Best of the Program | Guests: Sara Gonzales & Jonathan Skrmetti | 12/6/24

and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other.

When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a four-litre jug.

When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

Oh, come on.

They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia Trip Planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip.

Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

Whatever.

You were made to outdo your holidays.

We were made to help organize the competition.

Expedia, made to travel.

The Attorney General of Tennessee joins us, Jonathan Skermetti.

He is the guy who is taking on gender-affirming care.

We get his thoughts after the argument at the Supreme Court this week.

Sarah Gonzalez joins us to talk about the news that Dade Phelan has now decided he's not going to run for the Texas Speaker of the House.

This is earth-shattering news, and she'll explain why on the podcast.

Also, what happens when we're trying to discuss something serious like abortion and buddy the elf shows up in the middle?

All on today's best of podcast.

Let me first tell you about Relief Factor.

I owe a lot to Relief Factor.

It turned days that were overshadowed by constant pain into weeks and months and years that I've actually been able to enjoy myself again and feel good.

I love talking about Relief Factor because it broke the back.

I don't even know how, but it broke the back of pain that nobody could figure out how to stop.

It's a daily supplement that helps your body fight pain by fighting inflammation, which is the source of most of the pain in our bodies and a lot of our disease.

It's 100% drug-free, developed by doctors to help reduce or eliminate pain, whether it's neck, back, joint, or muscle pain.

Relief Factor can help you feel better, and that can help you start to live better.

Over a million people have tried Relief Factor's Quick Start Kit, and yours truly is one of them, and 70% of them, including me, has gone on to order it again and again.

Stop Stop masking your pain.

Start fighting back naturally.

Give Relief Factor a try.

Right now, their three-week quick start is only $19.95, less than a dollar a day.

Visit ReliefFactor.com or call 800, the number four relief.

800, the number four, relief.

You're listening to

the best of the benefit program.

So there's some big news here here in Texas.

The Texas House could have a new speaker as soon as this weekend.

Now, this is big because the Texas House Republicans have a speaker that

for some reason

has done every time

he comes in and he's like, you know what?

Yes, we won, but let's be fair.

Let's give the Democrats half of the power.

What?

He is absolutely against school choice.

He is, I mean, he was the guy who tried to bring down Ken Paxton.

He's the guy who is drunk on the floor.

Allegedly.

I think I could.

Your honor, may I be sworn in as an expert witness on you do know something about this topic, don't you?

He was drunk on

the floor.

And for some reason now, he's decided, yeah,

I'm not going to be here.

Me run, what?

Have no idea.

Somebody who has been on this from the get-go is Sarah Gonzalez from Blaze TV.

Sarah, what happened?

This story just broke.

Do you know?

Yeah, well, I mean, what happened was Dave Phelan finally realized that he was not going to have the votes to maintain his speakership simply because of what you just referenced.

He ran the whole impeachment sham against Ken Paxton.

A lot of people think that Donald Trump is like the OG of having this weaponized law affair against him.

And Ken Paxton has been dealing with it here in the state of Texas for nearly a decade.

So he was behind that.

You know, he barely won.

He barely hung on to his seat by like something like 300 votes over there in the Beaumont area.

So, I mean, you're looking at a guy who is seeing the wrath of the Texas grassroots activists.

They have come out in force against this guy.

And now you're seeing all of these, even if they're rhinos, we have a lot of work to do in the Texas House.

We have a lot of rhinos remaining, Glenn.

But the well, here's, hang on just a second.

Let me

hang on.

Let me explain this to if, you know, if you live,

you probably know this in like Oklahoma or places where it's very, very red.

People who are Democrats, They're like, I can't, there's no way I can win as a Democrat.

So I'll say I'm a Republican when they're Democrats.

And so they become these awful, awful rhinos.

And people who don't know will just go, well, you're a Republican.

That's great for me.

And that's the real problem.

Texas is red, but it's not as red as its population is because we've been voting in rhinos because that's a Republican.

Exactly right.

Exactly right.

And so the problem for all of these rhinos is that Texas grassroots activists activists have had enough.

There was a bloodbath at the polls.

We have something like 25 new incoming freshmen, House representatives.

