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5/20/2026 Tony Perkins Testifies Before Congress and Other Breaking News on Washington Watch Today
May 20, 2026 · 59 min
Washington Watch follows FRC’s president, Tony Perkins, in the news testifying before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center. Additional topics covered include primary election results, government funding initiatives, the status of the Iranian War, the housing affordability language that cleared the House, and the weaponization of the DOJ.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
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May 20, 2026 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Washington Watch follows FRC’s president, Tony Perkins, in the news testifying before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center. Additional topics covered include primary election results, government funding initiatives, the status of the Iranian War, the housing affordability language that cleared the House, and the weaponization of the DOJ. ...more Show the full description Show less Washington Watch follows FRC’s president, Tony Perkins, in the news testifying before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center. Additional topics covered include primary election results, government funding initiatives, the status of the Iranian War, the housing affordability language that cleared the House, and the weaponization of the DOJ.
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In this video 0:00 Top Headlines: Iran War Powers & SPLC Hearing7:33 SPLC Fraud Exposed in Congressional Hearing18:12 Iran Ceasefire, Housing Bill & Border Funding30:00 Faith-Fueled Primary Victory in Kentucky38:40 Unmasking SPLC's Anti-Christian Agenda
1:26 We will not let that happen. And we have great support. You wouldn't know that by reading the fake news, but we have great support. People don't want them to have a nuclear weapon, and they will not have
1:38 a nuclear weapon and they wanna make a deal so badly. We'll see what happens, but we will we hit them very hard, but we may have to hit them even harder, but maybe not. But we're not gonna let Iran have a nuclear weapon
1:49 and blow up the entire Middle East, Israel, the entire Middle East, and then come here for you. Not gonna happen.
1:55 President Trump also said he held off on resuming attacks a few days ago after several gulf nations had informed him that negotiations were making progress toward a peace deal. The president said yesterday he would allow
2:07 at least 2 to 3 days for the talks to continue. Well, meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the Southern Poverty Law Center faces scrutiny for their long history of irresponsible rhetoric as well as a recent grand jury
2:19 indictment alleging they actually funded the hate groups they purported to be working against. Family Research Council president Tony Perkins testified at that hearing. He and other experts have raised concerns about the
2:30 hate map from SPLC which accuses an array of mainstream conservative groups of hate, likening them to the KKK. Shortly after FRC was put on that map, an attacker Floyd Corkins
2:43 attempted a mass shooting in FRC but was stopped by building manager Leo Johnson, who was shot but survived.
2:50 The following day, investigators confirmed Corkins confessed to selecting FRC because of s l s l SPLC's website and hate
3:02 map. Following the attack, FRC appealed publicly, privately to SPLC to remove mainstream Christian organizations from its inflammatory classifications. Those
3:14 request were rejected.
3:17 Now SPLC's chickens may be coming home to roost. 1 other news. Voters headed to the polls yesterday in 6 states to cast their vote in primary races. Alabama, Georgia, Idaho,
3:29 Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania all had races of that kind. Few takeaways. Georgia Republicans will have a runoff to choose their challenger to senator John Ossoff, the Democrat. And Democrat
3:40 Keisha Lance Bottoms won a crowded primary in the Georgia governor's race. But the biggest story was incumbent Republican Thomas Massie, who had become a thorn in president Trump's side and was ousted from office by a
3:52 margin of 9 points after the president endorsed his opponent. It was the most expensive primary in US history as both sides poured in millions of dollars. Well, for our last story,
4:04 Nigerian forces working with the US have killed 175 Islamic State militants in a series of air and ground strikes. Those strikes have hit weapons caches, logistics hubs, and financing
4:15 networks used by the Islamic State, which has really shifted much of their operations from the Middle East to Africa in recent years. Sadly, Christians in Nigeria face ongoing deadly persecution at
4:27 the hands of Islamic militants in the North. Well, that's 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
4:39 worldview. As for us, we're back next time with more stories that matter.
4:53 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
5:05 newsmakers, all from a biblical world view, sitting in for Tony as today's host, Jody Heiss.
5:11 Turned out for them creating hate was more profitable than fighting it. That's exactly what they did. They ran a scam, they became the standard, they didn't get prosecuted, and they made a ton of money. But here's the
5:23 good news, because there is some good news. Here's the good news. President Trump got elected, Todd Blanche's attorney general, Cas Patel's FBI director, and guess what? They're prosecuting these guys for running a scam,
5:35 ripping off their donors, falsely labeling all kinds of good organizations like the Family Research Council, Moms for Liberty, Alliance Defending Freedom, falsely labeling them hate groups, but they got
5:47 caught. Thank goodness they did.
