Welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network
Tim Wildmon I'm Dr. Ray Rooney. The mission of American Family association is to inform, equip and activate individuals and families to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture and give aid to the.
Fred Jackson Church here and abroad.
Tim Wildmon In its task of fulfilling the Great Commission, AFA aims to evangelize the lost and disciple the believer.
Thank you for standing with the American Family association as we seek to stop the erosion of godly values. Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. That's the name of this show, Today's Issues without the pause. today's Thursday, February 12, 2026. Joining me in studio is Fred Jackson. Good morning.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you, Tim.
Tim Wildmon And good morning, Chris Woodward.
Chris Woodward Good morning.
Tim Wildmon And in Florida is our good friend Ray Pritchard.
Tim Wildmon 71 degrees, Tim, blue sky. I can get you 145.
Tim Wildmon I'm hearing you, brother. Nothing but blue skies headed my way.
Chris Woodward That's a good Carpenter song.
Tim Wildmon I think that's Carpenter's grip.
Fred Jackson Good.
Tim Wildmon Try.
Tim Wildmon Try to impress us baby boomers, Chris, with his carpenter's knowledge there.
Chris Woodward It's intense.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, listen, I think our three. Two or three weeks of winters over. Two up here in Mississippi, up north, Ray. US Yankees up.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, the Yankees in north Mississippi. So it's starting to warm up.
Fred Jackson Oh, man.
Tim Wildmon Tomorrow, 67. then 67 on Saturday, and then, next Tuesday, 72, 75. I mean, it's. Life is about to be good again.
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon Except for the poor people that still don't have power.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Ah, there are. There are. There are a handful of people.
Tim Wildmon Fred, what's the weather in Nova Scotia?
Ray: Richard Carpenter discovered the Gulf Stream in 1969
Tim Wildmon All right, let's look at Nova Scotia. Right?
Fred Jackson Halifax. The morning snowing.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Oh, brother.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You know, people, your ancestors should not have landed there. They should have got there. You know, what happened is your ancestors came over from. From. From Europe.
Fred Jackson Uh-huh.
Tim Wildmon And they landed in Nova Scotia sometime in August. They said, hey, man, this is great.
Tim Wildmon This is amazing.
Tim Wildmon We're gonna build a house. Let's get started building, fellas.
Fred Jackson Well, you know, it was funny. My dad. My dad loved the South.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson and he always was a little perturbed with the United Empire Loyalists who fled to Canada during the Revolution. and he said, I could have stayed down there if my ancestors could have stayed. I would have to put up with the snowbanks.
Tim Wildmon Hey, let me ask you this about the weather of Nova Scotia. Now, the more coastal you are, the more moderate your climate is, the less so. I know it's still chilly and cold, but doesn't it get warm sometime in Nova Scotia, maybe because of the coastal. In, April or something? I mean, when does it get warm?
Fred Jackson Well, that. That Gulf Stream.
Tim Wildmon That's what, I'm talking about.
Fred Jackson They talk about.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Well, unfortunately, the Gulf Stream doesn't come in close enough. Bermuda.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson Bermuda benefits from that, you know?
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson That's why they have palm trees.
Tim Wildmon Okay. And Bermuda is actually on a. On a parallel with, like, Washington, D.C. or something.
Fred Jackson Yeah, it's a short tropical. It's tropical there.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Because the Gulf Stream.
Fred Jackson Because of the Gulf Stream. But unfortunately, the water stays pretty cold.
Tim Wildmon You know who discovered the Gulf Stream, don't you, Ray?
Tim Wildmon I do not know.
Tim Wildmon Do you know, Fred?
Fred Jackson No.
Tim Wildmon Do you know, Chris?
Chris Woodward I do not.
Tim Wildmon The Carpenters.
Fred Jackson Probably so started to guess.
Chris Woodward That, but I've already.
Tim Wildmon Richard Carpenter discovered the Gulf Stream in 1969.
Tim Wildmon Very few people know this.
Tim Wildmon Look it up. Yes. No. my. One of my many grandchildren, my granddaughter. She's 10. She's, doing her homework. assignment or I guess semester assignment on the life of Ben Franklin.
Fred Jackson Okay.
Tim Wildmon Benjamin Franklin. And it said in the, historical account of his life that he discovered the Gulf Stream. Look that up. ah.
Tim Wildmon While he was flying his kite or whatever.
Tim Wildmon Yes. Right. Yeah. Inventing one thing after another.
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Chris Woodward Bifocals.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, Bifocals. Vocals. Yeah. See, if he didn't type in Ben. Frank. Ben Franklin. Gulf Stream.
Tim Wildmon How did you discover it back? Get in a boat and go out?
Fred Jackson Well, you know, he took a long row in the rowboat one day. Notice the water was getting pretty warm.
Tim Wildmon You know, don't hate people. Don't trust me on that.
Chris Woodward Now, according to the Smithsonian, he was the first to chart the Gulf Stream.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
He was the first to chart the Gulf Stream, according to Smith
Tim Wildmon Okay. Good enough.
Tom Holman I don't know.
Tim Wildmon Chart the Gulf Stream? Yeah. I mean, I don't know how he did it. I don't know exactly. He probably made a couple of transatlantic, you know, boat, trips.
Chris Woodward Yeah, I would guess he did, He did do diplomacy. he sailed across the pond a few times in his day.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So anyway, I got that. Right. So he just got he what? Chartered the Gulf Stream.
Chris Woodward That's how it's worded. He was the first to chart the Gulf Stream. According to the Smith.
Tim Wildmon Again, I don't know how he did it. I mean, you would think that would Be some, explorer, Right?
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon He wasn't known for. At least he wasn't known.
Tim Wildmon Hey, we're giving you credit. You're getting.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, I thought I remembered that, but, you know, when you've got 11 grandchildren and they're all doing research and you. You start getting confused a little bit. Yeah. So,
We often think of ourselves as being the smartest, most advanced generation
All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. That Benjamin Franklin. Yeah. If you want to feel bad about yourself and you read. You read what Benjamin Franklin accomplished in his life.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tim Wildmon He was amazing.
Chris Woodward It's amazing. People back. We. We often think of ourselves as being, you know, the smartest, most advanced generation. but, like, we don't give people of past generations enough credit. When you go to Europe or you go to places like Israel and things that people built with hand tools, and just sweat, the fact that it's still standing shows that they knew what they were doing.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Tom Holman Yeah.
Fred Jackson Ah, they didn't have social media back then.
Chris Woodward That's true. And.
Tim Wildmon Or streaming services without social media.
Tim Wildmon Scroll. Scrolling back then meant a whole different thing.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Chris Woodward I can't read. Why do I want to scroll?
Tim Wildmon Oh, man.
Fred: Is Savannah Guthrie's disappearance dominating the news on American Family Radio
All right. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Hey, before we jump into all our news items that we have here before us, Fred, do you know the latest on this Savannah Guthrie? Mom's situation is that. That's still dominating. Is it dominating the news? I. I quit watching. I was keeping up with it on Fox. But, there's nothing else to say.
Fred Jackson No, it has become a topic of discussion to. About the degree of coverage that Fox is giving this story, because many people go missing every day. However, to answer your question, there is really nothing much new. In fact, kind of the headline this morning, we're day 11. I think it is, in this.
Tim Wildmon And there's right now, day 11. Who's that?
Chris Woodward How many days it's been.
Fred Jackson How many days it's been.
Tim Wildmon Oh, day 11. I thought you said the name Day.
Fred Jackson no.
Tim Wildmon Anyway. Go ahead.
Fred Jackson Anyway, we're into this, so I just have been noticing the family. The Guthrie family released another video this morning. I thought it was going to be, we've heard from somebody or whatever the case may be, but it's actually an old video of family photos, that sort of thing. So to answer your question, it doesn't appear.
Tim Wildmon It stalled.
Fred Jackson It doesn't appear to be advancing very quickly.
Tim Wildmon Right. You've been keeping up with this.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, we've, Marlene and I have watched several hours of the Fox News coverage, you know, and they kind of ping pong back from this expert and this guy and nobody really knows, but, there's a feeling of foreboding as each day passes.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Tim Wildmon Where is Nancy Guthrie? And, is, is she alive? And we hope and pray. We hope and pray she is. But the, with all these resources, they can't seem to find a suspect and they, they don't, at least that we can tell, don't seem to have a lead on where she is. It is about as sad a situation as you can imagine.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. And we ask folks to pray for them, that family, because that's horrible, especially if you get no closure, you know.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon and, but so day 11. This is day 11.
Fred Jackson That's. I think I saw that figure earlier today.
Tim Wildmon Okay. You are listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Chris, what's your first story?
Federal authorities announce an end to the Immigration crackdown in Minnesota
Chris Woodward Well, this is our top story on AFN Net, that's our website and the headline is Federal authorities announce an end to the Immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The, we began by saying that that immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and at least two ICE or Border Patrol involved deaths, is coming to an end. Border czar Tom Homan made this announcement today in a press conference. We've got some audio from that. We cut it down to about a minute, minute 20 here. But this is Tom Homan announcing again the end of, operations in Minnesota.
Tom Holman Clip 1 I'm very pleased to report that this surge operation and our work here with state and local improve coordination and achieve mutual goals, as well as our efforts to address issues of concern here on the ground have yielded the successful results we came here for. The Twin Cities of Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump's leadership. With that and success that has been made, arresting public safety threats and other priorities since this surge operation began. I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude a significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue to the next week. I want to say something about the various unfounded complaints I'm hearing about ICE enforcement operations during the surge operation. ICE has not arrested anybody inside a hospital. We have not arrested anybody inside of a school, elementary school, we have not arrested anybody inside a church. As a matter of fact, the only ones that disrespected the sanctuary of a church were the agitators that have been arrested and prosecuted. So far, we have nine of them.
