← The Tim & April Show
The Tim & April Show
98. Long Lines Lead to Long Trump Rants: Airports, ICE & High Gas Prices
01:13:57
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You're listening to a new evangelicals production.
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This message comes from NPR sponsor Paramount, and the new original series, the Madison, Taylor Sheridan's most intimate story yet. The Madison follows a family raised in a world of digital distraction, forced by tragedy to truly see one another and come together. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell. The Madison new series, streaming now only on Paramount. Plus.
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The Tim and April show, where we unravel faith, politics and culture.
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Oh, you're not there. This would have been avoided. This would have been avoided. Just going to put it out there.
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A
Okay. You sent a conflicting message that confused me.
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B
I did. I. This is my fault.
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A
No, listen, I came on here and I was ringing to get into the show and you weren't answering. And when you. All you did was text me three men, three minutes, right?
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B
Because it was 11:57pm and you were not on my screen yet.
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A
You weren't answering my call and thought you meant you needed three minutes. So that's why I was being chill. I'm like, okay, something came up. Tim needs three minutes. So I didn't say anything. And then you said two minutes. So I thought I read that as you need two more minutes. Like, oh, gosh, we're getting so close. But I was just waiting, okay.
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B
Only that's not what you said. What you said was, okay. That was like, april, we have two minutes, so we have to go live. And I'm talking to Cassidy, our producer behind the scenes. I'm like, cassidy, this is so unlike April. She is never, like, this late to anything.
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A
Your message was so Cryptid. I cryptic. You said three minutes, okay? And if. Listen, it was ringing my end. Granted, I know technology problems happen, but on my end, it said ringing. It said ringing. And you were not answering.
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B
You know what?
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A
All I got from you was three minutes. So I just assumed, oh, Tim's not answering because he needs three minutes.
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B
Let's go to the chat for this. All right, let's see. We'll do two different emojis. We thumbs up if April interpreted the text correctly. My three men right before. Or thumbs down if I'm right. Because think about this for a second, right? It's 11:57am And I don't see you on my screen. I know that it's ringing on your end, but on my end, I have nothing. So I text you three men, as in, like, you know, we're three minutes away from the show, and you say, okay. I'm like, okay.
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A
Like, I'm here waiting. Here's okay. Listen, this is just One of those, like frog protection fraud protection situations. Because you obviously didn't get the ringing coming through. And so you thinking three minutes, like, obviously, I know, three minutes till show, but on my end it was ringing, but obviously wasn't going through. So, like, next time be like, hey, three minutes, where are you? Then I know. Oh, it's on my end.
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B
Okay, so let me try to understand this correctly. On top of producing this entire show, three different screens up, getting all my stuff prepped, I also have to text you a full thought out paragraph.
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A
I was here though.
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B
So let's see. Tandyman says listen to women. I mean, I can't really respond to that. Besides. Yes. So I get signed on about three, lose checkmate, believe women, and then. Oh, okay. I do have one supporter from Cinders. I support Tim. Thank you. And that's a woman. Thank you, Cinders, for your support. I appreciate it. So anyway, friends, welcome back to the Tim and April Show. I am Tim Whitaker.
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I'm April Ajoy.
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We're so off our. So off our rhythm.
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A
Listen, Cassidy said. Our producer Cassidy said 84% of our poll is voting. April is right.
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B
We all know who. We all know who's the front runner in this show.
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A
Very cryptic. More details are needed. Thank you.
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Here's how I feel, Apryl. I feel like if this show ever changed and I left, the show would be fine. It might even grow. But if you left, this show would be toast. It'd be toast.
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A
Well, that is a very fine thing to say, but I disagree because you do run the technical stuff. There was a split moment where I thought I might have to run it today. And if someone saw the level of panic in my eyes, I was like, I'll get through it. I'll get through it. I was practicing. I was like, I don't know how this will work, but we'll do it. So it's a. We're a good team.
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B
Yeah, we are.
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A
We are on communication. Maybe three minutes before the show.
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B
Well, yeah, this is this love behind the scenes, but usually we're on like 15 minutes ahead of time. Every now and then we get down to 10 minutes sometimes before we hop back on. But three, I was. I was telling again, I was telling Cassie, like, I hope she's okay. Also, the reason why April might have been alone today is because my wife Sarah might have a kidney stone. We're gonna find out. And I wanna be clear. Sarah insisted I do the show. I was like, sarah, I will. I don't have to do it. Like, April can Do it. She's more than capable. And Sarah's like, no, you need to go live. So that's why. That's why I'm doing this. For the record, it was not up to me. Sarah told me to go, but we're gonna find out in a few hours via ultrasound if she has one or not.
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A
So I hope she's okay.
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B
That's a lot of fun. But, friends, we got a lot going on today. A lot to cover. TSA and Ice and Pete Hegseth and Mike Johnson and some weird Christian bleep. Do us a favor. If you're watching this stream right now on YouTube, please make sure to give this video a like, it helps get it out into the YouTube algorithm. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you're watching on substack, please make sure to hit the heart button. It really helps us out. And I do have to make good on something, April. I have to make good on a Super chat. Okay? I do. Our friend Tandyman sent us a $50 super chat last week, two weeks ago, super chat, and said, I want to see Tim drumming in a mohawk now. Tandyman, I'm going to be honest with you, okay? My mohawk days are tragically very, very far behind me now. I'm 37, and back in those days, technology and iPhones were not readily available. I did find a clip on YouTube of my old band doing a stripped down acoustic performance where I do have a mohawk slash rat tail going on. And so I'm not sure how much of the video we should play. Maybe a minute because it's a long song. But good news, April. This will not be copyright struck because I own the rights to this song. So no issue about getting demonetized. So here is. Here is. This is so crazy. I'm even sharing. Oh, you're not there again. Hold on, let me get you back on. This is so crazy that I'm not. I'm sharing my. My ban from literally God. Oh, is it. Is it 20 years ago? Oh, my God, it's 20. It's two decades ago.
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So 2006.
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Just about. Maybe a little. A little bit after that. Like, I was maybe 19 or 20, so my band's name was called Red Sea Affair. I will be fully transparent with all of you. I am still very proud of the music that we made. I think it's still on itunes. You can check it out. I'm very proud. But this is a stripped down performance, so you can't judge us by this, by this version. But there's Me in the background. This is low quality, Friends. HD wasn't a thing. Here's a little bit of yours truly in a rat tail playing acoustic drums in a coffee shop.
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Gosh, the hair and the graphic tees are so 2000s coated that hair.
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Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There we go. That little bit. There I am.
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Look at you.
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I know, baby.
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Tim.
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I know this song is really intense, like, usually, so it was very tricky, but, yeah, there I am. All right, that's enough. That's enough. That's embarrassing. So there you go. Tandyman. Me with the mohawk slash rat tail. Really? I upgraded. I upgraded my own. My own clip there, but that was me back in the day. Yeah, yeah, It's a thing. So. Okay. Glad that we're all. We're all a fan of my acoustic drumming, so. All right, friends. This show, the Tim and April show, is produced by the New Evangelicals. It's a nonprofit organization that I founded in 2020, now run by the wonderful Melinda Hale. If you are looking for resources and better paths forward in your faith, including ways to get involved on the ground, check out the work that the New Evangelicals is doing. We have our own private community space called TNE Connect and also TNE Action, which is designed to help you find local causes, like maybe fighting ice or protests and stuff. So make sure to check it out. Henewevangelicals on Instagram or theneweevangelicals.com connect.
