Point of View November 8, 2024 – Hour 1 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson. Weekend Edition here on Point of View and of course a lot of people as I've been meeting over this last year say they really enjoy the Friday Weekend Edition. You will enjoy this one today because we have in studio with us Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO and Chief Counsel of First Liberty Institute, Jeff Mater, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer for First Liberty Institute.

[00:00:40] First time to actually hear from Kelly Shackelford about the decision that came down Tuesday night.

[00:00:47] Boy, there's, I mean like we could go over like a hundred different things, right? Which maybe we will, I don't know.

[00:00:54] We've got a lot of articles here so we'll see what we can do.

[00:00:57] You know, there's so many things about the, I mean obviously, you know, I got, I mean as you might guess, I'm sure you got this too Kirby, I'm sure Jeff.

[00:01:05] I got so many people calling me, texting me beforehand going, what do you think's gonna happen?

[00:01:13] What do you think's gonna happen, right?

[00:01:14] And they're like, you know, you're kind of closer to this than I am.

[00:01:18] And over and over again, I said, I think it's gonna be a landslide.

[00:01:22] Um, but I said, I'm scared to death that I'm wrong, you know, because, you know, I've been wrong before, but it was, it really, what it was is, and I think I mentioned this last time I was on with you Kirby, but there is an odds maker who does political odds making.

[00:01:41] He was in Vegas before that, and gosh, I don't know, a month ago or whatever, he said, he said, this is gonna be a landslide for Trump.

[00:01:51] And I was fascinated by that, and so I read it, and, um, and what he said is, this is, this was a repeat.

[00:01:57] This is, this is very much like when Carter was in the presidency and Reagan ran.

[00:02:04] Uh, you had, you know, for those who remember, I mean, it was, it was economically, it was just horrible, right?

[00:02:12] It was, they called it a malaise, right?

[00:02:15] And, and that's exactly, I mean, think of now, right?

[00:02:18] I mean, this, the inflation and everything.

[00:02:21] Um, and then you had this, this foreign policy where we were just not respected and where they had our hostages in Iran.

[00:02:28] And you think, well, they have our hostages in Gaza, you know, and, and you start going through.

[00:02:34] And what happened at the end of that race is Reagan was kind of getting momentum right at the end, just like Trump kind of seemed to get momentum.

[00:02:42] And all the polls said it was a dead heat.

[00:02:45] And then Reagan went on a landslide.

[00:02:48] And that really is what just happened.

[00:02:51] Um, I think different reasons and all that, certainly very different campaigns.

[00:02:55] Uh, but, uh, but that's, you know, that, that's what happened.

[00:03:00] And it really is similar to what happened then.

[00:03:03] I think, you know, there's, I haven't heard a lot of talk on this, but to me, one of the big reasons for the election,

[00:03:11] and there's a lot of shock, uh, certainly, uh, from those who lost is I, I just, I think sometimes we,

[00:03:19] I think politicians and maybe we go along with it with the media.

[00:03:22] We think that people can't see through things and they can.

[00:03:26] Um, and, and so I would say one of the big themes of this, I mean, it's not the number one thing.

[00:03:33] The economy is I think, but in inflation, but is, is authenticity.

[00:03:39] I mean, look, Trump people, I don't know very many people that like Trump style, right?

[00:03:46] But nobody questions whether he's authentic.

[00:03:50] Um, and they were playing so many games with Kamala Harris.

[00:03:55] Um, you know, first Biden, you know, was, he was sharp as a tack until he wasn't, you know, everybody knew that was,

[00:04:04] they're being lied to.

[00:04:05] And then they shove Kamala Harris out there who has been a very, very strong, strong liberal, San Francisco liberal.

[00:04:15] All of a sudden, all of her positions change.

[00:04:17] And then she gets up and she won't talk about anything.

[00:04:21] And, and I think some people are so uncomfortable with Trump that they're willing to even give her a chance.

[00:04:27] But I just think when you're not authentic and you, and, and then you won't even lay out what you say you're going to do.

[00:04:36] Um, I just think you're gosh, I mean, what a hill that is fighting up.

[00:04:40] You know, you've got what happened with in play.

[00:04:43] I mean, I think I saw right beforehand, the average car is up 70% from when Biden took over the average home.

[00:04:56] Okay.

[00:04:56] And this is talking about interest rates and everything together up 70%.

[00:05:01] And so we talk about groceries and all that, but it's not just groceries.

[00:05:06] It's not just gas.

[00:05:07] It's, it's, it's everything.

[00:05:09] And that those are real things that affect people's life.

[00:05:13] And you're trying to mount something pretty strong.

[00:05:16] And then when you won't be authentic, um, again, Americans are not that stupid.

[00:05:22] And, and so I think they just did what you would expect somebody to do with that kind of an economy, which really, I mean, the Democrats kind of hurt themselves by having to, you know, if they hadn't won the house, the Senate,

[00:05:34] and the presidency right at the beginning of that Biden administration, they would have never pushed through all these spending bills to the rate that they did, which caused all the inflation.

[00:05:44] And so, you know, they kind of got over their skis.

[00:05:47] Uh, and it's really hard to come back when you do something like that to the country.

[00:05:51] Yeah.

[00:05:52] And it's sort of my, my, and I will confirm Kelly has been saying for weeks that, that he thought Trump would win the way he did.

[00:05:58] So I was a little skeptical of that, although I did think Trump was going to win my, my barometer is I grew up in central Pennsylvania.

