Truth Q&A and Congressman Jim Jordan

[0:00] in Washington, D.C., regarding the George Floyd incident, which is horrible beyond words. So what I would like to do is just briefly cover a few talking points, and then, even though he did not know I was going to do this, and I didn't know I was going to do it either because I didn't even know that he would be here this morning since I saw him just last night on Fox, on Judge Dineen.

[0:34] But I assume that was probably recording. I don't know. But at any rate, I just cannot pass up the opportunity to address these issues when someone who is so much closer to it and more knowledgeable of it than myself.

[0:48] So I will ask the Honorable Jim Jordan if he will indulge us and give his thoughts on these issues and open it for questions that you may have.

[1:04] I told you last week we were going to have a Q&A. So I just want to put these talking points on the table, and then we'll ask him if he would come up and mind fielding some questions or making some comments, whatever.

[1:20] Regarding this whole incident that we have been struggling with now for several days with the police brutality issue and the death of George Floyd, we are confident that there are multiple motives involved in all of this.

[1:39] Some are honorable motives and some are dishonorable. There are multiple sources of origin. Some are personal. Some are organized.

[1:52] And some are organized by well-meaning groups. And some, no doubt, are organized by nefarious organizations. And there are multiple goals and objectives involved with all of these multiple groups, some of which are legitimate just from the standpoint of public demonstration and people being able to protest publicly.

[2:17] That is part of the American institution, and every responsible citizen supports it. But we know that some of these things get out of hand. So there are legitimate goals, and there are just opportunistic goals that people use.

[2:37] The issue as a cover and as an opportunity to do things that are illegal and unlawful, such as looting and robbing and so on.

[2:50] Some of the goals are political, and whether you know it or not, I think some of the goals are clearly revolutionary. The intent is not just to dismiss the president from the Oval Office, but to actually conduct a revolt of the entire nation.

[3:15] There are those with that in mind. So Satan the adversary does his best work in an atmosphere of anger and confusion.

[3:26] His demons can more easily incite confusion and angry people. And we've got a lot of confusion now. And the danger of confusion is that when confusion prevails, people do irrational things and foolish things.

[3:45] It kind of foments that kind of desperation. There is talk about the brutality of law enforcement, and there's no question but what that occurs.

[3:57] Bad cops do exist. There is police brutality. There is police corruption. There is police cover-up. And there is police protection of their own via the union and so on.

[4:11] And there is a movement that is underfoot now that is called Defund the Police. Defund the police.

[4:23] Remove the police. If you think we've got chaos now, you haven't seen anything. If it were not for that thin blue line being in place, we would be in a lot bigger world of hurt than we are right now.

[4:40] And there are some that would do away with it. And it is just absolutely unimaginable. They're bad cops. Of course they're bad cops. They're bad cops. And that's the problem with police.

[4:54] The problem with police is the same as the problem with politicians. It's the same as the problem with preachers. It's the same as the problem with doctors and lawyers.

[5:04] Because they are all made up of people just like us. That's the problem. And at the expense of being repetitive, I'm going to quote to you one of my most famous quotes of all time that I got out of a comic book.

[5:19] Or funny papers. Anybody here remember Pogo the possum? The little possum that lived in the swamp? He always had some pithy philosophical sayings.

[5:32] And my favorite one that he ever uttered was this. We have met the enemy. And they is us. A lot of truth in that.

[5:44] Coming from a possum, huh? Historically. Historically. Humanity on every continent has consistently demonstrated an incapability to govern himself with equity and justice on a consistent basis.

[6:05] And the USA is no exception. And I realize I'm prejudiced when I say we still do it better than anybody else. But we've got our problems, too.

[6:16] And I share these things with you on the basis of the previous three messages that we brought that we had to bring from my basement electronically. And we were dealing with the issue of truth.

[6:29] So all of this ties together. And the greatest culprit in Minneapolis and the greatest culprit in Washington, D.C.

[6:39] and the greatest culprit wherever there is anybody is the absence of truth. Because when people act out of what is not true, you can count on it invariably being bad consequences.

[6:57] And that's what we're dealing with. You know, it's a human nature problem. It's as simple as that. And yet, too many people simply don't recognize that. They think all we need is better education or better people in charge.

[7:10] And then everything will be wonderful. Well, how many times have we tried to tell you from this pulpit our greatest problem is spiritual? And that requires a spiritual solution.

[7:23] Politics can be helpful. And politics can ameliorate some of the things that would be taking place otherwise. And I cannot imagine where this nation would be without law enforcement on the scene.

[7:40] God bless these people. I'll tell you, they are the only thing standing between us and anarchy. And we are so glad they are on the job.

[7:52] So I will be glad to entertain any questions that you might have. But I suspect you'll want to take advantage of Jim's presence. And we'll ask him if he would be willing to come up.

[8:02] And thank you, dear brother, for being willing to do this in such an impromptu way. And I know you've got the savvy and people need to hear your perspective on these things.

[8:17] So come right ahead. God bless you. Thank you. Good to be with you. Who would have thought that impeachment would be long forgotten, huh? It's an interesting time.

[8:29] But Polly and I, we appreciate being here with you. This is our first time in 2020 to actually be at church. So we've been, we were talking about it all weekend. We're looking forward to being in church today.

[8:39] So good to be back with you. And the special music was tremendous this morning. Thank you for that. What's, Nathan, what's the little one with the pigtails there on mom's lap? What's her name?

[8:52] Isabella was bringing it, man. She was, she was pounding it out there. Thank you. That was, that was so, so encouraging. So I'll just, a couple things I jotted down.

[9:02] And Pastor, I walked in and he said, I may have you come up. So I thought, well, I better jot a couple things down. And then I'll be happy to entertain any questions you have. I think it's important to start from, just start from the basic concept that it's still the best country going.

[9:17] We're not perfect, never pretended to be. But America is the greatest nation ever. And we, in spite of all the difficulties we're going through, we should, we should always keep that in mind.

[9:29] No country ever built on the premise that, that we started on. This, you know, we hold these truths to be self-evident. All, all are created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights among these life, liberty, procedures.

[9:43] No other country started on that premise. And so we should, we should always remember that when, when we're nervous, when we see things happening that, that scare us. Just remember it's, again, the best thing going.

[9:57] And this week we're having a hearing. It'll, I'm sure it's going to be the biggest hearing on Capitol Hill. It seemed like, I don't know why the good Lord has it work out this way, but I'm always in the middle of these, these big, big hearings, it seems like.

[10:12] So it'll be in the judiciary committee and it's on, it's on police brutality and police concerns and police, policing practices around the country. So Mr. Floyd's brother is going to be one of the witnesses.

[10:26] There's going to be, I think, eight or nine witnesses. It'll be a long hearing, but I assume it'll be, you know, covered and it'll, it'll be sort of the focus on Capitol Hill this week. And the pastor's right.

[10:38] We, what happened in, everyone knows this. Everyone knows this. What happened in Minneapolis is as wrong as wrong could be. And justice needs to be served for the Floyd family.

[10:50] And that's happening. You know, the, the, the one individual's being charged with second degree murder. The others are being charged as well. And that's exactly how, how it should happen.

[11:01] Uh, and at the same time, uh, this concept that we're going to, as, as pastor said, defund the police is just, is just crazy. You know, I, I, we did a, we did a tweet a couple of days ago and not that Twitter is a great indicator of anything, but, um, it was one of those tweets where you just took off, even took off without the president retweeting.

