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3/17/2025 Autopen Abuse, Border Breaches, and Current Capitalism
March 18, 2025 · 59 min
Reflections on the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, Houthi attacks, Venezuelan gang deportations, Biden's autopen abuse, and the state of the economy.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video March 18, 2025 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Reflections on the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, Houthi attacks, Venezuelan gang deportations, Biden's autopen abuse, and the state of the economy. ...more Show the full description Show less Reflections on the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, Houthi attacks, Venezuelan gang deportations, Biden's autopen abuse, and the state of the economy.
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In this video 0:00 Deportation and International Tensions2:40 Domestic Policies and Economic Outlook9:13 Controversies and Economic Developments18:01 Immigration and National Security29:38 Faith, Governance, and Community
1:35 in Yemen. The air strikes were in retaliation against the Houthis' attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea. The Houthis say their attacks are revenge for Israeli air strikes in
1:47 Gaza. President Trump released a statement on Truth Social about the attacks, saying the Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have
1:58 achieved our objective. The Houthis have choked off shipping in 1 of the most important waterways of the world, grinding vast swaths of global commerce to a halt and attacking the core principle
2:10 of freedom of navigation upon which international trade and commerce depends. US air strikes against the Houthis are ongoing as the US carried out a new wave of attacks this morning. The
2:22 Houthis have said they will continue to target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US attacks Yemen. Trump has said he will hold Iran responsible for all Houthi attacks. And in
2:34 other domestic news, president Trump will speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow as the US helps broker peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Russian negotiators have said that the
Domestic Policies and Economic Outlook
2:46 Kremlin wants an ironclad guarantee that Ukraine will be prohibited from joining NATO as part of the agreement to end the war. Putin is also looking for Ukraine to cede some territory.
2:58 Here's what president Trump told reporters about the negotiations yesterday on Air Force 1.
3:04 I'll be speaking to president Putin on Tuesday. It's been a lot of, a lot of work's been done over the weekend. We wanna see if we could bring that war to an end. Maybe we
3:16 can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance.
3:19 What sort of concessions will you be seeking to have on fake to get get a deal done?
3:24 Well, I think, well, that I'll be talking about land. It's a lot of land. It's a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. And we'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power plants.
3:37 That's up. You know, it's a big question. But I think we have a lot of it, already discussed very much by both sides. You'll ask him. Ukraine and Russia. You'll ask him.
3:49 We're already talking about that dividing up certain assets.
3:55 And finally, president Trump signed an executive order Friday that reduces the functions of 7 federal agencies. The order, titled continuing the reduction of the federal bureaucracy, seeks to cut functions
4:07 of certain government entities to only what is required by law. The order impacts several agencies, including publicly funded news agency, Voice of America. The White House says this order is in line
4:19 with president Trump's goal of decreasing the size of the federal government and enhancing accountability. Voice of America employees were informed on Saturday they were being placed on administrative leave until further
4:31 notice. Voice of America has long been accused of bias against conservatives. And those are today's headlines. I'm Victoria Marshall. Up next is Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.
4:42 We'll see you tomorrow with more news.
4:51 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 newsmakers,
5:03 all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heiss.
5:11 Well, good afternoon. Welcome to this Monday, Saint Patrick's Day edition of Washington Watch. And speaking of Saint Patrick's Day, did you hear the latest news coming from Ireland
5:23 about the increased population? Well, they tell me it's Dublin. Thought you'd enjoy that. Again, welcome to this edition of Washington Watch. I'm Jody Hice. An honor to be
5:35 filling in today for Tony, and so glad to have you joining us as well. Coming up on today's program, president Trump is making it extremely clear that he is not going to sit
5:47 idly by a human based Houthi terrorist groups engage in piracy, in violence, and in terrorism in the Red Sea.
5:55 In our fight against terrorists, president Trump ordered the launch of decisive and powerful US military deterrence operations against the Iranian backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen. Following the strikes, secretary Rubio
6:07 noted that the president quote sent a powerful and clear message.
