Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Why We Should Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus IRS Concludes Churches Can Endorse Candidates & NYT Reports Biden Unaware of Many Autopen Pardons

Transcript

Why We Should Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, plus IRS Concludes Churches Can Endorse Candidates & NYT Reports Biden Unaware of Many Autopen Pardons · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Kruz Ben Ferguson
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: with you. It's nice to have you, and we've got
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: some very interesting legislation that you are heading up that
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: is making waves.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Fill people in on what you're wanting to do well.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: This week, I introduced legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: as a terrorist organization. This is a fight I've been
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: fighting for over a decade. I think the Muslim Brotherhood
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: clearly is a terrorist organization. It is profoundly dangerous, and
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: I think we are closer right now to victory on
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: this issue than we ever have been. We're going to
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: do a deep dive, explain the background, what the issues are,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: why we're close to victory, and what that would mean.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: We're also going to talk about an amazing development, a
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: really important development, which is the IRS has now said
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: explicitly that churches and pastors can endorse political candidates. That
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: is a big, big deal. For a long time, there
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: was legislation known as the Johnson Amendment that was interpreted
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: as stripping the ability of pastors and churches to express
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: their views on politics. The IRS entered into a consent
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: agreement that now makes clear churches and pastors can can
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: tell their congregations exactly what they think about politics.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: That's a big, big deal.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: And finally, The New York Times, in a shocking expose,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: looked at the Biden autopen scandal and they reported that
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: from for a significant portion of the autopenned pardons that
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden signed, that he was not individually aware of
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: who it was that was getting pardoned. That is incredibly consequential.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: It means as a legal matter, those pardons are null
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and void. We're going to explain all of that right now.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really interesting story. We're going to have
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: all those details for you in just a moment. Let
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: me also just say many of you may be listening
• 1:57
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• 2:10
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• 3:56
  Speaker 1: you said that twenty This has been something I should say,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: for well over a decade you have been working on
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and I am shocked why there is so much pushback.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Give a little background on the Muslim Brotherhood. Let's start
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: there for people that may not realize what this global
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: organization is, what they do, and why you think that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: they need to be included and designated as a terrorist organization.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Sure, the Muslim Brotherhood is a global Islamist violent organization.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: It was founded in nineteen twenty eight in Egypt. It
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: was a fringe group for the first few decades, and
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: then it grew dramatically inside of Egypt and then it
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: spread beyond. The Muslim Brotherhood has branches and countries and
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: territories all over the world, and they are openly committed
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: to seizing control of those countries and seizing control of
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: those territories. They explicitly intend to use violent jihad to
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: overthrow non Islamist governments. During the Obama administration, they did.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: They seized control of Egypt. Mohammed Morci and the Muslim
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Brotherhood seized control until they were ultimately overthrown by the
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Egyptian army. By the way, when when the Muslim Brotherhood
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: took over Egypt, the Obama administration cheered them on. And
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: how do we know that the Muslim Brotherhood supports terrorism
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: because several of their branches are explicit terrorist organizations. Among
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: those is Hamas, which everyone listening to this podcast knows about.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Hamas.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Hamas is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: They also include other groups that folks may not have
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: heard about, like Hassim and Leewa al Thawrah, both of
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: which the State Departman says have been associated with the
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and they are branches that have already
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: been formally designated as terrorist groups. Other Brotherhood branches are
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: committing terrorism right now, but they haven't yet been formally designated.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Just a few weeks ago, the Jordanian government disrupted attacks
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: being planned by Brotherhood members, and police raided the Islamic
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Action Front, which is the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood branch.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: You hear that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And then the question that I think some of people
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: listening and I'm thinking my head right now, is Okay,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: if there is such a long history, why did it
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: take so long for us to even get to the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: point they're at right now? If it's been this clear
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that their terrorist organization? And then the second part is,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: then why in the past, even after whether it was
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: nine to eleven or other attacks that we've seen around
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the world, why haven't they already been listened as a
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: terrorist organization.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Well, so, it's a complicated story, and it basically comes
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: down to the messed up politics inside the American Democrat Party.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: A bunch of our allies have already designated the entire
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization in.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: The Middle East.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Bahrain has done so, Egypt has done so, Jordan has
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: done so, Saudi Arabia has done so. The UAE has
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: done so in Europe. Austria has designated the Muslim Brotherhood
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: as a haarrist organization. There's a bill right now in
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Germany to designate it, and French intelligence has described the
