Host: Welcome to Today's Issues. Join us for the next hour as we offer a Christian response to the issues of the day. Good Thursday morning to you all. It is Thursday, November 12.

Host: Today's Issues does not do Friday the 13th, so we're just going to end Today's Issues right here today. Fred Jackson here, along with Tony Vitagliano. Good morning.

Co-host: Morning to you, Tony, and Wesley Wyman.

Co-host: I think we need a microphone. Good morning.

Host: All right, try it again. I held out the good morning, waiting for me to be live, and then we're there.

Co-host: You're there.

Co-host: You're there.

Host: And me filling in. I usually don't do Thursdays, but I'm filling in, and we also have a fill-in on the board, so we're going to give him a little bit of grace there.

Co-host: Yes, Adam's filling in for Brent.

Host: Missing today is Tim. Tim's away, and Ray Pritchard, who's normally with us on Thursday, is away. Contrary to reports, he was not hit by a falling iguana.

Co-host: Did you guys see the warning about this? He's very faithful to send out the iguana alerts to the Today's Issues team.

Co-host: Exactly. I mean, it's not all a joke. When it gets cold in Florida, the iguanas fall out of the trees.

Co-host: Yeah, that's right.

Co-host: A lot of them will be on the ground because the ones that know better feel the cold coming. The ones that don't know what's going on, or that get caught off guard, are the ones in the trees, and they start falling.

Co-host: I've seen the cleanup afterward. We're talking three feet long, some of these things.

Co-host: Three, four, five pounds.

Co-host: That would hurt.

Co-host: That would hurt.

Co-host: Yeah, it would hurt.

Host: In spite of us all being fill-ins today, we're going to do Today's Issues programming.

Co-host: That's right.

Host: We will stick to it.

Host: Chris Woodward is with us. Chris, we've got a couple of breaking stories, one in D.C. and one in New York.

News correspondent: We sure do. People can find these on AFN.net, the website of American Family News. One person is dead and five injured in a Washington, D.C., shooting. This actually went down not far from the White House, maybe about a mile away. It looks like there was some sort of dispute inside a gym that carried over into a nearby building. The area was put on lockdown, and even schools were on lockdown there. The one person who was dead was believed to be the shooter, but again, five other people were injured. We're going to closely monitor this situation because it is probably going to develop, maybe even later in this show.

News correspondent: Actually, just a correction there. There are two people dead. The shooter is dead, but one of those who was shot earlier has also passed away.

News correspondent: One of the five victims has passed away. I saw a briefing before coming into the studio, and officials are still trying to piece this together. One source said there was a dispute involving an HOA, the homeowners association of the apartment building, but that's still very much speculation at this point.

News correspondent: The other thing we're watching is something that started to develop yesterday afternoon. People probably heard this on our evening newscast, but there was a building collapse in Brooklyn, New York, yesterday. At least eight people are dead there, but there is a lot of rubble. If you've not seen the video footage yet, imagine a ton of concrete, bricks, and all kinds of things piled up together. That's what it looks like in this area.

News correspondent: As first responders continue to dig through this rubble, the death toll will probably go up. The cause is still officially under review, but initial reports said nearby construction may have been a contributing factor. This is a very unfortunate situation, and we're following both of these stories as we speak on AFN.net.

Host: Tony, I saw the picture of this apartment building in New York, and it almost looks like one half of the building near the construction site peeled off into the area.

Co-host: New York is a city with a lot of tight quarters. Anytime you start construction, and I have very little knowledge of construction except for helping with some of the projects we've had around here, I can't imagine doing any type of construction in the heart of a metropolis like that. It would be very difficult to make sure you're not interfering with the integrity of surrounding structures.

Co-host: I agree, Fred. This is a horrible, tragic story, and I'm sure more details will come out as we get more information. Just be in prayer for the people who lost family members and who are affected by this. The pictures are just, as Chris said, rubble everywhere, so they're going to be trying to dig through it for a while.

