Radical left using mail to ship abortion pills straight into homes across America

>> Jeff Chamblee: The radical left will stop at nothing to find a way to end life in the womb. They're now using the mail to ship abortion pills straight into homes across America. Even in states where abortion is illegal, it's not health care and it must be stopped. You can take action today. When you support AFA action, you'll help us hold Big Pharma accountable and defend life. As our thanks, we'll send you the Christian Handbook for Civic engagement. Visit afaaction.net to give your urgent gift today. Welcome to Today's Issues. Join us for the next hour as we offer a Christian response to the issues of the day.

Tony Vitagliano is filling in for Tim Wildman this morning

>> Tony Vitagliano: Welcome to Today's Issues. I am Tony Vitagliano, sitting in for Ray Prtichard who is out of town this week taking some much deserved time off around the Thanksgiving holiday. Joining me in studio is the always incisive Fred Jackson. Welcome, Fred. Good morning to you, the magnanimous Ed Vitagliano.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Magnanimous words.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's right. Who's graciously sitting in today. He's actually, despite being, off this week, is sitting in to help, bail me out. In fact, in case I start blowing it. You're just here. He's got the hook over there to pull me off, to yank me off, but that's impossible with the quality of co hosts, that I have here with me in the room. And not just in the room, but also the great sunshine state of Florida, the perspicacious Ray Pritchard.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Perspicacious, Perspicacious.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Look it up.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You better get that checked, Ray.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Look, I'm trying to start.

>> Ray Prtichard: I got an appointment as soon as soon as this shows up. We gotta get, we gotta do something.

>> Fred Jackson: About that now, Tony, you're gonna have to do this every day now. Well, see this, you're setting a precedent.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I've started, I wanted to come out strong, start high. And it just goes down from here, downhill from here.

Ray, what's the weather like in Central Florida right now

Ray, what's the weather like in, Florida right now?

>> Ray Prtichard: Oh, I think it's a little cloudy this morning. A balmy 77 gonna be the high this afternoon here in sunny. Well, not too sunny, but still beautiful Central Florida. It's all good.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Can better bundle up then.

>> Ray Prtichard: That's right.

Three days before Thanksgiving, we need to give thanks to God

>> Tony Vitagliano: so it is, it is Thanksgiving week. there's always something to be thankful for. So we want, now I need to reminder myself, but want our viewers and our listeners to be, reminded that there's always something to be thankful for. and as believers. Right. That is always especially, true. Ray, do you, you have a word for us, this morning?

>> Ray Prtichard: Oh, absolutely. The book of Psalms says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. So today, here we are, three days before Thanksgiving. Are you breathing? My gift from God. If you are breathing, then right now, breathe. prayer. A, praise A, Thanksgiving to our God. I know some of our listeners going through hard times right now, but the Bible, the Bible reminds us God gives us everything we need whenever we need it. Jarvis, James says, if you've got a pulse, you ought to have a praise. Okay, I like that. You ought to have a praise. Thank God for what he has done for you. Thank God for his blessings, and thank God for what you have avoided. In the last year, so many things have been withheld that could have hurt us, that would have knocked us down, but in the grace and providence of God. Here we are three days before Thanksgiving, and we ought to be. If we aren't grateful, if we aren't grateful, then we need to go back and read the Bible, take a look in the mirror and say, lord, you have been so good to me. Now, all of us know that little couplet that goes, God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good. And in one of the sermons that I send out occasionally, I commented that I had heard that this started among the Methodist churches in Nigeria. Well, what do you know? Week later, I got an email from a woman I've never met. She lives in Lagos, Nigeria. And she said, pastor Ray, you're right. It did start here in Nigeria. But she said, when we do it in Nigeria, we add something to. It goes like this. God is good. All the time. And all the time, God is good. And then the whole congregation says, together, I am, a witness. I really like that. So we're just going to do that all together right now. Here we go. God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good. I am a, witness. So let us then open our mouths, open our hearts, give praise to God. Let's witness to the goodness of the Lord. Because all the time, God is good. All the time. Today, God is good. And we are the witnesses. So let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Amen.

>> Fred Jackson: Amen. Amen.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Love that. And that is why I assigned the adjective perspicacious to our brother, Ray Pritchard.

Fred Vitagliano says Canadians have already celebrated Thanksgiving, right

speaking of Thanksgiving, I always have to ask, Fred, Canadians have already celebrated Thanksgiving, right?

