Skip to content 4/9/2026 Analyzing the Iranian Ceasefire, the GOP’s Falling Poll Numbers, and Planned Parenthood’s Disturbing News Apr 9 · 54 min ...more
4/9/2026 Analyzing the Iranian Ceasefire, the GOP’s Falling Poll Numbers, and Planned Parenthood’s Disturbing News
April 9, 2026 · 54 min
Tony and his guests discuss imprisoned protesters and Christians inside of Iran, under a fragile ceasefire, Israel’s ongoing battle with Hezbollah, and consider what to anticipate when U.S. leaders and Iranian delegates meet at the negotiating table. They also analyze whether elections in WI and GA are an indicator of the midterms and review alarming news from Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
Family Research Council is serving in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, & freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
April 9, 2026 · 54 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
Tony and his guests discuss imprisoned protesters and Christians inside of Iran, under a fragile ceasefire, Israel’s ongoing battle with Hezbollah, and consider what to anticipate when U.S. leaders and Iranian delegates meet at the negotiating table. They also analyze whether elections in WI and GA are an indicator of the midterms and review alarming news from Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report. ...more Show the full description Show less Tony and his guests discuss imprisoned protesters and Christians inside of Iran, under a fragile ceasefire, Israel’s ongoing battle with Hezbollah, and consider what to anticipate when U.S. leaders and Iranian delegates meet at the negotiating table. They also analyze whether elections in WI and GA are an indicator of the midterms and review alarming news from Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report.
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In this video 0:00 Fragile US-Iran Ceasefire Unravels17:03 Election Warnings for GOP Midterms27:03 Israel's Fight Against Iranian Proxies39:47 Prayers for Peace, Abortion Surge, Youth ShiftComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Fragile US-Iran Ceasefire Unravels 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 starts now. A 2 week0:21 ceasefire is not sufficient. We need a permanent end to Donald Trump's costly and reckless war of choice, and0:33 house Democrats are committed to bringing about that outcome.0:39 That was House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries earlier this afternoon. Welcome to this Thursday, April ninth edition of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Tony Bergens. Thanks so much for joining us. Well, coming up, we're0:51 in day 2 of the US Iran cease fire, but there's still very little movement through the Strait of Hormuz as anticipation built for high stakes peace negotiations this weekend. Chairman of the House Intelligence1:03 Committee, Rick Crawford, joins us with an assessment of where things stand with Iran. And later, signal pollster John Rogers breaks down this week's elections in Wisconsin and Georgia along with the1:15 latest trends as we head toward the midterm elections. All of that and more. President Donald Trump says he expects Iran1:27 to honor a fragile ceasefire ahead of planned talks this weekend, warning that failure to comply could trigger major US strikes. Joining me now is Casey Harper, Washington
1:38 stands reporter, who has been, closely following today's major developments. Casey, where do things stand right now with the ceasefire?
1:47 Yeah. Thanks, Tony. That press conference with Hakeem Jeffries was almost a little humorous to me. I think everyone knows that a 2 week ceasefire is not enough, but it was viewed as progress so they can work this thing
1:57 out. Now president Trump has remained firm on this. He's warned Iran that they have to follow through on the terms that they do have or he's gonna resume those large scale military attacks. But Iran, on the other hand,
2:07 is accusing the US of already violating the deal because Israel has continued to strike Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon. Now the White House says, hey. Lebanon is not part of the Iran Strait of the,
2:19 Hormuz ceasefire, but Iranian leadership says it is. So that's gonna be a key point of contention this weekend. Now British prime minister Keir Starmer also spoke to the issue acknowledging the uncertainty
2:31 surrounding the ceasefire while visiting British troops in the gulf today. Here's a clip.
2:36 Relief that, there's now a ceasefire. I think a general sense that it's fragile, that there's work to do in relation to it.
2:46 Now oil prices continue to climb towards 100 doll dollars a barrel, and the markets are a bit nervous as there's a lot of doubts over the longevity of this agreement. But, it is progress, and we'll be watching closely
2:58 this weekend, Tony.
3:00 House Republicans earlier today blocked the Democratic push to, limit president Trump's military actions in Iran using a brief pro form a session to, sidestep a vote and deepen
3:11 the standoff over the presidential, war powers. So, Casey, what what actually happened during this session, and how does it what does that signal about con congress's role in this conflict going forward?