Host: Wesley, with regard to the shooting in D.C., it was interesting that early reporting said it started in a gymnasium this morning. The shooter apparently ran, exited into an apartment building, and then barricaded himself inside. The police responded very quickly. The first police officer was on the scene within 30 seconds of the shooting.

Host: I did note that the mayor of D.C. was asked about President Trump's statement that, because he sent in the National Guard, the murder rate and violence rate in D.C. had gone down dramatically. She got very defensive about that. She said she credited the police department for the quick response.

Host: There is no question that what President Trump has done in D.C. has improved the situation. A lot of people were even afraid to get on the Metro in D.C. because of the violence there.

Co-host: Yeah, it's unfortunate that the far left can't see that both things can be true at the same time.

Co-host: I think we need to give credit to the police, our first responders, and our law enforcement officers who patrol our cities and towns. When they respond in 30 seconds, absolutely, kudos to the first law enforcement officers on site dealing with it.

Co-host: But it's also true, and it's nonnegotiable, that the numbers show what happened when Trump entered the White House and made D.C. a priority with the National Guard. I'm not sure whether some of them are still there, but the fact is that the numbers show a change.

Co-host: I've been to D.C. many times. I've been there under the Biden administration, and I've been there under the Trump administration. When you get off the plane and leave the airport, it is noticeably different.

Co-host: Regardless of who is in charge, whether there is a Democrat or a Republican in the White House, in this case it is President Trump, his administration, and his team. It was that obvious as we went to Arlington, the World War II Memorial, and all the other memorials. There were very few homeless people, and there was very little of that uneasiness where you look around and think, "I don't know if I need to be here." There was almost none of that.

Co-host: I don't know if this is the best way to describe it, but you've been to places where the climate makes you feel uncomfortable.

Co-host: It was not the case during the two years we've been following Trump into the White House. That's just my experience, but you've got numbers to back it up.

Co-host: That's right, exactly. It is nice to be able to go to the nation's capital and not have to face what we used to. In my opinion, it should be one of the safest cities in the country, based on the personnel who live there and all the landmarks that are there. But sadly, that's not always the case.

Host: Chris, go ahead.

News correspondent: Another big story, which could have been the lead story had these other things not happened, is that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has resigned after an affair raised national security concerns. There have also been allegations that he may have had some sort of inappropriate relationship with another woman who works for NVIDIA and is not his wife.

News correspondent: The honeypot situation is the most concerning. "Honeypot" is the term used by a lot of people. For those not aware, the Chinese Communist Party has been notorious for sending women, and maybe even men, to try to get involved with public figures who are dealing with the federal government. The goal is to get romantically involved with them and then get them to reveal secrets about what they are doing for the federal government.

News correspondent: It's a form of warfare that I think a lot of Americans may not be used to. It sounds like something from a Mission: Impossible movie, but it's very real. It is not the first time it has happened, but it has been a huge story this week.

News correspondent: Jensen Huang is someone who has been in close talks with the Trump administration about how to help the United States beat China in artificial intelligence and chip development, along with everything we need to advance the United States into the 21st century that we're already in.

News correspondent: I have some audio here to provide more background on how concerning this honeypot situation is. Yesterday on Washington Watch, one of the programs we air on American Family Radio, retired Brigadier General Robert Spalding had this to say about the honeypot situation.

Recorded guest: This is a lot less about technology theft and much more about political influence, as I wrote in "Stealth War" and "War Without Rules." Essentially, the Chinese Communist Party uses honeypots like this and other means to influence U.S. corporate executives and influence political policy in the United States.

Recorded guest: This has been an issue for years, going back a decade or so. We learned that people like Eric Swalwell, the former congressman from California, were also involved in some sort of honeypot situation. I don't want to say he was the victim, but he was the target of a honeypot situation, and he may have given some secrets away.

News correspondent: It's very concerning and probably not the last time we're talking about it on this program.

