From Clinton Scandal to Trump: What Changed?

Ultimize. Why did you cheat on your wife? That was the question posed to Senate candidate Ken Paxton in Texas earlier this week. He's the current attorney general and famously had his wife divorce him, who's also in politics, a state senator in Texas, citing biblical grounds, specifically adultery. So he was asked this At a press conference, his response was, "I'm not going to talk about personal issues that relate to my family." Okay, what are we to make of this? Because a lot of people in Texas, like in America, but even more so, hold themselves out to be Christians, good Christians. Their faith is very important to them, and the Bible does say numerous times that. Adultery, bad. We've seen the issue of culture, of religion brought up in this Senate race. He's running against Democrat James Talarico, who is a seminarian. He is studying— the studies are on hold right now. He's running for the Senate, but he's studying to be a minister in the Christian faith. So we have 2 people there who claim to be Christian. What's interesting, though, is the, the MAGA faction, the Republican Party dominated by MAGA in Texas, claims that they want to support people who are more Christian. So I thought as a public service, we try to help them out. So certainly you could say, okay, it's a couple of dings against Ken Paxton. For being called out publicly as an adulterer. Now, it's not just that his wife says that. He hasn't really denied it. In fact, he's been caught tooling around not just the state, the country, but going on foreign trips with his mistress. He has a longtime mistress, a so-called Christian influencer, Tracey Duhon. And they've been together since 2024. Recently, 4th of July, they were going over to— I believe it was Scandinavia— and having a great, wonderful time. Okay, that's fine. I mean, none of this really bothers me, but it is curious as to how this is filtered through by so-called value voters. Who are putting religion into the mix. Now, a lot of Christians in Texas apparently don't like James Talarico because he has more classic Democratic positions, like you shouldn't be stoned to death if you are caught as an adulterer, which presumably Ken Paxton believes in as well. But he's also not in favor of the government Banning abortion. James Talarico. So for many conservative Christians, well, that's, that's a big ding in his record. But if how good a Christian you are should be the litmus test for whether someone deserves your vote, if you're a good Christian, let's be fair about it. Let's be honest about it, because it is true that Adultery is condemned in the Bible. According to ChatGPT estimates that I just checked, there are about 30 to 40 different verses, commandments, and recommendations against adultery. So the Bible is pretty clear-cut on that. Now, one of the reasons ostensibly many Republicans in Texas are against this Democrat James Talarico, who by the way is ahead of the polls right now slightly, but Democrats been there before in Texas, and they haven't won in decades, decades in Texas. So no one's popping champagne corks in Texas yet if they're a Democrat. One of the big issues is homosexuality. Now, conservative Christians say that's a biggie, that is a big, big, big deal. And indeed, there are According to my estimates, a handful. Depending on how you squint, there are 5 to 7 principal passages in the Bible condemning same-sex behavior. It's in Leviticus, Romans, Corinthians, Timothy, my namesake. And so the Bible does seem to at least obliquely say homosexuality Naughty, naughty. And James Talarico is not married. He has a girlfriend. But if you're a true red-blooded American Texan, that raises questions about one's proclivities, shall we say. So this is supposedly a reason Christians are citing to vote against James Talarico. He hasn't reproduced in a traditional heterosexual marriage yet. Now, the guy's only in his 30s, okay? It took me till I was 50 till I reproduced, so I'm willing to cut him some slack there. But let's just do some math. There are roughly 5 to 7 passages in the Bible that specifically or indirectly imply Homosexuality, not a good thing. But meanwhile, there are 30 to 40 passages that condemn adultery. So even if James Talarico is gay, and I'm not saying he is, there's no evidence I've seen to suggest he is not, that there is anything wrong with that. The fact that Ken Paxton is accused, and he doesn't even deny being an adulterer, and he cavorts around the world with his mistress, would seem like if you're just purely voting on your Christian principles, you'd have to really vote against Ken Paxton. Now, let me be a strategist for Ken Paxton and try to help him out, because the Bible also says that rebellious sons should be stoned to death if We look at Deuteronomy 21, verse 18 through 21. It provides for a community execution of a persistently gluttonous or drunken son or disrespectful son. So I'm trying to think, how can we help Ken Paxton? Maybe, maybe if he had an unruly son and he stoned his son to death, maybe that would