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Muslim Brotherhood as quote a threat to national cohesion. British
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: officials say the Brotherhood is right now under surveillance under
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: their anti extremism laws. So the question is why is
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: America lagging behind? And I'll tell you We've done it.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I've been pushing to do this for over a decade.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: You're in the one hundred and nineteenth Congress right now.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I introduced versions of this bill in the one hundred
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: and fourteenth Congress in twenty fifteen, in the one hundred
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: and fifteenth Congress in twenty seventeen, and the one hundred
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: and sixteenth Congress in twenty twenty, and in the one
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: hundred and seventeenth Congress in twenty twenty one. And the
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: reason that it hasn't gone anywhere is that Democrats oppose it. Now,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: it seems weird. Why would a why would progressives embrace
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: a fundamentalist Islamist jihadist organization which is openly and brazenly
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: against rights for women, openly and brazenly against rights for homosexuals.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: But to the left, they do it because the Muslim
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Brotherhood is also anti American and it wants to see
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Israel destroyed. And there is a significant chunk of today's
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: left that celebrates with the anti Israel hatred, that celebrates
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: with Amas, and and that celebrates attacks on America.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, the Muslim Brotherhood was also if
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: we go back to Obama's years, somewhat normalized as well.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look when when the Muslim Brotherhood was running Egypt.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: When when when they they took it over, Mohammed Morsey
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: was was there? You may remember there were a million
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: people that showed up in the streets of Cairo protesting
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: against the Muslim Brotherhood because the people of Egypt did
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: not want to live under Jahadis, They did not want
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: to live under enforced Sharia law. And at the time,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: it was amazing. There were signs that you could see
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: in this crowd of a million Egyptians protesting, signs that
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: said Obama supports the Muslim Brotherhood.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: The ambassador, Obama's ambassador at the time to Egypt was
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: a woman named Ann Patterson. There were signs pictures of
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: her saying Ann Patterson supports Mohammed Morsey. The Obama administration
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: leaned in aggressively supporting the Brotherhood. And and in fact,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: when when Alceci was the current leader of of of
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Egypt took over, when the army took over, the Obama
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: administration was vocally against that. Now Alcci is an ally
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: of America. Alceci is locking up Jihadis and radical Islamic
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: terrorists who want to murder us. And bizarrely, the Obama
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: administration got very angry with them, withhold weapons from them,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: put pressure on them because they didn't like that that
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: that the current Egyptian government was standing up to the
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Muslim Brotherhood. And if you fast forward to the Biden administration,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: the Biden administration basically restored the old Obama policies of
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: embracing the Muslim Brotherhood. And and not only that, they
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: sent hundreds of millions of dollars maybe even billions of
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: dollars UH to Gaza, knowing that Gaza was controlled by
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Hamas and knowing that it would go directly into the
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: hands of Hamas.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Is when I look at this. And then you go
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: back and you say, okay, all this is happening. You
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: announced that you're doing this bill several weeks ago, in fact,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you announced it on AX and I remember in that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: post that you said you were introducing a modernized version
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: of your bill.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Explain exactly what that means.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: How is this one different, and what changes were made
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and why they're so important? And could this help this
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: possibly become something that is bipartisan or is there no
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: way that's going to happen.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Well, it might, and actually it is bipartisan right now
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: in the House. So I've introduced the bill in the
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Senate and I have a total of five senators on
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: my bill right now.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: They're all Republican.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: I am trying to convince a Democrat senator to support it.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: In the House, the same bill is being led by
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: two representatives from Florida, Mario Diaz Billard, a Republican, a
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: fellow Cuban American, a good friend, and Jared Moskovitz. And
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: Jared is a Democrat. So in the House we have
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Democrat supporters bipartisan support. That is encouraging. But you asked
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: how we modernize the bill in the past, both in
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Congress and in the Trump forty five White House. We
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: took a top down approach to listing the entire Brotherhood,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: and the idea was to designate the global Muslim Brotherhood
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: and then all of its branches. Now, the challenge and
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: some of the pushback we got is that not every
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: one of the Brotherhood branches is currently violent, and so
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: each of the branches doesn't necessarily meet the criteria for designation,
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: and that was an argument critics used to try to
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: block the designation. This new bill instead uses a bottoms
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: up approach. We start by identifying all the branches that
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: the Muslim Brotherhood supports that are terrorist groups or that
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: commit terrorism, and then we designate the entire Brotherhood for
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: that support. In other words, we build up with what
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: is explicitly and indisputably terrorist, and then we designate the
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Brotherhood as a whole for supporting those terrorist groups.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So do you think this approach will actually work moving forward?
