgments about what is good, what is harmful, and
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: what should be protected and what should be restrained. So
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: when pastors speak biblical truth to the moral questions underlying
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: public policy, that's not being political. It's being a pastor
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: and it's being biblical. And that is essentially the challenge
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: being issued by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: the nation's largest denomination. And this comes as we approach
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: midterm elections.
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: Dr.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Willie Rice says pastors need to step up and bring
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: biblical clarity to the issues confronting our nation.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: Dr.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Rice joins us now.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Dr.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Rice, welcome to This Week on Capitol Hill. Thanks for
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: joining us.
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: It's an honor to be here, Tony.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Now, you've made the point that pastors and
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: religious leaders have long been a voice in American public
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: life at some of the most critical moments in our
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: nation's history.
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's absolutely right.
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: Any cursory study of American Revolutionary period, the founding of
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: our country, pastors were, they were called a black-robed regiment
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: by some. They were influential voices. You think of the
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: civil rights movement. You think of the movement of abolition.
• 23:13
  Speaker 7: Pastors and Christians have been a voice at critical moments because,
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: as you already said, so many of the cultural and
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: political issues that we face are inherently theological and moral.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Dr. Rice, as the president of the largest Protestant denomination
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: in the nation, you're calling on pastors to to step
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: up and to address the issues. And some are criticizing
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: that because it's right before an election. Well, you know,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: we are where we are.
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: And it's a moment in which people are thinking about
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: these issues again. And unfortunately, we've come through a period,
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: not universally so, but through a large swath of evangelicalism
• 23:58
  Speaker 7: where there's been a concerted effort to mute the voice
• 24:01
  Speaker 7: of evangelical leaders. This comes from outside because there are
• 24:04
  Speaker 7: always people saying, you know, you shouldn't be allowed to
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: bring religious viewpoints into politics.
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: That's been the case everywhere.
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: When people were speaking in the abolition movement, both in
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: England and in America. But that emphasis also has come
• 24:18
  Speaker 7: from within evangelical ranks. As leaders have said, we needed
• 24:22
  Speaker 7: to somehow de-emphasize, to decouple ourselves from what are perceived
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: as sometimes controversial cultural issues, that we can be more effective,
• 24:32
  Speaker 7: more gospel-oriented in our mission and in our message, if
• 24:37
  Speaker 7: we just didn't talk about those things. But that is
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: not accurate, and it hasn't worked.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: We often see the cases where there is religious hostility,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: where there are efforts to silence the church. But are
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: you more concerned about the church silencing itself by shrinking
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: back and not engaging?
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: I think I am, because there will always be those
• 25:01
  Speaker 7: voices outside. And as I said, we just came through
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: a period of time, maybe, when you look back at
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: the last 20 years or so, when some of the
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: most prominent evangelical leaders were really de-emphasizing, engaging in these
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: cultural political issues. The line of thinking went that we
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: could be more missiologically effective in our gospel mission and
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: in our gospel message if we simply avoided these controversial
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: social issues.
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: But the effect was twofold.
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: One, it silenced our voice at the very time our
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: culture needed our voice. But it also, and maybe even
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: more troubling, it silenced our voice of instruction and discipleship
• 25:43
  Speaker 7: to our own people to help them think about these
• 25:47
  Speaker 7: issues biblically and constructively.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: So what happens if the pulpit is silent on these issues?
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Where do those people in the pew get their cue?
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Where do they learn how to process these issues?
• 25:59
  Speaker 7: Well, they get it from social media. They get it
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: from all their media sources. And obviously, there's some good
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: information there. There's a whole lot of bad information out there.
• 26:08
  Speaker 7: But mostly, they're not getting the discipleship and instruction they
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: need from their local church leaders who teach us to
• 26:15
  Speaker 7: think about these important issues like marriage, like gender, like
• 26:19
  Speaker 7: human sexuality, like the meaning of human life itself. These
• 26:23
  Speaker 7: are critical issues that are theological at their core. and
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: our churches must be speaking to them, our people are
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: going to be getting very flawed and very unsound information. Dr.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Rice, we're out of time, but I want to thank
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: you for joining us. And I want to thank you
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: for issuing a clarion call because I think that the
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: church has to be the conscience of the culture. And
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: without it, we're going to continue to drift in the
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: wrong direction. Dr. Rice, thanks for joining us. Folks, stick
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: with us. We're back with more of This Week on
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Capitol Hill right after this.
• 27:02
  Speaker 10: As prices keep rising, Social Security is even more important
• 27:05
  Speaker 10: to older Americans.
• 27:07
  Speaker 11: I counted on it to pay for groceries and prescriptions.
• 27:10
  Speaker 11: Everything costs more now.
