Point of View July 19, 2024 – Hour 1 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:00] Nintendo Switch Tournament

[00:00:47] We've learned a lot more and we've actually post a piece from the New York Times Which talks about the blind spot and lost trail how the gunman got so close to Donald Trump

[00:00:57] So we have certainly a lot to talk about today. And of course we have in studio with us. Dr Murrow Matthews resident scholar where the Institute for policy innovation first of all, thank you for covering for me yesterday

[00:01:09] It was a good show and I thank you for having me again. It was good to have you here I was at a funeral. Otherwise, I would have been here and then I would have been here Wednesday But they decided to a millennia roundtable. So Holly Randall again

[00:01:21] She is the Associate Counsel for First Liberty and thank you for being around the roundtable then Yeah, I saw the news this last weekend and thought oh my goodness. I'm on point of view twice next week

[00:01:32] Well, I think we know and that is we of course had the speech by the president last night I guess we have to get that other way longest speech in the history of political 93 minutes

[00:01:44] We have never had one that long but it started out well because at one point he shared something I'll give him a lot of credit for the fact that if you've been shot at by an assassin

[00:01:54] Maybe you're gonna go a little longer and as he said as you know The assassins bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life So many people asked me what happened tell me what happened, please and therefore

[00:02:04] I will tell you exactly what happened and you'll never hear it from me a second time because it's actually too painful to tell Again, we will talk about the assassination attempt But if nothing else

[00:02:17] I'll give him some credit for wanting to go a little bit longer because it was a life-changing kind of experience, wasn't it? Yeah I mean

[00:02:24] I guess I heard he had a speech written and he changed a lot of it after what happened on Saturday and took a little bit of a different approach and It seemed like he wanted to give his side of you know

[00:02:35] What his perspective on the shooting was and then go back into the campaign rally that he didn't get to finish So it's kind of a two-part special that we got last night, but I'll give him credit 93 minutes is he outlasted me

[00:02:45] I took a little snooze in the middle and I think that's right And I think if I remember right he went 115 or went hour and 15 is his first acceptance speech in 2016 so He may have both the longest and the second

[00:03:01] But since you can only do it twice that's We won't we won't be hearing any more about that. But yes, it was a he did a Good job, but just about everybody noticed there was the sort of muted almost humble

[00:03:16] Self-reflecting Donald Trump for the first 20 minutes or so and then he kind of shifts back I think a little less aggressive than he has been at times But he kind of shifted back into traditional Donald Trump for the rest of the speech

[00:03:27] I've had some people when he was speaking send little texas like well, I'd like to see what the fact-checkers are going to say and my favorite line which I've used on the air a couple of times is Donald Trump just needs two extra words of

[00:03:41] The more of or something like that in other words to say the greatest Tax cut in history one of the greatest Yeah, he could just use one of occasionally instead of the greatest tax cut We close the border, you know and just add just a little bit less

[00:03:58] Hyperbole, I think the fact-checkers would still claim that he didn't actually speak the truth, but I guess Nobody's ever accused of Donald Trump of being shy and not excasionally exaggerating, right? Yeah

[00:04:10] And I heard that part of the rewrite of his speech was that his goal was gonna be not to say President Biden's name the whole time and so we were listening for it and he slipped out there was that one moment

[00:04:20] I just think he couldn't resist and then Later in this we noticed he said I said his name once and I'm not gonna say the end So it was interesting the way that things shifted and kind of his perspective on I'm gonna talk about my successes

[00:04:32] And I'm gonna try to bring unity and he accidentally named robbed Nancy Pelosi and he accidentally named dropped Biden But I think he couldn't resist on those. I think he did a good job of doing giving a speech that was

[00:04:42] Unifying instead of divisive. I think it's especially for the group there and there were there were errors in there We said we've had the highest inflation ever You could say highest and you could sit highest in Holly's lifetime

[00:05:01] But there are several things which are which were essentially wrong but you know as I looked at this and this was just I looked at the other channels CNN MSNBC and others to just see how the commentators and

[00:05:14] Hands down everybody agrees. This was well this whole convention was well done. Everybody is agreed It was brought on it was take it was done. Well, I seem to run on time The whether you liked all the speakers not that you had this mix of people

[00:05:29] Monday night the african-american woman from New York who talked about a son being killed. I'm very very emotional You had you just had people average people coming up telling their stories You also had some non average people like Hulk Hogan step there

[00:05:44] I could rock up there and Lee Greenwood Singing the song so you had it was just done very very well, but what I came away with This this Republican Party. It's not the same Republican Party as it wasn't George. I'm gonna say boy so different It's different

