French Protests Explode Into Riots, Fr. Ripperger News, And Vivek's Insane Ad

What was that thing I was supposed to say again? And we're live? And we're live. Wait, we... We're live? That's a terrible idea. And we are live. It's Tom, Josh, and Erika. We're back at it again. So glad to be back. I got to spend some time in my two favorite places, Wisconsin and Rome. So, I have some updates for you as we come across this great time. Thank you for holding it down, guys. I know Mark and Tom. First off, Mark is the man, just like the epitome of a Philly dude.

And then Tom, of course. But we're back. We've got lots to talk about today. We are going to be covering the unrest in Europe, in particular, France. I've tried to assemble my best picture of what's going on there. I have immediate observation. They don't really look like students or French. So, I'm really trying to figure out what's going on there, as we all are, obviously, one of the jewels of the church. So, really sad to see what's occurring over there. I'm going to try to cut through the noise.

We also have... Father Rippinger asked to take a break from public ministry for about a year, I believe, so some controversy drummed up there. We're going to try to cut through that. We have Brian, the U.S. ambassador, taking a trip to the West Bank after lots of violence in Taiba, the last Christian village, so we're going to get a good update there, have some answers from the patriarchs, some reporting on the ground, and then we also have good news. We have Twilight Zone.

We have Mailbag. We have a... Really full show. Really full show. It's going to be awesome. So excited to be back, but before we get into that, of course, we've got to talk about... OG, Charity Mobile. When I was gone, you know what I missed? I missed talking about Charity Mobile, because now more than ever, it's important to do business with companies that stand with you and your beliefs. Charity Mobile is a pro-life phone company that serves pro-life customers and supports pro-life, pro-family causes.

They send 5% of your monthly plan price to your favorite charity, and they have sent millions of dollars to charities over the past 30 years. Not only that, there are no sacrifices when you switch to Charity Mobile. All of their plans start under $50 before taxes and surcharges. Their nationwide coverage is the same as the major carriers, and their friendly pro-life customer service team is based right here in the United States. Plus, Charity Mobile is running a special promotion for our audience.

Use promo code LOOPcast to get their free phone offer with every new line of service, plus reactivation and free standard shipping. Switch to Charity Mobile and buy the way you believe. To get started, visit CharityMobile.com and use promo code LOOPcast. That's CharityMobile.com, promo code LOOPcast.

Thank you, Training Mobile, for sponsoring today's episode, and I also get to talk about the Cardinal Newman Society. I am a product of a Cardinal Newman Society school, Ave Maria University, Go Jairines. Good news for Catholic families in the 2026-2027 edition of the Newman Guide that is now available. It's brought to you by our wonderful sponsor, Cardinal Newman Society. The Cardinal Newman Society has published its largest edition of the Newman Guide yet, recommending 179 faithful K-12 schools, colleges, homeschool curriculum providers, and graduate programs.

That's two-thirds more recommendations than the 2025-2026 edition. The Newman Guide is the gold standard of faithful Catholic education. Families trust it to find education that forms students without compromising on the Catholic faith. Tragically, not every school or college labeled Catholic is faithful to its... That's right.

All right, it was always tough to get through reading that, because it's just, it's too true. Okay, I'll try that again. It's so obviously true, yeah. It's just like, what have you been doing here? I've been in the game too long, I guess. Not every school or college labeled Catholic is faithful to its religious mission.

Too many engage in scandalous practices that cause confusion and lead students away from the truth in Christ, such as pro-abortion activism, LGBTQ celebrations, and the outright rejection of church teaching. Catholic families deserve better, I completely agree. They've relied on the... Cardinal Newman Society's Newman Guide for Nearly Two Decades to Discover Faithful Catholic Education that incorporates the truths of Christ in all subjects and forms a whole person for God. The mission of the Cardinal Newman Society is to promote and defend faithful Catholic education, so make sure you order the latest version of the Newman Guide today.

It's available in digital and print forms, so click the link in the description below or visit cardinalnewmansociety.org slash LOOPcast to get your free e-book of the 2026-2027 edition of the Newman Guide today. Thank you to the Newman Guide for sponsoring today's episode.

All right. I just got to give a... You know, the Josh Mercer thumbs up on the Newman Guide. I tell all the kids at the Chesterton Academy here at St. Michael's in Petoskey to look at that guide. My own kids look at it. You know, my daughter went to University of Mary, and then my other daughter is thinking about going to Franciscan, and I look at the guide a lot. I'm like, oh, I don't even know. Walsh University is now. On the Newman Guide, that's in Ohio.

A business school? I don't think it's a business school, no. I was like, I never even heard of this. So, it's an opportunity to learn more about another school. So, they add new stuff there. It changes every year. They update it with more important information all the time. So, I'm a big fan. I love the Newman Guide. I love those guys. Known them for 25 years. Doing God's work. Amen.

All right, so I'll save my Roman travels for my good news, but before we get into that, Europe. I couldn't believe it. It was one of those things where I was leaving Europe and not sure what time zone I was in, and then all of a sudden, I'm getting texts from my dad, who actually was in Italy recently, like, hey, are you seeing this? And it was legitimately, it brought back terrible memories to BLM riots of 2020.

What's happening just all over Europe? So, I was really trying to get to the bottom of what's going on here. Go ahead, head over to Zeal if you want continual updates. They're doing a great job over there. We have Macron condemns French riots, sympathizes with protesters, is the headline there.

Protesters. Protesters. Yeah, major air quotes. Thank you. We're going to need you on air quote watch, Josh. But I really am curious if France really has it in them, I guess, too. Acknowledge the problem or really address it seriously is, I guess, my first take. But just in the stats, more than 2,000 people were arrested and more than 600 police officers injured in one of the largest anti-government protests in modern French history. The historic town hall of, can I get a French pronunciation?

Limoges. Thank you. I was going to butcher that. That's why I'm here. The historic town hall spire and roof were destroyed by arsonists. The video of it was, I mean. It's shocking. Right up there with Notre Dame burning.

Totally. You're just like, you couldn't even, it looks like a movie, like it's not even real. And I guess my first instinct, too, is, you know, I think of the Catholic history of France. The eldest daughter of the church. The other thing, too, when I was in Italy, I was like, people were building these with no power tools, no gas power to anything, and they're total works of art. And this is just, you can't replace this. It's gone. You can't possibly replace the history that went into this.

So, just shocking footage there, seeing that burn. Think about all the... Working class people and poor people over the years who gave of their time, talent, and treasure to build such a thing like that. It just sickens me that they would just burn it so easily.

So, it started out, this is where you're going to see the news headlines kind of clashing here. Many people are pointing to the student protests over deteriorating schools, rising living costs, and government spending cuts, and then it erupted at a certain point into violence. So, there was widespread, people are saying peaceful protests across, and you can see in footage, I mean, shocking amounts of people are out there. I know France certainly has their problems. I think that's what the headline was getting into by empathizing With the protesters in certain ways, Macron acknowledged failures to accommodate different of these problems, but I think I saw numbers, depending on who you trust, between 550,000 and 800,000 people on the streets on Saturday, October 17th.

And then that devolves at some point into, you know, a thousand police officers and emergency responders injured, 2,400 arrests, like a thousand businesses damaged or looted. I mean, I think there's nothing that really does it better than the This Is Not The Cause video that I saw going around.

I need to get back on my screen share. I saw no reports of mosques being damaged, though. Yeah, I verified that this morning. Not a single mosque has been damaged. So, you can't hear, but it's going to be in French. It's a woman outside of a store saying, stop, this is not the cause. Why are you doing this?

This French woman, she is beautiful, by the way, and she had been active in the pro-Gaza protests. She said she voted to allow these migrants to come in, and then they come to her family's shop to destroy it, and she is like, how dare you? I am with you. I am your friend, and they just shove her aside, and they steal all the stuff. Yeah, and just to give a sense of the development of these, so the student protests that Macron keeps referring to, and...

Outlets like the BBC, Al Jazeera keep referring to and saying, well, these are students and they have demands, like there's cockroaches in their classrooms and their teachers aren't paid enough. Those student protests have actually been going on since mid-September, and they just swelled into this massive number of upwards of 800,000 this past weekend. They actually planned several of the radical Muslim groups that were behind the swelling of these protests into sort of like an all-out riot. Tear down everything message. They're saying this coming Saturday, they expect even more.

So, France is really buckling down. But again, this went from what seemed like a legitimate student protest of really what's a broken social contract. I would say the French government has failed its citizens terribly, and not only in terms of the border, but also in terms of the normal citizens. They pay their taxes, and in return, they're given this massive welfare state, a police force that won't enforce the law for regular citizens. Terrible regulations for them as well. So, you have this broken social contract on the one hand, and then you couple that with mass immigration, mass migration from the third world, from northern, primarily Morocco and Algeria, coming in, and that's how you end up in France especially, but also in, we saw riots in Italy this weekend, we've seen it in Germany, the UK, not as much violence, but certainly the presence.

Of this going on. So, it's this sort of, like, perfect storm of progressivism's own making. The other clip that I loved, it was similar to the blonde woman outside the store being like, this wasn't, this wasn't the cause. There was another feminist who's out in the street. We call her Moaning Lisa. Yes, Moaning Lisa. She's out in the street, and then this other woman talking to her, and they're surrounded by these military-aged males who don't look very French. They're surrounded. The one woman is saying, I was in my apartment last night.

I was holding my newborn. The rioters are below my window, threatening to rape me and kill me. They're trying to get into my door. They're breaking down the apartment door, and I'm holding my newborn baby. And the other woman, who's a radical feminist, who's been at the forefront of fomenting a lot of this, the building up of the riots, she says, it's collateral damage. That's what the revolution is. What did you think it was? So, the image of these two progressive liberal women is that they're trying to get into the apartment door, and they're trying to get into the apartment Like, one of them can't believe it has come to this, and who's been personally threatened.

The other one being like, lady, this is what we're here for. It was just such an encapsulation of what led France to this moment over the weekend. I have to say, one comment that kind of, I shared it with my wife, it just, it stung.

A man by the name of Nelson Rodriguez, he said, Europe will be destroyed. By women who project onto these animals the motherhood that belonged to the children they aborted. Oh my gosh. Yep, that stings. I also, I was trying to get scope of this, because obviously I'm not from France, and then you see some things of people saying, oh, neither are these protesters.

I feel like that's not an issue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some people are saying, you know, like, oh, this was in certain parts. I mean, it rose to the level of... The interior minister resigning, and then Macron saying, no, I'm not going to accept it. But Macron himself, they put curfews in different parts of France. I mean, this was, you watch the videos, I mean, the videos don't lie. But I was reading that article that you sent me, Erika, from the Catholic thing by Robert Royal, and he was saying, well, first off, the first observation, a lot of these protesters don't look very French.

And I don't know if in your head you got... You know, baguettes and berets or something for what French means, but like, they look African. They look African or Arab, and that's unusual for historically what France would have looked like, what Europe would have looked like.

And then I also saw, like, he said in this article, and I almost didn't believe it, I had to go confirm, that an average of two religious buildings burned down per month in France for years. That has to be. How many of them are mosques? That has to be. I don't know. I don't know, but I did confirm that it's actually more on a monthly basis. In this last year, it was at about four. And of course, you think back to the...

It is churches. I confirmed that that is. That stat that he was citing was for churches, not other religions. And just like the looting of the stores, like you see the grocery stores, like all of it just stolen or destroyed, but then the section with ham and pork left untouched. I mean, I think what you're getting at, Josh, is that I saw there was a New York Times article this morning. I just have to show that line. It's so crazy. It is, student protesters in Europe have a strange new slogan.

What does it mean? Uh, bismillah, ses les, I can't even, les tenebres. Les tenebres. Thank you. It means, it doesn't make much sense. It means, in the name of God, it's the darkness, but is seen as shorthand for generational divide. It's like, well, you know the old French saying. This isn't a French saying. No. In the name of God, the darkness. That sounds like Satanism.

Yeah, well, I mean, isn't that what Anna... So, all this just... I guess I might zoom out before I get into any statistics. When I see this, not only do I see looting or burning down is so counterproductive, but I sense a true... I don't even know if they've developed enough to have a sense that they're not capable of generating something like this. And people that come to France and destroy masterpieces that they themselves can never make and have no intention of making, and just to burn it down and just to loot, it's so foreign to a true Western mind.

And that's why it was so shocking when it was happening in America. Not to say we haven't had race riots or looting, but they get tamped down pretty quickly. And they're very... The normal American mind would never think to do this, and so we're kind of dealing with a new strain here of getting your point across, and the people cheering this on is so shocking to me. Um, that anyone would think that this is productive in any way towards reaching your ends, and of course, the people that get hurt the most.

People claiming. It does work for them. Right, but people claiming that this is somehow, like, against the billionaires, or against whoever's in power, or whatever. Oh, wow. You just destroyed some anime shop owner's store that, like, he's supposedly the people that you're supposed to be helping here. It's just, this burn it all down mentality is so shocking and vile, and you can never build that. You could never build. What France just built. Of course not. Because you haven't. You didn't do it in your countries.

Right, and there's no... It's enraging to me as a Catholic. Yeah, there's no intention of that, but sort of two threads going on. I agree with you that this is foreign to Western civilization in the sense of Western civilization as founded by Christendom, but unfortunately, it's also true that it's no longer foreign to the Western psyche, especially after the triumph of progressivism. And the suffering of the post-Enlightenment, you know, under totalitarianism in the 20th century, under absolute monarchy in the previous years, that have led to this mentality.

So, I would say, yeah, in France, but also in most of Western Europe, there is also now, after generations since the French Revolution itself, a sort of native self-loathing and hatred. Seeds of a revolution. Exactly. It's where the goal... Actually is, for many of the French, especially those who have gone through their government schools, and even some of the Catholic schools, that there is a native self-loathing that thinks to be righteous and moral and good, you have to be the oppressed.

