Is Mitch McConnell ACTUALLY in the Hospital? | 7/13/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Is Mitch McConnell ACTUALLY in the Hospital?
Air Date: July 13, 2026
Host: Steve Dace (Blaze Podcast Network)
Guests/Co-hosts: Todd Erzen, Aaron McIntyre, Bob Vander Plaats, Logan Reiser

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Episode Overview

This episode intertwines sharp conservative commentary, wit, and deep-dive analysis of top political news. The show tackles the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. military actions against Iran, questions surrounding Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health, and the unveiling of a major Americana art project. Plus, the team answers listener questions on faith, public figures, and American politics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lindsey Graham’s Sudden Death & Legacy

• [00:01–03:47] News breaks of Lindsey Graham’s sudden death at age 71 after his Ukraine trip. The montage features President Trump’s reaction, describing his last conversation with Graham and his legislative drive.
  • “He was a worker... pushing the Save America Act like crazy... He was tired, but perfect.” – Donald Trump [00:25]
• [07:37–10:14] The hosts reflect on Graham’s controversial yet institutional status in D.C. while resisting both hagiography and vilification in the wake of his passing.
  • “Aren’t you a little bit sad, though? This happened so suddenly... he was always going to be there. From that standpoint alone, holy cow, that dude is gone.” – Steve Dace [07:44]
  • “When you get into somebody’s life... that obviously takes precedence over any kind of political disagreement.” – Todd Erzen [07:59]
• [31:29–34:44] Bob Vander Plaats, who knew Graham personally, shares heartfelt memories, emphasizing Graham’s boldness for Israel, sanctity of life, wit, and faith.

2. U.S.–Iran Tensions: Realpolitik & Conservative Analysis

• [05:06–15:51] Discussion of Trump’s handling of the Iran crisis and why concerns over the Iran deal and “war fatigue” may be misplaced.
  • “You can’t tell me that Iran will keep no deal, but we need better terms of a deal they won’t keep. What sense did that ever make?” – Todd Erzen [11:07]
  • “Based on Trump’s track record, who’s punished the Iranians more than Trump?” – Todd Erzen [13:06]
• [17:23–21:57] The hosts express growing exasperation with the drawn-out U.S.–Iran saga, hinting at war-weariness among conservatives—and themselves.
  • “I’m bored with Iran. If this was the plan, just bomb them to hell... I’m so sick of the back and forth.” – Todd Erzen [17:43]
• [21:57–24:38] Steve tracks oil prices to gauge the real impact and public tolerance for Middle East operations, noting modest market reactions suggest the Strait of Hormuz isn’t fully closed and that “this can play as it is for a bit longer.”
• [23:36–24:38] Todd states his classical “American imperialism,” highlighting the tension between maintaining global might and domestic priorities.

3. Mitch McConnell’s Hospital Photo: Propaganda and Skepticism

• [25:17–29:58] Intense scrutiny over a “proof-of-life” photo of Mitch McConnell smiling in hospital ignites debate over political stagecraft and trust.
  • “How many 80 some-odd-year-old people are admitted for nearly a week and not hooked up to anything? This was like Soviet-level propaganda.” – Todd Erzen [25:47–27:25]
  • “Why go to these lengths? He’s not running for re-election... Is this an object lesson in idolatry?” – Steve Dace [29:03]
• The team’s banter over McConnell’s shadow leadership in the GOP and social media reactions underscores broader distrust in official narratives.

4. Americana Flag Project: Faith, Art, and National Revival

• [36:08–47:09] Interview with artist Logan Reiser and Bob Vander Plaats about the unveiling of a 28-foot glass American flag at the upcoming Leadership Summit—a project symbolizing Christian heritage, national unity, and revival.
  • “This entire project points to the founding of Christianity in our nation. We’re making a 28-foot wide glass American flag... the largest in the world.” – Logan Reiser [36:51]
  • “This is going to be incredible—unlike any flag maybe ever made in history.” – Steve Dace [43:15]
  • “God’s hand is in this.” – Bob Vander Plaats [43:46]
• Reiser emphasizes the craftsmanship and faith inspiration behind the flag; Vander Plaats stresses its future as a cherished American relic.

5. Ask Me Anything Segment: Listener Q&A

• [54:01–93:19] Wide-ranging Q&A tackles faith, false teachers, current controversies, and cultural divides:
  • Discernment & False Teachers: “Every false teacher has this in common: They avoid preaching on sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, and restoration.” – Todd Erzen [80:02–86:51]
  • Christian Parental Pain: A listener asks for advice on estrangement from a transgender adult child; the hosts emphasize prayerful patience and conviction.
  • Charlie Kirk Conspiracies: Steve and Todd defend Kirk's integrity, dismissing unsubstantiated rumors while reflecting on his impact and legacy.
  • Trump and Conservative Divides: Persistent audience pushback on Dace’s stances regarding Trump. He summarizes: “Even though he frustrates me, I prefer Trump’s way of trying to do things over most other people’s ways of not doing anything.” [94:15]
  • Miscellaneous Banter:
    • On American Exceptionalism: “We could use a little old fashioned right about now.” – MCU quote [52:46]
    • Soccer Offside Rule: Steve offers a lengthy sportswriter’s perspective on why Americans struggle to embrace soccer.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Lindsey Graham:
  • “Love him or hate him, Lindsey Graham was the consummate known quantity in D.C.” – Steve Dace [01:18]
• On Trump’s Iran Policy:
  • “Do not respond to what he says... only to what he does.” – Todd Erzen [15:21]
• On the McConnell Photo:
  • “There’s no IVs, nothing... Are they typically cord-free? This is Soviet-level propaganda.” – Todd Erzen [25:47]
• On Spiritual Discernment:
  • “The heart and soul of the Gospel is sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, restoration.” – Todd Erzen [83:02]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01–03:47: Lindsey Graham’s death; Trump’s reaction
• 05:06–15:51: Iran news and conservative analysis
• 17:23–21:57: War-weariness and public opinion
• 25:17–29:58: McConnell photo skepticism
• 36:08–47:09: Americana flag unveiling – interview with Reiser and Vander Plaats
• 54:01–86:51: Ask Me Anything: Listener faith, culture, and politics Q&A
• 80:02–86:51: Discernment of false teachers (in-depth biblical discussion)
• 92:57–94:15: Pushback on Dace’s opinions about Trump

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Tone & Style

• Language and Tone: Fast-paced, conversational, snarky with moments of weight and sincerity, especially on faith and personal issues.
• Style: Witty, sometimes sarcastic; earnest and passionate in defense of biblical values; skeptical and irreverent toward political theater/manipulation.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode encapsulates the Steve Deace Show’s blend of conservative snark, deep-dive policy critique, and no-nonsense spiritual reflections. It critically examines political headlines without succumbing to partisanship or empty hagiography, emphasizes discernment in faith and public life, and celebrates both American nationhood and its Christian heritage—with a healthy dose of humor and skepticism toward those in power.

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Skip to these highlights:

• 00:01–03:47: Lindsey Graham remembrance
• 25:17–29:58: McConnell hospital photo breakdown
• 36:08–47:09: Americana glass flag project
• 80:02–86:51: How to spot a false teacher
• 92:57–94:15: The Trump conundrum for principled conservatives

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Transcript

[Steve Dace]

It's the Steve Day Show. And here's what happened while we were away, brought to you by so long, Lindsay. In an absolute shocker over the weekend, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham passed away suddenly at the age of 71. Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he toured, among other things, a drone factory. President Trump told NBC News Sunday morning he took a call from the senator just hours before he ended up passing away on Saturday night.

[Donald Trump]

What makes it even stranger is that I got a call last night sometime at, you know, the early evening, maybe in the Sevens, and he called and he said, we're all set for the Save America Act. He was pushing the Save America act like crazy. He got back, said he just landed from Ukraine. I said, that's a long trip to make. He said he sounded a little tired, but perfect, but a little bit tired. Had a right to be. And he was a worker. He was really a worker. But. But he sounded great, actually. But he was. He was. He actually said he was tired, but he wanted to pass the Save America Act. And I said, well, we're going to get it done, Lindsey. We're going to get it done. I'll see you, like, soon. We thought maybe we might even meet today. And then that was it. And that was, you know, very around the time. It couldn't have been much longer. I don't know. It could have been his last call. I don't know exactly.

[Steve Dace]

Love him or hate him, Lindsey Graham was the consummate known quantity in D.C. and he did have seemingly all the right foreign enemies. Speaking of those foreign enemies, the United States carried out a third wave of attacks in recent days against Iran, all centered on the Gulf coast and Strait of Hormuz region.

[Donald Trump]

President Trump says, we're taking over the Strait. They have nothing. But we had a deal. What? Nobody knows we had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We've had 10 deals with these people, and so we're just gonna hit them very hard.

[Steve Dace]

It is two years ago today, the math club shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks came within an inch of assassinating President Trump.

[Donald Trump]

If you want to really see something that said, take a look at what happen.

[Steve Dace]

Two years ago today. If we'd lost Trump that day, think of the timeline we'd be on. Stories like this wouldn't exist. Like in Minnesota, where Governor Tim Walz pardoned a child rapist to shield him from deportation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio isn't having any of it.

[Marco Rubio]

Just weeks ago, a convicted sex offender and a foreign national was shielded from deportation by the governor of Minnesota. Laotian national Tu Le Vang was convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing a 10 year old girl in the state of Minnesota. He even tried to pay his victim for her silence. And he called his heinous crimes a minor thing. Just days before this foreign sex offender was scheduled to be deported, Tim Waltz, the governor issued him a pardon setting him free to once again endanger the children of America. Well, this week I revoked his legal status in the United States and as a result, federal agents took him into custody. And as of today, he has been removed from the United States. Because of our action, this foreign criminal will never pose a threat to to any American ever again. Americans must never be forced by their elected leaders to live alongside foreign sex criminals who have no right to begin with to reside in our country. This administration will always stand with the American people and defend them from violent criminals.

[Steve Dace]

Borders are Tom Homan, your thoughts?

[Todd Erzen]

What would you say now to Governor Tim Waltz?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Can't say it on air, but look who pardons a child sex offender.

