FRC - Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Bob Maginnis, Nathaniel Moran, Frank Turek

0:00From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a Biblical worldview, sitting in Fertone is today's host, Casey Harper. In 55 days, Americans will be going to the polls in one of the most important elections in our country's history. Your vote will decide whether our country stumbles at the starting gate of the next 250 years or surges forward and never ever looks back. That was President Donald Trump last night speaking at the Republicans midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. Welcome to this Thursday, September 10th edition of Washington watch. I'm Casey Harper, your guest host for today. Thanks for tuning in. Coming up, tonight is the second night of the Republicans' first-ever GOP midterm convention. Texas Congressman Nathaniel Moran, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, will join us to talk about the highlights and takeaways from the event.

1:06In 25 years after the 9-11 attacks, Israel's Islamic terrorism still the greatest threat to America's national security. Looking ahead, what's likely to pose the greatest threat and what might A.I.'s role be in all that? What retired Lieutenant Colonel Bob McGinnis, a senior fellow for National Security at FRC, will join us to discuss that and more. Plus, today marks one year since Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Dr. Frank Turek, a mentor of Kirk, who was with him when it happened, will join us to discuss his life and legacy as well as his new book, The War and Reality, Recovery, Truth and a World that celebrates lies. All that more, straight ahead. Let's begin with some campaign news. Tonight is day two of the Republican Party's first-ever midterm convention in Dallas. And joining us now to discuss is Washington watch reporter Mary Stackhouse. Mary, what happened last night and what can we expect this evening?

2:10Well, Casey, last night in his speech, President Trump urged folks to get out and vote. He made a big promise to voters too. He said that if Republicans keep control of Congress in November's midterm elections, that every American adult would be issued at $5,000 Trump dividend. Now, there's a caveat. He said that it would have to be spent here in America. During his speech, Iran also came up and he warned it to be cautious. He threatened that the U.S. may strike Iran's pickaxe mountain. He also touted his policy achievements and highlighted his administration's work to protect women and children from trans ideologies and policies. Here's President Trump last night issuing a challenge to Republican voters. We will make our voices heard, perhaps like never before. That's the beautiful challenge that the midterms are not supposed to be won by the sitting president. And we're going to change that and we'll make it an even more important time in our country and presidency. It'll be something very special. We have to do it. In a surprise, move Democratic Senator John Federman made a brief appearance at the Convention via video message. He said that he would always stand with Americans and that he would reject the extremes and socialism and just that anti-American way of life.

3:22President Trump also condemned socialism and communism, which has been rising in popularity among Democrats. Now, in regard to those $5,000 Trump dividends, I want to note that Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council and host of Washington watched share to post on X saying, quote, The government does not produce wealth. It spends what it taxes or borrows from the American people. If Washington collects more than it needs, return it through permanent tax relief. But a government deeply in debt should stop overspending and reduce that debt, not distribute borrowed money and call it a dividend. He went on to say that returning a genuine surplus is one thing borrowing from our children and grandchildren to send checks to today's voters is something else entirely. Now, tonight at the Convention, Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled to speak at 9 p.m. Eastern with President Trump closing the event out. KC. Thanks, Mary. Very interesting, but I want to shift now to a new poll about how Americans view 9-11 given the anniversary. Walks through the findings of that survey.

4:22Absolutely. KC, a new poll shows just how great of an impact that 9-11 had on Americans. 25 years ago now after the September 11th attacks, the survey reveals that roughly half of American adults still viewed the same as the American people. Still viewed the tragedy as the single most important historic event of their lifetimes. Two-thirds believe that it impacted the nation a great deal. About 30 percent of adults said that the attacks permanently altered the way that they lived their lives. Despite its lasting national imprint as evidenced by this poll, only about 10 percent of U.S. adults have plans to do something in memory of the 25-year mark since the attacks. KC. All right, thanks for the updates, Mary. I want to continue the discussion on 9-11. In addition to the Ipsos poll, a separate poll by CBS News found that 74 percent of Americans say remembering 9-11 is very important. But only half, a little less than half, 48 percent believe the U.S. is adequately prepared to deal with another terrorist attack today.

5:23So as we look back and look ahead, where has radical Islam settled on the list of threats to national security? Well, joining us now to discuss this and more is retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob McGinnis. He's a national security analyst who served at the Pentagon. He's currently a senior fellow for National Security at Family Research Council. He's the author of 14 books including the new AI Cold War, Colonel McGinnis. Welcome back to Washington Watch. No, thanks KC. So before we dive into some analysis here, I have to bring this up. You were at Family Research Council on 9-11 in person serving Vice President as Vice President for policy. We look back on that day in the aftermath. What stands out most to you? Well, we were having a staff meeting in the media center. I just come back from overseas where intelligence officials said that they expected something very significant against the United States based on terrorist levels. And so that morning someone walked in and said at 9 after 9 o'clock in the morning that the Twin Towers has been struck by an airplane.

