POLICY COUNSEL
SEPTEMBER 2025 POLICY COUNSEL SPEECHES
The Honorable Laurel Libby
Member
Maine House of Representatives
Good morning. It’s such an honor to be here with you today. I want to start by thanking CNP for this invitation to speak and by thanking each of you for the work that you do to protect our first freedoms across the country. It’s been really interesting to hear the updates from each of you and the great work that you’re all doing.
This morning, I want to talk about free speech, and not in the abstract, but in the practical, the reality. Because the truth is, in America today, free speech is under attack. Now, I have to back up in time a little bit. I would say that perhaps unlike some of you, I never intended to get into politics. We do have five kids; I am relatively busy. But back in 2019, in January of that year, I picked up a newspaper and read about these radical bills that the legislature was advancing. There was one to legalize physician-assisted suicide, another that would require that taxpayers fund abortion, and a third to repeal religious exemptions for vaccines. And I woke up—I think everyone has an awakening—I woke up in that moment, and I looked around this state where I was born and raised, and I thought I don’t recognize Maine anymore. At that point I started to speak up. I didn’t know who my state representative was, but I figured it out, and I started to email and call my legislators. I went to the State House for the first time in my life, and I testified on that legislation. I went back to the State House to petition my government and to ask my legislators to vote the way that I wanted them to. Of course, they didn’t, and those three pieces of legislation sailed through. They became law in Maine and are still law today.
I got more active. I started to collect signatures for a people’s veto on one of those pieces of legislation. And in 2020, I started to get phone calls from folks asking me to run for state rep. My response at the time was, well, I’ll run if you can’t find anybody else, like if there’s nobody else. And I hear a couple people laughing, because now I know what you all know, that’s code for stop recruiting, you’ve got a live one. Here I was in 2020, suddenly running for state representative, no political pedigree, no background in politics, just a mom and a nurse who cares about her state. But by God’s grace and the power of the grassroots, we flipped a two-term Democrat incumbent seat and won.
I know that your program says that I’m going to talk about girl sports and free speech, and I promise that I’m going to get there. But first, I have to talk about when I got it wrong. In 2021, I was serving my first term in the legislature, and Governor Mills, who is still the governor of Maine, finally lifted the mask mandate—the statewide mask mandate that had been in place for over a year. We had lived under quite the tyrannical government for the prior year. When that mask mandate was finally lifted, of course, then the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate saw fit to immediately put a masking requirement back in place for the State House. So, you could go to Walmart. You could go to the post office. You could go to the movie theater. Anywhere else, no mask mandate. But if Maine people wanted to go to their State House, to speak freely, to assemble, and to petition their government, they had this arbitrary requirement that they had to mask. Because, of course, as you all know, we were following the science. I thought that was completely unfair. And I thought that Mainers should have the right to enter their House freely, to do all of the above, to speak, to assemble, to petition their government.
The following week, along with five other legislators, I walked into the State House without a mask on. Shortly thereafter, Speaker Ryan Fecteau—he was the speaker my first term and he’s the speaker again my third term, so we have some history—stripped us of our committee assignments. I could no longer serve on the Judiciary Committee. He also told us that we were no longer allowed to enter the House chamber to vote on behalf of our districts. Of course, they’re continuing to follow the science on that. We’re safe elsewhere in the State House, but not the chamber. There were any number of things that we could have done to fight back. And truthfully, I did agonize over the decision. But, at the end of the day—and this is why I said don’t clap yet—I put a face shield back on and I walked into that chamber to vote.
At the time, I justified it. I’m a new legislator. No one else is standing with me. But the truth is, I caved. I took that first step to stand for Mainers. And then under pressure, I didn’t. I tell that story as the backdrop, because now fast forward to February of 2025. I was serving my third term, and President Trump issued his executive order upholding Title IX protections. Immediately following, as Maine does, the Maine Principles Association issued a statement saying that they were going to ignore the executive order, and they were still going to allow biological males to participate in girls’ sports.
I heard from a friend of mine whose child participated in track, “Laurel, there is a boy who is going to be competing in the girls’ pole vault state championship.” And sure enough, several weeks later, that young man not only competed in but won the girl’s state championship for the pole vault. She sent me the picture that night of this young man standing there on the podium, the girls in second and third place, and he’s standing there and he’s holding a medal in his hand. The young woman who has poured her heart and soul into this sport for years and deserves to be standing there on top of that podium is not because this boy chose to participate and take her spot. Young women are being erased, and it struck me so hard I could not let it go.
That night on Facebook I posted side-by-side photos of this young man competing the year prior in the boys’ category and winning fifth place and this year competing in the girls’ category and winning the state championship. I’m sure some of you saw that post. It went viral very, very quickly and for good reason. The saying that a picture speaks a thousand words is very true. And you can’t deny what’s right in front of your eyes when you see that, indeed, girls are being erased. Some of my colleagues in the legislature didn’t like seeing the truth put out there.
The next day, I got a phone call and an email from Speaker Fecteau, and he asked me to take my post down. I refused, and the following week, I was censured for expressing my First Amendment right to free speech. Now, honestly, I didn’t think that they’d go through with it. I did think that the Speaker was politically smarter than that. But they did, and in doing so, they handed me this enormous megaphone to speak to the injustices being perpetrated against not just Maine girls but girls across the country and to speak to how free speech is under attack in our country today. That evening, I was called to the Speaker’s office and just like when you’re called to the principal’s office, I knew exactly what was coming. He outlined the process for censure, and at the end of that meeting, I told him that he would go down in history as the man who silenced a woman for speaking up for girls.
