Chris Burgard: Taking the Fight Over Sharia Politics From a Texas School Board to the Big Screen
Filmmaker Chris Burgard joined the show from his ranch in East Texas to talk about Remember the Alamo: Don't Sharia My Texas, a documentary he wrote, produced and directed. Burgard says he has spent roughly 19 years working against the Muslim Brotherhood and its American affiliates, a fight he says began on a friend's West Texas ranch, where he says the Sinaloa cartel was smuggling jihadis across the border. That experience, he said, led him to a Department of Defense-backed task force set up by Rich Higgins, a counterintelligence specialist at the Pentagon.
Burgard credits that training with a local victory about 11 years ago in his daughter's school district, where he says the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) pushed a policy that would have barred students from drawing Muhammad or any of the prophets, a rule he said would have extended to Jesus and banned a nativity scene. Burgard and the school board president, whose family had fled Iran, organized the town. "Liberals and conservatives came together on that school board, first time in history, and voted unanimously to kick sharia law out," he said. He says the same approach, built on teaching a community what he sees as the history and intent of the Muslim Brotherhood, is the template for what he is doing across Texas now.
The Film and the Tour
Burgard said he decided to make the film after a meeting with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in Washington about a year ago, when Texas had just seen what he described as 24 mosques open in 24 months, many in former schools. Flynn and journalist Lara Logan both appear in the film. "I'm going to have to make a movie to wake America up," Burgard said he told himself. Winn's response was that he should have made it two years ago.
The film has been on a national tour that Burgard described as stretching from New York to Southern California, Spokane, Pensacola and now Minnesota, with a stop on the steps of the Capitol in Austin to follow. He said distribution has been difficult. Facebook and Instagram removed the film's accounts after a clip from the movie about child marriage, he said, and theater owners in Wisconsin and Texas have backed out because they fear their buildings could be attacked. "We're so censored," he said, adding that the film has had to beat the algorithms for months to find an audience. He said it has helped unify pastors across Texas, who have been holding pastor summits that he believes have alarmed the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Holy Land Foundation Trial and CAIR
Burgard pointed to the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas, the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history, in which a Texas-based charity and its leaders were convicted of funneling money to Hamas. He said the evidence also identified the founders of CAIR as unindicted co-conspirators, and that those prosecutions were stopped after the Obama administration took office, when he said the attorney general halted the investigations. He said some of the same people were later placed in advisory roles. "If it wouldn't have been for Obama letting the bad guys go, we wouldn't even have this problem," he said, adding that CAIR's lawsuits are now driving the push for Muslim-exclusive developments such as the planned EPIC City in Texas.
Burgard said his team has helped defeat projects in other places, including a planned development in Illinois and a large Islamic center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He credited the training provided by the Allied Special Intelligence Group, a group of former special operations and intelligence personnel he works with, which was designed to educate military and political leaders and now also trains law enforcement, pastors and civilians. "Everywhere we go, we stand up and we win," he said.
What He Wants From Voters
Burgard said the outcome of the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico will depend on whether the election system is honest, and he urged voters to act on what he sees as a larger struggle. "God's still on our side," he said, "and when you hold up what they're doing to the light of day, it doesn't pass the smell test." Winn invited him to bring the film to Tucson, and Burgard said his schedule is open in the first part of December and the event would cost the hosts nothing beyond a theater or large assembly room. "We'll come out there," he said.
Steve Mundt: Is America Ready? A Retired General on Iran, Asymmetric Threats and Staying Calm
Retired Brigadier General Steven D. Mundt, who served 32 years on active duty and now works in Virginia, joined the show to talk about military readiness and the threats facing the homeland. Winn defined readiness as the military's ability to fight and meet assigned missions, measured by training, equipment, logistics and overall force preparation.
Mundt's bottom line was reassuring. "We will protect and defend the citizens of this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic," he said, with no hesitation. He said he would always argue for more Apache helicopters, and he acknowledged that some of the Army's most advanced Apaches are currently grounded while the Army works with Boeing on a fix.
Iran and the Asymmetric Threat
On the war with Iran, Mundt said Iran knows it cannot win a conventional fight against the U.S. military, so its only option is to fight asymmetrically. He listed what that could look like: contamination of water supplies, an explosive placed beside a fuel tank, or any of what he called the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in a country this large. He said Russia and China are supporting Iran with intelligence, targeting data and weapons, and that Chinese purchases of land near American military bases add to the risk. He also raised concerns about airline pilots who were hired without adequate vetting, a problem he said the airlines themselves have admitted.
Mundt said bases are preparing for the heightened threat, and he said that was why some aircraft were moved out of Europe, on what he called good intelligence about a viable threat. He compared the response to a homeowner who locks the doors and checks the lights after hearing about a burglar in the neighborhood. It does not mean they are unprepared. It means they are taking extra precautions.