You have to be the victim. And so we, the West, we are the evil colonizers. We are the wicked ones. We have to burn it all down. And in fact, we not only need to do that, but we need to import our colonial victims, which is what they've been taught to think about. So, this was made explicit by John Paul Sartre in the last century, and then carried out around the West by the disciples of Marcuse, and all of this. We're seeing it everywhere.

So, on the one hand, Tom, I agree, it's foreign to the West, but on the other hand, it's also been endemic to the West for at least 200 years. You know, you got Black Panthers, the radical, the Weather Underground, you have Antifa, you have the feminists, you have all sorts of things, and you look at all these revolutionary movements, even in the United States, the native-grown ones, and you say, even them, they have sometimes contradictions, you know? Like, they push homosexuality in the late 60s and 70s, right?

And then later on, They are pro-Muslim, which is, you know, they throw gays off the roof, and they are like, you guys are contradicting each other, and it is like, no, we are not. Our goal is to dismantle and destroy Western civilization, Christendom. That is the goal, and they will use any different tools they got in their box, even if these are completely against each other. They do not care. It is destroy, destroy, destroy, and you look at once, you know, Lebanon.

It used to be a great Christian country, and then it becomes years and years of civil war, and then suddenly the Muslims dominate. So, I mean, this is, it is a religion that, you know. I mean, unless they have some sort of reformation, it remains a religion of conquest. Well, and it's really interesting because Islam and the episode of The Deep last week, I mean, providential timing, anyone? Like, the episode is on Islamification and this red-green alliance that you're describing, John.

Red, John, Josh, oh my gosh, I'm so sick, you guys. Josh, red being the color of communism, green being the color of... The Islamists. The episode talking about how Islam has had a number of quote-unquote reformations or transformations. I mean, we think of like the Sunni-Shia split that we think most clearly of. We think of some modernization going on in, say, the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, but that the reformation has always been in the direction of an increasing alliance between the state and The religion, in order to spread and to dominate, right?

So, the idea of reforming in the sense of moderating, it could happen, but it's not historically been what we've seen, so. This is one of the problems we have with Western civilization. It's, right now, holds, you know, this idea of...

Freedom, which, of course, we all believe in, freedom and responsibility, right? But, like, liberalism, you know, even concretized, this idea, as it's become, I think, more unmoored from Christianity, it just becomes like just a general tolerance. We have to have a general tolerance for all peoples and all lifestyles and all, you know.

And the problem with that is, how does Western civilization tolerate people who are intolerant? And what's hilarious about this is the left are like, yes, exactly, you Republican conservatives are the problem. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Fundamentally...

What do you do with a people that do not respect the, you know, individuals of freedom of religion or conscience? Like, this is the problem that I think Islam has. Like, Islam comes in, you know, and Fulton Sheen talked about this with communism.

Communism is like the philosophy that, like he says, he likened it to vultures coming into a country that is already kind of dying and picking off the flesh. I mean, this is what is going on. Same thing with, so that is what we mean, red and green. Both these movements are coming into societies that have become decadent, societies that have lost the patronage, you know, the heritage that has been passed down from their grandparents and great-grandparents. It is just And they just kind of go through the motions, and the thing is, no, that doesn't work as a society.

If you lose your heritage, you lose your country. Yeah, and I think, too— If I can give some encouragement? Oh, go ahead. CatholicVote shared a timely post of three weeks before for Pope Leo, and I watched this video, and I'm just like— You hear the sound of the crowds, you see— It's like the people, they're still here. My issue is you look at this, and you watch the footage back on these riots, and a couple things become immediately clear. Like, whoever leads France is incapable of providing order.

And in order for there to be dialogue, there needs to first be order. And they don't even, if you listen to interviews with Macron and Le Pen, they're like, you know, Muslims are fine here, but if they're going to try to do Sharia, then I'll be standing in their way. And you're like, but... You don't see these two things as connected, and that's not to say that every Muslim is bad individually or that they all have these desires, but if you just look on a statistical basis, like I was just going back on what is being done to France, what is being done to these European countries.

In 1975, roughly two-thirds of immigrants living in France came from other European countries, as expected. 2024, nearly three out of every four new immigrants arriving in France was born outside of Europe. France's total immigrant population has grown approximately 82% since 1999. So, where do these immigrants come from? Almost half are coming from Africa. 3.29 million, 49.2% the share of immigrants. This is just in 2025. Just in 2025. Africa, the next Europe, the next Asia, the next Americas, other outside Europe, a smaller percentage.

The two largest countries of origin for these people are Algeria and Morocco. The vast majority of Algeria and Morocco are Muslim, and so you're dealing with a country that is embarrassed of its past and its heritage and lacks the spine to be able to assert what France is, to be proud and to stake a bold claim on France's roots in Christianity, and so you get this kind of meek, modernist approach to government, a secular approach to government. And you just look among the land there, and it is just like an embarrassment of riches, of cathedrals, and beautiful Catholic history, like some of the most beautiful architecture you have ever seen, and you have people walking around, and it means nothing to them, and then you are importing people that, I am not even going to say to their credit, this is just like the law of nature.

You have people that are very confident in their way of life and religion coming into France. Perfectly happy to establish their way of life there. Now, this is kind of the question we're getting at of, like, this is the liberalism problem that many people are addressing and people are fighting over right now. We're having that fight in America. It seems like we're well past that at this point in Europe. But if you have a liberal society, The argument would be, this only works if you are working with the same stock of people.

In the case of America, that would be Anglo-Saxons started the country. You could have these kind of debates about self-government and regulation because there is something inherent to the race and the origins and the cultures and the religion of this people. This modern experiment of mixing the most...

You know, different, and I'm not even, this isn't even a judgmental, like, right or wrong. I'm Christian. I believe Jesus Christ is King, is correct, and I love that I come from a Christian country, but I would not go to Morocco and seek to change that into a Christian country and expect success. What we're seeing is, is that people are coming to United States, to France, and dominating because they have no vision of who they are and what they should be, but the dominant force does have a vision of who they are and what they should be, and are not constrained by the same rules of debate, engagement, reason, That, say, a European heritage would have, that we take for granted, like logic, ideas, whatever else.

You just burn down an 1800s building. You have no concept of debate or whatever. It's just burn it down. There's three Frances, that's why. I mean, you have this new France that's been imported, as you say. You have the mainline secular France that's unmoored from its traditions. And then you have Catholic France. There's still that Catholic France, and that you wonder.

If the Pope coming, Pope Leo, he did a wonderful job traveling to France, sparked so much fervor and joy in a positive way, maybe that is part of what is getting some people upset. I find that interesting. But good for him to do it.

You've got to fight for it. We definitely just need France to, you know, all of us, out of love for France, should do prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and reparations for all the sins that are committed against Him in that land, and pray for its renewal and revival.

Yeah. What I don't understand, and I would like to just immediately shout out as stop doing this, this kind of like giddy feeling of like France gets what it deserves, or like Spain gets what it deserves. Like, oh, they didn't acknowledge Israel as a state or something, so therefore they're getting what they deserve by being overrun by Muslims. Like, actually, this is my Christian heritage, like in Spain and in France. Well, I didn't see as much on the Israel, but just like...

Oh, I for sure saw that. It's all over. I understand that, but like France is... has been a common whipping boy of the United States for well over 80, 90 years, and, you know, I participated in that in years past, but I've come to realize that, you know, this is the eldest daughter of the church, a land teeming with saints. It had, so many of the men in France had died in the First World War, which is just one of the most tragic events ever, just reshaped the world in such a terrible, profound way.

No, I want France to be France. I would not want nothing more than France to be France. And, you know, I can never say the guy's name right, the leader of... Yeah, I got the tweet for you. Yeah, pull this tweet up here. You Kelly? I would be Kelly. Yeah, I'd be Kelly, yeah.

He said, I heard it said that France is finished. It is not too late to save her. But France remains just as beautiful, enviable even. Her greatness hasn't vanished. It only awaits rebirth. We overcame in a single year a problem a hundred times more severe without having the resources at France's disposal. France could manage it in a week.

Brother, why don't you leave Latin America and go to France, please? Can we rent a dictator, maybe? We want a king's protest, not a no-king's protest. I don't like calling him a dictator. I like calling him a king. I'm okay with that. I have no issue with dictator. Call me a man of the right, call me extreme, whatever. But if you're facing the odds that he did in El Salvador, where it was basically a statistical guarantee that you were going to be either sexually assaulted, murdered, Well, I'm very much, you know, the idea, like, you know, so much of the Marxism is that, you know, there's these, you know, forces that are, you know, And that will draw a change or whatever.

It's like, I don't believe that. I believe in the big man of history. I think people like Donald Trump, I think people like Bukele, I think, you know, these men and women, too, like Joan of Arc. By the way, the statue of Joan of Arc. Mm-hmm. The statue of Joan of Arc. Interesting that they're, right. And Toulouse was, you know, they were. They put flags all over it, spray-painted. My daughter was at that exact statue exactly one year to the day before.

It's just, you start freaking out, like, these people, what is going on? What are they doing to their country? They can't be changed. They need courage. I need another Joan of Arc. We totally need that, but I think this has been totally revealing for a lot of the kind of DSA types lurking around that. Maybe, like, I'm frustrated with certain elements of the Trump administration, I think. The Iran War, how it was prosecuted, the big problem is we didn't win, and it's dragged us into this quagmire.

However, someone, I think it was like Ryan Graham, he's like on Breaking Points, which is at this point kind of a leftist show. But Iran said like, sanction us for 40, there's a tweet saying, sanction us for 40 years, we'll sanction you for five months. And they posted like footage of all the rioting going on in different parts of Europe. And he quote tweets it and says like, direct hit. As in like, good point, Iran. You are involved in DSA politics, and you're saying, yeah, this is a fantastic point.

Congrats, you're an enemy of Western civilization. You're exactly who I want nothing to do with, and I'll remember that anytime I'm like, you know, I'll say I made a good point here. He's a slick talker. Kind of remember what's going on here. There was an Indiana councilman that also said, I think Ro Khanna, at the point where there's student protests going on, so to give him some charity, like, maybe it wasn't riots at this point, but he's like, this is great.

People are rising up, whatever. But it was basically like riot footage, and the Indiana, he's a Democrat, and he's like, if you're turning this on, you've lost the plot. And then he got ripped by all these people in DSA-aligned organizations, and you're like, Wait, this guy is just like a normal American. Isn't that a normal instinct to be like, hey, rioting is a bad thing? Riots are bad, right. That would be why the DSA would be against anything normal American. Yeah, it is disgusting.

So disgusting. So, anyway, all those stats are available from the French government, insee.fr. I literally did a deep dive using Google Translate to go find their immigration stats, and they are just eye-popping shocking. I mean, if you go take even a cursory look. It's pretty obvious why a lot of these protesters don't look very French.

Yeah, I was shocked looking into it, realizing that for most European countries, Western Europe, the number of foreign-born residents is now up 18 to 21 percent on average. That's a massive amount. The total population is foreign-born, you're saying? Yeah, so we're looking at a fifth of Western Europe are... Recent immigrants. Crazy. Which is, at that point, you're like, have we hit critical mass? Because that seems like a tipping point to me. But again... One in seven Americans are foreign-born. Yeah, right.

We're not there yet. We're always 20 years behind. But going down. Yeah, ours is actually going down because of a certain election that happened. Well, did you see that graph, Josh? I think it was Ryan Gerdasi posted it.

I'll have to find that. Could you give a shout-out to our open positions here real quick while I find that? Yeah. Oh, sure. I'll do that. So, you want to work with us? CatholicVote, we are hiring. We're going to throw in the chat the link to our jobs page. We have three positions open right now, and we always are taking resumes from people who are interested. So, we just, we had our beautiful cat from HR, not cat, she's, her name's Catherine.

Catherine from HR, she asked, could you please. She's not an animal. She's not a furry. We are very traditional here at CatholicVote, but we do have some job openings, and we would love to work with you. So, take a look at those. Director of Marketing is up there. We need someone on the West Coast coming in on the news team. So, yes, take a look. Take a look at this graph here. That combines your talents with your values. That would be great.

That is right. This is a change in visas for immigrants each month, total monthly visas before Trump. Percentage change after Trump policies. I think this graph pretty much speaks for itself. Yeah. Down, down, down, down, down. Why don't you say some of it for the people who are listening? Sure. The only places that have increased are Mexico by 17% and Canada by 142%. Everywhere else is in the red. Double digits down. Double digits red. In some cases, as high as, what, 73%?

I think that's in 80. Africa is like... 89, wow. Yeah, 89% down from Africa. Yeah. Yep. I was just, yeah, I was kind of talking to Erika about this. Like, you kind of see this in micro interactions, and maybe a harmless example would be someone said they got HOA'd in the neighborhood because they were grilling burgers, and the burger scent wafted into their neighbor's yard. This was like somewhere in Texas.

And the neighbor is Indian and Hindu, and so cows are sacred in their religion, and so it bothered them that there was cow meat sent in the air. So, they went to the HOA and said, you need to get this guy to stop grilling in Texas.

I have a way for which we could stop that homeowner's scent from going into that. A person's yard. We could remove the person. Yes. Not the griller. Because I'm like, that's the most least controversial way of thinking about it, but I just think it's completely reasonable that, especially if you're partaking in what we understand to be American culture, it's like water we swim in, so it's hard to even pinpoint, but grilling burgers seems like a good measure. That if someone that came here recently in your backyard and has an issue with that, it actually isn't racist, and it actually It's a clash of cultures, and you need whoever weaponizes the policy to punish the other side to get their vision enacted is going to win this fight, and I think it's entirely reasonable for the people that have been here and are partaking in American culture to have a leg up in that fight, and everyone experiences this.

That's why it's so funny listening to the French talk about this problem at a governmental level. Not even naming names. You can't even say that it's Islamic writers, that there's an Islamic problem, even though it's directly matched with a huge increase in immigration.

