Walker Wildmon: American Family Radio Network was founded in 1991

>> 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.

>> Rick Green: We equip sacred honor is the courage. To speak truth, to live out your free speech.

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

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

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to the core here on American Family Radio. I'm, Walker Wildmon. Glad to have you with us. On today's brand new edition of the program. We're going to have a hopefully jam packed show full of great content that is relevant to you, the listening audience and, and for those of you who may be new or unfamiliar with the network here, American Family Radio Network was founded in 1991 by my grandfather, Don Wildmon. And ever since then we've been programming Christian based programming, both talk shows, Bible teaching, commentary, apologetic programs, all of the above, ever since 1991. And we've been helping believers know how to think biblically about the issues of our day. So that's what we aim to do here on American Family Radio. You can subscribe to today's episode and podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just type in the name of the program at the core, click the subscribe button and you'll have the latest episode queued up in your library each and every weekday. Rick Greene and I were your host each week and it's good to be with you again on this brand new edition.

Let's turn our attention to the scripture, John, chapter 14

Let's turn our attention to the scripture, John, chapter 14. John, chapter 14 is where we are here. Verses five and six. Thomas said to him, lord, why Lord, we do not know where you are going. And how can we know the way? Verse 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's, John, chapter 14, verses 5 and 6.

Any religion that teaches access to heaven without going through Jesus is false teaching

There's a lot of false religions out there. There's a lot of false teachings out there. There's even some that use part of scripture, part of the Holy Bible, to justify their existence, to justify their ideology, to justify even their false religion. But one quick and easy way to spot false teachings, false religions, is to look at the person of Jesus in their teachings, or maybe even excluded from their teachings. There's one thing amongst many in the scripture, that is abundantly clear to anyone who reads it. And one of the truths here is that there's no way to eternal life except through Jesus. Jesus makes it abundantly clear here he doesn't mince words. There's no access to the Father except through the Son. That's what Jesus said on countless occasions. And so any teaching, any religion that teaches access to heaven or even access to God the Father without going through the Messiah, the, the Son of God, it is immediately spotted as false teaching. And this also cuts straight to the heart of any type of works based religion or, even any version of Christianity that teaches that we can earn our salvation, we can earn our way into eternity. This cuts straight against that. Now, works are important. the scripture says faith without works is dead. But we must be clear, according to the scripture, that there's nothing that you and I do within the confines of our flesh that grants us access to the Father, that grants us access to eternal life. It is only through Jesus in which we have such. That's according to John, chapter 14, verses 5 and 6. And so who is Jesus to you? And if he's not the Messiah, if he's not the Son of God, if he's not, the means and to salvation, then you need to reread the scripture, or in some cases you need to just read the scripture, the person of Jesus and properly understanding him and our need for him for the remission of sins is a core fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. And without it, the whole, worldview falls apart and the whole thing falls apart. Our whole path unto salvation falls apart. And so understanding who Jesus is and our need for him is fundamental, to our understanding of eternity and accessing God the Father. That's John, chapter 14, verses five and six.

