Transcript

If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic society

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

>> Jeff Chamblee: 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.

>> Ed Vitagliano: The M movement Don started paved the

>> Jeff Chamblee: way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free. Visit culturewarrior movie.

Welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network

>> Ed Vitagliano: Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president

>> Chris Woodward: of the American Family Association. I'll see if Steve can get.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR on this Monday, March 30, 2026. I'm Tim Wildmon with Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Ed.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Good morning, Tim.

>> Tim Wildmon: And Krish Woodward. Good morning.

>> Chris Woodward: Good morning.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and we have Easter coming up, Good Friday

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, so, there's a big no kings protest nation. Is it nationwide? Yesterday?

>> Chris Woodward: Pretty much, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Do you know the cities, Krish, or.

>> Chris Woodward: not off the top of my head, but it's safe to say it was nationwide because there were demonstrations or rallies, protests, whatever you want to call them, from the west coast over to the East.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, we'll talk about that in just a moment. But, Ed, first of all, this is Easter, week, or Holy Week, as, ah, many Christians around the world call it Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. And we do have a king.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, yes, we do.

>> Tim Wildmon: How do you like what I did there?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, you know, I was about to say, well, I'm a king in my own castle, but then you went full biblical on me.

>> Tim Wildmon: I did, I did. That'll preach right there, what I just did.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That will preach. We have a king. And guess what? He's not just king because, we say he is and we submit to him. He's king over the whole shooting match. We're talking about Jesus Christ. He rules and reigns from the right hand of God the Father. And it doesn't matter whether people submit to his lordship or not. He is king. And, this is Holy Week. Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and we have Easter coming up, Good Friday, on the horizon. And so around the world, many Christians, hundreds of millions of Christians, are focusing their attention on the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. And, we are, as Christians, beholden to our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a week when Christians celebrate that. It's kind of a weird thing to say. We celebrate a, ah, crucifixion but it's through that crucifixion that, we have all been made righteous before God.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, we celebrate the crucifixion in the sense that it was a sacrifice for our sins.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: The sins of the whole world and then the whole world. By that I mean each individual, person who's lived or ever will live but Jesus Christ, we celebrate the crucifixion, but we celebrate the resurrection.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, the resurrection. That's what we call Easter Resurrection Sunday. And, the importance of that, it's, there's a lot of theological significance of that, but the Bible makes clear 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul is saying that if Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead, then we are of all men, most to be pitied. Because the resurrection is what, causes, enables, whatever, Christians to overcome the power of death. When we die, we look forward to our body's resurrection, but it opens heaven to, those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

>> Tim Wildmon: Amen. Well, it's Holy Week and we hope that you and your family, have some great plans ahead. Good. Friday and then we got, Easter Sunday. By the way, just real quick, Easter Sunday is celebrated around the world, you mentioned, by millions, hundreds of millions of Christians. Is that celebrated, by the, is it every Christian around the world?

>> Ed Vitagliano: No. Eastern Orthodox have a. And this has to do. I, don't know the technicalities of this, but that has to do with the way Easter is. There's something to do with the equinox and there's all kinds of things.

>> Tim Wildmon: No, break it down.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I can't. This, can't break it down. I think their celebration of Easter is, maybe a couple of weeks later. I can look up the.

>> Tim Wildmon: Has to do with the calendar.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It has to do with the calendar, but it's. For the, for the most part, it is going to be Catholics and Protestants who will celebrate this Sunday.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And I know this.

>> Chris Woodward: If I was Eastern Orthodox, I would wait until after we've observed what we call Easter and buy all the candy on discount that Kroger is trying to get rid of because you could save a ton of money.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I, I have, I think I said last week that when I was growing up, because my mom was raised Greek Orthodox, my dad was raised Catholic, that we had two Easters. And All right, so the Eastern Orthodox Easter falls on Sunday, April 12th. So it'll be one, I guess it'll be just one week later than that celebrated by those in The West.

>> Tim Wildmon: But if you wonder why Easter moves around and Christmas doesn't. For example, Easter has to do with the calendar. when. Spring. I'll throw in the word equinox right here. It's a very impressive word to just toss around because people go, I think I know what that means, but they sound like they really do.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, it's equinox.

>> Tim Wildmon: Go ahead.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it's used. I'm looking this up now. So it's used, calculated, in the east using the Julian calendar, which lags 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar used by Western churches, causing Orthodox Easter to often occur later than Western. My sister, who eventually went back to the Greek, Orthodox church, she, And Eastern Orthodox churches call Easter, as Pascha, I think Pascha P A S C H a. I do have some Orthodox friends who are probably pulling their hair out at me, fumbling, fumbling my way through this. but, so let's just say that within a week's time or thereabouts, all of Christendom, all Christians around the world will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

>> Tim Wildmon: However, the Greek Orthodox will have more incense than anybody else.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They will in their church services.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I, always. I, I just going to confess the few times I went to Eastern Orthodox services growing up because my parents didn't raise us in church at Right. One was Catholic, it was Orthodox. They couldn't figure out what to do, so we did nothing. But I did go appear on probably two or three Easters. We, went, to the Greek Orthodox church. And I always liked the incense.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And I always. I always. So, yeah, you're right. They have more incense than any other. Not just Greek Orthodox, all Eastern Orthodox.

