Preborn needs your help to provide ultrasounds for pregnant women

>> Walker Wildmon: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, preborn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the key word baby or visit preborn.com afr. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.

>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.

>>  : This is at the Core on American Family Radio.

Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio.

>> Walker Wildmon: Glad to be with you on this new edition of the program, our midweek edition of at the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to be back with you live. I've been traveling just to Greece doing our first, annual Footsteps of Paul tour in Greece. We went to Athens, Corinth, Thessaloniki, which is how they pronounce it over there, and several other places there in Greece. So we had about, 75 people with us from all around the country, mostly American family radio listeners. And we had a great time of fellowship and learning about the Apostle Paul's, ministry there in Greece and that entire region there. So glad to be back with you. And the international travel will take a toll on you and the TSA lines also took a toll on me. And I know we've all been reading the headlines about the TSA lines and I can verify it's legitimate. The reports are legitimate. I was in JFK yesterday in NewSong York and one hour was how long I waited to get through security, which from what I'm seeing at other airports, that's minimal. We're seeing three, four, five hour lines for TSA due to the, partial government shutdown, which we'll talk about some this segment and the dysfunction in Washington D.C. before we do that, let's turn our attention to the scripture.

John, chapter 19 is where we are heading as we prepare for Easter

John, chapter 19 is where we are. Very fitting. passage here and chapter for that matter, as we head into Easter and resurrection Sunday here in just a week or two. John, chapter 19. The verse I want to read today is verse 30. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. This Is the essence of the, crucifixion. I was going to say the essence of Easter, but that's not necessarily the case. This is part of Easter, this passage, it is finished, but that's not the full story. So, Jesus giving up his spirit is part of the crucifixion and the overcoming of death. But the ultimate victory came with his resurrection, which is later on in, the book there in John, chapter 19 and 20. So, that's our scripture for the week and, very fitting.

American Family Radio is gathering listener stories for its upcoming Share A Thon

As we head in to Easter, a couple announcements I want to make before we jump into the news and commentary. We are gathering listener stories for our upcoming Share A Thon. Those of you who have been listening to American Family Radio for some time know that we have our Share A Thon in the fall and the spring where we ask you to come alongside the ministry and help financially support American Family Radio. As, a reminder, we are listener supported. So we need you to help support the work, support the broadcast so we can keep everything going and on the air. And so part of this, we do love to collect listener stories, listener testimonies. Testimonies about how God has used American Family Radio in your life.

>> Walker Wildmon: And so we give out the number and these are about one or two minute audio clips that we play during the week of Share A Thon. Here's the number to call in 8778-768893-87787-789893. You can call in and leave about a one or two minute listener testimony about how God has used American Family Radio. Your life. And Lord willing, we'll play that during our three day Share A Thon coming up in April, first, first or second week of April, here, coming up pretty soon.

The partial government shutdown is affecting the Department of Homeland Security

>> Walker Wildmon: let's see, let's jump right into the headlines.

>> Walker Wildmon: Let's talk about this government shutdown. And this will lead into some of the other topics we're going to talk about today. But this is a partial government shutdown.

>> Walker Wildmon: I'm sure you've been reading the headlines. We got a partial government shutdown. We're going on week, were going on 30 days, 30 plus days of the government shutdown. And one particular agency is affected by this, and that's the Department of Homeland Security. One of the only divisions within DHS that is funded is Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ice. They were funded through a different budget package late last or last year. But most of the Department of Homeland

>> Walker Wildmon: Security is not funded. They're not up to date on their Funding and thus, departments such as tsa, Transportation Security Administration, they're not getting paid. All these TSA security officers in the airports, they're not getting paid. All right? And they're going on their second. They just went past their second paycheck of not getting paid. And it's causing major dysfunction in America's airports.

>> Walker Wildmon: the reason I want to bring

>> Walker Wildmon: this up is not just to rail against the Democrats, although we're going to do that, or you know, talk about how crazy this is. Those are all, you know, very self explanatory truths.

>> Walker Wildmon: What I want to point out is

>> Walker Wildmon: the irrational nature of the people we're

>> Walker Wildmon: dealing with, primarily the Democrat party. And the Republicans have some blame here too.

