Preborn has helped save 38,000 babies this year
>> Walker Wildmon: I want you to picture this. Her name is Kayla. She is 17, alone, terrified and pregnant, Sitting in a clinic, tears blurring, thinking abortion is her only option until she was offered a free ultrasound, paid for by a hero just like you. The moment Kayla heard her baby's heartbeat, the decision was made. And today, her little baby boy, Gabriel is thriving because preborn walked with Kayla every step of the way. Now multiply that by 38,000. That's how many babies preborn has helped save just this year. And along with saving the babies, mothers are being counseled with practical and spiritual advice to make motherhood possible. But here's the most important thing you will hear today. The goal is to save 70,000 by the end of the year. And they can't do it without us. Every $28 provides that ultrasound that changes everything. Will you be the reason the next Kayla chooses life? The reason Gabriel fulfills his destiny. To donate, dial #250 and say the keyword baby. That's #250 baby. Or donate [email protected] afr that's 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 quit.
>> Rick Green: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth to live out your free speech.
>> Brother Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope.
If you don't have the American Family Radio app, you're missing out
This is at the Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the Core here on American Family Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this brand new edition of the show. Walker wildman here. AFR is the network. AFR.net is our URL. You can go there and check out all of our work and past episodes and live shows. Just tons of great content [email protected] afr.net you can also download the AFR app. There's many of you out there. I actually run into you guys ever so often that, don't have the AFR app. Never even heard of it. Now, how you haven't heard of it, that's pretty hard to believe. But nonetheless, I'll go to events and I'll say, hey, who, who, who hasn't downloaded the AFR app? Half the hands will go up. Half of the hands that go up, are AFR listeners. They listen to our FM M radio stations, but they don't have the AFR app. And so you're missing out. Just to be honest, you're missing out. If you don't have the AFR app, because the folks out there who do download the AFR app, they, they rave about it because they get 24, 7, 365American Family Radio content on their smartphone. And even if you drive or leave your listening radius from your FM signal, you can pull up the AFR app through Bluetooth in your vehicle and get podcast past episodes and AFR live audio right there through your smart device. So if you're listening and you don't have the American Family Radio app, go ahead and download it afr.net go to your app store, type in AFR or American Family Radio and click the download button.
As we celebrate the Christmas season, what did Jesus do
All right, let's, move our attention, to John chapter five. That's where we are this week. John, chapter five, verse 24. Most assuredly I say to you, this is Jesus speaking. Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into Life. That's John 5:24. As we celebrate the Christmas season, the question is, what did Jesus do? Well, that's a loaded question. And there are multiple things that Jesus fulfilled and that he accomplished during his time on this earth. But one obviously, of the most critical things that Jesus has done is he's paid the price for our sins. On the cross, on Calvary, he defeated death so that those who trust in him and have salvation in him will have eternal life. That's the essence here of John 5:24. And we must not lose sight of that. We must not lose sight of that. We can have all kinds of debates about different theological questions and different interpretations of some passages of scripture. But one thing that is non negotiable is that Jesus is the Son of God. He lived a sinless life and he died on our in our place so that we can have access to the Father. He took our place. He was our propitiation, for our sins. And it's the final, sacrifice and the ultimate sacrifice that paid our debt, that can only come and only be paid through Jesus, the Son of God. So That's John, chapter 5, verse, verse 24. And a good reminder this Christmas season as to why Jesus came on this earth.
AFA Activate curriculum is one of the leading biblical worldview training courses
All right, we are still promoting, we extended this one week because I know there's many of you that probably, missed out on this for many reasons. But our activate curriculum. This is an excellent curriculum. 18 sessions, 13 professors, and it's online and we offer physical copies as well. But our AFA Activate curriculum is one of the leading biblical worldview training courses, I believe that's out there. And it's very in depth. It goes over American Family Association's five, core values and talks about issues such as religious liberty, sanctity of life, stewardship, just to name a few. And it, it's very comprehensive and it has actually action items and accountability steps for yourself and for a small group. And so if you want to get 50% off our activate curriculum, you can do that now over at activate.aca.net activate.afa.net we're running both the household and individual plan, 50% off, and the small group and, and church group plan also 50% off. So you can get the individual or household package for $99, or you can get the group package or for a church or small group for 1 99. And it comes with multiple copies of the workbook, DVD kit, et cetera, all [email protected] so if you're looking for a Christmas gift, and I would say a late Christmas gift, but some of you wait until the week before Christmas or two weeks before Christmas to shop for gifts, then what better thing to give them than a very comprehensive 18 session biblical worldview training kit? This is what activate offers. Activate afa.net 50% off until Friday. So we're extending this one more week, 50% off up until Friday of this week.