[Steve Dace]

Child rapist indeed. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell posted a proof of life photograph on social media yesterday. It's of him sitting up, smiling, his wife Elaine Chao at his side, and yesterday's newspaper in hand. And finally, who is Candace Owens really? It's time to reset. An oldie, but a goodie.

[Candace Owens]

She can connect any two events in history with yarn, thumbtacks and unwarranted confidence. She doesn't need sources. She is the source. She once debated herself and lost twice. Intellig agencies. Follow her Twitter just to see what they're doing next. She never met an obvious explanation she couldn't turn into a confusing two hour podcast. She possesses priceless secrets but will share them with anyone for a small subscription fee. In her world, all roads lead to Israel, even cul de sacs. She is the most kooky podcaster in the world. But then again, the feds told us

[Steve Dace]

to say that and that's what happened while we were away.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, what's happening right now in Iran is why I was never all worked up about the so called Iran deal when others were melting down. I'll explain on that. Speaking of Iran, I think Trump may have just worn me down on this. I'll get into that as well. And you remember Todd, Aaron won't remember this because the Soviet Union was gone before he was born, but do you remember the old mayday parades back in the day like Brezhnev. And yeah, we found out later that These were all just like paper mache tanks and stuff like that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes, we did.

[Todd Erzen]

You're getting that kind of Soviet mayday vibe off. The Mitch McConnell photo came out weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. We'll get into that and more here next. Stay tuned. All right, greetings. Happy Monday. Welcome to the Steve Day show here live and on demand. I am Steve Das. He's Todd Erzen. He is Aaron McIntyre. We are brought to you by our friends over at Preborn. They are the outstanding pro life ministry, one of the few who is actually ready for the post roe world. And that's why over the last few years, our partnership with them here at the Blaze has helped us save tens of thousands of babies and we want to save tens of thousands more. Your gift is tax deductible, five star rated charity. And for as little as $28, you could fund the ultrasound that saves a baby's life today and maybe, maybe changes the destiny of mom's eternal life as well. All right, so again, take advantage of this incredible ministry. Join with them as you guys so generously have. And in honor of America's 250th birthday, we're asking friends to prayerfully consider a special gift of $250 to multiply the impact and help to save even more lives. All right, go to preborn.com Steve to make that tax deductible donation today at preborn.com Steve. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, gonna be joined by our friend Bob Vander Plaats and there's a cool project for America, 250 that's gonna debut later this week. And we're gonna give you a, gonna give you a preview of that coming up here at the bottom of the hour. And then next hour, ask me anything. How many times, Todd, were you asked about Lindsey Graham jokes?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Many.

[Marco Rubio]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah. When I, when I saw the volume of questions on my Facebook page, I just assumed it was just literally everybody asking about Lindsey Graham jokes because my email inbox has been literally everybody asking about Lindsey Graham jokes. All right, so let me address this. Go ahead, Aaron.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I, I like to, I like to smack Lindsey Graham just like the next. Aren't you a little bit. Aren't that sounded wrong? We, in his life, we liked to smack him around a little bit. Aren't you a little bit sad, though? I mean, this has just happened so suddenly. Did I ask you the wrong question?

[Todd Erzen]

No, no. I mean, I'm sure I'm sad for his family. You know, it's not personal to Me, I just politically, I. Not my cup of tea in any way, shape or form. And often the very kind of Republican that is the best friend the other side has. But when, when you get into somebody's life and it being imperiled or being taken, that obviously takes precedence over any kind of, you know, political disagreement. Unless we're talking about somebody that's engaged in things that are overtly wicked in the political realm. Right. So I don't think that applies here. I'm also not going to sit here, though, and like make up a bunch of stuff like I saw this weekend either. I'm not gonna. The slurping's gone way over the top. Okay. And I don't, you know, a whole bunch of the slurping in the anti Casparian, whatever that chick's name at Young Turks. Good riddance, whatever that was that she posted about him. All that stuff is just all fake and belongs in the. In the same thing.

[Aaron McIntyre]

We're actually bearing the lead, though, on Ask Me Anything this week because I thought I might need an exorcism after it was all done in terms of both quality and quantity. I don't remember a week that rivals it.

[Todd Erzen]

Okay, well, good. But as for the Lindsey Graham thing, obviously we were not going to continue that given his unfortunate and sudden passing.

[Donald Trump]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

But. Well, we're not going to continue that with him anyway. But it will continue. And Candace, you're up.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, well, you just read the mind of one of the questions that we will be getting. Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

So just wanted to clarify that so you guys can. I mean, I'm, I'm not kidding you. I got hundreds of emails about this over the weekend.

[Steve Dace]

So I actually am a little bit sad just from the standpoint. I'm 20 years younger than both of you guys. My entire adult and young adult life, Lindsey Graham has been there. It's one of those like one man institution things. Even though we had mercilessly joked about him, it was one of those things. It's like he's always been there. He's always going to be there. From that standpoint alone, it's like, holy cow, that dude is gone.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Give it time. Soon you'll be bitter and jaded just like us.

[Todd Erzen]

Okay, well, it's kind of the first sign that you're getting old. Is that what you're trying to say? Oh, yeah, I get it.

[Steve Dace]

Not trying to make it about me.

[Todd Erzen]

I totally get it.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

All right, let's get to though what I teased at the top of the show. Ok. Remember, a couple Weeks ago and they announced this Iran deal and a lot of people, including frankly a lot of friends of mine, were just in. It was a crash out meltdown. Right.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It was.

[Todd Erzen]

Okay. And I didn't do any of those things because of course the check came in from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and there were enough zeros there to tell me exactly what take to have. And I gave a little, just a little bit of the gleanings to Todd and Aaron to keep them in line as well. Right. That's what occurred.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I do not remember that happening.

[Todd Erzen]

No such gleanings were received.

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzen]

No. Okay, so we just are willing to do this without. We're willing to grift and not get rewarded then, is what you're saying. We're the most pathetic of figures.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Which is not to say we can't lose our mind about other things. We just didn't lose our mind about this.

[Todd Erzen]

Right. The reason why I didn't lose my mind about this at the time and there was a group of you that wanted me to, and I gave you the reason why. In my own analysis, you cannot tell me that Iran will keep no deal, but we need better terms of a deal that they won't keep. What sense did that ever make to you? Did it ever make any sense to you?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzen]

If they won't keep any deal, why do we need better terms if they won't keep it? Right.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

What also never made any sense to me is that Trump was going to do something worse than Obama. Made no sense to me whatsoever. If you recall, Obama sent them pallets of cash with the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Like is the return address there on the shipping label. Okay. Just so they made sure they knew where it came from. Trump has killed how many of them?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Bunches.

[Todd Erzen]

Bunches. Nearly a hundred now. It's just not the same thing at all. It's just not the same thing at all. I was pretty confident and I do this thing in general. All of my faith based analysis is for Jesus and all other analysis I do is based on data, precedent and provable circumstances. I don't really project faith really on to like any human being, like at all. Like none except that which they've earned. But if they've earned it, is it really faith at that point? That's just your resume, that's your record. Right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

What's faith? The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Right. Okay. So based on Trump's track record, I never understood why a bunch of otherwise smart people thought that Trump was just going to Go ahead and simp for the Iranian regime after months of political capital that he's expended and exhausted, that he can't ever get back, bombing them to the, to the. At least, you know, to the previous century, it just never made any sense to me.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

None.

[Todd Erzen]

I mean, it had nothing to do with faith or projection. Just looking at Trump's track record, who's punished the Iranians more than Trump? I never really got the whole JD Vance criticism. Vance's position was, we made a deal with him. If they keep the terms, and then slowly but surely by. By proving they don't want to be savages, they can be welcomed back into the good graces of the region. If not, we'll just go back to bombing the hell out of them. That's literally what J.D. van said. Why would anybody disagree with that? Right.

[Donald Trump]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

We needed a bit of a break. The American people needed a break. We didn't want to have this hanging over our heads. For America. 250. Didn't I just lay out this timeline last week?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Logan Reiser]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

And you let things simmer back down, let the flow of oil increase back up. Now we're getting reports from the United Arab Emirates. United Arab Emirates, the uae. They're actually out producing OPEC for oil at this point in time. Right. We get through the holiday weekend without massive gas lines and $5 a gallon gasoline. We have a huge patriotic event.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

People now are back to work, back to normal. And now, you know, the Iranians come right out of the holiday, right out of the funeral of another dead leader, showing they're still the Iranians, and Trump has responded accordingly by bombing the poop out of them. Why was anybody surprised by any of this? This is the, like, the most. The analysis I gave you on this was pretty infantile. I've done. I've. I've cracked way tougher codes. This was the most obvious play of all time. This is just. This is. This is gone exactly the way. Past history. I like to say past history is indicative of future performance. Unless the Holy Spirit intervenes. Based on the past history of the Iranian regime and Trump as president, is this not the arc, the character, the story arc of how this was likely going to be at this juncture?

[Aaron McIntyre]

More or less, yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

I mean, why anybody is shocked about this blows my mind. This is why I was never concerned. What did I even say at the time? It doesn't matter what the terms of the deal are. They won't keep them anyway. What matters is our willingness to enforce said deal. That's all that matters. Right? Didn't I say that, too?

[Aaron McIntyre]

All of it.

[Todd Erzen]

Now, there's some things I get wickedly wrong. Okay. This would not be one of them. And again, I don't know why people still need to be reminded of this. Six years into Donald Trump being the President, United States, six and a half years now. Do not respond to what he says, no matter how he says it or how often, but only to what he does. I mean, how many more times is going to take, how many more crash outs are people going to subject themselves to before that lesson is learned?

[Aaron McIntyre]

There will be more.

