Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 303 | Trump vs. Biden 2020: Foreign Policy

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

Starting point is 00:00:19 We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Today, we are continuing our election series talking about foreign policy.

Starting point is 00:01:00 As always, the caveat that I give at the beginning of each episode, I will say today, we are not going to be able to get into all the intricacies of foreign policy looking at Trump and what he's done and what he promises to do versus Joe Biden, his history and what he promises to do. We will look at the two perspectives. We'll look at as much history as we can, at least the major parts of their foreign policy positions and what they have stood for and what they have done. and at the end of it, you should do your own research. You guys know where I land on this.

Starting point is 00:01:39 I am someone who plans to vote for Donald Trump. I voted for Donald Trump in 2016. And so I am not pretending not to have that perspective, but it is never my intention or my desire to mislead you or to leave out information. At the end of this episode, I said I was going to do this last week and then I forgot. I'm going to give two points of clarification.

Starting point is 00:02:00 in regards to previous episodes that I think gives you a fuller picture of some of the things that we have talked about. Because like I said, never my desire to mislead or manipulate, even though you know exactly what perspective I'm coming from and what worldview I have. And then I am typically going to land when it's Trump versus Biden. I'm going to land on the Trumpian side of things. Typically, not always. but typically. And so just know that going in. If you are a liberal who is listening to this episode because your friend shared it with you, you know that that is where I am coming from. I appreciate you being here. You're probably going to disagree with me. And that is totally

Starting point is 00:02:43 okay. I am glad that you are engaging with a side of things that you don't necessarily see eye to eye on. Like I said, do your own research into all of this, especially when it comes to the intricacies of foreign policy. Okay. So America's foreign policy. in general. It has at times been messy and at times been too interventionist, at times ineffective, and at many times very good, very valiant, very effective, and a force for liberty and good throughout the world. And so like all foreign policy, it is complicated. Any one, any side that tells you that it has either all been good or all been bad or wrong. And the reality is, is that it's much more complex than that. There is this anti-American lie that I believe is propagated in public schools

Starting point is 00:03:37 and universities that America has been a predominantly force for evil in the world, that all the world's problems are because of American intervention and imperialism. That is a lie that has been pushed by left-wing communist regimes like Soviet, Russia, like China, like North Korea for decades. it has infiltrated the institutions in the United States. If you read the book, Nothing to Envy that we read together in my book club a few months ago, you might remember that the North Korean government told their people that America and imperialist, capitalist Japan were actually to blame for the famine and for the starvation that was going on in North Korea.

Starting point is 00:04:18 Of course, that was not true. In reality, America had offered aid to North Korea during their famine. we have traditionally given the most in foreign aid to underdeveloped countries than any other nation by far. Right now, China is actually eclipsing us. And there is a difference, though, between the foreign aid that America offers. And by the way, I am not necessarily for all foreign aid. Foreign aid has been proven to be completely ineffective in actually helping poor countries. I think it was Ron Paul who said that foreign aid comes from poor people in rich,

Starting point is 00:04:54 countries to rich people in poor countries. So it doesn't actually help the poor people in poor countries. But as far as it goes, America has been the number one giver of foreign aid to developing countries, except for now China has surpassed us in the difference between our foreign aid and the Chinese foreign aid is that China is using their so-called foreign aid to put poor countries in debt traps. We've actually talked about this on the podcast before, but just to reiterate, China is legitimately colonizing poor countries as we speak. So they are building, for example, railways in places like Ethiopia, pretending it is out of the goodness of their heart telling Ethiopia they can pay them back.

Starting point is 00:05:37 When the railway starts making money, knowing that the railway will not make money and actually the system is constructed in a way that it's very difficult to get a ticket on the railway in Ethiopia. They understand this is not going to be some lucrative endeavor. the reason that they do this is so the Ethiopia will never be able to pay them back. And then they've got the country in what's called a debt trap and they are able to exert power over them. Things like this are not just happening in Ethiopia, but in other poor countries in Africa and in South America as well.

