Transcripts For CSPAN2 In Depth Ralph Reed 20240712

The bible is primarily the revelation of gods plan and principles for humanity. And the best way to know is the keys to living a godly life with intimacy and if you believe in the new testament the son jesus christ. Its one of the most important history books youll ever read. If you want to understand the ancient world there is no better Single Source than the bible. With the babylon to the neo persians to the greeks and their roman empire. Finally even if you dont share my faith for the jewish for Christian Faith and even if you only have a monotheistic view of the world some scripture is timeless and eternal and most important never written. Host how did you come to your Christian Faith . I was raised in the church. My parents grew up in the methodist church. My best friend was the son of my a pastor and then chairman of the board of deacons and elders and my mother was the head of the methodist youth fellowship i grew up going to methodist youth camp and going on going to sunday school i didnt know any other life other than that. But i never really had a personal relationship with jesus christ. And then to go to washington dc after working on campaigns and working at the rnc and long story short i did not find that to beot satisfying and then too come in contact with those christians involved with collegere republicans and more importantly share their lives with me. We became good friends and i saw happiness and the joy i had never known. I was curious where it came from and that ultimately led to driving to a Small Evangelical Church september 18, 1983 and at that Church Service i gave my life to jesus christ. Why are you a conservative . I believe in free markets with a capitalism governed by the principles i referred to earlier about caring for the poor in the downtrodden and the marginalized and i believe free market and together are a freedom in the civic sense and the freedom in the market is the greatest generator of wealth and happiness and peace and stability in all recorded human history. I believe conservativism which is founded salmon the Republican Party in the postworld war ii period is the best way to preserve and guard and protect those free minds and free markets andte unfortunately liberalism has found its omen the modern Democratic Party the post depression new deal context spends most of its time trying to restrict and crush those freedoms in the markets and believes in the redistribution of wealth with the quality of outcome rather than maximizing the wealth and theog progress that comes from free markets and free minds. Overtime because of the way i was raised growing up in a military family, my father served in the u. S. Navy during vietnam. Than a career Naval Reserve officer. I grew up in a household of s faith. Thats the way i grew up make my own decisions and involvement. Host from 1996 book act of faith what is it mean to be a person of faith of the political world . No different than a question in any other vocation it is a contact sport i play hard and try to win but i never hit below the belt. Right. A lot of times i am asked the proper relationship between christianity or our faith and politics. Its a dirty business and cutthroat. First we are called wherever god is one has placed us in the time of the ancient jews to be under subjugation whether the babylonians or the romans in the current context to be a citizen of the United States. Have earthly responsibilities and carry two passports we are citizens one is of the United States and the other is the kingdom of god. And each carries responsibilities as of the heavenly kingdom i am called to obedience to gods commandments to pray or read the bible and to worship and not neglect the coming together of believers there are certain responsibilities in in the earthly context there are certain responsibilities like register to vote, to make ones views to elected officials and to petition our government to address grievances and injustices. If we fully understand our faith we are to be muscular citizensea of both and the reason why we are called to be robust in the earthly realm not only to usher in the kingdom of god, we cant do that. Gods kingdom will only come when christ returns. But until then we should understand our citizenship of the biblical understanding, its effective in two ways. Ff number one, it can protect the innocent and establish justice and redress injustice and evil. Certainly the Civil Rights Movement did that in the 19 sixties, the anti Slavery Movement did that with the antebellum period and through the civil war, the temperancee movement and the Suffragist Movement in the late 19th century. They were not just on their knees praying for jesus to come back but doing everything they could to combat evil in their time. The second thing it does is allow the gospel to spread and rise to the highest and most influential levels of our society because of our Civic Engagement. Another words, other people become aware of our faith and principles and are exposed to tothem in an altogether positive way because we are engaged in the civic process. For example when you read the new testament because the apostle paul was a citizen of room a of rome appealing his case to the emperor which is the right of a roman citizen , the bible says many members of caesars household came to know jesus christ because paul did that he sends greetings from members of caesars household there were governor on governors and roman officials exposed to the gospel only because paul chose to be an effective citizen. Thats the way i approach it. Host from your 2014 book awakening, you talk about a topic that because we have never fully repented for the injustices and wrongs during slavery and segregation, we have never experienced the healing coming to the redemptive process of repentance and forgiveness. Until we do we will not fully experience the spiritual awakening our nation so desperately needs. Yes. That is not a thought that is original to me. In that chapter i quote a beautiful speech that my good friend Mike Huckabee gave when he was governor of arkansas to honor the children who were the first to integrate the high school in little rock that led d to Dwight D Eisenhower federalizing the National Guard to protect those young people from the violence they were threatened with. Mike huckabee said in the fact the same words and that some of the poverty and the backwardness arkansas had experienced in the 20th century was attributable to the sin of racism and segregation and specifically to the failure to fully repented of that sin. I still believe thats true. We both individually and collectively as a nation need to acknowledge this said no kurd, kurd, its a collective sin of commission by those who erected jim crow and subjected africanamericans citizens to be secondclass citizens and deny rights as americans and by omission that allowed it to go on and failed to oppose it. There is no question that its true of a the 1619 project at the New York Times and there has been a distortion in some truth of American History, it is undeniable as a historian row in american slavery and American Freedom that was inextricably intertwined with slavery and its been very difficult for us as a society to disentangle the two almost 400 years after l the first europeans landed on the continent. Host does that repentance include reparation . I have not felt that was the way to go because its very hard 150 years after the end of slavery to figure out who gets compensated and how. It was done for the victims of the japanese internment world war ii. Congress passed a law and made a monetary payment to the family of those who were denied theirre freedom as citizens. And those put in internment camps under the administration of Franklin Roosevelt it be very difficult to do it 150 years later. Needs to be done during the civil war or reconstruction but there are other ways you can ask that one expressed that spirit some of that is personal some of that does take place in Public Policy and without getting into a full blown Public Policy discussion today areas like healthcare, criminal Justice Reform, Economic Empowerment we can build a society that is just based on equal opportunity for everyone and make sure no one is left behind. Particularly those minority americans and africanamericans that have been denied that opportunity and are today they live in neighborhoods that are not safe. Children go to school for they are not safe and cannot learn and do not have the same opportunities as other americans and we should do everything we can to redress that im a supporter of President Trump whether you look at his education reform in School Choice agenda , Economic Empowerment agenda, lowering africanamerican unemployment to the lowest level in recorded history e, his opportunity agenda they have unleashed approximately 5 billion in capital flowing into opportunity zones mostly with disenfranchised minority areas and then you look at criminal Justice Reform to address what i think is a twotier Justice