Tim Wildmon I, don't know if he presented this, information or not. I would hope that he would. Talking about Tom Hoeman, I think he should go through a list of, those who were arrested.
Fred Jackson He did say in this news conference this morning they arrested 4,000.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Yeah, he did give a number.
Fred Jackson Yes, he did.
Tim Wildmon 4,000?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Wow. I had no idea.
Fred Jackson Despite what they faced, those, the ice, the immigration enforcement people, despite the huge protests. Organized protests, yeah. they were able to arrest 4,000m.
Tim Wildmon Wow. Okay.
Fred Jackson Now, of course, what happens to.
Tim Wildmon Those people, you know?
Fred Jackson Well, they're. They're in detention and, many of them will be, probably most of them will be deported back.
Tim Wildmon Do they, do they have a hearing for their. Are they adjudicated? Are they, They're not just shipped off without, They have their day in court, don't they?
Fred Jackson So to spe, they have their day in court. But remember what happened back what was a week or 10 days ago when President Trump decided to send Tom Homan into that operation. The visuals that the American people were seeing on the mainstream networks, I think really created a problem for the administration. the polls have been showing, in fact, there was a poll out this morning that six out of ten Americans, were not in favor of the way things were going in Minnesota. So he sends Tom Holman in. Tom Holman says, I'm meeting with local sheriffs. I met with the governor of the state, met with the mayor of Minneapolis. And what we've agreed to is that these local sheriffs are going to start, cooperating with us. When they have people in their jails who are illegal immigrants, they're there on a detainer that we will send immigration people over, we'll peacefully arrest them and take them into custody. Now, listening to Tom Holman this morning, it appears he is saying that operation has worked so well that they're now ending this surge, in Minnesota. Some might say this is an election year. And the nightly news covering the confrontations between protesters and the immigration people, that's not something that you want on the nightly screenshot. So politically speaking, perhaps it's a wise move, to take those images away.
Chris Woodward This also comes at the same time in which the Trump administration is making a big deal out of energy and economic policies. Ah, the two other things that he ran on, as, he's going to use that as a reason why people need to continue to Vote for Republicans so they can continue to support his agenda.
Tim Wildmon Now, I know that, you know, the focus has been on at least what Trump administration told us, finding violent criminals who are here illegally.
Fred Jackson Yes, okay.
Tim Wildmon Understand that. But they are also deporting IC is, and I'm not saying this is wrong, but I'm saying they are deporting, arresting people who have, who are here illegally and have nonviolent criminal, records, so to speak. Yeah.
Fred Jackson And I think Tom Holman, early on, before he went to Minneapolis, was quoted publicly as saying our priority ought to be the violent ones. And it seemed to, be early on in this operation, it was a wide sweep, including the ones that had not committed violent crimes. So I think Tom Holman's focus changed the operation.
Tim Wildmon Now. So there are people here illegally in our country who maybe have been cited for marijuana possession or for a traffic violation or for something of that nature. In other words, they have some kind of, law breaking on their record. And some of those people, even though they were nonviolent, are being, again, I'm not saying that's wrong because they're here illegally and they did break our law. So. But, there are some people that fall into that category among those who are being, detained and then some being deported. Deported.
Fred Jackson And there's been a bunch, tens of thousands have voluntarily. They take me offer, that the Homeland Security Secretary gave.
Tim Wildmon The problem is your criminals with a record are not going to take up, take you up on self deportation unless they're given exoneration from their crimes. So you're not going to have a drug, dealer who's been convicted, or drugged somebody, you know, with that on their record. Well, I guess if they had that on record, they should have been deported the first time. But what's happened over the years is the deportation for a lot of them only makes them go home and get their money together and come back to the US Again. That's why I'm in favor of if you are found to be in our country illegally for a second time, you're held without, you don't get to. You don't get deported. I know that sounds terrible, in the sense that. But you go to some kind of a prison and you stay there for 25 years. I don't know. But I mean, you can't let people be deported and then come back again, and then come back again, and then come back again and then come back again. We read about that all the time too, don't we?
Fred Jackson I think The Trump administration is heralding the fact that our southern border is now very secure.
Tim Wildmon That's true. Yeah. That's the, that's the biggest thing. Yes, it is, you know, is that President Trump, shut down the southern border after Biden let, you know, 15 million people just walk into our country. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio.
House approves bill requiring photo ID before voting; some states already demand
Next story. Chris?
Chris Woodward this one is big. yesterday evening, in fact, the House approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or Save America Act, a bill that would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid US Passport or a birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo ID before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand. This was a, mostly party line vote, Tim. 218 to 213. One Democrat, voted with House Republicans here, for the Save America act, and that was Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas.
Tim Wildmon So what does this law call for?
Chris Woodward it basically wants to eliminate any, chance that an illegal immigrant or somebody here without our permission is voting in our elections, federal elections.
Tim Wildmon Fred. Then, Ray.
Fred Jackson Yeah, it would require Americans to prove their citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. Also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots with some states already, of course, demand that, Ray.
Tim Wildmon You know, number one, if there was ever a common sense piece of legislation, this is it. Vast majority, vast majority Republican, Democrat. Independents favor some form of ID if photo ID in order to vote. It's only the radical leftists who for crassly political reasons oppose this. I don't know, Fred, if it's going to get through the Senate or not. They have those arcane, you know, the rules they have to follow there. I'll tell you if this, this is such a good piece of legislation, if it fails, I hope Mr. Trump will hang it around the neck of Schumer and all the Democrats this fall. Because the American people, they want safe and secure elections and a photo id. I mean, that's the minimum, the minimum we should require to vote in one of our elections.
Tim Wildmon You know, I mentioned this yesterday. I think, one of the reasons that the Democrats should be in favor of a photo ID in order to vote is because they have primaries between themselves oftentimes before they face a Republican in a, in an election. So they should want fair and honest election, protocols, laws in place too. Seems to me, for that reason alone. But, you know, you can, I can come to no other conclusion than the Democrats want To be able to want to have people here illegally vote that. Tell me, tell me what other there, what other possible reason there could be. You have to have a photo ID to check out a library book. Not that anybody had to have an.
Chris Woodward ID to get into the Democratic National Convention in 2024.
Tim Wildmon Okay, that was discriminatory.
Chris Woodward Sure was.
Tim Wildmon You have to have a photo ID get, get on an airplane. Can you imagine the airlines if they abided by the Democrats and they said, right, okay, nobody has to have a photo ID you just get on the plane, otherwise we're going to be discriminating. some of you can't afford a photo ID to get on our airplane. So we don't want to tell you no. So just find your seat back there. Can you imagine that? Nobody would do that.
Fred Jackson No.
Tim Wildmon So you have to have a photo ID to do a, ah, myriad of things here in our country. And why the Democrats would oppose having a photo ID to boat is as I say, it can only come to, only says to me there for cheating.
Fred Jackson It doesn't make sense. I mean it doesn't make sense for the Democrats, to raise point the latest polling on this. 80% of Republicans favor photo ID, 70% of Democrats.
Tim Wildmon It should be 100 and 100.
Fred Jackson You know, it should be.
Tim Wildmon But even if, even if you have, I guess even if you wouldn't have a photo id you would have some. I don't, I don't know about a photo ID being required necessarily, but some kind of formal id, also to prove you are who you say you are. Otherwise how do you even know? And if you go to register. So we'll see, we'll see what happens there. But the Democrats are opposing, photo identification to be able to cast a vote for some reason. They are, well, they have their reasons, but they're lame. this goes to the Senate. The Senate's going to stop it because the Democrats, Republicans, they do have a majority, 5,347. Now I think Bernie Sanders is an independent, but he caucuses with the Democrats. But The Republicans need 60 votes, to overcome a filibuster by the Democrats. We've all seen this movie before, right? And they don't have that number. And there are, there aren't enough Democrats willing to, to you know, to, to vote, to with the Republicans on that to require photo ID to, to vote. So we'll see what happens. You're listening. But it's going to be a problem going forward.
Abe Hamilton says Democrats oppose photo ID for voting because people are leaving
Abe Abraham, Abe Hamilton. Our, colleague here, he thinks the reason the Democrats are, opposed to photo ID for voting is because, they are losing a lot of people, who are moving from California to red states, from Illinois to red states, from NewSong York to red states. So some of the big blue states have lost a lot of people for economic reasons, the COVID restrictions that were in place and business reasons, heavy, taxation in these, big blue states. So corporations are leaving. People are leaving. So he says that the Democrats are trying to keep from losing, congressional seats. So they want to, they want to count all the illegals, the people who are here illegally. They want to count them in the census so that they can be considered, you know, American citizens that need representation in Congress. They want to count those folks. So, it's a real war now going on in our. We know this. A culture war and a political war going on in our country. I mean, how do you. How do you deal with people who don't want borders? How do you. How do you even have a conversation with them if they believe borders are immoral and we're on stolen land and. And, I mean, it's just. It's insanity. But you're trying to say, how do I reason with insanity? So. And if you say anything, they say you're a bigot. You hate her, huh? yeah. You're a colonizer.
Chris Woodward Then they put you on tv. Yeah, bad mouth. You there.
Tim Wildmon You're canceled. Okay? you're. You're phobic of some kind. Transphobic, homophobic, Islamophobic. I got a rap, so throw it around. We'll be back momentarily.
The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content, through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app, we would.
Fred Jackson Like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, preborn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28 to donate. Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr.
Ask yourself before you fire off an email, would I want this
This is today's issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for list 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 American Family Radio. If you want to send us an email, the address is commentsfr.net if you're going to send us an email, it needs to be positive and encouraging.
Tim Wildmon Caleb.
Tim Wildmon Caleb. Email [email protected] just ask yourself before you fire off an email, would I want to receive this?
Tim Wildmon yeah, it's actually a very good question.
