Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildman
>> Steve Hilton: Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back everybody to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network at work on this Wednesday, December 17th. I'm Tim with Tony and Fred. And now Steve Paisley Jordan joins us. Good morning, Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: Good morning everybody.
>> Tim Wildmon: Rocking the, got, the paisley today. Paisley. The purple, Purple paisley. Purple paisley. Paisley.
>> Steve Jordahl: Purple paisley.
>> Tim Wildmon: So Steve's gonna break out in prints for us now here. All right, so thanks for listening to afr.
President Trump will address the nation on affordability tonight from the Oval Office
everybody, we did mention that President Trump will be addressing the nation tonight from the Oval Office. Truth.
>> Steve Jordahl: He will. He wants to talk about the economy, his numbers in the economy, his polling is, dipping and he's needing to shore that up.
>> Tim Wildmon: How's he gonna do that, Steve?
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, what's he gonna tout? He can, he could point to a lot of things like gas prices, you. There's a lot of talk about affordability.
>> Tim Wildmon: Anchovies are down.
>> Steve Jordahl: Anchovies.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, he could cite that.
>> Steve Jordahl: Good.
>> Tony Vitagliano: That means they had to be upped in the first place.
>> Tim Wildmon: I know. Anchovies were skyrocketing. They're down now. A lot of people don't know that.
>> Steve Jordahl: People talk about now the buzzword is, affordability. But there's no metric to measure what affordability is. It's not like the percentage of whatever.
>> Tim Wildmon: Here is in my house. We can't afford that.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, it's how people feel about that. And, and what people, when they say that it's not affordable, what they're saying is it doesn't cost the same as it did three years ago. A lot of things. You're never gonna get them back to what it cost three years ago. So you gotta convince people that it's better than it would be under a Democrat scheme. So that's what he'll be doing tonight.
>> Tim Wildmon: At least the fact that he's doing this suggests to me that the White House, understands and the Republican Party understands they're going to have to do a better job of messaging.
>> Tim Wildmon: With the American public. Otherwise this tag of, you've caused this crisis of unaffordability to be stuck on Trump. Right.
>> Fred Jackson: You know, it's amazing. Stop and think about California for a moment. They raised their minimum wage to, what was it, $20 an hour, $30 an hour. Something like that. They're so proud of that out there. You know, Governor Newsom, wonder, where the company is going to get the money to pay their employees $30 an hour?
>> Steve Jordahl: No, the Company wonders.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Steve Jordahl: Newsom doesn't care.
>> Fred Jackson: Newsom doesn't care. But they raise the prices of the hamburgers, and then people complain, hey, last year I was paying $4 for this Big Mac. Now I have to pay 7. Donald Trump is to blame. You know, it's just, you got to think about these things, and people many times don't think about why the prices are going up.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, right.
President Trump signs directive to eliminate Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, effective immediately
>> Tim Wildmon: What's your first story, Steve?
>> Steve Jordahl: I got some good news.
>> Tim Wildmon: Give us some good news.
>> Steve Jordahl: There's a little bit of chaos going on at the top of the Trump administration, but if you go down the line to his departments, a lot of good things are happening, specifically in the Department of Defense, or the War Department, as they're calling it. Pete Hagseth has, made an announcement. He said, that he is going to revamp the chaplaincy. It's gotten out of control. Cut 19.
>> Steve Hilton: I'm here to tell you about a real problem facing our nation's military. It's one you're probably not aware of, but it's a really important one, and it's been going on for far too long. The weakening of our chaplain corps. You see, chaplains are intended to be the spiritual and moral backbone of our nation's forces. In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers. Faith and virtue were traded for self help and self care. If you need proof, just look at the current Army Spiritual Fitness Guide. In well over 100 pages. It mentions God one time. that's mentions feelings 11 times. It even mentions playfulness, whatever that is, nine times. It's unacceptable and unserious, so we're tossing it. I have a directive right here that I will sign today to eliminate the use of the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, effective immediately. Our chaplains are chaplains, not emotional support officers. And we're going to treat them as such.
