Transcript

Jenna Ellis: The U.S. constitution obligates our government to protect biblical rights

 : Jenna Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview. The U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect the rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time.

Todd Starnes: This is Jenna Ellis in the Morning.

America celebrates 250 years since declaration that truth is self evident

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Thursday, April 23, and we have kicked off basically the celebration of America 250. And there's a lot going on in Washington D.C. including America reads the Bible, which I and a few others from AFA have the wonderful privilege to participate in. This is a project that brings nearly 500 faith leaders from around the country to literally read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and stand up in Washington D.C. and proclaim the truth of the Bible. And isn't it amazing that we still live in a nation where that not only is possible, but that so many people are tuning in and are listening to that. But as we think about America 250 and we can celebrate the fact that we still have religious liberty in this country, thankfully. And we're still able to exercise our faith, we're still able to evangelize, we're still able to have our churches and all of that. is there something deeper perhaps that we need to be concerned about? If we are in the midst of these fights and we're saying, man, it's a really good thing that we still have religious liberty because we live in, unfortunately, a secular pluralist society that the founders never intended. they intended that this nation was built on truth. The truth of natural law, of the law of nature and of nature's God, recognizing that the God of the Bible is the divine lawgiver, and that the human experience, especially the experiment that is the project of the civil government is confined to morality and objective truth. And there are some things outside of our capacity to to legislate on or redefine. Things like marriage and family and rights and liberty, things like religious freedom. And my good friend Troy Miller, who is the president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, wrote a really, really amazing piece. And if you read one piece this week, I want you to read this one. It's in World Magazine and it's titled America's Real Crisis is Biblical Illiteracy. Our nation lacks the theological vocabulary and discernment necessary to sustain the Republic. this is so good. I mean this is one of those pieces I wish I had written because it is that good. And I think that this proposition absolutely nails the problem that is central to the decay, the moral decay that we are seeing in America as we celebrate 250 years since that declaration that truth is self evident and our rights come from God our Creator.

Troy Miller says widespread biblical illiteracy is problem facing Christian culture today

So let's welcome in Troy Miller and your thesis here. You say I've become increasingly convinced that the central problem confronting both church and culture is not merely moral rebellion against biblical truth, but widespread unfamiliarity with it. We see this in public officials who invoke God in the language of prosperity, national sentiment or self affirmation rather than repentance, moral accountability and divine authority. We see it in podcasters, influencers and media personalities who handle scripture with confidence but little theological discipline. We see it in Christian audiences so under informed that charisma, sentiment and ideology are often mistaken for sound doctrine is no longer simply that scripture is denied. It is that scripture is often no longer known with sufficient depth to be interpreted responsibly, rejected intelligently or applied coherently. So well said, Troy Miller.

Troy Miller: Well, thanks Jennifer, having me this morning. And I do believe this is, is

Troy Miller: the foundational, problem our country is facing. You know, you go back and look at the founding fathers and I quote Adams in there and John Adams said, look this, our constitution was created for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to govern any other. without that foundation, without people understanding that we see what the scripture tells us, we just see a lot of people blowing around like the wind.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and, and, and I think you're so right to put your finger on the, the problem of biblical illiteracy because we see so many people, invoke scripture, invoke God, proclaim to be Christians, but they don't have theological discipline, they don't have discernment, they don't have a knowledge of God and the scriptures. So that when they're confronted with issues of the day, like for example, you know, gay marriage and surrogacy and child commodification and you know, some of these, some of these issues, they don't know which way is up and they don't know how to even think through it because they haven't been sufficiently discipled in the scripture in order to approach this from a biblical worldview.