6:32And it wasn't but a few minutes later we heard an explosion in the distance which ended up being the Pentagon. And then of course the streets of Washington filled with sirens and people and the day really turned upside down, especially for me in part because I was talking about the things that I knew about terrorism. And I was never expected to fill the entire day with that sort of dialogue and interviews, but it was very significant day. You know, everyone kind of remembers where they were when 9-11 happened assuming they're old enough to remember. But I think many people have maybe forgotten the source and you hear a lot of people raising questions we've covered on the show. And so I think that's sort of a recasting of the narrative around 9-11. So I'll put this question to you. How does the threat of radical Islam today compare to 25 years ago? Well, the threat hasn't gone away, but it's not nearly as significant as it was then. In part because we've gone after them in their own territory.

7:38And of course we put defensive measures in the United States such as Homeland Security that pursues that sort of issue. But it's still serious. It is persistent. It is still ideological. But fortunately the threat is more decentralized. It's really morphed into kind of a digital connection. There are training camps like we used to see in the late 90s. And it's less dependent upon that sort of thing. But you know, it's not a problem that's going to go away completely, but it has dwarfed itself in comparison to some of the other things we face today. No training camps we know of, but the point is well taken. I mentioned that CBS News poll that found only 48% of Americans believe the US is adequately prepared to deal with the terrorist attack. Why do you think they feel that way? And do you think they're right? Well, in part it's because of the millions of people that came into this country illegally under the Biden administration that had some pretty bad backgrounds.

8:42And so as a result we have to deal with that as well. And some of those were terrorists no doubt or at least had sympathetic terrorists in clinicians. So that's something we have to take into account. Well, you sort of mentioned the there's not training camps for terrorists anymore, but you've become an expert on AI you've written many books about it at this point we've had you on the outstanding podcast to talk about the artificial intelligence and the threats there, but I've never made the connection between terrorism radical Islamic terrorism and AI doesn't even have to be radical Islamic, but it is the week of 9 11. Do you think that's a real threat? I mean as AI gets more and more powerful and more and more widespread we've seen AI escape. Do you think that this could get into the wrong hands? No, there's no question about it. In fact, there's an article in today's New York Times that talks about anthropic trying to shut down users of its cloud, GPT in order to make biological weapons now.

9:43It's suspicious. I don't know that it's confirmed by authorities, but artificial intelligence, Casey is a tool whoever uses it and it can be used for both good and for evil and no doubt. You know, terrorist groups, small radical nations, you know, criminals syndicates can use this for cyber warfare, certainly for autonomous systems like drones and attack airplanes like they tried to apparently against President Selinsky here recently they can go after people and stadiums, you know nuclear weapons. There's no limit to how you can use artificial intelligence to make the novice into an expert in the deployment of deadly means that are going to for whatever political reasons ideological reasons or you know some other excuse maybe a wealth excuse or blackmail.

10:43So these are very, very serious capabilities. Yeah, it's a pretty ominous picture and you gave some pretty striking examples drones, stadiums. I think it's kind of feasible to wrap your mind around that. I want to ask you what about hacking and the potential for hacking of infrastructure or shutting down the entire energy grid or hospitals or even you know using our AI to drain bank accounts to attack the financial system. Is that realistic? Is that a Hollywood projection or is there something to that? No, it's very realistic recently the FBI NSA and others published a report that indicated that especially some Chinese hackers, probably with the permission of the Chinese government went after some infrastructure. Now they can plant malware inside our electric grid or our water systems. We've already had a problem in seven states with water systems being infiltrated by AI entities. So this is the new world we live in.

11:50We can be attacked on infrastructure or bank accounts. No wonder, you know, most of us are now using a second way of getting into our accounts and trying to put up firewalls to prevent outside hackers. And these hackers now have tools that only a few years ago were only imaginable and they're incredibly effective. And so we'll probably end up going to three or four levels of protection in the not so distant future in order to protect our personal wealth as well as our safety in a country that is now on the target of all sorts of nefarious characters around the world. Little over a minute left. We've painted a grim picture escalating problems, but what are the solutions here? Well, the solutions are you need guardrails. You need good defensive mechanisms. You need some international cooperation. We need to get Congress to pass some laws. They haven't passed a single law that's useful and what I've just described.

12:55The Trump administration has made a number of measures that are important, but they aren't the color of law as yet. So the international community has to come to agreement that there's got to be some off-limit areas. And I would hope that on the 24th of September when President Xi is here with President Trump in Washington that they'll discuss these sorts of things. We need an international regimen on how to deal with this. Otherwise, these renegades, terrorists, criminals, or rogue nations are going to take advantage of this new capability and it's going to be to our all to our disadvantage. Well, it's hard to imagine trusting some of these nations to keep the rules that we set in place, but maybe that's our only option. We have to leave it there for tired Lieutenant Colonel Bob McGinnis. Thanks for coming on. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Kaci. Well, coming up, we're going to dive deeper into the issue of AI with Texas Congressman Nathaniel Moran.