Winn read a newsbreak during the segment: U.S. Central Command's commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, said Iran's navy has been destroyed and that the Strait of Hormuz shipping lanes are safe and open, while Iran claims six commercial vessels have hit sea mines on the southern route and the U.K. Navy confirmed an attack on one ship. Mundt said Iran's claim that the admiral is running a media campaign is projection, and that the U.S. does not owe Iran proof of its operations. "How we do it is none of their business," he said.
Don't Panic, Be Prepared
Asked about messages urging Americans to stock up on water and survival supplies, Mundt cautioned against panic. He said no government official, including the president or the Department of Homeland Security, has told Americans to rush out and stockpile. Normal preparedness is smart, like what people do before a tornado or hurricane, but runs on the stores would simply recreate the COVID shortages. "Then where the hell is the toilet paper?" he joked.
Oil, Refining and the Cost of Living
Mundt said the Iran conflict is not only an oil issue. The U.S. has the oil it needs from domestic wells and from places like Venezuela, he said, but it lacks the refining capacity to turn crude into the products the country uses, and he blamed Democrats for blocking that capacity. He said the oil industry hesitates to invest because it fears what a future Democratic majority would do to those investments. On inflation, he said it is not out of control, and he noted that if it were, the Federal Reserve would already have raised rates, though it may do so in December.
Immigration, Courts and the Media
On immigration, Mundt said there is a legal way and an illegal way to come to the United States. He said many people who crossed during the open-border years are hardworking and have raised families here, and that Congress should create a pathway for them. At the same time, he said, those who broke the law and committed serious crimes should not be here. He argued that judges should apply the law and not their personal opinions, and that if people dislike what ICE is doing, Congress can change the law.
On the press, Mundt said he welcomed embedded reporters in combat, but he criticized journalists who he said shop for the answer they want. He said he expects polls to be wrong again, because Republicans do not answer calls from pollsters and will still turn out to vote.
Educating the Next Generation
Winn closed the segment by asking how to pass on American values. Mundt said parents need to be involved in what their kids learn and watch, and that schools have taken away parental rights over the last two decades. He pointed to ESAs, which Winn said have grown from 10,000 families to over 120,000 in Arizona, as the kind of control parents should have. Winn added that anyone who comes to the country should be expected to assimilate as an American. Mundt said the real challenge is China, which he said spends heavily to shape public opinion here. "I don't think people truly understand what a threat China is," he said, and he stressed that the problem is the Chinese Communist Party, not the Chinese people.
Kathleen Winn: The Final Weekend in Pima County
Winn, who chairs the Pima County Republican Party, used the open segments of the show to walk voters through the final days of the election. She noted that Pima County Republican turnout is ahead of where it was during the primary, when the county ran 22 points above the state average, and she urged voters to keep going. "Right now the issue is politics," she said.
Voting options. Friday was the last day to vote early in person at a voting center, with emergency voting available Saturday for voters with a legitimate reason they cannot vote Tuesday. Early ballots can be dropped off until 7 p.m. on Election Day, and voters should not mail them now. Winn asked voters to bring ID and ask poll workers to mark their ballot "ID verified," even if the line is busy.
Ballots are not forwarded. Winn said her team called voters who had not yet voted and learned that some had moved out of state and assumed their ballots would be forwarded. They are not. A voter's registration ties them to a specific precinct, legislative district, county and state, so a voter who moved without updating the registration will not receive a ballot. A voter who did not move but never received an early ballot can go to a polling place, show ID and request one. Registration closed October 5th, and she said voters cannot register online now.
A reported incident. Winn said a voter reported seeing someone at a polling place drop off 10 to 15 ballots while photographing each one as it went into the box. She said that suggested possible ballot harvesting, which she called illegal, and that her team has collected information on the driver and the vehicle. "We need to have legal elections," she said.
The races. Winn said her goal in Congressional District 6 is to hold Congressman Juan Ciscomani's loss in Pima County, where he typically loses by about 19,000 votes, to roughly 10,000, so that his margins in Graham, Greenlee, Pinal and Cochise counties carry him. She said Andy Biggs is peaking at the right time and criticized the attorney general and the secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, over what she called election procedure manual problems and efforts to keep uniformed personnel from voting, a fight she noted was won in federal court. She also urged a no vote on Proposition 425, which she said would hand the Board of Supervisors access to roughly $630 million. "Please just say no on 425," she said.
Turnout goal. Winn said Republicans typically turn out at about 15% on Election Day and she wants 25% on Tuesday. She said the party will have observers throughout the county, attorneys on call and Department of Justice monitors in place, and she urged voters to report problems at PimaGOP.org. She also asked independents, Greens and Democrats to think hard about the kind of country they want. "Ballots do us no good on the counter," she said. "They're just like bananas."