Congressman Jim Jordan Q&A

[0:00] Let's read it in unison. Well, maybe that's not such a good idea with the mask, so you follow along, all right? Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.

[0:16] The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power resists the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

[0:31] For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.

[0:45] For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he bears not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

[1:02] Therefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay you tribute. And probably it would be better, make better sense, if we translated that word tribute with a word that we are more all familiar with, and that is, for this cause pay ye taxes also.

[1:27] For they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

[1:43] O no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. This is a very prominent passage that sets forth the responsibility of believers in Christ and churches that are associated with the cause of Christ to be responsible to the government that is in power, even though it may or may not be a government that you approve of, because we have an obligation to render obedience to the powers that be, and that is to the government authorities, because God, God has raised up the powers of government in order to produce a more orderly society.

[2:32] And frankly, although sometimes it's hard to think of it this way, government is a gift of the grace of God, because it is through governance that order is able to be maintained.

[2:47] And we have all kinds of governments, everything from despotic and monarchy and democracy, and you name it, all over the world.

[2:58] But as believers, we are obligated to be obedient to the powers that be. I recall that incident in the Gospels when the scribes and Pharisees were trying to stump Jesus or to make him look bad or to make a commitment that he would perhaps later regret.

[3:19] And the Roman army was entrenched in Israel. Israel was a conquered people by the Romans, and they were there as occupational troops, and they would collect taxes from the Jewish people and send the money off to Rome.

[3:39] And understandably, does anybody like taxes? I don't think so. And they didn't then either. And not only that, but they deeply, deeply resented having to pay taxes to a pagan, heathen government like Rome.

[3:57] But what choice did they have? So in an effort to entrap him, they asked Jesus the question, Is it lawful, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?

[4:17] That's the kind of question that, tell me, do you still beat your wife? No matter how you answer that question, you're going to be making yourself really look bad.

[4:32] So if Jesus says, yes, you pay taxes to Caesar, that's going to isolate him from all of the public, Jewry, because they hated Rome and they hated paying the taxes.

[4:46] And if he said at the same time, No! As an Israeli, you have no right to pay taxes to Caesar. Don't give him a nickel. Then he could easily be charged by the Roman authorities with inciting tax revolt and he would be in hot water there.

[5:03] And I'm sure those pompous Pharisees were thinking, Ha, ha, ha, we've got him now. And Jesus, before answering their question, said, Taxes to Caesar?

[5:19] Show me a coin. And they handed him a coin. And he looked at it and held it up and he said, Whose image in superscription, whose picture is it that is on this coin?

[5:34] And they said, Caesar's. And Jesus said, Well then, You render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's.

[5:49] And their jaws dropped and they had no answer and they thought, Maybe next time we'll get him. We certainly didn't get him this time. Well, that's a big question. And when it comes to taxes and authority, let me just say this, and it's very, very important to understand this.

[6:07] We all have a problem with authority. And if you suggest that you do not have a problem with authority, that means you also have a problem with denial.

[6:22] Because we all resent authority, and the reason we do is because when Adam and Eve fell, when that great moral spiritual declension took place and they fell, they fell in their entirety.

[6:41] Everything about them fell, including their reasoning process and their logic and their powers of thinking. They too were damaged. Everything was damaged. And perhaps the most significant result that came from that was whereas before they fell, before they disobeyed God, God was the center of their universe.

[7:06] all of their focus was upon him. And when they fell, that was transferred. Their focus transferred from God to self.

[7:22] And as a result, we are by nature self-centered, self-seeking, self-serving.

[7:34] All of us are. It's systemic to the human race. Some, of course, are more that way than others. And there are people that you know who were generous to a fault, et cetera.

[7:44] But there are those also who are extreme in their self-centeredness and it kind of sticks out all over them. And we say somebody is so full of themselves.

[7:57] Well, there's a lot of that around too. So, that's something that is inbred within us is self-centeredness. And we resent authority quite naturally.

[8:08] And you have to make yourself be subjective to authority. But for the Christian, we are not only to be subject to authority, but we have a supernatural ability to be subject to the authority with the right attitude.

[8:28] And that is really different. That comes from walking in the spirit as opposed to walking in the flesh. And this self-centeredness, someone has suggested that it shows up at about the age of two.

[8:44] And I've always wondered why they call it the terrible twos. Because that precious little fallen angel is so self-centered, thinks the whole world evolves around him.

[8:59] And that's just natural. It's part of our humanity. So, God has provided for the authority of government in concept, and some are good and some are bad.

[9:10] The Apostle Paul never advocated rejection of government authority. More importantly, as we've already seen, neither did our Lord Jesus.

[9:21] We are to extend to all facets of life. Government extends to all facets of life because of community and concern for the public welfare and the welfare of others.

[9:35] And our government is committed to doing that. And when we built this building, we learned right away, as soon as we bought the acreage here and decided that we wanted to build a building, we were confronted almost immediately with the government needs and demands for construction.

[9:56] Can you believe that our government even insisted that we observe a code that was in place for heating the building? Now, I guess we could have made fools of ourselves and revolted and said, look, we're going to heat the building, but what we're going to do is we're going to cut a big hole in the roof and build a fire right out here in the middle.

[10:22] So, oh, we're going to let the smoke get out, you know, through, and that's the way we're going to heat the building. And the government wouldn't let us do that. Well, what happened to the right of self-determination?

[10:37] Why can't we build the kind of building and heat it the way we want? And another thing, they're very fussy about plumbing. They even told us how many toilets we had to have. Why would they do that?

[10:50] It's for the benefit and welfare of the public. There's an electrical code. We had to pass code. We had to have certain kinds of wiring, certain kinds of receptacles, certain kinds of lights, all because the government cares.

[11:07] Government cares about people, about preserving people, about the safety of human lives. So all of these things are required for our own good. Social distancing, masks, yeah, I guess we could just throw it off and say, well, it's government encroaching and they don't have any right to tell us.

[11:29] Well, that all comes under the rubric of government responsibility and we need to be sensitive to that. It's just one of those, just one of those things.

[11:41] If government ever encroaches on our worship or our content or the kind, the content that we must deliver, then we would draw the line.

[11:52] And that's exactly what the apostles did in Acts 4 and 5. The religious authorities came to Peter and John and the other apostles and said, we demand, we order you to stop preaching in the name of Jesus and this ridiculous resurrection idea.

[12:14] We order you to quit. And Peter said, well, we answer to a higher order than you and we cannot stop speaking that which we have heard and that which we know.

[12:29] and you will just have to do what you have to do because we have to do what we have to do. Now, that's an entirely different thing. That's got nothing to do with the building code.

[12:40] It's got nothing to do with wearing masks. It's an entirely different thing. But we are not dealing with the government and its demands in that respect. And should the time ever come, and I trust that it never will, but sometimes the way things are going, it makes you wonder, then that would be a bridge we would have to cross and that's something that we would not be able to tolerate.

[13:02] But we're not dealing with that now. So, I've often taken the position and I believe this very, very firmly that a believer in Jesus Christ ought to be the greatest asset that any country could have.