Starting point is 00:06:08 That is how China is exerting its power internationally and has been for several years. And by the way, as we've also talked about on this podcast, just a fun fact, it's kind of an aside but it's also relevant and it's going to bring us into the next segment of this conversation. The head of the WHO, the World Health Organization, was the head of public health in Ethiopia, where he covered up a cholera outbreak, so very corrupt guy. He is in cahoots with the president of China to help them cover up China's part in the spread of the coronavirus. And you might ask, why is this? It is because Dr. Tedros of Ethiopia, the head of the WHO is part of the Communist Party in

Starting point is 00:06:52 Ethiopia and communists always stick together. So the Communist Party of China or the Chinese Communist Party as well as Dr. Tedros of the WHO, they are in caho because they are communist comrades. It's the same reason why the head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros, made Robert Mugabe the goodwill ambassador of the WHO, which at the time caused huge blowback and he actually, it had to be rescinded. because of all the pushback that came because Mugabe is such an obviously corrupt and cruel was a corrupt and cruel communist dictator of Zimbabwe. He drove his country into more poverty than they had ever experienced by taking the farms away from all the white commercial farmers in the name of anti-colonialism and communism and

Starting point is 00:07:46 black liberation. And what happened after Mugabe empowered the people, of the indigenous people in Zimbabwe to go confiscate the farms or burn down the farms of these white commercial farmers. They confiscated the land. They took the farms, but they were unable to commercially farm in the same way that these other farmers were. And so Zimbabwe spiraled into poverty. They used to be known as the breadbasket of Africa. And now they're one of the poorest countries in Africa.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Teachers in Zimbabwe used to make a lot of money. They used to be able to have nice houses, electricity and things like that. Now, teachers make about $30 a month in Zimbabwe, and the cost of living is very similar in Zimbabwe to what it is in the United States. That is thanks to the, quote, anti-colonialist and communist revolution of Robert Mugabe. Thankfully, he is an evil dictator that is now a dead evil dictator, and the hope is that Zimbabwe is getting back on the right track. But always, in the name of anti-imperialism, in the name of anti-capitalism and colonialism,

Starting point is 00:08:48 and communism, you see these kinds of left-wing revolutions, and they always end devastation and despair. And you also see a lot of hypocrisy in that, too, because Robert Mugabe came to power in the name of giving everyone great and free health care. And what happened, not only did he not provide that in Zimbabwe's health care system can't even be called a health care system because it is completely in shambles. Whenever he needed health care, he and his family went to Singapore for their health care. That's actually where he, had his end of life care as well in a Singapore hospital. And so the health care system, that communist dictator Robert Mugabe, who the current head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros, tapped as the

Starting point is 00:09:31 goodwill ambassador. This is the guy, Robert Mugabe, who promised that he was going to bring health care to Zimbabwe, free health care. And he ended up getting his health care elsewhere and running the country into the ground. So that's who is in charge of the WHO. Those are the kinds of friends that he keeps. That is why he is in bed with the Communist Party of China because he is a communist. He is lent a hand to other communists. And together, they are, they are running the WHO in a way that is contrary to the health and well-being of world health. So that is also another reason why it's a good thing that President Trump pulled out of the WHO. We were giving the most money, America was giving the most money by far to the WHO.

Starting point is 00:10:17 though China is giving 10 times less than what America was giving, they still had full authority. And so it was good for President Trump to pull out of the WHO. It really did not contribute to world health or to American health at all. So the communist network is very powerful in the world. It is very interconnected from China to Africa to South America to the United States. And it carries corruption and wreaks havoc wherever it goes. it finds an accomplice in America's Democratic Party and a mouthpiece through Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and it's being manifested through the rioting and the looting.

Starting point is 00:10:56 I know I've been beating this drum for months now, but I am so desperate for Christians to understand that the so-called movement that is happening right now for so-called racial justice in the United States has nothing to do with racial justice and everything to do with a global move toward anti-capitalism, anti-Westernism, anti-Western rule of law and totalitarianism. And there is no reason whatsoever to give credence to it. And that alone, I think, is a good reason to vote for Donald Trump. Do I believe that the Democratic Party is actively communist? No.