The biggest problem that we're facing, we're not as far down the road, is that we're importing people that have no desire to assimilate, and would rather actually enforce their culture upon our culture, and someone's going to win out. Right, and again, not to belabor the point, but that... Not only that, but we're importing this particular kind of culture into America at a time when, in a state like mine at least, the majority of Americans are conditioned to think that the right thing to do to be a good person is to let them do it, right?

It's to be like, you know what? Actually, I would not be surprised here in Connecticut if the HOA ruled in favor of the person saying no more grilling burgers, right? Because that person is de facto. The Marxist, progressivist, whatever-ist you want to put on the end of the word, they're the ones who are, in this case, morally superior to the Texan white dude who's out there grilling his steaks, because he's the oppressor and they are the oppressed. And I think we cannot underestimate the spiritual force, right, of that Marxist view that we oppressors have to give up.

Everything, if we are so asked. Like the rioters in Paris, like the blonde woman in Paris, being like, this wasn't the cause. No, this was the cause. And she's not becoming Joan of Arc either. She's going to go right back to the same and doing the same dang things. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

Okay, looking forward now into domestic conversations. I'm shocked that that happens. Progressivism. Progressive women. I don't know what Alyssa Slotkin is. I mean, Alyssa Slotkin, current senator. She's a spook. That's what it is. She looks like it. She talks like it. Is that confirmed? She is CIA? Yes. Yeah, she's CIA. She had a very interesting childhood. I think her parents got divorced, and her mom came out as... I don't know. Gay, and then started living with a lesbian, and then their house was like, I guess, this LGBTQ house in Detroit suburbs before it was cool, I guess.

So, she has a really interesting history. Anyway, as of recently... Hold on a second, just to give you a little flavor for her. Okay. Okay. So, you can say it's unseemly that modern campaigns do this, but both sides do this, where they have what are called trackers. And trackers will follow along candidates of the opposite party that they're trying to defeat, and they'll go to every event, every campaign, every speech.

You know, every time they talk to the press and they're recording everything, these trackers are trying to catch them slip up and say something stupid that they can be, you know, bomb-blasted in the TV ads and all that kind of stuff. Viral moment, yep. So, Elisa Slotkin, Senator from Michigan, my state here in Michigan, she pointed to one of the trackers that were following her and said, Oh, hey, how are... And I'm not even remembering the names. I'm going to say Dave and Sally doing.

She says to this to the tracker. Those are the names, I don't know the actual names, of the tracker's pets. How does this woman know not only the tracker's names, but their dog's names? Operative. C.I.A. She's a total spook. You know, she had some staffer look up and say, make sure that this tracker has their pets, you know, registered or whatever, and get the names, and she remembers the names, and she does that just to try to get under their skin.

She is a total spook. Which makes what she said at UChicago even more chilling. Yes. Just to set this up. She actually beat Mike Rogers in 2024, and when Trump carried the state, she still beat... By about that much. Slim margin. For vote matters. Get out there. All right. I feel like a new sharing screen is messing me up. All right.

So, that's what I'm saying. I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him. I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity. I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don't want, and so let me avoid participating in that. I want that deterrence message.

So feminine. A deterrence message. Feminine. It's evil. I mean, let's just say first what it is. This is evil. And again, growing up... You know, the things that would drive me crazy, the left would say, well, this decision is a chilling effect on free speech. This is a chilling effect. They would say that about everything, even stuff that it wasn't. And then they turn around and they do this kind of stuff. Like, this is absolutely evil. You're trying to scare people into not even working for the president.

This is our president. This is our federal government. I mean, it has to be staffed with people. And you're telling us that you're going to go after, you're going to threaten, you're going to promise to prosecute people who work for President Trump, not just maybe in the White House, but even at like departments of like energy or commerce. Like, this is absolutely evil. And she gets called out on it, right? And people are like, how dare you say this kind of stuff?

This is the kind of, the worst kind of politics you could come up with. And then she's like, oh no, oh, they're just attacking me now. They're attacking me because I'm a woman. Because I'm a woman. Are you out of your mind? Attack me because you're a fascist.

Oh, he did it. He pulled up. The thing was, I think the original question here was something about the rule of law and applying it, and will we go after the corruption in the Trump administration? And all she had to do was say, everyone's equal under the law, and so, of course, we'll conduct the investigations. We'll apply the law evenly, blah, blah, blah, blah. All she had to do was say that, even if she doesn't really believe that. But instead, she's chose to go another step further and be like, not only that, but show me the man, I'll show you the crime.

We are going to put out such a chilling, she calls it the deterrence effect. That is just law speak for chilling. And as a mother who my own children are looking at, this might be something I want to do in the future. Is work for the conservative cause. It is infuriating to hear someone say, you know, in the context of applying a question about applying the law evenly, saying, oh, no, I'm going to go three steps forward. And I love hearing all the talking heads defend her here and be like, you know, it's what the Trump administration did to her, or it's what they're doing to Ilhan Omar.

Like, no, this is not the same as what we're doing to Ilhan Omar, who is being investigated for very specific... This is someone saying, if you give me the political power, I'll make sure that everyone thinks twice before even working for the opposition.

Can I provide some perspective on how this goes? The last week Trump is in office, he's going to give a blanket pardon for everyone who worked for him. Which I don't love that either. He's going to have a perspective, though. He's going to do it.

I will give a little perspective on how this goes, because we've had Rachel Bovard on the show, and she was personally targeted by this. So, there's something called... Because when you say something like this, you're like, oh, she's just bloviating for the crowd or whatever. Yeah.

There was something called Arctic Frost, and so we're getting subpoenas on it now, so we're getting more information. Essentially, it was Merrick Garland and Special Counsel Jack Smith. This was in April 2022. They were investigating Donald Trump's effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

I think, in particular, the effort to organize alternative slates of electors in battleground states. So, they come with this specific message, like, hey, we're going to look into this individually. However, we're now getting subpoenas showing they performed a dragnet, which is essentially, we're going to collect as much information as possible to try to map out all opposition to what we're trying to do. That included things like personal information on 639,000 Republican donors, voters, and supporters, including some people who just contributed a $1 donation or bought a MAGA hat.

We're talking about dates of birth. Home addresses, email addresses, party registration, information about credit cards, employment history, all gathered as a part of this dragnet. And then, they also got a hold of 4,782 personal checks from people who donated to Trump, or Trump-aligned Republican groups, so now we're not even just doing Trump here, we're going into organizations like Turning Point USA, Conservative Partnership Institute, and you're like, so now, how does any of this have to do with the alternative electors thing that you claim that this whole thing was out to do?

Many of the organizations that you've subpoenaed actually weren't even created until after this whole thing started. So this has become something else entirely. And for people that are like, well, they just got this information and nothing really happened. Many of these organizations were almost bankrupted with all of the things you have to do to comply with the subpoenas that require specialized lawyers and money, basically. And so as always, the punishment is the process. However, we now have an infrastructure in place.

That is still staffed by the same people. None of these people got fired, by the way. They wiretapped. I can't remember if they wiretapped, but they got phone record information from senators, Republican senators. Yeah. Tab the phones, and they gag ruled the judge so that he couldn't tell the senators they were being spied on. So, at what level do we just be like, how is any of this legal? And then also, all of the people, the judges, the FBI agents, the people that actually executed this, none of them have been fired.

So, they're all still in place. So, they're here literally ready. To accomplish in great detail what Alyssa Slotkin is proposing here, and could you imagine like you're a young kid? You're trying to be civically engaged. You may think of your opponents as misguided but have good ideas, and then all of a sudden, you're slapped with a subpoena or an investigation of some kind that's going to cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars. Forget like reputational damage that what you're talking about could literally bankrupt you for just working for a place like Conservative Partnership Institute.

That is the endgame, and that's how you shut people up, and it's all completely unconstitutional and ridiculous. It's not like this is just some high in the sky. There should be restitution. I don't mean this will happen. It's real.

So, yeah. I want heads to roll, and I want restitution. I want to give credit to American Moment, too. Nick Solheim did a great response. And again, like this is... This is Black and the Senator who called for the persecution of people who'd want to work for Trump. Yeah, and I would just say, too, even this isn't enough. The real problem is that you actually need heads to roll. You need people to be fired and just to be rooted out, and it hasn't been done, but it is good that we have someone out here.

A United States senator wants to prosecute 24-year-olds to scare them out of working for their own government. Last week at the University of Chicago, United States Senator Alyssa Slotkin was asked what Democrats would do if they take power back.

Her statement was outrageous in the truest sense of the word, and we will reveal what American Moment is planning to do about it in a minute. But first, let me quote her directly, word for word, so that there is no confusion about the stakes she has established. Quote, I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him. Unquote.

Then she told the room who she means, a kid coming out of school, looking at a job in the Trump administration. She wants that kid to think, and I'm quoting her, quote, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don't want, and so let me avoid participating in that, unquote. And then she said it plainly, quote, I want that deterrence message, unquote.

Senator Slotkin just told you what she wants to do to you. You should believe her. For years, we've been told the left is full of good-faith people who just see the country differently. We argue about tax rates. We shake hands. We go home.

There was always a lie, and Slotkin just retired it. She is the moderate, the former CIA analyst, the one Democrats put on television when they want Republicans to relax. And she is telling a room of kids at the University of Chicago that she wants them to be afraid.

They don't want to beat you in the marketplace of ideas. They want you gone, chased out of Washington, out of your jobs, and if they can build the case, into prison. That is the plan, and she said it to your face. She'll say later on that she only means people who break the law. Go back and read what she actually said. She never described a crime. She described a deterrence message. The point is not to punish wrongdoing. The point is to make a 22-year-old afraid to apply for jobs.

The prosecution is the weapon, and its sights are set on anyone willing to serve in a conservative government. So, why is she spending her time on 22, 23, 24-year-olds? It's because they're winning. This is how D.C. actually works. A president wins an election, and that's all well and good, but now somebody has to run the government.

Somebody has to write the executive orders, find the legal authority, draft the memo, and push it through agencies that were built to bury it. That somebody is the staff. For those of you listening to this, it's you. Yeah. Go watch the whole thing if you want to see it, but I feel like there's someone that's really answering the call. Yep. Awesome. Well, I mean, and again, how many people did not enter public service precisely because of the threats before? And so, this kind of stuff has a chilling effect.

There's so many people who are afraid to say what they think about human sexuality. Pro-life stuff, precisely because in corporate America or whatever, if you don't celebrate the gay stuff, you're ostracized. This is how they work. They don't actually win arguments. They advance their agenda by suppressing their opponents, and that's why we've got to calm out on this. The emperor's wearing no clothes. This senator is evil, and she's a spook, and I can't wait until I can boot her out of office in four years.

All right, we'll end on that. Erika, let's do good news. What do you got? Oh, okay. Well, I wanted to use my good news to wish a happy 20th anniversary of being a bishop to Archbishop Sample out in Portland, Oregon, the other Portland.

You came out originally, by the way. Yeah. Well, there we go. I was moved because he put out a long mission statement, a really beautiful letter to his whole diocese talking about moving the church from ... Management to mission. So, in the Northeast especially, we have this sort of mentality of decline management, that the church is shrinking, and so we just have to gather ourselves and circle the wagons. I mean, it's all over, right? But he really says, the title of the letter is, Go Therefore and Make Disciples, and I really appreciated especially his section on the Catholic schools.

So, I'm just going to read a little bit from the letter, and again, happy 20th anniversary. to the Archbishop. He said, why do we have Catholic schools in our day if our children can access education in public or private institutions, some of which achieve high levels of academic success according to modern standards of measurement? Many of these standards themselves are flawed and lack a supernatural vision of the human person. Ultimately, the answer comes down to the handing on of the Catholic faith to the next generation.

I am not interested, he said, in a private education for the privileged as an apostolate of the church. The Archdiocese of Portland should not be operating schools whose institutional priorities and plans are dominated by a secular, utilitarian vision of academic excellence and great sports programs, while remaining inaccessible to so many of our families because of high tuition costs. See my video on the deep about that. To do so would be wholly inconsistent with the history and purpose of Catholic education.

Our first job is not to prepare children eventually to get into a great college or university, but to help them get into heaven. To which I say, amen, Archbishop Sample. It's a great letter. If you need to pick me up, and if you're feeling down on the bishops, you have got to go read Archbishop Sample's 20th anniversary letter. And then also, I want to sneak in a second good news. So, you might have heard Chris Pratt, one of my favorite actors.

I mean, great job in the Marvel franchise there, Chris. Loved it. Kind of resurrected that for me. But anyway, he is Catholic, and he is doing a documentary on St. Peter's. Yeah, and he is working. His wife is Catholic. His wife is Catholic. He is a true believer. I believe their kids are being raised Catholic. He has been fired up on Christianity lately. Yeah, he is very fired up, and part of the reason, I think, is because he has actually encountered the bones of St.

Peter. He was asked about his new documentary by Variety Magazine, so go ahead and roll that tape. Sure. You said that it helped kind of redefine what your faith meant. I would love to clarify what you meant by that. I was reading about that. Well, you know, I think the idea that St. Peter is there is meaningful, and I don't know if I have time to fully dive into it in a quick interview like this, but I'd love to talk to you about it at some point.

But it was really profound to be encountering the remains of one of Jesus' apostles. And, you know, it was a prophetic word. He said that the church will be built upon that rock, and Simon Peter is the rock. And so, to be there and to see the church some 2,000 years later. This prophecy of his words came true. It just was really meaningful to me. Isn't that great? So, he's not Catholic yet, but that sounds pretty close to me. Pogo, that one was for you because you like Chris.

Yes. You're an influencer. You're an actor. You're a commentator, and now you too have seen the bones of St. Jude. Yes, almost identical. Basically the same. Yeah, no, it's funny. You were about to put this in the document, and I actually had it copied ready to put down because I just saw it before I came. Yes, I got to go to Rome. It was a...

