Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joins Rose Tennent for the final hour as "The Sean Hannity Show" shifts gears from the day's headlines into a deep dive on something sitting in millions of living rooms: smart TVs and what they may be doing behind the scenes. Paxton lays out Texas' lawsuits against major smart TV manufacturers, alleging they've been collecting detailed viewing data on Texans and monetizing it without clear, meaningful consent. He describes an ecosystem where TVs can be sold cheaply because, in his telling, companies earn enormous revenue from marketing based on viewer behavior. Rose presses on the real-world problem for consumers: most people don't even know there's anything to opt out of, and even if they do, the process can be confusing and hard to execute. The conversation turns more serious as Rose cites warnings from Paxton's office about the possibility of sensitive information being exposed, especially as more people use TV apps to log into accounts and even handle financial transactions. Paxton says discovery is still ahead, but argues manufacturers may be capturing far more than viewers realize. Then comes the national-security angle: Rose notes that at least one named company is Chinese-owned. Paxton says any unauthorized data collection is concerning, but adds that Chinese possession of that kind of information raises the stakes beyond consumer privacy. He also says Texas is sharing resources with other state attorneys general and hopes more states will join the fight.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
My name is Rose, and I am with you this last hour of the Hannity Show.
You know, we've got a story that hits right in your living room right now.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking on major smart TV manufacturers and then alleging that they are collecting data on what Texans watch and when they watch it.
And then they're selling that information for profit.
all without clear consent.
So joining us now is Attorney General Paxton to explain the lawsuit, the privacy concerns, and what viewers can do right now to protect themselves.
We're also going to talk about his Senate race.
Welcome, Attorney General Ken Paxton.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
Merry Christmas.
Happy holidays.
We're doing great in Texas.
I'll bet you are.
Texas is a great state.
So listen, according to lawsuits that you've filed, TV manufacturers might have quietly turned America's living rooms into surveillance hubs by using technology that most consumers never agree to.
And that's really the very definition of intrusion.
What exactly did these television companies collect and how much of it was taken without Texans ever knowing?
Oh, well, first of all, they did it without Texans knowing for sure.
And they did it without anybody in the United States knowing it.
What they do is they record every so many milliseconds what you're watching.
And so they can use that and sell that information to other companies.
So, you know, if they wanted to do that, they just need to get consent.
And if consumers agree to that, that's fine.
But the problem is they're doing it without consent.
Obviously, that helps them sell more TVs because they can lower the price because they're making so much money.
They're making more money on the marketing than they are the TV.
So I have no problem with them doing it as long as they get consent.
The problem here is they're keeping track of all this information on all of us without our consent.
And this is all the major TV manufacturers from Sony to Samsung to the Chinese manufacturers.
You know, and when you say it's all of us that should be concerned, I was telling some of my friends that you were going to be on today, and I was telling them that this was one of the things that we were going to talk about, and they had no idea.
And of course, you provided, and I will provide that on social media, what you can do to protect yourself.
But first of all, how did you discover this?
And you're right, it doesn't square with basic consumer consent under Texas law or probably under the law of many states, correct?
I would guess most states would have some type of consumer protection law where if they're going to use data on you, they're going to intrude into your house through your TV, that they would be obligated to at least disclose that and potentially compensate you for it.
In this case, you know, nobody knew.
You didn't know.
I didn't know.
I just found out, as I find out from a lot of my cases, there are other constituents of mine or consumers who just happened to tell me about it.
And we researched it and found out that it was absolutely true.
And that for the most part, all the TV manufacturers are doing it.
And they're all doing it without telling us.
Yeah, and I think what bothers me is that consumers aren't given any meaningful way to opt out of this surveillance or if they even knew that there was a need to opt out of the surveillance.
And that's the thing that really bothers me.
Well, absolutely.
And even the way of opting out is so complicated.
I mean, I'm not sure I'm technically able to opt out.
There isn't, you happen to know.
You got lucky because some friend of yours happened to know.
It's still not an easy process to opt out on these TVs.