Starting point is 00:11:34 But I do think that they support communist organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. I do think that they have communist sympathizers in the Bernie Sanders. wing for sure. Vladimir Lennon said himself that communism is the goal of socialism, and we have people outright saying in the Democratic Party that they are socialist. Of course, we know that Bernie Sanders honeymoon in Soviet Russia. You know the communist placed with the gulags and the breadlines and the starvation and the killing of political dissidents and religious persecution. He's praised Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba, that ran his once very vibrant and relatively wealthy country into the ground with socialism. So even though I don't think that Joe Biden is himself,

Starting point is 00:12:20 a socialist or a communist, I don't want to vote for the party that is sympathetic to communism. That is why it was good, again, for the president to make a stance and has made a stand multiple times against China and against the WHO. It is an interconnected, corrupt, far-left wing network that is globally trying to orchestrate destabilization in democracies that they think threaten them. And unfortunately, it is being accomplished pretty effectively here. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day,

Starting point is 00:13:14 and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this T-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. So Trump's decision to get out of the WHO was one good, kind of seemingly insignificant,

Starting point is 00:13:52 but I actually think pretty significant step in kind of repudiating that network and their power and their corruption. Joe Biden has said he would re-enter the WHO saying that we are actually safer that way. But again, there is no proof that we're safer that way that is sending our taxpayer dollars to an organization that in many ways works directly against us and for the interest. of China. This is an organization that is helping organize and fund along with Planned Parenthood International and UNESCO, the sex education that I talked about a couple weeks ago with Jacobuians that is encouraging children to learn about things like gender fluidity and

Starting point is 00:14:32 masturbation as young as kindergarten. It's not a good organization. We don't get a whole lot of benefit from it, if anything at all. And yet Joe Biden would like us to reenter and to continue funding it with our taxpayer dollars. Joe Biden, in my opinion, in general, is soft on China. He infamously said a few months ago in front of a crowd, I think it was before the Iowa caucus, quote, come on, man, they're not bad folks, folks. China is not going to eat our lunch. However, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence in the Obama Biden administration, called China, quote, the greatest moral threat to the United States. James Clapper is not right about everything, but he is, of course, right about that. We know this. This is not a political opinion.

Starting point is 00:15:17 It's just a fact. We have never had a communist, officially atheist, totalitarian regime this powerful in the world. This is what happens when you combine communism with highly regulated and highly lucrative capitalism. You get power-hungry evil regimes. In February, when Trump banned travel from China due to the coronavirus, Biden called him xenophobic. There's another thing that I think troubling in Biden's relationship with China. His son, Hunter, owns 10% of a private equity firm in China called Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Co. According to the Wall Street Journal, quote, in the U.S., B.HR, that is this private equity firm

Starting point is 00:15:58 that Hunter Biden has a stake in, BHR partners participated in a $600 million buyout of Michigan automotive suspension systems maker, Hennigis Automotive in 2015. acquiring a 49% stake, but a banker involved in the deal said negotiations were handled primarily by aviation industry corporation of China, a state-owned aircraft company that bought a 51% stake. Also according to the WSJ, quote, Hunter Biden has had other ties with China, including with top executives of a now-collapsed Shanghai oil company, CEFC China Energy Co, as they were trying to break into the U.S. energy market. according to articles in the New Yorker and the New York Times. Jay Michael Cole, a Taiwan-based analyst who has written critically about CEFC and wrangled with it legally, says its lawyers repeatedly describes the Biden family as friends of the oil company. So Joe Biden has talked about bringing jobs back from China and confronting the Chinese threat,

Starting point is 00:17:01 but you have to wonder if his soft rhetoric towards them, his inability to criticize their handling of the coronavirus, has promised to get back into the WHO and his sons and possibly his whole families, a partnership with a Chinese company, makes him weak in this regard. I personally think that it does. And just a little bit more on China and the CCP, just so we understand the threat that they pose and why it is so important to have a leader and to have an administration that understands this threat. As we've talked about many times on this podcast, the CCP is one of the most and not

Starting point is 00:17:47 the most heartless, cruel, racist, deceitful regimes on the planet. They currently employ slave labor to make their products. They currently have over one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps where they use them for slave labor, where they harvest their organs to be sold where the women are having forced abortions and forced sterilization procedures. The New York Times reported a few months ago that China was evicting African immigrants and refusing to let them dine in restaurants over totally, unfounded fears of them being supercarriers of the coronavirus. The CCP covered up the truth about

Starting point is 00:18:23 the coronavirus with the help of the WHO from November to February, potentially costing hundreds of thousands of lives. This is from Newsweek. Quote, according to a study published by the University of Southampton, the spread of COVID-19 could have been reduced by an astounding 95%. If only China had acted to curb the epidemic a mere three weeks earlier than it did, a crucial window of opportunity that the communist regime squandered by trying to cover up its emergence. We still don't know where exactly the virus came from. That's just the truth. That's not a conspiracy theory. The CCP jailed and killed doctors and whistleblowers who have tried to speak out about this. This is a regime that punishes political dissent with imprisonment and death. They spy on each

