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That's drpeppergetaway.com. The

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next time you see this Catholic bishop on

0:35

television or the internet pointing

0:37

a finger, judging, remember

0:39

something, Christ wouldn't do that,

0:42

but a politician would. And

0:44

politicians with clerical collars have

0:46

historically been very

0:48

dangerous people. And this

0:50

man, speaking of danger, seems

0:53

like someone we all ought to keep an eye

0:55

on. Today,

0:57

I'm going to

0:59

talk about a grave thread

1:02

facing the country. Now, there

1:05

are some people who

1:08

say this danger

1:11

isn't real. It's

1:13

so-called. They

1:16

deny its existence. And

1:19

this denialism falls

1:22

somewhere between delusional and sinister,

1:27

because the threat that I'm

1:29

going to talk about is very

1:31

real. The

1:33

threat is nationalism. But

1:37

there's a very specific derivative

1:39

type of nationalism that is

1:42

American in character. National

1:47

socialism was very

1:50

German in character. The

1:53

torchlight parades, the

1:56

vast rallies, they

1:58

were Teutonic. in

2:01

nature, in aesthetic

2:03

effect. America

2:07

is a different society, a

2:10

different culture. So the

2:12

nationalism we are going to

2:15

talk about today is

2:17

Christian nationalism. And

2:22

let's distinguish between Christianity

2:25

and Christian nationalism. Christianity

2:28

is a faith of peace

2:30

and love. Christian

2:33

nationalism is a political

2:35

dogma of violence, subjugation,

2:38

and death. A

2:40

Christian nationalist is

2:43

a contradiction. The

2:45

word itself is a perversion

2:47

of language because the

2:49

two are repellents,

2:51

opposites, put

2:54

together to describe something that

2:56

is unholy. What

2:59

is it? How should

3:01

you think about it? Well,

3:05

think about it like this. Imagine

3:08

an Islamic nationalist.

3:11

What would that be? It

3:14

would be ISIS or

3:17

the Taliban. And

3:19

that's what Christian nationalism is. I

3:22

do my best to explain it in

3:24

a new movie that has just appeared

3:27

and is streaming across all

3:29

platforms starting today. It's

3:32

called Bad Faith. Here's

3:34

what I say about Christian nationalism. It

3:37

has nothing to do with Christianity.

3:40

It's about power and politics. And

3:42

let's separate it from religiosity.

3:46

In this country, we have freedom

3:48

of religion. We're

3:51

secular that is built by,

3:54

sustained by, and filled with people who

3:56

have deep faith in God. But

3:59

that's not Christianity. nationalism. There's

4:02

a fictional work, Margaret Atwood, called

4:05

The Handmaid's Tale. That's Christian

4:08

nationalism. It's

4:11

man saying that this is God's law

4:13

and administering it for the

4:18

purposes of achieving absolute political

4:20

power. And the societies that

4:22

practice it, in

4:26

whatever form it takes, are

4:29

the most evil places under it. I'm going to

4:31

tell you a story today about a danger,

4:35

about a political hit job, about

4:38

an act of intimidation that came from

4:46

an unlikely place. I'm

4:49

going to expose to you something

4:51

today that's sinister. No good

4:55

and ugly. And

4:59

I'm going to lay it out in detail. It's

5:01

a story about a journalist, a

5:05

Catholic bishop, a

5:08

political extremist, and

5:10

the attorney general of Washington, D.C. But

5:15

more on that in a minute. What

5:19

I'm going to attempt to do today is to be a

5:21

guide. I look

5:25

at this image of a river. What

5:27

do you see? Do you see uniformity

5:29

in the water? Can you see the

5:31

current, the eddies, the pools where the

5:34

fish are? Each river moves

5:37

at its own pace. And

5:39

for a person who knows the river,

5:41

they can see its language.

5:43

They can see its movements.

5:45

They can see its

5:48

contradictions in all that

5:50

is happening to the untrained eye.

5:52

It just looks like water,

5:54

but it's not. There's so

5:56

much going on on the

5:59

surface. below the surface.

6:01

Think about the iceberg. Only

6:03

a small part of it is

6:06

visible above the waterline.

6:08

The vast mass remains

6:12

invisible. Let's start with

6:15

something that's important. And let's put

6:18

a nail into it and make sure

6:20

that there is

6:22

no space, no room for

6:24

denialism. When we

6:26

talk about Christian nationalism, it

6:28

is real. It

6:30

exists. And it is

6:33

a profound danger. It

6:35

has killed many

6:37

times in America. Let

6:40

me show you Christian nationalism.

