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May 9, 2025 - Bannon's War Room

48:53

Episode 4473: What The New Pope Means For The Next Decade

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Main voices

ben harnwell

09:05

bradley thayer

07:28

dave brat

16:08

terry schilling

09:33

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joe scarborough

01:19

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jake tapper

00:08

steve bannon

00:15

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		To Chris's point, that's his boy.
		Well, he is not their perfect fit.
		But I think that when they looked at him, they said, he's as good probably with this group of Cardinals that we're going to get.
		So I don't think they were, you know, opposed to him.
		I think that they thought...
		Leo will be somebody that we can hopefully work with in their minds in the future going forward.
		But the point Chris made is so important, which is...
		If you think of where he came from, he came from the south side of Chicago, the working class part of Chicago.
		He's part of the Augustinians, a group that looks out for those who are struggling, looks out for those who are challenged.
		And so, so much of Francis' DNA is present in this pope as well.
		And Francis loved Pope Leo.
joe scarborough ▲ ● ▼		They got along fabulously well, and he always knew he could count on Pope Leo to do his And now on tax cuts, you have Steve Bannon and many of the MAGA base talking about...
		Taxing the rich.
		Why?
		Because they're populists.
		They're like, billionaires don't need more tax cuts.
		But that is exactly why billionaires wrote massive checks to Donald Trump.
		And that has been the operating theory.
		So I set all that up to say, the Democrats' playbook, certainly since I was in Congress, is those Republicans.
		They want to cut Medicaid.
		They want to cut Medicare.
		They want to cut Social Security for their tax cuts for the rich.
		That's always a punchline.
		For good reason.
		Because what they have done has been specifically to help the richest Americans.
		And in this case, though, imagine what happens if Donald Trump does something that the Democratic Ways and Means chairman was afraid to do.
		Back when he had power to do it, and that is close the carried interest loophole and raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires.
		I mean, how does that reshuffle the deck?
unidentified		Cognitive dissonance here.
		I mean, it's crazy, but you're right.
		You've got, in the coalition, you've got the plutocrats versus the populists.
		And, you know, so Trump can try to...
		Try to make his way, and if he zigs this way, that does raise questions about, I'm sure people will write and talk about, why didn't Democrats do this when they had control?
		I'm sure Democrats will have an answer to that.
		But it comes back to the arithmetic this time.
		I think Ali is right.
		They've got to find a way to try to make these numbers.
		Work out and however they try to go politically.
		It's still unclear that they've got enough people on board one of these approaches to actually get their basic duties done, which is to pass the budget and appropriate the funds for the government.
		So this is a fascinating twist by Donald Trump, but we'll see if he actually goes that way and we'll see if it makes any difference.
		At a time when isolationism is rising around the world, you have a man who...
		Who devoted his life to missionary work as running the Catholic Church.
		What is your reaction?
		It's almost surreal because I was at his investiture when he became a cardinal.
		And then each cardinal gets their own church in Rome.
		And so I was at that event in 23 as well.
		And if you think about it, he's only been a cardinal for a couple of years.
		And to see him, he was the perfect candidate, though.
		Other than being an American, he was the perfect candidate because he's so smart, so talented, an extraordinary administrator.
		On doctrine, he doesn't offend either the liberals or the conservatives.
		And so he was a terrific fit.
		And then the comment I'd love to hear that I've laughed at today, as they say, and one of his other qualities, one of his other pluses in the eyes of the Cardinals, is he's the least American of the Americans.
		And they don't mean it in a mean way, but it's like they just get a little concerned when they think that America has everything.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
unidentified		Pray for our enemies.
unidentified		Because we're going medieval on these people.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I got a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.
unidentified		The people have had a belly full of it.
		I know you don't like hearing that.
		I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
		It's going to happen.
jake tapper ▲ ● ▼		And where do people like that go to share the big line?
unidentified		Mega Media.
jake tapper ▲ ● ▼		I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
unidentified		Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
unidentified		War Room.
unidentified		Here's your host, Stephen K. Vann.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Good morning, everyone.
		Another huge news day.
		Tons of great guests stacked.
		Steve's out on assignment, and we're going to go right to Rome, to our man in Rome, Ben Harnwell.
		Ben, give us a review.
		What's going on?
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		With those words, last night, I was there riding the centre of St. Peter's Piazza.
		The Cardinal Proto-Deacon, Cardinal Mamberti, announced the name of the new Pope.