Vice President Vance questioned on infighting within conservative movement ahead of midterm elections
All right, let's move. In the last few minutes we have this segment, to some of the news stories I want to get to. Vice President Vance was questioned on, some of the infighting, if you will, within the conservative movement. And a couple, you know, several online influencers, for lack of a better word, have been, whether it's Candace Owens coming up with all these crazy conspiracies about Charlie Kirk and how he died, or whether it's Tucker, Carlsen, really making light of, Nazism and platforming people who have very, very abhorrent views. And not just platforming and interviewing, but refusing to ask hard questions. all of this kind of infighting over the last few months in the conservative movement has been really dividing and really problematic for the conservative movement. Vice, President Vance was questioned on this and he didn't really name names, but he did talk about how we do have a common enemy and we do need to focus on that common enemy. Let's listen to clip one.
>> JD Vance: We have to remember that we have a lot more in common than we do, not in common. And that the Disagreements that animate the Republican Party while they matter, and they're important. I think these debates should happen. They should happen in podcasts and they should happen in the media. They should happen on the op ed pages. It's totally reasonable for the people who make up this coalition to. To argue about what our foreign policy should be, what our specific tax policy should be, what our housing policy should be. I mean, I had a meeting just yesterday that was focused in the West Wing about how do we get housing more affordable for young Americans because of all the things that got completely out of control under the Biden administration, you had homes that doubled or tripled in price, depending on the geography. In four years under the Biden administration, we've got to solve that problem for our young people so they can afford to buy homes, start families, and actually build their own American dream. So I think my attitude is let these debates play out, but don't let the debates that you're. That we're having internally blind us to the fact that we are up against a radical leftist movement that murdered my friend a couple of months ago. And that would throw many people in the Trump administration in prison, not for doing anything illegal, but for not following the far left's agenda. That is the real opponent here, a political movement in this country that has no animating principle, that has no agenda for the American people. Their sole obsession is to take down Donald Trump and anybody who helped Donald Trump govern. Focus on the enemy, have our debates, but focus on the enemy so that we can win victories that matter for the American people. That's my message.
>> Walker Wildmon: there you have it. Probably, something there that not many of you disagree with. he's exactly right. You know, the vice president is exactly right. He does a very good job articulating the issues of the day and speaking on behalf of the administration. And there are so many problems to be solved out there. There shouldn't be really much time for infighting within the conservative movement. There's so many common problems that we all agree on that need to be fixed. That's what we need to focus on. And these last, let's say 12 to 14 months, before, at this point, really less than 12 months before the midterms, but let's just say 12 to 14 months before January of, next year, actually January of 27, which is when the new Congress will be sworn in. this is, the opportunity, generational opportunity over the next 12 to 13 months for Congress and the White House to get on their A game and get stuff Done. And to me, that's the message that should be happening with urgency here, is that who knows what's going to happen during the midterms? You know, wishful thinking is that conservatives retain, the House and the Senate, but who knows what's going to happen? Only time will tell. But right now, Republicans have the trifecta, they need to be doing more legislatively. I mean, there are zero excuses as to why the House and the Senate aren't pushing more through. And this is the fundamental problem with the filibuster, which is really a fake filibuster when you look at the history, because it's not a true filibuster. And those who know about this topic or have studied it or you want to look into it, read into the filibuster rule and how this came about. But this whole notion that the majority can really only get through their wish list items once a year through reconciliation, and even that tool has, limitations. This is fundamentally at odds with our Constitution and our system of government. And here's what I mean by that. When our founding Fathers drafted our founding documents and outlined what Congress would look like and how it would function, there were only a handful of items in which you needed more than a simple majority. Specifically, impeachment. Impeachment, you need two thirds. All right? And when you look at a constitutional amendment, I think you also need 2/3. All right? Especially 2/3 of the states, for sure. But nonetheless, if our founding fathers intended for the legislative branch, the House and the Senate, to need 60 plus votes on every single occasion, don't you think they would have outlined that? Don't you think they would have outlined that in the founding document? But they didn't. All right? So our founders intended for the legislative branch in order to pass law, in order to pass legislation to be signed by the President, the