[Todd Erzen]

Correct. And I also said you got to give Trump a lot of balance, a lot of margin here because he's trying to balance a rare coalition in American history. He is simultaneously the most pro Zionist president we've ever had. At the same time, he's assembled the most comprehensive Sunni Arab alliance this country's ever had at the same time. And while that Sunni Arab alliance and Israel have, have, have a similar and maybe even equitable disdain for the Iranians, certainly what they would want in place of the current Iran regime would, would not be as uniformly agreeable. Correct. So you. He's gotta balance a lot of interest here. They'll say they can't negotiate. He's not negotiating with Iran, he's negotiating with the rest of the region. No, I don't think you at your cubicle, I don't, I don't think you're more aware of the lack of negotiating integrity of the Iranians than President Trump. I don't. And I'm not, I'm not sorry for, for thinking that. You should be sorry for thinking that. Actually, you should apologize to me that you thought that. That you thought Trump just woke up the other day and was like, wow, you really can't negotiate with the Iranians. So that brings me now, though, to where I might be changing my mind. And you guys may need to talk me out of this because I get bored easily. You guys know that I get bored easily.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

And when I start getting bored, I'm like, just, you know, somebody do something. I don't really even care if I agree with it or not. Just bring this thing to the climax here. Let's just. And we can just all move on, right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

Get on to the next thing. You guys have kind of seen that about me. It's, it's not a great character.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It's a ride. Buckle up.

[Todd Erzen]

I'm not saying I admire that about myself. I've just noticed it. All right? I can get bored I gotta tell you, I, I'm bored with Iran. So if, if this was all an attempt by Trump to get me finally to a point of like, you know what? I've just had enough. Literally, just bomb them to hell. Don't suffer a member of the Iranian high command to live, because I'm just, I'm sick of the back and forth press releases. I'm sick of the we've got a deal and then the, and who are we dealing with? And then the counters and the counters to the deals and everything else. I'm, I'm, I'm sick of talking about them. I've, I'm sick of knowing about them. I'm sick of caring or having to care what they say. I would, I would like to know a lot less of them. I'd like them all to be dead. So, so let's see. I'm bored now. So I, if it, this was the plan, all right, was to get Americans like me, who might in most cases be all for planting the jingoistic flag over Tehran, but because we are just existentially imperiled with our own way of life at home, don't think that we can afford to be expending our political capital here. That was pretty much my position going back to in February and when this was first being bandied about and discussed. Right, okay. And I've been pretty consistent about that here for the last five months. Right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

But if, if this entire thing and the way this is and this has been, has been massaged for more than 100 and some odd days now, if the entire thing was to get the typical American that I represent who is typically pro Trump, not like rabidly. So I think we calling ourselves typically pro Trump or not rabidly. So I think that's an accurate description.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Right? Sure. Yeah. Okay. For sure.

[Todd Erzen]

So typically pro Trump, but not like rabidly so like we're just hanging on everything he says. We can't wait to retweet everything they do and everything's the greatest ever. Ok. We're typically pro Trump, but not rapidly so. But we also just, we're just not in any mind to expend any political capital in Tehran whatsoever and would much rather spend our political capital deporting Tim Walls.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Todd Erzen]

Then killing members of the Iranian high command. I think that's a good summation of what all three of us think to some degree.

[Marco Rubio]

Right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

If the goal, now I'm just speaking for myself, then I'll let you guys chime in here. If the goal was to wear people like us down to the point that we'd be like, you know what? Thou shall not suffer an Iranian high command to live. You did it. I think you might have done it. You may. You guys may need to talk me out of this. I'm just so sick of Iran. I'm so sick of hearing about them. I'm so sick of knowing about them that I just. I just. I don't want them. I don't. I don't want them to be room temperature any longer, if for no other reason. I'm just bored and I just want to move on. I'm just exasperated with the whole thing. Talk me out of it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, to be fair, aren't we bored about almost every topic and the lack of inaction? I mean, really, that's one of our main frustrations on the show. You know, Poke, I said it last week, to paraphrase Aaron, do something. So, yeah, I don't think so. And actually, I'm less bored on Iran than I was before. Was very bored back when you were talking about everybody losing their minds. And that's when I started really talking about things. How Covid this feels. That's very boring for me because that was starting to feel like Trump is just going to the Scott Atlas book again. Like people just wandering the halls. At least this is less like, you could. I just have to hit you. I just have to take over. Had. Had he done that. That's what we were begging him to do during COVID Right? You're fired.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You're fired. Listen, I don't know what the outcome of this is. I'm hearing other, like, they're starting to rebuild already there. And you saw me just a couple days ago say, is it destroyed or not? Because now again, today, people are saying they're rebuilding their technology once again.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, that's the thing.

[Aaron McIntyre]

What does that mean? And how long does it take? And is it just a. Guys digging a ditch over there? And yeah, there's. They're trying, but it's going to take forever. We need more Donald Trump while doing things here. We always talk about too much talk, not enough action. In this case. Action's good, but you need to explain things more to have buy in on really how nefarious things actually are over there. Communicate with the American people on this.

[Steve Dace]

So I'm my number one rubric both on how this is playing domestically and how this is faring internationally in terms of the success of whatever it is we're doing. My number one rubric over the Past months has been what oil prices. Oil prices will dictate how successful we are at reopening the strait, keeping the strait open, and how this entire operation is playing domestically. So over the weekend it was declared, basically President Trump said the ceasefire is over. I think he said that last week, late last week. Two more rounds of strikes late last week and then over the weekend as well, targeting basically every single target along the Gulf coast there and in the strait around the Strait of Hormuz. What would you expect, given those developments? What would you expect the price of oil to do?

[Todd Erzen]

I mean, even the words blockade has even been used.

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

So over $90 a barrel, it's 75.

[Steve Dace]

It's up $5 a barrel more than this point last week. Pretty modest, but it's pretty modest. Which tells you what this thing can play as it is right now. It could change dramatically by the end of the day. Even this might be completely dated, but you would think oil prices start of market would be skyrocketing. Once again, they're not doing that. Which tells you, gives you an indication one, the strait really isn't totally closed, which means what? Iran doesn't have all of its capabilities at its disposal. And two, this can play as it is right now, domestically for a little bit longer. I am though, again, what is the point here? This gets to what Todd is saying. What is the end goal? Well, I'm not even sure. I'm not even sure if that's articulatable at this point.

[Todd Erzen]

You guys know I am a proud American imperialist, so maybe that's part of subconsciously too. If we're serious about we're just going to control the most strategic straight for oil production in the world. Talk to me. I'm a proud American imperialist. I believe in American empire. In fact, I think that we're. One of the reasons we're in the position we're in as a country is we haven't acted enough as one. The exact opposite is true.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

We have.

[Todd Erzen]

It's not because we've acted as one, but because we have not. We have tried to accomplish the accoutrements in true American fashion, we tried to accomplish the accoutrements of empire with like any of the substance and significance that goes along with doing so. So we're in this worst of both worlds where we are taking on the baggage of being an empire, but then none of the benefits because of that. So if we're actually talking about, you know, what we're going to do, Iran for six months so that no Oil gets in and out of the Strait of Hormuz on planet Earth without the United States is. Okay, well, now, now talk to teddy bear trucker, Glock. Who wants some? Now, now you're speaking my language. Now, now, now, now, now, now, now. Not now, now. I might lift my skirt up a little bit and show you a little bit of leg. I might.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, that oil reaction Aaron is talking about may be evidence of your I'm getting bored reaction writ large across the globe. Use it perhaps a slightly different term than getting bored, but getting frustrated because let's face it, one of the, you said it yourself, the Iranians, one of their primary psychological tools here is like the Americans are going to get bored sooner. We always outlast them. We always outlast them. Right. Well, is that oil reaction that maybe, Steve, President Trump is starting to win the Scott Glenn. The hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch. Maybe they're starting to, maybe the whole, the markets, the Iranians, maybe all of it is starting to flinch.

[Todd Erzen]

Aaron, can you grab the Mitch McConnell photo real quick and throw that back up there when you have a minute?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

All right. So this photo is fascinating to me. He's in a hospital. He's in a hospital. He's an octogenarian. He's in a hospital. And I just want to see the photo one more time before I end.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Todd Erzen]

Because I mean, he's supposed to have been in the hospital for how many days now? Five or six days.

[Aaron McIntyre]

He's supposed to be in approaching a week. Right.

[Todd Erzen]

I mean you typically, when you see people in the hospital admitted for long periods of time, are they, are they typically cord free or dressed or. There's no IVs, nothing. Nothing. Because I could have sworn that's why I want to see the photo again because I've looked at it a few times. Almost there, sir, but I could have sworn. Now when I look at this, I don't, I don't, I don't see anything. I don't see any evidence of an iv. I don't, I don't see any machines. There it is nothing. How Many, how many? 80 some odd year old people are in the hospital, admitted into hospitals, hooked up to nothing. Hooked up to nothing. Hooked up to nothing. To nothing. How often does that occur?

[Aaron McIntyre]

You heard my skepticism last week about this in Scott Jennings and it's only growing now.

[Todd Erzen]

Can you call Bella during the break or text her, Aaron, and just say, hey, you're a nurse. How often are 80 some odd year old people admitted into a Hospital nice for long periods of time and they're hooked up to nothing. They're hooked up to nothing at all. Nothing. This to me was like Soviet level propaganda here. Right. And you make sure to throw the wife in there with all the rumors that she had run off to China or something and the morning's fresh paper. Yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And his best friend in the Senate was Lindsey Graham.

[Steve Dace]

And he said nothing about Lindsey Graham too, because this came out hours after it was already out that Lindsey Graham had passed away.

[Todd Erzen]

I don't know, man. I don't know. To me, the best thing you can say is that he seriously hurt, which is unfortunate again for him and his family. He's seriously hurt. And they staged this in the hospital to make it look like he was due back and didn't consider any of the details of the kinds of things that we're asking about. Who's, who's that age in a hospital for that period of time. And they're hooked up to nothing. Hooked up to nothing. Well, maybe they unhooked them to get the picture. I mean, typically when you're admitted into the hospital, it's serious enough that they want a constant measuring of your vitals. So they're just going to unplug all that and take it all out of the room to get this picture. Well, maybe the staff did it and the hospital doesn't know. What do you think a hospital would do when, hey, 80 some odd year old dude flatline. No readings from the instruments. They're not going to come in. I mean, it's just this beg. I think the photo, to me. Am I wrong? Begs a lot of questions. I think this photo does.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You've caught up with me from last week here, Aaron.