Turning Point says halftime show indicative of where American culture is today

Well, looking out in our culture, you know, the super bowl halftime show, if we want to talk about that, I think some of us do. that was yesterday evening, the halftime, which the game itself was rather kind of uneventful, kind of slow, slow going. I think, Seattle had the most field goals in any super bowl, which was fascinating. I think they had five field goals. That was when I quit watching. I think they had more than that, but when I stopped watching, they had five field goals. No touchdowns at that point. And, that was pretty interesting, but it was pretty slow going. So I'm not here to comment on the game, but look, the halftime show has been degenerate for, for a long time. I mean, as long as I can remember. Right. I'm sure maybe, you know, in my younger years, when I was growing up as a child, or maybe even before that, the halftime show had some semblance of decency attached to It. But if we're, if we're being honest, the halftime show's been gone for a while. Right. I mean, we've had to cover up the eyes of our youth for decade plus minimum. Maybe going back longer than that. It's just been degenerate. Right. And I'm going to push back against this narrative. Well, the halftime show is just indicative of where our culture is. no, I disagree with that. I disagree with that. Maybe partly. Partly. I mean, when you look at Barna's studies on where our culture is, it's not good. Right? The number of people who have a biblical worldview is very low. And the number of churches and pastors that strictly adhere to the teaching of scripture, there's not good studies on that. So I'm not here to present that America is this sanctified nation, with 90 plus percent border born again believers. That obviously is not the case. Look around. Right. but at the same time, I don't think if you gave our nation and our people, both born again and non, the opportunity to have a say at, what we're going to watch during the halftime of the super bowl, one of the greatest sporting events in American history, I would doubt that, that 51% are going to pick Bad Bunny, okay? I just don't think that our appetite is bent that direction. I'm talking about the majority of the country. All, Right. You can, you can find 10% of our country that'll sign up for anything, all right? I'm talking about the majority of the viewership of the Super Bowl. I can almost guarantee you, if you were to put options before them or allow them to ride in their own options, we're not going to be picking Bad Bunny, okay? We're not going to pick Jay Z and we're not going to pick Beyonce. And so this is where the frustration arises. All right? And then I'll get to what Turning Point did. And it's a pretty revolutionary thing that they did that I think will pay dividends down the road. So we'll talk about that. But I don't think this is where our culture is. Our culture is not in a good place, but I don't think it's where this is. When you look at the lyrics of this guy, this is very degenerative stuff. I mean, you talk about, you talk about, dehumanizing women. That's what this guy does. I actually can't even touch the lyrics on live radio because we're regulated by the fcc. You talk about having a license Violation. Read his lyrics on the radio. No go. so the lyrics are horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. But of course, he's singing in Spanish. Who knows what he's saying, right? Apparently he did tone it down a little bit for the halftime show because he was on national broadcast television, which is regulated by the fcc, so he was forced to tone it down, if you will. But this is the kind of stuff that is being pushed on Americans that we didn't sign up for. And this is where the honest frustration is, is that we didn't sign up for this. We bring in a Puerto Rican who's singing all of his songs in a foreign language. Although Spanish speaking Americans is on the rise, but nonetheless it's still a foreign language, non majority language in Spanish. And that's our halftime show. And then you look at the lyrics. It's horrendous stuff. Never, ever, ever would we, should we be listening to this garbage, much less let our kids listen to it? And I, actually hesitate to even differentiate what our kids should listen to versus what we should listen to, because why would we listen to stuff that we don't let our kids listen to? So as a believer, we really need to have this universal standard of decency and morality and what goes in our ears and in our mind and in our eyes, that should be applicable across the board. I mean, we shouldn't watch some stuff that we wouldn't let our kids watch. We should all just not watch bad stuff. But the halftime show was terrible. Of course I didn't watch it. but I saw. I looked on X this morning, kind of got up to speed on how bad it was, so to speak. but that's where we are on the halftime show.

Charlie Kirk was taking Turning Point in a very Christian centric direction

What Turning Point did? look, we've got our critiques of what Turning Point did. Personally, I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity. I think Charlie's. Charlie Kirk. This is my opinion, okay? Charlie Kirk was taking Turning Point in a very Christian centric direction. There's no doubt about it.

