Skip to content 12/1/2025 Americans Have Good Reasons for Their Trust Issues with the Media, Immigration and Medical Policies Dec 1 · 54 min ...more
12/1/2025 Americans Have Good Reasons for Their Trust Issues with the Media, Immigration and Medical Policies
December 1, 2025 · 54 min
Today: Terror attack on our National Guard; illegal immigrant abortion funding; tensions in Venezuela; military to cut ties with Scouts; COVID vaccines linked to deaths; a lack of trust in media.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio December 1, 2025 · 54 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Audio
Today: Terror attack on our National Guard; illegal immigrant abortion funding; tensions in Venezuela; military to cut ties with Scouts; COVID vaccines linked to deaths; a lack of trust in media. ...more Show the full description Show less Today: Terror attack on our National Guard; illegal immigrant abortion funding; tensions in Venezuela; military to cut ties with Scouts; COVID vaccines linked to deaths; a lack of trust in media.
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In this video 0:00 Tribute to Heroes and Tennessee Special Election4:39 Ukraine Peace Talks and Immigration Crisis7:54 Capitol Hill on Vetting and Immigration Reforms13:51 Combating Venezuelan Drug Trafficking24:51 Scouting Reforms and Media Trust Erosion
Tribute to Heroes and Tennessee Special Election 0:01 From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation's leaders and0:12 newsmakers, all from a biblical world view. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heiss.0:19 Sarah and Andrew represent the very best of America. 2 young patriots who were willing to put on the uniform and risk their lives in defense of their fellow Americans. Both of them truly0:31 embody the profound words spoken by Jesus Christ in the gospel. Greater love has no 1 than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Sarah and Andrew are heroes, and we will0:43 never forget their sacrifice.0:47 Well, that was White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt earlier today addressing the Washington DC shooting that prompted president Trump to pause the asylum decisions. Welcome to0:59 this December first edition of Washington Watch. Hard to believe December is already upon us, but it is. I'm honored to be your host today. I'm Jody Heiss filling the shoes of Tony Perkins. Thank1:11 you so much for joining us. Alright. Coming up today, there's a leaked Pentagon memo suggesting that the military may end its centuries long relationship with1:22
1:34 founder of Trail Life USA. He will be joining us shortly to discuss this. Also, congressman Mark Harris from North Carolina will be here to break down the vetting process for
1:46 asylum applicants after the Afghan immigrant allegedly killed a National Guard member in DC.
2:00 And today, we wanna begin with an important story coming out of Tennessee. Republicans there are looking to solidify their advantage in congress as Tennessee voters are gonna be headed to the
2:12 polls tomorrow for a special election that has reliably been very conservative solid ground. The GOP is aiming to keep control of a district that literally they've dominated
2:24 for years, but it's shaping up to be a little bit closer than we probably anticipated. Joining me now is Washington's stand reporter, Casey Harper. Casey, thank you for joining me. Let's
2:36 start with this. I know this district and the former representative well. This has historically been a strong district. What's going on here that's making this a little bit closer potentially than,
2:48 many people anticipated?
2:50 Well, thanks, Jody. And you're right. It is shaping up to be a tough race for Democrats, but the whole nation's watching it as a potential bellwether for what could happen in next year's midterms. So Tennessee's seventh
3:00 district, as you said, is usually solid Republican territory, And Trump backed republican, Matt Van Epps, is facing off against democrat Afton Ben, a progressive lawmaker, a progressive lawmaker rather
3:12 that some say is Tennessee's AOC. I don't think they mean that as a compliment. Now both sides are bringing in big money with national attention, and Trump himself is putting his name on the line for Van
3:24 Eps, while former vice president Kamala Harris is hitting Nashville for Ben. So 2 big names
3:29 on either side. Killing and the death and the suffering, and I'm sure the Ukrainians side, I know they do as well. They they they they want peace. But it's also about securing an end to the war that leads Ukraine
3:40 sovereign.
3:41 Yeah. Sorry about that clip there. But as I was saying, president Trump, he said in a true social post that the Democratic candidate opposes Christians, backs gun control and open borders, and supports transgenderism,
3:52 and warned voters not to underestimate the race, which, you know, Democrats are just coming off those big wins a couple weeks ago. Republicans, they're closely watching and trying to protect their narrow majority, 2 19
4:04 to 2 13, while Democrats are aiming for an upset. Turnout could be the key here, Jody, especially since this is an off cycle special election, which is happening tomorrow. So the
4:15 result is gonna have a real impact on the control of the house, Jody.