>> Fred Jackson: We've had our first turkey.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Okay, first one. So do you also celebrate the American?

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, absolutely. Ah, my wife's American. Our girls are dual citizens.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: So, it's not going to be turkey, though.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Okay.

>> Fred Jackson: It is going to be lamb.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, okay.

>> Fred Jackson: We have a lamb stew recipe that is absolutely fantastic. So planning to do that because American Thanksgiving is so close to Christmas.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: You might get tired of turkey. You know, three in a row. So, we separate them out a little bit.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: So we're looking forward to that a whole bunch. So, yeah, I get to celebrate, a couple of Thanksgivings. Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Be too thankful.

>> Tony Vitagliano: No, that's right. That's right. And soon It'll be the 51st state anyways, and we'll merge the two things.

>> Ray Prtichard: Exactly, right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It won't matter. So, and then, Ed, you. that's because that's. That's interesting, having lamb, or something different. It's always interesting to me when people have something, out of the ordinary for Thanksgiving meal. So you have lamb now at the Vitagliano house. What do you typically do for.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, well, we have the last, I don't know, five or six years, maybe longer than that. We've gone with ribs. We just go to Kroger, and they relatively cheap as far as ribs go. And we just get a couple of racks of ribs. And, And we started doing that because, having been in the ministry for so many years, every church we'd been at to a part of, whether, just as a member of the congregation or the pastorate or serving, there was always a Thanksgiving meal. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we had turkey. We had turkey at our house. We had turkey at the relative's house when we would go. And so my wife just said, let's just do something different. So, yeah, we're down here in the south, and we tried ribs, and so we get ribs and all the fixings. And, now I like lamb. Like you're talking about, Fred. My wife informed me, actually just this past week, we were on vacation, and we were at a restaurant. You could have, you know, with a tortilla, something or other, you could. You could have lamb. And I said, you want to try the lamb? And she said, I do not eat lamb. Because she said, I just can't stand the thought of those little baby sheep. I said, well, you wouldn't have made a very good Jew. Because part of what they.

>> Tony Vitagliano: But anyways, we're getting in trouble.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So anyway, people have all kinds of, different holiday traditions.

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And it makes for the. It spices things up.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's true.

>> Fred Jackson: Absolutely.

There's a lot happening out there and we're going to deal with it

>> Tony Vitagliano: All right. Fred, get us started with the news.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, I tell you what guys, there's a lot happening out there and we're going to deal with these stories. Today. We had the somebody call it the bro fest between Mamdani and Trump on Friday. I think a lot of people had an expectation of, because the way these guys have gone back and forth. Fascist, right, communist. It turned out to be like daddy talking to a son.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I was expecting them to sell pay per view tickets for the, for the meeting. You know, it was gonna be a fight.

>> Fred Jackson: It never turned out that way. So we're going to talk about that in a moment. Also going on in Geneva right now, there are some pretty serious talks with Reg regards to. And it would sure be wonderful if we could see an end to the Russian Ukraine war. So they're, they're dealing with an initial proposal from the United States, a 28 point proposal that a lot of people say favorite Russia. So we're going to talk about that in a minute. And Marjorie Taylor Green, as the AP describes, I think as a firebrand Republican, well, she's quit Friday, evening. She quit, because she and she and President Trump have not been getting along very well. So we got a lot of stories to do that and more.

Matt Staver describes Maine child custody case as egregious and offensive

But I wanted to start this morning with a court case from Maine. It's a child custody case. And you may be saying, well, boy, child custody cases going on all over the state, states all the time. But this is one folks, and I want you to listen to this very carefully because it is as Matt Staver of Liberty Council described it. He describes it as the most egregious and offensive child custody order I have ever seen. That's from Matt Staver, a Liberty counsel. So what does it involve? Well, it involves a man and a woman. The man's name is Matthew Braden. The mom is Emily Beckford and her daughter is a 12 year old daughter named Ava. All right, all right. The mom and dad basically broke up years ago, even before Ava was born. The court case, the mom, Emily Bickford, has custody of Ava, but the dad has visiting rights. All right, Matthew Braden, he has gone to court. And the issue here is basically the church that the mom and the daughter attend. It is a Calvary Chapel. Now, Calvary Chapel, if you're not familiar with them, Evangelical church, Independent M. They're not Southern Baptist, they're not mainline Protestant. Jack Hibbs comes to mind. He's the pastor of a Calvary Chapel there in California and he's been very vocal about various issues. A good friend of Charlie Kirk, when Charlie Kirk was alive. So they're very, I hesitate to use the word fundamentalist, but they believe God's word is God's word and they preach God's word.