What Turning Point did was revolutionary, and I believe it broke the

All right. What's fascinating about Charlie Kirk's testimony, which I only have good things to say about him, what's fascinating about Charlie Kirk's testimony and the trajectory in which he was taking the organization, which was effectively becoming a ministry, is he was taking it. Instead of most founders or most organizations, like starting out solid and then drifting away from God or away from core fundamental truths that they were founding on, Charlie was actually taking the organization from more of like a political cultural organization to a very Much Christian centric, biblical worldview organization. I mean, he was pulling and pushing Turning Point in a very good direction. It was solid, all right? And you could hardly, hardly listen to Charlie Kirk without him mentioning Jesus, the Bible, apologetics, scripture. I mean, Charlie Kirk was moving in the right direction and he was taking his organization very much in a good direction. So I think in some ways the Turning Point halftime show did, miss a little bit of an opportunity to continue that trajectory. Let me just leave it there. All right? but nonetheless, the highlight of the night is that Turning Point got 5 million viewers on YouTube alone. The latest report from Turning Point as of this morning that they had somewhere between 25 and 35 million viewers across all platforms. All right, to me, that's the headline. All right? And we don't need to miss this for the sake of nitpicking some of this other stuff. All right? What Turning Point did was revolutionary, and I believe it broke the stranglehold that the degenerate NFL halftime has had on our culture for the last 25 years. All right? So to me, what Turning Point did is a welcome sign that the NFL halftime show is no longer quote the thing and that, ah, there's options elsewhere. You don't think that this got the attention of Roger Goodell? Maybe it didn't. Maybe he's asleep at the will. I don't know. But Turning Point proved that there is a market for something else. There is a market for something maybe a little bit more wholesome. There's a market for something where maybe you don't have to close the eyes or the ears of your child for the entire halftime show. And so I think this is phenomenal. I think what Turning Point did going to move things in the right direction. It's going to create an entire other market for alternative halftime shows. And there's no telling how many ad dollars and sponsors are going to go, eh, I can spend, you know, a million over here with the woke NFL or I can go spend a hundred thousand with Turning Point. I'll go hang out with Turning Boy.

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

American Family Radio is offering several spiritual heritage tours for prospective listeners

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. Well, if you'd like to join us on some of our spiritual heritage tours, we would greatly appreciate you joining us. We've had thousands over the years, over the last 30 plus years we've had thousands of our listeners join us on these tours. And so for 2026 we're going to be in Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown. That's one trip. We're going to be in Washington D.C. that's another trip. Those are back to back though. And then lastly we're going to be in Boston in late September of this year touring the Freedom Trail, Plymouth Rock, Lexington, Concord, just to name a few. It's going to be a great time of fellowship and Learning with Stephen McDowell and Tim Barton. That's going to be for Boston. Steven McDowell helps us lead the tours from a historical perspective in Washington, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. You can go over to tours.afa.net to check out that website. Tours, plural tours, plural tours.aca.net to check out all of those dates, to register itinerary. Everything you need to know is over [email protected] well, I've interviewed various guests including our very own Dr. Jameson Taylor and others on the topic of protecting youth, and children from the harms that are on the Internet. We've talked everything from age verification to civil liability for some of these tech companies and these website hosting platforms. I mean we've talked extensively about what needs to happen from a legal and policy vantage point in order to property properly protect minors while on the Internet.

Florida sheriff says teens communicated on Roblox and Snapchat before kidnapping

All right. And a lot of this has already become law and it's beginning to take full effect in various states around the country. Well, one of the bad actors, if you will in this realm is a platform and a software called Roblox, which apparently does a lot. Never used Roblox, but I know youth who have, I've talked to parents who have you know, seen their kids use it, etc. and then there's the Snapchat. And this is just two of many platforms that have some serious harms involved. I'm going to play this is about a 3 minute Fox report on how a 12 year old and a 15 year old were lured in by a child predator in Florida. Actually going to take him up to the Northeast. Thankfully family and law enforcement Intervened before physical harm was done. But listen to this horror story that took place between Roblox and Snapchat.

>> Clip: Listen to this. A pair of 12 and 15 year old Florida sisters back home safe after they left home to meet a 19 year old man. The Martin County Sheriff's office says the three had communicated for months beginning on the online gaming platform Roblox before moving over to Snapchat. The man even ordered girls food deliveries before he drove 23 hours from Nebraska to meet them. However, the girls were intercepted in Georgia by a family member and were unharmed. That suspect now facing two counts of kidnapping. John Boudenseek is the Martin County Florida sheriff who worked this case, joins me now. Sheriff, what leads you to believe that in your words, authorities quote, prevented something disastrous from happening to these two girls?

>> Clip: Well Todd, there's nothing good that's going to come out of a 19 year old driving all the way from Omaha, Nebraska to Florida, 15, 1500 miles, picking up two little girls and taking them back to wherever he was going to take them back, back to. Nothing good was going to come out of that.

