The God who Speaks is a powerful message on the authority of scripture
Ed Vitagliano The God who Speaks is a powerful message on the authority of scripture and the voices of some of the most respected theologians of our day.The most historic formula for the Christian church has been when the Scripture speaks. God Speaks. The God who speaks is a 90 minute documentary which can empower Christians to share our faith and defend the authenticity of the Bible. Available at thegodwhospeaks.org or visit stream.afa.net.
Tim Wildman hosts Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network
Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day, huh? Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks as always for listening to AFR. So today is Wednesday, August 26, 2026. And in studio with me is Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Brother Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you. What was the date again, tim?
Tim Wildmon Today is August 26th and somebody in this room was m. Born to. Just a few decades ago.
Ed Vitagliano Just a few decades ago.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Happy birthday, brother.
Ed Vitagliano Well, thank you, but please, this is just like any other day. Except. Except better.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Well, we got something for you. We thought we'd, You got that queued up?
Ed Vitagliano Oh,
Tim Wildmon we got somebody, maybe you've heard of gonna sing a little Happy Birthday.
Ed Vitagliano Go ahead. Happy birthday to you.
Tim Wildmon Happy birthday to you.
Fred Jackson Happy birthday to you.
Tim Wildmon All right, well, that's a. That's all the happy birthday you get, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Who was that?
Tim Wildmon That was 10 seconds of Elvis.
Ed Vitagliano Was that Elvis?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, after a couple of martinis, I think.
Ed Vitagliano A couple of Dean martinis.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Hello. Dean Martin didn't. Yeah, to him there, didn't he?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon But anyway, happy birthday.
Ed Vitagliano Well, thank you guys.
Tim Wildmon Anything you want to say?
Ed Vitagliano I'm, just 68. Glad to be.
Tim Wildmon All right. So, well, anyway, happy birthday.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I did get, this morning, my son Tony taken four of my grandkids to school and he called in and they sang me Happy birthday. They were hoping that I was 67 years old so they could do that goofy 67 thing. Oh, yeah, I said no, that was yesterday. I was 67. And then my daughter in law just called in and my youngest grandchildren, did her best to sing Happy birthday. So, you know, when you got grandkids, life is, life is good.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Fred: I'm trying to decide if we should go out to eat tonight
Fred Jackson So, so is it Italian or Greek for you tonight?
Tim Wildmon Food.
Ed Vitagliano I got to talk to my wife about that. What we're doing. I have church tonight and so,
Tim Wildmon honestly, sound like you're excited about it.
Fred Jackson Well, it's not like a bird.
Ed Vitagliano Okay? I'm just going to be honest.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Be honest with this.
Ed Vitagliano I'm trying to decide if we're going to skip church and go out to eat on my birthday. I guess I could wait.
Tim Wildmon Feed the body instead of the soul.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I probably won't skip, but,
Fred Jackson you were supposed to speak, right?
Ed Vitagliano That'd be great. Sorry I can't make it. I suppose I could wait till tomorrow night or Friday night, but we gotta grant kids volleyball games.
Tim Wildmon Let your conscience be your guide. Tomorrow or your stomach. Either one. One of those two be your guys.
Ed Vitagliano Either your. Either your soul and spirit or your body. Which one you gonna pick?
Tim Wildmon Bible says something about that.
Ed Vitagliano I'm a kind of a rule keeper. I'll probably just go to church.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Ed Vitagliano And then just grumble the whole time.
Tim Wildmon All right, well, worst of both worlds. Yes, right there. Right?
Ed Vitagliano That's right.
Tim Wildmon All right. You're listening to today's issues. A lot of things happening in world we need to talk about today. By the way, coming up in six or seven minutes is our good friend Dr. Frank Turek. So we will talk to our brother. Six, seven, six, seven minutes from now. We will talk to our brother. All right, Fred, what's leading the news here?
Dolly Parton died yesterday after a brief battle with cancer
Fred Jackson Well, I came back after lunch yesterday and looked up at the TV screen in the newsroom, and the big news was the death of Dolly Parton. died yesterday, 80 years of age. We now know that she had fought a brief, battle with cancer. she passed away at the Vanderbilt center there in Nashville. And, we watched Fox News a lot around here. They basically dedicated all their programming yesterday afternoon to the history of Dolly Parton. And it's, you know, learned some things. of course, she grew up in
Tim Wildmon very poor conditions in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Fred Jackson Yes. And she started, you know, her mom had musical instruments, guitar in the house. They didn't have much, but they had a guitar and a, Ah, few other instruments. So she was introduced to music. She went into Knoxville to a festival when she was very young, 10, 11 years old. And she actually went to Nashville for the first time when she was just 13 years old.
Ed Vitagliano Wow.
Fred Jackson And, so that's how she started her career. As I say, very poor. she is an icon, in the music world. You know, when Elvis Pressley died back in 1977. 77. I was working in news in Toronto, Canada, and I remember that day as being one that people would mark on their calendars. And this will be the same Dolly Parton we wouldn't agree with everything that she stood for and that sort of thing, but, you know, she's, She. She was a prolific, music writer.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Fred Jackson I learned yesterday that two of her big songs, Jolene and I Will Always Love you, I think that was the name of the song she wrote that. She wrote both of them in the same day.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, my goodness.
Fred Jackson She wrote both of those songs in the same day.
Ed Vitagliano I remember I Will Always love you. I thought that was Whitney Houston's song, but.
Fred Jackson Well, she sang it. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon She made it famous. Whitney Houston did, yes.
Fred Jackson But, yeah, yeah, she wrote both. And kind of a funny story on the. Jolene. And she says this is drove that song. there was a bank teller that was flirting with her husband, with Dolly Parton's husband. and so Jolene was all about that flirtation. By the way, they were married for 50 some years.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I think almost 60, wasn't it?
Fred Jackson Yeah. And he just passed away, her husband, last year. Last year about this time.
Ed Vitagliano She was, She was a very generous, from what I've read. I didn't know this about her. And. And to her credit, you know, she, I guess probably didn't make a big thing of it, but she gave a lot of money away. I mean, she was very philanthropic. and, she was a good, excellent actress. Although she. Although most of her parts were kind of the same. She always had that kind of country.
Tim Wildmon But nine to Five, that was probably one of her most famous acting roles.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. So, the president of the United States, I think, ordered the flags.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano Half mast.
Fred Jackson Half mast for a week. And, you know, funny you mentioned nine to Five. she was an international icon.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson And among those people, paying tribute to her was King Charles.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow.
Fred Jackson King Charles. Referring to by her first name, Dolly. How important she was to the point that the British Army's band, you know, these. The guys, the red coats and the big hats. Big, big hats. They played their version of 9 to 5 this morning. It's cut number. All right.
Tim Wildmon They've been practicing that, you know, just. You don't just go out after coffee with the band and say, hey, guys, why don't we, What about, Let's just cut into nine, to five here.
Ed Vitagliano That sounds pretty funny hearing it from a band.
Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Perspective. And I did see Steve showed briefly the video of them playing. And they're out there in their full uniform.
Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Playing that song.
Tim Wildmon I saw that movie once. I think that was. Wasn't it, like that was the 70s or was it early 80s?
Ed Vitagliano I, I don't know. I will look it up, but I
Fred Jackson think it was 80s.
I think she came out in favor of same sex marriage way before it became hot button issue
I think it was 80s.
Tim Wildmon Okay, that Dabney, what was the guy?
Ed Vitagliano Dabney Coleman.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Yes. Jane Fonda, 1980.
Ed Vitagliano Right on the nose.
Tim Wildmon Jane Fonda. And what was the other, the, the laughing actress?
Ed Vitagliano Tomlin. Lily Tomlin.
Fred Jackson Lily Tomlin, yeah.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And Dabney Coleman. She, look, she, she was one of those, people that was just famous and beloved in music and acting. And she kind of steered clear.
Tim Wildmon She kind of steered clear of politics, didn't she?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, she was very supportive of the LGBTQ movement. I think she came out in favor of same sex marriage way before it became a hot button issue. She never revealed her position, I don't think, on things like abortion. And I think she kept her political views. I think she hated Trump.
Tim Wildmon Why do you say that?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I think I just, I read that, that, that she came out against Trump. I will double check that. But most of her political views, she kept close and she didn't express, those views.
Dolly Parton never publicly endorsed or supported Donald Trump
Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issue. So she was 80 years old, passed away in Nashville.
Fred Jackson 80 years old, you mentioned, she donated to causes. She had a, what's called Imagine library, it's still in existence, giving away millions of books to kids her dad could not read. And so she wanted kids to be exposed to books. So they give away millions of books to kids, I think, from 1 to 5, and they get those books for free. M. That's one of hers, of course, Dollywood and all of those other things.
Ed Vitagliano So, here's what I found. Dolly Parton never publicly endorsed or supported Donald Trump, maintaining a strictly apology political public image throughout her career to avoid dividing her fan base. While she stated in a 2016 interview that she saw family members in every man, she refused to extend that sentiment to Trump, explicitly declaring, quote, I ain't talking about Trump.
Tim Wildmon So that's, that's not hating.
Ed Vitagliano That's not, that's not hating. I did read that in, in some other. But, but this is.
Tim Wildmon She didn't make it a public issue.
Ed Vitagliano This is probably closer to the, you
Tim Wildmon know, celebrities and musicians and actors and actresses. I mean, they're human and they're American, most of what we're talking about. So they do have a right to their opinion. And if they want to talk about it, absolutely. They want to talk about it publicly. They can. Most don't because, you know, they get into controversies that are unrelated to their work.
Ed Vitagliano and that's what she said. She didn't want to divide her fan, base.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano I wish more, celebrities would do that.
Tim Wildmon Unless they're on your side.