System for too many minority americans. It is possible. Donald trump wants to do it i think and once we get past the election and the partisan season that were in, i am optimistic. Host your most recent book is for god and country. Did you just lay out your question case for trump . Somewhat. Certainly is part of what i talk about. I have proposed in both awakening in the 2014 book, i lay out what i say is not a republican or democrat, not a liberal or a conservative but a biblical agenda for the country. And in some cases like criminal Justice Reform and Immigration Reform, we end up in a different place than the Republican Party traditionally has been. Is generally not understood because people look at conservatives of faith and just think they are reflexively republican but they have changed the Republican Party far more than the Republican Party has change them. They made the Republican Party prolife and i believe black lives matter i believe all black lives matter including unborn lives. And abortion is one of those cases where disproportionately minority lives are lost and taken systematically by what i consider to be a grave social injustice. We change the Republican Party on the issue of criminal Justice Reform. Historically the Republican Party has been tough on crime lock them up and throw away the key. Through our efforts not just ours but largely our efforts this has come through the Faith Community we have called for a more biblical criminal Justice System based on redemption and not punishment giving people a Second Chance at life and focusing on nonviolent first offenders compassionate and humane and tough love alternative to longterm incarceration like job training, mentorships , spiritual programs including those led by prisont fellowship that minister to inmates and lead them to a better life spiritually. And lastly Immigration Reform. Most people focus on Donald Trumps desire for Border Security and building a wall to secure the border. But beyond that we also have called for welcoming the stranger and welcoming the immigrant and making sure that while they abide by our laws, we also treat them with compassion and give them the chance, if they obey our laws and pay taxes and get a job or go to schoo school, being able to have a path to citizenship. We call for eithery permanent residency for the entire dreamer population. Those young people should not be punished for the crime their parents committed. We believe the bible teaches you dont punish the child for the sin of ther. Father. Again, they are violating law laws, trying to get on publicc assistance, thats different. Serve in the military, have a job or getting an education, we think they should be part of the greatness of america and we have called forive as part of a comprehensive system to allow them to have residents. I think there is such an agenda. Thats we work on. Most of the times we find ourselves inhpu agreement with the Republican Party but not always. Host mr. Reid is there some discomfort in evangelical circles with the president because of personal issues . A sure. As i point out in for god and country, there has been a little bit of revisionist history by the media how evangelicals came to support donald trump. I wrote for god and country not so much to defend trump all the way do plenty of that in the book. I wrote it primarily as a defense of the Faith Community because they have been called any one every name in the book advocates, phony, spiritual fraud g, selling out the gospel for 30 pieces of silver, compromising their beliefs for access to power, power, getting items on the policy agenda, smeared, lied and i knew better. I was there and i was in the room with these faiths. Leaders. At the exit poll shows is two thirds of self identified evangelicals voted for someone other than donald trump in the 2016 primary huckabee or santorum or someone like that. For many of them not only was he not their first choice he was in second or third or fourth. I met a lot of people in the Faith Community for whom he was the 17th choice. But once they got to the general election and a b feist faced trump and clinton and he was prolife and pro religious freedom and pro israel and released list during the campaign of respected conservative and prolife judge judges. We should point out at the moment there was a vacancy on the Supremee Court that either he or Hillary Clinton would fill. He said i will choose from this list. Sometimes we are not always aware of the history that is being made in front of our eyes but donald trump was the First Major Party president ial candidate in us history to ever tell us who his pics would be. Nobody has done that before. They voted on faith based on the binaryic choice because when these issues of life and support for the state of israel and the judicial and court pics that would decide those and other issues for their communityh community, these are deeply held moral beliefs that they believe derive from their faith so they voted for trump despite of the reservations they had about his character or background. And keep in mind they looked at Hillary Clinton and they had reservations about her characte character. After all she was under fbi investigation for much of the campaign and that was reopened just ten days before the election. As in 2020, they looked at the two candidates, neither is perfect, but one is making commitments to us based on deeply held moral beliefs and we will vote for those beliefs. Not because he is perfect for everything he says or does now or in his life we agree wit with, but we have two choices and in the case of joe biden in 2020, when you have a candidate in biden advocating abortion on demand up to the moment of birth paid for with tax dollars and as an entitlement under a government run Healthcare System modeled on medicare for al all, these evangelicals believe that is a grave moral evil and they cannot and will not vote for a candidateho who is embracing that agenda. Now at the Democratic Convention, they spent a lot of time talking about what a good guy he was and how much empathy he has for people. We have empathy for the unborn innocent human beings that are losing their lives under the unjust regime of abortion on demand and he not only favors that, he wants to subsidize it with tax dollars and endorsed by planned parenthood the number one lobbying organization of that agenda and wants to make it and entitlement under government run healthcare and then he wants to sue ministries like the Little Sisters of the poor are privately held christian businesses who declined to participate in the evil. Thats why they voted for trump before and thats why they will vote for him and even bigger numbers in two months. Host good afternoon and thank you for joining us on book tv cspan2. Monthly in Depth Program we have one author to talk about his body of work. This month is author ralph reed, the author of eight books beginning in 1995 after the revolution came out how the Christian Coalition impacted america m politically incorrect emerging faith factor in p emerging politics in 1996. And then in 2014 awakening came out. And his most recent book came out this yearisti for god and country. R also the author of three novels, dark horse, the confirmation and ballots and blood. Well ask him about that as wel well. Host mr. Reid people probably know you through yourth involvement with the faith and Freedom Coalition and republican politics perhaps they didnt know you were an author and on top of that phd in history. Thats probably right. My plan was to be a College Professor and historian i was privileged to be in the program and i got a great education. Dan carter was a bancroft prizewinning historian of the scottsboro boys. The seminal work on that tragic case and then a biographer of george c wallace. He was my dissertation director. My still of history to this day. I have had an unbelievably great ride doing what ive been doing professionally for the last 30 years or so. I would have liked to have been in the classroom and being able to write more history but my life and career took a very different direction. Host what was the topic of your phd thesis . My dissertation the title was fortresses of faith a history of evangelical founded colleges in the south between 1820 and world war i so the founding and the rise to prestige and power of institutions like duke, emory, vanderbilt, stetson and florida and later baylor. Many evangelical colleges. Two thirds of those institutions founded in the United States during the 19th century were founded by churches and men and women of faith. I thought it was a fascinating window b into both they are world and influence. Host would you consider duke of vander bell and evangelical college today . I am not familiar with them today but what sparked my desire to write about it is i was going to emory getting a doctorate and i remember having a conversation within a fellow phd candidate to mention that emory was founded by methodist and was a methodist university. They said really . They were going there and did not