>> Walker Wildmon: We'll talk about that.

>> Walker Wildmon: But what the Democrats are wanting here is just so unreasonable.

>> Walker Wildmon: They're wanting things like full amnesty for all illegal immigrants. They're wanting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to stop doing their enforcement operations, which is their job.

>> Walker Wildmon: These are just irrational demands. They're wanting to ensure that ICE officers

>> Walker Wildmon: can't wear a mask to cover their face.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, let me tell you why ICE

>> Walker Wildmon: officers wear mask in 2026.

>> Walker Wildmon: And it's sad.

>> Walker Wildmon: It shouldn't have to be this way.

>> Walker Wildmon: But between the cartels and the domestic terrorists, there are people that put bounties on immigration officers heads. We live in such dangerous times that our, law enforcement can't go home at night to their families without fear of being hunted down by the cartels. And so thus they have to wear face coverings so that the cartels and the domestic terrorist groups can't run facial

>> Walker Wildmon: recognition and identify these agents.

>> Walker Wildmon: So that's why they have to wear face coverings.

>> Walker Wildmon: This is the same reason that when you see, for example, Israeli security officers protecting people like Netanyahu, they're wearing face mask.

>> Walker Wildmon: And it's not because of COVID They're wearing face mask so that Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas cannot run facial ID

>> Walker Wildmon: on the agents and identify them.

>> Walker Wildmon: So we're having to deploy the same tactics domestically because we're dealing with crazy and evil people. So that's why ICE officers have been covering their faces. But m. Furthermore, the Democrats have been requesting all of these crazy demands as

>> Walker Wildmon: part of their agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

>> Walker Wildmon: And they've gone to such an extent

>> Walker Wildmon: that they're willing to leave the DHS unfunded

>> Walker Wildmon: and partially inoperable for over a month. And this is at the height of this Iran conflict, where we've got supposed

>> Walker Wildmon: Iranian terror cells in America. When We've seen at least multiple terror

>> Walker Wildmon: attacks just in the last three weeks and our airport security is stretched.

>> Walker Wildmon: It is getting dangerous.

>> Walker Wildmon: This is how bad things happen. But the Democrats don't care. And this is what's concerning. The Democrats don't care. But not only do the Democrats not care is the Republicans aren't willing to

>> Walker Wildmon: lead and do what has to be

>> Walker Wildmon: done to move past this insanity.

>> Walker Wildmon: And I'll explain how they can do that.

TSA acting head says shutdown threatens security of US transportation systems

>> Walker Wildmon: But before I do, let's play. this is clip six. This is the TSA acting head on

>> Walker Wildmon: the instability of funding around TSA and the Department of homeland security. Clip 6.

>> Acting Head of TSA: This fiscal year, TSA has been shut down for 50% of the time or 85 days. And if still shut down this Friday, we will have reached nearly $1 billion in missed paychecks. This level of disruption is unprecedented and unacceptable and significantly undermines the security of US transportation systems. 99% of the TSA workforce operates outside of the national capital region, working across the country, living within your districts and communities. 95% or more than 61,000 of TSA's employees must continue working without pay during a shutdown. Congress and the traveling public should be proud of the excellent job the TSA workforce does to protect our national security. Paying these dedicated employees for the work they are performing should never be a point of debate. And yet here we are on the 40th day of our third shutdown this fiscal year, folks.

>> Walker Wildmon: This is. This is insanity. Ah. And I'm. I'm not going to really spend much more time talking about how bad the Democrats are because that's self evident. I'm wasting my breath to tell you how bad Chuck Schumer is.

>> Walker Wildmon: Everybody knows this. These people are insane. What's more frustrating to me and more disappointing is the Republicans, particularly the leadership in the Senate, refused to do measures that are within their control and power to move past this insanity. The Republicans control. Let's remember, due to the American voters, the Republicans control both chambers of Congress. Well, guess what? According to the Constitution, in order to fund agencies within the government and pass a budget, you need a simple majority in both chambers of Congress. This is Civics 101. The President has to sign the bill or you can override his veto, which

>> Walker Wildmon: in that case you need 2/3 so

>> Walker Wildmon: we can fund the government. Republicans can lead and do sane adult things here and fund the government. But instead John thune and Mitch McConnell and all these weaklings want to talk about the filibuster? We got to keep the filibuster. Are you kidding me? We've got six hour lines at tsa. Who knows how many security breaches are currently happening and will happen. And you, and you want to talk about the filibuster, which isn't really a filibuster because nobody talks. It's a fake filibuster.

