The Daily Signal - What to Expect in Trump’s State of the Union Address

Starting point is 00:00:04 This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, January 4th. I'm Rachel Dahl Judas. And I'm Daniel Davis. Tonight, President Trump delivers his 2020 State of the Union address. Today we'll be joined by Tommy Binion of the Heritage Foundation to get a sneak preview of what to expect. Plus, Franklin Graham gets canceled in the UK. We'll discuss. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts

Starting point is 00:00:32 and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. The impeachment of President Trump began to wind down Monday with closing arguments in the Senate. The House impeachment managers, led by Adam Schiff, made their case for removing the president. Here's part of what Schiff said. Today, we urge you in the face of overwhelming evidence of the president's guilt and knowing that if left in office, he will continue to seek foreign interference in the next election to vote to convict on both articles of impeachment. and to remove from office Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States. President Trump's attorneys made the opposite case, and one of them Jay Seculo delivered a stiff rebuke to House Democrats.

Starting point is 00:01:22 What this body, what this nation, and what this president has just endured, what the House managers have forced upon this great body is unprecedented and unacceptable. This is exactly and precisely what the founders feared. This was the first totally partisan presidential impeachment in our nation's history, and it should be our last. What the House Democrats have done to this nation, to the Constitution, to the office of the president, to the president himself, and to this body, is outrageous. They have cheapened the awesome power of impeachment. And unfortunately, of course, the country is not better for that. We urge this body to dispense with these partisan articles of impeachment for the sake of the nation, for the sake of the Constitution.

Starting point is 00:02:24 Republican senators narrowly defeated a measure last week to allow witnesses into the trial, a major win for the president and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Senate is set to vote Wednesday on whether to acquit the president. Two people were killed and another person injured and is shooting at Texas A&M University Commerce Monday afternoon. According to CBSDFW, authorities are conducting an active criminal investigation. Hong Kong closed most of its border crossings with mainland China on Monday amid growing concern over the coronavirus, which has claimed 362 lives so far. The epidemic has brought much of central China to a standstill, particularly Wuhan, the city where the virus originated. China has accused the U.S. of spreading panic over the virus. The State Department over the weekend began evacuating U.S. citizens from China

Starting point is 00:03:15 and issued a travel warning against going to China. The U.S. also issued a ban on foreign travelers entering the United States who had recently been to China. Conservative radio legend Rush Lomba announced Monday that he has advanced lung cancer. Limbaugh, who has hosted his program for over 30 years, announced on his show that he will have to miss shows at times, to receive treatment or to recover from treatment, but hopes to be back. Up next, I'll sit down with Tommy Binion for a sneak preview at tonight's State of the Union address.

Starting point is 00:03:49 Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? If you want to understand what's happening at the court, subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast, breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. So President Trump is gearing up to deliver his State of the Union address, and joining me now for a preview. view to what to expect is Tommy Binion, Vice President of Government Relations here at the Heritage Foundation. Tommy, thanks for your time. No, thank you for having me. It's great to be back on the pod. So Tommy, what's the president's number one message going to be going into tonight?

Starting point is 00:04:22 It's going to be several things, but I think more important than the message here is going to be the moment. Think about this moment for just a second. We have not yet concluded the impeachment trial. That will conclude tomorrow. He has just signed just. last Wednesday, a landmark trade agreement, United States, Mexico, Canada agreement. The Iowa caucus is over. Donald Trump will square off against one of these many candidates this fall. The economy is soaring. We are on the heels of a sort of dramatic moment with Iran that was de-escalated, as I hope we're going to hear about tonight after the killing of General Solomani. It's just an incredible moment. It's going to be must watch TV, but not because of exactly

Starting point is 00:05:17 what he's going to say, but because of the moment that's sort of swirling around the House chamber as he walks into it. And then, you know, I trust this president. He is the master of the moment. He never shies away from anything. I think what I'm hoping to hear is for him to tell the truth about his successes, but for him to unite us as a country around his what I think is a very positive proactive agenda. So early reports are that he's going to focus a lot on the blue-collar boom that's taken place since he was elected. You know, there's been a lot of talk about, you mentioned the USMCA, progress on a deal with China. How are things looking for, you know, manufacturing and the folks that went into his column in 2016 who were looking ahead to the 2020?

