As the solemn memory of my late grandfather Johnny McClain Sr.'s life in music and service lingers, I, Darrell Mcclain, share a slice of my own life, reflecting on a subdued birthday spent wrapped in the warmth of family. The episode then pivots to a courtroom drama that has captivated a nation: the trial of former President Donald Trump. With the finesse of a seasoned analyst, I dissect the complexities of the legal battle over hush money, the intricacies of the charges against him, and the fiery exchanges between prosecution and defense. As much as the headlines scream certainty, I voice my skepticism about the possibility of Trump donning prison blues, reminding listeners that the scales of justice are as unpredictable as they are blind.
The episode's journey culminates in a universal yearning for faith-fueled healing, inspired by the biblical tale of a woman's unwavering belief in the restorative power of the merest touch from Jesus. It's a moment that promises to stir the soul, offering listeners a glimpse at the intersection where earthly trials and spiritual quests converge.
As the solemn memory of my late grandfather Johnny McClain Sr.'s life in music and service lingers, I, Darrell Mcclain, share a slice of my own life, reflecting on a subdued birthday spent wrapped in the warmth of family. The episode then pivots to a courtroom drama that has captivated a nation: the trial of former President Donald Trump. With the finesse of a seasoned analyst, I dissect the complexities of the legal battle over hush money, the intricacies of the charges against him, and the fiery exchanges between prosecution and defense. As much as the headlines scream certainty, I voice my skepticism about the possibility of Trump donning prison blues, reminding listeners that the scales of justice are as unpredictable as they are blind.
The episode's journey culminates in a universal yearning for faith-fueled healing, inspired by the biblical tale of a woman's unwavering belief in the restorative power of the merest touch from Jesus. It's a moment that promises to stir the soul, offering listeners a glimpse at the intersection where earthly trials and spiritual quests converge.
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show. I'm your host, darrell McLean. You have the pleasure of listening to episode 403. Today's date is 4-26-2024, and let's get into a bit of our episode. So, since we discussed, had the time to communicate with each other on the last go-around, a few things have happened. So one thing, a significant event in my life was my grandfather's heavenly birthday on April, the 18th.
Speaker 1:
And so my grandfather, johnny McClain, johnny McClain Sr, died during the COVID period of a combination of COVID and cancer coming into remission. So we want to say rest in peace to Johnny McClain Sr.
Speaker 1:
My grandfather was a lifelong giver and a lifelong singer and musician, could play almost every instrument and had a talent for singing and had a personal what we would now call ministry where to the sick and shut in, where he would go to hospitals to sing for people who nobody was going to come and visit, and he would go to nursing homes and sing to some of the people who were in nursing homes, and that was a ministry that he had until death, as well as singing in his church and being a part of a traveling singing group of gospel songs called the Hall of Fame. So rest in peace, johnny McClain Sr, and happy heavenly birthday to you. On a smaller note, it was also my birthday on April the 21st, and I started it very somber. We did this thing that I never dreamed of doing and I never dream of doing in the future I went to this place called work, and so I did that for 8 hours and then after that I went and celebrated with family for my birthday something small and quiet. So two things have happened grandfather's birthday and my birthday and now you are going to hear about some of the news that happened, and one of the biggest things is that the former president of the United States, donald Trump, has actually gone to trial, and the former president's first criminal trial began earnest on Monday, with opening statements from prosecutors and the defense team, as well as the calling of the first few witnesses. Now Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsified business records. The alleged offense centers on a $130,000 payment made to an adult film star actress known as Stormy Daniels. This was in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Now. The money was supposedly intended to stop Stormy Daniels from publicizing an alleged sexual encounter with the former President Trump for a decade prior. Now Trump denies any such encounter and denies any legal wrongdoing.
Speaker 1:
The proceedings in Lower Manhattan are the first criminal trial of a former president. If convicted, trump faces up to four years in prison, though, as I said before on this show those such a sentence for a first-time offender would be rare. So I'm going to go ahead and say what I said before I do not see, in any of these cases, donald Trump spending one day in anybody's jail. Even if he was convicted, let's say, of the whole four years, he's going to be doing those four years at his house. So, anyway, here are some of the main takeaways from what happened. I've laid out five points. I'm going to go through those five points here.
