Rick Green: 0:11

Welcome to the intersection of faith in the culture. It's the WallBuilders show where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Little later in the program, we'll have Congressman Roger Williams with us. For now, it's David and Tim Barton and Rick Green. And we're going to talk about our hero of history for today, Tim, man, I don't know what number are we on? You've covered a lot of these over the last couple weeks.

Tim Barton: 0:31

Yeah, I think he's number 14. And as we have Yeah, she had heard a rumor that her family had been sent West. pointed out in the program before, all this information is available at WallBuilders.com. People can go there, if they want to download, follow along, read along. And this is certainly not even close to scratching the surface of so many of these American heroes. And really, these are... we're talking about the American heroes series. This is the black heroes of American history. And we already have a very long list for next February. And I mean, people that we celebrate throughout the years, some just incredible contributions. And so this one is Clara Brown, she was known as the angel of the Rockies. Her story is one not dissimilar from some and... that there's a lot of tragedy involved. There's a lot of faith involved. Someone who was a very strong believer in God was a very outspoken Christian, did a lot to promote a Christian ministry. And ultimately, in her story, there's at least somewhat of a bow on the end of her story, even reminds me a little bit of like, It's a Wonderful Life at the very end of her story. But Claire was born in 1800 in Tennessee, she and her mother were sold into slavery when she was 18. She married a man named Richard, they had four children, and 17 years later, the owner died, they divide the estate and she is taken away from her family. She ends up going to Kentucky where she's then in slavery in Kentucky. Finally that owner dies, that owner left her a lot of money, apparently, she was very light, on some level by the owner, she's able to take the money and buy her freedom and then decides that she really would like to find her family. And all this is while there's westward expansion, so she ends up moving west, but the whole time she's looking for her family. And there's a lot of tragedy And so once she buys her freedom, she heads for the West involved along the way of her finding out that some of her family has died. Some of them might still be alive, but even going west was a really big deal for her back then. to try to find her family. She ends up in Kansas and in Missouri and then hears, well, maybe they've gone west into Colorado. And so she ends up in Colorado. And in Colorado, she's looking for a family. She is such a kind and gracious woman who was helping just everybody under the sun, miners who got sick and, and she was a midwife to all sorts of deliveries. And so she became really well known, and really was named the angel of the Rockies because she helped anybody who needed help. But she gets into business investments and starts making some money. And she wants to use that to go find her family. Well and also worth noting, by 1865, she was identified as one of the wealthiest women in the west and depending on how we're defining and where we're looking, I mean, maybe the wealthiest woman, again, depending on what we're talking about, but incredibly wealthy already by 1865. She is a member of a local Presbyterian Church. She helps fund other churches along the way, and they actually called her Aunt Clara. Well, now that she's established, she's helping lots of ministry, she decides she's going to go back to Kentucky and look for family, because she didn't find anything in the West. She goes back to Kentucky and doesn't find her family but finds... because now also we're after the Civil War. 13th amendment has been passed, and she finds a lot of former slaves who just don't have a way to make it in life.

David Barton: 3:49

And she looked really hard for her family of her four kids and husband, she found that one of the kids had died early. So that left her with two daughters she's looking for and a son. Then she found the son she tracked him and found he had been sold and resold so many times she could not track him. She found that her husband and another daughter had died in slavery. And so she's got one daughter somewhere and she's just determined to find that daughter and she went all over that region looking and following leads and, and just couldn't find anybody but it's time to return to Colorado and that's when she sees all these people that needs help. And she took so many people to Colorado with her she left Kentucky