13:55You don't want to miss it. This is an important conversation. Stick around. Everyone wants wisdom, but few know where to find it. In wisdom of Solomon, Tony Perkins takes us on a 24-day journey through proverbs and pleasesy asties to discover God's unchanging wisdom for our changing times. Each day's studying explores key passages, offers practical reflection questions, and focuses on life application. Get it now at frc.org slash wisdom or text wisdom to 67742. America, what formed the fabric of our freedom? What stitched together the hearts of those that fasten the stars and stripes? 250 years ago, our founding fathers pin the invisible words woven within every heart that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator, with certain unalienable rights that among these are locked in the heart of the world. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

14:55Unite with others who will pledge to defend these eternal truths today at Family Research Council's Prevote Stand Summit September 24th to the 26th at Cornerstone Chapel, outside Washington, D.C. In 1776, our country declared independence in reliance upon divine providence. In 2026, in the same spirit, we'll declare dependence upon God by gathering for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action, for faith, for family, for freedom. Register now at prevotestand.org Washington, D.C. is more than a place of political power. The city proclaims our national story, a story woven with faith. In God we trust is a commemorative book from Family Research Council, celebrating 250 years of America's Biblical foundations through the monuments of Washington, D.C. This special resource will inspire you to make America's future as God honoring as her past. Or to your copy today, text book to 67742, that's book to 67742.

16:00Stand on the Word is a simple yet powerful daily Bible reading plan designed to center our hearts, homes, and culture on Scripture. This free resource invites you to read a couple chapters a day to grow in Biblical understanding and be equipped to frame current events through the ever-relevant lens of Scripture. Stand on the Word is transforming how thousands engage with God's Word. We're enjoying, learning, and growing so much as a family with Stand on the Word. I like how you lay things out and dive deeper into each chapter. I am gleaming much critical, political, and cultural insight from a Biblical worldview that is grounded in God's Word. This devotional study is phenomenal. It's like being in a small group every morning. Our lives are transformed and we have shared everything you all do with others. Thank you. To join these and countless others, visit frc.org slash Bible.

17:02Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm your guest host Casey Harper, filling in for Tony today. Thanks for tuning in. Just a reminder, our parade vote stand summit is just two weeks away. It'll take place September 24th to the 26th at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia. Let's just outside of DC. We'd love to have you there. I'll be there. We'd love to see you for details and to register text summit to 67742 that summit to 67742. This week, a researcher with the AI company Anthropic said he was leaving the AI industry and accused open AI and Anthropic of racing toward AI advancements without acting responsibly. This development comes as a government cybersecurity advisory has been released that revealed that several China based AI companies are stealing American AI tech at an industrial scale. What do these developments suggest about where we are when it comes to AI and what needs to happen here? Well, joining us now to discuss this and more is Congressman Nathaniel Moran, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

18:10He represents the first congressional district of my home state of Texas. Congressman, welcome back to Washington watch. Hi, Casey. Great to be with you. I'm coming to you from Dallas, Texas at the R&C convention. Well, that's great. I'd love to ask you before we dive into AI about that convention in Dallas. Can you share with us? What have you been seeing and hearing at the convention so far? Yeah, we've had some great speeches really the drawing of the stark contrast between capitalism and communism. The ideas of President Trump and the American people of freedom and faith and liberty. And yesterday we heard a great speech from the lieutenant governor nominee Shan and from Oklahoma who said three things. He said he was guided in his life by Christianity, by the Constitution, by capitalism. I thought really that was a remarkable speech from the youngest speaker of the House, local, home, that's now running to be the lieutenant governor there. Really set the stage for the difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. You know, when you hear the Democrats talking so much about socialism these days and many of them who aren't socialist being really unwilling to condemn it,

19:14you're not really overstating the case here. Oh, no, I'm not overstating the case there. They're leaning into it. I mean, they are consistently with every election getting further and further to the left and moving directly into communism. We got to call it what it is. It is communism versus capitalism. It is rationality versus irrationality. And frankly, we're headed down a bad path if we do not reelect Republican Congress or Republican Senate. And make sure that President Trump continues the great wins he's had in the last two years. You know, there's plenty of socialist communist countries you could happily move to, but that's just my opinion. What do I know? I do want to ask you, this is pretty interesting. Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania gave Republicans a surprise visit last night. He appeared on video. He praised his Republican counterpart, Senator Dave McCormick. He touted working with President Trump. What's your response to that? Yeah, what incredible courage, Senator Fetterman showed by doing that and how remarkable it is to, as a Democratic sitting senator, come to a Republican convention and introduce your friend.

20:19Somebody he works with consistently and he talked about as a close friend and somebody that he's willing to work with. I'm not sure he's going to get quite quite the good reception when he goes back to Washington DC from his Democratic colleagues, but you know what? We'll take him on our side. Yes, sometimes you can measure someone by their enemies and maybe that's the case here. I do want to ask you about something we talked about in the last segment, and that is the dangers of artificial intelligence. Now, you recently traveled to Berkeley to hear directly from these AI safety leaders. What was your takeaway there? The takeaway is we have to take this seriously. We have to approach this AI topic with seriousness with prudence, with wisdom, with actual courage to get something done quickly. And it's going to have to be a bipartisan solution. And I don't think there is bipartisanship formed already on this issue. And we need to keep it from being so because AI is a great technology, but we've got to keep it under human control. I filed a bill called the AI Insta reporting act earlier this summer, and then I have a bipartisan bill with Ted Lou called the AI Kill Switch Bill.