Jasper: We almost caused an incident with incense during Israel trip

>> Chris Woodward: I had, we. When we went to Israel this past August, jj, and I, we were at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the guy comes in with the incense. And JJ was like, in the guy's way, and he was like, excuse me. And so we almost caused an incident. But,

>> Tim Wildmon: You mean you almost caused an incident with incense.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes, we sure did.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It was the great Jasper.

>> Chris Woodward: JJ was in his way. But jj. Oh, excuse me.

>> Tim Wildmon: M. I would pay to see a conversation between J.J. jasper and A, Greek Orthodox, priest.

>> Chris Woodward: It would begin with, here's the deal.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Anyway, I do apologize to Eastern Orthodox friends. I did. I did a terrible job.

>> Chris Woodward: I would have gone with.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think that's one of those, one of those things where we say, we get the idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get the idea. All right. Today's, issue is the name of this program. Thanks for listening, Tim, Ed and Krish. And Krish, what's, first on the news agenda?

Thousands of U.S. participated in nationwide no Kings rallies this month

>> Chris Woodward: Well, let's begin with that no King stuff because I did look it up and it's safe to say that thousands of cities and perhaps towns included in with this, but, thousands of places in the U.S. participated in what's being called nationwide no Kings rallies. These are those things that started a couple of years ago, when people started to show up outside, the offices of members of Congress, senators, what have you. and they're protesting, they're saying things like Donald Trump is not a king. And they're saying all kinds of stuff about particularly the Trump administration and members of Congress that approve policies from President Trump. the reason why this is in the news today is because these things just occurred. But also Fox News and a few other news outlets did some digging and have found that as many as 500 groups with an estimated $3 billion in combined annual revenues were behind this most recent no Kings rallies. including, communist groups who use the day to call for a so called revolution. And I've got some audio on all this from a guy named Joe Contra who had this to say on Fox. Clip 1.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The only word that comes to mind is contrived. Right. You see Jane Fonda reading a script. I thought this was organic. Just speak from the heart. De Niro. Same thing was tripping all over his script, when, when he was reading his as well. And let's repeat that number. You just said $3 billion behind these so called protest. That doesn't exactly scream grassroots or organic. And, and we saw several videos of people at these protests who said they were paid to march and they were carrying signs that were made for them. So this appears to be pretty much a, made for social media event. And quite frankly, again, that word contrived I can't get away from because again, all the people that are there will vote for the Democrat nominee in the next presidential election. But how could you march and say no Kings when literally the last Democratic nominee was installed without one vote from the public in Kamala Harris?

>> Chris Woodward: Now we even had some no Kings people here in the Tupelo area outside the office of Congressman Trent Kelly.

>> Tim Wildmon: We. Did you see him?

>> Chris Woodward: I did not. But people here that were driving through Tupelo on that particular.

>> Tim Wildmon: What are they protesting? Ed, take the, take the, most sincere approach here. These people.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. So to be, try to understand where they're Coming from.

>> Tim Wildmon: Understand where they're coming from.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. This is a. Yet another reaction to something that Donald Trump is doing. I think, Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it was primarily over the ice, deportations.

>> Chris Woodward: Now it is.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Now it is. But this. But this is, hurling, whatever insults they can muster against Donald Trump, claiming that he, is acting imperially, he's acting like a king or an emperor. And they're insisting that United States of America does not have kings. And I don't know anybody from either side of the political aisle who wants a king. Right. So the fact that it is now coming out that, this is funded, at least to a large extent, by a wide variety of, groups not necessarily connected to the no Kings movement. And some of those are communist, organizations, revolutionary organizations, makes it clear in my mind to me that the far left is a revolutionary movement that hates America, hates our founding, hates Christianity, hates God, and wants to overthrow our current regime so it can be replaced with a communist Marxist movement. And Donald Trump is the lightning rod. He represents everything that people hate about America. This is why the. The far left. I will give some Democrats the benefit of the doubt. The far left, has hated from the moment Donald Trump ran Initially, in 2015 under Make America Great Again. They so hate America on the left. They don't want America to exist at all in its present form. They don't want to make America great again. They want to end America as we've known it and install a Marxist government. That's my opinion. And the fact that these, protests are funded by Marxist groups and revolutionary groups, I think solidifies my opinion.

>> Chris Woodward: It's those people taking over the party and convincing people to move in their direction, move it even further left. That's the reason why we bring in stories about how you've got democratic national conventions where people boo God now, right. And they say and do awful things, just in public here. And the entire time they've been doing these no kings things, people on the right have said, this is silly. We have a no King's Day already. It's called July 4th or Independence Day, when we left a monarchy.

