Loading summary
Transcript17 lines
- [00:00]
A
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:30]
B
Things seem to be unraveling is because we are losing touch with God Almighty himself. Is that why we no longer can actually assess reality and the truth? Well, I'm Josh Hamur and this is the Josh Hammer Show News of the day. Later on in today's show, Ambassador Sam Brownback also joined us to talk about the issue of China and Donald Trump's summit with Xi Jinping. We've got lots and lots of thoughts on that. But for now, I want to talk to you about the nature of faith and the nature of truth. I'm thinking a lot these days about America 250 about this 250th anniversary that we are going to celebrate this July 4, 2026. It is a remarkable, remarkable celebration. This, this republic, which was conceived in order of liberty, which was conceived in virtue and in the broader biblical Western tradition. We're going to celebrate a massive, massive milestone. And this weekend is also a particularly interesting milestone as well, because tonight, this Friday evening actually is going to commence what Donald Trump has referred to as a national Shabbat, as a national Sabbath for American Jews. I am a religious Jew, so I go offline every Friday evening to Saturday evening. But presumably, hopefully at least some of my co religionists will join us this week in heeding the president's call, to my knowledge, is the first time that a president has actually ever called on American Jews to observe the Sabbath. And by the way, not just American Jews, but any American who wants to join, of course can and by all means should. I mentioned previously on the show, I'm actually currently reading about halfway through the late great Charlie Kirk's posthumous book, his final work product that he left to the world called Stop in the Name of God, which is a book about honoring the Sabbath because Charlie Kirk also turned his phone off from Friday evening to Saturday evening there and there's so much to be said on that. But there are certainly some, some, some troubling signs and none of these signs are particularly new when it comes to declining religiosity, when it comes to a declining ability to, to detect reality and to ultimately to detect truth itself. If you look at the polls, when it comes to Pew, when it comes to Gallup, when it comes to all the major poll pollsters in America, you have probably noticed that over the past three to four, maybe even five decades, going back that far, there has been a slow drip, drip, drip when it comes to the percentage of Americans who say that they pray daily, to the percentage of Americans who go to church or synagogue on a regular basis, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, or even a few times a handful of times a year, when it comes to the percentage of Americans who have any attachment whatsoever to the broader biblical tradition, this is a gargantuan problem. It is a gargantuan problem for many, many, many reasons. Another thing that I think often about when we're Talking here about Americ 250, when it comes to the Bible, when it comes to God, when it comes to truth, I often think as well a lot about one of my favorite Federalist Papers. It is a Federalist paper that we've quoted on the show probably numerous times before. And the Federalist Papers, recall, were these essays that were written by John J. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton arguing persuasively on behalf of the ratification of the Constitution there. And In Federalist number 31, one of my favorite papers, Alexander Hamilton begins his essay by noting, quote, in disquisitions of every kind, there are certain primary truths or first principles upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend. So when you're engaging in politics, when you're trying to debate public policy, when you're just in civil society having conversation, you have to start somewhere. You have to start with certain truths, with certain first principles. This is what Thomas Jefferson was getting at, speaking of America 250 and this July 4th. This is what Thomas Jefferson was getting at when he famously said that we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights. Well, how did Jefferson make the assertion that we hold these truths to be self evident? Well, because he was starting somewhere because he had certain first principles. And those first principles for hundreds, thousands of years were readily understood to be the Bible, to be the actual word of God itself. And to put another element here into this conversation, it's not just national Shabbat for us to use this weekend, but also this coming Thursday evening to Saturday evening will be the holiday of Shavuot on the Jewish calendar. It's one of the perhaps lesser known Jewish Holidays. It comes exactly 50 days, seven weeks and one day after the holiday Passover. That's actually the name of the word Shavuot. It just means weeks in Hebrew. So seven weeks and one day. And we commemorate the actual giving of the Ten Commandments of the Torah with Moses standing there on the top of Mount Sinai. That is what we will be commemorating. And in synagogues all across the world this coming Friday, we will all hear the recitation of the Ten Commandments as. As Moses received them from God standing atop Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments, perhaps more than anything else, really are those anchoring truths, those first principles that thousands of years later, Alexander Hamilton was writing about. What happened to the top of Mount Sinai when the creator of the universe actually directly spoke to mankind and revealed his will, fundamentally transformed the relationship between mankind and the truth. Prior to monotheism, there was polytheism. There were all sorts of warring, volatile pagan gods. Maybe the God of the harvest wants something, or the gods of the ocean want something, or the gods of the. Of food or wine or whatever. It