American Family Radio thanks sponsor, Preborn for supporting pro life efforts
>> Walker Wildmon: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection and the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afrnet. 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.
>> Brother Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
This Saturday is the 250th birthday of America
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio.
>> Walker Wildmon: Glad to be with you on this week of July 4th coming up this Saturday is the 250th birthday of America and I hope you'll be celebrating and rooting on the United States of America and having a very patriotic spirit about you. And we talked a little bit last week. I gave you my opinion of patriotism and how it's a good thing and you look at the original word there. a lot of good and positivity flows from being a patriot, whether in this land or another land. And we'll talk about that this week as we head into the July 4th celebration. It's an amazing time to be Alive to see 250 years celebrated of this great nation and to celebrate and to highlight the founding of America. I'm going to read a couple excerpts from this book by Steven McDowell. Clearly Steven and I are friends and I'm a huge fan, so this is no surprise. But this book I've got here in studio with me if you're watching on Facebook or [email protected], and I've linked to this for Bobby on the show notes. But nonetheless, this book is titled
>> Walker Wildmon: A Christian Nation Examining the Evidence of Christian foundation of the Christian foundation of America by Steven McDowell. It's a pretty short little booklet and it's an easy read I guess is what I'm getting at.
>> Walker Wildmon: But I want to read a few quotes just for today and I'll do this Wednesday, and hopefully maybe one other time this week. But I'm going to read a couple quotes here. So, ah, if anyone is doubting the Christian Heritage of America and the fact that the Bible and Christianity, formed America. Let me read a couple quotes here. So this is from. This is a quote from Jon Jay. First Supreme Court Chief Justice Jon Jay proclaimed, providence has given to our people
>> Walker Wildmon: the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. End quote. and if you thought that one was a good one, you just keep listening.
>> Walker Wildmon: Chief, Justice Jon Marshall, another Supreme Court Chief justice, said, quote, the American population is entirely Christian. And if you're saying that I sound like Steven McDowell, that's because I spend a lot of time with him. The American population is entirely Christian, and with us, Christianity and religion are identified. It would be strange indeed if such a people, our institutions did not. If with such a people, our institutions
>> Walker Wildmon: did not presuppose Christianity and did not often refer to it and exhibit relations with it.
>> Walker Wildmon: That was Chief, Justice Jon Marshall, like, hey, paraphrasing, if you guys don't frequently cite the Bible in Christianity, then what are you doing? This is, integrated into the very fabric of a nation, of the nation that we are. let's look at a couple more and then we'll move into the show content.
Stephen McDowell examines evidence of Christian foundation of America once again
This is a special kind of highlight that I'm doing to celebrate July 4th and hopefully bring about some type of patriotic spirit within you.
>> Walker Wildmon: This was from the first charter of Virginia, 1606, well before independence. Clearly. This was during, colonial America, when we were still answering to Britain, if you will. This was, the text. This was in the text in the third paragraph of the First Charter of Virginia Colony, 1606.
>> Walker Wildmon: The third paragraph of the charter speaks of their desire, the colonial desire, to propagate the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness, in miserable ignorance of their true knowledge and worship of God, and in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility into a settled and quite government. The, Mayflower Compact.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is, history you're not going to get Maybe in a 2026 history class, with rare exceptions. Lastly, the Mayflower Compact was written by a small group of English separatists seeking religious and civil freedom who were undertaking the planting of a colony for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith. And so that's just a couple Excerpts from Steven McDowell's book, America A Christian Nation. Question mark. Examining the evidence of the Christian foundation of America once again by Steve McDowell. So we'll keep highlighting, some of These excerpts, very, very powerful stuff here, very compelling, as to the biblical, underpinning that is existent in American history.
We only have 10 seats left on our Boston trip coming up in late September
>> Walker Wildmon: Alright, well, let's jump into some of our content. By the way, we're going to be speaking of early American history. We only have about, a little more than 10 seats left on our
>> Walker Wildmon: Boston trip coming up in late September. This is the only trip that we have left for this calendar year. Our next trips are going to be Greece and Italy coming up in 27.
>> Walker Wildmon: But for now, the Boston trip,
>> Walker Wildmon: we've got a little over 10 seats left for that trip where we're going to Boston and visiting, a lot of the sites of the early American history. And we're doing that obviously during the 250th year of our country. So, if you want to check out our Boston trip, which registration is going to close here in just about two weeks, you can go over to tours.afa.net tours.afa.net we're over 90 registered and we've got about, a dozen seats left for that trip. So go over to tours.afa.net to check that out.
Supreme Court rules in favor of President Trump on temporary temporary status
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, the Supreme Court has been busy, issuing rulings and on a variety of subjects. Honestly, too many dimension here on the program. But one ruling that came out last week that we just didn't have quite time to get to is the Supreme Court ruling on what's called temporary protection status that was issued under the Obama administration to various illegal immigrants.