Ed Vitagliano Unless they're on my side, absolutely. So she was. She was what a great voice, Very beautiful lady and very generous, apparently. And,
American Family Radio broadcasts Saturdays and Sundays at 9am Central Time
Tim Wildmon All right. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Joining us now, another beautiful person, Dr. Frank Turek, host of I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Heard Saturdays at 9am Central Time and Sundays at 4pm Central Time right here on this station.
Ed Vitagliano Frankly, American family, everybody is a beautiful person than nobody is.
Tim Wildmon Tim, I didn't say everybody was. That was your words.
Frank Turek Tim the comedian now.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Prank.
Frank Turek Hey, did I hear it's Ed's birthday?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, it is. It's my birthday. Would you send me.
Fred Jackson How old are you?
Ed Vitagliano I'm 68.
Frank Turek Man, you don't look it.
Fred Jackson Oh, here it goes.
Frank Turek You used to.
Tim Wildmon Oh, that was. That was.
Fred Jackson I knew that was coming.
Tim Wildmon That was. You got a rough crowd here.
Ed Vitagliano No, listen, I. I will say this as a Bostonian, Anytime I hear a good foot down, I. Even if it's at my expense.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano I will use that.
Fred Jackson That's.
Ed Vitagliano That's a beauty right there. I've never heard that.
Tim Wildmon Don't look 68.
Ed Vitagliano You used.
Tim Wildmon Used to. Oh, my goodness, Grace.
Frank Turek Actually, Ed, you're. You're looking pretty good at 68.
Fred Jackson You can't.
Ed Vitagliano We're on radio, got a video pulled up.
Frank Turek 64 year old, eyesights going. I don't know what's happening here.
Tim Wildmon We're streaming.
Fred Jackson Uh-huh.
Tim Wildmon All right.
There's a war on reality everywhere we turn now, Frank says
So, let's see. We got a topic. We got a topic for you, Frank.
Frank Turek Yeah, Yeah. I got a, new book coming out called the war on Reality. And, you know, there's a war on reality everywhere we turn now. We got people saying there's no truth, there's no God, that men can have babies, that math is racist. That just doesn't add up with me, by the way, that reason, is a tool of oppression and that. I don't know if you saw the other night on Jesse Waters, this, Abdul El Saleed guy, whatever his name is in Michigan, he tried to say that basically circumcision, is just like castration.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Frank Turek What a war on reality we have going. And by the way, there's. We've got a socialism making a comeback. I don't know about you, but I've never heard of anybody Getting on a rickety boat in Florida to escape to Cuba.
Tim Wildmon Right, right.
Frank Turek What's happening? There's a war on reality. And it started in the Garden of Eden when Satan said, has God really said that's how it all started?
Ed Vitagliano Is that what he sounded like?
Frank Turek Kind of.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Well, go ahead.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, no, I was going to say, Frank, in this country. Okay, absolutely agree. The war on reality has its origins in Satan. In this country, where do you see the kind of origins of what we're seeing happening? Because anybody with half a brain, I mean, we've been talking about, and might even talk about, Enos Kanter, Freedom, the former NBA player wanting to play in the wnba. we may talk about that some more. But, that's just stunning to most people with even half a brain to think that this is an issue. What are the roots of this in our country and maybe more broadly the West?
Frank Turek Well, after the Garden of Eden, you have something known as postmodernism, which says that there is no objective truth, there is no truth, Everyone has their own truth. And when people say there is no truth, I ask them, is that true? Is it true that there's no truth? Because it's a self defeating or self contradictory claim to say there's no truth. But when you say that and you try to apply it, it means everybody has their own truth. You have your truth, I have my truth. You know, that whole thing, it's nonsense. And we have a section in the book the War on Reality, called reality doesn't have pronouns. In other words, there's not my gravity or your gravity. There's not my logic or your logic. There's not my law against murder and your law against murder. It's not like murder is wrong for me, but not for you. Right. there's not my math or your math. There's just math. There's just logic, there's just the truth. It's not my truth or your truth. And when people say I have my truth, your truth, I say, is that the truth? That I have your truth or I have my truth and you have your truth? No, you're making the truth claims, claiming there are no the truths. It's just, it's a lie from the pit of hell. and if everyone had their own truth, would we ever go to school? Right. I mean, if you just invent truth, what do you need to go to school for? You know?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, there's nothing technically nothing to learn.
Frank Turek yeah, that's right. Because you're the source of all Truth, which of course it goes back to pride and Satan and you know, I'm going to do it my way kind of thing. So it goes back to postmodernism. And if you look at, we have a chapter, chapter 10 in the book on Marxism, cultural Marxism, and I think it's the key to understanding why there's a war on reality right now. There's a chart on page 192 and the book comes out September 8th, but if you pre order it, you'll get this chapter right away. Just go to thewaronreality.com and put your receipt in there. We're going to send it to you anyway. There's this chart in there that shows the difference between what people call today oppressors and what people call today the oppressed. And if, if you're say someone who is white owning class, if you're a man, if you're a heterosexual, if you're a Christian, if you're able bodied, if you're a citizen, you're automatically considered an oppressor regardless of your own personal behavior. You could be very virtuous personally, but if you have those characteristics, you're already considered an oppressor. On the other hand, if you're a person of color, if you're not a person of means, if you're lgbtq, if you're a non Christian, if you're disabled, if you're an immigrant, bonus points if you're an illegal immigrant, you're already considered oppressed. And no matter what you say or what you do has to be right, you have to be heard. And the other people who are considered oppressors need to shut up. And in some cases violence is inflicted on these people. In fact, if you look at what I just read, the white owning class men, heterosexual Christian, able bodied citizen, Charlie Kirk met every one of those characteristics and the person that allegedly killed him thought he was an oppressor and that's why he shot him. Because this kind of cultural Marxist, mind virus, this worldview actually toxic because all it is is a theory of conflict. What we're doing is we're pitting citizens against one another, people against one another. Based on many of these are non moral or non behavioral characteristics. And we're saying no matter what you do personally, you're automatically considered either oppressed or oppressor. And this goes completely against the Bible, goes completely against what Martin Luther King said, right? I don't, I hope we're going to judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. But here we are judging people on the color of their skin and whether they're Christians or not, or whether they're heterosexual or not, or whether they're men or not, whether they're citizens or not. This is, madness. And it will never lead to peace. It's just going to lead to continual conflict. And so you need to know what's going on. And that's what the book goes into, the War on Reality.
Tim Wildmon So you're telling me that oppression is absolutely wrong?
Frank Turek Yeah, that's. See, that's the contradictory part of it, Tim. On one hand, they'll say there's no objective morality, and yet they'll say, Tim, you're an evil oppressor because you're a Christian, white, heterosexual man.
Tim Wildmon Why is oppression? I would ask them why. So on what basis do you say oppression is evil?
Frank Turek Yeah. What standard do they have? They don't. The problem is they also think reason is a tool of oppression. So if you try and reason with them, they're going to say you're oppressing me.
Frank Bennett: I agree oppression is wrong, but I would cite Bible
Tim Wildmon Well, you, know, I agree oppression is wrong. But I would cite the Bible.
Tim Wildmon As the reason you shouldn't oppress people. Other people. But I don't know what they would cite. The secular humanists, the lefties, the progressives, whatever you want to call them. The postmodernist. I don't know what, what is their, what is their bible? Where do they go to for, for truth Feelings. Oh really?
Frank Turek Their own desire.
Tim Wildmon The feelings that can change from day to day, hour to hour, or person to person.
Frank Turek Well, you've probably heard people say you have to live your authentic self. You know, you do you. That kind of thing. We have a little section in the book. My co author wrote this so I can brag on her because she's really funny. You know, one of the, we go through the different standards that people have for right and wrong, and one of the standards is you do you. And here's what she writes in the book, the War on Reality. She says, sure you do you works when you're picking ice cream flavors. But once you decide to scam your grandma, torch a city or double park at Costco, suddenly we're all wishing that you didn't do you quite so hard.
Tim Wildmon That is good.
Ed Vitagliano That's, that's some good writing there.
Frank Turek The whole book's like that because we're having fun on our way to dystopia. You've got to laugh about this stuff. You know when people say men can get Pregnant. You just got to laugh at it. Are you out of your mind? Yeah, you are.
Ed Vitagliano Well, and honestly, that kind of mockery has gone, especially from comedians, Cantor
Tim Wildmon and this other fellow, Royce White. That's what they're doing right now.
Ed Vitagliano That kind of mockery has gone a long way towards undermining this bizarre ideology.
Frank Turek Oh, the Babylon Bee has done great.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Frank Turek Just had a headline the other day. Kentucky Derby committee gets together to discuss. What is a horse?
Ed Vitagliano The Babylon Bee is a priceless treasure in the culture. Culture, wars.
Tim Wildmon Okay, what's the name of the book? And how can we, you can pre order it.
Frank Turek You say pre order it on Amazon or wherever you get pre orders, and then go to thewaronreality.com, put your little receipt in there, and we'll send you Chapter 10 right away. You'll also see the forward on thewaronreality.com written by Erica Kirk, the wife of the widow of Charlie Kirk.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow.
Frank Turek And, you know, one. She. One thing she says in there is quite profound. She says, my reality changed on September 10th last year. And I've discovered that the only thing that brings me peace is not to fight reality, but to surrender to it. And so many people are trying to fight reality. You know, reality is undefeated. No, you're never going to beat reality. And wisdom says that you need to stop rebelling against reality. And the source of reality, of course, is Jesus. And he said that you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Which implies if you don't have the truth, you're in bondage. and people are in bondage. They're in bondage to their own sin. They're in bondage to their bad ideas, which are hurting themselves and hurting others. It's much better to work with reality than to try and swim upstream against it.
