Rick Green
Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's WallBuilders and we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective, and it's Good News Friday, so we're going to jump into a lot of good news stories from David and Tim Barton. Tim Barton is a national speaker and pastor and president of wall builders. David Barton is America's premier historian and our founder here at wall builders. I'm Rick Green, a former Texas legislator and America's Constitution coach, and guys. I'm looking forward to the good news.
But I know how quickly we ended the show yesterday and there was so much to cover about Barry Loudermilk report from this House Oversight subcommittee looking into the J6 Select Committee that did not do their job, was more of a show trial and why security failed at the Capitol and the preparations weren't done. So there was so much coverage yesterday and I think we had 40 seconds when we came back from the break, so I know you guys had some thoughts about it. Let's jump back into that first and then we'll get to the good news later in the program.
Tim Barton
Well, I think it really does make sense to start Good News Friday with the good news from yesterday's program that truth is coming out, and anytime truth comes out, that is always a good thing. Jesus told the disciples you will know the truth. The truth shall make you free. The truth brings freedom and we're finally finding out truth. And just to hear Barry break down, and you know that was a 20 minute interview, and yet I felt like we were only getting pieces of what all he discovered I was like, no, no wait, Barry, talk more about that. I was texting with him some and especially once he got off and that you know, thank you and went back and forth a little bit. But it's just, there's so much there that people did not know. And when you start even breaking down we heard on the interview with some of the redacted things and people from the White House who talk about Trump. When he hears what's happening and says, well, you know, we need to call instantly, right, Nancy Pelosi, let's see what she needs, let's make sure she has those resources Everything about her does the exact opposite of the narrative.
When you have the driver for Trump, who there was an accusation, right, that Trump takes the wheel and he's going just crazy man. And they bring the driver in and nobody asked the driver. The most obvious question of these accusations it's just fascinating to see. The really whitewash is maybe not the right term because they're not whitewashing it by the cover up right, the cover up of what they were doing, of the dishonesty of trying to frame the conversation, frame the debate.
And this is not a January 6 denial in the sense of saying that something didn't happen on January 6. But it isn't acknowledgement that maybe what happened on January 6 is not what we've all been led to believe over the last many years. And, of course, what most of us have come to believe over the last year or two is that what we were initially told was a lie and we're now seeing more and more of that. And that's what Barry broke down in a really interesting fashion and so much more in those 81 pages. Dad, I know you were writing a lot of notes down as he was talking too.
David Barton
Yeah, and just I talked about just the impression I had over the fact that, you know, both sides had been after the truth. The report would have been similar from the way both sides reported it, but that's not what happened. It's like the difference between night and day and it's like we're describing two different states or two different rivers or whatever. We're supposed to be looking at the same thing and it did not come out that way. And I've got to say that I really do believe Barry was after the truth. Tim, you and I have talked about this before. Barry has told us things, as this investigation proceeding, that made it really clear to us that there really was an element of insurrection on January 6. There were some bad actors there. They had evil intent, they did bad things at the Capitol and I wasn't aware of that. I did not know that, but Barry told us that.
Tim Barton
Well and it's one of the things, sue, that they conservative shouldn't be surprised, right? We've seen Antifa and some of these groups who there are some out there, right, who would want to pretend like Antifa is a far right group, and we would, of course, not take credit for Antifa. But when you look at January 6, there were groups like Antifa that were part of January 6. And it's not surprising, when you have people that have those kinds of morals, or lack thereof, that are known for destructive behavior, that they might do something destructive. And specifically, there is one entrance where there was violence in at least that one location. Possibly two or three other locations, but for sure one location there was violence. But that's not everybody who was there, right? With our friend Glenn Beck over at the Blaze, he had a reporter for the Blaze that had to turn himself into the FBI and this reporter walked through an open door and was just filming what was happening. The FBI, being ridiculous, put him in shackles and he was only being charged with four misdemeanors.
So we've seen the craziness. We've seen there were people that were in the Capitol but they weren't there to be destructive. Some of them, like this reporter, was there to report on what was happening. But the counter is it's not just that everybody that was there was evil or everybody that was there was innocent. There actually were some of both. I would think it probably leans more toward innocent people being there than guilty people being there and the modern accusations. But you know, dad, back to this point, one of the things that Barry was the first person we learned from that it really was a little bit of both. There were some people there that their intent was to be destructive, their intent was to cause harm, and so we saw some of both of that. But that's certainly not the way this picture has been painted.