Founding Fathers intended for a simple majority to be needed. You need 51 votes in the Senate, and you need somewhere in the ballpark of 218 roughly, votes in the House of Representatives. And this notion that you've got to have 60 plus votes to pass anything through the Senate is really extra constitutional. And it's nowhere to be found in our founding documents or any writings of our founding Fathers, the impeachment, tool is what needs 2/3. Our founders specifically outline that. But legislation, everyday legislation, including budgets, should only need 50, 1 or 51% of the vote in the House and the Senate. And so we have this fake filibuster that jams everything up in the Senate. And, you know, the argument on the conservative side is, well, if we get rid of the filibuster, then the Democrats will pass crazy legislation. Okay, well, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to deny that that's probably true. If, if the Democrats are in charge, they probably will pass crazy legislation. But my point is, let them do it. Let, let the legislative branch go crazy, if you will, and let the voters respond. Let's see how the voting voters like that, to the contrary, let's let conservatives and Republicans pass good legislation and then let's see how the voters respond to that. Let's let the system play out. Let's let the system work. But this, this boogeyman that the Democrats are going to do bad stuff if they're in charge, folks, they're already doing bad stuff. I mean, President Biden, the Democrats did some horrendous things. And so we've got to stop playing defense. We've got to start learning how to play offense. And this filibuster preventing us from doing monumental generational things legislatively is just very, very problematic. And if you take out the legislative branch and all it is is who's in the White House, then we're going to do this back and forth of executive orders forever. We're always going to be going back and forth on executive orders. We need consistent, sound policy nationwide done through the legislative branch. That's how you win. At the core podcast are [email protected] now back to. At the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio welcomes Matt Sharp to discuss Supreme Court cases
Welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Well, as you just heard my dad mention, our 2026 tours are open and, there for you to register [email protected] we're going to be going to Boston again and we're going to be going to Washington, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. So you can go to wildmangroup.com to check out those dates and all the information you need on those spiritual heritage tours. I do want to introduce our next guest. Matt Sharp is with us. Matt Sharp is senior counsel and director at the center for Public Policy over at the Alliance Defending Freedom, otherwise known as adf. And Matt, is with us now to talk about some of these cases that have been, heard or will be heard at the Supreme Court. Hey, Matt, welcome to the program.
>> Matt Sharp: Hey, thanks for having me on.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Matt, we appreciate the work of adf. We've been partners with you guys for a long time, probably since the very beginning, to be technical. but, Matt, Tell us.
The Supreme Court is hearing several important cases this term
well, it seems like every year there's major cases that the Supreme Court hears, just because they're oftentimes a final say, if you will, on a lot of legal questions and constitutional questions. But give us kind of a brief rundown of some of the things that the Supreme Court has heard or will be hearing very soon this term. Yeah.
>> Matt Sharp: So kind of three big issues I wanted to focus on. The first one was a case that was argued, earlier this fall in October. this was the case of Kaylee Childs. at its heart was a Colorado law that censored counselors like Kaylee Chiles from being able to help kids that are dealing with questions or confusions about their gender, their identity. And under Colorado law, counselors are told, you can't help a kid, reconcile their feelings with their biological sex. You can't help a child find comfort and solace in who God created them to be. Well, that's a dangerous path, because we know when counselors aren't able to help kids in that regard, those kids ended up getting pushed towards these dangerous puberty blockers, hormones, even sterilizing surgeries. And Kaylee is wanting to be able to help children avoid that path and rather go down a path that helps them find comfort with their biological sex. And so we challenged that law, saying that it violates Kaylee's and her clients free speech rights, they. Their ability to have conversations, to be able to walk down this path together. Instead, Colorado is inserting itself into those private conversations between a counselor and their client and ultimately telling Kaylee what she can and cannot say. And that's something our First Amendment does not allow. It doesn't allow the government to come in and tell people, this is what you can say, this is what you can't say. Especially when we're dealing with important issues like your identity and your biological sex and these things that are really important to helping children grow and thrive. So we were excited to challenge that law. this is something that, I think about 20 states have passed similar laws. So a victory for Kaylee would be a victory not just for her, not just a victory for counselors in Colorado, but across the country. Many counselors that are feeling censored and silenced by laws like this that interfere with their ability to help kids and families.
