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This is Later with Lee Matthews The
Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear weekday

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Afternoons on the Drive. Senator James
Langford joining me. He just got back

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from Israel for not just religious reasons, and as your spring break is over,

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Senator, Israel is the topic of
conversation, among many other things you

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got to get done. We do
have a lot to do, and I

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spent most of my break either traveling
around the state and chances of vision people

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or in Israel in the middle of
a war zone. Yeah, so it

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was an interesting break in between.
Now you didn't go to Israel for Easter,

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did you? You know? I
actually was there Easter Sunday. Happened

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to be all the time of travel
that we were working in because of this,

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So as a followered Jesus, it
was pretty remarkable to be able to

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be in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday and
think the empty Tomb is right here where

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I am, and so there's a
sunrise service in Erusalem on Easter Sunday,

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and I was able to go there
before we took off for work and a

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lot of other things. So,
yeah, that was pre spectacular just on

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the faith side, but spent a
lot of time along the Gaza border at

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some of the kaboots that were overrun
by terrorists. On October the seventh,

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I was at the Nova Festival site, visited with some families of hostages.

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I was up on the border with
Syria and Lebanon as they're dealing with the

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threat of Hamas. People don't realize
because everyone's focused on Gaza. But Hamas

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is obviously done their terrorist attacks from
the Gaza stripts. But Hesblah has fired

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four thousand rockets at Israel from the
north, and no one seems to want

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to talk about that, as well
as a very real threat going on every

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day for them. Well as Senator
I know, it really must have been

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weird to be there at the very
foundation of our faith on the one hand,

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and steps away from brutal destruction.
Yeah. I have been in Israel

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before. In Jerusalem is a bustling
place with lots of touristy and some I've

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got meetings and things there, But
this time it looked like COVID had broken

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out. It was just empty every
direction that you want to look. And

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that's a that's a very different feel
as the nation's facing that and as people

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are obviously facing the threats of coming
at them all the time. We've got

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sixty three thousand internally displaced people in
Israel that have had to move away from

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the border from Lebanon because of rockets
coming out of every day. You've got

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all the folks that used to live
in southern Israel that have had to evacuate

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based on Hamas, who is still
firing rockets at Israeli civilians. Then of

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course we've got President Biden asking Nathan
Yahoo to do a ceasefire. I wish

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President Biden would ask Hamas and Hezbollah
and the Houthis to do a ceasefire,

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but that doesn't seem to be the
push, no kidding, no kidding.

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Meanwhile, pumping more money into Ukraine. So let's talk about that, because

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that's having that is inevitably coming up
this week in conversation with both your House,

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with your branch of government in the
House. It is actually so that

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is something we're waiting on the House
to be a response to. The Sense

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already had a vote on that and
the House and the Speaker of the House

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has already said that he wants to
be able to deal with this. I

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don't meet a lot of people that
want Putin to win the war in Ukraine,

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and everybody understands in their guts for
Putin to be able to roll over

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Europe is a terrible idea. The
issue is is this providing weapons to them?

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What is the plan, what's the
strategy? And are we providing their

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retirement system? There were some dollars
that Biden wanted to do to be able

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to take care of their pension programs
in Ukraine. We're like, Okay,

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we've got our own pitchion challenges here
in social security and everything else we've got

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to be able to deal with.
But if we're going to try to help

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them actually fight off the Russians who
are trying to slaughter them in cold blood,

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that's a very different issue. And
obviously, when I was in Israel,

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I met with a lot of Israeli
leadership there, and the Israeli leadership

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there was saying pretty clearly we need
some American help, not only American help

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just in what we're trying to do
to be able to fight off terrorists here.

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But it's a message to Hamas into
the terrorists that if America steps up

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and says we're standing by our ally
Israel. It's a pretty clear message.

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And if America says no, we're
not going to help Israel, that also

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sends a pretty clear message. Did
they give you any specifics as to what

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they're looking for? I mean,
we've seen this incident last week with a

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humanitarian aid. Is that what they're
looking for or are they looking for something

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else. Israel's actually looking for help, both in just the paying for the

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war that they're dealing with right now, but they're really looking for more of

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the support. That is a very
public statement of we stand with Israel,

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and right now Biden is hesitating on
that and saying we want to cease fire,

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and they're speaking out a different way. The clearest thing that could come

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right now is a very clear statement
from the United States that the housies in

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the stop shooting rockets. Hamas needs
to release all of its hostages that they

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have, the Kataris that have influence
with Hamas. They need to engage to

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get those hostages out, and we
need hesbelot Actually back up again, going

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back to Biden, he's talking about
Israel doing a seats fire. There is

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a UN resolution that requires that Hamas
backs away from that border from Israel and

