Transcript

Every day unborn babies very lives are under attack at Preborn Network clinics

>> Jeff Chamblee: This July we celebrate the birth of our nation and remember the heroes who fought for our freedoms. But did you know there are Americans today who don't have the freedom of life and liberty. Every day unborn babies very lives are under attack. But because of preborn, we can rescue them. I got to hear and see my baby for the first time. Hearing the heartbeat made me cry and it was certain that I was going to keep my baby forever. Ultrasounds save lives and when, when you save a life at a PreBorn Network clinic, you often save a Soul as over 85,000 women have come to know Christ. To learn more about preborn's life saving work, call pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's 250baby or visit preborn.comafr that's preborn.comafr all gifts are tax deductible. Your love can save a life.

>> Walker Wildmon: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage. To speak truth to live out your free speech.

>> Walker Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, cares and territory.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At the Core on American Family Radio.

Walker Wildmon: American Family Radio focuses on national and state issues

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us today on the program here on afr. I'm Walker Wildmon, I'm your host for the program and we've got two guests coming up this next two segments and you will not want to miss those interviews on, some critical things going on in Indiana and Texas. We try to cover, the latest policy and worldview issues around the country and we try to get into state specific issues as well, just because there's a void there of national platforms talking about state issues. So, we'll do that in the next two segments but in the meantime let's turn our attention to the scripture, Proverbs chapter 18. Looking at verse 15. The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. That's Proverbs chapter 15, verse 1.

Democrats run cover for human smugglers in California sting

Well, a story I wanted to get to last week that I just ran out, of time on is the, President Trump and his, Department of Homeland Security under Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ice. they have been just day in, day out deporting criminals, criminal, illegal immigrants and They've had multiple big stings. They had one over in California at a, at a farm out in California. There was human trafficking going on there. Very, very bad situation. And the media tried to, tried to run the headline, you know, Trump deports Farmers. when. When you actually read into the details of the report and the warrant that was received before conducting the raid, they were running a human smuggling operation out of this farm, and they were using child labor. I mean, it was just a fiasco, disaster. And, so it's just humorous trying to watch the Democrats run cover for the human smugglers. Oh, it's crazy, but that's, I mean, that's their audience. This is their constituency. Cartels, the gangs. Mississippi 13. This is the Democrat Party constituency. Now, just like you run up to Minnesota and the radical Islamist. That's a, that's a voting block in the Democrat Party up there. So they have to cater to it. And that's the problem with creating a voting block out of radicals is, you owe your loyalty to them instead of to America. And that pretty much sums up the Democrat Party. But President Trump put out a memo within the last two weeks to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He put out a memo that said, hey, if you guys get attacked, if you guys get assaulted, if your vehicles get blocked, get out, arrest as many people as you can. Use whatever force is necessary, to stop the assault on Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, officers and assets, to include vehicles. All right, Federal property that's being vandalized here. And Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers said, yes, sir, Mr. President, right away. Listen to this clip of ice running down someone who slashed their tire and arresting them. Clip 3.

>> Speaker E: This video, this, was a guy who said he was a US Citizen fleeing from federal agents after they say he slashed the tires on one of their vehicles. You'll see him running away. He then gets taken to the ground, and he tingles with agents while he's on the ground. It appeared he kind of lunged at one of them. And, you'll see the aftermath of that. Take a look at this picture right here. Those federal agents ended up macing that man, in his face, took him into custody and took him away. His wife was yelling at agents the whole time, saying, He's a U.S. citizen. The agent said, too bad he slashed one of our tires. And then take a look at these photos here. We do have photos of the vehicle that had the tire slashed. There was one puncture mark. It quickly deflated, and the agents had to drive out of the area on.