It's funny. I was talking to Erika before I went. She's like, oh, it's totally life-changing. I mean, if that was possible to be an understatement, I feel like a study abroad girl that comes back, and it's just like crazy. So, I went to Ireland. I went to Rome, and I got to go on something called the Scavi Tour, which is essentially they excavated under St. Peter's to find St. Peter's tomb.

And because they had always believed that the St. Peter's Basilica was built on top of St. Peter's Tomb, and they wanted to confirm that for a fact, and sure enough, you know, I was down there, incredible, you got to see some of the, I don't know what you, I don't know if ruins is the right word, but there was other pagan burial sites, and just to see it preserved exactly as it would have been thousands of years ago was insane. And then you eventually get to this moment where you just are staring at St.

Peter's tomb. The tour guide did a good job kind of setting it up, like, are we going to find it? Are we going to find it? And then, just the sense of awe that just struck me like a lightning bolt, when you're just like, oh my gosh, that was where St. Peter was buried. And then, I kind of had this idea in my head of St. Peter's, oh, it's just kind of the home of the Pope. It's just kind of here.

I guess I never really thought about where it was, why it was. And then to see everything on top of. The tomb of the first pope. And they had bones in there. They had, like, bone pieces in there. There's, I guess, a scholarly debate as to whether those are actually St. Peter's bones. I know. I think they said archaeologists determined it was the bones of a 60-year-old man at the time when St. Peter was crucified, who would have been about 60 years old.

But they all are very certain that that was St. Peter's tomb because he was buried among pagans because there was no Christian church at the time. And early Christians would come and etch. They called it the graffiti wall. Prayers to St. Peter and to Jesus on the wall, and so you find that tomb, and then you go up, and it's so funny being in St. Peter's. Like, the place we stayed was right next to St. Peter's, so we were there all the time, which it just felt impossible to not be there.

You go there every night, go there during the day, got to see Pope Leo. Funny story on that, too. He announced that he was getting surgery during his Angelus address on that Sunday, and my wife and I were just kind of sitting there hoping he'd speak English, because we were like, maybe he's going to speak English, maybe he's going to speak English. He didn't speak English, so we didn't understand anything that was said. We were like, wow, that was so amazing.

We got to see the Pope. That was sick. And then we'd get back to our place later that night when we got Wi-Fi. I'm like, oh my gosh, the Pope said he's going to go under surgery. We didn't know. We just thought it was, oh, great to see people. So his body language didn't really communicate that there was something really serious going on, which was awesome. But it sounds like it all went well. We were there. There was a lot of news reports and hits.

So, you come up from St. Peter's Tomb, and then you look around, and there's the tombs of hundreds of, I think it was over 100 Catholic figures, many of them popes. I saw a saint. There was a saint from Sweden. It was the Queen of Sweden, I think, was buried down there, too.

Yeah, I think it was. And I can't remember exactly what one, but there's so many people there, and I was thinking about this, too. I think it is in that. positive that it is seen as this amazing feat of art, because it is. Pope Julius assembled all the greatest artists in the world to build St. Peter's Basilica, among with other Italian artists that are incredible. And so people come who aren't Catholic, who don't share the same connection with it that I do as a Catholic.

So, there's people kind of just turning around, just like, no big deal. And I'm basically in tears. All of these popes, all of these men that contributed to what I now basically design my personal life around, and then my family's life around, and the heritage that I have inherited, just a profound sense of awe and gratefulness, and this feeling that... It's so much bigger. It's so much bigger than I could possibly have imagined, and even for the, I'm so grateful for the foresight, too, of the artists in the 1500s that, you know, could they have possibly imagined that what they were creating would have been enjoyed by some American kid that took a flight over to Rome that is Catholic?

I mean, just, America wasn't even around then, you know? The foresight to build things for people that don't exist yet. Is so, I guess it's hard for my American mind to comprehend, because I think of efficiency, and when you build something, it's to immediately enjoy. And the first St. Peter's Basilica took 300 years to build under Constantine. I mean, that's multiple generations of people that never saw it completed, that were so committed to it. Just the feeling of completing that must have been so amazing.

And so, going around to the tombs and saying prayers, I got to pray in front of St. Benedict's tomb, which was amazing. And then, of course, you emerge from the tombs, and you go up another level, and you just look at the ceiling, the art, and it's just... I haven't had tears from something out of beauty, but that was the first time my eyes were welling up.

It is hard to imagine anyone is capable. Any human being is capable. Maybe that is kind of the point. Maybe they are not. But the scale, just the scale of everything is so big. Even the windows, the windows are like multiple stories high.

I have seen the pictures, I have seen the videos, but to be there in person just left me with this amazing sense of awe and gratefulness to be a part of this heritage. Yeah, it just left me coming back really encouraged to know, like, it actually is so much bigger than not just me, but us, and even the Pope himself, and even generations of Catholics.

It's just so much bigger, and all the people that were in St. Peter's, too, the amount of languages being spoken was amazing, the draw that that has on people from all over the world, and yeah, Rome is... The Eternal City, it was beyond anything that you can read in a book. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be there, and I come back with a, you know, a new vigor for life. That's awesome. That's awesome. I mean, I just, you know, I have to say, I mean, you know, you're right.

I mean, you see all these works of architecture and beauty, and it does, you know, stir the soul. So, you know, you had the chance to see the tomb of St. Peter. Last year, I had the chance to see, you know, as I talked about before, the tomb of St. James, you know, the apostle in Santiago, Spain, and I just love what Pope John Paul II said when he visited that tomb in Spain in 1982, and I think it ties together so well with what we talked about earlier about France.

He said, I, bishop of Rome and pastor, of the Universal Church. From Santiago, issue to you, Old Europe, a cry full of love. Find yourself. Be yourself. Discover your origins. Give life to your roots. Revive those authentic values that gave glory to your history, and enhance your presence on the other continents. You can still be the beacon of civilization and stimulate progress throughout the world. The other continents watch you and expect from you the same response that same James gave to Christ.

I can do it. Amen. Also, one more thing, because I don't want to overlook Ireland, because I kind of overlooked it when I went. For some reason. But then, when I was there, I was like, why have I never thought of going to Ireland? Because it's only six hours away. Not to say only, that's still a play. But I've definitely spent more than six hours in an airport trying to get to the West Coast. And so, it's not that far away, if you think about it.

Also, everyone there speaks English. And it's pretty reasonable cost-wise. It could be about the same as being in a major city, depending on where you go. And the other amazing thing about Ireland, well, other than trying to figure out how to drive, which I certainly, you know, at night, snapped back to American and realized I was driving right at someone else on the right side of the road. That was crazy. Toughest thing was driving. But we're like, we land in the Dublin airport, and we make our way over to Galway City, and we stop in this random, you know, random town, and get a great Irish breakfast, which was hilarious.

It was very hearty, a lot of meat. We had some pudding, and then we walked over and we see this amazing church, just a beautiful church. That would have been on par with any churches I've seen in America, and it's just this random town in Ireland. And then, I think it was actually like Our Lady of the Rosary. I'd have to look back in my notes as to where in Ireland this was. But then I go to a sign, and I find out that it's the hometown of an American.

He came over from Ireland and was a Cardinal of St. Louis at one point. And so, there's all these, like, random connections between the Irish and America, but you go inside the church. I don't know if it's random. Yeah, I mean, not random, but, like, when I went to Ireland, I wouldn't have expected as many, like, nods and references to America as I did. And then you walk in the church, and it's amazing. Shockingly beautiful, different in kind than the churches I ran into in Rome, but I mean, how do you possibly compete with Rome?

But close your eyes, imagine the most beautiful church you can think of in America. The random Irish cathedral was on par, if not better. And then close your eyes, think of that church again. Any church you walk into in Rome was like a hundred times more than that. It's just so hard to believe. And it just left me with this sense, too, for Ireland that is struggling. Their Christian heritage is so unbelievably rich. And similar to Rome, like, you'd see people walking around, and I'm like, as an American kid who loves his faith, I don't know if I'm a kid anymore, but as an American that loves his faith, I was like, there's just such an embarrassment of Christian riches over here.

Yeah, you want to shake people, and I'm like, wake up, wake up. I just want to shake people. I'm like, could you even imagine? Like, you are sitting on top of... The most amazing Christian heritage, and then all the sacrifices, all the work put into transmitting this culture, and all the beauty that came from it, and to see, you know, like the leaders of Ireland be like, yeah, our greatest priority is giving abortion to everyone. Yeah, not good. And funny talking, like we had an encounter kind of full circle.

We sat in this bar with, in a pub, also, they're not bars over there, and we were getting a pint, because you don't get beers, you get pints, and these two Irish moms were in there, again, random part of Ireland, not a big city, and we're talking to them a little bit, kind of doing a little bit of international relations, and they're hilarious, I mean, they're so funny, funny accents, and talking about what they thought about America, you know, what we were seeing in Ireland, and We basically got to their major concern, breaking point there, is they are accepting immigrants because they have no representation in the EU.

The EU makes those decisions. And then they have a welfare system. Irish people pay almost half their money in taxes, gone immediately. It's a welfare state, right. The welfare system pays for... So, there's Irish people that have paid half their wages their entire lives, that are in their 70s, that can't get medical care. Even though they paid for it, and supposedly universal, because immigrants are coming over, and they get cards that they can use, and they will get preferential treatment, they also are put up in hotels that used to be Irish hotels that found it more profitable to take money from the government to have immigrants live in these hotels.

And what immediately struck me was, this isn't a good arrangement for either party. This isn't a good arrangement for the Irish people that aren't getting care. This isn't a good arrangement for the immigrants that have to live in makeshift hotels that don't have great accommodations either.

It could be better than what they left, but it's still unacceptable for the Irish people. True, but then also, Ireland is so small. A little, yeah. We could get across it in two hours, two and a half hours across the highway, and there's only like six million people there, which is hard to wrap your mind around because America is so big. But in recent years, we're getting people, Irish people that we know.

Killed, murdered by foreigners, recent people that come over, and they know them. I mean, they know them because their country is still majority Irish. And they're like, that never happened. It never happened 30 years ago. You would have never heard that. It's completely unheard of, and it's shocking to many Irish people, and they're just kind of used to being a little bit dealt with the flow, docile, so you haven't seen super mass protests, but especially up in Northern Ireland and Belfast, you're starting to see unrest, you're starting to see this, and it's just such an abdication of the leadership of their country to not act in the interest of the Irish people.

And I don't know who, again, Someone can do a map on this. I don't know who's facilitating this mass immigration that is causing this problem, but it's not good for either party, and it's going to literally tear the fabric of the country apart. Because I feel like I was doing some research on their immigration numbers. They're about 30 years not as far along as we are, or maybe it's the inverse. I can't remember. Because when I was walking around, I noticed that, again, small parts of Ireland, but then also in some of the cities, most of the jobs were occupied by Irish people.

And it was actually kind of refreshing. You go to a gas station, and it's an Irish person. You go to a coffee shop, it's an Irish person. Airport, Irish person. And I'm like, that was, unfortunately, as an American, what struck out to me, because if you go to a major city, and you're looking at some of these jobs that are occupied, it's like, clearly, this gas station is owned by someone who's not been here very long, or is working at an airport or whatever.

However, I wasn't really in Dublin very much, and I think that trend is most accelerated in Dublin, in which they're having immigrant populations like this. Because Ireland actually, remember the stat earlier of 18% to 21% are foreign-born. Ireland's actually the highest in the EU, because the EU, Brussels, is just like, I know, Ireland, that island off to the northwest, we'll just ship them. So, Ireland, it's actually upwards of 23%. Of the population on the islands now are foreign-born, primarily from North Africa.

Insane. It's crazy. So, either assimilation is the greatest challenge of our time, or there needs to be removal of some kind. I don't know what it is, but it's not going to end well. That's terrible. So, I was really grateful to have that experience, too. Ireland's amazing. Highly recommend.

Go ahead, Josh. Your good news. Well, I mean, I think this is good news. I'm following all the different political races out there, and right here in my state of Michigan is one of the most premier Senate races. We've got Abdullah Syed, the, you know, communist, versus Mike Rogers, the American.

But the culture shock here, though, what's really fascinating here is that, you know, in Michigan, it's almost impossible. To get elected as a Democrat, if you don't have very strong support amongst the black community. In fact, one pastor in Detroit said, Reverend Charles Williams said, it only takes this much, as he holds up his fingers, of Detroit to defect. It only takes this much of Flint to defect. If even a sliver of people don't turn out, you run into a huge challenge in trying to get your candidate over the line.

So, I consider this good news that the Democrat in Michigan is having a hard time winning over black voters. Why is that? Well, black voters in Detroit just... Don't really care for Abdul El-Sayed, and there is a little bit of a culture shock there between, you know, Arabic people and Black people in Michigan, and so El-Sayed is trying to do everything he can. He brought in Raphael Warnock, the senator from Georgia. He's trying to rally the troops, trying to win back the Black vote, and then he just appears.

You know, at an actual gas station, and he's talking about all the favorite chips he has, and he's like, he's so unnatural. Have you seen this video? Let's go. The gas station video? Yeah, dude. And again, I'm like, I almost have to give him credit because it's so shameless and smart. Like, he knows what he has to do. Well, the first one is where he's meeting with this black activist. Yeah, and this one here. I like it. Oh, we're going to get dinged on the music there.

It's Drake. Okay, well, I'll tell you what happens. The chips, and like the white dude's like, oh, this is so cool, because he loves the DSA candidate, and then this black guy walks by, he's like. Yeah, dude, I don't want your chips. I didn't see that.

And in this video, he's meeting with a Black activist, or reporter, I can't remember which, and he's trying to talk about his problems winning the Black vote, and what does he order when he sits down to eat? Insane, bro. It's so shameless. Because for too many Black Detroiters in particular, their experience with somebody who looks like me It's not a good one. You go into a gas station, you go to a party store, you're being talked at from behind a glass wall.