21:23That would help to bring some of these instances to the forefront for us to understand what's happening more quickly. From the industry themselves as a mandatory reporting to the AI Insta reporting act, and then to the AI Kill Switch Bill. I haven't killed switch in place so that if these models get out of line and get beyond human control, we can turn them off. We can roll back the user access. We can do the things we need to do to protect human safety and our control. I think these concerns are not unwarranted. I'm really glad to hear that you and your colleagues are talking about it. I mentioned just at the top of this segment that a researcher with the AI company Anthropic said he was leaving his industry over this, and he's accusing OpenAI and Anthropic of being irresponsible by making these developments and not considering safety. I mean, that's pretty alarming, isn't it? Well, these instances are certainly alarming, and I don't know the relationship between this guy and his company.

22:23So I'm not going to comment specifically about his departure, except to say this, that we appreciate and want to incentivize innovation. There's no reason to slow the innovation down, but we need to put some guardrails on it to keep it safe as it continues along the way. I give people the analogy all the time you can drive your car faster if it has a break in the car. If you don't have a break in the car, you can't drive it very fast. We want innovation to be fast paced, but we also want to have a break to slow down when necessary, to stop when necessary to pull off the side of the road. When it's absolutely necessary for national security interests for the public safety interests, and that's what my bills do. Again, we don't want to stifle innovation, and these companies have been good to disclose these instances when they've happened, but we want to make sure that that continues in the future. Well, that makes a lot of sense, but there's also the issue of potential bad actors like China, which is stealing American AI tech, which we now know is coming at a huge industrial scale, according to recent reports who seem from the federal government as a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

23:27How big of a concern is this to you, and how do we address it? It's a massive concern. China is using old techniques to this new technology. They've always been the chief thief of our technologies, and then they've gone back to undercut us in their own country by subsidizing that industry and then coming back to America. So we need to stop them. They're using this process of distillation to take our innovations and then to go back and recreate them. We can do that through some export controls, through some trade negotiations, through a lot of discussions, because I think China recognizes quickly that recursive self-improvement is as much of a danger to or more than a danger to their command economy and to their communist government than it is to our government. So they have a state to come to the table and they'd agree to some parameters, maybe some international principles that will guide AI going forward. We have to have those discussions. We have similar discussions with our adversary, Russia, when it came to and the Soviet Union, when it came to nuclear arms race, we need to have that same discussion with the Chinese and others around the world to make sure that we can agree on a set of principles that will guide AI development in the future.

24:42But right now we've got the strength to force them to agree to things that we need them to. Yeah, it's a great point, I think, in App comparison to the arms race. We have to leave it there. Thanks for joining us, Texas Congressman Nathaniel Moran. Appreciate it. Coming up, more Washington watch after the break. Stick around. I think all people really need to have this type of education. Well, I can tell you that it's been an amazing course period. I think this course is a reminder that a biblical worldview should really impact everything. It impacts our government from the federal to the state to the local. It should impact what we're doing with our families and with our work. God and government is a video driven Bible based training course from family research council that explores the connection between biblical principles and American government. In this six session video series, FRC President Tony Perkins equips participants with a practical understanding of civil government from a biblical worldview.

25:42I would encourage all people to take it. I almost wish I would have took it earlier that I could have taught my kids this. I wish I had known these things when we were homeschooling because I think children and my adults now would just greatly be influenced by that information. So I'm an attorney and for me, it gives me some direct practical knowledge of what I can do to try to impact my legal community to make better legislation, to try to encourage legislators to make choices that have a biblical worldview. Which is what we really want. Any pastor would benefit from taking this course because we are dual citizens, right? We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, but we're also seated citizens of just great land and that comes with responsibility. Even as someone who has been involved in these types of issues for a while, you're learning little bits and pieces of new stuff all the time. But it's also approachable in us that newer people, younger people, high school college students, they can really glean something from this. So I would encourage everybody to take this course, whether it's the videos, whether it's doing it in person, bring your Bible study group through it, bring your homeschool group through it, and equip yourself for these challenging days ahead.

26:49View the course at frc.org slash God and government or on the stan firm app. Welcome back to Washington watch. I'm your host Casey Harper, fill in in for Tony today. Now laws they govern nearly every aspect of daily life from preventing drivers from speeding to the safety of the products we buy. These role shape our society, but the process of turning a simple idea into a federal law is pretty complex. It's a marathon involves all three branches of government. So how does it work? Well, our reporter Mary Stackhouse takes a look at how that journey happens and why some bills reach the finish line, while others remain heavily stalled in Congress. Although federal laws touch nearly every part of our lives, the journey from a simple idea to an enacted statute can often be a long unpredictable journey. Recently, a perfect example of this process played out in Washington with the 21st century road to housing act.