6:14 That was US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce earlier today, and I'll be discussing this in just a little while with congressman Tim Burchat, who among other committees is on the
6:25 foreign affairs committee. And president Trump has also taken some decisive action on terrorists who made their way into this country thanks to the open border policy, the previous Biden
6:37 administration.
6:38 We removed in 1 day over 200 dangerous people, including MS 13. Those people in this country mandated president Trump deal with the border crisis, deal with illegal immigration, and deal with illegal alien crime, and
6:50 that's exactly what we did. We removed terrorists. That should be a celebration. We removed terrorists from this country. I stand by what the president did. I support a hundred percent.
7:00 That was president Trump's borders are Tom Homan earlier today. So as he mentioned, why isn't everyone celebrating this action? Well, I'll discuss this later in the program
7:12 with Todd Binsman from the Center for Immigration Studies. And do you remember, just, probably a couple of months ago, house speaker Mike Johnson shared an
7:24 interaction that he had with then president Biden about the memorandum that was put on, new liquefied natural gas exports. And president Biden
7:36 was completely unaware that he had made that decision.
7:39 And he looks at me stunned with his and he said, I didn't I didn't do that. And I said, mister president, you yes. You did. It occurred to me, Barry, he was not lying to me. He genuinely did not know what he had
7:51 signed.
7:53 Wow. Well, interactions like those are being seen through a new light with the discovery of the Biden administration's use of an
8:12 Heritage Foundation's oversight project, which is the group that pulled the curtain on this particular scandal. And then there's some good news to cover today.
8:22 The latest CPI report last week beat expectations. Inflation is cooling. Core inflation dropped for the force first time in 4 months. The national average of the price of gas is down 42 cents from 1 year ago,
8:34 and there was also a new report out this morning about wholesale egg prices. They continue to fall. So I think the American people do have great reason to be optimistic about this economy.
8:45 Well, that was White House press secretary Caroline Levitt earlier today, and I'll be discussing what the latest economic indicators are telling us when I'm joined by doctor Dave Bratt from Liberty
8:57 University. So as usual, we've got a lot coming your way today. You don't wanna miss any of it. But if by chance you do, of course, our website is tony perkins dot com. You wanna be sure to keep that handy.
9:09 Alright. Let's jump into our first item for today. Over the weekend, central US central command initiated a series of operations across Yemen consisting
Controversies and Economic Developments
9:21 of several precision strikes against the Iranian backed Houthi terror group that happens to be based there. And for the past couple of years, you probably know by now the Houthis have been
9:33 targeting military and commercial shipping all throughout the Red Sea, and, effectively, that's been shutting down some crucial waterways for global and commercial
9:45 trade. And in in the announcement that came about in this operation, CENTCOM said that the series of actions were intended to defend American interests. They were intended to
9:56 deter our enemies, and they were intended to restore freedom of navigation. So how might this move impact the area and all beyond?
10:08 We're trying to get on with us right now, congressman Tim Burchat. Do we have, congressman Burchat? Okay. We're having some difficulty getting
10:20 Tim Burchitt. So while we're waiting on him, hopefully, he'll join me here in just a a second. While we're waiting on him, I wanna bring in, Matt Carpenter, who is, the, director
10:32 of FRC Action. We've got a lot of political activity going on as well. Matt, thank you for taking some time and for joining us.
10:40 Hey. Thanks for taking thanks for having me, Jody. Great to be with you.
10:44 Alright. While we're waiting waiting on congressman Burchard, let me throw a couple of things out to you from the political world that, that maybe we'll be able to get some some answers to. Some interesting interesting
10:56 polling information coming out right now that's, grabbing a lot of attention. Why don't you kinda give us the 30000 foot perspective of what's going on?
11:06 Yeah. There's been a lot that's been made of kinda how the Democrats are navigating this new environment they find themselves in. Shutout essentially of any kind of, you know, true governing, position here in
11:17 Washington DC. You know, they do have enough senators in the senate to to block, legislation there. But NBC News came out with a poll recently asking asking voters, how do
11:29 you feel about the 2 political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats? Should be should it's worth noting that, NBC News typically is a pollster that is gonna produce results, favorable
11:41 towards the left. They've never really produced results, that have favored the right. And so that's something to work to kinda consider here, when you've when you've taken a consideration that they've discovered that
11:52 just 7 percent of voters feel very strongly that the that the Democratic Party, is moving in the right direction. In fact, 55 percent of Americans, have a negative
12:04 view of the Democratic Party, including 38 percent who feel very negatively about them. Those are just astonishing numbers. Frankly, they're in a tough spot. They're leaderless. They're shut out, and
12:16 they're they've got a they're they've got a tough hill to climb here, Jody.
12:20 So what is responsible for all of this? I mean, a lot of things come to my mind, but, you keep a pretty good pulse on this. What is it that the American people are saying, do you
12:32 think, to the Democratic Party? Why such a negative outlook on them?
12:38 Well, I think back to the campaign, you know, they spent a lot of time, using a lot of ugly words and smearing their opponents, tearing them down. You know, the the word fascist came out at the end there. Just a really
12:50 ugly discourse. They tried to smear their political opponents as authoritarian. They've raised the specter that our representative form of government. They've said democracy is at risk over and over again. So they've now
13:01 found themselves in this position of do we do we try to be a part of governing the country seriously? And that includes compromise. Or do we allay the concerns of our base and play
13:13 to the small segment of the American population that expects us to obstruct and deny and and and, you know, throw our hands in the air. They're in a tough spot. And unfortunately,
13:25 I think for them, they've blown past a lot of the off ramps, to essentially do that, and they're playing up to their base now. They're digging in, and they're they're gonna be this
13:37 obstructionist element here. And so I think that's gonna pay dividends for them with this small segment of their base, but I think it's gonna complicate their efforts to tack back to the center and and to play to the
13:47 swing vote.
13:50 Very, very interesting. Matt Carpenter, I appreciate so much you coming on and and breaking some of this down. It's really fascinating. I don't recall a time like this, when the Democratic party has been hurting
14:02 so much. But thank you for joining us on Washington Watch. I wanna go back now. We have, congressman Tim Burchitt by phone. And, congressman Burchitt, thank you so much for being able to join us. We
14:14 appreciate it.
14:16 Thank you for having me on, Jody. I'm sorry I can't get a visual. I'm in a tunnel, so it's a little I'm in a bunker almost, so I apologize.
14:25 Well, just stay safe if you're in the bunker there. Yes. We hear you. Let me ask you
14:30 Nothing like that. We're good.
14:33 Alright. Let me ask you about the, the attacks and the, so forth going back and forth among the Houthis. What more can you tell us right now about this operation?
14:44 Yeah. The straight that that's going through about 15 percent of the world trade goes through there. And there's a question of who's going to profit the most. It just shows to me the main thing that we get through
14:56 there, we transferred our goods going in another direction is our oil supply. That just makes it more apparent that
15:08 we need to drill in America. We need to develop our own energy. We had a president for 4 years that said that was in for 4 years and was asked by Speaker Johnson about why he canceled
15:20 gas contracts. He didn't even know it. So we've got a real we've got a quick turnaround and we've got to be able to protect that area. But I have a bill dealing with
15:32 that and allows the president to actually hire outside contractors. There's constitutional precedents for it in the constitution where he's allowed to do that. And I believe this is 1 of those cases. We
15:44 don't need to have our own navy. We got a bunch of basically a bunch of goat herders that Iran has, has basically armed just to cause troubles around the world. And they're doing a pretty darn good
15:56 job of it. And we need to put it down as quick as possible and get trade back to it. But I don't it's not worth a world war, but I think it just shows how volatile the world is and how out of touch
16:07 Washington DC is. We spent 250000000000 dollars unchecked to Ukraine that has no economic, hardly any interest with us at all. And yet, we we allow this kind of shenanigans to go
16:19 around the world and and we hardly do anything about it until Donald Trump got in the White House.
16:25 Yeah. It makes, all the difference in the world. Of course, Islamic Republic, Iran, so forth, Houthis, they're all saying that they're, going to hold us responsible, for what we do, seemingly trying to
16:37 act as though we're somehow the aggressors here and on the on the offense. Are you in agreement with president Trump's actions to this point? Do you think he's making the right decision?
16:50 Up to this point, but I do want to caution folks. The person the group that profits most from that area is China. And you have to wonder why China is not
17:02 involved in it. And the corporation, of course, is an oil corporation. So I think it just reiterates what he's been saying all along that we need to drill on a drill baby drill. I don't like slogans that
17:14 much, but that's a pretty accurate 1. We need to start developing our energy here And don't let the Democrats and the Liberals say, Oh, we issued more oil form permits. But they didn't issue, as you know, Jody,
17:25 as your time on the Hill, they didn't issue processing and pipe laying so that you could drill it, but you couldn't go anywhere with it. You couldn't process it. So we're in a position that's not going to
17:37 happen overnight. It has to go through it's going to take a little bit of time. But I hope this is a good deterrent deterrent, and it lets our enemies know there is a new sheriff in town, and his name is Donald j Trump.
17:50 Absolutely. Speaking of the new sheriff, we only got about 30 seconds or so. But what do you think about the president sending out these terrorists as, Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador real quickly.
Immigration and National Security
18:01 I think it's a great move. I think he's he's constitutionally, a a legitimate. And the judge, they did it. They they need to that's a that's a screwy setup. It's not it's not a normal judiciary type
18:13 situation where some judge out of Washington DC appointed by Obama. These people just wanna wreck our country. These people are rapists, murderers. They are child traffickers. We need to send them out as
18:25 fast as possible. And the president Absolutely. Correct in in his dealings. 100 percent, Jody.
18:32 Thank you, congressman Tim Burchard of Tennessee, and thank you for joining us in the midst of the tunnel there. We appreciate it.
18:38 Thank you, Jody.
18:38 Alright, friends. Coming up, much come much more coming your way. Next, a potential scandal for with an auto pen under the Biden administration. Saw coming your way right after the break. Stay tuned.
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21:54 Good afternoon.
21:55 Welcome back to Washington Watch. I am your host today, Jody Hice. I'm honored to be filling in for Tony. Alright. President Trump has called out former president Biden's last minute
22:07 pardons over an alleged auto pen scandal. Well, according to reporting from the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, many of Biden's pardons
22:19 were signed using an automated signature. And this includes many of the last minute pardons for his family members, for, doctor Anthony Fauci, for, house
22:30 January 6 committee members and on and on. And Trump now is saying these pardons are void. Well, is he right? Now what does the evidence
22:43 show as it relates to all the auto pen? Well, here to go over this issue is Kyle bronze Brosnan. He's the chief counsel for the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project. Kyle, welcome to Washington
22:55 Watch. It's great to have you.
22:57 Thanks for having me on.
22:59 Alright. This is an extremely interesting and potentially extremely important discussion here. Walk us through how the Oversight Project uncovered this potential scandal,
23:12 and what you found.
23:14 Sure. So the constitution vests the part, certain powers in the president and president alone, and that includes things like signing bills into law and the power to issue pardons. And so
23:26 we pulled all 51 clemency warrants, that that president Biden issued during his presidency that that gave either a pardon or a prison commutation to about 2400
23:38 people. And we looked at the signatures of those documents because this president's signature is what makes that operational. It exercises the president's power. And of those 51 warrants, we found that,
23:50 32 were signed with an auto pen. And all the and we also found that there were 2 auto pen signatures used. So 16 were signed with what we're marking as auto pen a, and another
24:02 16 were signed with what we're identifying as auto pen b.
24:07 Alright. I think probably most people know, but just for clarity's sake, what is an auto pen?
24:12 So an auto pen is a machine that affixes, you know, a principal's signature onto something. And so, it it they they they usually, the person will will write out the signature, and
24:24 it'll be loaded onto a little card to which a staffer can insert into the machine. There's there's a physical pen that sort of levitates above the paper, and affixes the signature once you put the card in and fixes the
24:35 and you press the button. And so, it's a good way for for people that have to sign a lot of things, like members of congress, like like yourself, you know, to to quickly sign things like constituent letters or even
24:47 Christmas cards or stuff like that. But but but but for the use of, a core exercise of presidential power that only belongs to the president, it is really unprecedented with
24:58 with what we found here.