even now. So i pulled down off the shelves one day in the library the official history of Emory University and went to the first chapter and read about how a group of methodist preachers knelt in the words in rural georgia in the 18 thirties. And founded the site of what would become Emory College and dedicated that institution to the glory of god and the building of this church. I asked myself, what happened between then and now . How do you go from a founding based on that purpose to today many students dont even know it is a religious institution. So the dissertation was designed to answer that questionme perk i wasnt trying to render any moral judgment i was justst fascinated by what the great historian Richard Hofstadter called the trend from sect to arianism to secularism that has dominated Higher Education and i wanted to tell the story. Host lets hear from our callers. Michael from alabama you are first with author ralph reed. Caller he talks both sides of his mouth not to be judgmental but trashes biden and everything he says is false. This is another case of Jerry Falwell junior with christianity this or that if anyone damages christianity it is people like him and Jerry Falwell junior thats all ive got to say about that. Everything i said about joe biden wasid true. I know the caller didnt like what i had to say and certainly joe biden doesnt want people like me to tell the truth about his recorde t. But i know joe biden. I worked with him when he was chairman of the judiciary committee. Actually testified before his committee on behalf of a law we were supporting at the christianng coalition to make the vandalism or burning of the church a federal crime that had to go through his committee. And i know that the joe biden i knew then in the 19 nineties supported the Hyde Amendment supported taxpayer funding of elective abortion under the medicaid program. To protect people of faith from being required to subsidize which is the taking of an innocent human life and supported that is usuped senatoi think 36 years and then he ysupported it eight years as vice president. He supported it twice as a president ialid candidate 1987 and then again 2007 and when he got into this race long last year he flipflopped within 24 hours and now supports not just repealing the Hyde Amendment and requiring prolife Roman Catholics to pay for h abortions with their tax dollars, he supports expanding it to iclude it as a guaranteed right under government healthcare based on the medicare for all plan of Bernie Sanders. I know some people dont like to hear those facts. But that is the fact about joe bidens record. If you want to now, i argue this in for god and country if you want to know why 81 percent self identical one self identified evangelicals are bornagain and 70 percent frequently mass attending catholics go once a week or more, together they comprise about 37 or 38 percent of the entire electorate. They are larger than the black, hispanic, union and gave vote combined. If you know why they are giving between 70 and 80 percent of the vote to donald trump and other republican president ial candidates, thats why. You can shoot the messenger and attack me or anybody else you want it will not change the fact that if your party and canaday advocate abortion on demand up to the moment of birth paid for with their tax dollars, dont blame us because you are losing 85 percent of theau votes, look in the mirror and maybe ask yourself, should maybe as a party we allow for some common sense exceptions to abortion whether lateterm or when the child can feel pain, third trimester or at least not support taxpayer funding. But there has been no such introspection on the part of democrats. They get more and more extreme with every election and this is the most extremist agenda that has ever been offered on the ballot to the American People since roe v wade became law in 1973. Host from for god and country, the courage and clarity of men and women of infaith to make this choice to support trump undertaken with much prayer and soulsearching will be dismissed and condemned by more than a few evangelicals. Right. I talked about that earlier the way they then smeared and accused of essentially compromising the deeply held moral beliefs to demonstrate their faith is a fraud. Because they voted for donald trump that is the allegation made. And i argue for god and country the exact opposite is the case. They wrestle with this decision. Is not an easy decision. And for many of them its one of the most difficult decisions they evere made. In the end they look at donald trump for all of the imperfections committed to them they would appoint prolife judges including the Supreme Court and to be the best friend israel ever had , he would move the embassy fromhe tel aviv to jerusalem and recognize jerusalem as the eternal and legitimate capital of the nation of israel. By the way, a fact that has been true for 3000 years of recorded history. No other president would move the embassy. Im not being critical of those other president s. They had their reasons to delay this decision. That in each instance freeing Andrew Branson from a prison and turkey whose only crime was to share the gospel, he has been a friend of the church and a friend of the Faith Community and af friend to israel and a friend of the unborn and he kept his promises. Not just to these voters but to the American People. Thats one of the reasons why i added a 30 page appendix in the book to details all of the achievements and accomplishments and promises made and kept by donald trump. You can like him or dislike him. You can enjoy more be turned off by his twitter feed. But those are facts. Deep action am policy that he undertook that we believe are advancing moral good and thats thehe reason. Host phillips from los angeles. Caller mr. Reid i have two questions. What do you see as the ramification of a democratic sweep in 2020 including taking the house and senateat and presidency . What impact of that is the Christian Coalition and members of the Faith Community . And being jewish american, a supporter of trump and israel what can i be done with the Jewish Americans particularly younger who were democratic . I will listen for your answer t god bless. Thanks for the questions. I think democratic sweep is unlikely not in the prediction business but i think all three outcome are all within the margin of error and they are all on the knifes edge as we afternoon. I would be surprised if there was a democratic sweep that we have been surprisedwe before. I will address it as a hypothetical. What you would get is that agree new deal for trillion dollars of higher taxes, and advancement of the extremistnc abortion agenda, you would get some kind of expanded obama care our government run healthcare whether medicare for all or whatever thatha looks like, Bernie Sanders in the squad want to make it available to every american and abolish private health insurance. 180million americans who right now get their own healthme insurance through the employer or individual market all those policiesse are abolished into government run healthcare. For the Faith Community, that would include a mandate for abortion coverage. I think thats wrong that biden says we will only do that down to the age of 55. But where it would end up with a Democratic Senate and house also im confident if Chuck Schumer was majority leaderfich that on the very first day the democrats took the majority in the senat senate, they would abolish the filibuster to allow them to ram through this entire agenda with no way for the minority to stop including all judgeships which is already the case anyway. The last thing that comes to mind as part of the Green New Deal is the banning of fracking. Joe biden says he doesnt supportra it but he has said he doesnt favor allowing any additional permits which essentially will a kill the stock in the value of the Companies Engaged in it. Because if they cannot do any additional drilling from what they have done then you kill the industry. That would cost 3 million jobs 9 million total jobs in americaa connected to the us fossil fuel industry the Number One Energy producer in the world for the First Time Since the oil embargo of 1973 and exporting oil and natural gas we dont require access to middle east or venezuela to provide for her own needs. That would destroy all of that and in addition biden has called for ending all fossil fuel by 2035 to raise the average cost of energy for a typical family of four by 75000. It would devastate our economy and attacks on the middle class l unlike anything we have ever seen. The democrats have the white house and the senate and can do whatever they want particularly with no filibuster. In terms of the Jewish Committee on community i think Ronald Reagan and george w. Bush got about 35 percent of the vote with their respective reelection in 1984 and 2004. I think its possible and certainly possible that donald trump can get toet that level in 2020 and the jewish vote is less important nationally at 2 percent than an individual state. Places