Ken Paxton announces he is running against Sen. John Cornyn for re-election in 2020. Mark Krikorian and Eric Metaxas join the show to talk about the primary, securing the southern border and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
00:00:27.000He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:34.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:02:15.000Joe Biden was congratulating President Trump, was criticizing it, saying he was a rhino.
00:02:19.000And the people of Texas were furious that he limited our gun rights and that he inflicted damage to the Second Amendment, which then the ATF used to try to pass more regulations that I had to go sue on.
00:02:31.000So these are the types of things that have not endeared John Cornyn to the Republican voters of Texas.
00:02:37.000And it's really obvious that after 20, you said he's been there a while.
00:02:40.000He's working on 24 years in the Senate.
00:02:43.000When he finishes, he wants to be there 30. The people of Texas have had enough of 24 years.
00:02:49.000So talk more about what the case you are going to bring to the people of Texas.
00:02:55.000I know that a survey conducted by Tony Fabrizio found you winning by nearly 25 points.
00:03:12.000Some of the folks in Texas that have known Senator Cornyn for a while, they consider him a friend, they donate to his campaign, and they would say, Ken, you're just being a rabble rouser.
00:03:24.000You're causing a problem where it's not necessary.
00:03:36.000I've talked to several of these people, and they've said, you know, we're supporting John because he's our friend.
00:03:41.000And I've asked them the question, why is John Corner running again for his fifth term?
00:03:47.000And the answer from them usually is, well, and they pause, and they're like, well, you know, we don't know.
00:03:53.000We don't actually even think he should run.
00:03:55.000We've told him five terms is too many, but he's our friend, so we're sticking with him, and we're going to spend a lot of money to beat you.
00:04:00.000There is no good reason for him to run.
00:04:03.000I haven't heard, what is he going to do different than what he's done in the past?
00:04:08.000And then how do we know he's going to be different?
00:04:10.000He doesn't have accomplishments that we're proud of.
00:04:13.000We do know of things that he's done, including lots of spending in the Ukraine versus spending on our own border that we're not happy with.
00:04:20.000And Texas voters really care about immigration.
00:04:22.000They really care about the Second Amendment.
00:04:24.000And those are two things that he's fought us on and gone the other way.
00:05:00.000After I went through a brutal primary with three people running against me who were all well-funded, including George P. Bush, and I went through a runoff, and I overwhelmingly won that by 38 points.
00:05:16.000So this time, I spent $6 million in the general election.
00:05:18.000I won by 10. Dan Patrick, who's awesome, spent about 25 or so, and he won by just about the same amount.
00:05:25.000And Abbott spent, you know, 150 or more, and he won by 11. So it's just not true.
00:05:30.000My numbers come out very similar, and that's always the argument that people like Cornyn make, because they can't come up with another reason why they should be elected.
00:05:38.000So let's dive deeper into one of these elements here.
00:05:41.000What do you also have to say to Texans that are worried that you're leaving your attorney general position?
00:07:01.000I mean, whether it's his tax cuts or whether it's what he's doing, even with tariffs, even with China reform, what's going on with these crazy judges that are out of control.
00:07:13.000The agenda is one of the best I've ever seen, if not the best I've ever seen in my life.
00:08:22.000I've been through this many times, but that is where he is going with his money.
00:08:25.000On the other hand, I will be out for the next 11 months.
00:08:28.000Our primary is March of next year, first Tuesday of March.
00:08:31.000I have a lot of practice in talking to Republican voters.
00:08:34.000I will be out talking to Republican voters.
00:08:35.000I will be out raising money, and I can tell you, I will raise a lot of money, and I will get my message across about what it is that I want to do that is different than what he's done and how I will oppose.
00:08:45.000So this is going to escalate in a very significant and serious way.
00:08:55.000What would you have to say for those that say that this is going to thwart President Trump's Senate agenda, meaning it puts at risk his agenda in the United States Senate?
00:09:04.000Could John Cornyn go rogue like a John McCain?
00:09:32.000And I think the next 11 months are going to prove that.
00:09:35.000And I think the polling already shows strongly, as a Republican senator, there is no way that he should be down as an incumbent that served four terms by 25 points.
00:10:10.000You can learn about my campaign as well as contribute.
00:10:12.000Obviously, they are going to have a lot of money from Washington, and we're going to have a lot of money from just the grassroots, and that's where my money comes from.
00:10:19.000So really appreciate you mentioning that.