was all mixed up. You see, truth is relative. The truth could fluctuate based on the vicissitudes, on the ever changing whims of the various polytheistic pagan gods. But monotheism completely and utterly changed the conversation. It introduced to the world moral objectivity, a standard by which human conduct can be judged, by which law should be devised, by which political institutions should be developed, and on and on and on. I've got a lot more to say about this, folks. We are not. We have barely scratched the surface of this conversation. But I wanted to tell you for now, just a brief, but our sponsor, today's show, which is Angel Studios, you know, you've probably been asking a lot of questions about the origins of COVID 19 since COVID 19 happened, certainly I have been among them. This is one of the biggest botched governmental public policy responses in human history. Another big question is what happened behind closed doors? Was there actually a major cover up? We actually just heard testimony in the Senate earlier this week from my CIA whistleblower alleging a cover up there. So Angel Studios now has a documentary out on this topic called thank you, Dr. Fauci. It's digging into all these questions very much, heavily head on. This is not a partisan attack piece. There are whistleblower interviews, intelligence experts, thousands of pages of documents, and thank you, Dr. Fauci challenges viewers to think deeper about all the narratives that we were told by our biomedical and public health elites. So if you care about truth, transparency and asking hard questions. Make sure to Stream thank you, Dr. Fauci. On Angel Join the Conversation Become an Angel Guild member. Join today at angel.com/ our sponsor for today's show is Angel Studios. So the revelation at Mount Sinai just completely changes the nature of the conversation between truth, God and mankind. This was the only possible context in which we could have a Declaration of Independence, which We celebrate this July 4th, in which Jefferson could write that these certain truths are not just known to us, but that they really ought to be self evident for everyone involved. They're the only way that we could ever carve out and devise a constitution that is oriented, as our preamble says, to the general welfare, to the common good, to human flourishing, and on and on and on. The problem, folks, is that we seem to be doing a fairly poor job. You mentioned at some point earlier this week, in brief, this shocking recent Washington Post op ed that really grabbed my attention. This Washington Post op ed was written by a Princeton University professor of politics by the name of Gregory Conti, who I don't believe is a conservative himself. Nonetheless, he wrote in his op ed, he wrote, quote, several years ago, one of my colleagues at Princeton University hosted a lecture on religion and free speech. The talk didn't seem to be landing with the students. Finally, he realized why the speaker had made repeated reference to the Ten Commandments and several students didn't know what they were. And this professor, this politics professor, noted that although many Princeton students look, Princeton is the top ranked university every single year in the U.S. news World Report rankings, literally as far as I can remember. The professor notes that these students are very smart, they're driven, they're high achieving, they're talented there, but they lack even the most basic religious literacy. They don't know the difference between the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament and the New Testament. They couldn't tell the difference, the difference between Protestantism or Catholicism. This is pretty shocking stuff. And these are our future leaders. So how can our future leaders possibly lead if they don't understand what Alexander Hamilton referred to as those first principles and primary truths upon which our entire civilization rests? None of this makes sense. And again, we see some clear evidence that the truth is in decline. As religious literacy goes down, our ability to live in reality goes down. To live in this monotheistic reality. Where there is moral objectivity, it goes down. How do I know that? Well, there's some shocking recent polls there. How about how the more secularist of America's two major political parties, how the Democrats, how they perceive reality and truth, or frankly, how they don't perceive reality and truth. According to recent polling, 42% of Democrats believe that the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024 was staged. 42%. Is that living reality? No, it is not. Very similar. 34% of Democrats believe the exact same thing, by the way, about the recent attempted assassination of Trump and his Cabinet members at the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton that happened just a few weeks ago. 34%. Is that living in reality? Is that accepting the truth? No, it is not. And of course, this, lest I be accused of being a partisan, this is not solely confined to the political left as well. Look at a lot of the conversation that is happening amongst certain podcasters who think of themselves as being on the right. To me, they're not particularly on the right. People like Candace Owens, people like Tucker Carlson. They're talking about all sorts of stuff that should be easily, easily dismissed if you have any, any, any grasp whatsoever of the, of the truth. But no, this, this broader milu, this broader cultural civilizational context. We all agreed at one point that the Bible, moral objectivity was what this culture, what this civilization is based upon. As John Adams famously said, our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate, he said, wholly inadequate to that of any other. Think about that for a second. Wholly inadequate. So the logical upshot is that when we lose our attachment to God, we're going to lose our attachment to the Constitution and also more generally, what moral