Pulse of Our Nation’s Future Leadership

Get ready for an in-depth look at the recent Republican National Convention. Promising a comprehensive account of Donald Trump's speech, you'll learn about the calls for unity, the strategic plans for a second term, and the notable humility and peaceful tone Trump exhibited throughout. We analyse Trump's leadership style, shifting from self-praise to more goal-oriented statements, and what this could mean for his future in politics.

Discover the unique qualities that set this Republican Convention apart from its predecessors. From the presidential nominee's emotional engagement—attending all four nights and even shedding tears on the first night—to the overwhelmingly optimistic atmosphere, akin to Obama's 2008 convention as noted by Van Jones, this event broke with tradition in several significant ways, including the announcement of the vice presidential nominee at the beginning.

Finally, we examine the future of the Democratic nomination amid rumors of Joe Biden's potential departure due to cognitive decline. We analyze Kamala Harris's position as the likely replacement and discuss the strategic considerations for vice-presidential picks, with names like Roy Cooper and Michelle Obama being floated. We also tackle the challenges posed by fundraising dynamics and Harris's low approval ratings. Wrapping up, we reflect on the historic nature of the current presidential race, including the recent assassination attempt, and provide a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective to equip listeners with a deeper understanding of these momentous developments.

Chapters

• 0:07 Intersection of Faith and Culture
• 11:42 Unique Qualities of Republican Convention
• 15:14 Future of Democratic Nomination Process
• 25:55 Historic Presidential Race Reflection

Transcript

Rick Green

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's Wall Builders on a Friday, which means it's Good News Friday A little bit different. Good News Friday today, because the Republican National Convention just finished last night and of course we're going to talk about the Democrat Convention when it comes to round two. We're, you know, equal Opportunity Convention. What do we say, guys? Viewers, watchers, listeners, I don't know.

David's actually attending.

Yeah, conversationalists, there we go, and of course, it's been really cool this week to get almost like a play by play from David, as he's been on the ground and there as a part of it for the last week or so, and so we'll just dive right back in. By the way, I'm Rick Green here with Tim Barton and David Barton, and you can learn more about us at our website, wallbuilders.com. But, guys, let's just jump right in because so much has happened. We want to talk about what happened yesterday at the convention, trump's speech last night, some of the other folks that spoke, and then some of the rumors about town of what might happen even today or tomorrow with regard to Joe Biden in the race. So, I guess, just right off the bat, you know, David, the convention wrapped up, what was the feeling there and, I guess, initial response to even specifically, Donald Trump's speech.

David Barton

Well, I really liked and let me take Donald Trump first so he did what I thought he probably would, and that was at the beginning, he made this big appeal for unity. You know, we're Americans, we're one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, and that was a great call and it needed to be made. It was a very somber time. It was not a political kind of rally at that point. It's a call from almost like an older brother, an elder statesman or something like that, more like talking to family. Then he went in for the last hour or so, probably an hour and 15 or 20 into the things he wants to get done, and so leading up to it was we've talked through the week about how he's going to respond, and there was certainly when he talked he acknowledged very openly that he was a quarter inch away from death. It was God alone who saved him, and so he was very conscious of that and he was very humble and very, I'm going to say, peaceful in the way he delivered. That Humble was there, but he wasn't having to force himself to speak stuff that's uncomfortable to him. He was quite comfortable in acknowledging that. That said a lot to me.

And so then the stuff that went before there was some preaching that went on Thursday night. That was kind of like church in many ways. Then, of course, Franklin Graham prayed a very good prayer for the president for what was happening. So I think the tone was well set on that night. The other thing that kind of struck me was, as Trump was going through the hour, hour and 15 or whatever, of what he's going to do when he gets back in it was, if this had been the first campaign I could easily think, man, is he arrogant? He thinks he can do that? But because this is a second campaign, a lot of the stuff he said he's going to do is stuff he already did the first time and so it's like, you know, that's really not arrogant, because he did that already and he can do that again, 

Rick Green

and you mean David, because he did it and then Biden reversed it, and so now it's got to be fixed. He's got to go back into it, and that's what you mean by that right, not something that he did and he's going to get done day one, and I think that he will.

David Barton

 I think they took notes and those will be things that he keeps his word on. But there were some really big promises made, but there were things that he had already accomplished the first time. And I do think, as he said, that foreign nations don't want to mess with him, and he made that real clear to several of them, and I think you'll see Russia probably pull out before he gets inaugurated.