[00:06:07] And so I have a lot of, um, blue collar, um, relatives who turned out for in 2016 voted for Trump, which I knew was a big, and some of them for the first time ever voted, uh, in a presidential election and voted for Trump against Clinton.

[00:06:22] And then in 2020, I mean, they're, they're labor people.

[00:06:25] So they, they switched back to Biden.

[00:06:27] Um, and I knew to me, it changed about, I think two and a half weeks ago, my brother-in-law, who's a union electrician, um, told me, actually his son texted me, Hey, you never guessed where dad is.

[00:06:39] And your dad was, dad was at the Trump rally that they held in Redding, Pennsylvania, stood in line for four hours to see Donald Trump.

[00:06:49] And I'm like, all right, Trump's winning Pennsylvania.

[00:06:51] And I think part of that was in addition to, you know, the Harris, I think the thing that was disastrous for her, what was picking Tim Waltz, especially over the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro.

[00:07:03] Now I'm not sure it changes anything the way the momentum happened, but it certainly would have had some sort of impact because Josh Shapiro would have been such a better candidate for the Democrats.

[00:07:14] And I, if you remember Kirby, I was on your show when they were deciding what they were going to pick.

[00:07:21] And I said on the show, they will not pick Josh Shapiro because of the anti-Semitic part of the party.

[00:07:28] And I said, and it's going to hurt him because I thought he was the best choice, but I said they're, they can't pick him.

[00:07:34] Yeah.

[00:07:34] And, uh, they didn't.

[00:07:36] They couldn't.

[00:07:36] And I'm with Jeff.

[00:07:37] I, I, I don't know that they just, I think they'd still lost Pennsylvania anyway, but.

[00:07:41] There's good evidence that they would have lost anyway.

[00:07:43] It would have been a lot closer.

[00:07:45] A lot closer.

[00:07:45] And Shapiro, I mean, who knows?

[00:07:47] Who knows?

[00:07:47] But I, I, you know, I, I think it all came down to that.

[00:07:50] I mean, it came down to, to, to, to that and everything Kelly said, working out to, reaching out to the working people.

[00:07:56] To a quote, a New York Times columnist, uh, David French.

[00:07:59] He was one of the ones that made the case that even if you had picked Josh Shapiro, if you look at the numbers, it wouldn't have mattered.

[00:08:05] And again, um, a couple of days before we were actually quoting from Scott Rasmussen, who was saying the same thing.

[00:08:10] This is going to be a repeat of 1980 and he will, that is Donald Trump, win all seven swing states.

[00:08:17] And as of yesterday, I think we can now say Trump has won all seven of the swing states.

[00:08:22] That is unbelievable.

[00:08:24] We come back.

[00:08:25] Um, when I talk about the religious liberty, because our first article there talks about what a Trump presidency means for religious freedom.

[00:08:32] If you haven't noticed, the stock market's gone up.

[00:08:35] Some people call that bye-bye to Bidenomics.

[00:08:38] And then maybe some thoughts about whether or not Democrats did it to themselves.

[00:08:42] Those are a couple of the articles we'll talk about with Kelly Shackelford and Jeff Mateer.

[00:08:46] We'll be right back.

[00:08:58] This is viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:04] The crisis of men and boys is well known and well documented.

[00:09:07] My radio interviews with Dr. Warren Farrell and his book, The Boy Crisis, is but one example.

[00:09:12] Jordan Peterson has been speaking and writing about his concerns for many years.

[00:09:16] The latest warning comes from a David Brooks op-ed in the New York Times and the publication of a new book by Richard Reeves of Boys and Men.

[00:09:23] For example, boys are struggling in the classroom.

[00:09:26] American girls are 14 percentage points more likely to be school-ready than boys at age 5, controlling for parental characteristics.

[00:09:34] Men are struggling in the workplace.

[00:09:36] One in three American men with only a high school diploma, 10 million men, are now out of the workforce.

[00:09:42] And men are also struggling physically.

[00:09:44] They account for nearly three out of four deaths of despair through suicide and drug overdoses in this country.

[00:09:50] The new book by Richard Reeves provides more concerning documentation of a crisis of men and boys.

[00:09:55] One surprising finding was that boys are much more hindered by challenging environments like poverty or broken homes.

[00:10:02] He also explains that many policies and programs designed to promote social mobility work for women but not for men.

[00:10:09] For example, government programs like early childhood education produce significant gains for women but not for men.

[00:10:15] When we had a roundtable discussion of these issues, we concluded that these authors did a good job of identifying the problems but could not offer a solution to a society still searching for a modern masculine ideal.

[00:10:28] Therefore, pastors and men in the church need to provide a biblical foundation for manhood and must teach it to their boys and men in the church.

[00:10:35] We need a biblical answer to a major crisis in our culture.

[00:10:40] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my Point of View.

[00:10:47] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net.

[00:10:53] That's pointofview.net.

[00:10:57] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:03] In fact, once again, we have in studio with us today Jeff Mateer and Kelly Shackelford.

[00:11:06] By the way, just as a program note, next week you'll hear another Shackelford, and it will be Nathan Shackelford talking about the younger generation.

[00:11:14] And, of course, we have a millennial roundtable, and he will actually be there talking about some other issues as well, but something that you're doing in First Liberty.

[00:11:22] And the concern we have is can we pass the baton on to the next generation?

[00:11:28] And here you have Donald Trump saying I'm going to pass it on to somebody who's 39 years of age.

[00:11:34] As I've jokingly said, I have kids older than that, so he'll be around for a while.

[00:11:38] And we've had some Gen Z people on.