[13:18] There should be no more productive or loyal citizen than a believer in Jesus Christ. We ought to be the best thing this government has going for us.

[13:30] Christians ought to be model citizens. We ought to honor our obligations. We ought to pay our taxes and we ought to respect law enforcement.

[13:42] These men and women in blue are facing situations the likes of which they never imagined when they joined the force.

[13:53] and do you know what their big thing is and always has been? It's twofold. To protect and serve. And this is all they're trying to do.

[14:05] And to think that there are those that would hinder that is unimaginable. But it goes on all the time. And I will just say this in my closing remark.

[14:16] If you have opportunity to come across a law enforcement person express your appreciation and your gratitude to them and tell them how much you appreciate they're doing what they are doing and that you are really grateful that they're in that uniform and on the job.

[14:38] And pray for law enforcement personnel. They are dealing with some morale issues right now the likes of which they've never had to face before. And it's really a tough, tough time to be in law enforcement.

[14:51] So would you pray with me please? Thank you Father for this time to share together this morning. Thank you for the many years of fruitfulness that you gave to Jerry Fitzpatrick.

[15:03] and thank you for your watch care and your provision that is already in place and active on behalf of Wanda and we pray that she will drink deeply from those wells of grace the provision that you've made for her undertake for her and help her to remember what she already knows.

[15:21] Thank you so much for Jerry's legacy. Thank you for his valiant service as a combat veteran in Vietnam and for those like him who risked their lives and some of whom left themselves, their bodies over there even not recovered as yet.

[15:38] We are grateful for the sacrifice that he and others were willing to make and for this Labor Day we thank of the responsibilities that we have to those who are in government and we are grateful that Jim could be with us today.

[15:53] Thank you for his ministry and for Polly's support for him. We ask now that as we undergo this time of what we know will be informative, inspiring, and encouraging.

[16:04] We give the situation to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay. Jim, come right ahead if you would please and you be prepared to ask whatever questions you may have and if they lag with the questions I'm sure Jim's got more than enough to fill in with.

[16:24] And like I said, we're not going to be too clock conscious and if anybody feels need to leave, just get up and leave. Okay? Thank you. All right. I thought I would start with a few things and you can fire away.

[16:37] You know, a good attitude, a positive attitude I think is always important. I remember you said, I remember when my brother and I first started wrestling, we were a couple of country boys in grade school from Champaign County.

[16:50] We had to always compete against these guys from Northeast Ohio where wrestling was big and, you know, we had to wrestle. I still remember as a kid, it's funny the things you, Longwood Y was all the East Suburban communities in Cleveland and they had the fancy orange singlets and there was the West Shore Y on the west side of Cleveland which is, you had kids from those places you were always scared to death and nervous and I still remember dad telling us like, ah, why, you know, they're just kids like you, you know, you guys train to work out and just, why can't you win?

[17:22] It's just sort of a positive attitude is important. I started thinking like, you know, light of what we've been through the last 12 months, positive attitude is real important. Some of you guys remember Lou Holtz when he spoke at the convention a week and a half ago?

[17:37] In fact, Paul and I saw him last week when we were in D.C. and visited with him a little bit and I reminded him of a line I'd heard from another speech he'd given. He said, quit complaining about your problems.

[17:48] 90% of the people don't care and 10% are glad you got them. And there's some truth to that. A positive attitude will take you a long way and in our country, you think about it, in 58 days, we get a chance to decide.

[18:03] We get a chance to decide who's going to represent us, who's going to lead us, who's going to be the folks in charge and that is, you know, we kind of take it for granted in this great country but that is unique.

[18:15] That is unusual throughout most of history. That has not been the case. And so it seems to me we should always be appreciative of what we got in spite of, I think last time I talked to you I said, you know, who would have thought that impeachment would be sort of an afterthought?

[18:30] Do you think the last 12 months, September of 19, we were just starting the impeachment process. I know I was going a mile a minute trying to get ready for that whole procedure and process that we went through.

[18:43] Then, of course, it was the virus coming along in the spring and then, of course, the tragedy in Minneapolis and everything that's happened in our major urban areas since that time.

[18:54] So it's been an amazing year. It's been a difficult year but, again, one where I think it's always important we remember still the best country going. We got the most liberties, most freedom.

[19:06] It's positive attitude is important. I think the issue at hand, and I've told myself today I try not to get as political as, again, when you're eight weeks before an election, you got to, you want to be sensitive to all that, but I think the fundamental question, and I really believe this, the fundamental question at stake right now is can America remain America?

[19:30] I think it's that basic and we are seeing things from the left we never thought we would witness in this great country and it is, it is, you know, we do some social media posts and I always tell folks social media is not the real world but it's an interesting world and you kind of pick up on some things when you put certain tweets out there and certain posts out there and we, so this would have been a week and a half ago, I guess, the morning after the first night of the Republican National Convention, we just did a simple tweet, a five-word sentence and all we said was, turns out Americans love America.

[20:08] And we got a response that was just, I forget how many, over 100,000 people liked this tweet and then comments and everything else and that is, I think, something we need to understand.

[20:20] There are lots of Americans who love the values, the principles, the institutions that made this country special and they see those, those things under assault and under attack as we speak and I think they understand that that's the question that they'll have to decide on November 3rd and it's, it's really that basic.

[20:42] I mean, you, you think about, well, I was in Wisconsin this past week and talking to some different, different folks and I said, if the left gets control of the government, they'll do all the normal bad things, what I consider bad policy, bad things.

[21:00] I think they'll, I think your taxes are going to go up, I think regulation is going to increase, I think there'll be an all-out attack on fundamental energy policy and a lot of bad things that I think are harmful to economic growth and we can have debates on that but I, those are what I would consider the normal bad things that the left does that I'm opposed to, strongly opposed to but that's not my biggest concern.

[21:21] My biggest concern is if the left, the far left gets control of our government, I'm much more concerned about fundamental liberty, just basic freedom and you think about what we've witnessed in, during this virus and the pastor's right, there are certain things that just make sense but when it gets to the fundamentals, the basics, then it's, then it's a concern and just think, we did this, this other, this other, of course, I've talked about it a lot too, but we did this other social media post and we said this, you know, the left won't let you go to church, won't let you go to work, won't let you go to school, won't let you go to a loved one's funeral, won't let you go to the beach, won't, doesn't want you to vote in person and won't let you play college football but it's fine to protest riot and loot.

[22:05] Think about that. That's scary, sort of that trend in what you see so there was a, Mayor Bowser in Washington, D.C. had put together a committee to look at this whole issue of cultural concerns and certain monuments and naming buildings and facilities named after certain Americans in our history and they actually came back and said they want this commission that she put together, get rid of the names of Jefferson, Washington, Francis Scott Key on certain buildings and schools and streets and things in D.C.

[22:43] they even had, they even said that we need to properly contextualize, I'm not even sure what that meant by this, but properly contextualize the Washington Monument. So when the left is thinking about changing the Washington Monument for goodness sake, it is really a concern I think where we're going and again, our liberty.