Tim Wildmon We all need to ask ourselves that before we fire off text or emails. Don't hit send because tomorrow you'll probably get over it and you won't have to live with hitting sin.
Chris Woodward Herb Edwards, several years ago, NFL coach, player, tv, personality, stuff like that. He was on a segment on one of the channels he was on at the time, and they were talking about how athletes like, the question was, should you engage in social media? And Herb Edwards is famous. And there's like a meme of this where he goes, don't press. The end. Don't press.
Tim Wildmon You know, I, remember early on in emails and text and, you know, doing that, you know, you let your, your emotions of the moment, and then the next day you go, why did I do that?
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon That was not worth my time. And now I got a broken relationship because I acted irrationally or emotionally.
Chris Woodward Men don't do that. we're not wired that way.
Tim Wildmon We don't do that much. We do do that, but we don't do that much.
Chris Woodward The Old Testament is struck.
Tim Wildmon Now we're saying, well, what sex does do that much? We're not going either.
Tim Wildmon We're not going to answer that question.
Tim Wildmon We're not hitting send on that message.
Fred Jackson Yes, send JS to Chris here.
Tim Wildmon We got Valentine's Day coming up. We don't want to ruin it.
Chris Woodward The only thing I ask anybody is if, if you didn't like something you heard in a story and you feel led to email or write us a letter, just remove blessings from the signature, because it sends mixed messages.
Tim Wildmon Oh, you mean blessings.
Chris Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Oh, you mean they, they send emails about a story we aired on American.
Chris Woodward Yeah, like, I didn't like that last newscast and the person featured in that story. You shouldn't do this. You, you, you should know Better blessings, John Doe, you know that's right.
Tim Wildmon All right, anyway, you're listening to Today's issues on American Family Radio. Tim, Fred, Chris and Ray, next story. Right, Chris.
President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya yesterday over Iran
Chris Woodward All right, so President, Trump had a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya. And depending on who you listen to read, where'd they meet, engage with? They met together in Washington, to talk about a number of things, including Iran. And it looks like, Trump is still wanting to act tough on Iran, but maybe not as hard as Benjamin Netanyahu would like him, to be. You know, who knows?
Tim Wildmon What are they talking about? A possible deal, Fred?
Fred Jackson Well, this was a strange meeting. Normally when, and this was the seventh time I think, that Prime Minister Netanyahu has met with President Trump in his second term. It was kind of weird. Yesterday, the Prime Minister Netanyahu arrives at the White House. They have a three hour meeting.
Fred Jackson And then Prime Minister Netanyahu left through the back door. There was no post news conference, no kind of sitting in the Oval Office, shake hands, really nothing like that. It was really weird. In fact, the only image of the Post meeting was the vehicle carrying Prime Minister Netanyahu had the Israeli flag on it leaving through a off driveway. It was very strange.
Tim Wildmon Now why do you think this is, if you had to guess?
Fred Jackson I think Prime Minister Netanyahu, before he left Israel to come for this meeting, he did talk to reporters in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu is worried about the development of ballistic missiles by Iran. President Trump seems to want to keep focusing on nuclear weapons. All right, so there were reports this morning that Prime Minister Netanyahu, he actually pressed for this meeting. Netanyahu did. He wanted to get to President Trump to say, hey, don't make a deal that exempts the Iran's development of ballistic missiles. And all we got out of Trump was a, a social media post calling it a very good meeting, but said there was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated, end quote.
Tim Wildmon M so that's all we used, the word consummated?
Fred Jackson Yes, he did, end quote.
Chris Woodward He also used the word it was a good meeting, which is, he says that about every meeting.
Tim Wildmon Indeed. So what do you make of this, Ray?
Tim Wildmon Well, on one hand, we've seen over the last few weeks, we're moving aircraft carriers in strike forces, we're bringing in, warplanes, flying in from the U.S. i mean, it's almost as if on one hand, we are ready to push the button and do, do some kind of major bombing campaign in Iran. I think that's still a possibility. Obviously, the president wants to do everything he can to avoid this. my guess, Tim, is that they will strike a deal, Mr. Trump and the Iranians, and it will last for a few months, and then the Iranians will do what they've always done, which is break whatever the agreement is and keep on enriching uranium and keep on building toward nuclear weapons. I suppose I'm pretty pessimistic, not about the Iranian people, but about their leaders. We desperately need regime change in Tehran, and, nobody seems to know how to get there.
Tim Wildmon Okay, what did President Trump mean then when he said aloud to those protesting against the, regime in Iran? Remember this? Four or five weeks ago, President Trump said, help is on the way. And then nothing happened. And by nothing, I mean when you say help is on the way, I'm assuming it means military help to stop the killing of those opposed, to try to stop the killing of those. Because people, there's thousands of people that have been butchered and slaughtered, over in Iran. It's still going on.
Tim Wildmon Right. They've killed their own people. Right.
Tim Wildmon Kill their own people, like communist dictatorships do. Ultimately, if to put down, to put down any revolution, any kind of uprising, that's what, they do, and they've done that, and they are doing that. So I don't know what, what kind of quote, deal President Trump says could be made. And I don't know what he meant by help is on the way.
Chris Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon because that seemed to be. Remember the Republicans criticized President Obama when they had a revolution like this, the.
Chris Woodward Arab Spring, back in like 2010.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And remember Republicans said, hey, you're not doing anything to help them, to help the people. Again, I'm not sure what President Obama could have done. I can't remember short, of going, you know, using the military, going to war, but because we already have every sanction in the book that we can use against Iran, I think. and, so I don't, I don't know where this is going. I know that President. I know that Benjamin, Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is worried about how this impacts Israel, possibly because a ballistic missile can't reach the United States. I don't, I'm not an expert on military. But. Or is that. Or can't. You have to have a. There are certain kinds of missiles that can go, around the world, so to speak.
Fred Jackson It would take a lot of fuel.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Fred Jackson For that to happen. It doesn't take a lot of fuel to get from Iran to Israel. Right.
Chris Woodward According to the Internet, an intercontinental ballistic missile has a range greater than 3,400 miles.
Tim Wildmon Okay. That's not going to reach the U.S.
Chris Woodward But we do have operations.
Tim Wildmon We do have, we do have operations and we do. But Iran would be certified, in a negative way, I mean, mentally ill, completely, to want a war with the United States because they're going to lose that one. Yeah. I'm talking about an all out war, where we destroy everything in their country, all their infrastructure, everything. But then, you know, you always have to measure to me when you're a president and you have the ability to use overwhelming military force anywhere in the world, like the, like the US still has the capability of doing, you know, how do you use that judiciously and, and not create an unintended consequence? Because I'm thinking, you know, what's going on with Iran, but what's going on in Cuba, for example, right now we're basically starving Cuba out, there. Am I right, Fred? Yeah.
Fred Jackson Oh, to the point, to your point. I was telling you earlier.
Tim Wildmon Hey, excuse me.
Fred Jackson Sure, go ahead.
Tim Wildmon I've broken my NewSong Year's pledge to not interrupt, so forgive me, this is twice I've done this since January 1st, just to, just to wrap up the Iranian story.
Fred Jackson Sure, go ahead.
Tim Wildmon Before we get to Cuba.
President Trump would be susceptible to some sort of broker deal with Iran
And that is Benjamin. So Benjamin Netanyahu. He's worried about, you know, Trump not, giving away the farm on some deal. Because, all right, for all President Trump's good intentions and his good intuitions, politically he is very susceptible to flattery and he's very susceptible to, he wants to be, he wants to be lauded. that's why. So, I mean, he just does. That's his personality. That's a narcissist. They want to be loved. Right. And if they're not, they get angry. So President Trump would be susceptible, in my opinion, to some sort of broker deal with Iran that really doesn't address the issues of Israel's national security, but may give, Trump at least a momentary time to go, hey, look at me, world, I've come to a deal with Iran. And so, you understand what I'm saying here?
Fred Jackson I understand, but if the deal is this.
Tim Wildmon Because he keeps calling it a deal.
Fred Jackson Yes. If the Iranians say, okay, we won't develop nuclear weapons, Trump says, oh, I got my deal.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Fred Jackson What was the point of sending all these ships. They've said this all along. The Iranians said we're not developing nuclear weapons.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson So if that's the deal, then we've got nothing from it. And I don't understand why we've got all these ships standing by ready allegedly to attack.
Tim Wildmon And what he meant by help is on the way.
Fred Jackson Yeah. And if the Islamic regime is still in charge of Iran come election day, it will be deemed as a loss.
Tim Wildmon For President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. His job is to protect Israel.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Chris Woodward Do you remember going into the bombing of the nuclear facility or facilities in Iran last summer? Going into that bombing, we talked on the show about how Trump and Netanyahu had some odd meetings where it seemed like maybe they were on the outs or they had some disagreements, they couldn't come around to agreeing on things like that. And then we bombed, Tehran or the nuclear operation there, and you find out we've been in cahoots with Netanyahu the whole time and it was all this great operation or whatever. So maybe we're reading too much into the odd, tension filled meeting yesterday.
Tim Wildmon Well, one or two more things about this, then we'll move on to the next subject.
Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Trump for three hours, according to reports
What you mentioned earlier about how this meeting went down, you have Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, when he comes to the US it's usually a big news.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay. But to come to the White House for a three hour meeting. First of all, I didn't even know Trump met with Melania for three hours. So I can't imagine it may not have been him personally, but at least his administration. But I don't know, maybe he was there for the whole three hours. But that's a serious, serious meeting if you're, going through that. M. So Benjamin, now you seem to me, if you just read the, read what's going on between the lines. He's pleading with President Trump, do not do anything that you're. That, that it doesn't have teeth to it and that negatively impacts us. in Israel, are, you know, saying. I think that's what. And I think the reason that he left through the back door, so to speak, was President, Trump doesn't want to, have the appearance of the Trump administration. Maybe I should say have the appearance that, that Israel's telling the US what to do because that's when the world, meaning in the world, condemn the US and say, hey, you're just, you're just a lap dog for the Jews. You see what I'm saying?