[11:23] When the president retweets one of your tweets, then it really takes off. But this had like 50,000 people, um, like this tweet. And all I said in there is this Congress started off with, with the left wanting to defund ICE.

[11:35] And then they wanted to defund the Department of Homeland Security. And now they want to defund the police. And if you want to know how radical today's left is, all you gotta do is look at that. That is, that is scary.

[11:46] The direction they want to take us. And then we did it. We did, uh, we made some comments earlier in the week where we talked about just concerns I have in general. Um, during the Corona virus, you had liberal mayors around.

[11:59] The country saying you can't open your business. We won't protect. You can't, you can't go to church and you can't purchase a firearm. Remember they closed, they closed down gun shops. So liberal mayors during Corona virus can't open your business.

[12:13] You can't go to church. You can't buy a gun. Liberal mayors during the riots. What happened? We won't protect your church. We won't protect your business. And oh, by the way, you still can't. We still don't want you to get a gun.

[12:25] Again, that, that is scary where, where, um, where some people want to, uh, want to take the country. Uh, there's been a few other issues that, that I think are, um, noteworthy.

[12:38] Uh, one is what is happening in a, in a, in a process way in, in Congress. And I think this is very dangerous. In fact, we have sued. Uh, a number of us, uh, um, have joined the suit with, uh, with our leader, uh, Kevin McCarthy.

[12:51] But the Democrats have, have voted on a rule change on how the House will conduct business. And they've allowed what's called proxy voting. So if you don't want to show up and be in D.C., be at the nation's capital to cast your vote on an important issue that deals with, you know, 330 million people who live in this great country, you can give your vote to another member, uh, and, and, and, and instruct that member to vote a certain way on your behalf.

[13:16] This is dangerous. This has never happened in 200 plus years of this country's history. And the scary part is, if you look at the Constitution, what's required to form a quorum is a majority of the House.

[13:30] So you would need 218 members out of the 435 to establish a quorum. This, this now allows a quorum to be established without someone actually being present, which is just, by definition, it's, it can't happen.

[13:43] And yet that's exactly what is, is, is, uh, allowable under the rules. In fact, two weeks ago, we had an important vote on a couple of, uh, pieces like important couple of votes. And 71 Democrats had given, not, not, not one Republican, but 71 Democrats.

[13:58] I don't mean to get partisan, but it's, it's just the facts. 71 Democrats had given their vote to a colleague to vote on their behalf. And this is, um, again, this is dangerous. I think we can win in court and that's why we went to court.

[14:10] Uh, Kevin and I talked a lot about this and we just, it's just the right move to, to take this to court and hopefully get a decision where this will not be allowed in the future. Um, other issue that's, that's been there front and center for now three, three plus years.

[14:25] And we are now learning, um, more about the whole, the whole FBI investigation. I know I've talked to the, to, we've talked about this before, but, um, things have come out in the last eight weeks that just frankly confirm everything we thought.

[14:41] Uh, I said, I said on one interview, the only thing we had wrong is it was worse than we thought. Um, and, and, and is very true. What they did to General Flynn, um, should just never happen in this country.

[14:55] Uh, uh, what we've learned, um, well, the, the guy I always point to as, as the, I still think he's the biggest problem. I've said this probably in every interview I've done now in the last six weeks, um, is, is former FBI director, Jim Comey.

[15:09] If you look at without getting into all the, but if you look, he's in every, every important meeting, he was the guy running the FBI. When all this took place, he was the guy who was going to move from one administration and stay on and be in the Trump administration, which he did for approximately five months or four and a half months.

[15:26] Um, he's the central figure. And I do hope that the attorney general and the investigation that is ongoing, uh, under the leadership of John Durham, U S attorney from Connecticut, I do hope they give Comey another look.

[15:37] He's in every single important meeting and the ultimate decision maker. I always point to, if you look at January of 2017 during the transition time after election, before inauguration, uh, there's some important meetings that happen in, in January.

[15:54] January 4th is when Jim Comey tells the two agents who have been running the investigation of Michael Flynn, the two agents want to drop any pursuit of that investigation because there was nothing there.

[16:05] Flynn should have never been charged with anything. Um, but Mr. Comey tells one of the key agents at the FBI, Peter Strzok, tell those agents, no, don't drop the case. We're going to continue to pursue charges against, uh, continue to investigate General Flynn.

[16:20] The very next day, January 5th, 2017, Jim Comey meets with then president Obama. They talk about General Flynn. The very next day, January 6th, Jim Comey goes with Clapper and Brennan to New York to, um, brief then president elect Trump on, um, on the dossier.

[16:39] The dossier that he already knows is false. He knows his Russian disinformation. He knows it's paid for by the Clinton campaign. Doesn't tell president Trump any of that. All he tells him is some of the salacious and unverified Jim Comey's words, not mine, uh, information that's in that dossier.

[16:53] So they can then leak it. And the press will report that it was so, so important. We had to brief the president on it. And then of course, it's just two weeks later, um, two weeks later that Comey sneaks two guys into the White House, doesn't follow the process you're supposed to follow, doesn't notify the White House counsel, uh, doesn't, uh, encourages General Flynn not to have a lawyer present.

[17:13] And that's when they set up and trap General Flynn. So this is again, what happened in Minneapolis should never happen. What happened with the FBI should never happen. And these are, these are things that, um, we got to try to, uh, make sure we change in the future.

[17:28] So, um, we'll continue to look at, look at, look at those issues. But, um, the big issue this week will be the hearing, I think on, on Wednesday, we're doing it in the auditorium to maintain all the social distancing and things that we have to do.

[17:41] But, um, that will be sort of the big thing on Capitol Hill. So I think, uh, the other, let's do one last thing. I'll take questions. The good news is that I call it the great American comeback.

[17:51] I think it is starting. Um, people are going back to work. The job numbers were much better than anyone in any economist expected them to be. Uh, that's good. So hopefully it is going to be this V, uh, shaped recovery.

[18:04] And frankly, prior to three and a half months ago, prior to the coronavirus, things were humming along. And it was good for this. Our economy was at a, some, some numbers we have never seen in the history of our country, particularly unemployment numbers were, were lowest they'd been in 50 years.

[18:19] Uh, any subgroup of, of the population, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, it was the lowest it's been. So, uh, we need to get back to that, obviously. And, and the, and the sooner, the better. It's interesting that, um, we had, I got put on this, this, uh, select committee on the coronavirus that Clyburn's a chair of.

[18:36] And we've been having these virtual hearings and briefings. And we had, uh, Dr. Avic Roy, uh, was our witness at the hearing, uh, this, this past week. And, um, he pointed out that there is literally no difference in, um, states that open up early and states that are still largely locked down.

[18:55] There is no difference in the rate of people contracting the virus. Um, and yet, obviously states that open up early are seeing much better numbers economically because they didn't, they didn't shut down and hold down their economy, hold back their economy, um, like other states have, have done.

[19:09] So, um, hindsight's wonderful, but it, I think probably many of us felt like there were, there were ways to address this that, that weren't quite as, as onerous as we, we saw.

[19:21] Um, particularly when this, this, one last thing and then I will take questions. During this, during the coronavirus, one of the best things that happened was a memo that the Attorney General of the United States put out, a memo that he, uh, distributed to all U.S.

[19:37] attorneys and he sent to the, the, the, the key division in the Justice Department. And in that he said, the Constitution is not suspended during a crisis. And amen to that.