Senator Hirono posts on X that Trump has never been a king

Speaking of Democrats, here, somebody that's getting roasted for things that she said of her ex is Senator Maisie Hirono, who always Maisie Hirono.

>> Ed Vitagliano: She's a senator.

>> Chris Woodward: Senator from Hawaii.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I heard from her in a while.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where's she been?

>> Chris Woodward: Well, she needs to learn how to, come up with a better thing to put on X because she Tried to do this whole virtue signal thing here. many members of Congress were posting things about no Kings Day over the weekend. And Senator Hirono said, quote, donald Trump is not, never will be, and has never been a king. Hashtag no kings. And for that statement that he's never been a king, she was getting responses from Republicans, including Texas Representative Chip Roy, who says. So you agree, you think your no Kings rallies are stupid?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, the whole point of the no Kings rally is they're accusing Trump of being a king, acting like a king. Okay? No restraints on him. He doesn't pay attention to this law or this. Okay? So when Senator Hirono, posts on X that Trump has never has been a king and never will be a king, she's basically inadvertently undercutting the whole movement.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And her reason for posting this is, you know what? Any president of the United States has enormous power at his disposal. so much so that you would think it's king worthy. Okay? That's just the. That's just the way it is. A president of the United States, duly elected, is the commander in chief of the United States military. appoints the whole executive branch of the federal government and their leadership, which includes, cabinet positions. It includes, all the federal agencies. So I'm not so sure what President Trump has done any differently than any other president. if you go back and look in history, is he a king? No, but he has enormous power and he utilizes it. so we do have checks and balances in our federal government. We have an executive branch, we have a legislative branch, and we have a judicial branch. And the judicial branch has checked President Trump like, they've checked other presidents from time to time on things that, they think go beyond, his powers. so, you know, if you don't like President Trump, then I guess vote Democrat next time around. are the next,

>> Ed Vitagliano: And the fact that you can vote

>> Tim Wildmon: that he's not a king proves that

>> Ed Vitagliano: he's not a king. Because kings don't let you vote and throw the king out of office.

>> Chris Woodward: I bet you none of these no Kings Democrats, had anything to say when Barack Obama was out there bragging about having a pen and a phone.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, that's very king like, that's what I'm saying. Just much of it is just opposition to President Trump.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: and President Trump does his share of egging them on.

>> Chris Woodward: You know, he does.

>> Tim Wildmon: I mean, he said something about he wants to take the oil in Iran. Did he not say that?

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. And there have been Even comments, in recent days about the Strait of Trump instead of the. He said. Well, people are quoting him as saying it. I don't have the audio myself and have not heard the audio of him saying it.

>> Tim Wildmon: See, you do things like, you say things like that, all right, or, take Cuba.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I might take Cuba.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's what a king does.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And, well, and he may. And like you said, he may just be trolling the Democrats and the media,

>> Chris Woodward: the Gulf of China.

>> Tim Wildmon: He still should. He still shouldn't say things like that, because this is not a time for flippancy. You know, if you want to get that, you can get that right here on today's issues. You know, we can bring the flipping.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We can be flipping.

Tim Ferriss: President Trump makes flippant comments about Iran war

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, we can be flipping. But I'm just saying, President Trump does himself no favors with, I would say, a significant percentage of Americans when you say things like, we'll just take their oil, because it sounds like, Am I misquoting him?

>> Chris Woodward: No. No, you're not. And as a matter of fact, according to the NewSong York Post, I'll even share this on Facebook.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's a conservative publication. Pretty much.

>> Chris Woodward: They have quoted President Donald J. Trump as saying, quote, they have to open up the Strait of Trump. I mean, horror moves.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yes. See, anyway, I know some people disagree with me. I just don't think that's appropriate to say in this time of war, to make flippant comments like that, because it lends itself to the Democrats seizing on those words and using them. Not, most Republicans know what's going on here, but, the general public, when you say things like President Trump says, like, take their oil in Iran, that's not the reason we went to war with Iran. Okay. And not. What. It wasn't even listed as a reason.

>> Chris Woodward: Correct.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Go ahead and. Okay. I don't care who the president is.

>> Jeff Chamblee: I.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It is. I don't think the United States should be looting countries, if we defeat them in war and winning this war against Iran is a long way from being, being accomplished. I'm not even sure it can be accomplished. but you don't. You don't take their stuff once you win. Okay, I, I disagree with that. Now, I'm sure there are listeners who have their own opinions. This is my opinion. Those people in Iran need the oil and the refineries and that income to run their own country. I don't. I don't want to occupy Iran to make sure we, quote, unquote, get the oil. And I don't think it's Right. To loot a country once you defeat them in war. And that is assuming that we win this war. And that is a big if.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, they're still fighting out there.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And. But I agree with you, Tim. This is. A lot of these comments are flippant. We could see hundreds or even thousands of Americans killed as this war escalates. And it looks like it is probably going to escalate because the radical Muslims in charge of Iran aren't going to lay down and die, and they are not going to quit and they are not going to surrender. And I am afraid that the Trump administration is going to want to invade the country. We could see hundreds, maybe thousands, who knows, tens of thousands of Americans die. And this is a very serious issue.