[00:06:00] But the this is a very unified party right now if you're a Democrat and you've got your convention coming up in about three weeks What do you do because even if Joe Biden stays in and you know people half the people there

[00:06:14] Maybe more are gonna wish he wasn't there if he's there as their nominee if it's Kamala Harris Maybe 75% are gonna wish she wasn't the nominee. I I just don't if I were a Democrat now I don't know what I would be doing because you don't have a unified

[00:06:30] Convention regardless of what you do. Yes I do want to also mention the fact that when you are talking about these similarity part of that I think helps when your daughter-in-law is running RNC

[00:06:43] It helps when she did it very good and when almost everybody's on the same page JD Vance the difference policy wise between Donald Trump and JD Vance is like a Venn diagram where the two completely overlap and so in some respects

[00:06:59] You don't have what you've had in other Republican conventions. Think of Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush think of a Variety of other individuals that where there was a little bit of a difference even Barack Obama and Joe Biden

[00:07:13] I mean there were differences and they would show up in the delegates and things of that nature You really had everybody pretty much in lockstep and that helped as well, didn't it?

[00:07:22] Yeah, Nikki Haley sort of the only one I think you said yeah, you don't have to agree with him on everything To still vote for him and I'm gonna vote for him Do you think I do want to get your comments and maybe after the break?

[00:07:34] we'll talk about JD Vance because one of the individuals was simply saying that You can certainly see if you were to have him be a Democrat how everyone would be talking about him because I went back and watched the trailer for Hillbilly elegy and

[00:07:49] That and also read a little more about the book and things like that But here is an individual that just grows up in a horrible set of circumstances Serves in the Marines goes to OSU goes to Yale Law School

[00:08:02] He's the editor of the Law Review and all that and a lot of people said well He was chosen because people could relate to him But in some respects the point that they were making is he was also picked because the working-class Not necessarily won't love him

[00:08:16] But because it shows that the elite never accepted him because he was a Republican and I guarantee you that if he Was a Democrat right now We'd be hearing about this and time and Newsweek and CNN and MSNBC because that's an incredible story

[00:08:32] But because of his views, you know, they're going to be vilifying him as well But I want to get your thoughts about that because in some respects it looked like Donald Trump was picking a clone

[00:08:42] But I'd like to see what you have to think and we'll talk about that right after this Is viewpoints with Kirby Anderson? It's time to have a meaningful conversation about tipping for two reasons first

[00:09:06] There is a significant reaction to the expectation of tipping second tipping may become a political issue Donald Trump declared in Nevada when I get to office, we're going to not charge taxes on tips. Why do we tip? Well historically it goes back centuries

[00:09:21] Andy Kessler talks about London taverns in the 17th century That suggested tipping to ensure a promptitude or to put it in modern terms to ensure prompt service Frankly many customers tip today because the percentage is already on the credit card screen

[00:09:37] It is easier to add a tip than to zero it out and then feel guilty Now most of us are glad to tip people who perform an important service The frustration comes when we're asked to tip at a fast-food restaurant

[00:09:48] When we must pick up the food take it to the table Refill our own drinks and then throw away our garbage the social and economic consequences of tipping are significant The IRS reported 38 billion dollars in reported tips a few years ago

[00:10:02] That would likely mean a loss of income in taxes But what might this do to human behavior will employers pay less because they assume that workers are getting tax-free income Will other professions start asking to be paid in tips?

[00:10:16] Here's another question if we no longer tax tips will they go up or down? according to the Fair Labor Standards Act Employers receive a tip credit between two dollars and thirteen cents per hour and the federal minimum wage in a sense

[00:10:31] Your tips now pay part of the workers base salary. Will that increase or decrease? I think America needs to get ready to have a serious conversation about tipping I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view

[00:10:43] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet a biblical view on loneliness go to viewpoints.info Loneliness, that's viewpoints.info loneliness You're listening to point of view your listener supported source for truth back once again

[00:11:04] If you would like to join the conversation, that is 1-800-351-1212. Of course, we've had four days of Republican Convention It is hard to even pull all the highlights out and even some of the lowlights But as you said, dr. Merrill Matthews, it was a very well-run

[00:11:20] Convention and as the two guys that are a little bit old around the table You sometimes pay attention to the background and remember when Joe Biden had kind of this red background when we speak in a while back

[00:11:33] Background last night sure look like the White House. Yes, and you said off-air but we might mention on air reminds you of 2008 2008 when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech I think and wasn't in Colorado and in the bowl. There is an open stadium