Host: Tony, a couple of things here. Jensen Huang, am I pronouncing that name correctly?

Co-host: I think so.

Host: The former CEO of NVIDIA is a smart guy. You would think he would be aware of the Chinese interest in having influence over his company. NVIDIA is a company that produces chips. What's a chip?

Co-host: It goes into a computer.

Host: A chip goes into just about every major computer component. It is a facilitator of information because it is critical in the development of artificial intelligence.

Co-host: Yes.

Host: The United States is in a battle for dominance in artificial intelligence with China. I am sure Mr. Huang had to be aware of this. Yet along comes this young woman who has connections with China, and hormones took over common sense. You would think these people are smart enough to recognize that the Chinese might be interested in getting information from them.

Co-host: This is an example of intelligence and success not always equaling common sense and morality. Obviously, what he was doing was immoral and unbiblical, but the common sense of it is nonexistent. This was a head-scratcher for me when this story about the Chinese spy came out. Why would it not be at the forefront of almost every decision he makes that the Chinese government would have a vested interest in what he and his company are doing?

Co-host: I did a brief bit of research just a few minutes ago. NVIDIA is entirely dependent on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, for its chips. One hundred percent of its chips for the most advanced artificial intelligence GPU production comes from Taiwan. Taiwan is also a big deal to China. There is a tug-of-war between China and the United States for control and domination of the Taiwanese semiconductor industry. Why he would fall into this trap is baffling.

Co-host: Again, intelligence doesn't always equal common sense.

Host: Was the honeypot designed to get him fired, or was it designed to get more information?

News correspondent: Most likely it started as an effort to get secrets, although this is all conjecture. China wanted to maintain updates on the close partnership NVIDIA has developed with the United States. Jensen Huang has been seen meeting with President Trump multiple times, so it probably started as a way to obtain secrets.

News correspondent: The kill switch, so to speak, may have been the revelation of the relationship and the ouster of Jensen Huang from leadership at NVIDIA. That could put somebody else in charge, creating a vulnerability for the United States. We depend on NVIDIA and its GPUs for artificial intelligence development, and changing that leadership could be a boon to China.

Host: Wesley, let me ask an expanded question. It has always bothered me when President Trump visits China, or when the Chinese leader comes here, and President Trump says, "We're good friends. We have a great relationship." I'm sure President Trump is wise enough to know that China is actually our enemy. They are not merely in competition with us. It is not friendly competition. It is more that they want to dominate. That's where Chinese thinking is.

Host: I don't think for a moment that Trump believes the Chinese are really nice people and that we want to be friends. He is aware of the competition. But sometimes, in an effort toward diplomacy, we can let down our guard regarding who we're dealing with.

Co-host: You said that really well. I would be interested to know whether he and his team have let down their guard on this. I know that's certainly a possibility.

Co-host: China is just one country that President Trump has said has a great relationship with the United States and that its people are good. I think you can maintain diplomatic relationships without making someone like me, a MAGA supporter, say, "Come on, they're not good people."

Co-host: They are communists. They oppress Christianity and their own people. I wish President Trump would criticize them for that at some point. He should be able to do that without fear of our relationship being severed.

Co-host: This goes back to my grandfather, who has since passed away. When I was eight, nine, or ten, I remember hearing discussions at the lunch or dinner table with the adults. He was in the manufacturing business, and he said, 30 years ago, that we were way too close to China. He was saying that then.

Co-host: I think that ship has sailed. We are so intertwined with China that it puts fear in leaders about criticizing them publicly. Set that aside from a political standpoint. I think it is a problem, but if you don't want to criticize them, surely don't make them seem like good people, even if you are quiet about the bad things for the sake of the relationship.

Host: Tony, I've felt the same way about Trump's relationship with Putin. He talks about his friend Vladimir Putin. I heard a figure this morning, and if you haven't been shocked before about how many people have been killed in the Russia-Ukraine war, the figure I heard is that more than 400,000 people have died in this war.

