Transcript

Walker Wildman joins American Family Radio to talk about religious freedom

>> Walker Wildmon: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.

>>  : We quit.

>> Walker Wildmon: Sacred honor is the courage to speak

>> Tony Vitagliano: truth, to live out your free speech.

>> Walker 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. Walker Wildmon here with you on this brand new edition of the program. The show is hosted each week by Rick Greene and myself. Rick is America's Constitution coach. That's what he's known as. He's also a founder of Patriot Academy and many other things. He used to be a Texas state representative as well. So Rick and I, host the show for you each week. I'm typically with you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday, and then Rick's with you on Tuesday and Thursday. Once again, glad to be with you here on American Family Radio. We've got a lot to talk about. We've got a few guests coming in in the second and the third segment, but right now we'll turn our attention to the scripture.

John chapter 18 is where we are this week. The high priest asks Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine

John chapter 18 is where we are this week. John chapter 18, looking at verses 19, through 20. The high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. Jesus answered him and said, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always met. And in secret, I have said nothing. Verse 21. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me. And I said to them, indeed, they know what I said. what I draw from this, that we can apply to our lives today is that there's nothing top secret or exclusive about what Jesus came to offer. as far as the invitation of salvation and repentance of sin is open to the world. And Jesus taught this to the world. He taught it in public, taught it in the synagogues, taught it in the town square, taught it to the disciples, taught it to the Jews, taught it to the Gentiles. And, so, what is exclusive is that Jesus is the only way. But as far as what Jesus is offering in salvation, this is publicly offered to the world, not just then, but also now. And so, just as Jesus publicly lived out his teachings and the truth that he was the Messiah and is the Messiah, we also today should publicly live out our profession of faith and our, Christianity as it is. And so that's what we can draw from John 18:19, roughly.

All of these trips taking place in 2026 to commemorate America's 250th anniversary

All right, want to mention, what I've been mentioning, on the program for several, months now, and that is our trips to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, Washington D.C. and then Boston. All of these obviously taking place in 2026. And the, June trips, will be here before you know it, so I want to make sure I highlight that one. But in June, we're going to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. That's one trip. And then the week after that or the day after that, actually we're going to Washington D.C. so those are back to back. And as a reminder, this is America's 250th anniversary. And so we're going to be touring all of these, places, from America's early history. And Stephen McDowell will be with us. So it'll be a very beneficial and, noteworthy time to be together to learn about America's history, early history, and to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. So if you want to find out more about those dates and the itinerary and all the information, you can go over to tours.afa.net tours.afa.net well, jumping right into the headlines, I want to get to this segment.