• 27:11
  Speaker 10: AARP is fighting to protect the Social Security Americans earn
• 27:15
  Speaker 10: through a lifetime of hard work.
• 27:18
  Speaker 12: I've paid into Social Security since I was a teenager.
• 27:21
  Speaker 12: It isn't a handout. I earned it.
• 27:24
  Speaker 10: Join us to stand up for Social Security. Visit AARP.org
• 27:28
  Speaker 10: slash Social Security Voter.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Paid for by AARP. Welcome back to This Week on
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Capitol Hill. I'm Tony Perkins, your host. Well, as we
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: approach the midterm elections, there are signs that the political
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: landscape may be shifting. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Hispanic voters favoring Republicans over Democrats 50 to 42 percent. Now,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: that's a significant change. from mid-September when Democrats held a
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: narrow lead among these voters. The question is what's driving
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: that shift and whether voters are beginning to focus more
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: closely on the ideological differences between the two parties and
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: the policies that they're pushing, particularly the growing influence of
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: socialism within the Democratic Party. Joining us for our weekly
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: conversation to discuss this and more is House Speaker Mike Johnson,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: who represents Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, and he joins us
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: from the campaign trail. Mr. Speaker, welcome back to This
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Week on Capitol Hill.
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: Hey, Tony, great to be with you. We're in Kentucky.
• 28:32
  Speaker 13: We're headed to Iowa here shortly, and I'm in an
• 28:36
  Speaker 13: airplane terminal here visiting with you.
• 28:38
  Speaker 6: I'm glad to talk to you. I need a little
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: break from the road.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: So what are you seeing on the campaign trail? I mean,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: you're doing multiple events every day. You've been on the road,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: going to be on the road until the election. What
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: are you seeing?
• 28:50
  Speaker 13: Yeah, I'm going to go to 40... congressional districts in
• 28:54
  Speaker 13: 22 states between now and the election this month in total.
• 28:58
  Speaker 13: And it's a nonstop tour. And what I'm seeing on
• 29:01
  Speaker 13: the ground, Tony, defies the national polling. Look, I'm telling you,
• 29:04
  Speaker 13: I'm taking all polling with a grain of salt right now,
• 29:06
  Speaker 13: because if you if you just Google, you know, House
• 29:09
  Speaker 13: races and you look at prediction markets and you look
• 29:12
  Speaker 13: at these kind of traditional polls, they're going to tell
• 29:14
  Speaker 13: you the Democrats have a, you know, a huge chance
• 29:17
  Speaker 13: to take over the House. I'm not buying it because
• 29:20
  Speaker 13: I'm going to the districts that everyone knows are going
• 29:22
  Speaker 13: to be the toss ups. And there is an incredible
• 29:25
  Speaker 13: amount of energy urgency on the ground.
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: We're having huge crowds.
• 29:29
  Speaker 13: And, you know, because of my schedule, I'm doing things
• 29:32
  Speaker 13: in the middle of a work day and most of
• 29:33
  Speaker 13: these districts.
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: And, you know, 11 a.m. on a Monday and, you know,
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
• 29:37
  Speaker 13: We have 300 people show up for a rally. And
• 29:40
  Speaker 13: you'd think they were in a, you know, a college
• 29:42
  Speaker 13: football stadium on Saturday night. They're waving signs and so enthusiastic,
• 29:47
  Speaker 13: so much energy because they know the stakes. And I'm
• 29:49
  Speaker 13: telling you, I believe that's going to make the difference.
• 29:51
  Speaker 13: We had the same dynamic in 2024, the last cycle,
• 29:54
  Speaker 13: when we ran the table. We won the White House, Senate,
• 29:56
  Speaker 13: and the House. And even the night before that election, Tony—
• 29:59
  Speaker 13: some of these pollsters and some of these national media
• 30:01
  Speaker 13: outlets were saying we were going to lose. I knew differently,
• 30:03
  Speaker 13: and I have that same feeling right now.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: So you would put these political rallies up to an
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: LSU football game there in Death Valley?
• 30:10
  Speaker 13: Well, it's not Death Valley, but it's close. But look,
• 30:13
  Speaker 13: they know the urgency. People know this truly is a
• 30:15
  Speaker 13: contrast election. And when you were talking about this Hispanic vote,
• 30:18
  Speaker 13: I do think there's something to that, okay? Remember in 2024,
• 30:22
  Speaker 13: we had a true demographic shift in the electorate.
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: We've talked about many times.
• 30:26
  Speaker 13: And In the Hispanic vote, we had a 36-point swing
• 30:30
  Speaker 13: between 2020 and 2024 in some of these border districts
• 30:34
  Speaker 13: like in South Texas. 36 points came our way. And
• 30:37
  Speaker 13: they came to us because the Democrat Party left them behind.