Troy Miller: Yeah, you nailed it there right at the end there. Sufficiently discipled, in, in, in the scriptures themselves, you know, coming out of the discipleship of the scriptures, you're going to, with that Christian worldview, you're going to understand, some of the issues today that as you said, are being sound bited. Gender. We, know that from a fact in the beginning God created them male and female, and we see this throughout the entire scripture. But if you have a pastor or a Christian communicator who's just lightly touching those issues or self censoring from discipling people on these issues, then we get this, you know, moral ambiguity, that we see in society today.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and I love what you said here, that while the founders did not establish a confessional state or a theocracy, they operated within a moral framework deeply shaped by biblical assumptions about human nature, justice, sin, restraint, authority, duty and accountability. Scripture furnished not only private devotion, but also a shared moral vocabulary through which public life could be understood. That is just so spot on because if we live in a secular, pluralist culture, we see so many people, even Christians, saying, well, you know, we can't approach, the law from a Christian perspective because why should I, push my morality on others? Why isn't it anymore a shared basic biblical assumption about the truth of reality and this shared lens of how the world functions and operates and how we ought to live?

Troy Miller: Well, and you look, Jenna, really, over the last half century we've done so much, especially in our courts, have done so much to push religion out of the public sector and certainly out of the government sector or and out of our educational institutions. We took the Bible out of schools, we took prayer out of schools. thank goodness Texas just won the case to have the ten commandments displayed back into schools. But with all of those things removed and with religion pushed, as you said, into that kind of second class, ah, citizenship, around the country, and in these institutions, it's no wonder we have the outcome that we have today, the shallowness that we have in scriptures. And I'll go back. That discipleship, of that really goes back to the pulpits of our country not standing up. The discipleship should be one of the number one issues, one of the number one things that churches work on across this country. The founding fathers, as you said, had this, not only this moral, understanding amongst themselves, they also knew that the citizenry had that same moral understanding. They didn't have to educate people on these issues because people were educated in the scriptures already. I'll, go back to one thing. When Thomas Jefferson, who gets this famous, quote of separation to church and state at that same time that he's telling the Danbury Baptist we're not going to have a national church. He's the head of the school district for the Washington school district and he's requiring that the Bible and Watts hymnal be in every school across that district. Watts hymnal was a kind of commentary on the Bible because even, even Jefferson knew without this foundation society is going to fall apart.

Jenna Ellis: And that's exactly what we're observing 250 years later. As you rightly point out. We're witnessing moral and theological disintegration. And and this starts with the church because the, the and not every church of course. I mean I always say my, at least my home church in Florida thankfully teaches very substantively. Theology, discipleship, all of the. It's a great church and I'm so blessed to be a member there. But the American church by and large as a kind of general swath and we see this just in the outcome of, of the overall state of Christians in America is very watered down. It's much more of a community group or a social club than it is a school to teach theology and to teach the knowledge of God. And so when you take that component away and Christianity just becomes this kind of private moral addition that doesn't actually change your thinking and your worldview. This is how we get to Christians not even voting, the percentages. Someone was saying around roughly 30% of self identified Christians in this country aren't even registered to vote. And then you get the problems of Christians actually voting against pro life measures or Christians not voting the values consistent with scripture. And this is a problem with the church in America being much more like a a coaching, a self help, you know, kind of TED talk and moralistic than actually discipling people. And, and so you know, how, where do you think this began in terms of the church's focus and shift away from what the church was supposed to be a school of theology, really like almost like a seminary basically, to kind of this modern functional business. I mean that's really what the modern church is. It's you know, Church Inc. And that's all that they care about are numbers and you know, how many cups of coffee they serve.