The Iran situation just continues to develop and it seems like every 24 hours

The Iran situation just continues to develop and it seems like every 24 hours there's some new information out about it. but what I want to talk about this segment and today is the long, term implications of this. And, there was, you know, there's been some concerns and there's still viable concerns about how long this will last. And those of us, and even, older generations still have the, flashbacks of Iraq and Afghanistan and the US spending over 20 years in the Middle east with hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground, trillions of dollars, spent only to give Afghanistan back over to the Taliban, the same, folks who had it to begin with. and then you've got Syria. We've been over there for a long time. And so you've just got a lot of dysfunction in the region. And we spent a lot of American lives and a lot of money over in that region to really not see a lot of change. in reality, I'm not saying it was completely unfruitful, but it was not transformative, if you will, considering the amount of money that we spent over there and the amount of time and tragically, the American lives that were lost. It was, unfortunate, very unfortunate and sad. so we're looking back and we're looking forward and we're like, hey, let's don't repeat those Mistakes again. Let's don't repeat that mistake again. And so that's the context going into this Iran situation. but the more I look at this, the more I don't believe we're going to have a repeat of the past. And there are several indications here as to why I believe that. The first one is that President Trump is one of the most hesitant presidents to get involved in any form of extensive conflict, any form of extensive conflict outside of a week or two. President Trump has shown over his two terms he is very resistant to getting us entangled in years long affairs overseas involving the military. I mean, as a matter of fact, he's never done it. He's never done that, in his two terms. He's never gotten us involved in a new conflict and spent months or years anywhere with the military. Everything that President Trump has done with the military going from the first term to now has been very narrowly focused and limited in time. As a matter of fact, when he goes into these operations, he has multiple off ramps and he has multiple ways and times to get out. None of them last longer than weeks. And I would actually suspect that this is no different. And there's some indications now that some things are beginning to normalize back in the region. And here's why. The number, of ballistic missiles and drone attacks that Iran has been able to launch in the last 72 hours has dropped drastically over 90% compared to the early days of the conflict. And so Iran is just unable to mount any type of defense or offense rather against neighbors, in the region and against Israel at this point. everything that they're shooting is getting shot down, over Israel and over some of the Arab countries just over the Strait of Hormuz. And so Iran is basically crippled and unable to really threaten anybody in the region at this point in any substantive manner. secondly, there's been a lot of concern about the Strait of Hormuz, how much oil goes through the Strait, we're talking millions of barrels, and that concern is beginning to be alleviated. And there's two reasons that I, believe the concerns over the Strait of Hormuz and the trade being blocked is going to be alleviated and is currently being alleviated for two reasons. All right, the first reason is that there's a lot of evidence as of this morning that ships, cargo containers, including, energy vessels are already back, traversing the Strait and they're just cutting their transponders off. There's evidence based on a lot of information this morning that Dozens, if not hundreds of ships are now traversing the Strait of Hormuz with trade routes normalizing again. And they're simply cutting their transponders off so the public and the Iranians can't see that the ships are in the strait. And so it's very possible as of today, roughly, one week after the beginning of this conflict, that the Strait of Harmuds is back open again. that's what the indications are as of this morning. Also, the G7 countries, as of this morning as well, were opening up their emergency energy reserves. Up to 400 million barrels of oil, going to be released by G7 countries at least. This is what's under consideration as of this morning. Here's why this is important. All right. And here's why I think this plays in and proves that President Trump's timeline on this is short and we're at least halfway through, if not over halfway through, what's going on in Iran. Once again, I could be completely wrong. I'm just telling you what the information I'm gathering is telling me. So the G7 countries are considering, as of this morning, releasing up to 400 million barrels of oil, into the, global energy market, which helped, energy prices stabilize this morning, or at least not be up as much. Here's what 400 million barrels will do. All right, 400 million barrels, if it were to be released by G7 countries this week, is roughly 20 days of supply through the Strait of Hormuz. Okay, here's the translation. G7 countries basically just put a band aid over the three week window to reopen the Strait and stabilize global energy markets. That's what this does here. And so if President Trump is successfully able to get G7 countries to release these 400 million barrels of oil, and then President Trump is simultaneously able to wrap up the Iran situation from substantial vantage point over the next couple days or week, then he has just backfilled whatever oil was lost during this 1, 2, 3 week conflict with Iran. Whatever oil was lost through the strait is now going to be immediately replaced. If not, an abundance created from these G7 countries. And then you do all that and before you know it, you blink, and then we're three to four weeks down the road. And the Arab nations and the major energy producers in the region are back pushing oil through the strait and back onto the global market. And so it is as if the President and his team had this in their back pocket. What in their back pocket? Having these G7 countries able to release several hundred million barrels of oil in the event of the Strait of Hormuz being blocked. That's what they're looking at doing. That's why the energy markets have calmed down this morning and are not, you know, doing a skyrocket up like they were projected to do. Now, once again, this plan could fall apart. this plan could not last as long as it needs to. But if President Trump is able to, take an off ramp on this Iran situation, then, it could settle down the markets and the economy and the energy markets and things could begin to normalize again. I don't think that, honestly, regime change shouldn't even be on the table anymore. Now, President Trump, of course, isn't going to take anything off the table, at least publicly. But looking at what just happened with the former, the late Ayatollah's son taking over as of, yesterday evening and this morning, that's who the Iranian leaders have chosen. To the extent that they have leaders left, they've chosen the Ayatollah sun to, take over. this is not. I just don't think we're going to get, a Western friendly leader in Iran. I just don't think it's going to happen. so I think President Trump needs to do what he said he would do, and that is take out their ballistic missile program, take out their drone program, and take out their nuclear program. Those three things is what President Trump said this is all about. And they're continuing to say that's what this is all about, and so they've got to, stick to it, in my opinion.

Abraham Hamilton III: I think we need to pull out

I want to play one quick clip. This is going to be clip three. Secretary Rubio repeating the goals of this mission. The goals of this mission are clear. And it's important to continue to remind the American people of why it is that the greatest military in the history

>> Abraham Hamilton III: of the world is engaged in this operation.

