Impeaching Biden, Shifting the Culture, And More  – On Foundations Of Freedom: Should Biden be impeached for his actions regarding Afghanistan? Did the Administration’s actions rise out of incompetence or maliciousness? What should we be calling on our leaders to do? How do we be a part of shifting the culture in the right direction? How can we stop the Left from getting away with whatever illegal actions they want? Tune in to hear the answers to these questions and more on today’s Foundations of Freedom program!

Air Date: 09/16/2021

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of power, then let no more be heard of confidence in man that bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live. We are talking about the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. 

We’re glad you’re with us. This happens to be Foundations of Freedom Thursday. Every Thursday, we take your questions, dive into those questions. And really, they can vary. I mean, some people ask about the Founding Fathers, sometimes it’s something to do with a policy going through the government right now. So send your questions in [email protected].

My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And I’m here with David Barton. 

He’s America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. And Tim Burton’s a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. You can learn more about us at our website, wallbuilderslive.com and that’s also where you can get archives the program, and make that one-time or monthly contribution. Thank you to everyone out there that is doing that.

Constitution Day

And by the way, just a special announcement this morning. Since tomorrow is going to be Constitution Day, September 17th, I want to encourage you to go to patriotacademy.com today, and there’s a link there for our special Constitution Day dinner that is taking place in Fort Worth, as well as our Constitution coach training the next day over at Glenn Beck’s American Journey Experience. 

David and Tim and I will be with folks from all across the country at the dinner, special speaker Lauren Boebert, amazing Congresswoman from Colorado as well as others. And then the training on Saturday, is going to be amazing as well.

I’m telling you about all this because we’re going to have a streaming option where you can actually watch it, you can join us, you can be a part of this online. So go to patriotacademy.com today, there’ll be links there where you can get signed up and be a part of the streaming. We would love to have you with us for this very special Constitution Day and the day after.

Alright, David, and Tim, let’s dive into those questions from the audience. And by the way, folks, you can send those into [email protected]. The first one is going to get to be Chad from Arlington, Texas. 

Should Biden Be Impeached?

He said “Hey, David, Tim, and Rick, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I have had in the past, I got to say I love the optimism of your show. Most news networks and radio shows seem to just give the bad news. Your encouragement and positivity gives me hope that this nation has not fallen yet. 

My question is about the impeachment of Biden over Afghanistan. I remember when watching Constitution Alive! which was great by the way, that you guys said that misdemeanors in the Constitution meant ill-behavior. 

“It certainly seems that what Biden has done in Afghanistan is ill-behavior. So could we impeach Biden considering this? Thanks again, and God bless.”

Excellent question, Chad. In fact, a popular question, we have a similar question from Libby in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Let’s just add that one in here. She said “You mentioned that Biden could not be impeached for in competency, but isn’t what he’s done a misdemeanor? 

“At least according to your archives, a misdemeanor cause for impeachment by Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution was defined by Noah Webster is ill-behavior, evil conduct, fault, or mismanagement. And Joseph’s story defined it as what are aptly termed political offenses growing out of personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interest. Can you explain, please, why Biden cannot be impeached if we use these definitions? It certainly seems like at least a misdemeanor.”

So guys, let’s just throw all of that out there on the table. And I think maybe the way they’re asking the question is would it fit the definition? I think what we’ve often said in the past is political practicality with regard to what could be done when you try to define some of these things. 

So we had to factor both of those in when we answer the question, could he be impeached? And is it possible to even get that done? So I just throw all that out there, what do you guys think?

David:

Well, first thing I think is I think it’s super cool that in asking the question we’re being challenged with the definition from Noah Webster and from Joseph story. I mean, first off, anybody going back to Joseph’s story, and Noah Webster to get the original meanings of the Constitution and of the English language, that is so cool. I

 love that kind of challenges. And wait a minute, guys, you said he can’t be impeached, but Joseph’s story said and Noah Webster said, this is great, I mean, and the others, yeah, I saw it in Constitution Alive! but and so just the whole setup. Just I love this. Okay, so a couple things going on.

