Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 937 ｜ Goodbye, DeSantis. What Now？

00:00:00.000 Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race yesterday. I've got my

00:00:06.740 passionate analysis on that and what the future might look like. Also, Moms for Liberty completely 1.00

00:00:15.700 destroyed Joy Reid in a debate on MSNBC. Oh my gosh, you have to see this. It's amazing.

00:00:22.940 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to GoodRanchers.com. Use

00:00:26.760 code Allie at checkout. That's GoodRanchers.com. Code Allie.

00:00:30.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. That

00:00:44.700 you're having a great start to your week. Obviously, if you follow me on Instagram,

00:00:49.220 we got a lot to talk about today. I'm missing the wild bun on top of my head and the craziness

00:00:59.020 with which and the fervor with which I spoke yesterday, but I do have a lot of important

00:01:05.680 and passionate things to say today. And this is in regards to DeSantis dropping out of the

00:01:13.180 presidential campaign. I've got a lot of opinions. I've got an analysis to give you. Before I get

00:01:19.520 into my commentary, however, about it, I do just want to explain. I want to explain everything that's

00:01:29.020 the race as it is. Look backwards just for a little bit and then look forward as we anticipate

00:01:35.540 what's going to happen in this crazy election year. Before we get into all of that, I have happy,

00:01:41.320 lighthearted news. And that is we've got Valentine's merch, y'all. Valentine's merch in

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00:02:14.580 Day merch. I can't wait for mine to get in. These are all comfort color shirts. By the way,

00:02:19.560 self-love won't save you because it won't. So we got the two totes and the four comfort color shirts

00:02:25.940 and the one sticker for you at AllieMerch.com. Okay, let's get into this. So Governor Ron DeSantis,

00:02:36.340 he ended his presidential campaign yesterday. Here is a short clip of his speech.

00:02:44.100 Now, following our second place finish in Iowa, we've prayed and deliberated on the way forward.

00:02:48.940 If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops,

00:02:54.680 more interviews, I would do it. But I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time

00:02:59.500 and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory.

00:03:04.000 Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.

00:03:09.400 Okay, so this came as a surprise to a lot of people who felt that after he came in second place

00:03:15.600 in Iowa, that he was going to stick it out at least a little bit longer. But according to recent polling

00:03:21.340 in New Hampshire, that primary is tomorrow. By the way, Trump is at 50%. Nikki Haley is at 39%. He

00:03:29.420 might have seen that he was probably going to come in third place. Didn't want to do that. This is

00:03:34.160 according to ABC News. DeSantis' decision to leave the race had been a subject of mounting speculation

00:03:38.840 this weekend after he canceled high profile scheduled appearances on Sunday morning on NBC

00:03:44.800 and CNN, a New Hampshire TV station as well, WMUR. However, DeSantis' campaign insisted amid this

00:03:54.420 speculation that he was not about to bow out. Brian Griffin, the spokesperson for DeSantis' campaign,

00:04:01.760 said the media hits were canceled due to a scheduling issue and will be rescheduled. The governor will be

00:04:06.900 traveling Sunday morning with a campaign. It has public events scheduled Sunday through Tuesday in

00:04:11.980 New Hampshire. People are also pointing to DeSantis' remarks after the Iowa caucus in which he said,

00:04:19.600 this is our responsibility to carry this torch and preserve the sacred fire of liberty. Don't run away

00:04:24.440 from this responsibility. We welcome this responsibility. I can tell you this, DeSantis said,

00:04:30.200 as the next president of the United States, I am going to get the job done for this country.

00:04:35.280 I am not going to make any excuses and I guarantee you this, I will not let you down. So understandably,

00:04:44.200 a lot of people are disappointed. They are a little bit taken aback. Now, maybe some insiders probably

00:04:50.880 know exactly what went down, but I think a lot of people who have supported DeSantis for a long time

00:04:56.960 are wondering, wait, what happened to the torch that you were carrying? So in his statement, he also said

00:05:03.480 this. He said, it's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald

00:05:08.040 Trump another chance. They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance, and they see

00:05:13.120 Democrats using lawfare to this day to attack him. While I have had disagreements with Donald Trump,

00:05:18.500 such as on the coronavirus pandemic and the elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current

00:05:23.840 incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee,

00:05:28.640 and I will honor that pledge. He said he has my endorsement because we can't go back to the old

00:05:34.400 Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley

00:05:41.220 represents. So he endorsed Ron DeSantis, and then Trump had his own response to this. Trump released

00:05:49.380 a statement saying, among other things, that he is honored by the endorsement from Governor Ron DeSantis and

00:05:56.880 so many other former presidential candidates. It's now time for all Republicans to rally behind

00:06:03.020 President Trump to defeat crooked Joe Biden and end his disastrous presidency. He said that Haley is a

00:06:09.640 candidate of globalists and Democrats. He also had something to say about the nickname that he had given

00:06:18.420 Ron DeSantis at one point. You'll remember he called him Ron DeSantis. I saw some diehard MAGA

00:06:25.640 supporters also call Ron DeSantis, Rob, Rob DeSantis. Very, very clever. And someone asked him

00:06:32.620 about this at a campaign stop yesterday. Here's what Donald Trump had to say.

00:06:38.020 Okay. He just said, will I be using the name Ron DeSantis? I said, that name is officially retired.