>> Fred Jackson: Wow.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: Good for him.
>> Tim Wildmon: Amen, brother.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, I don't think you're going to see any more. A, lot of NewSong Age stuff is out. he was talking about, there being 17 or 18 different spiritual categories that people have that the army has put up. And in five or six of them, nobody claims them. They're just something that the army made up. The vast majority of people fall within about five or six of these things. Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, whatever. And so they're streamlining that. And, the Chaplain Core will follow suit. They will no longer be hamstrung in what they can say. And Do.
>> Fred Jackson: Wow.
>> Tim Wildmon: Good. That's good. Yeah.
>> Tony Vitagliano: You know, tolerance, Fred, this.
>> Tim Wildmon: This.
>> Tony Vitagliano: This aspect, of tolerance and the push that the military has had, for any and everything and qualify classifying any and everything as. As religious beliefs or, you know, you know, good living and good vibes, whatever you want to assign to it, it's kind of watered everything down to where, there is no there. Up until recently, until, what Pete had, Seth is doing there, there's been no need. I mean, what are chaplains really providing, to, service members? So it's kind of watered everything down. I'm glad to see that there's a recognition now of the importance of dogmatic, you know, religious belief. I'm talking specifically about Christianity, obviously, and the importance that that has for service members and. And that real, true, biblical help through these chaplains, through the Chaplain Core is so important for those who are in the military and the things that they struggle with.
>> Fred Jackson: Well, Joe Biden, when he was president, kind of, set the table on his agenda, has. Remember, even if you were considered a conservative Christian, you were suspect.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: You were kind of, There was a circle put around you that you are a dangerous individual because your belief in absolute truth.
>> Tony Vitagliano: There was leaked training where there's, you know, Christian.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Christians were targeted. Catholics.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes. If you believed in the absolute truth that life begins at conception, you're a problem.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: And of course, that had to feed through the chaplaincy that you cannot counsel people this way. You cannot counsel them about the issue of abortion, all of those sorts of things. And it sounds like hecs of is ready to take that kind of pressure off. So chaplains can now counsel according to scripture and scriptural truth.
>> Steve Jordahl: He's bringing scripture back. He's making chaplains great again.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, do you remember, back in 2022, we were all surprised one day when the FBI and CBS, I believe, are one of the major news networks showed up at Mar a Lago and the police kicked down the doors and went in and searched Mar a Lago looking for classified documents.
>> Tim Wildmon: Really? Kick down the doors.
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, they. They went in and forked.
>> Tim Wildmon: Metaphorically.
>> Steve Jordahl: it was close. They were armed with a SWAT team.
>> Tim Wildmon: Gotcha.
>> Steve Jordahl: And so, they probably metaphorically kicked down the doors, but they did demand in.
>> Tim Wildmon: They had a search warrant.
>> Steve Jordahl: They did have a search warrant, but it turns out they didn't have probable cause.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: The FBI, according to document that has been, given to the, by the Justice. To the Justice Department, the FBI did not Believe it had probable cause to raid President Trump's Mar A Lago home in 2022, but move forward amid pressure from the Biden Justice Department. An official didn't.
>> Tim Wildmon: Who's saying this now?
>> Steve Jordahl: This is, The, It's been released by the committee. Whatever. The, committee. James Comer. Is that his committee? He's been.
Cash Patel says FBI told DOJ they did not have probable cause for raid
He's the one that's putting, Oh, here it is.
>> Steve Jordahl: Cash Patel says it's true. We just turned over documents to Capitol Hill to be made public to showing the FBI told DOJ they did not have a probable cause for raiding President Trump's home in Mar A Lago.
>> Tim Wildmon: Wow.
>> Steve Jordahl: The DOJ just didn't care. They. That's. They used a different way to say that.
>> Tim Wildmon: So they did it in the Department of Justice, for those who don't know, is over the FBI.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. They're housed in the same building. The leadership in Washington, D.C. i've passed by it many, many, many, many times called the Department of Justice. So the, In this case, the special prosecutor, well, I don't know if he was. He was there before or during or after this incident took place, but we all remember when the FBI. This is FBI, right?
