Skip to content 7/16/2025 Gaining Clarity on Court Rulings, Legislative Challenges and Why the Epstein Files Matter Today Jul 16 · 59 min ...more
7/16/2025 Gaining Clarity on Court Rulings, Legislative Challenges and Why the Epstein Files Matter Today
July 16, 2025 · 59 min
Tony and guests break down the Rescissions Bill, amendments to the NDAA, a court ruling upholding West Virginia’s abortion drug ban, repealing the NEA’s federal charter, and the Epstein files.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video July 16, 2025 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Tony and guests break down the Rescissions Bill, amendments to the NDAA, a court ruling upholding West Virginia’s abortion drug ban, repealing the NEA’s federal charter, and the Epstein files. ...more Show the full description Show less Tony and guests break down the Rescissions Bill, amendments to the NDAA, a court ruling upholding West Virginia’s abortion drug ban, repealing the NEA’s federal charter, and the Epstein files.
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In this video 0:00 Political Maneuvering and Spending Cuts1:29 Protests, Funding, and National Security Concerns4:40 Legislative Updates and Pro-Life Victory11:35 Cultural Engagement and Biblical Worldview18:47 Transparency and Accountability in Government
Political Maneuvering and Spending Cuts 0:06 Welcome to the Washington watch news desk. I'm Zachary Goll with today's top stories. Congressional Republicans are facing a Friday deadline to approve 9400000000.0 dollars in spending0:18 cuts proposed by the White House. This rescissions package would slash funding for things like NPR and PBS, which are known for pushing a leftist agenda.0:30 But after backlash from some lawmakers, the White House has now agreed that the package can be amended to remove the reductions to WOCC programs in foreign funding. The original rescissions0:42 package proposed cutting the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief, known as PEPFAR, by about 5 percent. But because of the objections of some liberal Republicans, like Susan Collins,0:54 it looks like that won't happen. The program was originally intended to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but its budget has ballooned over time, and its mission has drifted.1:06 As senator Roger Marshall pointed out, funding meant for fighting disease ended up fighting for abortion and radical LGBTQ causes.1:16 I wanna have all the compassion in the world for people with AIDS. I wanna do everything we can to help those folks. But again, they take the we're already giving them 7000000000 dollars a year, and we wanted to cut out1:27 some of this waste fraud abuse as we just described.
Protests, Funding, and National Security Concerns
1:30 In other news, the fourth circuit court of appeals has temporarily blocked the Trump administration yet again. This time, it has to do with amnesty. Last month, the Department of Homeland
1:42 Security announced it would eliminate temporary amnesty for about 75000 Afghan migrants. The migrants were settled across the United States by the Biden administration and granted temporary
1:54 protected status. Reports have shown that many of these Afghans were poorly vetted, and some of them were even terrorists who helped place explosives that would kill American troops.
2:07 Even Biden's DHS inspector general admitted that, quote, the DHS may have admitted or paroled individuals into the United States who pose a risk to national security and the
2:19 safety of local communities. Despite the potential danger, by order of the court, the Afghans are here to stay, at least for now. Moving on to
2:31 another massive story, there appears to be more than meets the eye to the recent leftist protests. Republicans have long questioned whether left wing violent protests were paid for by
2:42 outside money.
2:44 Frankly, the president has a lot of common sense. And if you look at some of the imagery that we ever seen received from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE and law enforcement who are on the ground, you will see
2:55 boxes and boxes of very professionalized masks and rioting equipment being dropped off for these protesters. So it's a good question the president is raising and 1 we are looking into about who is funding these,
3:07 insurrectionists.
3:09 Now we're finding out that the White House's concerns aren't unfounded. The CEO of an advocacy and events company called Crowds on Demand says he was offered 20000000 dollars to
3:21 help organize the upcoming Good Troubles Live On protests. He allegedly rejected the offer because he feared that demonstrations would turn violent. But people are beginning
3:33 to wonder how many of the recent demonstrations and riots were funded by left wing groups. In another development, Customs and Border Protection arrested 5
3:44 Iranians attempting to enter the United States illegally at the northern border. Many Americans see this as a chilling reminder. For years, foreign nationals from hostile nations were pouring
3:56 into the United States, sparking concerns of future terror attacks. CBP commissioner Rodney Scott released a memo warning that thousands of Iranians had entered the US.