>> Fred Jackson: That's the best way to describe them. So that's what Calvary Chapel is. But the dad has gone to court because he believes that they are doing the church and its beliefs doing psychological damage to this little girl. The judge, the initial judge in the case is a former president of the aclu. M that forms a background to where this judge is in her thinking. But let me just go through very briefly and then I'm going to bring Matt Staver into the conversation here and Matt's going to deal with this a little bit more. But here's what this main judge issued. This is the main judge, the initial case went to court about a year ago. The main supreme court is now dealing with this. All right, so that's the stage this is in. But this judge initially, she forbid it. she forbid Ava from attending any church or Christian event, even Christmas or Easter. Forbids associating with her church friends, anyone connected to Calvary Chapel or any Christian friends at all. This is the judge ordering. This judge says she must not read the Bible or be exposed to any religious philosophy and is forbidden discussing her faith with her own mother. Now this is the decision by this main judge. So I want to bring Matt Staver into this and he'll go into these details a little bit more. It's going to be cut number 11.

>> Eric Metaxas: This is an outrageous order that prohibits a mother, a fit parent, from taking her child to any church, religious organization, religious event, including Christmas celebrations or Easter. And she has to disassociate and cannot have any connection or association with anyone who's associated with Calvary Chapel in Portland, Maine. But it's not just Calvary Chapel, the church that she has been attending since May of 2021, but it's any church. She can't even read the Bible. She can't be exposed to any religious philosophy or religious literature or videos. Since December of 2024, Emily Bickford has been prevented from taking her now 12 year old, soon to be 13 year old daughter, a church or religious organization or an event. So she hasn't been able to expose her to any Christmas celebration in December of 2024. And that also will hold true for December 2025 until and unless this order is overturned.

Liberty Counsel has taken on this case on appeal

>> Fred Jackson: Now Matt Staver goes on and cut number 12, please.

>> Eric Metaxas: Liberty Counsel has taken on this case on appeal. And I recently argued the matter at the main Supreme Court before six justices. As, ah. Soon as the court issues its rul. Anticipate will be overruling this unconstitutional order, then we'll be able to bring some religious freedom back to Emily and her daughter Ava. But in the meantime, this outrageous order needs to be reversed. It's the most unbelievable order I've ever seen. Every time it mentions God in the order, it lowercases the word God. And that's a direct assault on her monotheistic values that there is only one God. So when we got involved in the case at Liberty Council, we typically don't take on custody matters because there are so many different issues that come up with custody matters. There's others that can do that. However, this particular case jumped off the page when we saw the order and we got involved to take this matter up on appeal.

>> Tony Vitagliano: You know, Ed, we've seen, We've seen cases before of an. Examples, plenty of examples, of, the state intervening and interrupting parental rights and trying to override, you know, the authority that parents have over their children and their decision making on what is best for them. I can't recall. And maybe there have been other examples similar to this. I don't recall some, ah, an example of this being so overtly, in violation of religious, liberty, the religious aspect of parenting, in recent memory. I mean, what do you. What do you think about this?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, yeah, this is, this is, as Matt Staver said, particularly egregious. The, the way this, lower court judge has ruled reminds me. I don't. I'm not trying to, speak hyperbolically here. It reminds me of what they used to do in the former Soviet Union where you are not allowed in that, Marxist empire to instruct your children about the Christian faith until they were 18 years old. Now this is explicable because I think the judge is a Marxist.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And the dad brought into this case, what he considered, expert testimony from Dr. Janja Lailich, who was a Marxist, former sociology professor from California. So this guy and his attorney, the father, bring in a Marxist sociology professor all the way from California to Maine. Because that's what this is about. This is about cultural Marxism. And listen, we have seen, as you're saying, Tony, we have increasingly seen threats to parental rights from the state because the further we get from our constitutional republic, the more our country tends towards a Marxist view of the relationship between the state and the citizen, where the state tells you everything you can and can't do. This isn't just about what you can build on your property anymore. This is about the state saying you can't even discuss the Bible with your child because we think that is going to psychologically damage the child. We've seen this with school boards, because more and more the public school system in many, not all locations is increasingly an arm of the, state capital. S Telling parents, this has got nothing to do with you. We'll decide how your child is, how and what your child will be taught. This, the reason we picked this, that Fred picked this as the lead story, is this is a threat to parents everywhere across the country, not just in Maine.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, this is. It should. This should be, It should be very scary too. Especially, parents, Christian parents who are trying to raise their children, up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Raising them up, in the study of God's word, raising them up in church. this should really give us pause, and it does to me, to see it's another example that, one of the oncoming conflicts that we're going to find ourselves increasingly embroiled in is with these judges. This lower court judge knows the Constitution, they should know the Constitution. They should know how valuable, freedom of religion is. And they know, the value that parents place and the authority and stewardship that parents have over their children. Like you said, though, they just don't care. Ray, I want to pose this question to you. do you think I might know the answer to it? Do you think this lady, is this the lower court judge? Was it as a lady? I don't want to get that wrong.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay. Okay.