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: raided Mar A Lago, President Trump's residence and took a bunch of stuff. Okay. They were, saying that Trump took stuff illegally. That was the accusation when he left the White House. And so now what you're saying is the FBI has discovered. The current FBI has discovered email through emails, email back and forth, that, the FBI, who was responsible for the execution of the raid, and they did have a search warrant. I want to say that, for what it's worth. It is worth a lot in America that they. That the FBI is pushing back against the Justice Department, saying there's not enough evidence for us to go in and do what you're asking us to do. And the Department of Justice, which was Biden's Justice Department, the aggressive was, What was the guy's name?
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. Garland.
>> Tim Wildmon: Garland Merrick.
>> Fred Jackson: Garland.
>> Tim Wildmon: Garland. Garland said. What they're saying is Garland said, we don't care. Go ahead anyway.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. And that is why today, as we're sitting here, that's why prosecutor Jack Smith, Joe Biden's prosecutor, AG Garland's prosecutor Jack Smith, is behind closed doors at a hearing because of what Kash Patel is talking about there, that they've got these documents saying the FBI don't. We don't think we have probable cause to do this.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, okay. And you do don't throw things at me, okay?
Tony Kirk: A lot of Americans view this as a double standard
Trump, Trump, in this case I'm talking about, I'm going to create. I'm about to be critical of President Trump in just a little bit. And please, I'm ready.
>> Tony Vitagliano: I'm getting on the keyboard. I'm ready to.
>> Tim Wildmon: I'm not a traitor, okay? But I just want to say this. President Trump bragged about taking this stuff from the White House and boxes of it, saying, I, could do anything I wanted to because I was President, United States. So I had the authority to do what you're saying I don't have the authority to do. So again, I'm not saying it was right by any means. I'm just telling you that, that his view was. I don't care what I have, it was mine to keep. You see what I'm saying?
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: Is that an unfair, characterization of what happened there?
>> Fred Jackson: Well, and I think more people would have been somewhat acceptable of, ah, the Mar A Lago raid, we'll call it, if they had said to Joe Biden, look at all these documents in your garage. President Biden, that doesn't look right.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, they only found that, though, after they raided Mar A Lago, Right?
>> Fred Jackson: Yes, but still, what did they say about Joe? You know, remember that report that came out? You know, he's an old guy, he didn't know they were there. we're just going to forget about that.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right?
>> Fred Jackson: Remember, he was interviewed and, you know, he couldn't, they said of Joe Biden, he couldn't put the details together. So, gee whiz, we're not going to prosecute him.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, it's. Well, it was the double standard.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, that's. I think that's what people have.
>> Tim Wildmon: People got a problem with the double standard.
>> Steve Jordahl: Optics mean a lot. And I remember the optics from a helicopter shot down there. It was early morning, it was still dark, and there was police vehicles all over with their lights flashing in front of Mar A Lago as if they were going after some cocaine dealer. What they wanted to portray.
>> Tim Wildmon: This is what you call a classic backfire, okay? Because one reason President Trump is in the Oval Office today is because of that. Because, a lot of Americans view this as a double standard and a, what do you call it, A, perversion of justice. All that favor they've tried, what do you call it when you, lawfare. All that favored worked in President Trump's favor with a majority of Americans. Is that fair, Tony? Is that right, you think?
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah, it's to Me, I understand it is kind of coming back a little bit, but I'm, I'm not optimistic that, that anything's actually going to happen. Well, no, I'm just saying I don't think any, anything of consequence is going to happen to any people. Anybody who actually approved this, there should be consequences. I mean, you cannot, you cannot normalize weaponizing the FBI and the Department of Justice. No matter who's in power, no matter what administration is in office, you cannot normalize this. And until you start punishing people, until you stop having behind closed doors depositions with special counsels or, you know, attorney generals, until you start saying, hey, you're going to be charged with seditious action, seditious behavior, abuse of power, and you start putting people in jail.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right.