3:23 Yeah. The, house Democrats are trying to be more active here, but house Republicans shut down this democratic effort to force a vote that would limit president Trump's military authority over the Iran conflict during
3:33 this brief session that you mentioned. But Democrats said this is not the first time they've done this. They've repeatedly tried and failed once again to pass any kind of war powers resolution or any measures in the
3:43 house or senate that is forcing, congressional approval for the president to continue strikes. Now we have a clip here, from Democratic congressman Glenn Ivey who spoke this morning.
3:54 This morning, we went to the house floor to demand that the congress take up the war powers resolution that's been under consideration before, but we have to get back to it again. We've been at war for 40 days.
4:06 We've only been in session for 33.
4:09 The White House is, of course, insisting that the president's actions are legal, and Republicans are largely backing his, approach on this 1.
4:17 Alright. Thank you, Casey. We'll see you a little later in the, the program. Appreciate the update. Alright. I wanna shift back now to the conflict with Iran starting with the talks vice president JD Vance will lead
4:28 this weekend. Joining me now to discuss this and more, congressman Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He represents the first congressional district of Arkansas. Chairman
4:40 Crawford, welcome, to Washington Watch. Great to see you.
4:43 Yes, sir. Thanks for having me.
4:45 Let me let me start with this. How would you describe the current state of the ceasefire between the US and Iran?
4:52 Well, you know, I don't wanna agree with Keir Starmer any more than I have to. I I would characterize it as he did as fragile. And the reason it's fragile is because you're dealing with a dishonest broker in Iran. So
5:04 they they're trying to dictate the terms of this ceasefire while simultaneously authorizing attacks from Lebanon into Israel and against Israeli targets and possibly American targets and then act like they're not,
5:17 a part of the the discussions as it applies to the Strait of Hormuz. If you're gonna engage in, in this kind of action as you are, supposedly entering into in good faith
5:29 and talks for a cessation of hostilities as it applies to the Strait of Hormuz and broadly the region, I think it would be wise for you to call off your, your proxies
5:41 in, in Lebanon with Hezbollah and possibly other areas that might attempt strikes against Israel or our allies in the region. So that's just not a good faith gesture on the part of the
5:52 Iranians. And that is why this is a fragile state, of of existence as it applies to our current, ceasefire.
6:03 I think that's a great analysis. I mean, we ought to we ought to be calling upon Iran to pull back its proxies just as they're wanting us, although Israel is not a proxy for us, they're operating on their own. They've
6:15 got more at stake than we do. If they want us to pull Israel back, why aren't they pulling back Hezbollah?
6:20 I mean, that's a great question, and this is why and what what we've known for years as, you know, Iran has been the has been acknowledged as the largest state sponsor of terror in the world
6:32 since 19 84. We've been at war with Iran since 19 79. So 47 years of this nonsense and the Iranians using proxies, to do their bidding while they
6:44 attempt to stand back from this as if their fingerprints aren't on it. They 100 percent have control over Lebanon's, his Hezbollah as well as Hamas, as
6:56 well as the Houthis, as well as the Iraqi Shia militia and any other of their proxies that they want to control. Now they're acting as if they can't and that it's a separate consideration. This is an
7:07 all up region conflict, and they have they have attacked pretty much everybody adjacent to them. And so why they would try to pick and choose which of their proxies they may or
7:19 may not be able to control is is a gesture of bad faith on their part.
7:24 Well, mister chairman, speaking of bad faith, when you look at the conflict that we've had with him going back to the late seventies, what are your expectations of this
7:35 weekend's peace talks? What what do we what point do we need to get to that we can say, okay. We've reached a place where we can have a managed peace. We feel the region is
7:47 safer. We feel that, for instance, Israel, our key ally in the region, is safer. And and and I would say even thinking about the Iranians that want peace, the the Christians there being
7:59 persecuted, at what point do we say, okay. We've accomplished what we set out to do?