		And all I want to do right now, and I'm going to hand back to Dave Bratt in studio in just one moment, but all I want to do now is, because everybody is giving their opinion right now, what I want the warring posse just to dwell on is the fact that this guy has been massively embraced by the liberals and by the progressives, this group in the church which we're constantly fighting against.
		They've adopted him already.
		As one of their own.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Why?
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		Because he is one of their own.
		You heard it there on MSNBC.
		He has Francis' DNA in him, and that's absolutely true.
		What I've been speculating about since before, basically, the corpse had even assumed room temperature is that at this point in the church's history, the conclave was most likely to pick somebody very similar in substance.
		To Pope Bergoglio, Pope Francis, but tone down, pare down a little bit of the excesses in the style.
		And I think that's exactly what they've done.
		And I'll draw this point.
		By some accounts, the Vatican finances are running 1 billion euros in the red.
		They can't afford to pay their pensions.
		So I think my take on this, what the cardinals have done, very wisely, perhaps, very prudently, From a purely secular point of view, is that they've picked someone who is going to be able to pick up once again the huge donations that came in from the United States.
		There's some very pious, sincere, successful...
		Catholic businessmen and donors, benefactors, who basically stopped their giving to the Vatican because it was absolutely clear that Bergoglio hated them.
		He was always kicking them in the face, criticising American capitalism, saying that the economy kills, and the funds dried up.
		So I think what the Cardinals have done is that they've looked at the financial situation, they've looked at the balance sheet, and in an almost unprecedentedly short...
		Period of time in the modern era.
		It was only the fourth vote.
		Basically less than 48 hours of discussion.
		They've picked an American who can talk to these American benefactors, sit down and talk to them.
		He won't offend them.
		He won't have his disgust of free market capitalism thrust in their faces.
		And then they can probably do something a little bit...
		About the financial situation.
		Dave, I'm going to hand back to you now and I'll be building on this throughout the rest of this morning's show.
		Because it's very important.
		I'll close with this point because Archbishop Marcinkus, back in the day, the American director of the Vatican Bank, had a very famous expression, slightly scandalous.
		He said that the Catholic Church didn't exist on Hail Marys because the guy was a money man.
		And I think perhaps...
		Some of that philosophy was working its way through in the conclave's vote yesterday.
		Dave, back to you in studio.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, Ben, good coverage.
		A couple of questions for you that caught my ear and caught a few other people's ear.
		We all want to believe the Holy Spirit's at work in the conclave, etc.
		There's some talk about the process here.
		The new pope was rushed in.
		People didn't know much about him.
		He didn't serve many years in the highest offices.
		And he was brought in precisely because he was an understudy of the pope and shared his views.
		Is any of that accurate?
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		I think that the person who might more fully be called the understudy of Pope Francis would have been Cardinal Zuppi, who was very much...
		Clearly the favoured candidate of Bergoglio.
		He did everything he could without explicitly putting a neon sign on the guy saying, this is my guy.
		I think with all due regards, oh, I didn't even translate that Latin expression with which I opened the show, perhaps I'll do it in a moment, but...
		He's picked the regnal name, Leo XIV.
		There's some question because whenever a pope comes out onto the balcony and announces his name, there's always going to be a conversation as to how programmatic that choice is in name.
		I'm not expecting Francis 2.0.
		But for everything that concerns the war room, this is someone that we need to be extremely concerned about.
		And I'm hoping, you know, as we talk, I know that Bradley Thayer is lined up to come on the show in just a few moments' time.
		One of the questions that we need to drill down on is what does this mean for the Vatican's secret?
		China, the CCP, Vatican deal, a text of which is so toxic it has never been revealed.
		So to answer your question, Dave, Francis hasn't picked anybody who was in disagreement with his political agenda.
		He was far more observant and engaged.
		In the nominations processes, not only of bishops, but also of the cardinals himself, far more engaged than his direct two predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI were.
		So he's obviously, and he's got his spy, he had his spies everywhere that were feeding comments in on potential recommendations, Dave.
		This guy is definitely in the Francis mould.
		I don't think he's an exact clone, for one of the reasons is, even though he's sort of spent...
		Most of his ecclesiastical career in Peru, in Latin America.
		He's not imbued with the anti-Americanism that is so prevalent down there in South America, as we witness day after day with Pope Francis.
		That is, I think, probably going to be a major difference, certainly in style, with his predecessor.
		But obviously, we're going to be watching these things as they unfold.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, well, I thought your opening comments were spot on.
