Skip to content 9/21/2026 The Rise of Global Conflict, Fraudulent Political Fundraising, and the U.S. Space Agency Sep 21 · 54 min ...more
9/21/2026 The Rise of Global Conflict, Fraudulent Political Fundraising, and the U.S. Space Agency
September 21, 2026 · 54 min
Today on Washington Watch, Tony and his guests review growing global concerns about China, Iran, and the Houthis in Yemen, details emerge over allegations of fraudulent campaign contributions to key Democratic candidates through the political platform ActBlue, and Louisiana seeks to be the home of the new U.S. Space Academy.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
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September 21, 2026 · 54 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
Today on Washington Watch, Tony and his guests review growing global concerns about China, Iran, and the Houthis in Yemen, details emerge over allegations of fraudulent campaign contributions to key Democratic candidates through the political platform ActBlue, and Louisiana seeks to be the home of the new U.S. Space Academy. ...more Show the full description Show less Today on Washington Watch, Tony and his guests review growing global concerns about China, Iran, and the Houthis in Yemen, details emerge over allegations of fraudulent campaign contributions to key Democratic candidates through the political platform ActBlue, and Louisiana seeks to be the home of the new U.S. Space Academy.
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In this video 0:00 Global Diplomacy and AI Concerns with China7:20 Escalating Middle East Conflict and US Warnings24:50 Investigations into ActBlue and US Education Crisis39:00 Louisiana's Bid for the US Space Academy53:00 Prioritizing Religious Freedom in US-China Relations
Global Diplomacy and AI Concerns with China 0:00 From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and0:12 newsmakers, all from a biblical world view. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts0:18 now. What we discussed was set setting up a mechanism. So it's gonna be called, the the US China AI dialogue. We've agreed to meet meet again. We have,0:31 for the US has proposed that we have a, notification mechanism between, the 2 countries, and we want a share a shared vision of,0:42 common goals and common threats.0:45 That was treasury secretary Scott Bessette yesterday in New York City following his meeting with the Chinese vice premier, He Lanfeng, to, help set the agenda for this week's meeting between0:57 president Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping. Welcome to this Monday, September 21st edition of Washington Watch. I'm Tony Bergens, your host. Thanks for joining us. So coming up,1:08 as the midterm campaigns heat up, house committees are investigating allegations that ActBlue, a democratic fundraising mechanism, failed to prevent illegal foreign contributions from1:20 flowing through its fundraising platform. North Carolina congressman Mark Harris, a member of the house judiciary committee, joins us to discuss what investigators have uncovered and where the investigation goes
1:32 next. There's been a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence and trade as president Trump prepares to meet this week in Washington DC with Chinese president Xi Jinping. But what about
1:44 China's human rights record, including the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on churches and Christian pastors? Well, New Jersey congressman Chris Smith will join us to discuss why he believes religious freedom and
1:56 human rights should be a part of the agenda. And Iran is issuing new threats to expand the geography of the war, while the Houthis in Yemen continue military
2:07 operations that threaten Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region. What could this mean for Israel, the United States, and the wider Middle East? Retired Brigadier General John Tyker joins us to explain the
2:19 latest developments and where the conflict could be headed. And finally, the governor of my home state of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, joins us to discuss the state's effort to bring the new United States Space
2:31 Academy to South Louisiana and why Louisiana believes it is uniquely positioned to help lead America's next chapter in space. All of that and more straight ahead.
2:46 Alright. Let's begin with the international news. World leaders are gathering in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly with the general debate beginning tomorrow. And just within the last hour, president
2:57 Trump met with New York City mayor Zoran Mandani at Gracie Mansion ahead of this week's events. Joining us now is Washington stand reporter Casey Harper. Alright, Casey. What came out of the
3:09 meeting with president Trump and, the mayor?
3:12 Yeah. Thanks, Tony. That meeting is actually just now wrapping up. But what we know is being discussed is really 1 word, security. New York is bracing for very tight security in these high stakes global in this high
3:23 stakes global diplomacy as hundreds of international delegates and world leaders and their security forces, by the way, arrive for the 81st UN General Assembly. Now the key topics we can expect are war with Iran,
3:35 Russia's war in Ukraine, of course, everything with Israel, and artificial intelligence as you mentioned. Now this afternoon's meeting between president Trump and the 1st self described mayor socialist, Mamdani, took
3:46 place at that Gracie mansion, and it's the 3rd face to face meeting between president Trump and Mom Dani who's increasingly becoming a national figure in shaping the Democratic Party on the left. But as for the UN
3:57 and what we can expect this week, president Trump and British prime minister Andy Burnham are scheduled to meet for the 1st time tomorrow, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is speaking Wednesday. The Iranian
4:08 president is also scheduled to speak the same day. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is for the next day on Thursday, and this all comes ahead of president Trump's in person meetings with the Chinese president Xi
4:19 Jinping this week. So a very, very busy foreign policy week, Tony.