Starting point is 00:19:10 in every citizen that they have. There is no freedom there. There's no freedom of religion. There's no freedom of speech. The Daily Wire reported a few weeks ago that the CCP is going into rural areas in China and forcing Christians to renounce their faith. This is not a regime that cares at all and actually feels very threatened by any kind of personal liberty. As parts of the regime have said, their biggest threat is not technological or a military threat. at all, but is an ideological threat. That is why they have taken the efforts that they have to exact power, because liberalization or the democratization of society is a big threat to the Communist Party. They reestablished control over Hong Kong, the city that had been operating

Starting point is 00:19:58 independently as a democracy under the Western rule of law since I believe 1997, and they jailed and likely executed pro-democracy demonstrators and activists in relation to, you. the Hong Kong demonstrations. These are demonstrators who, by the way, were waving the American flag in solidarity with freedom. And you actually have the audacity of groups like BLM and Antifa activists here saying that we don't live in a free society. They're waving the communist flag. And in some cases, even the Chinese flag at their demonstrations. And in some cases, the pan-African flag, which is actually not a symbol of African pride, but a symbol of communist resistance. As we've talked about, China has tweeted out in support of Black Lives Matter

Starting point is 00:20:44 and the George Floyd riots. They understand that BLM is stoking the flames of division and destabilization and that is what they want. I have talked about many times suggested the voluntary Hong Kong exchange program, HKX, between the communist here and the freedom lovers in Hong Kong. I'm ready for it. I think that it could be crowdfunded in a heartbeat. It's really amazing. Everything the left says they hate slavery, bigotry, racism, discrimination, colonialism, imperialism, misogyny. It's represented by the Chinese Communist Party. And yet it is consistently and almost exclusively being criticized by conservatives. The right is consistently the ones that are sounding the alarm about it.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Democrats said from the beginning of the pandemic that it's xenophobic to talk about where the virus came from. Sarah Zhang of the New York Times, wrote an article arguing that the CCP and the United States are actually morally equivalent, which is absurd considering if she wrote a similar article as a Chinese citizen in China, she would currently be in a dungeon. So there's the difference there, Sarah Zhang. But I will say that the United States helped put China into powerful position that they are in today, the first 20 years of foreign relations in China or with China involved bringing them from

Starting point is 00:22:04 obscurity to the international community helping make them a key player, then America realized at about the turn of the century that, oh, this is, this is not going to work out. Not only have they become powerful, but they have remained largely totalitarian. They still are committing these human rights abuses, and they simply figured out how to harness the power of capitalism to get rich without actually letting go of the communist nature of, of their regime. America, including my beloved President Reagan, who is quoted right here, if you are watching on YouTube, believed that if China embraced capitalism, then they would embrace freedom, then they would embrace Westernism, they would embrace democracy, they would become more

Starting point is 00:22:54 accepting of the Western rule of law, but that has not happened, especially over the past decade. when Trump came in, his concern was and is that China is taking advantage of America economically. They're stealing our intellectual property, which is true. He decided that tariffs on trade and sanctions would be a good way to punish China to make trade fair and to make sure that they are no longer taking advantage of us. This is according to foreign policy.com, which I think is a pretty fair source. quote, Beijing's actions make it increasingly difficult to talk about cooperation after years of predatory Chinese cyber attacks on U.S. businesses and individuals or in the face of rampant

Starting point is 00:23:36 death of intellectual property, much of which comes from China and costs American businesses up to $600 billion a year. Despite promises by Beijing to halt such practices, broken promises not to militarize territory in the South China Sea have shifted the balance of power in one of the world's most strategic waterways, and Beijing's intimidation of Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other countries in the region has increased with its military power. Similarly, Beijing's recent so-called wolf warrior diplomacy personified by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zao Li Zhen abandoned diplomatic niceties for rhetorically aggressive and threatening brow beating. That Beijing considers itself to be in a strategic position with the United States is made clear in

Starting point is 00:24:19 major speeches by Xi in which competition with the Western capitalist system forms the core of the CCP's worldview, and it has for a very long time. Pursuing what previous presidents have called, quote, fair trade, the Trump administration challenged longstanding tenets of the free trade school. The administration has also taken actions to limit Chinese companies' access to American markets or technology. Most notably, it has blocked away from being able to purchase U.S. semiconductor chips and banned it from the American 5G market while preventing both, while preventing them from selling equipment to the U.S. to government purchasers.