6:45

This is

6:47

what Christian nationalism is. It

6:50

is death. This

6:53

is Oklahoma City. And

6:55

this is the Christian nationalist Timothy

6:58

McVeigh and his

7:00

partner Terry Nichols. All

7:03

over America, there

7:05

are compounds filled with

7:08

fascist Christian

7:10

nationalist extremists that

7:13

are heavily armed and

7:15

are training for civil war. There's

7:17

a frontline documentary that highlights

7:20

it. It

7:23

ends with the documentarian

7:26

walking a fence line. On

7:29

the other side of it is the

7:31

sound of automatic weapons fire. It's

7:35

general flinch compound. And the people

7:37

in it are training for civil

7:39

war. And

7:50

hearing what

7:53

sounds like automatic

7:55

weapons from not

7:59

very far away. General Flynn

8:01

talks about this all the

8:03

time in the

8:05

company of extremist

8:07

pastors who seek

8:10

to dominate American life

8:14

by taking political power. There

8:17

is a philosophy, it's

8:19

called dominionism. There

8:21

is a conspiracy and

8:24

the conspiracy is the attempt

8:26

by people to take power

8:29

across all the peaks of

8:31

American life, in the culture,

8:34

in politics, in the

8:36

media, and

8:38

so on and so forth. It

8:42

is real. So

8:45

why would it be denied

8:48

and why would

8:50

such an obvious and real

8:52

threat ever be dismissed by

8:55

a US Bishop of

8:58

the Catholic Church? This man, Bishop

9:01

Bell, I'm going to lay

9:04

out for you a political

9:06

hit job. Like

9:10

all stories, this

9:12

one requires us to start

9:15

at the beginning. Let

9:18

me introduce you to Heidi Presbola.

9:21

She is a veteran journalist broadly

9:24

admired for her fairness

9:26

and professionalism who works

9:29

at Politico as

9:31

an investigative reporter, but before

9:33

that is a veteran of

9:35

NBC News and Bloomberg

9:38

News. For anybody

9:40

who follows American politics and has paid

9:42

attention over the last 20 years, it's

9:45

almost impossible to imagine a scenario

9:47

where you haven't seen Heidi Presbola

9:50

on television. And

9:53

the truth of the matter is I've known

9:55

her for a very long time and you

9:58

can hold a gun to my head. I

10:01

have no idea what

10:03

her politics are. She's

10:06

a true journalist, somebody

10:10

who views their job as

10:12

holding powerful people accountable, illuminating

10:15

the truth to

10:17

the public through

10:20

the prism of

10:22

the public good and the

10:24

public interest. This

10:27

concept is what instills journalism

10:31

with nobility. Heidi

10:35

Presbola was appearing on

10:38

MSNBC and she was asked the

10:40

question. Here

10:42

is her answer. Remember when Trump ran in

10:45

2016, a lot of the mainline

10:48

evangelicals wanted nothing to do with

10:50

the divorced, you

10:52

know, real estate mogul who cheated on his

10:54

wife and with a porn star and all of that, right? So

10:57

what happened was he was surrounded

10:59

by this more extremist element. You're

11:01

going to hear words like Christian

11:03

nationalism, like the new apostolic reformation.

11:06

These are groups that you should

11:08

get very, very

11:10

schooled on because they have a lot

11:12

of power in Trump's circle. And

11:14

the one thing that unites all of them, because there's

11:16

many different groups orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites

11:19

them as Christian nationalists, not Christians,

11:21

by the way, because Christian

11:24

nationalists is very different, is that

11:26

they believe that our rights as Americans, as

11:28

all human beings, don't come from any earthly

11:30

authority. They don't come from Congress. They don't

11:32

come from the Supreme Court. They come from

11:35

God. The problem with that is

11:37

that they are determining man, men,

11:39

they are determining what God is

11:41

telling them. And in the past,

11:44

that so-called natural law is, you

11:46

know, it's a pillar of Catholicism,

11:48

for instance, has been used for

11:50

good in social justice campaigns. Martin

11:53

Luther King evoked it in talking

11:55

about civil rights, but now you

11:57

have an extremist element. of

12:00

conservative Christians who say that

12:02

this applies specifically to issues

12:04

including abortion, gay marriage, and

12:06

it's going much further than that. As you

12:08

see, for instance, with the ruling in Alabama

12:10

this week, that judge is connected to that

12:13

dominionist faction. Now,

12:16

that answer really

12:19

is divided into two parts. The

12:22

first part and the

12:24

second part. And

12:26

before we go any further, let's

12:29

be clear about something. Heidi

12:32

Presbola is the first person to

12:35

say that she communicated

12:38

awkwardly here. She

12:40

wasn't clear. What

12:42

she said is not wrong.