like michiga michigan, pennsylvania, florida , even van georgia with a sizable population in atlanta she would get 30 or 35 percent that would make a big difference in places like dade and broward and palm beach and those like philadelphia and pennsylvania and talking about narrow margins because of the president s pro israel stance and against terrorism to defeat isys, he was true from the Iran Nuclear Deal and the number one adversary of israel , i think that is a real life possibility thatat is possible. Host we have a text from ann arbor michigan. Speaking of his faith and imploring us to lift up the poor and downtrodden and marginalized and said welfare and modern liberalism and Wealth Distribution is not the method to achieve this. How is it possible to live these people out of situations due to insufficient means to get with the free market and bad credit and lack of generational wealth. Thats a great question. We could do two hours just on that we could do two days. But i will confine my answer in order to be somewhat brief to what i have worked on at the Christian Coalition and faith and freedom. Number one, we know from the Brookings Institute study and others, if you are born out of wedlock and live in a home in not presen er is present, you are twice as likely not to graduate from highoo school, three times as likely to become chemically dependent on drugs and alcohol and three times more likely to be involved in the criminal Justice System. That doesnt mean you are condemned to that life but 80 percent roughly of the people born out of wedlock and lives out of the home with both parents present have an 80 percent chance of living in poverty. If there born in a home in wedlock and both are presen present, they have less than a 20 percent chance. So the first answer is behavioral and familial. We strengthen the family, encourage fathers and mothers to get married and stay married and some of that can be done by government. A lot of it cannot. The second thing i support is a tax system that rewards work and family formation. I supported the creation and the growth of the child tax credit. That came into law in the 19 nineties because of lobbying by the Christian Coalition and included with the contract of america. Doubled under george w. Bush at 1000 and doubled again under donald trump at 2000. That has provided 88 million americans with the 2200dollar tax credit against they are tax burden. And because of ourur lobbying and champions like yvonne to trenton marco rubio, that is refundable meaning not entirely, 70 percentbl that you dont just get it but if youre at the bottom of the income level paying no income taxes you still get 70 percent. That is the most successful anti Poverty Program in the last 50 years and has lifted 9 million americans out of poverty. Two thirds children. Under donald trump it has grown by 700,000 and the last two years. That is the second thing. A system of tax credits for work and bearing children to encourage family formation and work. And lastly it is education. To make sure every child in america regardless of their ethnic and racial background or how rich or poor they are goes to a school where they are safe and they can learn. Here again there is a stark contrast. Joe biden not only opposes School Choice and scholarships to allow children to attend schools that are higherquality outside their own neighborhood including religious or Christian School of thats where they want to go, that he has been endorsed by the National Education association and American Federation of teachers that want to get rid of those programs in the states that currently exist. Those are the three. Family formation, Economic Opportunity and a tax code that rewards family formation and work and bearing children and educational opportunity. If you do those three you would see many more people rise up the wrong. We saw that pico with the lowest Unemployment Rate for meacks, hispanics, asian americans, and recorded economic history, wages growing 3 percent per year, higher than a decade. And if donald trump is reelecte reelected, i believe and hope he will, we will see this expanded even more. Host collar you are on with ralph reed. Caller i have been trying to listen very carefully. I wonder if it has occurred to mr. Reed or if he has consider the possibility that donald trump as a political figure is simply according to evangelicals and their beliefs and their system for his own political aims . And if so, if you have consider that, how word that influence his confidence and genuine commitment to evangelical belief and that relates to the recent discussion was regarding abortion. The description a Strong Family life with the issue of out of wedlock birth of children. Having a child a woman cannot afford without support, nor stability could be far more disastrous to people in the long run and society in general. I wonder if he could respond to that. Those are great questions. Let me start with the second. The problem is when you start trying to make value judgments as a society as to which life is sacred and which lives are worthy of protection and which are not, you cross the line where it becomes very dangerous to make those decisions. I just know too many people born into adverse economic and family situations. I know women who have borne children and kept children they were absolutely sure would be a disaster for them and they ended up being the greatest gift they ever had and they ended up being amazing. Not just protective members of society and productive members but incredibly gifted and talented and enriched the lives of millions through their gifts. I believe every life is precious. I believe every life is made in the image of god and they all deserve our protection. In terms of your first question, it is such a great question and one that people of faith wrestle with all the tme. Not just them but probably all constituencies does this person really believe in the heart the policies and values they are advocating or is it just to get our vote . The answer i make in for god and country is essentially as a person ofry faith i dont care your reason i cannot judge her heart the bible says that some mens sins will go before them and some will come after those that are the most pristine and righteous people on earth and when we get to heaven we will be surprised and others appear to be less than perfect in their lives appear to be ms but thats because we see their imperfections now rather than later. You can never know the motive of someones heart. The other thing i argue in the book if a politician supports my issues and my agenda to man an election, i have no problem with that. I dont know very many people who do whether the labor union the nra, harry reid as Senate Majority leader had a 100 percent rating with the nra has always been progun was he progun because he needed to win elections in nevada or pro Second Amendment because that was a true core belief . In the end either one was true but its i have the added accidental or privileged to having gotten to know donald trump on a personal level for years before he ran for president and became president. I got to know his daughter if anke and Jared Kushner and then got to know private citizen donald trump. Even though he was thinking about running for president at the time in 2012 he chose not to. But during thiswa period thinking about running he reached out to me one day out of the blue literally called called and said the next time youre in new york i would love to visit come by and see me i took him up on the offer my book for god and country the first chapter opens with that story and how he and i became friends and at the time i was not a fan of his i didnt necessarily have a high opinion of him. Assured that with him. But we became friends and i was pleasantly surprised. He and i didnt endorse anyy in the primaries, why i had zero reservations about him. I felt that his heart i was with us on peacee issues and i still believe that. I could be wrong. But i dont think so. And he talked to me about how he became prolife and persuaded on these issues and we got the chance to talk about the. His commitment is genuine and it is irrefutable that hes kept his promise is, kept his commitment and has been the most prolife pro religious freedom and pro israel president in our lifetime. Host and ralph reed writes i have heard a lot of formerly prochoice candidates explain how they came to their views in my career. Ifew had more genuine story has been trump. What was his story . Guest he put it in the book so im not speaking out of school that was a good friend of his id wa was a married couple t they were both runs. She had a pregnancy that was not planned, and her husband was of the view that they should have an abortion and was attempting to persuade she didnt necessarily want to have an abortion and she called donald trump and said what do you think wi should do and he didnt know what to tell her. It was a very difficult dilemma that she faced and they were both good friends. Donald trump because they remained friends