Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's The WallBuilders Show, taking on those hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. I'm Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about us at our website wallbuilders.com wallbuilders.com course that scripture comes from or that word comes from the scripture Nehemiah that says arise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be a reproach. And folks, we have a chance to rebuild the walls in America. What an exciting time. David and Tim, yesterday we got to give a little bit of a recap on election night. We know a little bit more now than we did then. And, you know, lots of lots of good news. Tim, I remember you talking about the the pro-life measures. That was some of the bad news. Seven of three of ten. We defeated the pro-abortion legislation, 7 or 10 pro-abortion passed. But obviously president, Senate, the House and then some of those other down ballot races looking pretty good. A good night for a constitutional, biblical and historical approach, I would say. 

Tim Barton [00:01:09] I would say overall, for sure it was a good night, especially considering what the options were on the presidential ticket and really believing that God gave us a respite. It's it's interesting. A lot of the different individuals I follow on social media, some of my friends that are very involved and their leaders and some of these political and conservative movement, some of these conservative voices we're seeing, a lot of them acknowledge that we think God's given us a reprieve. And therefore, the mandate is to be good stewards of these next four years to to really do something with it. And at this point, I don't remember how much I said on our program yesterday and how much was other networks, other interviews, a long time or. 

Rick Green [00:01:55] Man, it's all a blur. 

Tim Barton [00:01:56] You know. Yes. There's there's still not been the proper amount of sleep to catch up, not to mention the many months leading into election guys as we were all over the place doing so many events, gone from our homes, in our beds for so many days. And, you know, praise God for what happened. But recognizing still, we think God has definitely given us grace in this moment. But recognizing the need for Christians in the church going forward, if if we don't look around and see that there is some some major help needed even inside of the church to help people start thinking more biblically, the fact that you had 66 million plus Americans openly supporting a socialist idea when you had more than that, supporting a pro-abortion pro-death idea is there's a lot of work that needs to be done now. With that being said, not to take away from the fact that there's still results we're seeing as we were recording. What is it? I guess man is somewhere two, 3:00 in the morning, right after I think it closed down. President Trump was given his his victory speech at that point in Michigan had not been called. And so since then, we've seen Michigan be called for President Trump Alaska was called for President Trump. And so his numbers increased to 95. We have not yet seen the results from Arizona and Nevada, but ultimately, we might not see that until after the weekend as Arizona for sure. They have up until Sunday to cure some of those ballots. Nevada, similarly has a long time for people to continue the process, and it is yet one of those other things that if we look at some of the mandates going forward, what should we do? Certainly getting back to an election process that happens on Election Day makes a lot of sense. However, that looks what Well, if. 

Rick Green [00:03:56] In fact, him I want to ask you about curing ballots. Why don't you, since you mentioned that, because I got a text today from one of our conservation coaches running for the legislature there in in Nevada. And he's had a couple of hundred votes or whatever it is, separating them. And they're literally going door to door to cure ballots. So how does this work? Like you could you can actually go after the election if a mail in ballot was for whatever reason, not, I guess, approved. What does cure mean? You actually go to somebody's house and say, hey, you need to fix your ballot. 

Tim Barton [00:04:25] That's as silly as that sounds. That literally is what it is. And it's something it's something done to try to make sure that every and I'm speaking for this, giving it the benefit of the doubt that I'm I'm sure when this rule was put in place, it was only honest people wanting to do honest things. I'm sure. 

Rick Green [00:04:45] That purpose. Yes. 