>> Tim Wildmon: God forbid.

>> Ed Vitagliano: God forbid.

>> Tim Wildmon: God forbid.

>> Ed Vitagliano: God help us.

>> Tim Wildmon: Here's, here's what I'm just going to quote President Trump, going to quote him here. He said to the Financial Times on Sunday, be yesterday, quote, to be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran. But some stupid people back in the U.S. say, why are you doing that? But they're stupid people.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I guess I'm stupid. I guess I'm stupid then.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I mean, okay. Anyway, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not naive. I know. Especially in the late 1800s, early 1900s, we, you know, we went to war with, you know, earlier, we went to war with Mexico. Even earlier than that. We went, you know, we've taken stuff before. I understand that. I'm not naive. And, and I'm not going to tell you that all the things that America has done has been from a Christian perspective. we, you know, I'm going to get.

>> Tim Wildmon: But a lot of our history is, excuse me for interrupting to credit us. We have saved, the world a couple of different times, not alone, but from tyranny, from dictators, from people enslaving others, from, genocide. We've got involved. Our history is ripe with occasions where the United States has got involved and things, but may not necessarily affect us directly, but because of, our values, our belief in, protecting innocent human life, for example. And yes, we have our own interest, and we have to have our own interest around the world. That's why it bothers me when people want to be isolationless like we can in this day and age. We can just withdraw and maybe just protect Virginia beach and Los Angeles. We can live, an island to ourselves. That's not possible. We have to have military stationed around the world because we have interest around the world, financially and otherwise. So anyway, but there are, I was,

>> Ed Vitagliano: I was going to say that I, I, I, I was bad. No, that's all right. I was going to say, I'm not naive about. We have done things in our own self interest, especially in our atmosphere, but with, especially the Wars, World War I and World War II. All right, we got involved to help someone else. Europe, in this case, we did the Marshall Plan after World War II to rebuild much of war torn Europe. Now, yes, we did that to make sure it didn't go over to the communists and the Soviet Union, but we still poured money into Europe to help rebuild. We helped rebuild Japan after we defeated them in war. And what I'm saying is I want to make sure we stick with that kind of characterization, that America gets involved with wars as a last resort. It is to help other people to preserve freedom, not to take someone else's stuff. Because if we do that, then the Russians can take Ukraine, China can take Taiwan, North Korea can take South Korea, and we've got no moral argument with what they're doing because we did the same thing. I don't want us to become that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. We'll be back momentarily with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Lots more to discuss and talk about in the news. We'll see you back here in a couple minutes.

The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations

>> Jeff Chamblee: The AFR app is a powerful tool,

>> Ed Vitagliano: but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device or Roku.

>> Jeff Chamblee: Just go to your app store or

>> Ed Vitagliano: visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app, we would

>> Tim Wildmon: 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 pound 250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr this is today's issues.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts

>> Chris Woodward: of today's issues are available for listening

>> Ed Vitagliano: and viewing in the [email protected].

UConn vs. Duke basketball game ended with just a few seconds left

now back to more of, today's Issues.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues here on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Krish, thanks for listening to afr, American Family Radio. Hey, did you see the end of the UConn vs. Duke game last night?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I. As I watched it this morning after you told me about it. Now, I had a men's meeting, at church last night, and so didn't get home in time to watch anything and went to bed and forgot all about it, to be honest. But that was incredible.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. I just tell people, even if you don't, if you're not a big sports fan or whatever like that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Do we have this?

>> Chris Woodward: I have the audio, yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. I didn't see it live. Yeah, I just noticed that, this was sweet 16. No, this was elite in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, and it was between UConn and Duke to decide who goes to the Final Four. And those are two legendary basketball programs.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: But, the way the game ended, Duke had the basketball. All that with just a few seconds left in the game, and they were up by two. All they had to do is hold the ball. I get by what. But the ball. You'll hear. It's hard to hear it in this, but in this, radio, we're about to play. But you'll hear at the end, Yukon gets the ball and launches a moon shot.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. It was halfway between the top of the key and half court.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is like out of a movie.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And you wouldn't believe it if it

>> Tim Wildmon: was a movie for sports fans. You remember the Christian Leitner shot? Yeah, I remember Kentucky.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: and that's shown over and over again. This was. This is in that category.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so we're about to hear the. The announcer, describe it.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. The ending of the Yukon. duke gang clip, 15 gets to go.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Got a cut and run through the ball. And who better than this guy get it in the boot ahead, Boozer.

>> Tim Wildmon: That ball deflected and stolen by Mullins Caravan.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Two seconds. Mullins tosses it out.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's good.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We're point three.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yukon goes in front. There was still a couple seconds left on the clock.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It was point three.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Not even a second.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Point three.

