Transcript

Jenna Ellis: Rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator

 : Jenna Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: I love talking about the things of God because of truth and the biblical worldview. The U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect. The rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time.

Michael Farris: This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch is pushing for accountability for left

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Wednesday, April 29 and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch might just single handedly give Republicans more wins than the entirety of Congress. And that is what I posted yesterday and actually think, I think he's doing a fantastic job because he is now indicted. James Comey again as the DOJ probe deepens into the ex FBI chief. And he know a lot of people are making hay about this because it's not over the you know, Russia collusion, stuff. It's not over you know, anything that he did in his official capacity. It's over a social media post that was a rock formation that you know was obviously not natural on, on the beach where he posted this to social media. And it spelled out 8647. And we always, we all remember this, which of course 80, 86 is like get rid of or kill and then 47 as a reference to the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump. So so, so there's speculation on whether this will stick. Comey has said, or through his attorney say he'll contest the charges in court and seek a First Amendment defense. But remember the First Amendment doesn't mean that you can say whatever you want without consequence or that if you incite violence, that that is necessarily protected speech. So it's going to be very interesting. But this also comes on the heels as of a Foushee, adjacent administrator has also been indicted for hiding and concealing some of the COVID information during that whole narrative. in 2020 obviously Foushee hit himself, has been pardoned by Joe Biden. I really hope that Todd Blanch goes after that pardon next. And I think that there's some you know, some legal arguments at least as to whether or not that pardon is valid, whether Joe Biden in his mental state at the time, which of course is questionable and even that report said that, that he wasn't competent according to that investigator to even stand in his own defense. So how could he Possibly. Pardon? but anyway there's, so there's a lot going on including the SPLC indictment. And I think Todd Blanche is just in the first, you know, less than 30 days as acting Attorney General is doing a really good job of actually pushing for accountability that we haven't seen from this DOJ and we haven't seen from this Congress yet. And let's remember that he doesn't come from D.C. he doesn't come from the political world, he doesn't come from the you know, kind of camera ready, typical choice that President Trump ah, normally picks and he also comes from the defense world. So this to me suggests potentially that these indictments might carry more weight because Todd Blanche would be looking at these indictments saying okay, how would a defense attorney think? And hopefully closing some of those loopholes, before the indictments are even returned. So are we finally seeing some accountability for the left, especially this insane rhetoric that is suggesting prolifically online, including Jimmy Kimmel, that that President Trump should be assassinated and you know, this, this violent, political rhetoric.

Steve Dase: When Todd Blanche was appointed acting AG, mixed reviews

Let's welcome in Steve Dase, who is a radio host of course at the Blaze and you should follow him on X and listen to his show. So Steve, you know I'm a big fan so far of Todd Blanche. What do you think?

Steve Deace: You know, nothing like when you put someone in a position and they have to earn the job and they, and they actually go about trying to do that and you know, when he was appointed acting AG people in my circles, I got very mixed reviews. Some thought he'd be a dramatic upgrade over Pam Bondi, some thought he would be more of the same. I think that this has clearly been a dramatic upgrade at least this far. And I want to point to a couple different things in background here. one, deep background with Pam Bondi from the day she was selected. I mean Pam Bondi is from the non desantis wing of the Florida Republican Party. she has been a Romulan for, you know, a Romney esque Republican her entire career. she has been an establishment hack Republican her entire career. and is one of these establishment hacks who figured out I don't have to unhack on any issues anybody cares about. If I just jump on cable news and slobber on Donald Trump enough, then he'll promote me. Okay, she figured out that scam and so I wasn't shocked at all that she was a terrible ag. I told my audience and everybody would listen. She'll be a terrible Ag Considering what everybody expected and what we ran on in this last election, I mean, the final straw of her leaking things to Eric Swalwell, you know, to give him a heads up, is peak uniparty. So I'm not surprised that it turned out the way that it did, that she. The cheap facsimile version of what she tried to do with our influencers last year is the kind of thing that you try to do when you're hollowed out and wearing MAGA as a skin suit and you think you're just, you know, and you just can't pull it off. You're out of your depth. Okay? And that was the first sign that this was going to end poorly. And the President let it go on, frankly, for way too long. And then there was another article yesterday, and I don't know. You know, I have a policy, Jenna. I don't typically comment or read, or respond to things about. In the Trump era, either for or about Trump from anonymous sources just simply because there's an. We've never seen our opponents so willing to just lie about blatantly obvious things when it comes to Trump. And frankly, Trump, in response, doesn't mind telling a fib or two to push back. And so if I don't know who the source is, I don't respond. Yesterday I read this because of who sent it to me, and would be somebody in the know, and I'll just leave it at that. And it's an Axios piece where it almost reads like Cash Patel is being quoted anonymously how to save his job and blaming the whole thing on Susie Wiles and I, and. And that she has been stymieing them this entire time. And I wasn't going to put any stock into it again because it's anonymous, until I saw Susie Wiles announced yesterday she's joining Twitter. Yeah, right after this piece comes out, she announces she's going to join Twitter. You know, just keep people updated on things. All right? This is a woman that has shunned media much of her entire consultant career.