Troy Miller: Yeah, exactly. Well look, there's a couple of things. First of all, as I said, you know we started back in coming out of the 50s into the 60s and into the sexual revolution, you know and churches didn't really stand up and provide the moral Clarity that was needed during that time. I worked for the great Dr. D. James Kennedy at one time he said, you know, when Roe v. Wade was passed, it was, it was almost a second page, third page issue in the newspapers. And, and churches really didn't step up there because churches were, you know, more focused on being relevant to the culture. that relevance to the culture carried into the late 90s when we saw this seeker friendly movement move into the church where the church became over emphasized on the lost. And while evangelism, we're called to evangelize, we're called to share the gospel that became just tilted on the scales of dumbing down the church to the lowest common denominator, which is an unbeliever, in the church. So you can't teach doctrine or scripture if you're worried about an unbeliever sitting in your congregation is not going to get it or understand it. Kind of the opposite of what scripture tells us. But that's what happened in the 90s and into the 2000s. And I'll tell you from there our seminary started to produce pastors which I call a problem called the CEO pastor pastors as you said, where churches are more run like a business, where we're worried about the marketing implications of teaching of scripture. We're worried about how will our congregation take this. Are we going to isolate people? Are we going to lose people from the church, are we going to lose donations? And these have become the drivers in the church today. So this sets squarely in the pulpits across the country here. This is not, it's not the government's job to teach scripture. It's not even the public education systems job to do that. It is the church's job to make sure that their congregations understand this. We all go through the Great Commission, right, go into the world, and preach the gospel. But the second half of that and teach them, teach them all that I have taught you. And we've missed that part in the last three decades.

Jenna Ellis: So. Well said. And Trin Miller, I mean it's so true what you said that when churches are focused more on their bottom line, when they're focused on their numbers, when they're focused more on being, you know, the CEOs of organizations and they're worried about offending the non believer that comes in instead of discipling and teaching and educating their m members and the, the people that they're actually responsible for as pastors. That's how we get into this decline and for listeners, there's a really great documentary that's just out on YouTube. It's about four hours long, so, you know, you can watch it in segments. But it's called Church of Tares T A R E S. And it kind of goes through this, the whole seeker movement, the CEO nonsense of how the church became Church Inc. And a corporation. It's a really good backgrounder.

Troy Miller says the answer to the present crisis is recovery of scripture

but overall, Troy Miller, you say the answer to the present crisis is a recovery of scripture as Scripture, not as civil religion, partisan ornament, or a reservoir of selectively quoted affirmations. So good, because, you know, scripture often when invoked, anymore is just taken out of context and it's ornamental and it's almost just like a fortune cookie applied to some, you know, trite little situation instead of understood completely as the full counsel of God and how to live rightly. So the answer is recovery of scripture. How do we get there?

Troy Miller: Yeah, the answer is the recovery and, and the reverence for scripture. Scripture, the reason we talk to scripture. Scripture identifies. This is the word of God. This is the inherent word of God. There's no errors in it. God has given this to us. It is our manual of how to live life. and we can't just read it as though we're reading a novel or, ah, some fictional book. We need to read it in the context of the understanding that this is God speaking directly to us. and therefore we should take note of what our Creator is telling us and how our Creator is telling us to live our own lives personally and to live collectively, as a society and a citizenship today. but again, I'm so glad that we're doing the, America Reads the Bible for the 250th. I'm actually heading to Washington D.C. today, for our group, NRV's group, to do our reading, on Saturday. and this is a great start, but we're really just encouraging pastors, Christian communicators across this country country to make discipleship and to make Bible study, not just Bible reading, Bible study, ah, priority in your church, a priority for your ministry, whether you're a radio ministry or a podcast ministry or a television ministry, to really push this, that people make reading the scripture, Bible study, scriptural study a top priority in their everyday walk, with Christ.

Jenna Ellis: Amen.

American Family Radio focuses on news of the day from a biblical worldview

All right, well, we got to take a break here, but thank you so much for this article, Troy Miller. It is so true. And this is why here on American Family Radio Network we have pastors and teachers as a central Part of our lineup because we want to have news of the day and understood from a biblical worldview. That's what I get to do. but also culture and theology. But then that substantive study in the word. We can, we can't just have kind of these popcorn topics of, well, you know, what, what would Jesus do? And you know, some of these cliches. We need to have a grounded understanding of the truth of theology, the Bible overall, and a knowledge, a knowledge of the truth. So read, also this, this article in World magazine. It's titled America's Real Crisis is Biblical Illiteracy. We'll be right back with more.

 : welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Federal authorities are continuing to crack down on political insider trading

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, cowshe is a web based prediction market platform that you may have seen if you are prolifically online. like unfortunately I am. And their news department, said on Tuesday, today we're releasing notices related to three enforcement investigations that they are continuing to crack down on political insider trading. So they say all three cases concern political insider trading and were flagged because of newly released safeguards to block political candidates from trading on their own elections. So just like in traditional financial markets, they say bad actors will try to cheat. Regulated exchanges must consistently evolve and adapt their systems to address insider threats. These three cases are an example of how developing proactive engineering solutions can help identify illicit trading activity.

Tony Ortiz says candidate placing bets on own race qualifies as political insider trading

So let's welcome in Tony Ortiz, who is the editor and founder of Current Revolt. And walk us through Tony, what Kelshi actually found and what qualifies as political insider trading and why this is different from normal political betting. when a candidate bets on their own race, and I mean basically this is insider trading because they would have more knowledge about their own campaign and they're basically effectively profiting off of information voters may not have the average better on. Kelshi.

Tony Ortiz: Absolutely. And that's the issue here, is that these, gentlemen who place bets are candidates and just as you said, they have insider information on how their campaign is performing. And you had three cases here. You had a case both, in Minnesota, the Democratic primary. You had a case in the Texas Republican primary. And then you also have Kalshee, labeled it as the Virginia Democratic primary, although the candidate himself is seemingly running as an independent. And the first two cases are ah, less interesting. So Kalsha determined that a candidate for the Minnesota Democratic primary had went ahead and got a trade in his own race. And that Trade, he placed $50 on a bet on himself in that primary. Okay. It was a Democrat by the name of Matt Klein. when they reached out to him, he just acknowledged the violation and he admitted that it was improper and paid that fine. There was no issue there. the second case, Republican primary, again, candidate admitted he had placed bets worth less than $100 on his own race. it's kind of funny there because he placed a bet on himself winning the race and he actually ended up placing 11th in the race with only 1.4% of the vote. So not a great bet anyway. But it did cost him, $784 with a fine and a five year suspension from, the platform, which was also the case in the last one I mentioned. The final case is the one that's the most interesting. And this is a candidate that is running in a Virginia, primary election. this candidate was identified as Mark Moran and he's come out publicly. this candidate initially was communicating with Kalshee about his violation of their terms and then all of a sudden stopped communicating. because of this, Kalshi ended up having to issue him the largest fine. And he paid, I believe it was, yeah, it says here a $6,229.30 fine as well as a five year suspension. So almost 10, almost 10 times more than the other people that were fined. And a lot of this was because he failed to cooperate in the investigation. what gets worse is that he went ahead on social media and he claimed that this was all a planned thing, that he did this on purpose, that he made these bets in order to expose Kalshee insider training. And now he's kind of. And it wasn't received that that excuse was. Or that me excuse explicit explanation was not received well on X. And now he's kind of doing this bit where he claims that, you know, he did this on $100 and now he's getting all this news exposure and it's helping out his race. And it's kind of an interesting way to kind of square it away after the fact.

Jenna Ellis: This is so fascinating because, you know, there are a lot of implications here and obviously Kalshee is enforcing their own rules. But, but, isn't this type of political insider trading, overall illegal or is it. If Kalshee didn't enforce these rules, this would be okay?

Tony Ortiz: Well, Kalshi's government is governed under certain governmental rules. Right. And have to follow it. And because of that they do, position themselves as if it's like a real, real betting, like if they were stocks. Right. And so, yeah, I do think that, you know, in this case, Kalshi is actually doing an incredible job. They're being very proactive. They immediately identified these bets on their own accord, with public statements identifying these bets and issuing fines and being very transparent about how they identified these guys and everything. and again, two of the candidates have been quiet. They paid their fines, and they kind of moved on. This third Virginia candidate, has he started posting screenshots of communication between Kalshee and himself and. And, you know, recording, doubling down, it sounds like.

Tony Ortiz says manipulation of prediction markets can affect poll results

Jenna Ellis: Well, and so do you think that there's an incentive here because prediction markets are open and people see that to bet on their own race in order to kind of have the perception that if you're betting on your own race to win and there's. And you can manipulate the market in that sense, that that can manipulate a poll, essentially in the public perception that your campaign is actually doing better than it is.