>> Tim Wildmon: You can't even breathe.

>> Chris Woodward: No.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Duke threw the ball full court, hoping for a tip in, but it was swatted away. It really was an extra. And Duke. Ah, I watched about the last five minutes. Duke was consistently up by two points, four points.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And. And, Yukon won it on that final.

>> Tim Wildmon: But this is one of those things when you're a kid in your backyard and you're nine years old.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And you're shooting hoops by yourself, and you go and, ah, here's the pass over to Wildmon.

>> Ed Vitagliano: To me.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, to me. And he shoots deep. 3, 2, 1. I missed it. I can get the ball back again. I'm gonna run this again. I'll try this again. This guy hits the. This. This guy. He was a true freshman, too, I think, last night for Yukon. He hits the bottom of the net from about 35ft. Yeah, it was extraordinary to put them up by, one point.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it was magical. we had a similar situation, in women's basketball about 10 years ago when Morgan William hit a shot to defeat Yukon.

>> Tim Wildmon: Morgan Willem. yeah, girls basketball.

>> Chris Woodward: Yukon hadn't lost the game in, like, 100 years. and so it was a very David Goliath moment. What's interesting about this Yukon Duke game is, I think Yukon was down like 15 or 16 at the half. Like, Duke just dominated them for most of that game their way back, except at the very end.

Chris: March Madness is a great time to exercise your demons

And that's why they call it March Madness.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't think God cares who wins a basketball game, but if he did, he was a Yukon fan.

>> Chris Woodward: Well, you know, could it be that Duke is the Devils?

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, they are the Blue Devils, and

>> Chris Woodward: we also have Wake Forrest Demon Deacons. I don't know what's going on in North Carolina and their seminaries, but, I mean, exercise those demons.

>> Tim Wildmon: You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Next, story. Krish.

Partial government shutdown is because Democrats don't like ICE, Tim says

>> Chris Woodward: All right, before we went to break, I saw a story on CNN that said TSA workers are now starting to get paid. This has to do with an executive order from, I may or may not be a king, Donald Trump, on Friday, who signed an executive order saying that these, TSA workers are gonna start being paid, including back pay, thanks to funds already approved under the one big beautiful bill Act. Now, for people that have not been paying attention to this story, the reason why we're in a partial government shutdown is because Democrats don't like ice. And so they have been doing things with dhs, of which ICE falls under the umbrella of Democrats, have been trying to block or not approve funding. And that's why we have a lot of TSA workers and other people going without pay. To his credit, ABC, Jonathan Carl, ABC's, Jonathan Carl, who's a conservative. Yeah, he had Maryland Senator Krish Vanliere Hollen on a Democrat over the weekend. And to his credit, ABC's Jonathan Karl, you know, kind of holds, Vanliere Hollen's feet to the fire and says, you know what. What are you guys doing here? This is a pretty lengthy clip, but, Brent's got it for us, and, he'll play the clip now.

>> Jeff Chamblee: Yeah, I mean, I guess what's confusing here is you have fought and blocked the funding for the Department of Homeland Security because you object, as you just outlined, to what ICE has been doing, and you wanted to force changes. And yet the only thing that has been assured throughout all of this is that ICE already has the money, because, as you said, $75 billion passed in the budget bill last year. So you're holding up the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security because you object to ICE and you want changes to ice, But. But through it all, ICE continues to have the money. John, we're not holding up all of the money for all the Department of Homeland Security. That's just a false statement. We have said repeatedly. Well, you repeatedly, we should fund tsa, we should fund fema, we should fund the Coast Guard. We are not prepared to give ICE another $10 billion on top of the monies they already have and are using in many of these lawless operations. We're not going to give them another $10 billion unless they make fundamental fighting accountable for the killing of American citizens and fighting over that additional $10 billion. You are. You are holding up the rest of department. We're not holding it up. I mean, you're saying, John, we're not holding it up. We have now voted 10 times. But you're holding up. Unless it doesn't include money for ice. That's just a fact. Unless it doesn't include money for ice. A very reformed ice, that's which. Which already has the money. Why not. Why not fund TSA now? That's what we've said. I mean.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Kudos to Jonathan.

>> Chris Woodward: Carl.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: For at least pushing back on this.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, the. Okay, so to review here, the Democrats are. They would like to do away with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement ice. Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, at least as it currently operates, they want to change everything.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right, but that's my opinion. They want to do away with it all together because they want people to be able to come into our country, our stolen land and Rome, and do whatever they want to because, they don't really believe in controlling the border. where's your proof, Tim? Well, look at the biden years. So, I mean, he let everybody in and it began to be. So it cost, it cost the Democrats the election. One of the, one of the reasons. So, the reaction to that, remember the Democrats, mayors and cities saying, well, quit sending us these folks. And this is Democrats saying, yeah, we can't. They're overwhelmed. So I don't think Democrats, that's my opinion. They, I don't think they want to stop, illegal immigration into America. Now, with respect to this, this is creating a, the Department of Homeland Security there the Democrats are not wanting to fund. Now, he was trying to parse that Democrat senator. Who was that from Maryland?