Tim Barton: 4:26

Well, and when they get back to Colorado. She helps take care of them. She actually personally sent several of them through college, again financially taking care of them, along the way. She took an official position with a Republican governor Frederick Pitkin, Colorado's second governor, helping move former slaves from Kansas to Colorado finding good jobs, and ultimately, tragedy strikes, she ends up losing so much of her fortune. And in 1882 after 47 years of searching, she finally learns that her daughter Eliza was living in Iowa and that her daughter Eliza had a daughter so then she has a granddaughter, so the three of them are reunited, they come out to Denver, but where they are in Denver at this point, she is just... Clara is very poor and doesn't have a lot but she's helped so many people along the way. That word spreads that Clara found a daughter and a granddaughter and they're living together, but they don't have any money. And so, collections just start coming in. People are just starting to give money. And this is where reminded me of like, It's a Wonderful Life. The very end everybody's like, Oh, he's in trouble! Let's give him money! This is in my mind, like this is the image I see, as I read some of these stories about the generosity that came in, she ends up dying in 1885 Just because of poor health. But when she died, her funeral was attended by all the noted individuals the time the mayor of Denver, the governor of Colorado, she was inducted in the woman's Hall of Fame. And her image actually appears to this day in the stained glass window at the State Capitol, where she is known as the angel of the Rockies. And so she is Angel of the Rockies. Great story, Tim, we've got more someone when you're talking about going from rags to riches and her becoming one of the wealthiest women of the West and available for you folks at our website, right there at then all the things she did to help former slaves and help them get established working with government officials to find funding. Such an impressive person that today very few people know much about. For more information, you can go to WallBuilders.com or just look up online, Clara Brown, Angel of the Rockies, WallBuilders.com . All right when we come back from the break, guys, we got Congressman Roger Williams is going to be with us, Texas Congressman, all three of us have known him for years. In fact, his district used to stretch from where y'all are up in the Dallas Fort Worth area all the way down to where I am in the Dripping Springs Austin area, crazy district that he has, but a good member of Congress looking forward to chatting with him.

David Barton: 6:43

Roger is really one of the leaders in Congress. Now. He's been there for a number of years. And by the way, he is a baseball Hall of Famer for TCU, Texas Christian University. The field is named after him. He's got this field named after him. He's a great baseball player and he goes to Washington, DC and got injured when the guy was trying to shoot all the Republican baseball players. He dove into the dug out to avoid the bullets and ended up breaking his ankle as a congressman, when all that fiasco has happened to that guy trying to shoot Republicans. Well, now he's in leadership. He's one of the 19 committee chairman in Congress. He's over the Small Business Committee. And so it'd be fun to talk to a leader of Congress and see what's happening now, what they're doing, what their plans are.

Rick Green: 7:22

Stay with us, folks, Roger Williams, our special guest today on WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 7:25

Hey, this is Tim Burton with WallBuilders. And as you've had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional. And you might be thinking as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area, and share with my group, whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school, or public school, or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a WallBuilders speaker coming to your area, you can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com. And there's a tab for scheduling. And if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers bios, to events that are already going on. And there's a section where you can request an event. To bring this information about who we are where we came from our religious liberties and freedoms, go to the WallBuilders website and bring a speaker to your area.

Rick Green: 8:35

Welcome back to WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Great to have Congressman Roger Williams back with us. Congressman, thanks for joining us today.

Roger Williams: 8:41

Well, thank you guys. It's always good to be with you. Appreciate all you do.

Rick Green: 8:44

Well, it's right back at you and already, man, it's hard to believe we're what a month and a half or two into the first part of this new Republican Congress. And so we just wanted to hear from you, how different it is, what are the hot topics right now for you? And tell us a little bit about what you see happening in 2023.