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So the prosecution presses the case that Trump was conspiring in a way to sway the election. The offense Trump is accused of would normally be a misdemeanor, except when prosecutors can make the case that they were committed in the service of another crime. Now, this has always been the sticking point in the New York case because, even though he has been indicted in three other unrelated cases, trump has not been charged with any other crime pertaining to the payment of to stormy daniels. Now monday's proceedings made it clear, and more clear than it's ever been. The prosecutors are arguing that trump was conspiring to influence the 2016 election. However, prosecutor matthew uh coliningo. Prosecutor Matthew Coladingo called Trump's action elections fraud pure and simple. Now he also added that Trump and his cohorts were tape in early October of 2016 on the tape in which the which was that tape was from 2005. So in that tape, trump was heard boasting crudely about women and he asserted that the fame enabled any star to grab a woman by. We know the famous quote grab them by the you know. So Trump knew his campaign was unlikely to withstand further embarrassing stories, prosecutors contend, which meant it was vital to bury the Daniels allegation. Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with the porn star on the heels of the Exit Hollywood tape, would have been devastating to his campaign, and this is what the prosecuting attorney, uh Calayando, argues. Much will hinge upon whether the prosecution can make the that element of the case stick.
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Now the Trump defense, which is basically saying no big deal, trump's team sought to rebuke the prosecution with an argument that it is, at its core, pretty simple. What's the big deal? There's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy. Now, that was said by Todd Blanchie, the former president's lead attorney. The defense also sought to mock the idea that someone as known as Donald Trump could try to conceal a payment of $130,000 to Daniel and that it made through his then-attorney and fixer, michael Cohen, by paying $420,000 in installments to Cohen. $420,000 in installments to Cohen. So the Trump's team argument is that the payments, far from the intended to mask a conspiracy, were actually just legitimate legal fees.
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Cohen is actually expected to take the stand against Trump, but the former president's legal team sought to paint the friend-turned-enemy as a scoundrel motivated by animus toward the former president cohen previously pled guilty to the offense related to tax fraud and election finance law, as well as lying to congress. Now this has enabled trump's team to dismiss him as a criminal whose evidence should be disregarded. Trump's attorney told the jury that prosecution was in effect trying to whip up a criminal case from an innocuous event. If the jury's used their common sense, he insisted, the outcome would be a very swift not guilty verdict. The next big element was that Trump faces the potential peril if he takes a stand Now. One of the huge questions looming over the trial is whether Trump will stand up and talk in court in his own defense.
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Merkin, whom Trump has repeatedly targeted in speeches and on social media, made a ruling Monday that heightens the risk for the former president. The judge had decided what topics the prosecution could raise with Trump if he does indeed testify. The judge gave a considerably large amount of leeway a large amount of leeway. He decided prosecutors could ask about the massive civil fraud case where Trump and his businesses were penalized to the tune of $454 million. The judge also green-lighted questions about the two defamation cages brought against Trump from writer E Jane Carroll. That writer is the person who says Trump raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s. In May of 2023, a jury in a civil trial found that Trump was liable for sexual abuse of Carroll. Now an apparent Trump violation of the gag order and another separate civil case can be discussed. Trump might still be decided to roll the dice. He might still decide to roll the dice and testify on his own behalf, and such a move would be consistent with his exuberant belief in himself. But the judge's order must give Trump's legal team a lot of pause Now.
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The trial is proceeding at pace. Early predictions that Trump's trial could last six weeks or longer could be dashed if the judge keeps things moving swiftly. Opening statements were only possible Monday because last week jury selection was completed faster than many observers expected. The process could easily have taken two weeks. Instead, the jurors the 12 of them and six alternates were finalized in just one week On Monday. The judge's desire to maintain the pace was shown when, even on an abbreviated day because of the Christian Passover holiday, he fit into some early testimony from the first witnesses, former magazine executive David Pecker. There were bombshells in time available to Pecker, but he will be back. He was back on Tuesday anyway, and after a frustrated Trump he fired back.