4:20 Yeah. It really will. And it is. As you just said, it's all about these, special elections in off years like this is expected to be a low turnout, and therein is an opportunity that the Democrats
4:32 are hoping to take advantage of. So thank you, Casey, for keeping us up to speed on that special election tomorrow. If I can switch gears with you real quickly to Ukraine, we saw a little bit of a a clip there. Maybe
Ukraine Peace Talks and Immigration Crisis
4:44 we'll get back to that. But, there were some negotiations held in Miami, yesterday, in fact, between the US and Ukrainian officials. What can you tell us about those talks?
4:54 Yeah, Jody. American and Ukrainian officials held what they described as productive talks on Sunday. They're all focused on revising that 28 point peace plan that the US put forward to help end the war in
5:05 Ukraine. Secretary of of state Marco Rubio, he expressed some cautious optimism saying progress has been made, but there there's more work to be done.
5:15 We wanna see the end of the killing and the death and the suffering, and I'm sure the Ukrainians side, I know they do as well. They they they they want peace. But it's also about securing an end to the war that leads
5:25 Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.
5:29 There it is. Even better the second time. But these talks held in Florida were led by Ukraine's new chief negotiator, Reston Reston Umarov, following the resignation of the previous team leader amid a corruption
5:41 scandal. Now Ukraine and its allies are pushing back against parts of the plan that initially seemed to favor Russia, including giving up territory and limiting the size of Ukraine's military. Special envoy Steve Witkoff
5:53 will meet with, Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow in Moscow, and Ukraine's president Zelensky is meeting with the French president in Paris to rally European support. Meanwhile, Russia continues its
6:05 attacks across Ukraine with at least 4 people killed and dozens more wounded on a missile strike in Ukraine just today, highlighting the ongoing casualties as negotiations move forward, Jody.
6:18 Wow. Well, Casey, before I let you go, I know I brought this up kind of introducing some of the things we're gonna be covering in the program. But after the shooting of national guardsmen in Washington DC, the Trump
6:29 administration has tightened some immigration rules. Can you kinda just tell us, Casey, how how did it come to this? How Yeah. How did we get
6:40 here?
6:41 Alright. Well, president Trump, he said yesterday the US could pause asylum emissions for an extended period, warning that it could be a long time before some nations are allowed asylum.
6:51 We've come from different countries that are not friendly to us and countries that are out of control themselves. Countries like Somalia that have virtually no government, no military, no all they do is go around
7:03 killing each other. Then they come into our country and tell us how to run our country. We don't want them.
7:09 So those strong comments from the president come after an Afghan immigrant who was granted asylum under the Trump administration are large allegedly ambushed National Guard members in Washington DC killing 1 and
7:20 critically wounding another. Now authorities say the suspect was not radicalized until after arriving in the US. But in response, the Trump administration has frozen processing for all asylum applications and signaled
7:32 this time for a broader clampdown on legal immigration, Jody.
7:37 Casey, as always, thank you so much for getting us kicked off and keeping us up to speed on some of the highlights that are taking place in the news. I'm sure we'll be talking to you a little bit later but thank you for
7:47 joining me now. Thanks. Alright. I want to go back to the tragic death of the US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom as Casey was just talking about. And I
Capitol Hill on Vetting and Immigration Reforms
7:58 want to bring in a Congressman Mark Harris from North Carolina and get a perspective from Capitol Hill on all of this. Congressman Harris serves on several committees including the
8:10 judiciary committee. He represents the eighth congressional district of North Carolina. Congressman Harris, always an honor to have you on Washington Watch with us. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Thank you for joining
8:22 me this evening.
8:24 Jody, it's great to be with you. Thank you for having me this evening.
8:29 Alright. Let's go to all of this. Of course, the investigation into the alleged shooter is currently underway. It's continuing. But what authorities are already
8:40 beginning to uncover and and make known is is pretty disturbing. What do we know so far?
8:49 Well, obviously, these things that are being uncovered, continue to point out that this, this man came into the United States as part of a Biden program that was basically
9:01 Operation Allies Welcome. And, an individual who had worked with, some folks on in the US military and and intelligence, over there in Afghanistan during those days,
9:13 basically, was just brought in. And, you know, the the reports have been there there was vetting that took place, but you have to stop and ask yourself, you know, at what point the vetting
9:25 was happening, did they ever understand that just because somebody was working with you over there in Afghanistan that somehow they were going to be able to assimilate into American culture
9:37 and and be a part of of the melting pot, if you will, here in the United States. We're hearing reports, a number of reports that that he screamed out, Allah Akbar, in the
9:49 midst of the shooting, which obviously, shows the radical Muslim intent of, the death that he was seeking to bring, to these soldiers. So, you know, again, it's it's just
10:01 very tragic at all levels, but I applaud what the president is doing and and basically putting a freeze right now until we can get a better grip. Because I remember just in my first month
10:13 or so here in Washington being visited by some folks that were part of the state department and learning then that there were just tens of thousands of people that were let in from Afghanistan,
10:25 and we really didn't know where they were. We didn't know a whole lot about them, and and that's that's a real a real tragedy. This illegal immigration issue goes goes so much further
10:37 than just our southern border.
