The Keith Edwards Show - James Talarico Exposes Christian Hypocrisy In 30 Seconds

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

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You know, one thing I think that we don't do enough, and I showed you a video on this yesterday, but I do think that it's important to keep showing that one of the most powerful things you can do when someone disagrees with you or you know you are on the right side of an issue is to meet with the person who disagrees with you and to talk to them, talking about why you believe what you believe. It was kind of not really talked a lot about, but James Talarico went on Jubilee and he talked to some undecided voters about a wide range of issues. He also won the New York Times podcast with Ezra Klein. I think this guy is a good communicator. And one thing about him that I did not know previously is that he is from a district.

They've redrawn it now. It's bluer. But he is from a district that voted for Trump twice and voted for Abbott. So there are Abbott-Taleroico voters. And I will tell you this, if we have any shot of winning a state like Texas, a very red state that voted for Trump plus 13 in the previous election, we need folks who know how to talk to people who might disagree with them. Or might be like, I don't know about that guy. I don't know about that guy with the D next to his name. So if you don't know, James Tallerick has a very long wind up.

But if you don't know, James Salarico is running for U.S. Senate in Texas. There's a primary. and he is an option, and I think he's a good one. Before we do, Jubilee, I actually want to watch this from the Ezra Klein podcast. Here is Tolerico talking about the religious right. For the past 50 years in this country, the religious right, a political movement, convinced a lot of Christians in America that the two most important issues were abortion and homosexuality. Two issues that aren't really discussed in scripture.

abortion is never mentioned, consensual same-sex relationships are never mentioned. And so it's remarkable to me that you have an entire political movement using Christianity to prioritize two issues that Jesus never talked about. And so I'm not saying they're not important. I actually think both of those issues are very important. But to focus on those two things, instead of feeding the hungry and healing the sick and welcoming the stranger, three things we're told to do ad nauseum in scripture. To me is just mind-blowing.

How do you understand that? Because I'm Jewish, but when I read the New Testament, that's good shit. Put it in my veins. How you counter this disgusting version of Christianity is by reminding people what Christianity actually is. Now again, is this the message that would work in New York City? No.

No. Were that working in L.A.? No. Miami, maybe, definitely in Texas. I always come away a little bit amazed that politicized Christianity is so worried about gender, sexuality, and so unconcerned with greed. You're preaching to the choir. Absolutely. Concern for the poor, concern for the oppressed is everywhere.

I mean, economic justice has mentioned 3,000 times in our scriptures, both the New Testament and the Hebrew scriptures. And so this is such a core part of our tradition. And it's nowhere to be seen in Christian nationalism or on the religious right. And the Bible is all over the place when it comes to marriage. Paul tells us not to get married. And you see certainly many different kinds of marriages throughout Scripture. And the same with gender. You know, Paul says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, which is pretty woke for the first century.

That is woke. I did not know that. You know? And so, yeah, again, it's because religion is being used to control people and accumulate power and wealth for those at the top. This is a tale as old as time. And it is not unique to Christianity. Powerful people will always see religion as a tool to make more money and be able to keep people in line. Wow. That is a powerful. message. And I got to say, it goes very, very nicely into the next clip. James Salarico talks to this Texas voter who's undecided about welfare queens. And I love who he says is the real welfare queen in this country. You might know the answer. Republicans in D.C. are trying to raise premiums on some Americans. That will end up raising premiums on all of us. Right now, they're cutting food

assistance for hungry kids and working parents, that's going to end up raising grocery prices for all of us. And so they may think that they're just attacking some Americans, but in fact, they're attacking all Americans. I want to focus on the religious aspect, because I agree. Yeah, yeah. Have a very Christian background. Yeah. But if you look at major religions, including Christianity, it is not a focus on a political system. It's a focus on individual responsibility. And when the political system takes away the individual responsibility and says, don't worry, the government's going to take care of you. You were absolutely going to catch people who need that. And it's a hand up and it helps them. But you're also going to take away from the individual responsibility, which is needed to get

out of those situations. So when you talk about food stamps and health care and helping, how do you balance that? Because I haven't heard a good democratic argument of, great, let's help people. But how are you per? There are nasty people. There are, welfare queens. There are nasty people who take advantage. Why? Why did the editor go to this person when they said welfare queen. There are nasty people who take advantage of the system and take away from those who earned it, take away from those who need it.

So how are you going to take that into account? How are you going to make sure we cover that risk as well? The biggest welfare queens in this country are the giant corporations that don't pay a penny in federal taxes. The biggest welfare queens are the CEOs who get a tax deduction for flying on a private jet. it's not hungry kids. It's not working parents who work multiple jobs to provide for their families.

I agree with you that we need individual responsibility. And I don't want to create a culture of dependency. I want a hand up and not a handout. You know, I believe that you don't give a man to fish. You teach a man to fish. But if you're going to take your friend out on a boat for the day to teach him how to fish, you want to make sure he had breakfast that morning. You want to make sure he's not sick because that allows him to learn how to fish.