00:06:45.600 All right. So he moved on. Now, keep in mind that Trump has made allegations against DeSantis,

00:06:59.180 not just saying, wow, I want to beat this guy. I don't think that he is the best person for the job,

00:07:03.520 but he literally accused DeSantis of grooming underage girls when he was a teacher many years

00:07:09.340 ago. Of course, these were completely baseless allegations, but now don't worry. They are on

00:07:16.000 on the same team and he has retired any of his nicknames for Ron DeSantis.

00:07:22.880 Okay. Those of you who follow my Instagram stories know that I have a lot to say about this. And as

00:07:41.660 I talked about, you know, how disappointed I was because I really supported DeSantis. I still support

00:07:47.300 him as governor. I think that he has done such a great job and I was excited about the prospect of

00:07:51.580 him being president of the United States. And a lot of you said, wow, this is exactly how I feel.

00:07:56.660 You are echoing my feelings and my reactions exactly. And so I wanted to give air to the perspective

00:08:05.180 of someone who really supported DeSantis and his potential nomination, because there's obviously a lot

00:08:13.760 of us out there, especially suburban moms. And I will never venture to say that I am representative

00:08:21.340 of all suburban moms, of all Republican women, of all Christian conservative women, even. But there

00:08:28.580 are thousands and thousands of us who feel the same way I do about all of that. And so I think it's

00:08:35.940 important to try to represent that perspective as best as I can. And here's how we feel. That DeSantis

00:08:43.620 is, was a culture warrior. He fought back against the gender ideologues. He protected girls sports. He

00:08:52.220 stopped child genital mutilation in his state. He banned teaching kids about sex and gender switching

00:08:59.360 in the classroom. He empowered parents to have a say over their kids' education. He did what Republicans

00:09:05.120 are almost never willing to do. And that is stand up against corporations and not just any corporation,

00:09:13.580 but one of the biggest companies in the entire world with the deepest pockets. And that is Disney.

00:09:20.080 He took away their tax privileges when they dared to undermine the people of Florida by pledging to fight

00:09:25.760 against the parental rights in education bill. And he won that battle. He won that battle.

00:09:30.840 That is completely unprecedented for the classic traditional GOP politician. He signed a heartbeat

00:09:38.780 bill, one of the most pro-life laws in the nation. He implemented programs to reduce fatherlessness and

00:09:43.660 support cohesive families. He, more than any other governor that I can think of, actually pushed back

00:09:51.240 against Fauci. He fought against the mask mandates, the vaccine mandates, not just arguing that the mandates

00:09:57.580 are wrong. But also, eventually, he took the stance that the vaccine itself has risks. And to this day,

00:10:04.620 very few Republicans will say that out loud. He shipped illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.

00:10:10.640 What? Who else has the courage to do that besides Greg Abbott? What other Republican politician has had

00:10:17.120 the gumption to do something like that? He rebuilt the state at an unprecedented speed after Hurricane

00:10:24.780 Ian. He addressed the needs of his state then. He and his legislators accomplished an incredibly conservative

00:10:31.320 agenda. He turned a purple state, not just red, but deep red, turning Republican areas that were once dark

00:10:40.460 blue. He was, without a doubt, the more conservative choice when it comes to primary candidates. Now, I voted

00:10:50.400 for Donald Trump twice. I know some people are going to say, oh, you're never a Trumper. I voted for Donald

00:10:55.060 Trump twice. And I did everything that I could do to convince my demo, the Christian suburban mom, to vote

00:11:04.000 for him in 2020. I will still relentlessly say that Christians should never vote Democrat. But when it's 0.95

00:11:13.360 between Trump and another more conservative option, I would not have voted Trump. Trump called DeSantis'

00:11:21.800 heartbeat bill terrible. He said he wants more compromise. In that same NBC interview in September,

00:11:29.920 where he called that heartbeat bill terrible, he said, quote, both sides are going to like me when it

00:11:37.420 comes to abortion. And, quote, people are starting to think of 15 weeks. 15 weeks. Second trimester.

00:11:45.860 When the baby would have to be dismembered to be aborted. 15 weeks. Trump could not give a straight

00:11:52.700 answer when Megyn Kelly asked if a man can become a woman. DeSantis had Tom Askell to pray at his

00:11:59.180 inauguration. Trump hoists up people like Kenneth Copeland and Paula White. And that might not matter to

00:12:04.020 most of you, but it matters to me. It matters to people like me. Now, I know. You do not have to

00:12:09.700 tell me. Trump did good things. I know that. Things I am grateful for. He was the only sitting

00:12:16.140 president ever to attend the March for Life. Amazing. His SCOTUS picks got us the Dobbs decision

00:12:21.920 that overturned Roe. That is incredibly impactful. He helped forge peace deals in the Middle East. I mean,

00:12:28.260 how many lives were saved by those two things alone? His economy was booming. I know I speak

00:12:33.960 for a lot of people when I say I miss that. So I understand. But some of these things are points

00:12:39.880 in any Republican's favor, not in particular Trump. So Rubio or Cruz or even Chris Christie probably

00:12:46.180 would have given us the same Supreme Court picks. They weren't chosen specifically by Trump. They were

00:12:52.000 chosen by the conservative organizations who make these kinds of lists. Trump also, it's a concern I

00:12:58.900 have is that he surrounds himself very often with very bad people. And then he refuses to fire some

00:13:06.380 of the bad people like he did while he was president. Fauci, Christopher Wray, he could have gotten rid of

00:13:12.780 them. He didn't. Trump didn't build the wall the way that he said that he was going to. He also signed

00:13:18.220 the First Step Act, which was a soft on crime DEI bill, essentially. He has done little to nothing

00:13:25.680 to help those who have been unfairly prosecuted for their peaceful involvement in January 6th.