10:40 Yeah. And I think you bring up an excellent point. The vetting process has to be scrutinized and looked at. We we need to make sure that we know who's coming into this country, and who they are and who's working
10:52 with us. As as you said, he worked with the c CIA previously. We we the the vetting process obviously broke down, with all of this. If I can, congressman, let me let me shift gears with you a
11:04 little bit. You introduced earlier this year a bill, called the No Asylum for Criminals Act. And I'm curious if if if your bill would were to pass, could it have
11:16 prevented this type of tragedy, and could it prevent future, tragedies like this?
11:24 Well, it could. That would depend on if this gentleman had any kind of criminal record there in Afghanistan that would have prevented him from being able to come in. What it really
11:35 does is is it stops anybody with a record from being able to gain asylum here in this country, and that would have been a help. I don't know yet enough about his background, what
11:47 he had. I I think, you know, reports are a lot of this started. This young man was working with, our folks as young as 15. He was only 15 years old when he began to be
11:59 involved in in the things that were happening in that war. And so, you know, I don't know what his record was prior to that, but, yes, being able to be a safety
12:10 net to stop individuals that have any kind of criminal record whatsoever from getting into the United States, that would have been a help.
12:20 It sure would. Let me ask you this. Speaking of bills, late last month, you and congresswoman Mary Miller introduced a bill that would stop taxpayer funding of illegal immigrant abortions.
12:33 Incredible. Yet, this is yet another, practice of the Biden administration. They they allowed for illegal immigrants. What about the Hyde Amendment with all of this? And
12:45 real quickly, Lesson Amendment, your thoughts on this on this thing and what that bill would do.
12:51 Well, I'm very grateful to have, congresswoman Miller, working along with me, and and we're coleading on this bill. And we've already had 28 other cosponsors that got on almost immediately. So I
13:03 think there is definitely the interest and the effort being put into making sure that we put an end to this Biden rule that basically turned, the federal government into
13:15 Uber drivers for illegal aliens to be able to go across state lines to get abortions. And there's no American taxpayer that should ever ever have their money
13:27 used to to really provide Uber transportation for folks to get abortions across state lines. And Right. To your point, the Hyde Amendment should prevent it from the beginning. And so this is
13:38 again a common sense approach. The president
13:45 Congressman Mark Harris of North Carolina, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Coming up, we're gonna be talking about, some very important things in Venezuela. You don't wanna
Combating Venezuelan Drug Trafficking
13:57 miss this. Stay with us. We'll be back in a moment.
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17:03 Happy December first. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you for joining us as well. Alright. President Trump, the secretary of defense, Pete
17:15 Hegseth, the chairman of the joint chief of staff, general Dan Cain, secretary of state Marco Rubio, all of them at this very moment are gathered with some
17:26 other senior administration officials in the over oval office discussing some potential next steps in combating Venezuelan drug trafficking into the United States. And of
17:38 course, this largely stems from the president's truth social post over the long weekend that we had, where he just declared Venezuelan airspace to be closed. So what
17:50 is the intended, goal of President Trump's policies regarding Venezuela? Well, joining me now to talk about this is retired rear admiral Mark Montgomery. He is
18:02 also currently senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Admiral Montgomery, welcome back to Washington Washington, Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us.
18:12 Thank you for having me.
18:14 Alright. So let's break this down. What what does shutting down airspace actually entail? What does that look like?
18:24 Well, normally, a country shuts down its own airspace by saying that we're no longer gonna provide the normal control of aircraft through there, or sometimes you'll shut off airspace because you're gonna do a missile
18:35 test. Usually, that's airspace out in the open ocean. But what the president here did was this was signaling. He said, I'm gonna shut it down. And what he really meant was, I'm going to occupy it with my forces at a time
18:47 and place of my choosing. And I think that was a strong signal he was sending. You know, he's trying his hardest to convince Maduro, who is not the legitimate elected leader of Venezuela, to leave
18:59 peacefully or people around Maduro to encourage him aggressively to leave peacefully. And, and so I think he was stepping up the pressure campaign and gave him the, you know, the
19:11 3 day weekend to think about it.