objectivity and monotheism brought to the world, which is the ability to detect, to recognize, and ideally, of course, to actually abide by the tenets of truth itself. Sadly, these days we are oftentimes living in a click driven AI online slop driven post truth world. The solution, as always, is to rediscover and to find God again in your life. Frankly, I think this particular national Sabbath, this national Shabbat, is a very good place to start, folks. We'll be right back after a short break for much more. Stay with us. Welcome back. So there's so much that you can do in your own personal life to try to rediscover God. Perhaps you were raised in a religious setting there, you went to church as, as a kid. You haven't been back in many years there you can just dust off the copy of the Bible on your bookshelf and actually just start reading it again. Dive in anywhere you want there, but you can just start reading again. You can actually just show up at a House of worship, whether it's a church or a synagogue, this weekend, next weekend there, or perhaps as I've already mentioned now once or twice, you could choose to make what Donald Trump is now calling for this weekend to be a national Shabbat, a national Sabbath and to actually do something to observe it. I'm not saying that you have to observe it the exact same way the Orthodox Jews do with all the various restrictions and there are a lot of them. You could do whatever makes the most sense for you. You could just turn the phone off for 24 hours there. You could do something, you could do something to try to tap into this because the Sabbath is part of the Ten Commandments, of course, but it's also much, much, much longer than that. The reason that we have a seven day week and that we rest on one day is because that's what the Creator did. That is what the Creator did in the opening chapter of the Bible. In Genesis chapter one, the heavens and the earth were created in six days and on day seven, God rested. There is no other explanation, frankly for the seven day week in general. There's no reason for the seven day week based on the solar calendar, based on the lunar calendar, the harvest season. There's no other explanation for the now ubiquitous worldwide accepted seven day calendar other than the fact that it's right there in Genesis. That is the literal reason why we have it today. So look, I talk about the Sabbath for a while there, but the point is do something. Do something to try to bring yourself in your own personal capacity back to rediscovering God. If you have lost him there in this lead up to America 250 in this lead up to July 4th, really I think there is very little if anything else that I think is more important than that. By the way, I mentioned Tucker Carlson a little bit earlier. I mentioned Candace Owens. I want to talk a little bit about something that struck me as well that's actually related to our conversation. So as we've noted on the show, people like Tucker, people like Candace, people like Nick Fuentes, people like Megyn Kelly, unfortunately these days there's have been hitting the Islam issue really, really hard. And they've been hitting it hard, not in a Charlie Kirkstar way. They haven't been calling Islam incompatible with Western civilization, which it broadly speaking is. No, on the contrary, they've been clamoring, clamoring to bring in more Muslim migrants. They've been saying that there is no real difference between the Sharia worldview and the biblical Western geo Christian Worldview. Tucker has actually even gone so far as to say that Sharia law is a good thing. He said they have it better in Sharia governed countries than in Western countries. Yes, he has actually really said these things. I want to dive a little deeper into what is actually going on here when people say things like this. So the implicit assumption is not just that there is no specific difference between the Sharia worldview and the Islamic world versus the Biblical worldview and the Christian world. To be clear, they definitely are saying that. They're saying essentially that this is interchangeable, that you can just mix and match there. As Tucker said, after all, in an infamous post about a month ago or so as his network, the Tuck Carlson Network, actually put on X, Muslims love Jesus. Okay, your mileage may vary as to whether that's a factually accurate statement. I think the Christians in Nigeria would have a lot to say about that, to be honest with you, as they're being slaughtered by Boko Haram and various other jihadist groups. Okay, but what he's really getting at here is this notion that all cultures are compatible. We can call this the John Lennon imagined view of the world. Tear down borders, tear down nation states, tear down religions. John Len's Mansion, otherwise known as the single worst song ever written. Ironically, that's actually exactly what Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and these other podcasters are getting at. This is also the exact same view, by the way, as the globalists at institutions like the United nations, like the World Health Organization, the icc, the icj, the entire Alphabet soup of all the various globalist transnational boondoggles. This is their exact same view of human anthropology, of human sociology as well, that all cultures are fundamentally equal because we all have the same values. So it occurred to me, or more accurately, it occurred to a friend who shared with me her thoughts, and I thought about it, and it made a heck of a lot of sense, is that this is actually the exact same worldview as one of the men who these individuals love to hate the most, President George W. Bush. The paradigmatic 21st century neoconservative, the dreaded. The dreaded Bush era neocons. How do I know that? Well, because in his second inaugural address in January 2005, when President George W. Bush famously spoke about what he referred to as the Freedom Agenda, he outlines a theory of the