with this family watched this child grow up this child didnt know her mother had nearly aborted her. She didnt know donald trump do but she almost aborted her and said as she watched the child grow up to become in his description it struck him how close to never being there and that really had an impact on me. I asked myselfys how many future concert painters, offers, leaders, athletes are not here because wee didnt let them and he said it changed his mind and that story makes him. Host mary is in colfax. Thanks for holding. You are on offer ralph reed. Caller thank you. Host we are going to put you on hold. Its breaking up and its hard to hear. We want to give you another chance but we are going to put you on hold and come back to y you. Public service to the city council but ive been conflicted steering away from government involvement and seeing the policy. This social issue that we get to the t hard issues are the most important upon the society. Guest i addressed that in the forgotten country and most of my career. I think if jesus didnt intend for us to be effective citizens and to be involved in a robust way in the civic life of the nation he wouldnt have encouraged peter when they were asked to pay the tab is, pull out the fish and pay their tax taxes. Also when he was confronted with the question this was one of the last questions they asked before his crucifixion he was calling for the overthrow of caesar. Another one of his disciples was simon the solid and hed been a member of a terrorist Political Party dedicated to the violent overthrow of the roman government so they wereru spreading rumors that jesusus ws saying he was the king, not caesar so they came to him and said is it lawful to pay taxes to a foreign occupying power and he said bring me the coin they said he then rendered caesar and rendered what is gods. The question is what do we zero caesar. Now the apostle paul goes on in the book of romans to answer the question. He says honor, participation we are to pay taxes. He walks through what the responsibilities tos government are. As a citizen of rome which was unusual for a follower of christ. Remember, most of the original christians were jews who are actually being occupied and subjugated in a brutal way by the roman government. There were very few christians in the First Century who were right after the crucifixion of christ and resurrection who were roman. And he as i discussed earlier was a citizen and exercised the most cherished rights of a roman citizen had, which was the right to appeal the case to caesar. This was in a time when his opponent wanted to put him on trial in a trumped up court where he was going to be convicted and executed. His only focus was on heavenly things, why didnt t he just goo his death, why didnt he just allow them to deny him justice because hebe was executed and me than willing to suffer and die for the gospel. The reason why is because he took his citizenship seriously and also understood that if he exercised that the citizenship, the gospel would go to the highest levels of roman government, which itim ultimatey did and within 300 years, it had spread throughout the world and rome became somewhat artificially, somewhat superficially a christian government. So thats the reason. You dont really need to choose. You can both be a christian that gives your ultimate loyalty and obedience to god and you are called as a christian to make a difference as a citizen. So, i lay all of this out in a couples of chapters in the for god and country and he wante thd a more intimate. Host mary in colfax, virginia please go ahead. Caller thank you, sir. Its an honor to speak with you. I am a christian and i was also a single mother. You believe women that have had abortions shouldhe be punished. My question where is the Christian Church on helping take care of these single mothers . Host can you give your views on those two questions . Caller i was married and i was a single mother so i had both situations. I couldnt feed the children i had and i got pregnant very easily even on Birth Control so i dont know, thats why im wasking the pastor. And then i asked the church several times for help and they denied me every time because they said i spoke to cigarettes. Host that is mary in colfax virginia. Caller guest we do not favor the woman being punished. We can certainly favor some sort of punishment for the doctor particularly if you look at a case like in philadelphia who was essentially operating a very unsafe and unsanitary clinic where women were being butchered in their lives were in danger because of the unsanitary conditions in the clinic. Thats one of the reasons why we are trying to pass clinic regulation t legislation to make sure. We oppose abortion, but unless and until it is limited, we want to make sure that those clinics are not unsanitary and unsafe. And as this case showed, too many cases they are not safe. They are certainly never safe for the unborn child because the mother in grave danger of infection, of being better able to bear children again, and even of death and is documented in court cases. So it wouldnt be the mother. It would be those putting them in danger. In terms of caring for the mother, we certainly favor making sure that single mothers are provided for. [inaudible]ks host it looks like we lost mr. Reed for a moment. Lets take a couple of questions can take while he comes back. Jim in caliente, california goahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. My question was, thinking back when i was just getting iterested in politics i was in high school and we had kennedy versus nixon. Kennedy was a catholic and there was ahe lot of many people and certainly some were prominent clerics who questioned whether he should be president because he was Roman Catholic and would take orders from the pope or whatever they said. Also, another thing i remember from that time and later on if there wasnt very much supporti dont remember veryme much suppt for the state of israel coming from the Republican Party or the evangelical movement at that time and so whats changed or was it always bear or maybe hitting or not publicly known very well though support for the state of israel and are there any people that wouldld oppose e common follows is catholici catholicism. Host as soon as he comes back we will ask those questions. Tell us just a little bit about yourself. Caller i and 75 and as i said, when the election took place, absolutely fascinated by it. Learning that in High School Sports and even before. My father was very interested in politics and was the first time i think i watched both conventions cover to cover. I knew everything there was to know at this time and it was of course nixon and kennedy were as exciting as they had come to be seen many years later. It was an exciting time in american politics. Host did you watch this years convention . Guest caller a little, a little. Now of course with covid, everything was staged, but i remember back in 1960, the Democratic Convention ran until Something Like 2 00 in the morning. I lived in chicago, because they have all these people getting nominated but no chance of being elected. I remember the last one was barnett, governor of mississippi and all they talked about was preserving segregation. It was a different time. Host what kind of work do you do or did you do . Caller an attorney. I am retired now. Host thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Lets hear from robert in chattanooga, tennessee. Whats going to be your question for mr. Reed . Caller i am an africanamerican, and i am a republican [inaudible] in politics here in chattanooga, and i dont understand why ive seen evangelicals taking over the Republican Party, and they are very, very extremist and they are a danger to the party and i remember a speech senator al gore said. He said he never once the religious right telling him how to live. Its true 100 and one thing Ronald Reagan once said we want democrats to support us but we never want to elect democrats would support democratssu but somehow this beloved party of nine has made aro 360degree tun around. I hope that they will take the party over and get it out of the hands of these evangelicals because they believe in punishing people for whatever, abortion and anything else they committe [inaudible] to me they are very scary people and when i grew up in the Republican Party [inaudible] host you identified yourself a birth right republican . Guest im sorry you broke up their guest it means i was born into the Republican Party. I came in as a true republican. Host what does a moderate republican belief . Guest they believe in republican principles and free enterprise. All the wonderful things of the party. We have been hijacked by some extremists and everybody wants to carry a bible and tell people how to live their lives. Host what kind of work do you do . Do . Guest caller i am retired, 72yearsold. Host retired from . [inaudible] mr. Reedim is back from the atlanta area. I dont know how much of that you heard from robert who was self identified as a