If he's elected, I think that war in Ukraine will come to an end, and I mean even with Iran. When he left office, Iran was doing black market about 400,000 barrels of oil a day, but once he left office and and Biden took off so much of the punitive stuff they wanted to sell in 1.5 million barrels a day, and that's where they got all the money to fund the October 7th stuff against Israel, etc. So I really think that you know he's able to do what he's already done. I don't think that's going to be a problem for him, and so as I listened to, I thought you know that that could be some arrogant stuff for people who don't know what he's already done, but he's really already done that, so he's just having to do it a second time.

Tim Barton

Well and dad, I would even clarify that, as we're saying, you know he was making a lot of claims. He's stating objectives and goals they're going to accomplish. But I would even view that differently in the sense of I actually thought he showed a lot of humility in some of his speech tonight.

And I think it's different when he's not saying I'm the best and I'm the smartest and I'm the only one. Well, that's a lot of pride. What he said is we're going to do this and we're going to do this and I'm going to make this happen and I'm going to stop this. He's stating what they're going to accomplish instead of maybe how amazing he is and he's the only one and no one else is smart enough to do this, and I view those as different things. And I do think the fact that he was there this whole week and, as you would hear, different speakers and the cameras were paying to him you saw him sitting very humbly and his you saw him sitting very humbly and his demeanor really does seem to have changed to some extent after the assassination attempt and it does seem like there's more humility, which you know I can only imagine is he's probably having to process Right and in navigating the shock, the trauma, the emotions, the mental things he's having to process from this assassination attempt, that could all factor in. But, as you're pointing out, he was saying objectives are going to accomplish. But I thought overall his speech it expressed a lot of humility in areas, but certainly it was far more unifying than it could have been or had to be, because he could have come out and said hey, they've been saying that I'm the greatest threat to democracy, they've been saying that I'm like Hitler, and now they have one of their minions come and shoot at me. He really could have upped the temperature and instead he did the opposite. He really worked to unify and, of course, there were some moments where he called out a Nancy Pelosi, where he called out Joe Biden, there were moments when he called out some of those leaders and yet he said to the American people we want everybody to hear, and I don't want to be the president of half the nation and I don't want half the nation to win, because then half the nation loses. I really thought, overall, he did a good job of being quite intentional and strategically working to call all Americans under a vision of security, of prosperity, of growth, etc. Etc. So I thought it was a very good speech overall and stating some very clear objectives of what they're going to try to do.

And, as you're mentioning, those were things that he had done, actually many of them during his first term as president, because, you pointed out, the Biden administration undid a lot of those. In fact, for those that remember, the Biden administration said on day one, we're reversing the Trump immigration policies and now they're acting like, well, we can't do anything, it's all up to Congress. So you literally reverse the policies that were enforcing the security to the extent of what it was of the border. And when you reverse those policies and as Trump pointed out, that like their catch and release was catching and releasing them into America, his catch and release was catching individuals of order and releasing them back into Mexico. Very different ideas. And so the fact that the Biden administration has undone so much of what President Trump worked to do, that helped make us a more secure, more prosperous nation, and now he's saying we're going to go back and fix those things again. Dad, as you're pointing out, there's a reason to think that he actually can, because he's already done it before.

Rick Green

Yeah, and I totally agree with everything you guys have said and definitely a different demeanor. I mean you could just tell, even when he walked in Monday, as we talked about in Tuesday and Wednesday's programs, but even the first 20, 30 minutes of the speech, guys, he was just somber. I mean, there was just a different level of. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. I want to make sure that everything I say is is not exaggerated, but it's, it's, it's. You know that people can feel what I went through. I don't know, it was kind of I guess I felt a little bit like, even with JD Vance's speech, how there's, it's just not plastic, it's just it's. You know, normally you, you see these speeches at these conventions and especially the nominees, or you know, vp and president see these speeches at these conventions and especially the nominees are, you know, vp and president. Typically they feel contrived, right, they feel like there's a lot of um, you know, just trying to. You know it's, it's planned, it's prepared, it's perfect, it's all of that. And definitely with JD Vance I felt like he was the most genuine um, you know, literally just uh, transparent, kind of uh speaker for, for a role like that that maybe I've ever seen. But even Trump felt the same way. And then of course, he got into his basic stump speech stuff and it was just good man, it landed. So yeah, I mean, David, you were right there listening to it, and I'm assuming the earlier speakers same thing.