The Political Aspect

Rick, you said practicality, that’s part of it. So there’s nothing covered in the Constitution more often than the subject of impeachment, Six clauses. You’re not going to find Six clauses on any other topic. So this is something that was in their mind, something they thought about and knew.

You have a lot of examples at the state level of what an impeachment was, how it was conducted, what they do. So at the time, they wrote the Federal Constitution, they had the precedent of what they themselves were doing in the States at the time. Then after they wrote the Constitution, we have a lot of impeachments said have occurred across that period of time,I think it’s like 97 or 98 impeachment investigations, and 16 or 18 impeachments. So there’s a lot of precedent here.

So there’s two ways of looking at this. One is what was the original intent? And two is, what is the practical application? 

So the practical application, let’s start with that first. If you go back to President Gerald Ford, he became president following the scandal with Richard Nixon, where Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency. So Gerald Ford was a Speaker of the House, he ends up being the president. 

While he was in the House, he said, an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the house thinks that it is. And that is true.

Because the House, if you get 50%, or 50% of the House plus one vote, to say we’re going to impeach President Trump for what happened on January the 6th, which by the way now the FBI came out and said, there was no conspiracy, there was nothing coordinated or concerted about that, etc. They didn’t look for evidence. 

They wanted something so that they could impose the penalty of you can never again hold office. So that was about nothing more than politics. Let’s see if we can get an impeachment and let’s see if we can ban him from any future office. That way, if he runs again, for president in 2024, he can’t do it. We can stop that.

The Constitutional Aspect

So that’s the political aspect. The political aspect is whatever that Congress decides. We saw that right after the Civil War with reconstruction where the House was severely divided among, you actually had the folks who had come back in from the south who were still racist, and you had the radical Republicans, and you had the more moderate Republicans, and they got into impeaching one of the presidents. 

They impeach Andrew Johnson, because he released one of the  cabinet secretaries that they liked. No, that’s not a criminal offense, and so they impeached him for it. So there’s the practical aspect of they can impeach for whatever they want to.

Now from the constitutional aspect, it really has to be more in the vicinity of bad behavior that is really egregious, not just stupidity or incompetency. And I would argue that at the beginning, what happened in Afghanistan with Biden, and by the way, for those that don’t know, we’ve been closely involved in all the stuff in Afghanistan since it started to collapse. Tim and I are on the board of the Nazaren Fund, started by Glenn Beck six years ago. 

And that Fund, it has been at the forefront of the civilian evacuations out of Afghanistan. They’re still ongoing right now. We still don’t have all the people out. There are still a whole lot of Americans have not been gotten out. So we’re dealing with this right now as we speak.

So what started with, I think, incompetency on the part of Biden administration and we’re finding out now that the military told him not to do what he did, but he chose to do it anyway, which adds more to the incompetency argument. But what we’ve seen in recent weeks is more of maliciousness. 

Because we are seeing on a regular basis the State Department do everything they can, it appears, to obstruct us getting Americans and SIVs and P-1, P-2 passport holders and green card holders and persecuted Christians.

Incompetency or Maliciousness?

They’ve done, it seems like, everything they can to keep us from getting those people out there, including the Americans. And that rises to a whole different level of just incompetency. That goes to a level of maliciousness that I think does come under impeachment. 

So while I would say no, you don’t impeach someone just because they’re incompetent, if they keep letting that incompetency become a policy that hurts Americans and hurts the nation, not just because I’m conservative, and you’re progressive, and you’re doing something progressive, but you’re literally talking about the lives of American citizens now being jeopardized, and now being jeopardized deliberately, not just incompetency, these are deliberate decisions, I think that rises to a different level.

So that would be my answer. And certainly there going to be people disagree. And again, I love the fact that we’re being challenged from Joseph’s story and Noah Webster, etc, and so we could have a great discussion here on whether this is impeachable or not. 