5:52 Committee chairman Jim Jordan earlier today highlighting how the Southern Poverty Law Center manufactured accusations of hate to target Christian organizations.
6:04 Welcome to this Wednesday, May twentieth edition of Washington Watch. I'm your host, Jody Heise, and honored to be filling in for Tony Perkins today. Thank you for joining us. There's a flurry of news
6:16 activity taking place out there. We're gonna get to as much as we can, So buckle up and hang on for the next hour. Among other things, Wyoming congresswoman Harriet Hageman will be joining us with an
6:28 overview of today's house judiciary committee hearing, which, as you just heard, examined how the Southern Poverty Law Center used its hate map to
6:39 target conservative organizations. Plus a little bit later, Tennessee Congressman John Rose will be joining us from the house floor to break down some of the votes taking place today on
6:51 capitol hill and what comes next in the effort to fund the Department of Homeland Security. So all that and much, much more is coming your way straight ahead on Washington
7:03 watch. We begin the news today from Capitol Hill, where, as I just mentioned, the House Judiciary
7:15 Committee held a hearing examining how the Southern Poverty Law Center, also known as SPLC. Now this is a this is a far left nonprofit organization that has
7:27 placed groups like Family Research Council as well as other Christian and conservative groups on its hate map. And FRC president Tony Perkins was there today and
SPLC Fraud Exposed in Congressional Hearing
7:39 actually testified before the committee detailing what he described as the SPLC's pattern of targeting Christian and conservative organizations through
7:50 politically motivated accusations. Now keep in mind, this hearing came just 1 month after the Department of Justice actually charged the SPLC with fraud.
8:02 And joining me now to get this discussion underway is Washington stand reporter, Casey Harper. Casey, it's a big big news item. What, transpired in that hearing
8:14 today?
8:15 Yeah. Thanks, Jody. Big hearing, a lot of eyes on it, and and a long hearing as well. It's called manufacturing hate. And lawmakers on on the house judiciary committee really questioned the credibility of the SPLC which
8:25 has faced a lot of controversy. Now during the hearing, the house judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan, who you played a clip of, he accused the SPLC of manufacturing an extremism crisis for profit and for funneling
8:37 money to individuals connected to hate groups such as the KKK. And those are the very groups that SPLC purports to fight. Now president of Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, he testified during that hearing today
8:49 about what could have been a deadly attack on the Family Research Council after that after FRC was put on the hate map. Here's a clip.
8:57 The issue before this committee is larger than SPLC fraud. SPLC was the hub, but there are many spokes that made up this wheel designed to crush Christians and
9:08 conservatives. The congressional inquiry should not stop with SPLC. In America, citizens should not lose banking services, digital platforms, public
9:20 credibility, and a sense of safety because they believe in biblical marriage and sexuality.
9:29 Now Democrats, Joey, on the committee, including ranking member Jamie Raskin, they took the opportunity to attack president Trump and the DOJ saying that the investigation, wouldn't hold water and even attacking
9:41 the recent 1800000000 dollar, fund for victims of weaponization.
9:46 Yeah. I remember asking very well. We served together on the oversight committee, and I'm not at all surprised by his reaction to that. Casey, if I can, turn, to
9:58 outside of the capitol. As we all know yesterday, there were a number of elections, primary elections in, various states. My home state of Georgia, Kentucky, a host of others. Kinda break
10:10 down what were some of the the major takeaways that came out of yesterday, last night's election results.
10:16 Sure, Jody. Half a dozen states had these primary reference, primary elections as you referenced. And a couple of big takeaways. 1 was that congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his race. Now he'd been
10:28 a big thorn in the side of president Trump, and president Trump endorsed his opponent, former Navy Seal Ed Galeraine. But also in Kentucky, Republican voters nominated Andy Barr as their candidate in November's
10:40 election for the senate. That's a seat held by senator Mitch McConnell for about 4 decades. Over on the East Coast in Pennsylvania, Democratic governor Josh Shapiro got his party's nomination for a second term. No
10:51 surprise there. Down in Georgia, Rick Jackson and Bert Jones have get to their primary runoff. Nobody got the 50 percent mark. So we're gonna see who's gonna be governor the governor's candidate in Georgia down there,
11:02 Jody.
11:04 So a lot more yet to come with elections all across the the country. 1 other item, Casey, before I let you go. Earlier today, the house passed a bipartisan bill, bipartisan
11:16 bill, which doesn't really seem to happen very often these days. But, both sides seeking to address housing affordability and attempting to bring down cost. We're gonna be talking about this later in the program,
11:27 but but can you give us some of the details of what that bill was all about?
