James Talarico Is LEGION | Guest: Daniel Horowitz | 5/27/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show Podcast Summary

Episode Title: James Talarico Is LEGION | Guest: Daniel Horowitz | 5/27/26
Date: May 27, 2026
Host: Steve Deace
Guest: Daniel Horowitz
Network: Blaze Podcast Network

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the aftermath of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's historic victory over Senator John Cornyn in the Republican Senate runoff, the Democratic candidate James Talarico’s controversial religious arguments regarding abortion, the future of GOP priorities, and the implications for the conservative movement. Joined by political analyst Daniel Horowitz, Steve Deace and his co-hosts dissect the shifting landscape in Texas, the pitfalls of shallow argumentation in conservative circles, and the need for deeper discipleship in the face of left-wing “discipling.” The discussion also touches on ongoing governmental fraud investigations, primary election dynamics, and the ideological realignment within the GOP.

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Key Discussion Points & Notable Segments

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1. Ken Paxton’s Senate Runoff Victory in Texas

Timestamps: 00:01–00:44, 10:55–13:33, 81:00–88:00

• Paxton defeated incumbent John Cornyn in a landslide, making history as the first Texas primary challenger to unseat a sitting U.S. Senator in the Republican primary.
• Analysis of why Paxton won and what it signals for the Texas GOP and broader national trends.
• Emphasis on how Trump-backed candidates are reshaping the party (“Trump is the biggest issue. He is king.” – Steve Deace, 58:25).
• The importance of attorney general and governor positions in the current “cold civil war.”
• Strategic breakdown of Paxton’s “4D chess” in leveraging the Save America Act to secure his Senate seat (Paxton and Trump outmaneuvered expectations).

“Ken Paxton is the first primary challenger to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in Texas Republican primary history. His victory is also the widest defeat of an incumbent in 50 years.” – Steve Deace (01:18)

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2. The James Talarico Controversy: Faith, Abortion, & Political Argument

Timestamps: 00:44–10:55, 22:37–27:59

• Critical analysis of Talarico’s assertion that “Jesus never talked about abortion” and that the Bible is “silent on abortion.”
• Steve Deace calls Talarico’s campaign a “blaspheming of the Holy Spirit,” denouncing the use of religious rhetoric to justify left-wing policy (08:11, 10:54).
• Emphasis on the historic Christian position against abortion, referencing the Didache and Church history.
• The danger of progressives “discipling” on faith issues with little pushback or substantive theological response from conservatives.
• The need for conservatives to move beyond “pithy sayings” to robust, theologically grounded answers.

“So the Bible never talks about abortion, huh? Jesus never talked about abortion, eh? ... I think that we actually have to make this a more precisely theological response.” – Steve Deace (05:22, 09:10)

“James Talarico is not an outlier. He is an omen. He is a herald of what is to come.” – Steve Deace (11:00)

“In many respects, James Talarico and Tucker Carlson have quite a few things in common when it comes to biblical exegesis these days. They are drawing different conclusions, but they're attempting the same thing: to divorce the New Testament from the Old Testament for their own narrative.” – Steve Deace (16:05)

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3. The Implications of the Save America Act and Incoming Elections

Timestamps: 17:00–22:37, 87:09–92:25

• The political irony that Chip Roy, author of the highly-touted Save America Act, lost his Texas AG runoff despite his bill being leveraged for political gain by Paxton.
• Discussion on why Chip Roy lost (Trump/Paxton-Middleton dynamic, money, and campaign strategy).
• Steve: “We are still an issue-driven party but there is no bigger issue than Donald Trump. That’s just the reality.” (58:25)
• Daniel Horowitz adds: "Chip is emblematic of the time. You could be Lindsey Graham ... but if you never jousted with the red hat, you're going to be MAGA in good standing. You're Chip—not so much." (81:53)

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4. The GOP’s Internal Dilemmas: Kingship, Loyalty, and Movement Discipleship

Timestamps: 58:25–64:16, 88:51–92:58

• Exploration of “monarchy” dynamics within the GOP, where alignment with Trump is the determining factor for political survival, regardless of prior record or policy acumen.
• Steve and Daniel both lament that the party prioritizes loyalty to Trump over substance: “When you are in the midst of a monarchy, things are just very clarified. You're either on the side of the crown or you're not.” – Steve Deace (88:00)
• No clear lessons or strategic errors for Chip Roy—he “couldn’t have done better.” It’s simply political reality under Trump’s dominance.

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5. Fraud, Government Waste, and JD Vance’s Anti-Fraud Crusade

Timestamps: 02:02–03:25, 31:19–42:44

• Recap of JD Vance’s anti-fraud initiative and roundtable with state attorneys general.
• Stephen Miller’s claim: “We could balance the federal budget if the only dollars that went out of the treasury went to individuals who were properly, lawfully, correctly eligible to receive them.” (03:11)
• The panel discusses the risk-reward for JD Vance’s 2028 prospects: if genuine accountability is achieved, Vance becomes a frontrunner; if not, the effort becomes an empty talking point.

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6. The Need for Better Conservative Arguments & Discipleship

Timestamps: 22:37–29:34

• Strong call for conservatives to “disciple” rather than just campaign using memes or “snotty repartee.”
• Importance of equipping the Christian base with solid, historical, and biblical responses as the other side becomes more explicitly anti-orthodox (using Talarico as a case study).
• Rejection of the idea that elections will be won on witty retorts alone—the demographics and “normies” require substance.

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7. Critique of Progressive “Discipling” & Cultural Subversion

Timestamps: 12:00–16:39, 18:00–29:34

• Talarico’s campaign is an example of the left stepping into religious discipling formerly held by the church.
• Recounting early church ethics (Didache, Christian opposition to abortion and infanticide) as historical precedent.
• “We're going to have to disciple ... because what James Talarico is doing there, he's discipling... Rob Sand is attempting to do it who don't have all of that cultural baggage.” – Steve Deace (13:32)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On GOP Primary Dynamics:

  “We are still an issue-driven party but there is no bigger issue than Donald Trump. That's just the reality. He's the biggest issue.” — Steve Deace (58:25)

• On Talarico’s Religious Claims:

  “The entire Bible from a Christian perspective is about Christ... So the God who said not to murder wrote those with his own hands and handed those tablets to Moses. It's Jesus.” — Steve Deace (16:27)

• On Discipling and the Role of Conservative Argument:

  “We have to persuade and disciple. Because if you're... a godless normie, it seems pretty reasonable the government shouldn't have any say in your healthcare decisions, right?” — Steve Deace (27:10)

• On the Problem of Euphemism in Abortion Debate:

  “If you actually got into the nitty gritty, if you actually described in great detail what you're talking about instead of these euphemistic smooth sounding for smooth brained sayings, people would probably not fall for your lies quite as easily.” — Steve Deace (27:59)

• On Trump’s Role for the Movement:

  “I would argue he's earned this position. There was nowhere else for our people to turn. No one else has stepped in ... I get why he has earned this kind of loyalty.” — Steve Deace (95:04)

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Key Takeaways

• Paxton's victory is an unprecedented shock to Texas politics, but his use of the Save America Act—originally championed by his rival Chip Roy—highlights the new realities of GOP loyalties and the centrality of Trump’s influence.
• James Talarico’s progressive faith rhetoric is not outlier but trend; conservatives must respond with deeper, historical, and scriptural argument rather than quips.
• The party’s internal logic now largely rests on alignment (or lack thereof) with Trump, rendering substantive records sometimes irrelevant.
• An urgent need is noted for the right to develop better “discipleship” within its ranks to counter progressive attempts to redefine religious narratives.
• The JD Vance anti-fraud effort could be a turning point or merely another show: execution and tangible results will determine its legacy.
• Persistent government waste, fraud, and misuse of language (“marketing degrees from the University of Hell”) are seen as consistent obstacles to substantive reform.
• The show’s tone is characteristically snarky but serious, voicing both frustration and commitment to substantive, faith-anchored conservatism.

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Additional Highlights

• Cultural Subversion Watch: The hosts discuss Candace Owens’ pivot to “doxing” and her viral “learning about thunder” moment, underscoring their view of intellectual unseriousness in pop conservative figures (04:03–05:15).
• Political Realities Check: Several asides on GOP infighting, the future of the Texas AG’s office, and primary voter irrationality.
• Closing Reflection: Both co-hosts lament the cycle of disappointment and the challenges of influencing the movement for the better in the current media and political climate (93:45–95:04).

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For New Listeners

If you missed the episode, the above summary covers all the pivotal points and dynamics, with quotes and timestamps for context. The episode balances deep concern for the state of the movement with the trademark snark and wit that Deace’s listeners expect, offering a critical look at both Texas’s political shake-up and the ongoing battle for the soul of conservatism.

Transcript

[Steve Deace]

It's the Steve Day show. And here's what happened while we were away. Brought to you by blowout. Texas Attorney general Ken Paxton won his Senate runoff against incumbent senator John Cornyn yesterday. He not only won it, he dominated. It's the latest in a string of incumbents Trump backed candidates have knocked off in recent weeks. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, Thomas Massie in Kentucky, and now John Cornyn in Texas. Here's Ken Paxton after his victory tonight. We just sent a Texas sized message to Washington.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I said it in March and I'll

[Steve Deace]

say it again now.

Today, change was on the ballot and change won.

Paxton will now take on the Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico in November, who continues to provide ample opportunities for contrast.

I trust Texas women to make decisions about their own bodies, to shape their own destinies in consultation with their family members, their doctors, their faith leaders. And I don't believe that's a place for government. I don't believe it's a place for politicians. I don't believe it's a place for the state. And that is, that's a belief I hold, not despite my faith, but because of my faith. Um, Jesus never talks about abortion. The Bible is silent on abortion.