[19:50] And if you think about some of the things we heard, particularly from some of our big city mayors, I mean, I had a chance to go after Garcetti a little bit in this, in this briefing two weeks ago, uh, the mayor of Los Angeles.

[20:02] But understand what happened in California. Uh, between Mayor Garcetti and Governor Newsom in California, they shut down churches, they closed gun shops, and the mayor of Los Angeles said, snitches will get rewards.

[20:19] Think about what he was saying. He was encouraging people to rat on their neighbor, on their fellow citizen. If you saw some person walking their dog on the beach and the beach was closed, to call him, I mean, that is crazy.

[20:33] I hate, I hate that kind of stuff. Uh, it's, in my mind, it's so un-American to, I just, and I was poking some fun at Mr. Garcetti during this hearing. I said, I don't even know what that means.

[20:44] Snitches get rewards. What does that, what does it mean? The city's going to give you a certificate? You're going to get a medal? I mean, what does that mean? But the idea that you're, you're encouraging citizens to rat on their neighbor is ridiculous.

[20:57] Um, and that, well, I don't want to, I'll, I'll take your question. We'll stop there. I'll take your question. Um, anyway, those are some things that was jotted down as we started here.

[21:08] Your chance to yell at someone in Congress, which is, most people don't, don't pass up that opportunity. Nate. Nathan, do you want to go?

[21:19] Oh, you're right in front of the mic. Okay. Hey, um, so yeah, I had a couple. I'll just start with one, but, um, social media. So Pastor Marv was talking about the truth, you know, and the truth getting out there and social media is this big megaphone for people to be able to speak.

[21:35] But there's this whole thing going on where things are getting labeled or, uh, deleted or what do they call it? Uh, shadow banning and all this kind of stuff.

[21:48] Um, you know, are there legal things that we need to happen? Because basically the social media companies are kind of trying to play both sides saying we're not responsible for the content that's posted.

[21:59] So, like, yesterday I saw, or this last weekend, I saw something by Slate posting, basically saying violence is okay. This, we need violence, basically.

[22:10] And then they did something, I think, with, with Trump. He was saying we need to send more troops out or something. And then they were labeling that as inciting violence or something like that. So, obviously, they're not being, um, their standard is, you know, is, is, uh, biased, let's say.

[22:25] Yeah. Um, but they either need to be held responsible for people posting on their platform things that really are inciting violence and that kind of thing. Or it needs to be an open platform that anybody, it seems to me, anybody can post whatever on.

[22:38] And I don't know that that necessarily should be the case. But anyway, I wanted to get your thoughts on that. No, an important issue in our committee, judiciary committee is, is right in the middle of this because it deals with antitrust concerns.

[22:49] You know, when you have, like, um, the, the trust busting back in the Teddy Roosevelt era, um, big business monopolies and those sort of things. And, and the impact they can have on the market and it's really a free market.

[22:59] That's part of the debate. Um, and then, of course, there's just the, the, the fundamental idea that there is, um, uh, censorship taking place, but it's, it's all in one direction.

[23:10] Typically it's, it's conservatives get censored. We, we did this, we, we posted on Twitter this a week or so ago, um, two years ago, four of us in the Congress were shadow banned by Twitter.

[23:21] Uh, you know, I always say there are 435 members of the House, 100 members of the Senate, 535. Only four were shadow banned by Twitter. Gates, Meadows, Nunes, Jordan. Interesting four. Happened to be right in the middle of this, you know, when we're, we're dealing with this whole Trump-Russia FBI investigation.

[23:35] And, um, I, I always remember I had some, uh, uh, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter said, well, this, this wasn't intentional. It's just, this was, this was just a glitch in the algorithm.

[23:49] And I was asked that about that on, I was doing an interview and I was asked about that. I said, oh, really? A glitch in the algorithm? What'd they put in the algorithm? The name's Gates, Meadows, Nunes, Jordan, right? Um, so that happened.

[23:59] And then, of course, we saw two weeks ago what, what the, the, the disclaimer or whatever they want to call it, they put up on some of the president's tweets. So, um, I think, I think many people realize that it's, it's kind of skewed in a, in a way that, that is, um, limiting the speech just of, of conservatives.

[24:18] So there's, one of the remedies that's being talked about is, it's what's called section 230 of the communications law passed way back when, which, which basically gave these platforms the ability to, you can, um, you can't be sued for libel, slander, those kinds of things, um, because you're a platform.

[24:37] You're just putting content up there. Uh, and aside from obviously bad stuff that, you know, is, is, is illegal, let, let speech be speech. Let, let, let the first amendment actually work.

[24:48] And now that they're beginning to restrict it, there's a, there's a big debate saying, well, we shouldn't treat them like, um, uh, a neutral platform. We should treat them much more like a newspaper, uh, where they're making publishing, uh, publishing and editorial decisions.

[25:02] So that's, that's a debate as well. And some say, yeah, we should go down that road. Others, even on the conservative side, like Ben Shapiro say, if you do that, then they'll, they'll just pull down all kinds of content and it'll be, you won't have the robust debate that, that these things were designed to do.

[25:20] So a big issue. And, and you also have, I think some people on the left who just want to go after big business, uh, where we got to be careful about that too. If there's real competition, then just because someone's big, that may be good for, you know, um, some people think Walmart's too big, but lots of customers like the ability and the, and the products and the things that they can purchase at a Walmart.

[25:43] So all that's part of the debate and it, it will continue to go. And like I said, it's in our committee. We have a, we have a subcommittee of the judiciary committee deals with just, uh, just with the antitrust issues.

[25:54] Uh, and they're, they're busy. So I'm, I'm not sure where it all shakes out. I kind of lean towards the side that we may have to, we may have to do something. Um, so we'll see. Yeah. And, and I think in the back and then Joe and recently Trump had the photo in front of the church, holding the Bible, uh, your thoughts on that and what actually happened there with the demonstrators, whatever.

[26:22] I, I, I, I, I, you know, my, my, my good friend, probably my best friend in Washington is, is the chief of staff. And, and, um, I talked to him after I talked to the president right after that.

[26:33] Um, cause I thought his remarks were right on the money that he made in the Rose Garden. I thought it was entirely appropriate for him to go to the church, um, and show that this is a, this is a, it's a church, um, and it's a church that has a long history with our country and, and presidents actually worshiping and praying in that, in that church.

[26:51] So I thought it was entirely appropriate to go there. Um, I think the secret service and others have said that, that, um, they, they, they cleared to make sure it was safe for the president to, to get there.

[27:03] Um, and that tear gas wasn't used, but now some are saying that it may have been. So I'm not, I'm not sure on that, but I thought it was an, I thought it was the right thing to do to, to, um, get out and, and walk to that.

[27:17] So the night before, if you're watching the news is, Polly and I were actually, um, well, speaking of Mark, we were at Mark's daughter's wedding in, in Atlanta on, uh, on Sunday, last Sunday, and so we were just sitting in the hotel after the, after the ceremony and everything, um, watching the news.

[27:35] And when you saw the church on fire, it's like this, we got to stop this. And, uh, I think the president took the right action, began to push people, uh, secret service and Capitol Hill police and, and, and other law enforcement there, pushing people back and getting a, getting the fire department into, uh, to deal with it.

[27:52] So I thought that was exactly the right thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is a question kind of for the pastor as well as Jim too.

[28:03] You may want to try to answer, but this is for pastor too. Back in with Paul in the new Testament, when Paul was leading the new church, sticks, getting the church started, his total emphasis was on the truth.

