(upbeat instrumental music)

- [Jenna] Tonight, a fresh budget battle.

- We need the wall and it has to be built.

- [John] Over a well-warned promise

is heading up on Capitol Hill.

- [Jenna] With Democrats warning

of another government shutdown.

- It is exciting to be here!

- [John] Democrats hit thecampaign trail across the country

in spring training for 2020.

- Donald Trump must be defeated.

- [Jenna] Plus defining the enemy

and sharpening their message.

- All this and the crisis in Venezuela

spins out of control on Faith Nation.

(upbeat instrumental music)

Budget blow back

over the Pesident's2020 spending proposals.

Welcome to Faith Nation.

I'm John Jessup.

- And I'm Jenna Browder.

- President Trump's 2020 budget

unveiled earlier todayaims to cut spending

by two at $0.7 trillion

and raise the deficit in 15 years.

He also wants billionsmore for the border.

- But if the past is any indication,

that request isn't going anywhere

in a Democrat-controlled House.

For more on how law makers

are responding to theWhite House's proposal,

we turn to Capitol Hillcorrespondent, Abigail Robertson.

Abigail?

- Well, that's right, Jenna.

President Trump is certainlynot giving up the fight

to fund the wall,

asking Congress on Mondayfor another $8.6 billion

for a 722-mile long physical barrier

along the Southern border.

- We need the wall and it has to be built.

We wanna build it fast.

- In a unified rejection,

Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi

and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer

warned this could lead toanother government shutdown,

saying, "Congressrefused to fund his wall,

"and he was forced to admit defeat

"and reopen the government.

"The same thing will repeat itself.

"We hope he learned his lesson."

But the White House thinksthe fight is worth it.

President Trump stillwants about $8 billion

from last month's emergency declaration

after Congress gave him less than two

for a physial barrier.

But he faces legal challengeson accessing that money.

- I would just say that thewhole issue of the wall,

border security is ofparamount importance.

We have a crisis down there.

The President has madethat case very effectively.

- [Abigail] White Houseeconomic advisor, Larry Cudlow,

told Fox News cutting spendingis another key element

in this budget.

- And the President is proposing

roughly a 5% across the board reduction

in domestic spending accounts.

It will be a tough budget.

We're gonna do our own caps this year

and I think it's long overdue.

Some of these recent budget deals

have not be favorable towards spending.

- [Abigail] The WhiteHouse says this proposal

makes reining in recklessWashington spending

and returning to fiscalsanity a major priority.

- Well, I hate to tell you,

but it is headed to $23 trillion.

Neither party seems tobe able to do anything

to stop this inexorablecrisis of national debt.

- [Abigail] Stephen Moore,

a former Trump economic advisor

believes nothing short ofa war on wasteful spending

will change the tide.

- Well, there's always what wecall fourth quarter spending

where agencies, if theyhaven't spent all the money

they were allocated by Congress,

they furiously try to spend money on,

it doesn't even matterwhat they spend it on.

You know, the moneyjust flows out the door.

- [Abigail] Moore saysone way to change that

would be to offer incentives.

Maybe some bonus to law makersfinding ways to cut spending.

- The problem is theincentives in Washington

are to increase your spending

because that's how you geta budget increase next year.

- [Abigail] That's one of the reasons

why the US Federal Debtreached 22 trillion

and is still growing.

- So Congress and the President

should insist that in exchange

for raising that debt ceiling,

we have spending cuts that make sure

we're not going to $30trillion over the next decade.

- The country continues toadd billions in debt each day.

Just last week, TreasurySecretary Steve Manuchin

asked Congress to raise theFederal debt ceiling ASAP.

Now the Treasury Department is on track

to run out of money topay the nation's bills

by the end of Septemberunless Congress takes action

and raises the debt ceiling.

- Abigail, what happensnext with the budget?

- Well, this budget in theDemocrat-controlled House,

it's not likely to go anywhere.

This is a chance for the WhiteHouse and President Trump

to lay out his prioritiesand where he would like

to see money allocated and money go,

but Congress does nothave to adhere to this

and as we heard, Pelosiand Schumer certainly

did not give this positive reviews.

Other Democrats have calledit a fantasy document,

so now Congress will come upwith their own 2020 budget

which presumably will look quite different

to what the White House laid out today.

- Abigail, is this setting the stage

for another possibleshutdown come September?

- Oh, certainly.

Many Democrat lawmakers are saying

this is showing that we could probably

face another governmentshutdown in September.

