Reverend Franklin Graham addresses CPAC in Grapevine, Texas, praising President Trump's leadership on Israel, Venezuela, and Mexico while condemning "woke culture" and transgender ideology. He warns of AI enabling a one-world government under the Antichrist and describes the Democratic socialist agenda as hellish. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche joins Chairman Matt Schlapp to call the Mueller investigation a hoax, citing 200 DOJ removals and the restoration of justice through pardons for January 6th convicts. Ultimately, the conference reinforces conservative priorities against perceived liberal threats and media manipulation. [Automatically generated summary]
Tori, as a constituent of the week, I thank him for his service to our nation and for his continued work in our community.
I will always work to deliver for veterans like him.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Gentleman yields back pursuant to clause 12A of Rule 1.
The chair declares the House in recess until noon today.
Today, the House is considering two bills to address the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, now in its 41st day.
One measure expresses the support of House lawmakers for DHS and its employees.
The other recognizes the importance of fully funding the department through September 30th.
This week, the Senate again blocked legislation to fund and reopen the federal agency as talks between Congressional Democrats, Republicans, and the White House continue.
House members are scheduled to vote on appropriations for DHS today at 2 p.m. Eastern.
Watch live coverage of the House when lawmakers return here on C-SPAN.
We take you live now to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, featuring remarks by Reverend Franklin Graham and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch.
You're watching live coverage here on C-SPAN.
For years to come, our president or other presidents in the past have just kicked the can down the road on these hard issues, but President Trump has the guts to take these tough decisions, and I appreciate that.
He stepped up.
He stepped up to protect Israel and the Jewish people from what I believe was the possibility of a nuclear annihilation by this radical Islamic regime.
And I think back to the book of Esther in the Bible, where Esther, for such a time as this, God raised her up to save the Jewish people from annihilation by the Persians at that time.
Thank God for President Trump.
He sent our military into Venezuela and to capture the evil dictator Maduro and his corrupt wife and brought them back to the United States for justice.
President Trump has put Cuba and the cartels in Mexico.
He's put them on notice.
And the world has learned that when President Trump speaks, you had better listen.
And I think they are.
I'm 73 years old.
No president of my lifetime has done what President Trump has done.
Okay?
We will never have another president like him.
And I believe God has raised him up for a time such as this, like Queen Esther.
Our grandchildren will have a safer future because of his leadership and his policies.
My children's children will have a better life because of these policies.
Here are a few examples of policies that I appreciate as a Christian.
President Trump appointed on the judicial benches conservative judges and Rover's weight was overturned.
I never thought he'd be overturned in my lifetime.
That's because it's President Trump.
He supports religious freedom like no other president in my lifetime.
Oh, presidents have talked about it, but haven't done anything.
He talks about it and then he does something about it.
I was with him in 2019 at the United Nations, when he spoke to the entire United Nations about religious freedom, encouraging the world to honor those people of faith, not just the Christian faith, but to honor people of faith and protect them.
No president's ever done that.
No one.
And I thank God for him.
As a Pastor Andrew Brunson, remember him?
He was in a Turkish prison.
And they had made-up charges.
I was going to say trumped-up charges, but trumped-up charges, made-up charges against him and had him in prison.
And when Trump came to office, he asked Aragon to let him go.
And Aragon just ignored President Trump.
And what did he do?
He put some financial screws on Turkey, and their lira started taking a nosedive.
They lost millions, and they let Andrew Brunson out of prison like he was a hot potato.
I mean, he was gone that fast.
As the secular socialists in our country were wanting to take Christ out of Christmas, we made a big deal, and corporate America was on board with it.
taking Christ out of Christmas.
Happy holidays.
Merry X Miss, put in the X where Christ's name was.
Trump comes to office and he starts saying, Merry Christmas.
And okay, you say, well, Franklin, that's a little thing.
No, it's not a little thing.
It was huge because it put the woke world on notice that we're not going to take it anymore.
And you know what?
Thank God for him.
President Trump is on a mission.
In his own words, his mission is to make America great again.
Each of you here at CPAC is also on a mission.
One, to advance and defend the conservative politics that has made America great.
You're on a mission to promote conservative values, including God, family, country.
You're on a mission to fight against the woke culture, critical race theory, transgender ideology, everything else that threatens to infect our families and churches and workplaces and schools with godless anti-American agenda.
I want to take a moment to give a warning.
Conservatives do have a problem.
That problem is unity, or rather, the lack of it at times.
Sometimes it seems like we eat our own.
Conservative leaders and influencers need to have a united front.
It seems like we are so easily divided against each other, attacking one another.
We can discuss our differences, but do it with respect without attacking and tearing down the other person.