[00:11:40] Of course, we'll have a millennial roundtable next week.

[00:11:42] So you'll be paying attention to that as well.

[00:11:45] But one of the things, Kelly, that you wanted us to see, and again, if you get the FLI, which is the First Liberty Insider,

[00:11:53] this article just came out, and, matter of fact, when I got it, it had only been out for eight minutes,

[00:11:58] What a Trump Presidency Means for Religious Liberty.

[00:12:01] And, Kelly, and Jeff, let's talk about that, because, first of all, we don't have to guess as to what this president, incoming president, would do,

[00:12:08] because we have four years.

[00:12:09] But then you might say, well, as he changed his mind, he then gave a very important speech in front of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention about religious liberty.

[00:12:19] So fill us in.

[00:12:20] Well, I mean, let's go.

[00:12:22] I mean, we can start with the last time that he won.

[00:12:25] And, I mean, again, I've spent 35 years doing what I'm doing.

[00:12:33] No, it's not even a question whether he did more.

[00:12:38] As a president, it was the most anybody had ever done, and it wasn't even close for religious liberty.

[00:12:45] And people, and you forget.

[00:12:47] I mean, if you, if you, I would encourage people to go, they can go to pointofview.net and link on to this article.

[00:12:52] We can get it there now.

[00:12:53] If they don't get the insider, you ought to go and get the insider.

[00:12:57] It's every Friday.

[00:12:58] We have over 600,000 people who subscribe to it.

[00:13:01] It's free.

[00:13:03] But you forget a lot of these things that he did that were pretty amazing.

[00:13:08] People tend to remember that he did executive orders, you know, at the beginning, which they were, you know, good.

[00:13:15] But there was a lot more than that.

[00:13:18] You know, the ones that, I mean, of course, everybody remembers the judges part, right?

[00:13:23] And that's a huge part of religious liberty.

[00:13:25] That's why we've won, you know, four Supreme Court cases in the last, you know, two and a half years on religious liberty

[00:13:34] because of good judges being on the court who actually say, well, what does the Constitution say?

[00:13:39] And we've had some really significant wins there.

[00:13:43] But way beyond that, things like HHS, which is over all of health care, right?

[00:13:52] I mean, it's a multibillion-dollar entity.

[00:13:55] And he created in HHS a position to watch over all religious freedom and conscience objections in health care.

[00:14:07] Now, think, this was created right before COVID.

[00:14:12] Pretty good timing.

[00:14:13] Now, look, I mean, we're a little prejudiced on this one because the person they put in charge,

[00:14:20] tapped to be in charge of that, was one of our attorneys who left.

[00:14:23] Justin Butterfield who left and went and did that.

[00:14:26] But it's a great thing.

[00:14:27] I mean, there's all these laws on, you know, conscience in health care and in the workplace.

[00:14:34] And, you know, there's lots of Catholic hospitals and religious hospitals.

[00:14:38] And there's all kinds of issues.

[00:14:40] And they don't know what the law is.

[00:14:41] So to have somebody that's sort of over all that, I mean, that was unique, right?

[00:14:46] To have, to create a, this is another thing.

[00:14:48] They created a task force within the Department of Justice, right underneath the Attorney General,

[00:14:55] to essentially look at and ensure that all agencies and all departments throughout the federal government

[00:15:03] were complying with religious liberty restrictions.

[00:15:07] I mean, that was huge.

[00:15:09] I mean, huge.

[00:15:11] And there was a lot of applications of that.

[00:15:14] So, I mean, those are just two.

[00:15:16] But, I mean, there really is an endless list.

[00:15:18] I mean, Jeff can add or you can add.

[00:15:20] But I would encourage people to look through this because I think you're going to see a lot of these things happen.

[00:15:27] And they really made a difference.

[00:15:28] And I think they will.

[00:15:31] Unfortunately, the Biden administration dropped many of these things.

[00:15:35] Yes, they did.

[00:15:36] And, of course, we're not even talking about the negative things that the Biden administration did

[00:15:41] that Trump administration will probably undo, like Title IX, which, you know, was trying to redefine the word sex.

[00:15:49] And so that's why they're pushing all these men in women's sports and in women's locker rooms and all that.

[00:15:55] You know that this administration will start to reverse that.

[00:15:59] That was a total misinterpretation.

[00:16:02] And the word sex in that statute was never meant to be anything but male and female and not all this new stuff that's going on.

[00:16:10] So there's a lot of things we're going to see changing very quickly in the religious freedom arena.

[00:16:16] I mean, we live in a country where the administrative state has become so powerful.

[00:16:21] And so, I mean, as a constitutional conservative, I don't like it, the fact that these agencies have all this power

[00:16:29] and that actually a president and the people around him can so influence it.

[00:16:34] I mean, I just – I mean, I just – I hate that that's the case.

[00:16:38] But it does point out when we do win the White House, we win back the White House, how important it is.

[00:16:44] So what Kelly's talking about – I mean, you think about across – I mean, he mentioned HHS.

[00:16:48] The Department of Labor, the VA.

[00:16:51] He mentioned DOJ.

[00:16:52] The other one that you did mention that is very important, EEOC.

[00:16:57] The EEOC is now going to do a complete turn from what it's been pushing to now it's going to push for religious liberty protections,

[00:17:05] faithful interpretation of the law, FEMA, the VA.

[00:17:08] Kelly mentioned HHS.

