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.
>> Jeff Chamblee: We equip
>> Rick Green: 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, hope.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon: Welcome to American Family Radio
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, to The Core here on American Family Radio. I'm Walker Wildmon. I'm your host for today. Rick Green and myself were your host each week here on the program. Once again, this is the American family Radio Network. As always, I try to mention our website, afr.net we also have the American family radio app available on your app store on your mobile device or your tablet. You can just type in AFR and download the American Family Radio app. And AFR, uh.net is the URL. You can access all things American family Radio, both the live content, the live audio stream and past episodes of various [email protected] and the AFR app. Well, turning our attention to the scripture on this edition of The Core we're finishing up Acts chapter two this week, looking At verses 38 and 39. Peter said to them, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and your children and to all afar off, as many as the Lord will call. That's Acts, chapter 2, verses 38 and 39. Well, not wasting any time, I want to introduce our guest for this segment. Not so much a guest, but our good friend Debbie withnow, my colleague over At AFA Action, and I voter guide to talk about the, elections and the midterms. And we're going to try to highlight Debbie's work and I voter guide At least once a month, especially during this midterm cycle. Debbie, welcome to the program.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Great to be with you, Walker.
AFR is launching a new weekly radio program called The Compass
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Debbie, before we get into the, midterms, we've got some redistricting going on and the Supreme Court just ruled on it this past week, ruled on the Voting Rights act and some of the provisions around how our congressional districts are drawn. Before we get into that just a little bit, tell our folks about the new radio program that you are going to be hosting along with our friend Rick Beggs.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, I'm really excited that we're going to have a new show hosted by me and rick, by ivoterguide. Basically it's going to air on Saturdays At 1:30. The first show is going to air on a week from this Saturday. I don't know when this is airing but on May 9th. And we're called the Compass, Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. So we're going to talk about being a good citizen, being involved in elections. I'm just really excited for the opportunity. and every week we'll give you an update on what elections are happening that week, this year there's a ton of that going on. So I'm excited to, to start the conversation with AFR listeners.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. I know you said Saturdays At 1:30. What was that first date in May that you said it would?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: May 9th.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. I'm going to make it a note here so I keep mentioning. So there you have it. First ones to hear this on afr and of course we'll be running some promos in the next few weeks on this and hopefully indefinitely. May 9th on Saturday At 1:30pm Central, we're going to be running a brand new show called the Compass hosted by Debbie and Rick and they're going to be bringing you all things I voter guide, civic engagement, type discussions. And it's going to be a great program to get in front of our audience each weekend so be on the lookout for that.
Supreme Court rules on case challenging how congressional districts are drawn
Well Debbie, the Supreme Court just this past week ruled on a case out of Louisiana that had to do with how the congressional districts are drawn. And anyone who took Government 101 probably has heard the term gerrymandering. And when you look At the congressional maps around the country At the state level, they look wonky, so to speak. They're all zigzaggy and they'll grab a little city. it really doesn't make sense how they're drawn unless you understand what the purpose is. And typically that is to favor one party or the other. Both parties have been gerrymandering their maps for a long time and so this is not a one party problem. But the Supreme Court, ruled on it and is causing some states to have to go back to the drawing board on this. But that leads us to the point that you've highlighted on multiple occasions, and that is that the primaries, most of the time, in most of these instances, choose the winner of the general. And that's just because of the party breakdown, is that right?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: It's 100% true. So, we estimate that At least 80, if not 90% of legislative districts are determined in the primary because the district is drawn to either favor the R's or the D's. and it, and it varies. And actually this entire battle is making even more districts that favor one party over the other. So the number of races that are really legislative races really determined in November is just a couple dozen out of 435 congressional seats. And then you just multiply that into each state legislative area. So, if you don't vote in the primary, you're really, losing your voice because that's where you really choose who's going to be on the ballot for that party in November, and that party's just going to win in November. So if you wait till November, you've kind of missed your opportunity.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. this is, obviously the midterm between, it's between the two presidential cycles At the two year mark. obviously the House of Representatives, for those who are still learning how all this works, the House of Representatives, is reelected every two years. Your U.S. senator is reelected every six years. And this is unless there's a, a vacancy that occurs in the middle of that, and then you have to have a special election. But this is a, major year, Debbie, because right now President Trump and the Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. But obviously Democrats are clawing to take back At least the House of Representatives. so this is a major election, and we'll determine kind of the tempo of the next two years and the last two years of the Trump presidency and whether Congress cooperates with the President or not. Correct?