[00:11:49] So I was thinking Chicago, but it could have been yeah, I think That's right. You're I think it may have been dance when he was secretary of the presidency. Yeah, and so when

[00:11:57] He had this sort of Parthenon looking thing behind him, which which struck people as very odd But it worked it worked fairly well with him And I think the White House background works well for Donald Trump last night The

[00:12:10] As you mentioned his family was up there in that box I don't think we typically see the president showing up the first couple of nights or the presidential candidate he was there every night sitting there listening to the presentations, but what I thought was just

[00:12:25] Television gold was in his grandchildren came in and his little his little granddaughter sits on his knee while he's watching this If you're Donald Trump has a has a has some baggage in his past And if you want to try to get past that having the granddad

[00:12:40] Sitting there with his granddaughter on his knee and he's holding her while she you see her kind of yawning and getting tired That was I just thought that was really good for an image I don't know if it was planned, but it was a good image. Yeah 10 grandchildren

[00:12:52] Another element. I want to get either of your comments as well because we of course had the death of a Corey Comptor who was the firefighter and I thought that was interesting to bring on to the stage what he actually wore

[00:13:05] Yeah, I thought that was a really great move on his part to recognize that. Yes, you know the The shooter at the rally was aiming for Donald Trump, but there was a fallout from this beyond that and their families of

[00:13:19] The comparator family and the other two people that are injured that are hurting because of this just beyond You know what Saturday meant for our country And so I thought that was a smart move for him to really recognize that there's other people that were victims here, too

[00:13:32] It's not just about him helped his humility a little bit absolutely right and the one thing I thought was missing and it may just be the family didn't want to do this But I would have I was waiting for him to say and we've got the family

[00:13:44] In our box or something of that nature they may not have won come wanted to come out But that I thought that I expected that and it didn't expected that

[00:13:54] I even wondered if he'd take the bandage off and say for the people saying I wasn't shot because you know you're starting to see Even mainstream people suggesting this was a setup which is you know talk about conspiracy theories

[00:14:06] Anyway I was I was thinking about that we're by the way I just might mention we're gonna get to the shooter and this very good article appeared in New York Times Let's give credit where credit is due they take us through in systematic ways what happens

[00:14:19] And actually happened with the assassin and then of course we also have very good piece by Kelly Shackleford who won't be here But certainly we'll be talking about that as well Ed Meese and the rest But we did also

[00:14:30] I think have an emphasis on the different groups, and if I can quote from Vivek Rameshwami I thought he did a good job at one point. He says you know to those of you watching home tonight

[00:14:42] I want to deliver a message our message to black Americans is this and he begins to go through some of that He says our message to legal immigrants if you're like my parents you deserve the opportunity to secure a better life for your children

[00:14:54] But my message to illegal immigrants is we will return you to your country of origin Not because you're all bad people because you broke the law then he goes on to say our message to Millennials

[00:15:04] Speaking as one myself and then goes through all those kinds of things talking about how he was Feels like they were sold a false bill of goods for the Iraq War

[00:15:14] And then our message to Gen Z is this you're going to be the generation that actually saves this country and goes on through that And I have so many times Holly when we have you here

[00:15:25] We talk about the youth vote, and I think Vivek Rameshwami was thinking there are different groups out here that oftentimes Republicans have conceded to the Democrats and in this case Neither he nor JD Vance nor Donald Trump are conceding those these time

[00:15:41] The deck is a very convincing speaker He's very talented when he gets on stage And I think it was a wise move of him to speak directly to groups like you said that have maybe been

[00:15:50] Sort of underappreciated by the Republican Party for many years and tell him, you know, we know you're out there We care about your vote. We care about what policies are going to affect you Donald Trump definitely showed that when he picked a vice presidential candidate. That's 39 years old

[00:16:04] I mean thinking about someone that's just a decade older than me being a 78 year old heartbeat away from the presidency is like a little bit a little crazy to think about we have two extremes Here, I don't think that's a bad thing

[00:16:16] But I think it's showing that the Republican Party is making efforts right now to try to target voters that maybe feel a little bit overlooked by some of the Democrats sort of elitist wokest kind of

[00:16:28] Taking certain groups of people in their vote for granted and I think they're doing a good job of extending a hand saying hey millennials We're looking out for you or hey, you know minority voters We're enacting policies that are gonna be helpful to your communities

[00:16:41] You know, I was also impressed to how many of these speakers are not natural speakers This is not something they do and you're going out and you're speaking to millions of people I was so impressed with some and some of these just did such a good job