Ken Paxton is the first primary challenger to defeat an incumbent U. S. Senator in Texas Republican primary history. His victory is also the widest defeat of an incumbent in 50 years. So that is the Senate runoff. In the Lone star state where Texans voted for a man who will vote for the Save America act, those same voters knocked out the man who wrote the Save America act as Congressman Chip Roy lost his Texas attorney general runoff to Texas state senator Mayes Middleton. Hopefully, Middleton will become the aggressive attorney general Texas and America needs. In Washington, vice president and Administration Fraud Czar J.D. vance held an anti fraud roundtable featuring 15 state attorneys general, including from states like Oregon and Connecticut. Vance says in just two months, we

exposed billions of dollars in benefits that had been stolen from the American people. We referred over $22 billion in fraudulent small business loans back to the treasury for collection. We deferred more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements that were coming from various states, particularly California. We put a six month hold on enrollments for new hospice and home health care providers because so many of the newer hospice providers providing hospice services, but we're just focused on fraud. So we're going to cut that out for a little bit and try to get to a place where we can actually certify that the people providing hospice services are actually providing those very necessary and important services. We recovered taxpayer funds from the $135 billion stolen after the floodgates were open. In the immediate aftermath of COVID we have found $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts, which were mostly awarded during the last administration. And that has stopped. And finally, we block $60 million in student aid fraud that should have gone to young people trying to get an education, but instead, we're going to fraudsters.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller put the scale of the fraud into focus.

I believe, based on what I've seen and what I've heard, is that we

[Daniel Horowitz]

could balance the federal budget if the

[Steve Deace]

only dollars that went out of the treasury went to individuals who were properly, lawfully, correctly eligible to receive them.

Speaking of fraud, here's New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani's novel idea. He wants to steal for the rich.

[Daniel Horowitz]

When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, nonprofits, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves.

[Steve Deace]

Candace. Update. On a recent show, Candace Owens announced she's returning to her roots as a left wing doxer, this time focused on people who are critical of her.

People need to know where you are, who you are, why you are, where you're from. How did you get here in your life, what's in your medicine cabinet? I don't know. I wouldn't want to live next door to something like this. These people, like I said, are dangerous. And I wouldn't be shocked if we discovered some things about these people. So I am going to start prodding, looking into some of these accounts who posts all day, every day, and I'll let you know what I discover.

Okay, then. Anyway, here's Candace learning about thunder.

I need to know that I'm not the only person who didn't know this. Okay, I didn't know this, but also, Savannah didn't know this. So at least two of us didn't know this. I was gonna walk with my husband and it was thundering, I think. And I was like, oh, no big deal. We can keep walking because there's no lightning. And he was like, what do you mean by that? And I said, you know, like, it's just thunder. Lightning is the problem. And then my husband was like, you know that it can't thunder without lightning, right? That lightning. That thunder is the sound of lightning. My mind was completely blown. I promise you in my 35 years of living, I had never heard that.

That's the woman who has cracked the code on existence itself. And that's what happened while we were away.

So the Bible never talks about abortion, huh? Jesus never talked about abortion, eh? We'll get into that. Probably the first of several times we'll have to do that. Courtesy of Mr. Talarico and the potential 2028 risk reward for JD Vance with this fraud initiative. We'll get into that. Plus the primary results. We'll talk about those more with Daniel Horowitz when we go Inside Politics later. That and more coming your way next year on the Steve Day Show. And greetings. Happy Wednesday. Welcome to the Steve Day show here live and on demand on Blaze tv, radio and podcast. I am Steve Dase alongside Todd erzin and Aaron McIntyre. Coming up on today's show, we're going to play our weekly game of Buy seller hold with your submission starting at the bottom of the hour. As I mentioned here at the top, Daniel Horowitz will take us Inside Politics on the primary results, including last night's loss bar our mutual friend Chip Roy. We'll get into that and some of the lessons to learn from that moving forward as well. That and more coming your way here on the show. First and foremost, though, I need to say thank you to you guys because our our initial launch day yesterday for why Independence Day America is Great because God is Good was just arousing success. I mean, I just don't know how else to describe it. I started getting notes that Amazon was was pointing out it was temporarily out of stock. By the middle of yesterday afternoon, our Amazon rank just absolutely took off. They have been restocked. So we've taken care of that. You won't get that message anymore if you go to our page in Amazon now, but we are top 10 Christian children's book in the entire country. We are number 13among all new release children's books in the country. It's kind of weird to be ranked ahead of the new Toy Story children's book and the new Lego Batman children's book because there's a new Toy Story movie coming out. There's a brand new Lego Batman game that just came out in the last few days that people are very excited about. So that's kind of weird company to be in. But you guys have made the initial launch of this just an incredible success. Very, very thankful. Your copy is waiting for you right [e-mail] to complete the set. Our trilogy of children's books on America's Christian heritage. The conclusion, why Independence Day? America is Great Because God is Good. Available [e-mail] you guys, again, thank you so much for an incredible first day launch yesterday. I was worried because all of a sudden our ranking is locked in and people are telling me that they can't get it. I'm like, oh, no. Because it just seems like, you know, Nefarious takes his pound of flesh out of us every time we try to do something on this show. Have you noticed that? Right, okay. But it turns out, no. You guys just had one heck of a reaction yesterday to day one. So Amazon has been dealt with. They have. They have an ample supply of books, so you can order yours today. Why Independence Day? America is Great Because God is good. And I want to thank Blake and Andrew at the Charlie Kirk show, our own Sarah Gonzalez and several other folks that had me on for interviews yesterday as well. I have several, several more today, too. So your copy is available now. And can't thank you guys enough for what was an outstanding first day launch for why Independence Day? All right, let's get to it. Let's talk about the two things I teased here coming out of Aaron's montage today. Let's. Let's deal with this now, because something tells me we're gonna. Maybe we'll just take this clip now and just re rack it. Because something tells me that we're going to have to do this several times with one James Talarigo as he attempts to rewrite the Bible and test whether or not it is true. It is the proper exegesis that the one unforgivable sin is the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit. Because that's essentially what his entire campaign is. His entire campaign is a blaspheming of the Holy Spirit. So let's get into this whole thing about Jesus never talks about abortion. Now, I've heard some people challenge this by saying things like, well, Jesus never talked about smoking crack too, so I suppose we should be in favor of it. And that's. That. That's a good response. I'm not saying it's not. It's a good response. It's. It's an efficient. It's a sufficiently snotty one too, which I greatly appreciate. Okay. But I, I think that we actually have to make this a more precisely theological response. I do. Because you're dealing with a guy that seriously believes in his hermeneutic. These are clearly not just tropes to him. When he says, my religion informs me on These things. He is, I believe, serious that his religion does. And we have gone through a generation of Americans here that have been losing their religion. R. And so it's. I, I'm not sure I. The people that you'll move by saying things like, Jesus never talked about smoking crack either. The people that will. That will nod in affirmation to that. We're probably already gonna vote for us, I guess is my right. You know what I'm saying?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

Now, now in Texas, with the numbers there, I mean, goodness, when's the last time Democrats won statewide in Texas? Is it like 1996 or something like that? It's been a minute. Okay, so maybe in Texas, even with the numbers as bad as they are nationwide for us at the moment, in, in Texas, that might be good enough. You. You may not need a line of attack any more than that. That sort of snotty repartee that makes him sound like the, the demoniac that he is. That might be sufficient there. But I think we need to understand that that Talarico is, is, Is not an outlier. He is an omen. He is a herald of what is to come. And there's a reason why he's raged at raising an ungodly amount of money. And a lot of it has to do with what I'm going to say next. We have a James Talarico running for governor in my state right now. Now, Rob sand, who's the Democrat nominee for governor in our state, he doesn't have all of the oppo research on him. It's not just that Talarico is bastardizing Christianity, but, and I'm not saying this is necessarily a good thing, I'm just saying it is the thing. But, but he's on. But Talarico is on the record saying way more offensive things to the average Texan. Like, you know, we're going to be, you know, we're in a vegan barbecues. Like, like it's, it's not just that he is bastardizing a Christianity that most of Americans, frankly, don't understand anymore. It's that he is already on record assaulting, attacking, violating every cultural orthodoxy of Texas. You know what I'm trying to say? Like, everything, that whatever is part of your identity of don't mess with Texas, James Talarico is on video sneering at it. It's a little bit what you said yesterday in our overtime. If you haven't watched it, go check it out. We talked about the, the why the Democrats deleted that Memorial Day message. They had where they showed the 13 service members that have died in Operation Epic Fury and said, here we, we honor those who are dead because of Trump's war. Right. We talked about that in the overtime yesterday. And one of the things that we debated in the overtime was, does this indicate there might still be a yuck factor? You said there was not a yuck factor. Give your repeat, because I think this audience needs to hear what you said in the overtime yesterday, that you don't think they deleted that tweet because. Or that post. It's not tweet anymore. That's not what it's called anymore. That they didn't delete that post on X because of a yuck factor. You, you tell the audience now here, the broader audience, why you thought that they deleted that.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, I think they deleted it because of a political algorithm factor. There's many variables and way over the top variables that go into the calculus of who the Democrats are. They're obviously saying this is, that's not the first crazy thing they would have ever said. But when it comes to electoral politics, they're weighing and measuring what's working and what's not. And that one, it was simply pragmatism to them. That variable was gaining too much status with. Within the algorithm and it needed to be tamped down. Other ones could win.

[Steve Deace]

They can't afford. They're trying to say we're not the same Democrats as Virginia. We're not these radicals. We're not going to take over, stack the courts and everything else that you've actually heard us say for years. That's not who we are. All right? And so they can't let the normie voters, they can't remind the normie voters that's who they are. Right, okay. Like Rob sand running around Iowa trying to pretend like he's a normie, and he's already taken multiple donations from George Soros like every other Democrat has.

[Todd Erzin]

Right, exactly.