They're shaking up the system.

These are elected by Texas conservative grassroots.

I mean, they are as conservative as it gets.

We're going to pass school choice.

We've got the votes for that.

And so we're seeing the makeup of this legislature changing.

And Dade Phelan simply did not have the votes from all of these incoming.

coming freshmen, these actual true conservatives said, we're not voting for Dade.

We want to change.

The people elected us to come in and change things, and we're going to do it.

And so Dave Phelan finally had to decide to step down.

Now, I will say, Glenn, the fight is not over because we have Dade Jr.,

Dustin Burroughs, here in the state of Texas, is filing to enter the speakership race.

And

he's the same thing.

I mean, they're friends, and they, you know, are

in coaches.

He would be the mouthpiece for Dade.

Yes, he would be the mouthpiece for Dade if he wanted.

You know, my hope is that the grassroots activists will still continue to let their voices be heard, put pressure on their representatives to say, you do not vote for Dustin Burroughs.

We don't want that.

And there is, of course, David Cook would be the grassroots activist

choice for the speakership here in the state of Texas.

So what would it mean if we did get David Cook in?

Well, what it would mean is that we would have someone who would not put Democrats in key committee chairs.

I mean, that is the most significant, one of the most significant things.

Have you ever heard of that as Stu, Sarah, in any other state?

Have you ever heard of a Republican putting Democrats in key positions leading key committees?

I don't think so.

I've never heard that.

No.

No, I mean, it's the most backwards thing.

Imagine the people elected, the people decided we want a red legislature, and all you do is you turn over the keys to the car to the Democrats to drive it.

I mean, you're talking about about key committees like the calendars committee.

You know, they decide what comes up on the floor to debate.

I mean, these are really, really key committees, and he's handing the keys over to the Democrats.

So that won't happen with David Cook.

You know, David Cook will be driving the bus into a more conservative, you know, place.

So I do think, you know,

would he be my choice if I had the makeup of every single Texas legislator there?

Probably not.

But the grassroots have said this is the guy that we can get through.

This is the guy who can win the votes, and this is the guy who is going to take us.

He has been put on notice that he is to govern in a more conservative way.

So, I mean, look, I'll take the win.

Getting Dade off of this, having him withdraw is

huge for us.

Huge, huge.

Because we will have school choice now.

Yes.

Texas has been trying to do this for a long,

long time.

They've been trying to do it.

And it is because of

this Speaker of the House who is just in the pocket of somebody, probably the teachers' unions,

and just will not let it come to a vote and stomps it down every single time.

Sarah, did you say, I think you say that we do have the votes you think for it now?

Yes, everything that I'm hearing indicates that we do have the votes for it now because even people who were a no last go-around, they saw what happened at the polls.

They saw all of their friends, they saw all of Dave's lackeys get decimated over the topic of school choice.

You had Governor Abbott out there, you know, endorsing people in the primaries solely based off of their school choice vote.

So, I mean, it was just that they saw what happened at the polls.

They want to hang on to power.

If it scares them enough and they're still rhinos at heart, but they're scared enough that they're going to vote our way, you know what?

I'll take the vote because it's embarrassing that we still don't have school choice in this state.

So, what do you know about, let me change subjects here.

What do you know about our gold-backed currency that we're working on?

So,

I don't get into that topic very much, but I do know that they are working on it.

It is something that

they have said that they do want to take up in the session.

We should get Dave.

What is his name?

Kevin Freeman on.

Because I think this is something that he has been pushing for a long time.

And I read his book about it, and I think he's right.

I think he's absolutely right.

And it would, you know, every state needs to strengthen itself.

You know, the idea of let's close the Department of Education doesn't mean we don't care about education.

It means we want the money that our states have to stay in the state and we want control.

We don't want to send a dollar and get 30 cents back.

in education and then be told exactly what we have to do.

It's it's ridiculous.

