(upbeat music)
- It's day 33 of the partial shutdown
and two plans to reopen the government
head to the Senate withlittle chance of passing.
Why White House press briefings
have practically becomes nonexistent.
And how school choice couldshape the future of education.
All this and more tonight on Faith Nation.
(upbeat music)
The fate of this year's State of the Union
is not looking good, andthat is an understatement.
Welcome to Faith Nation,I'm Jenna Browder.
- And I'm John Jessup.
Well it's been back andforth between President Trump
and Nancy Pelosi today all surrounding
if the State of the Union speechwill take place next week.
- For more we turn now to BenKennedy at the White House.
Ben.
- Well John and Jenna,President Trump moments ago
the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi,
has canceled the State of the Union.
As John was talking about,
it's been a bit of a backand forth throughout the day.
First Trump sent a letterto Speaker Pelosi saying,
despite your recommendationto push back this speech
I've decided to give it a green light.
In fact on Tuesday he reachedout to the Sergeant at Arms
to make sure things were clear
and good to go for the speech.
A reporter asked Speaker Pelosi today,
what if Trump does in fact showup on 129, what will you do?
Well the Speaker said,he'll have to talk outside
as I'm not opening the House Chambers.
Well today she did reject Trump's letter
and moments ago the Commanderin Chief did give a response.
Take a listen.
- I'm not surprised.
It's really a shame what'shappening with the Democrats.
They've become radicalized,
they don't wanna see crime stopped,
which we can very easilydo on the southern border,
and it really is a shame
what's happening with the Democrats.
This will go on for a while.
Ultimately the Americanpeople will have no way to--
- And President Trumpadds that Speaker Pelosi
doesn't want the Americanpublic to hear what's going on
and that she's afraid of the truth.
So the big question now is what's next
for the State of the Union Address.
Well, President Trump says
they are exploring alternative options
and that he will, ofcourse, keep us posted.
But I'm sure that once bothsides eventually get together,
come together for somesort of a compromise,
hash out a deal, and thegovernment is back open,
I'd assume the speech will infact eventually move forward.
John, Jenna.
- Alright, Ben Kennedyfor us at the White House.
Thank you very much.
Of course all of this stems from the fight
over funding of the government.
- That's right, and Abigail Robertson
joins us now from Capitol Hill.
Abigail, the Senate has twomeasures it's looking at
to end the partial shutdown.
But I understand neither hasmuch of a chance of passing.
- Yes, well John, thetwo bills really reflect
the issue at the heart of this matter.
Democrats want a bill thatreopens the government
before they negotiate on bordersecurity and border funding.
And Republicans insist that any bill
to reopen the governmentmust include money
for the border barrierthat the President wants.
- First and foremost the legislation
would end this partial shutdown.
- [Abigail] The Majority Leader pitched
a renewed Senate Bill thatwould reopen the government
and provide temporary protections
for around one million immigrants.
But it includes one snag.
- And yes, additional fundingfor physical barriers,
like the walls and fences.
- [Abigail] That sticking point remains
too high of a barrier forDemocrats to overcome.
At least not before thegovernment is reopened.
- There is serious and justified concern
that this president wouldshut down the government
any time he does not gethis way legislatively.
That is why we must hold the line.
- We should vote to opengovernment 'til February 8th.
- [Abigail] Virginia Democrat, Tim Kaine,
said if the Senatepassed an alternate bill
to reopen the government for 15 days
it would provide room to negotiate.
- Try to make the Billas strong as it can be,
as bipartisan as it can be,because it would need to be
to have a realistic chanceof passing in the House.
- [Abigail] Federal workers said to miss
a second monthly paycheck onFriday are tired of waiting.
- It doesn't come anywhereclose to offsetting
the salary that we're missing.
- [Abigail] Jon Manley isan air traffic controller
and father of seven who has taken
to driving for Uber on his days off.
He joins others, includingFBI agents and service members
looking for other workto put food on the table.
- I find it unacceptable thatCoast Guard men and women
have to rely on foodpantries and donations
to get through day-to-daylife as service members.
- Now the Democrats'Temporary Spending Bill
is set for a vote in the Senate tomorrow
but even if it were to passthe Senate and then the House,
without funding for the border wall,
it is very unlikely thePresident would sign this.