4:08 He wrote that we have not received any specific credible threats to share with you currently. The threat of sleeper cells or sympathizers acting on their own or at the behest of Iran has never
4:20 been higher. According to CBP, hundreds of migrants with terrorism related records have attempted to enter the United States, and some were successful. It's 1 more reason to be praying for our
4:32 nation. And those are today's headlines. I'm Zachary Goll. Up next is Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. We're back tomorrow with more stories that matter.
Legislative Updates and Pro-Life Victory
4:52 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 and
5:04 newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
5:10 I appreciate all the work the administration has done in identifying wasteful spending. And now it's time for the senate to do its part to cut some of that waste out of the budget. It's a
5:22 small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue.
5:30 That was senate Republican leader John Thune earlier today as the senate moves toward a final vote on the Trump administration's 9 now 9000000000 dollar rescissions package. Welcome to Washington Watch. I'm
5:41 Tony Perkins. Glad you're tuning in. The measure advanced last night after a dramatic 50 50 vote. Vice president JD Vance cast the tie breaking vote after 3 Republicans
5:53 broke ranks. North Carolina senator Ted Budd joins us in just a moment to tell us what's happening behind the scenes. Also ahead, a major pro life victory in the courts, the
6:05 fourth circuit upheld West Virginia's unborn child protection act, a law that protects life in part by restricting chemical abortions using mifepressone. The court ruled that the
6:17 state, not just the FDA, has a right to safeguard its citizens. We'll talk with Aaron Hawley from Alliance Defending Freedom who argued on behalf of the West Virginia law.
6:28 It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats' work. Instead of talking about
6:39 the things we've achieved, we've had tremendous achievement. They're wasting their time with, a guy who obviously had some very serious problems, who died 3, 4 years
6:51 ago.
6:53 How was president Trump earlier today responding to growing calls to release the Epstein files? We'll get the latest from Judicial Watch president Tom Fenton. Also, Washington stand
7:04 Sam McCarthy will provide some history on the controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. And later
7:12 The National Education Association's time is over. The NEA was created to champion America's teachers and serve our schools, but it has spiraled into a partisan
7:24 machine that's more about radical ideology than education.
7:29 That was North Carolina congressman Mark Harris proposing to repeal the federal charter of the National Education Association. He'll join us later to explain why he believes the NEA has abandoned America's
7:40 students. All of that and more coming up on this edition of Washington Watch. Well, Congress is just 2 days away from the deadline to pass the White House's first rescissions package.
7:52 If passed, it would codify the cuts to in funding for NPR, PBS, and USAID among many woke priorities. Just yesterday, the rescissions package cleared its first
8:04 procedural vote with the help of the vice president. As the bill proceeds, Democrats are doing what they do best, lie.
8:12 Donald Trump's hatred of foreign aid has nothing to do with making government more efficient. Republicans do not care about eliminating waste. They simply wanna cut funding and the consequences even if it
8:24 means kids starved to death abroad. It's incomprehensively mean spirited.
8:31 That, of course, was minority leader senator Chuck Schumer. Here now to share more is senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Permanent Select Committee on
8:43 Intelligence. Senator Budd, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
8:48 Glad to be here. Thanks, Tony.
8:49 Alright. Senator, give us the latest on the rescissions package. Where does it stand?
8:53 We are in the Votarama right now. So by doing this rescission package, the deadline is Friday, and we have to to get this done. Hopefully, we'll get it done by midnight tonight. The Democrats are throwing up obstacle
9:04 after obstacle on the floor as we speak. So I am in between votes in this vote a rama right now as we speak, and they are trying to put out, amendments that essentially would kill this bill
9:16 and take back 9000000000 dollars because there's so many things in there that would promote their leftist agenda. We're trying to take back. We're trying to reign in the intent of the taxpayers, when they sent their tax
9:27 dollars to to Washington DC. The things that, the things that are being rescinded right now and in this rescission package are not things that are good for the American taxpayer. It's leftist
9:38 agenda things. It's, it's it's horrible stuff that we we don't need to be spending our taxpayer dollars on. Well,
9:45 even that Agreed. But so let me ask you this, senator. You had some Republicans, some of your colleagues that that caved on 400000000 dollars on PEPFAR funding
9:57 when that's a program that has ballooned over its the the course of its almost quarter of a century of existence. And you talk about woke policies. I mean, it's filled with them.
