Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - January 22, 2024


Ep 937 | Goodbye, DeSantis. What Now?


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

159.03375

Word Count

7,672

Sentence Count

620

Misogynist Sentences

24

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race yesterday. I've got my passionate analysis on that and what the future might look like. Also, Mamas For Liberty destroys Joy Reid in a debate on MSNBC.


Transcript

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
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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00:02:06.140 So go to AllieMerch.com. I think you can still use code Allie10 for 10% off. Really cute Valentine's
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
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,
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.
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
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
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,
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.
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.
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
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
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
00:24:49.160 on abortion because they love his fight for medical freedom. They love his fight against
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
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.
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
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
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
00:34:49.320 this. She had Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice on the show to debate book banning. Now,
00:34:57.880 I'm sure she had her on because she thought Joy Reid probably thought she was going to absolutely
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.