>> Walker Wildmon: The Senate rules the Senate traditions.

>> Walker Wildmon: Are you kidding me? So this is the frustration that I have, and it's not with the Democrats at this juncture. The Democrats, Democrats are off the deep end, folks. What more good is it going to do us to gripe and complain about how crazy Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are? This is, this is wasted time, my friends. But Republicans love it. The politicians love complaining about how bad the other side is and they fundraise off of it and there's no, there's no fix.

John Thune: Republicans need to grow a backbone on government funding fight

Well, let's just talk about how bad our enemy is, folks. At some point you have to move past the obvious that you're in this instant. in this case, your political opponents are crazy. The Democrats are off the deep end. They're so radical, they're so extreme, they're so irrational, they're so childlike that we can't even fund the government here. We can't even fund core functions of the government here. But John Thune and the Republicans in the Senate can't muster up not even the courage. This is not even courageous stuff. This isn't, like George Washington level courage. This is called adulting. This is being an adult, being a grown up and looking at this and saying, okay, the Democrats are crazy. They've, they've gone off the deep end. I can't even negotiate with Chuck Schumer because of their insane demands. But I, as a Republican, we were in charge here. We've got the majority. The voters chose to give us the majority in the Senate and we have the authority to fund the government. We've got 53 votes. But, but we can't do that because we're hung up on always wanting to partner up with the Democrats to do stuff in government. Why, why do we have a two party system or whatever party system we have if you, you put one party in charge and then they don't govern? I mean, this is like the rule of the minority and it is absolutely insane. And Republicans got to grow a backbone here.

>> Walker Wildmon: We'll be back.

>>  : The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning, or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your App store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app. At the core podcasts are available at afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

American Family Radio's Activate Summit Conference is coming up in July

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio.

>> Walker Wildmon: Glad to have you back with us. Hey, our Activate Summit Conference is coming up in July 16th through the 18th. We would love to have you join us. This is a phenomenal lineup that we have. our conference that we have every year. our theme this year is Roots to Grounded in Truth, Growing in Grace. And it's going to be obviously in line with our Activate curriculum. And we would love to have you join us here, in July, July 16 through 18, coming up here in Tupelo, Mississippi, at the Cadence Bank Conference Center.

>> Walker Wildmon: And you can go to activate activate.afa.net and click on the Summit tab and find out more information about our Activate Summit. But go ahead and register now while you can, because these things typically fill up. So go to activate.afa.net, click on the Summit tab, and we would love to see you July 16th through the 18th here in Tupelo, Mississippi. We'll have a great time of fellowship. And what's, the Ark Encounter. Yeah, yeah, good point, Bobby. We're also going to the Ark in October of this year. So all of these events are typically [email protected] events so I don't have to give out too many URLs. Yep, there we go. Both of them there. So the Ark is going to be, October 29th and 30th of this year. We're going to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. This will be our third year, or maybe our fourth. Things go by so fast. and the Activate Summit, as I mentioned, is in July. So all these events are [email protected] events. There you can see the Ark Encounter Creation Museum event that we'll be going to up in Cincinnati. And then the Activate Summit is in July. You can see both of those [email protected] events.