Now as we know, last fall,when President Trump laid out

how much money he wantedto see for the wall

which Congress did not give him,

that then led to thelongest government shutdown

in American history,

and now President Trump is asking

for even more money thanbefore, $8.3 billion,

and Democrat lawmakershave not, to my knowledge,

changed that stance onbuilding that physical barrier

in the past few weeks,

so I think that we certainly could see

another governmentshutdown come September.

- Abigail, we know theHouse passed a Resolution

opposing the President'sdeclaration on a National Emergency

on the US-Mexico border.

Where does that stand now?

- Well, this Senate is going to have

to get on that Resolution by Friday

because it's what's calleda privilege resolution,

so while Republican'sleadership in the Senate

does not necessarily wantto bring this to the floor,

they have to because ofthe rules of Congress.

Now, we are hearing that asmany as 15 Republican Senators

could vote with their Democrat colleagues,

rebuking President Trump'sNational Emergency declaration

and these are Republicanswho don't necessarily,

they're not necessarilyagainst border security

and building a border wall,

but they are concerned withthe precedent that they set

in the overreach of executive power.

So they don't necessarily approve

of the method that President Trump took

to get those funds for the border wall.

Now, if it is as many as 15,

maybe even a few more,

that President Trump willlikely, almost certainly,

veto this resolution when it hits his desk

and that 15 is still not enough

to override that veto in the Senate.

So, but yeah,

it is likely going to bea very embarrassing vote

for the White House atthe end of this week.

- Abigail Robertsonreporting on Capitol Hill.

Thanks, Abi.

- Well, to the 2020Presidential Elections,

spring training is in full swing.

Democrats hit the campaigntrail across the country

this weekend, sharpening their message

and defining their enemy.

- Gonna run like there's nothing to lose.

- [Jenna] He's not talking 2020 just yet

and although he lost the2018 Texas Senate race,

Ben O'Rourke remained frontand center this weekend.

- [Ben] What if we ran for Senate?

- [Jenna] With the premier of an HBO film

documenting his excitingbut unsuccessful run.

- By beating Donald Trump,

and that is the highestpurpose that I have right now.

- [Jenna] Democrats answering that call

say they have one goal.

- Donald Trump must be defeated.

- [Jenna] Candidatesfor the 2020 nomination

spread out across thecountry this weekend,

announcing policiesranging from the radical.

- It looks like we're readyfor a political revolution.

(cheering)

- [Jenna] To the mundane.

- We need to reshape Washington.

- I want us, to in a really good way,

and maybe this is Pollyanna,

just be able to discusspolicy differences.

- Hello, Long Island City!

- [Jenna] In New York,

Senator Elizabeth Warrenpitched legislation

to break up tech giantslike Amazon and Facebook.

- We have this giant tech companies

that think they rule the Earth.

It is time to break upAmerica's tech giants.

- His interpretation of scripture

is pretty differentfrom mine to begin with.

- [Jenna] And at a CNN-sponsored town hall

at the South by SouthwestFestival, a hard line.

- My understanding of scripture

is that it is aboutprotecting the stranger

and the prisoner and the poor person,

and that I feel welcome.(cheering)

That's what I get in thegospel when I'm in church.

- [Jenna] From the first openly gay

Democratic presidential candidate

depicting the Vice President's faith.

- His has a lot more to do with sexuality

and I don't know, acertain view of rectitude.

- [Jenna] 37-year-old mayor Pete Guttigieg

used Pence's loyalty as abackhanded swing at his boss.

- How could he allow himself

to become the cheerleaderof the porn star presidency?

Is it that he stoppedbelieving in scripture

when he started believing Donald Trump?

I don't know, I don't know.

- And the Democratstoday announced Milwaukee

is the side of the 2020Democratic National Convention

choosing to nominate theirchallenger to President Trump

in a battleground state of Wisconsin

and CBN News chief politicalanalyst David Brody

joins us now to break down their strategy

and David, first of all,

to this first bit of news, why Milwaukee?

- Because they're goingfor blue collar Democrats.

We talked about that.Is it gonna be the Biden

that wanna win back the Trump voters

and those blue collar states?

Or they wanna, think about it,

Miami and Houston, right?

Texas and Florida and minorities

didn't seem they were going that way.

I thought it's an interestingchoice, makes sense.

Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump

by less than 1% in Wisconsin.

20,000 votes and so here come Democrats.