Tony Ortiz: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, polling, at least when. Especially when media is trying to cover a race, media and myself included, we do look at prediction polling. We look at. See how the market's performing and where people are putting their money. Originally, a lot of prediction markets were done to get a better gauge on public perception. People are more willing to be honest when, it comes to polling. When, you have two situations. One where people are just polling publicly, and then one when they're actually using their own money to put their money where their mouth is, so to say. And so, yeah, I think this ability for these candidates to have kind of insider knowledge on their own races and then make bets for or against themselves is very concerning, because she seems to have done their job here.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's so fascinating because, you know, placing Betsy for themselves, or it may be even against other candidates, is manipulation of a prediction market. And this isn't just about a few candidates placing bets. It's about information, asymmetry and power and looking at profit, not just financial profit, but perhaps political profit. And so, you know, this is interesting because I've seen a lot of commentary on X that, you know. Well, you know, the polls say one thing, but if you look at the prediction market, this is what people actually think because they're placing bets with their money. And so this is what, is. Is actually the truth of it. And so if these are being manipulated, then that's really concerning. but. Tony Ortiz, we're already out of time in this segment, but, I appreciate you, drawing attention to this problem. I'm glad that Kalshee is, enforcing this, but we need to be aware of things like this because, these types of polls, market manipulation, we should not be taken in by saying, well, look at that poll. This candidate is so far up while it's, you know, so far gone. I don't need to participate or maybe even change my mind based on a poll. we need to vote our values overall and not just vote based on public perception. So, Tony Ortiz, really appreciate it. You can follow him on X. We will be right back with more right after this.

Todd Starnes: Coverage of Iran conflict is appalling ahead of midterm elections

 : Welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the

 : Morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, depending on which news you read and which outlet, either Trump is doing a great job with Iran, and he is brilliant in foreign policy, or if you read other sources, then he's the worst president ever. The Strait of Hormuz is, going back and forth and he has no clue what he's doing in foreign policy. And, that's the headline basically, in Daily Mail. Trump's blockade collapses as Iranian ghost ships bypass US Navy during shaky ceasefire amid uneasy oil prices. And so all of this, of course, is, geared toward impacting the midterms and the public's perception of how President Trump is doing and of course, impacting Republican elections overall. So, what should we think about what is going on, with the continued conflict in Iran? Let's welcome in Todd Starnes, who is a radio host, author, and of course a, a television host on Newsmax as well. So, Todd, you've been a journalist for a really long time. how do you think that the coverage overall of what's going on with the Iran conflict, how. How do you see that in the propaganda, I would put it, between the conservative, or maybe just the mouthpieces, the PR mouthpieces for the Republican Party and Trump versus the outlets that clearly hate him.

Todd Starnes: Well, I think the coverage has been quite frankly, appalling. And at times, many of the legacy media outlets appear to have been cheering for at least rooting for the Iranians. And again, I think this goes back to the, classic, cases of Trump derangement syndrome that we have seen really over the first and second terms of the president. at the same time, I think there are legitimate questions about the war. This is a president who said that he was not going to get us involved in any forever wars. And I actually believe him. I don't believe that the president really wanted to do what he did. I do believe that whatever intelligence he was provided was so severe that he had no other choice but to do this. the President's a smart man. He knows exactly how the base feels about Iran. And right now the base is incredibly divided about Iran. But, I'm willing to give the President some leeway here. The issue for me, and I think this is going to be a big issue as we move towards the midterms, and we are still in a conflict with Iran, that could be a problem and we could risk demoralizing the base of the party. But Jenna, again, going back to 1979, they have, we have, we have actually been in a de facto state of war with Iran. And every other president has kicked this can down the road except for President Trump. And that is something, the context of this, of this war is something I think the younger members of the Republican Party just simply do not understand.