>> Chris Woodward: Senator Krish Vanliere Hollen.

>> Tim Wildmon: He was trying to say, well, we are for funding tsa, we are for funding fema. Ah, but we're just not for funding. We're not for funding ICE as it's currently constituted or as they currently operate. He called them lawless. the problem again is that ICE is already funded through 2029, as I understand it. So the Democrats, by refusing to, just fund the Department of Homeland Security, period, are causing a lot of grief and pain for American travelers, especially at airports, in the name of, not giving ICE money that ICE already has. So I think Jonathan Carl there from ABC News, which is a liberal news network, but kudos to him, was asking what is the point of what you're doing here? I think this is my opinion. I think the point of the Democrats doing what they're doing here is just to try to try. Hopefully it will deflect bad on President Trump and the Republicans and that people will blame them more than they blame the Democrats. and it just causes chaos. among, for the, for the traveling public. And they hope that they blame President Trump and the Republicans and the problems, problems in quotations with ice. I think it's a political calculation.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Plus he was saying that, yeah, we'll fund, Homeland, security as long as we get our way. And if we don't get our way when it comes to ice, we won't fund it. And then we'll blame the Republicans because they didn't give us our way. That's the way the Democrats are running this show.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I've got some audio of people on television talking about this. Byron York, a columnist, writes for various, websites, does appearances on Fox. he was on this morning to say that Democrats are refusing to fund DHS purely to just get rid of any kind of immigration control. Clip 9 Look, the fact is,

>> Jeff Chamblee: Democrats are not agreeing to fully Fund

>> Ed Vitagliano: the Department of Homeland Security Security until

>> Jeff Chamblee: they get what they want in terms of restrictions on ice. And the totally insane part of this

>> Ed Vitagliano: is, and it's been true from day

>> Jeff Chamblee: one, Democrats have taken aim at ice and they hit tsa, forcing the closure,

>> Ed Vitagliano: forcing the, stopping payment of TSA agents for more than six weeks now.

>> Chris Woodward: And it doesn't make any sense to,

>> Ed Vitagliano: to the public because it just doesn't make any sense.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, bingo, you know.

CPAC, conservative political action conference, wrapped up over the weekend

All right, next topic.

>> Chris Woodward: All right, cpac, has wrapped up.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is cpac?

>> Chris Woodward: CPAC is the, convention of conservatives.

>> Tim Wildmon: People use these when they sleep. Have sleep apnea. Am I right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Cpap. CPAP machines.

>> Chris Woodward: But the rallies.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So it's a conservative political action conference.

>> Chris Woodward: Thank you very much. They had another big gathering. This one was in Texas, over the weekend. And as has always been the case, they have a straw poll at the end of cpac. It's not official, but it is something that, they've done every year. And it gets.

>> Tim Wildmon: A lot of these are crazy conservatives like us, right. And they've gathered in Texas. They gather annually, the cpac. Sandy Rios usually goes and does her show from cpac. Jenna has others in the past. Janelle. So, we, for the cpac, we would be kindred spirits here, but I've never been to a. Have you ever been to a cpac?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I've not. They're generally not as focused either, aren't. Are they, on social issues?

>> Chris Woodward: They've kind of moved away from that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Well, yeah, they have been in the past some, but mostly it's just the conservative constitutional.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Patriotic.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. but see, they're meeting in Texas and, Is it over?

>> Chris Woodward: It is, yeah. Wrapped up over the weekend. and I bring this up because they have this straw pole and, this may come at no surprise.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's a straw pole, by the way.

>> Chris Woodward: I'm gonna look it up.

>> Tim Wildmon: For those who don't know, it's just

>> Ed Vitagliano: an on the spot. It's not a scientific poll. Yes, from a polling. It's just an on the spot kind of a snapshot. So you got.

>> Tim Wildmon: But it doesn't involve straws, plastic or paper.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It does not involve straws. So a straw poll. Hey, we got this group of conservatives at cpac. We're just going to get. Take the temperature of that group in this one moment.

>> Tim Wildmon: Not really official.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It's not. I got you a scientific poll where you want to get representatives from all political perspectives, that kind of thing.

>> Tim Wildmon: So among these thousand, or more. I don't know how many people attended. Probably thousands attending the CPAC convention in the Dallas area.

>> Chris Woodward: Dallas area.

>> Tim Wildmon: They did a, a straw poll survey about who they want to be president, who they want to run in 2020 after Trump.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. No surprise here to some people. 53 activists in the CPAC straw poll chose Vice President J.D. vance, while 35%, chose Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And I have some more audio here talking about this, reacting to it as Joe Concho. Clip 11.