>> Clip: I think we could all agree that that is a logical conclusion. I have to read these statements from the two social media companies Roadblocks providing this statement, quote, they are long so bear with me. We are investigating this deeply troubling incident and will fully support law enforcement. Roblox has robust safety policies to protect users that go beyond many other platforms and advance safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communication communications. We have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information, don't allow user to user image or video sharing and recently rolled out age checks globally to limit kids and teens to chatting with others their age by default. While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends and we continue to strengthen protections to keep users safe. Snapchat issuing a similar statement. While no single safety feature or policy can eliminate every potential threat online or in the world around us, we continuously adapt our strategies as criminals evolve, their tactics. We've built safeguards, launched safety tutorials, partnered with experts and continue to invest in features and tools that support the safety, privacy and well being of all Snapchatters. But Sheriff, this 19 year old gift did not use some CIA level mission impossible level computer skills to get communicate with these girls. He was simply able to go on these platforms and communicate with them. So can parents, despite these statements, actually trust these platforms to protect their kids?

>> Clip: They absolutely cannot. You know in this scenario it was relatively benign information. At first it was just two people chatting and then it went from the Roblox platform over to Snapchat. And then we do believe now that there was some inappropriate photos that were sent. We know there was a lot of communication. In fact, that communication with vigilant family members was shut down in the m. Middle of the summer. And unbeknownst to the family, that communication started again. And then it ended this last Saturday night with those girls getting picked up. And had we not found them, we would be doing a nationwide search right now for two little girls that would be in Omaha, and we would never. We would likely never find them.

>> Walker Wildmon: M. Wow. So that's, that's the, that's the lengthy version of what happened here. And I feel as though we needed that full context. The, the more I read, the more I interview folks on this topic of the Internet and minors. We already have enough problems with the Internet in adults, right? We could do entire shows on that, including pornography addiction, sex trafficking, etc. But what is happening to our young people on these platforms is horrific. It's horrific. And I can't, you know, most m. Things I can look at and go and go, you know, this is a, this is a distant threat or this wouldn't happen to my kids. Right. here's what makes this a threat for all of us as parents and grandparents or anyone that is caring for, children. Here is what makes this a viable threat for all of us, and that is the phone.