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they are not. And so if
we're going to talk about to make a

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clear statement here on the world stage, let's make a clear statement that Hesbelah

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needs to demilitarize that border with Israel
rather than having Israelis having to leave their

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homes because rockets are being fired at
them all the time. I mean,

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you've heard this this analogy, Cenator
James Langford. But for the grace of

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God, go our border with Mexico. What we're seeing there at the Gaza

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border. I mean, it won't
be long before those along the border of

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the United States will be armed up, if they haven't already. Yeah,

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I would hope that day never comes. But obviously with the what is just

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south of our border, some of
the worst criminal cartels and gangs in the

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world are functioning just south of our
border, and they're making billions with a

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B in dollars trafficking drugs and people
through that border. And if that violence

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spills right over into South Texas and
Arizona, New Mexico in California, it

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will be brutal because it is a
ruthless gang. And so, yeah,

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that's a serious issue, and I
would say a surprising issue that you and

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I would align on on this issue
about Second Amendment issues as well. Israel

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several years ago determined that they want
to put a limitation on the number of

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rounds that you could own as a
private citizen, and a limitation on the

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number of firearms you could own.
And for when I was visiting with Israelis

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living in the South when they were
overrun by terrorists, several of them said,

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we used up our rounds immediately and
had nothing to defend ourselves. And

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because a mosque came through in forty
eight different places, the army couldn't get

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there, couldn't get to every place. It was up to each system to

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defend themselves, and they literally couldn't
do it. That hits home. That

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does hit home, Senator Langford,
just getting back from Israel and they need

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help. Meanwhile, some of the
leadership in your body of the government,

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Chuck Schumer, seems to be I
mean, he torpedoed some of your efforts

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earlier this year, and he seems
to be trying a torpedo more of the

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efforts to help Israel. Yeah,
he is. Actually I was pretty shocked

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to have Chuck Schumer actually go to
the floor of the Senate and call for

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new elections in Israel to be able
to get rid of Netsan Yadie. I'm

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thinking they are in the middle of
a war, and we have an American

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official calling for new elections and a
breakdown of their government. What a terrible

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idea. Why don't we instead say
we're going to stand with our ally Israel.

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We understand they're facing a war.
Israel is already being aggressive and trying

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to be able to protect the lives
of civilians. It is terrible and painful.

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What happened to those relief workers that
were hit by an Israeli attack.

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That is a terrible thing. Israel
immediately owned it. They fired those folks,

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which, by the way, is
better than what happened when the United

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States hit civilian during our disastrous withdrawal
from Afghanistan. We launched a drone attack

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and civilians were killed in that drone
attack. No one was fired. Biden

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was slow to be able to respond
to it. Literally, Israel responded within

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hours. In a war, terrible
things and accidents do happen. That's that's

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why you want to win the war
as fast as you can to protect as

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many civilian lives as you can Senator
James Langford, what can listeners do?

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Is there anything we can do other
than cheer you on and cheer on the

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Senate. So as a Christian,
I always challenge people to pray for the

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peace of Jerusalem. That is a
biblical mandate. To be able to continue

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to be able to pray for peace. That is a hot area where there's

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terrorism that is alive, and well, the folks in that area remind me

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all the time that America is considered
the great Satan and Israel's the little Satan.

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And during the rallies and things that
were happening in Iran this weekend,

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they were stomping on American flags and
Israeli flags. So being keenly aware that

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we also face threats from the same
terrace. So just to not become complacent

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and I think this is an Israel
only issue, continue to be able to

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pray for peace, continue to be
vigilant, and to be able to encourage

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ways that people in government can say, let's get to an end of the

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fighting. But if you just pause
the fighting in terrasts are still coming at

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you, that's not really making peace, that's just ignoring the obvious next attack.

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That's coming well, and that's all
they've done anyway, all along this.

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I mean it's time to end this
once and for all. Senator James

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Langford, thank you for calling in
today and giving us your report. Though,

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where are you off to next?
I am actually in Washington, d

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C. I was flying back to
DC today during the eclipse h and so

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I got to experience in the plane
it got a little darker and then it

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got a little lighter. That was
my whole eclipse experience, because you see

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anything on the ground. I mean, did you see a shadow on the

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ground or was that much? It's
funny. And when I was actually flying

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in it was during the time of
Gray's darkness. I was flying over some

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really dense, deep clouds and I
thought, I'm actually experiencing the eclipse in

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the air, and the poor people
on the ground are just experiencing the cloud.

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Yeah, I can't see it at
all. Well, thank you for

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calling and thanks for joining us,
Senator James Lankfort on the Drive with Lee

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Matthews. Thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
live weekday afternoons from five to seven

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