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Is this something that you say is going to be
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: more palatable for people and also easier sale.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: Well, look, I think it could work.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: We use the exact same approach during the Trump forty
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: five administration to list Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. That
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: the IRGC in twenty seventeen, and Congress mandated that action
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: through legislation, and then the Treasury Department implemented our mandate
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: by listing the IRGC for supporting one of its branches,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: the IRGC Quood's Force, which is undoubtedly a terrorist organization.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: So it worked.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: And to get technical for sex, there are three different
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: ways to list terrorist groups. Congress can do it through
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: the Anti Terrorism Act of nineteen eighty seven, which is
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: how the PLO is listed. The State Department can do
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: it by labeling a group as a foreign Terrorist organization,
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: or the Treasury Department can do it by labeling a
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: group what is called a specially designated Global Terrorist. My
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: bill does all three, and so it's belts and suspenders
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: on the global Muslim Brotherhood. And that results in immediate
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: and devastating sanctions, and it gives law enforcement greater tools
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: to go after not just the Muslim Brotherhood, but those
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: who are financially supporting it. Now you asked, can it happen?
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: It can? We have one Democrat in the House. I'm
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: hoping we will get one or more Democrats in the Senate.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: We don't right now. I've had conversations today with Democrats
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: trying to get them on board. There are two paths
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: for this to go forward. One, I think it would
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: make a very good sense for us to vote on
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: it on the Senate floor, for John Thune to bring
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: it up and make senators vote. Most of the Democrats
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: are going to vote no, because, for whatever reason, the
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: Democrat ideology. These are the same Democrats that are terrified
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: to announce the anti Israel antisemitic protests on campuses. These
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: are the same Democrats that are really frightened of the
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: pro Hamas wing of their party, and the pro Hamas wing,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: as we talked about, Hamas is explicitly an arm of
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: the Muslim brotherhood. So most of the Democrats would be
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: a no. I think it'd be valuable to get them
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: on record, force them to vote. But I'll tell you
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: what I think the real path the success will be
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: is that we're going to lead the fight in the Senate.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I hope we tee this up for a vote, and
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: if the Democrats block it, which in all likelihood they will,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: they have.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: For a decade.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: What I think is going to have and is I
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: think the President is going to do this through an
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: executive order and I'm certainly urging President Trump to designate
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization through an executive order,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: and I think the fight that I'm leading in the
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Senate helps build momentum for the President to step in
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: and make this designation.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: I think it's going to happen. I think we're going
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: to see it happen this term.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Final question on this for people that are listening, This
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: is why I love doing the show.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: People want to get involved. What can they do?
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Should they be calling their Congress and their centaters, and
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: should they be reaching out to the White House as well?