>> Jeff Chamblee: It's a memo to every Republican out there not named J.D. vance and Marco Rubio. Don't bother running for president next time around unless you're approved by MAGA and by. You're not in this current administration. you will lose. It's really that simple. Marco, Rubio has been beyond impressive as Secretary of state and the 18 other jobs that he has at this point. and if you have a J.D. vance, Marco Rubio ticket, very hard to see how that will be beaten.

>> Chris Woodward: I still think we're going to end up with a ticket. I mean, I think that's the way it is because the media will frame it around.

No Republican has ever been elected president without winning Ohio or Florida

You've got Ohio, you've got Florida. Every time we have an election, you got to win Ohio, you got to win Florida.

>> Tim Wildmon: That is true.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. I don't know that any Republican has ever been elected president without winning Ohio.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, at least in the last probably 75 years or something, Ohio has trended red.

>> Chris Woodward: It has.

>> Tim Wildmon: As Florida has trended red. That's not always been the case. Florida and, and Ohio were purple. They're, trending red right now, the last few years. but who knows if that'll stay. But you're, if you're a Republican, you're looking Electoral college map, and you got to get to 270. Then you have to win, you almost have to win Florida and Ohio.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Because of the numbers. Because of the numbers. California is solidly blue.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's like 55. I think it's 55 electoral votes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Most.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You got NewSong York and Illinois.

>> Tim Wildmon: You don't, you don't have to. You don't even have to. You roll out of bed with those.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: On election.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So you've got to have some of those big states.

>> Chris Woodward: Speaking of Illinois, Governor J.B. pritzker has always been mentioned amongst the list of Democrats potentially running in 2028.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Chris Woodward: Fox just popped up a graphic. It was Newsom, Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who will be term limited and

>> Tim Wildmon: States.

>> Chris Woodward: So they do need to come out. The right does need to have a strong ticket because those people are going to come out swinging.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, so, right now, you know, how are. There was a story also about the cpac, convention, about maybe there being division in the ranks over the war in Iran.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. Matt Gates, is that true? Yes, I can say that based on my own observation of speeches. Matt Gaetz talked, about it. He basically was concerned about troops, you know, boots on the ground kind of stuff. some people are. I like the fact that we're keeping an Islamic regime from nuking people, but at the same time, I don't want us to be the, you know, people out there losing our lives.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: The world.

J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio could potentially form a ticket going forward

>> Tim Wildmon: I want to talk about that in just a minute, but first of all, so for now, J.D. vance, the Vice President, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, they're, they're the ones that most conservatives want to see as a ticket.

>> Chris Woodward: Correct.

>> Tim Wildmon: Potentially a ticket, going forward for the, ah, post Trump era. Right.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. I don't know. Obviously, you know, Vance is probably going to get handed the baton. Does Rubio want to go from being Secretary of State to the vp? You probably have a little more weight being the Secretary of State.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't know. That's going to be interesting to see how that works because, you know, Marco Rubio is what, 10 years older than J.D. vance or more.

>> Chris Woodward: yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: and being Secretary of State, quite frankly, is as prestigious, if not more prestigious than being Vice president.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. Rubio's 54 advance is a little bit younger than me. Vance is 41.

>> Tim Wildmon: So. So it's 54. 41. So would, would, Now I understand Marco Rubio and J.D. vance are, you know, really good friends. So, if J.D. vance runs, I don't even know if Marco Rubio would run against him. You know, in a, in a primary type situation, I doubt anybody would, quite frankly. You'll probably get one or two, but nobody who would be able to get close to the numbers advance would get, should he decide to run. and who knows whether he will or not. You know, what will the world look like in. When would that be? A couple of years from now, you would have primaries.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, that'd be in 27. Right. Because 28 would be the presidential election, so people would start declaring in 2027 now. Well, right, yeah, 2027, like a year from now.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anyways, J.D. vance's. If he wants it. Basically there's not going to be anybody. Marco Rubio, again, I think I read where Marco Rubio has said that he would not run if JD Vance was going to run.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And maybe the. So, we'll see what happens there.

>> Ed Vitagliano: By the way, from what I've read, cpac, attendance was m. Much lower this time around than in years past.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, they usually have in D.C. they've had.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's moved around.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, they've had it in Maryland. And anyway, the two things being cited as concerns for, for the people at cpac, according to various reporting, I

>> Tim Wildmon: mean, sundry, and these are going to

>> Ed Vitagliano: be CBS and some of those kind of places, so you never know. But there concern over the Iran war and price of groceries, the economy and the economic implications of the war in Iran, if it continues and if it escalates, could drive prices even higher. I, know I'm paying a lot more in gas. It keeps going up.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes, we are.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And so these are going to be big factors when it comes to the midterms and the conservative movement going forward. Yeah.

>> Chris Woodward: That again, is why this situation in Iran, war, conflict, operation, whatever you want to call it, needs to get resolved pretty quickly because Democrats are still hammering Trump over prices, saying he didn't bring prices down. And now gas is outrageous. I'm looking at today's national average for a gallon of regular four bucks a month ago. 298 in Mississippi, where we live.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where's Krish?

