Rick Green
Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's WallBuilders, where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And boy, it's an interesting hot topic of the day, guys, because I think everybody in the world is probably talking about this topic. So let's get some biblical, historical and constitutional perspective and maybe even just some Democrat rules perspective for how the Democrat Party is going to deal with this. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton and apparently you know we've been talking about this for a while. We kind of thought it would happen. Everybody wanted it to happen, considering Biden's cognitive decline, but it looks like he is out of the race Officially. Yesterday released a letter and turned around and endorsed Kamala Harris immediately.
So initial thoughts, guys,
David Barton
yeah this one kind of has the definite smell of a backroom deal. And one of the indications of that and this is you know, this is purely politics now talking presidential, which I hate talking purely politics when you're talking presidential because you'd like it to be good for the nation and maybe there is politics, but nonetheless, when the weekend starts, when we left the National Republican Convention last week talking about that, we thought something might happen over the weekend and it did. So what happens on Friday and Saturday is you get these press releases where Biden says I am not dropping out of the race, I'm still staying in it, everything is go, go, go. And then here on Sunday afternoon or actually Sunday morning, a press release drops and says hey, I'm leaving the race and I'm blessing Kamala and she gets my endorsement. I think she'd be great.
And according to press reports, it looks like that Biden walked in. He had his senior staff, white House staff say hey guys, I'm going to make an announcement in one minute. And here it is, and it's like they had one minute notice in the White House the senior staff of what he was about to do. So clearly there was a lot of backroom deals going on, if that report is correct from the staff members, then there was a lot of decisions being made on the presidency that did not involve presidential staff, just involved political people in the background.
Rick Green
I wish that Aaron Sorkin was still making West Wing, because that would have made quite an episode for West Wing.
Tim Barton
Well, it might be the same liberals that are running both of the shows that we are seeing unfold before us, and certainly, dad, as you're mentioning, on Friday, when they said, hey, there's going to be no announcement, right, none of this is going to come, and then, of course, the announcement comes. One of the things that we even talked about, I guess, was last week, as we were doing coverage from the convention, and there was a lot of thought that from the convention it's possible that, you know, trump gets another point or two bump, because of how many of the different incredible stories and speakers and the positive feel coming from the RNC convention, and we thought the Democrats are certainly not going to want to let him have this bump. What can they do? How can they make this competitive again? And so there was a lot of speculation this might happen, but of course, the Biden team being as ardent as they were against it, it really does make you wonder who was the one calling the shots, because certainly from the Biden family. It doesn't make sense that they would want this to happen when Jill has been advocating for so long to keep Joe there and she's been trying to help him posture and guide and all the details going on.
And what does this mean for Hunter Biden? Does this mean Joe is going to pardon him before he leaves office? I mean, what does this look like for the Biden crime family? What deal did they offer them? Or what threats were leveled against them? There's a lot of unknowns. But even as we say that the presumption of most Americans is that Kamala is going to be now the new candidate, and even though that's probably a logical guess, that's not a guaranteed at this point, knowing how much that backroom dealing there is going on standpoint, knowing how much that backroom dealing there is going on, knowing how much uh of an open field it now becomes and and granted, this is not a a it's not the best winning scenario for any democrat right now. There's nobody poised prime to come in and and be the democratic hero and help the democrats win another presidential election. But it's not a given it's going to be Kamala at this point.
Rick Green
Yeah, I guess they have. You know, I mentioned Democrat rules, so they have to. They have to go to convention, right, I mean they have to go. Their nominee has to come out of Chicago. There was talk about him doing a virtual nomination process to try to get it done faster. I guess that's kind of died off with all this.
David Barton
And now they will do it in Chicago at the convention in a few weeks. Yeah, by their rules they have to, because what you've got is there are 4,700 DNC Democrat National Convention delegates that will make the decision. Now what you have is Biden has right now, 3,896, or basically 3,900 of the 4,700 delegates are committed to Biden and under the DNC rules he is not allowed to give his delegates to anybody else. So if he drops out of the race, all of those delegates will have to vote for him on the first ballot. And then, after the first ballot, when that goes away and he's not there anymore and their votes have all been wasted, then the 700 superdelegates get to jump in and start voting as well. So the first time around it's not going to have the 700 super delegates, but that jumps in, and so they will have to make a decision at the Democrat National Convention.