Starting point is 00:06:04 Well, for those of you listening, you know, ask yourself how it's going for you. The economy has really taken off since President Trump was elected. Manufacturing is doing better in this country. But more importantly, wages are up. Unemployment is down. Chances are you are way better off financially today than you were before. And I think the really special thing about this economic boom is it's true up and down the board. It's not just true for rich people. It's not just true for blue-collar people. It's not just true for people of one race or the other. This is really a tide that has lifted all boats. And that's a really uniting message. Everybody has been swept, I think, forward in a good way because of this economy. And when you look back to the policies that cause that, you can understand why. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was not a tax cut for the rich. That was a tax cut for the middle class. USMCA was not negotiated.

Starting point is 00:07:03 with just major corporations in mind. It was a trade deal that the president brought the perspective everyday Americans to. And three years into his presidency, I think he has a lot of ink on the page, so to speak, that he can really weave that message through. Well, his signature campaign promise was to build the wall. And twice now he's reallocated military construction funds to build the wall, going around Congress because Congress hasn't put up the money. The Supreme Court has basically given him the go-ahead for that.

Starting point is 00:07:33 Do you expect him to make another big pitch to Congress for wall funding? I do expect him to talk about the wall. I expect him to talk about immigration broadly. I expect him whether he's going to roll it out tomorrow night or just sort of hint at it. He's been working on a major immigration proposal with respect to, yes, border security, but also legal immigration reform, visa reform, interior enforcement, all kinds of things. That is an issue that's important to all Americans. They've been clear in the polls that immigration.

Starting point is 00:08:03 is important to them. Building the wall was a signature campaign promise of his, and we know that President Trump, he personally cares about going through and making sure he is meeting all of his campaign promises. And the wall is one of them. This time last year, last time we were talking about a state of the union address, there was a government shutdown about the issue of building the wall. Democrats have tried to block him from achieving that, basically just because it was a campaign promise of his, not for any sort of policy reason. He has, as you mentioned, has some success in doing that, but not enough. We need more border security, more border infrastructure, and this is going to be a key year for building the wall. Not a lot of that has to do with

Starting point is 00:08:49 Congress, as you mentioned. At this point, it is an administration project. They don't need Congress to do what they're going to do in 2020 with respect to the wall, but he may very well mention it in the State of the Union because as we know, the audience for the State of the Union is not just who's sitting there in that chamber. They think they're the only audience, but they're very wrong about that. It's the American people. All right. Well, Tommy, we're going to be covering at the Daily Signal, giving quick heritage responses to what the president has to say. So thanks for coming in and give us a preview. Thank you for having me. Enjoy the show. Americans have almost entirely forgotten their history. That's right. And if we want to keep our republic, this needs to change. I'm Jared Stepman. And I'm Fred Lucas. We host The Right Side of History, a podcast dedicated to restoring informed patriotism and busting the negative narratives about America's past. Hollywood, the media, and academia have failed a generation.

Starting point is 00:09:46 We're here to set the record straight on the ideas and people who've made this country great. Subscribe to the Right Side of History on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Stitcher Today. Franklin Graham, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, just had the door slamped in his face in several U.S. K cities. He was set to speak in eight British cities and seven have now canceled on him. It all started when an LGBT group in Liverpool began pressuring the city to cancel his scheduled appearance at a local stadium. The stadium then pulled the plug and released this statement. Over the past few days, we have been made aware of a number of statements which we consider to be incompatible with our values. In light of this, we can no longer reconcile the balance between freedom of speech and the divisive