On the House floor, I tried to give a speech in my defense, but time after time there were objections from the other side of the aisle. They silenced me. I could not give my speech and then the vote was held, and I was censured straight down party lines. Now if you’ve seen anyone be censured in the past like in Congress, you think, okay, no big deal. You got censured. It’s a slap on the wrist, a verbal warning. In Maine, it’s different. The punishment was that I could not speak, and I could not vote on behalf of my 9,000 constituents until and unless I issued an apology.
I have learned since my first term. There was no way I was going to apologize. Absolutely not. First of all, I won’t apologize for speaking the truth. Secondly, I won’t apologize for speaking up in defense of girls. And third, I won’t apologize for standing for women’s rights when we are being erased and replaced with a counterfeit. I think about the message that would send to the girls who are watching for adults to stand for them when so many are not. I think even more importantly, it would set a very dangerous precedent to allow a majority party to silence a member of the minority because they don’t like what that person had to say. It has implications, not just in Maine, but across the entire country, whether you are in a blue state or a red state. Instead of apologizing, we sued the speaker to get my right to vote and speak back, and we took it all the way to the Supreme Court where we did win in May.
The truth of the matter is that the Left can’t win on the merits of their ideas, and so instead they try to win the debate by silencing the dissenting opinion. That’s what they did in my case. Just think about this policy: biological males participating in girls’ sports. It’s ludicrous. Eighty percent of Americans do not believe that this is a policy that we should have. The Left has to use the only weapons left at their disposal: fear, intimidation, and silencing. And not just silencing a sitting representative but think about all the other tactics that they use, whether it’s social media bans, coordinated cancellation campaigns, weaponized bureaucracies, all with the same aim to silence dissent.
You know, there were doctors who were fired during COVID. We still have one in Maine who’s fighting to get her license back and still doesn’t have it back. Parents at school board meetings were labeled domestic terrorists. We have students on college campuses who are shouted down for expressing their conservative views. And of course, as has been referenced this morning, we have the most stark and shocking example: the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which shows the natural end to this logic.
When words are deemed too dangerous, eventually someone resorts to violence. Charlie Kirk was silenced for his exercise of free speech. You know, for most of my life, I have taken my right to free speech completely for granted. It’s like the air we’re breathing in this room, right? It’s guaranteed by our Constitution. But now, following the events of this session, my perspective has completely shifted, and I can’t take anything for granted anymore. I can see exactly what is at stake: our right to speak, our right to assemble, our right to petition our government, all the tools that we need in order to change our government.
It is with that as the backdrop that I now think about the First Amendment. The First Amendment isn’t just a legal shield. It is the right that protects all of our other rights. And so, it’s paramount that above all, we protect the First Amendment. That is a moral obligation because the First Amendment doesn’t just protect popular speech, it protects dissenting speech like mine. It is that incredibly important right that sets America apart from other countries.
I do believe that we have a moral obligation to defend the right to speak by exercising that right, even when it costs us. I would argue that perhaps especially when it costs us, because that’s when there’s the most at stake. When the opposition lashes out the hardest, that’s when you know you’re on target. That’s when we absolutely must stand our ground because that’s when we have the most to gain and the most to lose.
I think if I hadn’t been censured, the whole thing would have blown over so quickly. I would not be standing here before you today. I wouldn’t have my name on a Supreme Court victory. I don’t know where the girls’ sports fight would be in Maine or across the country, but I was. While those months were exhausting and frustrating, I wouldn’t change a thing because they were also filled with an incredible and deep peace because I knew I was right where God had put me doing exactly what he had called me to do.
When you are over the target, that’s when you can expect the opposition to be the hardest. There is no better example of that than Charlie Kirk speaking the truth in love and patience. Freedom of speech that leads to freedom of thought is incredibly dangerous to an ideology that’s built on lies. But here’s the reality, and this really is my point today. They only win if we let them. If we back down, if we make the choice not to stand. If we put the face shield back on and walk back into the chamber to vote, it’s our choice. The fact is Speaker Ryan Fecteau did not have the ability to silence me. No one has the ability to silence me except myself.
I know now that preserving our right to free speech is far more important than my duty to vote on behalf of my constituents. I believe to my core that this moment requires courage from all of us. Because when we speak, when we stand, that encourages others to do the same.
As I think back to February and when I was censured, I think about a few different young women in Maine who stood up and started speaking about their experiences. One in particular stands out to me. She was a senior in high school this last year, a girl from northern Maine, a small, small community. She told the story about how in seventh grade she had been required to change in a locker room with a boy. It shocked me. I actually really couldn’t believe it because, you know, a rural state, this was five years ago, it was shocking to me that this had occurred. You know, is there anything more awkward than seventh grade? You know, just think back. What a terrible thing to put upon this young woman, and this was the folks who were in power in her life allowing this. This young woman ended up telling her story, not just in Maine, but going to Washington D.C., to the powers that be, and she is still now making an impact on this issue. She had the courage to stand because she saw that others finally were.
Here is my challenge. Don’t leave this battle to others. Be the one to stand up and ensure that others have courage. The defense of liberty is our responsibility. It begins with the courage to speak when silence would be so much easier.
I am sure that all of us will remember where we were when we heard that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. I was in DC. I have five kids, and the four that are not yet grown were staying at a friend’s house while I was gone. Most of them are too young to know who Charlie Kirk was or understand what had happened. But we have a 16-year-old, and so I called the friend and asked to speak to my daughter. I told her the news, and what she had to say really surprised me. Her question wasn’t about the circumstances around his death or what had happened or where he was. She knew that I had just the week prior been booked to speak at a college in Colorado. Her question was, “Are you going to stop speaking now?” I told her no. I said I’d be careful, but that we can’t stop speaking up.
