Skip to content 8/27/2026 Abortion Drugs Revelations, Left-Wing Violence, America’s Christian Roots, and a Ukrainian Update Aug 27 · 59 min ...more
8/27/2026 Abortion Drugs Revelations, Left-Wing Violence, America’s Christian Roots, and a Ukrainian Update
August 27, 2026 · 59 min
Today, Washington Watch looks at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s realignment with the DSA, the Senate’s investigation of an abortion drug, and a study that reveals a correlation between transgender ideology and left-wing violence. Then we learn details on the META social media safety lawsuit settlement, the influence of Christianity on our founding, and Tony Perkins’ recent Ukraine Trip.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video August 27, 2026 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Today, Washington Watch looks at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s realignment with the DSA, the Senate’s investigation of an abortion drug, and a study that reveals a correlation between transgender ideology and left-wing violence. Then we learn details on the META social media safety lawsuit settlement, the influence of Christianity on our founding, and Tony Perkins’ recent Ukraine Trip. ...more Show the full description Show less Today, Washington Watch looks at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s realignment with the DSA, the Senate’s investigation of an abortion drug, and a study that reveals a correlation between transgender ideology and left-wing violence. Then we learn details on the META social media safety lawsuit settlement, the influence of Christianity on our founding, and Tony Perkins’ recent Ukraine Trip.
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In this video 0:00 News Brief: Trade Wars and Global Headlines4:52 Abortion Drugs Safety Failures Exposed12:00 Transgender Ideology and Leftist Violence18:54 Meta Settlement and America's Christian Roots38:11 Ukraine Update: Spiritual War and Persecution
News Brief: Trade Wars and Global Headlines 0:00 Hello. I'm Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and host of Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in. Every day, we offer a biblical perspective on the news as well as insightful interviews with elected0:12 leaders, newsmakers, and culture experts. We have a great program planned for you today, but 1st, get up to speed on the top headlines with Washington Stan's news brief.0:27 Welcome to the Washington Sand News Brief. I'm Casey Harper bringing you today's big stories. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to change the name of 1 of America's Great Lakes. According to0:38 the president, Lake Ontario will be renouncing its Canadian allegiance.0:43 We're gonna be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America. That's gonna take place right now as I sign the0:55 order.0:56 The administration points out most of Lake America's volume is in US territory, but this is about more than the lake. The decision comes amid an increasingly bitter tariff and trade dispute between the US and1:08 Canada. The beef industry, dairy, automotive, energy, agriculture, and more are all involved. The trade war is the latest example of the president trying to reset global economic relationships.1:20 He argues that many nations, especially our allies, take advantage of US trade policy, all while relying on the US military to defend them. Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, walked away from
1:32 talks last week saying the US is asking for too much in negotiations. President Trump doesn't agree.
1:39 As you know, Canada's been ripping us off for a long time on trade. Very standard. Even the military. You know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don't get anything. They don't pay us to defend Canada, but we defend
1:50 Canada, and they understand that. As an example, we bought icebreakers. They'd like to use them. We have 11 brand new icebreakers coming in. They'd like to use the icebreakers. They don't pay for
2:01 anything, and they wanna be treated like a state, but they're not a state. But they wanna be treated like they're a state. And so we just can't do that anymore. We lose on average over the last 15 years,
2:13 60000000000 dollars a year, carrying Canada. So we just can't do it anymore.
2:18 Canada's Arctic territory along with Greenland actually have also been a major concern for the president who argues they'll be key for the future of strategic defense for the US. Well, meanwhile, in economic news,
2:29 inflation in the US remains elevated in July as the Federal Reserve gets new leadership. The Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, that's a favorite metric for the Federal Reserve to track inflation, rose
2:41 3.7 percent in July from a year earlier. That figure is slightly higher than what was expected by economists. Now on a monthly basis, the PCE, as it's called, rose 0.2 percent in
2:53 July, also above what economists expected after declining the month before. Those numbers increase the stakes for Kevin Warsh, the brand new Federal Reserve chair, who is expected to give his 1st speech
3:05 Friday. Now he may face added pressure to raise interest rates later this year. Now across the world, a deadly flood in Nepal has taken countless lives and killed hundreds, including
3:17 Americans. Drone footage from Nepal on Thursday showed extensive destruction after ice, mud, and rock collapsed into a mountain river, triggering a catastrophic flash flood.
