Watch Culture Warrior today for free to help Christians win the cultural war

>> Tim Wildmon: If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic, humanistic society.

>>  : Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildmon and how he went head to head with Hollywood playboy, the homosexual agenda and the Disney empire. The movement Don started paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free. Visit culturewarrior movie.

Today's Issues offers a Christian response to the issues of the day

Welcome to Today's Issues offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon M. President of the American Family Association.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to today's Issues on American Family radio. Today's Thursday, February 19, 2026. Thanks for listening to AFR. Well, in studio with me is Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: Good morning to you, Tim.

>> Tim Wildmon: Krish Woodward.

>> Chris Woodward: Good morning.

>> Tim Wildmon: And in Florida is our good friend Dr. Ray Pritchard. Good morning, Ray.

>> Tim Wildmon: Good morning, Tim. How you doing today?

>> Tim Wildmon: It's all good. I went to I missed our show prep meeting this morning which is radio lingo for preparing for this radio program. We have a meeting the of us. To decide what we're going to talk about and so forth. So I couldn't make that because I had Grandparents day at my, one of my many grandchildren's okay, preschool. So that's where I, that's. I had a legit, legitimate excuse not.

>> Fred Jackson: Did you speak to the kids?

>> Tim Wildmon: yeah, a couple of them. I did, yeah, I did. They, they didn't understand me. No, it was it was like preschool.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: I have 11 grandchildren as I've told folks before. So this was this was number nine or number ten right in there.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: That was there for So Ray, I just looked around at this grandparents breakfast and I thought man, there's sure a lot of old people here walking around a bunch of gray hairs, no hairs. So yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was fun, fun to do. So anyway, that but good.

Fred says he walks every morning before work to get his blood pumping

I made it in a lot to talk about today. Gets a weather report from Florida. Is it. It's nice down there, sir.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, let's see. It's going to be 80 degrees.

>> Tim Wildmon: There you go. What I'm talking about.

>> Tim Wildmon: And I'm looking outside and basically sunny skies. Pretty much a perfect golf weather. That's what perfect ride your bike weather.

>> Tim Wildmon: There you go. what do you do for exercise, Fred? You walk, don't you?

>> Fred Jackson: I walk every morning before I come to work and go to the gym. Two or three times a week.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. Yeah. Krish what do you do?

>> Chris Woodward: I do cardio. and weights.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. What do you do for cardio, Krish?

>> Chris Woodward: I walk a lot. I have a treadmill that I sometimes use and I also have, a stepper. sometimes it's like taking the stairs.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Do the step or. How often do you do that stepper?

>> Chris Woodward: Three, four days a week, usually for about 20 minutes in the morning. I get up at around 5:30 and knock, out some exercise. try to keep the ticker going because the news can kill you. And that's how I try to be here. Super day for you, Tim.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, thank you, Krish. Appreciate it. My cardio is, I press the accelerator on the golf cart.

>> Fred Jackson: There you go.

>> Tim Wildmon: But then you take it off too. Yeah. And then you have to get out, get your club and walk to the golf ball. Oh, so you talk about, you're talking about get your blood pumping right there.

>> Chris Woodward: There is some. There is.

>> Tim Wildmon: Especially if you miss a. If you hit a bad shot.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: You really get your blood pumping.

>> Chris Woodward: There is benefit there. There are benefits to golf. I think we see it every day with President Trump.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: It's keeping them going.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Anyway, we all have our things we enjoy and hobby. Sure, absolutely. I didn't know. I didn't know you went to the gym three days a week. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Ah, get on that treadmill and go, go.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, all right. A lot to talk about. Not all of it's good. We do appreciate you listening to American Family Radio. Krish, what's your first story?

Eight backcountry skiers found dead in California avalanche; one remains missing

>> Chris Woodward: Well, we continue to follow this sad story, out west where eight backcountry skiers in California were found dead. One person remains missing. this is the deadliest avalanche in the US since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier in Washington State. this group here, in the most recent case, they were on a three day trek in Northern California, Sierra Nevada mountains, when the avalanche occurred as a monster winter storm pummeled the West Coast.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so I was reading about this last night. This took place in the Lake Tahoe area and I was not familiar with this particular, I guess you'd call it activity or sport. and Fred, you can maybe describe it better than I can, but you there, it sounded like to me there was a, I think there were like a dozen skiers. Aren't they backpacking? Are they. It's, it's not, it's not recreational skiing. Okay. Where you go up to the top of the mountain and you ski down this. These are People are going on a, like a three or four day hiking trip.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, it's more of a cross country, cross country type, the backcountry. And there's a trail and there are a couple of huts on those trails that they go there to sleep at night. but this happened. There were 15 altogether. Six were rescued early on. But, as Krish has noted, that, eight, of the nine still missing have been found dead. There is one still missing, missing, and they're hunting for that individual. So they went out and they work under, the whole operation, works under a company that arranges these kinds of things.