It's difficult to regulate the average phone once it makes it into the hand

All right? The smartphone, because it's one thing to talk about the platforms. I can talk about Roblox. We can do interviews on Snapchat. We can, I mean, Facebook Snow Saint X has its problems. Trust me, I'm on there pretty often. this junk shows up in people's feeds. You don't even ask for it. And it shows up, based on your demographics. And so. But the phone is what makes this something that everyone should be paying attention to, because it's not as if we have computer time once a day for 30 minutes at school or at home. And as long as that's monitored, we're good to go. Which we probably should get back to that. But what's happening here is the kids are getting the phones, and it is very difficult to regulate the average phone once it makes it into the hand of the youth. All right? And yes, there are safety features you can put in place. We've actually lobbied for some of them. Apple, actually did one of our recommendations on pornography and imessages and made it to where if you're, if you're 17 and under, and you have the proper safety features turned on on the device, then you should be protected from pornographic images through the imessage app. All right, so that was just. That's just one of many things that we've lobbied for and actually gotten put in place, which is a big deal. But nonetheless, what I'm learning is, is, is a couple things here. Number one, oftentimes parents don't put in place the proper safety settings. All right? Oftentimes parents do not take the time to put into place the proper safety settings. Big deal. That's a big deal. Or another thing I'm learning is that the kids know how to outsmart the safety settings. Prime example, you have a master password for an iPhone and the parent controls the master password, and that's how you enable all of the safety settings. Well, unbeknownst to the parent, the child now knows the master password and can override it at any time and override all of the settings at any time they want. These are the type of real world examples that are happening. And so that leads me to this conclusion is that we need to delay as long as possible the use of the phones for the kids. That's the only place I can land on this. Now, you talk to someone like Dr. Jessica Peck. She would actually say that the kids aren't ready for this until they're 18, which I don't disagree with that. I'm not going to tell every parent that they should wait till their child's 18 to give them a phone. I just don't think that's realistic. and people would probably disagree with me on that. So whatever, I'm not going to get hung up on that. But my point is, you know how the government kicks the can down the road on our debt? Like, every time they pass a bill, they're like, well, you know, we're going to pass a continuing resolution and we're going to address our deficit in the next budget cycle and blah, blah, blah. And they never do it. Right. It's the kick in the can down the road. Well, I think parents should learn one good thing from Washington, D.C. and that is how to kick the can down the road. I think we should delay, we should stall, we should make excuses. We should kick the can down the road on giving our kids the devices. All right? Now, there are. There are times where you can have, you know, we do Personally, we do 30 minutes of technology a day. All right? We do 30 minutes of technology a day. Some people would say that's 30 minutes too much. and they would probably convince me that they're right. some people do an hour, some parents unfortunately have no limit and they just throw the tablet at the child and it's just unlimited screen time. I think that's very problematic. I actually ran into a situation recently where you go to these restaurants and I'm getting, now I'm getting very hands on, I'm getting very specific. All right, no more high level, 40,000 foot talk. I go to a restaurant and we don't do screens at the table, all right? If you want to watch TV at home, you want to play Nintendo at the house, whatever, we don't do screens at the table. Number one, the amount of times that families actually eat together anymore is very, very low, unfortunately, historically speaking. So if we are going to sit down together and we are going to eat, we're not going to be on the screens. Okay? Whether we're at home or eating out, it doesn't matter. But I'll, I'll look over in this one instance at, at lunch one night or, at dinner one evening, I saw a child on the tablet. I mean, the whole time we're talking about an hour straight on the tablet. And I looked over and the kid, the poor kid looked up to try to talk to the parents and the parents swatted him down. The parents told him to be quiet and get back on his tablet. And I look at that and number one, my heart's completely broken because here you have a child sitting with adults at the table and wants to in some way engage with the adults in conversation and they swat them down and they tell them to get back on the tablet. And I think you know how demoralizing that is. You know how much permanent damage you're doing to that child's social skills. When they want to talk to their parents, they want to talk to their grandparents at the table. God forbid they want to talk to their friends or their siblings at the table. And you swat them down because the adults don't want to have to deal with conversation with their children. It's very convicting stuff. And these are the type of little things, if you will, in air quotes, that as listeners and parents and grandparents, you deal with or, you run into every single day where you can make a difference. And so back to the point of this story. The devices are the gateway to these sick and perverted platforms. All right?

The devices are the gateway for young people, so parents need to step up

So I can spend, once again, I can spend hours talking about Roblox. We can talk Snapchat, we can talk Facebook x Reddit, all the platforms, all of which have problems. But I want to emphasize in the few minutes we have left that the devices are the gateway. All right? So if as parents, we can get control of the devices, we control access to the platforms. All right? And so the unfettered access to the device 247365 for the minor has a ton of risk associated with it. A ton of risk associated with it. And as parents, you can say, I'm going to put in all the safety features. I'm going to do xyz. I'm going to remember to take up the device before they go to bed. And you can say all these things, but if you are not rigid about it, you will quickly let your guard down. All right? And when you look at the number of young people and the age at which they're being exposed to pornography and other harmful content, it's at a younger and younger age every year. And the percentage of young people that are being exposed continues to go up. All right, and lastly, I'll end on this. You need to be careful who your kids are hanging out with and what their parents standards are, because you can have very good standards in your home, have very good standards for your child, have limited screen time, complete device control, and then you send them over to somebody's house who has no standards or lacks standards, and then before you know it, your child's on rob blocks chatting with a child predator at their friend's house. And you have completely no idea. And so the challenge is on us as parents. Look, we're going to keep suing the platforms, we're going to keep passing legislation, we're going to keep requiring age verification, we're going to keep doing all the policy and government stuff we can under the sun to protect children. But at the same time, parents have to step up. And that's the message here with this story. Parents, grandparents, guardians, they've got to step up and we've got to know what our kids are doing with the devices. All right, folks, we'll be back in a few minutes. We got one segment left. Stay around.