10:09 It is. But a lot of those Republicans have been here a really long time, and they remember the good old days when that that came in under Republican. It's unfortunately, it's no longer that. It's not doing the original
10:19 intent. And I would say it's Joe Biden who corrupted the original intent of this and spent it on LGBT policies and pro abortion in other countries. And, again, that's not a good stewardship of the American
10:31 taxpayer dollars and it's just wrong headed policy all around. It's immoral, and that was that was brought about by Joe Biden.
10:38 So, let's go ahead and
10:40 get 50 votes on this. 50 votes plus going on.
10:43 You're correct, but we gotta fix it. I mean, when it started out, I was here in 2003 when it started. It started out at 1500000000.0 dollars a year. Now last allocation was 7100000000.0. I mean, it's
10:54 just over 300 percent increase. And as you pointed out, it it's wrong headed policies.
11:00 Yeah. Just pay
11:01 too much spending, and it's on the wrong things. And so we need to rescind it. We'll have to look at it in another package and get at it another way. But a goal for the rest of the 9000000000 dollars is we gotta do this
11:11 by Friday. We need 50 votes plus 1 to do it.
11:13 Well and I hope you get there. We need this is a step in the right direction. Not the I'd like to see more, but it's a good step in the right direction. But before I I wanna go to the National Defense Authorization Act.
11:24 You you you have some measures. You're on the defense committee. But before we do that, you you were over in the house. You're now over in the senate. You've you've had enough time under your your belt there in the
11:33 senate. Compare the house to the senate. Which chamber seems to be more aggressive in getting things done?
Cultural Engagement and Biblical Worldview
11:41 Well, it's gonna depend on, congress by congress. In the hundred nineteenth congress, I'd say that we've taken more votes than in any senate in history, and that's under leader John Thune. I think he's doing a great job.
11:52 And we've been very aggressive, really taking the Democrats to task for their their policies that aren't represent representative of America. You played a a clip earlier of Chuck Schumer. That was completely cringey.
12:04 They've had to make the utmost outlandish arguments, and I don't think America's buying it. So I'd say right now, the US Senate is the 1 that seems a little more conservative and really aggressive, but I also have to
12:15 thank my colleague. We came in together in 20 16, and he was a great Louisianan. And I'm from North Carolina, but I think he's from your original state of Louisiana and, speaker Mike Johnson. And he is a wonderful
12:25 individual and a great leader, and, it seems like he's doing the best he can with his majority over there. And so hats off to him as well.
12:34 I think it's a fair assessment of both, chambers. 1 final question on that. Do do you see, does the house tend to work closer together when you talk about your colleagues as opposed in the senate? It seems like the
12:45 senate's a little more independent.
12:48 Well, I would say this time, it seemed great collaboration between the speaker and the leader and a lot of interface member to member. I still stay in touch with friends from the house, colleagues from the house, and,
12:57 we're working closely together. So I see that more than I saw when I came in in 20 16 under Paul Ryan. And, again, there was, like, this divisiveness between Republicans there and Republicans here. I don't see that now.
13:08 I see a lot of collaboration. We can always do better. There's more we can accomplish, but we're getting great we're getting great things done. And, we're we're going at it at a really good clip.
13:17 Well, and I think that's because in my time, I've I've seen more individuals like you elected to the the the senate, you know, Ted Cruz and, Mike Lee and others who are a little
13:29 more aggressive. They're not just happy with the status quo. So I think it is it's revving the engine up a little bit in the senate a little bit more to make it move more quickly. You introduced the front act. Explain
13:40 what that is. Tell our viewers what that is.