8:05 I'm not sure where you reach the point at which you can say mission accomplished, and that's a dangerous statement in in any context. And so I think we have to be really careful about defining what that looks like, what
8:16 the end state is. I think what we can agree on is that Iran can never have nuclear capability. They've demonstrated, a willingness, to breach any ethics
8:28 as it applies to engagement with their neighbors, as it applies to even even enemies. But they've, you know, they've been talking about death to America, death to Israel since 19 79. So where do we reach a point at which
8:39 we say, okay, Iran, you're good to go? Well, I think it starts with eliminating their ability to, launch in any capacity that ballistic missile capability ever. And that means short
8:51 range, intermediate range, long range. What they've demonstrated is they have built a fence around their ability to develop nuclear weapons, much like North Korea did, and how they were able
9:03 to acquire a nuclear weapon because they essentially held Seoul, South Korea hostage knowing that the largest artillery, emplacement in the world was trained on 10000000 people.
9:15 They used that as a hedge of protection to allow them to proliferate nuclear, weapons, and Iran is doing much the same. They built out first a ballistic missile capability
9:27 that allowed them to range targets as far away as 3000 kilometers. And they've demonstrated that showing that they have the ability to reach Diego Garcia. Well, all you gotta do is change course 180 degrees, and you can
9:38 reach Europe. So why the Europeans aren't outraged by this is still a mystery to me, but my point is got to stop the ballistic missile production, got to deteriorate, dismantle, completely,
9:50 dismember their their ability to, launch any kind of strike, short, medium, long range, and then remove visionable material. And then we might have a reasonable point at which we can say,
10:02 okay. We're satisfied.
10:04 So, mister chairman, I think what you lay out there is reasonable. And I think at that point, we do have greater stability in the region. However, given the record that
10:16 we've had with Iran, and you'd pointed out yourself, they're not not trustworthy. How do how do we put in place a system that can ensure that that is in fact happening?
10:24 Well, it's it's very difficult because, you know, the the IAEA has also had problems being able to verify any of these organize or any of these, agreements that have been put forth like the JCPOA where they
10:36 routinely either block access or just out and out lie about their current state, to these oversight agencies that are there as a part of the, agreement. And so how do you
10:48 reach an agreement that is verifiable that we can, go into knowing that there is some sort of mechanism to enforce that agreement? I wanna be positive and and have a, you know, positive glass half full look to this,
11:00 and approach on this deal. But history suggests this is going to be very, very difficult to execute. I will say that there are 3 individuals. If they can get a deal, these are the 3 individuals I think that could
11:12 get it. That is Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and JD Vance. So, you know, god bless them. I hope that they're successful. And and I'll sit back and watch and and pray for their success because I think the
11:24 world really needs them to be successful. And and I really hope that Europe will you know, that the scales will be lifted from their eyes, and they can start to recognize that they can play a more
11:36 pivotal role here as it applies to reining in Iranian hostilities in the region and beyond.
11:42 Chairman Crawford, I I agree with you. I think we should look at this, with glass. You know, we we wanna the glass is half full, but we gotta we have eyes that are wide open. And as you've laid out, we've got a a long
11:52 history with this country. As we go into these negotiations, the there's reports that the Iranian regime has accelerated the execution of protesters that they
12:04 had imprisoned. What what leverage do we have in these conversations this weekend to to possibly put a stop to that?
12:12 That is such a good question because I don't really know what buttons we can push to protect, from the persecution of folks that I I don't wanna say necessarily religious minorities. People have this
12:24 idea that Iran is all just a bunch of Shiites. That's not necessarily true. It's not a monolithic culture. In fact, that's part of their problem. And and so they are kind of,
12:36 executing with impunity. That is if there's a political dissident, if there's a someone with a different religious affiliation. Certainly, Christians are top of the list, but there are a significant number of Jews. There
12:48 are Druze. There are, different, versions of of Islam. There are because there are, Kurds. There may be, and and and the Kurds have a
13:00 different levels of or different, sets of religious practices among them. So this is not a single group of folks, Shiites that are just rooting out political dissidents. They
13:12 look for everybody that is is that doesn't walk talk think like the Mullahs and those are targets for elimination and how we stop that. I honestly think it's got it stops when
13:24 the mullahs quit being, the ones running the country.
13:27 Yeah. Chairman Crawford, I wanna thank you for joining us. I really appreciate your insight and the conversation we had. Look forward to seeing you again real soon.
13:35 Yes, Yes, sir. Thanks for having me.
