Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 207 | The Impeachment Charade Needs to End | Guest: Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Episode Date: January 31, 2020

Sen. Marsha Blackburn dishes on why the Senate doesn’t need more witnesses and how conservative women can stand strong against the Stepford wives of liberalism.

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Friday. If you are watching this on YouTube, you can see that we are in a different set. I'm actually in studio in Pat Gray's studio. By the way, thank you to Pat Gray for allowing me to use your space. Today, I'm going to be interviewing Senator Marcia Blackburn from Tennessee. She is awesome. We're going to be talking about all kinds of things from women in conservatism and how we can boldly stand up for our view. and we're also going to touch on impeachment just a little bit because if you haven't noticed, there is a lot of craziness that's going on. And I'm going to flesh that out maybe just a little bit after the interview because we're going to have some time after the interview. And then I'm going to answer some of the questions that you guys sent me via Instagram. Hopefully I'll actually have time to answer more than one. I always take them.

And then I'm like, oh, I'm going to answer, you know, all 15 of these questions. but then I answer one and it kind of gets me down this rabbit trail explaining this whole thing. And so I'm not actually able to answer as many as I would like. But I will try. I will try if I can to be concise and actually answer a few of your questions. Okay, before I actually get into this interview with the senator, I want to play you a little clip of Senator Marsha Blackburn. So you have some context just in case you don't know exactly all of the things that she's done

or who she is. I want to give you a little bit of context about who I'm about to speak to. They've told us what their entire purpose is. It's to relitigate the 2016 election, to keep him off the ballot in 2020, to make certain that the American people don't have the opportunity to vote for him again. I thought Adam Schiff's remarks were astounding on the second day in his opening comments. Basically what he said when he was saying, you know, we can't trust he won't cheat. again, we can't trust that the ballot box will be protected in the election fair. Basically,

he was saying, we don't trust you, American people. You messed up in 2016 and voted for the wrong guy. We're not going to give you that opportunity in 2020. We're going to change the process and control who you can vote for. Who has the ballot box? Who has the election? Senator Blackburn, thank you so much for joining me. I'm delighted to be with you and delighted to join your audience. I have a daughter-in-law who is a big fan of yours. Oh, well, thank you so much. I appreciate that a lot. I know you have a lot going on on Capitol Hill right now, but I want to, before we get into all the proceedings and the craziness that is going on, I want to hear a little bit about your background and how you got where you are now. Yes. And, you know, I say that God uses non-traditional leaders and that you should always accept an open door because you never know where that door is going to lead and that we have to realize he's going to chart our path that we don't do that for ourselves. So I think that good preparation is something that helps open doors. This wasn't an intentional path for me, but I was prepared. and accepted lots of leadership positions through my church, through my community,

working with my children in their school. And you know, it's so interesting because you put all of those experiences together, and it really becomes your life equity, your stock in yourself. And that is something that I think women have the ability to bring a diverse wealth of experience. to the public sector marketplace, if you will, and put those skills to work because you work as a wife and a mom and in your career and you are there as a volunteer working with groups and with your children.

And then when you want to move into public service, you think in terms of how that informs your view. So in my opinion, if you want good, dependable, thoughtful, legislators, it's going to be someone like a conservative mom who has a wealth of experience. One of the things that has not been lost on me throughout my career, whether it was working in the private sector or moving to the public sector, I say fourth class women, especially in Washington, D.C., fourth women are treated, conservative women are treated like fourth class citizens. you know, the press will go to a liberal woman, a liberal man, a conservative man, and then finally

they get around to a conservative woman. So many times what they'll do is treat those conservative women as the voice of last resort. Now, why do you think that is? Obviously, we know most of the media skews to the left, but why is it that they ignore conservative women even more than they would a conservative man, in your opinion? I think they ignore a conservative woman because they're fearful that there are millions of women across the country. Once they hear that conservative message, they're going to say, yes, I agree with that. And especially when it comes to the issues of life and women in the workplace, women that are balancing a lot of different interests and really multitasking every single day through their life. And many times, I have a term I use that

it's kind of a little bit funny, a little catchy. I say that women of the left are kind of the can be the Steppford wives of liberalism. And they have their one set of talking points. They say them the same way. They address the issues the same way. way. You know, there are times when I was in the House of Representatives, the women on the left side of the aisle would line up at the microphone and say the exact same thing the same way. Or they all dress and white as a sign of protest or blue as a sign of protest, something of that nature. Right. And you really don't see women who are independents and conservatives conducting themselves.