It is our duty to preserve our freedoms in this nation, and if we do that, if we will be faithful in defending the First Amendment, then the America that we hand our children, the America that my husband and I hand our 16-year-old and her siblings, it will be a land where truth is spoken, where debate is embraced and where liberty flourishes. But if we choose the opposite, then we will lose the Republic. I ask you to stand with me, to speak the truth boldly, to not back down to lies and intimidation, but to stand and speak boldly. Thank you so much for your time this morning. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you.
The Honorable Steve Marshall
Attorney General
State of Alabama
I appreciate Kristen’s words. Families have to be in this together, and I could not have a better partner in doing that.
Can we celebrate 29 attorneys general coming on board? We got Guam! When you get Guam on your team, life is good. I am proud of my colleagues, and I think we have made a turn for the better. I have been in front of a lot of juries and judges and candidly all, I don’t think twice about it, but I am a little bit intimidated to be in this room this morning. It’s not because you are bad people, but there are friends and faces in this room that as a result of your scholarship, your writings, your work, and your passions, you have fundamentally changed who I am as an attorney general. More importantly, you have made me a better man. I stand here before you completely unworthy of the award that I have been given today but proudly honored to be the recipient of the Alan Sears Award.
I can tell you that this recognition is less about me than a testament to the enduring legacy that Alan has embodied. He built ADF from the ground up, inspiring all of us who now walk in his footsteps. Although humbled by this honor, I can tell you that I don’t receive it for myself, but instead on behalf of the team that I have an opportunity to be able to lead, who strive to defend the truths and principles that make this the greatest nation in the world.
When I was reflecting a little bit on my opportunity to be able to share with you this morning, what I was struck by is a monumental theme in Alan’s work. It is a word that you’ve heard earlier today: professional courage. It is a quality that we’ve been reminded of so vividly in the recent weeks with the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk. He displayed that courage in the public square, fearlessly engaging in a culture often hostile to his convictions and refused to be silenced even when the cost was great. Alan displayed that same courage in a courtroom. Where Charlie stood against the cultural tides, Alan and ADF stood against the legal ones.
He built an organization that defended faith, family, and freedom when few others would. Both of those men remind me that professional courage is not an abstract ideal, but instead it is the steel in our spine when the winds of opposition howl against the foundations of justice. It’s the resolve to speak truth, even when it invites opposition, litigation, or scorn. Alan’s example, like Charlie’s, taught me and countless others that such courage demands that we act not out of fear or expediency but instead out of conviction, knowing the principles that we uphold are eternal.
Now in his seminal work, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis offers profound insight into the true nature of courage. He writes, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point, which means at the highest point of reality.” What a brilliant observation. Courage, Lewis reminds us, is not a standalone quality. It’s the essence that activates every other virtue when it matters most. Justice without courage is hollow. Integrity without courage is timid. Faith without courage is silent. At the testing point, when the pressure mounts, and the easy path beckons, true character emerges.
That idea resonates deeply with the legacy of Alan Sears. When he founded ADF in 1993, he stepped into a challenging legal landscape facing opposition and powerful interest, but yet his unshakable faith and resolve built an organization that you now have heard is a global force in defending religious liberty, the right to life and the freedom of speech. His bold leadership at the testing points of our virtues continues to guide those in attendance today and serves as a defining example of what many in public service like me can achieve.
In my own role as Attorney General of Alabama, I have drawn strength from this legacy of courage. Serving in elected office, especially in the legal arena, requires navigating complex terrains where political pressures, media scrutiny, and ideological clashes abound. I am proud of the remarkable team that I have had the privilege to assemble, that has allowed Alabama to be at the forefront of defending the values of those in this room hold dear, often in the face of fierce opposition. Whether challenging the Biden administration’s overreach on issues like vaccine mandates that threaten religious freedoms and individual conscience rights or filing suit against federal policies that encroached on states’ rights, we stood firm to protect Alabamians’ ability to live out their faith without government coercion.
For us, it was a true testing point of where professional courage was essential. I’ve got to be honest; there was never a bad day to sue Joe Biden. But in absolute transparency, suing Gavin Newsom probably pleased me more. But maybe where our work was most widely felt is the battle to protect our children from becoming medical experiments of the radical left. In defending Alabama’s law that protected kids from experimental sex change procedures, we fought hard, and we uncovered a shocking conspiracy. Far left activists, profiteering physicians, and the Biden administration were working together to try to trick courts and the public into thinking that these treatments were sound.
I suspect my office’s greatest legacy from my time as AG will be revealing this horrific medical, legal, and ethical fraud. With ADF’s help, we exposed the lies, the sinister motivation, and most importantly, the true harm to children in my state, in our nation, and our world. Our work was fueled by more than the duties of a lawyer in a case. It was a moral imperative, requiring the courage to confront cultural elites, powerful national and international institutions, and well-funded interests head on, and we won.
As lawyers, our professional courage is often amplified and made easier to find by the principled individuals we have the privilege to stand beside. Take Jack Phillips, that Colorado cake baker whose unwavering faith led him to refuse to create a cake celebrating a same sex wedding, enduring years of litigation and public scorn, yet standing firm on his convictions. Or Lori Smith of 303 Creative, a web designer who fought to the Supreme Court rather than compromise her beliefs, exemplifying the kind of faith-driven courage that inspires us all. Alabama, along with other states, had the privilege to stand with ADF in defense of these remarkable individuals and many others like them. When clients like Jack or Lori lead with such principle, it steels lawyers to press on knowing we’re not alone in the battle. The opposition was intense, but our fight reminded the nation that the freedom of conscience remains an unalienable right.