universality of all values that, if you think about it, sounds exactly like what the Tucker, Candace, Megan, etcetera, Cabal actually says. So in 2005, George W. Bush wrote, quote, or he spoke I should say, quote, eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability. It is human choices that move events, not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation. God moves and chooses as he, as he wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind. The hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. I object stridently to this. Stridently. Freedom is not the permanent hope of all mankind. Again, the reason that Jefferson was able to say that we hold these truths to be self evident was because he was writing in our context, in an Anglo American, Western, Judeo, Christian, really, more broadly speaking, a Christian worldview. This is why he was able to say these things, because Genesis 1:27 which says that man is made in God's image. This was and still today, broadly speaking, at least made to a lesser extent, but it still mostly is a pretty close to universally held belief. Do you think that the Taliban goat herders in Afghanistan would say that it is self evident that all men are created equal? Do the terrorists of the Taliban in Afghanistan, do they yearn for mankind? Is it their hope? Do the sub Saharan tribal African warlords all hope for a Western Anglo American view of freedom? Now this is total gobbledygook, is not how it works. To be clear, people who believe in the Bible believe this message is obviously true. And from our perspective, us being the Jews, we have a real moral minimum referred to as the Noahide laws, the seven laws of Noah, which we expect all of humanity to abide by. They are really, really, really basic stuff. By the way, don't eat the flesh of a live animal, do not commit idolatry, do not murder, set up courts of justice. Really really basic stuff. But beyond that, beyond that personally, to me, the conservative worldview is best summed up by John Quincy Adams, the former President, who back when he was Secretary of State in 1821, famously said, speaking of American foreign policy, that America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Rather, he said America is the well wisher overseas, but the guarantor only of her own people. This to me is the more authentic conservative position and it's one frankly that I think people like Tucker and Megan would, would do well to study up because it is not frankly what they are saying right now. So we're going to bring on Ambassador Sound Sam Brown back here just a little bit later in the show. For now though, I want to do a brief update for you when it comes to a religious related issue at the Supreme Court yesterday. So we've been tracking the mifepristone litigation, which is the abortion pill. The abortion pill, by the way, is the most common way to do abortions in America these days. Roughly 70% of abortions in America are done chemically, mostly with mifepristone. That's the most popular pill. One in ten women who take mifepristone, the abortion pill, end up going to the er. It's really, really, really, really awful. By the way. The FDA can get rid of this if they want to. Congress can ban it if they want to. So make sure to espouse that to Congressman and say that we're actually going to bring on Lila Rose of Live Action for a show this Friday when I'll be off for Shavuot the holiday. So we'll probably talk with Lila about mifepristone and the abortion pill. But for now, unfortunately, the Supreme Court has, has continued a procedural stay of a fifth circuit opinion that have blocked the abortion pill. So the long story short that they are, they are allowing mifepristone to continue to be males in the mail system while it is continues to be litigated through standard channels. Only two dissenters. This is the shocking thing to me, only two dissenters, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito. Only Clarence Thomas argues the correct legal arguments, which is argued years ago by my friend Jonathan Mitchell, that the Comstock act in early a late 19th century, early 20th century legislation that bans the use of common carriers for mailing abortifasants. You can't do that. Thomas says it's a crime. And he's totally right. I can't believe it's only got one vote. It is so frustrating. Anyway, the normal litigation will play out on this, but for now, for now, there's a big setback and I'm just really, really, really frustrated. Only two justices dissented. Where were Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barron and Roberts in this one? Frankly, they were mia and that is not a good thing. Folks, a quick commercial break. We'll be right back on the other side for a conversation on China and faith with Ambassador Sam Brownback. We'll be right back after this. Welcome back. So we've been talking a lot about faith and the importance of faith in today's episode. We've been talking a lot as well about President Trump's trip to China to visit Xi Jinping. And really no one better to bring on to talk about all of these topics and the intersection of those topics than our guest today, and that is Sam Brownback, a man who wears many hats. He is a former US Senator and governor of the great state of Kansas. Also the former US Ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Also the author of the brand new book China's War on Faith, available everywhere, books are sold. So, Ambassador Brownback, really great. Grateful for you stopping by the show today. I want to start higher level to begin our conversation. What are your key takeaways from the president's trip to China this week? I think a lot of the media conversation has focused on possible tension when it comes to Taiwan. But there's so much when it comes to China, there's a lot more than just the geopolitics here. I think that you're probably focused first and foremost on some of the humanitarian issues. I believe that's right.