>> Walker Wildmon: Their rims I don't care if you're a citizen or not. I mean, Erica. Yeah, so. So let's slash federal law enforcement tires. And this is somehow acceptable? Absolutely not. This is absurd. And, I just love how I. I'm sorry, guys, we're on radio. You. You didn't get to watch the video. I did. You can go find the video out there. But Bobby, they, they just like total football move on them. Oh, my gosh. That was a good hit. Yeah, this guy thought he was going to turn this into a foot chase and get away. and these guys, these federal officers were fast. They jumped on him quick. Actually jumped over his hedge of protection to get him. Yeah. Quite literally. Yeah. So this is how you have to do it, folks. This is like exhibit A on how to handle these goons is zero tolerance. Zero tolerance. And this blocking, you know, cars, blocking federal vehicles. they were spray painting them, hitting them with bats, putting their bodies in front of them. Zero tolerance. I mean, you have to bust these people up, otherwise the anarchy will continue. You have to make it to where people think twice about doing stupid things. And furthermore, this is, this is impeding on law enforcement activities here. This is, this is a crime. Like there is a crime for this. When you impede on law enforcement doing their job, that in and of itself is a crime. So there's no like First Amendment right to protest? No. Give me a break. Absolutely not. That is totally not covered here. Absolutely not. This is not the First Amendment in action. All right? And so President Trump puts out this memo because I don't know, I don't know who the head honchos are. Now, granted, let me caveat this criticism with the fact that oftentimes these guys are outmanned. All right? These ICE officers are outmanned and under resourced. So, for example, you've got two federal law enforcement vehicles in a, in a, in a two vehicle caravan going to do a bust on, you know, a gang member, a drug dealer, whatever. And then you've got 20 protesters blocking their vehicles. Well, you've got like four or six ICE agents up against 20 protesters. What are you gonna do? Right? And then you're calling in backup like lapd, and they don't show up. Why? Because they're partisan hacks at city hall. And so they tell their law enforcement officers, hey, don't show up and help ice. So you got a lot of things going on here.

President Trump authorized the military and the National Guard to help conduct ICE raids

And so this isn't a, you know, blame all the ICE officers, but, but rather, this starts at the Top. I mean, you have to have a zero tolerance policy at the top. And you also can't send your officers into situations where they're, where they're outmanned. That's not a good place to be. And so this is why the military and the National Guard are even a topic of discussion. This is what the left does, folks. They force the issue, they create the crisis. And so exhibit A, President Trump authorizing the military and the National Guard, specifically in California, to, to help conduct ICE raids. The only reason that's needed is because of the left Mafia, is because of the radicals showing up, burning down buildings and vehicles, specifically in LA and other places. And so the left always creates the crisis, they create the problem. So it wasn't as if, you know, President Trump, even though he has a lawful authority to do this, it wasn't as if President Trump's just sitting in the Oval Office going, man, I sure would love to use the military. No, he had to. He had to, because you had ICE agents that were, that were out resourced, they were outmanned against these protesters. And so the only option the President has is to surge in additional federal resources or to federalize local resources, which is what he did with the National Guard. And so if you notice the trend here, all of these issues, all of these crises, if you will, are agitated and brought on by the left. I mean, every single one of them going back to George Floyd, why did we have to, you know, why did all the police departments have to militarize? Why did the FBI have to surge in, in 2020? Why did, you know, why did the streets have to be burned down? Well, because the left agitated it. They started it. And regardless of where you fall on the whole George Floyd situation, whether you think the officer was wrong, right? That's really irrelevant to this discussion because you can't morally say, well, this officer in Minneapolis did this wrong, so I'm going to burn my streets down. What if everybody did that? Every time there was an injustice, we just started burning our cities down. You can't do that. But that's what they did. That's what they did. Because these folks are anarchists. They don't believe in law and order. And their own professed mantra is to, uproot and replace these systems that we have today. And how do we know that? Because they accuse our systems of being racist. Right? Have you heard of systemic racism? And America has been racist from the beginning. And if you really want to start connecting the dots here, we can go back to Barack Obama's fundamental change. Right? Remember he said, I'm going to fundamentally change this nation. Boy, was he right. Not how he thought, though. That's all rooted in Marxism. It's all rooted in this socialist utopia ideology of America's evil. We have to uproot it and replace it. All right? And so as, as Christians and those who are ideologically conservative, we're already starting the game or the fight with one hand tied behind our back. Because these folks don't follow the same rules. They are in favor of you of using illegal and illegitimate means to achieve their political purposes. And if you don't believe me, look at their actions. I just went through multiple examples of, lawlessness, anarchy and chaos being a tool of the left to achieve their purposes. And this is why one part of politically and ideologically preserving this nation is to properly use law enforcement to clamp down on this insanity. Because when you allow them to use these unfair advantages and these unfair, illegal tactics, they win, we lose. They win and we lose. And this gets all the way back to what President Trump is doing with deporting illegal immigrants. President Trump is using his lawful authority to simply follow and enforce the laws of the land. And what does the left do? They don't go to Congress petitioning Congress to change our immigration laws, because that would be the moral, proper way to go about changing laws that you don't like, even though we may disagree with that, that goal, that objective, and their criticism of our laws. Because I think our laws are just. I think our immigration laws are just. I think they're fair. But the modern left, they don't use legitimate means to enact political and legal change. They use illegitimate, lawless means. And this is why their ideology is a threat to everybody. And I think some Democrats are starting to realize this. Hence, look at the 2024 election. But the leftist ideology is a threat to all of us. This isn't a Marxism versus Christianity. This isn't a liberalism versus Conservatism. This isn't the Democrat Party versus those of us who love the Constitution. When folks on the right talk about a threat to Western civilization, that is exactly what this is. The modern day Democrat Party is an existential threat to Western civilization. And when you look at everything I've talked about, plus all the other examples out there on the board, you can't look at my assessment and say that's not accurate or you're overstating it. The left wants to fundamentally rewrite what it means to be American and what it means to live in America. What it means to own property, to have life, to have liberty. And if I had to wrap up this whole rant giving you the solution, the solution is to root your civilization and your laws and your government in something that doesn't change, in something that respects life, liberty and property. And this is where our founding fathers perfectly laid it out, quite near perfectly laid it out. And that is America's system of government. Checks and balances, Bill of rights, individual liberty, respect for property, honoring hard work, punishing the evildoer. All of these precepts our founding fathers used to institute, this government are rooted in biblical Christianity. Hello, everybody. I'm Walker Wildmon, vice president here at American Family Association. Well, my brother Wesley and I were following in the footsteps of my dad, our dad, and my grandfather, Don Wildmon, by leading tours to places of the Bible. And so this next March, we're going to be going to Greece and following the footsteps of Paul. So we're so very excited about this trip, and we'll hope you'll join us. Here's a couple of the places that we're going to visit. We're going to visit Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and, all the various Greek cities that you read about in the Book of Acts and, Paul's epistles. And so you can find the dates, locations, pricing, and much more [email protected] you can also find out more about my dad's trip and my mom over, to Israel. They're going to be in Israel in March as well. These trips are back to back, and you can do both if you would like. All the information about footsteps of Paul, Greece, Israel, all of these trips in March of 2026, just visit wildmangroup.com At

