Jenna Ellis: When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound she chooses life
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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. This is Jenna Ellis in the Morning.
Trade negotiations with Canada have collapsed and the US has imposed tariffs
Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Monday, August 24, and tariffs are back in the news. So President Trump's tariff strategy has always been premised on using America's enormous economic leverage to force better trade deals. But what is happening when the other country refuses to blink? Well, the trade negotiations with Canada have now collapsed and the US has imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion on Canadian goods. This coming from the wall. And Prime Minister Mark Carney is promising dollar to dollar retaliation, going so far as to describe Canada as being effectively, quote unquote, at war with the United States on trade, thankfully included on trade. So we don't confuse Canada with Iran. But so how exactly is Trump's tariff leverage supposed to work? Or are we reaching the point where a negotiating tactic becomes a costly trade war? Well, let's welcome in Orin McIntyre who is the host at, ah, a host at the Blaze and also a frequent colum there. And Oren, you know, this seems like President Trump's tariffs, have been successful in the past. What is going on in Canada that actually caused these negotiations to collapse?
Auron MacIntyre : Well, I think it's been an interesting up and down with the trade, war policy for the President. And the tariffs were while unpopular with I think some, part of the more traditionally open market conservative base, actually more successful than many people understood at the time. This is an interesting time to pick this bit of economic warfare because of course, we know what's going on with Iran, the closing of the strait, everything with gas prices. the U.S. economy is not in terrible shape, but it's not in its at its Fighting weight, let's say, when you want to get into these battles, and so you hope that this does not create any additional strain that could, tip things over in any given direction. I don't think with the volume that Canada does at this end of itself will be permanently damaging. But you do want to make sure that you haven't stacked too many factors on the back of the American economy, especially going into the midterms.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, and the midterms are really the biggest issue right now. I mean, how damaging is this, at least the public eye to have, you know, tariffs back in the news when already, the economy and affordability are pretty big questions. And, it looks like that's going to be a real thorny issue for the GOP heading into November.
Auron MacIntyre : Yeah, again, this is probably the weakest point for, the Republican Party right now. And it's a little, little more difficult because, of course, it's the cost of living. It's the, in some ways, things that are not able to immediately be quantified that are the biggest problem for the Trump administration. So you really want to keep, things that are obvious, like gas prices and, you know, consumer prices off the table as much as possible. Again, I don't know that we do enough critical business with Canada, in things that are going to immediately impact cost of living. I don't think we're going to see a massive increase in grocery prices or gas prices or anything like that because of any given tariff war with that particular nation. But it's just a compounding factor. One more thing that could lean on people's pocketbooks. I don't think that, I mean, most people I've talked to didn't even know there was anything going on with the Canadian, you know, with Canadian government, that there was any kind of trade, war going on. I think this, you know, most people probably still don't know this news unless they're. They're really plugged into shows like yours. And so I don't think this is, again, probably going to have a huge immediate impact. Ah, but it is something that they just have to remember again, because it's one more piece of economic, strain. if people do feel like that's the big factor going into November. Yeah.
Jenna Ellis: And ironically, I was at this grocery store yesterday and was, you know, being very careful because it seems like you can't buy literally any produce or even, you know, frozen blueberries or like anything anymore without, this being subject to recall. There seems like There's a ton of recalls, but, one of the, the arugula lettuce that I was buying actually said product of Canada. And I thought, oh great, it's probably safe. And then I thought, well, I wonder if this is more expensive now because it's coming from Canada. I mean, all of these different factors, so it's kind of funny. But, does Canada actually have enough leverage? Because, you know, as you mentioned, I mean, we don't, talk as much about, you know, imports and things from Canada. So do they actually have enough leverage to win a terr a fight with the United States, or does this kind of dollar for dollar retaliation that the Prime Minister is talking about actually hurt Canadian consumers more than the United States? And Trump probably knows that.
Auron MacIntyre : Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, it's definitely obvious that Canada is far more reliant on our trade relationship to the other way around though, not to say that that doesn't, you know, change things. I know that the, the fact that Canada has been charging the extra, you know, retaliatory, tariffs on goods like, you know, US Cars and you know, dairy and other things. I know, for instance, the, the liquor, industry, you know, the alcohol industry. You're seeing a lot of the stuff that would go to Canada is getting, that stock is getting backed up into the United States and you're seeing a glut of that in the United States because you're not exporting as much into Canada. So they're trying to redistribute their normal product so that they can still keep up with sales. So it's not, you know, that there won't have any impact. Obviously we are seeing us businesses adjust. And really the problem, you know, this is what people complain about the most when it comes to tariffs. They want stability. It's not so much that the tariffs themselves are the problem, it's that the volatility that could come if you don't know when the tariffs are going to be there, how long they're going to be in place. You have to adjust supply chains, you have to adjust shipping, you have to. It's not that you can't figure these things out if you know beforehand. The problem is the uncertainty that's entered into the system. Every time you have to make quick adjustments like that, that's going to cost a business something in their planning and so you want to provide. Even, even if you are going to have a tariff, plan for your trade, you need to make enough Runway for businesses to adjust. To that. So they don't have huge losses just from the complex compliance.
Reports say Democrats discussed housing, immigration if they take control of House
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and this debate over tariffs really does feed into, the bigger political questions heading into November that we've been talking about, which is, can Republicans convince voters that their economic agenda is making life more affordable? Because whether we're talking about tariffs, housing, groceries, energy, interest rates, all of that affordability is really becoming the central battlefield of the midterms. And, apparently both sides are already thinking about what Washington might look like if the Democrats succeed. Because the NewSong York Times is also reporting over the weekend that House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries recently met privately with Jared Kushner, President Trump's son in law and of course a longtime advisor and part of the first administration. And what I think, Oren, is really interesting about this report, that of what they discussed was that housing, immigration and the high cost of living potential areas, of common ground if Democrats take control of the House. But, also some reports are speculating that this was also a, basically trying to, to broker and foreclose some potential investigations of the Trump administration if Democrats, come back into power. So what was your take on this meeting and what was reported? Was this more about cooperation or more about negotiation?
Auron MacIntyre : Well, I don't see a lot of cooperation coming in between the Republicans, the Democrats. The possibilities of that seem pretty low. I mean, the Republicans can't even cooperate with themselves to pass something like the SAVE act while they still have time. so the idea that they're going to broker some kind of large legislative goals, even if there would be some level of overlap or agreement with the Democratic Party, seems very unlikely. the far more likely scenario, as you're putting forward there, is that the GOP is expecting a loss of the House, and they're going to need to do their best to figure out how to function in that environment. And, worrying about things like investigations, that was always the most dangerous part of, you know, kind of putting ourselves in the situation going into the midterms with the war and everything else. you have to remember that, you know, whatever threat exists overseas, the Democrats are really an existential threat in the United States. They have made it very clear that they are more than happy to use lawfare to go after, the President himself, different members of the administration, and these people will literally do anything to stop Donald Trump from moving forward his agenda. so it would be unsurprising that they're gearing up a whole slate of different ways to inhibit the, Trump Administration from articles of impeachment to different investigations. And so, sadly, if the GOP does, you know, feel that ultimately it might be in a position where it could lose control of Congress, then they're going to need to figure out how they're going to move forward. And this is probably part of what that meeting was about.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and it seems like the GOP is a lot more like Canada in this situation in terms of the leverage of negotiation, at least as they, as they sit now, which is really frustrating because as you mentioned, I mean the last two years have been a key opportunity to actually advance meaningful legislation and not allow the Democrats to to stymie that or push back. And there really doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive for the, the leadership of the Democrats to, to have sort of any kind of, of bargaining or cooperation or say, that you know, if they take control back, that it wouldn't just be their plan to to bind up the Trump administration and all kinds of investigations for two years until 2028. I mean the only rationale I could see is if they thought that would backfire again and they wouldn't have as strong of a case, heading into the presidential election in 2028. But it seems like their posture of getting Trump has not really changed, even though his name is not going to be on the ballot in 2028. So overall do you think that if they do their, if they, if they come back into the power, into power and they continue with what has been their playbook for the last ten plus years of, of ah, of Trump, that that will help or hurt them for 2028?