>> Walker Wildmon: And various courts, lower courts, had
>> Walker Wildmon: prevented President Trump from deporting those that were under this temporary protection status or TPS status. And these courts were just stonewalling and blocking the president from carrying out, illegal deportations of non citizens.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Trump, in favor of the
>> Walker Wildmon: Department of Homeland Security to carry out
>> Walker Wildmon: deportations for those under this temporary protection status.
>> Walker Wildmon: And one of the key words there is temporary, which is what the Supreme Court concluded.
>> Walker Wildmon: And there was a lot of other
>> Walker Wildmon: good, writings in these opinions.
>> Walker Wildmon: But nonetheless, I want to play clip two here. This is about a 30 second clip
>> Walker Wildmon: on Fox News reporting on the recension of tps, this temporary protection status and the eligibility for deportation here.
>> : Clip 2 Today, giving a major boost to President Trump's immigration agenda. The justices ruling 6 to 3 to allow the White House to remove temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Haiti and Syria. Let's bring in Kari Urban, FOX News legal editor. Reading from the majority opinion here, it says in these Cases we consider whether respondents who challenge determination of Temporary Protected Status TPS for aliens from Syria and Haiti are entitled to orders postponing the terminations during litigation. We hold that they are not. To a lot of people, this was a no brainer because again, the T in TPS stands for temporary.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it.
>> Walker Wildmon: So, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration. Big deal here. And these, these victories, let's not forget that a lot of this stuff should be assumed. So the fact that we're having a litigate over this in and of itself is very unfortunate.
>> Walker Wildmon: And so, for that you can
>> Walker Wildmon: be pessimistic that we had to litigate this. But nonetheless, the, the ruling is ultimately a victory for President Trump and for the rule of law and the ability for the federal government to deport non citizens, to deport illegal immigrants, regardless of what a previous administration might have classified them under various, provisions and statutes.
Brookings report says Trump immigration policies are having positive effect
>> Walker Wildmon: Another story on this topic is the story of, of immigration, whether it
>> Walker Wildmon: be legal or illegal.
>> Walker Wildmon: And this really reformation that has been
>> Walker Wildmon: brought about by the Trump administration where you're seeing some very positive numbers on the immigration front, both legal and illegal.
>> Walker Wildmon: And CNBC took a quite a twist on this that is a little bit slanted, but nonetheless their headline is Americans are leaving the US in record numbers and spending hundreds to learn how to do it. Well, the underlying data here that was put out by Brookings Institute really points to two things. it points to the mass deportations are having an effect. That's a fact. And Brookings is also conflating, illegal and legal immigration. All right.
>> Walker Wildmon: And so, nonetheless, at the end of the day, the data shows at minimum a flat, net migration. So for example, just to not get too in the weeds on using net and positive, etcetera, immigration, migration both to and fro the US Was pretty much flat. It was pretty much a break even, if you will. So, for, every one person that left the country, we had about one person come in is the easiest way to put it. And that's a very big deal for looking at modern history, let's say, let's just look at the last, couple decades.
>> Walker Wildmon: We have, we have persistently, every year been adding millions of both legal and
>> Walker Wildmon: illegal immigrants to the country.
>> Walker Wildmon: We've been having at least a million
>> Walker Wildmon: legal immigrants come into the country through the legal system, whether it be work visas or refugee status, et cetera, legitimate asylum claims.
>> Walker Wildmon: And then over here, on the other hand, we've had this Influx from the
>> Walker Wildmon: border, where we haven't been enforcing our immigration laws, we've been allowing hundreds of thousands, over a million, in President Biden's case, multi million per year of illegal immigrants from the border.
>> Walker Wildmon: And so President Trump, the moral of
>> Walker Wildmon: the story here, according to this Brookings
>> Walker Wildmon: report, is that the President Trump's immigration
>> Walker Wildmon: policies are having a very good impact, very effective impact.
>> Walker Wildmon: And this notion, by the way, that we obviously need to stop illegal immigration,
>> Walker Wildmon: legal immigration needs to be at zero. There's no good case for illegal immigration, even on the business side.
>> Walker Wildmon: And that's been one thing that's just
>> Walker Wildmon: been lingering for a long time as well. People have claimed that the business community is in favor of illegal immigration because they get cheap labor. All right?
>> Walker Wildmon: And regardless of whether that's true or
>> Walker Wildmon: not, I don't really care. That doesn't make it right. All right?
>> Walker Wildmon: So there's no.
>> Walker Wildmon: There's no good case for illegal immigration.