>> Tim Wildmon: An outfitter.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, an outfitter. So, there'll be questions, there'll be investigations into this as to. They knew the snowstorm was coming and they still went out. They were on day three of a three day trek. So we're going to learn more as time goes on. But I was surprised yesterday when they made the very sad announcement about eight being found dead. The vast majority of those were women, so I guess it was a mixed group of people, but very sad. I heard one guy who's an expert in all of this talking yesterday and the situation was ideal for an avalanche to happen. the snow that had occurred, there was rain on top, and then this, which caused the snow to be in a situation that it was very easy for an avalanche to occur. So it was bad news all the way around.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, I think they were almost getting ready. Almost through with the almost. Yeah. And maybe they thought, we can beat the storm. I was reading that business had not been the best because of the weather conditions. Had not. They hadn't any snow out there much. And, and then, a lot of places in the Rockies where they have ski resorts, they count on snow. They just haven't had any this winter, despite the fact that in the east coast they've had more than enough, you

>> Fred Jackson: know, so it's been a weird winter.

>> Tim Wildmon: Rab, you ever done anything like that? any kind of skiing?

>> Tim Wildmon: I've done a very little bit of cross country stuff. But boy, that's the thing that I wonder about when I hear, when I hear everything that we've just said. They knew a storm was come, Right? Right. Why didn't somebody, I mean, who's this on? Is it on the, the tour company, Is it on the guides to say, this isn't safe thing for us?

>> Tim Wildmon: I think so. To me it is. To me it's, it's up to the professionals, which are the guides and the company, which they'll probably be sued now by some of the people who lost family members because of, I mean because of this. Now they can't. An avalanche is not anybody's fault. Right.

>> Fred Jackson: No.

>> Tim Wildmon: But to not be prepared that it's. That this storm was about to hit when everybody can look at a radar. Everybody can. With the weather predictions we have today, they're very, very accurate. So you're right, Fred. I don't know a lot of unanswered questions as to why they stayed so long, but eight dead and it's the. Probably nine. And then, I read where they were telling the rescuers, where they were by some kind of,

>> Fred Jackson: you know, located, carry a radio locator, something of that nature.

>> Tim Wildmon: And your cell phone that. Some of them had cell phones that were going off for their merch. You know how you can hit the emergency.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: On where you are. Some of their cell phones were going off. You're listening to today's issues. Very sad situation there.

Windstorm prompts evacuations in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas following wildfire outbreak

There's also wildfires.

>> Fred Jackson: yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: In the heartland. Right.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. in the Plains states, dangerous fire weather conditions remain across the plains after a powerful windstorm contributed to a wildfire outbreak on Tuesday, prompting evacuations in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. At least four firefighters have been hospitalized, for heat related injuries.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is the Texas Panhandle and the, and the Oklahoma Panhandle and some in Kansas too. And the winds are just relentless.

>> Fred Jackson: This is a strange winter. Yeah, it really is. As you pointed out, massive snowstorms up in the Northeast where I came from. In Vancouver, British Columbia, no snow, like no snow.

>> Tim Wildmon: Which is highly unusual.

>> Fred Jackson: Highly unusual there and then in the middle of the country have very dry conditions.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ah.

>> Fred Jackson: In February. M. Normally Ray came from Kansas. You get a lot of snow in Kansas in the wintertime. So it's very strange weather all the way around.

>> Chris Woodward: It normally rains, when I joke, you know, 11 billion inches, in the month of February and it's been very dry here compared, to a lot of February.

>> Tim Wildmon: I just don't know how you stop fires that when you have 40, 50 mile an hour winds.

>> Fred Jackson: It's pretty tough.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, it just seems, and here we have, you know, flat. Well, the planes say so, but yeah, it's tough. We have a lot of listeners in those areas.

>> Chris Woodward: It can be. I, I mean no joke, I was last year round about this time trying to burn some Amazon boxes from Christmas in my backyard fire pit and the wind shifted and the grass caught on fire and like I, I had A big problem on my hands. And we're talking about what if they

>> Tim Wildmon: had not been Amazon boxes? Would it still have been a problem?

>> Chris Woodward: Yes, it still would have been a problem. I was, I probably panicked. but it can be a very dangerous situation when you talk about how the wind shifts. It's hard to put out a fire in 30, 40 mile an hour winds. It was similar for me. I was burning some boxes and all of a sudden I've got to get the volunteer fire department out here.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, you got two things happening. If you look at the weather map of, of Oklahoma, Texas or the temperature map, Oklahoma, Texas and in Kansas, you get two things going on. You've got extremely dry conditions out there. And if you look at the temperature map, what you can, what you can clearly see is you've got a cold front moving from the northwest and you got much warmer air. And where this, where the cold and the warm air is hitting each other, you've got 50, 60, 70 plus mile an hour wind which sets up for these kind of, in these dry conditions you got winds like that, something catches on fire, it's hard to bring that under control.

>> Tim Wildmon: Similar to what happened in Los Angeles last year. M. In terms of the weather condition.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. With the whole LA metro area, Palisades, Pasadena, Altadena.