Michael Farris: All right?

Steve Deace: So I think that let's, let's just say if you put some pieces together, a certain fire has been lit under certain individuals, that this is not acceptable. All right? And whether the president lit that fire, whether the polls have done it, whether it's a combination thereof, I want more, because here's what's happened. You alluded to some of this. Here's what's happened since Pam Bondi was removed, all, right. You mentioned the SPLC indictments. There's 11 indictments there, evidence of them literally funding false flag operations in the kkk. you mentioned the Fauci advisor. This guy is one of Fauci's right hand men. And if you see, you know, this is a litigator, maybe our audiences don't understand. If you're looking to make the case later, all right, that Foushee's, Fauci's pardon is illegitimate, creating a public firestorm by prosecuting his right hand man and putting and threatening a 78 year old with essentially dying in prison to get him to sing on some things. You know what I'm saying? That stuff gets out in the public and all of a sudden the public might be saying, yeah, let's re, let's reevaluate that. Right. Almost like a RICO case where you start one way at the bottom and start working your way up. So you want to go after Fauci. Let's get it. Let's get his, main man here, who left an email paper trail literally saying Fauci burned all the evidence. He's too smart, they'll never find it. And he left a paper trail telling us this. All right, so that's, that's the ground for his indictments. the Somali daycares raided in Minnesota. you had Comey charged and you mentioned that threat. People want to say, well, go after Russian collusion. Well, if you do that, that's all going to be done in front of D.C. juries that aren't prosecuting any Democrats for literally anything. James Comey could take out a cannonball and launch it right at Donald Trump's head, and a D.C. jury is going to say he needed killing. So instead you go after him for this case in North Carolina where you get a much friendlier federal jury, grand jury in that case, that's going to be much more prone, especially on the heels of a fourth assassination attempt. So I don't think the timing of this is. My point is you're seeing what I would almost be still my beating heart. Jenna. It looks like people are thinking things through. It looks like there might be a strategy. It might not just be random acts. Okay. And this morning, I'm very excited to see what looks like the mustard seeds of a plan. All right. I'll leave it at that. Yes.

Jeffrey Epstein: There are outstanding campaign promises that Trump ran on

Jenna Ellis: I mean, it's, it's actually amazing. And I think that we're so shocked, Steve, because it has seemed like there hasn't been a plan other than, you know, Trump, he has, obviously good foreign policy instincts. He has, you know, good executive orders. I mean, obviously. And that's not just him. That's through Steven Miller and others. and I do credit Susie Wiles with, a lot of the. The wins, at least from the executive. I think she's very smart. But at the same time, when you have a Congress that literally has done nothing, I mean, everybody points back to the one big, beautiful bill. Okay, fine, great. But that was even, that wasn't even message properly, honestly, when it first came out. And nobody cares about that going into November, because it's always, well, what have you done for me lately? And how many things, particularly with these