- Abigail, both sides are holding firm.
As we approach day 34 of thepartial government shutdown
it appears there are somecracks that are starting to form
among members of both parties.
- That's right, John.
There's a group ofModerate House Democrats
that are urging Speaker Pelosito offer President Trump
a vote on funding for the border wall
if he agrees to reopen the government.
Now, Pelosi and Schumerhave said that they
do not want to negotiate untilthe government is reopened,
and you might remember a few weeks ago
when Pelosi was at the White House
and President Trump floated the idea
of reopening the government if she
would agree to funding theborder wall in a few weeks,
and she said, no, she doesnot wanna give even a dollar
towards President Trump's border wall.
So while we are seeing a growing amount
of lawmakers very frustratedwith this situation,
hoping to see a compromise,the shutdown stalemate
really won't end untilleadership comes together
and finds some kind of solutionfor the American people.
- Abigail, we've seen somethese furlough workers
turning to food banksand taking donations.
Talk about how the church community
is stepping up and really helping.
- Yeah, here's some goodnews in all of this.
We're seeing a fewchurches around the D.C.
and surrounding area step up to help
the furloughed workersin their congregation,
and even if they're notin their congregation.
We visited First Baptist Churchof Glenarden this afternoon
where they have given out25 hundred bags of groceries
over the past three daysto federal employees
who are not receiving their paycheck.
And here's a look at the reaction
when some of those employees go through.
- I would say in the midst of this
God promised peace thatsurpasses understanding.
And there's a lot ofpeople who don't understand
where our next meal, orwhen our next paycheck
is coming from.
So in the middle just prayingfor peace and provision.
We get a chance to be atleast a hand in that provision
and we've been prayingalong with people here,
but the biggest thing is just so people
can get what they need and I feel like
those two biggest needs,along with their paycheck,
is peace and it's provision.
- And tomorrow we're gonna speak
with National CommunityChurch here in D.C.
that has set up an onlinefund for furloughed workers
that anyone around the country can give to
that will gift cards to federal employees
that aren't receiving their paycheck.
So stay tuned for moreinformation on that.
- It's great to see thechurches step up and help.
Abigail Robertson on CapitolHill, thank you so much.
- Well President Trump says he told
his White House Press Secretary
not to bother with press briefings.
The traditional dailyupdates have been lacking
under the Trump Administration.
It's not been 36 days since the last time
Sarah Sanders took the podium.
That is the longest period of time
the country's gone withouta Presidential briefing
since President Trump took office.
The last official WhiteHouse press briefing
was on December 18th.
- Well for more, on notonly press briefings,
but also the media'saccess to the President,
we now turn to someone who's not stranger
to the Briefing Room, ChiefPolitical Analyst, David Brody.
David, give us some perspective here.
True, there are fewer press briefings,
but that really doesn'taccount for the accessibility
of the occupant of the Oval Office.
- That's right, he reallyis, John and Jenna,
on his way to becoming themost accessible president ever.
Right now Ronald Reagan holds that mantle,
give it a couple years,Donald Trump is on his way.
The Briefing Room,another matter obviously.
This is a president who'snot just Commander in Chief,
he is Communicator in Chief and he's not
a big fan of protocol as folks
in the White House BriefingRoom are finding out.
(crickets chirping)
We added in the crickets,but this a real look
at the White House Press Briefing Room
where there hasn't been a pressconference for over a month.
The White House Correspondents Association
issued this statement,quote, "This retreat from
transparency and accountabilitysets a terrible precedent."
But the President declaredin a Tweet that, quote,
"The reason Sarah Sanders does not go
to the "podium" muchanymore is that the press
covers her so rudely and inaccurately,
in particular certainmembers of the press.
I told her not to bother,the word gets out anyway!"
That seems to be a nod towards Jim Acosta,
the reporter in the middleof all those lawsuits
between the White House and CNN,
and, of course, thatcontentious press conference
from a little while back.
Of course, Jim Acosta will go to Twitter,
like he normally does, and he did it again
and he basically said to Sarah Sanders,
you haven't had a pressconference, a press briefing,
since the shutdown began.
In a Tweet Acosta said,quote, "Sanders has not
taken one question from thepodium about a shutdown.