Tim Barton [00:04:46] But the idea behind it is if somebody sends a mail in ballot and let's say that something wasn't legible, maybe their their handwriting wasn't legible. And so the address wasn't clear, their signature, you know, maybe it was scribbled. They're not really sure it's your signature, whatever was that might challenge or that an individual might challenge when when people are processing on these mail in ballots, someone goes, wait a second. Nope, that looks fraudulent. Put that in a different pile. And so the the pile of the potentially non valid ballots that somebody might question and maybe it could have been an honest mistake. Right? It could have been a 19 year old person and they forgot to fill in something. It could, you know, and I'm saying 90 there's probably some really bright 90 year olds that are, like offended right now. Excuse me, I'm 90 and whatever mess messes up. Okay. Right. So maybe it's 112 year old and they forgot to put something in all the ballots that there could be an honest mistake that was made. And so there will be a stack of ballots that are Republican, independent, Democrat, whatever it might be. And so, generally speaking, someone from that party can go and say, hey, where's our stack of ballots that need to be cured and cured means that you go to that individual's address and you get them to correct, to verify, to fill in whatever's missing, to then make it an eligible ballot to be counted. And so if you go to the 112 year old saying, hey, you forgot to fill us in, can you fill us in? And if they, in fact, are the ones that filled it out. I'll look and go, man, I messed up. Let me fill that in. And if they're not the person, if there's in fact was a attempt at something fraudulent, then they can look and go, I never did that. That's not correct. We need to tear that up right now. It gives the person a chance to either correct and fix or maybe do even call out and say, Nope, I didn't do that, whatever it is. And so they give them up to the Sunday after the election to go cure that ballot, to verify that that's what it's for. We now, I know some people on the ground in Arizona and they think that by curing ballots, they might find another 10,000 votes for Donald Trump and Kerry Lake, potentially some of our friends over at Turning Point USA, it's turning point faith in something that that they do. And this is you know, it's one of those things as we look at this an era we might go this just seems a little iffy, a little fishy. But I don't think it's a lot different than maybe in California where you can do ballot harvesting and you can have people go and collect a certain number of ballots that are not their ballots. I just find people say, hey, you know, why don't you fill it out? I'll take it in for you. It's no problem. And that seems like that that could be fishy. There could be some fragile things that happen there. But if that's what the law says, then if you are letting the other side use that law to their advantage and you look and go, I don't think that's a good way to do it. So I'm not going to. And you don't use what the law grants and allows you to do, then you are hindering yourself. And so even though we can look and go, there's got to be a better way, There probably is a better way and we need to fight for that better way. But as long as this is what the law says, then you need to operate within the bounds of the law for your advantage. So that's part of what we're waiting on in Nevada and Arizona, is they get extra time to cure those ballots. And, you know, we were talking, I think earlier, was it all going to be last night the we were talking, you know, your friend you were mentioning from, I think, Nevada that identified there were two counties that hadn't even really reported Arizona. 

Rick Green [00:08:10] For Arizona's counties yet. Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:08:12] So it's this, again, is where we can look and go. There's got to be a better way. We we should know on election night, everybody should have their their votes turned and ballots should be counted and we should have an answer within so many hours of polls closing on election night. But because it's the way it is right now, we're still waiting on Nevada and Arizona. And so we won't know that yet. But what we do know as Trump out with 295 electoral votes and Kamala Harris as 226. So really, it's only a question of how big Donald Trump's victory is going to be. 

David Batron [00:08:44] By the way, I've got to put a little historical footnote in here. You guys are so impatient and you are so modernized, you think everything is so easy. Everybody ought to be able to report in one day. All right. Let me take you back to John Adams election with Thomas Jefferson. It only took them eight months to figure out who is the president as because the states all had different months. They voted. So Virginia may vote and January and South Carolina may vote in February. And and you may have Massachusetts vote in March. And and you're coming up now to North Carolina. You say wow, we need to go change the votes because look at the first three months Jefferson behind. So I mean imagine living in the founding era were that it takes the better part of a year to choose a president and you know which states up and you can go lobby in that state for your electors before you ever It's just what a different way to do it. 

Tim Barton [00:09:32] Well, and that I'm so glad, guys, with how much we travel I'm so glad that's not how it works. Our schedules be ridiculous, but also the ads would be awful because there's there's only one state people to focus on every month or every right. A couple of states every month. That would just be the worst. So I think this system is so much better. And even though that to your point, I mean, constitutionally states are able to set their dates and times their choose and they control the election process in their state. So that is something constitutionally states could absolutely do. But I think it makes a lot of sense that we do it on a certain night. Am I wrong? Tell me. 

David Batron [00:10:13] Yeah, we did. We do have a constitutional amendment that now says you got to have all the states reported by January 6th on the same day. So at that point, you got to you got to have it done before then. But you could you could do different states, different dates along there. You just have to finish on the same day. 

Tim Barton [00:10:27] Yes, there are electors have to be submitted. It counted by that day. That's right. But to your point. Right. And those are January 6th at this time of 2025. And so they said, hey, we're going to have our election in January of 2024, February 2024, Whatever it is, you can have it early as long as your votes are submitted. That point. And again, I think it's way better that we have an actual identified Election Day. But when you allow votes to come in up to ten days after the election, that's when it seems like you are just setting it up for dishonest people to be dishonest. It's a little bit more of the LBJ senator from Texas when they have that box is was it 13? I think it was. That was from. 