We have to strengthen our states.

and when it comes to uh the dollar i mean i i'll never forget sitting in um

sitting in rick perry's office probably 2010

and uh and germany had just asked for their gold from the federal reserve and the federal reserve was like well it might take us five years to get it to you i'm like what

and i talked to rick and he said i'm very concerned and i said where's our gold and he said federal reserve and he said i just asked for it back and we got got it back so now we have we have Texas has its gold in the state uh and they're now talking about doing what Utah has done and have some sort of gold back currency uh that is you know good for trade and I think that's I think that's really smart really smart uh Sarah thank you so much appreciate it thank you yeah the big news coming out of Texas yeah and Sarah has worked really hard on it on that issue uh she is she's she's a pit bull Oh, yeah.

She gets her to get in the business.

Don't get in the way.

Don't get in the way.

She's coming.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's done so much for, not, I mean, not just this issue, but so many other issues, you know, particularly the stuff like, you know, the transing issues and such.

So she's worked so hard on this.

She's out all the time on the weekends.

Like, you know,

she's

an incredible.

She's an activist.

Let me play one thing because speaking of her, she would.

This is so insane.

This is how insane the

transgender thing is getting.

Let's see.

Let's play cut 10 here.

Trans child worried.

What concerns have you had about speaking out?

That I'm going to be like murdered.

Like, one day I'm going to be walking down the street and somebody's going to come up and like shoot me or something.

That's a really scary thing to be worrying about at 10 years old.

Yeah, where would you get that?

Worry.

Yeah,

you know, it's interesting.

I would agree.

Yeah.

You know, we talk about bipartisanship.

Here's some bipartisanship for you.

I agree.

She shouldn't be worried about that.

Stop telling your child they're going to be murdered on the street.

Can you imagine?

Where did they get that idea from?

Their parents.

Either their parents or like TikTok that you've left them with over the past, you know, every six over eight hours.

Or school.

Yeah.

I mean, like, some activist.

Some crazy person.

But again, at school would be one of those two explanations as well from one of their friends.

Yeah.

You know, it's the same.

This very similar thing goes on with climate.

The same thing.

These activist parents that are insane terrify their children that they're all going to die from climate change.

That is just like,

that is borderline child abuse to put that in your kids' head like that.

I have to tell you, I tell my kids, you know, my kids, they live with me.

I mean, that's practically child abuse.

You know what I mean?

They're just like,

terrible.

But like, there are real worries.

And I think, especially when they're at that age, I do everything I can to shield my kids from those.

Tanya has shielded them from all of the stuff, you know, and I have brought it to them now that they're 18, et cetera, et cetera.

I do talk to them about, hey, these are the real concerns.

These are the things you probably shouldn't have to worry about.

But these things you should should watch as an adult now.

You need to watch these things.

You don't tell a 10-year-old child you're going to be shot in the street because of who you think you are at 10.

Yeah.

I mean, I think back to March 2020, where...

All of a sudden, like NBA games are just

getting canceled with 20,000 people

in the stadium.

You know, Donald Trump is out there talking, and we're in that 15-day, 30-day to slow the spread, spread, all that stuff.

We still don't know where this is going.

And there's moments in that where you're like,

even if this is wrong and it's not as serious of a pandemic, like, what's the government going to do?

What happens to our economy?

Can we reboot this?

Will life ever get back to normal?

Those are real questions that you asked.

We forget about a lot of them now, but there are moments where you're like, what the hell's going to happen here?

And I remember thinking to myself, all I can do is try to make my kids' life not feel that way.

Right?

All I can do is I hope when they get older, they will look back at this period and remember, hey, remember when we did all that cool stuff with mom and dad when we were home for all that time?

Like, that's how I want them to remember it.

That's not how these parents operate at all.

No, they're terrifying their children.

They were torturing their childhood.

2016, who was it from ABC or it was Stephanopoulos, I think, who said his children were sleeping in their bed, crying themselves to sleep every night because of Donald Trump?

Are you out of your mind?

Why?

That's you.

That's you.

That's not them.

That's you.

Half the world is poised to use gold-backed currency.

The BRICS nation moving toward it in an effort to unseat the U.S.

dollar as the world's reserve currency.

If we hadn't have won this election, I think they would have done it.

I think, honestly, I think they're going to try.

Texas is standing up and saying, yeah, you know what?

If you tube the U.S.

dollar, Texas will stand.

They're doing the Texas-backed, gold-backed currency.