So even if you want to do it, you may not be able to do it properly and actually execute on getting out of the disclosure that you are giving them every time you turn your TV set on.
You know, and also one of the things that you talked about too, and that your office warned about was sensitive information like passwords and banking data that could be exposed.
Now, has there been any evidence that we know of that personal or financial data could be compromised?
Well, certainly people operate that stuff.
You know, they access their bank accounts.
They have passwords on their TV for other accounts that they use apps for.
So we're in the middle of, we'll be, you know, doing discovery to find out exactly what data they've captured.
We just know that they are capturing everything they can every just, you know, split second.
And so it would not be shocking to find out that they have gotten passwords.
We're pretty sure they're getting passwords and personal financial information, which should be a concern to anybody that's using their TV as a way to get into their bank account or do any kind of financial transaction.
Well, you know, and that's scary too.
And I've just got one or two more questions on this subject.
I want to move on to your race.
But before I do, okay, two of the companies that were named, one of them was TCL.
I can't remember the other one.
They're Chinese-owned and operate in China.
So that adds another layer of concern, does it not?
You know, when you talk about foreign access to Americans' private and in-home data.
Yeah, anything, obviously any company doing this, I've got a problem with, but the fact that Chinese have this information, of course, they're using it to our detriment, to our consumers' detriment, to our nation's detriment, capturing as much information as they can about everybody and using that to their advantage.
So yeah, I'm extremely concerned about that.
It's a whole nother level of security concern beyond just personal security.
It's a national security interest that's affected by what these Chinese manufacturers are doing with their TVs.
Wow.
Are you talking to any of the AGs across the country, making them aware, getting them involved in the process of looking into this or filing lawsuits, possibly?
We've certainly publicized it.
We've certainly spread it around with our resources to other attorney generals.
I'm hoping that they'll pursue it as well.
Certainly, we wanted to get it going and they can join in.
We would be happy to be joined by other states.
Thanks for taking care of that.
I appreciate that.
Your state, you're running for Senate in the great state of Texas, and the primary is March 3rd.
And early voting starts as soon as February 17th.
So there's not a lot of time between like after everybody gets back from Christmas and really getting the election process underway.
How is it looking for you?
And I really, before we even talk about anything else, because I know you were at Turning Point USA and you talked about a lot of things about the Senate race and why you feel you're the better candidate.
But one of the things I wanted to ask you is why you chose to run for the Senate.
What is it that you feel you must do, need to do, and can only do that by running for a Senate seat?
Well, I mean, of all our statewide leaders, I mean, there's no doubt that the guy I'm running against, he's been in office for over 40 years.
He's been in office since I was in college and I'm turning 63 tomorrow.
Well, happy birthday.
Yeah, thank you.
In those 40 plus years, he has no major accomplishments.
I've asked people across the state since April the 8th, and you name one major good accomplishment.
There's some bad ones, but there's no, they've never had, no one's ever said, yes, here's his good accomplishment.
And for a guy that's running for his fifth term in the U.S. Senate, which no one's ever done in Texas, with no accomplishments, just saying, I'm part of the Washington establishment.
I raised my money in Washington.
I answer to Washington.
Texas deserves better than that.
And because it's so hard to run against an incumbent, you have to, in Texas, it's so large of a state, 31.3 million people.
You have to have name ID to overcome the massive dollars that come in from DC because functionally, there's no limit on their contributions, but there's a very tight limit on Challenger.
So you have to have name ID going into this.
And I thought, who can do this other than somebody that already has name ID?
Right.
That you have for sure.
When we talk about, we had Dr. Ben Carson on earlier, and we did touch on capitalism and how that is not what has let down the young people.
It's the leftist ideals.
And we also talked a little bit about socialism and we're headed into 250-year celebration of this country and our freedoms.
What do you think?
Where do you think we're headed as a country?
And can we, because it doesn't look really good in many ways, but can we turn this around?
Because we're holding onto the Republic by a thread.
So I don't disagree with you, but I'm always optimistic.
I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't optimistic.