We have to catch her in thedriveway after her hits on Fox."
Well the Press Secretary fired back
during one of those Fox hits.
Take a listen to this.
- We're in the businessof getting information
to the American people, notmaking stars out of people
that wanna become contributors on CNN.
- Alright, so let's go ahead and compare
the number of White House briefings
in this administration compared
to a previous administration,
as in the Obama Administration.
During the same time period,
between the start of hertenure and late 2018,
about 18 months or so,
Sanders held six fewerpress briefings per month
than President Obama's PressSecretary, Josh Earnest.
But you have to rememberTwitter comes into play here.
President Trump on Twitter all of the time
making his views known.
In addition to that let's remember
that President Trump is notafraid to take questions,
as a matter of fact, they'vebeen tracking statistics
since Reagan and it turns out that,
other than President Clinton,
Donald Trump has the mostexchanges with the press.
Just look at the nonpartisanstudy done by Martha Kumar,
director of the White House
Transition Project Towson University
because when they add up interviews
and short question and answer sessions,
President Trump has held 372 exchanges,
and that beats President Obama with 308,
and President George W. Bush at 318.
So while the press makes a big stink
about no hearing from the Press Secretary,
it really can't saythat they haven't heard
from the man in charge.
As a matter of fact, the media critic
from the Washington Post,
not necessarily aConservative organization,
if you know what I mean, saysTrump is extremely accessible.
So the question really becomes,
why all the fuss in the media?
Well, when Sandersappeared on Faith Nation
more than a year ago she had a theory.
- You know, I've neverseen the level of hostility
that we have withtoday's mainstream media.
I've been in politics a long time
and even a prettyhostile media when my dad
first took office in Arkansas,
but it pales in comparison tothe day-in, day-out attacks
that are taking place on this president.
And this is a president who loves
to talk directly to the American people,
it's one of the reasons,I think, he was elected,
because he has that abilityto reach out directly
through those social media platforms.
I think that's a positive and something
that we should certainly elevate
and let him have funwith from time to time.
- You know a lot of the folkswho support Donald Trump
say he's accomplished a lot in two years.
Here's one thing you cannot dispute,
the Liberal mainstream media
was always there from the get go,
but under Donald Trumphe really has exposed
and outed a lot of thesemainstream journals
who we never thoughtwere quite that Liberal,
or that Leftist before, orthat agenda-driven before.
But indeed, I think we'veseen quite a bit of that
in the first two years ofthe Trump Administration.
- And David, what's yourtake, what's your sense,
is there a danger here witha lack of press briefings,
and especially as it relates to trust
between the Presidentand the American people?
- Well I think we, allof us as journalists,
should just for sure goon the record and say,
the more briefings, the better.
I don't think there'sany question about that.
Having said that, look,Donald Trump has opened up,
we call these the pool sprays,
you know where a pool camera,
in other words one networkreporter and a camera man go in,
and all of a sudden it becomesfor an hour and a half,
and hour and a half meeting,
so that's a lot oftransparency right there.
What about Chuck and Nancyand what happened there?
When Trump actuallyworked against them there
where he said, I'd be proudto shut down the government.
So if we weren't getting briefings
but we were actually noteven getting anything
from Trump himself, that'd be one thing.
But boy, he's been very, very accessible.
- Very accessible and yeah, we'll see
if the State of the Union also happens.
- Yeah, I'll be around for that.
- You know, either way Ithink we'll hear from him.
- I think that's a good bet,I'm gonna take that bet.
- Yeah, thanks David.
Alright, well the Trump White House
is putting forward moreConservative judges.
- That's right, this week it renominated
51 Federal Judicial nominees left over
from the previous Congress
but getting them confirmedmay take some time.
Republicans accuse Democratsof slow-walking these nominees
taking the unusual stepof using the full 30 hours
allotted to debate each one.
Right now there are morethan 160 judicial vacancies
in the Federal Court system,which is more than there were
when President Trump tookoffice two years ago.
- Well the Judicial CrisisNetwork is getting ready
to launch a major ad campaign
to put pressure on these Democrats.
Carrie Severino with the JCN joins us now.
Carrie, good to see you,thanks so much for being here.
- Great to be here.
- Carrie, tell us about this$1.5 million ad campaign.