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Correct. Correct. so, you know, we call this a trifecta because all three branches are controlled by the same party. you know, I wish they were getting more done now that they have a trifecta, but if you, you know, imagine if we lose the House, which is the more likely thing to happen, the odds are good that we will keep, the Senate, but, you know, there's only a very slim margin in the House right now. It may be four seats. And it kind of changes as people get censured or step down. in Special elections going on, and then of course, we can talk about all the new districts. But, the agenda of what goes forward is determined by the party that controls the House. So, you know, when the Democrats controlled it, we heard a lot of hearings about January 6 and impeachments of President Trump. Now that we have Republicans that control it, they're At least trying to move forward and, move on some of Trump's, agenda. President Trump's agenda, he did a lot of executive orders, which are fabulous, but unless, unless those get, codified is what the phrase into law. you know, if a Democrat gets elected to the presidential office, he just, you know, issues another executive order and flips it kind of like what President Trump did to President Biden's, policy. So, you know, the, the by the border that is now tightly shut, could it be almost with the flip sign of a pen flipped and opened? Unless we get the legislation passed. And the legislation has to be passed by the legislature, which is why we need control of the House and the Congress and we just them to be driving that agenda forward so that we can continue to make progress.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And to your point, all spending is supposed to originate in the House of Representatives. So how our government's funded, what priorities you place on the spending, for example, right now the Department of Homeland Security is partially shut down because the Democrats refuse to fund it. So, I know people get frustrated At times because it seems like not much is happening legislatively. but, those of us who remember what Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats did, they impeached, they harassed and investigated President Trump for the last two years of his previous term. And it caused a lot of people's lives to be very, very difficult. So that, that's kind of what's on the ballot. And we'll see how things go in November.
Debbie Wuthnow created ivoterguide to help Christians vote wisely
Debbie, tell our folks. Remind them, the importance of ivoterguide, the level of research you do, and then how they can go utilize the tool.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Well, the whole goal of ivoterguide is to equip, Christians and voters to vote wisely. Too many of us don't have the time or the inclination to do the research to really know where those candidates stand, especially in the party primary when it's just harder to get information. So I voter guide steps in and researches about four hours on every candidate, gathering together, you know, questionnaires from each candidate, links to their social media and their websites, who's endorsed them, who, they've, who's given the money, who's given money to them and then an evaluation that really gives you a side by side comparison of where that candidate stands on the political spectrum. We give that to you in personalized ballots based on your voting address. So you go to ivoterguide.com before you vote. And there are upcoming elections this coming week, and, and moving on through the summer as we get ready for November. So go to ivoterguide.com Enter your address, and we will give you a personalized ballot. Could be your voter guide's not ready yet. Maybe your election is later. Maybe you live in Florida and have a primary not until August. join our email list and we'll let you know when the voter guide is released. But vow right now, to participate as a biblical citizen in our civic experiment that we have in America. it is our opportunity to be salt and light and to, have influence on who represents us and who will be working on legislations. It really is, I view it as a biblical stewardship, responsibility to vote. And I Voter guide is there to help you vote wisely.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. And your team puts hours and hours, every single cycle, thousands of hours when you combine the entire team into the research, the behind the scenes on the website, all the work there, and then the oversight panels and the publishing of the data. So there's a lot of work that goes into it. So we want to make sure as many people as possible take advantage of it [email protected] and we'll keep highlighting this over the next several months. Hey, Debbie, thanks for coming on and we look forward to the new program.
>> Debbie Wuthnow: Oh, a pleasure. Thanks, Walker.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.
iVoterGuide is the best voter guide in the country
Thanks, Debbie. That's, Debbie Weth, now president of IvyerGuide, which is a division of AFA Action, our government affairs affiliate. And it's a great, great product that they produce for the public, for anyone who wants to use it. And it's the best voter guide in the country. And I say that obviously I'm biased, but I can back it up with the facts. and the reason it's the best is not only because it's easy to use. It's online. You can type in your address, get your customized ballot. All of that's great. But the depth of information that they, that they peruse and then they publish on these individuals running for public office is, is very hard to beat. There's just not a lot of places out there that offer the level of information that we're providing on the sheer number of candidates, thousands of candidates around the country in various states. And so all Federal, Federal. We cover all federal elections in all 50 states. And then, we cover a majority of statewide, offices as well. And then we've been getting into school boards, so thousands of candidates, a lot of information, and we can help you vote wisely. Go to ivoterguide.com, key in your voting address, and then we'll give you. We'll produce your personalized ballot there on the website. And for those of you who like to carry around paper, I, understand we offer a print option there on the website as well once you get your personalized ballot.
The Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act this week
Well, another topic I wanted to make sure we got to this segment and talk a little bit about is, is very well, Debbie and I alluded to it and that is the redistricting. So the Supreme Court just this week struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act, I believe, of 1964. And this provision had to do, and the court ruling specifically had to do with the logic behind redrawing these district maps. And in some instances, according to the Supreme Court, these district, maps, these congressional district maps are being redrawn based on ethnicity or based on race. And to obviously if you're doing that, they're trying to favor one party or the other based on demographics and which demographic is most likely to vote for Republicans or Democrats. And so that's why the Supreme Court struck it down is because that, that's, that's illegal, it's unconstitutional, it shouldn't be allowed. And the implications here are that some states are having to go back to the drawing board and specifically go back to their, their statute and update the congressional districts to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. Nonetheless, there's this race around the country and has been for the last six months or so. There's been this kind of sprint to update your congressional district maps to either help the Republicans or hurt the Republicans. Blue states are trying to take away Republican seats. Virginia, for example, Virginia went to, I think, I think they went from like a 5, 4 or 6, 3, in favor of Democrat congressional districts to a 8 to 1, I think is either 8 to 1 or 9 to 0, in favor of Democrats. So they took away like three or four Republican seats in Virginia alone. California's been doing the same. Texas is trying to re. Change it to change it to favor the Republicans. Louisiana is going to do some updating. Mississippi is going to have a special election to hopefully favor, conservative candidates. So it's this thing that both parties do back and forth. It's all about who's in control At the state level. So we're going to keep tracking it. It's very interesting and we'll see how it impacts November.
You can help support preborn network clinics by sponsoring ultrasounds
Right now, the voices in our culture are loud, but truth is often silent. And today preborns need you to help speak that truth. Women facing unplanned pregnancies are often pressured to act quickly before they have time to pause, breath, or hear the truth about life, dignity and hope. But I refuse to be silent, and I'm asking you to join me. At preborn network clinics, a woman is welcomed with compassion and given a free ultrasound. She sees the life growing inside her, often for the very first time. And in that sacred moment, fear gives way to clarity. And she's offered something abortion industry will never provide. The hope of Jesus Christ. This April, our goal is to have 11,000 gospel conversations in preborn network clinics, trusting God to bring the increase as we remain faithful to speak. You can help make that possible by sponsoring ultrasounds. Just $28 provides one ultrasound and $140 provides five free ultrasounds for mothers in crisis. Every dollar helps save babies and share the hope of the gospel. To donate, dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 and say the keyword baby. Or visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com forward/afr
>> Jeff Chamblee: At The Core podcasts are available At afr.net now back to At The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon: American Family Radio has two upcoming spiritual heritage tours
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us. Walker Wildmon here. Well, to cover a few housekeeping items that I want to make sure want to make sure I highlight on today's program before we, before we know it, we'll be done with the program. We've got this segment and one more left. We'll have Chris Woodward with us here in a few minutes to, bring us the news of the week. We'll talk a little bit of economics, energy prices, what's going on in Iran. But a, ah, few of the things I want to mention is our tour of Washington and Boston. Those are two separate trips coming up in September of this year. those are the only two trips we have left with our spiritual heritage tours. So if you're interested in going to Washington D.C. or Boston in the 250th anniversary year, which is this year, then you can go over to tours afa.nettours.afa.net to check out those dates, pricing, itinerary, etc. That's, Washington D.C. and Boston. Two separate trips coming up in September of this year. The other thing I want to mention is coming up more, imminently, and that is, The Activate Summit 2026 is July 16 through the 18th. July 16 through the 18th. We would love to have you join us here in Tupelo, Mississippi, the, town or the city of our national headquarters. Our theme for this summit is Roots to Fruit, Grounded in Truth, Growing in Grace. It's 76 days away, to be exact. The only reason I know that is because the website says so. July 16th through the 18th. So we're gonna have some great speakers. Dr. Jessica Peck will be there with us. Pastor Bert Harper will be with us speaking. Pastor Jeff Schrieve from, Real Truth for Today, which is a morning show here on afr. He'll be with us. Katy Faust, she has a weekend program on afr. Then before us, she'll be with us as well, many others. Laura Petherbridge. Bridge. So we're gonna have a great time of fellowship, great time of biblical worldview training, encouraging, challenging one another and equipping you to live out your faith. We're gonna be doing that At our Activate Summit this summer. We would love to have families join us. We want this to be a family gathering, a family event. We'll have a kids track as well. So be on. We'll be on the lookout for you coming to that.