Rick Green
And that's what gives us back the trust right Is that he is. It's like when you're willing to speak truth even if it hurts quote, unquote your side, even though obviously you know, not saying that violent people were very side. But we've seen people that are Trump supporters, are considered on the right or Republican or whatever, try to say there was nothing bad that happened and it was all a setup and everything that bad happened was just the other side. And what Barry's doing is he's saying no, we're gonna look at this objectively. There were bad actors. I just think that's so important.
You know, it's like the way Dennis Prager in his Prager used breaks down the 10 Commandments when he talks about lying that it's actually when you're deceiving in order to hurt someone else and protect your own story or protect yourself and that's what the J6 committee did was they deceived in order to protect their person and they created a false narrative about Donald Trump. What Barry's doing is saying I'm gonna put all the truth out there, no matter who it hurts or helps. It's just the facts. That's our job to report. That's what I appreciate about how this is being done.
David Barton
Well, you know going back to George Washington, he talked about political prosperity is best on religion and morality. And I'm going to speculate for Barry. I haven't talked to him about him, but I know him and he was after truth. And I don't think he was after truth because that helps his party or that's the right thing. I think he's after truth because he accounts to God for what he does. It's not that he accounts to his voters yes, he does. He accounts to the state, accounts to his family, but he won't stand before God and he better have a really good reason why he ignored facts and chose others for a political narrative or agenda. And so I am absolutely convinced the fear of God is one of the things that cause you to do what's right when you don't necessarily have to. I'm going to speculate.
I do not know Liz Cheney, but if I judge a tree by its fruits, I don't think she has the same fear of God. I don't think she's conscious of answering to God, because I think that it's really clear that they cook the books. I mean when the House? All right, as Barry pointed out, they did not even follow the House rules on sitting up a committee, so it clearly was not a House committee. It was a House PR firm that they had hired from members among themselves. What it became. So they're taking House documents and Barry showed us they're taking House documents and giving them to the White House. They're documents that belong to the House and they gave them to the White House. Why would you do that with separation powers or anything else? It's because you're not after separation powers or the Constitution, you're after a political narrative, and so Barry's having to go through all sorts of hoops and circles to get the House materials back to the House where they belong.
So even the way this went down makes it really clear that one side was not at all concerned with truth, but a political narrative. And this is where the ends justifies the means, and you only get in that the ends justifies the means if you're not God conscious. If you are God conscious and you do answer to God that you are accountable, there is a judgment day. You're just not gonna pull that silly kind of nonsense, and I think there's a lot of Christians that are not God conscious and I think they can be selfish and do things that they cook the books or bend the rules, but I think that that's one thing we don't see with Barry. Barry is very God conscious and he's a solid, devout guy. I really commend him for that and some of the other stuff that I thought was, Tim, you pointed out.
How can you bring the driver of the Secret Service limo in and not ask him about the incident that he's there for? I mean, how in the world? And he says wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Here's what I was here for. Let me tell you what I was here. It's like you know clearly. So the whole thing is that this is an amazing report. It's not overdone with. This is kind of like a preliminary. They're still looking at a lot of stuff. My, I guess.
My consideration, my concern, is how, how widely will this be recognized and spread? Do people dismiss it? I'm tired of hearing about this been, hearing about this for three years. Make it go away. So do people even care what the truth is? And that's the next thing is. I think Barry had a love for the truth, but now, do citizens have a love for the truth? Do they want to dig deep enough to find out what the rest of the story is? And we'll go back to Proverbs 18:17. One side sounds good till you hear the other side, which is why we have the due process rights and the bill of rights that you hear both sides before you make a decision. A lot of Americans have already made decisions, so I hope particularly people who listen here that you'll go look at that or download it or consider whatever perceptions you may have formed. Wait till you get all the evidence in to really close those perceptions and reach a judgment.
Rick Green
Well, like you say, David, in the segment on truth and courage and biblical citizenship, you talk about the fact that truth is sometimes not easy to find and you have to do some hard work to get there, and you also have to stay hungry and keep digging and keep looking. Because you're right. I think a lot of people may have just tuned this one out or they may label this as just oh, this is just the other side trying to defend their guy, and so I hope people will look into this. I think it's important that we've covered it here. On the program, I encourage people to share the program. Share yesterday's program, share today's program.