13:38 Alright, folks. Let me encourage you to pray for the situation. As the chairman said, he's praying for those that'll be at the negotiations table this weekend. Text Iran to 6 7 7 4 2 and join the
13:50 prayer effort Iran to 6 7 7 4 2 to pray into the situation. Don't go away. We're back after this.
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Election Warnings for GOP Midterms
17:05 Thanks for making us part of your day. The website, tony perkins dot com. Alright. The results of this week's elections in Georgia and Wisconsin have many sing warning signs for
17:16 Republicans. 3 races, that were closely watched were Wisconsin's state supreme court race, Georgia's congressional special election, and the mayoral race in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
17:29 And most of the headlines are heralding Democrats as big winners. Is that true? What are the takeaways? And are we seeing any trends that could impact this year's midterm election? Joining us
17:41 now to unpack this and, give us some analysis is John Rogers, senior partner and pollster at the polling firm Signal. John, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for joining us.
17:53 Tony, great to be with you again.
17:54 So so tell us what happened in Wisconsin and Georgia. What are you reading there?
17:59 Yeah. So in Wisconsin, you had an open state supreme court, seat that was up for election. There was no incumbent. And the Democrat won by a really hefty margin of about 20 percentage points. Right? And, obviously,
18:10 Wisconsin is the state that president Trump won in 20 24 over Kamala Harris. So, you know, not a great sign, for Republicans there, but you do have to kinda keep in mind that this is a a what you would
18:22 call sort of a an off term election. It's a spring election. Those tend to favor Democrats more because Democrats have become more and more the party of the, of the white collar college educated class.
18:34 The Trump base, which is made up more of working class voters now, is less likely to turn out an election in the spring. But, you know, it's a it's a tough outcome for conservatives in Wisconsin, to have a
18:46 Democrat added to, the bench there. And then in Georgia, in northwest Georgia in the Dalton area, this was a special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene who obviously has stepped down from Congress.
18:58 The Republican did defeat the Democrat by 12 percentage points, but this is also a district that president Trump had won by about 35 points. So a pretty stark, drop down from
19:10 35 points to a 12 point victory. You have to keep in mind, though, Tony, that Democrats outspent Republicans 5 to 1 here, and it was an election 2 days after Easter, and so low turnout was
19:21 kind of expected.
19:23 John, I I think it's important that little caveat that you just mentioned about the out spending of the Democrats, the Republicans. They're they're trying to change the narrative, and so these when when a minority
19:35 party is, you know, focused on winning a special election, I mean, they throw everything they can because they want to change the narrative.
19:45 That's right. And there's no doubt that enthusiasm is really high on the Democratic side. If you go back to the North Carolina primary election in March, there were 200000 more people who voted in the Democratic
19:57 primary than voted in the Republican primary. So what I would say right now is that Democrat voter enthusiasm is at a 10 of 10. Enthusiasm is extraordinarily high. And so for people who are on the right side of the
20:09 aisle, for Republicans, for speaker Johnson, for president Trump, and all the way down to people who are running for state legislature. They really have to work hard to make sure that Republican base turns out in
20:19 November.
20:20 Okay. Let's talk about that because, you just, your firm just did a, a nationwide poll. And 1 of the things that you were tracking on this is that you saw the right
20:32 direction where the people saying whether or not the country was on the right direction shifting significantly among Republicans. That should be a concerning sign.
20:42 It is a little bit of a concerning sign. You know, I think that there is a little bit of angst, about the the war in Iran, and then you see the high gas prices. Republicans still strongly support the, the
20:54 president's actions in Iran, but there's still you can support the actions taken against Iran, but then also look at gasping above 4 dollars a gallon maybe in your state and then have some angst about that. So I think
21:05 that explains a little bit of the softening among Republican voters.
21:09 So enthusiasm is a a key factor in elections, even more so now as the electorate is so narrowly divided. I mean, I think in your polling, you show there's about a 12 percent in the middle,
21:21 the undecided independent voters that everyone's gonna be trying to reach. But you can't abandon your base in trying to reach those undecided independent voters. How do you do
21:33 that?