19:14 So what is this gonna look like in real life? What what's it gonna be like, not only for Venezuelan airspace, but for other countries wanting to come and go there? I mean, what
19:26 what in real life is this going to look like?
19:28 So So I think what's really gonna happen is we're gonna conduct air strikes through that airspace. And when we do that, we will put out a notice to Mariners saying stay clear to everyone, out of a certain area that's
19:39 much larger than the area we're operating in. So it's not give away our exact flight planning. But, and then we will probably begin to destroy the, on
19:51 land, the, the factories, the storage units that are used by the Narco cartels for the production and distribution of cocaine from Venezuela to the
20:02 United States and Europe.
20:05 Alright. So you you kinda touched on it, but unpack this a little bit further for us if you would in terms of what president Trump is trying to accomplish through these actions.
20:18 Well, it's just interesting. Look. I I I president Trump did not run as the candidate who will bring you regime change. But I think what he ran was was the president that will bring you a secure homeland.
20:30 And to him, a secure homeland means secure borders, secure missile defense. I hope someday it means a better investment in cyber. But also part of that secure border is that we won't allow illicit drugs in. Now he's
20:42 focused on fentanyl. Fentanyl's killed hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last 4 years. Now fentanyl comes from precursor agents in China that are processed in Mexico and comes in come to this
20:53 country. I think that that's a politically and militarily more touchy issue. So, initially, he's gonna take care of this cocaine problem. The cocaine comes from Venezuela and Colombia.
21:05 We've been shooting ships, coming out of Venezuela and coming out of Colombia, a total of 21 now, and destroying them. But that's like shooting arrows instead of shooting the quiver. The
21:17 quiver are the drug production facilities, and the ones in Venezuela, I imagine, are heavily targeted right now by the United States in preparation for an attack over the next few days.
21:30 This is rather unprecedented action that the president is taking. And, of course, in the midst of all that, he's taking a a good bit of heat from that perspective.
21:42 How effective would you say that the president's policies on Venezuela have been? How is this going so far?
21:50 Look. We're not gonna stop cocaine flow United States by sinking individual ship small ships. It comes in by way too many paths. I think if you're really what he's done is he's saying, Maduro, you're
22:02 a narcoterrorist. You run a narcoterrorist state. The state supports the narcotics cartels in the production and distribution of cocaine. I'm gonna remove you and hopefully install the democratically
22:14 elected leadership, and they will take a more aggressive attitude towards blocking drugs coming to the United States. But in its core, this is a homeland security issue to president Trump. It's about
22:25 keeping the homeland secure from drugs. Now look, we'd like to get fentanyl first, and, honestly, fentanyl is the much bigger deal. But what he can easily get at is, cocaine. And he has always he liked he
22:37 disliked Maduro in his first term, and and I don't think his opinion on Maduro has changed at all.
22:44 So what's gonna happen with all of all of this in your opinion as you, with your expertise, look at what's taking place, looking at the the the role of Maduro there as a
22:56 narco terrorist leader, as you describe him. What what's going to happen with all of this in your opinion?
23:03 So I think we'll conduct strikes against that narco the the the production and stowage of cocaine. We'll also strike their military assets that could impact us, their aircraft and air defense
23:14 systems and their airfields. And then, you know, we'll hope, you know, either because, you know, we encourage them or because, you know, covert operations, but then Maduro gets on a plane to,
23:27 you know, Turkey or Cuba or Russia and, you know, eventually ends up in Moscow living next door to Hafez al Assad, the former leader of Syria, you know, in the dictator's row
23:39 there. He is going to leave, and, eventually, the democratic elected government again there. But it gets messy. You know, when he leaves, it's not a guaranteed thing. And I I think the president would prefer not to be
23:49 involved in that part of regime change. So we'll have to see what happens, but I suspect we attack Maduro fleas.
23:57 You you speak that with, seemingly a good bit of confidence, and I I think the the way you laid it out makes all the sense in the world. So you think we are on the throes of seeing a regime change in Venezuela?
24:08 Look. This has been Marco Rubio's number 1 foreign policy issue for 2 decades. You know, as a Cuban American from Miami, you know, this is a a, a heartfelt, interest to
24:20 him, a real passion interest to him. So, yes, I I suspect that the president is, you know, you know, following, Rubio's lead on this, and we will see
24:32 these attacks. Whether we get regime change, you know, that Maduro gets a vote on that. But if he's smart, he's gonna catch that first buzz that first plane out of there.
24:41 Admiral Mark Montgomery, thank you so much for joining us on Washington Watch. Fascinating information. Alright, friends. On the other side of the break, the Boy Scouts of America under fire, possibly tiesShow more
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