[23:05] Final thing I would say and then like I said, we'll take questions. some of the crazy things you're seeing in the streets are nothing more than what certain elected officials have called on to happen.

[23:21] So go back two years ago, two years ago this summer and I think I've talked about this with you before but think about what Maxine Waters said when she, her first rant that she did. Remember this is elected official, Democrat elected official, chairman of the Financial Institutions Committee and a critical committee, important committee in D.C.

[23:38] Maxine Waters, two years ago this summer, a crowd of people in her district says you create a crowd, you push back on them and you tell them they're not welcome anymore anywhere.

[23:50] I mean, so she said that. Now what have we seen in these last couple months all across our country, all kinds of, you know, great American cities, what folks on the left are saying to other people?

[24:04] Maybe you saw it probably most recently and maybe most distinctly the week ago Thursday after the president's speech at the Republican National Convention there at the White House when people leave in the White House what they were subjected to.

[24:18] They were subjected to exactly what Maxine Waters told people to do. That's scary. When an official elected with that much authority, that much power, encourages that kind of activity, that's scary.

[24:31] So it's a serious time, but the good news is we should be positive. We're Americans and we get to decide in, like I said, eight weeks and two days who's going to represent us.

[24:43] And it's, but it's a fundamental, I think a fundamental question. Can this great country, can this great country remain the best country ever? And it is.

[24:54] I know I've told you before, I've had the opportunity to travel lots of places many times because of wrestling, but, and you go to, you go to certain places around the world, you thank the good Lord you live here.

[25:05] You really do. And that's why I think so many Americans are so concerned about what they see. But we'll know here in eight weeks and two days.

[25:16] At least I hope it, I hope it's decided on election night. There's talk that it may not be. I'll take your questions and yeah, Joe. Jim?

[25:32] Yeah. Is it testing one, two, three? I got you. I just wanted to say my prayers and I'm sure the prayers of a number of other people here go out to you and Polly in the death of Eli.

[25:46] Yeah. Thank you. We got to know Eli. I know Jeff brought him to some of our Bible study, our men's Bible studies. And he was one of the sweetest, wonderful, kindest, nicest boys that you'd ever want to meet.

[26:02] And I just want to say that our prayers go out to you and your family on the death of Eli. I'm crying about it now because he was such a good kid.

[26:16] I didn't know him that much, but he was such a good kid. Yep. Oh, he was. He was. And, yeah, and it was, you know, I never really shared that story about the president, but it's the truth.

[26:31] And it was just one of those moments. Because we had, like, all the Stickley family there, a bunch of the Jordan family there, and we grew up wrestling with the Stickley boys. And, yeah, he was a good kid.

[26:46] But it shows a side of the president. It shows a side of the president that most people never get to see. And it's, and I know I've shared with you all before, I wish you all could spend time with him because you would see that.

[26:59] There is a genuine love he has. Pastor mentioned law enforcement. This president, he appreciates law enforcement and people who put on the uniform for our country and our veterans.

[27:12] And I always say just regular folks like us who care about their community, care about their family, care about their schools. And, yeah, he's, no one gets to see that.

[27:24] And the way the mainstream press treats him is just wrong. But we got to see it that day. And more importantly, Eli's dad did. Gary.

[27:37] Gary. Gary. Gary. Gary. Gary. Gary. Gary. Yeah, I guess, first a comment and then maybe a question. A comment, I did not get to see the night of the first, the first night of the convention, so I missed you talking.

[27:53] I did watch it the next day, but before I got to see it, I pulled your name up on Yahoo, and I found out that most of your content of your talk was full of falsehoods and lies.

[28:07] Yeah. And I was really surprised at that, Jim. Yeah. But I guess the other question I have is, do you see any of the people on the liberal side or the democratic side who are embarrassed at all by some of the positions that these people are taking?

[28:26] Not really. I know we've talked before. I think today's left is different than they were just a decade ago, and I use the example of Mr. Gusinich.

[28:37] Dennis is a true liberal, but he's a fair liberal, and Dennis is a friend. In fact, I spoke with him on the phone six, eight weeks ago talking about this whole dynamic of cancel culture and what, you know.

[28:51] Back up a second. I always say, you don't have a First Amendment if only one side's allowed to talk. And frankly, there's been all kinds of brilliant people who are much smarter than me who have said, the biggest threat to the First Amendment is silence, and that's what the left now wants.

[29:06] They want people who have a differing point of view not to be even able to speak because if you do, they will attack you and it scares people into silence. Dennis wasn't that way. Dennis was, let's have the debate.

[29:18] But today's left is not that way, and unfortunately, I think most of the elected officials on the left today they really believe it. Like the guy I, sort of my counterpart on the Judiciary Committee, Congressman Nadler, he actually said Antifa is a myth.

[29:36] I mean, he said it. He's on camera and said it's a myth, and you're like, they're doing all kinds of violence all across the country. In fact, looks as if, they're investigating this now, looks as if this guy who was killed actually murdered a Trump supporter in Portland, part of this Antifa movement.

[29:53] So, yeah, it's just different today. Some of them are probably afraid to stand up to the cancel culture mob within their own party, but I think a lot of them just really believe, like, their radical positions are such that they don't even want us to debate and speak.

[30:13] So, again, it's why it's so important. This election is so important in a few weeks. I've never seen it this way. I've just never seen it.

[30:25] And I think I may have used this example before, but you go to the world of sports, what's happened there? Like, Drew Brees, you talk about the power of the cancel culture mob. Drew Brees says, stand for the anthem.

[30:35] He gets attacked. Mike Gundy, best example. Mike Gundy's a football coach at Oklahoma State. Played ball there. Starting quarter quarterback in his career and then becomes the head coach.

[30:45] Been head coach 15 years there. He almost loses his job simply because he went fishing and wore the wrong t-shirt. He took his kids fishing and has an OAN t-shirt on and they tried to, I mean, he had to take a big pay cut.

[30:56] He almost lost his job for wearing a t-shirt. I was joking with someone. For all we know, he picked the top one on the pile that day. You're going fishing. You're not really looking to make some fashion statement.

[31:07] You're grabbing your top workout, you know, the shirt on the workout, t-shirt, pile, and he almost loses his job. James Harden, one of the best players in the NBA, wears a mask, talking about defending the back of the blue, pro-law enforcement mask.

[31:20] He has to answer for that. So this is how radical it's gotten. And now, there's also a reason why no one's watching sports right now. Either two people are like fed up with it. The ratings for the NBA and Major League Baseball are like in the tank because people are fed up with all the politics.

[31:37] I still remember Newt Gingrich when I first got into politics. I was listening to Newt Gingrich tapes as I was driving around, going from town to town, knocking on doors in 1994, running for office. And Speaker Gingrich had this organization called GOPAC and he put out tapes on how you run a campaign and different things you do.

[31:55] And I was listening to one of his speeches and he talked about the sports page is the one place you can go where you don't get the politics. Sports page is where you can go and all they talk about is the winners. And I'm like, man, has that changed, right?

[32:05] I know. And I used to, many of you guys are probably like me, some of you ladies as well. I used to be, you know, it's 1030 at night and you're tired of politics and so you click on ESPN and all you want to know is who won the game and you want to see the top 10 plays, right?