- [23:34]
C
That would be my focus. But I think what was accomplished this week was just trying to lower the temperature and show the world these two leaders can talk. I think both sides really didn't have a major agenda that they thought they could accomplish. They got a big agenda, but it's just these are two really opposed systems. And Xi Jinping is stepping up and standing together an axis of evil, a modern axis of evil that he's behind the Iranians, he's behind the Russians, he's behind the North Koreans. None of that's possible without him and without the Chinese Communist Party. And we stand for Western civilization and democracy. But right now both sides want to, okay, let's just kind of lower the temperature here a little bit. Let's show we can talk, be a few minor things. But I think that was the desire and I think that's basically what was accomplished. Xi Jinping had to raise Taiwan. He had to make a real point of Taiwan because his basis for legitimacy now is really nationalism, Han nationalism, and their target is Taiwan. So he's got to really appear tough on Taiwan. He did. So he accomplishes his goal. Trump needed to get the oil flowing. That may or may not happen, but I think that's what each is really after this time around.
- [24:55]
B
Ambassador Sam Brown book has a brand new book out, folks. Go ahead and check it out. China's War on Faith available everywhere. Books are sold. So, Ambassador, the way that you framed this, this dialogue and the way that you framed US China relations is very much the way that we frame it here on the show. I like to joke that China is the first, second, third, fourth and fifth biggest foreign policy challenge for the United States. I very much view this as a 21st century version of the Cold War against the Soviet union in the 20th century. And I see China as exactly what you said they are, as the head of the snake of this warring axis. They are very close with Iran, with Russia. They were very close with the former Maduro regime in Venezuela, with Cuba. Essentially all of the worst actors on the world stage. I wanted to ask you if you're possibly concerned or what do you make of some Donald Trump's very favorable comments? My personal read is that this is kind of the whole take Trump seriously, not literally thing. I judge Trump more by his actions than by his rhetoric there. But I'm curious what you make of some of the very positive rhetoric coming from the president this week.
- [25:52]
C
I'm in your camp with this, but also this is also kind of classical Donald Trump. This is kind of the step one in some sort of relationship, relationship building. Oh, he's a great guy, he's a great leader and all that. But if Xi Jinping doesn't respond or he does something negative, you'll see Trump then come back with the hard hammer. And right now we've got a problem on dealing with these rare earth minerals. We've got, we got ourselves behind on that. We need some time to get alternate supply systems in place for us. I think when the Chinese grabbed that one and showed they were willing to cut that off, we've kind of gone, okay, we got to fix this weakness. It was a bit of a stress test, if you will, like we used to do on big banks. And we saw it and go, oh, we're not ready on this one. And that's going to take some time because these things, they're not rare, but they are hard to process. And so we're going to have to get caught up there.
- [26:48]
B
So let's get a little bit into the topic of your book, China's War on Faith. So we have had some guests on the show. Jan Yu Keller comes to mind. Writing about China's horrific industry when it comes to forced organ donations is frankly too favorable of a term, essentially organ harvesting. I think a lot of folks don't pay attention to the way that the Chinese Communist Party really has conformed all of the country to this ethnic Han supremacy, which you alluded to earlier in our conversation already. And that kind of plays out in some concrete ways when it comes to the oppression of the Uyghur Muslims. For instance, in Xinjiang province there. Can you about just talk a little bit about perhaps not just Uyghur Muslims, but also Christianity, essentially all Other faiths in China there. This is not particularly a robustly pro religious freedom regime, is it?