June will be our Ten Commandments emphasis month on AFR
Activate. AFA.net is, the last thing I wanted to mention on the events front. And then as far as projects and programming here on afr, our Ten Commandments emphasis month, or our Ten Commandments Challenge has been something we've been doing for several years on the network. This year in June, we're going to devote the entire month of June to to highlighting our Ten Commandments project, or Ten Commandments emphasis, and so be on the lookout for that. We typically have a challenge where we encourage youth and children to memorize At least one of the Ten Commandments or a couple of the Ten Commandments. Sometimes we have them develop a speech associated with that memorization. So it's a great time of reading God's word, of memorizing the Ten Commandments and being able to recite them. And we often play those here on AFR throughout that time. So June will be our Ten Commandments emphasis month, and we'll be highlighting more about that and what you can do to be involved and how our young people can participate as well.
A news report on X discusses Screen Time and Brain Activity
Well, the topic I wanted to get to this segment from the news front is this report that has to do with screen time and brain activity. I came across this on X, which is where I get At least 50 to 70% of my news, when it comes to show prep. But this is a news report and I'll have to actually pull up this, exact study to see where it's from. That'll take me a little while, maybe in the next segment. But nonetheless, this news report is covering a study that was one of the largest studies done in the United States that examined the effects of screen activity on a child's brain. This is one of the largest studies. They used MRI technology to have the children's brains scanned, before and after screen activity to see what the effects of the brain, are happening when using these devices, watching these shows, playing these games, looking At these tablets for hours on end. And it was pretty shocking results, even shocking to the doctor, who headed up this study. So let's listen to this report. It's about a minute and a half and we'll talk after. Can you see the screen?
Time causes a loss of white matter in the brain, study finds
>> Speaker E: All right, this is five year old Rose. She was one of 60 kids to undergo an exhaustive study in the US using an MRI machine to scan the brains of kids aged three to five years old. the results, truly shocking. Interactive screenshots. Time causes a loss of white matter in the brain.
>> Speaker F: Well, in the simplest terms, we could actually refer to as some measure of brain impairment or brain damage.
>> Speaker E: Professor Mike Nagel from the University of the Sunshine coast has spent a career studying child brain development.
>> Speaker F: So white matter in the brain is a material called myelin. So what myelin does is it wraps around the axons of neurons and acts like, an insulator or conductor. Not too dissimilar to the plastic coating of a wire. So if we're seeing definites in myelin production early in life, we're probably seeing deficits in neural connectivity.
>> Speaker E: The study shows the more screen time a child is exposed to, the greater the loss of white matter. Can you remember your first reaction to those results, not only as a professional in this field, but as a father?
>> Speaker F: my gut reaction was, wow, I was not anticipating seeing anything like that. It hadn't occurred to me At the time that something as little as, and it said two hours a day was having such a profound effect on the white matter associated with sort of language development and by association, literacy. It was a shock, to be honest.
>> Walker Wildmon: So this is a clip. I came across a news report and this, this study is not a new study. This, this kind of research and the devastating effects of screen time and overuse of technology has been a topic of discussion for several years now, probably At least the last decade, since this explosion of smartphones and tablets and computers everywhere you turn. And so this report actually, goes back several years, but nonetheless, the clip, the news clip circulated back on my feed and I thought, wow, this is a very prevalent and relevant topic to bring up on the program considering, we aim to help parents and children honestly live lives that are honoring to God, that are honoring to one another. And this is a topic that is gaining more attention. You're starting to hear, governments, both state and local, debate the topic of how much technology children should have, especially in an educational environment. Some school districts are going as far to ban the use of phones and the possession of phones on campuses, which is, which has a lot of benefits associated with it. So you're kind of seeing this pendulum swing back in the opposite direction of technology because we're starting to realize the devastating effects of overuse of some of these technologies. But this report out of CNN health that covered this study several years ago says this. It says screen time use by infants, toddlers and preschoolers has exploded over the last decade concerning experts about the impact of television, tablets and smartphones on these critical years of rapid brain development. Now, a new study scanned the brains of children three to five years old and found that those who use screens more than the recommended one hour a day without parental involvement had lower levels of development in the brain's white matter, an area key to the development of language, literacy and cognitive skills. And they actually showed the MRI scans from this study. It says that, quote, this is the first study to document associations between higher screen use and lower measures of brain structure and skills in preschool age kids, said lead author Dr. Jon Hutton, a pediatrician and clinical researcher At Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. This study, was published in, one of these pediatrics journals, it says, goes on to say, by the, gentleman who headed the study, quote, this is important because the brain is developing the most rapidly in the first five years. That's when brains are very plastic and soaking up everything, forming these strong connections that last for life. And so this is once again, this is one of many studies that show the harms of excessive screen time. And this is something that, as parents we have to be responsible for. And as much as we