27:52This bill was designed to make home ownership more affordable and stop big investors from buying up neighborhoods. It didn't just pass. It passed with a massive bipartisan majority of 385 to 32 in the house. But even with that much support, the bill sat on President Trump's desk for days. Despite his refusal to sign it, it automatically became law after reaching the 10-day mark. President Trump held off on signing it using it as leverage to push for a different law called the Save America Act. A voter integrity bill that the president has called his top legislative priority. This standoff shows that even when Congress agrees, the checks and balances of the three branches can create a deadlock. While the housing bill made it over the finish line, the Save America Act has a steep uphill battle to get there. This proposal would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID at the polls. The Save America Act has passed the House a couple of times and they've sent it to the Senate. It's gone to the Senate a couple of times where it has virtually died. As former Georgia Congressman Jodi Heiss explains, the reason is simple. Math.

28:56In the Senate, you generally need 60 votes to move a bill forward. Without enough support from both parties, the Save America Act has been rejected twice. This highlights how the specific rules of each chamber can determine whether an idea lives or dies. So how does any of this start? It starts with an idea. These ideas can come from a president's agenda or a candidate's campaign promise. But they also come from the people, public pressure, media reports, and community groups often spark the need for new rules. Once the bill is introduced, it is sent to a congressional committee. If a bill pertains to the military, it goes to the Armed Services Committee. If it pertains to banks, it goes to a finance-related committee, like banking or finance. When a bill goes to the Committee of Jurisdiction, at that point, there inevitably there will be hearings about that particular bill. And in the hearing, there will be expert witnesses, there will be people who are speaking favor the bill, people who speak in opposition to the bill.

29:58And members of that committee are able to ask questions. It can be a quite informative time. It can also be a period of time of great hostility. As a bill starts working its way through the committee, and after the hearings, there is in what we call a markup, where there is a great deal of debate and where amendments can be added to the bill. Most bills never make it past the stage. If a bill does survive, it goes to the floor for a full vote. It has to pass both the House and Senate in the exact same form. If the two versions are different, a conference committee of members meets to work out a compromise, which is then sent to be considered by each chamber. It can take years to get through a bill to passage. What's interesting in all of this is a congressional session only lasts for two years. So a bill, if it's going to become law, must be passed during that two year period of time. But there is a fast track for emergencies. The fastest law in recent years has ever moved through the system was the USA Patriot Act in 2001.

31:02After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the government felt an urgent need to update surveillance and counterterrorism laws. It took 45 days to pass the bill, and three days to clear Congress and be signed by President George Bush. It moves so quickly because there was nearly unanimous support and a shared sense of national crisis. However, fast does not mean unlimited. There are major guardrails on what kinds of laws can be passed. The federal government is divided into three branches. The legislative makes the law. The executive carries it out. And the judicial branch, the courts, interprets it. The US Constitution is the ultimate limit. No law can violate the right guarantee to citizens like free speech or protection from unreasonable searches. For instance, parts of the Patriot Act were later challenged and even struck down by federal judges who ruled that the government had overstepped its constitutional bounds. The courts act as a final check to ensure the law follows the highest rules of the land. While Congress can change or update regular laws fairly often, changing the Constitution itself is a much higher bar.

32:07A amendment to the Constitution is an extremely difficult accomplishment. It would require wide range of agreement on both political parties, both sides of the aisle. Amending the Constitution requires a level of national consensus that goes far beyond a simple majority vote in Congress, making it one of the most difficult tasks in American government. The Constitution has changed by an amendment coming to the floor to change it, an offer of an amendment. That would require two-thirds votes in the House and in the Senate. If it is ratified, meaning two-thirds of both the House and the Senate, both chambers agree to amend the Constitution. Then it goes to the States where three-quarters of the States, 38 States would have to approve that change as well. Our nation's founders intended for the process of changing the US Constitution to be difficult. I think the legislative process is a phenomenal process and we are grateful to live in a country where all of us are in the same way.

33:10We are in a country where all of us can have a role in encouraging speaking to, writing to our members of Congress, presenting information. This is a country of we, the people, both in the way we elect our representatives and how we individually as citizens can have a voice in that process. From the introduction of the law to the President's signature, the path to passing a law is designed to be a rigorous test of an idea. The system built on debate, compromise, and constant checks to ensure that the rules we live by are both necessary and just. For Washington Watch, I'm Mary Stakhouse. All right, thanks for that report, Mary. Clearly, a complex process, but this system of checks and balances is really guardrails to protect our freedoms. All right, after the break, we'll discuss the legacy of Charlie Kirk. You don't want to miss it. Stick around. One Nation, under God. America's undeniable foundation of faith.