that way. Right. I think that's a really interesting analogy, the Stefford wives, because they are absolutely stunned when someone doesn't look the same way they do, when they don't act the same way they do, when they don't regurgitate the same kind of talking points. It's almost like, especially you said on the issue of life, they don't know, I've realized how to confront someone in a logical and a calm manner when it comes to an issue like abortion. They are really, I don't want to generalize, at least a lot of the pro-choice people on the left that I've talked to are extremely emotional about the issue and are really unable to have a conversation with a woman who happens to have a different point of view. It's always, well, you must be voting against your own interest. You must not realize that the GOP has made you this footstool.

You must not realize that you're just a tool of the patriarchy. So for the women listening to this podcast who want to stick up for conservative values, especially on issues of life, but they're constantly. constantly getting pummel, not just by the media, but maybe their own friends and family. What advice and encouragement do you have to them? I tell them just to kind of get there, really spend some time distilling down what their approach is on an issue. I look at it as saying, I believe this is an issue where science is on our side. when people hear the heartbeat, when they see an ultrasound, and especially the new 3D ultrasounds, that shows you that that is a life. It's not a blob. The 3D ultrasounds, you can look at that precious baby in the womb,

and you can see features, and you know if you have a boy or a girl coming. So you go ahead and assign the name to that precious child, and you begin to pray over that child and to decorate a nursery for that child. So people make those kind of preparations now in advance. So much of, and I will tell you, Allie Beth, with women who are my age, now that they have children that are having babies, that has really changed a lot of minds. And I've had some good, thoughtful conversations with friends of mine who are not political. They would say they're a Democrat or an independent simply because that's what their parents were. They changed their issue on the issue of life. And they realize now that when you

talk about the issue of abortion, you're not talking about, is it pro-choice, pro-life? What you're talking about is, does that mother, does that woman have the right to decide if that child, that she is carrying is going to live or die. Right. I think that conversation has changed tremendously over the past decade. Right. I agree. And it's getting harder and harder to defend abortion for all the reasons that you just listed.

And so you're right. Conservative women have every reason to be confident in that. Yet it is a little bit intimidating sometimes when you kind of feel like you are the only one with your views on an island of people who think differently than you do. I want to touch on, because you only have a few minutes left, I want to touch on the craziness that's happening on Capitol Hill with impeachment. My guess is that a lot of people listening to this podcast want to know what's going on, but it feels like if you miss just one second,

it's like a million things have happened and you're already behind and so you just get discouraged and you don't listen. You kind of tune out and you just kind of wait for the end score. So can you tell us a little bit? just briefly, what is going on currently with impeachment and kind of where things stand? Absolutely. Today is going to be the last day of questions. We've been through the House managers presenting their case.

The president's team presenting their case. And now we have moved to questions. We had eight hours of questions yesterday. We'll have eight hours of questions today. It boils down to this. The House managers rushed through their impeachment. trial. When you look at what transpired with Nixon and that trial and Clinton, that trial, you're talking about months and years involved in this process. The House of Democrats spent a total

of 78 days on this impeachment. They rushed it over to the Senate. And now what have they said? Oh, but wait, there's more. I call it their sham wow moment. And they have one every few hours. as they are changing their story. And they say, but wait, there's more. And you in the Senate, you need to totally throw away decades of precedent, and you need to call witnesses, and you need to expand the investigation. And quite frankly, when you look at the Constitution, that's not our job. That is not our responsibility.