These laws are narrowly tailored to target faith based counselors
>> Walker Wildmon: Matt, before we move on to the other two, I gotta. Gotta ask, or gotta make a point and then kind of ask a question. this is. By the way, I didn't know it was 20. That's, quite Astonishing. That have passed this law or similar, kind of targeting. Basically targeting faith based counselors is the essence of it. what's so ironic, Matt, is that. These laws are narrowly tailored basically to target faith based counselors. And what I mean by that is in these statutes, very few, if any of them, probably none of them actually say something. To the extent if someone is, embracing their natural biology and their. You can't counsel them towards homosexuality or transgenderism. This is only a one sided thing. Meaning you can't counsel them towards their natural biology, how God created them. But if maybe you want to kind of push them in the direction of transgender and homosexuality, well, that's completely fine. It's just if you teach them to embrace how they're created biologically and through God's creation, well, you can't do that. And so these statutes are one sided, which fundamentally is the problem with trying to regulate the speech and the convictions in many cases of counselors. I mean, this is just an impossible thing that the government's trying to balance out and target.
>> Matt Sharp: Yeah, you're exactly right. So imagine as hypothetical a child and their family walks in and says, I'm struggling with these confusions about my biological sex. I want to embrace my gender identity. I was born in the wrong body. I'm not really a male. I want to be a female. Under Colorado law, the counselor can say, yes, let's work on that. I will help affirm your gender identity and reject your biological sex. But if that same child said, I've got these confusions, I want to embrace my biological sex, I want to find comfort, Colorado law tells Kaylee and counselors like her, no, you cannot help them with that. And exactly like you said, that is viewpoint discrimination. You're saying, path A is fine, path B is not. And that is something our constitution forbids. The government can't pick and choose and say, you can go down this one path, but not the alternative view. And especially one where many of these children and individuals like Kaylee, it is exactly like you said, motivated by their faith and their belief that God created us, male and female, and that our best and brightest future is one that embraces that design.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is, it's so, so dangerous. And it's not just obviously the rights of Kaylee and other counselors are being infringed upon. That's a problem. but equally a problem is that people are. Young people are being victimized by this gender ideology. And what the Colorado government's here saying is, hey, we're not going to send anybody to your rescue. We're not going to let anybody come to your rescue or at least anybody speak any semblance of sanity and reason to you otherwise bad counselor, you're going to get in trouble, you're going to lose your license, you're going to be fined. from a human standpoint, it's equally, egregious, to allow people to remain in their confusion and when they want help, you tell them, no, you can't get help. That's a very heartless thing to do on behalf of the Colorado government.
Matt Miller: Several states have passed laws targeting anti-abortion pregnancy centers
Matt, what are a couple, you mentioned two others. What are a couple of other cases that you guys are working on there?
>> Matt Sharp: so one that was just argued last week. This is the case of First Choice Women's Center. it involves a pro life pregnancy center in NewSong Jersey and for quite a while has been facing very severe harassment and targeting by the NewSong Jersey attorney general that's been, basically, you know, accusing them of giving misinformation, even went so far as to demand that this pregnancy center hand over the names, phone numbers and addresses of its donors. We all know where that leads. when the government starts asking, tell us who your donors are. That means they're not only going to go after you, that info is going to be used to dox the people that are supporting the pro life, pro woman work of these pregnancy centers. So we were challenging that, we were challenging that harassment by the NewSong Jersey attorney general, challenging these efforts to out the donors of this incredible ministry and the work that it's doing and ultimately protect that. Again, this is something that we're seeing many other states try and do these exact same things, these laws that target pregnancy centers to try and shut them down or silence them or censor them. We've had cases in Vermont and NewSong York going over these exact issues. So once again, when we see cases like this, this is not just about NewSong Jersey, not just about first Choice, but this is setting these broader principles that government, you can't harass, you can't go after and try and censor and silence pregnancy centers, and you can't require organization ministries like this to hand over all of their donor list so that you can then harass those individuals, support supporting the work.
>> Walker Wildmon: You know, in many cases, we don't even know who's funding the left from a, you know, dark money perspective. The left always talks about how the right is engaged in kind of these dark money nonprofit organizations or operations. but in reality we found this out during the 2020 election. the, the left moves hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars around through nonprofits. Zuckerberg did this through multiple kind of shell nonprofits to turn out the vote in 2020. And so the left does this all the same things they accuse us of. They do. But the fact of the matter is that, the government doesn't need to know. They have no right to know the individual donors of 501 nonprofits. And if they do desire to get that information, the only reason that they're getting it is to target and intimidate, those voters and make people think twice, if you will, before they give to conservative or Christian non profits. the. We've had some crazy requests. I'm sure you guys have run into this on the ADF side as well. But we've had, we've. Right now we've got one state. I won't mention the state, but we've got one state. either the Secretary of State or. No, it's the aggressive. the AG is wanting our specific investment portfolio breakdown. They want an entire, like 70 page print off of every single company that we own shares in through our investment portfolio, which is like. No, we're not giving you that. We'll give you page one. Right, which tells you the balances. but we're not giving you all 70 pages because it's none of your business. You have no right to know, what our investment portfolio is. And so. But there's other cases like that, where these AGs or secretaries of State just want to dig and dig and dig. and it's only, towards. Targeted towards conservative groups. Matt, we've got, let's see, about five minutes left.