• 30:41
  Speaker 13: The Democrat Party, the insurgent left, is moving it to
• 30:43
  Speaker 13: the socialist far left. They're anti-God. They're anti-family. They're anti-religion.
• 30:49
  Speaker 13: They're anti-community value. And the Hispanic communities value all that.
• 30:52
  Speaker 13: And remember, many of them came from communist regimes. Some
• 30:56
  Speaker 13: of the most voracious supporters of our side are Cuban Americans,
• 30:59
  Speaker 13: for example, who fled communist Cuba. They know what it
• 31:02
  Speaker 13: means and they're not down with that.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: What I find, I agree with you in taking all
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: the polling with a grain of salt, but I watch
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: trends and I think this is a very significant one
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: that it's happening very rapidly. And I think the Democratic
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Party took the Hispanic vote for granted because because of
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: what's been happening with illegal immigration and within the Hispanic community,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: people felt like, well, they're going to just reject the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Republicans wholesale. But even Democrats, I was looking back, Democrats
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: themselves were suggesting that they might have a problem with
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Hispanics given the socialistic leaning of the Democratic Party for
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: the very reasons you just articulated. These folks fled socialism.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: It's not a.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: It's not just conceptual to them. It's reality of what
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: they fled.
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: That's right. And they're looking at these individual races.
• 31:57
  Speaker 13: They're evaluating the candidates and their positions and the policy
• 32:00
  Speaker 13: set that they're going to bring to the table. And
• 32:02
  Speaker 13: they're not going to support big government socialist candidates. And that's,
• 32:06
  Speaker 13: as we've discussed many times, that's where the Democrat Party
• 32:08
  Speaker 13: is right now. So if you look in some of these,
• 32:10
  Speaker 13: you know, swing districts like in South Texas, I mean,
• 32:12
  Speaker 13: I was down there a couple of weeks ago. We
• 32:14
  Speaker 13: have Tano Tiarina. and Eric Flores, for example, who are
• 32:18
  Speaker 13: recruits that we brought into the races to flip blue
• 32:22
  Speaker 13: seats to red down there. The Henry Cuellar seat and
• 32:25
  Speaker 13: the Vicente Gonzalez seats, those are marginal districts. And they're
• 32:28
  Speaker 13: looking at our candidates who are just speaking with common sense.
• 32:31
  Speaker 13: And they're telling them, you can't be a moderate Democrat
• 32:35
  Speaker 13: in the upcoming Congress.
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: It's not going to work.
• 32:36
  Speaker 13: You're not going to have a chance. The socialists are
• 32:38
  Speaker 13: going to take it over. And when that choice, that
• 32:40
  Speaker 13: binary choice is presented, voters are going to do the
• 32:42
  Speaker 13: right thing. And also, Hispanic voters in those communities understand
• 32:46
  Speaker 13: We fulfilled our promises in 2024. We brought down their cost.
• 32:49
  Speaker 13: We gave them a huge tax break. We put more
• 32:52
  Speaker 13: money in their pockets. We allow for more job opportunities
• 32:55
  Speaker 13: for more people. And we're just getting started. They like
• 32:58
  Speaker 13: what they're seeing. They like safer streets. They like the
• 33:00
  Speaker 13: fact that we have the lowest violent crime rate in
• 33:02
  Speaker 13: 126 years. It makes their children and their grandchildren safer.
• 33:05
  Speaker 13: And they're going to vote accordingly. And I really do
• 33:07
  Speaker 13: believe we're going to have a good turnout.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: So you're going across the country into some of these
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: key congressional districts that will decide who controls the next Congress. Now,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: many people think, well, it's just red-blue states, but many
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: of these are red districts in blue states. And so
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: no matter where you live, this is an election where
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: you want to make sure you turn out, right?
• 33:32
  Speaker 13: Yeah, it's a turnout election. I mean, every midterm comes
• 33:35
  Speaker 13: down to turnouts. And traditionally, we know it is true
• 33:38
  Speaker 13: that his prediction markets are based on historic performance, and
• 33:41
  Speaker 13: they know it's only happened twice in 90 years that
• 33:43
  Speaker 13: a sitting president has picked up seats for his party.
• 33:45
  Speaker 13: Because when one party wins the White House, the other
• 33:48
  Speaker 13: team's upset about it, and they send out their grassroots,
• 33:50
  Speaker 13: and they vote in big numbers, and they take House
• 33:52
  Speaker 13: seats away from that president.
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: That's not going to happen this time.