They're back in 2020.

- A targeted choice.

Regarding the Democrats,

it looks like they're forminginto diverging lanes here.

- Yeah, no they're, for sure.

So there's ElizabethWarren and Bernie Sanders

in the socialist lane

and then there's Amy Klobuchar,

a few others in that pragmatic lane,

John Hickenlooper would be one of them.

And then there's kind of likethe undecided lane right now.

You know, where does KamalaHarris really fit exactly?

Where does Booker fit?

I think that's gonna beinteresting to watch out

but everybody is choosing their lane

but there's a socialismstrain in one of those lanes

for sure.- It's interesting,

the people that you justnoted with Elizabeth Warren

and Kamala Harris, bothof them went on the record

saying they weren't socialists.

I think they're trying to veer away

from that Bernie Sanders lane.

- For sure and Julian Castro,

when asked socialism or capitalism,

he quickly saidcapitalism, so good answer.

Good answer.

- David, Democrats are talkinga lot about this moment

that the President had over the weekend.

He was in Alabama touring the storm damage

and some people there askedhim to sign their Bibles

so he did it, but theyare tearing into it.

What do you make of this?

- Well, the media is, but look,

there are some folks that don'tfeel comfortable, obviously,

with anybody signing aBible or having any sort of

extracurricular writing inside God's Word,

so that's understandable,

but it made me think a little bit

about how we've had arelationship with Donald Trump

and the Bible and CBN

because we've asked him thesequestions throughout the year

so shall we take a trip down memory lane?

- [Jenna] Let's do it.

- All right, thank you for asking.

2011, here we go, DonaldTrump and a Bible.

I understand a lot ofpeople send you Bibles.

Is that true?

- Oh, I get sent Biblesby a lot of people.

- [Gary] Where are those Bibles anyhow?

- Well, actually, we keepthem in a certain place,

a very nice place, butpeople send me Bibles.

And you know, it's very interesting.

I get so much mail

and because I'm in thisincredible location in Manhattan,

you can't keep most ofthem the mail you get.

There's no way I would ever do anything

to do negative to a Bible

so what we do is wekeep all of the Bibles.

We just, I would have a fear

of doing something otherthan very positive.

So actually, I store them and keep them

and sometimes give themaway to other people.

I have my Bible and I thought I'd bring it

and it was written, thiswas written by my mother

and it says, presented toDonald Trump on his graduation

from the Primary Departmentby the Sunday Church School

of First PresbyterianChurch Jamaica, New York

and it's amazing.

And all written out sort of like a,

so that I always know it's mine.

But it's special.

And I open it and I look at that a lot.

Actually, it's an incredible book.

So many things you canlearn from the Bible

and you can lead your life,

and I'm not just talkingin terms of religion.

I'm talking in terms of leading a life,

even beyond a religion.

There's so many brilliantthings in the Bible.

And you can read it over, andmany people have done this,

and they've lived their life that way,

but you can read it hundredsand hundreds of times.

You know, David, they saygreat art like the Mona Lisa,

some people they look at it

and it doesn't look asgreat at the beginning

and they look at, by the time they see it

many, many times, it becomes the most,

I mean, they can't take their eyes off it,

whereas art that's not great,

you look at it, it looksbeautiful at the beginning,

but you get tired of it.

The Bible is special.

The Bible, the more you seeit, the more you read it,

the more incredible itis and the more you,

it's like a great, I mean you could say,

I don't like to use this analogy

but like great movie,great incredible movie.

You'll see it once, be good.

You'll see it 20 times

and every time, you appreciate it more.

The Bible is the most special thing.

- I'm still trying to figure out

if he said incrediblemovie or credible movie.

I don't know but eitherway, I was distracted

by the hat and the sneakers.

Good luck for Mr. MakeAmerica Great Again.

- Nice trip down memory lane.

- Thank you, Sir.

- Thanks, David.

- All right.

- Well, when we come back

an expert and former statedepartment official's

perspective on Venezuela

and coming up with the right policy

as the country spins out of control.

(upbeat instrumental music)

Welcome back.

American experts are on the way to Africa

to assist with the investigation

into that Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.

Teams from the FederalAviation Administration

and National Transportation Safety Board

should arrive by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, authoritiesare still sifting through

the crash site to identify the victims.

All 150 people on board died

including eight Americans

and at least 21 United Nations workers.