[Todd Erzen]

What are your thoughts?

[Steve Dace]

Why though? Why he's not running for reelection? Like why do they need to go to the lengths?

[Aaron McIntyre]

It has been abundantly clear that Mitch McConnell has been operating some degree of alternative GOP on the right shadow government kind of thing. 10,000% undeniable.

[Steve Dace]

But there's nobody who could like, take that over from him. Nobody. Well, is this just an object lesson in idolatry? You're going to pry this from my cold dead?

[Todd Erzen]

That's part of it for sure.

[Aaron McIntyre]

But they're also. Who knows how deep this goes and the deeper it gets, the less likely there's somebody who can replace you.

[Todd Erzen]

So there's over 400 comments to this photo. I posted it on our Facebook this morning. This one from Josh Gritsmaker. I always love it when the hospital lets me stay in Business casual. When I've been admitted into the hospital. Yeah, yeah. Indeed. More in a moment.

[Logan Reiser]

The steve day show.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right.

[Todd Erzen]

Back here on the Steve Day show, joined now by our good friend Bob Vander. Plaque. Good to see you, brother. How are you doing?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Really well, it's the week of the summit, so we're just a little bit stressed. Better than that. We're doing great.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, knowing you, if given an opportunity to spend the entire time doing self promotion and you are willing to yield some of that time, it would take something pretty extraordinary for you to bypass that. I think we both agree on that.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Exactly. So we're looking forward to the summit.

[Donald Trump]

All right.

[Todd Erzen]

And we'll get into the summit and some of the stuff that you're going to be able to hear and also see that's pretty cool. Give you a little bit of a preview of that coming up this weekend. But there was a noteworthy passing over the weekend, and I'm not here to dog anybody after they died, particularly when it was very sudden and unexpected. Yeah, I'm also, though, gonna sit here and make up a bunch of stuff. I mean, the stuff I see online over the weekend, either Lindsey Graham was literally Hitler or did you really know that he was Joan of Arc this entire time? I'm gonna pass on both of that stuff, you know, but, you know, you did actually know the man. And it is big news in the country right now. The president's on day two of a press tour eulogizing Lindsey Graham as we speak. So I thought I'd give you some time to address his passing and what you knew of the man.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, I think on this show before, you've referred to Lindsey Graham as my bff, you know, and Lindsey Graham, very, very interesting guy. I remember when he gave me a call the first time, and he left me his cell phone number. And I said to him, hey, you don't need to give me your cell phone number. President Trump already gave everybody your cell phone number. Right. But then I've gotten to know Lindsey Grammer. He came to our leadership summit way back in 2015 when he was running for president. He came to the House party. My brother, my oldest brother Stan, thought he was the funniest guy alive. Just, you know, just a hoot. He had a real way of engaging with people. He and I did not always agree, but he would give me a call from time to time, sometimes just to be there kind of for him. But two is to get insight. One time he wanted me to speak to his Senate colleagues about advising them on Biblical marriage day, thinking that marriage is no longer an issue today, remind them that marriage is an issue. He came out to Des Moines before the Iowa caucuses last year to do this whole sanctity of human life thing, that the birth of that baby in the womb should not be determined by the zip code in which it is pregnant in. And so he did a lot of things. The last time I saw him, Steve, was at the SBA gala in April.

[Todd Erzen]

It was at the Susan B. Anthony list for people.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Susan B. Anthony, Listen, he took a lot of time with darling me at the reception. Just had a great time of visiting. I would say Lindsey Graham, he was a stalwart for the nation of Israel. He was a stalwart for the sanctity of human life. We can agree and disagree. A lot of other things that he did, who his friends were, that type of thing. I always found him one of those guys that I just kind of enjoyed talking to. And again, not that we always would agree, but he was a fun guy. Matter of fact, I watched him give the eulogy to Joel Lieberman at Joel Lieberman's memorial service. And he was cracking jokes the whole time. He was. That's the way he dealt with his emotions, was to crack jokes. And the thing that he and President Trump, who a lot of us share that with him, that were on the wrong side of Trump or on the good side of Trump, but, boy, he became one of Trump's biggest advocates as of late, and Trump really, really did rely on him. That's why I think the president is doing this press tour of Lindsey Graham.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, regardless of what you thought of him as a politician, there's no question, as Aaron was pointing out last segment, his. His passing does leave a void. For sure. For sure. And it'll be interesting to see what happens. And if I'm looking at the track record of the state of South Carolina, I'm confident what will come next will be worse.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah, if. If I can add this, first of all, to us in the audience, none of us are promised tomorrow. This guy's 71. Everybody woke up. I mean, I woke up stunned, shocked to hear that Lindsey Graham passed away. Two is, I'm quite confident in knowing that Lindsey Graham is spending his eternity with Jesus Christ. He was very open and bold about his faith as well. When you sat with him one on one, there was no doubt in my mind he was a believer in Jesus. So I hope that's the case. And praise God if it is. We rejoice with him then.

[Todd Erzen]

So that brings us to the Leadership Summit this weekend. All right, so tell us about that.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, the Leadership Summit, it always takes on a life of its own. It's our 15th year. You guys have been at several of them. The one constant that we hear all the time after the Leadership Summit is that was the best summit ever. Every year we hear that that was the best summit ever. And I'm here to tell you with the lineup that we have right now, which includes yours truly, Steve Dase and Lucas Miles of TPUSA, Faith and David Barton of Wall Builders, and Dr. Bill Lyle of Pro Life Doc and Speaker Mike Johnson and Governor Kim Reynolds and Ashley Hinson, the U.S. senate candidate, and Chris Ruddy of Newsmax and all the stuff tfl I really believe, I listen line by line today and I think this will be our best summit ever. It is great content and we're gonna fill the place up. Can't wait for it. Hope you guys can be there. Go to thefamilyleader.com, thefamilyleader.com Click on the Ways to get your summit tickets. We'd love to see you there.

[Todd Erzen]

So one of the things that is going to be unveiled over the weekend is a project that has. Man, I think I first heard about this maybe a little over a year ago. In fact, it's the first time.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You're the one who introduced me to it.

[Todd Erzen]

So I think we have the architect of this project. We're going to show the audience here in just a second. Logan Reiser, are you with us? Good to see you, Logan. How are you?

[Logan Reiser]

Steve, thank you so much for having me on.

[Todd Erzen]

You bet. Now, you are going to unveil at the Leadership Summit this weekend one ginormous piece of Americana.

[Marco Rubio]

All right?

[Todd Erzen]

And if you're watching right now, either on BlazeTV or you're watching later on one of the social media apps that hates us. So good luck if you actually get to see it. But if you are, if you somehow were one of the 15 people, they're gonna watch this video later on YouTube, maybe what you're watching is some is the process to create maybe the most unique rendition of the American flag that has ever been done. And Logan, this entire thing was your brainchild and idea. So tell us about it, man. The floor is yours.

[Logan Reiser]

This has been a crazy journey. It's been led by God and the Holy Spirit and the king of our nation, Jesus Christ. And it has been a wild ride. We're making a 28 foot wide glass American flag. This will be the largest flag in the world. Made out of glass. This entire project points to the founding of Christianity in our nation. So we have Psalm 35. We have the first three verses and the last two verses. And that's really, really important because it was read at our first Continental Congress by Jacob Duchet. And even just the history behind how Sam Adams got him to come up and to lead two hours of prayer in the first meeting of the leaders of our nation was a phenomenal pointing to. And, you know, cross referencing that with David and how he was, you know, evading King Saul when he wrote the psalm as well. There's just so many comparisons for how we started. And then where we are now is second Chronicles 7:14. You know, there's a call for faith and repentance. And these, these Bible verses are sandblasted into 24 karat gold that's made in the United States on every single one of these red stripes. So this, this is a multi dimensional massive sculpture that's going to be backlit and front lit. We're going to have light pass through scripture. Every single one of the blue union panels had to be specifically designed so that they flow together and they'll be illuminated as well from the back. And you know, light is truth. And when you see biblical truth, that's what our nation needs and that's what we have to come back to. But yeah, this process is, you know, extremely old, but also new. So I'm only one of ten or ten or less organizations in the world that still make handmade sheet glass like you guys are seeing right now. This is really strong architectural glass. So we had to use a water jet from Omax. So we've got two companies that are made in the United States to help make this possible. But so you essentially make a really large vase and then we have to cut the top off and pop that off of the torch and then heat it up to 1500 degrees and splay it open with wooden sticks and then iron it out into a flat sheet of glass. This is how they used to make windows. So when you see those really old windows in a house, you know, those were made by hand and that's why they're still there. So we make these sheets of glass, then we have to water jet cut down to, you know, the 100th of an inch. What we can do, you know, technically, so that all these panels can interlock and actually create one, one shape. Past that, when we have the panels done and the exact shape that we need, we're going to use an epilogue laser that's Also made in the United States to seamlessly get the design. So to get these 50 stars to line up on the blue union and then get all of this scripture, we use a beautiful font that's reminiscent of the Declaration of Independence. And to get all of that to seamlessly flow has been quite the amount of diligence and quite the amount of effort for sure.

[Todd Erzen]

All right, so tell me, tell me, tell us, Logan, I want to make sure to run out of time. How many people did it take to do this? How long did it take to do this?

[Logan Reiser]

We've got a team of at least five or six people from the beginning of when we met and we talked about this project, you know, I'm over 2,000 hours easily. This is. Yeah, it's been from the planning to hanging £1,000 of glass by a 32 foot truss system that was also built by Steve Soukup and Steve and Vicky Sukup definitely made this project happen. So I'm, I'm extremely grateful for those guys to sponsor this and bring this to life. But they're also building the trust system that's going to hold on to it. So I know that it's going to be made well. So that's comforting. But yeah, an absolutely amazing amount of time. And you know, I'm, I'm a second generation artist too. So my, my dad, Joel, he taught me how to, how to blow glass and how to work with furnace glass and yeah, that's, that's one of the guys that has been, been there for me through the whole thing and just been a huge support.

