From War Stories To A Rally In Pennsylvania With Ted Cruz

We call for a local revival rooted in faith, gratitude to the military, and community action, then welcome guest Chris Morolo to share an event with Ted Cruz and a powerful WWII family story that shapes his civic work. We examine today’s political climate, the War Powers Act, and why quick, focused strategies matter more than endless wars.

• call to wake up counties and towns
• honoring service and the American military
• event in Beaver County with Senator Ted Cruz
• tribute to Helen and community resilience
• Chris’s parents’ WWII cave survival and liberation
• immigration, rebuilding, and writing the family book
• MAGA support, independents, and realignment
• Iran strategy, avoiding prolonged ground wars
• War Powers Act context and past precedents
• optimism around economy and midyear outlook

If you want to attend our event with Senator Cruz and others, email Chris at CHRIS@PAFFC.COM or call using the number on the flyer

Transcript

Faith, Leadership, And The Military

Gratitude And Episode Setup

Introducing Guest Chris Morolo

Event Details With Ted Cruz

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Hey everybody, this is John Marietta, and I am the Hillbilly. And I want to thank you all for tuning in. And please go back and check out all my sponsors. They're all good people and they're all trying to make America great again. So let's get started. I'll tell you what, brothers and sisters, you can feel it in the air. There's a holy rumble rising across this land. Spirit of the Lord is shaking the dust off this great nation. And the people, God's people, are waking up at last. From the courthouse to the church house, from the factory floor to the farm fields. America is standing up again. But hear me now. Revival isn't doesn't start in Washington, D.C. It starts right here, right now, in our counties, in our towns, in our homes. For far too long, we sat quiet while slick talking politicians lined their own pockets and sold our future for a handful of silver. They've kept this county poor, kept our people down, and robbed the next generation of hope. Well, glory to God, their time is up. The people are rising and the truth is marching in. The Bible says in Proverbs, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. It doesn't say when the corrupt rule, the people prosper. It says when the righteous rule, the people rejoice. That means you and me, neighbor, men and women of faith, writ, and backbone. It's time to clean house in our counties. Throw out the tax and spend crowd and put God bring folks back behind the desks. And praise the Lord for strong leadership at the top. President Donald J. Trump, he's been fighting the swamp in Washington, TC, like David facing Goliath, standing shoulder to shoulder with our mighty American military, the greatest fighting force under heaven. And I'm going to say that one more time. The greatest fighting force under heaven. Those brave men and women have been crushing the serpent of terrorism, defending freedom and abroad, defending freedom abroad, and putting good people back in charge across this world. Let me tell you, when freedom stands firm, evil trembles. While weak men talk, our soldiers walk through fire. While bureaucrats make excuses, our warriors make history. That's the American way. That's the spirit we need right here in this count county. Spirit we need right here in this country. The spirit that fights, builds, and believes again. Friends, we're not waiting for Washington to save us. We got the power of we the people and the blessing of Almighty God Himself. Take back what's been stolen and restore what's been broken. The plow of revival is in our hands, and it's time to dig deep. So hard and trust God for the harvest. As Galatians 6 9 declares, let us not be weary of doing well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Well, you need to listen to that one more time. Let us not be weary of well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. So don't you faint, don't you fumble, don't you fall back, take courage, take heart, and take action. This is our season to rise, our moment to rebuild, our count rebuild our counties, our state, and yes, our nation under the hand of Almighty God. The sleeping giant of American patriotism is wide awake. My friends, the gates of hell won't prevail against the people united by faith, family, and freedom. Let's ride this wave of revival, let's lift the flag high, and let's shout with every ounce of strength we've got. America shall be great again because our God is greater. Hey, I want to thank you all for tuning in. Uh, I felt really led to say some things about what's going on across the world with our with our uh with our president, with our country, and I want to thank all the military people that are out there protecting us and trying to do the right thing right now. I have Chris Morolo on with me, and uh Chris has a little bit of a unique story about some different things. His uh parents actually came from uh Italy right after World War II, I believe it was, and they were saved by the U.S. military. He has a book. We'll let him we'll let him plug the book a little bit too. We're not gonna take that away from him today, but uh we we also want him to uh uh he's got a big event coming up, and uh I want him to talk a little bit about that and maybe uh how the country is uh I feel like there's a rise in patriotism right now. I figured it would be a little bit bigger and stronger by now with the 250 years, but I don't know. Maybe it's been a tough winter, and uh maybe people were a little bit behind in getting things done, but I really think this is what we need to do. It's um so anyways, Chris. I want you to take it away from us here. Um, tell us about your big event and uh start with that.