My experiences as Alabama Attorney General have taught me that professional courage is not optional. It’s obligatory for those entrusted to upholding justice. It means filing that amicus brief, standing firm in that hearing, or advocating for policies rooted in unchanging moral truths, even when it invites backlash. Alan Sears’ vision reminds me that such resolve can create lasting change.
Friends, in today’s world, the need for professional courage has never been greater. We face a society where cancel culture seeks to silence dissent, where religious expression is increasingly marginalized, and where the erosion of foundational principles threatens our communities. Yet as we press forward, let the strong inspiration from the wisdom of C.S. Lewis and the legacy of Alan Sears encourage us to act boldly in defense of truth.
In accepting this award, I am reminded that honors like this are not endpoints, they’re callings. They challenge us to carry forward the torch of courage. To my colleagues in the legal profession, others gathered here today who care desperately about this great nation, let me say this: let us build alliances that endure, litigate with integrity, and stand firm at the testing points of our virtues.
To the team at ADF, thank you for carrying on Alan’s vision with such excellence. And to all who fight for freedom, may we now redouble our efforts. Y’all, I am grateful beyond words for this recognition. It motivates me to continue the work in Alabama and beyond. May God bless each of you. May he grant us all the professional courage to meet the challenges ahead. Thank you and Godspeed in providence this important journey. Thank you very much.
Pastor Ben Graham
Faith Director
U.S. Department of the Interior
What a blessing it is to be here today, and I greatly appreciate this opportunity. To Mr. Bob McEwen, thank you for inviting me. I am so blessed to be here. When we think about where we could be and where God’s allowed us to be right now, we just ought to stop and thank Him for it because God has been so good to us.
I grew up a fifth-generation preacher, raised around ministry all my life and grew up loving God, grew up loving our country. I was taught at a young age to love our nation. But it wasn’t until I was 12 years old and went to Russia in 1992 with my father that I really had my eyes opened to some things. I’ll never forget passing out Bibles to people just randomly that we’d meet on the street. We gave a Bible to a lady that was 93 years old. I’ll never forget what she told us through her interpreter. She said, “I saw the Bible for the first time when I was seven. I’ve been praying every day since then that I could have my own copy of the Word of God.” She said, “To be honest, at 93, I was giving up hope that day would ever come.” And I’ll never forget, she grabbed that Bible, she kissed it, and she said, “God bless America.” When I heard that, I realized just how blessed we are as a nation.
I’ve been able to travel around the world and preach. We are so blessed and yet we take so many things for granted, and we forget just how good God has been to us. My wife and I, like every parent, share this with our children. I remember when our oldest son was about seven years old and he was having some problems, complaining a little bit about life and he was struggling with some things. And I said, I want you to come to my office tomorrow. We had a Christian school there at the church I pastored. He came to my office, and I said, “I’ve got to show you this video.” I have this video of some kids over in an Asian country, and this video showed that there were a lot of young kids that were living on their own at the ages of seven, eight, and nine. They were fending for themselves in the city dump. It showed this little boy of about eight years old taking care of a younger kid about four years old, and he was his guardian surviving in this dump. I remember showing that to my son and I said, “Now son, tell me the problems you have.” I will never forget, it totally changed his attitude. For at least a little while, I never heard a complaint out of him. I had to re-show him that video a little later on, but you know, it happens with kids.
It’s amazing, sometimes we forget how blessed we are. I don’t mind telling you that we have two granddaughters, and we’re so thankful for them. Our oldest son and our daughter-in-law live 15 minutes from us. I have been involved as a pastor, and we’ve always been involved in politics.
I’m just going to start right here and if you’re a pastor, I’m not talking to you, because you’re here today. But I believe part of the reason our nation is in the mess we’re in today is because of preachers. They lack the backbone to stand up and say, “This is what God’s word says.” I tell preachers all the time, if you don’t know who your local officials are until there’s a problem, that’s a problem. You ought to know them, whether you agree with them or not, you ought to know them. They ought to know that you’re praying for them. They ought to know that you care. They ought to know that you’re willing to stand. Preachers say, “Well, we just don’t want to preach on these topics. We have people in our church on both sides of the aisle.” I say it’s not about political issues, it’s about what the Lord says. From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, God mentions all these things. If you preach what God says, you can take care of all the issues that people are struggling with in your congregations.
Part of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in today is because of pastors being unwilling to stand for the truth. For me, we always were willing. I’m not the sharpest person out there and I don’t know better. One day I went to the Democrat Party, and I went to the Republican Party in our county, and I said, “Listen, y’all are welcome to use our building. Our church is in the middle of the county, the fastest growing county in Tennessee. You’re welcome to use our building. We have three requirements. You’ve got to be pro-God, pro-family, and pro-life.”
Well, the Democrat Party never responded. But the Republican Party said, “Okay, we’ll do it.” So sure enough, they started using our building for their monthly meetings, and we’d have politicians come and they’d say, “A church is letting you use their building?” This was such a foreign concept. So finally, they would say, “Do you think the pastor would let us come on Sunday?” Well, I was the chaplain of the GOP meeting, so I was there, and I said, “Yeah, you can come.” And everybody, from our governor to Marsha Blackburn to everybody in between, they’ve all been to our church, and we weren’t a mega church. We weren’t a church that was offering a bunch of votes, but we were a church that was willing to stand to save our nation. We want to see our nation turn around, and we’re willing to be a voice to our community saying we’re not going to allow the woke agenda to move in. We’re going to stand for truth. That was our desire, and that’s what we wanted to do.