There is the impeaching, a verb. that action takes place in the House. They arrive at articles of impeachment, a noun, that they present to the Senate. The Senate's job is to review the articles of impeachment and make a decision if the House has reached the evidentiary standard that is necessary to vote to convict a president and to remove him from office. They have not done that. They said they had an ironclad case, that they had overwhelming evidence. And now they come to us and what they're saying is, oh, but wait, there's more. We need you to do an investigation and call additional witnesses.

And people will say, well, you can't have a trial without witnesses. So why not call witnesses? Right. Called 18 witnesses. We have had 12 of those witnesses. we've heard from them by video. They didn't come in physically into the chamber. They were brought by video.

We don't need additional witnesses. We have heard from them. And the House managers have not made their case. So we will finish today, tomorrow. We will take a vote on calling more witnesses and then a vote on moving to final judgment and a vote on acquittal. And Republicans are,

a little bit split on this, though, in this or there are some, there are some Republican senators who are saying, oh, well, maybe, maybe we do need some witnesses, which I think causes some of the public to say, well, hey, maybe we do. Maybe we need more information. Maybe we need more transparency. But you wrote for the Tennessean that you don't think that's the right call at all, that we should not be calling any more witnesses. Is that correct? That's correct. It is not in our constitutional responsibility. It is outside of our responsibility. The impeachment has to be done by the House. They are the ones that are charged with taking that action. We are charged with a review of the articles that they send to us. So very different responsibilities. And we're not going to

give them an impeachment do-over. That is not our job. Now, if they want to go back to the house, if they want to start another investigation, if they want to call other witnesses, they are within their right to do that. But it is not our responsibility to do it. And quite frankly, Alibeth, when I talk to Tennesseans, they want this over with. They want to go back and get back to confirming federal judges and working on a transportation bill. and rebuilding the military and expanding 5G high-speed internet and technologies across the country. That is what they're wanting to see done. And they're ready for this impeachment to be over with.

Quite frankly, I think that that is true of a lot of people. I know that's true of the people who listen to this podcast, as much as they want to know what's going on, I think more than anything, we just want it to be over with. It's not healthy. It's not good for the country to have a completely, a totally partisan impeachment based really upon something that we can't even fully put our finger on. So it just seems, it just seems like a mess.

And I appreciate you. I know you've taken some heat recently for maybe not being as what your critics would say, interested in the impeachment proceedings as they think that you should be. But I think I think you're right. It needs to be over with. It needs to be wrapped up. And the thing is, when you're sitting there reading something that pertains to the impeachment, that it's not something that the left approves of, then they're going to say,

oh, you're not paying attention to Adam Schiff and what he's saying on the floor. You know, you're working to make certain that you do fair and impartial justice and that we have a fair proceeding. Yes. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time out of all of this craziness and busyness to get to talk to us. Is there anything final? Is there any place that you'd like to direct the audience to go, maybe follow you on social media or whatever you like. Yeah, absolutely. We're on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and we have a website, blackburn.com. The others you can find me, Marsha, M-A-R-S-H-A Blackburn. Well, thank you so much, Senator. I appreciate you taking the time.

Absolutely. Take care. Bye-bye. Okay. I hope you guys enjoyed that. Hopefully we'll be able to have her back at some point. There are so many things that I would like to pick her brain about. She really has kind of been through the fire this past week. Leftist media saying that she is not as engaged as they would like her to be. But of course, it really is just probably a targeting of a conservative congresswoman because she is not staying in line where the leftist media would like her to be, particularly on impeachment.