[32:21] I mean, we all should do that. Now you click on ESPN and all you get is politics. Like, get enough politics. I actually wanted some sports for, imagine that. So, yeah, it's a different animal today and it's, again, we just have to deal with it.

[32:37] We just have to deal with it. The gentle lady in the front row here. Speak like, we'll speak, we'll speak like Congress.

[32:49] The gentle lady from Ohio is recognized. Jim, I have a concern about the potential interim presidency of Nancy Pelosi and I recognize that if the electoral college does not make their decision, at noon on January 20th, President Trump's term will end and Nancy Pelosi would become interim president and who knows how long the situation could be dragged out.

[33:26] Other than voting early and hopefully trying to monitor the mail-in voting, what else can we do?

[33:38] Well, I hope, I hope it's not that tight. I hope, I hope that's, you know, let's hope that, I mean, I hope that it's President Trump and let's hope the winner, it wins big and it's decided on election night.

[33:49] I think this is, you know, I said this in a committee hearing so I'm not, I'm not, fine saying it here today. So we, if you remember two weeks ago they had this special callback, called the House back into session to vote on this legislation dealing with what the Democrats said was the big problems at the Postal Service and really attacking the Postmaster General DeJoy.

[34:14] So we had a vote on Saturday but then they didn't have a hearing on the legislation until the following Monday which is not normally how it works. Normally you debate and discuss and have hearings, ask questions, get information and then you make a decision on the legislation.

[34:26] They did it backwards because again, I believe it was all political. I think it's one giant conspiracy that they're talking about and as I said on the House floor, those aren't my words, those are the words of the Wall Street Journal.

[34:37] The Journal said the Democrats are making this into a big issue, criticizing the Postmaster General for doing things every Postmaster General has done. He was appointed by the Board of Governors unanimously, bipartisan vote, three Republicans, two Democrats, all supported him.

[34:51] He's doing the same things that they've done in previous administrations. The previous Postmaster General under President Obama between 2011 and 2016 changed out, moved out mail collection boxes like 11,000 of them.

[35:04] He's doing the same kind of thing but suddenly it's a big deal because I think, and I said this in a committee hearing that following Monday, Democrats in my judgment want chaos and confusion because they don't want, they don't want a winner declared on election night.

[35:19] I said in the committee hearing, I said you all know that President Trump's going to win on election night but you want to keep counting, looking and finding votes after election day. And I think this, if this election is close, right now polls indicated that that's the case, I think the play that they're making is in the state of Pennsylvania because in Pennsylvania they have a Democrat governor, they have a Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court.

[35:42] Democrat governor is going to go with all mail-in. He's going to send live ballots which is different than what we do in Ohio. In Ohio, if you want to request a ballot ahead of time, absentee, you can request it.

[35:54] They know you're a registered voter. We're going to send it to your address. We have that address on file. We know you as a voter permitted to vote in our state. We'll get that ballot. You handle that ballot. You fill it in. You mail it back in to the Board of Elections.

[36:05] All well and good. Pennsylvania is going to do a different approach where, and the difference with Pennsylvania and some other states is Pennsylvania has never done this before. Like Arizona has used mail-in ballot for numerous cycles.

[36:17] They got a little better handle on how that operates. But if in Pennsylvania, which is a state slightly bigger than ours, probably 13 million people, so let's assume there's 6, 7 million ballots, 8 million ballots, whatever the number is, that they're just live ballots sending out.

[36:32] And you know how addresses change. People move. People pass away. Different things happen. That is a recipe for mischief in my judgment. And I just, I'm nervous that that will be the play.

[36:44] President Trump wins. So I said that on a Monday, that Monday hearing, two days later. Remember what Secretary Clinton said? She says, under no circumstances should Joe Biden concede on election night.

[36:57] Not, you know, he shouldn't concede if it's close. She said, under no circumstances. No. I don't think that's an accident. So I'm nervous about that. Now, hopefully, it's, you know, the president wins.

[37:12] Florida, North Carolina, he's going to win Ohio. I can just feel it. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. And it's, Pennsylvania's maybe not the critical state.

[37:24] But I think that's, I think that's one of the things that they're planning. And then if it gets to that situation, it would be something we've never really, I think the last time that, well, maybe not the last time. I know. We have a number of presidents who are from Ohio, as you all know, your history.

[37:37] And Rutherford B. Hayes was selected by the, because I represent Fremont, and they got the Hayes Center up there. He was selected by the House of Representatives back in, I think it was 1876, that election.

[37:50] And they decided, you know, March of the next year, because there was four high-profile senators, congressmen running, and he wound up being picked. So it's been a while since we've had something, that kind of scenario.

[38:04] Let's hope it doesn't happen. Let's hope, let's hope there's a winner on election night. Joe, you're going twice, man. That's called a filibuster in Congress. this is political. The stimulus, that stimulus thing.

[38:18] Yeah. What is the philosophy of both sides in timing? I think there's a, they're each trying to time it to come out at a certain time to benefit their side.

[38:29] What's the story on that? Well, the big story is the Democrats want a lot more money. The Democrats are pushing for a $3 trillion bill on top of the $3 trillion we've already spent. We're talking numbers that would just, it's ridiculous.

[38:41] Now, I always say the first one we did back in March, you had to do that one simply because when government is basically telling American citizens, you cannot engage in your livelihood.

[38:52] It's basically like a takings under the Constitution. You're a small, the best examples are the ones we see in the news. The salon owners who can't operate their business, like they've invested their life, everything. So you had to pay when you're actually taking property in essence from citizens.

[39:07] That's just constitutional. So the first bill that passed at the end of March, huge $2 point something trillion and then other things the Federal Reserve did, like $3 trillion some dollars put into the, injected into the economy.

[39:20] You had to be for that. I mean, so it's why you saw every conservative supported, almost every single one of us voted for it because we're like, we're taking people's property in essence. So we had, we had to come. So now that my mind and my judgment, the best approach is let people go back to work for goodness sake.

[39:35] We, we have, we have learned so much. We understand more about the virus. I think frankly, Americans attitudes now are, are, are strongly switching to, okay, we're ready to move on.

[39:48] So if, if you would, if you, and you're seeing the economy come back strong, in many places, it's a V-shaped recovery. Some places, it's not quite the V, it's more of the U and that's largely driven because many states are still keeping their, their states locked down and preventing people from, from going to work.

[40:06] So I would much prefer now, instead of spending another two, three trillion, just let Americans go back to work and let, let's, let things happen. And we see continued, good job numbers coming every, every month.

[40:18] The, the economy is, is, is coming back and it would be much stronger again if, if, and largely it's Democrat run states. Let's just be honest. It's Michigan, it's New York, it's California. They're still keeping their states locked down. Where the rest of the country is like, okay, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna take this seriously, which we should, this virus, but we're gonna let, let people work.

[40:35] Um, one thing that has to pass between now and election day is you have to fund the government. And as, I think most of you know, our fiscal year ends on September 30th. So there's gonna have to be a bill that funds the government.