Rick Green [00:11:09] His report 13 and Duval County or something like that. 

Tim Barton [00:11:13] Yeah, they were always going to wait until all the votes were counted and then they were going to turn in their votes after everybody else because they would magically find the exact number. 

Rick Green [00:11:21] To get that box out of the bar. And we need all those extra ballots. 

Tim Barton [00:11:25] And we say that joking, except that's what really happened. And it makes you wonder, right, when when states are allowing things to happen again, ten days up to sometimes after the election, ballots to be counted coming in, that just seems like somebody is trying to make it easier for dishonest people to be dishonest instead of helping to make sure that every honest vote count, it seems like we're going in the wrong direction with that. Nonetheless, what we do know is that, again, Donald Trump is at 295 electorally. We don't expect to find much more of that because of Arizona, Nevada. It's really going to be probably next week before we know his final total. But no question that he got the votes to be president, which is just incredible. 

David Batron [00:12:07] And I will add to that, just updating from when we talked last night. And clearly this is going to be updating even after we talked today. But at this point, there's still 35 House seats that are outstanding. US House seats not called the majority of those, probably a 3 to 1 margin are Democrat seats that have not been called, Republicans say. So Republicans are defending less. They have more challengers and then called races. And there's still four Senate seats that haven't been called yet. But that doesn't matter in the sense of the balance of power. The Republicans already have 52 in the Senate, so they're not going to lose the majority there. They have the majority for the first time in a bit. But we'll see what the House turns out to be. We don't know that yet. It right now the Republicans have picked up four seats that the Democrats used to hold. So they're are plus four, but there still 35 left to count. So they could end up being short or they could end up being with a whole lot more. That's yet to be determined. But as the time that we're recording right now, that's where it is. 

Rick Green [00:13:05] Yeah. And one thing to point out on the on the presidential side of things, you know, if you know, I'm pretty sure Arizona, Nevada, I mean, based on the margins going to go to Trump gets him up to 312 I think is the number it's going to be the best. Honestly. That's the best landslide for a Republican since the Reagan-Bush years, you know, was basically. 

David Batron [00:13:22] The two today, because of the way the nation is so polarized with the blue versus the red, it's it's not like where you had Democrats that would work with Reagan and want photographs with Reagan. It is it is polarized now. And a lot of that is because the urban areas, the big urban areas of the Chicago and the New York cities and France, San Francisco and others that have really caused the states to be polarized because they're so extreme on their views. Even with that kind of polarization coming up with even 290 in the modern era is is really a landslide for one candidate. And for Trump to come up with over 300, that is that is a significant landslide. His lead in the popular vote between 5 and 6 million. They're still, as you pointed out, counting votes in Arizona and Nevada. So we'll see where that ends up. But that popular vote thing, that's a lot of people who don't understand the Electoral College do understand that he won the popular vote. Therefore, he's the president, which is not why he's president. But nonetheless, I think that helps simmer down a lot of things that could have happened if he had won the Electoral College and not the popular vote. They would they would be yelling, steal, steal still, because we just don't teach civics anymore. We don't teach Constitution more than people would know. But I think, Rick, to to your point, I think that is a modern landslide given the polarized nation that we have now with most states. You already know where they're going to go before the election ever occurs and if it never occurs, is still going to go that direction. 

Rick Green [00:14:48] And that's the like you said, that's also you know, that's an answer to prayer because if it had only been a couple of states, then then, you know, everybody goes to the mat, right? And they throw down the gantlet and you end up with these big fights over trying to turn just one state or two states. But it wouldn't be enough at this point. To take a quick break. As we're going to break maybe a little math. You know, David, I know a lot of our listeners may not know this, but you were a math guy before you were a history guy. And I'm just wondering, you know, since, you know, since Barack Obama got 60 something million and and Hillary Clinton got 60 something million and Kamala Harris got 60 something million, how did you Biden get 80 something million? Like, where did those 25 million people go? Or maybe where did they come from in the first place? 

David Batron [00:15:27] That's that's the question that everybody's asking right now. Yeah. How how can how can that guy who never left the basement have the highest voter turnout ever, percentage wise in American history, Middle East, modern history? How does he get more than anybody? Yeah, that's a good question. And you're not suggesting that there might have been stuffed ballot boxes 2020 or, you know. 