4:23 Wow. That's a that's a lot to cover. Speaking of the international news, we, heard this at the top of the program. The US wants to establish a notification system with China for serious incidents
4:34 involving AI. What's what's this about?
4:37 Yeah. Kind of a a mysterious, very interesting, word mentioned there from Bessin. So yesterday in New York, the US and China wrapped up these discussions on trade issues, which have been ongoing, but then artificial
4:48 intelligence where they're talking about this notification mechanism you heard Bessin talk about. It would reportedly go into effect if there's some kind of national security threat from AI. So US treasury secretary
4:59 Scott Bessin said that this new system between, would work between the US and China. In fact, we have a clip of what he had to say.
5:05 The the notification for, whether they're incidents, whether, there has been something that rises up to a national security level from
5:17 from AI because, you know, we we think that, just just like with any cross border activity that moving from opaque, to more
5:29 transparency between the the number 1 and the number 2 AI powers in the world, very important.
5:34 Now we haven't seen a public response from China on this, Tony, but when we've heard of these AIs actually escaping the lab and attacking other people, it seems like it'd be good to have a line of communication open.
5:44 Sounds a little bit like, COVID. Yeah. Alright. Let's turn to the, the conflict in the Middle East. The United States has signaled that hostilities in the region could soon rapidly escalate. What's
5:56 the latest?
5:57 Yeah. We're seeing the situation deteriorate even more in the Middle East. The US state department actually issued a security warning for Americans in the region, of course, in Iran, but even more broadly, when they've
6:07 urged US citizens to leave immediately. The state department said Americans in the Middle East, and and especially Iran should be aware that they could have their flights canceled, airspace closed, and travel disruptions
6:17 that leave them trapped in the country. Now this come is coming after these recent attacks by the Houthis, which are, are backed by the Iranians. And they've launched strikes against Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia has
6:28 responded with their own, strikes. And this has hit a lot of airports and led to closure of, airspace. Now it's also coming, as we know, that president Trump has been weighing increasing his strikes both on
6:40 Iran or maybe these targets in Yemen, which could, you know, totally shut things down for a while. So I think any any it's hard to imagine any people in you Americans in Iran who haven't haven't
6:52 gotten out yet, but even more broadly in the region need to
6:53 take this
6:54 pretty seriously. And it looks like, kind of the world's on fire.
6:57 Yeah.
6:58 A lot to pray about. Alright. Casey, thanks so much for the, the update. Thanks, John. Alright. We're gonna take a closer look at what's unfolding in the Middle East with Brigadier General John Teichart in a moment, but
7:09 let's turn to some domestic matters 1st. Before house members returned home for their extended district work, and their campaign period, 3 house committees released their
Escalating Middle East Conflict and US Warnings
7:20 3rd joint report on the investigation into allegations against political fundraising organization, ActBlue. Joining us now to discuss this and more is congressman Mark
7:32 Harris, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the Education and Workforce Committee. He represents the 8th congressional district of North Carolina. Congressman Harris, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always
7:43 good to see you. Hey, Tony. It's great to see you. Alright. So this is the 3rd joint interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee, administrative administration committee, and the oversight
7:55 committee. Give us, an overview of what's in this report.
8:00 Well, I think 1 of the things that just continues to come to light in in this report is that there are serious, serious concerns, even allegations that are moving closer and closer
8:12 to perhaps, becoming charges in ActBlue and the work that they have done and perhaps taking foreign money and investing it in the campaigns. For those who are not familiar with
8:24 ActBlue, this is the major fundraising arm online, through for the Democratic Party. The likes of AOC and many of the other leaders in the Democrat Party make use of this platform of
8:35 ActBlue. And now this report, the work of these 3 committees that you mentioned, oversight committee, judiciary committee, and then the administration committee, have been doing incredible
8:47 work, I think, to uncover or at a very minimum to shine the light on the things that are going on with ActBlue, which is, again, showing that most of the
8:59 reports are showing they have become more lenient and less judicious about making sure that those that are contributing to their, fund are not foreign
9:11 dollars. That's the big issue that I think is being highlighted here. These foreign dollars are coming into those Democrat campaigns.
9:18 Which obviously is illegal, but the the report suggests it goes beyond failing to screen appropriately. It it it suggests that ActBlue may have withheld
9:29 documents and that the the the accepting of these foreign contributions may have been knowing and willful.
9:38 Well, I think so. And I think 1 of the reports talked about over and over again that, the document showed that the leaders would always say give the donor the benefit of the doubt.