[00:16:56] Probably the only one I thought that looked a little bit like a deer in the headlights is Usha Van She did fine But it it looks like you know

[00:17:04] This is not my natural thing to be talking to this many people and you just see a bit of nervousness Even Dana White was up there if you saw him holding sheet of paper from the side that that paper shaking like this

[00:17:16] And he's been very charged up on his speech But they just they had average people out there and you and I occasionally speak to large groups of people It can be nervous when you nerve-wracking we got a

[00:17:30] Thousand or more people out there and yet they can stepped up there and did a good job on television Yes reading off teleprompters and again when I thought was so interesting is you had like the gold star families and some of those and

[00:17:42] Again, people listen to this right now going to say well I didn't see those because I would sometimes see oh that was a really great message by the African American woman by the individual lost his sister or whatever and then I would go over to

[00:17:56] MSNBC and they're just talking they're not actually playing that so unless you were watching it on Fox News or See and you know C-SPAN or something like that You didn't see some of these individuals who were not polished speakers

[00:18:08] But I think brought an enormous amount to the table because they were reminding us what happens when you don't have a closed border yeah, I think that's exactly right and that's that was I think a concert a effort on the part of the RNC to really humanize

[00:18:25] What's going on in politics, I think I've seen it with Donald Trump and the assassination attempt You've seen it with some of the you know, here's what's going on at the border Here's how it's affecting people

[00:18:33] You had the mothers of crime victims coming up and speaking that weren't usually in front of large crowds And they really made an effort to say this is not just politics This is people and people really matter to us as a party

[00:18:43] And so we want to make sure that you feel like your concerns And I don't have any in any information on this inside information But it wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw clips of some of these people in the ads that are coming up

[00:18:55] the administration is getting ready to go out and buy a lot of airtime and you might have something like Joe Biden saying our border is closed and these immigrants and then you go to the African American lady on Monday night

[00:19:07] Talking about how her son was killed and oh boy the attorney District Attorney of New York just let them off and so forth you I would it would surprise me if we saw some of those

[00:19:18] Juxtapositions of things so they may we may see you get to see him again and I was just thinking, you know, there's a biblical principle, but let other people praise you and

[00:19:26] Whether it's a Dana White or whoever it might be or Vivek Ramaswamy or these kinds of individuals There were so many things said about Donald Trump and I thought it was interesting because you also get to see his cabinet because when he called up Doug Burnham

[00:19:42] Doug Burnham is of course the governor of North Dakota, right? He called him. I said, mr. Secretary Those are the first words out of his mouth and even said what? Position would you like so what I said last week is if you watch some of these individual speakers

[00:19:57] You can either see who will be in the cabinet or you can see where they're going to be four years from now because Even if Donald Trump is elected and he may indeed be he'll be a lame duck

[00:20:06] So do you not think we'll hear again from Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis and you know Maybe Tim Scott ends up in the cabinet, but I mean you start getting a sense of what could happen four years from now

[00:20:18] Let me just deliver the worst news yet. The next presidential election starts November 6 But I think it was interesting that he referred to Doug Burgum as mr. Secretary I think you're gonna see Vivek Ramaswamy and a few others

[00:20:42] Treasury secretary. Yes, who would have you know, I wish not but that's another whole story there. But Anyway, that's that's just a whole set of circumstances that if nothing else I think we might want to summarize we come back from the break though

[00:20:57] Let me get to some of the other articles one of those which we've posted comes from The New York Times It's put together. I think a good summary of how did we know that this individual looked? Suspicious they photographed him and the rest and yet

[00:21:14] How did he get so close to the president and pull off a shot? So we'll give you some things that are in this article There's also a good timeline that Gary Bowers produced so we'll get into some of those issues right after these important messages

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[00:22:50] You are listening to point of view The Opinions expressed on point of view do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station and Now here again is Kirby Anderson in studio with us Holly Randall and dr Murrow Matthews

[00:23:16] And if you'd like to join us one eight hundred three five one one two one two one of the articles We've posted here comes from the New York Times I thought this three-page

[00:23:24] Summary is a good summary for those of you that receive the end-of-day report from Gary Bauer his Thursday breaks it down timewise But I'm going to give you the really sort of the CliffsNotes

[00:23:34] Version of it very quickly and that is the local officers early on spotted this one skinny young man acting oddly Informed the Secret Service through the radio and though he didn't have a weapon they started taking pictures of him 20 minutes later a

[00:23:51] Sniper from a distance spotted him again and took his picture apparently there's a way to do that through the scope I did not know that then the call it was made to go ahead with the rat reality rally itself