- [27:36]
C
Oh, they hate religious freedom, that religious freedom is kryptonite to them. And that's why I put in the book, I said, this is one of the most powerful tools we can use against the Chinese Communist Party. They cannot tolerate religion because it's a higher authority that's not dependent upon the government that they don't control. So they go after the Muslims, they go after the Buddhists, they go after the Falun Gong, they go after the Christians. And it's one of the fastest growing Christian countries on the planet, which creates a real problem for the Communists that they're going, wait a minute, there are more of these Christians around now than us. And they don't answer to the Chinese Communist Party. So that's why I argue we should be using it as a tactical and strategic tool against the ccp, really undermining the regime, undermining its legitimacy and standing with these folks. We should bring them into the White House, those that have been dissidents that have gotten out somehow holding them up. We should meet with Li Hongzhu, the founder of Falun Gong, and say, this isn't a cult, this is a movement that's indigenous to China. We really should be working with these folks. And it really attacks and goes at the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.
- [28:52]
B
And one part of the broader China conversation that has had unusually stronger religious freedom, at least perhaps until the present into the future, is Hong Kong. So a lot of the conversation focuses on Taiwan. Hong Kong is another very interesting element here because Hong Kong for many years, Amasser, as you know, was technically kind of sort of part of China, but Beijing would essentially let Hong Kong do what they wanted to when it comes to self government, when it comes to freer markets, when it comes to the Anglo inspired common law system in the courts there, religious freedom, etc. That's very much changing. And unfortunately it's changing for the worse. I was in Hong Kong in 2016. It's maybe my single favorite city I've ever been to. I was, I was totally blown away by just how mesmerizing. Frankly, this city that they carved into the side of a mountaintop rainforest, these skyscrapers, the whole thing is utterly magnificent. But that's also changing in real time. Jimmy Lai's unjust imprisonment is very much part of what the world sees when it comes to Hong Kong. Do you think Hong Kong is essentially a lost cause at this point when it comes to a Western perspective? Is it going to be gobbled up by the Chinese Communist Party in short order here?
- [30:00]
C
Well, it is being gobbled up by the Chinese Communist Party. It also is an object lesson on Taiwan because Hong Kong was supposed to be 50 years, two systems, one country. Hong Kong was supposed to have its own separate system. The Chinese Communist Party signed onto that deal and we're not 25 years into it. And they said, ah, no, we're going to take it over. We're running this place. And they've effectively really changed the place. This beautiful pearl of a city, one of my favorite cities in the world, and what they created with this open, free system on this little alcove that they had. So I think it's a real key object lesson to the rest of us. The Chinese Communist Party will not stand by its deals. We are at war with them. They are at war with us whether we realize we're at war or not.
- [30:53]
B
Thousand percent true. And they have been for a very long time. Ambassador Brown, Beck's brand new book, folks, again is China's War on Faith. Go ahead and check it out. Everywhere books are sold. Ambassador, just about a minute left here. Books, before I let you go, what is perhaps one big policy goal that you would most like to see this Trump administration work on? There's still a lot of time left in this administration, Ambassador. There's still about two and a half years left. If there's one thing above all for them to focus on in their time in office, what would it be?
- [31:20]
C
This. Maybe this is my hobby horse, but I also think it's really important if they would push for and on the topic of religious freedom for every, everybody, everywhere, specifically in China. This is something that the Chinese fear more than our aircraft carriers. It undermines them. And I think it's one of our key tools that we have in confronting the CCP, who is aligned and is aggressively coming after us. And I want them to look at it not as a human right, but as a strategic tool, a strategic weapon of the west and this Judeo Christian Western civilization that we have. This, I think is really the key thing that we need to be pressing on right now.
- [32:03]
B
Religious liberty is the first liberty in the US Constitution, Bill of Rights for a reason, which is that it is the liberty upon which all other liberties necessarily depend. So I think that's very well said, Ambassador, and certainly we would wholeheartedly agree with that here on the Josh Hammer Show. Again, folks, Ambassador Brownback's brand new book, China's War on Faith. Check it out. Everywhere books are sold. Ambassador Brownback, congratulations on the new book. Thank you for, for all your wonderful work on the global stage. God bless you and stop by again soon.