Co-host: I think that's a conservative estimate, honestly.

Host: Putin doesn't seem to care. I don't think Putin is interested in ending this war until he gets what he wants.

Co-host: As Wesley touched on, there is diplomacy. With any nuclear power in the world, you have to exercise diplomatic relationships and diplomatic language. But that doesn't mean you have to be overly friendly.

Co-host: I can't go through every conversation in which Xi Jinping or Putin has talked about Trump, but I don't think they use language like "my good buddy" or "my friend." I don't think Xi Jinping says, "My buddy Trump is a good guy, and the American people are good people." They are not returning that type of language.

Co-host: In a way, that can make you vulnerable because they are rivals. In a rival's mind, if you start to show softness or weakness, even in the language you use to describe that rival, it can leave a door open to press their agenda and geopolitical strategy even further.

Co-host: We all know companies that don't necessarily get along great but know they need each other or work together. Neither one goes out of its way to falsely praise the other company. They know they need each other, and they work together.

Co-host: I would say this is one of the many unnecessary and unprovoked areas where I think Trump's arrogance is getting the best of him, which is what we saw in the election.

Host: I get concerned as I scratch my head over some of the language regarding our relationship, from Trump's point of view, with China, Russia, and North Korea. But I think God that Trump is there and not Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.

Co-host: Absolutely.

Host: Can you imagine what it would be like with those Democrats still sitting in the White House in these relationships?

Co-host: It should be said that Putin felt he could start the Ukraine war under Joe Biden.

Co-host: He waited until there was a change of leadership, until someone he saw as weaker was in office. For all of Trump's friendly language toward these seemingly unfriendly world leaders, he is a wild card. As far as geopolitical and domestic policy are concerned, he is a wild card. You're not one hundred percent sure what he is going to do.

Co-host: Putin took advantage of the fact that Biden, who was in his basement eating ice cream, was not going to offer much resistance to an invasion of Ukraine.

Host: The bottom line is that we live in a very dangerous world.

Co-host: We do.

Host: Whoever is leading the United States has to be aware of that, but also has to send a strong indication to Americans that we know what is going on and who the bad guys are. It also goes to our military.

Host: Once the Democrats take control of the House and Senate in January, we have to be very vigilant about where the relationship is going. We have to be vigilant regarding our military because the Trump administration has done a great job of bringing our military back to where it needs to be.

Host: This story is an example of China doing what enemies do.

Co-host: Yes.

Co-host: Exactly. Be very careful.

Host: All right, we need to take a break here.

Host: And when we come back, we will talk about the AFA Foundation.

Host: Chris, thanks for being with us.

News correspondent: Thank you.

Host: We have to take a break for news. When we come back, we will talk about the mood in Israel after one of our own returned from a trip there.

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

News correspondent: We were talking about artificial intelligence a moment ago. A lot of people are fearful of it, but some people are trying to use it for good. One example is Moms for Liberty.

News correspondent: I called Moms for Liberty yesterday to get their thoughts about Democrats returning to power in the House and Senate and the concerns Moms for Liberty may have going forward. During that conversation, co-founder Tina Descovich talked about how they are using artificial intelligence to find out what school districts plan to discuss and vote on, and what they have voted on.

News correspondent: Moms for Liberty is using artificial intelligence to help keep parents informed and encourage them to join people like Moms for Liberty in confronting school board members politely at school district meetings.

Recorded guest: When we launched Moms for Liberty in 2021, one of the things we asked our chapter chairs to do was, as a chapter, make sure they read every school board agenda. We started in Florida, where each county has its own school board, so it was one agenda twice a month that they had to review.

Recorded guest: As we grew in places like New York and Texas, some counties had up to 35 school districts. Chapter leaders were trying to read 35 agendas twice a month, and some of those agendas were thousands of pages long.