21:35 Well, for Republican, electives and for Republican candidates, they have to show their base that they're campaigning on the issues that the base cares about. They have to show that they're advocating, for the unborn, for
21:46 sanctity of life issues. They have to show that they are, working hard to uphold the immigration laws of the land and work with president Trump in deporting illegals. But then you also have to do
21:57 that in such a way that as you're talking to voters in the middle, you're holding on to your principles, which the core base Republican voter expects you to, but then you're also offering solutions to all voters when it
22:09 comes to things like inflation, which is the top priority that voters have right now across the country.
22:15 So so, John, are voters looking for specifics? I mean, we we we live in an age of sound bites, and you you talk about, for instance, the pro life voters. I mean, that's a pretty good chunk of Republican
22:27 voters. That's about 2 thirds of Republican voters identify as pro life. But just saying I'm a pro life candidate, given the fact that abortion numbers have risen in the country since the overturn of Roe,
22:40 is it gonna require more specific policy initiatives in order to gain the trust and support of those voters?
22:49 I think it will, Tony. For a lot of pro life voters, for a lot of Republican voters, this is an issue that they prayed about, that they have thought about, that they volunteered around for decades. Right? And the the
23:01 reversal of Roe v Wade with the Dobbs decision for a lot of those Republican voters is just the first step. Right? And and what they want to see is that the unborn are protected, at the state level and
23:12 then also at the federal level. And understand that that's gonna take a lot of work, a lot of prayer, a lot of effort organizing to do, but on that issue, that's where Republican primary voters want the party to go.
23:23 We have just a little over a minute left, John. How significant is the Iran war impacting the standing of, Republicans with voters right now?
23:36 We asked about support or opposition to the Iran war last month and then repeated it again this month in our national poll that just came out. And we we found that net opposition rose by 7 points across the electorate.
23:48 And, you know, I don't think that's too surprising. As gas prices have risen, voters have a lot of concern about that. And, you know, so we'll see. You know, obviously, you have the, the ceasefire, the
24:00 efforts by vice president Vance, at the negotiating table, and, hopefully, there's a good outcome across the board there.
24:06 30 seconds. What recommendations do you have Republicans going forward into the midterms?
24:12 You have to talk about inflation. You have to talk about the issues that voters care about. You have to show that you understand, that the the effects that voters felt under the Biden administration, that there's still
24:23 some lingering effects from that, and you have to offer real solutions, for them and their families.
24:28 Alright. John Rogers, always great to see you. Thanks so much for, joining us and imparting some understanding of what's going on out there. Alright. Coming up, we'll discuss the
24:40 ceasefire with Iran and the latest developments in the Middle East from the perspective of Israel, as Israel today actually agreed to engage in direct talks
24:51 with Lebanon. So don't go away. We're back with more Washington Watch on the other side of the break.
25:00 I think all people really need to have this type of education.
25:04 Well, I can tell you that it's been an amazing course period.
25:07 I think this course is a reminder that a biblical worldview should really impact everything. It impacts our government from the federal to the state to the local. It should impact what we're doing with our families and
25:18 with our work.
25:19 God and Government is a video driven bible based training course from Family Research Council that explores the connection between biblical principles and American government. In
25:31 this 6 session video series, FRC president Tony Perkins equips participants with a practical understanding of civil government from a biblical world view.
25:42 I would encourage all people to take it. I almost wish I would have took it earlier that I could have taught my kids this.
25:48 I wish I had known these things when we were homeschooling because I think children and my adults now would just greatly be influenced by that information.
25:55 So I'm an attorney and for me, it gives me some direct practical knowledge of what I can do to try to impact my legal community
26:05 to make better legislation, to try to encourage legislators to make choices that have a biblical worldview, which is what we really want.
26:13 Any pastor would benefit from taking this course because we are dual citizens. Right? We are citizens of the kingdom of God, but we're also seated citizens of this great land and that that comes with responsibility. Even
26:24 as someone who has been involved in these types of issues for a while, you're learning little bits and pieces of new stuff all the time. But it's also approachable enough that newer people, younger people, high school,
26:34 college students, they can really glean something from this. So I would encourage everybody to take this course, whether it's the videos, whether it's doing it in person, bring your bible study group through it, bring
26:44 your homeschool group through it, and equip yourself for these challenging days ahead.
26:49 View the course at f r c dot o r g slash god and government or on the Stand Firm app.Show more
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