Save that for the socialists who want to make America weak again.
Beware of mainstream media.
They are not your friends.
And they never will be your friends.
Oh, they'll cozy up to some of you and don't trust it.
They like to put doubts in little seats.
There was One of the mainline reports last week had on their website that it said that the Iran war is a problem for Trump's base.
Really?
A problem for Trump's base.
I thought, well, I'm a part of that base.
Nobody asked me about it.
I don't have a problem.
And everyone else I've talked to, they don't have a problem.
But they'll put the little seeds of doubt like, you know, it's a problem for Trump's base.
And there are people out there who will read that or hear that, and they'll think, oh, well, maybe I ought to not support this.
This is what the media do.
They plant little seeds of doubt.
They want to have his base have doubt.
Listen, we only have one shot at this, okay?
Make it work.
Be cautious of people with podcasts and social media platforms who make money by views, clicks, and the number of followers they have.
If they can cause a stir, if they can get a debate, these kinds of things.
It will serve them.
And they will profit from it.
They like to cause a stir because they can profit because more people will tune in and listen to their podcast or watch their whatever.
Be careful of these people.
And some of them have some real extreme views.
Midterms are coming.
And how critical this is.
Some people feel that with AI, it may be impossible to have fair elections in the future.
And I agree with that.
I think it's going to be difficult.
Others have said the goal of AI is to control the world's messaging, not just in the United States, but the world.
I agree.
John the Revelator tells us in the book that he penned, the book of Revelations in the Bible, that the day is coming when there will be a one world government, and it will be controlled by a person called the Antichrist.
That's what the Bible calls it, the Antichrist.
And you know what?
And that day may be here sooner than you think.
It's extremely important that we get behind candidates who support President Trump's agenda.
And it's important that we get these people elected.
President Trump is not on the ballot, but his policies are.
And we need to have a united front and go out there and win these midterms.
we don't, we're going to be through.
Let me just remind you what's coming.
The Democrat socialist agenda.
They want to take away parent rights.
They want teachers and their unions to be the moral guide and the final voice for your children.
That's what they want.
The social democrats, I call them the socialist Democrats because it's the Socialist Democratic Party of America.
They want to support the transgender agenda and say support transitioning young children.
That is so wicked and so evil.
And that's what they support.
If they get into power, this is what's coming.
This is what they're going to bring in.
They want to allow men in women's sports.
They're behind that.
They want boys undressing and exposing themselves to your daughters and granddaughters in locker rooms.
I'm talking about young men coming in and stripping off their clothes, their underwear and everything, just standing there naked in front of your granddaughters and your daughters.
It's so wicked.
They want to sexualize everything at an earlier and earlier age.
They support killing life in the womb.
The socialist Democrats want to have open borders.
They want to legalize drugs.
They want to defend or defund the police.
They want to open up the jails and let criminals go back on the streets where they can rape, murder, and steal.
They want to gut our military and take that money and give it to social programs, maybe like up in Minnesota helping the Somalis.
Rejecting The Son's Sacrifice00:08:27
I don't know.
This is just some of their agenda.
And I believe it's an agenda that's birthed in hell.
I really do.
Because it stands, because this agenda stands against God.
It stands against Him and His creation and His word.
We need to pray for our nation and ask God for help.
We need to work together to have a united front in order to support President Trump's mission.
But today, I want to talk to you about the most important mission in history.
Jesus Christ came on a redemption mission.
That's right.
Easter's just around the corner, but what does that mean for us?
You see, God made us, God created us, He loves us, but mankind has a problem, and that problem is called sin.
The Bible says we've all sinned and come short of God's glory.
The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.
Every one of us, including Franklin Graham, is a sinner.
When God created the first man and woman, he put them in a perfect world and gave them the freedom to choose.
That's right, the freedom to choose, gave them that freedom.
And as a result of that, they chose to disobey God.
And that's what sin is.
Sin is disobedience to God.
They disobeyed God.
And as a result, sin came into the world and has infected the entire human race.
It's like a cancer of the human soul.
Franklin Graham is a sinner.
Franklin Graham has sinned against God.
And the penalty, and God has placed the entire world on a death sentence over all mankind, a death sentence he's placed over them.
But yet God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth him shouldn't perish but should have everlasting life.
God sent his son from heaven to this earth to take our sins.
You see, there's nothing you can do to save yourself.
Or you say, well, Franklin, I'm not that bad of a person.
That's not the issue.
We're all sinners.
It just takes one sin to keep you out of heaven.
You were born into sin.
You were born under this death sentence.
There's nothing you can do to save yourself.
That's why God sent his son to save you.
That's why he came.