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A
That was excellent.
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Thank you.
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A
There's a lot happening in the world, really, right now. That might be understatement of the year.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I said the weirdest sentence last night to be. We were chilling, watching tv. I said, hey, babe, did you see that AI Lego video of Trump? That was a rap diss track that Iran. Iran posted.
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You showed me this today before we went live. We're not going to play it, but I don't know what to do with that because the track does slap. Like, it is a legit diss track. It slaps hard. Also made by a tyrannical regime that is killing its own people, but also while dissing another regime that is currently imprisoning children and bombing children in that country. And I don't know what to do with that.
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Yeah, I had a lot of weird feelings about it. And also just the fact that there's, like, a genuine war happening and we're posting AI Lego.
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Right?
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Like it should.
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What do you, like, do we laugh about weird? Like, I know it's. This is why, by the way, we need new ethics, like this is why people evolve ethics over time, because new challenges come up that we haven't faced. We've never faced the human in the history of humanity. The issue of artificially artificial intelligence generating videos that we give prompts to that's then used in service for propaganda of one regime to another. Like, and then the people on one side of that, like, what do you do with that? And then as Christians, what do you do with that?
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So, yeah, so many things. Also, I just saw, like, the. The Jesus AI videos on just a separate note are getting out of hand. And honestly, I might call an audible and send one to you for the end of our weird Christian that I just saw. It's only like six seconds long.
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Okay.
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It could be worth it. Anyway.
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Whatever.
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Okay, so our main topic for today. There's a lot of chaos happening everywhere but at airports this week because there's a partial government shutdown that is still going on. And just for some. Some context, the shutdown is over funding
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dhs, which is, like, what is going on here? Because I hear bits and pieces and I'm like, I don't get it. Like, why aren't TSA agents being paid? And why are ICE agents going there instead? Break it down, because I'm very confused.
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A
Okay, so basically, so they've been negotiating back and forth for, I think it's been like a month, almost a month now. I don't know how long it's been. It's been a while. There's been multiple different variations of the bill, but the basic is that Democrats are refusing to fund ICE without some additional safety measures as a reaction to two Americans now being killed by ice. So the main. The main things that they're asking for,
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this is the Democratic Party, right? Asking for this.
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The Democratic Party in there. And to be fair, they're willing to fund ice. They just want some changes.
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Okay?
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So the main things that they're asking for that most people are talking about are body cam footage.
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Okay.
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And for them to stop wearing masks so that. So that people are not so scared of them, that people can see who they are, that accountability can actually take place if they do bad things. Those are the main two things. So there's actually 10 asks, though, in their initial letter that they sent to Speaker Mike Johnson, and then what's his face, John Thune, who's the majority leader in the Senate. So they want. Oh, also they want DHS officers have to have a judicial warrant in order to go into a private residence, which also feels very like. Like, here's the Thing these ass are not crazy. They seem very like logical, especially given a lot of the chaos ICE has caused.
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Yeah.
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So here that target enforcement. You have to have a judicial warrant in order to enter private property. No mask. Prohibit ICE and immigration enforcement agents from wearing face coverings.
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Okay.
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Three require id. So they want DHS officers conducting immigration enforcement to display their agency ID number and last name. Which honestly that makes sense too because there's a lot of fear that just random people can dress up like ice. Like nobody knows who. Who's actually an official government agent or not because there's no identification. So they want identification. They also want to protect sensitive locations. So prohibit funds from being used to conduct enforcement near sensitive locations, including medical facilities, schools, childcare facilities, churches and polling places and courts.
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So so far, going back to what it was before this Trump regime unleashed ICE as a freaking, you know, Gestapo, frankly.
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Yes, okay.
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Yes, got it.
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They also want to uphold the use of force standards. So there's actually force policies already in use.
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Right.
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And as part of this, they want to expand training and then require certification of officers which after you accidentally kill two people or I don't know how accident it was, you should. That seems very. A logical thing to do. Also, they want people to stop racial profiling saying you can't go up and just arrest someone or detain someone based on what they look like.
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Okay, these are the. Hold on. I want to make sure I understand. These are the radical Dems. This is the radical far left agenda that we have in government right now. They want completely common sense things that were happening before.
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Okay, yeah.
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What else we got into the system? We have this one.
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Yeah. So that's like the detaining centers just to make sure that they are upholding basic detention standards. So people are being tortured or starved.
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Well, have you been following what's been happening in the dilly detention center with the kids? It is evil. We. There's a lawyer who did an interview on Ms. Now I just watched it for a different video. And the lawyer who's representing clients, there's a family in there who's been in detention center in detention for nine months when the law is only 20 days for children. One of the five year old twins. This is heartbreaking. Has 13 cavities and has not gotten adequate dental care. They. There are worms in the food. Like I don't think you know how like people, you know, Abraham, how we look back and we go, wow, how did we in America create Japanese internment camps? How did we tolerate segregation? This is how like this is how this is happening right now. Right now in this country, there are children that are locked up, first off, which already is. Is. Is heinous for any reason. Locking up children is bad. And on top of that, they can't get adequate, you know, medical care. They can't get adequate education. They're not getting adequate food. We have reports of babies not being able to eat because the water is so dirty. Mothers won't mix it in with formula. I mean, again, this is like, I. We are so far. We are so far into fascism already that we're at the point now where the Democrats are asking for, like, literally just going back to the status quo, which. Which. Which was already bad and is now seen as a radical left position according to maga. Think about.
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I know, I know.
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Oh, my gosh.
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Oh, they also. The other thing they're asking for is that local, state and jurisdictions are allowed to investigate and prosecute potential crimes and use of excessive force. Like, if you saw in Minnesota. Yeah. The FBI came in and told local enforcement that they were not allowed to investigate.
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B
Yeah.
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So that's to ensure that. That basically the states that ICE is occupying, those states still have their rights to do their own investigations as needed.
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B
Okay.
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Body cameras, we already mentioned. And then it says no paramilitary police. So regulate and standardize the type of uniforms and equipment DHS officers carry, which makes sense. So that they're actually able to be identified as an ICE agent.
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B
Right. There have been stories of people pretending. Pretending to be ICE agents, robbing people blind because you don't know who. You don't really know when it's legit or not.
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A
Right.
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B
So. So that's what the Dems want.
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A
That's what the Dems want. It's really not that challenging. I think they're very, like, decent asks.
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B
I would go so far as to even say, don't even think they are. Like, that's just a factual statement. These are decent requests that are totally reasonable. They are so reasonable.