But it really is a battle of ideas and whether we're going to let socialism creep in.
And even among Republicans, they do sometimes so little in D.C. and really around the country that they don't affect very much what the Democrats are trying to accomplish.
They don't speak out enough.
They don't propose in the way of it enough.
And that's part of the reason I think it's so important we have more people who are willing to go up to Washington and say, you know what, enough of this.
We need to make sure that we're protecting our country from outside forces that want to hurt us and also inside forces because it's a battle of ideologies and we could lose it at any time.
But I truly believe that we have the upper hand because our ideas work and they're good for America.
Yeah, that's one of the things I talked about.
You can see over and over again, whether it's Cuba, even Russia, China, any time that a country takes on something that doesn't have a capitalistic foundation, they fail and they fail miserably, Venezuela being the most recent.
And I think that one of the things that you just said, that you have to be unafraid to go in there and fight for those things that we think are important.
And I don't think anyone can deny that you would be unafraid to do that.
So thank you for that.
But, you know, I just, there's a whole mindset that needs to be changed here, or at least we need to educate, I guess.
Yeah, there's no doubt.
You'll remember what Margaret Thatcher said about socialism.
She said, eventually you run out of other people's money.
There's no example, whether you look at Obamacare, whether you look at any type of socialistic model, even our school finance system in Texas was created by John Cornyn by Judicial CS called Robin Hood.
And it's designed to create mediocrity, the socialistic system that doesn't benefit our schools like it should.
And so socialism, there's no example of it actually working.
It's always harmful to the people.
It's good for the leadership that's in control of everything that gets the best of everything.
But what creates opportunity is capitalism, because then anybody, if they're willing to work and apply themselves, can succeed.
You know, that's what Dr. Carson said today earlier, too.
He said, really, your success is entirely up to you.
And that is the truth.
And that's a man that came from poverty and a lot of mishaps.
And yet he overcame all of that, became a great pediatric neurosurgeon and then on to do even greater things after that.
But you're right.
It only depends on each one of us.
Yeah, and look, you're right.
Ben Carson is a perfect example of that.
He came from poverty and turned out to be a very, very successful doctor, politician, speaker, and just generally somebody that's contributed greatly to the United States.
And I think anybody who has that opportunity has the opportunity to fail or be successful based on their hard work and their own abilities.
You know, you represent, you believe, and I believe you're correct, the values of the Texan voter.
What are some of those values and what are you most excited about to get to work on when you get to Washington, D.C.?
Well, in Texas, we care about like being financially responsible.
We balance our budget.
I was in the legislature for 12 years.
We balance our budget.
We have to balance our budget.
Since John Corner has been in office in 2002, we went from $6.2 trillion deficit that was from George Washington to George Bush.
We've now added over $31 trillion in debt in his time there, and he doesn't speak out.
He doesn't take responsibility for it.
just spend the money acting like we can continue to fund these deficits.
That is, in my opinion, one of the biggest issues we have.
And I think one of the other big issues is China dealing with the threat from China and making sure that we are keeping up with them in every way, whether it's with AI, which is huge, or with just our defense and making sure that our allies are aware and part of our team and making sure that we understand the threat.
Yeah, there really is a threat.
And AI is a big issue right now.
And there is a balance to be had there as well because we are going to, a lot of our resources are going to be spent or put to that effort of building up those facilities that we need to have to stay in that AI race.
So there is a balance there.
That's a lot of work right there, that in and of itself.
It is a huge work because the Chinese are serious and they are maneuvering economically, they are maneuvering militarily, and they are doing it all over the world and they are doing it in the United States and they are doing it across the world.
And their intent is domination.
And they have a limited amount of time, given the fact that their population is going to massively decrease over the next 20 years.
And so Xi Jinping is on a mission.
His mission is complete global dominance and putting America under his feet.
Yeah, that's long been the goal.
And we need to wise up to that.
And I think we have to give it very special attention and a lot of focus to in the days and years to come.
So, all right, so just a reminder again, the primary is March 3rd, correct?
And then February 17th actually is when voting starts because you have early voting.