But I think that what’s going on right now does rise to that level. And would you go after Blinken? Or would you go after the Biden administration? Whoever it is, there’s a level of intentionality and deliberateness now that we see that was not present at the very first when this thing started.

Rick:

I’m reminded of the question back in the Iran–Contra situation with President Reagan, they constantly asked what did the President know and when did he know it? And in that, I think is going to be an important question. We’re not sure if this President knows anything right now, if that brains work still working at all. But if it’s going to rise to him, it is going to have to be how much of this information did he know, when did he know it when those decisions were made?

And I agree with you, David, I think the situation has changed in the last couple of weeks. I even had an article in Washington Times saying the 25th Amendment is the proper approach, not impeachment back when this stuff was first starting. But it’s more than Afghanistan at this point as well.

The Will of the House

And frankly, I mean, remind us of the Supreme Court justice that was impeached not convicted, right of over literally declaring basically the court stepping out of its constitutional authority and going beyond what the Constitution gave it the authority to do. My goodness, this President has certainly done that with his executive order. 

So there’s probably some other things that you could certainly make a case for impeachment, if, as you said, the will of the House is there. If a majority of the House says this is impeachable, doesn’t mean you’re going to get a conviction over in the Senate.

But at some point, that probably is the right thing to do. Otherwise, they just keep doing this stuff. And we said that back with Obama when he was making law on his own and overturning laws on his own, we said, look that’s impeachable. 

He’s outside his constitutional authority, the House should impeach him, even if they can’t get the conviction so that it sends the signal we’re not just going to lay down, set aside and let this stuff happen.

David:

Yeah. And I really think on something like that a pattern of behavior is very important, not that you ignored one law and you get impeached over that. I mean, it could be possible. It could be a law of such consequence that it costs the lives of thousands or whatever. But because I ignored some federal statute, you going to impeach me, probably not. 

But when you have a pattern of behavior where that you are ignoring law after law after law, simply because you disagree with them, that’s a problem, because you took an oath, and that oath was to uphold the Constitution.

Now, here’s where it gets more complicated, is under what we’ve had for the years of progressivism since the 1920s, we’re not sure what the Constitution is anymore. As conservatives, we say it’s written in black and white and you follow that until it’s changed by legislature or constitutional amendment. They say, well, it’s whatever the judges decide that it is. 

Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes has the famous statement where he says, “We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say that it is.”

Arguing Political Philosophies

So we would say hey, following Roe v. Wade violates the Constitution because you have the inalienable right to life. They say, hey, overturning Roe v. Wade, that violates the Constitution because the court has declared abortion to be a constitutional right. So now we’re arguing over political philosophies as much as we are over original intent.

Going back to the Justice that you mentioned, that was Justice Samuel Chase, who issued a decision in the Supreme Court that contradicted a law of Congress, and they went after him for impeachment. 

And so he was not convicted, but he was impeached. John Randolph is the guy who handled the impeachment in the House of Representatives. And that went on for a while. Back then there was only one way to read the Constitution. And that’s it.

Today, there’s so many ways to read the Constitution. You would have a real difficulty getting two-thirds in the Senate. It’s even difficult to get a majority in the House unless you’re going to be purely partisan, like the last impeachment against Trump was. 

So that’s what kind of complicated today, is are you talking original intent? Are you talking precedent? Because now you have the precedent of two impeachments against Trump, neither one of which was based on constitutional grounds. 

Both of which were such hasty things, that information that came out later proved that the basis of the claim was not even true, but they didn’t wait to investigate that. They made it a political witch hunt.

So now you’ve got the precedent that’s going to be in history going forward. Well, way back in 2020 and 2019, they did impeachments back then, look what they did it for. So that’s precedent we can use going forward. 