But more and more people and institutions are rediscovering that gold is one of the most stable things you can anchor your currency to.

We're not.

Momentum for higher prices, strong.

This is where you come in with Lear Capital.

They can help you get started to protect your savings.

Anything that you've saved for retirement, anything, it's going to be worth less and less and less as as the dollar just keeps going down.

Now is the time.

Go to Lear Capital.

Thousands of five-star reviews, 24-hour risk-free purchase guarantee.

Get your free wealth protection guy.

Call them today.

800-957-GOLD, 800-957-GOLD.

It's Lear Capital, 800-957-GOLD.

Now, back to the podcast.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program, and we really want to thank you for listening.

Name of the album is Home for Christmas by Cheyenne Grace.

You can pick it up now.

You will love it.

And I can't,

I'm sorry I'm talking about this.

I am such a proud father.

It is so amazing to see.

My daughter, I got home yesterday and she said, Dad, I just got an email.

I don't even know how to answer these questions.

You know, she just turned 18 and I said, what?

And she said,

Billboard Magazine called me and wanted to know about about the orchestra and everything else.

I said, do you know, I was 30 before.

I mean, you don't get your name even in Billboard Magazine.

And she's making the chart of Billboard.

And it's just, it's exciting as a dad.

And I can't thank you enough for listening to it and buying it.

And it's great.

Yeah.

Too.

It's not just being nice to you.

It's really enjoyable.

It makes me smile every time I hear it.

I'm so proud.

I was so afraid it wouldn't be good and we couldn't release it because I would, I said to her, I said, if it is not, if it's not high quality, something that we would as a family, not knowing you, listen to over and over again,

I will not be that dad who's like, look at, you know, that Simon Cowell would go, who the hell has been telling you you have talent?

Yeah, you don't want that moment.

No, you don't want that moment.

I will tell you, that's definitely not the case.

I went into my daughter's room last night as she was putting her down, you know, to go to to bed and she was just listening to it again.

Again, she loves it.

This is all she listens to now.

Wow.

Which is very, very cool.

The other part too is that we saw her perform live, her first live performance the other night.

It was just

fun for number one, just to watch Glenn insides just churn.

Like

the stress on Glenn is like 10 times what it was on Shadows.

Because I've been 18.

You know what I mean?

I was 18 and this was the very first time she ever did anything on stage.

And I was more nervous than she, you know, she'd come up and she'd be like, dad, I'm nervous.

I'm like, you're going to be great inside.

I'm like, run for your life.

But my point there was to say that like she,

look, you can do a lot of stuff in a studio.

You can.

You can make anybody, you could almost make you or me sound good in a studio.

But she's on a mic on a little stage outdoors with, you know, I don't know, 100 people there.

And she sounded just like, just like the the CD.

She sounded incredible.

Yeah.

There's a

guy that most people don't know.

His name is Roger Love.

And he is on the premiere payroll.

He was for Rush and I

because if Rush would lose his voice or I would lose my voice,

we would call him.

He's one of the best vocal coaches in the world.

And I mean, he does it for Elton, John, and Lady Gaga and everybody.

Sure.

Beyonce.

You've known him for years.

I've known him for years.

He's a great guy.

And

I said to him, hey, Roger, this is like three years ago.

I think my daughter might have talent.

And I know you don't really do a lot of, you know, vocal lessons.

And he's like, for you?

And I said,

yes, if that's a positive.

No, if it's not.

And he said, no, what are you looking for?

And I said,

my daughter.

And he said, Glenn, let me listen to her.

If she has talent, I'll take her.

And so he's been working with her.

And it's, I mean,

she's good.

She's good.

She is a proud daddy.

Anyway, I'm sorry for that.

Christmas is almost over.

I'll stop talking about her soon.

Let's see here.

We were talking about

coming together.

for the holidays and being able to have conversations.

And I think this conversation with Anna Kasparian yesterday, who is on the Young Turks, I mean, she asked me, she said,

Would you be willing to come on the Young Turks?

And I said,

probably not.

And she said, why?

And I said, well, I would if it was just one-on-one with you,

but I've had so many bad experiences

with others that

I did not ambush you.