[Steve Deace]

All right, See, that applies here. It's too late for Talarico. The, the amount of oppo that is out there that they've got. There's a Memorial Day post from Talarico like that on every, on every cultural tradition in Texas that has ever mattered to anybody who's lived there for more than 15 minutes. He's on. He is, he's not a beto where he was kind of an undefined figure, youthful. You could kind of project things on him. This, this guy has been active in Texas politics, and he's on record vomiting, sneering at insulting, doing his version of you're a bunch of bitter clingers on virtually every cultural orthodoxy in Texas. So it might be enough to just say, well, Jesus never talked about smoking crack either. So hahaha, that might work in Texas. It's not a bad argument. I'm just saying moving forward, we're going to need to actually have better arguments because there's going to be not just James Tallarico is attempting to hijack our faith on the Democratic side, there's going to be Rob Sands attempting to do it, who don't have all of that cultural baggage that just is waiting to get unloaded to remind people, oh yeah, you're just like the same Democrats in Texas we've never voted for statewide in like my lifetime anyway. Right. And so what happens when we don't have someone with the obvious cultural flashpoints that even a largely godless society would find offensive? We're going to have to disciple. We're going to have to make real arguments because what James Talarico is doing there, he's discipling what Rob sand is doing in our home state as we speak. He's discipling. That's what he's doing. See, Rob has to disciple. We have 750,000 Republicans in Iowa, more than we've ever had before. He's got a major voter registration deficit. So he has to disciple and that's what he's attempting to do. So then let's answer this as if we are discipling the entire argument that Jesus never said is a false argument. Because every word of the Old Testament is about for and from Jesus. He is God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So what the heretics like Talarico try to do, in many respects. You ready for this? In many respects, James Talarico and Tucker Carlson have quite a few things in common when it comes to biblical exegesis these days. They are drawing different conclusions, but they're attempting the same thing. They are attempting to divorce the New Testament from the Old Testament for different reasons, but in order to push their own narrative instead. For Tucker, it's to. It's to reincarnate Marcion and to divorce Judaism from Christianity. For Talarico, it's to reincarnate Pelagius and to say people are basically good. Who was Pelagius? Heretic, contemporary of Augustine's, taught that people were basically good, could completely come to salvation on their own terms if they even needed to come to salvation at all. Rejected the doctrines of original sin. If you were running for office as a Senate candidate in the. In In Texas in the year of our Lord 2026. Pelagius would sound an awful lot like James Tallarico. So the entire Bible from a Christian perspective is about Christ, the God who, who dropped a weapon of mass destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah. Christ, the God who said to the Israelites, go into Canaan, control alt, delete button. Jesus, the God who said to Joshua march around the walls of Jericho seven times. Jesus. As Paul writes in Colossians, all things were made by him and through him, Jesus is God. So the God who said not to murder wrote those with his own hands and handed those tablets to Moses. It's Jesus. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Why was Moses sent up the river? Why did Moses mom send him up a river? She didn't want another kid. She was concerned about overpopulation within the Israeli tribes and realized that she had made a mistake. And she did not have access to family planning services to do her part to maintain her carbon footprint. So she wasn't sure what else to do. So she just sent poor Moishe up the river in order for nature to deal with him appropriately and balance the ecological scales. Is that why she did it?

[Todd Erzin]

She wasn't concerned about overpopulation, but Pharaoh was.

[Steve Deace]

Pharaoh was. How concerned about it was Pharaoh, what

[Todd Erzin]

was he commanding to murder and get ahead of the overpopulation curve?

[Steve Deace]

Yeah, essentially he was. Who? He ordered midwives to murder the children. How would a midwife murder a kid? How would a midwife do that? What stage of development, what stage of child would a midwife be in proximity to like a 4 year old? Just random, randomly grabbing, grabbing toddlers and committing a heinous form of genocide. What stage of human development would a midwife be close to

[Todd Erzin]

a fetus in utero? A baby. Yeah, call it what you will.

[Steve Deace]

Yeah. So what do we call it when you are murdering children in utero? What do we call that?

[Todd Erzin]

An abortion.

[Steve Deace]

We call that an abortion. And that's why Moses mother sent him up the river, to avoid that evil edict from Pharaoh. Thirdly, one of the oldest creedal documents in the history of the Christian church. And when I mean old, I mean this thing's older than the New Testament is the Didache. The Didache dates to anywhere between 80 to 150 AD. The first formation, I mean we have letters from the New Testament from Paul were circulating as early as the 60s in AD but the first formation of the Synoptic Gospels, letters from Paul and Peter, as far as we know right now, date from roughly about 180 to 220 AD before they started being circulated kind of as a canonized packet of revelation. And not just individual items and writings, which means the diadoce is older than the New Testament is, or the documents we now call the New Testament. The diadic was a collection essentially of. Remember, we don't have printing presses. Many people cannot read. Right. You hear Paul use this term throughout the New Testament. Here is a trusty saying. He's essentially saying, here comes a creed, memorize it. Right. Creeds were how a lot of the teaching was done in the early church. Easier to remember summations of our convictions and beliefs. So the Didache is a. Is a collection of the church father's summations of our teachings and beliefs. And it includes a lot of ethical information for how Christians are and are not to live. One of. What's one of the things the Didache explicitly forbids? Todd, I know you remember this because you're the one that first told me that.

[Todd Erzin]

Exactly what we're talking about.

[Steve Deace]

Yeah. Specifically as early as 80 A.D. depending on what historical source you look at. Again, it's dated anywhere from 80 to 150 AD. As early as 80 AD, Christians were being specifically told not to participate in abortion. Infanticide was very common in the Roman Empire. There's a famous love letter posted by a Roman soldier to his wife during this era. And he, he talks to her about how much he cannot wait to come home and see his bride again as he returns home from the warfront. And it's very, it's. It's a, it's a glowing love letter, very romantic. And then it ends with. Basically says, by the way, if the baby arrives before I get there and it's a girl, just go ahead and throw it out with the rest of them. That's literally what it says. That was a common practice. Why were orphanages invented? Because of what I just said. The Christians would go out into these gutters, into these slums where the Roman, Roman prostitutes, the Roman aristocracy that just didn't want to have any more kids, didn't want to have any more girls in particular, would just cast their babies out, desert them. The Christians would go out and gather them up. Gather them up. This is that. This is where orphanages come from. Since we were now all adopted in Christ, we have a responsibility to be there for the widow, the orphan, the fatherless. One of the greatest book titles I've ever heard. Michael Reagan. Michael Reagan titled his autobiography Twice Adopted. And it talked about. Because he was adopted first by former President Reagan and was adopted later into the family of Christ. This is where orphanages originated from. That's why a lot of orphanages were called Saint so and so. This is why. So, in other words, Jesus never talked about abortion except for all the times that he did. And the Christian church has really never had anything to say about infanticide or abortion except for all the times that it did from its very beginning, you might even say from its nascent in utero stages. The Christian church has had quite a bit to say about this topic, in fact, which is why you can today, 2,000 years later, get a collection of Christians that will slit each other's throats on all kinds of doctrinal issues, but then turn right around and agree that abortion is murder and bad. Because this has been a fundamental closed hand principle and ethic within the church from the very beginning. Because it also was within the law from the very beginning. There were even penalties within the Levitical law. If you caused a woman to miscarry against her will, you were criminally penalized for that. So the Lord says, both through King David and the prophet Jeremiah, I knew you before you were born. I knit you in your mother's womb. I formed you in your inmost being. The first time we hear from our Lord in the New Testament is when he jumps for joy in the womb. Or no, from John the Baptist, I should say, is when John the Baptist jumps for joy in the womb when the mother of his Lord arrives. See, we're going to have to go back now and explain these things. We're going to have to. And I know everyone's been taught, if it's not a pithy saying, it won't work. Well, some of these things just frankly are not pithy sayings and the devil will take advantage of that. Well, we're going to have to go back now and disciple these things because we're running into an era now where our pithy sayings, even if they're better than theirs, we don't have the numbers to just win this on pithy sayings anymore. We have to persuade and disciple. Because if you're a. Nor if you're a godless normie, it seems pretty reasonable the government, the government should have any say in your healthcare decisions, right? That sounds reasonable to you, correct?

[Todd Erzin]

Sure.

[Steve Deace]

So we're going to have to have a pretty good argument for that. Thoughts, gentlemen?

[Todd Erzin]

Well, back to where you started with blasphemy. If, if you want to be explicit about what the Bible says regarding all those, and, and it follows to where you ended Here with all the health care arguments, I'd like to just ask James what does he think being created in the image and likeness of God means? Because that's in the Bible. And if you think that that creature can be aborted before it says or does a thing, I just think you have a pretty low bar for what God even means at all. And so what are we even talking about in the Bible? Why don't you forfeit it altogether and stop this charade?

[Steve Deace]

James is not the first one to use this line, far from it, but it always makes me chuckle a little bit if the topic matter were not so dire and important civilizationally. Oh, abortion is something that I don't think politicians, I don't think the government should have a say in. You're a politician, you're part of the government and you are having a say in it right now. James, let's stop with the obfuscations here. Again, it's that video that was put out by that Lutheran satire guy. Just this constant stream of politically correct euphemisms for everything. And the reason why that is the case is because if you actually got into the nitty gritty, if you actually described in great detail what you're talking about instead of these euphemistic smooth sounding for smooth brained sayings, people would probably not fall for your lies quite as easily. But that's just an easy one right there. Oh, the government. Politicians shouldn't have a say. They should stay out of it. You're in it by saying that you are in it as a politician and as a part of government. So let's actually have the real debate here. But again, want to reset this for the upteenth time. The only degrees they're handing out at the University of Hell are marketing degrees. Because if we actually got down to the nitty gritty about what hell wants for you and for me, it wouldn't be nearly as appealing, would it?

Well said both of you. Again, we're going to have to do this many more times. Many more times. And there's going to be many more Talaricos in the in the eras to come. All right, when we come back, I do want to have a quick take on this fraud venture initiative with the JD Vance. Then we'll get to buy seller hold. Stay tuned. The steve day show. All right, back here on the Steve Day Show. And again cannot thank you guys enough for an outstanding day one launch for why Independence Day America is Great. Because God Is Good. My latest 14th book and fourth children's book and the conclusion in our trilogy of books on America's Christian heritage. In case you haven't seen it yet, here's a preview.

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I mean, one of the reasons I keep running this promo is it's just so pretty to look at. I mean, it's one of the coolest elements we've ever had in the history of our show. I mean, you did an incredible job with that.

Thanks.

So thank you. So get your copy today. A lot of you already have, but there's still more. Amazon's been restocked. All right, so thank you for giving us all a heart attack yesterday afternoon, but Amazon's got plenty now, so your order is available. Just waiting for you. I mean, all the book sales we need are right there where you are. Right. And I think you'll love it. And I know your kids will love it as well, and your grandkids, nieces, and nephews. Why Independence Day? America is great. Because God is good. You can order it now at Amazon. All right, before we get to buy seller hold, I want to have a. Just a quick little chat. And I've, you know, as like we go through Aaron's montage and whenever this fraud initiative has come up, I've made a mental note a couple times I wanted to bring this up, and I just was unable to. So I want to do it today. Right. Because we've already had this conversation in the last few days about this dinner I had in D.C. last week with a few VIPs, and I was the only one at the table that was firmly pro JD 2028, which surprised me, given who else was at the table. And the reason given comprehensively is. Was concerns about the Tucker thing. And was made very clear to me that Tucker's done more damage to him, to tuck, than to J.D. than I thought. But we're still dealing a formidable candidate. I mean, we had a retard test over the weekend. You guys see this story?