Tim Wildmon what situation with the trial for the accused, killer of, charge?
Frank Turek Well, on September 1st, the judge is going to say, we're going to trial. Tragically, the trial probably won't happen until late 27 or even 28. It's crazy.
Ed Vitagliano Wow.
Frank Turek Just crazy.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Wow. All right, Frank. Take care, my friend. I appreciate it. Talk to you later.
Frank Turek Great being with you.
Ed Vitagliano See you.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Bye. Bye.
Frank Turek was standing feet away when Charlie Kirk was assassinated
Dr. Frank Turek. T U R E K. go ahead and pre order that book. That's an excellent. What an excellent topic.
Ed Vitagliano Frank was friends with, Charlie Kirk.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And I think that's probably why Erica did the forward for.
Tim Wildmon Well, Frank was on m site.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, he was.
Tim Wildmon The day that's right. He, talked about this before. He was in the car taking Charlie Clark to the hospital.
Ed Vitagliano He was standing feet away when he was assassinated.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right, we'll be back in a minute. Stay with us,
Ed Vitagliano Friend.
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Tim Wildman is president of American Family association and American Family Radio
Frank Turek This has been my turn with Don Wildmon, a production of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Greece and Italy. We're going there in the spring of 2027. Hello, everyone. I'm Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. My sons Walker and Wesley are going to be leading a tour of Greece which includes, many of the sites found in the book of Acts where Paul traveled. And then we, call this the footsteps of Paul. And then we're going to Italy. By we, I mean Alice. And my wife and I are leading a group to Italy to see the sights of that great country, including Rome. We're going to visit Rome and that'll take a couple, three days to see all that's in Rome. And so we're going to visit the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, you may have heard of him, he was a slightly better than average artist. So we're going to be going there. If you want all the information on our tours of Italy and Greece, go to tours.afa.net that's tours.afa.net the heavens declare
Ed Vitagliano the glory of God.
Tim Wildmon The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Fred Jackson Day after day they pour forth Speech Night after night, they reveal knowledge.
Tim Wildmon Psalm 19, 1 2. 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, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR, Tim, Ed and Fred here on this Wednesday, August 26th. Fred, go ahead.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Darlene Graham, sister of Lindsey Graham, wins South Carolina Senate race
Well, the Republicans in South Carolina have made their choice.
Tim Wildmon Have they now?
Fred Jackson They have made their choice, and, I think most people are not surprised that Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, won that nomination race last night for the Senate. This is what she had to say in her speech. Cut number five.
Tim Wildmon I'm still feeling grief, heartache, and immense gratitude.
Ed Vitagliano So thank you all again.
Tim Wildmon I've been amazed at the number of people Lindsay personally impacted and the legacy he left behind. Our state and nation are much better and safer because of him. Thank you, Lindsay, for your service to South Carolina and to this country is just not the same without you here. That was, again, the Republican primary in South Carolina, a red state. So whoever wins a Republican primary, generally. Well, I say generally. I don't remember the last time a Republican lost a statewide race in South Carolina. So she is going to be the next US Senator from, the Palmetto State, Right?
Fred Jackson Yeah, it was. You know, a lot has been written, a lot of stories leading up to what happened last night because she had no experience. She, was Lindsey Graham's sister.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson She had Trump's endorsement. He campaigned for her last Friday, had a big rally there. Her opponent, her Republican opponent was Congressman Ralph Norman.
Ed Vitagliano Lots of experience, known statewide.
Fred Jackson Yes. But at the end of the day, the folks in the Republicans in South Carolina decided to go. And I, you know, I, I suppose it was kind of a. An emotional loyalty to Lindsey Graham, who was, you know, he. He was famous and very popular. South Carolina and loved in South Carolina,
Ed Vitagliano served for a long time. I was, I was surprised she won. Okay. Simply because the gaffes during that debate were just so kind of stunning. And I just thought South Carolina voters might say, well, we can't put someone that inexperienced, in a Senate seat for our state. But to your point, Fred, I think it was that emotional, excuse me, emotional attachment and sense of loyalty to Lindsey Graham and to the president. Yeah, the president, after the, Governor, Henry McMaster, appointed, Darlene Graham to fill out the remainder of Lindsey Graham's term. President Trump jumped right in and endorsed her. And that plus the loyalty to Lindsey Graham, I think, carried the day and
Tim Wildmon to Tim's point, and I have a lot of them.
Ed Vitagliano Yes. To. You know, perhaps despite Darlene Graham's missteps in the debate, she, may carry this and win, in November against, I think Annie Andrews, who's the Democratic nominee.
Tim Wildmon Let me ask you guys this question. Is it okay, what she got in trouble for with, the media and a lot of voters was she was. She said she answered a question about, What was the question?
Ed Vitagliano It was about whether Taiwan and the South China Sea was a foreign, policy concern. Something of that.
Tim Wildmon And she acted like she. Her answer was like, I don't know basically what you're talking about.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. She said, I think she said, started off, I want to be honest, I don't know much about foreign policy.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. which she's gonna have to learn to do. Si. Do a little bit. You know what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Sidestep.
Tim Wildmon You got a sidestep a little bit.
Ed Vitagliano That's a direct question. She may have been better off just
Tim Wildmon saying, she said, I don't know much. I don't know about national security or something about. But I do support the military.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon So, that. Did you know that was a black eye, so to speak, on her campaign, but she overcame it. Yeah, I guess. I guess my question is, I don't want to get too much philosophy. Get into too much philosophy here, but is it. Is it, to admit you don't know something? Is that terrible?
Fred Jackson I think it depends on the job you're applying for.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson You know if I was applying for a job to be a pilot at Delta.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson And someone asked me, well, do you know what a, aileron is? No, I don't know much about airplanes.
Tim Wildmon I do like to fly. Yeah, I got you. Okay. So it's a context.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Well, in other words, a, U.S. senator needs to know, needs to be well versed on geopolitical issues, especially high profile ones like China, Taiwan. Right?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Especially because of Lindsey Graham's background.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Now, the people of South Carolina are.
Tim Wildmon Well.
Ed Vitagliano And the Republican voters in this case are free to vote for whomever they choose to vote for. But to Fred's point, my first job was at a Friendly's Ice Cream, parlor in Nashua, NewSong Hampshire.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano And I applied for the job, and they said. And I. I said, well, I like ice cream. I'm not serious.
You got fired for giving customers too much ice cream
They Said, do you know how to run a cash register? I said, no. And he said, well, we can teach you that.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano I did get fired. After two weeks, I got fired. This is the absolute truth. I'm not making this up. I got fired because I was consistently giving the customers too much ice cream because they got the, the manager said, you're giving too much. And I was thinking, well, this is how much I eat when I'm scooping out ice cream. So I did get fired for that.
Tim Wildmon So you put that on your. When you went to the subsequent, job, did you put why you got fired for your.
Ed Vitagliano I didn't.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano I just pretended like I never had a job.
Tim Wildmon I understand.
Ed Vitagliano My dad was very disappointed, as usual.
Tim Wildmon My son got fired from the ice cream store.
Ed Vitagliano He said, seriously? He said. I said, I got fired. He said, already?
Tim Wildmon Oh my word.
Fred Jackson Oh dear.
Tim Wildmon Okay. All right.
Fred Fine: Why are we at war with Canada over trade
So Fred, switching topics here.
Tim Wildmon Why are we at war? We, the United States, at war with Canada over trade? I'm trying to follow this, but there's the. I know that, you know, you're, you understand both sides. I guess, as much as you have studied this issue. What is, what is going on here? Because the Prime Minister. Right.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Of Canada is really ticked.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon And he's expressing the feelings, I think, of a majority of Canadians. Would I be right about that?
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Or no.
Fred Jackson the relationship has been tense from the get go between, between President, Trump and Prime Minister Carney. Now Trump seemed to get along pretty well with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but Trudeau bowed out of the position. And Carney comes in. President Trump has had a real problem with the trade relationship with Canada, feeling very much that Canada has taken advantage of the situation. In that Canada, a lot of people don't know, they have a kind of a protectionist attitude towards certain industries there, like their dairy industry, their chicken industry. And so they have leveled heavy tariffs against agricultural, products coming into Canada. They have up in, Canada what's called marketing boards. And so certain people are licensed to raise chickens, et cetera, et cetera. So they've had this kind of protectionist. Because you can imagine for a moment you've got a country of about 35 million people in Canada and your neighbors to this giant called the United states, which has 350 million. And so there's always been this attitude of protectionism. when I was a DJ, when I was starting out, they made us play 60% Canadian music. It could only be 40% of any
Tim Wildmon music there's only so much Anne Murray you can play, though.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon I mean, and I love Anne Murray and the.
Fred Jackson Guess who. And Gordon Lightfoot. Yeah, and Gordon Lightfoot passed away. You're really in trouble. But that's been kind of the attitude. So, we thought we had a deal there about 10 days ago, because Trump was saying, I think we have a deal. But according to reports, the United States delegation kind of added some things on after that brief truce. for instance, they started, according to reports, the American delegation started to say, hey, we don't like you bringing in to Canada. They said, canada, we don't like you bringing in so much stuff from China. And so there's. What happened was, okay, you're not going to tell us who we're going to trade with other countries. And so it all broke down. And so yesterday, Prime Minister, Carney listed, a whole bunch of stuff that, as of September 8th, they're going to start charging tariffs on goods coming in from the United States. everything from live and frozen fish to motorcycles and trailers, smartphones, video game consoles, stoves, ranges, refrigerators, etc. Etc. Now, we do have to add there are Trump supporters who are very upset that he is taking this fight with Canada because there's this long list of things now that are going to face tariffs, things manufactured in the United States that they sell into Canada. Canada and the United States. They're the biggest trading partners. All right, so all of these things are going to face tariffs now produced by American producers, and they're going to lose business. And there's also the Americans, the American people, business people who normally support Trump. The other thing a lot of people don't realize, and these threats have come out in the last few days, the premier Ford of Ontario, he's saying, hey, we sell a lot of electricity to places like Michigan and in Quebec, Quebec sells a lot of electricity to upstate NewSong York and Maine. we'll just turn off the switch. So this could get quite serious, actually, unless there's some mending of the ways pretty soon.