Three cases challenging gender discrimination in sports are headed to the Supreme Court
What's this third case you guys have been working on?
>> Matt Sharp: Yeah, this one I'm particularly excited about. for years now we've seen stories of women losing out on championships, on medals, because of policies that allow guys to compete in girls sports. Sports. A lot of this came to head with, when Leah Thomas, a male, dominated, women's swimming, beating out Wriley Gaine at the NCAA Swimming championships. But this is one of many, many stories like this when response. We've seen 27 states now pass laws to protect fairness in women's sports. And among the first states were Idaho, which was actually the first state to do it, and West Virginia. Well, immediately after those laws passed, the ACLU comes in and challenges them, saying they're unconstitutional. And so at Alliance Defending Freedom, we've been working with these states to help defend these laws, particularly by intervening on behalf of female athletes, saying, these laws are important to me. They make a difference and protect fairness for me. Well, those cases have bubbled up to the Supreme Court. And so this coming January 13th, we're going to have oral argument on both of those laws where we and the states of Idaho and West Virginia are asking the Supreme Court to uphold these laws and ultimately uphold the laws of 27 states that likewise protect fairness in women's sports. This is going to be huge because this is ultimately getting at the heart of this radical gender ideology that's kind of infected even the Kaylee Childs case we were talking about earlier. Can states recognize that there are differences between men and women and have those differences matter in sports and privacy and other things that ultimately really matter to women and girls? That's what these cases are advocating for, is making sure that gender ideology doesn't erase women and opportunities for women and. And ultimately basic common sense that there are differences. And when we allow men into women's sports, it's women that lose and pay the price.
>> Walker Wildmon: You know, I don't. It's. It's crazy to think that the Supreme Court is having to decide and really weigh in on topics like this. I mean, in some cases, it's just not good. But I think the Supreme Court. It'll be a missed opportunity if they just don't settle this whole insanity of trying to act like we can change birth certificates and we can check the mailbox when we're not a male. We're just not. and really getting rid of this notion that you can kind of have male, and female over here, like, on the reality side, which is biology. And then over here, you can kind of fudge it a little bit, check a few different boxes and pretend to be something else. it's just. The Supreme Court ultimately needs to put this to rest and just simply say, that there are male and female. There is male and female. There's nothing else. And you can't swap back and forth between the two. You just are what you are. This is how you're created, from conception. And there's no swapping back and forth or pretending. I think that would be the ultimate victory. Matt, I really would hate to see the Supreme Court try to, like, split this up and not directly answer the question or create, like, some accommodations. to me, if this doesn't get really, you know, pushed back far and really corrected, then, you know, trying to defend the rights of women and the left will just keep chipping away at the rights. To me, it just seems like a very dangerous path if the Supreme Court doesn't come down pretty serious and hard on this.
>> Matt Sharp: Yeah, that's why we're hoping the Supreme Court will come down very strongly to say it is perfectly fine and constitutional to recognize men and women are different. And it impacts so many different areas of life, sports, privacy, identification documents. And that's part of what the states are asking for is let us recognize these differences. And ultimately even pointing to federal law. Again, Title 9 was written to create equal opportunities for women. But the left and the Biden administration and others co opted it and tried to use it to put push this radical gender ideology. So we're hopeful the court will roll all of that back and say no, Title IX and laws like it recognize that there are two and only two sexes and that when you allow men and women's sports, you are undermining the purpose of these laws, ignoring reality and ultimately harming women and girls.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. They need to really get this right, and, and really recognize what, what humanity has recognized since the book of Genesis. Hey Matt, thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate yalls work over at adf. Tell our folks where they can read more about your work.
>> Matt Sharp: Sure, they can visit us [email protected] that's adflegal.org they can learn about the cases I've just talked about, Childs First Choice and the women's sports cases and a lot of other ones, that we're working on to defend free speech, religious liberty, life, marriage and family and to combat the harms of gender ideology and so obviously would covet your listeners prayers as these cases are being argued and discussed and considered by the Supreme Court. Ultimately we hope common sense and truth prevails in all of these cases.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen to that Matt. Appreciate your work brother.