[00:17:10] I mean, there's so many federal agencies that because the federal government is so strong and powerful,

[00:17:17] has the ability to invade our lives and specifically to invade our practices with regard to religious free exercise,

[00:17:26] that just changing the presidency, that gives us the opportunity.

[00:17:31] And as Kelly mentioned, we know what Donald Trump has done in the past.

[00:17:36] And the truth is, look, I love Ronald Reagan, but Ronald Reagan did not do much in these areas.

[00:17:42] Now, you might argue probably didn't know he needed to do some of those things, but Reagan and Bush, I mean, just didn't do –

[00:17:50] But we know what Donald Trump has done.

[00:17:52] And you point out not only did he do it in 2016 to 2020,

[00:17:58] but he recommitted back in earlier this year at the NRB that he would continue to do these things.

[00:18:05] So, you know, I think that thing that we're anxious now about is who's he going to put in the various different positions.

[00:18:11] Let me just mention that that first article is up there.

[00:18:14] And actually, all it does is just take you to FirstLiberty.org.

[00:18:17] So you can find it there.

[00:18:18] Let me encourage you to sign up for FLI, which is First Liberty Insider.

[00:18:23] I get it all the time.

[00:18:24] I encourage you to do so as well.

[00:18:26] What you'll see is, first of all, ten different elements of first-term policies, which are actually just very kind of bullet points.

[00:18:35] Then a discussion of some of the things the Biden administration said.

[00:18:39] And then you've got seven very significant bullet points from his National Religious Broadcasters Convention.

[00:18:45] And I thought maybe I'll come back to either of you.

[00:18:47] I will create a new task force to fight anti-Christian bias.

[00:18:51] This would be a religious liberty task force.

[00:18:54] Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal immigration, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America.

[00:19:01] Never again will the federal government be used to target religious believers.

[00:19:05] I haven't heard too many people talk like that.

[00:19:07] No.

[00:19:08] I mean, in fact, it's been the opposite.

[00:19:10] I mean, under the Biden administration, if you remember, the FBI was investigating Catholics.

[00:19:16] People were Catholic, right?

[00:19:18] You had this guy, in fact, that had his, you know, essentially a SWAT-type team burst into his house in front of his children, traumatizing his children.

[00:19:29] That's right.

[00:19:30] They even took him to trial, and he won.

[00:19:34] So, I mean, there was a weaponization of – and we saw it directly in our Navy SEALs case, right?

[00:19:41] I mean, they were using the government to persecute people because of their faith.

[00:19:47] There are specific laws that protect people when they tried to do the vaccine mandate.

[00:19:52] So, we had the Navy SEALs and all the other people we represented, and they said, oh, we're not going to – they didn't say this, but they just decided they weren't going to follow the laws.

[00:20:01] Instead, they're going to persecute these people.

[00:20:03] Now, as soon as we got into court, the judge was all over them, issued an injunction, said what they were doing was a clear violation of the law, and we ended up winning that lawsuit.

[00:20:14] We, in fact, just finished the settlement, the final of all the details in the last, what, three or four months, Jeff, I guess it was?

[00:20:22] Last couple months, yeah.

[00:20:23] And so, we've got a victory for really not only everybody in the Navy, but really the implications of what we laid out will really protect everybody throughout the military.

[00:20:33] But that was another example, and there are endless examples of weaponizing the federal government to attack people of faith.

[00:20:44] And I think it's great that the new administration said, we're stopping all that.

[00:20:49] All that's over.

[00:20:51] And, of course, we've seen that weaponized against him, right, in campaigns and all that.

[00:20:57] That shouldn't be something that we have our federal government doing.

[00:21:01] Well, we're going to take a break, but sometimes people say, well, how can a Christian vote for Donald Trump?

[00:21:05] Well, it's certainly going to be good for the Christian world if, indeed, some of these things are implemented,

[00:21:09] much of which have already been implemented and will be re-implemented again.

[00:21:13] When we come back, though, is it just a coincidence, but all of a sudden the stock market is up,

[00:21:18] and Hamas wants to exue a truce, and Vladimir Putin wants to talk with the incoming president?

[00:21:24] Must be something going on here.

[00:21:26] We'll talk about that right after this.

[00:21:30] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority.

[00:21:35] They say men can be women, and women men.

[00:21:39] People are prosecuted differently, or not at all, depending on their politics.

[00:21:44] Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens.

[00:21:49] It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing.

[00:21:52] You feel like giving up, but we can't.

[00:21:55] We shouldn't.

[00:21:56] We must not.

[00:21:57] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II,

[00:22:02] never give in.

[00:22:03] Never give in.

[00:22:04] Never, never, never.

[00:22:06] Never yield to force.

[00:22:08] Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

[00:22:12] And that's what we say to you today.

[00:22:14] This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:22:22] We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness.

[00:22:28] Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:22:38] pointofview.net and 800-347-5151.

[00:22:47] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:51] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:01] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:09] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:12] Weekend edition, if you would like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212.

[00:23:17] Perhaps you have an opinion, a comment, or a question.

[00:23:20] We certainly do welcome your calls.

[00:23:22] And we have in studio with us today Kelly Shackelford and Jeff Mateer.

[00:23:25] One of the biggest issues for most people was the economy.

[00:23:28] So this first article I've posted, after, of course, the one on religious liberty, so I guess it's actually the second article,

[00:23:34] says investors bid bye-bye to Bidenomics.

[00:23:38] And this comes from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.

[00:23:42] I had a sense that might happen for a couple of reasons.

[00:23:44] First of all, it seems likely that people were waiting.

[00:23:48] There was a great deal of uncertainty about the economy.