- [32:26]
C
Thanks Josh. God bless you and your listeners.
- [32:37]
B
Welcome back. So on the one hand, I could not more strongly agree with Ambassador Brownback that religious freedom is here, there and everywhere, the bedrock of a decent God fearing, biblically based society. And it certainly is what the US More than any country world should be pushing for when it comes to our leverage and points and points of negotiation with the Chinese. On the other hand, when it comes to hard hitting real politic and geopolitics, Taiwan clearly was the big issue discussed between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping over in Beijing this week. Donald Trump was actually asked on Air Force One about what was discussed between Trump and Xi Jinping on the topic of Taiwan and he gave this answer.
- [33:15]
D
I want to thank you very much. This has been an incredible visit. I think a lot of, a lot of good has come of it. We've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries. He's a man I respect greatly become really a friend. We've known each other now 11 years, almost 12 years. That's a long time. And we've settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn't have been able to settle.
- [33:41]
B
So I apologize. That was Trump talking about his trade deals that he made there. He also was speaking about Taiwan on Air Force One and Dont Run basically said that Xi Jinping thinks that China cannot have anything to do with what they're doing. He's against very much what Taiwan is doing. So Donald Trump essentially concluded here that he doesn't know what the US Is going to do when it comes to potential future US Arms sales to Taiwan. It essentially is a big open question mark at this point thus far. It should be noted that the Trump administration has, I believe, and I heard Mike Pompeo, his first secretary of state say this earlier on tv. I believe the Trump administration thus far has been engaged in the most robust arms sales. So especially Trump's first term to second term combined, this president has done more to sell arms to Taiwan than any other president, which makes sense because Trump has made his bones and has risen up through the ranks very much as a China hawk over over the decades there. So a lot of positive talk emerging from this summit over in Beijing there. When it comes to the trade deals. When it comes, when it comes comes to Trump saying that we're on the same page. Frankly, when it comes to Iran, I don't really know what that means, to be honest with you, I'm going to go ahead and believe that one. When, when I, when I see it, this is, this is part of a pattern with Donald Trump, though. It really is. A lot of times in his diplomacy, in his international geopolitics negotiating, he will praise a leader to that leader's face or immediately after the summit and then he will go back and he will do some really harsh stuff afterwards. So a lot of people really, really freaked out when Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland back in 2018. I remember it very, very well. Trump had some positive, flattering comments about Putin. He's a strong leader. You know, all the typical Trumpian rhetoric. Okay, he's a strong leader, et cetera. Does that mean that Trump is going soft on Putin? No, no, of course not. So similarly here, the proof will be in the pudding. The proof will be, are we actually going to keep on arming Taiwan? Are we going to keep on developing very close relations with this new precocious up and coming prime minister in Tokyo? In Japan, Japan being a real linchpin of America's geostrategy there in the Indo Pacific, the new Prime Minister is oftentimes referred to as the Japanese Margaret Thatcher because of her no nonsense posture when it comes to issues of national security. The proof will be in the pudding of things like that. Our only 2 cents here from our perspective would be to keep at it. Mr. President, you have really made your bones. You have made your bones as a tough on China guy and now is not the time to go soft. Now is not the time to go soft. We would have liked to have seen the Iran Operation Epic Fury commenced in earnest while on Chinese soil. Again, Donald Trump now saying that China is on the same page as us when it comes to opening the Strait of Hormuz. When it comes to China, or to me, when it comes to Iran not having a nuclear weapon. I'm skeptical, to be very honest with you. I have seen no discernible indication of China changing their behavior. But we are ultimately empiricists here. Speaking of what it means to be conservative, we spoke about that a lot on today's show. Conservatives believe in empiricism. So when we see results, we are open to adjusting our preceding, not worldview, but our opinions on a prudential matter there, which means that if we see evidence that China is going to change its approach to Iran, that I'm happy to change my opinion when it comes to China, Iran relations and so forth there. I've seen no evidence, thus far, therefore, I am not changing my opinion on that, at least at this particular juncture. So I want to talk as well about a domestic political issue and that takes us to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. So we mentioned briefly this week on the show how Rand Paul's son, William Paul had a drunken tirade at Congressman Mike Lawlor, former guest