Now there's already a number of names being floated around and trial balloons out, but I think that this probably is going to be a Kamala show, simply because of the fact that right now, the way campaign finance works, she can get access to the 240 million that they have in their campaign coffers. But if she is not the nominee. That 240 million cannot be used in the campaign. So I don't think Democrats want to give away 240 million, which is what they would have to do if they came up with. I don't think Democrats want to give away $240 million, which is what they would have to do if they came up with I don't know Gavin Newsom or Marianne Williamson or Whitmer or anybody else. They would lose that $240 million. So that's just kind of gut call right now.
Tim Barton
Well, and even if you found some way to navigate around that, who are you going to replace her with? I mean, you mentioned a few names. Whether it's Newsom or Whitmer or Pritzker, I mean, who has enough name recognition, that has enough favorability, and nobody has a winning record when it comes to things like the economy, when it comes to immigration, when it comes to inflation. There's not a single Democrat that fits the mold of what the DNC or I mean. We've kind of been referring to an oligarchy, which is what we would kind of reference. What's been happening with the Biden administration? Right, Joe Biden hasn't been the one making all these calls and having all this decision-making power. So who's been the one making those calls? Who are the leaders behind their kind of this oligarch? I don't see anybody else that can do this, and this is also not the time that I would think.
If you are someone, for example, like a Gavin Newsom, and you really want to have a shot, this is probably not your best case scenario, given how bad the immigration issue is, how bad inflation is, how bad things around the world are, and then looking at how bad California is doing, and now they've tried to assassinate Trump, they've tried to indict Trump. They've tried to arrest Trump that are swinging people and momentum on Trump's side that this is not the best case scenario for any Democrat to want to step in, including maybe even a Michelle Obama, which, even though she has said many times she doesn't want it, that's a name that keeps coming around because there's the least amount of baggage around her name. But even then, I can't imagine any Democrat that has a logical brain or a logical capacity in their brain is going hey, this is a really good case scenario for me to get in where I could be the president. This does not seem like favorabilities on any Democrat side.
Rick Green
Yeah, it's almost like they want to just say hey, I'll take it next time, guys.
David Barton
Well, what happens now is that that's a case for why your vice presidential pick has got to be so good. If they're going to stand a chance, it can't be somebody like her, it can't be Gavin Newsom along with her now out of the same state, whatever. But what happens is if you throw in and we talked about this on Friday if you throw in a Roy Cooper, the former Democrat governor of North Carolina, now you bring all your Midwest states in, you bring all your blue collar people in, you bring a whole different group in than she brings in, and that also, as we talked about on Friday, that also puts North Carolina back into the presidential race. Right now they're probably fairly safe for Trump If Roy Cooper comes in.
He was such a popular governor in the state and won the elections there. That probably pulls that state back into being a battleground state, which also changes what happens in the Electoral College. So I think what they do with the vice president could have a big impact Now if they stay the same radical liberal they have been. They could add Gavin Newsom, whoever, and you get two of the same thing. But if they're being strategic, I think that probably you'll look for somebody really different from her if they're willing to sacrifice their career because good chance, she won't win. And you're pretty much done if you run a vice president of Canada in a losing campaign.
Rick Green
Do you guys think it changes at all the approach that the Trump campaign takes, or that Republicans should have, the approach that the Trump campaign takes or that Republicans should have? Or is it just the same mantra against the Democrat machine not just Joe Biden, because there's all the same people right?
Tim Barton
Well, I think we saw from JD Vance being America first, and the message we heard from Trump at the RNC is the winning message at this point, because you've seen the Democrats, regardless of if you talk about a Democrat governor, a Democrat mayor or, in this case, the Biden administration and the Biden and Harris team, they have not put America first. They put Ukraine first, right, they've opened up the southern border and you start going down this list. And so then the clear contrast is that Trump and JD Vance's look America first, and then, on top of that, they were also both very clear that the genders are boys and girls, and we should protect girls and women's. Sports are boys and girls, and we should protect girls and women's sports. They are distancing themselves from Democrats as a whole, and so, even finding someone potentially like a Roy Cooper who comes in and if that's who ends up joining the Kamala Harris team to be a VP if you're still looking on Team Democrat well, hey, Roy Cooper might not be as crazy as the rest of them, but here's the Democrat policy.