- Well we're excited tosee these renominations
and we've been thrilled to see
the efforts the Trump Administration
and Leader McConnellin the Senate have made
to get great judges confirmed.
Record numbers of Circuit Judges
in particular being confirmed.
But the push-back we've had the Democrats,
the procedural gimmicks they'veused to slow judges down
have resulted in skyrocketingnumbers of vacancies,
and then we're seeing areally disturbing trend now
of bullying nominees, evenunconstitutional religious tests
kind of being thrownaround, very disappointing.
So our ad is wanting tohighlight that saying,
hey look, this is has been one of
the really successful aspectsof this administration.
We need to move forward in these nominees,
and we have to makesure we are standing up
against these bullies.
- Carrie, SenateRepublicans are discussing
the nuclear option, whichwould eliminate the filibuster
and significantly cutdown that debate time.
Do you think that thatis the right play here?
- Well actually the Democrats have already
eliminated the filibusteritself for these judges.
What they're not doingis they trying to use
procedural hooks to just add extra time,
and we're talking this isup to 30 hours per judge.
It's not even time they use
to talk about the judge themselves,
very rarely are the judges evenmentioned during that time,
it's just an effort to run out the clock.
These are judges who used to be confirmed
with a voice vote in packaged deals
so it would take literally moments
and you'd get a bunch ofjudges confirmed at once.
Now they're trying to drag it out
so each judge takes days anddays and wastes Senate time.
This is not a good move, it'snot good for our country,
it's a waste of time for the Senate.
I think it may be at the point where
we have to just change therules to limit that debate time.
It's something that was done during
the Obama Administration as well,
that was a bipartisanagreement at that time.
Unfortunately maybe the eraof bipartisanship is behind us
and we need at this point just say,
if we have to just do it with 51 votes
we're gonna limit some of the ability
to waste Americans' time inthose procedural gimmicks
and move forward on someof these great judges.
- Carrie, bring this home foreverybody sitting at home,
if these seats docontinue to remain vacant,
what does this mean forthe average American?
What are the repercussion?
- Well anyone who's trying toget their case heard in court,
you have a slower and slower process.
But let's not forget what the end game is.
The reason the Democrats are trying
to slow these judgesdown is because they know
one of their ways to accomplish the things
they're not able to do at the ballot box,
that they don't have public support for,
is to do it through the back door
with getting judgeswho are going to behave
more like politicians than like judges
just enforcing the law.
The nominees that PresidentTrump has put forward
are so principled, they are committed
to following theConstitution as it's written,
following the text of thelaws as they're passed.
That's something we shouldall be able to get behind,
it's only a threat when you'resomeone coming from the Left
who's used to using those judges
to get around the words ofthe Constitution or the law.
So what the real goal is here,
they'd like to just stopTrump from being able
to put these incrediblyprincipled and qualified
men and women on the court.
And I think that's why they're just
pulling out all the stops,it's not just the procedure,
it's this, as I said, bullying,
it's people using smear campaigns,
it's people saying,well if are a Christian,
if you're a member of, for example,
the Knights of Columbus,a Catholic organization,
you're not fit for the bench.
And that's somethingthat is very worrisome,
it's profoundly un-American to say
that there should be a religious test
and people of the Christian faith
should not be eligiblefor judicial offices.
- And deeply concerningto so many Americans.
Alright, Carrie Severino,thank you so much,
good to see you.
- Great to be here.
- A faith-based foster careprogram has been granted
a request to help protectits religious liberty.
Today the Administrationfor Children and Families,
a branch of the Departmentof Health and Human Services,
announced South Carolinabased Miracle Hill Ministries
can continue to select foster parents
who align with their religious beliefs.
Now some have criticized the requirement
as discriminatory against people
of different faith backgrounds
though many hailed today's announcement
as a win for faith-based groups.
Some, like southern Baptistleader, Russell Moore,
spoke out about the foster kids
at the heart of the debate Tweeting,
"We can have our culture arguments,
but not at the expenseof vulnerable children
who need loving homes."
- How the Trump Administration
is reshaping the future of the judiciary.
That story when we come back.
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The young man at center of a viral video
that ignited a nationwidedebate is speaking out.