That's correct.
And we need all the help we can get because John Cornin's getting $3 million a week from Washington, D.C., and that does not happen for challengers.
So go to kenpaxon.com and please help us.
We need it.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for spending time with us.
Thanks for what you're doing too.
And also bringing to light what's going on with our television sets right in the middle of our living rooms.
So thank you so much for all that you do.
We appreciate you.
And thanks for joining the Hannity Show.
be back with more of The Hannity Show right after this.
This is The Sean Hannity Show.
Welcome back to The Sean Hannity Show.
My name is Rose.
I'm really enjoying this.
And we only have like a little more than a half hour together.
I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas if you are celebrating Christmas.
And I'll be back, by the way, on December 30th, just to welcome you into the new year of just about.
So I'm looking forward to that as well.
By the way, we were talking about smart TVs and that while these smart TVs vary by brand, a lot of them allow you to limit the data collection by following some general steps.
So what I did is I posted those on my, and if it's not up right this very minute, give it a little bit of time, but I will have the steps that you can follow to limit that collection.
So that's going to be at Rose Unplugged on Facebook and then Instagram, Rose Unplugged with the number one.
So those two places will have the steps that you need to follow to make sure that you are protecting your privacy.
By the way, speaking of my social media, also I have a ministry called sheiscalledbyhim.com.
And the Instagram is sheiscalled.
We do prayer requests.
We have a prayer room.
You can leave a confidential prayer request, and we have a team of women that pray for each and every request that comes in.
And we always, we get a lot.
There's a lot going on in everyone's life.
I know that.
And so we want to be there for you.
And my podcasts are on Rumble and on Real Life Network.
All you have to do is search Rose Unplugged there and other platforms that allow for podcasts.
Please like and follow me when you do go there so you can get an email and let you know when a new podcast is available.
So Rose Unplugged on most social media and she is called by him is the ministry.
We'll be back with a lot more coming up right after this.
Stay with us.
Welcome back to the Sean Hannity Show.
My name is Rose and we've got this last half hour together.
So glad to spend time with you.
I'll be back on December 30th.
Great lineup of guests that day too.
Wait until you hear that show.
Oh, looking forward to it.
Anyway, in the meantime, my next guest is Linda with a Y, L Y N D A.
I like that, actually.
I've been elevated.
Yeah, you're elevated.
In my mind, you are always elevated.
Listen, flattery will get you everywhere, every day, all day, twice on Sunday.
Don't you think I know that?
Yeah, don't you think I know that?
Yeah, but you also know that I'm sincere when I tell you I love you so much.
No, no, of course, of course, of course.
All right, good.
Let's get that out of the way.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you about some of my experiences here inside the Beltway.
So, you know, I'm still, I'm back and forth, but I'm here a lot.
One of the things I noticed was I was in church one Sunday.
Well, I went to the wrong church a couple of times, and it wasn't until they were disparaging Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated in cold blood.
So I left that church, and there are two that I really like.
Cornerstone Chapel is awesome.
I think that's probably going to be my church.
And National Community Church, which is right in the city.
But anyway, I was at the National Community Church one Sunday morning.
And they said, okay, everyone, we are, we're going to do some prayer time and let's pray for the DMV.
And I'm like, oh, okay, that's, that's kind of weird.
You know, the Department of Motor Vehicles, it's like, I get it.
Like, it's a long line.
They've got it.
They're all messed up in there.
There's so many people.
It takes forever to get things done.
So we prayed.
And I'm like, yes, Lord.
Yes, we were praying for the DMV.
God, thank you for the DMV.
And I'm like, I turn to the young girl next to me.
I'm like, why did we pray for the Department of Motor Vehicles?
She goes, oh, honey, no, we're talking about, what is it, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
And I'm like, oh, or D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
I'm like, oh, that DMV.
I had no idea.
I never heard of that.
No, I've never heard of that.
If I said DMV to you, you'd think Department of Motor Vehicles.
I'd be like, yeah, let's pray for them.
Let's get their stuff together and let's start getting this party started.