>> Walker Wildmon: It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by

>> Abraham Hamilton III: destroying their missiles and their launchers, destroy the factories that make these missiles, and destroy their navy.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. So that's. That's the goal. And that says of, this morning, Rubio saying that, so the, the objectives haven't changed, the goal hasn't changed. I don't think regime change is even on the table at this point. But I think we need to finish the job on obliterating all of their offensive military capabilities and up to this point, defensive as well, and then pull out. I think we need to pull out. We have no obligation from any vantage point to linger over there and oversee any type of regime change or any type of rebuilding effort. You pull out and you tell the Iranians, hey, if you do this again, if you build nukes again, we'll come back and we'll bomb you again. We'll be back in a few.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: You shall not covet your neighbor's house or anything that's your neighbor's. My name is Abraham Hamilton iii, and this is the Hamilton Minute. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said an economic system that allows billionaires to exist is immoral. Someone may want to let the former bartender turned congresswoman know that the top 1% of wage earners pay nearly 50% of all federal taxes. The top 10% of wage earners pay nearly 70% of all federal taxes, and the top 20% of wage earners pay about 85% of all federal taxes that money funds things like our national welfare programs. Don't let them entice you to harbor disdain for the wealthy. Socialists bank on covetousness to gain support for their regressive policies.

>>  : Listen each weekday from 5 to 6pm Central for the Hamilton Corner with Abraham Hamilton III, public policy analyst for the American Family association.

>> Walker Wildmon: At the Core.

>>  : Podcasts are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

American Family Radio welcomes Maryland State Rep. Latoya Congolo on today's program

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you back with us on the second segment of today's program. Well, we like to bring in different, representatives in the legislature and in Congress around the country and in Washington to, bring you up to speed on some of the items that are going on, some of the policy items that are being debated, that especially relate to our mission and our vision and our values here at American Family Radio. Well, one of those representatives we have on with us now is Maryland State Rep. Latoya, Congolo. She represents District 31 there in the state of Maryland in the state legislature. And she's with us now to talk about some of the legislation she's been working on. Representative Congolo, welcome to the program.

>> Latoya Congolo: Well, thank you so much for having me.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely glad to have you on and glad we were able to arrange this interview before we, jump into the nuts and the bolts of, some of the legislation you've been sponsoring and bringing forth there in Maryland. Tell us, how long you've been, ah, serving in the state legislature and a little bit about your background there.

>> Latoya Congolo: Yeah, so interesting story. I ran for this seat back in 2021 and, I was very much connected with the community as a mental health therapist. So I spent many years advocating for mental health and just put me on the radar of our local elected officials. However, I knew nothing about campaigning so I lost the race. but what I did gain was a lot of relationships, a lot of support from the Republican Party, for what I stood for. I was very bold and unapologetic about my conservative values and what I would like to see, moving forward in Maryland. so, fast forward. My predecessor, she resigned. she had baby number six and she wanted to put her family first. And the community reached out to me and encouraged me to run. And the Republican committee, they had what they call an appointment process. It's more like a special election. And I was the top vote getter of three people. So this is my second session and I think God wasn't telling me no, he was just telling me to wait. So I feel truly blessed to be in this position.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, it's encouraging to hear from people like you in Maryland because obviously you guys are a pretty, pretty deep blue state for the most part with the. I'm sure every, every state has their kind of conservative pockets, which obviously you're. You're representing one of those. what is. let's talk about this bill while we have time. I don't want to get too sidetracked. this bill that you've been working on is the Safe Kids act. And we've worked on legislation like this in other states, but you're representing it in the state of Maryland. It's known in Maryland as House Bill 924. give our audience a little bit of background as to the legislation, what its purposes are, and then obviously we'll talk more about the problem at hand.