>> Chris Woodward: In Mississippi. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, I just like the way you said that.

>> Chris Woodward: M in Mississippi here, in. I, know prior to Operation Epic Fury beginning, I was paying with just a few fuel points from Kroger. I was paying like under two bucks. And now I went yesterday, he was

>> Tim Wildmon: 349. Who do you blame for that, Krish?

>> Chris Woodward: well, it's, it's not. All this is going to sound like. I'm trying to make an excuse for Trump. Yes, the operation is going on over there and that has played an impact in the, price of oil. A lot of that is people driving up the, the oil prices through speculation, kind of manipulating the markets to make a few extra bucks. But also it's the perfect storm in terms of when all this happened because a lot of places are starting to go on spring break and this is the time of year when the government requires some stuff be added to gas to make it better for the environment. So you have more expensive fuel, you have demand growing because of spring break. And then you have this war, conflict, escalation and, Iran. Well, it's a number of Things is what. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Seems to me this depends, you know, I had. Somebody told me the other day, well, yes, gas prices are up, but it's a small price to pay for protecting us against Iran having a nuclear weapon. So I guess this probably going to depend on, quote, which team you're on. If you're, if you're, if you're of the opinion that I just expressed that people who trust President Trump's judgment on this and that, you know, presidents have been saying for decades that we can't let Iran get a nuclear weapon, well, here we are. They're on the verge of getting it. And President Trump decided to step in and do something militarily, which caused the oil prices to go up around the world, necessarily. so that people would say, well, that. I don't blame President Trump for that. On the other side, you know, for people who really don't follow politics that much, they just go, well, gas is up, and I don't care, who's in White House.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: whoever's in the White House, whether it be that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: There's a lot of that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. So remember the, when the gas prices went up under Biden, you know, he had the, the Biden stickers on the gas pumps. I did that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Did that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Remember that?

There are parts of California where drivers are paying 663 a gallon

>> Chris Woodward: I do.

>> Tim Wildmon: So I think a lot of people who don't keep up with, with, you know, geopolitical issues very much, they just know, hey, honey, I'm paying. I paid so 50, $60, fill up my car today. Well, who's, you know? Well, Trump. Better to get this thing under control, you know what I'm saying?

>> Chris Woodward: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: They just blame, blame whoever's in the White House. Go ahead.

>> Chris Woodward: There are. The state average In California is 587. The state average. There are parts of California where drivers are paying as much as 663 a gallon. Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And let me tell you, California is a big state. You got to drive long distances, you got to sit on, you know, interstates, with traffic at a crawl.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Burning gas. That, that, that gas. Full gas tank evaporates pretty quick.

>> Chris Woodward: That's been one of the big concern with, TSA workers and like, la, because like you said, you sit in traffic and you're not getting. TSA workers don't make a ton of money. Okay. They're government employees, and they're not making a lot of money. And you, you, you're not getting paid. And you spent an hour in traffic to go to a job you get in common.

>> Tim Wildmon: Let me tell you something how you can save on this. Buy you a car that shuts down every red light.

>> Chris Woodward: The auto disabled.

>> Tim Wildmon: Huh? that will save you a lot of money.

>> Ed Vitagliano: that'll save you pennies, man.

>> Tim Wildmon: That'll save you a lot of pennies right there, having it shut down.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I have a personal experience with. With that. That.

>> Tim Wildmon: Tell us about it. Krish, you got a one minute.

>> Chris Woodward: So I've got two vehicles.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay.

>> Chris Woodward: they're manufactured by the same aut. That button that you can turn off, that feature is in different places. So, like, if I'm in the van, it's. It's in one spot. If I'm in the CR V, it's in another spot. And I. I have to, like, pay extra close attention that I don't hit the wrong button. Because in one vehicle, where I think the button is, it's the parking brake, which you don't want to hit when you're going down the road.

>> Tim Wildmon: No, you don't. I often wonder what would happen should you do that.

>> Chris Woodward: I pray to God I never hit the wrong button.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I shut my car off one time. not in traffic. No. I was. I was at a stoplight, and I wanted to. Because I could hear the engine starting to do that shut off thing. And instead of reaching to the button to turn that feature off, I shut the car off. Yeah, but press the wrong button.

>> Tim Wildmon: I've done that a couple times myself. I've mentioned that last week. That's a terrible sinking feeling. Yeah. Because you're fumbling around trying to get the car restarted while. While the people behind you are. Are getting anxious because you haven't moved in five seconds.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. And.

>> Tim Wildmon: And they think you're on. They think you're texting.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: And not paying attention. So they're ready to honk y. And, you know, give you a friendly gesture.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And so you're going like, no, you don't understand. You can't get out of your car and say, excuse me. I'm trying to get my car restarted here because it's shut down.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Let's have some patience, people.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, have some.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And then they pull out a gun. That's the way America is.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's. And that's Chicago. Another day in Chicago. All right, we'll be back momentarily with more of today's issues on afr. 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.