>> Jeff Chamblee: The Core podcasts are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome. back to the core here on American Family Radio. As a brief reminder, we do publish the show in the form of a podcast each and every day. You can simply go to your podcast library, your podcast store, type in the name of this show at the core, and click the subscribe button. And the, show will be queued up in your library each and every day.

Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith discusses diversity, equity and inclusion

All right, jumping to our next guest, we have on with us Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith. He's on with us now to talk about a couple topics going on in the state of Indiana. Lieutenant Governor, welcome to the program.

>> Micah Beckwith: Thanks, Walker. Good to be on with you.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. We've got a couple topics and we'll just take them in order. And we'll be a little bit all over the board here on the topics. But it'll be very informative, I believe for our audience. the first one is, the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion. And conservatives have been really chipping away at this in the last, let's say three to five years, because we properly tethered the DEI movement with cultural Marxism, which is very dangerous to our nation. but talk about what in Indiana as lieutenant governor you've done to really fight back and push back against dei.

>> Micah Beckwith: Well, first thing we got to do is we got to expose it. Where is it at? How is it getting here to your point? It is called cultural Marxism, at its foundation. Governor Braun, myself and many, in our legislature have really taken some pretty decisive action to call it out and then to legislate or to executive order it out of our, our culture. It is, it's discrimination. It's just plain and simple. we, we are moving towards, mei. Merit, excellence and innovation. it's. We want to, we want to reward people for the gifts God has given them, the skill sets that they bring to the table and make sure that the right people and the best people are getting the jobs for, for those jobs, especially in state government. So we're not, we're not going to hire somebody based on the color of their skin. We're going to look at the content of the character and then the qualifications that they bring to the table. And so what we're doing in Indiana is just saying get it, you know, get DEI out. It's it's destructive, it's Marxist and there's no place for it.

>> Walker Wildmon: I looked up, I read up a little bit about some of the legislative items that, that the Indiana state Senate and House have, have, have at least reviewed or looked at. And brough recent years, didn't you guys pass a bill on the DEI, topic? I'm looking at Senate Bill 289, that limits some, government funding from going to these programs, for example in public schools or with, with a state agency. did that ever come to fruition as far as making it through the finish line at the governor's office?