Again, I was a public school teacher. So I saw how when kids showed up hungry, they couldn't learn that day. Even my brightest students, even my hardest working students, couldn't succeed, couldn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they didn't have boots. That's what I'm trying to fix in this country. That is a powerful message. And that's something that I don't think Democrats do enough of. We don't turn the talking points around on them, you know?

We are always in defense mode. We're always in defense mode. James Tarrico operates from a yes and, yes. I want to make sure that we're not giving handouts, but we're giving a hand up. Is that what he said? I think he said that. And the biggest welfare queens in this country are the CEOs, billionaires, and corporations, which is actually true.

There are so many tax breaks we give these people. Elon Musk would it exist if he did not have our money funneling into his companies? And we just saw this week that Elon Musk, AI, best friend Grock, he's signing a contract with the Pentagon. SpaceX is funded by our money. I'm not worried about people trying to get by. Most people, 99.9% of people want to, first off, be self-sustaining. Secondly, are good people and aren't trying to rip anyone off. You know how many people when I worked in television where when a show would end,

So many people would be like, I'm not going to apply for unemployment insurance because I don't feel right. Like there's so many people like that. By the way, and if you do get unemployed, you pay into that, take the money. But there are so many people who aren't trying to rip anyone off and thank God, these programs do exist because they really do help people be able to get a leg up. Poverty is one of the hardest things to get out of. It's a trap. It's next to impossible to climb out of it. And I think the government's role should not be obviously to make people dependent, but to give them a ladder to get out of a hole. That's one thing we could do. All right, let's watch this. Unless it means providing health care to the sick or funding food assistance for the hungry or raising the minimum wage for the poor, it seems like they want to base our laws on the Bible until they read the words of Jesus. Welcome the stranger. Liberate the oppressed. Put away your sword. So all your possessions and give the money to the poor. I'm not exactly sure a Christian nation is.

really what these people want. I believe the separation of church and state is sacred, but I do think if these people are going to call for a Christian nation, they need to reach for all of it. I fought the bill to require the Ten Commandments posted in every classroom. And I've often wondered, instead of posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom, why don't they post money as the root of all evil in every boardroom? Why don't they post, do not judge in every courtroom? Why don't they post turn the other cheek in the halls of the Pentagon? or it's easier for a camel to pass the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven. I'm like, James, James, they're already dead. He's like, boosh, push, push. What about this? What about this in the Bible? On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. This is the inconsistency I'm trying to call out because they're using my tradition. They're speaking for me.

And so I think I have a special moral responsibility to combat Christian nationalism wherever I see it. These politicians. Wow. That was radical. I want to watch one more. Do you want to watch one more? All right. Immigrantz.

Hi, Terence. Nice to meet you. I'm kind of tough. I'm not sorry. Where we disagree, I think, is this idea that immigrants as a whole are a drain on this country. That's where I strongly disagree. Because again, Texas, right? This is a big, big topic.

These immigrants are doing jobs. that native born Americans won't do. And here's, and here I'll give you an example. I disagree. How do you, how do you know that? Let me give you an example. Who does you ask? Who does you ask?

Yeah, I don't want that job. I talked to an avocado farmer in California. Okay. He's been running this farm for 20 years. He said he has never had a native born American applied work for one of his jobs. Let me ask you a question. Yeah.

How many black people are in California? In Los Angeles or? In California? I don't know. I don't know much about California. It's under 7% now. He doesn't have enough people to that need jobs in California for you to make that statement toward Texas. It's not even that job. Texas, more black people stay in Texas, more foundational white Americans stay in Texas.

Let's just talk holistically. There are seven million jobs. But holistically doesn't work for everyone. But I'm talking globally about the economy. There are seven million jobs that are unfilled in this country. We have more jobs than we do workers in America right now. And these are, as you know, some of the toughest jobs, right? Picking our fruit, taking care of our children and our elders, paving our highways.

These are jobs that are difficult. And the research shows that undocumented immigrants are really just competing against other recent immigrants. They're not competing with Native-born Americans who, in many cases, whether it's that avocado farm or whether it's other industries across the country, Native-born Americans will not sign up to mow our lawns. And so if we go after these immigrants, we're not just hurting them and their families and their ability to live the American dream. We're hurting the entire economy.

We're hurting ourselves. And then I'll go one step further. Those immigrants go on oftentimes to create jobs. Half of all Fortune 500 CEOs are immigrants. I forgot about that. That is, first off, true. Second, we don't say that enough. Also, we're all, I mean, this is so,

over said, but we're all immigrants. Very few of us were born here. Okay? Like our ancestors, obviously I was born here and so were you. But many of us got here some way. Not many of us are native to this country. And I just, it's just so, I mean, it's just atelable as old as time. Anyways, I, this guy, he's got the juice, in my opinion. He's got the juice. He's got that X factor. He's got something special. It's a shame it's happening in Texas because even if he wakes it past the primary, you get really hard to win. But I think someone like this could be a shot in the arm to Democrats, not only in that state, but across the country. I mean, it is really just showing a different way to do politics.

That's what I think so exciting about this is it's just a different way to be a Democrat. And I do love that Democrats can come in all different shades of blue. Okay. All right. Okay. I feel a little energized. Hope you are too. Bye.