Starting point is 00:25:02 In March, Washington limited the number of Chinese journalists allowed to operate in the United States for state-run media outlets to 100 in response to expulsions of U.S. reporters and increasing restrictions in China. The government also shortened work visas for Chinese Chinese journalists reflecting visa restrictions on foreign journalists imposed by Beijing. In May, the administration announced plans to cancel educational visas for Chinese graduate students linked to people's liberation, army, schools, and institutes after years of widespread concerns, reports in arrest for theft of intellectual property and material from U.S. university research labs. So that is just part of what Trump has done to push back against

Starting point is 00:25:44 Chinese manipulation. Trump has been very clear also in blaming originally, at least China for the coronavirus and their mishandling. He has not shied away from calling it what it is and saying where it came from as usual. He is rejecting political correctness, which I think is very important when it comes to foreign policy and assessing security threats. China has long been engaged also in spreading misinformation and disunity in the United States. propaganda, especially in regards to elections. Now, they have currently the platform of Twitter and Facebook to do that. The New York Times reported in June that Twitter had to remove almost 24,000 accounts engaging in a Chinese disinformation campaign directed toward the United States in relation

Starting point is 00:26:32 to the Hong Kong protests and the coronavirus. Russia has also long been engaged for about a century and similar tactics stoking racism and division. Russia, again, a country still soft towards socialism and leftism has very similar goals to China in regards to the United States, which is destabilization. The difference is Russia is a tiny country with a tiny economy. China is not a China takeover of the world to terrify everyone because it is actually possible, which is exactly why the connections that Joe Biden has and the attitude that he has shown towards China are so troubling. A U.S. intelligence report showed that China and Iran want Biden to win and Russia wants Trump to win and they are using disinformation

Starting point is 00:27:19 online to help accomplish those goals. But I'm just not, I'm not worried about China or I'm not worried about Russia in the same way that I'm worried about China. I do think that we should also be worried at least somewhat about Iran. Iran actually, I think it's the correct way to pronounce it. Biden and Obama engaged in, as you guys probably know, the Iran nuclear deal, a deal that directly aided and abetted their terrorist regime. Basically, the deal said, Iran, you will allow international inspectors to hold you accountable by checking your nuclear weapons to make sure that you are not building these nuclear weapons. And in exchange, we will lift the sanctions. And when we lift the sanctions, that will take all the money that was

Starting point is 00:28:05 frozen in banks because of these sanctions and it will funnel it to you up to about $145 billion. So up to $145 billion through the world's leading terrorist regime in exchange for some inspections. And we don't actually know for sure or we didn't know for sure how comprehensive or how accurate those inspections would be. Critics accurately said that lifting the sanctions and allowing this kind of money to flow to Iran will help fund Iran's other military capabilities and allow them to continue to fund proxy terrorist groups in other parts of the world like Hezbollah. And the deal only focused

Starting point is 00:28:49 on nuclear weapons, so not their missile program, which was obviously largely misguided. As the leader of Israel said at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, quote, in the coming decade, the deal will reward Iran the terrorist regime with hundreds of billions of dollars. This cash bonanza will fuel Iran's terrorism worldwide, its aggression in the region and its efforts to destroy Israel, which are ongoing. That is exactly correct. This is from an article in the Atlantic from 2018, quote, it was surely Barack Obama's profound aversion to the use of American military power that so enfeebled his nuclear diplomacy

Starting point is 00:29:27 and made his atomic accord with Iran, the worst arms. control agreement since the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Obama was to borrow from the New York Times as Roger Cohen, America's first quote post-Western president, a man deeply uncomfortable with American hegemony and the essential marriage of diplomacy and force. So that is who Obama was. He believed in peace, a so-called peace through acquiescence, peace through weakness. leading from behind, you might recall people talking about his universal apology tour, beginning when he took office, apologizing for American strength and American force, even when it was obviously necessary. He was incredibly weak on foreign policy. There's absolutely no reason to

Starting point is 00:30:15 believe that Joe Biden, his vice president, would be any different when he becomes president. The Obama-Biden administration empowered Iran, and we're totally unwilling to curb Iranian aggression in the Middle East. That is exactly. why Iran wants Biden to win. Trump is called the Iran deal, the worst deal ever negotiated, and he is probably right about that. That's why he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, reenacting the sanctions on Iran. According to the WS.J, quote, Secretary of State Pompeo said in a statement that the U.S. would use sanctions to isolate Iran

Starting point is 00:30:50 diplomatically and economically while working with allies to replace the Iran accord with a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Iranian threat. Is Iran happy about this? No. Are many in the global community who had the same foreign policy mindset as Obama did happy about this? No. But it's Israel, our ally and other pro-democracy advocates, are they happy about this? Very much, yes. And that is what matters. America and her allies have an interest and preventing the destabilization of the region, and President Trump has worked hard to do that. Not just by getting out of the Iran nuclear deal, but also through his historic peace deals, which you have probably read about recently.