9:50 So they were certainly not judicious in any way, shape, or form. And even when it came down to passport numbers, they weren't really looking at passport numbers to make sure that they could be verified as legitimate, but
10:02 they were just simply making sure that the number of characters on those passport were the correct number of characters per se. So, again, a lot of things that were going on, a number of people that were,
10:14 being deposed in the midst of this were claiming the 5th and not even answering the question. So there's a lot of things that continue to be brought to light here.
10:23 So it's not just the characters on the passport. It's the characters behind the passport as well. Question. So is there is there any pattern? I mean, do we do we know in particular
10:35 what countries these are coming from, or what what do we where do we know these foreign do we know anything about where these foreign dollars are coming from?
10:42 At this point, I'm not aware of exactly what particular countries have been identified or these individuals identified, but I do know that, that continues to be information that is being
10:54 gathered and the work continues. And by the way, kudos to chairman Jordan, chairman style of administration, and also chairman Comer of the oversight because they have they've hung on to this just like a junkyard
11:06 dog, and they're not willing to let it go, which is good.
11:08 Well, it needs to be cleaned up. We you know, there was all this concern about Russian collusion, you know, back in the 20 16. Well, I mean, we've got, foreign money flowing into, campaigns. That's a big
11:20 issue. Alright. We just have a couple minutes left. I wanna go to another 1 of your committees you serve on, education committee. Earlier this month, the latest, results from the program from international student
11:31 assessment, they were released. The results were released, and, this is the assessment of 15 year old students' knowledge of core subject. It's been conducted every 3 years since 2000. And according to the
11:43 newest data, US reading and math scores are among the lowest ever observed for our country.
11:50 They are, Tony. And, listen. There is no question that these figures reveal that American education needs a hard, hard reset. Listen, I think it was
12:02 the report revealed that 83 percent of the school districts scored lower in proficiency than they did a decade ago. I mean, we're going in the wrong direction. When you stop and think about the
12:14 fact that since 19 83000000000000 dollars has gone to the Department of Education, and yet we continue to get information seemingly year after year that whether it be math
12:26 or reading. Of course, as as you know, I fully believe it's because our whole entire education industry in this country has gone down the path of of wokeness rather than
12:38 focusing on reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and all of those things that are so critically important. And I'm thankful that this administration and this congress has been very active in
12:50 trying to undo that.
12:51 Well, congressman Harris, I know you'll agree with me on this as a Southern Baptist pastor. It's not just the wokeness. It's what the wokeness replaced. Scripture makes very clear that what the beginning of wisdom is.
13:03 And we have taken God out of our schools and out of our culture, and we're teaching our children about gender and about sex, and we have failed to teach them right and wrong.
13:15 Hundred percent. And that's why I'm grateful for every church that is willing to step up and start a Christian school. And, you know, I I see it across my district ever since COVID. And if COVID didn't do
13:27 anything else, it blew the lid off what was going on in so many of these school systems, things you've been sharing for years, Tony, on broadcast like this and others. But I think folks saw it at a new
13:39 level like they had never seen before, and they saw that our administrators didn't couldn't have concern about the student as much as they did about the left wing issues.
13:50 And now is the time to change it. Congressman Mark Harris, thanks for joining us. Folks, stick with us. More on the other side of the break.
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14:30 I think all people really need to have this type of education.
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17:01 Alright. Welcome back to Washington Watch on this Monday afternoon. Thanks so much for, joining us. The website, tony perkins dot com. Just a reminder, our Prevost Stand Summit begins this Thursday at
17:13 Cornerstone Chapel just outside of DC here at Lee in Leesburg, Virginia. Be sure to find out, more details, and if you can join us, we still got room for you. Text summit to
17:25 6 7 7 4 2. That's summit to 6 7 7 4 2 to register and to find out more. Alright. Earlier today, a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the
17:36 IRGC, warned that a renewed attack on Tehran would expand the, quote, geography of the warfare and use different weapons. They would use different weapons and targets. Now
17:48 the threat comes as president Trump is in deciding mode when it comes to his more is retired Brigadier General John Tigard, former assistant deputy
18:00 undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. He He also previously served as our nation's senior defense official in Iraq and served as the commander of the joint base Andrews as well as Edwards
18:12 Air Force Base. General Tankard, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
18:17 Tony, as always, thanks again for having me.
18:19 So let me ask you this question. In the warning today, the IRGC spokesman said that we will introduce new weapons, and we will expand the geography of this war.
18:31 How do you how do you interpret that?
18:34 Tony, I think this is standard rhetoric by the IRGC that's trying to deter us, which means stopping us from doing the things they don't want us to do. And in order to do that, they do
18:46 2 sets of things. Number 1, they increase the perceived costs and risks to us. That means they could strike our forces or our positions or our allies and our partners. And then
18:57 secondly, they wanna decrease the perception of benefits, which means find ways to shut off friendly flows of oil through or around the Strait of Hormuz. But I don't think there's any specific or credible threat
19:09 here apart from them trying to stop us from doing those things the president may or may not be deciding about in the near future.