here on the Josh Hammer show, at a bar in Washington D.C. that happened earlier this week. And it was an explosive, highly intoxicated rant about the Jews and the gays and just a lot of anti Semitism there. And the underlying point, I believe, of this rant was that Paul the younger was echoing his father, Rand Paul, the senator, in supporting their fellow Kentuckian, Thomas Massie, who is a deeply, deeply, deeply endangered congressional incumbent. Thomas Massie is the current congressman for Kentucky's 4th congressional district and he is being challenged by President Trump above all. So Donald Trump has endorsed Thomas Massie's primary challenger, who is Ed Gallrein, who was a Navy veteran and who was a kind of a standard, kind of maga trumping Republican. Thomas Massie has essentially flipped on Trump every which way from Sunday. A lot of people focus on Thomas Massie's flirtations with, with anti Semitism. For a long time I thought Massey was just not particularly pro Israel. I didn't think that he was anti Semite. I actually ate dinner next to Thomas Massie at a dinner here in Florida, a private, off record dinner like three years ago. He and his now late wife were, were there, lovely couple. I had a very good time. So I, I gave him the bend of the doubt for a very long time. Unfortunately, I think he has lost that benefit of the doubt. But the reason that Trump's getting involved here is not because of the Jews. He's getting involved here because Massey is becoming massive, massive problem because he votes against Don Johnson's priorities on essentially every issue. The dude is just a one man, anti MAGA wrecking crew. Which is probably why the New York Times had a glowing profile this week. But how Thomas Massie is exactly the kind of Republican that we need. So is Thomas Massie going to go down in flames this coming Tuesday evening in the Kentucky Congressional primaries while the polling is kind of sparse because it's very difficult to poll some of these small congressional districts. There is one recent poll that came out just earlier this week from a polling firm, the name of qantas, which has Massie down, which has Massey down by about five points there. So the survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday of this week, 900A respondents, decent sample size showed that g is at 48.3%. Massie is at 43.1%. Now, the reason that I wanted to talk about this primary is not because I necessarily care whole ton about Thomas Massie. To be clear. I hope that he goes down in flames. I am not a fan of him or I'm not a fan of what he's become. Personally, I am even more so not a fan of how he votes, which is way more relevant, frankly, because that's typically how I judge politicians, is, what is your actual voting record? What do you do here? So I definitely hope that Massey goes down in flames. But the reason that I bring this up is because there's actually a lot riding on this. It's very rare for Donald Trump to come out swinging this hard against an incumbent. Very, very rare. Trump clearly came out, also has come out against Bill Cassidy, the incumbent senator there in Louisiana. Tom Till is in North Carolina. So he's picked his battles. But he's gone harder on Massey than maybe anyone in his entire presidential career, at least as far as congressional incumbents are concerned. And pro Trump super PACs have put a lot of money. There's been a ton of outside spending in the Kentucky 4th congressional district race. So that QANTAS poll is just one poll. Very tough to poll these congressional districts. Much easier to pull a larger sample from a state, etc. It's close. It's probably going to be close. The Trump endorsement goes really, really far for boomers, for older people. And there's definitely a large older senior citizen retiree population there in that particular Northern Kentucky Congressional district. So if you're looking just at the district demographics, you probably like Ed Gallrein's chances. Just because older voters are very pro Trump, they'll be more persuaded by the endorsement by the pro Trump, anti Massey, outset messaging there. But it's really close. If Massey does survive, this is going to be viewed, not unreasonably, as a big blow to Donald Trump. A big blow. And that's not what Donald Trump needs right now. He needs, he needs the wind at his sails. He needs to still be the king, which he looks like after his recent success in the Indiana Senate primaries, after their whole redistricting fallout. But that's gonna, that narrative is gonna be complicated quite a bit if Thomas Massie wins his primary this Tuesday. So we'll, we'll see what happens. I'm definitely, I'm definitely tracking it again, first and foremost, because I don't like the way Massey votes and I'm a policy guy. I'm a substance guy. I want someone who's going to support the president's agenda. I want someone who's actually going to be a conservative and not a libertarian gadfly. So hopefully he goes down. I think Donald Trump probably feels the same way that hopefully Massey goes down because the repercussions for Trump are not great, frankly, if Massie manages to squeak this one by, folks, have a great weekend. Enjoy your Sabbath if you are observing it. Josh Hammer signing off. We'll be right back. As always, on Monday,
- [42:36]
A
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.