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A
Considering all of the terrible stories that have come out of the behavior of ICE and the abuse and the assault and the killings that they've been involved in, like, this seems very reasonable. So. So they've gone back and forth. And it's interesting, though. So ICE is still being funded currently, even though technically DHS falls under this partial shutdown. ICE is still being funded during this because of the big beautiful bill, where the big beautiful bill provided $75 billion for ice over four years. So they're able to continue their operations without this new budget bill because of the big beautiful bill, which is also just a ridiculous amount of money for ice. Tsa. The reason why there's so many long lines is during this time TSA agents at airports are not being funded. And so a lot of TSA agents are just not going to work because one, they probably need to find jobs elsewhere because I don't think like so many people live paycheck to paycheck in this economy. Like missing one paycheck can be so detrimental for a lot of people.
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B
Yeah.
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A
That live here.
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B
For sure. For sure.
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A
So, so some of them are not showing up to work because they're needing to find work elsewhere. And so you have a lot of long lines in bigger areas. And so Trump that is now sending in ICE agents to certain, like the larger airports that are experiencing the long waits. Like there's been people that have had to stand in line for like five hours plus and have missed flights because the lines are so long. Like it's truly causing just chaos if you're trying to travel.
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B
I'm traveling tomorrow to Minneapolis and I'm dreading it. I'm like, I can't even fathom it. So I mean, look at this. These lines are crazy. They're crazy.
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A
And I have heard from some people that have traveled that have been fine, like if you're in like a smaller airport. But yeah, it's.
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B
I did Philly lines today. Philly wasn't that bad this morning. So we'll see. Because my flight's at 6am tomorrow, which is like a pretty peak time. So we'll see.
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A
So, so the latest that happened, I think, I think it was either earlier this week or late last week. Gop. So Republican John Kennedy said this in an interview that Democrats and Republicans actually came to an agreement on a bipartisan bill to reopen the government. And they agreed on a budget, but they just took DHS out of it. They took ICE out of it and they agreed that they would just basically continue to work out the ICE stuff separately so that TSA can be funded and the rest of the government can be funded. And Donald Trump shot it down.
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B
Yep.
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A
So here's a video.
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C
Bruce and I came up with a plan.
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B
We said, look, it's a two step process.
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C
The Democrats have offered to open up everything but ice. Ted and I said, okay, let's accept their offer. And then at the same time we would offer a bill for reconciliation where we don't need any Democratic votes to do whatever we wanted to do with ice. And that way we're out of the Shutdown and DHS is back open. We submitted that. Senator Thun submitted that to President Trump,
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B
as is his right.
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C
He said no, no deals with the Democrats.
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B
It would have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week, but the President said no deal. So. Can we just think about this for a second? This is a. I mean, Senator Kennedy is gop. Gop. I mean, this dude is, you know, he's a MAGA dude. And they created, frankly, a workaround to get what they wanted anyway, which was to both fund TSA and get the government reopened. And they had a workaround to not have to work with Democrats in order to get DHS funded. They had an actual plan. But Trump said no, quote, unquote, deal. It wasn't even a deal. That's not a deal, by the way. A deal is compromised. So it already wasn't that. Trump said no deal with the Democrats and shut it down. Which means that the president, the MAGA president, is responsible for why TSA is not getting paid. The MAGA president is the one responsible for why people are waiting in lines for hours, sometimes in the know, in airports.
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A
Yep.
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B
And that's because he won't even. He won't even accept what might even look like a deal, even though it's really not. That that's how out of their minds the MAGA movement is. Right. I don't know.
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A
I know.
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B
One last thing. Oh, God. Yeah, sorry.
- [23:08]
A
Oh, no, sorry. Go ahead.
- [23:09]
B
I just had one final thought that I think is important because you and I always bring this back to Christian nationalism. And I think that people often think, well, I don't get it, like, why won't maga, you know, even like, trying to find the common ground? Because most MAGA people out there are Christian nationalists. There's a very high correlation between both. And if you grew up in Christian nationalist environments, you're taught very early on that the word compromise is a four letter word. You don't compromise with the enemy, quote, unquote. You don't compromise with people who are demonically possessed. So there's a. There's a direct connection between the fundamentalist evangelical world that April and I grew up in teaching us early on that we don't compromise with the world. And those people now being in government and seeing the Democrats as evil and satanic, and therefore we can't ever compromise with them. That's. That. That's the through line here, in my opinion. Hey, everyone, this is Melinda Hale, the executive director of the New Evangelicals. Listen, every day we hear from people who feel isolated and disillusioned and hurt by a version of Christianity that has been hijacked by politics and nationalism. And yet they still long for a faith that is rooted in love, justice and compassion. And that's why the new evangelicals exist, because we believe there is a better path forward. We're creating resources, hosting conversations, and we're building communities for people who want to reclaim Christianity and stay rooted in the teachings of Jesus. But building a movement like this takes time. It takes energy, and it takes financial support. So if this podcast or our YouTube, our educational offerings or community space or anything that we've created has impacted you, would you consider becoming a donor? Even a gift of $5 makes a huge difference for small organizations like this. Your support helps us to continue empowering people to put their faith into action by rejecting Christian nationalism and to live in a way that shows people how to truly love our neighbors. Together, I know that we could build something beautiful. So visit theneweevangelicals.com support to give today. You can find the link right in our show.
- [25:10]
A
Notes.
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B
Thank you for standing with us. Pausar. Rapida esto mesorrendio Los consejos mas util es que recivo ahora no bien en de expertos si no de gente comun and TikTok lo que funciona lo que no sin vueltas descarga TikTok y com.
- [25:33]
A
So let's read what Trump said about it because the. There's a. There's a. There's a more insidious reason, I think, and it has to do with voter suppression. That. Which is why Trump is not wanting to make any sort of deal and does not care.
- [25:49]
B
His truth post, right?
- [25:50]
A
Yeah. It does not care how many people are negatively impacted. Yeah. So this is why he tweeted out or posted on Troth Troth Truth Social. I don't think we should make any deal with the crazy country destroying radical left Democrats unless and until they vote with Republicans to pass the Save America Act. It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate. And that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems who are to blame for this message, a $5 billion cut in ICE funding a deal which even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people unless it includes their approval of voter ID with picture citizenship to vote. No mail in voting with exceptions. All with exceptions. That's important. All paper ballots, no men and women's sports and no transgender mutilization of our precious children. Put it all together. And also let Leader Thune clearly identify those few Republicans that are voting against America. They will be. They will never be elected again. In other words, lump everyone together as one and vote. Kill the filibuster and stay in D.C. for Easter if necessary. Make America great again. President DJT so he's trying to use this as leverage to get the Save America act passed.
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B
Yep.
- [27:10]
A
And the Save America Act. So first of all, it is dead on arrival. I've, I've, I've listened to a ton of experts that it is not going to be passed, which is why I personally haven't spent a lot of time talking about it. Because you would have to kill the filibuster in order to pass it because it is that unpopular. Like even some Republicans have admitted it's not a good act. But basically the gist is what he's saying here is so it's misleading because one, you already have to be a United States citizen to vote. That's already a law. And it is super rare. So super rare that a vote actually gets through from someone who is not a citizen.
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B
Incredibly rare. Like dozens maybe at the most.