Speaker 1:
Reporters in the courtroom say Trump appeared frustrated at times, listening to hostile arguments and unable to respond in his usual hyper combative way, and days in, however, he did try to make his case to the media. He did so describing himself as a leading candidate for the presidency. He insisted that the powers that were trying to take me off of the trail for the checks being paid to, the checks being paid to his lawyer, and so that was, I think, the five most significant takeaways. I think we all know the problem that Trump is going to have here, which is David Pecker. When David Pecker testified, david Pecker, and so I would hear stories that were going to be embarrassing to uh donald trump, and what I would do is I would immediately attack the source or I would buy the story. So I would go interview the person, uh, get the story, make them sign a whatever that they can only report this to us, and then I would bury it and never release the story, and he flat out said that's what he would do, and so I I think that that's going to be uh, something the jurors hear, that it's going to be hard to unring that bell, and the other big problem is going to be the lawyer that if Donald Trump is giving these monies to his then lawyer, michael Cohen, and Michael Cohen shows up to testify that this money was given to me for nefarious purposes, that is going to be a big undertaking. It's going to be very difficult for Trump's defense team to stop to rebut that testimony.
Speaker 1:
Now, even if they were to say Michael Cohen is a scoundrel and so on and so forth and for all intents and purposes, for years, michael Cohen probably was a scoundrel. Michael Cohen is going to be able to retort yeah, I was a scoundrel for all those years working for a very specific person and for this amount of years that those shenanigans happened while under the employment of the former president of the United States. So this is the stupidest case, just in my opinion, this is not the case that people wanted. They wanted the big stuff out of Georgia, which was the 2020 election case, and for all my negative feelings about Fannie Willis and everything of that way, I'll just say how you allow your personal life to come in and taint such an important process. So now we have to go with the stupidest case that they're going to talk about, which is did Donald Trump in fact pay hush money to a porn star when I think most of the general public kind of already thinks that he did. And it reminded me just in passing I was thinking about remember that book we were all had to read in high school the Crucible. We're all had to read in high school the crucible.
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And there's the part where the husband, you know, had cheated on the wife. And then the prosecutor is there and he's asking those questions and the wife, you know, the husband actually tells the truth that he did cheat and the wife tries to protect the integrity of the husband and says it didn't happen, even though she knows it did. And then they said the other man who's in the fit says you know, this is a common lie, this is a common lie. It is a common lie and I put that in this category. It is a common lie. That doesn't mean that lying is good, but we know that if a man is a philanderer and if he's an adulterer and if he has besmirched and dishonored the marriage bed a lot of times, what people will do is they will try to let their sinfulness shine so they can be held accountable. They'll do everything they can to hide it, and I think that that's what happened in this case.
Speaker 1:
Is Donald Trump cheated on his wife? It is speculated that he cheated on his wife while she was pregnant and he then tried to hide the crime. It was not a crime that he tried to hide his sin and then, when he was running for president, his sin is made apparent because of the financial records. So then he doubles down into hiding of that adulterous relationship, and that is when it hits the federal uh crime, and so that that's just the rough takeaways from what happened uh so far.
Speaker 1:
I will keep you abreast of things that are important, but not so much to. This is going to become the always watch what Trump is doing show. That's not the goal here, and so I'm not going to get pulled into this thing that the media is going to do for the next few months. I'll Trump all the time, but at any rate, I want to get to some other stuff that has been near and dear to my heart, and I'm going to tell you a bit of a secret that I've been working towards, but it's going to be after we hear this next segment, okay.
Speaker 2:
Has anybody ever told you you were over opinionated? How about this one? You can talk about everything you like, but don't talk about religion, don't talk about faith, don't talk about politics. My name is darrell mcclain, host of darrell mcclain show, and I want to introduce you to a show called over opinionated, withated, with my friend from Southwest Virginia. Josh Scott Josh has always been told he has been overopinionated. He always tried to hold back these opinions, but he tried to back them up when he had to say something with facts and logic.