3:29 Authorities in Nepal used helicopters to search for survivors and drop emergency supplies to thousands cut off in towns and valleys in the wake of the flood, which swept down a route used by tourists. Police
3:40 said hundreds had died, including 33 Americans. President Trump said Thursday that dozens of Americans remain missing and offered aid to Nepal. In fact, more than 1000 people remain missing in Nepal and in
3:52 neighboring China. Well, in other news, Germany has ramped up its military spending. After increased pressure from the Trump administration and increasing concerns about Russian aggression,
4:04 Germany has reached a new record of nearly 125000000000 euros in spending, about 2.7 percent of its GDP. US undersecretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby, welcomed the
4:15 news. Colby urged other NATO nations to beef up their defense spending so that Europe can do more to defend itself going forward, which has been a priority for the Trump administration so far.
4:27 Well, that is today's news. I'm Casey Harper. You can dive deeper at the Washington Stand, which is Family Research Council's outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. You can also check out the
4:38 outstanding podcast online. We're back next time with more stories that matter.
Abortion Drugs Safety Failures Exposed
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 world view. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heiss.
5:11 Why does Putin agree
5:13 or committed to not attacking a NATO territory? I've had good talk for him. Maybe he's not gonna be attacking a NATO territory.
5:23 That was president Trump earlier today at the White House talking to reporters addressing questions about whether or not Russia might attack NATO. Welcome to this Thursday, August 27th edition
5:35 of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heiss, filling in for Tony. So glad to have you joining us today. We've got a lot to bring your way on the program before us in the next hour. Among other things, we'll discuss
5:46 a new study commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services that shows a link between transgender ideology and left wing violence. Wisconsin
5:59 congressman Glenn Grossman, he's a member of the House Budget Committee as well as the Judiciary Committee. He'll be joining us to talk about that and more. And later in the program, we'll discuss Meta's
6:10 17000000000 dollar settlement on social media safety. Among the states that were involved in that lawsuit is Tennessee, whose attorney general, Jonathan Scrimetti, will be joining us to
6:22 discuss that case. And doctor Cody Cooper from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville will join us to discuss the role of Christianity and the success that they had
6:34 during the American revolutionary war. Then finally, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. He just returned from Ukraine, and we're so thrilled that
6:46 he'll be he'll be joining us to discuss a prayer event that he participated in there as well as some other great news and prayer requests. So all that and more is coming your way on today's
6:58 edition of Washington Watch. Let's begin with news being released,
7:10 in a congressional report which exposes how abortion drug companies do not implement, in fact, sometimes intentionally, but they're not implementing safety protocols enabling
7:22 dangerous mail order distribution of the drug. Joining us now to discuss this is Washington Watch reporter Mary Stackhouse. Mary, walk us through the report.