		When you see the leftist morning propaganda jump on with total approval, and yet you see these little catchy, you know, kind of attitudinal phrases, he's the least American of the Americans.
		I mean, it's the antithesis of America first.
		And then I'm not familiar with that many missionaries, and I went to seminary, you know, 35 years ago, that are involved in policy statements.
		And, you know, everything is Trump.
		The whole world is responding to Trump.
		But that's precisely kind of why you want the religious institutions.
		If you're going to be anti-Trump and anti-immigration and all this stuff, can you please connect a few dots as to how you get there?
		These are some of the brightest people in the world, and it just seems to be crassly political in eighth grade.
		The policy lines haven't been developed by the Vatican.
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		Sure, Dave.
		Yeah, well, look, this is the big question.
		To what degree is the political, the present political paradigm that we see developing right across the world, this sort of...
		Economic nationalist, populist nationalist movement against the elites.
		To what degree can you overwrite that paradigm and use it to interpret what's going on in the church?
		All I'll say is this, because I know we've got a break coming along now.
		All I say is this, is that the Cardinals, if they wanted to pick an American Cardinal who would really have been in President Trump's face, they could have gone for someone like Cardinal Suppi.
		I think it's definitely going to be on the agenda.
		They're building relationships with the American administration, with American Catholicism, certainly with the U.S. Church.
		They could have gone for someone more militant.
		They could have obviously gone for someone more conservative.
		That they clearly didn't do.
		So you can look at both of these factors, and we will be watching to see how they play out.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Very good.
		We have Ben Harnwell hanging on throughout the show from Rome.
		Great job, Ben.
		Back to you in a little bit.
		We're coming back with Brad Thayer.
		We've got Wall Street.
		We've got the tax cuts on the rich.
		That debate right next.
unidentified		Stephen K. Band.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		All right, back in the war room, the Judeo-Christian West, one of the dominant themes of the war room.
		How does it all fit together?
		How do we keep our traditions?
		How do we keep the founding, the Constitution, the rule of law?
		A year ago, it seemed we were in dire straits.
		Now it seems we got the wind at our back, but we got to keep that wind blowing.
		And so to assess where we stand with China.
		We brought on one of the world's best, Bradley Thayer, a favorite of the War Room.
		And he'll also give some assessment of links between China and the new Pope and Rome.
		And so glad to have you with us, Bradley.
		Thank you.
		The floor is yours.
bradley thayer ▲ ● ▼		Dave, my pleasure to join you this morning.
		And thanks so much.
		It's such an important issue.
		Because, first, the Catholic Church is a moral superpower, right?
		I mean, it speaks to human rights around the world, and that includes the People's Republic of China.
		However, the fact of the matter is that, of course, China is a communist state.
		Communists don't tolerate other actors operating in their societies, as we've learned.
		And that includes...
		The Catholic Church, unfortunately.
		Pope Francis worked out an agreement in 2018 called the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China on the appointment of bishops.
		While that agreement is secret still, enough information and evidence is leaked out about really what is in that agreement.
		And what that agreement entails is that The Chinese Communist Party has a voice that is a controlling voice in the appointment of bishops in the Catholic Church.
		In fact, in 2022 and again in 2023...
		The government-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Bishops' Conference appointed bishops that were later approved by Francis.
		So it's quite clear, Dave, who's in the driver's seat, and that's the Chinese Communist Party.
		So you've got a communist state, the People's Republic of China, and then you have a leader, Xi Jinping.
		Who is a communist and takes that ideology very seriously and will not tolerate other voices, other actors operating independently or not under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
		So Francis worked out really a Faustian bargain.
		With the Chinese Communist Party, and it shows that the CCP's and the Chinese Communist Party's in the driver's seat.
		Now, obviously, with the new pope, much remains to be seen in terms of what his approach will be.
		But what's necessary, Dave, as you well know, remembering the Cold War, the Catholic Church has operated successfully, very successfully, in communist countries before.
		John Paul II, of course, is a hero for many reasons, but one of the reasons was because he was a pillar of tremendous strength and insisted that the church, operating in communist countries, would not fall under their control.
		So when he visited Poland, for example, as he did a couple of times in the Cold War, he was doing his utmost to show that the church will not And it remains to be—Francis, obviously, was not John Paul II.
		He didn't have John Paul II's strength, his political acumen or noose, and it remains to be seen, of course, about the new pope.
		But I'm pessimistic about it, and I'm pessimistic that the basically approximately 12 million Chinese Catholics— We'll have a pope who has their back and we'll have a pope who, despite the tremendous costs, advance human rights in the People's Republic of China.