00:11:55.000Joining us now is Mark Krikorian, Executive Director for the Center for Immigration Studies and columnist for Compact Magazine.
00:12:03.000Mark, I want to just first start, can you explain to our audience how profound the changes that we've seen at the southern border in just the last couple months under President Trump's leadership?
00:12:25.000And the Biden administration kept saying, this is seasonal, this is because of climate change, this is because of poverty, blah, blah, blah.
00:12:33.000There's nothing we can do about it until Congress gives us new tools, what have you.
00:12:43.000And the numbers have not just gone down right at the beginning, but we're in April now, and the numbers are the lowest ever recorded.
00:12:53.000I mean, I talked to some Border Patrol people, and there are days, there are stretches on the border where there are whole days where literally not a single person tries, even in the middle of the night with smugglers, to cross.
00:13:06.000So this is a complete 180 degree turn from what we saw under Biden.
00:13:14.000It shows that the border can be controlled.
00:13:17.000Doesn't mean everything's fixed, because you've still got all kinds of illegal aliens that Biden let in.
00:13:24.000That's going to be the main source of new illegal immigration in the future.
00:13:28.000But at the border, they've shut it down.
00:13:31.000And the important point is that they need to keep it up so it doesn't creep back up again, because the smugglers are always looking for another way to come in.
00:13:40.000So, you know, eternal vigilance is the price of border security, but so far, it's a sea change.
00:13:49.000So, you mentioned something I think that's important.
00:13:54.000I ask expert after expert, how many people did come across the southern border when Joe Biden was president?
00:13:59.000Our estimate, and this is, you know, some people say it's too low, but I think you're getting something like 10 million people, most of whom...
00:14:10.000The administration consciously let into the country, plus another couple million who were so-called gotaways.
00:14:18.000In other words, they got past the border patrol because there were whole stretches of the border that nobody was able to patrol because the agents were there on diaper duty with all the illegal immigrants Biden invited in, who came and turned themselves in.
00:14:34.000So I think, you know, 10 million is not a lowball number, but it's also not exaggerated.
00:14:43.000On the other hand, you know, isn't that enough?
00:14:45.000I mean, how many millions does a Democratic administration have to illegally let into the country before we decide we have to do?
00:14:54.000So, one of the problems that I think is going to arise is the left suddenly caring about constitutional rights.
00:15:35.000The law says you can make an asylum claim.
00:15:40.000And everybody gets to say that when they're captured or when they're in deportation proceedings to say, no, don't deport me because I'm claiming asylum.
00:15:51.000And ultimately, that is the core of the problem we're in.
00:15:57.000Because Congress created something called expedited removal, which means, obviously, to expedite deportation of people.
00:16:04.000So you don't end up going into the court system.
00:16:07.000The thing is, if you say asylum, or I fear return, or I've been persecuted, what have you, then you get taken out of that and put into the pipeline that is now three plus million, almost four million backlog in the immigration courts.
00:16:40.000The Heritage Foundation just had a report last week laying out some of the ways to restrict asylum and therefore make it easier to remove people, to eliminate asylum as a gimmick.
00:16:54.000To do just what you're saying, you know, tie up the courts and stay here for years at a time.
00:17:01.000But, and like I said, the administration can do some things.
00:17:04.000Ultimately, Congress needs to revisit asylum.
00:17:08.000And the first step is the president can take.
00:17:11.000And what he needs to do is withdraw from the UN Refugee Treaty, which is where all of this asylum rigmarole comes from originally.
00:17:47.000What's called a credible fear interview.
00:17:50.000The problem is the standard is so low, even in the statute, that basically it's just screening out people who say that Mickey Mouse is talking to them through their dental work rather than actually a hard standard where you just flush out the people who are not likely to get asylum.
00:18:09.000So the answer is not necessarily, not everybody has to get a court date, but...
00:18:15.000You can game the system and the system is gameable enough that if you're smart and if you have a smuggler who gives you the right instructions, you can, in fact, gum up the system successfully if you want to.
00:18:34.000Yeah, if you say the magic words, say Open Sesame or Hocus Pocus, you're allowed to stay in the country.
00:18:41.000Mark, I don't want to zero in on this too much, but what you are pointing...
00:18:45.000is a rather urgent and, dare I say, somewhat depressing picture that we're not going to be able to get mass deportations unless Congress fixes the asylum statute.
00:18:55.000All it's going to take is for millions of these people just to say the magic words and they're going to gum up the works of the judiciary and throw sand in the gears and we won't get mass deportations.