>> Tim Wildmon: Now the terrain is different because you've got sort of mountainous and rolling hills there in greater Los Angeles area where you have mostly flat land, plains, prairie. And the areas we're describing here,

>> Fred Jackson: I

>> Tim Wildmon: remember, there are times when fires, they carry the smoke for thousands of miles. I know. they were experiencing the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Remember that? A couple years ago. Yeah, the Canadian wildfires. The smoke was the, I don't know, you wouldn't call it the Gulf Stream, but the weather was carrying it all the way down to the southern part of the United States.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yep.

>> Fred Jackson: So respiratory problems created. Yeah.

Police in the UK have arrested Prince Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in office

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Next story.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, one of the things, BBC has been focusing on a lot and really even the U.S. news outlets here, police in the UK have arrested Prince Andrew. he was stripped of his royal titles because of his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now, Prince Andrew has been arrested for suspicion of misconduct in public office. this appears to be some sort of financial, monetary type, connection that he might have had with Epstein. Not the other stuff that people might think you might be arrested for, for having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Nonetheless, a big story and certainly a mess for the royal family today.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, Piers, Morgan, who, if you watch Fox, you've probably heard he was interviewed on this this morning. He says this is a huge scand that is not over yet. With the arrest of, former Prince Andrew. Cut number three.

>> Piers Morgan: It is an absolute bombshell. I mean, to put this in to context, there has been no member of the royal family arrested in my lifetime. I'm 60 years old. you have to go back centuries to the last time that a member of the British royal family was arrested. and this is a serious matter. If he is convicted of misconduct in public office, then the vast majority of people that receive that kind of conviction end up with a prison sentence, and the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. It's increasingly likely, I would say, that other senior members of the royal family are, going to have to also be interviewed by the police. So this might just be the tipping point of a gigantic scandal which represents, I would argue, an existential threat to the monarchy itself. It is that serious.

Prince Andrew accused of passing confidential financial information to Jeffrey Epstein

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so, Prince Andrew, he's been in the news now for about two years. Well, he's been in the news for. He's been known for a long time. I mean, he's the brother of Prince Charles, right?

>> Fred Jackson: Yes, King Charles.

>> Tim Wildmon: I mean, excuse me, King Charles, formerly Prince Charles.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Who is Princess Di's husband.

>> Fred Jackson: Correct.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so he. That whole royal family, you know, gets a lot of international attention just because it's the royal family. All right, so, but Prince Andrew had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the. The convicted sex, trafficker, Right?

>> Fred Jackson: That is correct. What, what we, what we hear in the reports this morning, the arrest just took place this morning, very early this morning. by the way, on his 66th birthday. He's 66 today. what we hear is that he was passing along confidential financial information to Jeffrey Epstein. That. And that the charge somehow relates to that. Beyond that, we're not sure yet. But this, this is absolutely huge. You know, on this side of the water, we know the royalty exists. And you know, that we have seen, when Princess Di was still alive. The American media just loved Princess Di. They did the wedding thing. When Queen Elizabeth died, the American media covered it, very much. many people have asked because it costs the British taxpayers a whole pile of money to keep the royals going, the royal family. And, some people.

>> Tim Wildmon: There's no. Excuse me for interrupting. There's no real reason to. In terms of governing power, Great Britain, they don't have any governing Power. They're just, a royal family with it's figurehead. Figurehead, yeah, that's what it is.

>> Fred Jackson: and so it's. You know, the Brits love their royal family. It's just part of their history.

>> Tim Wildmon: Sure.

>> Fred Jackson: And despite the financial problems and all of that, but this is huge. the British people are just in total shock today.

>> Tim Wildmon: So you could go, Prince Andrew could go from the penthouse, to the outhouse. Oh, very much to be, to put it in layman's terms.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because he's 66 years old. He lived. He's lived the life of luxury. And, ah, obviously he made a bad decision a long time ago to hook up with Jeffrey Epstein for what, a decade or two or more. I mean, they had a. He went down to his, island many times. I mean, they were. They were tight. And now he's, it's caught up with him, I guess, after all. So if he gets convicted. And the other thing he was saying right there was, ah, what's, what's the guy's name?

>> Fred Jackson: Pierce Morgan.

>> Tim Wildmon: Pierce Morgan was saying that they could start interviewing, you know, other members of the family to find out what they knew.

>> Fred Jackson: Uh-huh.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because that Fergie, which is Charles's. Excuse me, Andrew's ex wife. Ex wife.

>> Fred Jackson: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's hard. I try to keep up with the royals. I do.

>> Chris Woodward: I'm here for you.

>> Tim Wildmon: But I sound like. I sound like. I don't. But I do, I try. I mean, I get the national choir. I look on the sun and the star, you know, just try to keep up with the royal family, but it's hard sometimes. Anyway, so Prince Andrew, if he gets convicted, he could go to jail for

>> Fred Jackson: the rest of his life.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: Can you imagine that conversation? Like, you know, the cell door opens and this prisoner's sitting in there, and then the in walks Prince Andrew, and he sits down and you go, what are you in for?

>> Tim Wildmon: That's something that doesn't happen every day.