The Democrat playbook has been going in every state. In every state, they're saying that we don't think parents should be in charge of their child's education. In fact, in many states they're saying parents shouldn't even know what's happening to their kids while they're at school. And their kids, if they want to change their gender, if they want to have these sex reassignment surgeries, parents maybe shouldn't even be included in that conversation. That is the Democrat position on this, and so I don't think that, for the Trump-Vance ticket, that they should change anything they're doing.
When it's America first, it's parents first, in even as they've acknowledged, maybe even that there's God and God-given rights. And so what are we prioritizing in this? That is where you find the clear contrast. So they haven't even really had to call out how crazy Kamala has been, or even Biden has been, or Pelosi, even though Trump did mention all of them by name in his speech. He really defined a very clear distinction just by acknowledging, from a policy standpoint, that we're going to put the American people first. We're going to put the American economy over the Ukrainian economy by not sending them so many hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for their retirement, etc. Etc. I don't think the message has to change at all, regardless of who Kamala Harris might pick, if she ends up being the nominee.
David Barton
There's one other factor that comes in here and, talking to some of the presidential consultants, they say there's no way, whoever it is, Kamala, anybody else there's no way they're going to get away without having to do at least one debate. They will have to do at least one debate and if you put her in a debate with Trump, it's probably going to look as bad, if not worse, than, the debate that you had with Biden. It's probably going to look as bad, if not worse, than the debate that you had with Biden. So that will be a really bad image. And it's so easy to hang around her neck. Oh, now, wait a minute.
She was vice president. What was her portfolio? Her portfolio was that. That's it. It was down on the border. She was in charge of all the border stuff. It is so easy to hang that around her, as well as all the fentanyl, as well as all the stuff that's going on.
So I think that it becomes just as easy a target to go after her as it was to go after Biden, because she's part of the same team. It has energized no question, it's energized Democrat donors. In the first five hours after Kamala announced, act Blue received $27.5 million of contributions came in in five hours and they came from big donors and little donors, so for Democrats, it's given them a real boost of energy. You're going to see some more money flowing as a result, but on the Republican side, I don't think you have to change the message of anything, and I think it is just as easy to tie what's going on in the nation around her neck as it was around Biden's neck, and I don't think anybody is really happy with the Biden-Harris team up to this point nationally, and I think that's why Trump has such a big lead
Rick Green
All right guys, quick break when we come back.
I got to ask you guys about the. You know what does this mean for the presidency from now until January. So if he can't run, can he do the job? I've heard a lot of people on the right you know Republicans and conservatives calling for him to actually step down as president, or at least for them to invoke the 25th. I haven't heard anybody on the Democrat side say that, of course, because it would admit that they should have done it a while back. Anyway, I'm really curious what y'all think about that. But let's take a quick break. We'll get David and Tim's thoughts on that when we return. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.
Break.
Rick Green
thanks for staying with us. Uh, David and Tim, right before the break we're talking about, uh, just quickly, throughout the 25th amendment thing. I mean, basically what I'm seeing over and over again is okay if he, if he, if his cognitive decline is too much to run now. He didn't say that in the letter, of course, so they're not admitting that's why he's not running, but everybody knows that then it's also too much for him to be at the helm and have his finger on the button. Do you think that clamor grows and they try to give Kamala the chance to be the acting president under the 25th, or do you think they kind of swat that away and focus on the Kamala Harris campaign?
David Barton
Before answering that or addressing that, let me back up to something In Biden's announcement that he was not going to run for reelection, that he's stepping out, he's endorsing Kamala he said in there that he was doing this. He says this is the best thing for my party and for my country. I was really disappointed that he put party ahead of country, and this goes back to Andrew Jackson. This is what Andrew Jackson started as the first Democrat president hey, you elected me. Therefore you get all of my agenda. It's not about upholding the Constitution, it's my agenda going forward, and that's exactly what Biden acknowledged in this. This is the best thing for my party first, and my country second.