[28:17] Christ, Jesus Christ. His emphasis was he was under a terrible persecution from the government at that time, which was Rome. And in fact, Nero was the ruler.

[28:29] He was one of the most cruel persons you could ever know of based on secular history. But yet we didn't see Paul getting himself involved at all that I could see in the government and that they were doing this wrong and that right.

[28:45] He was in prison, of course, not justifiably. So, and he got out once and was back in and yet, and he used that opportunity of course, to witness the truth of Christ, of Jesus.

[29:01] And what I'm, this brings a point to us then as the church, as we, as Christian saints, it just seems to be that we're, we should be about keeping the peace and spreading the word of Jesus to souls.

[29:18] And, and somehow we seem to be getting wrapped up too much in, in trying to control or criticize the government or change it or make things better in secular society.

[29:31] And whereas if you follow what Paul and Paul had revelations from Christ to do and say certain things, specifically instructed by Christ, and yet he didn't tell him to get in, to criticize the government and tear them down and raise a revolt and, and riots and do things against the government, which was mistreating the Christians at that time.

[29:58] And so I have trouble determining what our role should be exactly in this situation. Yeah, no, I think great point.

[30:10] I don't, I don't know if I can give you the best answer. Yesterday we're, we're, we're, uh, Polly and I are trying to, she's always better about reading the Bible and getting through the Bible each year than I am, but I'm trying, I'm trying to do more with her.

[30:27] So we're, I was reading yesterday about when, um, Stephen got stoned and he was just preaching preaching the word to, you know, uh, to, and, and the history he goes through of the Jewish people and, and just powerful.

[30:42] And it wasn't, it wasn't designed to be, um, political or government and, and, and focused in it at all. It was, it was the gospel.

[30:52] Um, so you're right. We have to do that, um, and, and, and, and stay focused on that. But there are all kinds of examples in scripture where, um, God has got, for whatever reason, someone in the government and, and, and, and doing government work, whether it's Joseph, whether it's Daniel, you name it.

[31:14] So we, we have to, I guess, figure out that, that balance, um, sharing our faith and yet doing it in a way that also is, is, is, as a good citizen.

[31:24] And as someone who cares about the, the rights and privileges that we as, as Americans have and, and defending those, I always go, my, my favorite scripture verse, I know I've shared this with you before, is 2 Timothy 4, 7.

[31:38] And, uh, it's the same guy you're talking about, giving advice to the young guy, Timothy. And he says, fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith. And that should always be our focus in whatever walk of life we're in.

[31:49] And it should be our focus, I think, if we're in government as well. And I try to, you know, I fall short all the time. I'm just some country boy who happens to be in politics, but, um, that's what we try to do.

[32:01] So I think we've got to do that in, in, in wherever we're at, wherever God's got us, uh, keep, keep all that in mind. That, that's, that's how I try to approach it. Thank you. I think you knew this was coming.

[32:25] There's, there's not a human being on planet earth that would defend the three police bystanders. They are as guilty as the man actually committing the crime.

[32:37] given that. And in, in light of our search for truth.

[32:51] And I almost thought Joe was going to steal my thunder because it, this, this goes to what Joe was talking about as well. We seek the truth. We require the truth.

[33:02] If half of the Congress, plus a few rhinos, are not required to use the truth and speak the truth on the floor of the Congress, how had they exempted themselves from the truth?

[33:29] And then they extend that exemption into their public behavior, just as all of these people that were involved in the impeachment were testifying before Congress, telling the truth, and then they go on television and lie.

[33:56] Okay. A side issue there, instead of defunding the police, we should defund the media. That aside. If the three policemen are guilty of murder, how then is half of Congress not guilty of all of the murder?

[34:20] And we won't even go into the millions of babies that have been murdered. But all of the death and destruction and mayhem and riots, all of the crimes that have been committed against America, basically sabotage.

[34:38] How is it that half of Congress is not guilty, just as those three policemen are guilty? How is it that they are not guilty of sabotage?

[34:50] And I know they've exempted themselves, but do you get any sense at all in your private discussions with your colleagues on the other side of the aisle of any guilt for the non-truth that they have chosen to espouse?

[35:16] Well, yeah, I mean, there are some Democrats that you can, that I feel like I can work with.

[35:28] I think I've shared this before as well. Typically, it's in the civil liberty area. For example, we're working on reforming. We have to reauthorize the FISA court and the proceedings and things that surround the FISA court.

[35:43] So we're working with Democrats who are protecting privacy and basic due process rights for American citizens. If, in fact, the FBI is going to go to the FISA court and get a warrant to surveil you, to spy on an American citizen.

[35:59] So, yeah, you can work with Democrats in some of those areas. I know I've shared this with you before. I always talk about one of my good friends when he was in the Congress was Kucinich. And Dennis and I didn't share many, you know, he's way over on the left and everyone, I'm way over on the conservative side.

[36:17] And, yeah, we could work together. And typically it was in that area. So, yeah, there are some you can work with. When it came to the impeachment, it was, as you saw, just purely partisan. With the small exception of the only bipartisan was in our direction.

[36:33] So there were a handful of Democrats who said this is ridiculous and voted with Republicans. I think we had one Democrat vote with us on, two Democrats vote with us on both articles, one on one article.

[36:48] A third member of Congress voted, didn't vote. And then we had a fourth who switched parties. So there was some bipartisanship in our direction that they sought for what it was.

[37:00] But unfortunately today it's just, it's pretty, you know, polarized as you can, as we can all see. And that's not, just like the job numbers this week.

[37:12] And again, this will sound a little partisan, but it just, it's just what happened. You had people on the left just criticizing the, it's almost as if, why can't we just be for what's good for the country?

[37:25] It's good for the country if the economy rebounds quickly. It's good for everybody, all 330 million of us. It is good. So why can't we just be like, wow, that's great news. The market's back, the stock market's back up.

[37:36] Job numbers are moving in the right direction after a, you know, two month downturn with 30 some million people unemployed. And it's now moving in the right direction. Great. We should all be celebrating that.

[37:46] But in the political environment we're in, it's, it's just unfortunate that sometimes the left, they, and I've never seen anything like this. The animosity towards the president of the United States is just, it's unbelievable.

[37:58] It's off the charts. I mean, you know, you think about Minneapolis, this is, this is as wrong as wrong could be. These individuals need to be held to account.

[38:08] Justice needs to be served. And it is happening. They are charging them with, with, in the case of the individual who did the terrible deed and had his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck and, and killed Mr. Floyd.

[38:19] He's being charged with second degree murder. And the three people standing by are being charged as well. But somehow it's all the president's fault. You know, the, the, the, the officer's answer to the, the, I'm not sure how the rank works, but the lieutenants and the captains and the police chief and the police chief answers to the mayor and to the city council.

[38:39] And guess what? Is the mayor of the city, is the mayor, do you think the mayor of Minneapolis is Republican or Democrat? In fact, the last time there was a Republican mayor of Minneapolis was 1963.

[38:49] So, um, but yet somehow it's, it's the president's fault. So I, I, I, I fail to get the logic there. Um, let's focus on justice.

[38:59] Let's focus on the rule of law and let's, let's focus on hopefully trying to stop this in the future. Now there's some things the federal, we can do. And we're looking at legislation from the Republican side, which would be focused on, we call it the three T's on transparency, training, and termination.

[39:13] So train, we should know what's happening in these, because, you know, there's still a lot of your tax dollars that get, that get sent out to municipalities that deal with law enforcement. And so if they're going to, we're going to send tax dollars out there, then we should at least know what's happening, particularly in this area.