The Ministry of Preborn helps rescue babies at risk from abortion

>> Walker Wildmon: In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election. And there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the Ministry of PreBorn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with, unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country by providing them with resources that they need to rescue babies PreBorn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life saving machines cost $15,000 each, more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a match, your gift has doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate just dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating.

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

Cleta Mitchell is senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the last segment of today's program. Glad to have you with us on the core. Well, we don't really waste time here and we definitely don't talk about soft subjects, at least not very often. So we're going to move from one heavy hitter to another. Cleta Mitchell's with us now. Cleta, is senior legal fellow over at the Conservative Partnership Institute, otherwise known as cpi. Cleta Mitchell's with us now. Cleta, welcome to the program.

>> Cleta Mitchell: Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yes, absolutely. We're honored to have you on today's program. And I do want to give, you props because you've been in the election integrity fight for some time now. you were in the thick of it, so to speak, in 2020, right after the 2020 election. And you were under a lot of pressure, legally and otherwise, professionally. And I just remember our good friend Sandy Rios emailing us frequently, updating us on your fight, to defend yourself honestly against some of the false attacks. And so I appreciate your boldness and the fact that you've been in this a long time. This isn't a new conversation for you.

SAVE act would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote

So I wanted to lead off with that. But Cleta, tell us, give our listeners who are hearing about the SAVE act or the Save America act, but they're not really up to speed yet. Bring them up to speed, please.

>> Cleta Mitchell: Well, thanks so much. I appreciate your kind comments. We are in a battle against, I, think forces of evil who really want to take our country down and want to do it by destroying our ability to give and withdraw the consent of the governed to the election, through the election process. So, the SAVE act is secure American, eligibility for voting. Voting eligibility. Secure American voting eligibility. That's the SAVE Act. And that was introduced, two years ago by Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, and who's now running for Attorney General. So I hope people will support him, because he's really a wonderful, leader. And Senator Mike Lee, from Utah. And this bill would. It has passed the House twice, and it would require that people have to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The reason that's necessary is because the US Supreme Court a decade ago ruled that states, could not require proof of citizenship because the federal government had weighed in and only Congress could make, that requirement. So that's what the SAVE act would do. And that has, as I said, it's been passed in 2024 and again in 2025 by the US House of Representatives, with all the Republicans voting aye. all the Democrats vote one, last year voting no. And so now what we are proposing, what Senator Lee and, Congressman Roy are proposing is to reintroduce the SAVE act with the addition of voter id so that it would be required that you would have documentary proof of citizenship to register. Plus you would have to show your voter id, photo ID at the polls if you vote in person, or a copy of your ID if you vote by mail. And that has been put into a Senate bill. Well, we hope that that will be on the floor this week. the Save America Act. And that's just the SAVE act plus voter id, and that. That would be put into a bill that's already passed the Senate. So it would go immediately back to the Senate. And that's where we really need everyone in every state to weigh in and encourage and really, ask our senators to not just have a pretend or phony filibuster, but actually to make everybody who wants to oppose the Save America act, make them come to the floor and tell the American people why they're against voter id, why they're against documented proof of citizenship. And there are rules in the Senate that allow two speeches by every member. And when that time is expired, I mean, it has to start and keep going, or that time is expired, then the bill can be passed on a simple majority. That's what we haven't seen in the Senate in decades. And that's what we're trying to get done because this is so important to the future of our country.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I do want to talk about the fake filibuster versus the real. Because that's our. The public has been lied to about calling this the filibuster when they really haven't used a true filibuster in, as you said, decades.

Would this bill strictly apply to all federal elections or can it also affect local elections

But before we do that, let's debunk this notion that, well, Congress shouldn't be weighing in on state elections. correct me if I'm wrong. Would this bill, this bill, would it strictly apply these standards of registration and voting requirements to all federal election, or can it also delve into state elections or local elections?