Democrats throwing temper tantrum over Homeland Security funding

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, the, other clip I want to play here in line with this talk of the partial government shutdown, which is primarily the Department of Homeland Security. this, this is a little unrelated, but yet, shows you how the Democrats operate. All right? And once again, I'm not gonna spend too much time talking about how bad the Democrats are because this, this is all self evident information, but nonetheless,

>> Walker Wildmon: Senator Ted Cruz, he is chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and they had a hearing, either this morning or yesterday. It was actually this morning. And they, the Democrats didn't even show up. 00 Democrat US Senators showed up at this Commerce meeting to vote on their own legislation. These were bills that the Democrat senators sponsored and co sponsored that were on the markup on the schedule for the day for the Commerce Committee to push through. And the Democrats didn't even show up. And so supposedly they were unable to proceed. I guess maybe a quorum is required for the committee. I'm kind of surprised because I would think if you have a majority then, you can move forward. But I don't know. The Senate rolls on these committees and how they work, but nonetheless they're at a standstill in this Commerce Committee, which, at a standstill in Washington is probably a good thing in some cases, but nonetheless.

>> Walker Wildmon: I just want you to hear this clip of Senator Cruz explaining how he and the rest of the Republicans show up to do business on the Commerce Committee. And the Democrats are throwing such a temper tantrum that none of them show up to even pass their own bills.

>> Walker Wildmon: This is going to be Clip three.

>> Sen Ted Cruz: So this temper tantrum is bizarre, but sadly it is fitting with what we're seeing the Democrats doing across the board. Look, the United States Senate is a body that is meant to be occupied by adults who are actually responsible and capable of doing their job. Half of this committee showed up to work today. Half of this committee is prepared to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually make a difference in this country. But the other half, the Democrats are more interested in throwing a fit than doing their job. That is unfortunate.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, so. So Democrats don't show up to pass their own legislation out of committee. This is just baffling. How do you, what do you do with this? How do you explain this? How do you ration through this? You can't. The Democrats are crazy. They support some of the most loony, evil, insane policies and ideas in this country, from transgender mutilation of children to so called, homosexual marriage in air quotes, to the Greene New Deal scam and the electric vehicle mandate and ditch fossil fuels, to all of the lawfare and witch hunts they've launched against President Trump and conservatives and Republicans, to the cancel culture. I mean the Democrats, and then they're, they're defending of MS.13 and gang members and cartels and, oh, we can't deport anyone. I mean, this is just baffling. This is not where you've got two parties and they're, they're just a little off on what their objectives are, and they just got to get together and somebody's got to compromise and we'll meet in the middle and I'll give you this and you give me that, and then we'll, we'll sign a deal.

>> Walker Wildmon: This is not rational stuff here. And so we've given the American voters, have given Republicans control of both chambers in the White House. And if you're going to use your authority that you've been given by the voters through a duly elected process, now's the time to do it. Here's what I would suggest Senator John Thune and the Republicans in the Senate do. All right, change the rules, but temporarily bypass this dumb fake filibuster, which, we're gonna have to come up with another name because it's not a filibuster. It's so deceptive what they do here by calling stuff things that it's not.

>> Walker Wildmon: But nonetheless, temporarily set aside your dumb rules in the Senate and go back to the Constitution and use a simple majority to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But I would fund it at the levels that Chuck Schumer agreed two months ago. I would pass, actually. Actually, I would pass. Copy and paste the same bill that Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats signed onto just a few months ago. The same bill to fund dhs. The same bill. Copy and paste everything. Dollar amounts, agency amounts, all provisions, all statutes. Copy and paste it. And the Republicans, with a simple majority vote, send it to the House. They approve it, send it to Trump, fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the year using the same language that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries already agreed to and voted affirmatively for. And then you do that. What could they possibly say? You talk about a mic drop moment, and then, and then the Republicans come out and they can do their political pandering. They can say, you know, we tried. We waited three, we waited four weeks for the Democrats to come to the negotiating table and do something common sense. But they didn't because they were so committed to, to their left wing Marxist ideology to destroy this country that they wouldn't even fund the Department of Homeland Security in a time of conflict with the Iranian terrorist regime. And so we had to be the adults here, and we had to get these Critical functions of government back open. So now that we've been adults and we've done the right thing, the responsible thing, by passing the Democrat approved budget from just a few months ago. Let's get back to business.