[40:47] What we will probably do is fund it short term, sometime in, into the lame duck session until after the election. Um, and there's the potential, I think, that they will add an additional stimulus onto that bill.

[41:02] So there'll be a bill that says we're gonna fund the government kind of basic levels where we, where we're currently at through December 10th, 12th, whatever date they'll pick. But we, they may also try to add a stimulus on there if they can reach some kind of agreement.

[41:16] The president's looking at something much smaller because he, once the states open like I talked about, the Democrats are looking at $3 trillion more. Um, and all the, all this is in the backdrop of a, we already got a $25 trillion debt that we're dealing with.

[41:33] Um, makes me, makes me, makes me nervous. So I think you'll see some of that debate unfold here in two weeks. Uh, whether they're, add the additional stimulus and that would be checks sent to Americans and a few other things done for, um, small business, this paycheck protection program that I'm sure we got some small business owners in here who've availed themselves of that, that, that program.

[41:55] So we'll just have to see. Is there, okay, over here in the back. I am concerned about all the violence.

[42:09] Is there anything the government can do to stop it? So I had a, uh, yeah, you got, you got to have district attorneys who actually process people who commit crime.

[42:20] And, and right now that's, that, that's not happening in best examples, Portland, where the district attorney is, people are just being let out on bail and no one's being prosecuted. So this, this, the same, same people who were, you know, burning cars and, and creating chaos and rioting and looting get arrested.

[42:38] District attorney lets them go. They're back out on the street a day or two later doing the same ridiculous thing. So, uh, you got to go after these folks. Had a, had a conversation with the attorney general on, uh, this past Monday and, um, they're doing everything they can.

[42:54] They're, they're looking at every piece of video that gets posted on, on social media. Um, they're, they're, they're looking at people who come across state lines and engage in criminal activity.

[43:04] That, that then becomes a justice department issue, uh, FBI issue. So, um, the attorney general understands how serious this is and, and what's happening in these urban areas.

[43:15] So, they're looking to do, I just, I said, look, I'm going to get asked about this, Mr. Attorney General. I know you're doing, I know you're working hard at this, but are you checking these people? Who's paying, when you, when you arrest someone, they're from out of state, who's paying their, their flight?

[43:28] Who's paying for their hotel room? Who's buying their food? You know, how's this happening? And, and it's, so, so they're looking at all those things and then beginning to, but, but it's like anything else in life.

[43:39] You want it to stop, you got to hold people accountable. You got to prosecute them and it's just not happening enough. And, and you, you saw, if you follow this situation in Portland, which now is, I think 99 days today, I believe, endless siege on the city.

[43:55] It's crazy. And the, the mayor out there was taking this sort of, you know, kind of says he supports their cause and all this thing. And of course, you saw where the mayor's got to, he's happened to move because they, the mob, the mob doesn't stop.

[44:10] The mob comes after everyone. And the mayor of Portland, mayor Wheeler is, is seeing how this, this plays out. So the only answer is you have to hold people accountable. And you're now beginning to see the justice department pick it up because it's supposed to be done by local, local officials, local police with a local prosecuting attorney dealing under state law.

[44:30] That's how it's supposed to work. But when they're not doing their job, the way you can begin to, to get the federal government involved is if they're crossing state lines. So it's interstate travel and that kind of thing.

[44:40] And the attorney general is looking at all that. I'll try to keep my preamble short. You've made half of my point.

[44:53] And I think about things such as what happened with Drew Brees, the, what's happened to General Flynn and President Trump.

[45:05] And these things are not business as usual. These are people who are creating outright falsehoods, risking careers.

[45:20] They, in my opinion, they're frankly treasonous acts that they've committed. if you look at all of this, there is somewhere in the shadows, like you had said, a very coordinated effort.

[45:35] Is anybody looking into who is behind all this? Who is directing this? Who's the, who's running it?

[45:46] Yeah, I mean, that is, when you start looking at the finances, as I mentioned previously, who's paying for people to travel.

[45:56] We had some friends of ours, a colleague, and his wife, Ralph and Elaine Norman, from, they're just south of Charlotte, in South Carolina. Charlotte's right there on the line. And Elaine had flown out of Charlotte up for the event at the White House a week and a half ago.

[46:11] And the next morning, Polly and I went to the TV station because I was supposed to do a little TV hit and we saw, we saw Rand and Kelly Paul there. And I got to take, Kelly was still, she was still terrified about what they had to go through.

[46:26] I don't know if you've seen the videotape, but what Rand and, Senator Paul and his wife went through, she was still nervous. And so Rand talked about it and then they asked, I was on afterward, they asked us about it. Well, Elaine sends Polly a text message and she says, I just want you to know, you know, pass this on to Jim that on the flight up from North Carolina, it was, you know, there was maybe five, six of, five or six of us who weren't wearing Black Lives Matter mask or t-shirts.

[46:54] And so there was a whole group of people flying in for the protests. Now you're allowed to do that in America. You're allowed to go anywhere you want and peacefully assemble and exercise your First Amendment liberties.

[47:05] That's all great. But if you do that and then do some of the mayhem and things that we have seen happen and you get arrested, that's a different story. So we need to find out who is paying for these flights for all these people.

[47:20] Is it Black Lives Matter, the Inc., the incorporated entity? And where is the financing coming from? So that, and that takes a while. I mean, that's a real type of, you know, investigation.

[47:31] That takes a while. But I think that's, that's where we got to look and that's what the Attorney General and the Justice Department are beginning to, to, to get into. Sometimes I think, though, it's, it's just more basic.

[47:42] It's like, it's just a spiritual thing where there's, there's a, there's a group out there that sort of like the chaos and, you know, the almost anarchy you see in, in some of the cities versus people who want to follow the rule of law and, and basic values and principles.

[48:01] So, I think that's, that's part of it. But the money's the key because you, I mean, I, I spoke with one, one individual who was harassed Thursday, that Thursday night afterwards and he told me the next morning he saw some people and he was staying in a nice hotel some morning, saw people coming out of the hotel who were, you know, people out on the street the night before.

[48:22] Someone's financing that. So we need, we need to figure that out. Yeah. Here and then we'll go in the back. Yeah. Or back here, I guess, wherever the mic gets to first.

[48:33] Scott. How do you see the Trump-Biden debates playing out and being, I'll do two real quick.

[48:43] If I do three, Sheila elbows me on this side. But, with the violence going on, is there any correlation with that and the shortage of ammunition and guns available nationwide?

[48:58] Oh, gun sales are off the charts. I mean, they've never been this, you can't get ammunition. Ben and I, I was up in, Polly was traveling with Deb Meadows and so I spent a couple days up in Cleveland with Ben and Kelly, more important, with our granddaughter, Morrissey.

[49:14] but we had, that Saturday morning, we went over to the Cabela's over on the other side of Cleveland, over in Avon and you know how you go to Cabela's and they got the counter where they have the guns and the guns behind and they usually had that one room if you've been to Cabela's before full of firearms.