>> Walker Wildmon: Zero. There's zero good moral argument for illegal immigration. But let's jump over to the legal immigration side. When you import a million, let's say
>> Walker Wildmon: a million, which has been, on average,
>> Walker Wildmon: legal immigrants a year, well, those people got to have jobs, all right? So you have to be careful with the legal immigration side, too, which is where the Trump administration is able to
>> Walker Wildmon: actually focus its attention now. Now that has the border closed is
>> Walker Wildmon: what is the, what is the net
>> Walker Wildmon: effect of, of legal immigration and is
>> Walker Wildmon: it positive for the American people and the American worker? And I think, I think legal immigration
>> Walker Wildmon: obviously can be a positive thing for
>> Walker Wildmon: the country, but it has to make sense. All right, and, and, and I would argue that in this era of artificial intelligence and increased productivity, which is a
>> Walker Wildmon: statistical phenomenon or fact that we're seeing with, robotics and artificial intelligence, we're able to be much more productive. Productive. Those that want to be.
>> Walker Wildmon: I think it's unwise to continue at
>> Walker Wildmon: these legal immigration rates that we've been doing for the last 20 years.
>> Walker Wildmon: A million a year. we've got to look at the jobs market and the economy, and you
>> Walker Wildmon: have to ask yourself, if you're running
>> Walker Wildmon: immigration, can these folks find jobs? Can they contribute to American society and the economy? That's a critical question.
>> Walker Wildmon: We'll be back.
>> : America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America. 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the Constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics 250@the corps podcasts are [email protected] now back to at the The Core on American Family Radio.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, for those listening on live radio, some of you get the podcast later. But for those of you listening right now on live radio, if Ed's New England accent doesn't make you laugh, then you need to check yourself because I've heard that clip probably eight times in the last week. And every time I laugh at Ed
>> John Stemberger: revitalizing,
>> Walker Wildmon: his, New England accent.
>> Bobby Roza: I don't understand. I, don't understand that at all.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. Coming from another New Englander, where were you from, Bobby?
>> Bobby Roza: Originally born in the great whaling city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
>> Walker Wildmon: Okay, how far is that from Boston?
>> Bobby Roza: That's about, 45 minutes south of Boston.
>> Walker Wildmon: No, not far toward the Cape.
>> Bobby Roza: It's at the very base of the cape.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, we go down that way to Plymouth, I believe.
>> Bobby Roza: Yep. I went to high school not far from there.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And then Quincy's not too far. Must not be. Quincy must not be too far from.
>> Bobby Roza: It's closer to Boston.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. So, yeah, so we're going there in late September and it's a. I know it gets a bad rap because their politics are uber liberal, but, but it's a beautiful, it's just naturally a beautiful part of the country.
>> Bobby Roza: Yeah, the state is gorgeous. And that's the other part of it too is Rhode Island. Maine. All the way up through Maine, that rugged rocky coast, lobsters and shellfish of all sorts is, actually beautiful, beautiful country.
>> Walker Wildmon: But again, last year was my first lobster roll.
>> Bobby Roza: Oh man, that's living right there, brother.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And apparently there's the right way and the wrong way.
>> Bobby Roza: That is correct.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And we were getting made fun of. The Southerners were. Because, I think the Southerners started requesting years ago, started requesting their lobster rolls be heated up or the lobster maybe. And up there it's originally supposed to be cold.
>> Bobby Roza: Yeah, it's cold. The hot dog buns or rolls themselves are actually. They've got that New England cut. They're not rounded buns, they're actually sliced vertical, if you will, on both sides.
Southerners want their lobster heated up too, apparently
>> Bobby Roza: Those have to be hot and buttery, that.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And then I think with the cold. Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: Either it was a server or a
>> Walker Wildmon: chef we were talking to said that years ago the Southerners came up there and they wanted their lobster heated up too. Not just the bun, they wanted the lobster heated up.
>> Walker Wildmon: And so apparently they've kind of catered
>> Walker Wildmon: to the tourists that request their lobster be heated up. But to your point, naturally the original is supposed to be cold. Right.
>> Bobby Roza: and they'll heat it up with drawn butter combined and they'll know that
>> Walker Wildmon: you're not from there if you request it heated up.
>> Bobby Roza: Pretty much, yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: Exactly.
>> Walker Wildmon: cool.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, we'll be there in late, September. If you want to join us, go to tours.afa.net and we will see you in Boston.
The Supreme Court released an opinion just this morning regarding mail in ballots
>> Walker Wildmon: All right. Well, let's jump back into some of
>> Walker Wildmon: the content I want to get to on today's program. The Supreme Court also released an opinion
>> Walker Wildmon: just this morning regarding mail in ballots.
>> Walker Wildmon: And this was a case originating out of my home state here in Mississippi, the RNC Republican National Committee versus Watson, which is the current Secretary of State. This case had to do with how
>> Walker Wildmon: long after an election do you continue counting ballots.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is assuming that the ballots are
>> Walker Wildmon: postmarked by election day. Assuming the ballots are postmarked by the postal service by election day. The question before the court, in essence,
>> Walker Wildmon: there was a lot of legalese here,
>> Walker Wildmon: but in essence the question was how long can a state count the ballots after election day? Mississippi statute said five days that was being litigated.