So if you are wondering, the insest. an hour's of impeachment and you're really trying to wrap your brain around everything that's going on, which is something that I think all of us are doing. But we don't have time, nor do we have the energy, nor do we have the desire to sit and to watch these proceedings on the news every day. It's just, it's almost like watching paint dry. And it's an exciting, not a good way, but an exciting point in history. And so we should be in some ways, enthusiastic about it, even if we're enthusiastically angry about the whole thing. But it's really hard to stay engaged because it's so long. It's so drawn out. And like I was saying to the

senator, if you miss a day, you feel like you've missed the entire thing. So this is a totally free ad that I am giving to another podcast. I am not being sponsored in any way. But I've been listening to a podcast verdict by Ted Cruz with Ted Cruz. And it is Michael Knowles and Ted Cruz. and after the impeachment proceedings or after the trial that's happening in the Senate, the senator sits down with Michael Knowles late at night to talk about everything that happened that day. And they really are doing a great job of making it simple, like going down to the basics, backing up. And that's what I love. I love when people don't take anything for granted when they're explaining something.

When they go to the very beginning and they say, this is why this is happening. this is how this started. They explained Burisma. They explain Hunter Biden. They explain the story that's really at the center of impeachment. What's happening? Who are the big players are? What the arguments are.

And so listen to verdict by Ted Cruz, hosted also by Michael Knowles. I think you can probably find it anywhere you get your podcast. Again, that's not sponsored. I've just found it to be really helpful and getting my head around this whole thing because I know this is my job. And I'm supposed to know everything that's going on

the news, but I'll just be honest with you. I don't have every, I don't have time to know everything that's going on in the news. And so I sometimes rely when it comes to particular subjects. I sometimes rely on the expertise of other people and there's really no better person to lend the expertise than Ted Cruz himself because he obviously has a front row seat to all of this stuff. So I highly recommend that one question that I got and I'm going to answer some questions from you guys. One question that I got is, what do you think the effects of impeachment will be? So it's really hard to say because we don't know where it's going to go. Is it going to wrap up quickly? Are they going to end up calling witnesses? Is it going to be dragged out forever? It kind of, the effects of it kind of

depend on everything that's going to happen. Now, like I said with the senator, I don't think that this is healthy. This is an entirely partisan impeachment. So only one side is advocating for this. They haven't been able to lay out a clear case of the crime that was actually committed. That is impeachable. Again, we're talking about whether or not the Democrats like what President Trump did in his call to Ukraine. We're not actually talking about a crime that is at least explicitly or clearly impeachable. And that's why this whole thing is partisan. That's why Republicans, you'll hear them saying, okay, this is just about the fact that they don't like President Trump. This is just about the fact that they disagree with it. They don't like his personality. They even disagree with him on policy. but it's not a matter of whether or not what he did was impeachable.

Now, the president really hasn't helped his defense very much because he has said, oh, no, no, there was nothing weird or nothing sketchy, no quid pro quo at all in my call to Ukraine, when really he probably should have just owned the fact that maybe there was a quid pro quo, and that's not that big of a deal because a lot of presidents and even vice presidents, as you will find out as you'll learn more about the impeachment, vice presidents like Joe Biden, there are quid pro quos all the time. So we could have just owned that, but instead he has said, you know, there was nothing wrong with my call at all, which makes his defense a little bit more difficult.

So anyway, the effects of impeachment are really going to depend on what happens and how long it lasts. Now, do I think that this is politically smart for the Democrats? No, not really. Now, again, it's so hard to say because it's really difficult to assess what public opinion will be when it comes to November, there are people who are not paying attention at all right now, who I guarantee you there are millions and millions of people in the United States who have no idea that the president has been impeached. And there are even more millions of people that have no idea why. And for those people, maybe they're on the fence, maybe they just by default don't like

President Trump because I do think that's the default position when you've got so many cultural megaphones, where you've got the media, you've got social media, you've got Hollywood, you've got academia all telling you that President Trump is terrible. I think the default position is to not like President Trump or at least be skeptical of President Trump, which people are obviously free to have those feelings. But if you are one of those people who maybe you don't really know a lot about what's going on in politics, you don't really know a lot about what's going on in the political realm. But come September when you are thinking about, okay, who am I going to vote for?