birth right republican, africanamerican and chattanooga tennessee and he considers himself to be a moderate republican and feels that the evangelicals have taken over the gop and that isnt good in his view. Guest ive certainly heard that for most of my career. A couple of things number one, we are not in favor of judging anybody. If we are in favor of is addressing what we believe are injustices and they are trying to advance what we believe are the moral good, and i think whether you look at the civil rights or the right to life or criminal Justice Reform our Immigration Reform or education reform, even if you do not share our faith, you cannot deny that the publicpolicy prescriptions that we have advocate have Better Outcomes for the poor, for minorities, the marginaliz marginalized, for the alien, for the stranger, for the immigrant. Theres no questiothere is no qe publicpolicy is that we advocate lead to greater good for more people. Im not asking somebody you dont have to subscribe to my faith to agree with my policy prescriptions. I mean on criminal justice rreform and on education reform and on immigration, frankly, we end up working with a lot of minority organizations and a lot of liberal organizations. So, in terms of us allegedly doing such great damage to the Republican Party, you know, when self identified evangelicals in 2016 and 2018 comprised roughly half to 60 of all the votes you got, i dont know how driving them out of the party is a prescription for being a majority. I mean, if they are driven out and the issues that they care about including the right to life and support for israel and religious freedom are driven out of the Republican Party, this party would be in a permanent minority status given the huge number of these voters that have come into the party in recent years, so i think even if you dont agree with my faith, if you are just being a smart political strategist, its not a good idea to insult or demean these people and try and drive them out of the party. It doesnt make any sense at all. Host gym in california i wawastalking about 60 years agoe kennedy versus nixon race and the fact that president kennedys catholicism was an issue and she wanted to see if thats an issue today with joe biden and he also talked about israel. When it the gop are supporting vocally and with policy israel . Guest the answer to the first question about the catholicism isnt an issue for me because im an evangelical protestant but i think for a large number of mass attending Roman Catholics is going to be an issue because he is at odds with one of the central social teachings of the church namely the sanctity of innocent human life and thats an issue that will be litigated within that community and will be talked about. I just want to be clear in the faith and Freedom Coalition, we are a Public Policy organization. R dont really make it our business to say whether some of the is c a good or bad christian or good or bad Roman Catholics or good or bad evangelical. That isnt our job. That is a decision for the church to make. We oppose the policies joe biden is advocating on abortion and on the Green New Deal and many other issues so we dont anticipate to be a part of the discussion, but i think that its a discussion that will come off among catholics. With respect to the Republican Party and its pro israel stance, the good news is that for most of the history of the modern standard israel, theresa vigorous and consensus across both parties that we shouldos support israel not only as an active humane justice and compassion after world war ii for jews that had been persecuted and of course millions of them lost their lives in the concentration camps of o nazi germany, but even aftr world war ii many were persecuted in the former soviet union and so perry s. Truman, a democrat becamehe the first word leader and first head of state to recognize the creation and Exchange Ambassadors with the state and both parties have been pro israel. Sadly that bipartisan consensus today is being tested and is under strain primarily because some elements of the Democratic Coalition and usefulness with the resolution passed by nancy pelosi and the democrats in 2019 to condemn antisemitism but in order to win this, she had to expand it to include other things including racism and other things because had she only condemned antisemitism, it wouldnt have gotten the support. So there are elements in the Democratic Party today, the socalled squad that do not have the traditional support of israel that harry truman had and jack kennedy and even bill clinton had and thats concerning to me. As a republican, im not happy about that because i want to see support for israel in both parties and as an american im not happy about it because i think we are a better friend of israel with both parties. Fullstop lord. And as a christian who believes it is my moral and spiritual obligation to defend the jews and to defend israel. I want to see america be the best friend she can possibly be to israel because i think the bible teaches that those that bless israel will themselves be blessed and i want to see america blessed and i think one of the ways you do that is to be a tt friend of the jewish people and israel. Host lorrain says that shes watching you on cspan. I did not know of you, but i havear to say you were addressig controversial issues with coldness and respect to all. We need more of that cadence in these turbulent times. Mr. Reed, what is the role of the faith and Freedom Coalition in thist o election . Guest first i appreciate that from the viewer. I do believe we need a bigger level of civility in our civic discourse. I think we have violators on c both sides so im not really in the business of attacking or criticizing other people. As much as i try to have my own speech to show respect for others and to speak with love even when we dont agree. And ive always tried to be like thithat as it is with my faith teaches. Whose mission and purpose is to equip christians to be effective citizens and for us at election time, that means making sure that they are informed, but they are educated, they are registered to vote and that they ucdo vote. Educated and fully informed on who the candidates are and where they stand on the key issues not just the issues we necessarily care about are those that will decide the election so right now we are in the process of knocking on millions of doors in 21 states and we will end up knocking on somewhere between three to 4 million reaching somewhere between six to 8 million voters directly at their home. We handed them a piece of literature to let them know where trump and joe biden stand sson the issue, where the house and senate and in som the senats the state legislative candidates stand. We are distributing 30 million nonpartisan voter guides and about 117,000 churches in all 50 states. We are sending out about 50 million informational emails. We are going to be pushing out about 38 million ads on facebook and google and when we get down to the end which now is not that far away, we start doing this and about 27 days when early voting begins and in states where there is early voting like florida in my home state of georgia, these christian voters will get a text message from us because a voter guide attached and then the link that takes them directly to their early voting locations or that allows them to vote absentee and our goal is to have the largest turnout of evangelicals, faithful Roman Catholics and others and in the president ial election in the modern era and i think we are going to be successful at doing that. Host how is that jerry the y falwell situation affected you personally and professionally . Guest its affected me personally because they are dear friends. I love them and i care about them and ive been in touch with them to let them know that im praying for them. I am also a good friend of Liberty University and have been for probably 35 or more years. I was good friends with jerrys father, jerry senior, founder and first chancellor and president , and im going to be going to Liberty University this weekrt to speak at the center. Im not going to talk publicly about my private interactions over conversations with jerry junior other than to say that i am praying for him, hes a dear friend, i love him, i thought he did an extraordinary job as president of liberty. He took it from a college that was straddled with that into struggled financially for decades to the leaving Christian University in america if not in the world. Dont hold me to that number, think its something along the lines of 80 to 100,000 students. A lot of those are virtual or online, but tens of thousands are on campus with an endowment of over a billion dollars and almost 2 billion b in assets. And i hope and pray that we havent heard the last of them. I think they are tremendous people andey i still consider myself to be a dear friend. Host lets hear from alann in tampa. Caller i followed you into donald trump for 30 years and over the time you have both gotten really good at speaking. Ive also