Steve Deace: devices in our hands. And if you don't update me every single day, it doesn't matter if you've made all. You made me vote for Pedro and made all my dreams come true in one big, beautiful bill. Okay. When you do that in July of 2025 and a year goes by and my phone isn't giving me alerts of more things you have done for me, I mean, it feels like an eternity. We all age in dog years. You got to feed that beast on a regular basis.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. Especially when there are outstanding campaign promises that Trump ran on, including, by the way, accountability. I mean, he ran on retribution, which I was a concerned about that characterization. But at the same time, when you look at everything that has been done to Trump since 2015, I mean, since he announced, and all of the things that we know about now as of 2026, and the lack of accountability, it has been so frustrating looking at the doj, looking at Congress, looking at the White House and saying Republicans are in control. So what's going on? Why are we not seeing accountability? Because everybody. And he's concerned and scared that if Democrats get back into power in any way, shape or form, they don't even need to take over the trifecta. It's like just the House. Even if they just have that, we know that they'll actually follow through on their threats. But it. But Republicans haven't been doing that. And one of the great things, regardless of the outcome of all of these indictments, and I hope that Todd Blanch is looking at the clock and saying, okay, we need a resolution to this, but before November of 2028, regardless of the outcome, the fact that there is accountability and all of these people are being forced to face the consequences of their actions. And I think you're right, this is setting up, hopefully, as I mentioned in the beginning, hopefully, an attack on the legitimacy and the viability, legally of, Fauci's pardon. Because everybody wants accountability for all that. We, we're finally seeing some action on that. And that's what's been missing this entire time is action, because everybody can go on TV and they can talk and they can say stuff, like Pam Bondi, she can say things and have all of these photo ops. But unless you actually provide the action and you have the follow through on what Trump ran on, then people are going to think that his second term, rightly so, was a lot more lame than his first term when he actually got things done.

Steve Deace: And the one thing I think, and people aren't gonna like what I'm gonna say, and I don't like it, but it's the world we live in. And I have, you know, I am bound to determine to live in a place called reality, because that's the part that's real. Okay? One of the issues with, since the unit party thing is a real thing, one of the issues we have with going after accountability is Trump's not going to be very prone to, to do it even. Even for his own retribution. And this just goes to show that he's not the crazed maniac his opponents think. When I think we could use a little more crazy maniac right now myself. But he's not gonna, even for his own retribution, he's not gonna do it in a way that some people loyal to him may get caught up in it. For example, the Epstein files, right? Steve Bannon's in there, what, 1100 times or something like that, okay. Howard Lutnick just, you know, as one does, just casually took his wife and daughter to have a meal on Epstein island with old Jeffrey after the Trump administration had put him in prison. You know, as one does, just, you know, found myself on Epstein island on some rando Tuesday, you know, having lunch. Who knew? Right? Okay. And so for that, now we're going to take on political liability and, not keep our promise on that front. Right? Same thing on Covid. Right. The reason why is, I don't know anybody's done during as much work on the jab and everything else at its launch as I did five years ago. But the reason he's not going to go after that is because, well, he had at hand in operation, warp speed, right? Had a heavy hand. He wrote those checks, on the other hand, on the origin of the virus and where it came from. He had nothing to do with that. Nobody, that is, nobody that was loyal to him. Had anything to do with that. So, you know what? By all means, prosecute away. And so you're just going to have to. That's just the reality of the world in which we live. Loyalty is a huge thing, to Donald Trump. And even if people who are problematic have been loyal to him, and I think you can, maybe, even if you don't agree with it, can understand at least why a guy they tried to shoot more times than any president in American history might put a high prime premium and an abnormally high premium on loyalty. All right? And so you're going to have to look for areas where you can get accountability, for what they've done to our country, where there's no crossover element of Republicans who could be culpable for this at the same time. And that's where you're going to see, I think, them try to operate within those margins. And if you look at all of these various legal actions that I just chronicled since Pam Bondi left, they would all meet that criteria. There's no potential blowback issue on our side at all. And there are only areas where the left is exposed. And so I think those are the areas where they're going to enter. You're going to see them, they're starting to be more aggressive.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And I think you're absolutely right on that, that the focus is going to be where it's purely Democrat, liability or purely. The targets that they're going after their liability. And there isn't anything that can blow, back or spill over, saying, well, you know, you also were equally culpable. And, I will just leave it, currently at, you know, it's interesting to me that there's nothing right now, going after the 2020 election. And you know, some of the things there, because there was culpability on the Republican side, in, in some ways there. And, and I think that they know that. And, and there's not going to be a lot of accountability other than trying, of course, to remedy, what's obvious to everyone, which is the redistricting m after the 2020 census and Biden's executive orders that, wanted, you know, to take away the apportionment that, Trump had proposed and trying of course, to include, illegals in that count. they're wanting to make elections more safe, secure and fair. You know, all of those things and the legislation in the states and, wherever the Save America act is in Congress, it seems like that's just, kind of floating out there and nobody's really following up on it.