>> Tony Vitagliano: This lady, the lower court judge, do you think that she would have ruled this way if the religion were, say, of a different, a different type? I don't know. I'm just. I'm just picking religions out of here. Let's say Islam, I don't know. I'm just picking that one out randomly.

>> Ray Prtichard: No chance in a million years that she would dare to do this because among other things, the Muslims as a group, they would band together. They would not put up with this kind of bigotry. They just wouldn't. And the media in this case would support them. How, I want to know, Tony, how is it that this story is not on the front page of USA Today? How is it not leading the news across the country? Because, you know, just this morning before we had our pre show Meeting before I even knew we were going to talk about this case, I was reading about religious freedom in China, which is just almost disappeared now. I've been there, I guess, seven or eight times and seen over the years what's happened. And as of this morning, they were saying that the goal of the Communist Party is not just to suppress religion, but to wipe it out altogether. And so they've, they've demanded, if you're going to have a Christian worship service, you got to have a picture of President Xi there. You can't preach this. You can't say this. they've put, they put a muzzle over the mouths of Christians in the country of China. That's what this judge did. Would not surprise me if it had been done in China under Communist, overlordship. What is baffling to me.

Ed: I think this ruling will be overturned on appeal

Okay, this is, this interesting discussion with this Tony. I'm going to close.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Oh, no, you're good.

>> Ray Prtichard: I mean, how is it, how is it that such a judge, a Marxist judge, as you said, Ed, could somehow issue a ruling like this and not immediately be impeached, recalled, removed from the bench? This is an anti American and anti constitutional ruling. And I do think it will be overturned on appeal, if not at the, appellate level, certainly at the Supreme Court.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Absolutely. You know, that, that. You bring up a good point. at some point we're going to have to start holding these judges accountable who just go rogue and who are making these, blatantly unconstitutional, rulings. There's going to have to be some form of accountability. You, the level of stress, that this mom has been put under in not being able to, basically having her child be locked in a theological prison, you know, isolated. The dad, cited mental stress, anxiety, you know, being caused by, the church she was attending, being caused by the teachings therein. maybe if this judge had any, modem of, you know, actual logical thinking, perhaps she would recognize that, that children who come from separated or divorced homes have an increase of anxiety and depression anyways by a factor of one and a half to two, sometimes two, according to some studies. So maybe some of the anxiety that she has when she's with her father, that he had seen, might just come from the stress of being in a separated or divorced home. Maybe the judge should have probably taken that also into consideration. And it's not being caused by this. So this mother, this poor mother is being put through the ringer, you know, in, in this for this, for a whole Year. almost. And it should just. I just. These judges just start. Need to start being held accountable. Fred, what do you think?

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, absolutely. You know what's scary about this? And kind of address this. A minute ago, you. If the parents were Islamic.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: This would not have gone to court.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's right.

>> Fred Jackson: Buddhist, Hindu. It wouldn't. Christianity is in the crosshairs of much of our secular culture right now. and we've seen this over and over and over again. You know, Christian parents having to fight to ensure they know what's going on at their public schools. Right. And public schools wanting to say we don't have to tell the parents if little Johnny or Jane comes to us and says they feel like the opposite sex.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: We're going to take this child away from the parents. And over and over and over again, we're seeing this. So this is why I wanted to deal with this today. This is a real battle, folks. This is what it's about. You know, this, one of the experts in this case said the pastor spoke with objective truth and they had a problem with that. Yeah, they had a problem with that.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, you would.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, we believe that.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, exactly. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. We'll be right back after a short break to bring you more news from the day.