>> Cleta Mitchell: Well, let me take. That's a good question. Let's start with the fact that the reason that we have to have a federal bill to require, proof of citizenship is because of a Supreme court decision in 2013 in which the Supreme Court said that states the purpose. Arizona has been trying for over 20 years. The state of Arizona has been. Has been trying for 20 years to get documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. And the reason they haven't been able to get it is because of a federal statute, the National Voter Registration Act. So the way I explain it to people, Congress broke it. Only Congress can fix it, according to the U.S. supreme Court. Now, with respect to voter ID, this would apply to federal elections that if you want to vote in a federal election, you will have to present a photo id. Many states, I think over half the states now have a voter ID requirement. And so this would apply to federal elections in the states that don't have a photo id. And if the state wants to exempt their state and local elections and say you don't have to show an id, that's totally up to them. But it only makes sense for the federal government and Congress to make sure that people who are voting in federal elections are who they say they are.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. The reason I wanted to mention that is because whatever you think of Mike Pence and his group, which I don't even know what their motives and intentions are at this point, it's very, very sketchy. but he came out against the Save America act or the SAVE Act. And I'm thinking to myself, what on earth like? Number one, Mike Pence's congressman actually voted for multiple federal bills that meddled around in elections. So his notion that, well, the federal government shouldn't be involved in state elections. Well, number one, that's not what this bill does. The primary jurisdiction here is for Congress to regulate federal elections. That's what the Constitution says. And, and that's what this bill does. And so I get frustrated at conservatives who are against the Save America act or the Save act, on some type of states rights ground. I just think it's very inauthentic. And this is a congressional issue. And as you mentioned, the courts created. Well, and Congress. The courts and Congress have created this problem, and Congress is going to have to fix it here.

Congress has been operating under what is effectively a fake filibuster

let me ask you this. Let's get into the filibuster, because this is going to be the topic of conversation. And the pressure, the pressure is on Senator Thune to do the right thing here. Congress, and specifically the Senate, has been operating under what is effectively a fake filibuster. Under the cloture rule, any senator can say, hey, I don't like the bill, and basically put everything on pause unless you get 60 plus senators to unclog the system, if you will. What we're suggesting here and what you mentioned is if we're going to call it a filibuster, let's actually talk, let's debate and then pass things on a simple majority. Where do you think we are on that and convincing Thune's office to do that?

>> Cleta Mitchell: Well, I think that we are going to have to put a lot of pressure, not only on Senator Thune, but on Republican senators to be willing, because here's the problem. They don't want to have to stick around for the talking. And there can be a quorum call at any time. So the senators have to be near the floor or on the floor, and it has. It could go days and through the night, and they have to be willing to work. And the problem that has happened in the Senate is they've gotten so used to just saying one person objects. So we don't have 60 votes. So they just skip to the end, and then they don't. They don't act. And, you know, they used to call the Senate the, the world's most deliberative body, okay? Make them deliberate. Don't let them pretend, and just skip to the end. Make them have to come to the floor. So people are going to have to call their Republican senators and say, hey, we're paying you. We want you to work. We want you to make the Democrats talk. We want you to make them come to the floor. But we have a majority of Republican senators who have signed on to support this legislation. We are simply trying to, get the Senate to act. And if the Democrats want to oppose this legislation, make them come to the floor and explain why they're opposed to it. Don't let them get away with pretending that it's some states rights issue or whatever. Because I can tell you in the bill that the Democrats proposed in 2021, they were proposing to ban voter ID in all states and they were proposing to ban any requirement for proving citizenship status. So let's have that debate. Let's make, let's make the Senate the most deliberative body in the world. And it's only going to happen if the American people rise up and start calling their senators.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I agree completely. The number of co sponsors has risen. It was a little bit disheartening. Late last week I was looking at my two home state senators, Senator Wicker, and Senator Hyde Smith. They weren't even on the co sponsor list. And I'm thinking, guys, what are you doing? Like it's one thing you can't even co sponsoring is like the minimum threshold for like virtue signaling to the voters and you guys can't even co sponsor. and a lot of these folks will, as you know, once again we're talking to Cleta Mitchell with the Conservative Partnership Institute about the SAVE act, which is a hot topic in Washington right now. But as you know, Cleta, a lot of these, Not a lot, a lot, several of these US Senators will co sponsor and then behind the scenes work to kill the bill. That's what's happening right now because I'm seeing 48 co sponsors, of course, all of them Republicans, which is we're only missing looks like five US Senators that need to sign onto this. but then you need a simple majority to do the actual filibuster. You need 51 Republican senators to consent to, to invoking the rule which enables an actual filibuster where, hey, we're going to debate this. As you mentioned, each senator gets two speaking slots and then after that we're all going to vote on a simple majority line. So I'm glad to see the co sponsor list go up. I wish there were more on the front end a couple days ago or last week when it wasn't quote unquote popular. But the momentum is in our favor and as you mentioned, everybody needs to call their US Senator and urge them to bring forth a vote on the SAVE Act. A simple majority vote on the SAVE act and let's actually use the filibuster.