7:35 Jody, Republican senator Bill Cassidy, who's chairman of the Senate Health, Education, and Labor and Pensions Committee, he released the report earlier today, which he's worked on along other health committee
7:45 Republicans. Now in the report, he criticizes the FDA for not tightening restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone and also for redacting information from public documents regarding the abortion drug. The report
7:57 also exposed the practices of Danco Laboratories, which distributes brand name mifeprex, which is also known as mifepristone, and generic manufacturers GenBioPro and Avida Solutions, 2 companies
8:09 manufacturing generic versions of the drug. Now the report included some disturbing statistics. It highlighted the dramatic plunge in nonfatal adverse events by these drugs on women starting in 20 16
8:21 as a result of a major regulatory change where doctors no longer had to report complications to the drug's manufacturer. Basically, doctors are no longer forced to report severe complications from the abortion drug like
8:33 hospitalizations, infections, or emergency blood transfusions. Now in the report, there's also an instance where a doctor obtained mifepristone via the mail, and this was for the purpose of illustrating. She was
8:45 pretending to be a 13 year old girl with 6 serious health complications. The doctor received the abortion drugs in the mail, and there was no additional follow-up by a prescriber asking any questions about her
8:56 medical complications. Now while lawmakers like senator Cassidy and other Republicans are calling for the reinstatement of basic medical guardrails when it comes to the abortion drug, which is a start. To truly protect
9:08 mothers and the unborn, we must demand nothing less than the complete revocation of the FDA's approval for these dangerous drugs. Now I also wanna point to an FRC action campaign where you can tell members of congress to
9:20 cosponsor the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act. Head to f r c action dot org slash safeguard women where you can encourage your members of congress to sign on to senator Hawley and congresswoman
9:32 Harshberger's bill to withdraw FDA approval for mifepristone. Jody.
9:38 Thank you so much, Mary. In another news item, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America after a lapse of some
9:50 7 years in her membership. Why has she rejoined now? Do we know?
9:56 Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez has rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America, and, of course, this comes at a time where socialism is becoming more and more popular among Democrats. The progressive lawmaker has renewed
10:07 her national membership, and there's also this comes there's also a speculation that she'll run for president in 20 28. A spokesperson for the DSA explained that because enrollment is tied to paying annual dues, the
10:19 congresswoman was unaware that her membership had actually expired. And, obviously, she has since taken steps to resolve that. Jody.
10:27 Alright. And, if we can turn to some international news, Russia has launched a new significant wave of attacks against Ukraine. What's the latest going on there?
10:38 So, Jody, overnight and earlier today, Russia unleashed a new wave of missile and drone strikes across multiple cities in Ukraine. Among the targets struck were residential areas, a crowded shopping complex,
10:50 as well as ports and industrial facilities. At least 2 people were reportedly killed and at least a dozen others were injured. Ukrainian officials said air defenses intercepted part of the assault, but strikes
11:02 caused damage across several regions. Meanwhile, earlier today at the White House, president Trump was asked about Russia. Here he is. Will you punish Putin or Russia
11:12 if they continue to do it? It depends. So far, I think Russia's behaved quite well having to do with the Strait of Hormuz. And you have to understand, for everything they do, we do also. You know? Somebody who's saying
11:23 about China, what about China? We hear they're spying. We spy on them too. 2 acres.
11:31 Now I also wanna note president Trump also said that CIA director John Ratcliffe had not been dispatched to Moscow to deliver any particular message. Jody.
11:41 Alright, Mary. As always, thank you so much for getting us kicked off. Very important news right there. I wanna turn our attention now and bring in a member of congress to discuss some of the, issues facing
11:52 the left right now. And joining me is congressman Glenn Grossman. He's a member of the budget committee as well as the judiciary committee. He represents the 6th congressional district of Wisconsin.
Transgender Ideology and Leftist Violence
12:04 Congressman Grossman, always good to see you. Welcome back to Washington Watch.
12:09 Well, always good to see you again, Jody. I wish we still had you in Congress.
12:15 Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. We've, had some very powerful, interesting times together there in judiciary. But let's start with this study, from researchers at Rutgers
12:27 and Manhattan Institute, Network Contagion Research Institute, among others. But they found that, normalizing gender beliefs were more likely to support
12:39 political violence. It's, probably not surprising, but it's, very interesting. Your thoughts on the findings there?
12:48 Well, I don't think it's surprising. I mean, 1st of all, people, if you are transgender, you, are on a lot of medications. I think the more
13:00 medications you have in you across the board, can affect the way you think or don't think about things. I think you're on antidepressants and frequently. I'm not
13:12 I think sometimes antidepressants, affect proclivity for violence. So I can't say this is a surprising thing, and it's just another reason why we ought not to be pushing this
13:24 or normalizing this, on our young people. I mean, when you were a child, for your listeners, how many people knew a transgender in high school? Nobody. But nowadays, it's
13:36 pushed as an option for a 2nd grader or 0.333 grader. It's pushed as an option in the popular media. Right? And maybe, show was aimed at young
13:47 people, and you're gonna get more of this and more of these people on meds and more of these people quite frankly unhappy unhappy. I mean, think about it. If you're a guy who thinks you're a girl, are you gonna be
13:58 unhappy? You're gonna be miserable on the face of it. And, of course, miserable people are more likely to get crimes.