Preborn Network helps women choose life through a free ultrasound

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

American Family Radio welcomes you to today's issues

>> Tony Vitagliano: Welcome back to today's issues. Tony Battagliano filling in for Ray Prtichard. You are listening, on American Family Radio. You can listen to us on afr.net and also the app, the AFR app, available on all major app stores. And you can also, if a lot of you, like, a lot of you listen to us in your car if we have a station available to you. I'm in studio with Fred Jackson, Ed Vitagliano and not in studio, but still just as present, Ray Pritchard. So no, no fancy adjectives, for this, for this intro. I'm sorry, I'm out of them. Actually I've exhausted my entire vocabulary for just that opening. So I hope you enjoyed it. Fred, let's get back to the news.

US HHS issues peer reviewed report discrediting pediatric sex rejecting procedures

What we got.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, we talked very briefly about what's in our last story there, but what the, the agenda of some schools across the country. They want to take control of your kids. And we've done a lot of stories, we talked a lot about what's been going on with our young people in this country, so called the transgender issue and what some medical and some other politicals, political officials believe that when someone has a feeling of they think they're the opposite side, they should be treated hormones, some with what we call mutilation procedures on the bodies of these kids. This has been going on now for several years. Well, late last week the US Department of Health and Human Services issued what they called a peer reviewed report discrediting pediatric sex rejecting procedures. Now what is this? they had a group of doctors, one of the doctors is from mit, another one from Duke University, Colorado State University. They looked at all these procedures that have been done on these kids and we've told the story that sometimes a few years later these kids just regret what has happened. And unfortunately it's going to take a lifetime for some of them. But a little bit from the report. The report released through the office of the Assistant Secretary for Health finds that the harms from sex rejecting procedures including puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgical operations are significant long term and too often ignored or inadequately tracked. These conclusions confirm President Trump's Make America Healthy Again Commission's findings that unnecessary procedures and long term health risks such as infertility are the byproduct of the over medicalization of children now commenting on this Also is Admiral Dr. Brian Christine. He's the Assistant Secretary for HHS cut number 13.

>> Speaker G: The report was, of course, dealing with the transgender, or rather with gender dysphoria in our adolescents and children. And what was released were peer reviews of that original report. In other words, we wrote this original report, and then we reached out to a group of nine scientists, physicians, researchers to give their opinion on the report. And what they overwhelmingly agree with is that treating these vulnerable children, children with gender dysphoria, treating them with hormones, injections, surgeries that remove body parts and even mutilate these children, this all does not have sound science backing it up. A much better way to treat these children would be with compassionate mental health and psychiatric care.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, that. That sounds, awful familiar. It sounds like what we've been saying, since this entire, situation arose. that's, yeah, common sense, sounds radical, whenever people finally start to discover it. And I think that's what we're kind of seeing. You look at the quote from that gentleman, what we just listened to, and you look at, the details, in that peer review report, and to me, Ed, it's obvious, right? And it's what we've been, clamoring for and pointing to, for years now at this point. But we, the whole time we were being called anti science, we were being called, you know, transphobic. We were being called, you know, hateful for it. We were, we were being the ones told we were damaging, these children, both mentally and physically. And now it turns out that people, are discovering that's. That's not actually the case.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. And first of all, I do want to make mention of the fact that this story, you can find [email protected] for American family News. Excellent story on this by Chris Woodward. You know, what I think we're starting, starting to see is the election of Donald Trump in 2024 and his reversal of the insanity that we saw in this area, for example. But you can, you can go to, you know, the border situation, crime in the cities under President Biden. So President Trump gets elected in 2024. He begins to reverse some of this, including on the issue of this transgender madness. And I think what you're going to increasingly see is that, medical professionals and researchers and doctors who, were coerced and threatened and their free speech, chilled by the threat of them losing their careers during the insanity of the Biden administration, are going to now start coming out and telling what they believe. To be the truth all along. And this does dovetail with the story we just played when we were just talking about before the break, about the increasing influence of cultural Marxism and a statist mentality. We in the state will tell you what you can say. We all experience this during COVID when, you know, major social media platforms under orders from the Biden administration were told, hey, we'll tell you what science says, okay? that is. That is the alternative we have to upholding constitutional principles and the protections of, the first Amendment, for example. The alternative. Because the left has gone so far to wackadoodle land, the alternative is that kind of coercion. And it is like you said, Tony, it is insane that the obvious truth of this particular issue has, been considered radical for so long, and now the truth is coming out. But you know what Fred mentioned earlier, the consequences to a lot of these young people who were either dragged into this by their parents, or, encouraged into it by school counselors or psychologists or medical professionals, the consequences on the lives of these poor kids, is in many cases irreversible. It's very, very sad.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. You know, it, to me, this. This kind of, like you said, connected, directly to the previous story, because for these cultural Marxists, it's all about control. Right? And this is just. It's con. You're seeing it in two stories that Fred has brought to us. You're seeing the control at multiple levels that they want. So they not only want the control over your child's body and, what they can and cannot do to their body. Ah, they want the control over their. Over your child's, spiritual life, their spiritual walk. They want to control what they think. So it's all about control. and like you said, what we're seeing with the election of Donald Trump and the rollback of some of this madness is you're prying, the clenched fingers of cultural Marxists, prying their fingers off of the controls, that they have tried to tighten over the last few, years.