Fred Jackson Yeah. I think, Trump did not want the opportunity has. Is often the case for reporters in the room to ask questions because maybe Prime Minister Netanyahu was uncomfortable with the end of that meeting.
Tim Wildmon Right. And that's wise. Sometimes you have disagreements and you don't want to air them publicly.
Fred Jackson That's right. That's right. We'll see. We'll see.
Ray White: President Trump has an energy blockade of Cuba right now
Tim Wildmon What's the next story? Well, we got the Cuba thing.
Chris Woodward We do have. Yeah, we've got Cuba.
Tim Wildmon You want to do that? Or that's what I call it. Okay, the Cuba thing. What's going on in Cuba?
Chris Woodward Yeah, you go ahead.
Fred Jackson Well, we just found out just before we came into the studio here that two Mexican navy ships, laden with humanitarian aid, docked in Cuba this morning. 536 tons of food, including milk, rice, beans, sardines, meat products, cookies, you name it, and 277 tons of powdered milk. Now, that's the type of thing that you normally see going into a starved nation when you're talking, this kind of food being necessary to exist. This is all happening because basically, President Trump has an energy blockade of Cuba right now to the point that Cuba has told airlines, don't bother coming here because we don't have the fuel to refuel you to go home. so it's that bad. Air Canada announced that they weren't going to fly in there anymore, so they're in dire straits in Cuba right now. The question then becomes, okay, where is this headed, this energy blockade? What does President Trump want?
Tim Wildmon So, Ray, you've been keeping up with this story just a little bit.
Tim Wildmon I mean, the question is, is this a step toward regime, change? Are we trying to get the Communists out altogether? And if we are, is this, is this the best way to do it? Look, we all agree we don't want to see boots on the ground in Havana, right? We do not want to send in the 82nd Airborne. We just to want. We can't do that. Americans won't support that. So how do you, how do you replace that murderous regime down there with somebody, who is more open to democracy?
Tim Wildmon Well, I have mixed feelings on, how does this affect the average person in Cuba, you see what I'm saying? Because are we, the United States, starving people by our blockade, so to speak, our. Well, not so to speak, our energy blockade. Aren't we keeping fuel from coming in there?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon To the point where Mexico is now sending, like, first aid and food to the people of Cuba So are we going to starve them out and then let Samaritan's purse go down there and help them out? I mean, how does this work exactly in Cuba if you can't. The last people that are going to give up, the food are the communist leaders.
Chris Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so does this really serve the purpose if we are going to starve them, energy wise? M. Are they going to go, electricity is going to go out? Is that what's going all over the country? Is that what's going to happen?
Fred Jackson Well, you can't operate farming equipment without fuel. It's, you know, it's,
Tim Wildmon But what threat is you.
Chris Woodward You also.
Tim Wildmon What threat is Cuba to the United States, too? I think there's zero threat.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon So that's a different level. They want to be. They don't. Not that they want to be communist in Cuba, but they are. And if the people want to up. Want to rise up and. And overthrow the government, that's. That's up to them, and we can support them in their effort. But, really, the first and foremost, the concern of the US should be are they a threat like the missing Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis was. Go ahead.
Chris Woodward I was going to say it's. If you're counting on the people to rise up and overthrow the communists once and for all. It's kind of hard to. For them to do that if they're hungry and they don't have any electricity. Like, you, know, a starving army is not going to do anything.
Tim Wildmon But the story is, Ray, that Mexico is sending Navy ships to Cuba to help them with humanitarian aid, and somehow.
Tim Wildmon That'S not included in the blockade. Somehow.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon That's weird. It's weird. Weird situation. Has the White House or anybody spoke on this?
Fred Jackson Not according. Like I said, this story just broke in the last couple of hours about these Mexican navy ships.
Chris Woodward One ship carried some 536 tons of food, including milk, rice, beans, sardines, meat products, cookies, canned tuna, and vegetable oil.
Tim Wildmon Also, I noticed that there were food trucks let off the truck. The, the, boats. Did you see this?
Tim Wildmon Food. Food trucks.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, for, you know, tacos. And. I'm waiting for a joke, but, I mean, enchiladas and. Yeah, Mexican food trucks. Bada boom. Nobody got that joke but me.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, we took you seriously.
Tim Wildmon When you have to. When you have to, you have to finish your own joke.
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon Doesn't really work.
Market fell flat. And if listeners considered that joke in poor taste
Market fell flat. You know, food trucks, like Mexican, food trucks that we see everywhere.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon So gotcha M. Gotcha. And if listeners considered that joke in poor taste. I'm sorry, you see that joke? I did get that one.
Chris Woodward Yeah, I see what you did there.
Tim wants to move on. Brad's laughing now, I think
Tim Wildmon All right, next story. Chris.
Chris Woodward Well, this one comes at no surprise.
Tim Wildmon Brad's laughing now, I think. See what I did there?
Fred Jackson Tim wants to move on.
Tim Wildmon I want to move on. Let's move on.
Chris Woodward All right, let's talk.
Zoran Mamdani says New York City must hike taxes to pay for deficit
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Chris Woodward This, this story comes at no surprise for anybody that paid any attention to Zoran Mamdani's campaign. But he's in the news because the NewSong York City Mayor Zo run. Mamdani says the city must hike taxes to help pay for the bills. and to help pay the bills and the people that he's going after are the wealthy to help fill a 12 billion dollar deficit. A $12 billion deficit. So I've got some audio here of Zoran Memdani himself and then columnist Miranda Devine, or Devine, weighing in on this clip 9. We are going to continue to advocate for a variety of options. We believe that two of them that are the most straightforward, and critically important are increased taxes on the wealthiest NewSong Yorkers and the most profitable corporations.
Speaker G If you keep on fleecing the golden goose, it's going to leave NewSong York. people are marching away as fast as they can. You look at California, the wealthiest people will go, and then you'll have nobody to pay for all these ridiculous social programs. Because what he's spending the money on is not basic things like picking up the garbage and cleaning the snow off the streets. As we can all see at the moment. He's spending it on, you know, free childcare and free buses and free grocery stores and a sanctuary city where you have freebies for illegal migrants and you usher them in and invite them to come and stay for free and eat for free and have free education and all the rest of it.
Chris Woodward Now, I looked it up a minute ago because everybody says, well, the wealthy, you know, they should pay more because they have money and they make money off the backs of the poor working people or whatever. The top 1% of NewSong York City's income tax filers account for almost 50% of the city's entire personal income tax revenue.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Yes. So they're already paying more. Yes, a lot more.
Chris Woodward They don't need more taxes. They need more taxpayers.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but, you know, those people probably voted for Cuomo. those people who are about to be hit with this tact, if that's gonna. Is that passed or is he recommending.
Chris Woodward he's putting it forward. And the city council is going to go with it because they're scared of everybody voting against them.
Fred Jackson Here's what's going to be interesting. Governor of NewSong York, Democrat Kathi Hochul endorsed Mamdani.
Tim Wildmon Yes, she did.
Fred Jackson she went down there, she thought, great guy, I like his programs. But there was a clip played of her this morning, which basically the impression that I got is, Mr. Mamdani, marijuana, don't come up here to the capitol looking for more money from the state to take care of your programs because she's up for election this year.
Tim Wildmon Ah.
Fred Jackson So, this is going to get really interesting. She endorses him. He's saying, we got a debt problem. $12 billion. Hey, Governor, Hoco, can you help me out? And if she says, sorry, we don't have the money to give you because NewSong York State is running a debt right now too.
Tim Wildmon So the city of NewSong York, their budget, they have a $12 billion deficit.
Chris Woodward From the previous administration in Mamdani.
Tim Wildmon Okay, that's right. That's a lot of money for a city. Yeah, it is for a city. Even the city the size of NewSong York. Something will have to be cut. I mean, so they won't be able to add any new social services. They're going to have to cut. My guess is they'll cut police.
Chris Woodward They're going to have to get something. It's probably going to have to be across the board to be fair to everybody, because you got a lot of that are going to sue.
Tim Wildmon And I've enjoyed visiting, NewSong York City over the years. eight or ten times I've been there, for the various and sundry reasons. But, listen, if they want to vote themselves into oblivion, I, don't care.
Fred Jackson Yeah, it's, it's.
Tim Wildmon I've already seen the Statue of Liberty.
Fred Jackson Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see this Marxist who won that election.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Made all these promises, free buses, all this stuff. It's going to be really interesting to watch how this story unfolds.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, you can't listen. I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said, you know, socialism is great till you run out of somebody else's money, so to speak.
Tim Wildmon So I think they're going, this is what Zoran Mandami is having to face right now is the reality of not having the money to hand out all, all these freebies that he promised. So now he's like going, where do I get this money? Well, I'll tax, I'll tax our citizens who, as you say, Chris, the citizens who already pay half the. Half the city taxes already.
Chris Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon So he's going to squeeze them again.
Chris Woodward And if they move like some billionaires are doing.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Chris Woodward It's get. You're losing that revenue in the future.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right, well, we will be. Thank you, Chris.
Chris Woodward Thank you.
Tim Wildmon and just so impressed, Chris, with your Carpenters, the way you've grown in your carpenter's knowledge.
Chris Woodward I, you know, I went to one of those old record shops, those, those things you guys used to play when you were young.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Chris Woodward And, I. I played a record the other day, but I couldn't figure out how to get the needle.
Tim Wildmon Well, we'll work on that. And, I think with your experience with the Carpenters, you've only just begun.
Fred Jackson Very good.