The video appeared toshow a group of students,
many of them wearing MakeAmerica Great Again hats
surrounding a Native Americangroup at the Lincoln Memorial.
But another longervideo shows the students
being harassed by a third party.
16 year old, Nick Sandmann, told NBC News
he was trying to calm things down.
- As far as standing there,I had every right to do so.
My position is that I was notdisrespectful to Mr. Phillips.
I respect him, I'd like to talk to him.
I mean in hindsight I wishwe could have walked away
and avoided the whole thing.
- And joining me now is ScottWhitlock, Associate Editor
at the media research center Newsbusters.
Scott, thank you for being with us today.
- Thanks for having me on.
- Well, Scott, you saw clipsfrom the Today Show interview
with the CovingtonCatholic High School teen.
What's your response to the coverage?
- Well, I think it's anoutgrowth of the original covered
which was originally theyjumped to conclusions
'cause they wanted this to be true
and then we saw a bit ofback-peddling over the weekend
as it appeared that it wasn't.
But on NBC, and the TodayShow, and the Nightly News
they were still trying to put some kind
of culpability onto thesekids in kind of saying,
well what did they do to provoke this,
or what was their role in this?
And it seems like a lotof these journalists
simply don't wanna admit thatthey were wrong in this case.
- Scott, there's been a lot of talk
about the media blundersoverall in this coverage.
Newsbusters has labeled the coverage
as disgusting and shameful.
What is it exactly thatyou find most alarming?
Is it the rush to judgment?
Is it not correcting the record?
Or is it something else?
- I think it's a combination because yeah,
it's certainly the rush to judgment
and we've seen that over, and over again,
specifically during the Trump presidency.
But when they want something to be true
they don't bother to check it,
we saw that last Fridaywith the Buzzfeed story,
and I think these twostories are very similar.
And then after this happened,
after it became apparent thatthe initial story was wrong,
we didn't really get apologies.
What we got was essentially saying
that this story's morecomplicated, more nuanced,
that was a word they used a lot,
than they originally said.
Not we were wrong.
- Not a full-blown apology,or a full-blown correction.
We don't yet know who'sbehind the fake account
who posted that initialpartial viral video.
Some suggest it couldbe political operatives,
like we saw on the 2017Alabama special election.
Interestingly, today on the700 Club CBN CEO commented
how foreign actors aim to use social media
to drive Americans further apart
on everything from politics, to race,
and guns, and even vaccinesback in 2016 election.
Who do you think is behindall of this and why?
Well that's the thing, we don't know.
It could be anyone.
I will say that whatwe've seen with Twitter
is that journalists aresupposed to have editors.
If you're in the TV business
or in the newspaperbusiness, you have an editor.
And we have these same journalists,
they have no editor on Twitter,
so there's no one who's gonna say,
hey maybe you shouldn't jump and assume
this is the way it initially seems to be.
So we don't know who was behind it
but I have a real problemwith these journalists who,
with no sort of factchecking or real evidence,
assume the worst.
They assume these kidswearing MAGA hats were guilty
and that's just wrong,
that's not how journalism should be done.
- Scott, we have just alittle under a minute left.
As you know the Presidenthas called these students
victims of fake news.
He's extended aninvitation to the students
after the school was forced to close
due to threats and protests.
What about coverage now that the President
has waded into the situation?
- Well any time the President weighs in
they kind of assume bad motivation for him
so we haven't necessarily seen that yet
but there has beenaccusations from the press
that the President is kindof making this political,
as if that wasn't alreadydone from the beginning
by these same journalists.
- Scott Whitlock with Newsbusters,
thank you so much for being with us today.
- Thanks for having me on.
- Welcome back.
Well Venezuelan presidentNicolás Maduro says
he's breaking off relationswith the United States
and U.S. diplomats have 72hours to get out of his country.
- That came after the leader of
the opposition-controlledcongress, Juan Guaidó,
declared himself interim presidentand called for elections.
President Trump immediately backed Guaidó.
- Well as far as any possibleU.S. military action,
President Trump says, theU.S. isn't considering
anything specific but, quote,
"All options are on the table."
The Trump Administration has imposed
several rounds of sanctions on Venezuela
over the last two years tryingto pressure the government
to restore democracy.
Well that's gonna do itfor tonight's Faith Nation.
- Have a great evening.
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