You can be a part of getting this out there. You kind of are the press. It's a citizen job as well today. It's not like the old days where you had three networks and everybody watched those three networks and those guys typically did a pretty good job of just presenting the facts to the American people. It's not like that anymore. We, the people, have to be the press as well, and you can do that by sharing yesterday's program. So check that out today at www.wallbuilders.com and share it. You guys ready to get into some good news, let's at least get one piece of good news before we go to break.
David Barton
Before we do, let me throw some, because, rick, you just had something that was really, really important I think when you were talking about that. You know new services used to really go for truth. I was just, for whatever reason, I was struck recently and I went back and looked at a case from 1964, New York Times versus Sullivan. And I looked at it because I have never liked the outcome of that case where the Supreme Court, the New York Times, had a full page ad attacking people in Alabama and had so many inaccuracies in the report and they were so wrong. And so the guy in Alabama sued New York Times and the jury in Alabama gave him a half million dollar judgment against New York Times back in 1964. That's massive.
But the Supreme Court in a nine zero decision said no, no, no, if you're a public official, truth is not the objective. People can lie about you and do a public why would you say a public official would not have the protection of normal citizen right now? And then the Supreme Court within about a year said, well, it's not just public officials, it's public figures. And then within about five years they said, well, it's anyone who's in the public attention. So now I can lie about you if you're in the public, and one of the guys who got lied about actually brought a defamation case against the liar and the court said well, the fact that you brought a defamation case now makes you a public figure, and so truth is no longer the feds. You can't be protected because you're not a public figure. You brought a defamation. It's crazy. So what's happened is Clarence Thomas and Gorsuch have both said it's time to revisit that, and one of the things Clarence Thomas pointed out that I thought was so cool he said you know, back at the time when the New York Times did that, what you had back then was only four or five big major news outlets and each one of them had an entire department of fact checkers and they had all these people whose only job was to check and try to get the facts right, and so if you got these fact checkers and you come out with a blatantly wrong story, then that's a real problem.
So he said but here we are at a time now where you got these 24 hour news services and they pop up overnight and they may last a month or two and they don't have fact checkers. They just go out there and repeat what they've heard, and he really made a good point. Thomas said you know, he said we probably ought to have greater protection for public officials than for average citizens, because if you can lie about a public official, you might have a terrific public official that will not get elected. That might have been a great servant for the people. That will not get elected because you've lied about it and we protected that lie.
So I think that's one of the really key things out there with public officials is you can lie about them all day long now and not have any accountability. And that's what we see also in some of that J6 stuff the way that they didn't even talk to the driver or the limousine secret service guy because they want a narrative about Trump. That's not true. Well, what Barry's put out makes clear it's not true, but how many people read that? So that was just a commentary, rick, on what you said at the end.
I hope the day comes where the truth applies to everybody. It applies to all media services, it applies to public officials, to private farmers and citizens and school teachers and everybody else, and that's the way the Constitution is designed and that's why Gorsuch and Thomas are actually calling for that, so this is not supposed to be a foundation of freedom. And thirteenthly, budget. I think that's a great perspective for them to call for us to get back to telling the truth about public officials as well as private citizens, and if you don't, let's have a cause of action so you can have constitutional defense.
Rick Green
It's so good, man and listen, we will get to the good news. One more thing you say it in again in truth and courage and biblical citizenship. You also say we have to love truth, we have to want that truth, we have to fall back in love with the idea of truth, and our declaration lays that out. We hold these truths to be self-evident. So we, the people, have to once again love right and wrong. We want to know truth, we want to have those moral absolutes, and I think that is coming back because people are experiencing the pain of this moral relativism. They're going to fall back in love with truth. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll actually get to a little bit of those good news items that David and Tim have piled up for us this week. We're listening to the WallBuilders Show.
Tim Barton
Hey guys, it's Tim Barton and I want to let you know about an opportunity coming up for pastors and ministry leaders. We are doing our annual pastors briefing in Washington DC and we do this every year. We do one in the spring, we do one in the fall. This spring it's April 16th and 17th. This fall it is September 10th and 11th. This is one of the most significant things we do to encourage and challenge pastors in this culture we live in.