[49:36] Well, that room was empty. There was no firearms left. The only thing they had in there was gun safes. I think people buying so many guns and now they're trying to sell the safe. So yeah, it's been huge demand for firearms and it's because Americans aren't, you know, Americans are smart.

[49:52] They see the chaos that's happening and the lack of local officials in many cases to deal with it. So yeah, they're seeing a huge, huge demand. Regarding the debates, they're going to happen, the first one's in three weeks in Cleveland.

[50:07] I'm going to try to go to that one but, you know, we'll see. You know, I think the conventional wisdom is that the president's pretty good at these things and Joe Biden's been pretty bad on the stump but, you know, you never know.

[50:24] I thought Biden did well in the one debate that he had in the primary when it was just him and Senator Sanders. So we'll see. But, I mean, now I'm getting total political and I probably shouldn't.

[50:36] I feel good about, I mean, like I said, I was in Wisconsin last weekend or last week, excuse me, and you could just, there were huge crowds at these events.

[50:48] You can feel, it's starting to feel to me just like it did in 16 as the lead up to that election. I think, I think, I think Americans are very nervous about what they see happening in cities and so I feel good about it.

[51:06] I mean, Wisconsin's an important state. the conventional wisdom is Pennsylvania, Wisconsin are going to decide this thing. So I'm trying to, on Tuesday, I'm going to Pennsylvania. I'm going to be in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

[51:17] I'm going to try to travel to those states as much as possible. The gentle lady up here is ready. Okay.

[51:33] If President Trump, no, not if, when, President Trump becomes president again, are, is all this going to settle down a little bit so that President Trump can have, can do the job he's supposed to do?

[51:52] No, no, it never will. So, I mean, I just, I think that's just a fact of life. It just, it just won't. I mean, and again, you just look at what's happened.

[52:03] It started, it started before he was elected and it's never stopped and it's just one thing after the other. So, I do, I do not anticipate it slowing down.

[52:13] I think there's a real chance that the first target in the new administration would be the Attorney General. There's already been articles of impeachment filed against, Mr. Barr, by Congressman Cohen from Memphis, Tennessee area.

[52:27] So, I think that could be maybe first up, who knows? But yeah, it'll never stop. It'll just never unfortunately stop and again, I think it's just the nature of the left today and I get asked the question a lot of the time, why can't you guys work together and do something?

[52:44] And I, look, I would love to do that and there are times where, again, I've worked with, with Democrats on certain things but I don't know how you work with, it just, it's really tough to work with people who want to get rid of the Hyde Amendment.

[53:02] They already said they're going to do that. People who want to defund the police. I said the other day, I've been in politics now 20, 25 and a half years, state level to here and I've seen a lot of stupid ideas.

[53:15] I mean, there's a lot of dumb policy proposals but there has never been one as dumb as defunding the police. It's like, this to me is like, this is the craziest thing I've ever heard and so, when you got people who want to raise everyone's taxes, do away with any type of fossil-based fuel, who want to say that your tax dollars should be used to take the life of unborn children, who say, we do not need police, social workers can handle the job and on and on they go, I'm like, I don't know how you compromise and work with people like that.

[53:48] The only answer is you have to beat them. You have to win the debate and you have to win the election so that they don't get to do those kind of things and it's unfortunate that's where we're at in history but I said this my very first sentence in my remarks at the convention and it's sad that you have to say this.

[54:08] I said the Republican Party is the pro-America party because it didn't used to be that way. Both parties were pro-America but unfortunately I do not believe that's the case today and it is so sad and I wish I didn't have to make that statement but again, you're supposed to evaluate the evidence, look at the facts, look at the things, look at the proposals and you're like, I don't see how you can say their party is, it's unfortunate that, think about JFK, the difference between Kennedy and Nixon if you want to go back 60 years was next to nothing on foreign policy, next to nothing on tax, it was like they were both pro-American but Kennedy is the one who stood up and said we're going to go to the, I mean that vision, that greatness of America, that is not the case today.

[54:51] So, again, there's some Democrats you can work with but very few and it's because the positions are so, so far apart today that you just have to win and where you can compromise I think the president's been willing to, we've been willing to, I mean I use the example, you're faced with a virus that we were faced with back in the spring of this year, the vote in the House was like 423 to 2 to do a package that made sense to help Americans as we started to get through this.

[55:26] So, there are times you can but it's just tough when the radical positions they have taken. I won't get on the, the only rant I'm going to get on is that one right there.

[55:37] I'll be. Is the bar investigating George Soros as a possible, I don't know what investigations they may or may not be doing other than, you know, what they're doing relative to the violence in the cities and of course what we do know about the Durham investigation.

[56:03] You don't mention General Flynn and what happened there. On that subject, if I could, don't lose sight of the fact that an FBI lawyer pled guilty to lying to a court in a case involving the President of the United States campaign.

[56:23] I mean, think about that. That is huge. Now, we all, we all want, we all want people higher up in the chain of command to be held accountable like Mr. McKay, Mr. Comey, Mr. Brennan, Mr. Clapper, you know, but the fact that an FBI lawyer assigned to that case pled guilty to lying to a court, a secret court, the FISA court, that doesn't happen.

[56:44] That's like, I don't know that it ever happened in my lifetime. So, that is big news that that happened and then when we now begin to learn more and more about the Flynn case, which was all part of this, where, I said this in a hearing a few weeks back, you think about what they did to Michael Flynn between election day and inauguration day.

[57:03] Election day, November 8, 16, and January 2017, in that two and a half month time period, 49 separate times, 38 people unmasked Michael Flynn's name.

[57:14] They were digging into anything and everything they could about Flynn because they were so nervous, in my judgment, so nervous that Flynn would figure out what they did. And they never thought President Trump was going to win, so they had this thing, when he wins, they're like, oh, Shazam, we've got to do something.

[57:27] We've got to continue to go after the president, but we've also got to make sure they don't figure out what we did in the campaign. And Michael Flynn, who was former head of defense intelligence, is now going to be the national security advisor to the president of the United States.

[57:39] We've got to stop this guy. And boy, did they ever. I mean, you think about, to me, this is straight out of a movie, what they did to this guy. And then they had the meeting on January 5th in the Oval Office, Obama, Biden, Yates, Rice, all in that meeting, plotting how they're going to take Flynn down when they go and interview him four days into the new administration without a lawyer present to represent him, get him to, we have the notes from Bill Priestep, head of counterintelligence at the FBI.

[58:08] Is our goal to get him to lie to get him fired or to prosecute him? Well, they did all of it. That's scary stuff. And I've said this to you, and I've said this to so many audiences, if they can do it to a general, if they can do it to a president of the United States, boy, they can sure do it to us.

[58:23] That's vicious. Yeah. And so that was the plan they laid out, and this is why we want people held accountable. I think, I don't know if Klein Smith's cooperating with him or not, giving him information.

[58:36] He may be. We just don't know. But we shouldn't downplay the fact that that guy pled guilty. Remember, he's the guy who said, viva la resistance. He's the guy, I mean, he was out to get the president as well.

[58:49] So now we're within the 60-day window, this sort of arbitrary rule that, or not arbitrary, but this, it's not a written rule, but this rule that the Justice Department kind of has tradition they've had of not bringing forward a prosecution 60 days before an election.