[39:28] Uh, so transparency, make sure there's the proper training is, is, is happening, um, for law enforcement. I'm, I'm sure it, you know, I know how much they train. We got a guy on who works for us in our office who is going through the police training right now.

[39:43] Um, and then if, if in fact you have someone who's bad and as pastor said, the vast, vast, vast majority of these law enforcement individuals are great Americans who are, you know, putting their life on the line and helping their community.

[39:57] But in the rare cases where you got someone bad, then we got to be able to get rid of them, hopefully before they do anything, anything really bad. That's what we're trying to focus on. My other question was kind of buried in there.

[40:12] The truth thing. There's nothing more important than the truth. Yep. And since we cannot, by virtue of our vote, require Congress to be honest and truthful and straightforward, how can the Congress police itself to be truthful at all times and not exempt themselves from the truth?

[40:38] I mean, you can, you can, you have the debate, you can, you do what we do in Congress, but the ultimate, the ultimate check is, is we, the people. I mean, that, that's how this whole, that's how this whole thing was set up. The greatest model ever, it's we, the people on election day get to decide who represents us.

[40:52] And frankly, it's one of the concerns I had during the coronavirus where you had people who weren't elected making decisions, long-term decisions for, for we, the people.

[41:03] Take our state, for example, you had Dr. Acton who, in, in, this is why the General Assembly, excuse me, the House, the State House, why they passed legislation which said, okay, this is fine for, for someone in, in, in an unelected position who's got expertise to make a short-term decision.

[41:23] But if it's going to be long-term, you need people whose names appear on the ballot to ultimately decide that. And they passed the, the, the, the, the, the bill in the House. The Senate hasn't taken it up yet.

[41:33] And the governor indicated that he would veto it if it got to his desk, which I think is unfortunate. But the best example of my, my, another good buddy of mine is, is Matt Huffman, State Senator from Lima. And Matt and I were talking and he said, you want, you want people in unelected positions to be able to make short-term decisions sometimes when it's, when it's an emergency.

[41:54] So think about, you want the Department of Natural Resources, if they need to shut down a lake from fishing because there's something in the water that they need to be able to say, oh, can't fish, can't swim, can't, that's fine.

[42:05] But if you're going to have someone unelected say, we're going to shut down an economy for two months, well, wait a minute, seems to me, we, the people want someone we elected making that decision because then they're accountable to us.

[42:21] And that is the premise of the system. That's how it all works. And when you deviate from that, which we did across the country, not just in Ohio, but across the country for a extended period of time, that's the problem because it is now taking power.

[42:38] I always say, you don't want to give up elected positions and turn them into appointed positions because that means it's one step removed from we, the people. And that, that's, that was one of my big concerns.

[42:50] And then when you, in that same environment, when you have elected officials setting up a snitch hotline like de Blasio did in New York and Garcetti in Los Angeles saying snitches will get rewards, that, again, that's not healthy.

[43:06] So that was my, probably my biggest concern and why I was so, so pleased when the attorney general issued the memorandum that he did to the U.S. attorneys across the country to be on the lookout for violations of fundamental freedom.

[43:20] My question has a little bit to do kind of a lead from that. I'm asking about voting when it's the presidential election and the other elections.

[43:35] I want to know what your thoughts are. The whole mail-in voting seems kind of murky to me that, you know, the president's saying it's not safe.

[43:46] I agree with him. I'm wondering about that. And I'm also wondering about what your thoughts are of the Republicans retaking the House and the possibility of the Republicans losing the Senate.

[44:01] It's hard to understand, even when you watch Fox, what they're saying, what's, what, what's really going on. What are your thoughts? I'll take the latter two first.

[44:12] It's a real possibility that you could have what you just described, Marvin, happen, where we could take back the House and potentially lose, lose, lose the Senate. I shouldn't, we, I should take Republicans.

[44:27] Good news on the House side is we had two special elections three weeks ago, one in Wisconsin, one in California, and the Republicans won both seats, which is always a, typically it's a good indicator of, of, of where things are trending, um, particularly the seat in California.

[44:42] First time a Republican had won back a Democrat seat in that state since 1998. So over two decades since we had moved it back in our, as you know, in California, we're now down to just, well, with Mr. Garcia getting elected three weeks ago, we got eight out of the 50, I think it's 52, 51 or 52 members that California has.

[45:02] So we're all the way down to just eight. And this was the state of Reagan and, you know, everything else. So that, that is a good sign on the, on the House side, the Senate side, there's just some tough seats up. The Arizona seat's tough. Uh, the, the Colorado seat's tough.

[45:14] The main seat, uh, you know, we've got Collins in Maine, uh, McSally in Arizona, uh, Cory Gardner in, in, in Colorado, some tough seats to defend. Good, good news on the Senate side is, I, I think for, for the party I belong to is, um, Alabama will, will, will flip, I believe, and become a Republican seat, uh, Tuberville against, uh, Jones there in Tuberville, I think is going to win in, in November.

[45:38] So we'll just, we'll just have to see. It's why we always, I always say, uh, it's why they play the game on Friday night. You know, you know, there's all the predictions, all the polls, but you still got to kick the ball off or typically in our family, we use, you still got to have the ref blow the whistle and see who can win the match.

[45:52] You know, that's just how, that's just how it works. So, um, it's the beauty of this, this, uh, this country. As far as mail-in voting, uh, uh, voting goes, I'm nervous about it too. And there's, there's, but there's a distinction.

[46:07] Just mailing your, your, your ballot in is one thing because the, the ballot is, the Board of Elections gets the ballot to Pastor Wiseman. Pastor Wiseman fills it out. It's then in the hands of the, of the U.S.

[46:18] Postal Service and going back to the Board of Elections. So it's, the control of the ballot is either a government entity and the voter. However, that's probably fine.

[46:29] The danger becomes when it's to the, to the voter, the voter gives it to someone else and the someone else then takes it to the postal, you know, post office or to the Board of Elections.

[46:41] And that's what's called ballot harvesting. And that's what's allowed in California where a third party, someone different than the citizen, the Board of Elections or the Postal Service, the citizens or the government has, has access to the ballot.

[46:54] That's when you have the potential for some games to be played. Now, it may be, I just, that's, that's what they typically call ballot harvesting and it's done in, in, in the state of California.

[47:05] And if you remember two years ago, there were a number of seats where the Republican candidate was way ahead, six, seven, 8,000 votes. And then they started counting these ballots that came in via what I just described, where a third party had access to the ballot before it went to the postal office or to the Board of Elections.

[47:23] And every one of those races, the Republican candidate ended up losing. Could have been fine, could have been fair. But the, the potential for abuse is, is just greater.

[47:34] And that's, that's the part that bothers me and the part that I hope other states don't go there. Now, the scary thing is the Democrats' very first piece of legislation that they introduced as Congress was focused on allowing what happens in California to happen around the country.

[47:51] And another dangerous trend I see is this move to nationalize the voting process. We don't want that.

[48:02] We want, it's like, better that these things are controlled at the local level. We want states to run elections. We want local boards of elections to administer those elections. We don't want the federal government having a control of the election process.

[48:16] We want, we want that to be determined by, by states. So we'll continue to fight those things. And, but that's the part that makes me nervous. Pastor, you kick me out whenever you want.

[48:29] Well, I think this gentleman and. You know, it's, it's with a great deal of, you know, heartfelt sincerity and gravity that I've looked over the events of the past two weeks.