The SAVE act not passing will irrevocably damage Trump's base

Steve Deace: Can I highlight quickly? I know we're almost out of time, but one of the things I think you might be seeing by the way is we have a major base erosion problem and we have for about a year. And the same act, not, I would have just told you even 48 hours ago, the SAVE act not passing, that is, will irrevocably, cause us to have a base problem in November. This could be a legit counter to that. Our people hold this almost as this accountability and election integrity kind of go hand in hand. So if they don't think they can deliver on the SAVE act in Congress, then what would be a worthy substitution? All right. Real action on accountability that would also very much excite and unite our base more than they have been in the

Jenna Ellis: last year or two, 100%. And this is why I think that going back to what I posted yesterday that I know you saw Steve as well, is that Todd Blanche might single handedly do more for accountability than the entirety of Congress. And so Trump knows if he doesn't have the votes in Congress and people are paying attention to what Congress isn't doing. And we've seen that that disappointment among the base. I mean that's what we've been talking about for the last few, several months now. The focus is on an executive agency that can actually provide some margin of headlines and of excitement. And that's where we're at finally because people are saying this is a good thing. Okay. There are people in Washington who actually get it. We've kind woken up a little bit and so I think that we've infused a little bit of enthusiasm and hopefully this will continue. This isn't just, you know, the end. like I said, I hope that Jimmy Kimmel gets indicted for his rhetoric that I think is outside of protected speech. And we're actually going to talk about that a little bit later on in the program. I think that they need to continue to go after Fauci adjacent, advisors. They need to continue to target where they can and then we'll maybe get some momentum heading into November. So we're about a minute left in the segment.

M: Reuniting and reigniting our base is crucial ahead of November elections

Closing thoughts. Steve.

Steve Deace: This is reuniting and reigniting our base is the first to a two step process to pushing back on this historical trend we're up against in the midterms. The second, if we successfully do that, then the second step is we've got to do something about the fact 55% of Americans think their finances are worse than they were before Trump took over. Even if that number is 10 points off, 45%, we would not survive that. That's the next priority. Whenever and as soon as possible. This war in Iran ends. The entire focus has to be on that.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, 100%. I agree with you, and we've got to take a break here, but, you know, it's actually an exciting day. I mean, I woke up this morning, thinking, wow, I feel a little bit rejuvenated. And I feel like maybe, just maybe, everyone in Washington, and isn't it interesting after an assassination attempt of the president, it's almost like that makes them angry enough to become motivated to say, well, you know what, let's just, let's just not care what the media says about us and let's do the right thing anyway. And I wish that they would just operate in that mindset 247 instead of having to have some of these incidents sort of provoke that righteous anger. But let's ride that wave of the righteous anger for as long as we can, hopefully into November. But Steve, always appreciate it. Again, follow him M on X. And we will be right back with more.

 : M. welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Virginia Supreme Court denies motion to allow redistricting referendum to be certified

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, some good news out of Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court denies the Attorney General of Virginia's motion to certify the results of the redistricting referendum. And so the Supreme Court denied that motion to allow last week's redistricting referendum to be certified. Voters, narrowly approved that change to the state's congressional maps, to give the Democrats a 10 to 1 advantage, which, because that's so narrow. Ah, former Congressman Bob Good was on this program last week saying that clearly shows that the redistricting maps in Virginia do not reflect, apportionment of voters in Virginia. If it only narrowly passed, it should have passed then about 10 to 1. Right. So hopefully, that will not ultimately be certified. And, we'll continue to follow that story.

Paul Renner supports Florida's redistricting efforts

But meanwhile, the redistricting out of Texas is going well and also in Florida. So Governor Ron DeSantis has revealed the new, redistricted congressional map for the state, which shows the GOP gaining an extra four seats. And so that is, being taken up by the Florida state legislature. So let's welcome in Paul Renner, who's the former Florida House speaker and also a candidate for governor to succeed Ron DeSantis. Good, ah, morning. And, you know, overall, you support the redistricting efforts. And you know, this has been, this has been, you know, kind of pushed back on by the Democrats saying, well, you know, this is, just a way to try to manipulate the districting. But really this is all about correct apportionment among the electorate and a correct map. And I think Governor DeSantis is right about that.

 Paul Renner: Well, Jenna, great to be with you. And yes, if you just look back at the map in Florida, that is, you see shapes that look normal, you know, rectangles, squares, things that look like they represent a community. If you look at Virginia, it's a bunch of snaking districts coming out of Washington D.C. in the metro area around D.C. to try to achieve that 10 to 1 advantage. We also have the Fair Districts amendment here in Florida, so we have guardrails in terms of favoring one party over the other. So all this will go through the courts. But it looks like a good map to me. It's appropriate because of the growth in Florida, unlike other states, we've grown dramatically since 2020. So the principle of one person, one vote has to be reestablished. We have a lot more people in some congressional districts and fewer in others. So this is a, ah, rebalancing and it's appropriate for that reason as well.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah.