[59:10] So I don't know if we're going to have any, Bill Barr initially told us last spring before coronavirus that there would, there would be some type of report from Durham regarding his investigation.

[59:22] I don't know if that's going to happen or not. I'm having, we have lunch with the Attorney General here in a week and a half and I know we're going to talk about this, but other than, that's all I know at this point.

[59:35] Check and look at the background of George Soros. It's pretty sad. One more question. Do you think, do you think Nancy Pelosi was framed?

[59:47] No. The double standard, the double standard, it's like, you know, they all, I've had Democrats yell at me for not having a mask on when I'm in a committee six feet away from everyone else, yell at me.

[60:04] I try to be sensitive to it, particularly because Chairman Nadler, his wife is not in the best health and so I try to, you know, when I was, there's times you just got to talk with the chairman as the ranking memorandum.

[60:15] So I try to be in his health and so I'm concerned, but they yell at, yell at us all the time and yet, but for them it's always, no, we can, we can, we can do it.

[60:25] And then, you know, just, that's the part that frustrates so many Americans is the double standard, this idea that they can abide by a certain set of rules, but us regular folk, oh no, we gotta, we gotta do exactly what they tell us.

[60:39] Mike, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, elections are cyclical. We tend to be short-sighted. We're looking at this election only, it appears, because it's big, it's huge. America's polarized, almost like two Americas now.

[60:52] I don't know how soon if that would ever end. So even if Trump wins, is this just, me and my buddies were talking about this, is this just a stay of execution? I mean, what irreversible things can happen in 2024 or in 2028.

[61:07] Yeah, great question. When it will happen, the Democrats will get the two or three parts of the Congress and the House and they'll get presidency and what can be done that's irreversible.

[61:17] Yeah. I got the same question from a farmer at this one event we were at in Wisconsin. He said the same thing. We can win this time, but is it inevitably we're going in the wrong direction?

[61:29] You never know. And I do think it's important that we as conservatives reach out to younger Americans. There's this great kind of ministry, maybe it's not the right word, but turning point, Charlie Kirk, this younger guy reaching out to younger people.

[61:48] Many times with younger people, it's a little bit more libertarian message, but I think that is important. I think if, again, it's important that we begin in schools teaching the things that I think us older Americans used to get in schools about the greatness of the country, about what the Declaration of Independence, that document, and how, you know, I always say next to scripture is the best thing ever written down.

[62:14] Get back to those fundamentals and teaching that kind of civics and patriotism that seems to be not being taught to the same way it was when we were younger. So there's some things we can do, and then, of course, and you guys all do this, we got to pray more.

[62:29] In some ways, it's a, many ways, I think it's a spiritual kind of need a revival kind of approach. So I think it's all that, but, yeah, it won't be easy.

[62:41] I always, you know, I always tell folks it's, getting anything done that's worthwhile is never easy. It's just like, it's just the way life is, and we're, it's going to take work, it's going to take effort, it's going to take sacrifice, it's going to take a willingness to assume risk.

[62:56] You know, you get involved in politics today, you get involved in trying to make a difference in your community today, there's always risk that you're going to be attacked, risk you might fail. So I think we got to assume the risk and, and fight that fight, and as Joe's pointing out, you know, focus on the scripture.

[63:13] Yeah. Well, where do, I always get this guy, I forget which one, which one asked the Lord for more time, and they were given more time, you know, that, who was the guy in the Old Testament, one of the Amayas, or Nehemiah, or one of the, Jeremiah or someone, I forget, and Hezekiah, I knew it was an I at the end there.

[63:30] So there's, there's, maybe that's the case too, and, and, you know, we all got kids and grandkids, and we want, we want them to enjoy the thing. I, I think about it, and I know I'm going long here, so I'll stop here quick, but I think about, I feel like I'm the luckiest, I, Paul and I, we grew up in the luckiest generation ever.

[63:49] Like, it was like, it's been, we've got to experience all the neat things in America, never really had to deal with some of the hardships that the generations before us had to deal with. It's like, it's been so good, which is like, basically, you could just, what's your goal, what's your dream, go work hard, go make it happen, we got to do it.

[64:08] And, other generations have had to deal with World War II, and Vietnam, and other big things. Like, we can't, we can't leave it for our kids and our grandkids in a worse condition than what we've got to experience.

[64:23] So, and it's funny, because so many of my colleagues are, you know, as you would, they're 50-some year old guys, too, and they all see it the same way, and that's why, I got a guy, Scott Perry, he's general, represents Harrisburg, he's a tough district, it's a 50-50 district, and just a good guy, loves the country, and he said the same thing.

[64:43] My best friend is Mark Meadows, and he thinks, I mean, just some good guys who see it the way, you know, I think we all see it, and are trying to, trying to fight.

[64:54] Okay, you get the last one, Scott, how about that? Maybe, maybe we'll go Scott and then Nate, and then I'll get out of here, because Nate, since he did all that great singing, we gotta give him the last word. All right. You mentioned that we need to win the debate and win the election, and in the case of Lincoln, he needed to win the war.

[65:13] Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not a, look, it's a long struggle, and you hate to use the term, that term, but we just gotta keep pressing on.

[65:24] I know I've shared, I probably give this to every speech I give. My favorite scripture verse is 2 Timothy 4, 7, fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith, and it's an attitude that you just gotta have. You gotta have that attitude, fight, finish, keep, and I told the, when I was speaking this past week, I said, you know, I like the verse because it's action.

[65:44] It's not like sissy stuff. It's not like, well, it's like fight, finish, keep. That is as straight a challenge, as direct a challenge as you can get, and Paul's telling it to Timothy, it's like, I feel like he's like telling it to Americans, too, just that's what we need, that's the attitude you gotta have, and that's the attitude that gets things done, and so, that should be our attitude.

[66:09] If it doesn't improve, then fine, but we gotta keep, we gotta keep focused on that. Nate, you and all those great kids who were singing, you get the last word.

[66:19] Oh, thanks so much. One of my biggest concerns is what I see in the conservative movement is it's becoming more secular, yeah, and my concern is that that kind of a conservative movement doesn't have the moral foundation, the religious foundation of being made in the image of God, and, and, you know, the reality of our nature as having rights that come from God, and like you mentioned, like a lot of the, the young, the younger conservative movement is very libertarian, which kind of avoids those issues.

[66:53] I, you mentioned Turning Point, and what's the guy's name? Charlie Kirk. Yeah, you know, he's a Christian, and I've heard him say some interesting things, but he tends to focus just on kind of secular arguments and those kinds of things, and I don't think that that has, I don't think that has a, I don't think that's a good long-term strategy.

[67:08] I don't think it has enough of the kind of moral foundation that we need from, you know, I think we need to pull more from our Judeo-Christian heritage, and so I just wanted to get your perspective on that.

[67:20] Yeah, no, I think, I think it's a great point, and again, this is why fundamental civics, fundamental patriotism type of education, where you go back to the document that started it, which is the Declaration, and the Declaration comes from the perspective you were just talking about.