earn him more points. When it comes to being a good Christian, and he wouldn't have to lose some of those points to James Talarico. So look, I'm all in favor of people saying, look, I have values, I have principles, and I'm going to vote based on my principles. And hey, everybody's hypocritical a little bit. I know I am. I say I'm against processed sugar, and yet I ate a cookie last night. Okay, everybody's a hypocrite at some point. I get that. But within reason, let's look more at judging candidates by Christian values because, hey, we are a country where a majority of people do consider themselves to be Christian, and they don't frequently go out and vote for candidates who say, I'm a follower of Satan. I'm a big believer in Satan. Those candidates don't do very well. You don't even see that very often. So let's help out some of our Christian brethren if they're trying to figure out who to vote for. So let's look more at various themes of the Bible. So for example, there are 4 to 6 passages that explicitly prohibit eating pork. So why don't we go through candidates' track record, their finances, their credit card statements, and see if they've been to any pulled pork barbecue restaurants lately? That would be nice to know from a purely biblical standpoint. You could vote against those candidates. Now, presumably, both Attorney General Paxton as well as Senate candidate Tallarico Are probably in good shape there because Texas is known for its beef barbecue. So that may be okay. Now, there are 6 passages in the Bible that specifically say you shouldn't eat shellfish or aquatic animals without fins and scales. So this would exclude shrimp and lobster. Okay, now we have a problem, folks, because there's only about 4 passages that condemn homosexuality, 6 passages that condemn eating shellfish. So I would really like to know, and I would suggest to any of the reporters there in Texas, the next time Attorney General Paxton has a press conference, ask him, has he ever been to a Red Lobster? Did he ever get the all-you-can-eat popcorn shrimp? Because that, that sounds In terms of pure biblical sin, that's worth 4 or 5 mistresses right there, apparently, or at least a couple of homosexual affairs or encounters if you're really doing it biblical math the way it's given priority in the Bible. Now, there are 3 negative associations in the Bible related to makeup. Now, confession, and maybe this is a reason you don't want to vote for me. I'm wearing makeup right now. But presumably Ken Paxton, someone who's been in the limelight for many, many years, numerous local, regional, national TV network interviews, has had makeup on before, as well as James Talarico. So maybe that one is a bit of a mix. Also interesting to see that the Bible specifically prohibits mixed fiber clothing. Now, this is more Old Testament. Old Testament prohibits certain mixed material garments, specifically wool and linen. I would suggest that a good investigative reporter just show up at the houses of these 2 candidates. And go through the closet. Let's see who's biblical and who isn't. Because if you mix wool and linen, apparently that's a sin. Now, if there's polyester in there, I don't even want to think about how bad that is. Tattoos are prohibited in Leviticus. Why not ask all of our candidates to do a full body search? You got to come in, you got to be naked, you have to just expose yourself to full photographs from every— we need to know if you have tattoos. Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with tattoos. Some of my best friends' family members have tattoos. Never been my thing. I don't have one. So if you're rating people's biblical qualities for office, I guess I'm in good shape there. But the Bible says you're not supposed to have tattoos. So we gotta figure out how we're gonna deal with that. Now, do either of these candidates have bank accounts with interest-bearing check accounts? That could be a huge problem because there are 10 to 15 passages in the Bible specifically warning, prohibiting against Usury. That's just a fancy word for making money on money. Now, interestingly, most of the history of the Christian church, which was the Catholic church, prohibited interest, prohibited usury. They kind of got rid of that a few hundred years ago. But again, if you're saying, as many Christians do, I believe in the literal truth of this book, and you're holding up a Bible, I don't know how you square that without wanting to know, does someone have an interest-bearing checking account? Have they ever given a loan? Have they ever held a mortgage for someone else and charged interest? If so, you're not being particularly biblical. Okay, there's a— the Bible is a fascinating book, by the way. Many people profess to read it every day. They seem to miss a lot of these parts. Not quite sure why exactly. By the way, quick question for you. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to consume content and how hard it is to actually do anything with it? I mean, you can listen to 100 episodes, read 10 books, and your habits are exactly the same. That's the gap most people never close. So if you're listening to this and thinking, yeah, I want to actually improve, go to ultimize.com. We've got free courses there for you, either on communication skills or building better habits. And it's designed to get you to actually use what you're learning, not just hear it once. No cost, no catch. Just go to ultimize.com and start. Okay, let's come back to this whole judging. I'm old enough to remember, some of you may remember, everyone was aghast at the idea that Bill Clinton had— I won't even call it sex— he had a sexual act, allegedly, with an adult woman who was 22 years old at the time in the Oval Office. And everyone, especially the Christian right, said this is the worst thing that's happened in the history of the world, essentially. This is a violation of biblical principles. He's committed adultery. Many, in fact, did claim he should be stoned to death. And now they were content with impeaching him. They didn't convict and remove him, but wow, they had a lot of fun with that. Then we had Donald Trump come around who publicly proudly boasts of his adulterous pursuits, but somehow in the calculation was like, okay, Numerous, numerous, numerous adultery, and talk about someone in daily violation of excessive adornment and makeup. Okay, that somehow all slid because he said, "Okay, I'm going to give you a Supreme Court justice who will ban abortion." I'm not quite sure why they weren't asking for Supreme Court justices that ban the consumption of shellfish. I mean, if you want biblical principles, shouldn't we have a Supreme Court that says anyone operating a Red Lobster shall be put out of business and be put to death? If you're purely concerned about biblical principles, I don't know why they didn't ask that. Now, we haven't seen this issue come up quite as much in the last 10 years because of Trump. Now, I'm not the biggest Trump fan in the world, but I guess you kind of have to give Trump credit with the idea of we're not going to have political media playing gotcha games on are you a perfect husband or spouse anymore. That horse sort of left the barn. 10 years ago, and I don't think it's coming back very easily, because there certainly was a time when many people who called themselves Christian— and hey, I'll let people label themselves whatever they want. I sometimes, just to annoy my daughter, label myself as a young, handsome man with a thick, full head of hair. So people can give all sorts of labels to themselves. Who are we to disagree? But for many, many years, until about 10 years ago, there was this principle that morality was defined by one thing. And if you're judging a politician, you should essentially do the following. Find a politician running for office, get all the politicians running for a particular office on stage, then get every person they ever had sex with Lined up behind them. Now, here's where you make the, the big moral calculus that saves time and helps everybody decide who to vote for. Whoever has the shortest line wins. That's how morality was defined, certainly in the, the '80s, the Gary Hart days, the Clinton days. That's how many people defined it. And then, you know, Trump came along and we haven't heard as much about that category anymore being the defining element in politics. So I guess I will give Trump a little credit there. But again, there's this book. People talk about it. People say they've read it. I would recommend that you read it. It's called the Bible. It has some fascinating things. Interestingly, there are 200% as many references to stoning to death a child who curses at their parents as there are mentions of adultery. So again, I'm giving perhaps strategic advice to Ken Paxton. The next time someone wants to make a big deal out of you being unchristian towards your wife and dishonoring her with adultery and parading around town and around the world with your mistress, your Christian influencer mistress, I think you could earn some points back. Find some video clip of one of your children, because he brags about he's got All these children and grandchildren. He has 4 kids, he says, 7 grandchildren— excuse me, 6, one on the way. He was careful to be factual there. So here's what I would recommend to Ken Paxton. Next big family dinner, have some aides creeping around with cell phones recording all the family members. And if you can find one kid or grandkid cursing you or cursing your kids, their parents, stone them to death. It's what the Bible literally says. And you could get back into good graces by showing you're more biblical than James Talarico. I— James Talarico doesn't have any kids, to my knowledge. Therefore, he's not going to score any brownie points by stoning kids to death for cursing at him because he doesn't have any kids. So if I were the strategist to Ken Paxton, I think that might be the way to go. And that way, Ken Paxton can do well. The good Christians of Texas can vote their conscience. I'm TJ Walker. This is Filtered. Thanks so much for joining me. Join me here every day. Ultimize.