		That includes the right to worship freely, of course, and other human rights, which the communists, of course, always suppress and won't tolerate.
		So it's a battle of wills, and it remains to be seen, of course, about the new pope and his approach.
		But we needed John Paul II.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yep, yep.
		Spot on.
		And so a lot of folks in our audience who don't follow religion say, what's this got to do with me?
		I thought this was America first.
		Why are we poking our heads in all these other countries?
		But at the same time, the Bannon geopolitical view, I think, would point out very clearly right now China is under immense pressure.
		The trade deal is having a profound effect.
		You can go out on YouTube and see the Chinese rebellions across all.
		All the provinces, not all, but many of the provinces, one by one by one, they're not getting paid.
		The wages are off.
		They're not getting their retirement benefits.
		People are out in the street.
		And that is unheard of in China.
		And this new generation with the social media will see if China can maintain this.
		And so this, I think, is why the Catholic Church is so important.
		They should not be making deals, covert deals.
		And I don't know if money's involved or what's involved.
		But it's precisely at this moment that every voice has to push in against China so they become normal actors on the world stage and follow human rights standards, treat their own people.
		They have slave labor.
		They got the Uyghurs you know about.
		And so just frame a little bit, a few minutes, a couple minutes, Bradley, on the geopolitics of China right now and why it's so key.
		That this pope is instrumental right at this moment in time, and hopefully God works through him to get this right.
bradley thayer ▲ ● ▼		Absolutely, Dave.
		The PRC is in a crisis, as you said.
		It's in a crisis because they're communists, right?
		Communism never works anywhere, and that includes in China.
		And the fact that you've got this leader, Xi Jinping, who insists on really totalitarian control.
		In China and the importance of the ideology of communism.
		Now we can contrast that with, again, the Catholic Church is legitimate because it's seen as universally as a moral force.
		It's a moral superpower.
		If it gives up essentially its legitimacy by cooperating with Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, that's a tremendous blow against it.
		What it should do is not what Francis did, and that is to draw the distinction between the Catholic Church as a moral force operating against an illegitimate political authority, the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping.
		That is going to embolden the Chinese Catholics, but also Chinese people within China and in the diaspora to say that here we have...
		A moral force operating in China for the good of the Chinese people, for the souls of the Chinese people.
		And it shows what we can do, again, to put pressure on the Chinese Communist Party through moral authority.
		Part of the reason why the Soviet Union fell was that communism wasn't believed and it was seen to be an illegitimate force.
		Well, that's true of the People's Republic of China today.
		What pushed the Soviet Union over was John Paul II and Ronald Reagan and other actors working with the people, the people in Central and Eastern Europe who were fed up with communism, recognized it didn't work.
		and sought change so the church should be on the side of the people the search should be the church should be on the side of right and morality yes which is to oppose communism not to cooperate with the devil in the guise of the chinese communist party that's a recipe for failure and it's a recipe for sacros for losing the legitimacy of the church in china Yes, good.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Hey, Ben, are you sitting right there?
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		You got any questions for Bradley?
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		Well, I was listening to what you were saying, Dr. Thea.
		My question right now is whether you think, and this is what I really want to get an idea of, whether you think the change in...
		hope in the Catholic Church means that the US Bishops'Conference might be steered or steerable to supporting the US administration's position with regards to the CCP more than under Leo XIV's predecessor.
		Thank you.
bradley thayer ▲ ● ▼		I would hope so, Ben.
		I don't know.
		Again, so much is unknown.
		As you said in your remarks, this individual is incohate, really.
		It's very difficult to discern what his beliefs are, what his principles are.
		But I would hope that's the case.
		Again, we need a John Paul II at this time.
		This is a moment in history where as...
		Dave said the Chinese Communist Party is under tremendous pressure internally, again, because of their misrule and their abuse.
		We need somebody who's going to be the equal of John Paul II in the Catholic Church.
		And Ben, you would know better than I whether the new pope is along those lines.
		My fear would be that he's not.
		Again, as you said, Ben, in your opening remarks, he's a bit closer to Francis.
		Ben, we've got a minute left.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Why don't you close us out of this segment and I'll come back with the great tax debate.
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		Well, my point, based on what Dr. Thayer was just saying, and my wider consideration of this point with regards to the CCP and the Vatican, is that, and this is something I was saying over the last two weeks, when a lot of people were...