This is where it gets complicated. This is why you need original intent understanding. That’s why we do Constitution Alive! and teach the Constitution so you can see what is supposed to be. That’s the best way to have to build in a nation.

Rick:

Well, speaking of Constitution Alive! both in the question and in the answer, you can get that at wallbuilders.com, you can get it on DVD, get the workbook. We also have Biblical Citizenship  in Modern America, that’s an updated version that includes some additional material there as well. 

And that’s something you can not only go through yourself, but we encourage you to be coached and host it in your home or at your church and help more people get educated on these things as well.

What Can One Do About Afghanistan?

And our next question is actually really ties into what you just said, David, what the questions were actually already about is from Amelia in Indiana. Thanks for sending this in, Amelia. She said, “I’m from Central Indiana. I’m very sick, disgusted, and somewhat depressed about all that’s going on in Afghanistan. It rips my heart in two when I read about Christians, Americans, allies, and translators being executed. 

This whole ordeal is so wrong. Our leaders must be held accountable. I wish I could do something to help. So please tell me what a member of Generation Z can do to help in this situation. I’m tired of feeling helpless. I love your show and the wisdom. I’ve learned from it. Thank you.”

Amelia, you know, everything we’ve been talking about learning the Constitution, understanding how to deal with these things and understanding what to call on our leaders to do in this situation is what we would highly recommend to you. Our heart breaks as well. And as David mentioned earlier, David and Tim, man, they’re on on the front lines of this thing. 

David went over to the Middle East. Talk about heartbreaking, they know the stories that sometimes often do not even come out in the public. So we share your sentiment, encourage you to pray for those that are still over there, that are still stuck, that are still behind enemy lines. Pray for the missions that Nazarene Fund is still doing.

And I encourage all of our listeners to donate. Go to wallbuilders.com, scroll down to the “Rescuing Persecuted Christians” section and you can be a part of helping us rescue more people as we move forward into really the black ops part of these operations. Stay with us, folks, we got more questions on this Foundations of Freedom Thursday. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

CONSTITUTION ALIVE!

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution, but just felt like man, the classes are boring, or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago, or I don’t know where to start? People want to know, but it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive! With David Barton and Rick Green. And it’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the cradle of liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders’ library, where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers. 

We call it the Quickstart Guide to the Constitution, because in just a few hours through these videos, you will learn the citizen’s guide to America’s constitution, you’ll learn what you need to do to help save our constitutional republic. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, and it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations.

It’s called Constitution Alive! With David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at wallbuilders.com.

—

Samuel Adams said, “The liberties of our country and the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending against all hazards and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us on this Foundations of Freedom Thursday. We’re taking your questions, send them in to [email protected]. Alright, next question…

David:

Hey, Rick, before you do that, let me just back up for a minute. Because Amelia, the question that we had familia right before winter break, it’s such a good question. And what can a Gen Z person do to make a difference in something like this? And this is such a big international situation that we all feel overwhelmed. We all look at it and say, what can I do as a single individual?

What Can Be Done?

I mean, here we are, Tim and I are on the board, and we’re having a fight with the State Department, we’re having a fight with all these other agencies. So what can I do? One thing you can do, Amelia, is definitely don’t get depressed. If you let those emotions go negative, you’ll find that you don’t do anything. And you can’t get to that point.

When you get depressed or frustrated or angry or whatever, you just stop doing stuff. And so turn that off, look for things you can do. You can for sure pray. And I don’t mean that to be well, there’s nothing else you can do, but pray.

 I mean, we need prayer because we need some people’s hearts changed in the State Department. We need some things really open. And we’re at a point now where our battle, we’re told in Ephesians, is not against flesh and blood, it’s against principalities and powers in spiritual places. 

I mean, this is not logical what’s happening. We need people praying until we get a breakthrough and save thousands of more individuals. So I mean, take that own. Take that as a prayer thing. But don’t get frustrated, don’t get depressed, and don’t get disengaged, for sure.