[00:24:02] That's where you have Marcia Blackburn and some of the others saying how did this happen? Don Vangino was talking about this many ways go on and then finally they Sort of are looking for him the warehouse Originally was seen not as a threat, but is a possible observation

[00:24:21] Post a place where they could watch the crowd which is where they focused their attention Which is why this particular articles called the blind spot and then the lost trail Because it created a blind spot in which even though he was within rifle range

[00:24:40] Nobody actually took it as a potential danger place and that's explaining as they say how a gunman with no military training and little subtlety was able to get there and Then just we do know his background. He went to a shooting range on Friday

[00:24:55] He went to Home Depot to buy a ladder and a number of other things He also put together two homemade bombs with fertilizer in fuel somebody living in Oklahoma can relate to that only so well

[00:25:06] And then actually had an opportunity if he wanted to to remotely explode those which did not happen Maybe because he was killed by the sniper and then you have even in 603 p.m

[00:25:20] Witnesses noticing him crawling into his position on the roof if you've gone out on the internet You've seen some of the pictures taking there. They've alerted Secret Service perimeter control this is two minutes before the shooting he fires his rifle

[00:25:35] They estimate eight times. That's what it says in this article. Although I've heard some people say 11 so, I don't know what else are counting and Of course that is what the rest of us know and it just again raises some fundamental questions

[00:25:48] First of all, dr. Merrill Matthews with the whole Secret Service are we actually providing the best? Protection for presidential candidates given up until a few days ago Robert F

[00:26:00] Kennedy jr. Did not even have protection and he had asked for protection and Biden would not give it to him until this happened And my understanding is the Secret Service has had trouble retaining people for some time There is a story out on the free press Barry Weiss's

[00:26:19] Publication from a journalist who's been tracking the Secret Service for some time and and what she wrote in that was that the secrets of the new head of the Secret Service

[00:26:28] Has tried to move to the diversity equity and inclusion and make sure that they had more women more minorities and others Included in there and that this has this is sort of lowered the standards and the abilities some of these people are new and you know

[00:26:43] There was a lot of discussion about one of the Secret Service people who a lady Who couldn't who pulled her gun? But then couldn't seem to get it back in the holster

[00:26:51] And I don't know if that was because the holster had a cover on it or what but you see her Keep trying to push her gun back into her holster can't seem to get it there and it just it just

[00:27:01] Several of the Secret Service people as soon as the shots rang out and they saw that they got on top of him Several of them did it look to me like a very very good job

[00:27:09] But you may have some lack of competence out there as well among some of the newer people. Yeah Yeah, I agree I mean I think it's certainly one of those things where we should be having people that are the best suited for the job in the job

[00:27:21] And I'm just selecting something like the security of the president based on qualifications that are not You know, I guess merit-based would be the word there. I Laughed Trump is not a short person. He's a pretty tall man. I knew we were going to see

[00:27:36] yeah, you can see there's you know a woman standing in front of them and I'm of The idea that you know a female can do a job just as well as any man can but she has to be able to physically

[00:27:48] Keep up right and that woman is about half the height of Trump. And so as a tall female, I'm like, come on Let's get someone that's tall enough to actually protect the president there in that spot

[00:27:59] So I guess that's where you probably thought I was going with it, but I just thought it was not You know, she's not guarding him There's gonna be several hearings on this the head of the Secret Service now has already come under a lot of heat

[00:28:14] And don't you know secretary Mayorkas has said I had full he has full confidence in her we'll see if that continues But she will be facing a lot of pressure based upon

[00:28:25] What looks like some some serious problems there and now they put the FBI in charge of the investigation And of course the FBI was Donald Trump has his own issues with the FBI

[00:28:36] And so if you're thinking and I think the vast majority of FBI agents are fine civil servants You know Americans, I don't have any but some of the leadership has had a problem Especially lying to the FISA court and other things

[00:28:51] In order to try to get Donald Trump back some years ago So if you hand it over to the FBI does everybody have assurance that this is going to be even if it's done perfectly It just raises these kinds of questions and it's not above questioning

[00:29:05] Let me come back to Holly because your reaction I think is typical. I'm seen Again, I don't go out on tick-tock too often and also these places but I'm having people your age or younger But these are individuals that are saying the FBI is investigating the FBI

[00:29:21] The CIA is investigating the CIA the Secret Service is investigating the Secret Service And there are people your age and older and younger than you that are going and we expect anything to come of this