When she walked into the studio,

I got up to greet her and I grabbed her hand and I said, I want a welcome to my home.

And she said, thank you.

And I said, I never invite anyone in my home to ambush them.

Please feel relaxed just to have a conversation.

I'm going to ask you challenging questions, but I am not looking to get you.

And that has been your policy and you stuck to it since the beginning of time.

Yeah.

And so it gave us this moment, you know, where she was really, she would stop and ask me, she asked me about, you know, about war and Ukraine

and abortion.

We had a great conversation on abortion.

You know, sounds like a joyful time.

It's a good old Nickelodebeck Christmas party right there.

Our Christmas party is happening tonight.

You know what else is

red?

Blood.

Let's talk about abortion.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

No, no, but, you know, because she was talking about, you know, transgenderism and

it got to women's rights, and she was shocked.

It shows how much we don't know about each other.

Yeah, and you see the worst of everybody online and in clips and everything.

Let me ask you a question,

I don't know exactly how I feel about it yet, but I am a little concerned about it.

Yes, I think I'll bet you I'll tell you what I'm thinking after you say,

I bet you we have the same concern.

My concern.

May I just say,

please just come in.

Just, oh my God.

I'm not going to dress it.

This is just something that, you know, if you are a Blaze TV subscriber, you'll enjoy.

Anyway, your concern.

My concern is.

This is going to be very difficult to do now.

Okay, so the concern is

that

we are working now with

many disaffected members of the left.

Do not eat the candle, I'm sorry.

All right.

With many disaffected members of the left who have kind of said, hey, this is a little bit crazy.

Like, what's going on right now is insane.

Yeah.

Even though we don't agree on a lot, it's good that we talk.

And you've done this forever.

You've done interviews like this forever.

Right.

Where you will,

you know, have conversations with people across the aisle and just get different understandings.

That's not abnormal for you.

As far as the movement goes,

conservative movement,

there's a lot of embracing of people who previously

were

not really welcome in conservative policymaking and now are.

Like I was watching this Elon Musk thing develop and everyone was like, hey, there's a Democrat joining the Doge committee, right?

Great.

Great.

Is it?

Is it, though?

Because I'm a little concerned, not only that it's just a Democrat, but also that a congressman is now in this process before it's really even started.

Sure.

And like, my guess is the Democratic congressman, at the end of the day, might be a good guy or whatever.

I'm concerned he might get a little bit in the way.

So,

of like a

buddy the elf is in the studio, and it is smiley fish.

I can't do Smiley Fish.

So does this guy?

Thank you.

Thank you, buddy.

That's funny.

I drew a butterfly.

I drew a butterfly.

That's great.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Very nice, butterfly.

So anyway,

now

I can't concentrate.

Yeah, I had to go through the whole wife and you look dance around and

I know

and lick candles.

And now when you get to answer, you're...

Santa!

Santa!

I know him!

I'm not Santa!

Get out of here!

You're giving us a bad name at the door.

You no longer look like Santa.

You look great.

Oh, see, look at that.

Thank you, buddy.

I love you.

I love you.

Buddy the Elf.

Thank you.

Thanks, buddy.

This is unbelievable, though.

I have to go through this entire long rant while this is going on.

Right.

What's the website, buddy?

Where do people go for you?

What is it again?

The elf.net.

The elf.

The elf.net.

Or you can follow me on social media because we have a lot of fun there, and you can follow my adventures.

I'm at The Elf Live on most socials.

The Elf Live.

The Elf Live.

Thank you, buddy.

You're very good.

I love you.

What's your favorite color?

I love red and green.

They're the most Christmassy.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So I don't even know if my point made sense.

Yeah, okay.

So, yes.

So

I am of the same concern because I think that there are those,

I think the Democratic Party is going to recalibrate and want to do the same thing that they already have done, but they'll just change the language and they'll try to appear like they're one of you.

You know what I mean?

That's what Republicans do that all the time.

Oh, I'm with you.

And then they get in and they're not with you.

So I am concerned about that.

However,

that's a different concern than I think

what we're talking about.

Oh, okay.

I'm sorry, buddy was distracted.

No, no, no.

What I just said, I think in the buddy context here was the point you answered.