Recorded guest: School boards do things like hide important information, votes, spending, and budgets in the consent agenda, so it is never even discussed publicly.

Recorded guest: Our initiative is called M4L-Aware. It is an artificial intelligence tool that scours all 13,000 school districts every 12 hours. It lets Moms for Liberty members and chapter leaders in each community know what to be concerned about in their communities. It flags the information, sorts it by category, and rates the threat from one to ten.

News correspondent: I tell you what, based on anything we've learned over the last ten years, we need to be very watchful as parents regarding what our school districts are doing because they are not always going to write us memos about changes in policy.

Co-host: This is encouraging. As Chris mentioned, this is an example of conservatives taking the tool of artificial intelligence and repurposing it for something positive, using it for a good cause rather than worrying about it being used against you.

Co-host: I'm all for this. It is a great idea because, as we've seen in the aftermath of the midterm elections, the language coming from the left has been an immediate pivot, going even harder into ideological and cultural issues. They are making threats and talking about reversing legislation that has already passed. They did not waste any time.

Co-host: It is important for parents and grandparents to maintain vigilance. This tool is a great way to streamline that. I don't envy the people working for Moms for Liberty who would have to read these school board minutes. Most of it is going to be dull and mundane day-to-day material, but they can slip in a radical ideological agenda, hoping no one notices until it has already been implemented.

Host: If people are interested in this, they can get ahold of Moms for Liberty.

News correspondent: The information is on the Moms4Liberty.org website. I've also posted a link to their specific webpage about the M4L-Aware effort.

Host: Very good. What else have we got?

News correspondent: Democrats are apparently planning to fight recently voter-approved bans on transgender athletes in female sports. They campaigned on the idea that President Trump was a threat to democracy and that they had to save democracy. Now, as they are about to regain control of the House and Senate, they are talking about trying to overturn voter-approved bans, even in blue states where voters recently voted to ban males from competing in female sports.

News correspondent: One law firm that says it will fight this is Alliance Defending Freedom. I spoke with one of their attorneys, Matt Sharp, yesterday. Here is some of what he told AFN.

Recorded guest: This completely rejects what the voters of those states wanted when they went to the ballot. In Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, and Arizona, voters by strong margins specifically said they wanted to protect fairness in women's sports.

Recorded guest: Some people might hear these issues and think, "What's the big deal? It's just a game. It's just kids wanting to compete against each other in basketball, cross-country, track and field, and that kind of thing."

Recorded guest: But female athletes say this is a violation of their Title IX rights. People are also concerned about the safety of female athletes.

Recorded guest: They are ignoring biological truth first and foremost, that men and women are different, and that especially on the playing field, those differences matter. When we ignore that truth, it is women and girls who pay the price.

Recorded guest: They pay by losing spots on the team. They pay by losing championships and medals. They pay with injuries. Far too many girls have been hurt because a male participated in their sport and injured them. This is not acceptable, and it is being ignored by those pushing to allow men to compete in girls' sports.

Host: Wesley, these petitions were voted on in this election in very blue states, including Washington and Colorado. I've said for a long time that even liberal parents want to protect their daughters from having to play against males or from having males come into their daughters' washrooms and changing rooms at schools.

Host: These votes were not even close in some cases. Yet you had Democrats campaigning by saying people needed to vote for them because they needed to fight for democracy. Within hours of these Democrats being elected, they were saying they wanted to overturn the will of the people.

Co-host: On the hypocrisy meter, they are ten out of ten. It is disgusting.

Co-host: They say, "We're fighting for democracy for you," and then say, "But we don't like the way the vote went, so we want to try to overturn it." That is not going to play well with voters. They will remember it.

Co-host: The talking points of Democrats running for office changed two or three months before the election. They moved away from cultural issues such as transgender athletes in men's and women's sports and focused on affordability because the cultural issues were losing topics.