Starting point is 00:31:37 He has led the negotiations of two peace deals between two Arab states, the UAE and Bahrain and Israel. The Arab world hates Israel. They want to destroy Israel. They have for a very long time. and Trump as a huge defender of Israel throughout his presidency has sought at least to do what he can to rectify that. According to the Washington Post, quote, the United States, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, all signed the Abraham Accords named for the three Abrahamic religions rooted in what is now Israel

Starting point is 00:32:11 and surrounding lands that lays the ground for diplomatic, economic, and other ties between Israel and the Persian Gulf neighbors. The two Arab states then signed bilateral agreements, which are the United States, then signed by lateral agreements with Israel. In addition to their historic nature, the agreements are also significant for relegating the Palestinians to the sidelines. Palestinian leaders have rejected the Trump peace efforts for three years, charging that they benefited Israel and have called the two Arab nations traders to their cause. Neither the UAE or Bahrain is or ever has been at war with Israel, so the documents are not peace treaties in the formal sense,

Starting point is 00:32:51 but until now, both Persian Gulf states had officially considered Israel to be illegitimate. So these are a big deal. You've got some people on the left, particularly on leftist Twitter, saying, oh, they were never at war, so these treaties aren't significant. They're basically saying,

Starting point is 00:33:08 actually, the Middle East has always been very peaceful. It's always been very kind towards Israel. This is just a sham. This is just a distraction. It's really a shame that they see. possible potential moves towards peace in the Middle East as just a sham and a distraction instead of something to celebrate. This goes far beyond Trump and it transcends politics. This should be something that everyone who has a humanitarian bone in their body is excited about. Trump also,

Starting point is 00:33:36 as we know, moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which recognizes Jerusalem as the official capital because it is Democrats in America, some of them, I think Chuck Schumer was for it because he is Jewish, but Democrats, other Democrats in America said that this was a horrible move. It's going to destabilize. It's going to be catastrophic. It wasn't, which is good. It should have actually happened a long time ago, but it was put off by Clinton and Bush and Obama. So Trump simply did what a president a long time ago should have done. Israel is our ally. Trump has had their back. Trump has pursued peace that would benefit not just Israel, but the region in general. The Bible is very clear about this. I think it's Psalm 3414 that says specifically we should seek peace and pursue it.

Starting point is 00:34:24 And I think Trump has done that through his actions pretty well while he's been president. He tried to do the same thing by denuclearizing North Korea. Trump was the first president to enter North Korean territory and meet with the North Korean leader. Now, a couple of things. Number one, that didn't work out. I do think A for effort. Good job. I'm not sure many other leaders have even tried that. there is this kind of myth that China is going to help us denuclearize North Korea. That's just not going to happen because I don't think China really cares about that at all. I don't think they're worried about the threat of North Korea. But Trump did try ultimately, did not succeed in creating a denuclearized North Korea or the promise of a denuclearized North Korea.

Starting point is 00:35:12 I think it's good that he pursued it. But I'll be honest, I don't like how friendly Trump is toward Kim Jong-un. He has complimented him many times as well as the president of China, as well as Putin of Russia. And while I know that you can say that his rhetoric is strategic, that it's all part of the plan, that it's just what you do, you have to butter up these people so you can work with them. I'm just not sure it's necessary. I don't think it's a good look. I think American strength is persuasive enough.

Starting point is 00:35:41 I don't like the flattery of dictators that Trump has engaged in on Twitter. I'm not going to lie, it was also a little triggered during these talks with Kim Jong-un to see the American flag, which stands, which represents a beacon of liberty next to the North Korean flag, which represents deep and profound and prolonged oppression of the North Korean people for decades now, if not longer than that. And so that was a little bit hard for me to see. I don't necessarily think that we need to symbolize or communicate any kind of partnership, even in the pursuit of peace. I do think that his actions are worth giving more credence to, of course, than what he says on Twitter. But I'm not going to pretend like I like it because I don't. These are regimes who have slaughtered and starved and tortured and arbitrarily detained their people.