It's in Washington DC and Tuesday night we do an after hours tour of the US Capitol where we introduce pastors and ministry leaders to the history of the nation. The following day we have congressmen come and they give a briefing on what they're doing and how God is challenging and motivating and using them and, frankly, most pastors, most ministry leaders, they don't know the rich spiritual heritage of the nation or what God is still doing moving in the hearts and lives of leaders in this nation. I would encourage you if you're a pastor, ministry leader, you need to come to this. It's one of the best things we do at Wall Builders. To find out more, go to wallbuilders.com and look for the pastor's briefing.
Rick Green
We're back here on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday. We're now jumping into that stack. David, first piece of good news. Well, no, you said it earlier, Tim said it earlier. The good news is already out there. We already had a big good news story that the truth is coming out, Thanks to congressmen Loudermilk and the Republicans in Congress doing that, with the report out of that committee. But now our regular program it is brought to you by… I don't know why that sounded like that in my head, but go ahead, David. First piece of regular good news today.
David Barton
Actually I had the last monologue before the break, so I'm going to defer to Tim. It's his time to speak.
Rick Green
Oh wow, tim, look at that man.
Tim Barton
Well, go for it, brother. I will start with Texas. That my article headline says School Choice Wins Big on Super Tuesday.
Now let me already caveat, because I know many of our beloved friends that we might have a disagreement with on this issue. I know some homeschool friends and fans and moms that are not in favor of school choice. I am not in this moment trying to win the school choice argument debate, but here's what I can say. Anytime families have an opportunity to put their kids in a location other than a government school, that seems like that should be a piece of good news. Now again, I'm not trying to get into debate with my friends right now, but one of the things that is also very good about this it shows that there is accountability.
In Texas, there were several issues not just school choice that these Republicans, generally speaking, decided with Dade Phelan working to impeach Ken Paxton, who is the attorney general of Texas. And granted, Ken Paxton has some issues, maybe a little bit like a governor Abbot although Ken Paxton might have been more on the moral side but Abbot has some failures of leadership, and so we can look and acknowledge that these guys have not been perfect in what they did. Nonetheless, the point is these state legislators, the Republicans, that were heavily challenged, school choice was just one of many issues, but it became a fairly prominent issue, because the vast majority of Texans are in favor of school choice, and maybe also thrown out of the caveat for those that don't know, how many states now have done something regarding school choice, whether it be an ESA or whatever it is something along the lines of vouchers, but in the direction of school choice. How many states have done that now?
David Barton
32 states have done something to end government socialism of our education.
Tim Barton
So, for those who are thinking that this is a scary issue, the majority of the nation is already there and especially the majority of the conservative states have already taken those steps. So Texas is finally getting to the place where they are moving more in the conservative state direction. And this is also something too that, if you look at Florida or Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, there are several states that have shown that they have been far more conservative in their legislature with their governor's leadership in these various states than Texas has, and so it's always comforting when Texas is taking a step in the conservative direction. And maybe even more specifically, some of these state reps that were elected in, or at least they won, the primaries and many of the primaries. You assume if they win the primary they're going to be the next state legislature because it's such a heavy Republican district. Nonetheless, it is really strong conservatives on some of those areas and issues. So overall, it is good news that Texas seems to be going the direction of empowering parents of more freedom and more conservative constitutional values.
David Barton
And I'll add to that that the state record in Texas for the most incumbents losing in a single election was back in 2014, when seven incumbents lost in the state house. So far we have right at 10 that have lost and there's another eight that are runoffs, so it could be 18 incumbents. That's a pretty good wave from the citizens.
Tim Barton
And for those listening, especially if you're in Texas, there are runoffs for some of these primaries where there was not a clear winner, but some of these challengers, including the speaker of the house, Dade Phelon. He is in a runoff and the individual running against them, David Covey, is a very strong Christian young man, so maybe it can't be worth looking into not giving any endorsements, but it's good news also when you have someone who is not a conservative, like Dade Phelon, who was the speaker of the house. And for those that don't know, the Republicans do not choose a speaker from a Republican caucus or a Republican committee where they get together as Republicans and they choose a speaker from among them. They do it from the open house, where maybe 20 squishy Republicans will side with all of the Democrats and they will choose one of the squishy Republicans, and so the majority of the Republicans, who tend to lean conservative, do not get to have a conservative leader. Dade Phelon has been the speaker of the house, who is a Republican but, again, squishy in a lot of areas. He is in a runoff.