Rick Green [00:15:51] Maybe instead of that Box 13 from Duvall County, you know, you couldn't say, hey, Bubba, go get that box out of the barn. You had to say, Hey, Joe, go get those 17 tractor trailer trucks from I don't know. Anyway, quick break. We'll be right back. Stay with us, folks. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:17:13] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. It's let's see, day after the day after. And you know, guys, we didn't know we we we thought it was a real possibility we could be a week out from the election and not know who won. So what a blessing that it did get called on election night. I still think about where we were right there on the set of America stands going off the air with about six seconds left. And I saw Suzanne and Sheryl and Britney jump up and start waving their hands. And then all of a sudden, as we're going off the air, Pennsylvania called by Fox News. And there was a night to remember. 

David Batron [00:17:47] By 10:00, I had this 10:00 Central time. I decided Trump had won because we talked at the very beginning that if he's able to carry those states on the East Coast, that that is the whole election. And when he not only had Pennsylvania and Georgia and North Carolina, but also Virginia, right to the last minute, Virginia was red. I mean, at that point, by 10:00, I knew he had that. And because Arizona and Nevada, we already knew the numbers on that from polling. 

Rick Green [00:18:12] You knew if Virginia was that close, even though he ultimately arrives in Virginia, barely, you know, But if Virginia was that close, that late into the night, what's going to happen in Arizona and Nevada and Wisconsin and these other states? Because we didn't expect Virginia to be that close. I mean. 

David Batron [00:18:24] I was convinced at 10:00 that was over and we just had to wait for the results to come in. 

Tim Barton [00:18:29] Well, in part of the question mark to why we had to wait was because how how much shenanigans would happen and would the Michael Whatley led RNC be able to kind of stem the tide of what we thought would be? Dishonest people trying to use honest sayings. 

Rick Green [00:18:46] And well, we felt that for a little bit. Right. Let's be honest. Record what was it, 1130 or so or midnight whenever it was that everything drive stop for like an hour and nothing moved. And it was like deja vu, PTSD, whatever. I mean, I wouldn't dive in to jump under a desk, but I was starting to feel a little bit of that churning and been praying on the said it was. Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:19:05] Yeah. Reports came Friday from James O'Keefe about the individuals bringing in extra ballots into Detroit. There were the trucks, I think that were the ones that were reported going into locations in Philadelphia and you're like, man, here we go again. And it did have that feel. And, you know, Rick, as you mentioned, we were on America stands doing that live election night coverage. One of the things that I so appreciate about doing the the results over there and partnering with them in this is that in those moments where you feel like, hey, something maybe if this happened right now, that there's an actual a broadcast with like, hey, let's take time and pray. Let's ask God to intervene in this moment. And doing election coverage in the spirit of faith is just so different in so many places, really. I think probably any other place, even though we have some great friends that are doing election night coverage on some of their outlets, on some of their networks. But certainly we love partner and with victory and brought. 

Rick Green [00:20:04] To you man I heard from so many people that the set that the graphics the you know the thing you were doing with with the screen that just the way everything was set up those two shots with the with Trump and Harris keeping the tally. I mean just the whole thing the professionalism of all the commentary that I mean, I had several people say you guy that has become the best coverage on election night. That's better than the big networks that, you know, millions and millions and millions of dollars. And you guys started that. What and when did you first do that? Cause I remember when y'all where y'all really helped begin that this. 

David Batron [00:20:37] Is our fifth election cycle. This is the fifth time we covered. 

Tim Barton [00:20:40] So 2012, 2012, was that the first time we really did election coverage there? 

Rick Green [00:20:46] And that first time you were out in a field with a kite? No, I'm kidding. But it was nothing compared. I mean, it just got better and better and better every year, you know? 

David Batron [00:20:54] Well, let me let me do some mop up from last night on things that I think are really significant that happened at the state level because we've talked a lot about the federal level. So let me jump into this. Right. There were a lot of conservative victories. Now, we talked about the fact we didn't win there. We lost seven out of ten of the abortion measures. That's not good. There were three states who repealed their marriage amendments saying marriage between a man and a woman. So the social stuff and now. 

Tim Barton [00:21:21] Hang on, hang on. You're saying they repealed that. They repealed that marriage is between a man and woman. 

David Batron [00:21:27] Right? They were. There were 32 states that had said marriage, a man and a woman until their burger fell. Decision by the Supreme Court said, no, you can't say that. So one of the states last night made a constitutional amendment that any two people of any kind. 

Tim Barton [00:21:40] Can marry, However. 