Tim:

Well, one of the things that we’ve talked about too, and dad, you’ve said it so many times is one of the best solutions for a national crisis is to get involved locally. And part of the getting involved locally is even helping educate people around you. So much of what’s going on, if you’re listening to this program, you’re getting different information that most other people are getting, right. 

If you’re listening to conservative outlets, and we can go down a list of some people that may be, whether it’s a Charlie Kirk or Ben Shapiro or Glenn Beck and a Dan Bongino, there’s a lot of national voices out there that are saying things that most Americans are not hearing, and so you’re going to be able to have access to truth and information that most of your peers and friends will not know.

Teach

And one of the things you can do to get involved locally is help start teaching your friends the truth about what’s going on, the truth about the nation, the truth about what politics should look like, and maybe the Constitution or maybe capitalism, the free market, maybe it’s the history of America, and maybe even dealing with like systemic racism and and how America…

We actually were just recently filming with somebody, we were doing some TV programs, and he wrote an article and advocates that America is actually one of the most systemically anti-racist nations that’s ever existed. Because every time there was an institution of racism, there was people advocating and fighting against it.

And so you have more anti-racist than racist in this nation, and we have fought to make the systems in this nation anti-racist. It’s really interesting thought an article. But you can help educate your friends about some of these basic truth that is going to be contrary to much of what they are hearing.

And part of how you turn things around, if you’re looking, for example, at a massive ship, and you’re going man, is going the wrong direction, what do you do? Well, you turn the rudder. And when you turn the rudder, you’re not insulin going the right direction. 

By turning the rudder, you start changing the trajectory of that ship. And if you keep turning the rudder, over time, you can make a big U and you can u-turn and get it going the other direction and back where it needs to go. It’s not going to happen overnight. But this is part of that long term investment.

Start investing truth in people, start speaking truth to people, and over time, if enough people begin speaking truth, if enough people begin getting involved locally, we can solve these national issues.

Lawless Democrats

Rick:

Alright, guys, last question of the day on this Foundation of Freedom Thursday. Here’s the question:

 “I want to know why the Left seems to be able to do whatever they want and get away with it.” I share that sentiment, by the way, whoever sent this in, there’s no name on it. Maybe I wrote this. No, I’m kidding. “Is there no legal way to stop the Democrats from censoring someone who isn’t even in their party? 

“Is there no legal way to stop them from illegal and anti-constitutional impeachment proceedings? Is there no way to stop these actions and the democrats who are in charge of the whole government? How are we the people to put a stop to all this activity that’s completely against the Constitution and our rights? 

“I’m wondering what the boots on the ground solution is. Can we have a class action lawsuit against the US government? I’m just curious as to what the practical remedy is.”

You guys can hear the frustration in their voice, you know, and it does feel like that sometimes,”heads they win, tails we lose”, right, that they just stack the deck. And so I understand their frustration. We are certainly Joshua and Caleb minded folks that say, yes, we can win, yes, the system works if we work it. 

But how do you answer this question, guys, to how do you stop them from just getting away with it all the time? And specifically, can you censor them? Or can you prevent them from censoring someone that’s not even in their own party?

David:

Well, what you have is you not look, this is kind of a technical answer. But this is an accurate answer. 

It’s the House

Don’t look at what the Democrats are doing as censoring those not in their party. It is the House of Representatives that is censoring those, and they’re finding people to censor. Yes, it’s being run by Democrats and Democrats are making that decision. 

But they are voting on behalf of the House of Representatives. They have the majority, and they can do that. So it’s not just Democrats doing it, it is the House doing it. That’s how they get away with it.

If it was just the Democrat Party censoring the Republican Party, we would ignore that and say that’s politics. But these guys have elected positions of power that the Constitution gave them, because we put them in there. And by the way, I say we put them in there. Let’s just do a little quick math here.

We’re coming up on an election November year off, so what are we, 14, 15 months out, whatever it is. The average turnout in that election based on the last 40 years will be the 26% of American and adults will vote in this election. So our House will be chosen by one out of four Americans. 