		Questioning the degree to which the other Papa Abile candidate, Cardinal Parolin, was the prime instigator of that treaty.
		I was saying that, you know, I actually think a lot of that comes from Francis and Parolin himself was just implementing it.
		So it is possible, if that's the case, if it wasn't, if this Vatican-CCP treaty was being driven more by Bergoglio because he was desperate to be invited to China rather than by Parolin and...
		the internal Holy See diplomatic machinery, then that does leave open the possibility for a change of position with regards to the Vatican itself.
		Yeah, hugely important issues.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		1.4 billion people live in China, all created in the image of God.
		They can be our partners for good on this earth, and we can all live together and mutually benefit if we structure it right.
		More on that structure next.
unidentified		War Room.
unidentified		Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		All right, back in the War Room.
		Stephen K. Bannon and the team gave me a piece to cover today from The Hill.
		Trump pushes Republicans to have rich pay more taxes.
		Not sure if that's true.
		I'm going to lead you through the article in just a few minutes, and then we've got Terry Schilling coming on board to give us all things public policy as well.
		But this is going to be a white-hot debate, right?
		A lot of folks said this is over.
		Republicans never raise taxes.
		And that in itself is quite an overstatement.
		As we get into the details of the piece, the reporters did have to acknowledge some truth at the end of the article.
		So they start off the proposal according to three sources in the White House, but they don't name any of the sources.
		And that makes it hard right off the bat.
		The credibility here is what is the White House actually saying?
		I saw President Trump a few weeks back dismissing this a little bit, saying, no, we don't want the rich to leave.
		At other times, he's been nuanced on it, so it's not clear.
		One of the sources said the president had made the policy request as recently as Wednesday.
		But again, no names are named.
		And so, you know, come on, Hill.
		You guys know what you're doing.
		I googled the two reporters and they look nice and I'm sure they're doing their best.
		The news is the news, you guys.
		Just tell the truth.
		Spit it out.
		Be transparent.
		Our site is transparent.
		And the news media is not.
		So then we get to the rates.
		The White House is pitching a new higher rate, supposedly, if you believe this, that would apply to those with incomes greater than $2.5 million.
		Incomes of $2.5 million and $5 million for a family.
		So that's, you know, now we're down into the less than 0.1% of American people.
		So those on the conservative side that go apoplectic, you know, maybe be less apoplectic, less than 0.1% of folks here.
		And as Besson has said, maybe it's time for Main Street to have a turn here.
		And I don't like tax increases at all.
		And I certainly don't want them on the rich and on the manufacturing piece.
		We got another guest coming on, Brian Costello, who's got novel ideas on trading the rich who just do trades all day.
		Trade the transactions.
		That's an interesting idea.
		If you're not producing anything and you're just learning these novel ideas of how to make 00.0001% more out of someone's, out of the rich folks' market basket of stocks, I don't like that as much.
		I want to incentivize manufacturing and production and capital, which is what Trump is doing.
		A little bit more.
		The president said, I certainly don't mind having a tax increase, but he expressed some apprehension on the idea for political reasons, he said.
		But I just want to get to some remarks from our guys, and I think this is Steve Bannon's logic as well.
		Grover Norquist comes in.
		I'm friends with Grover, president of America's tax reform, said on Wednesday, you know, we oppose this.
		This is not Republican policy.
		David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth.
		I know David McIntosh said in a statement, This is not a serious option, and it's political suicide.
		And so the problem that we have on the populist side is all these voices are out there talking about tax cuts for the rich, but they're not talking about Congress overspending.
		Notice all the lobbyists are there for the tax cuts for the rich.
		We don't have any lobbyists for the American people.
		Who are paying the bill for all this, right?
		So no one's cutting the $7 trillion budget.
		It's not going to go down much at all.
		Steve's been covering it brilliantly for the last months.
		It looks like spending might even go up.
		There's some hope.
		Well, we'll see if we get a 17% reduction in non-defense discretionary.
		That's promising, but that's a small piece.
		And so I just kind of wanted to lay out some of the arguments.
		Go look up the Hill article.
		Refresh yourselves.
		The American people can make this point, but I think we ought to use that tax piece as leverage.
		If the rich have lobbyists at work, why don't you put those lobbyists in charge of cutting spending as well?
		If we get the government to disappear, then business will flourish.
	We all want that.
	That's the outcome we want.
	I want economic growth.
	I've spent my whole life on economic growth.
	And so this is the way to do it.
	We need to team up and reduce government spending.
	The tax guys say, well, if you tax the rich or whatever, you're just going to provide more money for government.
	Well, the Fed, the Federal Reserve and every institution is doing that already.