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Since he's grown up in many ways, he had to change a lot of his views and his opinions as a lot of people should.
Speaker 2:
He's not a millionaire from Fox.
Speaker 1:
News or CNN.
Speaker 2:
He's just a work hardworking blue collar type of guy. Give Josh Scott a shot at overopinionated at 679.
Speaker 1:
You can also check him out on Twitter at. Nrv underscore guy 79.
Speaker 2:
Overopinionated with Josh Scott. Where he is, this soft-spoken guy telling you the truth?
Speaker 1:
is this soft-spoken guy telling you the truth? So what I wanted to talk about is I have been starting to write a book. It's not going to be a very large undertaking. I'm looking for the book to be about 100 pages and no more than 150 pages. I wanted to come out, hopefully.
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I want to be done with it before November before October, to be honest and but I wanted to stand the test of time, because the book that I have been working on is the question of should Christians vote, and I have started to stand firmly in the position of no. I don't think that Christians actually should be that engaged in the active partisan politics, and I know that is going to be a very controversial take, especially because of all the very famous, especially historically famous preachers who are on the opposite side of that question. So that's what I have been working on, that's what has been taking a lot of my time, that's what has been taking a lot of my time, and I'm hoping that when the book does come out, I'm self-publishing it, self-editing it, etc. And that you guys will give it a shot. But it's led me to this evangelical pastor, well-known conservative pastor, who caused a bit of a stir. He basically had a lot to say about the MAGA Bible that has come out.
Speaker 1:
So let me, let him speak in his own words.
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Some of you bring politics into the church. You think that politics is spiritual stuff. Politics is of this church. You think that politics is spiritual stuff. Politics is of this world. You think it's your duty to be political about this, that and the other. No, your duty is to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Don't be talking to me about my spiritual responsibility to vote.
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So that is Pastor Laura Livingston, and he's from an evangelical church. Now his church is called the Central Church of God and it is in North Carolina, charlotte to be exact.
Speaker 4:
I don't have a spiritual responsibility to vote. I have a civic privilege. Don't be telling me that voting is spiritual. See, that's what happens when you don't read and pray. Spiritual, see, that's what happens when you don't read and pray. When you don't read and pray, you say, wow, there's a Bible out now that includes the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Isn't that wonderful? No, no, it's disgusting, it's blasphemous, it's a ploy. Are you?
Speaker 4:
Some of you are so encouraged by that. Let me tell you something the gospel is not an American gospel, it is the gospel of the Lord, jesus Christ. But, pastor, I'm on the Bible. Really, you're telling me that you're encouraged because someone took a government, us Constitution, a document that says we are of the people, by the people and for the people, the people, the people, the people. And you have put it right beside the word of God, which is eternal, unchanging, which says of him, by him, through him, to him, from him are all things. You're gonna put those together and be happy about it, god forbid. Now you can get mad if you want to, but I'm gonna tell you something if you glory in that kind of thing, you don't have a prayer life. If you glory in that kind of mess, political mess. You do not know what the word of God says.
Speaker 1:
So he brings up a very good point and this was something that me and Josh got into when we did our back and forwards on the debate of election and atonement, the debate on Calvinism versus Arminianism, and I told him I postulated that the notion of freedom, when it comes to you being one of God's elect and the atoning work and salvation etc. Was a very American concept, because Americans like to think about me, me, me and my freedom and my liberty. And I suggested that the text did not seem to offer those freedoms and liberties in the way that Americans are used to it, because they have no king or they're not used to having a king or not used to monarchies etc. And I think that and I don't even think that this pastor will be on my side of that Calvinist or an Arminian conversation, but I think that he taps right into kind of what my thinking is when it's like these things are diametrically opposed. One is a me-centered thing and the other thing is a the-centered thing. One thing is about me, mine and my and the other thing is about them. Love thy neighbor as you love thyself and keep the commandments, honor the Lord, thy God, with all their heart, mind and soul and we used to throw in there seek not on your own understanding, things like that.