So runoffs are coming up. I believe it's on March 28th. I think it's when the runoff is, so definitely one that we will watch and there might be more good news that he is going to be replaced either way. Enough of his leadership team in the house was defeated in the primaries in Texas, that he will not have the same team and really likely, even if he maintains his seat, will not be the speaker of the house ever again. So runoffs are there and this could be even a bigger swing than we have yet to celebrate in Texas. So, dad, to your point, with how many incumbents were defeated? The most we've ever seen? It could be even a larger number after these runoff elections.
Rick Green
Yeah, and it's a, and I think it's actually in May, Tim on the runoffs. But, man, I got to add to what you said about David Covey great family, a wonderful homeschool family. They've been, you know, part of WallBuilders and Patriot Academy and for a long time. And so, man, how cool it would be to have one of those Covey kids I call him even though he's, you know, like not a kid anymore, but how cool it would be for him to be in the House. He'll be a great member if he can win that race, which he was way ahead in that primary, forcing that runoff. And so we'll see what happens here in a couple of months. And I think, what'd you say, David, there's another eight of those in eight of those house. Eight runoffs in the house still to go.
Rick Green
Yeah, and it's more than you know.
Sometimes people think, oh, we have a bunch of Republicans win over Democrats or whatever. This is a situation where you're talking about Republicans winning over Republicans and it being conservative Republicans that will stand firm, that will be bold, that will take ground back from the left and from what they've been able to do in our country over the last 50 years, instead of Republicans that go along, to get along and play the game and actually make it worse. So this is a big deal, and we want Texas to lead. I'm tired of Florida doing better than Texas, guys. It's time. And Tennessee too. You know, we had the representative from Tennessee on earlier this week talking about all the great things passing in Tennessee. I'm ready for Texas to have the best conservative record in the entire country. All right, David, let's get another piece of good news in before we close out today. Well, this is good news slash.
Just a shout out. This is a World War Two veteran and, by the way, there were 16 million World War Two veterans in World War Two that fought for on the American side, and of that less than 1% are alive today. You're looking about two thirds of 1%, so we're down to not many left. Well, one of those veterans is Corporal Howard Terrence, and he was over at D day. He was actually not on the beach. He was a mechanic for the airplanes that flew on the beaches shooting at the Germans trying to push them back so the Americans could land with less casualties, and so he was one of the mechanics on P-47s, the Thunderbolts, and so he that whole day was taking care of the planes. He wasn't on the beach but take care of the planes, and that day they lost half of that squadron and all the action that went on on June the 6th.
So he's a World War Two vet. He's really kind of a D-Day veteran. Although he wasn't on the beach, he was part of what was happening in the operations, and so he's going back now. He's going back in late May and he's going to be back at D-Day for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. He's 100 years old. So he's going back for the 80th anniversary. And guess why he's going back to the beaches of D-Day? Because he's getting married on that day.
100 years old, I love it, his bride is 96 years old.
Rick Green
Oh, that's, I love it.
David Barton
They're going back to Normandy to get married. I love it. It's a fun. It is so hilarious, I can't keep from laughing.
Tim Barton
It's great, I love this I think maybe they read Genesis about Abraham and Sarah and they're like I see what happens, yep.
Rick Green
I just want to see the MC of the reception at the end saying everybody welcome the young couple you know because she's like oh here, I think they probably act that way because her comment is her comment is he's the greatest kisser. So clearly they Abraham Sarah. Yeah, it's still going
Tim Barton
Is that, and this might be too much Like is that with, then yours or without?
I'm just curious, oh man.
Rick Green
And with that folks, we're out of time for good news today. But what a cool story. 100 and then a 96 year old and David, just like you said, man, so few of them still with us and we owe them so much the greatest generation and just so many great stories. We've been honored here at WallBuilders to interview a lot of those guys over the years and some just amazing stories that we've had told here on the airwaves and you can go into our archives to get some of those programs and we even have a CD that highlights I guess they still call it a CD we have an MP3 download as well that highlights some of the best of the best from those interviews. So check that out today at wallbuilders.com as well. Thanks for listening to good news Friday on The WallBuilders Show.