Yeah.

Okay. That was just. That was an instant to find out who's a. Who's a grifter. Or retard. But I repeat myself, is the Daily Mail reporting. The Daily Mail, who told us two weeks ago that the UFO disclosures are going to make us all rethink the Bible. They had that story a couple weeks ago. Right, The. You mean the UFO disclosures that have not even like resonated whatsoever, but they had a story over the weekend that JD is rethinking running in 2028 because of Tulsi Gabbard stepping away and that he views that all the pro war forces are ascendant within the Trump administration and he feels isolated. That was the general story, right? Okay. You look at the story and it quotes one source who, who hear. Who essentially heard this all secondhand. And this thing is trending on X and everything else. I mean just this, this was. This. That wasn't a story. It was a finder. It was a grifter detector. If you're just trying to figure out who's grifting or retarded. But I repeat myself, that story did it. Okay. I didn't comment on it, didn't share it because I recognized a grift as soon as I saw the grift go retarded. So. But I do think this fraud initiative is a high risk, high Reward Initiative for JD 2028. And I'm gonna get you guys take. Let me quickly explain why if there's real results from this, like if people see tangible evidence when Stephen Miller is out there saying and understand balancing the budget is not the same thing as paying off the debt. Let's make sure we understand that. Okay? Like we like to talk about, we did last have balanced budgets at the end of the 90s under Bill Clinton heading into the dot com boom. But we still had not paid down any. We've still had generational debt rollover. Right. Just the budgets that we were passing at that moment were balanced. Okay, so that's what Miller's talking about, that we could balance the year to year budget. He thinks on making sure that only people that are lawfully able to receive any benefits from the government do so. That's not the same as paying off $46 trillion of debt. It's not the same thing. Okay. It's a good start. It's way ahead of where we are right now. Right. But it's, it's not the same. Okay, so Miller's not talking about there's $46 trillion of fraud to pay off all our debt. What he's talking about is balancing. We can at least have budgets that balance now. Which would do a lot for bond markets, inflation and all the stuff that we're struggling with right now economically. If, if, if people see tangible results from this, like they see, they see it, they see it in terms of what the government takes from them, people being punished and held accountable. Then on, on top of being the VP and the base, he already has this, this is, this goes from JD is, is the clear favorite, too. It's, we're even going to have a primary. It's like, it's a, it's an invitational. It's the J.D. you know, when we were kids, remember, you know, a lot of colleges used to have those college basketball invitationals over the holidays and they'd book a bunch of scrubs just to come in. And for a weekend at Christmas when, you know, everybody's at home and not watching games, just kind of rack up a couple wins. Remember those, like holiday invitationals. That's what essentially the 2028 primary is between the, the strength of his already, his already existing strengths as a candidate. If we add some fraudsters went to jail and people are noticing a difference financially in these funds that have been recovered, then I have no idea how he loses. Unless there's just something about him on a personal level that comes to light that we just simply don't know. But I would also say if we're going to itemize all this fraud and none of those things do happen now, you have to ask yourself,

[Daniel Horowitz]

who would

[Steve Deace]

be the candidate that could take advantage of that? Right. And I, and I still think in the end, Donald Trump is going to decide our nominee and we'll have a primary as long as it takes him to endorse somebody. And if he endorses somebody up front, then there won't be a primary. Other people can run, but they don't have a shot and they're running for other reasons. Or Trump could decide to withhold his primary long enough to have some sort of, you know, contest, and then the minute he makes a decision, it's over. But I do think that this is a bit of a risk reward venture for him, that if there are real results and real accountability, then at that point he has a nearly flawless resume for the presidency. But if there's not, then people are also going to say, well, hey, those are nice talking points, bud, but what'd we do? Thoughts?

[Todd Erzin]

Oh, we've. This is not a new road. We, this is, you're talking about Doge.

[Steve Deace]

In a way. This is a much, this is a much bigger version of Doge. But yeah, to quote.

[Todd Erzin]

To quote the great prophet Butthead words. Yeah, bigger version. Okay, whatever. But listen, here's the version that I'm paying attention to. There's just too much money. Yeah, yeah. Aaron knows. I mean, you guys talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. But even with the Doge stuff, the money, a lot of the money just ended up getting poured right back in. And you know who did it? Republicans.

[Steve Deace]

Yep.

[Todd Erzin]

So here's what. Yeah, look at what's going on in college football. It all. Something has to be done. Our hair's on fire. Things are terrible when somebody else is trying to unfairly use. Use money to gain advantage. They're cheating. When our team does it, that's called winning. So we're just dealing with the same primal addictions here. This isn't. Cosmically. It has. It has nothing to do with J.D. vance. It just has everything to do with everybody else, quite frankly. And I'm not expecting any new bloom on this tree because everywhere you look, when there's an obvious inferno that countless people agree on, all kinds of things are agreeing. Something has to be done the minute you say, okay, we have to do this. Well, no. I mean, yeah, I'm complaining about the porn, but I'm still gonna watch the porn. Cause there's just too much money.

[Steve Deace]

It's the classic example. If you ever get close to academic expenditures and budgets. You've heard this example over and over again. Oh, it's the end of the school year. We've got an extra thousand dollars in our budget. We need to spend it somewhere or else they're going to cut that thousand dollars out of our budget next school year. That's what we saw, I think, a little bit with Doge. That's what I fear we're going to find with this massive fraud. We're talking in the realms of billions upon billions, if not hundreds of billions. I think I've seen or heard that tossed around. That's all well and good. You have the authority. You're in charge of the executive branch. You have the authority to stop the fraud now, but where does the money go? Where does it go?

Right.

And we could get in the minutia. Not that maybe I'm capable of doing that right now. We could get in the minutiae of the machinery of where that money goes. Does it go to the treasury where the bottom line is, the next time these programs come around for renewal, what is Congress gonna do? It's a Congress thing again, which means it's a people thing again. Congress has to do the one do the thing and cut stuff. Even the fraud, Even the money we have allocated for fraudulent expenditures, Congress has to be willing to cut that. Not just look at the fraud. Not, let's look at the savings and say, hey, we have to allocate this money somewhere else. No, it has to be cut. And the executive branch, they can root out the fraud, they can educate about the fraud, they can cut off the fraud. For now, eventually we're gonna have to do some cutting. And that's up to Congress. Does Congress seem like they want to do any cutting, Todd?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Deace]

Again, a black hole of a conversation like we had. I can't remember when. It was late last week, earlier this week. Just a black

hole. So then, yes, it's a. It's a high risk, high reward ventures. We're saying then it is. That's what we're saying.

[Todd Erzin]

Right? Yeah. Because the people are the problem. Being in person of integrity is a high risk, high reward.

[Steve Deace]

Well, that's true in any era, my man, but.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, well, I'm not. No, no, I understand. Historical sin, all that stuff. Right now, people are simultaneously as dumb and as arrogant at the exact same time about matters of absolute zero confidence and think they know things which they don't more than any time in human history. So this is a unique problem that we have. Not sin isn't. But right now, the hills that people will die on thinking that they are smart.

[Steve Deace]

That I agree with. And a lot of it has to do with this device right here. Okay. I mean, this device right here gets us as close to Babel as we've been since the Lord destroyed it and dispersed the nations. Okay, so I mean, this allows us the reason. It's not that we're more malevolently wantonly stupid than any previous era. It's that we're more connected to other malevolently wantonly stupid people than we're.

There's a lot more of those people than any other era as well.

And they get to connect with each other and multiply their voice together. Agreed.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm sorry, but I'm just. This is a day where I have to deal with a place called Texas decided Chip Roy wasn't good enough. I'm ready to burn some things down, Steve.

[Steve Deace]

I get it. I do. Maybe Maze Middleton. We'll get to this next hour. Maybe he'll. I've not said a negative thing about Mays Middleton. I don't know him at all. Don't know him at all. Maybe he'll be great. I hope so. I'm telling you right now, the three most important and this conversation reinforced this. I said this for the first time last week. The three most important positions, given where we are at in our cold civil war, the three most important positions to vote for are president, governor and attorney general of your state. The three most important positions that you can vote for, I should say, can't vote for secretary of state, you can't vote for Supreme Court justice. Okay? But the three places where you're mostly, you're likely to get the most action and the most stoppage of evil is in those that you can vote for is in those three places. And it is adamant, okay, that we have to have at least B pluses in, in those three places. And you look at Texas, they, they don't have a B plus at governor, they don't maybe a B minus, maybe on a good day, can't have a B minus Ag that that job's got to be a B plus a minimum. And I would argue in a state like Texas, every officials should be an A. I mean, yeah, but Democrats haven't won statewide there in 30 years.

[Todd Erzin]

This is my point. You, as long as we have people everywhere, when you say things like, you know, well, you have to just understand that there was just too much money and everybody just nods. Yeah, that's just how it is. You, you're lucky if you get a D plus, Steve.

[Steve Deace]

Well, that's one of the reasons why Democrats have been, you know, running a part of the Texas state legislature for the last couple of years just because of what you just said. All right, let's bring on some buy seller hold brought to you by our friends over at Preborn. And you guys have been so generous. I think I told you guys I ran into Dan Snyder Steiner who runs Preborn when I was in D.C. and we were in that, we were on that trip together and we had not met before and he was just raving about how generous you guys have been. He told us that in particular this audience here to our show has generated as many large donations to their organization in the last few years as almost any other show they've done. So wow, that's incredible, you guys. Thank you. So let's keep it going because for as little as 28, you could double a baby's chance at life today. And I would argue mom's chance at eternal life by not by turning her into a mom and not a murderer. And then they don't just say, hey, thanks mom for choosing life. Good luck to you. They're, they're There. Now, to help this family get started off on the right foot. All right, so make your tax. Deductible. Deductible donation today. As many of you have. Let's keep it going to preborn.com, steve. That's preborn.com, steve. All right, you guys know how this works. Aaron's got the submissions. We're gonna buy them. Todd and I, we're gonna sell them. Tell you why we are permitted to hold. But that is considered a. An event of great, great emasculation that requires a level of debasement from you. All right? And so, Todd, if you hold, you have to figure out who to negotiate with in Iran. You have to figure that out.