I really have no idea. And someone tells you, are you really going to, are you really going to vote for the guy who was impeached? Like, you know, he was impeached, right? most people don't know what impeached means. They just know it's bad. They might even have memories of Bill Clinton. That was a bad thing. And they might even have memories of Richard Nixon, which Richard Nixon wasn't actually impeached. But they might just think, oh, yeah, that's a really bad thing. I'm not going to vote for the guy who was impeached. I'm going to vote for Bernie Sanders, who has been consistent. His whole life, apparently being consistent in and of itself as a virtue is what

we've heard from the left, but they might just be scared to vote for Donald Trump because they hear this scary word of impeachment. They're not paying attention to what's going on right now. They don't realize that he hasn't actually committed a crime that we know of that is impeachable, at least not in this case. And so they'll just say, you know what? Yeah, I'm not going to vote for a guy who was impeached. That, I think, is what Democrats are probably banking on. They're not thinking on the fact that Americans are paying attention right now. But the other side of that is that people aren't paying attention and they're growing so tired of this. They're just exhausted by the whole thing and they see Democrats are wasting their time.

They're wasting their money. They're wasting their energy on something that is ultimately fruitless. Now, the other side of that is that you also wonder, this is what I've wondered, is are Democrats trying to make Americans so exhausted by this whole thing, so exhausted by the Trump hatred, so exhausted by Trump derangement? that we're just like, you know what, get them out of office. Just I don't want to deal with this anymore. You know what?

Maybe we should just have a Democrat. Like, is that what they're banking on? Is that what Democrats and Congress and Democrats and the media are banking on? That they can just wear us out so much with one thing after the next. Like, you'll notice that we're not even, we're not talking about the whole Russia thing that they had talked about for two years straight. Now it's impeachment. There's always a new scandal.

And that's part of why. That's part of why. people aren't paying attention and aren't giving any credit to this whole impeachment thing because they've been talking about impeachment from the very beginning. And it's been like whackamol. They've been trying to find something to justify impeachment and they think they finally found something and they don't actually have a good case. And so you've got a lot of people just rolling their eyes.

I honestly think that there's not a single person who supports President Trump who is not going to support President Trump because of this whole impeachment thing. because it's entirely partisan. So that was one question I got. What do I think the effects will be? There are a lot of different variables. There are a lot of different possible outcomes. Ultimately, I don't think it'll make that much of a difference come November. Also, depending on who the candidate is.

If it's Joe Biden, like, he's going to be wrapped up in this controversy until November 2. And that's going to be like corruption that we see versus corruption that Democrats see. Because remember, Joe Biden is at the center of all of this. and Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. Again, you can listen to the podcast verdict and it will break all of that down for you. But then if we have someone like Bernie Sanders or people are going to be willing to vote for socialists,

they might be okay with even corruption that they see from Trump's side because they just don't want a socialist in the White House. So anyway, hard to say how this is going to affect November. Let me answer some more of your questions. one question is how so this is totally different we're moving away from impeachment i just take the random questions on instagram and so we don't even have a theme anymore we're shifting away from that so one question is how to approach believing friends immersed in self-love culture so what this person means

i'm assuming by believing friends is christian friends how to approach christian friends immersed in self-love culture so i think it is difficult because people who are immersed in self-love culture it is a part of their religion, whether they know it or not. For example, people who are obsessed with the eneogram are very defensive of the enneagram. It is very much a part of like their spiritual life. They believe that it has been a huge help in their not just their self-development, but in their sanctification. And if you question the roots of the enneagram, if you question, you know, whether or not it's so healthy that someone is depending entirely on the enneagram to shape their worldview, they will, and I'm not trying to be rude by saying this, but they will get defensive of

because they have built so much of what they believe and how they see things on the Enneagram. And so you're really kind of cracking at their foundation a little bit or what they believe to be their foundation. And so the same way if you approach someone who is just immersed in self-love in general. So we're talking about someone who believes that if it's a Christian, believes really that Jesus came and died so that she could be confident, believes that Jesus wants her to believe in herself, that Jesus just wants her to love herself more, that Jesus just wants to care for herself