And so I think that that's concern number one.

I think

structurally, as this goes on, it's good to bring new people into your fold, right?

That's what you want to do as a party, as a movement.

You want to get people who used to vote against you to vote for you, right?

Like, you want that to happen.

So, you have to have that happen, but you have to make sure you stay to your principles.

And you have to worry, like, I really worry with like the Doge thing that like

the motivations of some of a Democrat hopping on this committee is not the same as my motivation.

I agree.

Right?

Like, they're not really going to be cost cutters.

Like, I don't see that.

See that.

There might be a little bit they can agree on.

That's great.

When it comes to the, the, um, like, you had a conversation with Anna Kasparian about abortion.

You mentioned this.

And you had a really, I think, interesting exchange.

And you found, I think, some...

some common ground, even though you don't agree on the issue overall, which is, and this is something we've discussed many times, at the end of the day, legislation can be part of it, but you have to get to a place where you're way harder.

So you know, I don't happen to have this clip.

She came at me because she was saying something, and I'm like, huh, sounds like the 10th Amendment.

And she said, well, it is.

It's states' rights.

And she said, but let me ask you, Mr.

States' rights.

Would you support a blanket ban on abortion?

Now, the answer is,

I believe it's murder.

So yes, murder is illegal.

Do you think that should be illegal in all the states, Glenn?

Wow, what a radical position.

But wait, wait, wait.

No, I know, I know.

So it is murder.

So murder is, I said, but you cannot legislate that now because no one, half the country doesn't believe it's murder.

Well, you wouldn't get it through.

Right.

You wouldn't get it through.

It doesn't have to get into whether you support it or not.

But it doesn't stop it.

I said, you know, I have a new understanding of abortion where it's always been about the children.

And it is about the children, but it is also about the mothers.

And what they're saying is, hey, moms, go have an abortion and shout your abortion.

80% of the women who have abortions regret it within 12 years or 12 months, and they begin to have real behavioral and psychological issues with it.

This is not a happy thing for women.

If you care truly about women and women's health, we have to then look at the woman and say,

What is causing her to do it?

And there's two things.

One, they're believing the lie that it's not a baby.

Okay, it is because that's why ultrasounds are being fought by Planned Parenthood.

They don't want any ultrasound because you see it, you see the heartbeat and everything else, and you're like, that's a baby.

Okay.

The second thing is, once they get past this, we talk about this with pre-born, that's why I like them so much, is

they feel trapped.

I can't tell you how many nurses I have talked to and they've said

the boyfriend or the father or the mother even, you know, the mom of the girl will come in and go, she can't have this.

There's no support.

There's nothing, yada, yada, yada.

And the girl is like, I have no other choice.

So if we begin to look at the actual issue, not the political issue,

the actual issue, what is causing these women, those who have abortion as a form of birth control, I think that should, you know, absolutely, that you can regulate.

No, you're not having six, eight, ten abortions for birth control.

Sorry.

Do you have to, what do you get a punch card?

Yeah, you do.

Your tenth one free.

But that's not the vast majority of women.

Very minority.

Right.

And so let's fix that problem and change people's hearts on that because no legislation is going to stop,

it's like drugs.

No legislation is going to stop the drugs.

Guns, you can take all the guns off the streets.

It's not going to stop murder.

They'll go to knives.

Let's start looking at actual solutions and the actual problem and what would work.

Yeah, and I agree, like the long-term eternal solution to this, right, is similar to what I think has happened with slavery, right?

Slavery,

if you overturned amendments and made slavery legal and someone tried to come out and pass a bill to say, hey, African Americans should now go back to the fields, it wouldn't even come close to passing.

Everyone who supported it would be thrown out immediately.

We would reject it easily as a society.

I want that to, that is the long-term solution.

However, I just don't want to avoid the fact that like, no, I don't want a constitutional amendment to ban it right away.

I agree.

We can't avoid

those things.

times.

Even with slavery, we still buy all of our products made by slaves in China.

You're streaming the best of the Glenbeck program, and you can find full episodes wherever you download podcasts.

Mr.

Attorney General, Jonathan, how are you, sir?

Great, great.

Thanks for having me on.