Auron MacIntyre : I don't think that they are capable of being that strategic honestly. if they had any level of self control, they wouldn't be in the position they're in now. I think they want blood in the water. I think they want to hurt Trump. I think that's all that their base cares about and all that the politicians involved care about. short. Is it short sighted? Could they sour the country, on the Democratic Party, if they go too hard against Trump? It's possible they put themselves in this position before. I don't think that the return of Trump in 2024 is in any way disconnected from the way he was treated by the Democratic Party in the buildup to that race. Trump has a harder time this time. The outsider status probably won't be there. And as you say, he can't be elected in 2028. So there can't be a rally around the man effect as there was previously. But it's entirely possible the Democrats could go far, too far and truly burn themselves, in front of the electorate. but I just don't think that factors in at all. These guys are, you know, six year olds who are extremely angry in kindergarten. They're just going to keep screaming. They have no ability to restrain their emotions.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And real quickly, because we're heading up against the break, how much of that kind of old Democrat mentality is juxtaposed with a lot of these Democrat socialists who are coming that may not care so much about Trump as much as they care about their socialist agenda?
Auron MacIntyre : Well, I think that they're one of the same for these people. I think that everybody who's voting socialist is just as angry and just as willing to destroy Donald Trump. So while they do care deeply about their socialist agenda, I don't think that that is still overridden by the that or that will be overridden by their passion, for the destruction of Trump. They hate him more than they love their own principles, as disgusting as those principles might be.
Oren McIntyre: It's going to be so important in midterms
Jenna Ellis: All right, well, thanks so much, Oren McIntyre. Really appreciate, your commentary and, you know, all of these things. It's going to be so important that we view, the upcoming midterms and as Christians are still concerned so much more about policy and about, ensuring that the conservative agenda is prioritized. And I know it's been frustrating, for all of us to see, how little has happened in the last, two years compared to the enthusiasm I think that we all had after the 2024 election. But we need to be, praying for the outcome of the midterms. And my hope is that the GOP will still retain control of both houses so that, that we don't get into this, sort of investigations quagmire and you know, lose any opportunity that we might have to advance any conservative policy. But let's hope that the GOP actually figures it out, wants to govern and gets it done. But anyway, you can follow Orin McIntyre on X& we will be right back with more. Hi, I'm Jenna Ellis. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netforward/give. That's afr.net give welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
The murder trial of Lindsey Clancy is entering its final stages
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And the murder trial of Lindsey Clancy is entering its final stages as the prosecution is presenting rebuttal witnesses. And so this is murder trial day 19. And this case is already the most unimagina, unimaginably tragic case. This, of course, is the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, with her defense arguing that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. But now there's even another disturbing layer to this story, which includes the Internet, because of course it does. And daily, ah, Wire, has an article by Bethany Mandel that, is titled How TikTok Sleuths Turn a Horrific Child Killing into a Twisted Online Soap Opera. Across the Internet, women are coming out of the woodwork to share their truths about what happened in the Clancy house. And so this has become the latest obsession. A vast online community of women who have consumed so much true crime that they no longer seem capable of encountering a horrifying story without searching for the secret truth underneath it. So to these TikTok detectives, Bethany Mandel writes, clancy is another puzzle to be solved by women who have trained themselves to believe that every murder contains a conspiracy, every husband is potentially hiding something, and every apparent fact might be a clue that, that blows the whole thing open.
Bethany Mandel says social media is fueling mass psychosis over Lindsay Clancy
So, Bethany Mandel, who's the editor at Heroes of Liberty, joins me this morning. And this. I was so glad that you brought attention to the absolutely insane content that is being pushed across social media with all of these women who not only are identifying with Lindsey Clancy, but actually supporting her and, and trying to justify her. So what exactly is going on here?
Bethany Mandel: So I wrote a piece, also for the NewSong York Post, in which I just called it mass psychosis. And that's a lot of what it feels like that a lot of women are consuming tick tock content where they're painting the husband as the perpetrator and there's somehow this like, deep conspiracy. And it's because they're marinating in true crime all the time. And so everything has to have like, an alternative story. And there's, this is the Netflix documentary that they're just waiting to break the lid off of. it's really disturbing to me. just first of all on the merit that women are treating the murder of three young children as entertainment, but more sort of specifically about this case in particular. Patrick Clancy, the husband and father. He walked in on anyone's worst nightmare. He, he came home after going to get dinner and his wife was paralyzed on the front lawn, he's waiting for Ems, and when they take her away, she goes in and he discovers that his children have been brutally murdered. And the TikTok, you know, fanatics who have been following this case have been harassing him and his new wife and have painted him as the perpetrator when he is the. The biggest living victim in all of this. And if you watch his testimony, you can tell that he's doing, breathing ex. The deep, deep trauma that he experienced because of what Lindsay did, he will carry with him for the rest of his life.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, I just feel so awful for not only what happened to this husband and father, but now what the Internet is accusing him of and making this happen. And do you think that some of this comes from the therapeutic language of, quote, unquote, my truth, as everyone is trying to get out there because we've moved away, it seems like in culture, from asking what actually happened in the facts to people just announcing what they emotionally believe must have happened.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah. And yes, I completely agree, but it's also not just, you know, my truth, but it's also, you know, in all of these circumstances, when people go no contact or whatever it may be, in the framework of this therapeutic language, they can negotiate their way through anything. Any sort, of offense can be explained through this prism of therapeutic language. And we're seeing the extreme of that here. she wasn't supported enough. She had this, she had that. And all of it, to me, I find really disturbing. It takes away all of her agency as a human being and as a nurse and as a person who really ought to have known better. And she did know better. She was under the influence of over half a dozen psychiatric medications. But she was a medical professional. She was shopping for medications. She knew the impact of all of them. And we're seeing the end result of her, shopping for all these medications. It's not good. It's not good for your psyche. but in all of this therapeutic language, medication is not viewed as, like, not just a thing to be ashamed of, but it's a thing that should be praised. And so if you are on TikTok, you see women sort of identifying themselves, by some of their medications. Oh, brought to you by Zoloft or whatever. And they've lost sight of the fact that these are really serious medications that can carry with them a lot of side effects. And, she was on a lot of them. And no one sort of cautioned, because no one wants to assign shame to them, but no one cautioned her, these are really serious medications that you should proceed with caution. And it doesn't seem that anyone sort of gave her that indication.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and it just seems like the insistence that she must not have any moral culpability because she was on all of these medications and because she suffered, allegedly from postpartum depression or psychosis, it really is very concerning that. It seems like the, the majority of the women that are participating in a lot of this online obsession are trying to excuse her. And so how do we talk compassionately about postpartum, depression and other forms of mental illness without removing that moral agency component from women altogether? Because it seems like the rallying cry around Lindsay Clancy is, well, she's not guilty because I suffer from something similarly, as if these women are suggesting that if they went out and also, committed similar crimes, they too should be justified. And I just find that completely, completely horrific.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah, I do too. And, you know, I don't know is the, is the honest answer. I don't know how we can message this. because personal responsibility has been, so vilified in our culture for so long, that I don't know, I don't know how we put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to personal responsibility. Because, you know, millions of women every year suffer from some sort of postpartum depression. Or, you know, just the experience of postpartum is difficult. and psychosis is felt by a very, very, very small minority. but even in the throes of that, you should have the presence of mind to say, I'm a danger to myself or others and I need to remove myself. she had the presence of mind to send her husband out of the home. She had the presence of mind, to orchestrate the entire day so that she had the opportunity to do what she did. And so, you know, to claim that somehow there's this magic blind spot when it comes to what she actually did, but she's able to do anything else. it goes beyond the imagination of the potential here. So I don't know is the answer. I saw Spencer Pratt recorded a really interesting graphic 10 minute video where he called a lot of this out. And he uses the same language I did. He said mass psychosis. and he's getting a lot of pushback. But I think it's important for people like Spencer Pratt to come forward and say, this is, this is a societal problem here. Like, this is not a true crime drama that you're watching on Netflix right now.
