Pentagon backtracks religious identification of service members - Jon Decker has the latest

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Hey, it's Ryan Sechrest here. And if you're looking for some serious fun, head over to chumbacasino.com. At Chumba Casino, you can play all your favorite social casino style games for free anytime, anywhere. It's the most fun you can have on your computer. No purchase necessary. VGW. Boy, we're prohibited by loss. See, Terms and Conditions, 21 plus. John Decker joins us now. Our White House correspondent talk about what's going on with the Pentagon. You remember Pete Hegseth said, look, this 200 list of religions that we have here is... I'm narrowing that down to 31. And he crossed off the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And apparently some people said, who were Mormons, I guess, in Congress. Hey, what are you doing here? Well, some say that Mormons are basically part of a cult, but the debate continues. And joining us now, John Decker. John, good morning. Hey, good morning. This was a rare reversal by Pete Hegseth's Pentagon. It's something that I predicted would happen yesterday, and indeed it did happen yesterday, a reversal, and it had a lot to do, the reversal, JT, with the pressure that was brought to bear by two of the Republican senators that represent the state of Utah, where most of this country's Mormon religion reside. And these two senators... Senator Curtis and Senator Mike Lee are also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they were rubbed the wrong way with this action taken by the Pentagon. They, over the weekend, J.T. spoke with Secretary Pete Hegseth. They spoke with President Trump. And indeed, just yesterday, this policy was reversed. Wow, that's a pretty big move there. Did anybody challenge the reversal saying, well, let's take a look at this religion? No, and I think the reason has a lot to do with the fact that you look at Utah. You know, it's one of those states that is Ruby Red. It's like Alabama, you know, strong supporters of the president, and the president doesn't, you know, want to pick a fight with his strong supporters. And that's why I think it was a no-brainer for him to just simply make this policy change. You don't see reversals coming that often from the Pentagon, but this was one in which... Those two Republican senators who, you look at their voting record, they're 100% behind President Trump, they were just essentially calling in a chit and saying, hey, look, we support you, now you support us. Yeah. Interesting. Well, they'll move on. But, you know, the move that Pete Hegseth made, I thought was a solid move in some of the others. A lot of Congress agreed on the majority of these. decisions, right, with Pete on the religious aspect? Oh, I don't know. I never really followed it until these two senators really brought it to the attention of the public. You know, they were very public, you know, on social media and statements they put out.

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And they were public in the fact that they were going to be putting pressure on Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of War, and also President Trump. That's what they did. And I think that, you know, the reversal, as I said yesterday, did not come as a surprise to me. I know the kind of power that can be brought to bear on the president on issues like this. And the president, you know, doesn't want to pick a fight on certain issues. And this is one of them. We've got bigger fish to fry on a lot of issues. And that's, I think, the reason why you saw this happen. Amen. John Decker at the White House. Thank you, buddy. I appreciate you. Hey, is Ryan Sechrest here. And I have discovered a fun new escape from the daily grind. Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino. It's all free to play anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So get to chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW. Boy, we're prohibited by loss. See, terms and conditions. 21 plus.