better, and that Jesus feels badly for her and just wants to up her self-esteem. Well, that's not why Jesus came to die. That's not the example that Jesus gave through his life, through his death, through his resurrection. The call to be his disciple is to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow him. And the command that he gives us to love our neighbor as ourselves is not a command to love ourselves. I've said this so many times and I'll say it again. But when Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself, he is saying as yourself because as yourself is a given. Now, when I say that self-love is a given, self-love is something that is natural. Self-love is something that we're born with. I don't mean that we naturally look in the mirror every day and think that we're awesome,

think that we're talented, think that we're beautiful and Beyonce. That's not what I'm saying. when Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself, he is talking about the instinct that all of us have for survival, to meet our own needs and to fulfill our own interest. That is something that all of us are born with. If you've ever been around a baby, if you've ever been around a toddler, you don't have to teach a toddler to steal. You don't have to teach a toddler to hoard. You have to teach a toddler to share. You have to teach a toddler to say thank you. You have to teach a toddler to think about other people.

Why? Because we are naturally looking out for ourselves. We are naturally looking at to feed ourselves, to nourish ourselves, to make sure that we are taking care of. Even people who tragically struggle with depression and suffer from thoughts of suicide and even who end up dying by suicide, those people are looking out for their best interest in that they are looking to escape pain. And so we naturally love ourselves in that we are naturally bent towards taking care of ourselves and meeting our own needs. And so when Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself, he is saying as you look out for your own interests, as you look to feed yourself, to clothe yourself, to give yourself a drink as you look to give yourself shelter and look out for the things that you want

and the things that you need, think about other people in the same way. As driven as you are to take care of yourself, be driven in the same way to take care of other people. Ephesians 5 when it's commanding, when the Bible is commanding a husband to love his wife as he loves his own flesh. It then says for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it in the same way a husband is to love his wife as he loves himself. So again, we see that the Bible says that it is natural. It is innate for us to love ourselves. So that is why I say it is not biblical.

It is not biblical to pursue self-love because we are born with all. all of the love that we need. If you struggle, if you struggle with self-doubt, if you struggle with self-deprecation, if you struggle with insecurity, remember those of you who listen to my podcast for heard me say this a million times, the answer is not self-love, but God's love, which is infinitely better than any love that you can muster for yourself. Jesus did not come and die so you could have higher self-esteem. He came to give you a new self, not just a new and improved self, not living your best life now, but a new self, a new creation that is able to follow him, to be holy as he is holy. And so for your friends who are immersed in this culture, I would

encourage you to speak the truth in love, to speak the truth confidently, and to not say, hey, you're supposed to hate yourself, but to say, hey, God's way is better. God's way is better. What you are finding yourself in is actually glorified narcissism. It's trendy narcissism, as I call it, and it's not biblical. And it's ultimately not going to fulfill you. Like, it's ultimately not good for you. It's ultimately not going to satisfy you. It's ultimately not even going to make you happy.

Because eventually you are going to run out of the love and the confidence that you have for yourself. And then what then? Like what happens when you can't motivate yourself with positive self-talk? Like what happens when you don't have anything good to think about yourself, when you have failed, when you have made mistakes, when you do have guilt and regret and all of these things when you aren't insecure, when you do fear. Like, what if you don't have any love or confidence or self-esteem to muster up in

yourself? Where do you go then? You've reached the bottom of the barrel. But if you go to God for all the care and all of the eternal affection and the true deep sacrificial love that you need, the healthy, spiritual confidence that you need, then you are not going to have to worry about that because his is the well that now. runs dry. So I encourage you to pray for them, to speak the truth and love to them, to bring scripture to the table. And hopefully that is something that strengthens your friendship and doesn't

actually weaken it. Okay, so once again, I did not have time to answer all the questions that I wanted to answer because I kind of go off on these tangents. But I hope that this was helpful for you. I will answer some questions on Monday's episode as well. But thank you guys so much for listening. Hope you've had a great week. And I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I will see you back here on Monday.