>> Matt Sharp: Thank you.
Matt Sharp: This coming year will determine whether Christian values in government sustain
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, that's Matt Sharp who is senior counsel and director for center at the center for Public policy over at ADF Alliance Defending Freedom. ADFlegal.org is that URL ADFlegal.org we appreciate him coming on and also we appreciate ADF's continued legal defense of our rights as Christians and people of faith around this country. between ADF and others, they've done a lot of good, gotten a lot of victories at the Supreme Court and other courts as well. All right folks, we got one segment left. We're going to have on Mississippi Agricultural Commissioner Andy Gibson. He'll be with us in just a few minutes. Stay tuned. Hello, this is Walker Wildmon, CEO of AFA Action. I'm convinced this coming year will determine whether the movement back towards Christian values in our government will be sustained or will it fade? Which will it be? Who will prevail in the 2026 elections? Who will win the course court battles? Who will advance godly values? You and other AFA Action supporters must play a part. This is why AFA Action has a supporter that has offered $200,000 to double the year end gifts from faithful Christians like you. We need to impact Congress and state governments all around the country. We need to impact the courts. And lastly, we need to impact the 2026 midterm elections. As you've seen, the other side is playing for keeps. The woke radicals will spend and they will do virtually anything to destroy our Christian heritage and foundation. And they will succeed unless we stop them. To help double the impact of our challenge, go to afaaction.net afaaction.net. This is at the core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
American Family Radio welcomes back Mississippi Agricultural Commissioner Andy Gipson
Welcome back to the last segment of today's program. Walker Wildmon here with you at the Core on American Family Radio. You can listen live [email protected] and on the app, the American Family Radio app. All right, I want to introduce our next guest who's been a guest multiple times on the program before. That's a Mississippi Agricultural Commissioner, Andy Gibson. Andy Gibson is on with us now. Commissioner Gibson, welcome back to the program.
>> Andy Gipson: Well, thank you, Walker. It's always great to be with you. Always great to be back. Appreciate you having me on.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Glad to have you on. there's multiple things I want to talk about. the main thing that we brought you on for was to shed some light on the eu. they've been working on, of course, a lot of left wing ideas come out of Europe and specifically the European Union. but they've been working on a deforestation plan. tell us a little bit about that.
>> Andy Gipson: Yeah, this is something that the eu, which as you know, is a group of countries that decided to form their conglomerate basically for the entire continent of Europe, without, with the exception of Great Britain, which is now out since Brexit. But the EU adopted a rule basically that says they weren't going to buy any wood or any other products from areas that were being deforested around the world. And, and guess what? They define deforestation. And so it might not surprise you that that includes cutting any tree in the state of Mississippi. Which is absolutely ridiculous. We do not have a deforestation problem in the state of Mississippi or in any other part of this country for that matter. in America, we plant back about four trees for every tree that we cut. So, we've been pushing back on this for two or three years, but it's already hurt our tree farmers, it's hurt our timber industry. Forestry is the second largest product in the state of Mississippi and it's already depressed prices. Because what's happened is a lot of these big timber buying companies have just started putting this in the contract that we're not buying deforested wood in Mississippi or in other parts of the country. This past week, it's gotten to the point, that, it looks like they're trying to delay this perhaps, but delaying it, which it's been delayed a year or two already, delaying it, in my view, is not sufficient. What they need to do is to have this not apply. The effect of it is it's taken away our landowner rights in Mississippi. It's taken away our markets in Mississippi and in America. So myself, our Senator, Cindy Hyde Smith, and our congressional delegation penned letters to the administration, to President Trump last week asking them to basically put the entire European trade deal on halt until this rule is removed. We can't allow this kind of foreign influence to come in here, creep in here and take away our rights as Americans. And frankly, this is just one example of many that I'm aware of where we see foreign influence creeping into America. We can never let that happen. We are a special country with freedoms that no other country has. Anytime that they, they come in here and try to take away a little bit of our freedom this time they'll be after more. Next time. We got to push back and we have to beat this.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is, this is just baseless. I mean, the deforestation, which kind of sounds like a boogeyman for. But to put things, to put things more practical, harvesting timber and then not planting any, is generally and broadly not even a problem. I mean, the vast. You can explain this better than me, but the vast majority, especially tree farmers who are in this for a living, they would have no livelihood in the future if they don't replant trees. I mean, this is what they do. They harvest trees, then they replant trees, and 20, 30 years later, they harvest trees again and then they replant. So their livelihood depends on planting more trees. But, Commissioner Gibson, this just isn't a problem.