Do you think the AI Bill of Rights will pass in the Florida legislature

So, this is going now through the Florida legislature. And do you think that it will pass in the way that Governor, DeSantis has suggested?

 Paul Renner: I think it will, yeah. I think this is the thing, and maybe the only thing in this, with this legislature that's so dysfunctional, that will pass. It's something that I think is, supported, here in Florida. It supports, supported at the White House. It's supported everywhere. And so I think, the speaker will allow that to go through, unlike the two very important bills that he summarily killed yesterday as we kicked off the special session.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, which was really frustrating. I mean, having medical freedom and then also the AI Bill of Rights. the current House Speaker, Daniel, Perez, just basically summarily said, you know, no bills were filed. We're not taking that up. And that was frustrating to a lot of Florida, voters who said, we have a super majority of Republicans. Why aren't you doing your job? And so we would have loved to see both of those, as well as, ah, property tax, you know, taken up in, this session.

 Paul Renner: And make no mistake, there were members that very much wanted to file those bills. They were told not to file them. I know how this works. I didn't do that when I was Speaker. But you don't have a situation where there's nobody in 87 Republicans that have the super majority in the House that don't want AI protections for kids, that don't want health freedom. That's just you know, garbage. And so he basically hid behind his members. And this is a guy who started out his time as speaker saying I have no priorities. This is going to be a completely member driven process. So if they hadn't figured it out already, they figured it out now that that was never true. And this is about doing the service of special interest. Big Tech does not want any guardrails for our kids. I know that because I led the effort to protect our kids from online pornography, addictive social media platforms. And the AI bill is really a continuation, if you look at the structure of it with the penalties and so forth, is a continuation, appropriate continuation of that bill as applied to artificial intelligence. And we know that kids have taken their own life because a parent, ah, would sit people child down and say, hey, let's talk about what's going on that leads you to be suicidal. I would tell you, here's 10 ways to take your life. And so it doesn't have a moral compass. And I think that's what everybody needs to understand is it will not stop and say wait a minute, that's not a good idea.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And I mean I've seen that even in my own use of chat GPT, you know, kind of whatever the prompt is, it will give you a return of basically what you want to hear. And if you ask questions, you know, in kind of a leading fashion, it'll go along with that. And as you said, I mean there aren't any guardrails or moral compass. And it's almost like this conversation with a person, like it like a text thread, which is very weird, in a sense because of just how the technology works. But we definitely need those types of guardrails. And the United States needs to be on the 4 of the regulation and of safeguards. But Florida also can lead the way. And Speaker Perez was suggesting by declining you know, any of those bills or legislation in this session suggesting that this is only a federal issue. I disagree with that. I think that Florida should lead the way on this. What's your view?

 Paul Renner: Well we did on social media, we did on online pornography that I championed, you know, we set a template that so far has been successful. the online porn bill, you know, through a Tennessee case, was sustained in the Supreme Court. U.S. supreme Court last year. We won in the 11th Circuit on the social media platform, bill that protects from addictive social media platforms. Yes. I mean, Florida has been the model, and you see the Trump administration mirroring a lot of things we did when I was speaker, ending DEI programs, pushing back against esg. And so Florida has been a leader, for the country. And, and we can continue to be in. This bill that Governor DeSantis and the Senate have put together is a great bill. It has, just basic common sense standards to protect not just kids, but also adults. And the same thing is true for medical freedom. We've led the nation in medical freedom. And, it does many good things to allow for informed consent, to prevent kickbacks, to doctors for pushing, you know, vaccines that may not, may or may not be good for you, protecting against discrimination if you don't want to take a Covid shot. And again, the speaker hid behind his own power, knowing that he was the one that prevented a bill from being filed, and said, well, no member filed a bill, so we're not going to hear anything.

Jenna Ellis: M. Which is so frustrating. Why does Speaker Perez have that much power? Especially when it seems like there's such a struggle between Governor DeSantis and Speaker Perez? I mean, obviously Speaker Perez doesn't want to give DeSantis some of these wins, which clearly the voters in Florida want. So, you know, how is he able to, just tell people no?