11:31 Sure, Jody. You're right. A rare moment of bipartisanship, but it came after several months of back and forth already. But the house passed the affordability legislation for housing. About 13 or 13 lawmakers voted
11:42 against it, all Republicans. And this bill is really aimed at increasing the supply of housing housing, encouraging homeownership, and and home construction, building new homes. So there's also interesting language in
11:53 that bill that would restrict the ability of corporate investors to buy up, single family homes, which is a real concern that these big companies are buying up all the homes and then just renting them out and driving
12:03 prices up. But whether this can get passed in the senate, which is, you know, Jody, is where things sometimes go to die, I guess we'll see.
12:11 Yep. We will see. Casey, as always, thanks for getting us kicked off with some of the highlights of the news taking place. We appreciate it. Alright. I told you we're gonna be all over the place today. A lot of items to
12:22 cover. So I wanna turn now to the latest that's happening in Iran. Earlier today, president Trump told reporters that he was in no hurry to end the conflict with
12:34 Tehran. President Trump said that talks, there are in the final stages. And at the same time, he warned of using military force if the Islamic Republic
12:46 does not agree on a deal, quickly. In fact, you may recall on Monday of this week, president Trump decided to postpone a planned strike on Iran.
12:58 And he put that off for a few days. So we're now about 6 weeks since Operation Epic Fury was paused. And I would also say some of the diplomatic progress has also palled. At least
13:10 it appears to be in a stall. So what what's happening? Are we potentially close to finally seeing a deal secured that would end this conflict? Or we are we potentially watching
13:22 more escalation about to unfold? Well, joining me now to discuss more of this is retired Brigadier General John Tigert. He's a former assistant deputy under secretary of the Air Force
13:34 for International Affairs. He also previously served as our nation's senior defense official in Iraq and served as the commander of joint base joint, bases
13:45 Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base. General Tigert, great to have you back on Washington Watch. I know there's a lot to cover. I wanna get to Iran. But before we get there, I
13:57 just have to get your reaction to the Department of Justice indicting Cuba's former president, Raul Castro, over a number of charges charges, but including murder and conspiracy
14:09 to kill US nationals. Your reaction to that?
14:13 Jody, in order to compel someone to do the things they may not wanna do, you've gotta increase the costs and the risks to them. And I think this indictment is just 1 additional tool
14:25 amongst many diplomatic, informational, military, and economic against the current regime in Cuba that helps them think about if they stay,
14:37 if they don't take the off ramp or the deal to leave the Cuban people alone, then now they may end up in a federal prison like Maduro. And I think this indictment is just another reminder to them that it's in their
14:49 best interest to take whatever deal is on the table so that they don't end up like Maduro.
14:55 Yeah. It's it's just fascinating what's going on there. I wish we had more time to talk about that. But let's get back to Iran. I wanna I get your, expertise opinion on, what's
15:07 happening there. Your reaction to president Trump giving Iran, what, 2 or 3 more days or whatever to secure a peace deal, after just earlier this week, he paused some planned attacks. What do you think is going on
15:18 there?
15:19 Jody, you mentioned a timeline earlier that we now are in the sixth week of a 2 week cease fire. In fact, just a couple of days ago, the cease fire duration exceeded the duration of kinetic
15:31 activity during Operation Epic Fury. And I'm okay with giving Iran a couple of more days, but I wanna note that they have not negotiated in good faith throughout this entire process, and
15:43 they're unlikely to. And I think that if we're trying to force them to do the things that we want them to do, then they need to understand that we have both strength of capability, we've demonstrated that, and strength
15:54 of will. And if we continue to let them disrespect us and our president by negotiating in bad faith, then it just empowers them to continue on without making a deal that's in our best
16:06 interests.
16:07 Yeah. Absolutely. And I think being able to tighten screws is very important. But I wanted to ask you this, general. The while Operation Epic Fury, there's no question,
16:20 put forth heavy damages on Iranian assets, there are reports that some of their missile stockpiles and even some of the nuclear materials
16:33 remain somewhat to largely intact. So my question, why has it been so challenging, to for us to achieve total destruction of of their
16:44 capabilities from the air? Why why has this been so difficult?