[Todd Erzin]

I don't know. That's. That's a breathtaking.

[Steve Deace]

But,

[Todd Erzin]

yeah, it's not just me. You're sending me there with Lindsey Graham.

[Steve Deace]

You have to take Lindsey Graham with you.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I was feeling like there was. I felt rays of sunshine on my body for a second. No, not so much anymore.

[Steve Deace]

All right, fire away, Aaron.

We'll start with Wesley Thiessen, who says if Talarico gets elected to the Senate, Lindsey Graham will be more than happy to help him reckon with his masculinity. I have a secondary buy seller, hold Wesley, profile picture. Looks like you're a young man. A few weeks ago, you had that brilliant submission about what transgenderism really is. I can't remember all the details, but I remember it being just brilliant, and I highlighted it off the top. This show has reduced Wesley from brilliance about four weeks ago to Lindsey Graham.

[Todd Erzin]

It'll do that to you.

[Steve Deace]

Disgusting jokes. Buy, sell, or hold.

We are a terrible influence.

We need to reevaluate.

That's what the influence by Silverhold. We have to apologize to Wesley's parents.

Yes.

Bye.

[Todd Erzin]

This show is just about reality and reality. It'll make you a shell of your former self, that's for sure. I will say, have you noticed Talarico's affect when I was watching it earlier in the show? He sounds just like Barack Obama. The cadences, everything.

[Steve Deace]

Oh, man. I know. I had no idea. At the end of the hour, my back. We got so engrossed in that fraud conversation, I lost track of time. So we'll pick this right up where we left off when we come back. Stay tuned. All right, back here with hour two, live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio and podcast with Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve Dase. Let us know what you think via the stevedace.com inbox. What you think about what we think. I meant to say you you can do that by emailing the show stevetevedase.com D E A C E Like us on Facebook Me we and Gab. Follow me at Steve Day show on x Instagram and TikTok. You can also like our or subscribe to our new YouTube channel at day show on YouTube. Also make sure to subscribe to the podcast if you listen to that version of the show and you can take advantage of that by hitting well subscribe. Unless you're listening via Apple and itunes. Then you got to hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode in your podcast feed and then be one of the tens of thousands of folks that have sent us five star reviews posted those for us on their podcast platforms as well. We appreciate each and every one of those and we'd appreciate it if you got the best night's sleep that you deserve. And that's where our friends over at Beam come in. All right, now with Beam Dream Powder, the powerful blend of all natural ingredients like Reishi, magnesium. What else? Melatonin and more. All right, these powerful ingredients come together to call back to Nana's Hot Cocoa when you were a kid back in the day when you couldn't sleep and no one knew what a carb was and no one counted them because nobody cared or had to. Now the good news is because we do have to care these days. This is not loaded with carbs, it's not loaded with sugars, but it's loaded with those all natural ingredients and plenty of flavor and flavors like sea salt, caramel, chocolate, peanut butter and more to make sure that you get the best night's sleep you deserve so that you are ready to get up the next day and go take on the day. I do it now with Dream Made by Americans for Americans. The the Dream Powder from beam. Go to shop beam.com Steve use the code Steve and you'll get my exclusive offer of up to 40% off beams dream Powder. With my discount code Steve, you get their best selling dream powder for just 39 bucks. Comes out to like a buck and change a night. If you've been meaning to fix your sleep, this is the time. Get Dream the best selling sleep powder for up to 40% off shot beam.com Steve using the code Steve all right, bottom of the hour. We'll get into last night's runoff results in the state of Texas and more as Daniel Horowitz will take us inside politics. But until then, Todd Aaron, let's continue buy seller Hold Fire away We'll get to as many of these as we can. What remains we'll get to in the overtime today for Blaze TV subscribers.

Steve Friend. Excuse me, Steve Friend is back to lighten the mood with this post. Midterms Republicans weaken deportation operations and expand sanctuary policies in a raid states under the theory that it increases those states populations and creates more potential GOP seats.

Man, that is a black pill.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes it is.

[Steve Deace]

I gotta sell out. I think there's zero percent chance that happens. But I respect the level of cynicism for sure. I just don't agree with it. But I respect it.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I'm in the same place. But if anybody's earned a right for that level of cynicism, it's Steve. So I'll buy.

[Steve Deace]

I don't blame him at all. I just don't agree. But I don't blame him.

Yeah, Trumpet Tiger says Steve's next book trilogy should be about American folk heroes. Paul Bunyan, Johnny appleseed, John Henry, etc. And how they all reflect aspects of God. How about young adult books, Steve, instead of children's books? Young adult books.

So we're talking like 10 to 10 to 13, that kind of what you're thinking?

Yes.

[Todd Erzin]

Okay.

[Steve Deace]

I guess I hadn't thought about that before. That's an interesting idea too in this submission. I like it. The next two books are already planned. I've got a book, my next book that I'm writing right now, next year for next year is aimed at the men. And then Amy and I are going to write a book together for 2028 on our experience in our marriage coming back from the brink and hopefully some lessons we learned that might be encouragement to others. So the next two are already planned, but those, those aren't terrible ideas at all.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm selling. I regret to inform you that all of those characters have entered the transfer portal and they are no longer eligible.

[Steve Deace]

They're Canadian now.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

Honduran.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

Yes. Yeah. Waiting to see what kind of nil they can get.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I like it.

[Steve Deace]

Yeah.

Paul Howard has this. John Cornyn will be on one of the Sunday shows this week talking about how Trump and Paxton are mean. He'll talk about how the only way forward for the GOP is more mosques, amnesty and a flag burning amendment. Same issues as the first day he was elected.

Well, I, I respect this and agree. Yeah, I think you can count on this.

[Todd Erzin]

Wouldn't be surprised if he's got his own show on CNN soon.

[Steve Deace]

I mean, I, We got to push John Thune at least as Hard as we're pushing the Iranians here. Okay. I mean, we have to go after our domestic agenda or at least be perceived as trying to go as hard after our domestic agenda as we are our foreign policy.

[Todd Erzin]

Maybe what we think our domestic agenda really isn't our domestic agenda. Steve, have we thought about that?

[Steve Deace]

I have thought about that. I've thought about lots of things. Thank you.

This is interesting. I just saw this interview with CBS News. James Talarico asked specifically about his past remark that God is non binary. It says that. Talarico, in response to that, says that some of his previous comments are, quote, missed the mark, quote. There are some statements that I've made that I certainly regret saying. Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringy comments to distract from his career of corruption. He's backpedaling on the goddess non Bible.

[Todd Erzin]

This defends. You know, you read that right after Steve just said what he said. This defends Steve's point. These are. The only reason he's saying that is they weren't counting on him losing corn and losing.

[Steve Deace]

Right. Yeah.

[Todd Erzin]

Which is why we have to do exactly what you're saying. But when you point out the contradiction that happened there within Texas, that Paxton can win but Chip Roy can't, when, like, the same issue has been dominating both thematically, both candidates thematically, you're just dealing with a level of invincible ignorance that you don't know when to predict what priorities are salient at any given moment.

[Steve Deace]

Well, listen, I think we have to give some credit to Ken Paxton, and quite a bit. He was about to get screwed, and he turned the screws back on. On Trump, too, and the whole system.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

All right. And that's the. That is some real 4D chess that he played. Forgive me, guys. I did five hours of interviews yesterday. I'm trying to get my voice to stay solid. But that move that he played, where he came out with the president's own statement, and everybody and their mom thought, well, the president's gonna endorse John. In fact, I even predicted that. And then a minute, I predicted on the show that the morning after the primary that the president would do this. And then it was in the middle of the show that that statement came out.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

That he said, I'm gonna make an endorsement. We all looked at each and like, oh, no. All right. And because Cornyn ended up, I think, what did he win by, like, a point? Maybe a little more. When Wesley Hutt was in the race in the primary. And so I remember in the president's statement he said, and I want whoever I don't endorse to drop out. We need to unify. And Paxton comes right on, says, hey, I'll drop out right now. I just need you guys to pass the SAVE act. Okay? Now the, the irony of this, of course, is why is this, why is the SAVE act even a thing? Whose legislation is that? It's Chip Roy's. This legislation is only even a thing because of the heavy lifting that he and Mike Lee as well have done on this. It's his bill. He's the literal author of the bill. Okay? It's his bill. So on one hand, if you're like, go Ken Paxton, all right? Because you know what he polled. But I can't vote for Chip Roy because that's kind of what you're getting to. I will. Now, there's always local angles, all right? I mean, Chip and Ken Paxton don't have the greatest relationship either. So there's always local angles to things. They have to consider things we don't, since we don't live there. We don't know. Right? But ultimately the act that everyone is that that's everyone's number one. Here's what we do know. This is a fact. The piece of legislation that has been more discussed than any singular piece of legislation in the year of our Lord 2026, the piece of legislation that. That Ken Paxton brilliantly and deftly leveraged into, likely now landing in the U.S. senate. That's Chip Roy's legislation. That's not in dispute.

[Todd Erzin]

But are you confident that had not Paxton, he basically Kobayashi marooed Texas had he not done that? We're not. Cornyn wins.

[Steve Deace]

Yeah, I think Trump endorses Cornyn. Had Paxton.

[Todd Erzin]

See, so like a.

[Steve Deace]

The only question is, and I'll not know the answer, the only question is, was Trump in on it with Paxton? I can't say that. That's not true. I don't know the answer to that. And we'll probably, we'll likely never know. But what I do know is there's no way Paxton, if he doesn't do that, there's no way he is the winner last night. No way.

[Todd Erzin]

And so it's simultaneously brilliant, but it has zero coattails. I mean, which is that's impossible to do sane political calculus. Everything is like the Deer Hunter table then even in Texas, that's not sustainable.