[48:46] And, and I've looked at these events through the lens of my faith. Mm-hmm. And many have compared, you know, the current protests and riots, you know, to other riots in history like the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolution that have brought transformative change.

[49:12] What stands out to me in all those cases is that those riots and those protests were formed against legitimate forms of systemic and institutionalized oppression.

[49:29] And so I look for that, you know, trying to be as objective as possible in these current circumstances. And I struggle to come up with it.

[49:42] And, and I see the death of George Floyd and it's, it's tragic. Mm-hmm. So I either have to believe that there was institutionalized racism baked into those events because I would be on the streets protesting too if I thought there was another layer of institutionalized systemic oppression that we needed to deal with as Christians in this country.

[50:07] I mean, am I missing something? Am I naive? Or is there something else to solve for? And, and, and none of it warrants what I see, but I'm, I'm willing to be intellectually honest about this and say, is there something else that we need to solve for?

[50:25] Uh, we're, um, as I said, I think, I think what the federal government can do is, is design legislation that would, would encourage the, the things I talked about, that, the, let's, have transparency so we can see, we get the, Tim Scott, Senator from, from South Carolina, as legislation that would basically say, if you want to get certain grant dollars that happen, uh, that, that are sent to states and, and municipalities, then we need to, we need to understand sort of the history and transparency of, is there, has there been real abuse in the past?

[51:09] For example, this, this cop who was guilty of, of, uh, I mean, he just, it's unexplainable what he did, this, uh, Chauvin, my understanding is he had 17 different instances in past where he had, had real problems.

[51:28] Well, come on, like, we, we need to, we need, those kinds of individuals shouldn't probably be still as, uh, in law enforcement. So we want some transparency.

[51:40] Um, uh, we can say to these municipalities, you got to have the proper training in place and, and, and do the things, best practices. And I'm not a law enforcement, so I don't know exactly what all those are, but we, we need, need that in place.

[51:54] And then, in fact, if, if you're not, if you're not getting rid of people who are, were like this guy, who, based on what little we know, it looks like he should have never been there, should have been gone a long time ago.

[52:04] Um, and you gotta be able to terminate them. So it seems like we have to have that, that, that kind of focus. And, you know, again, we, I'm not, you know, if you're African American, it's, it's probably a different experience.

[52:19] Um, if, if your, your, your, your interaction with law enforcement in your, your community, probably different than it is in rural Champaign County.

[52:30] So I, I get that. And there has to be some accounting for that. And at the same time, you can't, peaceful protest is a lot different than rioting.

[52:43] Peaceful protest is a lot different than looting. Peaceful protest is a lot different than destroying businesses. Peaceful protest is a lot different than attacking people in violence and, and going after, uh, law enforcement, uh, like the tragic situation that also happened in St. Louis with, with David Dorn.

[52:58] So that, and I think that's just where Americans, that's just common sense what Americans get. So that's what we're trying to, trying to work through. And I'm sure that a number of this stuff, a number of these issues will be talked about Wednesday at the, that the hearing we're having on Capitol Hill.

[53:12] Everyone wants to yell. All right. And that one's yelling, I guess. Everyone wants to talk. Um, wait, you're getting two before others get one.

[53:23] That's called a film. No, I'm kidding you. Antifa. That's like Congress. You were just talking about the looting and rioting. So, you know, there, some people have said, oh, a lot of this is Antifa. I don't, it's hard to tell. I don't know if you have a sense kind of, how much is that, this grassroots rage and how much is it?

[53:36] Well, the justice department says it is. It says that it's Antifa. Is that, you mean. Well, they say that, yeah, I mean, Bill Barr's comments earlier in the week or earlier, or last week said Antifa is definitely involved and he's labeled them a terrorist organization.

[53:51] Right. So that was my question. You know, I, I don't, it's hard for me to determine how much of the violence and looting and all that kind of stuff is, is really the, the people or how much of it is these subversive organizations coming in.

[54:03] And then with Trump or whoever, you know, declaring Antifa terrorist organization, what's the effect of that going to be? So it appears to be the, it's probably a lot of things, at least my, my, my thinking is it's, it's probably in some cases just street criminals, uh, just, you know, people want to just loot and, and get Nike sneakers and whatever out, you know, whatever.

[54:31] So there's that, there's, there's, uh, it could be just, you know, teenagers being stupid and crazy and bad, but it also appears to be some, some element of organization.

[54:41] You saw the pictures of like bricks being brought to certain locations and frozen water bottles and that, that is, that is, that takes some planning and coordination and that is, that is scary. Um, the implications long, uh, of, of, of the designation are, I think the most important one is you can, you can begin to look at their finances.

[54:59] You know, who's, who's putting up the money for Antifa to, to, um, distribute these, these bricks and things that were being used, it looks like, and to, and, and, and the coordination of it, who's funding it?

[55:11] And that, that, that's how you get, it's like, that's how you get at all these. It's why, it's why we have sanctions in place. It's why we go after, you know, you, you, certain terrorist organizations can't bank and that, that is important if you're, if you're really trying to get at these.

[55:23] So the designation, I think the most, probably the most important thing is, um, well, it's the, it's the designation itself. So the idea that we're trying to find out that, uh, that, that we're trying to find out who's, who's putting up the money for it.

[55:37] Uh, I just, I just wanted to mention, uh, going back to your comments relative to Ohio, um, I, for one, am extremely proud of our governor and DeWine and how he's handled all this.

[55:52] I think he has provided leadership that allowed us to flatten the curve probably earlier than any other state. Yep. And I think the other thing, you know, you can comment about Dr. Atkins, of course, we're also a fan of Dr. Atkins.

[56:06] But I think that DeWine in every one of his news conference made it very clear that he was the one responsible for what was going on in Ohio.

[56:19] And we can say, yes, Dr. Atkins signed the orders, but our elected governor assumed full responsibility for that. And again, I'm just really proud of our state and what we've done and of our governor.

[56:33] No, I look, look, my, my comments earlier weren't to critique the governor. It was to, to make the point that it's, it's critical. I think, um, that you have elected officials ultimately responsible for decisions that are made because then they can be held accountable by the voters on election day.

[56:56] It's why we have elections. Um, and the general assembly, a majority of the house of representatives in the, in the general assembly in Ohio felt the same way so much so that they passed legislation, which said, look, after so many, so much time, and I think it was, I don't know if it was two weeks or four weeks, um, that you have to have elected officials making the decision.

[57:24] Now they didn't, they didn't go to the full general assembly, which frankly I would have been supportive of. Um, they went to what's called JCAR, the joint committee on agency rule, uh, review, um, which is, but it's at least elected officials who make up that committee.

[57:38] They would then have to make a decision to continue whatever's put in place. And my guess is you're, you're probably right. They, they would probably have continued it, uh, in, in many situations, but at least then you have people who are elected making, making the, the, the ultimate decision, um, on how much you're, cause remember what you're doing here.

[57:59] You're telling a family, a small business owner who's put everything on the line for their restaurant, for their business. You're telling them you can't operate just like they told the lady in Texas, you can't run your salon.

[58:13] Um, so when you're, when you're making a decision that fundamental, that central to basic liberty, seems to me you should, the, the, the, the more checks you have in place and the more, more it's, it's, it's being made by elected officials is important.

[58:31] Um, I think you're right. The governor in many ways did, I think he's sort of in the middle. Um, you got some States that opened up real quick, like Florida.