do work on the legislative front and the policy front and all that's necessary. And you know, what, what are these educational institutions? What are their policies? All of that's important. But At least half, of the time that children spend is with their family, with their parents, and the rest of the time is most likely spent in the school setting or in other social settings, et cetera. But what we're doing with our children and the most damaging, of the screen time is happening At the home. At the home. And so that's why I kind of put the onus on the parents here is, this default to viewing, this default position to view technology screen time as kind of a neutral thing. Of course, technology in and of itself is morally neutral. It can be used for good or for bad. Depends on what the person's doing with it. But in this instance, overuse of technology and screens has very negative effects on the brain, of the children. And of course, if it has this negative effect on the children, then you can suffice it to say it has, while not the same, it has some negative effect on the adult as well. And so I think this is going to continue to be a topic of discussion. I think that society hopefully will see the pendulum swing back in the opposite direction where people are choosing less screen time. And I'll just tell you from a personal standpoint, and I don't typically get into what, you know, things personal, but I've noticed my screen time sometimes is excessive. And of course with my work, I do a lot of work on a computer, on the Internet. And, but that, that's not really what the problem is. I've noticed. The problem is, is the screen time away from work, the screen time on my personal time, when I'm At home in the evenings or I'm out and about in town or I'm traveling, the screen time can just get carried away. where you look At the measurements on your device and you're looking At At a minimum, you're looking At people that are using the screens for two to three hours a day. That's on the lower end of the spectrum. A lot of these people are using the screens for five to six hours a day, which is very excessive. but we've almost been wired with these, these. Look, I'm m getting a phone call right now as we speak. We've almost been wired with these, these supercomputers in our pockets that we've always got to be stimulated. I mean, I know before the smartphone was in everyone's pocket. I don't know what people did in their spare time when they were, you know, sitting in the doctor's office. They probably read the magazine, read the newspaper or they might have twiddled their thumbs and just kind of looked around and thought about some things, maybe. So there's clearly been a time where, people had these experiences and experienced life without this constant pulling the phone out, wanting to be stimulated and wanting to see what everybody else is doing. So, you know, I think there needs to be more studies, though, on the effects of the adult, because clearly we know what's happening to the children. But I think these studies need to also target the effects on adults of all ages. Because I think what we're going to find and what's probably already out there in a lot of these reports is that the screen time and the technology, if not stewarded properly, has some serious negative consequences on how our brains function. On the release of, you know, oxytocin. We've got all these. All these things that happen to our body when we're stimulated. And the inability for adults even to sit still and not be stimulated by something. It's concerning. It is. It's concerning. And I catch myself, you know, when I'm sitting somewhere in the airport, well, what do I do? I go dig for my phone and I scroll on, check the news, and I'm doing things that are not necessarily bad things to do, right? Checking the news, checking email, making phone calls. but it's just. I'm doing it. It's like busy work. I'm not doing it because I've got a purpose and I'm going to accomplish something and check something off my list. You just find yourself scrolling just for the sake of scrolling because you feel like you don't have anything else to do. So this is, this is a problem in our society. You can't go anywhere without looking around. Everybody's looking down At their phone. There's a lot of these, there's several. Well, there's a lot of, diagnoses associated actually with the overuse of screen time. Whether it's your eyesight or even the, orthopedic. That's what I was looking for. M. orthopedic doctors are noticing, you know, some of these people coming in complaining about, oh, my, you know, my neck, is hurting, or, these physical therapists are having these people come in and complain about their lower back and things like that.
A lot of doctors say looking at phones all day can cause physical problems
And what, what often is happening with these diagnoses when nothing else seems off? Right? There's. You don't remember straining it anywhere. You don't remember, you know, falling or having some event happen that caused an injury. A lot of these These doctors are saying that it's the, the leaning over, the hunching over, looking At the phone all day that is actually causing, some of these, these physical issues with people's, with people's bodies. So very interesting study, and we'll continue to report on that and track that. But the, the devices, folks, they can be a problem if they're not managed, wisely, and the time on these devices is not managed wisely.
The Department of Justice is making some headlines under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche
one more thing I want to get to, well, we'll talk about this with Chris but the doj, since Pam Bondi has resigned or moved on, however you want to phrase it, the Department of Justice has been making some major headlines and getting a lot of good things done under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. And we actually, American Family News interviewed Steve Dase about this. My good friend Steve Dace interviewed him about this, and, some encouraging things coming out of the Department of Justice in the last three to four weeks. So we'll talk a little bit about that when we get back. Thanks for being with us here. Here on The Core As a reminder, you can always subscribe to the podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll be back in just a few minutes with Chris Woodward.
>> Jeff Chamblee: At The Core Podcasts are [email protected] now back to At The Core on American Family Radio.