I’ve been blessed to know the Trumps for a while. In the last go around, they asked me to serve. I said, “Let me be a liaison, a stakeholder.” This time, I’m not a senior pastor anymore. One of our men that we ordained 18 years ago took over. We have a film company. We’re busy doing all that. Last summer, I was working with Eric Trump and some others on some things, some initiatives. My caveat was, “I’m going to help you, but I will not come to DC.” How many know you never say never with God? I heard a missionary one time when I was a kid, he said, “God, I’ll never go to Africa.” And he said, “Guess where God sent me? Africa.” I heard that as a kid, I was like, “Oh, that’s how it works.” I was like, all right, Lord, I won’t go to the Bahamas. I won’t go to Jamaica. I won’t go to Hawaii. Amen. Reverse psychology did not work on the Lord. I promise you that.
Well, on election night, we were invited down there, and we were blessed to hang out there. Some of you were there in the VVIP room. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. I’m a redneck hanging out in a VVIP room. It was the most exciting thing I’d ever been a part of. We were there in that room. My wife told me the next day, she said, “You know, if you feel God leading you to DC, I’m for it.” I said, “Babe, you were my excuse for why I wasn’t going to go.” But I already knew the Lord was speaking to my heart, and so finally I said, “Yes.” So, Sergio sent the Plum Book, and he said, “What would you like to do?” Man, I looked in there, and I saw CIA, I thought gun and badge, that sounds like fun. I said, “Now look Sergio, I just want to let you know if it comes to secrets and torture, and they torture me, I’ll spill the beans, I’ll tell everything, amen. So don’t give me anything like that. I said, “But no, Sergio, the reality is we’re in such an important time in our nation, the only thing I want to do is be a part of something that is involving faith, because if we don’t turn back to God as a nation, we’re not going to become great again.”
I believe the only hope of fixing our nation is God. What happened last week, I’m still shook up about it, and like some of you are heading to Arizona tomorrow. I’m shook up about what happened, and I was blessed to know Charlie. I think about what’s going on, and we look at where we were a couple of years ago. I have a couple of adult sons, and I love them dearly. As I mentioned, my boys are country. The other day we were at the White House, and they’re in their boots and big cowboy belts. My 16-year-old rides bulls and competes in rodeos, and they were in their cowboy gear with a jacket on. I posted, “You can get them out of the country but you can’t get the country out of them.” My boys, they’re half crazy. I love President Trump, I support him. But you don’t see stuff on my vehicle. My boys are driving the trucks with the big Trump flags, going to the worst part of Nashville, wanting everybody to see it. And I said, “Boys, y ‘all are crazy!” That’s my kids. My kids, I love them.
I think about where we were a couple of years ago. It looked hopeless, and Trump gets in, and we see some things turning around. Then this happens on Wednesday. What we understand, it’s not just a politician that fixes our nation, it’s not just policies that fix our nation, but we as a nation must return to God. If we don’t go back to God, we’ll not make it as a nation. John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” Without morality, freedom collapses, and if we don’t turn back to God, we are in trouble. Without faith, liberty has no foundation.
On October the 15th, we’re hosting an event at Ford’s Theater for pastors and religious leaders, and if you’re one of those, we would love for you to be there. That night, we’re going to share all the faith aspects of the 250th celebration, but we’re also going to challenge these pastors and religious leaders. Give your all this next year in helping us turn our nation back to God.
It is time for preachers to quit cowering. It is time for Christians to stop being silent. I used to tell our church, Sunday was the pep rally. Sunday morning, we come to church, and that was the pep rally. The game started when we left the church. A lot of people think, “Well, I went to church this morning. I did my business for God. Now the rest of the week is mine.” We tell our people, “Don’t go into Hollywood, that’s no place for Christians. Don’t go into politics, that’s no place for Christians.” Then we find that we’re missing Christians in the most important places of our society.
I heard it said yesterday, we must take back this nation. We must lead this nation back to God. We must be the ones that decide how our nation goes. For far too long we as God’s people have been silent. We’ve bowed down to the political correctness. They’ve said, “Don’t speak,” and we’ve said, “Okay.” “Don’t stand for values,” and we’ve said, “Okay.” “Don’t stand for morals, and we’ve said, “Okay.” We have messed up what the family looks like. We’ve allowed the devil to come in to destroy, and that’s what he does. He seeks to kill and destroy, and we’ve allowed him to do that in our nation today. This is part of the reason why with this next generation, I believe, revival is coming from them. They’re looking for something that has some hope. They’re looking for something substantial.
I used to say this all the time, but the reason our younger generation didn’t want what we had, talking about our faith, is because we didn’t look like we wanted it. I’ve been around a lot of Christians, man. They look sour. They look like their mother-in-law just moved in with them, if you know what I mean. We sing the worship songs with our arms folded, and we’re not really into it. Parents argue all the way to church, fussing and fighting. They walk in the door and see the preacher. He says, “How are you doing?” They say, “Oh, preacher, if we were any better, we’d be in Heaven,” and the kids think, “I thought you were going to kill each other a while ago.” We talk about faith, but it doesn’t seem real to us, so why would they want it?