He took your sins to the cross.
He died and shed his blood on the cross for your sins.
He was buried in a grave for your sins.
And while he hung on that cross, God poured on his son all sins past, all sins present, all sins future.
That's us here today.
When Jesus Christ hung on that cross, that cross came to the most sinful place in history, is the cross.
Because that's where God laid all the sins of mankind upon his son.
And Jesus Christ died and shed his blood and he was buried for your sins.
But on the third day, God raised him to life.
Jesus is not dead.
He's alive, but it requires a response.
Either we can accept it or reject it.
You can believe it.
Again, you say, well, Franklin, if God is really a God of love, he's not going to send anybody to hell.
Oh, really?
You really believe that?
If God is God of love, he's not going to send anybody to hell.
Well, yes, he is going to send people to hell.
There's going to be millions of conservatives in hell.
Yeah.
Think about it.
If God loves you so much that he allowed his son to die and shed his blood for you and you reject it, he has no choice.
He's offering salvation.
He's offering forgiveness.
But you've got to be willing to accept that, to believe it.
You've got to be willing to repent of your sins and by faith believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you'll be saved.
If you'll believe on his name and trust him as your Savior, you'll be saved.
That's all.
You don't have to pay money.
It's a gift.
By grace are we saved through faith, not of works lest anyone should boast.
God loves you.
He loves his country.
And I love Donald Trump.
Is he perfect?
No.
But I love that guy.
I love him.
And we'll only have one chance at this.
We'll never get another president like Donald Trump.
And that's why it's important that we do everything that we can to try to get him reelected.
He stands not only for religious freedom, he stands up for Christians.
Like no president we've ever had.
And he's not afraid.
He's not ashamed of the name of Jesus Christ.
Other people are ashamed.
He's not ashamed.
And I just appreciate that so much about him.
But let me just say to all of you here today, ask yourself the question, are my sins forgiven?
You say, well, Franklin, I think so.
I'm not talking about thinking so.
Do you know it?
Are your sins forgiven?
You say, well, I'm not that bad of a person.
Yes, you are.
We're all sinners in God's eyes.
So what do I need to do?
You need to repent.
Just say, God, I'm a sinner.
I'm willing to turn from my sins.
Because if you come to Christ, you have to turn from those sins.
If you come to Christ, you've got to be willing to turn from those sins and then to trust him and to believe in him and trust him and make him the Lord of your life and follow him in life.
You do that, you can have that assurance that if your life came to an end today, that you'd be in the presence of God for eternity, not because of any good thing you've done, because of what Christ did on your behalf when he took your sins to the cross.
God bless you.
And I trust y'all will have a great, great week here in Dallas.
Got some great speakers coming up.
And you're going to hear a testimony from a good friend of mine a little while, John Cole.
He's done some incredible work saving life.
So, anyhow, thank you all so much, and God bless each and every one of you.
Some wireless
Patriot Mobile Stands For Freedom00:02:33
companies say that they stand for something.
What exactly do they stand for, and why won't they say it out loud?
Let me tell you what Patriot Mobile stands for: they stand for the lives of the unborn, they stand for the Second Amendment and the right to protect yourself and your family.
They stand for our veterans and first responders who sacrificed so much for our freedom.
Make the switch to Patriot Mobile today and support a company that doesn't just say they stand for something, but one that stands for the things that matter the most.
And in this country, there's no reason that every person in this country is not wealthy.
There's tremendous amounts of wealth here.
There's no scarcity.
In a country that promises freedom, most people live financially enslaved by debt, by fear, by a system they don't understand.
Federal regulatory compliance cost U.S. businesses about $3.1 trillion in 2022, or roughly 12% of GDP.
In manufacturing, regulatory costs total around $350 billion annually, exceeding the economic output of nearly 30 states.
Small manufacturers with fewer than 50 employees face the steepest costs, averaging more than $50,000 per worker each year.
The government cannot do this, most.
This is all on you guys.
The people that make a commitment to creating legacy wealth, okay, are actually doing the greatest, giving the greatest contribution to their country and their community than anybody else.
This is not politics as usual, and it's more than religion.
It's a calling, a mission that depends on you, your faith, your family, and your country.
Stand with his glory on the front lines of faith, freedom, and revival.
The time is now to rise, move, and build together to usher in the greatest revival in history.
No more sitting on the fence, no more talk without action.
All for his glory.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Justice League restoring the Constitution.
Rising After The Mueller Trial00:08:17
A fireside chat with Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, and CPAC Chairman, the Honorable Matt Schlapp.
I'm kind of nervous about this interview.
I've got no subpoenas.
You're okay.