Jenna Ellis: Right. And I think that social media has certainly participated in the ability to, cause a lot of that. What may have started out as, you know, small. A few individuals thinking something to almost perpetuate the mass psychosis. Because social media actually rewards sometimes the craziest interpretation of a case or something that happened or, you know, the. When, the evidence says exactly what everyone thinks it says or what they're speculating. I mean, look. Look at what Candace Owens is doing in the context of the Charlie Kirk murder trial. I mean, it's the exact same type of thing of this kind of massive following that social media is rewarding, and it's really unhealthy to society. And so we've kind of crossed a line from educating people about criminal cases into encouraging people to participate emotionally in them when the facts don't support their emotions.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah, and she's, by the way, she's doing the same thing with this case as well. She came to it a little late because she was busy bullying a widow, being Erica Kirk. but she's doing the same thing here. I think a lot of this is. Is. Can go back to Covid, where the conspiracy theory was true and we were being lied to constantly. And I think that we kind of have moved on past that, and there's been no accounting. And I think this is the logical end result because there's a lot of people out there who, you know, when they had their tinfoil hat on, it was right, it was pointed in the right direction. And so they see a conspiracy everywhere. and it's just. It's not here. And, you know, if the prosecution, you know, thought that they could get her off on these brilliant TikTok theories, they would have been using them, but they're not. They admit on the stand that she did do this. This was by her hand. and so what's disturbing to me is watching this absolute denial of reality that they've created in real time while the trial is still going on this completely alternative timeline, that has no basis in reality. And you can just turn on the TV and watch the trial live to see that that's the case.
TikTok has spun so many women into believing that what is happening is not real
But TikTok has spun so many women into believing that what is happening in this real world is not real. And that to me is like, next level disturbing. We've seen a lot of revisionism of, past events, but this is revisionism of something that's going on in real time.
Jenna Ellis: And I'm speaking with Bethany Mandel, who's an editor at, the Heroes of Liberty and wrote this great Piece also in the NewSong York Post as well as the Daily Wire. You can find those pieces online, talking about this whole topic. And it's so true that the defense, who are actually the ones who are vested with the legal responsibility to present the defense in court, they're not using a lot of these theories. that's also true for ah, Tyler Robinson in the Charlie Kirk, murder case. And so it's this weird kind of cultural psychosis that somehow these TikTok sleuths think that they as completely irrelevant parties, they're not involved at all. They haven't reviewed any of the evidence personally, that they can somehow be the investigators, the detectives and the lawyers better than the actual people on the ground. I mean better than the FBI in Charlie Kirk's case. I mean it's just, it's so wild that it's, it seems like the the whole drama of it all is almost more for entertainment value and somehow we forget that there are real people involved. I mean Erica Kirk has been so maligned horrendously by Candace Owens following and now Patrick Clancy as well. And those things are a second part of, and facet of, of, of the, the victim hood that they have already experienced just through the crime itself, which is entirely unfair. And so I mean how, how do we get a grasp on this as, as a society? Because I don't think that perpetuating all of this on TikTok and across social media is going to be in any way overall helpful for true, just,
Bethany Mandel: I mean I'm a big first amendment person. I think, you know, it's important to have these wide open ways of communicating. We have to figure out how to navigate those. But on TikTok, TikTok should just be illegal and I truly do not understand why it's not there. It was a bipartisan decision. It is an op by a foreign government that is hostile towards us to drive us crazy and it works really well. So I think that this is just yet another data point in TikTok should not exist. And there are other forms of social media out there that are not radicalizing people nearly to the degree that TikTok is. so I think that that's step number one. But step number two, we just need to be raising our children with a sense of morals, that you know, bullying a widow is bad. Somehow that got lost in translation in the generations. But, but we need to make everyone more discerning. And I'm not sure how you do that with an adult. So you know, let's focus on the next generation of kids to make sure that they understand that bullying a widow and bullying a man who buried his three children, is deeply evil. Yeah.
Jenna Ellis: And it does seem to be so difficult to get a handle on a monster that, that's so big as social media. I mean, this kind of social proofing that instead of just having, you know, one or two people in the context of their actual neighbors around them, talking about some of these conspiracies, you have these mass online groups that now can form into and encourage each other. And you mentioned earlier, Bethany, about the, the people during, the COVID pandemic who kind of put on their tinfoil hats and they were right in a lot of ways. And so now it seems like, because some of those, what would have been called conspiracies in 2020 and the few years after prove to be right. Now it seems like there is a whole viewpoint that every conspiracy must be correct instead of the actual facts and prevailing narrative. And that becomes really dangerous when we start blurring facts and reality with anyone's conspiracy just because they gain attention on the Internet.
Lindsay Clancy videos show women projecting negative emotions onto their own children
But I also think that there is a, really interesting gender component here because we're seeing that this is obviously mostly who are identifying so strongly with Lindsay Clancy, and that deals with fear surrounding postpartum depression, psychosis, anxiety. And it also seems like in an age where women are being told that they can have it all, that they, that their lives shouldn't change, that anyone toxic should be removed from their lives, they are now projecting that onto their own children. And I think assuming somehow that if anything isn't exactly perfect, then somehow they need to be able to control their environment in a way that allows them to live the life that they prefer and the outcomes that they desire. And that is also really dangerous when you mix that with what the psychiatrists and all of the medication are handing out to them, and it just seems like we are rapidly barreling off, this, this cliff that does not appreciate. Ah. And even dehumanizes, not just unborn children, but now even, women who have young children. And a lot of these videos are very dehumanizing to their own, children who are babies, toddlers, and even older.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah, and this is a whole other sort of aspect of the Lindsey Clancy thing is, these are women, in my opinion, who have been gentle parented and who are gentle parenting themselves. This is second generation gentle parented. And so they were never told, life isn't fair, Suck it up and just do it. And so they don't know how to suck it up, they don't know how to work through difficulty. And, you know, hearkening back to our, earlier conversation about therapeutic speak, they focus on the negative and they harp on it and they dwell and they cannot move past it and see, you know, this is a difficult afternoon, but it's been a great day. They're incapable of making that assessment. and now they're gentle parenting and it's misery. Like, of course it's misery. If you're, if your three year old is in charge of the ship, that's going to be an unpleasant experience. And so instead of standing up and saying, this is what we're doing now, we're putting our shoes on, we're walking out the door, they're hiding in their bathrooms. And this is a social media phenomenon. They're throwing ice cubes in their bathtub to get out their rage. These are women who have no coping strategies, who are not utilizing coping strategies with their own children. and of course they're miserable. This is, you know, progressive ideology. In practice, it makes people miserable. And, it seems like they want that. That is the goal here. It gives them credit to, and it gives them social media attention to complain instead of just being resilient. That is, that is no longer something that people aspire to be.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And it seems like the next iteration of the leftists yelling at the sky and screaming at the sky, like we saw back, you know, when Trump first got elected. But it's even worse now because it involves not just them being mad at politics, but involving their own children.
How damaging will this be if the jury finds Lindsey Clancy not guilty
So, last question for you and Bethany. I so appreciate you joining us for this really important conversation. how damaging overall will this be if the jury finds Lindsey Clancy not guilty, and does not hold her accountable for her own moral agency?
Bethany Mandel: I think it'll be really disturbing. I think that it sets a really dangerous precedent. Not that I think that there's going to be, you know, a spate of copycats. I'm not necessarily afraid of that, although obviously that would be horrifying. But I'm more afraid of the idea that women cannot be held responsible for their own emotions. That feels very retrograde. And, it's inexplicable to me that progressive feminists are not, you know, the ones standing up and saying, wait a second, guys, we can be anything. We can be firefighters, we can be police officers, and we can also be responsible for our own actions.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And I really hope that, the Jury at least will see the evidence, not weigh the emotion and go where the facts and the evidence show. but we've got to take a break here. Bethany Mandel, really appreciate it. You can follow her on X@ BethanyShondark and you can also listen to her and read her pieces in Daily Wire and also the NewSong York Post. And we just need to be praying for this culture and all of these women who are trying to find solace in these online, you know, TikTok, sort of videos and these communities that are clearly not helping them parse fact from emotion and have good coping mechanisms. We're going to talk about that a little bit more after the break and we will be right back with more here on Jenna Ellis in the morning.