If you're a woman, you're being catcalled. If you're a kid, you're being sold a Lucy out the back. You're being denied a bathroom. I've always tried to be on the right side of that, but I also understand that if that's your experience with somebody whose name is like mine, that leaves a terrible taste in your mouth.

She says this, and he turns around, and the person comes to get his order. He says, I'll take fried chicken, please. Oh, my gosh. He's talking about winning the black vote. So bad. Now, here's the thing. Mike Rogers has the appearance of being like your total, boring, white Republican candidate, right?

Yeah. I got to tell you something. He is slinging the beers at bars in black neighborhoods. Look at what's going on. Watch this video. Tell me if you think he comes off as like a total boring suburban white Republican or not.

Music, too. I mean, to be fair, though, this is a stunt, Josh. It is a stunt, but I mean, like, again, good campaigns have good stunts. Bad campaigns trip and fall. They order fried chicken. Yeah, I mean, they're trying to hand out bags of chips at gas stations. People go, who are you? Didn't Kim O'Hara have a chip bag thing, too? She, like, walked in. She's like, I'm a normal person. I like Doritos.

Yeah, what's your favorite snack, I think? Yeah. So, you know. David Marcus, one of my favorite journalists, he writes for Fox News, and he was on the ground. He doesn't just write from New York or write from D.C. He goes and spends a lot of time on the campaign trails, and he mentions, he interviewed this guy, Leon, who is a city employee in his 40s, lives in Detroit. He supported Haley Stevens, you know, in the Democratic primary. That's the one he wanted to win.

And instead, Abdul Al-Sayed became the Democratic nominee. And he just says, he comes off, he says about Abdul, he just comes off as arrogant, like he's talking down to everybody. And so, again, this is one of those things where.

You know, it's an absolute tight race. Everyone calls this one a toss-up. It could go either way. The poles are so tight. But what's so funny about this race is that, I don't know if you guys heard about this, but last night, the news broke about Woodward, not Woodward, I'm thinking, but this polling controversy, this scandal, where This, you know, Donald Trump has talked in the past about fake polls, right? And that's times where the polls, they don't really do a really good job of getting a real good sample.

You know, like, I remember the poll that came out in Wisconsin back in 2016 that said Hillary is going to win Wisconsin by 19 points. She loses the state. I mean, that's a whopper. The seltzer, the poll she had in Iowa showing it was like, you know, Kamala was up by four points, she lost it by eight. I mean, these are big misses, right? Those are when the polls are just, they stink, right? But this is different. Wedgwood Poles have been cranking up poles all year long, and they just admitted yesterday, yeah, we totally made it up.

Yeah, that's another one. They did that in California, too. They made it up, and it's like, if I had a nickel for every time this happened this year, I'd have 10 cents, which isn't a lot, but it's crazy that this happens more than once. 10 cents.

And the thing about this is that the Wedgwood Poles in Michigan... And she showed Mallory McMurrow in single digits. And she said, as soon as that poll came out, all my funding dried up. No one gave us any support. And a bunch of her supporters went to Al-Sayed. And so, he becomes the nominee.

And so, now Democrats are upset in Michigan, not only because it's not just a so-called fake poll. It's literally absolute fabrication. Right? So, they're upset because they're like, well, wait a minute now. They don't think Michigan should be competitive this year. Like, this is supposed to be a blue wave, and why is it that Michigan isn't shored up right now? If it's a blue wave, Michigan should be in the bank. Why is Mike Rogers a real threat? Right, yeah. Yeah, he lost to Slotkin, by the way, in a 2024 year.

Like, it's not like he's some world beater candidate, whatever. Because, yeah, I think there's just a lot of truth that there's tons of friction in the metro Detroit area between the Arabic population and the Black population. That's just on record. And I would just say that this is a reminder to everybody out there, the polls don't matter.

Okay? I mean, let nerds like me examine them and figure out what's going on, but you don't ever let any poll convince you to stay home. You have a moral obligation to vote, and I'm going to try to stop the DSA communists from taking over. I don't want a Congress that is dependent on people like Ilhan Omar or AOC. I want to stop these people dead in their tracks. Does that mean Republican candidates? You know, manna from heaven, they're phenomenal, they're sinless.

No, no, I didn't say that. But I'm going to stop the DSA communists from taking over, so don't let any polls discourage you. Right, because I've been mulling over this, too, the past few days, because am I super jazzed over Mike Rogers? Like, no, I think that he's, you know, if you look at his track record, not great foreign policy, probably not a fantastic candidate either. And then I feel like Trump has opened up a lot of weaknesses that he's being, like, attacked effectively on in terms of Iran war.

Gas prices, corruption, etc. And I think a lot of this, too, is just a function of, because we can have these fiery conversations, and then historically speaking, the party in power has to govern, and then after two years, they make mistakes, and then people get to run on those mistakes, and then they have the advantage. However, the whole sit out because you're not thrilled about this. I feel like, isn't that just kind of, not to rattle everyone up, but if you don't like certain elements of your coalition, of your party, is the way to actually beat them to take your ball and leave?

No, no, it's not. Leaving the party to allow them to do more of what you're frustrated about? And like, do you really think, now sit down for a second, do you think that you're welcome? In the Al Sayed party of, you know, child trans surgeries, abortion, abolish ICE, white grievances. Celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Yeah, like, no. It is shocking to me how shameless, like, the Al Sayeds of the world. I'm trying to think of another good example. Like, there's someone running in Indiana in my district, J.D.

Ford, who, like, ran the most progressive, you know, rainbow-tinged campaign I've seen in a long time and got beat. And that was in 2020. And now you look at his mailers, it's all like, gas prices are higher, the groceries are higher. He's moved to this economic populist message, which is like, yes, Trump left the door open on this, and I'm frustrated at him about it. But hey, do I really think you've sincerely changed your beliefs? In the case of El-Sayed, literally just lying on a couple fronts, saying he never said this or that.

No, I actually don't think you're very sincere. And while I have my problems with the parties, I'm going to go... Another thing that frustrates me, not to get in the soapbox, there's a clip of John Thune going around. I slacked this to Josh because I was so mad at it. He's sitting down. First off, this is the epitome of everything I hate in the Republican Party. He's sitting down with a lunch with Politico, some Politico reporter. You know, chuckling it up, having a great time.

It's like, hey, I actually have this thing on my phone. It's on the date of the midterms. It's like, not to be crass, was it butt-whooping, but to use a different word? That's not John Thune. That was the outgoing Senator Tom Tillis.

Tom Tillis, sorry. He's making the rounds. He's making the rounds, yep. You caught us right there, but he's basically like, oh, it's going to be a butt-whooping on this date. He has it on his calendar. He knows what's going to happen, yep. I can't wait. I'm like, well, hey, I would never like you to be anywhere. What a cowardly, disgusting, Gideon defeat attitude I want nothing to do with. I got my issues with Trump, but at least he's moving forward towards something.

I'd much rather take that other than these, like, we deserve to lose. I mean, you got it right. Exactly. Tom, outgoing Republican senator from North Carolina, Republican, Tom Tillis, Catholic, by the way. He wants the Trump. ...party to go down in flames, and he wants to go, you know, he wants the return, you know, he wants, he's the empire. Empire strikes back. He wants the rhinos to come striking back. It's just like John Cornyn. John Cornyn was elected in 2002.

You know, calling for, you know, pro-life, and economic prosperity, and all this stuff, and he votes RINO for 20 years, and the voters in Texas are like, I didn't vote for you for gun control. I didn't vote for you to be super pro-H-1B visas, and, you know, and elect the border, and John Cornyn, again, this is the thing, John Cornyn got very conservative in the run-up to his primary, like, oh, I'm conservative, I'm pro-Trump, I'm all this and that. And as soon as he got his butt whooped by Ken Paxton, John Cornyn has been on a seven-month tear attacking Paxton, and he wants Paxton to go down in flames.

I guarantee you, John Cornyn is going to vote for James Tallarico. He wants Tallarico to defeat Ken Paxton, so that John Cornyn and Tom Tillis can go say, see, we warned you. We warned you this was going to happen, and they want to take back control of the Republican Party. So, if you are frustrated that Donald Trump has made a few mistakes and made some definite errors.

But overall, the trajectory of the party is so much better. Yeah. So much better. We always come back. If you sit at home, you are giving the keys to the Republican Party back to people like John Cornyn and Tom Tillis. That's what you will get if you stay home and sit on your hands. That's why I have already voted in Michigan. Oh, I got it out of the way. Boom. Got it done. That's a flex. And everyone else, go to vote.gov, find out if...

In your state, get that ballot in. I delivered it by hand, by the way. Get it in. Get it in. Vote early. Bank your vote. And you know what? Honestly, it's a contribution, if you think about it, in a sense, to the campaign and candidate you like the most. It's like, don't even bother trying to... I've already voted for you, brother. Save your time. That's right.

Okay, I got to slide in a quick good news, because it's just such a good line. I think it perfectly sums up a lot of my frustrations. The future is looking bright for my, this is our Mormon brother in the movement, Kai Schwimmer. Let me play this clip. This is amazing. So good. This is a college professor, by the way. Do you think it would be a problem if people, because of their ethnic or religious identity, did things that were against the interests of the nation, like in Dearborn, Michigan?

I don't think it's a problem that there's an increase in the number of Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan. Do you think it becomes a problem if they don't assimilate to the English language and refuse to? No, not for me. Would it be an issue if every city in America spoke a different language?

No, not for me. Entonces, sería bastante difícil si estuviéramos hablando, entendernos, porque nosotros no podemos entender lo que estamos diciendo y no podemos alcanzar tener respeto mutual. Sí. So, it is impossible to have a country if people can't communicate. You said they refuse to assimilate. I gave the hypothetical. Would it be a problem if they refuse to assimilate?

Okay, yeah. Then why did you disagree five seconds ago? So, I don't, because I don't, but that was not part of your question. I don't believe there's any people who are refusing to assimilate. Your ability to live in the United States without ever needing to learn the English language is far easier now than it used to be. Do you think it was? That was awesome.

The other thing that I'm kind of jealous of the Mormons, or Church of Latter-day Saints, I don't know what they're going by these days, but whenever they do their missions, they always learn other languages, so you just got that in your back pocket. I guarantee he did some mission in South America, boned up on the Spanish, and then had that ready to go, but he's a very, like, what I like about Kai, I think he...

So, he's navigated things really well. I think he is in charge of the Young Republicans or something like that, and he got all these accusations of being a griper or whatever, this and that, and he's just kind of handled it all with a joyful warrior attitude, and he's managed to navigate the different coalitions. He did this at a Turning Point event, for example. So, I'm like, I just feel like we need more people like this.

Are you just going to push forward and be able to move with a good attitude? And I feel like Kai's done that really well. Good for you, yeah. Don't let all the accusations get you. Just keep moving forward. They're going to say bad stuff about you. Exactly. That's awesome. So, okay, next one, and I want to get this in because I actually saw, so I got the chance to meet with Brian over in Realm, which was awesome. Really good seeing him.

First name basis, you know, Brian. Former colleague Brian, yeah. The ambassador, I think I hit him with Mr. Ambassador when I was there. It was really cool. Well, no, the first comment he made was my hair. It's like, this is the longest your hair has ever been. I'm like, oh, wow, Ryan, you remember me. Okay, so we got some... I'm going to try my best here. I'm coming ready to fire. This might be like a four-hour show.

I'm taking a bathroom break if you're going to do that. Yeah, all good. So, let's see if I can... We just froze up on the screen share. You're better now. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Am I gone? No, you're here. I said you loud and clear. We're back. You and your coffee mug.

Yes. It's my favorite coffee mug. Everyone's got a favorite. It's plain white. It's actually light blue, but you can't really see. I've had it forever. Okay. Is there something wrong with pure white, Erika? Part of the reason I bring up Brian was he was about to travel to Israel, which was crazy. I was like, I just saw him, and of course, you see how beautiful Italy is and whatever. I was like, yeah, I'm going to Israel next week. That's crazy.

So, a little bit of the timeline here. There was a Washington Post journalist that was beaten by settler terrorists to the point of, I think, almost losing her finger. Crazy. And then, also, it's all on film. So, not a great look, and before that, these European diplomats, I think it was like a mayor of somewhere in France, went and got beaten up as well.

This was during the, there's an olive harvest going on right now in the West Bank, in particular, at Taiba. And, let's see, so this was on Saturday. They open fire at olive harvesters across the territory. According to Palestinian media, three Palestinians were wounded in separate attacks throughout the day. In the West Bank, additionally, some 20 Palestinian-owned sheep reportedly were stabbed to death by settlers right on a farm.

There's heightened tensions in the West Bank during the annual olive harvest, a period that has frequently seen an increase in already near-daily occurrence of extremist settler attacks on Palestinians. Crazy footage. I mean, we have like roving men in black masks just walking up to diplomats' cars here and smashing them with rocks, throwing slingshots, crazy. And then after that, we get this, and I'm sourcing both of this from Times of Israel. Washington Post photojournalist beaten by settlers slams Netanyahu after surgery on nearly detached finger.

This is Heidi Levine on Saturday, underwent surgery on her finger, which was nearly detached from her hand after she was beaten by settlers in the West Bank a day earlier, while hitting out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for casting doubt about the attack. The assault occurred near the village of Abu Fala, north of Ramallah, where some 80 settlers, many of them masked and some carrying gas canisters, descended from a hill. Two terrorists olive grove and began throwing rocks and beating Palestinians and accompanying activists as well as Levine.

Now, there's, I mean, there's footage of this. That's kind of the crazy thing. Like, I know there's a lot of he said, he said, she said stuff, but here's the Washington Post. And they're beating them, yeah. Yeah, we got to get there.