Parents’ WWII Survival Story

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Sure thing. Thanks again for having me on, John. On March 26th, that's a Thursday. Uh, we are having a dinner and reception in Hopewell Township, uh Beaver County, PA. And our headline speaker is Senator Ted Cruz. Now that's a pretty big deal, having a man like Senator Ted Cruz come to Western PA. As you know, Senator Ted Cruz graduated Magna Kum Laud from Harvard Law School, and uh Ellen Dershowitz, uh, who ran Harvard Law School at the time, said that uh Ted Cruz was his finest law student ever. And that's uh pretty big statement coming from someone like Dershowitz, who's not a conservative, he's more of a liberal or even libertarian, if you want to put his uh classification in modern terms. He's probably leaning more libertarian by today's standards, but he had a lot to say about Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz has been a strong conservative voice in the U.S. Senate. So anytime we can have uh Ted Cruz come to Western PA, that's a pretty important thing. Also, my boss Ralph Reed will be there. Ralph Reed is an advisor to President Trump, and he will be speaking as well. Turning Point Action will be there. We are giving turning point action a lifetime achievement award for Charlie Kirk. It will be his award, uh, posthumously, of course, giving that to Turning Point Action. And also someone uh very important, Helen uh Comporator. You may recall her husband was the firefighter who died on July 13th in 2024 in Butler. And she's got an amazing testimony of what she's been through. Uh, she's had a very hard time, and some people have actually been very cruel and harsh toward her after losing her husband. So it's it's an amazing uh story. We'd love to see you there. If you're interested, you know, the flyer was posted here on the screen. Uh, you can just send me a quick email or call me. Uh my email is Chris C H R I S at P A F F C dot com. My phone number's there as well. If you'd like to uh attend our event, just let me know. Uh, but John, you're getting back to um my parents and the book. Do you mind if I go on into that a little more? Sure. My parents were born and raised. I'm sorry. That's fine. Okay. My parents were born and raised in southern Italy in uh uh an area not far from Caserta, Italy. And basically what happened was in 1943, um, it was actually my dad's seventh birthday. Imagine coming home from school on your seventh birthday, and the Nazis are coming into your town. So on my dad's seventh birthday, October 4th, 1943, the Nazis took over their town and they had to go live in caves in the mountains, uh, in the hills and mountains above their town, and they were there for a month and they ran out of food after three weeks, and they tried to um get some food uh late at night, sneaking into their barns. They were farmers, and the Nazis started shooting at them, so they ran back into the hills and began to uh figure out a way to sort to survive. So they had some goats uh and sheep with them uh that they brought into the caves and into the areas where they were, the hills and mountains. So they began to milk the goats and get by in goat's milk for a whole week, uh, just praying for a miracle. Uh the U.S. Army had landed in Sicily, but that was a long way off from where they were living. And so after a lot of prayer uh for a whole week, something happened. Their prayers were answered, a miracle occurred. Uh, the U.S. Army shows up, it was the 3rd Infantry Division, and they liberated my parents' town from the Nazis, and then they gathered up their food and rations, the U.S. Army, and they passed out their food and rations uh to the people in this town, including my mother and my father and their families, uh, saving their lives, liberating them from the Nazis. So then my parents came here to the U.S., had to start completely over. Uh, they lost everything uh that they had, they barely had enough to survive after the war was over. And um not long before my father died, a few years before, I had convinced him to write down the story uh that I just uh mentioned to you about living through World War II, how the U.S. Army liberated them, how they immigrated here with nothing, and had to start over here in Western PA. And my father was a steel worker, and so he did write everything down on paper. My wife transcribed the uh uh information, uh put it in a Word document for me, and then I went through and after about 70 hours, I rewrote the book, I changed some things around, I added, I took away, I changed some of the sentences, I created the name of the book and the chapters and turned it into a book for him. And before my father died, he was passing the book out and basically, you know, showing people uh this is my book, and he was very proud of that. So that was uh a nice thing to uh see my father excited about that book.

Immigration, Book, And Legacy

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Well, I'll tell you I tell you what, Chris. Um I I you've you've got to be uh uh around a lot of people in DC, and you've you've got to witness uh a lot of witness some good things, and you've witnessed some other things that aren't so good. Uh but uh what what I want to ask you about is how do you feel the climate is uh in in in the country? I mean, how do you you get uh are you getting a vibe about uh uh maybe the Patriots groups and the we the people groups, and some of them are starting to come forward with uh with their agendas more so than ever in past in the past.