China, Indonesia and Ethiopia

have all grounded their fleetof Boeing 737 Max Aid planes

in the wake of Sunday's crash

just four months afteranother deadly 737 accident

in Indonesia.

- Well, trouble continues tonight

in the divided country of Venezuela.

Five days of blackouts haveresulted in protests, looting

and a crisis at local hospitals.

Here's Amber Strong.

- The country of Venezuela is in the dark.

Its power grid failing asan ongoing power struggle

rocks the nation.

It's been five days since thecity of Caracas went black.

Worsening and alreadydevastating humanitarian crisis,

food is already scarce.

No power means no refrigeration.

- [Translator] We are very sad

because our food is being spoiled

and we have to buy it strategically.

- [Amber] Local hospitalsare running on generators.

This father stands in line

to collect water from the river mountain.

- [Translator] I have my family, my wife,

I have to go out looking.

I'm not here because I want to be.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido

claims 17 have died as aresult of the blackout.

He's placing the blame squarely

at the feet of leader Nicolas Maduro

and urging the Venezuelamilitary to intervene.

- [Translator] High Command,

will you continue hiding the dictator

when you know a viable solutionis not possible with him.

- [Amber] Maduro saysthe prolonged blackouts

are a result of a US cyber attack.

- [Translator] The Macabrestrategy of this attack

on the electrical system

is to take our peopleto a level of despair.

- [Amber] The socialist country has been

in a downward economic spiral for years.

Venezuela's National Assembly

voted Guaido the country's leader,

claiming Maduro stolethe recent elections.

National Security Advisor John Bolton

believes the tide is turning

for the US-backed Guaido.

- I think momentum is on Guaido's side.

Reports in the pressthat stress the military

hasn't shifted miss the point entirely.

They have not sought to arrest Guaido

and the National Assemblyand the opposition

and I think one reason for that

is that Maduro fears if he gave that order

it would not be obeyed.

- Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

tweeted no food, nomedicine, now no power.

Next, no Maduro.

So far, there's been no official word

of US military intervention.

Amber Strong CBN News in Washington.

- Thanks, Amber.

Well, James Roberts withthe Heritage Foundation

is a former State Department Diplomat

and joins us now for more.

- All right, James, good to see you.

First question,

what do you make of the UnitedStates' handling Venezuela.

It sort of seems like it's await and see kind of approach

for now.

- I think the TrumpAdministration has really

been calling this one right from the start

and this is really a mass movement

led by Venezuelan people who are suffering

the worst humanitarian crisis

in the history of Latin America now.

Three million people have already fled.

Millions more want to as the report said.

People are dying in hospitals.

Those little babies and the natal units,

dialysis patients are dying by the dozens.

People don't even have water.

There are no electricity topump the water or the fuel.

Most of the gas stations are closed.

This is a tremendoushumanitarian catastrophe.

One that the heritage foundation predicted

in our annual heritage foundation index

of economic freedom at heritage.org/index,

we've been showing thateconomic freedom in Venezuela

has been vicious repressedat the bottom of the world

for 15 years by a basicallycriminal enterprise

that's masquerading as a government,

the Maduro crime family,

under a basically Cubandictatorships in that country.

And now, the only countries in the world

that are still backingthe Maduro government

are China and Russia,

but more than 50 countrieshave recognized Guaido

as the legitimate president,

and I think United Statesis playing this very well.

Certainly, we don'twanna see American troops

or other foreign troops go into Venezuela.

We want the Venezuelansto force this crime family

out of the country andhave a legitimate president

come in and re-establish order

and take steps tore-establish the economy.

- James, I think the questionon so many people's minds

is how long can this go on

and is there anythingthat the United States

can do to force NicolasMaduro out of power?

- Well, this can't go onmuch longer at this rate

because this is a completecollapse of society

and people have beentalking about this for years

but this now is actually happening.

No power because Maduroand Chavez's crime families

stole more than $300 billion.

They didn't put money intokeeping up the electrical grid.

It failed.

Now there's no power

and without power, a modernsociety can't function.

Of course, there's no internet,there's no refrigeration.

There's very little light.

Very few generators.

So the push has come to shove.

The United States has beenleading humanitarian aid effort

and the Maduro government backed

by their Chinese and Russian counterparts

have been resisting that because they know

that that's gonna be thebeginning and the end for them.

But that's what has to happen.

We've even been talking aboutmaybe some international

humanitarian flights into MEDIVAC

some of these patients out who are dying,

but this is gonna continue the pressure

from the presidents of,

there's Brazil and Colombia

are especially important in this matter.