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely speak out. Call your senator, call
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: your house member, tell them to support my legislation designating
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Get on social media,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: speak out, use your voice, and by the way, share
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: this podcast. This podcast lays out all the facts and
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: so if you want people to know about this, share
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: this podcast with others so that they can know the
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: facts and build momentum. Because really, what we're trying to
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: do through this fight is build momentum that will encourage
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: the White House to designate the Muslim Brotherhood, which would
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: be a big, big deal if and when we get
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: this done.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to keep you updated on this because
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I mean this could be something that could take obviously
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: weeks or months, right, I mean that's a realistic timeline, absolutely,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: So we'll keep you update on it. But I love
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: that we got to start with this. This is something
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: you may hear nowhere else. Make sure you share the podcast.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I want to move on to this other issue center,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and that is the IRAS is now saying churches can
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: endorse candidates. I want to be clear. When I first
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: saw this headline, I'm like, hold on. Many on the
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Democrat side have been doing this.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: For years, and I know it's a complete double standard.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: You see Democrats that they go and campaign in frequently
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: African American churches and pastors and endorse Democrats openly and brazenly.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: They have for a long time.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Nevertheless, that there is a provision of the United States Code.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: It's known as the Johnson Amendment, and it is part
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: of of twenty six USC. Section five oh one c
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: three that threatens to strip nonprofits of their tax exempt
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: status should they quote participate in or intervene in any
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: political campaign. And for many years, pastors and churches particularly
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: those right of center, have been afraid to be explicit
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: about politics because the consequence they feared was that was
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: that their tax exempt status would be stripped away. Now,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: from the day the Johnson Amendment was passed, no church
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: has ever had its tax exempt status stripped for speaking
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: out under about politics. But nonetheless, a lot of pastors
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: self censor and are afraid to say say their own
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: views about about what they think the Bible teaches about
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: issues of public policy, about issues of politics. And just
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: last week on July seventh, the IRS agreed in a
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: court filing that churches can now endorse political candidates at
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: the pulpit, and the IRS created an exception to the
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Johnson Amendment. The IRS reasoned that churches endorsing political candidates
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: resembles a family discussion concerning candidates, and therefore communications from
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: houses of worship to its congregation on matters of faith
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: involving electoral politics do not run a foul of the
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Johnson Amendment.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: This is one of those moments where I actually think
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: this is going to just be massive to level the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: playing field, as you mentioned a moment ago, because it's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: been happening on the left for so long and there
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: have been a lot of, like you said, pastors, pastors
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that I know personally that we're afraid to talk about
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: politics or even the election day outside of like hey,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: remember to vote, a registered to vote, but like not
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: getting into the issues, not getting into the candidates. And
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: this is I think great that many Christians, in many churches,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: many pastors are now going to be freed up to
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: actually preach what they believe the Bible says about biblical
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: issues that are in the political realm. Abortion is a
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: great example of that.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and and and this was teed up. This came
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: through litigation, and it was a lawsuit National Religious Broadcasters
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: versus long Billy long As is the commissioner of the
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: i r S and National Religious Broadcasters sued the i
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: r S and and they argue that the Johnson Amendment
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: violated the church's First Amendment rights. And they filed the
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: case in the Eastern District of Texas. They were before
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: a Judge Cam Barker, who I helped select.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: To be on the bench.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: He's a strong principled conservative and a constitutionalist. And they
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: were litigating before Judge Barker in Texas, and the IRS
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: decided to settle this matter, and the IRS settled this matter.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: And this is one of the advantages of winning elections.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: When you win elections, you control the executive branch. And
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: when you control the executive branch, you can decide to
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: settle litigation. And so the IRS signed a joint consent
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: judgment that expressly stipulates churches may endorse candidates or promote
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: political issues without risking their taxes m status. And here's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: what the Irs said. When churches address political matters quote
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: through the lens of religious faith, it neither participates nor
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: intervenes in a political campaign. Remember those are the words
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: of the Johnson Amendment. Participate or intervene in a political
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: campaign within the ordinary meaning of those words, rather than
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: take part or interfere with the course of a campaign.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Churches that endorse political candidates simply engage in a family discussion. Therefore,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: when properly interpreted, communications from a house of worship to