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A
Yes. Nothing that would even be worth doing anything about. And then the voter ID with picture they want you to have as not just your driver's license. You also have to have either a birth certificate or a passport. And a lot of, a lot of Americans don't either don't have a passport or they have their birth certificate. But if you are a woman who is married and changed your name, then your ID does not match your birth certificate and you would not be able to vote under this act. So this is actually, it's voter suppression for many reasons. But a lot of married women, so a lot of Republican women too would have a hard time voting with without having like additional proof. Like it's just, it just adds so many steps to be able to vote. Also, he says no mail in voting. He Donald Trump. This past week there was a special election in his district, Mar a Lago. And Trump voted by mail, by the way. So I'm assuming that's what his with exceptions means, right?
- [29:04]
B
His exceptions. The other big piece that's important about this that I think has gone underreported is that is that this bill on top of all those things April would also require states to turn over their voter rolls to the DHS to ICE supposedly so it could compare state rolls with, with with its own citizenship data. But this data has extort. Has historically been filled with inaccuracies and it would. And its use would likely lead to eligible voters being wrongfully booted from the rolls. So essentially, guys, to put it in a different way, the party that told you big government is the enemy, the party that told you the federal government has to be stopped in states rights now that they're in control of the federal government, are demanding through this bill that every state submit their voter rolls to the federal government. So that way the Department of Homeland, Department of Homeland Security can compare it to data that they have on their side, and if it doesn't match up, they can purge those voter rolls. So you think about how the Trump administration is currently in charge of the entire government. Right. MAGA has the Supreme Court, they have the House. Right. And they have the presidency. And we know that Trump and his team have been working feverishly to erode any safeguards between the Department of Justice and the presidency. Right. Because they want a place where Trump can get his tentacles out to other places to shape outcomes that he wants. And now what they're saying is if this got passed, every state would give Trump and his regime their voter rolls and then there. And they could purge them at any moment if it didn't add up to their data that they had on their end, which how can we even trust them? They're obviously liars. This would be a freaking disaster if they came. If they passed a disaster, it would be a disaster.
- [30:56]
A
Which is why I, I don't like. I. It is something that we should be aware of because I do think there are a lot of Republicans that want to do this because of voter like they, like they feel at this point. Also, in Mar A Lago, Trump's district seat was flipped. Democrat like Democrats have been consistently flipping seats this whole year in special elections.
- [31:18]
B
Yeah.
- [31:19]
A
Republicans right now and Donald Trump are incredibly unpopular. So Trump's Trump is basically trying to gerrymander his way to a midterm victory because he is that unpopular. That's also good news. Sorry. It's a dramatic attempt to try to stay in power.
- [31:39]
C
Yes.
- [31:39]
A
And I really. But I don't want to fear Monger, because I really don't think it's going to pass.
- [31:43]
B
Well, I don't want to fear monger. I'm with you. I think it will not pass. But I think the fear part should be that obviously they're trying to do whatever they can to maintain power, which is what we've been doing. April, you and I, I hate to sound like we told you so kind of people, but we've been doing this work for a lot of years trying to warn people that these folks, if they get power, will not want to let go of that power and they will erode any safeguard. They don't care what the Constitution. If it's in their way, whatever's in their way will be bulldozed. And this is one example. The fact that we even have this introduced as a potential bill that might be passed is already a huge red flag. And by the way, according to this article that went through the SAVE act, speaking of non citizens voting, earlier this year, after conducting a review of the state's voter rolls, Utah's top election officer, Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, found only one single person registered to vote who was not a US Citizen. In the entire state of Utah. They found one, one, one person. That, that is how. And look, when you have tens of millions of people voting, of course there's going to be errors. Things are going to happen. We all. There's always margin of error. But one out of millions is, is pretty much a flawless record. Flawless.
- [32:58]
A
Yeah.
- [32:58]
B
It's crazy. It's crazy.
- [33:01]
A
It is stupid.
- [33:02]
B
Have you ever seen this clip? I think this is a, this is worth pointing out because this is not like a new thing for Republicans or really for the conservative movement. Did you ever see the video of Paul Weyrich addressing the religious right gathering in Dallas in 1980 about voting? Have you ever seen this clip?
- [33:18]
A
I don't think so.
- [33:19]
B
Oh, watch this. This is like a really crazy clip. It's only about 40 seconds long. Paul Weyrich was one of the architects with Jerry Falwell behind the Moral Majority that kind of got the modern evangelical movement to where it is politically. You gotta watch this clip. This is 1980. 1980. How many of our Christians have what I call the goo goo syndrome, Good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down. There you go. This is not new, guys. This is not new. That's 1980. That's, that's over 40 years ago. Think about that for a second. Not new.
- [34:14]
A
Well, and that, that's why we're seeing all so many red states that are redistricting because they're trying to get more like they're incredibly unpopular.
- [34:21]
B
We're scared. We're scared of an Obama presidency. And I'll, I'll tell you, okay, a tab Started playing. We are scared. Is that you? That's funny.
- [34:35]
A
Okay, before. Before I move on, we have a couple other things to cover that are a little more light hearted.
- [34:40]
B
Super chats, by the way.
- [34:41]
A
Yeah, I was gonna say that. So let's read some super chats.
- [34:44]
B
I love that, April. We're on the same page today. All right.
- [34:47]
A
Yeah. Except for at the beginning of the show.
- [34:49]
B
Yeah. Which apparently was my fault according to the audience. So I guess I have to apologize.
- [34:56]
A
From Justine Bailey, 923 hoping no kidney stone for Sarah. Me too.
- [35:01]
B
Same. That'd be great. That'd be great. Okay, a couple more here.
- [35:06]
A
Autumn, Lynette says trans woman ex Christian here. Yours is the one Christian podcast I still love and watch. You both truly reflect Jesus's love. Also, April is right.
- [35:16]
B
See.
- [35:17]
A
Thank you, Autumn from Dolk Dogan. The scene kid aura from that video. Lol. Awesome clip. Shout out to the all Elite wrestling crowd for the F ice chants during last night's show. Thank you, Tandyman. Thanks for the video, Tim. Thank you and April for helping me get out of the basement, going to no Kings with an affirming church, and wearing my salt Melt ice shirt. That's awesome, right? No Kings is this weekend.
- [35:40]
B
Yeah, it is.
- [35:41]
A
From Dolk Dogan. I missed the part in Revelation where the end times is started by an AI meme war. I mean, this is a weird timeline that we are in for sure. D. Smith says please read caps properly. Lol. Red Sea affairs on Spotify too. Only two monthly listeners. Let's change that.
- [36:02]
B
The song, my favorite song from my old band Red Sea Affair is the song called Plantation. It's my favorite song off of that album. It's seven minutes long. It's. It's one of my favorites. So there you go. All right. And last one, Joseph Compton.
- [36:17]
A
Within Project 2025, it stated that the Heritage foundation wants to abolish the TSA and privatize it. They want to privatize everything. Yes. Alden, who does our graphics, told us about this too. Yeah, yeah. Project 2025 is definitely unfolding before us, which is just great. Also, I know that we talk about a lot of heavy stuff and we spend a lot of time saying everything that's wrong with the world. And so I'm sure some of you, like me, might want to be thinking about, well, what do we do? What are some solutions? How do we get involved? So I want to. Tim usually does this little pitch, but I do want to point that our T and E Connect app and then the T and E Action Hub within that has a lot of resources on how to get involved, on what to do. They have new resources and opportunities for grassroots organizing and advocacy that they drop every month. So if you're looking for ways to actually fight this regime instead of just complaining about it, which I think both are needed, check out TNE Connect.