13:43 We've seen these horrible protests, whether it was back during COVID or whether it was just a few weeks ago in Los Angeles. And we've had the suspicions, and now we have evidence that it is funded by outside the US
13:54 entities. Those that are adversarial and hostile to, the freedoms that we have in America. It could be a communist, a a pro communism, pro China millionaire from overseas that's funding us and,
14:06 or that's funding, these radical protests. And we would make these groups that receive that money register as foreign agents. We can't have outside dollars. Look, do we want to protect First Amendment rights to protest
14:17 and freedom and freedom of assembly? Absolutely. But we cannot have adversarial dollars from these nations coming in funding these groups. That that's out of hand, and we can't do that. So we we need accountability and
14:29 transparency. That's what the, that's what this the front act does.
14:33 What do you think the prospects are of that getting through?
14:37 Well, I've got some great colleagues, senator Ricketts, senator Hawley that we worked together on this, and, we think we've got good chances. Again, it's like, you're trying to thread a needle. You've got a lot of things
14:48 we need to accomplish. President Trump's got a lot, on his plate that we need to sign off 1 year in the senate, and, we'll we'll see where we can fit it in. If it attaches to something else, great. If it's on a stand
14:58 alone bill, that's fine too.
14:59 Well, you know, it's it's an important issue. I mean, we we cherish freedom, but we can't allow people to come and undermine that freedom who want to see our freedom collapse, these foreign, actors. So I
15:11 I I applaud you on threading this needle and getting it through in the right way. Before I let you go, you led several, National Defense Authorization Act provisions that deal, of course, that deals with our
15:23 military, but, you focus on, in part, banning discriminatory affirmative action policies at our service academies.
15:32 This makes the Supreme Court decision that we saw to colleges around the US apply to our service academies. When you think of West Point Navy Academy, Air Force Academy, we want the same standards based on merit. That's
15:44 really all we want. And that's an American value is that you win based on merit, not based on the color of your skin or your ethnicity or anything like that. And the the the US military and these academies have been the
15:55 greatest leveler, in all times. And so we want people to have a shot, not to be driven on a social agenda, but to be there because they wanna serve our country and they're qualified to do so in these academies. So that's
16:07 what this is about, and, I'm very excited about this year's NDAA. It, supports our troops, and it creates, a great opportunity in these service academies.
16:17 Senator, we're at a, what I would say is a historic moment of turning in our culture. People have had enough of the DEI woke ideology, and and and they
16:29 pushed back starting at school boards, you know, state legislatures, congress, electing president Donald Trump, returning him to office, and he's he has not been slow
16:41 in addressing many of these issues. But from your perspective, what do we do what do we need to do to make sure this is not a flash in the pan, that it's not the pendulum doesn't swing back,
16:53 you know, 3 years from now, but that we continue to chart a course that preserves freedom, individual freedom, preserves the very foundational elements of our republic.
17:05 Well, never stop praying. And, if you're somebody out there to you, Tony, your team, your viewers, if you'll continue to do so, and I would also say remember that regular folks make a
17:17 difference. I was a regular individual who went, to our state capitol and signed up and decided to run for congress and, ended up winning. And, you know, you could put your name on the line. You
17:29 could step up for a school board, a county commission, a city council, and, show up and and allow your values to be heard and represented because you're representing a lot of people. It could be congress. It could be the
17:40 US senate. You never know. But, I took a shot 1 day and won, and, I'm just a regular guy. And so I would say make sure that, that you're willing to, stand up and volunteer and stay
17:52 engaged and always be prayerful and never lose hope.
17:55 Well, and, senator, you're you're doing more than just a regular guy. You're doing a really good job. We're, we're grateful for you on Capitol Hill and always thankful for you to come on the program.
18:05 Thank you, Johnny.
18:07 Alright. You heard that. You know, we can each make a difference right where we are. And, senator Budd's doing a great job in the senate. And he and he he he cares
18:18 about the values you and I care about, and he's not shy about them either in the in the city. And that's what we need. We need more individuals who have strong beliefs and convictions, biblical
18:30 beliefs and convictions, and are willing to stand up and defend those things and and create policy from that vantage point and from that with that understanding, that worldview. Alright. Don't go away.
18:42 When we come back, a court victory. We're Gonna talk about it on the other side of the break.Show more
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