Chris Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network
Tim Wildmon I'm Dr. Ray Rooney. The mission of American Family association is to inform, equip and activate individuals and families to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture and give aid to the.
Fred Jackson Church here and abroad.
Tim Wildmon In its task of fulfilling the Great Commission, AFA aims to evangelize the lost and disciple the believer.
Thank you for standing with the American Family association as we seek to stop the erosion of godly values. Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. That's the name of this show, Today's Issues without the pause. today's Thursday, February 12, 2026. Joining me in studio is Fred Jackson. Good morning.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you, Tim.
Tim Wildmon And good morning, Chris Woodward.
Chris Woodward Good morning.
Tim Wildmon And in Florida is our good friend Ray Pritchard.
Tim Wildmon 71 degrees, Tim, blue sky. I can get you 145.
Tim Wildmon I'm hearing you, brother. Nothing but blue skies headed my way.
Chris Woodward That's a good Carpenter song.
Tim Wildmon I think that's Carpenter's grip.
Fred Jackson Good.
Tim Wildmon Try.
Tim Wildmon Try to impress us baby boomers, Chris, with his carpenter's knowledge there.
Chris Woodward It's intense.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, listen, I think our three. Two or three weeks of winters over. Two up here in Mississippi, up north, Ray. US Yankees up.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, the Yankees in north Mississippi. So it's starting to warm up.
Fred Jackson Oh, man.
Tim Wildmon Tomorrow, 67. then 67 on Saturday, and then, next Tuesday, 72, 75. I mean, it's. Life is about to be good again.
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon Except for the poor people that still don't have power.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Ah, there are. There are. There are a handful of people.
Tim Wildmon Fred, what's the weather in Nova Scotia?
Ray: Richard Carpenter discovered the Gulf Stream in 1969
Tim Wildmon All right, let's look at Nova Scotia. Right?
Fred Jackson Halifax. The morning snowing.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Oh, brother.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You know, people, your ancestors should not have landed there. They should have got there. You know, what happened is your ancestors came over from. From. From Europe.
Fred Jackson Uh-huh.
Tim Wildmon And they landed in Nova Scotia sometime in August. They said, hey, man, this is great.
Tim Wildmon This is amazing.
Tim Wildmon We're gonna build a house. Let's get started building, fellas.
Fred Jackson Well, you know, it was funny. My dad. My dad loved the South.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson and he always was a little perturbed with the United Empire Loyalists who fled to Canada during the Revolution. and he said, I could have stayed down there if my ancestors could have stayed. I would have to put up with the snowbanks.
Tim Wildmon Hey, let me ask you this about the weather of Nova Scotia. Now, the more coastal you are, the more moderate your climate is, the less so. I know it's still chilly and cold, but doesn't it get warm sometime in Nova Scotia, maybe because of the coastal. In, April or something? I mean, when does it get warm?
Fred Jackson Well, that. That Gulf Stream.
Tim Wildmon That's what, I'm talking about.
Fred Jackson They talk about.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Well, unfortunately, the Gulf Stream doesn't come in close enough. Bermuda.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson Bermuda benefits from that, you know?
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson That's why they have palm trees.
Tim Wildmon Okay. And Bermuda is actually on a. On a parallel with, like, Washington, D.C. or something.
Fred Jackson Yeah, it's a short tropical. It's tropical there.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Because the Gulf Stream.
Fred Jackson Because of the Gulf Stream. But unfortunately, the water stays pretty cold.
Tim Wildmon You know who discovered the Gulf Stream, don't you, Ray?
Tim Wildmon I do not know.
Tim Wildmon Do you know, Fred?
Fred Jackson No.
Tim Wildmon Do you know, Chris?
Chris Woodward I do not.
Tim Wildmon The Carpenters.
Fred Jackson Probably so started to guess.
Chris Woodward That, but I've already.
Tim Wildmon Richard Carpenter discovered the Gulf Stream in 1969.
Tim Wildmon Very few people know this.
Tim Wildmon Look it up. Yes. No. my. One of my many grandchildren, my granddaughter. She's 10. She's, doing her homework. assignment or I guess semester assignment on the life of Ben Franklin.
Fred Jackson Okay.
Tim Wildmon Benjamin Franklin. And it said in the, historical account of his life that he discovered the Gulf Stream. Look that up. ah.
Tim Wildmon While he was flying his kite or whatever.
Tim Wildmon Yes. Right. Yeah. Inventing one thing after another.
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Chris Woodward Bifocals.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, Bifocals. Vocals. Yeah. See, if he didn't type in Ben. Frank. Ben Franklin. Gulf Stream.
Tim Wildmon How did you discover it back? Get in a boat and go out?
Fred Jackson Well, you know, he took a long row in the rowboat one day. Notice the water was getting pretty warm.
Tim Wildmon You know, don't hate people. Don't trust me on that.
Chris Woodward Now, according to the Smithsonian, he was the first to chart the Gulf Stream.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
He was the first to chart the Gulf Stream, according to Smith
Tim Wildmon Okay. Good enough.
Tom Holman I don't know.
Tim Wildmon Chart the Gulf Stream? Yeah. I mean, I don't know how he did it. I don't know exactly. He probably made a couple of transatlantic, you know, boat, trips.
Chris Woodward Yeah, I would guess he did, He did do diplomacy. he sailed across the pond a few times in his day.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So anyway, I got that. Right. So he just got he what? Chartered the Gulf Stream.
Chris Woodward That's how it's worded. He was the first to chart the Gulf Stream. According to the Smith.
Tim Wildmon Again, I don't know how he did it. I mean, you would think that would Be some, explorer, Right?
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon He wasn't known for. At least he wasn't known.
Tim Wildmon Hey, we're giving you credit. You're getting.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, I thought I remembered that, but, you know, when you've got 11 grandchildren and they're all doing research and you. You start getting confused a little bit. Yeah. So,
We often think of ourselves as being the smartest, most advanced generation
All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. That Benjamin Franklin. Yeah. If you want to feel bad about yourself and you read. You read what Benjamin Franklin accomplished in his life.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tim Wildmon He was amazing.
Chris Woodward It's amazing. People back. We. We often think of ourselves as being, you know, the smartest, most advanced generation. but, like, we don't give people of past generations enough credit. When you go to Europe or you go to places like Israel and things that people built with hand tools, and just sweat, the fact that it's still standing shows that they knew what they were doing.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Tom Holman Yeah.
Fred Jackson Ah, they didn't have social media back then.
Chris Woodward That's true. And.
Tim Wildmon Or streaming services without social media.
Tim Wildmon Scroll. Scrolling back then meant a whole different thing.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Chris Woodward I can't read. Why do I want to scroll?
Tim Wildmon Oh, man.
Fred: Is Savannah Guthrie's disappearance dominating the news on American Family Radio
All right. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Hey, before we jump into all our news items that we have here before us, Fred, do you know the latest on this Savannah Guthrie? Mom's situation is that. That's still dominating. Is it dominating the news? I. I quit watching. I was keeping up with it on Fox. But, there's nothing else to say.
Fred Jackson No, it has become a topic of discussion to. About the degree of coverage that Fox is giving this story, because many people go missing every day. However, to answer your question, there is really nothing much new. In fact, kind of the headline this morning, we're day 11. I think it is, in this.
Tim Wildmon And there's right now, day 11. Who's that?
Chris Woodward How many days it's been.
Fred Jackson How many days it's been.
Tim Wildmon Oh, day 11. I thought you said the name Day.
Fred Jackson no.
Tim Wildmon Anyway. Go ahead.
Fred Jackson Anyway, we're into this, so I just have been noticing the family. The Guthrie family released another video this morning. I thought it was going to be, we've heard from somebody or whatever the case may be, but it's actually an old video of family photos, that sort of thing. So to answer your question, it doesn't appear.
Tim Wildmon It stalled.
Fred Jackson It doesn't appear to be advancing very quickly.
Tim Wildmon Right. You've been keeping up with this.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, we've, Marlene and I have watched several hours of the Fox News coverage, you know, and they kind of ping pong back from this expert and this guy and nobody really knows, but, there's a feeling of foreboding as each day passes.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Tim Wildmon Where is Nancy Guthrie? And, is, is she alive? And we hope and pray. We hope and pray she is. But the, with all these resources, they can't seem to find a suspect and they, they don't, at least that we can tell, don't seem to have a lead on where she is. It is about as sad a situation as you can imagine.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. And we ask folks to pray for them, that family, because that's horrible, especially if you get no closure, you know.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon and, but so day 11. This is day 11.
Fred Jackson That's. I think I saw that figure earlier today.
Tim Wildmon Okay. You are listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Chris, what's your first story?
Federal authorities announce an end to the Immigration crackdown in Minnesota
Chris Woodward Well, this is our top story on AFN Net, that's our website and the headline is Federal authorities announce an end to the Immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The, we began by saying that that immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to mass detentions, protests and at least two ICE or Border Patrol involved deaths, is coming to an end. Border czar Tom Homan made this announcement today in a press conference. We've got some audio from that. We cut it down to about a minute, minute 20 here. But this is Tom Homan announcing again the end of, operations in Minnesota.
Tom Holman Clip 1 I'm very pleased to report that this surge operation and our work here with state and local improve coordination and achieve mutual goals, as well as our efforts to address issues of concern here on the ground have yielded the successful results we came here for. The Twin Cities of Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump's leadership. With that and success that has been made, arresting public safety threats and other priorities since this surge operation began. I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude a significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue to the next week. I want to say something about the various unfounded complaints I'm hearing about ICE enforcement operations during the surge operation. ICE has not arrested anybody inside a hospital. We have not arrested anybody inside of a school, elementary school, we have not arrested anybody inside a church. As a matter of fact, the only ones that disrespected the sanctuary of a church were the agitators that have been arrested and prosecuted. So far, we have nine of them.