 Paul Renner: Well, having been a speaker, the speaker has tremendous power in Florida. You pick all the committee chairs, sub chairs. You know, what, bills go, don't go. I didn't operate that way and say, we're not going to allow you to file a bill. I'd let bills be filed and let the members, you know, go through the committees. I picked committee chairs and let it go through the process, but I was also leading to do what the governor said was the most consequential two years we've had in Florida history to put big conservative wins on the board. I just simply asked members to govern the way they campaign. And that's the problem here, is everybody campaigns as a conservative, but not everybody's a true believer. And unfortunately, they picked a guy who is a transactional politician, an ally of my opponent, Byron Donalds, and he's a tool of big tech. He's going to do the bidding of big tech over we the people. And it's a shame, and they're going to pay a price for it. I heard Your prior segment, you know, referring to the federal side. But in the state level, people are upset. They're not happy about what's happened. And so the members in the House that have gone along and not challenged the speaker on this are going to pay a political price for it by not standing up for their constituents.

Jenna Ellis: Wow.

Paul Renner is running for Florida governor against Byron Donalds

Well, this is why Florida's future is so important and why, who will succeed Governor DeSantis is incredibly important. You, are running for governor. how is that campaign going? obviously, for people who follow me on X, I've been, ah, very involved in this because I care about my home state of Florida. I moved here because of Governor DeSantis leadership and I want to see a worthy successor. I personally do not think that that is Byron Donald's. I've seen, enough to know that I don't think that that is, Jay Collins either. And so, you have supported, your campaign, Paul Renner, and I think you're getting a lot of grassroots support.

 Paul Renner: Well, you can go on to voterenner.com and learn a lot more. But the bottom line is you want somebody who's been a leader. And I've got 20 years in the military, two war, former prosecutor, started a business, partner in a business, you know, all the leadership you'd look for to run the state of Florida, but also the results you know, gotten in there. And not just, you know, talk the talk, but walk the walk in, delivering big conservative wins that help build the free state of Florida with the governor. So if you like the free state of Florida, I'm going to protect it, I'm going to expand it, you're going to have more of the same, for the next eight years. And look at amendments three and four, you know, travel the state with the governor gave, or raised over a million dollars to stop, that those amendments are specifically Amendment 4. And you need that kind of governor, like Governor DeSantis who doesn't just sit at his desk and sign a bill, veto a bill, or do a press conference, but goes out and beats the left wherever they raise their head. And they're still gunning for Florida. They still want to take out this state. And God help us if we make a conscious decision to go backwards with a Republican who is a transactional Republican as a tool of the special interest. And, it's clear to me that that's exactly what Byron Donalds represents. And now you have a choice, and I hope to have your support those listening and check us out on voterenter.com.

Paul Renner hopes voters in Florida will turn out on August 18

Jenna Ellis: all right, well, we've got to end it here and, take a break. But Paul Renner, really appreciate it and, I really hope that voters in Florida, will turn out on August 18. Is the primary here and primaries matter. I mean, this is where, you know, you choose the best candidate to go against to the Democrat. And, you know, the polls are suggesting right now that if Byron Donald wins in Florida, there is a very real possibility that we could have a Democrat that succeeds Governor DeSantis. And wouldn't that just be an utter failure of the free state of Florida to have such an amazing eight years of Ron DeSantis and then we turn it over to a Democrat? I mean, it's, it's wild to me. And then so many other things, you know, would follow all of that. We've got to keep Florida free. So everyone in Florida, please turn out, vote your values on August 18th. And we will be right back with more.

National religious broadcasters are filing an FCC complaint over the Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue

 : welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, I told you at the beginning of the show we would get to, to Jimmy Kimmel, who I always hate having to cover because he is just such a disgusting, ah, person in terms of his rhetoric. He's not funny. he really does need to just be fired. ABC had a chance to keep him fired, unfortunately brought him back. But now the national religious broadcasters are filing an FCC complaint over the Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue. And so, this came out Monday. The NRB has requested that the FCC investigate ABC Television following remarks aired, during the national broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live that when viewed in context, raised serious concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence. So obviously this isn't a criminal indictment that carries a different standard in the law. But as an FCC complaint, NRB asserts that. And this is in their press release. In this broader context of escalating violence, rhetoric that appears to trivialize or foreshadow harm against potential political leaders takes on a heightened significance. Incitement to kill or inflict bodily harm on the President of the United States is a serious felony under 18 USC section 2385. And so, Micah Ferris, the NRB general counsel, explained, when the FCC is bound. While the FCC is bound by the First Amendment of the Constitution and federal law to respect freedom of speech, Supreme Court precedent makes it clear that speech which incites violence is not protected. Under Brandenburg versus Ohio, the Supreme Court case in 19, 69, speech loses constitutional protection when it encourages lawless action, is intended to produce such action and is likely to result in imminent harm. So Micah Ferris joins us now and I think this is great that someone is finally going after these types of remarks because this is not comedy, this isn't just a casual remark. I mean these are things that we have seen real life consequences including at the White House Correspondents dinner.