[Steve Deace]

Yes, but I think we have to understand why. It's because. We are still an issue driven party. But there is no bigger issue than Donald Trump. That's just the reality. He's the biggest issue. And, you know, let's discuss this now so that we don't hog up Daniel's time with it later on. We sat down a little more than a year ago. The three of us were at an eatery in Washington, D.C. getting ready to go do a show at the White House. Right. About a week and a half prior, our governor decides, shocks everybody, she's not going to run again. All right. We're looking at a pretty uninspiring field. We had one candidate who is, who has won statewide and is really the only Trump loyalist in the Iowa political Republican Party, you know, elite, and that's our outstanding Attorney General, Brenna Bird. Okay. And the expectation was that the White House would just anoint her. And I though, told you guys shortly after meeting with her, I wasn't entirely sure she was going to run. Now, she had not yet announced she was not going to run, but she had not done anything to indicate yet that she was gonna run. And it was about this time people were starting to think maybe she's not gonna do it. Right. Okay. And I had not told you guys at all up until this point that I'd been plotting to run for this office in 2030, anticipating that Kim would not run again or that she would run again. And Amy and I basically had a five year plan to try to run for governor in Iowa in 2030. Hadn't even told you guys because there's no point in even telling you because we were years off from that. Right. And then this announcement came and there was a. But. So, so I was going to tell you guys about all this for the first time at this eatery in Washington, D.C. and we had this conversation. And as I'm laying this out to me, to you guys, you look at me and say, if I recall, correct me if I'm wrong, Steve, I was going to come to you five minutes after Kim said she wasn't going to run again. And I was going to tell you that you have to do this, but then here's why you can't. Do you remember that? Do I have it right so far?

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah.

[Steve Deace]

Okay. What was the reason why you told me I can't Trump? Yeah. What was the reason why we, we never announced we were doing a show at the White House until literally the show began? Trump. Yeah. Because now we wouldn't have been invited there without the President. But we also know there are people around the President who did not want us to be there or would never want us around ever again. Okay. Who never Want to let the 2024 primary go.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

And want to pretend that him and DeSantis are enemies when nothing could be further from the truth. They actually have a very, very close relationship. And we see this online play itself out on both sides. Right. Still plenty of people with gators in their bio who still think It's October of 2023 and can't get over it. Right. Okay, so if it's that complicated for someone like me, how much more complicated is it for a sitting member of Congress like Chip, do you think?

[Todd Erzin]

It's very complicated for him. But then the people had to say about it and they, they had to get Kobayashi Maru had to be pulled off just for Texans to go vote for a guy that was using that Kobayashi Maru to escape Texas and go to D.C. where he will have less influence on the life of Texas.

[Steve Deace]

Talking about Paxton and Chip.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes. Paxton and Chip Roy is trying to come in and have more influence and say help them with the SAVE act, with Islam, with other things. And they won't accept that.

[Steve Deace]

See, I think this is just, I don't think there's, I don't think there's any question Ken Paxton was going to have more power to change the course of the country on a day to day basis as the Attorney General of Texas and then a backbenching senator. I don't think that's even debatable. All right. But there's another factor here in that getting Corny out of there is a must. And the amount of people with name ID statewide who could do it. I mean, the fact that Paxton came as close to Cornyn on primary night as he did, he was outspent nine to one.

[Todd Erzin]

Why is it a must?

[Steve Deace]

Because of how terrible of a senator the Cornyn is.

[Todd Erzin]

Exactly. And what is the exact opposite of John Cornyn?

[Steve Deace]

Chip Roy, I hear what you're saying.

[Todd Erzin]

I know you do. I'm just venting because this, the math is terrible on the rationalization of the same Texas voters.

[Steve Deace]

I don't disagree with that. But I also understand that this is the kind of era we're in when you are. First of all, I give Trump a lot of credit that he stayed out of the race. Had to be awfully tempting for Trump to stay in, to weigh in and say, you know what? Once and for all, I'm going to rid myself of the pest. To me, that has been Chippewa. And he did. He stayed completely out of it and let the whole thing play out on its own. I give Trump credit for that. Okay. But this is the complication when you have kings. It's hard to nuance when there's a king. And things tend to be seen as you're either on the side of the king or you're not. And that's just, that's how most people operate.

[Todd Erzin]

Unless Texans are frustrated that I'm very unhappy with them. Hey, in a week you can come back at me because Iowans are prepared to be really stupid.

[Steve Deace]

Well, we are looking at all time record low turnout our primary, which is another reason why I'm kind of holding my fire on Texas. I have not seen a more incompetent, a more disappointing, and just a more mismanaged primary cycle in America. Like what I've witnessed in this primary cycle here in my home state of Iowa. It's, it's mesmerizing that after 15 years of everything we've done to turn this state as red as it is, that this thing looks like dorf on politics. Keystone Cops, the Pink Panther, you know, Mr. Bean, I mean, it's just, it's mesmerizing.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah.

[Steve Deace]

I Rob sand could never win. We have a 200,000 voter registration advantage. We can only lose. And we are literally doing everything it could possibly take right on down the line, everybody. We're all doing everything it would take to lose. So, no, I, you know, I, you're right. In a week. Get your shots in on the Texas primary voter now. Because in a week, the whole rest of the country is going to be probably looking at us and saying, what you doing? Oh, yeah, yeah, I gotcha. All right. So little distraction there, Aaron. Let's fire back up. Sorry about that.

Let's see, the next one is going to be about Paxton and Talarico. Let's skip that for now. Let's go to Jonathan, who says Candace, Owens and Tucker will hold a joint podcast to interview an alien leader after the release of Spielberg's movie this summer. The alien will reveal that the Jews have been their secret reconnaissance force all along.

I actually think this could happen. I'm not even kidding you. I could see this. I could see it. I'll buy. Like, I think this is meant to be parody, of course, but I, I, I don't. Why is that not the next. Once you're as crazy as they both are, you can't just return to rationality. You got to keep dialing it up. It's got to keep getting crazier. What is he going to do next? What is she gonna say next? Right. So I could see it.

[Todd Erzin]

Sure. And while I'm not sure about the Disclosure movie. I will say that would probably almost certainly be better programming than Mandalorian and Grogu. Supergirl Odyssey. What's the he man so yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean we need a viewing window for quality entertainment.

[Steve Deace]

Todd, what would you rather have Candace owing Owens learning about Thunder for the first time or Mandalorian and Grogu?

[Todd Erzin]

Oh, the I think the verdict's already out on that Candace Owens learning about Thunder was way more entertaining than whatever that track was.

[Steve Deace]

Council of Trent Cancel of Trent says Mamdani will follow through with his declaration to transfer ownership from quote unquote bad landlords.

Of course he will.

[Todd Erzin]

By

[Steve Deace]

Are we in? Is this some kind of disagree? We think this is posturing. I I, I I I was unaware Was there some thought that he was just saying stuff to get elected? It wasn't going to do it. Is this something I'm not aware of? Of course he's going to do this stuff. Or at least he's going to try. Sure he is.

[Todd Erzin]

You bet. You bet. Yeah.

[Steve Deace]

Bye.

Sean Anderson says no matter what Massey does in the future, it'll be more productive than being a member of the House.

Sell. There's lots of things you could do that's less productive than that. So I'll sell. What was the Babylon Bee headline? America Lost a Congressman but Gained a Podcaster. Okay, gosh, that was brutal. But I'm going to sell. And in fact, he's already filed to run again anyway, so even he doesn't agree.

Also, Jeff Bayer says when the Big Ten and SEC break away, the football game between Ohio State and Alabama will be like Bills versus Chiefs. The Kentucky versus Purdue game will be Browns versus the Cardinals.

I'm going to sell. I don't think they're going to break away. I don't.

[Todd Erzin]

But that wasn't the question.

[Steve Deace]

I'd have to agree with that to accept the question.

[Todd Erzin]

Not just is it it's not whether they're going to break away, but is what would happen.

[Steve Deace]

Well, it said when they do so it acted as if it was an eventuality. If they do, that entire thing becomes subjective. So that's an opinion you could have. Sure, other people may have other opinions, but I don't think they'll break away. I don't.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, the worst possible outcome is going to happen based on the last couple years. Just like I told you it would. No one believe me.

[Steve Deace]

Snarky MC Snarkface Late Breaking Buy, Sell or Hold Submission Steve's next book should be called Dorf on politics.

Thought about writing that one a few times. Yeah.

Sturdy Oak says Seth Gruber should come on weekly to play a game called Balls, no Balls, in which Christian leaders, politicians, et cetera, are brought up and discussed. Essentially a vehicle for Seth to righteously

smack people around and also for me to have even fewer friends than I currently do. Yes.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, I'm.

[Steve Deace]

That's a great bit for Seth's show, not for my own. Okay. I love Seth, but I cannot have someone as a regular determining. No host. Can. You, as the host, you have to determine what are the boundaries of your show because it's your name on it and you have to own all of those boundaries. Right. That's why you have to be careful and judicious about who you grant a platform to within your own, because they're going to define those things for you. So it's a great idea. But it's a great idea for Seth's show.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm selling because it's already been asked and answered. The answer is no Balls.

[Steve Deace]

Iowa man says there will be no progress on the Iran peace deal for at least three weeks. Gas prices will hit a $5 a gallon national average before this ends.

I think that's. I think I'm going to buy just simply because I think there's lots of options on the table. Now. I'm not. I don't know what happens. Why am I not talking a lot about this? Because I have no idea what happens when maybe the greatest art of the deal negotiator in American history meets a demoniac regime that you can't negotiate with. I have no clue what happens. I. The, you know, unstoppable first force meets the immovable object. I. I don't know what happens. I have no clue. And I think this could be a plausible scenario.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

I mean, if this thing ended in 30 minutes, would it shock you?

[Todd Erzin]

It's.

[Steve Deace]

Well, then, if we're.

[Todd Erzin]

But if this scenario starting to.

[Steve Deace]

If. If this. If by the end of this show, breaking news deal's been struck, would it shock you? Wouldn't shock me. If this scenario. We're still doing this at Labor Day, would it shock you? Wouldn't shock me either. I don't know. I think there's a wide compass or wide array, I should say, of outcomes here, and this is a plausible one, so I'll buy it. Sure.

Next, Vanta Claus says Chip Roy falling to Mays. I don't have any positions. Middleton is the clearest sign yet that Texas has already fallen.