Did you feel like the slate of folks? I was thrilled that Dana White introduced him. I don't know, you guys know I'm a big ufc fan and, uh, I always wanted Dana White to be the vp. Actually, I thought that would make for a very interesting fun time. Uh, not really, but you know I thought that was a fantastic introduction, uh, from Dana White. I'm not sure about the kid rock thing that was. I was a little bit cringy watching all the old folks trying to dance to Kid Rock. That was weird.

Tim Barton

You know, Rick, one of the things and, dad, one of the things that struck me watching on TV is you had Jason Aldean, you had Kid Rock, you had Hulk Hogan, you had Dana White you have a lot of noted names that, if you go back when Trump was first running for president, there was so much of a tone used against President Trump and a lot of people weren't really sure what to do with it, and so there weren't a lot of noted names or celebrities that would stand up and go beside Trump.

And I think what's so fascinating we even saw tonight is it's become so much more clear for so many people in America that what's happening right now the dividing line between either you love freedom, you love America, you love the future, or you love communism, socialism, marxism, you hate America right? It's this very clear line and I thought it was really interesting even though, Rick, as you're pointing out, that it was a little awkward watching that 80-year-olds trying to clap and know what to sing to Kid Rock that was a little weird but the fact that you have very noted names that are boldly standing beside President Trump in this moment it's something different than we saw, even in his 2015-2016 campaign buildup to his inauguration. So from the outside, that's something I noticed. But Dad, again you were there. What did it feel like in the room, as opposed to us just watching online?

David Barton

Well, even before I hit that, I want to go back to something you guys said, because I think there was some significance to the fact that we talked about that. We think he's being humble and I really believe that in several ways. One was his demeanor. I mentioned it earlier in the week, but you know the fact that he actually cried twice on opening night and that I've never seen a president do that. You know, I saw George W Bush on the 9-11 kind of stuff really get emotional, but I've never seen a president actually cry over stuff. It was like prayers and it was also like the National Anthem Lee Greenwood would sing it and so that struck me that. You know that's a tenderhearted kind of thing.

But the other thing, they did a lot of things different this convention, from what's ever been done traditionally. Usually on Thursday night everybody wears their suit on Thursday night because that's when you're going to announce that the nominee got the votes to be the Republican nominee for president. Well, that happened back on Monday night. On Monday night they did the president and the vice president and that happened back on Monday night On Monday night they did the president and the vice president and got that out of the way, and so the rest of the week, rather than looking forward to Thursday night, we're going to have a presidential candidate. We had that on Monday, and so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday was all about talking about things that need to be addressed and what are we going to do to fix the nation, et cetera. And so what's striking? The other striking thing I've never seen this and my goodness, I go back to probably either the 88 or 92 national conventions. So that's a while, guys.

So doing this for a while, I've never seen the presidential nominee come every night to the convention and sit there and listen to all the speakers. And he did that. He did that all four nights. He came and he heard all the speakers and they made a box for him and he was there listening and cheering all the speakers on. And that's a level of humility too, because he could lock himself back in the room with all the Secret Service guys and, you know, do whatever he wants to do back there, but he was part of the crowd, part of the group, part of what was going on. And I consider that to be a level of humility too, that he kind of sacrificed what probably might have been easier for him not to have to be around four or five hours every night with everybody else.

But I just saw some things I'd never seen before that I thought were really good. But the tone really came through tonight. It was very positive, very optimistic. It was upbeat Van Jones, if you remember Van Jones, he said the only other convention he's seen that was this good and this emotional was the Obama convention of 08, when Obama got the first nomination for president. And so that's Van Jones, Obama guy, likening the feel of this convention to what happened to Obama, which that's significant. That was a big emotional time back then.

Tim Barton

And that's a commentator for CNN acknowledging that right.

So as you're saying Van Jones, that's not just somebody who's on the liberal side, that's a CNN commentator acknowledging that, and guys. Of course there's other breaking news, or at least potential for this weekend Breaking news on the Democrat side and you know even maybe some questions that you mentioned. He could have sat back in a room with Secret Service. I'm really curious about some of those Secret Service conversations as well, as more and more information is coming out. But I see your look. I know we got to take a break, so I'm going to stop for now.