19:16 Do you my interpretation and and you'd, you know, correct me if you don't see this here, but that, you know, we've not seen the terrorist cells that supposedly they had as we went into this conflict. Could
19:28 they have been holding back on that? And and may we see more terrorist activity, operating even here in the United States?
19:38 Tony, there's always the possibility of a lone wolf, which means that we need to remain vigilant about potential threats. But I agree with you that if they were gonna unleash something that they had that
19:50 was more robust as a terror cell, then they would have done it during active combat operations 6 months ago instead of waiting for now. But I do think they're trying to sow the seeds of doubt in our
20:01 mind that those things are possible, again, to stop us from doing those things that they don't want us to do.
20:07 Alright. In in related news to this, what do you make of the escalating attacks by the the Iranian backed Houthis against Saudi Arabia? What I mean, is that is that more of the expansion trying to
20:19 draw more people into this conflict?
20:22 Tony, I don't think that's as much of the Houthis being puppets for Iran as it is the Houthis doing the things that are in their own interests. And they have a desire to take over Yemen. They have a
20:33 desire to fight back against Saudi that has struck them occasionally, and their biggest point of leverage isn't strikes against Saudi on land, but it is the threats of shutting off flow of
20:45 goods through and into the Red Sea. And so they're doing what they can to achieve their own interests. Sometimes those interests align with Iran, but right now, I think they're focused on achieving what they believe is
20:57 the initiative that is in their favor, which is starting to take larger swaths of Yemen.
21:02 Now there was reports, I don't know that this has been confirmed, that, the president held off on planned US military strikes against the Houthis, in Yemen over the
21:14 weekend. What do we know about that?
21:16 Tony, I think the biggest thing for Americans to understand is that flow through the Red Sea is far more important to us and actually the world than even the Persian Gulf. 15 percent
21:28 of all worldwide transit goes through the Red Sea, and it's the primary route between Asia and the East Coast of the United States. And when that route has been shut off, it triples the price of
21:40 transit per cargo item to the East Coast from Asia that has a huge inflationary effect. And I think the president is holding off in part because he don't want doesn't wanna see a 2nd front in
21:52 the war in the Middle East, but primarily because if that area got shut off for transit, it would have devastating effects on the US economy.
22:00 General Tacker, we just have a few minutes left. But in your capacity in the air force, when you were on active duty before you retired, I mean, you had to keep your eye on the entire world, not
22:12 just 1 1 region. When we look at what is happening right now in the world, we have the Middle East, which is remains hot. We've got Ukraine and Russia. That seems to be intensifying.
22:24 Where would you say we are right now, globally when it comes to the level of conflict and the danger in the world?
22:32 Tony, I think the world is always a dangerous place, but right now it seems more so than normal. We do have threats in Eastern Europe and the Western Pacific and the Middle East. And the key is that the United States
22:44 has global commitments, and it's the chairman's responsibility alongside the secretary and the Pentagon to make sure that we have the right force posture and capabilities spread out around the world
22:56 to meet our interests. And my biggest concern is not just specifically weapon stockpiles, but US credibility. And every time we make threats and then don't follow through, and we've seen several
23:08 cycles of this in the Middle East against Iran, It diminishes our credibility, not just in the eyes of the IRGC, but other potential adversaries. And I used that word deterrence earlier in Iran trying
23:19 to deter us, but the key to deterrence in the minds of our adversaries is that they believe we have strength of both capability and will, and they have to believe that we can defend and protect our
23:31 interests. And sometimes when our credibility is diminished, it makes the world even more dangerous than it was before.
23:38 We just have a little over a minute left, general. But as Christians, how do we look at what is happening from the spiritual perspective? There seems to be a lot of spiritual undercurrent
23:50 in some of these regions that what in in what's unfolding.
23:54 Tony, I always encourage Americans to pray for our nation and our leaders daily. My favorite bible verse, my life's verse is Psalm 20 verse 7. Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
24:06 but we will remember the name of the lord our god. And we saw that horses and chariots ended up in the bottom of the Red Sea, but god's people made their way towards the promised land. And the only way that we can stay
24:18 safe and achieve our interests here in the United States is to be strong and to trust in modern day horses and chariots, but also to pray and seek the lord our god who has always been the source of our
24:29 protection and provision and peace and power.
24:32 And we need to constantly be reminded of that fact. General Tankard, I wanna thank you for joining us. As always, appreciate your, your insights into these, I think, very, very important issues
24:44 that more and more more Christians need to know about.
24:47 Tony, thank you so much for your leadership in these areas.
24:49 Alright. General Teichart, it's a lot to pray about, but I do think we need to be praying. Next up, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry. Don't go away.Show more
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