Michael Farris: Good morning Jenna. Yeah, I think that NRB took a position actually urging caution when there was suggestion that ABC would lose its license because of the prior Jimmy Kimmel thing. Because that was more about political content, political so called disinformation and that sort of thing that probably ah, almost certainly politically protected under the First Amendment. But this is different. When you incite violence, especially violence against the life of the President of the United States you're in a completely different First Amendment world. And so you know the, especially in these days where approximately 30%, that's round number correct of 18 to 30 year olds think that political violence is acceptable at times. And you know the numbers diminish in the older age groups. There's millions of people who think that political violence is accepted, acceptable. And so when you have that kind of an atmosphere and you have a person with the kind of, the dignity, the responsibility of national television on a license broadcasting where they have a responsibility to uphold the public trust saying that political violence is okay and in fact it's invited here that's, it's clearly to me an implied invitation. Now whether he intended it as such that's going to be the hard part. And I think that that's why we called for an investigation rather than punishing them because there will be emails and other things, show notes how they prepared but an investigation can show did he really think that this would produce the result of violence. And if he thought that, if he believed that then I think you're going to have the three elements of the Brandenburg test fulfilled. And I think that the FCC should definitely take final action and it would be upheld by a court. If that's the sequence that they follow I think it'll be a winner.

Jenna Ellis: And that makes perfect sense because you can't hide under satire and parody and oh it was just a joke when there are real world consequences especially if the production and you know all of, all of the things that led up to that statement on air show that it was actually in their thinking that they wanted to to give their audience this view that the President should be assassinated or they, they want that type of outcome even if they're Couching it in parody or satire or joking. And so, you know, where are those lines? Because that was obviously Jimmy Kimmel's excuse was just saying I was a joke. You guys are, you know, taking this out of context. But, clearly not everything that incite violence can just. People can't just laugh it off and just say, well, it was just a joke and therefore I'm not being held to consequences.

Michael Farris: No, that's not a First Amendment defense. you know, a First Amendment defense would be, we have to, you know, respond to the Brandenburg test. And so, it's going to be a question of evidence. And so, digging in, to the records in the production of the show, writing the material, you know, emails from Kimmel, comments from him, you take his past history, you take all those things to account is did he foresee that it would have this effect of encouraging somebody to do what was actually done two days later, of an attempt on the president's life? So I think that, you know, you can't find somebody stronger than me on, you know, freedom of speech for things I don't like. you know, the test of a believer in freedom of speech is speech I disagree with, that's protected. But speech that incites violence, and I don't care if it's a Republican president, it's the subject of the violence, or a Democrat president, it doesn't matter. Speech that incites violence against the president is not constitutionally protected.

Jenna Ellis: And how significant do you think it is that the shooter's manifesto that we now have, has rhetoric that actually mirrors a lot of sense of statements that Democrat leaders have offered in media in recent months and weeks. I mean, clearly this is, information and a worldview that he is picking up from, from the media, from. From Democrat leaders and potentially people like Jimmy Kimmel.

Michael Farris: Well, I think that that says something at a minimum about the, moral degradation of the Democratic leadership. whether they, you know, some of their individual statements that I've seen probably cross the line themselves, and, you know, the incitement to them. Now, of course they're not under FCC licensing rules, so they would be under strict criminal rules. And being elected officials, it depends on where they sit, if they sit on the floor of the House or the Senate. There's, you know, the debate, speech and debate protections. But, some of them are pretty raw and can, I think could potentially result in criminal prosecutions. But, you know, it's going to be having to look at the individual circumstances in totality and see what, you know, what all they said. But as a political matter and as a moral matter, this is just out of control and they have to stop what they're doing and stop normalizing political violence. the correlation between, left leaning views on freedom of speech and left leaning views on political violence are very closely connected. Now there are some right wing nuts out there who don't, like free speech for all and they have violent rhetoric. But you don't see people holding deanships and professorships and broadcast licenses and medical licenses and positions of election from the right that say these kind of things. You know, the right nuts are people, you know, they're not in positions of authority. The left leaning nuts have, positions of authority and they are using this position of authority to normalize a very dangerous line of rhetoric.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and it does go to the moral degradation, as you aptly put it, Micah Ferris, on our country, of our country, that these types of statements are being made. And then in the wake of a violent attempt and the third assassination attempt of the president, people like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and others aren't walking back their statements and saying, you know, in light of this event, all I recognize that that might have been over the line. Obviously that wasn't how I intended. You know, all of those statements you would expect from a reasonable person who's looking at political violence, that actually occurred and saying, you know, we don't want to, we want to argue our position, but we never want to resort to violence. And to me that just screams that the left actually wants us. I mean they can't say that overtly, but they're doing absolutely nothing to stop it.