00:13:32.060 And also, what headway has been made in Stopping the Steal, a movement for which he has raised hundreds

00:13:38.880 of millions of dollars from the American people? What about his former attorneys like Jenna Ellis, 0.95

00:13:44.460 who's now facing legal consequences for helping Trump in his effort to prove that 2020 was stolen?

00:13:49.740 He demonizes everyone who does not show him their full support, even if they were once

00:13:58.420 on his team. Think about Kayleigh McEnany. From what I know, a very lovely person. She was a great

00:14:04.500 press secretary for him. She apparently committed the crime of reading on Fox News what was the wrong

00:14:11.700 poll numbers a few months ago. And so he said this about her on Truth Social. Kayleigh Milk Toast

00:14:18.620 McEnany just gave out the wrong poll numbers on Fox News. The rhinos and the globalists can have her. 1.00

00:14:24.420 Fox News should only use real stars, he says of his former press secretary. He also misspelled

00:14:33.160 Milk Toast, by the way. That was a cartoon character in the 1920s. It has nothing to do with actual

00:14:39.420 milk. Anyway, this is what he does. No matter how good someone was to him at one point, this is what

00:14:48.380 he does. And again, just a reminder that he accused Ron DeSantis based on nothing of grooming underage

00:14:57.260 girls when he was a teacher. I mean, that's a very serious allegation, but that's what happens when

00:15:02.020 you go against Trump. I know people have said about DeSantis that it wasn't his time, that he should

00:15:11.160 have waited till 2028, they say. But that's not how it works. I respectfully disagree with that

00:15:16.880 assessment. It was really now or never for DeSantis. He needed to strike iron while it was hot.

00:15:22.260 It obviously didn't work out. But just waiting until 2028, it just wasn't a viable option. So I

00:15:28.220 don't blame DeSantis at all for going for it. And these same people also say that DeSantis was a part

00:15:35.900 of the establishment and they see Trump as some maverick. But that's just not reality. Trump was

00:15:42.940 endorsed by almost every establishment Republican that you can think of. Lindsey Graham, literally the

00:15:49.560 most establishment Republican, is one of his closest advisors. Now, I know for a fact that DeSantis upset

00:15:56.200 the establishment because he showed everyone that it is conservative to be aggressive, that as a

00:16:03.060 Republican, you do not have to sit back and let major corporations steamroll you in the name of helping

00:16:08.720 the economy. You don't have to just sit there and let the public health establishment bully you. You

00:16:12.900 can actually push back against them and people like that. You can still win elections by being

00:16:18.180 aggressive in that way. Republicans have been saying for years that, oh, no, no, we can't go against

00:16:23.280 these corporations. We can't go against their bureaucracy or else we'll lose elections, blah, blah,

00:16:28.380 blah. DeSantis showed them that that's not true. That made the establishment very uncomfortable.

00:16:32.940 I also know for a fact that DeSantis went against the wishes of some of his biggest donors by opposing

00:16:40.260 Disney and signing the heartbeat bill. They did not like that. He was urged to back down on these and

00:16:46.220 he didn't because he felt that it was the right thing to do. Now, I am not like Beth Moore. I don't

00:16:55.320 indict the character of everyone who voted for Trump on the primary and say, well, there's no valid

00:17:00.320 reason to do so beyond liking a bully and wanting someone who's verbally abusive. That's what she

00:17:07.300 said on Twitter. And as I told her, that's not true. There are, of course, valid reasons that people

00:17:13.120 have to vote for Trump in the primary, whether you agree with them or not. I happen to disagree with

00:17:19.720 them. I don't think that you're bad or dumb or anything denigrating like that. I just don't agree

00:17:24.580 with you. I think DeSantis gave us a better shot at 2024. And that is my biggest concern beyond

00:17:31.560 anything else with Trump. I truly do not think that he can win in November. I don't think that

00:17:39.100 he can rally the support. I don't think he can overcome the huge obstacles that will be placed in

00:17:44.600 his way. I think that there's a good chance that he will be in prison, which would be absolutely

00:17:50.220 awful for him and the country. It would be awful for the country. I think DeSantis could have won

00:17:56.380 in the general. I don't think Trump can. Unfortunately, I will be happy to be proven wrong

00:18:03.220 about that. I really will. But I truly, truly fear four more years of Biden. And I am just afraid that

00:18:14.360 Trump will not be able to beat him. And even if Trump does beat him by some miracle, he will be a

00:18:22.100 lame duck president from day one. Because four years isn't enough to make the kind of change that

00:18:29.680 we need. Almost everything in the last four years that he did by mostly executive order has been

00:18:36.800 reversed. Most, not all. Plus, he wouldn't have his reelection as a motivator this time around.