[58:42] We had the, uh, we had the mayor of Jacksonville in a hearing last week or two weeks ago. And remember he was, uh, he opened his beaches before anyone else and CNN and everyone that was saying, you're going to kill people.

[58:55] People are going to die. Turned out. Didn't happen. In fact, the, their, their numbers in the Jacksonville, and it's a large, I didn't really even realize this largest city in Florida, over a million people, bigger Miami, bigger and bigger and bigger and Orlando, bigger and other.

[59:08] These, um, turned out didn't happen. And their numbers were no different than States that are frankly, still largely locked down. So, um, and, and governor DeWine was sort of in the middle between those who opened early.

[59:22] Those are still largely locked down. We're, we're, we're kind of in the middle. Two things that, that I thought about while we were talking, I think it's a week or so ago, Marv said something about the organized few will always defeat the unorganized many.

[59:41] Okay. And that, when you were talking about that things, I was reminded of that, about the, uh, rioting and stuff. Okay. But the, the one thing I wanted to talk about was if they, this deal of defunding the police, do people realize what they're going to end up with if they do that?

[59:58] It's basically anarchy. Yeah, I'm, I'm, that's why I'm nervous about it. Uh, right before we got in the car to drive down this morning to, for church, um, I had meet the press on and Chuck Todd was interviewing, um, an individual and, and he framed the question.

[60:13] He says, now, when you say defund the police, you don't really mean defund the police. And it struck me as like, the language is pretty plain, you know? Uh, so, so my take was the left understands this is, well, I think we all understand this is, this is not, this is just not a good policy.

[60:34] It's scary. It's crazy. It's dangerous. But I think the left understands from a political perspective, it's not good politics to be talking about not having police. Um, and thus the framing of the question, defund the police doesn't really mean defund the police.

[60:45] And I'm like, you know, only in today's world would the plain language of the sentence be something different. Uh, and of course the person answered, we mean this, this, and this, this, and they went through this long, long thing. And I, and I thought, now flip it around.

[60:56] If it was a, a conservative saying something, uh, they would, that, that was not, you know, that, that didn't, you know, fly in, that flew in the face of common sense. They would not frame a question the way Chuck Todd framed the question.

[61:08] Um, so I, I, I hope people realize what that really means. Uh, it's a scary world. Um, but the, the, the radical left doesn't, I mean, again, that's why I said they started this Congress.

[61:24] Remember the big, the big issue we debated all the time was immigration. And, um, that was the issue that was front and center. And it was defund ICE. And then you had another member of Congress that defunded the entire department, uh, Department of Homeland Security.

[61:37] Wow. And now we've, now we've moved to all the way to defund police. So that's, it's, it's, Americans aren't going to stand for that. The, the, the American people understand that's crazy. And they're not going to stand for it.

[61:50] One more. All right. And I'll stop. Um, yeah. With, uh, Russia hoax, the impeachment, the virus, uh, the murder hornets, which didn't get much traction.

[62:02] The, uh, riot, the looting. If you had a crystal ball, what do you see them trying next to create fear? No, I, I, it's like, uh, it's like, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to be the pastors predicting when, when, when Jesus is coming back.

[62:20] Do you pass? I mean, it's about, this is almost as dangerous to start predicting what, what the left will do next. I, I don't know, but I know it'll be against the president, right? It just, I know it will be against the president. And some of you may not, some of you may not, some of you may have different, different, um, feelings and views about the president.

[62:38] But I, I like him so much. I really do. Um, and I, I know I've shared with you before. I wish every single American could spend time with him because if you would, you would like him to. Um, he is not what the left tries to paint him out to be.

[62:53] He, in, deep down, he, the, the genuinely, uh, the genuineness of his love for the country is so obvious. Um, and, uh, but, so who knows what they'll do next.

[63:08] But, you know, we got five months till an election, so they're gonna, I mean, you think how quickly we've moved through issues. That's why, when I was walking up here, I thought, jeepers, impeachment's been long forgotten.

[63:18] And, and I, I tell you what, last fall, I didn't, we, probably I didn't get to make it to church much last fall. That was probably the most intense time I've had since, I told, I was telling Isaac, um, it's, it was like in college and wrestling season where you just, like, lock on to, like, when you get in January, February, March in, in college, it's like, it's, there's, you don't think about anything else except training who you're gonna, and, and, and, and, that, that, that's the way it was in, in October.

[63:44] We just had this total focus on, on what, what was happening with impeachment. And that, that now is long forgotten. And we have, uh, you know, this pandemic and then the issues that, in front of us today.

[63:58] So we could have four or five between now and then. Who, who knows what, what they'll be. Um, but in the end, I, it's, the founders had it right. They had a great trust in the American people, um, to see it and figure it out and make, make good decisions.

[64:14] And that, that model they set up, that, and that's what bothers me the most with some today on the left is they don't, there's this whole movement to rewrite what America's about.

[64:30] And like I said earlier, we are not perfect because we're human beings all in need of God's grace. That's, that's why we're in, we understand that. Um, but it is the best thing going in the, um, that's, that's the part that bothers me.

[64:45] This whole 1619 project designed to rewrite history, um, you know, Adams and Jefferson and Washington and Madison and Monroe.

[64:56] These guys, they weren't perfect, but man, the system they designed and the goals that are contained in the system, even though we didn't always, the practice didn't always meet the objectives and the, and the structure that was set up.

[65:10] And obviously that issue was, was, was slavery and we fought a civil war over it. Um, even though we didn't always get it right, it's still, it's still such a great place.

[65:20] And to tear it all down is, is scary. And, um, you know, look, the world's a better place because of our country. There are countless number of people around the planet.

[65:31] And we just had D day celebration. What's the day? Is it the seventh or what's the day? Yeah, just, just a day ago. So, um, and people have freedom today around the planet because of America.

[65:44] And, and yet, I don't know. I've, I've said enough, but, but that, that's the part that, that, that concerns me. So fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith. And, um, Americans have been doing that for 200 plus years.

[65:57] We'll keep doing it. We'll be all right. It's not easy. Man, is it, it's not easy. You all know that. I was telling the, I was talking to the president. I said, Mr. President, I know what I get.

[66:09] I know how the press lies about me. I know the attacks I get. And you get it a thousand times worse than you get it every second of every day. And he says, well, Jim, what are you going to do? You know, go over in the corner, get in the fetal position and suck your thumb?

[66:23] Or are you going to fight? And, um, I'm like, yep, that's, that's the attitude. And it's, it's, and obviously we want to do it with the right, uh, Joe's right with the right perspective, the right attitude with, hopefully with a smile on our face.

[66:38] Because, again, we get to do it in America. We're not fighting for liberties in other countries where it's much, much tougher. We get to do it in America. So we might as well have a smile on our face, but, uh, and do it with the, with the right attitude.

[66:54] But we got to do it. And we got to remember every generation has done it. And most, frankly, most generations had it a lot tougher than we did. Polly and I were talking. We, we, I mean, we were born in the 60s and here we are 50 some years old.

[67:09] And we have lived at a time that has been the greatest time in history to live. We didn't, I didn't have to do what, you know, our, our grandparents and others had to do in World War II.

[67:20] We didn't, I was young enough. I didn't have to go to Vietnam. It's just like we have had, I mean, we got to, I got to set goals. I got to go rest. I got to go be in a sport in college for goodness sake.

[67:31] I got, we had, we've had life so easy. So we need to remember that. And like, if it gets a little tough, well, it gets a little tough, but, um, we're a fortunate, we live at a very fortunate time.