12:45

What I'm going to show you is

12:48

a distortion in a minute. I'm

12:51

going to show you somebody who

12:53

takes the first part of

12:56

what Heidi Presbola says and

12:59

wildly inflames it while

13:02

completely omitting the

13:04

second part of what she said while

13:09

disingenuously claiming that

13:12

they just happened upon

13:14

seeing this. The

13:17

most dangerous thing that

13:20

they've ever seen on

13:22

television, the

13:25

doorway to totalitarianism.

13:30

That shit you need. But

13:32

before we go there, let's

13:35

watch the distortion. Let's

13:37

watch Bishop Ball, the

13:40

prelate of the Winona Rochester

13:42

Diocese in Minnesota,

13:46

attack, target,

13:49

single off Heidi

13:52

Presbola for the

13:54

specific purpose of

13:56

generating a vast sea

13:59

of headlines. that

14:02

threaten her, like these,

14:04

and these, and

14:07

these, and

14:10

a lot of social media vitriol, a

14:14

lot of animus, all

14:17

of it on purpose, all

14:19

of it deliberate, all

14:22

of it premeditated, and

14:25

all of it designed to send a

14:27

message, which is

14:30

very simple, stop

14:34

your reporting.

14:38

We'll get there, but

14:40

let's watch the intimidation

14:43

unfurl. Hey everybody, it's

14:45

Bishop Barron. I want to share with you some

14:47

reflections on a clip I saw,

14:49

I think it came out last night,

14:51

Heidi Prisvila from Politico was on MSNBC.

14:54

It was one of the most disturbing

14:56

and frankly dangerous things I've ever seen

14:59

in a political conversation. Wait

15:01

a second, the most dangerous thing

15:04

His Excellency has ever seen is

15:06

this. Heidi

15:08

Prisvila with multiple steel, really? Not

15:12

this? Today we will

15:14

see whether Republicans stand strong

15:16

for integrity of our

15:19

elections, but whether or not they

15:21

stand strong for our country, our

15:24

country, our country has been under

15:26

siege for a long time. For

15:28

this? Let's

15:32

go, let's go. What

15:40

about this? But you also

15:42

had people that were very

15:45

fine people on both sides. What about

15:47

Donald Trump's call to violence in

15:50

a presidential debate? From what I've

15:52

done. Stand back and stand by.

15:54

It is incredible to think that

15:57

His Excellency has lived such a shocking,

16:00

of life. Heidi

16:03

Prezbala, in

16:05

her words, in

16:07

2024, are the most

16:09

dangerous thing this man who

16:12

is north of 60 years old has

16:15

ever seen. Astonishing,

16:18

really. Astonishing.

16:21

What is it that

16:23

Heidi Prezbala said that

16:26

is so dangerous? Well,

16:32

let me show it to you. I'll

16:34

unspool it. She's going after what she

16:36

calls Christian nationalism, but what she said

16:38

was there are these Christian nationalists out

16:40

there who are claiming that our rights

16:43

don't come from any, you know,

16:45

human authority. They come from God. And

16:48

she specified, you know, that they're claiming

16:51

these weirdos. What

16:53

you are seeing is

16:55

sophistry, a

16:57

sophist at work. Heidi

17:01

Prezbala never talked about

17:03

Christians as weirdos. His

17:07

Excellency is trying to expand the argument,

17:09

to broaden it, to

17:11

inflame, to divide. He is

17:14

planting a seed of grievance.