34:14The United States Capitol, an iconic symbol of the American Republic. But few know that this building at the heart of our nation's government was once something more, the largest church building in America. Since its inception and for decades following, several rooms throughout the Capitol, including the House and Senate Chambers, were used to host church services weekly. These services were filled with individuals from all levels of government. The attendance was so pervasive that often it was standing room only. Quote, going to the Capitol on Sundays was then one of the most common things in Washington, Margaret Bayard Smith. This practice was not merely accepted, but encouraged. Quote, I consider it as one of my public duties as a representative of the people to give my attendance every Sunday morning when divine service is performed in the hall. President John Quincy Adams. Housing Worship at the center of our Capitol was a living representation of the role that biblical principles played as a cornerstone of our nation's foundation of faith.

35:29Have you noticed the upsurge in gambling ads? How could you not? The ads are big, bold, shiny. They virtually glitter with gold. Well, fool's gold. Because as they say, the House always wins. But some lessons are easily forgotten. And nowhere is this more evident than the rise of the sports betting industry. Since 1992, 39 states and Washington DC have legalized sports betting. And as a result, more than 600 billion has been wagered on sports since 2018. Now, Christians should be instinctively concerned about the latest growth in gambling. For one, gambling profits are often losses for those least able to afford them, causing unnecessary friction within families. Secondly, it's inherently exploitative. The gambling industry necessarily harms one person to benefit another. Gambling offers me the chance to gain at your expense. For me to win, you must lose. But even if I win, I lose the dignity and satisfaction of earning what I have. By greenlighting gambling, cities and states across our nation take the short-term gain of a little extra revenue for the long-term loss of strong communities.

36:37States think they're winning when in the long run, really, they are losing. Remember, the House always wins. Follow Family Research Council's news outlet, The Washington Stand, for more stories that speak out against policies undercutting strong families and strong communities. Because the only house that truly wins is a house built on a solid rock. God himself. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm your guest host, Casey Harper, filling in today for Tony Perkins. Thanks for tuning in. Now just another reminder, our Prevote Stand Summit is just two weeks away. It'll take place September 24th to the 26th at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia. That's just outside the nation's capital. You're going to hear from Christian leaders, issue experts, and government officials who are standing for faith, family, and freedom. We'll discuss issues like abortion, artificial intelligence, the Middle East, the next generation, and threats to America's future, like socialism and shrew law.

37:39For details and to register, text Summit to 677-42. That's Summit to 677-42. I'll be there. I hope to see you there. We want to equip you to stand for truth. Speaking of standing for truth, today marks one year since Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated, while doing what he really devoted his life to, engaging young Americans across the nation and challenging them to think, to speak, and have the courage to stand for what they believe in, including their Christian faith. We want to remember Charlie and discuss his legacy with a man who mentored him. He was also there with him on that tragic day one year ago. Joining us now is Dr. Frank Turek, president of crossexamined.org, and the author of the recently released book, The War on Reality, recovering truth in a world that celebrates lies. Dr. Turek, welcome to Washington Watch. A.K.C. I'm actually in Utah right now as we speak tonight is a somber day, but we're doing another memorial service for Charlie on the campus at which he was murdered.

38:43It starts at 830, I believe, Eastern time, and it's going to be on the YouTube channel of TPUSA. I'm sure it's going to be a really powerful moment tonight, and of course you were there that day, but your relationship with Charlie far predated that. I mean, your friendship with him, I believe, began in 2020 and really deepened over time. Can you share with us really just your reflections on this pretty difficult anniversary, what memories or qualities of him, are you thinking about and hold most closely to your heart today? Well, Charlie about a month before he was murdered said that he wanted to be remembered for courage for his faith, his faith in Christ. And so tonight we're going to reiterate that and Charlie was also about doing things that were bigger than yourself, being a part of things that were bigger than yourself. In fact, two nights before he was murdered, he went out on a walk. We'd often go on walks after we met during the day to sharpen one another on questions we might get on a college campus.

39:46And the three things he brought up, Casey, were God and Christianity and the evidence for Christianity, the family, you know, how could he get his generation to embrace marriage more and family life having children. And finally, the government, how could he get Christians to be engaged more in voting to protect our ability to preach and live the gospel and also to protect innocent people from evil by putting laws in place. And according to Romans 13, the government is supposed to punish wrongdoers to protect innocent people from evil. Now, I didn't think of this at the time, but after he was murdered, I said, you know, Charlie was talking about the big three issues, the big three institutions God created. He created the church, he created the family, created government, God family government or God family country is what Charlie was all about. And it's what TPUSA still is all about. So he was a big picture thinker who wanted to help people become part of something bigger than themselves.

40:50The biggest, of course, is God, but then family and then country. You know, you mentioned that interview where he said what he wanted to be reminded of is such a powerful kind of amazing moment because it happened just a few months before the assassination of we have a clip actually of that moment. I want our listeners to hear it. Let's take a listen. If everything completely goes away, how do you want to be remembered? If I die, everything just goes away. How would you, if you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life. You know, what strikes me about that, Dr. Turek, is, you know, there's a lot of people who are speaking the truth out there. There's a lot of, you know, faithful believers and Christians, but what really one thing that really stood out about Charlie is not just that he had the right positions, but he did it with courage and he wasn't afraid to go into hostile areas clearly. It cost him his life. How important is that courage? And do you think he's really imparted that to the next generation?