We do get to get there. Let's go around. Get up! Get up! Get up! So, for those who are just listening on audio, she is wearing a clearly marked press vest, and she was beaten by these masked men in black.

And a few things immediately strike out to me. This is a woman. Like, she's not like a big man or anything like that. One, what has to be wrong with you to beat a woman like this, and then also someone clearly marked as press, and then to also assault diplomats and clearly marked cars, let alone what you would be doing to the actual Palestinian population that lives in the West Bank, Taiba in particular, the last Christian outpost. There's some mental derangement going on here, and I know this isn't new news to some people who have been following this.

Well, mental derangement and a heightened confidence that nothing's going to happen to you. Absolutely, and a lot of the reporting includes that the IDF has observed many of this and have allowed it to happen. If it's called in, they often will take the side of the settlers.

There's elements of Netanyahu's current cabinet that are very pro the settler movement. They arm them with weapons. They give them cover, that kind of thing. And so, this is kind of just exploding now. Again, I mean, it feels like there's attacks every day, but when you're assaulting a Washington Post American journalist, it's just like, well, you can't really ignore this anymore.

And the frustrating thing, too, is that Netanyahu's office says, the facts surrounding the confrontation during which the Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted remain unclear and under investigation. Reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths. Footage shows masked individuals on both sides hurling objects amid reports of fireworks fired at Jewish youths. Other footage appeared to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual. The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence.

Netanyahu later tells I-24 News that reports of such attacks sometimes turn out to be inaccurate. Many times, we've been told that certain things happened, and then it turns out to be they weren't exactly as presented. He said, when the interviewer pushed back, pointing to the footage of the assault and Levine's own testimony, Netanyahu responded, I don't know, we're checking it out.

I mean, it got to a level here where even Mike Huckabee is condemning this on Twitter. I have a statement from him. Heidi Levine, photojournalist for WAPO, suffered serious injuries from vicious and cowardly attack. Heidi is a U.S. citizen. Clear ID is a journalist. Details of who are under investigation, but those who attacked unarmed reporters should spend years in prison. We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law. Whoever participated in this, attacking a female photographer is a despicable act of terror.

Carried out by mass cowards, dishonorable violence. The frustrating thing about this statement, too, is one, I will get to where it was during Brian's visit, but Israeli police have made arrests in response to some of these attacks, but historically, 94% of the settler violence investigations have ended without indictments. Only about 3% have resulted in convictions, and I am getting that data from Yesh Din. They are a human rights organization. So, I was shocked to hear Brian was going while this was going.

Sorry, Brian, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, and I know he went to great lengths to In particular, go to Taiba, the last Christian village in the West Bank. He met there with Father Bashar. He is the parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Church in Christian Village of Taiba, meeting at the Latin Monastery of Taiba. So, here is a picture of him here. We got good coverage on Zeal of this. They met with him. He presented photographs and a timeline documenting the escalation of settler attacks in Taiba.

Father Bashar also recounted the previous day's assault, during which a French mayor and members of the European delegation were targeted. The meeting had initially been expected to include U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. However, Huckabee did not attend and was visiting a group of settlers at a settler conference at the same time as the meeting in Taiba.

Ambassador Birch told those presidents that he spent hours in meetings with Huckabee, and that American ambassadorial team was committed to protecting Taiba's Christians from this violence. You eventually get a statement from the patriarchs here, and... It goes something like, we, the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem, condemn the heinous attack carried out on Saturday, 17 October, by mass settlers in the Taiba.

In Taiba, against local residents during the olive harvest and against the foreign guests, including diplomats and officials from European countries who were with them in a visit of solidarity to areas sustaining continuous attacks by similar groups of settlers, this wild attack on the Christian village of Taiba and against its peaceful population is not an isolated incident. In the past weeks, Palestinian villages of the West Bank have been exposed to a wide-scale terror by settlers, which is reaching a peak during this time of the olive harvest when families go to their lands to collect.

What they need to live and renew their generations-long bond with their lands. You can read the full statement here. I'll put the tweet in there. But a lot of this is kind of heating up around Israeli elections. I believe they take place in six days.

And very interesting to see. Trump said he would not endorse Netanyahu. So, this is ramping up. This has always been a problem. Part of Netanyahu's coalition are very pro these settler groups. Netanyahu's closest opposition is using this as an opportunity to attack them, saying that this needs to stop, this needs to be greater control, etc., etc., and President Trump said he would not endorse in this election, and then recently we get a true social for the great people of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu has been a great warrior prime minister and an even greater partner for peace.

The Islamic Republic of Iran. So, he comes out and endorses him. Interestingly, J.D. Vance is getting interviewed on a board and is asked a similar question. And mind you, I believe he was in Hungary campaigning for Viktor Orban. So, think about that. Thank you to the people watching. Don't blame me for not asking a million followers. I normally don't ask yes-no questions, but I'm going to ask you two and try to hold you to that yes-no. Over the weekend, the president endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu.

For a re-election in Israel, do you endorse Benjamin Netanyahu? The president has the most effective endorsement in American or international political history. I endorse American candidates, and that is where I am focused on, is the midterm. So, I am not getting involved in the Israeli election. So, you do not want to say one way or the other whether you support him? I am not anti-endorsing him. I am not pro-endorsing him. I am not getting involved in the Israeli election. Right.

Smart. Smart. Smart move. Yep. Maybe start walking back from those foreign elections. Love it. Yeah, the Orban experience didn't go too well. Maybe you learned a lesson there. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, I think what... The people of Hungary are learning a lesson of what it's like not to have a war bond there. I think it's worse. But yeah, I just in general don't like presidents or vice presidents endorsing candidates of other countries. I'm not necessarily, I'm not categorically against it, but I'm not really the fan.

Yeah. So, I mean, I think this is a huge... Rubio spoke out against it. This issue is not going away. I think in particular, the one thing, you can disagree on tactics, you can disagree on all this. I mean, the videos of masked terrorists running around and beating up women journalists is just not a great look for a country that wants support from the United States coming up on election year.

So, we'll see where that all goes. Into the mailbag, we have a question. Josh, I think this one's kind of... Well, actually, Erika, maybe. We got one for Josh, one for Erika. I'll start it off. I'm a Catholic wife, mom, and voter in the state of Michigan. I found ways to help fund our Catholic high school. We are opening this fall. Congratulations.

Erika had a video on the history of funds for Catholic education, and from there, I fell in love with her show. Thank you for all the good work you do. So informative, so entertaining, so encouraging. Thank you. You mentioned that you are interested in viewers' questions, so I'm writing in. My question is this. What is the church's ability and responsibility to guide our vote? The following link is to the publication I received in the mail. And it really does not tell me who I should be voting for, or even what issues to prioritize.

We have all had priests say, vote responsibly from the pulpit, but they rarely say what that means. Can you discuss this on the show? Josh. Well, I mean, the, you know, the history of the Catholic Church in the United States for the last several hundred years has been that we have not endorsed candidates for office because, first of all, we, you know, we were just happy not to be persecuted for, you know, in the 19th century. You know, there's the Blaine Amendments, all these different rules that were placed in state governments to try to prevent any funding of education that could be, you know, Catholic in nature.

And so, And then, of course, there was the bigotry against John F. Kennedy when he was running for president in 1960, but people didn't like him because he was Catholic. And so, we're just like, hey, we're just trying to focus on solutions. Here's the different ideas, what you should vote for. And then, I think, unfortunately, bishops and priests have become a little bit too risk-averse on this. I agree. That's why we formed CatholicVote, to try to help people be much more informed.

Now, I'll tell you in Michigan. Obviously, I've spent almost the whole episode talking about how I think Mike Rogers would be a thousand times better of a United States Senator to represent the great state of Michigan than Abdul Al-Sayed, but then if you're talking about running for other important races in Michigan, and if you vote for John James for governor, you can do something directly on the thing that you're talking about, Catholic education. So, as we've mentioned on the show before, Donald Trump's one big, beautiful bill that congressional Republicans got sent to his desk, he signed it into law, provides the first ever federal school choice provision.

This federal education tax credit is a game changer. And what it's going to allow, it starts January 1st, 2027, so it starts next year. All eligible taxpayers will be able to donate up to $1,700. And so, if it's a married couple, up to $3,400 to scholarship-granting organizations that help provide education, tuition, scholarships, all this kind of stuff, tutoring, whatever, for students in, you know, your state, right? But here's the catch. The states actually have to allow for it. They have to say, yes, we want this to happen, and provide a list to the IRS of the SGOs that are qualified to receive it.

So, what this means is... States like Iowa, Indiana, Ohio have already said, yes, we love this. We want students in our state to receive this scholarship money. Michigan, however, sadly, the governor has not done that. She has not said yes.

So, I'm going to vote. I already voted. Remember I told you earlier? I voted for John James, who has said he would say yes to these scholarship granting organizations, so that kids in Michigan would be able to receive these funds. It would be a big boost to Catholic education. So, again, every taxpayer in the country is eligible to take this tax credit. But the students in your state might not receive it if the governor of that state says no, but hey, blue state governors like Kathy Hochul, who I disagree with on just about everything, she said yes.

So, blue state governors need to say yes, just like Kathy Hochul, and just like the governor of Colorado also said yes. We need more of these blue state governors to say yes. It provides aid and tuition help. Not just Catholic schools, private schools, even public schools, kids that need additional help, tutoring, whatnot. So, yeah, you are not going to find a voter guide. from the... We have voter guides. But at CatholicVote, we have... Go to CatholicVote's website. We have voter guides.

There's important House races, Senate races, Governor's races across the country that we're focused on. We're not covering every single possible race, so if you live in Michigan, Right to Life of Michigan, there's also the pro-family groups in Michigan as well on the more local races. We're going to try to get more comprehensive next cycle, but for now... We're highlighting important House, Senate, and governor's races going on across the country that Catholics need to get involved in. Yeah, and just to sort of, like, ride on that for a second, the, I think the question also pertaining to, like, why don't priests speak more specifically, especially when it's something obvious?

Like, you think of the 2016 election, right, with Hillary Clinton running. I mean, it should have been, it's so obvious, right, that, like, she's the party of death, and she's campaigning for more abortion all the time, every day. So, like, a Catholic in good conscience should obviously know that that's not an option for them to vote for, but what the priests and the bishops, the clergy's role in that discernment process of who do I vote for is, isn't necessarily to, like, name this candidate or name that candidate.

It is to form the conscience of the Catholics who then go out, the laity who then run the public square and go out and vote, and we're the ones at the table making these arguments. So... Have the bishops and priests done that well? That's definitely up for debate, but like Josh said, you're not going to get a list from your local ordinary saying, here's who you're going to vote for down the ballot if you're a good Catholic. Their job is to form the conscience.

Their job is to speak out on injustices, to help Catholics know what is the ordo amoris, what are the priorities when it comes to voting in line with human dignity, when it comes to voting. In line with policies, etc.

Um, and in issues like, like a ballot initiative, you are going to get guidance from your bishops. So, in Virginia, for example, this round, or if you remember issue one in Ohio, a year, was it just a year ago? Oh my gosh, two years ago, when we were voting on the abortion measures there. In, in instances like that, you will get some bishops and priests making very explicit statements. Not just some, most of them. I mean, we got ballot initiatives on abortion in Idaho.

The bishops have business. Very strong there. As you said, Virginia, the bishop is very strong. Missouri, the bishops are standing out and saying, no, you got to say no to abortion. And, you know, so those are clear examples where there's not, you know, when you're voting for a candidate, there's a whole mix of different issues and stuff like that, and people get all very personal about it. But when it comes to cut and dry, you know, like that, the bishops have been very clear, like the bishops in New York, when lawmakers...

In the legislature, we're trying to legalize, and ultimately did legalize, euthanasia. They were very strongly against it. Unfortunately, Kathy Hochul signed that into law. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I've got to cut this a little short because we're getting a little bit long in time, but I did promise on the title Father Rippinger. So, it appears Father Rippinger is taking a one-year break from public ministry, and Eric has got the details on it, but just a little bit of setup. He's become super popular on YouTube, social media, appearing on shows like The Sean Ryan Show, massive reach, speaking on a lot of subjects, not just exorcism, but I think exorcism is really kind of the draw for a lot of people.

This kind of got spun into a narrative. Is this a good faithful exorcist or priest being canceled? So, I just want to kind of set the record straight for people that maybe listen to them. Erika, what were you seeing here?

Yeah, so LifeSite News broke the story this week that the Denver Archbishop, Archbishop Golka, who has been campaigning against the terrible... Politics in the state of Colorado, so thank you, Archbishop, but that he had asked Father Chad Ripperger to take a year of silence or a year of a break of speaking in the public eye for posting, I believe, on social media and for appearing on interviews.

LifeSite News, they broke it, and I think the headline was silenced. And of course, as the story started to come out, we had a little bit more balanced reporting. We got an actual statement from the Archdiocese itself. So, it says, Archbishop Golka recently met with Father Chad Ripperger to discuss his ministry and his community, the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother. During that conversation, the Archbishop asked him to consider a one-year fast. He asked him to consider it, to which Father agreed.

The time, quote, will allow him to devote himself to the society and to the people it serves. At the end of the year, they will review this arrangement together. And she said also, this was the spokeswoman for the Archdiocese, Archbishop Golka is, quote, grateful for Father's priestly service, his exorcism ministry, and for the generous spirit in which he received this request. We ask for the faithful to join us in praying for Father Ripperger and for the society. And of course, immediately comparisons were made on Catholic traditionalist platforms saying this is just like Cardinal McElroy who removed an exorcist from D.C.

for his remarks on UFOs, etc., etc. The difference here being that Cardinal McElroy was very explicit about the specific statements that led to the removal of that priest, and they did have to do with UFOs. Whereas, this has been carried out much more as a dialogue with the Archbishop, between the Archbishop and Father Ripperger. There was no specific statement cited that Father Ripperger had made, no specific interview that he gave that the Archdiocese is saying this was the problem. It was just simply asking, can we have a year of silence to discern for you to support your priestly ministry, etc.