>> Walker Wildmon: Let's listen to this report from FOX on the election ruling at the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court rules against Republicans challenging late arriving ballots in elections
>> Walker Wildmon: Clip 5 Breaking News US Supreme Court A decision is now in on a challenge led by Republicans to late arriving ballots in elections. Shannon Bream has the ruling. She's got the news and the headline now from the U.S. supreme Court.
>> : Shannon.
>> Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting: All right, guys, this is not a win for Republicans who are challenging this. Mississippi has a state law which allows ballots to be counted, mail in ballots after election day. If they come in, they're postmarked and meet the state requirements. But is a 54 loss for Republicans and an interesting cobbling together of who wrote on this. Justice Barrett wrote the opinion. Justice Roberts joined her along with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson. So those five stuck together on this. The dissent comes from Justice Alito. Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh join him. And essentially what the majority said is that these federal statutes setting election day don't prescribe or they don't stand in conflict with states that want to say, okay, we have a procedure to count ballots after election day.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, this is, this is ridiculous. All right, that's my non lawyer assessment of this ruling. All right, let's, let's play this out, okay? And this is a frustration. I'm not going to throw Amy Coney Barrett completely under the bus here, okay? She's good about, she's reliable about 80% of the time, maybe. I want 100% reliability. That's just what I want. And that's what Thomas and Alito give us.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's why they're the best.
>> Walker Wildmon: They give us 100% reliability.
>> Walker Wildmon: You don't have to worry about whether Claire Thomas is going to go soft, all right?
>> Walker Wildmon: He plays hardball and he's there to
>> Walker Wildmon: restore the original text and meaning and
>> Walker Wildmon: intent of the U.S. constitution and rule sanely on the policy disputes before the court. And that's what I appreciate about both Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Let's talk about the mail in ballot process more broadly here. First off, we've gotten way too liberal on voting
>> Walker Wildmon: But here we have this. Let's talk about the mail in ballot
>> Walker Wildmon: process more broadly here. Let's don't get caught up in the, in the statutory text of the Mississippi law and what, what the two sides were arguing.
>> Walker Wildmon: let's just talk broadly about how
>> Walker Wildmon: we should properly look at this.
>> Walker Wildmon: First off, we've gotten way too liberal.
>> Walker Wildmon: Not from an ideological standpoint, but from an operational standpoint.
>> Walker Wildmon: We've gotten way too loose liberal on this whole voting thing. We have normalized the mail in late absentee. I'm going on vacation. Can I, can I come up there early and do it? We have, we have to way too far of a degree accommodated lazy people who just don't want to do the right thing. And we've created exceptions for everything. And what I'm talking about is all these people that just can't show up
>> Walker Wildmon: on election day and vote.
>> Walker Wildmon: And I'm not talking about, overseas military, members of the military. I'm not talking about homebound people
>> Walker Wildmon: who have medical diagnoses and they're disabled, whatever.
>> Walker Wildmon: I'm not talking about those statistical anomalies that make up a small percentage of eligible voters and the accommodations we make
>> Walker Wildmon: so that they can cast their vote.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about more broadly able bodied adults that can drive their car up to the voting booth on election day and just cast their vote. And this gets me so fired up because our country's gotten so lazy, we've lowered the bar in virtually every category. And now we're kowtowing and catering to people that can't just be responsible adults and show up and vote on election day. And let me just tell you, if we broke down, I could almost Guarantee it. If we broke down the number of able bodied adults that can get to
>> Walker Wildmon: the polling place on election day and
>> Walker Wildmon: vote and the ones that compare them to the ones that are utilizing this m mail in ballot scheme, I would almost bet you the vast majority would skew towards Democrat. The vast majority would skew towards Democrat because there's this mentality, this entitlement mentality that the government owes me and you should accommodate me and I'm going through a hardship and woe is me permanent victimhood. I ought to be able to vote whenever I want to vote. Three weeks before, three weeks late. The government can't tell me when I
>> Walker Wildmon: can and can't vote.
>> Walker Wildmon: I mean I can just hear the
>> Walker Wildmon: left wing Marxist talking points being regurgitated right now when they're arguing in favor
>> Walker Wildmon: of these absolutely absurd ballot deadlines. And so the Supreme Court ruled, in my opinion, wrongly here and they left the door open for ballots being counted indefinitely after election day. And so the proper way to look at this, and this is where our country should return to. And I would encourage every single state legislature to heed this. And some already have at, at, at 11:59pm on Election Day, when that clock hits 12:00am on the Wednesday after, assuming
>> Walker Wildmon: this is the general election, when the
>> Walker Wildmon: clock hits midnight on the following day after the election, that's it, we're done. We're done counting, we're done mailing, we're done with everything. It's all done. And the reason I say that is because we can accommodate everything we need to accommodate before. And I think we need to be less accommodating, but I think we need to accommodate everything we need to accommodate before. All right, if you're forward deployed in the military overseas, all right, let's accommodate that before. If you can't make it because of a legitimate medical reason or if you want to extend that to death in the family, et cetera. Although I would be very hesitant to continue expanding this. Who's eligible to vote by mail?