Starting point is 00:36:33 And so I don't even think we need to offer the pretense of getting along with them or respecting them. However, I am glad for the actions of the Trump administration, according to the Brookings Institute, the Trump admin has employed 52 policy actions against Russia, including a variety of sanctions for election interference and human rights abuses. And actions do speak louder than words. They should. And if you want to talk about rhetoric towards Russia and being soft towards Russia, you can recall in 2012 when Obama was sitting down next to the then president of Russia,

Starting point is 00:37:08 Dmitri Mevdev. I'm not totally sure how to pronounce his last name. And he sat there and he said, you know, this is my last election that's coming up. And after this next election, I will have, quote, more flexibility to work with you in a way that, you know, I want to work with you, particularly when it comes to things like missile defense. So let's not pretend also that Trump is the only one that has engaged in this kind of, in this kind of flattery towards dictators because Obama certainly did too. And let's not also pretend that Obama and Biden ushered in peace and Trump hasn't or something like that. This is according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, quote, there were 10 times more air strikes in the covert war on terror during President Barack Obama's presidency than under his predecessor George W. Bush,

Starting point is 00:37:59 Obama embraced the U.S. drone program overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency, a total of 563 strikes largely by drones targeted Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen during Obama's two terms compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau, which is not good. However, I will say that unlike Bush and Obama, Trump has not gotten us into any more wars, but the drone strikes under Trump have continued, unfortunately, civilians have continued to be killed and reportedly it has actually become harder under the Trump administration to know how many civilians have been killed. I don't think that's a good thing. That's something that I would disagree with. There has to be accountability there. I'm not saying Trump has purposely tried to, you know, order the military to kill these civilians

Starting point is 00:38:57 by any means. But I do think that that accountability, which is apparently become harder under the Trump administration that that accountability needs to be reinstated. However, like I said, I do think that Trump has pursued peace in a way that other presidents have not in a way that Biden and Obama did not. And therefore, I don't think Biden will. Do I think Trump is perfect on this? No, I don't. But has he done a good job?

Starting point is 00:39:26 Yes, I do think so. Trump has showed strength where needed. Remember, we talked about this a couple weeks ago when we were discussing the RNC, see it was his administration that launched Operation Kayla Mueller, named after the American humanitarian worker who was kidnapped by ISIS under the Obama administration. She was ignored. Her family was ignored by the Obama administration while she was repeatedly raped, tortured, and eventually murdered.

Starting point is 00:39:51 It was the Trump administration who ordered Operation Kayla Mueller, who killed the Islamic state leader who was ultimately responsible for Kayla Mueller's kidnapping and torture Abu Bacar al-Baghdadi. He was a vicious terrorist that Obama allowed to live and Trump did not. Trump also helped, as we know, severely weakened ISIS. Obama and Biden did not. I also think the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is excellent at his job. I'm a big fan of him. He is a Christian. He sees global threats. I think realistically, he has prioritized peace through strength. He has prioritized religious liberty. So I think that his administration for the most part has helped him accomplish good deals and good foreign policy in a way that has helped the United

Starting point is 00:40:39 States. Biden, I think we can tell from his record, will lead from behind peace through acquiescence just like Obama did and peace is in scare quotes. Trump believes in peace through strength. And I think we know which one works better. Remember under Obama Biden's and Hillary Clinton's leadership Benghazi happened where four American soldiers died. And Clinton, and Susan Rice deceptively blamed it on a YouTube video that criticized the regime. The Republican-led investigation into the incident found that the Obama administration had been slow in their response and misled the public on what happened and why. And so, no, I don't think that Obama's record on foreign policy was good.

Starting point is 00:41:20 I think Trump's is not perfect, but very good reason enough to trust him to put the well-being and the interests of America first. and some people are triggered by that phrase America first, but that is exactly what every leader is called to. Every good leader is supposed to prioritize above all else the safety and the welfare and the interests of their country. I think that has been Trump's mission from the beginning. And I think he has accomplished that pretty well.