Jenna Ellis: M. I think you're completely spot on in all of that commentary and analysis and particularly how the perception and whether this is still ongoing in November is going to demoralize the base or impact them. So, so how do you think that the White House could better message this then? I mean, obviously, ah, Trump and the press secretary and so forth have been explaining what's been going on, over the past, you know, 40 something years and why we engaged in this conflict to begin with, what the objectives are. But it seems like that's getting lost a lot of times out in the daily headlines and especially when people, really what impacts them is when they go to the gas pump and they see that it's so much more expensive and that's really their only touch point in direct correlation with what's going on in Iran.

Todd Starnes: Right. And I think that is, that's something that has plagued every Republican president. It's the economy, stupid is the, phrase that was coined by James Carville back when Bill Clinton was running for office against George H.W. bush and sure enough that it turned out to be the economy. I think you're on to something there, Jenna, with the messaging of it, the communications of it. And I think things are getting a little, muddled right now. It just, the White House just seems to be off messaging. There was a report out yesterday and again, it's a report. I do not, I have not been able to independently verify it. But it does make sense if it's true that Susie Wild called on all the, you know, the major players and said no more Foreign travel, unless it's approved by, by me. And that's been a big issue. You've had a lot of the cabinet members that have been traveling all over the world. And the White House is really insisting that cabinet members focus on what's happening here in the United States. And I think that's a good thing. Again, this president ran on a domestic platform and he needs to be able to deliver on that. And for example, I'll give you a real quick example here. It's this for the school systems. they have been, they're under an executive order to keep those boys out of the girls locker rooms, off the girls sports teams. And many schools are just simply defying the president. What sort of penalties, you know, are they going to suffer? The administration said they were going to defund them, they were going to withhold federal dollars. They've got to start delivering all that kind of stuff. And I think if they do, if they do, then we're going to be okay in the midterms. But Jenna, again, a lot of this has nothing to do with the President and everything to do with the rogue Republican Senate.

Jenna Ellis: Yes. And that's a really key issue because if we have the conflict in Iran, all of that was going on. I think, you're also onto something that a lot of the base, especially the kind of America, only a segment that has, has sort of popped up, who's upset about, you know, Israel and some of those other things. Their basic perception is, well, we need to come first. And when Trump is focused, what seems like only on foreign policy and his cabinet members are traveling, all of that stuff, then it's like, well, what about us? What, what's going on in the home front? And if Congress was doing their job and Republican Republicans were passing the SAVE act, they were legislating, against Sharia law, they were, you know, actually closing the border. There was a better rule on immigration. You know, they were having some significant wins. I mean, all we've gotten out of Congress is the one big beautiful bill, okay, you know, great, but that's not enough for a full two year term. And so if Congress was delivering those domestic wins and President Trump was signing him, had all of that optics, I think that you would, would see a much different perception of what the Republican coalition overall, not just the White House was doing, but, you know, everybody has been disappointed in the Congress. I mean, yesterday I had a guest on who said, you said Congress has failed. I mean, that's like the understatement of the century. And it, just seems like there, there, there's no political will to get anything to done.

Todd Starnes: There's new Gallup poll that came out yesterday. 10% of the American people think that Congress has done a good job. And I'm like, wow, really? That high, that high of a number? They're doing a great job. it's true, though. And I wrote a, I've got a piece that's coming out today, and I'm just flat out asking the question, does the White House, does Congress really want to win in the midterm elections? Because I'm just getting the general impression maybe they don't care. maybe they think this is in the bag. That concerns me. we have got to make sure that we are focused. And all that, of course, is based on what happened in Virginia where The Republicans, the RNC, spent $0 in the fight over the redistricting and fortunately the courts are getting involved now. And, you know, I think that we're going to be okay in Virginia, but the reality is we're going to have to, we're going to have to fight here. You know, it was Barack Obama who said, when they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. And he's, he's right. That's what the Democrats do. the Republicans show up thinking they're going to, I don't know, high tea at the country club. So it's, it's a big fight, Jenna, and we've got a lot riding on it. Otherwise, we are going to have two years of, what I'm calling an impeachable. they will be impeaching this president every day. Twice a day.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And all of it, all of the members that they can, you know, all of the, executive, appointees that they possibly can. I mean, the Republicans actually got it together, to file impeachment paperwork against, Biden's DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. I mean, that was a million news cycles ago and never went anywhere. But, you know, I think it's not even just going to be the president, and it's going to be, that they're going to mount a kind of, you know, shotgun blast, aggression and offense, and it will have to.