>> Latoya Congolo: So this legislation actually came about. I was at a conservative conference, soconcon. Not sure if you all are familiar with it, but it's a conservative Christian, conference for legislators. this was a bill that was talked about heavily at the conference. There were several legislators across the country, who were introducing this bill. And I was like, you know, I'm going to try it in Maryland. Let's give it a go. and the way that I sold it, you'd be surprised. It actually has bipartisan support. So I have Democrats and Republicans co sponsoring this bill and I actually have a Democrat senator, who sponsored the bill on the Senate side. So got a lot of support. And I'm pretty Excited that people realize that protecting children online is is, is not a party issue. It is, it is what adults, it's our responsibility as adults. So essentially what this bill does is that it allows parents to file civil lawsuits against any platform where their child's image, whether it be a likeness of the image, through AI, or even the actual image, end up on their platform and they are monetizing that image. And let's be honest, we are dealing with a multi billion dollar industry and several billions of those dollars are people that are downloading child, images of children online. So what we hope this bill will do, is to deter those platforms, those pornographic platforms, from putting these images onto their websites because they know they're going to be prosecuted and sued.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this is, I know this is a hard topic and when you start talking about the details of it, people get rather upset, which I don't blame them, because kids are being victimized online. That's the end of the story. And then it's a very, it's a very graphic and degrading thing that happens to children online through this child sexual abuse material, otherwise known as csam, which is against federal law. Obviously the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material is a felony. It's against federal law law and can get you years behind bars. But that's on the law enforcement side. But what you're talking about is over here on the civil side with the companies themselves that are operating these platforms where this abuse material is being facilitated in. that's where a lot of change can happen and a lot of reform can happen if there's incentive or if there's a draw to clamp down on this. But, but right now there's just not a lot of civil tools out there for parents, if you will, to force these companies to get their act together. And these companies, what your bill is asking is not a hard thing. These companies have all kinds of moderation tools. They even have large swaths of departments of humans that actually moderate content and view whether something's appropriate or not. So the technology is there, the bandwidth is there, the money is there to really clamp down on this. But you just got to have the incentive. And what your bill does is it draws the incentive and forces companies to step up to the plate and address this and just to give folks the numbers. And then I'll get your final thoughts here. just in 2024, according to our research, there were nearly 17,000 reports of child sexual abuse material, being distributed on the web just in Maryland alone. so this isn't a small issue or just a handful of victims. We're talking tens of thousands of victims. And that's just based on the open source information that we have.

>> Latoya Congolo: You're absolutely right. I mean that's what we're dealing with in Maryland. And we actually, provided that data, to the committee to let them know how serious of an issue this is, here in the State of Maryland. And like I said, Republicans and Democrats alike, they see it as an issue. And they were very receptive, to our argument. And I do want to thank Jamison. He's been, extremely helpful with helping us craft the language, getting us the data. and I think we had a pretty successful hearing.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Representative Congolo, thanks so much for coming on the program. Thanks for representing this issue within the State of Maryland and before the legislature. It is encouraging to hear, that you have bipartisan support because finding bipartisan support, as you know, for any issue in 2026 is very challenging, because we're so polarized and divided from an ideological standpoint. so that's good to hear. We appreciate your courage. And you're representing this. You're a very good spokesperson on the issue, especially in Maryland. So we appreciate that.

>> Latoya Congolo: Thank you. And thank you for having me. And if anyone would like to reach out to me after this interview, I can, you can find me on Facebook at Delegate Latoyacongolo, and also on Instagram at Latoyacongolo.

>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Thanks so much, Representative. Appreciate you coming on the program.

>> Latoya Congolo: Thank you for having me.

Maryland State Representative Latoya Congolo introduced House Bill 924

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's Maryland State Representative Latoya Congolo. she serves, represents district, 31 there in the state of Maryland. And she's not only sponsored and brought forth, but is also speaking on behalf of House Bill 924 there in the state of Maryland. There's also a Senate version of the bill as well that she mentioned that has bipartisan support. And so that's good to hear. That's encouraging, to get bipartisan support. But, the issue honestly should, get bipartisan support. And so we've got to increase the liability and the cost for these private companies, that are continually, ah, turning a blind eye to this horrific child sexual abuse material. And we've got to force them, to tighten down on this to prevent it. Because the tools are there, the technology is There, this is not a hard ask, but oftentimes with private corporations, multibillion dollar tech companies, there has to be a draw, a heavy incentive draw, are a, you know, kind of a carrot in a stick type approach, to really get things fixed in the manner that they need to be fixed. And so that's what we're doing on the civil liability front on these technology providers and these websites.