Ray: I was thinking about the spiritual element behind this controversy

Ray, you know, I was thinking about the spiritual element, behind this, as to how. How as a. As a nation and how some of these. These fields, you know, like in science, and biology, how people can go so far astray. I mean, these are. A lot of these people are intell people, but they are leaning into and emphasizing and putting forward what is what we know to be just, madness. And they would look at us as Christians and we would be spiritual kooks you know, for talking about, God's design for marriage and God's design for men and women, you know, and there's only. There's only two sexes. They would call us spiritual kooks. What do you think is behind that spiritually?

>> Ray Prtichard: You know, the prophet Isaiah warned about a time that would happen and was happening in ancient Israel. Woe to those, he said, who call good evil and evil good. Woe to those who look at the light and call it darkness. Woe to those who look at the darkness and call it light. Well, that's the world in which we're living. There's these cultural progressives who. Who have gotten hold of the levers of government and social commentary in our society. They have taken good and called it evil. Taken evil and called it good. They have taken light and called it darkness and darkness and called it light. So what you have is the kind of look, my heart goes out to young kids who are 10, 11, 12 years old are being fed a, diet every day in the public school system and over the media, social media and so on, that you may be a boy and think you're a girl. Well, if you want to, you can become a girl. You're a girl, but now you can become a guy. And that's reinforced in so many ways.

Fred: President Trump is going to deny money to hospitals that perform surgeries

Tony, we've been talking about, fun words today, and you've given us a few. Ed gave us what is so far to me, the word of the day. He said, these people are living in wackadoodle land. I've never actually heard that word before. I think we just coined it right here on the air.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It's in Webbies, I think.

>> Ray Prtichard: does it not, guys? Does that not perfectly describe the world in which we're living? Friends, we are living in wackadoodle land. And that explains the moral and spiritual confusion of these days.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That might be. That might be a Ray Prtichard word. I have heard it before. You just weren't on the show.

>> Ray Prtichard: It's new to me. I like wackadoodle land.

>> Fred Jackson: You know, it's interesting, too. I remember not too many years ago when, the left was saying that all their arguments were based on science.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right?

>> Fred Jackson: And if you didn't believe them, you're a flat earther. Well, our argument is based on science in this, obviously, the spiritual is the most important, but we're basing our arguments in science. There's XX and there's xy. There is nothing in between. What's between is a psychologically troubled child and I blame media exposure. but also there's one more element. And I go back. This is a few years ago when a hospital administrator was caught on tape. Do you guys remember this?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: That for every opportunity, I think it was Vanderbilt. Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong, but caught on tape saying we can get 10, 30, $40,000 from this operation.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: So again, money being used has an encouragement, and talking to somebody else about pharmacies and all pharmacists, big pharma and all that sort of thing. Money is so often involved with this. We'll get $40,000. We do an operation on. There seems to be no care about the kid.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: This is about money. It's just been scandalous what's been going on over this. And it needs to. And I thank God for President Trump and his administration coming in, going to deny money to hospitals who carry out these things. these are the kinds of steps that are needed to stop this. And it needs to be stopped because we're doing horrific damage to these young men and young women.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Absolutely. Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Because to them the devastation a lot of times. And these are, these are just lost, wicked people behind, you know, not all of them obviously, and, but in these industries, like the medical industry, because there's also money to be made on the back end. So, yes, you know, if this person later on in life decides they don't want this anymore, well then there's money to be made on the reconstruction surgery and the reversals and there's money to be made in the, psychological industry for therapists. So it just goes on and on and it is disgusting. But I am glad to see that, it's better late than never, that this can be rolled back and that there are children out there who will receive the help that they need. As Ray said, they deserve our compassion and our prayers, but they need help, and they'll get that help rather than the state stepping in, and forcing them into these surgeries or these doctors encouraging them into these, life altering, damaging surgeries. So, Fred, what else we got?