Christian: Republican Party trying to stop President Trump's agenda ahead of midterm elections

Yeah, it will be defense every day. And that will be, Nothing else will get done, of course, and then the optics of that will be terrible. But to your point, Todd Starnes, about Republicans not wanting to win, I mean, you know, we have, we have a Republican Party that by and large, the, the Establishment overall has never really decided that they are maga. Like, they've worked with Trump to an extent, but we still have the kind of Paul Rhyen esque view among those in D.C. who've been there far longer than Trump that he's still a problem. And do you think that a lot of this, or at least some of this is m. Not so much about the midterms and not so much about not wanting to win the midterms, but more about 2028 and not wanting Trump to have kind of a legacy, stronghold, grip on the Republican Party. And if Trump fails so badly in the last two years, then there's no way that a J.D. vance would get nominated. There's no way that Trump's endorsements will even matter. And basically this is the Republican Party trying to destroy Trump from within by saying, saying, you know, hey, we'll play the long game and we may not win and it'll be a brutal two years, but we're willing to concede that in order to finally have this era come to an end. Because, I mean, that's, that's something that I think is a realistic possibility given just how badly it looks like they don't want to win.

Todd Starnes: Yeah, I think that. I think there's, there's a lot to that. again, gosh, it was last year and, probably about March, March or April of last year, and I started warning people on television and on the radio show that the clock was ticking. And you know, these senators, they know how to read a clock. And I was getting a lot of pushback from a lot of different circles, including several, several, big names in Washington to knock it off. I didn't know what I was talking about. Blah, blah, blah. Well, anyway, what was it that John Thune said just the other day? Well, we really wanted to be able to get the Save America act through, but we just don't have enough time. You know, we've been looking at the clock and we just don't have enough time. And so, yeah, there is an effort to stop the President's agenda that's very clear. And the Republicans know they actually have the upper hand here. And as much as you hear people like Senator Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and all these others, you know, really upset about it, no one has done what needs to be done to move the clock forward, and that is to replace Majority Leader John Thune. Nobody's willing to do that. So ultimately, John Thune is giving every other Republican who might oppose President Trump, he's giving Them cover by doing this. And, and that's, that's the ultimate thing, I believe. There are just a lot more anti Trump Republicans than m, we probably thought, walking the halls of Congress right now.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's totally true. And it's ridiculous to say that there's not enough time. I mean, they've had two years and basically they've just run out the clock. I mean, they, they ran out so much time back with the government shutdown in November that they basically let the minority of the Democrats stronghold, the Republican, to get basically everything that they wanted, which was utterly ridiculous when they had the majority. And it doesn't seem like either Speaker Johnson or Leader Thune are in a really big hurry to actually have Republican priorities. I mean, I was, speaking with Paul Teller, who I'm sure you know from, formerly from Trump's first administration and a political strategist. And he was saying that, there's no political will right now, among this, this reconciliation that's going on to include a continuation of the defunding of Planned Parenthood. I mean, that's something that is definitely a Trump kind of signature initiative because he's been so pro life. And that's a huge win. That's a boost among, the Christian evangelical base. That's a huge part of the voting calculus. And for Speaker Johnson especially, to not be willing to push that issue, and he's definitely fully a Trump supporter, just signals that there's something beyond lackadaisical. But there's no sense of urgency in Congress. And I really don't know what to attribute that to other than the people obviously, who hate Trump, we get that, and we get their incentive and motivation to not do anything. But among, the people who are very much in Trump's corner, like the Speaker Johnson's of the world, who have a lot of power, it's bizarre that he's not willing to be out there even on media every day telling his, his colleagues, we've got to get some of this done.