• 33:55
  Speaker 13: Because the other motivating factor, one motivating factor in the
• 33:58
  Speaker 13: midterm is anger, but the other is fear. And we
• 34:01
  Speaker 13: have a legitimate fear right now of the rise of Marxism, communism,
• 34:04
  Speaker 13: socialism in the Democrat Party. The fact that they published
• 34:07
  Speaker 13: their platform and they want to abolish the border and
• 34:09
  Speaker 13: abolish prisons and defund police and the Department of War
• 34:12
  Speaker 13: and abolish the U.S. Senate, all this crazy stuff. The
• 34:16
  Speaker 13: people do not think that is the way that we
• 34:18
  Speaker 13: should go. They believe in common sense again. So in
• 34:22
  Speaker 13: a common sense contest, Republicans win hands down. And we
• 34:27
  Speaker 13: are having a big divergence now between the parties that
• 34:30
  Speaker 13: has never been there before.
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: I think people are seeing that, Tony. I think they're
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: going to respond accordingly.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: We just have about 45 seconds left, Mr.
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: Speaker.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: But there are other elements in this election which are different.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: People often put their money behind what they believe in,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: and the Republicans are setting records in terms of fundraising,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: which suggests that there's something more than the predictive markets
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: at play here.
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 34:54
  Speaker 13: People know the stakes are high, and by God's grace,
• 34:56
  Speaker 13: we've set all the all-time fundraising records up. By the
• 35:00
  Speaker 13: announcements over the last week, I think I've surpass $ 450
• 35:03
  Speaker 13: million raise when you combine the hard dollars and the
• 35:05
  Speaker 13: soft dollars to the Speaker's Indoor Super PAC. We're going
• 35:09
  Speaker 13: to need every penny of it because it's a very
• 35:10
  Speaker 13: expensive cycle, but that is by far the record of
• 35:13
  Speaker 13: all time. We've got to be very careful stewards of
• 35:15
  Speaker 13: that because even so, Democrats are raising a lot of
• 35:18
  Speaker 13: money too.
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: So it's very expensive this time around.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: All right, Mr. Speaker, safe travels. We'll catch up with
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: you next week. Folks, stick with us. A few final
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: thoughts right after this. Welcome back to This Week on
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Capitol Hill. If voters are trying to imagine what the
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: nation would look like under the socialist policies of a
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Democratic majority in Congress, they need look no farther than California.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democratic supermajority in both chambers
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: of the state legislature offer an extensive list of policies
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: flowing from the same socialist and Marxist ideology being championed
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: by the ascendant wing of the Democratic Party. The latest
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: example is AB 1803, signed by Governor Newsom last week,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: authored by Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal. The law requires employers with
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: five or more employees to add training on hate speech
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: to the growing list of California's harassment training law. Lowenthal said, quote,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: California must make meaningful progress to train Californians on the
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: danger of hate speech, not only in the workplaces, but
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: in society as a whole, end quote. The law describes
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: speech covered by the training as speech that, quote, vilifies, humiliates,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: or incites hatred against people based on protected characteristics. And
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: what are those protected characteristics? They include religion, sex, gender,
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and reproductive health decision making,
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: which includes abortion. There are others, but those are enough
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: to raise serious questions for Christians and religious organizations. First,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: no clear legal definition of hate speech exists. Whatever the intent,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: the effect is to give the term enormous elasticity. Who
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: decides when a deeply held religious conviction crosses the line
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: from disagreement into humiliation or vilification and then defined as
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: hate speech? Second, California law does not make sufficiently clear
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: how this new mandate applies to churches and religious ministries.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: that ambiguity itself should concern anyone who values religious liberty
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: because the protected categories include subjects on which biblical Christianity
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: makes unmistakable moral and theological claims. Jesus said in Matthew
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: 19 that the Creator made them male and female and
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: then described marriage in terms of a man and a woman.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Does teaching those words humiliate someone who rejects the biblical
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: understanding of sex and marriage? What about Jesus' words in
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: John 14? I am the way, the truth, and the life.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: No one comes to the Father except through me. Christianity
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: is inherently exclusive in its truth claims. Could that someday
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: be deemed vilifying toward another religion? This is why California's
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: law should concern the church and everyone else for that matter.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: When state officials declare the state needs to train society
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: on what is appropriate speech, all of society is in trouble. Frankly,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: the state of California should not be instructing the church.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: The church should be instructing the government on what is
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: right and wrong. For Christians, this is an Acts 4 moment.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: When Peter and John were ordered not to speak or
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: teach in Jesus' name, they answered, Whether it is right
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: in the sight of God to listen to you more
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: than to God, you judge. California is not merely a
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: laboratory for the left. It is a warning to the
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: rest of America. The question for voters is whether California's
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: experiment stops at the state line or comes to Washington.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: And the question for the church is even more fundamental.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: When government demands that we compromise biblical truth, will we
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: have the courage of Peter and John to stand firm
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: and to speak it? And that, my friends, has been
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: this week on Capitol Hill.