The other, uh, clip I wanted to play on Iran nuclear talks is from last week

The other, clip I wanted to play on the Iran, situation. This goes back to last week, but this is going to be clip one. Secretary Hegseth was doing a joint press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ah, General Kaine, on how, just bold if you will, for lack of a better word or lack of any form of regret or remorse Iran had about their nuclear ambitions. I mean they were just very prideful at our negotiations about the fact that they wanted to be able to develop multiple nuclear warheads, with their capabilities. This is going to be clip one. Let's listen.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: Tying it back to Midnight Hammer. The President has been willing to make a deal. You can't have a nuclear bomb. Radical Islamists can't have a nuclear bomb that they wield, against the world. He gave them every single opportunity. Then we precisely took it away. And even, even then after that they didn't have that. They didn't come to the table with a willingness to give it away. So ultimately that those nuclear ambitions which never ceased, ah, are something that had to be addressed as well. So that's a discrete sense of what's being addressed here to ensure that they can't use that conventional umbrella to continue a pursuit of nuclear ambitions.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there's Secretary Hexeth, repeating what we've already said. We played the clip of Steve Woodkoff last week where look, President Trump, the. Regardless of what you think of the initial Midnight Hammer strike back in June of 25, that was clearly a move to, yes, damage their nuclear capacity and capabilities, but ultimately it was a move to force Iran to the table with an understanding that the US Is serious about this. President Trump is serious about solving this issue. You guys cannot have nuclear weapons. You're too unstable, you're too radicalized to be in possession of nuclear weapons. That's just the facts on the table. And so that's what Midnight Hammer was about ultimately. Not that there wasn't damage done to the facility or to their program, but then Iran, instead of Iran looking at what happened in June of 25 and going, all right guys, we probably need to go to the table. We probably need to tone it down a little bit. They doubled down. They doubled down, and they continue their enrichment, they continue their nuclear production heading, towards nuclear weapons. And then they show up at the Geneva meeting with Witkoff and Kushner. And instead of going into that meeting with the mindset of, yeah, let's cut a deal, let's rein it in for the sake of preserving the regime and Iran as we know it today, let's cut a deal with President Trump and let's end this once and for all and move on. Instead of that mindset, they come into the mindset in Geneva, even more emboldened and more prideful than they've ever been. And they even told Wyckoff, they said, yeah, absolutely, we've got nuclear. Absolutely, we've got enriched uranium. And as a matter of fact, they told Wyckoff, we've got enriched uranium at 60%, and if we want to get it to 90%, we can do that within 10 days. They said, we have enough enriched uranium that within 14 to 21 days, we can produce roughly 11 nuclear warheads. This is what the Iranians told our negotiators. So this isn't. Well, the Israelis are saying this, or the CIA is saying this. No, this is the Ayatollah's chief negotiators, to the extent that they even negotiated that he sent to Geneva, they walk in the room and go, yep, we've got nuclear weapons and we're proud of it, and we can put them on a warhead in a couple weeks. That was the Iranian. That was their position. So what do you expect President Trump and Secretary Rubio to do when the Iranians walk into the, quote, negotiating meeting with that kind of posture? I mean, it's clear these guys were not serious at all in addressing the US Concerns and the Israeli concerns as well. And so that's how we get to where we are today, with that level of arrogance and that level of determination, honestly, to achieve nuclear capabilities and deliver them on intercontinental ballistic missiles, which, by the way, have proven they can even meet. They can reach Israel. They're doing it every day now, or at least they were. And so, that's what got us to this point. Secretary Hegseth, just reiterated that. And, if President Trump can somehow get out of this, with which there's indications that the US Wants out, at some point, there's, reports out this morning on Israel and the US Looking at their options for exit ramps. But if President Trump can effectively achieve the three things, that Rubio said they want to do, which is the missiles, the drones, and the nuclear capabilities. If you accomplish those three things and take them out, we're talking about setting Iran back minimum of 10 years, probably 30 to 40 years, because remember, this is 50 years in the making here. So Iran didn't build these capabilities overnight, but you sent Iran back 10, 20, 30 years on all these fronts. Now 75% of their regime leadership is gone. And, we pull out and we just tell Iran, look, if you guys try this stuff again, if you pull these shenanigans again, then we'll come right back over here for three weeks and we'll bomb you into oblivion. We'll set you back another 10 to 20 years, and we'll do that as many times as we need to in the future to ensure that you guys are not a threat to the US and our allies. I think if you do that, to me, that's a win. To me, that's a win. There absolutely is no scenario that you can convince myself and the American public that sending one US boot on the ground in Iran is a good idea. Zero chance you can convince me of that under any circumstance. You just can't do it. I also think it's extremely unwise to arm and fund the Kurdish in Iran. Extremely unwise, extremely foolish, extremely short sighted. Terrible idea. There is a freedom resistance movement in Iran. Absolutely. There's a lot of Christians in Iran. But folks, let's don't assume that there's enough to topple the regime, and create a whole new government and prop it up. There's no indication that there is that level of support to do that within the borders of Iran. We'll be back in a few.