00:19:07.000There's a real danger of that, I'm afraid.
00:19:10.000And that's the goal of the anti-borders people, both on the left and the libertarians, is to have a kind of one-way border where you can come in, but we can't get you out.
00:19:22.000The one aspect that gives me a little more hope is that, and the way you can increase numbers, is if the administration steps up worksite enforcement more.
00:19:36.000are likely you know they're not likely to be criminal some of them will be but most of them are just working stiffs and they're also not going to have credible asylum claims probably it depends some of them you know some aclu lawyer may come up with something but you can actually get higher numbers of deportations when you start doing worksite enforcement and they have started but they need to step it up what they've been focusing on at first and correctly so
00:20:03.000is It's like the talking points all went out.
00:20:25.000At every single one, a kid comes up saying, well, Charlie, every single one of these illegals needs due process and they need a multi-year waiting period.
00:20:32.000And I thought to myself, I want to know what the law actually says.
00:20:36.000We're not going to deport anybody under this.
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00:22:52.000We're clamped down on illegals getting benefits.
00:22:54.000It seems as if, and the New York Times has an article on this, the self-deporters, our immigration correspondent has found a surprising trend.
00:23:01.000It seems as if this can only happen with an acceleration of people self-deporting.
00:23:08.000What is your comments or thoughts on this, Mark?
00:23:11.000The administration is doing some stuff in that regard.
00:23:14.000I mean, the IRS is now providing information to ICE, and they're making clear everybody knows that.
00:23:20.000In fact, the acting head of the IRS quit because of that, which is, you know, good riddance.
00:23:25.000The DHS has now reinstituted something that was in the law, but the Biden people undid, which is, if you've been ordered deported, And just are still here, haven't left.
00:23:38.000And there's 1.4 million people like that.
00:23:41.000You now have almost $1,000 a day fine, and they can seize your home and your property in lieu of the fine.
00:23:49.000So the administration's doing some of this.
00:23:52.000The big step, the next big step, as you suggested, is making it as hard as possible to get a job if you're illegally here.
00:24:01.000And that requires worksite enforcement.
00:24:05.000They've got to go after employers where they have evidence that can stand up in court to make it clear to employers they need to avoid hiring illegal immigrants.
00:24:19.000You've got to make it as hard as possible to be here illegally.
00:26:20.000We're going to keep protecting illegal immigrant criminals.
00:26:25.000Sanctuary cities are a tough nut to crack.
00:26:28.000I'm not really sure, without Congress acting, the administration can really reign them in and end this outrageous nullification, really, of federal law that sanctuary cities represent.
00:26:56.000There's a couple of other good organizations on low immigration and controlling the borders, but they're more citizen action advocacy groups.
00:27:05.000We're the only research group on this.
00:27:07.000And we've got all kinds of stuff coming.
00:27:09.000We have a report coming out probably next week on how immigration is not a solution to the birth rate issue.
00:27:17.000Is that if you're going to have, you know, if you're going to get birth rates to come back up, immigration is not a solution.
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00:28:44.000Joining us now is Eric Metaxas' great friend, Salem radio host, author, Bonhoeffer pastor, martyr, prophet, spy.
00:28:51.000Before we get into Bonhoeffer, Eric, your reaction to President Donald Trump's tariffs against the Chinese Communist Party and uniting the free world against our greatest enemy, the Chinese.
00:29:47.000Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful yesterday was saying that we should slap 400% tariffs on China and then Xi would be on a plane to D.C. to make a deal yesterday.
00:29:58.000It is about time we confronted the bully in the schoolyard and it is only President Trump who has the courage to do it.
00:30:19.000Amen. Speaking of men of courage, Eric, I know you have a passion project that you want to talk about with our audience, which is very important, which is Bonhoeffer.
00:30:29.000Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the most important men to live in the 20th century.
00:30:33.000Most Americans do not know enough about him.
00:30:35.000Tell us about your incredible movie we could play.
00:30:41.000I'll tell you, Charlie, the real headline here, first of all, today, literally today, April 9th, is the 80th anniversary today of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century.
00:30:56.000He stood against the bullies and the monsters and the evil figures of his time.
00:31:02.000Fearlessly, in the way that President Trump and others are standing up today.
00:31:06.000Of course, Bonhoeffer way ahead of everybody.
00:31:08.000Why? Because he did it to the point of death.
00:31:15.000So he's the ultimate model of courage.
00:31:17.000And we're living in a time right now where you have a lot of Christians out there, sort of Christians, who don't understand that if you do not live with heroic...