>> Walker Wildmon: I think it should be very tight,
>> Walker Wildmon: it should be non inclusive. But whatever the excuse is valid or invalid, lazy or not, all of that should be handled on the front end. If you can't vote on election day at your polling location, you got to do it before and you can't wait and mail in your ballot the day before the election, too bad, so sad it's not getting counted. And if it doesn't make it whenever you mail it, if it doesn't make it to the county clerk to be counted by election day too Bad your fault or not, if it's the Postal Service's fault, then you can take out that up with the Inspector General along with the US Postal Service. By the way, good luck with that. But there are inherent risk with voting by mail. And if, if your vote doesn't make it there by 11:59pm on election day, too bad. So sad. That should be the policy. That should be the policy. And if people are uncomfortable with that, then we should prioritize our lives to make sure we can vote on election day.
The Supreme Court failed to set minimum standards for how long after elections count ballots
Alright, so if we can take what I just said and we can summarize
>> Walker Wildmon: that and turn it into a state
>> Walker Wildmon: statute, that should be the policy. And this is where the Supreme Court failed to intervene here and set any type of minimum standard for how long after an election we count ballots. And I would almost guarantee you, if you look at the people who are
>> Walker Wildmon: doing this absentee mail in voting, especially
>> Walker Wildmon: in these Democrat states, I would almost guarantee you a lot of these quote, excuses are probably just not very serious.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is not very serious stuff.
>> Walker Wildmon: The number of people that have legitimate medical death in the family reasons, I
>> Walker Wildmon: would bet these numbers are few and far between.
>> Walker Wildmon: What we're dealing with is largely people who don't want to have to go to the polling place and wait in line.
>> Walker Wildmon: I get it, it's an inconvenience.
>> Walker Wildmon: But you know what else is an inconvenience? Paying my taxes is inconvenient. Hiring somebody to do my tax return is an inconvenience. Going to the DMV and waiting in line for two hours with a bunch of incompetent people to get my driver's license because I've got to have a piece of plastic to drive my own vehicle. all of these things are inconvenient aspects of American life. Although in the grand scheme of life,
>> Walker Wildmon: they're really not that big of a deal. And I'm not much to complain.
>> Walker Wildmon: But my point is, is that some things you just got to toughen up. You just got to be an adult. And whether it's getting your driver's license, paying your taxes or voting, these are just parts of life that you just have to do. If you care about it enough, then you'll do what you have to do to vote. And if that means going on vacation the day after the election or coming home a day early to make sure you can vote on election day, you just do what you got to do. And that should be the policy across the board in all these states and
>> Walker Wildmon: just cut out the nonsense.
>> Walker Wildmon: But let Me just tell you why many states, and once again, some have
>> Walker Wildmon: done really good state, updated their state laws on election code.
>> Walker Wildmon: Georgia, even Mississippi, Texas, a lot of these states, probably at least half of them, have updated their election
>> Walker Wildmon: code and have gotten a lot better at this.
>> Walker Wildmon: Florida is the prime example of how to do it. I mean, Florida is so efficient, so secure. It's a beautiful thing. So if you want to look at, hey, how do we supposed to do this?
>> Walker Wildmon: Go to Florida and do what they do.
>> Walker Wildmon: they have everything counted by 10pm
>> Walker Wildmon: election night across the entire state. One of the, I think top three
>> Walker Wildmon: or four largest states in the country, Florida, they have everything counted and turned in results. Posted by 10:11pm East Coast Time it's
>> Walker Wildmon: phenomenal what Governor DeSantis has done there.
>> Walker Wildmon: but nonetheless, the reason I believe that states don't want to fix this, and I think Mississippi's probably going to
>> Walker Wildmon: go back to the drawing board on this.
>> Walker Wildmon: I would suspect the reason I believe some states don't want to fix this is because it leaves the door open. Not only statistically speaking. Ah m. Are the majority of people using these mail in ballot schemes probably
>> Walker Wildmon: Democrat, I would suspect, and there's probably studies out there.
>> Walker Wildmon: but furthermore, I think that Democrat elected officials know, and the Democrat Party more broadly knows that this helps them. This laxed, you know, mellot, when you want to mel. It will count it a week after this laxed, election voting, mail in ballot regimen, I believe only helps the Democrats. It only helps the Democrats because we've
>> Walker Wildmon: seen these elections where, you know, you go to Fulton county and it's
>> Walker Wildmon: election night and things aren't looking so good for the Democrats. And then all of a sudden somebody finds a tree back in the closet. Oh, man, we found 10,000 ballots.