[00:29:32] Oh my gosh. Yeah, I think you did the right mannerism right there for everyone listening Kirby's threw his hands up and the pin dropped You know

[00:29:38] It kind of feels like that sometimes when you're wondering like who can we trust who's investigating this who dropped the ball who didn't drop? The ball who's being honest in their report This is one of those situations where you know

[00:29:49] We've already seen it starting to happen that the kind of like deep state conspiracies can really run wild easily And you know, I think I am a little bit like everybody

[00:29:57] Let's pump the brakes and like let's see, you know what goes on and hope for good intentions of everyone investigating But yeah, it's something that we're gonna need good thing We have Elon Musk running Twitter now, right because there's gonna mean a lot of free speech

[00:30:09] It goes on in the next few years surrounding this issue and Mary Weiss to it free press And you know, the other point is there's just there's been no accountability in this administration for virtually anything. Yeah You've got the thing about is Joe Biden capable of firing anybody

[00:30:26] And With respect to government rules and unions people who are unionized government workers It's hard to fire somebody you have to go through a lot of steps to try to do it and it's still difficult

[00:30:38] But even so there are government appointees that Biden put in there and he can fire somebody and you just don't get the sense that Anybody is getting fired. Nobody got fired for his debate performance. Maybe he's going to be but

[00:30:52] It's just it's just interesting to see how nobody gets fired they have gone to say I withdraw which is one the border is another one and We were actually around the table here trying to think of any person that Donald Trump has fired

[00:31:06] The Joe Biden is fired. Donald Trump was the quick But okay, can you think of who Joe Biden is fired He has fired the employee that stole the luggage That's how far down you have to go that's by a Biden We also talked about this

[00:31:35] How would he know if anyone's acting incompetently when he hasn't had a cabinet meeting since October? That is another one here. Let's give you the exact date here This is kind of interesting the last cabinet meeting October 2nd

[00:31:47] 2023 one of the cabinet secretary said we really don't know how he's doing because When we did have a cabinet meeting they were not freewheeling and they were pretty Orchestrated and we really don't know how he's doing because the last time I had a cabinet meeting was in October

[00:32:03] Do you think in the middle of a you know foreign war in Israel and the border being invaded? And you know health care costs everything it might be time to meet with your cabinet members

[00:32:13] This article even goes on to say that the television interviews were scripted. Oh knock me over I didn't expect that but even the radio interviews were manufactured events with the questions being pre-selected. So

[00:32:26] This gets back to one of the things Vivek Rameshwami said we want leaders that tell you the truth, you know And of course he was waxing eloquent about some foreign policy issues But I think that is another way to begin to attract the youth vote

[00:32:41] Holly and that is I think you have a generation your generation has been advertised to since you were born and you have had digital devices in front of you and Everybody's trying to get you to do something I think you we now have perhaps the most skeptical

[00:32:58] Generation in history because you've been having people telling you lies and you found out they were lies Yeah, and we're a generation that grew up with you know receipts for everything if a politician said something it's going to be saved

[00:33:10] It's going to be logged and I think that's something that we were just talking about The Trump campaign is about to use to their advantage, right? They're gonna have the facts of what Joe Biden said that have been

[00:33:19] Saved on the internet and Twitter and they're gonna be able to juxtapose that with you know The realities of what they're hearing from people on the ground So we are a generation of skepticism But it's because we've always had receipts

[00:33:29] Need to take a break and I can see that each of you around the table have more to say So we'll just hold that for a second And if you'd like to join us 1-800-351-1212 We have a lot more to cover believe me

[00:33:40] Most of it will have to go to that second hour, but we'll come back with some comments right after this Nine years ago the United States Supreme Court issued the landmark Obergefell v Hodges decision that brought same-sex marriage to every state

[00:34:04] This despite the fact that 31 states had specifically defined marriage in their laws and constitutions As being between one man and one woman many Americans still hold to that definition of marriage Especially people of faith during oral arguments in Obergefell

[00:34:19] Justice Antonin Scalia asked is it conceivable that a minister who is authorized by the state to conduct marriage? Can decline to marry two men if indeed this court holds that they have a constitutional right to marriage then he said I don't see

[00:34:33] How so far the government has not forced churches and pastors to marry same-sex couples But public officials who perform marriages often experience opposition when they refuse to do so One such official is Diane Hensley a justice of the peace in McLennan County, Texas

[00:34:49] She has refused to perform same-sex weddings and thus received a reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct citing a violation of judicial impartiality She now refers same-sex couples to nearby officiants because of the public warning She currently does not perform any weddings