Raymond: President Trump didn't want to open up the Epstein files

all right, so, I tell you what, these Jeffrey, the Jeffrey Epstein, We're. We're all tired of hearing that name.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: But the files, Ray, these, that the. I guess the FBI opened up. Much demand from the. For many in the public, by the way, for those who, if you want to know, Joe Biden could have done this too. Yeah. Joe Biden and his team there did not want to open up the Jeffrey Epstein files, for the public, Ray. Neither did President Trump.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: President Trump didn't want to open up the Epstein files. He called it a hoax and a lot of good people would be hurt what he said. basically, so he didn't want to either. so there was a lot of resistance to, you know, letting the world know everything about everything unredacted. A lot of people. I don't know. What do you think about it?

>> Tim Wildmon: If it was all Republicans, the Democrats would have put it out there years ago.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right, right.

>> Tim Wildmon: If it was all Democrats, the Republicans would have put it out there years ago. The truth is, a lot of powerful people, Republicans and Democrats and Independents were, they were involved. That's kind of a general word. They were involved in one way or another with Jeffrey Epstein. And I think powerful people just prefer to keep that stuff, behind closed doors. and you keep hearing, we keep hearing, don't we, that even with all the millions of pages that have been released and who's going to read all, all the millions, some of it has been redacted, some of it's been left out. So it's hard, it's hard to know when we're going to get to the end of this story. But like you Tim, it's it's tiring.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because it's tiring and it's sorted.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: And I will say this to had. Listen, Republicans and Democrats, can be all be sinners, right? Nobody's. Nobody.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Nobody's you know, immune from, from, from that. But this Jeffrey Epstein, these files go back 25, 30 years.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right?

>> Tim Wildmon: That and I don't know who collected all this information and the FBI, who, who's been CIA, I don't know. But this guy had his tentacles around the world for really you go, who is he? I mean he was never he was never that I'm aware of a big CEO or I have a company. He wasn't a you know, big political, he was just a big. He was just a NewSong York City socialite that had a lot of money and was a pervert basically. And also I, it appears that, that he, he dealt in maybe potential blackmail.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know what I'm In addition to. He got convicted for what? Trafficking.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: And dealing with underage girls and so forth and so on. But just. It was in all the names. Good night as you said. Right. All the names of people that are, you know, Republican, Democrat, independent. Lot of celebrities, a lot of high profile celebrities were at least marginally involved with Jeff, Jeffrey Epstein over the years. President Trump, President Trump disassociated himself many years ago. Many years ago from Jeffrey Epstein. I think he knew. He knew that the guy was involved in some bad stuff and intentionally got away from him. They were friends, as I say, because both were NewSong York socialites. Trump was. He was a big NewSong York businessman, real, estate mogul, TV star. And Jeffrey, Epstein, you know, they ran in the same circles. Yes, but President Trump never went to the island.

>> Chris Woodward: Ah.

>> Tim Wildmon: As did President Bill Clinton after he left office. He did, more on more than one occasion, I think that doesn't necessarily mean m. He did something wrong. I'm just saying that there is. The pictures are out there of Clinton and Epstein and all that. So they were pretty tight. Now the, Congress wants to, have hearings on this. Have you seen this? They want to have hearings on this.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Like the American people want to hear more. I don't know. But now they want the Clintons to testify.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: And the Clintons want it to be aired publicly, not behind closed doors, which I found interesting. Didn't you?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, they, they want to make a show of it. And Bill and Hillary.

>> Tim Wildmon: Why would you want to make a show of it?

>> Fred Jackson: I think they want to sit at that table that. Where people who come before members of Congress and they want to turn the tables and they want to. They know, they know the cameras are going to be on them and they are going to try to point to Donald Trump and maybe some other Republicans.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm not here to defend the Clintons. I'm just saying I just find it odd that if you're the Clintons, especially Bill Clinton, you would want this aired on national or international television live. You're hearing where you're being questioned about your. Associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Because I say that because I'm wondering if the Clintons, especially Bill Clinton, are going to throw out, like you say, and maybe not against Donald Trump necessarily. Although maybe. Yeah, but maybe say, listen, I didn't, I didn't.

>> Fred Jackson: You're.

You got me up here testifying. I haven't done anything illegal

>> Tim Wildmon: You got me up here testifying. I haven't done anything illegal. And then they could, you know, try, as you say, try to throw it back at.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: The Republicans and say, hey, you got four or five guys over here yourself.

>> Chris Woodward: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Doing the same thing I did. You're not talking about them. Why don't you interview them? That kind of.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Kind of response.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: But anyway, ask Marjorie Greene Taylor what she thinks about this. Oh, man, that's a mess, too. I'm talking.

>> Chris Woodward: Trump will be in her former district today.

>> Tim Wildmon: Are you serious?

>> Chris Woodward: Talking about the economy?

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, talk about you. Talk about a divorce with a capital D. All right, we'll be back momentarily. Stay with us.

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

>> Fred Jackson: 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 our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial £250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com.