[00:23:51] And people do not invest when there's uncertainty.

[00:23:54] By the way, people don't give to the ministries like First Liberty and Point of View and others.

[00:23:58] I think that's going to change now.

[00:24:00] But part of it was the uncertainty.

[00:24:02] But also, I watched Bitcoin, and Bitcoin just banged almost immediately.

[00:24:06] And you might say, why that?

[00:24:07] Well, because Bitcoin actually is 24-7.

[00:24:11] And so as a result, you didn't have to wait for the stock market to open at 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning.

[00:24:19] You could already see what was going to happen.

[00:24:21] You also, if you looked at the markets in Asia, could see some of that.

[00:24:26] But the reality is, is that you've had a very significant financial rally.

[00:24:31] And I think, Kelly, that's due to the fact that some people were convinced that Kamala Harris and the so-called Bidenomics,

[00:24:38] with everything from price controls to taxing unrealized capital gains, was probably not good for the economy.

[00:24:46] No, I'm looking at the last five days.

[00:24:48] It's pretty dramatic.

[00:24:50] It is.

[00:24:50] Of the Dow.

[00:24:51] It's up 2,000 points.

[00:24:53] I mean, that tells you something.

[00:24:57] They knew they had somebody who had no concept about economics on one side.

[00:25:02] And, you know, nobody knew what was going to happen.

[00:25:06] And so, you know, Mr. Wonderful was on TV talking about this.

[00:25:11] Kevin O'Leary.

[00:25:12] Yeah, he really had some things to say, didn't he?

[00:25:15] And he was right.

[00:25:16] He said, really, this saved the Democratic Party because, you know, they're – I mean, they were going right off the cliff.

[00:25:23] And this might get him to, you know, come back to basic economics and get things straight.

[00:25:30] You know, it's obvious that in the first Trump term, I think if I look at his first term, the most important thing,

[00:25:40] the most significant thing he did was judges and what that impacted.

[00:25:45] Obviously, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, all the religious freedoms, Second Amendment, all the issues there.

[00:25:50] But I think the second biggest thing was the reduction of regulations on small businesses.

[00:25:58] And that would add the Chevron difference.

[00:26:00] That's right, which is another case that came out.

[00:26:03] Yes.

[00:26:03] But just his – I think he promised one – he would – for everything new regulation added, he would remove 12, I think is what he said.

[00:26:13] And I think it ended up being like 20.

[00:26:15] That's right.

[00:26:15] And you saw that economy just take off.

[00:26:20] And I think this is going to happen again because I think he's going to do the same thing.

[00:26:25] And it's the opposite of what happened the last few years.

[00:26:29] And look, I think the Biden administration – and I mean, people – I mean, you watch these people talk about it now who are on the losing side of the election.

[00:26:38] And they're like, well, they just didn't communicate how good the economy really is, you know, that the inflation has now come back down and that jobs are back up.

[00:26:48] And I'm like, these people are absolutely clueless.

[00:26:52] It's like when inflation goes up huge amounts for a number of years.

[00:26:59] And the fact that it's not going up as fast is not exactly helpful to people.

[00:27:06] It didn't come back down.

[00:27:08] And it doesn't.

[00:27:09] Inflation doesn't do that.

[00:27:10] It eats into your money.

[00:27:12] So, you know, it's like they had no concept.

[00:27:16] They were just so out of touch with normal Americans.

[00:27:19] And they were trying to tell them.

[00:27:20] People within their own party were trying to tell them, and they wouldn't listen.

[00:27:25] And so I still don't know if they're getting it because I'm seeing them trying to justify the good economy right now.

[00:27:32] And it's just not – you know, when things are going up, I think I saw eggs have increased by 400 percent in the last four years.

[00:27:43] So, you know, butter, everything, and those things didn't change, you know, because, okay, inflation is back down to, you know, whatever, 2 percent now, right?

[00:27:54] I mean that – so I think that people know that this is going to be a very different economic approach that's coming on.

[00:28:03] Now, the question for Trump is he promised a lot of tax cuts, and now they've got to figure out how to do that.

[00:28:08] That's going to be an issue.

[00:28:10] We'll talk about it in a minute.

[00:28:10] And that's got to be balanced somehow, and I don't know that they have the answer to that.

[00:28:15] But, again, you think about the people that have been harassing people.

[00:28:18] This article here talks about Linna Kahn and a variety of others and the EEOC and the SEC and the FTC and all these different groups

[00:28:27] and some of the people that Elizabeth Warren has gotten into position and all the rest.

[00:28:32] Some of that does go away, and that is helpful.

[00:28:34] By the way, I've got a commentary coming out next week, which is all based on Ned Ryan's book, American Leviathan.

[00:28:40] In which he's talking about actually bringing down the administrative state.

[00:28:44] And I've also got the new book by Vivek Ramashwamy, where he has a chapter about the managerial class.

[00:28:50] If you can cut some of that away, you could actually get close to balancing a budget.

[00:28:54] But I'd love to come to you, Jeff, before we get some of these phone calls.

[00:28:58] What's your thoughts about the economy and the remarkable increase in the stock market?

[00:29:03] Well, I think we need to remember, and as Kelly pointed out, I mean, before COVID hit, I mean, the economy, the country was going, I mean, gangbusters, right?

[00:29:13] And so and then COVID hit and everything came to a screeching halt.

[00:29:16] And then you had, you know, Biden's elected and then Biden with these massive spending.

[00:29:21] I mean, we I mean, and that's obviously that's why inflation took off and remains and just just way, way too high.