But it did bring up the broader question of celebrity priests, in particular, exorcists like Father Rippercher, like Father Martins, Carlos Martins, who has been on the program before. Bishop Barron himself, the one on the Yvonne show. Well, Bishop Aaron is not an exorcist, I believe. Oh, sorry, not an exorcist. I just meant celebrity priest. Yes, but a celebrity priest. Yeah, like Father Mike Schmitz. I mean, what are the lines here? What is healthy for any individual priest in terms of their time in the public eye?

So, that has been a huge debate on social media this week as a result of this story. And just to note, too, Archbishop Golka himself is an exorcist, a trained exorcist who has been in practice. And that the normal... The normal practice for archdioceses is to keep exorcists very much in the shadows, out of the public eye. They don't tend to publish the names of the exorcists. You have to actually, if you need one, you can't just look up, oh, local exorcist, Google review, but you actually need to go to the chancery, get the name of the exorcist, demonstrate that you need their help in order to get that.

So, the phenomenon, I would say, of having exorcists who are Out in the public eye is a rare one. It's a peculiar one. But why is it that you think that the church does that, the idea behind traditionally having an exorcist work kind of in the shadows, as you say, or in the background? What do you think is the motivation there? Yeah, so the explanation that I've heard from exorcists themselves, and you can read about this in the Manual for Spiritual Warfare, that...

The exorcist's role is one that requires such profound humility and modesty and the abnegation of self, and purity, that the habits necessary to maintain those virtues to the nth degree are not habits that are readily formed when you are constantly in the public eye, when you're constantly... Being seen, and your awareness of that being seen. And also, of course, just protecting them. The second element wouldn't be so much interior as exterior. It's protecting the exorcist from the inevitable barrage of followers of, I mean, I hate to say it, like the crazy church ladies who are like, I have a demon in my toilet, you know, like I'm going to find the exorcist and follow him around, and sort of this.

They don't need that. In their life, either. So, I think there is both an interior discipline question and an exterior protecting their privacy, for lack of a better word, question. It makes a lot of sense to me. It does make a lot of sense. Because even if you think about what actually, my understanding, apparently you got someone speed dialed, so you know better than me, but when you are exercising a demon, you do so in the name of Jesus Christ. It is not like, you are basically just quoting the words of Jesus, Adam, not your own words or your own.

It is not like you. So, it is actually an exercise in humility to exercise someone. And they are trained very specifically not to dialogue with the demons, not to interact with the demons, other than to say the prayers and undergo the rite, and to do as the church has, in fact, scripted for them. And again, that is partially for their own protection, but also because the...

The demons themselves are going to try and get to have power and control, and that comes with that dialogue. So, one of the criticisms of a Father Ripperger or a Father Martens has been In the past, that from their own testimony, they seem to be engaging with the demons and having a back and forth at some point. And I don't know what the line is there. I don't understand it, but someone like Archbishop Golka, who is himself a trained exorcist, would know when these lines are being crossed.

And so, I would trust his discernment and judgment much more than my own looking at it from the outside. And speaking of humility, the thing is, again, some of the things that frustrate me about this is that... Let us say this bishop made a mistake, right? Maybe he did. I am not saying that. Hypothetical. Let us just hypothetical. Why is it that the rush to judgment in many quarters of just saying, this is terrible, silence, this is terrible? Well, there is history.

There is a history. That is why the instinct is there. I am not saying it is right or wrong. I agree with you. I think the instincts are there, and it is understandable. Precisely because you look at, there's a lot of conservatives and traditionalists in the church who see conservative voices getting squashed and silenced. Um, and then people like James Martin, the Jesuit who's the apostle for sodomy, is out there saying all this horrible stuff against church teaching, and never gets reprimanded, or...

Let's take a year, Father James Martin. No. Wouldn't that be nice? I would like that for a year. I'd like Father James Martin to be silenced for a year. How about the Jesuits in New York? I don't know, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

That's the one on your face, but then you also go back to the church scandal, where it was like, there was all these bad things going on, and the hammer didn't come down, it had to come from outside, you know, the Boston Globe or whatever, and so that wasn't handled well. So, there's like, unfortunate... Wound. Well, beyond unfortunate. I mean, like a terrible, awful, almost church-destroying wound in the American church because we had these problems. So, people are sensitive.

Yeah, and I think, too, you know, looking at situations like this, however, seeing Father Ripperger's response to the Archbishop's invitation is a good indicator of spiritual health, right? Because you think of all of the saints. And the priests… Venerable, now blessed, Fulton Sheen himself, his treatment by an archbishop was not great, and it was met with humility and docility. St. Padre Pio, one of my favorites, he was terribly persecuted. St. John of the Cross. And in all of these instances, the saintly response has been, yes.

So, even if the archbishop has made a terrible mistake, Father Ribberger's own holiness is attested to here by his response. And this willingness to undergo a year of silence. So, I think there's a lot of great, good signs in this story, and that the outrage, while understandable...

And certainly, I mean, perhaps even warranted, we just don't know. The outrage can perhaps be calmed by Father Ripperger's own response here. And yeah, silence has never silenced holiness. Can't say it better than that. Twilight Zone now, let's hit it. What do you got, Josh?

Well, I mean, look, I am kind of on this or whatever, but… You can donate to me. Let us do it. Let us run your… Here is an ad that was put out by Abdul Al-Sayed, because you remember Trump was talking about, you know, he called him Muhammad Al-Sayed, and then they made it seem like, oh, and then he is like playing the victim now, like, oh, gosh, they are just attacking me because of my face. But can I also say, kind of stupid from Trump.

Like, these are the moments where I am kind of like, okay. Anyway. Okay, but so, he puts out this new faith ad, and then he's also saying, like, the attacks on my faith, they're just like the attacks that John F. Kennedy had to endure.

Should I play it? No. Oh, you don't even want to play it? Okay, go ahead. He says he's a man of faith. I'm cool. It means servant. I pray every day. I reflect on my role in this life, on this earth, how we leave it better than we found it. To serve God, to serve our neighbors. All across Michigan, families pray. They feel hopeless. Faith is a thing there's just too little of in Washington. Okay. We don't have faith in our future.

We don't have faith. I just can't even get through. Okay, so it's worth recalling. Oh, we glossed over it. He started out by saying his name, Abdul, literally means servant. Our Arabic-speaking producer said, no, it actually means slave. Yeah.

That's not either here nor there. I will say that there was an attempted terrorist attack on a synagogue in Michigan this spring, and he said, well, that's not okay, but he said, that's not okay. He still justified it, in a sense, by saying, hurt people hurt people.

Doesn't sound like a man of faith to me, frankly. That sounds like a man who's justifying violence. He's got people in his own family, his biological mother, his half-sister, both were proud of their family's involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood, and the thing is, what this guy is getting at, like, oh, my faith, you're trying to attack my faith. No, we're attacking.

There are relationships and organizations that are doing horrible things. Right. Like, that's the problem. And again, what he's trying to, oh, but Jack Henry, 1960, look it. Voters in Michigan are not going to be confused by this. There is a difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Knights of Columbus, okay? Like, one is giving money to organizations. One has cool feathers and swords. The other one is handing out Tootsie Rolls. It's not the same thing.

They're having spaghetti suppers for having cake. Hey, they have swords. Or they don't anymore. They don't even do the swords anymore. No, they do. They have swords, but they don't have the feathery ostrich. Still mad about that. They should bring that back. Those are cool hats. I have one. Do you want one? Maybe I will. Okay, Erika. All right, this was just a crazy stat, and I talk about the birth dearth all the time. We're going off the demographic cliff, but there is one indicator that maybe we're still having babies.

It turns out this was a crazy stat from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. It turns out that Families with three or more children. Almost. Every income bracket, you're well below the 45% mark in terms of having three children or more, right? Crazy, which is just insane. Except for the 1%, the top 1% of earners, so families making $1.4 million or more per year, half of them, 49%, are having three or more children.

You skip to the next graph. Not only that, but 37% of them are choosing to have a stay-at-home mother. So, if you can afford it, you are, in fact, forming nuclear families at well above replacement rate fertility. That's what we do when we have the top 1%. So, what this boils down to for me is that the foundational unit of politics, the foundational unit of society, is now not just a luxury good. But an ultra-luxury good, like only the top 1%, the people with two homes, a vacation home in Maine and a winter home in Florida, are able to afford to found the basic building block of human civil society.

What could go wrong, as my friend Pogo said to me? What could possibly go wrong? So, Josh and I are… We're just blowing up the stats. We're going against the tide here. There you go. But we've got to find a way to change that. Speaking of blowing up. Three kids should not be an ultra luxury good. I've waited the whole show. All right, here we go. Speaking of families, actually. Now, listen, remember to talk about voting Republicans or whatever. Voting Republicans.

Vote Republicans except for Vivek Ramaswamy, okay? I cannot stand this dude. He drives me crazy. This is an ad. Okay, I'm just going to start at the beginning. I was scrolling Twitter. I see this ad. Oh, my gosh. His person is running against Amy Acton in Ohio.

Her mom cut an ad saying not to vote for her. Okay, now play the ad. My name is Donna Arthur, and I'm Amy Acton's mother. I work at Children and Family Service Association, building one of the first two sexual abuse programs in America. I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent, and it's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem.

She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She's lied her entire life. My daughter needs help, and she can't help you if she needs help herself.

People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn't doing that. Don't vote for people who lie. Don't let her become your governor. If you think she'll make your life better, you're fooling yourself.

So, I was waiting for the end of this to see, like, who is responsible, because I found it on Twitter. And it was getting gassed up, and then all the usual suspects, like Laura Loomer, like all these people, like saw it go up immediately. We're gassing it. Like, this is so crazy. Like, October surprise. And I guess what immediately stuck out to me is the casual observer. Um, my base instinct of your own family member, like mom in particular, cutting it out against you is insane betrayal, behavior I would never encourage, and just so bizarre.

Like, there has to be something more to this. And then the sexual abuse part kind of stuck out too, because she said she started these sexual abuse centers. So, I was like, something's off here, and so I dug in a little bit. You get a response from Amy Acton's team, and here is what her brother had to say about it. Today, Dr. Amy Acton's brother, Philip Stearns, released the following statement condemning Vivek Ramaswamy's attempt to platform their estranged and abusive mother.

It's not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from her birth mother's husband into a political talking point, said Philip Stearns, Dr. Acton's brother. After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core. Pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as he gets them where he wants.

Now, I was like, okay, now I've got to look into this a little bit deeper. Is there any... There's legal documents out here proving that this is what happened, and sure enough, National Review gets the documents proving that this actually happened. And there's plenty. She talked about this before she ran for politics. And so then I'm just thinking, who could have possibly thought it was a good idea? To go pay the mom who married the rapist of her daughter that she lost custody to, and then hasn't spoken to since, and to think that this would somehow not draw sympathy upon Amy Acton.

I watch this, I'm like, if I know nothing about this race, I now feel bad for Amy Acton, that she's being dragged through all of this. And who could have possibly thought this? No, whatever political team or ad team put this together or even conceived of this should be absolutely fired. I don't understand. And it turns out, too, that somehow it got leaked. This wasn't even the final cut of the ad, right? Yes, so that's why I'm looking. I'm almost like this is so crazy that I had to consider all options.

Did Amy Acton's team know that this was cut? Because there was no one at the end that said that they funded it. I am like, did they cut this ad, or were they involved? It was a pilot. It was a pilot ad. So, I was looking into this, because it surfaced through this blogger in Ohio, and then it was shared by all these conservative attackers, Laura Loomer, Dinesh D'Souza, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. The video did not have a sponsor, and I was trying to look, did anyone file anything on behalf of this ad?

And then someone then puts up that they had been getting poll tested about this ad. But it's not saying that the organization that was poll testing it actually cut the ad, like coming from the polling for Dynata. And so, the poll testing was, please watch the TV ad when you're ready, press play, and pay close attention to what you hear on the screen. Please indicate whether the following statements is true or untrue. If you are unsure, just indicate that Vivek Ramaswamy has campaigned with sexual predators.

Amy Acton was sexually abused as a child. Amy Acton grew up living in a tent. And it got sent to her via text. So, someone was poll testing this, and then within the same day, you get a response video from Amy Acton's brother. So, I was like, did they know that this was cut and had a response ready in case it was put out? Because it was so fast of a response. And then I'm like, there's no way anyone would own up to this if they did.

I wake up this morning, I couldn't believe it. I was telling my wife how crazy this was. He doubles down on the ad. In what world would you think that this is a good idea? Now we know he did it, and he's pouring $4 million into this ad. Despite everyone universally saying, what the heck is wrong with you? They could have come out and said, like, we don't want anything to do with this ad. 100%. This was not us. We didn't have, but no, they came out and were like, yeah, that's us, which means it was probably polling pretty well, which is disgusting.

Which is disgusting. Which way, Ohio? Come on, guys. Oh, my gosh. I don't even, I can't, it's so shocking. It's almost as shocking as... I don't even... Telling Americans that they're lazy and we need to import replacements for them because they... Go to high school and play sports and not math camps. Remember the mall culture, sleepover culture? The doge crash out over that if people are picking up what I'm laying down here. I mean, I think there's obviously other reasons why you and I both do not like Vivek.

Yes. But I think with this particular thing that makes a lot of even conservatives very upset about is that you're weaponizing familial relationships. And this is the exact reason why we didn't like it when RFK Jr.'s family attacked him. For supporting President Trump. Yes. We didn't like it when, you know, Mary Trump attacked her uncle, President Trump. Like, it's like, it's just unseemly. Like, what, you can be completely, like, if my mom ran for governor, there's no way I'm voting for her, okay?