>> Micah Beckwith: It did, 289 passed. It was signed into law. Senator, Gary Byrne, good friend of mine from southern Indiana, was the courageous senator, that, that brought that bill, up and he, he spent hours debating the left. I mean we have about 10 senators, on the Democrat side in Indiana. And Senator Burns stood up there for probably two, three hours, in one session just debating these, these kind of radical Marxist ideologues that want to push DEI on us. And he, he stood strong. the governor, myself, and many in our legislature stood with Senator, Byrne and we got it through. And that just basically says, listen, in public institutions, we're not going to allow for DEI to be, the way that we, that we teach our kids, the way that we hire and the way that we build a legacy. So it was a great bill. I was happy to support it. you know, we all took the arrows, from the media. Just like everywhere else. Indiana's media is not conservative. They're pretty biased, they're left leaning. And so we took those arrows, but we were glad to do that because it was a good bill.

Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith pushes reforms to welfare programs

>> Walker Wildmon: Once again, we're talking to Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith. Lieutenant Governor, another item that, President Trump has really highlighted over the last, you know, 12 months, 6 to 12 months, and during the campaign as well, was waste, fraud and abuse and ways to make government more efficient, specifically as it relates to welfare programs. and there's been some reforms recently, for example on work requirements, during the latest bill that President Trump signed, at the federal level when it comes to Medicaid, for example. But at the state level, you've pushed and worked on some reforms, for example, to the SNAP program. So tell us a little bit about that.

>> Micah Beckwith: Yeah, we're just following President Trump's lead on this. we're not going to be putting, you know, junk, food, into the hands of, people in our, in our welfare. We're not going to be putting, we're not going to be putting junk food into the hands of our, people who are on welfare. I mean, we want to make sure they're healthy. We want to make sure that they have a, a, very, great, step forward when it comes to, moving in the right direction with their health. Because honestly, I was talking to a bunch of farmers the other day and a bunch of conservative leaders in our state and we recognize the more that you just put junk food in the hands of kids, the more that you put junk food in the hands of families. You're just perpetuating this constant state of a downward spiral in the health of our people. And then Medicaid costs go up. And right now, Indiana, we spend the most amount of money out of any social program on Medicaid than any other program. And that's, that's, it's, it's indicative of we are incentivizing bad behavior in Indiana by putting junk food in the hands of people who are on these social welfare programs. So shouldn't be drinking soda with SNAP benefits, shouldn't be buying Doritos with SNAP benefits. You need to be, let's get you healthy, whole food that actually is going to make you a healthy person. and that's, again, we're just following President Trump's lead. This is nothing new. Governor, Braun, myself and, and the legislature were very much saying, let's go where President Trump is leading us on this.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, and there's two other aspects to this. The first one is that, to your point about talking to local farmers, I mean, if you're, if these SNAP cards are being used to buy, you know, these horrendous sodas that got, like, more sugar than you should have in three days in them, and then, you know, all the mainstream candy bars and all this junk, that's not supporting businesses in Indiana, because a lot of that money is going to these major conglomerates, in another state or somewhere. And so you really need to direct as m much of these programs towards supporting local farmers and local producers, which are some of the healthier options. secondly, my counter to people who complain about this is that if you want, to get a soda or a Kit Kat, then get off a snap, you know, get a job, earn your own money, and then you can, if you want to buy an unhealthy soda, more power to you. It's America, but the government's not subsidizing this garbage. And so that's my counter to people who want to complain about this, is get off the program and then you can do whatever you want.

>> Micah Beckwith: Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Walker. I mean, it's just stop incentivizing bad behavior with government, tax dollars or people's tax dollars through government programs like this. So it's, it's just the downward spiral that we've created by incentivizing bad behavior. And, I'm glad we're putting the brakes on it finally, and just saying, hey, we love you, we're going to feed you, we're going to help feed you, but we're going to feed you with good quality whole foods organic from places like, you know, your back, your, your backyard, your, your community in Indiana. I mean, this is, it's a great win for who's your farmers? It's a great win for the state of Indiana. I think it's a great win for the United States.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And to your point, you know, what you're doing there in Indiana is not only is it common sense, but it's really restor true heart of these type programs, because this was a never. What a lot of folks miss is that some of these welfare programs were never intended, number one, to be perpetual and never ending. secondly, they weren't intended to meet some of these tertiary desires that are not primary to the program. For example, the SNAP program is meant to feed hungry families, hungry kids, not to, you know, make sure they can get the latest and the greatest soda that's trending on TikTok. this is about core nutritional value. And when you look at it that way and you look at the original purpose, what you guys are doing there is pretty, pretty rudimentary stuff, pretty common sense stuff, that I think voters very much value and appreciate.