Fred and Chris: Bad company corrupts good morals, biblical principle

>>  : This is Today's Issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of Today's Issues.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues. I'm Tim with Fred and Krish and Ray. Thank you for listening to American Family Radio. So, Ray, I want to ask you a question. We've been. We spent five or 10 minutes talking about the, Jeffrey Epstein saga. I mean, that's. Of course, the guy's dead, but I'm talking about the aftermath, the fallout, the legal questions that go on for a lot of people related to their association with Jeffrey Epstein. We've been reporting that, you know, Prince Andrew was arrested this morning in Great Britain. Yes, the Prince Andrew, king Charles brother, 66 years old, being charged with some kind of improper financial dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. I don't know all the details of it, but I want to ask you this. Ray, as far as we all. Most of us here had parents who told us this at one time or another. They told us bad company corrupts good morals. Right, Right. That's. That's. I don't know if that's Poor Richard's Almanac or where that came from. Bible. That's okay. That's what I wanted to ask you.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where.

>> Tim Wildmon: I know that's a biblical principle, but is there. Is there a Bible verse or two you cite to, confirm that, Krish,

>> Tim Wildmon: Check me up on this. I think it's in 1st Corinthians 15. Bad company corrupts good morals. If you hang around with the wrong kind of people, they're going to pull you down, not lift you up. I mean, let's face it, Tim. We all become like the company we keep, right?

>> Chris Woodward: First Corinthians 15:33.

>> Tim Wildmon: Read that Bible verse, Krish.

>> Chris Woodward: Bad, company corrupts good morals.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's that simple.

>> Chris Woodward: It's in the. Depending on the translation. Nivyat.

>> Tim Wildmon: You don't have a word with a th on the end or anything like that.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, I can give you. Hold on a second.

>> Tim Wildmon: I need. I need some King James right there.

>> Chris Woodward: I'm here for that. Hold on.

>> Tim Wildmon: Give me a King James version.

>> Chris Woodward: Bear with me. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt. Good manners.

>> Tim Wildmon: There you go, folks. We all can learn from that, right?

>> Fred Jackson: Absolutely.

>> Chris Woodward: That's not the cwv.

>> Tim Wildmon: But. But I bet I remember, you know, we all. Our parents told us that. Right. You hang around the wrong people, you're going to get into trouble.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, that. That's. That's a truism. And that's what's happened with a lot of these people that are in trouble now because their association with Jeffrey Epstein. Am I right, Fred?

>> Fred Jackson: And I think sometimes what happens, especially if you, travel in the circle of very wealthy people, sometimes these folks get to believe. And I can do anything that I want. You know, I'm untouchable. I'm a multimillionaire. and sadly, I think, you know, they. They have enough money to buy anything that they want. And sometimes that feeling takes them down some pretty dark roads.

Whoopi Goldberg's name has come up in the Epstein files

>> Tim Wildmon: Why wasn't Whoopi Goldberg got into. She. But she's been,

>> Fred Jackson: Her name has come up in the Epstein files.

>> Tim Wildmon: For real?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: She can. She confessed to it the other day.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, what was it.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: But was ironic and somewhat humorous was she had gone after.

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, yes.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Other people for just having their names in the files. Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Go after Trump on that.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: So it turns out her name is in there because she tried to get a. What happened there, Chris?

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. According to People magazine and what may be, cover story for her says that Goldberg, 70, alleged that her name appeared on the files because she was searching for a private plane to fly her to a charity event. Somehow, Epstein's plane or name gets mentioned in the process here. And so she goes on the air and says, I wasn't his girlfriend. I wasn't his friend.

>> Tim Wildmon: But her name. Her name's in the files.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's all she cared about when she was reporting on Trump. His name was in the files.

>> Fred Jackson: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, her name's in the files.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, that's a little strange. You're looking for a private plane, which, you know, if you've got money, you can always get a jet, take you wherever you want to go. But she just happened. Finding Jeffrey Epstein.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ah, we're gonna wrap this Epstein story. I'm tired of talking about it. However, I do have this question. Who? This sounds like a diary. how in the world. Who documented these years of association with all these people? Is this the files, Fred? Where did they come from? Like, just involved in that court case? That court case or cases that Epstein was involved in. And these were like documents that were turned over from emails that he had and things like that. Is that what this is?

>> Fred Jackson: I assume a lot of it came from depositions. I mean, okay, what was. It's millions of pieces of paper.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. No, I never heard of that in a court case.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, I think in the course of investigating Epstein, there were a lot of depositions with a lot of people.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right. So do you believe he killed himself or you think somebody killed him?

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, I think he killed himself.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. What about you?

>> Fred Jackson: I'm leaning in that direction.

>> Tim Wildmon: Krish, man put you on the spot.

>> Chris Woodward: Krish, based on the evidence that's out there right now. The evidence, not the. I heard this on a podcast or read it on the Internet, I would say he committed suicide.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. What about you, Ray?

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, I agree with that. And you know, as far as these records go, Jeffrey Epstein, nobody's ever said he was stupid, he was many, many things, extremely evil. But he was crafty, he was careful. He kept records for his own purposes because, let's face it, you know, he did have those young girls around. So you get some powerful guy.

>> Tim Wildmon: To your right to one of your parties, you keep a record. you've got them.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, and I think also what happened, some of these young girls became older and.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right.