80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing baby on ultrasound
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CDC reports about one in five American adults have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And we've been talking over the last week or so a lot about the rise of mental health issues in America and across the world and also how this case, this Lindsey Clancy case has really put a spotlight on what's going on in our society through a lot of these, these videos that are being posted on social media. I mean and some of these are just so absolutely tragic, to watch because you can see how mothers even holding their children are suggesting that somehow, you know, their life is not Going well, because now they have children and that there is as blame that they're assigning to their, their children for, you know, messing up their lives or disturbing their lives. And, and you know, it's. It's been really just fascinating to look at the numbers of American adults and specifically, women who have been diagnosed with some kind of anxiety disorder. So about the CDC reports about one in five American adults have been diagnosed with some kind of anxiety disorder. And the latest 2024 data show 19% of US adults report having ever been told by a health professional that they had some kind of anxiety disorder. And women consistently report substantially more anxiety than men. So in a 2022 National Health Interview Survey, 21.4% of women reported anxiety symptoms among the previous two weeks compared to a, 14 point of men. So that's roughly about 45% higher in women. And so this isn't just a post Covid phenomenon because, my pastor was actually talking about this yesterday and did a phenomenal sermon, along the same lines of of anxiety and talking through what actually is this Biblically. And I want to get into that. but he went through kind of, you know, what has happened since. Since the turn of the century and since, you know, 2000 when we were all worried that, you know, Y2K was. I mean, I remember that. I mean, I was about 15 and I still remember, you know, kind of sitting there waiting, you know, kind of for the world to crumble. And then we've had, you know, very significant world events, since then. But the COVID phenomenon, and especially the young people who are kind of coming of age in that whole era, that really shaped how they view life, how they view working from home versus having to go into an office. In fact, a friend of mine was talking about her friend who, is about 26 or so now and actually had to go into the office for the first time this, year and couldn't handle it and thought, you know, I. Why am I having to go into an office? And I'm, you know, I can't not just have all of the comforts of home and literally like couldn't handle it. And so you have to ask yourself, and ask the question, really, what is anxiety and what's driving kind of this behavior? And what does the Bible speak to? Well, anxiety is really defined as the fear of the loss of control. Because if you think about it, whenever we fear something, it's an unknown outcome. If we are concerned or we are genuinely fearful about something that may happen, it's because we don't know and also because we can't control that outcome. And if you think about the the feelings of anxiety, maybe you know, you personally have even had that is surrounding an event or a change or something that does not go in the way that you prefer. And so this illusion of safety in control gives rise to anxiety because of an intolerance of uncertainty.
Many millennials are estranged from their parents because they think their parents are toxic
And this is where as my previous guest Bethany was talking about, you know, this kind of uncertainty in our circumstances or in changes or in, you know, what happens after we have kids or we or we change our circumstances, the loss of a job, the loss of perhaps a parent, a change in any kind of circumstance, especially if that's not something that we chose, or even if it is, it doesn't go exactly how we imagined, then suddenly we are feeling anxious, we are feeling fearful. And it usually is because there is a loss of control of preferred outcomes. And this is what our society is largely telling us. If you go to, you know, the secular psychologists, and psychotherapists, they, they tell you, well, if someone is toxic, remove them from your life. There's a big piece on the Epoch Times with statistics showing how many millennials and younger are estranged from their parents. Why? Because they think that their parents are toxic and so they just remove them from their lives. if, if your job is toxic, go, go get a different one. If someone is toxic, you know, then just remove them from your lives. And this is now translating for a lot of these women in the Lindsay Clancy scenario is your children are toxic. Why? Because they actually expect you to not be selfish. You can't have everything the way that you prefer. If anyone else is a part of your daily life, whether that is a spouse, it may be, aging parents, it may even be pets, or you know, or children that are fully dependent on you. You a lot of this change is because if you bring in someone in your home that is a dependent, then necessarily you will not be able to live as selfishly as you did when you were the child and when your parents were responsible for taking care of you. And this whole gentle parenting, phenomenon has as so many issues with it, lack of discipline. We're seeing, you know, the rise of a culture that doesn't want to have children and adults spaces because adults are selfish, but also because adults don't discipline children and don't teach them how to behave in public spaces. And so there's Just this whole host of problems. But we can boil it down to a lack of understanding of what life is genuinely all about. Because life is not meant to serve me. My life is not so that I can get as much as I can out of it. The.
Jenna Ellis: The pleasure, the opportunity, the, the. The happiness, the control, everything that serves me. The Bible tells us something completely opposite. It says, take up your cross, surrender to the Lord. What does surrender mean? Well, our, sermon yesterday was all about this word submission, which usually, of course, you know, is in the context of Ephesians and marriage and wives submitting to husbands. But it also goes on to say, husbands, submit likewise to your wives. And also that we are supposed to submit to one another. There are so many one anothers in Scripture of how we are to live in church community, in civil society with one another, how we are to prefer one another as greater than ourselves, that we are to serve one another. All of these things. And it all stems from the greatest submission of all. Surrendering to the Lord. Because when we realize that we actually cannot control our circumstances, yes, we make daily decisions. We hopefully walk in the wisdom of the Lord. We walk in his will. But when we realize that ultimately, even with our best laid plans, things happen, pain happens, even good things, good changes are still changes that are sometimes difficult. That this life is not meant to simply provide us pleasure. That the ultimate purpose of life is to know the Lord and worship him and love him and then extend that knowledge to everyone else possible. Our entire view of life changes when we realize we are not in control. And the purpose of life is not for ourselves, but ultimately to worship the One who made us. And it's a completely different view of life because the Lord tells us that we can be still and we can have joy and comfort and hope in the knowledge that he is in control of all things. That no matter what this life brings, what tragedies, trials, or even joys and blessings that cause changes and disruptions in our life befall us, it ultimately doesn't matter. Because we have the hope in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And, as my pastor was preaching yesterday, I was thinking. And then he brought up, the verse in Proverbs that a man plans his way, but God orders, or some translations say, establishes his steps. The Bible is prolific and rife with the admonition that we do not control our circumstances. We do not control when we're born, we don't control when we die. We don't control any of the major things about ourselves. God's sovereignty does. And the sooner we reconcile with that, then the sooner we can actually reduce our anxiety. Because isn't it a good thing that it's not all up to us, that we are not totally 100% in control of everything and we don't have to fight and push and pull and, and figure, out who's toxic or not or all of these other things in our lives in order to find joy. Because joy in the Lord is not about, this notion that the secular world tells us that we must feel happiness 247 if we're doing life the right way, if we have any negative feelings whatsoever, then something must, be going wrong and you must try to change your circumstances. Control is always what people are striving for when they have anxiety over their circumstances instead of giving it to the Lord and saying, I may not like what's going on, but I understand that you are sovereign and I am surrendering wholly to your will. I mean, this is the same thing. I was reading an article yesterday about, a woman who, who gave her pet to a friend. and that was the thrust of the article about how, you know, this pet was thriving. but it said in the article because she left life on her own terms. And I thought that is the ultimate desire for control. To say, I am not going to give the Lord my circumstances, my life, and ultimately when I meet Him, I want to even go so far as to not only live life on my own terms, but leave life on my own terms. That is completely antithetical to what the Bible teaches. And so this whole illusion of safety and control gives into anxiety when we can have something so much better. The joy of the Lord and recognizing he is in control. So we as Christians need to figure out what is it that we need to surrender in our own lives and how we can put prefer one another and ultimately prefer Christ instead of ourselves. As always, you can reach me and my team Jenna at AFR Badminton. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion. And every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies. Lives, lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com afr.
Jenna Ellis: When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound she chooses life
Jenna Ellis: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection and the majority of the time she will choose life. But she can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside her. One ultrasound is just $28 and to donate dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr 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. This is Jenna Ellis in the Morning.
Trade negotiations with Canada have collapsed and the US has imposed tariffs
Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Monday, August 24, and tariffs are back in the news. So President Trump's tariff strategy has always been premised on using America's enormous economic leverage to force better trade deals. But what is happening when the other country refuses to blink? Well, the trade negotiations with Canada have now collapsed and the US has imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion on Canadian goods. This coming from the wall. And Prime Minister Mark Carney is promising dollar to dollar retaliation, going so far as to describe Canada as being effectively, quote unquote, at war with the United States on trade, thankfully included on trade. So we don't confuse Canada with Iran. But so how exactly is Trump's tariff leverage supposed to work? Or are we reaching the point where a negotiating tactic becomes a costly trade war? Well, let's welcome in Orin McIntyre who is the host at, ah, a host at the Blaze and also a frequent colum there. And Oren, you know, this seems like President Trump's tariffs, have been successful in the past. What is going on in Canada that actually caused these negotiations to collapse?