Rick Green

Breaking news after the break. Stay with us folks. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

Break

Rick Green 

Welcome back to the WallBuilder, show Thanks for staying with us. And it's Good News Friday a little bit different Good News Friday. We're not getting to the stacks, so David and Tim will have to talk twice as fast next Friday as we pile on's a good news friday, a little bit different good news friday. We're not getting to the stacks, so david, david and Tim will have to talk twice as fast next friday as we pile on. Some more good news.

But specifically, we're talking about good news from the republican national convention and then, as tim was talking about before the break, possibly some breaking news even in the next few hours or later today or tomorrow. Uh, all hints and signs and and rumors from dc that, uh, that jo, that Joe Biden may be getting out of the race. You know, we've all, of course, said that it would be crazy for the Democrats to keep this up through November, and so we kind of thought it would happen a little sooner. It is short, though, to get somebody ready for the convention Right, these conventions are planned months out and it's a lot of pomp and circumstance, videos made, all the stuff, and at this point, the Democrats really don't know who their nominee is going to be.

David Barton

I talked to a number of congressmen, senators, elected officials this week and in the last I'm going to say particularly Thursday, starting Wednesday night and Thursday we started getting specificity that it looks like Biden will drop out, that he is not going to put his blessing on anyone, and I think that's probably Kamala Harris's choice because he's got really bad numbers. I don't think she wants a blessing from someone's low numbers, but we've already been told she's looking at three or four different vice presidential candidates and talking to people like Ted Cruz, he actually thinks that it could be that it's going to be either Kamala or that Michelle Obama will be the other one. But don't think, I don't think it'll be Michelle Obama unless it is absolutely certain she's going to win. I don't think she's going to step into a situation where she takes a loss and you know kind of tarnishes that Obama, if you will, legacy or whatever. So I think it's probably likely to be Kamala. They're looking at VPs.

One of the ones I was told was Roy Cooper out of North Carolina, which would be interesting. He was the Democrat governor there. He was very popular, but that would make North Carolina into a battleground state. Now North Carolina is considered to be a battleground state in the presidential election, but in recent weeks it's really moved to where it's not much of a battleground anymore. But if Roy Cooper comes in out of North Carolina now you've got another battleground state because he's really popular with Democrats and that would change the presidential mix all up if you had another battleground state going in.

So there's a lot of things that could happen. But at this point this is the first time that I've actually believed and I've told you guys you know we've talked about it I didn't think Biden was going to step out at any point up to now. But I do now think that he probably will, because we're seeing that the money donations have dropped on their side. But that's not an issue because if, like, say, Michelle gets in or somebody else, if Biden gets out, you're going to see money start flowing again like crazy to that side.

Tim Barton

Well, dad, I think to your point and what your argument was had there not been this level of cognitive decline, there's no reason he would have gotten out. And in fairness, I think that's probably Joe Biden's call more than Joe's call at this point, and family involved, et cetera. And so what we've heard from some of the internal fights is it really is from more of Joe Biden and some of the Biden family against Kamala's team, against some of the other Democrats, et cetera. And so it's an interesting conversation and to see potentially who she comes up with and also why that might matter is because if you look at the money that's already been raised, it's been raised for the Biden Kamala ticket, and so if at this point, you remove Biden and Kamala, that money is committed and so that can't just all automatically go to somebody else's campaign. And so this might be an interesting thought is, if Biden steps down and Kamala has a new vice president pick, is she able to access all that money? Number one but then number two, with her having a lower approval rating than any vice president in history? Do we feel like they have to give her the head nod as the frontrunner candidate, or do we think they might try to sweep somebody else in. I think they're going to keep her because I don't think they can get around having her in that position, but she is absolutely a terrible candidate, and even though they might be able to raise more money now because there's someone there that actually has some level of brainpower even if she's producing far more word salads than anything else.

Nonetheless, it's just some interesting thoughts and questions. So first question what happens to the money? And I'm asking so that we can answer this on air, right, so we can help maybe guide people through this and why some of that commitment matters. And is it more likely that she picks a VP or do we think they maybe try to replace her?