00:18:45.680 So that's another concern. That's another concern I have. Better than Biden? Definitely. As I said

00:18:52.640 on Instagram, honey boo boo would be better than Biden. The best pick that we had when it came to

00:19:00.140 the primaries, in my opinion? No. I am also concerned about Trump's VP pick.

00:19:07.540 It won't be DeSantis. Some are saying Nikki Haley. That'd be rough. A Trump Haley ticket. I mean,

00:19:15.140 she's too moderate for me on abortion, on gender ideology, fighting against corporatism. Also a bit

00:19:20.700 too much of a war hawk for me. The only people who want that, I think, who want that ticket are some

00:19:27.140 mega donor centrist. Some people are saying Vivek. Glenn Beck, whose insight I very much trust,

00:19:33.740 says that everyone is telling Trump to choose Vivek. Personally, I don't know if that's the

00:19:39.360 right choice. I really like some things Vivek has said. But does he have a consistent, prolonged

00:19:44.820 record of upholding conservative values? I don't know. I'm not sure about that. Others are saying

00:19:50.320 Elise Stefanik. She is a Republican congresswoman from New York. She was one of the only Republicans

00:19:57.080 to vote yes for the 2019 version of the Equality Act, which is a radically progressive bill that

00:20:02.960 would make it impossible to protect single sex spaces. She also voted yes to the same sex marriage 0.99

00:20:08.160 bill in 2022. She's very much a moderate or has been for a long time. She was extremely critical of

00:20:16.040 Trump, by the way, in 2015 and 2016. I'm not saying people can't change. It's just an interesting

00:20:21.900 choice. I'm just not sure what he would gain from that pick. Now, you know who would make me really

00:20:32.000 happy? Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I really like Sarah Sanders, governor of Arkansas. She's a solid 0.59

00:20:38.880 conservative. She's pro-Trump without being weird about it. You know what I mean? She's smart. She's

00:20:43.680 articulate. Cute family. Seems down to earth. I know that Arkansas would be super sad to lose her, 1.00

00:20:49.740 which I really understand. And Trump doesn't need help winning Arkansas. But if he needed help with

00:20:57.220 a suburban mom vote, which I think he will, then she could be a really good choice. I really like her. 0.98

00:21:03.680 I would be excited to support her. Now, I've got more to say about my demo, Suburban Women, and what I

00:21:12.560 think it will take to vie for their vote, to win their vote. And I'll give my take on that in just a

00:21:19.560 second. Suburban Women, we are a politically diverse bunch. We are. You've got liberals amongst us. 1.00

00:21:42.780 You've got independents. You've got diehard Trumpists. And then you have a very large contingency

00:21:50.120 of conservative Christian women whose vote needs to be earned. Now, for some conservative Christian 0.93

00:21:59.280 women, Trump cannot earn their vote, period. If you think I'm wrong, you just don't know. I'm sorry.

00:22:05.380 You just don't know. The evangelical space is largely made up of women who are pretty theologically 0.99

00:22:12.960 conservative and pretty politically conservative. Now, as I've talked about a lot, I think they can

00:22:19.420 sometimes get manipulated by the empathy shaming of the left. And so sometimes they'll try to take

00:22:26.060 like the center left position on things like immigration and abortion, thinking that it's

00:22:30.660 compassionate when it's not. I mean, that's part of a huge reason why I even have this show to try

00:22:35.860 to speak to those people. And many of them will not vote for Trump, whether it's because of that,

00:22:43.940 they think that he's not empathetic enough, or they just don't like him, or maybe they disagree with some

00:22:48.680 of his policies. Now, I'm not saying whether they are right, but that's just the reality. You can roll

00:22:55.000 your eyes. You can say, oh, my gosh, they're crazy. They're not really conservative if they don't

00:22:58.640 support Trump. You can say all of that. I get it. But that doesn't change reality. They could have

00:23:03.940 easily been convinced to vote for DeSantis, but they can't be convinced to vote for Trump. OK,

00:23:10.180 that's some of them. Then you've got others who did vote for him in 2016 and 2020. But now they're

00:23:16.760 not sure. They're not sure because, A, they really liked DeSantis. They liked his policies and his

00:23:23.140 personality. And they were comfortable with the fact that they didn't have to defend him

00:23:28.300 constantly to their friends and their fellow congregants. Or B, they kind of like RFK.

00:23:36.860 Now, RFK is pro-choice. He said last August that he supports limiting abortion about 15 weeks,

00:23:48.480 sometime after the first trimester. That is similar, by the way, to what Trump has said, though.

00:23:54.920 However, I will say that with RFK, his campaign after August has since backtracked on that statement

00:24:03.880 that he gave saying, no, RFK supports a woman's right to choose. And the campaign did not specify

00:24:10.740 any limits whatsoever that he would advocate for. So even though I think him and Trump probably

00:24:17.800 personally are on the same page when it comes to abortion, I do think that Trump, when it comes to

00:24:26.200 Supreme Court picks and what policies he would actually vouch for, what bills he would sign, he is

00:24:31.640 more likely to be pro-life than RFK would. However, for some women, and I would say in particular,

00:24:42.640 for some non-Christian, politically independent suburban women, they would take RFK's position 1.00

00:24:49.160 on abortion because they love his fight for medical freedom. They love his fight against 0.74

00:24:53.920 pharmaceutical companies. And they're just tired of Trump. So all I'm saying is Trump is going to

00:25:00.100 have to fight for the suburban woman's vote, the Christian woman's vote. I know, again, that

00:25:06.380 hardcore MAGA, they like to roll their eyes at that and say, oh, we don't need you. Y'all are just

00:25:12.900 stupid. Oh, but you do. Oh, but you do need this demographic. I mean, there are some truly deranged 0.82

00:25:21.320 and depraved Trump apologists online, many of them who believe that he's just going to suddenly come up

00:25:29.240 with all of these new voters, all of these new populist voters, but it's probably not going to happen.