16:48 Well, Jody, first of all, I do think that from a military only perspective, Operation Epic Fury was a huge success because I do think that we massively degraded their ability to project power. And I
17:00 think there's a warning here that you don't just figure out a country's military capability by counting numbers of missiles or numbers of launchers. You have to look at it as a system. Do they have the
17:12 capability to use what they have to actually threaten? And that is a system of systems. And the way that we prosecuted the war very effectively degraded not individual
17:24 missiles or launchers, but their ability to use those to project power. But I do also wanna understand an important caveat that we need to think of what comes next if we do
17:36 reengage in kinetic activity as how do we strike not just military targets, but strategic targets? And for the most part, we gave the regime sanctuary, and we gave
17:48 their economic well-being sanctuary during Operation Epic Fury. And I think that if we do reengage in kinetic activity, we need to start striking those more strategic targets.
17:59 Yeah. I've agreed. I think that's a brilliant thing. And this whole thing in the Strait of Hormuz, is is impacting the entire economy. And, is we've we've got a lot to see where this
18:11 is going to go for sure. Thank you so much. Retired Brigadier General John Tykert, former assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. Always
Iran Ceasefire, Housing Bill & Border Funding
18:23 always a privilege and an honor to have you joining us on Washington Watch. We appreciate it.
18:27 Jody, thanks so much again for having me.
18:30 Coming up, we are going to go back to Capitol Hill. In fact, we're going to go on to the house floor. We will be joined by Tennessee congressman John Rose who is, gonna take us live. He is
18:42 live on the floor where votes are taking place. He's gonna give us the lowdown of what they are voting on and what's so important. So stay with us. We'll be back right after the break.
18:53 Join us for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action at this year's pray vote stand summit at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia. Hear from Christian leaders, issue experts, and government
19:05 officials as we work together to build a foundation based on biblical truth. Early bird special tickets are on sale for 69 dollars when you register by June fifteenth. To register, visit
19:17 pray boat stand dot org. That's pray boat stand dot org.
19:23 Exodus chapter 9 verse 1 says, thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. You see, America has freedom for a
19:35 purpose. The question is, are we living by that purpose today? In scripture, deliverance and
19:47 freedom is never an end in itself. It is a liberation unto obedience, to worship, and to a covenant relationship. God's demand
19:58 to Pharaoh was not freedom for freedom sake, but freedom so his people could identify with and belong to and serve him. Freedom is not used to
20:10 serve God will not endure. 1 of the founders actually echoed a similar warning, Thomas Jefferson wrote, indeed I tremble for my country when I
20:22 reflect that God is just and his justice cannot sleep forever. See, the founders understood we as a nation
20:34 would be accountable to God for what he had granted to us. They sought freedom for a purpose, and that freedom was given to us as a nation for that
20:46 same purpose to serve God, to honor him, and to live as a people under his authority. In this 200 and fiftieth anniversary year, we
20:58 must ask the question, are we living by that purpose today as a nation? Lord, we thank you for the godly
21:10 foundation and heritage of our states. Lord, we would return to an understanding of the freedom that you've granted to us. That freedom has a name. His name is Jesus. And freedom has a
21:22 purpose. It is to honor and glorify you. And I pray that our nation would return to that understanding of the purpose of the freedom that you have granted to
21:33 us. We thank you, father. By faith, we pray that we would return to that purpose. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
21:55 Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Jody Heise filling in today for Tony. Thanks so much for tuning in. Alright. There is a lot going on on Capitol Hill today as I've mentioned,
22:07 and that there's always a lot that takes place on Capitol Hill, but especially on weeks where congress is preparing to head out for a recess as it is this week for Memorial Day. When you
22:19 have special holidays like this, there's just a flurry of activities. And so we wanna try to hit on some of the latest developments that are taking place in Congress.
22:31 And, hopefully, we're trying to get him right now joining us on the Patriot Mobile hotline from the House floor, congressman john rose. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee
22:43 representing the sixth congressional district from Tennessee. And I understand we are still trying to get him. He's not on the floor. Alright. We're gonna continue trying to get congressman Rose until he joins
22:55 us. I wanna jump over to Josh. Alright. Well, we've got him now. Let me come back again back and forth. We've got ping pong going on. Congressman Rose, welcome back to Washington Watts. Thanks for joining us.
23:07 Great to be with you. Thanks for having me on the show, mister Perkins. Appreciate it.
23:12 Well, listen. I know you've got a lot going on with the, votes on the floor and just a ton of activity. Let's talk about the affordable housing bill that,
23:24 is is taking place right now, has taken place today. Tell us a little bit about what's in that bill.