- [37:20]
B
And if you are rich and want to give to a great nonprofit doing great work, go make a donation to the new Evangelicals. Yes, friends, if you're watching this stream live, please make sure to give this video a like. If you're watching on substack, please make sure to tap the little heart button. It makes us feel good. Where are we going from here? Where do you want to go? Pete Hegseth.
- [37:38]
A
Yeah.
- [37:38]
B
Or Debbie Downer.
- [37:40]
A
Yeah.
- [37:41]
B
Jeez. So high. Now back to down to the Lower. So listen for. For the non evangelical audience out there who did not grow up in the world of Christian nationalism, Pete Hegseth was. Is someone who. April and I and many others were shouting from the rooftops during his confirmation hearing that he would be an absolute disaster. Not just because he's an abuser of women or he's a drunk or he's a.
- [38:08]
A
And doesn't have the experience.
- [38:10]
B
Right. Yeah. Those are all, of course, but also because this guy is part of a particular Christian nationalist stream which essentially believes that their job is to Christianize the entire world in order for Christ to come back. And the main guy in this denomination that. That is part of this world is named Doug Wilson, who is a slavery apologist. He went kind of viral a year ago when CNN did a video on him where he said that, you know, we have to repeal the 19th Amendment. He went. He was picked up again last week on CNN's documentary on Christian nationalism. Pete Hegseth is under his discipleship. Okay, the guy who runs our Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, also has crusader iconography tattooed on him. Now, remember when we pointed this out, many people were like, oh, that's so extreme. Guys, it's not that bad. It's not what you think. And unfortunately, no, it was actually worse than we think. And I'm gonna play this clip. It's about three minutes long. We'll pause throughout, but I want you to hear how the secretary or the Department of Defense, how he is talking about this current war with Iran. I just think it's really important for you guys to understand that for him, this is not just an economical thing. This is a spiritual. There's a spiritual motivation behind this. In his mind, the. They are doing the work of God. And I want you to hear how gross this is. He's talking now as the Secretary of the Department of Defense to people in the, in the. In the Pentagon. Here we go.
- [39:41]
C
Put yourself in the place of one of those couple hundred Americans about to undertake this audacious raid on the Iwo Jima. Looking at a lot of uncertainty in front of you. And this was the, the passage. And this was the, the pre mission reading and the prayer that was read with them. First, a reading from the book of Psalms, chapter 18, verses 37 to 42. King David writes, I pursued my enemies and overtook them and did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle. You made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me. And those who hated me, I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as dust before the wind. I cast them out like the mire of the streets.
- [40:40]
B
This. This man is saying the scripture connecting it to the job of the American military. Just think about that for. For a minute. How wild that is, that the. That the man in charge of the world's most powerful military is citing verses in Psalms as justification to kill other people as a supposed Christ follower. A follower of the guy who was crucified by the empire. Wow. Wow. But there's more. There's more.
- [41:14]
A
Oh, great.
- [41:16]
C
And then he prayed this prayer, the chaplain, and we pray it with him this morning. Almighty God, who trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle.
- [41:28]
B
Oh my God.
- [41:28]
C
You who stirred the nations from the north against Babylon of old, making her land a desolation where none dwell, Behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous. Snap the rod of the oppressor. Frustrate the wicked plans and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish. Let their bulls go down to slaughter, for their day has come the time of their punishment. Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff before the wind. Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Surround them as a shield. Protect the innocent and blameless in their midst. Make their arrows like those of a skilled warrior who returned not empty handed. Let every round find its mark. Again.
- [42:19]
B
Let every round find its mark. He's praying to the Christian God, not
- [42:25]
A
for death, for death.
- [42:28]
B
For death. Okay, almost done.
- [42:30]
C
The enemies of righteousness and our great nation, give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.
- [42:43]
B
Wow.
- [42:44]
C
Preserve their lives, sharpen their resolve, and let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them. For the wicked flee when no one pursues. But the righteous are as bold as a lion.
- [43:02]
B
By the way, see that lady nodding like, that's the thing, is there? It's not just Hegseth. Watch this woman nod in agreement with her.
- [43:08]
A
They're all in agreement.
- [43:09]
C
Pursues. But the righteous are as bo. Bold as a lion.
- [43:13]
A
She's smiling.
- [43:14]
C
Yes. These things with bold confidence. In the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, King over all kings and amen.
- [43:23]
B
Imagine praying that in the name of Jesus Christ, the same Jesus that you read about in the four gospel accounts that said love your enemies, that told his disciples not to take up arms, that gave himself over to empire where he was killed. A criminal's execution, right, who did not return evil for evil, but returned, you know, violence for non violence.
- [43:44]
A
Literally said turn the other cheek.
- [43:47]
B
This is why if you. And we say this a lot, April, but this is why if you ever listen to these Christian nationalists, they rarely if ever cite Jesus. Notice how Pete Hegseth is appealing to psalms things in the Hebrew Bible, right? He's appealing to verses of, you know, that are about Yahweh, frankly, and. And about other things that are going on, which by the way, even if he. Him doing that does not mean that they're applicable to today. King David and the Israelites is not America and Trump is not David, right? Like it's a horrible comparison. But as a Christian, to ignore the teachings of Jesus, who Christians believe is God incarnate, who shows us what God is like in human form, to ignore all of the red letters that Christ teaches about love and compassion and empathy, love, right and justice and taking care of the oppressed, the actual oppressed, not the Pete Hegseth oppressed, and to ignore all of that and then pray a prayer of death and violence towards other human beings made in the imago DEI in the name of Christ is so. It's. It's so antichrist. I don't even know that. I don't even know where to start with this.
- [44:52]
A
Like how, how, how, Pete, it's why these same people are demonizing. Empathy totally. It's all connected. Like in Order to cheer on war and death and to literally pray for the death of your enemies. You have to squash empathy in your followers, in the people, in your churches, in your Congress, in order to justify what you're doing, in order to gain support and agreement for that.
- [45:20]
B
And, like, I don't want to be like, look, I don't want to be over the top negative. But the Democrats didn't ask Pete about his ties to religious, religious extremism either. It's not like we have on the record all these Democrats saying, hey, talk to me about Doug Wilson, your pastor who, who, you know, who downplay slavery. They didn't say anything. And I hope to God if we have a huge blue wave, I hope to God that the Democratic Party does not, does not compromise one inch with these Christian fascists, because these people want to bring hell on earth to everyone who's not like them. They don't want to compromise. And unfortunately, when one side doesn't want to compromise at all and will lie and will spread propaganda and will kill people to do it, you have to create another alternative that says, okay, we'll work together as a big tent coalition, but we're not going to compromise with fascism. You can't do that. So I really hope if we have the blue wave, that Democrats grow a freaking spine and actually stand up to MAGA and do not give an inch. An inch.
- [46:26]
A
I think they'll impeach Trump, whatever it takes to take the House and Senate. And there's like, so many angles to choose from to do it.