[00:29:30] So I'm encouraged.

[00:29:32] I think I think one, I feel good about I think Trump is committed to to to curtailing the administrative state cutting regulations.

[00:29:41] I mean, I would love, you know, one of our topics is, I mean, I, you know, let's let's let's eliminate 10 percent of the federal.

[00:29:48] Kirby knows where I'm going.

[00:29:49] I just think I mean, put a smile on my face.

[00:29:51] I knew where we're going.

[00:29:53] Let's let's let's limit the number of federal employees.

[00:29:56] Let's I mean, let's see what happens.

[00:29:57] Let's just cut 10 percent and see what happens and start and start there.

[00:30:01] I think Musk, Elon Musk, I think that's part of what he's going to come in.

[00:30:04] Two trillion dollars, he says.

[00:30:06] And then, look, I support I support the the the efforts to cut taxes.

[00:30:12] But with that, we've got to curtail spending.

[00:30:16] Yes, we do.

[00:30:16] And that's where I'm a little unsure where President Trump is.

[00:30:20] But I think I hope he puts people around him who are committed to.

[00:30:25] Yes, we want to cut regulations.

[00:30:27] We've got to cut government spending.

[00:30:30] It's and and we're not talking about the entire mean, social security and things like that.

[00:30:36] And but but, you know, I think there's a lot of waste.

[00:30:39] And I'm encouraged if someone like Elon Musk, you mentioned Ronswamsi.

[00:30:44] I think that's another one.

[00:30:46] I'd have those people look at let's let's look at getting leaner.

[00:30:50] Yeah.

[00:30:50] And let's start cutting this huge government bureaucracy that we have in Washington.

[00:30:56] Again, with some of us older, remember when Ronald Reagan wanted to get rid of the Department of Education.

[00:31:00] Yeah, talk about it again.

[00:31:01] And then we had Bill Bennett in there and we said, well, I kind of like it.

[00:31:05] And Gary Bauer was an undersecretary of education.

[00:31:08] We kind of liked it.

[00:31:08] And we didn't cut it back then.

[00:31:10] And I think it's about time to do that.

[00:31:12] And Vivek Rameshwamy wants to get rid of the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, possibly certainly get rid of the Department of Education.

[00:31:20] I won't go through the long list because I'll sound like Rick Perry.

[00:31:22] So I don't want to do that.

[00:31:23] But you couldn't remember the list.

[00:31:25] Let's take some phone calls, though.

[00:31:27] Along the way, I'll take a call because I know you want to hear from these two guys.

[00:31:30] But Mike and George, I want to hear from you as well.

[00:31:32] I think you're asking a good question.

[00:31:34] Hey, Kirby.

[00:31:35] I appreciate your show.

[00:31:37] I love Fridays.

[00:31:38] Thank you guys, Kelly and Jeff and Merit and everybody that gets on these.

[00:31:43] My question, you know, is everything I can read right now tells me that between now and January 20th,

[00:31:55] the current administration wants to empty the vaults and let, you know, five million more people in.

[00:32:04] What do you think?

[00:32:05] I need some advice here.

[00:32:07] You know, I mean, there is always a concern about the sort of the lame duck portion.

[00:32:14] Everything I was just in D.C. yesterday and talked to a lot of people.

[00:32:17] And from what I understand, supposedly nothing.

[00:32:20] They're not going to try anything crazy.

[00:32:22] You know, it would it would obviously be very bad when the American people had just spoken on those issues to then sort of thumb them.

[00:32:32] And I mean, gosh, you know, you wanted to see how much further down you can go for future races.

[00:32:37] So I don't think that's going to happen.

[00:32:40] There's also talk of seeing if they can get Sotomayor to step down off the Supreme Court and appoint a new justice, which I think is pie in the sky stuff.

[00:32:49] I I think what you're going to see instead is this.

[00:32:52] They're going to have to fight over the funding of government because they've got to deal with the money here between now and the end of the year.

[00:33:00] And I think that's mainly what you're going to see.

[00:33:02] And there'll be some fights about that and about how to do that.

[00:33:05] And I think the president will probably be weighing in on what he wants, because that'll affect what's coming ahead for him.

[00:33:11] But I don't think you're going to see a lot of the crazy stuff that is being proposed that would be really extreme.

[00:33:17] Oh, and the other thing, Congressional Review Act.

[00:33:20] So any administrative action that the that the administration takes, Congress could pull back.

[00:33:26] And so, again, I think we can be relatively concerned that there might be some shenanigans, but nothing long term.

[00:33:33] We have a report that most days Joe Biden spends his time watching Netflix.

[00:33:39] So doesn't seem to be all that involved, but we'll be right back.

[00:33:54] Election Day was almost upon us.

[00:33:57] The editorial endorsing Kamala Harris had already been written when William Lewis, CEO and publisher of The Washington Post, announced the paper would not be endorsing a presidential candidate, ending a 50 year tradition of doing so.

[00:34:09] Immediately after the announcement, The Post began bleeding subscribers, 250,000 of them within four days.

[00:34:16] Several staff members resigned in protest.

[00:34:18] Longtime opinion writer Ruth Marcus titled her column, The Post, the wrong choice at the worst possible time.

[00:34:24] Owner Jeff Bezos wrote his own column explaining that The Post can no longer ignore polling that reveals falling public trust in journalists and the media.

[00:34:33] What presidential endorsements do, he wrote, is create a perception of bias.

[00:34:37] He said ending them is a principled decision.