Political Climate And War Concerns

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Well, I I saw a poll recently that said the MAGA conservatives are with Trump 96 percent, and the Republicans are somewhere like 88 percent. So he has the conservatives, they're they're with him. It's the independents and some others. However, I I really believe if he wraps up this uh situation in Iran quickly and brings our troops home quickly, then everything will be okay. I think what Americans don't want is another prolonged ground war, which is what we saw uh during the George Bush years, and I think they don't want that anymore, and I don't blame them. So they don't want another Iraq or another Afghanistan. And to be fair, there were other presidents who had um prolonged wars as well. Uh Bill Clinton uh got us into a Kosovo war and Bosnia war, uh Barack Obama got us into a war in Libya and in Syria. So I think at this point, Americans, you know, uh here we are in 2026. I think we're getting tired of these ground wars uh without much resolution. If President Trump can wrap this up and, you know, remove the leaders that he believes are the terror sponsoring leaders and then come home with our troops, I think people will feel better about the state of our country. I think once the economy begins to kick in, which should be probably in the uh summer sometime, you know. I know President Trump is going to replace uh the chairman on the Federal Reserve, and we could see interest rates cut. So that will help the housing market. Uh, I'm hopeful by of all times July 4th, our 250th anniversary, uh things will start uh coming back into focus with the economy. Hopefully, by then this Iran situation will be resolved, and I think by then uh we'll see some more positive feelings. I think people are just a little concerned right now, uh, but Trump certainly has the conservatives uh on his side.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

And um uh I I often I I it looks like to me, and this is the feeling I'm getting, and maybe you can it looks like even the the uh blue dog uh uh they call them blue dog democrats, I call them then Kennedy Democrats. They're migrating towards President Trump, it seems like to me. Seems like, well, a lot of people say that if John F. Kennedy was alive, I'd be a Republican. So um that that that's what I'm thinking right now.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah, I think if JFK was alive today, he'd be a Marco Rubio style Republican, uh center right Republican. Um, what we're seeing more of is that migration, and it's because the left has moved so far to the left. In fact, I like to say there's nothing left of the left to grab onto, they've moved too far, and the polls show that most Americans say that the Democrats have become too extreme. Uh, let's let's go back to my parents. You mentioned them. My father was a steel worker, he was actually the treasurer of the steel workers' union at his plant, and he left the Democrat Party. My mother also left the Democrat Party, both were old school JFK Democrats, as you said, blue dogs, and they became Reagan Republicans in the 80s. In fact, John, if you look up the Blue Dog Coalition in the U.S. House, I think there's maybe 10 or 12. That's all that's left. Uh there's only maybe 10 or 12 blue dog Democrats in the entire U.S. House. That's all that's left of the Blue Dog Coalition in the Congress, the U.S. House at least, 10 or 12 members of Congress. So it's it's dwindling. Uh, I don't know how much longer uh the blue dogs can hold on in a party that rejects their values and mocks them for their faith, mocks them for their values, mocks them for their love of country. So there are a few left of blue dogs, but they are, as you said, becoming more and more uncomfortable in the Democrat Party.