Ed Vitagliano I looked this up because I don't, I don't know enough about. I know people are saying, well, learn. Well, I have one lifetime learning about economics.
Tim Wildmon You're not going to be elected U.S. senator then. But you just said, I don't know.
Ed Vitagliano And you feel, well, maybe I could be elected.
Tim Wildmon Well, maybe you could be if I
Ed Vitagliano had enough goodwill for the people of the state of Fine state of Mississippi.
Tim Wildmon Mississippi, you don't know. You don't know. About what?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I looked this up. So for a long time, I have had the understanding that the NAFTA Agreement, North American Free Trade Agreement, with. Between the United States, Canada and Mexico. I have always understood that free trade was good, but that that cost us a lot of manufacturing jobs in this country. So I looked this up about. We were. I knew we'd be talking about this, about Canada. And it says that before the 2025, 2026 trade war, Canada imposed very few tariffs on U.S. products due to free trade agreements. there were a couple of exceptions to that. mostly in the agricultural sector, because they had their own farmers and growers to take care of. But so it seemed like with Mexico and Canada, this says 98% of goods entering, the U.S. and, or going across entered duty free. So no tariffs were levied. And so I started it. Yeah. I'm not sure why the President, has been so upset with Canada if this is true. 98% of goods entering duty free, because that means it was actual free trade. And when you have neighbors like Canada and Mexico, I do understand the concerns about drugs coming across either border or illegals, illegal immigrants, but your neighbors, you probably should keep that, those relationships strong. I'm not sure this trade war is accomplishing that.
Tim Wildmon what happens with the trade war like this? And, I'm, no expert on this either, but you get into tit for tat, and it gets personal. And there's one man that takes things personal. He's in the White House. And I'm not saying he isn't, wise or smart on economic issues, but on this one, I'm going. It just seems like to me, you know, we've. With Canada in particular, who is our neighbor to the north, you know, Canadians have drastically cut back their tourism to the U.S. you know that.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon and the way Trump has talked about them making them the 51st state and that kind of thing, that's just demeaning to people. And they. And they take it personally.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And as we would.
Back to the levying of tariffs. The president used emergency powers when he first took office
Tim Wildmon As we would. And it's completely and totally unnecessary. so. But about the. Back to the levying of tariffs. So if Trump says, and by the way, I'm not comfortable with one man, even the President of the United States, having the sole, authority to tariff, tariff this and tariff that, and pull it here and change it tomorrow. We've been doing this for two years now, and it just seems, I've heard people say, who support President Trump and their businessman. It's hard to operate that way because we tell our, we tell our customers this is a price on something, and then Trump comes in and slaps a tariff on something and we have to go. You know what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon So it just, maybe, maybe that's perfectly constitutional for one man just to be able to control the economy, in that way. But doesn't seem. Do you making sense here.
Ed Vitagliano No, you are not. No, you are. No.
Frank Turek Yes, you are.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, you are.
Tim Wildmon Yes, sir.
Ed Vitagliano yes, you are making sense. I, think the President has had some of these powers curtailed by the Supreme Court, but has gone around those. I'm like you, I thought this was a congressional power levying tariffs. The president used emergency powers when he first took office in 2024 to, to do what you're saying, slap tariffs. And he said the emergency was drugs coming across the borders.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but he was slapping tariffs on
Ed Vitagliano countries around the world, and I think that's why he kind of got shut down by the Supreme Court, because the emergency powers were. That power was, was in the view of the Supreme Court, was being abused. And, and, but the president has gone around that using other reasonings for slapping the tariffs. I just, I understood the president when he first came into office in 2016 about China taking advantage. There were countries, a lot of countries taking advantage of the United States and, our production moving to other countries is a real concern. We've lost a lot of industrial capacity over the last 40 years, and some of that is because of NAFTA and.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. But we benefited from, from cheap stuff from China.
Ed Vitagliano We did.
Tim Wildmon It works both ways.
Ed Vitagliano We, we did. But I understood what the President was, was going for. I don't think having trade wars with Canada or Mexico, is, is the way to go.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson All right.
Tim Wildmon You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Tim, Ed, Fred. Next. Dory. Freddie.
John Ratcliffe, head of CIA, flew to Moscow yesterday
Fred Jackson Well, a little bit of a mystery story that's out there. The head of our CIA, Jon Ratcliffe. Flew into Moscow the other day. a lot of people. Was yesterday, yesterday, early yesterday, I
Tim Wildmon believe it was the CIA director flying to Moscow.
Fred Jackson Yeah, flew into Moscow. Now the story that we have, he
Tim Wildmon wasn't there to get, beef stroganoff. No, he was there to meet with or, get Smirnoff Bakka. Was he, he may have picked up some.
Fred Jackson He did not meet with Putin, according to story, Associated Press story we have right now on our site. He didn't, meet with Putin. He met with his, counterparts.
Tim Wildmon Is that still called the KGB or not?
Ed Vitagliano No, I think it's. I think it was. I'll double check on that.
Tim Wildmon That was. That was when it was Communist Soviet Union. Right. Kgb right there. That was their spy agency.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson But the stories that I've read so far on this are not saying what specifically they talked about. So it just begs the question, okay, why would our top guy, Jon Ratcliffe, head of the CIA, what would be the purpose of that visit? by the way, prior to the Air Force plane landing in Moscow, before the trip was. I'm not sure where they flew out of, but they said Ukraine. You can continue your war against Russia while we're visiting there. Just don't hit anything in Moscow while we're there. So, the Ukrainians agreed to do that. So that was coordinated. It was coordinated to that point. So the war didn't stop. But Jon Ratcliffe was meeting with their intelligence people, and nobody so far is saying, what are you talking about? Why?
Tim Wildmon I'm surprised the subject matter hasn't leaked somewhere.
Fred Jackson Well, you know, it May yet. We're 48 hours or less, and I'm sure,
Tim Wildmon do you know if President Trump or Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, have been asked about this in a press conference yet?
Fred Jackson I, have not.
Tim Wildmon They will today.
Fred Jackson They probably will. Yes. But it seems so strange.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson That we would send the director of the CIA to Moscow at a time when this war is on.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson I mean, do they hope.
Tim Wildmon What could they possibly be talking about?
Fred Jackson Yeah. You know, I mean, Putin runs the show there, and he's not even in the room.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano By the way, the KGB ceased to exist in 1991 after the, After the, collapse of the Soviet Union, and is replaced by other, organizations. So. M. I. I know this is. This is strange. I. I've been reading stuff about that. Maybe this involves Poland because Poland has sided with Ukraine. Poland has hosted a lot of the people fleeing Ukraine when the war first started. And my belief is that probably weaponry has been going into Ukraine, either from Poland or through Poland. That has angered the Soviet Union, has angered, Putin and the Russian leadership. And they've tested Polish airspace. The Russians have here m. Over the last year or two.
Tim Wildmon Let me tell you something. The Ukrainians are landing some serious punches inside Russia with drones, with drones. They, took out the Amazon. It's not called Amazon. it's called something else, but it's the equivalent of an Amazon distribution center in Moscow. it was in flames. they've. I mean, the, as we talked about before, drone drones have changed warfare and have equaled the, level the playing field for, countries like Ukraine that don't have the manpower that Russia does, but yet they have drones and other means, high tech means. To. The other day we were talking about they were using robots, now controlled by men somewhere, but robots to fight,
Ed Vitagliano kill Russian soldiers, kill 20 of them
Tim Wildmon with one robot or something like that.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And, Iran has been using that kind of like you're talking about that asymmetrical warfare to kind of keep our navy, on high alert and at bay. So, yeah, it's changed warfare. And listen, if, if the United States, if the CIA is asking Ukraine not to attack Moscow while we're there, that means they're able to do it almost with impunity.
Fred Jackson Yep. Yep.
Tim Wildmon I don't know why. Yeah, I don't know. you know, the Ukrainian Russian war doesn't get as much attention anymore as it did certainly for the first year that it started. Of course, everybody thought that Russia would roll in and squash Ukraine in a matter of weeks, if certainly months, and that didn't happen. Here we are. What are we, four years into this or over four?
Ed Vitagliano It was 20. was it 22? Yeah, I think it was 22.
Tim Wildmon You just wonder what goes on every day, because I know bombings go on every day because. But how much before somebody doesn't have anything left to bomb. I know, you know, especially the Ukrainians.
Ukraine will probably continue guerrilla warfare against Russia for decades, Father says
but this is a war that will never be forgotten by the Ukrainian people for sure. They'll never surrender. If they were going to surrender, they would have by now. And there will probably be, I'm sorry to say this, there will probably be guerrilla warfare against Russia now for decades, probably because of, so many people have been killed and families taken out and lives upended in the Ukraine.
Frank Turek The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
The God who Speaks is a powerful message on the authority of scripture
Ed Vitagliano The God who Speaks is a powerful message on the authority of scripture and the voices of some of the most respected theologians of our day.The most historic formula for the Christian church has been when the Scripture speaks. God Speaks. The God who speaks is a 90 minute documentary which can empower Christians to share our faith and defend the authenticity of the Bible. Available at thegodwhospeaks.org or visit stream.afa.net.
Tim Wildman hosts Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network
Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day, huh? Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks as always for listening to AFR. So today is Wednesday, August 26, 2026. And in studio with me is Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Brother Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you. What was the date again, tim?