Unknown: 9:03

Well I will, in fact, somebody called me today want to know if I realized this 300 days until the primary. So, here we go, right? But let me say this- It's a good thing that we have leadership right now in the US House. It's not as big as we had hoped, but it is a majority. And we're already doing some great things. I mean, one of the first things we did was get rid of the 87,000 IRS agents, as you guys know, which sent a pretty good message that we believe in the people and not big government. But I think that a lot of people who asked me about last week's State of the Union... let me just touch on this. I thought it was very weak. I thought it came from a very weak commander in chief. He didn't talk about what really Americans want to hear. I mean, he didn't talk about the economy. He didn't talk about the border. He didn't talk about China. He just demeaned the workers. He talked about organized labor. He did talk about Mainstreet. He talked about raising taxes. And so it was the wrong speech at the wrong time. But it shows you where his liberal left wing Democratic party's going. They do believe in big government, they don't believe in the people, which is just the opposite of us. We all believe in the greatest asset America has is Americans and we need to turn them loose. So and he didn't even talk about inflation, if you remember that. So anyway, to say the Union address was not really a State of the Union, it was a state.... It was what Biden wanted to talk about, so I thought there was a missed opportunity there. The biggest thing that he missed, and I think that they're trying to not talk about, is this border. You all have been to the border, I kno Rick, and everybody's been down there. I've been down there since, like, gosh, last 20 years, almost since I was Secretary of State. [It] gets worse every single day, it's worse today than it was yesterday, going to be worse tomorrow. You know we're... had these people, were okay, and them to break the law, for crying out loud, all we want them to do is to come legally through the ports of entry and realize how to work here and be a citizen or whatever you want. But they choose not to do that. And I have a problem with a person who decides the first thing to do with America is break the law. And that's a real issue. But the border's an issue, we need to rebuild the wall, we need to keep the remaining Mexico policy standing, I've got a bill out there to make it permanent. And then of course title 42 is always discussed, and that needs to stay in force. And we need more judges down there, much like President Trump did. I mean, President Trump stopped the illegal behavior at the border. But more often than that, of course, is the fentanyl is coming with the drug dealers. This is an invasion of illegals. It's an invasion of drugs. People got to know that. And, you know, we may need the United States military down there to take care of these drug dealers, because we're losing generations of people through this fentanyl, so... But he didn't want to talk about that. And of course, China is testing us every single day, these aircraft were shooting down now become mysterious, and they should not be allowed to spy on America. And anytime they send something over there it needs to be put an end to. So I just think that what we hear from President Biden is not what's happening in America, and American people are getting lied to. And that's the reason we have elections and hope we'll fix it. So, and then finally, as you mentioned, I'm chair of the Small Business Committee, which I'm really honored to be, this committee is so broad base, it really represents mainstream America 75% of the payroll 75% of the workforce, will fall in this category. And it's an exciting time to be chairing it, because this is where we need to grow our country through small businesses, startups, people working, people bringing a paycheck home. And also we oversee the SBA, which has gone a little rogue. It's gone left. I tell... I told the administer that, Guzman of the SBA that regards who's in the White House, SBA should never be political. The SBA should always be for lower taxes, less government, cut spending, creating jobs. But no, you can't even get them right now to admit that raising taxes is bad to small business. So we've got to get that fixed. And we will. And then of course we're facing inflation, we're facing high interest rates. We can get all that done by getting a business plan together that lets us build in America and buy in America, and be the supplier to the world. That's kind of where we are.

Rick Green: 13:25

There's so much to do, Congressman, I don't know how you guys stay sane, with the whack a mole, you're having to deal with so many different problems. You sound optimistic, and you sound like, you know, there can be progress made. So are you seeing that, even with the slim majority, and even with only, you know, half of that branch, that you guys are still able to move the ball in the right direction, at least stop some of the damage that the Biden administration was doing so quickly?

Roger Williams: 13:49

Well, we're playing defense right now. And we're doing some things that are good, like you're brought up about the agents, but we want to make tax cuts permanent. I mean, we know if we cut taxes, create taxpayers. If we cut tax we create income. We've seen it work. Those are the kinds of things we want to do. We denounced socialism last week. Unbelievable, [that] you have to do that in the United States of America. So look, as I tell people, all I can do, all we could do and all we should do is worry about what we do in the house. We can't worry about what they will do in the Senate or if he will veto this legislation. We got to put out good crisp legislation that believes in the people, is constitutional. And then see what happens and put pressure on our friends over in the Senate to get it to his desk. But I don't want anybody to worry about the Senate. Let's worry about the House and make sure we do our job.

David Barton: 14:37

Congressman, you know that resolution, you mentioned socialism, that's really interesting to me because the language was so clear. You're condemning Stalin, you're condemning Tito, you are condemning all the guys who have killed 100 million and you still had 87 Democrats who voted against that resolution. You still had 12 that voted present, so roughly half the Democrat caucus doesn't think that Stalin and all those guys are bad. But even moving to a different enemy China, I'm curious, we heard from the Pentagon recently that they think we could be in a hot war with China by 2025, which is really, really soon. Really close. Is that possible? Is that hyperbola? Is that designed to get things moving in DC? What do you think the prospects of that actually are? And the radicalness of what you've got on the other side? How much can you really get done? When you've got people who don't even think socialism is bad when you give the worst examples of socialism?