[Todd Erzen]

So Bob, when I brought you this hair brain scheme about a year ago, because I, I bring you about 10, 000 hair brain schemes. You do, and about 10% of them you act on. Okay. And the rest of them you just put in a circular file. Right. So why was this one? You decided, hey, this is kind of neat. We, maybe we should, we should see this one through.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, you know what, when you initially introduced me to Logan and Logan reached out to me, I almost kind of gave him the old Fran Tarkington stiff arm like. Nah, probably not. But Logan wanted to come to Urbandale, Iowa to present to me what you're seeing with that video about what he could do and really bring God glory with the founding of our country. But through the display of this beautifully blown glass art. And I watched it and I heard Logan's voices, just heard about, you know, his heart. And I thought, you know what, we can't do it today. But let me see if we can do it. And Steve and Vicki Sukup, they have been friends of ours for a long time, and I thought this might be something that Steve would really buy into. And Steve went and met with Logan as well, and he said, you know what? This is awesome. So the family leader, we get to play a small part of it. Logan obviously gets the big part of it. Steve is the one who actually makes. You know, without fuel, you can't fly a plane. Right. You can't build a flag. And so thank God for Steve and Vicki Sukup. Thank you for Logan and his team. And we're going to unveil this at the leadership summit. And I'm telling you, no one's going to drop this.

[Todd Erzen]

No one's going to break it.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

No, no, no one's going to drop it. No one's going to break it. But I'm telling you what, if you want to see this, you want to get to the leadership summit, meet Logan, meet Steve, but also see this flag that's going to be unveiled right before the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson speaks.

[Todd Erzen]

So if you watch any of the B roll video as Bob or Logan are talking here, you'll notice that you're not getting a chance to see the fullness of what this will look like.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

So this is just kind of the trailer. I have seen the renderings of what the fullness of this is going to look like.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Unbelievable.

[Todd Erzen]

Which is one of the reasons why I took it to you, to see if we could. We could make this happen. It. This is going to be incredible. I mean, it will be unlike any flag maybe that's ever been made in the history of our nation. It's going to be incredible. And I know people all over the country that are tuned into this know about things in Iowa like the butter cow, right. And some of those, you know, relics and artifacts of the Midwest and the Iowa State Fair. And I told you from the beginning I thought this had the potential to be that kind of a landmark, you know?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And I think what's cool is God's hand is in this. First of all, how he laid the vision on Logan's heart to do this. Two, as he came to me, and I didn't say no, I just said, not yet. Let me figure this out. And then for one phone call for Steve and Vicki to say, yes, we'll do it, this thing is going to get a find old landing spot at some place very, very cool. Everybody's going to want to have this flag. We're going to Gift this flag so the American people can enjoy. The whole world can enjoy it. And I got goosebumps. I just can't believe how cool this project is.

[Todd Erzen]

So, Logan, we've got about two minutes left. What do you have to say now about what you think this represents? The amount of work that was put into this and what it's going to be like when you see this unveiled in front of the public now. And all this began over a lunch at a deli that you and I had discussing this over a year ago. It was kind of a pipe dream. And yet this thing's going to be a reality, brother.

[Logan Reiser]

Yeah, I'm floored. But I think that reverence and awe is absolutely what we need, and I think that that is fuel for the revival that we're looking for. I think that we have to change the way that we worship. I think that material, you know, material art, sculptures, things of beauty, are extremely important in the world. And, you know, all art, especially the books that you write, Steve, I mean, being able to read those to my Tod and. And be able to just reflect on what we are as a nation and all of the reminders and all of the, you know, the pointing to how we started and how humble we should be for the group that God favored that shouldn't have stood a chance, the group that. That he laid his hand on through divine intervention. And, yeah, I think that we absolutely have to have more pieces of art in the world, and especially in the United States, to point to God's goodness and his truth and his beauty.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Wow.

[Todd Erzen]

And what are you going to think here now when you see this unveiled? How do you think the public's going to react to seeing this for the first time this weekend?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, you know, my dad. And you'll hear that in the message as well. My dad was part of The World War II generation, the greatest generation. And his message was always choose to be a great generation. And I think that's what Logan's doing with his flag, with his artwork. I think that's what Steve and Vicki are choosing to do by the underwriting. Hopefully it's what we're choosing to do with the Family Leadership Summit to inspire many to engage a culture to bring God glory, not to bring us glory. So we're one nation of God. That's what the flag is called as well. I am so glad that you introduced me to Logan. It's one of your rare good ideas. But this is true.

[Todd Erzen]

This is true.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

It's a very, very good idea. And I am really. I'M on the edge of my seat, looking forward to seeing this thing be unveiled. It's going to be glory to God, but you're going to be so inspired to be an American at the same time.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Can I say something really quick about the two of you? Steve and Bob? This is a big and obvious one, but everybody needs to know Steve and Bob help people like this all the time. You see them on Mondays talking about politics, these two guys, big, huge, generous hearts. This happens all the time. It's not just this flag.

[Todd Erzen]

This might be the biggest helping we've done. Well, it might be the biggest one, at least in terms of, in terms of sheer size, that's for sure.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

This is fun.

[Todd Erzen]

We've got 30 seconds. I have to ask, how safe is it to transport this thing to Washington D.C. because I'm pretty confident this is right up the alley of the guy that's sitting there in the White House right now. This is, this is his kind of thing.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Okay, well, I think Logan and I talked about we're gonna have an insulated U Haul. Is that right, Logan?

[Logan Reiser]

Insulated, refrigerated.

[Donald Trump]

No.

[Logan Reiser]

We'll have the best shocks.

[Todd Erzen]

Yes. Of all time. Yes.

[Logan Reiser]

Of all time.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Logan Reiser]

We're gonna have. Yeah. 16. It's. It literally breaks down into 1620 seconds crafted crates.

[Todd Erzen]

So 16 crates.

[Donald Trump]

16.

[Logan Reiser]

The easiest, safest ride that we could possibly have.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

We'll have an airlift and it's going

[Logan Reiser]

to be in assured and it's going to be insured.

[Donald Trump]

Better.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

It's already insured with F15s.

[Todd Erzen]

Hour two is next.

[Donald Trump]

Foreign.

[Todd Erzen]

Back here with hour two live and on demand here on the Steve Day Show. I am Steve dace with Aaron McIntyre and Todd Erzin. Let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedays.com inbox by emailing the program [e-mail] that's D E A C E like us on Facebook. Me, we and gab. You can follow me at Steve Day show on X Instagram and tick tock. Please subscribe to our Rumble channel at Steve Dace on Rumble at Steve Dase on Rumble and then also you can subscribe to the podcast version. Last week we had episodes reach numbers five, number six and number four. That's tied for the highest we've ever had. One of our episodes ranked in our category at itunes. So just a great week for the show last week. So thank you guys for all of that. When you guys hit subscribe, you help that ranking. So thank you. It's follow, by the way, these days on Apple itunes. It's subscribed still everywhere else as far as I know, anyway. And then you can be one of the tens of thousands to leave us five star reviews. Those help as well, and we greatly appreciate each and every one of those. And we'd appreciate it if you would add yours today, too. And we appreciate our friends over at MD Hearing. You know, they're concerned that we're just accepting high prices for a lot of things. But hearing hearing aids could be amongst the most overpriced of them all. Some of you are being quoted prices up to $8,000 for hearing aids. All right, Empty hearing wants to do something about that. That's why they deliver high quality rechargeable digital hearing aids for less than 300 bucks a pair. $297. That's over 90% less than traditional clinic hearing aids. Now, how do they do this? Well, MD Hearing was created by a medical professional who saw how his patients needed hearing help, but they were unable to afford it. So we set out to fix the system. For example, their new Neo model. It fits right inside your ear. It's nearly invisible. And then the Neo Xs. That's their smallest hearing aid ever. No bulky hardware, no learning curve, just big savings on a tiny hearing aid with MDHearing. So go to shopmdhearing.com that's shopmdhearing.com, use the promo code, Steve to get a pair of hearing AIDS for just $297. Plus they're adding a free extra charging case. That's a hundred dollar value just for being a part of our show. That shopmdhearing.com use the promo code Steve. Get a pair of hearing AIDS for just 297 bucks. And please make sure to use my promo code, Steve, so they know I sent you and you get that free extra charging case as well. Shopmdhearing.com promo code, Steve. Well, I just want to say again, if, if, if you are anywhere near Iowa this weekend and you can get to that family leadership Summit, the family leader.com is the website. I know what this thing's going to look like as an end product. But it's one thing to see the renderings of it, it's another thing to see this thing in, in real time, in real size. I'm very excited to see it. You are? Folks, you are going to want to see this. It's pretty incredible. And it absolutely has American relic landmark for generations of people that will stop on an interstate in Iowa. You know, for the rest of all three of our lives to see this thing as they're passing through the state because it's just got. It's become such a legend. And the thing that sold me on it is exactly what you heard Bob say about Logan Reiser, the guy who's the. The genius behind it, that it was. Logan's one of those guys when you first meet him, you're like, You've realized he's kind of like that. He is absolutely homespun. I mean, he's Americana made manifest, man. Okay. He is. I mean, you know, he had to have been born. He. I didn't even. I've not even asked him. He had to have been born on July 4th. I mean, he is. He is every American legend, cliche, trope, mantra, belief.

[Donald Trump]

He.

[Todd Erzen]

He is Americana just made manifest in a human being. And. And when you realize how much he loves this country and then how rare this kind of craftsmanship is, guys, you start thinking, you know what? This guy, this guy might be. He might be idealistic enough that he might even. He might actually be able to pull this thing off. And so a little more than a year later, we're going to get a chance to see it, and I'm looking forward to it this weekend. You were. You were quoting something to me, Todd, that he reminded you of.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

You made me one of the great lines in the original MCU before they ruined it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah. In the first Avengers movie. I think it's got one of the top 10 lines. That's a thread line that carries you all the way through. But it's Captain America himself who's kind of doubting his place in the world as he's woken up out of the ice. And he actually says to. I can't remember the name of the character, but it's Samuel L. Jackson's sidekick who ends up dying in that movie. Spoiler alert. But Captain America says to him, isn't that a little old fashioned? And the guy says to him, we could use a little old fashioned right about now.