- [46:36]
B
My frustration is that I hate talking this extreme. Like, in my personal life. I love compromise. I love working together. I love trying to find the common ground. I don't like talking like, you know, some just hardline like, I'm not going to budge with my political opponents. It's not about that. It's about the fact that we have a Christo fascist takeover of the Republican Party right now, and that group cannot be reasoned with. I'm not saying conservatives can't be. Mitt Romney would find compromise, okay? Even George Bush found compromise on certain things. MAGA is not going to do that. And this is the problem. You know, I use the example often of Gavin Newsom and Charlie Kirk. When Charlie Kirk went on Gavin Newsom's podcast and Gavin Newsom threw our trans neighbors under the bus in the name of compromise and trying to find common ground. And what did Charlie Kirk do after the show? He sent an email out to all of his supporters saying that essentially he made Gavin Newsom concede on every major culture. We're talking points showing that we're moving the Democratic Party more to the right. So Charlie didn't see it as an act of good faith. Charlie saw it as an act of. Of. Of submission and an act of waving the white flag. You know, it doesn't work. Giving up our trans neighbors and our migrant neighbors for compromise does not work. And you dehumanize people in the process. It just doesn't. Yeah, just doesn't.
- [47:50]
A
I confirm. But I do think, though, I'm a little more of. I mean, I can definitely get depressed and pessimistic, but generally, I try to stay a little more optimistic. And the fact that there are Republicans that were willing to compromise with Democrats on this budget bill, and Trump's the one that said no, like, a lot of them are not stupid. Some of them are. Some of them are. But a lot of them are, like, they know that Trump is losing popularity, and some of them are realizing, like, they're seeing the writing on the wall. Trump's not going to be in office forever. And I. And we've seen glimpses of, like, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, which, of course, he's not running for office again, but, like, we've seen glimpses of these people condemn Trump, like, after the insurrection. A lot of them, actually, you could see, oh, you do have a spine. You do have a conscience. They know right from wrong. And when the tide turns and the popularity goes against Trump, which it's currently in the process of happening, I do think you'll hopefully see some more sensible Republicans again. I mean, I'm never gonna forgive them for what they did, but they. They just care about getting voted, like, elected again.
- [49:10]
B
Yeah.
- [49:11]
A
And when Trump's no longer popular and he's starting to no longer be popular.
- [49:15]
B
Yep.
- [49:15]
A
They'll start changing now. They're, of course, the Mike Johnson of the world. Did you see, speaking of Mike Johnson, there's all this chaos happening in the world. And you know what Mike Johnson did? What he did, he made up a new award, a trophy award, and gave it to Trump.
- [49:33]
B
Oh, do I have it here?
- [49:35]
A
Called the America First Award.
- [49:38]
B
Yep. Hold on. I thought I grabbed the different Mike Johnson clip. I have it here.
- [49:43]
A
That's okay.
- [49:44]
B
We're gonna find it. Because you're like.
- [49:45]
A
It's literally like, all the. All that Trump cares about is receiving stupid awards. Like, What? It's so Dr. Childish. He is.
- [49:55]
B
Oh, I. Yeah. And the fact that adults, you know, you know, you know, when you're a kid, you think that adults have it all figured out. Like, they're just, you know, they're so smart, and you think, one day I'll be like that. Then you get into adulthood and you realize, oh, my God, adults are really dumb. And adults do things that are, like, ridiculous. This is one of those moments. Okay, yeah, you're right. So, so, so gas is up over a dollar a gallon on average, right? It's almost $4 or more on average. On average now, which is great, thanks to Trump and, you know, bombing Iran, because why not TSA lines suck. ICE is in airports arresting people. The life is not good. But let's hear what Mike Johnson has to say. So tonight, we have created a new award. We have. We're going to do something we've never done before. We're going to honor him with a new award that we'll present annually from this point forward. But he is the suitable and fitting recipient of the first ever America first award. We could think of no better title for what that is. That's this beautiful golden statue here, appropriate for the new golden era in America. Is Mike Johnson delusional? I think it's just lying. What golden era?
- [51:05]
A
Started a new war that is raising gas prices and what. And. And, like, sending in, like, American troops are dying. In what world is he the America first president?
- [51:19]
B
I mean, I don't. Even if we took them. Okay, let's just take their phrase on their own terms, America First. Okay. You would imagine that would mean putting all the people in America, all the citizens first. Right? So let's see. What do we have so much so far? We have gases way up. Okay, that's not really America First. Oh. Mike Johnson and his crew slashed Affordable Care act subsidies earlier this year, skyrocketing premiums for millions of people. That's not very America First. Grocery prices have not come down. The GDP increased about 2% in 2025, which is abysmal. Inflation hasn't really gone down much at all. Hmm. We still can't get livable wages. Oh, oh, oh. I know. Trump brought in his billionaire friends in our government and gave them a hatchet to slash whatever they wanted so they can get more enriched while we keep suffering. There is nothing America first about this regime. Nothing. There's. It's an oligarchy first. There's that. The billionaire class first, maybe, you know, but America first, like, if there are any MAGA supporters out there listening to the show, maybe on podcasts or watching on YouTube, I just want to know, give me a tangible example of how your life specifically got Better. I'm not talking about, you know, the, the mental visual of, oh, you know, we stopped immigration. That doesn't affect your life at all. I want to know how in your life, in your household, right, Is your, is your, are you making more money? Are, Was your tax burden lower? Did you get more money back as a refund this year? Are your grocery prices down? Like, are your electric bills down? I just want to know. Give me one tangible thing, because even if Doge did what it was, what it was supposed to do and cut
- [52:58]
A
all this money to that last week,
- [53:01]
B
I just want to know who gets the savings. Like, do you think you get like, like a rebate check in the mail for like $1,000 because of Doge? No, of course not. Oh, gosh. Oh, yeah. And Dan brought up a good point. Market manipulation. Yes, that's right. Exactly. Yes, yes. The poly market things. The poly market world's a huge underground world of crazy betting. And there's a lot of evidence that people in the Trump administration are making bets that they know the answer to already and are profiting a lot of money off of it.
- [53:32]
A
So, yeah, I honestly wonder what kind of dirt Trump has on people like Mike Johnson, because I have never seen a man simp harder than Mike Johnson. Simps for Donald Trump, it's, it's brutal. Like, the amount of self loathing he has to have to do and say some of the things he does in defense of Trump 24 7, and then literally just making up stupid trophies. It is embarrassing for him.
- [54:09]
B
Do you think it's that, though? Or do you think it's that Mike Johnson has really deluded himself into thinking that he has been chosen by God to be in that position, to support a God anointed president, to make America great again?
- [54:21]
A
Listen, I used to think he was a genuine believer, and I think maybe perhaps he started off that way. But there's no way. Some of the stuff that he's blatantly lied about, like, he knows he's lying. He has to know he's lying about certain things. When they ask him questions about Trump and the fact, like all the stuff coming out with Trump and the Epstein files, like, he's, he's, he's gotta know deep down at this point that he is defending a terrible human being.