Independents, Economy, And July 4 Outlook

SPEAKER_01 17:26

I um uh I see I see a lot of things going on. Uh, and uh one of the things that me and you will agree upon is that I believe that if this uh military um um I don't know what you want to call it, uh it's a war. We're we're people are dying. Uh, but over in Iran, if it gets wrapped up in a big hurry, uh, which it looks to me like right now that um, and I said this on one of my other podcasts just recently, uh maybe even yesterday, but uh that that it looks like we have the high ground as far as negotiating right now, and I really believe that the Iranians government needs to come to the United States. We don't need to negotiate this with them, they need to come to us and we need to figure this out. And uh there's gonna be a I'm sure there'll be a little bit of give, but I don't I don't think that they're gonna play when they leave. I think it's gonna be the time that uh they're gonna have to come to terms with with uh uh us but Israel at the same time. So that's the way I feel about that. And then you you're are if this happens in a in a in a very timely manner, I think that there won't be no problems. We definitely don't need to get into another Afghanistan.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Right, right. Absolutely. I agree with you. Um, yeah, I I think that's what Trump believes. He made a promise to not get us into these prolonged ground wars. Some people are saying he broke his promise. I like to remind them his promise was not to ever have a war, it was to not to get into these extended long wars with no conclusion and no purpose. So it would be foolhardy for any president to promise to never have any war because then our enemies would see that as weakness and would attack us. He's he's going to do things in a way that is quick and effective. I think uh it was Victor Davis uh Hansen who um gave a wrote a really nice column about this. He said that Trump's plan is to strike fast, strike hard, take out the enemy and the wrap up and go home. I believe that's his goal. And if he does wrap this up within a month or two, you know, the entire the entirety of the war, one or two months, I think people will, you know, thank him for that. And the objective is to remove the regime that's been there that has been sponsoring uh terrorism. Uh, there's information that shows that Iran was behind uh the bombing and killing of our military personnel, U.S. military personnel in Cobor Towers, USS Cole, and others. So if they were involved in those things and that uh intelligence is credible, then we can say, yes, these are enemies of the USA, and that would justify President Trump going uh to war against them. And concerning the uh declaration of war, in 1973, uh as the Vietnam War was wrapping up, the Congress passed a bill and it was called the War Powers Act. And the War Powers Act gave the president the right to start uh military force and military campaigns without congressional approval, so long as that president reports to the Congress within 48 hours, and then the Congress could hear the president make his case. And if they say we don't like what you have said, we don't think this is a good idea, then the Congress can vote to end that war. Well, the vote was taken in Congress, uh, led by mostly the Democrats to uh stop this war in Iran, and it failed. So, and President Trump did, uh, in keeping with the War Powers Act, uh, report to Congress and make his case. So, do you know who started a war and never reported to Congress violating the War Powers Act, John?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Was it was it Barack Obama or was it Bill Clinton?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

It was Barack Obama with uh his war in Libya. He started the war in Libya, never reported uh to Congress, violating the War Powers Act. And you know how many Democrats spoke out against him for that?

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Probably none.

Blue Dogs Drifting Right

SPEAKER_00 21:49

It was one, just one. Dennis Kisinich, who was the congressman that represented the area around Cleveland, Ohio, he spoke up and said this is wrong. He went to the House floor and he said that even though he didn't agree with the wars under George W. Bush, Afghanistan, and Iraq, he said at least George W. Bush got congressional approval. Barack Obama did not get congressional approval for his war in Libya, so he spoke out against it. And guess what happened, John, after the one Democrat spoke out against Obama not uh keeping the War Powers Act.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

They probably they probably put a whole bunch of money up against him to get him out of office.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

That's pretty much it. You never heard from Dennis Kucinich again. Uh, he he he never uh was elected to Congress after that. So the party pushed him out. He was the uh red-headed stepchild. He was the person they saw as a cancer, you know, a leper after that because he had the guts to say this is wrong, this is a violation uh of the War Powers Act. So legally, uh Trump is on good standing with this war, this battle. Again, if he wraps it up quickly and he brings our troops home, he's made his case that Iran has caused uh terrorism not only in the Middle East, but they've killed. American servicemen by way of the USS Coal uh bombing and uh Cobar Towers bombing. He's saying that they were involved with that. There's credible uh intelligence. So he's on legal ground, he's on good standing. He just needs to wrap this up quickly uh so that the American people uh do not become frustrated with him.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Well, Chris, um, I want you to one more time tell us about your tell us a little bit about your uh quick thing about the event one more time. We'll try to get the flyer up there for you as quick as I can. And uh sure. Well uh I appreciate I appreciate you coming on.

Iran Strategy And Avoiding Long Wars

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Sure, sure. Real fast, March 26th, that's a Thursday evening in Hopewell Township. We have uh Ted Cruz, uh Senator Ted Cruz as our headline speaker uh for a dinner and reception that night, along with my boss Ralph Reed, uh, along with uh Helen Comp uh Comporator. Her husband was the man again who uh was uh who died that day on July 13th of 2024, uh when they tried to assassinate uh President Trump. She's got an incredible uh story, which she's been through. She's been through a lot, obviously, uh watching you know this happen in front of her, along with uh turning point action. We are giving turning point uh an award uh for Charlie Kirk on his behalf. It's a uh you know, lifetime achievement award. So the information on your screen will tell you there's my in my email, there's my phone number. Uh if you want to uh contact me about this event with Senator Cruz and the others, just email me at chris chris at pafc.com. That's paulanthony frank frankcharlie.com.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Well, thank you for coming on with us, Chris. And I told you we would uh do this, and uh it'll uh I appreciate it. Uh we're getting a lot of good uh feedback from uh podcasts. A lot it's it's unbelievable how good this is uh how good this is taking off. But uh we'll keep on keeping on. So I want to close up my show like I always do. On this road called life, you have to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. People change, things go wrong, but just remember the ride goes on. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America. I am John Marietta, and I am the Hillbilly.