17:17

He's trying to inflame, to make

17:20

a fire bigger, build

17:22

it up. You see,

17:25

what Heidi Prezbala said now

17:28

has really nothing to do with

17:31

what his Excellency is

17:33

talking about. She

17:36

made no mention of weirdos. She

17:39

did not try to put Christians

17:41

outside a circle. What

17:44

Heidi Prezbala did is

17:46

speak awkwardly about the difference

17:49

between Christianity of faith and

17:52

Christian nationalism, a deadly

17:54

political dogma. Now,

17:59

listen to to the trick of

18:02

the sophist on

18:04

his way to becoming a demagogue. The

18:08

trick is simple, it's denialism. And

18:11

denialism is a thread

18:13

that runs across and

18:16

through so much of the

18:18

fascist right in America, specifically,

18:20

directly, and with evidence, denialism

18:22

of the Holocaust, denialism of

18:25

the genocide, denialism of the

18:27

presence of an illiberal menace

18:29

that proclaims God's providence in

18:32

the name of their political

18:34

power. Let's listen to Marjorie

18:36

Taylor Greene. President Trump

18:38

is joining some of the

18:41

most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson

18:44

Mandela was arrested, served time

18:46

in prison. Jesus was arrested

18:49

and murdered by the

18:51

Roman government. There have been many

18:53

people throughout history that have been

18:56

arrested and persecuted by radical corrupt

18:58

governments. And it's beginning today in

19:01

New York City. And

19:03

I just can't believe it's happening, but I'll always support

19:05

him. He's done nothing wrong. Let's listen

19:08

to Pastor Paula. Let justice be

19:10

done. Let justice be done. Let

19:25

we the people have the assurance

19:28

of a fair and a

19:30

just election. Hear our

19:32

cry and turn our

19:35

hearts to you. God,

19:37

I pray that you would turn the hearts of those

19:40

who are in power and position

19:42

to make decisions, to

19:44

walk in your wisdom, and

19:46

to do justly today for

19:49

the integrity of

19:52

democracy, for our

19:54

nation. God, we

19:56

ask right now in conclusion for

19:58

your provision, for your protection

20:01

for your power for an

20:03

outpouring of your spirit like never before.

20:06

I secure POTUS. I

20:08

thank you for President Trump. How

20:11

about Pastor Locke? Let

20:13

me tell you something. You

20:15

ain't seen the insurrection yet. The

20:19

search for the living God is an

20:21

institution that the Greeks of Hell shall

20:23

not prevail against and the Bible says

20:25

that we'll take it not for. This

20:30

is real and

20:33

His Excellency's denialism does not

20:35

make it less real.

20:38

Christian nationalism isn't a so-called anything.

20:40

It's a real thing and that

20:42

real thing is a deadly

20:45

thing. Make

20:47

no mistake about that. Surely

20:50

His Excellency is aware that the

20:52

Ku Klux Klan claimed God's providence

20:54

and that they too were Christian

20:56

nationalists in the 1870s and the

20:58

1920s and

21:02

the 1950s and that the

21:04

segregationists and the adherents

21:06

of Jim Crow, they too were

21:08

Christian nationalists. You

21:11

must know this, but

21:14

in 2024 history is

21:16

denied, but for what

21:18

purpose? We'll

21:21

get to that. Let's

21:23

keep watching. They're coming, you know,

21:26

not from the Supreme Court or from Congress.

21:29

Well, first of all, it was

21:31

Thomas Jefferson who made that claim.

21:34

We hold these truths to be

21:36

self-evident that we're endowed by our

21:38

Creator with certain inalienable

21:40

rights. And may I

21:42

say everybody, it is exceptionally dangerous

21:45

when we forget the principle that our rights

21:47

come from God and not from

21:49

a government, because the basic problem

21:51

is if they come from the government

21:53

or Congress or the Supreme Court, they

21:55

can be taken away by those same

21:57

people. This is opening the door. to

22:01

totalitarianism. This is

22:03

not some kind of religious nationalism

22:05

or sectarianism. It's one of the

22:07

sanest principles of

22:09

our democratic governance, that our

22:11

rights come from God. Yes,

22:14

government exists to secure these

22:16

rights, the Declaration says, not

22:18

to produce them. Bishop

22:21

Barron began his headpiece against

22:23

journalist Hedy Presbola by saying

22:26

he had some reflections. Well,

22:29

I hope he'll reflect on what I'm about to

22:31

say, because it will help

22:33

him with his understanding of

22:36

American history, which he

22:38

seems to have quite a thin

22:40

grasp of. Let's

22:42

talk about the Declaration

22:45

of Independence. First,

22:48

it was drafted by committee, Robert

22:51

Livingston, Roger Sherman, John Adams,

22:53

and Benjamin Franklin, with Thomas

22:56

Jefferson as the principal author.

22:58

The Declaration of Independence was

23:01

the fulfillment of a trajectory.