00:25:34.860 You still need evangelical women. You're still, you're just going to have to fight for their vote. 1.00

00:25:39.940 That's all I'm saying. And Trump will get a lot of them. Like the abortion issue alone is a dividing

00:25:44.920 line for a lot of women, rightly so, but some of them just won't be motivated to vote this time 1.00

00:25:51.860 around like they were last time. They just won't be as excited this go round. You can berate them all

00:25:58.200 you want. You can call them names. That's not going to change anything. Okay. DeSantis would have

00:26:04.340 been, in my opinion, a better, easier pick. But look, let's just be honest. Like the DeSantis

00:26:13.680 campaign was not as good as it could have been. It had so much potential. It did not meet that

00:26:19.260 potential in a lot of ways. I think they thought that they would be able to ride his popularity as

00:26:23.740 governor, but it just didn't work. Here are my views about the campaign for whatever they're worth.

00:26:29.860 He waited too long to announce. The announcement of his campaign was awful. It was awful. They never

00:26:38.520 overcame that. He was not put in enough adversarial situations throughout his campaign.

00:26:45.980 And he's best when he is adversarial against the press, against Democrats. His best moments were

00:26:52.280 against Gavin Newsom in that debate. That's where he shines. He was perfect in that debate. He was so

00:26:58.140 good. He is not at his best when he is walking through crowds, talking to voters. He is not at

00:27:03.760 his best in casual conversations. He wasn't at his best during the Republican debates,

00:27:09.040 even though he did have some really strong moments there. There's just, I think, a discomfort and an

00:27:16.380 awkwardness in those situations that can sometimes translate into weakness. He is at his best,

00:27:22.840 at his strongest, I think, when he is combative. It's what we have all really liked about him.

00:27:29.220 Now, personally, I did not mind the awkwardness. Like, I will take an awkward but effective conservative

00:27:35.740 leader all day long. Trump, on the other hand, is not awkward at all. He is extremely dynamic,

00:27:42.540 extremely charismatic. You see it in his interviews. You see it in town halls. You see it when he walks

00:27:47.880 into a UFC fight. And that shouldn't matter when it comes to whom we vote for. But it does. It does.

00:27:55.900 Because appearance matters. Charisma matters. It's mattered since Kennedy v. Nixon. It matters today.

00:28:01.920 To be fair, though, even the most charismatic person in the world probably would have lost to

00:28:08.640 Trump because it's Trump. Trump, on the Republican side, is just impossible to run against. And indicted

00:28:15.160 Trump even more so. If you look at the graph, at this graph, of the popularity of the Republican

00:28:23.660 contenders, Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, from January of last year to now, Trump's popularity

00:28:31.680 has only increased since last year, bumping up every time he was indicted. You can see that if you're

00:28:40.500 watching on YouTube. A bump in March of last year, when he was indicted in New York, continues to go

00:28:45.600 up throughout the summer, June, July, August, when he's receiving indictments in Florida and Georgia.

00:28:52.020 So you see that. And then you see DeSantis, on the other hand, was very competitive with Trump in the

00:28:57.640 polls until March of last year. Then Trump got indicted. Later, DeSantis launched his campaign,

00:29:03.100 which was a flop, and his numbers just kept on dropping. So that's where we are. Trump is

00:29:11.520 the presumptive nominee. We'll see how long Haley lasts. I've got some theories about that.

00:29:18.040 It is interesting now to think back on her comments last week after Iowa, when she said it was now a

00:29:25.260 two-person race, even though she came in third. Everyone was kind of scratching their heads,

00:29:30.180 wondering what the heck she was talking about at the time. But now we're all wondering, okay,

00:29:35.040 what did she know then? And as I mentioned at the top of the show, like, I also wonder what

00:29:40.840 transpired between Iowa and now. DeSantis made it seem after Iowa that he was in it for the long haul.

00:29:47.740 And his team told Fox Business on Sunday morning that he wasn't dropping out. And then he did. He did

00:29:55.580 on Sunday. And there's always more than meets the eye in these situations. We may never know.

00:30:03.560 What we do know, it's going to be a crazy year, y'all. It's going to be a crazy year. We know that.