>> Walker Wildmon: Man. We're just gonna have to.
>> Walker Wildmon: We'll have to count until tomorrow. We'll be here for the next three days counting and we'll let you know
>> Walker Wildmon: the results, like next week.
>> Walker Wildmon: that, that helps the Democrats. I mean, the Democrats are proven to have very low standards, to put this
>> Walker Wildmon: nicely, when it comes to election integrity. I mean, very low standards.
>> Walker Wildmon: They're very resistant to reform, to accountability,
>> Walker Wildmon: to doing things better.
>> Walker Wildmon: And, it's ripe for fraud. And when you look at the number of election officials that have been arrested
>> Walker Wildmon: by the DOJ or local state officials
>> Walker Wildmon: on election fraud, it's most all Democrat. Look at Philadelphia. Every election cycle, somebody gets arrested because they're running some ballot scheme that's illegal. So this Is the Democrat favored policy.
>> Walker Wildmon: We'll be back in a few.
Preborn is on the front lines for at risk babies
>> 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 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 is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate. Just dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating.
>> : This is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host Walker Wildmon.
American Family Radio celebrates July 4th with 250th celebration this weekend
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Last segment now underway on this week of July 4th with the 250th falling on this upcoming Saturday. And we hope you'll be celebrating it with many other Americans and finding ways to, look back on American history and the ways that God has used this nation to be a force for good and primarily to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the ends of the earth.
>> Walker Wildmon: On with us now is our good
>> Walker Wildmon: friend Jon Stemberger out of Florida. He is now heading up Liberty Council Action. He's president of Liberty council action, the 501C4 of Liberty Liberty Council. And he's with us now to talk about some of the work they're doing.
>> Walker Wildmon: Hey, Jon, welcome to the program.
>> John Stemberger: Walker, it's great to be with you again.
Liberty Council Action is working to educate voters on ballot initiatives
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, John your associate Summer, she and I were emailing back and forth on the work you guys are doing at Liberty Council Action to educate voters on the ballot initiative process and some of the important ballot amendments or initiatives that are going on around the country. coming up this Midterm cycle in November. And so I thought I'd have you on to highlight that because, and this is probably one of the reasons you did this project is there's so many amendments and initiatives going on. As a voter it's kind of hard to keep up. So give us a little background on what you guys are doing on this front.
>> John Stemberger: Well, we have been fortunate enough to be tracking and working directly with people on the ground in about 10 states where they have about 12amendments that will be on the ballot in 2026. We hear a lot about the high profile things. Many years ago we had the marriage amendments. Similar things are happening now. Both good and bad amendments are on the ballot. They're kind of going on the radar. So we're trying to alert voters to them. So I'm just going to go down state by state. I'm going to emphasize some states that have more important than strategic amendments. But for instance in Arizona, there's actually the amendments come in two groups. One is life related. In other words, either trying to establish abortion rights and constitutions or attempting to roll back abortion rights and then secondly gender related things. So protecting girls sports, protecting children from irreversible sex change surgeries and transgender surgeries. So these are the kind of two general categories that they fall under. In Arizona there will be on the ballot for sure a protect girls sports statutory amendment. Some of these are constitutional amendments, some are just statutory schemes. Not every state has this. But in some states the people can actually enact a piece of legislation and it goes into the, to the statutory scheme. In Colorado they have two ballot measures. They'll go on into the constitution and it's to protect children from again, sex changes and transgender surgeries and also to protect women's sports. And we're very pleased about those. In Colorado, as you know, that's a very blue state. They don't get a lot of action. So this is going to be really good for those people to actually make a difference. Hearing, from the grassroots and not the legislator that's kind of ramming things through. we dodged a bullet. In Hawaii they had a really bad abortion related amendment but that failed. So we were able to dodge that. Idaho has a very important ah, amendment that's a statutory pro, it's a pro abortion amendment trying to make abortion a fundamental right in the statutory scheme. And the Idaho Family Policy center there, Blaine Kanzati and others are fighting that vigorously along with right to life. Idaho, in Maine, there was a good Amendment A protects girls sports statutory amendment, but the Secretary of State just ruled against it. They have a very hostile government and kind of deep state there in Maine. And so that will not be on the ballot. And that's unfortunate. Now Missouri has one of the most significant sets of amendments. Last election cycle Missouri passed a horrible, very pro abortion amendment. And it was one of the most significant ones in the country. And of course Missouri is this Christian conservative country. We're all kind of scratching our heads like what in the world happened in Missouri? so this amendment will actually come back. Amendment three in Missouri. We want voters in Missouri to vote yes on Amendment 3, but it's going to basically repeal. For the first time ever we'll be able to repeal. If it passes, we'll be able to repeal an existing abortion right that was put into the Constitution, previously. In addition, it also talks about gender so it bans transgender surgeries. So that's the beauty of that. It's wider than just the life issue. And so we're very pleased. The governor is very involved with that amendment. he's actively engaged. He's appointed Tim Durie of the Durie Hotels to be engaged as the chairman for fundraising purposes and others. and we have been working in coalition with all these states. But Missouri is a very strategic amendment. If that passes, it'll be the first time ever that a abortion right that was previously put into a constitution has been rolled back. Now they have a very, a red state. They have a great legislative. This is not a citizen's initiative. This actually came from a very conservative Republican legislature which is great. Many states don't have that luxury. but Missouri did and that's going to be definitely on the ballot in November 2026. So we need voters in Missouri to vote yes on Amendment 3 to roll back the pro life, I'm sorry, the pro abortion rights put in the Constitution and also to establish that minors will not undergo transgender surgeries.