23:05

What will be traced back to

23:07

the Magna Carta. It

23:09

was a moment

23:11

that lit the world, that

23:14

broke it, that

23:17

turned it upside down. It

23:19

was one of the most

23:21

significant before and after moments in all

23:24

of human history, these words put

23:28

to paper by the mind of man, written

23:32

by a hand steeped

23:34

in the contradictions and hypocrisy

23:37

of America's founding, because the

23:39

man who declared that all

23:41

men are created equal and

23:44

endowed by a creator with

23:46

inalienable rights, including life,

23:48

liberty, and the pursuit of

23:50

happiness, owned

23:53

600 human beings as slaves. story

24:01

of America has

24:04

been the struggle between

24:07

the fulfillment of this idea

24:10

and ideal and our

24:13

reality. And

24:16

over and over and

24:19

over again, the

24:23

forces of oppression and

24:25

subjugation in America, whether

24:28

they were Confederates, whether

24:30

they were Ku Klux Klan, whether

24:33

they were Boond, whether

24:35

they were Nazis, whether

24:38

they were January 6th

24:40

insurrectionists have claimed God's

24:42

providence and blessing to

24:44

do so. That's

24:49

not holy. That's not

24:51

godly. That's sacrilegious.

24:54

It's blasphemy and

24:56

it's evil. And

24:59

there's another important thing to understand

25:02

about the Declaration of Independence.

25:07

It was not law. It

25:09

was exactly what it proclaimed

25:12

to be. It was a declaration

25:17

of independence that

25:19

separated the colonies

25:22

from the British cream. You

25:25

see the committee, the founders believed

25:29

it was appropriate that they

25:31

write down for posterity

25:33

the reason for

25:35

the vote that would be

25:37

taken in early July of 1776 that

25:40

would separate forever

25:44

the United States of America

25:47

from brogualtmen, from

25:50

the dominion of his majesty's

25:52

realm. The resolution passed

25:54

by Congress is what made

25:56

America independent. The Declaration was

25:59

the test. for the action.

26:04

It is not until the

26:07

Constitution of the United States

26:11

and its 13th and 14th and

26:13

15th amendments are passed that

26:17

equality is established legally

26:23

in the Constitution between

26:26

black and white. It is not until the

26:28

1960s, 100 years after the ending of the

26:33

Civil War, where

26:36

the Civil Rights and Voting Rights

26:38

Acts are enshrined into federal law

26:40

that breathe life into the meaning

26:42

of the concepts of

26:45

the Declaration of Independence. The

26:49

Declaration of Independence has another vital

26:52

meaning. It was the

26:54

North Star to which

26:56

Abraham Lincoln attached himself

26:58

when he reconsecrated the

27:00

meaning of the Civil

27:02

War and its purpose

27:06

and called upon the country to

27:08

finish it through

27:11

more bloodshed, through more struggle

27:14

at the war's greatest killing

27:16

field in Gettysburg. In

27:20

an 87-word speech, Abraham

27:24

Lincoln said, this

27:26

government of the people, by the people,

27:29

for the people, shall not

27:31

perish from this earth. He

27:35

made the war about the

27:37

Declaration of Independence's loftiest

27:40

aspiration and highest ideal,

27:42

that we are all

27:45

created equal. But

27:49

make no mistake, this

27:52

Declaration that told the king

27:55

That no American was beneath him, that he

27:58

was equal in the eyes of. It

28:00

up to every New England

28:02

Yankees skipper. And.

28:04

Every Virginia farmer, the rule

28:06

of law, And.

28:08

The separation of church and

28:11

state. Are found

28:13

a single. To.

28:15

The concept. Of the

28:17

United States of America and is distortion

28:19

of people are being fed by the

28:22

Bishop. To. Attack a

28:24

journalist who misspoke. Is

28:27

simply wrong. but it has

28:29

a purpose. And it

28:31

has a reason. Which. Will get

28:33

you in a minute, but let's

28:35

keep watch. It is exceptionally dangerous

28:37

to go down this road because

28:39

as I say, we lose. Our

28:42

grounded in this in

28:45

something transcendent and become

28:47

therefore. By that

28:49

very move victims of a

28:51

potentially totalitarian state? they can

28:53

take away the same rights

28:56

that they. Gave. Us in

28:58

the first place. So can I

29:01

just say is it in their

29:03

enthusiasm I suppose you to go

29:05

against so called Krista Nationalism? They're

29:08

actually going against the foundations of

29:10

our democracy. Do. You know what

29:12

the deadliest words of the twentieth century are?

29:15

The deadliest words in human history.

29:18

They exist in every language on earth.

29:22

Day. Them. And

29:25

us. These

29:28

are the. Words.

29:30

They can be weaponized. And.

29:33

Turned. Into. Poison

29:35

Darrow's by Demigod.

29:39

By person like out off ever. Or

29:42

muscle leaning. Where.

29:45

A person like Donald Trump. Day.

29:49

Then. Us.