Well, I would sure hope you would think your party was less important than your country, but apparently not. And so that was a real disappointment, even for posterity, because those are the kind of things that will forever be part of his presidential record, and you'll be able to see his speech as long as America exists, as long as there's ways to check that kind of data, information, electronic, whatever and that's a real disappointment. So back to other things. I don't think they can afford to have a second negative media cycle, and if they use the 25th Amendment, then they are acknowledging what Republicans have been saying all along. They're confirming the Republican viewpoint and I don't think they want to come out and say, hey, the Republicans are right. And on top of that, do you really think that Biden's been making the presidential decisions for the last three and a half years? I mean, this is what staff does.
This is what chief of staff, this is what heads of department, this is what they're doing. He's been the figurehead, but they've been making all the policy and doing all the stuff and that will not change. If he is totally cognitive or disabled, nothing's going to change in the way of policies or execution of policies. So I don't think that they give the media a second time to beat up on their administration. Give the Republicans a hey, the Republicans are right. Kind of backhand wave. I just don't think they can do that.
Tim Barton
Well, guys, you know one thing in consideration to this too, as we're looking at a president, because the thought of him saying I'm going to finish out my term but I'm not going, I'm not competent to run, but I'm going to finish my term this is where there's people that are contrasting, saying wait a second, if you're not fit enough to run for reelection, you're probably not fit enough to be there, and that is very fair. This is not the first time we've had a president who was in such mental decline that we've seen Joe Biden in many situations come and help him off the stage or after the debate. Just the super embarrassing moment when she is on the microphone saying, joe, you did it, you answered every question right out, applauding him like he's a toddler in this scenario. But if you back up to other examples in history, you have people like Woodrow Wilson, who it was believed the last year and a half of his presidency that he really his cognitive decline was so significant that there were many reports that at times somebody would knock on the door and his wife would answer it. And his wife would say what do you need? Hey, we need the president to sign this. She'd say, okay, give it to me, I'll have him sign it. She would take documents and then it was believed that she was actually forging his name on there. So he didn't even sign some of those documents in the last year and a half of his life.
Well, certainly we know that.
Even if you come to a more modern conservative hero, ronald Reagan, there were many reports that Reagan, the last year of his presidency, that Nancy was helping orchestrate and do a lot of things for him.
So this is not a brand new scenario, but certainly one of the differences now is that this is a president who is eligible to run for reelection but is not cognitively capable of running for reelection, of running for reelection where it might be different from, for example, woodrow Wilson, his second term, reagan, his second term, and people are like, ah, just let him finish and we'll have somebody else there.
It's just as crazy now as it was then to say, well, let's let the president's wife, who is not elected, be the one helping orchestrate this and, of course, with the Biden administration team, we know that there's a lot more people around him and it's not just Jill making those decisions, although we know she's been very involved to some extent. The full extent we don't know. However, she's been a very visible presence, invisible force, in this, but this is not a totally unique situation in American history. Just to add some context to the conversation, we can look at it. Go man, this is crazy, it is crazy. It's just not the first time that something like this has actually happened, with this kind of crazy, in presidential history.
Rick Green
It's almost like Tim, it's the nature of man to hold on to power right Any way that we can, unfortunately, and especially when you don't have good options to hand that power over to people that you believe will continue and further your agenda, which I think is what you probably saw in most of those situations. Well, you know, in our last five or six minutes together, guys, what do you kind of see coming between now and Chicago, which is the Democrat convention now in November, and, most importantly, approaching this campaign, without just being focused on this campaign but thinking about beyond 2024?
David Barton
Well, let me take it in a direction that says let's look at the issues we're going to be hearing about. Probably I was looking at Kamala Harris. What are the big issues that she thinks are so important? They don't necessarily distinguish her from Biden, but these are the issues she thinks are important, that she's pushing. And so I got her list of issues there's about eight here and these are her top issues. And then I went online and said, okay, where are the Americans on issues?