enjoyed the program today and listened to the way you respond to people you are very thorough. I have a question about you seem to pick the lesser of two evils for president. What would be your solution for that and the second question as far as the antichrist you think the antichrist is good to come from what country and do you think it could happen in our lifetime based on things going on with worldwide pandemic and chaos in the streets with the protests and the economic global collapse in everything because of that . Host lets hear from mr. Reed. Guest lett me answer the first question first. I argue pretty strongly and i hope persuasively and for god and country that if in deciding to vote for donald trump people of faith for not supporting the lesser of two evils. I believe that if you are protecting unborn life, that isnt a lesser evil that is a greater good if you were defending the jewish people but isnt the lesser evil that is a greater good. T if you are defending the right of people of faith, of all faiths to practice their faith and worship god as they understand god to be here in the United States and indeed around the world, that isnt a lesser evil, that is a greater good and when the voters of faith and the citizens of faith back donald trump, and four a years ago, continue to do so in record numbers and support his policy agenda, it isnt because it is a lesser evil than what Hillary Clinton or joe biden was offering. Its because its advancing moral goods and its because they believe that the other agenda is advancing moral evil. Now we live in a fallen world. Theres only been one the perfect person that ever walked this planet and we believe that thats jesus christ. Everybody else, the bible teaches, and our faith teaches is fallen and has to deal with sin in their lives and is not perfect. Obviously as a citizen, when you are made thing practical judgments in call about both candidates had election time and about whether or not to vote for a buil bill that would support a piece of legislation or policy that may not be 100 of what you want, im a big believer that you live by Ronald Reagans rule which is an 80 and getting 80 of what you want isnt a defeat. Its a victory. It may not be a full victory, but its certainly partial if not vp were 90 victory. And i think in the case of donald trump, weve gotten well north of 90 in terms of the policies that he is advocating. One of the other things i would refer you to that i point other christians to when they asky ths question ofow how are we supposd to make these kind of decisions, i point them to one of the most important speeches about faith, civic virtue and Civic Engagement that has ever been given by a president in American History and that is Ronald Reagans address to the National Association of evangelicals in 1983. And hes speaking about the cold war as a choice between two lessthanperfect countries, the soviet union, then the soviet union, and the United States and the conflict was the cold war and the arms race and he counseled these evangelicals. And im paraphrasing here but he basically said dont consider yourself to be so above it all and above the fray that you refuse the greater good among the lessthanperfect choices. He said we are called upon to resist evil and advance the good and if we consider ourselves to be so holy and righteous that we cant get down with the sometimes lessthanperfect decisions that we have to make, whether its between the soviet union and the United States were between two candidates than we are of little good. In terms of your question about antichrist,ti my reading in the book of revelation of pauls writings and also jesuss teachings which are recorded in the gospel are that we do not know either the timing of those events, nor do i think we could no who is. Whether its the different characters that we find in the book of revelation whether its antichrist or other evil characters. I dont think that there is any way to know the most important thing is to be prepared for the end times whenever and however they occur. What we do know is that jesus says no one knew when he was returned, including him. He said only the father knows when that is going t to happen. And the most important thing is to know its unlikely to be when we expected. Its likely to be sooner than we think if we need to be concerned about being ready, not when it happens. Host we are going to go through the numbers. We have about 20 minutes left with our guest author, ralph reed. We are going to go through the numbers if you cant get through and still want to make a comment, you can do so with text or social media. We will put those addresses up if you do send a text, include your first name and city. Alexander is in las vegas. Hello, alexander. Caller hi, cspan. I just want to let you know that it is an honor to talk to ralph reed. It looks like you are getting younger. Guest i dont think so but thank you for the compliment. I will take it. Guest caller do you believe y that there is systemic racism in the church today that preachers the bible and the whole counsel of gods word, thats number one. Number two, if a pastor refuses to marry a couple of the same sex would be considered racism, and number three, Grace Community church in california do you believe pastor John Macarthur and his congregants are coming under persecution by the state for him the opening of his church, and if so, is this something the church can look forward in 2021, next year, if they host i think we got the point and that is a lot of questions. Go ahead, ralph reed. Guest obviously in the aftermathh of the death of geore floyd, we would say that killing or murder of george floyd in Police Custody in minneapolis where confronting as a new nation, this issue of race and the sin of racism and later segregation after the end of slavery that we talked about earlier in the show, i am committed to racial justice. My organization, faith and Freedom Coalition, works every day whether it is on criminal Justice Reform, Economic Empowerment, education and many other issues. We are committed to racial equal c. And reconciliation. In terms of whether or not there are certainly individual racism, but in addition to that i do believe that there are institutions and systems that the way they have developed and the way they offer great by theirre current operation discriminate against you do not provide adequate and full opportunity to the minorities particularly africanamerican. Ive talked about the criminal Justice System. Ive worked withys my friend whn he was still with us and he was the head of prison fellowship to eliminate the sentencing disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine wear powder cocaine was primarily the drug of the welltodo and crack cocaine tended to be those of more socioeconomically downscale and the penalties for the same amount of essentially the same underlying drug were three times greater for crack cocaine. We thought that was you could say that it was systemic if you want to use the term, but theres no question that in its operation, it discriminated against minorities. I think that is true of far too many k12 educational systems, particularly in the inner cities of our nation. I think if you look at these schools where they are predominantly minority, we are talking about schools that are easy to 90 minority schoolchildren where more than half if not more are not graduating from high school, where 70 or more cannot perform basic math and reading skills on a sand 12 grade levels. We are complaining those children by forcing them to go to thoseo failing schools to a lifetime of Economic Opportunity being close to them and have them not being able to compete in the hightech economy of the 21st century. B friend who was the secretary of education under Ronald Reagan was fond of saying that many of these Schools Look Like they could have been designed by the ku klux klan. Are they discriminatory and their affect as institutions and systems, and yes they are. And as i said earlier in the program, i think we are called as people of faith and as citizens to redress those injustices and those systematic forms of discrimination. Thats what we were going at faith, and freedom. Its part of our faith and they are very serious about it. It doesnt really have anything to do with politics for us. We dont get rewarded politically for doing those things. We dont necessarily get g the vote that we are seeking to assist but that isnt really what its about for t us. Host youve tried ite, before. Is there Elective Office attemptattemptis in your future . Guest not that i know of, but i certainly dont have any plans to. You probably never say never, but i think that having a greater impact by doing what im doing to help others get elected and by the work im doing at faith in freedom and i have to say i have a tremendous team at faith andnd Freedom Coalition. Our executive director, we have an unbelievable publicpolicy team andnd field team. We have tremendous leadership at the church level and at the state and county level all over the country