I think you have to take Todd's gambit, though, and reverse it, because at the other end, at the other end, they did get the Ken Paxton thing. Right? Okay. So. And Paxton was within a point in a primary against a guy that outspent him nine to one. Nine to one. So I, I just think, again, it, it's, it's, there's a, there's a variable here. All right? The biggest issue is Trump. It's still an issue driven party, but the biggest issue is Trump. All right? It's, it's, it's why Todd went from. In one conversation, I was going to tell you, you had a moral imperative, Steve, to run to. You can't run, because I would have run right into this exact dynamic that we're talking about. All right? And so, and, and, and here's the thing. I'm not a victim. I'm not complaining about that. I, I did everything I thought I was right. Right or wrong where Trump is concerned as a big boy at the time, Trump's done a lot of good for the country. I have. So he's just, he's deservedly king. I'm a podcaster. He's king. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not complaining. I'm just giving you the weather forecast. That's the environment in which we are in. All right? And so Trump's been. Tripp. Chip's been way more of a pest for Trump on a daily basis than I could ever hope to be by being a member of Congress. So I get it. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed, But I also am not offended. Like, I get how this dynamic works. I get it. I've read a history book. I've read a Bible. I understand why things are the way they are.

[Todd Erzin]

I will sell. But I do have concerns that this victory over Cornyn may ultimately be nothing but Pyrrhic and the Rosetta Stone.

[Steve Deace]

See, Maze Middleton is going to decide he's there, and I don't know the answer. If Maze Middleton is at least a B, B plus, then the A, the A upgrade you got over Cornyn is worth it. Okay? It was worth taking Paxton out of a position where day to day, he could punch the spirit of the age right in the balls and put him in the Senate where day to day, he can't. All right? If Middleton does a good job, then this, overall, this package of. Would you trade if Chip wasn't my friend? All right? And I didn't know him as well as I did on the surface. If I knew Middleton was going to be a B plus, a minus ag. What trade would I make? Chip and Cornyn for Paxton and Middleton? I'd make the Paxton Middleton trade. That's, but there's nothing on Middleton's record to indicate this. I don't know of any serious fight involved ever. I don't know, I mean it sounds like maybe he'll be great. I don't know, it sounds like he

[Todd Erzin]

was more or less Randy Feedstrid. He, you know, just, I don't want to basically say anything. I'm going and he's, you know, I hope I can buy this thing. And he did.

[Steve Deace]

Maybe he'll be great, I don't know. But he's got to be at least pretty good to justify the downgrade of losing Ken Paxton. Because on a day to day basis you're not going to feel Ken Paxton's presence as a backbenching senator.

[Todd Erzin]

Right.

[Steve Deace]

You're just not. The position doesn't allow for it.

[Todd Erzin]

This is why I think this might be a pic victory.

[Steve Deace]

Marty Brown lot says it will be pumpkin spice season before there is an Iran deal. Just heads up. Our submissions are basically a two track mind. Texas and Iran today, well, they're the

two biggest issues, so I get it. I, again, like I said before, I, I, pardon me, I wouldn't be surprised if Tehran was a sheet of glass in 45 minutes and I, I wouldn't be surprised if 45 days from now we're close to a deal. I, we're beyond my area of expertise. I, I'm, I'm going to tell you when I don't know anything, you know, I just, I don't know how maybe the greatest leverage negotiator in American history negotiates with demoniacs. I, that have never had a faithful, dedicated, you know, negotiation in the history of their regime. I, I, I don't know how it works. I, I don't, I trust that Trump won't take a bad deal. I trust that he's earned that trust from me. But I also don't know how good, how he'll get a good one.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I don't know.

[Steve Deace]

I don't know. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know, you know, so I think lots of scenarios are on the table. I'm, I'm waiting to see everybody as much as you. I think it's possible. Pumpkin spice stuff starts coming out in early August again. I wouldn't be shocked if we're still doing this in early August. I wouldn't, I wouldn't Be shocked if we're not doing this 45 minutes from now.

[Todd Erzin]

Correct.

[Steve Deace]

Next we go to Dan Borwig, Mount Rushmore of American War miniseries Band of Brothers, Generation Kill, north and south, the Winds of War.

First of all, great poll on the Winds of War from the early 80s with Robert Mitchum. That was a great miniseries. I know three of these are great. Band of Brothers, north and south, the Winds of War, Generation Kill. I've never even heard of.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm actually familiar with it.

[Steve Deace]

Are you okay?

[Todd Erzin]

Only because of my daughter's Marine boyfriend. He said that that was going around, and I watched a little bit of it. I didn't finish it. I couldn't put that in all four. I wouldn't put that in my top four. So I'm gonna have to sell, having seen at least several episodes of it.

[Steve Deace]

All right, then I'll give him a buy to be kind because the other three are absolute bangers, and he stuck the landing on those. So three out of four ain't bad.

Matt's collection says the Democrats have become such a demonic death cult that voting for any Democrat puts your soul at risk. This is not an endorsement of Republicans. Buy, Sir La hold.

I will buy this in the. The spiritual sense, not necessarily a literal sense, because I would argue you're voting for Democrats because your soul is imperiled. It's not the other way around. Like, I don't think the act puts your soul in peril. I think you're doing it because your soul is in peril. I think it's a symptom of the disease. But I get generally what you're saying, and so that's why I will buy. I won't, you know, nitpick the nuance here, but Because I think your general broad point is correct.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Deace]

Next we go to Dalton, who says revival is closer than we think. If it wasn't, would the demoniacs be acting out like they are?

I hope this is true. So I will buy. I was asked about this on TBN yesterday, about revival. And if I think there's evidence of it, I think you see embers of it. I do. I think there's embers of it, you know, but you have to fan those flames. I think how God is worshiped matters every bit as much to him as. As being worshiped and that he demands to be worshiped in a certain way. And that's the. That's the traditional small R definition of Reformation. Right. There's capital R reformation. Like, there's capital R orthodoxy, a specific denomination. So There's Capital R Reformation, which is a specific historic event, and there's Small R Reformation, where we we reform our worship into worshiping God in the way he intends. I think that'll play a role in whether we see revival. But I want to be optimistic here, so I'll buy.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm selling.

[Steve Deace]

So I said all that for nothing, you know, Sorry. It's a good segue to Daniel Horowitz when we come back. Stay tuned. Steve day show. All right, back here on the Steve Day show, powered by our friends over at Fast Growing Trees, where they've got the largest, most trusted online nursery. They're alive and thrive guaranteed. That promises your plants will arrive happy and healthy. And then they've got their trained plan experts that are going to help you plan the right landscape for you or the right interior plants for you and then learn how to care for them every step of the way. That's why they are the largest, most trusted online nursery and that's why they have over 2 million happy customers. If you want to become one of them, you can get an extra 20% off right now off your first purchase if you want to join up and take advantage. Maybe you've done this before with them, but they've got all kinds of great deals on spring planting essentials right now, including half off on select plants. But again, if you want to be one of their new customers, take an additional 20 off your first purchase when you go to fast growing trees.com and use my last name days as your promo code. That's promo code DACE at fast growing trees.com promo code DACE at fast growing Trees dot com. Let's welcome him in. It's been a couple weeks since we had a chance to catch up with our good friend and the weekly prophet of woe and lamentation, Daniel Horowitz. Good to see you, brother. How are you chugging along, Steve? So let's talk. We've talked a little bit about it already before you, and that's the Texas runoff results last night. Okay? And let me, as best as I can, try to be objective and not count Chip Roy as a friend, okay? If you could assure me that Mays Middleton would be at least a B plus state ag then if I didn't know Chip Roy as well as I knew Chip Roy, and the trade offered was Maze Middleton and Ken Paxton for John Cornyn and Chip Roy in order to get John Cornyn out of there, I take that trade. Okay? The problem is, for me, that I know for a fact Chip will be An A plus in that role. And I really have no idea at all what Maze Middleton's grade will be. I didn't. I. I've got a lot of contacts in Texas. One of my best friends has the largest church ambassador network in the state. I happen to know one of the two US Senators from the state on a first name basis and worked for him. Happen to know one of the congressmen from the state. A lot of my business associations are in Texas. Our company headquarters are in Dallas. Sarah Gonzalez, our friend and colleague, when she's not on the Blaze, she's doing all kinds of activism in the state of Texas. Do you know how many times I had heard the name Ma Middleton until this race? Zero. Never heard it once. I mean, there's all kinds of fights happening in the state legislature about whether Democrats are going to control it. That's where he serves. Never heard his name one time. And so I don't know. I've not been critical of Mace. Maybe he ran a smart race by not running strong on any issues because he sees what the general election environment is like and he's just trying to stay under the radar. I have no idea. But because I don't know, and I do know Chip, I just can't take that trade. That's my feeling on it personally. Now, analyzing it politically, I understand the results because I understand how kingships work. Right. And the same reason why, despite the fact this was a very favorable environment for somebody with very high name ID like me to run, I couldn't run this cycle because I would have ran in the same dynamic that Chip would have run where Donald Trump is concerned. Okay. And so I understand how that works, but it is kind of funny to see the, the piece of legislation that Paxton brilliantly leveraged into getting his seat is Chip's legislation, the Save America Act. That's what's so funny about all of this. So is there anything else to analyze here, Daniel, other than listen, this is still an issue driven party, but Trump is the biggest issue. He is king. And, and therefore everybody's kind of on one. One extreme side of he's never right and one on extreme side every he's never wrong. And if you try to nuance that, there's just not a lot of room for you in this era. Is it any more complicated than that?

[Daniel Horowitz]

No. I mean, Steve, you got, you got a lot of it. That was my biggest observation. Ken Paxton, during his victory speech extolled the SAVE act, how he's going to get it passed. And I was like, Well, I got two observations on that. I appreciate your support for it. But number one, you won't get that pass because precisely in every other state this cycle, last cycle and the previous three and probably the next one, Trump did not do the Ken Paxton, so we don't have the votes to do it. And number two is the guy on that stage, you know, not too far from you in the office, down the ballot from you, is giving a concession speech. Well, he was the, you know, the brainchild of that entire bill and never got credit for it. And I think, you know, Chip is sort of emblematic of the time we live in in that again. And you and I are personal friends of his. I actually told him not to run for Congress, but I did tell him to run for ag, as did I could have stayed there. It was a safe seat. He actually won and ran and won reelection when it was not a safe seat being the most conservative member. But it's not, it's not just a voting record. He led on every single issue, like every must pass bill, he squeezed out whatever we could. The Green New Deal repeal to the extent it was, was because of him. He tried everything. HR2 with immigration was his thing. Everything on immigration was his thing. The Islamic stuff was his thing. But at the end of the day, that's sort of where we are now that you could be Lindsey Graham, Dusty Johnson, the whole litany of other people, Ashley Hinson in your state, big, big liberal. But you know, you never jousted with the red hat. You're going to be in, you know, MAGA in good standing. Your Chip, not so much. So now I do think that Trump officially stayed out, but because of everything he's done, it gave the ammo, but you needed a gun to fire the bullets. If it would have been any other guy, like a random candidate and Trump would have officially stayed out, I think Chip would have won. The problem was this guy had tens of millions of dollars. So while we never heard of him, he made sure we heard of him. So basically we wound up where we started, where it's all money and Trump money and Trump money and Trump. So those are the two things that are going to factor in and are going to loom large. Now, on your final point, it's funny you mentioned that because I literally said this today. I said I would not take the trade. So Trump didn't officially endorse, but I'm calling it an endorsement against Chip based on his endorsements. We got Ken Paxton for Senate, but then we got Greg Abbott for 100th term as governor and now Mays Middleton is Attorney General to me. I would not take that trade. And this is not.