>> Tony Vitagliano: none of nothing, nothing's going to change. So Trump, Trump will do the same thing. You know, they're, you know, I have a feeling, you know, at some point, if he could, if he wanted to, he would, you know, have a, an at dawn raid for somebody.
>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, no, he is a very forgiving person. Well, just saying I think of Trump, I think the word mercy is, I'm just saying that Charlie Kirk, you.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Can come up with a reason to raid anybody's house. And I just don't like the precedent that it set.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, you know, Susie Wiles, the chief of staff now for President Trump, and there's a story we haven't talked about yet, her interview with Vanity Fair, but I read some of the quotes where she said, she basically said, I gave President Trump 90 days to exact his vengeance on his political opponents. And he said then it was time to move on something that affect, it was to your sort of, to your point, when you start, Trump is the type of person that if you do this against me, I'm going to do it back you twice as hard.
>> Fred Jackson: Right.
>> Tim Wildmon: And that's, that's a good trait in a lot of ways for a businessman and a politician, or a presidential situation. but not always. It's not always the best, best way to handle things.
>> Tony Vitagliano: If you commit. You know, as, as Christians, we don't advocate. Just saying we don't advocate, advocate for vengeance or revenge. if, if there's probably we can.
>> Tim Wildmon: Watch from the sideline a cheer though, right?
>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, no comment. If there is probable cause, I am all for enforcing the law. Right. If someone has broken the law, then by all means, go and prosecute to the fullest extent of it. But this, you know, I don't Know, like this person.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: it backfired on the Democrats. It did. It's one of the big reasons Trump is in the White House today.
Fred Wild says Vanity Fair article turned into a hit piece
Next story.
>> Steve Jordahl: Why don't we talk about the Susie Wild thing? Because one of the great responses. This is a politic, this is a politician who knows what he's doing. One of the accusations out of these Vanity Fair articles.
>> Tim Wildmon: Tell people what you're talking about. Who don't know.
>> Steve Jordahl: Okay. Vanity Fair. Susie Wiles, who's the president's chief of staff, granted an interview to Vanity Fair.
>> Tim Wildmon: Wow. We don't know.
>> Steve Jordahl: We don't know. Why? Because it turned into a hit piece. She says that she publicly has, said it's, disingenuously framed. Hit piece. She calls it Significant context was disregarded. And much of what I and others said about the team and the president was left out of the story. So they nitpicked and, found who.
>> Tim Wildmon: Granted this interview with this flaming liberal magazine. I want to know who did that first.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, I did that. We don't know. I don't know. She's probably have something to answer for. One of the charges in the article was that J.D. vance is a conspiracy theorist. Hack. Right. He's just all about conspiracy theorists trying to make him look kind of silly.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, who said that?
>> Steve Jordahl: Susie Wiles. She said that he dwells on conspiracy theories.
>> Tim Wildmon: Listen, I'm not trying to defend Vanity Fair for being liberal. I'm just saying Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, did say she did that. Vice President Vance is a conspiracy theorist. Is that true? Is that true? Mr.
>> Steve Jordahl: It is true. That's what they said. This is his response when he was asked about it. Cut 8.
>> Steve Hilton: Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true. And Susie Wiles, we have our disagreements, we agree on much more than we disagree, but I've never seen her be disloyal to the President of the United States. And that makes her the best White House chief of staff that I think the President could ask for. If any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets.
>> Tim Wildmon: Thank you.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Thank you. that's.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, if she was the one who gave the interview, she's. That she's at fault. Susie Wiles, Yeah.
>> Steve Jordahl: She does bear fault for it. I'm sure that she's, unless.
>> Tim Wildmon: You'Re, unless you go in, eyes wide open and you say, listen, I'm going to Give this interview to a very liberal magazine. But I know they're going to slant it, but I'm going to do it anyway. For what reason, I'm not sure exactly.
>> Steve Jordahl: In which case you, you record the whole interview and you release your own version of the, interview.
>> Tim Wildmon: I haven't read the interview, but I've read portions of it. The portions that's making the news now. But I would say I kind of read it as, she's kind of making fun of. Of everybody. so it's not, not, it's not necessarily to be taken seriously. When she says, when she says the Vice President Vance is a conspiracy theorist. Well, we all are. Yeah. Sometimes about things. So that's, disqualifying as a. She said President Trump has a, has an alcoholic personality.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Mm.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, that mean he's an alcoholic. I, think she's saying he's kind of all over the place sometimes. Right. And he even said, I do have an alcoholics personality.
>> Tony Vitagliano: So anyway, it's. I don't, I don't, I don't know when people are going to learn their lesson. Like you said. Why, why you would agree as. As Trump's chief of staff, why you would agree to an interview with Vanity Fair. Going in thinking you're going to get a fair shake. you know, that they're gonna be a model text. Yeah. I don't know why in the world you would do this. I mean, I'm sure they sat her down. I'm sure they were.
>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, yeah, real smooth.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Hey, what, what about Vance?
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, you know what about something funny about.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, tell us something about that. And then they go back and. Yeah. they phrase it however they want to. Fred, have. Has.
How many interviews has AFN done with Democratic chiefs of staff
How many interviews has AFN done with Democratic chiefs of staff? You know, if anybody reached out to us and accepted interviews, they don't want.
>> Tim Wildmon: To talk to us.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: Okay.
>> Tony Vitagliano: And there's a. You just don't go into opposition.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. My dad, My dad, the founder of this ministry, you know, he was well known in conservative circles as being, you know, a spokesperson for conservative causes for three decades. And he got to the point where he said, this doesn't benefit me at all to do a, do an interview with the NewSong York Times. No, I don't want to spend two hours with them when I know what's going to. They're going to do with the,
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: And he would also very. He got tired of doing television interviews where the television program would chop up video clips of what he said to make him Say something he didn't say.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.
>> Tim Wildmon: And he said, you know what? I'm not doing that anymore. He said, if they want to do, if Ted Koppel wants to do a live interview on abc, I'll do it. but I'm not going to do something that they can slice, up and make it to city.
>> Fred Jackson: And all of that is why he started American Family News, right?
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. To combat the liberal news bias so.
>> Fred Jackson: He could get the message out with integrity.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yes, that's right. You're listening to today's issues on afr.
Frances Stott was punished for misgendering a male student
We got about three minutes left here.
>> Steve Jordahl: I want to give some props to a young lady named Frances Stott, who's a high school student at Tumwater High School in Washington. She was punished for misgendering a guy in her locker room. We're not going to be able to play this whole clip, but let's start clip 18.
>> Speaker F: Last February, when I was 15 years old, there was an 18 year old man in my locker room who is also playing against my girls basketball team. Because of this, I chose to sit out and protect myself. When I expressed my concerns to my principal, Zach Suderman, as well as my athletic director, Jordan McGrath. I was told by them that my feelings didn't matter and that they were not going to admit or even acknowledge that this man was in fact a man. They were not going to do anything to stop it. And as a result of me m saying that this man was a man, I was investigated, ah, by the WIAA in Tumwater School District for harassment and bullying and for misgendering this individual. I will tell you all right now, there are only two genders, and that is male and female.
>> Steve Jordahl: she spoke out at the school board meeting, much to the delight of the people that knew she was coming and supported her.
>> Fred Jackson: Democratic Party can never say again, we are the party that supports women's rights. They could never say that again because.
>> Tim Wildmon: They'Re for men, being, able to play women's sports.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: You can't be for men or boys. Being able to play against girls or women and say you're pro woman.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: all right, all right. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, Fred. You met Steve. We appreciate it.
>> Steve Jordahl: My pleasure.
>> Tim Wildmon: Thanks to, Doc Ed Doc Holliday for the interview we did earlier with him. And then, let's see, Chris Woodward was in studio, Brent Creeley, our producer, and Cole Greene on the video cam over there who caught my Clark Griswold, dress, up earlier in the hour. We'll see you back tomorrow, everybody. Have a great day.
>> Tony Vitagliano: Sam.