[00:34:40] Other newspapers, The L.A. Times and USA Today, took the same action, citing awareness of their own lack of credibility.

[00:34:48] The Washington Post is not profitable and is becoming less so.

[00:34:51] Subscribers are turning to smaller independent news outlets and social media.

[00:34:55] But to do good investigative reporting, a news organization needs a large infrastructure.

[00:35:00] Covering the U.S. government takes a huge staff.

[00:35:03] Post has these things.

[00:35:04] But, Mr. Bezos wrote, his paper and The New York Times talk only to a certain elite, and increasingly only to themselves.

[00:35:11] It would be good to have a centrist D.C.-based paper.

[00:35:14] If The Washington Post took serious steps away from its role as purveyor of leftist propaganda, it would be better for all of us.

[00:35:22] Mr. Bezos also reportedly told The Post's management it needs to hire more conservative columnists.

[00:35:28] Radio host Eric Erickson suggested that if Jeff Bezos is serious about creating a balance, the paper should also add conservative editors and reporters to break the left-wing worldview infused into the news product they produce.

[00:35:41] It would take deep structural and ideological shifts for The Washington Post to shed its reputation for extreme bias.

[00:35:48] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

[00:35:54] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:35:59] Kelly Shackover, Jeff Mateer in studio with us today, and we'll take another phone call, 1-800-351-1212.

[00:36:06] And, Richard in Georgia, I think you want to talk about what we have now posted, a couple of articles having to do with the Democratic Party.

[00:36:14] But what are your thoughts?

[00:36:16] We were talking about the economic illiteracy, if you will, of the Democratic Party.

[00:36:24] And it's really, I don't think it's illiteracy at all.

[00:36:28] I think it's a policy that they want to bring in.

[00:36:31] And we know the dangers of socialism.

[00:36:36] And that's part of it, is you can get people to believe a certain thing, and they continually harpen on it to where they accept it.

[00:36:44] And along with that, you throw in a little bit of fear.

[00:36:47] And they overdid it with the fear of Trump because, oh, he's Hitler and he's this and he's that.

[00:36:53] But you continue to lie to the people.

[00:36:56] If you do it long enough, they're going to believe it.

[00:36:59] Take an example when they did away with DOMA.

[00:37:02] You know, DOMA, hello, we've been doing that forever.

[00:37:06] And now if you canvass the American people, it's over 50% that believe that homosexual violence is a good thing.

[00:37:15] Really?

[00:37:16] But it's been going on for long enough, long enough, long enough.

[00:37:19] Keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing.

[00:37:21] And it's going to get done.

[00:37:23] And the same way with their other things like DEI.

[00:37:28] Well, that sounds like a great idea.

[00:37:30] You know, it sounds great, and so you should have compassion on this and compassion on that and allow this to happen.

[00:37:38] And all the time there's a sinister underbelly of all that, and it's basically to accept a lie.

[00:37:46] You know, one book that I read is how do you kill 11 million people like they did during World War II?

[00:37:55] The answer is you lied to them.

[00:37:56] Yeah.

[00:37:57] And then there's a book out there that's called Live Not By Lies.

[00:38:01] And this is what we see in the media, the legacy, every day.

[00:38:06] Are you kidding me?

[00:38:07] Yep.

[00:38:08] Something that she says every day, and you know it's a lie.

[00:38:12] Yep.

[00:38:13] Now I just wanted to give Kelly a chance because when we talk Live Not By Lies, that's a book you quote from all the time.

[00:38:17] Yeah.

[00:38:18] It's – I mean, you know, another thing about this election is that – I mean, people should be encouraged about a couple of things within the election results.

[00:38:28] Number one, as he just mentioned, I mean, the mainstream media has lost its credibility because –

[00:38:36] That has been the greatest loss.

[00:38:37] The legacy media is just now a legacy.

[00:38:40] Yeah.

[00:38:40] It's not – yeah.

[00:38:41] It's – and we've been talking about this for a while.

[00:38:44] This is one of the reasons why point of view is so rare because, you know, they don't – that doesn't happen here.

[00:38:51] The truth is said.

[00:38:53] Things are checked out.

[00:38:55] I mean, you know, and there's not a lot of – people don't feel like they can go anywhere and get just good basic information.

[00:39:02] And, boy, was that true here.

[00:39:04] And I don't know if it would have been as great as it was.

[00:39:07] I mean, they were totally rejected in this election.

[00:39:10] The media was telling everybody a whole bunch of lies.

[00:39:15] Now the problem with what they were saying is sometimes they might get away with a lie if it's not directly seen and felt by the listener.

[00:39:24] But in this case, people know how much their groceries are, right?

[00:39:29] They can see the number of immigrants.

[00:39:31] They can see all this in their own lives.

[00:39:34] So they knew it was a lie in a real direct way.

[00:39:37] But I – that was huge.

[00:39:38] The other thing is the cultural issues that he mentioned.

[00:39:43] You know, it wasn't that many years ago where we weren't sure where people were going to be on the transgender issue.

[00:39:50] People were scared.

[00:39:52] They weren't sure what to say.

[00:39:53] They didn't want to be in polite.

[00:39:55] They didn't – that was the number one issue.

[00:39:58] On the cultural side, on the conservative side in these elections.

[00:40:01] Sure was.

[00:40:02] Right?

[00:40:03] And, you know, Donald Trump used it.

[00:40:06] You can only talk about some of those Senate elections with that.

[00:40:10] And they used it in all the Senate elections.

[00:40:12] Yes.

[00:40:12] Why did they use that?