You know, it's like path of least resistance.
How can I help you help yourself?
And living here, and I have to tell you, Linda, we all need prayer here, I have to tell you, honest to God.
First of all, there are so many Karens.
I was going into the area where you recycle cardboard where I live.
And there was a woman that looked like suspicious when I walked in.
She jumped when I opened the door and I said, hey, what's up?
And she said, well, I was just getting ready to write down apartment numbers of all the people that left the styrofoam in their cardboard boxes.
Like, oh my God, is your name Karen?
How much time do you have in your life?
Come.
Right?
Come on.
I mean, listen, I recycle like the best of them, but I got to tell you.
I do too.
You know, I'm friendly with a lot of these guys because I get up very early in the morning.
I'm out very early in the morning.
And I invite you all to talk to the person that's handling and facilitating your garbage pickup and ask them where the garbage goes.
Just have a come to Jesus with your garbage person because then you're going to find out that this is a big racket for them to charge you more money and say they're taking things to the recycling.
And they're not.
They're dumping it all in the same place because, yeah, you don't have to wonder.
You know, I'm telling you right now.
You're here to tell me.
And I still recycle like a tutoro.
You know, I'm out there recycling, doing what everybody else does, yellow top, green top, brown top, whatever.
But, you know, or whatever the colors are in your neighborhood for recycling and regular trash.
But all kidding aside, like everything, and I hate to say it like this because it's very pessimistic, but I feel like I'm being a pragmatist and sharing it.
There's a lot of scams going on because everybody wants to feel like they're doing something good.
And if they can charge you because you feel better, feeling like you're doing something good and nothing's actually happening, they will.
So you're paying more money for it.
That's only 10 cents.
10 cents for a plastic bag at the grocery store.
Everybody feels better, but it's still a plastic bag.
First of all, the plastic bags have already been made.
Use the plastic bags in existence and then dispose of them how you wish.
What are you doing with all the plastic bags sitting in the cardboard boxes?
And how many trees are you killing now that they're given paper?
Like the common sense of life is gone.
It's completely gone.
It really is.
And you just, ah, I just want to scream.
But thank you for that tip because I'm so OCD that, I mean, I literally like, they say to clean out the glass bottles.
Okay, I washed it out.
I make sure there's crystal clean and put the lid back on it.
I yell at the kids.
If you don't put the lid back on that plastic bottle, you know, I don't know.
I mean, I'm OCD.
So yeah, I take everything to the extreme.
If you're telling me that's what I have to do, that's what I do.
Listen, the only thing I do that they tell me I have to do is I cut up the plastic that goes around bottles because I don't want a duck or a fish or any kind of life like, you know, in any of our C's or that part.
I cut that.
I don't want them to get hurt.
Yes.
I don't put that in, the recycling.
Where do you put it?
Am I supposed to?
I just put it in the back.
Well, what do you do with it?
Do you cut it up?
You got to cut it up?
I got to cut it up.
Oh, my God.
Now you have to add to all of my anxiety.
Okay, I'll cut it up.
Want to ask you about Christmas, Linda?
I know you always have a ton of people.
Well, now you have a ton of people in your family.
What are you doing for Christmas?
We're having 20 people over, both sides of the family.
I have put up an extra table and we're doing the white elephant game.
I'm sure people have played this or some people call it double diamond.
It's my first year doing it.
So, you know, we've got 20 gifts and we're going to do it with the kiddos and the grandparents and everybody.
I think it'll be really fun.
So we're excited.
And I'm making braised short ribs instead of traditional foods.
So trying to something different.
But your husband's Italian, though.
Doesn't he want to do that?
Yeah, we're going to have ZD with sausage.
We're doing linguine and clam sauce.
Don't worry.
Everybody's going to get something.
Everybody's getting a little something.
Yeah.
So it'll be good.
It'll be good.
All right.
Good.
I'm glad to hear that.
I don't know either.
Jeez.
You know, I was watching this movie.
The Shop Pfeiffer, who I think is absolutely gorgeous to this day, the movie was, oh, what fun.