And it only takes half of that to win. So 13% of the people can choose the winners, half wins. So we’re looking at one out of eight Americans is choosing who’s in the House of Representatives.

So first thing, if we want to get upset at what’s in there, let’s look at the other seven out of eight Americans that either aren’t voting or they’re voting on the wrong side and say have you lost your brain? Do you not understand our country’s at stake? Can you not get engaged in going five minutes to vote for someone who won’t destroy the Constitution? 

I mean, people get so tired of hearing voting, you get the controversies that go in the last election and you get tired of hearing about voting. That doesn’t change the fact that voting is still what puts everybody in the office.

And that’s the House of Representatives, right now, they’re Democrats, we did pick up 15 seats last time. I don’t think it’ll be Democrats running the House after the next election. Will Democrats be running the senate? 

Very possibly, maybe not. That’s going to be one of the big things to be decided. There’s more Republicans at risk in the senate than there are Democrats in this next election.

They Told Us What They Would Do

It is conceivable that Republicans could win the house and lose the Senate. So if we don’t want that to occur, then man, get some people involved and get them out. So we’re frustrated over the partisanship of what goes on. 

But the partisanship of what goes on is there because those people were elected by the people who showed up at the polls, and then they start acting the way they told us they were going to act. Democrats aren’t surprised at what they’re doing. They told us this is what they would do in office.

Tim:

Well, guys, I know there’s a lot of frustration too from censorship coming from big tech and from media and from other outlets as well. What’s worth noting is right now these big tech corporations are getting political cover from these Democrats we’re talking about. And so when you have different leadership in Washington, DC, you can’t get a different response in different areas as well. Because there is right now some legal cover that’s being given and being authorized that really shouldn’t be there.

When you have a free speech platform and you are now censoring free speech, you don’t get the protections of a free speech platform from a financial standpoint, from a tax incentive standpoint. So there are things that can be done even from the big tech, even from media outlets with what they are doing when you get different levels of leadership on a political perspective. Now you have to have leadership with a backbone to stand up and do something.

But this is one of the great things about the Trump presidency is it’s emboldened so many of their leaders. The reason that you were seeing someone as courageous as a Ron DeSantis or as a Governor Noem at times is because of the foundation that President Trump laid. And I didn’t say that there wasn’t courageous Republicans or courageous leaders before President Trump. But so often they were hesitant based on what big tech or medium I do. 

Now people are like, no, forget it, we’re standing up and we’re speaking what’s true. This is where political elections can have long term consequences including at big tech and in media.

Impeaching Biden, Shifting the Culture, And More – On Foundations Of Freedom

Rick:

Well, it’s the reason we have to be informed. It’s the reason we need to come together and encourage each other to stay engaged in the process. And I want to encourage you today to do exactly that. 

Become one of our Constitution coaches. Or go to wallbuilders.com. At that website, you can get the DVDs for both Constitution Alive or biblical citizenship, or any of the other programs. Just start getting educated, and then get plugged in, apply that information.

And lastly, before we sign off today, I want to remind you again, tomorrow is Constitution Day, September 17th. What a great opportunity for you to join with other people that believe in the Constitution still, that still want our nation to be a constitutional republic and find those jurisdictional lines and once again uphold them. You can do that. Tomorrow night, you can be part of our live stream, of our Constitution Day dinner.

David and Tim and I will be with patriots from all over the nation, both for the dinner celebration with Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, but also the next day for our Constitution Day training, actually the day after Constitution Day, but on September 18th, we will be over at the American Journey Experience–

And David and Tim will be taking us through that amazing experience and you can be a part of it by joining the live stream. Go to patriotacademy.com. That’s where you can sign up for the live stream. Patriotacademy.com, click on the link for the Constitution Day events. We look forward to having you join us there. Thanks for listening to WallBuilders Live.