Auron MacIntyre : Well, I think it's been an interesting up and down with the trade, war policy for the President. And the tariffs were while unpopular with I think some, part of the more traditionally open market conservative base, actually more successful than many people understood at the time. This is an interesting time to pick this bit of economic warfare because of course, we know what's going on with Iran, the closing of the strait, everything with gas prices. the U.S. economy is not in terrible shape, but it's not in its at its Fighting weight, let's say, when you want to get into these battles, and so you hope that this does not create any additional strain that could, tip things over in any given direction. I don't think with the volume that Canada does at this end of itself will be permanently damaging. But you do want to make sure that you haven't stacked too many factors on the back of the American economy, especially going into the midterms.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, and the midterms are really the biggest issue right now. I mean, how damaging is this, at least the public eye to have, you know, tariffs back in the news when already, the economy and affordability are pretty big questions. And, it looks like that's going to be a real thorny issue for the GOP heading into November.
Auron MacIntyre : Yeah, again, this is probably the weakest point for, the Republican Party right now. And it's a little, little more difficult because, of course, it's the cost of living. It's the, in some ways, things that are not able to immediately be quantified that are the biggest problem for the Trump administration. So you really want to keep, things that are obvious, like gas prices and, you know, consumer prices off the table as much as possible. Again, I don't know that we do enough critical business with Canada, in things that are going to immediately impact cost of living. I don't think we're going to see a massive increase in grocery prices or gas prices or anything like that because of any given tariff war with that particular nation. But it's just a compounding factor. One more thing that could lean on people's pocketbooks. I don't think that, I mean, most people I've talked to didn't even know there was anything going on with the Canadian, you know, with Canadian government, that there was any kind of trade, war going on. I think this, you know, most people probably still don't know this news unless they're. They're really plugged into shows like yours. And so I don't think this is, again, probably going to have a huge immediate impact. Ah, but it is something that they just have to remember again, because it's one more piece of economic, strain. if people do feel like that's the big factor going into November. Yeah.
Jenna Ellis: And ironically, I was at this grocery store yesterday and was, you know, being very careful because it seems like you can't buy literally any produce or even, you know, frozen blueberries or like anything anymore without, this being subject to recall. There seems like There's a ton of recalls, but, one of the, the arugula lettuce that I was buying actually said product of Canada. And I thought, oh great, it's probably safe. And then I thought, well, I wonder if this is more expensive now because it's coming from Canada. I mean, all of these different factors, so it's kind of funny. But, does Canada actually have enough leverage? Because, you know, as you mentioned, I mean, we don't, talk as much about, you know, imports and things from Canada. So do they actually have enough leverage to win a terr a fight with the United States, or does this kind of dollar for dollar retaliation that the Prime Minister is talking about actually hurt Canadian consumers more than the United States? And Trump probably knows that.
Auron MacIntyre : Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, it's definitely obvious that Canada is far more reliant on our trade relationship to the other way around though, not to say that that doesn't, you know, change things. I know that the, the fact that Canada has been charging the extra, you know, retaliatory, tariffs on goods like, you know, US Cars and you know, dairy and other things. I know, for instance, the, the liquor, industry, you know, the alcohol industry. You're seeing a lot of the stuff that would go to Canada is getting, that stock is getting backed up into the United States and you're seeing a glut of that in the United States because you're not exporting as much into Canada. So they're trying to redistribute their normal product so that they can still keep up with sales. So it's not, you know, that there won't have any impact. Obviously we are seeing us businesses adjust. And really the problem, you know, this is what people complain about the most when it comes to tariffs. They want stability. It's not so much that the tariffs themselves are the problem, it's that the volatility that could come if you don't know when the tariffs are going to be there, how long they're going to be in place. You have to adjust supply chains, you have to adjust shipping, you have to. It's not that you can't figure these things out if you know beforehand. The problem is the uncertainty that's entered into the system. Every time you have to make quick adjustments like that, that's going to cost a business something in their planning and so you want to provide. Even, even if you are going to have a tariff, plan for your trade, you need to make enough Runway for businesses to adjust. To that. So they don't have huge losses just from the complex compliance.
Reports say Democrats discussed housing, immigration if they take control of House
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and this debate over tariffs really does feed into, the bigger political questions heading into November that we've been talking about, which is, can Republicans convince voters that their economic agenda is making life more affordable? Because whether we're talking about tariffs, housing, groceries, energy, interest rates, all of that affordability is really becoming the central battlefield of the midterms. And, apparently both sides are already thinking about what Washington might look like if the Democrats succeed. Because the NewSong York Times is also reporting over the weekend that House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries recently met privately with Jared Kushner, President Trump's son in law and of course a longtime advisor and part of the first administration. And what I think, Oren, is really interesting about this report, that of what they discussed was that housing, immigration and the high cost of living potential areas, of common ground if Democrats take control of the House. But, also some reports are speculating that this was also a, basically trying to, to broker and foreclose some potential investigations of the Trump administration if Democrats, come back into power. So what was your take on this meeting and what was reported? Was this more about cooperation or more about negotiation?
Auron MacIntyre : Well, I don't see a lot of cooperation coming in between the Republicans, the Democrats. The possibilities of that seem pretty low. I mean, the Republicans can't even cooperate with themselves to pass something like the SAVE act while they still have time. so the idea that they're going to broker some kind of large legislative goals, even if there would be some level of overlap or agreement with the Democratic Party, seems very unlikely. the far more likely scenario, as you're putting forward there, is that the GOP is expecting a loss of the House, and they're going to need to do their best to figure out how to function in that environment. And, worrying about things like investigations, that was always the most dangerous part of, you know, kind of putting ourselves in the situation going into the midterms with the war and everything else. you have to remember that, you know, whatever threat exists overseas, the Democrats are really an existential threat in the United States. They have made it very clear that they are more than happy to use lawfare to go after, the President himself, different members of the administration, and these people will literally do anything to stop Donald Trump from moving forward his agenda. so it would be unsurprising that they're gearing up a whole slate of different ways to inhibit the, Trump Administration from articles of impeachment to different investigations. And so, sadly, if the GOP does, you know, feel that ultimately it might be in a position where it could lose control of Congress, then they're going to need to figure out how they're going to move forward. And this is probably part of what that meeting was about.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and it seems like the GOP is a lot more like Canada in this situation in terms of the leverage of negotiation, at least as they, as they sit now, which is really frustrating because as you mentioned, I mean the last two years have been a key opportunity to actually advance meaningful legislation and not allow the Democrats to to stymie that or push back. And there really doesn't seem to be a lot of incentive for the, the leadership of the Democrats to, to have sort of any kind of, of bargaining or cooperation or say, that you know, if they take control back, that it wouldn't just be their plan to to bind up the Trump administration and all kinds of investigations for two years until 2028. I mean the only rationale I could see is if they thought that would backfire again and they wouldn't have as strong of a case, heading into the presidential election in 2028. But it seems like their posture of getting Trump has not really changed, even though his name is not going to be on the ballot in 2028. So overall do you think that if they do their, if they, if they come back into the power, into power and they continue with what has been their playbook for the last ten plus years of, of ah, of Trump, that that will help or hurt them for 2028?
Auron MacIntyre : I don't think that they are capable of being that strategic honestly. if they had any level of self control, they wouldn't be in the position they're in now. I think they want blood in the water. I think they want to hurt Trump. I think that's all that their base cares about and all that the politicians involved care about. short. Is it short sighted? Could they sour the country, on the Democratic Party, if they go too hard against Trump? It's possible they put themselves in this position before. I don't think that the return of Trump in 2024 is in any way disconnected from the way he was treated by the Democratic Party in the buildup to that race. Trump has a harder time this time. The outsider status probably won't be there. And as you say, he can't be elected in 2028. So there can't be a rally around the man effect as there was previously. But it's entirely possible the Democrats could go far, too far and truly burn themselves, in front of the electorate. but I just don't think that factors in at all. These guys are, you know, six year olds who are extremely angry in kindergarten. They're just going to keep screaming. They have no ability to restrain their emotions.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And real quickly, because we're heading up against the break, how much of that kind of old Democrat mentality is juxtaposed with a lot of these Democrat socialists who are coming that may not care so much about Trump as much as they care about their socialist agenda?