29:53

Whenever you see a

29:55

demagogue speak. Details

29:58

a day will draw. is

30:01

their employment of they,

30:04

them, and us. So

30:07

let's watch His Excellency,

30:10

the Bishop, start

30:13

to broaden the argument, start

30:15

to lay the seeds of

30:18

conspiracy. He's

30:20

laying a groundwork. What

30:23

He's saying is that we

30:26

good people are surrounded by

30:28

an enemy. It's

30:30

insidious. It's everywhere.

30:33

It's conspiring. The

30:37

enemy is they and

30:39

them. And of course,

30:41

the left.

30:43

It is the left. Now

30:46

let's connect the dots. Let's

30:48

connect the words. Heidi

30:50

Presbola, danger,

30:53

the most dangerous thing I've

30:55

ever seen. A threat

30:58

has been breached. A

31:01

threat has been

31:03

realized. Heidi

31:06

Presbola has opened the

31:08

door on MSNBC with

31:10

Michael Steele to totalitarianism.

31:14

Yes, she has. The

31:18

left, the left

31:20

and the testility to religion, don't

31:22

you see? The

31:25

left. Heidi Presbola, grave

31:27

danger, MSNBC, and

31:30

the left who are

31:32

against you, us.

31:36

They and them against us.

31:39

Heidi Presbola, MSNBC,

31:43

grave danger,

31:45

the left. This

31:50

is how it works. Do

31:52

you see the connection? Do

31:55

you see the construction Of

31:57

the demagogic attack? I

32:00

guess high a price below. We're.

32:04

Going to get to why that

32:06

happened. Why this Bishop? Of

32:09

the why known of Rochester

32:11

Diocese. Is attacking

32:13

a journalist as part of

32:15

a conspiracy of the last.

32:18

That. According to him, as he

32:21

alleges whatever that may be

32:23

is against religion in America,

32:25

let's keep watch and it's

32:27

the further evidence of this

32:29

extreme. Hostility of the

32:31

left now toward religion. New

32:34

know precisely as an American.

32:37

I. Wanna hold that my rights

32:39

come not from something as

32:41

vacillating and unreliable is Congress

32:43

or the Supreme Court they

32:45

come from? And know.

32:48

For. The second says. It.

32:51

Is the so called. Christian.

32:54

Nationalists. I

32:58

can name the Christian nationalists. The

33:02

Why Can't the Bishop seem to name

33:04

any of the conspirators in this. Grave.

33:07

Threat from the last. Besides.

33:10

Hydrant Press below. Why?

33:14

Is it? That the

33:16

bishop. Is. Mentioning the

33:18

journalist. At

33:21

the beginning I mentioned. Did. There

33:23

were two other people in this story:

33:25

the Attorney General of the District of

33:28

Columbia. And a political

33:30

extremists. The

33:32

political extremists His name Leonard Leo.

33:35

And he's been written about extensively.

33:39

Litter Leo is always present when

33:42

there is corruption around the supreme

33:44

court. Leonard Liao, both on

33:46

the firing line. Three to be here,

33:48

you have had quite a week where

33:50

you have finally successfully assets are the

33:53

nomination of Rak haven't After a very

33:55

contentious political fi it's probably. The most

33:57

contentious supreme court confirmation we've had.

34:00

history. Brett Kavanaugh was

34:02

really the second judicial nominee that

34:04

you successfully ushered through, both

34:06

Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh you

34:09

were very involved with. But the

34:11

Federal Society has also been involved

34:13

in two other successful Republican appointments

34:15

to the Supreme Court, both Chief

34:17

Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.

34:20

How did you end up in

34:22

the position of directing

34:24

and guiding and advising the president of

34:27

the United States on his judicial appointees?

34:29

I have no idea. What

34:33

I do know is that the Federalist Society

34:35

distinguished itself as an institution

34:37

that was a magnet for some

34:40

of the best legal talent in the

34:42

country. And so I think presidents naturally

34:44

looked to the Federalist Society for that

34:46

kind of talent. Leonard Leo

34:48

is there with Clarence Thomas and the

34:50

billionaires flying on the private

34:52

jets to Alaska, opening

34:54

the good wine for the man who

34:57

proclaimed to be happy

35:00

in an RV camping in Walmart

35:02

parking lots, but instead traveled the

35:04

world like a

35:06

sultan. You see, Heidi

35:08

Breslau is a

35:11

particular type of journalist.