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: its congregation on matters of faith involving electoral politics quote,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: do not run a foul of the Johnson Amendment. That
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: is a big deal, and it will free up the
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: ability for for religious leaders, for pastors to to speak
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: their heart and to speak the truth to the congregation
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: about what they believe the Bible teaches and and and
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: and how that impacts issues in public policy. This is
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: a major major change.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: It also going to have a huge impact on local elections.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the biggest outcomes that
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: could be positive from this, is that pastors really are
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: able to talk about who they believe is best for
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: their cities, uh and for their community and bring it
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: back to the local aspect of it. And it'll be
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: well see how this plays out as well.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Ben, And let me tell you a story from
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: from a number of years ago. A number of years ago,
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: the the huge Houston mayor who was a left wing Democrat,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: and the Houston City attorney subpoenaed the sermon notes for
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: five pastors in Houston. And these were pastors in Houston
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: who were preaching on marriage and preaching on same sex marriage.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: And the left wing Democrat mayor did not like what
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: these pastors were preaching about marriage and biblical marriage, and
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: so the city decided we're going to subpoena your sermon
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: notes and go after you. And when that happened, I
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: was very.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: Dismayed about that.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: I've spent most of my adult life fighting to defend
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: religious liberty, and the idea of the city going.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: After pastors was horrific.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: And so I picked up the phone and I called
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: my pastor and I called him. I said, Pastor, have
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: you seen what's happened with a subpoena to the five
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: pastors in Houston? And he said, oh, yeah, I've definitely
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: seen it. He said, I've been praying about it all morning.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: And I said, well, look, I'm praying about it as well,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: and I'm very dismayed. I want us to stand up
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: and fight it. And I told him, I said, listen.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: I want to organize a rally.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: I want to bring pastors together to speak out against this,
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: to defend the religious liberty of pastors in our hometown.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: And I said, I'd like to have a rally of
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: pastors tomorrow, Thursday at eleven am. And I was calling
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: to see would you be willing to host that rally
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: at the church. And then my pastor begins laughing and
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: he says, ted, you know, the Bible tells us that
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: God has ordered our steps.
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: Long before we have any awareness of it.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: My pastor said, a month ago, God laid on my
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: heart to pray for our city.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: He said.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: A month ago, I reached out to pastors across the
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: city and invited them to come to my office to
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: pray for the city of Houston. He said, I've got
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: fifty pastors coming to my office tomorrow Thursday at ten am.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: That's incredible.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: And we both just kind of stopped. And I don't
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: know if you ever heard the phrase of godwink, but
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: it kind of kind of felt like, you know, God
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: was winking at us then. And so the next day
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I arrived at his office at ten am, I joined
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: the pastors. We spent an hour on our knees praying
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: for a city, and then we went out in a rally.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And it was fantastic. If you look at you had
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: pastors across denominations. You had pastors across racial lines of
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: white pastors, Black pastors, Hispanic pastors, Asian pastors. Heck, you
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: even had first Baptists and second Baptist and you know
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: well that that is not easy. But they were there
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: and we had complete unity. And one of the things
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: I said at that rally, I said, Caesar has no
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: jurisdiction over the pulpit. And when usubpoena one pastor. You
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: subpoena every pastor, and I'll tell you, Ben, it was amazing.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: There was so much light and heat that came from
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: that press conference. It drove enormous attention and drove enormous
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: coverage in the news and in the media that within
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: twenty four hours, the city of Houston withdrew it subpoenas
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: and just surrendered. That was the power of pastors standing
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: up saying we will not submit, and it made a
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: real difference in the city of Houston.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Finally, Sender, I want to move to another issue, and
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: it is really exploited over the last twenty four hours,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and that is new information that we now have on
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Biden's use of the auto pen. It is a scandal
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: that I don't think people understand just how big it
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: is and what has now been at mass to when
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: it comes the autopen usage and Joe Biden maybe not
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: knowing it was being used at all.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: Well.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: So The New York Times on July thirteenth wrote a
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: major story that says Biden says he made the clemency
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: decisions that were recorded with autopen, and you and I
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: talked about in an earlier podcast that the Department of
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: Justice has an opinion that it issued a number of
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: years ago the Office Legal Counsel about whether you can
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: use an autopen for presidential signatures, whether that's a presidential
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: signature on an executive order, a presidential signature on a