And it just talked about all the things that a mom does and a woman does to prepare for Christmas and the holidays, right?
And you know, we do.
It's just like when you go to bed at night, aren't you still thinking about, okay, what does my child need for tomorrow's lunch?
Did they study for that math test that I know they have?
Your husband is out cold the minute his head hits the pillow.
You, you're laying there thinking about all these things.
You're also the one probably responsible for all of the gifts, filling all the stockings, the menu, just like you just said.
You know exactly what you're having.
I mean, that's a burden on all of us.
And sometimes we're neglected.
Let's just be honest here.
Like, I'm very lucky.
I'm not neglected.
My husband is incredible.
We do everything together.
And I married well.
I'm very lucky.
You do.
He's awesome.
We love him.
I married well, too, but I still think that the stocking could be just a little fuller, you know?
Ask Eric.
Eric and Ethan are in the studio.
What are you doing for your wives to help them get ready for Christmas?
Yeah, what?
Are they doing that?
Are we supposed to help?
Oh, yeah, there you go.
I was going to say, should I play Jeopardy music and see how long it takes?
Yeah, it's like all day.
I'll be cooking a lot of the stuff on Christmas, but prepping for the day before and all that stuff, I can't handle that.
No, I don't really think you guys are really made to do that, to be honest with you.
Listen, I can't even wrap a gift that well.
So I'm going to be honest.
I'm pretty good at a lot of stuff, but wrapping gifts and decorating is not my forte.
When I give stuff to my wife, it looks like a three-year-old might have wrapped it.
It's the drunk elf.
The drunk elf wrapped my presents.
That's fine.
It's all good.
No, I don't like that.
No, I want it to be nice.
I want it wrapped.
I don't want a bag.
I don't want to dig in and just pull it out.
I want the suspense of unwrapping, tearing that paper off the box.
I think that my favorite part is wrapping.
And I keep buying presents so I have more to wrap.
I really think that's my thing.
I'm going to show you.
You know what?
I'm going to post it.
I'm going to be able to piss over that.
That's crazy.
Over that?
There's so many other reasons why I need to see a therapist, but yeah, that could be one of them.
I'll put a post.
I'm going to post a picture of Under My Tree and you'll see what I'm talking about because I am.
I'm sure it's stunning.
I am really good.
Stunning is right.
Anyway, I wish you, Linda, a very Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
And you too, Ethan and Eric.
Jeez.
Did you notice that Eric didn't chime in at all?
Eric is very quiet.
No comments.
It's just to me that he, yeah, there you go.
Eric's like, I want to stay married.
And I got nothing to say.
I'll tell you, my contribution is: I paid for everybody's gifts.
I love you guys.
I really do.
We're going to take a break here.
We'll come back.
Don't forget, I am going to put all of the information on how to limit data collection on my website, on Facebook, on Instagram, Rose Unplugged.
And also, I'll put a picture of the stunning, as Linda called them, gifts under my tree.
I really do.
And just a reminder, and I know that Rose has mentioned it a few times, but they say, like, a lot of our veterans and we've got homeless on the street, some of the sadder parts of the holidays.
So if you're in need of prayer, if you're wanting to pray for somebody, you know, she is called is it's really great, you know, and I'm not much of a proselytizer.
I'm not a Bible thumper.
I don't know what verse and chapter and all the things, but I do know there's a higher power.
And I do know that if we ask him for help, he'll give it to us.
And Rose is really terrific with that.
She's got this great group of individuals who will pray for you and help you or help somebody maybe you know, maybe somebody you know is going through a tough time and could use a little prayer and just put it in for them, you know.
I mean, always put a good word in with the big man, never hurt anybody.
No, not at all, Linda.
Thank you again for reminding me.
And yes, especially during this time of year, I think there are a lot of needs and a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed and maybe even sad because they lost a loved one.
So definitely send your prayer request in.
And it does stay anonymous.
And we do have a great team of ladies who are dedicated to praying for you.
And definitely call us at 800-941-7326.