So,

I listened to the case, and I don't know how your head didn't explode with some of the questions that were coming from some of those on the left,

so to my ore for one.

But

overall,

how did you feel it went?

I think we did a great job of getting our points across.

I thought the court, I mean, it went on for two and a half hours or so.

The court asked a lot of questions.

They're clearly thinking hard about this.

It's going to be a long time before we get our opinion.

But I think we did everything we could to win this case.

I feel really good about our part of it.

Now it's up to the justices.

You know,

there was a well, first of all, tell me exactly what the case was.

What does it actually cover and what will it do if it's decided in

favor of Tennessee?

So we have a law in Tennessee.

Our General Assembly passed a law that prohibits giving juveniles puberty blockers, hormone treatments, or surgery for the purpose of gender transition.

Surgery was not at issue in this case.

So this is just about whether the Constitution prevents the state from banning puberty blockers or hormone treatments for the purpose of gender transition.

So, if we win, our law will remain in effect and kids won't be able to be subject to that in Tennessee.

Potentially, depending on how we win, it could mean that all laws dealing with gender identity are reviewed under a rational basis standard, which gives the people's elected representatives a lot more latitude as to how they regulate.

You know,

when you were discussing this, and it was Justice Sotomayor said, every medication has, you know, side effects.

Even aspirin has side effects.

I don't know how you took that question seriously, but you answered it very well.

Explain to the average person

why this is so different

than anything else that is prescribed for kids.

Every systematic analysis of the evidence shows little to no benefit for kids from these treatments for gender dysphoria.

Meanwhile, the risks are enormous.

They face losing fertility for the rest of their lives, never being able to have children.

They risk losing their sexual function for the rest of their lives.

Kids don't know what they're giving up.

They risk tumors and blood clots and cognitive disorders and bone density disorders, all sorts of serious lifelong medical complications.

And meanwhile, the evidence is this doesn't help them.

You're talking about very severe physical

interventions for psychological problems with no evidence that it's helping them with the psychological problems.

And so we're looking at a situation where kids are really at risk, where there's not a good medical reason for putting them at risk, and where there are these people saying the Constitution prohibits the state from protecting kids, even where the evidence is so powerfully in opposition to allowing this to happen going forward.

I think it was Justice Souter who asked

the opposite side:

you said that the science backs this up.

Well, now we have all this new science that is coming out.

Do you want to withdraw that statement?

What has happened since you started this process to the evidence that's coming out from everywhere now?

So, there was a lot of evidence beforehand, but the CAS review in England is a large-scale, long-term study by an extremely respected pediatrician that looked really hard at these issues.

It's controversial around the world.

You know, England is not a red state.

It is not Tennessee.

They were making these procedures widely available to kids for a while.

And they looked at the evidence and they determined that they should not be doing that, that the evidence showed this was hurting kids.

They should severely restrict access.

And they did, and the CAS report gets into it very thoroughly.

It was discussed with a lot of specificity by the court.

You know, it shows there's no reduction in suicide, which is one of the things that we constantly hear.

You know, if you don't let kids do this, they're going to kill themselves.

We don't want kids to kill themselves.

But the evidence is doing these life-altering interventions doesn't make a difference.

You know, it just looked at a lot of evidence from a lot of kids, and it showed what we already knew, which is that there is no benefit to justify these radical interventions.

So

what does this mean

if it comes out the way we hope it does?

Does this have any effect on

bathrooms and

sports or anything else?

So it it really depends on what the court does.

I mean, there's a way that we could win that's narrower that only deals with

kids' transitions, or there's a way we could win that's broader if the court says that gender identity issues do not rise to the level of intermediate scrutiny under the Constitution, in which case a lot of the litigation we're facing about bathrooms and school sports and all the other things people have sued over would be pretty easy to resolve.

So

there's a very broad ruling.

Did you see any indication that any of the judges were leaning that way?

Were there any questions that made you

gave you any indication that that was

possible or probable?

There were indications that the justices are thinking about it.

There were questions about sports that came up, but I don't know whether that means they're thinking about issuing a broad opinion or they're just concerned about

the potential effects.