Roger Williams: 15:30

Well, first of all, when we voted on that socialism, your numbers are exactly right. But the amazing number to me more than those was the "present". I mean, they don't even know if they're no or yes, on it. I mean, it's just crazy. And these people are elected to serve the United States Congress, in the United States of America. So anyway, you know, to say, we could be in a hot war in 2025. I mean, we can be in that any day, frankly. And I think though, with... that's why we need somebody that can sit down and talk to the Chinese and show strength and not weakness. Every time that Joe Biden shows up, he shows weakness, and it makes our enemies think, well, you know, we might be able to do this after all. They didn't want to do that with Trump, because they didn't trust him. They were fearful of him. And that's what people... Our enemies need to be fearful of America if we're going to have a strong America. So I think right now we're promoting from weakness instead of strength. And that's why it's important in the House, we pass good strong legislation and get it over to the Senate, make sure that Cornyn and Cruz and the others get it on his desk. But 2025 I mean, I pray to God, we're not in a war. But at the same time, think about if you're China, and you're flying balloons over the United States of America, and whatever you're doing and flying them over missile silos and metropolitan cities, and you're not... and nobody's doing anything, that would be something that might worry me from our standpoint that might let them think they can do something quicker than... sooner than later. But they're testing us. So we'll see. But we still have the strongest military in the world. But one of the problems is, we are diminishing our supply of armament. We know that with Ukraine, we've got to rebuild it back. We've got to build our reputation back, we got to build ships, we got to... and we have to somehow get our fiscal house in order. It's a lot to do.

Rick Green: 17:20

You know, I was thinking about what you were saying about the border and the cartels and the military. And I've heard that a couple of times, and even in the last few days. And so I'm curious if there's a growing momentum in DC, to say it's time we this is something that we need to do. It's the only way we're going to stop the cartels, they're are already on American soil and operating in these different areas. Not only along the border, but into the country. What does it take to do that? And do you think there's momentum for that?

Roger Williams: 17:50

Well, I don't know if there's no manner, but the fact of the matter is nobody stopping these guys. Nobody. And the American military could stop them, we should stop them. It's an invasion. It doesn't mean we're attacking Mexico or anything. But these people are killing people on both sides of the border. They're killing young people. And something's got to be addressed to them. And they fear no one either. So I'm just saying there's just a point in time, when do we say enough is enough with killing our generations, future generations of children, tearing families apart, ruining lives, challenging our laws, promoting sex trafficking, promoting all the things they do by bringing the illegals up? When do we say enough is enough? I think we're getting close. And one thing they cannot stand up to is the United States military.

Rick Green: 18:42

Yeah, yeah. And Congressman, as you know, because you're out there doing town halls and talking to people all the time. But, you know, we think the American people are behind you on that. I mean, it's what we hear everywhere as well. And it is it just... everybody's fed up with it and saying, my goodness, we're letting our country be overrun.

Roger Williams: 18:59

Well, and look at, our border patrol is showing more strength than you can imagine they're doing a great job, but they're overwhelmed, right? And you know, we just kind of give him lip service and expect them to do the job. This is right now with fentanyl and with the drug dealers and the drug industry, this is not... this is bigger than border patrol stuff. Okay? This is the challenging of our very future of our nation. And we need to step up and... there's a point in time when you say, enough is enough. And that's where leadership comes involved. When's our leadership going to say that?

Tim Barton: 19:29

Well, Congressman, one of the things too, that I think is so interesting is we're even discussing the southern border on some level. And also with economics and finance is, I saw just recently that the government said that they wouldn't be able to continue to fund the security blimps over the southern border that are able to be able to monitor who's coming and going and the contacts and what we know now with over the last few years, nearly 5 million people coming across the southern border that's identified, and the governor is now saying, well, we can't afford to have those blimps up anymore. It's too expensive. And so, it just makes me wonder as someone now in the House as Republicans are able to monitor the purse strings a little bit more, is there something you guys can do to leverage being able to protect the southern border more as we're spending so much money going over to all these nations of the world, Ukraine not being the least of those, but we fund so many nations, so many projects. And now we're saying we don't have enough money to even monitor the southern border. I'm sure you guys are pushing back on this. But is there something that y'all strategically can do? Is there leverage that can be asserted to maybe help secure the southern border?

Roger Williams: 20:42

Well, it's our job to begin with, isn't it? It's our job to do that. But I think more than leverage, it's a negotiation, we got to sit down with... and negotiate. Unfortunately, the Democrats, every time we talk about military, finances and securing borders with the military, they all go back to social initiatives, the two are not the same. And we're going to have to sit down and go over that, that is can't be dollar for dollar. We can't be dollar for dollar on social services, and the military, because we've got to defend our country. And you brought up Ukraine, as did I. We've lost so much of our inventory, on missiles and rockets and even tanks, etc. That it's going to take years and years to get back to where we were before the Ukraine war, in December of last year. And now we're looking at Taiwan, we've got a lot to do. And we've got to understand without a free America, there is no world. Without a strong America, there's no world, and if we're not the superpower the world is going to implode.