Zora and Mom Donnelly met with President Trump on Friday

>> Fred Jackson: Well, I think it's time for something a little lighter.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Oh yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: On Friday, Zora and Mom Donnelly went to Washington. Yeah, okay. See that? Play on words.

>> Tony Vitagliano: There we go. It's like the Odd Couple, right? You know, that old show and you.

>> Fred Jackson: Know, there was so much expectation. I actually stayed around a little bit later just to see what was going to happen. Some people thought it was going to be a repeat of the Pardon me Zelensky Trump, Oval Office. What we call in hockey terms, a verbal donnybrook.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Have you even said thank you? Yeah. Ah.

>> Fred Jackson: So a lot of people thought, given what these guys, they've gone back and forth, you know, that, President Trump and many others of the country calling, Mamdani a communist and, Marxist and all of these sorts of things, which some would say is very true. And on the flip side, Mamdani calling Trump, you know, a fascist, et cetera, et cetera. So, I mean, they. The lead up to all of this, the verbal battle leading up to this would lend one to believe this. This was going to be an interesting meeting. It was kind of a disappointment from a hockey standpoint, from a news standpoint. I kept waiting for. And. And we were talking about this this morning. The physical setup for this was very interesting. President Trump sitting behind, the desk there in the Oval Office. And. And I was surprised at this. Mamdani standing beside him, kind of like the student, you know, getting.

>> Fred Jackson: Being called to the front of the classroom because they've been misbehaving.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: All right, that's. That was kind of the setup from there. But then they went back and forth, Trump and Mamdani saying, you know, Trump at one point saying, you know, I have to respect. He won a great campaign, beat out some good people, and, you know, he's. He's got some ideas and maybe some ideas that conservatives might like. And I was like, what am I. What am I hearing here?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Did I hear those?

>> Fred Jackson: But anyway, and then I wondered if they were going to throw the floor open to questions from reporters. And they did. And I want to share with you a little bit one question from, Jackie Heinrich. She's a reporter with Fox there at the White House. And she brought up a. Wait a minute. Mom, Donnie, you called Trump a fascist. And so I want to give you that exchange. And then Mamdani was on. On the weekend on Meet the Press, NBC's Meet the Press, and. And. And was asked again about the whole fascist comment. So here's a little bit of those two exchanges. Cut number one, I want to clarify.

>>  Your answer to Steven Nelson. He asked about your comment calling the president a fascist. and your answer was, both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views. Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?

>>  I've spoken about.

>>  Okay.

>>  You could just say it's easier.

>>  It's easier than explaining.

>>  Just to be very clear, do you think that President Trump is a Fascist.

>>  And after President Trump said that, I said, yes, so you do. And that's something that I've said in the past. I say it today. And I think what I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the President was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment. And we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on a shared analysis of an affordability crisis for NewSong Yorkers.

>> Ed Vitagliano: A, shared, shared analysis between a communist and a fascist.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I love how he owned it. He had that. He had to keep his street cred. He had to own up to it. So do you still think Trump is a fascist? Yeah, I said it. I've said it.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, what was interesting in that first bit there was Trump coached Mamdani how to respond to the question. Just a minute. Just admit it. That way you don't have to explain what you meant. Just admit it. So it was, it was, it was fascinating. Political commentator Stephanie Hamill says Mamdani needs more from Trump than Trump needs from Mamdani. And maybe that's what kind of drove the meeting.