Starting point is 00:10:33 impact this event is having in our city. The booking will no longer be fulfilled. Well, they didn't go into detail about exactly which of Graham's views were considered offensive, but it's worth noting that the Church of England still holds Graham's views on homosexuality and abortion. Graham responded to the cancellations in a statement. It is said by some that I am coming to the UK to bring hateful speech to your community. This is just not true. I'm coming to share the gospel, which is a is the good news that God loves the people of the UK. The gospel is inclusive. So Rachel, what do you make of the UK canceling Franklin Graham? Well, the first thought that comes to mind is just looking at this statement from the

Starting point is 00:11:18 conference center and them saying that we can no longer reconcile having Franklin Graham here because we can't reconcile balancing freedom of speech and the divisive impact of this event is having in our city to quote them. By its very nature, free speech is going to sort of invite divisiveness because people are going to have different opinions. People are going to disagree. Everyone's not going to come from the same vantage point, whether you're talking about sexuality or politics or whatever the case may be. So I think it's number one disappointing. And I think number two, if they claim to embrace freedom of speech, they're going to have to realize that it's going to be divisive.

Starting point is 00:12:02 and I think we're losing out in society and we're seeing this with safe spaces and snowflakes and free speech. You know, what are those places in college campus? Free speech sounds. Thank you. We're just, we're losing out on diversity of thought because God forbid that we, you know, have something that we disagree with and it becomes, you know, quote, unquote, divisive. It's going to be divisive if you have free speech. And if you do away with free speech, then maybe you're not going to have, you know, divisive opinions that are out in the open. They're still going to exist.

Starting point is 00:12:30 They might not be out in the open, but you're really. muslin people. So I think it's very concerning. It's a it's sad to see. Yeah, the interesting thing to me is that I'm assuming the issues that they were concerned about, that he had said things about, you know, homosexuality maybe or abortion or Islam maybe because he said things about Islam. I assume those are the things they had in mind. And I wouldn't expect him to bring those things to the forefront in a public gathering. Like at a stadium. I mean, he could, but like it's just not the kind of thing that an evangelist typically does. They're not going to like foreground that stuff.

Starting point is 00:13:04 So I just thought it kind of showed that you don't have to be speaking about any particular topic to get canceled. You just have to have spoken about it and then you're not allowed to say anything. You become irrelevant because of an opinion. Yeah, you can't get a platform for anything. And I think it shows the power of the LGBT lobby in these cities because it just showed that the local leaders were. so afraid of getting on the wrong side of this lobby. They just canceled his appearances. So, I mean, that's kind of toxic when you can just shoot somebody down like that.

Starting point is 00:13:40 It made me sort of think, though, of that episode in The Crown. I've been following... I've seen parts of the crowd. I probably only seen, like, the equivalent of maybe a half of season. So I probably haven't seen you so continue. Well, I won't ruin it for you. But in the first season, there's a really good episode where Billy Graham, this is like in the 1960s. And Billy Graham is touring the UK.

Starting point is 00:13:59 and he sits down and meets with the queen and they show like a few clips, like fictional clips of him preaching to big audiences. And they actually portray him in a pretty positive light. I was pleasantly surprised. And he gives some like spiritual counsel to the queen and she really appreciates him. It's just a much, much different interaction. And it's the kind of thing that probably couldn't happen today or at least isn't happening today. But it just shows you kind of how much things have changed.

Starting point is 00:14:26 It has changed a lot. That's interesting to hear. And one more thing, looking at the gay lobby self-professed that they want to be an opening, welcoming community that embraces, you know, people from different thought and from different perspectives and different sexual backgrounds, whatever. But when it comes to maybe someone who might hold an opposite viewpoint on that, they're canceled. And that's a huge in the consistency there as well. Well, it's a good place for us to leave today. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio. at the Heritage Foundation.

Starting point is 00:15:00 Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify, and please leave us a review or are raining on Apple Podcasts to give us any feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, the Leah Rampersad, and Mark Geinney. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - What to Expect in Trump’s State of the Union Address

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