	The Milton Friedman logic has not worked, and I'm a Milton Friedman fanatic.
	Steve mocks me for being Milti Friedman Jr., right?
	And so I just want to share a few thoughts.
	This has to do with major league implications for politics in the Republican Party going forward.
	And that's my thoughts on the issue.
	And as always, all political views are my own.
	You see, we got the liberty on the sweatshirt and its graduation.
	I'm so proud of our kids over here.
	We got the best students in the world, the most ethical, thoughtful, spiritual students who are going to go out in the world and do great things.
	So my policy statements for those on the show do not reflect my university or other institutions I work with.
	On the policy front, we're lucky to have Terry Schilling with us.
	He's an expert across the board.
	He knows more than me on how D.C. works.
	And so, Terry, give me a grade on the policy comments and then share us what you have to share today, I think, in your space.
	Thanks for being with us, Terry.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Well, thanks so much, Congressman, and it's great to—I always see you.
		And then when it comes to economic policy, I typically just listen to Dave Brad and do what he tells me.
		So, listen, I want to come on because these guys in Congress are starting to squish out in this big, beautiful bill in the House.
		We have an opportunity.
		You know, America's $37 trillion in debt, and we have an opportunity to defund one of the most evil organizations in American history, Planned Parenthood.
		They have 500— This is a partisan organization, but here's where it gets really interesting, Dave.
		Planned Parenthood just had an expose done on them by Lila Rose at Live Action, where it was uncovered that Planned Parenthood is sending puberty blocker drugs, cross-sex hormones to minors without their parents' knowledge or consent.
		And they're doing it within the first appointment.
		This is absolutely egregious.
		Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that we're putting these kids on for this whole transgender industry is killing these kids.
		It's making their lives miserable.
		It's taking away their ability to ever have a family.
		So I wanted to come on because I know how strong the war room posse is.
		And just urge all of you, even if you have a good member of Congress, they need to hear from you and they need to know that you want them to defund Planned Parenthood because Planned Parenthood is giving our kids sex change procedure drugs and they're also performing half of America's abortions.
		They fund campaigns and elections against Republicans.
		You were in Congress.
		You know how pathetic it is that these Republicans would want to give.
		Half a billion dollars to this evil organization when they're spending tens of millions of dollars every election to throw these guys out.
		Punish the wicked.
		We need to get these guys out.
		They're killing our kids, they're killing our babies, and they're trying to get us out of power.
		They shouldn't get a single dollar of taxpayer funding.
		Especially because we're $37 trillion in debt.
		So I just want to come on, light these guys up, call Congress, look up your member of Congress, every one of you.
		Again, even if it's a good member of Congress, you need to make your voices heard because they've tracked these calls, they monitor them, and they vote accordingly.
		Especially if you're in Pennsylvania.
		Brian Fitzpatrick is one of the guys that's rumored to be causing some problems here.
		So light his phones up.
		Light up all these guys.
		We've got to make sure our voices are heard here.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, Terry, great analysis.
		We're funding this.
		This is the federal government intrusion in our lives, par excellence, on moral issues that a century ago were just unquestioned.
		What's the polling on these issues?
		Where do the American people side?
		It seems that our squishes are having a hard time listening to the American people.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Well, Dave, I'm so glad you asked that because I came with the T. Look, on the transgender issue specifically, when it comes to taxpayer funding, this isn't an 80-20 issue.
		It's not a 60-40 issue.
		This is a 90-10 issue.
		Even Democrats don't want their tax dollars funding sex change procedures, not just for minors, but for inmates, for anything.
		They don't want tax dollars.
		If you want to get a sex change, fine, but you got to pay for it.
		I'm not paying for it.
		I got seven kids.
		I pay enough in taxes, right?
		So the polling on this is very clear.
		Defunding Planned Parenthood is extremely popular, but also the issue of funding abortions and sex change procedures.
		It's a 90-10 issue.
		You are voting.
		You are siding with the Democrats on the wrong side of a 90-10 issue if you are voting to fund abortions and sex change procedures through Planned Parenthood.
		This is a winning issue, and it's actually something that President Trump used to get elected.
		Dave, you remember the they-them ad.
		Kamala Harris is for they-them.
		Donald Trump's for you.
		The central message there.
		It was that Kamala Harris supported sex change procedures for federal inmates.
		That was seen more times by more people and was the most remembered attack in the post-election focus groups.
		It's a winning issue.
		It's that clear.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Let me ask you this because we're losing House and Senate momentum here.
		Trump has shown the way clearly.
		Full steam with guts.