Todd Starnes: Yes. And, and that is ultimately, you know, the big issue. And going back to, you know, going back to what happened in Virginia, there were so many, there were so many discrepancies in the vote. going back to what, the Save America act does, it protects the ballot box, it provides integrity. And that's so vitally important to all of our elections moving forward. And if we can't get that done, then it does risk other candidacies. And I don't want to get too Far off the mark here. But just look at what happened with the Southern Pod Bay Law Center. The, the conspiracies, as wild and as absurd as they may seem, are actually turning out to be accurate. So that's why I think it's so vitally important for us to get the Save America act across the finish line, because ultimately that is going to save the Republic.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, 100%.

Todd Starnes: I think Republicans will win in November elections

And, last question for you, Todd Starnes and I so appreciate your time. Branch should follow him on X, listen to his radio broadcast, watch him on Newsmax. And, obviously all of the takes and always from a great, not just conservative analysis, but a biblical worldview perspective, which is very rare in the media these days. so where we stand right now, as of today's Thursday, April 23rd, where do we stand, in terms of the midterms? I mean, obviously the Virginia issue is very serious and if, the redistricting according to the Democrats happens, then the math will be very difficult for Republicans. So, you know, that kind of piece that's critical aside, just in terms of the politics, the bases, outlook, the turnout, you know, some of those things historically, a, ah, second term, midterm. As of right now, if, if the Republican Congress and the perception does not change, where do you think we stand in terms of what will actually happen and how badly, frankly, the Republicans will lose in November?

Todd Starnes: So I have a different view of that question than a lot of other conservatives out there. I think things are so bad, so bad on the Democrat side of the aisle that even, even as, anti Trump, as a lot of these Republicans are, I think we're going to win at the. I ultimately think we're going to win. The concern I have is if the Congress does not follow through, are they going to demoralize voters? And that is a problem. if gas prices shoot up, we're still in the middle of a shooting war with Iran and a lot of the President's agenda items have not come true, then that could actually provide a little bit of momentum for the Democrats. And that could be, you know, that, that could be a problem. So I think it's really not fair right now to say one way or the other. I, will say this. I have a new book coming out in May, at the end of May. It's called the Golden Age, How Trump Saved America. And you know, the issue with the Golden Age, I sort of said it within the context of the Roaring Twenties. It was an incredible time to be in America. The economy was Great. Things were going well and it's a celebration, but it's also warning to the American people because after the Roaring Twenties came the Great Depression, and m. President Trump no doubt has put out a lot of dumpster fires. It is our responsibility to carry that torch forward. He's not going to be in office after, you know, after 2028. So we've all got to carry that torch. And that's why I wrote this book, so that people can, you know, start understanding. Okay, here's what me and my house, we have to do to carry, carry that torch. So, we've got time. Jenna. I just think that the Republicans and we're going to have to work the phones and we're just going to have to really encourage our lawmakers to deliver on the president's agenda.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, well, I really hope that you are correct, Todd Starnes, in your assessment that the Democrats are just so far, down in their perception, of anyone wanting to vote for their, you know, communist, Marxist, nonsensical, un American agenda, which should be true if people are rational, that they will lose. you're the first person who's even suggested a hint of a possibility that Republicans could win and still maintain control. at least as far as, you know, the tea leaves, the political tea leaves are predicting right now in April. But, hopefully, you know, there is a, ah, chance so that we don't get that impeachment palooza and, so that hopefully over the next few years we can just get conservative, solid policy passed and there's maybe a little bit of a reprieve. But I look forward to reading your new book. really appreciate it. Yeah, go ahead. Last comment.

Todd Starnes: I was, I was going to say last word here. I, am, am working out, of the political Bible. Do unto the Democrats as they have done unto you. And we're adding an 11th commandment for the White House. Thou shalt not meme.

Jenna Ellis: yes, amen to that. Amen. I, I absolutely affirm that 11th Commandment. That'll be the Trump commandment like we've had from some from Reagan. So, Todd Starnes, great note to end on. Really appreciate your commentary. And that is all the time we have this morning for Jenna Ellis in the morning. As always, you can reach me and my team, jenna fr.net.