And so found polling, recent polling, that says here's the top 16 issues for Americans. Here's what Americans are concerned about the most, and it ranges from a stunning 91% down to a low of 51%. So these are 16 issues with at least 50% of the nation said this is a big deal. So just going through number one issue is inflation 91% concerned about inflation. You go through the next one. The number two issue is can we not get Democrats and Republicans to work together? Can't we stop this polarization, weaponization? And that's 91% as well. Then you get into the affordability of healthcare, then drug addiction, then the deficit, then illegal immigration, gun violence, violent crime, the state of moral values that's in the top 10, the quality of public education, climate change, the quality of public education, climate change, international terrorism on it goes. So that's the first 12 out of the top 16 for the nation.
Now here are her top eight issues, and this is from her campaign and are actually her political people. So her top issues number one is abortion rights. That didn't appear anywhere in that top 16 list. Number two was climate change. That did appear. I think that was number eight in the list, but of course the list doesn't tell you whether it's Republicans concerned about Democrats doing it or Democrats concerned that they should be fixing it. So since it's both sides, you can't tell which way that is. But that's the only thing that she has. That's in the top 10 of the nation. The other issues are student debt relief, making college free, controlling trade deficits, animal rights, artificial intelligence and data privacy. Now those are her top eight issues, according to the stuff that's coming out from her side, and that's not anywhere close to the top 10.
So it'll be interesting to see how the advertising goes, whether it's going to be she's just a great leader and doesn't get into the issues and all these puff pieces come out how great a leader she is and, by the way, the other thing I think that's going to bode well for her getting the nomination is the number of people who jumped on board immediately after President Biden said I'm not going to run for reelection. You had him endorse Kamala, but so did both of the Clintons, hillary and Bill. Both the Soros family endorsed Kamala. They got behind her Members of the DNC, planned Parenthood and all the pro-abortion groups. They endorsed Kamala. I mean, you got all these big Democrat players that are lining up big time behind her, which I think gives her some momentum going forward. Plus, she has the power of the bully pulpit for the next several months until the election. So she's probably the odds-on favorite, I would guess. But that doesn't mean it's going to be without contention going forward. But I do find it interesting that her agenda is nowhere close to what the nation's agenda is. That's not a surprise, but it's just again a reinforcement.
And one final thought, guys, I'd love to hear your reaction to this. I've been scratching my head and I admit that Massachusetts, although I love it as the home of so many founding fathers that John Adams and Sam Adams and John Hancock we acknowledge that man, they left the founding fathers' philosophy in the last several decades, or just on the opposite side, but this statement came from the Massachusetts Democratic Party. I don't know, maybe you can explain this to me, but they praised Biden for not running for reelection and they said his decision was an act of breathtaking humility. Said his decision was an act of breathtaking humility. Can you explain breathtaking humility in connection with Biden being told he's not going to be running the second time? I don't quite get that phrase. I'm not even sure what it means, quite frankly.
Rick Green
I think, David, I think it's Stockholm syndrome. I think the people of Massachusetts have been in captivity for so long so even the Republican Party has been in captivity for so long there that when a Democrat just exits, just exits for whatever reason, however late it is, if they exit, then all of a sudden they're oh, we got rid of one. Okay, we should be happy. That's the only way, only thing I know to, only way I know, to define it. I don't know. No, Tim, what do you think? Do you think it was profound humility? What?
was the phrase David. Yeah, and hang on Clarify. Oh, breathtaking. Yes, was this from the Democrats? It was from the Democrats. You're saying.
Rick Green
he said this Democrat Party of Massachusetts, oh I thought you said the Republicans.
Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you said the Republicans, because some Republicans are that terrible, right? I'm so sorry.
Tim Barton
Well, that's why I was confused and wanted to clarify on this. Yeah, I mean that's. You know it's not surprising that a Democrat would be breathtaking by this humility, because most Democrats they don't stop voting Democrat and, like long after they're dead, they're still voting Democrat.
So for this guy to step down this is huge.
David Barton
And so when I look at Democrats, I don't know that I can point to any national Democrat leader. In the number of years and, by the way, even a lot of Republican leaders that have done anything, that's a breathtaking act of humility.
Rick Green
Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. All right, folks, we'll have more throughout the week. We're staying on top of all these things and giving you a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective on them. Check it out at wallbuilders.show and share it with your friends and family. Thanks so much for listening to the Wall Builder Show.