We want to hear what your Christmas traditions are.
I love those calls.
I love those calls too.
Thanks for reminding me to give out the phone number.
Yeah.
800-941-Sean.
And thanks, Linda.
I love you.
I really do.
We're back at you, girl.
Thank you.
All right.
We'll be back with more after this.
Talk to us.
End of the free.
It's the Sean Hannity Show.
Okay, thanks.
Thanks for joining me on today's Sean Hannity show.
It was so much fun to be with all of you.
I'll be back on December 30th.
Looking forward to that.
And just real quick, you know, sometimes the biggest cultural battles don't happen in Washington, D.C. or New York.
They happen in small towns and in places where faith has always been part of daily life.
And that's what's playing out right now in South Carolina.
There's this little town that was decorating its brand new marketplace for the very first Christmas season.
It was nothing fancy, nothing controversial, just classic holiday decor, lights, wreaths, a snowman, Santa Claus, and, oh, uh-oh, a small nativity scene.
And the decorations weren't paid for by the city.
They were paid for personally by members of the Mullins Beautification Committee.
So a woman named Kimberly Bird put it all together, put up the decorations, put the nativity scene in, and found out around Thanksgiving time that the town's mayor asked that the nativity scene be removed from the public parking area.
And the reason that was given was concern about church and state, you know, that old argument, and about people in the community who hold different beliefs.
So, but Bird said that if the Nativity goes, then all of the decorations go.
And her reasoning was simple.
She doesn't believe that Jesus should be pushed aside while the rest of Christmas stays front and center.
So she also raised a bigger question.
How do you explain to children that their faith has to be hidden?
That Santa Claus can stay, but oh, the story of Christ can't.
And she said that she never expected to be in this position.
Who does, right?
But she believes there are moments when people have to stand up for what they believe is right.
And you know what?
That's what it's really all about.
At the end of the day, this is about whether or not the heart of Christmas still has a place in public life, especially in communities where faith has always been part of the fabric.
In that small town in South Carolina, one woman decided that if Christmas is being celebrated, then Christ shouldn't be hidden.
So if Christmas is the holiday that you celebrate right now, remember not to hide the person that we celebrate it for, whose birth we celebrate it for.
And also, I just want to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and safety and kind words between family members, because you know what?
In the end, that's all we have, are those that are dear to us.
And we have to remember to be kind and to respond to negativity the way that woman in the Target store did.
She responded with kindness.
She didn't argue.
She didn't fight back.
She didn't use the nasty words that the attacker used when she was attacking her.
But she just responded with kindness.
And I think it's something for all of us to keep in mind that that's what the season is about, but it's what it's about all the way through.
And I do think, too, when we talk about, as earlier in the show, we mentioned socialism and how it's creeping into every aspect of our lives, how it's creeping into the very fabric of who we are.
And even in churches, which, you know, I find astounding.
Honestly, I must have been in some sort of cocoon because I hadn't heard anything like that.
You know, I lived in southwestern PA and just about everybody that went to church believed the same way.
And they knew that socialism, that S word, was a bad word, but it's being repackaged in such a way that it's pulling the wool over a lot of people's eyes.
And I think the thing that concerns me the most is that our children haven't been taught history.
Because if they had, they would know what happened to places like Russia, to China, to Cuba, and now Venezuela, the most recent one, early part of the 2000s.
If they were taught, they would recognize why socialism isn't a good idea.
But they would also recognize something else if they were taught American history.
why this experiment, this American experiment, is the most amazing experiment in all of history.
It really is.
And as I mentioned before, the document that we are celebrating, the liberty that we're celebrating 250 years of beginning 2026, that document, that constitution was a radical document.
And the reason that it was radical was because that no other country has implemented something quite like it.
And that's because other governments do not want to give up control and give it to the people.
And we don't want to lose that control, people.
This is something worth fighting for.
This country is something worth fighting for and something to celebrate as we go into the new year.
God bless all of you.
I love so much being with you.
Please check me out, Rose Unplugged, and also sheiscalledbyhim.com.