		And you tell the American people, this is what I'm running on, and then you execute on what you run on, and he wins the election bigger than anyone thought possible because he came in with a plan.
		And so how do we shift the House if the House leadership would come in with the top ten, right, a contract with America in the Senate?
		Which they have not done.
		And then they're scared of losing the midterm.
		It's all about fear.
		And that's no way to lead.
		You can't lead out of fear.
		We need to lead with boldness and confidence.
		And if the American people don't want what we want...
		Then that's okay.
		But the American people do what we have on offer.
		So what's your challenge to leadership to set up a contract and to make some promises ahead of this?
		Then I think we win.
		Trump showed us we have the people to win.
		So what's the hang-up?
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Well, I'll tell you, Speaker Mike Johnson is actually a huge advocate, and he's been asking for some additional pressure on these guys.
		Well, I'm sorry.
		I shouldn't say that he has.
		But we have friends in leadership that have been saying he's with us on this, but he needs to get these guys more pressure to get them on board.
		Look, we have a four-seat majority in the House, right?
		And these guys need to feel the heat.
		So, again, I apologize for – I spoke out of turn about Speaker Johnson.
		He has not spoken to me directly about this.
		We know that he supports defunding Planned Parenthood.
		We know that he's behind us, but he's got a four-vote majority, and we've got to get these guys in line because if we lose those four votes for this bill, it won't pass.
		And then we're back at the drawing board.
		It's a good bill so far, but we've got to make sure that defunding Planned Parenthood and defunding these trans surgeries is included in there.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yep.
		Terry, thanks for being with us.
		Ben Harnwell, you want any commentary on Terry's proposals?
ben harnwell ▲ ● ▼		Well, Michael, I know we've only got like a minute left, but I would have asked Terry, who's principally involved with the American Principles Project, to using sort of conservative issues as the means to getting conservative voters to come out and support their candidates.
		I wanted to ask him whether he saw the rise of the woke phenomenon over the last 10 years as specifically attributable to the presence of Bergoglio on the papal throne, and whether that is...
		It's a factor in his strategy in fighting his neck of the culture war.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Oh, and Ben, that's exactly right.
		I think Bergoglio as Pope really hurt our ability to rein in and push back against the woke movement because so many of the things he was saying and buttressing and the people he was attacking, specifically President Trump, right?
		Bergoglio would attack President Trump for building a border wall, for securing our border, but he would say nothing against Joe Biden, who supported giving kids sex change procedures, who wanted to advance abortion rights.
		Joe Biden's policy was that America didn't have enough abortions in it, and Bergoglio didn't say a word against that.
		It was egregious.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		All right, gentlemen, closing out five seconds.
		Stay with us, Ben.
		Terry, stay with us after the break.
		Ben, we'll be back with you.
unidentified		Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		All right, back in the war room with Terry Schilling, who's a very recognized face up on Capitol Hill.
		He covers his own host of issues, covering the least amongst us, the unborn.
		Those who are experiencing injustice.
		But he also understands the process on Capitol Hill very well and is friends with all the conservative groups.
		And we do have a great combination, great team that cover all the assorted issues up on the Hill.
		But we just don't have the juice that the left does because of Act Blue.
		The coordination of globalist money, etc.
		But I'm curious, Terry, do you feel the wind blowing at our back?
		The USAID scandal kind of shone the light on a lot of news organizations, the FBI, the CIA, the CIA cutouts, the Atlantis' groups.
		Can you see any impact already?
		It's only been a month or two.
		But just curious as to how you view what's going on in the Hill now.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Well, look, Dave, I think that what President Trump has done by cutting back on USAID and all the exposés that have been done on them has actually had a great impact against them, right?
		If you look at the Democrats' approval rating, you know, President Trump is in the mid to high 40s for his approval rating, and Democrats are in the 20s, the low 20s, right?
		They have a 23, 25 percent approval rating across the country, and they get worse as the younger generations start telling their opinions.
		The two most recent elections where the incumbent president retained control of both chambers of Congress was 2002 and 1998.
		1998, Bill Clinton kept control because...
		Americans viewed Republicans as overreaching and overstepping on the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
		And in 2002, President Bush maintained control of Congress after he branded Democrats as obstructionists.
		You go fast forward to today, and in 2026, I think we're going to do the same thing.
		I think we're going to retain control of both chambers because the Democrats aren't just obstructing, they're destroying.
		And they're destroying our children.
		They won't drop this trans issue.
		And by the way, they're also against tariffs now.
		And I know, look, there's a conservative debate right now.