David Batron [00:21:41] Whatever they. 

Tim Barton [00:21:42] Are. Yeah. And I just want to make sure we clarify because it sounded like they could have repealed it. And now marriage is between a man and woman. Nope. They went the wrong direction on that. On the. 

David Batron [00:21:50] Record right. 

Rick Green [00:21:51] Now with furries and cats. And yes, you know. 

Tim Barton [00:21:55] It would include all of the above because if there if marriage is not limited to a man and woman, then it can't be limited to anything. Right. And so this is this is the problem with removing the the moral foundation of of rights and wrongs. The founding fathers talked about religion. Immorality in our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. This is part of the problem is that if there is no objective standard of morality, if there is no objective standard of right and wrong, then you're not going to be able to have the same kinds of boundaries that we want and need because people are going to argue for that, which that is. And not to cut off because I know where you want to. I think I know we want to go and I've got a list that I want to add on with you as you go. But but just to clarify, one of the interesting things, even when we're talking about that these abortion initiatives that passed in various states is that some of them that's this one in Arizona, for example, they said it it passed a right to abortion, but it provides a right to abortion in the state of Arizona before the point of fetal viability. So they say, look, if if the child is not if that fetal child is not viable, then abortion should be okay. And Arizona said, yeah, we agree with that. Here's the problem. What what is the point of fetal viability? And this is generally like this. This is the real question that makes it a problem because now it's become subjective. Is it 20 weeks to 22 weeks? Is it 36 weeks? Right. What's the point of fetal viability? And because we have no objective standard anymore that we can point to, we have now made it a semantic subjective nightmare. Not just that we don't believe that unborn life is a gift from God, but that even the way that we're we're defining more before fetal viability. And that would be for most people, they're like, well, yeah, I mean, if it's, you know, the. Baby Can't do that. That's fine. This is the problem with removing that objective standard of morality, of rights and wrongs. As now you've opened it up to a whole realm of possibilities for the other side, and it's not good. 

David Batron [00:23:58] Other things that we looked at that were really good news is for the states had measures to legalize marijuana. All four states rejected that. One of them also had psychedelic drugs. That's huge. We haven't had that in any election where we had that kind of rejection of illegal drugs. Arizona passed a measure that says if you're convicted of sex trafficking, a child life imprisonment. So they really have cracked down. That needs to be done as much sex trafficking is going on in South Dakota. They said there was a measure to make it gender neutral. And their documents, they said, no, no, no, we're keeping it. He and she were not doing gender neutral stuff. You had and West Virginia, great measure, they prohibited any physician assisted suicide. So they're not going to go in that direction. Every single jungle primary failed. All the primary attempts to make a jungle primary really good ranked choice. Voting failed in every single instance except Washington, D.C. That's the only one they kept. But every other state, even Alaska, repealed. Theirs is great. 

Tim Barton [00:25:01] Well, yeah. And just to clarify, so Alaska in Colorado has not been called as of our conversation right now. But it is losing in Alaska and Colorado. And those are other areas where, you know, they're kind of letting, quote unquote, the ballot process securing process happen. Are there any more ballots out there once looking. But but the fact that is a losing in Colorado is huge. And they already have ranked choice voting in Alaska. So the fact that it's losing in Alaska, people in Alaska saying this a bad idea, we shouldn't have done it. That is huge as well this year. So it's not finalized yet, but it is losing in both those states. 

David Batron [00:25:36] Also, eight states voted to require citizenship to vote, which is really big because there's been all this push to let anybody vote. Even Nevada went so far as to say we want voter I.D. before anybody votes. So there were a lot of conservative measures that were passed across the nation. Really good to see those conservative measures going. Now we need the moral measures coming back. And that's where the church and we as individual Christians have to start talking to those around us and making sure they understand what morality is and why it is what it is and and how to how to get that back in our policy. But good, not good. Not overall in so many areas. 

Rick Green [00:26:13] Man what you guys are talking about is the essence of rebuilding the walls, rebuilding the foundations of America. And of course, as we know, George Washington said that religion and morality are indispensable. So we have to have that in order to have a good, strong foundation. So we've got our work cut out for folks. But what a great night. Now we have something to build on. Let's make sure that we continue to do our part. Make sure you're sharing this program with your friends and family. We'll do a little bit more tomorrow, final day of the week on the election itself. And then come Monday morning, it's back to rebuilding the walls. Thanks for listening to The WallBuilders Show.