[67:34] It comes from a Judeo-Christian perspective, where it talks about we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, so I think you do have to get back to that. I think that's probably accurate.

[67:44] Younger conservatives today, they're pro-life, because the facts and the science and everything there, they're becoming more and more pro-life, but their attitude on the marriage issue, for example, is a little different, and so I think there's a way we have to structure it and present it, but I would start with a declaration.

[68:10] Like, man, I just love the way Jefferson put that together and these individuals who started the country, and this is what's interesting. Those are the very people the left is going after, right?

[68:24] It is not about just canceling generals who were on the Confederate side. It is about going all the way back to those people, and, you know, there's this whole 1619 project that the New York Times talked about where they go back and this, this, the American history is based on this, this slave trade and different things, and that is sort of a negative context on America versus the 1776 model, which is what we were all taught and which is, I believe, the truth.

[69:00] America's not perfect. No one is. We're not the, but we're the best thing going. Best thing ever happened to this, to this world, apart from Jesus, is, is the United States of America, and we need to remember that, and that's why we have to base it on that 1776 model, which that sentence, endowed by our creator with certain, that's the foundation, not, not some 1619 deal as, as the New York Times and the left wants to tear down America and talk about.

[69:28] So, that to me is the fundamental thing, and you do that, then you can, you can, you can win more on, on, on some of the other issues that are grounded in our jail Christian value. So, that, that's sort of the fundamental debate.

[69:41] Um, and again, thank you all very much. Um, all right, we keep getting more and more hands. The pastor said we can stay a couple minutes, but this will be, I'll make this the last one now.

[69:55] And I'll, I'll be happy to visit with you afterwards so we can let some people go. 25 trillion? Yeah, at least. How much does China own of that?

[70:08] Yeah, I'm not sure. Um, a fair amount. Uh, but a lot of it's owned, owned, owned by us too, American taxpayers and American institutions. Um, you know, we've, we've, I know we've talked before.

[70:22] We, we, we do have to at some point deal with this. Um, I always tell folks you don't have to take spending from this. You don't have to take it to flat or you don't have to take it to negative.

[70:35] You just got to take it from here down and have greater growth so that you're, even if it's just minimal, if you're just gaining on it just a little bit, that sends the message that, all right, because we're still the biggest kid, you know, I say we're the biggest kid on the block.

[70:49] We're the, we're the big economy. But if we're actually growing a slightly more than we're increasing the debt, that's all you got to send and we can manage it long term. But what, what's dangerous is where we are now where we're spending just, just throwing money out there.

[71:06] It's, it's, that's, that's scary. That's why we got to get back to work. We got to get back to work. Let, let, let the American people go do what they, they do best. Go work and make things happen. These are getting bad with China.

[71:18] Did they have any control over our economy that, uh, would hurt us a lot? There's been some, some debate about this, just moving to 5G and this, this Chinese company Huawei, uh, Huawei, excuse me, excuse me, not Huawei, Huawei.

[71:32] Um, and there's been a, kind of a stop put on that, them, them, them getting the big contract to do this because our concerns about espionage from the Chinese who are always trying to, they're always trying to mess with us, just like, like the Russians and the North Korean, all the bad, bad actors in the world.

[71:49] Um, but nothing, nothing, nothing, you know, different than that. Nothing different than that. Okay, this is, how many times I said that?

[72:02] I mean it this time. Would you, uh, mention to Mr. Barr or Mr. Trump or whoever needs to be mentioned to that it would be a good faith, uh, on his part if they did, if they have it and they're holding it to go ahead and charge a high-ranking somebody that needs to be put in jail before the election?

[72:24] So, it'd be a very good faith statement. Yeah, and, and not for any political reason. If, if it, but if the, if the evidence is there, you know, this is, this is the old justice delays, justice denied.

[72:34] This is like, it's been, it's been now, you know, four years since this, this whole escapade began, um, not for political reasons but for the right reasons.

[72:45] If that, in fact, is the case, they should do it. I agree 100, 100%. This is, is so unprecedented what, what took place. Um, if they know someone is guilty, they have the, the, the evidence to, to charge and, and, and indict them, do it.

[73:04] They should do it. All right. Have a great Labor Day weekend. Thank you all very much. I'll catch you in the back. How about that? We talk about equal justice under the law but so far it has proved to be that if you are rightly connected you can get away with anything.

[73:31] That's what John Q. American Public is thinking is going on and I don't know if there is the moxie in Washington to change that perception or not but, uh, there is, uh, we talk about equal justice under the law but, like I said, if you're rightly connected you can get away with anything and, I was fascinated by a comment that you made early on into your talk when, when the question was asked are there any Democrats that are, are demonstrating embarrassment over some of the extremes that those in their own parties are taking and you said no, that there did not appear to be any.

[74:25] and as I got to thinking about that the reason for it became obvious. They wouldn't dare.

[74:38] This has become the party of destruction, of viciousness and annihilation and don't you dare oppose this or we will make you pay.

[74:51] we will destroy you and let me say this the Republican Party isn't the Republican Party that it used to be and it hasn't been what it used to be since Eisenhower.

[75:11] The Democratic Party is not what it used to be and it hasn't been what it used to be ever since JFK. think about that.

[75:26] Both parties have undergone some tremendous policy revisions and if you want to know where each is on the issues just look at the platform.

[75:40] Read it. It's there. The Democratic platform is not the platform that the Republicans say the Democrats have. it's the platform the Democrats say they have.

[75:55] And the same with the Republicans. And it won't be long and voters guides will be distributed and on the guide there is no indication as to whom you should vote for or what party you should vote for.

[76:11] but all it does is it lists the several issues that are of concern to Americans and it tells you what the position of each party is that the party says it is in connection with each one.

[76:28] Do you need any more than that? isn't that enough? I remember Ronald Reagan saying years ago I grew up and well into adulthood as a committed Democrat and after a period of time I concluded that I never did leave the Democrat party.

[77:09] It left me. I would not be a bit surprised if there are not a considerable number of lifelong Democrats who are ready to say very quietly not publicly I'm fed up I've had enough I still consider myself a Democrat but I'm not going to vote for these Democrats now if that makes me sound partisan so be it as far as I'm concerned it's an issue of morality when you look at the platform of each of them if you cannot associate your Christian position with those platforms my labor here for 50 years has been for nothing and as you look at each of these you should ask yourself by the candidates and by the parties what is their world view what's their world view regarding

[78:21] God I see so many people today in this category as either atheists or practical atheists what's the difference an atheist is one who simply believes there is no God a practical atheist isn't willing to go that far he will say oh there may very well be a God I would not deny that I would not say that there is no God but I'm going to conduct myself and assert my values as if there is no God that's a practical atheist they might well be an atheist and when it comes to making decisions regarding moral issues ask yourself which of these are coming from a position of moral relativism as opposed to absolute morals that will tell you lots of things because if you are coming from a position of relative morality which is what most of the world is operating with morals are relative then that means you make your own standards and listen this is why these people cannot be embarrassed they cannot be shamed they don't want to h les is like the

[80:19] Teacher is