Walker Wildmon: Republicans in the Senate are weak on key issues

Next question. And then how can Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries complain about the budget that they already agreed to? See, this is not like some, some sophisticated trigonometry problem that we've got to explain for an hour to everybody. This is just. This is 30 seconds explanation simple to the American people and move on. But instead, Senator Thune and these Republicans in the Senate, they're just so weak. They're so weak, they're better at losing than they are leading. And it's exhausting. And it's so, I'm just as tired of it as you are, because I remember 10 years ago, I was talking about how bad Mitch McConnell was. He was a Senate Majority Leader. He was an unmitigated disaster. He did one thing well, and that was approved judicial nominations. That was it. And that really was the Judiciary Committee.

>> Walker Wildmon: So. And it was like, not. It wasn't courageous stuff that they do. This is not. This is not courageous stuff that they do. We're talking about. We're talking about passing an appropriation bill to fund the government. This is not, you know, Tiananmen Square stuff. And it's so that the, the pendulum has swung so far that what you and I are petitioning for is not really grand things here. And I think this is part of the strategy, if we want to be honest, this is part of the strategy of the enemy. And when I say the enemy, I'm talking primarily about factions within our country that want to destroy the west.

>> Walker Wildmon: Part of their ploy. And this has been going on for some time. Part of the ploy is to lower the expectations. And this is what's being done. Because what I just did, can you believe it? I just lobbied the Republicans to pass the Democrat funding bill from a few months ago of the Department of Homeland Security. Walker Wildmon just lobbied, for the sake of proving a point, for us to pass the Democrats DHS funding bill from a few months ago. You talk about lowering the bar, and then I claimed that we can call that a victory mainly to prove a point. All right? And you get TSA funded, everybody opens back up and we can secure our airport.

>> Walker Wildmon: But this is very dangerous right now, by the way, because I was at JFK yesterday and you've got lines that are going back probably a thousand people, hours, long lines. And you've got TSA agents scanning these bags and they're just, they're just rubber stamping them, putting them through the scanner. They're all exhausted. They're working overtime. They're working double shifts. This is how bad things happen. But the Democrats don't care. They don't care about the safety and the well being of the American people. But back to the point about lowering the bar. The Washington operation has gotten so bad that what you and I expect out of our leaders is just bare minimum. I mean, it's barely passing the test, barely getting by. And you and I would be happy about that. We would be ecstatic if Washington just functioned normally.

>> Walker Wildmon: But they don't. And I really hate to bring forth negative talk, negative news, negative analysis with no way out. And so this is not a place where there's no way out, folks.

>> Walker Wildmon: Despite what people tell you, we still live in a representative democracy and we choose our leaders. Okay? And yes, you can go out there and you can tell me, well, isn't there voter fraud? And aren't illegal immigrants voting? Yes, there is some of that going on, but what I'm telling you is that in large part, our elections are still mostly legit, mostly fair. And anyone that would refute what I'm saying here, I would beg to say for you to answer, how on earth Donald J. Trump just got elected. All right, if you're one of these eternal pessimists, these eternal doomsayers that say everything's lost, our elections are rigged, the voting machines, algorithms are rigged, the whole Western experiment is over, is essentially what some people divert, to. I would completely beg to differ here. Completely beg to differ. President Trump, one of the most divisive and revolutionary, in a good way, figures in the last man, seventy years, hundred years.

>> Walker Wildmon: I mean, Reagan wasn't even this, this hated. He just won a monumental landslide victory with the popular vote in every single battleground state President Trump won in 2024. So you can't check out of representative democracy in this constitutional republic that we have because you say all is lost. No, I completely disagree. Not all is lost. So first of all, this doom saying and this eternal pessimism that some people have, some people even, who profess Christ number one, it is wholly unbiblical. It m is wholly unbiblical to give up on doing the right thing because you claim you can never win. That's not in the scripture. Can you imagine if the Apostle Paul just gave up because he didn't think he could complete his missionary journey? Can you imagine if every leader, every righteous person that God has used throughout human history just gave up in the early days, in the early months, because it was hard and they just didn't think they could do it. And so those of us that are here that are blessed enough to live in this country in 2026, we got to step up our game here. This sitting on the sidelines whining and complaining about everything, it's just not going to cut it. And I don't know what this country looks like in a hundred years. I have no idea. Is it going to be here? Is it going to look like it does today?

>> Walker Wildmon: Can we restore it? Can we bring it back to what it once was? I don't know. But m, we have to do the right thing. And so the point in all of this is that we have to continually do the right thing. And one of the right things we have to do, and we're going to talk to Debbie Weth now about this is we have to be civically engaged here. The amount of people who profess Christianity, who profess to be Bible believing, who yet still sit on the sidelines during elections, during times of civic engagement opportunity is mind boggling. And so if you, if you're upset about all the things that we've talked about today, if you're frustrated because Republicans in Congress sometimes don't do the right thing when they should, then, then let's get everybody off the sidelines. Let's get everybody off the sidelines. Statistically speaking, there are still enough people in this country with their head on at least halfway right that we can continue to move this country in a better direction. We'll be back in a few.

The Ministry of Preborn provides life saving ultrasound equipment to abortion clinics

>> Walker Wildmon: In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election. And there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the Ministry of PreBorn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country. By providing them with resources that they need to rescue babies.

>> Walker Wildmon: Preborn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life Saving machines cost $15,000 each, but more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a match, your gift is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate. Just dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating.

>>  : This is at the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.

Department of Homeland Security partially shut down for 30 days now

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Well, as I mentioned, over 30 days now, the Department of Homeland Security has been partially shut down with TSA agents calling in sick and not getting paid for multiple weeks in a row now. And, lines at security checkpoints and airports are five, six, seven hours long. many people missing their flights, utter chaos, completely unnecessary. And, ah, we talked about how the Democrats are off the deep end, completely irrational people. And, the Republicans don't have the courage and the backbone to go ahead and fund the government at base levels, non controversial levels, by the way, to do the right thing, which is their constitutional obligation, if we're being honest, to appropriate money to fund the government. So they're not even obeying their constitutional obligation to fund the government. So a lot of problems there. And obviously these are elected officials that you and I put in place and some of them do the right thing, but in this case, they're not doing the right thing to fund the government.

Debbie Wuthnow talks about lack of turnout during primaries ahead of November elections

Well, on with us now to actually talk about some solutions here is Debbie Wuth, now president of ivoterguide. She's also a vice president over AFA Action. And Debbie's with us just for a few minutes to talk about the primaries going on all around the country. Hey, Debbie, welcome to the program.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Thanks. Good to be here.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Debbie, right now we are in primary season and we want to make sure we keep putting this in front of our listeners. but right now we've got primaries going on all around the country.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Right, Primaries. And there's even special elections going on all across the country. We kind of got a break. We finished four or five of the primaries and the next, ones are out of the bay, come out in May, but we still got runoff. There's just elections that happen all the time and, every vote makes a difference. We have some examples of races that are super close. So I'm just here to encourage people to vote, to go to ivoterguide and vote wisely and, get out there and make a difference.

>> Walker Wildmon: Debbie, One of the data points that you speak to when you talk at these various events and places is this, basically lack of turnout during the primary cycle, which is what we're in now before the general election season, how very few percentage wise eligible voters turn out. So you've got these relatively small number of voters that are picking these candidates during the primary cycle. And in a lot of these districts, these congressional districts, the election is essentially chosen during the primary because of how the district breaks down as far as Democrats and Republican voters. so primary elections are the place where you can really have maximum impact, right, oh, 100%.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: So a typical, you know, if you think about presidential election, everybody talks about that turnout in those elections can go, you know, higher than 60% of registered voters. Now realize not everybody's registered, but in a primary election on average it's, it's around 20% of voters who participate. So just a third of those who will vote, you know, for president turn up to vote for, you know, in the primary. And as you said, that's where most legislators actually do get elected. Now you know, I mentioned there's specialists elections going on across the nation and that turnout's even smaller than for a primary election. So every vote makes a huge difference. And just earlier this year there was a congressional race in Mississippi that it was decided by one vote. So your vote is even more powerful in the primary. And every time there's a school board race that was decided by one vote. So it's just really critical, people turn out. And honestly, as we look at these primary elections and these special elections, we're seeing a little bit more enthusiasm on the Democratic side. I don't know if you've heard in the news, Florida, they just had a race for a House district, a state House district in Trump's area. Really in Mar a Lago, he endorsed the Republican candidate, but the Democrat candidate won in Trump's backyard because those more voters are turning out. And it was super close. 400 votes would have flipped it to go the other direction. So every vote makes a difference.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's a crazy example in Mississippi where one vote determine the outcome of a special election or primary. That's just crazy to think about. But, but yeah, you're right, you're talking about, and even, even not in those instances where it's one vote and in a lot of instances it's, it's, it's a dozen votes, 100 votes. but, but you're talking about getting A neighborhood together and you can flip the election.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Or a church. Yes, if a church. Many churches have enough.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Debbie Wuthnow: I encourage you to sign up for our email list

>> Walker Wildmon: Hey, Debbie, before we let you go, tell, our folks, how they can find out, their customized personalized ballot and also just a couple of the tools you have [email protected] well, sure.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Thanks. you go to iVoterGuide.com voterguide.com think Internet voter guide or individualized voter guide. You enter your voting address, and we create a personalized ballot for every address in America, including yours. We don't have them all released right now. Our team is feverishly working on researching all the candidates. But I would encourage you to sign up for our email list and then we will let you know when we have released your voter guide. the other information you can find on ivoterguide is where's your polling place? Maybe you're not registered to vote. And I would strongly encourage you to do that. You can go to ivoterguide.com and scroll down and click on your map or your state on the map, and we will give you a link to get registered to vote. Again, if you sign up for our emails, we'll let you know when we've released voter guides for you. Or even a special election or school board that we're covering that you may not even realize an election is happening. And we also send educational emails. A lot of us don't even understand the full role of government. how does certain cultural issues impact politics? And we just send once a week an educational topic to make sure that, all of our listeners and our supporters are educated on the issues and prepared to vote when it is time to vote. So ivoterguide.com is your election resource. Check it out.

>> Walker Wildmon: There you have it, folks. iVoterGuide.com Key in your address and you'll get your personalized ballot. They'll even tell you when your election is coming up and all of the deadlines associated with it. Hey, Debbie, thanks for joining us and safe travels.

>> Debbie Wuthnow: Thanks. Good to talk to you, Walker.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.

Debbie Wuthnow: We launched an operation against Iran this weekend

That's Debbie Wethnow with I Voterguide. And it's one of the great, one of the best, voter resources in the country, probably the best voter guide. I say that often and it's true. I have not been presented with anything that matches it. It's very expansive, very comprehensive, covers thousands of races and tens of thousands of candidates that are evaluated through I Voter Guide. Very in depth, all easily accessible online, even with a personalized ballot by keying in your address ivoterguide.com well, back to current events. I want to make sure I talk a little bit about this Iran situation as we wrap up the program. I'm going to play a couple

>> Walker Wildmon: clips here just to bring us back to what we were told were the primary objectives when we launched this operation against Iran. This first clip is Secretary Rubio within, let's say, a week or so of launching, operation, against Iran. This is going to be clip one. Let's listen.

>> Marco Rubio: The goals of this mission are clear, and it's important to continue to remind the American people of why it is that the greatest military in the history of the world is engaged in this operation. It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by destroying their missiles and their launchers, destroy the factories that make these missiles, and destroy their navy.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, well, there you have it. that's. That's Secretary Rubio within, let's say, one one to two weeks of launching this operation in Iran, telling us what their primary objectives are. That doesn't mean you can't have other objectives kind of in the background, but these were the leading objectives that would determine whether this is a success or a failure. Of course, where we are now, we. It appears we're being very successful in achieving those, objectives. I'm going to play another clip just to put this. Just to give this more, corroboration of another clip of Rubio within. Within another time frame. All of this within the last month, by the way, where Secretary Rubio repeats the same objectives. This is very consistent narrative here. This is going to be clip two, maximum success.