David Barton: 21:46

Congressman, looks like one of the big issues that Biden has been pushing ever since he got in has been the ESG kind of stuff. And from the state level where we work, we see the 28 states right now are working on legislation to try to stop that. Because it does go after small businesses. I mean, it goes after... we've seen a number of... we actually have a website where we collect the stories of businesses who have been shut down by financial institutions, or insurance companies or banks, or whatever that don't agree with what they do, or their beliefs or their political positions or whatever. And I know federalism is a really big deal. And we want the 10th Amendment defended. Is ESG something that rises to the level of federal? Is this something you guys will address a small business? Or is this something that's got to be addressed by the state legislatures?

Roger Williams: 22:31

Well, think both. I think we'll certainly do it because it's playing with a lot of taxpayers' money. And you know, one thing too, if you remember there was a thing called Operation Choke Point that picked 45 businesses that the government said the bank should not do business with. And one of which, I was an Operation Choke Point victim because I'm in the used car business. And that was one of the industries the government didn't want the banks to do business with. So we've got to address things like this, because we need free markets. We need open markets. People need to know... when they invest their money, it's invested in the proper investments. And that can be a state and federal issue. But we need to protect the integrity and net worth of the people that live here. And they need to have trust. And we're losing that trust in a lot of things that for years have been just automatically assumed that everything was right. One of the things we'll be doing with the SBA is oversight. And you saw last week where $85 billion was misappropriated by the SBA, from idle funds during the COVID. So those are the kinds of things we need to address and get that money back in the hands of the people.

Rick Green: 23:36

Yeah, man, it'd be great. I love the fact that y'all are doing the oversight that you are, that you're going after, you know, some of these agencies that definitely went rogue during, you know, COVID, but actually have been rogue a little bit for decades. But anyway, we're thrilled to see that kind of action as well. Congressman, thank you so much. We sure appreciate you coming on today.

Roger Williams: 23:52

Okay anytime, guys. Thank you. God bless.

Rick Green: 23:55

Stay with us, you're listening to WallBuilders Live.

Tim Barton: 24:08

This is Tim Burton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. The second amendment to the Constitution which guarantees to every individual the right to keep and bear arms has been targeted for years now by those who are determined to dismantle the individual right to self protection. Opponents argue that only the militia, the military and law enforcement are to have and use firearms. But those who wrote the Second Amendment strenuously disagreed, including founding father Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the Declaration, a president of the Continental Congress, and one of those who actually framed the Second Amendment. He declared, to preserve Liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught to like especially when young how to use them. For more information about Richard Henry Lee, and the history of the Second Amendment, go to WallBuilders.com

Rick Green: 25:04

Welcome back to WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. That was Congressman Roger Williams. Great to have him back on the program. David and Tim, I, you know, I'm getting encouraged. I mean, we keep having these congressmen on the program, talking about the positive things that the House is working towards. And not there's any silver bullet, not that it's all solved. But it's just good to hear some good news for once.

David Barton: 25:22

Well, when you're looking at Congress, and you have the house, the senate and judiciary, running government. Let's take judiciary off the table. You have the House, the Senate, Judiciary and President running government. So four large federal entities and judiciary is becoming non political, now. They're backing out and going back to the Constitution. That leaves you three political entities. That leaves you the president, the House and the Senate. And right now Democrats have two of the three. So when you're in a minority position, like the House, what can you do? And I'm really encouraged that these guys are thinking about how to have an impact. On Wednesday, we had Congressman Josh Brecheen. And he was talking about that, from a budget standpoint, they're going to try to drive the debate in the Senate. Instead of the Senate pushing the house, they're going to push the Senate. They're going to send measures to the Senate that the Senate has to work from. So they're already thinking about how to be offensive and regressive, even though they're in the minority, how to have a positive impact. And just hearing from Roger on the stuff that they've got, even the oversight. I mean, if you're going to be able to save 75 million that was spent wrong and get that back and get it to the people. That's all good stuff.

Rick Green: 26:23

Alright folks, out of time for today. That was Congressman Roger Williams with us today. You can go into the archive section at our website WallBuildersLive.com to get more of those interviews, we appreciate you listening to WallBuilders.