>> Walker Wildmon: Jon. yeah, sorry to interrupt but I wanted to get your thoughts on this
>> Walker Wildmon: overall trend here because and we're going to link to this to your guys website so folks can scroll through all this detailed information that you've put together and the links to some of the state groups that are working on this as well.
>> Walker Wildmon: but nonetheless the the left seemed to have gained a lot of momentum I would say over the
>> Walker Wildmon: last, let's say two to three years on this ballot initiative front, meaning they were, they were throwing out these ballot initiatives left and right. And conservatives were having a fight on multiple fronts to prevent them. Unfortunately, you mentioned Missouri. Some of these ended up passing. I think Kansas had a horrendous ballot initiative pass.
>> Walker Wildmon: But, where does it look like
>> Walker Wildmon: the momentum is now?
>> Walker Wildmon: Because I am hearing a lot of
>> Walker Wildmon: these are very positive, amendments, meaning if they are approved, they're very conservative, ballot initiatives.
>> Walker Wildmon: So where do you, do you feel like the conservatives have kind of recaptured this or we're halfway through recapturing it? Where is the momentum now?
>> John Stemberger: Yeah, so historically, as you know, almost every state that has attempted to put an abortion right in its constitution has been successful. Except two years ago, Florida, Nevada and South Dakota was able to defeat their amendments, which was great. That was the first time ever that a state was ever to do that. but the pro abortion movement is going after the low hanging fruit of the very blue states and trying to establish these abortion rights to undercut the legislator or the people's ability to actually change these things. But yeah, it's a very great, development that there's these, pro fairness for girls sports constitutional amendments and also banning transgender surgery. These are very popular issues amongst Joe Lunch Bucket, amongst ordinary people, even in blue states. So this is a great way to get a win. It also drives voter turnout for our side and suppresses somewhat to the other side as well. So I think that these are great developments and this is a trend we're seeing now for the first time. We're seeing good quality amendments instead of bad amendments go up on the ballot.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is encouraging to recapture this
>> Walker Wildmon: process, if you will.
>> Walker Wildmon: And even when this process works
>> Walker Wildmon: out in our favor, favor meaning good conservative, policies or constitutional amendments get put into place because of this process.
>> Walker Wildmon: Generally speaking, it does make me a
>> Walker Wildmon: little nervous when you don't need, for example, like 60 or 2/3 of voters to approve when you need, I think in some of these states it's just 50, 50 plus 1% of voters to approve of one of these, amendments. Now granted, the process to get on the ballot in and of itself is pretty strenuous.
>> Walker Wildmon: but nonetheless, this almost somewhat
>> Walker Wildmon: pure democracy, if you will, that we're flirting with here, I think long term is rather dangerous.
>> Walker Wildmon: because you get a state, let's
>> Walker Wildmon: just say, for example, you get a state like Georgia maybe that has a massive metropolitan area in Fulton county, in
>> Walker Wildmon: Atlanta, you can, and then you
>> Walker Wildmon: have enough, enough left wing money poured into the state.
>> Walker Wildmon: You can get a generally conservative state
>> Walker Wildmon: with a conservative legislature and governor to Approve some crazy ballot amendments with enough money and public pressure and misinformation.
>> Walker Wildmon: so I'm still, I'm still open
>> Walker Wildmon: to reforming this process in states that for example, still have 51% as the threshold to approve these.
>> John Stemberger: Yeah, you make very good points.