>>  : HGTV has changed over the years, and not necessarily for the better. The seemingly wholesome Home and Garden television has decided it would be clever and funny to hint at an expletive in the title of one of its newest shows. The alternative spelling is so poor that children can still read it and repeat it. Obviously, I won't say it here, but you can go to onemillion moms.com to find out more and urge HGTV to rename the show onemillionmoms.com AFA action takes attacks on the family seriously. The enemies of the family constantly employ new tactics to try to sneak past our radar. They know if we stand together, their evil plans will fail. Your gift to AFA action allows us to stay vigilant against their onslaught. And if you give this month you'll receive access to the Cultural Institute video When youn Faith Is Illegal by Frank Harbour on AFA Stream as our thanks. You can make your gift [email protected] it

>> Nate Graz: all came down to the ultrasound. And I saw this little lima bean looking thing with a halo, which I thought was incredible.

>>  : A baby wasn't really in the place

>> Walker Wildmon: for this young mom.

>>  : Even after seeing a halo on her baby on ultrasound at a preborn Network clinic, she was still leaning toward abortion.

>> Nate Graz: I got to hear the heartbeat and I got chills in that moment. I just felt God's arms come around me and hug me and tell me that it was gonna be okay.

>>  : But after meeting her baby on ultrasound, she chose life.

>> Nate Graz: My choice to become a mom and hear those little footsteps running down the hallway every morning is all because I had an ultrasound. It saved my life and hers.

>>  : To find out more about PreBorn's life saving work, visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr. Your love can save a life. This is at the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.

Nate Groz is executive director of the Nebraska Family Alliance

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the corps here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this last segment of today's program. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and have the show queued up in your library each and every afternoon. With us now is Nate, Groz, if I'm pronouncing that last name correctly, executive director of the Nebraska Family Alliance. The Nebraska Family alliance is the largest Christian public policy organization organization in the state of Nebraska. Nate, tell me, how to pronounce your last name, because I don't think I got it right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I think you did. That's exact. Graz.

>> Walker Wildmon: Graz.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's like laws with the gr. But, I've heard everything, so.

>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Well, I'm Wildmon, and I get all kinds of. I get Wildmon, I get wild, man. So, we're in it together. but I usually ask my guests before we go into the program, but I didn't for you, so I have to just go for what I can. hey, Nate, you guys are working on a bill? We just got done talking to a Maryland state representative, who is working on similar legislation in Maryland. And then now we're talking to you. You're working also on similar legislation to combat child sexual abuse material online. give us a little bit of background about your organization there in Nebraska, and of course, we'll jump right into this legislation as well.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's great to be with you. Nebraska Family Alliance. We are pro life, pro marriage, pro family and we're working to help influence government and culture with biblical truth. And so we're the Family Policy Council for the state of Nebraska and we're working hard here to really help to preserve and advance God's design for family and freedom and life. And so we spend a lot of time at our state capitol working with our legislators, to make sure that the laws that we're passing and not passing, are actually good for families and affirm things that are, that are true, and are going to take our state and hopefully our nation in a better direction.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.

Legislation in Nebraska would allow victims of child sexual abuse to sue websites