I was doing an interview on Newsmax a few months ago, and a lot of times you get on there, and you don’t know what they’re going to talk about. I was doing this interview, and they said, “Young men are turning to the faith more than they ever have before in our nation, and that’s what we’re going to talk about with Pastor Graham.” It happened just two days before I was at an event in DC. This young man, he walked up to me, and he said, “Hey, I hear you’re a pastor.” And I said, “Yes, I am.” And he said, “I’m at the University of Chicago.” And he said, “I’m a senior, I’ve got 20 friends.” And he said, “None of us were raised in church, none of us are religious.” He said, “But we’ve been getting together almost every day reading the Bible. I know you’re busy right now, but if you would have some time someday, I would love to talk to you about it and find out what it means.” I said, “Young man, I’m not busy. Right now is a good time.” And we started going through scripture.
I’m hearing story after story of young people looking to the Lord to find hope. I believe Charlie was a big part of that. I believe if our nation’s going to have revival, we have got to fan the flame with these young people. We got to let them know there is hope. There is true identity in Christ. It is okay to be a man. Someone asked me the other day about my 16 year old. They said, “He rides in rodeos. Aren’t you afraid he’s going to get hurt?” I said, “I’d rather him go into rodeo and get hurt than for him to turn out to be a sissy. I’d rather him walk with a little bit of a limp than to put a dress on.” Amen. This young man, he broke his arm in a rodeo in Arkansas about five weeks ago, broke it in two places. He was begging the next day, “Can I get on a bull again?” We said, “Son, you gotta wait a little bit.” He’s not all there, we know that, so why would we think he’s going to do anything but rodeo, amen?
The reality is that we have a chance. We have an opportunity. I will admit I haven’t worked for somebody since I was 19, and that’s when I was a youth pastor at my dad’s church. Working for the government is the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I got in there the first day, and they asked this question to me. What do you want to do as the Faith Director? And I said, “I don’t know. I was hoping y’all were going to tell me. You mean I get to pick?” They said yes, and I was like, “Cool! I’ll figure it out.” The second day I was there, they came to me, and they said, “President Trump doesn’t like the name Lake Ontario. That’s Canadian. What would be a better name?” I don’t know, Lake Ben? Is that good? Might as well try, amen. Then they said, “If you think of any rivers, streams, creeks, or mountains that need to be renamed, you let us know.” I’m like, this is the coolest job ever, amen.
I got there, and there’s been a lot of things happening. There’s 700 people still waiting for confirmation. There are all kinds of things happening. I was with the Senate a couple of weeks ago, and they said they’re trying to confirm 300 people by the end of the year. If we spend the right amount of time, it’s going to take 88 hours a week. That would be if we just spent time on that to get all 300 confirmed. It is crazy what’s going on.
Here’s what I think of though: we have an opportunity of a lifetime. As we’re celebrating 250 years, we have an opportunity of a lifetime to bring patriotism back to our nation. But more importantly, to bring God to the forefront of our nation. A preacher was preaching out of Ecclesiastes. He said, “There’s a time to live. There’s a time to die. There’s a time for war.” He said, “That time has come,” and he took off his black robe. I learned this for the first time when I was 16, when David Barton was speaking at a leadership conference, and I love him. I don’t know if he’s in the room, but I know he’s here this week, and I hate telling his stories because he tells him so much better. But he preached that there’s a time for war. And he took his black robe off and he grabbed his rifle, and he walked out, and his men walked out and they joined the fight. His brother, who was a preacher, wrote him a scathing letter. He said, “How can you, being a man of the cloth, be engaged in this war?” His brother thought being neutral was the answer and six months later his house was burned down, the church was burned down, family nearly killed, and what he realized was that neutrality doesn’t work. The devil is a mastermind at trying to get God’s people just to be neutral. That preacher got engaged after all that happened, and he would go on to become the first Speaker of the House.
It’s important that we engage. This is our moment. It doesn’t matter what our age is. If you’ve got breath, you’ve got an opportunity. God has us here for such a time as this. May we use this 250th anniversary to bring our nation back to God, because that is the only way we’re truly going to be a great nation. Thank you so much.
Shabbos Kestenbaum
Contributor
PragerU
Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. I want to start off with a bit of an embarrassing confession. I think I’m probably the first, and hopefully only, speaker to address CNP by saying that I voted for Bernie Sanders twice. I was nine years old when I volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. I worked on the Jamal Bowman campaign. I marched with Black Lives Matter. I marched at the Supreme Court when Roe v. Wade was overturned. I can probably compare my progressive credentials to any of you any day of the week, which is not a compliment or something to brag about.
The reason I am telling you this is because I want to flash back to October 7th. October 7th was when Hamas committed the largest single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. However, you can Google right now Hamas’s charter online in English. They call for the eradication of the Jew from the river to the sea. Hassan Nasrallah, the since-deposed head of Hezbollah, has stated for years that it would be great for all the Jews to pack up and move to Israel because, in his own words, “It would be so much more convenient to kill you in one location than having to hunt you down country to country.” So, when terrorists commit acts of terrorism, there must be a forceful response. They are terrorists. It’s who they are, it is what they do.
As someone who was on the progressive Left his entire young adulthood, what I cannot have conceived of as possible, what I could never have imagined, was on the night of October 7th, not weeks or months after the fact, on the night of October 7th, as my classmates, those who introduced themselves with preferred gender pronouns, those who take knees for George Floyd, the most progressive, the most elite, the most well-educated, the most sensitive students in this country, on the night of October 7th, as they are watching the images of Jewish women bleeding from their private areas, as they watch the images of Jewish babies like Kfir and Ariel Bibas being kidnapped and hoarded onto motorcycles by strangers and deported into Gaza, as they watched the images of mangled, charred, burnt bodies, the immediate reaction of 34 student groups at Harvard University, from the Bengali Dance Association to the Feminist Society to the Muslim Student Group, the immediate reaction of 34 student groups at Harvard University on the night of October 7th was to jump out of bed—some were still in their pajamas—to draft what they called an emergency statement to blame Jews for the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. That’s not hyperbole. It’s not conjecture. It’s not speculation. The statement literally begins, “We hold the Israeli apartheid regime entirely responsible for all ongoing violence in the Middle East.”