>> Andy Gipson: It's not a problem and it's Just a way that they're, encroaching on our freedoms. This European rule, in exchange for agreeing to it, the landowner would basically say, I'm never going to do anything else with my land ever again. So that's giving more control of our property, our freedoms, to some other country. And it's ridiculous. and it needs to be either taken out altogether and not apply in America or reinterpreted in such a way that it does not apply in the state of Mississippi.
>> Walker Wildmon: Mm, absolutely. Yeah. I just think it needs to be banned altogether, as part of a trade deal. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And President Trump, you know, if this gets on his radar, which I'm sure it will, especially if. If. If the. The state senators here, or the US Senators from Mississippi, you know, got involved here, this should be part of the negotiations with the eu, and those countries there.
Commissioner Gibson says President Trump is working on farm bill to help struggling farmers
Commissioner Gibson, I want to get your, thoughts on President, Trump just announced this morning that, the White House and Congress is working on roughly a $12 billion, farm bill, for lack of a better word. There's just not a name for the bill yet. but farmers have been in a tough spot, and this isn't just a recent development. This has really been, kind of looming. Since COVID the supply chain, everything got out of whack. Input costs skyrocketed. yet commodity prices today are very low, relatively speaking. So from a farmer's perspective, give us kind of what they've been going through, the difficulty they've been going through.
>> Andy Gipson: Well, our row crop producers, which includes soybeans, cotton, corn, sorghum, other row crops like this, have really been in a nationwide farm crisis for a number of years now. Only recently has it precipitated to the point that this kind of relief would be necessary. The reason for that is, again, foreign influence. We have to push back against it. We have. We've become so dependent on China to buy our soybeans. For example, they were buying 75% of our soybeans, and then one day they decided they'd go cut down the forest in Brazil and grow their own. And so leaving our farmers with no markets. President Trump has been working to renegotiate those trade, Those kind of trade deals and resetting trade relations. But frankly, we've been in an agriculture trade deficit for the last four or five years under President Biden, meaning that America has been buying more ag products than we've been selling. And that is the reason why our markets are out of whack the way they are, an oversupply of product, lower demand, globally. And so President Trump is resetting global trade relations. This, program he's announcing today, as I understand it, is about $12 billion that, is going to go to help farmers bridge the gap from where we are today to next growing season with the idea that there'll be a long term, better trade deal for them. And he's already got a lot of trade wins already. we talked about the work he's trying to do to get a better deal in Europe. he's announced a better deal with China. But there's other, countries around the world like India, where we can get better deals for our farmers and reset the trade relations globally. But this is one more example of foreigners coming in here trying to influence our country and frankly, trying to put our farmers out of business. We can never let that happen. Food security is national security.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. What China did, just to put it bluntly, was very dirty. they agreed to the trade deal with President Trump in the first term, and I think that was around 19. And then they completely reneged on it when Biden got in, which is not surprising. they completely reneged on it, didn't follow through with hardly any of it. Left our soybean farmers out to dry and, and moved on to Brazil. And they're trying to basically make Brazil their hub for agriculture, for imports for China, which should be a little concerning for us, that they're wanting to move off of our soybeans, and onto Brazil's, which is essentially theirs because China's pumping in a lot of the money into Brazil to build, the infrastructure. Commissioner Gibson, what do we do moving forward to where we're not in this position now? We're always going to need China, and then China's always going to need us. To a degree at least, that's how it's structured today. But how do we get to a place where we're not so dependent on China buying our agricultural products? Is there other markets out there that we could partner with?