United States is justone of many countries

that is insisting that therule of law be re-established

and these criminals get out.- James.

Real quickly here.

So, President Trump has made it clear

he doesn't like endless wars.

He doesn't like theseprotracted involvement,

but Vice President Pence says

the Administration has no timetable

on the Venezuelan policy,

so what are your thoughts on that?

- Well, I think that they'veleft all options on the table

and I think that that's correct,

but certainly, you want this effort

to come from the Venezuelan military.

You want to have amajority of those officers

and troops decide that they wanna be

for the future of their country

and not continue tosupport these criminals

who are in power,

and that's really gonna be the thing

that'll turn this thing around

and then also have a force on the ground

after Maduro's gone.

They can maintain and re-establish order

so external military intervention

is not going to be the longterm solution

and I think the Trumpadministration knows that.

- All right, James Robertswith the Heritage Foundation.

We're gonna have to leave it there.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- [Jenna] Well, Democrats andRepublicans at tenter hooks

under the budget on migration

and the next presidential election.

Up next, though, how someare finding common ground

on the issue of religious freedom.

(upbeat instrumental music)

- Well, you may find this hard to believe

but in Washington, there'sa group of Democrats

and Republicans coming together

to shine a light on religiouspersecution around the world.

- Jennifer Wishonintroduces us to one woman

who believes the group's efforts

are making all the difference.

- [Jennifer] Even in a cityas divided as Washington,

people of different faithsand different politics

are coming together tohelp their persecuted

brothers and sisters.

- When you see people in other countries

that literally are willing to die,

rather than to renounce what they believe,

certainly gives you adifferent perspective on life.

- Gayle Manchin is an educator

and as the wife of WestVirginia Senator Joe Manchin,

she's seen, up close, many ofthe problems facing Americans,

but last spring, her eyes were open

to global religious persecution

when she joined the US Commission

for International Religious Freedom.

Were you surprised at what ahuge issue this is globally?

- Yes because even though Ihad, I guess, an awareness,

I had no idea the extent of abuse

and violation for human rightsas well as religious beliefs.

- [Jennifer] Made up of nine members

spanning the ideological spectrum,

the Commission representsdifferent faiths and traditions.

- And one of the things that you do

is you have a Prisonerof Conscience program.

Tell me about that.

- We found that if you canput a face to an issue,

how much more it resounds with the public

and people get the message better.

- Case in point, Andrew Brunson,the pastor recently freed

after spending two yearsin a Turkish prison.

A commissioner adopted Brunson,

visited him while captive,

and applied pressure onTurkey to release him.

Tell me about the folks you've adopted.

- Those are from Iran.

Mr. Taheri is a writer.

He had been taken from prison,

was retried and put on death row,

and then just recently,

he's taken back out andtaken off death row,

but his sentence has beenextended for five more years.

Do we hope that perhaps himbeing a prisoner of conscience

helped raise the awarenessand took him off death row,

we don't know but we certainly hope so.

My other prisoner is awoman, Golrokh Irace.

She was writing about the injustice

of women being stoned

for committing adultery.

And for that, she was arrested

for breaking Islamic sanctity.

Her writings were not even published.

They came into her homeand confiscating writings

and found this and used that against her.

- [Jennifer] Manchin haslearned from Irace's sister

that this attention fromAmerica makes a difference.

- What I have found inserving on this Commission

and traveling to other countries,

they care about what theUnited States thinks of them

and the fact that we bring out

these violations and discrimination,

you know, gives them pause, I believe.

- [Jennifer] But it takes patience.

Nice prisoners of consciencehave been released,

yet the overall situationrose more serious

with each passing day.

- It is a commitment and dedication

to a large issue, a global issue

that is not getting better, unfortunately.

It seems like that inmany of the countries

that we are watching,

the conditions are deteriorating,not getting better,

and so we cannot let up.

- The US promotes religiousfreedom around the world

because countries that allowits people to worship freely

tend to be friendly neighbors.

Jennifer Wishon, CBN News, Washington.

- Thank you, Jennifer.

It's so true.

You can't have religious freedom

if you don't have religiousfreedom for everyone.

Going to Jennifer's point there.

- That's very true and I love the fact

that they were able tohighlights and show the faces6

and the names of the peoplewho are under persecution.

Well, that'll do it fortonight's Faith Nation.

- Have a great evening.

(upbeat instrumental music)