Co-host: They won a lot of voters on affordability. But voters in the states we mentioned, especially Washington, also voted on these initiatives. Washington could not be any deeper blue, but voters went down the ballot and said they did not want men in women's sports.

Co-host: That is a great point about hypocrisy. Democrats run on democracy, but within a week they were saying, "Our constituents voted for this, but we want to overturn it by veto power or by the stroke of a pen."

Co-host: This is officially a majority position among Americans, and it is going to continue to grow. It will not go back the other way. This is a losing issue for the left.

Co-host: The left wanted same-sex marriage in 2015, and they got it. If they had stopped there, I think they would have had a lot of success. This issue is a byproduct of that. Eventually, this is where the progression goes.

Co-host: Now people are seeing that the left is pushing the LGBT agenda so far that the majority of Americans are opposed to it. I hope that over time they will backtrack. Ideally, it would be a miracle if, in the next ten or fifteen years, we saw Obergefell challenged in court.

Co-host: Hopefully the left keeps pushing this because we believe it is a losing issue.

Host: Tony, go ahead.

Co-host: I think a lot of people are going to learn a hard lesson this election cycle. In Colorado, which is a blue state, if Proposition 134 passed, a significant portion of Democrat voters must have voted in favor of it.

Co-host: You may have people saying, "I'm liberal, but I don't want men in women's sports." There is an irony in voting for Democrats down the ballot because a major part of their platform supports transgenderism, drag queen story hours, and men in women's sports.

Co-host: It seems there was probably a sizable portion of independents, and even Republicans, who voted for Democrats based on the economy and affordability. Now they are going to find out the hard way that affordability may have been what Democrats campaigned on, but it is not what they had in mind.

Co-host: You're going to see that in Texas. Yesterday, you were trying to trigger me with articles about Senator Klobuchar talking about gun control. She even said, "You all voted for us to get rid of a gun." Wait a minute. That is the way the Democratic Party thinks about it.

Co-host: They think, "This is our mandate to carry out all the changes we have wanted to make." But the mandate from the American electorate was for groceries to become cheaper and for gas prices to come down. That was it. Now you're seeing that is not the case.

News correspondent: Steve Deace was one of the guests yesterday on Jenna Ellis in the Morning on AFR Talk. He was brought on to comment on the idea from some people in the Trump administration that they are willing to work with Democrats on a deal regarding immigration.

News correspondent: Steve's opinion was that if Trump does this, it will hurt the party's chances going forward, but he said it is possible that Trump put this out there to get Democrats to come to the table and then show the American people that they are full of baloney.

News correspondent: Democrats ran on affordability, but you have not heard them say anything about affordability since the election. Now they are talking about fighting Trump on education, impeaching everybody and their brother, and impeaching the dog.

News correspondent: Steve said it is possible they are trying to do these things to show people in advance of 2028 that Democrats sold them a bill of goods. They want voters to vote Republicans back in.

News correspondent: The people who were talking about affordability have jumped straight to socialism. The governor-elect of Texas is saying that on day one she will cap energy prices. That is a socialist policy that has never worked and will never work.

News correspondent: She also said she will empty the rainy-day fund in Texas and send $1,500 checks to everyone. That is their solution for affordability. The people who are even talking about affordability are offering straight-up socialism.

Co-host: I agree that socialism is bad. But if you get into the minds of the Democrats who got elected, I think strategically and politically that if they would swap out the LGBT issue and the transgender issue for socialism, they could keep running and winning on that.

Co-host: They could table transgender issues, men in women's sports, and drag queen story hours, and make socialism their new golden calf. Unfortunately, they have some momentum.

Co-host: One thing Democrats and liberals in general never do is surrender. They never put up the white flag. They keep fighting.

Co-host: Which is why we have to keep fighting.

Host: That's right. Exactly.

Host: Chris, thanks so much.

News correspondent: Thank you.

Host: We have to take a little break here for news. Then our guest will join us to talk about the current mood in Israel after returning from a trip there. Don't go away.