[67:43] And maybe this is our test. You know, there's, uh, I forget who said it, but he said in, in, uh, it's like every third generation had to do something big.

[67:54] You know, he had the guys who started this place. Amazing what they did. And I watched, uh, watched, uh, watched the movie, The Patriot with, uh, Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin.

[68:06] It's a great movie. Our, the boys were kidding me the other day. So we grew up on that movie because one summer we didn't, we didn't have TV one summer. And all they did was go to wrestling camp and come back and watch The Patriot over and over because they liked all the fight scenes in it, you know.

[68:17] But that generation, what they had to do, and then three generations later, what they did, where we ended the evil of slavery. And then three generations after that, defeat Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan.

[68:30] And now here, here we are three generations later. Well, maybe the good Lord's designed it. So we're going to have to do something pretty big and pretty important. And like I said, we've had it pretty easy.

[68:43] Uh, so if that's, if that's what's called for, keep 2 Timothy 4, 7 in mind and we'll, we'll just do what we're supposed to do as citizens of the greatest country ever.

[68:55] All right. Thank you all very much. Appreciate the questions. Pastor, you get a, you get to let him have it now. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for your insights that you have shared with us.

[69:17] I really appreciate it. And I know that people do as well. Thank you. Thank you. A couple of closing comments that things that have occurred to me and a number of them as Jim was speaking.

[69:28] We really, really, really have to protect that ballot box. That is our lifeblood.

[69:39] And if we allow them to finagle that and manipulate that thing around, we are sunk. Because the people who are most afraid of losing are the ones who will take advantage and steal whatever they can by way of ballots.

[69:58] And we really, really have to make that a priority item. And frankly, and I know that I'm an old codger and old fashioned, but I've never been excited about these newfangled boating machines.

[70:12] Oh, I know how fast they are and all that crap. But as far as I'm concerned, we ought to return to the old paper ballots and have the geriatric set in there from both parties counting those votes.

[70:24] If it takes them until three or four o'clock in the morning, what else do they have to do anyway? I'm serious. That could be their contribution to the country and it'd be a great one.

[70:35] And take those blasted voting machines and kick them as far as you can. And like I said, I feel so much better saying this. And one other thing.

[70:48] Well, I've been wrestling with this for a long time. And ever since President Trump was elected, which was pretty much a shock to everyone.

[71:02] We just didn't expect that. And when the opposition to his taking office started, I thought, you know, that seems a little intense, a little more than usual.

[71:23] But I kind of dismissed it. And then as time went on, it didn't let up. It intensified and it got greater and greater.

[71:35] And it got to the place of where the opposition to his being in that Oval Office started striking me as abnormal, almost irrational.

[71:52] What is this? Now, if somebody really honestly believed that the president somehow manipulated the situation and stole the election in collusion with the Russians who helped him, if somebody honestly believed that, I could see him raising all kinds of hell.

[72:14] But if there were any that believed that initially, I think they soon got clued in that there was nothing to it. And that argument just didn't hold up at all.

[72:24] And it has since been demonstrated to be a complete farce. But the opposition has actually been irrational. And as I thought and thought and thought about this, what is OK?

[72:38] He's not a politician. He's an outsider. He's a businessman. He came in. But what? And, you know, I told Marie this and I recalled this a number of times.

[72:52] Before President Trump was before he even won the nomination. There were about, oh, I don't know, probably 10 or 12 different men vying for the nomination.

[73:10] And they had this big debate, you know. And each one would sound off. And Trump said some things that I thought were just, what is the matter with it?

[73:23] The way he insulted Carly Fiorino, for instance. That was enough right there to turn every woman in the country against him. I thought, what is the matter with that man? Why would he say something like that?

[73:34] And now I understand now why he did. He did it because he wanted everybody talking about him. Good or bad. And they did. And it worked. But so I look back and tried to connect the dots.

[73:55] And what I arrived at, and this may be completely off the mark, but what I arrived at was, began with a statement that Barack Obama made right after he had won the election, but before he came and took office.

[74:14] And he made something, he made a statement to the effect that within just a few days, the United States is going to completely change the way it functions and operates.

[74:28] And I said to myself, what does that mean? And when he came into office, the regulations started coming, and many of which President Trump has rescinded.

[74:44] But there were all kinds of really dramatic changes that started taking place. And it became very apparent that this country was headed in a different direction than what it had been before.

[74:57] And many of us didn't like the direction it was taken. But I comforted myself.

[75:09] And by the way, I trust you know me well enough to know this has got absolutely zero to do with a man's skin color. It's got nothing to do with it. Nobody should vote against a man because of the color of his skin.

[75:24] And nobody should vote for him because of the color of his skin. So that had really nothing to do with it as far as I was concerned. And in connection with what I'm talking about, I remember a gal, what was, what's her name?

[75:40] A senior moment. A gal with a long blonde hair, very glib, very articulate.

[75:52] She's been on a lot of talk shows. I haven't seen her lately. I don't know what happened to her. Who am I talking about? Pardon? No? Ann Coulter. Ann Coulter.

[76:02] Ann Coulter. They were having a feedback time. And each one on this panel was being asked, who do you think is going to get the nomination?

[76:13] And they went all around the circle and everything. And it came to Ann Coulter and she said, Donald Trump. And the whole place just cracked up. Everybody laughed. That was the funniest, most ridiculous thing ever.

[76:24] But that woman, she obviously knew something or saw something because that's exactly what it turned out to be. Well, anyway, after four years of President Obama and the policies that he put into place, some of which are still in place, my comfort was in the fact, well, the American public has seen enough.

[76:45] And by the way, I hope you know me well enough to know I would feel the same way about this situation if the man was a Republican. It's got nothing to do with him being a Democrat. It's the positions that he's taken, the philosophy that he's operated under.

[76:58] To me, that makes the man rather than the party politic label that you give him. And I was thinking that John Q. Public has seen enough of these policies and everything that goes with it.

[77:12] And this is going to be a one-term president. Well, I was wrong. He was reelected. And it's going to be four more years of that.

[77:23] And I was not very happy about it. But I thought, well, he's still the man that God put in power. He raises up kings and he sets down kings and he gives a kingdom to whomsoever he will.

[77:35] So we just need to be responsible to the office and the man because he holds the office. And then more of the same, the policies, et cetera, more and more un-American stuff, un-historical, untrue to our roots and our philosophies and our practices for the last 200 years.

[77:58] And then when the time came that I was up for election, I remember Bill Bennett being interviewed by someone.

[78:09] And he was asked, who is it that Washington, D.C. would like the least to win this election?

[78:24] And Bill Bennett came right out and said, Donald Trump. And the guy says, what's that about? And he said, there isn't anyone that Washington would fear more than Donald Trump because if he were elected, he would come in there and really start shaking things up.

[78:44] And it was pretty much dismissed as it wasn't going to happen. Well, when Trump was elected, follow me now because this is a Wiseman scenario.

[78:55] It may not have any merit to it at all because I can't see these things as an insider at all. But there had been four, two four-year terms of really liberal, in many respects, anti-American policies put in place.

[79:15] And after eight years of that, the liberal element was on a roll. And they had every intention of continuing that with Hillary Clinton.

[79:33] And when Hillary lost, they absolutely went apoplectic. It's almost as if all of their hopes and dreams had gone right down the toilet.

[79:44] And Trump is going to begin undoing a lot of things that Obama did. And that's exactly what happened. And the opposition to that man to this day has been, like I said,