00:30:09.360 We can expect the unexpected. And here's what we know for sure, is that God is still totally

00:30:14.880 sovereign. He's still completely good. Remember Daniel 2.21. He changes times and seasons. He removes

00:30:21.940 kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

00:30:28.200 And then Hebrews 13.8, what I always fall back on is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,

00:30:34.700 and forever. If God wants to use Trump, he will use him. So we should pray for him as we are instructed

00:30:43.360 to pray for all of our leaders, for wisdom, for discernment, for compassion, for understanding,

00:30:48.560 for the desire to know and to glorify God. Let us pray for God's mercy on our nation, for his unmerited

00:30:56.660 favor. May he help us. May he protect us. May he give strength to his people, to God's people during

00:31:04.240 this chaotic time. That's the most that we can hope for. That's what we should pray for. And other than

00:31:12.800 that, we really don't know. We really don't know what's going to happen. But there is absolutely

00:31:17.940 power in prayer. And God is going to bring himself glory. That is something that we can rely on. We

00:31:26.440 can rely on his goodness. We can rely on his faithfulness. We can rely on his trust-worthy

00:31:32.980 character no matter what. So we're hope-maxing and prayer-maxing in 2024. We're not doom-maxing.

00:31:42.800 As a lot of people will be. But I just kind of wanted to give you my feelings and

00:31:47.240 my assessment. Take it for what it's worth. And as I've said many times, we are not going to be

00:31:54.740 constantly in the politics and the numbers and in the polls this year. But we will be talking about

00:32:00.720 these things and why they're important. Politics matters. Politics matter because policy matters

00:32:06.580 because people matter. Politics affects policy. Policy affects people. And we as Christians know

00:32:12.080 better than anyone else that people made in the image of God matter. And so this election matters.

00:32:18.720 I know it's very tempting for us to just look at the chaos and confusion of the moment and to just

00:32:23.840 want to hide from it all. And to just pretend like it's not happening. To close the blinds in our home

00:32:31.120 metaphorically. And to pretend like the craziness going on in the world isn't really happening. But look,

00:32:36.320 this craziness affects people. Like children are on the line. Lives are on the line. Bodies are on the

00:32:41.780 line. Livelihoods are on the line. Freedom is on the line in many ways. And even though politics,

00:32:49.320 they're not the number one way, the primary way that we can love our neighbor, they are a way to

00:32:55.660 love our neighbor. They're an important way to love our neighbor because the policies that are

00:33:00.340 implemented affect them. They affect especially the most vulnerable. And so while we were not made 0.98

00:33:06.920 as finite, fallible people to carry the weight of the world, to know everything that was going on at

00:33:11.440 once, to have empathy and compassion for every single person in every single dire circumstance

00:33:15.820 in the world, only God has the capacity to do that. We still have to do what we can to take

00:33:22.980 responsibility for what's happening in our communities, in our nation, and use the resources

00:33:28.880 that God has given us, the tools that God has given us in order to make better the tiny spot of earth

00:33:37.040 on which God has providentially placed us, the tiny speck of eternity in which he has specifically put us

00:33:43.900 for his glory and the good of others. That's all we can do. And that involves doing what? The next right

00:33:49.880 thing in faith with excellence and for the glory of God. And that is going to look different according to

00:33:56.060 the individual, according to what life stage you're in, what season you're in, what responsibilities

00:34:01.400 he has given you, what resources and tools he has given you. But that's all any of us can ever do.

00:34:08.780 And this year doesn't change that. An election year doesn't change that. That is always the calling of

00:34:14.120 God's people. Okay. I also wanted to talk about the story that happened over the weekend. So Joy Reid of

00:34:34.360 MSNBC, we have the privilege of talking about her analysis kind of consistently on Relatable, actually.

00:34:41.600 She's a recurring star. And she is a host on MSNBC. And you know what? I'll give her credit for doing 0.98

00:34:49.320 this. She had Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice on the show to debate book banning. Now, 0.85

00:34:57.880 I'm sure she had her on because she thought Joy Reid probably thought she was going to absolutely 0.75

00:35:02.260 dominate this conversation and make Tiffany look stupid. But if you know Tiffany, if you've talked to

00:35:08.320 her at all, as I have, you know, that that would be impossible to do because she is a very smart woman, a

00:35:14.080 very adept woman. She knows her stuff. That's why she started Moms for Liberty. That's why it's taken off 1.00

00:35:19.440 because she represents the concerns, the thoughts, the feelings of so many parents across the country

00:35:25.800 who do not want books about gender switching, sex and sexuality in their school libraries. I know,

00:35:33.260 such a radical position. And Moms for Liberty is so relentlessly attacked and lied about by the left. 1.00

00:35:40.240 I mean, you know, they're called every name in the book Nazis, fascists. They're asked,

00:35:44.680 why do you get to control what my kids read in school when really they are just advocating for

00:35:49.900 parental involvement, the right of parental involvement in school curriculum, in the books

00:35:56.880 that are made available to children? And there, you know, you'll hear that it's book banning and

00:36:02.320 all of this stuff. No one is banning the books. There have always been restrictions on what kind of

00:36:08.880 books go into school libraries. You think Mein Kampf is available in school libraries? Do you think it's

00:36:15.560 okay if parents say, I don't really want that in the library? But for some reason, it's just a bridge

00:36:21.700 too far when parents say, I don't think that I want my sixth grader to have access to a book about,

00:36:29.700 I don't know, anal sex. I know, just crazy, radical extremist position. So here is Tiffany from Moms for

00:36:36.980 Liberty making her case to Joy Reid on MSNBC over the weekend. I want to give you just some-

00:36:43.340 No books are being banned. No, hold on a second. Well, no, Joy, but I want to be clear. No one's

00:36:45.960 banning books. Write the book, print the book, publish the book, put the book in the public

00:36:50.820 library, sell the book, right? We're talking about a public school library. Children don't have