Michael Farris: Well, that's right. And that's because, you know, when you, when you lack a moral foundation for your worldview, whatever advances your goal, advantages your goal. When you believe that the ends justify the means, you can do lots of stuff. and so then they can feel very righteous about it, that they feel they're, they're advancing a righteous cause. And since they lack a moral foundation for defining what the cause is, they certainly lack moral foundation for the means to get to the cause. America was founded on the principle that we have to do the right thing

Michael Farris: and we have to do the right thing in the right way. That's a moral foundation. That the ends don't justify the means. Two wrongs don't make a right. That, sin is sin. That's the foundation, that can sustain a free country. That Anything goes. There are no rules. Morality is relative. The amorality that's been indoctrinated in the public school system for decades now has come home to yield a very, very dangerous harvest. And we are seeing the fruits of it in very violent and very dangerous ways, including violent rhetoric and violent advocacy and violent acts. So it's, it's you know, it's come home as it's full blown and it's very wrong.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And I'm grateful to nrb, and to you for filing ah, this request for an investigation, for this complaint. And then you have the DOJ that has now indicted ah, James Comey for similar violent rhetoric. And you know, obviously that's in the criminal context, but hopefully we're seeing some accountability for these Democrats that are just going out and saying whatever they want without understanding and appreciator. Maybe they are and they just don't care, the actual real world consequences of their actions.

Mike Ferris: The Brandenburg standard for inciting violence is too strict

do you think that there, that the law around this should be tighter, in the sense that it's really difficult to prove incitement, in a lot of instances and that the action actually incites violence? I mean we saw the left try to do that of course with President Trump on January 6th and that was unsuccessful. thankfully. I think that was the right call. but at the same time when you have over and over and over in this pattern, I mean even with someone like Jimmy Kimmel, should there be a different standard or maybe a heightened standard that allows for more accountability in situations like this and especially in this context, in this culture where we have an increase in violent rhetoric but also violent action.

Michael Farris: Well, starting with the broadcast context, I think it would be appropriate to say that the Brandenburg standard is too strict. That I think that the standard should be something along the line of is likely to incite violence rather than, you know, predictable. So a reasonable person will look at it, say that will cause violence, ah, as opposed to their intent. Because when you, when you use intent behind it, that's the, that's the element that's the hardest to prove. I don't know that that's, you know, for a criminal conviction, I think that should be the rule. But for a bright licensed broadcasting which is in the, you know, there's a public trust and there's a public accountability and they have to act responsibly, I think that's different. they are using a scarce resource that they get a government license for and they promise to do it in certain ways. And I think that a, a different standard should apply in that context and it should be, you know, the likely to incite violence kind of ah, standard. Something along those lines would be appropriate. And it's not been tested in that exact context. And so I think that this might be a chance to do that. And I would hope that the court would say that for licensing purposes, we're going to hold you to a higher standard.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and I would hope that the court would say that again, regardless of whether it's a Republican president, a Democrat president, or a Republican target or a Democrat target. I mean these are things that as Americans we should all care about the, the fundamental culture and society that we don't have to be concerned about, you know, a president having to have a secure ballroom at the White House because he can't go to an event down the street at the Washington Hotel. I mean these are things that in 2026, you know, I really wish that our culture was not to the point that it is. but this is why things like this matter. And I think you were the best one to perhaps test some of those theories. Mike Ferris. And you know, you've done so much great work, in the, the field of of law and jurisprudence and constitutional law. And so I'm really grateful that you're at NRB and can file these types of complaints because you're absolutely right, and spot on on this. So thank you so much for joining. You can also follow Mike Ferris on X and also Facebook. I think he's actually a little more prolific over on the Facebook side, so I follow him there. And you can also follow, NRB association as well. And as always you can reach me and my team Jenna@afr.net.