Chris Woodward is with us each Friday from American Family News
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core It's our last segment here for today's program. Chris Woodward is with us each Friday from American Family News. And those of you who listen frequently to American Family Radio, you'll hear our news At the top of the hour, every hour. And you will also hear us mention American Family News. Chris will be on, today's issues each week. Fred, Jackson, Steve Jordal, the entire team. And so we encourage you to not only visit afn.net but also subscribe to their daily news brief. They'll, hit you just once a day in your inbox with a recap of the day's news. And it's a very, very helpful resource, especially for busy people that just need to do a quick glance to see what is happening in the country daily. Well, Chris, welcome back.
>> Chris Woodward: Thanks for getting in all the plugs. Your check is in the mail.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes, absolutely. $5 commission per plug. Got it.
S&P 500 up 14% since March 30th since low
Hey, Chris today, this is a prerecord. Obviously, we record these on Thursday afternoons. Just for those who don't know, The S&P 500 closed up record, high highest close on record S&P 500 up 14% since March 30th since the low of March 30th. So just 30 days out, up 14% and 8.1 trillion in market cap in 23 trading days leading up to the end of April.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I can, I'm trying to think of another period of economic uncertainty and amusing air quotes where the stock market is doing well to the point that people that thought they were years away from retirement again are now going, I may call it a day on Tuesday.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it's.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's, it's.
>> Walker Wildmon: I know. I, know. And this is according to Rhyen Dietrich, who I track pretty, pretty seriously on economic stuff. He said second, best April ever. Yeah, second best April ever in the stock market going back, well, this chart goes back to 1950. well, for the S and P, that would be correct. Yeah, the market goes back longer, but the S and P, 1950, second best April ever for the S&P, that is S&P 500. So, Chris if I'm President Trump, and this may be what he's seeing that we don't see until now, he's looking At this. And the markets do in some way indicate how, not consumers, but how people and businesses are feeling about things and how investors are feeling. And if we're looking At a hot stock market on fire and we've got our own energy here, this is why President Trump doesn't seem to be in a, quote, rush on the Iran situation.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, that's a good point. For anybody that wants to get a better feel for what's going on in the business world, instead of watching just, let's say Fox News Channel, spend some time watching Fox Business, because they're going to get into the numbers, they're going to get into the weeds, if you will, on some of these issues. Whereas you're not going to see those kinds of segments on Fox and Friends or America's Newsroom, something like that. Similar with, some of the other networks out there, CNN Money is going to get into some, economic issues that CNN's not going to CNBC, those kinds of places. So spend a few minutes reading those kinds of things and maybe read, a few more columns or articles than you might normally do in the way of business op eds, because those people are going to share their two cents, no pun intended, on monetary issues. and again, you're not going to get those, you know, some of the other there for. I don't agree with this, but a lot of news outlets shy away from stories that are, that involve a lot of numbers. If there's a lot of math involved, it's gonna lose people and they're gonna find something else to read or watch or whatever.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: So that's why I say recommend. I recommend following a channel, maybe even checking out some podcasts that are dedicated to the economy. And you'll maybe have a better idea of why Trump feels better about the economy than Elizabeth Warren or somebody who's Republican. And I can't think of their name At the time.
>> Walker Wildmon: You know, Chris I think you and I don't give each other enough credit because I actually got a message on LinkedIn from a financial advisor out of Dallas, or I think it was Dallas or Houston. Okay. Anyway, Texas. And he said, that he, he thought our financial kind of analysis was phenomenal. This was coming from a finance guy, so I thought that was a compliment.
>> Chris Woodward: Thanks, mom.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, exactly. So now whether he was a donor or not, who knows? So it may have been a little biased, but, no, he actually said it was his first time ever listening to afr. Great. He came across you. Welcome on a Friday afternoon. So we are getting a little traction. we're not just, we're not cnbc, but we're working on it nonetheless.