[Todd Erzen]

Yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Amen.

[Marco Rubio]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

And Logan will give you that vibe. And this is the kind of thing that when you see it, man, it's going to blow. It's going to blow you away. I can't wait to see it this weekend. All right, are you ready for some questions?

[Aaron McIntyre]

You're going to get them.

[Todd Erzen]

We are going to get them. All right. Time for you to ask me anything. No topic is off limits. You just have to get him past Todd. All right, he curates all of your questions this week. We're we're doing questions from our followers on Facebook and we'll get to as many of these as we can here during the program. What remains. We will tackle the rest in the overtime today for Blaze TV subscribers at BlazeTV.com/DACE. That's Blaze TV.com Days. All right, Aaron, you've got them. So let's lock and load.

[Steve Dace]

Let's start with Gigi Ray, who says please, please, please give a shout out to my friend Mike in Wheaton, Illinois. It's because of Steve Tod that he became a Christian and found the Lord. His life is so much better. Thank you and God bless.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, consider that done. Todd was right to make that one first. And I'd be fine if we just did. If we, if we could one day have like an entire show of these, that's good living, I mean, you'd get no complaints out of me whatsoever. I mean, ultimately, it's our prime directive. And I think for all of our various faults, which many of you are gracious enough to point out to me in our inbox on a regular basis.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes, it's called X.

[Todd Erzen]

And we dig that about you. That for all of our obvious faults that so many of you are eager to point out to us, and we do appreciate the accountability. Thank you. But for all of those, I think the reason why this Lord keep. The Lord keeps this show around. And it just, you know, here's the thing. We've had one, like, real breakthrough moment, and it was the work we did during COVID and everything else from the moment this thing started one day, you know, and it's just been a series of just modest gains, modest games kind of chugging along, you know, just there, there hasn't been three or four like eureka moments in the history of this show. It's just been modestly growing month after month, year after year. And I think the, the. If there's anything that we have contributed to it at all, it is that we take the biblical worldview stuff in the gospel as our prime directive very, very, very, very seriously. And I think that that maybe has prompted the Lord more than anything else to overlook our various faults that many of you are very aware of and continue to keep this show successful because we make the main thing the main thing. So that's always the best feedback we can get. And welcome to the kingdom, my friend. So thank you.

[Steve Dace]

Corey Tacker is next to ask will Scott Jennings tell us about his 20 minute phone call today with his good friend Lindsey Graham.

[Todd Erzen]

Gosh, I want to say I'm on record as saying, I think Scott Jennings is getting a bad rap. All right.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You're thinking about it more than you were last week.

[Todd Erzen]

I still, no, I'm not. I still don't believe one, I, I, I sort of feel I'm not qualified to be, to be casting aspersions on Mr. Jennings, who I don't know at all, don't know him at all, have never had a conversation with him at all. Not a single one of my friends has ever said, hey, I was talking to my buddy Scott Jennings. I don't even know how much we're even connected at all. Right, so, so there's no personal stake at this. I've just watched him from afar and I can't sit here nor, nor can I sit here and say that I'm, you know, watching this stuff every night because it's on cnn. All right? But I have not. No one has produced more viral clips of bodying of body bagging Democrats in the last two to three years other than Donald Trump and maybe Ron Desantis. Let me put it this way. Let's do it this way. No non elected official has produced more viral clips of them body bagging Democrats than I am aware of than Scott Jennings has. Is that fair to at least say he's at least in that conversation?

[Aaron McIntyre]

It is fair, but I think it's also fair that it's very likely that Scott Jennings favorite movie is Weekend at Bernie's.

[Todd Erzen]

I, I just, I, I can't see you're just gonna cash all that in for Ditch. I, I just, and I know I used to work for him and stuff, but I mean, Scott's already taken all kinds of positions.

[Aaron McIntyre]

He's doing a pretty heavy lift right there. Ukraine.

[Todd Erzen]

Scott has taken a lot more based positions on things than he, than Ditch has ever done his entire career. That's also true. Right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

If we're right, we're right. If we're wrong, I think Scott would think this is hilarious.

[Todd Erzen]

That's probably true. At least I hope that that is true.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, next we go to Brian Rose, who asks, in light of Lindsey Graham's passing, can you replace the jokes about him with jokes about Candace Owens?

[Todd Erzen]

Consider it done.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

You're with your, that was, that was already going to happen. And yes, can consider it done.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Amy Winter has this. Do you think Erica Kirk will sue Candace Owens soon?

[Todd Erzen]

My, my hesitation is what I am comfortable saying. Remember, I always tell you I will be completely transparent with you provided it does not violate third party confidences. Right. That's My consistent motto.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Motto.

[Todd Erzen]

Right.

[Aaron McIntyre]

But you know, people.

[Todd Erzen]

Let me just say that I think

[Marco Rubio]

the

[Steve Dace]

just to protect you can. Todd and I give our takes on this.

[Todd Erzen]

You go first. You bet.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Go.

[Steve Dace]

I don't know anything. Neither does Todd. I think Candace Owens is screwed civilly. We already have the example with Alex Jones. It wasn't so much what he was saying, it was the fact that he was dragging innocent people's names through the mud. I think she's screwed after this trial is over.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And if she isn't screwed, then civil law is utterly meaningless.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, your answers will play into what I think I'm comfortable saying. The number one priority here has been to get justice for Charlie and to do nothing whatsoever that was going to interfere with that. Whether it's Erica or members of the organization who were very close to Charlie, like my friend Andrew Colvin and others. Anything that they would have said up until the point of this preliminary, preliminary hearing. Now when the evidence has all been introduced, all could have been, could have had potential to interfere with the prosecution of Tyler Robinson. And so nothing else has been done. There's a reason why you're seeing them also ramp up the confrontation level to Candace, now that we're. That. That you really saw that ramp up last week as we were now in the midst of the formal legal proceeding of all the evidence being introduced. And, and I just saw Andrew put out another clarion call today saying, hey, we're no longer going to let people. Not at all. This evidence is out there. We're not going to let people get away with this stuff anymore. All right, so you're all getting confronted. I think the highest priority here was to get justice for Charlie and also for his loved ones and to have the most transparent process where that is concerned as absolutely possible. And to not risk anything, no matter how painful those, those things happen to be, but to not risk anything to get in the way of that justice. And I think now that the wheels of that justice are in motion, I, I do think maybe some things that were. Were asked about for a long time, like why aren't you guys more confrontational about this? Why aren't you taking her on? Why aren't you. I think you're starting this. Maybe see that you're getting some of your questions asked. And I'll just leave it at that.

[Steve Dace]

Let's go next to Ben's Mart who says, I don't know what to believe regarding Charlie Kirk, some talk about details that contradict story that sound unbelievable. Could you please provide information that contradicts the conspiracy details instead of just calling the contrarian satanic.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, here's the thing. You offered accusations with no evidence. I don't know what to respond to.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You played yourself.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah, you just. I mean, I'll happily do that. I will happily do that. But what is it you want me to respond to? I mean, you didn't give me anything specific. Okay, let me. And, and I don't want to overplay my own hand in the la. I've known. I knew Charlie. I still cannot believe he's gone. I, I knew Charlie for a long time. For many of those years though, it was just kind of casual. Beginning with COVID it, it got more personal. And then especially in the last year and a half, we got increasingly closer. And I am confident in saying that if Charlie were alive today, we're still with us today, that relationship would have, would have. I think a lot of people are maybe learning publicly in a surprising way how much closer we had gotten in the last year and a half. And I think that if Charlie were still with us today, I think it would be some things would have occurred that would have made it even more obvious that, that we were going to work very closely together and had grown closely, closer together on a personal level. That being said, though I'm not on the inner. I, you know, I've only, I've still only met Erica one time. I've never met his parents. There are several high ranking members of TPUSA I have never met. So I don't want to overplay my hand either that I was, you know, some Charlie Kirk subject matter expert. I'm not that either. Here's, here's what I can tell you. Throughout the entirety of his twenties, Charlie was building a very public and formidable political organization. And it's an organization that if you've been to any of their events or any of you know, you've seen many of the activists that the organization has, has curated and, and trained and unleashed. There's no shortage of attractive young women in these, in these settings. Correct. And yet was there ever even a hint of any kind of impropriety? Anybody that's ever come forward and said, charlie gave me some unwanted advances or I dated him and then he cheated on me. Any, anything at all. Anything at all. Any of that at all? Never, never, never. Man, that's incredible. That is incredible. Throughout the, throughout much of the time he's building this, he is surrounded by no shortage of attractive young women. And there's no scandal, there's no rumor mill. There's Nothing.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Nothing.

[Todd Erzen]

That's incredible. Here's what I can also tell you. Charlie built the most formidable organizational threat to. To the modern American left that exists today on the right in Turning Point, usa. We just went through four years where the Bidens and. And that regime, they'd indict, you know, anything that could move, right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

They were investigating absolutely. Anything to get their hands on, correct?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

And yet how many times do you think that they. Do you think they went through TPUSA's 990 forms and everything else the last four years? The four years that Joe Biden's people were in charge? 666 times. Maybe a couple of times. I'm sure if they could have found anything, anything at all, anything, don't you think they would have tried to rope him, try to string him up yet? Nothing. So I want you to stop and I want you to think about those two things. Here's an attractive, articulate, outgoing young man who throughout many of the years he's building this is single. He is surrounded by no shortage of attractive young women. Not a hint of scandal, not a hint of impropriety. No rumors, nothing. We. We could all name names. We won't, but the three of us could name names of some pretty prominent people on the right that there's all kinds of rumors about.