Tim Wildmon I, don't know if he presented this, information or not. I would hope that he would. Talking about Tom Hoeman, I think he should go through a list of, those who were arrested.
Fred Jackson He did say in this news conference this morning they arrested 4,000.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Yeah, he did give a number.
Fred Jackson Yes, he did.
Tim Wildmon 4,000?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Wow. I had no idea.
Fred Jackson Despite what they faced, those, the ice, the immigration enforcement people, despite the huge protests. Organized protests, yeah. they were able to arrest 4,000m.
Tim Wildmon Wow. Okay.
Fred Jackson Now, of course, what happens to.
Tim Wildmon Those people, you know?
Fred Jackson Well, they're. They're in detention and, many of them will be, probably most of them will be deported back.
Tim Wildmon Do they, do they have a hearing for their. Are they adjudicated? Are they, They're not just shipped off without, They have their day in court, don't they?
Fred Jackson So to spe, they have their day in court. But remember what happened back what was a week or 10 days ago when President Trump decided to send Tom Homan into that operation. The visuals that the American people were seeing on the mainstream networks, I think really created a problem for the administration. the polls have been showing, in fact, there was a poll out this morning that six out of ten Americans, were not in favor of the way things were going in Minnesota. So he sends Tom Holman in. Tom Holman says, I'm meeting with local sheriffs. I met with the governor of the state, met with the mayor of Minneapolis. And what we've agreed to is that these local sheriffs are going to start, cooperating with us. When they have people in their jails who are illegal immigrants, they're there on a detainer that we will send immigration people over, we'll peacefully arrest them and take them into custody. Now, listening to Tom Holman this morning, it appears he is saying that operation has worked so well that they're now ending this surge, in Minnesota. Some might say this is an election year. And the nightly news covering the confrontations between protesters and the immigration people, that's not something that you want on the nightly screenshot. So politically speaking, perhaps it's a wise move, to take those images away.
Chris Woodward This also comes at the same time in which the Trump administration is making a big deal out of energy and economic policies. Ah, the two other things that he ran on, as, he's going to use that as a reason why people need to continue to Vote for Republicans so they can continue to support his agenda.
Tim Wildmon Now, I know that, you know, the focus has been on at least what Trump administration told us, finding violent criminals who are here illegally.
Fred Jackson Yes, okay.
Tim Wildmon Understand that. But they are also deporting IC is, and I'm not saying this is wrong, but I'm saying they are deporting, arresting people who have, who are here illegally and have nonviolent criminal, records, so to speak. Yeah.
Fred Jackson And I think Tom Holman, early on, before he went to Minneapolis, was quoted publicly as saying our priority ought to be the violent ones. And it seemed to, be early on in this operation, it was a wide sweep, including the ones that had not committed violent crimes. So I think Tom Holman's focus changed the operation.
Tim Wildmon Now. So there are people here illegally in our country who maybe have been cited for marijuana possession or for a traffic violation or for something of that nature. In other words, they have some kind of, law breaking on their record. And some of those people, even though they were nonviolent, are being, again, I'm not saying that's wrong because they're here illegally and they did break our law. So. But, there are some people that fall into that category among those who are being, detained and then some being deported. Deported.
Fred Jackson And there's been a bunch, tens of thousands have voluntarily. They take me offer, that the Homeland Security Secretary gave.
Tim Wildmon The problem is your criminals with a record are not going to take up, take you up on self deportation unless they're given exoneration from their crimes. So you're not going to have a drug, dealer who's been convicted, or drugged somebody, you know, with that on their record. Well, I guess if they had that on record, they should have been deported the first time. But what's happened over the years is the deportation for a lot of them only makes them go home and get their money together and come back to the US Again. That's why I'm in favor of if you are found to be in our country illegally for a second time, you're held without, you don't get to. You don't get deported. I know that sounds terrible, in the sense that. But you go to some kind of a prison and you stay there for 25 years. I don't know. But I mean, you can't let people be deported and then come back again, and then come back again, and then come back again and then come back again. We read about that all the time too, don't we?
Fred Jackson I think The Trump administration is heralding the fact that our southern border is now very secure.
Tim Wildmon That's true. Yeah. That's the, that's the biggest thing. Yes, it is, you know, is that President Trump, shut down the southern border after Biden let, you know, 15 million people just walk into our country. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio.
House approves bill requiring photo ID before voting; some states already demand
Next story. Chris?
Chris Woodward this one is big. yesterday evening, in fact, the House approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or Save America Act, a bill that would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid US Passport or a birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo ID before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand. This was a, mostly party line vote, Tim. 218 to 213. One Democrat, voted with House Republicans here, for the Save America act, and that was Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas.
Tim Wildmon So what does this law call for?
Chris Woodward it basically wants to eliminate any, chance that an illegal immigrant or somebody here without our permission is voting in our elections, federal elections.
Tim Wildmon Fred. Then, Ray.
Fred Jackson Yeah, it would require Americans to prove their citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. Also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots with some states already, of course, demand that, Ray.
Tim Wildmon You know, number one, if there was ever a common sense piece of legislation, this is it. Vast majority, vast majority Republican, Democrat. Independents favor some form of ID if photo ID in order to vote. It's only the radical leftists who for crassly political reasons oppose this. I don't know, Fred, if it's going to get through the Senate or not. They have those arcane, you know, the rules they have to follow there. I'll tell you if this, this is such a good piece of legislation, if it fails, I hope Mr. Trump will hang it around the neck of Schumer and all the Democrats this fall. Because the American people, they want safe and secure elections and a photo id. I mean, that's the minimum, the minimum we should require to vote in one of our elections.
Tim Wildmon You know, I mentioned this yesterday. I think, one of the reasons that the Democrats should be in favor of a photo ID in order to vote is because they have primaries between themselves oftentimes before they face a Republican in a, in an election. So they should want fair and honest election, protocols, laws in place too. Seems to me, for that reason alone. But, you know, you can, I can come to no other conclusion than the Democrats want To be able to want to have people here illegally vote that. Tell me, tell me what other there, what other possible reason there could be. You have to have a photo ID to check out a library book. Not that anybody had to have an.
Chris Woodward ID to get into the Democratic National Convention in 2024.
Tim Wildmon Okay, that was discriminatory.
Chris Woodward Sure was.
Tim Wildmon You have to have a photo ID get, get on an airplane. Can you imagine the airlines if they abided by the Democrats and they said, right, okay, nobody has to have a photo ID you just get on the plane, otherwise we're going to be discriminating. some of you can't afford a photo ID to get on our airplane. So we don't want to tell you no. So just find your seat back there. Can you imagine that? Nobody would do that.
Fred Jackson No.
Tim Wildmon So you have to have a photo ID to do a, ah, myriad of things here in our country. And why the Democrats would oppose having a photo ID to boat is as I say, it can only come to, only says to me there for cheating.
Fred Jackson It doesn't make sense. I mean it doesn't make sense for the Democrats, to raise point the latest polling on this. 80% of Republicans favor photo ID, 70% of Democrats.
Tim Wildmon It should be 100 and 100.
Fred Jackson You know, it should be.
Tim Wildmon But even if, even if you have, I guess even if you wouldn't have a photo id you would have some. I don't, I don't know about a photo ID being required necessarily, but some kind of formal id, also to prove you are who you say you are. Otherwise how do you even know? And if you go to register. So we'll see, we'll see what happens there. But the Democrats are opposing, photo identification to be able to cast a vote for some reason. They are, well, they have their reasons, but they're lame. this goes to the Senate. The Senate's going to stop it because the Democrats, Republicans, they do have a majority, 5,347. Now I think Bernie Sanders is an independent, but he caucuses with the Democrats. But The Republicans need 60 votes, to overcome a filibuster by the Democrats. We've all seen this movie before, right? And they don't have that number. And there are, there aren't enough Democrats willing to, to you know, to, to vote, to with the Republicans on that to require photo ID to, to vote. So we'll see what happens. You're listening. But it's going to be a problem going forward.
Abe Hamilton says Democrats oppose photo ID for voting because people are leaving
Abe Abraham, Abe Hamilton. Our, colleague here, he thinks the reason the Democrats are, opposed to photo ID for voting is because, they are losing a lot of people, who are moving from California to red states, from Illinois to red states, from NewSong York to red states. So some of the big blue states have lost a lot of people for economic reasons, the COVID restrictions that were in place and business reasons, heavy, taxation in these, big blue states. So corporations are leaving. People are leaving. So he says that the Democrats are trying to keep from losing, congressional seats. So they want to, they want to count all the illegals, the people who are here illegally. They want to count them in the census so that they can be considered, you know, American citizens that need representation in Congress. They want to count those folks. So, it's a real war now going on in our. We know this. A culture war and a political war going on in our country. I mean, how do you. How do you deal with people who don't want borders? How do you. How do you even have a conversation with them if they believe borders are immoral and we're on stolen land and. And, I mean, it's just. It's insanity. But you're trying to say, how do I reason with insanity? So. And if you say anything, they say you're a bigot. You hate her, huh? yeah. You're a colonizer.
Chris Woodward Then they put you on tv. Yeah, bad mouth. You there.
Tim Wildmon You're canceled. Okay? you're. You're phobic of some kind. Transphobic, homophobic, Islamophobic. I got a rap, so throw it around. We'll be back momentarily.
The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content, through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app, we would.
Fred Jackson Like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, preborn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28 to donate. Dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr.
Ask yourself before you fire off an email, would I want this
This is today's issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for list 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 American Family Radio. If you want to send us an email, the address is commentsfr.net if you're going to send us an email, it needs to be positive and encouraging.
Tim Wildmon Caleb.
Tim Wildmon Caleb. Email [email protected] just ask yourself before you fire off an email, would I want to receive this?
Tim Wildmon yeah, it's actually a very good question.