Raymond: Donald Trump and Mamdani met to discuss sanctuary city issues

Cut number three.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: This pop up political bromance has confused so many people on both sides. It was Mandani who asked and requested Donald Trump for this meeting. It's Mandani who needs to secure federal funding. It's Mandani who wants to make sure that the National Guard and ICE aren't deployed to the streets of NewSong York City because he made it very clear over the weekend after his meeting with Trump that NewSong York City will remain a sanctuary city. And that is obviously at odds with Donald Trump. Now, you have to love President Trump for taking this meeting. This is just so on brand for the man who's behind the art of the deal.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, to me, this is not surprising to me that Trump was, I mean, he was cordial, but, even being overly cordial is not surprising to me. We've seen him, and I'm not comparing Mamdani directly to these others, the others of people, but there are similar threads. We've seen Trump be very cordial to, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Putin, Xi, again, I'm not making direct comparisons, but there are some similarities. I mean, Mamdani is an open communist, so maybe it kind of fits the bill a little bit. But Trump is all about, all about, like this person said, commentator said, the art of the deal. Ed, do you think this is just Trump, you know, just kind of wooing somebody in just being cordial in front of the cameras to seem like the good guy or what do you think may be behind, you know, the, the lighter meeting when everybody was expecting a little more fireworks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I think this goes to, Trump's personality. I think Trump, having been a businessman in NewSong York City for so long, you know, dealing with people in terms of construction, you know, you know, this union, that union, they can often stand in your way, make life difficult. So I think he became successful because he knows how to schmooze. All right? You don't have. And this, I think, drives some of President Trump's policies and the way in which these unfold is because if you're a builder in NewSong York City and you're in charge of constructing this tower or this business, you don't care what, what the politics of the union, head is about. You, you tried to make a deal. That's what the commentary were saying. How can, how can we make this work? They were both NewSong Yorkers, you know, how can we make this work? Hey, did you see the Yankees play the other. That, I think is what Trump's personality is like. So when he meets someone who politically is, the opposite. Okay, Like Kim Jong Un or, or, you know, Putin, he gets along with these people, just like with Mom, Donnie, he gets along with them. let's, let's not ice each other out at the start. Let's see what we can get done. Now, I think with Mamdani, Mamdani is going to find out pretty quickly that he may want NewSong York City to remain a sanctuary city, but if he, if he bows up too much against Trump, he's going to find out that federal law takes precedence over what a city wants to do. And Mamdani is not going to be able, be able legally to hinder ICE from coming in and deporting people and arresting people, may not cooperate with the federal government, in which case President Trump may say, fine, you don't want to cooperate with the federal government, let's close the spigot a little bit and keep some of that money from flowing. So I think it's Trump's personality that he doesn't mind what Mamdani believes. Let's get to the table and let's talk. I think that's just the way Trump operates.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, I think you're right. It doesn't. He's always willing to meet with anybody. Now, what he'll say, as soon as the press conference is over or the next day, you know, he may, may change his mind a little bit. but I think that is something that is, appealing, about Trump is that he at least, he at least will get in the room with you and talk with you if you're willing to talk with him. Ray, what do you think?

>> Ray Prtichard: Well, one, one factor needs to be brought in here. Mom. Donnie, he is a communist. He is, he is left, he is over the edge, right, he's down the river. But there's a reason he got elected mayor of the largest city in our country. he's young, he's, relatively good looking, he's very articulate, he's very persuasive. Trump understood all of that. Absolutely nothing would be gained in the view of the President by getting into a shouting match with the newly elected mayor of NewSong York City. That's not even Trump style. Anyway, he likes to talk to Putin, he likes to talk to President Xi. He'll talk to anybody. He understood this fellow was popular enough to get elected mayor. I'm going to treat him fine. We're going to get along great and maybe we can find some common ground. And as you said, Ed, number one in thinking about our President is he's a deal maker and this is just a step toward making some kind of a deal. Then Trump can always drop the hammer later if he wants to.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So he, to me there also might be an element of where he's looking at what Mamdani has been promising during his campaign. Trump probably knows you're gonna get a fraction of that, done. Actually probably what he's gonna come through most will be a higher crime rate, higher, ah, higher inflation within NewSong York City, proper, and a, an exodus of more millionaires, more billionaires. So Trump may be looking and saying, okay, this young, young whippersnapper, this young buck's coming in promising the world and he's not really going to be able to deliver any of that and he'll probably more than likely be coming to me for, help. So, we are going to take a quick five minute break for the news. when we come back, we will have Steve Paisley Jordal on to bring us more, news, which we will discuss. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio.

>>  The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Tony, Ed and Ray talk with Fred on the court case in Maine plus other news headlines of the day.