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: law that is being signed into law, or a presidential
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: signature on a pardon. And what the Department of Justice
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: has concluded is that you can use an autopen for
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: any of those. But the test is the authority is
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: the president's and the presidents alone, So the president cannot
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: delegate that authority to anyone else. The president has to
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: make the decision. And what the Department of Justice explained,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: and this was years ago, is that the operative legal
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: test is did the president make the individual determination to
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: sign the executive order, to sign the specific piece of
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: legislation to grant the pardon? And if the president made
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: that individualized determination, then you can use an autopen to
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: reflect that, But the president has to be the decider.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: And so that's the legal standard. But what the New.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: York Times reported was, quote, mister Biden did not individually
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: large numbers of people. He and AIDS confirmed, rather, after
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: the standards he wanted to be used to determine which
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: convicts would qualify for a reduction and sentence. Even after
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: mister Biden made that decision, one former AID said, the
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates,
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: mister Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: and then ran the final version through the autopen, which
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: they saw as a routine procedure. The AID said that
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: is stunning because under the Department of Justice guidance, those
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: pardons aren't valid. If the President didn't decide I am
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: going to pardon Ben Ferguson. If he didn't know that,
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: that would not be sufficient. And the New York Times
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: the consequence of this listen. I think the Trump White
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: House needs to go through the records and look they
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: have the records because they're now in charge of the
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: White House, and examine what specifically has a paper trail
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: that shows Biden signed off on the specific action, and
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: those that that there is no paper trail, that there
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: is no evidence in the New York Times is reporting
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: they're admitting, Oh yeah, they're broad categories. He didn't know
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: about it all. He didn't know the specific people. Those
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: are null and void. Those have no legal force. And
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: my recommendation to Pambondi in the Department of Justice is
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: they should look specifically at the most vulnerable and and
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: and devise and implement a legal challenge to challenge these
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: and to make clear that an unelected aid running an
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: auto pen does not have the power to grant a
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: pardon under the United States Constitution.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: So, now that we have this information, the big question
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: is when do these pardons, what happens next, how do
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: you go about undoing this?
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: And how big of a legal fight is that going
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: to be?
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: Well, look, it's going to be a termination number one
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: of the White House and the White House Council assessing
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: what are the record show? What records did they keep
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: of Biden's signing off. We know that he personally signed
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: the pardon for Hunter Biden, so that one he knew
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: about and he did so.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: So that one is is that also very telling?
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: And is that going to be used in many ways
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: as an example of like dud he had no idea
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: what was going on over here. The ones he did
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: know about, he knew, he damned it well better signed
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: them himself. His son is a great example of that.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Does that actually hurt the argument for Biden? All the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: others are.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Valid potentially, although they are arguing that they discussed it
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: with him and he approved, and so some of the
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: high profile ones, like you look at Anthony Fauci who
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: was pardoned, they're maintaining they discussed it with Biden and
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Biden said he wanted to he wanted to pardon him.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: If that's true, if he made the decision and directed
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: them to sign a pardon, then under the Department of
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Justice's OLC memorandum, that is valid. The question is are
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: there ones, And according to the New York Times, there
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: are a lot that Biden did not know and did
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: not approve the specific individual receiving the pardon, And if
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: he didn't know and didn't approve, then it's not a
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: valid part.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: So when you look at the timeline of this moving forward,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: and some of these could be very significant, one that
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: comes to mind is doctor Anthony Fauci, for example, could
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: this could I mean open up a whole lot of
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: can of worms on a lot of different issues.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: It could. It depends what so what I believe.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: I believe the White House should go through systematically through
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: the records and see what the records demonstrate, and the
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Department of Justice should pick starting with a test case
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: to go challenge this the look for a fact pattern
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: in which there is the clearest absence of any approval
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: from from the actual president and go challenge those in particular.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting. We're to cover all of it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Don't forget. We do the show Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Hit that subscriber auto download button and make sure you
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: don't miss as we continue to keep updated on these
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: exact issues moving forward.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: The Senator and I will see you back here on
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Friday morning.