Auron MacIntyre : Well, I think that they're one of the same for these people. I think that everybody who's voting socialist is just as angry and just as willing to destroy Donald Trump. So while they do care deeply about their socialist agenda, I don't think that that is still overridden by the that or that will be overridden by their passion, for the destruction of Trump. They hate him more than they love their own principles, as disgusting as those principles might be.
Oren McIntyre: It's going to be so important in midterms
Jenna Ellis: All right, well, thanks so much, Oren McIntyre. Really appreciate, your commentary and, you know, all of these things. It's going to be so important that we view, the upcoming midterms and as Christians are still concerned so much more about policy and about, ensuring that the conservative agenda is prioritized. And I know it's been frustrating, for all of us to see, how little has happened in the last, two years compared to the enthusiasm I think that we all had after the 2024 election. But we need to be, praying for the outcome of the midterms. And my hope is that the GOP will still retain control of both houses so that, that we don't get into this, sort of investigations quagmire and you know, lose any opportunity that we might have to advance any conservative policy. But let's hope that the GOP actually figures it out, wants to govern and gets it done. But anyway, you can follow Orin McIntyre on X& we will be right back with more. Hi, I'm Jenna Ellis. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netforward/give. That's afr.net give welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
The murder trial of Lindsey Clancy is entering its final stages
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And the murder trial of Lindsey Clancy is entering its final stages as the prosecution is presenting rebuttal witnesses. And so this is murder trial day 19. And this case is already the most unimagina, unimaginably tragic case. This, of course, is the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, with her defense arguing that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. But now there's even another disturbing layer to this story, which includes the Internet, because of course it does. And daily, ah, Wire, has an article by Bethany Mandel that, is titled How TikTok Sleuths Turn a Horrific Child Killing into a Twisted Online Soap Opera. Across the Internet, women are coming out of the woodwork to share their truths about what happened in the Clancy house. And so this has become the latest obsession. A vast online community of women who have consumed so much true crime that they no longer seem capable of encountering a horrifying story without searching for the secret truth underneath it. So to these TikTok detectives, Bethany Mandel writes, clancy is another puzzle to be solved by women who have trained themselves to believe that every murder contains a conspiracy, every husband is potentially hiding something, and every apparent fact might be a clue that, that blows the whole thing open.
Bethany Mandel says social media is fueling mass psychosis over Lindsay Clancy
So, Bethany Mandel, who's the editor at Heroes of Liberty, joins me this morning. And this. I was so glad that you brought attention to the absolutely insane content that is being pushed across social media with all of these women who not only are identifying with Lindsey Clancy, but actually supporting her and, and trying to justify her. So what exactly is going on here?
Bethany Mandel: So I wrote a piece, also for the NewSong York Post, in which I just called it mass psychosis. And that's a lot of what it feels like that a lot of women are consuming tick tock content where they're painting the husband as the perpetrator and there's somehow this like, deep conspiracy. And it's because they're marinating in true crime all the time. And so everything has to have like, an alternative story. And there's, this is the Netflix documentary that they're just waiting to break the lid off of. it's really disturbing to me. just first of all on the merit that women are treating the murder of three young children as entertainment, but more sort of specifically about this case in particular. Patrick Clancy, the husband and father. He walked in on anyone's worst nightmare. He, he came home after going to get dinner and his wife was paralyzed on the front lawn, he's waiting for Ems, and when they take her away, she goes in and he discovers that his children have been brutally murdered. And the TikTok, you know, fanatics who have been following this case have been harassing him and his new wife and have painted him as the perpetrator when he is the. The biggest living victim in all of this. And if you watch his testimony, you can tell that he's doing, breathing ex. The deep, deep trauma that he experienced because of what Lindsay did, he will carry with him for the rest of his life.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, I just feel so awful for not only what happened to this husband and father, but now what the Internet is accusing him of and making this happen. And do you think that some of this comes from the therapeutic language of, quote, unquote, my truth, as everyone is trying to get out there because we've moved away, it seems like in culture, from asking what actually happened in the facts to people just announcing what they emotionally believe must have happened.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah. And yes, I completely agree, but it's also not just, you know, my truth, but it's also, you know, in all of these circumstances, when people go no contact or whatever it may be, in the framework of this therapeutic language, they can negotiate their way through anything. Any sort, of offense can be explained through this prism of therapeutic language. And we're seeing the extreme of that here. she wasn't supported enough. She had this, she had that. And all of it, to me, I find really disturbing. It takes away all of her agency as a human being and as a nurse and as a person who really ought to have known better. And she did know better. She was under the influence of over half a dozen psychiatric medications. But she was a medical professional. She was shopping for medications. She knew the impact of all of them. And we're seeing the end result of her, shopping for all these medications. It's not good. It's not good for your psyche. but in all of this therapeutic language, medication is not viewed as, like, not just a thing to be ashamed of, but it's a thing that should be praised. And so if you are on TikTok, you see women sort of identifying themselves, by some of their medications. Oh, brought to you by Zoloft or whatever. And they've lost sight of the fact that these are really serious medications that can carry with them a lot of side effects. And, she was on a lot of them. And no one sort of cautioned, because no one wants to assign shame to them, but no one cautioned her, these are really serious medications that you should proceed with caution. And it doesn't seem that anyone sort of gave her that indication.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and it just seems like the insistence that she must not have any moral culpability because she was on all of these medications and because she suffered, allegedly from postpartum depression or psychosis, it really is very concerning that. It seems like the, the majority of the women that are participating in a lot of this online obsession are trying to excuse her. And so how do we talk compassionately about postpartum, depression and other forms of mental illness without removing that moral agency component from women altogether? Because it seems like the rallying cry around Lindsay Clancy is, well, she's not guilty because I suffer from something similarly, as if these women are suggesting that if they went out and also, committed similar crimes, they too should be justified. And I just find that completely, completely horrific.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah, I do too. And, you know, I don't know is the, is the honest answer. I don't know how we can message this. because personal responsibility has been, so vilified in our culture for so long, that I don't know, I don't know how we put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to personal responsibility. Because, you know, millions of women every year suffer from some sort of postpartum depression. Or, you know, just the experience of postpartum is difficult. and psychosis is felt by a very, very, very small minority. but even in the throes of that, you should have the presence of mind to say, I'm a danger to myself or others and I need to remove myself. she had the presence of mind to send her husband out of the home. She had the presence of mind, to orchestrate the entire day so that she had the opportunity to do what she did. And so, you know, to claim that somehow there's this magic blind spot when it comes to what she actually did, but she's able to do anything else. it goes beyond the imagination of the potential here. So I don't know is the answer. I saw Spencer Pratt recorded a really interesting graphic 10 minute video where he called a lot of this out. And he uses the same language I did. He said mass psychosis. and he's getting a lot of pushback. But I think it's important for people like Spencer Pratt to come forward and say, this is, this is a societal problem here. Like, this is not a true crime drama that you're watching on Netflix right now.