00:36:56.420 unfettered access to the internet at school. I did a FOIA, records request, and I wanted to see

00:37:03.020 what kinds of internet sites are banned in schools, if we're going to talk about banning, right? And the

00:37:08.600 subject matter in the books that moms are concerned about are the same things that kids don't have access 1.00

00:37:13.480 to on the internet. So it just feels very hypocritical, right? No, why is no one out

00:37:18.120 there protesting for, you know, free the internet in schools? Yeah, that's a totally legit point. Of

00:37:24.940 course, there is some content that is going to be restricted when it comes to schools, because we

00:37:30.760 understand and have always understood that kids, as their minds are developing, they're so

00:37:36.940 impressionable that it is very important that we filter what kind of pictures and what kind of

00:37:44.740 depictions they have access to. Of course. But I mean, the nefarious and scary thing is, is that the

00:37:54.620 people who are putting the kind of books that talk about gay sex and pedophilia and all kinds of

00:38:02.020 sexual themes, that they want these kids in their most impressionable and formative years to be

00:38:09.800 imbibing this kind of depravity. They want them to. They want these ideas in their heads. They want

00:38:15.460 these kids to be sexualized. Now, I'm not saying that Joy Reid wants these things. I think that she is 1.00

00:38:21.700 probably, to borrow a phrase, a useful idiot when it comes to this stuff. But I think absolutely,

00:38:27.360 the activists, the progressives do want these kids to be sexualized at a young age. And that is why 0.66

00:38:33.600 they want these books in school. Now, Joy Reid rebuts, tries to rebut, Tiffany, by saying,

00:38:41.620 parents are targeting books by taking things out of context. That's always their retort.

00:38:48.520 They're taking things out of context. There's nothing wrong with, for example, the book that

00:38:54.800 Joy Reid is holding up in this segment, All Boys Aren't Blue. This is just an inclusive LGBTQ book.

00:39:03.180 Well, here's what Tiffany has to say about that. What is the expertise that you have and other

00:39:09.340 Moms for Liberty advocates have to decide that a book, an award-winning book like All Boys Aren't

00:39:15.020 Blue isn't appropriate for students to read? What is your expertise? What a tragic story of a young man

00:39:20.440 who's anally raped by his adult family member. So you have incest, rape, pedophilia. In what context

00:39:26.540 is a strap-on dildo acceptable for public school? Just, I mean, that's my question to you. Tell me

00:39:32.700 what the context around the strap-on dildo or the rape of a minor child by a teacher.

00:39:38.540 Hold on a second. No, no, no. We're talking about public school.

00:39:41.080 One moment. All right.

00:39:43.340 Yeah. Yeah, Joy. Tell me. Tell me. I would like all of you out there who are opposed to what Moms

00:39:50.220 for Liberty is doing and who says, oh, they're just Nazi fascists. Tell me. Tell me, in what

00:39:57.160 context do you think that's acceptable for an elementary schooler, middle schooler, heck,

00:40:02.260 even a high schooler at school to be reading, to have access to? Why do you think that's appropriate?

00:40:08.780 Why do you want that kind of context or that kind of content in school? Like, why do you want kids

00:40:17.200 to be reading about anal rape? Why do you want kids to be reading about the sexual assault of a

00:40:23.340 child? And like, there's a whole other segment that we could do about that common thread when it

00:40:30.820 comes to adults who are sexually confused and confused about their gender, the sexual abuse that

00:40:36.060 they endured at a young at a young age. And they will they'll make comments like, oh, well, this is

00:40:42.280 representation. You'll remember that I had a mom on who went viral for reading very disturbing passage

00:40:49.720 that was in her eighth graders book or that her eighth grader had access to in their middle school

00:40:58.760 library. She read a very disturbing and sexual passage out of this book at a school board meeting.

00:41:05.900 Of course, she was shut down because the content was inappropriate and yet was made available to

00:41:10.140 children. And the excuse that she got from the Texas school district, a conservative area in Texas,

00:41:15.820 was that this is representation. We need to represent kids who are molested in their books.

00:41:23.220 What re-traumatize them? We need to represent pedophilia. We need to represent gender switching 1.00

00:41:30.240 and sexual confusion and depravity. Depravity. No, we don't. No, we don't. That is a sick and sorry

00:41:36.480 and wicked excuse. Good job, Tiffany. Good job, Moms for Liberty. You totally dominated this debate 1.00

00:41:44.640 because Joy Reid, per usual, had no idea what she was talking about. And their position is completely

00:41:50.660 indefensible. Anyone who I'm talking about, any large influential account who says that, oh,

00:42:00.460 banning books. These are book banners. These are such scary people who want to ban books. It's so

00:42:05.480 fascist and Nazi like it, whatever. Anyone who says that, I want you to ask them directly, why do you

00:42:13.780 think depictions of the anal rape of children need to be in public school libraries?