let's talk about this this bill that you're working on in Nebraska. And as you informed me, you guys only have one legislative body there in the state and so this is called Legislative Bill 978 there in the state. tell us a little bit about this bill and the problems that have arisen m that need to be addressed through this legislation.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, this is a really critical bill that is really driving at the heart of one of the darkest and unfortunately fastest growing evils in our society today and that is the abuse, exploitation and trafficking of children. And specifically LB 978 is a bill in, in our Nebraska legislature, that would really allow for the first time victims of child sexual abuse material to be able to sue, the, the perpetrators, the people who have inflicted these horrible crimes, crimes on them as well as the websites that are posting and hosting this vile material. And tragically we now know that there are more websites hosting child sexual abuse material in the United States than any other country in the world. This is a problem that has been growing and so we need new legislation to address it. And really this would allow obviously it's a crime federally and in Nebraska, to possess or create or distribute child sexual abuse material. but it's only illegal criminally. It's not. There's no civil penalties. And so this would create for the first time it would give survivors the ability to actually hold these people accountable as well as the websites who are actually monetizing and profiting off of this horrible abuse. And so this is a, a huge bill, we're thankful to see it introduced and hopefully to have a great opportunity to pass into law this year.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, and this is just to put a real life example to this legislation. In this scenario, the types of issues it would address, the. There's platforms such as Roblox that are no. 2 and there's, there's dozens other. Roblox is just one, one of the bad actors. but these platforms are used to not just facilitate child sexual abuse material, but also to groom children and target them. we saw an example down in Florida where Roblox and another platform were both used, to target, two girls, 12 and 14, by a grown man and attempted kidnapping. Back to actually Nebraska. Talking about Nebraska. And so, this is happening, this targeting of young people and minors online is happening. the child sexual abuse material is happening, all over the country. And this, I understand, you know, people's kind of reticence to, immediately resort to trial lawyers to accomplish something good. But the fact of the matter is, there are all kinds of guardrails and liability concerns with, every industry in the world. I mean, whether it's the energy industry, technology, every business has to look at what they do from a liability perspective and go, hey, are we operating responsibly? Are we doing everything that we can to protect our users, our consumers? And if the answer is no, that creates a risk, a legal risk and a liability risk. And so applying the same standard to technology companies is completely a no brainer. But correct me if I'm wrong, Nate. In the past, a lot of these technology companies under various provisions have been given some form of shielding or liability. but this bill will help offset that and provide some accountability.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, when we're talking about a crime that always has a victim, you know, bad actors should not be shielded from civil liability. And you know, the scope of this problem, tragically, is just so, so vast. Right. And you know, our prosecut, you know, they're, they're very busy, you know, they're doing their best, but they're, you know, prosecuting murders and property, crimes. And it's challenging for them, a lot of times to be able, when you're talking about, you know, crimes that are happening, being posted on the Internet, they just don't always have the capacity or the resources. And so by giving victims, the right to sue, civilly is really opening up a, new pathway to justice for survivors of child sexual abuse. but also, very importantly, it's helping to cut down on the demand and forcing, these websites and these apps, to actually have to be proactive in removing illegal content, which they should be. but again, tragically, we know there are websites and companies and platforms, that profit, they make money from people viewing, this type of content. And that simply shouldn't be happening, but it's happening on a wide scale. and as you mentioned, really this isn't about frivolous lawsuits. It's about justice, and making sure that we're doing everything that we can using every tool, to combat this very dark, and growing evil in our society and to protect kids and ultimately put kids first rather than profit.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And to your point, these bills that we're talking about have all kinds of steps of here's, you know, basically here's the step that the state or the law enforcement and for example, the attorney general's office need to go through before it gets to a point where a company can actually be sued and face civil liability. So there's a lot of accountability built in. To your point, we don't just jump to the trial lawyers. there's steps and notifications made to these companies that, hey, what you're doing is illegal and here's why. And if you refuse to fix it, that's when you open yourself up, to civil liability. So I think it's built in very well and it's, rather resistant to abuse, the way the language is structured.

You guys are attempting to protect women's and girls sports through the ballot initiative process

One more thing I want to mention to you, or let you talk about, is the, ballot initiative process in Nebraska. You guys are attempting to protect women's and girls sports in the state through the ballot initiative process. So tell us a little bit about that.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, this is, something we're really excited about. You know, there's been a lot of states, including Nebraska over the last few years who have taken, action to protect girl sports and ensure that girl sports is for girls and that our female athletes aren't being forced to compete against men. and at the same time it's a statutory protection. And so that means our law can be changed or outright repealed, as opponents, to our girls sports law have promised to do. And so what we're seeking to do here in Nebraska for the first time is to actually move that protection for girls sports into our state constitution. So this would be enshrining those protections for girls sports, for fairness, for dignity, for safety, into our state constitution. And so the only way, to amend our constitution in Nebraska is through a, vote of the people. And so through our ballot initiative process, we will be, helping, to collect signatures, of voters in our state. And if we can get, the signatures of 10% of our registered voters in Nebraska. this ballot initiative, Fairness in Girls Sports, will be on the general election ballot in the fall of 2026 for voters in Nebraska. And you know, fundamentally we believe that this isn't just about sports, which is important, but ultimately it's about truth. And we believe that our laws, including our Constitution, should affirm the truth about gender and that future opportunities, for women and girls in Nebraska are preserved and protected.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Nate, Gross has been with us, Executive director at the Nebraska Family Alliance. Nate, tell our folks your how they can read more about your work and keep up with some of this legislation.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, people can learn more and engage with [email protected] We've got great information and resources and we're thankful for the partnership with, AFA and all the great work that's being done here in Nebraska and across our country.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Nate, thanks so much for coming on the program.