Cleta Mitchell: Fake filibuster has prevented a lot of good stuff

Cleta, I want to get your opinion on. We've got, let's say three minutes left. I want to get your opinion on this cloture rule, the 60 vote rule, which is really clogged up and prevented a lot of good Stuff and possibly bad stuff, to be fair for from passing the U.S. senate, I viewed this fake filibuster as a net negative. I think it's really caused our, our lawmakers to avoid the hard issues. What's your opinion on it?

>> Cleta Mitchell: I think so, too. I think you're 100% right. And it's a lazy. It's made the Senate very lazy. No offense to senators, but it's made them lazy. They don't, they come in, they, they work maybe two and a half days a week and they don't. I mean, if you look at how many pieces of legislation are actually enacted, it's not many. they've done away with the filibuster on judicial nominees, they've done away with the filibuster on executive branch nominees. Although the Democrats did manage to, block very, quick consideration of a lot of President Trump's nominees last year, until finally in November, John Thune decided finally to start, using the rules to get around that and then started batch sending 100 nominees through at a time. but look, a lot of us think that when the Democrats ever, when the majority the Senate again, that they're going to do away with the filibuster.

>> Walker Wildmon: I agree.

>> Cleta Mitchell: and so, you know, the question then becomes, what should we do about that? I know a lot. It has stopped a lot of bad things, but, but I don't. But I think that the filibuster should have to, should have to be made to work. Make it be real. Don't let people just say, well, we're going to filibuster. So then nothing happens. I don't think that that is good for the country. So if people want to use the filibuster, then they need to be prepared to come and hold the floor, have the people lined up to give the speeches. And at the time that expires, well, then you can see if you've got a majority of the Senate prepared to vote in favor of the bill, and that's the way it ought to work.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I completely agree. And to your point, our senators are acting, the ones that are married to this cloture roll, they are acting as if our country is not on the line. Like, the stakes are small, not really a big deal. Elections are inconsequential, and it doesn't really matter who's in charge or if we get anything done. But as you and I and our audience understand, the stakes are so very high. We are up against Marxists and they don't have any boundaries. They don't have any rules. If it were up to them, we, you know, they would, they would do anything and everything they could without our consent. And so the stakes are very high. So we need our US Senators to understand that and understand that we're serious about, continuing to move the, this country in the right direction. Cleta Mitchell, thanks so much for your work and we appreciate you coming on.

>> Cleta Mitchell: Thank you very much.

>> Walker Wildmon: Appreciate you, absolutely.

Cleta Mitchell is senior fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute

That's Cleta Mitchell, senior fellow over at the Conservative Partnership Institute, otherwise known as cpi, founded by our good friend and warrior, Jim Dement. Can't say enough things, good things about the Patriot Jim Dement and his group over at cpi. And, Cleta, as I mentioned, early on, she went through a lot in, 2020 and 2021. She was under tremendous attack, but she stood strong and she's doing the right thing and she's leading on this issue. That's, why I wanted to have her on. All right, folks, don't forget, subscribe to the podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, share the show with family and friends, we'll see you.

>>  : 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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