[00:35:06] But in order to serve her community she would like to resume doing so in Obergefell all nine Justices affirmed that religious liberty should be protected This was a slender read to hang on to Kelly Shackleford president and CEO of First Liberty Institute predicted that post Obergefell

[00:35:23] Religious liberty would come under attack Now the organization he leads is representing Judge Hensley in her quest to win the right for any Justice of the peace in Texas to opt out of same-sex weddings while still performing other weddings

[00:35:36] The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that Judge Hensley can challenge the warning in court on the basis of her religious freedom being Violated she's fighting an important battle for point of view. I'm Pena Dexter You're listening to point of view your listener supported source for truth

[00:36:00] That's gonna be like to join the conversation 1-800-351-1212 And we have a Polly Randall and Merrill Matthews in studio with us and Holly for just a minute I thought we might just kind of look ahead. We have us now. I think it's still five weeks now

[00:36:16] It's about four weeks to the Democratic National Convention Let me add something else 60 days from now you can start voting in Pennsylvania. It's exactly three states. You can start voting 30 days after the after they're closed you can start voting in three states. That is amazing

[00:36:33] I just picked that one because that's one of the swing states some of the others don't matter as much but these swing states certainly do and So what do you do when you don't even have the Democratic Convention till later in?

[00:36:47] August and I was looking I'm sure you were enjoying this piece by dr. Merrill Matthews Biden's bad debate excuse tour Which is going you know actually been going on for some time. What's your thoughts?

[00:37:00] It cracks me up that I don't know if he's doing it as much this campaign But I know the last time remember he had that bus that he drove around that said no malarkey on the side of it when

[00:37:09] Entirely what we're doing right now is just Joe Biden malarkey, right? He has a cold and we didn't you know all the whole list of excuses in that article You wrote I was just cracking up reading it because it's so It's so absurd currently at the moment

[00:37:24] What we're trying to gaslight the American voters into believing is true about the Biden campaign. We'll take a see the list here dr Well he has the cold that was the first thing and then the question was was he taking medication

[00:37:35] And there was report initially that he was and then Kareen Jean Pierre said no. No he was not taking the medication So he had he's traveling he was traveling

[00:37:46] And I even listened to NPR report saying yeah, he said he was traveling, but I was traveling with him. We've been back 11 days The whole two weeks It's been the whole and traveling could be hard, but 11 days you should be in he's on Air Force One

[00:38:00] He can get he's got a full bed there. He can sleep, right? He's not stuck in an airport terminal with a delayed flight and they're gonna miss he's not coming back in coach

[00:38:10] And so you have that then there was this issue of the family apparently thought it was his advisors And so they wanted him to fire some advisors, but the advisors weren't they weren't on the debate They weren't on the debate stage and and I say in there

[00:38:25] He's been in government 50 years if anybody should know issues it should be Joe Biden We make the right decision, but I mean he's just been doing this all his life So it's and now you got coffee

[00:38:43] And then he said he needed to get more sleep he told the governor's he said I need to get more rest I need to be I need to not schedule anything after 8 o'clock. You're the president of the United States

[00:38:53] You don't get the luxury of not scheduling things after 8 o'clock that goes takes us back to the 2008 when you were young, right? Campaign when Hillary Clinton had that if the phone rings at the White House in 3 a at 3 a.m Who's gonna answer it?

[00:39:08] Who do you want to answer that thing and Hillary Clinton was trying to say I've got the experience to be able to do that They might be able to get Joe Biden up right he's deep in his REM cycle at that hour, you know

[00:39:20] The excuses just don't work every one of these just sort of work against if you've been traveling But you've been back for 11 days and been at Camp David for six How does that mean you're gonna be too tired the excuses just don't work?

[00:39:34] Yeah, well and it really brings us back to something we're hearing and that is this other article We've posted by Sarah Arnold Maybe the idea of a kovat diagnosis could be an excuse to drop out of the race

[00:39:47] I thought same now we are hearing that there is a real possibility. It might happen this weekend So when we get together here on Monday, we'll see where we are. But that I think brings to the issue

[00:39:59] Okay, let's assume for a minute and this still very hypothetical that Joe Biden steps down What next can anybody around the table because I certainly can't come up with any ideas I have no idea

[00:40:10] We had heard that same rumor about you know him possibly stepping down on Sunday And I looked at some of my co-workers this morning and I was like, well Should we start like a March Madness office poll about whether it happens or not?