It is not a coincidence, therefore, that two days after that, there is a rally at Harvard University of 1,000 students and professors with their keffiyehs and their masks and their ‘glory to Hamas,’ ‘globalize the Intifada’ posters. One particular student by the name of Kojo gets up. He says, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization. We will look upon them as freedom fighters. Who are we to condemn the resistance?”
You know what the reaction is of America’s best and brightest, of our cultural elites, of the progressive Left? Thunderous applause. Not one thinks to condemn, to challenge, to walk out of that statement. It is not a coincidence, therefore, that three days after that there was a physical assault against a Jewish student at Harvard Business School. And, by the way, of the two assailants, one was just awarded a $65,000 fellowship by Harvard Law School to intern at the Council on American Islamic Relations. The other assailant was just given the honor of being the class marshal for Harvard’s graduation. It is no coincidence that a week after that, a Jewish student at Harvard was spat on for wearing a kippah. It is no coincidence that three days after that, an Israeli student was told by her professor to leave the classroom because her nationality made others uncomfortable. It is no coincidence that a month after that, a Harvard staff member vandalized all our hostage posters, writing on Kfir Bibas, the nine-month-old baby, that quote, “His head is still on. Where is the evidence?” Writing on Noah Argamani, another hostage, that “Jews are best friends with Jeffrey Epstein.” He then challenged me to debate him in a secluded underpass as to whether Jews orchestrated 9/11 and then posted a video waving a machete with a picture of my face saying he wanted to fight, he’s coming after the Zionist mafia, and he’s coming after more than blood. I had private armed security outside my house for a week. I had a guy with a gun follow me to religious services to ensure my safety. Of the dozens of phone calls and emails we sent to Harvard inquiring about his employment status, to this day they have not once responded to me.
It is inconceivable that any other minority group would be treated with the disdain, the disregard, and the contempt that Harvard has historically, routinely, and consistently treated its Jewish student population. This is why in January 2024 we filed the lawsuit against Harvard pertaining to their obvious civil rights violations of Jewish students on a college campus. It gets better. Part of that lawsuit was actually contingent on the fact that President Trump signed an executive order—Executive Order 13899 in 2018—that greatly protected the civil rights protections of minority religious students on college campuses.
Harvard’s response when we filed that lawsuit was not to recognize the reality of antisemitism on campus, was not to come to the negotiating table, was not to apologize. They filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice, meaning they were asking the judge not only to toss out our lawsuit, but to set a legal precedent so that no other Jewish student in the future could hold them accountable for antisemitism. During the encampments, which you might recall, this was when my classmates lived in tents for four weeks and refused to shower. It smelled terrible. It was a dangerous combination of B.O. and communism. And I was once a communist, I would know.
Forget about the fact that they violated all time, place, and manner restrictions. Forget about the fact that they called for an intifada and praised Hamas at every hour of the day. For three weeks at Harvard University, every single time I, a visibly Jewish student walked to class, went on my own campus, every single time I did that, classmates of mine who were leaders of the encampments would put on bright yellow safety vests. They would call themselves safety marshals. When they would see me approaching, they would take out their phone, and they would start following me on my way to class, and they would start recording me. In fact, the last week of the encampments, the National Lawyers Guild brought them notepads so they could write down which room the Zionist agitators were studying in. Although we told the President of the university and the President of the United States, but that’s a different story. It turns out he was mentally incapacitated at the time. Although we told him that Jewish students were being followed on our way to class, not only did he never respond to us, he actually told the leaders of the encampment that if they agreed to pack up their tents, they would be allowed to meet with the Harvard Management Corporation, which oversees Harvard’s 50 billion dollar endowment to discuss divestment from Israel. If they agreed to pack up their tents, they would also be allowed to meet with senior Harvard faculty to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian study center.
Of the hundreds of students and professors who took part in the encampments, who violated all internal Harvard policy, you know how many were suspended or expelled or disciplined? Zero. Do you know how many times I’ve been able to meet with the Harvard Management Corporation or senior Harvard faculty? Also, zero. But if you follow Jews on their way to class long enough, and if you call for terrorism loud enough—at one point the encampment leaders tried using bolt cutters to break open the locks on Harvard’s gates—if you do all of those things, you will be rewarded and given a seat at the table.
We filed an amended complaint, an update to our lawsuit, to reflect the increasing acts of antisemitism. Harvard’s response the second time was the exact same thing. No apology, no recognition. They filed a second motion to dismiss, and the word is not happy or proud because it is an embarrassment that students have to be using the court of law.
But our judge, Judge Richard Stearns of the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, he issued a 25-page scathing ruling against Harvard writing in part: “The facts as pled shows Harvard failed its Jewish students.” He tossed out Harvard’s double motions to dismiss, and we became the first case in American history pertaining to the civil rights violations of Jewish students on a campus to actually be allowed to go to trial. Currently, there are half a dozen cases brought by other Jewish Americans across this country who have used Kestenbaum v. Harvard as legal precedent.
I don’t want to conclude by talking about our ideological adversaries, because I don’t define myself as someone who fights against hate, who fights against antisemitism. What I want to do instead is as follows: Jewish Americans do not feel—unlike every other country we have been in—that we are guests in America. We feel that we are part of America. We feel so proud. I feel so proud to call myself a first generation American, someone who grew up being told from day one that there is no country as generous, as kind than the United States of America. This is why, when we pray thrice daily, we pray not just for the welfare of the Jewish people, we pray for the welfare of each and every single one of our countrymen. We pray for these United States, because there is no other country on Earth that has treated the Jewish people the way that the United States has treated the Jewish people.