[Marco Rubio]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

But we won't. Not our place to. Nothing on Charlie ever. Nothing. Heck, there's all kinds of people on the right that have rumors that you'd be more comfortable it was with. It was guys going after women instead of other guys. But we won't. Not our place to. Because they are rumors, after all. But when you keep hearing the same names over and over again in certain settings, you start thinking maybe there's. There's more here, there's, you know, than just a rumor. Sure, maybe there's there's at least an ember where there's some smoke, right? There wasn't even smoke where Charlie was concerned. And then he builds the most profligate organization and effective organization against the left in America. And at a time that the. The Bidens weaponized everything to max lit. Nothing. No. No form that didn't get filled out, no expense report that wasn't. They could have blown out of proportion. Absolutely nothing. And then the man's memorial is arguably the largest portrayal and broadcast of the gospel in human history up to this point. Now, I'm not here to say Charlie Kirk was infallible, because he wasn't. But he's one of the best men that I've ever known. He's one of the few men I've ever actually looked up to, and I was 20 years older than him. And that's the best answer that I can give you.

[Steve Dace]

Next we'll go to Michael Ewers, who says, would you rather do an indefinite theology Thursday on the Book of Revelation or one pop culture Tuesday devoted to debating offsides in soccer?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, good grief. I'll leave it. I'd rather do a book of Revelations than onsite offside and soccer. It's another example of technology actually making things worse instead of better.

[Todd Erzen]

I will say I'd rather do Revelation too. Listen, I'm fascinated by the Book of Revelation. We have done a ton of shows on the Book of Revelation, by the way. We've done every mainstream within orthodoxy. There's other theories out there that consider themselves mainstream, that we would consider heresy. But within traditional Christian orthodoxy, we've done long form shows on every major theory and even theories within theories that I, that I'm aware of and know of. And I'm, I'm happy to do them all again. I think it's very, very fascinating. I, I saw something. What's his name? Is it Bevere? Is that his name? Does that name sound familiar to you, Aaron?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzen]

John Bevere. Does that name sound. Is that his name? Is it B E, V E, R E? I want to say. Okay, Fear.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, let me look this up.

[Todd Erzen]

Because I saw a show that he did with Josh Howerton recently.

[Steve Dace]

John Bevere.

[Todd Erzen]

John Bevere.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Todd Erzen]

I don't know John at all. Okay. Not even sure I'd heard his name until I saw this episode he did with, with Josh Howerton. And, and, and one of the things he said about Revelation that I thought it really was convicting to me is, is he said at one point, he said, hey, I have my own understandings and beliefs of what I think these things mean and which theories are more orthodox than others. But the church, you know, one of the most oft cited things in the New Testament is the second coming of Christ. And we rarely talk about it. So even if, even if you don't want to get into the minutiae of particular theories and champion one of them, I mean, we're doing a disservice to our people to not be preaching about the fact history's coming to an end one day, and that could come at any moment. At any moment, history could come to an end. And that is it. And we're out of time as a species. And how much different, how Much, he said. And one of the things I heard John say to Howerton was, you know, we're struggling with conviction and, and growth and discipleship in the church. What's more clarifying in terms of growth in discipleship than the Master may return at any moment to settle his account. You better have yours in good standing. Right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

That's pretty motivating and clarifying thing. And I just thought. And I thought, wow, one of those simple things, because whenever we've talked about it on the show, and I'll confess it's been true within my own Bible study, it's often trying to decipher it. And what do these things mean, as opposed to the meta meaning of behold, the Lord will return, Are you ready? You know, and how would you live your life differently if you thought that might happen in your day and in your time? How might that may be more motivating to you? Right. And I thought that that was very simple yet profound in that podcast of Bevere and Howerton that I listened to recently. So I'm. I'm happy to do a ton more shows on it. The issue for me isn't the subject matter, it's the way that people often react to it. You know, you have to affirm my particular pet theorem or we're out. But if we were able to come now and reason together and have very strong reasons why we have different ideas of the various theories about how these events that will unfold and transpire and how many of them have already unfolded and transpired. Right. I would love discussing that stuff. I'm deeply fascinated by it. I've read as much about that as almost any other biblical subject. And we've done a ton of shows on it over the years. On the soccer off side thing, okay, some of it, I'm teasing, but legitimately, I did cover soccer for the newspaper. That was one of the first beats I ever had as a sports writer. We had a minor league soccer team. Do we still. Are they still here? The menace.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, the menache.

[Todd Erzen]

The menache. That's what we call them, too. So we had a minor league soccer team here. And one of my first beats. So I covered. We have three minor league teams. We had hockey, baseball, and soccer. All right. And we had a AAA baseball team in Des Moines that was considered one of the biggest beats to get because they were connected with the Cubs. And I got the other two beats. All right. I covered soccer in the summer and hockey the rest of the year. And what fascinated and frustrated me in covering the sport is that. And, and, and I have. And I would say it doesn't mean I'm right, but I had a unique glimpse of this because I covered these two sports back to back like four years in a row.

[Marco Rubio]

Right.

[Todd Erzen]

Because what you'll often hear people say, well, lots of hockey games are low scoring too. And that's true. There's also going to be at a minimum 60 shots on goal in the game. And one of the things you do notice when you watch the two games in particular is the amount of flow in hockey is way higher. And, and the, the amount of congestion within the neutral zone is way lower and the way. And there. Because there's a thing in hockey that doesn't exist in soccer. There's a blue line. So offsides is enforced. But so you can't just sit down and cherry pick on the other side of the other side, other team's side of the ice, you know, and wait for the puck. But you also, but that blue line also for forces movement because you've got to make sure you're on. It's a definable line of what offsides is to make sure that you are in that place all the time and that keeps the puck. That's why you always complain when you watch hockey on tv. It's hard to follow the puck. It's moving all the time. The blue line forces that puck to move all of the time. There's not nearly that kind of movement in soccer. And I was covering the two sports at roughly the same level. The menace when I covered them were kind of like the double a version of a minor league team to the mls. And the Buccaneers were kind of a double a version of a, you know, of a, of a minor league team to a professional hockey team. I covered several guys that went on and played in the mls. I covered several guys that went on and played in the NHL. And the level of flow, certainly the athletes were great in both cases, but the level of flow was demonstrably different in one sport over the other. And it's because there's a blue line. And so what you ended up with in soccer is if, if is in many cases, if you tried to make a law like throw the football equivalent of a bomb and you got to the ball before the defender did, you'd be called off sides because there's really not a definable offsides line. We don't really know. And that cuts down on the amount of scoring activity, even if the volume of actual scores is not that much different in hockey, like four to three is a high scoring hockey game. But over the course of that game, you're going to see probably if there were seven goals, you know, shot seven goals scored, and the average goalie is going to save about 90% of the shots. So that meant you're probably going to see what, at least 60 shots on goal out of those seven goals. You're gonna see a lot of action. That's all. That's all. And you know what? I could be wrong. Not everything has to be for me. Didn't watch a minute of the World Cup. I wasn't against it either. If you enjoyed it and liked it, cool. Not my thing at all. Not into it at all. But I think that I'm just explaining why. I think in general, soccer has struggled to gain an audience with Americans because we do like things bigger, faster, stronger. And I think as a sport, soccer does penalize that inherently more than other sports do because of the lack of the blue line thing. Again, I could be wrong. I'll give you the last word on that. If you want it, you're wrong. Very nice. Okay, let's go to the next one.

[Steve Dace]

That was two words, Todd. He said the last word. This one is From Darlene Holt McAdams, who asks, how can Christians best discern false teachers as. We are clearly living in times that the Bible has warned believers about. More specifically, what are your personal methods and habits you recommend when you're not sure about someone or something?

[Todd Erzen]

I think the.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I thought this was interesting. How do you use the Bible reactively to read the signs of the times? Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

To me, this is where I just use the Bible as the referee. And this is what it means. This is Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 and. And two verses that just absolutely have had as much influence over me as anything else I've read in the Bible since I got converted.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Todd Erzen]

Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice so that you may then know what is God's perfect and pleasing will for you. Do not be conformed to the thoughts and patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Right. If you know the Bible now, when. Here's what I mean by know the Bible. You, you don't have to be. You don't have to even know what progressive sanctification means. You, you don't even have to even know what, what it means if, if good works produce faith or faith produces good works. You really don't. There have been great men and women throughout the history of the church that had differing positions on an issue that Todd and I differ on but on the very fundamentals of the faith.

[Donald Trump]

Faith.

[Todd Erzen]

If you let the Bible inform you on those things, it's going to expose a lot of those false teachers for you because there's something that every false teacher does that's important to know. And I'll, I'll expose that for you here. When we come back, The Steve Day show. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got a suspense mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint Story is better. Every plan $15 a month, even unlimited.

[Steve Dace]

That's it.

[Todd Erzen]

Happy ending, zero tears. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $80 for a 12 month plan. Required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is. All right, so let's go back to the question at hand on an Ask Me Anything Monday. Great question. What is a tried and true way to know the answer to this question? All right, so let's reset it to make sure we're answering the question that was asked. All right. And so this is from Darlene, Darlene Holt McAdams. She asks how can Christians best discern false teachers as we are clearly living in times that the Bible has warned believers about? More specifically, what are your personal methods, habits you recommend when you're not sure about someone or something? Number one, it's important to remember that ultimately the credibility of God's word rests on the credibility of God and His Word, not on the messenger or the person. Everyone who has ever communicated God's word to you, me, and everyone on this show included as parts of their lives that if you knew about it or if, if, if things that they're tempted by or contemplating that if you knew, you'd be like, you are awful and why did I ever trust you? Because we're all sinners right now. That doesn't mean that the credibility of the, of the messenger doesn't matter at all. That is not what I said. I use the term ultimately. Ultimately, the credibility of God's word rests on the credibility of God and His word on the message itself. Not the messenger, not the vessel, not the vehicle.

[Donald Trump]

Okay.

[Todd Erzen]

So that that's important to remember because we're in an era, particularly with, with these devices right here. We're Going to learn so much more about something that someone said wrong, something that someone did wrong, some mistake or. Or shortcoming or failure someone had than ever before. And that's why, more than ever before, it's important to put the credibility of God's word on God. But there is something that all false teachers do have in common. Men who have failed may not be false teachers. They just might be men who have failed. But every false teacher has this one thing in common. I can promise you that the following message will not be part of what they preach. Sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, and restoration. Those five things are the heart and soul of the gospel, There are other important organs. If you look at the gospel the way you would a body, there are important organs in your body that if they fail, you will likely die. No one would argue that your liver is as important as your heart or your brain. In fact, if we were to rank organs, depending on whether you count the skin as an organ. Right. But if you were to look at traditional biology, if you were to rank organs, the brain and the heart would be the top two. Right. Whenever we show up and there's a person whose health is in crisis, what are the first two things we look for? Brain activity or heartbeat. Correct.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Sure.