and i am really counted a great blessing to be a part of this tremendous team. I have been a part of some really great Political Teams, the Christian Coalition in the 80s and 90s. I was part of george w. Bushs Political Team from the beginning in 1999 and 2000 in all the way through his end of his second term i worked on both the 2000 in the 2004 campaigns and ive just have tremendous opportunities but what we are doing at faith and freedom i think weor are making history ad i am proud to be a part of that. Host eight books in. What is your process . Guest that is such a great question. I talk to people i want to ask me how do you go about writing a book, and i always told them one page at a time, and i am not being facetious. I learned this when i was in graduate school of writing my doctoral dissertation. In academic writing is pretty dense compared to writing popular fiction or nonfiction. Tmean, its sometimes the footnote is longer than a sentence or paragraph that is providing the documentation. So it is a pretty intense formf of writing. The way i did it, and nobody taught me this. I guess i just kind of stumbled into it. I had a certain amount of time to write before my graduate fellowship o ran out and i was basically broke and so i sat down with a calendar and they worked backward from the goal of when i needed to finish it, and i discovered that if i wrote one page every day, taking sundays off, i dont writedo on sundays, so six days a week if i wrote just one page every day, i could write a book in a year and i could finish my dissertation and a year. So you set a goal of one page every day and end up sometimes getting in wired. And i would write two or three pages that they. But i never wrote less than one. What i do is i said, the calendar. I know we dont use the desk calendars anymore. Its on our phone and laptops now,w, but thats what i did. I sat down and i write page one, page two, page three and i estimate each chapter at 15 pages. Sometimes they might be more, sometimes they might be a little less and then i moved on to the next chapter. Then i sit down and block out my chapters and determine what the subject matter of each one is and then once ive done my research and at this point i use Research Assistants to assist me in gathering all the research. Was doing my doctoral dissertation i was just the obviously, then i would sit down start writing at least one page every day. Host and three novels. What inspired that . Guest yeah, three novels. I think what happened was my agent, my literary agent whos worked with some of the most famous authors in the world, he worked with the left behind series, said hes been involved in millions of books and i think he was the one who suggested sometime in 2006 or 2007 have you ever thought about fiction and i told him that i had. I actually have outlined a book when i was 15yearsold about to election of the First Independent president ial candidate to ever be elected. This is think of ross perot in 1992 or 1996 and imagine him winning or imagine donald trump having chosen rather than to run as a republican would if he had run as an independent and what if he had just broken up the twoparty system as we know it and one, and the reason i thought of it and probably nobody remembers this today were very few, that in 1976, gene mccarthy, the former minnesota senator that ran against him and johnson as a democrat in 1968 actually drove Lyndon Johnson out. He forced johnson to the sidelines and decided to run as an independent. I was just a Young Political activists interested in politics and started researching how many ballots, what kind of impact, and then i thought what if this guy really took off and what if he one . Flight outlined a novel about that and i titled it dark horse and i outlined the chapters and i sat down and wrote the first chapter. After i wrote the first chapter, i thought to myself wait a minute. I am 15yearsold. I have no idea what im talking about. Ive never worked on the president ial campaign. Theres no way to write about be realistic. It i dont know what really goes on. So i set it aside and when rick came to me i said i thought this novel and that became dark horse. And really i have to say to my surprise it was pretty well revered and it didnd pretty wel. Its a little dated now because things move on in politics. Weve got an even more advanced in our Data Sciences and Data Analytics and all that is before its time it was a very realistic portrayal of what a president ial campaign is about and even though it was highly fictionalized, but i found by writingn fiction is that in many ways it is truer and more honest and nonfiction because what i did is i took everything that i experienced at the Christian Coalition, on the bush campaigns, on the other campaigns ive worked on throughout my career and i highly fictionalized them, but it was all true. The dialogue, the meetings, the strategy. If you want to know what a president ial campaign is really like, dark horse had a lot of truth. Host his other novels include the confirmation which came outs in 2010 and ballots in blood is 2011. California, youve been very patient and kunar on now with kuthor ralph reed. Caller thank you so much. I was a republican and came from romania, a communist regime. When talking about the danger i wille tell you where it is right now. In the white house where donald trump is with his family in power. You have said a few times [inaudible] that concerns me. She is not in elected official. When he had the foreign leaders meeting and north korea has the same pattern. She has connection with saudi arabia. You are talking about antichri antichrist. You know about separation of hfachurch and state you should w better. You aree a historian. So obsessed with crowds i remember the rally [inaudible] host i think we got the point. Mr. Reed, not a fan. Guest im not sure what rally he is referring to but its certainly not one that i am familiar with. I was at the launch of the evangelicals for Trump Coalition i guess it was january or february this year at the largest Evangelical Church in the United States. Its a hispanicc church and i cn assure you i was there for the launch of the coalition. I was there in my personal capacity, and i didnt hear or see anything of the kind of nature that called you are referring to isolate the exact opposite. I saw an awful lot of hispanic americans and latinos who loved this president in this country and because they came from places like cuba or venezuela or other communist socialist regimes, frankly they love the country and appreciated it a lot more than many anglos did. In terms on the attack on ivanka, all i can tell you is thatat i have known her for ovea decade and i found her to be beautiful inside and out, intelligent, and incredibly sharp. She loves her father, she loves this country, and she and other members agree to serve this country have made an incredible sacrifice walking away from companies being able to do any deals overseas which is a pretty big deal if you are a Real Estate Company and used to doing deals overseas and in the case of the covid19 Emergency Response including the Paycheck Protection Program, there was one company singled out that wasnt going to be allowed to receive any funding at all under the Paycheck Protection Program and that was the Trump Organization and its related companies, so even though they have resorts and hotels and golf courses in the C Development ovr the United States where theyve had to either furloughh employes or suffer great economic loss, theyve never received a dime to continue to pay their employees. You have your view i understand that but i will tell you this unlike you and many others, i actually know them. Ive had the honor and opportunity not only to know and work with the president but with his amazing children and i assure you they love this country, they are men and women of integrity, they. Are sharp, they have incredible character, they lovead their dad and they work harder than almost anybody ive known and the Public Perception of th the families hundred 80 degrees removed from the people ive had the privilege of knowing. Host as we do with all of our office we ask them for their Favorite Books and current reading list. You mentioned at the beginning his Favorite Book is the bible. Heres some of the other books he sent us to the ideological origins of the American Revolution by bernhard, Alexander Hamilton by ron turnout and advice and consent by alan the strange career of jim crow, witness by whittaker chambers, born again by chuck colson, the secret kingdom by pat robertson. Mr. Reed is currently reading Paul Mccartney many years from now and this blended into the bible about Winston Churchill and the london blitz by erik larson. Most recent book is for god and country the christian case for trump just came out this year. Thank you for spending two hours with our viewers on booktv in depth. Guest ive been a friend as long as youve been around a bit to some of the best television out there. Thanks for all you do and thanks for having me. Story