00:42:20.660 Give your response, please. That's that's what you should be asking these people who are decrying the

00:42:28.060 book banning from Moms for Liberty. So I know it's very, very disgusting and disturbing to even say

00:42:35.060 things like that. But if kids are able to read it in public school libraries, we have to be able to say

00:42:40.960 it. We have to be able to call it out and shame on Joy Reid and anyone else, especially any other mom 1.00

00:42:47.360 that goes to bat for this kind of content being in public schools. It is sick. It is disgusting. May God

00:42:53.460 have mercy on your soul. Now, I've got one other just like point to make that I made on Twitter

00:42:59.720 about why conservatives so consistently win. So, I mean, shamefully for the left, why they so consistently

00:43:08.760 dominate these kinds of debates. And it's it's a principle that you see time and time again when it

00:43:15.840 comes to liberals and conservatives debating these issues. And I'll get to that in a second.

00:43:31.620 Okay. Conservatives almost always, almost, almost always beat leftists in debates because of a few

00:43:38.780 things. Number one, left-wing journalists greatly overestimate their own intelligence and greatly

00:43:45.340 underestimate conservatives' intelligence. Hollywood depictions of stupid southerners and

00:43:50.560 sophisticated metropolitan progressives fuel this delusion that they have. Most of them, I know some

00:43:56.660 people are going to say this is rude. It's just the truth. Most of them are simply not smart. Okay.

00:44:00.800 They've got degrees, but they are, quite frankly, midwits. You can call that rude, but it is true.

00:44:06.940 Number two, they mistake their ability to repeat poetic talking points as understanding of an issue.

00:44:14.540 They don't know the details. Typically, they don't really know the facts of what they're talking

00:44:18.520 about. They are completely unaware of the other side's argument. Like they do not know that the

00:44:22.560 other side actually has a coherent argument. So most of them have no real grasp of the issues at hand

00:44:29.080 because they have never had to. Their rewards that they have garnered in their academic and

00:44:35.780 professional careers have been earned, not by their skill or by their knowledge, but by their

00:44:40.460 ability to convincingly echo their party's platform. Number three, they're typically not

00:44:47.400 skilled debaters because, again, they have never had to be. They've never had to be. They have been told

00:44:53.740 that any opposition to their progressive positions is just hillbilly hogwash that shouldn't even be

00:45:00.540 dignified with consideration. Conservatives, on the other hand, we are more likely to understand

00:45:06.860 the issues at hand and to know the fact of each story that we're discussing because we are in the

00:45:11.700 minority. And so we see the progressive position represented everywhere. So we are constantly in a

00:45:17.820 state of defensiveness, constantly formulating arguments for why the majority opinion on a particular

00:45:22.280 issue is wrong. So debate comes more naturally to us. We know their arguments better than they do.

00:45:28.660 Plus, it is always better to be underestimated than overestimated. Also, just an aside,

00:45:35.700 like my personal advice on that is to use that to your advantage. Use being underestimated to your

00:45:43.360 advantage. Always over-prepare for any debates that you might be having or any conversations that

00:45:50.920 you might be having. I remember a few years ago, y'all probably remember this, I brought a professor on

00:45:57.180 to debate school curriculum. He said that like criticizing school curriculum for being too

00:46:02.940 sexual was an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which is just insane. And so I invited him on the show 0.99

00:46:07.960 and I was actually nervous. Like I was nervous. All of the, all of his followers and my replies were

00:46:12.960 like, oh yeah, he's going to put you in your place and he's going to make you feel so stupid. 0.53

00:46:17.960 Yeah, you're the one to take her down a notch, whatever. And so I was actually kind of nervous

00:46:22.340 and I kind of regretted inviting him on the show. I mean, he's a professor. And then I had him on.

00:46:28.980 Oh my goodness. I was shook. I was so shocked when his only response to me laying out my side was,

00:46:37.360 uh, well, uh, well, uh, well, uh, well, for 10 minutes. And I didn't even say anything

00:46:42.700 groundbreaking. I just prepared. I assumed that he was going to know more than me. And he assumed that

00:46:48.740 I was going to know less than him. And it was the opposite. It was the opposite. And I've watched

00:46:52.940 this happen a thousand times. And I think it's good. Continue to over-prepare. Never think that

00:46:57.360 you are going to be smarter than your opponent. Always assume that they are going to be smarter

00:47:01.280 than you, but liberals are the opposite. They assume that the conservative they're going against

00:47:05.440 is stupid. And then when they end up actually knowing more than they do, they just freeze.

00:47:09.880 So lib journalists and academics and activists, uh, they're, they're always stunned. They're always

00:47:16.160 stunned by their own inability to defend their positions when a knowledgeable conservative

00:47:20.060 confronts them, but they have no incentive. Unfortunately, they have no incentive to change

00:47:24.460 their minds and every incentive to continue empty-headedly repeating what they have been

00:47:29.940 told. But the debates still matter. Okay. The debates still matter because there's a large

00:47:34.280 contingency, contingency of normies, uh, that can still be swayed by reason. Um, so all that to say

00:47:41.520 great job moms for Liberty. Great job, Tiffany. Um, we have to keep having these conversations,

00:47:47.780 keep having these debates, keep knowing our stuff and keep presenting things as they are. I don't know

00:47:54.480 if that's going to help us win the election 2024, but, uh, we got to try our darndest because the truth

00:48:00.580 matters. And again, truth policies, curriculum, um, and, uh, news stories, headlines, all these things

00:48:08.600 matter. They affect real people and real lives. All right. That's all we've got time for today.

00:48:13.540 We will see you back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - January 22, 2024

Ep 937 ｜ Goodbye, DeSantis. What Now？

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