I don't usually like lawyers, but we've been talking a bit, and I'm glad you're doing what you're doing.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you.
And thank you for helping President Trump when he was up in that justice-free zone in New York City.
Amen.
You did a great job.
Thank you.
So I'm a little nervous because usually when I do these things, I just want the other person to feel relaxed and at home.
But you're in the middle of this like tornado of chaos that was created because we let the communists take over our justice system at the federal level and in too many states.
There's this man who just died.
He was a Marine who had this stellar career and ended it as an independent counsel trying to, for too long, keep the illusion going that there had been Russian collusion.
Bob Mueller, what's your take?
What you just said is right.
First of all, thank you for letting me spend some time and thanks for showing up, guys.
This is a great event and I'm honored to be here.
Yeah, listen, the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax was a complete and total hoax.
And it almost brought down President Trump.
That's how devastating it was for this country.
And unfortunately, Mr. Mueller was the leader of that.
And he had a storied history that went back to, you're right, to the Vietnam War.
But that was a disaster.
I mean, it was the worst sort of weaponization of not only the government, but Congress, but other prosecutors, but the FBI.
And it was a stain on this country that it will take a long time to remove.
The Mueller, Comey, the politicization of the FBI and DOJ, do we have any hope that we get back to the idea that no matter what your party affiliation, that you will face one system of justice again?
Yes, of course we have hope.
Yes, we have hope.
I mean, listen, I think that what happened for the past four years was so bad and so awful, and a big part of that was what happened with the Department of Justice and the FBI and the weaponization that we saw.
And the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, President Trump, myself, we are changing things.
Full stop.
We are changing things.
And folks need to realize, and I think it's important to realize that what was the first thing that we did to change things.
It's what everybody in this room did.
We re-elected the president, right?
That was the change.
So I represented President Trump in the Manhattan DA case and in Jack Smith's prosecutions.
So I lived it every single day for two years, what was happening.
And this country, the people in this room, they're the ones that infected change.
They're the ones that said, no, you had a man that was indicted six separate times, counting the superseding indictments.
And yet this country said, no way.
So That was the first glimmer of hope that we can be better.
The other things that are happening, there is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions.
Over how many have been canned?
Over 200.
Over 200 either left before we came in because they knew it was coming or were fired or took early retirement.
They are no longer employed by this department.
And when it comes to the FBI, which takes a lot of criticism, especially because of what happened over the past several years, Director Patel has cleaned house there too.
There isn't a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent, still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump.
And I want folks to realize what that means.
President Trump, for the first time in modern history, has said, I am the president, and if you work in the executive branch, you work for me.
And guess what?
We can all read the Constitution.
He's right.
And unfortunately, past administrations, Republican included, have just resigned themselves to putting up with partisan actors within the Department of Justice.
We do not.
So Alvin Bragg, Fannie Willis, this cast of characters ever get any justice?
Well, yes.
I mean, of course.
Like, look, yes, yes.
And look, you have these district attorneys across the country.
Those are by far the best examples.
They're no worst.
Well, the best examples of, thank you.
The best examples of being the worst.
Yeah, the best examples of the pure weaponization by the left of our system of justice.
So if you want to talk about what happened in Manhattan against President Trump, I'm happy to do so.
But I think it's better to talk about what happened after that trial, which is after that trial.
The entire country, even many Democrats, agreed that it was insane and crazy.
If you look at Fannie Willis, her case was completely annihilated and destroyed for all kinds of reasons.
And so, look, when you talk about justice, we're working hard every day.
And I don't just say working hard as a cliché.
I mean, the Attorney General and myself, every single day, seven days a week, are focused on bringing justice and it will come.
And I know every single person in this room is saying to themselves, why is it taking so long?
Raise your hand if you're just thinking that.
All right, I was basically right.
And here's the answer.
Here's the answer.
I want to talk about it.
Here's the answer.
For one, it's not taking so long.
For one, we have already done more in one year than any administration has ever done before.
If you look at what happened to the men and women convicted because of January 6th, by 5 p.m. on January 20th, every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted.
Okay?
So when folks say you've done nothing, I say you have a very short memory.
When you look at the Christian community in this country, my father was a minister.
I was raised in the Midwest.
They were persecuted for four years.
Within a week of coming in, Attorney General Bondi flipped that and said, no more, we're not going to go after Christian organizations.
We're not going to go after nonprofits that are Christians.
We're going to go after the banks that are de-banking and not letting those organizations bank.
So that's something we've done.
When you talk about the Second Amendment, which had been trampled on for an entire administration, this administration has done more in 12 months to fix that where it comes to restoring restoring gun rights to people that should have never had them taken from them.