- [54:55]
B
I, I don't know. I have often wondered how the mind works that way. Like, how do you see what's going on in the world and think that Trump, the man who's hiding from the Epstein files, despite being all over them, like, how do you think that that is the God fearing? I just, I, I, I say that as a former evangelical, as someone who grew up in that world, I, I do not understand. I just don't.
- [55:14]
A
Have you seen some of these Republican primary ads?
- [55:19]
B
No.
- [55:20]
A
Okay, maybe that is the curse of living in a red state among many other things. But I see, I'm seeing so many Republican primary ads and they are literally just out like they're trying to out. What's the right word? They are trying to prove that they're the bigger Trump guy. Literally one of them is like out simp each other. Real Trump guy. Like they're literally their entire ad and attack ad is who likes Trump more and who Trump likes more. It is so embarrassing.
- [55:52]
B
Can't do it. I can't do it.
- [55:56]
A
It's wild.
- [55:58]
B
No.
- [55:59]
A
Yeah. No, I'm the true Trump guy.
- [56:01]
B
No, like, no.
- [56:04]
A
What does Trump have on these people? Like, he's not cool. Geez. Anyway, yeah. Okay, shall we get to our. Well, let's read a few more super chats. I think a couple came in.
- [56:15]
B
Yes. And please friends, like this video. If you're watching on the stre, I'm trying to download the video that you sent me that you want to do an audible of.
- [56:23]
A
Oh yeah, let me do that first. I want you to blind react to it.
- [56:27]
B
Okay, okay. Let me download it first real quick, just so I have it.
- [56:30]
A
Okay.
- [56:30]
B
All right. Yeah, super chats. I could do both things. Here we go. Last one is. I think we stopped. Is it here that we stopped Joseph Compton?
- [56:42]
A
We haven't read that one.
- [56:43]
B
Cool.
- [56:45]
A
Joseph Compton said this is heresy. Praying to God for death and no mercy. Agree?
- [56:49]
B
Agreed. Okay, next one.
- [56:51]
A
Thank you.
- [56:53]
B
There you go.
- [56:54]
A
From Melanie in Lee, the things from the psalm that hegseth applies to Iran. I would apply much of it to the Trump administration.
- [57:04]
B
Seriously?
- [57:07]
A
Dawson Ballard. George Soros told me to give you this.
- [57:11]
B
Aw, that's so nice. Thanks, George.
- [57:15]
A
And then Melanie said, what did it profit the GOP to gain the White House, Supreme Court and Congress and lose their soul? I mean, who knows True.
- [57:26]
B
If there is an afterlife, they sometimes
- [57:29]
A
get Trump to post a truth social post about them saying, you're a great guy.
- [57:35]
B
Oh my gosh.
- [57:35]
A
Like he did for Mike Levin last week when he was under the vicious attacks of being said he had a
- [57:41]
B
micro, the micro fetus. I don't want to hear that word ever again. I have my, my, my life quota has been met for that. Hey guys, this is Will from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was introduced to the YouTube channel New Evangelicals about a year ago. It's for my friend Seth Piper, who used to do some volunteer video editing for Tim. I have loved the channel over the past five or six years. I've been on a pretty similar deconstruction journey to Tim, and I've just loved how his guests and Tim himself have provided me with kind of the language and clarity to describe that spiritual journey. So I've loved what you guys are doing, how you're helping protect the marginalized from the evangelical church. And I want to help and whatever little way that I can. So thank you guys for doing what you do. And please keep it up.
- [58:45]
C
Fox News is now streaming live on Fox 1. When it matters most, turn to the voices you trust. We go beyond the headlines, bringing you the stories you won't hear anywhere else. Live coverage, sharp analysis, real perspective at
- [59:02]
A
home or on the go.
- [59:04]
B
Stay connected.
- [59:05]
C
When it counts, Stream Fox News on Fox 1. Download today.
- [59:19]
B
All right, you want to get to. To the final segment?
- [59:23]
A
Yes. Let's do it. We Christian.
- [59:29]
B
I don't know what I'm in for here, April. This. This thumbnail is. Wow, there's a lot going on already.
- [59:36]
A
I saw someone post this on threads and was just like, if you don't have an emotional reaction to this, you're not human. And it was like, hashtag, I mean, God is love or Jesus is.
- [59:47]
B
I don't know, he's white and ripped
- [59:51]
A
for the audience on podcasts.
- [59:53]
B
How do you.
- [59:55]
A
Is Jesus looking down at Earth? So you see, like, the planet Earth and there's just bombs going off?
- [60:01]
B
Yeah, like outer space, but there's bombs raining onto Earth from outer space. And Jesus is, like, behind Earth, but really big. And he's weeping. But he's also super white. He's super white. He's super oily on his chest, and it's like he's wearing, like, a tunic that is like a low V cut. And you can see his, like, bulging, like, 0% body fat muscles with his long, flowing hair while he's crying.
- [60:27]
A
Yeah. Anyway, I saw this and I was like, I've been seeing so many AI Jesus videos, and they're all cringy.
- [60:35]
B
This is only six seconds. All right, here we go. Blind. No, that did not. I had. No, no, stop it.
- [60:55]
A
That has 4 million views on TikTok.
- [60:58]
B
No, it does not.
- [60:59]
A
It does. And a lot of people are like, amen. Wow, Chills. What are y' all watching? That is giving you chills?
- [61:06]
B
First off, I didn't know it was gonna be an animation. I thought this was just, I thought that this was just like a cover one more time.
- [61:20]
A
With oceans playing in the background.
- [61:23]
B
I what?
- [61:23]
A
Okay, also, what is happening? Look at the consistency of the tears. The tears look like a loogie.
- [61:31]
B
Yeah, it looks like he's like dripping spit out of his eyes. It's like, look at this, look at how long that that, look at that. Watch. And look at his face. I mean, look at this face.
- [61:44]
A
I know. Could he not intervene instead of just shouting no.
- [61:49]
B
Right. If Jesus can turn water into wine, certainly he can stop a few missiles from outer space.
- [61:54]
A
Prayers for Jesus.
- [61:56]
B
I, I, I don't even know, like, why is he saying no? Is he? I, I don't. This, this, this is form. Wait, hold on. April, are you telling me that you and I spend hours every week putting together not one, but two different long form pieces of content? We think about the thumbnail and the title and we hope that our content hits the algorithm and we, you know, we do a couple thousand views, sometimes even more. It's nice. But this six second video has done 4 million views on TikTok right now.
- [62:23]
A
Yeah. And it's on other platforms too.
- [62:25]
B
This AI slop.
- [62:27]
A
Yes.
- [62:29]
B
This is why we beg for super chats.
- [62:32]
A
Did I tell you? Oh, I can't, I can't remember if we, if I shared this on this show or not, but a couple weeks ago I got tagged in a video. Like someone tagged me in a comment on TikTok. So it like goes to the top of your mentions if you get tagged. And I just happened to see it. I don't always see everything that I get tagged in, but I happened to see it and this person was like, at April Joy, basically God told, God told me that I should tag you in this. I don't know why. Maybe you do. And so I clicked on it because I was like, okay, God, what video does God want me to see?
- [63:06]
B
God's calling.
- [63:07]
A
And it was an AI Jesus video of Jesus walking on water to a Moana song. And there was a gothic looking girl drowning and like a ripped Jesus pulls her out of the water and hugs her. That was, that was it.
- [63:26]
B
Well, are you drowning? Maybe you're drowning in your sin.
- [63:30]
A
Maybe, but I don't want to be gothic. I didn't think I was gothic.
- [63:34]
B
Maybe it's a future prophecy.
- [63:35]
A
Like the weird, can I just say too, the weird thing, like back when we were, I was super evangelical. I'm so glad that I don't ever have to think about this weird thought that I had and it being so Weird. Like, you know, you have intrusive thoughts. I used to think those intrusive thoughts were like, oh, is this God? Like, girl, God did not tell you to tag me to watch that AI slop Jesus video. Like, what did she think was going to happen? I'm going to watch it and be like, oh, this worked. I'm saved now. I mean, I'm already Christian, but whatever. You know what I mean?
- [64:06]
B
It's like I used to think the same thing, that my intrusive thoughts were just the Holy Spirit nudging me.
- [64:13]
A
Sometimes an intrusive thought is just an. In fact, I would say almost every time an intrusive thought is just an intrusive thought. Yeah, it should stay up there, you know?
- [64:24]
B
Boy, I'm just so discouraged that this AI slot makes it. Wow, that is crazy. All right, friends, listen, we appreciate you guys being here again. If you are looking for tangible action steps, if you're looking for better paths, if you're looking for ways to get involved, check out the new evangelicals. Our community space T and E Connect is really beautiful. We bring in top tier scholars to do all kinds of amazing teachings for free. And we have tne action, which is the is. It's. It was built with folks in mind who want to get involved locally to do great work. So make sure you check it out at the new evangelicals on Instagram or
- [65:06]
A
thenewevangelicals.com okay, really quick, we have another super chat that we need to read. And I want to point out someone also asked, isn't Jesus objecting to the bombing of Iran here? And I would say yes. I would think Jesus is objecting to that in the AI video.
- [65:26]
B
Maybe.
- [65:27]
A
But also, why can't Jesus do something instead of just screaming, no, Pete.
- [65:31]
B
Pete Hagg says Jesus apparently sanctions it. So which Jesus? What's Jesus are we talking about here? So anyway, super chat, go ahead.
- [65:38]
A
Joseph Compton said, I'm so sick of seeing white Jesus. Jesus isn't white. Second of all, this is beyond cringy. Agree all of the above. Do we want to leave it or can I read really quick the Sean Foyt Mike Winger drama?
- [65:49]
B
That's kind of like an insider deep cut. We can go over it, but you have to kind of explain what's going on because a lot of folks on substack are gonna have no clue.
- [65:57]
A
They're gonna know if you have more. If you have questions about this. We just did a deep dive on Sean Foyett, who's a worship leader touring with Russell Brand this past Tuesday on our YouTube and podcast, you can listen to. But as a quick little update to that, Sean Foyt is being accused of mismanaging ministry funds.
- [66:17]
B
A quarter of a million dollars. One of his donors is suing him to get the money back.
- [66:21]
A
Yeah. And so a guy named Mike Winger and Julie Royce, who's kind of like a Christian journalist who calls out abuse in the church. They've been talking about it. So Sean Foyt himself posts a screenshot, no name attached, a screenshot of a message he allegedly got that says, heads up, bro. Just an FYI, I see Hindu extremists and Muslim radicals are now working with Julie Roy and Mike Winger's articles on you to target your house, your kids, and all the sensitive information they have tried to leak about you. Praying for you with prayer hands. And then Sean said with it. Thanks so much, Mike and Julie don't know who you guys are working for, but it's definitely not the kingdom of God. So then Mike Winger, who's also has problematic theology and other things, but he's been. But he. He's been going hard against some of these problematic people, which I can appreciate. He quote, tweet Sean and said, hey, Sean, quick question. These double check marks that are at the bottom of the message seem to indicate that you have taken a screenshot of a message you sent me.
- [67:24]
B
That's how you know that your message went through. It's the double check marks. And they turn blue.
- [67:27]
A
Not. Not one that was sent to you. Are you making stuff up? And then he. Did you see the tweet below it? He followed it up.
- [67:35]
B
No. Let me see if I can find it real quick.
- [67:37]
A
I can grab it or if you can grab it. He followed it up and basically said that he could tell by the color of the prayer hands that Sean basically tweaked the color scheme of it to make it not look like he sent the message.
- [67:56]
B
Hold on. I found. Okay, there's. Oh, there's. There's more drama. There's. There's breaking news drama.
- [68:00]
A
Oh, there's more.
- [68:01]
B
Hold on, hold on. I'm just. I'm going through. Oh, community. The community group or, you know, the context, whatever. This message was sent from Sean Floyd, as evidenced by the double check mark. So he's been fact checked his. I love this. Oh, my gosh.
- [68:16]
A
Okay, where's his, like, click. So click the one up top right there.
- [68:20]
B
There we go.
- [68:21]
A
And then scroll underneath it.
- [68:22]
B
There it is.
- [68:23]
A
And click that one. I can't read that though. It's too small.
- [68:25]
B
I' Zoom in.
- [68:27]
A
Oh, okay. So then. So then he said, actually, it even looks like you took a screenshot and realized it would show up as green. Really? Obviously looking like a scent WhatsApp message. So you dropped down the saturation to the point where it was now colorless. Notice the praying hands. Identical to WhatsApp praying hands, but colorless. Sean, you're busted. So let's scroll back up and look at the. The color of those praying hands.
- [68:51]
B
Yeah, it's black and white. And look, if this. If you're gonna. You can easily get rid of these two double check marks. You can use markup on your phone. It's gone in two seconds. Wow. And then Mike followed up here a little bit more. He's getting. He's getting messages saying that. That. That's what's happening. See? But he did it to himself. Making the point. Making the point.
- [69:18]
A
Hey, Mike, just a heads up, Sean Floyd is writing himself messages in WhatsApp and lying about you and them.
- [69:26]
B
Anyway, you snorted.
- [69:29]
A
I know. It's the little things. I've got to laugh about these stupid things.
- [69:32]
B
But you got to find humor somewhere. So, folks, thanks so much for being here. It really means the world. We go live every Thursday at 12:00 clock Eastern, and we drop a video on YouTube and on podcasts on Tuesday. So make sure that you're following us there. I think that's all we got for now. Right? Anything else?
- [69:48]
A
No.
- [69:49]
B
Cool.
- [69:49]
A
Follow us on all the things.
- [69:51]
B
All the things. And on Instagram.
- [69:52]
A
And we have Tuesday episodes, too. Yes, if you'd only watch us live. We have Tuesday episodes. We also post on YouTube and podcast.
- [69:59]
B
Did you hear me say that a second ago? I literally said that a second ago.
- [70:03]
A
Oh, well, I'm re. Emphasizing.
- [70:05]
B
Thank you.
- [70:05]
A
I'm tired. I was reading comments. I got distracted.
- [70:10]
B
All right, friends, I'm Tim Whitaker.
- [70:12]
A
April.
- [70:13]
B
Yeah. Oh, wait, I gotta hit this stinger. I'm so out of sorts. Oh, my goodness.