41:53Well, Charlie said what he loved about courage was it didn't take any skill. All it takes is a vision, right? You don't have to have skill to have courage. And echoing Aristotle and probably Churchill, courage is the most, is the most important of virtues because without it you won't do anything else. So yeah, Charlie knew that he had to expose himself to a certain degree to people in order to love them and minister to them. And so, tragically, of course, it was, it appears a crazed leftist that took him out that day, but all that leftist really did was changed Charlie's address because he became absent from the body and present with the Lord. And now we're called to continue to emulate Charlie as he emulated Christ. Remember the Apostle Paul said emulate me as I emulate Christ. And we can become part of something bigger than ourselves. Jesus is first, then family, then country. You know, that's right. Another great quote from the Apostle Paul is to live as Christ, but to die as gain. And the reason we can have that courage as believers, we know the worst thing they can do is send us to heaven.

42:59Right. There's sort of this, right. And during hope because to live is to do the work of Christ and to suffer here for him on the earth, but we have hope ahead of the reward for that suffering. And I was really struck. I was very personally impacted by the assassination. I went through, of course, it's nothing comparable to you or Eric or anyone else, but I went through my own kind of grieving for this. And I noticed a lot of other people did too when we saw this resurgence in faith, I think among a lot of young people, a lot of prayer visuals and that kind of thing. I think there's a lasting impact from that. But I'm curious, what sort of your sense one year later of the spiritual state of America right now? I think it's still moving in the right direction. I think part of it has been blunted by this, they tannic attacks, you know, all the satanic conspiracy attacks that have no basis. In fact, Jesus and the Apostle called Satan a murderer liar accuser and slanderer who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. We had a murder a year ago. What have we had since lies accusations and slander seeking to steal, kill and destroy and people don't believe in the demonic. It could hardly be more obvious.

44:04All right, but I still think things are moving in the right direction. And so the war on reality continues. It it it, it it, it barred its ugly head a year ago today right here in Utah. But we've got to continue to be soldiers for reality and the author of reality is Jesus. Jesus famously said, I am the truth and the truth. You should know the truth. The truth will set you free. Well, that implies if you don't have the truth, you're in bondage. So reality is ultimately Jesus. And what we're trying to do is show people that they need to get back to reality. Because when you look, reality's undefeated. You can deny it, you can fight against it, but ultimately you're going to succumb to reality. So instead of rebelling against reality, you ought to repent and accept what Christ has done for you. And then order your life accordingly, Jesus' family country. You can sort of ignore reality temporarily, but it always kind of snaps back. And we're all forced to face the music.

45:04So they actually have your book right here of begun reading it. And it's interesting that you use the word reality, not just a war on faith, even a war on truth. Of course, you're a big advocate for truth. And you go all around the country talking about the truth. Why are you calling it a war on reality? And why are you writing this book now? And I know you, you know, Eric, Kirk wrote the forward. It's sort of entangled with Charlie and his story. How do you make that connection between what's in this book and Charlie? Well, actually, the book wasn't intended to be connected to Charlie, because we started writing it about nine months before Charlie was murdered. But as soon as he was murdered, my co-author, Phoenix Hayes, is brilliant, by the way. We decided this in the books needs to be dedicated to Charlie, because he was one of the soldiers fighting for reality when so many other people were fighting against it. And so the first chapter is called Murder on Campus. It tells what happened leading up to that day, what happened that day, what happened afterwards. And as you say, Erica wrote the forward. It started actually talking about identity.

46:06That was like the first chapter we wrote, the whole transgender movement. But it's expanded, expanded so much past that, because not only is there a war on identity, there's a war on children, there's a war on women, you know. How's there a war on women? You're letting men go into women's changing facilities? That's a war on women. They no longer have privacy. They no longer are kept safe from predators. There's a war on reason and logic. You know that the cultural Marxists say that a reason is a tool of oppression. And they try and give us reasons when they say that. I mean, it's completely self-conscious. They also say there's no truth. And we always ask them, is that true? Is it true? There's no truth. In other words, in this book, we're just trying to bring people back to reality by using logic, by using reason, by using evidence, by using history, by using scripture to try and say, this war, we're actually unable to call a woman a woman. Or we're unable to say that mutilating the genitalia of children is a bad thing.

