What I learned watching the BLAZE coverage of the Family Leadership Summit

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On Friday July 14, Iowa evangelicals gathered to hear GOP presidential candidates speak at The Family Leadership Summitt. The event was sponsored by Bob VanderPlaats‘s Family Leader organization and hosted by Tucker Carlson. The former Fox News host interviewed Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis. The event was broadcast by Glenn Beck’s BLAZE TV. Beck’s broadcast team included right-wing broadcaster Steve Deace and former Arizona gubenatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Here are a few things I learned from the Tucker Carlson interviews and the BLAZE coverage:

  • When Jesus said “the truth will set you free” he was really talking about American freedom. (Tim Scott)
  • Jesus walked on this earth for thirty-three years to pay “the price of our freedom” from big government tyranny. (Tim Scott)
  • We won’t have a country in thirty years (Steve Deace)
  • We need a great awakening that empowers indidivuals to resist woke tyranny .(Glenn Beck)
  • Anyone who voted Democrat in 2020 is a Marxist. (Steve Deace)
  • The Gospel is about empowering individualism. (Glenn Beck)
  • Tucker Carlson is reading the Bible and he is starting to see “why the founders did what they did in 1776.” (Steve Deace)
  • At least Putin didn’t try to poison us with a COVID vaccine or tried to shut down our small business during the pandemic. (Steve Deace)
  • Those responsible for attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6th should be prosecuted, but so should the people engaged in civil rights movement-style protests in the summer of 2020. (Mike Pence)
  • The January 6th Committee “failed its historic mission.” (Mike Pence)
  • Kim Reynolds’s signing of the Iowa heartbeat bill is equivalent to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. (Steve Deace)
  • There is no way Joe Biden actually got 81 million votes in 2020. (Tucker Carlson and Nikki Haley)
  • The cocaine in the White House came from Hunter Biden. (Nikki Haley)
  • Joe Biden blew-up the Nordstream Pipeline. (Tucker Carlson)
  • The speakers at this event are the “B-Team.” (Kari Lake on Trump’s absence)
  • We have a God-shaped hole in our heart. (Vivek Ramawamy)
  • There is no basis for us to send troops to defend Ukraine’s border when we can’t secure our own border. (Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis)
  • Vivek Ramaswamy has lost donors for his American First position on Ukraine, but he doesn’t care.
  • The country is not divided between Democrats and Republics. It is divided between pro-Americans and anti-Americans. (Vivek Ramaswamy)
  • The January 6th insurrection happened because social media and the federal government “censored” people from speaking their minds about election fraud, COVID, and Hunter Biden’s laptop. (Vivek Ramaswamy)
  • Vivek Ramaswamy will be the GOP nominee and when the Democrats find out he won the nomination they will not let Joe Biden run against him.
  • Ron DeSantis wants to bring a “sustainable peace” in Ukraine that “does not reward aggression” (I have no idea what this means).
  • “Build the Wall” is now the mainstream GOP view on immigration.
  • Anyone who brings “product” into the United States will be “stone cold dead” if Ron DeSantis is president.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. We used to have this thing called “stupid season” in October just before the election, when the exhausted and desperate candidates began flinging every accusation they could think of at each other (GHW Bush in 1992: “If you put Waffle Man and Ozone in the White House, it will be up to our necks in Spotted Owls and no jobs for everybody!”)

    But now, with the “permanent campaign,” it seems we have permanent stupid season, too.

  3. John,

    You ” lost my attention” in the first few lines. Sorry, but this is like watching a reporter on CNN or MSNBC who shows their bias so early in their commentary that I switch channels.

    So I ” switched channels” ( to the comment section) to complain.

    Normally I read what you write, knowing that I will sometimes disagree because I think you have a “Sam Harris mind warp” on anything that has the faintest hint of Trumpism. ( Sam is one of my favorite intellectuals). But this one is pretty slanted (eg. your hackles are up from the get go, and it makes your writing pretty biased)

    Now I will switch back and try to ” watch the channel”. Eg I will read this, since I usually appreciate your insightful criticisms of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hoping for the GOP nomination.

    Tony Gerard

  4. So now I’ve read ” the list”, and I don’t feel much better about it. Are you complaining BECAUSE this is politics and they are all pandering to the base?

    What do you expect them to do? Seriously asking: If we want a reasonable moderate republican candidate to run against Biden/ KAMALA, instead of Agent Orange, don’t we have to tolerate this kind of political rhetoric so the candidate can win the evangelical vote?

    A better piece would be a list of campaign issues contrasting these statements with outlandish statements from Democrats on the same topics. For example, “Build the Wall” is now the mainstream GOP view on immigration and the Biden administration says ” Let them all in. 2.76 million is just a good beginning”.

  5. Tony: Thanks for commenting. We have been having this conversation since 2016. I don’t see a whole lot of moral equivalence between Trumpism and the Biden administration. Is the Biden administration perfect? Of course not. But it is far better than another four years of Trump. I also find it interesting that you always seem to comment when I criticize Trump. Have you noticed that I spent the last two days getting absolutely hammered by the academic left for critiquing the 1619 Project?

  6. Thanks, Ron! Let’s just say I have a scholarly interest in all of this. 🙂