>> Fred Jackson: And they, We want to tell our story and we want justice.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

Bad company corrupts good character, according to the Bible

All right, well, I agree with you guys.

>> Tim Wildmon: I, you know, hey, let me just. Let me one more moral.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: To go back to the bad company corrupts good character. If you're Prince Andrew. Okay. You could make the excuse. I didn't know in the beginning you could say that. Right. But at some point he knew. Some point he saw. At some point he crossed a Line he should never have crossed. And that I think is, Look, I forget him. This just gets for. Just for us guys here, right? Just for us guys. You got to be smart about who you hang with, who you talk to, who you spend time with on social media. Because everybody either lifts us up toward the Lord or they drag us down into the pit. And admittedly, in the beginning, you don't always know which way a person is going to. Going to lead you. But when you know, right, then you got to make a choice. Because bad company still corrupts good morals. It's in the Bible. It's still true today.

>> Tim Wildmon: We've all, We've all seen this. I remember this. See, I watched this happen. This very thing happened to a friend of mine who was in church with his family. This is probably 30 years ago or so. Well, as a couple. Couple of friends of mine, not close, but we were church friends and knew each other. And I watched them get in their outside life. By outside, I mean outside of the church during the week. Their business associations, they were getting pulled into having to hang out with people who were partiers, go to bars. Some of them went to strip clubs, and they got pulled into that. I'm, not excusing it, but I'm just saying to Ray, to your point and to the Bible's point there, we're all susceptible to the temptations of the world, especially if we put ourselves in a bad situation. And if you're, you know, if you're on the road, as this person was, you know, that. And so ultimately led to his demise.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: and it was sad to watch, but that's how the devil will suck you down to, you know, to. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: The good point here, Tim, is, you don't have to be a billionaire to have that happen.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, no. Happens every day. We watch it, see it every day, sadly. But, but to the. To the bigger point of what? The Bible. The reason we're talking about this now is good, bad company corrupts good morals. But if you have good company works the opposite. It encourages your faith walk. Right, Right. Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: I mean, well, exactly.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right. If you have.

>> Tim Wildmon: If you have friends, right, who love the Lord.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: And who are growing spiritually. Just hang around them, Right?

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Just hang around them.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right. There's a reason. There's a reason we call each other brothers and sisters.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: I mean, there's a reason for that. That's not just. That's biblical. but brothers and sisters encourage One another.

>> Chris Woodward: We are children of, light, children of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.

>> Tim Wildmon: Amen. All right, you are listening to Today's issues. No more Jeffrey Epstein talk right now. Go ahead. Next story. Krish?

The US Military is ramping up its presence in the Persian Gulf

>> Chris Woodward: Alright, well, I would highly recommend we, the body of Christ, be in prayer for the leadership of this country. And I say that because, the US Military is really ramping up its presence in the Persian Gulf. Gulf, near the nation of Iran.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't want to hear this. I'm not going to. I don't want to hear this, but go ahead.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, so the US And Iran have been engaging in talks. they've met a few times, depending on who you follow. Talks have gone well. Maybe they haven't gone well, but President Trump is on record again as saying Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And during the same time that talks may or may not be succeeding or failing. And President Trump says Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. We are sending a lot of warships and fighter jets and manpower to that part of the world here. And I've got some audio. Fred saw this earlier today on Fox, General John Tykert, who I believe is retired now, he's former armed services, he believes that we're actually, seeing a potential situation in the next few days, not weeks, but days. Clip 15 I think that they're going

>> Dan Hoffman: to have a good ceremony today that

>> Chris Woodward: will set the foundation for the future.

>> Dan Hoffman: And the linchpin for phase two of

>> Chris Woodward: the peace deal in Gaza is Hamas disarming.

>> Dan Hoffman: And the only way we're going to be able to do so is for

>> Chris Woodward: President Trump to convince the Arab partners, especially uae. I don't think that's the right clip.

>> Fred Jackson: No.

>> Chris Woodward: General Tykert was of the opinion that something is about to happen which Fox has cut away and gone back and forth to it from time to time.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, I, listened to that interview this morning and also, during one of our newscasts had another expert, Dan Hoffman. he was on. And the conversation amongst the military experts has moved from. Okay, we've got these talks going on, et cetera, et cetera, but I'll tell you, the talks have moved towards. The talks aren't going well and so let's have a listen. Dan Hoffman, I think he was CIA.

>> Tim Wildmon: Who are we about to hear?

>> Fred Jackson: Dan Hoffman is a former CIA chief, I think. Bureau chief.

>> Tim Wildmon: Cut.

>> Fred Jackson: number 14.