Speaker 1:
And so I heard this sermon in its entirety and I just kept you know. I nodded along with it and I said I have always and I have even probably spoken about this either on Overopinionated or on this show talked about the fusing of political life and religious life and how what would happen is political people think they're going to influence politics and what they do not understand is that politics is actually going to influence them. And then you deal with the question of eternality, which one should have had the most weight, and that's the thing that, ontologically, has always been my starting point. So let me get to the final clip of this thing and then we'll discuss on the other end.
Speaker 4:
Are you going to tell me that it's okay to stick the Bill of Rights, our rights, america, just Americans, in God's holy word and turn this whole thing into an American Bible with an American gospel? Oh, some of you are really upset with me right now, but I'm here to tell you that is a cheap ploy. The world is adept At showing you things on the news that Upset you, that bring stuff to the surface, that create division and animosity. That's their job, it's the devil's job. They're doing the devil's job. They can't tell the truth because they are not of the truth. And when you watch it and you say my, my, my, look at that, I didn't know that you haven't heard of the truth.
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And when you watch it and you say my, my, my, look at that, I didn't know that.
Speaker 4:
You haven't heard the whole truth. They get scared out about what's being done to them and what's happening in politics.
Speaker 1:
So, look, I don't know if he's referring to in that piece what we have labeled as the culture wars, but what I do know is I, I witness this. I witness somebody, somebody who reports and looks at this stuff regularly. I, I witness the the coarse nature in the way that we communicate. I witness the way that you think you have the facts but you actually only have your uh, political tribes side of the story. I witness how you will know that you're right because you've already confirmed it with other people in your camp that this is what we believe, and you do not then think that the other people in the other camps have also confirmed with each other that they're correct and you're incorrect. How do they know they're correct? Because they've already confirmed it with each other that they are correct.
Speaker 1:
And when you have that type of thinking in politics, you see how it makes the country almost, you know, immovable, inflexible. It seems like we're not getting anything done. And we do get things done. We have to debate vigorously on whether we like the thing that got done and then, when we have things that are done that are seem to be not working, it's it almost impossible to undo the bad thing that got done, that we all in 69% agree is a bad thing. Take that into the church and you have really thrown a bomb in a community.
Speaker 1:
That is supposed to be the mantra, and the people that lead is the evokers of the Prince of Peace on Earth, and so I identified with this message, and this is somewhat the message of the book that I'm working on, and I hope that when the book does come out, that it does well in sustaining the test of time, answering some difficult questions, asserting some of my positions and where I came to my belief on partisan politics and religious mixing in the context of Christian ontology, and so that is going to be what the book is about, and on this note, I'm going to go to a treat and that's how we're going to wrap this thing up. So as I started off this show, I told you that my grandfather sung his entire life, was a member of the Hall of Fame choir, and we're going to end the show with which says some of the nice melodies from the Hall of Fame.
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And this is the actual Hall of Fame choir and this is my grandfather actually singing is a leader when you know all he is thanksgiving but claims saints build poisons when you know he's no beginner.
Speaker 1:
But in St Baratron, william, st Bates, and this last song is my grandfather singing a solo.
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Oh, there was a woman in the power of the days who had been sick, sick so very long. Then she heard my Jesus passing by, so she's yawning the gathering, and while she was pushing her way through someone asked her what are you trying to do?
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She said if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I know I'll be made whole right now. She stood there crying oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord. She said if I could just touch the pimple before me, I know I'll be made whole right now. Oh, she spent her money here and there Until she had no, she had no more to spare. You know the doctors, they've done all that they could, until the medicine. I do know. But when she touched it, the city I didn't see. Yeah, she turned around and cried Somebody, somebody touch me, said it was I who just only touched the hem of your garment.
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And I know I'll be made whole right now. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord. She said if I could just touch the human becoming, I know I'll be made whole right now. And whoa whoa, wait. Oh, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord. And if I could just touch the hem of his garment. I know I'll be home right now. Oh, yes, I will.