[00:40:20] And then what do we where do we go from here? Because I just have I have no idea I know Chelsea when we were on Wednesday and the little Millennial roundtable

[00:40:29] She was like reading the DNC manual in the middle of the night to try to figure out what happened and she said it was long and complicated and

[00:40:36] It's just a position that I cannot imagine that they will be able to prevail out of when we have the Republican Party really sort Of solidifying around Trump in a way that people didn't expect to happen

[00:40:46] but is seeming to be occurring and so Kamala Harris would be the the likely heir apparent and there are reports that they're sort of testing the waters in the background, but trying not to do so because she's at least visibly still supporting the president, but

[00:41:03] You've got there are reports that the money that Biden has raised Cannot go to her until he gets the nomination, right? And that's like a give me a hundred million dollars or so That's a big chunk of money

[00:41:16] But then he would have to get the nomination and then step aside I don't know if Democrats can change the rules on those. I just I just don't know We did post the article from Wall Street Journal and it's from Charlie Spears and our spies

[00:41:28] excuse me, and he actually has been the counsel to the chairman of the Federal Election Committee and Certainly says that Biden has 100 million reasons to stay in because you can't come up with anything other than well then that funds Goes off and who knows what happens to it

[00:41:46] But you can only give two thousand dollars of it to another candidate like Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer or whoever it might be So you almost have to go to the convention then make the change but who knows it's just hard to figure out what that's going

[00:42:00] To mean but we are in uncharted territory Not think of anything like this in the modern world It feels like every you know, every news story every five minutes is a different breaking thing, right? It was the assassination

[00:42:13] It was the vice presidential nomination. It was the RNC. It's gonna be what happens with the Democrats on Sunday You know, it just feels like we have lived an entire year of politics and when we

[00:42:24] And you know the the issue on the if you are Gavin Newsom and Gavin Newsom I think would take it regardless But yeah If you know you're getting the nomination a month before early voting starts in some states and you've got almost no money though

[00:42:39] there was a group that said they could they were going around trying to raise several million dollars and if Somebody else came in to be able to provide the funds It's going to be very very hard for you for an unknown

[00:42:49] To be able to go the Republicans would be able to put out negative ads very quickly and so forth And so if you lose if you decide to do this and you lose By a landslide, maybe you win one or two or three states

[00:43:01] Then you've got that hanging over you if you want to try to run in 2028 yeah, so which is a good point because some people don't want to run and lose right and and that's right the

[00:43:14] Rahm Emanuel one time said about Beto O'Rourke when he's getting ready to run for president He said Beto O'Rourke's a loser. He lost and so we don't go with losers And so if you lost even if it's even if it's understandable

[00:43:27] It's not necessarily clear that you would be able to run again So I imagine the Trump campaign probably has some sort of decision matrix that they've been building out That's like if this then this if this then this and it's probably massive if Gretchen Whitmer then this if

[00:43:41] Gavin Newsom then we do this It's probably just a complicated thing for them just planning for the next move because they don't know either and if you're hopeful for the White House normally you're thinking if

[00:43:51] The new president comes in I've got eight possible years before I get a chance at it But you're it's going to be which whichever one of these now if it's Kamala Harris

[00:43:58] You could have eight years, but it's it's Biden or Trump. You've only got four years. So you would start the campaign In November 6 so do you really want to do that? I just I think it may be very hard for them to get a good credible candidate. Yeah

[00:44:14] Well, just mark November 6 on your calendar because dr Matthews has reminded us that the next presidential campaign starts the day after the election assume we have no Question about the actual results of the election on the night of November 5th, but we will find that out too

[00:44:31] Good time to be in the talk show business good time to be talking about these issues So we're gonna take a break we come back though

[00:44:36] One of the articles we have listed is written by our good killer friend Kelly Shackelford and Ed Meese the left's war on the rule of law and This may be a Hail Mary from Joe Biden, especially if he does not end up being the nominee

[00:44:50] But it doesn't matter because many other Democrats have wanted to change the nature of the Supreme Court Because they don't like some of the decisions coming down Supreme coup calm is a place you want to go during the break and we'll be back right after this

[00:45:05] 18th century London two towering historical figures did battle not with guns and bombs but words and ideas London was home to Karl Marx the father of communism and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon London was in many ways the center of the world economically militarily and intellectually

[00:45:34] Marx sought to destroy religion the family and everything the Bible supports Spurgeon stood against him warning of socialism's dangers Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth. It is truth for all of life Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today?

[00:45:55] Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues Delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the viewpoints commentary at point of view dotnet Signup every weekday in less than two minutes

[00:46:10] You'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time It's free. So visit point of view dotnet slash sign up right now point of view dotnet sign up Point of view will continue after this