[Todd Erzen]

Because those are the most immediate signs of the true. Of whether or not we're in true peril here or in true danger. Did I say they were the only signs? Is that what I said?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzen]

So if you're like liver fails, you get pancreatic cancer. I think that's what Ben Sasse was diagnosed with. Right. So. So forever pantry pancreatic cancer is almost impossible to detect and like an instant death sentence. Now, Ben is, I read over the weekend saying that he's been given access to an experimental cancer drug and his cancer Scans are down 90. I think he said something.

[Steve Dace]

99.

[Todd Erzen]

99. That's crazy. All right, so if we have something that can treat pancreatic cancer, that's one of the most immediate and deadliest forms of cancer that still exists.

[Donald Trump]

List.

[Todd Erzen]

Right. You know, a lot of people, though, wouldn't rank the pancreas amongst the highest and most important organs in the body just off the top of their head. So there, there's. There's other things that the gospel addresses. My point is there's other things the gospel addresses that are important. Paul writes about what it means to be a good husband and father, correct?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

He writes about what it means to be a good wife and mother, correct?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes. Right.

[Todd Erzen]

Those things are very, very important. Right. But the ultimate. If you are a good husband and father but never repent of your sins to Jesus. Do you get that? But I was a good dad. Exemption from hell. Do you get that?

[Aaron McIntyre]

You get.

[Todd Erzen]

You know, on second thought, Jesus just didn't have to go to the cross for you because you were such a good dad. That. Is that how it works?

[Aaron McIntyre]

It is.

[Todd Erzen]

That's not how it works. The, the preeminent importance of the Gospel, the heart and soul of the Gospel, is sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, restoration. Whenever you are wondering, well, I like a lot of what this person says, but I'm not sure, something seems off. Ask yourself if they ever address those five things and they all have to be addressed together doesn't mean they have to use all the exact same terminology I just did or put them in the same order that I just did. But in general, those five things, those are the stakes. When you put a tent in the ground to keep it solid and on firm footing, you put the stakes in the ground. Those are the 5 stakes. S T A K E S those are the five stakes of the Gospel. Remove those things and the Gospel is but a husk. You've removed the heart and soul of the Gospel. Because the prime directive of the Gospel is not to make you a better man or a better wife, or a better parent or a better patriot or a better citizen. It's not that those things will often be the result of accomplishing the prime directive of the gospel. Correct. But that is not the goal of the Gospel. The goal of the Gospel is to save your soul from hell. That's the prime directive of the Gospel. Did I say it was the only directive of the gospel? No. But is it the prime directive of the gospel? Yes. And what you're going to see from every false teacher who's ever lived is they will diminish those things, if not ignore them altogether or attempt to rework what they mean. Now, there are other ways to note a false teacher. Sometimes they're more slick or sly. But in general, sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, restoration. They're never going to preach that message. You're never going to show up at one of the, at one of the, one of the, the rallies of one of the buy my next airplane for Jesus guys. And he's never going to call. He's never going to call you into account for your sin because he's sinning in his own message. So whenever you're around someone whose content you consume a lot and they are claiming the banner of Christ and you're asking yourself, should I let them influence me spiritually? Ask yourself the following question. Do they ever address sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, restoration? If the answer is yes, even if at times you think they're wrong, great teachers have have taught things that I think are preposterous. One of the greatest teachers in the history of the church taught that all forms of sexual activity, even in marriage that wasn't explicitly with the intent on trying to create a human being was sin. I would deeply disagree with that. Yet he also wrote many of the most important volumes on the five things I just ever I just shared with you ever written in the history of the Church. False teachers are always going to avoid or at least diminish those five things. That's a foolproof way of knowing whether they're a deceiver or not.

[Steve Dace]

Great answer.

[Todd Erzen]

Thank you.

[Steve Dace]

Move on to Brad seeking your comments. My 31 year old son decided a couple of years ago he was a woman. A boy who grew up in church with growing Christian examples as his dad and mom. Not perfect role models, but was committed to our hearts changes with Jesus. We read the Word as a family and he knew it through and through. But knowing the Word doesn't equal a relationship with Jesus. I will not agree to something that is a lie. So I haven't seen him in two years and I see no change on the horizon. But I always have feelings that sway back and forth about trying to find a way to have a relationship. I try to find men in church to get advice, but they don't know

[Todd Erzen]

what to do with this tragic question. And I'm very, very sorry. Your son is 31. So I'm going to guess, I'm going to guess you're at least my age at 52, probably a little older. And the reason why that is important is because you may have some wisdom and experience that may give you an opportunity. And he may be older as well now, in his 30s, that there might be an opportunity for you that in, in a lot of cases, when you're dealing with someone that's still young in their teenage years, may not be available. Because the thing about this particular sin, and Aaron, you've addressed this on our show as eloquently as any of us have. The thing about this particular sin that is so challenging is that it, it's, it's the front and the back porch. It's the whole house. It's not just in a room.

[Marco Rubio]

Right?

[Todd Erzen]

And you can't get into the home without acknowledging this. We all have red light districts of the brain. The only difference among us is how many of us have matured to understand what the fruit of the spirit, one of them being, you know, self control, what does that look like? So it's not a question of whether we're all going to have a red light district in our brains. The question is to what extent are we going to have the self control to whether or not we're going to master that or let it master us. That's the only question. What's unique about this particular sin manifestation, though, is it doesn't relegate itself to a red light district. You are forced to acknowledge it right from the outset in a way that really no other sin really kind of does that I'm aware of. Not in our culture anyway. You may have a child that's committed a heinous crime and they might be in prison, but since they're suffering the consequences for it, there might be a path available to maintain that relationship and try to lead them back into the light as a dad. That isn't even available where the gender issue is concerned. Because this is where your children now want you to deny the most fundamental biological fact about them, the most fundamental thing that confirms they're made in the likeness and image of God, on top of the fact it's your DNA and your seed or your egg, that they then want you to deny what God allowed you to create. But with him being in his 30s and you now much older, there may be an avenue where you could establish maybe some kind of a rapport to try to lead him back into the light. But here's the thing. It can't be driven, though, by your feelings. Are. Is it maybe conviction? Is it maybe that the Lord is calling you to try to reestablish that connection, And that's where the strong feelings are coming from. In that case, then I would pursue it. If it is feelings, as in just pure emotion, I would be cautious because that will be used against you later by the enemy. Once you've reestablished that emotional connection, the pain of. Of letting it go again might be so overwhelming that you'll betray your Lord rather than. Than. Than do that. You didn't mention your wife. I'd be curious where she is at.

[Donald Trump]

And

[Aaron McIntyre]

if memory. This letter was initially like twice as long.

[Todd Erzen]

So you cut it down.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I cut it down. But the wife was mentioned and they're on the same page, if memory serves.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah, that's that. So you need to think about that too. As painful as it would be for you to emotionally reestablish that connection only to have him potentially throw it back in your face later because of the way she is wired. It will be. It's even more so for her. So I, I wouldn't shut it down at all. The idea, the concept of it, I would certainly pray it through. The two of you need to be of, you know, one on this and what your ground rules are, what you, what you know and which, what you can and cannot be flexible on when it comes to God and his word. You are not going to give an account for your life to your son, but to his son. You know, and that's extremely easy for me to say. I'm not facing that as a parent by God's mercy and grace. So take that under advisement too. I've not, thankfully, I've not yet been asked to walk a mile and even a lap in the shoes, the difficult shoes you and your wife are. So take that into advisement as well, you know, in how you respond to or handle my answer to your question. You guys want to adding, add anything to that at all?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Just keep thinking of the, the best version of your son, the memory you remember, love it, cherish it, and pray all the time and remember the story of the prodigal son.

[Steve Dace]

Amen.

[Todd Erzen]

Amen.

[Steve Dace]

It's that, it's the long suffering, the faithful prayers. I think that's, that's the part that you can control right now, starting this instant.

[Todd Erzen]

Amen.

[Steve Dace]

Let's do, let's do this one as well. This is from Anthony Johnson. What's one belief you hold that your audience pushes back on most often?

[Todd Erzen]

Hmm, that's a really good question. Is back on most often. You know what, that's actually pretty easy. I think about it. It's Trump related for sure. I mean, I'm either a complete and absolute grifting slurper or I'm not doing enough to help save America. Now, let me say that's not nearly as prevalent as it was a few years ago, but it is still the most overall consistent pushback I get is someone that demands that I justify their Trump feelings on a given day.

[Aaron McIntyre]

He's the Overton window.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah, he is. He is. And here's the thing. I used to be really, I used to really bristle at that, but as the years have gone on, I get it now. Doesn't mean I necessarily like it or agree with it, but on one end, he's the only organized resistance to the spirit of the age that exists in America. So I understand why he is the Overton window for a lot of our people. I get that. You know, I get it. And on the other hand, though, he can still be maddeningly frustrating at times, so I can understand why there's still a segment of our people that are just like, how did this become our noble steed? I get it, I get it. But I'm at the stage now where. I think there's very clearly some anointing here. And today's the two year anniversary, as Aaron noted in the montage of a lot of our lives being way different than they currently are by less than a centimeter of next to Trump's brain. So this is the army I have. I don't. I don't have another army. There's not another place for me to go to fight. You know, I don't really see a lot of Trump's critics on the right fighting, like, somewhere else. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't see them, like, and that's why we're just gonna go do all the school boards ourselves. Like, I don't really see that. I just kind of see him online bitching and moaning and complaining, you know what I mean? It'd be one thing if, if you were, like, out doing Trump, like, let me show you what true Christian statesmanship looks like. Right? You know, that's not really what I see from a lot of the complainers, you know, so at this point, I would. Even though he frustrates me, I prefer Trump's way of trying to do things over most other people's ways of not doing anything. We'll get to the rest of these in the overtime. Until then, go hard. Romans 8, 20, 18.