		But the Democratic base, their party, it has been supporting tariffs.
		When my dad was a member of Congress, the biggest attack against him was that he wouldn't raise taxes on companies that ship jobs overseas.
		You fast forward to today, and those Democrats are now all supporting these mega corporations that are building their companies off of slave labor in China.
		It's absolutely insane.
		So I'm very optimistic in the midterms.
		I actually think we could possibly gain some seats in the House and expand our majority.
		But Dave, you know as well as I do that that's not going to happen if these Republicans keep squishing out.
		Look, if you don't have the cojones to defund Planned Parenthood, which gets half a billion dollars a year to kill our babies, prevent more births, and sterilize our children.
		Dave, we have $37 trillion in debt.
		And our birth rates are below replacement levels.
		It is not in the interest of the United States of America for less babies to be born and more babies to be killed and more children to be sterilized and preventing from having their own children someday.
		This is insane.
		Planned Parenthood needs to go the same way as the Ku Klux Klan.
		They are an evil organization.
		They were meant, they were originally founded to keep the Black population under.
		They start all these Planned Parenthoods.
		Where?
		In Black communities.
		And where we've gotten so far is so Orwellian because the Democrats say that, yeah, of course we're opening Planned Parenthoods to keep killing Black babies and keep Black people from having their own families.
		That's what we do.
		This is how we serve people.
		They think that sterilizing young people and killing babies and preventing people from having families is good.
		I disagree.
		President Trump disagrees.
		Republicans need to disagree.
		And we need to defund this evil organization that has been a peculiar institution in America.
		It's far past time.
		You guys need to light up these members of Congress.
		Again, I can't tell you enough.
		Look up your member of Congress, even if they're good.
		Call them today.
		Call them until the bills passed.
		Make sure that Planned Parenthood is defunded.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, they can't be doing this.
		And the way you put it right there, which is very interesting, right?
		We're killing our own kids.
		The Fortune 500, the globalist leaders say we have a worker shortage in this country.
		We have a crisis.
		They don't invest in saving lives.
		They all vote the other side.
		And then we don't take care of the kids.
		We're paying $20,000 per kid for K-12 education and the kids can't read.
		And then they go on to our higher eds and they get indoctrinated instead of learning any reading, writing, and arithmetic.
		And it's a disaster.
		And then also when you talked about President Trump on the political side, all political views are my own.
		But it is stunning.
		AOC now is running on this child trafficker gang member arrested wife abuser and she's hanging her hat on that issue.
		And Trump came out and said I mean, he's always funny.
		The guy is always funny.
		He's like, you know, I think this issue for AOC, I don't think it's going to be like the boys in the girls' locker rooms.
		This ain't good.
		He's just, the way he puts it, it's just so common sense.
		But they're seriously running on the most absurd issues only because our side allows them.
		If all of our members would just go on TV today and say what you just said, this is absurd.
		It's evil.
		This is morally atrocious, right?
		We cannot do this.
		And you laid out the history of these groups.
		It's all there for everyone to read.
		But we don't own the megaphone, right?
		We don't own the mainstream media.
		It's still very powerful, right?
		The folks they hit.
		It's very powerful.
		And I'll let you close in with a final minute.
		But I also just wanted to bring more good news.
		The trade deal with the UK.
		England was great.
		Every other country in the world is lined up.
		The world is coming our way also.
		The Dems are horrified.
		And so are some of our business folks that the Trump agenda is actually going to work.
		If he pulls off this tariff piece...
		And gets tax cuts to speed up the economy and gets a booming energy sector to speed up and lower costs on everything.
		I think we're standing tall.
		And so I'll let you close.
		Final minute, Terry, it's yours.
		Go ahead.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Look, we've just got to gird our loins.
		We've got to buckle up.
		We've got to put pressure on these squishes.
		This is our job, guys.
		The Founding Fathers left it to us to put pressure on these members of Congress.
		Make your voice heard.
		Call your member of Congress today.
		Don't wait.
		Do it right now.
		Do it in the middle of the show.
		Google your member of Congress.
		Find their phone number.
		It's on their official website.
		Call them and tell them.
		Don't just tell them.
		Demand that they defund Planned Parenthood.
		We've got too much debt, $37 trillion.
		We have way too many abortions in this country and not enough babies being born.
		We've got to save this country.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		How do they get you, Terry?
		Go.
		Ten seconds.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Shilling 1776 on all the major platforms.
terry schilling ▲ ● ▼		Shilling 1776.
dave brat ▲ ● ▼		All right, Terry.
		You're a prophet.
		You're out there shouting the tough stuff that needs to be heard for the sake of our babies and our kids in this country.
		Thanks for doing what you do.

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