John Stemberger: The Constitution is the place for direct democracy
in the vast majority of states that do have these amendments by statute, by legislative, enactment or by citizens initiative, the vast majority of them are 50% plus one. There's a small handful of states including Florida, that has 60% or some kind of a multiple, election process that requires over 50% or a super majority of some type. That is not the minority, that is the minority position on most of those. the big concern, and I will say this from a structural standpoint, the Constitution is the place for direct democracy. M. Because it's the people theoretically binding, the hands of the government. You know, the law rules the rulers. That's what it, that's what a republic is. It distinguishes it from a direct democracy where you actually, people are enacting laws. And so this is the proper place. The problem is the Constitution should be for fundamental rights, structure of government and major structural things. But you got states like Florida that we got off bans on fishing nets. We got all kinds of policy issues stuffed in our Constitution. And you've got George Soros and the big money left coming in and just pumping these amendments, manipulating people through ads and all this stuff. And so that's the, that's the real challenge. And it is, it is a trade off.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> John Stemberger: Because you want people to direct their, their, their republic. It's, that's the nature of what it is. But at the same time the money is just corrupting the whole thing. I think you're right. A super majority is the best way to look at this. But because if you're going to amend the Constitution, it can't be a civil majority. It should be a super majority.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: And Florida, Florida is the model.
>> Walker Wildmon: And I bragged on you guys earlier in the show because we were talking about, counting election, counting votes and getting things reported in on election day, election night instead of three weeks later like they're doing in California.
>> Walker Wildmon: and so yeah, the 60% to
>> Walker Wildmon: me is a very wise thing to do when you are talking about something as serious as amending the Constitution of the state. and I mean, can you imagine if we only needed 51% to amend the U.S. constitution? who knows if we'd be able to get that done, but nonetheless it would be a much easier thing than two thirds. And then you gotta get it ratified by the states, et cetera. So pretty serious process.
>> Walker Wildmon: Hey Jon, tell our folks, your website how they can read more about your work.
>> : Sure.
>> John Stemberger: LCAction.org that's LCAction.org we are the 501c4 policy and politics arm of Liberty Council, which is the flagship organization of Liberty Council Ministries that does first Amendment litigation. But there you can find the rest of the states.
John Stemberger: Virginia has probably has the biggest battle other than Missouri
Do we have time to talk about one other state?
>> Walker Wildmon: we've got about three minutes, so go ahead.
>> John Stemberger: So Virginia is very, very important. Virginia has probably has the biggest battle other than Missouri. They actually have two. They have a pro abortion rights amendment and then they also have a same sex marriage amendment. Now, unfortunately the left is just ganging up on our people on the ground in Virginia, pouring money into this thing, ah, manipulating the messaging, lying about the messaging. And unfortunately, you know, their, their best messaging m which is all a bunch of lies. When they lie like that, it defeats our best messaging because we're telling the truth. But, there is a vigorous fight by a number of pro life groups in Virginia to defeat the pro abortion amendment. The same sex marriage amendment is really not doing much at all. Now Liberty Council, which is the legal arm of Liberty Council, the flagship organization, has filed a challenge to that amendment because they did not, follow the proper procedures that are outlined by the Constitution. They try to bypass all of that. We've drawn a very good judge who's very fair, very textualist, and so that's in the process of being challenged by our organization. So we're very hopeful that it's possible the entire amendment could get thrown out, because they did not follow the proper constitutional procedure to get it on the ballot to begin with.
>> Walker Wildmon: That would be very, very encouraging. And that's why we're thankful to have legal groups like Liberty Counsel that can take these things to court. And that's one area. Jon, I know you know the history here, as long as you've been in this fight. But the right and the conservative movement has really, well equipped, legal organizations, whether it's Liberty Council or others, to fight these fights that maybe 30 to 40 years ago we just didn't have, the number of legal organizations that can, litigate most of the time pro bono, to get some of these good things either taken off or added on or fought back, et cetera.
>> Walker Wildmon: Hey Jon, thanks so much for coming on the program.
>> Walker Wildmon: We'll send folks and we'll Link over to your website so they can check out these initiative, summaries.
>> John Stemberger: Great. God bless you, Walker. Take care.
John Stemberger: We're looking at 20 possible ballot initiatives across 13 states
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, thanks so much. That's Jon Stemberger, president of Liberty council action, the 501C4 affiliate of Liberty Council, headed up by Matt, Staver. Our good friend Matt Staver. So appreciate their work on that front. And, in our show notes, we'll actually link to that ballot initiative page. They've got a pretty easy to read table of all these different states and the status of these, ballot initiatives. And so right now we're looking at,
>> Walker Wildmon: we were looking at 20 possible
>> Walker Wildmon: ballot initiatives across 13 states. This was several months ago. Thankfully, that has narrowed down to about, seven states and nine initiatives. So a couple of those states have more than 1. Seven states, nine initiatives on this summary page and we'll link to that. And, also we'll highlight at some point in the next month or two
>> Walker Wildmon: before the election what I VoterGuide is
>> Walker Wildmon: doing because they've got research and evaluations on these initiatives that they'll be providing for voters in these states as well. We appreciate the work of Liberty Council and Liberty Council Action, and we appreciate Jon coming on.
>> Walker Wildmon: As a quick reminder, you can subscribe to the show podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just type in at the core, click the subscribe or the first follow button in your
>> Walker Wildmon: podcast library and we'll see you next time.
>> : The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