I'm sorry. I love my mom. Her politics are terrible. But you're not going to cut her dad. But that doesn't mean, let's say I'm not an activist in politics, obviously. I'm not going to go attacking her in the public. No, my relationship with my own mother is more important. I'm not going to politicize it for anything. Same with one of my children. And it turns out, actually, the more you learn about this family situation, it's actually...

Makes Amy look a lot better, the daughter. Terrible, right. You know, so like, that is, on one hand, it seems like a very unseemly attack to use the candidate's own mother. To attack your opponent. But then, after you, you know, all it does is bring more attention to the case, and you're like, yeah, it sounds like Amy is actually the victim here. That's why I literally, conspiracy brain was like, did she come up with this? She did not. And she didn't.

And I'm like, because even if Vivek would have not said anything or not pushed, that might have been in some, you know, 40 chess people's mind of like, This is so unbelievably bad that they literally might be responsible partially for it, but for him to come out and be like, no, this is a great attack, it's just like, what are you doing? So, again, the chances of it backfiring are significant, and so, you know, we think it's bad in and of itself to, you know, weaponize family members against each other like this, number one.

But, you know, again, the left has no problem with it, so they're absolute hypocrites, so their ability to criticize it is an absolute joke, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. Of course, it's not. It's a good thing. And secondly, it's one thing to do this as an attack, and secondly, it's even worse if it's like, could possibly backfire and make your opponent look more sympathetic.

Yeah. Especially in the 11th hour. Like, is anyone really undecided? No, it's the 10th hour. That's the problem. No, if they would have done this next week, like three days before election, that might have been smarter. I don't know. This seems very stupid to me. Oh, man.

I don't even know what to say, man. It is just like one thing after another, but anyway, Twilight Zone of all Twilight Zones, I could not believe when I was going through this. It is amazing that that is like the second worst, it is the worst attack on family one, this cycle, but the second, there is a close second one, because man, some of the stuff I have seen, brother, let me tell you.

Wait, what was the worst? Well, it wasn't by a campaign. It was by somebody who's trying to defeat the, or try to prevent the election of Troy Jackson in Maine. He's the man who had several children with his second cousin. His second cousin. And there's a very...

Oh, yeah. We won't talk about it. It's a family show. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you just wonder. He definitely kept it in the family. How do some people, like, what world do you got to live in to be like, yeah, this is going to work?

Well, look, outside groups get a little desperate sometimes, and I'm glad that CatholicVote, we have, like, we're not going to, there's certain things we're just not going to do. You know, like, winning at all costs is not, we don't believe in that. We want to win. We definitely want to win. But we all want to get into heaven, too.

Yeah, seriously. That's the ultimate way to win. Amen to that. I can't think of a better way to end. I know we ran a little bit long here. So, we're going to end with our daily prayer. Erika, you have an episode of The Deep coming out. Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. What about toxic masculinity? What is wrong with the guys? They are on the show. Yeah. I got some guys to mansplain it to me, so everyone should tune in, and I will channel the men in my life.

And then I also, I have my interview coming up with Newsmax CEO, Christopher Ruddy, so we just chat. It is a little quick thing. Watch it here. We talk about what the midterm election is going on, what Catholics should be looking for. And just the media landscape, Trump rallies, all that kind of stuff. It is a nice little quick interview. I think you might enjoy it. Sweet. So, we will end in our daily prayer, and then I will go right into that interview with Josh.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. O God, who granted to the virgins worthily consecrated to thee the courage to face with Ursula as their leader a wonderful fight, whereby through the palm of martyrdom they reached the glory of heavenly contemplation, we beseech thee, grant that we may be aided by the prayer of those who in this day, after passing through the gates of death, thou has made to triumph in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with the God, the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

Amen. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us today. It is the feast day of the collect for St. Ursula and Companions. That was the prayer we just prayed. All right, I'm going to run this interview. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Glad to be back, and we'll catch you on the next one. Peace.

Well, we're delighted to welcome Christopher Ruddy to the LOOPcast. Mr. Ruddy is CEO and majority owner of Newsmax, which he founded as a news website in 1998, but has become a large cable and broadcast channel reaching 70 million homes. Mr. Ruddy cut his teeth as an investigative reporter. He's written several books, and he's also a close confidant of President Trump, a fellow New Yorker. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Ruddy.

Well, Josh, thank you. Appreciate that introduction. I certainly liked how you emphasized the word large. Well, that is good. We usually say big, but now we will say large. It sounds better. I like it. I like it. What can I say? I am larger than life sometimes. I have that problem, too.

Well, as you know, President Trump is barnstorming the country right now to rally GOP voters as we approach the midterm elections. I know you know Mr. Trump very well. What do you think the President thinks about the Republicans' chances? To try to buck this historical trend and actually try to keep the House and the Senate in GOP hands.

Well, I can tell you what he thinks. I just spoke to him Sunday night, and we had a lengthy conversation, and he thinks he's making a big difference with these rallies. He's very optimistic. He seemed very positive. Now, he is a very positive guy, but I sense that he does feel like things are moving his way, and that voters are coming home, and he feels like, you know, all he, in his mind, he has all these red states, and some of the states he won, like Michigan, for instance.

So, he is out, and the rallies historically have worked for him. Just ask Kamala Harris, ask Hillary Clinton. They know these things work. They didn't go do the rallies and all the swing states he did, and they worked for him. So, I think he feels it's a formula he's used. It's very personal to him. It seems to energize his base voters, which I always say that a lot of this is the Referral power of marketing. You know, they say the best marketing is referral marketing, which is when your friends and family tell you to do something.

And we all know it, right, Josh? If somebody says, you really should go to Umberto's restaurant, everybody wants to go to King Umberto's, right? Because they told you to go, not because you read it in a newspaper ad.

And so, when you think about, he has 25,000 people, 50,000 people show up at a rally near Detroit. It is not that he, it is 50,000 is not actually that big a number when you talk about the millions of voters, but every one of those people now can live stream. They can send a Facebook. They can send an Instagram. They are going to let 50, 100 of their friends know they were there with Donald Trump. They stood with Donald Trump. Here is what Donald Trump said, and that has such a power.

That is what is the powerful thing of these rallies. I think the modern social media, which the president really has tapped into, has driven the referral marketing, and it seems to work. They actually did a study in the 16 campaign where they went around, they showed how he had changed votes in different cities.

Right, because it's not just popping off on social media. You're actually at the event. It's an experience. You take photos, and you share the funny lines you thought he said. So, it's harder for political leaders to get those kind of rallies. I know sometimes, like, the Pope can get those kind of crowds, but, you know, I laugh because Obama got that large crowd for his inauguration, but because, I mean, look, millions of federal workers live in and around the capital area anyway, so getting them to come to a show is one thing.

Can you get a big rally in rural Michigan? Can you get a big rally in Wisconsin? And Donald Trump has been really the only politician of the last generation who has been able to get those kind of crowds all across the country. Whether you're left or right, whether you're Republican, Democrat, whatever, you have to give Donald Trump his credit. He is a unique political candidate in the history of our country, maybe in the world. And so, yeah, it's a phenomenon that we're living through.

We're so used to it now, we take it for granted, but we really shouldn't. It's still an amazing phenomenon. That said, I think the Republicans are going to have a very difficult time on Election Day. I don't see whether... Certainly going to lose the House. The Senate is still up for the grabs. I think there is a hard thing the President, because he is going against tremendous tides, high interest rates, high gasoline prices, two seemingly unending wars, Iran and Ukraine, and just a political situation that is not good, that seems very polarized.

And people's dissatisfaction, unrelated necessarily to him, but just across the board dissatisfaction that impacts the Congress and that will ultimately impact him. So, I don't see it. I'm an Irishman that sees dark linings and silver clouds. Any of that. Do you think Republicans will hold on to the Senate, though? I mean, as you mentioned earlier, I mean... The pathway for the Senate, for Democrats, is going to have to, you know, they can't just, you know, they have to hold Michigan. They've got to try to flip Maine.

Susie Collins is always tough to unseat. People suspect, you know, Democrats will keep Georgia, and they'll flip North Carolina, but they still need three more seats, and you're talking some deep red states like Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, Texas. What is your sense on some of those other Senate races? The media loves Talrico.

The perfect storm. You know, we look at Tallarico, and we think, what a nutcase, and we look at El Saeed, and how radical. But, you know, the media still plays a big role. They're 90% in the bag for the Democrats. They keep saying they're neutral. It's just so ridiculous. They used to have a little semblance 20 years ago. I've been in journalism for almost 40 years. I would, you know, say the New York Times would try to give a little balance.

The AP definitely didn't want to veer too much. To show they had a certain sense of responsibility. Now, it is just all gloves off. I think that is why Newsmax has been rising. We are now the number four cable news channel. When you are a streaming channel, our ratings are not too far behind CNN. We are pretty close. We reach about 50 million people regularly. I did not do it with a big checkbook. I did it raising...

A couple hundred million dollars through the years, and we went public. We're now on the New York Stock Exchange. You can become a shareholder of Newsmax by talking to your stock broker or just looking us up, NMAX, on the exchange. But we're a phenomenon, I think, and, in fact, what really helps us is how bad the left is in the media.

Well, yes. I mean, the rise of Newsmax has been quite phenomenal. One of the things, I was in Rome for the election of Pope Leo, and I got to say, you guys at Newsmax had in-depth, wall-to-wall coverage of the event. You know, I just think that mainstream media Nobody ignores religion or faith. Maybe for the coverage of a new pope, they'll cover that, but then you get outside of that, and NBC, CNN, these guys, they don't talk about religion or faith that much.

Why is that such a priority for you guys at Newsmax? Well, let us just talk about Rome, because I was there for the Conclave, and we had a couple of really good camera angles. We had the roof overlooking St. Peter's, beautiful shot, and then we had a cafe on one of the streets right next to St. Peter's. We had sit-downs. It was wonderful. Yeah, I was interviewed. It was great. Yeah, we loved it. It was great, and we bounced between the two shots.

I remember growing up in America in the 1970s, right? Pope, papal things, CBS, ABC, NBC, even John Paul II's stuff was round-the-clock major networks. Now, they do not even cover it, and then they said, well, the cable news networks would cover it, and they did, you know, Fox, MSNBC, and then they stopped. I do not think Fox even has a Vatican correspondent anymore, but, I mean, the Vatican is one billion people. It is a state entity, but Rome is a very big political city, too.

It is a lot of news breaks there. We have a correspondent. Annalise Taggart, she does a tremendous job. So, we think it's important. I'm Catholic of background, and I believe in Catholic, or I like to say I practice in Catholic. That's what we say. We don't say devout, we say practicing. Yeah, we all got to practice a little bit better, don't we? Yeah, we got to practice. We have to practice more.

I believe that America was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics. It was actually founded by Protestants, not Catholics. We played a little part, and they did a fantastic job. The country had a very spiritual and biblical creation and foundation, and not everybody was a believing Christian when they were founded, but you can see it was imbued.

Calvinism played an incredible role in the formation of the country. John Knox and that whole political movement that came out of that in the revolutionary period. And so, a great book on that is called Light and Glory. That people should read about the Christian foundings of America. It is part of our life. A huge number of people are evangelical. People are believing Jews, are active in their Judaism and other faiths. There's a growing number of Islamics that are traditional, and they believe in family values and things like this.

And we celebrate those values on Newsmax. We celebrate faith, and it's part of the American story. It's a big part. Like, why would we not discuss it? You know, Joel Osteen gets millions of viewers on the weekend. Franklin Graham has millions of followers. These are not small movements. So, the Pope, of course, and Catholics are, you know, supercharged these days on a lot of things. They played a big role in the election. We look at that as part of our story.

We are not a religious channel. I, you know, we don't have any particular... We are not a religious channel. We do not try to promote any one religion. We are not pushing religion. We are not telling anyone to go to church on Sundays, but we do think it is part of the American story. And it is crazy to me that, just like the election of a pope is not a big news story anymore, and the media will not cover it, the pope's brother, who is a friend of mine, Louis, was watching Newsmax.

And he said, I was watching Newsmax when I found out my brother was Pope. Because, as you know, Josh, we were the only ones covering it. And so, although he loves Newsmax, and he watches Newsmax quite a bit, so it is good to know. We are doing, you know, we are doing. Important work for the country, and we're representing the values that people have, and I think it's important. Fox used to do it. I think Fox clearly is changing.

You never hear about pro-life issues on Fox, or rarely. The only time they cover religious matters is because, I think largely because Newsmax covers them now, and they're afraid of being that we're going to just have that audience. But it's not inherent to what they're about, and I think they're moving to be more of an infotainment channel. And you see it in like Jesse Waters' programming, for instance, at night.

And that's fine. There's a big audience for that. God bless them. Let them do it. But I think we have a purpose and a mission, and we're doing it. Well, wonderful. Well, Mr. Ruddy, thank you so much for joining us on the LOOPcast, and God bless you and your efforts moving forward. Josh, I'm not letting you go that easy. You've got to download the free Newsmax app, so just go. iPhone and Android is free. You can watch our streaming channel anywhere in the world, when I'm traveling around the world, for not a lot of money.

I can get it some, like, $4 or $5 a month, I can get, or $40 a year, a subscription to Newsmax Plus, where we not only have all our great shows and Rob Schmidt and Greta and all these, but we have a tremendous amount of documentaries and films, and many on with religious values, some with Catholic. I think you'd find it's worth it to take a look, because we're growing that, and I think it's really important we have that streaming service, because...

You will find over time, you know, Netflix and these companies, they're just not covering this topic you want to cover. No, you guys at Newsmax have been very good about covering religious, as you say, it's part of the human experience, it's part of the American story, so it deserves to be covered, and you guys have done a great job of that at Newsmax.

Josh, I really appreciate your help. God bless, and we'll keep in touch. Keep up your good work. Sounds good, Mr. Reddy. You take care.