Tim Wildmon We all need to ask ourselves that before we fire off text or emails. Don't hit send because tomorrow you'll probably get over it and you won't have to live with hitting sin.
Chris Woodward Herb Edwards, several years ago, NFL coach, player, tv, personality, stuff like that. He was on a segment on one of the channels he was on at the time, and they were talking about how athletes like, the question was, should you engage in social media? And Herb Edwards is famous. And there's like a meme of this where he goes, don't press. The end. Don't press.
Tim Wildmon You know, I, remember early on in emails and text and, you know, doing that, you know, you let your, your emotions of the moment, and then the next day you go, why did I do that?
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon That was not worth my time. And now I got a broken relationship because I acted irrationally or emotionally.
Chris Woodward Men don't do that. we're not wired that way.
Tim Wildmon We don't do that much. We do do that, but we don't do that much.
Chris Woodward The Old Testament is struck.
Tim Wildmon Now we're saying, well, what sex does do that much? We're not going either.
Tim Wildmon We're not going to answer that question.
Tim Wildmon We're not hitting send on that message.
Fred Jackson Yes, send JS to Chris here.
Tim Wildmon We got Valentine's Day coming up. We don't want to ruin it.
Chris Woodward The only thing I ask anybody is if, if you didn't like something you heard in a story and you feel led to email or write us a letter, just remove blessings from the signature, because it sends mixed messages.
Tim Wildmon Oh, you mean blessings.
Chris Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Oh, you mean they, they send emails about a story we aired on American.
Chris Woodward Yeah, like, I didn't like that last newscast and the person featured in that story. You shouldn't do this. You, you, you should know Better blessings, John Doe, you know that's right.
Tim Wildmon All right, anyway, you're listening to Today's issues on American Family Radio. Tim, Fred, Chris and Ray, next story. Right, Chris.
President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya yesterday over Iran
Chris Woodward All right, so President, Trump had a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya. And depending on who you listen to read, where'd they meet, engage with? They met together in Washington, to talk about a number of things, including Iran. And it looks like, Trump is still wanting to act tough on Iran, but maybe not as hard as Benjamin Netanyahu would like him, to be. You know, who knows?
Tim Wildmon What are they talking about? A possible deal, Fred?
Fred Jackson Well, this was a strange meeting. Normally when, and this was the seventh time I think, that Prime Minister Netanyahu has met with President Trump in his second term. It was kind of weird. Yesterday, the Prime Minister Netanyahu arrives at the White House. They have a three hour meeting.
Fred Jackson And then Prime Minister Netanyahu left through the back door. There was no post news conference, no kind of sitting in the Oval Office, shake hands, really nothing like that. It was really weird. In fact, the only image of the Post meeting was the vehicle carrying Prime Minister Netanyahu had the Israeli flag on it leaving through a off driveway. It was very strange.
Tim Wildmon Now why do you think this is, if you had to guess?
Fred Jackson I think Prime Minister Netanyahu, before he left Israel to come for this meeting, he did talk to reporters in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu is worried about the development of ballistic missiles by Iran. President Trump seems to want to keep focusing on nuclear weapons. All right, so there were reports this morning that Prime Minister Netanyahu, he actually pressed for this meeting. Netanyahu did. He wanted to get to President Trump to say, hey, don't make a deal that exempts the Iran's development of ballistic missiles. And all we got out of Trump was a, a social media post calling it a very good meeting, but said there was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated, end quote.
Tim Wildmon M so that's all we used, the word consummated?
Fred Jackson Yes, he did, end quote.
Chris Woodward He also used the word it was a good meeting, which is, he says that about every meeting.
Tim Wildmon Indeed. So what do you make of this, Ray?
Tim Wildmon Well, on one hand, we've seen over the last few weeks, we're moving aircraft carriers in strike forces, we're bringing in, warplanes, flying in from the U.S. i mean, it's almost as if on one hand, we are ready to push the button and do, do some kind of major bombing campaign in Iran. I think that's still a possibility. Obviously, the president wants to do everything he can to avoid this. my guess, Tim, is that they will strike a deal, Mr. Trump and the Iranians, and it will last for a few months, and then the Iranians will do what they've always done, which is break whatever the agreement is and keep on enriching uranium and keep on building toward nuclear weapons. I suppose I'm pretty pessimistic, not about the Iranian people, but about their leaders. We desperately need regime change in Tehran, and, nobody seems to know how to get there.
Tim Wildmon Okay, what did President Trump mean then when he said aloud to those protesting against the, regime in Iran? Remember this? Four or five weeks ago, President Trump said, help is on the way. And then nothing happened. And by nothing, I mean when you say help is on the way, I'm assuming it means military help to stop the killing of those opposed, to try to stop the killing of those. Because people, there's thousands of people that have been butchered and slaughtered, over in Iran. It's still going on.
Tim Wildmon Right. They've killed their own people. Right.
Tim Wildmon Kill their own people, like communist dictatorships do. Ultimately, if to put down, to put down any revolution, any kind of uprising, that's what, they do, and they've done that, and they are doing that. So I don't know what, what kind of quote, deal President Trump says could be made. And I don't know what he meant by help is on the way.
Chris Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon because that seemed to be. Remember the Republicans criticized President Obama when they had a revolution like this, the.
Chris Woodward Arab Spring, back in like 2010.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And remember Republicans said, hey, you're not doing anything to help them, to help the people. Again, I'm not sure what President Obama could have done. I can't remember short, of going, you know, using the military, going to war, but because we already have every sanction in the book that we can use against Iran, I think. and, so I don't, I don't know where this is going. I know that President. I know that Benjamin, Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is worried about how this impacts Israel, possibly because a ballistic missile can't reach the United States. I don't, I'm not an expert on military. But. Or is that. Or can't. You have to have a. There are certain kinds of missiles that can go, around the world, so to speak.
Fred Jackson It would take a lot of fuel.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Fred Jackson For that to happen. It doesn't take a lot of fuel to get from Iran to Israel. Right.
Chris Woodward According to the Internet, an intercontinental ballistic missile has a range greater than 3,400 miles.
Tim Wildmon Okay. That's not going to reach the U.S.
Chris Woodward But we do have operations.
Tim Wildmon We do have, we do have operations and we do. But Iran would be certified, in a negative way, I mean, mentally ill, completely, to want a war with the United States because they're going to lose that one. Yeah. I'm talking about an all out war, where we destroy everything in their country, all their infrastructure, everything. But then, you know, you always have to measure to me when you're a president and you have the ability to use overwhelming military force anywhere in the world, like the, like the US still has the capability of doing, you know, how do you use that judiciously and, and not create an unintended consequence? Because I'm thinking, you know, what's going on with Iran, but what's going on in Cuba, for example, right now we're basically starving Cuba out, there. Am I right, Fred? Yeah.
Fred Jackson Oh, to the point, to your point. I was telling you earlier.
Tim Wildmon Hey, excuse me.
Fred Jackson Sure, go ahead.
Tim Wildmon I've broken my NewSong Year's pledge to not interrupt, so forgive me, this is twice I've done this since January 1st, just to, just to wrap up the Iranian story.
Fred Jackson Sure, go ahead.
Tim Wildmon Before we get to Cuba.
President Trump would be susceptible to some sort of broker deal with Iran
And that is Benjamin. So Benjamin Netanyahu. He's worried about, you know, Trump not, giving away the farm on some deal. Because, all right, for all President Trump's good intentions and his good intuitions, politically he is very susceptible to flattery and he's very susceptible to, he wants to be, he wants to be lauded. that's why. So, I mean, he just does. That's his personality. That's a narcissist. They want to be loved. Right. And if they're not, they get angry. So President Trump would be susceptible, in my opinion, to some sort of broker deal with Iran that really doesn't address the issues of Israel's national security, but may give, Trump at least a momentary time to go, hey, look at me, world, I've come to a deal with Iran. And so, you understand what I'm saying here?
Fred Jackson I understand, but if the deal is this.
Tim Wildmon Because he keeps calling it a deal.
Fred Jackson Yes. If the Iranians say, okay, we won't develop nuclear weapons, Trump says, oh, I got my deal.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Fred Jackson What was the point of sending all these ships. They've said this all along. The Iranians said we're not developing nuclear weapons.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson So if that's the deal, then we've got nothing from it. And I don't understand why we've got all these ships standing by ready allegedly to attack.
Tim Wildmon And what he meant by help is on the way.
Fred Jackson Yeah. And if the Islamic regime is still in charge of Iran come election day, it will be deemed as a loss.
Tim Wildmon For President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. His job is to protect Israel.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Chris Woodward Do you remember going into the bombing of the nuclear facility or facilities in Iran last summer? Going into that bombing, we talked on the show about how Trump and Netanyahu had some odd meetings where it seemed like maybe they were on the outs or they had some disagreements, they couldn't come around to agreeing on things like that. And then we bombed, Tehran or the nuclear operation there, and you find out we've been in cahoots with Netanyahu the whole time and it was all this great operation or whatever. So maybe we're reading too much into the odd, tension filled meeting yesterday.
Tim Wildmon Well, one or two more things about this, then we'll move on to the next subject.
Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Trump for three hours, according to reports
What you mentioned earlier about how this meeting went down, you have Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, when he comes to the US it's usually a big news.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay. But to come to the White House for a three hour meeting. First of all, I didn't even know Trump met with Melania for three hours. So I can't imagine it may not have been him personally, but at least his administration. But I don't know, maybe he was there for the whole three hours. But that's a serious, serious meeting if you're, going through that. M. So Benjamin, now you seem to me, if you just read the, read what's going on between the lines. He's pleading with President Trump, do not do anything that you're. That, that it doesn't have teeth to it and that negatively impacts us. in Israel, are, you know, saying. I think that's what. And I think the reason that he left through the back door, so to speak, was President, Trump doesn't want to, have the appearance of the Trump administration. Maybe I should say have the appearance that, that Israel's telling the US what to do because that's when the world, meaning in the world, condemn the US and say, hey, you're just, you're just a lap dog for the Jews. You see what I'm saying?