Tim Wildmon Today is August 26th and somebody in this room was m. Born to. Just a few decades ago.
Ed Vitagliano Just a few decades ago.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Happy birthday, brother.
Ed Vitagliano Well, thank you, but please, this is just like any other day. Except. Except better.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Well, we got something for you. We thought we'd, You got that queued up?
Ed Vitagliano Oh,
Tim Wildmon we got somebody, maybe you've heard of gonna sing a little Happy Birthday.
Ed Vitagliano Go ahead. Happy birthday to you.
Tim Wildmon Happy birthday to you.
Fred Jackson Happy birthday to you.
Tim Wildmon All right, well, that's a. That's all the happy birthday you get, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Who was that?
Tim Wildmon That was 10 seconds of Elvis.
Ed Vitagliano Was that Elvis?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, after a couple of martinis, I think.
Ed Vitagliano A couple of Dean martinis.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Hello. Dean Martin didn't. Yeah, to him there, didn't he?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon But anyway, happy birthday.
Ed Vitagliano Well, thank you guys.
Tim Wildmon Anything you want to say?
Ed Vitagliano I'm, just 68. Glad to be.
Tim Wildmon All right. So, well, anyway, happy birthday.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I did get, this morning, my son Tony taken four of my grandkids to school and he called in and they sang me Happy birthday. They were hoping that I was 67 years old so they could do that goofy 67 thing. Oh, yeah, I said no, that was yesterday. I was 67. And then my daughter in law just called in and my youngest grandchildren, did her best to sing Happy birthday. So, you know, when you got grandkids, life is, life is good.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Fred: I'm trying to decide if we should go out to eat tonight
Fred Jackson So, so is it Italian or Greek for you tonight?
Tim Wildmon Food.
Ed Vitagliano I got to talk to my wife about that. What we're doing. I have church tonight and so,
Tim Wildmon honestly, sound like you're excited about it.
Fred Jackson Well, it's not like a bird.
Ed Vitagliano Okay? I'm just going to be honest.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Be honest with this.
Ed Vitagliano I'm trying to decide if we're going to skip church and go out to eat on my birthday. I guess I could wait.
Tim Wildmon Feed the body instead of the soul.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I probably won't skip, but,
Fred Jackson you were supposed to speak, right?
Ed Vitagliano That'd be great. Sorry I can't make it. I suppose I could wait till tomorrow night or Friday night, but we gotta grant kids volleyball games.
Tim Wildmon Let your conscience be your guide. Tomorrow or your stomach. Either one. One of those two be your guys.
Ed Vitagliano Either your. Either your soul and spirit or your body. Which one you gonna pick?
Tim Wildmon Bible says something about that.
Ed Vitagliano I'm a kind of a rule keeper. I'll probably just go to church.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Ed Vitagliano And then just grumble the whole time.
Tim Wildmon All right, well, worst of both worlds. Yes, right there. Right?
Ed Vitagliano That's right.
Tim Wildmon All right. You're listening to today's issues. A lot of things happening in world we need to talk about today. By the way, coming up in six or seven minutes is our good friend Dr. Frank Turek. So we will talk to our brother. Six, seven, six, seven minutes from now. We will talk to our brother. All right, Fred, what's leading the news here?
Dolly Parton died yesterday after a brief battle with cancer
Fred Jackson Well, I came back after lunch yesterday and looked up at the TV screen in the newsroom, and the big news was the death of Dolly Parton. died yesterday, 80 years of age. We now know that she had fought a brief, battle with cancer. she passed away at the Vanderbilt center there in Nashville. And, we watched Fox News a lot around here. They basically dedicated all their programming yesterday afternoon to the history of Dolly Parton. And it's, you know, learned some things. of course, she grew up in
Tim Wildmon very poor conditions in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Fred Jackson Yes. And she started, you know, her mom had musical instruments, guitar in the house. They didn't have much, but they had a guitar and a, Ah, few other instruments. So she was introduced to music. She went into Knoxville to a festival when she was very young, 10, 11 years old. And she actually went to Nashville for the first time when she was just 13 years old.
Ed Vitagliano Wow.
Fred Jackson And, so that's how she started her career. As I say, very poor. she is an icon, in the music world. You know, when Elvis Pressley died back in 1977. 77. I was working in news in Toronto, Canada, and I remember that day as being one that people would mark on their calendars. And this will be the same Dolly Parton we wouldn't agree with everything that she stood for and that sort of thing, but, you know, she's, She. She was a prolific, music writer.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Fred Jackson I learned yesterday that two of her big songs, Jolene and I Will Always Love you, I think that was the name of the song she wrote that. She wrote both of them in the same day.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, my goodness.
Fred Jackson She wrote both of those songs in the same day.
Ed Vitagliano I remember I Will Always love you. I thought that was Whitney Houston's song, but.
Fred Jackson Well, she sang it. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon She made it famous. Whitney Houston did, yes.
Fred Jackson But, yeah, yeah, she wrote both. And kind of a funny story on the. Jolene. And she says this is drove that song. there was a bank teller that was flirting with her husband, with Dolly Parton's husband. and so Jolene was all about that flirtation. By the way, they were married for 50 some years.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I think almost 60, wasn't it?
Fred Jackson Yeah. And he just passed away, her husband, last year. Last year about this time.
Ed Vitagliano She was, She was a very generous, from what I've read. I didn't know this about her. And. And to her credit, you know, she, I guess probably didn't make a big thing of it, but she gave a lot of money away. I mean, she was very philanthropic. and, she was a good, excellent actress. Although she. Although most of her parts were kind of the same. She always had that kind of country.
Tim Wildmon But nine to Five, that was probably one of her most famous acting roles.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. So, the president of the United States, I think, ordered the flags.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano Half mast.
Fred Jackson Half mast for a week. And, you know, funny you mentioned nine to Five. she was an international icon.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson And among those people, paying tribute to her was King Charles.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow.
Fred Jackson King Charles. Referring to by her first name, Dolly. How important she was to the point that the British Army's band, you know, these. The guys, the red coats and the big hats. Big, big hats. They played their version of 9 to 5 this morning. It's cut number. All right.
Tim Wildmon They've been practicing that, you know, just. You don't just go out after coffee with the band and say, hey, guys, why don't we, What about, Let's just cut into nine, to five here.
Ed Vitagliano That sounds pretty funny hearing it from a band.
Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Perspective. And I did see Steve showed briefly the video of them playing. And they're out there in their full uniform.
Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Playing that song.
Tim Wildmon I saw that movie once. I think that was. Wasn't it, like that was the 70s or was it early 80s?
Ed Vitagliano I, I don't know. I will look it up, but I
Fred Jackson think it was 80s.
I think she came out in favor of same sex marriage way before it became hot button issue
I think it was 80s.
Tim Wildmon Okay, that Dabney, what was the guy?
Ed Vitagliano Dabney Coleman.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Yes. Jane Fonda, 1980.
Ed Vitagliano Right on the nose.
Tim Wildmon Jane Fonda. And what was the other, the, the laughing actress?
Ed Vitagliano Tomlin. Lily Tomlin.
Fred Jackson Lily Tomlin, yeah.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And Dabney Coleman. She, look, she, she was one of those, people that was just famous and beloved in music and acting. And she kind of steered clear.
Tim Wildmon She kind of steered clear of politics, didn't she?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, she was very supportive of the LGBTQ movement. I think she came out in favor of same sex marriage way before it became a hot button issue. She never revealed her position, I don't think, on things like abortion. And I think she kept her political views. I think she hated Trump.
Tim Wildmon Why do you say that?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I think I just, I read that, that, that she came out against Trump. I will double check that. But most of her political views, she kept close and she didn't express, those views.
Dolly Parton never publicly endorsed or supported Donald Trump
Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issue. So she was 80 years old, passed away in Nashville.
Fred Jackson 80 years old, you mentioned, she donated to causes. She had a, what's called Imagine library, it's still in existence, giving away millions of books to kids her dad could not read. And so she wanted kids to be exposed to books. So they give away millions of books to kids, I think, from 1 to 5, and they get those books for free. M. That's one of hers, of course, Dollywood and all of those other things.
Ed Vitagliano So, here's what I found. Dolly Parton never publicly endorsed or supported Donald Trump, maintaining a strictly apology political public image throughout her career to avoid dividing her fan base. While she stated in a 2016 interview that she saw family members in every man, she refused to extend that sentiment to Trump, explicitly declaring, quote, I ain't talking about Trump.
Tim Wildmon So that's, that's not hating.
Ed Vitagliano That's not, that's not hating. I did read that in, in some other. But, but this is.
Tim Wildmon She didn't make it a public issue.
Ed Vitagliano This is probably closer to the, you
Tim Wildmon know, celebrities and musicians and actors and actresses. I mean, they're human and they're American, most of what we're talking about. So they do have a right to their opinion. And if they want to talk about it, absolutely. They want to talk about it publicly. They can. Most don't because, you know, they get into controversies that are unrelated to their work.
Ed Vitagliano and that's what she said. She didn't want to divide her fan, base.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano I wish more, celebrities would do that.
Tim Wildmon Unless they're on your side.
Ed Vitagliano Unless they're on my side, absolutely. So she was. She was what a great voice, Very beautiful lady and very generous, apparently. And,
American Family Radio broadcasts Saturdays and Sundays at 9am Central Time
Tim Wildmon All right. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Joining us now, another beautiful person, Dr. Frank Turek, host of I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Heard Saturdays at 9am Central Time and Sundays at 4pm Central Time right here on this station.
Ed Vitagliano Frankly, American family, everybody is a beautiful person than nobody is.
Tim Wildmon Tim, I didn't say everybody was. That was your words.
Frank Turek Tim the comedian now.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Prank.