>> Marco Rubio: We want this operation to be successful at achieving its objectives. I'll repeat the objectives. The president laid them out yet yesterday. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It cannot have, and therefore, it cannot have the things it was hiding behind to have a nuclear weapons program. What are those things? Number one, we are going to destroy their missiles and their missile launchers. We are going to destroy their capability to make these missiles and these launchers, and we are going to destroy their navy. Those are the objectives. And this weekend, acting at this time, gave us the highest probability of success in achieving those objectives. And as the Department of War will brief you, we are on or ahead of schedule to do that.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, so those objectives, personally, I can agree with those. I've been a little hesitant on this conflict, this, what is de facto war, before it happened, because I just didn't know how it was going to take place.

>> Walker Wildmon: But once Secretary Rubio and President Trump came out after the campaign was launched and explained, hey, this is why we're doing it. This is our scope, these are our objectives. I looked at that and I thought, you know, if we can do this, we can do it right long term. This could be very good for us for multiple reasons. Iran, by the way, is responsible for mass amounts of instability. All right, Iran, yes, they're evil. Yes, they're, a Sharia law, radical Islamic, nation. But more importantly, they've caused mass amounts of instability and death in that region for 50 years. These are bad dudes, and you don't need to spend 20 minutes to convince me of that. So if we can, if we can take out their military capabilities in a matter of four weeks and basically decapitate their entire military and bring, historic levels of peace in the region long term, where there's no more proxies, no more threats of ballistic missiles, no more closing down the Strait of Hormuz, if you can eliminate all of those threat Factors for another 40 years, that is a big deal. That's a long term strategic victory. So that's why initially I'm like, okay, I think this can be done. This could be reasonable.

>> Walker Wildmon: This could be good in the long term. But what I am skeptical about, until I'm proven otherwise, I'm, skeptical about this being this morphing into something more than what it originally started out to be. And obviously, the US has a, over the last 30 years, has a track record of going into a conflict with a handful of objectives that morph into two handfuls of objectives, half of which are unattainable. And so it's not as if we don't have a history of this. We do. We have a history of starting out with a scope of something such as, let's find and remove the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

>> Walker Wildmon: And then, boom, 20 years later, we're still there. Over a trillion dollars and thousands of American troops dead. So we have a track record as a country, our political leaders have a track record of not making long, wise, long term decisions on these type matters. So the skepticism is warranted.

I just do not see how American military boots on the ground in Iran

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, so I think President Trump needs to be very careful here, as now there's reports about the 82nd Airborne and deploying Marine, vessels to the region. I just don't know, folks, honestly. And once again, I could be proven wrong. I could turn around in three weeks and say, this is the smartest move I've ever seen in my life by President Trump. So that's always possible. But as it stands today, I Just do not under any circumstance see how American military boots anywhere on the ground in Iran turns out in a positive manner. All right, they're talking about sending in troops to take over this carg island, this oil depot that Iran has that apparently is responsible for 90% of their exports. maybe they're talking about troops being, stationed on the coast of Iran to allow the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.

>> Walker Wildmon: Whatever the case, boots on the ground at this juncture, with all that we've decapitated of their military, I just don't know how that works out in any transformative long term manner that doesn't involve a years long campaign in the region. Initially we were told four to six weeks. That's what President Trump said, quote, four to six weeks. Well, we're going on week number four. All right?

>> Walker Wildmon: And if you drop in, mark my word, if you drop in the 82nd Airborne anywhere in Iran, or really anywhere in the region, but specifically anywhere within the Iranian border, folks, we are talking about a months long, possibly years long operation. When you look at this and look at past examples of these type deployments, you do not drop in boots on the ground. Whether it's 3,000 or 10,000, you do not drop in boots on the ground within enemy territory for a mission that is going to last four to six weeks. Now, I'm not talking about a Maduro operation that takes three hours. I'm talking about setting up shop in Iran with American boots. You do not do that for something that's going to be weeks long.

>> Walker Wildmon: It's logistically way too much involved for something that's going to last weeks and not months or years. So if we drop boots on the ground in Iran, folks, we're there for the long haul. We're there for months, if not years. And so I just think our leaders need to be very careful here. It's looking like we've achieved most of our objectives here. We haven't gotten the enriched uranium yet, or we haven't gotten them to give it up. But other than that, on the missile launchers and the drone factories and the ballistic missile production, most of that's been taken care of here. So I think the US Needs to stick to their primary objectives.

>>  : The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

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