House approves bill to fund Homeland Security and end partial government shutdown
Chris the government, shutdown, it looks like it's coming to an end. This also, affects such as airlines and some other industries that have been affected by this. But tell us about how this is coming to an end.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, speaking of, other good news or things that bode well for the, Trump administration, the House approved a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end the partial government shutdown. This of course came after weeks of delay, months quite frankly, where they have agreed to this. Now buried in our story, which people can find still on American family news or afn.net you'll see that it said. To break the impasse, Republicans in both the House and Senate decided to tackle the immigration enforcement funding on their own through what is called budget reconciliation. A cumbersome weeks long process ahead. So this reopens the government. It makes the issue kind of go away on the promise or expectation that they will still get their act together At a later date. But this is what needs to be done for the government to be open and serve the people that voted these folks into office.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is a big deal. the government, the partial government shutdown, it's just the Department of Homeland Security and some of their sub agencies have been struggling, basically to pay, pay their employees for over a Month now. And I'm glad to get that behind us. That was just a hassle and completely unnecessary that the Democrats wanted to argue about that. And these were, these were, this was not controversial funding. This wasn't, hey, will you help Trump build the wall? This was like, hey, can we pay TSA and, and, and Immigration to Customs Enforcement. And by the way, part of that was Secret Service that was defunded. so this wasn't controversial in air quotes. Funding that was viewed as partisan. This was just rudimentary day to day operations of the homeland.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I have said this before about, Democrats and I think this is just further evidence. They don't care about people, they care about getting back into office and they're going to use whatever they can and they're going to work with friends and media to make it sympathetic, to their cause in terms of news stories about why it is they're doing, what it is they're doing and why and all that stuff. and this clearly showed, I mean you had videos and pictures of long lines At airports, you had Democratic voters fuming, At the government, because their members of Congress were the equivalent of a toddler in the toy section At Walmart pitching a fit over something.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: for not getting their way.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. And we'll see how this bodes in the midterms. Chris I will be interested. The performance of the Democrats in the midterms. And the reason I'm interested in it is because they continue to worsen, meaning their positions continue to be very unreasonable, very extreme. They really don't have a lot to run on other than demonize the rich, talk about how bad Trump is. But as far as actual policy proposals that do anything beneficial to the American people, there's just not anything there. And so I will see how they do At the ballot box, whether in the Senate or the House and At these local or state races just because the Democrats just haven't seemed to get their act together. And to your point, they're just not. To me, they don't seem very good and obviously I'm biased because I'm conservative, but they still just don't seem to have an appeal to your average voter out there.
>> Chris Woodward: Right. One state to watch, is the state that a lot of people ignore or they roll their eyes At and that is California. Right now they are in the middle of a governor's race.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, there's like very interesting race running for a governor.
>> Chris Woodward: two Republicans are near the top when it comes to polling.
>> Walker Wildmon: It's there's 65 people running to be exact.
>> Chris Woodward: Most of those are. No, no, it's like 61 Democrats and 20 some odd Republicans.
>> Walker Wildmon: I just made up a number.
>> Chris Woodward: No, yeah, you were, you were pretty close. It's actually 70.
>> Walker Wildmon: Thank you. Thank you, Bobby. Thanks for clarifying.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank Goodness it's not 6 7. And I'm doing the handbook.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, please don't.
>> Chris Woodward: But anyway. Okay.
Steve Hilton is doing well in a race for California governor
All right. So anyway, because my kid would be like, I love you, dad. But anyway, let's, let's get back to, California here. So Steve Hilton, the Republican, the British guy, people know him from Fox. He was a political advisor, across the pond, if you will, over in the UK prior to moving here and becoming an American and appearing on Fox and all that stuff. President Trump has endorsed him and the guy is doing quite well in a race for governor in blue state California. this week they had a 90 minute debate. I sat through it for the people. And yeah, so, I watched it and he, I mean he got the first question, affordability, what are you going to do about it? And Steve Hilton comes out and says, I will make things cal. Affordable. That's his wording. And he talked about he promised $3 gas and he, he was going to cut regulations, he was going to do tax, reform and all these things.
>> Walker Wildmon: He's leading. Yes, I'm just now seeing this now
>> Chris Woodward: he, now here's where it gets interesting. A pro police sheriff from Riverside county is also near the top. His name's Chad Bianco, another big guy that has promised to work with Trump and he's seen him on, he's sharing many of the things out there. He's got a great stereotypical biker slash police must, you know, mustache. But anyway, but anyway, he's out there talking about it. And so you've got two Republicans near the top, if not At the top, depending on the poll, in the race for governor. Now there's a bunch of Democrats, Eric Swalwell dropped out. That has helped former, HHS Secretary Javier Becerra in the polling. That guy has the resume of a lot of people running for office.
>> Walker Wildmon: So what you're saying is there's a chance for common sense to win in California.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes, and not only that, there is a chance that because of how California does its so called jungle primary, in this case for governor, you might actually have a November election featuring two Republicans on the ballot and the people of California might pick between you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Talk about the jungle primary biting the Democrats. Yes, because Typically, the jungle primary favors them. They love the jungle primary because nobody knows what's going on.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. The head of the, California Democratic Party, has said, in recent
>> Walker Wildmon: weeks on record, this is hilarious, that
>> Chris Woodward: there are too many Democrats and we need some people to drop out to help a Democrat in this race.