Frank Turek Hey, did I hear it's Ed's birthday?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, it is. It's my birthday. Would you send me.
Fred Jackson How old are you?
Ed Vitagliano I'm 68.
Frank Turek Man, you don't look it.
Fred Jackson Oh, here it goes.
Frank Turek You used to.
Tim Wildmon Oh, that was. That was.
Fred Jackson I knew that was coming.
Tim Wildmon That was. You got a rough crowd here.
Ed Vitagliano No, listen, I. I will say this as a Bostonian, Anytime I hear a good foot down, I. Even if it's at my expense.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano I will use that.
Fred Jackson That's.
Ed Vitagliano That's a beauty right there. I've never heard that.
Tim Wildmon Don't look 68.
Ed Vitagliano You used.
Tim Wildmon Used to. Oh, my goodness, Grace.
Frank Turek Actually, Ed, you're. You're looking pretty good at 68.
Fred Jackson You can't.
Ed Vitagliano We're on radio, got a video pulled up.
Frank Turek 64 year old, eyesights going. I don't know what's happening here.
Tim Wildmon We're streaming.
Fred Jackson Uh-huh.
Tim Wildmon All right.
There's a war on reality everywhere we turn now, Frank says
So, let's see. We got a topic. We got a topic for you, Frank.
Frank Turek Yeah, Yeah. I got a, new book coming out called the war on Reality. And, you know, there's a war on reality everywhere we turn now. We got people saying there's no truth, there's no God, that men can have babies, that math is racist. That just doesn't add up with me, by the way, that reason, is a tool of oppression and that. I don't know if you saw the other night on Jesse Waters, this, Abdul El Saleed guy, whatever his name is in Michigan, he tried to say that basically circumcision, is just like castration.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Frank Turek What a war on reality we have going. And by the way, there's. We've got a socialism making a comeback. I don't know about you, but I've never heard of anybody Getting on a rickety boat in Florida to escape to Cuba.
Tim Wildmon Right, right.
Frank Turek What's happening? There's a war on reality. And it started in the Garden of Eden when Satan said, has God really said that's how it all started?
Ed Vitagliano Is that what he sounded like?
Frank Turek Kind of.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Frank Turek Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Well, go ahead.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, no, I was going to say, Frank, in this country. Okay, absolutely agree. The war on reality has its origins in Satan. In this country, where do you see the kind of origins of what we're seeing happening? Because anybody with half a brain, I mean, we've been talking about, and might even talk about, Enos Kanter, Freedom, the former NBA player wanting to play in the wnba. we may talk about that some more. But, that's just stunning to most people with even half a brain to think that this is an issue. What are the roots of this in our country and maybe more broadly the West?
Frank Turek Well, after the Garden of Eden, you have something known as postmodernism, which says that there is no objective truth, there is no truth, Everyone has their own truth. And when people say there is no truth, I ask them, is that true? Is it true that there's no truth? Because it's a self defeating or self contradictory claim to say there's no truth. But when you say that and you try to apply it, it means everybody has their own truth. You have your truth, I have my truth. You know, that whole thing, it's nonsense. And we have a section in the book the War on Reality, called reality doesn't have pronouns. In other words, there's not my gravity or your gravity. There's not my logic or your logic. There's not my law against murder and your law against murder. It's not like murder is wrong for me, but not for you. Right. there's not my math or your math. There's just math. There's just logic, there's just the truth. It's not my truth or your truth. And when people say I have my truth, your truth, I say, is that the truth? That I have your truth or I have my truth and you have your truth? No, you're making the truth claims, claiming there are no the truths. It's just, it's a lie from the pit of hell. and if everyone had their own truth, would we ever go to school? Right. I mean, if you just invent truth, what do you need to go to school for? You know?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, there's nothing technically nothing to learn.
Frank Turek yeah, that's right. Because you're the source of all Truth, which of course it goes back to pride and Satan and you know, I'm going to do it my way kind of thing. So it goes back to postmodernism. And if you look at, we have a chapter, chapter 10 in the book on Marxism, cultural Marxism, and I think it's the key to understanding why there's a war on reality right now. There's a chart on page 192 and the book comes out September 8th, but if you pre order it, you'll get this chapter right away. Just go to thewaronreality.com and put your receipt in there. We're going to send it to you anyway. There's this chart in there that shows the difference between what people call today oppressors and what people call today the oppressed. And if, if you're say someone who is white owning class, if you're a man, if you're a heterosexual, if you're a Christian, if you're able bodied, if you're a citizen, you're automatically considered an oppressor regardless of your own personal behavior. You could be very virtuous personally, but if you have those characteristics, you're already considered an oppressor. On the other hand, if you're a person of color, if you're not a person of means, if you're lgbtq, if you're a non Christian, if you're disabled, if you're an immigrant, bonus points if you're an illegal immigrant, you're already considered oppressed. And no matter what you say or what you do has to be right, you have to be heard. And the other people who are considered oppressors need to shut up. And in some cases violence is inflicted on these people. In fact, if you look at what I just read, the white owning class men, heterosexual Christian, able bodied citizen, Charlie Kirk met every one of those characteristics and the person that allegedly killed him thought he was an oppressor and that's why he shot him. Because this kind of cultural Marxist, mind virus, this worldview actually toxic because all it is is a theory of conflict. What we're doing is we're pitting citizens against one another, people against one another. Based on many of these are non moral or non behavioral characteristics. And we're saying no matter what you do personally, you're automatically considered either oppressed or oppressor. And this goes completely against the Bible, goes completely against what Martin Luther King said, right? I don't, I hope we're going to judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. But here we are judging people on the color of their skin and whether they're Christians or not, or whether they're heterosexual or not, or whether they're men or not, whether they're citizens or not. This is, madness. And it will never lead to peace. It's just going to lead to continual conflict. And so you need to know what's going on. And that's what the book goes into, the War on Reality.
Tim Wildmon So you're telling me that oppression is absolutely wrong?
Frank Turek Yeah, that's. See, that's the contradictory part of it, Tim. On one hand, they'll say there's no objective morality, and yet they'll say, Tim, you're an evil oppressor because you're a Christian, white, heterosexual man.
Tim Wildmon Why is oppression? I would ask them why. So on what basis do you say oppression is evil?
Frank Turek Yeah. What standard do they have? They don't. The problem is they also think reason is a tool of oppression. So if you try and reason with them, they're going to say you're oppressing me.
Frank Bennett: I agree oppression is wrong, but I would cite Bible
Tim Wildmon Well, you, know, I agree oppression is wrong. But I would cite the Bible.
Tim Wildmon As the reason you shouldn't oppress people. Other people. But I don't know what they would cite. The secular humanists, the lefties, the progressives, whatever you want to call them. The postmodernist. I don't know what, what is their, what is their bible? Where do they go to for, for truth Feelings. Oh really?
Frank Turek Their own desire.
Tim Wildmon The feelings that can change from day to day, hour to hour, or person to person.
Frank Turek Well, you've probably heard people say you have to live your authentic self. You know, you do you. That kind of thing. We have a little section in the book. My co author wrote this so I can brag on her because she's really funny. You know, one of the, we go through the different standards that people have for right and wrong, and one of the standards is you do you. And here's what she writes in the book, the War on Reality. She says, sure you do you works when you're picking ice cream flavors. But once you decide to scam your grandma, torch a city or double park at Costco, suddenly we're all wishing that you didn't do you quite so hard.
Tim Wildmon That is good.
Ed Vitagliano That's, that's some good writing there.
Frank Turek The whole book's like that because we're having fun on our way to dystopia. You've got to laugh about this stuff. You know when people say men can get Pregnant. You just got to laugh at it. Are you out of your mind? Yeah, you are.
Ed Vitagliano Well, and honestly, that kind of mockery has gone, especially from comedians, Cantor
Tim Wildmon and this other fellow, Royce White. That's what they're doing right now.
Ed Vitagliano That kind of mockery has gone a long way towards undermining this bizarre ideology.
Frank Turek Oh, the Babylon Bee has done great.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Frank Turek Just had a headline the other day. Kentucky Derby committee gets together to discuss. What is a horse?
Ed Vitagliano The Babylon Bee is a priceless treasure in the culture. Culture, wars.
Tim Wildmon Okay, what's the name of the book? And how can we, you can pre order it.
Frank Turek You say pre order it on Amazon or wherever you get pre orders, and then go to thewaronreality.com, put your little receipt in there, and we'll send you Chapter 10 right away. You'll also see the forward on thewaronreality.com written by Erica Kirk, the wife of the widow of Charlie Kirk.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow.
Frank Turek And, you know, one. She. One thing she says in there is quite profound. She says, my reality changed on September 10th last year. And I've discovered that the only thing that brings me peace is not to fight reality, but to surrender to it. And so many people are trying to fight reality. You know, reality is undefeated. No, you're never going to beat reality. And wisdom says that you need to stop rebelling against reality. And the source of reality, of course, is Jesus. And he said that you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Which implies if you don't have the truth, you're in bondage. and people are in bondage. They're in bondage to their own sin. They're in bondage to their bad ideas, which are hurting themselves and hurting others. It's much better to work with reality than to try and swim upstream against it.
Tim Wildmon what situation with the trial for the accused, killer of, charge?
Frank Turek Well, on September 1st, the judge is going to say, we're going to trial. Tragically, the trial probably won't happen until late 27 or even 28. It's crazy.
Ed Vitagliano Wow.
Frank Turek Just crazy.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Wow. All right, Frank. Take care, my friend. I appreciate it. Talk to you later.
Frank Turek Great being with you.
Ed Vitagliano See you.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Bye. Bye.
Frank Turek was standing feet away when Charlie Kirk was assassinated
Dr. Frank Turek. T U R E K. go ahead and pre order that book. That's an excellent. What an excellent topic.