Starting point is 00:41:50 Again, not perfectly, but pretty well. And I think his foreign policy record in general speaks to that. I have no reason to think that that, that, Biden would be able to accomplish the same things. I have no reason to think that he would put America first, especially, I'm especially concerned with his softness towards China. He has said some good things like severing our independence on China for jobs. I just have no reason based on his record to believe that that's true. And considering the current state of the Democratic Party and their feelings towards China and the Chinese Communist Party. And they're

Starting point is 00:42:30 sensitivity towards xenophobia and their embracing of political correctness when it comes to calling out the Chinese Communist Party in regards to the coronavirus. I think that's just a bad indicator of where Biden would be in our relationship with China. We need to be strong against them. And we need a president who is going to stand firm against the injustices that they are perpetuating both at home and abroad. So that's where I am on all of that. I hope that was clarifying, at least partly for some of you.

Starting point is 00:43:03 There's so much more to talk about in regards to the subject, but we just don't have the time and capacity. Now, I do want to make some clarifying points that I promised I would make. Number one, you guys listen to the episode with Jaco Booions. Amazing. He's an amazing person. I recommend that you follow him and support his work. Now, we talked about that Barack Obama, that no president before President Trump had done anything to combat human trafficking, that he had, that no president had actually acknowledged that this was a problem and we're going to do something about it.

Starting point is 00:43:34 Well, under Barack Obama, there was an executive order in 2012 that directed forces against human trafficking and prosecutions of human traffickers actually did increase under Obama. And so I do think it's important to note that now. Was the executive order effective? Was it really just empty rhetoric? I'm not totally sure. Certainly it wasn't talked about as much. under Barack Obama, but I just wanted to clarify, even though I think it's very clear that President

Starting point is 00:44:05 Trump has done much more in the fight against human trafficking. I don't think from what I can see that it's true that President Obama did nothing and never acknowledged it because there was that executive order in 2012. And so go look into that and see what you think about that, but I just wanted to make that clear. The second thing is that we talked about abortion in the first election series episode that we did. And unfortunately, funding for a plan parenthood has continued and even increased over the past few years while Trump has been president. Now, that is not Trump's fault per se. And I still believe that the Republican Party is the sole pro-life party. Again, if you're just listening to this for the first time and you're thinking,

Starting point is 00:44:49 no, they're not pro all life. The Democratic Party is pro all life. I have busted that myth several times on this podcast. And so you can go back and you can listen to that. But I will say, once again, as I've said before, the Republican Party has failed in large part to defund Planned Planned Parenthood. President Trump did a really good thing by making a regulation in regards to Title X that kind of convinced Planned Parenthood to pull out of Title X. So they were no longer getting Title X funds. I think it was about $60 million. And so that is great and that is wonderful. but the defunding has not happened under President Trump, and it should. Again, I think it's worse under the Democrats.

Starting point is 00:45:33 They are going to make sure that Planned Parenthood gets titled Tim funds, not only that, but they will reverse the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment says that your and my federal tax dollars cannot directly fund abortion. Joe Biden has already said that he wants to repeal that. So our tax dollars will, our federal tax dollars, will directly fund abortion. We have seen from Democratic legislation throughout the kind of, country, that they want abortion to be unregulated through nine months. That's just true. You can look at the Illinois Reproductive Health Act. You can look at the New Mexico Reproductive Health Act. You can look at

Starting point is 00:46:05 the New York Reproductive Health Act. And that is exactly what they do. They make it as unregulated as possible. They strip an unborn child of human status and to make sure that the child doesn't have human rights and doesn't have any protection under the law. That is the current Democratic Party. So even though funding for Planned Parenthood has gone up under President Trump, which I think is a travesty, by the way, and is avoidable by way of Republican action, I still think that voting for a Republican is a vote for the lives of unborn children. If you want to go back and listen to that episode on abortion, just go back a few weeks

Starting point is 00:46:51 and you can listen to that, talked about this subject, probably more than any other subject. It's very near and dear to me. But I did want to make that clear to you. I did want to make that clear to you that it's not that everything has, you know, the pro-life cause has just been championed unapologetically and unconditionally and beautifully and enthusiastically under Republican leadership because that's just, unfortunately, not the case. So those are the two clarifications that I wanted to give. I hope that helps you guys and reminds you that my hope is for the truth, even though you guys know I'm coming from a certain perspective.

Starting point is 00:47:28 My desire is to never mislead you. So that's all I have to say about that. We will be back here on Wednesday. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. on the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality.

Starting point is 00:48:07 We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 303 | Trump vs. Biden 2020: Foreign Policy

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