>> Dan Hoffman: We've made it clear that we have the military assets in the region to strike Iran if necessary. And the key thing is that we're messaging Iran very bluntly, that if Iran doesn't come to the negotiating table in good faith to negotiate, then we are prepared to launch kinetic strikes. I think that's the purpose of all of this public discussion. And if the Iranians are wondering whether President Trump will follow through, they can just rewind the tape and look back to the strike against IRGC Commander Soleiman or the strikes against Iran's nuclear program, their facilities back in June of 2025.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, it's pretty scary what's going on right now. I think it was Vice, President Vance the other day in an interview, said Iran is not behaving well in the talks. So let's just review what's happened in the last two or three days. As of this morning, the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier is off the coast of Morocco. it can easily move down through the Suez Canal and into the area where it is needed, or it can stay in the Mediterranean somewhere and launch from there. We also had the Iranians shutting off the Strait of Hormuz the other day, which stops 20% of the oil traffic getting into the Persian Gulf. This morning, we have learned the Iranians have announced this publicly that they are holding military exercises with the Russians. So you've got a lot of heating up on the other side. And what I'm reading in this is that there is no compromise on the table from the Iranians. so it is appearing more and more there's going to be an encounter. And as the general that we heard was pointing out during the course of the interview I heard this morning, this is not going to be an in and out to get rid of the Islamic regime that runs that country. This is going to take a long time. Unlike Maduro's extraction from Venezuela or the earlier attack, against the Iranian nuclear assets, which was done fairly quickly with the Israelis, this is something, if it is launched, this is an operation that's going to take a while. Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: What do you think about all this?

>> Tim Wildmon: it's certainly a dangerous moment in world history because, stuff like that, it's hard to contain once, once the missiles start flying. And we've got, we're bringing overwhelming force.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's.

>> Tim Wildmon: It. Yeah, overwhelming force. And we've got the, the. We have one air aircraft carrier already close by. The other one, as you said, Fred, could be moved very close in just a matter of days. It feels, doesn't it, it feels like it's actually going to happen. There's going to be a, massive series of strikes on Iran that are intended not just to force them to the negotiating table, but to force regime change. And what does that mean for Israel? What if some of the mullahs say, okay, we're going to launch direct attacks on, on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Then all bets are off. At that point. You're at the doorstep of World War Three.

>> Tim Wildmon: Thank you, Ray. Appreciate you.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's the cheery, that's the kind of attitude I was looking for right there. You know, something positive, encouraging and hopeful.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: Trust, in the Lord with all thine heart.

>> Tim Wildmon: I try to do that. But, but, well, you know, let me

>> Tim Wildmon: add, let me add one.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, go ahead.

>> Tim Wildmon: Just the law of unintended consequences. Right. That one. If we, the US has good reason to want Iran's, the mullahs overthrown in some kind of semi democratic government established in Iran. Right. The west has good reason for that. But once you push the button hard to get, you know, the genie gets out of the bottle. things are going to happen in different ways that you could not have predicted. So, but it feels to me like an attack is going to take place sooner rather than later.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. Yesterday there was the report that our largest aircraft carrier in the entire US Naval fleet was on the way.

>> Fred Jackson: And this morning it's south of Morocco.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. It's gone through the, Gibraltar.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: What do you call that?

>> Fred Jackson: Straight. Straight of Gibraltar.

>> Tim Wildmon: Straight at Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. That's the only entry into the Mediterranean other than the correct Suez Canal, I think. so it's gone through there.

I. M. Ray: I think it's important to attack Iran

So I wonder what the range is on missiles. Because the entry into the Mediterranean Sea will not take you, you know, it will not. It'll take you as, as far as, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, you know, some of the, some of the countries there that border the Mediterranean, but that's still going to leave you 1500 miles from Iran. So I don't know. Again, I'm not a military guy. I don't know how far these. Yeah, but you're talking about aircraft carriers, which are different than battleships or destroyers. Okay, so, ma', am, maybe I'm answering my own question. You would launch jets from this plane?

>> Chris Woodward: I.

>> Tim Wildmon: And maybe it's a defensive posture to help Israel should something take place there too.

>> Fred Jackson: You've got refuel aircraft. You can have aircraft take off from a carrier in the Mediterranean, get refueled over Israel or Jordan and carry out the mission and still get home or Iraq. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, let me ask you this, right? And then why now why is this happening now? I mean, we've been dealing with Iran forever. I mean, and also didn't we just take out their nuclear capabilities just a few months ago? They already got them back. What's going on here?

>> Tim Wildmon: I think it's to, to present the Iranian regime with two very stark choices. Either you come to the negotiating table, either we make an agreement, you, demilitarize, you get rid of enriching uranium and anything that could possibly produce nuclear weapons in Iran, or you face, you face a massive attack from the United States. It's so basically the Iranians leadership, those are their two choices.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think if we attack, it's sounding like it's not going to be half hearted. Oh no, it's going to be an overwhelming, it's going to be shock and awe. You know, like Iraq was described. Although maybe no boots on the ground, but it's, but I don't know. You know, you have two separate worlds over there in Iran. You have the world of the mullahs, which by mullah we mean Islamic clergy. Okay. These are the people that have, they rule through Sharia law over. M. How many 25 million people, how many people live there in Iran? I mean, they rule with an iron fist. It's like a communist company country, only it's a, the, it's a theocracy.