25:00 Yeah. And this is potentially an enormous legal issue. Can others let me ask you this. Can others have access to that auto pen besides the president?
25:12 So we would assume that there is a a a some sort of paper trail documenting who has access to it. I mean, we're not expecting the president to hear to sign every Christmas card. He sounds out. That that would be silly.
25:23 But but for something as, you know, core presidential power as, signing a bill into law or or are issuing a pardon to somebody, there should be written procedures as to who has
25:35 access for it and a paper trail on authorization here. Because, you know, it's really important to to examine this in the context of president Biden's mental decline during the during the pendency of his presidency.
25:47 But by the end, he was clearly out of it, and there are real questions as to whether he authorized those pardons, what the trail of evidence is for those authorizations if they even
25:58 exist, and whether he knew what he was doing, when when he signed the when the when those commutations were were signed with an auto pen, throughout his administration.
26:08 Yeah. We showed a clip earlier in the program with, with speaker Mike Johnson having a converse having had a conversation with president Biden over, liquid natural gas. And, the president had no
26:20 idea that he'd signed the law. And so my question, that would indicate a problem. Was this pen mainly used for pardons? Have you looked into whether or not
26:32 there were other presidential actions that were signed by auto pen?
26:37 So we're we're we're, requesting copies of enrolled bills from the, National Archives. So so the the act of the president signing his signature to a bill for it to become a law, that's what the constitution
26:49 requires. You know, 2 houses of congress passed the bill, and the president signed it. So we're we're we're waiting on those now, but we have really focused on on the pardon power because those those clemency warrants
27:00 are available to the public. They're posted on the Department of Justice's website, and that is what we have honed in on thus far. But our investigation is continuing into other exercises of presidential power, including
27:11 copies of enrolled bills, and enrolled executive orders.
27:16 Extremely interesting. Alright. Well, let's go then with, with the clemency and so forth. These signatures, with the auto pen, the president now, president Trump is saying they're
27:28 void. So what does that mean potentially for those who were pardoned? Is there possibility for legal action against them now?
27:38 Well, I think I think it bears further investigation. I mean, we we need to we need to examine a couple of key questions here. Did the president authorize the auto pen signature for each and every clemency warrant that
27:49 has an auto pen signature? Who had access to the auto pen? What were the procedures in place there? Because if the president if those clemency warrants were signed when the president did not authorize them
28:01 or or did not even have knowledge of who he was pardoning, then then you get into really sticky legal territory there. So I think it definitely warrants further investigation here to figure out what the procedures were
28:13 in the Biden White House, who had access to this, and and and what exactly happened here. Because remember, it's important to remember that this is all in the context of of the president, you know, bowing out of the
28:24 presidential race in 20 24, special counsel Robert Hur, refusing to prosecute the president in part because he is a well-being, elderly man with a poor memory. He didn't think he can get a conviction there, but he
28:36 had enough evidence to project it to a jury in a hypothetical criminal trial here. So you have a president whose mental facilities are declining significantly throughout his presidency to the point where he doesn't run
28:47 for reelection, and now you have him that that you know, you have, clemency warrants bearing his signature that he did not even sign at the end here. So there's plenty of Unbelievable. Information to to to investigate
28:59 further here.
29:00 And tons of question marks all over the place. And I we're literally just a few seconds left, but you've mentioned a second auto PIN. Was that at a different location?
29:11 We don't know where the auto PINs were located. We we we literally sat in a room with with all of the Okay. Warrants printed out, and and the signatures are a little bit different. And so there's, 1 signature has a
29:22 longer version of the, you know, of the junior or the president's name, but they have different shapes of the, letter b in the last name. There there's a period in the place. So so the signatures themselves are
29:33 different, which which may be an indication of,
29:35 you
29:36 know, multiple autofunds.Show more
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