35:15

She's an investigative journalist, and

35:18

she's written stories about corruption. She's

35:22

written stories about Leonard Leo and his

35:24

organization. And

35:27

the facts of her reporting were so

35:29

egregious that it led to

35:31

the opening of a criminal investigation

35:33

in the District of Columbia by

35:36

the Attorney General. Something

35:40

remarkable happened. Scores

35:45

of Republican Attorney Generals from

35:47

different jurisdictions interfered

35:50

with Wade and wrote letters to

35:53

the Attorney General of the District of

35:55

Columbia demanding

35:57

that an investigation into

36:00

tax improprieties by Leonard

36:03

Leo's organization, be

36:05

stopped. This

36:10

isn't just unusual, it's

36:12

unprecedented. And make

36:14

no mistake, it's

36:16

an act of intimidation by

36:19

the very same Republican attorney

36:21

generals who sought to deny

36:24

the result of a presidential

36:26

election. And

36:29

that is something the bishop should

36:31

understand because the real threat to

36:33

American democracy is not

36:36

what he made up to attack

36:38

Heidi Presbrough because she wrote

36:40

a story that he didn't

36:42

like about his friend Leonard

36:44

Leo, and he went out

36:46

and did the hit job

36:48

commissioned by Leonard Leo on

36:51

the reporter. Leonard Leo has

36:53

become a powerful man in Washington.

36:56

He is a Wizard of Oz

36:58

figure. That power is mostly illusory

37:01

until it turned real. He

37:04

was a bit player in the Supreme

37:06

Court confirmations that I led for

37:09

the Chief Justice and sadly

37:11

Samuel Alito during the Bush White

37:13

House, who

37:15

became a major player in

37:18

the American extremist cause because

37:20

Donald Trump made a deal with him. The

37:23

three times married reprobate who

37:25

stepped every small contractor who

37:27

we ever met, who

37:29

was a Bulgarian of the first order,

37:32

needed to get the votes of

37:35

the Christian American fundamentalists that

37:39

Leonard Leo and so many

37:41

others represent or claim to

37:43

represent. Trump

37:45

just cut a deal. Leonard

37:47

Leo said, you said you're pro-choice.

37:50

Trump said, I'll do whatever you want.

37:52

Leonard Leo said, here are the judges

37:54

on this piece of paper that we

37:57

want you to nominate from. Trump

37:59

looked at you. the piece of paper and said,

38:01

I'll nominate these judges. They

38:04

shook hand and the deal was

38:06

made. Leonard Leo became a kingmaker

38:08

because in the American system, it's

38:11

the president who is supposed to

38:13

pick the justices, not an extremist

38:15

activist who's elected by nobody. But

38:18

what became clear when Trump surprisingly

38:20

won was that the person who

38:22

held the keys to the Supreme

38:25

Court and could load it up

38:28

with whomever he wanted because

38:31

Trump didn't care was Leonard Leo.

38:35

And then something incredible happened. Three

38:40

justices were confirmed. And

38:44

Leonard Leo became legitimately powerful.

38:48

So powerful, in fact, that a

38:50

billionaire died and left it all

38:52

to Leonard Leo, whose

38:54

organizations now have so much

38:57

money that the interest alone

39:01

is enough every year to open

39:04

up a new heritage foundation forever.

39:10

And because of that money, because of

39:12

the reach that that money gives, Leonard

39:16

Leo has a lot of power.

39:18

That's why with the snap

39:20

of a finger, he can command

39:23

multiple attorney generals from across the

39:25

country to lay

39:27

into an attorney general who

39:29

would dare to investigate his

39:32

nonprofit tax status after,

39:35

well, journalism. And

39:39

he's powerful enough, a

39:43

consultant who worked for the US Conference

39:45

of Catholic Bishops to

39:47

order a political hit on

39:50

the journalist who wrote the stories about him

39:55

by a Catholic bishop Of

39:58

all people. It

40:01

is despicable. Donald. Trump Bishop

40:03

Our and. Let

40:05

me I was built bar all. Came.

40:08

Together. At

40:10

a breakfast thrown by my radio. Honoring

40:13

built bar. For.

40:16

Being Christ like. I'm

40:18

serious. He just

40:21

started executing people again in federal

40:23

prison and of course was an

40:25

architect. Of

40:27

the cruelest immigration policy the

40:30

country has ever had. Away

40:34

thinking about it. Fisher

40:37

Baron. Talking. About

40:39

Danger has never said a word

40:41

about Trump's plans to. Create.

40:43

A police state to deport millions

40:45

and millions of people from vast.

40:48

Wealth. Concentration camps don't be

40:50

spread over the country. Curious.