[00:40:13] Because of how it polled.

[00:40:15] Yes.

[00:40:15] Okay?

[00:40:16] So the point is –

[00:40:18] Things are shifting.

[00:40:19] It's an issue that looked like we were in trouble.

[00:40:21] And instead, the biblical position is winning out.

[00:40:24] People are – exactly what I said, live not by lies.

[00:40:28] People have kind of gone through the – you're not going to intimidate me anymore.

[00:40:31] Okay?

[00:40:32] Because I don't want my daughter hurt.

[00:40:34] I don't want a boy in my daughter's, you know, locker room.

[00:40:37] I don't – I'm speaking up.

[00:40:40] And so those are a couple of things I think people can be encouraged about to see the move during the election.

[00:40:47] People are not buying what they're trying to sell.

[00:40:50] Which is really – I mean, one thing that President Trump has done.

[00:40:54] I mean, we are seeing a political realignment because of that.

[00:40:58] I mean, if you look at some of the numbers, you look at what Latinos, for instance, really breaking heavy towards Trump and building 1620 and now in 24.

[00:41:11] African-Americans, the same way.

[00:41:14] And, of course, with men and working class people.

[00:41:17] I mean, the Republican Party is now the party of the working class.

[00:41:21] And I think part of that is, one, is the cultural issues and the live not by lies.

[00:41:26] I mean, on things like transgender.

[00:41:28] I mean, I think that's apparent.

[00:41:29] And it leads to the Democrat Party being really the party of the elites.

[00:41:34] We know better than you.

[00:41:35] I mean, the message there, we know better.

[00:41:37] We know better about DEI.

[00:41:39] We know better about the economy.

[00:41:41] Trust us in managing the economy, which I think leads to – I mean, and that's what was so dangerous about Harris

[00:41:47] and why she had to be rejected because I don't think Biden really bought into that.

[00:41:53] Biden is from a more old-school Democrat.

[00:41:56] And I get he got co-opted by the left wing of his party and got convinced to go that way.

[00:42:02] But I think that was the weak and feeble Joe Biden who really wasn't really in control anymore.

[00:42:09] But you have this elitist – I mean, just – and it came across just we know better than you.

[00:42:15] And I think that's why Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania rejected that because working-class people –

[00:42:22] I mean, the numbers – people making less than $50,000 over – you know, that broke for Trump.

[00:42:28] Well, that's not – I mean, the Democrats have to be sitting thinking, you know, we've lost working-class America.

[00:42:32] There was one group, one group that went up for Harris over Biden.

[00:42:39] It was the very wealthiest people in the country.

[00:42:42] That was the only group, which is exactly the elites, what you're talking about.

[00:42:46] I think this is one of the most fascinating parts of the election.

[00:42:50] And I mean, Kirby, you know I've been saying now for a number of years that there was a realigning occurring way before the election.

[00:42:58] I've been saying this years ago.

[00:42:59] You could see this on the cultural side first.

[00:43:02] But the question is going to be, after Donald Trump, does this still occur?

[00:43:10] Or is this a Trump?

[00:43:11] Now, I think the Republicans realize this is something that's going to be very important to them.

[00:43:18] There are states like Texas.

[00:43:20] Okay?

[00:43:20] Those are a lot of electoral votes, right?

[00:43:22] And I think most people in Texas were watching the increase of the Hispanic population who was going two-thirds Democrat.

[00:43:30] And they thought Texas is probably going to be lost even by now is what people thought.

[00:43:36] But what's happening is that Hispanic population is actually – because their family values are much more aligned with the Republicans.

[00:43:45] They're starting to change.

[00:43:47] Those percentages are changing.

[00:43:48] So that is going to be, I think, the fascinating thing for the future is, is this realignment occurring?

[00:43:55] Or is it going to – is it not going to do what it's doing now if it's not a Trump?

[00:44:02] That will be the thing that's kind of, you know, the issue or the battle for the future.

[00:44:07] Yep.

[00:44:08] Of course, we're going to take a break.

[00:44:09] And when we come back, we'll get into some more issues.

[00:44:10] But I just – I've mentioned just the last couple of days that I wrote a booklet a couple of years ago on America realignment.

[00:44:16] I'm predicting – I've already put together material for one on 2025 because I think it is going to happen for a number of reasons.

[00:44:24] J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio and certainly Vivek Ramachwamy, Ron DeSantis.

[00:44:31] I think all of them get that.

[00:44:33] And so I think that might take place.

[00:44:35] If you said – we keep talking about live not by lies.

[00:44:38] What are we talking about?

[00:44:38] Well, this is a book by Rod Dreyer.

[00:44:40] And, again, it's a book that I would highly recommend to you.

[00:44:43] And certainly we'll get back to that.

[00:44:45] But I love what Scott Jennings said.

[00:44:47] He said, the American people were being crushed, insulted, and condescend to.

[00:44:51] They're not garbage.

[00:44:52] They're not Nazis.

[00:44:53] They're regular people who get up and go to work every day and are trying to make life better for their kids.

[00:44:58] And those people have spoken.

[00:45:00] And we'll come back and talk about some other challenges the Democrats face and also what happened in the Senate.

[00:45:05] All that coming up right after this.

[00:45:07] The Bible tells us not to worry.

[00:45:13] And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today.

[00:45:18] Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry.

[00:45:22] God gives us a next step.

[00:45:25] He says we need to pray.

[00:45:27] But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult.

[00:45:31] And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement, a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation.

[00:45:42] Each week you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others.

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