Indiana Lieutenant Governor put together Church's Bill of Rights on political activism

the last thing I wanted to mention is this, church's Bill of Rights. This is something you've worked on pretty heavily. as Lieutenant governor, you drafted some of this, over the last few months. But tell us about this church's Bill of Rights that you've put out.

>> Micah Beckwith: Yeah, so, we've worked closely my, office with the lieutenant, with the Attorney General's office, Todd Rakita. Great, Attorney General here in the state of Indiana. And we've recognized over, especially over the last four years, that there's been a hostile assault on churches across the country. Whether that was COVID lockdowns, whether that was, coming against parental rights, this gender identity stuff that is being seen as hate speech by the radicals on the left. And so we just wanted to make sure that churches knew that ultimately they're the bedrock foundation of freedom in our nation. They should be preaching on these things. They should be encouraging their congregants to engage in quote, unquote politics, and they should be protected under constitutional rule of law to have the freedom to do so. And so what we said, what we put out, we said, hey, listen, this is what you are allowed to do as churches, basically, you're almost allowed to do whatever you want to do. I mean, that's just a. We put a lot more legalese into the Attorney General's office, made it, a lot more legal, easy. But even after what happened last week with the, Johnson Amendment being totally overturned, by IRS policy now where churches can come out and they can endorse candidates from the pulpit. Pretty much, we are putting this church's Bill of Rights out to say, you've got an obligation and a duty by God himself to engage in the political stewardship of our nation. And so, you know, I look at the black robe regiment, American history, what, what went on with pastors leading the charge for the revolution, joining Washington in the battle for independence. I think that was, that was paramount in our, in our, our culture on what churches and pastors should be doing. And so hopefully with the church's Bill of Rights, it just, it, it engages pastors to engage their congregants on political, just activism. Because really, if we don't stand up and speak the truth into the culture and to the world of politics, then who. Who do we expect to do? So? The, devil's not going to do it. The enemy's not going to do that. And so we have to be the voice of truth. And John 8:32 says, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And I believe that wholeheartedly. So pastors and churches have an obligation to speak truth and to see people set free.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, and what this, what this handbook that you put together, this church's Bill of Rights handbook does. Is to your point. You guys aren't just like, coming up with new rights when you put this out, but you're providing evidence and clarity to people who need it. Because a lot of churches and pastors, they don't have time to read through the legal minutia and, you know, hire an attorney to review their rights as a church. they just need somebody in authority like you guys, to say, hey, you guys, the churches and pastors, you got all kinds of options here. you're not restricted in what you can talk about. And, and yes, you can speak on the issues of our day. You can talk about elections, you can talk about civics. and this is especially prevalent or relevant rather, with this latest IRS settlement, between a couple of nonprofits and churches where the IRS basically said, hey, this whole Johnson Amendment thing doesn't, really apply to you guys, as churches. You can speak about candidates, you can speak about races and issues, without fear of the IRS coming breathing down your back. So kudos to you, Lieutenant Governor, for the timing of this. It, bodes well with what's going on, in the, in the federal government as well.

>> Micah Beckwith: Well, thank you so much. And again, I just. Listen, American history is just peppered with founders and Leaders in our nation that know God's word, they knew that it should be applied. And listen, politics is just the application of your faith in the public square. That's all it is. And so for any Christian to say, well, we don't, we shouldn't get political all your, you don't have an option of leaving your faith out of any environment. God said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And so politics includes all the world. And so what we're doing is just saying, you know, we're giving, we're given sort of, some ammo or some fodder to these pastors who kind of are feeling like, hey, we're called to engage, but geez, I don't know all of the, the right words to say or all the right laws to point to or all the right history to speak. Speak towards. We're giving them that in this, in this booklet, this binder that we put together. And it's been very helpful to pastors and, and and we're just going to see that grow and grow. So if you want more information, I'll just, look up our website. Lieutenant Governor's office in Indiana and, and we'll, we've got a link there for it. And and you can, I think, I think you can even download a PDF of it if you want.