>> Chris Woodward: 92 million.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, 92 million. That's a big, big place. that's a lot of people that they rule over. Of course they've been killing them. M. They had an uprising among the people and they, and the, and the mullahs have been ordering the people to be executed in the streets. I mean they, they've killed thousands of people in the last couple months.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: And remember President Trump when this was going on, said help, is on the way talking to these, people. Well, helps not arrived yet. I don't know what, I don't know what Trump was talking about there. was he talking about this moment now? Yes, maybe this.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, talking about. And he has backed it up by moving all of these forces, naval forces in particular, into the arena.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. If you launch, Ray overwhelming airstrikes on targets in Iran, are you going to kill the, mullahs? Are they bunkered down? You know, there's so many questions. Is that going to cause regime change? If you knock out all the power all over the country, millions and millions of people are going to be without power.

>> Tim Wildmon: you see what the answer, the answer is yes. Millions of people are going to be without power. If you, if you hit them the way you're saying, which seems to me what we're being said.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. You're going to shut down the country.

>> Tim Wildmon: You're going to shut down the country and let's face it, there's going to be a lot of people dead besides the mullets.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Even if they can get to this, this isn't. You just can't do an antiseptic strike that kills only bad guys and there's no collateral damage.

>> Chris Woodward: It will be.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is supposed to speak today

In terms of anybody wondering when's this gonna take place? It may not be today. And the only reason I say that is because of two reasons. Number one, Secretary, of War Pete Hegseth is supposed to appear at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention today. And President Trump, as we've already discussed, is gonna speak about the economy tonight in Georgia. Generally, when something like this happens where you're gonna shoot missiles at somebody, you gather together in the bunker room and you watch it. And it appears they have other scheduling.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, events. That's true, Chris, but something like that would preempt anything.

>> Chris Woodward: If they don't appear at these events,

>> Tim Wildmon: they're not going to stick with the.

>> Chris Woodward: It's about to happen.

>> Tim Wildmon: Chicken cordon blue dinner. sure. You know, they'll go directly back to the situation. But I understand as it stands today, the, the, quote, negotiations still go on between Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Right, right, correct. I mean, right, Fred. In that level, yes. And, the, the whoever's representing the mullahs.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: this goes to show you how much religion makes a difference.

>> Fred Jackson: Uh-huh.

>> Tim Wildmon: This, this, Sharia, this. Listen, the, the, the Iranians, which are many of the Iranian people, they want to return to life as it was under the Shah. Just a brief history lesson before the, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the revolution, the Islamic revolution that took place when President Carter was in office. So you're going back to the late 70s. You know, Iran had Western style freedoms over there. I mean, it's hard to believe, but it was a different world altogether. And then the Islamic revolution took place and they remember, they captured all our people and held us hostage. Americans and Ted Koppel became a household word. For those who can remember back that far. And so ever since then, the ayatollahs have taken over and they have a, they have a religious view of the end of the world that that sort of causes them to behave the way they do, sort of with total disregard to, sanity okay, our rationality. Ray, don't. There's two major branches of Islam in the world, right?

>> Tim Wildmon: Sunni and Shia.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. There's a Sunni, which is basically the Arabs, Okay. The people in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Jordan and. And then you got the Shia, which is about 20% of the world's Islamic population. Their rivals, the Shia and the Sunnis. So the Saudis, the Arabs, they don't have. They don't really like the, the, Shia. Right. Branch of. So. But the Shia branch. I know I'm getting a little in depth here. That is Iranian.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Iran is about 95% Shia Muslim.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, but don't they have some particular, apocalyptic view of, Of. Of their. Of their religion? That.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, go ahead.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right, right. They believe that there's this. What is it? 12th Imam is coming. And when he comes, this worldwide caliphate will be established and Islam will be the religion of the world. And, the great Satan will be defeated.

>> Tim Wildmon: We're the great Satan, Right?

>> Tim Wildmon: The Great Satan.

>> Tim Wildmon: And Israel is a little Satan.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is a little Satan. And they will all be destroyed. And so underneath this radical, radical Islamic eschatology, is the belief that by starting a war, they may create the circumstances that call forth his 12th Imam. And the end of days will be upon us.

>> Tim Wildmon: See how you deal with people like

>> Fred Jackson: that,

>> Tim Wildmon: it's hard to rationally deal with

>> Fred Jackson: those folks, which is why we saw the Israeli response, the Hamas massacre of the Israelis, October 2023. And, Iran was behind Hamas, Hezbollah attacks. And that is why Israel understands the only way to deal with these people. You don't sit down and chat and have coffee. These are people who are trying to annihilate you.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: You got to deal with them.

>> Tim Wildmon: it's a very complicated issue right now in terms of we don't know what's going to happen if the US Attacks. We don't know. We don't know what the. What the second, chapter of the book looks like, so to speak. So. All right. This is ironic because, a lot of people voted for President Trump to keep us out of foreign wars.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right?

>> Tim Wildmon: And here we are.

>> Fred Jackson: Here we are.

>> Tim Wildmon: World changes. Right. We'll be back momentarily. Stay with us. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Tim, Fred and Ray talk with Chris on top news headlines of the day including a discussion on the latest with the avalanche in California. They also discuss the wildfires in the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma.