AFA Action takes attacks on the family seriously. The enemies of the family constantly employ new tactics
Ed Vitagliano AFA Action takes attacks on the family seriously. The enemies of the family constantly employ new tactics to try to sneak past our radar. They know if we stand together, their evil plans will fail. Your gift to AFA Action allows us to stay vigilant against their onslaught. And if you give this month, you'll receive access to the Cultural Institute video, when youn Faith Is Illegal by Frank harbor on AFA Stream. As our thanks, you can make your gift [email protected].
Tim Wildman: American Family Radio Network offers Christian response to issues
Welcome to today's issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues here on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR. Today is Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. and I'm Tim Wildmon with Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon Wesley Wildmon.
Wesley Wildmon Good morning.
Tim Wildmon And Fred Jackson.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you.
Tim Wildmon We all four be in studio, today. You judging me on my English? No, you're smart. When I said we be I smart.
Ed Vitagliano just call me Mr. Smirk.
Wesley Wildmon It did come off as one word, though, because you're from Mississippi. 4B. So all I heard 4B.
Ed Vitagliano We all be in studio.
Tim Wildmon We all be in studio. I just don't. I don't like the judgment I'm feeling right now. I wanted to go with whatever I wanted to say there.
Wesley Wildmon Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon So Wednesday, December 3rd. I'm saying that we all four studio today. Ray Pritchard, who's sometimes with us, is, in other parts of the country.
Ed Vitagliano He's not in other parts of the country. He's in Florida. I know, enjoying the warm weather.
Wesley Wildmon One part of the country.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, his, well, his real home back in Kansas City is snowed over, freezing. all right, so, but brother Ray will be with us tomorrow. He's with us usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays. And again, we thank you for listening. Wesley folks want to join us on what Ed calls that their Internet. How can they do that?
Wesley Wildmon I would encourage people, and yes, Dad, I would encourage, encourage people to go to afr.net. that's where you can listen 24 7. Regardless of whether. How close you are to one of our tower sites. You can listen to afr.net there. You can also download our podcast. You can, you can listen live. We have actually two networks on our. On our. On afr.net, we have our music network, and then we have what you're listening to now, our talk network. So go to afr.net you can also go to Facebook. Today's issues live on Facebook, and go to our YouTube. I believe we start. Yeah, YouTube. We're not banned there. Nope. Go to YouTube. Go to today's issues live on YouTube. But again, I know we have those platforms and we use them because they're available, but going to your own streaming, AF. Stream.AFA.net is our own streaming platform. So stream.AFA.net and the Grand.
Tim Wildmon The, The app.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, that's right.
Ed Vitagliano The app, as you say, is. Was a game changer.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano So whatever kind of phone you use, you have an app store of some sort. Download the AFR app, you can listen.
Wesley Wildmon We won't get anywhere.
Ed Vitagliano There's a good signal.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. We won't get into which phones, are better. Right, right. I know people have their preferences, and you got two. You got Androids, you got apples, but everybody's got an app store.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, Some. There's some way to a. Access an app for your phone. Unless you've got a dumb phone.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Ed Vitagliano If you've got a dumb phone, there's nothing you can do to change that.
Wesley Wildmon Change that.
Ed Vitagliano But for you who have a smartphone.
Tim Wildmon All right. You know, get your dumb phone.
Ed Vitagliano That's all it used to be. That's all there was.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Dumb phones.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Even when we had mobile phones.
Tim Wildmon Remember the first mobile phones? I don't know if Wesley does.
Wesley Wildmon I do. Do you? Well, they work before that.
They were in the car. Yeah, car phones. I remember driving for the first time with one of those in there
They were in the car. They were car phones.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, car phones. The big car phones, you know, down there.
Ed Vitagliano And you'd like Magnum P.I. he had one.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano I remember Tom Selleck.
Tim Wildmon I remember driving for the first time with one of those in there. And I just call people just for fun.
Wesley Wildmon That's right. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Well, you say, hey, can you believe we're doing this?
Ed Vitagliano $5Aminute or whatever.
Tim Wildmon I got a phone in my car.
Ed Vitagliano You know what I used to do in this? I've embarrassed my wife so many different ways over the years. We've been married 44 years. But when, Tom Selleck, the actor, played a Magnum PI his fast, sporty car. He had a car phone.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And so I would take one of the kids. You remember the little play phone that you'd get for little kids? And I would bring. I'd bring it with us on a TR rip. It was plastic, and I would put it in between our seats, and I would every once in a while, raise that phone like Magnum PI and pretend I was talking my Wife, she would. She was constantly embarrassed by things I would do.
Fred Jackson Yeah, your wife. What have I done?
Ed Vitagliano And we'd be driving in a Subaru hatchback. Yeah. You got a, you got a car phone, dude?
Wesley Wildmon Sure, we had car phones. And then they went to the, cell phones, but they were really small. Black and white screen or black and gray phones, too. Oh, yeah. Flip phones.
Fred Jackson Then where the shoe phones?
Wesley Wildmon Yep. Shoe phones.
Tim Wildmon Remember those?
Wesley Wildmon Yep.
Fred Jackson Weighed a ton.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, yeah, yeah.
Fred Jackson Try to miss m that on your.
Ed Vitagliano Buy that much.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano those kind of shoe phones.
Tim Wildmon I remember.
Republican Matt Von Epps won a special election in Tennessee yesterday
All right, Fred, what's our first news story here? We got.
Fred Jackson Well, Republicans in Tennessee and in parts of Washington D.C. are celebrating a little bit today. They're celebrating, because there was a special election, in the District 7 of Tennessee yesterday for a House seat. And the, Republican Matt Von Epps, won that race. It was, it became a national story because of the Democrat who was running there, Afton Benn, quite a character. of course, Tennessee. Nashville. Nashville, the home of country music. some old audio of her came back to haunt her a little bit. She said she hated country music. Didn't like Nashville at all. But she overcame that by saying, I'm in this race really because of affordability. That is the new buzzword for the Democratic Party. But Republican Matt Vanliere Epps did, come out on top last night. Here's a little bit of what he had to say in his victory speech. Cut number one.
Wesley Wildmon Tonight, you've sent a message loud and clear. The people of Middle Tennessee stand with.
Ed Vitagliano President Donald J. Trump.
Wesley Wildmon And stood firmly behind our campaign.
Frank Turek As we look forward, I say this.
Wesley Wildmon To my friends in the liberal media and to the professional panickers in my own party. Tonight we showed running from Trump is how you lose. Running with Trump is how you win.
Fred Jackson so there you have it. Yes. President Trump by phone did some campaigning, for Vaneps, House speaker, Johnson, was in Tennessee to help out. There was some concern given the polls, during the campaign, had the two candidates really close, despite the fact that President, Trump in last year's election won it by 22 point, margin. It was a, A safe seat for the Republicans.
Tim Wildmon First. Still is.
Fred Jackson And it's, it is the ban.
Tim Wildmon The, winner last night, he, he won by nine points.
Fred Jackson Nine points. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You didn't win by 22.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon But when you got. I don't, I don't know if it's. It's a little bit apples and oranges to me because Trump was Trump was facing the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. Okay. In Harris, Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris.
Ed Vitagliano Word salad.
Tim Wildmon Word salad. Harris. I mean, so, I mean you got a red district, sure. He's gonna, he's gonna blow her out of the water. This kind of situation right here, nine points is still a big win, in a now, you know, the party out of power, that is the party opposite the president, in this case a Republican. Donald Trump usually, gained seats in the midterms. Now this is not the midterms yet, that's next year, but still. So this is not unusual historically for the party out of power to show up better in the, in the in, in, in races and polls and so forth. But I don't know, it's kind of embarrassing to me for somebody to have predicted a two point win, whoever that was. I read that somewhere. And then, and then the guy wins by nine again. It's not 22, but that's a safe margin victory. You have any comments on this, Ed?
Ed Vitagliano I would, I would say this. Everything you said is true about the the off year election. and that is going to lower the margin of victory somewhat that it's not a presidential year. However, I would, I would say that I would caution.
Tim Wildmon Okay, I'm gonna help you out there. You caution us, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano I think affordability is a potentially winning, argument on the part of the Democrats.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano because here with Trump, basically all Democrats have had to run on is we're not Trump, we don't like Trump, we hate Trump. Come on out and vote for a Democrat. Okay? That's not much of a message, but affordability, unless there is a turnaround, or a, a greater improvement in the economy, there are some, some good signs in the economy. But until people feel it kind of at the kitchen table, I, think affordability is going to be a difficult. Argument, to combat on the part of Republicans who like Matt Vanliere Epps are going to want to stay loyal to Donald Trump because he's very, still pretty, popular with the Republican base. So that, that's my only caution. like you said, they're probably going to wind up losing seats anyway because it's a midterm. but you don't want to give that argument momentum if our economy does not, it does not improve before 2028.
Tim Wildmon We're seeing. Oh, so you disagree with Brother Ed?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I still think you're a good person if you do.
Wesley Wildmon I agree with Brother Ed that from A strategy standpoint for the Democrats, that would be a, really good, language to use, but it would not hold up in a debate if two, if two good candidates debated it because the Democrats had four years and only made things worse. That's true economically for everybody. And so if evidence that would hurt. But because of the current situation, from a strategy standpoint, using that language does draw people to want to, want to listen to and, or do something, anything different. And we're mostly talking about mushy middles or, moderate people. You, obviously, we know those that are far left stay left. Most everybody that's on the right stays. Right. But if you're trying to persuade and get more votes out for your candidate and the left potentially, upset or win an election, it's going to come. I think that would be as bad as. Better than the other things they've been trying.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Wesley Wildmon As far as politically strategizing, saying that men should be in women's sports is.
Ed Vitagliano Not working, or that we should have the border, southern border, wide open.
Wesley Wildmon Because at least in this, at least in this category, they leave it up for debate on how we're going to go about it.
Ed Vitagliano excellent, excellent.
Wesley Wildmon It'd be socialist. Yeah, I appreciate that.
So I do agree with you. I'm still waiting for a candidate
So I do agree with you.
Ed Vitagliano And I agree with you.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I'm still waiting. I'm, waiting for the. If I can get a candidate. Just say free stuff for Tim, you know. Yeah, I'm. Wait, I'm. I'm willing to listen to that. To that as a, as an appeal to me as a boater.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Free stuff for Tim. That. I'll listen to you. Thank you.
Wesley Wildmon That's. That's my point. Or one of my points.
Fred: Trump talked about affordability in his cabinet meeting yesterday
Tim Wildmon All right. You're listening to today's issue. So, Fred, good news for the Republicans in Tennessee yesterday. They have a very thin margin in the House. Right. Like four or five. Six.
Fred Jackson Four or five. and that's why you're seeing a lot of Republican states redistricting and, trying to pick up some, more safe Republican seats in various states. But you guys were talking about this affordability issue.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Well, Trump has a plan. He had a cabinet meeting yesterday, his ninth cabinet meeting since he came into office in January. I, think, Biden had not anywhere close to that over four years. Anyway, Trump made some news yesterday. By talking about affordability, he plans the American people to, give American people a whole lot of money. Cut number four.
Ed Vitagliano We've only just begun striking narco boats.
Frank Turek And putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the Ocean because they've been poisoning the American people.
Tim Wildmon Trump's voice is changing. Yeah, Trump's voice has changed with age. Have y' all noticed this?
Fred Jackson Yes, that was my mistake.
Wesley Wildmon We're gonna get back.
Fred Jackson That was my mistake. Let's go to cut number nine.
Ed Vitagliano Trillions of dollars get paid to drug.
Tim Wildmon Companies and you still have lousy health care.
Ed Vitagliano Obamacare is horrible healthcare. We want it to go to the people and then let the people go out and buy their own health care and they'll do great.
Fred Jackson Yeah, so he's talking about that. He's talking about people, getting more of their tax dollars back. he's talking about tariff, bonuses. You know, we're making, according to the president, we're making trillions of dollars on tariffs, and we're going to give the American people some of that dough.
Tim Wildmon Well, that's just what I said. Free stuff for Tim. I'm listening to you. Give me a tariff.
Fred Jackson So they're thinking, I think, about next year, if people are getting a break in income tax. And he even hinted at there may be a day when we're not paying any income tax at all that things will be so good that American people won't have to pay income tax.
Tim Wildmon What are you smoking?
Fred Jackson I'm just quoting. I ain't smoking. I'm just quoting.
Ed Vitagliano It sounds like we're discussing socialism and.
Tim Wildmon We need to bring.
Ed Vitagliano We need to bring our experts.
Tim Wildmon We have a socialist. You want to introduce him?
Ed Vitagliano Well, we are going to introduce, Dr. Frank Turek. I don't think it's fair to say he's a socialist. He is probably as much of an expert on the subject of socialism as we typically have. He's host of I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Maybe you should call it I Don't have Enough Faith to Be a Socialist. Heard Saturdays at 9am Central Time and again Sundays at 4pm Central Time right here on American Family Radio. Frank, welcome back.
Frank Turek I don't have enough faith to be an atheist or a socialist.
Ed: Frank, why are there no caravans going to Venezuela
Let me ask you a question, Ed. How many caravans are going from the United States to Venezuela?
Ed Vitagliano Exactly.
Tim Wildmon Mic drop.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. yeah. Or any other of the other, our company experiment.
Tim Wildmon How many people are getting on boats to risk, their lives in shark and infested waters to go from Miami to Havana?
Frank Turek Yes.
Ed Vitagliano It's not happening.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. How you doing, brother Frank?
Frank Turek I'm doing all right. You know, we got Christmas coming up. That's always a good time of year.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Frank Turek But I think I have the cure for leftism.
Tim Wildmon Okay?
Frank Turek People were, were rational about it, all right? And one is the statement we just talked about. Why are there no caravans going to Venezuela? But secondly, I just, you know, month or so ago got back from a trip to Jordan, Israel and Egypt and Have I ever told you guys what the average monthly salary of an Egyptian worker is?
Tim Wildmon What do you think it is in dollars?
Frank Turek dollars.
Tim Wildmon Average monthly salary of an Egyptian worker in American dollars, $600.
Wesley Wildmon About $500.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, I'm going to say monthly, I'll say 100 bucks.
Frank Turek I'll say, let's average it. It's $303.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon a month.
Ed Vitagliano A month for a worker in Egypt.
Frank Turek Average worker in Egypt, $303 per month. And the average worker in America makes almost that in a day.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, but Frank, what's the average cost of, falafel in Egypt?
Frank Turek Well, actually our buying power is about six times that of the average Egyptian.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow. Well, that's the key. That's the key metric, isn't it?
Tim Wildmon What's a new camel going to run you? That's bad. I should. I was, I was thinking about that joke. That was a bad joke, but because not all Egyptians.
Frank Turek Let's get over the hump and move on to something else.
Tim Wildmon But your point being?
Frank Turek My point being is that if you want a cure for people who think this country is a bad country, go to some second and third world countries that do not have the same free enterprise system that we have. I mean, I had a, I enjoyed my time in Egypt. There's so many great sights to see, but economically it is a very poor country.
William Bradford: Students say they want a socialist country like Sweden
Ed Vitagliano All right, well, let me play devil's advocate here, okay? Not because I believe any of the garbage I'm about to say, okay? But this is what you're going to hear in America from college educated students. That's their first mistake with their IQ just continuing to soar. Okay, this is what you are going to hear from a lot of young people. Yeah. Frank, you picked Egypt as the example. I want to pick Scandinavian countries where you get all kinds of free stuff and great health care. What would you say, what would you say to people who say that's the kind of socialist country you guys always pick? Venezuela and Cuba run by wackos. I want to point to these, these kinds of socialist countries. What would you say?
Frank Turek How many people do you know who go to Sweden for an operation?
Ed Vitagliano I don't know. Yeah, I don't know any. Anybody.
Frank Turek You don't okay. not only that, but Sweden is about the size of one of our states. and they don't really have to spend a lot of money on a, defense. Who does that for them?
Ed Vitagliano The United States of America?
Frank Turek We do. Okay. Also, Sweden does have a private economy, maybe not as robust as ours, but certainly more robust than Egypt. Okay. So there are so many differences.
Tim Wildmon Also.
Frank Turek They basically, until. Until immigration had a pretty homogeneous population. Now immigration is causing them trouble as well, so. And third, fourthly, they're all living off the vapor of Christianity. they are originally a Christian country, and Christianity presupposes private property. Thou shall not steal presupposes private property. Okay. do not show favoritism to the rich or the poor. Presupposes private property. so the two are not analogous. it is still a free market society in Sweden, but they have some advantages we don't have here. They don't have to pay for their own defense. They're very small. and, a country like Norway, by the way, has enormous oil resources.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Frank Turek They don't have to do much. They can just sell their oil and have these great socialist programs that everybody thinks here we can have, when in fact we're what, $36 trillion in debt.
Ed Vitagliano Well, and none of us, President Trump.
Frank Turek Ought to give any tariff money to anybody. Ought to go to pay down the national debt.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, I agree.
Ed Vitagliano None of those countries, which, we call Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, et cetera, Denmark, they don't even identify themselves as socialist countries. I remember, I don't remember the prime minister of one of those countries said, we're not a socialist country, we're capitalist. I mean, they have a lot of businesses, some corporations run out of them, that are worldwide in scope. They do have, they do tax a lot and have, programs that, is sometimes considered to be socialist. but they don't even identify as socialist countries. So when young people college, let's just say college kids say, yeah, I want a socialist country like that. They're. They don't identify as socialist. They're capitalist countries.
Frank Turek Here's another question to ask people. When was the last time you washed a rental car?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, when was the last time you washed one?
Frank Turek Yeah. You never wash a rental car because, it's not yours. You don't care. Right, Right. And when you don't have private property, you tend not to care about it as much. You're not as motivated to take care of something that isn't yours. This is why private housing is nearly always in better shape. Than public housing. If people have the capacity in a system to keep the fruits of their own labor, A, they're more incentivized to work harder, and B, if they have that private property, they'll take care of it more. Yeah, and you don't have that in a socialist society. I mean, socialism not only failed to produce freedom, it failed to produce food, right?
Ed Vitagliano That's right.
Frank Turek Okay. I mean, how about William Bradford? When he came over here with the Pilgrims the first year, they tried to do a socialist kind of economy where everybody's just going to chip in and take care of the, farm together. And half of them starved.
The fastest way to get people out of poverty is with capitalism, not socialism
Then the next winter, he said, okay, every family's going to get their own plot. And then they had more food than they knew what to do with.
Frank Turek Because people were motivated. Socialism misunderstands human nature. It thinks that people are going to work as hard as they can and take as little as they need. In reality, people will work as little as they can and take as much as they can get. If you have the ability, though, to work hard and keep the fruits of your own labor, you're going to do that. And that's going to benefit everybody. Because if everybody does that, then you can exchange the goods that you create and you can prosper. The fastest way to get people out of poverty is with capitalism, not socialism. Socialism never works. It misunderstands human nature.
Wesley Wildmon The Pilgrims tried socialism.
Frank Turek Yes. William Bradford. That's exactly right.
Tim Wildmon Next year he said, we're nixing this.
Wesley Wildmon We're going to do what the Bible says. If a man doesn't work, he didn't eat.
Frank Turek That's right.
Tim Wildmon Right, right, right. I think he was also noted for his comment, quit whining.
Ed Vitagliano Quit whining and get to work.
Tim Wildmon Bradford, can you hang on through the break for another minute or two?
Frank Turek Yes, sir.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Dr. Frank Turek joining us from the Tar Heel state, the great, state of North Carolina. Fred Jackson, Tim Wildmon, Eva Tagliano, Wesley Wildmon. We'll all be back in just about three minutes or so.
Preborn Network helps women choose life through a free ultrasound
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American Family Radio broadcasts Saturday mornings at 9:00am Central Time
Tim Wildmon This is today's issues.
Ed Vitagliano 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, Saturday mornings right here on American Family radio at 9:00am Central Time, we have Dr. Frank Turek's show, I Don't have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. And you, want to tune in for that. All the shows on Saturday morning are excellent, but Frank's, is quite educational and will help you in your very popular. Yes. So join Frank for I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Right here on this station. Saturday mornings at 9 o' clock Central.
Ed Vitagliano Time and it reruns Sunday at 4pm Central Time. Yes, on American Family Radio.
Tim Wildmon Right now you're listening to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network with Tim, Ed Wesley and Fred.
Frank Turek says socialism is antithetical to biblical principles
Our guest is the aforementioned Frank Turek joining, us from North Carolina. You had, Fred, you had a question. We've been talking about socialism and why, socialism is antithetical to biblical principles. That's what Frank says. Frank, am I misinterpreting what you said there?
Frank Turek No, that's the case. It presupposes private property. The Bible does.
There's controversy over missile fired at Venezuelan drug smuggling boat
Tim Wildmon Okay, now go ahead, Fred. You wanted to ask, I wanted to.
Fred Jackson Ask you, Frank, a little bit about, Venezuela. And in particular over the last couple of days there's been some controversy in the media about an incident, involves the shooting at one of these drug running boats coming out of Venezuela. And the controversy has been apparently in an incident back several weeks ago, there were survivors from the first missile that hit the boat and another missile was fired to take out those survivors. Now, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was asked about this yesterday during a full cabinet meeting at the White House. And this is what he had to say. Cut number Three, Admiral Bradley made the.
Frank Turek Correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat. Sunk the boat and eliminated the threat. And, he was the right call. We have his back.
Ed Vitagliano I want those boats taken out. And if we have to, we'll attack on land also, just like we attack on sea. We're saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
Tim Wildmon With those pinpoint attacks.
Fred Jackson So the question seems to be, Frank, is this second missile taking out the survivors? Some people, some Republicans and Democrats are taking issue with that. What say you?
Frank Turek yeah, well, typically you don't fire on survivors. I don't know the details of the case, but if that is indeed the case and they were survivors and they were helpless in the water, typically you don't fire on them. You rescue them and, you know, take them prisoner, you know, in a, in a conflict. But I don't know all the details of the case. Was the boat still underway and they fired a second missile to take out the boat and it took out the survivors too? I don't know.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson You know, Fred, the picture that we're left with is the survivors that were in the water. That's the picture we're left with.
Ed Vitagliano That the boat was destroyed.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Frank Turek Okay, but was the boat destroyed by the first missile or the second missile and when they fired the second? First of all, you're probably not going to be able to fire a missile at individuals in the water. Usually they're, you know, you're targeting an object. So, unless it was laser guided and they knew where the victims were. I see. I don't know the details, but, if the, if the second missile was to take out a boat because it was still underway and that also happened to take out survivors, okay. That's different than if they're just firing on survivors.
Ed Vitagliano Right?
Fred Jackson Okay. No, that is going to be the subject apparently of, a, hearing, because what Higson said yesterday is that he saw the first strike and then he left the room, to go to another meeting. But he trusts the judgment of the man, who was in charge, Navy Vice Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley. And he hexa says Bradley made the right call in second and sending in that second missile. That's where we are. But it's going to be the subject of a hearing.
Wesley Wildmon They were also trying to destroy as much of the, drugs as possible, and there was drugs still floating. So as Frank said, as a.
Ed Vitagliano Also too.
Wesley Wildmon Let me just, let me just say this. I've never. The United States, any country, has the right to eliminate Terrorists that are trying to terrorize their country. I don't. I mean, I could keep going there, but I don't under. I don't understand. If there's a terrorist who's trying to terrorize your country. I don't. I don't understand.
Tim Wildmon It depends on how you define terrorism.
Wesley Wildmon What? Yeah.
Tim Wildmon and I'm not saying that what President Trump and would say in his administration. Pete. Has. That we're fighting narco terrorism.
Wesley Wildmon Right.
Tim Wildmon And that's not a new word. Right? I mean, that's been used before.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, it has. Go ahead.
Tim Wildmon but, let me just.
Wesley Wildmon I just.
Tim Wildmon Let me just. Let me just say this. It becomes a little less. It comes a little more ambiguous in my mind. The righteousness of the cause. as opposed to somebody wanting to fire a nuclear weapon at the US Maybe.
Wesley Wildmon Sure.
Tim Wildmon Like, Iran. Okay. Because the reason I say that again, I'm just saying it becomes a little bit cloudy in my judgment about. Okay, so we're going to use the United States military to go to war with the drug cartels. Okay.
Wesley Wildmon Well, they already came to war to us when they killed. When the drugs from the Venice. From the. From those countries killed over 100,000Americans last year.
Tim Wildmon Well, and I'm not saying you're right.
Wesley Wildmon I know. I.
Tim Wildmon That's how the people who would be. For taking. Firing missiles, at boats, eliminating the drugs.
Do you trust the Trump administration? Yes. Do you have the intel
That's what they would say. Just what you just said. And I don't know. I tend to lean in your direction, but I don't know. There's a part of me that's going. We're just. Boats are skipping across the water. We really know for sure that these are,
Wesley Wildmon Yes. Yes, we do.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon That now. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Do you have the intel?
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, I'm certain that the Trump administration.
Tim Wildmon You trust.
Wesley Wildmon Not.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Trust them.
The Trump administration says they have proof these are drug, uh, traffickers
All right. All right. Anyway, anything more to discuss on this?
Ed Vitagliano I do, but I'm gonna. Let's let Frank.
Tim Wildmon Go ahead.
Ed Vitagliano Frank, since we got him, say,
Frank Turek What would be the reason the Trump administration was risking political capital on destroying, say, pleasure boats, not drug boats. coming from Venezuela, it would seem that they really believe that these are boats that are running drugs. And when they hit these things with weapons, the drugs are revealed.
Tim Wildmon I got you. I'm not saying I'm opposed to it.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I'm just saying it's not the traditional way we use our military.
Frank Turek No. Well, the Coast Guard. Yes. And the Navy has been involved in drug interdiction.
Tim Wildmon A Coast Guard doesn't blow boats out of the water. Well, it can, it can, but it doesn't. They, they, they, they tell people to stop or they arrest them and maybe they get into a gunfight. Yeah, but we've never seen these.
Wesley Wildmon But this, this eliminates the possibility. Yeah, this eliminates the possibility of losing a soldier. If you were.
Frank Turek For years has, has been involved in drug interdiction, particularly in the Florida area.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon It's so less efficient.
Tim Wildmon I mean, go, Go ahead, Ed. What do you think?
Ed Vitagliano I'm, I'm, I'm against it. I'm, I'm against blowing up these boats. and now listen, this is part of the discussion and Americans are having this week. You're weak to me.
Frank Turek He's from Boston.
Ed Vitagliano Boy, you guys just turn nasty all of a sudden. Okay, see. So let me start from the beginning, okay? Drugs are coming to this country because Americans want drugs. Okay? They're not, they're not air dropping, drugs, at schools. I'm not excusing the drug trade. I'm saying it is a criminal act for drug traffickers to provide drugs to Americans who want them or are addicted to them. Okay? So to me, this is a criminal enterprise. Until they fire on the Coast Guard or until they fire on DEA agents, this is a criminal enterprise, and we should have continued doing what we've always done, and that is arrest the people with the, coming in to try to get to the country. This is an international waters. These are people, landing their boats off the coast of Florida. This is an international waters. Yes. The Trump administration says they have proof these are drug, traffickers. Fine, then arrest them. And, now, if. If, if. And I know there are people saying they're killing. And Wesley said 100,000 people a year. Yeah, this. It is.
Wesley Wildmon Well, that's just the beginning of it.
Ed Vitagliano It's a disaster. But are we going to say any criminal act can be dealt with outside the judicial system with military force? And I. Yeah, go ahead.
Frank Turek That all presidents who have used drones to take out people who have not yet attacked us.
Ed Vitagliano Well, not. Not if they are. Not if they are part of enemy combatants or terrorist groups who have promised to eliminate America. I mean, I don't.
Frank Turek The cartels have promised that they're going to keep bringing drugs here. is it, Is it wrong for the military to use drones to take out suspected terrorists?
Tim Wildmon I'm telling you, I understand what it's. I'm kind of caught in the middle here. I'm. Wesley. What you're saying, listen, it's different. It's. Ed's talking about criminal.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, these are.
Tim Wildmon Which is a. Law enforcement.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Tim Wildmon We don't use the Marines to enforce our laws.
Frank Fellers: I'm not in favor of invading Venezuela
Okay, so when you're talking about, taking out boats out in the middle of the Gulf. Excuse me, Gulf of America.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And. And using the military for that reason.
Ed Vitagliano Well, Frank, let me ask you this. Human, traffickers. They're bringing girl. Let's say they're bringing girls into this country as part of this to, for. For prostitution. You think we should be able to just shoot them?
Frank Turek if they're crossing the border and, illegally. if it's an invasion, there could be a case made for that.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, the Gulf. That's what he's talking about.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I wouldn't say that because you don't want to kill the girls, but let's say they're cross. What I'm saying is this is the potential for ever expanding death, penalty.
Frank Turek Oh, it is?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. So they're coming across you. You catch them. They've got a bunch of girls, and you say these, your. These are kids. No, we're trafficking. You shoot them.
Frank Turek Well, no, no. I mean, if. If you can arrest them, you can, but it's in an apprehension. Force is authorized. Okay. If they're trying to escape. And what if these boats, suppose they get into US Waters and they. They ignore warnings, turn back or you'll be shot. And they keep coming.
Ed Vitagliano That's all different.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's a warning.
Ed Vitagliano Dealing with.
Tim Wildmon Here. I get a warning and you're going to be arrested.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Frank Turek Here's,
Tim Wildmon Is there a warning on these boats?
Wesley Wildmon Well, yeah. Yes, here is a warning. The warning was, about two months ago. Two months ago when the first boat came over and, the first boat got shot. That's the warning. You don't come back. You don't come back across over here, or you die. Or you die.
Frank Turek I mean.
Wesley Wildmon And they keep coming.
Tim Wildmon I agree.
Wesley Wildmon That's the one.
Frank Turek It is a difficult situation, but, let's suppose one of these boats is coming loaded with explosives. It's a terrorist boat. Are we obligated to allow them to get to shore?
Ed Vitagliano No, that is not what I'm talking about.
Frank Turek Well, I'm just.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, if you're trying to.
Frank Turek What.
Tim Wildmon If you.
Ed Vitagliano Here.
Frank Turek What I'm pointing out here is that every country has a right to protect its borders.
Wesley Wildmon Absolutely.
Frank Turek And if there is a threat coming to the border and that threat is repeatedly warned to stop, and they don't, you have authorization to use lethal Forces.
Ed Vitagliano So you're in favor of us invading Venezuela? Okay, no, listen, that's what I'm saying.
Tim Wildmon Logic let.
Ed Vitagliano I'm trying to use the same logic that I'm hearing. And by the way, I still love everybody. I just want everyone to know I still love everybody. I love you, too.
Tim Wildmon I'm Switzerland here. I'm neutral.
Ed Vitagliano But if you're going to say you're bringing stuff, bad stuff, into our country and, it's killing Americans, therefore stop or we're going to kill you, then you have to also include the possibility that we invade Venezuela because that's where the drugs are starting to.
Wesley Wildmon No.
Frank Turek Invade Venezuela to stop them from sending stuff here. We can just stop sending stuff here.
Ed Vitagliano But you could.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Excuse me, Fellers, cut the root out. You ever seen a dog and he has his tail behind him? and he turns around and it ain't there? And then he looks around and trying to find his tail and he flips around again and.
Ed Vitagliano No, but I pay to see that.
Wesley Wildmon There'S a word called we have entered.
Tim Wildmon That toxic show zone.
Wesley Wildmon Listen, it's called deterrence.
Frank Turek Okay, Ed, we still love you, but just remember the next time the phone doesn't ring.
Tim Wildmon All right, thank you.
Frank Turek will discuss drug cartels on American Family Radio on Saturday
All right, Frank, what's coming up this weekend on your show here, we have.
Frank Turek The great Katy Faust on, who also has a program on the American Family Radio Network. We're going to talk about us before them. Actually, it's them before us, meaning that as parents, we should put our kids before our own, our own desires, particularly when it comes to marriage. So many parents tragically get divorced and the kids have to pay the price for that. So we're going to talk about the fact that them before us is how we ought to live our lives, particularly because it also lines up with what the Bible says.
Tim Wildmon All right, that's coming up Saturday, people. Right here on this network, station. You're listening to rr, AFR app. It's called I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist with our guest right now, Dr. Frank Turek. So join Frank at 9:00 Central Time.
Ed Vitagliano And loads of great stuff.
Tim Wildmon And Sunday afternoon, as you said, at 4:00', clock, Central time, we re air Frank show. Thanks, Frank. Take care.
Frank Turek Thanks, guys. See you.
Tim Wildmon See you. Yes, sir.
Wesley Wildmon Get one more.
Tim Wildmon No, Wesley's got to get the last.
Wesley Wildmon Word in the back.
Tim Wildmon That's what I raised him.
Ed Vitagliano Go ahead. You go ahead.
Wesley Wildmon In fact, in all seriousness, I'll. I'll make this comment and then y', all, y' all can get the last word in.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon But I would. I would say there is a case to be made, and there has been cases to be made for the m. For United States of America to use military force in other countries. Boots on the ground to take out a terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Wesley Wildmon Okay.
Tim Wildmon I agree with you.
Wesley Wildmon I know. I'm gonna let you finish. Let me just finish. Then you go.
Tim Wildmon Go.
Wesley Wildmon But so when I would just make. The reason I made. The only reason I even made that statement is because, Ed mentioned about should then, therefore, should we then go into another country and blah, blah. Well, yeah, I think. I think there's a. There's always a case to be made to go boots on the ground to eliminate a terrorist, which I agree with the Trump administration and the White House website about this group being a narco terrorist group. Yeah, go ahead.
Tim Wildmon Well, the. Again, it goes back to what we define as terrorists, and really, maybe a matter of degrees.
Wesley Wildmon It is.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Because I, would say this. if you're talking about, for example, Al Qaeda and bin Salman bin Laden, you're talking about people who make conscious decisions to attack Americans. We have to kill them.
Wesley Wildmon That's part of this.
Tim Wildmon Okay? But this thing down here is our, drugs. Drugs aren't personalities. You know what I'm saying? Right. And now I know you have people running the drugs, which are the people we're killing when we hit these boats. I will say this. It seems to me like if you want to have a deterrent, it's got to be going through the minds of the drug cartels, even though it's an extremely lucrative business that is getting people addicted to drugs and potentially killing them, which is evil and demonic and hellish. But, if you want to say, you know, okay, sign up for. To work for the cartels. Who wants to get on this boat? This. This boat's going to Fort Lauderdale. Then you're gonna say, well, I know what happened to the last three boats that went to, you know, Corpus Christi or NewSong Orleans or they got blown out of the water. Do I really want to risk my life?
Wesley Wildmon Some. Most of them don't have choices. A lot of them don't have a choice. They're going to do it anyways. I think the bigger issues is the.
Tim Wildmon Drug dealers say, I don't have a choice.
Wesley Wildmon What I'm saying is the drug. The drug dealers usually, if that was the case, I don't think that's the biggest concern for the drug dealers. The biggest concern would be the money.
Tim Wildmon Lost, not the guys who get on the boat.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Ah, maybe they're going to be able to start running boats, Autumn, you know, without people on them. That's coming to. Probably trying anyway.
Wesley Wildmon that was fun, I will say.
Tim Wildmon But I will say this. The, One of the, One of the issues that needs to be said here is we all can appreciate President Trump and his administration's desire to stop the flow of drugs that are killing our citizens coming into our country.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Can we all agree with that?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. It is a scourge. It is destroying lives, families, etc. And I do applaud that.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Ed Vitagliano M. Because the Biden administration sure wasn't right.
Fred: My job is just to throw an item up called a wine grenade
Tim Wildmon Hey, let me mention this, and then Fred, we can go into the next news story. Fred, you still with us over there?
Wesley Wildmon I'm still here grinning ear to ear.
Fred Jackson My job is just to throw an item up called a wine grenade.
Wesley Wildmon Like.
Tim Wildmon Like throwing the little. The little, food in. Watch the fish go after.
Fred Jackson That's right. Can I just sit back and enjoy it?
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Okay.
Tim Wildmon Let me just say, on a positive note, on a good feeling note, we have some wonderful, historical tours scheduled for 2026.
Fred: Here are the tours that are available, and then people can research them themselves
I need to talk to you about going to Boston.
Ed Vitagliano Hey, man, I won't go to Boston. Count me in.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Fred Jackson In the springtime in.
Tim Wildmon In September. We're not going in.
Fred Jackson Oh, there's a song.
Tim Wildmon Oh, oh, please come to Boston. Yeah, yeah. Please come to Boston. Yeah, I got you. I'm with you there. so, we are going here. Here are the tours that are available, and then people can go and research them themselves. If you want to go with us, we are going to, on a, trip back in time, if you will. We're going to the Historic Triangle in Virginia in, June and September. We call that. It's the Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown and Yorktown. We're going on, that's a tour that we do from Sunday to Wednesday, and then we back that up back to back with Wednesday to Sunday with, a tour of Washington D.C. our nation's capital, and George Washington's estate, Mount Vernon. So we do that. If you want to be with us the whole week, we'll take care of you the whole week. All you got to do is show up for these tours, people. If you can get there, we take. Get on the bus.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And we take care of you wall to wall for seven days. If you want to do the tours back to back, I just mentioned we do that in June. We do that in September now you don't have to go on both tours. You can go on one or the other. We have that, that's an option too. So those tours are coming up in June and September. I'll be going on that tour. Stephen McDowell will be our wives. We just love spending time with our listeners and seeing those sites that I just mentioned. Now there's also a, an additional tour coming up in October. No, in September. Right.
Wesley Wildmon It was October last year. But because of the, this year.
Tim Wildmon The new date, it's better weather in September in, in Boston.
Wesley Wildmon 21St, 26th.
Tim Wildmon It's not terrible in October, but you're going to have warmer temperatures, more pleasant temperatures in September. So the Boston, area tour, which includes going to Plymouth, and Iraq and in tour and goes to, Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail in Boston and Lexington and Concord. So that whole area, that whole Boston area of the history there is so rich. And, we're going there. Wesley and Walker leading those tours and I, guess brother Ed here will be going. So that's a, tour coming up in September. So if you want. Do you want me to say so again? Have I used up my sews?
Wesley Wildmon No, the Boston one, we filled up two buses with like three months to spare. Yeah, it fills up pretty quick.
Tim Wildmon These tours I've just mentioned, they do fill up three months in advance, so. See, I said so again. I'm starting to annoy myself. That's bad.
Wesley Wildmon Now that's all I'm going to be able to focus on.
Tim Wildmon So, I was hearing me say so.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon glad we don't. We don't. People who drink listening to this show.
Ed Vitagliano What's that?
Tim Wildmon You know, take a drink every time Tim says.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, you know, I get it.
Tim Wildmon We don't encourage that.
Ed Vitagliano No, we don't. We do not unless it's coffee or.
Tim Wildmon You know, Diet Coke or something like that. I'm not going to say so. Right. Right there. I need to say it. I'm feeling like I need to say it, but I'm not going to.
Wesley Wildmon Don't do it.
Tim Wildmon I'm not going to do it.
Wesley Wildmon Refrain.
Tim Wildmon So I did it again. Go to this website I'm about to give you for all the information, the dates, the itinerary, the two of, the, cost. Everything you need to know is at this website. W I L D M M O N G R O U P dot com. W I L D M M O N Group dot com and group. Yeah. Not Wild Man.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Okay. We changed our name. My grandmother did like almost 100 years ago. So it's wildmon group dot com. Check it out for all the information there. We got about two minutes left. Fred, you got any good news for.
Fred Jackson Us or good news for you?
Hillary Clinton blames TikTok for giving American college students bad information about Israel
Tim Wildmon Good news.
Fred Jackson Let's talk about Hillary Clinton. Non, controversial.
Ed Vitagliano Awesome.
Tim Wildmon You know, I missed m. I missed her.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Well, here she is. She's talking yesterday to a Jewish group and she was blaming TikTok for giving American college students bad information about what happened on October 7, 2023 in Israel. And then we get a response from Lawrence Jones from Fox and friends. Cut.
Tim Wildmon 11 smart, well educated young people from our own country from around the world. Where were they getting their information?
Frank Turek They were getting their information from social media, particularly TikTok.
Tim Wildmon That is where they were learning about what happened on October 7, what happened in the, you know, days, weeks and months, to follow. That's a serious.
Fred Jackson Anyway, she was blaming TikTok for misinformation on what happened.
Tim Wildmon We agree with her on this and.
Fred Jackson We agree with her on that. But Lawrence Jones came back and just said, it wasn't just TikTok. It was the mainstream media. It was college professors that were polluting the minds of these college students to turn against.
Tim Wildmon She's pro Israel.
Fred Jackson She is. She is.
Tim Wildmon she and, and she and, and former president, Clinton are. At least. They're very fair about this. They're very, they're fair. Very fair. All right, we will be back in five minutes with Steve Paisley. Jordow. We'll see you back here then. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.
Frank Turek The American Family association or American Family Radio.
AFA Action takes attacks on the family seriously. The enemies of the family constantly employ new tactics
Ed Vitagliano AFA Action takes attacks on the family seriously. The enemies of the family constantly employ new tactics to try to sneak past our radar. They know if we stand together, their evil plans will fail. Your gift to AFA Action allows us to stay vigilant against their onslaught. And if you give this month, you'll receive access to the Cultural Institute video, when youn Faith Is Illegal by Frank harbor on AFA Stream. As our thanks, you can make your gift [email protected].
Tim Wildman: American Family Radio Network offers Christian response to issues
Welcome to today's issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues here on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR. Today is Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. and I'm Tim Wildmon with Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon Wesley Wildmon.
Wesley Wildmon Good morning.
Tim Wildmon And Fred Jackson.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you.
Tim Wildmon We all four be in studio, today. You judging me on my English? No, you're smart. When I said we be I smart.
Ed Vitagliano just call me Mr. Smirk.
Wesley Wildmon It did come off as one word, though, because you're from Mississippi. 4B. So all I heard 4B.
Ed Vitagliano We all be in studio.
Tim Wildmon We all be in studio. I just don't. I don't like the judgment I'm feeling right now. I wanted to go with whatever I wanted to say there.
Wesley Wildmon Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon So Wednesday, December 3rd. I'm saying that we all four studio today. Ray Pritchard, who's sometimes with us, is, in other parts of the country.
Ed Vitagliano He's not in other parts of the country. He's in Florida. I know, enjoying the warm weather.
Wesley Wildmon One part of the country.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, his, well, his real home back in Kansas City is snowed over, freezing. all right, so, but brother Ray will be with us tomorrow. He's with us usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays. And again, we thank you for listening. Wesley folks want to join us on what Ed calls that their Internet. How can they do that?
Wesley Wildmon I would encourage people, and yes, Dad, I would encourage, encourage people to go to afr.net. that's where you can listen 24 7. Regardless of whether. How close you are to one of our tower sites. You can listen to afr.net there. You can also download our podcast. You can, you can listen live. We have actually two networks on our. On our. On afr.net, we have our music network, and then we have what you're listening to now, our talk network. So go to afr.net you can also go to Facebook. Today's issues live on Facebook, and go to our YouTube. I believe we start. Yeah, YouTube. We're not banned there. Nope. Go to YouTube. Go to today's issues live on YouTube. But again, I know we have those platforms and we use them because they're available, but going to your own streaming, AF. Stream.AFA.net is our own streaming platform. So stream.AFA.net and the Grand.
Tim Wildmon The, The app.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, that's right.
Ed Vitagliano The app, as you say, is. Was a game changer.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano So whatever kind of phone you use, you have an app store of some sort. Download the AFR app, you can listen.
Wesley Wildmon We won't get anywhere.
Ed Vitagliano There's a good signal.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. We won't get into which phones, are better. Right, right. I know people have their preferences, and you got two. You got Androids, you got apples, but everybody's got an app store.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, Some. There's some way to a. Access an app for your phone. Unless you've got a dumb phone.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Ed Vitagliano If you've got a dumb phone, there's nothing you can do to change that.
Wesley Wildmon Change that.
Ed Vitagliano But for you who have a smartphone.
Tim Wildmon All right. You know, get your dumb phone.
Ed Vitagliano That's all it used to be. That's all there was.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Dumb phones.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Even when we had mobile phones.
Tim Wildmon Remember the first mobile phones? I don't know if Wesley does.
Wesley Wildmon I do. Do you? Well, they work before that.
They were in the car. Yeah, car phones. I remember driving for the first time with one of those in there
They were in the car. They were car phones.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, car phones. The big car phones, you know, down there.
Ed Vitagliano And you'd like Magnum P.I. he had one.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano I remember Tom Selleck.
Tim Wildmon I remember driving for the first time with one of those in there. And I just call people just for fun.
Wesley Wildmon That's right. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Well, you say, hey, can you believe we're doing this?
Ed Vitagliano $5Aminute or whatever.
Tim Wildmon I got a phone in my car.
Ed Vitagliano You know what I used to do in this? I've embarrassed my wife so many different ways over the years. We've been married 44 years. But when, Tom Selleck, the actor, played a Magnum PI his fast, sporty car. He had a car phone.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And so I would take one of the kids. You remember the little play phone that you'd get for little kids? And I would bring. I'd bring it with us on a TR rip. It was plastic, and I would put it in between our seats, and I would every once in a while, raise that phone like Magnum PI and pretend I was talking my Wife, she would. She was constantly embarrassed by things I would do.
Fred Jackson Yeah, your wife. What have I done?
Ed Vitagliano And we'd be driving in a Subaru hatchback. Yeah. You got a, you got a car phone, dude?
Wesley Wildmon Sure, we had car phones. And then they went to the, cell phones, but they were really small. Black and white screen or black and gray phones, too. Oh, yeah. Flip phones.
Fred Jackson Then where the shoe phones?
Wesley Wildmon Yep. Shoe phones.
Tim Wildmon Remember those?
Wesley Wildmon Yep.
Fred Jackson Weighed a ton.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, yeah, yeah.
Fred Jackson Try to miss m that on your.
Ed Vitagliano Buy that much.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano those kind of shoe phones.
Tim Wildmon I remember.
Republican Matt Von Epps won a special election in Tennessee yesterday
All right, Fred, what's our first news story here? We got.
Fred Jackson Well, Republicans in Tennessee and in parts of Washington D.C. are celebrating a little bit today. They're celebrating, because there was a special election, in the District 7 of Tennessee yesterday for a House seat. And the, Republican Matt Von Epps, won that race. It was, it became a national story because of the Democrat who was running there, Afton Benn, quite a character. of course, Tennessee. Nashville. Nashville, the home of country music. some old audio of her came back to haunt her a little bit. She said she hated country music. Didn't like Nashville at all. But she overcame that by saying, I'm in this race really because of affordability. That is the new buzzword for the Democratic Party. But Republican Matt Vanliere Epps did, come out on top last night. Here's a little bit of what he had to say in his victory speech. Cut number one.
Wesley Wildmon Tonight, you've sent a message loud and clear. The people of Middle Tennessee stand with.
Ed Vitagliano President Donald J. Trump.
Wesley Wildmon And stood firmly behind our campaign.
Frank Turek As we look forward, I say this.
Wesley Wildmon To my friends in the liberal media and to the professional panickers in my own party. Tonight we showed running from Trump is how you lose. Running with Trump is how you win.
Fred Jackson so there you have it. Yes. President Trump by phone did some campaigning, for Vaneps, House speaker, Johnson, was in Tennessee to help out. There was some concern given the polls, during the campaign, had the two candidates really close, despite the fact that President, Trump in last year's election won it by 22 point, margin. It was a, A safe seat for the Republicans.
Tim Wildmon First. Still is.
Fred Jackson And it's, it is the ban.
Tim Wildmon The, winner last night, he, he won by nine points.
Fred Jackson Nine points. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You didn't win by 22.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon But when you got. I don't, I don't know if it's. It's a little bit apples and oranges to me because Trump was Trump was facing the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. Okay. In Harris, Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris.
Ed Vitagliano Word salad.
Tim Wildmon Word salad. Harris. I mean, so, I mean you got a red district, sure. He's gonna, he's gonna blow her out of the water. This kind of situation right here, nine points is still a big win, in a now, you know, the party out of power, that is the party opposite the president, in this case a Republican. Donald Trump usually, gained seats in the midterms. Now this is not the midterms yet, that's next year, but still. So this is not unusual historically for the party out of power to show up better in the, in the in, in, in races and polls and so forth. But I don't know, it's kind of embarrassing to me for somebody to have predicted a two point win, whoever that was. I read that somewhere. And then, and then the guy wins by nine again. It's not 22, but that's a safe margin victory. You have any comments on this, Ed?
Ed Vitagliano I would, I would say this. Everything you said is true about the the off year election. and that is going to lower the margin of victory somewhat that it's not a presidential year. However, I would, I would say that I would caution.
Tim Wildmon Okay, I'm gonna help you out there. You caution us, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano I think affordability is a potentially winning, argument on the part of the Democrats.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano because here with Trump, basically all Democrats have had to run on is we're not Trump, we don't like Trump, we hate Trump. Come on out and vote for a Democrat. Okay? That's not much of a message, but affordability, unless there is a turnaround, or a, a greater improvement in the economy, there are some, some good signs in the economy. But until people feel it kind of at the kitchen table, I, think affordability is going to be a difficult. Argument, to combat on the part of Republicans who like Matt Vanliere Epps are going to want to stay loyal to Donald Trump because he's very, still pretty, popular with the Republican base. So that, that's my only caution. like you said, they're probably going to wind up losing seats anyway because it's a midterm. but you don't want to give that argument momentum if our economy does not, it does not improve before 2028.
Tim Wildmon We're seeing. Oh, so you disagree with Brother Ed?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I still think you're a good person if you do.
Wesley Wildmon I agree with Brother Ed that from A strategy standpoint for the Democrats, that would be a, really good, language to use, but it would not hold up in a debate if two, if two good candidates debated it because the Democrats had four years and only made things worse. That's true economically for everybody. And so if evidence that would hurt. But because of the current situation, from a strategy standpoint, using that language does draw people to want to, want to listen to and, or do something, anything different. And we're mostly talking about mushy middles or, moderate people. You, obviously, we know those that are far left stay left. Most everybody that's on the right stays. Right. But if you're trying to persuade and get more votes out for your candidate and the left potentially, upset or win an election, it's going to come. I think that would be as bad as. Better than the other things they've been trying.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Wesley Wildmon As far as politically strategizing, saying that men should be in women's sports is.
Ed Vitagliano Not working, or that we should have the border, southern border, wide open.
Wesley Wildmon Because at least in this, at least in this category, they leave it up for debate on how we're going to go about it.
Ed Vitagliano excellent, excellent.
Wesley Wildmon It'd be socialist. Yeah, I appreciate that.
So I do agree with you. I'm still waiting for a candidate
So I do agree with you.
Ed Vitagliano And I agree with you.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I'm still waiting. I'm, waiting for the. If I can get a candidate. Just say free stuff for Tim, you know. Yeah, I'm. Wait, I'm. I'm willing to listen to that. To that as a, as an appeal to me as a boater.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Free stuff for Tim. That. I'll listen to you. Thank you.
Wesley Wildmon That's. That's my point. Or one of my points.
Fred: Trump talked about affordability in his cabinet meeting yesterday
Tim Wildmon All right. You're listening to today's issue. So, Fred, good news for the Republicans in Tennessee yesterday. They have a very thin margin in the House. Right. Like four or five. Six.
Fred Jackson Four or five. and that's why you're seeing a lot of Republican states redistricting and, trying to pick up some, more safe Republican seats in various states. But you guys were talking about this affordability issue.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Well, Trump has a plan. He had a cabinet meeting yesterday, his ninth cabinet meeting since he came into office in January. I, think, Biden had not anywhere close to that over four years. Anyway, Trump made some news yesterday. By talking about affordability, he plans the American people to, give American people a whole lot of money. Cut number four.
Ed Vitagliano We've only just begun striking narco boats.
Frank Turek And putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the Ocean because they've been poisoning the American people.
Tim Wildmon Trump's voice is changing. Yeah, Trump's voice has changed with age. Have y' all noticed this?
Fred Jackson Yes, that was my mistake.
Wesley Wildmon We're gonna get back.
Fred Jackson That was my mistake. Let's go to cut number nine.
Ed Vitagliano Trillions of dollars get paid to drug.
Tim Wildmon Companies and you still have lousy health care.
Ed Vitagliano Obamacare is horrible healthcare. We want it to go to the people and then let the people go out and buy their own health care and they'll do great.
Fred Jackson Yeah, so he's talking about that. He's talking about people, getting more of their tax dollars back. he's talking about tariff, bonuses. You know, we're making, according to the president, we're making trillions of dollars on tariffs, and we're going to give the American people some of that dough.
Tim Wildmon Well, that's just what I said. Free stuff for Tim. I'm listening to you. Give me a tariff.
Fred Jackson So they're thinking, I think, about next year, if people are getting a break in income tax. And he even hinted at there may be a day when we're not paying any income tax at all that things will be so good that American people won't have to pay income tax.
Tim Wildmon What are you smoking?
Fred Jackson I'm just quoting. I ain't smoking. I'm just quoting.
Ed Vitagliano It sounds like we're discussing socialism and.
Tim Wildmon We need to bring.
Ed Vitagliano We need to bring our experts.
Tim Wildmon We have a socialist. You want to introduce him?
Ed Vitagliano Well, we are going to introduce, Dr. Frank Turek. I don't think it's fair to say he's a socialist. He is probably as much of an expert on the subject of socialism as we typically have. He's host of I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Maybe you should call it I Don't have Enough Faith to Be a Socialist. Heard Saturdays at 9am Central Time and again Sundays at 4pm Central Time right here on American Family Radio. Frank, welcome back.
Frank Turek I don't have enough faith to be an atheist or a socialist.
Ed: Frank, why are there no caravans going to Venezuela
Let me ask you a question, Ed. How many caravans are going from the United States to Venezuela?
Ed Vitagliano Exactly.
Tim Wildmon Mic drop.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. yeah. Or any other of the other, our company experiment.
Tim Wildmon How many people are getting on boats to risk, their lives in shark and infested waters to go from Miami to Havana?
Frank Turek Yes.
Ed Vitagliano It's not happening.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. How you doing, brother Frank?
Frank Turek I'm doing all right. You know, we got Christmas coming up. That's always a good time of year.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Frank Turek But I think I have the cure for leftism.
Tim Wildmon Okay?
Frank Turek People were, were rational about it, all right? And one is the statement we just talked about. Why are there no caravans going to Venezuela? But secondly, I just, you know, month or so ago got back from a trip to Jordan, Israel and Egypt and Have I ever told you guys what the average monthly salary of an Egyptian worker is?
Tim Wildmon What do you think it is in dollars?
Frank Turek dollars.
Tim Wildmon Average monthly salary of an Egyptian worker in American dollars, $600.
Wesley Wildmon About $500.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, I'm going to say monthly, I'll say 100 bucks.
Frank Turek I'll say, let's average it. It's $303.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon a month.
Ed Vitagliano A month for a worker in Egypt.
Frank Turek Average worker in Egypt, $303 per month. And the average worker in America makes almost that in a day.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, but Frank, what's the average cost of, falafel in Egypt?
Frank Turek Well, actually our buying power is about six times that of the average Egyptian.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow. Well, that's the key. That's the key metric, isn't it?
Tim Wildmon What's a new camel going to run you? That's bad. I should. I was, I was thinking about that joke. That was a bad joke, but because not all Egyptians.
Frank Turek Let's get over the hump and move on to something else.
Tim Wildmon But your point being?
Frank Turek My point being is that if you want a cure for people who think this country is a bad country, go to some second and third world countries that do not have the same free enterprise system that we have. I mean, I had a, I enjoyed my time in Egypt. There's so many great sights to see, but economically it is a very poor country.
William Bradford: Students say they want a socialist country like Sweden
Ed Vitagliano All right, well, let me play devil's advocate here, okay? Not because I believe any of the garbage I'm about to say, okay? But this is what you're going to hear in America from college educated students. That's their first mistake with their IQ just continuing to soar. Okay, this is what you are going to hear from a lot of young people. Yeah. Frank, you picked Egypt as the example. I want to pick Scandinavian countries where you get all kinds of free stuff and great health care. What would you say, what would you say to people who say that's the kind of socialist country you guys always pick? Venezuela and Cuba run by wackos. I want to point to these, these kinds of socialist countries. What would you say?
Frank Turek How many people do you know who go to Sweden for an operation?
Ed Vitagliano I don't know. Yeah, I don't know any. Anybody.
Frank Turek You don't okay. not only that, but Sweden is about the size of one of our states. and they don't really have to spend a lot of money on a, defense. Who does that for them?
Ed Vitagliano The United States of America?
Frank Turek We do. Okay. Also, Sweden does have a private economy, maybe not as robust as ours, but certainly more robust than Egypt. Okay. So there are so many differences.
Tim Wildmon Also.
Frank Turek They basically, until. Until immigration had a pretty homogeneous population. Now immigration is causing them trouble as well, so. And third, fourthly, they're all living off the vapor of Christianity. they are originally a Christian country, and Christianity presupposes private property. Thou shall not steal presupposes private property. Okay. do not show favoritism to the rich or the poor. Presupposes private property. so the two are not analogous. it is still a free market society in Sweden, but they have some advantages we don't have here. They don't have to pay for their own defense. They're very small. and, a country like Norway, by the way, has enormous oil resources.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Frank Turek They don't have to do much. They can just sell their oil and have these great socialist programs that everybody thinks here we can have, when in fact we're what, $36 trillion in debt.
Ed Vitagliano Well, and none of us, President Trump.
Frank Turek Ought to give any tariff money to anybody. Ought to go to pay down the national debt.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, I agree.
Ed Vitagliano None of those countries, which, we call Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, et cetera, Denmark, they don't even identify themselves as socialist countries. I remember, I don't remember the prime minister of one of those countries said, we're not a socialist country, we're capitalist. I mean, they have a lot of businesses, some corporations run out of them, that are worldwide in scope. They do have, they do tax a lot and have, programs that, is sometimes considered to be socialist. but they don't even identify as socialist countries. So when young people college, let's just say college kids say, yeah, I want a socialist country like that. They're. They don't identify as socialist. They're capitalist countries.
Frank Turek Here's another question to ask people. When was the last time you washed a rental car?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, when was the last time you washed one?
Frank Turek Yeah. You never wash a rental car because, it's not yours. You don't care. Right, Right. And when you don't have private property, you tend not to care about it as much. You're not as motivated to take care of something that isn't yours. This is why private housing is nearly always in better shape. Than public housing. If people have the capacity in a system to keep the fruits of their own labor, A, they're more incentivized to work harder, and B, if they have that private property, they'll take care of it more. Yeah, and you don't have that in a socialist society. I mean, socialism not only failed to produce freedom, it failed to produce food, right?
Ed Vitagliano That's right.
Frank Turek Okay. I mean, how about William Bradford? When he came over here with the Pilgrims the first year, they tried to do a socialist kind of economy where everybody's just going to chip in and take care of the, farm together. And half of them starved.
The fastest way to get people out of poverty is with capitalism, not socialism
Then the next winter, he said, okay, every family's going to get their own plot. And then they had more food than they knew what to do with.
Frank Turek Because people were motivated. Socialism misunderstands human nature. It thinks that people are going to work as hard as they can and take as little as they need. In reality, people will work as little as they can and take as much as they can get. If you have the ability, though, to work hard and keep the fruits of your own labor, you're going to do that. And that's going to benefit everybody. Because if everybody does that, then you can exchange the goods that you create and you can prosper. The fastest way to get people out of poverty is with capitalism, not socialism. Socialism never works. It misunderstands human nature.
Wesley Wildmon The Pilgrims tried socialism.
Frank Turek Yes. William Bradford. That's exactly right.
Tim Wildmon Next year he said, we're nixing this.
Wesley Wildmon We're going to do what the Bible says. If a man doesn't work, he didn't eat.
Frank Turek That's right.
Tim Wildmon Right, right, right. I think he was also noted for his comment, quit whining.
Ed Vitagliano Quit whining and get to work.
Tim Wildmon Bradford, can you hang on through the break for another minute or two?
Frank Turek Yes, sir.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Dr. Frank Turek joining us from the Tar Heel state, the great, state of North Carolina. Fred Jackson, Tim Wildmon, Eva Tagliano, Wesley Wildmon. We'll all be back in just about three minutes or so.
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American Family Radio broadcasts Saturday mornings at 9:00am Central Time
Tim Wildmon This is today's issues.
Ed Vitagliano 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, Saturday mornings right here on American Family radio at 9:00am Central Time, we have Dr. Frank Turek's show, I Don't have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. And you, want to tune in for that. All the shows on Saturday morning are excellent, but Frank's, is quite educational and will help you in your very popular. Yes. So join Frank for I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Right here on this station. Saturday mornings at 9 o' clock Central.
Ed Vitagliano Time and it reruns Sunday at 4pm Central Time. Yes, on American Family Radio.
Tim Wildmon Right now you're listening to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network with Tim, Ed Wesley and Fred.
Frank Turek says socialism is antithetical to biblical principles
Our guest is the aforementioned Frank Turek joining, us from North Carolina. You had, Fred, you had a question. We've been talking about socialism and why, socialism is antithetical to biblical principles. That's what Frank says. Frank, am I misinterpreting what you said there?
Frank Turek No, that's the case. It presupposes private property. The Bible does.
There's controversy over missile fired at Venezuelan drug smuggling boat
Tim Wildmon Okay, now go ahead, Fred. You wanted to ask, I wanted to.
Fred Jackson Ask you, Frank, a little bit about, Venezuela. And in particular over the last couple of days there's been some controversy in the media about an incident, involves the shooting at one of these drug running boats coming out of Venezuela. And the controversy has been apparently in an incident back several weeks ago, there were survivors from the first missile that hit the boat and another missile was fired to take out those survivors. Now, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was asked about this yesterday during a full cabinet meeting at the White House. And this is what he had to say. Cut number Three, Admiral Bradley made the.
Frank Turek Correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat. Sunk the boat and eliminated the threat. And, he was the right call. We have his back.
Ed Vitagliano I want those boats taken out. And if we have to, we'll attack on land also, just like we attack on sea. We're saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
Tim Wildmon With those pinpoint attacks.
Fred Jackson So the question seems to be, Frank, is this second missile taking out the survivors? Some people, some Republicans and Democrats are taking issue with that. What say you?
Frank Turek yeah, well, typically you don't fire on survivors. I don't know the details of the case, but if that is indeed the case and they were survivors and they were helpless in the water, typically you don't fire on them. You rescue them and, you know, take them prisoner, you know, in a, in a conflict. But I don't know all the details of the case. Was the boat still underway and they fired a second missile to take out the boat and it took out the survivors too? I don't know.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson You know, Fred, the picture that we're left with is the survivors that were in the water. That's the picture we're left with.
Ed Vitagliano That the boat was destroyed.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Frank Turek Okay, but was the boat destroyed by the first missile or the second missile and when they fired the second? First of all, you're probably not going to be able to fire a missile at individuals in the water. Usually they're, you know, you're targeting an object. So, unless it was laser guided and they knew where the victims were. I see. I don't know the details, but, if the, if the second missile was to take out a boat because it was still underway and that also happened to take out survivors, okay. That's different than if they're just firing on survivors.
Ed Vitagliano Right?
Fred Jackson Okay. No, that is going to be the subject apparently of, a, hearing, because what Higson said yesterday is that he saw the first strike and then he left the room, to go to another meeting. But he trusts the judgment of the man, who was in charge, Navy Vice Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley. And he hexa says Bradley made the right call in second and sending in that second missile. That's where we are. But it's going to be the subject of a hearing.
Wesley Wildmon They were also trying to destroy as much of the, drugs as possible, and there was drugs still floating. So as Frank said, as a.
Ed Vitagliano Also too.
Wesley Wildmon Let me just, let me just say this. I've never. The United States, any country, has the right to eliminate Terrorists that are trying to terrorize their country. I don't. I mean, I could keep going there, but I don't under. I don't understand. If there's a terrorist who's trying to terrorize your country. I don't. I don't understand.
Tim Wildmon It depends on how you define terrorism.
Wesley Wildmon What? Yeah.
Tim Wildmon and I'm not saying that what President Trump and would say in his administration. Pete. Has. That we're fighting narco terrorism.
Wesley Wildmon Right.
Tim Wildmon And that's not a new word. Right? I mean, that's been used before.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, it has. Go ahead.
Tim Wildmon but, let me just.
Wesley Wildmon I just.
Tim Wildmon Let me just. Let me just say this. It becomes a little less. It comes a little more ambiguous in my mind. The righteousness of the cause. as opposed to somebody wanting to fire a nuclear weapon at the US Maybe.
Wesley Wildmon Sure.
Tim Wildmon Like, Iran. Okay. Because the reason I say that again, I'm just saying it becomes a little bit cloudy in my judgment about. Okay, so we're going to use the United States military to go to war with the drug cartels. Okay.
Wesley Wildmon Well, they already came to war to us when they killed. When the drugs from the Venice. From the. From those countries killed over 100,000Americans last year.
Tim Wildmon Well, and I'm not saying you're right.
Wesley Wildmon I know. I.
Tim Wildmon That's how the people who would be. For taking. Firing missiles, at boats, eliminating the drugs.
Do you trust the Trump administration? Yes. Do you have the intel
That's what they would say. Just what you just said. And I don't know. I tend to lean in your direction, but I don't know. There's a part of me that's going. We're just. Boats are skipping across the water. We really know for sure that these are,
Wesley Wildmon Yes. Yes, we do.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon That now. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Do you have the intel?
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, I'm certain that the Trump administration.
Tim Wildmon You trust.
Wesley Wildmon Not.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Trust them.
The Trump administration says they have proof these are drug, uh, traffickers
All right. All right. Anyway, anything more to discuss on this?
Ed Vitagliano I do, but I'm gonna. Let's let Frank.
Tim Wildmon Go ahead.
Ed Vitagliano Frank, since we got him, say,
Frank Turek What would be the reason the Trump administration was risking political capital on destroying, say, pleasure boats, not drug boats. coming from Venezuela, it would seem that they really believe that these are boats that are running drugs. And when they hit these things with weapons, the drugs are revealed.
Tim Wildmon I got you. I'm not saying I'm opposed to it.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I'm just saying it's not the traditional way we use our military.
Frank Turek No. Well, the Coast Guard. Yes. And the Navy has been involved in drug interdiction.
Tim Wildmon A Coast Guard doesn't blow boats out of the water. Well, it can, it can, but it doesn't. They, they, they, they tell people to stop or they arrest them and maybe they get into a gunfight. Yeah, but we've never seen these.
Wesley Wildmon But this, this eliminates the possibility. Yeah, this eliminates the possibility of losing a soldier. If you were.
Frank Turek For years has, has been involved in drug interdiction, particularly in the Florida area.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon It's so less efficient.
Tim Wildmon I mean, go, Go ahead, Ed. What do you think?
Ed Vitagliano I'm, I'm, I'm against it. I'm, I'm against blowing up these boats. and now listen, this is part of the discussion and Americans are having this week. You're weak to me.
Frank Turek He's from Boston.
Ed Vitagliano Boy, you guys just turn nasty all of a sudden. Okay, see. So let me start from the beginning, okay? Drugs are coming to this country because Americans want drugs. Okay? They're not, they're not air dropping, drugs, at schools. I'm not excusing the drug trade. I'm saying it is a criminal act for drug traffickers to provide drugs to Americans who want them or are addicted to them. Okay? So to me, this is a criminal enterprise. Until they fire on the Coast Guard or until they fire on DEA agents, this is a criminal enterprise, and we should have continued doing what we've always done, and that is arrest the people with the, coming in to try to get to the country. This is an international waters. These are people, landing their boats off the coast of Florida. This is an international waters. Yes. The Trump administration says they have proof these are drug, traffickers. Fine, then arrest them. And, now, if. If, if. And I know there are people saying they're killing. And Wesley said 100,000 people a year. Yeah, this. It is.
Wesley Wildmon Well, that's just the beginning of it.
Ed Vitagliano It's a disaster. But are we going to say any criminal act can be dealt with outside the judicial system with military force? And I. Yeah, go ahead.
Frank Turek That all presidents who have used drones to take out people who have not yet attacked us.
Ed Vitagliano Well, not. Not if they are. Not if they are part of enemy combatants or terrorist groups who have promised to eliminate America. I mean, I don't.
Frank Turek The cartels have promised that they're going to keep bringing drugs here. is it, Is it wrong for the military to use drones to take out suspected terrorists?
Tim Wildmon I'm telling you, I understand what it's. I'm kind of caught in the middle here. I'm. Wesley. What you're saying, listen, it's different. It's. Ed's talking about criminal.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, these are.
Tim Wildmon Which is a. Law enforcement.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Tim Wildmon We don't use the Marines to enforce our laws.
Frank Fellers: I'm not in favor of invading Venezuela
Okay, so when you're talking about, taking out boats out in the middle of the Gulf. Excuse me, Gulf of America.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And. And using the military for that reason.
Ed Vitagliano Well, Frank, let me ask you this. Human, traffickers. They're bringing girl. Let's say they're bringing girls into this country as part of this to, for. For prostitution. You think we should be able to just shoot them?
Frank Turek if they're crossing the border and, illegally. if it's an invasion, there could be a case made for that.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, the Gulf. That's what he's talking about.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I wouldn't say that because you don't want to kill the girls, but let's say they're cross. What I'm saying is this is the potential for ever expanding death, penalty.
Frank Turek Oh, it is?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. So they're coming across you. You catch them. They've got a bunch of girls, and you say these, your. These are kids. No, we're trafficking. You shoot them.
Frank Turek Well, no, no. I mean, if. If you can arrest them, you can, but it's in an apprehension. Force is authorized. Okay. If they're trying to escape. And what if these boats, suppose they get into US Waters and they. They ignore warnings, turn back or you'll be shot. And they keep coming.
Ed Vitagliano That's all different.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's a warning.
Ed Vitagliano Dealing with.
Tim Wildmon Here. I get a warning and you're going to be arrested.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Frank Turek Here's,
Tim Wildmon Is there a warning on these boats?
Wesley Wildmon Well, yeah. Yes, here is a warning. The warning was, about two months ago. Two months ago when the first boat came over and, the first boat got shot. That's the warning. You don't come back. You don't come back across over here, or you die. Or you die.
Frank Turek I mean.
Wesley Wildmon And they keep coming.
Tim Wildmon I agree.
Wesley Wildmon That's the one.
Frank Turek It is a difficult situation, but, let's suppose one of these boats is coming loaded with explosives. It's a terrorist boat. Are we obligated to allow them to get to shore?
Ed Vitagliano No, that is not what I'm talking about.
Frank Turek Well, I'm just.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, if you're trying to.
Frank Turek What.
Tim Wildmon If you.
Ed Vitagliano Here.
Frank Turek What I'm pointing out here is that every country has a right to protect its borders.
Wesley Wildmon Absolutely.
Frank Turek And if there is a threat coming to the border and that threat is repeatedly warned to stop, and they don't, you have authorization to use lethal Forces.
Ed Vitagliano So you're in favor of us invading Venezuela? Okay, no, listen, that's what I'm saying.
Tim Wildmon Logic let.
Ed Vitagliano I'm trying to use the same logic that I'm hearing. And by the way, I still love everybody. I just want everyone to know I still love everybody. I love you, too.
Tim Wildmon I'm Switzerland here. I'm neutral.
Ed Vitagliano But if you're going to say you're bringing stuff, bad stuff, into our country and, it's killing Americans, therefore stop or we're going to kill you, then you have to also include the possibility that we invade Venezuela because that's where the drugs are starting to.
Wesley Wildmon No.
Frank Turek Invade Venezuela to stop them from sending stuff here. We can just stop sending stuff here.
Ed Vitagliano But you could.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Excuse me, Fellers, cut the root out. You ever seen a dog and he has his tail behind him? and he turns around and it ain't there? And then he looks around and trying to find his tail and he flips around again and.
Ed Vitagliano No, but I pay to see that.
Wesley Wildmon There'S a word called we have entered.
Tim Wildmon That toxic show zone.
Wesley Wildmon Listen, it's called deterrence.
Frank Turek Okay, Ed, we still love you, but just remember the next time the phone doesn't ring.
Tim Wildmon All right, thank you.
Frank Turek will discuss drug cartels on American Family Radio on Saturday
All right, Frank, what's coming up this weekend on your show here, we have.
Frank Turek The great Katy Faust on, who also has a program on the American Family Radio Network. We're going to talk about us before them. Actually, it's them before us, meaning that as parents, we should put our kids before our own, our own desires, particularly when it comes to marriage. So many parents tragically get divorced and the kids have to pay the price for that. So we're going to talk about the fact that them before us is how we ought to live our lives, particularly because it also lines up with what the Bible says.
Tim Wildmon All right, that's coming up Saturday, people. Right here on this network, station. You're listening to rr, AFR app. It's called I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist with our guest right now, Dr. Frank Turek. So join Frank at 9:00 Central Time.
Ed Vitagliano And loads of great stuff.
Tim Wildmon And Sunday afternoon, as you said, at 4:00', clock, Central time, we re air Frank show. Thanks, Frank. Take care.
Frank Turek Thanks, guys. See you.
Tim Wildmon See you. Yes, sir.
Wesley Wildmon Get one more.
Tim Wildmon No, Wesley's got to get the last.
Wesley Wildmon Word in the back.
Tim Wildmon That's what I raised him.
Ed Vitagliano Go ahead. You go ahead.
Wesley Wildmon In fact, in all seriousness, I'll. I'll make this comment and then y', all, y' all can get the last word in.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon But I would. I would say there is a case to be made, and there has been cases to be made for the m. For United States of America to use military force in other countries. Boots on the ground to take out a terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Wesley Wildmon Okay.
Tim Wildmon I agree with you.
Wesley Wildmon I know. I'm gonna let you finish. Let me just finish. Then you go.
Tim Wildmon Go.
Wesley Wildmon But so when I would just make. The reason I made. The only reason I even made that statement is because, Ed mentioned about should then, therefore, should we then go into another country and blah, blah. Well, yeah, I think. I think there's a. There's always a case to be made to go boots on the ground to eliminate a terrorist, which I agree with the Trump administration and the White House website about this group being a narco terrorist group. Yeah, go ahead.
Tim Wildmon Well, the. Again, it goes back to what we define as terrorists, and really, maybe a matter of degrees.
Wesley Wildmon It is.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Because I, would say this. if you're talking about, for example, Al Qaeda and bin Salman bin Laden, you're talking about people who make conscious decisions to attack Americans. We have to kill them.
Wesley Wildmon That's part of this.
Tim Wildmon Okay? But this thing down here is our, drugs. Drugs aren't personalities. You know what I'm saying? Right. And now I know you have people running the drugs, which are the people we're killing when we hit these boats. I will say this. It seems to me like if you want to have a deterrent, it's got to be going through the minds of the drug cartels, even though it's an extremely lucrative business that is getting people addicted to drugs and potentially killing them, which is evil and demonic and hellish. But, if you want to say, you know, okay, sign up for. To work for the cartels. Who wants to get on this boat? This. This boat's going to Fort Lauderdale. Then you're gonna say, well, I know what happened to the last three boats that went to, you know, Corpus Christi or NewSong Orleans or they got blown out of the water. Do I really want to risk my life?
Wesley Wildmon Some. Most of them don't have choices. A lot of them don't have a choice. They're going to do it anyways. I think the bigger issues is the.
Tim Wildmon Drug dealers say, I don't have a choice.
Wesley Wildmon What I'm saying is the drug. The drug dealers usually, if that was the case, I don't think that's the biggest concern for the drug dealers. The biggest concern would be the money.
Tim Wildmon Lost, not the guys who get on the boat.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Ah, maybe they're going to be able to start running boats, Autumn, you know, without people on them. That's coming to. Probably trying anyway.
Wesley Wildmon that was fun, I will say.
Tim Wildmon But I will say this. The, One of the, One of the issues that needs to be said here is we all can appreciate President Trump and his administration's desire to stop the flow of drugs that are killing our citizens coming into our country.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Can we all agree with that?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. It is a scourge. It is destroying lives, families, etc. And I do applaud that.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Ed Vitagliano M. Because the Biden administration sure wasn't right.
Fred: My job is just to throw an item up called a wine grenade
Tim Wildmon Hey, let me mention this, and then Fred, we can go into the next news story. Fred, you still with us over there?
Wesley Wildmon I'm still here grinning ear to ear.
Fred Jackson My job is just to throw an item up called a wine grenade.
Wesley Wildmon Like.
Tim Wildmon Like throwing the little. The little, food in. Watch the fish go after.
Fred Jackson That's right. Can I just sit back and enjoy it?
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Okay.
Tim Wildmon Let me just say, on a positive note, on a good feeling note, we have some wonderful, historical tours scheduled for 2026.
Fred: Here are the tours that are available, and then people can research them themselves
I need to talk to you about going to Boston.
Ed Vitagliano Hey, man, I won't go to Boston. Count me in.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Fred Jackson In the springtime in.
Tim Wildmon In September. We're not going in.
Fred Jackson Oh, there's a song.
Tim Wildmon Oh, oh, please come to Boston. Yeah, yeah. Please come to Boston. Yeah, I got you. I'm with you there. so, we are going here. Here are the tours that are available, and then people can go and research them themselves. If you want to go with us, we are going to, on a, trip back in time, if you will. We're going to the Historic Triangle in Virginia in, June and September. We call that. It's the Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown and Yorktown. We're going on, that's a tour that we do from Sunday to Wednesday, and then we back that up back to back with Wednesday to Sunday with, a tour of Washington D.C. our nation's capital, and George Washington's estate, Mount Vernon. So we do that. If you want to be with us the whole week, we'll take care of you the whole week. All you got to do is show up for these tours, people. If you can get there, we take. Get on the bus.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And we take care of you wall to wall for seven days. If you want to do the tours back to back, I just mentioned we do that in June. We do that in September now you don't have to go on both tours. You can go on one or the other. We have that, that's an option too. So those tours are coming up in June and September. I'll be going on that tour. Stephen McDowell will be our wives. We just love spending time with our listeners and seeing those sites that I just mentioned. Now there's also a, an additional tour coming up in October. No, in September. Right.
Wesley Wildmon It was October last year. But because of the, this year.
Tim Wildmon The new date, it's better weather in September in, in Boston.
Wesley Wildmon 21St, 26th.
Tim Wildmon It's not terrible in October, but you're going to have warmer temperatures, more pleasant temperatures in September. So the Boston, area tour, which includes going to Plymouth, and Iraq and in tour and goes to, Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail in Boston and Lexington and Concord. So that whole area, that whole Boston area of the history there is so rich. And, we're going there. Wesley and Walker leading those tours and I, guess brother Ed here will be going. So that's a, tour coming up in September. So if you want. Do you want me to say so again? Have I used up my sews?
Wesley Wildmon No, the Boston one, we filled up two buses with like three months to spare. Yeah, it fills up pretty quick.
Tim Wildmon These tours I've just mentioned, they do fill up three months in advance, so. See, I said so again. I'm starting to annoy myself. That's bad.
Wesley Wildmon Now that's all I'm going to be able to focus on.
Tim Wildmon So, I was hearing me say so.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon glad we don't. We don't. People who drink listening to this show.
Ed Vitagliano What's that?
Tim Wildmon You know, take a drink every time Tim says.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, you know, I get it.
Tim Wildmon We don't encourage that.
Ed Vitagliano No, we don't. We do not unless it's coffee or.
Tim Wildmon You know, Diet Coke or something like that. I'm not going to say so. Right. Right there. I need to say it. I'm feeling like I need to say it, but I'm not going to.
Wesley Wildmon Don't do it.
Tim Wildmon I'm not going to do it.
Wesley Wildmon Refrain.
Tim Wildmon So I did it again. Go to this website I'm about to give you for all the information, the dates, the itinerary, the two of, the, cost. Everything you need to know is at this website. W I L D M M O N G R O U P dot com. W I L D M M O N Group dot com and group. Yeah. Not Wild Man.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Okay. We changed our name. My grandmother did like almost 100 years ago. So it's wildmon group dot com. Check it out for all the information there. We got about two minutes left. Fred, you got any good news for.
Fred Jackson Us or good news for you?
Hillary Clinton blames TikTok for giving American college students bad information about Israel
Tim Wildmon Good news.
Fred Jackson Let's talk about Hillary Clinton. Non, controversial.
Ed Vitagliano Awesome.
Tim Wildmon You know, I missed m. I missed her.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Well, here she is. She's talking yesterday to a Jewish group and she was blaming TikTok for giving American college students bad information about what happened on October 7, 2023 in Israel. And then we get a response from Lawrence Jones from Fox and friends. Cut.
Tim Wildmon 11 smart, well educated young people from our own country from around the world. Where were they getting their information?
Frank Turek They were getting their information from social media, particularly TikTok.
Tim Wildmon That is where they were learning about what happened on October 7, what happened in the, you know, days, weeks and months, to follow. That's a serious.
Fred Jackson Anyway, she was blaming TikTok for misinformation on what happened.
Tim Wildmon We agree with her on this and.
Fred Jackson We agree with her on that. But Lawrence Jones came back and just said, it wasn't just TikTok. It was the mainstream media. It was college professors that were polluting the minds of these college students to turn against.
Tim Wildmon She's pro Israel.
Fred Jackson She is. She is.
Tim Wildmon she and, and she and, and former president, Clinton are. At least. They're very fair about this. They're very, they're fair. Very fair. All right, we will be back in five minutes with Steve Paisley. Jordow. We'll see you back here then. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.
Frank Turek The American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim, Wesley and Ed talk with Fred on top news headlines of the day. Also, Dr. Frank Turek joins the program to discuss the cure for Leftism.
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