>> Walker Wildmon: So. Excellent. Hey, Lieutenant Governor, thanks so much for coming on the program today.

>> Micah Beckwith: Thanks, Walker. Keep up the good work.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, you too, brother. That's Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith talking about some of his work, in the legislature and the Lieutenant Governor's office there in Indiana, pushing through a lot of good items, from Head's office and through the legislature to the governor's desk as well.

New Jersey Senate bills would require homeschooling programs to meet state standards

And a related topic that I had, a related story was, out of New Jersey, where to the contrary, they're trying to regulate, homeschoolers. Let's listen, to this is going to be clip one.

>> Speaker F: So as many as 94,000 New Jersey students are homeschooled. And two new Senate bills could put the state in control of their lesson plans. The bills require homeschooling programs to meet New Jersey learning standards, which includes lessons on things like climate change and DEI practices. Two New Jersey moms, Candace Needham M. And Deanna Nye, join us now. Welcome to you both. Deanna, I want to start with you first because homeschooling is something you're very familiar with already for your children. This is your chosen path. what do you make of the state Saying, well, we want to know what you're teaching at home and actually we want to regulate it.

>> Speaker G: Thank you so much, Sandra. So I homeschool for an abundance of reasons. And those reasons came in when our state failed to provide an education that best fit my children's needs. So along with those three, there are so many others that opted out when the governor said, no, virtual learning is bad. Well, those three kids actually did fantastic, and they still do. And my curriculum, I mix it all together for them so they are learning everything that I can in the way that they best absorb it.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's a mom speaking to what they're trying to do in New Jersey. And folks, this, this is the, this is what happens when you have unrighteous rulers. We just talked to a righteous government official in Indiana. But to the contrary, you go up to New Jersey, folks. They're trying to regulate homeschool curriculum. The government has to approve and sign off on what you teach your kids within the confines of your home. You don't get any more dystopian than this. And this highlights the fundamental worldview difference in those who believe in God and those who don't. Because those who don't believe in God, they think that government is God. Government has the final say. Government ought to be approving everything that goes on in your home. Government ought to be approving everything that goes on in your church, everything in your life, etc. Etc. And so this, this worldview difference could not be more abundantly clear, in these two stories of how states operate. And, you know, this is what unfortunately a lot of Christians have to deal with around the country who live in these states, with unrighteous rulers in charge, they have to suffer through a lot of these laws and regulations that are very burdensome and ultimately restricting on individual, fundamental God given rights. In this case, teaching your children the ways of the Lord.

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

Mary Castle is the Director of Government Relations at Texas Values

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here for this last segment on this edition of the program. Well, I do want to introduce our next guest. Mary Castle is with us. She is a director of Government relations at Texas Values and she's on with us now to talk about a special session being brought on by the governor in Texas. Hey, Mary, welcome to the program.

>> Mary Castle: Thank you so much for having me.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Mary, before we get into the policy side of this special session, give, us a little background to hear. To number one, what is a special session and who has the authority to call it in Texas.

>> Mary Castle: Yeah, absolutely. So for those of you who may not live in Texas or are new to the Texas legislature, they meet every other year for about five months or 180 days. So they met this year from January until June 2nd. and within that time period, you know, they pass, you know, several bills. They also kill several bills. but the governor of Texas does have the authority to call a special session, and that means he's able to call a legislative session that lasts for 30 days on a series of topics or one particular topic that he deems important or in somewhat kind of like an emergency item that must be passed in that session. the legislature also, you know, has to do the work. So it is expected that since the governor did call the session that that issue will get passed. however, as we saw, I think, last, session, he did have to call several special sessions, but it's a miniature session, so to speak. It's only 30 days. It's a race to the finish. but it is expected that, you know, since these are issues that the governor called them back for, called them back to Austin after a short break, then they should be issues that we see get passed in a short amount of time period.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it's. It's quite interesting, Mary, just as an outside observer, that the legislature, you know, has been working for the last, you know, five to six months, and then the governor's like, nope, not enough come back and they've got to go back and work, which is. Which is no problem. But it. It's quite interesting that there are so many issues the governor wants to get to, and apparently none of them were gotten to, during the last six months. tell us a couple of the items that would interest our audience. Maybe like the pro life issue, etc.