Fred Jackson Yeah. I think, Trump did not want the opportunity has. Is often the case for reporters in the room to ask questions because maybe Prime Minister Netanyahu was uncomfortable with the end of that meeting.
Tim Wildmon Right. And that's wise. Sometimes you have disagreements and you don't want to air them publicly.
Fred Jackson That's right. That's right. We'll see. We'll see.
Ray White: President Trump has an energy blockade of Cuba right now
Tim Wildmon What's the next story? Well, we got the Cuba thing.
Chris Woodward We do have. Yeah, we've got Cuba.
Tim Wildmon You want to do that? Or that's what I call it. Okay, the Cuba thing. What's going on in Cuba?
Chris Woodward Yeah, you go ahead.
Fred Jackson Well, we just found out just before we came into the studio here that two Mexican navy ships, laden with humanitarian aid, docked in Cuba this morning. 536 tons of food, including milk, rice, beans, sardines, meat products, cookies, you name it, and 277 tons of powdered milk. Now, that's the type of thing that you normally see going into a starved nation when you're talking, this kind of food being necessary to exist. This is all happening because basically, President Trump has an energy blockade of Cuba right now to the point that Cuba has told airlines, don't bother coming here because we don't have the fuel to refuel you to go home. so it's that bad. Air Canada announced that they weren't going to fly in there anymore, so they're in dire straits in Cuba right now. The question then becomes, okay, where is this headed, this energy blockade? What does President Trump want?
Tim Wildmon So, Ray, you've been keeping up with this story just a little bit.
Tim Wildmon I mean, the question is, is this a step toward regime, change? Are we trying to get the Communists out altogether? And if we are, is this, is this the best way to do it? Look, we all agree we don't want to see boots on the ground in Havana, right? We do not want to send in the 82nd Airborne. We just to want. We can't do that. Americans won't support that. So how do you, how do you replace that murderous regime down there with somebody, who is more open to democracy?
Tim Wildmon Well, I have mixed feelings on, how does this affect the average person in Cuba, you see what I'm saying? Because are we, the United States, starving people by our blockade, so to speak, our. Well, not so to speak, our energy blockade. Aren't we keeping fuel from coming in there?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon To the point where Mexico is now sending, like, first aid and food to the people of Cuba So are we going to starve them out and then let Samaritan's purse go down there and help them out? I mean, how does this work exactly in Cuba if you can't. The last people that are going to give up, the food are the communist leaders.
Chris Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so does this really serve the purpose if we are going to starve them, energy wise? M. Are they going to go, electricity is going to go out? Is that what's going all over the country? Is that what's going to happen?
Fred Jackson Well, you can't operate farming equipment without fuel. It's, you know, it's,
Tim Wildmon But what threat is you.
Chris Woodward You also.
Tim Wildmon What threat is Cuba to the United States, too? I think there's zero threat.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon So that's a different level. They want to be. They don't. Not that they want to be communist in Cuba, but they are. And if the people want to up. Want to rise up and. And overthrow the government, that's. That's up to them, and we can support them in their effort. But, really, the first and foremost, the concern of the US should be are they a threat like the missing Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis was. Go ahead.
Chris Woodward I was going to say it's. If you're counting on the people to rise up and overthrow the communists once and for all. It's kind of hard to. For them to do that if they're hungry and they don't have any electricity. Like, you, know, a starving army is not going to do anything.
Tim Wildmon But the story is, Ray, that Mexico is sending Navy ships to Cuba to help them with humanitarian aid, and somehow.
Tim Wildmon That'S not included in the blockade. Somehow.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon That's weird. It's weird. Weird situation. Has the White House or anybody spoke on this?
Fred Jackson Not according. Like I said, this story just broke in the last couple of hours about these Mexican navy ships.
Chris Woodward One ship carried some 536 tons of food, including milk, rice, beans, sardines, meat products, cookies, canned tuna, and vegetable oil.
Tim Wildmon Also, I noticed that there were food trucks let off the truck. The, the, boats. Did you see this?
Tim Wildmon Food. Food trucks.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, for, you know, tacos. And. I'm waiting for a joke, but, I mean, enchiladas and. Yeah, Mexican food trucks. Bada boom. Nobody got that joke but me.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, we took you seriously.
Tim Wildmon When you have to. When you have to, you have to finish your own joke.
Tim Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon Doesn't really work.
Market fell flat. And if listeners considered that joke in poor taste
Market fell flat. You know, food trucks, like Mexican, food trucks that we see everywhere.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon So gotcha M. Gotcha. And if listeners considered that joke in poor taste. I'm sorry, you see that joke? I did get that one.
Chris Woodward Yeah, I see what you did there.
Tim wants to move on. Brad's laughing now, I think
Tim Wildmon All right, next story. Chris.
Chris Woodward Well, this one comes at no surprise.
Tim Wildmon Brad's laughing now, I think. See what I did there?
Fred Jackson Tim wants to move on.
Tim Wildmon I want to move on. Let's move on.
Chris Woodward All right, let's talk.
Zoran Mamdani says New York City must hike taxes to pay for deficit
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Chris Woodward This, this story comes at no surprise for anybody that paid any attention to Zoran Mamdani's campaign. But he's in the news because the NewSong York City Mayor Zo run. Mamdani says the city must hike taxes to help pay for the bills. and to help pay the bills and the people that he's going after are the wealthy to help fill a 12 billion dollar deficit. A $12 billion deficit. So I've got some audio here of Zoran Memdani himself and then columnist Miranda Devine, or Devine, weighing in on this clip 9. We are going to continue to advocate for a variety of options. We believe that two of them that are the most straightforward, and critically important are increased taxes on the wealthiest NewSong Yorkers and the most profitable corporations.
Speaker G If you keep on fleecing the golden goose, it's going to leave NewSong York. people are marching away as fast as they can. You look at California, the wealthiest people will go, and then you'll have nobody to pay for all these ridiculous social programs. Because what he's spending the money on is not basic things like picking up the garbage and cleaning the snow off the streets. As we can all see at the moment. He's spending it on, you know, free childcare and free buses and free grocery stores and a sanctuary city where you have freebies for illegal migrants and you usher them in and invite them to come and stay for free and eat for free and have free education and all the rest of it.
Chris Woodward Now, I looked it up a minute ago because everybody says, well, the wealthy, you know, they should pay more because they have money and they make money off the backs of the poor working people or whatever. The top 1% of NewSong York City's income tax filers account for almost 50% of the city's entire personal income tax revenue.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Yes. So they're already paying more. Yes, a lot more.
Chris Woodward They don't need more taxes. They need more taxpayers.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but, you know, those people probably voted for Cuomo. those people who are about to be hit with this tact, if that's gonna. Is that passed or is he recommending.
Chris Woodward he's putting it forward. And the city council is going to go with it because they're scared of everybody voting against them.
Fred Jackson Here's what's going to be interesting. Governor of NewSong York, Democrat Kathi Hochul endorsed Mamdani.
Tim Wildmon Yes, she did.
Fred Jackson she went down there, she thought, great guy, I like his programs. But there was a clip played of her this morning, which basically the impression that I got is, Mr. Mamdani, marijuana, don't come up here to the capitol looking for more money from the state to take care of your programs because she's up for election this year.
Tim Wildmon Ah.
Fred Jackson So, this is going to get really interesting. She endorses him. He's saying, we got a debt problem. $12 billion. Hey, Governor, Hoco, can you help me out? And if she says, sorry, we don't have the money to give you because NewSong York State is running a debt right now too.
Tim Wildmon So the city of NewSong York, their budget, they have a $12 billion deficit.
Chris Woodward From the previous administration in Mamdani.
Tim Wildmon Okay, that's right. That's a lot of money for a city. Yeah, it is for a city. Even the city the size of NewSong York. Something will have to be cut. I mean, so they won't be able to add any new social services. They're going to have to cut. My guess is they'll cut police.
Chris Woodward They're going to have to get something. It's probably going to have to be across the board to be fair to everybody, because you got a lot of that are going to sue.
Tim Wildmon And I've enjoyed visiting, NewSong York City over the years. eight or ten times I've been there, for the various and sundry reasons. But, listen, if they want to vote themselves into oblivion, I, don't care.
Fred Jackson Yeah, it's, it's.
Tim Wildmon I've already seen the Statue of Liberty.
Fred Jackson Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see this Marxist who won that election.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson Made all these promises, free buses, all this stuff. It's going to be really interesting to watch how this story unfolds.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, you can't listen. I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said, you know, socialism is great till you run out of somebody else's money, so to speak.
Tim Wildmon So I think they're going, this is what Zoran Mandami is having to face right now is the reality of not having the money to hand out all, all these freebies that he promised. So now he's like going, where do I get this money? Well, I'll tax, I'll tax our citizens who, as you say, Chris, the citizens who already pay half the. Half the city taxes already.
Chris Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon So he's going to squeeze them again.
Chris Woodward And if they move like some billionaires are doing.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Chris Woodward It's get. You're losing that revenue in the future.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right, well, we will be. Thank you, Chris.
Chris Woodward Thank you.
Tim Wildmon and just so impressed, Chris, with your Carpenters, the way you've grown in your carpenter's knowledge.
Chris Woodward I, you know, I went to one of those old record shops, those, those things you guys used to play when you were young.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Chris Woodward And, I. I played a record the other day, but I couldn't figure out how to get the needle.
Tim Wildmon Well, we'll work on that. And, I think with your experience with the Carpenters, you've only just begun.
Fred Jackson Very good.
Chris Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim, Fred and Ray talk with Chris on top news headlines of the day including how the SAVE Act has passed the House.
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