40:54

Isn't it? But

40:57

anyway, there at that, breakfast. There

41:00

was a gathering. Of

41:03

a type of. My.

41:07

Political. Know. How

41:09

close itself in religion? And

41:12

Catholicism step Pope Francis recently

41:14

more into Afflicts. And.

41:16

The world back. To

41:20

warning that should be taken seriously. How

41:25

depressed was a reporter? Doing.

41:28

Her job. The

41:33

bishop isn't just an ordinary bishops

41:35

from. The why known a

41:38

Rochester Diocese. He

41:40

has a large ministry. He's.

41:43

Bragged about it. He's

41:46

called out other Catholic publications

41:48

saying that their reach isn't

41:50

nearly as much as his.

41:53

You see his you Tube channels now Over

41:55

a million. is a

41:57

big twitter account he has videos and

42:01

he's selling Bibles for thousands

42:03

of dollars. He

42:05

has a ministry for some odd reason that is

42:08

filled with bodybuilders and

42:11

that glorifies not Christ in its

42:14

promotional materials but His

42:16

Excellency, who seems to like

42:18

the attention. The Father started

42:21

out on radio and any

42:23

Catholic prelude in the United States

42:25

should have an appreciation

42:28

about the danger of a Catholic

42:31

demagogue wearing a clerical

42:33

collar to divide in flame in

42:35

the United States of America because

42:38

it happened before. There

42:40

was once a man named Father Coughlin in the 1930s. He

42:44

reached every week one out

42:47

of every four Americans, 30

42:49

million people in a nation

42:51

of 120 million. That

42:54

would be the equivalent today of an audience

42:56

every week of north of 88 million

42:58

people. What

43:01

would you do with that

43:03

audience? Would you use it to

43:06

spread the good news? Would

43:08

you use it to lift people up

43:12

to spread the gospel of

43:14

American justice and democracy and

43:16

patriotism? Or would

43:18

you use it to inflame and

43:20

poison and divide because that's what

43:23

Father Coughlin did and

43:26

that's exactly what Bishop Barron did when

43:31

he took a hatchet to the truth and

43:34

he distorted what Heidi Presbyl has said

43:38

and he sought to intimidate her for

43:41

one of his patrons, a

43:43

political extremist named Leonard Leo who's

43:46

done a lot of damage in

43:48

the United States of America, abetting

43:50

a cause that led to an

43:52

insurrection and that my friends is

43:55

the threat to American democracy. It

43:57

is the threat of extremism from

43:59

all fascist cause that denied

44:01

an election result and tried

44:03

to stage a coup. And

44:06

a lot of the elements of that

44:08

coup did so

44:10

proclaiming that it

44:13

was God's will. That's

44:16

what Christian nationalism is,

44:18

regardless of whether

44:20

the bishop denies it or not. The next

44:22

time you see this Catholic bishop on

44:25

television or the internet pointing

44:28

a finger judging, remember

44:32

something. Christ

44:35

wouldn't do that, but

44:37

a politician would. And

44:41

politicians with clerical collars have

44:44

historically been very dangerous

44:46

people. And

44:49

this man, speaking

44:51

of danger, seems

44:53

like someone we

44:56

all ought to keep an eye on.

44:58

Heidi Prezla, I suspect

45:00

she'll keep on keeping on and

45:03

keeping an eye on all

45:05

of them because that's what

45:07

journalists do. The American media

45:09

faces a crisis of journalism.

45:11

It's part of the reason why we have

45:14

a very difficult time in

45:17

this country distinguishing between the lie

45:19

and the truth. It's why they

45:21

stand equal out in the twilight,

45:25

indistinguishable to each other for

45:27

so many of us. The

45:32

truth matters. And

45:35

what Heidi Prezla wrote and reported

45:38

about a corrupt movement led

45:40

by corrupt people matters. And

45:44

I suspect she's going to

45:46

write more about it. And

45:48

the intimidation directed at her, even

45:50

from a man wearing the authority

45:53

of his office, isn't going

45:55

to dissuade her at all. This

45:57

is the warning. Be warned about

45:59

Christian. nationalism. It

46:01

is real, it is potent, and

46:04

it is here. Watch this film

46:07

and don't be deceived by

46:10

any BS. The threat

46:12

is real, it is

46:14

here, and it is present. I'm

46:17

Steve Schmidt. This is The Warning and

46:19

I invite you to join, subscribe on

46:22

our Substack on our YouTube channel.

46:24

Follow us. Welcome to the community.