00:31:38.000But the reason I wanted to come on your show today, Charlie, is because a lot of folks in the MAGA movement don't know this.
00:31:45.000The Bonhoeffer film that came out in November, an amazing film, not officially tied to my book, but it is an amazing film about this amazing hero killed today, 80 years ago.
00:31:58.000That film was targeted by the left, mostly by the pro-Hamas lunatic left, and they did.
00:32:10.000I don't want to give you the details, but I was stunned because this is a film made by people that are not pro-Trump people.
00:32:17.000They just said, we want to make a great film about Bonhoeffer.
00:32:19.000They made a great film partnering with Hollywood royalty to make a great film about this hero, and the radical left did everything they could, pulled out all the stops to destroy the film.
00:32:31.000So what I'm saying, folks, if you believe in standing up, And it kind of takes my breath away,
00:33:00.000The left is so crazy that they would try to harm a film like this about a man who gave his life for the Jews of Europe because of his Christian faith.
00:33:08.000That's where we are, but that's what they did.
00:33:10.000Why do you think, Eric, out of all of the 20th century quote-unquote heroes that we teach our kids, Bonhoeffer is de-emphasized in academia.
00:33:36.000The first one, and this is of course what attracted me to his story, because my mother grew up in Nazi Germany.
00:33:41.000So when I heard about the story of a pastor who, because of his faith in Jesus, spoke up for the Jews, a pastor and a theologian who, because of his Christian faith, spoke out against Adolf Hitler, I thought, whoa, courage, amazing courage.
00:33:56.000But that is kind of why most people don't know about Bonhoeffer, because he was explicitly Christian.
00:34:01.000And in fact, people on the left who do praise him, they kind of make it sound like, well, he was sort of an agnostic at the end of his life.
00:34:08.000And the reason the left hates me is because in my biography on him, I make it clear that his Christian faith was deepened, if anything, at the end of his life.
00:34:24.000I was watching Charlie Rose, like, I don't know, 15 years ago, and Christopher Hitchens was debating, you know, and somebody said, well, what about Bonhoeffer's faith?
00:34:31.000And he goes, oh, Bonhoeffer's not a Christian, he was a humanist.
00:35:42.000And they even attacked the film as somehow being a dog whistle for Christian nationalism and political violence, which is so insane, I can't even believe I'm saying it.
00:35:52.000So the left worked hard to crush the film, which is why I want to get the word out to patriots in America.
00:36:12.000And you know, Charlie, you and I were talking several years ago, and you said, you know, through TPUSA Faith, you want to raise up an army of Bonhoeffers, real Christians who are not just talking about faith, but who are living out their faith.
00:36:25.000He, to me, is the ultimate model of that.
00:36:31.000And whenever I talk about Bonhoeffer, it's about putting your faith in action, not just talking, but doing the kind of stuff that you do and I try to do, talking truth to people, waking them up.
00:36:42.000Absolutely. So really quick, Eric, how do people find this film?
00:36:52.000Because there's a lot of Bonhoeffer content out there.
00:36:56.000Yeah, and there's a lot of bad stuff out there.
00:37:01.000The film that just came out in November, it's a brand new film.
00:37:21.000And obviously, my book, I would recommend as the definitive book on Bonhoeffer because there's a lot of bad stuff on Bonhoeffer, a lot of kind of liberal, weird stuff that has come out.
00:37:31.000That's one of the reasons they hate me is because I told the truth about him in his own words, but I'm proud to have done so.
00:37:37.000As we look at the threat of totalitarianism across the West, we have a little bit of a reprieve right now.
00:37:46.000What is your message to the pastor or the church leader that refuses to stand for the civilizational struggle that we are in?
00:37:57.000We're in the proverbial Bonhoeffer moment.
00:38:00.000I mean, when I saw the tyranny under Biden, all of this kind of stuff, I thought, this is why God led me to write this book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
00:38:09.000This is a man who understood he had a profound duty before God to get political, to stand up against political, satanic bullies who hate freedom, who hate human beings, who hate the Jews.
00:38:23.000Jews who hate Christians if you don't live heroically like Bonhoeffer you are not being the kind of Christian God called you to be and that's why the movie is important that's why the story of Bonhoeffer is important and on this 80th anniversary literally today everybody needs
00:38:39.000to know about him and needs to know that the left tried to destroy this film so if you can see it check it out it is genuinely a great film believe me you'll thank me it's an amazing film