Jenna Ellis: Right. And I think that social media has certainly participated in the ability to, cause a lot of that. What may have started out as, you know, small. A few individuals thinking something to almost perpetuate the mass psychosis. Because social media actually rewards sometimes the craziest interpretation of a case or something that happened or, you know, the. When, the evidence says exactly what everyone thinks it says or what they're speculating. I mean, look. Look at what Candace Owens is doing in the context of the Charlie Kirk murder trial. I mean, it's the exact same type of thing of this kind of massive following that social media is rewarding, and it's really unhealthy to society. And so we've kind of crossed a line from educating people about criminal cases into encouraging people to participate emotionally in them when the facts don't support their emotions.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah, and she's, by the way, she's doing the same thing with this case as well. She came to it a little late because she was busy bullying a widow, being Erica Kirk. but she's doing the same thing here. I think a lot of this is. Is. Can go back to Covid, where the conspiracy theory was true and we were being lied to constantly. And I think that we kind of have moved on past that, and there's been no accounting. And I think this is the logical end result because there's a lot of people out there who, you know, when they had their tinfoil hat on, it was right, it was pointed in the right direction. And so they see a conspiracy everywhere. and it's just. It's not here. And, you know, if the prosecution, you know, thought that they could get her off on these brilliant TikTok theories, they would have been using them, but they're not. They admit on the stand that she did do this. This was by her hand. and so what's disturbing to me is watching this absolute denial of reality that they've created in real time while the trial is still going on this completely alternative timeline, that has no basis in reality. And you can just turn on the TV and watch the trial live to see that that's the case.
TikTok has spun so many women into believing that what is happening is not real
But TikTok has spun so many women into believing that what is happening in this real world is not real. And that to me is like, next level disturbing. We've seen a lot of revisionism of, past events, but this is revisionism of something that's going on in real time.
Jenna Ellis: And I'm speaking with Bethany Mandel, who's an editor at, the Heroes of Liberty and wrote this great Piece also in the NewSong York Post as well as the Daily Wire. You can find those pieces online, talking about this whole topic. And it's so true that the defense, who are actually the ones who are vested with the legal responsibility to present the defense in court, they're not using a lot of these theories. that's also true for ah, Tyler Robinson in the Charlie Kirk, murder case. And so it's this weird kind of cultural psychosis that somehow these TikTok sleuths think that they as completely irrelevant parties, they're not involved at all. They haven't reviewed any of the evidence personally, that they can somehow be the investigators, the detectives and the lawyers better than the actual people on the ground. I mean better than the FBI in Charlie Kirk's case. I mean it's just, it's so wild that it's, it seems like the the whole drama of it all is almost more for entertainment value and somehow we forget that there are real people involved. I mean Erica Kirk has been so maligned horrendously by Candace Owens following and now Patrick Clancy as well. And those things are a second part of, and facet of, of, of the, the victim hood that they have already experienced just through the crime itself, which is entirely unfair. And so I mean how, how do we get a grasp on this as, as a society? Because I don't think that perpetuating all of this on TikTok and across social media is going to be in any way overall helpful for true, just,
Bethany Mandel: I mean I'm a big first amendment person. I think, you know, it's important to have these wide open ways of communicating. We have to figure out how to navigate those. But on TikTok, TikTok should just be illegal and I truly do not understand why it's not there. It was a bipartisan decision. It is an op by a foreign government that is hostile towards us to drive us crazy and it works really well. So I think that this is just yet another data point in TikTok should not exist. And there are other forms of social media out there that are not radicalizing people nearly to the degree that TikTok is. so I think that that's step number one. But step number two, we just need to be raising our children with a sense of morals, that you know, bullying a widow is bad. Somehow that got lost in translation in the generations. But, but we need to make everyone more discerning. And I'm not sure how you do that with an adult. So you know, let's focus on the next generation of kids to make sure that they understand that bullying a widow and bullying a man who buried his three children, is deeply evil. Yeah.
Jenna Ellis: And it does seem to be so difficult to get a handle on a monster that, that's so big as social media. I mean, this kind of social proofing that instead of just having, you know, one or two people in the context of their actual neighbors around them, talking about some of these conspiracies, you have these mass online groups that now can form into and encourage each other. And you mentioned earlier, Bethany, about the, the people during, the COVID pandemic who kind of put on their tinfoil hats and they were right in a lot of ways. And so now it seems like, because some of those, what would have been called conspiracies in 2020 and the few years after prove to be right. Now it seems like there is a whole viewpoint that every conspiracy must be correct instead of the actual facts and prevailing narrative. And that becomes really dangerous when we start blurring facts and reality with anyone's conspiracy just because they gain attention on the Internet.
Lindsay Clancy videos show women projecting negative emotions onto their own children
But I also think that there is a, really interesting gender component here because we're seeing that this is obviously mostly who are identifying so strongly with Lindsay Clancy, and that deals with fear surrounding postpartum depression, psychosis, anxiety. And it also seems like in an age where women are being told that they can have it all, that they, that their lives shouldn't change, that anyone toxic should be removed from their lives, they are now projecting that onto their own children. And I think assuming somehow that if anything isn't exactly perfect, then somehow they need to be able to control their environment in a way that allows them to live the life that they prefer and the outcomes that they desire. And that is also really dangerous when you mix that with what the psychiatrists and all of the medication are handing out to them, and it just seems like we are rapidly barreling off, this, this cliff that does not appreciate. Ah. And even dehumanizes, not just unborn children, but now even, women who have young children. And a lot of these videos are very dehumanizing to their own, children who are babies, toddlers, and even older.
Bethany Mandel: Yeah, and this is a whole other sort of aspect of the Lindsey Clancy thing is, these are women, in my opinion, who have been gentle parented and who are gentle parenting themselves. This is second generation gentle parented. And so they were never told, life isn't fair, Suck it up and just do it. And so they don't know how to suck it up, they don't know how to work through difficulty. And, you know, hearkening back to our, earlier conversation about therapeutic speak, they focus on the negative and they harp on it and they dwell and they cannot move past it and see, you know, this is a difficult afternoon, but it's been a great day. They're incapable of making that assessment. and now they're gentle parenting and it's misery. Like, of course it's misery. If you're, if your three year old is in charge of the ship, that's going to be an unpleasant experience. And so instead of standing up and saying, this is what we're doing now, we're putting our shoes on, we're walking out the door, they're hiding in their bathrooms. And this is a social media phenomenon. They're throwing ice cubes in their bathtub to get out their rage. These are women who have no coping strategies, who are not utilizing coping strategies with their own children. and of course they're miserable. This is, you know, progressive ideology. In practice, it makes people miserable. And, it seems like they want that. That is the goal here. It gives them credit to, and it gives them social media attention to complain instead of just being resilient. That is, that is no longer something that people aspire to be.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And it seems like the next iteration of the leftists yelling at the sky and screaming at the sky, like we saw back, you know, when Trump first got elected. But it's even worse now because it involves not just them being mad at politics, but involving their own children.
How damaging will this be if the jury finds Lindsey Clancy not guilty
So, last question for you and Bethany. I so appreciate you joining us for this really important conversation. how damaging overall will this be if the jury finds Lindsey Clancy not guilty, and does not hold her accountable for her own moral agency?
Bethany Mandel: I think it'll be really disturbing. I think that it sets a really dangerous precedent. Not that I think that there's going to be, you know, a spate of copycats. I'm not necessarily afraid of that, although obviously that would be horrifying. But I'm more afraid of the idea that women cannot be held responsible for their own emotions. That feels very retrograde. And, it's inexplicable to me that progressive feminists are not, you know, the ones standing up and saying, wait a second, guys, we can be anything. We can be firefighters, we can be police officers, and we can also be responsible for our own actions.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And I really hope that, the Jury at least will see the evidence, not weigh the emotion and go where the facts and the evidence show. but we've got to take a break here. Bethany Mandel, really appreciate it. You can follow her on X@ BethanyShondark and you can also listen to her and read her pieces in Daily Wire and also the NewSong York Post. And we just need to be praying for this culture and all of these women who are trying to find solace in these online, you know, TikTok, sort of videos and these communities that are clearly not helping them parse fact from emotion and have good coping mechanisms. We're going to talk about that a little bit more after the break and we will be right back with more here on Jenna Ellis in the morning.