Nate Groz: It's these state organizations that make policy changes

>> Tony Vitagliano: Thank you.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's, Nate Groz, executive director over the Nebraska Family alliance. Nebraskafamilyalliance.org is that URL. You can read more about their work there. And it's these state organizations like Nate's there that are doing a lot of the heavy lifting on policy and legislation at the state level. And groups, the national groups, provide some support and some publicizing. but it's these state groups that are really making a lot of the difference there at the local and state level. So we want to make sure we highlight them.

Department of Homeland Security still partially funded during partial government shutdown

one other report I want to get to this segment before we wrap up is the fact that our Department of Homeland Security is still under a government shutdown. Now, they've got a lot of workers still working without pay. So things are still moving along in some manner, but not ideal and definitely not ideal while we're facing the threat from Iran and Islamic, extremism and terrorism. This is a clip here. This is a clip, on the lingering, effect at these airports and these TSA lines of, the Department of Homeland Security being only partially funding funded for the previous three weeks. This is going to be clip four

>> Nate Graz: this morning as spring break travel ramps up chaos at multiple US Airports. Travelers facing hours long delays during this partial government shift shutdown. Funding for the Homeland Security Department, which includes the tsa, expired last month, meaning TSA officers for the second time in six months are being forced to work without pay, prompting more agents to call out sick. That's causing delays of up to three hours in Security lines, including here in Houston.

>> Abraham Hamilton III: We got here at 10am My flight was departing at 1:50 and we're not going to make that here.

>> Walker Wildmon: Guys said to me, heads up, it's

>> Tony Vitagliano: a mess down there.

>> Walker Wildmon: And, man, he was right.

>> Nate Graz: In NewSong Orleans, lines stretched through multiple floors and into the parking garage. The disruptions come as airlines brace for a 4% increase in spring break travelers compared to last year. That's nearly 3 million passengers expected each day. The partial government shutdown stems from a standoff in Congress. Democrats are demanding changes to immigration enforcement before they approve new homeland security funding. An organization representing airlines is urging Congress and the administration to negotiate a deal saying America's transportation security workforce is too important to be used as political leverage.

>> Walker Wildmon: So that's a local news report of all the long lines, with tsa, down in NewSong Orleans. They had the TSA line going out to the parking garage. This is just unbelievable. The only reason I wanted to bring this clip up, other than the fact that it's newsworthy, is that, remember, we've been told for who knows how long that the government shutdowns are apocalyptic. It's the end of the world. The world will not move on as you, as you expect and as you plan unless we fully fund the government. That was under Obama and Biden. We have to fund the government. you know, if Republicans shut it down, the world's going to end. People are going to get hurt. People are going to die. Well, folks, here we are, and we've got the Department of Homeland Security going three weeks, only partially funded, and all these TSA agents aren't even getting a paycheck. Now, they'll get back pay, but that'll be a month or two down the road. So we got people working without a paycheck, in our airline industry and in our airport security industry with the Iranian, regime now sending out, according to ABC this morning, sending out signals to, their proxies and their followers around the world to basically, commit, jihad on America and Israel. That's the latest report from ABC this morning. So we got these threats all around the corner, everywhere you look. And the Democrats, for political purposes, are keeping the department on Homeland Security shut down. And guess what the Democrat, guess what the media is saying about it? Very little. But if it were Republicans shutting down the Department of Homeland Security under this environment, it would be the end of the world, folks. The end of the world as we know it. Scandal investigation. How dare you shut down the government for such a critical, function of security. Of our airspace. But when the Democrats do it, ah, it's no big deal, you know, it's just par for the course. All right, folks, there you have it. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. Glad to be with you on this edition of at the Core. We'll see you next time.