>> Mary Castle: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, Governor Abbott had a few issues when he first called the special session, that he wanted to address. But a couple of weeks ago, he added several issues related to family and pro life issues to the special session call. the one that we're, the most excited about, is the protect women's privacy act or protecting women's spaces. he did add this to the special session call for several sessions. Now, we have tried to pass in Texas very clear, concise language that makes sure that sex separated spaces like restrooms, locker rooms, the. Like that men are not entering women's spaces. Women are not entering men's spaces. and we had a lot of momentum on this issue in the last session. However, it got to the Texas House and it was stopped, in committee, and it didn't make it across the finish line. So we're very happy that Governor Abbott decided. Okay, we're going to call a speaker special session to make sure that it gets done, you know, this year, before it's too late. Because we're already seeing examples, even at the Texas Capitol, of men entering women's restrooms. it has been in our minds an emergency issue because this needs to be resolved, even when people just come to the Capitol or work at the Capitol, but also our school districts and gyms and any other places as well. So we're happy about that. And of course, course, he has added, keeping abortion pills, out of the state of Texas to the special session call as well.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's very, very important. What do you think? What's the legislature like from an ideological perspective? Because clearly everybody looks at Texas as a. As a big red Republican state. And it is mostly. But, some of these wins on the conservative side aren't very easy for you guys. I mean, you guys having a kind of fight and claw for a victory here on some of these issues. Which chamber seems to give you the most trouble, the House or the Senate?

>> Mary Castle: Yes, by the nature of the beast, you can say that, the Texas House is just built to be, the more challenging part of the process. The Texas Senate, of course, is led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who definitely is a champion for our issues, who definitely saw that the Women's Privacy act was a top priority, for the Senate chamber. the Senate only has, you know, 31 members. The Texas House, you know, has one, ah, hundred and fifty. So you have more members in the Texas House. as far as, you know, if you want to talk political makeup, you, still have a majority in both chambers, but you do have just a lot more different areas of the state represented in the Texas House. So who may be, a family issues person in your part of the state may not be a family issues or as strong as a family issues person and, you know, maybe a metropolitan area. So it does become, you know, more challenging in the House because of the number of members, the different parts of the process, the different characters, that, you know, kind of align with the different issues. and so that's definitely what we found, you know, last session with the Texas Women's Privacy Act. Very easy to get it out of the Senate chamber, but definitely found it difficult even with the Republican chairperson of State affairs to get it out of, that House committee. So, yes, it definitely is a challenging part of the process, but even more important for people in Texas to get involved and know their members, to make sure that they're solid on these family issues, these pro life issues and the like.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Hey, Mary, tell our folks your website. So especially those who live in Texas and our constituents can check, out your website, find out more about this special session.

>> Mary Castle: Yeah, absolutely. Please visit txvalues.org to learn more. we also have a special website for the women's privacy issue. Protect Texas women.com protect women texas women.com you can find specific information about that issue on that website. And we're also active on major social media platform platforms as well.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Hey, thanks, Mary. Appreciate you coming on.

>> Mary Castle: All right. Thank you so much for having me.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. That's, Mary Castle. Mary is director of government relations over at Texas Values, and she's talking about the special session that the governor has called that began today to address multiple issues in the state. the pro life issue and women's rights, both of those at the top of the agenda for the governor and the legislature. So we'll continue to keep an eye on that.