14:06 Yeah. Good point. And, you know, it's not just radical left people necessarily. I I recall after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, for example, we
14:17 saw many on the left show absolutely 0 sympathy. You know, what does even something like that tell you?
14:27 Well, right. I think in general, people on the left are more unhappy. That's why they're on the left. They want fundamental changes in society. We've got such a wonderful country here, the
14:39 most wonderful country in history, and people on the left wanna fundamentally change it. And, I would think there's frequently people who wrote on that transgender path are probably somewhat
14:51 unhappy people. And the more unhappy they are, the more likely they are to strike out, trying to have a revolution in this country, and on an individual basis, engage in acts of civil disobedience because
15:02 they are miserable and happy people who don't like this country.
15:07 You know, when you were talking about this, I just wanna take this a little bit, further because it's not just transgender or the left. But what troubles me in addition to what we're talking about
15:19 now is, we continue to see wins by the democratic socialists in the democratic party. I mean, even this past week, we saw more of that. Give me
15:30 your thoughts on the the growth of that element within the Democratic Party.
15:36 Well, we've gotta do a better job of educating people what socialism is. I think 1 of the things that helped them is that socialist sounds like a nice word, sociable. Capitalist does not sound like a
15:48 nice thing, and therefore, people who don't take time to really look at these things might prefer to be a socialist than a capitalist. But socialism really is the end of freedom. Right? It
16:00 means you want the government spending most, if not all, of your money. It means you want the government hiring larger and large or more and more people, when they look for a job,
16:12 look to work for the government, being hired by the government and therefore being dependent on the government, easier to punish you if you don't agree with the government on this or that sort of thing. It means,
16:25 say, more and more housing built by the government or owned by the government, which means, you know, obviously, they can favor people who they politically agree with at the expense of people they don't agree
16:36 with. And, the government, of course, then is also picking what you're gonna be able to buy. Right? If the government runs the grocery stores, the government
16:48 decides what you're able to buy in that grocery store. And above all, like I said, determine who gets employed. And pretty soon, the only way you get employed is if you agree with
17:00 the government. And I certainly, in my life as a, in government, both on a state level and nationally, have heard of people telling these stories that they cannot
17:12 talk about publicly because they're afraid to take a conservative position because the head of this department or that city or whatever doesn't like them. So you're
17:24 giving up freedom whenever you allow government to grow. And the socialists, of course, they want it to grow to cover 100 percent of all we have, but, it'll be incremental.
17:36 And over time, as the socialists get elected, they will take more of your money to determine how to spend it, and they will use the power of government to punish you if you
17:48 disagree with the with the major leader. Right? That's what happens. And we have to be very dangerous, and we have to explain to people rather than talking about capitalist economy and socialist
18:00 economy, we should talk about a free economy or a government economy. Right? In a free economy, you could work wherever you want. Right?
18:10 Glenn, I I know, unfortunately, our time is is running out, but AOC, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has officially rejoined the Democratic socialist of America. Probably
18:22 not a big surprise there, but it's amazing to me how many in the Democratic Party seem to wear this socialist label as a badge of honor. Thank you for joining us today, Wisconsin congressman
18:34 Glenn Grossman. We gotta go. Alright. Coming up next, attorney, general from Tennessee, Jonathan Scrimetti will be joining joining us to discuss Meta's platforms
18:47 landmark 17000000000 settlement. Stay with us.
18:53 America. What formed the fabric of our freedom? What sticks together the hearts of those that fasten the stars and stripes? 250 years ago, our founding fathers pinned the invisible wordsShow more
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