Because at the Democratic convention guys I was just looking this up, and from the Democratic convention guys, I was just looking this up, and from the Democratic Convention they have what are known as delegates and superdelegates, and of the delegates, there's a total of 4,672 delegates, and this is for the 2024 convention. 3,933 are pledged delegates that are committed to a candidate, but 739 are automatic delegates, also known as superdelegates, and so superdelegates can vote whatever direction they want to vote for, and so it's not enough to maybe change the commitment from the delegates that are there, but it certainly is enough to influence it going forward, which does mean that the Democrat convention there could be some fooling around that happens with who that candidate is. So I've asked a bunch of questions, dad and Rick.

I'm going to throw it to you guys now, yeah, I haven't talked to anybody who claims to be an expert on that kind of federal campaign law, but they believe that if her name's on what's been raised, that she'll have the ability to take and use that, and if it changes the VP, that that's not an issue. And I think her argument will be look, I was just the vice president under Joe. I never got to really do anything. I was only in charge of the border, so I didn't have anything to mess with.

And that went really well, so yeah, I was.

David Barton

I was waiting for somebody to pile on to that, because that's really the only responsibility that she was given was the border she visited at one time, I think. So how did that work out? But I think she will distance herself from Joe and say, look, I was under his shadow. But man, if I had been there I could have done this and this and this. And so I think you know, if what we're hearing on the rumble and what most of the members of Congress are hearing that I talk to, then probably this weekend there will be some kind of announcement made. Even Fox News is reporting. There will be an announcement by Monday or before Monday. So we'll see. But at least the people I'm talking to think that she's probably the one that they're going to have to default to, and then they can rally around her and raise money and you know, and, as they point out, what happens in a convention, like what Republicans just finished, is Republicans will get a bump out of that.

Polling will go up, the speeches that were done and the clips that are running around that will go up and they're going to get some bump out of that. Polling will go up, the speeches that were done and the clips that are running around, that will go up and they're going to get some boost out of that. But that would be instantly overshadowed if you had news about Biden stepping out and her stepping in and the word around here is look, she'll get a billion dollars of earned media instantly. Everybody's going to be talking oh, this is so good for the Democrats. This is so great for them because now they've got a visionary, they're not bound by an 80-year-old guy, and so that's. The other factor is, in addition to fundraising, you're going to have a billion dollars of earned media talking about how great this is for the country, and that's going to help her as well.

Rick Green

Yeah, and I think, if I understand right, the only thing they can do if she's not the nominee is that money will at best go to the DNC, the Democrat National Committee, and then it's a different group of people controlling how they spend the money. I don't know if it changes what it can be spent on, but I think you're right. I think that that's a lot of money and the apparatus is there and the machine is there and also, let's not forget, I mean, he is doing very bad and it's still possible for the 25th amendment to be invoked and if it is, it gives her the chance to be quote-unquote presidential right, as she's put in that position now. Obviously, if she falls flat on her face, she has a lot of gaffes and all that. It ends up hurting her campaign even more.

But you know there's a lot of people that that, even on the, on the Democrat side and even, like you said, Tim, CNN type folks that have said you know it really should, that this should actually not just be a nominee change. At this point he really needs to step off. You know it's time to exit stage left. Let's just put it that way.

Tim Barton

Well, and it will be interesting to see then if Kamala Harris becomes the front. You know there's already another debate scheduled, and so will she stick with that debate schedule.

Oh yeah, Will she debate President Trump? Or will she say hey, this is different and I mean I feel like as bad as it was for the Biden Trump debate. Biden was so bad at that debate because his, his age and decrepitness, so to speak, was on full display. But if Kamala goes, that could be as equally exposing for her, which makes me wonder if her strategy is a little bit like Joe Biden's. The first time, Let me just sit in my basement. It's safer for me to stay there, so I can't expose how bad of a candidate I actually am. It'll be very interesting to see what happens, and certainly next week we will have to dive into a lot of this and have these conversations.

Rick Green

Well, there's so much happening, guys, and it really is historic. I mean, we're seeing things that we haven't seen in presidential races in decades and decades. And obviously the assassination attempt first time something like this happened since Reagan in 81. So I mean we're watching history happen in a very short period of time, along with all the other things that have been happening around the world that create this as a moment of an inflection moment for the history of our country, which is why people need to be tuning into WallBuilder, so you can get that biblical, historical and constitutional perspective to put it all in context. Thanks so much for listening to the WallBuilder Show.