Ed Vitagliano Frank was friends with, Charlie Kirk.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And I think that's probably why Erica did the forward for.
Tim Wildmon Well, Frank was on m site.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, he was.
Tim Wildmon The day that's right. He, talked about this before. He was in the car taking Charlie Clark to the hospital.
Ed Vitagliano He was standing feet away when he was assassinated.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right, we'll be back in a minute. Stay with us,
Ed Vitagliano Friend.
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Tim Wildman is president of American Family association and American Family Radio
Frank Turek This has been my turn with Don Wildmon, a production of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Greece and Italy. We're going there in the spring of 2027. Hello, everyone. I'm Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. My sons Walker and Wesley are going to be leading a tour of Greece which includes, many of the sites found in the book of Acts where Paul traveled. And then we, call this the footsteps of Paul. And then we're going to Italy. By we, I mean Alice. And my wife and I are leading a group to Italy to see the sights of that great country, including Rome. We're going to visit Rome and that'll take a couple, three days to see all that's in Rome. And so we're going to visit the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, you may have heard of him, he was a slightly better than average artist. So we're going to be going there. If you want all the information on our tours of Italy and Greece, go to tours.afa.net that's tours.afa.net the heavens declare
Ed Vitagliano the glory of God.
Tim Wildmon The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Fred Jackson Day after day they pour forth Speech Night after night, they reveal knowledge.
Tim Wildmon Psalm 19, 1 2. 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, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR, Tim, Ed and Fred here on this Wednesday, August 26th. Fred, go ahead.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Darlene Graham, sister of Lindsey Graham, wins South Carolina Senate race
Well, the Republicans in South Carolina have made their choice.
Tim Wildmon Have they now?
Fred Jackson They have made their choice, and, I think most people are not surprised that Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, won that nomination race last night for the Senate. This is what she had to say in her speech. Cut number five.
Tim Wildmon I'm still feeling grief, heartache, and immense gratitude.
Ed Vitagliano So thank you all again.
Tim Wildmon I've been amazed at the number of people Lindsay personally impacted and the legacy he left behind. Our state and nation are much better and safer because of him. Thank you, Lindsay, for your service to South Carolina and to this country is just not the same without you here. That was, again, the Republican primary in South Carolina, a red state. So whoever wins a Republican primary, generally. Well, I say generally. I don't remember the last time a Republican lost a statewide race in South Carolina. So she is going to be the next US Senator from, the Palmetto State, Right?
Fred Jackson Yeah, it was. You know, a lot has been written, a lot of stories leading up to what happened last night because she had no experience. She, was Lindsey Graham's sister.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson She had Trump's endorsement. He campaigned for her last Friday, had a big rally there. Her opponent, her Republican opponent was Congressman Ralph Norman.
Ed Vitagliano Lots of experience, known statewide.
Fred Jackson Yes. But at the end of the day, the folks in the Republicans in South Carolina decided to go. And I, you know, I, I suppose it was kind of a. An emotional loyalty to Lindsey Graham, who was, you know, he. He was famous and very popular. South Carolina and loved in South Carolina,
Ed Vitagliano served for a long time. I was, I was surprised she won. Okay. Simply because the gaffes during that debate were just so kind of stunning. And I just thought South Carolina voters might say, well, we can't put someone that inexperienced, in a Senate seat for our state. But to your point, Fred, I think it was that emotional, excuse me, emotional attachment and sense of loyalty to Lindsey Graham and to the president. Yeah, the president, after the, Governor, Henry McMaster, appointed, Darlene Graham to fill out the remainder of Lindsey Graham's term. President Trump jumped right in and endorsed her. And that plus the loyalty to Lindsey Graham, I think, carried the day and
Tim Wildmon to Tim's point, and I have a lot of them.
Ed Vitagliano Yes. To. You know, perhaps despite Darlene Graham's missteps in the debate, she, may carry this and win, in November against, I think Annie Andrews, who's the Democratic nominee.
Tim Wildmon Let me ask you guys this question. Is it okay, what she got in trouble for with, the media and a lot of voters was she was. She said she answered a question about, What was the question?
Ed Vitagliano It was about whether Taiwan and the South China Sea was a foreign, policy concern. Something of that.
Tim Wildmon And she acted like she. Her answer was like, I don't know basically what you're talking about.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. She said, I think she said, started off, I want to be honest, I don't know much about foreign policy.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. which she's gonna have to learn to do. Si. Do a little bit. You know what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Sidestep.
Tim Wildmon You got a sidestep a little bit.
Ed Vitagliano That's a direct question. She may have been better off just
Tim Wildmon saying, she said, I don't know much. I don't know about national security or something about. But I do support the military.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon So, that. Did you know that was a black eye, so to speak, on her campaign, but she overcame it. Yeah, I guess. I guess my question is, I don't want to get too much philosophy. Get into too much philosophy here, but is it. Is it, to admit you don't know something? Is that terrible?
Fred Jackson I think it depends on the job you're applying for.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson You know if I was applying for a job to be a pilot at Delta.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson And someone asked me, well, do you know what a, aileron is? No, I don't know much about airplanes.
Tim Wildmon I do like to fly. Yeah, I got you. Okay. So it's a context.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Well, in other words, a, U.S. senator needs to know, needs to be well versed on geopolitical issues, especially high profile ones like China, Taiwan. Right?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Especially because of Lindsey Graham's background.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Now, the people of South Carolina are.
Tim Wildmon Well.
Ed Vitagliano And the Republican voters in this case are free to vote for whomever they choose to vote for. But to Fred's point, my first job was at a Friendly's Ice Cream, parlor in Nashua, NewSong Hampshire.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano And I applied for the job, and they said. And I. I said, well, I like ice cream. I'm not serious.
You got fired for giving customers too much ice cream
They Said, do you know how to run a cash register? I said, no. And he said, well, we can teach you that.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano I did get fired. After two weeks, I got fired. This is the absolute truth. I'm not making this up. I got fired because I was consistently giving the customers too much ice cream because they got the, the manager said, you're giving too much. And I was thinking, well, this is how much I eat when I'm scooping out ice cream. So I did get fired for that.
Tim Wildmon So you put that on your. When you went to the subsequent, job, did you put why you got fired for your.
Ed Vitagliano I didn't.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano I just pretended like I never had a job.
Tim Wildmon I understand.
Ed Vitagliano My dad was very disappointed, as usual.
Tim Wildmon My son got fired from the ice cream store.
Ed Vitagliano He said, seriously? He said. I said, I got fired. He said, already?
Tim Wildmon Oh my word.
Fred Jackson Oh dear.
Tim Wildmon Okay. All right.
Fred Fine: Why are we at war with Canada over trade
So Fred, switching topics here.
Tim Wildmon Why are we at war? We, the United States, at war with Canada over trade? I'm trying to follow this, but there's the. I know that, you know, you're, you understand both sides. I guess, as much as you have studied this issue. What is, what is going on here? Because the Prime Minister. Right.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Of Canada is really ticked.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon And he's expressing the feelings, I think, of a majority of Canadians. Would I be right about that?
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Or no.
Fred Jackson the relationship has been tense from the get go between, between President, Trump and Prime Minister Carney. Now Trump seemed to get along pretty well with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but Trudeau bowed out of the position. And Carney comes in. President Trump has had a real problem with the trade relationship with Canada, feeling very much that Canada has taken advantage of the situation. In that Canada, a lot of people don't know, they have a kind of a protectionist attitude towards certain industries there, like their dairy industry, their chicken industry. And so they have leveled heavy tariffs against agricultural, products coming into Canada. They have up in, Canada what's called marketing boards. And so certain people are licensed to raise chickens, et cetera, et cetera. So they've had this kind of protectionist. Because you can imagine for a moment you've got a country of about 35 million people in Canada and your neighbors to this giant called the United states, which has 350 million. And so there's always been this attitude of protectionism. when I was a DJ, when I was starting out, they made us play 60% Canadian music. It could only be 40% of any
Tim Wildmon music there's only so much Anne Murray you can play, though.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon I mean, and I love Anne Murray and the.
Fred Jackson Guess who. And Gordon Lightfoot. Yeah, and Gordon Lightfoot passed away. You're really in trouble. But that's been kind of the attitude. So, we thought we had a deal there about 10 days ago, because Trump was saying, I think we have a deal. But according to reports, the United States delegation kind of added some things on after that brief truce. for instance, they started, according to reports, the American delegation started to say, hey, we don't like you bringing in to Canada. They said, canada, we don't like you bringing in so much stuff from China. And so there's. What happened was, okay, you're not going to tell us who we're going to trade with other countries. And so it all broke down. And so yesterday, Prime Minister, Carney listed, a whole bunch of stuff that, as of September 8th, they're going to start charging tariffs on goods coming in from the United States. everything from live and frozen fish to motorcycles and trailers, smartphones, video game consoles, stoves, ranges, refrigerators, etc. Etc. Now, we do have to add there are Trump supporters who are very upset that he is taking this fight with Canada because there's this long list of things now that are going to face tariffs, things manufactured in the United States that they sell into Canada. Canada and the United States. They're the biggest trading partners. All right, so all of these things are going to face tariffs now produced by American producers, and they're going to lose business. And there's also the Americans, the American people, business people who normally support Trump. The other thing a lot of people don't realize, and these threats have come out in the last few days, the premier Ford of Ontario, he's saying, hey, we sell a lot of electricity to places like Michigan and in Quebec, Quebec sells a lot of electricity to upstate NewSong York and Maine. we'll just turn off the switch. So this could get quite serious, actually, unless there's some mending of the ways pretty soon.
Ed Vitagliano I looked this up because I don't, I don't know enough about. I know people are saying, well, learn. Well, I have one lifetime learning about economics.