When I was backstage at the Republican National Convention, I was in the speaker’s lounge eating chips with JD Vance, which was weird for me. Newt Gingrich tried butting into the conversation. He was, you know, third wheeling. I’m like, “Newt, not now.” As we’re talking, a young usher comes to get me. She says, Mr. Kestenbaum, your speech is next. We go down a very long corridor, and we’re flanked by Secret Service on either side, and we go to a very small room backstage. The small room backstage is four people. It’s myself. It’s Lee Zeldin, who now, of course, is the EPA administrator, and it’s Omer Neutra’s parents.
Omer Neutra is an American citizen whose body is still being held by Hamas in Gaza as a bargaining chip. I go to Omer’s parents’ room, Ronen and Orna, and I tell them, “There’s nothing I can say, and there’s certainly nothing I can do, I just want to add that the courage, the bravery, and the inspiration you have given me on an individual level is something I will never be able to repay.” I walk out of the backstage room, wiping tears from my eyes, then I give my speech.
I’ve been so blessed and so privileged and so fortunate to have met some important people. I accompanied President Trump to the grave of one of our spiritual leaders, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, on the one-year anniversary of October 7th. I have traveled across the world. I have given some pretty important speeches. But of all the places, and of all the people, and of all the speeches, none of them hold a candle to the two-minute conversation I had with Omer Neutra’s parents. Because we young American Jews are standing on the shoulders of giants. We are standing on the shoulders of American Jews who not only fought for Judeo-Christian values, who have not only fought for the principles of the Hebrew Bible, but perhaps most importantly, have fought for what our country stands for.
The reason I feel so passionate about speaking, about creating coalitions, is not out of self-interest. It’s not because I care exclusively about the preservation of the Jewish people. It’s because as a student of history, and unfortunately, as part of the people that have been through this for 3,000 years of oppression and discrimination, what starts with the Jews does not end with the Jews. The Jews are the canary in the coal mine for a much greater societal ill. In fact, when I was backstage before my conversation with Vice President Vance, I had a conversation with Charlie Kirk. It was the first time I met him, and I told Charlie how nervous I was to speak. He told me, “Shabbos, so long as you speak the truth, you have nothing to be afraid of.” As you can imagine, over the last ten days, those words have rung at the forefront of my mind. That is why I am so concerned about the future of our country.
Why do we care about Harvard and Yale and UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania? It’s because these are institutions of higher learning that purport to train the next generation of American leaders. By and large, they’re kind of right. It’s not an exaggeration at all to state, statistically speaking, I probably sat in a room with a future congressman, a future senator, even a future president of the United States. And yes, it’s true, they call for the death of Israel, but the next part of that sentence, take it from someone who’s heard it, is death to America. Yes, they’ve taken down the hostage posters of all the Israelis, but they’ve also vandalized all of the hostage posters of the American citizens. Keith Siegal, Hirsch Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra, yes, it’s true, they vandalized and ripped all my Israeli flags, they also vandalized and stole and ripped all my American flags. I hope you can appreciate what I tell President Trump, when I tell Democrats and Republicans—although mostly Republicans because the Democrats aren’t interested—in the House and the Senate, what I tell the national media, is that this is not just a Jewish issue. This is not just an Israel issue. This is an issue that strikes at the core of our Western civilization, the heart of our American democracy, the core of our liberal values. I so urge, irrespective of your religious identity, irrespective of your political preferences, that we have an existential crisis here in the United States. This is what Charlie Kirk called demonic. The hatred of the Jewish people does not end with the hatred of the Jewish people.
We are battling existential forces. I would urge you, each and every way, to join us. Join young American Jewish students in that fight to reclaim the founding of our country. I will close by sharing one quick story, and then I promise I will shut up. I once spoke at a Trump rally. If you’ve ever been to a Trump rally, it’s a very unusual experience. I was speaking in front of 40,000, probably mostly inebriated, Trump supporters. I didn’t really know how to get the attention. What can I say that will strike at the core of their minds? I walk up to the podium, I tear up my speech, and in Hebrew I share an expression that means “Words that come from the heart.” Then I said:
In 1790, President George Washington writes a letter to the largest Jewish community in the United States. He was in Newport, Rhode Island. The synagogue is the Toro synagogue. It still functions to this day. He writes in this letter that we want you as Jews to come to the United States as children of Abraham and practice your religion. Because, says President Washington, here in the United States, unlike every other country, bigotry will be granted no sanction and persecution no assistance. How shocked, how embarrassed, how appalled, would President Washington, would President Jefferson, would President Adams, would the founding fathers of our country be to know that American citizens just a mile away at one of our most elite, or alleged elite, institutions are being denied access to education because of their religious identity.
I will close by saying what I opened with. This is not merely an attack on the Jewish people. This is an attack on what our country stands for. I urge you, with whatever capacity, utilizing whatever talents, join those students on college campuses who in response to being told to go back to Poland, in response to having their mezuzahs on their doorposts stolen, in response to having rocks thrown through their dorm window, have put on a bigger yarmulke, have started to fly American flags, have increased their involvement with Jewish or Christian life on campus, stand up and join those students. If you do that, you will be a living, breathing testament, to what the Hebrew Bible says, “Am Yisrael Chai.” Not only do the Jewish people live, but the Jewish people will always live now and forever. Thank you very much.