47:09I mean, this is madness. And so this book is an art attempt to bring people back to reality. What's interesting, I think what you're getting at, is really the subtitle of the book, a world that celebrates lies. I think that's part of the transition we've seen in our country. In my lifetime, a little bit before, there's always been lies. And there's no culture that hasn't had lies somewhere. But it seems to me that we used to have them maybe in darker corners or out of the mainstream of society. But we went from tolerating lies, or keeping them as maybe hidden sins to actually celebrating them. The lies and deceptions demonstrate on the streets they have prime time cable shows, not that many people watch cable anymore, by the way, but there are a few left. And it went from hiddenness out in public, in that word celebrating. Do you think that's an accurate description of what's happened in our culture? Yeah, I'm probably used to talk about this all the time. It used to start just as tolerance, right? We'll just tolerate what we want to do. And then eventually, it leads not just to tolerance,

48:12but it moves on to affirmation and then celebration and even participation. You need to participate in what we're doing. I mean, that's when it really crossed the line. You know, years ago, people might have an idea, oh, you know, I'm a woman trapped in a man's body and people would be okay. Maybe, you know, if you want to do that, okay, but as soon as they went beyond that and said, not only am I claiming that I'm a woman now, you have to participate in that and you have to call me by certain pronouns. There's going to be a lot of trouble. And my position needs to be amplified and your position needs to be shut down. Now, suddenly, they're requiring everybody else to live in their anti-reality. And that's when it really became a problem for many people. Yeah, and that's also where you kind of see that there's more going on behind the scenes spiritually. If this was truly just political and man kind of calculating things, I think it'd be more logical, it'd be a little more reasonable. But so much of what we're saying, seeing in culture,

49:14it truly doesn't make sense. And it can only be explained by saying, there's something darker and you use your, I think, satanic or demonic going on behind the scenes that is animating some of this political movement. And I don't, I used to not hear many people talk about that. But now, everywhere I hear people admitting that a lot of what we're seeing in culture has a very sinister spiritual reality going on behind it. Well, Paul discusses it in Romans 1, that if you suppress the truth long enough, particularly about sexual issues, God is going to give you over to it to crave mind to the point where you're not only doing evil, you're celebrating other people who are doing evil. You're giving approval. And that was so well illustrated a few weeks ago, and in Massachusetts, they passed this law, which said, a woman can basically execute her child up to the moment of birth. Now, everybody understands, OB-GYNs, scientists, they all know that there's no reason if a woman has a problem in the third trimester, there's no reason to kill the baby in order to help the mother, right?

50:17You can just do a C-section, take the baby out and do whatever medically you need to do with the mother. But these people decided that the mother needed to have that so-called right, and they lied about why she needed to have that, right? And then they applauded it. They were applauding. They were cheering on evil. That's what we mean by this is a world that celebrates lies. This is what Paul says at the end of Romans 1, they're actually encouraging other people to do evil. They're celebrating it. And what do those who call evil good and good evil? But that's what we've been doing in our country for at least the last decade in particular, if not longer. Yeah, that's right. It says in the days of NOAA. And I think we're heading into those days as we get closer and closer to the end. And I think the reprobate mind is playing out. It's a great way to think about it. I want to ask you a little bit of a harder question though. You're an apologist and I've watched many of your videos before anything with Charlie went on. And I found the very helpful and edifying. One question we get here occasionally at FRC and you've probably gotten before is,

51:21why mix politics with pushing for the truth of the faith, for pushing for the gospel? I regularly, not every day, but every once in a while someone kind of says that, you know, wouldn't you do better if you just set aside this political stuff and just quote-unquote preach the gospel? What's your response to that? Well, in the book, the war on reality, we have an entire chapter on that quote. Can you legislate reality? And there's 10 reasons why Christians ought to be involved politically. Let me briefly give you two. When pastors and other people say, look, I don't get involved in politics. I just preach the gospel. I always say to them, I guess you don't think the gospel is very important then and they go, what do you mean? I say because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel. If you don't think so, go to some of the countries I've been to. I've been to Iran. There's no first Baptist church at Iran. I checked. It's not there. I've been to Saudi Arabia. There's no Calvary Chapel of Mecca. They don't allow it. I just was in Egypt a few months back. If you want to start grace, church, and Egypt, they're not going to let you. Politically, they're going to give you trouble.

52:23So for no other reason, you have to be engaged in politics is affect your ability to preach and live the gospel. Second major reason. We're called the love people and how do you love people from a political perspective? You put laws in place that protect them from evil. And according to Romans 13, one of the institutions God created government is supposed to punish wrongdoers in order to do that. And maybe the acid question is this. I always ask people this. Are you telling me that 165 years ago, Christian should not have gotten involved in politics to outlaw slavery? And at that point they go, oh no, we should have done that. So they say, welcome to politics. It's unavoidable. You have to be involved. Yeah, not to mention that many of those people homeschool their kids and they don't know that that's a hard one political battle that. Yeah, there's a lot of time on the Christian right. Well, Dr. Frank Turek, such a powerful, really important day. And I appreciate you making the time and doing this with us. Your president of crossexamined.org author of the war on reality right here. I want to have you back on.

53:23Thanks for coming. Hey, thanks so much. Please pray for Erica, especially today and tune in at about eight o'clock or so Eastern at TPUSA to see the event here at Utah. All right. Thank you. Thanks Dr. Sherek. Really appreciate it. All right, folks. That's our show. You can tune into that event. And of course tune in next time. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council to support our efforts to advance faith, family and freedom. Please text give to 67742. That's give to 67742. portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council action. For more information, please visit Tony Perkins.com.