>> Walker Wildmon: Oh, I thought you were going to say the Democrats said they don't like jungle primaries.
>> Chris Woodward: No, no, no, no, no, no. California decided to go this direction.
>> Walker Wildmon: That was going to be great.
>> Chris Woodward: I think. I think when it all said and done, because they had a debate this week At Pomona College, they're going to have another one or next week. I think it's going to be on cnn. and so I think At some point in the next month or so, you're probably going to see a much smaller race.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Some of the Democrats are going to do the Kumbaya thing that politicians of all parties do. And this person, even though he hates this guy's guts, will endorse him and all this stuff.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: So I think it's probably going to come down to, if I had to guess today, Hilton Bianco. Those are the two Republicans, Javier Becerra and a guy named Thom Steyer. And the reason I say Thom Steyer is because he's loaded in terms of money and he can pretty much fund his campaign regardless of whether he has the, political backing or not.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
Walker: Kevin Warsh looks like a lock to replace Jerome Powell
Let's talk in the few minutes we have left about the federal, Reserve pick, Kevin Warsh.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: And his nomination is moving through. Update us on that.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes. so Kevin Warsh is Trump's guy, to replace Jerome Powell. Everybody knows the story about Trump, and Jerome Powell. We've talked about Jerome Powell. I'm on a first name basis with him, a lot over the course of these past, few months. In these segments here, Kevin Warsh looks like he's going to be pretty much a lock for the new Fed chair. He would, of course, replace Jerome Powell. Jerome, as we all know and have discussed on the show, does not want to cut interest rates, At least not to the point that President Trump does. It would seem that Kevin Warsh wants to do that. And so people are saying, well, good, you know, if Trump can get his guy in there, he's going to do monetary policy the way Trump says or thinks. We need to do it that way.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: That's going to help everybody. And when those things are combined with possibly getting an end to the war in Iran and gas prices come down, you're looking At very good things happening come, I don't know, Fourth of July.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this couldn't come fast enough. I'm so tired of Jerome Powell, because of his pandering that he's done to the Democrat Party. Well, how do I know that? Who's a position that's supposed to be nonpartisan? And I love how they claim these positions are, quote, nonpartisan, but they're all political hacks. I would rather them say, hey, this is the Democrats nominee for Fed Chair. And actually it was Trump's. Powell was. But I would rather them just, just be honest with us. because the reason I say that is because Powell notoriously lowered rates for Biden in September before the 2024 election. I say for Biden, for the Democrats, for Vice President Harris. And inflation was smoking hot At the time. And he claimed that we can't lower inflation and we can't lower rates while inflation is hot. Right. So. But he does it for, for Vice President Harris and the Democrats to, to send a, quote, good signal to the economy before the election. But then right after, when he realizes President Trump wins, he's like, oh, no, we can't lower rates. No more. No more lowering rates.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: Even though inflation was going down persistently. So that's why I call Jerome Powell a political hack. Nonetheless, Kevin Warsh, Chris he won't say outright in his hearings and his interviews that, yeah, I'm going in there to lower rates. He won't say that, because I don't know why he won't. But who knows, Maybe because he's just not there yet and he doesn't know. We'll just have to see. But I would just be shocked if Kevin Warsh is sworn in as the next Fed Chair in the next 30 days and does not lower rates. But remember, Chris he has to have the rest of the board governors.
>> Chris Woodward: That's true.
>> Walker Wildmon: Are the majority. He has to have the majority of governors on the Federal Reserve bank board
>> Chris Woodward: on the same page to vote.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is not a. Kevin Warsh comes in and he says, thus saith now how often do. Do the governors defy the chair? I don't know. I'll have to look back. But that's another thing as well is you do have to get consensus there.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, that's, that's a great point. I didn't, I didn't mention that. And so that's good that you pointed it out. But to your point about, you know, him being, ah. Or our discussion about him being Trump's guy, and doing. Doing what Trump thinks needs to be done.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Why else would Trump pick this guy?
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: He has historically picked some people that turned out to not be the person we need to.
>> Walker Wildmon: Your point war is going to be whether they can get it done or not. We'll see. But he will 100%, once he's sworn in, be on the record that ranks need to come down.
>> Chris Woodward: Oh, sure.
>> Walker Wildmon: Whatever the president said, I'd be shocked. Yeah, I agree. And I think they'll get them down. M. I think they can get the majority of the governors to vote on it. but it may take some, some, some finagling, some kind of wrist twisting all. Ah, right. Chris thanks so much for coming on. Thank you. All right. American Family News afn.net All things news from a Christian perspective you can [email protected] we'll see you next time.
>> Jeff Chamblee: 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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