And

they want to think through exactly how this is going to play out because there's no constitutional law from the Supreme Court on gender identity stuff.

We have one case about a very narrow, very specifically worded statute, and the lower courts have been all over the place.

They need guidance, they need clarity on this issue.

You know, you can't go into a tattoo parlor if you're young without

parental permission.

You can't buy a gun at 12 or 16.

You can't get married.

There's all these laws because we know you're not mentally prepared to make those kinds of decisions.

How does that logic

not

work for this issue?

You know, there's this argument that it's sex discrimination and therefore the Constitution provides a heightened level of scrutiny, but

I mean, we've done this forever.

The law treats people differently based on their age.

Kids can't consent to things that will have lifelong consequences, whether it's entering a contract or smoking a cigarette.

The consequences for these procedures are so much more profound.

And we think we have a strong argument that the state should be able to regulate this, particularly given the evidence that it makes no difference, that it does not help, and it increases the risk of all these different horrible outcomes for the kids.

The other side just seems, um

quite honestly and i don't mean to slam people but they seem unhinged i want you to listen this is a mom who was standing outside of the supreme court building while you were arguing the case listen to what she said about her child cut for what motivated you to come out here today uh we're supporting our child violet um and her access to the medical care that she needs

yeah uh we're here for her rights and her ability to be who she is.

And she's not going to let anybody silence her, and we're not going to stand in her way.

And what age do you think most trans kids determine that they're trans?

Violet told us when she was one and a half.

She's been telling us since she could speak.

So she knew since birth.

18 months.

18 months she knew.

that

I have a three-year-old last week she told me she was a pirate.

Right.

And I don't, I mean,

like,

it's that is a true story, by the way.

I mean, gender dysphoria is a real thing, and it is really hard for kids to deal with it.

But we have seen an explosion in these cases that sure looks like something very weird is going on.

And

I don't see how it doesn't come out eventually that there's massive overdiagnosis.

In England, a doctor saw a 4,000% increase in the number of girls seeking hormone treatments.

And, you know, the evidence is very, very strong that the large, large majority of kids who have any sort of gender identity confusion grow out of it unless they're put on medications.

For most kids, this is a passing thing.

Doesn't mean it's not hard for them.

Adolescence is really hard, and I don't have to think gender confusion makes it that much harder.

But most of them are going to grow out of it, and for all of them, the evidence of a benefit is minimal at best.

Well,

we'll be praying for the Supreme Court, and I thank you so much for

you filing suit and trying to get this corrected.

It's truly madness.

I don't care what you do as an adult.

I mean, I actually do, but it's not my business if you're an adult.

But if you can't decide things like smoking, drinking, you know, be responsible for enough with a gun, you certainly should not be able to do things to your body that are permanent and game-changing.

It's insanity.

It's insanity.

We've got to stop.

Jonathan, thank you so much.

It's an honor to be on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Jonathan Skermeti, he is the Tennessee Attorney General who argued just, what, day before yesterday at the Supreme Court to protect children from gender procedures.

And we should, by the way, take what he said seriously.

If his three-year-old is about to plunder passing ships, we should report that to maritime authorities.

Don't forget the pillaging and the raping.

Yes, immediately.

We must take it seriously.

We can save one

pillage

or pillage at one pillage pillage.

We can save one person from being

pillaged.

We need to act now.

Isn't it worth it?

Isn't it worth it?

It's just as insane.

It really is.

It sounds like a joke.

No.

It is exactly the argument they're making in front of the Supreme Court.

How many of our kids have said, I want to be an astronaut?

I want to be, you know, I want to be whatever.

And then later in life, they're like, yeah, I said what?

No.

I mean,

it's so insane.

But

I think we just voted for a cure.

So let's see how that goes.

Attention, all small biz owners.

At the UPS store, you can count on us to handle your packages with care.

With our certified packing experts, your packages are properly packed and protected.

And with our pack and ship guarantee, when we pack it and ship it, we guarantee it because your items arrive safe or you'll be reimbursed.

Visit the ups store.com guarantee for full details.

Most locations are independently owned.

Product services, pricing, and hours of operation may vary.

See Center for details.

The UPS store.

Be unstoppable.

Come into your local store today.