Tim Wildmon You're not going to be elected U.S. senator then. But you just said, I don't know.
Ed Vitagliano And you feel, well, maybe I could be elected.
Tim Wildmon Well, maybe you could be if I
Ed Vitagliano had enough goodwill for the people of the state of Fine state of Mississippi.
Tim Wildmon Mississippi, you don't know. You don't know. About what?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I looked this up. So for a long time, I have had the understanding that the NAFTA Agreement, North American Free Trade Agreement, with. Between the United States, Canada and Mexico. I have always understood that free trade was good, but that that cost us a lot of manufacturing jobs in this country. So I looked this up about. We were. I knew we'd be talking about this, about Canada. And it says that before the 2025, 2026 trade war, Canada imposed very few tariffs on U.S. products due to free trade agreements. there were a couple of exceptions to that. mostly in the agricultural sector, because they had their own farmers and growers to take care of. But so it seemed like with Mexico and Canada, this says 98% of goods entering, the U.S. and, or going across entered duty free. So no tariffs were levied. And so I started it. Yeah. I'm not sure why the President, has been so upset with Canada if this is true. 98% of goods entering duty free, because that means it was actual free trade. And when you have neighbors like Canada and Mexico, I do understand the concerns about drugs coming across either border or illegals, illegal immigrants, but your neighbors, you probably should keep that, those relationships strong. I'm not sure this trade war is accomplishing that.
Tim Wildmon what happens with the trade war like this? And, I'm, no expert on this either, but you get into tit for tat, and it gets personal. And there's one man that takes things personal. He's in the White House. And I'm not saying he isn't, wise or smart on economic issues, but on this one, I'm going. It just seems like to me, you know, we've. With Canada in particular, who is our neighbor to the north, you know, Canadians have drastically cut back their tourism to the U.S. you know that.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon and the way Trump has talked about them making them the 51st state and that kind of thing, that's just demeaning to people. And they. And they take it personally.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And as we would.
Back to the levying of tariffs. The president used emergency powers when he first took office
Tim Wildmon As we would. And it's completely and totally unnecessary. so. But about the. Back to the levying of tariffs. So if Trump says, and by the way, I'm not comfortable with one man, even the President of the United States, having the sole, authority to tariff, tariff this and tariff that, and pull it here and change it tomorrow. We've been doing this for two years now, and it just seems, I've heard people say, who support President Trump and their businessman. It's hard to operate that way because we tell our, we tell our customers this is a price on something, and then Trump comes in and slaps a tariff on something and we have to go. You know what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon So it just, maybe, maybe that's perfectly constitutional for one man just to be able to control the economy, in that way. But doesn't seem. Do you making sense here.
Ed Vitagliano No, you are not. No, you are. No.
Frank Turek Yes, you are.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, you are.
Tim Wildmon Yes, sir.
Ed Vitagliano yes, you are making sense. I, think the President has had some of these powers curtailed by the Supreme Court, but has gone around those. I'm like you, I thought this was a congressional power levying tariffs. The president used emergency powers when he first took office in 2024 to, to do what you're saying, slap tariffs. And he said the emergency was drugs coming across the borders.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but he was slapping tariffs on
Ed Vitagliano countries around the world, and I think that's why he kind of got shut down by the Supreme Court, because the emergency powers were. That power was, was in the view of the Supreme Court, was being abused. And, and, but the president has gone around that using other reasonings for slapping the tariffs. I just, I understood the president when he first came into office in 2016 about China taking advantage. There were countries, a lot of countries taking advantage of the United States and, our production moving to other countries is a real concern. We've lost a lot of industrial capacity over the last 40 years, and some of that is because of NAFTA and.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. But we benefited from, from cheap stuff from China.
Ed Vitagliano We did.
Tim Wildmon It works both ways.
Ed Vitagliano We, we did. But I understood what the President was, was going for. I don't think having trade wars with Canada or Mexico, is, is the way to go.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson All right.
Tim Wildmon You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Tim, Ed, Fred. Next. Dory. Freddie.
John Ratcliffe, head of CIA, flew to Moscow yesterday
Fred Jackson Well, a little bit of a mystery story that's out there. The head of our CIA, Jon Ratcliffe. Flew into Moscow the other day. a lot of people. Was yesterday, yesterday, early yesterday, I
Tim Wildmon believe it was the CIA director flying to Moscow.
Fred Jackson Yeah, flew into Moscow. Now the story that we have, he
Tim Wildmon wasn't there to get, beef stroganoff. No, he was there to meet with or, get Smirnoff Bakka. Was he, he may have picked up some.
Fred Jackson He did not meet with Putin, according to story, Associated Press story we have right now on our site. He didn't, meet with Putin. He met with his, counterparts.
Tim Wildmon Is that still called the KGB or not?
Ed Vitagliano No, I think it's. I think it was. I'll double check on that.
Tim Wildmon That was. That was when it was Communist Soviet Union. Right. Kgb right there. That was their spy agency.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson But the stories that I've read so far on this are not saying what specifically they talked about. So it just begs the question, okay, why would our top guy, Jon Ratcliffe, head of the CIA, what would be the purpose of that visit? by the way, prior to the Air Force plane landing in Moscow, before the trip was. I'm not sure where they flew out of, but they said Ukraine. You can continue your war against Russia while we're visiting there. Just don't hit anything in Moscow while we're there. So, the Ukrainians agreed to do that. So that was coordinated. It was coordinated to that point. So the war didn't stop. But Jon Ratcliffe was meeting with their intelligence people, and nobody so far is saying, what are you talking about? Why?
Tim Wildmon I'm surprised the subject matter hasn't leaked somewhere.
Fred Jackson Well, you know, it May yet. We're 48 hours or less, and I'm sure,
Tim Wildmon do you know if President Trump or Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, have been asked about this in a press conference yet?
Fred Jackson I, have not.
Tim Wildmon They will today.
Fred Jackson They probably will. Yes. But it seems so strange.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson That we would send the director of the CIA to Moscow at a time when this war is on.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson I mean, do they hope.
Tim Wildmon What could they possibly be talking about?
Fred Jackson Yeah. You know, I mean, Putin runs the show there, and he's not even in the room.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano By the way, the KGB ceased to exist in 1991 after the, After the, collapse of the Soviet Union, and is replaced by other, organizations. So. M. I. I know this is. This is strange. I. I've been reading stuff about that. Maybe this involves Poland because Poland has sided with Ukraine. Poland has hosted a lot of the people fleeing Ukraine when the war first started. And my belief is that probably weaponry has been going into Ukraine, either from Poland or through Poland. That has angered the Soviet Union, has angered, Putin and the Russian leadership. And they've tested Polish airspace. The Russians have here m. Over the last year or two.
Tim Wildmon Let me tell you something. The Ukrainians are landing some serious punches inside Russia with drones, with drones. They, took out the Amazon. It's not called Amazon. it's called something else, but it's the equivalent of an Amazon distribution center in Moscow. it was in flames. they've. I mean, the, as we talked about before, drone drones have changed warfare and have equaled the, level the playing field for, countries like Ukraine that don't have the manpower that Russia does, but yet they have drones and other means, high tech means. To. The other day we were talking about they were using robots, now controlled by men somewhere, but robots to fight,
Ed Vitagliano kill Russian soldiers, kill 20 of them
Tim Wildmon with one robot or something like that.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And, Iran has been using that kind of like you're talking about that asymmetrical warfare to kind of keep our navy, on high alert and at bay. So, yeah, it's changed warfare. And listen, if, if the United States, if the CIA is asking Ukraine not to attack Moscow while we're there, that means they're able to do it almost with impunity.
Fred Jackson Yep. Yep.
Tim Wildmon I don't know why. Yeah, I don't know. you know, the Ukrainian Russian war doesn't get as much attention anymore as it did certainly for the first year that it started. Of course, everybody thought that Russia would roll in and squash Ukraine in a matter of weeks, if certainly months, and that didn't happen. Here we are. What are we, four years into this or over four?
Ed Vitagliano It was 20. was it 22? Yeah, I think it was 22.
Tim Wildmon You just wonder what goes on every day, because I know bombings go on every day because. But how much before somebody doesn't have anything left to bomb. I know, you know, especially the Ukrainians.
Ukraine will probably continue guerrilla warfare against Russia for decades, Father says
but this is a war that will never be forgotten by the Ukrainian people for sure. They'll never surrender. If they were going to surrender, they would have by now. And there will probably be, I'm sorry to say this, there will probably be guerrilla warfare against Russia now for decades, probably because of, so many people have been killed and families taken out and lives upended in the Ukraine.
Frank Turek The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Dr. Frank Turek joins the program to discuss his forthcoming book, The War on Reality, tracing the cultural assault on objective truth from postmodernism to cultural Marxism. Turek argues that categorizing people as oppressors or oppressed based on identity characteristics contradicts both biblical teaching and Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision, and he connects this worldview to the killing of Charlie Kirk, whose accused assassin, Turek says, viewed Kirk as an oppressor. The hosts also address the death of music and entertainment icon Dolly Parton at age 80, noting her philanthropic legacy, including the Imagination Library, and observing that she largely kept her political views private during her decades-long career. In political news, the program covers Darlene Graham's Republican primary victory in South Carolina's Senate race following the death of her brother Lindsey Graham, the escalating trade dispute between the United States and Canada over tariffs and protectionism, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe's unexplained visit to Moscow amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Chapter Markers
(00:00:04) Dolly Parton Dies at 80
(00:15:12) Frank Turek on The War on Reality
(00:34:30) Darlene Graham Wins South Carolina GOP Senate Nomination
(00:43:37) US-Canada Trade Dispute
(00:52:48) CIA Director John Ratcliffe Visits Moscow
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