Los Angeles residents still waiting on permits following wildfires

Going over to California, you know, I don't always cover, I don't often cover California news, but I came across this story regarding the aftermath of the wildfires back in January, which seems like, you know, it seems like a long time ago, which it's, only six months since those wildfires ravaged parts of Los Angeles and surrounding areas. And if you recall, there was this, this back and forth with President Trump and Karen, Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, and the governor, by the way, Governor Newsom on the, this, the red tape and the regulation and the permits required for homeowners to return to their property and rebuild. All right, and even, even the mayor and President Trump were in kind, of a back and forth at a press conference in Los Angeles when President Trump visited there. And then Governor Newsom and President Trump went in a back and forth on this topic as well. And Mayor Bass said, oh, there'll be no problem. You know, we'll get them back on their property in a week. Well, number one, allowing a property owner back on their own property within any more than five seconds is too long. All right, this gets into fundamental property. Right. Questions that the left doesn't believe in property rights. So that's why they think the government can keep you from going to your property. And this is the, you know, some of the thinking behind property taxes, et cetera. But the governor, you know, they put out these executive orders and claimed, oh, this won't be a problem, we'll streamline the process, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's not true. And the reason I know it's not true is because I've got an example here of a homeowner who is still waiting on a permit to rebuild. All right, think about this. Wildfire comes through. Wildfire comes through, let me note, because of rampant mismanagement of forest. It's one thing to have a hurricane or some other natural occurrence to come through that the government literally has no control or influence over. But here we have wildfires. And one of the, one of the leading causes of the wildfires is because California leaders don't know how to manage their forest. All right? It doesn't mean that they can prevent wildfires altogether, but they actually, they purposefully do things that, that make their chances of a wildfire more prominent by not cutting fire lanes, for example, not clearing underbrush. Why? Because they're married to the tree huggers. All right? And people suffer. People suffer and people die because of this, this green New Deal tree hugging ideology that idolizes God's creation over his created people. And so listen to this Los Angeles resident who has waited six months on a construction permit for his home.

>> Speaker G: Clip 2 no, Charlie, very, very far from that. It's crazy when you say six months. I mean, some days it feels like just yesterday. some days I bet it feels like a lifetime ago. But every day for all of us and my neighbors here in Palisades, we are living the reality of the aftermath of the July or January 7th and 8th, fires. And yeah, you say, you say far from permits. we're frozen. I mean we're paused. you know, I just went back to the house on Saturday, by myself, and not much has changed. Matter of fact, the only thing for us that has really changed is it went from what I saw as a pile of ash when I left on January 8, having watching it burn down, to now it's a pile of dirt. the army corps did an amazing job clearing everything. but for us and my family work, we're kind of frozen right now with so much unknown.

>> Walker Wildmon: Alright, ah, so, so he's being nice, but I'm not going to be nice. he's waiting on a permit because the government's incompetent and they feel like they got to sign off on everything. And this is utterly ridiculous. And see the people of California, they become accustomed to the incompetence, they become desensitized to the stupidity. But this is absolutely dumb and should be illegal. Here's the numbers in just in Pacific Palisades and Malibu and Pasadena, these are a couple different areas. Over 800, nearly, nearly a thousand or more homeowners have applied for rebuilding permits. And listen to this, only 145 permits have been approved thus far. Out of nearly a thousand, just over 10% of rebuilding permits have been approved. And in the, in the outer skirts of Los Angeles and LA county, only 90 permits have been issued have been approved out of 1200 applications. That's well below 10%. The average wait time for a permit is 60 plus days. This is a high regulatory, high taxed, big government environment. And if I'm there, why would I rebuild there? I mean think about it, unless you've got some kind of deep roots to this area, why would you go through that headache to rebuild there? If I'm, if I'm a resident that doesn't have some kind of emotional attachments to LA County, I'm taking my insurance check and I'm going to a low tax, low cost of living state, conservative state and I'm setting up shop there. And you can build a house and you can have money left over from your insurance claim. But see, see, see the people of California have unfortunately grown accustomed to this incompetence. And this is where we have to be very careful, where human nature takes over. Where you think that incompetence is normal, right? That, that government taking 60 plus days to approve a building permit following a disaster is normal. This is so not normal. This should not be acceptable under any circumstances. And the only way that this stuff is going to change folks, is if the people there become so sick and tired of the nonsense that they stop electing the Democrats. And Republicans can be incompetent too. But let me just tell you, the likelihood of a Democrat being incompetent is, is exceedingly higher. Because every one of these cities that was once hustling and bustling, representative of middle America, with safe streets, safe neighborhoods, families flourishing, I'm thinking Detroit, I'm thinking Chicago, I'm thinking Minneapolis. These cities have all gone off the deep end. And when you look at the voting record, they've been under Democrat control for decades. And the moment the Democrats took over these cities, it's almost, almost a hundred percent, not quite almost a hundred percent. The moment the Democrats and the God haters and the big government folks take over the cities go down and the cities go down, and people flee to the suburbs, and they commute an hour into work because their income comes from the city, but they don't want to live in the city because the city's a dump. And then eventually it leads to the degradation and the complete downfall of the city as you once knew it. Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, Louisiana. The list goes on. There's a few exceptions in there, but the moment Democrats take over, the cities go down the tube. 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.