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CDC reports about one in five American adults have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And we've been talking over the last week or so a lot about the rise of mental health issues in America and across the world and also how this case, this Lindsey Clancy case has really put a spotlight on what's going on in our society through a lot of these, these videos that are being posted on social media. I mean and some of these are just so absolutely tragic, to watch because you can see how mothers even holding their children are suggesting that somehow, you know, their life is not Going well, because now they have children and that there is as blame that they're assigning to their, their children for, you know, messing up their lives or disturbing their lives. And, and you know, it's. It's been really just fascinating to look at the numbers of American adults and specifically, women who have been diagnosed with some kind of anxiety disorder. So about the CDC reports about one in five American adults have been diagnosed with some kind of anxiety disorder. And the latest 2024 data show 19% of US adults report having ever been told by a health professional that they had some kind of anxiety disorder. And women consistently report substantially more anxiety than men. So in a 2022 National Health Interview Survey, 21.4% of women reported anxiety symptoms among the previous two weeks compared to a, 14 point of men. So that's roughly about 45% higher in women. And so this isn't just a post Covid phenomenon because, my pastor was actually talking about this yesterday and did a phenomenal sermon, along the same lines of of anxiety and talking through what actually is this Biblically. And I want to get into that. but he went through kind of, you know, what has happened since. Since the turn of the century and since, you know, 2000 when we were all worried that, you know, Y2K was. I mean, I remember that. I mean, I was about 15 and I still remember, you know, kind of sitting there waiting, you know, kind of for the world to crumble. And then we've had, you know, very significant world events, since then. But the COVID phenomenon, and especially the young people who are kind of coming of age in that whole era, that really shaped how they view life, how they view working from home versus having to go into an office. In fact, a friend of mine was talking about her friend who, is about 26 or so now and actually had to go into the office for the first time this, year and couldn't handle it and thought, you know, I. Why am I having to go into an office? And I'm, you know, I can't not just have all of the comforts of home and literally like couldn't handle it. And so you have to ask yourself, and ask the question, really, what is anxiety and what's driving kind of this behavior? And what does the Bible speak to? Well, anxiety is really defined as the fear of the loss of control. Because if you think about it, whenever we fear something, it's an unknown outcome. If we are concerned or we are genuinely fearful about something that may happen, it's because we don't know and also because we can't control that outcome. And if you think about the the feelings of anxiety, maybe you know, you personally have even had that is surrounding an event or a change or something that does not go in the way that you prefer. And so this illusion of safety in control gives rise to anxiety because of an intolerance of uncertainty.
Many millennials are estranged from their parents because they think their parents are toxic
And this is where as my previous guest Bethany was talking about, you know, this kind of uncertainty in our circumstances or in changes or in, you know, what happens after we have kids or we or we change our circumstances, the loss of a job, the loss of perhaps a parent, a change in any kind of circumstance, especially if that's not something that we chose, or even if it is, it doesn't go exactly how we imagined, then suddenly we are feeling anxious, we are feeling fearful. And it usually is because there is a loss of control of preferred outcomes. And this is what our society is largely telling us. If you go to, you know, the secular psychologists, and psychotherapists, they, they tell you, well, if someone is toxic, remove them from your life. There's a big piece on the Epoch Times with statistics showing how many millennials and younger are estranged from their parents. Why? Because they think that their parents are toxic and so they just remove them from their lives. if, if your job is toxic, go, go get a different one. If someone is toxic, you know, then just remove them from your lives. And this is now translating for a lot of these women in the Lindsay Clancy scenario is your children are toxic. Why? Because they actually expect you to not be selfish. You can't have everything the way that you prefer. If anyone else is a part of your daily life, whether that is a spouse, it may be, aging parents, it may even be pets, or you know, or children that are fully dependent on you. You a lot of this change is because if you bring in someone in your home that is a dependent, then necessarily you will not be able to live as selfishly as you did when you were the child and when your parents were responsible for taking care of you. And this whole gentle parenting, phenomenon has as so many issues with it, lack of discipline. We're seeing, you know, the rise of a culture that doesn't want to have children and adults spaces because adults are selfish, but also because adults don't discipline children and don't teach them how to behave in public spaces. And so there's Just this whole host of problems. But we can boil it down to a lack of understanding of what life is genuinely all about. Because life is not meant to serve me. My life is not so that I can get as much as I can out of it. The.
Jenna Ellis: The pleasure, the opportunity, the, the. The happiness, the control, everything that serves me. The Bible tells us something completely opposite. It says, take up your cross, surrender to the Lord. What does surrender mean? Well, our, sermon yesterday was all about this word submission, which usually, of course, you know, is in the context of Ephesians and marriage and wives submitting to husbands. But it also goes on to say, husbands, submit likewise to your wives. And also that we are supposed to submit to one another. There are so many one anothers in Scripture of how we are to live in church community, in civil society with one another, how we are to prefer one another as greater than ourselves, that we are to serve one another. All of these things. And it all stems from the greatest submission of all. Surrendering to the Lord. Because when we realize that we actually cannot control our circumstances, yes, we make daily decisions. We hopefully walk in the wisdom of the Lord. We walk in his will. But when we realize that ultimately, even with our best laid plans, things happen, pain happens, even good things, good changes are still changes that are sometimes difficult. That this life is not meant to simply provide us pleasure. That the ultimate purpose of life is to know the Lord and worship him and love him and then extend that knowledge to everyone else possible. Our entire view of life changes when we realize we are not in control. And the purpose of life is not for ourselves, but ultimately to worship the One who made us. And it's a completely different view of life because the Lord tells us that we can be still and we can have joy and comfort and hope in the knowledge that he is in control of all things. That no matter what this life brings, what tragedies, trials, or even joys and blessings that cause changes and disruptions in our life befall us, it ultimately doesn't matter. Because we have the hope in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And, as my pastor was preaching yesterday, I was thinking. And then he brought up, the verse in Proverbs that a man plans his way, but God orders, or some translations say, establishes his steps. The Bible is prolific and rife with the admonition that we do not control our circumstances. We do not control when we're born, we don't control when we die. We don't control any of the major things about ourselves. God's sovereignty does. And the sooner we reconcile with that, then the sooner we can actually reduce our anxiety. Because isn't it a good thing that it's not all up to us, that we are not totally 100% in control of everything and we don't have to fight and push and pull and, and figure, out who's toxic or not or all of these other things in our lives in order to find joy. Because joy in the Lord is not about, this notion that the secular world tells us that we must feel happiness 247 if we're doing life the right way, if we have any negative feelings whatsoever, then something must, be going wrong and you must try to change your circumstances. Control is always what people are striving for when they have anxiety over their circumstances instead of giving it to the Lord and saying, I may not like what's going on, but I understand that you are sovereign and I am surrendering wholly to your will. I mean, this is the same thing. I was reading an article yesterday about, a woman who, who gave her pet to a friend. and that was the thrust of the article about how, you know, this pet was thriving. but it said in the article because she left life on her own terms. And I thought that is the ultimate desire for control. To say, I am not going to give the Lord my circumstances, my life, and ultimately when I meet Him, I want to even go so far as to not only live life on my own terms, but leave life on my own terms. That is completely antithetical to what the Bible teaches. And so this whole illusion of safety and control gives into anxiety when we can have something so much better. The joy of the Lord and recognizing he is in control. So we as Christians need to figure out what is it that we need to surrender in our own lives and how we can put prefer one another and ultimately prefer Christ instead of ourselves. As always, you can reach me and my team Jenna at AFR Badminton. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion. And every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies. Lives, lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com afr.
Jenna Ellis discusses the implications of President Trump's tariff strategy and its impact on trade negotiations with Canada. Joined by Auron MacIntyre, they dive into the complexities of economic warfare and the potential ramifications for the Republican Party as midterms approach. Later Jenna interviews Bethany Mandel on the cultural obsession with true crime narratives, particularly in the context of the tragic Lindsey Clancy case, and how social media influences public perception and personal responsibility.
(00:00) Jenna Ellis: When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound she chooses life
(01:02) Trade negotiations with Canada have collapsed and the US has imposed tariffs
(07:52) Reports say Democrats discussed housing, immigration if they take control of House
(14:19) Oren McIntyre: It's going to be so important in midterms
(15:59) The murder trial of Lindsey Clancy is entering its final stages
(17:28) Bethany Mandel says social media is fueling mass psychosis over Lindsay Clancy
(26:58) TikTok has spun so many women into believing that what is happening is not real
(31:20) Lindsay Clancy videos show women projecting negative emotions onto their own children
(34:35) How damaging will this be if the jury finds Lindsey Clancy not guilty
(36:26) 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing baby on ultrasound
(37:48) CDC reports about one in five American adults have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder
(42:01) Many millennials are estranged from their parents because they think their parents are toxic
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