>> Andy Gipson: You know what? India is another market to potentially partner with. But I think fundamentally we have to bring back to America, to American soil, our own domestic process. Right now, we're, we're growing cotton, we're shipping it around the world. Somebody in Asia turns it into a T shirt, and we're buying it back. We need to bring all that back to America, bring back domestic production, value add, help our farmers, make a better profit by processing everything we grow here from Soybeans, to cotton, corn, to sweet potatoes for that matter. And when you do that, the value stays here in America. And we're going to have to do that. I believe if we're going to, if we're going to rescue American agriculture from the whims of foreign actors out there, bad actors, we have to put them, like the President said, put America first. And Mississippi, put Mississippi first and grow our own products. We are ridiculously importing soybean oil from other countries when we could be having it produced right here and crushing it right here on our own shores. And that's the type of common sense reform we're going to have to do. Feed ourselves first. If a nation cannot feed itself, it is vulnerable, it is weak and we can never allow that to happen. Feed ourselves first and then whatever excess product we have going around the world. That's what I believe, and I believe the President believes that as well.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, there are certain national security considerations and sectors that are already very regulated and aren't allowed to have foreign ownership. I mean can you imagine Lockheed Martin being owned by China? but our agriculture in many ways is a national security market, it's a national security sector of the economy. and China's been buying up this land, this agricultural land, buying these family owned farms, turning into some major conglomerates and then either shutting them down or, or targeting them, and buying them, buying the produce if you will, or the harvest directly back to China. And so foreign ah, ownership in American land and agricultural land is very problematic for many reasons. what can be done about this or what has been done about this?
>> Andy Gipson: Well there currently is a reporting system, it is a voluntary reporting system system that is through the United States Department of Agriculture where land that is held by foreign interests, including China, is reported voluntarily. The problem is nobody really knows how much they own or control because so many of them will form a local LLC or a corporation and kind of, it's a shell game, they're hiding their ownership. But what we see happening is as farmers are feeling this pressure globally, a lot of them are just saying we're going to sell, you know, we can't keep this farm going. And then foreign buyers are coming in, right, Two, three times what the market value is to own our land. A lot of the solar farms that we see, so called solar farms, you can't eat solar. But We see going out there are Chinese owned. And recently the Trump administration found out they had spyware built into the solar panel. So it Is it is a food security issue. It is also a national security issue, and we have to stop it. A lot of the states, have passed laws to ban it or to limit it. but, President Trump and USDA Secretary Rollins have told us they're going to really tighten this up at a federal level. And really, I think that's what it's going to take to shut this down, because you have a patchwork of states that have, good laws. Our law is pretty weak in Mississippi. It could be a whole lot better. But it's going to take leadership like President Trump to say, no more foreign countries buying up our land and basically controlling our freedom to exist. If you can't feed yourself, you might as well not be a country. I've traveled the world promoting our products to other nations that cannot produce their own food. And I'm telling you, it's a very vulnerable situation. We will never let that happen in our great country.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen. You know, speaking of the solar panels, I think looking back when the history books are written on this, I think going, leaning into solar is going to be one of the gravest mistakes that our energy sector did, because it just doesn't make sense economically or from an energy production standpoint. There are way too many limitations. And with us leaning into small modular nuclear reactors, which is what the Trump administration is doing, and deploying those over the next two to four years, it's going to just make solar look laughable. the fact that we ever spent any money investing in that, I think when the history books are written, is going to be quite comical. Commissioner Gibson, we appreciate your work in Mississippi and across the country and working with our congressional delegation on these topics. Thank you so much for coming on.
>> Andy Gipson: Thanks for having me. M. God bless you and afa.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right. Merry Christmas.
>> Andy Gipson: Merry Christmas to you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.
Commissioner Andy Gipson talks about the farm aid bill that President Trump announced
That's Commissioner Andy Gibson, agricultural commissioner out of Mississippi, talking about multiple topics, one of them being, the farm aid bill that President Trump announced this morning. Some $12 billion. And, folks, I know multiple farmers, that I talk to on a regular basis, and the last few years have been just very, very tough, very hard. And primarily, you look at the input cost, post Covid, the input cost to put the crop in the ground, to plant it, to water it, to fertilize it, just to maintain it. the cost just skyrocketed to input, and the output just didn't keep up. It just didn't keep up. And here we are now. And commodity prices on these harvested crops are, are dropping. They're just dropping, which is in some ways good, because the end consumer is getting a lower price, which means inflation is easing on these agricultural products. But if you're the farmer who invested all this money into, into the, into the crop, and you just can't get your money back, much less make any money, that's unsustainable. And so that's where this farm aid bill is coming from. And, you know, out of all the money spent in Washington, D.C. i have zero problems, zero problems helping our farmers. This is a. This is a national security sector of the economy. if we can't eat, we can't live. This is the backbone of America. Our agricultural sector is the backbone of America. And, we've got to take care of our farmers. And so $12 billion is just pennies when you look at the federal budget. And, we can probably cut $12 billion from somewhere else to pay for this, if we're being honest. Hi, folks. Walker Wildmon at the Core here on American Family Radio. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. 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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