[Steve Deace]

Let me just.

[Daniel Horowitz]

That.

[Steve Deace]

Let me, let me clarify. If you prom. If I knew for sure that Middleton would be at least a B plus, then I would take that trade. I don't know that for sure, though. I just wanted to clarify. I have no idea what he'll be. No clue. No. Now, I will say this. I will say this.

[Daniel Horowitz]

I roll the dice.

[Steve Deace]

I got a text day from a longtime good friend of mine, Mark Meckler, at Convention Estates. He's a big Chip Roy guy voted for Chip, he tells me. Hey, but I've known Maze Middleton for years. I think he'll be solid. I trust Mark's opinion. But I also know no one has told me jack squat about anybody named Maze Middleton. And all the dealings I've had with the state of Texas, all the times I've visited there, all the people I know there had never heard his name one time until this Attorney General's race. Not once.

[Daniel Horowitz]

Yeah, I mean, same thing with Byron Donalds has a great voting record. He's running for governor in Florida with Trump's support. He has a great voting record in Congress. He, he's officially a member of the Freedom Caucus. He makes sure to vote the right way. But somehow every special interest there knows they, they got their man. The speaker who is jousting with the Governor there knows he has his men. It was a similar thing here too is like all the packs on green energy, they're coming after Chip now saying, well, wait a minute, Maze is saying the same stuff. I mean, what do you know that we don't? So typically you roll the dice 999 out of a thousand times. If you weren't, if we didn't know you in the struggle on these issues, you get in there, especially an executive position, because executive position, you might vote the right way when you have to, but to actually do the things that will, I mean, we're going to need the Texas AG to literally stand athwart history under the next.

[Steve Deace]

Well, see, this is, this is what I've been saying on the show for the last couple of weeks now, which is we can't vote for Secretary of State, we can't vote for U.S. attorney General, we cannot vote for the Supreme Court in the positions we can actually vote for. In my opinion, given who and given who we are as a people, given the state of the Cold Civil War, the three positions where we have to, we have to know that the people in these positions will bleed for at least something for sure are president, governor, and state attorney general. That all three of those have to be some form of certifiable, verifiable fighter. They cannot be empty suits. They cannot be pencil pushers. They can't just be, well, yeah, they're better than Democrats. Those are, those are the positions where we've got the greatest amount of opportunity to play offense that we're permitted to vote for. All right, there's other places where we can play offense, but we can't vote for those positions. The three where we can play the most offense are that we can vote for are those three.

[Daniel Horowitz]

This is the thing that I really, I'm surprised that there aren't many more like us that recognize that whatever your politics are just in terms of the magnitude of the office, forget about governor versus Senator. I take state AG over senator. You're not doing anything. It's like next week you have Iowa. It's a big Iowa, big primary for Iowa. I'm not happy with what Trump did with Ashley Hinson for Senate, but it's like the Senate's like a toilet. So you put another, you know, stool in it. It is what it is. It's part of the course. I care much more about Governor, and, and you're right, even State AG because I think we all know it is very likely Democrats will win back the presidency. I mean, you understand what weaponization is going to look like. You know, I had, even, even now I've, I had a friend who was working on a case where a guy from Massachusetts was extradited to Michigan because he sent emails calling the local politicians there, a bunch of degenerates and pedophiles. He never threatened violence, but they have an A law that they passed that is anti harassment law that if you send nasty emails to a politician which is as old as violence. Jefferson and Adams, I mean, this guy has been sitting in prison for an entire year pretrial, and now he just got sentenced. So this is going to happen. This is real. What we saw under Biden is child's play. I look at a guy like Mays, I really hope I'm wrong because we have no choice now. Man, are you going to really interpose because again, this is not voting the right way. This is inter posing on our behalf and that's what we need as governor in aggressive.

[Steve Deace]

So you and I still have to do our jobs. Okay, so are there lessons here to. For moving forward from Chip and his campaign and what happened here? That could be learned, could have been done better, or is it really just as simple as when you are in, when you're in, in the midst of a monarchy, things are just very clarified. You're either on the side of the crown or you're not. And there's just not a lot of place for nuances, no matter how much you try to drive one. I mean, I think Chip had the highest TPUSA voting record voting score of any member Congress at 96, I think. Right. You know, so are there things he could have done better or differently that we could learn from moving forward, or is it just as simple as you're either with the king or you're not, and that's just the era we're in.

[Daniel Horowitz]

No, realistically, there's nothing he could have done better. And, and I say that, you know, I mean, you see the texts, Steve. You know, you and I either together or independently or alternatingly have maybe disagreed with a strategy or two here or there from him. But my gosh, in totality over eight years, when have you ever seen someone, not a senator or governor, but a. Just an individual house member who has led from the time he's a freshman on every freaking issue. I mean, yeah, of course there's things I shouldn't have done that or strategically, but realistically, go find, go find someone and get elected and do a better job than that. So the answer is he couldn't have done better once. Yeah, you could say retrospect, just kind of like, you know, find a way to not have Trump hate you. But once it was like that he made the right decision to run for AG because he could have kept his seat, but he recognized it was worthless being there. AG is the office. Texas, the most important state. He, he really looked like he had it. He had the name ID and he would have won. But again, it's the, it's the factor that they found a guy that was a self funder and he was able to then exploit the Trump acrimony with Chip with all that money. I think without that he would have won. So I don't think there is a lesson other than going forward. We really need to ask ourselves what is it that we're asking of ourselves and our people? Like what do we want them to do? Because you and I watched Chip from his infantile state, like from the beginning, realistically, what more do you want from a person? And this is not about saving someone's career in the next office. It's like, no, we actually want to do something.

[Steve Deace]

I Think in fairness, because I've gotten a few emails from people very conscientious, they've laid out the reasons why they voted for Maze. I've gotten several of those, and they've responded all of them respectfully. I think that they would say that the reality is, if Trump fails, the whole thing fails. That's really. We don't have any room for nuance. That essentially, if. If you are. If you cannot be trusted on a consistent basis to be aligned with Trump, then even if your overall record is great, we're not sure that, you know, like, several people sent me notes. He's been very slow to defend J6ers, for example. Now I have no idea what Maze Middleton has ever done to defend J6ers. Okay, but.

[Daniel Horowitz]

But, okay, so that's not true.

[Steve Deace]

Okay.

[Daniel Horowitz]

He might have not done it immediately, but once he was on it, he was on it a lot more than almost anyone.

[Steve Deace]

I think that's what the answer would be. Yeah, the. The answer would be that just ever felt like the guy was really, really with Trump and that's our guy, and that's the guy we have to have be that. We have to have be successful.

[Daniel Horowitz]

That's probably defending them quicker than Trump was defending them. But, you know, I mean, it is what it is. But again, it depends on what issue. I mean, do we want on the abortion pill, on marijuana, on data centers, carbon capture? I'm saying which issues. That's. That's the thing. Obviously, you and I would say it was a mistake with, you know, voting to certify the election. We let him know it at that time. So that was probably the biggest mistake. But in totality, you know, go. Go find another guy like that.

[Steve Deace]

I hear you.

[Daniel Horowitz]

It's. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough.

[Steve Deace]

Good to see you, my friend. Thank you.

[Daniel Horowitz]

Take care. Bye bye.

[Steve Deace]

Bye, bye. All right, guys, final thoughts. What do you think? Got about two minutes.

[Todd Erzin]

That last part was everything. What more do you want? And since the answer is almost going to be cosmically dumb or nothing, we have a serious look in the mirror moment we have when that Chip Roy is no longer acceptable by whatever standard you have. I just. It's just. It's a bit. There's no way somebody's not betraying their own ideals by saying Chip Roy had to go.

[Steve Deace]

I. Yeah, I was watching those results come in last night, and it's just. It's an all too familiar feeling because, yes, we're blessed with a great platform, a large platform. Yes, we do our best. Yes, Steve has contacts. Yes, Steve puts in a lot of work. Puts in the work. It just feels and I know, and I'm echoing probably what Todd is talking about and probably what a lot of people in our audience think as well, but it just seems like you're spitting into the wind so often in this process now. Just, hey, maybe, maybe this time the wind won't blow exactly when I spit, but most of the time the wind is blowing right in your face. And that's kind of what this pro I've seen. I've just seen this over and over again in this era. Sometimes it's surprised me and tickled me in good ways. A lot of times it's not. That is just the reality of the situation, though. That's just the reality of where we are. Trump is the issue. Sometimes that's really good. Sometimes that's pretty bad. But that's just where we are right now.

And I would argue even though he frustrates me every now and then, if not more frequently than I would wish was the case, I would argue he's earned this position. There, there was, there's, there's nowhere, there was nowhere else for our people to turn. No one else has stepped in. No one else. I mean that in decades, no one did anything. So I get why he has earned this kind of loyalty. It's why I'm disappointed. I'm sad, but I'm not like angry. I'm not like, you know, losing my mind. Totally get it. I totally get it. I mean, this is, there's a cost for being on a narrow road, you know, and like this Daniel pointed out, there's were times Chip and I didn't even agree. But in terms of character and integrity, I just don't know a finer man. Not in the time that I've been working in politics anyway. That'll do it for today's show. Back editing tomorrow, noon to 2 Eastern, right after Glenn Beck right here on Blaze TV. Until then, go hard. Romans 8:28.