23:31 Well, it's a a lot of things. Obviously, a collection of different things. The thing that, that I'm most proud of is, we've got a bill that, that I sponsored now,
23:43 been in congress the last couple of of congresses that will remove kind of a bureaucratic requirement that mobile homes or modular homes have a permanent chassis under them. And
23:54 that will really lower the cost for entry level housing for lots of Americans and allow a lot of, you know, it, I guess experimentation how, you know, modernization,
24:06 experimentation with ways to make houses more affordable and create factory built housing. But it does a lot of things to modernize and streamline federal and local housing processes,
24:18 you know, creating, you know, removing bureaucratic obstacles. It modernizes the HOME program, which is the largest federal block grant program for for states to increase the
24:30 supply of housing, exempt small scale housing developments from burdensome federal environmental reviews and that slow down and increase the cost for Americans to
24:42 build new houses. It enhances community banking operations, modernizing outdated banking regulations to expand local lending while maintaining financial responsibility,
24:55 cutting red tape. Just a a whole host of these kinds of improvements that I think are made. It's not perfect. We had a better product in my view coming out of the house,
25:07 but, you know, this is the way the founders set things up. So we have to work to consensus with the senate and and get the the White House on board. So we've made some compromises that are probably, in my view,
25:19 not ideal. It does provide some limits to institutional investors, investing in single family housing that I think, it it frankly, I support that idea because I
25:31 think we've priced too many, first time homebuyers out of the market, by putting them up against, institutional investors who have financing advantages over the typical
25:43 single family home buyer.
25:45 Well, I understand that this bill still and and you're right. I mean, the sausage, gets made is sometimes an ugly battle getting through all this. But, you mentioned the senate understand senator Scott Tim Scott and
25:57 Elizabeth Warren, were behind the senate's version of this bill, and they're they're saying that there's still a lot of work to be done. Any idea what the sticking points are that they have?
26:10 Well, I know we made some changes on the house side and, you know, worked closely, my understanding and, with the senate and with the White House to get to language. So I hope they
26:22 will not feel the need to to make too many changes because, you know, obviously, we've made some compromises on the House side. We're not 100 percent happy with where things are. My bill on removing
26:34 the chassis requirement, you know, I think is a pretty easy 1 to get to consensus on. But there are some other of the restrictions that the President wanted on institutional investors, a concern there that we don't
26:46 want to chase investment away from the construction of housing. And so there'll be some things like that. There were a number of proposals from Senator Warren and from the
26:58 Democrats on the House side that, frankly, were not ideal. We worked to get those to a place where they we could live with them. For example, there's a hotline for filing complaints. Some people have mischaracterized
27:09 that as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau type intervention, but I don't think it rises to that level. In fact, I think it will be not that different from what already exists
27:21 at the Department of Housing in terms of a place to register complaints about mistreatment that you think you might have received. So I I feel like we got to as good a place as probably you can get with a
27:33 compromised legislation like this.
27:36 Okay. Let's, let's shift gears quickly to the reconciliation bill, the 2 Secure America acts. Where are we on funding the, Department of Homeland Security? Where where is
27:48 all this going?
27:50 Well, so the the hope is that the senate can actually get their work done. They're gonna begin what they call a vote a rama, I guess, later tonight. And, you know, the question is, can they get this
28:02 how quickly can they get their work done and send this back to the house? Obviously, a lot at stake here because we need to see this passed in order to fully fund, immigrations
28:14 immigration and custom enforcement and customs border protection, border patrol. And so, you know, the the Democrats have been playing games with the safety and security of the American people.
28:26 The reconciliation process is a way for Republicans to deliver. We've done that on the house side repeatedly, but the senate continues to hide behind the filibuster. And so this is a way for them
28:38 to to get this work done and match what the House has been trying to get done in terms of funding the, you know, important operations that protect American citizens and we hope that they can get their work
28:50 done. I think it will pass quickly on the house side Alright. If senate can get their work done.
28:56 Less than a minute. In fact, 30 seconds or so. But when you say the Democrats are playing games here, yeah, many of them are still on this defund ice mode. Are they going to come around real quickly?
29:07 Well, I don't think they have to come around here. We're that's the whole reason for using reconciliation is that we can pass this with Republican votes if if the Republicans in the senate stick together, and and I think
29:19 those in the house will. And so we will we will actually just pass this without the help of the Democrats. They're committed to defunding the police, and they're committed to Right. Protecting illegal immigrants.
29:31 Thank you so much for joining us from the house floor. Tennessee congressman John Rose, always great to have you. Alright, friends. Coming up, as, we've discussed, a lot of elections took place yesterday. 1 very
29:43 important 1 in Kentucky. And no. It's not the 1 you're probably thinking of. It's another 1. So stay with us.
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